The Reason Behind All Wars Is Egoism

The Reason Behind All Wars Is Egoism

    Tuesday, February 18, 2014   No comments

American academic and peace advocate Prof. Michael Nagler believes that non-violent activism is the best means to challenge the hegemonic powers and hold responsible those who commit acts of violence against the defenseless civilians or restrict their personal freedoms.

According to Prof. Michael Nagler, the Occupy Wall Street movement was a popular uprising against the greediness and materialism of the influential 1 percent that controls and runs the media, multinational corporations and interest groups.

Regarding the future of the peaceful, non-violent movements in the United States and other parts of the world, Prof. Nagler said, “I can’t predict what will actually happen, but I can predict with certainty that to the extent these movements learn and practice nonviolence in the right spirit, they will succeed to exactly that extent. And I can say with equal certainty that there is no other way. Governments that recognize this reality and have the courage and dignity to respond to such nonviolent movements will save themselves and the rest of the world enormous suffering.”

Prof. Michael N. Nagler is a prominent American peace activist and a Professor Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley. Since 2008, he has served as the co-chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. Currently, he is the president of the Metta Center for Nonviolence Education, a public organization which is dedicated to raising public awareness of nonviolence and keeping activists informed. Nagler is a proponent of the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi and has won the 2007 Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Outside India. Nagler is the author of 2001 book “The Search For A Nonviolent Future.”

Fars News Agency had the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with Prof. Nagler regarding the importance of nonviolence and peaceful resistance, the Occupy Wall Street movement as one of the significant nonviolent endeavors of the recent years in the United States and the military expeditions of the Western powers in the Middle East. What follows is the text of the interview.

Q: Why do you think the Occupy Wall Street movement emerged and turned from a nationwide protest against the economic policies of the administration into a movement that challenged the different aspects of the US governance, including its foreign policy and military expeditions in the Middle East?

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The role of academics and public debates

The role of academics and public debates

    Monday, February 17, 2014   No comments

By As'ad AbuKhalil

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote an article for the New York Times in which he implored academics to play a bigger role in public life and debates. Kristof is right about that although I disagree with all his other diagnoses and prescriptions. It is remarkable that academics in the US have no connection or interactions with the public at large. In fact, academics are increasingly trained and socialized to disdain communication and interaction with the masses. Academics pride themselves on perfecting academic jargon to such a degree that style and form become more important than substance. There are social science fields that are more guilty than others: political science maybe the worst as the the field becomes more and more quantitative and the illusion of “science” in politics (something that Hannah Arendt frowned upon) has led to borrowing theories and paradigms from economics to attain more academic respectability.

Academia is now more detached and conservative than ever. Academics in previous decades were able to speak to one another and also to the public at large. C.Wright Mills wrote for the academic field in which he was a part of at Columbia while being able to provide the public with powerful tools to understand the American political system away from the assumptions and presuppositions of the government and its extensions in the various establishments of public life. One can’t think of another example like Herbert Marcuse when his book, One Dimensional Man, electrified youths around the world. Today, academics rise in their ability to speak to the government and to appease the government. Academics who argued that George W. Bush was doing a great job in Iraq all along—like Fouad Ajami and Kenaan Makiyya (although the latter is not an academic despite being rewarded with an academic chair for his political stances that were in synch with American Zionists)—received wide platforms to speak to the public at large but not to challenge or stimulate. They spoke to the public to serve the propaganda cause of a sitting president. Similarly, Robert Putnam (with his Bowling Alone—the article than the book) received tremendous attention and receptivity in government circles.

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Gradual reforms fail in Morocco

Gradual reforms fail in Morocco

    Sunday, February 16, 2014   No comments

by Nagham Assaad 

 
Morocco was not immune to the popular movement witnessed in the Arab region following the outbreak of the Tunisian revolution in December 2010. At this time three years ago, the February 20 Movement was leading mass demonstrations in various cities in Morocco. During these demonstrations, they raised slogans that varied between constitutional, political, social and economic priorities.

In an attempt to protect his throne from the winds of what has become known as the "Arab Spring," King Mohammed VI pre-empted any attempt at a revolution. Thus, he gave a now famous speech on March 9, 2011, a month after the start of the popular movement, in which he put in place an agenda for reform, including the adoption of constitutional amendments.

Yet, three years after the start of the popular movement, it seems that the idea of "gradual reform" has fallen, and perhaps this is why the February 20 movement has intensified its work to restore its spirit.

The issue of reform was not something new to Moroccan society, and it was not the product of the popular movement in February 2011. The wave of change was present between late 2009 and early 2010, which constituted a period of resentment at the popular level. This was not because of rampant corruption and the supremacy of the "Makhzen" (the ruling elite) alone, but also because 2009 was the year of the 10-year evaluation of the king coming to power. This evaluation was shocking, given the hopes that were pinned on the political will of the new king in the process of building democracy.

Thus, the discussions that followed the Feb. 20 protests in 2011, and the previous changes in other Arab countries, had strongly pushed the issue of reform to the forefront and contributed to raising the ceiling of demands and accelerating the pace of the popular movement.

The "famous" speech

The constitutional amendments of 2011, which were put to a popular referendum, would not have been done at the same speed or with the same formula had it not been for regional conditions and the popular movement that began with the emergence of the February 20 movement.

Mohammed VI was able to absorb the anger of the street through the "proactive reform model," in which he announced significant reforms and gave people hope through the use of resonating words such as change, democracy, reform, institutions and accountability. The approved constitutional amendments led to early legislative elections on Nov. 25, 2011. These elections resulted in a big win for the Islamic Justice and Development Party, which presided over a new coalition government.

Despite the above, the regime later demonstrated that it would not stop its traditional authoritarian practices in terms of dealing with both the press and the demonstrations, which continued strongly in almost all major cities of Morocco. The peak of these demonstrations occurred on the "National Day of Protest" in April 2011, when more than 800,000 Moroccans demonstrated in 106 cities and villages. This was in addition to demonstrations in 10 European and US cities, according to statistics from the National Council to Support the February 20 movement.

Hovering

Do the new constitutional reforms in Morocco represent a real change, or are they just "hovering" in the same place?

The former director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Institute, British researcher Marina Ottaway, confirms that the constitution that was drafted "falls into the category of constitutions granted to the nation by the king, rather than those crafted by a representative organization embodying popular sovereignty." This is because it was drafted by a commission of experts appointed by the king, rather than an elected constituent assembly or another representative body.

Ottaway, however, stressed that the constitution "undoubtedly broadens the power of parliament, allowing it to pass laws on most issues; it takes steps toward protecting the independence of the judiciary; and it increases the role of a number of independent commissions."

Yet she also noted, "What it fails to do clearly and unequivocally is reduce the power of the king." On the contrary, "the new constitution reserves for the king three areas as his exclusive domain: religion, security issues and strategic major policy choices. In addition, the king will remain the supreme arbiter among political forces. Under those rubrics, the king could very well control all important decisions, if he so chooses."

The royal palace regains its iron fist

On July 1, 2011, a referendum was held on the new Moroccan constitution, amid calls by the February 20 movement for a boycott, claiming that it enhances the absolute rule [of the king] and would not eliminate corruption. Nevertheless, the constitution passed with 98% of the vote.

Moroccan researcher Said Salmi said that the referendum "was disappointing. The state did not stand on the sidelines, and the king called on the people to vote 'yes.' He also gave orders to imams of mosques to dedicate a sermon to calling on the people to vote in favor of the constitution. Chapters of the constitution were changed the night before the referendum, and the king committed violations multiple times."

Shortly after the referendum, on Nov. 25, 2011, legislative elections were held in Morocco. The Justice and Development Party, which gives priority to Islamic reference in its work, won a large number of seats, enabling it to lead the government — headed by Abdelilah Benkirane — and receive 12 ministerial portfolios.

However, according to Salmi, the Benkirane government "quickly succumbed to corrupt lobbies and, instead of confrontation, preferred to take the easier route, adopting a demagogic populist rhetoric." He noted, "Under these circumstances, the royal palace regained its iron fist over all institutions."

Given that the Benkirane government had adopted a policy of "a deaf ear toward suggestions, solutions and alternatives," the Istiqlal Party withdrew from the government and moved to the ranks of the opposition. They considered the government to be "the worst in the history of modern Morocco," especially given that Morocco dropped three places in the rankings released by Transparency International in the field of fighting bribery.

"Pleasure marriage" between "Islamists" and "liberals"

The Benkirane government was appointed to a second term in 2013, following an alliance that observers described as a "pleasure marriage" between the Islamic Justice and Development Party and the National Rally of Independents, which is close to the authorities. During the Benkirane government's monthly accountability meeting on Jan. 4, there was a storm of accusations and counteraccusations between the government and opposition parties. Benkirane accused members of the Istiqlal Party, which had resigned from the government, of smuggling large sums of money out of Morocco.

In a precedent, the secretary-general of the Istiqlal Party, Hamid Chabat, announced that his party had decided to file a lawsuit against the head of the government, with the aim of [making the judiciary] reconsider the [Justice and Development] Party and its leaders. Chabat stressed that the goal of the lawsuit was to push Benkirane to act as a "real" head of state in the future.

Chabat stressed that the leaderships of the Istiqlal and Socialist Union parties are thinking about filing a lawsuit against anyone who mixes politics with Islamic preaching. He called on the Justice and Development Party to abandon its links to the Unity and Reform movement, and said that if it does not do this the state must dissolve the party, given its links to one of the Muslim Brotherhood's international associations.

Heavy criticism … and Benkirane acknowledges inability

In late 2013, King Mohammed VI strongly criticized the Benkirane government's management, holding it responsible for the decline in the reform of the education sector. The leader of the opposition Socialist Union of Popular Forces Party, Driss Lachgar, criticized the performance of the Moroccan government nearly two years after its formation, calling on it to open an investigation into the money smuggling and corruption cases.

On Jan. 12, activists from the Amazigh Youda movement organized the largest march in the movement's history, condemning the policy of procrastination that the state has been using in dealing with Amazigh demands. The movement also called for trying those involved in cases of corruption, abuse of power and looting of public money, as well as for enabling all citizens to have access to social services and improving these services. Moreover, activists said that [the government] should ensure a decent life for citizens by reducing the cost of living and increasing the minimum wage.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of the movements, which pushed Benkirane to acknowledge — albeit belatedly — the [government's] inability to address rampant bribery and corruption, blaming unnamed parties "that defend some corrupt people affiliated with them."

The dynamism of Feb. 20

In the midst of these developments and transformations, the February 20 movement had lost its vitality and entered into a phase of "intensive care," waiting for the announcement of its final death, as some researchers noted. But that did not prevent observers from stressing that the reform process initiated by Morocco was thanks to this bold protest movement.

Hamza Mahfouz, a February 20 activist, told As-Safir that what Morocco witnessed was a "popular uprising" and it will continue as long as the demands raised by the movement have not been achieved. He added the movement will continue to protest "despite the violent attacks it has been subjected to from official authorities, and despite the fall of 11 martyrs and the arrest of 58 members."

"Some Moroccans have hesitated in supporting the movement — affected by the bloody events that occurred in Libya, Yemen and Syria — and some supported the reforms that were offered, for fear of slipping toward a democratic transition through violence. But, if we look at the dynamism of the movement, there is no doubt that the February 20 movement is still strongly active in the various events happening in Morocco, both on the political and cultural levels. And the movement is still capable of being prepared in certain moments," he added.

Mahfouz concludes by saying, "On February 20, the third anniversary of the establishment of the movement, every city will take action in a way it deems appropriate. Many cities have decided to hold marches to revive demands and remind [the people] that the solution to most of Morocco's problems is a true democracy and the re-adoption of the constituent movement."
________

Assafir

How Iowa Flattened Literature: With CIA help, writers were enlisted to battle both Communism and eggheaded abstraction. The damage to writing lingers

How Iowa Flattened Literature: With CIA help, writers were enlisted to battle both Communism and eggheaded abstraction. The damage to writing lingers

    Wednesday, February 12, 2014   No comments

By Eric Bennett
Did the CIA fund creative writing in America? The idea seems like the invention of a creative writer. Yet once upon a time (1967, to be exact), Paul Engle, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, received money from the Farfield Foundation to support international writing at the University of Iowa. The Farfield Foundation was not really a foundation; it was a CIA front that supported cultural operations, mostly in Europe, through an organization called the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

Seven years earlier, Engle had approached the Rockefeller Foundation with big fears and grand plans. "I trust you have seen the recent announcement that the Soviet Union is founding a University at Moscow for students coming from outside the country," he wrote. This could mean only that "thousands of young people of intelligence, many of whom could never get University training in their own countries, will receive education … along with the expected ideological indoctrination." Engle denounced rounding up students in "one easily supervised place" as a "typical Soviet tactic." He believed that the United States must "compete with that, hard and by long time planning"—by, well, rounding up foreign students in an easily supervised place called Iowa City. Through the University of Iowa, Engle received $10,000 to travel in Asia and Europe to recruit young writers—left-leaning intellectuals—to send to the United States on fellowship.

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop emerged in the 1930s and powerfully influenced the creative-writing programs that followed. More than half of the second-wave programs, about 50 of which appeared by 1970, were founded by Iowa graduates. Third- and fourth- and fifth-wave programs, also Iowa scions, have kept coming ever since. So the conventional wisdom that Iowa kicked off the boom in M.F.A. programs is true enough.

But it’s also an accepted part of the story that creative-writing programs arose spontaneously: Creative writing was an idea whose time had come. Writers wanted jobs, and students wanted fun classes. In the 1960s, with Soviet satellites orbiting, American baby boomers matriculating, and federal dollars flooding into higher education, colleges and universities marveled at Iowa’s success and followed its lead. To judge by the bellwether, creative-writing programs worked. Iowa looked great: Famous writers taught there, graduated from there, gave readings there, and drank, philandered, and enriched themselves and others there.

Yet what drew writers to Iowa was not the innate splendor of a spontaneously good idea. What drew writers to Iowa is what draws writers anywhere: money and hype, which tend to be less spontaneous than ideas.

So where did the money and the hype come from?

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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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