"People are sick and tired of the way things have been for the past 30 years," says Philip Rizk, a blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. In 2009, Philip was detained by state security after taking part in a protest in support of Gaza, and so has intimate awareness of the control and terror inflicted by the state on its people--who are only escalating, with a general strike called for today and a "Million March" for Tuesday.

It's amazing what inequality can drive people to, eventually. Just look at Egypt. “These big guys are stealing all the money,” one 24-year-old textile worker told standing at his second job as a fruit peddler told a reporter this weekend. "People are desperate.”

"Writing is nothing like dying in, for, and possibly with, your country," writes novelist and essayist Edwidge Danticat in her book Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. But writing and creating can inspire action, whether it's revolution in the streets or simply managing to survive under seemingly hopeless circumstances.

Rebel historian Howard Zinn died a year ago, and we miss him more than ever. As Cairo erupts in protest, as Tunisia drives out its dictator, poet and GRITtv guest Staceyann Chin tweeted "The People Speak." Staceyann was one of many actors, artists, and activist performers who joined Howard for a performance of the pieces collected in his work by that name, inspired by his classic People's History of the United States.

"Writing is nothing like dying in, for, and possibly with, your country," writes novelist and essayist Edwidge Danticat in her book Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. But writing and creating can inspire action, whether it's revolution in the streets or simply managing to survive under seemingly hopeless circumstances.

Wisconsin's new governor is charismatic, good-looking and pleasant, says John Nichols--and he's out to destroy government. The 2010 elections swept in a wave of Tea Party-backed conservatives bent on union-busting, slashing spending, and shrinking government to a size that would fit in Grover Norquist's proverbial bathtub. John stopped by our studio recently, visiting from his home in Wisconsin, to tell us why his governor is one we should particularly have our eye on.

"Economics has a lot to do with unhappiness," says Helena Norberg-Hodge, co-director of The Economics of Happiness. "We have an economic system that is systematically creating job scarcity worldwide," she notes, and it's time that we stopped obsessing about bottom lines, corporate growth, and income at the top and started to think about other ways of measuring positive effects in global society.

"It's a very, very exciting time to be involved in politics," says the New Statesman's Laurie Penny, who has a cover story in the magazine this week on what's next for the student protesters in London now that the Liberal Democrat/Conservative government has passed the education budget cuts. Disability funding and even the National Health Service are in the sights of the government's hatchet, and the students are hard at work reaching out to broaden their coalition.

"It's a very, very exciting time to be involved in politics," says the New Statesman's Laurie Penny, who has a cover story in the magazine this week on what's next for the student protesters in London now that the Liberal Democrat/Conservative government has passed the education budget cuts. Disability funding and even the National Health Service are in the sights of the government's hatchet, and the students are hard at work reaching out to broaden their coalition.

New York is once again buried in snow, but this time more Brooklyn streets are plowed and trains are running, if delayed, to the outer boroughs. While everything slows down for the weather, it's worth noting that the city's managed to be prepared for the last couple of snowstorms.