Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
How Africa’s Fastest Solar Power Project Is Lighting Up Rwanda
David Smith – The Guardian,
30 Nov 2015
East African plant is completed in less than a year – creating jobs and setting the country on the path to providing half its population with electricity by 2017.
→ read full articleTurkey Could Cut Off Islamic State’s Supply Lines. So Why Doesn’t It?
David Graeber – The Guardian,
23 Nov 2015
Not only has Erdoğan done almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting Isis; there is considerable evidence that his government has been at least tacitly aiding Isis itself. It might seem outrageous to suggest that a NATO member like Turkey would in any way support an organisation that murders western civilians in cold blood.
→ read full articleAnger Rises as Brazilian Mine Disaster Threatens River and Sea with Toxic Mud
Bruce Douglas – The Guardian,
23 Nov 2015
22 Nov 2015 – Conservationists and engineers battle to reduce the ecological fallout as mud and iron-ore residue from the BHP Billiton-Vale dam collapse flows down the Rio Doce to the Atlantic.
→ read full articleEscalation Is Escalation Is Escalation: Lesson of Viet-Nam War
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
23 Nov 2015
Too much truth has not been the traditional path to the White House. But too little truth, as we have seen too often, makes the achievement bitter and pointless. The problem is to put peace on the table in a way that is hard to oppose without seeming to be a monster. And there is an easy approach.
→ read full articleThe Failure of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Nov 2015
22 Nov 2015 – What follows is a modified version of the Morton-Kenney annual public lecture given at the University of Southern Illinois in Carbondale on November 18, 2015 under the joint sponsorship of the Department of Political Science and the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
→ read full articleWhat Is Really at Stake at the Paris Climate Conference Now That Marches Are Banned
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
23 Nov 2015
By banning protest at COP21, Hollande is silencing those facing the worst impacts of climate change and its monstrous violence. Once again, the message is: our security is non-negotiable, yours is up for grabs.
→ read full article(Deutsch) Die Regierung blieb Antworten schuldig
Bernard Schmid, Paris - neues deutschland,
17 Nov 2015
Der »Krieg« ist erklärt, nicht aber das Phänomen des Abdriftens junger Leute in den Dschihadismus. Ein halbes Dutzend mal fiel das Wort »Krieg« in der Ansprache von Frankreichs Präsident. Der Begriff wird sonst für zwischenstaatliche Konflikte gebraucht, weshalb seine Verwendung Aufsehen erregte.
→ read full articleWhy Aung San Suu Kyi’s ‘Mandela Moment’ Is a Victory for Myanmar’s Generals
Maung Zarni – The Guardian,
16 Nov 2015
With a constitution that safeguards its immense power and wealth, the military knows that, unlike in 1990, it doesn’t need a crackdown to keep its regime intact.
→ read full articleNow the Truth Emerges: How the US Fuelled the Rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
16 Nov 2015
The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place. American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Decision Is Clear. But Will the Military Let Aung San Suu Kyi Govern?
Simon Tisdall – The Guardian,
16 Nov 2015
9 Nov 2015 – The last time Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide election victory, the army generals who rule Myanmar rejected the result, placed her under house arrest and jailed thousands of her supporters, many of whom were brutally tortured. That was in 1990. But 25 years later, with “Amay Suu” (Mother Suu) once again triumphant, the key question is whether the men in uniform will accept the people’s verdict and allow her to govern.
→ read full articleA Milestone for Myanmar’s Democracy
The Editorial Board – International New York Times,
16 Nov 2015
The 2008 Constitution also bars Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, from becoming president, because her children are foreign nationals. Nobody doubts that this twisted provision was aimed at excluding her from the nation’s top job. Even so, dismissing the Constitution as “very silly,” she has asserted defiantly that she will be “making all the decisions” behind the scenes.
→ read full articleA misConception of Conflict?
Daniel Erdmann – World Mediation Organization,
16 Nov 2015
2 Nov 2015 – On the origin, the handling, and the finalization of conflict – generally spoken: its nature. I believe that the understanding of a term such as Conflict, War, or Peace is based on the formed personality of each individual. The personality itself is formed by the sum of life experiences, the level of education, the social and cultural background, etc
→ read full articleFrom Taiji to Tanks: Dolphin Captures Show Captive Industry’s Link to Slaughter
Sea Shepherd News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2015
12 Nov 2015 – On November 10 (Japan time), the captive industry’s inextricable link to the slaughter of dolphins and small whales in the infamous cove was on full display once again in Taiji, Japan.
→ read full articleWith ‘Off-Planet’ Mining Bill, US Congress Seeks to Privatize Outer Space
Deirdre Fulton – Common Dreams,
16 Nov 2015
13 Nov 2015 – In a bipartisan bid to encourage commercial exploitation of outer space, the U.S. Senate this week unanimously passed the Space Act of 2015, which grants U.S. citizens or corporations the right to legally claim non-living natural resources—including water and minerals—mined in the final frontier.
→ read full articleEdward Said’s Humanism versus the U.S. State Department’s Antisemitism
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2015
There is an obvious tension that exists more vividly than when Edward Said was alive, and commenting on the Palestinian struggle. Israel has created on the ground a set of circumstances that seem irreversible and are institutionalizing a single apartheid Israeli state encompassing the whole of historic Palestine (minus Jordan).
→ read full article‘Iron-Ass’ Cheney and ‘Arrogant’ Rumsfeld Damaged America, Says George Bush Sr
Claire Phipps – The Guardian,
9 Nov 2015
Former president claims hawkish reaction to 9/11 attacks and desire to ‘get our way in the Middle East’ hurt his son’s administration, says new biography.
→ read full article‘Worse Than We Thought:’ TPP a Total Corporate Power Grab Nightmare
Deirdre Fulton – Common Dreams,
9 Nov 2015
“Worse than anything we could’ve imagined.”
“An act of climate denial.”
“Giveaway to big agribusiness.”
“A death warrant for the open Internet.”
“Worst nightmare.”
“A disaster.”
UK: This Surveillance Bill Threatens Investigative Journalism
Gavin Millar – The Guardian,
9 Nov 2015
If sources understand they can be identified after communicating with a journalist via a smartphone or laptop they will be reluctant to risk dismissal or prosecution. The free speech provision of the European convention on human rights, Article 10, gives journalists a strong right to protect their confidential sources of information.
→ read full articleHopes for the Morning After in Ankara: Taking Stock (2002-2015)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2015
Let’s hope than when Erdoğan awakens the morning after his glowing victory, he chooses what is best for Turkey rather than to settle for becoming a grandiose figure who is certain to be both revered and feared. Only if he tames his ambitions will Erdoğan ensure his legacy as a great Turkish leader, second only to Ataturk.
→ read full articleSouth Sudan: ‘A Level of Human Suffering I Have Never Seen Anywhere Else’
Sam Jones – The Guardian,
2 Nov 2015
Children are paying the highest price for 22-month conflict that has displaced millions of people and pushed the world’s youngest country close to famine.
→ read full articleAl Jazeera Turka Interview on Turkish Foreign and National Policy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Nov 2015
28 Oct 2015 – This is a modified text of an interview conducted by Semin Gumusel Guner of Al Jazeera Turka, and published online in abbreviated form on October 19, 2015. The situation in Turkey is increasingly precarious and troublesome.
→ read full articleThe Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government
Prof. Edward Curtin – Information Clearing House,
2 Nov 2015
The continuing Killing Deep State within the U.S. Empire. David Talbot has exposed the face of evil incarnate in Allen Dulles, the hitman for the power elite.
→ read full articleHow the West Broke Libya and Returned It to the Hatred of the Past
Yasmina Khadra – The Guardian,
26 Oct 2015
When Muammar Gaddafi was toppled the bastion he built crumbled too. Who can restore national unity now? You cannot simply launch an attack on a country without any knowledge of the mindset or character of its inhabitants.
→ read full articleA Tribute to Prof. Johan Galtung’s 85th Birthday
Erika Degortes and Naakow Grant-Hayford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2015
We are here not to offer you a gift dear Johan, but to celebrate the gift you have given to all those interested in bringing about peace as a sociological and as a political responsibility in our multipolar and multicultural world.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: Seventy Years after Hiroshima & Nagasaki – Against Binaries (10)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2015
This is the last in this series of posts prompted by the 70th observance of the atomic attacks in 1945. The intention has been to explore several of the more important dimensions of what is called here ‘nuclearism,’ the securitization of nuclear weaponry in the face of international law, international morality, and simple common sense.
→ read full articleSaudi Arabia, Royal Impunity, and the Quicksand of Special Relationships
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2015
This post challenges the geopolitics of impunity from both principled and pragmatic perspectives, and also casts doubts on ‘special relationships’ that the United States has established in the Middle East with Israel and Saudi Arabia.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: Relying on International Law – Marshall Islands Nuclear Zero Litigation (9)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Oct 2015
From the time of the atomic explosions at the end of World War II, there have been two contradictory sets of tendencies at work: the repudiation of the weaponry and its contemplated uses as ultimate criminality and the secret feverish refinement of the weaponry to enhance its precision, destructive effects, battlefield capabilities, and delivery systems. To date, the latter tendency has prevailed.
→ read full article‘Capitalism is Mother Earth’s Cancer’: World People’s Summit Issues 12 Demands
Deirdre Fulton – Common Dreams,
19 Oct 2015
12 Oct 2015 – Decrying capitalism as a “threat to life,” an estimated 7,000 environmentalists, farmers, and Indigenous activists from 40 countries convened in the Bolivian town of Tiquipaya for this weekend’s World People’s Conference on Climate Change.
→ read full articleEconomic Theory and Community Development – An Exercise in Applied Philosophy
Prof. Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Oct 2015
The Imaginary World That Holds the Real World Captive
→ read full articleThe Fog of Intelligence: Or How to Be Eternally “Caught Off Guard” in the Greater Middle East
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
19 Oct 2015
1,500. That figure stunned me. I found it in the 12th paragraph of a front-page New York Times story about “senior commanders” at U.S. Central Command playing fast and loose with intelligence reports to give their air war against ISIS an unjustified sheen of success: “CENTCOM’s mammoth intelligence operation, with some 1,500 civilian, military, and contract analysts, is housed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
→ read full articleFour More Carmakers Join Diesel Emissions Row
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi’s cars are shown to emit significantly more NOx pollution on the road than in regulatory tests.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Civil Society Activism on Behalf of Nuclear Zero (8)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Oct 2015
The Jeffersonian faith in the future of democracy rested on the cumulative impact of education on citizen participation encouraging a robust and vigilant civil society. The advocacy of nuclear disarmament must become joined at the hip with the recognition that global demilitarization and conventional disarmament are part of a retrofitted political package of unconditional anti-nuclearism.
→ read full articleAfter 70 Years: The UN Falls Short, and Yet…
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Oct 2015
Seventy years later the UN disappoints many, and bores even more, appearing to be nothing more than a gathering place for the politically powerful. I think such a negative image has taken hold because the UN these days seems more than ever like a spectator than a political actor in the several crises that dominate the current agenda of global politics.
→ read full articleOctober 9, 1967: Che Guevara Is Executed in Bolivia
Richard Kreitner – The Nation,
12 Oct 2015
Che Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army on this day in 1967. When his self-selected executioner hesitated before firing, Guevara allegedly spat at him and shouted: “Shoot me, you coward! You are only going to kill a man!”
→ read full article(Italiano) L’uomo bianco in quella foto
Riccardo Gazzaniga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Oct 2015
Le fotografie, a volte, ingannano. Prendete questa immagine, per esempio. Racconta il gesto di ribellione di Tommie Smith e John Carlos il giorno della premiazione dei 200 metri alle Olimpiadi di Città del Messico e mi ha ingannato un sacco di volte.
→ read full articleWide Range of Cars Emit More Pollution in Realistic Driving Tests, Data Shows
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Diesel cars made by Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat and Volvo among others emitted far more NOx in more rigorous tests, research shows.
→ read full articleIt Took Me Two Hours to Get My Hands on an AK-47. Welcome to America
Eric Rodriguez – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Until we make it harder for everyone to get guns, it looks like mommies and daddies will instead consider buying their little girls and boys backpacks with bulletproof plates inside, forcing them to carry the weight on their shoulders of our collective inaction as a nation.
→ read full articleTPP or Not TPP? What’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Should We Support It?
Jana Kasperkevic – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
Twelve Pacific rim countries have signed a sweeping trade deal but will it cut red tape and boost commerce or is it a sellout to big business that will cost jobs? Close to a decade in the making, the most important trade pact in a generation moved closer to becoming a reality on Monday [5 Oct 2015].
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Release of TPP Deal Text Stokes ‘Freedom of Expression’ Fears
Sam Thielman – The Guardian,
12 Oct 2015
9 Oct 2015 – WikiLeaks has released what it claims is the full intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the controversial agreement between 12 countries that was signed off on Monday. This chapter appears to give TPP countries greater power to stop information from going public.
→ read full articleNonagon of Toxic Conflict: Notes on the Turkish Quagmire
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Oct 2015
The focus on Turkey, and its role with respect to Syria, PKK, and ISIS is not meant to minimize the importance of the other actors in the region that are part of the geopolitical nonogon. There are several overlapping regional proxy wars that have precluded a diplomatic resolution, including serious intraregional tensions between Saudi Arabia and Syria as well as the extraregional rivalry between the United States and Russia.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Nuclear Civil Disobedience (7)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Oct 2015
In the years after World War II there was a widespread belief that rational minds would prevail, and that nuclear weapons would not be further developed, and their possession as well as their threat or use prohibited.
→ read full articleThe Benefits of Ozonated Olive Oil for Toenail Fungus
Dr. Edward Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Oct 2015
Untreated, foot fungus, also known as athlete’s foot or tinea pedis, “eats” away at the skin of the foot and can easily spread to other areas of the body, such as the groin. Toenail fungus, or onychomycosis, disfigures the toenail and creates thick discolored nails that can cause painful pressure and difficulty walking.
→ read full articleRight Livelihood Awards 2015: The Laureates
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Oct 2015
2015 Right Livelihood Awards honour courageous and effective solutions to secure human rights and respond to global crises.
→ read full articleThe Yemen Catastrophe: Beset by Contradictions of Will and Intellect
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Oct 2015
The UN Security Council seems shockingly supportive of a major Saudi military intervention that started in March 2015, severely aggravating the overall situation by unanimously adopting a one-sided anti-Houthi Resolution 2216. This Saudi use of force is contrary to international law, violates the core principle of the UN Charter, and magnifies the violent disruption of Yemeni society.
→ read full articleUK and Saudi Arabia ‘in Secret Deal’ over UN Human Rights Council Place
Owen Bowcott – The Guardian,
5 Oct 2015
29 Sep 2015 – Britain conducted secret vote-trading deals with Saudi Arabia to ensure both states were elected to the UN Human Rights Council, according to leaked diplomatic cables. Riyadh has sanctioned more than a hundred beheadings so far this year – more than the Islamic State.
→ read full articleNevermind
Leonard Cohen & Patrick Leonard – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
The war was lost
The treaty signed
I was not caught
I crossed the line
The Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Fukushima and Beyond (6)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
We can only wonder about the lingering effects on the Japanese national psyche of being twice so severely victimized by the diabolical power of the atom? Fukushima was an exemplary tragedy of this new century, exhibiting the destructive force of nature in lethal interaction with the Promethean embrace of nuclear technology.
→ read full articleEconomic Theory and Community Development
Prof. Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
The discursive strategy of this chapter takes up again a central idea of dominant discourse: the idea that economic growth is and must be the aim of every nation. It seeks to destabilize the basic cultural structure. It seeks to destabilize the inter-related ways of acting, talking and seeing that cement injustice into place and make it immovable. But it does not only destabilize. It also includes a number of constructive proposals.
→ read full articleA Gaza Centric History of Palestine: Past, Present, and Future
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
Jean-Pierre Filiu, ‘Gaza: A History,’ trans. John King, Oxford University Press, 2014, 440 pp., ISBN 9780190201890. This review was initially published in the Journal of the Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World.
→ read full articleJeopardizing Japanese ‘Abnormality’: Rejoining the War System
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
Washington’s encouragement of Prime Minister Abe’s campaign for a ‘normal’ Japan represents a regressive move regionally and globally, and deserves critical attention from a wider geopolitical perspective as well as from the viewpoint of Japan.
→ read full articleIndustrial Farming Is One of the Worst Crimes in History
Yuval Noah Harari – The Guardian,
28 Sep 2015
The fate of industrially farmed animals is one of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. Tens of billions of sentient beings, each with complex sensations and emotions, live and die on a production line.
→ read full articleThe Magna Carta of Integral Ecology: Cry of the Earth – Cry of the Poor
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
It is the first time a pope addresses the issue of ecology in the sense of an integral ecology (as it goes beyond the environment) in such a complete way. He elaborates the subject on the new ecological paradigm, which no official document of the UN has done so far.
→ read full articleSea Shepherd Successfully Leads Hundreds of Dolphins and Pilot Whales Away from the Killing Beaches
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
23 Sep 2015 – Over the past three months, the Sea Shepherd ships Brigitte Bardot, Sam Simon, and more recently the Bob Barker, in collaboration with the Sea Shepherd land crew, have successfully escorted hundreds of dolphins, including pilot whales, away from the killing beaches of the Faroe Islands, Denmark.
→ read full articleKissinger: A Hero of Our Time
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2015
For me, Kissinger was the anti-hero, somehow available to justify the unjustifiable, and situate himself in a tradition of statecraft that celebrated the European invention of modern international relations in the 17th-19th centuries.
→ read full articleIt’s Not the Chinese Economy That’s on Life Support
Martin Jacques – The Guardian,
21 Sep 2015
Western markets are only panicking about China because their own economies are so fragile. The western world continues to depend on a life-support system, namely zero interest rates, combined with Chinese growth.
→ read full articleMonsanto’s Sealed Documents Reveal the Truth behind Roundup’s Toxicological Dangers
Richard Gale and Dr. Gary Null – Progressive Radio Network,
21 Sep 2015
Among the many cancers and diseases Monsanto’s own research found associated with glyphosate or Roundup are:
Adenoma cancer in the pituitary gland
Glioma tumors in the brain
Reticular cell sarcomas in the heart
Malignant tumors in the lungs
Salivary mandibular reticular cell carcinoma
Metastatic sarcomas of the lymph gland
Prostate carcinoma
Cancer of the bladder
Thyroid carcinoma
Adrenal reticulum cell sarcomas
Cortical adenomas
Basal cell squamous skin tumors
The Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki – The Weird ‘Good Fortune’ of Tsutomu Yamaguchi (5)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Sep 2015
“I was struck by the decision to bomb Hiroshima instead of Kyoto out of respect for Kyoto’s cultural heritage. It was the then Secretary of War, Henry L Stimson, who is credited with making the successful plea to the president to spare Kyoto.”
→ read full article(Português) Uma outra forma de resolver os conflitos
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Sep 2015
A humanidade, especialmente, sob o patriarcado, conheceu conflitos de toda ordem. A forma predominante de resolvê-los foi e é a utilização da violência, para dobrar o outro e enquadrá-lo numa determinada ordem. Esse é o pior dos caminhos, pois deixa nos vencidos um rastro de amargura, humilhação e de vontade de vingança.
→ read full articleThe Horrifying Syrian Dilemma Persists
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Sep 2015
What this prolonged dilemma in the face of mass atrocity shows is the deficiency of state-centric world order if appraised from the perspective of human wellbeing rather than national interests. The failures in Syria are not just the shortcomings of diplomacy and manipulations of geopolitics, but also a severe mismatch between structures and capabilities of global authority and the vulnerabilities of the peoples of the world.
→ read full article(Deutsch) Die Krise des Lebens und der Selbstverwirklichung
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Sep 2015
Doch alles im Leben ist von Krise gekennzeichnet: die Krise der Geburt, der Jugend, der Wahl des Lebenspartners, der Berufswahl, des Mittagsdämons, wie Freud die Midlife-Crisis der Menschen in ihren 40er Jahren bezeichnet, wenn uns bewusst wird, dass wir schon den Gipfel erreicht haben und im Abstieg begriffen sind. Und schließlich die große Krise des Todes, wenn wir von Zeit zu Ewigkeit schreiten.
→ read full articleOutlook India: Interview on ‘Digital India’ & PM Narendra Modi
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Sep 2015
I am posting here an interview with the magazine OUTLOOK INDIA associated with an open letter that was signed by more than 100 Indian scholars and intellectuals, as well as those such as myself with a long research and human interest in India, expressing concern about the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Silicon Valley to promote his vision of ‘Digital India.’
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki – The Iran Agreement in Perspective (4)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2015
This nuclear agreement reflects ‘where we are’ in dealing with global crises, not ‘where we should be.’ If we value international law, global justice, and indeed the future of the human species, then the distinction between the realm of the ‘feasible’ and the realm of the ‘desirable’ deserves energetic critical exposure by all of us who fancy ourselves as citizen pilgrims.
→ read full articleReich and the Myth of a Moral Capitalism
Richard Becker - Liberation,
14 Sep 2015
6 Sep 2015 – In a Sept. 5 blog, former Secretary of Labor and liberal commentator Robert Reich, asks, “What Happened to the Moral Center of American Capitalism?” It’s not satire. The only way to put an end to capitalist excesses is to put an end to the system itself.
→ read full articleA Moment That Changed Me – Looking a Sperm Whale in the Eye
Philip Hoare – The Guardian,
14 Sep 2015
I’d always been scared of these great creatures but while filming in the Azores, I jumped into the ocean amid a pod of whales – and met another sentient being. She looked at me, with an eye the size of a grapefruit, with absolute sentience and curiosity, wondering what I was.
→ read full articleHidden Problem of ‘Ghost Gear’: The Abandoned Fishing Nets Clogging Up Oceans
Hannah Gould – The Guardian,
14 Sep 2015
A new global initiative founded by World Animal Protection hopes to tackle the problem that’s killing animals and costing business.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Likud Troika: Burying the Oslo ‘Peace Process’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2015
12 Sep 2015 – Israel’s relentless accumulation of territorial facts on the ground some years ago doomed the peace process associated with the Oslo Framework of Principles adopted in 1993. It became increasingly difficult to envisage an Israeli willingness to dismantle settlements and road network or remove the separation barrier, and without such steps there could never be achieved an independent and viable Palestinian state.
→ read full articleThe Sympathetic Skeptic: Luis Cabrera’s Interview with Richard Falk On Behalf Of the World Government Research Network
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2015
12 Sep 2015 – The following interview was conducted by Professor Luis Cabrera, a political theorist on the faculty of Griffith University in Brisbane Australia. Cabrera has written notable books on themes of world government and global integration.
→ read full articleCheering German Crowds Greet Refugees after Long Trek from Budapest to Munich
Emma Graham-Harrison, Patrick Kingsley and Tracy McVeigh – The Guardian,
7 Sep 2015
As Europe’s politicians continue to bicker, desperate travellers are welcomed and fed as they arrive at German city.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Naasaki – Gorbachev’s Response (3)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Sep 2015
Of course, Gorbachev is appreciated in the West mainly as having presided over a political process that led to the nonviolent ending of the Cold War, the peaceful liberation of Eastern Europe, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet he was also perhaps the only head of an important sovereign state…
→ read full articleA Tale of Two Crises in Greece – Coping with Economic Depression and Refugees
Daniel Howden – The Guardian,
7 Sep 2015
In the islands near Turkey, such as Kos, the two phenomena have collided, turning the usually lucrative tourist season into a ‘relentless August’.
→ read full articleNuclear-Free Future Awards
Nuclear-Free Future Award,
7 Sep 2015
Tony de Brum, Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, will receive the Nuclear-Free Future Award in the category of “Solutions.” De Brum has led efforts by RMI to get the nine nuclear-armed nations to fulfill their duties under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including serving as a co-agent in groundbreaking lawsuits against them at the International Court of Justice.
→ read full articleU.S. & Saudi Arabia War Crimes Keep Killing Yemenis
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
31 Aug 2015
30 Aug 2015 – Is There Anyone Who Believes That Yemeni Lives Matter? Saudi Arabia’s aggression against Yemen, the poorest country in the region, has been catastrophic for Yemen, which is all-but-defenseless. Backed by eight other Arab dictatorships and the US, they have committed uncounted war crimes and crimes against humanity.
→ read full articleWhen Surveillance Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Joshua Kopstein – The Guardian,
31 Aug 2015
Windows 10 heralds a future in which the cloud rules and computers snitch on us by default. New technology shouldn’t offer a choice between giving up our privacy to live like the Jetsons and defending it to live like the Flintstones.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2015
This is a legal issue, as this book makes clear, but it is also a moral issue, a security issue and, ultimately, a spiritual issue. Humankind must step back from the nuclear abyss now, before it is too late.
→ read full articleThatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards
David Edwards – Media Lens,
31 Aug 2015
“Tyrants willing to serve the West are sent tanks, guns and Christmas cards. Their crimes are buried out of sight, protected from censure at the United Nations. Likewise, outrage at dissidents’ alleged ‘support’ for tyranny is mostly a device used to attack voices threatening power and profit. The state-corporate moral compass is not malfunctioning or broken – there is no moral compass.” – Howard Zinn
→ read full article‘I Have Become a Body without a Soul’: 13 Years Detained in Guantánamo
Pardiss Kebriaei – The Guardian,
31 Aug 2015
It’s been four years since the Obama administration promised to review indefinite detentions. For my client there, it’s been one long nightmare.
→ read full articleBurma’s Half-Hearted Commitment to Democracy
Editorial Board – The Washington Post,
31 Aug 2015
The regime of generals and former generals who began the transition away from military rule still exert a heavy hand on the political process. Burma’s regime is aggravating and exploiting ethnic conflicts in the Southeast Asian nation of 56 million people also known as Myanmar. Most egregious has been its treatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that has long been persecuted and that increasingly has been subject to violence and denied citizenship.
→ read full articleWhat Are Obesogens?
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2015
Obesogens is an umbrella term given to the dozens of endocrine disruptors that play a role in obesity. Chemicals from plastics, like BPA, are known obesogens, and these chemicals pollute our waterways and pervade our homes.
→ read full articleWhy Congress Must Support the Nuclear Agreement with Iran
Akbar Ganji & Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2015
Akbar Ganji is an important human rights defender who spent several years for his efforts in an Iranian jail. He is a leading commentator on Iranian affairs and recipient of an International Press Association World Press Hero award. Our article stresses the critical importance of obtaining American approval of the nuclear agreement.
→ read full articleYanis Varoufakis: Bailout Deal Allows Greek Oligarchs to Maintain Grip
Phillip Inman – The Guardian,
24 Aug 2015
17 Aug 2015 – Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has accused European leaders of allowing oligarchs to maintain their stranglehold on Greek society while punishing ordinary people in a line-by-line critique of the country’s €86bn (£61bn) bailout deal.
→ read full articlePentagon to Expand Drone Flights by 50 Percent
Gordon Lubold - The Wall Street Journal,
24 Aug 2015
Expanded drone flights to give military commanders access to more intelligence and greater firepower amid more global hot spots.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2015
The time is now ripe for the total de-linkage of nonproliferation from disarmament with respect to nuclear weapons policy. Without such a de-linkage false consciousness and confusion are unavoidable. It is time to generate populist impatience with the refusal of decades by government establishment to act on the basis of reason, ethics, and prudence.
→ read full articleThe Anarchist Impulse
Richard Swift – New Internationalist Magazine,
24 Aug 2015
The other great historic alternative to capitalism has been anarchism. Often dismissed as a dirty word, its influence ebbs and flows but its libertarian principles remain profoundly influential.
→ read full articleFree-Trade Treaties Are Anti-Free Trade
Immanuel Wallerstein - Toward Freedom,
24 Aug 2015
So-called free-trade treaties are about managing the protectionist interests of the various parties to these treaties. Whatever they do, the results are anti-free trade. To understand what is going on, we have to start with that, and evaluate any proposal with that in mind.
→ read full articleNutrition Experts Alarmed By Nonprofit Downplaying Role of Junk Food in Obesity
Joanna Walters – The Guardian,
17 Aug 2015
‘You cannot exercise your way out of overeating’ say scientists, who compare Coca-Cola’s funding of the Global Energy Balance Network to that of big tobacco and its ‘merchants of doubt’.
→ read full articleUS Torturers Lose Psychologists’ Corrupt Cooperation
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
17 Aug 2015
American Psychological Association Acts to Heal Itself – American psychologists have voted overwhelmingly against helping their government torture people. In an even more radical step, the psychologists voted to obey international law, even in instances where US law tolerates war crimes or crimes against humanity.
→ read full articleNine Banks Including RBS Settle $2bn Forex Rigging Claim in US Court
Jill Treanor – The Guardian,
17 Aug 2015
15 Aug 2015 – Nine major banks including Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays have settled a US$ 2bn claim brought by investors in a US court for losses caused by the rigging of foreign exchange markets but are warned cases could be brought elsewhere.
→ read full articleLiving in the 21st Century
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Aug 2015
A confessional to the extent of acknowledging my own surroundings of digital devices that while liberating in some respects are repressive in others. To sustain our freedom under these ‘postmodern’ conditions requires the rechristening of meditative intelligence (as distinct from the instrumental rationality that acted as wet nurse of the ‘modern.’
→ read full articleExposing Abuse on the Factory Farm
Editorial Board – The New York Times,
17 Aug 2015
8 Aug 2015 – While most Americans enjoy eating meat, it is hard to stomach the often sadistic treatment of factory-farmed cows, pigs and chickens. Farm operators go to great lengths to hide these gruesome images from the public. A popular tactic is the so-called ag-gag law, which makes it a crime to secretly videotape industrial feedlots and slaughterhouses to expose animal mistreatment and abuse.
→ read full articleIs Artificial Intelligence Really an Existential Threat to Humanity?
Edward Moore Geist – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
17 Aug 2015
With intellectual powers beyond human comprehension, Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom prognosticates, self-improving artificial intelligences could effortlessly enslave or destroy Homo sapiens if they so wished.
→ read full articleSea Shepherd Found Guilty by Danish Court of Defending Pilot Whales
Sea Shepherd News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Aug 2015
Yesterday [6 Aug 2015] five Sea Shepherd volunteer crewmembers were found guilty in a Danish court of breaking the Faroe Islands Pilot Whaling Act for the “crime” of interfering in the slaughter of over 250 pilot whales on the killing beaches of Bøur and Tórshavn on July 23.
→ read full articleWartime Journalism: Mohammed Omer on Gaza
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Aug 2015
Omer’s prior reporting earned him the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 2007, recognizing the excellence of his reportage on Gaza (‘a voice for the voiceless’). After receiving the award in The Netherlands, Omer on his return home received a brutal reception at the Gaza border by Israeli security guards being beaten so severely as to endure serious injury that required specialized surgery.
→ read full articleHow to Live Wisely
Richard J. Light – The New York Times,
10 Aug 2015
Imagine you are Dean for a Day. What is one actionable change you would implement to enhance the college experience on campus? I have asked students this question for years. The answers can be eye-opening. A few years ago, the responses began to move away from “tweak the history course” or “change the ways labs are structured.” A different commentary, about learning to live wisely, has emerged.
→ read full articlePondering Jonathan Pollard’s Release
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Aug 2015
Loyalty to the state continues to be the north star of conventional patriotism. For the citizen pilgrim solidarity with an emergent eco-humanist insurgency is the keystone of 21st century political community and ethical responsibility deserving precedence when in conflict with nationalist and tribal affinities.
→ read full articleVideo Graphic Footage Shows Mass Slaughter of Pilot Whales in the Faroe Islands
Sea Shepherd News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Aug 2015
• All five Sea Shepherd crewmembers who were detained overnight have been arrested.
• Approx. 250 pilot whales were killed yesterday. *111 killed at Bøur *130-150 killed at Tórshavn.
(Português) As Crises da Vida e a Autorealização
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Aug 2015
O desafio posto a cada um não é como evitar as crises. Elas são inerentes à nossa condição humana. A questão é como as enfrentamos: que lições tiramos delas e como podemos crescer com elas. Por aí passa o caminho de nossa auto-realização e de nossa maturidade como seres humano ou de nosso fracasso.
→ read full articleUN Paid Millions to Russian Aviation Firm Even after Learning of Sex Attack on Girl
Paul Lewis, Oliver Laughland and Roger Hamilton-Martin – The Guardian,
3 Aug 2015
30 Jul 2015 – Documents reveal United Nations unit uncovered possible ‘culture of sexual exploitation and abuse’ after 2010 attack by UTair crew member, but permitted company to continue receiving contracts worth millions.
→ read full articleProtecting Schools 80 Years after Roerich
Bede Sheppard, Human Rights Watch – Culture of Peace News Network,
3 Aug 2015
The Declaration is a political commitment to do more to protect students, teachers, schools and universities from attack and from military use during times of armed conflict. It calls upon armed forces to refrain from converting schools or universities into military bases, barracks, defensive positions, detention centers, and weapons caches, as well as from harassment, rape, and forced recruitment by the soldiers inside the school.
→ read full articleEco-Insurgency, Tribal Vision, and Ultra-Nationalist Geopolitics
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Aug 2015
Thinking hopefully, the Anthropocene Age may soon witness the first species insurgency against the eco-tyrannical elites of the world, who have become the suicidal guardians of our neoliberal market forces joined in an unbreakable alliance with dominant forces of tribalism and nationalism. In moments of despair, the end-time hegemony of this unbreakable alliance are likely to retain control of species destiny.
→ read full articleHedge Funds Tell Puerto Rico: Lay Off Teachers and Close Schools to Pay Us Back
Rupert Neate – The Guardian,
3 Aug 2015
Report commissioned by 34 hedge funds says government had been ‘massively overspending on education’ despite spending only 79% of US average per pupil.
→ read full article