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The Observer
Tom Tomorrow, Truthout – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Award-winning cartoonist Tom Tomorrow on the process by which the USA elects its leader.
→ read full articleObama, the Palestinian State & Zionist Schizophrenia
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
It is clear by now that President Obama is not going to be saved by any of the so- called ‘America’s best friends’. For AIPAC and the Lobby, Obama is an instrument. By now the Lobby is used to regarding American politicians as their subservient puppets. Israel, on the other hand, is too suspicious of the current administration. It will be happy to see Obama beaten. The time is certainly right for America, Britain and the West to find the strength to oppose Zionist Lobbying and the power of Jerusalem.
→ read full article(Italian) I Guarani del Brasile Chiedono alla Shell di Lasciare la Loro Terra
Survival International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
I Guarani del Brasile hanno chiesto al gigante dell’energia Shell di non utilizzare più la loro terra ancestrale per produrre etanolo. “La Shell deve lasciare la nostra terra” ha detto a Survival International Ambrosio Vilhalva, un Guarani di una delle comunità interessate. “…La compagnia deve smettere di utilizzare la terra indigena. Vogliamo giustizia, e chiediamo che la nostra terra sia demarcata e protetta”.
→ read full articleMonsanto Denies Superinsect Science
Tom Philpott – Mother Jones,
19 Sep 2011
As the summer growing season draws to a close, 2011 is emerging as the year of the superinsect—the year pests officially developed resistance to Monsanto’s genetically engineered (ostensibly) bug-killing corn. Monsanto, for its part, is reacting to the news with a hearty “move along—nothing to see here!”
→ read full articleThe Dark Side of “Soldier of Fortune” Magazine: Contract Killers and Mercenaries for Hire
David Holthouse - Media Matters for America,
19 Sep 2011
The magazine caters to mercenaries but tries to broaden to its appeal to war fans, weapon-lovers, fanatic anti-commies and those who enjoy reading about blood and guts.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Memorabilia Auction on eBay to Raise Funds
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
The computer, which has a buy it now price of $552,615, was used to “prepare the cables for media partners and releases”. “In this exclusive auction item you will get the full set of WikiLeaks Cables, the WikiLeaks computer and its passwords,” WikiLeaks said in a statement released on Twitter.
→ read full article
‘unLawful Access’ – Battle for the Net
PressForTruth – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Unlawful “lawful access” that would allow government’s surveillance of everything you do on the Internet — not only in Canada but everywhere. All the powers that be need is a precedent. Every citizen is a suspect – Preposterous!
→ read full articleNATO in Libya a ‘Model’ For Euro-US Cooperation: US Official
The Telegraph – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
The operation in Libya was “in many ways a model on how the United States can lead the way that allows allies to support,” Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Philip Gordon said at an event in Washington.
→ read full articleThere Is a Better Way: How the Norwegian Tragedy Forces Us to Reexamine Our Response to 9/11
Ida Hartmann - AlterNet,
19 Sep 2011
“This country has become dependent on the dead of 9/11 — who have no way of defending themselves against how they have been used — as an all-purpose explanation for our own goodness and the horrors we’ve visited on others, for the many towers-worth of dead in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere whose blood is on our hands.”
→ read full articleCongress Sees Middle East Through AIPAC-Colored Glasses
Medea Benjamin and Allison McCracken – Information Clearing House,
19 Sep 2011
At a recent Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, entitled “Promoting Peace? Reexamining US Aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA)”, we got a glimpse of what happens when Congress views the Middle East through AIPAC-colored glasses. Here are a few of examples of their tunnel vision.
→ read full articleMen Rescued From Squalid Forced Labour Camp Refuse to Help Police
Jerome Taylor – The Independent,
19 Sep 2011
Nine “modern day slaves” who were freed by police over the weekend have refused to co-operate with the investigation in one of the worst cases of forced labour in modern British history. Experts said it was often common for victims to empathise with their abusers. “We can’t prejudge what has happened here,” said Paul Donohoe, of Anti-Slavery International. “But you do find sometimes that institutionalisation… creates a situation where captives psychologically identify with their captors.”
→ read full articleNo End in Sight for Oil in the Gulf of Mexico
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
19 Sep 2011
Fifteen months after BP’s crippled Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico caused one of the worst environmental disasters in US history, oil and oil sheen covering several square kilometers of water are surfacing not far from BP’s well. Al Jazeera flew to the area on Sunday, September 11, and spotted a swath of silvery oil sheen, approximately 7 km long and 10 to 50 meters wide, at a location roughly 19 km northeast of the now-capped Macondo 252 well.
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9/11: BBC Reported Building 7 Collapse Twenty Minutes Before It Fell (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
BBC – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Evidence of a planned event – An astounding video uncovered from the archives shows the BBC reporting on the collapse of WTC Building 7 over twenty minutes before it fell at 5:20pm on the afternoon of 9/11. The incredible footage shows a BBC reporter talking about the collapse of the Salomon Brothers Building while it remains standing in the live shot behind her head.
→ read full article9/11 Did Not Start or End At Midnight
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
All too often we view 9/11 from the perspective of the nation-state rather than from a global standpoint.
→ read full articleWas War the Only Answer to 9/11?
Noam Chomsky – Nation of Change,
12 Sep 2011
The impact of the attacks is not in doubt. Just keeping to western and central Asia: Afghanistan is barely surviving, Iraq has been devastated and Pakistan is edging closer to a disaster that could be catastrophic. The jihadi movement could have been split and undermined after 9/11 if the ‘crime against humanity’ had been approached as a crime.
→ read full articleVann Nath Personified Cambodian Reconciliation
Emma Leslie – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
This week Cambodia bids farewell to Vann Nath, well-known as one of the seven survivors of the Khmer Rouge prison facility S21 or Tuol Sleng. But for me he will always personify the Cambodian capacity to remember, heal and reconcile their past. It was his abilities as a painter, which in effect saved him from execution, and later enabled him to portray vividly the horrors he had witnessed and heard about in Tuol Sleng prison. Vann Nath was indeed a survivor, but more than that, he was a great Cambodian peace builder, who chose not to live a bitter, angry life, but took a unique moment to transform his personal story, so as to teach future generations and, in some small way, break the victim-perpetrator cycle.
→ read full articleEurope’s “Troubled Assets” Bank Bailout: Germany’s Chancellor Merkel Pushes for a Eurozone “Banktatorship”
Mike Whitney – Global Research,
12 Sep 2011
The Bundestag will have one chance to stop Angela Merkel’s plan to provide hundreds of billions of dollars to underwater EU banks that made bad bets on sovereign bonds. If the German parliament fails to block Merkel on September 23, then–under the “expanded powers” of the European Financial Security Facility (EFSF)– insolvent banks will be bailed out and the costs will be passed on to eurozone taxpayers.
→ read full articleKeystone XL: A Pipeline to Europe?
Stephen Leahy, Tierramérica – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The promoters of Keystone XL, a huge new oil pipeline from northern Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, claim that it will reduce U.S. reliance on oil imports from unfriendly countries. But based on falling U.S. oil demand, the controversial Keystone XL pipeline may simply allow tar sands oil currently landlocked in Alberta, Canada to be exported to Europe, say U.S. and Canadian environmental activists.
→ read full articleHail to the True Victors of Rupert’s Revolution
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
NATO is raining fragmentation bombs on civilian-populated Sirte and other “Gaddafi strongholds” where, says a Channel 4 News reporter, “until they cut off the head of the snake, Libyans will not feel safe”. I quote that not so much for its Orwellian quality but as a model of journalism’s role in justifying “our” bloodbaths in advance. This is Rupert’s Revolution, after all. Gone from the Murdoch press are pejorative “insurgents”. The action in Libya, says The Times, is “a revolution… as revolutions used to be”.
→ read full articleAgainst Our Principles
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
A Rabbi, a Hindu and a lawyer are riding down the road when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
→ read full articleCIA Has Become ‘One Hell of a Killing Machine,’ Official Says
Alex Newman – The New American,
12 Sep 2011
The dramatic evolution of the agency’s priorities and operations has become so extreme that a former senior intelligence official told the Washington Post the CIA had been turned into “one hell of a killing machine.” The official said the paramilitary transformation was “nothing short of a wonderment.” But the dramatic metamorphosis, detailed in a recent exposé by the Post, entitled “CIA shifts focus to killing targets,” is hardly without critics. Some experts have even warned Congress that the illegal killings may constitute war crimes.
→ read full article
9/11: US Abuses Power It No Longer Has
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, Ex-Chief of Staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell – “We seem to think that we are exceptional, so exceptional that we don’t have to think about other people,” he says. “Ends never justify the means.” He believes some of the Bush administration members deserve to be put on trial, and he would be ready to testify against them.
→ read full articleResource Rich Arctic Severely Threatened
Devinder Kumar - InDepthNews,
12 Sep 2011
A new study is pleading for the resource rich Arctic located at the northern-most part of the planet Earth to be treated as “a global common and a common heritage of mankind”, in the interest of preserving an important ecosystem and halting morbid militarisation of the region.
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Colin Powell Regrets Iraq War Intelligence
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Former US secretary of state says information he provided leading to the invasion of Iraq is a “blot” on his record and regrets providing misleading intelligence that led the US to invade Iraq, believing it had weapons of mass destruction.
→ read full articleUNHCR Launches Campaign to Combat Statelessness
UN High Commissioner for Refugees – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Around the world today there are millions of people who are not recognized as citizens of any country. On paper they don’t exist anywhere. They are people without a nationality, stateless. Statelessness may be caused by gender, when countries do not recognize the nationality of a woman due to discriminatory laws. Statelessness may be inherited, by children born to stateless parents. It may be created in newly formed states, such as South Sudan, by intentional or unintentional legislative exclusion of any ethnic groups.
→ read full articleWomen and DDR-Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration
Bishnu Pathak, PhD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The paper provides an overview of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) practices existing in the world. It researches when and for what purposes the United Nations initiate DDR programs in post-conflict countries. It examines the scale and consequences of the various roles of ex-combatants, particularly the women ex-combatants in a transitional society. It aims to compare and explore some of the best and worst practices of DDR and militarized masculinity before, during, and after the violence. Secondary literatures mostly draw on to learn from yesterday, analyze to live for today, and encourage to hope for tomorrow.
→ read full articleUN Secretary General: Palestinian Statehood Is ‘Long Overdue’
Haaretz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The Palestinian people are “long overdue” in their quest for an independent state, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday [9 Sep 2011], ahead of a Palestinian push for statehood in the UN planned for later this month.
→ read full article(Italian) Un Battaglione Logistico per US Army Africa Vicenza
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Il Dipartimento della difesa potenzia US Army Africa, il comando militare statunitense con sede a Vicenza che sovrintende alle operazioni terrestri nel continente africano. Da un mese circa, è stato attivato in Veneto un piccolo battaglione dell’esercito USA, denominato “Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion”, che avrà il compito di fornire servizi e supporto logistico al personale impegnato in Africa.
→ read full articleThe Aftermath of Fukushima in Koodankulam
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The three-in-one disaster at Fukushima has stirred human consciousness all over the world. On the one hand, it has prompted Germany’s decision of phasing out nuclear energy by the year 2022, Italians’ overwhelming vote against nuclear power in a national referendum, and some 20,000 Swiss citizens’ rallying against nuclear power and so forth. Even the Chinese government put all its nuclear activities on hold and decided to do stocktaking before proceeding any further.
→ read full articleAnother UN Failure: The Palmer Report on the Flotilla Incident of 31 May 2010
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Israel has managed up to now to avoid paying the price for defying international law. For decades it has been building unlawful settlements in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. It has used excessive violence and relied on state terror on numerous occasions in dealing with Palestinian resistance, and has subjected the people of Gaza to sustained and extreme forms of collective punishment.
→ read full articleMore of the Same in the Fight Against Child Labor
Neil Howard – Dissent Magazine,
12 Sep 2011
The ” ‘abolitionist approach’ to child labor represents mainstream institutional and political thought about how best to protect the world’s children from economic exploitation,” writes Neil Howard. “But the evidence suggests that it doesn’t work.” Child workers and their families are “caught between the structural injustice that hollows out their incomes and well-meaning but misguided campaigns that prevent them from doing anything about it.”
→ read full article9/11’s Forgotten Victims
Imran Khan – Al Jazeera,
12 Sep 2011
Tahira’s words are a poignant reminder that the effects of 9/11 have been felt most acutely not in the West, but on the dusty alleyways of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Daily bombings, murderous intent and religious rhetoric have turned the events of that fateful Tuesday into what Tahira calls a “horrific reality”. I’d like to think that somewhere, someone will mention those Pakistanis, Iraqis and Afghans that have also died alongside the victims in America.
→ read full articleEn-joying the World through En-joying Oneself
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Eliciting the Potential of Globalization through Cognitive Radicalization. This is an exploration of the possibility of radical existential coherence in engaging with the otherness of the wider world. It endeavours to distinguish cognitive radicalization from its current primary association with political radicalization — and especially through its violent expressions in religious fundamentalism.
→ read full articleEgypt’s Military Ruler Tantawi and the American Siege of Gaza
Ali Abunimah – Pambazuka News,
12 Sep 2011
Revelations from WikiLeaks – As a WikiLeaks cable reveals, the US was even more actively involved than originally thought in ‘enforcing the siege of Gaza along Egypt’s border’.
→ read full articleItaly Faulted for Xenophobia and Ignoring Human Rights
Jaya Ramachadran - InDepthNews,
12 Sep 2011
The 47-nation Council of Europe has faulted Italy for “the presence of racist and xenophobic political discourse” targeting Roma and Sinti, and the protection of the human rights of migrants, including asylum seekers.
→ read full articleInternational Community Fails in Haiti, Again
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera,
12 Sep 2011
The cholera outbreak in Haiti may have been caused by UN peacekeepers. How is it that more than 6,200 people have died in Haiti from cholera in just the past 10 months, and yet resources to fight the disease were reduced earlier this year before the rainy season, which predictably led to an upsurge in infections and fatalities? Furthermore, this is a country where international donors had pledged $5.6bn since the January 2010 earthquake.
→ read full articleOfficial: Some 140 Countries to Vote for Palestinian State
M&C News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
‘Around 140 countries would vote in favor of an independent state of Palestine during the United Nations General Assembly meetings due to start on September 23,’ Nabil Shaath, a senior negotiator, told a news conference in Ramallah. He said his estimated number was the result of marathon visits by Palestinian leaders across the globe over the past months.
→ read full articleUS ‘Campaigns to Avoid’ Palestinian Statehood Vote
France24 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The United States has launched a last ditch diplomatic drive to persuade Palestinians to scrap their plan to seek UN recognition as a state, The New York Times said. But the move may be too late, the newspaper said, citing unnamed senior US officials and foreign diplomats.
→ read full article(Castellano) EE.UU Lanza Campaña Para Evitar Votación de Estado Palestino en ONU
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
Estados Unidos (EE.UU.) está haciendo una campaña para inducir a los palestinos a que abandonen la búsqueda de su reconocimiento como Estado independiente ante la Asamblea General de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) para evitar potenciales tensiones diplomáticas con Israel, según lo reveló el diario New York Times.
→ read full article
TED Talks – Pay Attention to Nonviolence (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Julia Bacha, TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
One Story, One Film, Many Changes: Budrus – Originally from Brazil of Lebanese descent, Julia Bacha directed and produced Budrus (2009) and wrote and co-directed the feature documentary Encounter Point (2006) . Julia is Media Director at Just Vision (justvision.org) and an award-winning filmmaker who has worked on films exhibited at the Sundance, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Dubai International Film Festivals, and broadcast on the BBC, HBO, Sundance, CBC and Al Arabiya television channels.
→ read full article
Fambul Tok, a Documentary about Forgiveness (trailer)
FambulTokProject – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war come together for the first time in an unprecedented program of tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. Through reviving their ancient practice of fambul tok (family talk), Sierra Leoneans are building sustainable peace at the grass-roots level — succeeding where the international community’s post-conflict efforts failed. Filled with lessons for the West, this film explores the depths of a culture that believes that true justice lies in redemption and healing for individuals — and that forgiveness is the surest path to restoring dignity and building strong communities.
→ read full articleAuthor Naomi Klein Arrested In Oilsands Protest
Mitch Potter – The Toronto Star,
5 Sep 2011
Sunday Sep 4, 2011 – More than 1,000 people have been busted at the gates of the White House the past two weeks, as the most ambitious of climate protests against Canadian oil comes to a head. Toronto author and activist Naomi Klein was not planning to be among them. “It was a last-minute decision. I was sitting there with several indigenous leaders from Canada. And when it became clear they intended to stay where they were and expose themselves to arrest, well . . .” She did the same.
→ read full articleSpeculating with Lives: How Global Investors Make Money Out of Hunger
Horand Knaup, Michaela Schiessl and Anne Seith – Der Spiegel,
5 Sep 2011
In recent years, the financial markets have discovered the huge opportunities presented by agricultural commodities. The consequences are devastating, as speculators drive up food prices and plunge millions of people into poverty. But investors care little about the effects of their deals in the real world.
→ read full articleIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban): Mullah Omar’s Eid ul-Fitr Message (August 28, 2011)
Mullah Muhammad Omar – Information Clearing House,
5 Sep 2011
Mullah Muhammad Omar’s Eid Message of Felicitation of the Esteemed Amir-ul-Momineen on the Occasion of Eid-ul-fitre
→ read full article(Italian) Il Grande Furto Dei Semi
Vandana Shiva – Come Don Chisciotte,
5 Sep 2011
Il seme, la fonte della vita, l’incarnazione della nostra diversità biologica e culturale, il collegamento tra il passato e il futuro dell’evoluzione, la proprietà comune del passato, delle generazioni passate, presenti e future delle comunità agricole che sono state le produttrici di semi, oggi è stata derubata ai contadini e ci viene rivenduta come semi “di proprietà” da multinazionali come Monsanto.
→ read full articleAnna Hazare and the Gandhian Ideal
Mitu Sengupta – Dissent Magazine,
5 Sep 2011
As an admirer of Gandhi’s, I have found the ceaseless comparisons of Hazare with Gandhi – propagated by the media, Hazare’s supporters, and Hazare himself – troubling and inappropriate. I am not alone in my reservations about Hazare, who is not a popular figure within left and progressive circles in India. His movement has been portrayed, so far accurately, as a narrow, middle-class, upper-caste phenomenon that is dangerously tinged with authoritarianism and Hindu nationalism.
→ read full articleDogs of War
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
They have been bred by an ardent admirer of the late “Rabbi” Meir Kahane, who was branded by the Israeli Supreme Court as a fascist. Their task is to protect the settlements and attack Palestinians. They are settler-dogs, or, rather, dog-settlers.
→ read full articleCheney, Rumsfeld and the Dark Art of Propaganda
Amy Goodman – Truthdig,
5 Sep 2011
“When one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it,” wrote Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s Reich minister of propaganda, in 1941. Former Vice President Dick Cheney seems to have taken the famous Nazi’s advice in his new book, “In My Time.”
→ read full articleLet the Sunshine In: A 9/11 Conflict Analysis
Marilyn Langlois, TRANSCEND Convener for USA-West Coast – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
Beyond my personal interest as a mother whose daughter’s life was endangered on that day, as a member of the TRANSCEND network of peaceful conflict transformation I approach the tenth anniversary of 9/11 with a conflict analysis that seeks a deeper understanding and sustainable solutions. Johan Galtung, founder of the TRANSCEND network, has defined violence as “an avoidable insult to basic human needs”, and asserts that behind every act of violence there is an unresolved conflict.
→ read full articleIndia: Massive Hunger Strike at Idinthakarai on September 11, 2011
Peoples' Movement against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
The people of Koodankulam, Idinthakarai and other neighboring villages decide to withdraw from the ongoing “peace” process and resume their peaceful, nonviolent Gandhian satyagraha by holding a massive hunger strike on September 11, 2011 at Idinthakarai in Tirunelveli district.
→ read full articleOops…!
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
A Catholic priest was being honored at his retirement dinner after 25 years in the parish.
→ read full articleAlgeria and the Arab Revolutions
Abbas Aroua, 5 Sep 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
Many people keep asking why Algeria did not catch the train of revolutions and participate in the 2011 “Arab Spring”. Is it going to be an exception? Is it going to miss this “historic window” to liberate itself? The last country in the region to get rid of a ruthless corrupt military dictatorship? Are Algerians less determined to grasp freedom and decent life than Tunisians, Egyptians, Yemenis and others? To answer those meaningful and legitimate questions, we need a brief historical overview.
→ read full articleLibya: NATO Acquires Military Outpost in Third Continent
Voice of Russia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2011
Libya: Another country for NATO to take root in. Interview conducted by John Robles on Aug 27, 2011 with Rick Rozoff, the manager of the Stop NATO website and a Correspondent of Global Research.
→ read full articleMonsanto Corn Plant Losing Bug Resistance
Scott Kilman – The Wall Street Journal,
5 Sep 2011
Widely grown corn plants that Monsanto Co. genetically modified to thwart a voracious bug are falling prey to that very pest in a few Iowa fields, the first time a major Midwest scourge has developed resistance to a genetically modified crop. The discovery raises concerns that the way some farmers are using biotech crops could spawn superbugs.
→ read full articleLibya’s Next Fight: Overcoming Western Designs
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
5 Sep 2011
The Libya that inspired the world is capable of overcoming NATO’s stratagems, if it becomes aware of NATO’s true intentions in Libya and the desperate attempt to thwart or hijack Arab revolts.
→ read full articleThe Race Is On For Libya’s Oil, With Britain and France Both Staking A Claim
Julian Borger and Terry Macalister – The Guardian,
5 Sep 2011
The starting pistol has been fired on bids by Britain and other western powers to secure a slice of the oil prize in Libya when France said it was “fair and logical” for its companies to benefit. Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, planted his flag in the sand as the Guardian was told that BP was already holding private talks with members of Libya’s interim government.
→ read full articleDr Zarni: The Death of Intellectual Sympathy
Francis Wade – Democratic Voice of Burma,
5 Sep 2011
To belabour the obvious, I am incredibly angry about what has been happening to my country over the past 50-years: Burma is dying a slow-death, by all indications. The more you know the angrier you get. Alas, Western minds are typically incapable of either appreciating this rage over a country’s tragedy but also comprehending any scathing criticism against the “parasitical expert” and other creatures, that make light of our Burmese hell-on-earth.
→ read full articleIn Sri Lanka, a ‘Negative Peace’ Prevails
Kate Mayberry – Al Jazeera,
29 Aug 2011
The civil war is over in Sri Lanka, but many men suspected of being Tamil Tiger fighters continue to be detained.
→ read full article
Tar Sands Action: Come Join Us! (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
StopKeystoneXL – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
A short video capturing the first day of a 2-week sit-in at the White House to stop the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline.
→ read full articleOut of Control: The Destructive Power of the Financial Markets
SPIEGEL Staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
Speculators are betting against the euro, banks are taking incalculable risks and the markets are in turmoil. Three years after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the financial industry has become a threat to the global economy again. Governments missed the chance to regulate the industry, and another crash is just a matter of time.
→ read full articleOur Involvement in Saving the World from Complete Destruction
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
At this stage of history, the world is going through numerous serious problems, which could be fully brought under control only if we develop the habit of becoming involved.
→ read full articleFamine in the Horn of Africa: Malthus Beware
William G. Moseley – Al Jazeera,
29 Aug 2011
In the Horn of Africa, population growth is not the main cause of famine.
→ read full articleThe Extreme Israeli Right’s Alliance With Lunatics
Haaretz, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
In recent years, the extreme Israeli right has developed an alliance with heads of the evangelical movement, who define themselves as Christian Zionists, some of whom believe that another Holocaust of the Jews will ensure the resurrection of Jesus.
→ read full articleStrategy Lesson at the Soviet War College
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
A general is a guest lecturer and tells the class of officers that the session will focus on potential problems and the resulting strategies. One of the officers in the class begins by asking the first question:
→ read full articleHow Zenawi ‘Weaponizes’ Famine in Ethiopia
Alemayehu G. Mariam - InDepth News,
29 Aug 2011
“Why are Ethiopians starving again? What should the world do and not do?” These are the two enduring questions Time Magazine of December 21, 1987 asked in a cover story. The reply in short was couched as a question: “Is the latest famine wholly the result of cruel nature, or are other, man-made forces at work that worsen the catastrophe?” Something that should strike as déjà vu 24 years later.
→ read full articleLibya without Qaddafi: Decoding an Uncertain Future
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
There is so much spin surrounding the Transitional National Council victory in Libya that it is difficult to interpret the outcome, and perhaps premature to do so at this point considering that the fighting continues and the African Union has withheld diplomatic recognition on principled grounds.
→ read full articleChavez: Libya’s Tragedy Begins With Gadhafi’s Fall
The Associated Press-AP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
Chavez has been a staunch defender of Gadhafi throughout the conflict, and he condemned NATO airstrikes and killings of civilians. “The drama of Libya isn’t ending with the fall of Gadhafi’s government. It’s beginning,” Chavez said. “The tragedy in Libya is just beginning.”
→ read full article(Portuguese) Para Além da Tragédia
Sylvia Colombo em Buenos Aires – Folha,
29 Aug 2011
Para o mexicano Juan Villoro, a imprensa deve repensar a maneira como noticia a violência, sob risco de amplificá-la. Na renovação da linguagem jornalística que propõe para a era da internet, a revalorização da crônica seria análoga à reinvenção da pintura que ocorreu no século 19, com o advento da fotografia.
→ read full articleEmpires Strike Hard, Nations Die Hard: Behind the Libyan Fake Revolution, And the Re-Colonization of Africa.
Raïs Neza Boneza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
“Democracy building” in Libya, we are told, requires the extensive bombing of an entire country, under NATO’s”Responsibility to Protect” (R2P). To say we kill the Libyans for their own good is a deceit.
→ read full articleThey Talk the Talk, But Baulk at the Walk
Dr Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
Twenty three years since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the then freshly minted popular dissident, began her impassioned calls for a resolution to the country’s long-standing problems through dialogue, we seem to have been conditioned like a Pavlovian four-limbed creature.
→ read full articleAn Initial Libyan Scorecard
Mark LeVine – Al Jazeera,
29 Aug 2011
Rebuilding Libya, which is blessed with such a wealth of resources, will take massive efforts on the part of Arab, African and international civil societies, to ensure that the Libyan people aren’t sacrificed at the altar of oil profits and special ops bases for deepening US involvement in Africa; that as has happened in so many other countries, the “oil curse” doesn’t doom the country to another four decades of corrupt and kleptocratic rule.
→ read full articleSomalia? Which Somalia? Just Some Facts About Everybody’s–Nobody’s Land
Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
To begin with, Somalia is situated in the so-called Horn of Africa, bordering with Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Indian Ocean. Its territory covers over 637,000 kilometers, hosting around 10 million inhabitants who speak Somali, Arabic, Italian and English, and are mostly Muslim Sunnis.
→ read full articleThree Questions on Libya
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
29 Aug 2011
Al Jazeera’s chief political analyst interprets what the fall of Tripoli means for Libya, the Arab Spring and the West. A six month NATO-aided rebellion in Libya has advanced on the capital, Tripoli, in an effort to oust 42-year leader Muammar Gaddafi.
→ read full articleThirteen Reasons Why We Do Not Want the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
We have been opposing the [Indian] Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) ever since it was conceived in the mid-1980s. The people of Koodankulam village themselves were misled by false promises such as 10,000 jobs, water from Pechiparai dam in Kanyakumari district, and fantastic development of the region.
→ read full articleSomalia Tragedy, Islamist Extremists and Climate Change Skeptics
Hilal Elver and Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
The unfolding tragedy in East Africa is a dramatic indicator of what humanity as a whole can expect in the near future ‘if business as usual’ continues to be the phrase that most accurately expresses global climate change policy. The unwillingness of the developed countries to provide adequate humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable peoples in the world also helps explain this worsening regional tragedy has reached such dire extremes.
→ read full articleKafka at the Rafah Border
Diane Shammas – Al Jazeera,
22 Aug 2011
What should have been a simple border crossing turns into a four-month odyssey through the iron curtain of Gaza.
→ read full articleChristianity and War
Laurence M. Vance - LewRockwell,
22 Aug 2011
Support for the war on terror among Christians remains so pervasive that I’m inclined to agree with Mark Twain in saying that “if Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be – a Christian.” I’m sorry to say that blind acceptance of government propaganda, willful ignorance of U.S. foreign policy, persistent support of the Republican Party, and childish devotion to the military are the norm among the majority of conservative Christians instead of the exception.
→ read full articleSyria: Geopolitical Mentoring versus Rehab for Addicted Geopolitical Leaders
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Of course, the future should not be entrusted to the political leaders representing sovereign states. It is up to the peoples of the world to propose and demand better solutions for the unfolding global tragedies that are sidestepped by the egocentric behavioral goals of national governments. Populist complacency is part of what gives this geopolitical posturing a semblance of credibility in our post-colonial era.
→ read full articleThe World Is Over-Armed; The World Is Over-Hungry
Badriya Khan in Brussels - Human Wrongs Watch,
22 Aug 2011
Think of 1,630 billion dollars being spent on weapons that are designed to kill, and 1,002 million human beings who either do not eat at all or are always hungry. Shouldn’t this atrocious fact make the United States and western European countries, who account for 90 per cent of world’s arms sales, prompt to rethink? Considering that they are the freedom champions proud of imposing their models on the willing or unwilling, through means fair or foul, shouldn’t they turn their focus on ending hunger that robs human beings of their fundamental right to freedom?
→ read full articleThe Goulash Archipelago: EU Remains Silent as Hungary Veers Off Course
Walter Mayr – Der Spiegel,
22 Aug 2011
Supporters of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán say he has a strict leadership style, while critics warn of the threat of forced political conformity, Jew-baiting and labor camps. Meanwhile, the European Union is saying nothing, apparently accepting the fact that a member state is getting out of control.
→ read full articleThe Decline of the West?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
The basic G8-G20 mistake: obsessed with saving the banks through bailouts, they did not save people through stimulus. Learn from China: enter communities with the public-private-civil-technical sectors, jointly making mini-companies for basic needs–food and water, clothes and housing, clinics and schools–employing the most needy. A communist uplift from misery, and an increase in their buying power in the capitalist economy. Capi-communism. Rather decline than learning from China? Then, so be it.
→ read full articleBack in 1967… In Eastern Europe
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Czechoslovakia announced that it was going to create a ministry of the Navy.
→ read full articleFear of the Executioners: The Sinister Power of the Rating Agencies
Michaela Schiessl, Christoph Schult and Thomas Schulz – Der Spiegel,
22 Aug 2011
The most obvious solution — perhaps even the only solution — to break the power of the agencies without also destabilizing the entire financial system would be to remove the rating stipulations from the regulations. This would allow investors to seek alternative sources of information without being bound, for better or for worse, to the agencies’ opinions.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: From a Battlefield to a Business-field
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Is it necessary that the interested players will have to wait till the violent atmosphere in the region is subsided completely and then think about business? Or is it possible to initiate commercial ventures in a violent atmosphere, which can only succeed with the cooperation of the national government as well as local warlords and also the Taliban?
→ read full articleDaylight Robbery, Meet Nighttime Robbery
Naomi Klein – The Nation,
22 Aug 2011
In early July, the Wall Street Journal, citing a new poll, reported that 94 percent of millionaires were afraid of “violence in the streets.” This, it turns out, was a reasonable fear. Of course London’s riots weren’t a political protest. But the people committing nighttime robbery sure as hell know that their elites have been committing daytime robbery. Saqueos are contagious. The Tories are right when they say the rioting is not about the cuts. But it has a great deal to do with what those cuts represent: being cut off.
→ read full article
Three Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Ric Elias, TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time.
→ read full articleWhy Boycott Israel?
Lisa Taraki and Mark LeVine – Al Jazeera,
15 Aug 2011
A founding member of the campaign for the academic and cultural boycott outlines the motivation behind the movement. Author and history professor Mark LeVine speaks with sociologist Lisa Taraki, a co-founder of the Palestinian campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
→ read full articleSouth Africa: Russell Tribunal on Palestine
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will convene in District Six, Cape Town, site of a brutal apartheid-era forced removal. The land has remained undeveloped on the edge of the city since it was declared “a white group area” and the homes of black residents were demolished in the 1970s. The Cape Town session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine – to be held on 5-6 November 2011 – will consider whether Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid.
→ read full articleTomorrow, Who Will Govern the World?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
The author of Demain, qui gouvernera le monde? (2011), Jacques Attali, has every reason to be considered an authority on the subject of his new book. Aside from having held many positions in relation to national and international governance, as an academic he has been an extremely prolific author on a wide range of relevant subjects, including A Brief History of the Future (2006), La crise, et après? (2008) and Survivre aux crises: 7 stratégies (2009).
→ read full article
Injured Malaysian Man Mugged in UK Riots
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
Online footage of an injured student being brazenly robbed has shocked the nation. A video posted online depicting a group of youths appearing to help a young Malaysian student who was mugged during the London riots, and then stealing the contents of his bag, has been widely circulating. The footage is just one moment captured on video in recent days showing an ugly side to a city often considered as civilised or forward-looking.
→ read full articleEconomic Crisis or Nonviolent Opportunity? Gandhi’s Answer to Financial Collapse
Michael Nagler – Waging Nonviolence,
15 Aug 2011
The real purpose of an economic system is to guarantee to every person in its circle the fundamentals of physical existence (food, clothing, shelter) and the tools of meaningful work so that they can get on with the business of living together and working out our common destiny. This was Gandhi’s vision, among others’. We can no longer afford to ignore him in this sector any more than we can ignore his spectacular contributions to peace and security.
→ read full articleAnalysis of Financial Terrorism in America
David DeGraw – AmpedStatus Report,
15 Aug 2011
Over 1 Million Deaths Annually, 62 Million People With Zero Net Worth, As the Economic Elite Make Off With $46 Trillion
→ read full articleGreece Begins €50bn Privatisation Drive
Helena Smith in Athens – The Guardian,
15 Aug 2011
Greek officials begin appointing advisers for fire-sale of state assets intended to raise €50bn by 2015. The starting gun for one of the biggest fire-sales in western history was fired as Greek officials began appointing advisers for the country’s ambitious privatisation drive.
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Crise Ambiental Global e a Construção de Alternativas São Tema de Encontro Internacional Indígena
EcoDebate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
Para responder a essas e outras questões, centenas de lideranças de Brasil, Bolívia, Peru, Colômbia, Equador, Venezuela, Guiana, Guiana Francesa e Suriname, se reúnem em Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil, de 15 a 18 de agosto, no “Grande Encontro dos Povos – Saberes, Povos e Vida Plena em Harmonia com a Floresta”.
→ read full articleFrom the Arab Spring to Liverpool?
Yasmine Ryan – Al Jazeera,
15 Aug 2011
The UK riots have unique roots, but British youths’ alienation is similar to the disenfranchisement behind Arab revolts. “These are children who have no purpose. Society does not seem to see them as a significant enough group to invest in.” — Malik Al-Nasir, a poet and social commentator from Liverpool
→ read full articleThe Economics Conditions Driving Riot Fever: Burning Britain
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
However the government chooses to now respond to the escalating violence, there can be no doubt that the episode represents a fundamental turning-point for British society, in a world that has already passed the tipping point on a whole range of interconnected systemic crises. The danger is that the authorities will offer the traditional, knee-jerk, business-as-usual response of maximizing police state powers, rather than addressing the root causes of our predicament.
→ read full articleDichter’s Law
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
“THE PEOPLE Demand Social Justice!” 250 thousand protesters chanted in unison in Tel Aviv last Saturday. But what they need – to quote an American artist – is “more unemployed politicians”.
→ read full articleThe Afghanistan War in the Mirror of the Tet Offensive: When ‘Defeat’ Became ‘Victory’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
It is true the war dragged on for several more years with heavy casualties on both sides, but the Tet Offensive changed the American goal from ‘victory’ to ‘peace with honor,’ that is, ‘defeat in disguise.’ The subsequent Christmas bombing of the North and the disastrous invasion of Cambodia in 1970 were part of the bloody effort during the Nixon/Kissinger period of American leadership to produce ‘honor.’ Actually, when the war finally came to an abrupt end in 1975, the dominant image at the time being that of Vietnamese collaborators with the American intervention desperately seeking to escape from Vietnam by clamoring aboard a helicopter taking off from the roof of the embassy. Not honor but humiliation, chaos, and defeat…
→ read full articleSigns of Change Conference
Susan Krumdieck – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
The Signs of Change e-conference was held in November 2010, and gave individuals and businesses a chance to showcase their sustainable practices. A shared acknowledgement that the ‘business as usual’ mentality is leading us down an undesirable path unified the participants. The conference was a celebration of realistic attempts to have a positive impact on our planet and the quality of life of future generations. Among many reasons for its importance is violent conflict prevention.
→ read full articleTop 10 Signs Your Family Is Stressed…
TMS Editor,
15 Aug 2011
10. Conversations often begin with “Put the gun down, and then we can talk”.
→ read full article