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08 Feb 2011

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Mubarak Corruption Made Egypt a “Failed State”

Three decades of rule by President Hosni Mubarak’s clique of “corrupt businessmen” reversed the nation’s achievements in agrarian reform and “took it back to the time of the monarchy” that was overthrown in 1952, says Seif Dana, associate professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. Economically, Egypt “was totally surrendered to the World Bank and the IMF, and politically, to foreign powers."

Housing Discrimination Keeps Blacks From Returning to New Orleans

The white leaders of Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish say they’ll stop trying to prevent construction of hundreds of mixed income apartments, in an effort to keep Blacks from moving into the 90 percent white jurisdiction. James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, which has been locked in court battles with the Parish, says housing discrimination “has made it difficult” for Blacks to return to post-Katrina New Orleans. According to new U.S. Census data, the city lost about 140,000 residents in the 2005 exodus.

U.S. Needs Medicare For All

Whichever way the U.S. Supreme Court eventually rules on the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care legislation, “the American people will continue to be screwed, because health care should not be treated as a market,” says Dr. Clark Newhall, executive director of Health Justice. “A Medicare-for-all solution is necessary.”

Prison Rape Grossly Under-Reported

The U.S. Justice Department estimates that more than 216,000 inmates are sexually abused every year, many of them by prison staff, but only 7,444 prisoners filed formal complaints in 2008. Lovisa Stannow, executive director of Just Detention International, says sexual abuse behind bars “is eminently preventable” if there is a “strong political will…to stand up for the dignity of inmates” in the face of this “human rights crisis.”

Whose Moment is It?

Dr. Jared Ball, of Black Agenda Report, says President Obama's “Sputnik Moment” spiel is an attempt to “wake the country up to its slipping grip on power over the world.” It’s also an example of political “branding” by phrase-mongering,

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.

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