Category Archives: International

Public historians, this is your moment!

In the past few weeks, statues of male historic figures in public places in South Africa have been splashed with poo and paint of all hues. It has become a veritable underground movement. Cecil Rhodes’ statue has been removed from … Continue reading

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The Creation of Frankenstein in the Middle Eastern Region

The Creation of Frankenstein in the Middle Eastern Region Al Kagan Al Kagan is African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. Media coverage of the destruction of antiquities in northern Iraq during … Continue reading

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The Conundrum Over ISIS: The Issue of International Responsibility

In the November/December issue of the Public i, my colleague Susan Shoemaker wrote a very compelling article against the use of U.S. military strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.  After citing opinion polls finding that while 73% of Americans … Continue reading

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The Lessons Ebola Is Teaching

Greg Damhorst is an MD/PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . His graduate research involves the development of diagnostic technologies for HIV/AIDS. Greg is also a co-founder of the Global Health Initiative … Continue reading

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American Exceptionalism and Our Newest War

Once upon a time, when I was a child growing up in 1950s America, I truly believed in American Exceptionalism, the idea that the United States is a virtuous country and unique among nations because of our revolutionary history, experimental … Continue reading

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Political Soccer: A Global Phenomenon—Except Here

This summer’s soccer World Cup—always the most-watched sporting event on the planet—in Brazil was accompanied by enormous demonstrations, at times violently repressed. Citizens protested the diversion of vast resources from urgent social needs to the building of hugely expensive stadiums, … Continue reading

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The People’s Struggle in El Salvador Continues

For twenty-two years I have been part of a local group engaged in a sister relationship with five impoverished settlements in the mountains of eastern El Salvador. The five settlements are called Calavera. Our local group is called Friends of … Continue reading

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The Assault on Gaza

Throughout the current Israel’s assault on Gaza, President Obama, the Congress, and the media have been sounding off the mantra of “Israel’s right to defend itself” against rockets from Gaza—a self-evident right, if Israel were indeed the innocent victim of … Continue reading

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Why Aren’t Nicaragua’s Children Fleeing to the United States?

by The Nicaragua Network (In the 1980s, the Peoples Alliance on Central America (PACA), which was affiliated with the Nicaragua Network, was a very active local Central American solidarity group that opposed both the US attempts to overthrow the Sandinista … Continue reading

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Ukraine: Is There an Alternative?

Surveying both the mainstream and the alternative/Left media on the Ukraine crisis can seem like switching between alternate universes. In one, Ukrainians struggling for democracy, European values and independence, after toppling a corrupt President in thrall to oligarchs and the … Continue reading

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Hungarians Debate their Nuclear Future

On the weekend of February 1-2, thousands of Hungarians took to the streets to oppose the government’s plans to double the capacity of the country’s only nuclear power plant, with construction and financing by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The plant, at … Continue reading

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Mandela Remembered by Historian Teresa Barnes

Appeared originally at U of I News Bureau, 12/6/2013 Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president and an icon in the struggle that ended the country’s system of racial apartheid, died Dec. 5. He was 95. Teresa Barnes is a … Continue reading

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Raising Concerns about Chinese Students’ Mental Health

Yongfei Ci is a 6th-year-PhD student in University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. While he is majoring in math here, this semester he went to Brown University to do research. But on September 28th, Ci returned to Urbana and murdered his ex-girlfriend … Continue reading

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Media Hoax Launched Against Monsanto by Sin Maíz No Hay Vida

Last Thursday, an intriguing press release from “Monsanto Global” was sent out to to the email inboxes of media organizations all over the world, including our own Independent Media Center. According to the press release, Monsanto had received approval from … Continue reading

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Brazilians marching on the street: what´s behind 20 cents

By Walênia Silva: Walênia Silva is an adjunt professor at the Music School at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, in Brazil. Dr. Silva completed her PhD. at the College of Education at UIUC. Last June, Brazilians decided to march in … Continue reading

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Who’s the Bigger Scapegoat in Europe, Roma or Jew?

On October 24 of last year, the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under the National Socialist Regime was unveiled and dedicated in Berlin, Germany, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck in attendance. Almost … Continue reading

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Mobilization in Al Ma’sarah: “We Will Keep Coming Back”

“You must refuse to be in the army. Look into my eyes, we are all human,” declared Mahmoud Zwahre, popular committee leader in the West Bank Bethlehem district village of Al Ma’sarah, addressing dozens of M4 toting Israeli soldiers. “We … Continue reading

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U.S. Seeks to Get Rid of Left Governments in Latin America

  By Mark Weisbrot This article was published in Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s largest circulation newspaper, on April 20, 2013. Recent events indicate that the Obama administration has stepped up its strategy of “regime change” against the left-of-center governments in Latin America, … Continue reading

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Chávez’s Death, Like His Life, Shows the World’s Divisions

By Mark Weisbrot This article was published by Al Jazeera English on March 17, 2013. The unprecedented worldwide response to the death of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and especially in the Western Hemisphere, has brought into stark relief the … Continue reading

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Women Singing Not to Forget in Post-war Ivory Coast

Defeated at the polls in November 2010, former president of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down and held onto power by force for over four months. About three thousand people died in the post-electoral violence. Gbagbo was arrested … Continue reading

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