WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Crisis as Opportunity for "Another World"

January 22, 2009
By Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 21 (IPS) - A World Social Forum (WSF) revitalised by a global crisis that has awakened new interest in the proposition that "another world is possible" - now perceived as either less utopian or more urgently needed - will take place from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1 in Belém, in northern Brazil.

With the economy in free-fall, a more concrete debate will occur in Belém on "the nature of the crisis" and the model of development, according to Cándido Grzybowski, the head of the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analyses (IBASE) and one of the original organisers of the WSF.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's decision to attend the WSF in Belém on Jan. 29 and 30, instead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, reflects a change in the alignment of forces.

This year’s edition of the WEF, which brings together the world's business, political and cultural élite annually, will be held Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 under the theme "Shape the Post-Crisis World". The WSF originated as a rival assembly, to protest the WEF’s policies and propose alternatives.

In January 2007, Lula chose to attend the WEF in Davos and skip the 7th WSF in Nairobi, Kenya. It was a gravy-train time of strong global economic growth, soaring commodity prices and plentiful foreign investment in Brazil. The markets seemed to promise prosperity for all.

Now, given the economic, energy, environmental and food crises, the ideas of the WSF appear to be more attractive and realistic...

Let There Be Light

Columbia Journalism Review
Editorial — January / February 2009

How President Obama should reopen our government

by The Editors

Over many years, Americans have come to embrace the idea that democracy suffers when the work of government is excessively secret—the people are shut out, corruption and cynicism thrive, and accountability wanes. Yet President Bush and Vice President Cheney have run an administration in which the executive’s lust for power outstripped the public’s right to know. One of the most troubling aspects of Bush’s campaign against government transparency was the ease of its advance. Battles were won with brief memos, unilateral executive orders, and signal flags from on high.

Here is an arena in which President Obama can forcefully demonstrate, as he indicated on the campaign trail, that he will turn the lights back on in the White House. Some steps would be relatively easy. The president should:

http://www.cjr.org/editorial/let_there_be_light_1.phphttp://

War of Choice: How Israel Manufactured the Gaza Escalation

Steve Niva | January 7, 2009
Foreign Policy in Focus


Israel has repeatedly claimed that it had "no choice" but to wage war on Gaza on December 27 because Hamas had broken a ceasefire, was firing rockets at Israeli civilians, and had "tried everything in order to avoid this military operation," as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni put it.

This claim, however, is widely at odds with the fact that Israel's military and political leadership took many aggressive steps during the ceasefire that escalated a crisis with Hamas, and possibly even provoked Hamas to create a pretext for the assault. This wasn't a war of "no choice," but rather a very avoidable war in which Israeli actions played the major role in instigating...