Articles by M
We found 36562 results.
When ‘Your Heart Is a Muscle,’ Empathy Is a Revolutionary Act
US National Public Radio – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
«Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist» was inspired by a real-life event; in 1999, thousands of demonstrators disrupted a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. Badly outnumbered police resorted to using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets.
→ read full articlePitirim Sorokin (21 Jan 1889 – 11 Feb 1968): The Renewal of Humanity
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
The two World Wars convinced him that humanity was in a period of transition, that the guideline of earlier times had broken down and had not yet been replaced by a new set of values and motivations. To bring about real renewal, one had to work at the same time on the individual personality, on cultural values, and on the social framework.
→ read full articleRelationships – Reflections on Refugees
Dr Hakim, Afghan Peace Volunteers – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
As relationships are built on various aspects of love, they are powerful. If we build more and more relationships, they will be an alternative power to the abusive power of governments and corporations, and that’s when governments and corporations will become more obvious in their efforts to sabotage relationships.
→ read full articleGates Foundation’s “Corporate Merry-Go-Round”: Spearheading the Neo-liberal Plunder of African Agriculture
Colin Todhunter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
Global Justice Now’s analysis of the BMGF’s programmes shows that the foundation’s senior staff are overwhelmingly drawn from corporate America. As a result, the question is: whose interests are being promoted – those of corporate America or those of ordinary people who seek social and economic justice rather than charity?
→ read full articleExtreme, Extremer, Extremest
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
As is well-known, Israel is a “Jewish and democratic state”. That is its official designation. Well… As for Jewish, it’s a new kind of Jewishness, a mutation. Since 1967, Israel has been a hybrid creation – half democratic, half dictatorial. Like an egg that is half fresh, half rotten.
→ read full articleAn Open Letter to the American People: Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age
Richard Falk, David Krieger and Robert Laney – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
What is most notable about the Nuclear Age is that we humans, by our scientific and technological ingenuity, have created the means of our own demise. The world currently is confronted by many threats to human wellbeing, and even civilizational survival, but we focus here on the particular grave dangers posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear war.
→ read full article(Français) Gouvernements populaires en Amérique latine: «fin de cycle» ou nouvelle étape politique?
Isabel Rauber, CETRI-Centre Tricontinental – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
19 janvier 2016 – Quelques intellectuels qui se définissent comme étant de gauche ou de centre gauche, ont affirmé récemment que nous vivons une fin de cycle des gouvernements progressistes, caractérisée par l’épuisement de leurs programmes néo-développementistes – qui incluent l’extractivisme – et leur « inefficace » capacité de gestion.
→ read full articleThe End of Liberal Europe
Peter Schwarz, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
The shift to the right by the European elites is rooted in explosive social, economic and political contradictions that have been building up since the collapse of the Soviet Union 25 years ago, and especially since the international financial crisis of 2008. German imperialism has played a crucial role in these developments.
→ read full article‘Voluntary’ International Law and the Paris Agreement
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
16 Jan 2016 – Now that the celebrations by the diplomats have ended, it is time to take a hard look at what was and was not accomplished by the Paris Agreement. What we need and should seek is a moral epistemology that reconnects knowledge with human values configured so as to achieve justice, sustainability, and the pleasures of ‘a good life.’
→ read full article
Man in the Mirror (Music Video of the Week)
Michael Jackson - michaeljacksonVEVO,
25 Jan 2016
Music video by Michael Jackson performing Man in the Mirror. © 1987 MJJ Productions Inc.
44,401,244 Views on YouTube (Lyrics below video)
After the Iran Agreement: How Close Are We to “a World Free of Nuclear Weapons?”
Amb. Sergio Duarte – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
The JCPOA is undoubtedly a victory for non-proliferation advocates, but the current possessors of nuclear weapons do not seem willing to apply the same logic to their own continuing programs of increase and “modernization” of their arsenals and point to the technological advancement of their rivals in order to justify their own military efforts. The nuclear arms race takes on new forms as bombs become smaller, lighter and smarter.
→ read full articleParallel Standards Offer Way Out of Violence
Kristin Christman – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
One Step to a Change in Mideast Relations Is a Change in the U.S. Mindset
→ read full articleNonprofits: Beware the Hand That Feeds
Auset Marian Lewis - TeleSur,
25 Jan 2016
Can we really depend on big money to fund change? With dissent bent and compromised to fit a corporate 501c(3) model, the cry for change can be muted and misdirected. To that extent nonprofit models can coopt social justice movements who depend on them for support.
→ read full articleDuty to Warn – Does Prescribing Anti-psychotic Drugs to Infants, Toddlers and Young Children Meet the Definition of Reckless Endangerment?
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
When physicians (or medical paraprofessionals) prescribe psychiatric drugs to children without the parent or legal guardian’s fully informed consent, the prescribers could reasonably be charged with reckless endangerment and/or child endangerment because such drugs commonly cause a multitude of well-known adverse effects.
→ read full articleHumanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti
Mark Schuller - CounterPunch,
25 Jan 2016
Foreign imperialism in the form of NGOs. As Gina Athena Ulysse has powerfully demonstrated, Haiti needs new narratives. Maybe the earthquake story has run its course, in the foreign memory at least.
→ read full article(Français) Terrorisme – «Culture de l’excuse» : les sociologues répondent à Valls
Sonya Faure , Cécile Daumas et Anastasia Vécrin — Libération,
25 Jan 2016
«Expliquer le jihadisme, c’est déjà vouloir un peu excuser.» Samedi [9 jan], le Premier ministre a exprimé, une nouvelle fois, sa défiance envers l’analyse sociale et culturelle de la violence terroriste. Une accusation qui passe mal auprès des intellectuels.
→ read full articleIsrael: Businesses Should End Settlement Activity
Human Rights Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
19 Jan 2016 – Businesses should stop operating in, financing, servicing, or trading with Israeli settlements in order to comply with their human rights responsibilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Those activities contribute to and benefit from an inherently unlawful and abusive system that violates the rights of Palestinians.
→ read full articleA Tale of Two Grandmothers – Jailed for Photographing Protest Outside Drone Base
Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan – Democracy NOW!,
25 Jan 2016
The group, the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, gathered there on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, protesting the weaponized drones used in the Obama administration’s targeted killing program. It was only one of many of the group’s peaceful vigils.
→ read full article(Italiano) Siria (Prestare attenzione alle menti, II)
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
La Siria ha offerto una scelta povera fra una dittatura di minoranza provvista di tolleranza e una dittatura di maggioranza – la democrazia – sprovvista. Così ha prosperato la violenza, resuscitando vecchi sospetti di guerre per procura. “Bombardiamo la Siria” è stata la panacea, dopo “bombardiamo la Libia”. Che vergogna. Fatela finita.
→ read full articleCan Targeted Killing Work as a Neutral Principle?
Jeremy Waldron, New York University School of Law - Social Science Research Nework,
25 Jan 2016
Abstract. This paper casts doubt on the prospects for legitimizing what is known as “targeted killing” – the use of assassins, death squads, or other murderous techniques – against identified civilians whose continued existence is thought to pose a serious threat of some kind to a given community and its members.
→ read full article(Italiano) “Persone comuni che vivono in tempi straordinari”_4
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
989. E’ il numero delle/dei sottoscrittori della petizione “Il servizio migranti di Aosta non deve chiudere” le cui firme sono state consegnate, con lettera raccomandata con ricevuta di ritorno, in data 14 gennaio 2016, al Presidente della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta.
→ read full articleHow Does It End?
Winslow Myers, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
What makes our own arrogant and pompous leaders one whit less adolescent than theirs? We are subject like the North Koreans to the same self-perpetuating paranoia, the same lack of moral imagination, the same suppression of truth-telling, the same wildly unnecessary secrets and lies, the same demagogic rationalizations of the status quo, the same folly of an endless arms race, the same nuclear dictatorship that leaves citizens without a voice when world-ending decisions are made.
→ read full articleWest Papuans Testify
Jason MacLeod – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
We have come to testify. There is much that we want the world to know. We want you to hear stories of suffering from the mouths of ordinary people. Our memories are clear and sharp. ‘In this river our father was murdered.’ ‘On that mountain slope there used to be villages. They were destroyed by the military.’ ‘On that open field, our old men were forced to burn their koteka [penis sheaths] because they were considered primitive.’ ‘In the past that mountain was ours, now people have destroyed our mother.’ We want you to travel with us to the sites of the massacres. We want to testify about the killings and the beatings with rifles.
→ read full articleGoldman Sachs Will Pay $5 Billion to Settle Financial-Crisis Claims
Jim Zarroli, NPR – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
14 Jan 2016 – Goldman Sachs will pay about $5 billion to resolve state and federal investigations into its handling of mortgage-backed securities in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, the bank said today. Regulators have already won large multibillion-dollar settlements from several large banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup.
→ read full articleThis Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Jan 18-24 QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires will come to you.
If your heart is in your dream,
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star as dreamers do.”
Encyclopedia of Evil Claims, Claimants, Counter-claims, and Sigils
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Considerable significance is currently attached, at the highest level of authority, to the determining role of evil with respect to ongoing global crises and those recently past. As declared by Hannah Arendt in 1945: The problem of evil will be the fundamental question of postwar intellectual life in Europe (Essays in Understanding, 1994, p. 134).
→ read full articleBishnu Pathak’s Nine Freedoms Doctrine to Truth, Justice and Dignity
Meena Pathak, Bimip Pathak and Bimish Pathak - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Transnational Professor Bishnu Pathak is the creator of the Peace-Conflict Lifecycle, the architect of Human Security Studies, the founder of the Principles of Process Documentation (End-to-End-Lifecycle) of any development project and the pioneer of Process Documentation for Interfaith Peacebuilding Cycle.
→ read full articleThe Struggle for Merdeka in West Papua
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
In Jason MacLeod’s new book, Merdeka and the Morning Star: Civil Resistance in West Papua, the failure to develop a comprehensive strategy of any kind, violent or nonviolent, to liberate West Papua is overwhelmingly evident. And MacLeod does an excellent job of identifying why this has happened as he provides us with an overview of the history and geopolitical circumstances of the occupation of West Papua as well as a history of the resistance, both violent and nonviolent, to this occupation.
→ read full articleOnce Auctioned, What to Do with the ‘Stock’ of Syrian Refugees?
Baher Kamal – Human Wrongs Watch,
18 Jan 2016
13 Jan 2016 – Few months ago, an unprecedented “humanitarian auction” was opened in Brussels at the European Commission, shortly after watching the image of the three-year old Syrian child that the sea threw up on the Turkish shores. The “auction” was about deciding upon the number of Syrian refugees to be hosted by each EU country.
→ read full articleA New Era of Global Protest Begins
Rajesh Makwana, Share the World’s Resources – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
14 Jan 2016 – Research by Dr. David Bailey provides empirical evidence that we have entered a prolonged period of dissent characterised by an escalation in the magnitude and diversity of public protest. The catalyst was the financial crisis of 2008, which continues to have a detrimental impact for the vast majority of citizens – even while the combined wealth of the richest 1% continues to soar.
→ read full articleOn Ghada Ageel’s Edited ‘Israeli Apartheid in Palestine’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Ghada Ageel’s expertly edited ‘Israeli Apartheid in Palestine: Hard Laws and Harder Experiences’ has just been published by the University of Albert Press. It is an important contribution to Palestinian studies with an especially welcome linking of activism, scholarly analysis, and experiential narrative, each a vital perspective represented by excellent chapter writers.
→ read full article
‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ (Music Video of the Week)
Amira Willighagen & André Rieu, Talented Young Musicians - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
11-year-old Amira Willighagen performs ‘O mio babbino caro’ with André Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra at a concert in Maastricht, The Netherlands. 10 thousand standing ovation…
→ read full articlePublication of My Collected Essays
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
“I know John Avery as a scholar and an advocate of peace. If the Old Testament command of an eye for an eye is followed, the whole world will be blind. A far better path for humanity, as John shows in the Essays, is to apply the tools of reason, science and morality to eliminate the underlying causes of war and poverty.” — Hon. Matt Robson
→ read full articleShould Criminalizing War Start by Pretending It’s Legal?
David Swanson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
6 Jan 2015 – There’s a terrific new book on abolishing war called ‘Abolishing War: Criminalizing War, Removing War Causes, Removing War as Institution.’ Johan Galtung, who was recently on my radio show, is brilliant as always, drawing on vast knowledge and wisdom.
→ read full articleRemembering Hawaii’s Queen Lili’uokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
James Albertini – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
January 17th marks the date of the illegal overthrow of Hawaii’s Queen Lili’uokalani and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893 by U.S. business interests with the assistance of U.S. Marines. January 18th marks the holiday named for Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. who was a champion for civil rights, justice, peace and the power of nonviolent action, assassinated in 1968.
→ read full articleRingling Circus Elephants to Retire in May
Tamara Lush, Associated Press – Reader Supported News,
18 Jan 2016
12 January 16 – The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its elephant acts a year and a half early, and will retire all of its touring elephants in May. The move comes amid increasing scrutiny of circus elephant acts with local governments passing “anti-circus” and “anti-elephant” ordinances in response to concerns over animal cruelty.
→ read full articleSurveillance and Surveys in Kabul
Kathy Kelly, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Billions of dollars have been invested in a variety of blimps which various vendors such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and Aeros have shipped to Afghanistan. All of this surveillance purportedly helps establish “patterns of life” and bring security to people living here …tax money to the insatiable appetite of the “defense” corporations and their illusions of omniscient security.
→ read full articleRobert M. Hutchins (17 Jan 1899 – 17 May 1977): Building on Earlier Foundations
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Much of our current work for a more just and peaceful world builds on the thinking and efforts of earlier foundations. An important foundation is the leading role of Robert M. Hutchins, long-time President of the University of Chicago.
→ read full articleYemen: Five Medical Staff Dead in Third Bombing of Doctors Without Borders Facilities
Thomas Gaist, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
MSF officials remained uncertain whether the explosion was caused by an airstrike or by a missile fired from ground forces. The identity of the attackers also remains contested, with reports from the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency asserting that the attack was launched by the Saudi coalition forces and US media reports maintaining that the origins of the strike are still not known.
→ read full articleThe Lady and the Generals
Soe Lin Aung & Stephen Campbell – Jacobin Magazine,
18 Jan 2016
Aung San Suu Kyi’s electoral victory could bring political reform to Myanmar. Economic justice is another story.
→ read full articleNew Year’s Resolution
Bizarro Comics – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Good question…
→ read full articleSpecial Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territory Resigns Due to Continued Denial of Access by Israel
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
4 Jan 2016 –The independent expert expressed deep regret that, throughout his mandate, Israel failed to grant him access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way,” said Makarim Wibisono.
→ read full articleSuu Kyi Govt Must Not Continue State Persecution of Rohingya
Dr. Maung Zarni, DVB – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
As Aung San Suu Kyi prepares to take over the reins of the new government [Burma/Myanmar], the international community – of diplomats, world leaders, journalists, human rights researchers and world citizens – needs to press the Burmese leader to reflect critically on her stances on the Rohingya.
→ read full articlePolice Agent-Provocateurs Exposed at Montreal Anti-Austerity Demonstration
Carl Bronski, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Initially the police refused to admit that they had infiltrated the December 18 protest. But now they are strongly defending the actions of an undercover cop who drew his revolver and threatened protesters who had “outed” him as a police agent provocateur.
→ read full articlePharming
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
The resistance factors produced by shovelling antibiotics into animal food produces resistance factors (plasmids) which can easily be transferred to human pathogens. A related problem is the excessive use of pesticides and artificial fossil-fuel-derived fertilizers in agriculture. Pharming is not a joke. It is a serious threat.
→ read full articleSaudi Arabia a Force for Stability? Dream On!
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
11 Jan 2016
The Saudi mass beheadings on January 2 proved nothing new to a world that well knows Saudi Arabia is still a tribal police state with a moral code of medieval barbarity. Saudi Arabia is a Sunni-Muslim country that executes people for witchcraft, adultery, apostasy, and homosexuality (among other things).
→ read full article(Français) Les massacres sont-ils plus intéressants lorsqu’ils sont commis par des “musulmans” ?
Asma Mechakra, Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Déjà presque deux mois se sont écoulés depuis les attentats meurtriers de Paris et l’émotion est encore vive. Pendant la même période, un hôpital de médecins sans frontières (MSF) a été délibérément bombardé par l’aviation Etasunienne en Afghanistan, un double attentat suicide a été perpétré dans la banlieue sud de Beyrouth et une école Irakienne au Mossoul a été bombardée par l’aviation Française.
→ read full articleThe Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare
Nathaniel Richjan – The New York Times Magazine,
11 Jan 2016
The farmer said that his cows were dying left and right. He believed that the DuPont chemical company, which until recently operated a site in Parkersburg that is more than 35 times the size of the Pentagon, was responsible. Tennant had tried to seek help locally, he said, but DuPont just about owned the entire town.
→ read full article(Castellano) Como Entender la Política y Como Cambiarla
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Lo que distingue el político de los demás oficios y profesiones no es en fin ninguna calidad moral distinta, sino el hecho que le corresponde cumplir una tarea que en la época que nos toca vivir es imposible. La tesis que hoy la política es imposible, o –dicho de una manera menos escueta– que los objetivos que la política se propone sean inalcanzables, es hasta aquí todavía más una provocación que una hipótesis.
→ read full articleThe Nobel Peace Prize Watch 2016
Fredrik S. Heffermehl and Tomas Magnusson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Who Should Win the 2016 Nobel? Promote good nominations, of qualified candidates, for 2016, before the Feb. 1 deadline. The right to nominate is limited, to parliamentarians, certain professors, and others, all over the world. If you are not entitled to nominate, please seek out someone who is.
→ read full articleWall Street Taking Over Nonprofit Sector
Dan Wright, Shadowproof – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
4 Jan 2015 – While there has traditionally been a close relationship between Wall Street donors and nonprofit organizations like charities and universities, a new study from the Stanford Social Innovation Review reveals a growing Wall Street takeover of nonprofit boards of directors.
→ read full article
What Is Genocide?
Prof. Daniel Feierstein, Rohingya Genocide Documentation - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Prof. Daniel Feierstein is president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars; director of the Centre for Genocide Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; professor in the Faculty of Genocide at the University of Buenos Aires.
→ read full articleSchooling for Peace and Harmony
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
The UN Charter of Human Rights passed in 1948 has recognised education as a fundamental right in Article 26 of the Charter that states, “Everyone has the right to education. It should be free at least to the elementary and foundational levels …” “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” — Edward Everett
→ read full articleWibisono’s Resignation as UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
I am surprised, but not shocked. Surprised because he should have known that he was faced with a dilemma between doing the job properly of reporting on Israel’s crimes and human rights abuses and gaining Israel’s cooperation. Not shocked, indeed grateful, as it illuminates the difficulty confronting anyone charged with truthful reporting on the Palestinian ordeal under occupation, and by his principled resignation Wibisono doesn’t allow Israel to get away with neutering the position of special rapporteur.
→ read full articleCarl Rogers (8 Jan 1902 – 4 Feb 1987): Healing the Person and the State
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Carl Ransom Rogers was a US psychologist, educator and a leading figure of what is often called “the third wave of psychology. The first wave was Freud and Jung, and their views of psychoanalysis. The second wave was behaviorism symbolized by B.F. Skinner and the later behavior-modification specialists. The third wave, often called “humanist”, has Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, and Carl Rogers as its best-known figures.
→ read full article… And All of a Sudden, Syria!
Baher Kamal, IPS - Human Wrongs Watch,
11 Jan 2016
5 Jan 2015 – The “big five” – i.e., the most military powerful states on earth (US, UK, France, Russia and China) have just agreed that it would be about time to end the Syrian five-year long human tragedy.
→ read full articleDecide to Be a Spiritual Person
Robert Muller – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Render others spiritual
Irradiate your spirituality
Treat every moment of your life
with divine respect
Children
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
All parents want their children to be independent.
→ read full articleKhalil Gibran (6 Jan 1883 – 10 Apr 1931): Spirits Rebellious
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Khalil Gibran is one of the most quoted prose poets, especially his 1923 work The Prophet. The book has become bedside reading for all those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious”.
→ read full articleBlame Capitalism for Doping in Sports
Bhaskar Sunkara – Al Jazeera America,
11 Jan 2016
Players who take performance-enhancing drugs are only responding to the incentives of the free market. When it comes to corruption in sports, don’t hate the players—scapegoats for capitalism; hate the game.
→ read full articleFree Basics: Corporate Freedom to Privatise India’s Basic Economy
Prof. Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Mark Zuckerberg is in India with ₹100 crore, in pocket change, for advertising. Facebook’s Free Basics is a repackaged internet.org, or in other words, a system where Facebook decides what parts of the internet are important to users.
→ read full articleSometimes! I wonder
Dr. M. Ashaq Raza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Sometimes! I wonder
There be No border
Between India and Pakistan
So that people of two nations
Live as brothers
As their fathers
Ave Maria (Music Video of the Week)
Luciano Pavarotti – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Luciano Pavarotti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian operatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner [Aung San Suu Kyi] and Crimes against Humanity
Nicholas Kristof – International New York Times,
11 Jan 2016
9 Jan 2015 – Soon the world will witness a remarkable sight: a beloved Nobel Peace Prize winner presiding over 21st-century concentration camps. [Pres. Barack Obama, another NPP recipient, sets the world on fire, killing by Drones indiscriminately around the globe.]
→ read full articleSyria Is the Middle Eastern Stalingrad
Andre Vltchek, New Eastern Outlook – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Hundreds of thousands have died, and millions have been forced to flee abroad or have been internally displaced. In many cities and villages, not one house is left intact. But Syria is, against all odds, still standing. And the Syrian people have won. For how long, I don’t know. But it has proven that an Arab country can still defeat the mightiest murderous hordes.
→ read full articleTroubling Habits of Chronically Unhappy People
Dr. Travis Bradberry – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” – Benjamin Franklin. Unhappiness is easy to identify; you know it when you see it, and you definitely know when it’s taken hold of you.
→ read full articleStarvation Imagery as Humanitarian Trump Card?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Suffering elsewhere can be more readily framed as an unacceptable evil for which others are responsible. As with universal condemnation of apartheid, however, it is especially convenient that it be a focus for attention on another continent — displacing attention from the challenge of discrimination and suffering in the immediate environment.
→ read full articleDrought and Heat Took a Heavy Toll on Crops, Study Finds
Nicholas St. Fleur – International New York Times,
11 Jan 2016
Droughts and heat waves wiped out nearly a tenth of the rice, wheat, corn and other cereal crops in countries hit by extreme weather disasters. The paper, published Wednesday [6 Jan] in Nature, examined data on the effects, over five decades, of extreme temperatures, floods and droughts on national crop harvests.
→ read full articleNuclear Expert Siegfried Hecker Assesses North Korean Hydrogen Bomb Claims
Steve Fyffe, Stanford Center for Int’l Security and Cooperation – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
11 Jan 2016
7 Jan 2015 – One of the world’s top experts on the North Korean nuclear program, former Los Alamos National Laboratory director Siegfried Hecker has visited North Korea seven times since 2004; he is one of the few Western scientists to have set foot inside the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
→ read full articleWe Are Living at the Edge of a Nuclear Precipice
David Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
With nuclear weapons, what could possibly go wrong? The short answer is: Everything. The ever-present dangers of nuclear proliferation, nuclear accidents and miscalculations, nuclear terrorism and nuclear war. Instead of nuclear deterrence and modernization of arsenals, we need to negotiate in good faith for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. That is, we need to break free of our acidic complacency and commit ourselves to achieving a nuclear zero world.
→ read full articleDuty to Warn – 14 Lies That Our Psychiatry Professors in Medical School Taught Us
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
In my mental health care practice, I personally treated hundreds of patients who had been given a multitude of confusing and contradictory mental illness labels, many of which had been one of the new “diseases of the month” for which there was a new psych “drug of the month” that was being heavily marketed on TV.
→ read full article
Money for Nothing: Inside the U.S. Federal Reserve
TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
A Documentary about Money
→ read full articleThe Role of Peace Education
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
For Good Governance: Saints and Sages as Ministers and Judges; Inventors and Innovators as Bureaucrats
→ read full articleSyria (Minding the Minds II)
Johan Galtung, 11 Jan 2016 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Syria offered a poor choice between a minority dictatorship with tolerance and a majority dictatorship–democracy–without. Violence flourished, attracting old suspects for proxy wars. “Bomb Syria” was the panacea, after “bomb Libya”. What a shame. Bring it to an end.
→ read full articleThis Month in Nuclear Threat History
Jeffrey W. Mason – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
11 Jan 2016
January 9, 1987 – Dean Rusk (1909-1994), a former Secretary of State (1961-69) under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson who received many awards during his career including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, spoke out against nuclear weapons with a statement that, “Nuclear war not only eliminates all the answers, but eliminates all the questions.”
→ read full articleThis Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Jan 11-17 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It is better to light one small candle of gratitude than to curse the darkness.” – Confucius
→ read full article(Português) A Inteligência dos Porcos
Direitos Animais - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais,
11 Jan 2016
Cada vez mais vamos percebendo, através de estudos ou pela simples convivência, que os animais não humanos são mais inteligentes do que costumávamos pensar. Para exemplificar, segue uma lista de comportamentos peculiares dos porcos.
→ read full articleRomancing the Sunni: A US Policy Tragedy in Three Acts. Act I
Angelo Codevilla – Asia Times,
4 Jan 2016
For more than a quarter century, as Americans have suffered trouble from the Muslim world’s Sunni and Shia components and as the perennial quarrel between them has intensified, the US government has taken the side of the Sunni. This has not worked out well for us.
→ read full articleTwenty Pious Wishes for 2016: Mind the Minds
Johan Galtung, 4 Jan 2016 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Empirically, the West is often on the wrong side. Nevertheless, as anything empirical, it is subject to the law of change. Westerners are not slaves of the violent mind-sets in the Iliad and Beowulf spanning Europe. The liberation is overdue. By minding the minds.
→ read full articleRomancing the Sunni: A US Policy Tragedy in Three Acts. Act II
Angelo Codevilla – Asia Times,
4 Jan 2016
Iraq’s Sunni leaders awakened to the reality that far from cowing the Shia while punishing the Americans they were now in danger of their very lives. They offered to stop killing Americans if the Americans could stop the Shia from killing them. The US government set about doing that. This was “the surge” in 2006.
→ read full articleThe Mass Beheadings in Saudi Arabia
Bill Van Auken, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
4 Jan 2015 – Washington’s closest ally in the Arab world, the dictatorial monarchy of Saudi Arabia, ushered in the New Year with a torrent of blood, simultaneously executing 47 prisoners. This wave of state murders unfolded at 12 separate prisons across the kingdom. The barbaric killing spree was a calculated political act driven by both domestic and international objectives.
→ read full articleGITMO Clock
Andy Worthington, Close Guantánamo Campaign – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Holding President Obama to his promise to release the 48 cleared-for-release detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
As of 4 Jan 2016, 12:25 p.m. GMT:
1321 days, 11 hours, 26 minutes since the promise on May 23, 2013.
The Man Who Exposed the Lie of the War on Drugs
Ed Vulliamy – The Guardian,
4 Jan 2016
“The City of London is a far more important centre for laundering criminal money than the Cayman Islands.” Roberto Saviano already lives under armed guard after writing about the Neapolitan mafia. Now he is determined to uncover capitalism’s complicity with the narco-lords of South America.
→ read full articleYear of Hope 2016
Ada Aharoni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
The power of women and children for peace is rising,
Democracy and the Internet are spreading,
Global poverty has been cut in half –
Never have ordinary people, like you and me,
Had more power to face challenges
And to decide our own fate of Nonkilling.
The Soul of an Octopus: How One of Earth’s Most Alien Creatures Illuminates the Wonders of Consciousness
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Montgomery begins with a seemingly simple premise. The octopus is a creature magnificently dissimilar to us — it can change shape and color, tastes with its skin, has its mouth in its armpit, and is capable of squeezing its entire body through a hole the size of an apple. And since we humans experience reality in profoundly different ways from one another, based on our individual consciousnesses, then the octopus must be inhabiting an altogether different version of what we call reality.
→ read full articleDon’t Eat That Shrimp
Roberto A. Ferdman – The Washington Post,
4 Jan 2016
Indentured and Enslaved Workers Fuel the Thai Shrimp Industry – Burmese men, women and children are being sold to factories in Thailand and forced to peel shrimp that ends up in global supply chains.
→ read full article
Adagio in G Minor (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Albinoni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Composer: Tomaso Albinoni. Adagio in G minor for strings and organ.
Performer: Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker.
This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Jan 4-10 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.
→ read full articleRomancing the Sunni: A US Policy Tragedy in Three Acts. Act III
Angelo Codevilla – Asia Times,
4 Jan 2016
So long as the West plays Erdogan’s multiple-double game, why should Erdogan stop playing it? So long as the Sunni Muslim communities in the West pay no price for nurturing the thirst for infidel blood, what argument can convince them to stop nurturing it?
→ read full articleComing Out as a Radical — or Coming In?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Risks of Cultivating Negative Capability in a Caliphate of Normality – This argument is inspired by the progressive conflation in mainstream discourse of radicalisation with Islamisation, extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism. The concern here is whether it is possible to engage in thinking, framed as radical by some, without being branded a terrorist in consequence.
→ read full articleCulture, Education and Human Solidarity
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Human nature has two sides: It has a dark side, to which nationalism and militarism appeal; but our species also has a genius for cooperation, which we can see in the growth of culture. Our modern civilization has been built up by means of a worldwide exchange of ideas and inventions.
→ read full articleA Review of Stephen Prothero’s ‘Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections)’
James A. Haught, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Social progress occurs because liberal-minded reformers defeat conservative resistance.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il servizio migranti di Aosta non deve chiudere. Sulla petizione postata su change org.
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
797 Sono le voci delle/dei sostenitori della petizione “Il servizio Migranti di Aosta non deve chiudere” in dissenso con la chiusura forzata del servizio Migranti di Aosta.
Da tutto il mondo è giunta, in pochi giorni, l’espressione di solidarietà per gli stranieri che da questa mattina non hanno più un servizio di riferimento.
‘No-Grow Zone:’ Israel Admits to Spraying Poisons Inside Gaza Strip
Sputnik News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
The Israeli Army has admitted that they used crop-dusters to kill hundreds of acres of Palestinian crops, claiming that it was to “enable security operations.”
→ read full articleVenezuela Passes Law Banning GMOs, by Popular Demand
William Camacaro, Frederick B. Mills and Christina M. Schiavoni – CounterPunch,
4 Jan 2016
1 Jan 2016 – The National Assembly of Venezuela, in its final session before a neoliberal dominated opposition takes the helm of legislative power on January 5, passed one of the most progressive seed laws in the world on December 23, 2015; it was promptly signed into law by President Nicolas Maduro.
→ read full articleOver My Dead Body
TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Gravestone
→ read full articleInternational Monetary Fund’s Rogues Gallery: Crooks, Rapists and Swindlers
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
The IMF has been under the control of the US and Western European states and its policies have been designed to further the expansion, domination and profits of their leading multi-national corporations and financial institutions. The executive directors of the IMF are Europeans; their counterparts in the World Bank are from the US.
→ read full articlePentagon Curbs Use of Psychologists with Guantánamo Detainees
James Risen – International New York Times,
4 Jan 2016
31 Dec 2015 – The United States military has sharply curtailed the use of psychologists at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in response to strict new professional ethics rules of the American Psychological Association, Pentagon officials said.
→ read full articleYou Say ISIL, I Say ISIS, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off
Tom H. Hastings, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Who benefits? Who loses? US elites benefit. Owners of military contractors benefit the most ($711,000,000 the last day of 2015 alone, nearly $40 million per hour around the clock), and they share their largesse with those who serve them best—friendly bellicose politicians, persuasive media, high-level military officers.
→ read full article(Italiano) Anglo-America, UE, Occidente: una prognosi
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Grazie, cari studenti di Oxford, per il regalo di Natale, sfidare il culto di Cecil Rhodes – colonialista, classista, razzista. Sa di TV Reality. Gli USA reclamano il monopolio sulla “leadership” concedendo “un rapporto speciale” al Regno Unito. E la Paura dei Tedeschi divenne Paura dei Rossi, divenne Paura dei Cinesi, divenne Paura dell’Islam, divenne Paura della Russia. La paura del giorno divenne paranoia; di facile combinazione col narcisismo UK-USA.
→ read full article