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

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Unravelling the riddle of the Kurds’ Iraqi pipedream

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

The extraordinary Brazilian journalist offers his take on the rather complicated interests involved in the Kurdish desire for independence in norther Iraq. It appears that Kurdish fantasies about independence are just that--fantasies.
Masoud Barzani has overplayed his hand – no regional powers are going to assent to partition of Iraq