OK readers, I am back in New York after three weeks on assignment in Peru. I did not have time to blog from Peru, but I will be working hard in the coming days to bring the Daily Report [1] up to date, including with accounts on indigenous struggles in the Andes that have received no coverage in English. Alas, World War 4 Report has come back to something of a crisis. Both the website and my personal computer need upgrades in order to function—and three weeks of work on them while I was away in South America seems to have been insufficient. So, already in an economic hole, it looks like we are about to go deeper into red. Among the things we are working on is getting the daily tsunami of spam posts under control, so that we can again publish reader comments. This requires money...
After our initial upgrade last summer, we pledged [2] that if we could raise just $1,000, we would forgo our usual year-end fund drive and not ask for money again until after the next spring. Well, it took us until the end of the year to raise that $1,000, and it is now well after the following spring. We frankly do not understand why most progressive news-oriented websites can reliably ask their readers for $5,000 or more twice a year, while we can barely ask our readers for just $1,000 once a year—even though (even if we say so ourselves) World War 4 Report is far more valuable than most. Maybe the problem is that we are too news-oriented, mostly presenting little-covered facts instead of making every post an opportunity to spew opinion. Or maybe the problem is that we are too progressive, and will not rally around reactionary dictators who happen to be on the White House shit-list, like Bashar Assad and Moammar Qaddafi. Or that we consistently cover things like indigenous struggles in the Andes and Central America, rather than following the mainstream media's lead on what is "sexy" at the moment...
In any case, we appeal to our readers: please, let's not make this modest $1,000 fund-drive last until the end of 2013. Our continued work depends on your response. We know we have 20 readers who can afford $50 to make this happen. Will you be one of them?
Or send checks to:
World War 4 Report
121 Fifth Ave. #172
Brooklyn NY 11217
Again, we are counting on just 20 readers who can afford $50. We will post the results below as they come in...
Thank you!
