Stop Militarized Afghan Aid: NGOs - IslamOnline.net - News

Stop Militarized Afghan Aid: NGOs - IslamOnline.net - News

Debunking the myth that the military action in Afghanistan helps the Afghans.

MUNI budget cuts? WTF!?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/29/MN0Q1BP8E6.DTL
The San Francisco MTA is talking about cutting 10% of service on the nations most crowded public transportation system. This will only cause fewer people to pay the fare because buses are already too crowded for people to enter through the front door. Then again, most people in San Francisco don't want to drive to work, so maybe the MTA just expects them all to suffer.

mltoday.com -History of a Hatian Holocaust

mltoday.com

Howard Zinn, author of 'People's History' and left-wing historian, dies at 87 in California - latimes.com

Howard Zinn, author of 'People's History' and left-wing historian, dies at 87 in California - latimes.com

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A call to mobilize from Rich Trumka

Charity Navigator: Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation

Charity Navigator: Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation

What strikes me as odd about the appeal for emergency aid to Haiti is that so much of it will probably go to rebuilding the structures that the NGOs were using to deliver aid before the earthquake rather than being delivered directly to victims. In a developed country a victim would go to get aid in a community owned building like a school or church. As we all give money to NGOs for the relief effort in Haiti, we know that almost anything permanent they build will probably be owned, a the very top at least, by foreigners. The cycle of poverty and disaster will simply continue to repeat itself until Haiti can liberate herself from corruption caused by US intervention in her politics.

Maybe Jean's foundation will be better than Partners In Health, American Red Cross, and the other US NGOs because he won't build any "permanent bases" and will focus on getting directly to Haitians. I personally split my donation between PIH, which runs most of the hospitals still standing in Haiti, and Islamic Relief USA, which put a team on the ground shortly after the earthquake and is laying plans for distributing aid that is on its way, and putting mobile water trailers in neighborhoods.

Back to Yele Haiti, donating be text message isn't a very good idea in an emergency since the group doesn't get the money until you pay your phone bill. It would work for an organization that has tons of money already, like the Red Cross (text haiti to 90999), but not Yele Haiti, which is broke until everyone pays their January cell phone bills.

PAME calls for new strike on February 10th

On Saturday January 9, 2010 PAME held an enlarged meeting of the Pan-Hellenic Coordination Committee with the participation of 300 trade unionists from all over the country as well as from main sectors of production. After the meeting PAME called the people to escalate their struggle against the sweeping attack of the “socialist” PASOK government which is also supported by the liberal opposition of ND.

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MLK and his legacy

In honor of MLK day.

Back in khaki

What is a comrade?
What is a friend, but with a more complicated relationship?
More to you than your one night stand, but less than your cat.

Is that a comrade, kinda, close?

What does a soldier care about the person she fights next to?

It would depend on the historical context of the war in question.

A person with whom you find it completely normal to go camping,                                        cook,                                        sing,                                        "chill"                                        and also not communicate for years only to knock on their doors drunk in retribution for hours of thoughts wasted

Is not my comrade.

I would use Mr. or Ms. if I had anything to talk about with such a person. I would watch the false symbolism strike such a person with fear. Or not, if the former comrade possibly has anything else to think about.

Where did the symbolism come from? Why do I feel like most Americans don't regularly use the word "comrade"? How did this unproven assertion become a symbol of the divide between lefts and non-lefts?

I hesitate to use it around strangers like I hesitate to use large words around a 5th grader, forgetful of how much someone of that age should know.

My mistake of expecting people to be always suspicious of my politics has cost me the use of a good word.