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Cancel all foreign aid

by Kevin Potvin

Foreign aid never was meant to truly help the unfortunate in poor countries; it was always meant to hurt them. But there is a way to help—through genuine trade that's fair

Unknown to these foreign leaders, the system of foreign aid set up by Western governments, including Canada's, was specifically designed to generate their nation's default on interest payments, defaults that would then require IMF and World Bank interventions of the most drastic sort.

Ukraine at the crossroads

by Keith Mackenzie

Recent elections have revealed a need for renewed democractic accountability in both the United States and in Ukraine, but in only one of those democracies has there been a response

Events in Ukraine were then compared with the events that happened in Georgia almost exactly one year earlier, when Eduard Shevardnadze was upstaged by Mikhail Saakashvili who was swept to power. Comparisons were also made to the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and to Lech Walesa's revolution in Poland, among others. Yushchenko was suddenly a Western hero to stand alongside the greatest of liberators, according to Western media.

How to persuade the poor-bashers

by Michael Nenonen

They aren't all dupes or selfish meanies. Much personal investment is made in beliefs that produce well-intentioned but misguided poor-bashing views

Having believed in useful fictions for so long, and having reached a position of economic security, he's predisposed to see only his own contribution to his situation, ignoring the role external factors played in his success.

Confessions of a rookie protestor

by Andrew Gordon Fleming

Which reason was it to drive cross-country to protest the visit of Bush to Ottawa? It hardly matters—there are many good enough reasons to go around

The president often touts himself as a uniter and not a divider. In this he is correct as the crowd (estimated at anywhere between five and ten thousand) encompassed people from all walks of life united in their opposition to this unpresidential president and his policies of mass destruction.

The war is on, but it's all in your mind

by Kevin Potvin

A leaked Pentagon report whose main contents were ignored by most media speaks of a new war to take place in the channels of that media. That war may have already started

The report warns that US strategic and corporate ‘interests, not public opinion, should drive policies.' It goes on to say that ‘finding new ways to harness strategic communications to the flexibility and creative imagination of the private sector will be central to successful strategic communication.'

Banish the Security Council

by Kevin Potvin

The real problem with the UN was revealed in its inability to do anything about a rogue Security Council member making illegal war on an unthreatening country. That's because of the unjust, undemocratic, and un-needed Security Council itself

As surely the most prominent member of the General Assembly sure to never be considered for inclusion in the Security Council, Canada must defend the interests of all General Assembly members it falls to this country to represent. Those interests are best served not by perpetuating the obese power of the Security Council, or by expanding its exclusivity by just a few new members, but only by banishing the Security Council entirely to the scrap heap of history.

Peak democracy

by Kevin Potvin

A growing disenchantment with the 200 or so year-long experiment with self-rule, a disenchantment as prevalent among the right wing as the left wing, makes for the biggest challenge we've ever faced

No one thought there could possibly be an end to democracy's rise, much less a growing foundation of support for its premature drowning. But that time may have arrived now, at the very moment when the world is arguably at its most democratic ever. But then, don't all things fall right after reaching their highest point?

All quiet on all the fronts

Those who cry about lack of newspapers for the expression of the many voices out there might want to check first if there are that many voices out there trying to be heard

Letters to the Republic

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