A week ago, my friend and I left Vancouver, planning to hit Seattle, Portland and the Oregon Coast. One interesting thing about driving through rural America is the way the war manifests itself in the endless stream of bumper stickers, pins and billboards. In coffee-crazy Washington state, even the smallest hamlets have three or four […] More »

Behind the G8 leaders’ photo ops and trumped-up commitments to cancel African debt, the dirty business of so-called “vulture funds” are making real debt relief impossible. As reported by investigative journalist Greg Palast on the BBC and Democracy Now, companies have been allowed to buy debts owed by African countries at a discount, and then […] More »

On Sunday, This Magazine writer Jennifer O’Connor participated in a march for social housing leading up to the takeover of an abandoned house in Toronto. Here is her account of the action. (PHOTO: KRISZTINA KUN) “How would you like to live with roaches, no heat, no water and no money to cover basic necessities?” asked […] More »

When Big Pharma doesn’t get its way, it takes its toys and goes home. When the “toys” in question are life-saving medications, the results can be grim. People with HIV in Thailand are finding this out first hand. Most medications are protected by 20-year patents that allow a drugmaker the exclusive right to produce them […] More »

Getting the word out about a free hospital for pregnant Haitian women (photo by Isabelle Jeanson for Médecins sans Frontières) The poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Haiti has suffered as a result of international intervention for over five hundred years. The damage continues to this day, in the form of desperate poverty and extreme […] More »