Friday, August 01, 2008
Myopic Mainstream Media
As a columnist for Fourth World Eye, I regularly seek credible news sources outside the myopic confines of mainstream media. One source I've come to rely on is Real News.
Real News does well at presenting sober analysis and alternative points of view within a largely state-centric framework. What would be truly novel is to include an indigenous point of view on world events as articulated by representatives of the Fourth World (stateless nations).
One of the reasons mainstream media is incoherent is that this point of view is excluded. Real News could break new ground by including them.
Fourth World nations (e.g. Basque, Hopi, Igbo, Pashtun) have a full array of societal structures for maintaining self-governance (i.e. health and education, economics, politics, culture), and indeed are continually negotiating various degrees of autonomy within state-centric structures and alongside their institutions. When negotiations fail, we have conflict.
These ancient bedrock nations are not arcane anomalies, but are rather integral to human survival, now and in the future. Their full participation in world affairs is growing and becoming more organized if not visible. Independent World Television can help.
