TEKEL Workers Stage Turkey’s Largest Protest in 30 Years

by Emel Baştürk Akca - Turkey - Once one of Turkey’s biggest public producers of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, TEKEL has outlets and factories all over the country. But ever since the Turkish giant opted for privatization and terminated...

Posted by Emel Baştürk Akca on March 4, 2010 12:00 AM

Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country

by Jessica Mosby - USA - Burma (also known as Myanmar) is a closed country, literally. Since the 1962 military coup, few outsiders have even entered the Southeast Asian country. News reports are scarce and often unreliable because the news...

Posted by Jessica Mosby on October 2, 2009 12:00 AM

Democracy Prevails in Kashmir Elections

by Afsaana Rashid - Indian-administered Kashmir - In what is being hailed as a victory for democracy, the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir recently concluded a two-month round of elections at the end of December. Despite calls from separatist...

Posted by Afsana Rashid on January 26, 2009 12:00 AM

The Granny Peace Brigade Campaigns to Close All US Military Bases - in Latin America and Around the World

by Nancy Van Ness - USA - Their hats adorned with artificial flowers identify them at many of the protests in which I participate. The Grannies also show up on New York City's Union Square to sing their signature anti-war...

Posted by Nancy Van Ness on November 21, 2008 12:00 AM

Islam and Democracy: Why Military Solutions Won't Solve Political Problems

by Beena Sarwar - Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf's resignation from office on August 18th under intense pressure has raised questions, particularly in the West, about the future of Pakistan's "war on terror". The following article takes a historic and...

Posted by Beena Sarwar on August 19, 2008 12:00 AM

No Election Results But a Recount Begins: Mugabe Uses Violence to Reverse the People’s Will as MDC Calls for a Work Boycott

by Constance Manika - Zimbabwe - "The moment the people stop supporting you, that's the moment you should quit politics." These were the seemingly reasonable and even wise words President Robert Mugabe used in the Highfield suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe’s...

Posted by Constance Manika on April 20, 2008 10:16 AM

Election Fever Grips Zimbabweans as Prospects for Change Are Near

by Constance Manika - Zimbabwe - Tinashe Choruma and his wife Irene live in the suburb of Epworth here in the capital, Harare, where many of city's poor reside. The housing is poorly constructed - some homes are made from...

Posted by Constance Manika on March 28, 2008 1:00 AM

Mugabe's Opposition, the MDC, Refuses to Be Crushed

by Lelety Mabasa - Zimbabwe - There was chaos and pandemonium at Harare’s city center on January 23rd, as thousands of ordinary people came face-to-face with the wrath of the police’s riot squad, who were summoned by Zimbabwe’s aging President,...

Posted by Lelety Mabasa on February 11, 2008 1:00 AM

According to Harold Bloom, “What we are seeing is…the fall of America”

by Eva Sohlman - Sweden - Harold Bloom, Yale literature professor and cultural critic, is one of America’s most prominent and provocative intellectuals. Unabashedly, he has always spoken up for what he calls “the fight for truth and beauty” making...

Posted by Eva Sohlman on January 12, 2008 1:00 AM

Can the Struggle for Philippine Democracy Be a Lesson to Burma?

by Imelda V. Abaño Philippines The bloody military crackdown in Burma (also known as Myanmar) was bound to happen. Some people called it "pure democracy" as hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters joined with 10,000 of the Buddhist monks the...

Posted by Imelda V. Abaño on October 4, 2007 10:44 AM