Welcome

Friends,

Thank you for asking about my situation as a columnist at openDemocracy. It has been gratifying to hear from so many readers, from places such as Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Northern Ireland, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and more.

I am sad to report that the people at openDemocracy, for inexplicable reasons, have terminated our relationship and hence my column. It was a rather precipitate decision, following closely on the heels of the columns on Ireland in which I had a little public disagreement with an economist from the Economist.

I was particularly saddened because I thought I had a good relationship with openDemocracy and believed in its stated mission, which supposedly is all about "open and fair dialogue." I may post the correspondence I had with one of the editors there; I have not received the courtesy of a reply to my last letter to the top editor (which was sent in late May).

I decided to start this blog at the behest of several of you; I will populate it primarily with postings on issues I'm most actively involved with:

• my Iraqi friends and their increasingly horrific lives (I thought a year ago it couldn't get much worse, but alas, it has, and they are barely keeping alive at this point);
• the Burmese freedom activists who are trying to get the world community to act against the tyrannical military regime, which is now apparently threatening the life of Aung San Suu Kyi;
• sustainability efforts;
• water privatization, locally and globally;
• TheocracyWatch issues -- fighting dominionism in US government;
• keeping corporations in check by reclaiming sovereignty of, by, and for the people, in the DemocracySchool model;
• theatrical productions;
• and who knows . . .

Thanks for visiting. I hope to hear from you. Please post comments!

Peace,

Maura