Articles by M
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Mosaddegh and the Legacy of Non-Aligned Movement
Hamid Dabashi – Al Jazeera,
27 Aug 2012
The Islamists and the monarchists might distort the image of Mosaddegh, but not his memory in the hearts of people. As fate would have it, the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) will take place in Tehran from August 26 to 31, 2012 almost a week after the 59th anniversary of the notorious CIA (USA) and MI6 (UK)-engineered coup that on August 19, 1953, toppled the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh (1882-1967) – the champion of Iranian anti-colonial nationalism.
→ read full articleWe’ll Make A Killing Out of Food Crisis, Glencore Trading Boss Chris Mahoney Boasts
James Cusick – The Independent,
27 Aug 2012
Drought is good for business, says world’s largest commodities trading company.
→ read full articleGulf Seafood Deformities Alarm Scientists
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
27 Aug 2012
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause. “The fishermen have never seen anything like this,” Dr Jim Cowan said. “And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I’ve never seen anything like this either.” Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Carta às Esquerdas: As Últimas Trincheiras
Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Carta Maior,
27 Aug 2012
Faço um apelo aos governos brasileiro, equatoriano, venezuelano e argentino para que abandonem o projeto da reforma da Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos (CIDH). E o apelo é especialmente dirigido ao Brasil dada a influência que tem na região.
→ read full articleDaniel Ellsberg: I Congratulate Ecuador for Standing Up to British Empire to Protect Julian Assange
Amy Goodman & Juan Gonzalez – Democracy NOW!,
21 Aug 2012
Daniel Ellsberg, the most famous whistleblower in the United States, praises Ecuador for granting political asylum to Julian Assange to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crime accusations. “I congratulate Ecuador of course for standing up to the British Empire here, for insisting that they are not a British colony, and acting as a sovereign state ought to act,” said Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the secret history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
→ read full articlePalestinian Hunger Strikes: Why Still Invisible?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2012
When it is realized that Mahatma Gandhi shook the British Empire with a series of hunger strikes, none lasting more than 21 days, it is shameful that Palestinian hunger strikers ever since last December continue to exhibit their extreme courage by refusing food for periods ranging between 40 and over 90 days, and yet these exploits are unreported by the media and generally ignored by relevant international institutions.
→ read full articleWhat’s Gone Wrong At The Guardian?
Ali Abunimah – Al Jazeera,
21 Aug 2012
Hiring Joshua Trevino, who endorsed the killing of Gaza flotilla members, is a worrying step for journalism. Treviño is a Republican Party operative, paid political consultant and ideologue for hire. But while some may not like those attributes, they would not make him unique among columnists. What does distinguish Treviño is his propensity to call for violence. Endorsing the killing of unarmed civilians…
→ read full articleNobody’s People in a No-Man’s Land
Subir Bhaumik – Al Jazeera,
21 Aug 2012
Nearly a million Rohingya living in Myanmar are unwanted at home and shunned by neighbouring countries.
→ read full article(Castellano) Ecuador Otorga Asilo a Fundador de WikiLeaks Julian Assange
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
El Gobierno de Ecuador decidió este jueves [16 Ago 2012] otorgar el asilo al fundador de WikiLeaks, el australiano Julian Assange, quien se encuentra en la embajada de la nación sudamericana en Londres. El Canciller ecuatoriano, Ricardo Patiño, hizo el anuncio durante en una entrevista ofrecida a la televisora estatal Ecuador TV, luego que recibiera una comunicación de parte de las autoridades británicas que amenaza con intervenir la embajada de Ecuador en Londres para arrestar al australiano.
→ read full articleIs Washington Deaf As Well as Criminal?
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The morons who rule the american sheeple are not only dumb and blind, they are deaf as well. The ears of the american “superpower” only work when the Israeli prime minister, the crazed Netanyahu, speaks. Then Washington hears everything and rushes to comply. Israel is a tiny insignificant state, created by the careless British and the stupid americans. It has no power except what its american protector provides. Yet, despite Israel’s insignificance, it rules Washington.
→ read full articleEcuador Grants Assange’s Request for Asylum, Defying UK Threats
Kim Zetter, Wired – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The Ecuadorean government announced Thursday [16 Aug 2012] that it will grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asylum, defying threats from the UK government that authorities would forcibly seize Assange from the embassy if Ecuador granted Assange’s request. “We have decided to grant asylum to Julian Assange,” announced Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino at a press conference in Quito, to the sound of cheers from spectators.
→ read full articleEcuador President Rafael “We Are Not A Colony” Correa Stands Up To The Jackbooted British Gestapo
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The once proud British government, now reduced to Washington’s servile whore, put on its Gestapo Jackboots and declared that if the Ecuadorean Embassy in London did not hand over WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, British storm troopers would invade the embassy with military force and drag Assange out. Ecuador stood its ground. “We want to be very clear, we are not a British colony,” declared Ecuador’s Foreign Minister. Far from being intimidated the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, replied to the threat by granting Assange political asylum.
→ read full articleFukushima: They Knew
Greg Palast - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
I’ve seen a lot of sick stuff in my career, but this was sick on a new level. Here was the handwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant [in 1986]: “Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. . . . In fact, the plant was riddled with problems that, no way on earth, could stand an earth- quake. The team of engineers sent in to inspect found that most of these components could ‘completely and utterly fail’ during an earthquake.” And here in Japan was the quake and here is the utter failure.
→ read full articleThe Global 1%: Exposing the Transnational Ruling Class
Peter Phillips and Kimberly Soeiro – Project Censored,
20 Aug 2012
Abstract: This study asks Who are the the world’s 1 percent power elite? And to what extent do they operate in unison for their own private gains over benefits for the 99 percent? We examine a sample of the 1 percent: the extractor sector, whose companies are on the ground extracting material from the global commons, and using low-cost labor to amass wealth…
→ read full article(Italian) La Mappa Esagonale del Mondo Multipolare
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Qualche tempo fa la mappa geopolitica si basava sul conflitto diretto Est-Ovest, sulle due super-potenze USA/URSS e rispettive alleanze, con i neutrali-nonallineati trattati da categoria residuale. Il mondo era bipolare. L’implosione dell’URSS lo rese unipolare, con l’”unica super-potenza sopravvissuta”: 2-1 = 1. O così ci fu raccontato. Oggi abbiamo quattro stati molto grandi: i tre maggiori per popolazione, Cina-India-USA, e il maggiore per superficie, Russia. E la UE, regione con cinque stati di media grandezza: UK-Francia-Germania-Italia-Spagna. Ma c’è un altro polo sulla mappa geopolitica: l’Islam.
→ read full article(Italian) Animalismo, Specismo, Antispecismo e Diritti degli Animali
Roberto Russo, GraphoMania – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Parliamo spesso di animali: ci stanno particolarmente a cuore e non è un mistero. Ma non vogliamo che sia un discorso sdolcinato: secondo noi è importante guardare agli animali come esseri viventi, al pari nostro, con i loro diritti. Il fatto che noi siamo animali appartenenti alla specie umana non ci autorizza certo a trattare male gli animali non umani.
→ read full articleTime for America to Revisit Its Nuclear Policy
Ronnie Dugger – The Dallas Morning News,
20 Aug 2012
In the ongoing media melodrama about Iran’s nuclear program, could we be overlooking profound questions and truths about the again-rising likelihood of the decimation or the end of life on Earth in an H-bomb holocaust? We should be challenging our officials and military for risking our deaths, the lives of our fellow human beings and our national honor by keeping, maintaining and implicitly threatening to use our own weapons of mass murder.
→ read full articleNew Pan-African Nonviolence Network Formed
Matt Meyer – Waging Nonviolence,
20 Aug 2012
Between July 26 and 30 [2012], in Johannesburg, South Africa, peacemakers from 12 countries throughout Africa met to share experiences and birthed a new, continent-wide African Nonviolence and Peacebuilding Network (ANPN). As part of a War Resisters International (WRI) initiated African Nonviolence Trainer’s Exchange, the gathering was hosted by South Africa’s Ceasefire Campaign, an historic anti-war organization which grew out of the mass, anti-apartheid-oriented End Conscription Campaign.
→ read full articleNBC’s ‘Stars Earn Stripes’ Continues an Inglorious Tradition of Glorifying War
Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, José Ramos-Horta, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Betty Williams – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
As Nobel Peace Prize laureates, we call on NBC to cancel this reality TV show that likens military combat to Olympic athletics.
→ read full articleThe Yinon Thesis Vindicated: Neocons, Israel, and the Fragmentation of Syria
Stephen J. Sniegoski, The Passionate Attachment – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
It is widely realized now that the fall of President Bashar Assad’s regime would leave Syria riven by bitter ethnic, religious, and ideological conflict that could splinter the country into smaller enclaves. America’s removal of Saddam served to intensify Sunni-Shiite regional hostility and, in a sense, got the destabilization ball rolling. Iran is targeted now, and Israel and its neocon supporters seek to make use of dissatisfied internal elements, political and ethnic—the radical MEK, democratic secularists, monarchists, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, and Azeris— to bring down the Islamic regime.
→ read full articleToward a New Geopolitics?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The Chinese proverb is correct in its chilling reminder that ‘it is a curse to live in interesting times,’ but given the changing historical experiences with warfare, the growing sense of great ecological hazard, and the strengthening attachment to global justice agendas, maybe just this once, the fascinations of our age will turn out to be ‘a blessing.’
→ read full articleMutant Butterflies Found Near Fukushima
Tim Newcomb – Time,
20 Aug 2012
According to a study published by Scientific Reports, researchers started looking at butterflies near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant two months after the March 2011 tsunami damaged the reactors, causing a potential radiation leak. Of the initial 100 butterflies studied, 12% had mutations. But as the butterflies mated, the rate of mutation in successive generations increased to 34%, showing that the mutating genes were easily passed along to offspring.
→ read full articleA Message in Blood That No One Wants to Hear
Tom Engelhardt – Al Jazeera,
20 Aug 2012
Foreign troops are dying at the hands of their Afghan “allies” in large numbers, underscoring a lack of trust. Perhaps the sole historical example that comes close might be the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In reality, the American mission in Afghanistan failed years ago. It’s as if we refused to notice, but the Afghans we were training did. Now, they are sending a message that couldn’t be blunter or grimmer from that endlessly war-torn land.
→ read full articleSyria is Only a Pretext
Thierry Meyssan – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Looking back, it appears clear that he [Annan] had envisaged his mission from the future perspective of Assad’s overthrow by force and no longer knew what to do in the face of the military reversals suffered by the Free Syrian Army sponsored by the West. Obviously, the resignation of Annan as special envoy is not only an expression of personal disarray but is part and parcel of the Western campaign to signal “a deadlock within the international community” and cast responsibility on Syria, Russia and China.
→ read full articleOpen Letter to Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister
Dr. S. P. Udayakumar (PMANE) – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Honorable Madam, Greetings! As we have completed a whole year struggling against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), we would like to initiate a fresh round of dialogue with you. We request you, Madam, to turn the KKNPP into a pro-people and Nature-friendly project, bring about solar power policy and projects all over our State, rectify the transmission and distribution issues, protect the interests of the Tamil people, and leave a wonderful legacy of visionary leadership and compassionate development with the people of Tamil Nadu and India.
→ read full articleEdinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
3-27 Aug, 2012 – Edinburgh, Scotland. FoSP is one of Edinburgh’s most exciting and diverse Festivals. It features over 400 activities across 21 venues each year in August. With top-quality speakers, conversations, performances, film, food, exhibitions, family activities, workshops, art, culture and more the festival is now looking forward to its twelfth year.
→ read full articleAyesha Was Killed
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Dedicated to the young men and women executed in Iran for supporting human rights and democracy.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Libor: “É o sistema, estúpido”!
Carta Maior – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Desde o dia 4 de julho [2012], noticia-se um escândalo envolvendo uma coisa chamada Libor. Chamar a manipulação da Libor de escândalo é desviar as atenções do fato de que se trata de mais uma forma normal de acumular capital. Em 1992, James Carville, estrategista da campanha do então candidato Bill Clinton à Presidência dos EUA, saiu-se com um dito que ficou famoso: “É a economia, estúpido”. Frente aos chamados escândalos, deveríamos dizer: “É o sistema, estúpido”!
→ read full articleThe United States and Its Comrade-In-Arms, Al Qaeda – And Other Tales of an Empire Gone Mad
William Blum – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Afghanistan in the 1980s and 90s … Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s … Libya 2011 … Syria 2012 … In military conflicts in each of these countries the United States and al Qaeda (or one of its associates) have been on the same side. What does this tell us about the United States’ “War On Terrorism”?
→ read full articleImpunity at Home, Rendition Abroad
Alfred W. McCoy – TomDispatch,
20 Aug 2012
How Two Administrations and Both Parties Made Illegality the American Way of Life – After a decade of fiery public debate and bare-knuckle partisan brawling, the United States has stumbled toward an ad hoc bipartisan compromise over the issue of torture that rests on two unsustainable policies: impunity at home and rendition abroad.
→ read full articleFalse Flag Terror and Conspiracies of Silence
Prof. James F. Tracy – Global Research,
20 Aug 2012
The news media’s readiness to accept official pronouncements and failure to more vigorously analyze and question government authorities in the wake of “domestic terrorist” incidents contributes to the American public’s already acute case of collective historical amnesia, while it further rationalizes the twenty-first century police state and continued demise of civil society.
→ read full articleIsraeli-US Script: Divide Syria, Divide the Rest
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
20 Aug 2012
What is happening in Syria is a sign of things to come for the region. Regime change is not the sole goal of the US and its allies in Syria. Dividing the Syrian Arab Republic is the end goal of Washington in Syria. Britain’s Maplecroft, which specializes in consulting on strategic risk, has said that we are witnessing the balkanization of the Syrian state: “Kurds in the north, Druze in the southern hills, Alawites in the coastal northwestern mountainous region and the Sunni majority elsewhere.”
→ read full articleFusion of Ignorance and Malice in Perspective
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
In scholastic philosophy we often find the phrase: quidquid contingens est causam habet – whatever comes into existence must have a cause. This means that in anything human beings do there must be a source, a motive or motivation behind it. The war industry is the only business in the world where money is made fast and smooth. This is often done with no accountability to anyone. There seems to be a mafia type of plot at a high governmental level where what really counts is the making of big money and not the saving of human lives.
→ read full articleDestroying the World for Profit
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Does it make sense to destroy the world for the sake of profit or personal advantage? This is exactly what our governments and business leaders are doing today. This is what very many ordinary people are doing. But does it make sense? Does it make sense to saw off the branch on which you are sitting? Does it make sense to jockey for a place at the Captain’s table on board an iceberg-struck Titanic?
→ read full articleNobel Peace Laureates Call on NBC to Cancel New Show: ‘War Isn’t Entertainment’
Common Dreams - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Critics say show promotes an “inglorious tradition of glorifying war and armed violence.” Nine Nobel Peace Laureates on Monday [13 Aug 2012] joined a growing chorus of critics calling on NBC entertainment to cancel the new “reality” show—“Stars Earn Stripes”—saying that “war isn’t entertainment.”
→ read full articleStatement on Syria
United National Antiwar Coalition – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The ominous signs of impending war with Syria escalate. NATO holds a special meeting to respond to the downing of a Turkish fighter plane and issues threats of future action. The U.S. government is supplying arms and logistical support to Syrian militias. The media bombards us with arguments that support foreign intervention. While activists may hold different views of Syria’s internal political system, we must all agree that the U.S. government has no right to impose its will on other countries, especially those formerly colonized and exploited by the West.
→ read full article
Johann Strauss-Medley (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Andre Rieu Orchestra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
1. Als flotter Geist aus der Operette ‘Zigeunerbaron’ – Song of Barinkay from the operetta ‘The Gipsy Baron’
2. Wienerblut – Vienna Blood
3. Lippen schweigen aus der Operette ‘Die Lustige Witwe’ von Franz Lehar
4. ‘Tanzen möcht ich’ von Emmerich Kalman aus ‘Die Csardasfürstin’ – The Gipsy Princess
A Peace Nonkillingly Sustained
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Many types of peace Humankind may see
Many ways of promoting peace there may be
Communicative Humiliation: A Sociolinguistic Checklist
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
1. How is humiliation communicated in your community: by spoken/written/sign language/gestures?
2. In what social contexts does/did the humiliation take place? Home/work/school/public places (church, stadiums, political meetings, shopping malls, parades, etc)
(Portuguese) Do Nosso Jeito
Tereza Halliday, Diário de Pernambuco – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Se o mundo fosse do jeito que nós queremos, desapareceriam as profissões de policial, jornalista e psicoterapeuta. Ou, como diz um gaiato amigo meu: “Se o mundo fosse do nosso jeito, Tereza, seria uma chatice”. Talvez se chamasse Paraíso – aquele lugar mítico que jamais alguém encontrou na Terra, nem voltou do Além para contar.
→ read full articleReally Good Deed
TMS Editor,
20 Aug 2012
This guy arrives at the Pearly Gates. He has to wait to be admitted, while St. Pete leafs through his Big Book.
→ read full articleBig Day for the Environment
Clinton McBride – Socialist Worker,
13 Aug 2012
Five different dramatic and inspiring actions for environmental justice took place across the U.S. on July 28, 2012.
→ read full articleSoul Searching and Common Sense after Oak Creek
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
President Obama has responded to the killing of six members of the Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin this last Sunday [5 Aug 2012] with these words: “All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity….” To fail to mention the grotesque absurdity of legally allowing almost everyone in the United States to buy assault weapons and large quantities of ammunition online or at neighborhood shops can only be explained by the intimidating influence of the gun lobby, and its accompanying gun culture, in this country as currently heightened by an ongoing, nasty presidential election campaign.
→ read full articleReformed Teaching of History
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Today the world urgently needs a new global ethic, – an ethic where loyalty to family, community and nation will be supplemented by a strong sense of the brotherhood of all humans, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Schiller expressed this feeling in his “Ode to Joy”, a part of which is the text of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Today, the sharing of knowledge and culture is symbolized by the Internet, which binds us all together, no matter where we are living.
→ read full articleThe Compulsion to Partition
Joseph Massad – Al Jazeera,
13 Aug 2012
Palestinian rejection of the Partition Plan was rational – it was never a traumatic event. Whether a Palestinian “state” is admitted to the General Assembly or not, this compulsion to re-enact and repeat the partition plan is doomed to the same fate as its predecessors, as it will not lead to the “two-state solution”.”. Its failure, however, will be nothing short of another boon for the goal of a decolonised and democratic one state and for Palestinian liberation.
→ read full articleThe Great Impostors
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
In the name of saving the natural world, governments are privatising it. “The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying ‘this is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.
→ read full articleWhy Do We Obey?
Eric Peters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
The uniform – and other totems of officialized authority – confer legitimacy upon the illegitimate. It is a startling thing. It reveals that most people are incapable of grasping the concept of a moral principle – that something which is wrong when committed by an unsanctioned individual is just as wrong when committed by a sanctioned individual – or a group of them. If it is wrong to kill, then it is always wrong to kill. If it is wrong to steal, then it is always wrong to steal.
→ read full articleDrone Attacks Generate Enemies for the US
Eric Margolis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
While the US hails Pakistan as a key non-NATO ally, the US treats it like a militarily occupied country. The government in Islamabad is left to observe increasing drone attacks and CIA ground operation with deepening embarrassment and helplessness.
→ read full articleInternational Flotilla Sets Sail to Break Gaza Blockade
Hend Kortam – The Daily News, Egypt,
13 Aug 2012
Estelle, a ship voyaging to break the Gaza blockade has begun its journey from Sweden. It is now in Norway after arriving there on Friday [3 Aug 2012]. The ship is expected to reach Gaza sometime within October. Throughout its journey the ship will raise awareness of the Gaza blockade. Estelle will make several stops on its way to Gaza in which there will be “speakers, concerts and public festivals providing information about the situation in Gaza.”
→ read full article
Surviving an Active Shooter Event
US Department of Homeland Security – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
RUN… HIDE… FIGHT…! Signs of the Times. Interesting advertisement by the city of Houston, Texas. Apparently mass-shooting has become common place in the Land of the Brave and the Free… The irony is in the ad itself.
→ read full articleParadoxes of Engaging with the Ultimate in any Guise
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Living Life Penultimately – There is a curious dependence on the “ultimate” in a variety of forms. This may be related to anticipation of an ultimate experience, whether in the form of a theory, a spiritual revelation, an encounter with another, a global strategy, or the like. The expectation is that this will be “ultimately” transformative in ways which can only be intuited, but whose consequences are much anticipated.
→ read full articleThere Are Olympians without Countries—And Millions of Regular People, Too
Jamilah King - Colorlines,
13 Aug 2012
If you watched the opening ceremony for the Olympic games in London, it was hard to miss the self-described “independent Olympians.” In a celebration of international competition, their presence stood out because they were, in effect, stateless. A stateless person is broadly defined as someone without a nationality. “We feel that if capital can move across borders, then so can people.”
→ read full articleThe Syrian Intelligence War: A Tale of Two Security Headquarters
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
13 Aug 2012
Syria is currently the scene of a cold war between the US, NATO, Israel, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on one side and Russia, China, Iran, and the Resistance Bloc on the other hand. Amidst the fighting between the Syrian government and anti-government forces, an intense intelligence war has also been taking place.
→ read full articlePMANE Observes Independence Day as Black Day
Dr. S.P. Udayakumar, People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
The first anniversary of the current phase of our struggle will be commemorated on August 16, 2012 at Idinthakarai. Several political and social leaders along with writers, artists and activists will be participating in the day-long event.
→ read full article
Amazing Grace (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Il Divo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Music video by Il Divo performing Amazing Grace at Colosseo di Roma.
→ read full articleWhen Philosophers Join the Kill Chain
Mark LeVine – Al Jazeera,
13 Aug 2012
The most vehement debates on the use of force by the US surround attacks by remotely-piloted drone aircraft. Plato was likely not the first thinker to understand that what goes by the name of “justice” is often merely the violence and thievery practiced by those holding the reins of power. For Plato, their ability to continue to rule depended on imposing upon the weak the very rules they routinely break to maintain their position.
→ read full articleWhy Independence Day is a Black Day
Dr. S. P. Udayakumar, PMANE – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
The corruption-ridden, anti-Indian, pro-foreign, pro-MNC government of the UPA does not enjoy absolute majority in the Parliament and hence should not be allowed to take crucial national decisions at the far end of their tenure in power. It has lost its credibility, legitimacy, respect and trust among the people of India and it is compromising our independence, sovereignty and the fundamental freedoms.
→ read full articleWith Death, Love Does Not Die…
David Inkey – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
With death, love does not die,
we cry tears of deep grief for our own relief,
memory is a bridge cresting on a special ridge,
with death, love does not die…
(Portuguese) Esquerda Paraguaia Nunca Esteve Num Melhor Momento, Diz Lugo
Igor Ojeda – Carta Maior,
13 Aug 2012
Em entrevista concedida à mídia alternativa brasileira, o presidente deposto do Paraguai analisa as origens do “golpe parlamentar” executado contra ele e diz que os movimentos e partidos progressistas do país estão se reunindo todos os dias para discutir um projeto nacional, o que antes não acontecia. “Nunca antes 12 partidos e oito movimentos sentaram juntos”, disse Lugo, referindo-se à Frente Guasú, concertação de esquerda e centro-esquerda formada em março de 2010.
→ read full articleSyria: Lamp in the Storm
Michael Nagler – YES! Mazazine,
13 Aug 2012
How can we create the right vision to support indigenous nonviolence and unarmed civilian peacekeeping? During the climactic “Quit India” campaign launched by Gandhi in 1942, there were outbreaks of violence. Earlier, in 1922, similar outbreaks had led him to suspend the non-cooperation movement. This time, however, he said, “let our lamp stay lit in the midst of this hurricane.” This is very much the precarious situation of nonviolence in Syria today.
→ read full articleThe Hexagon Map of the Multipolar World
Johan Galtung, 13 Aug 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Some time ago the geopolitical map was based on the direct East-West conflict, the two superpowers USA/USSR with alliances, and the neutral-nonaligned treated as a residual category. The world was Bipolar. The implosion of the USSR made it Unipolar, “the only surviving superpower”, 2-1 = 1. Or so we were told. Today we have four huge states: the three largest in population, China-India-USA, and the largest in area, Russia. And the EU, a region with five middle-range states: UK-France-Germany-Italy-Spain. But there is one more pole on the geopolitical map: Islam.
→ read full article
U.S. Guns: The Awful, Shocking Truth!
Gunwar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Over the last 5 to 6 years, over 60,000 people have lost their lives in Mexico’s drug-related wave of violence. More than 70% of the weapons seized in Mexico in the last three years and submitted for tracing came from the U.S. Source: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-ATF.
→ read full articleObama More Sympathetic to Israelis Killed in Bulgaria than to Sikh Americans Murdered in Wisconsin
Ali Abunimah – The Electronic Intifata,
13 Aug 2012
As soon as news came of a bomb attack that killed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria on 18 July [2012], US President Barack Obama condemned it in the most strident terms – even though, then, as now, the perpetrator and his motive remain unknown. Such sentiments at the killing of innocent people are understandable. But why has Obama so far refused to condemn in equally strong terms Wade Michael Page’s murderous rampage that killed six people at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin yesterday [5 Aug 2012]?
→ read full article(Italian) Concerto per Elisabetta. La musica e l’eternità della vita
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Dell’eternità della vita attraverso la musica – Il suono – la vibrazione – pare non si fermi mai. Pare che viaggi in eterno. Nello spazio infinito.
→ read full articleThe Two Faces of a Police State: Sheltering Tax Evaders, Financial Swindlers, and Money Launderers while Policing the Citizens
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Never in the history of the United States have we witnessed crimes committed on the scale and scope of the present day by both private and state elites.
→ read full articleUN Should Get Rid of Cholera Epidemic That It Brought to Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – Center for Economic and Policy Research,
13 Aug 2012
Besides bringing the cholera epidemic to Haiti and wasting billions of dollars, [UN] troops have committed serious abuses, from killings of civilians to sexual abuse.
→ read full articleSoldiers Who Refuse to Kill
David Swanson – War Is A Crime,
13 Aug 2012
One of the most inspiring events thus far at the Veterans For Peace National Convention underway in Miami was a presentation on Thursday [9 Aug 2012] by several veterans who have refused to participate in war. Typically, they have done this at the risk of significant time in prison, or worse.
→ read full articleEluded Peace, Denied Justice: Bare Facts and Naked Truths
Commission for Justice and Peace of the Diocese of Jaffna – Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka,
13 Aug 2012
“The scale of what Sri Lanka has accomplished over the past three years is remarkable and very clearly visible” said the Director Operations of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, John Ging, in a statement. But as far as the facts are concerned, nothing can be further from the truth.
→ read full articleMeeting the Pope
TMS Editor,
13 Aug 2012
A rich American tourist was holidaying in Rome, and was intent on seeing the Pope. There he stood, in a big long line with a rather expensive suit on, hoping the Pope would notice how smart he was and perhaps talk a few words with him.
→ read full articleReconciliation, Reform and Resilience: Positive Peace for Lebanon
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
With the growing intensity of the conflicts in Syria, with the flows of refugees and increased foreign participation, the dangers of serious, negative impact on neighbouring countries is real. This impact is already being felt in Lebanon which has its own multi-level divisions and scars from its own long civil war (1975-1990).
→ read full articleWest Provoking Civil War in Syria
PressTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
George Galloway has conducted an interview with Jonathan Steele, former foreign editor of the Guardian and author of Ghosts of Afghanistan.
→ read full articleEscape From Economics
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
The problem is that the discipline both lags an ever-changing world and got some things wrong at the beginning. Consequently, learning economics places one inside a box where some of the tools and understanding provided are outdated and incorrect. My advice to readers who wish to develop economic comprehension is to begin with the outside-the-box economists who are addressing real issues. As Lenin and others predicted, industrial capitalism has turned into finance capitalism.
→ read full articleObama Authorizes Secret US Support for Syrian Rebels
Newsmax – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Obama’s order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence “finding,” broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad. This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad’s armed opponents.
→ read full articleAmerican Dream Evolving into Nightmare
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
In fact, violence breeds violence and more violence breeds more violence. The military is the only agency that performs atrocities with no accountability. Some political scientists described the military as “a terrorist organization sanctioned by the government.” The US huge expenditure on the military has transformed the American dream into a nightmare, which is making millions of Americans suffer for a very long time.
→ read full articleBeyond Words: Poet’s Lament
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Poetry at its finest stretches the expressiveness of language beyond its prior limits, not necessarily by its choice of words, but through the magical invocation of feelings embedded deeply within consciousness. When we do not respect the unspeakable by our silence we domesticate the criminality of the horror that human beings are capable of inflicting on one another, and give way to the eventual emergence of normalcy as has happened with nuclear weapons detached from the happenings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
→ read full articleThe Obama Administration Torpedoes the Arms Trade Treaty
Amy Goodman – Truthdig,
6 Aug 2012
In late June [2012], activists gathered in New York’s Times Square to make the absurd point, that, unbelievably, “there are more rules governing your ability to trade a banana from one country to the next than governing your ability to trade an AK-47 or a military helicopter.” So said Amnesty International USA’s Suzanne Nossel at the protest.
→ read full articleWalking the Waters: How to Bring the Major Oil Companies Ashore and Halt the Destruction of Our Oceans
Subhankar Banerjee - TomDispatch,
6 Aug 2012
Shell is getting ready to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean, an ecosystem staggeringly rich in life of every sort. Shell swears it’s dealing with the possibility of a disaster, even to the point of bringing in dogs “to detect oil spills beneath snow and ice.” No joke. “When it comes to drilling for oil in the harsh and unpredictable Arctic,” the Guardian reported in March, “Shell has gone to the dogs, it seems. A dachshund and two border collies to be specific.”
→ read full articleThe Nuremberg Principles and Individual Responsibility
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
The Nuremberg Principles are being used today as the basis for the International Criminal Court’s trials of individuals accused of genocide and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. According to them, it is not only the right, but also the duty of individuals to make moral and legal judgments concerning wars in which they are asked to fight. All of us are responsible for what our governments do! I personally would like to extend the principle of individual responsibility still further, whether the problems are related to the abolition of war, to the prevention of poverty, the prevention of famine, or to saving the biosphere.
→ read full articleNuclear ‘Hard To Justify’, Says GE Chief
Pilita Clark – Financial Times,
6 Aug 2012
Nuclear power is so expensive compared with other forms of energy that it has become “really hard” to justify, according to the chief executive of General Electric, one of the world’s largest suppliers of atomic equipment. “It’s really a gas and wind world today,” said Jeff Immelt, referring to two sources of electricity he said most countries are shifting towards as natural gas becomes “permanently cheap”.
→ read full article
Pro-Palestinian Ads Ignite Firestorm of Controversy
CBS2 News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
An explosive ad about Israel is now igniting a firestorm of controversy. The display shows shrinking Palestinian territory in Israel over the years and refers to 4.7 million Palestinians there as refugees.
→ read full articleThe Push for Nuclear Power in Space
Karl Grossman - Nation of Change,
6 Aug 2012
World Nuclear News, the information arm of the World Nuclear Association which seeks to boost the use of atomic energy, last week heralded a NASA Mars rover slated to land on Mars on Monday [6 Aug 2012], the first ever fueled with plutonium. The problem—a huge one and not mentioned whatsoever—involves accidents with space nuclear power systems releasing radioactivity impacting on people and other life on Earth. That has already happened. With more space nuclear operations, more atomic mishaps would be ahead.”
→ read full articleTurkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute. NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey
→ read full articleNepal: From Contradictions to Compelling Constructive Visions
Naakow Grant-Hayford, Galtung-Institut – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Federica Riccadonna is a research associate of the Galtung-Institut for Peace Theory and Peace Practice and currently a visiting researcher at the Asian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Transformation-ASPECT in Kathmandu. She depicts the Nepalese society as one in the throes of a deeply fraught political transition towards a more stable and just future and identifies important contradictions underpinning – and potentially able to undermine – the current constitutional and federal peace-building efforts, going on to suggest plausible progressive ways ahead.
→ read full articleDismembering the Arab World
Makram Khoury-Machool – deLiberation,
6 Aug 2012
The behaviour of the NATO-aligned, anti-Syrian bloc is now blatant enough for us to better understand what is happening in Syria. The Qataris and Saudis give financial support to the ‘rebels’ for weapons, payments to fighters and mercenaries, and logistical oversight of attacks on Syria. All of this is in addition to their support with telecommunication services, combat tactics, and strategic military advice. Unsurprisingly, the Western military advisors, who operate for the armed groups behind the scenes, do not feature in any media outlets.
→ read full articleCan Syria be a Zone of Peace?
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Instead of viewing the Syrian conflict as a national interest crucible, the time has come that it must be seen as an international challenge to be met by international players in a framework of cooperation. Towards this, making Syria a zone of peace may prove a clincher, with no side losing, but all sides gaining, and peace constituency getting stronger.
→ read full articleScorched Earth Economics
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Neoliberals claim that we are best served by maximising market freedom and minimising the role of the state. The free market, left to its own devices, will deliver efficiency, choice and prosperity. All tasks would be better discharged by private enterprise. The quest for Year Zero market purity was dangerous enough in theory; distorted by the grubby realities of life on earth it is devastating to the welfare of both people and planet.
→ read full articleThe Cartel – Behind the Scenes in the Libor Interest Rate Scandal
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
There have been plenty of banking scandals, but none quite like this: Investigators and political leaders believe that the manipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate was the result of organized fraud. Institutions that participated could face billions in fines and penalties.
→ read full articleLudicrous Times Op-Ed Forgets Entire Year of Wall Street History
Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone,
6 Aug 2012
Sanford Weill, the onetime head of Citibank, went on CNBC to announce that he thought it was time to break up the big banks. The Wall Street Journal put it this way: “Mr. Weill finds himself suddenly welcome in the company of editorialists who, since the Libor scandal, have been renewing their clamor for bankers to be imprisoned, if not executed. He’s become their new hero. The inherent Stalinism of those who crave to put bankers in jail for things that aren’t crimes is not unlike that of the original Stalinist – who understood that nothing of substance has to change if you’ve got enough scapegoats.”
→ read full articleThe Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic
Richard A. Muller – International Herald Tribune (NYT),
6 Aug 2012
CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.
→ read full articleFukushima: Precious Time Has Been Lost
Dr. Michel Fernex – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Since 1959, an agreement signed between the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and then a number of additional legal texts, prohibit WHO from intervening in nuclear accidents. Researchers have been surprised to find that genetic damage, and above all perigenetic damage, which is responsible for genomic instability, to descendants, is far worse than to parents; and this risk increases from one generation to the next.
→ read full articleThe Nordic Countries in a World in Crisis
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Knowing that India and China can meet alone the world’s demand for industrial goods at higher quality/price ratios, and that the South is able to fulfill a world demand for resources and agricultural products, one Western approach was to switch from real to finance economy. Building on the old City of London-Wall Street traditions in private banking and using debt bondage as power, cheap credit and speculation has been another approach, but it backfired.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Willy Brandt Vinte Anos Depois
Johan Galtung, Forum Abel Varzim – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Morreu há já vinte anos, o grande estadista alemão. A Alemanha, a Europa e o mundo têm amplos motivos de gratidão e muito a aprender com este mestre da política, em condições de grande tensão e polarização. O que era a sua “Ostpolitik” – uma nova fórmula de política para com o Leste? Ele tornou a Alemanha de Leste razoável, ao ser ele próprio razoável. Brandt tornou possível o Kohl de 1989.
→ read full article12 Mindsets Ensuring Disappearance of Employment Opportunities
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Towards a Systemic Reframing of the Job Culture – Produced in a period when the proportion of jobless in the Eurozone has reached a record level.
→ read full articleThe Taxi Driver
TMS Editor,
6 Aug 2012
A priest and a taxi driver both died and went to heaven. St. Peter was at the Pearly gates waiting for them. ‘Come with me’, said St. Peter to the taxi driver.
→ read full articleAt Stake in Mali: Refugees at Every Border
Ramzy Baroud – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
The humanitarian crisis in Mali is developing at an alarmingly fast pace. Northern Mali promises to be the graveyard of scores of innocent people if African countries don’t collectively challenge Western influence in the region.
→ read full article(Castellano) En la Sombra de Hiroshima
Noam Chomsky – La Jornada, Mexico,
6 Aug 2012
El 6 de agosto, aniversario de Hiroshima, debería ser un día de reflexión sombría, no sólo acerca de los sucesos terribles de esa fecha en 1945, sino también sobre lo que revelaron: que los seres humanos, en su dedicada búsqueda de medios para aumentar su capacidad de destrucción, finalmente habían logrado encontrar una forma de acercarse al límite final.
→ read full articleTime Clock of Mind
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
For the young men who have been victims of physical abuse, and experienced inner trauma.
→ read full articleHow the European Central Bank Came To Control the Fate of the World Economy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
World stock markets and European bond markets rallied last week in response to three words that came from the mouth of Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank: that the ECB would do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. What does this all mean to the average person in the eurozone, or in Spain, where unemployment just hit a record 24.6%?
→ read full articleHorror: Shocking Photos and Testimony from Afghanistan’s Dawood US Military Hospital Scandal
Rebecca Elliott & Michael Hastings, BuzzFeed – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
If you look at only one story about the Afghan War this year, make it this one. An explosive Congressional investigation revealed horrific new details this week [27 Jul 2012] about a U.S. funded military hospital in Afghanistan that kept patients in “Auschwitz-like” conditions. Warning: Graphic images.
→ read full article(French) La Crise de L’Euro Fait Gagner Beaucoup D’Argent à l’Allemagne
L'Expansion – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
L’Allemagne ne fait pas que payer pour régler la crise de la zone euro. Si un éclatement lui coûterait cher, Elle profite en attendant de conséquences très positives pour elle.
→ read full article