Articles by UN
We found 3938 results.
Balkan Integration Process in a Global Framework*
Johan Galtung,
14 Oct 2013
The Balkan integration process within, and the global framework without, are both parts of the story of empires that come, leave deep and bloody faultlines within and without, and then decline and fall. Thus, the Balkans were doubly divided in the 11th century by the schism between the Catholics and the Orthodox in 1054, following the 395 split between the Western and Eastern Roman empires, Rome vs Constantinople; and the declaration of war on Islam by Pope Urban II on 27 Nov 1095.
→ read full articleOld Game, New Obsession, New Enemy: The China Fixation
John Pilger - CounterPunch,
14 Oct 2013
Countries are “pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world,” wrote Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, in 1898. Nothing has changed. The shopping mall massacre in Nairobi was a bloody façade behind which a full-scale invasion of Africa and a war in Asia are the great game.
→ read full articleCanadian PM Says ‘Very Concerned’ by Brazil Spying Allegations
David Ljunggren, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed concern on Tuesday [8 Oct 2013] about allegations that Canada’s intelligence agency had targeted Brazil. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Monday demanded Canada explain a report that said the Communications Security Establishment Canada – the equivalent of the top-secret U.S. National Security Agency – had spied on Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry.
→ read full articleHow the NSA Deploys Malware: An In-Depth Look at the New Revelations
Electronic Frontier Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
The template for attacking people with malware used by the NSA is in widespread use by criminals and fraudsters, as well as foreign intelligence agencies, so it’s important to understand and defend against this threat to avoid being a victim to the plethora of attackers out there.
→ read full article(Italiano) La Politica Estera EU: Dieci Desideri
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
Bruxelles – Servizio d’azione esterna europea, Libera Università – L’UE è in una crisi prevalentemente auto-prodotta. Le seguenti sono alcune idee su misure che si possono prendere.
→ read full articleThe EU Foreign Policy: Ten Wishes
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2013
Brussels – European External Action Service, Free University – The EU is in a crisis mainly of its own making. The following are some ideas about steps that can be taken.
→ read full articleRussia to Monitor ‘All Communications’ at Winter Olympics in Sochi
Shaun Walker – The Guardian,
7 Oct 2013
Athletes and spectators attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February [2014] will face some of the most invasive and systematic spying and surveillance in the history of the Games, documents shared with the Guardian show.
→ read full article“We Used Chemical Weapons in Vietnam”: Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick Explain How Telling the Untold History Can Change the World for the Better
Muneo Narusawa, Peter J. Kuznick, Norimatsu Satoko – The Asia Pacific Journal,
7 Oct 2013
“No matter what history says, the military is worshipped. If you look at Obama’s statement on the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, he does not really talk about the war when he says, “we reflect with solemn reverence, upon the valor of a generation that served with honor.” Many of the veterans who go to war want to feel that they served with honor, even if it was a losing cause or a bad cause.”
→ read full articleTransatlantic Free Trade Agreement: A Corporate Power Grab
Colin Todhunter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
The Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) between the US and EU intends to create the world’s largest free trade area, ‘protect’ investment and remove ‘unnecessary regulatory barriers’. Corporate interests are driving the agenda, with the public having been sidelined.
→ read full articleHotel Myanmar or the Unfolding Genocide in President Thein Sein’s Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
A scene of “Buddhist” mob marching to targeted Muslim villages and being stopped by the local troops who are NOT really empowered by Naypyidaw Thein Sein’s government to use force, if necessary, to prevent any organized mass atrocities against the Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds. This is definitely Hotel Rwanda.
→ read full article4 Tons of Contaminated Rainwater Leaks at Fukushima Plant
Reuters - The Asahi Shimbun,
7 Oct 2013
Oct 2, 2013 – Four tons of rainwater contaminated with low levels of radiation leaked at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant during an operation to transfer the water between tank holding areas, the operator said Oct. 1.
→ read full articleGlobal Security from an Interplanetary Perspective
Interplanetary Security Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
Interplanetary Security Council — Resolution on Planet Earth – This unusual document appears to follow the pattern of earlier purported resolutions of the Interplanetary Security Council. It bears an extraordinary structural resemblance to the resolution agreed by the UN Security Council on 27 Sep 2013 — consequent on various calls for an exceptionally “strong resolution.”
→ read full article(Italiano) Criminalizzare la Guerra!
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
Il dio abramitico uccide alla grande – più nella Torah e nella Bibbia che nel Corano; essere re gratia dei, per grazia di dio, attribuisce lo stesso diritto regale ai propri successori, i presidenti e i primi ministri. Non stupisce che si trovi la massima belligeranza nell’ Occidente. Democrazia o meno, non importa. La “grazia di dio” è stata trasferita al popolo nella vox popoli, vox dei, che ha condotto all’idea grottesca che le democrazie abbiano più d’un mandato per uccidere.
→ read full articleCan Iran Trust the United States?
Sheldon Richman – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
7 Oct 2013
People ask whether the United States can trust Iran. The better question is whether Iran can trust the United States. Since 1979 the U.S. government has prosecuted a covert and proxy war against Iran. The objective has been regime change and installation of a government that will loyally serve U.S. state objectives.
→ read full articleMyanmar Is Bleeding P-E-A-C-E
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Oct 2013
Yes, the country is now pierced with PEACE.
Peace is bleeding everywhere.
The Nobel Peace Celebrity wants peace.
Myanmar President Nobel-short-listee calls out for peace.
Criminalize War!
Johan Galtung,
1 Oct 2013
The abrahamic god kills massively–more in the Torah and the Bible than in the Qur’an; to be a king gratia dei, by the grace of god, bestows the same right of kings to their successors, the presidents and prime ministers. Not strange that we find most belligerence in the Occident. Democracy or not, it does not matter. The “grace of god” was transferred to the people in vox popoli, vox dei, leading to the grotesque idea that democracies have more of a mandate to kill.
→ read full articleUN Refugee Agency Welcomes Brazil Announcement of Humanitarian Visas for Syrians
UN Refugee Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
The UN Refugee Agency on Friday [27 Sep 2013] welcomed announcement by Brazil of special humanitarian visas for Syrians affected by the conflict and who wish to seek refuge there. It is the first country in the Americas to adopt such an approach.
→ read full articleThe Future Is Local, the Future Is Organic
Colin Todhunter - Global Research,
30 Sep 2013
Well, at least it could be if we base our food production on an increasing body of evidence that indicates the harmful effects of petrochemical, corporate-controlled agriculture.
→ read full articleNSA Snooping and India’s Sovereignty
Ravi Nitesh – Counter Currents,
30 Sep 2013
With the recent access by some media groups of documents provided by Mr. Snowden it is clear that India is among the top countries from which NSA is collecting telephone records and internet data in bulk quantity.
→ read full articleSyria: UNSC Resolution 2118; What Just Happened?
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich – Counter Currents,
30 Sep 2013
The provision to safeguard against future use of chemical weapons is not without its irony: “Underscores that no party in Syria should use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain, or transfer chemical weapons.” In the face of solid indication to the contrary, the Assad government was held responsible for the chemical attacks that resulted in the passing of UNSC 2118 – exonerating the culprits. A new and dangerous precedent has been set amidst the sight of relief.
→ read full article(Italiano) Bravo – Papa Francesco!
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
La Chiesa Cattolica romana è diventata “ossessionata” da aborto, matrimoni gay e contraccezione. La chiesa dovrebbe trasformarsi in una casa per tutti e non in una cappella per pochi. “Dobbiamo trovare un nuovo equilibrio”, ha affermato il Papa, “diversamente, con la perdita della freschezza e della fragranza del Vangelo, anche l’edificio morale della chiesa crollerà come un castello di carte.”
→ read full articleFasted Training: Should You Eat Before Exercise?
The Guardian Running Blog – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
Traditional research states that runners need carbohydrate to train effectively, but new studies show the benefits of fasted training. A nutritionist explains the ‘train low, compete high’ concept.
→ read full articleIsrael’s History of Chemical Weapons Use
Dr. Elias Akleh – Counter Currents,
23 Sep 2013
The UN inspectors who went to Syria to investigate the use of chemical weapons should have stopped on their way at Occupied Palestine (Israel), where Israeli government has the largest stockpile of chemical and other WMD in the entire Middle East. They would have found a lot of evidence and witness accounts of Israeli use of chemical, as well as biological and nuclear, weapons against the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors.
→ read full articleIsrael, Syria and the United States
Stephen Zunes – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Sep 2013
For now, US and Israeli policies toward Syria have only allowed Assad to play his nationalist card, strengthen his otherwise dwindling domestic support and weaken democratic Syrian forces hoping to bring down their tyrannical regime.
→ read full articleWe Don’t Gas Children, We Shred Them: Obama’s Grotesque Hypocrisy over Cluster Munitions
Dave Lindorff - Counterpunch,
23 Sep 2013
Had the US attacked, primarily with a two- or three-day barrage of Tomahawk missiles, many of those rockets would likely have carried warheads containing BLU-97 cluster munitions, according to the United States Campaign to Ban Cluster Munitions — cluster bombs that would have assuredly killed or maimed many Syrian children.
→ read full articleNorthern Elections: A Litmus Test for Democracy or Tamil National Aspirations?
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka,
23 Sep 2013
The increasingly widening gulf between the repressive policies of an ethnocratic state and the ongoing abstract ‘reconciliation discourse’ is not a false projection of the ‘Tiger propagandists’ but an undeniable ground reality. The northern election will not be a litmus test for Sri Lanka’s dysfunctional democracy, but it will certainly be a testing ground that would prove Tamil people’s resilience and will to be free.
→ read full article(Italiano) Siria: Tre Livelli di Conflitto. Soluzioni?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Sep 2013
Da vari anni, in questa rubrica abbiamo argomentato a favore di un Parlamento di due Camere in Siria, con un Camera Alta rappresentativa di 8 o più nazioni – come i millet ottomani – e un governo di coalizione. Assai lontano dalle “soluzioni progressiste” USA, le nostre si basano sull’incriminare invece che sull’uccidere il regime, con Assad processato dalla Corte Penale Internazionale (escludendo gli americani), etc.
→ read full articleBravo – Pope Francis!
Johan Galtung, 23 Sep 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Sep 2013
In an interview to the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica (IHT, 20 Sep 13), Pope Francis says that the Roman Catholic Church has become “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception. The church should become a home for all and not a small chapel. “We have to find a new balance”, the Pope says, “otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the gospel”.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Caucaso lascia la guerra fredda
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Sep 2013
Tbilisi, Georgia – Per loro il vecchio pensare-parlare-agire basato sull’egemonia tra stati e e all’interno di singoli stati – nella compensazione di quanto perdono in autonomia nei confronti di un Grande Potere negandolo ad altri all’interno – è fuori questione. Quello che è ammesso –i dettagli non sono chiari in nessun modo – è l’equità fra gli stati all’interno del sistema statale globale, e l’autonomia all’interno degli stati per le nazioni.
→ read full articleSyria: Three Conflict Levels, Solutions?
Johan Galtung, 16 Sep 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Sep 2013
This column has for years been arguing for a two-chamber parliament in Syria having an upper house with eight or so nations—like the Ottoman millets–and a coalition government. Very far from US “progressive solutions,” ours are based on criminalizing rather than killing the regime, with Assad for the International Criminal Court (Americans ruled out), etc.
→ read full articleTEPCO Official Denies Abe’s Claim That Nuclear Crisis Is ‘Under Control’
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Sep 2013
“We regard the current situation as not being under control,” Kazuhiko Yamashita, an executive officer of Tokyo Electric Power Co., told a meeting in Fukushima Prefecture. The comment contradicts the well-publicized assurance that Abe gave at an IOC general meeting in Buenos Aires on Sep. 7, before Tokyo was selected as the host city for the 2020 Olympic Games.
→ read full articleMyanmar Peace and Ceasefire-101
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Sep 2013
The single most important factor in understanding peace-building and ceasefire negotiations in Myanmar is how the most powerful stakeholder, namely the Burmese generals view peace with the country’s 2 dozen ethnic resistance movements.
→ read full articleCaucasus Leaving the Cold War
Johan Galtung,
11 Sep 2013
Tbilisi, Georgia – The old thinking-talking-acting based on hegemony between states and unitary states within–compensating for what they lose of autonomy to a Big Power by denying it to others within–is out. What is in–the details by no means being clear–is equity among states in the global state system, and autonomy inside states for nations.
→ read full articleA Non-Military Approach to the Syrian Conflict
Paul J. Magnarella – Huntington News,
10 Sep 2013
An ICC strategy should be pursued in conjunction with robust diplomacy and peace negotiations involving the key Syrian parties, the Arab League, the European Union, Turkey, Russia, Iran and the United States. Certainly, such a combined approach is more appropriate for a Nobel Peace Laureate President than one involving cruise missiles. In the long run, it may be much more effective.
→ read full article(Italiano) TRANSCEND a 20 anni: e poi?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2013
TRANSCEND: una Rete per Pace *Sviluppo* Ambiente fondata nel marzo 1993. Transcend, andare oltre, oltre le contraddizioni, le incompatibilità. Tirare fuori proposte creative, concrete, costruttive – possono funzionare. Si associarono [allora] Fumiko Nishimura e Dietrich Fischer; oggi ci sono 522 membri di 80 paesi; il 40% donne.
→ read full article(Italiano) Dove sono finiti tutti i Poteri?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2013
Dove ci condurrebbe la sussidiarietà – il più basso livello possibile? L’alternativa al regionalismo-globalismo non è il localismo, ma tutti i livelli di cui siamo composti, il mondo considerato come un insieme di comunità localmente autonome, una comunità di Stati, una comunità di macroregioni e di amministrazione globale; spingendo il potere verso il basso, verso le persone e la natura, ascoltando la sua voce. E le Nazioni Unite come una confederazione di Stati e macroregioni.
→ read full article(Italiano) Dialogo fra le civilizzazioni come modo di vivere
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2013
Stiamo entrando in un affascinante periodo multi-polare della storia mondiale. Sei civilizzazioni vogliono dire sei modelli di sviluppo; sparsi su otto poli in un mondo ottagonale: USA e UE, entrambi liberali occidentalio; Russia in ricerca (ipotesi ragionevole: per una versione migliorata del marxismo occidentale); India, enorme, ma impacciata col suo hinduismo; Cina in quanto Cina (col Giappone in dolorosa ricerca di stabilità fra USA e Cina); mondo musulmano, l’ Organizzazione della Cooperazione Islamica (OIC), in ricerca di una ummah [comunità di credenti] nella regione dell’OIC, con il conflitto sunniti-sciiti risolto; Africa in cerca di un eclettismo basato su principi secolari occidentali, sull’Islam e su qualcosa della propria cultura; America Latina immersa sin d’ora in un creativo dialogo infra-occidentale.
→ read full articleMilitary Roots of Racism in Myanmar
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
10 Sep 2013
At the very heart of Myanmar’s Islamophobic campaign lies the state and its successive senior leaderships, which continue to operate within a concrete set of political economic relations wherein they pursue their typically sinister Machiavellian politics in defense of corporate, clique and personal agendas.
→ read full articlePeople of the World are Fighting Back
Finian Cunningham – Information Clearing House,
2 Sep 2013
What the deluded Americans do not seem to realize is that they are on their own. The only entities willing to support their aggression on Syria are Saudi Arabia and Israel.
→ read full article(Italiano) Le proposte di Pace funzionano! …a volte
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Sep 2013
Per riassumere: per ridurre la violenza dobbiamo identificare i conflitti, il disaccordo tra obiettivi; per identificare i conflitti dobbiamo dialogare con tutte le parti; per giungere a una soluzione il metodo consiste nella mutua ricerca di una nuova realtà, non in vittoriosi dibattiti e compromessi. Più proposte fluttuano nell’aria meglio è; presto o tardi esse verranno afferrate.
→ read full article(Galego) O SGEP Maniféstase en Contra Dunha Intervención Militar dos EE.UU. en Siria
Fundacion Cultura de Paz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Sep 2013
O Seminario Galego de Educación para a Paz, diante da posibilidade certa de que o goberno norteamericano bombardee Siria nas próximas horas, cos seus aliados máis entusiastas, mesmo sen o respaldo e o aval das Nacións Unidas, e con toda a opinión pública en contra, quere manifestar o que segue:
→ read full articleAny Attack on Syria Will Be Counterproductive and Illegal – A Result of Failed Conflict Management
The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Sep 2013
Any U.S. attack on Syria will be an indisputable violation of international law, an attack on a sovereign state that has not invaded any other state. An aggression on Syria can only take place in complete defiance of Article 1 of the UN Charter which spells out that peace shall be established by peaceful means and only when every civilian means has been tried and found in vain can an international military action be considered – but then only under command of the UN itself.
→ read full articleA “Three Insecurities Perspective” for the Changing Myanmar
Maung Zarni – Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia,
2 Sep 2013
Maung Zarni, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, argues that the best way to look at the current changes in Myanmar is through his “Three Insecurity Paradigms”, namely, national security, global security and human security. Zarni denounces the Thein Sein reforms as crude responses to the regime’s own needs and to the expectation of the world, with little account for the security of ordinary Myanmar people.
→ read full articleWhere Have All the Powers Gone?
Johan Galtung,
2 Sep 2013
Where would subsidiarity–the lowest level possible–bring us? The alternative to regionalism-globalism is not localism but all our levels, the world as a community of locally self-reliant communities, a community of states, a community of regions and global governance; pushing power downstairs, down to the people and to nature, listening to its voice. With the UN as a confederation of states and regions.
→ read full articleToward An Inclusive Inter-Rwandan Dialogue: Lessons from Other Conflicts
Pierre Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Sep 2013
Will Hutu and Tutsi overcome the legacy of social privileges, power and difference to engage into creating a nation- state for all? I wish I would be part of the actors to reconcile Rwandans to overcome their gloomy differences but being excluded, I believe it will require manoeuvres and maturity from the Rwandan government to accept the process.
→ read full article(Italiano) Applicazioni della Nonviolenza. Ahimsa nella vita quotidiana
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Sep 2013
La Rete Pace, Sviluppo, Ambiente – TRANSCEND cominciò con conflitti geopolitici macro e mega; molti dei quali ben noti e drammatici. Ma i conflitti nella vita quotidiana, a scuola, nelle coppie-famiglia, al lavoro, possono essere anche più drammatici; al livello micro nelle persone coinvolte, fra di esse, nel contesto, e al livello meso dei gruppi sociali.
→ read full articlePeace Proposals Work! – Sometimes
Johan Galtung, 26 Aug 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Aug 2013
To reduce violence we must identify the conflicts, the clash of goals; to identify conflicts we must have dialogue with all parties; to arrive at solutions the method is a mutual search for a new reality, not winning debates and compromises; the more proposals floating in the air the better; sooner or later they will be picked up
→ read full article1982 Citizenship Law of Myanmar and Myanmar’s Popular Racism
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Aug 2013
Burma’s military-controlled State rests on the country’s official racism towards Burmese of ‘impure blood’. Scholars and policy analysts of Myanmar need to stop characterizing violence and racism against Muslims, ‘Kalars’ and Tayoke (Chinese) as simply ‘sectarian’ or placing undue emphasis on the society’s role in the unfolding racist mass violence against the Rohingya and all Myanmar Muslims.
→ read full article(Italiano) Cinque tesi su Assange-Manning-Snowden
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Aug 2013
Quel che Manning e Snowden hanno rivelato sono le convulsioni dell’impero USA; quel che Assange e gli altri hanno rivelato sono le convulsioni del sistema statuale come lo conosciamo. A entrambi i processi ci vorrà tempo; al primo meno che al secondo. Ma non ci si sbagli: tutti e tre gli spifferatori hanno fatto storia. Tre nomi che saranno ricordati dopo che taluni presidenti USA saranno scivolati in un oblio tanto meritato.
→ read full articleWashington and the Egyptian Tragedy
Stephen Zunes – Foreign Policy in Focus,
26 Aug 2013
As in El Salvador, Nicaragua, East Timor, Angola, Lebanon, and Gaza in previous years, the massive killing of civilians in Egypt is being done with U.S.-provided weapons by a U.S.-backed government. The last thing the United States should be doing is continuing to pour arms into this tragic and chaotic situation and rationalization for brutal repression.
→ read full articleRestless Nation: The Real Meaning of Iran’s Elections
Stephen Zunes – YES! Magazine,
19 Aug 2013
Will the people of Iran get the reforms they asked for in electing the moderate Hassan Rouhani? The answer depends partly on them, and partly on the United States.
→ read full articleWhy Are Myanmar’s Rohingya Officially and Popularly Referred to as “Bengali’, a Racist Slur in the Burmese Context?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Aug 2013
At the heart of Myanmar’s official and, sadly, popular use of the term ‘Bengali’ is a discursive strategy meant to to illegalize, alien-ize and de-tetorrialize the Rohingya one and the same time. This act is tantamount to the butcher of a verifiable and consequential truth.
→ read full articleTRANSCEND At 20: And Then What?
Johan Galtung,
19 Aug 2013
TRANSCEND: A Peace*Development*Environment Network was founded on March 1993. Transcend, go beyond, beyond contradictions, incompatibilities. Come up with constructive, concrete, creative proposals–they may work. Fumiko Nishimura and Dietrich Fischer joined; today there are 522 members invited from 80 countries; 40 percent are women. From the beginning four tasks were defined for the network.
→ read full articleShortsighted Thinking on Israeli Settlements
The Editorial Board – NYT International Herald Tribune,
19 Aug 2013
On Monday [12 Aug 2013], Israel released a list of 26 Palestinian prisoners to be released Tuesday. A few hours before that it published bids for the construction of more than 1,000 housing units in West Bank settlements — a move to mollify right-wingers who oppose the prisoner release. This balancing act is not just untimely but a fresh cause for pessimism about the prospects for successful peace negotiations.
→ read full articleSri Lankan Buddhist Extremists Attack Muslim Mosque
W.A. Sunil, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Aug 2013
Sinhala extremists led by several Buddhist monks attacked a mosque in Colombo on Saturday [10 Aug 2013] during the evening prayers. According to local residents, more than 150 people came armed with wooden poles, stones and glass bottles.
→ read full articleThe Politics of Cruelty: America’s Descent into Madness
Henry Giroux - CounterPunch,
19 Aug 2013
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
– John le Carré
Civilization Dialogue as a Way of Life
Johan Galtung,
12 Aug 2013
We now enter a fascinating, multi-polar, period in world history. Six civilizations amount to six development models; scattered on eight poles in an octagonal world: USA and EU, both West-liberal; Russia searching (educated guess: for an improved version of West-Marxist); India, huge, but at a loss with its Hinduism; China as China (with Japan in a painful search for stability between USA and China); the Muslim world, OIC-Organization of Islamic Cooperation, searching for an ummah in the OIC region, with the sunni-shia conflict resolved; Africa searching for an eclecticism based on West-secular, Islam and something of its own; Latin America right now steeped in a creative intra-West dialogue.
→ read full articleMy Vision for the Future Development of Sociology at the University
Pierre Celestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Aug 2013
Like any individual, I am sensitive as to how society defines and labels me. I am a black, heterosexual middle class male and I have a strong attachment to each of these personal descriptors. However as a social anthropologist, I am able to detach myself from these labels and look objectively at my function within a greater social structure.
→ read full articleBalancing Freedom and Security – Insults to Our Intelligence
Andrew Levine - CounterPunch,
12 Aug 2013
George W. Bush was never at a loss for something idiotic to say. Still his speech to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 was exceptional. He said that the World Trade Center and Pentagon had been attacked nine days earlier because: “They hate our freedoms – our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
→ read full articleMarx’s Lesson for the Muslim Brothers
Sheri Berman – NYT International Herald Tribune,
12 Aug 2013
KARL MARX wrote that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. In 1848, workers joined with liberals in a democratic revolt to overthrow the French monarchy. However, almost as soon as the old order collapsed, the opposition fell apart, as liberals grew increasingly alarmed by what they saw as “radical” working class demands. Those same patterns are playing out in Egypt today — with liberals and authoritarians playing themselves, and Islamists playing the role of socialists.
→ read full articleIsrael-Palestinian Talks: Washington Acts Like Matchmaker… Between Rapist and Victim
Finian Cunningham – Strategic Culture Foundation,
12 Aug 2013
Washington is part of the problem. John Kerry, like so many of his predecessors, may pose as an even-handed matchmaker between two quarrelling sides. But the simple fact is that the US is not a neutral arbiter. It is the patron, sponsor, architect, advocate and accomplice of one side – Israel.
→ read full articleObama’s Diplomatic Blunder, the Cowardice of Western Democracies and What Sweden Should Do
Board Members, The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research-TFF – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Aug 2013
President Obama’s decision to cancel the meeting with Putin is yet another indicator of Washington’s intellectual weakness and the U.S. empire’s future dissolution. People like Assange, Manning and Snowden should be seen as heroes and treated with respect. Before the Swedish prime minister meets Obama he should announce that Sweden is willing to host Snowden.
→ read full articleThe Monsanto Method: Torturing Animals with GMOs
Katherine Paul – CounterPunch,
12 Aug 2013
“A Culture that views pigs as inanimate piles of protoplasmic structure to be manipulated however cleverly the human mind can conceive will view its citizens the same way – and other cultures.” We associate food with at most, pleasure, at the very least, survival. It’s not too different for animals.
→ read full articleFive Theses about Assange-Manning-Snowden
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
What Manning and Snowden revealed are the death throes of the US empire; what Assange et al. revealed are the death throes of the state system as we know it. Both processes will take time; the former less than the latter. But make no mistake: the three made history. Three names that will be remembered after some US presidents recede into an oblivion so well deserved.
→ read full articleExtremely High Tritium Level Found in Water in Pit at Fukushima Plant
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on July 28 [2013] that an extremely high level of radioactive tritium has been detected in a pit in the compound of its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The level was 8.7 million becquerels per liter of water, which was 145 times that of the permissible level stipulated under the law.
→ read full articleCapital Insecurity in Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
The emerging symbiosis between global capitalist forces and the security interests of Myanmar’s ruling military-crony class has not been sufficiently weighed by most Western scholars and other Myanmar watchers. Most have ignored the hard fact that ethnic and religious minorities, 40% of the country’s total population, are being further marginalized and disenfranchised, pushed from their traditional lands or otherwise decimated.
→ read full article(Italiano) Sistemi di Difesa Alternativa per gli Stati
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
Per un paese che basi la propria sicurezza sulla pace, non allineato, utile agli altri, invulnerabile, che si occupi di mediazione dei conflitti e dei traumi rilevanti, di grande empatia e con progetti equi, dotato solo di armi non-provocatorie, preparato a difendere i propri confini e ogni parte del proprio territorio attraverso una difesa militare e non militare e coordinato da un Ministro della Pace, un attacco è molto improbabile.
→ read full articleAnother Dead End in the Middle East: The Flawed Logic of the Peace Talks
Jonathan Cook - CounterPunch,
5 Aug 2013
The talks, which will begin in mid-August, are taking place not because either Israel’s prime minister or the Palestnian president believe a deal is in reach. The two sides are talking each to avoid being blamed for embarrassing John Kerry, the US secretary of state.
→ read full articleSmall Places Can Think Big Thoughts…
Johan Galtung,
31 Jul 2013
Free-standing academies are needed, not against the West but for the world–act locally, think globally!–with the West having its appropriate place in a dialogue of civilizations; Western liberal and Western Marxist, Islamic and Buddhist, Japanese and Chinese, to mention some major ones. None is universal, all carry gifts to humanity.
→ read full articleApplications of Ahimsa-Nonviolence in Daily Life
Johan Galtung,
29 Jul 2013
The TRANSCEND-Peace Development Environment Network started with geopolitical macro and mega conflicts; many well known and dramatic. But conflicts in daily life, at school, in couples-family, at work may be even more dramatic; at the micro level within the persons involved, between them, in the context, and at the meso level of social groups.
→ read full article(Italiano) Competizione, Cooperazione e Archetipi
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jul 2013
Ci sono vincitori e sconfitti; la diseguaglianza viene istituzionalizzata, anzi premiata. Qualunque competizione è un conflitto per un obiettivo da poco, vincere; più c’è competizione più c’è conflitto irrisolto.
→ read full article
Turning Plastic into Oil? Yes!
United Nations University,
29 Jul 2013
United Nations University Video
Japanese Man Invents Machine to Convert Plastic Back into Oil
Japanese with English Subtitles
At the Brink of Apocalyptic Terror: Fukushima Continues to Spew Its Darkness
Harvey Wasserman - CounterPunch,
29 Jul 2013
Radiation leaks, steam releases, disease and death continue to spew from Fukushima and a disaster which is far from over. Its most profound threat to the global ecology—a spent fuel fire—is still very much with us.
→ read full articleBDS against Israel: Victory at TIAA-CREF
Jonathan Cunningham – Socialist Worker,
29 Jul 2013
The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that has been protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestine took another step forward this month when the giant retirement fund giant TIAA-CREF announced it was divesting $9 million from SodaStream, an Israeli company that makes its carbonation machines in the occupied West Bank.
→ read full articleNational Security State, Advent of Fascism: Obama’s Fanaticism over Secrecy, Surveillance and Repression
Norman Pollack – CounterPunch,
29 Jul 2013
Secrecy is the ideal camouflage for surrounding, covering, and protecting the class-state, its system of power, its elites’ hidden agenda, and the political-cultural mechanisms which engineer consent to the national purpose as defined from above, not so much to hide ordinary hanky-panky–favoritism to contractors, political contributors, etc.– but war crimes real time.
→ read full articleConstitutional Amendment in Japan — Potential Lessons from Australia
Joel Rheuben, University of Tokyo – East Asia Forum,
29 Jul 2013
Like the Japanese Constitution, Australia’s Constitution can only be amended after a popular referendum approving change. However, unlike Japan, referenda proposals can be initiated by only a simple majority of both houses. Nevertheless, constitutional referenda have succeeded only 8 times out of 44 attempts in 112 years — and not once since 1977.
→ read full articleWaterborne Radioactive Levels in Fukushima Plant Pit Unchanged from 2011
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jul 2013
Water in a pit on the grounds of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been found to contain high levels of radioactive substances, the plant operator said July 27, 2013. 2.35 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium were detected per liter of water on July 26 in the No. 2 reactor. The breakdown was 750 million becquerels of cesium-134 and 1.6 billion becquerels of cesium-137.
→ read full articleSystems of Alternative Defense for States
Johan Galtung, 23 Jul 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2013
A country based on security through peace, nonaligned, useful to others, invulnerable, mediating relevant conflicts and traumas, high on empathy and equitable projects, only non-provocative arms, prepared to defend its borders and any part of its territory with military and nonmilitary defense and a Ministry of Peace; attack very unlikely.
→ read full article(Italiano) La Micro-Gestione USA del Mondo
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Cosa c’è di nuovo a proposito di PRISM-TEMPORA di marchio USA-Regno Unito? Il dito sul dominio – con lo scopo di spiare il resto del mondo – l’enorme impiego di operatori esperti della rete, e la palese prima linea: Anglo-America contro il Resto del mondo, inclusi i soci membri dell’UE. Se tutto ciò fosse stato fatto da stati più piccoli, le relazioni bilaterali con loro sarebbero state sospese, declassate, e la loro appartenenza all’UE revocata. Per quanto tempo ancora USA e Regno Unito sfuggiranno all’impunità?
→ read full articleRevive Aung San’s Original Secularist Multicultural Vision for the New Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Aung San was murdered on 19 July 1947, 66 years go. He was killed by 27 bullet wounds from the British Army-issued machine guns in the British-assisted assassination. When he and his multi-cultural and multi-faith comrades were killed it was not just the men’s lives that were taken away. Aung San’s secularist, egalitarian and multiculturalist vision too was killed and buried along with their remains.
→ read full articleAdministration’s Syria Problem: U.S. Can’t Find Non-Al Qaida Rebels
World Tribune – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
The United States has withheld at least $50 million worth of aid to Sunni rebels in Syria. The reason: neither Congress nor the administration of President Barack Obama can find rebel militias not linked to Al Qaida.
→ read full articleNetflix and Surveillance: The Brave New World of Big Data
Kate Epstein - CounterPunch,
22 Jul 2013
It’s hard not to compare the constant surveillance of twenty-first-century America to the ubiquitous presence of Big Brother in the prescient 1949 Orwellian novel. And that’s not to mention the doublethink involved in our never-ending war with an ever-shifting enemy to keep the homeland safe (war is peace)…
→ read full articleBritish Aid for Myanmar/Burma Ethnic Cleansing
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Britain, the largest donor country and former colonizer of Myanmar, is effectively aiding and abetting the unfolding “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim Rohingya by helping to finance the country’s controversial 2014 national census.
→ read full articleKoodankulam Nuclear Plant Commissioning: An Open Letter to Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere – Counter Currents,
22 Jul 2013
Today is a historic day for two wrong reasons. First: on 16 July 1945 the world’s first experimental nuclear explosion was conducted at Alamogordo, USA, as a precursor to the next two nuclear experiments over Japan. Second, for us in India, it immediately follows the Koodankulam nuclear power plant going critical in contempt of people’s well-founded fears for safety and health through calculated lack of transparency to the questions and issues raised by them.
→ read full articleEuropean Commission President Meets Religious Leaders
Kumari Kunti Sherreitt, ISKCON News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Eighteen senior religious leaders from all over Europe met on May 30, 2013 to discuss the EU’s yearly theme of “citizenship” hosted by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President Van Rompuy and Vice Presiden Laszlo Surjan, and organized by the Bureau of European Policy Advisors.
→ read full articleCompetition, Cooperation and Archetypes
Johan Galtung,
15 Jul 2013
Competition and testing have serious repercussions. There are winners and losers; inequality is institutionalized, even rewarded. Any competition is a conflict for a scarce goal, winning; the more competition the more unresolved conflict.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Plan B in Egypt: Bring Back the Old Regime
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Strategic Culture Foundation,
15 Jul 2013
Just as America’s regime change project in Syria is failing, its time in the Middle East is drawing to an end. Those who gambled on Washington’s success, like the Saudi royals, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, will find themselves on the losing side of the Middle East’s regional equation…
→ read full articleRohingya Refugees in India: Tales of Endless Persecution, Torture and Exploitation
Shivnaryan Rajpurohit – Counter Currents,
15 Jul 2013
Another World Refugee Day on June 20 was met with familiar indifference by host countries. Every year, it is passed off as a necessary irritant when media air and publish stories on refugees. Well, this is another sordid tale of Rohingya refugees–who fled Myanmar–in India, sheltering around 11,000 Myanmarese refugees (a figure obtained from the UNHCR).
→ read full articleAn Unfolding Tale of Two Genocidal “Buddhist” Hells: Myanmar and Sri Lanka
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
The Burmese Bama Buddhists are not alone in Nazi “Buddhist” Hell. They are in good company of the equally genocidal “Buddhists” of Sri Lanka.
→ read full articleWashington Is Overtly Supporting Al-Qaeda in Syria: Prof. James H. Fetzer
Interview by Kourosh Ziabari – Counter Currents,
15 Jul 2013
American philosopher and political author James H. Fetzer argues that the United States is openly supporting Al-Qaeda and the extremist Salafist and Takfiri groups in Syria and equipping the rebels and insurgents inside the country with sophisticated weapons and arms.
→ read full articleIs There Anything Truly Sustainable or Humane About Eating Meat?
Joshua Frank - CounterPunch,
15 Jul 2013
What’s the truth behind the label? Can meat ever really be sustainable? Is purchasing local a good thing for the environment? Not always, says activist, author and educator Lee Hall, who serves as legal affairs VP for Friends of Animals.
→ read full articleThe Battle between Countries and Companies
Dick Pountain – Open Democracy,
15 Jul 2013
The wild profits and net worths that the internet has enabled have created a massive power shift, leaving the corporations to overbear the countries they inhabit. In light of this, what are the consequences for both parties?
→ read full article(Italiano) Umanità 2050: Costruire la Pace con i Nostri Futuri
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
Discorso di apertura, 40° Anniversario del World Futures Studies Federation (Federazione per gli Studi sui Futuri del Mondo) – Bucarest, Romania – “L’Islam offre solidarietà e condivisione di cui l’Occidente ha bisogno, l’Occidente offre diversità e libertà di cui l’Islam ha bisogno. Mutuo apprendimento”.
→ read full articleThe USA Micro-Managing the World
Johan Galtung,
8 Jul 2013
What is new about PRISM-TEMPORA, by USA-UK? The domain–spying on the whole world, the scope–huge internet operators involved, and the clear front-line: Anglo-America against the Rest, including fellow EU members. If done by smaller states, bilateral relations might be suspended, downgraded, and their EU membership revoked. How long will the USA-UK get away with impunity?
→ read full articleThe Military Coup in Egypt: Challenges of the Transition
Dr. Lakhdar Ghettas, Cordoba Foundation of Geneva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
The ousting of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army is a military coup d’état pure and simple. Morsi’s ousting qualifies for a military putsch which is by definition the illegal removal of the head of the state by the army or a faction within it, or the security services, through the use of force or the threat to using it.
→ read full articleFlatland: Understanding Multiple Dimensions from Our Third Dimensional Perspective
Arjun, Collective Evolution – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
We are not only on the verge of confirming intelligent extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial worlds, we could be on the verge of confirming extra-dimensional worlds, and extra dimensional life, if we haven’t already.
→ read full article(Italiano) Reinvenzione del Fascismo
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
L’atroce Seconda Guerra Mondiale ha provocato danni durevoli abbassando i nostri standard per ciò che è marginalmente accettabile. La guerra è male; ma se non è nucleare, il limite non è stato ancora raggiunto. Il fascismo è male; ma se non si accompagna alla dittatura e all’eliminazione di una categoria di persone, il limite non è stato ancora raggiunto.
→ read full articleWho Is An Objective Journalist?
Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer - CounterCurrents,
8 Jul 2013
In a recent New York Times article David Carr questioned [Glenn Greenwald] whether someone could be both a journalist and an activist. This was Greenwald’s response: “It is not a matter of being an activist or a journalist; it’s a false dichotomy. It is a matter of being honest or dishonest. All activists are not journalists, but all real journalists are activists. Journalism has a value, a purpose – to serve as a check on power.”
→ read full articleBig Brother, Not Snowden and Greenwald, Is the Story
Sheldon Richman – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
1 Jul 2013
“Instead of being adversaries to government power … [the media of Washington, D.C., are] … servants to it and mouthpieces for it.” Snowden and Greenwald have not “aided the enemy” — unless the American people are the government’s enemy. What they have done is embarrass the Obama administration by exposing criminal activity.
→ read full article(Italiano) Pensare-Agire, Localmente-Globalmente: Alfaz, Spagna
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2013
Cooperazione per beneficio mutuo, empatia, risoluzione dei conflitti e riconciliazione dei traumi: compiti fondamentali di pace ovunque, in famiglia, a scuola, al lavoro, in un villaggio-città come Alfaz, come esempio per il paese, per i rapporti Occidente-Islam.
→ read full article