Archive for March, 2007

Heroic martyrs spur Latin America in new direction

I find Latin America a fascinating continent, though I have never been there. But I am inspired by the stories of the suffering of countless numbers of ordinary people who resisted the authoritarian rule of US-backed right-wing regimes. Many of these regimes served to protect the economic interests of the local (largely white) wealthy elite [...]

Dabbling with the dark side

It is something of a joke these days to see the US State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Talk about the pot calling the kettle(s) black.
Since the 11 September 2001 attacks, the human rights struggle has suffered a beating at the hands of the United States. In particular, the obnoxious practice of [...]

Dam-it, what’s going on here?

It looks like some of our planners are on a dam-building spree, even though the Bakun Dam is expected to produce electricity that the country does not really need for now.
For one thing, Malaysia has a 40 per cent reserve capacity now - even without including the expected excess electricity from Bakun. Even by 2010, [...]

How the NEP equity targets miss the point

So is the bumi share of corporate equity 18.9 per cent? Or 45 per cent?
Here’s something to think about this weekend.
In many ways, the NEP 30 per cent target has become almost sacrosanct. On it hinges much of the political legitimacy of a party like Umno - for persistent underachievement can be used as [...]

The Top Five Ways They Block the Real News from Reaching You

Ever get the feeling that what you read in the newspapers is not really journalism. Well, you wouldn’t be far wrong. Much of what passes itself off as journalism today is actually slick public relations disguised as journalism, or more accurately, Corporate Media Propaganda.
It was the Australian social scientist Alex Carey who observed that there [...]