"The Propaganda War on Democracy"

Myanmar Suggests U.S. in Recent Attacks
Myanmar's ruling military junta implied Sunday that the CIA had funded terrorists - trained in neighboring Thailand - who carried out a recent string of bombings.

Group: Tribe Faces Annihilation in Brazil
An Amazon Indian tribe isolated from modern Brazil by hundreds of miles of rain forest faces annihilation by loggers if nothing is done to protect them, an Indian rights group warned Monday.

Minister: Ecuador to review oil contracts
Ecuador will review all of its current oil contracts with foreign companies, the country's self-described "nationalist" energy minister said in an interview published Monday.

Somewhere Out There, Millions of Species Await Discovery
While Planet Earth is becoming an increasingly smaller and more familiar world as every corner is explored and colonized, there remain millions of species undiscovered and undocumented. A number of significant species have been discovered in recent months, revealing humans' huge gaps in knowledge of the world around them.

Opposition did well in Ethiopia poll
Sunday's election in Ethiopia saw a large voter turnout, maybe up to 90 percent, according to the National Electoral Board. While obververs expect Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to win his third five-year term, the opposition claims to have made major gains, espacially in the capital.

Guinea-Bissau's Kumba Yala: from crisis to crisis
Ex-President Kumba Yala of Guinea-Bissau, a highly intelligent philosopher and demagogue, is leading the poor country from one political disaster to the other. His proclamation this week of being the country's rightful President has caused outrage in Guinea-Bissau and the international society, fearing the country could miss out on a unique possibility to secure peace and stability.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Truth, Justice and Reconciliation as Elusive as Ever
A recent statement by Kenyan Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi that it was "no longer necessary" for the country to establish a commission to investigate atrocities committed under previous governments was greeted with both outrage and delight.

The promise to set up such a body, modeled on South Africa's internationally acclaimed inquiry into rights abuses that occurred during apartheid, was one of the key pledges made during the current head of state's campaign for office. President Mwai Kibaki and his National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) were elected to power in December 2002.

The Propaganda War on Democracy
In 1987, the Australian sociologist Alex Carey, a second Orwell in his prophesies, wrote "Managing Public Opinion: the corporate offensive." He described how in the United States "great progress [had been] made towards the ideal of a propaganda-managed democracy," whose principal aim was to identify a rapacious business state "with every cherished human value." The power and meaning of true democracy, of the franchise itself, would be "transferred" to the propaganda of advertising, public relations and corporate-run news. This "model of ideological control", he predicted, would be adopted by other countries, such as Britain.

India rushes to enter elite club
- Draft motion for UN Council seat
India, acting in concert with Japan, Germany and Brazil, yesterday took the bold, but risky, step of circulating a draft UN resolution, which, if adopted, could see all four countries elected permanent members of the Security Council by the middle of July.

Rogue Robot Networks Cause PC Havoc
Patrick Evans, regional manager of network security company Symantec, said most spam - or unwanted e-mail - that circulated in SA originated from abroad.

BP Stains the Arctic
While the hacks working for mainstream news organizations were busy chasing the story about the Runaway Bride late last month, a real scandal was just beginning to unfold as Congress inched closer to approving a controversial measure to open up a couple thousand acres of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.

The Jackson State Murders, May 14, 1970
Recently, the US press gave a few lines of coverage to the murders of four Kent State University students by Ohio National Guardsmen during antiwar demonstrations at the school thirty-five years ago. Sometimes these reports also included a reference to the murders of two more young people ten days later at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. These murders have always been a footnote to the Kent State killings. Part of the reason for this is the fact that they occurred after the Kent actions, but another aspect to this perception and portrayal is the fact that the young people who were murdered by police in Jackson were African-American. Through no fault of the Kent victims, the nature of US society is that white deaths count for more than those that occur to darker-hued individuals.

Killings at Jackson State University
On this date in 1970, the Jackson State killings occurred. In the spring of that year, campus communities across this country were characterized by protests and demonstrations.