Egyptian scholar and researcher Samir Amin spoke with Hassane Zerrouky on the Arab revolts that have broken out this year, for L'Humanite. The interview was translated by Yoshie Furuhashi for www.mrzine.org . Abridged version appears below.
What's happening in the Arab world six months after the fall of dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia?
892
A son has just been born to me
but I am in Afghanistan,
when I was born my father fought
the Viet-Cong in Vietnam.
聽
My grandpa blazed Kokoda鈥檚 trail
and stalled the ruthless Japanese,
his father fell in World War I;
a martyr in the Pyrenees.
聽
His father fought the Afrikaans,
I think in 1899,
his father stopped the Chinese throngs
from claiming gold in Daylesford鈥檚 mines.
聽
We first came to Van Diemen鈥檚 Land
way back in 1834,
our forebear stole a block of cheese
and thus was shipped to southern shores.
聽
I鈥檒l teach my son to hate them all:
In the US earlier this year, there were making their way through state legislative bodies. In 2010, 174 anti-abortion bills in state legislatures.
You鈥檒l never guess which political party sat and watched while the Aboriginal incarceration rate sky-rocketed. We heard it on the radio. And we saw it on the television.
People who love to scream about stern discipline are having a fantastic time in post-riot Britain.
My favourite was a man on a Radio 5 phone-in, who ended his rant by yelling: 鈥淚 TELL you how little discipline there is. My son gets homework and he鈥檚 allowed to do it ON HIS COMPUTER.
鈥淲e need to GET BACK to PENCIL and PAPER!鈥
And you felt that if you suggested 鈥淲hat about pen and paper?鈥, he鈥檇 shriek 鈥淣O! NOT PEN, YOU BLOODY LIBERAL. PENCIL! They have to SHARPEN pencils, it teaches them DISCIPLINE!鈥
About 100 supporters rallied in persistent rain at Sylvia Creek, in the Toolangi State Forest north-east of Melbourne, to protest logging operations by . The supporters joined locals and forest campaigners who have been blockading the 19-hectare 鈥淕unbarrel鈥 coupe for five weeks.
Most of us protesters were across the road from the Sofitel Wentworth luxury hotel in the heart of Sydney鈥檚 business district where the $900-a-head NSW Mineral Exploration and Investment Conference was underway on August 18.
As far as I can figure out, watching the recent reports of stock markets making their bid for this year鈥檚 World Yo-Yo Championships, it works like this: if a bunch of rich bastards with too much money think shares will go up, they will go up; if the rich bastards think they will go down, they will go down.
And, among other things, this is how they determine whether we can afford to retire.
The Sydney Morning Herald said on August 7 that stock market plunges had wiped $30 billion from Australian superannuation funds over the past six weeks.
Depression article 鈥榙angerous鈥
Although I would agree that 鈥渄epression is a complex illness and capitalism is making its prevalence far worse鈥, the suggestion in that the core of these psychosocially manifest conditions is not biological and appropriately treated with medication is downright dangerous given that the suffering involved is so great that it drives many to suicide.
If you want to be Marxist, demonstrate a little historical materialism please.
Dr David Faber,
Adelaide, SA
Magdalena Sitorus, head of Friends of Indonesian Children and Women, and solicitor Edwina Lloyd spoke at a forum on people smuggling on August 15, hosted by Indonesian Solidarity at Amnesty International鈥檚 Sydney offices.
Sitorus provided background on the status of children in Indonesian law.
That day Lloyd had represented an Indonesian boy imprisoned on a charge of people smuggling, at his first age determination hearing at Bankstown Court. So many people are facing people smuggling charges in Indonesia that Monday is known as 鈥減eople smuggling day鈥, she said.
Angeline Loh, who works with the Malaysian human rights groups , will join close to a dozen international guest speakers at the World at a Crossroads, , which will be held at the University of Melbourne over September 30 to October 3.
The people of Koonawarra, Berkeley, Warrawong and Port Kembla are being neglected while redevelopments such as the Blue Mile (a foreshore development around Wollongong harbour) and $14 million Wollongong mall makeover soak up limited funds, say Community Voice Ward 3 candidates for council elections Adrianne Talbot-Thomson and Ken Davis.
鈥淐ouncil鈥檚 city-centric approach needs to be replaced with a more geographically equitable distribution of resources, services and projects,鈥 said Talbot-Thomson.
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