Obama Acknowledges CIA ‘Secret War’ in Laos but No Apology

Telesur | 06 September, 2016

Laos is the most bombed country in history after the U.S. dropped more two million tons of bombs during the Vietnam war, 30 percent of it did not explode.

While Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to ever visit Laos, half a century after the U.S.’s “secret war” left it with the unfortunate distinction of being the most heavily bombed country in history, he stopped short of offering an apology to one of Southeast Asia’s smallest countries.

Laos became the world’s most-bombed country per capita from 1964 to 1973 as Washington launched a secret CIA-led war to cut supplies they believed were flowing to communist fighters during the war on Vietnam.

The CIA’s ‘Dirty War’ in South Sudan

by Thomas C. Mountain

It’s that simple—the war in South Sudan is about denying China access to Africa’s oil.

The Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, of the United States is funding a dirty war in South Sudan. The war in South Sudan is little different than the wars the CIA funded in Angola and Mozambique, to name two of the most infamous.

The CIA is using a mercenary warlord named Riek Machar, who has a long history of ethnic massacres and mass murder to his credit, to try and overthrow the internationally recognized government of President Salva Kiir for the crime of doing business with rivals of Pax Americana, the Chinese.

It is in the “national interests” of the U.S. to deny China access to African energy resources and the Sudanese oil fields are the only Chinese owned and operated in Africa. It’s that simple—the war in South Sudan is about denying China access to Africa’s oil.

‘The Boss’ at the G20

by Pepe Escobar

Telesur | 06 September, 2016

China—and President Xi Jinping in particular—seized this opportunity on the global stage with immense relish.

The G20 in China was immensely impressive—in a way that very few in the West are able to understand. I’ve been living in Asia on and off for 22 years now—and other experienced, trusted Asia hands have had the same impression.

Mainstream Media Ignores Venezuelan Pro-Government Supporters

Telesur | 02 September, 2016

On Thursday thousands of pro-government supporters staged a counter-rally to defend President Nicolas Maduro after the right-wing opposition called for a “taking of Caracas” to demand the ousting of Maduro government. However, you would never know that if you rely on Western mainstream media outlets.

While Venezuela’s politics remains polarized and divided between the pro- and anti-Maduro camps, mainstream media outlets conspicuously failed to mention the scale of pro-government Chavistas and omitted their voices in the debate in favor of anti-government protesters.

CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times and Reuters all reported thousands of anti-government protesters flooding the streets amid widespread economic problems blamed on the Maduro government.

Venezuelan Authorities Make Arrests Linked to Destabilization Plots

by JEANETTE CHARLES

venezuelanalysis.com | 06 September, 2016

Caracas, September 6th, 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) confirmed on Monday during an interview on state news channel Venezuela de Televisión (VTV) that authorities arrested several individuals identified as snipers set to carry out plans unexecuted during the opposition’s September 1st mobilizations.

For many, last week’s mobilizations were marked with great potential for bloodshed and guarimba violence as the political opposition has been insistent on a recall referendum happening this year despite protocols that would make anything earlier than January 2017 an unconstitutional process.

Sorghum: A wheat substitute for gluten intolerant Cubans

by  Katheryn Felipe González

Granma | 01 September, 2016

Sorghum is grown across ten provinces of the archipelago, with crops most concentrated in Las Tunas and Pinar del Río. Photo: Germán Veloz Placencia

If one considers that, with 25,000 varieties, wheat is the most widespread crop grown in the world, one begins to understand how difficult it is not to ingest it. Its main protein, gluten, has become one of the most abundant food components, especially in Europe and the United States.

According to Italian specialist Dr. Alessio Fasano in Clinical Guide to Gluten-Related Disorders, the average consumption of gluten in Europe is 10-20 grams per day, which can reach 50 grams or more.

Indian Anthropology and its Critics

by Abhijit Guha

Frontier | Vol. 49, No.8, Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2016

There is a standard critique of Indian Anthropology advanced by some of the Indian anthropologists. The critics say that Indian Anthropology is the product of a colonial tradition and the Indian anthropologists for various reasons followed their colonial masters in one way or the other.

As early as 1971 the famous Indian anthropologist Surajit Sinha in his insightful article published in the Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society (hereafter JIAS) observed that despite considerable growth in research publications and professional human power in social and cultural anthropology during the last 100 years, the Indian anthropologists largely remained dependent on western and colonial traditions (Sinha, 1971; 1-14). In continuation of his pertinent examination of the colonial dependence of Indian anthropology, Sinha contributed a full chapter entitled ‘India: A Western Apprentice” in a book, Anthropology: Ancestors and Heirs, edited by the Marxist anthropologist Stanley Diamond in 1980 published by Mouton. In that article Sinha discussed ‘the process naturalization of the different strands of Western anthropological traditions’ and finally ended with a pessimistic note:
For some time, the proliferation of trained manpower, random efforts at catching up with the latest developments in the West and a general increase in the number of publications will characterize development of Indian anthropology.

What exactly does ‘sub-Sahara Africa’ mean?

by Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

Pambazuka News | 18 January, 2012

The widespread use of ‘sub-Sahara Africa’ makes no sense and is undoubtedly a racist geopolitical signature.

It appears increasingly fashionable in the West for a number of broadcasters, websites, news agencies, newspapers and magazines, the United Nations/allied agencies and some governments, writers and academics to use the term ‘sub-Sahara Africa’ to refer to all of Africa except the five predominantly Arab states of north Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt) and the Sudan, a north-central African country. Even though its territory is mostly located south of the Sahara Desert, the Sudan is excluded from the ‘sub-Sahara Africa’ tagging by those who promote the use of the epithet because the regime in power in Khartoum describes the country as ‘Arab’ despite its majority African population.