Hi everyone. I realize it’s been several months since I posted anything here. Since early November I’ve been battling problems with my right eye that have made it a little hard for me to write. I have, however, been able to do a few things of general social utility. My main two achievements have been … Continue reading I’m baaack!
By launching a broad military campaign against Ukraine today, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has also launched a strong assault against the norms of the sovereignty-based “world order” that has been in place since 1945– or even, one might say, since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Of course, the post-1945 order has been majorly contravened … Continue reading Where to now, the “world order”?
In the past few months I have, I confess, fallen very seriously off the writing wagon atop which, back in 2019, I had vowed to ride into the future. My only defense is that I keep getting carried away by other kinds of broadly educational projects that seem at the time to be both urgent … Continue reading The 500-year project
Some quick takeaways from this past week’s election news here in the USA. 1. Though Biden won, it’s still true that more than 70 million Americans cast a vote for Donald Trump. That, after four years of seeing him in action: racism, misogyny, crass cutting of health care and other vital social programs; “White” entitled-ism, … Continue reading Takeaways from an election
Last week, I was busy with a large number of things, including diving deep into studies of Britain’s historic role in the West Indies for a biggish think-piece I’m working on. But my friends at Boston Review asked if I’d be interested in writing something about Beirut; and for some reason I said ‘Yes’. Of … Continue reading My piece “The Beirut That Was”
Last week, I had the pleasure of conversing with Amb. Chas W. Freeman, Jr, on the “World After Covid” webinar series that Just World Educational has been running. Freeman, you may remember, was the man notably removed from consideration as Barack Obama’s first Director of National Intelligence because the pro-Israel lobby wanted to ensure that … Continue reading “White” European domination of the world screeches to an end
Today, an Air Algerie plane conveyed to the Houari Boumedienne International Airport in Algiers the mortal remains of Sheikh Ahmed Bouziane, commander of a native-Algerian force overpowered by the invading French in Zaatcha, Algeria, in November 1849, and 23 other members of the defeated Algerian defense force. According to this account by Madjid Zerrouky in … Continue reading The unbearable legacies of settler colonialism
A few weeks ago, my colleague on the board of Just World Educational Richard Falk and I launched a new initiative, an exploration of the ways the current “Covid era” has been upending the global balance balance. You can read more about our “World After Covid” project, here. It’s been intellectually engaging to get this … Continue reading Bill Fletcher, W.E.B. Dubois, and the World Today
Yesterday, the OECD dropped its twice-yearly projection of the economic performances for 2020 of its 36 pro-American and mainly capitalist members– as well as those of other major actors in the world economy, including China and Russia. It makes understandably depressing reading. The OECD’s economists worked their forecasts according to two different types of incidence … Continue reading OECD’s dire projections still too optimistic?
Americans are well-known for their ingenuity and many of them (including Pres. Donald J. Trump) love to crow about being “Number One!” Now, the whole world is seeing the United States achieving a nearly unprecedented record: The country that was this planet’s unchallenged hegemon for the past 28 years is undergoing a collapse of its … Continue reading Another American first: A self-collapsing empire!
