“The price of transforming Iran peacefully, I have long known but these days feel more acutely, is sacrifice of the highest order.”
As the USA rattles its bombs and boycotts at Iran, I found 2 books that helped me understand that country and its recent past; it all started in 1953 when the CIA overthrew the democratic and nationalist leader of Iran, Mossadegh, and installed the Shah to do the USA’s bidding. Ebadi’s memoir is the story of a society and its resistance, not just of one woman.
Shirin Ebadi started life as a privileged Read more [...] Author Archives: Theresa Wolfwood. Director, The Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation
Ebadi, Shirin with Azadeh Moaveni. IRAN AWAKENING. 2006. Alfred A. Knopf. Canada
“The price of transforming Iran peacefully, I have long known but these days feel more acutely, is sacrifice of the highest order.”
As the USA rattles its bombs and boycotts at Iran, I found 2 books that helped me understand that country and its recent past; it all started in 1953 when the CIA overthrew the democratic and nationalist leader of Iran, Mossadegh, and installed the Shah to do the USA’s bidding. Ebadi’s memoir is the story of a society and its resistance, not just of one woman.
Shirin Ebadi started life as a privileged Read more [...] Comments Off on Ebadi, Shirin with Azadeh Moaveni. IRAN AWAKENING. 2006. Alfred A. Knopf. Canada
Filed under Azadeh Moaveni, Book Reviews, Shirin Ebadi
Dressel, Holly. WHO KILLED THE QUEEN? The Story of a Community Hospital and How to Fix Public Health Care. 2008. McGill—Queen’s University Press. Montreal & Kingston. Canada
“These facts lead to only one conclusion: public health, with its integral conception of ultimate social equality is the key to health in general.”
This book might also have been subtitled: Who really runs Canada? Dressel, a respected historian, was funded to investigate the closing of an excellent hospital, the Queen Elizabeth with a long tradition of successful patient care when it was forced to close along with many other hospitals in Montréal and the rest of Canada in the mid-1990s.
Dressel starts with the local — the history Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Holly Dressel
Drache, Daniel. Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America. 2004. Fernwood Publishing, Halifax, NS.
Our border with the USA is both the symbol and the geographic reality of our nearness and our similarities to - and our differences from - the culture of that large and looming giant that 80% of us live within shopping distance of. In spite of recent efforts to integrate Canada, militarily and economically into the USA, we have a unique society and many values worth preserving. That is the crux of Drache’s optimistic presentation.
Integration seemed to be an assured downhill slide after NAFTA was signed seven years ago, but Drache says Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Daniel Drache
Dorfman, Ariel & Armand Mattelart. HOW TO READ DONALD DUCK: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic. Introduction & translation from Spanish by David Kunzle. English text: International General. USA 1975.
“Mr. Disney, we are returning your Duck. Feathers plucked and well–roasted. Look inside, you can see the handwriting on the wall, our hands still writing on the wall: Donald, Go Home!” From the authors’ introduction.
A friend just entrusted me with a treasured photocopy of this little gem which I had never heard of; the analysis is witty, serious, and important Fortunately it is still available second hand; it is completely relevant today, 30 years later.
When I was in Porto Alegre for the World Social Forum I bought a T–shirt with Read more [...] Comments Off on Dorfman, Ariel & Armand Mattelart. HOW TO READ DONALD DUCK: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic. Introduction & translation from Spanish by David Kunzle. English text: International General. USA 1975.
Filed under Ariel Dorfman, Armand Mattelart, Book Reviews
Docena, Herbert. ‘At the Door of all the East’: The Philippines in United State Military Strategy Focus on the Global South. The Philippines. 2007.
“The Philippines gives us a base at the door of all the East.” U.S. Senator Alfred J. Beveridge, 1900
Herbert Docena´s excellent research reports are on the cutting edge of modern documentation. Much more useful than whole books with long publication time lines and limited availability, these reports are available in print and many electronic forms soon after completion and are readily accessible. This is the latest of his reports from the respected group Focus on the Global South which is an integral part of the social movements in the Read more [...] Comments Off on Docena, Herbert. ‘At the Door of all the East’: The Philippines in United State Military Strategy Focus on the Global South. The Philippines. 2007.
Filed under Book Reviews, Herbert Docena
Docena, Herbert. UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE: Are US Special Forces engaged in an ‘offensive war’ in the Philippines? 2007. Focus on the Global South. Quezon City, Philippines.
Canada shares with the Philippines the dubious distinction of not having foreign military bases. But Canadians know that, from Nanoose Bay on the Pacific to Cold Lake Alberta, to Goose Bay in Labrador, the USA and other NATO countries military make regular, frequent and lengthy use of so-called Canadian bases.
In the Philippines, foreign bases were closed by the post-Marcos constitution and the presence of foreign troops was to be limited to so-called training exercises. Things are not quite so simple and Docena has prepared this report Read more [...] Comments Off on Docena, Herbert. UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE: Are US Special Forces engaged in an ‘offensive war’ in the Philippines? 2007. Focus on the Global South. Quezon City, Philippines.
Filed under Book Reviews, Herbert Docena
de Vries, Maggie. Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman remembers her vanished sister. 2003. Penguin. Canada.
Maggie de Vries is a writer and teacher; she is also pretty and blonde. She and her beautiful sister, Sarah, grew up in a loving family. But Sarah was a woman of colour and was harassed and tormented as she grew up in our bigoted society. She was murdered in 1998 after a short and often brutal life without developing her special writing talent.
It is the circumstances of Sarah’s death which finally shocked Canadians and made her a public figure after she vanished. Sarah had become a sex worker and an addict, following her trade on the streets Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Maggie de Vries
de Villiers, Marq. Water. Stoddart Publishing Co. Toronto.
The Governor-General's Award Winner opens his wide-ranging account of the importance of water with a page of quotes. The one I remember is: Millions have lived without love. No one has lived without water.
De Villiers has written a comprehensive survey of global water resources and use, the effect of climate change on water and human intervention in water distribution and its geopolitical results. He writes about Canada and NAFTA, water in Africa and the Middle East. In the end he presents the necessary solutions – conservation, new technology, Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Marq de Villiers
DAVIS, WALT & many authors. STEADFAST HOPE: The Palestinian Quest for Just Peace. 2010. The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
“For me the struggle is not between Palestinians and Israelis, nor between Jews and Arabs. The fight is between those who seek peace and those who seek war. My people are those who seek peace.” Nurit Peled Elhanan
A mainstream Christian church in the USA has taken the peace gospels of the Bible seriously and committed itself to leadership by supporting the Palestinian quest for just peace in a profound way. One part of this commitment is the production of this excellent guide to history, current situation and peace initiatives in Palestine Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Walt Davis
Dangl, Benjamin. THE PRICE OF FIRE: RESOURCE WARS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN BOLIVIA. 2007. AK Press. USA & Scotland.
´The history of Latin America has been one of expropriation… Resources, and with them workers´ rights and public services have been squashed in a post—colonial free for all´.
Dangl, a young USA writer, travels through Latin America learning about the past and present history—in—the—making events of our southern neighbours. The main focus is Bolivia but he puts it into context with reports from surrounding countries as well. Recent events in this small mountainous country — the plebiscites on the elected President, Evo Morales, Read more [...] Comments Off on Dangl, Benjamin. THE PRICE OF FIRE: RESOURCE WARS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN BOLIVIA. 2007. AK Press. USA & Scotland.
Filed under Benjamin Dangl, Book Reviews
Cramer, Ben. Nuclear Weapons: AT WHAT COST? 2009. International Peace Bureau (IPB). Geneva, Switzerland.
“Military spending cannot buy a country´s peace and security. Governments eventually come to admit that, even in purely economic terms…”
Cramer is a political analyst of the arms race with experience as a journalist and as an activist on disarmament and security issues. In this facts and figures packed book published by the global peace umbrella group, IBP, he documents the cost of nuclear weapons in nine nuclear nations while acknowledging, “There are many other prices to be paid by states (and their populations) once they embark on Read more [...]
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Cox, Rebecca A., editor. WEST BANK: A COLLECTION OF GRAPHIC NOVELS. 2010. Project Hope. Canada & Palestine.
“From language, photography and art classes to summer camps and projects such as drama and mural painting, Project Hope attempts to provide a safe haven for children and youth to learn and heal the psychological traumas of the occupation.” from the introduction
Project Hope, a Canadian NGO in the West Bank, based in Nablus, has, in this unique collection, published the seldom seen or heard thoughts and creative work of young Palestinians. It is the remarkable and successful result of a project to give students at the An–Najah University Read more [...] Comments Off on Cox, Rebecca A., editor. WEST BANK: A COLLECTION OF GRAPHIC NOVELS. 2010. Project Hope. Canada & Palestine.
Filed under Book Reviews, Rebecca A. Cox
