Articles by M
We found 36604 results.
(German) Medienmacht – wie und zu wessen Nutzen unser Bewusstsein gemacht wird
Bernd Hamm – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
”Wenn man eine grosse Lüge erzählt und sie oft genug wiederholt, dann werden die Leute sie am Ende glauben. Man kann die Lüge so lange behaupten, wie es dem Staat gelingt, die Menschen von den politischen, wirtschaftlichen und militärischen Konsequenzen der Lüge abzuschirmen. Deshalb ist es von lebenswichtiger Bedeutung für den Staat, seine gesamte Macht für die Unterdrückung abweichender Meinungen einzusetzen. Die Wahrheit ist der Todfeind der Lüge, und daher ist die Wahrheit der grösste Feind des Staates.” — Joseph Göbbels, Propagandaminister der Nazis
→ read full articleBradley Manning – The Undisputed Person of the Year
Eamonn McCann – Socialist Worker,
16 Jan 2012
If Bradley Manning had committed war crimes rather than exposing them, he wouldn’t be in so much trouble. As a beacon of moral light in the darkness which has deepened since the election of Obama, he is, indisputably and by some distance, the American Man of the Year.
→ read full article10 Reasons the U.S. Is No Longer the Land of the Free
Jonathan Turley – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company. Below is today’s [15 Jan 2012] column in the Sunday Washington Post. The column addresses how the continued rollbacks on civil liberties in the United States conflicts with the view of the country as the land of the free. We seem as a country to be in denial as to the implications of these laws and policies. Whether we are viewed as a free country with authoritarian inclinations or an authoritarian nation with free aspirations (or some other hybrid definition), we are clearly not what we once were.
→ read full articleA Momentum of Cynicism
Robert C. Koehler – Common Wonders,
16 Jan 2012
At this late stage of the American republic, military-industrial corruption permeates not only our foreign policy but our ideals. We go to war because the business of war is beyond all constraint. “In a striking departure from the ideological preferences of the post-Vietnam Democratic Party, President Barack Obama has made overseas arms sales a pillar of U.S. foreign policy,” Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute, a D.C. think tank, wrote – uncritically – for Forbes last week.
→ read full articleIs Israel Suicidal?
MJ Rosenberg – Political Correction,
16 Jan 2012
A man wrote me the other day to complain about something I had written regarding my belief that Israel has every right to exist in peace and security. He responded that Israel should not exist, asserting that Israel is simply a Western colony implanted in the Middle East that is as “authentic as white Rhodesia” was.
→ read full article
Palestine 1896
TMS Editor,
16 Jan 2012
First Film Footage Taken in Palestine (Lumier Bros.) – Just one year before the first Zionist Congress…
→ read full article(Castellano) Galicia Prohibirá la Entrada de Menores de 12 Años en las Corridas de Toros
TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
27 de diciembre de 2011 – Galicia prohibirá en la futura ley de espectáculos, cuyo borrador está actualmente en elaboración, la entrada de niños menores de 12 años a las corridas de toros, tal y como han acordado los tres grupos parlamentarios –PPdeG, PSdeG y BNG– en la Comisión Institucional.
→ read full article(Castellano) Peru: Prohibirían Ingreso de Menores a Espectáculos Taurinos
Congreso de Peru – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
“Así como se prohíbe el ingreso de menores a la exhibición de pornografía, a las salas de juego, casinos, al acceso a las bebidas alcohólicas, el propósito es evitar que los menores sean afectados en su integridad moral”, sostuvo el legislador Julio Rosas Huaranga.
→ read full articleLearning from the Northern Ireland and South Africa’s Conflicts (Cont’d)
Pierre Celestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
Through my own participant observation during research at Queen’s University from September 2008 to March 2009, the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement is of a great help. Nowadays both communities coexist in peace even though some isolated cases of attacks can be observed. Some people believe that the wounds would take generations to be healed while others think that the South African process through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission-TRC would be an asset to grant forgiveness and amnesty to the ones who committed wrongdoings.
→ read full article(Italian) Chi Era Gesù?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
La chiesa non era strapiena come soleva esserlo per la messa di mezzanotte alla vigilia di Natale. Ma il rituale si svolse come era stato fatto per secoli, attorno alla “piccola bibbia” di Giovanni 3:16, “Perché Dio amava il mondo tanto da dare il suo unico Figlio cosicché ognuno che creda in lui non perirà ma avrà vita eterna”.
→ read full article(Italian) Galtung e Gesù: Un Comment
Enrico Peyretti – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
In questo breve testo su Gesù, nell’occasione del Natale 2011, egli affronta una problematica dibattuta da un paio di millenni, in cui mi sembra che semplifichi in modo unilaterale la figura complessa di Gesù, con una scelta legittima, ma assai controversa. (Ho già commentato, il 30 aprile 2009, un analogo testo di Galtung su “Gesù, Giuda e Che Guevara”).
→ read full articlePolitical Transition in Nepal and the Role of the International Community
Yadab Bastola – Peace & Collaborative Development Network,
9 Jan 2012
UN including UN Human Rights (OHCHR) has to pressure to the government to improve the human rights situation and work on the post conflict justice system. UN and other international community should advice to work immediately on full picture of independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
→ read full articleThe Delusional Assumptions of Capitalism
Doug Harvey – Common Dreams,
9 Jan 2012
One of the more delusional aspects of capitalism is the idea that if one pursues the acquisition of private wealth with abandon, that this is somehow automatically “good” for human society. The pursuit of resources and markets to feed a system that MUST grow to survive has made the planet and all of its inhabitants commodities. In capitalist mythology, EVERYTHING has a monetary value, including and perhaps especially, people. Ultimately, our “house” is the planet – there is NO getting around this fact. For some time now we have had pictures of Planet Earth taken from space. The empirical evidence is clear: we are a very small household in a vast sea of time and space. We MUST cooperate or perish.
→ read full articlePreparing Peace Teachers and Peace Workers in the Community
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
It is quite obvious that two of the most important groups we have in this world to make a big difference for endless future generations are peace teachers and peace workers.
→ read full articleHaiti: Seven Places Where Earthquake Money Did and Did Not Go
Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas - Truthout,
9 Jan 2012
The effort so far has not been based a respectful partnership between Haitians and the international community. The actions of the donor countries and the NGOs and international agencies have not been transparent so that Haitians or others can track the money and see how it has been spent. Respect, transparency and accountability are the building blocks for human rights.
→ read full articleNo Therapy in Retail
Prof. Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
Firstly, rising prices are driven by the commodification of food and speculation on food commodities. Industrialisation and globalisation of food and agriculture has transformed food from a source of life into a commodity, and as a commodity, food is divorced from its sources – the seeds, the soil, the farmer – and from its end use as nourishment for our bodies.
→ read full articleFBI Tracking Videotapers as Terrorists?
Dean Kuipers – Los Angeles Times,
9 Jan 2012
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has recommended for many years that animal activists who carry out undercover investigations on farms could be prosecuted as domestic terrorists. New documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by activist Ryan Shapiro show the FBI advising that activists – including Shapiro – who walked onto a farm, videotaped animals there and “rescued” an animal had violated terrorism statutes.
→ read full articleHaiti: From Displacement Camps to Community
Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
9 Jan 2012
As 2012 begins, a growing movement of displaced people and their allies in Haiti is actively claiming the right to housing, which is recognized by both the Haitian constitution and international treaties to which Haiti is signatory. Haitians displaced by the earthquake two years ago face many crises, but perhaps none worse than ongoing homelessness: 520,000 people still living in displacement camps.
→ read full article
Total Ignorance: Where’s Libya, Iraq or Iran? NYC doesn’t care!
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
Leaders of the ‘Free World’: the joke is on them – The men and women hoping to beco
me the next President of the U.S. appear to spend as much time demonstrating their ignorance of the world, as they do their political credentials. But as RT’s Anastasia Churkina found out, that could just be a reflection of society.
“Zombie” Fly Parasite Killing Honeybees
Katherine Harmon – Scientific American,
9 Jan 2012
John Hafernik, a biology professor at San Francisco State University, collected some belly-up bees from the ground around the University’s biology building. “But I left them in a vial on my desk and forgot about them. The next time I looked at the vial, there were all these fly pupae surrounding the bees,” he said. A fly (Apocephalus borealis) had inserted its eggs into the bees, using their bodies as a home for its developing larvae. And the invaders had somehow led the bees from their hives to their deaths.
→ read full articleMcDonald’s Goes Belly Up in Bolivia
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
McDonald’s leaves Bolivia healthier forever! It is the first Latin-American country that will remain without any McDonald’s, and the first country in the world where the company has to close because it persists in having their numbers in the red for over a decade.
→ read full article‘Destroying Democracy’: Hungarians Protest Controversial New Constitution
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
Tens of thousands of Hungarians took to the streets of Budapest on Monday night [2 Jan 2012] to protest the country’s new constitution, which took effect on Jan. 1. The document, in combination with other recent laws, severely curtails the independence of the country’s central bank and courts. Religious rights have also been slashed.
→ read full article(Castellano) Maquiavelo ¿Maquiavélico?
Fernando Montiel T. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
La dedicatoria en los Discursos y no el texto de El Príncipe hablan del Maquiavelo real, y no del “realista”, del político y no del politólogo. Hablan pues, del maquiavelismo del hombre en detrimento de la idea que de él se tiene. Y sobre este hombre solamente queda la descripción -casi desconocida para los profanos en las artes políticas- que de él hizo Juan Jacobo Rousseau: “Un hombre honesto y un buen ciudadano”.
→ read full articleAustralia: Economic Forecasters Lose Their Way in Extreme Weather
Peter Martin – BusinessDay,
9 Jan 2012
WHO would have thought it? Certainly none of the 20-odd members of the economic forecasting panel this time last year. The rate of inflation turned out to be higher than the highest of their predictions, the budget deficit bigger than the biggest, and the sharemarket far lower than all but two thought likely. It is trite to say it, but they did not know what was coming.
→ read full articleIn West Bank, Israel’s Rule is that of the Jungle
Haaretz, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
In the hands of this government, which mainly involve moving buildings built on private lands to ‘state lands’, have become instruments to deepen the occupation and obstruct the two-state solution. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has likened Israel to a “villa in the jungle.” Nothing is closer to the law of the jungle than a system of distorted laws and procedures that make it possible to build villa neighborhoods in the settlements and legalize wildcat outposts like Ramat Gilad.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: Catch ’em Young, for Prostitution
Rebecca Murray – Inter Press Service-IPS,
9 Jan 2012
Soma was a teenager in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when her grandfather arranged her marriage to a husband she had never met. Every night Soma’s father-in-law hosted parties, where for 200 dollars visiting men could eat, drink alcohol and watch Soma and her two sister-in-laws dance. The girls would then be forced to sleep with up to four men in one night. Soma said she was regularly injected for her blood, which was then displayed on bed sheets as ‘proof’ to clients she was a virgin.
→ read full articleReflections on the Myths and Ethoses That Promote and Sustain War as a “Way of Life” and Acceptable Moral Code for the USA
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
The unassailable truth is that the United States of America is a culture of war! A culture of war is a shared set of meanings and behaviors that are socialized by macrosocial and microsocial institutions via support for certain cultural myths and ethoses that present war and associated acts of violence and aggression as an acceptable action for pursuing domestic and national goals and purposes.
→ read full articleCuba Launches World’s First Vaccine against Lung Cancer
ZeitNews – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
From the island nation known for the quality of its cigars comes some pretty big news today [3 Jan 2012]: Xinhua reports that Cuban medical authorities have released the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer. CimaVax-EGF is the result of a 25-year research project at Havana’s Center for Molecular Immunology, and it could make a life or death difference for those facing late-stage lung cancers, researchers there say.
→ read full articleWhere Are We Heading?
Johan Galtung, 9 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
The clouds are dark. And we sense one on the horizon, black; a point so far. The name of the cloud: using a major war, even with Russia-China, to revive an economy in depression; destroying capital, rebuilding.
→ read full article
(Spanish, English, Portuguese) Eduardo Galeano – El Derecho al Delirio (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
TMS Editor,
9 Jan 2012
Subtitles in English – The Right to Delirium
Legendado em Portugues – O Direito ao Delírio
Coca-Cola Accused of Propping Up Notorious Swaziland Dictator
David Smith in Johannesburg – The Guardian,
9 Jan 2012
The king has travelled to Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta in the US, much to the disgust of Swazi political activists. Mswati III has 13 wives and hosts an annual dance where he can choose a new bride from tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins. With a fortune of about $100m, he presides over one of the worst-off countries in the world, with most people living in absolute poverty. Political parties are banned and activists are regularly arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
→ read full articleCombating Slavery in Coffee and Chocolate Production
Jeff Nall – Toward Freedom,
9 Jan 2012
Quite simply, much of the coffee and chocolate improving our health is simultaneously jeopardizing the freedom and lives of hundreds of thousands around the world including many children. Yet most American consumers are ignorant to the mounting evidence indicating that the laborers whom they have to thank for cultivating these products are being grossly exploited, live in spiraling poverty, and, in some cases, are modern-day slaves.
→ read full articleHow Congress Has Signed Its Own Arrest Warrants in the NDAA Citizen Arrest Act
Naomi Wolf – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
They may have supported this bill because—although it’s hard to believe—they think the military will only arrest active members of Al Qaida; or maybe, less naively, they believe that ‘at most’, low-level dissenting figures, activists, or troublesome protesters might be subjected to military arrest. But they are forgetting something critical: history shows that those who signed this bill will soon be subject to arrest themselves.
→ read full articleFallujah Babies: Under A New Kind of Siege
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
While the US military has formally withdrawn from Iraq, doctors and residents of Fallujah are blaming weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorous used during two devastating US attacks on Fallujah in 2004 for what are being described as “catastrophic” levels of birth defects and abnormalities.
→ read full articleWanna buy a frog?
TMS Editor,
9 Jan 2012
A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender, “If I show you a really good trick, will you give me a free drink?”
→ read full articleWestern Oil Firms Remain As US Exits Iraq
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
9 Jan 2012
The end of the US military occupation does not mean Iraqis have full control of their oil. While the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain.
→ read full article
Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on World Affairs
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
The Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist talks to Al Jazeera about the momentous changes taking place in the global financial and political system.
→ read full articleRemembering the Best and Worst of 2011
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
We will learn in 2012 whether we are moving closer to fulfilling our hopes, dreams, and goals or are trying to interpret and overcome a recurrence of disappointment and demoralization with respect to progressive change in world affairs. The stakes for some societies, and for humanity, have rarely been higher.
→ read full articleIn Nigeria, Boko Haram Is Not the Problem
Jean Herskovits – The New York Times,
9 Jan 2012
Governments and newspapers around the world attributed the horrific Christmas Day bombings of churches in Nigeria to “Boko Haram” — a shadowy group that is routinely described as an extremist Islamist organization based in the northeast corner of Nigeria. Indeed, since the May inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta in the country’s south, Boko Haram has been blamed for virtually every outbreak of violence in Nigeria.
→ read full articleEnd of the Pro-democracy Pretense
Peter Martin – BusinessDay,
9 Jan 2012
A central staple of American domestic propaganda about its foreign policy is that the nation is “pro-democracy” — that’s the banner under which American wars are typically prettified — even though “democracy” in this regard really means “a government which serves American interests regardless of how their power is acquired,” while “despot” means “a government which defies American orders even if they’re democratically elected.”
→ read full article(Castellano) Israel, ¿El País Que Tiene un Ejército o el Ejército Que Tiene un País?
Carmen Rengel – Periodismo Humano,
9 Jan 2012
Israel, su ejército y su pueblo son tres realidades ensambladas a fuego en una sola. Imposible separarlas. Nacieron juntas, se forjaron juntas y juntas siguen, aunque cada vez se levanten más voces que reclaman una separación de poderes efectiva que haga de Israel un país con ejército, como en el resto del mundo, y no un ejército que domina un país.
→ read full article
(Spanish/Portuguese) A Ordem Criminosa do Mundo / El Orden Criminal del Mundo
TVE2 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Documental emitido por la española TVE que aborda la visión de dos grandes humanistas del mundo contemporáneo: Eduardo Galeano y Jean Ziegler.
Documentário exibido pela TVE espanhola, que aborda a visão de dois grandes humanistas contemporâneos sobre o mundo atual: Eduardo Galeano e Jean Ziegler.
→ read full article2012: The Davids and the Goliaths
Johan Galtung, 2 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
So, what is the message? Davids all over the world unite, you have only your goliaths to lose? Something like that, but with a major proviso: use david’s nonviolent slingshots. David knew what he wanted, so did Goliath: to slay each other. We have had enough of that. Smartness yes, but nonviolent, and of the positive variety, taking in, not only on, the adversary. Let the Icelands and Argentines teach them how to get their economies in order. Reduce the armor; save! Get down from nine feet to normal.
→ read full articleGlobal Brane Comprehension Enabling a Higher Dimensional Big Tent?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
The focus here calls into question personal experiential relationship to a vast “external” framework of knowledge — elaborated and promoted as a “universal” framework. This framework, to the extent possible, is anchored in a fabricated complex language of formal logic within which certain concepts and insights are held to be demonstrably true. This language effectively marginalizes the experience of those who understand it only partially or not at all. It is imposed upon them as a requirement for effective engagement with reality, with the implication that people should “get with it” or be socially irrelevant. This denies the integrative value for the individual of radical experiential coherence in the moment — frequently highlighted by personal hardship, tragedy and nostalgia over time.
→ read full articleMy Dreams for 2012
Dr Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Coming to my nation, India, called the largest democracy in the world with thriving freedom and equality but in reality which is a nation, majority of which are stricken by poverty, poor health, poor education system, and poor governance. That one of the great Gandhians, Anna Hazare launched the movement for Lok Pal to make India corruption free is something which I dream to see successful in the New Year.
→ read full articleBrazil Overtakes UK as Sixth-Largest Economy
Phillip Inman – The Guardian,
2 Jan 2012
Brazil has overtaken the UK to become the world’s sixth-largest economy, according to a team of economists. The banking crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession has relegated the UK to seventh place in 2011, behind South America’s largest economy, which has boomed on the back of exports to China and the far east.
→ read full articleGenetically Modified Mosquitoes to be Released in the US for the First Time
Mike Barrett – Natural Society,
2 Jan 2012
Florida will be the first beta testing grounds to determine whether or not the mosquitoes lead to detrimental environmental and genetic impact. Residents in this area will also be subjected — without choice — to these genetically manipulated insects, unless the private firm decides to seek permission.
→ read full articleHow Did Our Friend Iran Become Our Enemy?
Jim Powell - Forbes,
2 Jan 2012
Before the United States goes to war with Iran, as many Americans seem anxious to do, we should first understand how Iran became our implacable enemy. In 1957, CIA secret agents helped the Shah establish SAVAK. If widely-published reports are to be believed, SAVAK had as many as 60,000 secret agents, informers and collaborators. SAVAK’s interrogation methods were said to include rape, extracting fingernails and attaching high voltage power lines to genitals.
→ read full article
Stand By Me – Songs aroung the World: Peace through Music (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Playing for Change – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
From the award-winning documentary, “Playing for Change: Peace through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe.
→ read full articleFrom the East, Long Ago…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Shortly after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, Hungary’s interior minister called the prime minister, telling him that his office had been burglarized.
→ read full articleUnemployed Portuguese Told To ‘Just Emigrate’
Mario Queiroz – TerrraViva Europe,
2 Jan 2012
Portugal’s prime minister has been criticized for suggesting that unemployed youth leave the country to find work. Portugal’s leaders “are becoming a laughing stock, starting with the prime minister, when he suggested that emigration was a way to deal with the crisis,” said a December 20 editorial in Publico. If skilled workers and professionals continue to leave, the situation in this country “will be even more miserable,” and “the government’s incredible message leaves floating in the air the idea that Portugal is not worth it,” the editorial added.
→ read full articleTen Social Justice Trends Changing the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Global Trends:
[1] The Decline and Fall of the US Empire; [2] The Decline of the West; [3] The Decline of States and Rise of Regions; [4] The Rise of the Rest; [5] The Rise of China.
Social Trends:
[6] The Rise of Nations; [7] The Rise of Civil Society; [8] The Rise of Youth; [9] The Rise of Women; [10] The Rise of Inequality and Revolts.
Two Thirds of U.S. Foreign Aid is Really Military Aid
David Wallechinsky & Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
When some Americans complain that foreign aid is wasting taxpayer money abroad that could be put to better use at home, they may not realize that today’s version of foreign aid isn’t what it used to be. Call it the Pentagon-zation of U.S. foreign assistance.
→ read full articleViolence and Conflict Theories & Obstacles to Peace in Africa’s Great Lakes Region
Dr. Pierre Celestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Parson Talscott analyses Marx’s theory in terms of social classes and class conflict in the light of sociological theory. His analysis brings about the state of the weaker and the powerful classes showing that Marxian ideas have had an important place, forming a point of departure for the formulation of many of the fundamentals of theory of social institutions.
→ read full articleWhat is Shame?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
‘Shame’ is a disturbing, much admired, Steve McQueen film that has been misleadingly reviewed, but deserves our serious attention. Let me put my reasoning in provocative language: ‘Shame’ depicts with chilling realism the degeneracy of high-end capitalist life style in the urban landscape of Sodom on the Hudson, otherwise known as ‘The Big Apple,’ that is, New York City.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Filhotes Deixados na Neve Ilustram Campanha Contra Abandono de Cães Após Natal
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Dois cãezinhos abandonados na neve e no frio no fim do ano passado, e readotados em seguida, foram usados por uma fundação britânica em uma campanha para que os animais não sejam dados de presente de Natal, para evitar o seu abandono depois do período de festas.
→ read full articleCompassion Is Our New Currency: Notes on 2011’s Preoccupied Hearts and Minds
Rebecca Solnit - TomDispatch,
26 Dec 2011
Just look around you! This moment is so extraordinary that it has hardly registered. People in thousands of communities across the United States and elsewhere are living in public, experimenting with direct democracy, calling things by their true names, and obliging the media and politicians to do the same. The breadth of this movement is one thing, its depth another. It has rejected not just the particulars of our economic system, but the whole set of moral and emotional assumptions on which it’s based.
→ read full articleHIV Vaccine Trial Approved By FDA
CBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
Canadian-developed vaccine to start human clinical trials in January 2012.
→ read full articleWho Really Has Power In Burma?
Thelma Young – Waging Nonviolence,
26 Dec 2011
The question remains how much power does President Thein Sein actually have? Some have compared him with De Klerk or Gorbachev, and Thein Sein might genuinely want reform, but his powers are limited. Constitutionally the military still has complete autonomy in not just its own affairs, but also has vast powers over the three branches of government. “The whole constitution is based on a “wait and see” strategy: if the civilian government does what the Tatmadaw [the armed forces] wants, then it will be allowed to rule; if not, then not.”
→ read full articleMedical Journal Article: 14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout
PRNewswire – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.
→ read full articleIt’s a Win-Win Situation!
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
In spite of Israel defining itself as the ‘Jewish State’, despite the fact that the warplanes that dropped their bombs on Palestinian civilians were covered in Jewish symbols, still no one was willing to openly ask exactly what Jewishness was all about or what it stood for – and those few who did dare to raise the question were subject to total abuse until they took cover or just faded away. But recently things have changed and the popularity of my book ‘The Wandering Who’ (TWW) is just one example of that clear shift in consciousness. Somehow, we have lost our fear, somehow we have found the courage to say what we know to be the truth.
→ read full articleSee you soon…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
A couple from New York agreed to take a week vacation together in Florida.
→ read full articleThe Massacre Everyone Ignored: Up To 70 Striking Oil Workers Killed In Kazakhstan By US-Supported Dictator
Mark Ames – The eXiled,
26 Dec 2011
Last Friday [16 Dec 2011] in Kazakhstan, riot police slaughtered up 70 striking oil workers, wounding somewhere between 500 and 800, and arresting scores. The oil company whose workers are striking for better pay and union recognition, KazMunaiGaz, is “owned” by the billionaire son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s Western-backed president-for-life. Among Kazakhstan’s leading American partners are Chevron, whose website boasts, “Chevron is Kazakhstan’s largest private oil producer”–adding this black humor “In Kazakhstan, as in any country where Chevron does business, we are a strong supporter of programs that help the community.”
→ read full articleWhy Socialism?
Albert Einstein – Monthly Review,
26 Dec 2011
Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.
→ read full articleWho Was Jesus?
Johan Galtung, 26 Dec 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
Jesus rejected the finance system in the Jerusalem temple, encouraged tax boycott, and had disciples-apostles from a caste known for violence. He enters with the disciples the enormous 262mx262m temple, carefully divided into sections also for non-Jews, only for Jews, also for women, only for men, only for priests and the Most Holy. He overthrew the tables of the money exchangers and seems to have propagated a very concrete political message about the Jewish people in a federally structured country, independent of Rome, with apostles as political leaders. When asked by Pontius “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “Yes, it is as you say” (Mark 15,2). INRI (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum), Jesus from Nazareth, the King of Jews they wrote ironically, but that may have been exactly how he saw himself. This is politics.
→ read full articleChristopher Hitchens: RIP
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
I knew Christopher Hitchens casually, envied his rhetorical fluency, abhorred his interventionist cheerleading, and was offended by his arrogantly dismissive manner toward those he deemed his inferiors in debate or discussion. Perhaps, his sociopathic arrogance is epitomized by the explanation he often gave of why he was such a heavy drinker: “I hate to be bored, and when I drink other people seem less boring.”
→ read full articleEconomy: Argentina Shows World How to Beat the Crisis
Marcela Valente – TerraViva Europe,
26 Dec 2011
What is happening in the European Union and the United States today happened a decade ago in Argentina, when it was a hotbed of protest and the streets of major cities were seething with people telling their leaders they had had enough. And then a new story began to be written.
→ read full article‘Alliance between Banks and Governments at the Heart of Eurozone Crisis’
Edmund S. Phelps, Nobel Economics laureate - Deutsche Welle,
26 Dec 2011
The ‘monstrous irresponsibility’ of European banks contributed to the current euro crisis, says Edmund Phelps. But at its core lies a fatal collusion between governments and banks, argues the Nobel Winner in Economics.
→ read full articleHow Freedom Became Tyranny
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
Rightwing libertarians have turned “freedom” into an excuse for greed and exploitation. They speak as if the same freedom affects everybody in the same way, asserting their freedom to pollute, exploit, even – among the gun nuts – to kill, as if these were fundamental human rights. They characterise any attempt to restrain them as tyranny and refuse to see that there is a clash between the freedom of the pike and the freedom of the minnow.
→ read full articleUSDA Deregulates Two Monsanto Genetically Engineered Seeds
Mike Ludwig - Truthout,
26 Dec 2011
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its decision to deregulate two Monsanto genetically engineered (GE) seed varieties: a corn variety engineered to resist drought conditions and an herbicide-resistant soybean engineered to produce more fatty acids than regular soybeans … Critics say such efforts could replace traditional and sustainable farming methods with American-style industrial agriculture and prevent African governments from effectively regulating GE crops.
→ read full articleOne Invented Nation or Two
MJ Rosenberg – Political Correction,
26 Dec 2011
Newt Gingrich’s controversial statement begs the question: Who invented a nationality? The Palestinians or the Israelis?
→ read full articleStatement on the Report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission
International Crisis Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
The report acknowledges important events and grievances that have contributed to decades of political violence and civil war in Sri Lanka and makes sensible recommendations on governance, land issues and the need for a political solution. But it fails in a crucial task – providing the thorough and independent investigation of alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law that the UN and other partners of Sri Lanka have been asking for.
→ read full articleBradley Manning and the Fog of War
Amy Goodman – Truthdig,
26 Dec 2011
Accused whistle-blower Pvt. Bradley Manning turned 24 Saturday [17 Dec 2011]. He spent his birthday in a pretrial military hearing that could ultimately lead to a sentence of life … or death. The prosecution offered words Manning allegedly wrote to Assange as evidence of his guilt. In the email, Manning described the leak as “one of the more significant documents of our time, removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetrical warfare.” History will no doubt use the same words as irrefutable proof of Manning’s courage.
→ read full article‘Most’ Biomedical Chimp Research Declared ‘Unnecessary’ by Federal Agency
Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine – Scientific American,
26 Dec 2011
In a watershed moment for chimpanzee research, the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report on December 15 [2011] declaring that “most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary” and recommending the sharp curtailing of government-funded research on humankind’s closest genetic relative. Within an hour, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds research on chimpanzees, announced that he accepted the recommendations and would move to implement them as swiftly as possible.
→ read full articleThe Drone That Fell From the Sky
Nick Turse - TomDispatch,
26 Dec 2011
What a Busted Robot Airplane Tells Us about the American Empire in 2012 and Beyond – The skies seem full of falling drones these days. The most publicized of them made headlines when Iran announced that its military had taken possession of an advanced American remotely piloted spy aircraft, thought to be an RQ-170 Sentinel. Questions about how the Iranians came to possess one of the U.S. military’s most sophisticated pieces of equipment abound.
→ read full articleMay You Live In Interesting Times
William Bowles – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
Are we living in a fool’s paradise? Well 2011 has been nothing if not eventful but frankly, in spite of all the #Occupy this and #Occupy that, it’s not been a good year for us progresssives or the planet. The Empire acts with increasing, not decreasing impunity, desperate now to try and keep ahead of events lest events take control of it. As the Empire acts with increasing impunity, so too does the media. The Media and the Empire in total lockstep.
→ read full articleFighting 1% Wars
William J. Astore – TomDispatch,
26 Dec 2011
Why Our Wars of Choice May Prove Fatal – America’s wars are remote from us geographically, emotionally, and from our major media outlets, which have given us no compelling narrative about them, except that they’re being fought by “America’s heroes” against foreign terrorists and evil-doers. They’re even being fought by robotic drones “piloted” by operators from hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from the danger of the battlefield. Behold a horrifying fate: a people that allows its wars of choice to compromise the very core of its self-image as a freedom-loving society, while letting itself be estranged from the young men and women who served in the frontlines of these wars.
→ read full article
Occupy North Pole (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Truthdig – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
In this year’s holiday animation by Mr. Fish, an elf confronts Santa about his exploitation of free labor.
→ read full articleMoving from a War Economy to a Peace Economy
Mary Beth Sullivan – The Humanist,
26 Dec 2011
My partner, Bruce Gagnon, is the coordinator of the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and has been organizing around conversion since the 1980s. His typical question to any audience is: “What is the United States’ number one industrial export?” Audiences across the country shout out “weapons.” He then asks them to consider that if weapons are the number one industrial export, what is the global marketing strategy? “Endless war” becomes the refrain.
→ read full articleBlackwater Mercenaries to Return to Iraq
PressTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
With the US pulling out troops from Iraq this month, Washington plans to send Blackwater mercenaries to the Middle Eastern country under the new brand of ACADEMI. New York-based USTC Holdings, the investment group that bought ex-Blackwater firm, Xe Services, in December 2010, announced on Monday [12 Dec 2011] ACADEMI as the new name for Blackwater/ Xe Services, AFP reported.
→ read full articleNew Photos Released of Iraq Atrocity, With Documents and Video
David Swanson – War Is a Crime,
26 Dec 2011
U.S. Army Ranger John Needham, who was awarded two purple hearts and three medals for heroism, wrote to military authorities in 2007 reporting war crimes that he witnessed being committed by his own command and fellow soldiers in Al Doura, Iraq. His charges were supported by atrocity photos that, in the public interest, are now released in this video. John paid a terrible price for his opposition to these acts. His story is tragic.
→ read full articleA Forgotten Invasion, a Forgotten Dictator
Mike Allison – Al Jazeera,
26 Dec 2011
On Sunday [18 Dec 2011], former strongman Manuel Noriega returned to Panama following twenty-plus years in US and French prisons. However, the return to his native country remains as clouded in mystery as the reasons for his initial departure. Noriega had been involved in the drug trade for many years, and at the same time that he was on both CIA and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) payrolls. I would also argue that, like President Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983, President Bush likely believed that an operation to remove Noriega would be an easy foreign policy success. While Noriega was neither the most repressive dictator nor the most corrupt, he was the most vulnerable to US military force.
→ read full articlePortugal: All-Out Privatisation Gets Underway
Mario Queiroz – TerraViva Europe,
26 Dec 2011
The most far-reaching programme of privatisation of state enterprises in the history of Portugal kicked off Thursday [22 Dec 2011] with the sale of almost all of the state’s shares in the Energias de Portugal (EDP) utility to China’s Three Gorges Corp. The privatisation of public enterprises is one of the conditions Portugal agreed to under the 110 billion dollar bailout agreed in May.
→ read full article
The American Dream – O Sonho Americano – 1/3
Tad Lumpkin e Harold Uhl – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
English with Portuguese subtitles – Ingles com legendas em portugues
The story of money and of international bankers’ empire.
A historia do dinheiro e do império dos banqueiros internacionais.
The American Dream – O Sonho Americano – 2/3
Tad Lumpkin e Harold Uhl – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
The story of money and of international bankers’ empire.
A historia do dinheiro e do império dos banqueiros internacionais.
The American Dream – O Sonho Americano – 3/3
Tad Lumpkin e Harold Uhl – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
The story of money and of international bankers’ empire.
A historia do dinheiro e do império dos banqueiros internacionais.
Occupy Wall St – The Revolution Is Love (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
occupylove.org – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Narration by Charles Eisenstein – A taste of the upcoming feature documentary, Occupy Love. This is a community-funded film.
→ read full articleLiving Options during Conflicts: Dialogic-Artistic Acts and the Ways We Love In This World
Marco Antonio Zamboni Zalamena – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
There are basically four different options for people living in conflicts: first, people can remove themselves (giving-up; spatial relocation); second, people can join one or another side (us vs. them approach, compromising); third, people can wait for outsiders to act on their behalf (negative transcendence) and four, people can work with the conflict forces/energies while still living in it (positive transcendence).
→ read full articleIn Israel, the Life of a Palestinian Is Cheap
Haaretz, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
When it comes to shooting a Palestinian, pulling the trigger does not come with a real fear of having to answer to the law.
→ read full articleThe Bugs That Ate Monsanto
Tom Laskawy, Grist – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Now that 94 percent of the soy and 70 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. are genetically modified, Monsanto might look to some like it’s winning. But if we look a little closer, I’d say they’re holding on by a thread. Over the last several years, so-called “superweeds” have grown resistant to the herbicide RoundUp, the companion product that’s made Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant (aka RoundUp-Ready) corn, soy, and alfalfa so popular. Those crops were supposed to be the only plants that could withstand being sprayed by the chemical. Oops.
→ read full articleNobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire on Palestine, Political Prisoners and Nuclear Weapons
Dr. Hanan Chehata – Middle East Monitor,
19 Dec 2011
“Israel started the nuclear arms race in the Middle East, it’s the only country that has them, and we all know they have them. Israel has the power to start the whole movement for Middle East nuclear disarmament. The choice is between nuclear disarmament or nuclear proliferation. If we have nuclear proliferation we will never turn the clock back. Every Tom, Dick and Harry and everyone with a back garden will want a nuclear bomb! It’s absolutely crazy.
→ read full articleWhither Alliance of Civilizations?
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon during his speech at the UN Alliance of Civilizations forum on 11 December 2011 asserted the much cherished ideal of alliance among ‘civilizations’ so that enemies of humanity such as extremism and terrorism can be fought and won over and the world can live in an ideal of shared humanity. But the past decade provides sufficient proof to the contrary and to the dictum Might is Right, and the inverse relationship between high sounding ideals and chauvinistic national policies.
→ read full articleAnkara Declaration on IPPNW Middle East Core Group Meeting
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Strategies for Peace and Health in the Nuclear Free Middle East – IPPNW representatives from Israel, Iran, Egypt, United States, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Hungary and Turkey met in Ankara, Turkey, on December 8th to 10th 2011 to address the issues of peace, health and weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
→ read full article(French) Le Rwanda Dans Son Etat Politico-Economique et Conflictuel
Dr .P. Célestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Des économistes, historiens et hommes d’État ont traditionnellement considéré “une nation” comme un groupe de personnes affirmant le contrôle d’institutions économiques, religieuses, juridiques et éducatives reconnues officiellement légitimes.
→ read full articleDemanding an End to World Hunger
Mohammed Mesbahi, Share the World’s Resources – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
A solution to the world’s problems cannot be brought about by any political party or ideology, and can only happen through a free, united and single voice of the world’s people – for whom an end to life-threatening deprivation in every country must become the first priority, says Mohammed Mesbahi. Edited from an interview by Adam Parsons.
→ read full articleVaclav Havel (1936-2011): His Revolt Is an Attempt to Live Within the Truth
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Vaclav Havel, the former President of the Czech Republic, who moved to another dimension on 18 December 2011, had analysed that “There are good reasons for suggesting that the modern age has ended. Many things indicate that we are going through a transitional period, when it seems that something is on the way out and something else is painfully being born. All my observations and all my experience have, with remarkable consistency, convinced me that, if today’s planetary civilization has any hope of survival, that hope lies chiefly in what we understand as the human spirit.”
→ read full articleNo Bail-Out for the Planet
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Why is it so easy to save the banks, but so hard to save the biosphere? They bailed out the banks in days. But even deciding to bail out the planet is taking decades. No legislator, as far as I know, has yet been able to explain why making $7.7tn available to the banks is affordable, while investing far smaller sums in new technologies and energy saving is not.
→ read full articlePalestinian Flag Flies at UN Agency
A.D.McKenzie – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Dec 2011
Amidst a sudden downpour of rain here, the Palestinian flag was raised at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on Tuesday [13 Dec 2011], marking Palestine’s admission to the specialised agency. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, stood solemnly with members of his delegation and other officials as the flag was hoisted alongside the UNESCO banner, while the Palestinian national anthem played.
→ read full articleA Man in Tunisia, a Movement on Wall Street, and the Soldier Who Ignited the Fuse
Michael Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
It’s Saturday [17 Dec 2011] night and I didn’t want the day to end before I sent out this note to you. One year ago TODAY (December 17th), Mohamed Bouazizi, a man who had a simple produce stand in Tunisia, set himself on fire to protest his government’s repression. Three months ago TODAY, Occupy Wall Street began with a takeover of New York’s Zuccotti Park. Twenty-four years ago TODAY, U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Manning was born. He has now spent 570 days in a military prison without a trial — simply because he allegedly blew the whistle on the illegal and immoral war in Iraq.
→ read full articleRole Model
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
With a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary at the church’s marriage marathon, the minister asked Brother Ralph to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he managed to live with the same woman all these years.
→ read full article