1 October - 'World Policemen' sell Protection

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Myanmar halts China-backed dam project  
Education nation or education corporation?  

Five lessons learned from Palestinian UN bid

The statehood bid didn't change the occupation, but it did force international players to show their cards. The false promise of the nation-state  Diplomatic historian William Appleman Williams used the term "Anticolonial Imperialism" to describe what the US was up to. Empires always operate in and through some kind of local administration, whether a colonial state, a kept Raja, or an informal relation with a client power. In mature colonies, much of the day to day work of government was carried out by indigenous people, trained up as civil servants, police, and soldiers. Businesses were often operated and even owned by locals. Occupying such a colony with imperial officials was not only expensive, it caused friction and generated resistance. Why not give local power brokers a somewhat larger cut (but not too large) to run the place for you? The oppressed "nation" could celebrate "independence", the local elites could enrich themselves, and the imperial power could continue to enjoy the advantages of domination and unequal economic relations. This was not only empire without colonies, it was an empire that could pose as a supporter of "national liberation". The United Nations took this concept of the nation-state to a global level. The world came to be composed mostly of small, relatively weak states, each proudly sovereign and jealous of its prerogatives. But each one also enmeshed in the brutal and shocking disparities of wealth and power that have characterised global politics since the nineteenth century. Local elites prospered, while their people toiled away at subsistence level. A nation-state organisation of the world offers advantages to those who want to sustain global hierarchies of power. It also poses immense challenges to those struggling for freedom. Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Law Successfully Intimidates Children From Going To School Many of the laws critics feared that the children of undocumented families would be afraid to go to school if it made it easier to deport their parents — and those fears have now been validated. The Alabama online news hub al.com reports today about one school in Foley, Alabama where dozens of students either stayed home or withdrew altogether, fearful that the new law was going to lead to the deportation of their families. The principal of the school said some undocumented parents are even making arrangements for documented parents to take custody of their children if they are deported:  Libya's toxic Gaddafi legacy Tons of dangerous chemicals, including radioactive 'yellowcake', found at sites around Libya. ( Snort ! Yellowcake was the substance lying around all over Iraq...used to make fertilizer ! It was the chimera exposed by the Arms Control Wonk that would have been refuted by CIA agent Valerie Plame/Wilson, except she and Brewster Jennings  were 'blown' so as to let Cheney's lies go forward unopposed.  Lying to War is what Scooter Libby went to jail to protect.) How Times Change: Donald Rumsfeld Praises Al Jazeera (VIDEO) ( There was a time when al Jazeera was a resource for shaking things up. Not so much these days, it appears ) Spanner's Weekend OfTechniques and Secrets The indie filmmaking team from Spanner Films invite you to come and sit in a comfy warm room in London to absorb all the knowledge we've amassed over sixteen bruising years making and distributing our blockbuster documentaries in some of the world's most difficult places Richard Nixon's Watergate Grand Jury Testimony To Be Unsealed HE WAS A CROOK Richard Nixon was an evil man -- evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it. He was utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency. Nobody trusted him -- except maybe the Stalinist Chinese, and honest historians will remember him mainly as a rat who kept scrambling to get back on the ship. Nixon (film)   Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What's Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions

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