The ICC Chief Prosecutor will attempt to establish the existence and execution of a secret plan to keep President Gbagbo in power. But the defendants will tell the world how global political actors, some African countries and some multinational companies destroyed Ivory Coast. They will emphasize that the “Ivorian crisis” is a crisis of globalization, sparked by Gbagbo’s plan to end the 1961 France-Ivorian treaty of cooperation.

A programme aired this week by the BBC reveals that Pope John Paul II, now a saint of the Catholic Church, had an intense relationship spanning three decades with a married Polish-American woman. The details are contained in secret letters and pictures kept in a library in Poland, the pope’s country of birth. The Vatican has dismissed the programme. But the affair raises many puzzling questions.

To be poor means to live with death as a constant presence. It means that daily life is a struggle for survival. That is the reality of the shack-dwellers in South Africa. Amidst this depresseing state of affairs, still members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement are able to find strength to build their solidarity and continue in the struggle for social justice.

Under president Kim, racism against black staff has worsened at the World Bank. He is the first president to be personally accused of racial discrimination. But as an elite member of the Democratic Party, Kim, appointed by President Obama with the endorsement of Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, enjoys political protection to continue his nefarious ways.

He has locked horns with the IMF and the other international poverty pimps for their role in maintaining dictatorial regimes in the developing countries. He has opposed both Iraq wars. He has embraced immigrants. He does not believe in building walls. He believes in tearing down walls of racism, sexism and sectarianism to bring human beings together.