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Politics and the Kitchen Sink

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Jihna Hafiz, of The Real News, has the best reports from Egypt. This is just one sample, on the use of US/Israeli tear gas. She is in the thick of the crowd, with great shots by the cameraman/woman. The close-up shots, the wide angles, the interviews with individuals (who are) anonymous in their randomness, all [...]

Al Jazeera’s coverage of the war in Libya was mere cheerleading. Its simplistic reports never tackled the funding, or the question of who the “rebels” really were. So it came as no surprise that Qatar was arming them. Somebody had to pay for the weaponry, the ammunition, the transportation, the food, the spare parts, or [...]

The documentary “Muslims of France”, on Al Jazeera, is absolutely fascinating. They touched on FLN, and even the racism of brown Arabs against their black, fellow Muslims. As I often say, the truest form of equality is equality in stupidity; and, in this case, the brown Arabs were just as stupid as the white French (who [...]

Congo: The Rebels’ Funding

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As always, follow the money. And paramount is the question of who funds the rebels who terrorize their own people. In the case of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda have been mentioned. And so have the mining companies. This great interview on The Real News names the mining companies involved in Congo. Reportedly, they give private [...]

Chad

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A documentary on Chad. An overview of recent conditions. Among other things, it raises the question of (the discovery of) oil being a curse for a nation. It certainly has been for many nations. Makes me think of the scene in Three Kings where the father feeds petroleum into the mouth of Mark Wahlberg’s character.

The documentary “The Mayor of Mogadishu” provides a bit more info with respect to Al Shabab in Somalia. It is informative, though, as with all documentaries, its PoV has to be kept continuously in mind. In particular, it is very sympathetic to the mayor, and does not at all touch on the TFG or the [...]