self-determination – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Pathways for the Post-COVID New Old World

Part 5 of 5 of the COVID-19 Series. Some are openly proclaiming, “you don’t want to waste a crisis,” as they calculate how the crisis could become a series of opportunities to “change things”. We have to question whether strategic pre-positioning to shape the “post-COVID normal,” might end up even unconsciously shaping the authorities’ responses […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Globalization in the Widening Gyre of COVID-19

Part 2 of 5 of the COVID-19 Series. The Routes of Panic It turns out that when people panic, they panic according to a template. Panic follows established routes, and is more structured than we might think, since we might think of it as being amorphous, uncontrolled, and chaotic. Sometimes the template is handed to […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Fiction Plus Coercion Makes Reality: The Illegitimacy of the US-led Coup in Venezuela

After considering the economic foundation of current US intervention, designed to erase Venezuela’s economic sovereignty, the purpose here is to focus more on the political side of the equation, not that we can neatly divide the politics from the economics of either the intervention or the defence of sovereignty. What we find is a situation […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Book Review: Patriots, Traitors and Empires—The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom, by Stephen Gowans

Review of: Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom, by Stephen Gowans. Published by Baraka Books, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 6 x 9 inches. 280 pages. ISBN No 9781771861359. Paper, $24.95 CDN; PDF/EPUB, $19.99 CDN. “It is easy to lose a country, but difficult to win it back”. —Kim Il-sung (quoted in […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Haunted by Gaddafi

One thing I did not predict is that, even five years later, what happened to Libya and to Muammar Gaddafi would still cast a long shadow across the centres of European and North American political and economic power. By now, almost all of the leaders who persecuted Gaddafi, have experienced their own demise, by far […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Cosmopolitan Imperialism: Obama Does Anthropology in Laos?

“Obama, the cerebral son of an anthropologist”—this is how the Associated Press touted soon to be ex-president Barack Obama on his visit to Laos this week. The AP went even further, declaring Obama’s approach “soft diplomacy”. One has to wonder where all of the “soft diplomacy” was in the seven brutal wars simultaneously fought by […]

by Donnchadh Mac an Ghoill

Scotland Needs a Cultural Revolution

The Queen of England has welcomed the Scottish referendum results from her castle in Balmoral, and Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, has resigned. Violent clashes have already occured on the streets between Unionists and Nationalists. London media organs, such as the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express have been refused entry to […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Never to be a Colony Again: Dignity, Defiance, and Self-Determination

The following is my transcription of the spoken statement delivered at the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly by Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe. The statement below begins at the 8:43 mark of: 26 Sep 2013 – Address by His Excellency Robert Mugabe, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe at the general debate of the […]

by John Allison

The State of Palestine: A Media Patch

The pre-requisite for this essay is Occupation 101. My purposes include providing that information on Palestine and Israel that is marginalized in the US media. This article is a media patch over the absence or distortion of facts due to the effectiveness of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in systematically controlling media presentations […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Anthropologists for Justice and Peace (AJP)

It is with great pleasure that, as a member of the steering committee, I announce the formation of ANTHROPOLOGISTS for JUSTICE and PEACE (AJP), a new grouping of Canadian anthropologists, and a partner of the U.S.-based Network of Concerned Anthropologists (NCA), the Fredericton Peace Coalition, the Centre de ressources sur la non-violence (CRNV), the Collectif […]