Articles by UN
We found 3812 results.
The Americas: Colombia and the USA
Johan Galtung,
28 May 2013
A few years ago the two countries were the leaders in mental anxiety in the Americas. Both had good reasons: the longest lasting violence in any contemporary country; in Colombia from 1949 with some interruption, then on again from 1964 with FARC, the famous guerilla. And for the USA the conviction that Evil is around every corner, domestic and global; better have the arms to handle those bad guys.
→ read full article(Castellano) La Corporación-Estado
Andrei Fúrsov – Forum Mundial de Alternativas,
27 May 2013
La única manera correcta de plantear y discutir la cuestión sobre qué es lo que ocurre con la nación-Estado es dentro del contexto del desarrollo del sistema capitalista a largo plazo, es decir, en base de los principios del historismo y enfoque sistémico, lo cual automáticamente supone la necesidad del planteamiento teórico.
→ read full article(Italiano) Un Mondo Ottagonale
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2013
Gli USA ovviamente cercano di neutralizzare l’autonomia latinoamericana/caraibica come fanno con i vari interventi e uccisioni selettive, Francia-Gran Bretagna-Italia cercano di riconquistare l’Africa, e il Giappone vuole una certa egemonia nell’Asia dell’Est. Non ci riusciranno: l’integrazione latinoamericana è già troppo avanzata. L’Africa ricupererà con l’Islam, e Abe non può basare una propria massiccia esportazione ai paesi che il Giappone ha brutalizzato senza impegnarsi in una riconciliazione che fa di tutto per evitare.
→ read full article(Italiano) Frattanto, Manchester United
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2013
Libia: una striscia di terra simile ai luoghi donde provengono gli invasori italiani, francesi ecc. a colonizzare l’Africa, il resto Berbero-Tuareg con le proprie cosmologie e l’islam soppressi, all’attacco di un consolato-ambasciata, eventualmente anche un centro di detenzione CIA, per liberare i loro amici l’11 settembre 2012 (quando fu ucciso l’ambasciatore J.C. Stevens), l’aver attaccato la sede del Comitato Internazionale della Croce Rossa (ICRC) a 1 km di distanza il 22 maggio: “l’ICRC dovette ammainare la propria bandiera con la croce (corsivo mio) rossa / la Libia è uno stato islamico” (lettera a Hillary Clinton del Parlamento USA del 02-10-2013).
→ read full articleSyrians Neither Need Nor Want Western Interference: The First Syrian Casualty
Paul Larudee - ConterPunch,
27 May 2013
“Truth is the first casualty of war.” The well-worn aphorism could have served as a refrain for the Mussalaha International Peace Delegation to Syria, May 2-10, 2013. We were reminded constantly of the very different interpretations of events that were being portrayed in our home countries and Syria.
→ read full articleWhy the Claims of Sarin Gas Don’t Add Up: Syria Has No Reason to Use Chemical Weapons
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
27 May 2013
It should have been self-evident that Iraqi defectors with juicy stories, and the opposition parties that promoted them, wanted to tempt the US into military action against Saddam. When it comes to chemical weapons, the Syrian opposition has similar and wholly understandable motives.
→ read full articleNeo-Nazi Denial in Myanmar
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
27 May 2013
Myanmar has a newly registered Nazi party, the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), created ceremoniously in the wake of last year’s anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing in western Rakhine State.
→ read full articleUN General Assembly Vote Reflects Shift in Syrian Public Opinion
Franklin Lamb - CounterPunch,
20 May 2013
At the UN this past week a US-Qatari-Saudi drafted General Assembly Resolution designed to increase pressure on the Assad government stumbled badly and fell far short of a predicted overwhelming vote in favor. A major diplomatic victory for Syria’s UN Ambassador as public opinion shifts in favor of the Assad government and pressure as well as certain optimism builds in the run-up to the Geneva II conference being organized by the White House and the Kremlin.
→ read full article(Italiano) Siria
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
La ricerca potrebbe riguardare varie soluzioni, anziché la soluzione. Che fioriscano 1.000 dialoghi, in ciascun quartiere, ciascun villaggio, ad arricchire il prodotto nazionale lordo d’idee. Facilitatori sostenuti dall’ONU, con conoscenza della mediazione, anziché con armi e binocoli.
→ read full articleCan Richard Falk Achieve Civil Rights for Palestinians in Lebanon?
Franklin Lamb - CounterPunch,
20 May 2013
Two-Thirds of Palestinian Refugees are Living in Poverty
→ read full articleThe Basel Committee and the Global Banking Mafia
Valentin Katasonov – Strategic Culture Foundation,
20 May 2013
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (hereinafter – the Committee) is closely associated with supranational organisations like the Bank for International Settlements in Basel (BIS), which is often called the «club», the «headquarters» of central banks or the «Central Bank of Last Resort».
→ read full articleMono- Multi- Inter- Cross- Trans-Disciplinary
Johan Galtung,
20 May 2013
My introduction to daoism was via Joseph Needham and Chinese philosophers in Beijing. They see Western science as heavily biased with its atomism, deduction–aristotelian tertium non datur–values, leading to false dichotomies. Daoism inspires the search for both-and, like current Chinese capi-communism. Or commu-capitalism.
→ read full articleAre Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar Elites Complicit in the Rohingya Ethnocide?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
Is Burma’s Aung Suu Kyi herself complicit in this Rohingya ethnnocide? is a valid, empirical question that needs to be raised.
→ read full article(Italiano) ABEconomia e lo Stato del Giappone
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
Alternative: rendersi conto che i vecchi tempi d’oro sono finiti, che USA-Occidente-Giappone sono battuti dalla concorrenza BRICS. Agire per accordi più modesti, accettabili. E, invece di associarvi agli USA nell’aumentare l’insicurezza, associatevi ai vostri vicini in una Comunità dell’Asia dell’Est e rivedete la TPP per una partnership egalitaria dalla Cina agli USA e dal Giappone all’America Latina.
→ read full articleMarx and Lenin as the New Go-To Economists: In the Time between Crises
Rob Urie - CounterPunch,
20 May 2013
Rob Urie writes that the ruling class wants austerity to transfer wealth from the government to their own greedy wallets.
→ read full articleMyanmar: Defeating the Preachers of Hate
Benedict Rogers - Maw Kun Magazine,
13 May 2013
The men were drawn from all religious backgrounds – in this instance Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus – working together to defend each other. I asked how long they expected to have to do this. “We don’t know, but we will do this for as long as necessary”. That is the spirit the people of Burma should turn to, to defeat the preachers of hatred.
→ read full articleMyanmar Whitewashes Ethnic Cleansing
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
13 May 2013
1 May 2013 – An official report into last year’s violence in Rakhine State, launched on April 29 at the government’s foreign donor financed Myanmar Peace Center, is intellectually, ideologically, empirically and analytically flawed, underscoring President Thein Sein’s bid to whitewash the recent ethnic cleansing of Muslim Rohingya in the western state, which borders Bangladesh.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, Manchester United
Johan Galtung, 13 May 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 May 2013
Libya: a strip of land similar to where the Italian, French etc. invaders-colonizing Africa come from, the rest Berber-Tuareg with their world views and Islam suppressed, attacking a consulate-embassy possibly also a CIA detention center to liberate their friends on 11 Sep 2012 (when Ambassador J.C. Stevens was killed), having attacked the International Committee of the Red Cross 1 km away on 22 May: “the ICRC must take down their flag with the red cross Libya is an Islamic State” (letter to Hillary Clinton from the US Congress 02-10-2013).
→ read full articleIs the Tamil Diaspora Against Unity in Sri Lanka?
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Groundviews,
13 May 2013
The world has already learnt a bitter lesson from Sri Lanka. The question now is: Will the concerned actors grab the opportunity and walk in the right direction? If yes, the Tamil Diaspora will march alongside with them.
→ read full articleAn Ongoing Liability: The CIA’s Dirty Wars
Michael Brenner - CounterPunch,
13 May 2013
The errant actions of the C.I.A. are by now so evident that they are a staple of Washington conversion. Like the weather, though, it is the topic everybody talks about, but does nothing about.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: The Intentions Behind the Land Grabbing Process
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka,
6 May 2013
In the so-called ‘post-war’ Sri Lanka context, land grabbing, Sinhalization and military occupation of the Tamil nation have become pivotal points in the political development discourse. The deep concerns that exist amongst the majority of the Tamils, which are directed towards their present and future existence, are these same issues.
→ read full articleOpen Letter to International Crisis Group
Maung Zarni – Democratic Voice of Burma,
6 May 2013
If the ICG’s award is about honouring President Thein Sein’s “visionary leadership to effect profound social, economic and political changes” that will “bring us closer to a world free of conflict” then the organisation’s empirical understanding of both Thein Sein’s vision and the ugly realities experienced by the Burmese people, including the Rohingya, can only be characterised as delusional.
→ read full article54 Years of Stupidity and Counting – Cuba Policy: Fruitless, Mean and Cruel
Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdés - CounterPunch,
6 May 2013
In their 54-year-old effort to bring down Cuba’s revolutionary government and restore obedience in our Caribbean neighbor, U.S. officials have compiled a spectacular record of failure, overshadowed only by the determination to persist in their pursuit of wrongheaded polices, further damaging U.S. interests.
→ read full articleAn Octagonal World
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 May 2013
USA sheds half of its bases and the military budget in this administration and the next; using the savings to lift the bottom up so they can participate in the economy and make the wheels turn. China gives up its maritime imperialism–harking back to “When the World was Asia, 500-1500 AD–and forgives 50% of the US debt in return for the 50% disarmament–keeping a policy of no military intervention. SCO cooperates, peacefully.
→ read full articleSyria
Johan Galtung,
29 Apr 2013
The search could be for solutions, not for the solution. UN-supported facilitators, with knowledge of mediation, rather than with guns and binoculars. To do this, let the parties, outside and inside Syria, talk. Let them state their goals, the Syria they would like to see. What comes to mind is a Swiss solution. One Syria, federal, with local autonomy, even down to the village level, with Sunnis, Shias and Kurds having relations to their own across the borders. And non-aligned, which rules out foreign bases and flows of arms.
→ read full articleDinner in the Land of Black and White
Bridget Conley – World Peace Foundation,
29 Apr 2013
22 Apr 2013 – The coincidence of two news items about Burma/Myanmar today demand brief commentary: 1) International Crisis Group is honoring President U Thein Sein at its annual dinner, and 2) Human Rights Watch released a damning report about assaults against Burma’s Rohingya minority.
→ read full articleCISPA – Corporations Buy Politicians and Your Privacy
TheYoungTurks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Apr 2013
23 Apr 2013 – CISPA passed overwhelmingly in the house, despite its promise to allow corporations and the government access to your private data, completely unchecked. It’s no wonder after seeing how much money was poured into lobbying for the invasive bill, and who stands to profit.
→ read full article(Italiano) USA-Asia dell’Est: uno sguardo nell’abisso – ?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Apr 2013
La situazione non è mai stata così brutta dalla guerra di Corea del 1950-53.
→ read full articleAbenomics and the State of Japan
Johan Galtung, 22 Apr 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2013
Alternatives: realize that the old golden days are gone, that US-West-Japan are outcompeted by BRICS. Go for acceptable, more modest deals. And, instead of joining the US in increasing the insecurity, join the neighbors in an East Asian Community and revise the TPP for an egalitarian partnership from China to US and from Japan to Latin America.
→ read full articleAmerica the Blind: The Boston Marathon Bombing, Drones and the Meaning of Cowardice
Barry Lando - ConterPunch,
22 Apr 2013
What could be more cowardly than for some unknown, unseen, unannounced killer to blow apart and maim innocent men women and children, without any risk to himself? But what could be more cowardly than the CIA agent at the controls of a drone circling over some village on the other side of the world? How different are the images produced by such attacks—shattered bodies, dismembered limbs, severed arteries, frantic aid givers and terrified survivors—how different from the moving images of the tragedy in Boston now being broadcast and rebroadcast on TV stations around the globe?
→ read full articleSyria’s Civilian Suffering – Western Imperialism Resorts to Medieval Barbarity
Finian Cunningham – Strategic Culture Foundation,
22 Apr 2013
Western imperialism has created a human tsunami of suffering in Syria. And rather than making any effort to mitigate this suffering by delivering on much promised refugee aid, the Western powers seem to exploiting the massive misery for political advantage to further undermine the Syrian state and government. This tactic of enforced human deprivation is straight out of the Middle Ages, when invading armies would hold siege of cities by enforcing starvation on the occupants.
→ read full article(Italiano) Un Futuro Dopo Il Petrolio: 6 Proposte
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2013
La Cina brucia carbone-petrolio-gas, ma è anche un possente pioniere nelle energie verdi, con pannelli fotovoltaici e solari termici e auto elettriche, prodotti in maniera sempre più ecologica. Negli USA lobby molto efficienti del carbone-petrolio-gas impediscono la conversione ecologica e promuovono tecniche estrattive ecologicamente dannose. Il mondo si sta spostando a Est, e l’Est si sta spostando all’ecologico. E così pure milioni di persone.
→ read full articleGuantánamo and the American Psychological Association: Where Accountability Goes to Die
Roy Eidelson, Trudy Bond & Stephen Soldz – CounterPunch,
15 Apr 2013
Many of these individuals have suffered not only from indefinite detention, they have also been the victims of horrific physical and psychological abuse often rising to the level of torture, at the hands of individuals who have never been held accountable. As psychologists distressed by the involvement of our own profession in detainee abuse, we are especially troubled by the failure of the American Psychological Association (APA) to sanction one of its members, Dr. John Leso, a psychologist and Army officer who served at Guantánamo from June 2002 to January 2003. Six long years ago one of us (Trudy Bond) filed a complaint against Dr. Leso with the APA’s Ethics Committee.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Neo-Nazi Buddhists Get Free Rein
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
15 Apr 2013
Hatred of Muslims is deeply rooted in Burmese society. One of the regime’s favorite tactics was to spread rumors that Muslims had raped Burmese Buddhist women, and plotted to convert the entire Buddhist population to Islam. The “divide and rule” tactic used by the authorities in the recent past possibly grew out of the British colonial regime’s policy of fostering a “plural society” with minimal national unity.
→ read full article(Italiano) Perché l’Occidente Non Riesce a Capire la Realtà?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
Siamo già piuttosto addentro in un mondo economicamente dominato dai BRIC, aggiungendo la S del Sud-Africa per chiarire il messaggio: Sud-Sud-Sud contro neppure un miliardo di abitanti del NordOvest del mondo + il Giappone; militarmente è solo una questione di tempo prima che i primi droni colpiscano gli USA, come seguito all’11 settembre 2001, e chiunque si dedichi a esecuzioni extragiudiziarie; decisioni cruciali vengono prese dai BRICS (CELAC per l’America Latina), un giorno magari istituendo una contro-ONU senza veto; culturalmente considerando la loro diversità come risorsa essenziale, ispirandosi a tutte le culture.
→ read full articleSouth Africa as an Example of Stability and Diversity after the Apartheid Era
Pierre Célestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
From 1948 to 1994, South Africa witnessed a drastic and violent racial segregation. This has greatly affected and contributed to economic, social and political delays to the country. Let’s observe first the conflict resolution mechanism implemented in the country, as well as the current transformation of the country. Finally, we will briefly conclude on future hopes associated with this region, due to its recent inclusion in BRICS.
→ read full articleTwo Deaths: Hugo Chavez and Margaret Thatcher
Alan MacLeod - Countercurrents.org,
15 Apr 2013
Hugo Chavez and Margaret Thatcher, two great statespeople of our age, representing fundamentally opposing world views, have died. Just as contrasting as their ideologies was the reaction to their deaths, from both the media and the public.
→ read full articleDoes Obama Want More War?
Stansfield Smith – CounterPunch,
15 Apr 2013
The corporate media reduces the DPRK (North Korea) to the Kim family and prefaces their names with the terms “madman”, “evil” and “brutal”. Such vilifications of foreign leaders are used here not only to signify they are target for US overthrow. They are meant to intimidate and isolate anti-war activists as being out in left field for ever wanting to oppose a war against countries ruled by “madmen” – be they Saddam, Fidel, Hugo Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Qaddaffi.
→ read full articleUSA-East Asia Looking Into the Abyss
Johan Galtung, 15 Apr 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
North Korea could dismantle its verbal and physical threats, hoping for peace treaty-normalization in return. Like in Cuba 1962, that would not be one good for another, but one wrong for another. Would USA, used to dictate outcomes giving nothing in return, agree? Like in 1962 keeping it secret, with a “profile in courage” narrative? Hopefully, but not very likely, some secret deals are in the making. A change of mentality is needed, like in Europe in 1950. That may take centuries, but could also happen very quickly under enlightened statesmanship.
→ read full articleWhy Journalists Generally Get Their Burma Stories Wrong, Horribly Wrong
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2013
When it comes to reporting Burma the coverage has been beyond being biased. It is generally horribly inadequate, or downright incorrect. From a Burmese perspective, especially from the perspective of those who have borne the brunt of the half-century of military rule under various and evolving disguises, the way Burma is being reported is like adding insult to injury.
→ read full articleBurma/Myanmar: Its Conflicts, Western Advocacy, and Country Impact
Maung Zarni – World Peace Foundation,
8 Apr 2013
Burma’s conflicts are neither new nor are they singular. Conflicts along multiple-lines – class and ideology, civil society and the military, and ethnic groups– have been going on for nearly 65 years, that is, since Burma’s independence from Britain in 1947/1948.
→ read full articleA Future after Oil: Six Proposals
Johan Galtung,
8 Apr 2013
China burns coal-oil-gas, but is also a massive pioneer in green energies with photovoltaic and solar cells and electric cars, produced in ever greener ways. In the USA highly effective coal-oil-gas lobbies prevent the greening and promotes ecologically bad extraction. The world is moving East, the East is moving green. And so are millions. Decreasing demand will be a function of Harm X Green, boycotting the companies causing harm, “girlcotting” the green.
→ read full articleUN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty Full Text
UN General Assembly – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Apr 2013
New York, 18-28 March 2013 – The States Parties to this Treaty, Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, , . .
→ read full article(Italiano) Iraq: Dieci Anni di Stupidità
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Apr 2013
Ipotizzare solo uno scenario, la guerra – magari dopo sanzioni – rivela povertà intellettuale. L’Iraq aveva problemi ma non le vittime, l’esilio e gli sfollamenti della guerra – che può durare altri 10 anni avendo sconvolto tanti equilibri instabili. Eppure si va incontro alle dipendenze belliciste di USA-RegnoUnito, mandando gli altri all’inferno. Quella gente dovrebbe essere nota per la loro incapacità collaudata di analizzare e prevedere e rimediare. L’accademia dovrebbe essere per gli intellettuali, non per i clercs, l’intelligentsia.
→ read full articleLeaving Smoldering Carcasses, Where Functioning Economies Once Existed: Wall Street’s Role in the Crisis in Cyprus
Rob Urie - CounterPunch,
1 Apr 2013
Finance capitalism is fatally flawed in theory and in practice. Its ultimate product is that which is before us: a global plutocracy dependent on state capture, power and control to plunder and loot what will become, by necessity, increasingly resistant populations.
→ read full articleBuddhist Nationalism in Burma
Maung Zarni, tricycle – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
The broadcast images of monks of the “Saffron Revolution” of 2007 are still fresh; these monks were seen calling for an improvement in public well-being in the face of the growing economic hardships afflicting Burma’s Buddhists. But in the past year, the world has been confronted with images of the same robed monks publicly demonstrating against Islamic nations’ distribution of aid to starving Muslim Rohingya, displaced into refugee camps in their own country following Rakhine Buddhist attacks.
→ read full articleKristallnacht in Myanmar
Swe Win – International Herald Tribune-NYT,
1 Apr 2013
Not one bullet was fired, not one smoke bomb was dropped as scores of Muslims were attacked and some were burnt alive in Myanmar last week. The security forces just looked on. In a country where they routinely use brute force against political dissidents, villagers who protest land grabs and even monks, their passivity was sadly revealing.
→ read full articleWhy Does the West Fail to Understand Reality?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
We are already far into a world economically dominated by BRIC, with S added for South Africa to make the message clear: South-South-South against not even a billion living in the world Northwest+Japan; militarily with only a question of time before the first drones hit the USA, as follow-up to 9/11, and whoever engages in extrajudicial executions; key decisions are taken by BRICS (CELAC for Latin America), one day possibly making a counter-UN without veto; culturally seeing their diversity as a major asset, drawing on all cultures.
→ read full articleGuantanamo Exposes Reality of US Fascism
Finian Cunningham – PressTV,
1 Apr 2013
They are essentially dead men who just happen to breathe. That is the grim assessment of the legal representative for the inmates in the American concentration camp, otherwise known as Guantanamo Bay. More than 11 years after this penal colony was opened on the American-occupied territory of Cuba, there remains some 166 prisoners who live in a nightmarish world of indefinite detention.
→ read full article(Castellano) El Bien Común de la Humanidad: Un Paradigma Post-Capitalista Frente a la Ruptura del Equilibrio del Metabolismo Entre la Naturaleza y el Genero Humano
François Houtart – Forum Mundial de Alternativas,
1 Apr 2013
La reconstrucción del equilibrio del metabolismo entre la naturaleza y los seres humanos por un cambio de paradigma y las transiciones El problema de la ruptura del metabolismo socio-ambiental es el resultado de una lógica más amplia que abarca el modo de acumulación y el predominio del valor de cambio, la organización colectiva al servicio de la reproducción del capital y la visión del mundo orientada por un progreso lineal en un planeta inagotable al servicio de una minoría.
→ read full article(Italiano) Papa Francesco I, Gesuita
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
Il primo papa gesuita. La Società di Gesù, fondata da Ignazio di Loyola, fu un movimento di rinnovamento dall’interno nel 1534 dopo l’enorme riforma dall’esterno, il protestantesimo, in particolare Lutero nel 1517. Ci sono voluti più di quattro secoli per arrivare in cima; forse è cambiata la Chiesa, forse papa Francesco è un gesuita morbido. I gesuiti sono noti per essere preti che esercitano il loro ministero, e per avere una seconda professione, spesso come intellettuali, e di alto livello. Papa Francesco ha la stessa doppia reputazione. Promettente.
→ read full article(Italiano) Hugo Chavez: Un Produttore di Storia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
Un genio ci fa pensare, e agire, diversamente, in tal modo facendo la storia. Chávez è stato uno uno di questi. Grazie Hugo – possa tu non riposare in pace.
→ read full articleThe Last Letter
Tomas Young - Truthdig,
25 Mar 2013
A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from a Dying Veteran: You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.
–Tomas Young
Libya: Two Years after Launching Intervention
Alexander Mezyaev – Strategic Culture Foundation,
25 Mar 2013
Arms From Libya Are Spreading Out Across the Whole Continent – March 19 is the date the NATO intervention against Libya was launched two years ago [in 2011].
→ read full articleBuddhist Nationalism in Burma
Maung Zarni, Tricycle – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
The rise of genocidal Buddhist racism against the Rohingya, a minority community of nearly one million people in the western Burmese province of Rakhine (also known as Arakan), is an international humanitarian crisis. The military-ruled state has been relentless in its attempts to erase Rohingya ethnic identity, which was officially recognized as a distinct ethnic group in 1954 by the democratic government of Prime Minister U Nu.
→ read full articleIraq: Ten Years of Stupidity
Johan Galtung, 25 Mar 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
To assume only one scenario, war, reveals intellectual poverty. Iraq had problems but not the casualties, exile and displacements of the war-which may last 10 more years having upset so many unstable equilibia. They cater to the US-UK war addiction, sending others to hell. Such people should be known for their tested inability to analyze and forecast and remedy. Academia should be for intellectuals, not for clercs, intelligentsia.
→ read full articleWhat Isn’t Being Said: Soldier Suicides
Alyssa Rohricht - CounterPunch,
25 Mar 2013
Suicides in the U.S. military have been climbing, reaching a record high in 2012 when 349 soldiers took their own lives, about one every 25 hours. By comparison, 301 U.S. soldiers died in active combat in 2012, marking the third time in four years that the number of military suicides has surpassed the number of deaths in combat of U.S. soldiers.
→ read full articleChenney’s Halliburton Received $39.5 Billion in Iraq War Contracts over the Past Decade
Angelo Young - International Business Times,
25 Mar 2013
The accounting of the financial cost of the nearly decade-long Iraq War will go on for years, but a recent analysis has shed light on the companies that made money off the war by providing support services as the privatization of what were former U.S. military operations rose to unprecedented levels.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Religious Violence against the Muslims Is Military-Backed and Buddhist Order-Organzied
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Mar 2013
The violence against Muslims in Burma is not SIMPLY sectarian or communal as is typically and incorrectly framed by the mainstream media. It is mobilized by the skin-head elements within the Buddhist Sangha and tacitly backed by the military state, both working in close collaboration and in a symbiosis.
→ read full articlePope Francis I, a Jesuit
Johan Galtung, 18 Mar 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Mar 2013
The first Jesuit pope. The Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius de Loyola, was a renewal movement from the inside in 1534 after the huge outside reforma, the protestantisms, Luther-1517 in particular. More than four centuries was needed to reach the top; maybe the Church changed, maybe Pope Francis is a soft Jesuit. Jesuits are known for being priests exercising their ministry, and for having a second profession, often as intellectuals, and high level ones. Pope Francis has the same double reputation. Promising.
→ read full article(Italiano) Partitocrazia-Tecnocrazia-Autocrazia-Bancocrazia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Mar 2013
Il terzo livello di quelli sopra delineati, i mercanti, ovviamente esigono la loro parte, usando il proprio capitale bancario per comprare potere politico, addirittura fino all’estremo del salvataggio pubblico qualora le perdite superassero i guadagni. La bancocrazia opera mediante un parente stretto, la corruttocrazia, il governo dei corruttori sui corrotti pagati per i loro servigi. La corruzione è rampante. Perché? Perché la corruzione nel sistema politico, la conversione di denaro in decisioni, ha un parente stretto nel sistema economico, la commissione.
→ read full articleA Death Grip on Our Food Supply: Monsanto’s Death Patents
Randall Amster - CounterPunch,
18 Mar 2013
It increasingly appears that Monsanto is patenting death, perhaps even more so than life. Their patent rights should not trump the rights of people to procure safe, healthy, living foods. We should roundly deem Monsanto a loser in the court of public opinion, and strive to loosen their death grip on our food supply.
→ read full articlePromoting Injustice: The Bias of Human Rights Watch
Garry Leech - CounterPunch,
18 Mar 2013
Investigative reporter Garry Leech writes that HRW repeatedly focuses on political and civil rights while ignoring social and economic rights.
→ read full articleFukushima Two Years Later: Lessons for India
Nityanand Jayaraman - CounterCurrents,
18 Mar 2013
The Independent Commission appointed by the Japanese parliament to investigate the accident observed that while natural disasters may have triggered the nuclear events, the meltdown itself was “profoundly manmade.” The Commission concluded that “The. . .accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and TEPCO, and the lack of governance by said parties.”
→ read full articleInternational Day of Happiness, 20 March 2013
United Nations Academic Impact – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Mar 2013
The General Assembly has proclaimed 20 March as the International Day of Happiness. The resolution recognizes the “relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals … and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives; and the need for ”a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes sustainable development, poverty eradication, happiness and the well-being of all peoples.”
→ read full articleComplicit Americans: The Mass Psychology of Torture
William Manson – CounterPunch,
11 Mar 2013
In its most heinous forms, torture consists of confining a helpless victim, who is subjected to physical pain and torment, emotional abuse, and various other degrading humiliations. Prohibited by both international and domestic laws, the torture of suspected “terrorists” is nonetheless now widely condoned by most American citizens (or so it seems).
→ read full article(Castellano) 50 Verdades sobre Hugo Chávez y la Revolución Bolivariana
Salim Lamrani – Opera Mundi,
11 Mar 2013
El presidente Hugo Chávez, quien falleció el 5 de marzo de 2013 de un cáncer a los 58 años, marcó para siempre la historia de Venezuela y de América Latina. Jamás en la historia de América Latina, un líder político alcanzó una legitimidad democrática tan incontestable. Desde su llegada al poder en 1999, hubo 16 elecciones en Venezuela. Hugo Chávez ganó 15, de las cuales la última el 7 de octubre de 2012.
→ read full articleHugo Chavez: A Maker of History
Johan Galtung, 11 Mar 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Mar 2013
A genius makes us think, and act, differently, thereby making history. Chávez was one. Thank you Hugo–may you not rest in peace.
→ read full articleTwo Years Later, the Battle for Truth Continues: Fukushima’s Nuclear Casualties
Joseph J. Mangano - CounterPunch,
11 Mar 2013
Nuclear watchdog Joseph J. Mangano takes a look at Japan two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, only to find the truth has been covered up. Perhaps the most crucial issue to be addressed is how many people were harmed by radioactive emissions.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Mondo Visto dal Monte Everest
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Mar 2013
Nepal – Il Tibet viene considerato meno come parte repressa della Cina e più come patria del buddhismo tantrico – un forte aggancio al vicino gigantesco del Nord. La maggioranza del Nepal è orientata verso l’India, ma il Weekly Mirror ha una vista del mondo dall’alto, e il picco più alto, l’Everest, è più vicino alla Cina. Qualcuno una volta l’ha scalato, “perché è lì”, per dare uno sguardo più da vicino alla Cina.
→ read full articleBradley Manning and the Loud Silence of the Activist Gay Community Worldwide
Andy Thayer - CounterPunch,
11 Mar 2013
[Cowardice? Opportunism? Callousness?] Why is it that all of the big gay non-profits, from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force to the Human Rights Campaign – “Gay Inc.” – have failed to utter a word of support for Private Bradley Manning, let alone really campaign for him? HE’S GAY and unlike any number of air-head celebrities, he’s actually done something to support social justice, rather than mined charitable causes for personal fame and fortune.
→ read full articleActing like They Care about Haiti
Mark Schuller - CounterPunch,
4 Mar 2013
The Pretense of Doing Good (While Raising Millions) – On Tuesday [26 Feb 2013], Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, whose new role is Haiti’s ambassador to the United Nations, extolled the progress in the island nation of almost 10 million people.
→ read full articleUS-EU Trade Deal Is the Foundation for a New Global Economic Order
Dana Gabriel - CounterCurrents,
4 Mar 2013
The U.S. and EU have agreed to launch negotiations on what would be the world’s largest free trade deal. Such an agreement would be the basis for the creation of an economic NATO and would include trade in goods, services and investment, as well as cover intellectual property rights.
→ read full article(Português) A Rara Coragem de Bradley Manning
Marjorie Cohn, CounterCurrents – Carta Maior,
4 Mar 2013
As ações de Bradley Manning fazem lembrar o que fez Daniel Ellsberg, que divulgou os “Papéis do Pentágono”, no qual se expunham as mentiras do governo dos EUA e que apressaram o fim da Guerra do Vietname.
→ read full articleMonsanto University
Darwin Bond-Graham - CounterPunch,
4 Mar 2013
The University of California: a University, or a Biotech Company?- Last month [Jan 2013] the University of California intervened in a high stakes U.S. Supreme Court case on the side of the agribusiness giant Monsanto Company by filing an amicus brief stating that the university would be materially harmed if Monsanto doesn’t prevail.
→ read full articleTranscend Peace University Online Courses
Erika Degortes – TRANSCEND Peace University,
4 Mar 2013
All-online courses on peace, conflict transformation, mediation, peace education, nonviolence and more. TRANSCEND Peace University (TPU) is pleased to announce its call for applications for the academic year 2013: Certificate Online Courses – First Term of 2013: March 12th – May 30th
→ read full articlePartyocracy-Technocracy-Autocracy-Bankocracy
Johan Galtung, 4 Mar 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
The merchants, of course demand their share, using their bank capital to buy political power, even to the bailout point should the losses exceed the gains. Bankocracy works through a close relative, corruptocracy, the rule of corruptors over corruptees paid for their services. Corruption is rampant. Why? Because corruption in the political system, converting money into decisions, has a close relative in the economic system, a commission.
→ read full article(Italiano) Nepal: Sei Anni di “Transizione”
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2013
Tre grandi rivolte in Asia negli scorsi decenni sono finite: la rivoluzione culturale anti-confuciana in Cina del 1967-76, la rivoluzione dei Khmer Rossi anti-Phnom Penh in Cambogia del 1975-79, e la guerra del popolo maoista anti-casta e anti-monarchia feudale in Nepal, durata 10 anni dal 13 febbraio 1996, seguita da 18 giorni di effettiva nonviolenza per le strade di Kathmandu il 6-24 aprile 2006. Il re abdicò.
→ read full articleThe Divine Farce: Corruption and Infallibility at the Vatican
Joseph Grosso – CounterPunch,
4 Mar 2013
If the report from the Italian newspaper La Repubblica is true then it turns out that the Pope resigned due to a faction of gay Vatican officials being blackmailed by outsiders. This sordid affair emerged from an investigation by a three Cardinal team that Benedict XVI set up to look into the leaking of personal correspondence by his own butler, Paolo Gabriele, who saw such leaking as a noble act in an organization dominated by infighting and corruption.
→ read full articleAfrica and AFRICOM: Neo-Imperialism and the Arrogance of Ignorance
Franklin C. Spinney - CounterPunch,
4 Mar 2013
Most Americans do not realize the extent to which the U.S. is becoming involved militarily in the welter of conflicts throughout Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa. Notwithstanding the arrogance of ignorance being reaffirmed in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, it is beginning to look like Asprey’s timeless conclusion will be reaffirmed Africa.
→ read full articleWhat’s The Problem With Iran?
Transnational Foundation-TFF – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
On Tuesday February 26, 2013 in Kazakhstan, a new round of negotiations is due between Iran and the Five Permanent UN Security Council members + Germany. We’d like to bring the following expert statement to your attention.
→ read full articleThe World as Seen from Mt Everest
Johan Galtung, 25 Feb 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
Nepal – Tibet is seen less as suppressed part of China and more as home of Tantric buddhism–a strong link to the giant neighbor to the North. Nepal’s majority is India-oriented, but the Weekly Mirror takes a world view from high up, and that highest peak, Mt Everest, is closer to China. Somebody once climbed it, “because it is there”, to get a closer look at China. The world becomes more transparent, seen from high up.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: Crime and Punishment
Vidya Bhushan Rawat - CounterCurrents,
25 Feb 2013
For a moment, let us keep aside the issue of Sri Lanka and see the track record of the UN Human Rights Council. What has it done to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq where millions of children are now suffering in hunger, malnutrition and have caught up with different diseases due to chemical warfare launched by the United States and its allies?
→ read full articleRe-Imagining a World beyond Capitalism and Communism
Arundhati Roy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
Here in India, even in the midst of all the violence and greed, there is still hope. If anyone can do it, we can. We still have a population that has not yet been completely colonized by that consumerist dream. If there is any hope for the world at all, it does not live in climate-change conference rooms or in cities with tall buildings. It lives low down on the ground, with its arms around the people who go to battle every day to protect their forests, their mountains and their rivers because they know that the forests, the mountains and the rivers protect them.
→ read full articleAttacks and Death Threats Put Members of the Pastoral Land Commission in Brazil at Risk
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), which has for years campaigned tirelessly to advance social justice and the rights of small farmers and the landless in Brazil, suffered three attacks on its headquarters in the state of Acre this year. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which in 1991 recognised the work of the Pastoral Land Commission, condemns the attacks and demands increased security for rural workers.
→ read full article(Italiano) Pensando al Mali
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
Tuareg e musulmani hanno preso molto dall’Occidente negli scorsi cent’anni; e se adesso l’Occidente cercasse di imparare qualcosa da loro? È davvero ovvio che lo stato moderno, automatizzato, industriale, finanziario-speculativo sia meglio che il nomadismo confederato da cammellieri?
→ read full articleWritten in Blood and Dreams – Poetry and Latin American Revolution
Andre Vltchek - CounterPunch,
25 Feb 2013
I am writing this essay in order to talk about the poetry, and about the songs, that have had such a decisive influence on the changes and revolutions in South America. We did not win because of our brains only; we won because of our hearts, and because of the great talent of our creative men and women, their ability to move others, to inspire and often to enrage the people all over the continent.
→ read full article[Tragicomic] French President François Hollande Awarded UNESCO Peace Prize
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
The President of France, François Hollande, will receive the United Nations cultural agency’s peace prize this year for his “valuable contribution to peace and stability in Africa,” it was announced today [21 Feb 2013].
→ read full articleTranscend Peace University Online Courses
Erika Degortes – TRANSCEND Peace University,
25 Feb 2013
All-online courses on peace, conflict transformation, mediation, peace education, nonviolence and more. TRANSCEND Peace University (TPU) is pleased to announce its call for applications for the academic year 2013: Certificate Online Courses – First Term of 2013: March 12th – May 30th
→ read full articleGMO Agribusiness and the Destructive Nature of Global Capitalism
Colin Todhunter – Global Research,
25 Feb 2013
Capitalism is based on managing its inherent crises. It is also based on the need to maximise profit, beat down competitors, cut overheads and depress wages. With each new ‘fix’, with each technology, with each new pesticide, herbicide, GM innovation, we become further removed from working in harmony with nature. Capitalism doesn’t solve its problems, it just shifts them around. And part of the great con-trick is that it attempts to pass off its endless crises and failures as brilliant successes.
→ read full articleNepal: Six Years of “Transition”
Johan Galtung, 18 Feb 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Three huge revolts in Asia in the last decades came to an end: the anti-Confucian cultural revolution in China 1967-76, the anti Phnom Penh Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia 1975-79, and the anti-feudal monarchy anti-caste maoist People’s War in Nepal that lasted 10 years from 13 February 1996, followed by 18 days of effective nonviolence in the streets of Kathmandu in 6-24 April 2006. The King abdicated.
→ read full articleDeep in the Rectum – Western Art Is Barking at China
Andre Vltchek - CounterPunch,
18 Feb 2013
In Europe and the US, for years and decades, art has become sclerotic, toothless, and somehow synonymous with grant applications, ego trips, identical-looking museum buildings, hordes of tourists and the constant glorification of form over substance. The Western propaganda apparatus spent great energy and funds on extracting all the teeth from the artists, turning them into well groomed poodles.
→ read full articleThe Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI: Out with God’s Rottweiler
Binoy Kampmark - CounterPunch,
18 Feb 2013
As head of the Doctrine for the Congregation of the Faith, the then Cardinal Ratzinger ordered that Fr. Lawrence Murphy, who had sexually assaulted at least 200 children at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, leave the ministry. All to the good, except that Murphy was not defrocked let alone punished or prosecuted via formal legal channels. Besides, no one was particularly interested in listening to deaf victims.
→ read full articleThe African Union, Algeria and Mali: The West’s War against African Development Continues
Dan Glazebrook - CounterPunch,
18 Feb 2013
Africa’s classic depiction in the mainstream media, as a giant basketcase full of endless war, famine and helpless children creates an illusion of a continent utterly dependent on Western handouts. In fact, the precise opposite is true – it is the West that is reliant on African handouts.
→ read full articleUN Kicks Off Year Promoting International Cooperation on Water Management
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
11 February 2013 – The United Nations today launched the International Year of Water Cooperation, which seeks to provide a platform for countries to collaborate in the management of this precious resource in the interest of peace and development.
→ read full articleThe Blind Theology of Militarism
David Sirota – Tahoe Daily Tribune,
18 Feb 2013
In a country whose culture so often (wrongly) portrays bloodshed as the most effective problem solver, many Americans hear this now-ubiquitous drone-war argument and reflexively agree with its suppositions.
→ read full article(Italiano) Schiavitù, Colonialismo, e la Chiesa
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Feb 2013
Parliamo di milioni di schiavi sbarcati nell’arco fra Rio a Washington con baricentro caraibico, e di altri a sud di Rio, a nord di Washington e sulla linea di costa del Pacifico dell’America Latina. Un indicibile crimine contro l’umanità.
→ read full article[Tragicomic] Pentagon Urges Delay in “Devastating” $46 Billion Budget Cuts
David Alexander and Phil Stewart, Reuters – Chicago Tribune,
18 Feb 2013
The Pentagon’s civilian and military leaders warned in dire terms on Tuesday [12 Feb 2013] that $46 billion in budget cuts due to go into effect in two weeks would erode the nation’s ability to go to war and appealed to Congress to delay the reductions.
→ read full articleTranscend Peace University Online Courses
Erika Degortes – TRANSCEND Peace University,
18 Feb 2013
All-online courses on peace, conflict transformation, mediation, peace education, nonviolence and more. TRANSCEND Peace University (TPU) is pleased to announce its call for applications for the academic year 2013: Certificate Online Courses – First Term of 2013: March 12th – May 30th
→ read full articleCondemning North Korea’s Latest Nuclear Test Is Meaningless
Buddhi Kota Subbarao - Countercurrents,
18 Feb 2013
North Korea said the test is aimed at coping with “ferocious” U.S. hostility that undermines the North’s peaceful, sovereign right to launch satellites. As expected, alarm bells started ringing in the United States. President Obama immediately called North Korea’s latest nuclear test a “highly provocative act” that threatens U.S. security and international peace.
→ read full article