Teaching disenfranchisement

Ah, the misguided things that the CIA did (or still does.)


More of the guide is available at flickr.

In the early 1980s, the right-wing reagan u.s. government was determined to undermine or overthrow the leftist government of nicaragua.

as part of this campaign, the central intelligence agency produced a small illustrated booklet in both spanish and english designed to destabilise the nicaraguan government and economic system.

It instructed dissaffected individuals on acts of sabotage they could carry out to this end.

who runs the world

or more specifically, who runs your world?

Interesting snippets from BBC’s power series. It’s heartening to see the variety of answers.

“My mum. And football players like Pele, Zico and Ronaldo are important characters – I feel compelled to follow in their footsteps.” – Ronaldinho (soccer player)

“One shouldn’t have any doubts as to who runs the world – it’s women, of course.
It’s obvious, because all the important things in life are done either because of women or thanks to them.” – Yulia Tymoshenko is former Prime Minister of Ukraine.

“I’ve worked for GE for 23 years and the people who rule my world are investors and customers. – eff Immelt is Chairman and CEO of General Electric, the world’s largest corporation

“We live in a globalised world, in a world of mutual inter-dependence.
[The world is run by] a complicated structure of decision-making bodies, starting from local powers up to national and, for example, the EU, WTO, and UN.” – Mikhail Gorbachev

“Professionally, my world is run by the directors and producers who make films – but they have to ultimately rely on the audiences.” – Helena Bonham Carter

“I used to joke that we had 15 members in the Security Council but you have 16 – [that] CNN was another member. At a certain time, television is running your world, another time you may have men like Nelson Mandela or Pope John Paul II. It changes according to events.” – Boutros Boutros-Ghali

“If we think others run our world – for example the US because it is a superpower, or a certain German philosopher because he predicted the future – then we do nothing to shape our own world. The future is in our own hands.” – Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian Nobel peace prize winner.

senegal and gambia’s egg troubles

Senegal may tunnel under Gambia
“Senegal’s president has suggested building a tunnel under Gambia to link the country’s north and south.
Gambia – which is a long thin sliver of land surrounded by Senegal – has a stranglehold on the best routes between one part of Senegal and the other. “

I don’t claim to know the geo-political situation out there. But this reminds me of the egg troubles the Lilliputians had, which side of hard-boiled eggs should be broken first.

Living together, getting along seems to be a really hard concept to grasp these days. Whatever we’ve learned in our 5000 or so years of recorded human history, we seem to be losing really fast.