Articles by UN
We found 3962 results.
(Italiano) Le calamità USA: ci sono soluzioni
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Nov 2013
E se gli USA facessero un accordo con i cinesi e i russi? Il 50% di remissione del debito da parte cinese contro il 50% di riduzione USA dei componenti militari più offensivi – le 800 basi disseminate nel mondo – in 5-10 anni? Accompagnate da una riduzione analoga multilaterale e bilanciata nelle armi offensive per tutti e tre, approfittando dello slancio russo sulle armi chimiche?
→ read full article[Nobel Peace Laureate] Aung San Suu Kyi’s Comments on Muslims Expose Endemic Anti-Muslim Prejudice
Tun Khin, Huff Post – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Nov 2013
As a Muslim Rohingya and an advocate for human rights who spent many years campaigning for her freedom, it is hard to express the shock I felt at her words during this interview.
→ read full article[Nobel Peace Laureate} Aung San Suu Kyi and the World of Buddhist Islamophobia
Maung Zarni – Al Jazeera,
4 Nov 2013
The details of this systematic ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya which has been set in motion as a matter of state policy since 1978, and the more recent anti-Muslim mass violence, again with state impunity, generally play second fiddle in the media, to Suu Kyi’s failure to condemn it.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Drive for Peace
Maung Zarni – The New York Times,
4 Nov 2013
Based on my experience working with the generals as an unofficial advocate for Western re-engagement with the country, I know that the military leaders who may be inclined to compromise hold an instrumentalist view of reconciliation. For them, peace is not a worthwhile goal in and of itself but a means to another end: financial reward.
→ read full articleStop Watching Us: The Video
Electronic Frontier Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Nov 2013
Oct 23, 2013 – StopWatching.us is a coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and companies from across the political spectrum. This video harnesses the voices of celebrities, activists, legal experts, and other prominent figures in speaking out against mass surveillance by the NSA.
→ read full articleThe Geopolitics of Education for Peace
Johan Galtung, 28 Oct 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
Thinkers so diverse as Nietzsche and Gandhi saw the military as exemplary because of the ésprit de corps and willingness to sacrifice, even their own lives. For Gandhi the kshatriya (military) caste was a model: he wanted non-violent warriors, with the same perseverance, also indispensable in mediation.
→ read full articleGang Rape in India, Routine and Invisible
Ellen Barry and Mansi Choksi – International Herald Tribune-NYT,
28 Oct 2013
In Mumbai Case, a Group of Assault Suspects Had Little Fear of the Law
→ read full article(Italiano) La geopolitica dell’educazione alla pace*
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
Pensatori così diversi come Nietzsche e Gandhi consideravano esemplari i militari a causa dello spirito di corpo e della disponibilità al sacrificio, perfino della propria vita. Per Gandhi la casta kshatriya (militare) era un modello: egli voleva guerrierinonviolenti, con la stessa perseveranza, indispensabile anche nella mediazione.
→ read full articleSystematic Eavesdropping on the Government: The NSA’s Spying Operation on Mexico
Laura Carlsen - CounterPunch,
28 Oct 2013
The latest analysis of Snowden leaks from the German magazine Der Spiegel is a bombshell for Mexico. “The NSA has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years,” reads the opening line in the Oct. 20 [2013] issue.
→ read full articleBahrain Regime Waging War on Own People
Finian Cunningham – Press TV,
28 Oct 2013
The US-backed Bahraini regime is mounting an undeclared, merciless war on the majority Shia population of the tiny Persian Gulf island. Yet, this systematic crime against humanity is proceeding with impunity and barely a murmur of international protest. The regime may be the ones holding the gun, but it is the tacit support of Washington and London that allows these despots to pull the trigger on civilians.
→ read full articleInterview with UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar
UN Humanitarian Affairs – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
[During my] last mission my convoy was attacked by Buddhist mobs [where I was addressing the issue of communal violence]. And the police stood by so it was kind of planned somehow… It was more than tense. I was frightened. But I am still holding the mandate [as Myanmar’s special rapporteur on human rights].
→ read full article(Italiano) Il processo d’integrazione balcanica in un contesto globale*
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
Il processo d’integrazione balcanico all’interno, e il contesto globale all’esterno, sono entrambi parte della storia degli imperi che vengono, lasciano profonde linee di faglia all’interno e all’esterno, e poi declinano e cadono.
→ read full articleInterview with UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar
UN Humanitarian Affairs – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2013
[During my] last mission my convoy was attacked by Buddhist mobs [where I was addressing the issue of communal violence]. And the police stood by so it was kind of planned somehow… It was more than tense. I was frightened. But I am still holding the mandate [as Myanmar’s special rapporteur on human rights].
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Black Hole: Evolution of a Mafia State (Part 1)
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Oct 2013
The military’s regressive evolution in terms of its institutional ethos, culture, and practices have created its current mafia-like nature. A mafia mindset has infected the beliefs and attitudes of those who lead, manage and man this omnipresent organization, the self-proclaimed guardian of the national interest in Myanmar’s supposed new democracy.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Black Hole: Fascist Roots, Rewritten Histories (Part 2)
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
21 Oct 2013
One of the best known historical facts about Myanmar’s armed forces is that it was originally the product of fascist Japan’s military strategy to recruit, train and arm local nationalist elements in Asia against British and Allied forces during World War II.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Black Hole: A Class above, the Heaven-Born (Part 3)
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
21 Oct 2013
Only time will tell whether the forces of the free market will overpower Myanmar’s ruling soldiering class. Unlike the military in Indonesia, the Philippines and Turkey, Myanmar’s military is marching backward along feudal lines.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il vero “Sud globale” oggi: i BRICS*
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Oct 2013
Nello sviluppo economico mondiale si stagliano due fatti basilari, a parte lo sviluppo militare, politico, culturale e sociale:
* I BRICS – un acronimo che sta diventando un fatto sociale – stanno emergendo;
* Gli USA-UE stanno declinando; non solo come mercati, bensì anche come produttori.
Varieties of Violence: Structural, Cultural, and Direct
William T. Hathaway – Counter Currents,
21 Oct 2013
Where does it come from? The Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung denies that human nature condemns us to violence; instead he gives another explanation of its etiology based on three interacting forces: structural, cultural, and direct.
→ read full articleThe US Calamities: There Are Solutions
Johan Galtung, 21 Oct 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Oct 2013
How about USA making a deal with the Chinese and the Russians? 50 Percent Chinese debt forgiveness against 50 percent US reduction of the most offensive military components– the 800 bases around the world–over 5-10 years? Accompanied by a similar multilateral and balanced reduction in offensive arms in all three, building on the Russian chemical arms momentum?
→ read full articleBankrupt at Home and Abroad, Syria Shows Washington is a Spent Geopolitical Player
Finian Cunningham – Strategic Culture Foundation,
21 Oct 2013
Having largely created a quagmire of terrorism and lawlessness in Syria through covert insurgency operations over the past two and half years, the US government looks like a hapless Doctor Frankenstein who has lost control of the beast, or should we say beasts…
→ read full articleIs Homosexuality Really An Import?
Devika Mittal – Counter Currents,
21 Oct 2013
The Gulf nations are planning to conduct “gay tests” for foreign tourists. It is claimed that the test will “recognise” gays and transgenders who will be then denied entry. This will be applicable in all the GCC or Gulf Cooperation Council countries that includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. In all the GCC countries, homosexuality is outlawed.
→ read full article30 Million Modern Slaves around the World, Finds Global Index
Counter Currents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Oct 2013
Nearly 30 million people around the world are living as slaves, according to the Global Slavery Index 2013, a new index ranking 162 countries. Even, Iceland, Ireland and the UK are not slave-free. This is the first year of the GSI.
→ read full articleMillennium Development Goals: The Failure of the Debt System
Daniel Munevar & Eric Toussaint, CADTM – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
As the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold their annual meeting in Washington 11-13 Oct 2013 it is necessary to take a look at the state of the Millennium Development Goals
→ read full articleThe Real “Global South” Today: BRICS*
Johan Galtung, 14 Oct 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Oct 2013
Two basic facts stand out in the world economic development, leaving aside military, political, cultural and social development:
* The BRICS–an acronym becoming a social fact–are emerging;
* The USA-EU are declining; not only as markets, also as producers.
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 article