Articles by UN
We found 3812 results.
Webinar – How Ensuring Public Access to Information Can Help Build Peaceful and Inclusive Societies
Univ. of Sydney Department of Peace and Conflict Studies – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
Sustainable Development Goal 16 identifies the building of peaceful and inclusive societies as essential to delivering the development agenda, and one of its goals – the tenth – specifies “ensuring public access to information” as a co-requisite of peace and, therefore, development.
→ read full articleSeptember: This Month in Nuclear Threat History
Jeffrey W. Mason | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
September 25, 1959 – A U.S. Navy antisubmarine aircraft carrying an unarmed nuclear depth charge developed mechanical problems but was unable to reach land to make an emergency landing and crashed into the Puget Sound, Washington. The nuclear weapon was never recovered despite an extensive search. There remain deadly serious concerns about the very long-term radioactive contamination from this incident and hundreds of other similar Broken Arrows.
→ read full articleThe Global Power Imbalance
Johan Galtung,
29 Aug 2016
This author, in 1976, compared the decline and fall of the Roman Empire to a possible decline and fall of the West in general and the US Empire in particular, based on the synergy of uni-causal paradigms. Rome considered itself exceptional and invincible by barbarians, but the counterforces were tearing at them; and they lived on past glory. Clinton, straight from the past with some domestic renewal, will enact that past; any realistic assessment being close to treason.
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Johan Galtung’s Positive Peace Concept
Hanno Heynitz | TRANSCENDMedia – Galtung Institut (Germany),
29 Aug 2016
Aug 26, 2016 – Positive Peace with a focus on the concepts and definitions underpinning its practical application. The underlying question really is: What are the requirements to meet in order to implement Positive Peace through Peacebuilding?
→ read full articleU.S. Government Bans Native American Tribe from Protesting on Their Own Land – Send in Police to Remove Protesters
Jafari Tishomingo – Counter Current News,
29 Aug 2016
21 Aug 2016 – The Bakken project runs through Native American sacred sites, water sources, such as the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. When money is to be made like $3.8-billion and 570,000 barrels of sweet crude oil every day to feed America’s oil habit, we don’t let scared sites or ecosystems get in the way.
→ read full article2,500 Native Americans Successfully Block Oil Pipeline Construction — State of Emergency Declared
Counter Current News Editorial Team – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
22 Aug 2016 – The Camp of the Sacred Stones has swelled from a few dozen to more than 2,500, according to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials. They are calling for further review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the end of July without a full environmental assessment.
→ read full article(Português) Veganismo: quando filosofia é bem diferente de dieta
Nzinga Young - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais,
29 Aug 2016
Veganismo é a filosofia e modo de vida que procura excluir – o quanto for possível e praticável – todas as formas de exploração e crueldade para com os animais com objetivo de consumo, produção de roupas ou qualquer outra finalidade. Por consequência, estimula o desenvolvimento e uso de alternativas livres de crueldade em benefício dos seres humanos, animais e meio-ambiente. Na alimentação, denota a prática de dispensar todos os produtos derivados totalmente ou parcialmente de animais.
→ read full articleWestern Sahara-Morocco Dispute Remains Stalemated as Federation Proposal Advanced
Stephen Zunes | TheNewArab – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
Neither side is likely to back down over autonomy and independence, but that doesn’t mean both sides are equally to blame. The Moroccan plan for autonomy falls well short of what is required in bringing about a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
→ read full articleDag Hammarskjöld and Spirituality at the United Nations
Donald Key | Aquarian Age Community – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
It is a challenge to discuss Spirituality at the United Nations. It is a challenge because most people will think that the UN is the antithesis of spirituality. I must report, however, that I regard the United Nations as the most spiritual place in the world today. The UN is the first planetary focus at the human level.
→ read full articleSouth Sudan: Hundreds of Children Recruited into Armed Groups, Reports UNICEF
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
19 Aug 2016 – Reporting that 650 children have been recruited into armed groups in South Sudan since January, the United Nations Children’s Fund called today for an immediate end to recruitment and an unconditional release of all children by armed actors.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, Around the World
Johan Galtung,
22 Aug 2016
Auschwitz, 29 July: Pope Francis praying, asking God for the ‘grace to cry’ (INYT, 30-31 July) was very, very touching. And very, very different from the show Obama tried to put on in Hiroshima.
→ read full articleThe Birthday
Fidel Castro Ruz – CounterPunch,
22 Aug 2016
16 Aug 2016 – Tomorrow I will turn 90 years old. I was born in a territory called Birán, in the eastern region of Cuba… Fidel Castro pens a column about the past, present and future on his 90th birthday.
→ read full articlePhoto of Boy Pulled from Rubble Reminder of ‘Unimaginable Horrors’ Syrian Children Face – UNICEF
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
19 Aug 2016 –“No child in Syria [is] safe while the conflict drags on,” Christophe Boulierac, a spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund told the press in Geneva, referring to the photograph which went viral on social media yesterday and has galvanized world attention to the suffering in Aleppo, Syria’s iconic second city.
→ read full articleWill Russia Reject Neoliberalism?
Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson – CounterPunch,
15 Aug 2016
Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson explain why hooking Russia’s fate to Western neoliberalism would doom the country’s sovereignty.
→ read full articleMoney, Economy, Economics
Johan Galtung,
15 Aug 2016
Money is the key: that genius innovation for storing general value and exchanging specific values according to price. Not strange, that heads of state had their faces imprinted on coins and bills. But not on cents and euros. The EU is faceless. Brexit is not. Coins and bills are fading; not money, capital, and its growth.
→ read full articleThe UN Steps Up Efforts to End Child Marriage
Babatunde Osotimehin – Inter Press Service-IPS,
15 Aug 2016
This year, more than 60 million 10 year-old girls worldwide will have started their journey through adolescence. Sadly, millions of them will be forced into adult responsibilities. Puberty brings a whole host of risks to girls’ lives and their bodies, including child marriage and all its consequences.
→ read full articleTrump Apologizes, Wins over Critics
Timothy Braatz - CounterPunch,
15 Aug 2016
A parody–half of it is fact, the other half fiction. It points out the hypocrisy of US political discourse that is “scandalized” by Trump but supports murder overseas.
→ read full articleEurope Right Now – EU, Russia
Johan Galtung,
8 Aug 2016
The present EU structure has Germany on top, then the Nordic members weakened by Brexit, then the Latin countries with France and Ireland, then the Eastern European members of whom solidarity is demanded for the crimes of the others leading to mass migration, and at the bottom Greece tortured by EU. But Europe is ridden by another age-old conflict looming large or larger: EU with Russia. Or, more basically, Catholic-Protestant Europe against Orthodox Europe, the borderline being inside Ukraine. Is there some way that out of several conflicts we may build peace?
→ read full article(Italiano) La Norvegia oggi — Compiacenza
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
USA odino ancor più la Russia, e si semplifichino la vita restringendo la realtà russa a una persona, Putin, demonizzato quindi secondo la modalità descritta da Orwell in 1984. Il libro riguarda gli sforzi di costruire società irreversibili; si cita spesso “tutti gli animali sono uguali” di Animal Farm, certo, ma meno significativo. Il titolo avrebbe dovuto essere 1985, l’anno in cui Thatcher e Reagan cercarono di costruire un mondo irreversibile, un ordine capitalista anglo-americano.
→ read full article(Português) Leite de origem animal: o que o marketing nunca irá mostrar nos bastidores
Camila Jade Baungartel - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais,
8 Aug 2016
A realidade do consumo de leite de origem animal que o marketing esconde, desmistificando as falácias da medicina vinculada ao agronegócio, os malefícios que causa à saúde humana, os impactos ambientais, o equívoco do “bem-estar animal” de “vaca feliz” e o sofrimento de animais explorados por uma industria voltada exclusivamente para atender os desejos humanos.
→ read full articleThe Looming Financial Crisis Nobody Is Talking About, but Should Be
Shaun Bradley | Activist Post – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
Talking heads and hedge fund managers will be eternally optimistic on the outlook for the future, even as the collapse becomes undeniably obvious. Problems for the European Union will continue to build, and the risk of the disease spreading to other economies increases by the day. Unfortunately, this Ponzi scheme system we built our societies on has left us vulnerable to any well-timed black swan event.
→ read full articleTen Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
The nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl was repeated, albeit with a different set of circumstances, at Fukushima. Have our societies yet learned any lessons that will prevent the people of the future from experiencing such devastation? As poet Maya Angelou points out, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage doesn’t need to be lived again.”
→ read full articleAugust: This Month in Nuclear Threat History
Jeffrey W. Mason | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
August 8, 1994 – – In one of the twenty known incidents of the attempted illicit sale of Russian bomb-grade fissile materials in the last 25 years since the breakup of the Soviet Union, security officials at Munich International Airport in Germany arrested individuals who were caught in possession of 363.4 grams of plutonium – enough to make one or more radiological weapons or dirty bombs.
→ read full articleMonsanto in India: Meet the New Boss – Same as the Old Boss?
Colin Todhunter – CounterPunch,
8 Aug 2016
GMOs and private wealth accumulation. GMOs represent the ultimate stranglehold of US interests over global food via ‘terminator’ seed technology, seed patenting and intellectual property rights.
→ read full articleThere’s No Business like the Arms Business – Weapons “R” Us (But You’d Never Know It)
William D. Hartung - TomDispatch,
1 Aug 2016
26 Jul 2016 – When American firms dominate a global market worth more than $70 billion a year, you’d expect to hear about it. Not so with the global arms trade. It’s good for one or two stories a year in the mainstream media, usually when the annual statistics on the state of the business come out. From the president on down, significant parts of the government are intent on ensuring that American arms will flood the global market and companies like Lockheed and Boeing will live the good life.
→ read full articleNorway Right Now—Compliance
Johan Galtung,
1 Aug 2016
The USA hates Russia and simplifies life for itself by narrowing Russian reality to one person, Putin, who is then demonized the way Orwell describes in 1984. That book is about efforts to construct irreversible societies; “all animals are equal” is often quoted from Animal Farm, good, but less important. The title should have been 1985, the year Thatcher-Reagan tried to construct an irreversible world, an Anglo-American capitalist order.
→ read full articleUS Government Report Exposes Exaggerated TPPA Growth Claims
Jomo Kwame Sundaram – Inter Press Service-IPS,
1 Aug 2016
28 Jul 2016 – The 2016 report by the US International Trade Commission acknowledges that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will not deliver many economic benefits promised by its cheerleaders. Implementing the TPP will greatly profit some large corporations, especially those getting IPR and financial rents.
→ read full articleThe Clintons Celebrated – But Likely Disastrous for the World
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
1 Aug 2016
I can only hope that I am wrong but I fear that Hillary Clinton – if she becomes the next President of the United States – is likely to be yet another militarist disaster for the world. And for the US itself whose manifest destiny is now manifest decline, caused mainly by all the failed wars, the cost of militarism and their consequences and blowback effects.
→ read full article(Italiano) Spagna: colpa della normativa, non dei numeri
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2016
La Spagna si è di nuovo bloccata. I numeri dei partiti in un parlamento con 350 seggi non hanno prodotto una maggioranza né il 20 dicembre 2015 né il 26 giugno 2016. L’aritmetica non ha funzionato. I numeri erano sbagliati. O invece, potrebbe essere sbagliata la Norma?
→ read full articleThe US Nominations
Johan Galtung,
25 Jul 2016
The US mountain, so rich in human talent, labored and produced the two dwarfs for the huge job. A radical Republican strongman and a conventional Democrat, disliked by 62% and 67%–bad for electing the president of a country that still puts some stamp on the world.
→ read full article(Italiano) Ciarlataneria: “L’Indice di Pace Positiva” (PPI)
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
Il PPI pretende d’essere un indice di pace positiva / di società pacifica. Ma è più che altro un indice di “ambiente positivo per gli affari”; da parte dell’ Institute for Economics & Peace, sa più di economia che di pace.
→ read full articleNonviolent History: South Africa’s Port Elizabeth Boycott Begins July 15, 1985
Rivera Sun | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
The Port Elizabeth boycott was a powerful moment of consolidating and demonstrating the power of nonviolent action to place economic sanctions on white South Africans. This piece of the long South African anti-apartheid struggle helps us remember the scope, arc, and duration of working for change. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and every step counts.
→ read full articleWhat Is NATO — Really?
Eric Zuesse | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
NATO was founded with the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington DC on 4 April 1949. When NATO was founded, that was done in the broader context of the U.S. Marshall Plan, and the entire U.S. operation to unify the developed Atlantic countries of North America and Europe.
→ read full article(Português) Uruguai vence processo contra gigante do tabaco por causa das políticas restritivas
Nuno Noronha – Sapo,
18 Jul 2016
Vitória sobre o Capitalismo Predatório: Diversas organizações internacionais e nacionais congratulam-se pela vitória do governo do Uruguai sobre a tabaqueira Philip Morris numa decisão ímpar classificada como “modelo na luta contra a epidemia do tabaco”.
→ read full articleSpain: Blame the Rule, Not the Numbers
Johan Galtung,
18 Jul 2016
Spain got stuck again. The party numbers in a parliament with 350 seats produced no majority 20 December 2015 or 26 July 2016. The arithmetic did not work out. The numbers were wrong.
→ read full articleCharlatanism: “The Positive Peace Index”
Johan Galtung,
11 Jul 2016
PPI pretends to be an index of positive peace/peaceful society. But is more like an index of “positive for business environment”; by the Institute for Economics & Peace, more economics than peace.
→ read full article(Italiano) E la Russia e la Cina oggi?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
Sullo sfondo ci sono i due più importanti partiti comunisti al mondo. Il Partito Comunista-Bolscevico Russo fece la rivoluzione del 1917; dal 1922 Partito Comunista dell’Unione Sovietica, CPSU(b). Il CPC, il Partito Comunista Cinese, che sta celebrando il suo 95° anniversario, fece la rivoluzione del 1° Ottobre 1949. Avvenimenti che hanno scosso il mondo, nel più grande stato del mondo per superficie e nel più grande stato del mondo per popolazione.
→ read full articleCampaign Nonviolence: A Growing Movement for a Culture of Nonviolence
Rivera Sun | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
From the increased involvement in Campaign Nonviolence, the grassroots movement that organized more than 375 actions in a single week in all 50 states and seven countries to end all forms of violence, it appears that many Americans are serious about creating a culture of active nonviolence.
→ read full article(Deutsch) »Wer nur die USA sieht, entschuldigt den deutschen Imperialismus«
Johannes Supe - junge Welt,
11 Jul 2016
2. Juli 2016 – Gespräch mit Tobias Pflüger. Über die Militarisierung der Bundesrepublik, Proteste gegen die Armee und den seit Jahren schwelenden Streit in der Friedensbewegung.
→ read full articleFearology and Militarism but the Real Enemy Is Us
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
11 Jul 2016
NATO: Why does an alliance with such an overwhelming superiority shout and scream and see ghosts on the horizon when, in reality, there are none? Why does it seem to be intellectually unable to see things from the side of its opponent? Is the show of strength in reality a sign of weakness?
→ read full articleCheating Moscow – NATO’s Dangerous Expansion
Jonathan Power - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
11 Jul 2016
On Sunday [26 Jun] the foreign minister of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said, “Anyone who believes the symbolic tank parades on the Alliance’s eastern border will increase security is wrong”. Apart from the appalling fact that the West is contemplating all out war against Russia there is the plain fact that it has expanded NATO in contravention of the solemn understandings given the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.
→ read full article
Oprah Winfrey’s Harvard Commencement 2013 Inspirational Speech
Harvard University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
”It doesn’t matter how far you might rise — at some point, you are bound to stumble. Because if you’re constantly doing what we do — raising the bar — if you’re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages predicts that you will, at some point, fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: There is no such thing as failure — failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.”
→ read full article(Italiano) Israele oggi, con sempre meno opzioni
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
Le opzioni d’Israele si riducono, con una legittimità calante; le opzioni della Palestina crescono, con una legittimità crescente…. Israele, è arrivata l’ora di negoziati sotto gli auspici dell’Assemblea Generale ONU – non una pace realista mediante la sicurezza!
→ read full article(Italiano) Brexit, così sia; e poi che sarà?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
Il Regno Disunito è ora costituito da Londra e dintorni, dall’Inghilterra. Le implicazioni sono enormi, per il Regno Unito, la Gran Bretagna e le isole britanniche in generale, per la UE e l’Europa in generale, per gli USA e il mondo in generale. Il cavallo di Troia USA ha deciso di lasciare l’Unione Europea il 23 giugno 2016.
→ read full articleOn International Day of Cooperatives, UN Hails Them as Drivers of Sustainable Future
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
UN estimates: One person in six is either a member or a client of a cooperative and some 2.6 million cooperatives employ 12.6 million people worldwide. Cooperatives’ assets are worth about $20 trillion and they generate about $3 trillion in annual revenue.
→ read full articleMuch Stronger Than During the First Cold War – Why Is NATO So Irrational?
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
4 Jul 2016
Why is the new tension rising in Europe between US/NATO and Russia so manifestly dangerous and – with the exception of the Cuban Missile Crisis worse than during the First Cold War?… One must indeed wonder why the West that has much less to fear militarily than ever since 1945 either ‘pretends’ to be so fearful or acts with such out-of-proportion ‘irrationality and alarmism.’
→ read full articleJuly: This Month in Nuclear Threat History
Jeffrey W. Mason | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
July 1, 1991 – On this date, the Warsaw Pact (established in 1955 as a response to the 1949 establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), also known in the Soviet bloc as The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance signed by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union, formally dissolved as a communist military alliance. Yet NATO, 1949-present, not only continues to exist but has grown and expanded in order to further “contain Russia and protect former Soviet republics and Eastern European nations from Russian military aggression.”
→ read full articleRussia and China Right Now–?
Johan Galtung,
4 Jul 2016
The background is the two major communist parties in the world. Russia Communist Party-Bolshevik made the November 1917 revolution; from 1922 the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU(b). CPC, the Communist Party of China, now celebrating its 95th anniversary, made the 1 October 1949 revolution. World-shaking events; in the world’s biggest state in area and in the world’s biggest state in population.
→ read full articleBrexit: Let the UK Screw Itself!
Andre Vltchek – CounterPunch,
4 Jul 2016
Whether the UK, one of the cradles of Western imperialism and colonialist bigotry, leaves or remains in the EU may have some influence on how the booty is to be divided ‘internally’, but not on much else. Both sides of referendum, ‘Exit’ and ‘Remain’, gave their clear middle finger salute to the rest of the world. And it is really the right time for the world to return the courtesy.
→ read full articleSri Lanka Wants the World to Forget about Justice for War Victims – Please Don’t
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – The Guardian,
4 Jul 2016
With the Sri Lankan government winding back commitments to reconciliation and justice measures, it’s up to the international community to hold them to account.
→ read full articleMarx on Financial Bubbles: Much Keener Insights than Contemporary Economists
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh - CounterPunch,
4 Jul 2016
I will argue in this essay that, in fact, a careful reading of Karl Marx’s work on “fictitious capital” reveals keen insights into a better understanding of the instabilities of today’s financial markets.
→ read full articleRussia-China Strategic Partnership: On the Road to United Eurasia
Pepe Escobar |Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
Whenever President Vladimir Putin stresses Russia’s “all-embracing and strategic partnership” with China, one can hear the proverbial howls of anger emanating from the neocon/neoliberalcon axis in the Beltway.
→ read full articleTen Worst Acts of the Nuclear Age
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
The ten worst acts of the Nuclear Age described below have set the tone for our time. They have caused immense death and suffering; been tremendously expensive; have encouraged nuclear proliferation; have opened the door to nuclear terrorism, nuclear accidents and nuclear war; and are leading the world back into a second Cold War.
→ read full article(Italiano) Gli USA oggi, peggio che mai, ma-?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
Affrontate la realtà: gli USA dettero inizio alle guerre con l’Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan e in Africa. Smettetela di personalizzare e psichiatrizzare singoli combattenti musulmani, il che non farà cessare queste guerre; le guerre non sono necessarie e non si vincono. L’egemonia militare US non ritornerà. Gli USA abbisognano di una politica estera non di dominio bensì di tentativi per comporre e risolvere i conflitti. Diritti umani: unisciti al mondo, approva, trascendi i confini. Clima: segui Parigi o proponi soluzioni migliori, fa qualcosa. E le prossime elezioni? Tutto fuorché Hillary.
→ read full articleIsrael Right Now, with Shrinking Options
Johan Galtung,
27 Jun 2016
Israel’s options shrink, with decreasing legitimacy; Palestine’s options increase, with increasing legitimacy…. Israel, time has come for negotiations under UNGA auspices–for a realistic security through peace, not a realist peace through security!
→ read full articleThe Brexit Shock – Now All Is Up in the Air!
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
27 Jun 2016
24 Jun 2016 – The UK, Europe and the rest of the world will be affected. But there has been no planning for this anywhere. It’s now all up in the air what this Brexit vote will be the starting point of. All we can safely predict is that we are in for interesting times! ”May you live in interesting times” as the English say, considering it a curse.
→ read full article(Português) Cientistas europeus descobrem anticorpos que atacam vírus Zika
Nuno Noronha | Sapo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
Cientistas europeus anunciaram esta quinta-feira[23 Jun] a descoberta de anticorpos que atacam o Zika, um passo que pode permitir o desenvolvimento de uma vacina contra o vírus que causa lesões cerebrais em fetos e distúrbios neurológicos em adultos.
→ read full articleTransCanada Files NAFTA Suit Demanding More Than $15 Billion for Keystone XL Rejection
Michael Brune | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
On Jun 24 2016, foreign oil company TransCanada filed a lawsuit against the U.S. under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, arguing that the U.S. rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline violated NAFTA’s broad rights for foreign investors by thwarting the company’s “expectations.” As compensation, TransCanada is demanding more than $15 billion from U.S. taxpayers.
→ read full articleHelen Keller (27 Jun 1880 – 1 Jun 1968)
American Foundation for the Blind – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
American educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century’s leading humanitarians, as well as co-founder of the ACLU.
→ read full articleAmerica Trashes NATO Founding Act; Rushes Weapons to Russia’s Borders
Eric Zuesse | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
The NATO Founding Act was agreed to between the U.S. and Russia in 1997 in order to provide to Russia’s leader Boris Yeltsin some modicum of assurance that America wouldn’t invade his country. When his predecessor Mikhail Gorbachev had ended the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact military alliance in 1991, the representatives of U.S. President GHW Bush told him that NATO wouldn’t move “one inch to the east.”
→ read full articleHelen Keller: Socialist, Pacifist, Women’s & Workers’ Rights Advocate
Rivera Sun | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
Helen Keller is one of the most beloved figures in American history. Few people, however, remember her as a socialist, pacifist, and activist. Wikipedia reports, “A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and other similar causes.”
→ read full article‘They Called Me Osama’ – A Documentary to Teach People about Sikh Religion
Ajay Ghosh – The Universal News Network,
27 Jun 2016
22 Jun 2016 – This new documentary film seeks to educate people about the Sikh religion and the experiences of Sikhs in America including bullying in schools, racism, and hate violence. It was made with funding from the University of Connecticut and aims at preventing abuses of Sikhs and informing about the centuries old Sikh religion.
→ read full articleThe European Dead End
Jean Bricmont - CounterPunch,
27 Jun 2016
European construction began as the dream of European elites and has become the nightmare of European peoples. For a number of European intellectuals and politicians, the dream was to transform Europe into a sort of Superstate, capable of rivaling the United States. For others, the idea was to get rid of the Nation-State once and for all, since it was considered chiefly to blame for the woes of the 20th century.
→ read full articleFifty-One Foreign Service Officers Can’t Be Wrong–Or Can They? More Bombs and Less Talk on Syria
Philip Giraldi – The Unz Review,
27 Jun 2016
21 Jun 2016 – It is ironic that fifty-one U.S. State Department employees, perhaps overly-generously dignified in the media with the title of “diplomats,” have come out in favor of removing a foreign head of state by force. Now consider for a moment who might have been involved in writing this memo. The authors are described by the newspapers that obtained copies of the memo as “mid-level.”
→ read full articleWhy and in What Ways Is Myanmar Military Protecting Buddhism and Buddhist ‘Race’?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
25 Jun 2016 – Now Myanmar is officially a Fascist State, with the military claiming itself as the protector of Buddhism and Race: Aung San Suu Kyi is crippled, intellectually and strategically. Why does Myanmar Tatmadaw intend to protect “Buddhism” and “Bama race”? And in what specific ways do the military strategists “protect” Buddhism?
→ read full articleGenocide Scholars Pull Out of Israel Conference
Ali Abunimah | The Electronic Intifada – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
25 Jun 2016 – The vice-president of the International Network of Genocide Scholars, Univ. of Cape Town Prof. Mohamed Adhikari, has pulled out of the group’s conference at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. British genocide scholar Martin Shaw also announced he is pulling out. South Africa’s Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation also withdrew citing concerns about Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.
→ read full articleThe Racist and Sexist Nature of Brazil’s New [Rightwing] Government
Adam Bledsoe – CounterPunch,
27 Jun 2016
Over the past several weeks critics have appropriately pointed out the various ways in which the new government has threatened the country’s most marginalized sectors—closing avenues to affordable housing, removing women and people of color from government posts, and threatening to de-fund constitutionally-guaranteed services like healthcare and education.
→ read full articleBrex’It, So Be’It; And Then What?
Johan Galtung,
24 Jun 2016
Goodbye United Kingdom, UK, we may get United Ireland, UI, instead.
Goodbye Great Britain, GB, we may get Scotland in EU instead.
Welcome to Britain of England-Wales, if they care for that vocabulary.
Welcome to new-born England, 23 June being the Day of Independence.
Neoliberalism Nakedly Exposed
Robert Hunziker – CounterPunch,
20 Jun 2016
14 Jun 2016 – A recent IMF study (June 2016) exposes flaws in neoliberal policy that have afflicted progressive issues for over 40 years. The title of the study itself “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” hints at the underlying thesis that something must be wrong. Why else pose the question? “Instead of delivering growth, some neoliberal policies have increased inequality, in turn jeopardizing durable expansion.” (Neoliberalism: Oversold? IMF, Finance & Development, June 2016, Vol. 53, No. 2).
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Giappone del momento – e gli USA
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2016
Comunque, la demistificazione dei rapporti USA-Giappone è destinata ad arrivare. Ma solo dalla fonte accettabile al “Giappone che dice Sì” (sì-sì-sì-sì): dagli USA stessi. Da USA che perdono una guerra dopo l’altra da quella di Corea del 1953, USA affaticati dalla guerra, checché ne sia la ragione. A un Giappone molto preoccupato per Trump non solo per il [ventilato] ritiro delle truppe dal Giappone lasciandogli l’onere della propria auto-difesa, ma per il [loro] divenire Grande da soli, senza conferire ad altri grandezza indiretta. Rendendolo un Giappone ordinario.
→ read full articleUSA Right Now, Worse Than Ever, But-?
Johan Galtung,
20 Jun 2016
Face the fact: USA started wars with Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan and into Africa. Stop individualizing and psychiatrizing individual Muslim fighters, that will not make these wars disappear; wars as unnecessary as unwinnable. US military hegemony will not return. The USA needs a foreign policy not of domination but of trying to heal and solve conflicts.
Human rights: join the world, ratify, transcend borders.
Climate: follow Paris or come up with better ideas, do something.
And the coming election? Anything but Hillary.
Newly Released CIA Files Expose Grim Details of Agency Interrogation Program
Greg Miller, Karen DeYoung and Julie Tate – The Washington Post,
20 Jun 2016
14 Jun 2016 – The files include granular descriptions of the inner workings of the CIA’s “black site” prisons, messages sent to CIA headquarters from field officers who expressed deep misgivings with how detainees were being treated and secret memos raising objections to the roles played by doctors and psychologists in the administration of treatment later condemned as torture.
→ read full articleMessage to the Wall
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2016
Dear Wall,
Your polished surface deceives.
You appear serene, yet you are bursting with anguish and lost potential.
[Nobel Peace Laureate] Dalai Lama Urges Myanmar’s [Nobel Peace Laureate] Suu Kyi to Ease Rohingya Tensions
David Brunnstrom | Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2016
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has a moral responsibility to try to ease tensions between majority Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims, her fellow Nobel laureate, the Dalai Lama, said on Monday [13 Jun]. “She already has the Nobel Peace Prize, a Nobel Laureate, so morally she should … make efforts to reduce this tension,” he told Reuters in an interview in Washington.
→ read full article(Italiano) Est-Asia: quattro formule per la pace
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
Una gara agli armamenti nucleari. Che può anche fungere da deterrente, ma più sovente finisce in guerra. La guerra vuol dire traumi per gli sconfitti e gloria per i vincitori. La sindrome da stress post-traumatico (PTSD) può portare alla sete di rivalsa, e la PGED (sindrome da esuberanza post-gloria) alla sete di più gloria. Guerra, guerra, guerra. Peggio che mai dai tempi della 2^ guerra mondiale. L’Est-Asia ha un gran bisogno di un approccio diverso. Come minimo, i quattro compiti della formula di pace TRANSCEND: la pace negativa consistente nella riconciliazione dei traumi e nella soluzione dei conflitti; la pace positiva che si basa sulla cooperazione a
→ read full articleFukushima: Worse Than a Disaster
Robert Hunziker - CounterPunch,
13 Jun 2016
Disasters can be cleaned up. 600 tons of hot molten core, or corium, are missing and it is not likely the fuel will ever be recovered: “Nobody really knows where the fuel is at this point, and this fuel is still very radioactive and will be for a long time.” Nobody has experience with a Fukushima-type 100% meltdown, possibly burrowed into the ground, but nobody really knows for sure.
→ read full articleMorocco Continues Occupation of Western Sahara, in Defiance of UN
Stephen Zunes | National Catholic Reporter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
6 Jun 2016 – As Morocco continues to defy the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and much of the international community in its continued occupation of Western Sahara, the United States continues supporting that autocratic government. Morocco has illegally occupied the former Spanish colony for more than 40 years.
→ read full articleDorothy Day Refuses to Duck-And-Cover
Rivera Sun | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
On June 15th, 1955, Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day joined a group of pacifists in refusing to participate in the civilian defense drills scheduled on that day. In this particular case, Operation Alert was a nationwide, mandated, legally enforced drill.
→ read full articleApartheid, Human Rights and BDS
Robert Fantina - CounterPunch,
13 Jun 2016
The tide of justice has long since turned in Palestine’s direction. The U.S., which supported the apartheid government of South Africa right up to the bitter end, will once again be standing alone when Palestine rids itself of the shackles of Israeli oppression. That day is coming, and the pompous pronouncements of U.S. politicians, and even their executive orders, will not prevent it.
→ read full articleJapan Right Now–And the USA
Johan Galtung,
13 Jun 2016
Demystification of USA-Japan relations is bound to come. But only from the source acceptable to “The Japan that Says Yes” (yes-yes-yes-yes–): from the USA itself. From a USA losing one war after the other since Korea 1953, a USA of war fatigue. To a Japan deeply worried about Trump not only for pulling troops out leaving Self-defense to Japan itSelf, but for becoming Great alone, not bestowing indirect greatness on others. Making Japan ordinary.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il conflitto nella penisola coreana: una via d’uscita
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
Costruire sugli obiettivi nord-coreani, prenderli in parola. Il loro regime cambierà, come tutti i regimi; anche gli USA stanno avanzando adesso verso cambiamenti sostanziali. Si progetti un trattato di pace, come con la Sud-Corea, si normalizzino i rapporti diplomatici Nord-Sud e Nord-USA; e si configuri un regime per una penisola coreana denuclearizzata, distruggendo o togliendo di mezzo le armi risultanti a uno scrupoloso monitoraggio ONU.
→ read full articleThis Month in Nuclear Threat History
Jeffrey W. Mason | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
June 23, 1942 – The first nuclear weapons-related accident occurred on this date in the city of Leipzig, Germany involving Nazi atomic scientists Werner Heisenberg and Robert Doepel. While demonstrating Germany’s first neutron propagation experiment, workers checked the atomic pile for a heavy water leak. During the inspection, air leaked in igniting the uranium powder inside.
→ read full articleEast Asia: Four Formulas for Peace
Johan Galtung,
6 Jun 2016
Arms races may deter, but often end with wars. Wars mean trauma for losers and glory for winners. PTSD-post trauma stress disorder-may lead to thirst for revenge, and PGED-post glory exuberance disorder-to thirst for more glory. War, war, war. Worse than ever since WWII. East Asia badly needs another approach. As a minimum, the four tasks in the TRANSCEND peace formula: the negative peace of conciling traumas and solving conflicts; the positive peace of cooperation for mutual and equal benefit-equity-and harmony based on empathy.
→ read full articlePan-African Parliament Calls on African Union to Support the Creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly
Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
13 May 2016 – Yesterday, the Pan-African Parliament called on the African Union and Africa’s governments to support the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, in short UNPA.
→ read full articlePeace Jobs – A Student’s Guide to Starting a Career Working for Peace
David J. Smith | George Mason University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
This book is a guide for college students exploring career options who are interested in working to promote peacebuilding and the resolution of conflict. High school students, particularly those starting to consider college and careers, can also benefited from this book. A major feature of the book is 30 stories from young professionals, most recently graduated from college, who are working in the field.
→ read full articleTrade Pacts and Deregulation: Latest Leaks Reveal Core Problem with TISA
Deborah James - CounterPunch,
6 Jun 2016
30 May 2016 – The 18th round of negotiations on a secret deal to limit public oversight over the services economy starts this week at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, and negotiators will have a new item on their agenda: how to deal with the onslaught of leaks of proposals that were supposed to remain locked away in secret until five years after the deal was concluded or abandoned.
→ read full articleWall Street’s New Man in Brazil: The Forces Behind Dilma Rousseff’s Impeachment
José L. Flores – CounterPunch,
30 May 2016
Acting President Michel Temer is simultaneously being investigated for bribery and corruption. When one studies his political apparatus, it has become apparent that a return to neoliberal economic policies is the actual goal. These impeachment proceedings seem to be secretly guided by the U.S. State Department, Defense Department and U.S. business interests. According to recent internal documents, provided by WikiLeaks, on several occasions Michel Temer was an embassy informant for U.S. intelligence.
→ read full article(Italiano) Marinaleda: un’utopia concreta
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2016
Il concetto base è ben noto: le autorità hanno espropriato terre lasciate incolte nel bel mezzo di un bracciantato disoccupato e alla fame, trasformamdole in una cooperativa comunale con abitazioni molto economiche, asilo d’infanzia, scuole, cliniche. Dietro c’è stata per oltre 30 anni la visione, la sapienza, l’abilità, la volontà del sindaco, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo. Con la mente, una realtà, e la volontà di cambiarla, quella realtà.
→ read full articleTroika Heat-Seeking Missile Destroys Greece
Robert Hunziker – Dissident Voice,
30 May 2016
23 May 2016 – It is scorched-earth economic warfare, ordinarily referred to as neoliberalism. The newest twist/manipulation in negotiations with Troika for Greece survival (demise) in order to provide the country with €86 billion of which 90% pays off debt, 10% to the state, demands Greece cut pensions (again), raise taxes (again), privatize state assets (for a song), and deregulate (squelch) labor. Inspirational?
→ read full articleThe Korean Peninsula Conflict: A Way Out
Johan Galtung,
30 May 2016
Build on the North Korean goals, hold NK to their words. Their regime will, like all regimes, change; even the USA is now heading for basic change. Design a peace treaty, like with South Korea, normalize diplomatic relations North-South and North-USA; and design a regime for a nuclear free peninsula, destroying or removing weapons monitored by solid UN inspection.
→ read full articleClose Calls: We Were Closer to Nuclear Destruction Than We Knew
Gunnar Westberg – The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Nobel Peace Laureates,
30 May 2016
“The proposition that nuclear weapons can be retained in perpetuity and never used — accidentally or by decision — defies credibility.” This unanimous statement was published by the Canberra Commission in 1996. Among the commission members were internationally known former ministers of defense and of foreign affairs and generals.
→ read full articleEconomic Costs of US Wars
Brown University Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2016
The USA has spent or obligated 4.4 trillion dollars on the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq paid almost entirely by borrowing, which has raised the US budget deficit, increased the national debt, and had other macroeconomic effects, such as raising consumer interest rates. We estimate that interest payments over war borrowings could total over $7 trillion by 2053.
→ read full article(Italiano) La geopolitica di seta della Cina
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2016
La Cina sta cambiando la geografia mondiale, o almeno ci sta provando. Non nel senso di acqua e terra come per i Paesi Bassi, ma tessendo nuove infrastrutture di comunicazione per terra, acqua, aria, e nel cyberspazio/web. Le Vie della Seta. Non sorprende che un paese con un certo orientamento marxista focalizzi la propria politica sulle infrastrutture – ma qui come mezzo di trasporto-comunicazione, non di produzione.
→ read full articleWhen Nuclear Plants Expire: Stick the Taxpayers with the Bill (and the Waste)
Linda Pentz Gunter – CounterPunch,
23 May 2016
The inevitable result is that reactor owners will successfully avoid spending money now on decommissioning as they seek to delay beginning the actual cleanup work for the next half century and maybe longer. Later, when it comes time to finish the job, the owners – and the money – could well be long gone.
→ read full articleNorth Korea: Love Thy Leader
Israel Shamir – The Unz Review,
23 May 2016
12 May 2016 | Author’s Note: I returned just now from North Korea. Here is my report from this unusual land.
→ read full articleMarinaleda: A Concrete Utopia
Johan Galtung,
23 May 2016
The basic concept is well known: authorities expropriated land lying fallow in the midst of unemployed starving land labor, and it was transformed into a communal cooperative with very inexpensive housing, kindergarten, schools, clinics. Behind that was the vision, knowledge, skill, will of the mayor for over 30 years, Juan Grillo. With the mind, a reality, and the will to transform that reality.
→ read full articleFukushima Flunks Decontamination
Robert Hunziker - CounterPunch,
23 May 2016
Fukushima’s growing radiation problem.
→ read full articleMonsanto and the Poisoning of Europe
Colin Todhunter – CounterPunch,
23 May 2016
Monsanto’s Assault on Europe – There are around 500 million people in the EU. They want EU officials to uphold the public interest and to be independent from commercial influence. They do not want them to serve and profit from commercial interests at cost to the public’s health and safety.
→ read full articleWhat Race Were the Greeks and Romans? The Evidence Is Clear — but Often Ignored
John Harrison Sims | American Renaissance – Unz Review,
23 May 2016
The Encyclopædia Britannica published in 1911, “Survival of fair hair and complexion and light eyes among the upper classes in Thebes and some other localities shows that the blond type of mankind which is characteristic of north-western Europe had already penetrated into Greek lands before classical times.” It added that the early Greeks, or Hellenes, were Nordic, one of “the fair-haired tribes of upper Europe known to the ancients as Keltoi.” Sixty years ago even Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher and socialist, believed that the Hellenes “were fair-haired invaders from the North, who brought the Greek language with them.”
→ read full article(Italiano) Migrazione di Massa, UE, Nazionalismi Europei
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2016
Oggi la UE è come una piramide dello sfruttamento: la Germania in cima; 8 Paesi Germanici del Nord; 5 Paesi Latini del Sud con la Francia, e poi l’Irlanda; 12 Paesi dell’Est; la Grecia al fondo. Considerando l’ingiustizia e le quote, nulla di strano che crescano i nazionalismi, disunendo la UE. Rimuovete la cause: Inghilterra-Francia, accettate di ricevere il conto; UE, appiattisci la piramide.
→ read full article