howard zinn 1922 -2010

Howard Zinn, "On Human Nature and Aggression"




Howard Zinn
1922-2010


http://www.howardzinn.org/

the killing fields of inequality

«OK, inequality is a fact, and increasing, so what? Does it matter if David Beckham earns much more than you do? (Tony Blair on one occasion appeared to offer this question as a cover for leaving income inequality untouched.)

My answer is that it does matter, because inequality is a violation of human rights; the invocation of celebrity pay is simply a smoke-screen.

(...)

The stretching social distance between the poorest and the richest diminishes social cohesion, which in turn means more collective problems – such as crime and violence – and fewer resources for solving all our other collective problems, from national identity to climate change.»

excerto de The Killing Fields of Inequality, de Göran Therborn
in Soundings nº42, Verão 2009, via eurozine


The Killing Fields of Inequality (pdf)

serviço púbico

Porque convém ler as notas de rodapé, antes de assinar... ou decidir rasgar o documento.

Programas eleitorais:
PS PSD PCP CDS/PP BE

world's craziest geoengineering scheme

«A manmade volcano erupting continuously to shade the Earth until greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are brought down. Thousands of mirrors boosted into geosynchronous orbit to block sunlight. Crewless ships wander the oceans spewing saltwater into the air to increase cloud cover.

These are just a few of the proposals from scientists to manipulate, or geoengineer, the planet to stave off global warming.»

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=worlds-craziest-geoengineering-sche-09-09-03

forbidden land

the unrecognized
"The Unrecognized" is a short documentary that highlights the plight of Palestinian Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel living in the Naqab (Negev) desert in the south of the country, many of whom were forced off their lands following the establishment of the state in 1948. The human rights of these citizens of Israel have been continuously violated by over half a century of discriminatory governmental policies and practices.
[http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/naqab150509.html]



forbidden land
"Forbidden Land" is a short documentary produced by Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel that highlights the confiscation of Palestinian Arab-owned land by Israel. Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel lost their land in the 1950s and 1960s after the government seized it, claiming that the land was needed for "essential" public purposes. Attorney Suhad Bishara, head of the Land and Planning Unit in Adalah, explains that "these cases are classic ones of expropriation for the sake of expropriation, nothing more."
[http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/land150509.html]


via MRzine

We need to broaden our political possibilities

«The hypothesis (...) is not that nation states no longer matter, or that the functions of the nation states are no longer important, but rather that we have to recognize that they function within a larger framework, that they are important elements of this network power. It was this that led us to the hypothesis that the US can no longer dictate global order, in fact that no nation state can do that any more. It is not the case that if the US isn't powerful enough, then China, Russia, or some caliphate will be. No, the terms of sovereignty, of political order, has changed so that no nation state can control them any longer. The Bush lot, Cheney and Wolfowitz, thought that they could act like imperialist, that they could dictate global order. And we have seen little by little the demonstration of their failure, of the final burial of unilateralism: first with military failures, then with the social and economic failures in the US. I take that as evidence of the impossibility of national sovereignty dictating global order.

So we have to create a new concept of sovereignty, or maybe a different word than sovereignty, that allows us to think this collaboration of powers, of political and economic dominant nation states with corporations and international economic institutions. But this doesn't mean that nation states are not important, nor that the US isn't important as a force of domination, or that Bolivia isn't important as a demarcation of lines of defence, is just means that they have to be considered in a larger framework.»

entrevista com Michael Hardt, para o Le Monde Diplomatique
via eurozine.com


http://www.eurozine.com/
http://pt.mondediplo.com/

SPiTEFUL

Os SPiTEFUL tem um novo website online, bem como um renovado espaço no blogger.

Presentemente em estúdio a ultimar o seu primeiro álbum, Persuasion Through Persistence, a banda tem disponível para download o seu EP de 2002 Upheaval, através do last.fm.

http://www.spiteful.com.pt
http://spiteful-band.blogspot.com
http://www.lastfm.pt/music/The+SPiTEFUL

Emergência em SOS

No endereço seguinte está disponível um vídeo de reportagem, do Jornal da Noite, na SIC, de 25 de Janeiro. Aí se reproduz uma sequência de chamadas telefónicas, referente a um pedido de assistência médica para o INEM e ao processo de activação dos meios de emergência subsequente.

Não é um sketch dos Monty Python, nem dos Gato Fedorento, é a triste realidade dum país que encerra as urgências primeiro, para repensar a emergência médica depois...

http://videos.sapo.pt/nmqCwpbo2NtyQkNFaPz5

isto aconteceu no teu planeta...

«The following paragraph should be topped off by the sound of the world ending:

Pony is an orangutan from a prostitute village in Borneo. We found her chained to a wall, lying on a mattress. She had been shaved all over her body. If a man walked near her, she would turn herself around, present herself, and start gyrating and going through the motions. She was being used as a sex slave. She was probably about six or seven years old when we rescued her, but she had been held captive by a madam for a long time. The madam refused to give up the animal because everyone loved Pony and she was a big part of their income.»

vice via warrenellis.com

the art of not becoming accustomed to anything

The art of not becoming accustomed to anything
Precarious employment in flexible capitalism

«Interns, temporary agency workers, people on job creation schemes, and pseudo-freelances make up the vast reserve army of workers in precarious employment. For the majority, standards such as productivity or flexibility have become second nature. In this respect, they are the avant-garde of post-Fordism, constantly opening up new avenues of self-exploitation.

(...) Values such as autonomy and self-realisation, along with feelings, experiences, creativity, which once were deployed to counter capitalist commoditisation, have now become significant raw material salvaged for economic ends.»

[Klaus Ronnenberger, para a springerin, via eurozine]

super-homem (assim, como na tropa)

Não fiques triste... Visto-te de Super-Homem e brincamos um bocadinho...


«Army Staff Sgt. Edmundo F. Estrada, 35, of Hampton, also faces charges of indecent assault, having an inappropriate relationship with a trainee, and cruelty and maltreatment of subordinates (...)

The soldier told Estrada that he felt depressed after being relieved of his training status, and said Estrada suggested "a technique that he had used previously to help soldiers with their self-confidence and alleviate depression," the affidavit said.

The technique involved role-playing scenes from a pornographic movie, which depicted a Superman character weakened by Kryptonite as the subject of sexual torture.

"Estrada would verbally describe a sexual act of torture, relating to the pornographic movie, and (the victim) was to respond in a sexual manner by moaning," the affidavit said. The soldier also said he eventually was forced to "dress in a 'Superman' or similar outfit" while Estrada performed sexual acts on him.»

[http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=120544&ran=195809]