Ali Shariati was one of the major intellectual forerunners of the Islam revolution in Iran who as mastering both Islam and Western philosophy has almost single handedly crossed the line between political Islam and the (secular) Left. His intellectual heritage begs for the question: may a credible Islam Left be formed/revived or political Islam becomes the servant of reactionary and imperialism supporting forces for good.

In a world of lost hope the political-intellectual search of Hugo Chavez and the development – or maybe the sheer existence – of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a peculiar challenge for social analysis. The article reviews the political history of Venezuela in the past 20 years "from fact to fact" centred on the social, domestic and foreign policy achievements of the decade long presidency of Chavez full of vicissitudes.

More than 15 years have passed since the 1989 events draw the attention of the global public to the minders' movement but events developed since then put them into a different aspect. The frame of the analysis is the continuous interaction between actors (this approach emphasizes choice, spontaneity and indefiniteness) and circumstances or structure (the recurring patterns in thinking and behaviour that limit free actions of individuals). The study emphasizes that events developing between these two poles are not determined and are in a flux.

The Gaza War was the consequence of the policy of force rooting in the revisionist Zionism of the 1920s and expanding after Ariel Sharon took power in 2001 – a policy that was backed by the Bush-doctrine securing the solid support of a superpower over eight years. It would be too early to answer the question how the apparently diverging US and Israeli politics in the region – after Barack Obama set his new priorities in the Middle-East – can be consolidated.

One of the basic conflicts of our time is the conflict between North and South, the problem of global poverty. The present essay is analysing the question – differently from the regular way – not from a moral standpoint but as an actual threat to Europe.