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Recent Z Nightly Commentaries
Hoodbhoy: Musharraf's Coup – Seven Years Later
Oct 18, 2006
Some had feared - while others had hoped - that General Pervez Musharraf's coup of October 12, 1999, would bring the revolution of Kemal Ataturk to a Pakistan and wrest the country from the iron grip of mullahs. But years later a definitive truth has emerged. Like the other insecure governments before it, both military and civilian, the present regime also has a single point agenda - to stay in power at all costs. It therefore does whatever it must and Pakistan falls further from any prospect of acquiring modern values, and of building and strengthening democratic institutions.
Hepburn: Bio to Nano
Jul 28, 2006
The scientific and business community are still struggling to understand the global public rejection of genetically engineered (GE) foods, and with the growing discourse around the risks and disruptive impacts of nanotechnology, many are becoming increasi
Herman: U.S. Willing to Talk, With Conditions, and the Media Bites Once Again
Jun 10, 2006
The mainstream media have long had a high gullibility quotient when it comes to dealing with demonized external threats, which makes it easy to manage them and guide them into propaganda service. In the case of the ludicrous Guatemalan security threat of
Hepburn: After The Thaw
May 16, 2006
Great events in human history are captured in our memories like fish in ice at the sudden onset of winter. Frozen in time, to be thawed and trawled out in generations to come by curious grandchildren. What were you doing when it happened? Where were you?
Hartmann: Gender, Militarism and Climate Change
Apr 10, 2006
As evidence of climate change becomes ever more compelling, the battle over who gets to frame its causes, effects and solutions will intensify. In popular as well as policy venues, whose voices get heard and whose don't will become a key political issue o
Hartmann: Too Heavy a Price to Pay: India's Two-Child Norm Hurts Women, Girls and the Poor
Jan 07, 2006
At the 1994 UN population conference in Cairo, 179 governments signed a landmark agreement that broke with coercive population control and embraced women's empowerment and reproductive health as the key to reducing population growth. In India, the Cairo a
Hepburn: GM Rice, No Solution
Dec 01, 2005
World Food Day, which was celebrated recently, is a time of year to reflect on where our food comes from, on the abundance of food for some, and the lack of access for so many others. It is a time to reflect on the history of food, and the future of food.
Hartmann: The Testosterone Threat: Where Sociobiology Meets National Security
Nov 21, 2005
Continuing son preference and the widespread practice of sex-selective abortion of female fetuses in India and China are leading to ever more skewed sex ratios in those populations. This is certainly an extremely serious problem with many negative ramifi
Hepburn: Questioning Nanotechnology
Oct 20, 2005
It turns out that size really does matter. Or to be more precise, it's the size of matter that matters.
Hepburn: Shortening Grace
Sep 14, 2005
I'm not a religious person, but several of my close friends and relatives are. So from time to time, I have the occasion to witness, or even to say Grace before an evening meal. In most cases, this has been a general Ôgive thanks to the lord', but in some
Herman: The Farce of the Bush Pursuit of Democracy Abroad--While Undermining It At Home
Aug 26, 2005
The Bush rationale for the invasion-occupation of Iraq was the threat to U.S. national security posed by Saddam HusseinÕs alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda. SaddamÕs brutal rule was sometimes mentioned in the course of
Halimi: Thwarted By A Surge Of Democracy
Jun 04, 2005
There is one tiny problem with most of the analysis of last Sunday's vote in France. Those who probe the motivations of the large majority who voted no (54.87%) forget to remind us that they, overwhelmingly, voted yes.
Herman: The New York Times Supports Thought Control: The Massad Case
Apr 16, 2005
The New York Times has never been a very courageous newspaper in times of political hysteria and threats to civil liberties. When Bertrand Russell was denied the right to fill his appointment at CCNY in 1940, following an ugly campaign by a rightwing Cath
Herman: The Normalization of Torture, Death Squads and Contempt for the Rule of Law
Mar 19, 2005
The U.S. political establishment keeps reaching new levels of hypocrisy, deception (including self-deception), and open immorality as the empire expands in the pursuit of "freedom," militarism and war become more institutionalized, and rightwing political
Hoodbhoy: India Through Pakistani Eyes
Feb 26, 2005
Few Pakistanis get to visit India, the so-called "enemy country", and fewer still to independently assess the development of science and education across its hugely diverse regions. I had the exceptional good fortune to make such a visit recently, made po
Herman: George Packer and the Liberal Struggle to Support Imperialism
Jan 31, 2005
In his edited volume The Fight Is For Democracy (Perennial: 2003), George Packer and his liberal colleagues argued that Bush went too far with his international policies that were Òa prescription for empireÓ (Michael Tomasky). But Packer and company did
Hartmann: Narcissus and the Mind/Body Problem
Dec 30, 2004
Maybe it's because it's the darkest time of the year, or the Christmas consumption rush when we're all supposed to be experiencing brotherhood and love at the cash register, or the horrific daily reports of violence in Iraq that make me yearn for voices o
Herman: We Had To Destroy Fallujah in Order to Save It
Nov 08, 2004
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Hartmann: Girlie Men and the Great Democratic Disconnect
Oct 07, 2004
This summer Boston and New York hosted two pageants of militarized manhood, the Democratic and Republican conventions respectively. Viewed through a gendered lens, the spectacle of Bush and Kerry competing for strongest Male Warrior was hard to watch and
Oct 18, 2006
Some had feared - while others had hoped - that General Pervez Musharraf's coup of October 12, 1999, would bring the revolution of Kemal Ataturk to a Pakistan and wrest the country from the iron grip of mullahs. But years later a definitive truth has emer