Articles by M
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(Castellano) Todos contra Wall Street
Socialist Worker, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Los sindicatos están entrando en el lado de las protestas en Ocupa Wall Street–una creciente alianza entre la izquierda y el movimiento laboral que puede llevar la lucha a una nueva etapa.
→ read full articleInterview on the Palestinian Statehood Bid
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
This post consists of my responses to questions put to me by a Greek journalist, C.J Polychroniou, who long followed intellectual thought in the West, and is a keen analyst of the current European economic crisis.
→ read full articleLord Buddha: Master of Inner Peace and Harmony
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Lord Buddha was born in a rich family as Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal. He is said to have lived to be 80 years old covering the years 563-483 B.C. In his early years, he found out that the secret of inner peace and harmony consists of detachment from material things. Thus, he left his family fortunes and went to live in poverty, spending most of his time in meditation and contemplation.
→ read full articleNineteen Eighty-Four – The Movie
George Orwell – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime. Since the novel’s publication, “Orwellian” has in fact become somewhat of a catch-all for any kind of governmental overreach or dishonesty and therefore has multiple meanings and applications. The phrase Big Brother is Watching You specifically connotes pervasive, invasive surveillance.
→ read full articleAn American Awakening?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
We must hope and engage. We can be thankful that this initiative places its focus on financial and corporate structures, and not on the state. Further along these lines, if the struggle will gain momentum it will be totally thanks to politics-from-below. The implicit not so subtle point is that the center of power over the destinies of the American people has shifted its locus from Washington to New York, and from the penthouse to the the basement!! We’ll see!!
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U.S. “Occupy” Movement Grows as Protests Reported in 847 Cities; Obama Notes “Frustration”
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
10 Oct 2011
Democracynow.org – Parallel actions inspired by New York City’s Occupy Wall Street continue to spring up across the United States. As of Friday morning, the website “Occupy Together,” hub for nationwide events in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street reported gatherings in 847 cities.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Aumento dos Motins: Um Fenomeno Mundial
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Entrevista com Alain Bertho, professor de antropologia da Universidade de Paris, realizada por Ivan du Roy.
→ read full articleWhich Grade?
TMS Editor,
10 Oct 2011
A first-grade teacher, Ms Brooks, was having trouble with one of her students. The teacher asked, ‘Harry, what’s your problem?’
→ read full articleA Modest Proposal: Is It Time for the Community of Non-Nuclear States to Revolt?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
There are 189 countries that are parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) that entered into force in 1970. Only India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea have remained outside the treaty regime so as to be free to acquire the weapons. The nuclear weapons states have done an incredibly successful job, especially the United States, in getting a free ride, continuously modernizing their arsenals while keeping the weapons out of most unwanted hands.
→ read full articleU.S.: “Leaderless” Protest Movement Continues to Snowball
Kanya D'Almeida – Inter Press Service-IPS,
10 Oct 2011
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you – then you win,” a middle-aged man yells into the microphone from a makeshift stage erected at the far end of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. Eighty years later, the words of the great Indian freedom fighter Mohandas K. Gandhi have found their way to the U.S. and still resonate as strongly as they did during India’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
→ read full article
Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Michael Moore on support of Occupy Wall Street protest (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Current TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Michael Moore, filmmaker, activist and author of Here Comes Trouble calls on people all over the country to bring the Occupy Wall Street movement to their communities. Later, Moore denounces the state of Georgia for executing Troy Davis.
→ read full article(Galego) Perdemos Todos
Manuel Dios Diz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Diminuír, recortar drasticamente o gasto social, a cooperación ó desenvolvemento, os programas contra da pobreza e a exclusión, a educación para a solidariedade, desvertebra e anula á nosa máis viva sociedade civil, incrementa o desemprego, corta o feble cordón umbilical que nos mantén unidos coas persoas e organizacións do Terceiro Mundo, e medran as diferencias, aquí e a nivel planetario, aumenta a inxustiza e a discriminación, trunfa o egoísmo, a inseguridade e a violencia, en definitiva, perdemos todos.
→ read full articleIs The War On Terror A Hoax?
Paul Craig Roberts – Information Clearing House,
3 Oct 2011
In the past decade, Washington has killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans millions of Muslims in six countries, all in the name of the “war on terror.” When I observe the gullibility of my fellow citizens at the absurd “terror plots” that the US government manufactures, it causes me to realize that fear is the most powerful weapon any government has for advancing an undeclared agenda.
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Cornel West on Occupy Wall Street: It’s the Makings of a U.S. Autumn Responding to the Arab Spring
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
“It’s impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We’re talking about a democratic awakening,” said Dr. Cornel West when he spoke with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman during a visit Tuesday night to the Occupy Wall Street encampment. Some critics have expressed frustration at the protest’s lack of a clear and unified message. But the Princeton University professor emphasized that “you’re talking about raising political consciousness so it spills over all parts of the country, so people can begin to see what’s going on through a set of different lens, and then you begin to highlight what the more detailed demands would be.
→ read full article13 Ways to Look at the Occupation of Wall Street
Charles M. Young – Nation of Change,
3 Oct 2011
5) I think that the corporate press has a difficult time understanding Occupy Wall Street because, like 99% of Americans, they have no experience with democracy. They spend most of their time enslaved by large totalitarian collectives known as “corporations” and have never once decided anything for themselves as a group of equal workers. Instead they follow orders and write about elections, which are big puppet shows financed and scripted by Wall Street.
→ read full articleInternational Institute of Advanced Studies in Mathematical Theology
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
The strategic importance of faith-based governance is evident from the conflicts sustained by it as well as by its continuing significance in the politics of dominant superpowers. Despite the claims of science and atheists, adherence to extraordinary world views is increasing, as documented by editors of The Economist, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (God Is Back: how the global revival of faith is changing the world, 2009).
→ read full articleBrian Stelter and the Pathology of Objectivity
Michael Tracey – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
So I had a question for Stelter — what evidence indicated to him that a “battle” had taken place yesterday, or in other words, what evidence indicated that protesters had “battled” police? Again, the term “battle” implies the participation of at least two parties, but there is no reason (as yet) to believe that protesters attacked police. Here’s what Stelter said in response: “I used the word “battle” in an attempt not to judge either side.”
→ read full articleGoing Naked
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
I’ve seen how groups purporting to be spontaneous gatherings of grassroots activists, fighting the regulation of tobacco or demanding that governments should take no action on climate change, have in fact been created and paid for by corporations: a practice known as astroturfing. A voluntary register is a small step towards transparency. What I would really like to see is a mandatory list of journalists’ financial interests, similar to the House of Commons registry. I believe that everyone who steps into public life should be obliged to show who is paying them, and how much.
→ read full articleOctober 1-8, 2011: Keep Space for Peace Week
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
International Week of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space – Keep Space for Peace Week is co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK), Swedish Peace Council, Drone Campaign Network (UK), and United Against Drones (U.S.).
→ read full articleAnger, Violence and Reconciliation in Mindanao
Ayesah Abubakar - Mindanao News,
3 Oct 2011
While it may be true that anger can translate into physical violence, we have to make the distinction between anger and violence. Anger is a human emotion that finds its source from a person’s sense of desperation and failure. If we want to find peace between the Moros and the Christian settlers in Mindanao, it is crucial that we somehow study this anger and violence that permeate us. Professor Adam Curle supported the idea of “structural violence” by Johan Galtung. He reiterated that the assumptions and impositions of a majority over a minority is in itself the essence of this structural violence that we have in our society.
→ read full articleObama’s Speech, Abu Mazen’s Gamble
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
A work of art. The art of hypocrisy. Almost every statement in the passage concerning the Israeli-Palestinian issue was a lie. A blatant lie: the speaker knew it was a lie, and so did the audience. It was Obama at his best, Obama at his worst… Israel needs peace. Israel needs to live side by side with the Palestinian people, within the Arab world. Israel cannot rely forever on the unconditional support of the declining United States. Obama knows this full well. He knows what is good for Israel, even if Netanyahu doesn’t. Yet he has handed the keys of the car to the drunken driver.
→ read full articleIs the World Too Big to Fail?
Noam Chomsky – TomDispatch,
3 Oct 2011
Noam Chomsky explains how the global order of power has been created and describes the mechanisms behind its continuity.
→ read full articleWhat Facebook Really Wants
Nicholas Thompson – The New Yorker,
3 Oct 2011
The more our online lives take place on Facebook, the more we depend on the choices of the people who run the company – what they think about privacy, how they think we should be able to organize our friends, what they tell advertisers (and governments) about what we do and what we buy. We’ll rely on whom they choose as partners to give us news and music. Real issues are at stake, in other words – not just the size of photos and whether you can poke.
→ read full articleGoing Rogue: Share Traders More Reckless Than Psychopaths, Study Shows
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
What makes individual stockbrokers blow billions in financial markets with criminal trading schemes? According to a new study conducted at a Swiss university, it may be because share traders behave more recklessly and are more manipulative than psychopaths.
→ read full articleEmerging Markets Hit Economic Stage like a Tonne of BRICS
Kanya D'Almeida – TerraViva Europe,
3 Oct 2011
Headlines this week have been saturated with protests against unaffordable food, unfair taxes and unsustainable austerity measures, with one distinct difference setting these stories apart from countless others in recent history. The people demanding reform are no longer marginalised Asians, Africans and Latin Americans, but poor, working class Europeans. The BRICS possess a combined 4.3 trillion dollars in hard cash reserves, with China holding three-quarters of the kitty, much of it in Euros.
→ read full articleThe West and the Rest in a One-Model-Fits-All World
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
3 Oct 2011
More than 10 years ago, before 9/11, Goldman Sachs was predicting that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) would make the world economy’s top ten — but not until 2040. Skip a decade and the Chinese economy already has the number two spot all to itself, Brazil is number seven, India 10, and even Russia is creeping closer. In purchasing power parity, or PPP, things look even better. There, China is in second place, India is now fourth, Russia sixth, and Brazil seventh.
→ read full article
Wall Street Mocks Protesters by Drinking Champagne
The Struggle Video Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Wall Street has shown Americans how they feel about protests. This video shows unidentified occupants watching protests from the balconies of Wall Street in amusement while sipping champagne.
→ read full article
Hundreds Held In Anti-Wall Street Protests
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
New York City police say about 500 protesters have been arrested after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down a lane of traffic for several hours. Police say some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway Saturday night [1 Oct 2011] after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway.
→ read full articleSmall Price
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
A pole goes to a bank with 100 zlotys and asks, “What is the safest thing to do with my money?” “Deposit it in a bank,” the teller says.
→ read full articleAlgeria: A View from the Forest
Muriam Haleh Davis – Al Jazeera,
3 Oct 2011
The suspicion that Algeria may be “immune to the Arab Spring” is related to the lack of “Tahrir-style” mass protests, its willingness to offer refuge to members of the Gaddafi clan, and its failure to recognise the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC).
→ read full articleSign Our Petition to End Fiesta Cruelty
Humane Society International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Help end the Toro de le Vega fiesta in the Castilla y León region of Spain, where bulls are pursued, taunted and tormented by spear-wielding men and then stabbed to death in an annual spectacle every September.
→ read full articleIAEA Won’t Discuss Israel’s ‘Nuclear Capabilities’ After Arab Proposal Dropped
Yossi Melman – Haaretz,
3 Oct 2011
Behind-the-scenes diplomacy at the International Atomic Energy Association leads to Arab states withdrawing their motion. Israel secured a diplomatic achievement at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) Friday [23 Sep 2011] in Vienna when the Arab states withdrew their proposal to discuss Israel’s “nuclear capabilities.”
→ read full article
Meltdown – The Men Who Crashed the World
AlJazeeraEnglish – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
The first of a four-part investigation into a world of greed and recklessness that brought down the financial world.
→ read full articleCrisis Thinkers or Thinkers in Crisis?
Dr. Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Last Friday [23 Sep 2011], the International Crisis Group’s Myanmar: Major Reform Underway made me sit up and read. But once I got past the title I realized the report suffers from multiple shortcomings so fundamental to comprehending Burma’s/Myanmar’s crises – note the plural here – that it lacked a credible basis either for exile excitement or any serious international policy discussions. Here is a shortlist of ICG’s intellectual sins.
→ read full articleLibya and the Big Lie: Using Human Rights Organizations to Launch Wars
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Rerearch,
3 Oct 2011
The war against Libya is built on fraud. The UN Security Council passed two resolutions against Libya on the basis of unproven claims that Qaddafi was killing his own people in Benghazi.
→ read full articleUS Consolidated Domination of Global Arms Market In 2010
PressTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
The United States consolidated its domination of a shrinking global arms market in 2010, signing 21.3 billion dollars in new weapons orders with foreign countries, according to the latest edition of an annual report on conventional weapons transfers by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). As in previous years, developing countries were the biggest buyers on the international arms market in 2010, accounting for 76 percent of all new arms agreements.
→ read full article
“Governments don’t rule the world; Goldman Sachs rules the world.”
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
In a scary and painfully frank interview a freaked out BBC interviewer is visibly shaken when market trader Alessio Rastani predicts that the “Market is Toast.” Apparently, there is nothing Euro governments can do. “Anyone can make money from a crash,” he affirms. The worst thing to do now is nothing. People should act to protect themselves against an inevitable crisis still approaching.
→ read full articleLatin America: Growth, Stability and Inequalities – Lessons for the US and EU
James Petras – Information Clearing House,
3 Oct 2011
The contrasting performance between Latin republics and Euro-American empire builders is striking. The US and EU should shed their self-centered images of “successful” developed countries and outdated stereotype of Latin America as a collection of “volatile”, coup prone underdeveloped countries.
→ read full articleReflections on the Abbas Statehood/Membership Speech to the UN General Assembly
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
There is a natural disposition for supporters of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination to suppose that the Palestinian statehood bid must be a positive initiative because it has generated such a frantic Israel effort to have it rejected.
→ read full article(Italian) Libia Scontata
Johan Galtung – Il Manifesto,
3 Oct 2011
La rivolta scatenata dai ribelli di Bengasi contro Gheddafi è parte di un disegno neo-imperiale condotto in prima fila dalla Nato e dall’Europa per assumere il controllo delle risorse del Nordafrica.
→ read full article
Spanish Region Says Adios to Bullfighting
Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia has banned bullfighting. Animal rights activists had pushed for the step, but observers also believe the move fits with the area’s desire to be distinct from the rest of the country.
→ read full articleMy First AK-47: Kids Awarded Guns in Somali Recruitment Game
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Islamists fighting a civil war in Somalia have come up with a new way to find young new recruits. To stir up interest, they have reportedly resorted to using games, offering automatic weapons, hand grenades and cash as prizes to children who call in to take part in the fun.
→ read full articleU.S.: Battle Escalates Against Genetically Modified Crops
Kanya D'Almeida – Inter Press Service-IPS,
3 Oct 2011
Home to a fast-growing network of farmers’ markets, cooperatives and organic farms, but also the breeding ground for mammoth for-profit corporations that now hold patents to over 50 percent of the world’s seeds, the United States is weathering a battle between Big Agro and a ripening movement for food justice and security.
→ read full articleThe Palestinians Go For Statehood
Daniel Horgan – TRANSCEND Media Service(1),
3 Oct 2011
Both Palestine and Israel claim that the other is denying their right to security. However, the Palestinians have also been denied in some shape or form every other internationally recognized human right, and that is so because the US has monopolized the mediator role, producing no tangible results according to the 1967 guidelines set forth by the UN.
→ read full articleAre You an Imperial Christian?
Laurence M. Vance - LewRockwell,
3 Oct 2011
The tenets of imperial Christianity include things like blind nationalism, belief in American exceptionalism, willful ignorance of U.S. foreign policy, childish devotion to the military, cheerleading for the Republican Party, acceptance of the U.S. empire, and support for a perpetual war on terror – all, of course, with a Christian twist for effect. I have some simple yet pointed questions for Christians who subscribe to, or can be characterized by, the above things.
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Introducing the Global Nonviolent Action Database (Video of the Week)
Prof. George Lakey – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
George Lakey, renowned peace activist and visiting professor at Swarthmore College, presents the launch of the Global Nonviolent Action Database, which catalogs the successes and failures of nonviolent direct action campaigns across the entire globe, throughout the course of human history.
→ read full articleDick Cheney’s Song of America: Drafting a Plan for Global Dominance
David Armstrong - Harper's Magazine,
26 Sep 2011
The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.
→ read full articleThe Australian North West Cape Military Base
Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
We call on the Committee to reject the reintroduction of the US Navy into North West Cape. We recommend that the base become a centre for tourism and scientific research rather than a military base threatening our regional neighbours and Australia’s security and economy.
→ read full article99 Percenters Occupy Wall Street
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
26 Sep 2011
David Graeber teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has authored “Debt: The First 5,000 Years.” Graeber points out that, in the midst of the financial crash of 2008, enormous debts between banks were renegotiated. He said: “Debts between the very wealthy or between governments can always be renegotiated and always have been throughout world history. … It’s when you have debts owed by the poor to the rich that suddenly debts become a sacred obligation, more important than anything else. The idea of renegotiating them becomes unthinkable.”
→ read full article‘Tears of Gaza’ The Movie (on TMS In-Depth Videos)
Susan Abulhawa – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
And we should all allow our hearts be broken over Gaza. It’s the least we can do. To hear these three children and ask others to hear them is the very least we can do. Vibeke Lokkeberg has given us a monumentally important record of what happened in December 2009 to January 2010; so no one can ever say “I didn’t know”.
→ read full articleA Truly Courageous Response to Terror
Fran Korten – YES! Magazine,
26 Sep 2011
“Our answer will not be hate and revenge, but more openness, more tolerance, and more democracy.” What the U.S. could learn from Norway about how to respond to terror.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Dez Teses Sobre Dez Anos Perdidos
Johan Galtung, 12 Set 11 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Tese 9: A República dos EUA, pela sua reação ao 11/9, acelerou muito seu processo de auto destruição. Os Patriot Acts I e II, a vigilância implacavel da população americana e outras, torturas e rendições extraordinárias, tudo isto destrói o espírito democrático de dentro para fora, além da destruição da economia por três guerras extremamente caras. (teses 2-4).
→ read full articleActivism Anthem
Bhuchung Sonam – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
I have principle and no power
You have power and no principle
You being you
And I being I…
New Law Prohibits Practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Guinea-Bissau
Iain Murray, UNICEF – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
This past June [2011], the National Popular Assembly (ANP) of Guinea-Bissau approved a law prohibiting female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) nationwide. The controversial law had been on the table for discussion for 16 years, before it was ultimately approved by 64 votes in favour to 1 vote against.
→ read full article
Recognizing Palestine
AlternateFocus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The Algiers Declaration of 1988 claimed a sovereign Palestinian state. But will this idea take hold? Is it a serious proposal or just a meaningless gesture? And has the reality of Israel’s occupation already made an independent state impossible? We examine these implications as the United Nations decides in September 2011 whether to adopt a resolution recognizing Palestine.
→ read full articleSuper Weeds Pose Growing Threat to U.S. Crops
Carey Gillam - Reuters,
26 Sep 2011
An estimated 11 million acres are infested with “super weeds,” some of which grow several inches in a day and defy even multiple dousings of the world’s top-selling herbicide, Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate.
→ read full articlePeace Efforts in Afghanistan Jeopardized
Dr Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The killing of Barhanuddin Rabbani, an ethnic Tajik and leader of High Peace Council to broker peace in the conflict-torn country is certainly a setback to the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan.
→ read full articleIndia to Convene BRICS Finance Ministers’ Meet in Washington
The Hindu - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The BRICS Finance Ministers would explore the manner in which this grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) can coordinate in addressing the evolving economic and financial situation in various countries of the world, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said.
→ read full articleRethinking Afghanistan After a Decade
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
This post is a short essay responding to a question about my dramatic change of position on the Afghanistan War with regard to its initial justification and flawed execution. It is both a reconsideration of errors of judgment and reflections on how the world has changed in the course of this decade, focusing on the inability of the United States to grasp either its own decline or the related decline in the historical agency of hard power approaches to security.
→ read full articleStrategic Complexity ∞ Attracting Consensus
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Klein Is Beautiful ∞ Sustaining Identity in Time – Recent events continue to demonstrate that the probability of achieving global agreement on conflict-inducing issues and emergencies is low — within the frameworks and worldviews currently considered appropriate in negotiations to that end. Temporary compromises are primarily conducive to subsequent dysfunctional game-playing and collapse of any consensus.
→ read full articlePalestine & UN: History of a Double Standard
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
26 Sep 2011
Failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Israel’s 40-year occupation, in the words of UN former Secretary General Kofi Annan, would “continue to hurt the reputation of the United Nations and raise questions about its impartiality”. No cause has consumed as much UN paper work as the plight of the displaced and occupied Palestinians. But hundreds of its resolutions on Palestine have not been respected let alone applied for over half a century.
→ read full articleSocialism, Communism…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
At a political meeting the chairman asks the audience, “Who is Gomulka?” There is silence.
→ read full articleHomophobia in Africa
Peter Kenworthy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Many African leaders in particular see homosexuality as “un-natural” and “un-African” and do not believe that homosexuals should have any rights at all. Homophobia is therefore not only illegal and punishable in many African countries, but also legitimised by the leaders of these countries, and African homosexuals are frequently assaulted, expelled from their jobs, or chased from their homes.
→ read full articleWe the Ruled
Michael S. Rozeff - LewRockwell,
26 Sep 2011
And the Criminals Who Dominate Us – I am saying little that is new, although it bears repetition until it motivates action. I echo and strongly endorse Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience (1849): “When a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.”
→ read full articleChina, India, Brazil Doing More to Cut Carbon Emissions Than USA, Canada, Australia
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Negotiations over a new international climate agreement are on the brink as new analyses show that carbon emission reduction promises by industrialised nations are actually lower than those made by China, India, Brazil and other developing nations.
→ read full articleA (North) East Asian Community
Johan Galtung, 26 Sep 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Northeast Asia Peace and Development Forum. Dalian, China, 24 Sep 11 – There is the negative peace of reconciliation after the traumas of the past and mediating ongoing conflicts; and the positive peace of cooperation for mutual and equal benefit, harmony, and integration-fusion. Across this diverse geographical-historical-cultural space there is an East Asian similarity: social-economic human rights first, civil-political later–the Chinese “opening up”. Any (N)EAC would search for cooperation with the USA on equal terms, including observer status; but by no stretch of imagination is it a (North)East Asian country. The times when the USA could also claim membership in Latin America, Europe and Asia are gone.
→ read full articleDisintegrating European Diplomacy and the Necessary Rise of NGO Mediators
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Currently the Palestine Liberation Movement (PLO) has an observer status as an “entity” at the UN from the time that the South African African National Congress, another South African movement, a South West African liberation group and the PLO were given “observer entity” status. With the changes in South Africa and what is now Namibia, the status of the other movements disappeared and only the PLO remains.
→ read full article(Castellano) ONU Debatirá por Vigésimo Año Consecutivo el Bloqueo Contra Cuba
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
En 2010, el repudio al bloqueo fue respaldado por 187 países frente a los únicos votos en contra de Estados Unidos e Israel y las abstenciones de Islas Marshall, Micronesia y Palau.
→ read full articleErik Byes Memorial Prize to Johan Galtung
Synove Faldalen – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
On 5 September 2011 Professor Johan Galtung was awarded the Erik Bye Memorial Prize in Norway.
→ read full articleShowdown in Peru
Benjamin Dangl – The Dominion,
26 Sep 2011
Earlier this spring, an anti-mining Indigenous movement in Peru successfully ousted a Canadian mining company from their territory. “In spite of government repression, if the people decide to bring the fight to the bitter end, it is possible to resist the pressure of mining and oil companies,” Peruvian activist and journalist Yasser Gómez told The Dominion.
→ read full articleLiberating Nations from Public Debt
Mohamed Rabie – Al Jazeera,
26 Sep 2011
An alternative solution to the financial crisis is to create a single global currency to manage debt requirements. The near collapse of the international financial system in September 2008, and the Great Recession which followed, have highlighted the need for economic, political, social and cultural change around the world.
→ read full articleThe Call to Occupy Wall Street Resonates Around the World
Micah White and Kalle Lasn – The Guardian,
26 Sep 2011
On Saturday 17 September, many of us watched in awe as 5,000 Americans descended on to the financial district of lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners, beat drums, chanted slogans. #OCCUPYWALLSTREET was inspired by the people’s assemblies of Spain. Emboldened by an outpouring of international solidarity, these American indignados said they’d be there to greet the bankers when the stock market opened on Monday.
→ read full articleU.S. Assembling Secret Drone Bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Officials Say
Craig Whitlock and Greg Miller – The Washington Post,
26 Sep 2011
The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said.
→ read full articleChina’s Peaceful Development (Full Text)
Information Office of the State Council, The People's Republic of China – TRANSCEND Media Servivce,
26 Sep 2011
At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century and on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China declared solemnly again to the world that peaceful development is a strategic choice made by China to realize modernization, make itself strong and prosperous, and make more contribution to the progress of human civilization. China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development.
→ read full articleUgandan Bishop Calls on Christian America to “Stop Exporting Hate”
Melanie Nathan – Gay USA,
26 Sep 2011
The work of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a retired Anglican Bishop from the Diocese of Western Uganda, has become increasingly vital over time, heightened by the intensifying persecution of homosexuals in his country. Taking the courageous step of ministering to LGBT people in his country, the Bishop is calling on America to “stop exporting hatred” as he continues to advocate for the global decriminalization of homosexuality.
→ read full articleWashington on the Wrong Side of History over Palestine
Eric Margolis - LewRockwell,
26 Sep 2011
Considering that Abbas is called a US/Israeli cat’s paw or Quisling by many Palestinians, it’s a bold gesture indeed. One that has rightly shaken Washington and left it isolated and the target of the Muslim world’s wrath. Now, comes the moment of truth for the western powers. A majority of the world’s nations are fed up by the endless suffering of the stateless Palestinians and support creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza.
→ read full article
Tears of Gaza
whereisthejustice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
‘Tears of Gaza’ by Vibeke Lokkeberg is a documentary film that should be watched by every American, to see how Israel spends our taxes.
Every European should watch it, to see the true face of Israel.
It should be viewed by every Arab, to renew our resolve not to allow a racist nation to wipe Palestine and her children from the map and from history.
The Greatest Problem of the American People
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The American people are the backbone of the nation. We have a strong country not when we have a strong military but when we have healthy people that are properly educated and who enjoy living in adequate facilities. Besides, let us keep in mind that honesty is the best policy, which means we should realize that the weapons industry wants to keep in business through the never-ending of wars.
→ read full articleThe Next Earth Summit: Rio Plus 20
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The United Nations, member governments, and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are preparing policies and evaluations for the next Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, June 2012: 20 years after the original 1992 Rio conference that drew up guidelines for ecologically-sound development for the 21st century expressed as Agenda 21.
→ read full articleResisting the Corporate Theft of Seeds
Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
But the biggest threat we face is the control of seed and food moving out of the hands of farmers and communities and into a few corporate hands. Monopoly control of cottonseed and the introduction of genetically engineered Bt cotton has already given rise to an epidemic of farmers’ suicides in India.
→ read full articleThe American and Global Experience of 9/10, 9/11, 9/12 +10:
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
There is unacknowledged freedom associated with any event inscribed in our individual and collective experience of profoundly disabling and disturbing public occurrences. For most older Americans what is most vividly remembered among such occurrences is likely to have been Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, and the 9/11 attacks, each coming as a shock to a shared societal sense of exceeding the limits of what could be expected to happen.
→ read full article(Castellano) 11 de Septiembre de 1973
Rebelión – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
A muchos les incomoda la sola mención de la fecha. Mediante el expediente hipócrita de las “responsabilidades compartidas”, se omiten datos tan innegables y contundentes como la traición de los altos mandos castrenses, la conspiración de las derechas política y económica y, sobre todo, el decisivo accionar del imperialismo, personificado en la siniestra pareja Nixon-Kissinger.
→ read full articleWalter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home—Guess Who He Saw Doing the Killing
Valencia Mohammed - Afro,
19 Sep 2011
In an interview last week the noted civil rights leader told the Afro that he watched French and Danish troops storm small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control. The rebels told Fauntroy they had been told by the European forces to stay inside. According to Fauntroy, the European forces would tell the rebels, “‘Look at what you did.’ In other words, the French and Danish were ordering the bombings and killings, and giving credit to the rebels.
→ read full article(Italian) Il Lavoro Quotidiano Della Nonviolenza
Angela Dogliotti Marasso, Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Nel preparare il breve intervento di questa sera riflettevo, nei giorni scorsi, sull’approssimarsi del decimo anniversario dell’attacco alle Torri Gemelle, l’11 settembre prossimo, tra tre giorni.
→ read full article‘Liberticidal Anti-Terror Laws Must Go’
Asad Hashim – Al Jazeera,
19 Sep 2011
International rights advocacy group says laws used pretext of fighting “terror” to legalise discrimination and torture. As the United States positioned itself to respond to the September 11, 2001 attacks, it began by rearranging more than just military assets, but legislative ones, too. It went on to pass the infamous USA PATRIOT Act, which greatly reduced the restrictions on law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Other countries followed suit, and the last 10 years have seen a raft of new anti-terrorism legislation put in place, from Pakistan to Britain, from India to the Philippines.
→ read full articleIn Paraguay a Familiar Story is Playing Out
Sean O’ Leary – Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
19 Sep 2011
In Paraguay, the Ayoreo people are fighting for their very survival. These indigenous people are struggling to save their ancestral home in the Chaco region from cattle companies, farmers and religious sects who are moving into the region and clearing the land.
→ read full articleIn The Line of Fire: A Date with Despots at Britain’s Arms Fair
Tom Peck – The Independent,
19 Sep 2011
As London invites dictators to the world’s biggest weapons expo, Tom Peck finds out how easy it is to assemble a hi-tech arsenal. The 65 national delegations asked to buy weapons in London include 14 regimes defined as “authoritarian” by human rights groups, who have highlighted the use of British arms in suppressing opposition movements in the Middle East. “Securing Nations Around The World” is the slogan of AeroVironment Inc, a company which produces “unmanned aircraft systems”. It is not hard to spot the VIPs. They mostly wear military uniform, with big red badges saying “delegate”, and wander in packs. Those from Ukraine seem particularly intimidating.
→ read full article(Castellano) ¿Qué Hay que Conmemorar un 11 de Septiembre?
Marcos Roitman Rosenmann – La Jornada,
19 Sep 2011
Pocos y cada vez menos, tendrán en sus mentes, al hablar de un 11 de septiembre, el golpe de Estado que derrocase, en 1973, al gobierno constitucional de Salvador Allende en Chile. Pero ambos acontecimientos se entrecruzan y tienen explicaciones complementarias. Para los estadounidenses, con honrosas excepciones, Chile, la Unidad Popular y Salvador Allende no signifiquen nada.
→ read full articleThe $2 Billion UBS Incident: ‘Rogue Trader’ My Ass
Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone,
19 Sep 2011
The news that a “rogue trader” (I hate that term – more on that in a moment) has soaked the Swiss banking giant UBS for $2 billion has rocked the international financial community and threatened to drive a stake through any chance Europe had of averting economic disaster. They’re not “rogue” for the simple reason that making insanely irresponsible decisions with other peoples’ money is exactly the job description of a lot of people on Wall Street. Hell, they don’t call these guys “rogue traders” when they make a billion dollars gambling.
→ read full articlePreliminary Libyan Scorecard: Acting Beyond the UN Mandate
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
If the governments will not act to uphold agreed and fundamental limits on state violence, especially directed at vulnerable countries and peoples, then as citizens of the world, ‘we the peoples of the United Nations,’ as proclaimed by the Preamble to the Charter need to raise our voices. We have the residual responsibility to act on behalf of international law and morality when the UN falters or when states act beyond the law.
→ read full article
UK: Police Raid Travellers’ Site to Free Men ‘Kept As Slaves’ for 15 Years
ITN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
A group of men have been freed by police after being found imprisoned as slaves at a caravan site at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
→ read full articleHuman Rights in Sri Lanka: Impunity against Accountability and Justice
Nirmanusan Balasundaram, Groundviews - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.” – Lord Buddha.
→ read full articleConcrete Impact of Palestine’s U.N. Bid Still Uncertain
Elizabeth Whitman – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Sep 2011
Despite the frenzy of media attention bestowed upon Palestine’s expected bid for statehood at the United Nations later this month, some doubt the impact it would have on the political complexities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or the humanitarian issues and human rights abuses that many Palestinians face regularly.
→ read full articleLast Wishes
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
A dying man asked his wife, “Are you going to marry again?” “If you wish, I will,” she said.
→ read full articleU.S. ‘Not Encouraged’ by India, South Africa, Brazil at UN
Nicole Gaouette - Bloomberg,
19 Sep 2011
Splits between the so-called IBSA group of countries and the U.S. arose as protest movements swept the Middle East. India and Brazil, along with Russia, China and Germany, abstained from a UN resolution that formed the legal basis for military intervention in Libya.
→ read full articlePope Accused of Crimes against Humanity by Victims of Sex Abuse
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
19 Sep 2011
Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have accused the pope, the Vatican secretary of state and two other high-ranking Holy See officials of crimes against humanity, in a formal complaint to the international criminal court (ICC). The submission, lodged at The Hague on Tuesday [13 Sep 2011], accuses the four men not only of failing to prevent or punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence but also of engaging in the “systematic and widespread” practice of concealing sexual crimes around the world.
→ read full articleObama’s Arc of Instability: Destabilizing the World One Region at a Time
Nick Turse - TomDispatch,
19 Sep 2011
It’s a story that should take your breath away: the destabilization of what, in the Bush years, used to be called “the arc of instability.” It involves at least 97 countries, across the bulk of the global south, much of it coinciding with the oil heartlands of the planet. A startling number of these nations are now in turmoil, and in every single one of them — from Afghanistan and Algeria to Yemen and Zambia — Washington is militarily involved, overtly or covertly, in outright war or what passes for peace.
→ read full article
Sloppy Journalism or War Propaganda? Fake Images from Tripoli
Michel Chossudovsky – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Tripoli’s Greeen Square in India: BBC 24 Aug 2011 Hoax Report – It’s not Green Square and it’s not the King Idris Flag (red, black green) of the Rebels. It’s the Indian flag (orange, white and green) and the people at the rally are Indians. Sloppy journalism at the BBC or outright Lies and Fabrications? Image manipulation seems to be a routine practice of the mainstream media.
→ read full articleThe Legal Flaws of the Palmer Commission Flotilla Report
Richard Falk & Phyllis Bennis – TRANSCEND Media Serivce,
19 Sep 2011
The latest United Nations report on last year’s lethal flotilla incident – in which nine people were killed and many injured by Israeli commandos on board a humanitarian ship bound for Gaza – was released at the beginning of September, and generated much controversy. Astonishingly, the only other independent member was its vice-chair, the former president of Colombia. Alvaro Uribe’s notorious history as a human rights abuser who called human rights advocates such as Amnesty International “rats,” as well as his legacy of seeking out the closest possible ties to and defense of Israel while in office, make him wildly inappropriate for such an assignment.
→ read full articleOpen Letter to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers
Varios Organizations – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
At the 2009 CHOGM, Sri Lanka’s candidature for hosting the meeting was deferred from 2011 to 2013 because of concerns about human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan government. While war-time abuses have ended, the situation in Sri Lanka continues to be characterised by serious human rights violations, including assault on democratic institutions, such as the media and trade unions.
→ read full article