Articles by M
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The Russia-China Veto: Is It Enough?
Matthias Chang – Future Fastforward,
13 Feb 2012
Hypocrisy, another opportunistic gambit or a genuine shift in geopolitical stance? Mao Zedong famously declared that the “US is a paper tiger” and that in war, the people is paramount in winning and not weapons. Atomic weapons will not enable a country to win the war. If there was one statement that galvanised the Chinese people to stand up and be counted in the face of open threats of nuclear war and oppresion, this was it.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Oklahoma Peace Organization
Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Peace Research – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
A second organization (the first being The Movement of the Icelandic Parliament) has now nominated Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. The Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Peace Research (OCCPR) announced on Tuesday [7 Feb 2012] that it has nominated US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. Accused whistleblower deserves the prize for casting light on war crimes committed in Iraq, nomination states.
→ read full article(Italian) Marines USA in Afghanistan con le bandiere delle SS
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
Dieci marines in posa, sorridenti, in tenuta d’assalto con tanto di fucile-mitragliatore al braccio. Tutti tiratori scelti, cecchini di un reparto speciale inviato nell’inferno afgano. Al centro, in alto, la bandiera a stelle e strisce degli Stati Uniti d’America. Sotto, più grande, una bandiera blu con in mezzo le SS stilizzate della famigerata Schutzstaffel, la polizia segreta militare nazista.
→ read full articleA Pirate Story
TMS Editor,
13 Feb 2012
A seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and talk turns to their adventures on the sea. The seaman notes that the pirate has a peg-leg, a hook, and an eye patch.
→ read full articleChristian Jihad
Patrick Allitt – The American Conservative,
13 Feb 2012
Is it true that the Bible teaches peace and the Koran war? Only if you approach the books selectively, taking the gentlest of Jesus’ teachings and setting them against the harshest of Muhammad’s. Philip Jenkins’s challenging new book Laying Down the Sword shows that the Bible contains incitements not just to violence but also to genocide. He argues that Christians and Jews should struggle to make sense of these violent texts as a central element of their tradition, rather than hurry past them or ignore them altogether.
→ read full articleToxic Electronic Waste Grows by 40 Million Tonnes a Year — Poisons Kids in Africa
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
Mountains of hazardous waste grow by about 40 million tons every year. This waste, mostly from Europe and North America, is burned in developing countries like Ghana in a hazardous effort to recover valuable metals.
→ read full articleAttacks on Iran, Past and Present
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
Today’s Iranians are highly intelligent and cultured, and famous for their hospitality, generosity and kindness to strangers. Over the centuries, Iranians have made many contributions to science, art and literature, and for hundreds of years they have not attacked any of their neighbors. Nevertheless, for the last 90 years, they have been the victims of foreign attacks and interventions, most of which have been closely related to Iran’s oil and gas resources. The first of these took place in the period 1921-1925, when a British-sponsored coup overthrew the Qajar dynasty and replaced it by Reza Shah.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Síria, e os “Nojentos” BRICS
Pepe Escobar, Asia Times - Pravda,
13 Feb 2012
Um coro grego de «incomodados», «repugnados» e «ultrajados» saudou, como bem se poderia prever, o duplo veto dos BRICS China e Rússia ao projeto de resolução do Conselho de Segurança da ONU para impor mudança de regime na Síria. Logo em seguida, em fila, Burhan Ghalyun, fantoche de Paris, chefe do Conselho Nacional Sírio (CNS) – grupo da oposição guarda-chuva – convocou os países «amigos do povo sírio». Todos sabem quem são: EUA, Grã-Bretanha, França, Israel e dois membros do Conselho de Cooperação do Golfo (CCG): o Qatar e a Arábia Saudita. Com amigos como esses, o «povo sírio» não precisa de inimigos.
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Keiser Report: Black Holes & Gold Hills in Finances Universe
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert – Russia Today,
13 Feb 2012
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the latest discoveries of black holes in the financial universe and the populations growing permanently poorer as a result. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Dr. Yanis Varoufakis about financial horror, a currency from which you can’t escape and the Greek situation.
→ read full articleArgentina Appeals to UN over British Military Buildup in South Atlantic
Global Research News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
On February 7 [2012] Argentine President Cristina Fernandez accused Britain of militarizing the South Atlantic Ocean by deploying a cutting-edge warship and a nuclear-powered submarine off the coast of the Falklands Islands, known to Argentina and the rest of Latin America as Las Malvinas. The deployment of Prince William on a military mission to the islands late last week further antagonized Argentina, with President Fernandez describing the royal scion as being garbed in the “uniform of a conquistador.”
→ read full articleThe Menace of Present & Future Drone Warfare
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
This nonproliferation approach has been accompanying by three massive forms of deception that continues to mislead public opinion and discourage serious debate about the benefits of nuclear disarmament even at this late stage: First, the fallacious implication that the states that do not possess nuclear weapons are currently more dangerous for world peace than the states that possess, develop, and deploy these weapons of mass destruction, and have used them in the past; secondly, …
→ read full articleUnited States’ Record of Vetoes at the UN Security Council
Arab Studies Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
A Quick Listing of The United States’ Record of Veto Use at the United Nations – 1972–2011
→ read full article
Haiti: Where Did the Money Go? (Part 1 of 5)
FilmAt11tv – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
In January 2010, a 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti. The international community, including one out of two Americans, pledged billions of dollars in aid, yet the nation has seen little improvement. Three hundred thousand died, nearly two million live in ramshackle tent cities. Cholera has swept through the population, killing thousands and hospitalizing many others. Only about 2% of the rubble has been cleared. Is this what you expected when you pledged your aid dollars? Independent journalists Film@11.tv journeyed to Haiti in November 2010 to see the situation for themselves, and dig into the burning question: what happened to all that money?
→ read full article‘Arms Easier to Trade than Bananas’
A.D.McKenzie – Inter Press Service-IPS,
13 Feb 2012
The lack of international regulation in the trade of conventional arms is a “scandal” that must be brought to an end, said a coalition of non-governmental organisations as they heightened their campaign this week for a comprehensive United Nations treaty.
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Spanish Judge Defends Probe into Franco-Era
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
The world-renowned Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has defiantly rejected charges of abuse of power for opening an investigation into Franco-era crimes.
→ read full articleReport of the Head of the League of Arab States Observer Mission to Syria for the Period 24 Dec 2011 to 18 Jan 2012
League of Arab States Observer Mission to Syria – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
By resolution 7436 of 2 November 2011, the Council of the League of Arab States adopted the Arab plan of action annexed thereto, welcomed the Syrian Government’s agreement to the plan, and emphasized the need for the Syrian Government to commit to the full and immediate implementation of its provisions.
→ read full articleWill Iran Be Attacked?
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
As Karl Marx said, money turns everything into a commodity that can be bought and sold. All other values are defeated–honor, integrity, truth, justice, loyalty, even blood kin. Nothing remains but filthy lucre. In the course of the conversation I asked [Warren Nutter] how Washington got so many other governments to do its bidding. He answered, “Money.” I asked, “You mean foreign aid?” He said, “No, bags of money. We buy the leaders.” Purchasing the leadership of their enemies or of potential threats was the Roman way. As long as the dollar rules, Washington’s power will rule.
→ read full articleThe Division of Nigeria – Who Gains?
Chika Onyenezi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
The political game has begun; failed leadership, failed management of resources, failed security system. One day we will have no option but a foreign intervention, then like meat, Nigeria will be torn apart by vultures. The war for oil, war for control, a base in West Africa, expansion of AFRICOM, definitely Washington is on that part.
→ read full articleNokia Publishes Policy on African Conflict Minerals
Curt Hopkins – The Christian Science Monitor,
13 Feb 2012
Nokia says it will not buy mineral products that benefit armed groups or those engaging in human rights abuses. How will they implement their policy? The mineral equivalent of blood diamonds, they include tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold, all of which are used to manufacture our electronics. Nokia, the world’s largest manufacturers of mobile phones, today published its policy on conflict minerals.
→ read full articleMedia Statement on the ISAAA GM Crop Lobby 2012 Report
Greenpeace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
Wed 8 Feb 2012, Sydney: Greenpeace responded today to a report on the perceived success of genetically modified (GM) crops around the world, which was published by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a bio-tech industry lobby organisation. “Contrary to claims in the report, GM crops remain a global failure with only about 1% of global farmers cultivating GM crops.” said Greenpeace campaigner Éric Darrier.
→ read full articleJustice in Spain Means Memory
Ana Messuti – Al Jazeera,
13 Feb 2012
In so far as the Supreme Court of Spain finds that Judge Garzon perverted the course of Justice by trying to investigate Franco’s crimes against humanity, a big step will be taken towards the burial of Memory and Justice. Memory in search of Justice is Memory in anger. Perhaps, after all, death is not going to trump Justice, as the fury of Memory is going to trump injustice. Sooner or later, one way or other, Justice will have to prevail in Spain.
→ read full articleIsrael-USA vs Iran: Talk Peace!
Johan Galtung, 13 Feb 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
When Israelis were asked “what would be better: for both Israel and Iran to have the bomb, or for neither to have it, 65 percent of Israeli Jews said neither. And a remarkable 64 percent favored the idea of a nuclear-free zone, even when it was explained that this would mean Israel giving up its nuclear weapons.” (IHT, 16 Jan 2012). Vox populi vox Dei.
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U.S. Maintains Embargo of Cuba after 50 Years, Despite International Condemnation (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
13 Feb 2012
There are no commemorations planned in Washington, D.C., but today marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. embargo against Cuba — the longest-running embargo in the world. On February 7, 1962, President John F. Kennedy formally expanded the harsh regime of commercial and financial sanctions against Cuba that have continued to the present day.
→ read full articleTurkey’s Foreign Policy: Zero Problems with Neighbors Revisited
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
We can only hope that Turkey stays the Dautoglu course, pursuing every opening that enables positive mutual relations among countries and using its diplomatic stature to encourage peaceful conflict resolution wherever possible. Rather than viewing ‘zero problems’ as a failure, it should be a time to reaffirm the creativity of Turkish foreign policy in the course of the last decade that has shown the world the benefits of soft power diplomacy, and a pattern that other governments might learn from while adapting to their own realities.
→ read full article(Portuguese) ACTA: Processo de Censura na Internet Tropeça em Países Europeus
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
A República Checa seguiu o caminho da Polónia e tornou-se agora o segundo país da União Europeia a suspender a ratificação do ACTA [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement], o tratado que, a pretexto do combate à contrafação, ameaça a livre expressão na Internet. Um acordo que, segundo o relator do PE para o assunto, foi negociado “através de manobras nunca vistas”, o que o fez demitir-se da tarefa.
→ read full articleBahrain and the Arab Spring
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
The small island nation of Bahrain sits in the Persian Gulf, between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. When the Tunisian and Egyptian uprising toppled U.S.-backed dictators last year, all of the region’s dictatorships trembled, including Bahrain. The winds of change inspired Bahrain’s downtrodden, and the country’s monarchy barely managed to maintain its grip on power.
→ read full articleThe Assange Case Means We Are All Suspects Now
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
This week’s Supreme Court hearing in the Julian Assange case has profound meaning for the preservation of basic freedoms in western democracies. This is Assange’s final appeal against his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual misconduct that were originally dismissed by the chief prosecutor in Stockholm and constitute no crime in Britain. The consequences, if he loses, lie not in Sweden but in the shadows cast by America’s descent into totalitarianism.
→ read full articleNever Talk To the Parrot
TMS Editor,
6 Feb 2012
Mrs. Peterson phoned the repairman because her dishwasher quit working.
→ read full article(Italian) Il Dovere-Diritto Di Essere Liberi. E’ un progetto-intervento di acculturazione e empowerment collettivi
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
All’interno del più ampio progetto culturale “Collettivamente memoria”, che mi intestardisco a portare avanti da cinque anni, l’anno scorso è nata l’idea di un progetto-intervento per misurare i cambiamenti negli atteggiamenti e nell’azione collettivi in un’ipotesi di percorso che ho chiamato “IL SOGNO DI UNA COSA.IL DOVERE-DIRITTO DI ESSERE LIBERI. In un contesto condiviso di rispetto delle regole valide per tutti”.
→ read full article“Responsibility to Kill” (R2K): Washington Gives Green Light to Toxic Terror in Bahrain
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
6 Feb 2012
“Responsibility to Protect ” (R2P) or “Responsibility to Kill” (R2K)? Just as Bahrainis are being poisoned in their homes from indiscriminate firing of massive teargas by regime forces, Washington is showing its approval by going ahead with an arms sales deal to the Persian Gulf kingdom.
→ read full articleExposed: The Arab Agenda in Syria
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
6 Feb 2012
Here’s a crash course on the “democratic” machinations of the Arab League – rather the GCC League, as real power in this pan-Arab organization is wielded by two of the six Persian Gulf monarchies composing the Gulf Cooperation Council, also known as Gulf Counter-revolution Club; Qatar and the House of Saud.
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Gen. Wesley Clark and the Truth about the Middle East (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
Wesley Clark recounts what was told to him a few days after 9/11.
→ read full articleSupport for BDS [Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions] National Conference at the University of Pennsylvania
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
I commend the conveners for taking this initiative in the face of efforts to intimidate and confuse by those who systematically oppose debate and free inquiry concerning the various dimensions of the Israel/Palestine conflict and its bearing on American foreign policy. I have long supported the BDS as a constructive and creative movement that raises awareness and mobilizes support for the Palestinian struggle to achieve a sustainable peace based on international law and a sense of justice.
→ read full articleThe Seed Emergency: The Threat to Food and Democracy
Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
Patenting seeds has led to a farming and food crisis – and huge profits for US biotechnology corporations. The seed is the first link in the food chain – and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. If farmers do not have their own seeds or access to open pollinated varieties that they can save, improve and exchange, they have no seed sovereignty – and consequently no food sovereignty. The deepening agrarian and food crisis has its roots in changes in the seed supply system, and the erosion of seed diversity and seed sovereignty.
→ read full articleOne Year On: My Mother as a Protester and A Few Other Dilemmas
Ahmed Badawi, Postcard from Egypt– TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
At the risk of stating the obvious, think of revolution not as a single event but as a period of waves. After an initial disturbance, a swell gathers momentum, forms into a crest, breaks just before it hits the shore, creates a splash, dissipates and then starts to move in the opposite direction, breaks on another shore, retreats and then builds up again, and so on and so forth until the revolutionary energy is consumed and a new equilibrium is reached.
→ read full articleFederalism Risk Assessment
Bishnu Pathak, PhD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
Today, 40 percent of the world population lives under the rule of a federal state, but 60 percent under unitary. 30 (16% out of 192 UN members) matured, emergent, and micro-federations practice federalism. They are comprised not only of powerful and developed nations, but developing countries as well.
→ read full articleExperience of Cognitive Implication in Fundamental Geometry
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
The question raised here is why particular geometrical forms are widely “felt” to be cognitively appropriate in the articulation of certain patterns of psychosocial action. Why are these simple forms borrowed metaphorically in this way and, since this is the case, why is similar use not made of more complex geometrical forms — potentially in more appropriate response to the complexities of psychosocial challenges?
→ read full articleEconomic Sanctions: Balancing Principles, National Interests and the Advancement of World Law
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
The ongoing UN Security Council discussions concerning sanctions against Syria and greater US and European Union sanctions against Iran have brought to the fore the justice, aims and effectiveness of economic sanctions and the prohibition of arms sales to countries in conflict.
→ read full articleThe Scary Danger of Meat (Even For Those Who Don’t Eat It)
Martha Rosenberg - AlterNet,
6 Feb 2012
Antibiotics are routinely given to livestock on factory farms to make them gain weight with less feed and keep them from getting sick in confinement conditions. But the daily dosing, at the same time it lowers feed needs, lowers drug effectiveness and produces antibiotic resistant bacteria or super bugs that can be deadly to people.
→ read full articleTo All People of Good Will: Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year of the Dragon 2012
Charles A. Sanga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
The reality is simple: the past glory of the West is but history. China is an emerging powerhouse, nobody can stop it. The power of the mass media in the West is nothing but a façade. In spite of the show of its power to discredit China, it is very frightened of it and its gallant people. “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land.” Meekness is not weakness, rather realization of one’s shortcomings. The West has a multitude of shortcomings. Let the West employ the truth so that it can be set free from its shortcomings. Free from pride of nothingness and bonds of guilt consciousness.
→ read full articleMonsanto’s GM Maize Retreat
Gordon Davidson – The Scottish Farmer,
6 Feb 2012
France has held firm in its opposition to Monsanto’s genetically modified MON 810 maize – and the agri-chemical multinational has admitted defeat.
→ read full articleAnimal Enterprise Terrorism Act Threatens Activism
Will Potter, Jurist – TRANSCEND Media Service\,
6 Feb 2012
Jurist Guest Columnist Will Potter, an independent journalist who specializes in the topic of eco-terrorism, says the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act classification of activists as terrorists threatens to end activism, in part to stem corporate profit loss.
→ read full article2012: The Year of the Cooperative
Jessica Reeder – Yes! Magazine,
6 Feb 2012
How an old business model is finding new relevance all over the world.
→ read full articleArgentina: Fair Trade Going Strong amid Global Crisis
Marcela Valente – Inter Press Service-IPS,
6 Feb 2012
With a steady growth in production and exports, fair trade in Argentina is proving that socially and environmentally sustainable practices can be much more than a refuge from external crises.
→ read full articleNobel Peace Prize Jury under Investigation
Common Dreams staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
Probe: Has Nobel Peace Prize Lost Its Way?
→ read full articleLest We Forget in Myanmar
Nancy Hudson-Rodd – Asia Times,
6 Feb 2012
The Myanmar delegation to the United Nations in Geneva complained last year that some members failed to show due diplomatic respect by referring to their country as Burma rather than Myanmar. Now most diplomats and news publications refer to the country as Myanmar as a reward the regime’s recent so-called reforms. But is this respect justified and are long-time Myanmar observers now suffering from selective amnesia?
→ read full articleDivine Injustice
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2012
Drone warfare can be used to thwart democratic movements, anywhere. In October last year, a 16 year-old called Tariq Aziz was travelling through North Waziristan in Pakistan with his 12 year-old cousin, Waheed Khan. Their car was hit by a missile from a US drone(13). As always, their deaths made them guilty: if we killed them, they must be terrorists. But they weren’t. Tariq was about to start work with the human rights group Reprieve, taking pictures of the aftermath of drone strikes. A mistake? Possibly. But it is also possible that he was murdered out of self-interest.
→ read full articleSafe to swim here?
TMS Editor,
30 Jan 2012
While sports fishing off the Florida coast, a tourist capsized his boat.
→ read full articleNepal: Announcement of Federal States Is the Beginning of the End of the Country
Dr. Bishnu Pathak – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
Sujit Mainali for The Telegraph Weekly and its online edition telegraphnepal.com approached and interviewed this scholar on several aspects of Nepali politics, ongoing peace process and security related issues. Below the excerpts of this exclusive interview: Chief Editor.
→ read full articleThe Issue of Federalism in Nepal Appears More Complex than the Peace Process and Constitution Writing
Dr. Bishnu Pathak (Nepal) – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
Federalism in present Nepal has become a topic of great contention.
→ read full articleSyria: Opportunities and Limits of International Observation Efforts
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
The League of Arab States Observer Mission to Syria is in an administratively critical time with the Observer Mission members from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council States of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates leaving the Mission on Tuesday 24, January. This represents 52 persons of an estimated 160, already badly understaffed.
→ read full article‘Big Brother’ Concerns over Google Changes
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
The California-based internet giant said in a blog post that the changes were designed to improve the user experience across various Google products, which range from web search to Gmail, YouTube and Google+, the social networking platform launched by the company last year. “Instead of keeping separate vats of information for each of its products, Google will now allow them to cross-pollinate, creating a complete picture of who you are, what you read, where you’re going and what you’re up to.”
→ read full articleHurrah for Egypt!
Uri Avnery - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
The impossible has happened. The Egyptian parliament, democratically elected by a free people, has convened for its first session. For me this is a wonderful, a joyful occasion. For many Israelis, this is a worrisome, a threatening sight.
→ read full articleIs the World Really Safer Without the Soviet Union?
Mikhail Gorbachev – The Nation,
30 Jan 2012
I am convinced that it is time to return to the path we charted together when we ended the cold war. Once again, the world needs new thinking, based not just on the recognition of universal interests and of global interdependence but also on a certain moral foundation.
→ read full articleACTA: The International Treaty You’ve Never Heard of That Could Affect Internet Freedom
Common Dreams staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
US among countries that have already signed ACTA. Under this new treaty, Internet Service Providers will police all data passing through them, making them legally responsible for what their users do online. And should you do something considered “breach of copyright” like, for instance, getting a tattoo of a brand logo, taking a photo and posting it somewhere, you may be disconnected from the Internet, fined or even jailed.
→ read full articleMaking Sense of Twitter’s Censorship
Ali M Latifi – Al Jazeera,
30 Jan 2012
In an announcement on its official blog, the micro-blogging service Twitter has said it will enable country-specific censorship of content on the site. In a Forbes article highly circulated on the site early Friday [27 Jan 1012], Mark Gibbs wrote that Twitter was committing “social suicide” with the censorship announcement. Gibbs’ article raised fears of an algorithm incapable of understanding the sarcasm that permeate the 140-character blasts comprising the service’s contents.
→ read full articleThe Freedom to Be Free: Battle Lines Drawn in Global Copyright Confrontation
Marcel Rosenbach and Gregor Peter Schmitz – Der Spiegel,
30 Jan 2012
Recent weeks have seen spectacular arrests and mounting tension between those who would like to make it harder to share copyrighted material online and those who champion Internet freedom. Controversial US legislation has been shelved, but the battle continues.
→ read full articleThematic Social Forum: Working Towards a Never-Ending Democracy
Antonio Martins – TerraViva Europe,
30 Jan 2012
For five centuries, Europe has taken it upon itself to enlighten the world, teaching it ways to address and overcome crises, from ideas and wars to missionary work and genocides. But it forgot it only held a part of the world’s knowledge and now it is on the verge of the abyss, and it is time for a different approach.
→ read full articleHow the Media Manipulates Us into War
Koozma J. Tarasoff, Spirit-Wrestlers – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
Generally, people assume that the media has the responsibility of presenting the truth and nothing but the truth in its journalistic reports about peace and war. It is agreed that an informed public is less likely to go to war.
→ read full articleDying Honeybees: It Was the Insecticides All Along
Jeanne Roberts, Celsias – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
With news that the U.S. honeybee population has been so devastated that some beekeepers will qualify for disaster relief dollars, comes a report from Purdue University that one of the causes of honeybee deaths is – as long suspected – neonicotinoids.
→ read full articleFidel Castro Calls for LatAm Unity in Opposition to FTA
Prensa Latina – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, called for Latin American unity in opposition to the Free Trade Agreements (FTA), sponsored by the United States in the region.
→ read full articleNuclear Free Middle East: Desirable, Necessary, and Impossible
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
Finally, there is some argumentation in the West supportive of a nuclear free zone for the Middle East. Such thinking is still treated as politically marginal, and hardly audible above the beat of the war drums.
→ read full articleWhat Are Human Rights? [Legendado em Portugues] (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
TMS Editor,
30 Jan 2012
O que são Direitos Humanos? Documentary produced by United for the Human Rights. Documentário produzido por United for the Human Rights
→ read full articleYear of the Dragon Roars into Asia
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
23 Jan 2012 – Millions across Asia celebrate the Chinese New Year, with superstitious anticipating a year filled with luck. A billion-plus Asians have welcomed the Year of the Dragon with a cacophony of fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents.
→ read full articleThose Poor, Moody Standards
Johan Galtung, 23 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
What are the three credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch–95 percent of the rating “industry”–about? Not very transparent, yet “Standard & Poor’s: silent but deadly” (El País, 16 Jan 2012), stimulates some reflections.
→ read full articleStop Warmongering in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
To be objective commentators we must ask ourselves whether Iran’s posture toward its nuclear program is unreasonable under these circumstances. When was the last time [Iran] resorted to force against a hostile neighbor? The surprising answer is over 200 years ago! Can either of Iran’s antagonists claim a comparable record of living within its borders? Why does Iran not have the same right as other states to take full advantage of nuclear technology?
→ read full articleThe Day the Internet Roared
Amy Goodman – Truthdig,
23 Jan 2012
Wednesday, Jan. 18 [2012], marked the largest online protest in the history of the Internet. Websites from large to small “went dark” in protest of proposed legislation before the U.S. House and Senate that could profoundly change the Internet.
→ read full articleOn Burma’s ‘Changes’
Dr. Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
Why the media coverage and expert yukings on Burma are so fundamentally non-sense. Firstly, the greatest misperception and flaw in the current media coverage about Burma’s changes is talking about these reforms as if it were the works of President Thein Sein. Like the Chinese Communist Party or the former USSR’s CCCP, the Burmese regime in power is a collective leadership with one big guy in the back.
→ read full articleDead on Arrival: SOPA Shelved Indefinitely, Obama Succumbs to Pressure, Issues Official Veto Threat
Mac Slavo, shtfplan – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
We aren’t one bit convinced that this veto was done in the interests of free expression, as the administration may claim. In November, the President issued a similar veto threat about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). He flip-flopped on the issue just a couple of weeks later, and signed the bill into law over New Year’s weekend to complete silence from the mainstream media. It is our view that SOPA, in one form or another, will return with a vengeance.
→ read full articleJulian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview
Michael Hastings – Rolling Stone,
23 Jan 2012
Under house arrest in England, the WikiLeaks founder opens up about his battle with the ‘Times,’ his stint in solitary and the future of journalism. It’s a few days before Christmas, and Julian Assange has just finished moving to a new hide-out deep in the English countryside.
→ read full articleWhen Is A Terrorist Not A Terrorist? & War with Iran or Not?
Alan Hart – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
When is a terrorist not a terrorist in the eyes of the Obama administration (not to mention all of its predecessors) and the governments of the Western world? Answer: When he or she is an Israeli Mossad agent or asset. In the case of the assassination of Iranian scientists, the Mossad’s assets are almost certainly members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) also known as The Peoples’ Mujahedin of Iran, which is committed to overthrowing the regime of the ruling mullahs.
→ read full article(Castellano) El Salvador: Funes Ordena Reescribir la Historia a la Luz de la Masacre de el Mozote
Fernando Romero/Amadeo Cabrera/ María José Saavedra – La Prensa Gráfica,
23 Jan 2012
Presidente ordena al Ejército hacer una revisión de su propia interpretación de la masacre de hace más de 30 años. Aseguró que no se considerará “héroes” a militares violadores de derechos humanos.
→ read full articleHow to Learn Nonviolent Resistance as King Did
Mary Elizabeth King – Waging Nonviolence,
23 Jan 2012
In commemorating Dr. King’s birthday, it is worth remembering that everyone can learn nonviolent action as he did. King may not have invented the nonviolent strategies that he advanced, but he was an apt student, and his understanding of them would in the decades to come encourage other movements on the world stage. He became one of history’s most influential agents for propagating knowledge of the potential for constructive social change without resorting to violence.
→ read full articleThe Myth of “Isolated” Iran: Following the Money in the Iran Crisis
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
23 Jan 2012
So Iran may be “isolated” from the United States and Western Europe, but from the BRICS to NAM (the 120 member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement), it has the majority of the global South on its side. And then, of course, there are those staunch Washington allies, Japan and South Korea, now pleading for exemptions from the coming boycott/embargo of Iran’s Central Bank. No wonder, because these unilateral U.S. sanctions are also aimed at Asia. After all, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, together, buy no less than 62% of Iran’s oil exports.
→ read full article
Cancer Risk To Young Children Near Fukushima Daiichi Underestimated!
Global Research TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
In this video, Fairewinds introduces additional analysis by Ian Goddard showing that the BEIR VII report underestimates the true cancer rates to young children living near Fukushima Daiichi. Looking at the scientific data presented by Mr. Goddard, Fairewinds has determined that at least one out of every 20 young girls (5%) living in an area where the radiological exposure is 20 millisieverts for five years will develop cancer in their lifetime.
→ read full articleThe Future We Want? Between Hope and Despair on the Road to the Rio Earth Summit
Daniel Mittler, Greenpeace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
The lack of spine is clearest in the last paragraph which calls for voluntary commitments announced at Rio to be stapled together in a “registry/compendium that will serve as an accountability framework.” In other words, there will be no enforcement or control. Your word will be taken at face value and the “accountability framework” will be the act of stapling all voluntary commitments together in one document. An invitation to greenwash, if there ever was one.
→ read full articleA Debt Based Monetary System, Export Warfare & Third World Debt
Mira Tekelova, Positive Money – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
Now, it is abundantly clear from this that the IMF and the World Bank are not just lending money; they are involved in creating it. Although Special Drawing Rights, SDRs, are described as amounts ‘credited’ to a nation, no money or credit of any kind is put into nations accounts. SDRs are actually a credit facility, just like a bank overdraft – if they are borrowed, they must be repaid. The IMF and the World Bank are all in a system of sustaining the unsustainable. Until we recognise that a debt based system will not work and cannot work the Third world poverty will worsen.
→ read full articleHoneybee Problem Nearing a ‘Critical Point’
Claire Thompson – Grist,
23 Jan 2012
Of particular concern is a group of pesticides, chemically similar to nicotine, called neonicotinoids (neonics for short), and one in particular called clothianidin. Instead of being sprayed, neonics are used to treat seeds, so that they’re absorbed by the plant’s vascular system, and then end up attacking the central nervous systems of bees that come to collect pollen.
→ read full articleA Close Look at SOPA-Stop Online Piracy Act
Jonathan Zittrain, Kendra Albert and Alicia Solow-Niederman – Future of the Internet,
23 Jan 2012
This document is a guide to the Stop Online Piracy Act as proposed in the United States House of Representatives. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261, 112th Cong. (2011). It represents our notes as we sought to understand exactly what it does and how it does it — along with our corresponding sense for why its principal mechanisms make for poor law. Our aim is for this analysis to be useful to anyone wanting to understand the Act — whatever his or her point of view may be on technology or intellectual property policy.
→ read full articleWant to be healed?
TMS Editor,
23 Jan 2012
Three guys were fishing in a lake one day, when an angel appeared in the boat.
→ read full article
Spain’s ‘Indignados’ and the Globalization of Dissent (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
The Occupy Movement has taken much of its inspiration from Spain’s “Outraged” Movement: what lessons does Spain have for Occupy now?
→ read full articleBlood on Whose Hands? Bradley Manning, Washington, and the Blood of Civilians
Chase Madar – TomDispatch,
23 Jan 2012
Who in their right mind wants to talk about, think about, or read a short essay about… civilian war casualties? What a bummer, this topic, especially since our Afghan, Iraq, and other ongoing wars were advertised as uplifting acts of philanthropy: wars to spread security, freedom, democracy, human rights, gender equality, the rule of law, etc.
→ read full articleHungary and the EU: A Constitutional Crisis
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
The Right Wing-Populist policies of the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, symbolized by dropping the term ‘Republic’ from the name of the country, has created a constitutional crisis within the European Union (EU).
→ read full articleConfiguring the Varieties of Experiential Nothingness
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
The despair is necessarily both planet-wide and highly personal (Implication of Personal Despair in Planetary Despair, 2010). The condition can be described as a form of cognitive “ground zero” — a sense of pointlessness notably articulated through recognition that the future offers “nothing”, especially for those reduced to “nothing” by a combination of factors, as separately discussed (Reintegration of a Remaindered World, 2011; Way Round Cognitive Ground Zero and Pointlessness, 2012).
→ read full articleThe Cooperative Spirit and Its Many Manifestations
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
The United Nations General Assembly in Resolution A/RES/64/136 has designated 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives in order to highlight the large role that cooperatives can play in ecologically-sound development and poverty reduction.
→ read full articleOhio Quakes Raise Fracking Questions
Kristen Saloomey – Al Jazeera,
23 Jan 2012
Seismologists from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources-ODNR asked to study the quakes had already gone on record saying they were directly linked to one well in particular. “I think this case has reached point of being proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” John Armbruster told me when I visited him at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
→ read full articleThousands of Dogs and Other Animals Spared Cruel Chemical Tests in Europe
Humane Society International/Europe – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
HSI celebrates largest animal test reduction in history. Humane Society International/Europe is celebrating a change in European law on biocides, non-food pesticides, that will save tens of thousands of dogs, rabbits and rodents from painful and lethal chemical poisoning tests. Dogs, rabbits, rodents, birds and fish are all commonly used in biocides testing. The chemicals are injected into their blood, force-fed into their stomach and lungs, applied to their skin, or placed in their food and water. They can experience nausea, convulsions and death—all without pain relief.
→ read full articleFukushima Radiation Spreads Worldwide
Washington's Blog – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
California, Finland, Canada, Australia Hit by Radiation
→ read full articleAnti-peace Coalition Governing Israel – The Blockbusters
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
“Israel has no foreign policy, only a domestic policy,” Henry Kissinger once remarked. This has probably been more or less true of every country since the advent of democracy. Yet in Israel, this seems even truer. (Ironically, it could almost be said that the US has no foreign policy, only an Israeli domestic policy.)
→ read full articleMonsanto to Face Biopiracy Charges in India
Sayer Ji, OpEdNews – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
In an unprecedented decision, India’s National Biodiversity Authority(NBA), a government agency, declared legal action against Monsanto (and their collaborators) for accessing and using local eggplant varieties (known as brinjal) to develop their Bt genetically engineered version without prior approval of the competent authorities, which is considered an act of “biopiracy.”
→ read full articleDid the U.S. Leave Behind a Civil War in Iraq?
Ashley Smith – Socialist Worker,
23 Jan 2012
“Everything that the American troops have done in Iraq–all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering–all of it has led to this moment of success,” Obama said. “[W]e’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people.” Such claims are a lie. Obama’s claims about America’s “extraordinary achievement” in Iraq are Orwellian. In reality, the U.S. war and occupation further wrecked an already devastated country, left it in a shambles rather than rebuild it and stoked sectarianism between Iraq’s three main groups–Kurds, Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims.
→ read full articleDecline ‘Friend’ Request: Social Media Meets 21st Century Statecraft
Cyril Mychalejkon- Upside Down World,
23 Jan 2012
While the positive contributions of technology to social movements and uprisings have been been amply noted, if not overstated, more attention needs to be paid to the intrinsic dangers looming in the co-optation of this technology-driven networking, specifically by Washington, but by other repressive governments as well.
→ read full articleComplexities of Post-Laden Politics in Pakistan and Implications
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
The recent developments in Pakistan’s politics particularly the relations between the civilian government and military, in the background of troubled US-Pakistan relations exacerbated by the November killing of Pakistan soldiers by US drones and killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May, will have far reaching implications not only for Pakistan, but also for Afghanistan, South Asia, and far beyond.
→ read full articleWhy We Need To Stop SOPA and PIPA
Joi Ito and Ethan Zuckerman – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act – and a sister bill, PIPA – the Protect IP Act – seek to minimize the dissemination of copyrighted material online by targeting sites that promote and enable the sharing of copyright-protected material, like The Pirate Bay. While this goal may be laudable, entrepreneurs, legal scholars and free speech activists are worried about the consequences of these bills for the architecture of the Internet.
→ read full articleDavos: The 1% World
Johan Galtung, 16 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
How are the 1%’ers going to handle the country that has attacked more other countries and peoples than any other, and mainly in defense of a special type of hyper-connection: hyper-capitalism? It still has a monopoly on the world reserve currency exercised by a club of private banks, among them the worst culprits in the finance economy coup, the Federal Reserve. How are they going to handle the US hold on the rating agencies? And the growing inequality, from comfortable seats at the top? Answer: the same way as feudal aristocracy in France in the 18th century; by not handling it.
→ read full articleJustice in a Global Age: Becoming Counselors to the World
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
Invited Keynote Address, Counselors for Social Justice, American Counseling Association – I have no hesitation in telling you that I, like many of you, am deeply troubled and saddened by the abuses of privilege and power that are now occurring in our government, business, and religious sectors. Indeed the strategic convergence of shared interests and agendas among these three sectors of our society, in combination with a media failing to meet its responsibilities to accurately report news and to conduct investigative journalism, now constitutes, in my opinion, a serious threat to the foundations of our society, and ultimately, to global peace and harmony.
→ read full articleDoomsday Clock Moves to Five Minutes to Midnight
Science and Security Board, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007.
→ read full article
Faking It: How the Media Manipulates the World into War (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Global Research TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
As the US and Iranian governments escalate tensions in the already volatile Straits of Hormuz, and China and Russia begin openly questioning Washington’s interference in their internal politics, the world remains on a knife-edge of military tension. Far from being a dispassionate observer of these developments, however, the media has in fact been central to increasing those tensions and preparing the public to expect a military confrontation. But as the online media rises to displace the traditional forms by which the public forms its understanding of the world, many are now beginning to see firsthand how the media lies the public into war.
→ read full articleThe Political Psychology of Obama’s Iran Policy
Reza Marashi, Muftah – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
The U.S. track record of implementing containment and destabilization policies worldwide is far from noteworthy. In the case of Iran, it is abysmal. With no on-the-ground presence and restricted interaction with Iranian counterparts, the United States is largely unable to accurately assess the real strengths and weaknesses of any policy. As a result, U.S. policy toward Iran under the Obama administration is rapidly falling prey to the same entrapments and mistakes that overwhelmed the four preceding U.S. administrations.
→ read full articleThe pessimist and the Dog
TMS Editor,
16 Jan 2012
An avid duck hunter was in the market for a new bird dog. His search ended when he found a dog that could actually walk on water to retrieve a duck.
→ read full article