Articles by dispatch

[Just came across this -- it's dated, but deserves to be repeated. -D.O.M.]

by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
September 17, 2004

One of the world’s leading news agencies is accusing Canada’s largest newspaper chain of altering words and phrases in its stories covering the conflicts in the Middle East.

Reuters says that CanWest Global, owner of the National Post and dozens of other newspapers across Canada, has been routinely an inappropriately inserting the word “terrorist” into newswire copy, thereby changing the meaning of those stories.

The global managing editor for Reuters, David Schlesinger, told the CBC that such changes are unacceptable and that CanWest had crossed the line from editing for style to slanting the news from the Middle East.

“If they want to put their own judgment into it, they’re free to do that, but then they shouldn’t say that it’s by a Reuters reporter,” Schlesinger was quoted as saying.

Schlesinger cited a recent Reuters story, in which the original copy read: “…the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in a four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.”

In the National Post version of the story, it became: “…the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group that has been involved in a four-year-old campaign of violence against Israel.”

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The need for strong independent voices in Haiti is greater than ever. Here is your chance to support the work of a young Haitian photojournalist whose work is appearing on HaitiAction.net, Haitianalysis and other media important to the struggle for democracy.

Wadner Pierre has been living and working with Father Gerard Jean-Juste for the last ten years. For the last two years, he has been reporting and photographing important human rights issues in Haiti. He brings to the world information and analysis directly from Haiti’s poor, something absent in the mainstream media. Right now, Canadian photographer Darren Ell and human rights lawyer Brian Concannon are trying to raise $1000 US in order to buy Wadner a new camera that will serve him in the years to come. To do so, they are selling photographs made by Darren and Wadner in Haiti over the last year.

Click HERE to view the photographs and place your order !

by Nik Basque

Maritimes Indymedia
March 30, 2007

This April Fools Day marks the beginning in a dangerous shift in power. The Alberta and BC governments have signed an agreement that empowers corporations to sue governments if regulations limit their right to make a profit. In effect, these governments have undermined their own ability to set regulations in the interest of the public good, in exchange for the interests of corporations’ responsibilities to shareholders. And, the icing on the cake, the agreement was not subject to legislative debate or public consultation.

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“If human equality is to be forever averted, then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.”
George Orwell

Briarpatch Magazine and On Edge ‘Zine (and their sibling editors) are collaborating to produce a dynamic September/October issue of Briarpatch focused on mental health.

As the global and national political picture continues to worsen, depression and other mental illness diagnoses and psycho-pharmaceutical prescription rates are at record levels.

Coincidence? We think not!

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by Adam Morrow / Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
Inter Press Service
April 12, 2007

CAIRO - Israel’s rejection of the Arab peace initiative, which was reiterated at last month’s Arab Summit, drew emphatic criticism from Egyptian commentators. Although Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later called for peace talks with “moderate” Arab heads of state, most local political observers say Tel Aviv wants to have its cake and eat it too.”Olmert’s response was an attempt to normalise relations without responding to the initiative’s demands,” Mohamed Basyouni, former Egyptian ambassador to Israel and head of the committee for Arab affairs in the Shura Council (the upper consultative house of the Egyptian parliament) told IPS. “It was a totally unacceptable manoeuvre that puts the carriage before the horse.”

The Saudi-backed peace plan, first tabled at the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut, offers across-the-board Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for core Palestinian demands.

According to the proposal’s terms, Arab capitals would extend full diplomatic relations to the Jewish state in exchange for total Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967. The plan seeks a “just solution” to the Palestinian refugee issue on the basis of UN resolutions, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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By Murray Dobbin
TheTyee.ca
April 4, 2007

Citizens in industrialized societies, including Canada, will cling to their extravagant lifestyles and massive over-consumption for a while yet, it seems. Global climate change is still seen by most people — even those who have no doubt of its human origins — as something that can be fixed by legislation, tougher rules and punitive penalties on big polluters — and that allegedly clean and green quick fix, ethanol.

Yes, we can all keep our individual chunks of steel, rubber and glass, those symbols of 20th century excess and irrationality, so long as we shift to burning alcohol.

This particular mass delusion was madness enough to inspire the still-ailing Fidel Castro out of his bed to write the first editorial he has written for the country’s principal newspaper, Granma, since last falling ill last July. It’s not as if there is a lack of issues for the grand old commander-in-chief to comment on. But this one he deemed the most important. Why?

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by Patrick Cockburn
Counterpunch
April 3, 2007

A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines.

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BC–Alberta agreement also creates hurdles for endangered species and curbing pollution

Sierra Legal
March 30, 2007

VANCOUVER, BC – Key aspects of environmental regulation from municipal to provincial lawmaking will be turned upside down this Sunday April 1st when the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) comes into force. Although the aim of the agreement is to turn Alberta and BC into an economic powerhouse, a legal analysis of TILMA by Sierra Legal reveals it could seriously threaten the provinces’ endangered species and jeopardize potential initiatives to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

TILMA sets rules for all governments within the trade zone (including, in 2009, municipalities) and allows individuals and corporations to sue BC or Alberta for up to $5 million if its rules are broken, even if a government, including local governments, is acting to help the environment. The agreement does include some environmental exemptions regarding water and the promotion of renewable and alternative energy, but other government measures (laws, programs, policies) aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants, or protecting endangered species cannot overly restrict trade or investment. No input from environmental groups or the public is required in coming to such a decision.

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Your monthly media supplement of seven recommended readings from beyond the Briarpatch.

Get the B-List in your inbox: go to www.briarpatchmagazine.com and scroll down the right-hand column.

The Ugly Canadian
by Yen Chu
Relay #16
March/April 2007

Over 40 years later, the Ugly American still speaks to geopolitical events in our world today. The plot in the film practically mirrors Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan.

http://www.socialistproject.ca/relay/relay16_chu.pdf

Read the rest of this entry »

by Heather Wokusch
CommonDreams.org
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” – George W. Bush, September 2002

“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous… Having said that, all options are on the table.” – George W. Bush, February 2005

The Bush administration continues moving closer to a nuclear attack on Iran, and we ignore the obvious buildup at our peril.

Russian media is sounding alarms. In February, ultra-nationalist leader Vladimir Shirinovsky warned that the US would launch a strike against Tehran at the end of this month. Then last week, the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti (RIA-Novosti) quoted military experts predicting the US will attack Iran on April 6th, Good Friday. According to RIA-Novosti, the imminent assault will target Iranian air and naval defense capabilities, armed forces headquarters as well as key economic assets and administration headquarters. Massive air strikes will be deployed, possibly tactical nuclear weapons as well, and the Bush administration will attempt to exploit the resulting chaos and political unrest by installing a pro-US government.

Sound familiar? It’s Iraq déjà vu all over again, and we know how well that war has gone.

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