by Devinder Sharma

The late agronomist Norman Borlaug, regarded as the father of the “Green Revolution", is credited with saving millions from starvation. Despite the criticisms of environmentalists, Borlaug had a strong appreciation for the centrality of farmers' livelihoods in maintaining food security.

It was the discovery of a stocky Japanese wheat variety Norin-10 that the US military advisor, Dr D. C. Salmon, sent back home in the early 1960’s that changed the face of global agriculture. This was the variety, the only known semi-dwarf traditional wheat strain, that the late Dr Norman Borlaug was keenly looking for. Crossed with the rust-resistant varieties that Borlaug had developed at the International Centre for Wheat and Maize Research (CIMMYT) in Mexico, the world got the miracle improved varieties that made history.

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The Independent

Enraged by Taliban oppression, Malalai Joya became a women’s rights activist, and after the US-led invasion, took on the new regime as an MP. But speaking out has come at a cost. She tells Johann Hari why death threats won’t stop her exposing ugly truths about Afghanistan.

I am not sure how many more days I will be alive," Malalai Joya says quietly.

The warlords who make up the new "democratic" government in Afghanistan have been sending bullets and bombs to kill this tiny 30-year-old from the refugee camps for years – and they seem to be getting closer with every attempt. Her enemies call her a "dead woman walking". "But I don't fear death, I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice," she says plainly. "I am young and I want to live. But I say to those who would eliminate my voice: 'I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.'"

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Karin Friedemann

"No taxation by a foreign government without representation" is a basic American principle. Yet, the taxation currently endured by US taxpayers because of the Israel Lobby far exceeds the level of taxation by the British that led to the American Revolution. Pro-Israel organisations do everything possible to prevent Americans from openly discussing the fact that they are being taxed without consent.

Through subversion Israel advocates have orchestrated passage of the Patriot Act, Homeland Security abuses, and other erosions of civil liberties. Pro-Israel organisations file lawsuits to keep the question of Israel investments off local ballots. Jewish communal organisations bribe elected public officials with free trips to Israel to gain their support — even against the will of the majority of their constituents!

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eileen fleming

You may say I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

September 18, 2009, was a very good Friday, for people of conscience, truth, justice and peace when the UN's 150-nation nuclear conference passed a resolution that directly criticized Israel and its atomic program.

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by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

There remains probable cause to indict and charge top officials, George W. Bush himself, for the crimes we call '911'. And, last time I checked, there was no 'statute of limitation' with regard to the crimes of mass murder, war crimes [see: US Codes, Title 18, Section 2441] or high treason!

The evidence against Bush, Cheney and a gang of NEOCON crooks will prove in court that Bushco conspired to attack and invade Iraq for its oil! It will not help the defense that documents of Cheney's meeting of his 'Energy Task Force' survive and prove that the Cheney and 'big oil' literally carved up the oil fields of Iraq before Bush would have the pretext he needed to attack, invade, and loot oil!

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By GILAD ATZMON

Once again Quentin Tarantino has managed to produce the impossible: ‘an anti Holocaust film’. The Holocaust film genre can be grasped as a realistic cinematic representation of the ‘Jewish victim’ (innocent and harmless individual) confronted with the ultimate brutal bureaucratic murderous ideology known as Nazism. The genre can be realised as an intense emotional blackmail that aims to depict the history of the 20th century through an empathetic identification with a phantasmic faultless Jewish protagonist. Needless to say, this genre has been rather successful. Whether it is Schindler’s List, The Pianist, Everything is Illuminated, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas or any other Shoah (Hebrew for Holocaust) film, it is always Jewish innocence that faces institutional state terror.

Tarantino manages to resolve the clear discrepancy between the cinematic ‘Jewish innocence’ and the Jewish nationalist ‘murderous reality’. He does it all through a fantasy. In his imaginary setting, the Jew is a revengeful subject. He is an iconic retaliating scalping savage, Biblically-motivated murderer. In Tarantino’s latest epic, for the first time, the Diaspora Jew resembles his Israeli nephew. Through a cinematic fictional plot, history has become a homogenous continuum in which Jewish past and Israeli present are unified into a relentless expedition of suicidal vengeance. If films indeed resemble the work of the dream and the unconscious, Tarantino’s latest can be grasped as a wake up call; it illuminates something that we insist to suppress and deny.

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S. Fred Singer, (Atmospheric Physicist)

I imagine that in the not–too–distant future all the hype will have died down, particularly if the climate should decide to cool—as it did during much of the past century; we should take note here that it has not warmed since 1998. Future generations will look back on the current madness and wonder what it was all about. They will have movies like An Inconvenient Truth and documentaries like The Great Global Warming Swindle to remind them.

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has met its match: a devastating documentary recently shown on British television, which has now been viewed by millions of people on the Internet. Despite its flamboyant title, The Great Global Warming Swindle is based on sound science and interviews with real climate scientists, including me. An Inconvenient Truth, on the other hand, is mostly an emotional presentation from a single politician.

The scientific arguments presented in The Great Global Warming Swindle can be stated quite briefly:

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By Mickey Z.

Bill Schaefer/Getty Images

An underrated issue that impacts humans, marine life, climate change, and more.

Much of today's environmental conversation revolves around personal choices (perhaps an offshoot of An Inconvenient Truth.) However, while every change we make--e.g. shorter showers--is a tiny step, we can't lose sight of the big picture. For example: dams. More than 45,000 large dams (45 feet or higher) were built in the 20th century and these structures are a serious green issue that impacts all life on earth. How serious?

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James Cogan

Kilcullen advocates overwhelming violence and repression against the Afghan people. The overall aim is to kill, buy-off or terrify all those who oppose the occupation—the vast majority of the population—until everyone submits to the occupiers’ “system of control”.

David Kilcullen, a top Australian-born advisor to the US military, delivered the annual Wallace Wurth Memorial Lecture at the University of New South Wales in Sydney on September 3. His remarks provided an insight into the methods and mentality of those directing the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Political Theatrics

A day after the release of the critical Goldstone Commission report over Israeli crimes in Gaza, Israel continued its Anti-UN campaign.

“The Goldstone committee is a committee that was set up to find Israel guilty of crimes that were determined in advanced, and the committee’s members did not let the facts confuse them,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday, in his first comments in response to the harsh UN report investigation into the Israeli aggression on the Gaza strip.

According to the report: “Some of the actions of the Government of Israel might justify a competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed,” and “…the Mission finds that there have been a number of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.”

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