We are at a dangerous moment in human history. Philosopher and thinker David Korten says, “We stand at a crossroads between two possible futures. In one future, we continue on the path of separation and likely bring the human chapter of creation’s journey to an untimely end. In the other future, we find our rightful place as responsible, loving members of the Earth community in an ecological civilization, helping to guide creation’s journey into a future of harmony and new possibilities.” The choice could not be more profound. It is, in a real sense, a test of what it truly means to be human.
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[Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, Irene Kahn] Israel’s Genocide in Gaza: The UN Report
In mid-September, the UN issued a report stating that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies the charge. Genocide is the crime of crimes. It is a highly charged and loaded word. To verify it requires clear and unambiguous evidence. The term was coined by the Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin. Genocide combines the Greek prefix “genos” (race, tribe) with the Latin suffix “cide” (killing). Lemkin was aware of the Armenian genocide carried out by the Turks earlier in the 20th century. During the Holocaust, he lost many family members. Lemkin and others were responsible for the Genocide Convention, which was passed unanimously by the UN in 1948. In addition to the recently released UN report, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, as well as two prominent Israeli rights organizations, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, declared that Israel's military actions in Gaza constitute genocide.
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[Brian Toon] Dinosaurs, Extinctions & Nuclear War
Millions of years ago, a huge asteroid hit what is now the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The global forests and grasslands burned. The smoke from the resulting fires marks one of the greatest extinctions in Earth’s history, including not just dinosaurs but also fish, plankton, ammonites, and plants. A decade-long Ice Age ensued. A war with just a few of the world’s thousands of nuclear weapons targeted on densely populated cities could plunge Earth into the same types of conditions that the dinosaurs experienced. A war involving Russia, NATO, and the United States could kill billions of people. And what is the U.S. doing? It is upgrading and modernizing all components of its nuclear weapons arsenal at a cost of over a trillion dollars. With the possibility of nuclear war, humans may end up like the dinosaurs.
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[Robin D. G. Kelley] Colonialism, Capitalism & Fascism
The era of traditional colonialism, with a few exceptions, is over. But it continues in new shapes and forms to have a profound influence on former colonies all over the world. We are in the age of what may be called neo-colonialism, where former colonies are simultaneously independent and dependent. Neocolonialism is a more insidious form of imperialism in which more powerful countries keep developing nations in a state of economic dependence. This dependent relationship is seen primarily in structural inequality, where the rich countries exploit the resources and labor of the poor. Colonialism fostered and institutionalized racist ideologies that continue to manifest in systemic racism. Scholar Robin D.G. Kelley says, “It's important to recognize that the consolidation of the modern colonial state and the rise of the fascist state occurred pretty much at the same time. The modern colonial state and the fascist state are both particular forms of capitalist states.”
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[Koohan Paik-Mander] Algorithms, Digital Technologies & Warfare
Algorithms are processes or sets of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by computer. Sounds innocuous enough. But hang on. It has a dark side. Algorithms can make mistakes due to biases, poor design, coding errors, or flawed assumptions. They can collect and process large amounts of personal data which can put people’s privacy rights at risk. There are lethal dangers. Koohan Paik-Mander warns the algorithms that missiles have spawned “have been a scourge on Mother Earth and our own humanity with our smartphones, satellites, robotics, AI, nuclear power and all the rest through which civil society has unwittingly become militarized through and through.”
Alternative Radio is an "unembedded" weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International. AR provides information, analyses and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in other media. Visit alternativeradio.org for the complete catalog.
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