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Freedom of speech is something we only really talk about with reference to statements we condemn. Damage done to this principle may last long after the motive and the rulers who exploited it have been forgotten. In the atmosphere of near-panic immediately after 9/11, only one US senator, Russell Feingold, voted against the Patriot Act with its freedom-destroying raft of measures, which were adopted en bloc by Congress on the pretext of combating terrorism. Thirteen years and one president (...)
Translated by Barbara Wilson
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Syria, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia: Four paths of revolution
It is three years since popular movements in the Arab world made it clear that the future could not be like the past. Despite the horrors, religious infighting and foreign interference, Arabs now see themselves as citizens not subjects, and demand dignity and a proper voice.
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Vested interests override democracy
The sudden conflict in South Sudan isn’t essentially tribal, but the result of clever economic pressure from Khartoum on South Sudan’s president, who is desperate to hold on to power.
Translated by Charles Goulden
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Political struggle over how the future is defined
The fight for power in North Korea is between rival reformers with a different vision of the country’s future. Right now, the consumer approach is winning: don’t upset the new middle classes.
Translated by George Miller
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China’s claims are to more than rocks and birds
To China, possession of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, which Japan also claims, symbolises naval dominance of the East China Sea and free access to the Pacific. Hence the worsening dispute.
Translated by Charles Goulden
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Abenomics can’t build a working future
Abenomics favours corporations over people, promotes militarised nationalism, and doesn’t begin to deal with the changing demographics or desires of the Japanese. And anyway, it isn’t working.
Translated by Charles Goulden
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Fastfood workers go hungry: is that the American dream?
America’s fastfood outlets are not restaurants but food systems serviced by cheap labour in de-skilled jobs — employees so badly paid that they need state aid and charity. They went on strike in North Carolina last summer.
Original text in English
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A pig, milk and cheap veg against EU agribusiness
The EU sends Europeanisation agents across Romania to end subsistence farming and encourage agricultural competition. But those who have turned to self-sufficient farming because of austerity resist the world of the CAP.
Translated by Stephanie Irvine
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Should subsidies between old and new member states be rebalanced? This EU aim is not so simple.
Translated by George Miller
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Putin’s snow show ruins Russia’s seaside
Chaos and corruption and ludicrous expenditure have created an Olympic ski resort complex at and near Russia’s Black Sea coast resort. They may also have wrecked its future.
Translated by George Miller
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Legal pot challenges the endless drug war
José Mujica has attempted to change the premises and conditions of the drugs wars through the legalisation of marijuana. Although even the people of Uruguay don’t really back their president’s initial reform, at least it’s a start.
Original text in English
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Nobody heeded the neoliberal globalise-your-industry advice like the narco-cartels and their financial supports. The trade is now everywhere, and can’t be stopped or controlled.
Translated by Charles Goulden
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The indolent, beguiling artistic siesta
The fashionable prescription for insomnia and workplace-induced tension is the artistic siesta, which aims to send its audience to sleep — please bring your own pillow.
Translated by George Miller