Articles by TRANSCEND Media Service
We found 30255 results.
Understanding Political Reality in Syria
Robin Edward Poulton, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
In his OpEd of June 3rd entitled The Depravity Factor, David Brooks writes emotionally about a murdered 13-year-old Syrian boy called Hamza Ali al-Khateeb. The descriptions and internet photographs of Hamza’s tortured body are horrible, but Brooks draws from this story a set of political conclusions that are unjustified by anything we know about Syria or the region we vaguely think of as the ‘Middle East’.
→ read full articlePeace Education: Source of National Unity and Global Harmony
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
The Webster Dictionary of the English Language describes peace as a “state of tranquility; freedom from war; cessation of hostilities; and harmony.” In a peaceful community, we notice a great serenity radiating in the hearts of its members. Genuine peace emanates from the inside.
→ read full article‘Lasting Peace Only Possible with Hamas on Board’
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
It is time for the European Union to rethink its policy in the Middle East. That is the demand being made by 24 former heads of government, foreign ministers and peace negotiators. A Hamas recognition of Israel should be the goal rather than the precondition of the peace process, the leaders write in an open letter.
→ read full articleBit of [belated] Friendly Advice, Portugal
The Independent – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
Dear Portugal, this is Ireland here. I know we don’t know each other very well, though I hear some of our developers are down with you riding out the recession. They could be there for a while. Anyway, I don’t mean to intrude but I’ve been reading about you in the papers and it strikes me that I might be able to offer you a bit of advice on where you are at and what lies ahead. As the joke now goes, what’s the difference between Portugal and Ireland? Five letters and six months.
→ read full articleReframing the Dynamics of Engaging with Otherness
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
Triadic Correspondences between Topology, Kama Sutra and I Ching – Produced on the occasion of the open solicitation for proposals for the The Metaphor Program of the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity with participation of the US Army Research Laboratory. The challenge of engaging with “others” and their “otherness” is fundamental to the difficulties of governance at every level of society — from the global to the individual.
→ read full articleFormula One Race in Bahrain Cancelled
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
Bahrain Grand Prix organisers cancel race amid accusations of human rights abuses in government crackdown on protesters. Last week’s postponement triggered outrage among human rights campaigners, who had organised more than 455,000 people to sign an online petition calling on sponsors to boycott the Bahrain race.
→ read full articleUN Sends Discouraging Word to Second Freedom Flotilla
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
Freedom Flotilla II Activists reject UN call to discourage initiative “Road to Gaza.” The second Freedom Flotilla sails the third week of June bound for the Gaza Strip. The UN Secretary-General last week called on Israel to “act responsibly” and avoid engaging in violence in this new attempt to break the blockade, but urged the leaders in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Sweden and Germany to convince the pro-Palestinian organizations not to participate in Freedom Flotilla II.
→ read full articleU.S. Militarization in Latin America Condemned
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
Conference condemns the militarization of Latin America by U.S. It is now necessary to consider the military bases, the actions of paramilitaries in Colombia, the different forms of state terrorism employed, the presence of U.S. troops in Haiti and the situation of Mexico, facing a war between drug trafficking cartels, which has left over 37,000 dead since December 2006.
→ read full article‘Sophisticated Cyber Attack’ Targets IMF
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
The International Monetary Fund’s computer system has been targeted in a cyber attack which sought to gain an ‘insider presence’ in the organisation’s network. An IMF spokesperson said on Saturday [11 Jun 2011] that the network was hacked and much information was stolen prior to the May 14 arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but would not release more details about what was taken. “This was a very major breach,” a senior official with knowledge of the attack told the New York Times.
→ read full article
Economic Hit Men
John Perkins – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
An animated presentation by John Perkins, author of ‘Hood Winked’ and ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.’
→ read full articleRewitnessing the Past
P.V. Rajagopal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
Sunday June 5th, 2011 will be remembered as a day of chaos, confusion and shock for the civil society organizations throughout India. While most people were sleeping, 5,000 policemen stormed the premises of Ramlila Maidan fairground of New Delhi –a place where people take up nonviolent protest, and the police practiced the lost art of using sticks to beat human beings while they were sleeping. This short note is to ask all friends and supporters of nonviolent struggles for the rights of marginalized to join hands and express global solidarity for change.
→ read full articleEuropean Opposition to Death Penalty: German Minister Denies US Request for Execution Drugs
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
For months, dozens of US states have been facing shortages of a drug necessary in lethal injections administered to death-row prisoners. But German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler this week declined a request from his counterpart, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, to help out.
→ read full articleApproaches to Citizen-Centric Policing
Bishnu Pathak, PhD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
Citizen-Centric Policing (CCP) or Neighborhood Policing (NP) is radar of Community Policing (CP). The CP is a policing practice that aims to increase interaction between citizens and police officials for public safety and quality of life in the community. More than tactics, strategy, and technique, it has become the national mantra to spring up in urban, suburban, and even rural police departments or police stations. The CP promises to change relationships progressively to improve the living conditions of neighborhoods.
→ read full article
Richard Falk on the Golan Clashes
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
5 Jun 2011 – Richard Falk is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
→ read full articleFIA-Bahrain: Putting Money before Morality?
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Motorsports world governing body [Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile-FIA] votes to hold Bahrain Grand Prix despite concerns from human rights groups.
→ read full articleA Shameless Secretary General versus Freedom Flotilla 2
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
In light of these surrounding circumstances, including the failure of Israel to live up to its announced promise after the attack in 2010 to lift the blockade, it shocks our moral and legal sensibilities that the UN Secretary General should be using the authority of his office to urge member governments to prevent ships from joining Freedom Flotilla 2.
→ read full articleBuying Time: Global Leaders Play the Game As Israeli Settlements Expand
Ashley Lackovich-van Gorp – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Young Israelis, who have grown up with the social construction that Palestinian land is nothing more than a fabrication of the anti-Semitic international community, do not realize that some of the East Jerusalem communities, such as the entire city of Ma’ale Adumim, are actually settlements. These settlements look, act and function like any other Israeli town. These young Israelis, then, are more victims of an ideology than deliberate perpetrators of occupation. The Occupation is a tragedy not only to Palestinian youth, but Israeli youth as well.
→ read full article‘The People Don’t Want War’
Jim Albertini, Center for Nonviolent Education and Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Truth From An Unexpected Source – ”Why of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” – Herman Goering, Nazi Germany
→ read full articleOxfam: Hunger Will Strike
The Independent – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The charity warns that we will be unable to feed the world by 2050. Is it politics, global warming or greed that has got us here? And, asks Sean O’Grady, why aren’t we changing our behaviour to ensure a safer future?
→ read full articleThe Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families (Part 1)
Dean Henderson | Global Research - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The Four Horsemen of Banking (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) own the Four Horsemen of Oil (Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco); in tandem with Deutsche Bank, BNP, Barclays and other European old money behemoths. But their monopoly over the global economy does not end at the edge of the oil patch. According to company 10K filings to the SEC, the Four Horsemen of Banking are among the top ten stock holders of virtually every Fortune 500 corporation.
→ read full articleGlobal War on Drugs ‘A Failure’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
A high-level international commission has declared the global “war on drugs” to be a failure, and has urged countries to consider legalising certain drugs, including cannabis, in a bid to undermine organised crime. The Global Commission on Drug Policy, in its report released on Thursday [2 Jun 2011], called for a new approach to the current strategy of reducing drug abuse by strictly criminalising drugs and incarcerating users.
→ read full articleA Report That Dares to Tell the Truth to Power
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Global commissions normally tell international leaders what they want to hear. But the Global Commission on Drug Policy – which has called on the services of distinguished names such Paul Volcker, Kofi Annan, Mario Vargas Llosa and Javier Solana – has done something very different. Instead of telling world leaders what they want to hear, the commission has, instead, told them the truth.
→ read full articleThe U.S.-Israeli Train Wreck
Jeff Gates – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Critics doubt that the General Assembly has the authority to recognize Palestine. Yet protection of member sovereignty has been a goal of the U.N. since its founding. Thus the priority that Israel placed on U.N. recognition after President Harry Truman acknowledged Israel on May 14, 1948, eleven minutes after the Zionist enclave declared itself a state.
→ read full article8 June: Day of the Oceans
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The Spirit of Thor Heyerdahl Sails On – The United Nations General Assembly has designated 8 June each year to be The Day of the Oceans and the Law of the Sea.
→ read full articleGod Is Not A Christian: And Other Provocations
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
‘God is clearly not a Christian. His concern is for all his children. To claim God exclusively for Christians is to make God too small… God is bigger than Christians and cares for more than Christians only.’
→ read full article(Castellano) America la Bella
Johan Galtung, 23 de mayo de 2011 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
¿Qué es lo que caracteriza, de modo específico, único, a los EE.UU.? Es la gente, ¡estúpido! Los americanos – disculpas a América Latina – América, la bella. ¿Cómo? ¿Qué? ¿Por qué? Vamos a intentarlo. Empezando con un hecho fundamental: con nadie en el mundo es tan fácil, no aburrido, hablar como con un americano. Abiertos, con nombres propios, sin barreras, lenguaje corporal y lenguaje verbal con encanto, contacto visual directo.
→ read full articleTowards the Eradication of Global Hunger and Undernutrition
Xin-Ying Ren and Fred Dubee, UN MaximsNews – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
While we tend to think in terms of hundreds of millions of deprived and stunted lives, the reality is that each starving child, each malnourished expectant mother, each person who does not have the energy to develop, learn or contribute is a horrible tragedy, and together these individual tragedies add up to an unacceptable loss to the human commonwealth. Simply stated hunger and undernutrition are among the most severe and least addressed challenges facing humanity today.
→ read full articleFukushima 3/11 – A Turning Point?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
We had 9/11; now we also have 3/11, March 11 2011 (AT 1446), the triple seaquake-tsunami-radiation disaster. Ground zero was an ocean zero, and the country that gave the world the word “tsunami” was hit by one up to 41 meters high. And there was Fukushima Dai-ichi, one of Japan’s 54 nuclear power plants, with six units, 1-6; on the beach, offering itself to the primordial rage of the tsunami.
→ read full articleChiquita Bananas Fund Terrorists
Curt Anderson, Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The Chiquita lawsuit cites a number of AUC massacres, including a July 1997 operation in the town of Mapiripan in which at least 49 people were tortured, dismembered and decapitated. In February 2000, about 300 AUC troops tortured dozens of people and killed 36 people. In 2001, Chiquita was identified in invoices and other documents as the recipient of a shipment from Nicaragua of 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition. The guns and ammo were unloaded by Chiquita employees, stored at Chiquita warehouses, and then delivered by trucks to the AUC, court papers said.
→ read full article
Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Effort to Build a Private Army in the UAE (Part 1 of 2)
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW! - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill is interviewed on Democracy Now! about how the United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm Blackwater. According to the New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries. Documents show the force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attacks, and put down internal revolts.
→ read full article(Castellano) ‘La Unasur Seguirá Trabajando para Fortalecer Zona de Paz’
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
“Lo más importante es mantener a los presidentes, a los jefes de Estado, a las jefas de Estado con ese convencimiento, no bajar la guardia nunca, a pesar de que no haya una crisis inminente ni una amenaza real a la democracia en nuestra región. Que en épocas de paz logremos el mismo poder de convencimiento que ellos y ellas tuvieron en épocas de confrontaciones o de dificultades.”
→ read full articleBad News from the BBC: ‘Replete with Imbalance and Distortion’
Media Lens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
One of the main headlines on the BBC news homepage earlier this month read, ‘Violence erupts at Israel borders’. Israeli soldiers had shot dead at least 12 protesters and injured dozens more. BBC ‘impartiality’ decreed that the brutal killings were presented almost as an act of nature, a volcanic eruption that simply happened.
→ read full article
FBI Targeting Political Activists as Terrorists
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists, peace, animal and political activists who hold different views than the government. It was recently revealed that a counter-terrorism firm spied on individuals who attended film screenings of the documentary Gasland. The film focuses on the practice of natural gas fracking and what impact it has on the environment and in the communities where it is used.
→ read full articleThe Consensus Delusion: Mysterious Attractor Undermining Global Civilization As Currently Imagined
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The so-called global civilization is a quarrelsome environment. Appeals for consensus are typically pathetic exercises in tokenism in their effective influence on the reality of psychosocial dynamics. Vast resources are nevertheless allocated on the assumption that consensus will be achieved. Is it possible that the quest for consensus, as currently imagined, will be considered pathological by the future? An approach to the challenge has been helpfully made in the highly controversial study by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, 2006), from which the above title is adapted as a “methodological device”.
→ read full articleArab League Seeks UN Recognition of Palestine
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The Arab League has said it backs seeking UN recognition for a Palestinian state, as Qatar proposed at a meeting that the Middle East peace process be suspended until Israel was “ready” for talks. In a statement it said that it “supports the appeal to the UN asking that Palestine, within the 1967 borders, becomes a full-fledged state” of the international organisation.
→ read full articleObama’s AIPAC Speech: A Further Betrayal of the Palestinian People
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
After such a speech the only responsible response by the Palestinian leadership is to conclude once and for all, however belatedly, that it is no longer possible to look to Washington for guidance in reaching a peaceful, just, and sustainable resolution of the conflict.
→ read full articleSelf-Proclaimed Pro-Life American Politicians in True Perspective
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The United States is a very complex nation. Although we may understand various facets of this politically confused country, we do encounter problems. In the first place, the ultimate source of power does not lie with its government but with its big corporations that finance the election of all leading governmental officials.
→ read full articleEgypt Opens Rafah Border with Gaza
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Egypt has reopened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing the coastal territory’s Palestinian residents to cross freely for the first time in four years – a sharp departure from the policies of Hosni Mubarak, the deposed president. The opening on Saturday morning [28 May 2011] provided long-awaited relief for Palestinians. The move was ushered in by Egypt’s new government in a bid to ease the suffering of the territory’s residents.
→ read full articleWelcome To the Violent World of Mr. Hopey Changey
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
And as “Mr. Hopey Changey” (the name that Ted Rall, the great American cartoonist, gives Barack Obama), is fawned upon by the British elite and launches another insufferable presidential campaign, the Anglo-American reign of terror proceeds in Afghanistan and elsewhere. In Libya there is a tribal civil war; and the armed uprising against Gaddafi has long been appropriated by the Americans, French and British, a repeat of the “shock and awe” in Iraq that left thousands of civilians dead and maimed. As in Iraq, the victims, which include countless incinerated Libyan army conscripts, are media unpeople.
→ read full articleUS Military Contractor Attacked by Hackers
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Lockheed Martin Corporation, the world’s largest military contractor, has been attacked by hackers in what officials say is “significant and tenacious” cyber attack. The world’s biggest aerospace company and US government’s top information technology provider said on Saturday [28 May 2011] it thwarted the cyber attack but refused to give further details.
→ read full articleBibi and the Yo-Yos
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
There they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the world’s only superpower, flying up and down like so many yo-yos, applauding wildly, every few minutes or seconds, the most outrageous lies and distortions of Binyamin Netanyahu.
→ read full articleRatko Mladic’s Arrest and Coming Trial: A Step Forward for World Law
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The wheels of karma turn slowly. As there is no longer anything at stake, more people today will agree that killing people who thought that they were protected in UN-proclaimed safe havens is not a good thing.
→ read full article(Castellano) ¿Qué pasó con la izquierda occidental?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
La izquierda occidental ha de abrirse, no sólo limitarse a recitar “¡Globalización NO!” Un No no lleva a ningún lado. Se necesitan algunos Sí. Y creatividad.
→ read full articleMani Bhavan and Gandhi
Dr Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
In Gandhi’s living room on the second floor, one can see from the glass the original Charkha (the spinning wheel, Gandhi’s symbol of self-dependence) he was using, his bed on the floor, his Kadam (wooden slipper), his book stand, and many other things. I imagined Gandhi while viewing that room. The room is still there, the great soul has departed, but his ideas still reverberate in the world. We all know how great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela and many others were influenced by him. I remember reading somewhere how one of the great peace activists of our time Johan Galtung started crying at the news of the departure of the great soul.
→ read full articleOnce Upon A Time
Tom Tomorrow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
This Modern World – Political Cartoon
→ read full articleThe Reckoning: Press Freedom in Sri Lanka
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
We are living in a world where committed journalists write the news not only with ink, but also with their blood. This is the very reason that their souls still exist with us even after their tragic deaths. Sri Lanka is the very recent example for such context. Thirty-four journalists and media workers have been killed with no recourse to justice since the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government came into power in April 2004 with the present President Mahinda Rajapaksa as its prime minister.
→ read full articleDefiant Spaniards Continue Protests
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Tens of thousands of protesters furious over soaring unemployment keep up their week-long movement on Election Day.
→ read full articleGlobal Leadership: American Retreat, BRIC Ambivalence, and Turkey’s Rise
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
As the American president, Barack Obama, sets forth his views on the future of the Middle East it seems a good time to take stock of the leadership vacuum in world affairs, and whether there are alternatives to the role the United States has played ever since World War II.
→ read full article
Organized Crime ‘Industry’ Gone Mainstream Worldwide
TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
From the Russian mafia, to giant drug cartels, his sources include not just intelligence and law enforcement officials but criminal insiders. His book, McMafia, is an exhaustive look at an unseen industry that Glenny believes may account for 15% of the world’s GDP. Glenny suggests that conventional law enforcement might not be able to combat a problem whose roots lie in global instability.
→ read full article
New World in Middle East
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Robert Fisk speaks on the prospect of a Palestinian state after Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments during his US visit. Pres. Obama at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee-AIPAC conference on Sunday, 22 May 2011.
→ read full articleFears of Disruptions: Spain Bans Protests Ahead of Sunday Vote
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
With the protest movement in Spain growing, Spanish authorities on Friday [20 May 2011] banned demonstrations this weekend as regional and municipal elections take place. Youth are protesting in the country against high unemployment and austerity measures, with protests in Madrid even being compared to Tahrir Square in Cairo.
→ read full articleMajority of LGBTI Asylum Seekers in Western Countries Still Face Rejection
Behind the Mask – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
A vast majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people seeking asylum in the European Union on the basis of their sexual orientation, have been met by a severe blow as most of their applications have been rejected due to failure of giving accurate account or valid proof of persecutions they claim to have experienced or might incur if they were sent back to their country of origin.
→ read full articleObama’s Flawed Approach to the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
In many respects, Obama’s speech, aside from the soaring rhetoric, might have been crafted in Tel Aviv rather than the White House. It is a tribute to Israel’s extraordinary influence upon the American media that has been able to shift the focus of assessment to the supposed Israeli anger about affirming Palestinian statehood within 1967 borders.
→ read full articlePre-Judging an Institution’s Implicit Strategy by the Director’s Private Behaviour
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Remarkable parallels in the case of the IMF and Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The question explored here is whether there are useful parallels to be recognized between the strategic policies pursued by the IMF over the years — both publicly and discretely — and those exemplified by the behaviour of its Managing Director, again both publicly and privately. Any such parallels would be especially noteworthy to the extent that they reflect the unchallenged attitudes of the powerful to those who are relatively vulnerable — and whose vulnerability is exacerbated in consequence. Fruitful questions include:
→ read full articleHundreds of Brazilian Indians Set Up Protest Camp in Capital
Survival International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Over 700 Brazilian Indians from more than 230 tribes set up camp last week in the country’s capital city, Brasília, to urge the government to respect their rights. The Madeira dams, currently being built in the Amazon, are putting immense pressure on uncontacted Indians’ lands as migrants are arriving in the area and deforestation is increasing. The Belo Monte dam planned for the Xingu river in the Amazon threatens the livelihoods of thousands of tribal people, who have not given their consent for the dam to be built.
→ read full articleEscaping the Matrix
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The defining moment in The Matrix occurs when Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red and a blue pill. The red pill promises “the truth, nothing more.” Neo takes it and awakes to reality. What Neo had before assumed to be reality was only a collective illusion. The story is intended as metaphor, and the parallels that drew my attention had to do with political reality. Are you ready for the red pill?
→ read full article(Castellano) Escapar de la Matriz
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
El momento dramático definitivo en la película La Matriz ocurre inmediatamente a continuación de la invitación de Morfeo a que Neo escoja entre una píldora roja y una azul. La píldora roja promete “la verdad, nada más”. Neo toma la píldora roja y despierta a la realidad. Lo que Neo había antes tomado por la realidad resulta ser sólo una ilusión colectiva, inventada por la Matriz. La intención de la trama es metafórica, y el paralelo que atrajo mi atención tiene que ver con la realidad política.
→ read full articleIf Arab Spring Threatens Israel, Why Does Saban Support It?
Maidhc Ó Cathail – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
“The test of a first-rate intelligence,” F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” When it comes to what’s been dubbed the “Arab Spring,” most Middle East analysts pass Fitzgerald’s test with flying colours.
→ read full articleAmerica the Beautiful
Johan Galtung, 23 May 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
What is the US-specific pattern, what is unique, what is that IT? It is the people, stupid! The Americans–apologizing to Latin America–Americans, the beautiful. How? What? Why? Let us try. Starting with a basic: nobody in the world is so easy, not stuffy to talk with as an American. Open, first name basis, fences down, body language and verbal language charming, direct eye contact.
→ read full articleGreenpeace Statement on TEPCO, Fukushima
Greenpeace - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The environmental organisation says that TEPCO’s admission – that with temperatures reaching 2,800°C, melted fuel dropped and accumulated at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel, which was the breached, causing radiation to leak from the core and to spread via cooling water to the ground and ocean – clearly shows that there are significant risks to the marine ecosystem along the Fukushima coast.
→ read full articleIsrael and Palestine: Here Comes Your Non-Violent Resistance
The Economist, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Will we even bother to acknowledge that the Palestinians are protesting non-violently? Or will we soldier on with the same empty decades-old rhetoric, now drained of any truth or meaning, because it protects established relationships of power? What will it take to make Americans recognise that the real Martin Luther King-style non-violent Palestinian protestors have arrived, and that Israeli soldiers are shooting them with real bullets?
→ read full articleLimited Liability – Nuclear Energy’s ‘Mother of All Subsidies’
Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The nuclear energy industry only exists thanks to the “mother of all subsidies”. Every nuclear power plant in the world has a strict cap on how much the industry might have to pay out in case of an accident. Japan has the largest liability cap, of 1.2 billion dollars, but that is not nearly enough for the estimated 25 to 150 billion dollars in liability costs at Fukushima. No one knows when the reactors will finally be in cold shutdown. One report suggests decommissioning will take 30 years.
→ read full articleHanna Newcombe: The Passing of a Peace Research Pioneer
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Hanna Newcombe, who with her husband Alan, were leading Canadian peace researchers, died on 18 April 2011. As an In Memoriam I would like to highlight some aspects of her work. Hanna and Alan were long time friends and colleagues in the world citizen/world federalist movement and in efforts at conflict resolution.
→ read full articleFrom Nobel to Nobel – Open Letter to Barack Obama
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
A day like today, 34 years ago, I came back to life after a flight with death during the Argentinean military dictatorship backed by the U.S.A. Thank God I survived. I had to get out of the maze by overcoming despair and discover the way in the stars above to say with the prophet, “The night is darkest before dawn”.
→ read full article
May 15, 2011: 63 Years of Nakba (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Palestinian Youth Manifesto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
That the 15th of May 1948 never be forgot. And that Palestinians may have their freedoms and rights back; especially the right of return to the land of their ancestors, where they were born.
→ read full articleWanted Dead or Alive
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
President Obama’s attempts this past week to call forth a heightened sense of national unity around Osama bin Laden’s assassination is a devil’s bargain because the need for more violence will never end. However, this need — for the next war, the next political assassination — always seems so reasonable. And as part of the bargain, “The meaning you’re making around violence is your own goodness.”
→ read full articleJulian Assange: The Man Who Leaked the World
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
WikiLeaks: the dream of an idealist or a tool to manipulate global politics? Who is the real Julian Assange? He says his dream is a world without secrets. But is that true?
→ read full articleIs Pakistan Being Cast as the Next Plausible Evil Doer?
Jeff Gates – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The missing component is not trust but a shared vision of what both nations require to restore and sustain their national security. As the largest contributor of personnel to U.N. peacekeeping missions, Pakistan is well positioned to become a global force for positive change. At this key juncture in an essential relationship, should Americans kill more Muslims, further advancing The Clash storyline? Or should Pakistan and the U.S. join forces to create a new narrative founded on peace through human dignity and solar-powered prosperity?
→ read full article(Castellano) Osama y Obama
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
El jeque Osama permanecerá en la mente de la gente mucho tiempo después de que el presidente Obama sea olvidado. Ambos sumamente violentos, matando a civiles en masse, retóricamente dotados, inteligentes, atractivos, guapos. Pero uno está del lado de la historia, luchando, aunque equivocadamente, por los injustamente reprimidos, y el otro por los ilícitos represores, por un imperio moribundo, en contra de la historia. Sic transit.
→ read full articleObserving the 63rd Nakba
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The Nakba is of course a day of grievance and resolve for all Palestinians including the several million living in refugee camps for decades in the countries surrounding Palestine and other millions in exile throughout the region and the world. A sustainable peace must realize the rights of all Palestinians, and must be broader and deeper than ending the occupation or establishing a Palestinian state. Palestinian representation to be legitimate and effective must keep faith with this wider Palestinian reality, and not confine its political program to a territorial imaginary.
→ read full articlePress Release-UN High Commission for Human Rights: Palestinian Nakba
Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
On May 15 2011 the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr. Richard Falk, marks the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophic beginning of the Palestinian tragedy of dispossession and occupation, with the following statement.
→ read full articleA Moment of Silence, Before I Start This Poem
Emmanuel Ortiz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Before I start this poem,
I’d like to ask you to join me
In a moment of silence
Manifesto
Palestinian Youth – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
I´m sick of The Wall
I´m sick of the checkpoints between Palestinian cities
I´m sick of illegal Israeli settlers and settlements
I´m sick of having the Hebrew language on my ID card
I´m sick of people not knowing anything about our history
but knowing so much about Jewish history
What Happened to the Western Left?
Johan Galtung, 16 May 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The Western right wing is today not challenged by the Western left, but by the subtlety of Chinese capi-communism and yin-yang, far beyond Western thought, right or left. And by islamist terrorism, countered by right wing hard christianist and judeaist state terrorism. The Left fails to understand the former, rejects the latter and is unable to be enriched by the best in the buddhist, muslim, Japanese and Chinese models.
→ read full article
Blood Bonanza: UK Private Security Firms Eye Libya as New Cash Cow
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Libya might soon turn into a goldmine for private security firms. Reports say that the UK is already hiring mercenaries to protect the interests of the big corporations there, once Colonel Gaddafi goes.
→ read full articleRejoice Not…
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The young men and women of Tahrir Square, with their longing for freedom, have consigned bin Laden to history, months before his physical death. His philosophy has a future only if the Arab Awakening fails completely and leaves behind a profound sense of disappointment and despair.
→ read full article
New Egyptian Stance towards Israel, Hamas and Iran
The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Paul Jay interviews Samer Shehata: Egyptian government may not cooperate with siege of Gaza and isolation of Hamas; restoring relations with Iran.
→ read full articleReport 2011: Amnesty International at 50 says Historic Change on Knife-Edge
Amnesty International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
People are rejecting fear. Courageous people, led largely by youth, are standing up and speaking out in the face of bullets, beatings, tear gas and tanks. This bravery – combined with new technology that is helping activists to outflank and expose government suppression of free speech and peaceful protest – is sending a signal to repressive governments that their days are numbered.
→ read full articleHow the Murdoch Press Keeps Australia’s Dirty Secret
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The Australian publishes long articles that present Aboriginal people not unsympathetically, but as perennial victims of each other, “an entire culture committing suicide,” or as noble primitives requiring firm direction: the eugenicist’s view. It promotes Aboriginal “leaders” who, by blaming their own people for their poverty, tell the white elite what it wants to hear. The writer Michael Brull parodied this: “Oh White man, please save us. Take away our rights because we are so backward.”
→ read full articleInsecurity in Security
Bishnu Pathak, PhD, Peace and Conflict Studies Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The burgeoning Chinese, Indian and Pakistani influence raises alarm in transitional Nepal which has an open border with both China and India. Escalating Chinese influence in Nepal has been a grave concern to India. Indeed, a small land-locked country surrounded by two of the world’s most populous and growing superpower nations, Nepal is caught in a unique pull-push insecurity situation as it gropes for true democracy.
→ read full article(Castellano) De Nobel a Nobel: Carta Abierta a Barack Obama
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Un día como hoy, hace 34 años volví a la vida, tuve un vuelo de la muerte durante la dictadura militar argentina apoyada por los EEUU. Gracias a Dios sobreviví y tuve que salir del laberinto por arriba de la desesperación y descubrir en las estrellas el camino para poder decir como el profeta: ”la hora más oscura es cuando comienza el amanecer”.
→ read full articleSchengen Zone Dispute: EU Slams Denmark over Plans to Reintroduce Border Checks
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Denmark’s decision to reintroduce permanent border controls has met with criticism from the European Union, which sees the move as a challenge to the principle of freedom of movement. Copenhagen insists the new checks are compatible with Schengen rules.
→ read full articleA Fatal Addiction to Plastic – Trashing the Oceans and Our Own Health
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
With 440 participants from 35 countries, including experts from governments, research institutes, corporations like the Coca-Cola Company, and plastics industry associations such as Plastics Europe and the American Chemistry Council, the conference was the first major international effort to tackle the issue in 11 years. The end result was the Honolulu Commitment, which invited everyone to work on “a global platform for the prevention, reduction and management of marine debris” called the Honolulu Strategy.
→ read full articlePeace Studies – For Children Too
Letter of Peace Addressed to the UN, Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Galtung’s assertions lead me to think that maybe we should not only bring peace to universities as a subject but also to schools. Things would be much better if someone explained to children that peace is a valuable asset, that we must care for it, that we can only achieve it together, that we must avoid imposing the will of the all-powerful minority over the majority. If generations had a conceptualization of peace integrated in life and society, it is likely that future citizens would see the world through different eyes, understand differences, appreciate diversity and love peace.
→ read full articleChina in Latin America
Americas Quarterly – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Interview – Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Li Jinzhang on his country’s plans as it increases economic and political ties to Latin America.
→ read full articleApplying the Law in Guantanamo: ‘The Government’s Narrative Was a Lie’
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
When he arrived at Guantanamo in 2005 as chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis thought that he would be dealing exclusively with fanatical terrorists. But he soon realized that many prisoners shouldn’t have been imprisoned at all. In a contribution for SPIEGEL, he describes his path from idealism to disillusionment.
→ read full articleHazards and Hopes of Limitless Freedom of Expression
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
One of the glories of the Western Enlightenment, especially as embodied in the lifeblood of political democracies is freedom of expression, the right to give voice in public spaces to unpopular, tasteless, provocative, and even outrageous ideas, and especially those critical of the prevailing political order without fear of retaliation.
→ read full articleIconic Extrajudicial Execution of Jesus through Osama by US?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Whither a cyclopean global Pax Americana lacking depth perception?
→ read full articleColumbia Journalism School’s Highest Honor Goes to Al Jazeera English
Jim Romenesko, Poynter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism will bestow its highest honor, the Columbia Journalism Award, to Al Jazeera English. The award is given annually during the school’s commencement ceremony to recognize an individual or organization for “singular journalism in the public interest.”
→ read full articleLibya-Tunisia: Cross-frontier Conflict and Peace-building
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Tunisia’s deputy foreign minister, Radhouane Nouicer said his government had summoned a Libyan government envoy to complain about the incursions. “We are not a party to the conflict” he said to al Al Jazeera reporter. Whenever there is a spill-over of fighting from one country to another, officials will usually say “We are not a party to the conflict”. However, armed conflict does not respect political or territorial borders. Often there is a spill-over effect through refugee flows, ‘nomadic’ armed groups, small arms flows, narcotic or other criminal networks and sometimes as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the sale of natural resources.
→ read full articleBrazil Supreme Court Awards Gay Couples New Rights
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
5 May, 2011 – Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals. The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention. The ruling will give gay couples in “stable” partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships.
→ read full article(Castellano) Osama: Insignificante
Fernando Montiel T. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
El asesinato de Osama bin Laden es insignificante porque en nada afectará el modo de operar de esa entelequia a la que el mundo conoce como Al Qaeda. Y la razón es simple: Al-Qaeda no es un grupo estructurado y controlado de forma centralizada, es decir, Al-Qaeda no es una organización sino un movimiento. No es monolítico en su estructura ni jerarquizado en su control y comando. Esto es bien sabido desde hace años. “Todos somos Marcos” fue el grito de batalla de todos los simpatizantes de la causa indígena en su momento.
→ read full articleIs the Arab Spring a Black Swan?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Having just visited Egypt for a week I came away with this dual sense that the revolutionary dynamics have produced remarkable results that form a glorious chapter of Egyptian history, but also that there are a variety of dark forces that are working under the radar to contain if not reverse this exhilirating democratizing momentum.
→ read full articlePalestinian Factions in Reconciliation Bid
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Fatah and Hamas agree to form interim government and fix general election date following talks in Cairo. With the US keeping a distance, Israel not delivering the goods on the peace process and the settlements, it was time for Palestinians to come together and agree on what they basically agreed on almost a year and a half ago. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said on Wednesday [27 Apr 2011] that “the Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both.”
→ read full articleHuman Rights Record of United States in 2010
China Daily – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 on April 8, 2011. As in previous years, the reports are full of distortions and accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. However, the United States turned a blind eye to its own terrible human rights situation and seldom mentioned it. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 is prepared to urge the United States to face up to its own human rights issues.
→ read full articleIsrael Withholds Palestinian Cash Transfer
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Israel will hold up an $89 million cash transfer to the Palestinian Authority [PA] planned for this week because of a new unity deal between rival Palestinian factions. “Israel wants assurances that any money transferred to the Palestinians will not reach the militant Hamas organisation, which is set to become part of the Palestinian government,” Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli finance minister, said on Sunday [1 May 2011].
→ read full articleWhat Are They Afraid of?
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
For some peculiar reason, both Zionists and UK Jewish so-called ‘anti Zionists’, insist that discussing ‘Jewishness’ is a taboo which should never be explored, certainly not in public, and definitely never outside of the ghetto. UK Event: Zionism, Jewishness and Israel – Tuesday, May 3 • 6:30pm – 8:30pm – University Of Westminster, Cavendish Campus – A panel discussion examining Israeli Criminality in the wake of the Goldstone Retract – Alan Hart, Gilad Atzmon and others.
→ read full article(Italian) Decollano da Sigonella i Predator Contro la Libia
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Operano da Sigonella gli aerei senza pilota UAV MQ-1 Predator che il Pentagono ha destinato per le operazioni di bombardamento in Libia. La notizia, filtrata nei giorni scorsi su alcuni quotidiani statunitensi, ha trovato l’autorevole conferma dell’International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) di Londra.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Acordo entre a Fatah e o Hamas na Palestina
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Principais facções vão formar um governo transitório de personalidades independentes e realizar eleições presidenciais e legislativas dentro de um ano. Decisão pode facilitar o reconhecimento da ONU ao Estado Palestiniano.
→ read full article(Italian) Aosta. Un 25 Aprile Giovane
Silvia Berruto, antifascista – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Imane El Baladi, 18 anni insieme ad Andrea Lamberti, 19, sono i due giovani studenti protagonisti del 25 aprile 2011 ad Aosta (Italy). Entrambi hanno fatto una scelta di impegno civile. Entrambi, con emozione ed entusiasmo giovanili, sono stati i protagonisti sinceri di un giovane 25 aprile 2011 ad Aosta che la cittadinanza, e non solo, non dimenticherà facilmente.
→ read full article