[Alternatives International] : Alternatives

> Alternatives - International

This section's articles

BOLIVIA

Total Recall: Divided Nation Faces Historic Vote (Globalization, resistance, immigration)

Saturday 26 July 2008 by Ben Dangl

In early July in Sicaya, Cochabamba, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced that if he wins the August 10 recall vote on his presidency, "I’ll have two and half years left." But if he loses the vote, "I’ll have to go back to the Chapare" to farm coca again. Though the recall vote is likely to favor Morales, it’s unclear if it will resolve many of the divided nation’s conflicts. > continue

VENEZUELA

Which Way Venezuela? (Globalization, resistance, immigration)

Friday 25 July 2008 by Michael Albert

Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution is exciting and exemplary, yet few people know much about where Venezuela is headed. Misrepresentations abound. Data is limited and people interpret it in quite contrary ways. Information deficit plus skewed interpretations cause many people who ought to support the Bolivarian Revolution to instead doubt or even reject it. Useful lessons from Venezuela go largely unreported and thus have less than their widest possible effect. > continue

VENEZUELA

Ten Years On, Bolivarian Revolution at Crossroads (Globalization, resistance, immigration)

Wednesday 23 July 2008 by Nikolas Kozloff

In 2006, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez was at the height of his political powers. Traveling to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, he delivered his by now infamous broadside attacking George Bush as “the devil.” After delivering his fiery speech at the United Nations the Venezuelan leader went to Harlem to meet with local residents. Once there Chávez received a hero’s welcome, which was hardly surprising given that the Venezuelan leader had provided discounted fuel oil to disadvantaged African Americans and Latinos in the neighborhood. > continue

VENEZUELA

The Hard Battle for Socialism (Globalization, resistance, immigration)

Interview with Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s minister of energy and petroleum from Punto Final.

Wednesday 23 July 2008 by Manuel Cabieses Donoso

Up until now, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s socialist project has counted on broad popular support. But it is encountering – as was foreseen – numerous difficulties and an opposition that is not disgusted by coup plots nor assassination attempts. On November 23, the revolutionary project will (...) > continue

PALESTINE

The End of History: With a Period, Not a Question Mark (Rainbow of Crisis)

Letter from Abu Dis, Occupied West Bank

Tuesday 22 July 2008 by Phyllis Bennis

Beginning around 100 BC, the fabled Silk Road brought goods and travelers from China and Central Asia, through the lands of Persia and Mesopotamia, and over to Palmyra in Syria. One branch of the road then turned south, crossing through Bethany, the biblical village on the outskirts of (...) > continue

PALESTINE - ISRAEL

A West Bank Town’s Struggle to Survive (Rainbow of Crisis)

Tuesday 22 July 2008 by Neve Gordon

Ni’lin’s story is one of incremental dispossession. The residents of this agrarian town lost a large portion of their land in the 1948 war. After the 1967 war, Israel took advantage of the town’s location near the internationally recognized Green Line and began confiscating its land for Jewish (...) > continue

INDIA

An endgame with no clear winners (Rainbow of Crisis)

Tuesday 22 July 2008 by Siddharth Varadarajan

When a patient is staring death in the face, the dividing line between self-preservation and self-destruction can be rather thin. In medieval times, leeches were often attached to a dying patient’s body in the belief that the ’bad’ blood they drew out would help breathe life into him. But even if this drastic remedy worked, the doctor had to know when it was safe to cast aside the pet parasites. Let them feed too long and the sick man might never recover; remove them too soon and they may not have time to deliver their ’cure’. > continue

USA and Israel

The Lesser of Two Evils? Obama, McCain and the Question of US Policy Regarding Israel (Rainbow of Crisis)

Monday 21 July 2008 by Benjamin Dwyer

After a long and tortured primary season, Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois, took the Democratic Party nomination for US president from Hilary Clinton, who many thought likely to become the party’s candidate. John McCain, a Senator from Arizona and former Republican presidential candidate in 2000, emerged from a group of mediocre candidates to clinch the Republican nomination. > continue

SUDAN

Sudan and the International Criminal Court: a guide to the controversy (Rainbow of Crisis)

Monday 21 July 2008 by Alex de Waal

The request to indict Sudan’s president on charges of genocide and war crimes in Darfur is a historic moment in international justice. But is it wise, and will it bring peace in Sudan nearer or destabilise the country further? > continue

USA

New Orleans -Almost 3 Years Later (Rainbow of Crisis)

Monday 21 July 2008 by Saul Landau

The French Quarter vibrates with sounds and smells of perpetual Spring Break. Was a film crew shooting the young men and women, drinks in hands, screaming "let’s party." No. The celebrants were acting goofy on their own, as they routinely do in Ft. Lauderdale and Cancun. > continue