Articles by M
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The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret
Michael Hastings – Rolling Stone,
23 Apr 2012
An inside look at how killing by remote control has changed the way we fight.
→ read full articleWars Leave Crumbling Infrastructure At Home for US
Clifford A. Kiracofe - Global Times, China,
16 Apr 2012
While politicians in Washington recklessly call for bombing Syria and Iran, they ignore the economic costs of failed US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past, the US paid for its wars through increased taxes and the sale of war bonds. The recent wars, however, have been paid for mostly through borrowing. Thus, there is an adverse economic impact with respect to the increased national debt, to the increased budget deficits, and to the upward pressure on interest rates. So how did the US get into its current predicament?
→ read full articleIndia: Undermining Human Rights in the Name of Development
Bianca Jagger – Common Dreams,
16 Apr 2012
When I arrived at Biju Patnaik Airport, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, I was struck by a billboard above the luggage carousel: “Mining happiness for the people of Orissa – Vedanta.” What cruel irony. The poster should have read instead, “Undermining happiness for the people of Orissa.” The opening of an aluminum refinery in Lanjigarh, in south-west Orissa in eastern India, by the Vedanta Aluminum Limited (VAL), a subsidiary of British based mining group, Vedanta Resources plc, has brought nothing but misery, disease and impoverishment to the Kondh communities of the area.
→ read full articleControversy Deepens Over Pesticides and Bee Collapse
Brandon Keim - Wired,
16 Apr 2012
Researchers led by biologist Chensheng Lu of Harvard University report a direct link between hive health and dietary exposure to imidacloprid, a so-called neonicotinoid pesticide linked to colony collapse disorder, the mysterious and massive die-off of bees across North America and Europe.
→ read full articleIs Big Pharma Peddling Narcotics? Take Oxycontin, For Instance
Mark Karlin, Buzzflash – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
It is difficult to believe that Big Pharma is not aware of this growing abuse of legal drugs. It is difficult to fathom that their actuarial predictions of profit don’t take into account the addictive and widespread abuse of narcotics. Perhaps they are indeed innocent bystanders to this spreading problem, but then the companies that make such effective medications would have to be deaf, blind, and dumb, because there is no way to ignore the “legal” drugs that are decimating sections of America.
→ read full articleDoes Microwaving Veggies Kill the Nutrients?
SHAPE magazine, Healthy Living – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Despite what you might read on the Internet, microwaving your food does not “kill” nutrients. In fact, it can make certain nutrients more available to your body .
→ read full article
India: Kudankulam Protests – Am I A Terrorist? Asks Anti-Nuclear Activist Udayakumar (Video of the Week)
NDTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
An uneasy calm prevails at Idinthakarai in Tamil Nadu – Ground Zero of the protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant – ahead of an imminent arrest of Dr S P Udhayakumar, the man who has led the charge against the controversial power project. – Dr. SP Udayakumar is a Convener of the TRANSCEND Network for South Asia.
→ read full articleNuclear Weapons Are Not Instruments Of Peace!
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
To witness otherwise perceptive and morally motivated scholars succumbing to the demons of nuclearism is a bad omen; for me this nuclearist complacency is an unmistakable sign of cultural decadence that can only bring on disaster for the society, the species, and the world at some indeterminate future point. We cannot count on our geopolitical luck lasting forever! And we Americans, cannot possibly retain the dubious advantages of targeting the entire world with these weapons of mass destruction without experiencing the effects of a profound spiritual decline.
→ read full articleStarted Activism at 21, Still At It At 52
Gopu Mohan in Chennai – The Indian Express,
16 Apr 2012
Subramaniam Paramarthalingam Udayakumar was 21 when he, along with a few friends, started the Group of Peaceful Indian Ocean to campaign against ships and submarines said to be ferrying nuclear weapons across the Indian Ocean. The second phase of his activism began with his return to India in 2001. He joined forces with Y David, who was in the forefront of the anti-Koodankulam protests right from the 1980s. Udayakumar is widely considered a non-corrupt leader of the protests, and has often challenged the authorities to probe allegations of corruption against him.
→ read full articlePro-Palestinian Activists Detained In Israel
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
More than 40 pro-Palestinian activists reached Tel Aviv’s international airport as part of an attempted “fly-in” only to be detained by Israeli authorities. On Sunday [15 Apr 2012] 41 people had been refused entry at Ben Gurion airport by early afternoon and would be deported. The Welcome to Palestine campaign, now in its third consecutive year, aims to gather activists from over 15 countries in Israel from April 15 to 21 to “challenge the Israeli siege of the occupied territories”, it says on its website.
→ read full articleAFRICOM Overheard by Lacville
Robert Lacville – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
The neocolonial scramble for Africa has led to a declaration of the Independent Republic of Azawad – According to the National Intelligence Council, “the United States is likely to draw 25% of its oil from West Africa by 2015. The interests of the USA could be assured by using local allies to fight American battles.” During a recent virtual trip he did not make to Stuttgart, writer Robert Lacville virtually overheard the following briefing of a senior U.S. army general by Senior C.I.A. Agent Jack and a certain Colonel W.:
→ read full articleBread and Circuses
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Modern science has, for the first time in history, offered humankind the possibility of a life of comfort, free from hunger and cold, and free from the constant threat of death through infectious disease. At the same time, science has given humans the power to obliterate their civilization with nuclear weapons, or to make the earth uninhabitable through overpopulation and pollution. The question of which of these paths we choose is literally a matter of life or death for ourselves and our children.
→ read full articleScience, Ethics and Social Responsibility
Jennifer Allen Simons – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
We are confronted with a situation in which the realistic destiny of civilization is nuclear genocide; the death of millions through accidental or malicious release of deathly biological agents; through ecological degradation; and climate change – causing deaths of millions from famines on grand scales – unless we find the ways and means to divert the course established by science, technology and its rationale in the name of progress.
→ read full articlePolitical Revolution in Germany: Pirates Country’s Third Strongest Party in New Poll
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Germany’s Pirate Party may still be hammering out their platform, but that doesn’t seem to bother voters. Riding a wave of new popularity following a recent state election success, the Internet freedom advocates have gained record support in a national poll.
→ read full articleThe Truth about Tech
Jenica Rhee, mastersdegree.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
After explosions at an Apple supplier plant in China last year, many of the company’s factories came under scrutiny, and now other tech-producing companies are being similarly examined. You may be familiar with the Apple production scandals, but lesser known factories around the world are employing similarly damaging manufacturing tactics. After all, the cell phone in your pocket, computer on your desk, and television in your living room all came from somewhere, and chances are it wasn’t pretty.
→ read full articleLeaked Video Shows US Contractors Randomly Killing Civilians
TMS Editor,
16 Apr 2012
Employees of the US military contracting group Academi (formerly Xe, Blackwater USA, and Blackwater Worldwide) are seen in new leaked video shooting their machine guns at random while driving through the streets of Baghdad, crashing into other cars and even running over a pedestrian without hesitation. Academi received a $250 million contract by the Obama administration to provide military services in Afghanistan.
→ read full article10 Demands for Concrete Proof by We the Peoples of the World
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Produced in a period when the USA is demanding concrete evidence from Iran that it is halting efforts to produce nuclear weapons.
→ read full articleWhich is the Biggest Drug Cartel in the World? Big Pharma
Mark Karlin, Buzzflash – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Big Pharma has not lost the opportunity to push pain-killing drugs, and off-label use of many drugs, both of which result in “collateral damage” injury and death. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, told Truthout that more US citizens die from opiate overdoses due to legally prescribed pharmaceuticals than from heroin.
→ read full articleElections Long Over in Koodankulam
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
In support of ‘people of Koodakulam’ whose voices and rights have been suppressed.
→ read full articleBig Brother ‘Legal’ In US: Mumia Abu-Jamal Exclusive to RT
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Full Interview – RT has become the first TV channel in the world to speak to former journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal since he was removed from death row in January [2012].
→ read full articleThe UN Embraces the Economics of Happiness
Laura Musikanski – YES! Magazine,
16 Apr 2012
Imagine a world where the metric that guides our decisions is not money, but happiness. That is the future that 650 political, academic, and civic leaders from around the world want. Encouraged by the government of Bhutan, the United Nations held a High Level Meeting on 2 Apr ,2012 for Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. The meeting marks the launch of a global movement to shift our focus away from measuring and promoting economic growth as a goal in its own right, and toward the goal of measuring—and increasing—human happiness and quality of life.
→ read full articleWhy We Need Sharp’s Dictionary
Mary Elizabeth King – Waging Nonviolence,
16 Apr 2012
Anyone who has researched, taught, written or published on the subject of nonviolent struggle appreciates the headaches of vocabulary. Gandhi himself suffered the pains and perplexities of language…
→ read full article(Italian) Some Like It Hot
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Segnalo una buona pratica dal basso che, in dissenso nei confronti della costruzione di un pirogassificatore in Valle d’Aosta, ha visto il costituirsi di parte della società civile in associazione e costruire la lotta culturale dal basso a tutela della salute dei singoli e collettiva.
→ read full articleKenya: Restoring Hope in Kawangware
Xchange Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
On the 12th of April, a number of organisations rallied to support the street children of Kawangware in Nairobi, in having a voice to loudly express their dreams, hopes and fears. Hundreds of street children in Kawangware and their champions poured into the streets in a peaceful demonstration to mark the International Day for Street Children.
→ read full articlePlease Join Our Kumar-Satyagraha Facebook Group
Antonio C. S. Rosa, TMS editor,
16 Apr 2012
This is a closed group for exchange of ideas/advocacy/information for Dr. S P Udayakumar, Convener of the TRANSCEND Network for South India. Kumar is participating in Satyagraha/nonviolent protests with the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) to stop construction of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, South India. We demand that the authorities free all jailed protesters, drop the spurious charges of treason, sedition and terrorism against the leaders, and lift the blockade of the villages surrounding the nuclear plant scheduled to be inaugurated in May 2012. THIS IS URGENT! Please Click Below and I will authorize your request to join. Then invite all your Facebook Friends to join too. Thank you in the name of the planet.
→ read full article‘New’ Burma Has Winners and Losers
Esmer Golluoglu in Rangoon – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
As business opportunities explode after the relaxing of domestic and international restrictions, many doubt whether Burma’s poor will benefit. Zayar Thaw, one of Burma’s best-known rappers, who spent three years as a political prisoner and has just been elected to parliament, says only time will tell what lies ahead: “Burma is changing, and it’s changing very fast. I am very surprised and a little bit nervous, to be honest.”
→ read full articleOn TRANSCENDING: Rhymed Reflections
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
1. When will humankind be able to peacefully TRANSCEND?
When to all forms of violence and killing we will put AN END.
…
A Dangerous Idea
Kirk Anderson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
To read the comic fable please click. Waging Nonviolence.
→ read full articleExtreme Weather is the New Normal
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Extreme weather is fast becoming the new normal. Canada and much of the United States experienced summer temperatures during winter this year, confirming the findings of a new report on extreme weather.
→ read full articleThe Real Costs of Nuclear Energy
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
The only reason that nuclear energy now looks relatively cheap compared to other energy sources is that it receives huge subsidies from governments (that is from the people, without being asked). The operators of nuclear power plants are not held liable for accidents.
→ read full articleCan Restorative Justice Stop the Schoolhouse-to-Jailhouse Pipeline?
Jeremy Adam Smith – YES! Magazine,
16 Apr 2012
Board members and many educators say restorative practices have kept students in school and out of the criminal justice system. “We’re holding kids more accountable than we did before,” said Kim, who now serves on the city’s Board of Supervisors. “In restorative justice, you have to actually have the offender and the victim sit down and discuss what happened and how the offender can make it better.”
→ read full articleJohnson & Johnson Fined $1.2 billion for Drug Labeling Failure
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Johnson & Johnson has been fined $1.2 billion in Arkansas over the sales of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug. A circuit judge ruled that the company did not warn patients that the drug places elderly patients with dementia at an increased risk of major weight gain, possible diabetes and potential death.
→ read full articleEnabling Wisdom Dynamically within Intertwined Tori
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Requisite Resonance in Global Knowledge Architecture – The theme emerged from consideration of how wisdom could be rendered into more compact form for dissemination on Twitter, constrained by the 140 character limitation on any tweet message. The example explored was the set of 48 Zen koan assembled in a classic collection compiled in 1228 by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Hui-k’ai.
→ read full articleHome, Next To N-Reactor
Praful Bidwai and MV Ramana - Tehelka,
9 Apr 2012
Rules say there should be no habitation around nuclear plants but 70,000 people live within 16km of Koodankulam, which lies at the edge of the Gulf of Mannar, one of the world’s richest biodiversity areas. A unit of power from Koodankulam 1 and 2 will cost Rs 3.08. A unit of thermal power costs Rs 1.74 to 1.66. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India-NPCIL doesn’t provide for insurance against accidents or catastrophes. It expects the government to deal with such eventualities.
→ read full articleIncarceration Nation
Fareed Zakaria – Time Magazine,
9 Apr 2012
The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That’s not just many more than in most other developed countries but seven to 10 times as many. The results are gruesome at every level. We are creating a vast prisoner underclass in this country at huge expense, increasingly unable to function in normal society, all in the name of a war we have already lost.
→ read full articleWorsening Trends in Global Arms Transfers
Chandra Muzaffar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Translating it into reality we realise is a monumental challenge which goes beyond the cessation of the production and consumption of conventional weapons. But let the citizens of the world at least demand that those who rule in their name put disarmament on the global agenda as an urgent item that requires immediate attention.
→ read full articleBelene Nuclear Power Plant Canceled, Bulgarian PM Confirms
Sofia News Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Bulgaria has quit the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project, the country’s Prime Minister has confirmed. “During today’s [28 Mar 2012] Council of Ministers Sitting, we decided to terminate the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project,” Borisov told reporters. “We cannot afford to pay for it, and there is no way we can make future generations pay,” the Prime Minister declared.
→ read full articleWork Continues At Nuclear Plant as Does Police Crackdown on Protesters
Jeemon Jacob - Tehelca,
9 Apr 2012
Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project site, commissioning expected by the end of May. Meanwhile, the government crackdown on anti-nuke protesters continues. The Madurai Passport Officer has directed PMANE convener Dr SP Udayakumar to surrender his passport. The letter dated 30 March stated that there were 98 criminal cases registered against him in connection with the Koodankulam anti-nuclear struggle. “They are treating me as if I am a terrorist,” said Udayakumar.
→ read full articleREDD: The New Beast in the Forest Brings Hope and Threats to Indigenous Peoples
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Deforestation gobbles up an area the size of Greece (13 million hectares) every year. It also produces huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions — a whopping 15 to 20 percent of all global emissions. In an attempt to reverse this, countries in the United Nations have agreed to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests in a program called REDD: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. But “REDD will fail if forest peoples are kept out of the negotiations and if states do not ensure that our right to free, prior and informed consent is properly respected,” said Tauli-Corpuz, a member of the indigenous Kankana-ey Igorot community in the Philippines. That includes the right to say ‘no’.
→ read full article
Death Penalty in 2011
Amnesty International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
People were executed or sentenced to death for a range of offences including adultery and sodomy in Iran, blasphemy in Pakistan, sorcery in Saudi Arabia, the trafficking of human bones in the Republic of Congo, and drug offences in more than 10 countries. Methods of execution in 2011 included beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. Some 18,750 people remained under sentence of death at the end of 2011 and at least 676 people were executed worldwide.
→ read full articleChinese Insider Offers Rare Glimpse of U.S.-China Frictions
Jane Perlez – The New York Times,
9 Apr 2012
China views the United States as a declining power, but at the same time believes that Washington is trying to fight back to undermine, and even disrupt, the economic and military growth that point to China’s becoming the world’s most powerful country, according to the analyst, Wang Jisi, the co-author of “Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust.”
→ read full articleBlonde Paint Job
TMS Editor,
9 Apr 2012
A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighborhood.
→ read full articleWhy Europe Is Not Yet ‘A Culture Of Peace’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
It is undoubtedly true that the greatest unacknowledged achievement of the European Union (EU) is to establish ‘a culture of peace’ within its regional enclosure for the 68 years since 1944. This has meant not only the absence of war in Europe, but also the absence of ‘war talk,’ threats, crises, and sanctions, with the single important exception of the NATO War of 1999 that was part of the fallout from the breakup of former Yugoslavia.
→ read full articleWhat Do You Want USA, Up or Down?
Johan Galtung, 9 Apr 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
One wonders what the US political leaders want. The incumbent lives in this world, playing an ultra-realist game: extra-judicial executions in maybe 70 countries, drone attacks; minimizing US losses, maximizing direct hits at what he sees as the problem, concrete identified individuals, not concrete unidentified conflicts. He has neither the moral nor the intellectual courage to do that.
→ read full articleRang de Basanti (Colour My Saffron)
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
In support of ‘people of Koodakulam’ whose voices and rights have been suppressed.
→ read full articleWith the Fall of Timbukutu, Is there an Azawad in Mali’s Future?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Timbuktu was once a metaphor for the middle of nowhere. Now it is in the middle of a struggle that has important implications for the whole Sahel zone that runs from Senegal to Sudan. Tuareg armed forces coming from further north have taken control of the key towns of northern Mali: Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu, largely cutting the country in two.
→ read full articleEl Salvador’s Gang Truce
Mike Allison – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
A promising truce brokered by the Church that has reduced homicides by an average of 10 people per day should be upheld.
→ read full articleFinanciers and Sex Trafficking
Nicholas D. Kristof – The New York Times,
9 Apr 2012
The biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States appears to be a Web site called Backpage.com. This emporium for girls and women — some under age or forced into prostitution — is in turn owned by an opaque private company called Village Voice Media. Until now it has been unclear who the ultimate owners are. That mystery is solved. The owners turn out to include private equity financiers, including Goldman Sachs with a 16 percent stake.
→ read full articleDestruction of Spain’s Economy Duplicates Greece
Jeff Nielson – Information Clearing House,
9 Apr 2012
More than two years ago I began warning readers of the most heinous acts of fraud ever perpetrated by the Western banking crime syndicate, which I dubbed “economic terrorism”. These swindles involved nothing less than the destruction of entire European economies, solely so that the banksters could profit on approximately $100 trillion in bets they had placed on the debts of these economies.
→ read full articleIs Portugal Hopeless?
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
In the beginning of 2012, Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, dubbed the situation of Greece and Portugal “hopeless”. In support of his verdict, Darda cited high debt loads and poor prospects for growth in the two countries. The paradox of the current situation is that the European Union’s bailout package came with stipulations that, once implemented, will only worsen every fixable structural problem on the list.
→ read full articleFirst Marines in Australia as U.S. Ramps Up Asia-Pacific Focus
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
About 200 U.S. Marines began a six month deployment in Australia on Wednesday [4 Apr 2012], in the first wave of a buildup of 2,500 troops due eventually to rotate through a de facto base in Darwin, as the U.S deepens its military presence in the Asia-Pacific.
→ read full articleWar Porn: The New Safe Sex
Pepe Escobar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The early 21st century is addicted to war porn, a prime spectator sport consumed by global couch and digital potatoes. Like porn, war porn cannot exist without being based on a lie – a crude representation. But unlike porn, war porn is the real thing; unlike crude, cheap snuff movies, people in war porn actually die – in droves. Iran is the new Iraq; and whatever the highway, to evoke the neo-con motto, real men go to Tehran via Damascus, or real men go to Tehran non-stop.
→ read full articleWhat Really Explains Thein Sein Regime’s Current Pursuit of ‘Ceasefire’ with the Karens while Killing the Kachins
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Obviously, the Burmese generals and ex-generals have outsourced the business of “strategic peace” to its commercial elements – Burmese commercial interests. Investors from Norway, Germany, etc. are licking their lips while the locals do the foreplay with the ethnic virgin lands (and untapped resources).
→ read full articleTerrorism: Origins, Analysis & Resolution
TRANSCEND Member Prof. Charles Webel - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
This course will focus on contemporary international terrorism, including the current “global war on terror.” It will familiarize students with contemporary theories and methods of understanding and preventing terrorism, focusing on international conflicts and conflict resolution.
→ read full articleBahraini Villagers Fear Effects of Tear Gas
Gregg Carlstrom – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
Many towns are blanketed nightly with the gas, raising fears of cancer and other long-term health problems.
→ read full articleA Prayer by Indians
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
With Due Apologies to St. Francis, Reinhold Niebuhr and St. Patrick
Oh, Prime Ministerial Lord, make me a sports authority of your games;
where there is common, let me steal wealth;
where there is contract, commission;
where there is agreement, kickbacks; …
Austerity vs Solidarity: Democratic Legitimacy and Europe’s Future
Andrea Mammone – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
Across the EU, there is an outcry – including from economists – about the potential damaging effects of austerity plans.
→ read full articleText of Annan’s Six-Point Peace Plan for Syria
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The 15-member United Nations Security Council is expected to endorse a deadline agreed to by Syria for a military withdrawal by April 10 [2012] and a comprehensive ceasefire no more than 48 hours later with rebel forces. The ceasefire is the key part of special envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, which was presented to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on March 10 and accepted by him on March 27.
→ read full articleNew Report Documents Systematic Abuse of Palestinian Children in Israeli Military Detention
Nora Barrows-Friedman, The Electronic Intifada – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The United Nations (UN) estimates that during the last 44 years, around 726,000 Palestinian men, women and children have been prosecuted and detained under Israeli emergency military laws. In the past 11 years alone, around 7,500 children, some as young as 12 years, are estimated to have been detained, interrogated, and imprisoned within this system. This averages out at between 500-700 children per year, or nearly two children, each and every day.
→ read full articleThe Doctrine of Intervention
Manuela Picq – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
One does not think of archaic papal bulls when witnessing democratic states like Brazil or the United States building dams on Amazon rivers or drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Yet today’s political ethics are surprisingly similar to the doctrine of discovery set by the Vatican back in 1452.
→ read full articleAn Odious Affair: The UN in Somalia
Abdi Ismail Samatar – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
The organisation may destroy the country’s political autonomy if there is no immediate pro-Somali intervention. This brief essay examines the particular roles played by two UN agencies – the Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea (MG) and the United Nations Special Representative (SR) – in the reproduction of the disaster in the country. These two agencies have separate mandates, but collectively they have been engaged in activities that undermine Somali efforts to rebuild the country.
→ read full articleSolidarity of BRICS
China Daily – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The fourth BRICS summit, which concluded on Thursday [29 Mar 2012] in New Delhi, sent positive signals to the outside world that international stability, security and prosperity can be achieved if everyone pulls together. In the joint declaration issued by leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the five countries vowed to enhance cooperation among themselves and contribute to world development and prosperity.
→ read full articleArt of Resistance – Günter Grass
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Outrage in Germany, Nobel Laureate Günter Grass has, once again told the truth about Israel being the greatest threat to world peace. Günter Grass, Germany’s most famous living author and the 1999 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparked outrage in Germany on Wednesday [4 Apr 2012] with the publication of a poem, “What must be said,” in which he sharply criticizes Israel’s offensive approach towards Iran.
→ read full articleThe South Challenges Globalization
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
9 Apr 2012
The increased strength of emerging countries of the South confronts the challenges of contemporary globalization.
→ read full article
A History Lesson: U.S. Intervention in Iran from 1953 Through 2010 (Video of the Week)
Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
This video gives a basic overview of the history of the U.S. policies regarding Iran that began at the behest of the British Government and big oil interests including British Petroleum (later renamed BP).
→ read full articleDiscrimination in Russia: Arrests for Violation of St. Petersburg Anti-Gay Law
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
In St. Petersburg, Russia, two men were arrested on Thursday [5 Apr 2012] for holding up a sign reading “Homosexuality Is Normal.” It marks the first arrests on the strength of the city’s new law against disseminating information on homosexuality.
→ read full articlePower of 5
Shobhan Saxena – The Times of India,
9 Apr 2012
A few stock questions later, the [World] Bank chief [Robert Zoellick] turned his attention to the proposed BRICS bank. “It’s a complicated venture which will have a hard time getting off the ground and match the expertise of the World Bank,” Zoellick said.
→ read full articleAfghanistan Chronicles: Near Ground Zero and in Af-Pak Region, Two Labyrinths (Part 6)
Suzanne Bauman & Jim Burroughs - Truthout,
9 Apr 2012
Violence continued for years, until the Pashtuns finally agreed to accept Muslim Pakistan over Hindu India – but only after making it perfectly clear to Islamabad that their territory, the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), would be managed completely by the Pashtun people themselves. No Pakistani Punjabi police or military in the NWFP! Pakistan agreed, and since that time has never attempted to control the region – no matter what President Musharraf claimed to be doing in his supposed quest to eliminate al-Qaeda after the attack on America on September 11, 2001.
→ read full articleTweeter, Tweeter, Little Star: How I Wonder What You Are
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Produced in a period when use of Twitter has become ever more significant in political processes and democratic protest.
→ read full articleArab League a Divided House
Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The old regional organizations Arab League (formed in 1945) has shown all weakness of a broken house with members failing to take coordinated position on any of the raging international issues. A simple juxtaposition of the Arab League summit with the BRICS summit, held on the same date, 29 March 2012, brings stark contrast how coordination in one part of the world is failing acutely, while the rise of BRICS in global arena is a foregone conclusion.
→ read full articleLinks between Poverty and War
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
There are several relationships between intolerable economic inequality and war. Today 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 a day – 1.1 billion on less than $1 per day. 18 million of our fellow humans die each year from poverty-related causes. In 2006, 1.1 billion people lacked safe drinking water, and waterbourne diseases killed an estimated 1.8 million people. Meanwhile, in 2011, world military budgets reached a total of $2,157,172,000,000 dollars (i.e. 2.157 million million dollars).
→ read full articleFukushima Radiation Tracked Across Pacific Ocean
Jesse Emspak, LiveScience – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been found in tiny sea creatures and ocean water some 186 miles (300 kilometers) off the coast of Japan, revealing the extent of the release and the direction pollutants might take in a future environmental disaster. With these results, detailed today (April 2, 2012) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team estimates it will take at least a year or two for the radioactive material released at Fukushima to get across the Pacific Ocean.
→ read full articleGeorge Galloway: Why I Won’t Condemn Attacks on UK Soldiers in Afghanistan
StoptheWarCoalition – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
George Galloway, interviewed after his sensational election victory to become MP for Bradford West, responds to the question, “Do you condemn those attacking British soldiers in Afghanistan?”
→ read full articlePedagogy and Revolution
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
In the name of “solving” the crisis in education, the so-called school “reformers” are pushing solutions that scapegoat teachers and vilify their unions. In a chapter on “Pedagogy and Revolution: Reading Freire in Context,” Adrienne Johnstone and Elizabeth Terzakis examine the legacy of the Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo Freire, and what it contributes to our struggles today.
→ read full articleMaking Sense of Egypt – Part Two: A Partial Anatomy of Insecurity
Ahmed Badawi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
The role of SCAF, the Ministry of Interior, and other “strategic groups” in undermining the revolution and Egyptians’ sense of security.
→ read full articleUnderstanding the Sanusi of Cyrenaica: How to Avoid a Civil War in Libya
Akbar Ahmed and Frankie Martin – Al Jazeera,
2 Apr 2012
Emerging from the nightmare of dictatorship, Libya has a new challenge – to fully accommodate its own people. This article is the seventh in a series by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, exploring how a litany of volatile centre/periphery conflicts with deep historical roots were interpreted after 9/11 in the new global paradigm of anti-terrorism – with profound and often violent consequences.
→ read full articleFrom Privatisation to Corporatisation of Water
Jørgen Eiken Magdahl – Association for International Water Studies-FIVAS,
2 Apr 2012
There has been a development and shift away from privatisation as the dominant strategy towards the so-called corporatisation and commercialisation of public water services. The main purpose of this report is to analyse the strategic development in policy that has taken place, the World Bank’s neoliberal strategy on corporatisation of urban water services and concrete case studies of corporatisation projects in Sub-Saharan Africa as examples of this strategy.
→ read full articleWho Is Jim Yong Kim, Nominee For World Bank President?
Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke – The Christian Science Monitor,
2 Apr 2012
23 Mar 2012 – The selection of Jim Yong Kim took many by surprise since he is not well known in Washington circles and wasn’t an expected candidate for the World Bank position. President Barack Obama has nominated Jim Yong Kim, a global health policy expert and the president of Dartmouth College, to run the World Bank.
→ read full articleMedia Blackout of the Ongoing Nonviolent Protest at Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
The nonviolent struggle by the 10,000-strong People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) to stop construction of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in India is proving to be a best kept secret as not a word is said or written by the corporate, alternative, Internet or traditional western media to date. Why is that? Some background information (from PMANE):
→ read full article
Germany and Europe’s Path to the 19th Century (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Paul Jay, The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Francisco Louçã: European elite wants to undo the “social contract”; Germany wants more control.
→ read full articleJournalist Seeking Truth about Khmer Rouge ‘Fears for His Life’
Kate Hodal in Phnom Penh – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath says he has been followed, harassed and chased during his research.
→ read full articleObama’s Nuclear Disarmament Hoax
Peter Symonds – World Socialist Web Site,
2 Apr 2012
This week’s [26 Mar 2012] gathering of world leaders at the Nuclear Security Summit in South Korea was the occasion for a great deal of cynical posturing about nuclear disarmament and world peace. What is under way is not nuclear disarmament, but an arms race. The key index of this new build up is not the absolute number of nuclear warheads, but the sophistication of the delivery systems and their ability to evade detection and defensive measures.
→ read full articleRadiation at Fukushima Plant at Lethal Levels
Minoru Matsutani – Japan Times,
2 Apr 2012
Radiation inside the reactor 2 containment vessel at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has reached a lethal 73 sieverts per hour and any attempt to send robots in will require them to have greater resistance than currently available, experts said Wednesday [28 Mar 2012]. Exposure to 73 sieverts for a minute would cause nausea and seven minutes would cause death within a month , Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
→ read full articleSupport Indian Protesters – Stop Kudankulam!
Antonio C. S. Rosa, TMS Editor,
2 Apr 2012
On March 19, 2012, the Indian government gave approval for operation of two Russian-designed nuclear reactors at Kudankulam in southern India. These reactors have been under construction since 1988 and are obsolete before they even start up. Three million people live within 30 kilometers (18 miles) of these reactors, some less than a half-mile away. We are asking everyone, from every country, to take action. PLEASE SIGN THE LETTER ONLINE TO THE INDIAN PRIME MINISTER. Thank you.
→ read full articleEmpires Then and Now
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Great empires, such as the Roman and British, were extractive. The empires succeeded because the value of the resources and wealth extracted from conquered lands exceeded the value of conquest and governance. In his book, The Rule of Empires (2010), Timothy H. Parsons wonders whether America’s is really an empire. After eight years in Iraq, all Washington has for its efforts is several trillion dollars of additional debt and no Iraqi oil. After ten years of trillion dollar struggle against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Washington has nothing to show for it except possibly some part of the drug trade that can be used to fund covert CIA operations.
→ read full article
Bunker Roy: Learning From a Barefoot Movement
TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men — many of them illiterate — to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It’s called the Barefoot College, and its founder, Bunker Roy, explains how it works.
→ read full articleUS’ Human Rights Violations
Eric Sommer - China Daily,
2 Apr 2012
US media and political figures constantly attack China for alleged human rights violations, while conveniently turning a blind eye to human rights violations perpetrated by the United States in the name of its war on terror, for instance the use of torture at Abu Ghraib, the illegal detention of suspects at Guantanamo, the apprehension and extrajudicial transfer of individuals from one state to another, and the unauthorized surveillance of citizens are just some the US’ well-documented human rights abuses.
→ read full articleA Boy to Be Sacrificed
Abdellah Taïa – The New York Times,
2 Apr 2012
I began by keeping my head low all the time. I cut all ties with the children in the neighborhood. I altered my behavior. I kept myself in check: no more feminine gestures, no more honeyed voice, no more hanging around women. No more anything. I had to invent a whole new Abdellah. I bent myself to the task with great determination, and with the realization that this world was no longer my world. Sooner or later, I would leave it behind. I would grow up and find freedom somewhere else. But in the meantime I would become hard. Very hard.
→ read full articleHow Should the Elections in Burma Be Understood?
Dr. Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Do Sunday’s elections in Burma matter? Yes and No. In terms of who controls the real levers of power absolutely nothing will change. What may be significant is that the electorate is being excited about having a formal political process where there can openly debate the regime’s failed policies, talk about the dismal state of the affairs, openly express their support for Aung San Suu Kyi and what she and dissident colleagues stand for, and shed their fear of the regime.
→ read full articlePartnership for Change Conference 2012: Dignity and Empowerment
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Ending rape and sexual violence is a huge challenge to us all, but it can be done if we join in partnership and cooperation, and use a multi-faceted approach to transforming a culture of rape and sexual violence into a culture of nonkilling, nonviolence and respect for life and human dignity.
→ read full articleHana Shalabi’s Hunger Strike Has Ended, but Not Her Punishment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
As with Khader Adnan, Israel supposedly compromised with Hana Shalabi on the 43rd day of her hunger strike in protest against administrative detention and her abysmal treatment. But Israel’s concept of ‘compromise’ if considered becomes indistinguishable from the imposition of a further ‘vindictive punishment.’
→ read full articleThe Politics of Science and Democracy in India
Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
In an interview with the journal Science, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh chose to focus on two hazardous technologies – genetically engineered seeds and crops, and nuclear power – as vital to the progress of science in India and the “salvation for finding new development pathways for developing our economy”. He also identified NGOs as blocking this “development”, and said “foreign hands” were at work. The prime minister’s interview saddened me.
→ read full articleFor Nuclear Security beyond Seoul, Eradicate Land-Based ‘Doomsday’ Missiles
David Krieger and Daniel Ellsberg – The Christian Science Monitor,
2 Apr 2012
America’s 450 launch-ready land-based nuclear-armed ballistic missiles are the opposite of a deterrent to attack. In fact, their very deployment has the potential to launch World War III and precipitate human extinction – as a result of a false alarm. We’re not exaggerating.
→ read full articleIsrael Cuts Ties With UN Human Rights Body
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Israel has said it has severed contacts with the UN Human Rights Council after the group’s launch last week of an international investigation into Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The decision, announced by a foreign ministry spokesman on Monday [26 Mar 2012], meant that the fact-finding team the council planned to send to the West Bank will not be allowed to enter the territory or Israel, said spokesman Yigal Palmor.
→ read full articleFighting Fire in Haiti
Alexis Erkert – Toward Freedom,
2 Apr 2012
Camp Kozbami is the fifth camp to be arsoned in two months. As landowners and the government push to close camps inhabited by those displaced by the earthquake that rocked Haiti 26 months ago, a reported 94,632 individuals are facing forced eviction. Residents of the 660 displacement camps scattered throughout the Port-au-Prince area are experiencing increasing levels of threats and violence.
→ read full articlePortuguese Seek Future in Mozambique
Andrew England in Maputo – The Financial Times,
2 Apr 2012
How Portuguese people are fleeing their homeland in search of economic opportunities in Mozambique. The paper estimates that there are 20,000 Portuguese in Maputo with the number of people registering at the Portuguese consulate up by 10 per cent in recent years.
→ read full articleThe Reason I’m Helping Chris Hedges’ Lawsuit against the NDAA
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
By placing journalists in jeopardy for reporting on ‘terrorists’, the Homeland Battlefield Bill has had a chilling effect on media work and upon my ability to investigate and document matters of national controversy that would ordinarily be subject to my professional inquiry. It has therefore prevented my readers from receiving the full spectrum of truthful reporting which, in a functioning democracy, they have a right to expect.
→ read full article
Banking “Technocrats” Undermine Democracy
Paul Jay, The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Gerry Epstein: In Europe and the US, bankers take control of the political process.
→ read full article(Portuguese) BRICS Criam Novo Modelo de Ajuda a Países Pobres, Diz Relatório
Iracema Sodré - BBC Brasil,
2 Apr 2012
Os países que formam o grupo BRICS – Brasil, Rússia, Índia, China e África do Sul – aumentaram sua participação em ajuda a nações pobres em um ritmo dez vezes maior que o do G7 (Estados Unidos, Japão, Alemanha, Reino Unido ,França, Itália e Canadá) entre 2005 e 2010, e estão criando novos modelos para a cooperação internacional, segundo dados de um relatório divulgado nesta segunda-feira [26 mar 2012], em Nova Déli, na Índia.
→ read full article(Italian) A Vittorio. Per Vittorio
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Per Vik. A Vik. “Gaza-Restiamo Umani diventerà sempre più un documento storico, piuttosto che essere una semplice narrazione dall’inferno” — Vittorio Arrigoni
Il 20 marzo 2009 su guerrilla radio Vik annuncia la pubblicazione di “Stay Human”.