It’s an American product that most people consider as pure as rain and as wholesome as apple pie. Is it possible to criticize Disneyland as a ‘gigantic world encompassing brain-washing facility’? After attacking the insidious way that Disney stories have soft-peddled destructive Western man to the globe’s children, this article from Mexico’s La Jornada criticizes a new Mexican theme park called Excarat for aping Disney’s treatment of the natural world. For La...

Could it be that Lance Armstrong, the American that continues, year after year, to win France’s most renowned sporting event, has been using banned substances all along? Is this a legitimate gripe or just sour grapes? This article by Fabrice Rousselot of France’s Liberation would lead one to believe that after all these years, Armstrong has lost none of his capacity to raise the hackles of his apparently unwilling hosts at the Tour de France. Rousselot writes in part: “Perhaps...

Will President Obama’s first summit meeting with Dmitry Medvedev actually manage to ‘reset’ relations between the former Cold War foes? Columnist Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta newspaper warns not to expect more than atmospherics from the two-day summit that begins today, and outlines why when it comes to the mistakes of the decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin holds Washington entirely responsible for all that’s gone wrong. For Gazeta, Lukyanov...

Excitement over President Obama’s impending visit to Africa – particularly in Ghana – is reaching a fever pitch. According to columnist Christian Agubretu of Ghana’s My Joy newspaper, one reason for hope is that the president has requested a tour of Ghana’s infamous Cape Coast Castle, a major embarkation point for Africans who were kidnapped and sold into slavery. For My Joy, Christian Agubretuwrites in part: “Clearly, the dungeons where the slaves were kept...

A montage of Chinese newspaper front pages on June 27, the day after Michael Jackson’s death. As has already been well-established, huge portions of the world are in mourning over the death of Michael Jackson. This news item from the state-controlled SC News, a Web site of the Chung Shan Daily News Newspaper Group, recounts Michael Jackson’s first and only visit to Mainland China, which took place in 1987. The report consists of an interview with Michael Jackson’s tour guide...

Is Michael Jackson – and along with him U2 and Madonna – the last vestige of a music industry in its death throes? For Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper, Patrik Etschmayer writes in part: “Ever since Michael Jackson, King of Pop, extra-terrestrial, and whatever else he was dubbed, shuffled off this mortal coil, commentators around the world have absolutely flipped. “What’s rarely mentioned is that Jackson, along with the other giants of the 1980s, such as...

With the White House launching the U.S. military into its first big offensive in Afghanistan since President Obama took office, this angry and sarcastic article from Iran’s state-controlled Kayhan newspaper cannot be good news. Writing for Kayhan, Kian Mokhtari writes in part: “On Saturday, Obama rather swiftly brushed off a call by President Ahmadinejad for an apology for Washington’s ‘meddling in Iran’s internal affairs. ‘Obama replied ‘I don’t...

The planetary Rorschach test that is Michael Jackson’s death continues with this article from Brazil’s Folha newspaper. For Folha, Joao Pereira Coutinho delves into the inevitable conspiracy theories surrounding Jackson’s death – and how the singer failed to grasp the myths he himself adopted and altered for his own purposes. Joao Pereira Coutinho writes in part: “Poor Michael Jackson. The man dies as we all die. Only more radically. With his heart prosaically saying...

The remarkable global outpouring of emotion and opinion about Michael Jackson’s death shows no sign of abating. Questions about his relationships with children, his decades-long attempt to whiten his skin, and his tendency to do everything most people do in reverse, are all touched upon by Le Figaro’s Yann Moix, in this thought-provoking defense of Michael Jackson and the way he was compelled to live. In regard to the issue of pedophilia, Moix writes in part: “At seven-years-old,...

Has the Chinese government, to its own detriment, carelessly labeled people, particularly Americans and specifically House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ‘anti-China’? That is the somewhat starling conclusion of this article published in China’s state-controlled Global Geographic Times. First published in Singapore’s United Morning News, Xue Haipei writes in part: “The tendency to overuse the idea of ‘anti-China influences’ continues to push people who aren’t...

As in North America, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Oceania are united in at least one way: shock over the death of Michael Jackson. As part of our coverage of this cultural border-shattering event, we present this editorial by Sebastien Le Fol of France’s Le Figaro newspaper, which investigates why Michael Jackson’s demise has had the incredible impact reverberating around the world today. For Le Figaro, Sebastien Le Fol writes in part: “What fascinates us most of all...

Is it conceivable that Iran and the United States have been working together in Iraq all along? At WORLDMEETS.US, we have documented over the years that there are a good number of people in Iraq that are fully convinced of this – often pointing to the fact that Iran is the country that has gotten the most out of the Iraq invasion. This op-ed from Iraq’s Al Iraq newspaper charges not only that Washington and Tehran have cooperated in tearing Iraq to pieces, but that the United States...

Why is German Chancellor Angela Merkel in town in part to dispel rumors that U.S.-German relations are strained – and that President Obama is less enamored by the Old Continent than his predecessors? Financial Times Deutschland columnist Thomas Klau surmises that at the root of President Obama’s “casual willingness to snub” Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is that individually, European nations no longer warrant the attention they once did. According to Klau, the...

Could it be that CNN is overdoing its coverage of Michael Jackson’s death – pushing aside more pressing issues? If you said yes – then you are in agreement with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who charges that a challenge to the authority of his ally in Honduras, President Manuel Zelaya, is being ignored in favor of Jackson’s passing by the American cable news network, due to the ‘negative values of capitalism.’ This news item from Mexico’s El Universal...

Perhaps unaware that it was using a phrase taken from the nightmarish, counter-intuitive language known as Newspeak from George Orwell’s novel 1984, the Iranian regime today complimented President Obama for his restraint – and lowered the boom on Great Britain. This article by Kian Mokhtari of the Islamic Republic’s conservative, state-controlled Kayhan newspaper says in part: “We thought the world had seen the last of slimy, underhanded British attempts to take over the...

Commenting on the criticism President Obama has been receiving for not more roundly condemning the Iranian regime after the June 12 election, this article from Russia raises the question: Is it an advantage for Russia that it’s President can meet with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, because it ‘doesn’t try to preach to others or impose morality’? According to this article for Russia’s Novosti News Agencyby analyst Dmitriy Babich, America has cornered itself diplomatically...

Have the ripple effects of President Obama’s Cairo speech now reached Latin America? Many people now believe that the elections in Lebanon and Iran were a direct or indirect result of the president’s speech to Muslims. This article by columnist Artemio Cruz of Nicaragua’s El Nuevo Diario shows that that beyond the fact that President Obama’s two speeches to Muslims [from Ankara and Cairo] are having an impact on people far removed from the Middle East or the Arab World,...

‘FEARFUL TIMES’ Since the advent of Barack Obama, has there been a growing expectation around the world that candidates like him are bound to emerge? Calling this group psychosis ‘Obamanization,’ Folha of Brazil’s Joao Pereira Coutinho writes in part: “I am sick of the Obamanization of the world. Now I’ve invented a word. You know what it means to ‘Obamanize?’ It consists of substituting fantasy for reality, hoping that out of the four corners...

Judging from this pair of articles from the Islamic Republic’s hardline, regime-friendly Kayhan newspaper, Iran’s ruling theocrats have determined to blame anyone but themselves for unrest that has so marred the recent presidential election in that country. In the first article, ‘Zionist-Run News Media’ are Wasting Their Time, the regime alleges that The New York Times and Washington Post, among others, have disproven allegations of vote-rigging in their own pages. The...

The ongoing battle in the streets of Iran isn’t the only political-religious clash going on. For Scientologists, perhaps the most pressing current conflict has been taking place in a Paris court. Seven French members of the group, the organization itself and its bookstore have been charged with organized group fraud and illegal use of pharmaceuticals. Scientology frames the case as a thinly-veiled attack on organized religion. According to this news account by Angelique Negroni of France’s...

Women assail government-funded militia as they beat a protester on the streets of Tehran, Saturday, June 20. While there is widespread global support for those battling for reform in Iran, it should surprise no one that even in the Arab/Sunni world, there is support for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his young apprentice, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For Saudi Arabia’s Dar al-Hayat, in a particularly visceral defense of the reigning Iranian regime, Mostafa Zein writes in part: “In Iran, the...

Are we watching the death throes of a decrepit and corrupt dictatorship – or the beginnings of a Persian-style Tienanmen? According to Jean-Claude Kiefer of France’s Les Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace, the mullahs that run the Islamic Republic are ‘doomed’ because openness to the outside is a mortal threat to the regime there – and as anyone who tweets can see – openness of one kind or another is in Iran to stay. For Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace, Jean-Claude...

Continuing with our coverage of the just-concluded trial against Scientology in France, this news item from Le Monde is in part made up of quotes from Scientology’s lead attorney, Patrick Maisonneuve, who sees the case as a cop-out on the part of prosecutors. While the charges against Scientology are for organized group fraud and the illegal use of pharmaceuticals, Maisonneuve says the real defendent in the case is religion writ large – and prosecutors simply lack the nerve to go after...

A newly-minted piece of commemorative cloth from Ghana, printed for President Obama’s first visit to the heart of Africa since taking office. Ghana’s gain is being seen as nearby Nigeria’s loss. Nigerian soul-searching over why Obama is skipping the oil-rich country is reaching a fever pitch. For Modern Ghana, Nigerian columnist Sola Odunfa writes of an encounter he had recently with a retired Nigerian diplomat, shattered by Obama’s decision to avoid oil and corruption-rich...

Continuing with our coverage of the Iranian election crisis as it impinges upon the United States, we present this article from the boldest publication on the Russian media firmament, Gazeta. This newspaper, owned in part by former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev – reports on events and issues that other Russian media fear to touch. According to this Gazeta editorial, while the West and particularly the United States may be hoping the Kremlin will be able to help with Iran and other rogue...