Articles by M
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Journalism and Reality
Robert Parry – Consortium News,
10 Nov 2014
So, when I discovered the Contras engaging in a variety of criminal activity, from extrajudicial killings, rapes, torture and drug trafficking, my reporting was unwelcome both inside and outside the AP (and later I encountered the same hostility at Newsweek). The usual response was to challenge my journalism and to pretend that the ugly reality wasn’t the reality.
→ read full articleWestern Nuclear Terrorism
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
The use of nuclear coercion by the US and its allies has long roots, going right back to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
→ read full articleThe Military-Industrial Complex Blasts Its Way into the Civilian Market
Jim Hightower – Nation of Change,
10 Nov 2014
This push into combat gear and the militant mentality that accompanies it is now on the hips and the minds of hundreds of thousands of police officers. How do we protect ourselves from such militarization?
→ read full articleThe Day LBJ Ordered Cover-Up of Israeli Attack on US Ship
Jews For Justice For Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Having seriously damaged the ship and killed 34 of its crew, the Israelis said it was an accident. President Johnson accepted what he knew was not true, thus ditching the surviving crew in favour of keeping the USSR out of the conflict and of maintaining US support for Israel.
→ read full articleICC: Israel Committed ‘War Crimes’ but It’s Not Our Problem
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
According to court papers seen by Reuters on Wednesday [5 Nov 2014] and to lawyers, the court’s decision confirms that Israel has a ‘special status’ in regards to international law.
→ read full articleChristianity between Jewish and Islamic Banking
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Capitalism has two major contradictions: class, capital vs labor, with increasing inequality; finance vs real economy, with increasing finance economy dominance. The alternatives? Cooperatives sharing benefits and risks, not companies with labor-buyers and labor-sellers getting “jobs”. And criminalization of purely monetary relations, guided by Islamic banking.
→ read full articleTransatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership-TTIP: A Gunpowder Plot against Democracy
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
This bill of rights for corporations will blow up the sovereignty of parliaments. So outrageous is this arrangement that even the Economist, usually the champion of corporate power and trade treaties, has now come out against calling its investor-state dispute settlement “a way to let multinational companies get rich at the expense of ordinary people”.
→ read full articleTime to Take the Russia-China Axis Seriously
Ankit Panda – The Diplomat,
10 Nov 2014
Under Putin and Xi, China and Russia have come together organically as both countries’ ideological directions and geopolitical impulses have converged. While the two aren’t formal allies (and won’t be anytime soon), their potential combined impact on international relations in Asia and the world at large should not be understated.
→ read full articleWhy Obama’s Courtship of Myanmar Backfired
Josh Kurlantzick - Bloomberg,
10 Nov 2014
On Nov. 11, 2014 President Obama will travel to Myanmar for the ninth East Asia Summit, a meeting of leaders from across the Pacific Rim. It will be the president’s second trip to a country that, for decades, was seen as a pariah in Washington, run by a brutal and xenophobic military regime that gunned down protestors in the streets and jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
→ read full articleUN Report Condemns US Government’s “International Criminal Program of Torture”
Thomas Gaist, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
The report, prepared by the “Advocates for US Torture Prosecutions” and The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, states unequivocally that entire sections of the state apparatus are responsible for “breathtaking” crimes against international law.
→ read full article(Português) O Funil da Desigualdade
Roberto Sansón Mizrahi, OpinionSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
A desigualdade de poder (econômico, político, midiático, judicial, repressivo) opera como um tipo de funil que, sem descanso, extrai e concentra riqueza e renda nas mãos de uma ínfima fração da população mundial. Vale revisar como e porquê se gera o funil da desigualdade e a diversidade de medidas que existem para desarmá-lo.
→ read full articleAvoiding Western Networks
Ramesh Thakur – The Japan Times,
10 Nov 2014
How should the institutions of global economic governance reflect the changed balance of economic power? Given toxic Washington politics, can any U.S. administration recalibrate policies to the new geopolitical realities?
→ read full articlePeace as a Human Right
Robert C. Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
In the beginning was the word. OK. This is the beginning, and these are the words, but they haven’t arrived yet — at least not officially, with full force of meaning. It’s our job, not God’s, to create the new story of who we are, and millions — billions — of people fervently wish we could do so. The problem is that the worst of our nature is better organized than the best of it.
→ read full article[Obscene] US Sends ‘Lessons Learned’ Team to Model Israel Tactics in Gaza Operation
Michael Wilner – The Jerusalem Post,
10 Nov 2014
The United States sent a team of senior officers to Israel to learn from tactics in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last Summer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said on Thursday [6 Nov 2014]. He praised the Israel Defense Forces for taking “extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties” in its war against Hamas.
→ read full articleCreditors Use New Devices to Put Squeeze on Debtors
Jathan Sadowski & Frank A. Pasquale – Al Jazeera America,
10 Nov 2014
Technologies of control promise dystopian future if public doesn’t fight back. The device allows lenders to track and monitor the location of the vehicle — both in real time and over time — and provides them with the ability to remotely shut off vehicles if, say, the borrower falls behind on payments (sometimes by just a few days) or drives outside an approved area.
→ read full articleIs ISIS Coming?
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Israelis, like Americans, are practical people. They don’t appreciate the power of ideas. They think like Stalin who, when warned of the Pope, asked: “How many divisions does he have?” It is ideas that change the world. Like those of the legendary Moses. Of Jesus of Nazareth. Of Muhammad. Of Karl Marx.
→ read full articleThe $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase’s Worst Nightmare
Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone,
10 Nov 2014
Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon paid $9 billion to keep the public from hearing. That’s why the more important part of Fleischmann’s story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.
→ read full articleLooking for a Leader in the Caribbean to End Discrimination against Homosexuals
Robin Guittard, CPNN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Trinidad and Tobago’s laws prohibit entry of “homosexuals” into the country and consensual same-sex relationships can be punished with prison sentences of up to 25 years… Positive change on the island could reverberate across the region.
→ read full articleThe Silence of the Israelis on ISIS
Stephen J. Sniegoski – Consortium News,
10 Nov 2014
Has anyone seen a hint that our vital regional ally could be of any assistance at all in the supposedly civilizational battle against ISIS? This is quite in contrast to the complaints about other Middle East countries such as Turkey that are being harshly criticized for their failure to become actively involved in fighting the Islamic State.
→ read full article
Breaking the Cycle of Violent Conflict: Johan Galtung
University of California Television (UCTV) – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
A noted pioneer in the field of Peace Studies, Johan Galtung makes the case for incorporating human rights as key to successful peace building around the world. University of San Diego.
→ read full articleGermany’s New Right: The Unholy Alliance of Neo-Nazis and Football Hooligans
SPIEGEL Staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
The riots in Cologne at the end of October [2014] show there is a new danger on Germany’s extremist right. Neo-Nazis and football hooligans have teamed up to go after Islamist Salafists. Many are wondering why officials didn’t recognize the development sooner.
→ read full articleAs Germany Marks Fall of the Berlin Wall, Gorbachev Warns of New Cold War
Philip Oltermann – The Observer,
10 Nov 2014
9 Nov 2014 – Ex-Soviet leader backs Putin over Ukraine as Germany celebrates the 25th anniversary of a seminal moment in European history.
→ read full articleMark Udall’s Loss Is a Blow for Privacy, but He Can Go Out With a Bang: ‘Leak’ the CIA Torture Report
Trevor Timm – The Guardian,
10 Nov 2014
The outgoing Senator and champion of civil liberties has one last chance to read the truth about American atrocities out loud, for the world to see – before it’s too late.
→ read full articleHarper’s Plan Means Canada Will Be Associated With War Crimes Instead of Peacekeeping
Mark Taliano – Huffington Post,
10 Nov 2014
Author, poet, academic, and former Canadian diplomat Prof. Peter Dale Scott recently disclosed a WikiLeaks cable indicating that the International Republican Institute, an off-shoot of the CIA, and a subsidiary of the National Endowment for Democracy helped install Stephen Harper as Canada’s Prime Minister. This was the coup.
→ read full articleA Brief History of US-Israel Relations
Amb. Andrew I. Killgore - CounterPunch,
10 Nov 2014
How Zionists Outmaneuvered and Replaced State Department Experts
→ read full articleLuxembourg Tax Files: How Tiny State Rubber-Stamped Tax Avoidance on an Industrial Scale
Simon Bowers – The Guardian,
10 Nov 2014
Leaked documents show that one of the EU’s smallest states helped multinationals save millions in tax, to the detriment of its neighbours and allies.
•What do you want to know about Luxembourg’s tax secrets?
•Video: The $870m loan company above a stamp shop
•Explore the documents in full
Not Education for Peace, Not Peace for Education, but Education As Peace
Walid Lotfy and Gal Kleinman – TRANSCENSD Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Education as a gown for peace would enable us to comprehend the dynamic and uncertain world. Deconstructing the normative understandings of peace is another quest to address peace not as a fixed concept throughout history, but rather as an interactive notion.
→ read full articleCuba Is a Medical Superpower
Elio Delgado Legón - Havana Times,
10 Nov 2014
David Nabarro, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General, declared: “When deployment is complete (…) you will have sent 255 frontline workers to West Africa. This is more than those sent by Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, the United States, United Kingdom or China (…)” Nabarro said that the sending of thousands of specialists to more than 39 countries in Africa and other nations in recent years demonstrates Cuba’s solidarity. I would add: it also demonstrates that Cuba is, without a doubt, a medical superpower.
→ read full articleForeword to “$$$$$$s in Their Hearts”, the New Book by Alberto Portugheis
Bishnu Pathak, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
[TRANSCEND member] Portugheis argues for a total change of organisational and individual perception, stressing that even most of the human rights organisations (such as Amnesty International, Human Rights groups, anti-war campaigners, including political leaders) do not speak of a weapon-free world. His motto of Enlightenment is to launch a campaign to educate and to promote a world free of militarism, thus free of war.
→ read full articleRelativity
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Albert Einstein asked the conductor,
→ read full articleCuba, the Empire and Ebola
Prof. Tim Anderson - Global Research,
10 Nov 2014
3 Nov 2014 – In early October, as a first group of 165 Cuban doctors arrived in Sierra Leone, the Wall Street Journal recognised that Cuba was ‘at the forefront’ of the battle against Ebola in Africa. This was unusual North American praise for Cuba. The imperial approach has been to present a militarised and self-referential response to Ebola, as a security threat to ‘Americans’.
→ read full articleScotland Produced Enough Wind Energy to Power Every Home in October [2014]
Ari Phillips, ThinkProgress – TRANSCEND Media Servivce,
10 Nov 2014
“While nuclear power plants were being forced to shut because of cracks, Scotland’s wind and sunshine were quietly and cleanly helping to keep the lights on in homes across the country.”
→ read full articleUS Military’s ‘Defense Clandestine Service’ to Deploy Hundreds of International Spies
Thomas Gaist, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
The recently formed Defense Clandestine Service, the elite in-house spying operation of the US Department of Defense, is training a large force of new CIA-trained intelligence agents. Overseen by an agency widely understood to be targeting the Chinese military, it represents another stride in the direction of world war.
→ read full articlePutin to Western Elites: Play-Time Is Over
Dmitry Orlov – Oriental Review,
10 Nov 2014
Regardless of what you think or don’t think of Putin this is probably the most important political speech since Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech of March 5, 1946.
→ read full articleGorbachev, the Man Who Changed the World
Federico Mayor Zaragoza – Other News,
10 Nov 2014
Twenty-five years ago the initial dismantling commenced at the Berlin Wall. And with its fall the immense Soviet empire was transformed practically overnight into a Commonwealth of Independent States… And all of this was accomplished without shedding even one drop of blood, thanks to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the “magician of the unexpected”.
→ read full articleThe 2000th Death
Tom Greening – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Although George died as victim of a bomb
let’s greet his death with patriots’ aplomb.
There’s nothing in his death that’s grim or stark,
for he is just an artificial mark
William James on Choosing Purpose Over Profit and the Life-Changing Power of a Great Mentor
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
“After all, the great problem of life seems to be how to keep body and soul together.” Life spoke to him in even more ways than to most men, and he responded to its superabundant confusion with passion and insatiable curiosity. His spiritual development was a matter of intense personal experience.
→ read full articleConflict as an Opportunity: Transforming Myanmar’s Inter-Communal Conflicts
Khin Su Wai – Myanmar Times,
10 Nov 2014
Most fundamentally, senior religious leaders on both sides must come face to face to openly discuss the historical roots of their unprocessed fears about the other side’s threatening presence, and encourage their community members to do the same at the grassroots level.
→ read full articleDiscovering Iran
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
As Khalil Gibran rightly observed: “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” With every wrong policy, America adds to the scars, strengthens the character and spirit of this unbreakable nation. This is what Washington is not able to grasp.
→ read full articleBreaking the Rules: Working for the UN can be fun. And it can also do some good provided one is ready to lie, fib, obfuscate and break all the rules
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Alexander Casella has written a lively account of his years first as a journalist for the Journal de Genève covering events in Vietnam and China and then as a staff member of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
→ read full articleWhen Is a Corporate Media Group Too Powerful?
Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, IPS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Last June GFR Media, Puerto Rico’s largest media company, gave a five-million-dollar grant to the Communications School of Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, one of the country’s leading private universities. Upon receiving the grant, the university changed the school’s name to Ferré Rangel School of Communication, after the Ferré-Rangel family, which owns GFR Media.
→ read full article(Italiano) Cristianesimo vs Islam: controciclicità?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
PROGNOSI I: conversione massiccia all’islam; meno dogma, più azione.
PROGNOSI II: il sistema bancario islamico ispirerà l’economia occidentale.
PROGNOSI III: il cristianesimo si volge all’amore di Gesù-Maria, l’islam segue.
Asia for the Asians
Gilbert Rozman – Foreign Affairs,
10 Nov 2014
Why Chinese-Russian Friendship Is Here To Stay
→ read full articleNew European Commission Marred by Corporate Conflicts of Interest
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Jean-Claude Juncker was elected as European Commission president after eight years as prime minister of Luxembourg, where he helped transform the country into the largest tax haven on the continent. “He has dedicated his career to ensuring that society becomes less fair; that wealthy institutions and individuals can avoid the taxes little people and small businesses must pay,”
→ read full articleLawsuit Spotlights U.S. Charities That Fund Israel’s Secret Nuclear Weapons Program
PR Newswire – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Oct. 28, 2014 – Lawsuit seeks release of a government report about how American branches of Israeli charitable and educational institutes fund secret nuclear weapons research and development programs.
→ read full articleFlorida: Police Arrest 90-Year-Old and Two Pastors for Feeding Homeless People
Andrew Emett – Nation of Change,
10 Nov 2014
9 Nov 2014 – In an act of compassion and civil disobedience, a 90-year-old man and two pastors in Fort Lauderdale openly defied a new city ordinance barring anyone from feeding homeless people in public. “One of the police officers said, ‘Drop that plate right now,’ as if I were carrying a weapon,” recalled Abbott. “It’s man’s inhumanity to man is all it is.”
→ read full articleIsraeli Ministers Pass Bill Jailing Stone Throwers for 20 Years
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
If Israeli courts can prove that someone threw a stone with the intent of causing serious bodily harm, they may be able to impose a jail sentence of 20 years. The law would also allow the conviction of people who hurl rocks at police cars or police officers with the aim of hindering them from carrying out their duty.
→ read full articleBrazil Builds Internet Cable to Portugal to Avoid NSA Surveillance
Kathleen Caulderwood – International Business Times,
3 Nov 2014
1 Nov 2014 – The move is one of many ways the Brazilian government is breaking ties with American technology companies — but it won’t come cheap. The 3,500-mile fiber-optic cable will stretch from Fortaleza to Portugal, with an estimated cost of $185 million. Of course, none of this will go to American vendors.
→ read full articleKahlil Gibran on the Absurdity of Self-Righteousness
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
A short poem that speaks with great subtlety and great insight to our illusion of separateness and the self-righteousness it produces, our lamentable tendency to mistake others for interruptions and nuisances, to forget that everybody is simply doing their best in this shared experience called life.
→ read full articleAt Home with Themselves: Sage Sohier’s Moving Portraits of Same-Sex Couples in the 1980s
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
A Tender, Thoughtful Lens on Life and Love in the Margins
→ read full articleAustralian Immigration
First Dog on the Moon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Comic Strip – Satirical Cartoon
→ read full articleSegregating the Evening Commute to the West Bank
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man - +972 Magazine,
3 Nov 2014
It’s not really segregation. Not on paper at least. Or at least the paper doesn’t use the word “segregation.” In practice, however, people of one national origin will not be allowed to ride on the same bus lines as people of another national origin — for the benefit and at the request of one group, at the expense and against the desires of the other. Call that what you will.
→ read full articleThe Fizz Is Going Out of SodaStream as Boycott Shakes It Up
Jews For Justice For Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Famous for using Scarlett Johansson to pitch its carbonated-beverage makers and for drawing the wrath of the boycott movement, the company has seen sales decline in its key U.S. market.
→ read full article(Português) Trauma de Discurso
Tereza Halliday – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Quando recebo convite para ritual de posse em alguma academia que não seja de ginástica, envio presente e/ou cartão como assertiva de meu apreço, mas não compareço à solenidade.
→ read full article(Castellano) El embudo de la desigualdad
Roberto Sansón Mizrahi, OpinionSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
La desigualdad de poder (económico, político, mediático, judicial, represivo) opera como una suerte de embudo que, sin pausa, extrae y concentra riqueza e ingresos en manos de una ínfima fracción de la población mundial. Vale revisar cómo y porqué se genera el embudo de la desigualdad y la diversidad de medidas que existen para desarmarlo.
→ read full articleOctober 22, 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre Becomes the First Person to Decline the Nobel Prize
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
My reasons for refusing the prize concern neither the Swedish Academy nor the Nobel Prize in itself, as I explained in my letter to the Academy. In it, I alluded to two kinds of reasons: personal and objective.
→ read full articleJob Brokers Steal Wages and Entrap Indian Tech Workers in US
Matt Smith, Jennifer Gollan and Adithya Sambamurthy – The Center for Investigative Reporting,
3 Nov 2014
Investigation documents how exploitation persists – through humiliation, intimidation and legal threats.
•Techsploitation: a graphic novel
•Brokers exploit workers on taxypayers’ dime
Christianity vs Islam: Countercyclicity?
Johan Galtung, 3 Nov 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
PROGNOSIS I: massive conversion to Islam; less dogma, more action.
PROGNOSIS II: Islamic Banking will inspire Western economy.
PROGNOSIS III: Christianity turns to Jesus-Mary love, Islam follows.
The Inequality Funnel
Roberto Sansón Mizrahi, OpinionSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Inequality of power (economic, political, media, judiciary, repressive) operates as some kind of funnel that, permanently, extracts and concentrates wealth and incomes in the hands of a minimal fraction of the global population. It is worth analyzing how and why the inequality funnel is generated and the diversity of measures available to dismantle it.
→ read full articleIn Cold War, U.S. Spy Agencies Used 1,000 Nazis
Eric Lichtblau – The New York Times,
3 Nov 2014
CIA Allen Dulles believed “moderate” Nazis might “be useful” to America, records show. J. Edgar Hoover, for his part, personally approved some ex-Nazis as informants and dismissed accusations of their wartime atrocities as Soviet propaganda.
→ read full articleUN Review of US “International Criminal Program of Torture”
The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, et al. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Since the United States last reported to the Committee Against Torture in 2006, even more evidence has emerged confirming that civilian and military officials at the highest level created, designed, authorized, and implemented a sophisticated, international criminal program of torture.
→ read full article(Deutsch) “Cyberpeace”-Kampagne engagierter InformatikerInnen wird gefördert
Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Das Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung wird für seine Kampagne gegen Cyberwarfare mit 13.600 Euro unterstützt.
→ read full articleNo Country for Refugees
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
No British rescue missions for drowning Afro-refugees.
Really, it’s in their Karma, in their DNAs to suffer.
Give them Burmese “Buddhism” or cheap opium from Afghanistan.
Have they no wit to know Foreign Policies ain’t about human welfare?
Governments ain’t no churches. We ain’t your Messiah.
(Italiano) Il conflitto sunniti-sciiti: soluzioni?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Attingere alle ricche esperienze di tutti gli islam, focalizzarsi sul meglio, estirpare le erbacce violente che rendono alcuni musulmani non-islamici nel loro ricorso alla violenza; molto diretti l’uno contro l’altro. Il tempo è un fattore per lavorare con entrambe le parti, sui fondamenti e sulla teologia, per andare oltre.
→ read full articleStoning in Somalia: Recent Incidents Highlight Continued Brutality
Pambazuka News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Call for action from both parties within and outside Somalia to prevent stoning and other form of torture and violence from continuing to cripple the ability of Somali people to lead viable lives.
→ read full articleInterrelated Threats to Humans and to the Biosphere
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
To avoid the inevitable downturn caused by excessive inequality, our oligarchic governments resort to what might be called “Military Keynesianism”. To prevent the crash of stock markets and banks of our corporate-controlled governments, enemies have to be found: communists, terrorists, the Islamic world, Russia, Iran, China, and so on. The corporate press keeps the public perpetually in fear of these “enemies”.
→ read full articleWhy Do Banks Want Our Deposits? Hint: It’s Not to Make Loans
Ellen Brown – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
The reality of how money is created today differs from some economics textbooks: Rather than banks receiving deposits when households save and then lending them out, bank lending creates deposits. While banks do not need [real] deposits to create loans, they do need to balance their books; and attracting customer deposits is usually the cheapest way to do it.
→ read full articleForeign Jihadists Flocking to Iraq and Syria on ‘Unprecedented Scale’ – UN
Spencer Ackerman – The Guardian,
3 Nov 2014
30 Oct 2014 – A report by the UN Security Council finds that 15,000 people have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State (Isis) and similar extremist groups. They come from more than 80 countries, “including a tail of countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaida”.
→ read full articleFor 23rd time, UN General Assembly Votes to End US Blockade against Cuba
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Servivce,
3 Nov 2014
28 Oct 2014 – Today the UN General Assembly once again voted overwhelmingly in favor of ending the blockade of Cuba by the USA. 188 countries voted in favor with only the United States and Israel voting against it. The 3 Pacific island nations Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstained. The voting result was identical to last year’s.
→ read full articleSunni-Shia Bellum Sacrum Faultlines Deepen: Gloves Come Off in Lebanon
Franklin Lamb – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
“Everyone in Lebanon, and for many generations, will have their families’ lives negatively affected by the sectarian hostility. The Sunni-Shia hatred is poisonous. Can it be eradicated? And forget about the Christians! In a few years there will probably not be enough of them left in the Middle East to matter.”
→ read full articleViolence against Children: UN Gets it Wrong
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
The United Nations has just issued a report, ‘Why Children’s Protection from Violence should be at the Heart of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.’ This is a worthy ideal. Unfortunately, the UN Report does not identify the fundamental cause of violence. Given that human violence now has us on the brink of precipitating our own extinction, it is time we faced the truth and responded meaningfully to it.
→ read full articleDeath of Endangered Northern White Rhino Leaves Just Six of the Animals Left in the World
Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith – The Independent,
3 Nov 2014
The northern white rhino has become a step closer to extinction after one of its last breeding males died in Kenya, leaving only six of the species now left in the world. Suni, 34-year-old, was found dead on Friday [17 Oct 2014]. Gangs of poachers ship their stolen ivory to Asia, where rhino horn was valued higher than gold or platinum last year.
→ read full articleSpace Launch Privatization Costing Taxpayers Dearly
Bruce Gagnon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Why the US privatized the NASA launch program? The agenda is clear – privatize space operations and rewrite space law to allow the aerospace industry to claim ownership of the heavens. But clearly they want the taxpayers to pay the freight charges.
→ read full article‘Europe to Pay for the Whole Mess in Ukraine’
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
The gas deal between Ukraine and Russia became possible because Europe realized that it wouldn’t get the gas if it didn’t get behind Ukraine.
→ read full articleUN Launches Global Campaign to End Female Genital Mutilation
Voice of America – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
30 Oct 2014 – The U.N. secretary-general has launched a global media campaign aimed at putting an end to female genital mutilation.
→ read full articleThe Pentagon and Big Oil: Militarism and Capital Accumulation
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
There is no question that, in the immediate aftermath and for several years following US military conquests, wars, occupations and sanctions, US multi-national corporations lost out on profitable sites for investments.
→ read full articleIndian Laborers in the Gulf
Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
I am puzzled at the Indian government’s apathy at the deplorable situation of Indian laborers in the Gulf. Why does not India take a note of this situation and raise the issue with the Gulf countries with which it has diplomatic relations?
→ read full article(Italiano) Epistemologia: sull’uso delle dicotomie
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Talvolta viene criticato l’uso delle dicotomie, tagli netti come maschio-femmina, democrazia-dittatura, pace negativa-positiva: il mondo è più complicato. Che il mondo della vita organica, individuale e collettiva, sia complesso, non v’è dubbio. Che una divisione semplicistica noi-loro del mondo in due blocchi o poli, una polarizzazione, appunto, sia un passo verso la violenza e la guerra, è chiaro.
→ read full articleEbola: Are U.S. Bioweapons Labs the Solution, or the Problem?
Institute for Public Accuracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
“If, as the Liberian press is claiming, this outbreak of Ebola is from one of the labs in West Africa run by the Center for Disease Control, it could be an unprecedented human disaster. Recall that the 2001 weaponized anthrax attacks were traced to a U.S. government lab.
→ read full articleChina-Led New Bank Challenges Japanese, US’ Influence
The BRICS Post – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
The AIIB-Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will boost China’s global influence and enhance its soft power.
→ read full articleWhy Foreign Military Intervention Usually Fails in the 21st Century
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
We have reached a stage in the political development of life on the planet where civilizational and species survival itself depends on the urgency of building an effective movement against the war system that remains indispensable to sustain hierarchy and exploitation, wastes huge amounts of resources, and dangerously diverts problem-solving priorities.
→ read full articleNumber of Global Billionaires Has Doubled Since the Financial Crisis
Jamie Merrill – The Independent,
3 Nov 2014
The number of billionaires has doubled since the start of the financial crisis, according to a major new report from anti-poverty campaigners. According to Oxfam, the world’s rich are getting richer, leaving hundreds of millions of people facing a life “trapped in poverty” as global “inequality spirals out of control”.
→ read full articleSecret Manuals Show the Spyware Sold to Despots and Cops Worldwide
Cora Currier and Morgan Marquis-Boire – The Intercept,
3 Nov 2014
There are already methods to bypass encryption, thanks to off-the-shelf digital implants readily available to the smallest national agencies and the largest city police forces — easy-to-use software that takes over and monitors digital devices in real time, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.
→ read full articleJailed Israeli Conscientious Objector Starts Hunger Strike
Yael Marom - +972 Magazine,
3 Nov 2014
Udi Segal, who refuses to enlist in the IDF due to its human rights violations in the occupied territories, declares he will go on hunger strike until his release from military prison.
→ read full articleEbola and the Paradox of Human Rights
Ian Ralby – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
We have become so obsessed with romanticized notions of “human rights” that we forget there are boundaries to when and how certain rights may apply.
→ read full articleThe Caliph Fit to Join OPEC
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
3 Nov 2014
The Caliph’s oil prices are to die (be beheaded?) for; after all, he’s implementing the same low-price strategy concocted by the people he wants to dethrone, the House of Saud. And oh, the irony Top customers for The Caliph’s cheap oil happen to be “Sultan” Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Earthly paradise, aka Turkey – a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally – and that King “Playstation” Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein’s domain impersonating a country, aka Jordan.
→ read full articleNew Arrivals
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
A pope arrived at the gate of heaven.
→ read full articleMajor Banks Prepare to Pay Billions for Foreign Exchange Manipulation
Richard Smallteacher, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
1 Nov 2014 – Some 19 investigations of multinational banks in ten different legal jurisdictions are on their way to completion and the final tally may hit $41 billion to settle charges of foreign exchange manipulation.
→ read full articleResource Insights from Plus or Minus 12 People on a Liferaft
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
The argument here arises from the observation that crises involving millions evoke a form of psychic numbing. Suffering on the larger scale does not connect with ordinary comprehension. Disasters involving millions are essentially meaningless to most. When the dilemmas are presented on a more human scale, involving very few, they then become far more comprehensible and meaningful.
→ read full articleA Small Band of Activists Is Humiliating an Israeli Shipping Giant
Murtaza Hussain – The Intercept,
3 Nov 2014
Capping a series of victories by a modest band of pro-Palestinian activists, an Israel-based shipping company has re-routed a container ship from the Port of Oakland, where protestors had vowed to keep the ship from unloading, to an alternate destination in Russia.
→ read full articleCowardly Lions: Missed Opportunities to Prevent Deadly Conflict and State Collapse
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
There are always warning signs before the outbreak of a crisis. But one must be able to read the signs — thus the need for courage, intelligence and heart. In light of the continuing crisis and disintegration of State structures in the Central African Republic, in Libya and elsewhere, this analysis of State collapse remains of value.
→ read full article
Wave – José André Plays Tom Jobim (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
José André Jazz Trío – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
He is just nine years old… and blind. Jazz prodigy José André Montano Baina takes Bolivia and the world music scene by storm.
→ read full article(Português) Cuba: 23ª Votação na ONU Contra Bloqueio Evidencia Isolamento dos EUA
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey - Pravda,
3 Nov 2014
As votações na ONU contra o bloqueio econômico que os Estados Unidos mantêm contra Cuba evidenciam o isolamento internacional de Washington. 188 países votam A Favor de levantar o bloqueio. 2 Contra: EUA e Israel. 3 Abstenções: Palau, Ilhas Marshall e Micronesia. Votação idêntica à do ano passado.
→ read full article
The Art of Symbolism in Peace Building
Kya Kim | TED Talks - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
[Former TMS Resident Journalist], peace activist and Peace Mask Project team member Kya Kim reminds us of the powerful role of symbolism in creating change towards lasting peace. Kya and her team strive to spark this lasting peace across Japan, China and Korea with the current Peace Mast East Asia Project.
→ read full articleThe Basis of It All, H and N: Joy of Humanity and Nature (JoHaN)
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Oct 2014
Prof. John Galtung’s Blissful 84th Birthday, 24 Oct 2014
→ read full articleKudankulam Nuclear Power Plant a ‘Stillborn Child’, Says S P Udayakumar
The Times of India – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Oct 2014
The Kudankulam nuclear power project is a ‘stillborn child’ and it may never be commissioned to produce electricity, S P Udayakumar, convenor of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, said at a protest organised by the Social Democratic Party of India on Saturday [25 Oct 2014].
→ read full articleData Secrecy Company [Whisper] Accused of Sharing Information with Media and Military
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Oct 2014
Whisper – a new social network that claims to provide anonymity – has been accused of secretly tracking users. The allegations were made by the Guardian newspaper, provoking renewed scrutiny of a multitude of data privacy claims made by software companies.
→ read full articleResisting U.S. Bases in Okinawa
Ayano Ginoza, Michiko Hase and Gwyn Kirk – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Oct 2014
Despite intense crackdowns, activists on the Japanese island of Okinawa continue to resist the construction of new U.S. military bases.
→ read full articleJournalist Risen: ‘Mercenary Class’ Now Permanent Fixture in National Security State
Andrea Germanos – Common Dreams,
27 Oct 2014
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist James Risen said Sunday [19 Oct 2014] that the secretive and multi-billion dollar war on terror has sparked an entire “mercenary class that feeds off unending war.”
→ read full articleA Caliph in a Wilderness of Mirrors
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
27 Oct 2014
He’s invincible. He beheads. He smuggles. He conquers. He’s the ultimate jack-of-all-trades. No Tomahawk or Hellfire can touch him. He always gets what he wants; in Kobani; in Anbar province; with the House of Saud (which he wants to replace).
→ read full article