Articles by UN
We found 3984 results.
The United States of America–Heading Where?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Dec 2013
Where would renewal, counter-forces that might get the country on another course come from? Economically: cannot be said often enough: lifting the bottom up, giving them hope and dignity, bringing them into the economy and above all changing the ethos of the economy from enriching the rich to empowering the poor.
→ read full articleEU Commission Fines Banks $2.3 Billion for Benchmark Rigging
Foo Yun Chee, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Dec 2013
EU antitrust regulators vowed to keep investigating rate- rigging on Wednesday [4 Dec 2013] as they slapped a record 1.7 billion euro ($2.3 billion) penalty on six financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, RBS and JPMorgan.
→ read full article(Italiano) Pace in Colombia?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Dec 2013
In questa conferenza si sta usando una parola molto controproducente: post-conflitto, invece di post-violenza. Non confondetele: la violenza significa fare del male, nuocere; i conflitti sono obiettivi incompatibili. “Post-conflitto” suona come se tutto fosse risolto con la fine della violenza, senza la consapevolezza di dover ridurre la diseguaglianza flagrante, e procedere verso l’armonia attraverso l’empatia, la riconciliazione dei traumi, e la capacità di risoluzione ricorrente dei conflitti.
→ read full articleShifty Shinzo’s Corporate Welfare Program: Boosting Profits While Wages Sag
Mike Whitney - CounterPunch,
2 Dec 2013
Abenomics is based on the idea that if you give rich people a lot of money, they’ll spend it and the economy will get better. There are a few minor flaws to the theory, however, like the fact that it doesn’t work.
→ read full articleThanksgiving: A National Day of Mourning for Indians
Mahtowin Munro and Moonanum James, Popular Resistance – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Dec 2013
We object to the “Pilgrim Progress” parade and to what goes on in Plymouth because they are making millions of tourist dollars every year from the false pilgrim mythology. That money is being made off the backs of our slaughtered indigenous ancestors.
→ read full articleThe Global Economy–Heading Where?
Johan Galtung, 2 Dec 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Dec 2013
Friends of USA: give sound advice; but de-americanize, keep distance. The global economy is heading East and South: BRCS+, with a stagnant EU. Growth with distribution, not stagnation with inequality.
→ read full article(Suomalainen-Finnish) NSA ja Yhdysvaltain imperiumin loppu
Johan Galtung - Kansan Uutiset,
25 Nov 2013
Liittolaisten vakoilu ja väärät tilannearviot heikentävät, kirjoittaa rauhantutkija Johan Galtung.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Medio Oriente: diretto dove?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Nov 2013
Siamo di fronte a un processo di distacco USA da un Israele lanciato verso un’illimitata espansione, che corrompe senatori e deputati con denaro e magari altro per le loro campagne? A un distacco USA dalle monarchie del Golfo e del G7 con l’Arabia Saudita che ora inscena proteste ovunque? Se così, stiamo vivendo in diretta un punto di svolta della storia mondiale.
→ read full articleAfrican Continent: Contrasts and Paradoxes
Pierre Celestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Nov 2013
When one analyses the bankruptcy of the African continent, one could wonder why since its independence of 1960s, it did not produce effective elite to manage their countries accordingly.
→ read full articleBitcoin Pursues the Mainstream
Nick Wingfield – International Herald Tribune-NYT,
25 Nov 2013
The currency known as bitcoin — a much-hyped and much-doubted type of digital cash that can be bought with traditional money — has mostly attracted attention for its popularity in the black market, and for its wildly gyrating valuation. But some entrepreneurs, investors and even merchants are eyeing a far more mainstream use for it.
→ read full articleRiots in Saudi Arabia: ‘The Kingdom Expels the Same People It Exploited’
Mansi Hassoun – France24,
25 Nov 2013
Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are considered clandestine when they lack either a residency permit allowing them to work or a ‘sponsor’ [like other countries in the region, Saudi Arabia uses the ‘kafala’ system, according to which each worker must be taken charge of by a ‘kafil’, or a sponsor].
→ read full articlePeace in Colombia?
Johan Galtung, 25 Nov 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Nov 2013
In this conference a highly counter-productive word is being used: postconflict, instead of post-violence. Do not confuse them: violence means hurting-harming; conflicts are incompatible goals. “Postconflict” sounds like all is solved with the end of violence, oblivious to reducing flagrant inequality, to harmony through empathy, trauma reconciliation, and capacity for ongoing conflict resolution.
→ read full articleJPMorgan Says ‘Mea Culpa’ in $13 Billion Record Settlement with U.S.
Aruna Viswanatha, David Henry & Karen Freifeld, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Nov 2013
But even after the settlement, the bank faces at least nine other government probes, covering everything from its hiring practices in China to whether it manipulated the Libor benchmark interest rate. It may still also face criminal charges linked to mortgage matters. The bank said last month it had set aside $23 billion to cover litigation expenses.
→ read full article(Italiano) Eppur si muove! – Il caso dell’educazione alla pace in Messico
Johan Galtung & Fernando Montiel T. – TRANSCEND Media Servivce,
25 Nov 2013
E ora? Beh, dopo sei anni di “guerra alla droga” (che in realtà ha 42 anni, ha iniziato nel 1971 sotto Pres. Nixon. Sei anni è conteggio del governo messicano ‘ufficiale’) aggiungiamoci giusto circa centomila persone uccise, trentamila sparite, milioni di traumatizzati, un quarto dei messicani che vivono negli USA come profughi economici, sei su dieci che vivono in povertà, e dieci milioni di questi, su una popolazione di 120 milioni, vivono in miseria, e avremo così un’immagine aggiornata della situazione.
→ read full articleMyanmar’s Neo-Nazi Buddhists Get Free Rein
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
18 Nov 2013
Burma/Myanmar’s radical “969 movement” has been central in the recent brutal pogroms against minority Muslims that have left at least 40 dead and 12,000 displaced. The Buddhist monk-led group, however, cannot be understood outside of the interface between President Thein Sein’s government and the country’s racist society at large.
→ read full articleThe Case of Education for Peace in Mexico
Johan Galtung & Fernando Montiel T.,
18 Nov 2013
And now? Well, after six years of the “war on drugs” (which in fact is 42 years old; it started in 1971 under Pres. Nixon; six years is the Mexican government ‘official’ count) just add a hundred thousand people killed, thirty thousand disappeared, millions traumatized, the fact that one out of four Mexicans live in the US as economic refugee, that six out of ten live in poverty, and that ten million of them –out of a population of 120 million- live in misery, and we will have an updated image of the situation. Hopeless? No. Certainly not.
→ read full articleStatement from Edward Snowden
ACLU-American Civil Liberties Union – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2013
The German magazine Der Spiegel published a statement Sunday [3 Nov 2013] from Edward Snowden that it translated from English to German. Snowden has provided the ACLU with the original English text.
→ read full article(Italiano) NSA e caduta dell’Impero USA
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2013
Eppure, essendoci una cerchia interna di élite auto-nominate, c’è anche una cerchia interna di alleati di cui ci si può presumibilmente fidare, i “Cinque Occhi”: Regno Unito, USA, Canada, Australia, Nuova Zelanda; Anglo-America per esteso. Un circolo di paesi selezionati su base razzista-culturalista. Bianchi e anglo, uccisori di popoli indigeni ovunque: gli USA degli indiani nativi, il Canada un po’ meno degli appartenenti ai Popoli Nativi, l’Australia degli aborigeni, la Nuova Zelanda un po’ meno dei Maori, Il Regno Unito dappertutto – facendo sì che gli altri si lanciassero su quel pendio scivoloso del genocidio e del sociocidio.
→ read full articleRuthless Regimes Not Impervious to Civil Resistance: A Reply to Maged Mandour
Stephen Zunes and Jack DuVall – Open Democracy,
11 Nov 2013
Maged Mandour’s article on openDemocracy, “Beyond Civil Resistance: The Case of Syria”, argues that civil resistance has been marginalized in the Syrian insurrection because it doesn’t work against “ruthless” regimes. But history doesn’t support that conclusion.
→ read full articleThe Middle East–Heading Where?
Johan Galtung, 11 Nov 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2013
Are we witnessing a process of the USA detaching itself from an Israel bent on unlimited expansion, bribing Senators, Representatives with campaign money+? USA detaching itself from the G7 Gulf monarchies with Saudi Arabia now protesting everywhere? If so, we are living world history right now.
→ read full articleYour Email is Likely Being Monitored – The NSA’s Invasion of Google and Yahoo Servers
Alfredo Lopez - CounterPunch,
11 Nov 2013
What a week! Shortly after Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that maybe our government had gone “too far” in its surveillance programs, the Washington Post dropped another Edward Snowden bombshell demonstrating that it is going a whole lot farther than we knew.
→ read full articleNSA and the Fall of the US Empire
Johan Galtung, 4 Nov 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Nov 2013
Yet, as there is an inner circle of self-appointed elites there is also an inner circle of allies that presumably can be trusted, the “Five Eyes”: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand; Anglo-America writ large. Who are they? A club of countries selected on a racist-culturalist basis. White and Anglo, killers of indigenous peoples all over: USA of Native Indians, Canada a little less of First Nations, Australia of Aborigines, New Zealand a little less of Māoris, UK all over–getting the others launched on that slippery slope of genocide and sociocide.
→ read full article(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 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 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 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 article