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55.4%ANMag Issue 23 Public Surveillance
Invisible Occupation
By Farah Salka, Staff Writer
Beirut, Lebanon − ‘I was taught as an Israeli academic that there is a very complex story there, and in fact what you find out is that this is a very simple story, a story of dispossession, a story of colonisation, of occupation, of expulsion.’
Ilan Pappe-Israeli historian
Following the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, Israel militarily occupied the West Bank, Gaza strip and East Jerusalem (not to mention non-Palestinian Territories). Due to that, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) issued resolution 242, requiring Israel to withdraw from all the occupied territories and to return back to the borders prior to 1967. Four decades have passed. Israel is yet to comply. [More]
Why the World's Poor Need Privatized Water
By Yousef Salama, Staff Writer
Toronto, Canada − There is a crisis in the world today. Water, clean water, is not making its way to the world’s poor across the globe. This resource that makes up 66% of the earth and makes up 80% of human bodies is becoming scarce in nations in the south. Unlike some other non-renewable resources, however, water in itself is not truly scarce; it is simply not being adequately distributed to the impoverished in the developing world. One billion and a hundred million people in the third world lack access to clean drinking water, and 2.7 billion people lack access to proper sanitation. The reality is that 4,700 children will die every day this year because of water-related illnesses. [More]
If Americans Knew: Birth and Death at a Checkpoint
By Farah Salka, Staff Writer
Beirut, Lebanon –The following is a story of a Palestinian family. As Joel Kovel said in his book, Overcoming Zionism, it does not mean that what we are going to say is representative of Palestinians as a whole, though we have encountered enough stories like this family which seems only indicative of something real within these people who have endured more than seems humanely possible and still retain that spark which allows the flame of hope to be kept alive’. The story goes like this. It was time for Rula to give birth, so she was heading with her husband to the nearest hospital in the West Bank. Unavoidably, they had to pass some checkpoints on their way. Avoidable however, was the fact that the Israeli soldiers simply did not let the pregnant woman pass through. Rula ended up giving birth on the ground, behind a concrete block. She held the pains of pregnancy for nine months, and it only took a couple of minutes at that checkpoint for the unwelcome baby girl to die. [More]
Welcome To The Click Society: The 2008 Mega Trends
By Naseem Javed, Contributing Writer
Toronto, Canada – We are simply not alone any longer, anywhere or anytime... not even in the most private rooms and quiet spaces that we so dearly cherish. All that beautiful décor and openness that we think is filled with fresh air is actually jam-packed with zillions of invisible wireless messages, electronic signals, streaming videos and all kinds of pulses that are fast forwarding our cyber-society of today.
The special eyewear that is currently under rapid-development to enable a three-dimensional spectrum view of digital flow in thin air, as seen in The Matrix, where free-floating, streams of digital information will surround us and shock our thinking. These digital signals cover us like a thick blanket, watching and awaiting every single electronic interaction of ours, recording, updating and profiling our habits and patterns based on consumption. [More]
Iran Has the Right to Develop Its Own Nuclear Weapons
By S.P. Sharma, Contributing Writer
Mumbai, India – The United States of America, after North Korea, is threatening Iran for developing its nuclear weapons. It has been noted, retrospectively speaking, that the U.S. is not reliable or dependable for one’s own protection. The question that arises is: Would the U.S. have dared to Invade Iraq if it had its own nuclear capability and missile system to retaliate? It only attacks nation which are weak and cannot face the United States' might. Does it have courage to attack China or North Korea, whose crimes or offence is almost like Iraq’s or Iran’s? [More]
The $100 Zerophobia
By Naseem Javed, Contributing Writer
Toronto, Canada − What a difference a single dollar makes... A very big difference indeed. As a matter of fact, it is almost like a mind-altering shock wave, a global hysteria, a cry of the consumer to be heard around the deepest corners of the globe, in addition to being 'breaking news to the heart’s content of the glitzy-TV-media-machine.
The current oil prices have been coasting around, give-or-take a few dollars less than the $100 mark for a little while; it is only a matter of time before, sooner or later, a one-dollar addition becomes the anticipated reality. So what does this mean? The global population has parked its emotional weight and awaits that magic number and the rise of that single dollar hitting its anticipated target, like any final goal of the World Cup, then and there begins the real global shock wave. [More]