We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, April 6, 2013

The war against Iraq and the peoples of Africa

Click here to access article by Horace G. Campbell from Pambazuka News (Africa).

This American professor who specializes in African affairs provides his review of the Iraq war and argues that the same project, promulgated by the same people, is being initiated in Africa.
...many of the private military contractors that enjoyed lucrative contracts in Iraq are stoking the fires of instability in Africa to provide the employment opportunities for US private military contractors. The non-governmental organizations from the USA who now work in tandem with the US Africa Command have remained silent in the face of the reorganized military thrust in Africa under the banner of defense, development and diplomacy. It is from the network of those same forces that have been discredited in Iraq where the US counter-terror experts are planning for the expansion of US military activities in Africa.