Articles by UN
We found 3962 results.
Making Sense of the “Super Fuse” Scare
The Unz Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 May 2017
11 May 2017 – For weeks now I have been getting panicked emails with readers asking me whether the USA had developed a special technology called “super fuses” which would make it possible for the USA to successfully pull-off a (preemptive) disarming first strike against Russia.
→ read full articleThe Basques in Spain: Positive Peace?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 May 2017
Spain is in a process that will take some time, from “España: Una, Grande, Libre” to “España: Una Comunidad de naciones”—“Spain: One, Great, Free” to “Spain: A community of nations.” Positive peace builds on negative peace building on conciliation of traumas and solution of conflicts. There is much work to be done, but Spain as a true community of nations will inspire the whole world.
→ read full articleRalph Waldo Emerson (25 May 1803 – 27 Apr 1882)
Ann Woodlief | Virginia Commonwealth University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 May 2017
He had become quite famous, a major figure in the American literary landscape, a celebrity which brought both adultation and satire. He had been a profound inspiration for many writers, especially Henry Thoreau and Walt Whitman.
→ read full articleRadical Love
Rivera Sun | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 May 2017
Perhaps people in the social justice movements don’t notice. The feelings of solidarity that can arise within movements can mask the ways hate for one’s opposition depletes the soul. More obvious is the effect within the opposition. Sensing hate from the movement, their hearts close off, the deficiency of love drops further, and they lash out violently, entrenching in defense of their actions.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Disturbo da Esuberanza Post-Gloria (PGED)
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 May 2017
Questo si apre al comportamentismo : evitare il trauma, cercare la gloria. Ma l’idea va più in profondità. Un trauma grave e ripetuto comporta un disturbo da stress, non solo stress. Una gloria intensa e ripetuta può comportare un disturbo da esuberanza: facciamo altre guerre per mietere altre vittorie! Non solo per difesa!
→ read full article(Italiano) “Politica interna mondiale”
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 May 2017
Un’attenzione mondiale per le comunità più miserevoli, risollevare la parte di umanità più a fondo, questo è il mondo solidaristico di cui abbiamo bisogno. Fare questo sarebbe già Weltinnenpolitik. Oggi, non aspettando 50 e più anni.
→ read full articleMissing: Political Creativity
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 May 2017
Overfed with the developed-developing dichotomy, many believe that the former have no problems whereas the latter have only problems. Much better is a Yin-Yang perspective: something is missing in all; something has been accomplished by all. The limitation is in our limited political imagination. Grow so that world visions will open up in our minds, shared with others in new speeches, enacted in new acts. We can if we will. And we will if we imagine.
→ read full articleHow to Stay Empathic without Suffering So Much
Amy L. Eva | The Greater Good, University of California Berkeley – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 May 2017
Here are four steps to transform your empathic distress into a healthier, more helpful, and more sustainable form of empathy.
→ read full articleGrowing Inequality under Global Capitalism
Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram – Inter Press Service-IPS,
8 May 2017
4 May 2017 – Income and wealth inequality has increased in recent decades, but recognition of the role of economic liberalization and globalization in exacerbating inequality has never been so widespread. The guardians of global capitalism are nervous, yet little has been done to check, let alone reverse the underlying forces.
→ read full articleFive Ways the Meat on Your Plate Is Killing the Planet
Francis Vergunst and Julian Savulescu – The Conversation,
8 May 2017
Most people living in industrialised countries have historically unprecedented dietary choice. And if our nutritional needs can now be met by consuming foods that are less harmful, then we ought to choose these over foods that are known to cause more harm. Eating less meat and animal products is one of the easiest things we can do to live more ethically.
→ read full article
Occupation of the American Mind – Video Documentary
Media Education Foundation | Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 May 2017
March 2017 – Occupation of American media and mind by a pro-Israel narrative that has diverted attention from conflict resolution: end the occupation and the settlements so that Palestinians can finally have a state of their own. Narrator: Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
→ read full articleThe Post Glory Exuberance Disorder-PGED
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 May 2017
This opens for behaviorism: avoid trauma, seek glory. But the idea is deeper. Deep-repeated trauma leads to stress disorder, not only stress. Deep-repeated glory may lead to exuberance disorder: let us have more wars to enjoy more victories! Not only for defense!
→ read full articleJust Because the Golden Arches Are in Vietnam Doesn’t Mean the US Won the War
Mark Ashwill – CounterPunch,
8 May 2017
5 May 2017 – As we reflect on the 42nd anniversary of the merciful and jubilant end of the American War in Viet Nam, I have good news to share with US Americans, especially those who remember, or came of age in, that turbulent era: Viet Nam is alive and well and, indeed, prospering in many respects. In fact, it’s faring better than the superpower it defeated in terms of optimism, dynamism, and hope.
→ read full articleImperialism and the Logic of Mass Destruction
Carl Boggs - CounterPunch,
8 May 2017
From the standpoint of Washington, “rational” pursuits are also imperial pursuits and imperial pursuits generally lead to military pursuits, as history demonstrates. Technowar managers are not especially sensitive to the prospects of massive civilian losses. Normal behavioral assumptions therefore do not apply to U.S. war calculations, whoever occupies the White House.
→ read full article(Italiano) Ridurre la violenza urbana
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
Per ridurre la violenza diretta nelle città dobbiamo convertirci da una cultura della violenza urbana ad una cultura della pace urbana e dalla violenza strutturale urbana ad una struttura di pace. I nomi delle strade non devono glorificare guerre ed eroi violenti bensì la pace e i suoi eroi, sovente donne. Si spostino i monumenti di guerrieri a cavallo nei pressi dei cimiteri a mo’ di sepolture simboliche.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Messaggio di Pasqua
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
Dagli USA di Trump non è stata resurrezione, ma morte. 59 missili Tomahawk per la Siria, la “madre di tutte le bombe” per l’Afghanistan; stati musulmani. Entrambi gli attacchi sono stati giustificati con menzogne. La vecchia menzogna che l’11 settembre 2001 aveva avuto origine in Afghanistan, la nuova menzogna che Assad aveva deliberatamente fatto uso di sarin [i]. La contro-narrazione può reggere – che gli USA hanno fornito il gas e hanno usato l’incidente quale pretesto per attaccare. Vediamo se USA-NATO acconsentono a che venga fatta una inchiesta; se avessero la coscienza pulita, dovrebbero acconsentire.
→ read full article(Português) Consumo de refrigerantes diet aumenta risco de demência e AVC
Nuno Noronha | Sapo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
Bebidas adocicadas artificialmente, como o refrigerante diet, podem aumentar o risco de acidente vascular cerebral e demência, revela uma investigação da Universidade de Boston, publicada na revista científica americana Stroke.
→ read full articleJapan Should Be More Active Peace Contributor
Shinichi Kitaoka | The Japan News - The Yomiuri Shimbun,
1 May 2017
When Prime Minister Abe committed to making a “more proactive contribution to peace,” some commentators who criticized the new policy for being confusingly similar to the concept of “positive peace” popularized by Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, the father of peace studies. Galtung defined an ordinary state of peace with the absence of war as “negative peace” and a state of peace with the absence of structural violence, such as oppression, poverty and discrimination as “positive peace.”
→ read full articleEndless Atrocities: The US Role in Creating the North Korean Fortress-State
Robert J Barsocchini | Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
Paul Atwood, a Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, provides a concise summary of the history that informs North Korea’s “relations with the United States” and “drives its determination never to submit to any American diktat”… In its full invasion of the North, the US acted under the banner of the UN. However, the UN at that time was “largely under the control of the USA”, and as Prof. Carl Boggs puts it, essentially ‘was’ the USA.
→ read full article“World Domestic Politics”
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
A world focus on the world’s most miserable communities, to lift up the bottom of humanity, is a welfare world we need. Doing that would already be Weltinnenpolitik. Today, not waiting 50+ more years.
→ read full articleA Structural Theory of Aggression (1964)
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
This theoretical essay is concerned with the conditions of aggression. We shall define aggression somewhat vaguely as ‘drives towards change, even against the will of others’. The extreme forms of this phenomenon are crimes, including homicide, between individuals; revolutions, including elimination, between groups; and wars, including genocide, between nations. These forms make aggression negative and problematic, a cause of concern and prevention. But one can also turn the coin and look at the other face: aggression as the driving force in history, as the motivational energy that moves mountains.
→ read full articleShutting Down American-Style Authoritarianism
Henry A. Giroux - Tikkun Magazine,
1 May 2017
It is impossible to imagine the damage Trump and his white nationalists, economic fundamentalists, and white supremacists friends will do to civil liberties, the social contract, the planet, and life itself in the next few years. Rather than address climate change, the threat of nuclear war, galloping inequality, the elimination of public goods, Trump and his vicious acolytes have accelerated the threats faced by these growing dangers.
→ read full articleBurma/Myanmar: “Communal Violence” Argument Being Peddled Again
Dr. Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
What is fundamentally wrong with the “communal violence” argument in the paper below, ‘Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar,’ by Nick Cheesman.
→ read full articleWhy Does North Korea Want Nukes?
Paul Atwood – CounterPunch,
24 Apr 2017
21 Apr 2017 – Why has this tiny nation of 24 million people invested so much of its limited resources in acquiring nuclear weapons? North Korea’s stance cannot be separated out from its turbulent history during the 20th Century, especially its four decade long occupation by Japan, the forced division of the Korean peninsula after World War II, and, of course, the subsequent utterly devastating war with the United States from 1950-1953 that ended in an armistice in which a technical state of war still exists.
→ read full articleAn Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide
Alice Cowley and Maung Zarni | Middle East Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
Waves of state-directed violence and communal destruction … have been occurring since 1978 and are part of a process of ‘slow-burning genocide.’ Decades of facts relating to the instrumental role of the Myanmar State in the abuses of Rohingya are buried alongside very real human corpses.
→ read full articleReducing Urban Violence
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
World Forum on Urban Violence, Madrid, 19-21 April 2017 – To reduce direct violence in cities we have to move from urban violence culture to an urban peace culture and from urban structural violence to a structure of peace. Street names should not glorify wars and violent heroes but peace and their heroines, often women. Move warrior on horseback monuments close to the cemetery for symbolic burial.
→ read full articleOur American Pravda
Ron Unz | The Unz Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
17 Apr 2017 – Top academic scholars and seasoned Intelligence professionals have widely derided the alleged Syrian government Sarin gas attack as an apparent false-flag hoax. Yet our fanatically Trump-hating mainstream media has almost totally ignored these facts, instead fulsomely praising the President for immediately launching an unconstitutional missile attack upon Syria in retaliation, while congratulating him for his new-found “moderation” in potentially provoking a dangerous military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.
→ read full article(Italiano) Può darci pace la scienza empirica?
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
Il dito di Galileo indica due pilastri della scienza: la conoscenza scientifica deve basarsi sull’osservazione o la sperimentazione di fatti empirici; e la matematica è il linguaggio usato per esporre questa conoscenza scientifica. Prima obiezione: soltanto il passato può produrre fatti empirici; il che limita quello che potrebbe essere o che dovrebbe essere a ciò che già è manifesto in alcuni fatti. Ma gli esseri umani sono in grado di trascendere il passato e creare fatti nuovi.
→ read full article(Italiano) Frattanto, per il mondo …
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
Cominciando dall’Unione Europea, 60enne, che rende importanti i piccoli stati (il Lussemburgo!) rendendoli membri di qualcosa più grosso, ma ridimensiona stati più grandi, addirittura imperiali, rendendoli semplici “membri”.
→ read full articleThe Easter Message
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
From Trump’s USA was not resurrection, but death. 59 Tomahawk missiles for Syria, the “mother of all bombs” for Afghanistan; Muslim states. Both attacks were based on lies: the old lie that 9/11 had its origin in Afghanistan, the new lie that Assad deliberately had used sarin . The counter-narrative–that USA had provided the gas and used the accident as pretext for an attack–may stand. Let us see if USA-NATO accept an investigation; with a clean conscience, they would.
→ read full articleWho Owns the World? Tracing Half the Corporate Giants’ Shares to 30 Owners
David Peetz and Georgina Murray | Griffith University – The Conversation,
17 Apr 2017
11 Apr 2017 – When people say share ownership is highly diversified, they think most large public corporations have lots of shareholders – and often the largest shareholder has less than 15%, sometimes less than 5%, of the total shareholdings. But looking at it this way obscures the concentration that is taking place. The same organisations – usually finance capital, rarely families or individuals – own these public companies.
→ read full articleRighteousness and Dignity: Thoreau, Malcolm X and the Crisis of Leadership in America
Kim C. Domenico - CounterPunch,
10 Apr 2017
In these times when we are cut off from a context or a genuine culture that could nourish and encourage our humanity, many of us get trapped into taking what the consumer culture offers. Captive in a dehumanizing culture, this is the way we take care of ourselves. It is not the way free, dignified, sovereign people answer their rightful wants and needs.
→ read full article(Français) Guerres et terrorisme: « l’effet boomerang »
Alex Anfruns | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Apr 2017
3 Avr 2017 – Est-ce que l’OTAN garantit notre sécurité ? Les gens s’interrogent de plus en plus à ce sujet. Aux élections présidentielles françaises, la sortie de l’OTAN figure noir sur blanc dans le programme de la France Insoumise de Jean-Luc Mélenchon. En Belgique également, quelques voix courageuses ont dressé le bilan des guerres menées au nom d’un organisme qui défend les intérêts des Etats-Unis. L’écrivain et militant pacifiste belge Ludo De Brabander en fait partie. Nous l’avons interviewé pour tirer au clair la stratégie de la France et la Belgique vis-à-vis des menaces terroristes, les intentions de l’administration Donald Trump dans le conflit syrien, ainsi que les enjeux du prochain Sommet.
→ read full articleWhy These Missile Strikes Won’t Make Things Better for the Syrian People
Stephen Zunes – Yes! Magazine,
10 Apr 2017
There are serious questions as to whether Trump’s bombing of the Syrian base has anything to do with protecting civilians.
→ read full articleCan Empirical Science Give Us Peace?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Apr 2017
Galileo’s finger points to two pillars for science: scientific knowledge must be based on empirical facts observed or by experiments; and the language to express scientific knowledge is mathematics. First objection: only the past can produce empirical facts; that limits what might or ought to be to what already have been facts. But humans are capable of transcending the past, and create new facts.
→ read full article(Italiano) Violenza contro le donne: Pace positiva
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
E in quanto ai monumenti: per favore, non l’uomo a cavallo, che brandisce la morte. Ci siano monumenti alle donne che fanno sbocciare nuova vita. Il punto fondamentale è aprire la mente maschile a un “noi insieme” per migliori matrimoni, e anche per cambiare la loro mentalità “noi contro di loro”. Meglio che trattare le donne come serve-prostitute pagate in moneta di “sicurezza” per rigovernare le stoviglie, lavare la roba, occuparsi dei bebé e insieme dei bambini, degli infermi e dei vecchi, e condividere la loro gratitudine.
→ read full article(Italiano) La politica e l’economia mondiale in questo momento
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
Un altro fattore chiave è la speculazione nell’economia finanziaria – in contrapposizione all’investimento nell’economia reale – consistente in serie di prodotti derivati con super-commissioni. Se i prodotti derivati dalla droga sono illegali e biasimati, perché non farlo anche con i derivati finanziari?
→ read full article“Rohingya Resistance”: The Media Is “Bigging It Up” without Analysis or Insights
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
31 Mar 2017 – For the mass media is now bigging up Rohingya Resistance, but it isn’t telling you anything I consider intelligent, analytical, researched or factual.
→ read full articleMonsanto’s Four Tactics for Undermining Glyphosate Science Review
Genna Reed | Union of Concerned Scientists – TRASNCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
30 Mar 2017 – Emails unsealed in a California lawsuit last week reveal that agribusiness giant Monsanto engaged in activities aimed at undermining efforts to evaluate a potential link between glyphosate—the active ingredient of the company’s popular herbicide Roundup—and cancer.
→ read full articleUS Navy Prepares Decapitating Attack against Russia
Alex Gorka | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
27 Mar 2017 – The US preemptive nuclear strike capability has significantly grown. The Bulletin of American Scientists reports that as a result of improvements in the killing power of US SLBMs, they carry more than three times the number of warheads needed to destroy the entire fleet of Russian land-based missiles.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, Around the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
Starting with EU at 60, making small states (Luxembourg!) big by being members of something bigger, but making bigger, even imperial, states smaller by being “members”… UK outside and France inside are now paying the heavy immigration price for devastation wrought by their empires; with no EU solidarity… Trump is seen as psychotic with crazy policies: military up $54 billion at the expense of the poor, health, environment, climate, arts, culture. The US killings all over were not seen as crazy, but Trump kills at the cost of basics. He may not last 100 days, impeached or-?
→ read full articleHuman Rights Are Animal Rights!
Peter Tatchell - CounterPunch,
3 Apr 2017
29 Mar 2017 – Since we humans are an animal species, it is obvious that human rights are a form of animal rights; and that animal rights include – or should include – the human species. We need to recognise and accept our common animal nature. If we did that, the excuses and rationalisations for treating other species badly would fall away.
→ read full articleLearning to Be Fascists
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
Learning to be fascists, victims, and bystanders (and everything in-between). We learn to love, hate, kill, slaughter, rape, torture, etc. In my view, the Burmese society is undergoing this experience regarding the Rohingya victims of state terror, social ostracism/exclusion and the emerging sadistic culture of those who call themselves “Buddhists”.
→ read full articleGenocides Have No Winners
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
Genocides are what students of politics call ‘path-dependent’. Once a genocidal process is set in motion it is hard to recall. All genocides end in tears and destroy humanness in all involved in it, as perpetrators, on-lookers, whitewashers, collaborators, and victims.”
→ read full articleTrump’s War on Dangerous Memory and Critical Thought
Henry A. Giroux | Tikkun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt
Where We Drill, We Spill: Commemorating Exxon Valdez
Franz Matzner | EcoWatch, Natural Resources Defense Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
24 Mar 2017 – Twenty eight years ago today the world experienced a massive wake-up call on the hazards and harms of oil spills when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker split open and poured oil into Alaskan waters. At the time, images of oil coated wildlife and a devastated ecosystem in one of the world’s most delicate, iconic and majestic environments drew global attention. Today, oil still lurks under the surface of Prince William Sound, impairing wildlife and human lives.
→ read full articleViolence against Women: Positive Peace
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
And as to monuments: please, not the man on horseback, wielding death, but to women giving birth to a new life. The basic point is to open the male mind to a “we together” for better marriages, also to change their “us vs them” mentality. Better than treating women as maids-prostitutes paid in “security” currency for doing the dishes, washing, caring for babies, children, the sick and the old together, and sharing their gratitude.
→ read full article(Italiano) “Anno del Karma” e conflitti in corso
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
Conferenza d’inverno, Inland University, Rena, Norvegia, 16 Feb 2017 – Un Mondo Instabile: Analisi, Previsioni, Soluzioni
→ read full articleUN Launches Report on Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid
UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
15 Mar 2017 – UN Under-Secretary-General Rima Khalaf noted that Israel, encouraged by the international community’s disregard for its continual violations of international law, has succeeded over the past decades in imposing and maintaining an apartheid regime that works on two levels. First, the political and geographic fragmentation of the Palestinian people…
→ read full article(Italiano) Una teoria strutturale sull’invecchiamento
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
Wikipedia ha molto da offrire alla voce “invecchiamento”. Si raccomandano molto i 10 punti dell’uomo più vecchio al mondo, al momento del decesso avvenuto nel 2011, il 114enne Walter Breuning . Comunque i più anziani, come me che ho 86 anni, conoscono al meglio il proprio processo d’invecchiamento. Regola n. 1: Mantieni attivi mente e corpo; conserva una buona alimentazione.
→ read full articleInterview with TRANSCEND Member John Scales Avery, One of the Greatest Living Intellectuals on Earth
Binu Mathew | CounterCurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
John Avery is not just an academician and scientist. He is also an active peace activist who campaigns vigorously against nuclear proliferation. Since 1990 he has been the Contact Person in Denmark for Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which received the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the Member of the Danish Peace Commission of 1998 and Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy.
→ read full articleStatement by Ms. Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
I want to end this statement by emphasizing that I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to present a biased, one-sided report. However, I have every reason to present the situation to reflect the reality, even if some may not like what I have to say. I believe this Council expects me to do exactly that by entrusting me with this mandate.
→ read full articleNorth Korea Tensions Pose Early, and Perilous, Test for Trump
David E. Sanger, Choe Sang-Hun, Chris Buckley and Michael R. Gordon – The New York Times,
20 Mar 2017
7 Mar 2017 – The United States began deploying a missile defense system in South Korea this week. China condemned the new antimissile system as a dangerous opening move in what it called America’s grand strategy to set up similar defenses across Asia, threatening to tilt the balance of power there against Beijing.
→ read full articleUN: Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid – Issue No. 1, Palestine and the Israeli Occupation
UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
[Note from the TMS Editor: This text has been removed from the ESCWA website. It is published here for Historical Record.]
15 Mar 2017 – Having established that the crime of apartheid has universal application, that the question of the status of the Palestinians as a people is settled in law, and that the crime of apartheid should be considered at the level of the State, the report sets out to demonstrate how Israel has imposed such a system on the Palestinians in order to maintain the domination of one racial group over others.
India, Brazil, Germany and Japan Open to Forgo Veto for Now if Granted UNSC Membership
Ajay Ghosh – The Universal News Network,
20 Mar 2017
In a joint statement delivered by India’s Representative to the UN on March 8, the G4 nations emphasized that an overwhelming majority of the UN member states supports the expansion of both permanent and non-permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council.
→ read full articleWorld Politics-Economics Right Now
Johan Galtung,
20 Mar 2017
The net conclusion? The enormous US imbalance: no longer winning wars, less political clout, economically bankrupt but still powerful, shaping the world culturally. Wise US policy would celebrate the last two; unwise policy would Make America Great Again-military-political, as Trump wants. Drop “Again” Mr. Trump, Make America Great! Will do. And wise world policy? Celebrate the military-political decline of the last superpower, fight lex americana, treat US$ like any other currency–in baskets with others or not–and the US federal reserve bank like other central banks. Normalize the USA from the outside.
→ read full articleThe Sustaining Fires of Standing Rock: A Movement Grows
Roy Eidelson – CounterPunch,
20 Mar 2017
Regardless of the pipeline’s final disposition in the federal courts, Energy Transfer Partners and its cronies have unleashed a counterforce that may well exceed their comprehension and control. While digging for dollars they’ve awakened a movement that combines a long-overdue commitment to addressing the trampled rights of Native Americans with a reinvigorated call for climate justice and environmental action.
→ read full articleLeading Psychiatrists Follow Top-Dog Bankers’ Guide to Career Advancement
Bruce E. Levine – CounterPunch,
20 Mar 2017
14 Mar 2017 – It should not be surprising that cynicism is increasingly the U.S. national pastime, as we regularly observe top-dog bankers avoiding criminal prosecution for crimes they preside over, and we see prominent psychiatrists gaining career advancement after disgraceful actions. In 2008, Delbello was included in a Congressional investigation on psychiatrists violating federal and university regulations in their receipt of large sums of money from drug companies.
→ read full articleA Structural Theory of Aging
Johan Galtung,
13 Mar 2017
Wikipedia has much to offer under “aging”. Highly recommended are the 10 points by the world’s oldest living man, 114, Walter Breuning. However, older persons, like me at 86, know their own aging best. Rule no. 1: Keep mind and body active; maintain a good nutrition.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks’ Latest CIA Data Dump Undermines Case against Russia Election Hack
Dave Lindorff - CounterPunch,
13 Mar 2017
10 Mar 2017 – The so-called Deep State and Democratic Party campaign to demonize Russia for allegedly “hacking the US election,” and delivering the country into the hands of Donald Trump suffered a huge and probably mortal blow this week with the release by WikiLeaks of over 7000 secret CIA documents disclosing secret CIA hacking technologies.
→ read full article
Maung Zarni’s Analysis of the Military in Burma/Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
Understanding Myanmar Military and Its Strategic Paradigm
→ read full articleMusic and Politics: How Much Will It Matter Again?
Daniel Martin - CounterPunch,
13 Mar 2017
Back when I was in college, rock and roll historian Barry Drake came and gave a lecture titled “60’s Rock”, When the Music Mattered”. At least here in the United States, these were years of great unrest on a societal and political level. Whether it was the civil rights movement, the assassination of our greatest leaders, or the Vietnam War and its protests, these events were accompanied by and often directly interwoven with the music of the time. And heck, the decade gave us the Beatles and Motown, and birthed the sounds we currently consider “classic rock”, as well as other innovations.
→ read full article[Nobel Peace Laureate] Aung San Suu Kyi and the World of Buddhist Islamophobia
Maung Zarni – Al Jazeera,
13 Mar 2017
Myanmar’s Muslim minority, demonised and persecuted for decades, is facing a fresh wave of violence amid media silence. “Suu Kyi’s denial of what Human Rights Watch has called “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity” deserves international scrutiny,” writes Maung Zarni.
→ read full articleWhy Everyone but NATO Live Happily with Russia
Jonathan Power | Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
Jonathan Power turns around the perspective – something seldom done in Western debate: What’s the reason that NATO is the only one around the world that has a negative relation to Russia today? And insists on having it? Trump proposes a huge increase in military spending but the U.S. already spends more than the next seven biggest spenders combined, China and Russia included!
→ read full articleA Nuclear Weapons Ban Should First Do No Harm to the NPT
Adam Mount and Richard Nephew | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
Simple additions to the text of a new ban treaty would keep it from being used as a cover for non-compliance with the existing non-proliferation regime.
→ read full article(Italiano) Storia: Epoche o Andamenti – La Spagna Medievale
Johan Galtung – Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
La storia si dispiega sul tempo o nel tempo, la variabile fondamentale, l’asse delle X. Gli eventi sono punti. Gli andamenti sono curve di forme diverse, non necessariamente continue, possono anche essere ‘intermittenti’. E gli stati permanenti sono linee orizzontali fissate a un determinato valore. Punti, curve, linee; con i libri a indicare relazioni altamente complesse di antefatto-fatto-effetto.
→ read full article(Italiano) Pace fra Cina e Giappone
Johan Galtung – Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
Tema base: Nuova visione di pace in Est-Asia – Dialogo di pace Sino-Giapponese. Nanjing, 22-23 Feb 2017 ~ Come insegna la filosofia buddhista, la pace, come la violenza e il conflitto, è una relazione; non un attributo della Cina o del Giappone. Come insegna la filosofia taoista, in un holon [=insieme, ndt] come l’Est-Asia ci sono forze e controforze, yin/yang, con yin e yang in entrambi [gli opposti], & così via.
→ read full articleDalai Lama Adds Voice to Pope’s in Calling for the Persecution of Rohingya to End
Lindsay Murdoch | People’s Tribunal on Myanmar – The Sydney Morning Herald,
6 Mar 2017
3 Mar 2017 – The Dalai Lama has joined Pope Francis in calling for Myanmar Buddhists to end violence against Rohingya Muslims in what the United Nations says amounts to ethnic cleansing and possibly crimes against humanity.
→ read full article‘White Helmets’ — Pawns for U.S. Militarism
Sara Flounders – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
1 Mar 2017 – No Surprise! The White Helmets won an Oscar Award for best documentary short feature. The much-hyped White Helmets is not a Syrian organization, nor was it created by Syrians, nor is it educational. It is a U.S.-British creation. Former British Army officer James Le Mesurier, self-described as a British “security” specialist, founded it. He previously worked for Blackwater, the mercenary organization universally condemned for its murderous brutality in Iraq.
→ read full articleEnd of Mission Statement by Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights– TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
Yet in spite of what they experienced, over and again I heard that what they want is to be accepted as Rohingya, to be able to go back to their home country, to be treated equally, to be treated as human beings. There are some who said they want justice, and when I probed what they meant by justice, most said they want their homes returned to them and to be able to live in peace. One said, “I want justice for those who were murdered and raped; I want those who murdered and raped brought to justice.”
→ read full articleThe Role of Biodiversity Scientists in a Troubled World
Arturo Gómez-Pompa | American Institute of Biological Sciences, Oxford University Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
As a society, we are torn apart by conflicting views on issues of enormous importance. In the debate on many of these issues, both sides have persuasive arguments for their position. I hear convincing views from opposite extremes: pro-war or antiwar, pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, pro-GMO or anti-GMO, pro-life or pro-choice, pro-bioprospecting or anti-bioprospecting. I feel the anguish of having to take sides on issues I do not know well and whose reconciliation seems impossible.
→ read full articleLatin America and the Caribbean Could Be First Developing Region to Eradicate Hunger
UN Food and Agriculture Organization – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States food security plan offers a clear pathway to zero hunger within ten years, FAO Director-General says.
→ read full articleThe “Karma Year” and Current Conflicts
Johan Galtung,
6 Mar 2017
An Unstable World: Analysis, Forecasting, Solutions
→ read full articleThe Three Trump Administrations
Wayne Madsen | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
24 Feb 2017 – Foreign and national defense ministries around the world, as well as embassies in Washington, DC, are struggling to ascertain who is actually in charge of the U.S. government one month after Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States. It is a fair question, considering the conflicting statements issuing forth from the White House, State Department, and the Pentagon.
→ read full articleFukushima: A Lurking Global Catastrophe?
Robert Hunziker | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
19 Feb 2017 – Year over year, ever since 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown grows worse and worse, an ugly testimonial to the inherent danger of generating electricity via nuclear fission, which produces isotopes, some of the most deadly poisonous elements on the face of the planet.
→ read full articleUnique Aleppo Photos Seen by over 100.000 People but Not in Mainstream Media
Jan Oberg | Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
21 Feb 2017 – It’s probably unusual that a research organisation’s photos go viral – and do so in spite of the mainstream media’s manifest lack of interest in their story. But the photos I took in Aleppo in Syria December 10-14, 2016 have been seen here by well over 100.000 people around the world, exclusively by organic, non-paid online sharing.
→ read full articleKeep Focus on Aleppo and Global Dimensions of Syria
Jan Oberg | Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 – Three Perspectives on the Syrian Conflict Formation – The Syrian conflict formation is hugely more complicated than we’ve been told by Western politicians (all mainstream in spite of democratic features) and mainstream/dependent media.
→ read full articleCapitalocene or Anthropocene?
Benjamin Kunkel | London Review of Books – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
Ecologically the Anthropocene is here to stay, but just how it unfolds over coming generations will be decided by whether, politically, it remains the Capitalocene (‘privileging the endless accumulation of capital’) or becomes for the first time a properly political Anthropocene, in which the interests of humanity as a whole chart our ecological course.
→ read full articlePeace between China and Japan
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
Keynote: New Vision of Peace in East Asia; Sino-Japanese Peace Dialogue – Nanjing, 22-23 Feb 2017 – As Buddhist philosophy teaches, peace, like violence and conflict, is a relation; not an attribute of China or Japan. As Daoist philosophy teaches, in a holon like East Asia there are forces and counterforces, yin/yang, with yin and yang in both, &c.
→ read full articleSleepwalking into a Nuclear Arms Race with Russia
Pierre M. Sprey and Franklin “Chuck” Spinney - CounterPunch,
27 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 – The Nuclear Question is becoming increasingly obfuscated by spin and lobbying as the West sleepwalks into Cold War II. For patriotic Americans interested in increasing their real national security (rather than their national security budget), the nuclear issue boils down to a question of understanding.
→ read full article(Italiano) Democrazia in evoluzione
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2017
Immaginiamo un popolo che dia per scontato che ci siano due, solo due, versanti a qualunque contesa; uno giusto, uno sbagliato; ove non ci sia compromesso, la si giochi a duello, e chi vince ne decide il risultato. Questo copione controlla la gente. Potere al popolo, suona bene, ma che genere di popolo?
→ read full articleAn Open Letter to Trump and Putin: The World Needs Nuclear Zero
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – The Hill,
20 Feb 2017
16 Feb 2017 – As the leaders of the USA and Russia, the two countries with the largest nuclear arsenals, you have the grave responsibility of assuring that nuclear weapons are not used — or their use overtly threatened — during your period of leadership. We, the undersigned, implore you to commence negotiations to reduce the dangers of a nuclear war, by mistake or malice, and immediately commit your respective governments to the realizable objective of a nuclear weapons-free world.
→ read full articleNew US Administration Finds Political Foundation in Creaky Culture Theory
Terence McNamee – Sunday Times,
20 Feb 2017
15 Feb 2017 – Twenty-five years have passed since Samuel Huntington first hypothesised a world torn asunder by clashing civilisations. After a lengthy sabbatical, the late Harvard political scientist is back in favour at the White House. President Donald Trump’s closest advisers are big fans. Prominent in the 1990s and resurrected after 9/11, academic’s predictions have returned.
→ read full article(Português) Os perigos escondidos das lâmpadas LED revelados por um especialista em fotobiologia
Dr. Alexander Wunsch | Cura pela Natureza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2017
“Lâmpadas LED são prejudiciais à saúde física, mental, da retina, e também aos hormônios”, diz o Dr. Alexander Wunsch.
→ read full articleHistory: Epochs or Trends–Medieval Spain
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2017
Visions of the Past for Constructing a Future: Historiography of Spain – History unfolds over or in time, the basic variable, the X axis. The events are points. The trends are curves of any shape, not necessarily continuous, could also be “jumpy”. And the permanents are horizontal lines set at a certain value. Points, curves, lines; with texts indicative of highly complex proactio-actio-reactio relations.
→ read full articleU.S. Imperial War Personified
Ron Jacobs – CounterPunch,
20 Feb 2017
17 Feb 2017 – Modern warfare is both extremely personal and robotically impersonal. Those who profit from the warfare go about the business of developing ever more murderous weaponry often designed to create even more distance between the killer and the killed; the general and the soldier.
→ read full articleWorst Joke Ever? U.S. Spy Chief Gives Saudi Prince Highest Award for “Fighting Terrorism”
Mike Whitney - CounterPunch,
20 Feb 2017
On Friday [10 Feb 2017], the Director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, used his first trip abroad to present Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef with the CIA’s highest award for fighting terrorism, the George Tenet Medal… One thing is certain, you’re not going to win the war on terror by handing out medals to the prime suspects.
→ read full articleTrump Administration Sued for Suspending Protections for Endangered Bumble Bee
Natural Resources Defense Council | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2017
The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Trump administration Tuesday [14 Feb 2017] for illegally suspending the rule to put the rusty patched bumble bee on the endangered species list. It has lost approximately 90 percent of its range in the past 20 years and is the first bumble bee ever listed under the Endangered Species Act.
→ read full articleWashington Rules Change, Again
Jomo Kwame Sundaram – Inter Press Service-IPS,
20 Feb 2017
16 Feb 2017 – Over the last four decades, the Washington Consensus, promoting economic liberalization, globalization and privatization, reversed four decades of active state intervention… More than ever, it will be crucial for developing countries to work together, not only to ensure that South-South and ‘triangular’ (with the North) cooperation represents a progressive alternative to the Washington Consensus and its national chauvinist successors. Such solidarity will determine how well the South — and the world as a whole — will fare during the coming eclipse.
→ read full articleMyanmar Statement by the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
UN Information Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2017
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Report on the Situation in Northern Rakhine State, Myanmar
→ read full articleEvolving Democracy
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2017
Imagine a people taking for granted that there are two, only two, sides to any issues; one right, one wrong; if no compromise, fight it out and the victor decides the outcome. That script controls the people. Power to the people sounds fine, but what kind of people?
→ read full article(Italiano) Violenza, guerra: una causa o un sintomo?
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
Conferimento della laurea Honoris Causa, Universidad Madrid Complutense, 27 gennaio 2017 – Per esperienza famigliare avevo qualche nozione di medicina ed ero rimasto colpito dalla feconda distinzione fra causa e sintomo. Il sintomo è alla superficie del corpo, come la febbre; ma la causa prima è più in profondità, dentro, una sepsi. Un’acquisizione importante.
→ read full articleNonviolent Economy
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
Let us start with “economy”, here conceived of as a cycle with three poles: Nature, Production, Consumption. And three processes: Extraction from Nature, Distribution from Production to Consumption, and Pollution from Production-Consumption back to Nature. The cycle flow is in that order: Nature → Production → Consumption → Nature.
→ read full article(Italiano) Donald Trump, il Presidente si è insediato
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
E la prima domanda al 45° presidente USA: ha intenzione di ammazzare, in territorio straniero? Il suo predecessore Obama ha seguito la tradizione USA, che dalla seconda guerra mondiale ha causato la morte di più di 20 milioni di persone in 37 paesi, facendo uso di bombe e droni. Pare che i suoi Reparti Speciali abbiano provocato morti ammazzati in 138 paesi. O farà l’America Più Grande interrompendo questa tradizione morbosa?
→ read full articleManaging National Borders ‘Cannot Be Based on Any Form of Discrimination’ – UN Chief Guterres
UN News Centre | Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
Refugees fleeing conflict and persecution are entitled to protection, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on 31 Jan 2017, expressing concern at decisions around the world that have undermined the integrity of the international refugee protection regime.
→ read full articleThe Trump Presidency: The First Week
Johan Galtung,
6 Feb 2017
There is no greatness in what Trump does, he makes USA smaller. Trying rebirth instead of rust, canceling stupid deals like TPP: OK. But retracting into a self-glorifying strong state is not greatness, it is isolation. Greatness is not in what you are but in how you relate. And Trump relates very badly.
→ read full articleUN Report Details ‘Devastating Cruelty’ Against Rohingya Population in Myanmar’s Rakhine Province
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
3 Feb 2017 – In a report issued today, the United Nations human rights arm said that the widespread human rights violations against the Rohingya population by Myanmar’s security forces in the country’s northern Rakhine state indicate the very likely commission of crimes against humanity.
→ read full articleThe Gospel of Winning: Trump’s Philosophy, and Its Policy Implications
Stephen B. Young – Star Tribune,
6 Feb 2017
In Trump’s mind, his appointees are all “winners.” So what does Trump’s Gospel of Winning imply for his policy agenda? Domestically, first, it will not validate government entitlements to “victims.” It rejects the founding premise of the entitlement state that the government must take from those who succeed to advantage those who have failed. The victim-first vision was offered early on by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution.
→ read full articleMoscow & Washington – Last Chance to Get It Right?
Jonathan Power | Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
Russia and the US have never fought each other in the 200 years of their relationship. Russia aided the North during the Civil War and sent warships to prevent England and France supporting the confederacy. During the World Wars the two were close allies.
→ read full articleGlenn D. Paige (28 Jun 1929 – 22 Jan 2017): A Giant for Peace Leaves Behind an Indelible Mark – In Memoriam
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2017
His transformation from praising a killing society, USA, in the Korean War to invoking a non-killing society did not come easily. To revoke his own book on the Korea War decision, and the prize received for that book, has few equals.
→ read full article