Articles by M
We found 36064 results.
The Hubris of the Drones
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Our blind faith in technology combined with a false sense of infallible righteousness continues unabated. Such hubris brought us to grief in Vietnam and Iraq and may do so again with President Obama’s cold-blooded use of drones and his indifference to so-called “collateral damage,” grossly referred to by some in the military as “bug splat,” and otherwise known as innocent bystanders.
→ read full articleGangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail
Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone,
18 Feb 2013
How HSBC hooked up with drug traffickers and terrorists. And got away with it. Its case went miles beyond the usual paper-pushing, keypad-punching¬ sort-of crime, committed by geeks in ties, normally associated¬ with Wall Street. In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway. An arrestable class and an unarrestable class. We always suspected it, now it’s admitted. So what do we do?
→ read full articleBolivia Reducing 60 Times the Gap between Rich and Poor Since 2006
Agencia Boliviana de Información-AB I – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
The Bolivian Minister of Economics and Public Finances, Luis Arce reported yesterday [14 Feb 2013] that during the previous neoliberal governments the richest 10% of the population generated around 95 times more income than the poorest 10%. “Today this gap has narrowed with the richest now earning 36 times more than the poorest. The gap between the richest and poorest has narrowed by 60,” he said. “Our policies have resulted in our rural brothers getting out of extreme poverty,” he stressed.
→ read full articleWorker Owned Businesses Point to New Forms of Ownership
The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Can co-ops come out of the margins of the economy and be part of a larger political project to transform how things are owned?
→ read full article(Deutsch) Post-2015-Ziele: Spart Euch diese Reise!
Bernd Hamm – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Stell Dir vor, es ist UNO, und keiner geht hin
→ read full article(Português) Os BRICS de Olho na África
Antonio Martins, Outras Palavras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Quinto encontro dos grandes emergentes debaterá criação de um banco de desenvolvimento comum, voltado para continente. Cooperação ou novo imperialismo?
→ read full articleSpielberg vs Tarantino: Hollywood and the Past
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
If Leo Strauss is correct and Western civilization should be seen as an oscillation between Athens and Jerusalem, truth must be said – we can really do with many more Athenians and their essentialist reflections. In short, we are in a desperate need of many more Tarantinos to counter Jerusalem and its ambassadors.
→ read full articleThe Hawks Were Wrong: Iraq Is Worse Off Now
Mehdi Hasan – New Statesman,
18 Feb 2013
So, Saddam is gone – but at what cost? Iraq has been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of innocent people have lost their lives, as the direct result of an unnecessary, unprovoked war that, according to the former chief justice Lord Bingham, was a “serious violation of international law”. “It was worse than a crime,” said the French diplomat Talleyrand, responding to the execution of the Duc d’Enghien by Napoleon; “it was a blunder.” Iraq turned Talleyrand’s aphorism on its head – it was worse than a blunder; it was a crime.
→ read full articleInternyet Nescience?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Self-Referential Upgrading of Obsolete Internet Conference Processes Inhibiting Emergence of Integrative Knowledge – Paper originally envisaged for the 1st International Conference on Internet Science (10-13 April 2013, Brussels) held under the aegis of the European Commission, by the EINS project, the FP7 European Network of Excellence in Internet Science.
→ read full articleObama Terror Drones: CIA Tactics in Pakistan Include Targeting Rescuers and Funerals
Chris Woods and Christina Lamb – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism,
18 Feb 2013
The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed. The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a ‘targeted, focused effort’ that ‘has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.’
→ read full articleObama to ‘Bypass Congress’ On CISPA with Cybersecurity Executive Order
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Serviced,
18 Feb 2013
Obama’s first executive order is expected to be issued this week when the president calls for the creation of new standards on what private-sector companies must do to protect their computer systems from a cybersecurity breach. The order is a direct response to Congress’ refusal to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) last year.
→ read full articleTAPI: A Step Closer to Realization
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
On 7 February 2013, the Indian Cabinet approved the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to study the feasibility and design parameters of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, originally mooted in 2006.
→ read full articleLibyan-Style “Democracy”: Two Years without Gaddafi
Andrei Smirnov – The Voice of Russia,
18 Feb 2013
Mass protests are sweeping across Libya as the country marks the second anniversary of the beginning of a civil war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Two years after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, no new constitution has been drafted.
→ read full article(Português) Do Que Um Cão Precisa
Marcela Godoy, Consciência Animal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Será que o cão tem espírito? – perguntou-me o filho do meio. Olhei para ele surpreendido. E acabei por responder: – Não sei se nós próprios temos espírito ou se é o espírito que nos tem ou está em nós. – É isso que eu queria dizer. Olha para ele. Era um fim de tarde de Agosto, o cão estava parado em frente ao mar, o pêlo muito luzidio, a cabeça levantada, narinas abertas, sorvendo o ar. – Ele está a cheirar o espírito. O espírito da terra, o espírito do vento, o espírito das águas”. (Manuel Alegre).
→ read full articleUniversity of Ignorance
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
The possibility of a University of Ignorance merits consideration as a process with which people could engage to unlearn. This would naturally contrast with the worldwide preoccupation with the culmination of intellectual effort in the education and research undertaken so exclusively at conventional universities — framed unquestionably as the advancement of knowledge. Whatever their much acclaimed merits, these tend to obscure the recognition of the potential significance of what is not known, most notably in relation to any transcendent “wisdom” which features so questionably in university preoccupations, if at all.
→ read full article(Português) 54 Países, Tortura & CIA Ilimitada
Flávio Aguiar – Carta Maior,
11 Feb 2013
Relatório da Open Society Foundations traz 216 páginas em que se reúnem casos de 136 “cidadãos do mundo” sequestrados a mando da CIA, em diferentes países, levados para diferentes países, neles eventualmente torturados, alguns terminando a trajetória na infame Guantánamo. Para isso, 54 governos colaboraram com a CIA e os EUA.
→ read full article
Wesley Clark – America’s Foreign Policy “Coup”
ForaTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Nov 5, 2007 – Retired four-star general and former Democratic Presidential candidate Wesley Clark criticizes the course of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of September 11, 2001.
→ read full articleThinking Mali
Johan Galtung, 11 Feb 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Tuaregs and Muslims have picked up a lot from the West these last hundred years; how about the West trying to learn something from them? Is it obvious that the modern, automated, industrial, financial-speculation state is better than confederate camel nomadism?
→ read full articleForget ‘Normal’ Politics
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Political life is filled with policy choices that are made mainly on the basis of calculations of advantage, as well as reflecting priorities and values of those with the power of decision. In a constitutional framework of governance the rule of law sets outer limits as to permissible outcomes.
→ read full articleTargeted Killing and Drone Warfare
Michael Walzer – Dissent,
11 Feb 2013
It is always a hard question whether new technologies require the revision of old arguments. Targeted killing isn’t new, and I am going to repeat an old argument about it. But targeted killing with drones? Here the old arguments, though they still make sense, leave me uneasy. Imagine a world, which we will soon be living in, where everybody has drones.
→ read full articleResource Nationalism: Beyond Ideology
Hal Weitzman – Americas Quarterly,
11 Feb 2013
The hemisphere revives an old policy standby. Latin America’s political Left has displayed symptoms of bipolarity for much of the past decade. One Left had “truly socialist and progressive roots” that was “following pragmatic, sensible and realistic paths.” The other stemmed from “a populist, purely nationalist past” that had “proven much less responsive to modernizing influences.”
→ read full articleSyria: An Orderly Transition
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Can there be an orderly transition within Syria toward a new regime which reflects Syria’s pluralistic society? Can this orderly transition process avoid additional violence, and increased hostility among segments of society?
→ read full articleUN Body “Alarmed” by US Killings of Afghan Children
Channel News Asia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
A UN committee has expressed “alarm” over reports that hundreds of children have been killed by US military forces in Afghanistan in the past five years. The Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the deaths were “due notably to reported lack of precautionary measures and indiscriminate use of force”. The report, received by AFP on Friday [8 Feb 2013], also expressed concern that troops responsible for the killing of children had not always been held accountable and that family grievances had not been redressed.
→ read full articleHacker in Chief: Obama Given Right to Launch ‘Preemptive’ Cyberattacks
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
A secret review has concluded that US President Obama has the authority to launch a preemptive cyber attack on any country on the basis that they are considered a ‘cyber threat’ – even if there is no concrete evidence of this threat. It may not be long before the US conducts crippling attacks on foreign soil with little more than a mouse click, thereby sparing itself the effort of sending its military oversees or declaring war.
→ read full articleDisaster Capitalism in the Maghreb: War, Refugees and Profit in West Africa
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
11 Feb 2013
From Libya to Mali a typical story is forming, coupled with lucrative contracts and massive opportunities of all sorts. When private security firms speak of an emerging market in Africa, one is to safely assume that the continent is once more falling prey to growing military ambitions and unfair business conduct.
→ read full article
Man
Steve Cutts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Animation: Looking at man’s relationship with the natural world.
→ read full articleTribalism and Agreed-Upon Lies
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Truth has the great virtue that it allows us to accurately predict the future. If we ignore truth because it is unfashionable, or painful, or heretical, the future will catch us unprepared.
→ read full articleBDS Better Learn from Its Mistakes
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
It’s almost funny to read the BDS’ leadership’s outraged reactions to top ethnic-cleansing advocate Alan Dershowitz when he tried to stop a discussion with Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti discussing BDS at NYC Brooklyn College [7 Feb 2013]. This power struggle between Dershowitz and BDS should be a wake-up call. BDS should learn from its mistakes.
→ read full articleNATO Rejects UN Report on Death of Afghan Children
Kim Gamel, Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
The U.S.-led international coalition on Friday [8 Feb 2013] rejected a U.N. rights group’s concern about reports that U.S. military strikes have killed hundreds of children in Afghanistan during the past four years, saying they are “categorically unfounded.”
→ read full articleLetter to Rahul Gandhi
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Greetings! We are writing on behalf of several millions of people in Tamil Nadu and Kerala who have been waging a peaceful and nonviolent struggle for almost a quarter century against the Koodankulam nuclear power project (KKNPP).
→ read full article
CNN Goldman Sachs & the Zio Matrix
David Duke – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
This documentary video is the first public expose’ that the same Zio who is the biggest stockholder of the mega Zio media corporation Time Warner, was the biggest stockholder also of Goldman Sachs at the time of the mortgage meltdown. It shows how the biggest economic theft in history, that by Goldman Sachs in the Mortgage meltdown, was covered up by Zio influence in media and government.
→ read full articleEliminating the Scourge of Female Genital Mutilation
Ruth Njeng’ere – Pambazuka News,
11 Feb 2013
Recent Successes Inspire Hope – A world without FGM is within sight. But more efforts are needed to ensure worldwide legislation against the practice and increased education to attain that goal.
→ read full article
Peace Train (Music Video of the Week)
Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Oh I’ve been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it’s going to come
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again
UNHCHR Welcomes Enabling Individual Complaints on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
“The entry into force of the Optional Protocol is a major breakthrough, which will enable victims under the jurisdiction of the States parties to seek justice for violations of their economic, social and cultural rights,” Pillay said. Uruguay triggered the coming into force of the Optional Protocol when, on 5 February, it became the tenth country to ratify, joining Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.
→ read full articleSilent Circle, the New Encryption App That Is Terrifying the Government
Jacob Sloan, disinformation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
The idea is to “democratize encryption” by making it available to the non-tech-savvy with the push of a button. It’s a game-changer that will almost certainly make life easier and safer for journalists, dissidents, diplomats, and companies trying to evade surveillance. Silent Circle has an explicit policy that it cannot and will not comply with law enforcement eavesdropping requests.
→ read full articlePoll: Fox Is the Least-Trusted Name in News
Allison Brito – The National Memo,
11 Feb 2013
The poll found that 39 percent of voters identified Fox News as the news outlet they trust the least — this dwarfs the 14 percent who named MSNBC, followed by CNN at 13 percent, Comedy Central at 12 percent, ABC and CBS at 5 percent, NBC at 3 percent, and the 1 percent who said they least trust PBS.
→ read full articleAn Indispensable Book on Palestine/Israel
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
I realize that without knowing it, I have long waited for this book, although I could not have imagined its lyric magic in advance of reading. It is a triumph of what I would call ‘intelligent innocence,’ the great benefits of a clear mind, an open and warm heart, and a trustworthy moral compass that draws sharp lines between good and evil while remaining ever sensitive to the contradictory vagaries of lives and geographic destinies.
→ read full article(Português) Conheça 10 Transgênicos Que Já Estão na Cadeia Alimentar
Thomas Pappon - BBC Brasil,
11 Feb 2013
Salmão: É a primeira vez que um animal geneticamente modificado é aprovado para consumo humano. Mas muitos consumidores nos Estados Unidos, Europa e Brasil, regiões em que os OGMs em questão de poucos anos avançaram em velocidade surpreendente dos laboratórios aos supermercados, continuam desconfiados da ideia do homem cumprindo um papel reservado à natureza ou à evolução – e guardam na memória os efeitos nocivos, descobertos tarde demais, de “maravilhas” tecnológicas como o DDT e a talidomida.
→ read full articleWe Won’t Be Silenced About Israel’s Crimes
Omar Barghouti – Socialist Worker,
11 Feb 2013
Controversy continues to swirl around a planned forum scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 7 [2013], at Brooklyn College to discuss the growing global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
→ read full articleHarmonious Global Community at Work
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Since the early days of human existence virtually all people yearned strongly to live at peace with each other. They viewed harmonious living as their ultimate goal in life. Yet we learn from history that those in power always tended to solve their differences through struggles and wars.
→ read full articleThe Trillion Dollar Coin: Joke or Game Changer?
Ellen Brown – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
The trillion dollar coin actually represents one of the most important principles of popular prosperity ever conceived: the creation of money by sovereign governments, debt-free.
→ read full articleGermany’s Drone Conundrum: ‘New Wars’ Demand New Mindsets
Thomas Darnstaedt – Der Spiegel,
11 Feb 2013
Germany’s government recently announced plans to do a 180-degree policy shift by deploying armed drones in combat. It argues that remote-controlled killing machines are no different than any other weapons, but experts say the “new wars” have completely different — and revolutionary — rules.
→ read full articleViral Gene in Genetically Engineered Foods Could Promote Disease
Dr. Mercola – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
One way to achieve a genetic modification in a plant is to piggyback a chosen gene on a plant virus, such as the Cauliflower Mosaic virus. Here, they discovered that the most commonly used genetic regulatory sequence (i.e. that which drives the gene expression within the plant), called CaMV 35S promoter, also encodes a gene fragment of the virus, in addition to the desired genetic trait being inserted.
→ read full articleArgentina in the Process of Quitting from World Bank Investment Disputes Centre
South Atlantic News Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Argentina says it plans to withdraw from a World Bank body designed to arbitrate between states and foreign investors. This follows similar decisions by several other countries in Latin America like Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Eduardo Barcesat, the chief legal advisor to Argentine’s Treasury, says ICSID is “a tribunal of butchers” that only rules in favour of multinational companies. Barcesat believes quitting the Center would be a key move to recover Argentina’s legislative and jurisdictional sovereignty.
→ read full articleHigh Frequency Active Auroral Research Program-HAARP: Weapon of Mass Destruction
Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
One of the ways in which HAARP is thought to work is similar to firing a cap gun in an avalanche area. The snow is built up, ready to collapse and even the slightest disturbance causes an avalanche. That’s one way that HAARP works. In key areas where seismic pressures are ready to shift, HAARP bombards the already sensitive area with an incredible amount of energy in the form of a beam that reflects off the ionosphere. The earth’s tectonic plates vibrate and an earthquake results.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Risveglio Arabo-Musulmano – e USA-Israele
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
L’area Mediorientale e Nordafricana (MENA) è arabo-musulmana con un’isola ebraica crescente in mezzo. Ex-territorio coloniale – sotto i turchi ottomani sunniti per oltre quattro secoli, e dell’occidente laico, Inghilterra-Italia-Francia, per mezzo secolo – ora sotto il colonialismo ebreo israeliano e l’imperialismo USA.
→ read full articleIt Has Happened Here
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Whether a person believes the official story of 9/11 which rests on unproven government assertions or believes the documented evidence provided by a large number of scientists, first responders, and structural engineers and architects, the result is the same. 9/11 was used to create an open-ended “war on terror” and a police state. It is extraordinary that so many Americans believe that “it can’t happen here” when it already has.
→ read full articleAn Actor but Out of the Drama
Udaya R. Tennakoon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
At a certain point
He happened to be a pretender
Deviating the track he came…
A Brief History Of Medicine
TMS editor,
11 Feb 2013
I have a stomachache.
2000 B.C. – Here, eat this root…
Nepal’s First Peace Event 2013 with Prof. Dr. Johan Galtung
Dr. Bishnu Pathak – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Perhaps an internationally acclaimed person of authority on conflict transformation by peaceful means may ignite the political consensus process amongst the concerned stakeholders and actors of Nepal. In the context, it is natural to have great expectations from the Founding Father of Peace Studies in the world, Professor Dr. Johan Galtung, who is visiting Nepal for the first Peace Event in Kathmandu from February 10th to 18th, 2013.
→ read full articleHuman Rights – World Report 2013
Human Rights Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
This 23rd annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide in 2012. It reflects extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watch staff has undertaken during the year, often in close partnership with domestic human rights activists.
→ read full articleHumanity Beyond Borders
Dr. M. Ashaq Raza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Oh dear Americans…
We too are humans
Why you kill us often
So mercilessly…
From the Culture of Aloha, a Path Out of Gun Violence
Poka Laenui – YES! Magazine,
11 Feb 2013
U.S. society tends to deal with violence by treating it as an individual occurrence—focusing on the “perpetrator” and how he is different from us. The more people killed or maimed, the more horrendous the event, the more we separate the actor and event from ourselves—the good people—and individualize responsibility to the “gun-toter.” It is a domination, individualism, and exclusion—or DIE—deep culture that is the essence of modern U.S. society.
→ read full articleAppeal to the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India
The Catholic Faithful Radhapuram Taluk– TRANSCEND Media Service\,
11 Feb 2013
We have been struggling continuously against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project in peaceful and nonviolent manner for a quarter century and for almost 550 days in a more recent concerted campaign. We have been asking in vain for the basic information about the project such as the Site Evaluation Report, Safety Analysis Report, Emergency Preparedness Plan, the performance report of the reactor, and the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Agreement on Liability and so forth.
→ read full articleUK Sends Hand-Held Helicopter Drones to War Zone
Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
British soldiers in Afghanistan have been issued with surveillance drones so small they can fit in the palm of a man’s hand. The Scandinavian-designed Black Hornet Nano weighs as little as 16 grams (roughly half an ounce). The 4-inch (10-centimeter) -long helicopter is fitted with a tiny camera which relays still images and video to a remote terminal.
→ read full articleGlobalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition
Open Society Justice Initiative – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2013
Globalizing Torture is the most comprehensive account yet assembled of the human rights abuses associated with CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations. It details for the first time what was done to the 136 known victims, and lists the 54 foreign governments that participated in these operations. It shows that responsibility for the abuses lies not only with the United States but with dozens of foreign governments that were complicit.
→ read full articleBrennan and Kiriakou, Drones and Torture
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
11 Feb 2013
John Brennan and John Kiriakou worked together years ago, but their careers have dramatically diverged. Brennan is now on track to head the CIA, while Kiriakou is headed off to prison. Each of their fates is tied to the so-called war on terror.
→ read full article“The True Story of the Bilderberg Group” and What They May Be Planning Now
Stephen Lendman – Global Research,
4 Feb 2013
A Review of Daniel Estulin’s Book
→ read full articleSlavery, Colonialism, and the Church
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
From Liverpool-UK, 31 Jan 2013 – We talk about millions of slaves landed in the arch from Rio to Washington with the point of gravity in the Caribbean, and some south of Rio, north of Washington and around the coast to the Pacific side of Latin America. An unspeakable crime against humanity.
→ read full articleOf Delays, Corruption and Half-Truths
Nityanand Jayaraman, Tehelka – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
No questions were raised when India’s nuclear regulator has gave nod to repeat the full systems test at the first unit of Koodankulam atomic power project in Tamil Nadu. On January 25 [2013], newspapers reported official statements regarding yet another delay in commissioning the Koodankulam plant. Even a child will tell you that you need to repeat a test only if you have failed in the first instance.
→ read full articleAll That Pivots Is Gold
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
4 Feb 2013
What Beijing actually wants is to get rid of the US dollar peg. For that to happen, it needs vast gold reserves. So here’s Beijing pivoting from the US dollar to the yuan – and trying to sway vast swathes of the global economy to follow the path. Oh yes, this is a film noir worthy of Dashiell Hammett – involving the Pentagon, Beijing, shadow wars, pivoting and a lot of gold.
→ read full articleLatin America Flexes Muscles at Joint EU Summit
Marianela Jarroud – TerraViva Europe,
4 Feb 2013
The nations of Latin America and the Caribbean strengthened their position with respect to Europe at the CELAC-EU summit held this weekend [Jan 26-27, 2013] in the Chilean capital, reaching agreements that protect their natural resources from foreign investors and securing a joint condemnation of the United States’ trade embargo against Cuba.
→ read full articleIceland President: Let Banks Go Bankrupt
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson tells Al Jazeera’s Stephen Cole that Europe should let banks that are ran “irresponsibly” go bankrupt. Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Grimsson also held his country as a model of economic recovery after its near-collapse four years ago. “We didn’t follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies. And the end result four years later is that Iceland is enjoying progress and recovery.”
→ read full articlePoverty and Progress: Comparing the US and Venezuela
Eric Draitser – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
This is the crisis of advanced, post-industrial capitalism – an economic system which must expand the divide between rich and poor, create extremes of wealth and poverty, and generally perpetuate itself on the misery and poverty of the lower classes.
→ read full articleCondemning the Murder of Cícero Guedes, Leader of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement MST
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation strongly condemns the murder of Cícero Guedes, a leader of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement MST. The MST received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) in 1991.
→ read full article2013 World Press Freedom Index: Dashed Hopes after ‘Springs’
Reporters Without Borders – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term. (See full list of countries in the end)
→ read full articleStudy: 22 US Military Veterans Commit Suicide Every Day
CBS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The results of a new study indicate that suicide rates among veterans in the United States are increasing.
→ read full articleMali: Neo-Colonialism Meets Islamic Fundamentalism… And the People Suffer
Bill Fletcher, Jr., Black Commentator – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The entrance of the French military into the Malian civil war further complicates a descent into hell. Mainstream media attention has largely focused on the emergence of right-wing Islamists associated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Yet little background is presented regarding the whole conflict, particularly the circumstances that resulted in the unfolding disaster.
→ read full articleFBI Banned from Iceland
Rixstep – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
FBI agents landed in Reykjavík without prior notification in an attempt to investigate WikiLeaks operations in the country, but Home Secretary Ögmundur Jónasson found out about the visit and forced them to leave the country, with the Icelandic government then issuing a formal protest to US authorities.
→ read full articleUS Department of Defense Non-Lethal Weapons Program
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Report 2012 can be read online. Although not secret it is virtually unknown; never referred to in the media. [According to the website]: Why Non-Lethal Weapons? Non-lethal weapons can provide operating forces with escalation-of-force options that can minimize casualties and collateral damage. [Do you agree?]
→ read full articleAmia Bombing: Argentina and Iran Agree Truth Commission
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Argentina and Iran are to jointly set up a commission to investigate the 1994 bombing of the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association (Amia) Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires. The commission will be made up of five independent judges, none of whom will be from either Argentina or Iran. The Jewish organisation was reported to be vehemently opposed to the move.
→ read full article(Português) Autoridades Lamentam Assassinato de Coordenador do MST no Rio
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
28 jan 2013 – A secretaria de Direitos Humanos da Presidência da República, o Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário e o Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (Incra) lamentaram o assassinato do coordenador do MST Cícero Guedes e condenaram a violência do latifúndio, em Campos dos Goytacazes, no norte do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Cícero foi executado com 12 tiros na cabeça, na sexta-feira (25/1/13), em uma emboscada quando saia de uma reunião no acampamento de bicicleta.
→ read full articleVerbal Defecation Buries Truth
William A. Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.
→ read full articleIs Islam a Terrorist Religion?
Dr. M. Ashaq Raza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
You must have a vision
You must peep the reason
Violent why some make decisions
Before blaming its cohesion
Or saying it a terrorist religion
Niger Gives Green Light to U.S. Drone Deployment
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Niger has given permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior government source said. The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting on Monday [28 Jan 2013] with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it, the source said.
→ read full articleThe Real Invasion of Africa Is Not News And a Licence to Lie Is Hollywood’s Gift
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
It is as if Africa’s proud history of liberation, from Patrice Lumumba to Nelson Mandela, is consigned to oblivion by a new master’s black colonial elite whose “historic mission”, warned Frantz Fanon half a century ago, is the promotion of “a capitalism rampant though camouflaged”.
→ read full articleGrimsson: IMF Learned New Lessons in Iceland
Deutsche Welle – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The global financial crisis brought Iceland to the brink of collapse in 2008. Since then, the country has recovered well by doing many things differently from the rest of the world, President Olafur Grimsson tells DW.
→ read full articleU.S. ‘Backed Plan to Launch Chemical Weapon Attack on Syria and Blame It on Assad’s Regime’
Louise Boyle – Daily Mail,
4 Feb 2013
Leaked emails from defense contractor refers to chemical weapons saying ‘the idea is approved by Washington.’ Obama issued warning to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that use of chemical warfare was ‘totally unacceptable.’
→ read full articleReciprocity and Karma
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Reciprocity is the basis of non-market economies, and also the basis of social interactions between family members, friends and colleagues. In hunter-gatherer societies, it is customary to share food among all the members of the group. However, the concept of karma has a broader and more abstract validity beyond the direct return of actions to the actor. When we perform a good action, we increase the total amount of good karma in the world. If all people similarly behave well, the world as a whole will become more pleasant and safer.
→ read full articleCourt: Iceland Doesn’t Need To Repay UK and Dutch Depositors
Agence France-Presse – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Iceland was entitled to refuse to pay immediate deposit guarantees to savers with failed online bank Icesave in Britain and the Netherlands, a European court said Monday [28 Jan 2013]. The Court of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which covers economic and trading relations between non-EU countries that are a part of the European Economic Area (EEA) single market and their European Union partners, was ruling on Reykjavik’s response to the collapse of the Icelandic banking sector in 2008-9.
→ read full articleJews DO Control the Media
Manny Friedman – The Times of Israel,
4 Feb 2013
Let’s be honest with ourselves, here, fellow Jews. We do control the media. We’ve got so many dudes up in the executive offices in all the big movie production companies it’s almost obscene. We also control the ads that go on those TV shows. And let’s not forget AIPAC, every anti-Semite’s favorite punching bag. We’re talking an organization that’s practically the equivalent of the Elders of Zion. Did you know that all eight major film studios are run by Jews?
→ read full articleCriminals Use Webcams for Spying
Rossen Reports, NBC – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Authorities are saying criminals can now hack into your webcam remotely, using it to watch your most intimate moments without you ever knowing it.
→ read full articleAnti-Semitism: What It IS and Is NOT
Alan Hart – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
“An anti-Semite used to be a person who disliked Jews. Now it is a person who Jews dislike.” Today much (meaning not quite all) of what supporters of Israel right or wrong claim to be anti-Semitism is actually anti-Israelism, which in my view is best described as anti-Zionism. And contrary to the assertions of Zionism’s spin doctors, anti-Zionism is not by definition anti-Semitism. Short or long, any discussion of anti-Semitism should include the fact that Zionism needs it.
→ read full articleOpen-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on a Draft United Nations Declaration on the Right to Peace
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
First Session 18-21 February 2013. Informal discussion on 7 February 2013. Reference is made to the Note Verbale dated 17 January 2013, concerning the establishment of an Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group with the mandate of progressively negotiating a draft United Nations Declaration on the Right to Peace.
→ read full articleGandhi’s Death Anniversary: Reflections
Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
On 30 January 65 years ago Mahatma Gandhi was shot while attending a prayer in New Delhi. Every day he used to attend prayers, which served two purposes: to pray to God for well being of mankind, and to meet visitors and interact with them.
→ read full article(Português) Islândia Não Tem de Reembolsar Reino Unido e Holanda
Público – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
A Islândia venceu na segunda-feira [28 jan 2013] a batalha legal com o Reino Unido e a Holanda em torno da falência do Icesave, uma delegação online do banco Landsbanki, e não terá de reembolsar os dois países pela falência.
→ read full articleIsrael Boycotts UN Human Rights Council
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Israel has become the first country to boycott a UN Human Rights Council review of its rights situation, sparking heated debate among diplomats on how to respond. Its absence on Tuesday [29 Jan 2013], however, came as no surprise as it cut all ties with the 47-member state council last March after the body announced that it would probe how Israeli illegal settlements may be infringing on the rights of the Palestinians.
→ read full articleIsrael Must Remove All Jewish Settlers from Occupied West Bank – UN Inquiry
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
31 Jan 2013 – A UN human rights inquiry has called on Israel to remove all Jewish settlers from the West Bank and cease expansion. The report said the settlements violate international law, and are an attempt to drive out Palestinians through intimidation.
→ read full articleRepression, Resistance, and Indigenous Rights in Guatemala
Anita Isaacs and Rachel Schwartz – Americas Quarterly,
4 Feb 2013
Can centuries of exploitation be reversed?
→ read full articleTransitional Security
Bishnu Pathak, PhD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Prime Minister of Nepal said, “Peace process is ended completing the integration of the Maoist Army (MA)” . PM counted it as a major achievement. Same sentence was also said by Nepali Congress, CPN (UML), and other political parties every day previously. Such speaking raised several questions.
→ read full articleThe Plan to Invade Seven Countries: U.S. General Wesley Clark (Ret.)
Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
In an interview with Amy Goodman on March 2, 2007, U.S. General Wesley Clark (Ret.), explains that the Bush Administration planned to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.
→ read full articleAn Economic Alternative to Exploitative Free Market Capitalism
Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
The commons movement protects large resources from privatization and allows collectives to regulate extraction. Exploitation is avoided because no one individual has more of a right to the source than any other.
→ read full articleThe Geopolitics of the Modern Resource Boom
Bernice Lee – Americas Quarterly,
4 Feb 2013
Intensified resource stress, driven in part by the booming demand from emerging economies and a decade of tight commodity markets, is reshaping the global economy. Whether the resources are actually diminishing is a matter of debate, but one thing is clear: the resources sector is increasingly characterized by supply disruptions, volatile prices and rising political tensions over access. In many places, myopic government policies have exacerbated the challenges.
→ read full articleOn a Draft UN Declaration on the Right to Peace
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Of all the many political documents in which Humankind may excel
there is one in which universal human intent is expressed well:
Good Terrorist, Bad Terrorist
Chandra Muzaffar, Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
There is terrorism that is condoned and terrorism that is condemned by Western powers and other states. If violence serves their interests, it is acceptable. If it doesn’t, the militants are targeted. In other words, there are ‘good terrorists’ and ‘bad terrorists’.
→ read full articleEvils of Liquor
Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
A professor of chemistry wanted to teach his fifth grade class a lesson about the evils of liquor, so he produced an experiment that involved a glass of water, a glass of whiskey, and two worms.
→ read full articleMystery of Consciousness: Life versus Non-life
Gaurachandra Das, B. Tech, M.Tech, Electrical Engineer - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Albert Einstein says-“I sense these things deeply…the most beautiful and profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power which is revealed in the comprehensible universe forms my idea of God.”
→ read full articleBelgian MP Laurent Louis Talks against War in Mali and Exposes International Neo-Colonial Plot
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
Jan 17, 2013 – 32-year old Belgian MP Laurent Louis, one of the country’s most controversial and demonized political figures, explained why he voted against the Belgian support to the military intervention in Mali.
→ read full articleGeneral and Complete Disarmament in 50 Years on the Basis of Global Harmony
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2013
A Global Harmony Association (GHA) Constant Petition to the UN to Collect 1 Million Signatures by September 21, 2013 – International Peace Day
→ read full articleAre Humans Created or Evolved?
Muhammad Abdul Bari – Al Jazeera,
28 Jan 2013
Recently there have been impassioned debate on this area on two high-profile TV programmes: one an Al Jazeera interview with atheist Richard Dawkins by Muslim political commentator Mehdi Hasan and the other a BBC Big Questions debate over whether it is time for all religions to accept evolution as fact. Many of my co-religionists are left bemused, if not downright confused, by all this kerfuffle.
→ read full article