Why Liberal Academics and Ivory Tower Radicals Make Poor Revolutionaries

Why Liberal Academics and Ivory Tower Radicals Make Poor Revolutionaries

    Tuesday, February 11, 2014   No comments

by Nicole Ouimette
The revolution will not be cited. It will not have a bibliography, or a title page. The revolution will never happen in the seclusion of the ivory tower built by racist, sexist, and classist institutions. Professional academic researchers in the social sciences of many colleges and universities exploit the struggles of oppressed peoples. Oppressed peoples are left stranded with little to no resources after researchers leave their communities high and dry.

Researchers steal value from oppressed peoples by making them the subjects of theoretical research without lending them access to information that could better help their communities. Articles, books, and dissertations written about marginalized populations are written for academics, not working people, and as such have little impact on the people whose lives are the subject of this research. Liberal academics and social scientists are more concerned about developing the wealth of academic literature than addressing the immediate material concerns of the communities they research.

Penelope Herideen is a Sociology researcher in Western Massachusetts (MA) and a professor of Sociology at the local community college from which I recently graduated. Herideen has written about the importance of critical pedagogy in community colleges. “Policy, Pedagogy, and Social Inequality: Community College Student Realities In Post-Industrial America” was the title of Herideen’s research discussing the realities that community college students face as they navigate their social and academic worlds. Herideen’s research is important, and yet, she was hardly involved in student organizing campaigns against budget cuts that affect low-income students. Community college students need resources developed through research like Herideen’s. This is a major flaw in academic research in the social sciences.

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Six Lessons from Iran’s Revolution

Six Lessons from Iran’s Revolution

    Tuesday, February 11, 2014   No comments

by Henry Precht

Thirty-five years since the Iranian revolution should be adequate time for aspiring Iran hands to turn a deaf ear to the “Death to America” chants from Tehran and the more polite “They can’t be trusted “ pundit wisdom from Washington. Perhaps, modestly and cautiously, we can draw a few lessons from those bad days for the present moment of hope.

First, what we didn’t know back then was a lot and it did hurt us. Our ignorance was profound. We didn’t know the Shah was condemned by cancer. Had we known, we might have treated him more as we did Marcos and less like, say, our toleration of the Greek colonels. Today’s question relates to President Hassan Rouhani’s political health, his physical health seemingly OK. Should we be nervous, i.e., should we act as if he were politically vulnerable? Or should we consider him in adequate shape to engage with our demands? If he faces trouble, can he be saved by respectful attention? Or should we write him off as a foredoomed aberration? The signs from Tehran incline me to believe that he is worthy of considerable political risk on our part.

We knew nothing about dealing with such a massive movement of millions of people in support of the revolution — a phenomenon rarely if even seen before on the globe. Nor did we have a clue about an Islamic government — another development never before achieved on earth. Today, Iran remains a dark zone. We can’t accurately assess the strength of the reform or conservative movements in Iran. How strong is Rouhani and how wide can he maneuver? I expect the White House is better at evaluating its American support for an agreement with Iran. But can it match Rouhani’s willingness to confront critics? We can only hope that authentic, balanced expertise on Iran is available and listened to in the White House.

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New treatment for diabetes that could lead to cure

New treatment for diabetes that could lead to cure

    Sunday, February 09, 2014   No comments

Scientists experimenting with stem cell approaches to alternative organ cell development have discovered a potential breakthrough in the way type 1 diabetes is treated, a new study reports.

In the sibling rivalry between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, in sheer popularity alone, type 2 would be the decisively cooler older sibling. Roughly 90 percent of all diabetes cases are type 2, characterized by a deficiency in the pancreas to produce the hormone insulin, which regulates blood glucose levels. But type 1’s remaining market share of 10 percent is actually far more lethal than type 2, as type 1 diabetics don’t simply have an insulin deficiency, which can be controlled through diet and exercise, but a total lack of insulin production.

Both forms demand the regulation of blood glucose levels, but the consequences of ignoring that demand are far more severe in type 1 patients. For years, this has motivated researchers to develop effective treatment options that jumpstart the production of insulin. They’ve known, for instance, that halted production of insulin was a result of destroyed ß-cells, which also live in the pancreas and typically disappear during childhood. (Type 1 diabetes is often referred to as juvenile diabetes.) While diabetics can stay healthy with regular insulin injections, the ideal solution would be to replace the missing ß-cells — something scientists don’t yet have the tools to do, but, with the current study, is on the horizon.

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Iran Sends Warships to US Maritime Borders

Iran Sends Warships to US Maritime Borders

    Saturday, February 08, 2014   No comments

"The Iranian Army's naval fleets have already started their voyage towards the Atlantic Ocean via the waters near South Africa," Commander of Iran's Northern Navy Fleet Admiral Afshin Rezayee Haddad announced on Saturday.

The admiral, who is also the commander of the Iranian Army's 4th Naval Zone said, "Iran's military fleet is approaching the United States' maritime borders, and this move has a message."

In September 2012, Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari reiterated Iran's plans for sailing off the US coasts to counter the US presence in its waters in the Persian Gulf.

Sayyari had earlier informed of Tehran's plans to send its naval forces to the Atlantic to deploy along the US marine borders, and in September 2012 he said that this would happen "in the next few years".

The plan is part of Iran's response to Washington's beefed up naval presence in the Persian Gulf. The US Navy's 5th fleet is based in Bahrain - across the Persian Gulf from Iran - and the US has conducted two major maritime war games in the last two years.

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Academic ideals are being crushed to suit private-sector style management

Academic ideals are being crushed to suit private-sector style management

    Saturday, February 08, 2014   No comments

As an early-career lecturer in a post-1992 university, I often feel like a rare bird in an ornate cage struggling to maintain its dignity in a discount superstore filled with pets. This bird knows it could have been a proud representative of a noble lineage and chirrups dolefully as it ruffles its plumes, but the song is drowned out by the bustling sale of cheap, plastic imitation bird-objects around it.

The British higher education sector is in full-on crisis mode and those chosen or imposed to oversee this crisis are, in the main, non-academics and are recruited from the private sector. Academic ideals are being crushed by the visions of middle-management bureaucrats who view the progress and survival of higher education as requiring its surrender to private sector ideals. The changes in higher education over the past few years have been dramatic, with £9,000 a year tuition fees only the latest and most public step in what appears to be a wholesale corporatisation of the sector.

Along with this "progress" comes inevitable inequality. The University and Colleges Union (UCU) have recently joined forces with Unison, Unite and EIS to organise a series of strikes by members over unfair pay. According to UCU figures, last year the Universities and College Employers Association offered university staff a paltry 1% pay rise, which actually amounts to a 13% pay cut since 2009.

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L'Arabie saoudite s'en prend aux djihadistes

L'Arabie saoudite s'en prend aux djihadistes

    Thursday, February 06, 2014   No comments

Craignant un dangereux retour de flammes, le roi Abdallah vient d'adopter un décret qui prévoit des peines de trois à vingt ans de prison pour les Saoudiens qui participent à des conflits à l'étranger. Ce durcissement est d'abord destiné à tarir le flot des candidats à la guerre sainte en Syrie, où les ressortissants du royaume wahhabite sont les plus nombreux parmi les djihadistes qui luttent pour renverser le régime de Bachar el-Assad.
Dans le passé, l'Arabie, patrie d'un islam ultrarigoriste, a souffert du retour de ses ressortissants d'Irak après l'invasion américaine de 2003. La branche locale d'al-Qaida en avait alors profité pour perpétrer de nombreux et sanglants attentats, jurant même de faire tomber la famille régnante, qui vécut de difficiles «années de sang» entre 2003 et 2005.
Selon ce décret, les Saoudiens qui rejoignent ou soutiennent des organisations considérées comme terroristes, à l'intérieur comme à l'extérieur du pays, s'exposeront pour leur part à des peines allant de cinq à trente ans d'emprisonnement.

250 Saoudiens morts en Syrie
...

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Susan Rice blasts Israel for criticizing Kerry

Susan Rice blasts Israel for criticizing Kerry

    Tuesday, February 04, 2014   No comments

U.S. national security advisor says 'personal attacks' against Kerry are 'totally unfounded and unacceptable.'

Susan Rice — the national security adviser who rocked headlines by repeating the White House message that Benghazi’s fatal terror attack was started by an anti-Muslim video — has now jumped to the administration’s defense once again.

This time with a series of tweets perceived by some as unnecessary public criticisms of Israel, Breitbart.com reported.

Her defense comes as Israeli leaders have openly denounced what they perceived as a veiled threat from Mr. Kerry to boycott the nation if peace talks with Palestinians fail.

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Shia fighter beheaded by Syrian rebels,Video shows footage of public execution of a man believed to have been a pro-government Shia fighter

Shia fighter beheaded by Syrian rebels,Video shows footage of public execution of a man believed to have been a pro-government Shia fighter

    Sunday, February 02, 2014   No comments

Rebels in Syria with ties to al-Qaida have decapitated a man believed to have been a pro-government Shia fighter, an amateur video of the public [executions] posted to the internet on Saturday showed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group which posted the video, said the [war crime] was conducted by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a foreign-led group fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic emirate in Syria.

The footage shows armed men in black standing outdoors in a circle around a man who is lying on the grass. One of the militants leans over the victim and appears to

 [ ... ] 

The remainder of the three-minute video shows the crowd, which includes several children, talking, laughing and taking photographs of the scene.

The Britain-based Observatory, which opposes Assad and has an extensive network of sources across Syria, said the video was taken in the central province of Homs. Its authenticity could not be independently verified.

Hard-line Islamist rebels with links to al-Qaida have come to dominate the largely [Salafi] Muslim insurgency against Assad, who is supported by members of his minority Alawite sect – an offshoot of Shia Islam – as well as Shia fighters from Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Both sides in Syria's nearly three-year conflict have been implicated in torture, killings and other war crimes.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/02/shia-fighter-beheaded-syrian-rebels-video?CMP=twt_fd

President Abdullah Gül: Damascus ‘got upper hand thanks to Iran’

President Abdullah Gül: Damascus ‘got upper hand thanks to Iran’

    Saturday, February 01, 2014   No comments

Damascus is in a much better position today vis-à-vis its opponents in Syria thanks to the help it has received from Iran, President Abdullah Gül has said.

“For Iran, Syria is a matter of life and death. For us, it is a humanitarian issue. For Russia, it is a matter of warm seas, the only stronghold issue. It keeps saying ‘I will end the war.’ I had said earlier that the rhetoric of the Western world was strong but that would not be reflected on the field; it was only valor,” he said while returning to Turkey from a trip to Rome.

“[Today], it is Damascus which has the stronger hand. How did it come to Geneva?” he said.

Speaking about Turkey’s security risks in Syria, Gül said: “There is no [place] to be very optimistic about Syria’s future. If a transitional government with power had come out of Geneva, maybe that could have fuelled hope for the future. That didn’t happen. The next aspect we need to focus on are the threats and risks for Turkey that are being created in the environment that has emerged. Many groups have emerged in this uncertain environment,” he said.

“The issue there is not the clash of the regime and the opponents. There are so many groups among the opposition that there are clashes among themselves,” he said, noting that this was also happening right along Turkey’s 900-kilometer border with Syria. “You never know where this will lead you. These kinds of situations instigate and create radicalism, extremism.”

‘A threat similar to Afghanistan’

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Ankara alarmed over Qaeda threat in Syria: Ankara has woken up to the threat posed by al-Qaeda in Syria, reportedly taking measures against potential suicide bombing inside Turkey

Ankara alarmed over Qaeda threat in Syria: Ankara has woken up to the threat posed by al-Qaeda in Syria, reportedly taking measures against potential suicide bombing inside Turkey

    Saturday, February 01, 2014   No comments

With no end in sight to the civil war in neighboring Syria, Turkey is expressing increasing alarm over al-Qaeda threat amid the growing presence of the group in northern Syria and skirmishes with Turkey’s army this week along the frontier.

A report prepared jointly by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MİT), the gendarmerie and the Police Department indicated that al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was preparing to attack targets inside Turkey using car bombs and assassinations.

The report and necessary measures were discussed during the weekly meeting of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel in Ankara.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said Jan. 29 that it had opened fire on a convoy of vehicles in northern Syria belonging to the ISIL jihadist group. The army said the attack, carried out Jan. 28, came after two Turkish military vehicles had been fired upon at the Çobanbey border post.

“A pick-up, a truck and a bus in an ISIL convoy were destroyed,” read the statement.

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