This is an excerpt from my recent response to an activist who felt that stopping an attack on Iran was the most important issue we faced, given the horrendous likely consequences of such an attack on Middle East populations and on the global economy. A variation of this letter could have been written to any number of activists on any number of other subjects. It is not intended to invalidate any activism or the good work being done on so many issues, but rather to urge a broader perspective that results in at least a significant number of people shifting their activism upstream to changing the systems* that generate the danger, destruction, suffering and mind-boggling emerging crises we face in this century.
The presenter, Margaret Heffernan, is an amazing woman. Media producer, entrepreneur, feminist, philosopher, business consultant. Check out her bio at www.mheffernan.com <http://www.mheffernan.com/
Venezuela is training a “guerrilla army” aiming to be a million strong by 2013 to fight off a possible US invasion, an opposition MP has said.
“Plan Sucre” – apparently crafted with input from close ally and fellow US foe Cuba – covers the legal, logistical and other angles necessary to “transform a professional army into a guerrilla army,” Representative Maria Corina Machado told El Universal newspaper.
The former presidential candidate said she had obtained a copy of the plan, printed by an institution affiliated with the national army.
The election of the next puppet president of the “world’s only superpower” is about two and one-half months off, and what are the campaign issues? There aren’t any worthy of the name.
The billionaires may be trying to hijack the presidential election, but they have failed to stifle the creative ambitions of progressive leaders. Amid the toxic fumes of big-money politics, the people Paul Wellstone once identified as the “Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” are pursuing an audacious goal with characteristic optimism: to re-elect Barack Obama, then reset his priorities.
Voting for the Democrats does not empower working people to fight against right-wing extremism. Instead, working people are forced to give away their power to a political party that is in no way beholden to them, since the Democrats have a corporate agenda divorced from the needs of the vast majority of working people. There is no way to hold Democrats accountable once they’re in office, especially when they’ve all but stopped making campaign promises to working people.
By now it should be clear to most Americans that the Democrats and Republicans are corporate-owned parties, and as such they are free to act as they wish, regardless of the political rhetoric they spew.
Interview with the late Professor Elinor Ostrom, to date the only woman to win the Nobel for economics, on environmental issues, commons and her time at Beverley Hills High. The interview took place in the Excel centre, London. March 2012. Sadly Professor Ostrom died in June 2012, she was a visionary who put her ideas into practice dedicated to creating a sustainable future for all based on human creativity. She discussed some of her key ideas with humour and clarity with Derek Wall.
