Articles by RD
We found 3631 results.
Redeeming Desire
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
My digital friend, the respected author and journalist, Erik Wahlberg, sent me a message recently suggesting that I abandon the use of ‘horizons of desire’ as a way of framing human aspirations. He believed, with abundant justification, that desire is tied to consumerism, and the social construction of market demand for the luxurious, the wasteful, and the superfluous.
→ read full articleThe 99%: A Community of Resistance
Angela Davis – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
In the past, most movements have appealed to specific communities – workers, students, black people, Latinas/Latinos, women, LGBT communities, indigenous people – or they have crystallised around specific issues like war, the environment, food, water, Palestine, the prison industrial complex. In a strikingly different configuration, this new Occupy Movement imagines itself from the beginning as the broadest possible community of resistance – the 99%, as against the 1%.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Quem Governa a Alemanha São os Mercados Financeiros
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
Se a sra. Merkel e o presidente do Deutschebank se reúnem para discutir, quem manda?, questiona Klaus Ernst, copresidente do Die Linke alemão. Em entrevista ao Esquerda.net, ele defendeu a separação do financiamento dos Estados dos mercados financeiros privados, através da criação de um banco público para os empréstimos públicos.
→ read full articleTwo Occupations
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
If we are to find ‘solutions’ we all need quickly to liberate our imaginations from the tyranny of ‘the feasible.’ The ‘realists’ presently holding the reins of power are unknowingly inhabiting realms of fantasy while the train of history approaches a station named DOOM. The young people are awakening to this grim realization, and for this the rest of us can be thankful, and even allow ourselves to enjoy the momentary privilege of hope.
→ read full articleThe CIA’s Unaccountable Drone War Claims another Casualty
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
14 Nov 2011
Last Friday [4 Nov 2011], I met a boy, just before he was assassinated by the CIA. Tariq Aziz was 16, a quiet young man from North Waziristan, who, like most teenagers, enjoyed soccer. Seventy-two hours later, a Hellfire missile is believed to have killed him as he was travelling in a car to meet his aunt in Miran Shah, to take her home after her wedding. Killed with him was his 12-year-old cousin, Waheed Khan.
→ read full articleCriminalizing Diplomacy: Fanning the Flames of the Iran War Option
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
How many times have we heard in recent weeks either outright threats to attack Iran mainly emanating from Israel or the more muted posture adopted by the United States that leaves ‘all options’ on the table including ‘the military option’?
→ read full articleRejecting Neoliberalism, Renewing the Utopian Imagination
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 two dismal consequences followed that have been rarely acknowledged: neoliberal orthodoxy became unchallenged and unchallengeable in the formation of global economic policy; the World Economic Forum, convening annually in Davos, became the true capital of world order after the ending of the Cold War.
→ read full articlePreparing For Revolution
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
To be human
is to be
naked
before and after
the law
‘J. Edgar’: Hoover’s Hubris Writ Large
Richard Schickel - Trughdig,
14 Nov 2011
Even by Clint Eastwood’s austere standards, “J. Edgar” is a very plain movie. It simply tells the story of J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation—or America’s “top cop” from 1924 until his death in 1972. There were, of course, oddities about him, notably his sexuality. He lived in an era when “perpetual bachelorhood” was not an automatic signal of covert homosexuality. The idea that a highly placed public figure might be gay was simply not thought about.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Retirada dos EUA e Derrota no Iraque
Immanuel Wallerstein – Esquerda.net,
14 Nov 2011
A retirada marca o culminar da derrota americana no Iraque, apenas comparável à derrota dos Estados Unidos no Vietname. Ninguém se deve surpreender se, depois das próximas eleições no Iraque, o primeiro-ministro for Moqtada al-Sadr. Nem os Estados Unidos nem o Irão vão rejubilar.
→ read full article(Portuguese) No Brasil, Executivos do Banco Panamericano São Banidos do Sistema Financeiro por até 20 Anos
Antonio Carlos Lacerda - Pravda,
14 Nov 2011
No Brasil, o Banco Central (BC) decidiu banir de atuar no Sistema Financeiro Nacional por até 20 anos os principais executivos e conselheiros do Banco PanAmericano, que foram considerados responsáveis ou omissos pelo rombo de R$ 4,3 bilhões.
→ read full articleApartheid and the Occupation of Palestine
John Dugard – Al Jazeera,
7 Nov 2011
As the Russell Tribunal convenes to discuss apartheid, Israel has already surpassed South Africa’s racist era. This week, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine will consider the question of whether Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) constitute the crime of apartheid within the meaning of the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
→ read full article(Portuguese) No Brasil, Máquina Destrói Câncer de Pulmão sem Cortes e sem Dor
Antonio Carlos Lacerda - Pravda,
7 Nov 2011
No procedimento novo, cuja denominação técnica é radioterapia estereotáxica extra-crânio (SDRT, na sigla em inglês), feixes finos e precisos de radiação elevada provocam a necrose das células tumorais. Três sessões de pouco mais de uma hora, aplicadas com intervalo de dois dias, são suficientes para destruir o câncer de pulmão, o tipo de neoplasia que mais mata no Brasil e no mundo, segundo o Instituto Nacional do Câncer (Inca).
→ read full articleThe Differences Between Synthetic and Natural Vitamins
Dr. Edward Group – Global Healing Center,
7 Nov 2011
Synthetic versions of vitamins contain chemical compounds that were not meant for human consumption and do not occur in nature. Evolution has dictated that we eat the food we can gather from the earth, not the food we create in a lab.
→ read full articlePalestine’s Time
Michel Rocard – Project Syndicate,
7 Nov 2011
For a long time, Israeli leaders have lobbied supporters like me, who, since the Holocaust, have defended the Jewish people’s right to security and statehood. But Israel’s tactics regarding Palestine have been unconscionable. They have strengthened Hamas, a hostile opponent of peace, pushed the US to vote against the Palestinian state whose birth it defends, and refused outright to accept any conditions that might resolve the conflict. No civilized country can permit this behavior.
→ read full articleUNESCO Membership and Palestinian Self-Determination
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
It may not ease the daily pain of occupation and blockade or the endless anguish of refugee status and exile or the continual humiliations of discrimination and second class citizenship, but the admission of Palestine to membership in UNESCO is for so many reasons a step forward in the long march of the Palestinian people toward the dignity of sunlight!
→ read full articleGoldstone’s Folly: Disappointing and Perverse
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
Now on the eve of the third session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine scheduled to be held in Cape Town between November 5-7 Goldstone has again come to the defense of Israel in a highly partisan manner that abandons any pretense of judicious respect for either the legal duties of those with power or the legal rights of those in vulnerable circumstances.
→ read full articleFormer US Chief Prosecutor Condemns ‘Law-Free Zone’ Of Guantánamo
Ed Vulliamy in New York – The Guardian,
7 Nov 2011
The former chief prosecutor for the US government at Guantánamo Bay has accused the administration he served of operating a “law-free zone” there, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the order to establish the detention camp on Cuba. Retired air force colonel Morris Davis resigned in October 2007 in protest against interrogation methods at Guantánamo, and has made his remarks in the lead-up to 13 November, the anniversary of President George W Bush’s executive order setting up military commissions to try terrorist suspects.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Pior Que Morrer É Não Pagar
Nelson Peralta – Esquerda.net,
7 Nov 2011
Quando, perante a morte de um povo, a nossa preocupação é que assim não pode pagar a dívida agiota à banca sabemos que chegámos ao grau zero da Humanidade.
→ read full articleOccupy first. Demands come later.
Slavoj Žižek – The Guardian,
7 Nov 2011
Carnivals come cheap – the true test of their worth is what remains the day after, how our normal daily life will be changed. The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work – they are the beginning, not the end. Their basic message is: the taboo is broken; we do not live in the best possible world; we are allowed, obliged even, to think about alternatives.
→ read full articleThe Two Halves of the Eurozone Are Locked In a Broken Marriage
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – The Daily Telegraph,
31 Oct 2011
One by one, the democracies of Southern Europe are being broken on the wheel of monetary union.
→ read full articleLibya after Muammar el Qaddafi’s Execution
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2011
The death of the despised despot who ruled Libya for forty-two years naturally produced celebrations throughout the country. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s end was bloody and vindictive, but we should remember that his rants against his own people—and his violent repression of what was initially a peaceful uprising—invited a harsh popular response.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Suspends Publishing to Fight Financial Blockade
Esther Addley and Jason Deans – The Guardian,
31 Oct 2011
Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, has announced that the whistleblowing website is suspending publishing operations in order to focus on fighting a financial blockade and raise new funds. Assange, speaking at a press conference in London on Monday [24 Oct 2011], said a banking blockade had destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks’ revenues.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Ocupações Prosseguem em Todo o Mundo
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2011
O fim de semana contou com mais acções dos movimentos Occupy em muitas cidades, de Sydney a Londres, passando por Nova Iorque. Nos Estados Unidos, a brutalidade da polícia continua em debate.
→ read full articleGM Crops Promote Superweeds, Food Insecurity and Pesticides, Say NGOs
John Vidal, environment editor – The Guardian,
24 Oct 2011
Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of “superweeds”, according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people.
→ read full articleMINUSTAH In Haiti: Keeping the Peace, or Conspiring Against It?
Harvard School of Public Health – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Harvard Group Publishes White Paper Reviewing Human Rights Abuses Perpetrated by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti; Calls for MINUSTAH withdrawal.
→ read full articleOral Statement Introducing Report on Israeli Violations of Human Rights in Occupied Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Oral Presentation on 20 October 2011 of Report to the General Assembly by Special Rapporteur on “Situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967,” submitted in 13 September 2011.
→ read full articleUS Seeks to Establish Naval Base on Jeju Island in Spite of Protests
John Lasker – Toward Freedom,
24 Oct 2011
On beautiful Jeju Island, south of the Korean peninsula, the South Korean Navy is building a base that will soon harbor some of the world’s most advanced weapons. But the mystery is: who inspired the base to be built on this island of pristine waters and stunning volcanic peaks in the first place? Peace activist Bruce Gagnon says all one needs to do is call the South Korean embassy in Washington and ask.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Haiti, País Ocupado
Eduardo Galeano – Esquerda.net,
24 Oct 2011
Se perguntar a qualquer enciclopédia qual foi o primeiro país a abolir a escravatura, receberá sempre a mesma resposta: Inglaterra. Mas o primeiro país que aboliu a escravatura não foi a Inglaterra mas o Haiti, que continua ainda a expiar o pecado da sua dignidade.
→ read full articleDrone Attacks: American Citizens and Foreign Civilians
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
The execution of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-Yemeni imam, by a drone attack in Yemen on September 30, 2011 has generated a lively debate among liberally minded lawyers in the United States because al-Awlaki was an American citizen.
→ read full articleThe Fight against Climate Change Is Down To Us – The 99%
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
17 Oct 2011
If there is one thing I know, it’s that the 1% loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatising education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.
→ read full articleIs this a Global Gandhian Moment?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
Mahatma Gandhi has been dead for more than 63 years, and yet his relevance to the politics of our time has never been greater. It is a tribute to the power of Gandhi’s inspirational ideas and life that his current influence is far greater than that of any other leader of the past century.
→ read full articleMissing the Point Twice: International Law as Empire’s Sunday Suit
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
In effect, post-9/11 American ideas of self-defense incorporate by stealth the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war used to justify aggression against Iraq in 2003, which had seemed discredited in international until quietly revived by the Obama presidency.
→ read full articleClass Warfare Indeed
Michael Parenti – Toward Freedom,
10 Oct 2011
And who knows, once we learn to talk about the realities of class power, we are on our way to talking critically about capitalism, another verboten word in the public realm. And once we start a critical discourse about capitalism, we will be vastly better prepared to act against it and defend our own democratic and communal interests.
→ read full article
Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
Stanford University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death itself — at the university’s 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.
→ read full article(Castellano) Haití, País Ocupado
Eduardo Galeano – La Jornada,
10 Oct 2011
Y si a cualquier enciclopedia pregunta usted cuál fue el primer país que abolió la esclavitud, recibirá siempre la misma respuesta: Inglaterra. Pero el primer país que abolió la esclavitud no fue Inglaterra sino Haití, que todavía sigue expiando el pecado de su dignidad.
→ read full articleSpeculation in Agricultural Commodities: Driving up the Price of Food Worldwide and Plunging Millions into Hunger
Edward Miller – Global Research,
10 Oct 2011
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has again delayed the introduction of position limits required under the Dodd-Frank Act. These limits are intended to prevent speculation in (among other things) agricultural commodities, speculation that, many critics argue, have driven up the price of food worldwide and plunged millions into hunger.
→ read full articleInterview on the Palestinian Statehood Bid
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
This post consists of my responses to questions put to me by a Greek journalist, C.J Polychroniou, who long followed intellectual thought in the West, and is a keen analyst of the current European economic crisis.
→ read full articleAn American Awakening?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
We must hope and engage. We can be thankful that this initiative places its focus on financial and corporate structures, and not on the state. Further along these lines, if the struggle will gain momentum it will be totally thanks to politics-from-below. The implicit not so subtle point is that the center of power over the destinies of the American people has shifted its locus from Washington to New York, and from the penthouse to the the basement!! We’ll see!!
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Aumento dos Motins: Um Fenomeno Mundial
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Entrevista com Alain Bertho, professor de antropologia da Universidade de Paris, realizada por Ivan du Roy.
→ read full articleA Modest Proposal: Is It Time for the Community of Non-Nuclear States to Revolt?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
There are 189 countries that are parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) that entered into force in 1970. Only India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea have remained outside the treaty regime so as to be free to acquire the weapons. The nuclear weapons states have done an incredibly successful job, especially the United States, in getting a free ride, continuously modernizing their arsenals while keeping the weapons out of most unwanted hands.
→ read full articleThe Dead Begin to Speak Up In India
Arundhati Roy – The Guardian,
3 Oct 2011
So somebody who wants to invest in a dam, or build a steel plant or a buy a bauxite mine is not considered a security hazard, whereas a scholar who might wish to participate in a seminar about, say, displacement or communalism or rising malnutrition in a globalised economy, is. Terrorists with bad intentions have probably guessed that they are better off wearing Prada suits and pretending they want to buy a mine than admitting that they want to attend a seminar.
→ read full article(Portuguese) 737 Donos do Mundo Controlam 80% do Valor das Empresas Mundiais
Ivan du Roy – Esquerda.net,
3 Oct 2011
Um estudo de economistas e estatísticos, publicado na Suíça neste Verão, dá a conhecer as interligações entre as multinacionais mundiais. E revela que um pequeno grupo de actores económicos – sociedades financeiras ou grupos industriais – domina a grande maioria do capital de dezenas de milhares de empresas no mundo.
→ read full articleReflections on the Abbas Statehood/Membership Speech to the UN General Assembly
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
There is a natural disposition for supporters of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination to suppose that the Palestinian statehood bid must be a positive initiative because it has generated such a frantic Israel effort to have it rejected.
→ read full articleLockdowns and the IMF on Occupied Wall Street
Richard (RJ) Eskow – Nation of Change,
3 Oct 2011
You know why otherwise smart hedge fund managers say crazy things, why they call themselves “a persecuted minority” or react to the suggestion that they pay the same tax rates as a firefighter by comparing it to the invasion of Poland? Because they’re addicts. Junkies, even the smart ones, say crazy things to get their next fix. Especially the smart ones. Wall Street is occupied by … addiction.
→ read full article(Norwegian) Galtung fikk minnepris
Cathrine Sordal - Fædrelandsvennen,
26 Sep 2011
Johan Galtung mottok i dag Erik Byes Minnepris 2011 under Protestfestivalen.
→ read full articleRethinking Afghanistan After a Decade
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
This post is a short essay responding to a question about my dramatic change of position on the Afghanistan War with regard to its initial justification and flawed execution. It is both a reconsideration of errors of judgment and reflections on how the world has changed in the course of this decade, focusing on the inability of the United States to grasp either its own decline or the related decline in the historical agency of hard power approaches to security.
→ read full articleThe Call to Occupy Wall Street Resonates Around the World
Micah White and Kalle Lasn – The Guardian,
26 Sep 2011
On Saturday 17 September, many of us watched in awe as 5,000 Americans descended on to the financial district of lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners, beat drums, chanted slogans. #OCCUPYWALLSTREET was inspired by the people’s assemblies of Spain. Emboldened by an outpouring of international solidarity, these American indignados said they’d be there to greet the bankers when the stock market opened on Monday.
→ read full articlePunching Back at Big Oil
Robert Redford - Reader Supported News,
26 Sep 2011
When you challenge Big Oil in Houston, you can bet the industry is going to punch back. So when I wrote in the Houston Chronicle earlier this month that we should say no to the Keystone XL pipeline, I wasn’t surprised when the project’s chief executive weighed in with a different view. Let’s set the record straight, point by point.
→ read full articleThe American and Global Experience of 9/10, 9/11, 9/12 +10:
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
There is unacknowledged freedom associated with any event inscribed in our individual and collective experience of profoundly disabling and disturbing public occurrences. For most older Americans what is most vividly remembered among such occurrences is likely to have been Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, and the 9/11 attacks, each coming as a shock to a shared societal sense of exceeding the limits of what could be expected to happen.
→ read full articlePreliminary Libyan Scorecard: Acting Beyond the UN Mandate
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
If the governments will not act to uphold agreed and fundamental limits on state violence, especially directed at vulnerable countries and peoples, then as citizens of the world, ‘we the peoples of the United Nations,’ as proclaimed by the Preamble to the Charter need to raise our voices. We have the residual responsibility to act on behalf of international law and morality when the UN falters or when states act beyond the law.
→ read full articlePope Accused of Crimes against Humanity by Victims of Sex Abuse
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
19 Sep 2011
Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have accused the pope, the Vatican secretary of state and two other high-ranking Holy See officials of crimes against humanity, in a formal complaint to the international criminal court (ICC). The submission, lodged at The Hague on Tuesday [13 Sep 2011], accuses the four men not only of failing to prevent or punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence but also of engaging in the “systematic and widespread” practice of concealing sexual crimes around the world.
→ read full articleThe Legal Flaws of the Palmer Commission Flotilla Report
Richard Falk & Phyllis Bennis – TRANSCEND Media Serivce,
19 Sep 2011
The latest United Nations report on last year’s lethal flotilla incident – in which nine people were killed and many injured by Israeli commandos on board a humanitarian ship bound for Gaza – was released at the beginning of September, and generated much controversy. Astonishingly, the only other independent member was its vice-chair, the former president of Colombia. Alvaro Uribe’s notorious history as a human rights abuser who called human rights advocates such as Amnesty International “rats,” as well as his legacy of seeking out the closest possible ties to and defense of Israel while in office, make him wildly inappropriate for such an assignment.
→ read full articleCompanies Ejected From London Arms Fair for ‘Promoting Cluster Bombs’
Nick Hopkins – The Guardian,
19 Sep 2011
Violation of Oslo accord discovered by MP who calls for action to investigate ‘what other breaches are occurring’ at the fair. The action was taken after Caroline Lucas, the Green party leader, discovered that Pakistani arms manufacturers were actively promoting “banned cluster bombs” at their pavilions. Details of the munitions were in brochures readily available to potential customers. The episode is an embarrassment to the fair, which has had 1,300 firms from more than 40 countries seeking orders for weapons.
→ 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 articleAmerica’s Selective Vigilantism Will Make as Many Enemies as Friends
Tariq Ali - The Guardian,
12 Sep 2011
A decade after the attentats of 9/11, the US and its European allies are trapped in a quagmire. The events of that year were simply used as a pretext to remake the world and to punish those states that did not comply. And today while the majority of Euro-American citizens flounder in a moral desert, now unhappy with the wars, now resigned, now propagandised into differentiating what is, in effect, an overarching imperial strategy into good/bad wars.
→ 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 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 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 articleYou Only Believe the Official 9/11 Story Because You Don’t Know the Official 9/11 Story
Jesse Richard – TV News LIES,
5 Sep 2011
During the past 10 years I have not met a single individual who, after doing research on the subject, switched from questioning the official narrative of the events of 9/11/2001 to believing the official narrative of those events.. It is always the other way around. Why do you think that is?
→ 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 articleArab Spring Has Created ‘Intelligence Disaster’, Warns Former CIA Boss
Charlotte Higgins – The Guardian,
29 Aug 2011
Michael Scheuer says rendition should be brought back as lack of intelligence has left UK and US unable to monitor militants. The Arab spring has “delighted al-Qaida” and caused “an intelligence disaster” for the US and Britain, the former head of the CIA unit in charge of pursuing Osama bin Laden has warned.
→ 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 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 articleStudy: Phytochemical Found in Broccoli & Cauliflower Attacks Prostate Cancer Cells
Dr. Edward Group – Global Healing Center,
15 Aug 2011
According to a new study conducted at Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Micronutrient Research Institute confirms that sulforaphane, a phytochemical found in broccoli and related cruciferous vegetables, such as cauliflower and cabbage, have a natural ability to target and attack prostate cancer cells without harming neighboring cells.
→ 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 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 articleShell Accepts Liability for Two Oil Spills in Nigeria
John Vidal – The Guardian,
8 Aug 2011
Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that devastated a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may take at least 20 years to clean up. Experts who studied video footage of the spills at Bodo in Ogoniland say they could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, when 10m gallons of oil destroyed the remote coastline.
→ read full articleOslo: Europe, Islam and the Mainstreaming of Racism
Miriyam Aouragh and Richard Seymour – Jadaliyya,
8 Aug 2011
European media coverage of the Norwegian tragedy has led with dangerous and clichéd arguments about ‘Islamic extremism’ and multiculturalism, even after the identity of the killer was confirmed – thus contributing to the mainstreaming of racism that helped make Breivik what he is.
→ read full articleCan Humanitarian Intervention Ever Be Humanitarian?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Not since the debate about the Kosovo War of 1999 has there been such widespread discussion of humanitarian intervention, including the semantics of coupling ‘humanitarian’ with the word ‘intervention.’
→ read full article(Castellano) Todavía el Fundamentalismo
Leonard Boff – TeleSur,
8 Aug 2011
Barack Obama de Estados Unidos y David Cameron del Reino Unido se apresuraron a solidarizarse con el gobierno de Noruega y reforzaron la idea de dar batalla mortal al terrorismo, presuponiendo que sería un acto de Al Qaeda. Prejuicio. Esta vez era un nativo, blanco, de ojos azules, con nivel superior y cristiano, aunque The New York Times lo presente como «sin cualidades y fácil de olvidar».
→ read full articlePeak Oil: A Chance to Change the World
Richard Heinberg – Yes! Magazine,
8 Aug 2011
For advice about life after graduation, students at Worcester Polytechnic wanted to hear from peak oil scholar Richard Heinberg instead of Exxon’s CEO. Here’s what he told them.
→ read full articleParadigm Meltdown and Opportunities for Peacebuilding
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
A question that it would seem to be reasonable to ask is how to raise wages and employ everyone who wants a job, without raising prices, without militarism, and without damage to the environment.
→ read full articleGround Your Warplanes, Save the Horn of Africa
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
1 Aug 2011
“When you are hungry, cold is a killer, and the people here are starving and helpless.”
→ read full articleWarfare without Limits: A Darkening Human Horizon
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
There are several pressures that push war in the direction of the absolute, and imperil the human future. Perhaps, the foremost of these is emergence, use, retention, and proliferation of nuclear weapons, as well as the development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.
→ read full articlePFC Bradley Manning: Conscience and Agency
Ethan McCord – Common Dreams,
18 Jul 2011
The following is a response to last week’s New York Magazine article, Bradley Manning’s Army of One. Serving with my unit 2nd battalion 16th infantry in New Baghdad Iraq, I vividly remember the moment in 2007, when our Battalion Commander walked into the room and announced our new rules of engagement: “Listen up, new battalion SOP (standing operating procedure) from now on: Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every [expletive] in the street!”
→ read full article(Portuguese) “As Farmacêuticas Bloqueiam Medicamentos que Curam, Porque Não São Rentáveis”
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2011
O Prémio Nobel da Medicina Richard J. Roberts denuncia a forma como funcionam as grandes farmacêuticas dentro do sistema capitalista, preferindo os benefícios económicos à saúde, e detendo o progresso científico na cura de doenças, porque a cura não é tão rentável quanto a cronicidade.
→ read full articleDilemmas of Sovereignty and Intervention
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2011
The Arab Spring (and its troublesome, yet still hopeful, aftermath in Egypt), intervention in Libya, nonintervention in Syria and Bahrain, drone military operations in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the influx of unwanted immigrants and walls of exclusion, and selective applications of international criminal law draw into question the most basic of all ideas of world order: the sovereignty of territorial states, and its limits.
→ read full articleDefaulting Rescued Argentina. It Could Work for Athens Too
Heather Stewart – The Guardian,
11 Jul 2011
Struggling under an impossible burden after its IMF bailouts, Buenos Aires knew its one hope was to stop paying its debts and become a pariah – and so it proved.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Israel: O Tsunami Que Está a Chegar
Immanuel Wallerstein, Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2011
Os palestinianos estão a trabalhar para obter o reconhecimento formal da sua soberania na reunião de Outono da Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas. A sua intenção é solicitar uma declaração de que o Estado existe dentro das fronteiras de 1967, anteriores à guerra israelo-palestiniana. É quase certo que a votação será favorável. A única questão, no momento, é quão favorável.
→ read full articleEurope Declares War on Rating Agencies
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor – The Telegraph,
11 Jul 2011
A chorus of policy-makers from Europe and across the world have denounced Moody’s drastic downgrade of Portuguese debt as an act of financial vandalism, accusing the “Anglo-Saxon” rating agencies of driving states into bankruptcy and destabilising the global system.
→ read full article(Italian) La Possibile Scelta di Nonviolenza dei Palestinesi e Israele
Maria Grazia Enardu – Centro Studi Sereno Regis,
11 Jul 2011
Fra le nuove generazioni di palestinesi si sta diffondendo, con esiti ancora difficili da prevedere, una forma di lotta che, fino a poco tempo fa, sarebbe stata quantomeno definita bizzarra per quella regione: la nonviolenza. Di certo, se riuscisse a coinvolgere un grande numero di persone, rischierà di mettere in seria difficoltà l’esercito israeliano.
→ read full articleSabotaging Flotilla II: Waging War against Civil Society
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2011
It is useful to compare the Flotilla II unfolding experience with the Rainbow Warrior incident. At the time, the French nuclear tests in the Pacific were considered legal, although intensely contested, while the blockade of Israel is widely viewed as a prolonged instance of collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law, specifically Article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention.
→ read full articleRighting Wrongs the Maori Way
Allan MacRae & Howard Zehr – Yes! Magazine,
11 Jul 2011
Instead of prison, New Zealand chooses restorative justice and community problem-solving.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Mercados Começam as Apostas Sobre Qual Será o Próximo País a Cair
Marco Antonio Moreno, Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2011
O casino está aberto. William Hill, a maior casa de apostas de Londres, vaticina que o próximo país a pedir auxílio será a Espanha. Paga 1,1 euros por cada euro apostado, enquanto que o resgate italiano é pago a 3 por 1, o da Bélgica a 5 por 1 e o hipotético resgate da Alemanha é pago a 500 por 1. Rendida a Grécia, e submetida aos draconianos planos de ajustamento e cortes que a troika UE/BCE/FMI impõe, o apetite dos mercados começa a procurar a próxima vítima. Portugal e a Itália são os favoritos.
→ read full articleInstances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2010
Richard F. Grimmett, Congressional Research Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2011
March 10, 2011 – This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes.
→ read full articleThe International Criminal Court Plays Politics? The Qaddafi Arrest Warrants
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2011
This politicized use of the ICC in the course of the Libyan War offers an opportunity for those dedicated to global justice, especially in the Arab world, to insist that international law should no longer serve as a plaything for those who intervene with hard power in their region from the comfort zone of NATO headquarters.
→ read full articleChad Signs Plan to End Recruitment and Use of Children in National Army and Security Forces
Cassandra Clifford – Foreign Policy Association,
4 Jul 2011
Last week on 16 June 2011 the government of the African nation Chad signed an action plan to end recruitment and use of children in its national army and security forces.
→ read full articleWorld’s Wealthiest People Now Richer Than Before the Credit Crunch
Jill Treanor – The Guardian,
4 Jul 2011
We are not all in this together. The UK economy is flat, the US is weak and the Greek debt crisis, according to some commentators, is threatening another Lehman Brothers-style meltdown. But a new report shows the world’s wealthiest people are getting more prosperous – and more numerous – by the day.
→ read full articleA Few Notes on WHAT IS LEFT (or Toward a Manifesto for Revolutionary Emancipation)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2011
These notes are meant as tentative and conversational expressions of an emergent political point of view, and will be revised in response to commentary by others. Obviously, also, there is no pretension on my part of comprehensiveness, or else many other issues would have been addressed.
→ read full articleNo Impunity for Killing by Drones
Richard Johnson, Oxford Research Group - InDepth News,
27 Jun 2011
“If you use drones you must confirm and report who they killed,” international lawyers say, adding: “Drones don’t allow hit and run.” In fact, states that authorize or use armed drones as well as those who launch and control them are obliged to identify the deceased so as to provide reparations or compensation for possible wrongful killing, injury and other offences.
→ read full articleTurkey, the Region, and the West after the Elections
Richard Falk & Hilal Elver – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2011
What emerges overall is this American led reluctance to accept Turkey as an independent regional force in the Middle East that has achieved enormous influence in recent years by relying on its own brand of soft power diplomacy. A dramatic indicator of this influence is the great popularity of Erdogan throughout the region, including among the youth who brought about the uprisings against authoritarian rule throughout the Arab world. It is an encouraging sign of the times that these new Arab champions of democracy are coming to Ankara and Istanbul, not Washington, Tel Aviv, or Paris, for guidance and inspiration.
→ read full articleLeaked: Mainstream Media’s Dictionary – Letter C (satire)
Imran Garda – Al Jazeera,
27 Jun 2011
caliphate. n.
Future involving Ayman Al-Zawahiri sitting on a throne watching bearded footballers in long shorts contesting the Islamic Cup final in Seville.
(Portuguese) Vida nos Oceanos Pode Enfrentar Extinção sem Precedentes, Diz Estudo
Richard Black - BBC News,
27 Jun 2011
Um novo estudo indica que os ecossistemas marinhos enfrentam perigos ainda maiores do que os estimados até agora pelos cientistas e que correm o risco de entrar em uma fase de extinção de espécies sem precedentes na história da humanidade.
→ read full articleOur Battle to End Hunger
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – The Guardian,
20 Jun 2011
No country can achieve sustainable development without improving the living conditions of its people; and the Brazilian experience shows that overcoming hunger requires co-ordinated actions, political will and the participation of all society.
→ read full articleLeaked: Mainstream Media’s Dictionary (satire) – Letters A to B
Imran Garda – Al Jazeera,
20 Jun 2011
academic. adj.
Man in bow-tie. Usually represents think-tank or university. Explains the science behind global warming and/or new CERN project while anchor nods pretending to understand.
baggage. n.
Part of travelling entourage left unfondled by the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
(Portuguese) Italianos Votam pela Água Pública, Rejeitam Energia Nuclear e Imunidade de Berlusconi
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
Nos quatro referendos realizados em Itália participaram 57% dos eleitores, tendo o “Sim” ganho por largas maiorias, próximas ou superiores a 95%. Assim, os italianos votaram pela água pública e contra o aumento do preço das tarifas, rejeitaram a energia nuclear e a imunidade de Berlusconi.
→ read full articleIs the State a Monster? Pro and Contra Nietzsche
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
In Part One of Friederich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra there is a particularly provocative section entitled ‘Of the New Idol.’ Remembering that this pivotal writing of the great German thinker/philosopher, so often misinterpreted, was written in 1881, it is surprising how relevant and invigorating its strong language remains in 2011.
→ read full articleLifting the Lid on Sri Lanka’s War Crimes
Callum Macrae – The Guardian,
20 Jun 2011
My film Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields exposes atrocities committed against civilian Tamils that the UN must not ignore. If the UN fails yet again, the message to every tyrant and repressive government will be clear: if you want to kill your own people with impunity, you will probably get away with it. (Watch a 2-min video clip in SHORT VIDEOS and the full documentary in IN-DEPTH VIDEOS).
→ read full article