A divided Supreme Court on Thursday swept away decades of legislative efforts to restrict the role of corporations in election campaigns, ruling that severe restrictions on corporate spending are inconsistent with the First Amendment’s protection of political speech.

When the Vancouver Olympics open in February, activists plan to stage their own “Poverty Olympics” to put the spotlight on social problems in the city’s notorious Downtown Eastside neighborhood. While local officials say the games will help revitalize the neighborhood, critics say $6 billion in Olympics-related spending has yielded scant benefits for the poor.

Two different stories on All Africa today pose two very different assumptions on the economy in Nigeria. Dr. Magnus Kpakol head of the poverty reduction program for the government of Nigeria says that the poverty rate is falling. However, the head economist at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Dr. Mike Duru says that the poverty rate is rising.

Haiti’s humanitarian disaster has rightfully elicited an outpouring of support from around the world. But the tragedy should also elicit outrage because the massive destruction, suffering and loss of life were largely avoidable.

Natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods that have regularly afflicted Haiti, have plagued mankind throughout history. As the world has become wealthier, the ability to cope with such calamities has grown; annual deaths due to such disasters have declined by 96 percent since the 1920s.

Emilie Tamadaho Atchaca (Benin), Solange Koné (Ivory Coast), Jean Victor Lemvo (Congo Brazzaville), Damien Millet (France), Luc Mukendi and Victor Nzuzi (Congo Kinshasa), Sophie Perchellet (France), Aminata Barry Touré (Mali), Eric Toussaint (Belgium), Ibrahim Yacouba (Niger), all members of CADTM www.cadtm.org 1

…

a 30 second animation commercial from Repower America on how to help our economy by helping our environment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcg5XiE2GDk&feature=related

If you live in Norwalk, CT there will be a ’sneak peek’ of The End of Poverty? during the 5TH ANNUAL ARTISTS FOR PEACE CONCERT TO BENEFIT KIVA.ORG
on Saturday April 18.

The event features 45 performers consisting of professional visual artists and musicians and eight dance companies from Connecticut and New York City will be represented throughout the night, some of which include Bernier Dance, Mitzi Adams Dance Company, LINK! The Movement, The Parker Project and Vissi Dance Theater.

5t…

SOJOURNERS MAGAZINE – April issue

Reviews
Poverty is No Accident
The End of Poverty? written and directed by Philippe Diaz. Cinema Libre Studio.
review by Kaitlin Barker

Warning: Don’t watch The End of Poverty? (or read about it) if you want to preserve your contentment with your lifestyle and the web of structures—historic and current—that make it possible. If the notion of the United States as empire—and poverty as the direct result of empire—is unpalatable, turn the page quickly. Even if en…

The film was just accepted to the Bahrain Human Rights International Film Festival (BHRIFF) in Bahrain, which takes place May 1 – 4.

Bahrain Human Rights International Film Festival (BHRIFF) is a not-for-profit cultural event dedicated to introduce and promote films related to human rights in the region. It is a unique opportunity to celebrate the cinema related to human rights and offer a link between the international filmmakers, directors and producers with the available talents and resource…

By Eric Toussaint & Damien Millet (CADTM)

The international crisis that broke in summer 2008 demolished all the neo-liberal dogmas and exposed the deception behind them. Unable to deny their failure, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund claim they no longer uphold the set of neo-liberal policies known as the Washington Consensus. Yet, discredited though they may be, these two institutions are using the international crisis to return t…