Darfur Racism Update: Are "Arabs" Killing "Black Africans"? Or Is This View Racist?

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Monday December 22, 2008 · 2:37 PM PST

2008/12/22 · 14:37

Everyone is sickened by the tragedy in Darfur. But who is responsible, really? Is it a case of racist Arabs slaughtering black Africans? Or is there more to it?

In this incisive article, Carina Ray asks the question, Are "Arabs" killing "Black Africans" in Darfur? The usual take on this needs a closer look. Her view is that the commonly held view on Darfur is "racialized" and the situation is more complex. Much more complex. And its solutions will not be reached if we don't deal with the reality on the ground.

African newspapers have followed the war in Darfur closely over the last several years. Yet, much of the reportage casts the violence as a race war perpetrated by "Arabs" against "Black Africans". This racialised language clouds, rather than clarifies, the complicated nature of this deadly conflict, in which a brutal government counterinsurgency strategy has mobilised Arabised African nomads in its fight against a just armed uprising by Darfur’s settled population.

thinkbridge

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Friday December 19, 2008 · 3:00 PM PST

2008/12/19 · 15:00

ABC announced a new TV series "Homeland Security USA", premiering Jan. 6, which is supposed to be a reality show that is produced with the Giant Helping Hand of Homeland Security, which certainly wants and needs lots of entertainment-style propaganda. According to this NYT article:

In an announcement Thursday, ABC said the production "has been given unprecedented access to the agencies," including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.

But this isn't about anti-terrorism efforts. This is about immigration.

thinkbridge

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Friday December 12, 2008 · 1:51 PM PST

2008/12/12 · 13:51

Out with those telescopes, all! Away from your computer, astronomy happens. This from New Scientist:

The full Moon will loom larger in the sky on Friday than it has since 1993, as it will be nearly as close as it ever comes to Earth in its orbit.

And brighter, too. And there's a meteor shower in the backdrop. If there ever was a time for skywatching...

thinkbridge

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Tuesday December 09, 2008 · 12:20 PM PST

2008/12/09 · 12:20

In spite of the life-death importance of health care, the subject frequently borders on boring. But in India, "health care" means the struggle between life and death, poverty and survival, superstition and rationality, being human and being nothing - "a stone without a soul". The unimaginable transformation of a small corner of rural India and those who inhabit it has a wider, deeper meaning for all humankind. What these people have done transcends ordinary heroics. It gets to the bottom of everything wrong, and right, with people.

This is the story of Sarubai Salve, Babai Sathe, and a mind-boggling "community health" (but really way beyond this paltry subject line) project called Jamkhed (whose website is here) founded by 75-year-old Raj Arole and his wife Mabelle (who died in 1999) in one of the poorest areas in India. The idea was to provide health care for India's most destitute people, people without hope, people like the untouchables.

thinkbridge

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Thursday December 04, 2008 · 1:26 PM PST

2008/12/04 · 13:26

Many are now expressing dismay over President-elect Obama's choices for a security team, including Bushco's Defense Secretary Robert Gates, as being far too hawkish to give us hope for "change" when it comes to conduct of the wars and foreign policy. As this article put it,

The assembly of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Susan Rice and Joe Biden is a kettle of hawks with a proven track record of support for the Iraq war, militaristic interventionism, neoliberal economic policies and a worldview consistent with the foreign policy arch that stretches from George HW Bush's time in office to the present.

thinkbridge

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Wednesday December 03, 2008 · 12:52 PM PST

2008/12/03 · 12:52

So you think you understand finance? Do you think anybody understands finance? Does the Secretary of the Treasury understand finance? Well...according to this website:

Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been "privatized," or taken over by a private money cartel. Except for coins, all of our money is now created as loans advanced by private banking institutions — including the private Federal Reserve. Banks create the principal but not the interest to service their loans. To find the interest, new loans must continually be taken out, expanding the money supply, inflating prices — and robbing you of the value of your money.

Could this be what's behind the whole economic collapse we're now trying to dig ourselves out of by selling bad debts to China? And would that then rob the Chinese of the value of their money?

thinkbridge

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Thursday November 06, 2008 · 2:17 PM PST

2008/11/06 · 14:17

Nothing like this has ever happened before. The sheer numbers of people - a quarter million in Chicago's Grant Park & environs - all mesmerized, inspired, united, moved to the core, and ecstatic about Barack Obama's election as President of the United States - doesn't count the untold millions watching on their televisions and computer screens: an amazing celebration of democracy - a peaceful, dramatic, and real people's victory - of the people, by the people, for the people. Was it the numbers, the enthusiasm, the sense of release from a dark period, of freedom from some unnamed threat, or was it the sheer power of human cooperation on a scale grander than anyone really comprehended until it actually went down?

Or was it the power of one man to lead in a time that cried out for rational, sensible, genuine leadership - by gathering and uniting an entire nation to turn the page??

thinkbridge

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Tuesday October 28, 2008 · 7:24 PM PDT

2008/10/28 · 19:24

When great change is about to roll over, the roaches crawl out. In flaming red (neck) Pensacola, as in other places (where even more abominable acts have been committed) - such as yesterday's busted Neo-Nazi assassination plot, more racist, violence-edged action reared its ugly head. This time, a CSX (train) bridge in Pensacola, Florida was spray-painted with "MURDER OBAMA" grafitti - and quickly painted over on Monday evening.

It was linked in spirit, if not in actual connections, to the skinhead plot to kill Barack Obama - a cameraderie of the cockroach? no, that's unfair to cockroaches - in a kind of union of hate-mongers and racists. Is that all the John McCain has left? Not exactly, but...

thinkbridge

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Friday October 17, 2008 · 8:07 PM PDT

2008/10/17 · 20:07

It's one thing to say "end the war in Iraq." It's another thing to deal with the thousands of detainees it is holding there without charge and with fewer rights than Guantanamo detainees. What's going on, and what will happen?

This question is addressed in David Enders' great report on Camp Bucca in Iraq and the situation with detainees from the Iraq war.

The real issue here is not so much torture (although that isn't ruled out) but a policy of endless detention, endless war, and detaining people, including hundreds of children, without charge or due process. And their families are also victims. And... is all this a side effect of the "Surge"?

thinkbridge

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Wednesday October 15, 2008 · 3:08 PM PDT

2008/10/15 · 15:08

It's simply obvious. And predictable. This report says

Scott Horton reports today that PBS may have refused to nationally air a controversial documentary on the use of torture by the U.S. government in order to protect its funding.

You can view the documentary called "Torturing Democracy" here.

What stinks about it is that PBS is supposed to be "viewer supported" and hence above the level of government censorship and influence. But apparently not:

According to producer Sherry Jones, PBS told her that "no time slot could be found for the documentary before January 21, 2009″ — the day after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney leave office.

thinkbridge

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Monday October 13, 2008 · 2:25 PM PDT

2008/10/13 · 14:25

McCain is no "uniter" and when it comes to incitement to violence, he's not an innocent bystander - he's fanning the flames. Maybe this is already out there. But to no surprise to many, it's official: Huffpo's Jeffrey Feldman reports:

According to Time, McCain campaign staffers in Virginia are teaching volunteers to see Barack Obama as having terrorist 'friends,' and then providing these volunteers with arguments for persuading voters that Sen. Obama, like Osama Bin Laden, shares responsibility for bombings of the Pentagon.

The report from inside the McCain campaign brings to light an alarming fact: while McCain tells his supporters publicly to refrain from violent rhetoric, he continues to teach his volunteers rhetoric designed to elicit violent responses.

Is that the sort of responsible leadership we need in these critical times? Or does it actually break up the "union"?

thinkbridge

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Friday October 10, 2008 · 3:27 PM PDT

2008/10/10 · 15:27

There may be a lot of reasons for this, but isn't it absurd that the Presidential debates have so far totally ignored the issue of immigration? Is that because it's too hot-button? Or because they hope they can get elected without dealing with it? Angela Kelley brings this issue up:

Latino community to immigration advocates to probing journalists have been eagerly awaiting to hear more about what the two candidates plan to do about the 12 million undocumented people living in the United States. To date, they've heard very little.

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Darfur Racism Update: Are "Arabs" Killing "Black Africans"? Or Is This View Racist?

ABC "Homeland Security" Series Propaganda for Xenophobic Policies

Skywatch Alert! Biggest, Brightest Moon in 15 Years Tonight

Untouchables Become Miracle-Workers: Transforming Health Care

Obama's Security Team Too Right-Wing Hawkish? Not So Fast...

When Is Money Not Money? When It Is a Ponzi Scheme

President-Elect Obama Turns the Page

"Murder Obama" Graffitti in FL "No Credible Threat", Sign of Times

The Other Guantanamo, In Iraq: Could It Be Worse?

Free Speech Down One: PBS Sleeps Torture Documentary Till Bushco Walks

McCain Staffers Teach Volunteers to Link Obama to Terrorism

Presidential Debates Ignore Immigration