Hope

While the Earth Burns has an excellent article up on grassroots revolutionary democracy in South America.
I heartily recommend it.
If you depend heavily on North American news - the car crashes, the house fires, big weather, celeb gossip, the egregious behavior of some government official, the best places to holiday, the latest food that can kill you, tons of US news, the newest seven wonders of ...oh look, another white girl has fallen down a well - then you could be forgiven for thinking we're choking on our entitlements while acting out some sort of secular end times.

Meanwhile, down south in the two-thirds world...Grassroots Movements Changing the Face of Power