We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Neo-Paramilitary Gangs Ratchet Up Their Threat to Colombian Civil Society and the Long Term Survival of Civic Rectitude in the Public Arena

Click here to access article by Denise Fonseca and Candiss Shumate from Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

This article brings us up-to-date on affairs in Columbia. It seems that nothing has changed since Uribe's administration (see this, this, and this for details). The Empire's satrap in South America continues to use paramilitaries to terrorize any opposition to the military clique trained and indoctrinated in the US.

Likewise, contrary to earlier reports in 2008 after a Colombian army raid on a FARC camp, this article reports that FARC seems to be alive and well.