Articles by TRANSCEND Media Service

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(Castellano) Sudáfrica Boicoteará Productos Israelíes ‎Hechos en Territorios Palestinos
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

El portavoz del Gobierno, Jimmy Manyi, explicó que la medida de boicot tiene como objeto evitar que los consumidores sean engañados y piensen que dichos bienes fueron hechos en Israel, cuando en realidad se produjeron en territorios palestinos.

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Prime Minister, Crime Minister!
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

Prime Minister, Prime Minister, why did you keep coal
When none of your predecessors ever had this foal?
Did you sell non-players and new ones all the Black Gold
So thermal power goes down and nuclear becomes bold?

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How to Be Alone
Andrea Dorfman – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

A video by fiilmaker, Andrea Dorfman, and poet/singer/songwriter, Tanya Davis.

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Iceland’s Recovery Continues, Declared ‘Impressive’
IceNews – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

Experts continue to praise Iceland’s recovery success after the country’s bank bailouts of 2008. Unlike the US and several countries in the eurozone, Iceland allowed its banking system to fail in the global economic downturn and put the burden on the industry’s creditors rather than taxpayers.

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The Invisible Majority: Married Girls in the Somali Refugee Camps
Ashley Lackovich-van Gorp – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

Marriage does not turn a 12-year-old girl into a woman. The 2003 World Health Organization, United Nations Population Fund and Population Council report, “Married Adolescents: An Overview,” reveals that in comparison with unmarried peers, married girls have less education, less mobility, less exposure to the media and less access to social networks and basic services (25-34).

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Help Me To Sew Life’s Quilt
David Inkey – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

“Inkey appreciates the TMS publication of his with death poem, but he suggests the TMS coverage would not be complete without also including his sewing life poem.”

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PMANE Sues NPCIL at Delhi High Court
Dr. S.P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

August 25, 2012 – The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) is suing the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) and its parent body the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for not giving copies of the Site Evaluation Report (SER) and the Safety Analysis Report (SAR) as directed by the Central Information Commission back in April 2012.

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Wall Street Tightens Grip on Public Water as Local Residents Suffer
Common Dreams – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

Vulture capitalists are increasingly facilitating the privatization of public infrastructure, taking control of public utilities while skimping on services and causing steep price hikes — all the while making massive profits. According to the report, private equity firms show up to hurting municipalities as hired financial advisers and subsequently push through privatization deals. Massive profits are made in the process, as such advisers stand to make great financial gains through these deals.

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Notes on Globalization and Class Struggle: Latin America, Europe and Asia
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

Introduction: The principle axes of the class struggle are found in Latin America, Europe and Asia, each following its own trajectory.

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The Pursuit of Julian Assange Is an Assault on Freedom and a Mockery of Journalism
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

The British government’s threat to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London and seize Julian Assange is of historic significance. The same brave newspapers and broadcasters that have supported Britain’s part in epic bloody crimes, from the genocide in Indonesia to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, now attack the “human rights record” of Ecuador, whose real crime is to stand up to the bullies in London and Washington.

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(Italian) Marina Italiana per le Campagne di Guerra USA in Africa
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

Il prossimo anno verranno coinvolte le marine da guerra di Australia, Belgio, Benin, Camerun, Canada, Finlandia, Francia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Gibuti, Kenya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Marocco, Mozambico, Nigeria, Repubblica del Congo, Sao Tomé e Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Spagna, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda e dell’immancabile Italia.

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The History of Humankind Is Also a History of Dignification
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

A Rhymed Reflection
If, on the one hand, the history of Humankind is a history of edification
On the other hand, the history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation

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The Protection Racket
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Aug 2012

One is reminded of the feudal system of the Middle Ages, in which industrious peasants paid for “protection” with a large fraction of their produce. Their gangster-like protectors, the knights and barons, did no useful work. All they did was to fight with each other. How much is it exactly that we pay today for “protection”? The total world military budgets cost us 1.7 trillion dollars each year, that is to say, 1,700,000,000,000 dollars, an amount of money almost too large to be imagined. What do we get for this? We do not get anything useful. We get war, a universal source of poverty, destruction of infrastructure, and human suffering.

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Palestinian Hunger Strikes: Why Still Invisible?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Aug 2012

When it is realized that Mahatma Gandhi shook the British Empire with a series of hunger strikes, none lasting more than 21 days, it is shameful that Palestinian hunger strikers ever since last December continue to exhibit their extreme courage by refusing food for periods ranging between 40 and over 90 days, and yet these exploits are unreported by the media and generally ignored by relevant international institutions.

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(Castellano) Ecuador Otorga Asilo a Fundador de WikiLeaks Julian Assange
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

El Gobierno de Ecuador decidió este jueves [16 Ago 2012] otorgar el asilo al fundador de WikiLeaks, el australiano Julian Assange, quien se encuentra en la embajada de la nación sudamericana en Londres. El Canciller ecuatoriano, Ricardo Patiño, hizo el anuncio durante en una entrevista ofrecida a la televisora estatal Ecuador TV, luego que recibiera una comunicación de parte de las autoridades británicas que amenaza con intervenir la embajada de Ecuador en Londres para arrestar al australiano.

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Is Washington Deaf As Well as Criminal?
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

The morons who rule the american sheeple are not only dumb and blind, they are deaf as well. The ears of the american “superpower” only work when the Israeli prime minister, the crazed Netanyahu, speaks. Then Washington hears everything and rushes to comply. Israel is a tiny insignificant state, created by the careless British and the stupid americans. It has no power except what its american protector provides. Yet, despite Israel’s insignificance, it rules Washington.

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Ecuador Grants Assange’s Request for Asylum, Defying UK Threats
Kim Zetter, Wired – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

The Ecuadorean government announced Thursday [16 Aug 2012] that it will grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asylum, defying threats from the UK government that authorities would forcibly seize Assange from the embassy if Ecuador granted Assange’s request. “We have decided to grant asylum to Julian Assange,” announced Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino at a press conference in Quito, to the sound of cheers from spectators.

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Ecuador President Rafael “We Are Not A Colony” Correa Stands Up To The Jackbooted British Gestapo
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

The once proud British government, now reduced to Washington’s servile whore, put on its Gestapo Jackboots and declared that if the Ecuadorean Embassy in London did not hand over WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, British storm troopers would invade the embassy with military force and drag Assange out. Ecuador stood its ground. “We want to be very clear, we are not a British colony,” declared Ecuador’s Foreign Minister. Far from being intimidated the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, replied to the threat by granting Assange political asylum.

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Fukushima: They Knew
Greg Palast - TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

I’ve seen a lot of sick stuff in my career, but this was sick on a new level. Here was the handwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant [in 1986]: “Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. . . . In fact, the plant was riddled with problems that, no way on earth, could stand an earth- quake. The team of engineers sent in to inspect found that most of these components could ‘completely and utterly fail’ during an earthquake.” And here in Japan was the quake and here is the utter failure.

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(Italian) La Mappa Esagonale del Mondo Multipolare
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Qualche tempo fa la mappa geopolitica si basava sul conflitto diretto Est-Ovest, sulle due super-potenze USA/URSS e rispettive alleanze, con i neutrali-nonallineati trattati da categoria residuale. Il mondo era bipolare. L’implosione dell’URSS lo rese unipolare, con l’”unica super-potenza sopravvissuta”: 2-1 = 1. O così ci fu raccontato. Oggi abbiamo quattro stati molto grandi: i tre maggiori per popolazione, Cina-India-USA, e il maggiore per superficie, Russia. E la UE, regione con cinque stati di media grandezza: UK-Francia-Germania-Italia-Spagna. Ma c’è un altro polo sulla mappa geopolitica: l’Islam.

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(Italian) Animalismo, Specismo, Antispecismo e Diritti degli Animali
Roberto Russo, GraphoMania – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Parliamo spesso di animali: ci stanno particolarmente a cuore e non è un mistero. Ma non vogliamo che sia un discorso sdolcinato: secondo noi è importante guardare agli animali come esseri viventi, al pari nostro, con i loro diritti. Il fatto che noi siamo animali appartenenti alla specie umana non ci autorizza certo a trattare male gli animali non umani.

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NBC’s ‘Stars Earn Stripes’ Continues an Inglorious Tradition of Glorifying War
Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, José Ramos-Horta, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Betty Williams – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

As Nobel Peace Prize laureates, we call on NBC to cancel this reality TV show that likens military combat to Olympic athletics.

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The Yinon Thesis Vindicated: Neocons, Israel, and the Fragmentation of Syria
Stephen J. Sniegoski, The Passionate Attachment – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

It is widely realized now that the fall of President Bashar Assad’s regime would leave Syria riven by bitter ethnic, religious, and ideological conflict that could splinter the country into smaller enclaves. America’s removal of Saddam served to intensify Sunni-Shiite regional hostility and, in a sense, got the destabilization ball rolling. Iran is targeted now, and Israel and its neocon supporters seek to make use of dissatisfied internal elements, political and ethnic—the radical MEK, democratic secularists, monarchists, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, and Azeris— to bring down the Islamic regime.

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Toward a New Geopolitics?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

The Chinese proverb is correct in its chilling reminder that ‘it is a curse to live in interesting times,’ but given the changing historical experiences with warfare, the growing sense of great ecological hazard, and the strengthening attachment to global justice agendas, maybe just this once, the fascinations of our age will turn out to be ‘a blessing.’

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Syria is Only a Pretext
Thierry Meyssan – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Looking back, it appears clear that he [Annan] had envisaged his mission from the future perspective of Assad’s overthrow by force and no longer knew what to do in the face of the military reversals suffered by the Free Syrian Army sponsored by the West. Obviously, the resignation of Annan as special envoy is not only an expression of personal disarray but is part and parcel of the Western campaign to signal “a deadlock within the international community” and cast responsibility on Syria, Russia and China.

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Open Letter to Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister
Dr. S. P. Udayakumar (PMANE) – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Honorable Madam, Greetings! As we have completed a whole year struggling against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), we would like to initiate a fresh round of dialogue with you. We request you, Madam, to turn the KKNPP into a pro-people and Nature-friendly project, bring about solar power policy and projects all over our State, rectify the transmission and distribution issues, protect the interests of the Tamil people, and leave a wonderful legacy of visionary leadership and compassionate development with the people of Tamil Nadu and India.

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Edinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

3-27 Aug, 2012 – Edinburgh, Scotland. FoSP is one of Edinburgh’s most exciting and diverse Festivals. It features over 400 activities across 21 venues each year in August. With top-quality speakers, conversations, performances, film, food, exhibitions, family activities, workshops, art, culture and more the festival is now looking forward to its twelfth year.

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Ayesha Was Killed
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Dedicated to the young men and women executed in Iran for supporting human rights and democracy.

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(Portuguese) Libor: “É o sistema, estúpido”!
Carta Maior – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Desde o dia 4 de julho [2012], noticia-se um escândalo envolvendo uma coisa chamada Libor. Chamar a manipulação da Libor de escândalo é desviar as atenções do fato de que se trata de mais uma forma normal de acumular capital. Em 1992, James Carville, estrategista da campanha do então candidato Bill Clinton à Presidência dos EUA, saiu-se com um dito que ficou famoso: “É a economia, estúpido”. Frente aos chamados escândalos, deveríamos dizer: “É o sistema, estúpido”!

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The United States and Its Comrade-In-Arms, Al Qaeda – And Other Tales of an Empire Gone Mad
William Blum – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Afghanistan in the 1980s and 90s … Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s … Libya 2011 … Syria 2012 … In military conflicts in each of these countries the United States and al Qaeda (or one of its associates) have been on the same side. What does this tell us about the United States’ “War On Terrorism”?

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Fusion of Ignorance and Malice in Perspective
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

In scholastic philosophy we often find the phrase: quidquid contingens est causam habet – whatever comes into existence must have a cause. This means that in anything human beings do there must be a source, a motive or motivation behind it. The war industry is the only business in the world where money is made fast and smooth. This is often done with no accountability to anyone. There seems to be a mafia type of plot at a high governmental level where what really counts is the making of big money and not the saving of human lives.

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Destroying the World for Profit
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Does it make sense to destroy the world for the sake of profit or personal advantage? This is exactly what our governments and business leaders are doing today. This is what very many ordinary people are doing. But does it make sense? Does it make sense to saw off the branch on which you are sitting? Does it make sense to jockey for a place at the Captain’s table on board an iceberg-struck Titanic?

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Nobel Peace Laureates Call on NBC to Cancel New Show: ‘War Isn’t Entertainment’
Common Dreams - TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Critics say show promotes an “inglorious tradition of glorifying war and armed violence.” Nine Nobel Peace Laureates on Monday [13 Aug 2012] joined a growing chorus of critics calling on NBC entertainment to cancel the new “reality” show—“Stars Earn Stripes”—saying that “war isn’t entertainment.”

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Statement on Syria
United National Antiwar Coalition – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

The ominous signs of impending war with Syria escalate. NATO holds a special meeting to respond to the downing of a Turkish fighter plane and issues threats of future action. The U.S. government is supplying arms and logistical support to Syrian militias. The media bombards us with arguments that support foreign intervention. While activists may hold different views of Syria’s internal political system, we must all agree that the U.S. government has no right to impose its will on other countries, especially those formerly colonized and exploited by the West.

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Johann Strauss-Medley (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Andre Rieu Orchestra – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

1. Als flotter Geist aus der Operette ‘Zigeunerbaron’ – Song of Barinkay from the operetta ‘The Gipsy Baron’
2. Wienerblut – Vienna Blood
3. Lippen schweigen aus der Operette ‘Die Lustige Witwe’ von Franz Lehar
4. ‘Tanzen möcht ich’ von Emmerich Kalman aus ‘Die Csardasfürstin’ – The Gipsy Princess

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A Peace Nonkillingly Sustained
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Many types of peace Humankind may see
Many ways of promoting peace there may be

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Communicative Humiliation: A Sociolinguistic Checklist
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

1. How is humiliation communicated in your community: by spoken/written/sign language/gestures?
2. In what social contexts does/did the humiliation take place? Home/work/school/public places (church, stadiums, political meetings, shopping malls, parades, etc)

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(Portuguese) Do Nosso Jeito
Tereza Halliday, Diário de Pernambuco – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Aug 2012

Se o mundo fosse do jeito que nós queremos, desapareceriam as profissões de policial, jornalista e psicoterapeuta. Ou, como diz um gaiato amigo meu: “Se o mundo fosse do nosso jeito, Tereza, seria uma chatice”. Talvez se chamasse Paraíso – aquele lugar mítico que jamais alguém encontrou na Terra, nem voltou do Além para contar.

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Soul Searching and Common Sense after Oak Creek
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

President Obama has responded to the killing of six members of the Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin this last Sunday [5 Aug 2012] with these words: “All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity….” To fail to mention the grotesque absurdity of legally allowing almost everyone in the United States to buy assault weapons and large quantities of ammunition online or at neighborhood shops can only be explained by the intimidating influence of the gun lobby, and its accompanying gun culture, in this country as currently heightened by an ongoing, nasty presidential election campaign.

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Reformed Teaching of History
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

Today the world urgently needs a new global ethic, – an ethic where loyalty to family, community and nation will be supplemented by a strong sense of the brotherhood of all humans, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Schiller expressed this feeling in his “Ode to Joy”, a part of which is the text of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Today, the sharing of knowledge and culture is symbolized by the Internet, which binds us all together, no matter where we are living.

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The Great Impostors
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

In the name of saving the natural world, governments are privatising it. “The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying ‘this is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.

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Why Do We Obey?
Eric Peters – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

The uniform – and other totems of officialized authority – confer legitimacy upon the illegitimate. It is a startling thing. It reveals that most people are incapable of grasping the concept of a moral principle – that something which is wrong when committed by an unsanctioned individual is just as wrong when committed by a sanctioned individual – or a group of them. If it is wrong to kill, then it is always wrong to kill. If it is wrong to steal, then it is always wrong to steal.

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Drone Attacks Generate Enemies for the US
Eric Margolis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

While the US hails Pakistan as a key non-NATO ally, the US treats it like a militarily occupied country. The government in Islamabad is left to observe increasing drone attacks and CIA ground operation with deepening embarrassment and helplessness.

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Surviving an Active Shooter Event
US Department of Homeland Security – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

RUN… HIDE… FIGHT…! Signs of the Times. Interesting advertisement by the city of Houston, Texas. Apparently mass-shooting has become common place in the Land of the Brave and the Free… The irony is in the ad itself.

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Paradoxes of Engaging with the Ultimate in any Guise
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

Living Life Penultimately – There is a curious dependence on the “ultimate” in a variety of forms. This may be related to anticipation of an ultimate experience, whether in the form of a theory, a spiritual revelation, an encounter with another, a global strategy, or the like. The expectation is that this will be “ultimately” transformative in ways which can only be intuited, but whose consequences are much anticipated.

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PMANE Observes Independence Day as Black Day
Dr. S.P. Udayakumar, People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

The first anniversary of the current phase of our struggle will be commemorated on August 16, 2012 at Idinthakarai. Several political and social leaders along with writers, artists and activists will be participating in the day-long event.

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Amazing Grace (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Il Divo – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

Music video by Il Divo performing Amazing Grace at Colosseo di Roma.

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Why Independence Day is a Black Day
Dr. S. P. Udayakumar, PMANE – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

The corruption-ridden, anti-Indian, pro-foreign, pro-MNC government of the UPA does not enjoy absolute majority in the Parliament and hence should not be allowed to take crucial national decisions at the far end of their tenure in power. It has lost its credibility, legitimacy, respect and trust among the people of India and it is compromising our independence, sovereignty and the fundamental freedoms.

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With Death, Love Does Not Die…
David Inkey – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

With death, love does not die,
we cry tears of deep grief for our own relief,
memory is a bridge cresting on a special ridge,
with death, love does not die…

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The Hexagon Map of the Multipolar World
Johan Galtung, 13 Aug 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

Some time ago the geopolitical map was based on the direct East-West conflict, the two superpowers USA/USSR with alliances, and the neutral-nonaligned treated as a residual category. The world was Bipolar. The implosion of the USSR made it Unipolar, “the only surviving superpower”, 2-1 = 1. Or so we were told. Today we have four huge states: the three largest in population, China-India-USA, and the largest in area, Russia. And the EU, a region with five middle-range states: UK-France-Germany-Italy-Spain. But there is one more pole on the geopolitical map: Islam.

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U.S. Guns: The Awful, Shocking Truth!
Gunwar – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

Over the last 5 to 6 years, over 60,000 people have lost their lives in Mexico’s drug-related wave of violence. More than 70% of the weapons seized in Mexico in the last three years and submitted for tracing came from the U.S. Source: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-ATF.

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The Two Faces of a Police State: Sheltering Tax Evaders, Financial Swindlers, and Money Launderers while Policing the Citizens
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

Never in the history of the United States have we witnessed crimes committed on the scale and scope of the present day by both private and state elites.

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(Italian) Concerto per Elisabetta. La musica e l’eternità della vita
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

Dell’eternità della vita attraverso la musica – Il suono – la vibrazione – pare non si fermi mai. Pare che viaggi in eterno. Nello spazio infinito.

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Reconciliation, Reform and Resilience: Positive Peace for Lebanon
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Aug 2012

With the growing intensity of the conflicts in Syria, with the flows of refugees and increased foreign participation, the dangers of serious, negative impact on neighbouring countries is real. This impact is already being felt in Lebanon which has its own multi-level divisions and scars from its own long civil war (1975-1990).

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West Provoking Civil War in Syria
PressTV – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

George Galloway has conducted an interview with Jonathan Steele, former foreign editor of the Guardian and author of Ghosts of Afghanistan.

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Escape From Economics
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

The problem is that the discipline both lags an ever-changing world and got some things wrong at the beginning. Consequently, learning economics places one inside a box where some of the tools and understanding provided are outdated and incorrect. My advice to readers who wish to develop economic comprehension is to begin with the outside-the-box economists who are addressing real issues. As Lenin and others predicted, industrial capitalism has turned into finance capitalism.

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Obama Authorizes Secret US Support for Syrian Rebels
Newsmax – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Obama’s order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence “finding,” broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad. This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad’s armed opponents.

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Beyond Words: Poet’s Lament
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Poetry at its finest stretches the expressiveness of language beyond its prior limits, not necessarily by its choice of words, but through the magical invocation of feelings embedded deeply within consciousness. When we do not respect the unspeakable by our silence we domesticate the criminality of the horror that human beings are capable of inflicting on one another, and give way to the eventual emergence of normalcy as has happened with nuclear weapons detached from the happenings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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American Dream Evolving into Nightmare
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

In fact, violence breeds violence and more violence breeds more violence. The military is the only agency that performs atrocities with no accountability. Some political scientists described the military as “a terrorist organization sanctioned by the government.” The US huge expenditure on the military has transformed the American dream into a nightmare, which is making millions of Americans suffer for a very long time.

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The Nuremberg Principles and Individual Responsibility
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

The Nuremberg Principles are being used today as the basis for the International Criminal Court’s trials of individuals accused of genocide and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. According to them, it is not only the right, but also the duty of individuals to make moral and legal judgments concerning wars in which they are asked to fight. All of us are responsible for what our governments do! I personally would like to extend the principle of individual responsibility still further, whether the problems are related to the abolition of war, to the prevention of poverty, the prevention of famine, or to saving the biosphere.

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Pro-Palestinian Ads Ignite Firestorm of Controversy
CBS2 News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

An explosive ad about Israel is now igniting a firestorm of controversy. The display shows shrinking Palestinian territory in Israel over the years and refers to 4.7 million Palestinians there as refugees.

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Turkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute. NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey

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Nepal: From Contradictions to Compelling Constructive Visions
Naakow Grant-Hayford, Galtung-Institut – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Federica Riccadonna is a research associate of the Galtung-Institut for Peace Theory and Peace Practice and currently a visiting researcher at the Asian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Transformation-ASPECT in Kathmandu. She depicts the Nepalese society as one in the throes of a deeply fraught political transition towards a more stable and just future and identifies important contradictions underpinning – and potentially able to undermine – the current constitutional and federal peace-building efforts, going on to suggest plausible progressive ways ahead.

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Scorched Earth Economics
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Neoliberals claim that we are best served by maximising market freedom and minimising the role of the state. The free market, left to its own devices, will deliver efficiency, choice and prosperity. All tasks would be better discharged by private enterprise. The quest for Year Zero market purity was dangerous enough in theory; distorted by the grubby realities of life on earth it is devastating to the welfare of both people and planet.

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Can Syria be a Zone of Peace?
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Instead of viewing the Syrian conflict as a national interest crucible, the time has come that it must be seen as an international challenge to be met by international players in a framework of cooperation. Towards this, making Syria a zone of peace may prove a clincher, with no side losing, but all sides gaining, and peace constituency getting stronger.

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The Cartel – Behind the Scenes in the Libor Interest Rate Scandal
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

There have been plenty of banking scandals, but none quite like this: Investigators and political leaders believe that the manipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate was the result of organized fraud. Institutions that participated could face billions in fines and penalties.

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Fukushima: Precious Time Has Been Lost
Dr. Michel Fernex – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Since 1959, an agreement signed between the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and then a number of additional legal texts, prohibit WHO from intervening in nuclear accidents. Researchers have been surprised to find that genetic damage, and above all perigenetic damage, which is responsible for genomic instability, to descendants, is far worse than to parents; and this risk increases from one generation to the next.

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The Nordic Countries in a World in Crisis
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Knowing that India and China can meet alone the world’s demand for industrial goods at higher quality/price ratios, and that the South is able to fulfill a world demand for resources and agricultural products, one Western approach was to switch from real to finance economy. Building on the old City of London-Wall Street traditions in private banking and using debt bondage as power, cheap credit and speculation has been another approach, but it backfired.

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12 Mindsets Ensuring Disappearance of Employment Opportunities
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Towards a Systemic Reframing of the Job Culture – Produced in a period when the proportion of jobless in the Eurozone has reached a record level.

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(Portuguese) Willy Brandt Vinte Anos Depois
Johan Galtung, Forum Abel Varzim – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Morreu há já vinte anos, o grande estadista alemão. A Alemanha, a Europa e o mundo têm amplos motivos de gratidão e muito a aprender com este mestre da política, em condições de grande tensão e polarização. O que era a sua “Ostpolitik” – uma nova fórmula de política para com o Leste? Ele tornou a Alemanha de Leste razoável, ao ser ele próprio razoável. Brandt tornou possível o Kohl de 1989.

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At Stake in Mali: Refugees at Every Border
Ramzy Baroud – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

The humanitarian crisis in Mali is developing at an alarmingly fast pace. Northern Mali promises to be the graveyard of scores of innocent people if African countries don’t collectively challenge Western influence in the region.

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Time Clock of Mind
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

For the young men who have been victims of physical abuse, and experienced inner trauma.

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(French) La Crise de L’Euro Fait Gagner Beaucoup D’Argent à l’Allemagne
L'Expansion – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

L’Allemagne ne fait pas que payer pour régler la crise de la zone euro. Si un éclatement lui coûterait cher, Elle profite en attendant de conséquences très positives pour elle.

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Horror: Shocking Photos and Testimony from Afghanistan’s Dawood US Military Hospital Scandal
Rebecca Elliott & Michael Hastings, BuzzFeed – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

If you look at only one story about the Afghan War this year, make it this one. An explosive Congressional investigation revealed horrific new details this week [27 Jul 2012] about a U.S. funded military hospital in Afghanistan that kept patients in “Auschwitz-like” conditions. Warning: Graphic images.

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Hiroshima Day & Postcard Campaign
Dr. S. P. Udayakumar, PMANE – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Demanding Copy of Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Liability Agreement on Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plants 1 & 2 – August 6, 2012 – The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy is commemorating the Hiroshima Day 2012 as the “Nuclear-Free Tamil Nadu Day.”

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Glenn Paige Nonkilling Schools: A Plea
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

To establish a school aimed at genocide-prevention education
calls for a compassionate, courageous, Nonkilling transformation
In the village of Kazimia, Eastern Congo, a Glenn Paige Nonkilling
School can be found

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‘End of Capitalism’: Bolivia to Expel Coca-Cola
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

In a symbolic rejection of US capitalism, Bolivia announced it will expel the Coca-Cola Company from the country at the end of the Mayan calendar. “December 21 of 2012 will be the end of egoism and division, it should be the end of Coca-Cola,” Bolivian foreign minister David Choquehuanca decreed. Last year, Bolivia became the second Latin American country not to have a single McDonald’s.

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Preventing another Hiroshima
Rebecca Johnson, Int’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Aug 2012

Sixty-seven years ago, on August 6, the first uranium bomb was exploded above Hiroshima with the force of 15 thousand tons of TNT. Three days later, Nagasaki was shattered by a plutonium bomb. Over the next 40 years, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Soviet Union, Britain, France and China) amassed some 70,000 nuclear weapons with a combined explosive force of 15 million tons. Between them Israel, Pakistan and India could have 300-400 nuclear weapons. [Enough to obliterate the planet 12 TIMES OVER]

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The Politics of the Economic Crisis
Johan Galtung, 30 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

The transfer of capital from investment in the real economy to speculation in the finance economy done digitally, in microseconds, is to a labor-free economy. Workers, the plague of industrial capitalists, quarrelsome, on strike, always demanding more, are out. The longer the buying and selling chains in the finance economy, the more commissions-and hence, “economic growth”-, the fewer jobs. A handful can do it; Lehman Brothers taking huge risks that are compensated by huge Goldman Sachs bonuses.

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(Castellano) Educación para la Paz: Una Propuesta en Cuatro Pasos
Fernando Montiel T. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Crítica sin propuesta conduce a la apatía – Sin importar qué tan bien intencionada, la crítica por sí misma no necesariamente es constructiva, y de hecho, criticar sin ofrecer alternativas puede incluso ser irresponsable. La crítica sin propuesta es destructiva, y la propuesta sin crítica es endeble.

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Physically Handicapped in Perspective
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Those people who are physically handicapped in any way whatsoever, may still perform excellently as everyone else. We have many examples of this reality in the history of our earthly community. Once we become convinced that the handicapped are psychologically normal people in no lesser way that we are, our ability to deal with such situations becomes more natural and more spontaneous.

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(Italian) Non Molta Pace? Anche Colpa Dei Mediatori
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Più difficile è sostenere una pace positiva: cooperazione per vantaggi reciproci e uguali e armonia, consonanza emotiva. Gli studi per la pace non sono soli in questa difficile situazione. Gli studi sulla sanità si concentrano molto più sull’assenza di malattia che sulla presenza di salute positiva, con solo vaghi sforzi per configurarla esplicitamente. Come la psicologia: profusa sui disordini mentali, ma tuttora carente sull’assetto psicologico positivo. Si possono individuare quattro spiegazioni, non giustificazioni.

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What Dani Dayan Says and Why It Is Interesting
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Dani Dayan’s article, “Israel’s Settlers Are Here to Stay,” was published by the NY Times on July 26, 2012. Dayan is the chairman of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities, and has been long known as a leading spokesperson of the settler movement. An obvious response to such a settler screed might be to dismiss it out of hand as an extremist expression of Israeli views, which it certainly is, but it would seem a mistake to do this before taking some account of its content and timing.

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Wall Street Legend Sandy Weill: Break Up Big Banks
CNBC – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

It’s nothing less than a remarkable about-face. One of the architects of mega banking is now calling for the breakup of the world’s largest banks. Sandy Weill, formerly CEO of Citigroup and Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, told CNBC:

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How to Survive Long Haul Flights
Colleen Murphy, International Man - TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Four Mandatory Rules

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(Castellano) Johan Galtung en Argentina – 2009
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Fragmento del ” Seminario Avanzado de Transformación Pacífica de Conflictos” dictado por el profesor Johan Galtung para la carrera de “Especialización en Negociación” en la Facultad de Agronomía de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

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Does The Higgs Boson Rule Out The Existence Of God?
Deepak Chopra – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

What is the Higgs Boson and why is it called “the God particle”? Deepak Chopra explains the elusive and ephemeral existence of this newly discovered particle, which imbues other particles with mass.

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Blair, Olympic Deals and the Glimpse of another Britain
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

In the New Statesman of 21 June, I reported an urgent appeal to Sebastian Coe, the former athlete who chairs the London Olympics Organising Committee, by the Vietnam Women’s Union that he and his IOC colleagues reconsider their decision to accept sponsorship from Dow Chemical, one of the companies that manufactured Agent Orange, a poison used against the population of Vietnam.

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Will Libya Become Another Somalia? Or Worse?
Counter Currents – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Libya seems well on its way to becoming the next Somalia, with much of the country already ruled by tribal/clan based armed militias. As was the case in Somalia, Libya is in the process of separation, with the eastern, oil rich, Cyrenica region having issued a de facto declaration of independence. Tripoli, the capital of Libya, seems to be headed in the direction of where Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia was 20 years ago, with various well armed militias from outside the city taking up residence and clashing over territory and the spoils of power.

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Toward a Gandhian Geopolitics: A Feasible Utopia?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

There is no doubt that I would like to live in a borderless soft power world that was consistently attentive to human suffering, protective of the global commons, and subject to the discipline of global constitutional democracy. As global conditions now confirm, such a benign fantasy lacks political traction at present, and is thus an irresponsible worldview from the perspective of humane problem solving.

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Woman with No Gold
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

For the Poverty-Stricken Women in India Who Work as Domestic Maids

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Rhymed Reflections: Dignity in Human Rights, Literature and Spirituality
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Human Rights educators/practitioners,
In your advocacy, efforts, initiatives for/in/through Human Rights, much
more dignity you can bring…

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Syria: Washington’s Latest War Crime
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

One wonders what Syrians are thinking as “rebels” vowing to “free Syria” take the country down the same road to destruction as “rebels” in Libya. Libya, under Gaddafi a well run country whose oil revenues were shared with the Libyan people instead of monopolized by a princely class as in Saudi Arabia, now has no government and is in disarray with contending factions vying for power.

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The Story of Change
Story of Stuff Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Can shopping save the world? The Story of Change urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world.

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A Brief Further Comment on Syria
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Military intervention rarely succeeds, violates the right of self-determination, and often expands the scope and severity of violence, especially if carried out from the air. Furthermore, we know little about the opposition in Syria, to what extent its governance of the country would be based on the rule of law and human rights. There are confusing reports about rebel atrocities as well as concerning the role of Al Qaeda operatives leading some of the rebel forces, and also indications that Gulf money and weapons have been supplied to these forces ever since the beginning of the anti-Damascus uprising.

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Facing a Set of Linked Problems
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Today, a number of serious and interconnected problems are facing human civilization and the biosphere. Because they are linked, we need to look at all of these problems together, and to find holistic solutions.

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It’s the Guns – But We All Know, It’s Not Really the Guns…
Michael Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

The United States is responsible for over 80% of all the gun deaths in the 23 richest countries combined. Both conservatives and liberals in America ceaselessly remind you that a gun cannot fire itself – that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Of course, they know they’re being intellectually dishonest. I would just alter that slogan slightly to speak the real truth: “Guns don’t kill people, Americans kill people.”

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Celebrated Spanish Judge Garzon to Head Assange Legal Team
Agence France Press-AFP – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Jul 2012

Famous Spanish human rights investigator Baltasar Garzon will lead the legal team representing WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, the whistleblower website announced on Tuesday [24 Jul 2012]. Garzon, best known for issuing an international arrest warrant against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, recently met with Assange at the Ecuadoran embassy to discuss a new legal strategy, according to a statement approved by both men.

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Recession Breaks In
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Jul 2012

Recession breaks in
grey bar charts in a row fall down
as do computer monitors, file cabinets and screams
from window of sky-high building
like someone threw up after ugly reality;

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(French) LIBOR: Le Drapeau Rouge Flotte Sur Bruxelles…
Liberation – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Jul 2012

« De vrais salauds ! », s’exclame ce haut fonctionnaire européen qui n’en revient toujours pas. Cinq ans après l’éclatement de la bulle des « subprimes » américaines, quatre ans après l’explosion des bulles immobilières irlandaises et espagnoles, trois ans après le début des attaques spéculatives contre la zone euro, la Commission croyait que les banques ne pourraient plus la surprendre. Loupé!

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