The plan to destroy one of Istanbul's last green spaces is part of a globally tested neoliberal plan to clear the way for economic enrichment at the top.AlterNet
Our leaders' embargo on Iran may fail? Does that signal a return of the Silk Road?
Turkey Exports “Massive Quantities Of Gold” to (private buyers in) Iran and Arab Spring Nations.
The increase in trade with Iran comes as sanctions make it harder for trading partners such as Turkey, India and China to pay in dollars and euros.
Iran said in February it would accept payment in any local currency or gold.
Reuters report today that Iran is accepting payments in yuan for some of the crude oil it supplies to China, the Iranian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday. "Yes, that is correct," Mohammed Reza Fayyaz told Reuters when asked to comment on an earlier report in The Financial Times.
The newspaper cited unidentified industry executives in Beijing as saying most of the oil that goes from Iran to China is handled by the Unipec trading arm of Sinopec China's second-largest oil company, and through another trading company called Zhuhai Zhenrong.
Fayyaz also confirmed that Iran was spending the currency on goods and services imported from China.
(h/t to @ImplodeOMeter)
Mohamed Bouazizi was being treated poorly by government officials because all he wanted to do was set up a cart and sell fruit and vegetables on the street. But local police kept harassing him and trying to stop him. He, like most Tunisians, knew how corrupt their government was. But when Wikileaks published cables from the U.S. ambassador in Tunis confirming the corruption -- cables that were published just a week or so before Mohamed set himself on fire -- well, that was it for the Tunisian people, and all hell broke loose.
People across the world devoured the information Bradley Manning revealed, and it was used by movements in Egypt, Spain, and eventually Occupy Wall Street to bolster what we already thought was true. Except here were the goods -- the evidence that was needed to prove it all true. And then a democracy movement spread around the globe so fast and so deep -- and in just a year's time! When anyone asks me, "Who started Occupy Wall Street?" sometimes I say "Goldman Sachs" or "Chase" but mostly I just say, "Bradley Manning." It was his courageous action that was the tipping point -- and it was not surprising when the dictator of Tunisia censored all news of the Wikileaks documents Manning had allegedly supplied. But the internet took Manning's gift and spread it throughout Tunisia, a young man set himself on fire and the Arab Spring that led eventually to Zuccotti Park has a young, gay soldier in the United States Army to thank.
On the verge of officially forming a coalition government to run the country and rewrite the nation’s pre-revolution constitution, Tunisia’s dominant, Islamist political party Ennahda has come under fire for its economic neo-liberalism, both from opponents and from coalition partners.
After an election noted for its transparency, the major Tunisian parties are busy putting the finishing touches on the first democratic government in the nation’s history. The Islamist party Hizb Ennahda will get the most important positions, including the coveted post of prime minister.
A major reason for Ennahda’s popularity is its history of resistance against the old dictatorship. Its supporters see it as both the party of Islam and the party of revolution and change. However, when it comes to issues concerning economics and international finance, it generally advocates continuing the generally neo-liberal policies of the former dictatorship.Read the rest at IPS
The ability of artists to lyrically articulate the growing rage amongst disgruntled youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has seen the emergence of politicised rap as a hidden weapon during the region’s Arab Spring.
Music has always played a pivotal role in many of the world’s social movements, so it was of no surprise that the youth-driven uprisings that ousted three long-standing leaders in the Arab world included a strong musical component.
Among the most powerful forms of music to emerge during these protests has been Arabic rap.
"There are of course other forms of music that have the ability to transform messages but rap is an outspoken way of addressing what’s wrong in your society and having the voice of the streets be heard," Martin Fernando Jakobsen, creator of the youth-based initiative for Palestinian youth, Turntables in the Camps tells IPS.
"In the case of the uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), it was political dissident rappers that had an impact because of their ability to echo the people’s suffering."Read it at IPS
As images rolled in this week of the Egyptian authorities' assault on protesters in Tahrir Square, observers in the United States could not escape thoughts of the official violence that had very recently been wrought on Wall Street occupiers in New York City and around the country. Civilians beaten with clubs, dragged by their hair, subject to tear gas, watching their tents demolished, returning to the square they were occupying only to be beaten back again - all that spoke well of and distinguished American police was their death toll of zero.
Then came Sultan Al Qassemi's report that an Egyptian State TV anchor had confessed the inspiration Egyptian military and security forces drew from "the firm stance the US took" against occupiers, and it all made perfect sense. The Egyptian authorities, even in the post-Mubarak period, look to America for leadership.
Recall that, in the run-up to Mubarak's downfall, the dictator's strategy at every turn followed American advice. First, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy statements urged Mubarak to "seek dialogue," which he dutifully offered to do. That did not appease the protesters, so the US instructed him not to run again. His obedient announcement that he would not was insufficient to quell the unrest. The US then advised Mubarak to make a load of "concessions," and Mubarak's included appointing a vice president and insisting that his son Gamal would not seek the presidency. The Egyptians, however were intent on meaningful democratic revolution, and the State Department's puppeteering was all for naught.
As Egyptian authorities continue to take cues from American authorities, American protesters continue to take cues from Egyptian protesters. In the spring, I reported on an evening meeting between Ahmed Maher and Waleed Rashed, of Egypt's April 6 Youth Movement and a group of American activists that included a number of people instrumental in getting Occupy Wall Street off the ground, activists intent, like their Egyptian brothers and sisters, on wresting democracy from the grip of a corrupt ownership class intent on accumulating wealth and power no matter the human cost. "Don't worry if the revolution doesn't come tomorrow," the Egyptian comrades told us on that occasion. "It will come. It is only a matter of time. Just keep working."
