Z Nightly Commentaries
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Recent Z Nightly Commentaries
Podur: Fumigation and worse in Colombia
Jul 27, 2001
"Who in the US benefits from fumigating Colombians?" the man asked me pointedly in the crowded community hall. The community was in a paramilitary-controlled part of Putumayo. Putumayo is a southern department of Colombia where the guerrilla insurgency is
Pilger: Trivial and Serious Violence
Jul 14, 2001
The young people who have had the courage to take to the streets on every continent, and were among the 20,000 protesters at Gothenburg (June 25), should take satisfaction from the panic of new right politicians like Blair and Berlusconi. Abuse and repres
Prashad: Red Star over West Bengal
Jun 28, 2001
A few years ago I traveled around rural West Bengal to study the gains made by the Left Front government, notably as a result of the experiments in the devolution of power. By then I knew the statistical advances almost by heart. West Bengal has the highe
Peters: The Howling Inhospitable Wilderness of...the Marketplace?
Jun 24, 2001
ItÕs instructive that the heroics of early 20th century explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton are being mined by businesspeople for how-to pointers regarding increasing the bottom line, maintaining employee loyalty, nurturing creativity among managers, and induc
Prashad: Shooting Stars
Jun 15, 2001
On 21 April 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev turned to Colin Powell, then an aide of the US National Security Advisor, and said "What are you going to do now that you've lost your best enemy?" Gorbachev's unilateral disarmament of Soviet nuclear forces in Europe a
Podur: Mexico's 'Modern Right'
Jun 11, 2001
In March, while they were on the March of Indigenous Dignity, on their way to Mexico City to press for the passage of the law on indigenous rights and culture, the Zapatistas berated the 'hardliners' in the government who called them terrorists and threat
Pilger: Tweedledum and Tweedledee seek your votes
Jun 05, 2001
The singular achievement of Tony Blair and his new right movement is the convergence of British parliamentary politics into two almost identical factions. While journalists try to offer the pretence of choice, the public is more aware than ever of the cha
Pilger: The big threat in the Middle East is Israel, not Iraq
May 27, 2001
As George Bush escalates the new cold war begun by his father, the attention of his planners is moving to the Middle East. Stories about the threat of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" are again appearing in the American press, this time concentrating
Podur: A few more moves ahead
May 25, 2001
There is too much at stake for social change to be a game. But if it were a game, the side that had the ability to think many moves ahead, anticipate its opponents moves, know what its goal was and move toward it relentlessly, would have huge advantages o
Prashad: The State of Well-Being: Welfare Fights in CT
May 17, 2001
I hate authority. Whenever I'm in front of someone with power, and if I feel alone, I get awkward and silly. No wonder I hate the Connecticut State House, all opulent and aristocratic, with the lobbyists gathered like sharks in the stairwell, and under a
Peters: Mother’s Day, 2001
May 12, 2001
The problem with Mother’s Day rituals is that they reinforce what I call the telescope effect on Moms and their kids. Most days of the year, disproportionate blame is leveled at Moms for their kids’ shortcomings. On Mother’s Day, they are privately adored. Remember Smokey the Bear, and his paranoia-inducing admonition that you alone could prevent forest fires?
Peters: MotherÕs Day, 2001
May 12, 2001
The problem with MotherÕs Day rituals is that they reinforce what I call the telescope effect on Moms and their kids. Most days of the year, disproportionate blame is leveled at Moms for their kidsÕ shortcomings. On MotherÕs Day, they are privately adored
Peters: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Generates the Statistics
May 06, 2001
Once again, a lot of very smart scientists with significant institutional backing have spent a lot of time and a lot of money coming up with brainless conclusions and age-old solutions.
Pilger: Academia is silent on imperialism, as German universities were during the rise of the Nazis
Apr 29, 2001
The other day, I attended a conference at the University of Sussex on the "new imperialism". What was extraordinary was that it took place at all. Julian Saurin, who teaches in the school of African and Asian studies at Sussex, said that, in ten years, he
Podur: Invisible Struggles in Colombia
Apr 27, 2001
If you had the chance to see 'Traffic', you know the War on Drugs is a sham. There's a good chance you know that its domestic effects are to imprison thousands and thousands of non-violent offenders who aren't dangerous, cut them off from their families a
Prashad: Hindutva For a Few Dollars a Day
Apr 25, 2001
Bangru Laxman asks the intrepid tehelka.com journalists to bring him $30,000 to their next meeting. He has already taken Rs. 1 lakh. "You can give dollars," said the President of the BJP. "You talk to us directly. We normally turn to [National Security Ad
Peters: Purchasing for your Poodle: Consumerism Unleashed
Apr 24, 2001
A refugee from the Sudan is in a grocery store in Fargo, North Dakota. Orphaned by war, traumatized by loss and violence, and having survived most his life on minimal rations, this young man, Peter, is understandably amazed by the endless of aisles of bri
Peters: Solidarity with East Timor: New Challenges, New Opportunities
Apr 08, 2001
U.S. activists' contribution to the effort to end Indonesia's brutal 25-year occupation of East Timor paid off. In August 1999 a vast majority of East Timorese - after years of immense suffering and patient organizing -- courageously voted for independenc
Prashad: The Problem of the Twenty-First Century is the Problem of the ColorBlind
Mar 31, 2001
A few years ago I had the fortune of spending a morning debating Dinesh D'Souza on the question of affirmative action. It was in Chicago at the South Asian Students' Association annual meeting. I was a bit apprehensive. I've debated people before, indeed
Jul 28, 2001
I didn't go to Colombia looking for understanding, although it was there for me in the form of razor-sharp analysts who do their work under fire. I didn't go looking for hope either, although I found some of that too, in the very same people. What I went