Articles by M
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Sri Lanka Angered By U.N. Vote to Investigate War Abuses
Emily Alpert – Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar 2012
In a step that infuriated Sri Lankan leaders, the country was urged to investigate alleged war crimes from its bloody civil war, in a resolution passed Thursday [22 Mar 2012] by the chief human rights body at the United Nations.
→ read full article(Italian) Le Nuove Guerre dei Militari USA di Vicenza
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
I militari USA di Vicenza sono impegnati pure in due sanguinosi fronti di guerra del continente africano: in Somalia, in qualità di consiglieri della forza multinazionale dell’Unione africana intervenuta contro le milizie degli shebab; in Uganda, nella guerra scatenata contro gli ultimi gruppi ribelli del Lord’s Resistance Army di Joseph Kony.
→ read full articleThe Difference between Bahrain and Syria
Mohamed Omar - ArabNyheter,
19 Mar 2012
Why do you support the opposition in Bahrain and not in Syria? The answer is simple. I don’t support any opposition just because it is an opposition. That would be as stupid and illogic as supporting any government just because it is a government. I try to base my political positions on principles. You have to analyze each case before you make up your mind in accordance with your basic principles.
→ read full articleChevron Execs Barred From Leaving Brazil
Agence France Press-AFP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
A judge barred 17 Chevron executives from around the world from leaving Brazil in an oil spill investigation as prosecutors readied new charges over a second spill involving the US energy giant, local media reported Saturday [17 Mar 2012].
→ read full articleRachel Corrie, 9 Years On
Arab American Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
Far more important than remembering Rachel’s tragic death is remembering her inspiring life. Seldom in life do we come across someone with the extraordinary commitment to justice that Rachel possessed. If only she could see how she has inspired so many in the USA to demand justice for Palestinians, including her parents who have become outspoken critics of the occupation their daughter protested years before.
→ 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 articleU.S. Military Unveils Heat Ray Weapon: ‘You’re Gonna Feel It’
Paul Koring -The Globe and Mail,
19 Mar 2012
In the ‘War of the Worlds’ the Martians used them to incinerate pesky humans more than a century ago. The Pentagon plans are more modest: crowd control of pesky humans. Still, after more than a century, the ‘heat ray’ has made the leap from fiction to reality with the U.S. military demonstrating the so-called ‘goodbye effect’ of directing electromagnetic waves at people. It delivers sudden, unbearable heat, like the invisible wave when a hot oven door is opened but far more powerful – an intense, enveloping but non-lethal blast.
→ read full articleLaunching the U.S. Terror War: the CIA, 9/11, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
The Asia-Pacific Journal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
Throughout this essay we have seen two different and indeed antithetical levels of U.S. foreign policy at work. On the surface level of public diplomacy we see a commitment to international law and the peaceful resolution of differences. On a deeper level, represented by a long-time Saudi connection and covert arrangements to control international oil, we see the toleration and indeed protection of terrorists in fulfillment of both Saudi and American secret goals.
→ read full articleThe Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
There is clear and overwhelming evidence that the uprising to overthrow President Assad of Syria is a violent, power grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its peaceful opposition.
→ read full articleIndia: Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project Update and Alert
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
March 19, 2012 – Just in: Some 10 people, including Struggle Committee members have been arrested. The Tamil Nadu State government is increasing the police strength in front of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP). Heavy police force has been posted in a few major junctions around Koodankulam. There are rumors that we all could be arrested soon and they may decide to re-start the KKNPP. WE ARE READY! The tension is increasing; the government is acting in a high-handed manner. Please keep an eye on us.
→ read full articlePolitical Party for Animal Rights Formed in Turkey
Today’s Zaman, Istanbul – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
Turkey’s first animal rights political party, the Animal Party, was established this week [16 Mar 2012] in an effort to bring the issue of the protection of animal’s rights and welfare to the political table. The aim of the party is not just to promote love for animals but to remind those who view the world solely in terms of humans that we live together with animals and that they have rights, too.
→ read full articleNow Even the Eurozone Admits It Has Condemned Greece to Never-Ending Austerity
Jeremy Warner – The Daily Telegraph,
19 Mar 2012
According to Reuters, an unpublished “Compliance Report” by EU executives has concluded that Greece will have to impose a further fiscal squeeze in 2013/14 in order to meet the targets that underpin the second international bailout. The chances of Greece being able to do this are about zero, though that is my conclusion, not that of the report. Where is Greece expected to find these cuts? Further savings in welfare payments, pharmaceutical spending?
→ 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 articleThe GMJ-India Convoy Started Its Journey towards Jerusalem
Gilad Atzmon – TRANCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
The Indian convoy has finally set off towards Jerusalem in a farewell ceremony held at the Rajghat, which is the final resting place of Mahatma Gandhi. The 54 delegates come from all the four corners of India & represent the diverse, plural & secular ethos of India. They will travel to Iran, Turkey & then by ship, to Beirut. On the 30th of March, with hundreds of thousands of people & delegations from the majority of the nations of the world, they will march to the borders of Palestine, demanding an end to the Judaisation of Jerusalem & Freedom for Palestine.
→ read full article(Castellano) Panamá Prohíbe las Corridas de Toros
AnimaNaturalis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
“Quedan prohibidas las peleas de perros, las carreras entre animales, las lidias de toro, ya sean de estilo español o portugués, la creación, entrada, permanencia y funcionamiento en el territorio nacional de todo tipo de circo o espectáculo circense que utilice animales amaestrados de cualquier especie”.
→ read full articleDocumentary Film ‘The Crisis of Civilization’ Released Online For Free
Institute for Policy Research & Development – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
The documentary feature film, The Crisis of Civilization – based on TRANSCEND member Dr. Nafeez Ahmed’s latest book, A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It (Pluto/Macmillan, 2010) – has just been released today [15 Mar 2012] free, online.
→ read full articleWhite House Says Child Soldiers Are OK, If They Fight Terrorists
Michelle Chen – ColorLines,
19 Mar 2012
The phenomenon of child soldiers, like genocide, slavery and torture, seems like one of those crimes that no nation could legitimately defend. Yet the Obama administration decided to leave kids stranded on the world’s bloodiest battlegrounds. It issued a presidential memorandum granting waivers from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Yemen, citing that “it is in our national interest.”
→ read full articleWho Are the ‘Terrorists’?
Justin Raimondo – antiwar.com,
19 Mar 2012
I have the sinking feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of this American horror show, while – under the pretext of “fighting terrorism” – we act out our sadistic fantasies all over the world. As these outrages against human decency and morality provoke worldwide revulsion at the perpetrators, perhaps one day we’ll go looking for “terrorists” in the vicinity of a mirror – and see ourselves for what we’ve become.
→ read full article
Rabbi Dovid Weiss: Zionism Has Created ‘Rivers of Blood’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
The Jewish scholar explains why Zionism and Judaism are not necessarily the same thing and why he believes that Israel as a state is not legitimate.
→ read full articlePeru Passes Monumental Ten Year Ban on Genetically Engineered Foods
Occupy Monsanto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
March 10, 2012 – In a massive blow to multinational agribiz corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, and Dow, Peru has officially passed a law banning genetically modified ingredients anywhere within the country for a full decade before coming up for another review.
→ read full articleMillennium Development Goal Drinking Water Target Met
Danny Schechter – Al Jazeera,
19 Mar 2012
6 Mar 2012 – The world has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, well in advance of the MDG 2015 deadline, according to a report issued today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). Between 1990 and 2010, over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells.
→ read full articleDear Abby,
TMS Editor,
19 Mar 2012
I have never written to you before, but I really need your advice. I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me.
→ read full articleEurope Bans Export of Death Penalty Drugs
Jennifer Kaye – YES! Magazine,
19 Mar 2012
In response to recommendations from a 2010 Amnesty International report, the European Commission has banned the export of drugs used for execution by lethal injection in the United States. “The decision today contributes to the wider EU efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide,” said Catherine Ashton, vice president of the commission, in a press release.
→ read full articleGoldman Stunned by Op-Ed Loses $2.2 Billion for Shareholders
Christine Harper, Bloomberg News – San Francisco Chronicle,
19 Mar 2012
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. saw $2.15 billion of its market value wiped out after an employee assailed Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein’s management and the firm’s treatment of clients, sparking debate across Wall Street. The shares dropped 3.4 percent in New York trading yesterday [14 Mar 2012], the third-biggest decline in the 81-company Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index, after London-based Greg Smith made the accusations in a New York Times op-ed piece.
→ read full articleShould We Celebrate a Decline in Global Poverty?
Adam Parsons, Share the World’s Resources – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
The World Bank’s latest data suggests a decline in global poverty throughout every region of the developing world, as well as the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goal on halving poverty well ahead of schedule. But is this really the ‘good news’ that we are led to believe?
→ read full articleIrenea: a Cinema for Peace and Nonviolence
Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
From TRANSCEND Member Prof. Nanni Salio, director of the CSSR: The Sereno Regis Study Center (Centro Studi Sereno Regis) in Turin is promoting the establishment of a multi-media educational lab meant to develop a movie culture oriented to peaceful, nonviolent and deeply respectful relationships to all living beings in the Earth’s ecosystem. The lab will be a place of search and spread of a movie culture that may help spot and recognize visible as well as invisible violence.
→ 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 article
Weapon of Mass Pollution: Pentagon World’s Largest Polluter (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
America’s mighty military presence around the world is leaving many locals with a bad taste in their mouths… quite literally. The Pentagon is accused of causing massive – and sometimes deadly – pollution. Not just in other countries, but at home too.
→ read full articleEnviro Groups Fear “Dangerously Misguided” Plan to Unleash Genetically Modified Mosquitoes
Common Dreams staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
Eric Hoffman of Friends of the Earth U.S. said: “The fact that Oxitec is hiding data from the public has undermined its credibility. Oxitec’s assertions cannot be trusted. Trials of its mosquitoes must not move forward in the absence of comprehensive and impartial reviews of the environmental, human health and ethical risks. Such trials must also await the establishment of a clear and well designed regulatory framework, which does not yet exist.”
→ read full articleChallenging the Ruling Global Corporate Conglomerates – Regaining the Real Economy
Prof. John McMurtry – Global Research,
19 Mar 2012
As Adam Smith says in a little-known overview of the market’s supply-demand system, “among the inferior ranks of people the scantiness of subsistence can set limits to the further multiplication of the human species; and it can so in no other way than by destroying a great part of the children which their fruitful marriages produce”. This is why market-capitalist ideology has been so long bent on assimilating the system to natural laws. It drapes the monstrous mechanism in a macro alibi of ‘natural struggle for existence.’
→ read full articleEvangelist Sued in U.S. for Inciting Anti-Gay Hatred in Uganda
Charundi Panagoda and Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Mar 2012
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts Wednesday [14 Mar 2012] on behalf of the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) and against Scott Lively, a right-wing evangelist, for inciting a hatred that has led to increased violence against LGBT persons. He is also the author of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party”, a 1995 book that claimed Nazism was created and propagated by homosexuals, and a second book, “Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”, a how-to guide for parents to “prevent” their children from becoming homosexual.
→ read full articleAll Red Meat Is Bad For You, New Study Says
Eryn Brown - Los Angeles Times,
19 Mar 2012
Eating red meat — any amount and any type — appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to a long-range study that examined the eating habits and health of more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years.
→ read full articleBeyond Fukushima
Yukiya Amano – Project Syndicate,
12 Mar 2012
The accident at Fukushima resulted from an earthquake and tsunami of unprecedented severity. But, as the Japanese authorities have acknowledged, human and organizational failings played an important part, too.
→ read full articleEminent Indians Speak Out Against Harassment of Anti-Nuclear Activists in Koodankulam
DiaNuke – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Several eminent citizens, concerned about nuclear safety and the government’s campaign of slander against the Koodankulam anti-nuclear plant agitation in Tamil Nadu, have signed a public statement denouncing the government’s high-handedness against the peaceful protesters in Koodankulam. The signatories also include writers Arundhati Roy, Adil Jussawalla and Vandana Shiva. The statement is of vital public importance in view of the government’s plans to forge ahead with nuclear power expansion regardless of its safety and economic issues, and strong public opposition to new nuclear reactors.
→ read full articleIsraeli Apartheid Week Kicks Off in South Africa
The Voice of Palestine – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
The cultural week against the Israeli apartheid regime in occupied Palestine were launched in more than 13 South African cities in the context of global activities and events taking place in about 90 cities around the world. These events include university seminars, lectures, documentaries movies, photo galleries and many other activities on the apartheid system pursued by Israel.
→ read full article
CNN Silences War-Skeptical Soldier (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
CNN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Watch what happens when 28-year-old Cpl. Jesse Thorsen touches a neuralgic nerve by suggesting that Israel can take care of itself. It’s impossible to say exactly what happened to the remote feed that suddenly got lost in transmission back to CNN Central, but the minute-long video is truly worth a thousand words. The interview, which dates back to Jan. 3 2012, is symbolic of how the US Corporate Media treats dissident voices that clash with the prevailing pro-war-on-Iran bias.
→ 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 articleWikiLeaks Stratfor Emails Devastating
TYT Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
“Some 5m internal emails from Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based company that brands itself as a “global intelligence” provider, were recently obtained by Anonymous, the hacker collective, and are being released in batches by WikiLeaks. The most striking revelation from the latest disclosure is not simply the military-industrial complex that conspires to spy on citizens, activists and trouble-causers, but the extremely low quality of the information available to the highest bidder.”
→ read full articleMystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World
Michael Parenti – Information Clearing House,
12 Mar 2012
Isn’t it time that liberal critics stop thinking that the people who own so much of the world—and want to own it all—are “incompetent” or “misguided” or “failing to see the unintended consequences of their policies”? You are not being very smart when you think your enemies are not as smart as you. They know where their interests lie, and so should we.
→ read full articleNigeria Oil Corruption Highlighted by Audits
Joe Brock and Tim Cocks, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
An important supplier to the United States because of the oil’s high gasoline content, Nigeria has attracted billions of dollars of investments from the world’s top oil companies. Yet poverty in Africa’s second biggest economy is rising, with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day, data released last month shows. The percentage of Nigerians living in absolute poverty – those who can afford only the bare essentials of food, shelter and clothing – has risen to around 60 percent.
→ read full articleWhy Putin Is Driving Washington Nuts
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
12 Mar 2012
So Washington and its minions have been warned. Before last Sunday’s [4 Mar 2012] election, Putin advertised his road map: no war on Syria; no war on Iran; no “humanitarian bombing” or fomenting “color revolutions” – all “illegal instruments of soft power”. For Putin, a Washington-engineered New World Order is a no-go. What rules is “the time-honored principle of state sovereignty”.
→ read full articleLanguage of Politics in True Perspective
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
In view of what has been stated and based on the tangible evidence that was presented, we can fully understand that when China and the United States speak of “national defense and security” they do attribute to this phraseology an entirely different meaning, even though the sound is identical. For China, “national defense and security” means simply the “protection of the country from any possible invasion.” For the United States, “national defense and security” means merely the “preparation for the waging of never-ending wars around the world by using the most devastating weapons available.
→ read full articleChina to Export Yuan to BRICS
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
China is reportedly to begin extending loans in yuan to BRICS countries in another step towards internationalizing the national currency and diversifying from the US dollar. Brazil and South Africa were quick to react to the proposal, saying they expect the lending pledge to be included into a master agreement to be signed in New Delhi on March 29 [2012].
→ read full articlePeace Mathematics – Does It Exist?
Johan Galtung, 12 Mar 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
It does, even in print; pardon some publicity! You may start at the end with the table of contents, then, here, the book epilogue:
Enthusiast E and Skeptic S: Dialogue at a Higher Level:
S: I worried that you would put something belonging to all of us, peace, into a big machine with parameters and then the machine would produce outputs about what to do. Like economists do with something belonging to us, our own livelihood. I liked your distinction between equations and formulas, between mathematics and mathematese…
Lab Tests Find Carcinogen in Regular and Diet Coke and Pepsi
Center for Science in the Public Interest – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
New chemical analyses have found that Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Diet Coke, and Diet Pepsi contain high levels of 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), a known animal carcinogen. The carcinogen forms when ammonia or ammonia and sulfites are used to manufacture the “caramel coloring” that gives those sodas their distinctive brown colors, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit watchdog group that commissioned the tests.
→ read full articleMonsanto’s Roundup Shown to be Ravaging Butterfly Population
Mike Barrett, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Monsanto’s Roundup, containing the active ingredient glyphosate, has been tied to more health and environmental problems than you could imagine. Similar to how pesticides have been contributing to the bee decline, Monsanto’s Roundup has been tied to the decrease in the population of monarch butterflies by killing the very plants that the butterflies rely on for habitat and food. What’s been shown to be an even greater threat to the population, though, is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready corn and soybeans.
→ read full articleDon’t Bank on the Bomb
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
A fantastic report with many detailed tables.The Financing of Nuclear Weapons Producers – With a Foreword by Desmond Tutu. The first major global report on the financing of companies that manufacture, modernize and maintain nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. It identifies more than 300 banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers from 30 countries that invest significantly in the, also listed, 20 major nuclear weapons producers.
→ read full articleThe War on WikiLeaks Is Now Trial by Media in Sweden
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
War by media, says current military doctrine, is as important as the battlefield. This is because the real enemy is the public at home, whose manipulation and deception are essential for starting an unpopular colonial war. Like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, attacks on Iran and Syria require a steady drip-effect on readers’ and viewers’ consciousness. This is the essence of a propaganda that rarely speaks its name.
→ read full articleRevenge of the Settlers
Nour Samaha – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Palestinians are under increasing attacks from Israeli settlers, especially in the last few years, reports have found. For Israeli activist Nawi, the motivations of settlers are much more straightforward. “Most of the settlers are motivated by religious ideas; that the Arabs are unwelcome people and they need to leave,” he said. “It is not an argument you can reason with. They want Palestine.”
→ 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 articleThe Fukushima Syndrome
Martin Freer – Project Syndicate,
12 Mar 2012
The dramatic events that unfolded at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant after last year’s tsunami are commonly referred to as “the Fukushima disaster.” We need look no further than this description to begin to understand the significant misconceptions that surround nuclear energy.
→ read full articleU.N. Chastises Mexico’s Support for Agribusiness
Emilio Godoy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
12 Mar 2012
The United Nations criticised Mexico’s food policy, a month and a half after President Felipe Calderón launched to great fanfare an alliance of agribusiness for sustainable development, which was welcomed by giant food corporations. At a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, spoke out against the financial aid that Mexico will give to large producers at the expense of small farmers. He also criticised trials of genetically modified crops in this country.
→ read full articleTracking the Trackers: Mozilla’s Anti-Big Brother Add-On
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
The owner of Firefox, the world’s second most popular browser, is backing an add-on which would allow users to monitor in real-time how their actions are tracked and shared by various websites as they surf the net. The amount of data collected by Google, Facebook and other players less-known to the general public is astounding. But the majority of Internet users are oblivious to this fact. Mozilla’s new add-on – called Collusion – aims to change that.
→ read full articleStructural Crisis Needs Structural Change
István Mészáros – Montly Review,
12 Mar 2012
It cannot be stressed enough that the crisis in our time is not intelligible without being referred to the broad overall social framework. This means that in order to clarify the nature of the persistent and deepening crisis all over the world today we must focus attention on the crisis of the capital system in its entirety. For the crisis of capital we are experiencing is an all-embracing structural crisis.
→ read full article(Italian) Brescia: Primo Marzo 2012 per i Diritti di Tutti i Migranti e per i Diritti di Tutti
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Brescia*, Piazza Loggia, 1 marzo 2012
→ read full articleGauging Arab Public Opinion
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
The first of its kind – a poll conducted in 12 Arab countries, representing over 80 per cent of the population of the Arab world, in an attempt to gauge the region’s political mood, shows: Israel and the US are seen as more threatening than Iran. A high 84 per cent believe the Palestinian question is the cause of all Arabs and not the Palestinians only, and 84 per cent reject the notion of their state’s recognition of Israel. Only 21 per cent support, to a certain degree, the peace agreement signed between Egypt, Jordan and the PLO with Israel.
→ read full articleThe Continuing Saga of UN Impunity
Kristen Saloomey – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
The United Nations is no stranger to scandal. There are the wayward peacekeeping troops who take advantage of the vulnerable people they are supposed to be protecting and commit rape and sexual abuse. Think: Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then there’s corruption, as happened in the Oil-for-Food Programme.
→ 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 article10 Unanswered Questions on Iran and Israel
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Produced in the light of the Press Conference of President Barack Obama (6 March 2012)
and a crisis meeting of the IAEA (Vienna, 7 March 2012) seeking consensus on action against Iran. Why is the case against Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons of mass destruction always presented without systematic comparison with the track record relating to Israel’s capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction?
Say NO to ACTA
laquadrature – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Learn more and take action about ACTA.
→ read full articleThe Policeman and the Drunkard
TMS Editor,
12 Mar 2012
One night, a police officer was stalking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible violations of the driving under the influence laws.
→ read full articleBig 6 Oil Companies Complete a Trillion-Dollar Decade
David Wallechinsky, AllGov – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Times are good for the six largest oil companies, with profits easily surpassing the figures from before the 2008 financial meltdown. In 2011 ExxonMobil led the way with profits of $41.1 billion. Shell was in second place at $28.6 billion, followed by Chevron at $26.8 billion and BP at $23.9 billion. Total was back at $15.9 billion and ConocoPhillips trailed at $12.4 billion.
→ read full articleCancer of the Spirit
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Can we squeeze the glory out of the word “war”? Can we talk about savage irrationality and lifelong inner hell instead? Can we talk about the wreckage of two countries? Can we talk about spiritual cancer? In the extraordinary documentary On the Bridge — an unstinting look at the reality of war and the terror of PTSD.
→ read full articleChina: Rise, Fall and Re-Emergence as a Global Power – Some Lessons from the Past
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
The study of world power has been blighted by Eurocentric historians who have distorted and ignored the dominant role China played in the world economy between 1100 and 1800.
→ read full articleUN Official Slams WikiLeaks Suspect Manning’s Treatment
Agence France Press-AFP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
US authorities’ treatment of WikiLeaks suspect Private Bradley Manning was “cruel and degrading,” the UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Ernesto Mendez said Monday [5 Mar 2012]. “I believe Bradley Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the excessive and prolonged isolation he was put in during the eight months he was in Quantico,” he told AFP, referring to the US military prison near Washington.
→ read full articleTroubled Waters: How Mine Waste Dumping is Poisoning Our Ocean, Rivers, and Lakes
Earthworks & MiningWatch Canada – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
A new investigative report from Earthworks and MiningWatch Canada documents how mining companies are using the world’s waterways as dumping grounds for their toxic mine wastes. These mine wastes, or tailings, can contain up to three dozen dangerous chemicals, including arsenic, lead, mercury, and cyanide. Each year, mining companies dump over 180 million tonnes of these hazardous mine wastes into rivers, oceans, and lakes – that’s more than 1.5 times the amount of waste that US cities send to landfills each year.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Islamic Blind Spots
Naomi Wolf – Project Syndicate,
5 Mar 2012
Burning a conquered people’s sacred texts sends an unmistakable message: you can do anything to these people. As Heinrich Heine put it, referring to the Spanish Inquisition’s burning of the Koran, “Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings.” Jews understand that very well: from the Inquisition to Cossack massacres to Kristallnacht, the aggressors destroyed Torahs as a logical and well-understood precursor to destroying Jews.
→ read full articleIceland’s Ex-PM on Trial over Banks Crisis
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
The former prime minister of Iceland has gone on trial in a special court in Reykjavik on charges of negligence over his handling of the country’s 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of the country’s banking system.
→ read full articleFrom Empire to Global Fascism
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
A disconnect between speech and action is Obama’s trade mark. A key to his global fascism: instead of acknowledging wrongs of US foreign policy, he hides his extra-judicial killings with drones and JSOC’s (Joint Special Operations Command) in, maybe, 120 countries. Covert, CIA, less overt, Pentagon; with little Congress control. JSOC has been operating an extra-legal “kill-capture” campaign that a former counterinsurgency adviser calls “an almost industrial scale counterterrorism killing machine”.
→ read full articleGandhi and the Dalit Controversy: The Limits of the Moral Force of an Individual
Miki Kashtan – Waging Nonviolence,
5 Mar 2012
When I first heard that Gandhi was viewed as “the enemy” by many Dalits in India (formerly called “untouchables”), I was dumbfounded. How and why could Gandhi be seen as having betrayed the Dalits when he opposed untouchability even in the face of active discomfort on the part of close associates?
→ read full articleA Look at the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Armies
Luke McKenna and Robert Johnson – Business Insider-Military & Defense,
5 Mar 2012
Business is booming for a growing army of private military contractors, who take their military training and offer it to the highest bidder. Modern-day mercenaries are stationed throughout the world fighting conflicts for governments that are reluctant to use their own troops. Security giant G4S is the second-largest private employer on earth.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks: Leaked Emails Expose Inner Workings of Private Intelligence Firm Stratfor, a “Shadow CIA” (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
5 Mar 2012
The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun publishing what it says are 5.5 million emails obtained from the servers of Stratfor, a private U.S.-based intelligence-gathering firm known to some as a “shadow CIA” for corporations and government agencies.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks vs. Stratfor: Pursue the Truth, Not Its Messenger
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
5 Mar 2012
The White House is holding a gala dinner this week, honoring Iraq War veterans. Bradley Manning is an Iraq War vet who won’t be there. He is being court-martialed, facing life in prison or possibly death, for allegedly releasing thousands of military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks revealing the casualties of war. President Barack Obama would better serve the country by also honoring Assange and Manning. We should pursue the truth, not its messengers.
→ read full articleBe polite… and laugh
TMS Editor,
5 Mar 2012
Q. What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?
→ read full article
Inside MONSANTO
Denkmal Film - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Scientists Speak the Truth
→ read full article8 March: International Day of Women – Women as Peacemakers
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
8 March is the International Day of Women first proposed by Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1911. Zetkin, who had lived some years in Paris and active in women’s movements there, was building on the 1889 International Congress for Feminine Works and Institutions held in Paris under the leadership of Ana de Walska.
→ read full articleLibya ‘Close to Disintegration’ – PM
The Voice of Russia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Speaking on the first anniversary of the anti-Gaddafi revolution in Misurata Monday, interim Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abdeljalil warned of complete national disintegration if the rival tribes and clans that had laid hands on Gaddafi’s arsenals continued to refuse to submit to the authority of the central government.
→ read full articleFukushima – Worse Than Chernobyl
Janette Sherman and Joseph J. Mangano – San Francisco Bay View,
5 Mar 2012
The epidemic increase in childhood and adult cancer has occurred since World War II, when both chemical and radiological pollution spread over the world. Half a century later, there is no longer any doubt that radioisotopes in concert with industrial chemicals have caused this epidemic. Unless the earth stops turning and the laws of chemistry, biology and physics are rescinded, the radioisotopes being released from Fukushima will cause worldwide harm to life. It is in our hands to prevent another Chernobyl or Fukushima.
→ read full articleNobel Peace Laureate Calls For Ceasefire and Nonviolent Solution to the Conflict in Syria
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
“The only people who can solve Syrian problems are the Syrians themselves. The international community must insist that all international and human rights laws be upheld by the Syrian government and that they enter a dialogue with all opposition groups whose voices have a right to be heard and not ‘silenced’ by persecution, torture and/or killings.”
→ read full articlePsychologists and Torture, Then and Now
Laura Melendez-Pallitto and Robert Pallitto – Foreign Policy in Focus,
5 Mar 2012
Psychologists’ involvement in torture has done damage to the reputation of the profession, and the boards’ unwillingness to act undermines the integrity of ethics rules. It is both unconscionable and absurd that a psychologist can lose his or her license for Medicaid fraud but not for involvement in torture.
→ read full articleUS Must Seize Opportunity to Support Palestinian Nonviolence
Yousef Munayyer – Al Jazeera,
5 Mar 2012
More than ever, polling data shows, Palestinians are supporting nonviolent resistance. A series of polls of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza which included a question on nonviolence reveals an undeniable trend in the past 18 months. In June of 2010, 51 per cent of Palestinians polled responded that nonviolent resistance was a preferred alternative to stalled negotiations. In a poll at the end of 2011 that number jumped to over 61 per cent.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: Government Promises, Ground Realities
International Crisis Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Nearly three years since declaring victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government has weakened democratic institutions, deepened ethnic polarisation and aggravated the country’s long-standing impunity for human rights violations. The former warzones in the north and east are heavily militarised and controlled from Colombo, while disappearances, killings, torture, gender-based violence and other abuses continue with impunity throughout the island. Sri Lankans who speak out about the situation risk reprisal.
→ read full articleBahrain Delays UN Investigator Visit
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Government requests torture investigator to delay visit, while strengthening restrictions on visits by rights groups. The UN human rights office in Geneva said on Thursday [1 Mar 2012] that Bahrain had formally requested that the visit of the special rapporteur on torture be delayed until July. Bahrain, an ally of the United States and home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, is ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa family, and has been under pressure to institute political and rights reforms since its violent crackdown on the uprising.
→ read full articleMonsanto Pays 93 Million to Victims in Settlement
Cassandra Anderson, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
February 27, 2012 – Monsanto tentatively agreed to a $93 million settlement with some residents of Nitro, West Virginia. Nitro is a small town that got its name from manufacturing explosives during WWI. It was also the site of a Monsanto chemical plant that manufactured 2,4,5-T herbicide that was half of the Agent Orange recipe. Monsanto has now set a precedent for settling claims, and hopefully some good attorneys will seize the opportunity in order to hold Monsanto accountable.
→ read full articleI Was a Warehouse Wage Slave
Mac McClelland – Mother Jones,
5 Mar 2012
My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine.
→ read full articleColombia’s Quest for Peace and Justice
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Between April 21 -23 [2012], the National Patriotic Council will convoke thousands of activists from most of the major urban and rural social movements and trade unions, human rights groups and indigenous afro-colombian movements, who will meet to unify forces and launch what promises to be the most significant new political movement in recent history. The democratization of Colombia requires the growth of independent social movements, judicial investigation and prosecution of ex narco-President Álvaro Uribe and his closest collaborators, and needs to extend to the present Santos regime.
→ read full articleKeiser Report: D.I.C.s and Hackers
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert – Russia Today,
5 Mar 2012
The Stratfor bimbo and the bank that is in bed with it. WikiLeaks as the modern day Gutenberg press.
→ read full articleThe WikiLeaks GiFiles: Stratfor Predicts Huge Oil Profits from Attack on Iran
Anissa Haddadi – International Business Times,
5 Mar 2012
WikiLeaks has started publishing more than five million emails hacked by Anonymous from the servers of Stratfor, a US intelligence gathering company. An email sent by Chris Farnham, senior officer for Stratfor, to an internal unnamed source inside the company titled “Israel/Iran Barak Hails Munitions Blast in Iran” provides details about who would benefit from an Israeli attack on Iran, and say such a plan would be motivated by economic factors.
→ read full articleCheerleading Is No Revolution: “Democracy in Burma”
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Cheerleading is no revolution. That society is not going anywhere humanistic. The current discourse of revolutionary changes is nothing but a self-interested spin from vultures and vampires of all stripes and colours, native and foreign.
→ read full articleHow to Acquire an Underclass While Doing Good
Vithal Rajan – TRANSCEND Media Serivce,
5 Mar 2012
Winston Churchill once famously declared that the British Empire was acquired in a fit of absence of mind. Most probably he was right.
→ read full articlePrivacy Betrayed: Twitter Sells Multi-Billion Tweet Archive
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Twitter has sold billions of archived tweets believed to have vanished forever. A privacy row has erupted as hundreds of companies queue up to purchase users’ personal information from the new database. Every time you use social networks you become mere product – it’s an idea we will all have to get used to. So, should we give up worldly goods and hide in a Tibetan monastery till the end of our days, or start putting up a fight to protect our privacy?
→ read full articleTribalism, Racism and Projection (Part 1)
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
In this paper and the one to follow, I expose the misleading aspect that is, unfortunately, inherent to some ‘anti’ racist ideologies. I will elaborate on the role of anti racism in maintaing both Zionism and the Left discourse.
“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” ― Anaïs Nin
Tribalism, Racism and Projection (Part 2)
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
In this part I explore the misleading role of Jewish politics (both Zionist and anti Zionist) within the ‘anti racist’ campaign.
→ read full articleCooperatives over Corporations
Jim Hightower - Truthout,
27 Feb 2012
We’re being told by today’s High Priests of Conventional Wisdom that everyone and everything in our economic cosmos necessarily revolves around one dazzling star: the corporation. This heavenly institution, the HPCW explain, has such financial and political mass that it is the optimal force for organizing and directing our society’s economic affairs, including the terms of employment and production. While other forces are in play (workers, consumers, the environment, communities and so forth), they are subordinate to the superior gravitational pull of the corporate order.
→ 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 articleDon’t Northwoods Iran
Jacob G. Hornberger – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
27 Feb 2012
Another option for avoiding the appearance of being the aggressor power is the Operation Northwoods option. During the Kennedy administration, the Pentagon and the CIA wanted to invade Cuba to effect regime change there. But they didn’t want to appear as the aggressor power. So, the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with a proposal that it unanimously approved and presented to JFK. To Kennedy’s ever-lasting credit, he rejected Operation Northwoods.
→ read full articleUN Peacekeepers Not About to Leave Haiti
Benedict Moran – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
A bas Kolera, a bas Minista,– Creole for “down with cholera, down with MINUSTAH,” the United Nation peacekeeping force in Haiti – can be seen spray-painted across Port-au-Prince. After years of scandal, including allegations of sexual abuse and accusations of introducing cholera into the country, many Haitians want the UN’s third-largest peacekeeping force to leave. But despite calls to leave, the UN Security Council, which recently made a visit to the country to assess its mission, foresees a UN military presence in the country for years to come.
→ read full articleBreakfast Order
TMS Editor,
27 Feb 2012
A resident in a posh hotel breakfast room called over the head waiter one morning and read from the menu.
→ read full articleFrance to EU: Stop Monsanto’s Corn
Common Dreams staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
France has asked the European regulators to suspend the authorization to plant Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) MON810 corn. France’s ecology minister says the decision is based on studies showing GM crops “pose significant risks for the environment.”
→ read full articleMetaphorical Insights from the Patterns of Academic Disciplines
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
This document explores use of a particular metaphor from physics as a means of articulating understandings of openness and closedness in support of individual or collective identity. It follows from consideration of pattern language in a more general argument (Way Round Cognitive Ground Zero and Pointlessness: embodying the geometry of fundamental cognitive dynamics, 2012) of which it is is Annex D.
→ read full article