Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
Modernity’s Other and the Transformation of the University – I
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
Society as a whole and the university as a leading part of society need to revive some of the norms of African society prior to European contact. One could say the same about traditional norms in other parts of the world. I mention Africa because we are here.
→ read full articleBig Brother Brainwash Comes To Koodankulam
Veena Joshi Datta – The Sunday Standard,
28 May 2012
BANGALORE: The Centre has decided to counsel protestors at Koodankulam on the necessity of nuclear power plants for the development of the country by engaging a team of psychiatrists from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore for the job.
→ read full articleThe Nakba: 2012
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
The recent parallel hunger strikes in Israeli prisons reignited the political imagination of Palestinians around the world, strengthening bonds of ‘solidarity’ and reinforcing the trend toward grassroots reliance on nonviolent resistance Israeli abuses.
→ read full articleAfghanistan’s’ Chicago Resistance
Malalai Joya – The Guardian,
21 May 2012
Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Chicago this weekend [20-21 May 2012] for Nato’s annual summit where Afghanistan will be top of the agenda. It promises to be one of the most important anti-war demonstrations of our generation.
→ read full article
Norman Finkelstein – Political Scientist
BBC HARD Talk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
May 2012 – What happens if American Jews fall out of love with Israel? That’s what the Jewish American academic Norman Finkelstein claims is happening. He says they are now so unhappy with what Israel is doing that they want to distance themselves from the country.
→ read full articleChávez’s Economics Lesson for Europe
Richard Gott – The Guardian,
21 May 2012
Chávez and his co-religionaries in the new “Bolivarian revolution” have called for “21st-century socialism”, not a return to Soviet-style economics or the continuation of the mundane social democratic adaptation of capitalism, but, as the Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa has described it, the re-establishment of national planning by the state “for the development of the majority of the people”.
→ read full articleLearning from the Irish Hunger Strikes of 1981 and the Palestinian Challenge
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
John Hurson in Ireland has been keenly conscious of the affinities between the historic Irish hunger strike of 1981 and the ongoing Palestinian hunger strikes. He has travelled to Gaza on several occasions on humanitarian aid convoys, and is the founder of the on line Gaza TV News service. I suggested that we collaborate on an article that might recall the Irish experience, especially the parallels and the potential implications for the future of the Palestinian struggle.
→ read full articleHistoric Hunger Strikes: Lightning in the Skies of Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2012
Recourse to this desperate tactic of courageous self-sacrifice is an extreme form of nonviolence, and should whenever and wherever it occurs be given close attention. We cannot now know whether these hunger strikes will spark Palestinian resistance in new and creative ways. What we can already say with confidence is that these hunger strikers are writing a new chapter in the story line of resistance sumud, and their steadfastness is for me a Gandhian Moment in the Palestinian struggle.
→ read full articleJohan Galtung an Anti-Semite? I Don’t Think So!
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2012
I think that Galtung’s main difficulty, in all this brouhaha, has been to speak carelessly and somewhat peremptorily about highly sensitive matters, previously taboo, that require much care and precision of speech in order to avoid arousing post-traumatic fears and giving an impression of insensitivity to people’s basic needs. “An anti-Semite used to be someone who didn’t like Jews. Now it means someone Jews don’t like.”
→ read full articleRemembering Talal Hamseh, Murdered by Wahabbists in Damascus
Robin Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2012
On April 27 Talal was parking his car when a Syrian terrorist shot him through the head. He was a kind young man, my daughter’s friend. This murder has been proudly displayed on the murderers’ website, a ‘rebel’ trying to overthrow the Syrian regime. Why would we support Sunni Wahabbist terrorists murdering other Muslims, Christians and Alawites?
→ read full articleThe Massive Palestinian Hunger Strike: Traveling below the Western Radar
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2012
Can anyone doubt that if there were more than 1300 hunger strikers in any country in the world other than Palestine, the media in the West would be obsessed with the story? It would be featured day after day, and reported on from all angles, including the severe medical risks associated with such a lengthy refusal to take food.
→ read full articleMore Palestinian Prisoners Join Hunger Strike
Harriet Sherwood, Ramallah – The Guardian,
30 Apr 2012
26 Apr 2012 – The number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails has grown to 2,000, with more preparing to join the protest next week, according to human rights groups in the West Bank. The Israeli prison service is taking punitive measures against hunger strikers, including solitary confinement, the confiscation of personal belongings, transfers and denial of family visits, say Palestinian organisations.
→ read full articleThe Obama Contradiction: Weakling at Home, Imperial President Abroad
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
30 Apr 2012
He has few constraints (except those he’s internalized). No one can stop him or countermand his orders. He has a bevy of lawyers at his beck and call to explain the “legality” of his actions. And if he cares to, he can send a robot assassin to kill you, whoever you are, no matter where you may be on planet Earth. He sounds like a typical villain from a James Bond novel.
→ read full articleBlamed for Bee Collapse, Monsanto Buys Leading Bee Research Firm
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. It appears that when Monsanto cannot answer for their environmental devastation, they buy up a company that may potentially be their ‘experts’ in denying any such link between their crops and the bee decline.
→ read full articleOpening the Other Eye: Charles Taylor and Selective Criminal Accountability
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
From all that we know Charles Taylor deserves to be held criminally accountable for his role in the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone during the period 1998-2002. But there are some elements of this conviction that feed the suspicion that the West is up to its old tricks of seizing the high moral ground while pursuing economic and geopolitical goals that obstruct the political independence and sovereignty of countries that were once their colonies.
→ read full articleChoosing a President for the World Bank: West Centrism Prevails over Global Democracy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
This post seeks to use the selection of an American as the new President of the World Bank both to expose the fraudulent claim of a merit-based selection process and to insist indirectly that the future peace and justice of the world requires a more democratic and legitimate structure of global governance that reflects the post-colonial rise of the non-West, a rise that is not reflected in antiquated structures that persist despite changed conditions.
→ read full articleBritain Destroyed Records of Colonial Crimes
Ian Cobain, Owen Bowcott and Richard Norton-Taylor - The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Review finds thousands of papers detailing shameful acts were culled, while others were kept secret illegally.
→ read full articleCISPA Will Give the US Unprecedented Access, Internet Privacy Advocates Warn
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Washington looks set to wave through new cybersecurity legislation next week [23 Apr 2012] that opponents fear will wipe out decades of privacy protections at a stroke. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) will be discussed in the House of Representatives next week and already has the support of 100 House members.
→ read full articleWars Leave Crumbling Infrastructure At Home for US
Clifford A. Kiracofe - Global Times, China,
16 Apr 2012
While politicians in Washington recklessly call for bombing Syria and Iran, they ignore the economic costs of failed US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past, the US paid for its wars through increased taxes and the sale of war bonds. The recent wars, however, have been paid for mostly through borrowing. Thus, there is an adverse economic impact with respect to the increased national debt, to the increased budget deficits, and to the upward pressure on interest rates. So how did the US get into its current predicament?
→ read full articleAfghan War Whistleblower Daniel Davis: ‘I Had To Speak Out – Lives Are At Stake’
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
The career soldier is now a black sheep at the giant defence department building where he still works. The reason was his extraordinarily brave decision to accuse America’s military top brass of lying about the war in Afghanistan. When he went public in the New York Times, he was acclaimed as a hero for speaking out about a war that many Americans feel has gone horribly awry.
→ read full articleNuclear Weapons Are Not Instruments Of Peace!
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
To witness otherwise perceptive and morally motivated scholars succumbing to the demons of nuclearism is a bad omen; for me this nuclearist complacency is an unmistakable sign of cultural decadence that can only bring on disaster for the society, the species, and the world at some indeterminate future point. We cannot count on our geopolitical luck lasting forever! And we Americans, cannot possibly retain the dubious advantages of targeting the entire world with these weapons of mass destruction without experiencing the effects of a profound spiritual decline.
→ read full article‘New’ Burma Has Winners and Losers
Esmer Golluoglu in Rangoon – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
As business opportunities explode after the relaxing of domestic and international restrictions, many doubt whether Burma’s poor will benefit. Zayar Thaw, one of Burma’s best-known rappers, who spent three years as a political prisoner and has just been elected to parliament, says only time will tell what lies ahead: “Burma is changing, and it’s changing very fast. I am very surprised and a little bit nervous, to be honest.”
→ read full articleLiving In a Nuclear Hell
Charles Stratford – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
The town of Muslymovo has to be one of the saddest places on earth. The thousands of people who have little choice but to live here, on the banks of the Techa river not far from Russia’s southern border with Kazakhstan, are the victims of a nuclear disaster that began more than six decades ago.
→ read full articleWhy Europe Is Not Yet ‘A Culture Of Peace’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
It is undoubtedly true that the greatest unacknowledged achievement of the European Union (EU) is to establish ‘a culture of peace’ within its regional enclosure for the 68 years since 1944. This has meant not only the absence of war in Europe, but also the absence of ‘war talk,’ threats, crises, and sanctions, with the single important exception of the NATO War of 1999 that was part of the fallout from the breakup of former Yugoslavia.
→ read full articleIs Portugal Hopeless?
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
In the beginning of 2012, Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, dubbed the situation of Greece and Portugal “hopeless”. In support of his verdict, Darda cited high debt loads and poor prospects for growth in the two countries. The paradox of the current situation is that the European Union’s bailout package came with stipulations that, once implemented, will only worsen every fixable structural problem on the list.
→ read full article(French) Le Monde Anglo-Saxon du XXI° Siècle: Retour au Féodalisme
Frédéric Beaugeard – Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin-GEAB,
9 Apr 2012
Lorsqu’il s’agit de comprendre le Monde Contemporain en vue d’en analyser ses possibles futures évolutions, force est de constater que le principe apparent de synergie regroupant les différents éléments le composant n’était qu’une apparence trompeuse.
→ read full articleWho Is Jim Yong Kim, Nominee For World Bank President?
Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke – The Christian Science Monitor,
2 Apr 2012
23 Mar 2012 – The selection of Jim Yong Kim took many by surprise since he is not well known in Washington circles and wasn’t an expected candidate for the World Bank position. President Barack Obama has nominated Jim Yong Kim, a global health policy expert and the president of Dartmouth College, to run the World Bank.
→ read full articleJournalist Seeking Truth about Khmer Rouge ‘Fears for His Life’
Kate Hodal in Phnom Penh – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath says he has been followed, harassed and chased during his research.
→ read full articleUS Anti-Terrorism Law Curbs Free Speech and Activist Work, Court Told
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
A group political activists and journalists has launched a legal challenge to stop an American law they say allows the US military to arrest civilians anywhere in the world and detain them without trial as accused supporters of terrorism. The seven figures, who include ex-New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, professor Noam Chomsky and Icelandic politician and WikiLeaks campaigner Birgitta Jonsdottir, testified to a Manhattan judge that the law – dubbed the NDAA or Homeland Battlefield Bill – would cripple free speech around the world.
→ read full articleHana Shalabi’s Hunger Strike Has Ended, but Not Her Punishment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
As with Khader Adnan, Israel supposedly compromised with Hana Shalabi on the 43rd day of her hunger strike in protest against administrative detention and her abysmal treatment. But Israel’s concept of ‘compromise’ if considered becomes indistinguishable from the imposition of a further ‘vindictive punishment.’
→ read full articleFighting Fire in Haiti
Alexis Erkert – Toward Freedom,
2 Apr 2012
Camp Kozbami is the fifth camp to be arsoned in two months. As landowners and the government push to close camps inhabited by those displaced by the earthquake that rocked Haiti 26 months ago, a reported 94,632 individuals are facing forced eviction. Residents of the 660 displacement camps scattered throughout the Port-au-Prince area are experiencing increasing levels of threats and violence.
→ read full articleThe Reason I’m Helping Chris Hedges’ Lawsuit against the NDAA
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
By placing journalists in jeopardy for reporting on ‘terrorists’, the Homeland Battlefield Bill has had a chilling effect on media work and upon my ability to investigate and document matters of national controversy that would ordinarily be subject to my professional inquiry. It has therefore prevented my readers from receiving the full spectrum of truthful reporting which, in a functioning democracy, they have a right to expect.
→ read full articleWhy Barack Obama is the More Effective Evil
Glen Ford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
No matter how much evil Barack Obama actually accomplishes during his presidency, people that call themselves leftists insist on dubbing him the Lesser Evil. Not only is Obama not given proper credit for out-evil-ing George Bush, domestically and internationally, but the First Black President is awarded positive grades for his intentions versus the presumed intentions of Republicans. As the author says, this “is psycho-babble, not analysis. No real Left would engage in it.”
→ read full articleWhy Not Get the Law and Politics Right in Iran?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
As it is there is no legal foundation in the Nonproliferation Treaty or elsewhere for the present reliance on threat diplomacy in dealing with Iran. These threats violate Article 2(4) of the UN Charter that wisely prohibits not only uses of force but also threats to use force. Iran diplomacy presents an odd case, as political real politik and international law clearly point away from the military option, and yet the winds of war are blowing ever harder.
→ read full articleU.S. Government Still Not Ready for Democracy in Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
Haitians were ready again in 2000 when they elected Aristide a second time with 90 percent of the vote. But Washington would not accept the results of that election either, so it organized a cut-off of international aid to the government and poured millions into the opposition. As Paul Farmer (Bill Clinton’s Deputy Special Envoy of the UN to Haiti) testified to the U.S. Congress in 2010: “Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration.”
→ read full articleBolivia Has Transformed Itself by Ignoring the Washington Consensus
Luis Hernández Navarro – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
In the past six years, Bolivia has become one of the Latin American countries most successful at improving its citizens’ standard of living. Economic indicators such as low unemployment and decreased poverty, as well as better public healthcare and education, are outstanding.
→ read full articleThe Ordeal of Hana Shalabi: Medical Urgency and Spiritual Defiance
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
The respected human rights NGOs, Addameer-Palestine and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, have expressed their deep concern for the mortal danger facing Hana Shalabi who continues her historic hunger strike to protest abuse that she experienced and her objections to the Israeli practice of prolonged detention without charges, without trial.
→ read full articleResistance Builds to NATO’s Threat of Permanent War and Nuclear Dominance
Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers - Truthout,
26 Mar 2012
From their separate berths, NATO and the G-8’s heads of state, intelligence personnel, foreign ministers and generals, cabinet members and secret operatives, advisors and bureaucrats – the 1 percent of the 1 percent – will conspire to extend and defend their obscene wealth, to exploit the remaining fossil fuels, natural resources, human labor, and the living planet to the last drop, and to dominate the people of the global majority.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: The War Turns Pathological—Withdraw!
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
16 Afghan civilians, including women and children, were shot in their homes in the middle of the night. American soldiers urinating on dead Taliban fighters, Koran burning, and countryside patrols whose members were convicted by an American military tribunal of killing Afghan civilians for sport: whatever the U.S. military commanders in Kabul might sincerely say in regret and Washington might repeat by way of formal apology has become essentially irrelevant.
→ read full articleHana Shalabi: A Brave Act of Palestinian Nonviolence
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
Despite the calls to Palestinian from liberals in the West these extraordinary hunger strikes have met with silence or indifference in both Israel and the West. The UN has not raised its voice, as well. Hana Shalabi seems a young tender and normal woman who is dedicated to her family, hopes for marriage, and simple pleasures of shopping. She had previously been held in prison in Israel between 2009 and 2011, being released in the prisoner exchange that freed 1027 Palestinians. As she was returning to normalcy she was re-arrested in an abusive manner, which allegedly included a strip-search by a male soldier.
→ read full articleHow the News Media Doesn’t Give Peace a Chance
Richard Schiffman - Truthout,
19 Mar 2012
“Israel vs. Iran” reads a recent cover of The New York Times Magazine – the words written ominously in ashes from which smoke and flame still rise. Inside the magazine, Ronen Bergman a military analyst for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth argues that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2012 is inevitable… War at its root is a failure of imagination, a failure to think creatively about alternatives to violent conflict. Such is the argument of “Peace Journalism,” a field of study and practice which first emerged in the 1970s from the work of Norwegian sociologist, Johan Galtung.
→ read full articleGreece on the Breadline: HIV and Malaria Make a Comeback
Jon Henley in Athens – The Guardian,
19 Mar 2012
The savage cuts to Greece’s health service budget have led to a sharp rise in HIV/Aids and malaria in the beleaguered nation, said the head of Médecins sans Frontières Greece on Thursday [15 Mar 2012]. The incidence of HIV/Aids among intravenous drug users in central Athens soared by 1,250% in the first 10 months of 2011 compared with the same period the previous year while malaria is becoming endemic in the south for the first time since the rule of the colonels, which ended in the 1970s.
→ read full articleReciprocity, Lawfare, and Self-Defense: Targeted Killing
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
There is an emergent Israeli/American controversy on the lawfulness of targeted killing. Although the policy has not yet attained the status of being a national debate, there are signs that it may be about to happen, especially in light of the Attorney General, Eric Holder’s Northwestern Law School speech on March 5, 2012 outlining the Obama’s administration’s controversial approach to targeted killing in some detail.
→ read full articleKoran Burning in Afghanistan: Mistake, Crime, and Metaphor
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
In this regard Koran burning may be as provocative in its assault on Afghan political culture as was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi with respect to the authoritarian cruelty of the Tunisian regime presided over by the tyrannical rule of Zine El Alindine Ben Ali, who was driven from power as a direct result. When the culture screams it is time to leave!
→ read full articleA Revolution in Botanical Nomenclature
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Since January 1, botanical terms are to be named in English rather than Latin, changing a centuries old practice.
→ read full articleOur Duty to Sri Lanka, And Human Rights
Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson – The Guardian,
27 Feb 2012
This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal rights and international legal obligations we all share.
→ read full articleSaving Khader Adnan’s Life and Legacy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
It is a great relief to those millions around the world who were moved to prayer and action by Khader Adnan’s extraordinary hunger strike of 66 days that has ended due to Israel’s agreement to release him on April 17 [2012].
→ read full articleThe European Union and the Rhetoric of Immaturity
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
The tendency to infantalise select member states is in line with their animalisation, evident in the insulting abbreviation of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain in the word PIGS, neither as human nor as rational as the rest of the EU countries. Throughout Western philosophy, both children and animals, with their capricious wills, have been considered deficient from the standpoint of fully developed rational adults and, hence, in need of training, education, and disciplining.
→ read full articleBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement: The Power of the People at Work
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
27 Feb 2012
The issue is not about hummus, chocolate bars or Dead Sea vacations. It is about civil society taking full responsibility for its own actions (or lack of). The issue is not exactly about Israeli products either, but rather about how even a seemingly innocent decision like buying Israeli dates may enable the continued subjugation of the Palestinian people.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O ACTA Ameaça a Net
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
Quem nunca ouviu um CD emprestado, viu um DVD de um amigo, recorreu a uma biblioteca? A partilha de bens culturais sempre existiu. Na era digital, tem especificidades próprias, mas é falso que a cópia de um ficheiro não autorizado seja um ‘roubo’. Os Estados Unidos assinaram o ACTA em outubro [2011], assim como a Austrália, o Canadá, a Coreia do Sul e o Japão. A 26 de Janeiro [2012], 22 países europeus e a Comissão Europeia assinaram-no igualmente. Entraria em vigor depois de seis Estados signatários o terem ratificado. Nenhum o fez até à data. E, se depender das populações, tudo indica que nenhum o fará.
→ read full articleWhen Is An ‘NGO’ Not An NGO? Twists and Turns Beneath the Cairo Skies
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
A confusing controversy between the United States and Egypt is unfolding. It has already raised tensions in the relationship between the two countries to a level that has not existed for decades. It results from moves by the military government in Cairo to go forward with the criminal prosecution of 43 foreigners, including 19 Americans, for unlawfully carrying on the work of unlicensed public interest organizations that improperly, according to Egyptian law, depend for their budget on foreign funding.
→ read full articleIceland’s Viking Victory
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – The Telegraph,
20 Feb 2012
Congratulations to Iceland. Fitch has upgraded the country to investment grade BBB – with stable outlook, expecting government debt to peak at 100pc of GDP. The OECD’s latest forecast said growth will be 2.4pc this year, after 2.9pc in 2011. Unemployment will fall from 7pc last year to 6.1pc this year and then 5.3pc in 2013.
→ read full articleSaving Khader Adnan’s Life Saves Our Own Soul
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
The world watches as tragedy unfolds beneath its gaze as Khader Asnan enters his 63rd day as a hunger striker in an Israeli prison being held under an administrative detention order without trial, without charges, and without any indication of the evidence against him.
→ read full articleFalse Flag? Bombing Puts India’s Trade Ties with Iran to the Test
Mayank Bhardwaj, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
“There are U.N. sanctions which India honours, those don’t cover the export of a vast range of products which India can export to Iran,” Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar said. “If the EU and the U.S. both want to stop exports to that country, please tell me why I should follow suit? Why shouldn’t I take up that business opportunity?” Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center said that India will find it increasingly difficult to placate both Iran, on the one hand, and the United States and Israel on the other.
→ read full article“Human Rights” Warriors for Empire
Glen Ford – Black Agenda Report,
20 Feb 2012
“Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have chosen sides in the Washington-backed belligerency – the side of Empire.” Syria has no choice but to secure every square foot of its territory. “Faced with the certainty of superpower-backed attack under the guise of ‘protecting’ civilians in “liberated” territory, Syria cannot afford to cede even one neighborhood of a single city – not one block! – or of any rural or border enclave, to armed rebels and foreign jihadis.”
→ read full articleCapitalism, the Infernal Machine: An Interview with Fredric Jameson
Aaron Leonard – Rabble,
20 Feb 2012
It is not coincidental that Marx’s Capital addresses key elements of the situation we find ourselves in today: how the rich got so rich, how the poor got so poor and how all the various fixes and proposed solutions are based on the illusion that capitalism can somehow be made to meet the needs of the majority of people and still be capitalism. It is a book about unemployment in the sense that the absolute general law of capitalism, as he enunciates it, is to increase productivity.
→ read full articleContesting Ivory Tower Housing Solutions for Haiti
Deepa Panchang – Toward Freedom,
13 Feb 2012
Deutsche Bank and the Clinton Foundation brought on board a joint team from Harvard University and MIT to help design housing strategy for the ‘exemplar’ project. John McAslan & Partners, a British architecture firm, was engaged to help design a “comprehensive community development strategy.” Yet there was no community; the Harvard-MIT design team was designing according to its own ideas, in a vacuum, from Cambridge, Massachusetts. As of October 2011, the team had spent exactly one afternoon meeting with existing residents in Zoranje.
→ read full articleThe Russia-China Veto: Is It Enough?
Matthias Chang – Future Fastforward,
13 Feb 2012
Hypocrisy, another opportunistic gambit or a genuine shift in geopolitical stance? Mao Zedong famously declared that the “US is a paper tiger” and that in war, the people is paramount in winning and not weapons. Atomic weapons will not enable a country to win the war. If there was one statement that galvanised the Chinese people to stand up and be counted in the face of open threats of nuclear war and oppresion, this was it.
→ read full articleThe Menace of Present & Future Drone Warfare
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
This nonproliferation approach has been accompanying by three massive forms of deception that continues to mislead public opinion and discourage serious debate about the benefits of nuclear disarmament even at this late stage: First, the fallacious implication that the states that do not possess nuclear weapons are currently more dangerous for world peace than the states that possess, develop, and deploy these weapons of mass destruction, and have used them in the past; secondly, …
→ read full articleTurkey’s Foreign Policy: Zero Problems with Neighbors Revisited
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
We can only hope that Turkey stays the Dautoglu course, pursuing every opening that enables positive mutual relations among countries and using its diplomatic stature to encourage peaceful conflict resolution wherever possible. Rather than viewing ‘zero problems’ as a failure, it should be a time to reaffirm the creativity of Turkish foreign policy in the course of the last decade that has shown the world the benefits of soft power diplomacy, and a pattern that other governments might learn from while adapting to their own realities.
→ read full article(Portuguese) ACTA: Processo de Censura na Internet Tropeça em Países Europeus
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
A República Checa seguiu o caminho da Polónia e tornou-se agora o segundo país da União Europeia a suspender a ratificação do ACTA [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement], o tratado que, a pretexto do combate à contrafação, ameaça a livre expressão na Internet. Um acordo que, segundo o relator do PE para o assunto, foi negociado “através de manobras nunca vistas”, o que o fez demitir-se da tarefa.
→ read full articleSupport for BDS [Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions] National Conference at the University of Pennsylvania
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
I commend the conveners for taking this initiative in the face of efforts to intimidate and confuse by those who systematically oppose debate and free inquiry concerning the various dimensions of the Israel/Palestine conflict and its bearing on American foreign policy. I have long supported the BDS as a constructive and creative movement that raises awareness and mobilizes support for the Palestinian struggle to achieve a sustainable peace based on international law and a sense of justice.
→ read full articleOne Year On: My Mother as a Protester and A Few Other Dilemmas
Ahmed Badawi, Postcard from Egypt– TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
At the risk of stating the obvious, think of revolution not as a single event but as a period of waves. After an initial disturbance, a swell gathers momentum, forms into a crest, breaks just before it hits the shore, creates a splash, dissipates and then starts to move in the opposite direction, breaks on another shore, retreats and then builds up again, and so on and so forth until the revolutionary energy is consumed and a new equilibrium is reached.
→ read full articleMonsanto’s GM Maize Retreat
Gordon Davidson – The Scottish Farmer,
6 Feb 2012
France has held firm in its opposition to Monsanto’s genetically modified MON 810 maize – and the agri-chemical multinational has admitted defeat.
→ read full articleNuclear Free Middle East: Desirable, Necessary, and Impossible
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
Finally, there is some argumentation in the West supportive of a nuclear free zone for the Middle East. Such thinking is still treated as politically marginal, and hardly audible above the beat of the war drums.
→ read full articleStop Warmongering in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
To be objective commentators we must ask ourselves whether Iran’s posture toward its nuclear program is unreasonable under these circumstances. When was the last time [Iran] resorted to force against a hostile neighbor? The surprising answer is over 200 years ago! Can either of Iran’s antagonists claim a comparable record of living within its borders? Why does Iran not have the same right as other states to take full advantage of nuclear technology?
→ read full articleCould Ecuador Be the Most Radical and Exciting Place On Earth?
Jayati Ghosh – The Guardian,
23 Jan 2012
Ecuador must be one of the most exciting places on Earth right now, in terms of working towards a new development paradigm. It shows how much can be achieved with political will, even in uncertain economic times. Just 10 years ago, Ecuador was more or less a basket case, a quintessential “banana republic” (it happens to be the world’s largest exporter of bananas), characterised by political instability, inequality, a poorly-performing economy, and the ever-looming impact of the US on its domestic politics.
→ read full articleHealing Wounds: Seeking Closure for the 1915 Armenian Massacres
Richard Falk & Hilal Elver,
16 Jan 2012
Recently the National Assembly, France’s lower legislative chamber, voted to criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide in 1915, imposing a potential prison sentence of up to one year as well as a maximum fine of 45, 000 Euros. The timing of this controversial initiative seemed to represent a rather blatant Sarkhozy bid for the votes of the 500,000 French citizens of Armenian descent in the upcoming presidential election.
→ read full articleDoomsday Clock Moves to Five Minutes to Midnight
Science and Security Board, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007.
→ read full articleHow to Start a War: The American Use of War Pretext Incidents
Richard Sanders – Global Research,
16 Jan 2012
With regard to the confrontation in the Persian Gulf, is the Obama administration prepared to sacrifice the Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain as a means to create public outrage and drum up support for a war on Iran on the grounds of self-defense.
→ read full articleHaiti: From Displacement Camps to Community
Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
9 Jan 2012
As 2012 begins, a growing movement of displaced people and their allies in Haiti is actively claiming the right to housing, which is recognized by both the Haitian constitution and international treaties to which Haiti is signatory. Haitians displaced by the earthquake two years ago face many crises, but perhaps none worse than ongoing homelessness: 520,000 people still living in displacement camps.
→ read full articleCoca-Cola Accused of Propping Up Notorious Swaziland Dictator
David Smith in Johannesburg – The Guardian,
9 Jan 2012
The king has travelled to Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta in the US, much to the disgust of Swazi political activists. Mswati III has 13 wives and hosts an annual dance where he can choose a new bride from tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins. With a fortune of about $100m, he presides over one of the worst-off countries in the world, with most people living in absolute poverty. Political parties are banned and activists are regularly arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
→ read full articleCombating Slavery in Coffee and Chocolate Production
Jeff Nall – Toward Freedom,
9 Jan 2012
Quite simply, much of the coffee and chocolate improving our health is simultaneously jeopardizing the freedom and lives of hundreds of thousands around the world including many children. Yet most American consumers are ignorant to the mounting evidence indicating that the laborers whom they have to thank for cultivating these products are being grossly exploited, live in spiraling poverty, and, in some cases, are modern-day slaves.
→ read full articleRemembering the Best and Worst of 2011
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
We will learn in 2012 whether we are moving closer to fulfilling our hopes, dreams, and goals or are trying to interpret and overcome a recurrence of disappointment and demoralization with respect to progressive change in world affairs. The stakes for some societies, and for humanity, have rarely been higher.
→ read full articleBrazil Overtakes UK as Sixth-Largest Economy
Phillip Inman – The Guardian,
2 Jan 2012
Brazil has overtaken the UK to become the world’s sixth-largest economy, according to a team of economists. The banking crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession has relegated the UK to seventh place in 2011, behind South America’s largest economy, which has boomed on the back of exports to China and the far east.
→ read full articleWhat is Shame?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
‘Shame’ is a disturbing, much admired, Steve McQueen film that has been misleadingly reviewed, but deserves our serious attention. Let me put my reasoning in provocative language: ‘Shame’ depicts with chilling realism the degeneracy of high-end capitalist life style in the urban landscape of Sodom on the Hudson, otherwise known as ‘The Big Apple,’ that is, New York City.
→ read full articleChristopher Hitchens: RIP
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
I knew Christopher Hitchens casually, envied his rhetorical fluency, abhorred his interventionist cheerleading, and was offended by his arrogantly dismissive manner toward those he deemed his inferiors in debate or discussion. Perhaps, his sociopathic arrogance is epitomized by the explanation he often gave of why he was such a heavy drinker: “I hate to be bored, and when I drink other people seem less boring.”
→ read full articleBradley Manning Deserves a Medal
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
19 Dec 2011
The prosecution of the whistleblower and alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning is an exercise in intimidation, not justice. After 17 months of pre-trial imprisonment, Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old US army private and accused WikiLeaks source, is finally going to see the inside of a courtroom. This Friday [16 Dec 2011], on an army base in Maryland, the preliminary stage of his military trial will start.
→ read full articleMuddle and Create
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2011
World leaders and the economists who advise them are now debating whether more stimulus or more austerity, or some combination of the two, is the path toward restoring the normal functioning of capitalist accumulation, and therefore toward higher levels of employment and economic growth. There is no solution within the terms of their debates, only an historical necessity to muddle through somehow. Nor are there well-known solutions waiting in the wings, for both central planning and social democracy are discredited by good logical reasons and by historical experience.
→ read full articleIsrael and Apartheid? Reflections on the Russell Tribunal on Palestine Session in South Africa
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2011
This post is a modified and expanded version of an article published by Al Jazeera and also a continuation of a series of posts on the general theme of a jurisprudence of conscience.
→ read full articleThe New Cyber-Industrial Complex Spying On Us
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
12 Dec 2011
WikiLeaks has just released the Spy Files – a trove of almost 300 documents from the companies that shine a light into this industry. At the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, where I work, we trawled through these documents, and tracked down yet more material, which our research team – Matthew Wrigley, David Pegg, Christian Jensen and Jamie Thunder – used to create an online database that will soon cover over 160 companies in some 25 countries.
→ read full articleOut of the Backyard: New Latin American and Caribbean Bloc Defies Washington
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
12 Dec 2011
The CELAC meeting comes a time when Washington’s presence in the region is waning. Following the nightmarish decades of the Cold War, in which Washington propped up dictators and waged wars on Latin American nations, a new era has opened up; in the past decade a wave of leftist presidents have taken office on socialist and anti-imperialist platforms.
→ read full articleDurban Climate Deal Struck After Tense All-Night Session
John Vidal and Fiona Harvey in Durban – The Guardian,
12 Dec 2011
Talks came close to collapse when India insisted on concessions for developing countries, forcing 3am ‘huddle to save the planet’. A new global climate deal has been struck after being brought back from the brink of disaster by three powerful women politicians in a 20-minute “huddle to save the planet”.
→ read full articleOn Freedom and Imperialism: Arab Spring and the Intellectual Divide
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
5 Dec 2011
The so-called ‘Arab Spring’ is creating an intellectual divide that threatens any sensible understanding of the turmoil engulfing several Arab countries. Speaking truth to power is still possible, and is more urgent than ever. The fate of a nation, any nation, cannot be polarized to the terrible extent that the Arab uprisings have. On both sides of the divide, some are cheering for foreign intervention, while others are justifying the senseless murder of innocent people by dictators.
→ read full articleFrank Miller and the Rise of Cryptofascist Hollywood
Rick Moody – The Guardian,
5 Dec 2011
Fans were shocked when Batman writer Frank Miller furiously attacked the Occupy Movement. They shouldn’t have been; he was just voicing Hollywood’s unspoken values. American movies, in the main, often agree with Frank Miller, that endless war against a ruthless enemy is good, and military service is good, that killing makes you a man, that capitalism must prevail, that if you would just get a job (preferably a corporate job, for all honest work is corporate) you would quit complaining. And we might repay the favor by avoiding purchase of tickets to Miller’s films.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Presidentes Latino-Americanos Criam Novo Bloco Regional e Deixam EUA de Fora
Claudia Jardim em Caracas - BBC Brasil,
5 Dec 2011
Presidentes e representantes dos 33 países da América Latina se reúnem nesta sexta-feira [2 Dez 2011], em Caracas, para formalizar a criação da Comunidade de Estados Latino-americanos e Caribenhos (Celac). Será a primeira vez que os países do continente se articulam em uma mesma plataforma política – com a tarefa de tentar aprofundar a integração regional – sem a presença dos Estados Unidos e do Canadá.
→ read full articleKuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal: Bush and Blair Guilty
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2011
This is a modified version of a text published by Al Jazeera. It is a sequel to the piece entitled “Toward a Jurisprudence of Conscience,” and will be followed by an assessment of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine session in Cape Town, South Africa investigating the allegations that Israel is guilty of imposing apartheid on the Palestinian people, considered by the Rome Treaty framework of the International Criminal Court to be a crime against humanity.
→ read full article15 Foods High in Folic Acid
Dr. Edward Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2011
Folic acid, also known as vitamin B9, is perhaps most well known for its applications in the prevention of fetal deformities, Alzheimer’s disease, as well as several types of cancer. The good news is that there are many rich sources of folic acid that are easy to incorporate into your daily diet. Physiologically, consuming enough folic acid allows the body to perform many of its essential functions, including nucleotide biosynthesis in cells, DNA synthesis and repair, red blood cell creation, and also helps to prevent anemia.
→ read full articleArundhati Roy: ‘The people who created the crisis will not be the ones that come up with a solution.’
Arun Gupta – The Guardian,
5 Dec 2011
The prize-winning author of The God of Small Things talks about why she is drawn to the Occupy movement and the need to reclaim language and meaning.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Hearing Date Set As Court Martial Process Finally Begins
Ed Pilkington in New York – The Guardian,
28 Nov 2011
Manning, accused of leaking secrets to WikiLeaks, to go to pre-trial – known as Article 32 hearing – in Maryland next month. Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers, said: “The charges against Bradley Manning are an indictment of our government’s obsession with secrecy. Manning is accused of revealing illegal activities by our government and its corporate partners that must be brought to the attention of the American people.”
→ read full articleUK Urged to Prevent Vulture Funds Preying on World’s Poorest Countries
Greg Palast, Maggie O'Kane and Chavala Madlena – The Guardian,
28 Nov 2011
Britain is being urged to help close down a legal loophole that lets financiers known as “vulture funds” use courts in Jersey to claim hundreds of millions of pounds from the world’s poorest countries. The call came from international poverty campaigners as one of the vulture funds was poised to be awarded a $100m (£62m) debt payout against the Democratic Republic of the Congo after taking action in the Jersey courts.
→ read full articleToward A Jurisprudence of Conscience
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2011
The existence of double standards is part of the deep structure of world politics. It was even given constitutional status by being written into the Charter of the United Nations that permits the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, that is the winners in 1945, to exercise a veto over any decision affecting the peace and security of the world, thereby exempting the world’s most dangerous states, being the most militarily powerful and expansionist, from any obligation to uphold international law.
→ read full articleLanguage, Law, and Truth
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2011
It may be time to acknowledge that governmental lawlessness in foreign policy has become a bipartisan reality for the United States Government, and that the face in the White House or the political party in control, while not yet irrelevant, is a matter of secondary interest, at least to those who are drone targets or torture victims.
→ read full articleOn (Im)Balance and Credibility in America: Israel/Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
I could not begin to count the number of times friends, and adversaries, have give me the following general line of advice: your views on Israel/Palestine would gain a much wider hearing if they showed more sympathy for Israel’s position and concerns, that is, if they were more ‘balanced.’
→ read full articleOccupy Movement: Two Texts in Solidarity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
I wish to disseminate two texts that I have signed in support of the Occupy Movement. United for #Global Democracy deserves careful study and reflection. We got comments, suggestions, support, and wrote and rewrote it again and again. The text has been supported by Canadian-based Naomi Klein, Indian-based Vandana Shiva, the US-based Michael Hardt and Noam Chomsky, as well as Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano.
→ read full articleMoney Has Been Privatised By Stealth
Ben Dyson – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
Here’s how it works. When you ask the bank for the money to buy a one-bedroom box in London, the money that appears in your account isn’t borrowed from some prudent grandmother’s life savings. In fact, the bank simply types those numbers into your account, creating brand new money that you can now spend. As other banks do exactly the same, the amount of money in the economy grows and grows.
→ read full article(Portuguese) FMI Atribui a Ex-Funcionários Pensões Superiores a 7 Mil Euros
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
Os planos de reforma do Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI) prevêem que os trabalhadores aufiram pensões vitalícias a partir dos 50 anos. Ao mesmo tempo que impõe cortes salariais e diminuição das pensões em países como Irlanda, Grécia e Portugal, o FMI distribui pelos seus ex-funcionários pensões que chegam a ultrapassar os 7 mil euros mensais.
→ read full articleGlobal Revolution after Tahrir Square
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
This history-making global Occupy Movement with a presence in over 900 cities would not have happened without the revolutionary awakening culminating in driving Hosni Mubarak from Egyptian state power. We need also to acknowledge that the courage exhibited by those gathered at Tahrir Square might not have been exhibited to the world if not for the earlier charismatic self-immolating martyrdom of an unlicenced street vendor of vegetables, Mohamed Bouazi, in the interior Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010.
→ read full articleLessons from Iceland: The People Can Have the Power
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
As early progress in Iceland shows since the banking collapse, the 21st century will be the century of the common people, of us.
→ read full articleHere’s the Risk: Occupy Ends Up Doing the Bidding of the Global Elite
Patrick Henningsen – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
History shows us it is easy for ‘grassroots’ campaigns to become co-opted by the very interests they are fighting against.
→ read full article