Five Reasons Why 2014 Was a Game Changer in Palestine

Ramzy Baroud Common Dreams
In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands. While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual Palestinian Authority (PA), and the criminality of Israeli wars and occupation, it would also be fair to argue that 2014 was also a game changer to some degree—and it is not all bad news. And here are five reasons why.

U.S. Black Press Calls for Normalizing Relations With Cuba

Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. Black Press USA
This week the President/CEO of the National Newspapers Publishers Association, the 73-year-old federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers in the United States, called upon the Black community to support full normalization of relations with Cuba. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. noted only Congress can lift the embargo of Cuba, and only the people can "force Congress to do the right thing." Now is not the time for Black America to be silent, he said.

Okinawa: A Small Island Resists U.S. Military's "Pivot to Asia"

Christine Ahn Foreign Policy in Focus
With the election of Takeshi Onaga as the new governor of Okinawa, the Okinawa people have once again expressed in clear terms their opposition to the attempts by the U.S. and Japan to turn their already militarized island into "the largest concentration of land, sea, and air military power in East Asia." Okinawa is key to the U.S. military's "Pivot to Asia", but 1.4 million Okinawans are continuing to demand the removal of all U.S. military bases there.

War Is Peace Doublespeak: Selling Peace Groups on U.S. Wars

Margaret Sarfehjooy and Coleen Rowley ConsortiumNews
Since the massive anti-war protests against the war in Vietnam, the U.S. government's war machine has made “perception management” a high priority, feeding the U.S. people a steady diet of propaganda, even getting peace groups to buy into “pro-democracy” wars. The Minnesota experience with the Committee of Solidarity with the People of Syria is an example of these efforts made to enlist peace and social justice groups into supporting U.S. wars.

Friday Nite Videos -- Singing Out 2014

Portside
Hong Kong Ode to Joy Flash Mob. Stevie Wonder: 'Hard Time Mississippi.' Handel's Messiah: A Random Act of Culture. Pete Seeger -- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. Mary Poppins Really Needs a Raise.

Hong Kong: Ode to Joy Flashmob

The Hong Kong Festival Orchestra gives a flashmob performance of Beethoven's Ode to Joy in 2013. A spiritual prelude to Occupy Hong Kong and the Democracy Encampments? 

Handel's Messiah: A Random Act of Culture

The Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus, together with singers from a cross section of community groups, infiltrate a department store as shoppers and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah," in one of 1,000 Random Acts of Culture. Watch the performers, delighted children, spontaneous videographers, and the entire public within earshot together "create culture."

Pete Seeger -- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

For a biographical account of America in song, look to Pete Seeger (1919-2014). This song of Pete's is the one he chose to sing on national TV in 1968, ending his more than decade-long blacklist, and showing that he hadn't made peace with war and injustice.