Dec. 22, 2007

With the just completed Bali conference, the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, special reports in many newspapers and magazines, demonstrations in 50 countries on global warming, the new Australian government signing on to the Kyoto Accord, and many other events, the focus of the world’s attention is shifting to the need to decrease carbon dioxide emissions.

When human beings are called “illegal” and “alien” by elected officials and law enforcement agencies and in the media, what kind of message are we spreading?

During the Vietnam War era, President Richard Nixon worried about his country becoming a “pitiful, helpless giant.” Now, with the world’s only superpower over-reacting to fears, that possibility seems to have resurfaced. Two recent U.S. measures relating to Cuba hint at weak knees.

As the Bush administration continues to prepare for a possible military attack on Iran (despite the recent National Intelligence Estimate stating that Iran has no nuclear weapons program), it is important that we get more than the mainstream media’s parroting of the official line. We need a balanced, objective perspective on Iran, a perspective that provides nuanced depth and humanity. “Jasmine and Stars,” a new book by Fatemeh Keshavarz, provides that perspective.

Are believers in “peak oil” a lunatic fringe? Not according to the compelling and disturbing documentary “A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash.” This newly released DVD provides further evidence that we are depleting the world’s oil supplies at an unsustainable rate.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque took the occasion of World Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, to announce that early next year Cuba will sign the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and a similar treaty on civil and political rights. The day marked the 59th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We suggest to our readers that to mark the end of this year, the ninth year in prison for the Cuban Five, you write letters of solidarity to five Cuban men unjustly persecuted for combating U.S. terrorist attacks against the Cuban people. Below are their prison addresses.

CHICAGO — El pasado octubre una coalición de organizaciones de salud llamada Comunidad de Salud del Área del Parque Humboldt, presentó un informe titulado, “Un Llamado a la Acción: Sobre el VIH/SIDA en las Comunidades Latinas de Illinois”.

El obispo católico Edward J. Slattery de la Diócesis de Tulsa en Oklahoma fuertemente criticó en una carta pastoral el 25 de noviembre una nueva ley contra los indocumentados y dijo que la iglesia va a desobedecer dicha ley. La ley, que entró en vigencia el 1 de noviembre, convierte en delito estatal transportar a indocumentados, les niega un número de beneficios y pone obstáculos a que puedan trabajar.

Reunidos en la ciudad suroeste de Oruro el 8 y 9 de diciembre, la Asamblea Constituyente de Bolivia aprobó una nueva constitución. La nueva constitución, con unos artículos sobre la reforma agraria que todavía que quedan por resolver, será sometida a los votantes el año que viene.