Articles by M
We found 36604 results.
Iran Unable to Get Life-Saving Drugs Due to International Sanctions
Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan – The Guardian,
21 Jan 2013
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians with serious illnesses have been put at imminent risk by the unintended consequences of international sanctions, which have led to dire shortages of life-saving medicines such as chemotherapy drugs for cancer and bloodclotting agents for haemophiliacs.
→ read full articleNASA Finds Long-Term Climate Warming Trend
Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2013
NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.
→ read full articleThe Religious and Social Crises and Political Consequences
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2013
The opening long decade of the 21st century (2000-2012) has been a period of repeated and profound economic and social crises, of serial and prolonged wars and declining living standards for the vast majority of Americans. How have people responded to this crisis?
→ read full articleBurn, burn – Africa’s Afghanistan
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
21 Jan 2013
Forget about spotting any Americans; these are – what else – contractors who do not wear military uniforms.
→ read full articleSolar-Powered Water Pumps Struggle to See the Light
Manipadma Jena – Inter Press Service-IPS,
21 Jan 2013
When twenty-nine-year-old Kartik Wahi graduated from the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, Illinois in 2010, he wasted no time in returning to India to self-finance a start-up company to market solar-powered irrigation pumps. Working on a shoestring budget together with two partners, the young entrepreneur was convinced that the benefits of this renewable energy initiative would make a huge difference in some of India’s largest agricultural regions.
→ read full article
Self-Immolations in Tibet
China Central TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2013
Facts about the Self-Immolations in Tibetan Areas of Ngapa
→ read full articleThe Gravest of Allegations: Conflating Critique of Israel with Anti-Semitism
Ronen Bergman – Der Spiegel,
21 Jan 2013
In recent years, Israeli Jews have often confused anti-Israel rhetoric with anti-Semitism, argues journalist Ronen Bergman, who has himself been subjected to verbal attacks for his reporting in SPIEGEL.
→ read full articleBhakti Yoga: In Search of a Lost Love
Radhanath Swami – The Huffington Post,
21 Jan 2013
The aroma of musk is so alluring that when the stag’s sensitive nose catches wind of it he roams the forest day and night in pursuit of its source. He exhausts himself in a fruitless quest, never realizing the bitter irony: the sweet fragrance he was chasing resided nowhere but within himself. Musk, you see, is produced by a gland in the stag’s very own navel: it was searching without for what was all along lying within. The sages of India found in the musk deer an apt description of the human condition.
→ read full articleGoing Nowhere through Not-knowing Where to Go
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2013
Whether for the individual, for factional interests, or for global governance, it is becoming increasingly clear that many experience a sense of “going nowhere”. Part of the issue lies in not knowing “where to go” in quest of whatever might have been imagined as desirable. The issue has been highlighted with respect to the young — as challenged by unemployment in an increasingly complex society — and with the long-term unemployed. It is also implicit in the situation of the terminally ill and the elderly, especially those confined to hospice care.
→ read full articleAccidents at Nuclear Power Plants in India
Greenpeace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2013
India currently has twenty nuclear reactors in operation and their safety record is far from clean.
→ read full articleUS Playing Strategic Arms Game
Hu Yumin – China Daily,
14 Jan 2013
The US could cut its defense spending because of the fiscal cliff. But it would be wrong to assume that such a cut will weaken the US military. It has allocated more funds for the development of Prompt Global Strike, a system that can deliver a precision non-nuclear weapon strike anywhere in the world within 1 hour.
→ read full articleDrones Are Fool’s Gold: They Prolong Wars We Can’t Win
Simon Jenkins – The Guardian,
14 Jan 2013
New appointments in the White House hail an era of hands-free warfare. Yet these weapons induce not defeat, but retaliation. The greatest threat to world peace is not from nuclear weapons and their possible proliferation. It is from drones and their certain proliferation. Drones are now sweeping the global arms market. There are some 10,000 said to be in service, of which a thousand are armed and mostly American.
→ read full article(Italiano) Il Dirupo, la Palude, il Pantano USA
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
C’è altro oltre il dirupo fiscale che risalta a occhio nudo… Introduciamo la sofferenza della gente, la crescita mancante e il fardello del debito, espandendo il discorso per visioni nuove… Potrebbe invece far prodigi un enorme programma ingegnoso che faccia sì che quel 16% si tiri su da solo (bootstraps), con crediti per piccole società-cooperative progettate per produrre cibo e acqua, vestiario e alloggi, sanità e istruzione, tutto a prezzi alla portata.
→ read full articleOscar Worthy Propaganda – Zero Dark Thirty: Torturing the Facts
Majorie Cohn - CounterPunch,
14 Jan 2013
Law professor Marjorie Cohn writes of the two disturbing characteristics of Zero Dark Thirty, the latest pro-CIA, pro-torture film to roll out of Hollywood.
→ read full articleBe Human
M. Ashaq Raza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Sip by sip
Drop by drop
Drink we life’s wine…
The Empire’s New Clothes
Socialist Worker, editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Obama’s nominees to run the Pentagon and CIA underline how a Democratic president, once seen as antiwar, has rebranded U.S. imperialism.
→ read full articleAgainst World Revolution – Constructively!
Johan Galtung, 14 Jan 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
A country rapidly de-developing, into low Third World levels, even in health. A country not only saving banks rather than people but also letting the banks get away with crimes. A country reacting with mini-revolutions, nonviolence, civil disobedience against such glaring injustices. A country where the class war is over for the time being; capitalism won and more particularly the bankers and their servants, the politicians, and even more particularly the finance-speculation capital. And this in a Spain close to 40 years into democracy after 40 years of Franco dictatorship. Constitution + democracy + elections + human rights (also to property) + parliament vs finance capitalism. Weak vs strong.
→ read full articleIdle No More: Indigenous Uprising Sweeps North America
Kristin Moe – YES! Magazine,
14 Jan 2013
Idle No More has organized the largest mass mobilizations of indigenous people in recent history. What sparked it off and what’s coming next? For Canadians—and potentially all North Americans—this is a moment of reckoning. Just as Chief Spence’s hunger strike forced the issue with Harper, Idle No More forces us all to confront the ugliness of our collective colonial history, and to recognize that colonization continues today.
→ read full articleScientist: Top Selling Weed Killer – Monsanto’s Roundup – Linked to Infertility
Lisa Garber, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Roundup’s key ingredient glyphosate has ravaged the earth, our food chain, and our bodies, and is even causing infertility among the masses.
→ read full articleSorry, Darwin: – Chemistry Never Made the Transition to Biology
Bhakti Niskama Shanta Swami, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
At various times in its history, ‘spontaneous generation’ has been identified by two different concepts. They are: (a) abiogenesis, and (b) heterogenesis. Abiogenesis is the field of science dedicated to study how life might have arisen spontaneously for the first time from inorganic chemicals. On the other hand, the notion that life can arise from dead organic matter, such as the appearance of maggots from decaying meat is known as heterogenesis. For a long time major western thinkers like Newton, Harvey, Descartes and von Helmont accepted heterogenesis with full confidence.
→ read full articleWe Have Created a World of ‘Civilised Savages’
Hussein Tahiri – The Sydney Morning Herald,
14 Jan 2013
Civilisation is about collective humanity, caring, forgiveness, respect and love for one’s kind in which advanced culture, industry and technology are employed to achieve this purpose. Alas, a brief look at the way we human beings conduct ourselves entitles us to be seen as no more than ”civilised savages” who have achieved modernity without the underlying moral compass of civilisation itself.
→ read full articleMy Guns Are Less Regulated Than My Uterus
Shannyn Moore – The Huffington Post,
14 Jan 2013
Birth control and reproductive health services are harder to get than bullets. What is that about? Guns don’t kill people – vaginas do?
→ read full articleOil and War
Robert Newman, Brasscheck TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Robert Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years – but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre stage as the cause of all commotion.
→ read full articleJohn Brennan, Sami Al-Hajj and the Blight of Guantanamo
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
14 Jan 2013
Dec, 2001: Shackled and hooded, he was pushed off the transport plane [at Kandahar airport], when he fell and broke his kneecap. He was forced to march anyway, into a building where people were screaming. He was put in the middle of a circle of U.S. soldiers who held guns to his head. On June 13, 2002, al-Hajj was shackled, hooded and flown to Guantanamo. En route they were denied food, water and toilets, and were beaten if they tried to sleep. At Guantanamo, the interrogations continued.
→ read full article6 Habits of Highly Empathetic People
Roman Krznaric – YES! Magazine,
14 Jan 2013
According to new research, empathy is a habit we can cultivate to improve the quality of our own lives. But what is empathy? And how can you expand your own empathetic potential?
→ read full articleDemocracy and the Secret State: The Deception and Terrorisation of Populaces from the Era of Gladio to the War on Terror
Adeyinka Makinde – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, unknown people far from any political game. The reason was quite simple – to force the people to turn to the state for greater security.” — Vincenzo Vinciguerra
The nature, necessity and scope of the miscellany of powers exercised by the state over the nation is in one sense arguably as contentious in the contemporary circumstances of the Western world as it was in the distant pre-democratic medieval past.
Optimum Population in the Future
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
What is the optimum population of the world? It is certainly not the maximum number that can be squeezed onto the globe by eradicating every species of plant and animal that cannot be eaten. As we strive to achieve peace throughout the world, and to eliminate the suffering caused by poverty, hunger and preventable disease, we should remember that all these goals will be more attainable with a global population of moderate size.
→ read full articleMali: Hijacked Autonomy, Outsized Ambitions, French Intervention
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
It may be fairly easy for the French forces to take the three major cities of the north, much of whose population has already fled. North Mali is roughly the size of France. Much of the rural areas have little or no population. It has always been difficult, even during the colonial period, to create an infrastructure and an administration. There are fears that the Islamic groups will move toward Niger or Burkina Faso, both fragile States. One knows how an armed conflict starts but rarely how it ends.
→ read full articleOn my Soul
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Rhymed Reflection
→ read full article1st International Active Nonviolence Film Festival
Pressenza Int’l Press Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
30 Cities around the World to Take Part – Promoted by the humanist organisation World without Wars and Violence, the festival aims to create a space of coming together, of free creation committed to the culture of nonviolence.
→ read full articleRole of Religion in the World Community
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
As the saying goes, there are two sides of a coin. On one hand, Religion could be viewed as a blessing and a source of inspiration. On the other hand, Religion could be seen as a source of trouble and confusion that may turn many into becoming prejudiced and skeptical. A careful analysis of this conclusion will enable us to see why Religion is viewed as having one side that is positive and constructive and another other side that is negative and destructive.
→ read full articleMakers of Violent Video Games Marshal Support to Fend Off Regulation
Eric Lichtblau – The New York Times,
14 Jan 2013
With the Newtown, Conn., massacre spurring concern over violent video games, makers of popular games like Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat are rallying Congressional support to try to fend off their biggest regulatory threat in two decades.
→ read full articleWar Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Institute for Public Accuracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
A Media Education Foundation production. Featuring Norman Solomon. Narrated by Sean Penn. War Made Easy cuts through the dense web of spin to probe and scrutinize the key “perception management” techniques that have played huge roles in the promotion of American wars in recent decades. This guide to disinformation analyzes American military adventures past and present to reveal striking similarities in the efforts of various administrations to justify, and retain, public support for war.
→ read full articleMyanmar Activist [TRANSCEND Member], Professor Resigns Over Brunei University ‘Censorship’
Nan Tin Htwe – The Myanmar Times,
14 Jan 2013
Dr Maung Zarni, co-founder of the Free Burma Coalition, quit the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), saying it is “impossible to maintain his professionalism” and blaming “extreme and unprofessional academic censorship”. Zarni, a “staunch advocate of unconditional human rights, as well as ethnic and gender equality,” is also a visiting fellow with the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the London School of Economics, and the author of Life Under the Boot: 50 years of Military Dictatorship in Burma (Yale University Press).
→ read full articleAFRICOM’s Imperialist Quest
Burkely Hermann – Nation of Change,
14 Jan 2013
Under President Obama, in fact, operations in Africa have accelerated far beyond the more limited interventions of the Bush years…To support these mushrooming missions, near-constant training operations, and alliance-building joint exercises, outposts of all sorts are sprouting continent-wide, connected by a sprawling shadow logistics network.
→ read full article(Português) Países Ricos Perdem a Maioria no PIB Mundial em 2013
José Eustáquio Diniz Alves, EcoDebate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
O ano de 2013 vai marcar um acontecimento histórico. Pela primeira vez na história, o Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) dos países em desenvolvimento vai ultrapassar o PIB dos países desenvolvidos, segundo dados do Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI).
→ read full articleSeeing Light: The Blogger’s Delight
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
While reflecting on my prior blog lamenting the challenges of sustaining civility amid tumult and controversy, I came to appreciate my own partial captivity in realms of darkness. The negativities I tried to discuss are the shadow land of my blog experience, which is more essentially lived in the sunshine of new and renewed friendship, solidarity, mutuality, and the new emotional and spiritual resonances of our era, what I would call, in the absence of greater precision, the emergence of ‘digital love.’
→ read full articleA Feel-Good Movie about Fracking?
Fran Korten – YES! Magazine,
14 Jan 2013
Chris Moore, who co-produced “Good Will Hunting,” has a new film starring Matt Damon as a corporate salesman trying to open up a small town to fracking. Moore’s take on the ideas behind the film.
→ read full articleCriminal Record
TMS editor,
14 Jan 2013
An applicant was filling out a job application.
→ read full articleSri Lankan Buddhist Chauvinists Provoke Violence against Muslims
Gamini Karunasena and Wasantha Rupasinghe, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government is again giving tacit support to communal provocations against Sri Lanka’s minorities in a bid to divide working people amid the country’s deepening economic and social crisis. This time, Muslims have become the main target of chauvinist groups.
→ read full articleFlatulence Is a Problem Aired
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
The third edition of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (1990) was reviewed for The Guardian by John Vidal under the title Flatulence is a Problem Aired (The Guardian, 7 February 1992). The review was introduced by the phrase: John Vidal finds the authors of a definitive guide to all the world’s ills treading an ever thinner line between the sublime and ridiculous. At that time the review could be seen as a highly skillful journalistic exercise in what has since been recognized as characteristic of negative campaigning.
→ read full article(Português) Portugal: O Êxodo dos Diplomados
Mario Queiroz – Inter Press Service-IPS,
14 Jan 2013
Desde a década de 1960, quando as saídas em massa de portugueses eram uma constante, este país não sofria uma emigração de tal magnitude como a atual, com a agravante de que pela primeira vez inclui profissionais altamente qualificados.
→ read full articleRemembering Lasantha: Now They Come For “Everyone”
Nirmanusan Balasundaram, Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Now, more than ever, with the current state of affairs in Sri Lanka, the vacuum left by Lasantha’s death and his importance can be felt by anyone who is concerned about human rights, democracy, rule of law, and, of course, the independence of the judiciary. The Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Leader newspaper Lasantha Wickrematunge , better known as Lasantha, was brutally assassinated four years ago. Lasantha noted in his last editorial, “I hope my murder will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration”.
→ read full article(Português) Brasil É Segundo Maior Consumidor Mundial de Ritalina
Globo News - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Chamada a ‘droga da obediência’ para ‘curar’ crianças hiperativas ou com débito de atenção, pode causar morte súbita ou torna-las predispostas à dependência de drogas no futuro. Provoca um ‘efeito zumbi’ nas crianças e não é uma solução mas sim um paliativo com consequências funestas.
→ read full article2012 Summary of the Cultural Boycott of Israel
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
The year 2012 was an amazing year full of many successes in the campaign for the cultural boycott of Israel. This summary focuses on the cultural boycott with an emphasis on musical artists and groups. The fall of South African apartheid was preceded by the movement by artists of conscience to boycott “Sun City.” A similar anti-apartheid movement is rapidly growing; and musicians increasingly do not want to perform in Israel.
→ read full articleAbbas Changes Name of Palestinian Authority to ‘State of Palestine’
Raphael Ahren and AP – The Times of Israel,
7 Jan 2013
Palestinian Authority President Abbas signed a presidential decree changing the name of the Palestinian Authority to the “State of Palestine,” following the Palestinians’ upgraded status at the United Nations as a non-member observer state. According to the decree, reported by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa Thursday [3 Jan 2013] night, all stamps, signs, and official letterheads will be changed to bear the new name.
→ read full articleEmerging From the Shadows: US Covert Drone Strikes in 2012
Chris Woods, Jack Serle and Alice K. Ross – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism,
7 Jan 2013
In one of the biggest news stories of the year, in May [2012] the New York Times revealed that President Obama was personally deciding whether to kill some individuals. He ‘counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.’ As the Bureau noted at the time, ‘The revelation helps explain the wide variation between credible reports of civilian deaths in Pakistan by the Bureau and others, and the CIA’s claims that it had killed no ‘non-combatants.’
→ read full articleConstruction Is Complete on Behemoth Airship; First Flight Planned
W.J. Hennigan – Los Angeles Times,
7 Jan 2013
A massive cargo-carrying airship has taken shape inside one of the 17-story wooden blimp hangars at the former military base in Tustin. According to aircraft maker Worldwide Aeros Corp., construction is complete on a 36,000-pound blimp-like aircraft designed for the military to carry tons of cargo to remote areas around the world.
→ read full articleLosing Control: A Blogger’s Nightmare
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
When I started this blog a couple of years ago, the thought never entered my mind that I would need to defend the terrain. Although I knew my views were controversial on some issues, I assumed that those who disagreed strongly would stay away, losing interest, or express their disagreements in a spirit of civility. To a large extent this has been true, with the glaring exception of Israel/Palestine.
→ read full articleTechnology Addiction
Joel S. Hirschhorn – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
A survey reported that “addicted” was the word most commonly used by people to describe their relationship to technology. One study found that people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did for sex, sleep, cigarettes, and alcohol. A recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that 44 percent of cell phone owners had slept with their phone next to their bed. Worse, 67 percent had experienced “phantom rings,” checking their phone even when it was not ringing or vibrating.
→ read full article(Castellano) La Amenaza Haitiana
Eduardo Galeano, Antimilitarizacion – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Como de costumbre, el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas repite que mantendrá la ocupación militar de Haití porque debe actuar “en caso de amenazas a la paz, quebrantamientos de la paz o actos de agresión”. ¿A quién amenaza Haití? ¿A quién agrede? ¿Por qué Haití sigue siendo un país ocupado? ¿Un país condenado a vigilancia perpetua? ¿Obligado a seguir expiando el pecado de su libertad, que humilló a Napoleón Bonaparte y ofendió a toda Europa?
→ read full articleThe Power Principle – I: Empire
Scott Noble, Metanoia Films – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
This documentary is about the foreign policy of the United States. It is the first of three parts that demonstrate the importance of the political economy, the Mafia principle, propaganda, ideology, violence and force. Featured in the films are Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, John Stockwell, Christopher Simpson, Ralph McGehee, Philip Agee, [TRANSCEND member] Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, John Perkins, James Petras, John Stauber, Russ Baker, Howard Zinn, William Blum, Nancy Snow, William I. Robinson, Morris Berman, Peter Phillips, Michael Albert, and others.
→ read full articleThe Power Principle – II: Propaganda
Scott Noble, Metanoia Films – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
This documentary is about the foreign policy of the United States. It is the second of three parts that demonstrate the importance of the political economy, the Mafia principle, propaganda, ideology, violence and force. Featured in the films are Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, John Stockwell, Christopher Simpson, Ralph McGehee, Philip Agee, [TRANSCEND member] Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, John Perkins, James Petras, John Stauber, Russ Baker, Howard Zinn, William Blum, Nancy Snow, William I. Robinson, Morris Berman, Peter Phillips, Michael Albert, and others.
→ read full articleWhose Side is God, god, g_d On?
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Lessons from 19th Century Imperialism – The following is a listing of some of the enduring lessons that came to mind as I reflect on the endless mass violence and wars of our times. With Gladstone’s words ringing in my ears, I offer them to you.
→ read full article(Italiano) Un Augurio per l’Anno Nuovo: Andare Oltre!
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Sì, andare oltre, trascendere! – ecco il nostro messaggio, per il nuovo anno o meno. Prendete le sparatorie nelle scuole USA. Il vice-presidente della National Rifle Association (NRA) in TV: “la sola persona che può fermare un cattivo con un’arma è un buono con un’arma”. Affermazione che ha toccato molte corde. C’è conferma dall’alto: questa è la politica estera USA. L’unico modo per fermare un cattivo paese con le armi è un buon paese con le armi; l’unico modo di fermare il cattivo terrorismo dal basso è il buon terrorismo di stato dall’alto. Equilibrio di forze, innumerevoli basi, cercare e distruggere.
→ read full articleDamascus and the Tariqa (The Way by Initiation)
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
The small non-violent movements in Syria such as the “Stop the Killing! We want to build a country for all Syrians” while stressing useful issues are still overshadowed both by the government and the violent opposition forces. Yet could such groups play a larger role if they received more non-governmental support from outside? Governments seem to have resigned themselves to the force of arms or to watch and wait. Can peace groups working together actively strengthen Syrian non-violent alternatives?
→ read full articleNet Worth of World’s Richest Rose by $241B In 2012
Bloomberg News – Chicago Tribune,
7 Jan 2013
The richest people on the planet got richer in 2012, adding $241 billion to their collective net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 100 wealthiest individuals.
→ read full articleSwiss Bank Wegelin to Close After US Tax Evasion Fine
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Switzerland’s oldest bank is to close permanently after pleading guilty in a New York court to helping Americans evade their taxes. Wegelin, which was established in 1741, has also agreed to pay $57.8m (£36m; 44m euros) in fines to US authorities. It said that once this was completed, it “will cease to operate as a bank”. The bank had admitted to allowing more than 100 American citizens to hide $1.2bn from the Internal Revenue Service for almost 10 years.
→ read full articleJustifying Assassination
Los Angeles Times, editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon eloquently lamented that “I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws.” This page has made the same point in urging the administration to release the Office of Legal Counsel memorandum. If it is going to act as judge, jury and executioner, the least it can do is divulge its legal reasoning.
→ read full articleU.S. Arms Sales to Asia Set to Boom on Pacific “Pivot”
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
U.S. sales of warplanes, anti-missile systems and other costly weapons to China’s and North Korea’s neighbors appear set for significant growth amid regional security jitters.
→ read full articleResignation Letter
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
1 January 2013. I believe I was mislead regarding the professional environment at Universiti Brunei Darussalam during the recruitment process, and due to the on-going attempts to gag me on the persecution and slaughter of minorities, including Muslim minorities, in the country of my birth [Burma], I no longer wish to be subject to this level of extreme and unprofessional academic censorship. I need to work at a professional institution where the word ‘politics’ is mentionable, social conscience livable, and compassion honourable.
→ read full articleBolivia Nationalizes Electricity Companies in Hopes of Improving Rural Access
Jacob Chamberlain – Common Dreams,
7 Jan 2013
Bolivia President Evo Morales has nationalized two electricity distribution companies owned by Spanish utility company Iberdrola in the latest of several industry nationalizations since Morales took office, which has included oil, mining, telecommunications, and energy generation companies.
→ read full articleUS Patriot Missile Battery Crews Arrive in Turkey
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
5 Jan 2013 – A group of 27 US troops has arrived in Turkey to operate NATO Patriot surface-to-air (SAM) missile batteries. At least six of those will be deployed along the country’s border with Syria.
→ read full articleLatvia’s Economic Disaster as a Neoliberal Success Story – A Model for Europe and the US?
Jeffrey Sommers and Michael Hudson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Today’s most highly celebrated anti-labor success story is Latvia, where labor did not fight back, but simply emigrated politely and quietly. Latvia has a two-part tax on wages and social benefits that are near the highest in the world, while real estate taxes are well below US and EU averages. Meanwhile, capital gains are lightly taxed, and the country has become successful as a capital flight and tax avoidance haven for Russians and other post-Soviet kleptocrats that has permitted Latvia to “afford” de-industrialization, depopulation and de-socialization.
→ read full articleEconomic Predictions for 2013
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Since the time of Adam Smith, self-interest has been the mainspring of human economic activity. What is required today is a change of values, so that instead of being motivated by selfishness, people throughout the world will work for the common good.
→ read full articleThe Power Principle – III: Apocalypse
Scott Noble, Metanoia Films – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
This documentary is about the foreign policy of the United States. It is the third of three parts that demonstrate the importance of the political economy, the Mafia principle, propaganda, ideology, violence and force. Featured in the films are Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, John Stockwell, Christopher Simpson, Ralph McGehee, Philip Agee, [TRANSCEND member] Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, John Perkins, James Petras, John Stauber, Russ Baker, Howard Zinn, William Blum, Nancy Snow, William I. Robinson, Morris Berman, Peter Phillips, Michael Albert, and others.
→ read full article‘Tsunami Bomb’ Tested Off New Zealand Coast
Jonathan Pearlman – The Telegraph,
7 Jan 2013
The United States and New Zealand conducted secret tests of a “tsunami bomb” designed to destroy coastal cities by using underwater blasts to trigger massive tidal waves.
→ read full articleWhat’s at Stake in the Central African Republic?
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor - Pan-African News Wire,
7 Jan 2013
Neo-Colonial Intrigue, Minerals, Militarism and the Struggle for Sovereignty and Unity
→ read full articleFeel Better
TMS editor,
7 Jan 2013
Mary was having a tough day and had stretched herself out on the couch to do a bit of what she thought to be well-deserved complaining and self- pitying.
→ read full articleHow The New York Times Erases Israel’s Crimes
Robert Ross, The Electronic Intifada – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
The New York Times keeps the American public in the dark about the true nature of Israel’s occupation. According to The New York Times, there is no siege of Gaza, no occupation of the West Bank, and never was there a Nakba (the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine). Three recent articles erase these key Israeli crimes from the historical record.
→ read full articleThe Gravest Threat to World Peace
Noam Chomsky – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Who exactly sees Iran as the gravest security threat? The “Iranian threat” is overwhelmingly a Western obsession, shared by Arab dictators, though not Arab populations. As numerous polls have shown, although citizens of Arab countries generally dislike Iran, they do not regard it as a very serious threat. Rather, they perceive the threat to be Israel and the United States; and many, sometimes considerable majorities, regard Iranian nuclear weapons as a counter to these threats.
→ read full articleWelcome 2013
Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
The more we rise in consciousness, the more we see the world as a part of our family. The expansion of the individual consciousness is a certain remedy not only for the individual, but also for the society. When we say the world is our family and think and act in that spirit, most of the problems we confront and call insurmountable will wither away. One does not need to be a genius to understand this simple dictum of life.
→ read full articlePutin Second to ‘Nobody’ on World’s Most Powerful List – Thinktank
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
International political thinktank Eurasia Group has ranked Russian President Vladimir Putin second on its list of the world’s most powerful people. The first position is held by ‘Nobody,’ reflecting the perception of a world without a clear leader.
→ read full articleApologize Then Call It a Day: Big Banks and Drug Money
Helen Redmond - CounterPunch,
7 Jan 2013
Take responsibility, apologize, pay a fine for your drug crimes and then call it a day. Go home to family who will forgive you for doing business with so-called “narco-terrorists.” Prison time? Felony record? Asset forfeiture? No. Not for drug trafficking executives of laundromat/banks that are “too big to fail” or jail. Ending the war on drugs would not only save human lives and billions of dollars, it would free up law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute banks whose real crimes are far worse than laundering drug money.
→ read full articleThe Right to Live Peacefully
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
If the Right to Life and the Right to Peace we combine
a new, deeply humanizing right will be yours and mine…
Hitler Won
Tom Greening – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Hitler won.
He has converted the Jews,
Palestinians, Russians, Chechens,
Iranians, Iraqis, Afghans,
even his nemesis, the
Holy Americans…
Goal of Israel Lobby in America
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2013
Since this presentation deals with the Israel Lobby in the United States, we need to focus thoroughly on this group, which seems to have developed a strong grip on virtually every senator and congressman, including the US President. This group has one main objective, namely, the welfare and safeguard of the State of Israel. So far the Israeli lobby succeeded to get what it wanted, especially for the USA to let Israel confiscate Palestinian territory.
→ read full articleAn Open Letter of Response to CRIF (Counsèil Représentif des Institutions juives de France)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
I am shocked and saddened that your organization would label me as an anti-Semite and self-hating Jew. It is utterly defamatory, and such allegations are entirely based on distortions of what I believe and what I have done. To confuse my criticisms of Israel with self-hatred of myself as a Jew or with hatred of Jews is a calumny.
→ read full articlePalestine Poems after Operation Pillar of Cloud
David Smith-Ferri – Voices for Creative Nonviolence,
31 Dec 2012
The Israeli military’s eight-day assault
on the people of Gaza
was no downy pillar of cloud
no feathered wing
moving lightly across the landscape…
In Further Memory of Edward Said
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Always, always
That voice
remains
is gone
needed…
For Nonkilling Education: A Plea to Humankind
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Rhymed Reflections
→ read full articleChristmas
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Tinsel around the house
And the fireplace is warm, …
Photo Gallery: The Best of Picture This 2012
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Throughout the year, Spiegel Online sifts through photos taken around the world for its “Picture This” feature. As 2012 draws to an end, here’s a look back at some of the most colorful, humorous and moving images that have been selected.
→ read full articleThe Libor Swindle
Andre Damon, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
22 Dec 2012 – The latest sweetheart settlement with a major international bank, in this case involving criminal activities that financial regulators describe as “epic,” has once again lifted the lid on the cesspool of corruption otherwise known as the world financial system. UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, admitted this week to systematically rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), the benchmark global interest rate to which hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial contracts are tied. It did so to increase its profits and conceal its financial problems.
→ read full articleCelebration of Struggle Starts in Kudankulam on New Year 2013
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
New Year 2013 @ Kudankulam: Celebrating Resistance, Asserting Freedom. Idinthakarai village, which has been the nucleus of the Kudankulam anti-nuclear power plant struggle, welcomed hundreds of people who have come to celebrate New Year with the local communities spearheading the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE).
→ read full articleIn Japan, a Mothers’ Movement against Nuclear Power
Heidi Hutner – YES! Magazine,
31 Dec 2012
The Fukushima disaster has brought a powerful new demographic to Japan’s anti-nuclear movement: mothers. On the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese women in New York City gathered for a rally they called Pregnant With Fear of Radiation. Protestors wore fake pregnant bellies, or carried posters with images of pregnant women wearing face masks.
→ read full articleThe Lie that Prosecuting Bank Fraud Will Destabilize the Economy Is What Is REALLY Destroying the Economy
Washington’s Blog – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Failing to Prosecute White Collar Crime Guarantees a Weak and Unstable Economy … and Future Financial Crashes – After all, the main driver of economic growth is a strong rule of law.
→ read full articleMulti-phase Weaponisation of Replica Guns for Children
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
It is simply not plausible to understand events in Connecticut this Friday [14 Dec 2012] without having a conversation about guns in a country where more than 84 people a day are killed with guns, and more than twice that number are injured with them…. Americans are no more prone to mental illness or violence than any other people in the world. What they do have is more guns: roughly, 90 for every 100 people.
→ read full articleDrone Warfare: Terrorism with a Bigger Budget
Amanda Mullins, Defiance Citizens for Change – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
In the last four years, the use of unmanned drones to engage in so-called “targeted killing” has escalated dramatically. In Pakistan alone, US drone strikes have increased fivefold during the Obama administration, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which tracks US drone strikes.
→ read full articleHow Anonymous Got Political
Quinn Norton – New Internationalist Magazine,
31 Dec 2012
A look behind the mask of the hacker network, charting its evolution into a global activist force. Anonymous’ swagger grew with outrageous hacks of companies, governments, and law enforcement. ‘Anonymous was born out of a need to exact retribution,’ said a Chanology anon. ‘Scientology tried to fuck with our internet, attempting to shut down the Cruise video. It was punished, hard, and continues to be punished nearly four years later.’
→ read full articleExecutives at Collapsed Iceland Bank Jailed For Fraud
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Two former executives at an Icelandic bank which collapsed in the 2008 financial meltdown were sentenced to jail on Friday [28 Dec 2012] for fraud which led to a 53 million euro loss, in the first major trial of Icelandic bankers linked to the crisis.
→ read full articleUS Deploying Troops to 35 African Countries
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Soldiers based out of Fort Riley, Kansas’ 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division will begin training in March 2013 in order to prepare for a project that will send troops to as many as 35 African nations, the Associated Press reports.
→ read full articleNeville Alexander, Unbounded Organisation, and the Future of Socialism
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
In the late 1980s, as apartheid neared its end, Neville Alexander called on educators to “…shape consciousness in ways that are looking forward, in ways that are preparing people for a liberated, non-racial, democratic, and socialist South Africa.” Is Neville Alexander’s life’s work a contribution to a revolution that is still happening?
→ read full articleUBS Libor Manipulation Merits a Death Penalty
William D. Cohan, The National Memo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
There is no point in mincing words: UBS AG, the Swiss global bank, has been disgracing the banking profession for years and needs to be shut down.
→ read full articleWashington’s Dilemma: The “Good Terrorists” versus the “Bad Terrorists”
Dr. Ismail Salami – Global Research,
31 Dec 2012
Terrorism is terrorism and it cannot be defined otherwise unless the interests of one party tilt the scale in disfavor of another and the dichotomization of the terrorists in Syria into good and bad by the West casts doubt on its claim on democracy.
→ read full articleThe Radical Dissent of Helen Keller
Peter Dreier – YES! Magazine,
31 Dec 2012
When the blind-deaf visionary learned that poor people were more likely to be blind than others, she set off down a pacifist, socialist path that broke the boundaries of her time—and continues to challenge ours today. The FBI kept Keller under surveillance for most of her adult life for her radical views. But Keller, who died in 1968, never saw a contradiction between her crusade to address the causes of blindness and her efforts to promote economic and social justice.
→ read full articleThe Mayan Apocalypse and Gell-Mann’s Curve
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
How are we to explain the fact that the population curve is not an exponential? We can turn to Malthus for an answer: According to his model, population does not increase exponentially, except under special circumstances, when the food supply is so ample that the increase of population is entirely unchecked, In his “Essay on the Principle of Population”, population pressure appears as one of the main causes of war.
→ read full article(Italiano) Violenza Strutturale, Pace e Disabilità
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Lo “sviluppo” dai villaggi tradizionali agli stati moderni comporta costruire gerarchie attorno all’ onnipotente logica dello Stato, all’onnipresente logica del Capitale e all’onnisciente logica della Scienza. Tutti successori di Dio, che monopolizzano le sfide. Non per nulla molti migrano nei villaggi.
→ read full articleRevealed: How the FBI Coordinated the Crackdown On Occupy
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
31 Dec 2012
New documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. It involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
→ read full articleMali: The ‘Gentle’ Face of Al-Qaeda
May Ying Welsh – Al Jazeera,
31 Dec 2012
“We are mujahideen in the cause of Allah.” The hair on our necks stands on end. The fighters look like desert military preachers – members of some stoical sect that took a vow of poverty and jihad. They wear austere beige cotton smocks and high cropped pants – like inhabitants of Tatooine, the desert planet in Star Wars. These are not outfits one buys at the market, or inherits from a brother or friend. They are uniforms tailor-made to send a message of simplicity.
→ read full article