In American popular culture, the comic strip is one of the most favored media, to the extent that both American and British (and sometimes both) works have recently often found a welcome audience when presented in movie format. This indicates that their popularity is not just based on the medium itself being appreciated by certain groups of people, mostly youth, but also on the content of the comics. Continue reading “The Concept of the ‘Superhero Comic’”
Month: August 2009
More Hypocrisy from the Imperialists
The Presidential elections in occupied Afghanistan have proven themselves to be as fraudulent as could be expected from a corrupt regime with little legitimacy or authority outside the nation’s capital, propped up by a national army led by one of the worst warlords of the nation’s past. Indeed, although the United Nations praised the fact the elections were held at all, the turnout was significantly lower than during the last elections under American occupation in 2004 (1). Then, some 70% of registered voters were estimated to have shown up, a number which has now dropped to an expected 40-50%. (2)
The widespread expectations of fraud, due to the manner in which the Karzai government has delegated its authority to local warlords in exchange for favors (presumably including favorable election results), so far look to have been justified. Continue reading “More Hypocrisy from the Imperialists”
The Red and the Green I: Capitalism and Ecology
It is, or ought to be, by now a familiar fact that the world is in a state of great environmental crisis. While there is no need to believe in the myth of the perfectly virtuous native living in complete harmony with his environment, it is clear that the development of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution so-called have drastically and fundamentally altered the relationship of man to his biosphere. In fact, so much so that it is estimated this century may see the greatest single increase in man-made global warming in all of the memory of humanity as a species, as a result of processes begun only two centuries ago at most. Our impact upon the global network of ecosystems is now so great that the current period of civilization is now by biologists considered to be a Great Extinction Event, one of the very few in our planet’s entire history – the last one took place approximately 65 million years ago. Moreover, the current Extinction Event is also the fastest ever recorded. A consensus predicts a future scenario in which between 20% and 50% of all species on Earth may go extinct.1 Continue reading “The Red and the Green I: Capitalism and Ecology”
Prison Camp America
Today, the news came that the United States Court of Appeals in Sacramento, California, has ordered the state government of Governor Schwarzenegger to free 40.000 prisoners, an estimated 25% of the total prison population of that state. The immediate cause is the immense overcrowding in the prisons, which even after implementation of the measure would operate at 137.5% of capacity, and currently operates at almost 200%. (1) This is however not an isolated phenomenon. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, not just in absolute numbers (some 2 million), but also relative to population. It significantly surpasses such bulwarks of freedom as China and Russia, and according to official statistics, even North Korea. Blacks but also Hispanics in the United States are disproportionately part of this burgeoning prison population, and in fact more so than in the past, indicating a ferocious war against the American underclass and especially its minority members that has been going on since the 1960s. The black imprisonment is now seven times higher than the white one, whereas during the days of segregation and the civil rights movement, this was four times. (2) Continue reading “Prison Camp America”