Articles by M

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Gorilla Hunting
TMS Editor, 20 Jun 2011

A woman woke up one morning to find a ferocious-looking gorilla in a tree on her African plantation. She quickly phoned the local game warden, which arrived minutes later.

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Fukushima: It’s Much Worse Than You Think
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera, 20 Jun 2011

Scientific experts believe Japan’s nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public. “Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind,” Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.

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Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields
Channel 4 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2011

UK Channel 4 Full Video – Jon Snow presents a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers. With disturbing and distressing descriptions and film of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians the programme features devastating new video evidence of war crimes – some of the most horrific footage Channel 4 has ever broadcast.

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(Portuguese) Porque os Grandes do Mundo Mentem
Marcelo Barros – Pátria Latina, 20 Jun 2011

As mentiras dos poderosos são de vários tipos. Há as de caráter pessoal, como quando depois de eleitos, os políticos esquecem ou negam promessas de campanha. Há mentiras de conteúdo econômico. E há as que justificam ou provocam guerras, massacres de povos inteiros e lançam países em aventuras inconcebíveis e inconseqüentes, como fez George Bush e agora fazem os governos que coordenam ações militares na Líbia e em outros países.

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New Insights into Beleaguered Africa
Jaya Ramachandran - InDepth News, 20 Jun 2011

“Africa has gone through a remarkable decade of economic transformation. The continent is abuzz with talk of new investment, new cities, new airports, new refineries: The new African Lions,” says a new study offering an upbeat insight into the continent and expanding South-South relations.

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Does Portugal Have the Solution to Our Drug Epidemic?
The Independent, Ireland – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2011

In 2001 Portugal became the first country in the EU to decriminalise drug use. The leader of the country’s People’s Party, Paulo Portas, said plane-loads of foreign students would head for the Algarve for “sun, beaches and any drug you like”. Yet, 10 years on, Portugal’s drug policy is being held up as the model for other countries to follow. Rather than criminalising people found in possession of drugs, they are sent to a “dissuasion commission” for treatment and the results have been spectacular.

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New Footage Emerges of ‘Sri Lanka War Crimes’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2011

WARNING: Some viewers may find some of the scenes disturbing. 2m:52s clip.

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War on Drugs: Fast, Furious and Fueled by the U.S.
Amy Goodman - Truthdig, 20 Jun 2011

The violent deaths of Brian Terry and Juan Francisco Sicilia, separated by the span of just a few months and by the increasingly bloody U.S.-Mexico border, have sparked separate but overdue examinations of the so-called War on Drugs, and how the U.S. government is ultimately exacerbating the problem.

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Global Harmony: Realization of World Peace
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2011

In every era of history we notice people everywhere yearning for true peace that makes everyone a winner and no one a loser. The genuine path for a permanent peace has been provided to us by many religious leaders over the centuries.

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Call Off the Global Drug War
Jimmy Carter, 2002 Nobel Peace laureate – The New York Times, 20 Jun 2011

In an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade.

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Bahrain’s Dictatorship and the Pentagon
Jacob G. Hornberger – Future of Freedom Foundation, 20 Jun 2011

What distinguishes the Bahrain dictatorship from, say, the Libyan or Syrian dictatorships, is that the U.S. government supports the dictatorship in Bahrain while opposing the Libyan and Syrian dictatorships. Thus, not only does U.S. foreign aid flow into the Bahrain dictatorship, the U.S. military also has a major base there. The Bahrain dictatorship is accusing those 20 doctors of participating in anti-government protests in Bahrain. Guess what type of court the doctors are being tried in. You got it: a military tribunal, just like those employed by the Pentagon at Guantanamo Bay.

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I Am Bradley Manning
TMS Editor, 20 Jun 2011

Bradley Manning is the accused WikiLeaks source who allegedly provided the truth about the human cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, exposed government corruption and lies around the world, and changed journalism forever. He has been held in punitive pretrial detainment for nearly a year.

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Kumi Naidoo Scales Cairn’s Arctic Oil Rig
Greenpeace – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2011

In a small boat launched from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza Kumi Naidoo, the Executive Director of Greenpeace International crossed into an exclusion zone and scaled a controversial Arctic oil rig 120 km off the coast of Greenland.

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Lifting 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).

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Gaza’s Hospital Stock Running on Near Empty
Mohammed Omer – Al Jazeera, 20 Jun 2011

Hospitals in Gaza are forced to cancel operations due to lack of medical supplies as the Israeli blockade continues. Human rights groups in Gaza are urgently requesting that international aid groups and donor groups to intervene and deliver urgent medical aid to Palestinian hospitals in Gaza. Palestinian officials say that Gaza’s medicinal stock is nearly empty and is in crisis. This affects first aid care, in addition to all other levels of medical procedures.

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The Financial Road to Serfdom: How Bankers use the Debt Crisis to Roll Back the Progressive Era
Prof. Michael Hudson – Global Research, 20 Jun 2011

At issue is sovereignty itself, when it comes to government responsibility for debts. And in this respect the war being waged against Greece by the European Central Bank (ECB) may best be seen as a dress rehearsal not only for the rest of Europe, but for what financial lobbyists would like to bring about in the United States.

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Bilderberg 2011: The Rockefeller World Order and the “High Priests of Globalization”
Andrew Gavin Marshall – Global Research, 20 Jun 2011

The Bilderberg Group, formed in 1954, was founded in the Netherlands as a secretive meeting held once a year, drawing roughly 130 of the political-financial-military-academic-media elites from North America and Western Europe as “an informal network of influential people who could consult each other privately and confidentially.”

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Mind Map of Global Civilizational Collapse: Why Nothing is Happening in Response to Global Challenges
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2011

Produced on the occasion of the release of a map of a massive cosmic galactic collision 11 million light years from Earth — and massive uprisings in the Mediterranean region on Earth, endangering the European and global economies.

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Interpreting the AKP Victory in Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2011

The following post was written jointly with Hilal Elver, who is a Turkish scholar and public intellectual. It offers commentary on the recent AKP victory, which is viewed as a significant and hopeful development in Turkish, and regional, politics.

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“Don’t Look Away—The Siege of Gaza Must End”
Kathy Kelly – Common Dreams, 20 Jun 2011

In late June 2011, I’m going to be a passenger on “The Audacity of Hope,” the USA boat in this summer’s international flotilla to break the illegal and deadly Israeli siege of Gaza. Organizers, supporters and passengers aim to nonviolently end the brutal collective punishment imposed on Gazan residents since 2006 when the Israeli government began a stringent air, naval and land blockade of the Gaza Strip explicitly to punish Gaza’s residents for choosing the Hamas government in a democratic election.

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Remote Control Killing Like Sport
Stephen Lendman – Information Clearing House, 20 Jun 2011

It’s America’s newest sport. From distant command centers, far from target sights, sounds, and smells, operators dismissively ignore human carnage showing up as computer screen blips little different from video game images. The difference, of course, is people die, mostly noncombatants. More on that below.

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(Italian) Economia di Guerra e di Pace (Prima Parte)
Dietrich M. Fischer – Centro Studi Sereno Regis, 13 Jun 2011

La teoria economica può contribuire a una migliore comprensione di come possono essere risolti senza violenza i conflitti d’interesse, e di come possiamo costruire un sistema di pace costituito da politiche in reciproco rafforzamento che garantiscano il benessere generale e la trasformazione pacifica dei conflitti.

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(Italian) Economia di Guerra e di Pace (Seconda Parte)
Dietrich M. Fischer – Centro Studi Sereno Regis, 13 Jun 2011

La teoria economica può contribuire a una migliore comprensione di come possono essere risolti senza violenza i conflitti d’interesse, e di come possiamo costruire un sistema di pace costituito da politiche in reciproco rafforzamento che garantiscano il benessere generale e la trasformazione pacifica dei conflitti.

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The General’s Son (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Alternate Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Miko Peled is a peace activist who dares to say in public what others still choose to deny. Born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well known Zionist family, his grandfather, Dr. Avraham Katsnelson was a Zionist leader and signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

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(Castellano) ¿HUMANITARIA, o INTERVENCIÓN?
Johan Galtung, 30 de Mayo de 2011 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

El problema está en el término “intervención humanitaria”. “Humanitaria” está bien: proteger a las víctimas de la matanza y de la represión autocrática. Luego viene la parte “intervención”.

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Aging, Not Overpopulation…
Johan Galtung, 13 Jun 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

…will be the dominant tendency of the 21st century demography. By depriving people of work, forcing them into jobs and retirement, we produce health problems that tax strained economies further. Work is a fine mode of living; jobs may be necessary burdens. Money is used to bribe us into jobs for our livelihood. A rational society would have a living income for all, for food, clothing and housing, free health services, free education from Kindergarten to PhD; making us free to work.

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Forty Years of Drug War Failure
Helen Redmond – Socialist Worker, 13 Jun 2011

THE WAR on drugs in the U.S. turned 40 years old this year, but there’s nothing to celebrate. No victory has been declared, and there is no exit strategy. The U.S. imprisons 2.3 million people, more than any other country in the world. According to the Sentencing Project, in 2008, drug offenders made up more than half of the inmates in federal prisons.

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(Castellano) Presidente de Colombia Promulgó Ley de Reparación de Víctimas del Conflicto Armado
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Con la presencia de su equipo de gobierno y del secretario general de la ONU, Ban Ki- Moon, este viernes fue promulgada por el Presidente de Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, la Ley de Reparación a Víctimas del Conflicto Armado y de Restitución de Tierras en Colombia.

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Victims’ Law Enacted in Colombia
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Colombia has enacted a landmark “Victims’ Law” aimed at redressing the estimated four million victims of the country’s long-running internal conflict. The law creates mechanisms for compensating survivors of the tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, killed since 1985 in Colombia’s civil war. Stolen land is to be returned to hundreds of thousands of displaced.

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Economic Attacks against Arab Democracy
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Palestine – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

In their latest documents and meetings, the G8, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund reacted to the democratic movements in the Arab world: The recipe calls – as it did before the popular ousting of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents – for privatization, austerity measures and “market liberation”.

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Hope in the Andes: What Ollanta Humala’s Victory Means for Peru
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom, 13 Jun 2011

Ollanta is an Incan name meaning “the warrior everyone looks to.” Indeed, all eyes were on the leftist president-elect as he greeted the crowd. This election puts Humala among a growing number of leftist presidents in Latin America and offers hope to the poorest sectors of Peruvian society. The poverty rate in Peru is just over 31 percent. In Sunday’s elections, it was the impoverished rural areas that went for Humala over Kieko Fujimori.

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Understanding Political Reality in Syria
Robin Edward Poulton, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

In his OpEd of June 3rd entitled The Depravity Factor, David Brooks writes emotionally about a murdered 13-year-old Syrian boy called Hamza Ali al-Khateeb. The descriptions and internet photographs of Hamza’s tortured body are horrible, but Brooks draws from this story a set of political conclusions that are unjustified by anything we know about Syria or the region we vaguely think of as the ‘Middle East’.

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The Great Land Grab: India’s War on Farmers
Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Land, for most people in the world, is Terra Madre, Mother Earth, Bhoomi, Dharti Ma. The land is people’s identity; it is the ground of culture and economy. The bond with the land is a bond with Bhoomi, our Earth; 75 per cent of the people in the Third World live on the land and are supported by the land. The Earth is the biggest employer on the planet: 75 per cent of the wealth of the people of the global south is in land.

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Old Age
TMS Editor, 13 Jun 2011

A woman walks up to an old man sitting in a chair on his porch.

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Sudan: Half the Horror Remains Untold
Tendai Marima – Al Jazeera, 13 Jun 2011

As the south prepares to declare independence, western media incorrectly frame current violence as entirely one-sided.

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Peace Education: Source of National Unity and Global Harmony
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

The Webster Dictionary of the English Language describes peace as a “state of tranquility; freedom from war; cessation of hostilities; and harmony.” In a peaceful community, we notice a great serenity radiating in the hearts of its members. Genuine peace emanates from the inside.

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(Castellano) Los Piratas Somalíes: Pescadores en Lucha Contra el Saqueo Occidental
Johann Hari, Mohamed Abshirwaldo & Najad Abdullahi - TeleSur, 13 Jun 2011

La prensa comercial en los países del norte sólo hablan de ellos cada vez que un occidental es secuestrado. Nunca han contado le verdadera historia de los «piratas» somalíes ni las condiciones de vida de sus compatriotas. Esta gente está en lucha contra el pillaje de pesca occidental y la descarga de basura tóxica en sus aguas de los países industrializados, principalmente a cargo de las mafias europeas.

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WikiLeaks Haiti: Let Them Live on $3 a Day
Dan Coughlin and Kim Ives – The Nation, 13 Jun 2011

New revelations from WikiLeaks show how the US micromanaged Haiti’s economy and politics to align it to US interests. The US Embassy aided Fruit of the Loom, Levi’s and Hanes contractors in their fight against an increase in Haiti’s minimum wage. The factory owners refused to pay 62 cents per hour, or $5 per day, as a measure unanimously passed by the Haitian Parliament in June 2009 would have mandated. And they had the vigorous backing of the US Agency for International Development.

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‘Anonymous’ Warns NATO: ‘This Is No Longer Your World’
Graeme McMillan - Time, 13 Jun 2011

Anthropomorphic confusion aside, a NATO security report about “Anonymous”—the mysterious “hacktivist” group responsible for attacks on MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Amazon and, most recently, Sony—has led the underground group to respond by cautioning NATO, “This is no longer your world. It is our world – the people’s world.”

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A Fatally Flawed Recovery Plan: Greece Back on the Brink
Manfred Ertel, Christian Reiermann and Anne Seith – Der Spiegel, 13 Jun 2011

Greece needs even more money — EU officials estimate that a new bailout will cost over 100 billion euros rather than the previously assumed 60 billion. It will get the aid, even though the rescue strategy adopted so far seems doomed. The economy is shrinking, and ambitious privatization plans are illusory.

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IMF Financial Terrorism
Stephen Lendman - Activist Post, 13 Jun 2011

Under a new post-war monetary system, the IMF was created to stabilize exchange rates linked to the dollar and bridge temporary payment imbalances. The World Bank was to provide credit to war-torn developing countries. Both bodies, in fact, proved hugely exploitive, using debt entrapment to transfer public wealth to Western bankers and other corporate predators. On a grander scale today, the scheme destructively obligates indebted nations to take new loans to service old ones, assuring rising indebtedness and structural adjustment harshness.

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‘Lasting Peace Only Possible with Hamas on Board’
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

It is time for the European Union to rethink its policy in the Middle East. That is the demand being made by 24 former heads of government, foreign ministers and peace negotiators. A Hamas recognition of Israel should be the goal rather than the precondition of the peace process, the leaders write in an open letter.

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Blame the ’60s? The Catholic Church’s Latest Shameless Ploy
Jim Hightower - AlterNet, 13 Jun 2011

Pedophilia isn’t a social habit that one adopts. It’s a sickness. Deal with it. Honestly.

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Bit of [belated] Friendly Advice, Portugal
The Independent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Dear Portugal, this is Ireland here. I know we don’t know each other very well, though I hear some of our developers are down with you riding out the recession. They could be there for a while. Anyway, I don’t mean to intrude but I’ve been reading about you in the papers and it strikes me that I might be able to offer you a bit of advice on where you are at and what lies ahead. As the joke now goes, what’s the difference between Portugal and Ireland? Five letters and six months.

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Reframing the Dynamics of Engaging with Otherness
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Triadic Correspondences between Topology, Kama Sutra and I Ching – Produced on the occasion of the open solicitation for proposals for the The Metaphor Program of the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity with participation of the US Army Research Laboratory. The challenge of engaging with “others” and their “otherness” is fundamental to the difficulties of governance at every level of society — from the global to the individual.

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Formula One Race in Bahrain Cancelled
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Bahrain Grand Prix organisers cancel race amid accusations of human rights abuses in government crackdown on protesters. Last week’s postponement triggered outrage among human rights campaigners, who had organised more than 455,000 people to sign an online petition calling on sponsors to boycott the Bahrain race.

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Back from the Dead: Astonishing Pictures Show How Japan Is Recovering Just Three Months after Tsunami
Emily Allen – Daily Mail, 13 Jun 2011

Three months on, these images show the Japanese people remain undaunted by the havoc nature has wreaked on their homeland as step by step they rebuild their nation.

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UN Sends Discouraging Word to Second Freedom Flotilla
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Freedom Flotilla II Activists reject UN call to discourage initiative “Road to Gaza.” The second Freedom Flotilla sails the third week of June bound for the Gaza Strip. The UN Secretary-General last week called on Israel to “act responsibly” and avoid engaging in violence in this new attempt to break the blockade, but urged the leaders in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Sweden and Germany to convince the pro-Palestinian organizations not to participate in Freedom Flotilla II.

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Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day 2011
TMS Editor, 13 Jun 2011

A State-Supported Display of Racism and Hatred: Jun 1, 2011 – Israelis walking in the Arab neighbourhoud at 4 o’clock in the morning while chanting “Death to the Arabs”. Pure, senseless provocation.

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U.S. Militarization in Latin America Condemned
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Conference condemns the militarization of Latin America by U.S. It is now necessary to consider the military bases, the actions of paramilitaries in Colombia, the different forms of state terrorism employed, the presence of U.S. troops in Haiti and the situation of Mexico, facing a war between drug trafficking cartels, which has left over 37,000 dead since December 2006.

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(Castellano) Eduardo Galeano en la Acampada Catalunya, Barcelona
TMS Editor, 13 Jun 2011

LEGENDADO EM PORTUGUES – Con los Indignados de Espana: Eduardo Galeano–famoso escritor, jornalista e novelista uruguaio–na Praça Catalunya, Barcelona, transmite uma mensagem inspiradora, penetrante e honesta para a juventude.

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‘Sophisticated Cyber Attack’ Targets IMF
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

The International Monetary Fund’s computer system has been targeted in a cyber attack which sought to gain an ‘insider presence’ in the organisation’s network. An IMF spokesperson said on Saturday [11 Jun 2011] that the network was hacked and much information was stolen prior to the May 14 arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but would not release more details about what was taken. “This was a very major breach,” a senior official with knowledge of the attack told the New York Times.

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The Rage of the ‘Indignants’: A European Generation Takes to the Streets
Mathieu von Rohr and Helene Zuber - Der Spiegel, 13 Jun 2011

For weeks, hundreds of young people have been camping out in central Madrid. And others across Europe have now begun following their example. Protests in Lisbon, Paris, Athens and elsewhere show that Europe’s lost generation has finally found its voice.

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Economic Hit Men
John Perkins – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

An animated presentation by John Perkins, author of ‘Hood Winked’ and ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.’

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Rewitnessing the Past
P.V. Rajagopal – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Sunday June 5th, 2011 will be remembered as a day of chaos, confusion and shock for the civil society organizations throughout India. While most people were sleeping, 5,000 policemen stormed the premises of Ramlila Maidan fairground of New Delhi –a place where people take up nonviolent protest, and the police practiced the lost art of using sticks to beat human beings while they were sleeping. This short note is to ask all friends and supporters of nonviolent struggles for the rights of marginalized to join hands and express global solidarity for change.

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Landmark Agreement on Amazon Oilfields Shows Indigenous Movements’ New Power
Darrin Mortenson - Truthout, 13 Jun 2011

The twist on an otherwise old story was that, after several years of violent protests over resource extraction throughout the Amazon, this group of 18 Quechua Apus, or community chiefs, confidently strode into the government building wearing face paint and headbands, flanked by a team of lawyers, anthropologists and media, and demanded to see the governor. They walked out three days later with a contract for new schools, doctors, and other infrastructure, as well as a government pledge to conduct blood and water tests that could be used as evidence in a possible lawsuit. And, with Gov. Iván Vásquez, they seemed to have made a powerful new friend.

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European Opposition to Death Penalty: German Minister Denies US Request for Execution Drugs
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

For months, dozens of US states have been facing shortages of a drug necessary in lethal injections administered to death-row prisoners. But German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler this week declined a request from his counterpart, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, to help out.

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Approaches to Citizen-Centric Policing
Bishnu Pathak, PhD – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2011

Citizen-Centric Policing (CCP) or Neighborhood Policing (NP) is radar of Community Policing (CP). The CP is a policing practice that aims to increase interaction between citizens and police officials for public safety and quality of life in the community. More than tactics, strategy, and technique, it has become the national mantra to spring up in urban, suburban, and even rural police departments or police stations. The CP promises to change relationships progressively to improve the living conditions of neighborhoods.

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Richard Falk on the Golan Clashes
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

5 Jun 2011 – Richard Falk is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.

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Despite Intelligence Rejecting Iran Nuclear Threat, US May Be Headed for Iraq Redux (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Seymour Hersh – Democracy NOW!, 6 Jun 2011

Democracy Now! interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh about his latest article for the New Yorker magazine, “Iran and the Bomb: How Real is the Nuclear Threat?”, in which he reports that the United States might attack Iran based on distorted estimates of Iran’s nuclear and military threat—just like it did with Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq.

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FIA-Bahrain: Putting Money before Morality?
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

Motorsports world governing body [Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile-FIA] votes to hold Bahrain Grand Prix despite concerns from human rights groups.

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A Shameless Secretary General versus Freedom Flotilla 2
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

In light of these surrounding circumstances, including the failure of Israel to live up to its announced promise after the attack in 2010 to lift the blockade, it shocks our moral and legal sensibilities that the UN Secretary General should be using the authority of his office to urge member governments to prevent ships from joining Freedom Flotilla 2.

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Who Does the Preah Vihear Temple Belong To?
Tom Fawthrop – Al Jazeera, 6 Jun 2011

Thailand-Cambodia conflict over ancient temple site sparks debate over borders and historic rights. Aggressive nationalism, a politicised Thai army asserting a stronger role in politics, the current election campaign, and the country’s chronic instability, have effectively derailed plans by Cambodia and UNESCO to move forward with heritage conservation to restore the temple.

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Buying Time: Global Leaders Play the Game As Israeli Settlements Expand
Ashley Lackovich-van Gorp – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

Young Israelis, who have grown up with the social construction that Palestinian land is nothing more than a fabrication of the anti-Semitic international community, do not realize that some of the East Jerusalem communities, such as the entire city of Ma’ale Adumim, are actually settlements. These settlements look, act and function like any other Israeli town. These young Israelis, then, are more victims of an ideology than deliberate perpetrators of occupation. The Occupation is a tragedy not only to Palestinian youth, but Israeli youth as well.

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‘The People Don’t Want War’
Jim Albertini, Center for Nonviolent Education and Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

Truth From An Unexpected Source – ”Why of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” – Herman Goering, Nazi Germany

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Oxfam: Hunger Will Strike
The Independent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

The charity warns that we will be unable to feed the world by 2050. Is it politics, global warming or greed that has got us here? And, asks Sean O’Grady, why aren’t we changing our behaviour to ensure a safer future?

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The Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families (Part 1)
Dean Henderson | Global Research - TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

The Four Horsemen of Banking (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) own the Four Horsemen of Oil (Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco); in tandem with Deutsche Bank, BNP, Barclays and other European old money behemoths. But their monopoly over the global economy does not end at the edge of the oil patch. According to company 10K filings to the SEC, the Four Horsemen of Banking are among the top ten stock holders of virtually every Fortune 500 corporation.

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Elections-Portugal: Rubberstamping IMF Prescriptions
Mario Queiroz – TerraViva Europe, 6 Jun 2011

Voters in crisis-stricken Portugal will go to the ballot boxes next Sunday [5 Jun 2011] to choose not a government, but something more like delegates who will administer decisions already taken by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. The new government has already been described by analysts as a “board of administrators” delegated by the troika that approved the country’s financial rescue plan.

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World’s Food System Broken
Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter – The Independent, 6 Jun 2011

Doubling of prices and 70 per cent rise in demand means millions more will go hungry.

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The Last Nail by Ron Paul — With Documented Hyperlinks
Thomas R. Eddlem - New American, 6 Jun 2011

Congressman Ron Paul delivered a five-minute speech on the floor of the House of Representatives May 25, a short speech that may sound to the uninformed like one wild statement after another. In his speech, Dr. Paul (he’s an obstetrician) made a number of charges that the executive branch of government has established a virtual dictatorship with the willing assistance of Congress and many Americans who fear for their “security.”

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Global War on Drugs ‘A Failure’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

A high-level international commission has declared the global “war on drugs” to be a failure, and has urged countries to consider legalising certain drugs, including cannabis, in a bid to undermine organised crime. The Global Commission on Drug Policy, in its report released on Thursday [2 Jun 2011], called for a new approach to the current strategy of reducing drug abuse by strictly criminalising drugs and incarcerating users.

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Help
TMS Editor, 6 Jun 2011

One afternoon a man was riding in his limousine when he noticed two men eating grass by the road side. He ordered his driver to stop and got out to investigate.

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A Report That Dares to Tell the Truth to Power
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

Global commissions normally tell international leaders what they want to hear. But the Global Commission on Drug Policy – which has called on the services of distinguished names such Paul Volcker, Kofi Annan, Mario Vargas Llosa and Javier Solana – has done something very different. Instead of telling world leaders what they want to hear, the commission has, instead, told them the truth.

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Dumb Question of the Twenty-first Century: Is It Legal?
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch, 6 Jun 2011

Is the Libyan war legal? Was Bin Laden’s killing legal? Is it legal for the president of the United States to target an American citizen for assassination? Were those “enhanced interrogation techniques” legal? These are all questions raised in recent weeks. Each seems to call out for debate, for answers. Or does it? My answer is this: they are irrelevant.

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The U.S.-Israeli Train Wreck
Jeff Gates – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

Critics doubt that the General Assembly has the authority to recognize Palestine. Yet protection of member sovereignty has been a goal of the U.N. since its founding. Thus the priority that Israel placed on U.N. recognition after President Harry Truman acknowledged Israel on May 14, 1948, eleven minutes after the Zionist enclave declared itself a state.

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An Unpalatable Truth: The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism
John Pilger – Information Clearing House, 6 Jun 2011

This prize is in honour of one of the 20th century’s greatest reporters. Julian Assange is an editor, publisher and journalist in the oldest and finest tradition of our craft. He is brave. He is a true agent of people; and I should say that those who dismiss him a hacker merely betray themselves as hacks.

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8 June: Day of the Oceans
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

The Spirit of Thor Heyerdahl Sails On – The United Nations General Assembly has designated 8 June each year to be The Day of the Oceans and the Law of the Sea.

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Time Running Out for Two-State Solution
Mel Frykberg – Inter Press Service-IPS, 6 Jun 2011

Time is of the essence if the implementation of a two-state solution to end the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to succeed. Changing demographics both within Israeli and Palestinian society could render this impossible, with a one-state solution the only feasible outcome. An eventual one-state solution, however, would lead to two possible scenarios. Either Israel would extend the franchise to all Palestinians in the occupied territories, which would lead to the end of Israel’s Jewish character, or Palestinians would be denied the vote and Israel would be officially pronounced an apartheid state.

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God Is Not A Christian: And Other Provocations
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

‘God is clearly not a Christian. His concern is for all his children. To claim God exclusively for Christians is to make God too small… God is bigger than Christians and cares for more than Christians only.’

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“Business is Booming”: Wall Street’s Role in Narco-trafficking
Mike Whitney – Information Clearing House, 6 Jun 2011

Repeat: “Every major bank in the US has served as an active financial partner of the murderous drug cartels…” The War on Drugs is a fraud. This isn’t about interdiction; it’s about control. Washington provides the muscle so the banks can rake in the big doe. One hand washes the other, just like the Mafia.

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(Castellano) America la Bella
Johan Galtung, 23 de mayo de 2011 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

¿Qué es lo que caracteriza, de modo específico, único, a los EE.UU.? Es la gente, ¡estúpido! Los americanos – disculpas a América Latina – América, la bella. ¿Cómo? ¿Qué? ¿Por qué? Vamos a intentarlo. Empezando con un hecho fundamental: con nadie en el mundo es tan fácil, no aburrido, hablar como con un americano. Abiertos, con nombres propios, sin barreras, lenguaje corporal y lenguaje verbal con encanto, contacto visual directo.

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Towards the Eradication of Global Hunger and Undernutrition
Xin-Ying Ren and Fred Dubee, UN MaximsNews – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

While we tend to think in terms of hundreds of millions of deprived and stunted lives, the reality is that each starving child, each malnourished expectant mother, each person who does not have the energy to develop, learn or contribute is a horrible tragedy, and together these individual tragedies add up to an unacceptable loss to the human commonwealth. Simply stated hunger and undernutrition are among the most severe and least addressed challenges facing humanity today.

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Are Palestinian Children Less Worthy?
Joseph Massad – Al Jazeera, 6 Jun 2011

Although Palestinian children endure lives of suffering, Obama’s love for their Israeli counterparts knows no limit. What is it about Jewish and Arab children that privileges the first and spurns the second in his speeches? Are Jewish children smarter, prettier, whiter? Are they deserving of sympathy and solidarity, denied to Arab children, because they are innocent, “the children of Israel”? Or, is it that Arab children are dangerous, threatening, guilty, even dark and ugly? Not only are Palestinian children guilty of hating Israeli Jews, but also, Obama insists, they have no reason to hate Jews unless their evil elders indoctrinate them to do so.

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Arab Spring Wary of Economic Lifelines
Cam McGrath – TerraViva Europe, 6 Jun 2011

Governments and international institutions that once bankrolled the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak have begun floating aid packages to speed up the economic recovery and transition to democracy in these countries. Arab revolutionaries have reason to be wary.

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Fukushima 3/11 – A Turning Point?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

We had 9/11; now we also have 3/11, March 11 2011 (AT 1446), the triple seaquake-tsunami-radiation disaster. Ground zero was an ocean zero, and the country that gave the world the word “tsunami” was hit by one up to 41 meters high. And there was Fukushima Dai-ichi, one of Japan’s 54 nuclear power plants, with six units, 1-6; on the beach, offering itself to the primordial rage of the tsunami.

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Camp Sol: Spain’s “Indignant” Give Lessons in True Democracy
María Carrión – Common Dreams, 6 Jun 2011

The seeds sown by Camp Sol are the assemblies and open mike sessions that have spread to hundreds of neighborhoods, towns and villages across Spain. Although there is a prevalence of young people, the movement is increasingly attracting older folks ranging from families with children to middle-aged professionals and retirees — all deeply affected by the deep economic crisis and the government’s austerity measures. Young “Indignants” in other cities such as Paris, Athens, Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Brussels have supported the movement with protests of their own.

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‘Europe Worsening Hunger Worldwide’
Timothy Spence – TerraViva Europe, 6 Jun 2011

With spiralling food prices threatening to leave millions more people hungry every year, European countries must abandon subsidies and higher production targets for biofuels, the anti-poverty group Oxfam warns.

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Anonymous Declares ‘Cyberwar’ On the IMF
Jérôme E. Roos – ROAR Magazine, 6 Jun 2011

The struggle of the Greek people against the IMF has taken a new turn recently, as Anonymous declared its intention to launch a series of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on the Fund in retaliation for the IMF’s treatment of the Greek people.

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Chiquita Bananas Fund Terrorists
Curt Anderson, Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Jun 2011

The Chiquita lawsuit cites a number of AUC massacres, including a July 1997 operation in the town of Mapiripan in which at least 49 people were tortured, dismembered and decapitated. In February 2000, about 300 AUC troops tortured dozens of people and killed 36 people. In 2001, Chiquita was identified in invoices and other documents as the recipient of a shipment from Nicaragua of 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition. The guns and ammo were unloaded by Chiquita employees, stored at Chiquita warehouses, and then delivered by trucks to the AUC, court papers said.

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Hope and Resistance in Honduras
Amy Goodman - Truthdig, 6 Jun 2011

As the only U.S. journalist on Zelaya’s flight home, I asked him how he felt about his imminent return. “Full of hope and optimism,” he said. “Political action is possible instead of armaments. No to violence. No to military coups. Coups never more.” When Zelaya landed in Honduras, he kneeled down and kissed the ground. He was greeted by tens of thousands of people cheering and waving the black-and-red flag of the movement born after the coup, the FNRP, or National Front of Popular Resistance, “the resistance” that Zelaya now leads.

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Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Effort to Build a Private Army in the UAE (Part 1 of 2)
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW! - TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2011

Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill is interviewed on Democracy Now! about how the United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm Blackwater. According to the New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries. Documents show the force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attacks, and put down internal revolts.

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Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Effort to Build a Private Army in the UAE (Part 2 of 2)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!, 30 May 2011

Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill is interviewed on Democracy Now! about how the United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm Blackwater. According to the New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries.

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Mladic Arrest: What about the NATO War Criminals?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey - Pravda, 30 May 2011

Ratko Mladic has been arrested and his extradition to the International Penal Court is under way. As the NATO leaders make their victory speeches, let us ask this question: When is NATO going to stand in the dock and when are its leaders going to answer for their crimes? The answer in a world without international law is very simple: Never.

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(Castellano) ‘La Unasur Seguirá Trabajando para Fortalecer Zona de Paz’
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2011

“Lo más importante es mantener a los presidentes, a los jefes de Estado, a las jefas de Estado con ese convencimiento, no bajar la guardia nunca, a pesar de que no haya una crisis inminente ni una amenaza real a la democracia en nuestra región. Que en épocas de paz logremos el mismo poder de convencimiento que ellos y ellas tuvieron en épocas de confrontaciones o de dificultades.”

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Bad News from the BBC: ‘Replete with Imbalance and Distortion’
Media Lens – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2011

One of the main headlines on the BBC news homepage earlier this month read, ‘Violence erupts at Israel borders’. Israeli soldiers had shot dead at least 12 protesters and injured dozens more. BBC ‘impartiality’ decreed that the brutal killings were presented almost as an act of nature, a volcanic eruption that simply happened.

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FBI Targeting Political Activists as Terrorists
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2011

Anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists, peace, animal and political activists who hold different views than the government. It was recently revealed that a counter-terrorism firm spied on individuals who attended film screenings of the documentary Gasland. The film focuses on the practice of natural gas fracking and what impact it has on the environment and in the communities where it is used.

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The Consensus Delusion: Mysterious Attractor Undermining Global Civilization As Currently Imagined
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2011

The so-called global civilization is a quarrelsome environment. Appeals for consensus are typically pathetic exercises in tokenism in their effective influence on the reality of psychosocial dynamics. Vast resources are nevertheless allocated on the assumption that consensus will be achieved. Is it possible that the quest for consensus, as currently imagined, will be considered pathological by the future? An approach to the challenge has been helpfully made in the highly controversial study by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, 2006), from which the above title is adapted as a “methodological device”.

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Arab League Seeks UN Recognition of Palestine
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2011

The Arab League has said it backs seeking UN recognition for a Palestinian state, as Qatar proposed at a meeting that the Middle East peace process be suspended until Israel was “ready” for talks. In a statement it said that it “supports the appeal to the UN asking that Palestine, within the 1967 borders, becomes a full-fledged state” of the international organisation.

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Haiti’s Humanitarian Crisis: Rooted In History of Military Coups and Occupations
Roger Annis and Kim Ives – International Socialist Review, 30 May 2011

“We want to turn Haiti into a capitalist country, an export platform for the U.S. market, it’s absurd,” he said. “When the level of unemployment is 80 percent, it is unbearable to deploy a stabilization mission. There is nothing to stabilize and everything to build.” We must build roads, erect dams, participate in the organization of the State, the judicial system. The UN says it has no mandate for that. Its mandate in Haiti is to keep the peace of the graveyard.

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(Castellano) Chile: Senado Vendió a Monsanto la Semilla Campesina e Indígena
Lucía Sepúlveda Ruiz - Movimiento Anti Nuevo Orden Mundial (NWO), 30 May 2011

Con 13 votos a favor (de la derecha y uno de la Concertación), 5 en contra y 6 abstenciones, el Senado de Chile aprobó el 11 de mayo [2011] el Convenio Upov 91 que impedirá a los campesinos guardar la semilla y extenderá el tiempo de vigencia de los derechos y garantías de las transnacionales que vendan semillas híbridas y transgénicas en el país.

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