World News & Views

The New York Times piece, "Rwanda Stirs Deadly Brew of Trouble in the Congo," laid the foundation for a more honest dialogue about the resource war in the Congo, which has resulted in dying and suffering of holocaust proportions.

Conservative Christian leaders and gay activists have become bedfellows in their criticism of the choice of Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Obama's inauguration.

Seeing the resilience of our beloved Haiti has strengthened my commitment to our global revolutionary liberation struggle - until the last drop of my Black royal blood.

Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) set up in the aftermath of the BP drilling disaster, has denied all damage claims for illnesses associated with exposure to the toxic BP crude oil and/or toxic chemical dispersants that were applied to the oil spill.

By now, everyone in the U.K. is aware of the rebellion that is taking place throughout England. Most of us have read about it or watched media coverage and have been encouraged to condemn the movement as emanating from a group of mindless, opportunistic, criminal rioters. “It is nowhere near as simple as a bunch of young Black hooded males smashing and grabbing and making the most of a bad situation,” said one young British observer.

Intensifying protests led by popular movements in Haiti, calling for the resignation of corrupt, US-supported President Jovenal Moise have persisted for over a year in spite of violent repression and killings of demonstrators by government death squads, bringing day-to-day business to a standstill.

With drums, songs, rap, performance and a lot of leafleting, the friends of Mumia in Mexico demanded his freedom in the zocalo on Saturday, Dec. 6, in solidarity with the march in Philadelphia.

On the 30th of June 2009, in international waters, 60 miles off the coast of Israel, Israeli Naval gunships surrounded the Free Gaza movement boat, "Spirit of Humanity," which was carrying 21 activists from 11 countries, including former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire and a cargo of medical aid, toys and building supplies for the besieged people of Gaza.

I am outraged at Israel’s latest criminal act. I mourn with my fellow Free Gaza travelers the lives that have been lost by Israel’s needless, senseless act against unarmed humanitarian activists. We are the ones who have lost our minds, our souls, our spirits and our human dignity if we allow the Israelis to get away with murder – again – and we do nothing.

At Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting, impacted community members who had traveled to the company’s headquarters from around the globe confronted CEO John Watson with the brutal human and environmental abuses caused by the oil giant’s operations.

Africans in Haiti, by the tens of thousands, broke their chains and though penniless, hungry and scarred by the ravages of bondage, found weapons and the will to fight for freedom against the defenders of slavery: France, Britain, and Spain. They did what no “slave” army had ever done in modern or ancient history. They defeated an empire.

Nigerians who were recently repatriated from crisis-torn Libya described their ordeal after they were caught between two feuding camps. “If you have somebody in Libya and have not heard from the person for a long time, just know either the person is dead or in one of the prisons.”

Cynthia McKinney, the outspoken former congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, recently got out of jail. Yeah. That’s right. Jail. It’s possible that you had no idea she was in jail. That’s because she was in detention for almost a week in Israel.

There is a growing discontent amongst the people in Haiti with the political establishment under the direction of President Rene Preval. Many people believe that Preval has mortgaged the nation to powerful multinational corporate interests and subjected the people to military occupation by the U.S. and the U.N. under the guise of providing “security.”

It is hard not to cry watching the unfolding horror in Gaza – children with heads blown off, a pregnant woman with her body torn by a shell, babies with missing limbs, targeting of playing children, targeting hospitals, targeting ambulances and even a handicap center, killing two handicapped children. Israeli forces then ratcheted up their attacks committing large scale massacres in places like Shujaia and Beit Hanoun.

I began writing a eulogy for Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores years ago, though she died only last week. Berta was assassinated by Honduran government-backed death squads on March 3. Like many who knew and worked with her, I was aware that this fighter was not destined to die of old age. She spoke too much truth to too much power. Long may Berta live, in the hearts, minds, passions and actions of all of us.

The US government’s designated threat honorably shines light on the path for when we decide it’s our turn.

There is no food. The children are terribly hungry. The food aid program was terminated in April and nothing took its place. The authorities cut off the food so people would leave the camps, but where is there to go? Not a single cent of the U.S. aid pledged for rebuilding has arrived in Haiti. Don’t miss Randall Robinson discussing ‘An Unbroken Agony’ with Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee and Walter Turner of KPFA’s Africa Today on Saturday, Oct. 16, 5 p.m., Black Repertory Theater, 3201 Adeline St., Berkeley.

Lord, help us work for that day when Black will not be asked to get in back, when Brown can stick around, when Yellow will be mellow, when the Red man can get ahead, man; and when White will embrace what is right.

New data from the New York City Police Department shows the final total of stop-and-frisks for 2008 to be a record 531,159. Over 80 percent of them were of Black and Latino New Yorkers.