Articles by UN
We found 3962 results.
(Italiano) Con che cosa ha che fare la storia – Guardate questa mappa della storia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jul 2014
Tentiamo una spiegazione basata sui concetti di impero e dinastia; gli imperi in espansione e contrazione nello spazio, le dinastie nel tempo. Entrambi si basano su contraddizioni, forze e contro-forze, dialettica; ma negli imperi la dialettica è esterna, nelle dinastie interna.
→ read full articleRisky Business – Mexico’s Oil Privatization Scheme
Laura Carlsen - CounterPunch,
14 Jul 2014
There’s another, semi-hidden layer to Mexico’s oil privatization. What both the Mexican government and the private companies covet in Mexico’s privatization scheme is not so much the oil flow as the capital flow. Underneath the rhetoric, it’s about making sure that the “river of capital” flows into the pockets of power.
→ read full article(Italiano) Sette vie alla felicità
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jul 2014
• Piaceri negativi: godiamoci i problemi che non abbiamo.
• Piaceri positivi: godiamoci ancor di più quelli che abbiamo.
• Competizione con noi stessi, non con gli altri – ponendoci obiettivi di auto-miglioramento.
Per tutte queste vie la parola chiave è consapevolezza.
Blackwater’s Death Machine – The Privatization of Repression
Norman Pollack - CounterPunch,
14 Jul 2014
Blackwater on one hand, Obama, with his hit list and targeted assassination on the other, and in between, CIA-JSOC paramilitary operations geared to regime change, together constitute the package of Obama’s liberal humanitarianism, bringing democracy to the ignorant at gunpoint.
→ read full articleViolence against Children Has Become an Epidemic
Jonathan Power – Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
14 Jul 2014
Three Israeli teenagers murdered. One Palestinian boy burnt to death whilst alive. Violence against children is seen as an easy way of cowing a population and as a cheap means of recruiting disposable soldiers. The UN membership must refer errant countries or the movements within them to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.
→ read full articleHow to Distinguish a Genuinely Practising Buddhist Monk from a Nazi with a Shaven Head in Saffron Robe
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jul 2014
Nazi “Monk” Wirathu versus the Good Buddhist Monks of Mandalay – Mandalay Peace Committee meeting, Moe Gaung Monastery, Mandalay, 6 Jul 2014
→ read full articleChild and Forced Marriage – Manifestation of Gender Discrimination
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jul 2014
“In the absence of viable legal remedies, discriminatory cultural practices based on stereotypical views of women’s roles and sexuality are among the structural causes of child and forced marriage.”
→ read full articleWhat Was History About-Look at the Histomap
Johan Galtung, 14 Jul 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jul 2014
Let us try an explanation based on empire and dynasty; empires expanding and contracting in space, dynasties in time. Both are based on contradictions, forces and counter-forces, dialectics; but in the empires the dialectic is external, in the dynasties internal.
→ read full articleRecord Levels of Solar Ultraviolet on Earth’s Surface Hit South America
Countercurrents - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jul 2014
8 Jul 2014 – A team of researchers from the US and Germany has measured the highest level of ultraviolet radiation ever recorded on earth’s surface. The extraordinary UV fluxes, observed in the Bolivian Andes, are far above those normally considered to be harmful to both terrestrial and aquatic life.
→ read full articleThe Appeal of ISIS: Why Young Sunnis Are Drawn to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s New Movement
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
7 Jul 2014
The move by al-Baghdadi and Isis, which wants to be known as simply the Islamic State, has the power to convulse many of the 57 countries that follow the Islamic faith. It is not that all Islamic radicals will rise up to follow the new caliph, but his message will attract many followers and will force other jihadi groups to choose if they are going to follow the new leader.
→ read full article(Italiano) Spagna 2050 – Dieci Predizioni
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jul 2014
Come possiamo gettare un po’ di luce sul futuro? Fondamentalmente ci sono due approcci: quello cartesiano basato su tendenze estensive, e il taoismo basato sull’olismo e la dialettica. Che non si escludono reciprocamente.
→ read full articleWho Are the Real Barbarians? Another Liberation of Iraq!
Haifa Zangana - CounterPunch,
7 Jul 2014
It goes without saying that very little space has been available in the media, whether Arabic or international, for Iraqi voices that challenge the dominant rhetoric about the situation in Iraq.
→ read full article
The Slow Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya
Dr Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jul 2014
London Conference on Decades of Persecution and Destruction of Myanmar’s Rohingya
→ read full article(Italiano) Buona Governance, innovativa: che cos’è?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jul 2014
Oggi la Cina combina il meglio del marxismo-comunismo, l’attenzione centrata sui bisogni fondamentali dei più bisognosi, con il meglio del liberalismo-capitalismo, lo spirito imprenditoriale innovativo. Sollevando le sorti delle fasce più misere, forse 400 milioni dal 1991 al 2004, affinché partecipino a un mercato fiorente.
→ read full articleSeven Roads to Happiness
Johan Galtung,
7 Jul 2014
• Negative pleasures: enjoy the problems you do not have.
• Positive pleasures: enjoy even more those you have.
• Compete with yourself, not others–set goals for self-improvement.
For these, as for all the roads, the key word is consciousness.
(Italiano) Il mondo in questo preciso momento: rapporto di metà anno
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jul 2014
Perfino i media mainstream oggi si preoccupano molto della violenza strutturale, che chiamano disuguaglianza, pur non curandosi del numero dei morenti (140.000 al giorno, di fame e malattie prevenibili-curabili, niente denaro a disposizione). Chiamare un paese, una regione del mondo pacifica con tali atrocità rampanti di morte e disuguaglianza è violenza culturale.
→ read full articleMicrosoft’s Gestures of Transparency
Bill Blunden - CounterPunch,
7 Jul 2014
For multinational companies like Microsoft, which recently signed a $617 million deal with the Pentagon, there’s too much money at stake to not collaborate with intelligence services. And Microsoft continues to do so, both here in the United States and in countries like Russia.
→ read full articleUnited Behind So-Called ‘Rohingya” Genocide
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jun 2014
A poem in memory of the two Rohingya infants who became the well-publicized victims of Myanmar’s “Buddhist” genocide.
→ read full article(Italiano) Studi per la Pace: dieci punti fondamentali
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jun 2014
Grazie per volere un compendio dei punti chiave nei “Galtung Peace Studies”. Sono appena stato onorato con un “Premio alla carriera” (Lifetime Award) della sociologia mondiale, oltre 60 anni; in breve, tempo sufficiente per un compendio con un avvertimento: non un surrogato alla lettura dei libri.
→ read full article(Italiano) Messico: 50 Pacifiche Politiche di Pace
Johan Galtung & Fernando Montiel T. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jun 2014
Toluca, Stato di México; Seminari su narcotraffico e violenza – Di seguito presentiamo 50 idee su come fare quanto sopra, divise in 10 settori con 5 proposte ciascuno; alcune di esse basate su esperienze positive all’estero.
→ read full articleIf Militarism Continues, Humankind Is Doomed
Jan Oberg – Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
30 Jun 2014
Weapons don’t belong to a market, there is no competition – the state is the only buyer – and thus taxpayers must cover the systematic cost overruns.
→ read full articleThe World Right Now: A Mid-Year Report
Johan Galtung, 30 Jun 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jun 2014
Even mainstream media are today deeply concerned with structural violence, under the heading of inequality, staying away from the numbers dying (140,000/day from hunger and preventable-curable diseases, no money). Calling a country, region or the world peaceful with such atrocities of death and inequity being rampant is cultural violence.
→ read full articleInternational Peace Research Association at 50
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jun 2014
Known as IPRA, founded in 1964 in London–and this author, 34 at the time, is the only surviving founder. IPRA rotates every two years from one peace research center to the other, and is now in very competent Turkish hands. And what is more natural than having the 50th anniversary for the hub of peace studies in that hub of the world, Istanbul, 10-14 August this year!! Hurry up, register!!!
→ read full articleEmpire of Prisons
James P. Jordan – CounterPunch,
16 Jun 2014
How the United States Is Spreading Mass Incarceration around the World
→ read full articleSpain 2050–Ten Predictions
Johan Galtung, 16 Jun 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jun 2014
Can we know the future? Rhetorical answer: can we know the past? We rewrite history all the time, not because facts become dubious and new facts appear, but because our angle, perspective, changes.
→ read full articleThey Knew Our Secrets. One Year Later, We Know Theirs.
American Civil Liberties Union – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jun 2014
One year ago, the world had never heard of Edward Snowden, and we knew very little about the breathtaking scope of U.S. government surveillance. One year later, we know more than ever before about our government’s mass surveillance apparatus. We now have the power to rein it in.
→ read full articleTightening the U.S. Grip on Western Europe: Washington’s Iron Curtain in Ukraine
Diana Johnstone - CounterPunch,
16 Jun 2014
With astonishing unanimity, NATO leaders feign surprise at events they planned months in advance. Events that they deliberately triggered are being misrepresented as sudden, astonishing, unjustified “Russian aggression”. The United States and the European Union undertook an aggressive provocation in Ukraine that they knew would force Russia to react defensively, one way or another.
→ read full articleRevealed: GCHQ’s Beyond Top Secret Middle Eastern Internet Spy Base
Duncan Campbell – The Register,
9 Jun 2014
Snowden Leaks That UK Government Suppressed – Government pressure has meant that some media organisations, despite being in possession of these facts, have declined to reveal them. Today [3 Jun 2014], however, the Register publishes them in full.
→ read full articleJohan Galtung on Language & Peace Education
Donna J. McInnis, Soka University – Japan Association for Language Teaching,
9 Jun 2014
There has been a general shift in emphasis in peace education since the Cold War ended: from peace/war knowledge to conflict competence. Conflict competence can be taught from kindergarten to Ph.D. to old age.
→ read full articleWho’s in Control – Nation States or Global Corporations?
Gary Younge – The Guardian,
9 Jun 2014
The limited ability of national governments to pursue any agenda that has not first been endorsed by international capital and its proxies is no longer simply the cross they have to bear; it is the cross to which we have all been nailed. The nation state is the primary democratic entity that remains. But given the scale of neoliberal globalisation it is clearly no longer up to that task. Minorities are blamed but the real culprit is Neoliberalism.
→ read full article“Soft Power” Strategy: The Geopolitics of the Eurasian Economic Union
Eric Draitser - CounterPunch,
9 Jun 2014
3 Jun 2014 – The deal signed last week by Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to create a Eurasian Economic Union is another countermeasure against US and European attempts to isolate Russia, which hopes to build a common Eurasian economic space that will ultimately rival the US and Europe in terms of economic influence.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: War Remembrance, Reconciliation and Nonviolent Resistance
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka,
9 Jun 2014
The Government of Sri Lanka has become more vigorous in its attempts to curtail the [Tamil] Diaspora’s moves, but this has only served to make committed activists in the Diaspora more confident in facing the challenges thrown towards them by the GoSL through further nonviolent strategies.
→ read full articleA Message From Edward Snowden, One Year Later
Edward Snowden – American Civil Liberties Union,
9 Jun 2014
4 Jun 2014 – Below is an email ACLU supporters received from Edward Snowden this morning, one year to the day since The Guardian broke the first in a series of revelations exposing the breathtaking scope of U.S. government surveillance.
→ read full articleBergdahl, Afghanistan and the ‘Darkening of the American Soul’
Amy Goodman – The Union,
9 Jun 2014
Bob Bergdahl’s remark about the U.S. war in Afghanistan: “I think this is the darkening of the American soul. It is where the guilt comes from, because you are being told you are helping, but you know on the inside that you are not.”
→ read full articleGood, Innovative Governance – What Is That?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jun 2014
Today China combines the best of marxism-communism, the focus on basic needs of the most needy, with the best of liberalism-capitalism, the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit. Lifting the bottom up indeed, maybe 400 million from 1991 to 2004, for participation in a blossoming market.
→ read full articleBeing a Vegetarian
Brown University Health Education – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jun 2014
Vegetarian foods are a major source of nutrition for most people in the world.
Vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease and some forms of cancer than non-vegetarians.
Vegetarian diets can be simple and easy to prepare.
The Nun Behind Bars in Brooklyn: Anti-Nuke Activist
Helen Young – The Huffington Post,
2 Jun 2014
After growing up in the shadow of Columbia University in Manhattan, serving the Catholic Church as a biology teacher in Africa for more than 40 years, and a peace activist in Nevada, 84-year-old Sister Megan Rice has landed back in New York City. She won a conviction for sabotage, which the law defines as a “federal crime of terrorism”.
→ read full articleMexico: 50 Peaceful Peace Policies
Johan Galtung & Fernando Montiel T., 2 Jun 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jun 2014
Toluca, Estado De México; Workshop on Drug Traffic and Violence
→ read full articleWhy Obama’s Speech Should Make You Think
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
2 Jun 2014
Obama’s speech can be analysed as both offending to the rest of us and – exceptionally – weak. It caused no enthusiasm among the future army officers he spoke to and no enthusiasm among leading Western media. I will argue that…
→ read full articleThe Truth about Geoengineering – Science Fiction and Science Fact
David G. Victor, M. Granger Morgan, Jay Apt, John Steinbruner, Katharine Ricke – Foreign Affairs,
2 Jun 2014
In 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes admonished Dr. Watson, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” And right now, the politics of geoengineering are far ahead of the science. As the 2010 decision within the Conventional on Biological Diversity shows, fears about geoengineering are leading to counterproductive policy schemes.
→ read full articlePeace Studies: Ten Basic Points
Johan Galtung, 26 May 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 May 2014
Foreign Policy Studies, University of Malmö, Sweden – “Thanks for wanting a summary of key points in ‘Galtung Peace Studies’. I was just honored with a ‘Lifetime Award’ by world sociology, 60+ years; in short, time for summary with an author’s caveat: no substitute for reading books.
→ read full article(Italiano) Norvegia 2050: un’immagine
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 May 2014
Due importanti contraddizioni: fra l’essere al primo posto per gli indicatori di qualità della vita, eppure con una gran solitudine in aumento e non solo degli anziani; e inoltre fra avere un paese ma lasciare sempre più che altri facciano il lavoro. Come mai? Perché le reti d’interazione si dissolvono.
→ read full article(Italiano) TAP+TPP = “Tutti salvo la Cina” = Colpetto + Ribaltamento?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 May 2014
Washington sta lavorando sodo per riconquistare l’egemonia mondiale sfuggente; supponendo nella tradizione anglo-americana che il n° 2 – quest’anno forse n° 1 economicamente – sia un nemico, invece di intensificare la cooperazione.
→ read full articleWas This Gandhi’s Worst Decision?
George Paxton – The Gandhi Foundation,
26 May 2014
Although critical of the treatment of Indians by the white South Africans, he believed at this stage in his development that the influence of the British Empire was generally benign. So, although sympathetic to the Boers, he offered to form an ambulance corps of Indian volunteers to serve in the British army.
→ read full articlePsycho Politics in the Age of Imperial Decline
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
26 May 2014
”Realpolitik” has become a mixture of marketing soundbites, propaganda and leaders making statement that borders on the Theatre of the Absurd. Thinner and thinner links to Real-ity. This is what happens when decline in being denied.
→ read full articleMission Accomplished, Indeed – Iraq: The Biggest Petroleum Heist in History?
Mike Whitney - CounterPunch,
26 May 2014
These are the ‘best of times’ for the oil giants in Iraq. Production is up, profits are soaring, and big oil is rolling in dough. Face it: No one gives a flying fu** about Iraq. A million people were killed so a few rich fu**ers could get even richer. That’s a hell of a legacy.
→ read full articleA Nation Disintegrates: Libya on the Brink of Civil War
Patrick Cockburn – CounterPunch,
26 May 2014
20 May 2014 – Libya is tipping toward all-out civil war as rival militias take sides for and against an attempted coup led by a renegade general that has pushed the central government towards disintegration.
→ read full articleNorway 2050: An Image
Johan Galtung, 19 May 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 May 2014
Two major contradictions: between ranking as No. 1 on Quality of Life indicators, yet having a high and increasing loneliness and not only at old age; and between having a country but increasingly letting others do the work. How come? Because interaction nets dissolve. Extended families disappeared long time ago.
→ read full articleU.S. Intervention in Nigeria?
Jacob G. Hornberger – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
19 May 2014
The best solution is for the American people to restore the founding principles of a limited government republic to our land by dismantling the Cold War national-security state apparatus, so that the U.S. government lacks the means to engage in foreign interventionism in any respect.
→ read full article(Italiano) Omaggio all’International New York Times
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 May 2014
Perché omaggio? Non per la trattazione delle notizie; di solito, quelle “adatte alla stampa”, che non contraddicono troppo apertamente le visioni del mondo insite nelle politiche estere USA e israeliana. . E neppure per gli editoriali, che sono spesso sulla stessa linea e anche francamente noiosi molte volte. No, l’omaggio è per gli articoli, addirittura i saggi, ad altissimo livello.
→ read full article(Italiano) Cooperazione fra università per l’equità e l’empatia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 May 2014
Immaginate un seminario cooperativo di quattro settimane con molte università su come pensare (ri-cercare), parlare (anche insegnare) e agire (prassi) nei campi delle relazioni internazionali e dell’epistemologia; una gran NOVITA’!
→ read full articleWilling Accomplices: The NSA’s Corporate Collaborators
Bill Blunden - CounterPunch,
12 May 2014
These gestures are likely theater, being performed by executives on behalf of quarterly earnings. Such is the beauty of PR. Hi-tech companies don’t really need to fend off government spies but merely provide users with the perception of resistance.
→ read full articleTAP+TPP = “All But China” = TAP+TIPP?
Johan Galtung,
12 May 2014
Washington is working hard to reconquer slipping world hegemony; in the Anglo-American tradition assuming that No. 2–this year maybe No. 1 economically–is an enemy, instead of deepening cooperation. China has a formula: inequality and corruption are rampant but they also lift the bottom communities up to participation in the market economy. The United States let them sink further down.
→ read full articleUkraine: Stop Escalation and Think Peace
Jan Oberg – Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
12 May 2014
Vladimir Putin’s statements that separatists should not hold referendums on May 11 [2014], that he welcomes the elections in Ukraine on May 25 and that Russia is withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine should be welcomed. If he has been ”aggressive” and this is a ”turnabout” as many in the West believe, this turnabout is even more welcome.
→ read full articleInternational Peace Research Association at 50
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 May 2014
Known as IPRA, founded in 1964 in London–and this author, 34 at the time, is the only surviving founder. IPRA rotates every two years from one peace research center to the other, and is now in very competent Turkish hands. And what is more natural than having the 50th anniversary for the hub of peace studies in that hub of the world, Istanbul, 10-14 August this year!! Hurry up, register!!!
→ read full articleBRICS Building Parallel IMF
Patrick L Young – Russia Today,
5 May 2014
The post war consensus on financing bodies appears to be breaking down as the West clings desperately to the reins of the IMF and World Bank. In exasperation, the BRICS nations are pushing forward with alternative institutions.
→ read full articleHomage to International NYT
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 May 2014
Why homage? Not for the news coverage; usually the news “fit to print” that do not contradict US and Israeli foreign policies. Nor for the editorials, usually on the same line and also, frankly, often boring. The homage is for the articles, essays even, at a very high level, often carrying discourses that are wide ranging, way back into the past, far into the future. We are not talking about agree-disagree but about broadness, openness, even globally.
→ read full articleThe West’s Hypocrisy in Ukraine
Jonathan Power – Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
5 May 2014
When it comes to Ukraine the US and the EU are adopting a holier than thou attitude which, unfortunately, leads them not to worship at the altar of truth. Take the issue of the fuss made over alleged soldiers wearing Russian uniforms.
→ read full articleAbe Taking Pacifist Constitution Away from the People
The Asahi Shimbun, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 May 2014
May 3, 2014 – Japan’s Constitution cannot be revised with a simple majority vote in the Diet. Any constitutional amendment must first be initiated through a vote of two-thirds or more of all members of each house in the Diet and then approved by the public with a majority vote in a special referendum.
→ read full articleMuch Different from What You’ve Heard – The Story of Venezuela’s Protests
Mark Weisbrot - CounterPunch,
5 May 2014
The strategy of Venezuela’s extreme right is to make the country ungovernable, so as to gain by force what they have been unable to win in 18 elections over the past 15 years. It is clear from the statements of Brazil’s former president Lula da Silva and current president Dilma Rousseff that they have no illusions about what is going on in Venezuela.
→ read full article(Castellano) Como a Obama, hay que pedirle cuentas a Vladimir Putin en materia de espionaje
Edward Snowden – Freedom of the Press Foundation,
5 May 2014
El jueves pasado [10 de abril 2014] cuestioné en directo en televisión la implicación de Rusia en el espionaje masivo. Le hice al presidente de Rusia, Vladimir Putin, una pregunta que no puede responder negativamente de un modo creíble ningún líder que dirija un programa moderno e intrusivo de vigilancia: “¿Intercepta [su país], analiza o almacena las comunicaciones de millones de individuos?”
→ read full articleWhat about Cooperatives as a Solution? – The Case of Mondragon
Vincent Navarro - CounterPunch,
5 May 2014
Mondragon is a cooperative that has 147 companies employing 80,000 workers. It was established by a Catholic priest, Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta, in the Basque country in Spain in 1956.
→ read full articleInternational Peace Research Association at 50
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Apr 2014
Known as IPRA, founded in 1964 in London–and this author, 34 at the time, is the only surviving founder. IPRA rotates every two years from one peace research center to the other, and is now in very competent Turkish hands. And what is more natural than having the 50th anniversary for the hub of peace studies in that hub of the world, Istanbul, 10-14 August this year!! Hurry up, register!!!
→ read full article(Italiano) Mari cinesi e isole: soluzioni?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Apr 2014
Conferenza all’Università di Nanchino – Proverbio cinese: meglio che dare a un affamato grave del pesce è insegnargli a pescare. Cioè, non solo soluzioni ma anche come risolvere i conflitti.
→ read full articleReagan Redux – Honduras: Gangsters’ Paradise
Nick Alexandrov - CounterPunch,
28 Apr 2014
The thousands of child prostitutes and street children, the prisons teeming with inmates, the scores of slaughtered peasants and dozens of murdered journalists—all indicate the type of nation Washington helps build in a region where it’s free to operate unimpeded, revealing which “American values” really drive U.S. foreign policy.
→ read full articleA Vindication for the Public: The Guardian and Washington Post Win the Pulitzer Prize
Edward Snowden – Freedom of the Press Foundation,
28 Apr 2014
I am grateful to the committee for their recognition of the efforts of those involved in the last year’s reporting, and join others around the world in congratulating Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, Ewen MacAskill, and all of the others at the Guardian and Washington Post on winning the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
→ read full articleWhy 21st Century Capitalism Can’t Last
Bhaskar Sunkara – Al Jazeera America,
28 Apr 2014
The response to French economist Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has been surprising, to say the least. Though the Amazon best-seller is well written and artfully translated from French by Arthur Goldhammer, the 696-page text is filled with enough charts and footnotes to occupy experts for months.
→ read full articleUniversity Cooperation for Equity and Empathy
Johan Galtung, 28 Apr 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Apr 2014
The joint search for common ground is fascinating. And that leads us to a deeper field for university cooperation: joint exploration of epistemology, the criteria for valid knowledge. Imagine a four-week cooperative seminar with many universities about how to think (re-search), speak (also teach) and act (praxis) in the fields of international relations and epistemology; great NEWS!
→ read full articleTPP Is Right Where We Want It: Going Nowhere
Maira Sutton – Electronic Frontier Foundation,
28 Apr 2014
Despite some reports of movement on some of the most controversial topics during meetings between Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Abe, it seems that the Trans Pacific Partnership is still effectively at a standstill.
→ read full articleThe Perils of Intervention – Ukraine: From Crisis to Catastrophe
Patrick Cockurn - CounterPunch,
28 Apr 2014
By accepting as legitimate a government in Kiev installed by direct action, the US and EU irresponsibly destabilised a tract of Europe, something that should have been obvious at the time.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Giappone e la comunità mondiale
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Apr 2014
Svegliati, Giappone. Non c’è bisogno di scegliere fra USA e Cina; sii neutrale, in termini amichevoli con entrambi. Immaginiamo un Giappone trilingue con l’inglese e il cinese, che abbondanza! Accetta l’invito dell’Asia dell’Est e del Nord Est di congiungere le loro famiglie, come la Germania e il Sud Africa hanno congiunte le loro. Diventa Giappone, potenza di pace.
→ read full articleEast-South China Seas, Islands–Solutions?
Johan Galtung, 21 Apr 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Apr 2014
A Chinese proverb: better than giving a starving person a fish is teaching her to fish. So, not only solutions but how to solve conflicts.
→ read full articleInternational Peace Research Association at 50
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Apr 2014
Known as IPRA, founded in 1964 in London–and this author, 34 at the time, is the only surviving founder. IPRA rotates every two years from one peace research center to the other, and is now in very competent Turkish hands. And what is more natural than having the 50th anniversary for the hub of peace studies in that hub of the world, Istanbul, 10-14 August this year!! Hurry up, register!!!
→ read full articleJapan and the World Community
Johan Galtung, 14 Apr 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Apr 2014
Wake up, Japan. No need to choose between the USA and China; be neutral, on friendly terms with both. Imagine a trilingual Japan with English and Chinese, what a wealth! Accept the invitation by East Asia and Northeast Asia to join their families, as Germany and South Africa joined theirs. Become Japan, the peace power.
→ read full articleAmerica — A Failed State?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Apr 2014
Depends, of course, on the criteria. A state has an inside towards its citizens, and an outside toward the state system. Depends on domestic and foreign policy, in other words. That means it can fail in two ways, by not catering to its citizens and by not coming to terms with other states. Actually the two are closely related as often pointed out.
→ read full articleBritish Aid for Myanmar Ethnic Cleansing
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
7 Apr 2014
Britain, the largest donor country and former colonizer of Myanmar, is effectively aiding and abetting the unfolding “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim Rohingya by helping to finance the country’s controversial 2014 national census.
→ read full articleFor Sea Shepherd – A Vindication: The Whales Have Won!
Cap. Paul Watson - ConterPunch,
7 Apr 2014
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been insisting for more than a decade that Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is illegal. The ICJ has vindicated our position.
→ read full article(Italiano) Stati Uniti d’America — Uno stato fallito?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Apr 2014
Dipende, ovviamente, dai criteri. Uno stato ha una politica interna verso i propri cittadini, e una esterna verso il sistema statuale. Dipende dalla politica interna ed estera, in altre parole. Questo vuol dire che può fallire in due modi, col non occuparsi dei propri cittadini e col non venire a patti con altri stati. Effettivamente i due aspetti sono strettamente correlati come sovente è stato fatto notare.
→ read full articleYOU Can Stop the Slow Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya and Muslims!
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Apr 2014
One of the legacies of the 50 years of military rule and societal isolation (from the world) is multifold: ultra-conservative versions of various faiths, particularly Buddhism, thrive there; the high level of public ignorance is matched only by the extremely low level of critical popular thoughts.
→ read full articleHere Is How We Are Fooled About the Threat of Nuclear Iran
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
31 Mar 2014
What about a solid research report by a world expert documenting that all you’ve heard about Iran going nuclear is based on fake documents? What about evidence that it is Israeli disinformation of world media and political establishments?
→ read full articleInternational Peace Research Association at 50
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Mar 2014
Known as IPRA, founded in 1964 in London–and this author, 34 at the time, is the only surviving founder. IPRA rotates every two years from one peace research center to the other, and is now in very competent Turkish hands. And what is more natural than having the 50th anniversary for the hub of peace studies in that hub of the world, Istanbul, 10-14 August this year!! Hurry up, register!!!
→ read full article(Italiano) Non abbastanza bene, signor Putin!
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Mar 2014
La storia conta, non solo il diritto; come il modo in cui Crimea e Abkhazia-SudOssetia – fondamentalmente russo-ortodosse – divennero ucraina-georgiane. Due dittatori sovietici, Khrushchev e Stalin, attaccati rispettivamente all’Ucraina e alla Georgia, decisero così, per editto. Non chiesero alla gente del posto, come neppure agli hawaiiani quando gli USA si annessero il loro regno nel 1898 – per editto.
→ read full articleKosovo 15 Years Later: A Personal Memory and a Word about Free Research
Jan Oberg – Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
24 Mar 2014
Media with a pro-Western bias usually remind us of Sep/11 based on a victim narrative. We just passed Mar/20 – the 11th anniversary of the war on Iraq. Every year they forget Oct/7 (Afghanistan) and Mar/24, the destruction of Serbia-Kosovo in 1999.
→ read full articleTony Benn – The Vegetarian
Nitin Mehta, Gandhi Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Mar 2014
Tony was a passionate campaigner for stopping all wars and advocated pacifism. The following quote shows his concern for animals: ‘The case for animal testing is now being directly challenged by scientists and doctors and their judgement must be taken seriously.’
→ read full articleFar From Good Enough, Mr. Putin!
Johan Galtung, 24 Mar 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Mar 2014
History matters, not only law; like how Crimea and Abkhazia-South Ossetia–basically Russian-Orthodox–became Ukrainian-Georgian. Two Soviet dictators, Khrushchev and Stalin, attached to Ukraine and Georgia, so decided, by dictate. The local people were not asked, nor were Hawaiians when the USA annexed their Kingdom in 1898–by dictate.
→ read full articleUkraine as Stalking Horse: The Rise of Fascism in the West
Norman Pollack - CounterPunch,
24 Mar 2014
We can say that the primal factor in fascism’s internal composition is capitalism, not your everyday Smithian variety happily ensconced in Econ. 101 textbooks, but the real thing at an advanced form of development.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il cinquantenario del Gruppo dei 77. Congratulazioni!
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Mar 2014
Per uno che ha lavorato molto sulla teoria e la pratica del cambiamento da sistemi di gerarchia a sistemi di equità, il 15 giugno 1964 non sarà mai dimenticato. Quelli in fondo al sistema mondiale degli stati, frammentati gli uni dagli altri da strutture coloniali e imperiali, marginalizzati, sfruttati, si adunarono, 77 di loro, e formarono un Gruppo – termine non proprio rivoluzionario.
→ read full articleAl Qaeda’s Second Act: How Syria’s Secular Uprising Was Hijacked by Jihadists
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
24 Mar 2014
Patrick Cockburn reports how Jihadists have taken over the uprising in Syria. “Peace, if it ever comes, will come in stages and with many false starts such as the failure of the Geneva II peace talks.”
→ read full articleInternational Peace Research Association at 50
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Mar 2014
Known as IPRA, founded in 1964 in London–and this author, 34 at the time, is the only surviving founder. IPRA rotates every two years from one peace research center to the other, and is now in very competent Turkish hands. And what is more natural than having the 50th anniversary for the hub of peace studies in that hub of the world, Istanbul, 10-14 August this year!! Hurry up, register!!!
→ read full articleEncryption Works: How to Protect Your Privacy in the Age of NSA Surveillance
Micah Lee – Freedom of the Press Foundation,
24 Mar 2014
Defending yourself against the NSA, or any other government intelligence agency, is not simple, and it’s not something that can be solved just by downloading an app. But thanks to the dedicated work of civilian cryptographers and the free and open source software community, it’s still possible to have privacy on the Internet, and the software to do it is freely available to everyone. This is especially important for journalists communicating with sources online.
→ read full articleHow California Will Use Renewables to Replace Massive Nuclear Plant
Sierra Martinez, Natural Resources Defense Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Mar 2014
California took another major and symbolic step this month [Mar 2014] with its decision to rely significantly on energy efficiency and other clean energy resources to help replace electricity once generated by the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station serving San Diego and the greater Los Angeles area.
→ read full articleIn Contrast to Huffington Post, the New York Times Misleads the Readers on Myanmar Government’s Central Role in the Rohingya Pogroms
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
It is in fact Burma or Myanmar military leadership that has self-consciously pursued what amounts to genocidal policies towards the Rohingya, in fact, a borderland people of Burma like Karen, Chin, Kachin, Rakhine, etc, whose roots spread across new boundaries of the post-WWII nation-states.
→ read full articleCrimea: The Referendum, the Mote and the Beam
Jan Oberg – Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research,
17 Mar 2014
Generally, citizens-decided conflict-resolution is likely to last longer and help healing wounds of the past than any type of solution imposed by outside actors. In Switzerland citizens go and vote on all kinds of issues on many a Sunday throughout the year.
→ read full articleASEAN and the New Orwellianism
Dr. Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
Human rights harm Asean harmony.
Profits unite, human rights divide.
Thank you, Mr. Orwell.
“War is Peace”, no more.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Trap or Trajectory for Sri Lanka?
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka,
17 Mar 2014
Recommendations: • Independent international investigation into mass atrocities that took place throughout the armed conflict in the island of Sri Lanka. • Immediate steps to stop the structural genocide of the Tamil nation, particularly the demographic changes through land grabbing, military occupation, Sinhala settlements process and sexual violence against Tamil women…
→ read full articleThe Group of 77 at Fifty. Congratulations!
Johan Galtung, 17 Mar 2014 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
For one who has worked much on the theory and practice of change from systems of hierarchy to systems of equity, June 15 1964 will never be forgotten. Those at the bottom of the world system of states, fragmented away from each other by colonial and imperial structures, marginalized, exploited, came together, 77 of them, and formed–not a very revolutionary word–a Group.
→ read full articleThe Systematic Repression of the Rohingya Minority Continues
Maung Zarni – The Dissident Blog,
17 Mar 2014
In my view, despite growing evidence, the international community has avoided calling this “genocide” because none of the permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council have the appetite to forego their commercial and strategic interests in Myanmar to address the slow-burning Rohingya genocide.
→ read full article(Italiano) Ucraina-Crimea-Georgia: l’Occidente e la Russia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
In modo anche più importante, la linea divisoria dell’Impero romano fin dal 395, confermata dallo scisma fra cristianesimo cattolico e ortodosso nel 1054, si riflette nella storia estremamente complessa dell’Ucraina. Odessa è a ovest, Donets a est, Ucraina a ovest, più russa a est. E Kiev, la capitale – culla della Russia, Rus – nel mezzo. Un paese spaccato in due, due uniti in uno: entrambi veri.
→ read full articleInternational Peace Research Association at 50
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
Known as IPRA, founded in 1964 in London–and this author, 34 at the time, is the only surviving founder. IPRA rotates every two years from one peace research center to the other, and is now in very competent Turkish hands. And what is more natural than having the 50th anniversary for the hub of peace studies in that hub of the world, Istanbul, 10-14 August this year!! Hurry up, register!!!
→ read full articleArchbishop Tutu Adds Voice to Israeli Apartheid Week
Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
“In South Africa, we could not have achieved our democracy without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the apartheid regime. I associate myself with the objectives of the 10th international Israeli Apartheid Week.”
→ read full article