Brian Halweil: From New York to Africa, Why Food is Saving the World

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

TEDxTalks on Apr 6, 2011

Long live the Food Movement! Brian Halweil, publisher of “Edible Manhattan,” discusses the problems with the global food system and the solutions he’s found cropping up everywhere.

US, NATO Using Proxy Terrorism to Achieve Neo-Colonialistic Goals by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
May 2, 2013

A failed coup in the North African country of Chad this week is just another repercussion from the wave of Western state-sponsored violence and destabilization, stretching from Central Asia, through the Middle East and across Africa.

The Chadian regime of President Idriss Deby said it had thwarted a coup attempt after it arrested an unknown number of army personnel and at least one opposition politician.

Rape and Torture as a Weapon of Control by Graham Peebles

Warning

This article may contain language depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be read by a mature audience.

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London
March 7, 2013

The Pain of the Ogaden Somali People

Image by CharlesFred via Flickr

Hiding from the truth

“Every night, they took all of us girls to [interrogations]. They would separate us and beat us. The second time they took me, they raped me… All three of the men raped me, consecutively”. Along with 15 other female students, Human Rights Watch (HRW)[i] report in Collective Punishment, this innocent 17 year-old Ogaden Somali girl, was held captive for three months in a “dark hole in the ground” and raped 13 times.

Displacement, Intimidation and Abuse–Land Loyalties in Ethiopia by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
London
February 27, 2013

Image by STARSFoundation via Flickr

With the coming of industrial-size farms in Ethiopia, local people, villagers and pastoralists (deemed irrelevant to the Government’s, economically-driven development plans) are being threatened, and intimidated by the military; forcibly displaced and herded into camps, their homes destroyed. Along with vast agricultural complexes, dams are planned and constructed, water supplies re-directed to irrigate crops, forests burnt, natural habitats destroyed. Dissenting voices are brutally silenced – men beaten, children frightened, women raped, so too the land.

Barack Obama’s Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Situation in Zimbabwe

Dandelion Salad

Propaganda Alert!

The White House

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 1, 2013

Notice — Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Situation in Zimbabwe

On March 6, 2003, by Executive Order 13288, the President declared a national emergency and blocked the property of persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706).

Letter from the President — Concerning Niger

Dandelion Salad

Propaganda Alert!

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
February 22, 2013

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

Letter from the President — Concerning Niger

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE

February 22, 2013

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

On February 20, 2013, the last elements of a deployment of approximately 40 additional U.S. military personnel entered Niger with the consent of the Government of Niger. This deployment will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali,

Is the Catholic Church Ready for a Black Pope? by Finian Cunningham

Image by A.Currell via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
February 13, 2013

Is the Catholic Church ready for a black pope? That is the question many inside and outside the world’s largest Christian organization are asking following the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI this week.

The German pontiff, formerly known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he was elected in 2005, is the first leader of the Catholic Church in 600 years to retire before death. Most of his predecessors, who trace their official lineage back nearly 2,000 years to Saint Peter, the first pope, have died while still in the top job.

Rick Rozoff, William Blum and Glen Ford: Africa and The New Colonialism of The Continent

Image by Cau Napoli via Flickr

with Rick Rozoff and William Blum
Featured Writers
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
www.killinghope.org
February 11, 2013

Gary Null
Progressive Commentary Hour

Guests:

Glen Ford
William Blum
Rick Rozoff

Ethiopian Annihilation of the Ogaden People, by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
London
February 6, 2013

Image by STARSFoundation via Flickr

Besieged, abused, ignored

In the harsh Ogaden region of Ethiopia, impoverished ethnic Somali people are being murdered and tortured, raped, persecuted and displaced by government paramilitary forces. Illegal actions carried out with the knowledge and tacit support of donor countries, seemingly content to turn a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by their brutal, repressive ally in the region; and a deaf ear to the pain and suffering of the Ogaden Somali people.

The real invasion of Africa is not news and a licence to lie is Hollywood’s gift by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
Global Research
http://johnpilger.com
January 30, 2013

Image by IsaacMao via Flickr

A full-scale invasion of Africa is under way. The United States is deploying troops in 35 African countries, beginning with Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger. Reported by Associated Press on Christmas Day, this was missing from most Anglo-American media.

The invasion has almost nothing to do with “Islamism”, and almost everything to do with the acquisition of resources, notably minerals, and an accelerating rivalry with China. Unlike China, the US and its allies are prepared to use a degree of violence demonstrated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine.

Rick Rozoff: Pentagon’s Global Expansion Plans for 2013

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
January 28, 2013

Image by bildungsr0man via Flickr

John Robles
Voice of Russia
January 28, 2013

Regular Voice of Russia contributor Rick Rozoff discusses Syrian defenses and how they are preventing a Western invasion, Russian-Syrian cooperation, the pretext of the war on terror to invade countries which he says was part of phase 2 of the US/NATO global expansion, other pretexts used to justify military expansion, the ties between al-Qaeda and the US and the massive expansion by US/NATO into the African continent which will, in effect, bring all of Africa under US/NATO control.

France’s War in Mali: Neo-imperialist grab dressed up in “war on terror” rhetoric by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
January 23, 2013

Image by Magharebia via Flickr

France’s intervention in Mali is simply this: a neo-imperialist power grab dressed up in “war on terror” rhetoric.

Since the old colonial power began bombing the West African country on 11 January, the Paris government has wrapped its actions up with chivalrous language of saving the region, Europe and indeed the world from “Islamic extremism”. France, we are led to believe, was “forced to act” on behalf of the beleaguered Francophile regime in Mali’s southern capital, Bamako, to save it from falling into the hands of “Islamists” allegedly “linked to Al Qaeda”.

Gung-ho French in Another Fatal African Attraction + French Pain is US Gain by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from www.strategic-culture.org
January 17, 2013

Image by Magharebia via Flickr

With France’s ignominious track record for disastrous military adventures on the African continent – the 1956 Suez Crisis comes most to mind – one would think that the former colonial power would have learned some prudence by now.

But alas, no. The French charged into Mali last week with hundreds of troops, fighter jets and attack helicopters in a rash move that casts serious questions of legality and military viability. French state-of-the-art Rafale fighter jets have been bombing at least six towns across the north and central belt of the remote Sahel desert country for five consecutive days and counting.

Preplanned Mali invasion reveals France’s neo-colonialistic agenda by Finian Cunningham

Image via Wikipedia

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
January 14, 2013

The speed and extent with which French warplanes have been deployed over the weekend in the West African country, Mali, point to a well-honed plan for intervention by the former colonial power.

Indeed, such is the careful choreography of this salient military development that one could say that the French have finally given themselves a green light to execute a plan they had been pushing over several months. That plan is nothing less than the neocolonial re-conquest of its former colony in the strategically important West African region.

Mali New Prey To West Imperialist Quest by Finian Cunningham + Nii Akuetteh: UN Approves Intervention in Mali

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
December 22, 2012

An enlargeable map of the Republic of Mali (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The UN Security Council approval this week of a French-led resolution for military intervention in Africa’s vast Sahel region signaled the Western imperialist powers’ laying down a new incendiary marker.

While the intervention force being assembled is officially African-led and manned, the Western powers are driving the initiative, something about which there is little doubt. Under the guise of restoring Mali’s national security – following a separatist revolt earlier this year – the real agenda is extending Western imperialist interests in the resource-rich West Africa region.