Articles by UN
We found 3984 results.
Sri Lankan Buddhist Extremists Attack Muslim Mosque
W.A. Sunil, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Aug 2013
Sinhala extremists led by several Buddhist monks attacked a mosque in Colombo on Saturday [10 Aug 2013] during the evening prayers. According to local residents, more than 150 people came armed with wooden poles, stones and glass bottles.
→ read full articleThe Politics of Cruelty: America’s Descent into Madness
Henry Giroux - CounterPunch,
19 Aug 2013
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
– John le Carré
Civilization Dialogue as a Way of Life
Johan Galtung,
12 Aug 2013
We now enter a fascinating, multi-polar, period in world history. Six civilizations amount to six development models; scattered on eight poles in an octagonal world: USA and EU, both West-liberal; Russia searching (educated guess: for an improved version of West-Marxist); India, huge, but at a loss with its Hinduism; China as China (with Japan in a painful search for stability between USA and China); the Muslim world, OIC-Organization of Islamic Cooperation, searching for an ummah in the OIC region, with the sunni-shia conflict resolved; Africa searching for an eclecticism based on West-secular, Islam and something of its own; Latin America right now steeped in a creative intra-West dialogue.
→ read full articleMy Vision for the Future Development of Sociology at the University
Pierre Celestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Aug 2013
Like any individual, I am sensitive as to how society defines and labels me. I am a black, heterosexual middle class male and I have a strong attachment to each of these personal descriptors. However as a social anthropologist, I am able to detach myself from these labels and look objectively at my function within a greater social structure.
→ read full articleBalancing Freedom and Security – Insults to Our Intelligence
Andrew Levine - CounterPunch,
12 Aug 2013
George W. Bush was never at a loss for something idiotic to say. Still his speech to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 was exceptional. He said that the World Trade Center and Pentagon had been attacked nine days earlier because: “They hate our freedoms – our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
→ read full articleMarx’s Lesson for the Muslim Brothers
Sheri Berman – NYT International Herald Tribune,
12 Aug 2013
KARL MARX wrote that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. In 1848, workers joined with liberals in a democratic revolt to overthrow the French monarchy. However, almost as soon as the old order collapsed, the opposition fell apart, as liberals grew increasingly alarmed by what they saw as “radical” working class demands. Those same patterns are playing out in Egypt today — with liberals and authoritarians playing themselves, and Islamists playing the role of socialists.
→ read full articleIsrael-Palestinian Talks: Washington Acts Like Matchmaker… Between Rapist and Victim
Finian Cunningham – Strategic Culture Foundation,
12 Aug 2013
Washington is part of the problem. John Kerry, like so many of his predecessors, may pose as an even-handed matchmaker between two quarrelling sides. But the simple fact is that the US is not a neutral arbiter. It is the patron, sponsor, architect, advocate and accomplice of one side – Israel.
→ read full articleObama’s Diplomatic Blunder, the Cowardice of Western Democracies and What Sweden Should Do
Board Members, The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research-TFF – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Aug 2013
President Obama’s decision to cancel the meeting with Putin is yet another indicator of Washington’s intellectual weakness and the U.S. empire’s future dissolution. People like Assange, Manning and Snowden should be seen as heroes and treated with respect. Before the Swedish prime minister meets Obama he should announce that Sweden is willing to host Snowden.
→ read full articleThe Monsanto Method: Torturing Animals with GMOs
Katherine Paul – CounterPunch,
12 Aug 2013
“A Culture that views pigs as inanimate piles of protoplasmic structure to be manipulated however cleverly the human mind can conceive will view its citizens the same way – and other cultures.” We associate food with at most, pleasure, at the very least, survival. It’s not too different for animals.
→ read full articleFive Theses about Assange-Manning-Snowden
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
What Manning and Snowden revealed are the death throes of the US empire; what Assange et al. revealed are the death throes of the state system as we know it. Both processes will take time; the former less than the latter. But make no mistake: the three made history. Three names that will be remembered after some US presidents recede into an oblivion so well deserved.
→ read full articleExtremely High Tritium Level Found in Water in Pit at Fukushima Plant
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on July 28 [2013] that an extremely high level of radioactive tritium has been detected in a pit in the compound of its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The level was 8.7 million becquerels per liter of water, which was 145 times that of the permissible level stipulated under the law.
→ read full articleCapital Insecurity in Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
The emerging symbiosis between global capitalist forces and the security interests of Myanmar’s ruling military-crony class has not been sufficiently weighed by most Western scholars and other Myanmar watchers. Most have ignored the hard fact that ethnic and religious minorities, 40% of the country’s total population, are being further marginalized and disenfranchised, pushed from their traditional lands or otherwise decimated.
→ read full article(Italiano) Sistemi di Difesa Alternativa per gli Stati
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2013
Per un paese che basi la propria sicurezza sulla pace, non allineato, utile agli altri, invulnerabile, che si occupi di mediazione dei conflitti e dei traumi rilevanti, di grande empatia e con progetti equi, dotato solo di armi non-provocatorie, preparato a difendere i propri confini e ogni parte del proprio territorio attraverso una difesa militare e non militare e coordinato da un Ministro della Pace, un attacco è molto improbabile.
→ read full articleAnother Dead End in the Middle East: The Flawed Logic of the Peace Talks
Jonathan Cook - CounterPunch,
5 Aug 2013
The talks, which will begin in mid-August, are taking place not because either Israel’s prime minister or the Palestnian president believe a deal is in reach. The two sides are talking each to avoid being blamed for embarrassing John Kerry, the US secretary of state.
→ read full articleSmall Places Can Think Big Thoughts…
Johan Galtung,
31 Jul 2013
Free-standing academies are needed, not against the West but for the world–act locally, think globally!–with the West having its appropriate place in a dialogue of civilizations; Western liberal and Western Marxist, Islamic and Buddhist, Japanese and Chinese, to mention some major ones. None is universal, all carry gifts to humanity.
→ read full articleApplications of Ahimsa-Nonviolence in Daily Life
Johan Galtung,
29 Jul 2013
The TRANSCEND-Peace Development Environment Network started with geopolitical macro and mega conflicts; many well known and dramatic. But conflicts in daily life, at school, in couples-family, at work may be even more dramatic; at the micro level within the persons involved, between them, in the context, and at the meso level of social groups.
→ read full article(Italiano) Competizione, Cooperazione e Archetipi
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jul 2013
Ci sono vincitori e sconfitti; la diseguaglianza viene istituzionalizzata, anzi premiata. Qualunque competizione è un conflitto per un obiettivo da poco, vincere; più c’è competizione più c’è conflitto irrisolto.
→ read full article
Turning Plastic into Oil? Yes!
United Nations University,
29 Jul 2013
United Nations University Video
Japanese Man Invents Machine to Convert Plastic Back into Oil
Japanese with English Subtitles
At the Brink of Apocalyptic Terror: Fukushima Continues to Spew Its Darkness
Harvey Wasserman - CounterPunch,
29 Jul 2013
Radiation leaks, steam releases, disease and death continue to spew from Fukushima and a disaster which is far from over. Its most profound threat to the global ecology—a spent fuel fire—is still very much with us.
→ read full articleBDS against Israel: Victory at TIAA-CREF
Jonathan Cunningham – Socialist Worker,
29 Jul 2013
The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that has been protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestine took another step forward this month when the giant retirement fund giant TIAA-CREF announced it was divesting $9 million from SodaStream, an Israeli company that makes its carbonation machines in the occupied West Bank.
→ read full articleNational Security State, Advent of Fascism: Obama’s Fanaticism over Secrecy, Surveillance and Repression
Norman Pollack – CounterPunch,
29 Jul 2013
Secrecy is the ideal camouflage for surrounding, covering, and protecting the class-state, its system of power, its elites’ hidden agenda, and the political-cultural mechanisms which engineer consent to the national purpose as defined from above, not so much to hide ordinary hanky-panky–favoritism to contractors, political contributors, etc.– but war crimes real time.
→ read full articleConstitutional Amendment in Japan — Potential Lessons from Australia
Joel Rheuben, University of Tokyo – East Asia Forum,
29 Jul 2013
Like the Japanese Constitution, Australia’s Constitution can only be amended after a popular referendum approving change. However, unlike Japan, referenda proposals can be initiated by only a simple majority of both houses. Nevertheless, constitutional referenda have succeeded only 8 times out of 44 attempts in 112 years — and not once since 1977.
→ read full articleWaterborne Radioactive Levels in Fukushima Plant Pit Unchanged from 2011
The Asahi Shimbun – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jul 2013
Water in a pit on the grounds of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been found to contain high levels of radioactive substances, the plant operator said July 27, 2013. 2.35 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium were detected per liter of water on July 26 in the No. 2 reactor. The breakdown was 750 million becquerels of cesium-134 and 1.6 billion becquerels of cesium-137.
→ read full articleSystems of Alternative Defense for States
Johan Galtung, 23 Jul 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2013
A country based on security through peace, nonaligned, useful to others, invulnerable, mediating relevant conflicts and traumas, high on empathy and equitable projects, only non-provocative arms, prepared to defend its borders and any part of its territory with military and nonmilitary defense and a Ministry of Peace; attack very unlikely.
→ read full article(Italiano) La Micro-Gestione USA del Mondo
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Cosa c’è di nuovo a proposito di PRISM-TEMPORA di marchio USA-Regno Unito? Il dito sul dominio – con lo scopo di spiare il resto del mondo – l’enorme impiego di operatori esperti della rete, e la palese prima linea: Anglo-America contro il Resto del mondo, inclusi i soci membri dell’UE. Se tutto ciò fosse stato fatto da stati più piccoli, le relazioni bilaterali con loro sarebbero state sospese, declassate, e la loro appartenenza all’UE revocata. Per quanto tempo ancora USA e Regno Unito sfuggiranno all’impunità?
→ read full articleRevive Aung San’s Original Secularist Multicultural Vision for the New Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Aung San was murdered on 19 July 1947, 66 years go. He was killed by 27 bullet wounds from the British Army-issued machine guns in the British-assisted assassination. When he and his multi-cultural and multi-faith comrades were killed it was not just the men’s lives that were taken away. Aung San’s secularist, egalitarian and multiculturalist vision too was killed and buried along with their remains.
→ read full articleAdministration’s Syria Problem: U.S. Can’t Find Non-Al Qaida Rebels
World Tribune – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
The United States has withheld at least $50 million worth of aid to Sunni rebels in Syria. The reason: neither Congress nor the administration of President Barack Obama can find rebel militias not linked to Al Qaida.
→ read full articleNetflix and Surveillance: The Brave New World of Big Data
Kate Epstein - CounterPunch,
22 Jul 2013
It’s hard not to compare the constant surveillance of twenty-first-century America to the ubiquitous presence of Big Brother in the prescient 1949 Orwellian novel. And that’s not to mention the doublethink involved in our never-ending war with an ever-shifting enemy to keep the homeland safe (war is peace)…
→ read full articleBritish Aid for Myanmar/Burma Ethnic Cleansing
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Britain, the largest donor country and former colonizer of Myanmar, is effectively aiding and abetting the unfolding “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim Rohingya by helping to finance the country’s controversial 2014 national census.
→ read full articleKoodankulam Nuclear Plant Commissioning: An Open Letter to Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere – Counter Currents,
22 Jul 2013
Today is a historic day for two wrong reasons. First: on 16 July 1945 the world’s first experimental nuclear explosion was conducted at Alamogordo, USA, as a precursor to the next two nuclear experiments over Japan. Second, for us in India, it immediately follows the Koodankulam nuclear power plant going critical in contempt of people’s well-founded fears for safety and health through calculated lack of transparency to the questions and issues raised by them.
→ read full articleEuropean Commission President Meets Religious Leaders
Kumari Kunti Sherreitt, ISKCON News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2013
Eighteen senior religious leaders from all over Europe met on May 30, 2013 to discuss the EU’s yearly theme of “citizenship” hosted by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President Van Rompuy and Vice Presiden Laszlo Surjan, and organized by the Bureau of European Policy Advisors.
→ read full articleCompetition, Cooperation and Archetypes
Johan Galtung,
15 Jul 2013
Competition and testing have serious repercussions. There are winners and losers; inequality is institutionalized, even rewarded. Any competition is a conflict for a scarce goal, winning; the more competition the more unresolved conflict.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Plan B in Egypt: Bring Back the Old Regime
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Strategic Culture Foundation,
15 Jul 2013
Just as America’s regime change project in Syria is failing, its time in the Middle East is drawing to an end. Those who gambled on Washington’s success, like the Saudi royals, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, will find themselves on the losing side of the Middle East’s regional equation…
→ read full articleRohingya Refugees in India: Tales of Endless Persecution, Torture and Exploitation
Shivnaryan Rajpurohit – Counter Currents,
15 Jul 2013
Another World Refugee Day on June 20 was met with familiar indifference by host countries. Every year, it is passed off as a necessary irritant when media air and publish stories on refugees. Well, this is another sordid tale of Rohingya refugees–who fled Myanmar–in India, sheltering around 11,000 Myanmarese refugees (a figure obtained from the UNHCR).
→ read full articleAn Unfolding Tale of Two Genocidal “Buddhist” Hells: Myanmar and Sri Lanka
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
The Burmese Bama Buddhists are not alone in Nazi “Buddhist” Hell. They are in good company of the equally genocidal “Buddhists” of Sri Lanka.
→ read full articleWashington Is Overtly Supporting Al-Qaeda in Syria: Prof. James H. Fetzer
Interview by Kourosh Ziabari – Counter Currents,
15 Jul 2013
American philosopher and political author James H. Fetzer argues that the United States is openly supporting Al-Qaeda and the extremist Salafist and Takfiri groups in Syria and equipping the rebels and insurgents inside the country with sophisticated weapons and arms.
→ read full articleIs There Anything Truly Sustainable or Humane About Eating Meat?
Joshua Frank - CounterPunch,
15 Jul 2013
What’s the truth behind the label? Can meat ever really be sustainable? Is purchasing local a good thing for the environment? Not always, says activist, author and educator Lee Hall, who serves as legal affairs VP for Friends of Animals.
→ read full articleThe Battle between Countries and Companies
Dick Pountain – Open Democracy,
15 Jul 2013
The wild profits and net worths that the internet has enabled have created a massive power shift, leaving the corporations to overbear the countries they inhabit. In light of this, what are the consequences for both parties?
→ read full article(Italiano) Umanità 2050: Costruire la Pace con i Nostri Futuri
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jul 2013
Discorso di apertura, 40° Anniversario del World Futures Studies Federation (Federazione per gli Studi sui Futuri del Mondo) – Bucarest, Romania – “L’Islam offre solidarietà e condivisione di cui l’Occidente ha bisogno, l’Occidente offre diversità e libertà di cui l’Islam ha bisogno. Mutuo apprendimento”.
→ read full articleThe USA Micro-Managing the World
Johan Galtung,
8 Jul 2013
What is new about PRISM-TEMPORA, by USA-UK? The domain–spying on the whole world, the scope–huge internet operators involved, and the clear front-line: Anglo-America against the Rest, including fellow EU members. If done by smaller states, bilateral relations might be suspended, downgraded, and their EU membership revoked. How long will the USA-UK get away with impunity?
→ read full articleThe Military Coup in Egypt: Challenges of the Transition
Dr. Lakhdar Ghettas, Cordoba Foundation of Geneva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
The ousting of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army is a military coup d’état pure and simple. Morsi’s ousting qualifies for a military putsch which is by definition the illegal removal of the head of the state by the army or a faction within it, or the security services, through the use of force or the threat to using it.
→ read full articleFlatland: Understanding Multiple Dimensions from Our Third Dimensional Perspective
Arjun, Collective Evolution – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
We are not only on the verge of confirming intelligent extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial worlds, we could be on the verge of confirming extra-dimensional worlds, and extra dimensional life, if we haven’t already.
→ read full article(Italiano) Reinvenzione del Fascismo
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jul 2013
L’atroce Seconda Guerra Mondiale ha provocato danni durevoli abbassando i nostri standard per ciò che è marginalmente accettabile. La guerra è male; ma se non è nucleare, il limite non è stato ancora raggiunto. Il fascismo è male; ma se non si accompagna alla dittatura e all’eliminazione di una categoria di persone, il limite non è stato ancora raggiunto.
→ read full articleWho Is An Objective Journalist?
Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer - CounterCurrents,
8 Jul 2013
In a recent New York Times article David Carr questioned [Glenn Greenwald] whether someone could be both a journalist and an activist. This was Greenwald’s response: “It is not a matter of being an activist or a journalist; it’s a false dichotomy. It is a matter of being honest or dishonest. All activists are not journalists, but all real journalists are activists. Journalism has a value, a purpose – to serve as a check on power.”
→ read full articleBig Brother, Not Snowden and Greenwald, Is the Story
Sheldon Richman – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
1 Jul 2013
“Instead of being adversaries to government power … [the media of Washington, D.C., are] … servants to it and mouthpieces for it.” Snowden and Greenwald have not “aided the enemy” — unless the American people are the government’s enemy. What they have done is embarrass the Obama administration by exposing criminal activity.
→ read full article(Italiano) Pensare-Agire, Localmente-Globalmente: Alfaz, Spagna
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2013
Cooperazione per beneficio mutuo, empatia, risoluzione dei conflitti e riconciliazione dei traumi: compiti fondamentali di pace ovunque, in famiglia, a scuola, al lavoro, in un villaggio-città come Alfaz, come esempio per il paese, per i rapporti Occidente-Islam.
→ read full articleCan President Obama Really Claim a Leadership Role in the Energy Transition?
Anna Leidreiter – World Future Council,
1 Jul 2013
Leaders in the fight against climate change are indeed those who seriously take action in eliminating fossil fuels. A leader today can only be a person understands that a 100% renewable energy-based society does not compromise economic well-being but is a prerequisite for it. Because at the end of the day – as Obama said himself – “our generation will be judged by the inheritance we leave.”
→ read full articleMetta for “Mus”?!! You must be kidding!: A New Myanmar and its “Buddhist” Tales
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2013
In our Myanmar A-wee-zi (an abode of Buddhist Hell) – He is our national hero in place of your ‘fallen (liberal) idol’. Mighty is he, commanding 3,000-strong Buddhist monastery amongst the Order of 500,000. “Honestly, I felt I wanted to fight weapons with weapons. I am a Burmese bin Laden”.
→ read full articleFull Spectrum Dominance: Weaponising the Weather
Colin Todhunter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2013
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is carrying out electromagnetic experimentations with the ionosphere and developing electromagnetic weaponry. It is claimed that HAARP intends to induce ionospheric modifications with a view to altering weather patterns and disrupting communications and radar.
→ read full article(Français) Nous Refusons le Silence Face a l’Apartheid et au Nettoyage Ethnique en Birmanie
Maung Zarni, Noam Chomsky et Lilian Thuram – Le Monde,
1 Jul 2013
Les minorités sont exclues du renouveau démocratique et, pour beaucoup, le calvaire a empiré avec des offensives militaires au nord et à l’Est tandis qu’à l’Ouest des populations sont séquestrées sous un régime d’Apartheid.
→ read full articleHumankind 2050: Making Peace with Our Futures
Johan Galtung,
1 Jul 2013
The road may pass through a bankrupt USA bailed out by a democratic China in 2025. Some may argue that is already happening, with China–more democratic than the West knows–being creditor No. 1, and the USA–more bankrupt than the USA admits–debtor No. 1; Nos. 1 and 190 among 190 countries.
→ read full articleThe Whistleblowers Are the New Generation of American Patriots
Gary Younge – The Guardian,
24 Jun 2013
The violation of civil liberties in the name of security has had a profound impact on those who came of age after 9/11.
→ read full articleThe Syrian Target: Why Only an All-Out War Can Depose Assad
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
24 Jun 2013
One curious aspect of the sarin gas story is that, at the end of May, the Turkish security forces said they had arrested in Turkey militants of the Syrian rebel al-Nusra Front, affiliated to al-Qa’ida, who had in their possession a 2kg cylinder filled with sarin. This is far more substantial evidence for the possession of poison gas than anything alleged against Assad’s forces, but the US, Britain and France showed no interest.
→ read full article(Italiano) La Turchia si Sta di Nuovo Bloccando?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jun 2013
La Turchia ha fatto l’impossibile, passando quasi senza violenza da una dittatura militare laica a una democrazia civile a maggioranza sunnita. La Turchia si è sbloccata.
→ read full articlePresident of International War Crimes Tribunal May Have Worked to Shield Israelis from Prosecution
Alison Weir – The Council for the National Interest,
24 Jun 2013
The NY Times says that the Israeli-American judge, Theodor Meron, “… has led a push for raising the bar for conviction in such cases, prosecutors say, to the point where a conviction has become nearly impossible.” Some analysts feel that Meron’s motivation may be to protect Israeli political and military leaders from prosecutions that could place them in legal jeopardy.
→ read full articleReinventing Fascism
Johan Galtung,
24 Jun 2013
What matters is fear; that people are afraid and abstain from protests and nonviolent actions lest they are singled out. Less important than really checking everybody’s email, web activity and listening to telephone calls is people believing that it is happening. The trick is to do so indiscriminately, not focusing only on suspects but making people feel that anyone is a potential suspect; making them play safe out of fear, turning all potential activists into governable passivists. Leaving politics to the Big Boys, with muscles at home as well as abroad.
→ read full article
Galtung-Overcoming the Taksim Square Conflict
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jun 2013
11 June 2013 – Prof. Johan Galtung, in Turkey, presents an analysis and much info directed at peaceful/nonviolent solutions to the standoff in Istanbul.
→ read full article(Castellano) Se Estanca Turquia Nuevamente?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jun 2013
Turquía hizo lo imposible: pasar casi sin violencia de una dictadura militar secular a una democracia civil mayoritariamente sunní. Turquía despegó. Sarkar y la circulación de las elites en el trabajo: las élites militares, luego los intelectuales religiosos, después las empresas, luego la gente común y una vez más los militares. Segundo ciclo. Los grandes negocios llaman a la puerta, como sucedió en la época de Thatcher y Reagan, en la revolución de mediados de 1980.
→ read full articleThe Strange History of the Anti-Defamation League – ADL Spies
Jeffrey Blankfort - CounterPunch,
17 Jun 2013
Those were the days when snooping usually meant digging through garbage cans, checking other people’s mailboxes, and primitive phone tapping. How the Anti-Defamation League is doing it today one can only imagine. Newly declassified FBI files obtained by IRmep’s Grant Smith reveal that on August 8, 1940, the ADL offered a confidential list of hundreds of undercover ADL investigators to FBI Director J Edgar Hoover.
→ read full articleThink-Act, Locally-Globally: Alfaz, Spain
Johan Galtung,
17 Jun 2013
Cooperation for equal benefit, empathy, conflict resolution and trauma reconciliation: key peace tasks anywhere, in the family, at school, at work, in a village-town like Alfaz, as example for a country, for the West-Islam.
→ read full articleIndependent UN Panel Calls for Diplomatic Surge to End ‘Daily Reality’ of War Crimes in Syria
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2013
4 June 2013 – With Syria engulfed in an escalating and increasingly brutal civil war, a panel of United Nations human rights experts today issued its latest report on the crisis, detailing war crimes it says were committed by both the Syrian Government and opposition forces, and calling for a “diplomatic surge” to end the violence.
→ read full articleEx Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan Now Sorry He Pushed Export of Nuclear Plant Technology
Erika Toh – The Asahi Chimbun,
10 Jun 2013
If he could turn the clock back, Naoto Kan says he would never have promoted the export of Japanese nuclear plant technology to India, Turkey and Vietnam. “Before March 11 [2011], I was in favor of the safe usage of nuclear plants, but my thinking has changed 180 degrees after that,” he said.
→ read full article(Italiano) Le Americhe: Colombia e USA
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2013
Alcuni anni fa i due paesi erano i leader in ansia mentale nelle Americhe. Ne avevano entrambi buone ragioni: la violenza più persistente in qualunque paese contemporaneo; in Colombia dal 1949 con qualche interruzione, poi di nuovo dal 1964 con le FARC, le famose formazioni guerrigliere. E per gli USA la convinzione che il Male sia dietro ogni angolo, nazionale e globale; meglio avere le armi per trattare a modo quei brutti ceffi.
→ read full articleWhat Gandhi Says about Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage
Antony Copley – The Gandhi Foundation,
10 Jun 2013
Review of the book written by Norman G Finkelstein – Gandhi’s belief that could the British overcome their fear of loss of Empire they would happily surrender, reminds me of Aung San Suu Kyi’s belief that could the Army in Burma lose its fear of the loss of power, they would come into line with more progressive policies. It is in Burma that the Gandhian ideal is currently being put most critically to the test.
→ read full articleTurkey Getting Stuck Again?
Johan Galtung,
10 Jun 2013
Turkey did the impossible, moving from a military secular dictatorship to a civilian Sunni majority democracy thus getting unstuck. Sarkar’s circulation of elites at work: military elites, then religious-intellectuals, then business, then ordinary people–and once again the military. Second cycle. Big Business would knock at the door, as it did in the Thatcher-Reagan revolution of the mid-1980s.
→ read full articleLatin America’s Social Movements Map Solidarity with ALBA Alliance
Federico Fuentes - CounterCurrents,
3 Jun 2013
This region also remains the only one where an alternative to neoliberal capitalism has emerged. Pushing this alternative is the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA). Spearheaded by the radical governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Cuba, it has eight member states, but seeks to relate to people’s movements, not just governments.
→ read full articleUS Makes Syria an ‘Offer It Can’t Refuse’ – Again
Finian Cunningham – Strategic Culture Foundation,
3 Jun 2013
In Mafia terms, it’s called «making an offer that can’t be refused». The «offer» is not one of free choice between options that may benefit the object party. This is the scenario that Washington and its NATO allies are contriving for the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad…
→ read full articleUS Policy Weakens Iran’s Pro-Democracy Movement
Stephen Zunes – National Catholic Reporter,
3 Jun 2013
While overt protests are rare, many thousands of tiny acts of resistance occur every day by Iranians who no longer recognize the legitimacy of the regime. It is only a matter of time before the people will again rise up and demand their freedom. Unfortunately, U.S. policy is making things difficult for democratic forces in Iran.
→ read full articleMalaysia Supported UN General Assembly Resolution on Syria
Chandra Muzaffar - CounterCurrents,
3 Jun 2013
The UN resolution also revealed its bias by recognizing the Syrian National Coalition “as the effective interlocutor needed for a political transition.” That the SNC is just one of many groups in a highly fragmented opposition and commands very little support within Syria itself is conveniently glossed over. Imposing the SNC upon the Syrian people in this manner is a clumsy attempt to effect a regime change of sorts.
→ read full article(Italiano) Mono- Multi- Inter- Trasversal- Trans-Disciplinare
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2013
La mia introduzione al taoismo è avvenuta tramite Joseph Needham e filosofi cinesi di Pechino. Essi considerano la scienza occidentale molto preconcetta con il suo atomismo, la sua deduzione – l’aristotelico tertium non datur – i suoi valori, che conducono a false dicotomie. Il taoismo ispira la ricerca del sia-sia, come nell’attuale capi-comunismo cinese. O comu-capitalismo.
→ read full articleFuturICT: A Tool for Post-Democracy
Johan Galtung,
3 Jun 2013
So, what do people do when elites are far from wise and the real economy does not meet basic needs? First answer: they try democracy, oscillating between right and left. Second: rebellion. Third: emigration. Fourth: low fertility. How do national, regional, global economic and political elites react? They protect themselves against people. The European Commission gave 1 billion dollars to FuturICT, and even more to their Human Brain Project; the former can be used to manipulate societies, the latter to manipulate individuals–neuroscience.
→ read full articleHow Obama and Al-Qaeda Became Syrian Bedfellows
Shamus Cooke - CounterCurrents,
3 Jun 2013
Equally odd is that Obama’s strongest military ally on the ground in Syria- the best equipped and effective fighting force against the Syrian Government — is Jabhat al-Nusra, a group that has affiliated itself with al-Qaeda, and aims to turn Syria into an extremist Islamic state that enforces a fundamentalist version of Sharia law.
→ read full articleThe Americas: Colombia and the USA
Johan Galtung,
28 May 2013
A few years ago the two countries were the leaders in mental anxiety in the Americas. Both had good reasons: the longest lasting violence in any contemporary country; in Colombia from 1949 with some interruption, then on again from 1964 with FARC, the famous guerilla. And for the USA the conviction that Evil is around every corner, domestic and global; better have the arms to handle those bad guys.
→ read full article(Castellano) La Corporación-Estado
Andrei Fúrsov – Forum Mundial de Alternativas,
27 May 2013
La única manera correcta de plantear y discutir la cuestión sobre qué es lo que ocurre con la nación-Estado es dentro del contexto del desarrollo del sistema capitalista a largo plazo, es decir, en base de los principios del historismo y enfoque sistémico, lo cual automáticamente supone la necesidad del planteamiento teórico.
→ read full article(Italiano) Un Mondo Ottagonale
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2013
Gli USA ovviamente cercano di neutralizzare l’autonomia latinoamericana/caraibica come fanno con i vari interventi e uccisioni selettive, Francia-Gran Bretagna-Italia cercano di riconquistare l’Africa, e il Giappone vuole una certa egemonia nell’Asia dell’Est. Non ci riusciranno: l’integrazione latinoamericana è già troppo avanzata. L’Africa ricupererà con l’Islam, e Abe non può basare una propria massiccia esportazione ai paesi che il Giappone ha brutalizzato senza impegnarsi in una riconciliazione che fa di tutto per evitare.
→ read full article(Italiano) Frattanto, Manchester United
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2013
Libia: una striscia di terra simile ai luoghi donde provengono gli invasori italiani, francesi ecc. a colonizzare l’Africa, il resto Berbero-Tuareg con le proprie cosmologie e l’islam soppressi, all’attacco di un consolato-ambasciata, eventualmente anche un centro di detenzione CIA, per liberare i loro amici l’11 settembre 2012 (quando fu ucciso l’ambasciatore J.C. Stevens), l’aver attaccato la sede del Comitato Internazionale della Croce Rossa (ICRC) a 1 km di distanza il 22 maggio: “l’ICRC dovette ammainare la propria bandiera con la croce (corsivo mio) rossa / la Libia è uno stato islamico” (lettera a Hillary Clinton del Parlamento USA del 02-10-2013).
→ read full articleSyrians Neither Need Nor Want Western Interference: The First Syrian Casualty
Paul Larudee - ConterPunch,
27 May 2013
“Truth is the first casualty of war.” The well-worn aphorism could have served as a refrain for the Mussalaha International Peace Delegation to Syria, May 2-10, 2013. We were reminded constantly of the very different interpretations of events that were being portrayed in our home countries and Syria.
→ read full articleWhy the Claims of Sarin Gas Don’t Add Up: Syria Has No Reason to Use Chemical Weapons
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
27 May 2013
It should have been self-evident that Iraqi defectors with juicy stories, and the opposition parties that promoted them, wanted to tempt the US into military action against Saddam. When it comes to chemical weapons, the Syrian opposition has similar and wholly understandable motives.
→ read full articleNeo-Nazi Denial in Myanmar
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
27 May 2013
Myanmar has a newly registered Nazi party, the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), created ceremoniously in the wake of last year’s anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing in western Rakhine State.
→ read full articleUN General Assembly Vote Reflects Shift in Syrian Public Opinion
Franklin Lamb - CounterPunch,
20 May 2013
At the UN this past week a US-Qatari-Saudi drafted General Assembly Resolution designed to increase pressure on the Assad government stumbled badly and fell far short of a predicted overwhelming vote in favor. A major diplomatic victory for Syria’s UN Ambassador as public opinion shifts in favor of the Assad government and pressure as well as certain optimism builds in the run-up to the Geneva II conference being organized by the White House and the Kremlin.
→ read full article(Italiano) Siria
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
La ricerca potrebbe riguardare varie soluzioni, anziché la soluzione. Che fioriscano 1.000 dialoghi, in ciascun quartiere, ciascun villaggio, ad arricchire il prodotto nazionale lordo d’idee. Facilitatori sostenuti dall’ONU, con conoscenza della mediazione, anziché con armi e binocoli.
→ read full articleCan Richard Falk Achieve Civil Rights for Palestinians in Lebanon?
Franklin Lamb - CounterPunch,
20 May 2013
Two-Thirds of Palestinian Refugees are Living in Poverty
→ read full articleThe Basel Committee and the Global Banking Mafia
Valentin Katasonov – Strategic Culture Foundation,
20 May 2013
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (hereinafter – the Committee) is closely associated with supranational organisations like the Bank for International Settlements in Basel (BIS), which is often called the «club», the «headquarters» of central banks or the «Central Bank of Last Resort».
→ read full articleMono- Multi- Inter- Cross- Trans-Disciplinary
Johan Galtung,
20 May 2013
My introduction to daoism was via Joseph Needham and Chinese philosophers in Beijing. They see Western science as heavily biased with its atomism, deduction–aristotelian tertium non datur–values, leading to false dichotomies. Daoism inspires the search for both-and, like current Chinese capi-communism. Or commu-capitalism.
→ read full articleAre Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar Elites Complicit in the Rohingya Ethnocide?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
Is Burma’s Aung Suu Kyi herself complicit in this Rohingya ethnnocide? is a valid, empirical question that needs to be raised.
→ read full article(Italiano) ABEconomia e lo Stato del Giappone
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2013
Alternative: rendersi conto che i vecchi tempi d’oro sono finiti, che USA-Occidente-Giappone sono battuti dalla concorrenza BRICS. Agire per accordi più modesti, accettabili. E, invece di associarvi agli USA nell’aumentare l’insicurezza, associatevi ai vostri vicini in una Comunità dell’Asia dell’Est e rivedete la TPP per una partnership egalitaria dalla Cina agli USA e dal Giappone all’America Latina.
→ read full articleMarx and Lenin as the New Go-To Economists: In the Time between Crises
Rob Urie - CounterPunch,
20 May 2013
Rob Urie writes that the ruling class wants austerity to transfer wealth from the government to their own greedy wallets.
→ read full articleMyanmar: Defeating the Preachers of Hate
Benedict Rogers - Maw Kun Magazine,
13 May 2013
The men were drawn from all religious backgrounds – in this instance Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus – working together to defend each other. I asked how long they expected to have to do this. “We don’t know, but we will do this for as long as necessary”. That is the spirit the people of Burma should turn to, to defeat the preachers of hatred.
→ read full articleMyanmar Whitewashes Ethnic Cleansing
Maung Zarni – Asia Times,
13 May 2013
1 May 2013 – An official report into last year’s violence in Rakhine State, launched on April 29 at the government’s foreign donor financed Myanmar Peace Center, is intellectually, ideologically, empirically and analytically flawed, underscoring President Thein Sein’s bid to whitewash the recent ethnic cleansing of Muslim Rohingya in the western state, which borders Bangladesh.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, Manchester United
Johan Galtung, 13 May 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 May 2013
Libya: a strip of land similar to where the Italian, French etc. invaders-colonizing Africa come from, the rest Berber-Tuareg with their world views and Islam suppressed, attacking a consulate-embassy possibly also a CIA detention center to liberate their friends on 11 Sep 2012 (when Ambassador J.C. Stevens was killed), having attacked the International Committee of the Red Cross 1 km away on 22 May: “the ICRC must take down their flag with the red cross Libya is an Islamic State” (letter to Hillary Clinton from the US Congress 02-10-2013).
→ read full articleIs the Tamil Diaspora Against Unity in Sri Lanka?
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Groundviews,
13 May 2013
The world has already learnt a bitter lesson from Sri Lanka. The question now is: Will the concerned actors grab the opportunity and walk in the right direction? If yes, the Tamil Diaspora will march alongside with them.
→ read full articleAn Ongoing Liability: The CIA’s Dirty Wars
Michael Brenner - CounterPunch,
13 May 2013
The errant actions of the C.I.A. are by now so evident that they are a staple of Washington conversion. Like the weather, though, it is the topic everybody talks about, but does nothing about.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: The Intentions Behind the Land Grabbing Process
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka,
6 May 2013
In the so-called ‘post-war’ Sri Lanka context, land grabbing, Sinhalization and military occupation of the Tamil nation have become pivotal points in the political development discourse. The deep concerns that exist amongst the majority of the Tamils, which are directed towards their present and future existence, are these same issues.
→ read full articleOpen Letter to International Crisis Group
Maung Zarni – Democratic Voice of Burma,
6 May 2013
If the ICG’s award is about honouring President Thein Sein’s “visionary leadership to effect profound social, economic and political changes” that will “bring us closer to a world free of conflict” then the organisation’s empirical understanding of both Thein Sein’s vision and the ugly realities experienced by the Burmese people, including the Rohingya, can only be characterised as delusional.
→ read full article54 Years of Stupidity and Counting – Cuba Policy: Fruitless, Mean and Cruel
Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdés - CounterPunch,
6 May 2013
In their 54-year-old effort to bring down Cuba’s revolutionary government and restore obedience in our Caribbean neighbor, U.S. officials have compiled a spectacular record of failure, overshadowed only by the determination to persist in their pursuit of wrongheaded polices, further damaging U.S. interests.
→ read full articleAn Octagonal World
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 May 2013
USA sheds half of its bases and the military budget in this administration and the next; using the savings to lift the bottom up so they can participate in the economy and make the wheels turn. China gives up its maritime imperialism–harking back to “When the World was Asia, 500-1500 AD–and forgives 50% of the US debt in return for the 50% disarmament–keeping a policy of no military intervention. SCO cooperates, peacefully.
→ read full articleSyria
Johan Galtung,
29 Apr 2013
The search could be for solutions, not for the solution. UN-supported facilitators, with knowledge of mediation, rather than with guns and binoculars. To do this, let the parties, outside and inside Syria, talk. Let them state their goals, the Syria they would like to see. What comes to mind is a Swiss solution. One Syria, federal, with local autonomy, even down to the village level, with Sunnis, Shias and Kurds having relations to their own across the borders. And non-aligned, which rules out foreign bases and flows of arms.
→ read full articleDinner in the Land of Black and White
Bridget Conley – World Peace Foundation,
29 Apr 2013
22 Apr 2013 – The coincidence of two news items about Burma/Myanmar today demand brief commentary: 1) International Crisis Group is honoring President U Thein Sein at its annual dinner, and 2) Human Rights Watch released a damning report about assaults against Burma’s Rohingya minority.
→ read full articleCISPA – Corporations Buy Politicians and Your Privacy
TheYoungTurks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Apr 2013
23 Apr 2013 – CISPA passed overwhelmingly in the house, despite its promise to allow corporations and the government access to your private data, completely unchecked. It’s no wonder after seeing how much money was poured into lobbying for the invasive bill, and who stands to profit.
→ read full article(Italiano) USA-Asia dell’Est: uno sguardo nell’abisso – ?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Apr 2013
La situazione non è mai stata così brutta dalla guerra di Corea del 1950-53.
→ read full article