Building a Just World: Fair Trade, Ethical Trade and Canada

A documentary series about fair trade and ethical trade, featuring interviews with producers, retailers, activists and researchers from around the world. Download and listen to the documentary at this link. Written by Asad Ismi Produced by Kristin Schwartz Narrated by both In part 1, “Global Pillage”, we examine the roots of today’s so-called free trade […]

Amazingly Rapid Economic Growth has Made China “World’s Workshop”

By Asad Ismi China’s economic ascent over the last two-and-a-half decades has been nothing short of astounding. It now has the fastest-growing large economy in the world, having increased by an amazing 9% a year since 1979, a historical record. As one U.S. newspaper put it, “The world has never seen a nation as big […]

Is the U.S. Empire Collapsing?: U.S. Can’t Keep Relying on Other Countries to Pay for its Imperial Excesses

Asad Ismi Empires collapse usually due to a combination of military overreach and economic weakness, and, judged by these criteria, the U.S. imperial order seems headed for an imminent fall. Washington’s occupation of Iraq has been a disaster. Even after two years, the U.S. military has failed to subdue the Iraqi resistance. A recent report […]

Afghanistan: U.S. Sets Up and Supports the World’s No.1 “Narco” State

By Asad Ismi The close link between U.S. military and covert intervention and drug trafficking continues in Afghanistan today. When it invaded and occupied the country in October 2001, Washington replaced the ruling Taliban with President Hamid Karzai and the Northern Alliance, a group of warlords whose armies are financed by growing and selling opium. […]