Women suffer from Gandhi's legacy | Michael Connellan | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
"Both Gandhi and his hagiographers claimed he viewed women as equal to men, pointing to his inclusion of women in India's independence struggle. He celebrated non-violent protest as a "feminine" principle, neutralising the masculine brutality of British rule. But his sexual hang-ups caused him to carry monstrously sexist views. His view of the female body was warped. As accounted by Rita Banerji, in her book Sex and Power, "he believed menstruation was a manifestation of the distortion of a woman's soul by her sexuality"."
MarxistFromLebanon: Hezbollah's New Political Platform by Fawwaz Traboulsi
"The new platform renounces the call for an Islamic state in Lebanon, accepts the diversity of Lebanese society, and makes no mention of the Rule of the Jurisprudent. This is of course a welcome development. But there are other aspects in the new platform that are far less praiseworthy"
"I wish the US Congress would ask [Erik Prince] why they killed my innocent son, who called himself Allawi. Do you think that this child was a threat to your company? This giant company that has the biggest weapons, the heaviest weapons, the planes, and this boy was a threat to them?" he says. "I want Americans to know that this was a child that died for nothing." Warning: this article is heartbreaking and also contains somewhat graphic description of the massacre.
Somali Pirates: Down to Help Haiti Too - GOOD Blog - GOOD
"Spokesmen for the so-called “Somali pirates” have expressed willingness to transfer part of their loot captured from transnational boats and send it to Haiti..."
A People's History of the United States
"This great book should really be read by everyone. It is difficult to describe why it so great because it both teaches and inspires. You really just have to read it. We think it is so good that it demands to be as accessible as possible. Once you've finished it, we're sure you'll agree. In fact, years ago, we would offer people twenty dollars if they read the book and didn't think it was completely worth their time. Of all the people who took us up on it, no one collected."
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87 - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe
R.I.P. Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.
Alterdestiny: Historical Image of the Day
"One of my favorite images of anti-Asian racism, this less than subtle image from either the late 1870s or early 1880s lays it out there for all of us to see. The Workingman's Party was the dominate force in California politics during the years leading up to Chinese exclusion. Their entire platform consisted of saving California for the white man by ending Chinese immigration. That they became such a political threat to both parties helped lead to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882."
Iran’s Baha’is Deprived of all Human Rights - Gozaar - بهاییان ایران از تمامی حقوق انسانی محروم اند
Report on the absolutely deplorable treatment of Baha'is in Iran.
US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti
"Private firms are jumping at the opportunity to provide 'humanitarian assistance' to Haiti, but what these companies are actually bringing is a 'Shock Doctrine' approach that aims to profit from disaster."
New Statesman - Why does the western media ignore Egyptian dissent?
"While pro-democracy protests in Iran top the news agenda, similar tensions in Egypt pass unreported "
Al Jadid - The Politics of Getting Published: The Continuing Struggle of Arab-American Writers
"Clearly, U.S. publishing has a growing appetite for information about the Arab and Muslim worlds, but many mainstream media remain deeply affected by an Orientalist agenda that focuses on the oppression of women and other stereotypes about Arab society. What Steven Salaita calls “stories of escape” sell in numbers, while more nuanced, complex and self-reflexive pieces don’t. For example, a series of books by Jean Sasson about “oppressed” women in Saudi Arabia and Iraq fly off the bookshelves by the millions, while more authentic novels like Mohja Kahf’s “The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf,” which depicts growing up Muslim in America, sell in far smaller numbers."
The humanitarian myth | SocialistWorker.org
Don't believe the hype about U.S. intervention in Haiti.
BBC News - Iranian plane catches fire on landing
This is the deadly result of murderous Western-imposed sanctions that prevent Iran from replacing aging airplanes or buying new parts for them.
Pictures: http://www.payvand.com/news/10/jan/1231.html
Press TV: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116964§ionid=351020101YouTube - Episode 14: Interview with Dr. Asef Bayat/ مصاحبه با دکتر آصف بیات
The latest episode of "The Week in Green" is actually pretty good... I (Hoda) recommend checking out Asef Bayat's "Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn," an interesting comparative study of Islamism in Egypt and Iran.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
