Wednesday · August 27, 2008
No amount of spinning is going to make either Barack Obama or his wife average Americans. He is no everyman, and why should he be? He is an extraordinarily gifted member of his generation, who was offered every opportunity for success by the Meritocracy, a system of social promotion of a diverse student body based upon the standardized test.
In 1990, the "Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam," adopted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, set Sharia as the sole foundation for "human rights." The UN's Third International Antiracism Conference, which took place in September 2001 in Durban, South Africa, amplified the trend: These conferences turned out to be devastating tribunals directed against every democracy, unlimited personal freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, of the arts and human rights in general. All previous human rights conventions were turned on their heads in Cairo and Durban, and racism was given a new definition. The Durban Conference also taught us that Israel is not only an apartheid state, but is in fact the reincarnation of National Socialism, even though Hitler's Mein Kampf was openly sold at the conference: an ironic twist—and a nightmare!
Wednesday · July 30, 2008
Mary-Jane Rubenstein's article "Anglicans in the Postcolony: On Sex and the Limits of Communion" appeared in Telos 143. In this interview, Telos Press intern Elke Van der Steen asks her some questions.
Who does the financing and what is financed have always been key questions in the evolution and behavior of American capitalism. Historically, powerful financial institutions in the United States have tended to follow a strategy of profiting from the capital development of the country. But over the past 25 years, “sophisticated” financial players (investment banks, the major money center banks, hedge funds, and Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs)—all implicitly backed by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury—have come to dominate financial decision-making and, in turn, the American economy.[1] The essence of their recently acquired power was in their ability to create and finance enormous quantities of new debt through the manufacture of “innovative” financial instruments. As a consequence, financial profits as a percentage of U.S. corporate profits grew from a low of 12% in 1984 to 37.6% in 2007, with non-productive debt supplanting the financing of sound business investment.[2]
With Mugabe's re-election being met with international rejection after he went it alone in the polls, he knows that he needs the MDC. He seems to perceive the growing need to pacify the growing regional and international concerns by entering into talks with the MDC. In the past he has used such talks to buy time, and he could pull the same stunt once again. However, the circumstances have changed now that the regional support he used to enjoy has shifted to sympathy for his opponents. Tsvangirai is currently riding on a crest of international sympathy for his cause and condemnation for Mugabe, as was the case soon after the first round of polling in March. Tsvangirai and his MDC seem to be of the idea that a transitional government mandated to create favorable conditions for the holding of a free and fair election.
