“The longest-serving bishop in Belgium resigned Friday after admitting to sexually abusing “a boy in my close entourage” many years ago, becoming the latest cleric to quit in a spreading abuse scandal.”
New York Times
More..
“A member of the public who was sexually abused by a priest in his youth has accused Belgium's new Primate, André Léonard, of failing to intervene.”
Belgian television channel VRT
More..
Thursday
Two human rights activists killed in Oaxaca, Mexico
I'm in solidarity with the Finnish Communalists, who seem to have lost a friend (and he was much interested in Communalist ideas). His name is Jyri.
“Two human rights activists were shot and killed in an ambush in southern Mexico as they tried to deliver food and supplies to a town being harassed by armed groups, authorities said on Wednesday.
Beatriz Carino, the Mexican director of the rights group CACTUS, and Finnish human rights observer Jyri Antero Jaakkola died when gunmen attacked a convoy of some 30 rights workers on Tuesday, local attorney general Maria de la Luz Candelaria said.”
Source : The Washinton Post, more info here.
“Two human rights activists were shot and killed in an ambush in southern Mexico as they tried to deliver food and supplies to a town being harassed by armed groups, authorities said on Wednesday.
Beatriz Carino, the Mexican director of the rights group CACTUS, and Finnish human rights observer Jyri Antero Jaakkola died when gunmen attacked a convoy of some 30 rights workers on Tuesday, local attorney general Maria de la Luz Candelaria said.”
Source : The Washinton Post, more info here.
Sunday
40 Years of Earth Days
By Brian Tokar
The 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day is upon us, and many seasoned environmentalists are nostalgic for the heady days of the 1970s, when 20 million people hit in the streets and eventually got Richard Nixon to sign a series of ambitious environmental laws. Those laws managed to clean up waterways that were turning into sewers, saved the bald eagle from the ravages of DDT, and began to clear the air, which in the early 1960s was so polluted that people were passing out all over our cities.
More...
The 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day is upon us, and many seasoned environmentalists are nostalgic for the heady days of the 1970s, when 20 million people hit in the streets and eventually got Richard Nixon to sign a series of ambitious environmental laws. Those laws managed to clean up waterways that were turning into sewers, saved the bald eagle from the ravages of DDT, and began to clear the air, which in the early 1960s was so polluted that people were passing out all over our cities.
More...
Tuesday
A short review of "The Anti-Jewish Riots in Oslo"
I like the fact that this book of Eirik Eiglad contains enough nuances and is well documented. For those who want to know more about conflicts in the Middle East and the way people in Europe are reacting to it, this book is a must-read.
Even Leftist journalists often know little about the things that are happening in the Scandinavian Left or in the circles of ultra-authoritarian people living there, and with this book a part of it becomes more clear.
That's good, because when some people read much about countries like France or Germany in the newspapers, often they already start to think that they are enough informed about the situation in Europe to have good opinions about it. It's not true, and the things happening in the north of Europe are just as much important.
With anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe (Hungary now for example), this book comes at a good moment. The opinions of Eirik Eiglad on this matter are often original and contain apt writing. If you thought you would find enough information about all of this in newspapers, at indymediasites, in Socialist, Marxist or other Leftist journals, think again because it's not true.
Ask for this book in your local bookshop or buy it at the internet.
Even Leftist journalists often know little about the things that are happening in the Scandinavian Left or in the circles of ultra-authoritarian people living there, and with this book a part of it becomes more clear.
That's good, because when some people read much about countries like France or Germany in the newspapers, often they already start to think that they are enough informed about the situation in Europe to have good opinions about it. It's not true, and the things happening in the north of Europe are just as much important.
With anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe (Hungary now for example), this book comes at a good moment. The opinions of Eirik Eiglad on this matter are often original and contain apt writing. If you thought you would find enough information about all of this in newspapers, at indymediasites, in Socialist, Marxist or other Leftist journals, think again because it's not true.
Ask for this book in your local bookshop or buy it at the internet.
Saturday
Mexico and rebellion
Militia men from the Mexican revolution
Zapatista women
Emiliano Zapata and Ricardo Flores Magón
Siqueiros mural with Magón, Proudhon and Kropotkin
Friday
Murray Bookchin and trotskyism
Murray Bookchin had a teenage admiration for Trotsky because he "stood alone against Stalin" in 1937. Bookchin about that time : “Apart from a small number of anarchists and independent leftists, relatively few American radicals knew about Kronstadt or Bolshevik atrocities against anarchists.”
Source : here
Some texts that make it clear that social ecology and trotskyism don't go well together at all :
"Listen, Marxist!", by Murray Bookchin
"Bookchin's Originality", by Janet Biehl
Saturday
Social Ecology and class struggle
Many libertarian socialists make the mistake of thinking that social ecology is also about not being interested in class struggle. Here are two texts (with several mistakes being made in them) which make it more clear why they are not always that much interested in social ecology:
Anarchism, Class Struggle and Political Organization. By Tom Wetzel, July 2009 and a less recent text : Radical Ecology and Class Struggle: A Re-Consideration. By Jeff Shantz.
Anarchism, Class Struggle and Political Organization. By Tom Wetzel, July 2009 and a less recent text : Radical Ecology and Class Struggle: A Re-Consideration. By Jeff Shantz.
Monday
8-Day Social Ecology Intensive
January 9th – 16th, 2010 — New York City — $300 (scholarships available)
The Institute for Social Ecology presents an 8-day intensive introduction to the philosophy and politics of Social Ecology. This 8-day intensive will offer students an introduction to the dialectical philosophy and politics of Social Ecology. Using the lens of Social Ecology, students will participate in four topical seminars focused the climate justice; alternatives capitalism; race; and the history of Social Ecology and radical movements. Students will also participate in a practicum applying the principles of Social Ecology to their own actual (or imagined) activist campaigns.
*The philosophy class will be held in the evening to allow for NYC students with day jobs to attend.
The Institute for Social Ecology presents an 8-day intensive introduction to the philosophy and politics of Social Ecology. This 8-day intensive will offer students an introduction to the dialectical philosophy and politics of Social Ecology. Using the lens of Social Ecology, students will participate in four topical seminars focused the climate justice; alternatives capitalism; race; and the history of Social Ecology and radical movements. Students will also participate in a practicum applying the principles of Social Ecology to their own actual (or imagined) activist campaigns.
*The philosophy class will be held in the evening to allow for NYC students with day jobs to attend.
Some thoughts about the situation in Australia
The debate about social ecology versus deep ecology should lead to a better understanding of these two influential currents in “the ecology movement”, also in Australia. It's a shame for example that ecofeminists aren't better at this than the way they talk about it all now.
What should we think of the ideas of materialist ecofeminist Ariel Salleh, who has spent some time as Associate Professor in Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney, and who “now writes full time and is an Honorary Associate with Political Economy in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney”? Some of these ideas, you can find here.
Let's take another example, the ideas of Barbara Noske, who considers herself “a member of both the animal movement and deep ecology”. I don't know if she calls herself an ecofeminist but she really seems so much positive about ecofeminism.
“Dr Barbara Noske holds a Master's degree in Sociocultural Anthropology and a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam.
In the nineties she taught and undertook research in the areas of environmental thought, environmental ethics, deep ecology, social ecology and ecofeminism at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University in Toronto, Canada.
Presently she is a research fellow at the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney in Australia.”
Source : here
I have been inspired by some of the ideas of Barbara Noske but I really disagree with several things she says in this interview (see the link) about deep ecology and animals. It's good to not be mechanistic in the approach to animals. But the human body is not “just an animal body amongst other animal bodies”. And this does not mean that social ecologists are “anthropocentric”, like deep ecologists tend to accuse us of being.
What should we think of the ideas of materialist ecofeminist Ariel Salleh, who has spent some time as Associate Professor in Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney, and who “now writes full time and is an Honorary Associate with Political Economy in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney”? Some of these ideas, you can find here.
Let's take another example, the ideas of Barbara Noske, who considers herself “a member of both the animal movement and deep ecology”. I don't know if she calls herself an ecofeminist but she really seems so much positive about ecofeminism.
“Dr Barbara Noske holds a Master's degree in Sociocultural Anthropology and a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam.
In the nineties she taught and undertook research in the areas of environmental thought, environmental ethics, deep ecology, social ecology and ecofeminism at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University in Toronto, Canada.
Presently she is a research fellow at the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney in Australia.”
Source : here
I have been inspired by some of the ideas of Barbara Noske but I really disagree with several things she says in this interview (see the link) about deep ecology and animals. It's good to not be mechanistic in the approach to animals. But the human body is not “just an animal body amongst other animal bodies”. And this does not mean that social ecologists are “anthropocentric”, like deep ecologists tend to accuse us of being.
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