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In Support of Ongoing Nuclear Power Satyagraha Protest in Koodankulam-India
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Although the world’s media have given it scant attention, it is important for all of us to follow the nonviolent mass resistance movement against the nuclear power plant construction in Koodankulam village, Tamil Nadu, India. It has built up steadily into a nonviolent mass action, with about 10,000 people resisting the imposition of the plant in their backyard. The leader of the movement faces 98 spurious charges including sedition, treason, terrorism and attempted murder.
→ read full articleBlamed for Bee Collapse, Monsanto Buys Leading Bee Research Firm
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. It appears that when Monsanto cannot answer for their environmental devastation, they buy up a company that may potentially be their ‘experts’ in denying any such link between their crops and the bee decline.
→ read full articleCircumcision
TMS Editor,
30 Apr 2012
Two five year old boys are sitting in a hospital waiting room. One leans over to the other and says, “What are you in here for?”
→ read full article
Johan Galtung: How Do You Define Peace?
Al Jazeera | The Stream – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Is US global dominance in decline? Discussing the future of geopolitics with Johan Galtung.
→ read full articleOpening the Other Eye: Charles Taylor and Selective Criminal Accountability
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
From all that we know Charles Taylor deserves to be held criminally accountable for his role in the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone during the period 1998-2002. But there are some elements of this conviction that feed the suspicion that the West is up to its old tricks of seizing the high moral ground while pursuing economic and geopolitical goals that obstruct the political independence and sovereignty of countries that were once their colonies.
→ read full article65 Egypt Prisoners Go On Hunger Strike in Israel
Mohamed Abdel Salam - Bikya Masr,
23 Apr 2012
65 Egyptian prisoners in Israeli jails began a open-ended hunger strike, according to a report by the Israeli Yedioth Ahronot, quoted by Egypt’s state-owned news agency MENA on Tuesday [17 Apr 2012].
→ read full articleA New Mali Federation?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Since the fall of northern Mali to the forces of the Tuareg at the end of March 2012, the situation has grown in complexity. Can a new Mali Federation of the two sections of the current Mali work better than the earlier Federation of Mali? With good will and imagination, federalist structures should be able to be worked out. Yet there are times when good will and imagination are in short supply.
→ read full articleCreativity
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Where is Creativity?
→ read full articleChoosing a President for the World Bank: West Centrism Prevails over Global Democracy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
This post seeks to use the selection of an American as the new President of the World Bank both to expose the fraudulent claim of a merit-based selection process and to insist indirectly that the future peace and justice of the world requires a more democratic and legitimate structure of global governance that reflects the post-colonial rise of the non-West, a rise that is not reflected in antiquated structures that persist despite changed conditions.
→ read full articleA Really Bad Day
TMS Editor,
23 Apr 2012
There was this sad-looking guy at a bar, just staring at his drink, for about half an hour.
→ read full articleTranscending Simplistic Binary Contractual Relationships
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
What Is Hindering Their Exploration? – There are numerous examples of territorial and boundary disputes around the globe. These are readily described in the simplest binary form — “that land belongs to us” and “not true, it belongs to us” (Us and Them: Relating to Challenging Others, 2009). The debates on these matters may last for years, typically highlighted by sporadic bouts of violence and threats of violence.
→ read full articleNobel Laureate Not Attending World Summit of Peace Laureates in the US
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
I cannot, in good conscience, be part of a partnership with the US government and by association with NATO. I also believe that my participation in such an event would compromise my position and put in jeopardy my work in the Middle East and other countries.
→ read full articleNobel Laureate Praised For Not Attending US Summit
Antonio C. S. Rosa, TMS Editor,
23 Apr 2012
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who was awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland, invited to attend the Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Chicago, has canceled her trip because of a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the State Department is an Active Partner in the summit. The Nobel Summit is hooked up to the NATO Summit in Chicago. Critics of the Nobel Prize and of NATO applauded Maguire’s decision:
→ read full articleThe Grand Prix, Western Hypocrisy and the Gulf States
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey - Pravda,
23 Apr 2012
Ahead of the Formula One race this weekend, arrests and cases of torture by the authorities have been rife, the use of shotguns against civilians has been widespread. Illegally detained citizens protesting against the murderous regime in Bahrain are denied access to lawyers and due legal process. Pre-dawn raids, discharging of firearms, detention in medieval conditions, torture chambers… never mind. Bahrain is cool. So, where is the invasion? Where are the special forces? Where is the demonology in the media? Nowhere, of course.
→ read full articleUnplugging Americans from the Matrix
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Americans, the British, and Western Europeans are accustomed to thinking of themselves as the representatives of freedom, democracy, and morality in the world. The West passes judgment on the rest of the world as if the West is God and the rest of the world are barbarians in need of chastisement, invasion, and occupation.
→ read full article
Johan Galtung Reflects on Norwegian Massacre, Afghan War (Part 1) (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
23 Apr 2012
Today [17 Apr 2012] is the second day of the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, the anti-Muslim Norwegian militant who massacred 77 people last summer. in a shooting spree at a summer youth camp on an island organized by the ruling Labour Party. As the trial continues in Norway, we are joined by Norwegian sociologist and mathematician, Johan Galtung who is regarded as the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. His granddaughter was on the island when Breivik attacked.
→ read full articleIndia: PMANE Announces Indefinite Hunger Strike from May 1, 2012
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy-PMANE plans to resume indefinite hunger strike from May 1, 2012, International Workers’ Day, in protest to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project-KKNPP in Tamil Nadu. More than 56,000 people have been charged with false cases until December 31, 2011 including some 6,000 sedition cases. No step has been taken to withdraw all the false charges; instead, fresh murder charges are framed against the leaders of the PMANE falsely.
→ read full articleUS-Israel War on Iran: The Myth of Limited Warfare
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Washington and Tel Aviv claim and appear to believe that their planned assault on Iran will be a “limited war”, targeting limited objectives and lasting a few days or weeks – with no serious consequences.
→ read full articleThe Titanic as an Allegory
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
On top are the enormously rich, enjoying a life of unprecedented luxury; below, the poor. But rich and poor alike are in the same boat, headed for disaster – surrounded by the miracles of our technology, but headed for a disastrous collision with environmental forces, the forces of nature that we have neglected in our pride and arrogance.
→ read full articleYusuf Islam on Music and Faith
Malika Bilal – Al Jazeera,
23 Apr 2012
Artist once known as Cat Stevens explains why he left music, why he returned and why his latest project tops the rest.
→ read full articleIceland’s President Explains Why the World Needs To Rethink Its Addiction to Finance
Adam Taylor – Business Insider,
23 Apr 2012
April 15, 2012 — Here’s the full transcript of our interview with Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who has been President of Iceland since 1996, and announced last month he would be running for a fifth term. Keep reading to hear his thoughts on Iceland’s recovery, and how a large financial sector can ruin a nation.
→ read full article
(Spanish with English subtitles) Iceland Forgives Mortgage Debt of Its Population
telesurenglish – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
The government of Iceland has forgiven the mortgage debt for much of its population. This nation chose a very different way of stopping the crisis from the rest of European countries. It decided to hear the requests of the population and to put politicians and bankers on the bench of the accused three years after their financial excesses would sank one of the most prosperous economies in 2008.
→ read full articleThe Hidden Face of Indian Democracy
Sumeet Grover - The Huffington Post,
23 Apr 2012
Every day the police beat some of these non-violent protesters, file legal cases against shop-keepers for not opening their shops in protest, and force fishermen to go by the sea to send out a message of normalism to the world. Meanwhile, hundreds still remain arrested for demanding transparency and democratic involvement, and the government has filed legal cases of “waging a war against the State” against its non-violent leaders. Is this not déjà vu? China or Burma?
→ read full articleEuropean Airlines Silence Palestine Protest
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours – Inter Press Service-IPS,
23 Apr 2012
As 60 percent of the international activists set to land at Ben Gurion airport Sunday [15 Apr 2012] had their plane tickets cancelled, organisers of the ‘Welcome to Palestine’ fly-in campaign condemned what they say is European complicity in Israel’s illegal restrictions on their right to travel freely.
→ read full article(Castellano) A Coruña: El Concello Retira la Ayuda a los Toros y Solo Habrá Feria si se Autofinancia
G. Malvido & Á. Fernández – La Opinión A Coruña,
23 Apr 2012
El Gobierno local suspende la ayuda a la feria taurina que, cada año durante las dos últimas décadas, se ha desarrollado en agosto. El portavoz municipal, Julio Flores, no descarta que llegue a haber corridas en verano, aunque, eso sí, tendrán que realizarse a cargo de la empresa organizadora y no con dinero público.
→ read full articleGetting Away With Murder
Committee to Protect Journalists – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Special Report – CPJ’s 2012 Impunity Index Spotlights Countries Where Journalists Are Slain and Killers Go Free
→ read full articleWomen Power vs Nuclear Power in Kudankulam
NDTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Despite prohibitory orders, hundreds of women gathered at the Kudankulam nuclear plant site to protest against the plant. Many protesters were arrested. The women say they fear for the lives of their children and will not allow any work at the nuclear plant.
→ read full articleCISPA Will Give the US Unprecedented Access, Internet Privacy Advocates Warn
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Washington looks set to wave through new cybersecurity legislation next week [23 Apr 2012] that opponents fear will wipe out decades of privacy protections at a stroke. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) will be discussed in the House of Representatives next week and already has the support of 100 House members.
→ read full articleJulian Assange’s “The World Tomorrow” Premiere: Hassan Nasrallah
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Hezbollah urged the Syrian opposition to engage in dialogue with Assad’s regime, but they refused. Hezbollah leader Sayyid Nasrallah confirmed this in his first interview in six years, the world premiere of Julian Assange’s ‘The World Tomorrow’ on RT.
→ read full articleCases against Koodankulam Protestors a Parody of Law: Fact Finding Team
Battleground Koodankulam – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Just between 10 Sep 2011 and 23 Dec 2011, the Police had filed 107 FIRs against 55,795 people. Of this, 6,800 have been charged with “sedition” and/or “waging war against the State,” perhaps the largest ever number in British or independent India for one police station. The recent FIR alleging “attempt to murder” by S.P. Udayakumar, V. Pushparayan and other leaders was fabricated and designed to malign the peaceful movement and its leaders.
→ read full articleNo Magic Solutions for the Extinction of Species that Produce Our Air, Water and Water
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Is There a Middle Ground Between Economic Interests, Livelihoods and Conservation? An exclusive interview with Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
→ read full articleThe Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret
Michael Hastings – Rolling Stone,
23 Apr 2012
An inside look at how killing by remote control has changed the way we fight.
→ read full articleWars Leave Crumbling Infrastructure At Home for US
Clifford A. Kiracofe - Global Times, China,
16 Apr 2012
While politicians in Washington recklessly call for bombing Syria and Iran, they ignore the economic costs of failed US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past, the US paid for its wars through increased taxes and the sale of war bonds. The recent wars, however, have been paid for mostly through borrowing. Thus, there is an adverse economic impact with respect to the increased national debt, to the increased budget deficits, and to the upward pressure on interest rates. So how did the US get into its current predicament?
→ read full articleIndia: Undermining Human Rights in the Name of Development
Bianca Jagger – Common Dreams,
16 Apr 2012
When I arrived at Biju Patnaik Airport, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, I was struck by a billboard above the luggage carousel: “Mining happiness for the people of Orissa – Vedanta.” What cruel irony. The poster should have read instead, “Undermining happiness for the people of Orissa.” The opening of an aluminum refinery in Lanjigarh, in south-west Orissa in eastern India, by the Vedanta Aluminum Limited (VAL), a subsidiary of British based mining group, Vedanta Resources plc, has brought nothing but misery, disease and impoverishment to the Kondh communities of the area.
→ read full articleControversy Deepens Over Pesticides and Bee Collapse
Brandon Keim - Wired,
16 Apr 2012
Researchers led by biologist Chensheng Lu of Harvard University report a direct link between hive health and dietary exposure to imidacloprid, a so-called neonicotinoid pesticide linked to colony collapse disorder, the mysterious and massive die-off of bees across North America and Europe.
→ read full articleIs Big Pharma Peddling Narcotics? Take Oxycontin, For Instance
Mark Karlin, Buzzflash – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
It is difficult to believe that Big Pharma is not aware of this growing abuse of legal drugs. It is difficult to fathom that their actuarial predictions of profit don’t take into account the addictive and widespread abuse of narcotics. Perhaps they are indeed innocent bystanders to this spreading problem, but then the companies that make such effective medications would have to be deaf, blind, and dumb, because there is no way to ignore the “legal” drugs that are decimating sections of America.
→ read full articleDoes Microwaving Veggies Kill the Nutrients?
SHAPE magazine, Healthy Living – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Despite what you might read on the Internet, microwaving your food does not “kill” nutrients. In fact, it can make certain nutrients more available to your body .
→ read full article
India: Kudankulam Protests – Am I A Terrorist? Asks Anti-Nuclear Activist Udayakumar (Video of the Week)
NDTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
An uneasy calm prevails at Idinthakarai in Tamil Nadu – Ground Zero of the protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant – ahead of an imminent arrest of Dr S P Udhayakumar, the man who has led the charge against the controversial power project. – Dr. SP Udayakumar is a Convener of the TRANSCEND Network for South Asia.
→ read full articleNuclear Weapons Are Not Instruments Of Peace!
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
To witness otherwise perceptive and morally motivated scholars succumbing to the demons of nuclearism is a bad omen; for me this nuclearist complacency is an unmistakable sign of cultural decadence that can only bring on disaster for the society, the species, and the world at some indeterminate future point. We cannot count on our geopolitical luck lasting forever! And we Americans, cannot possibly retain the dubious advantages of targeting the entire world with these weapons of mass destruction without experiencing the effects of a profound spiritual decline.
→ read full articleStarted Activism at 21, Still At It At 52
Gopu Mohan in Chennai – The Indian Express,
16 Apr 2012
Subramaniam Paramarthalingam Udayakumar was 21 when he, along with a few friends, started the Group of Peaceful Indian Ocean to campaign against ships and submarines said to be ferrying nuclear weapons across the Indian Ocean. The second phase of his activism began with his return to India in 2001. He joined forces with Y David, who was in the forefront of the anti-Koodankulam protests right from the 1980s. Udayakumar is widely considered a non-corrupt leader of the protests, and has often challenged the authorities to probe allegations of corruption against him.
→ read full articlePro-Palestinian Activists Detained In Israel
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
More than 40 pro-Palestinian activists reached Tel Aviv’s international airport as part of an attempted “fly-in” only to be detained by Israeli authorities. On Sunday [15 Apr 2012] 41 people had been refused entry at Ben Gurion airport by early afternoon and would be deported. The Welcome to Palestine campaign, now in its third consecutive year, aims to gather activists from over 15 countries in Israel from April 15 to 21 to “challenge the Israeli siege of the occupied territories”, it says on its website.
→ read full articleAFRICOM Overheard by Lacville
Robert Lacville – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
The neocolonial scramble for Africa has led to a declaration of the Independent Republic of Azawad – According to the National Intelligence Council, “the United States is likely to draw 25% of its oil from West Africa by 2015. The interests of the USA could be assured by using local allies to fight American battles.” During a recent virtual trip he did not make to Stuttgart, writer Robert Lacville virtually overheard the following briefing of a senior U.S. army general by Senior C.I.A. Agent Jack and a certain Colonel W.:
→ read full articleBread and Circuses
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Modern science has, for the first time in history, offered humankind the possibility of a life of comfort, free from hunger and cold, and free from the constant threat of death through infectious disease. At the same time, science has given humans the power to obliterate their civilization with nuclear weapons, or to make the earth uninhabitable through overpopulation and pollution. The question of which of these paths we choose is literally a matter of life or death for ourselves and our children.
→ read full articleScience, Ethics and Social Responsibility
Jennifer Allen Simons – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
We are confronted with a situation in which the realistic destiny of civilization is nuclear genocide; the death of millions through accidental or malicious release of deathly biological agents; through ecological degradation; and climate change – causing deaths of millions from famines on grand scales – unless we find the ways and means to divert the course established by science, technology and its rationale in the name of progress.
→ read full articlePolitical Revolution in Germany: Pirates Country’s Third Strongest Party in New Poll
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Germany’s Pirate Party may still be hammering out their platform, but that doesn’t seem to bother voters. Riding a wave of new popularity following a recent state election success, the Internet freedom advocates have gained record support in a national poll.
→ read full articleThe Truth about Tech
Jenica Rhee, mastersdegree.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
After explosions at an Apple supplier plant in China last year, many of the company’s factories came under scrutiny, and now other tech-producing companies are being similarly examined. You may be familiar with the Apple production scandals, but lesser known factories around the world are employing similarly damaging manufacturing tactics. After all, the cell phone in your pocket, computer on your desk, and television in your living room all came from somewhere, and chances are it wasn’t pretty.
→ read full articleLeaked Video Shows US Contractors Randomly Killing Civilians
TMS Editor,
16 Apr 2012
Employees of the US military contracting group Academi (formerly Xe, Blackwater USA, and Blackwater Worldwide) are seen in new leaked video shooting their machine guns at random while driving through the streets of Baghdad, crashing into other cars and even running over a pedestrian without hesitation. Academi received a $250 million contract by the Obama administration to provide military services in Afghanistan.
→ read full article10 Demands for Concrete Proof by We the Peoples of the World
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Produced in a period when the USA is demanding concrete evidence from Iran that it is halting efforts to produce nuclear weapons.
→ read full articleWhich is the Biggest Drug Cartel in the World? Big Pharma
Mark Karlin, Buzzflash – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Big Pharma has not lost the opportunity to push pain-killing drugs, and off-label use of many drugs, both of which result in “collateral damage” injury and death. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, told Truthout that more US citizens die from opiate overdoses due to legally prescribed pharmaceuticals than from heroin.
→ read full articleElections Long Over in Koodankulam
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
In support of ‘people of Koodakulam’ whose voices and rights have been suppressed.
→ read full articleBig Brother ‘Legal’ In US: Mumia Abu-Jamal Exclusive to RT
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Full Interview – RT has become the first TV channel in the world to speak to former journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal since he was removed from death row in January [2012].
→ read full articleThe UN Embraces the Economics of Happiness
Laura Musikanski – YES! Magazine,
16 Apr 2012
Imagine a world where the metric that guides our decisions is not money, but happiness. That is the future that 650 political, academic, and civic leaders from around the world want. Encouraged by the government of Bhutan, the United Nations held a High Level Meeting on 2 Apr ,2012 for Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. The meeting marks the launch of a global movement to shift our focus away from measuring and promoting economic growth as a goal in its own right, and toward the goal of measuring—and increasing—human happiness and quality of life.
→ read full articleWhy We Need Sharp’s Dictionary
Mary Elizabeth King – Waging Nonviolence,
16 Apr 2012
Anyone who has researched, taught, written or published on the subject of nonviolent struggle appreciates the headaches of vocabulary. Gandhi himself suffered the pains and perplexities of language…
→ read full article(Italian) Some Like It Hot
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Segnalo una buona pratica dal basso che, in dissenso nei confronti della costruzione di un pirogassificatore in Valle d’Aosta, ha visto il costituirsi di parte della società civile in associazione e costruire la lotta culturale dal basso a tutela della salute dei singoli e collettiva.
→ read full articleKenya: Restoring Hope in Kawangware
Xchange Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
On the 12th of April, a number of organisations rallied to support the street children of Kawangware in Nairobi, in having a voice to loudly express their dreams, hopes and fears. Hundreds of street children in Kawangware and their champions poured into the streets in a peaceful demonstration to mark the International Day for Street Children.
→ read full articlePlease Join Our Kumar-Satyagraha Facebook Group
Antonio C. S. Rosa, TMS editor,
16 Apr 2012
This is a closed group for exchange of ideas/advocacy/information for Dr. S P Udayakumar, Convener of the TRANSCEND Network for South India. Kumar is participating in Satyagraha/nonviolent protests with the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) to stop construction of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, South India. We demand that the authorities free all jailed protesters, drop the spurious charges of treason, sedition and terrorism against the leaders, and lift the blockade of the villages surrounding the nuclear plant scheduled to be inaugurated in May 2012. THIS IS URGENT! Please Click Below and I will authorize your request to join. Then invite all your Facebook Friends to join too. Thank you in the name of the planet.
→ read full articleOn TRANSCENDING: Rhymed Reflections
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
1. When will humankind be able to peacefully TRANSCEND?
When to all forms of violence and killing we will put AN END.
…
A Dangerous Idea
Kirk Anderson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
To read the comic fable please click. Waging Nonviolence.
→ read full article‘New’ Burma Has Winners and Losers
Esmer Golluoglu in Rangoon – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
As business opportunities explode after the relaxing of domestic and international restrictions, many doubt whether Burma’s poor will benefit. Zayar Thaw, one of Burma’s best-known rappers, who spent three years as a political prisoner and has just been elected to parliament, says only time will tell what lies ahead: “Burma is changing, and it’s changing very fast. I am very surprised and a little bit nervous, to be honest.”
→ read full articleExtreme Weather is the New Normal
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Extreme weather is fast becoming the new normal. Canada and much of the United States experienced summer temperatures during winter this year, confirming the findings of a new report on extreme weather.
→ read full articleThe Real Costs of Nuclear Energy
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
The only reason that nuclear energy now looks relatively cheap compared to other energy sources is that it receives huge subsidies from governments (that is from the people, without being asked). The operators of nuclear power plants are not held liable for accidents.
→ read full articleCan Restorative Justice Stop the Schoolhouse-to-Jailhouse Pipeline?
Jeremy Adam Smith – YES! Magazine,
16 Apr 2012
Board members and many educators say restorative practices have kept students in school and out of the criminal justice system. “We’re holding kids more accountable than we did before,” said Kim, who now serves on the city’s Board of Supervisors. “In restorative justice, you have to actually have the offender and the victim sit down and discuss what happened and how the offender can make it better.”
→ read full articleJohnson & Johnson Fined $1.2 billion for Drug Labeling Failure
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Johnson & Johnson has been fined $1.2 billion in Arkansas over the sales of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug. A circuit judge ruled that the company did not warn patients that the drug places elderly patients with dementia at an increased risk of major weight gain, possible diabetes and potential death.
→ read full articleEnabling Wisdom Dynamically within Intertwined Tori
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Requisite Resonance in Global Knowledge Architecture – The theme emerged from consideration of how wisdom could be rendered into more compact form for dissemination on Twitter, constrained by the 140 character limitation on any tweet message. The example explored was the set of 48 Zen koan assembled in a classic collection compiled in 1228 by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Hui-k’ai.
→ read full articleHome, Next To N-Reactor
Praful Bidwai and MV Ramana - Tehelka,
9 Apr 2012
Rules say there should be no habitation around nuclear plants but 70,000 people live within 16km of Koodankulam, which lies at the edge of the Gulf of Mannar, one of the world’s richest biodiversity areas. A unit of power from Koodankulam 1 and 2 will cost Rs 3.08. A unit of thermal power costs Rs 1.74 to 1.66. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India-NPCIL doesn’t provide for insurance against accidents or catastrophes. It expects the government to deal with such eventualities.
→ read full articleIncarceration Nation
Fareed Zakaria – Time Magazine,
9 Apr 2012
The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That’s not just many more than in most other developed countries but seven to 10 times as many. The results are gruesome at every level. We are creating a vast prisoner underclass in this country at huge expense, increasingly unable to function in normal society, all in the name of a war we have already lost.
→ read full articleWorsening Trends in Global Arms Transfers
Chandra Muzaffar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Translating it into reality we realise is a monumental challenge which goes beyond the cessation of the production and consumption of conventional weapons. But let the citizens of the world at least demand that those who rule in their name put disarmament on the global agenda as an urgent item that requires immediate attention.
→ read full articleBelene Nuclear Power Plant Canceled, Bulgarian PM Confirms
Sofia News Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Bulgaria has quit the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project, the country’s Prime Minister has confirmed. “During today’s [28 Mar 2012] Council of Ministers Sitting, we decided to terminate the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project,” Borisov told reporters. “We cannot afford to pay for it, and there is no way we can make future generations pay,” the Prime Minister declared.
→ read full articleWork Continues At Nuclear Plant as Does Police Crackdown on Protesters
Jeemon Jacob - Tehelca,
9 Apr 2012
Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project site, commissioning expected by the end of May. Meanwhile, the government crackdown on anti-nuke protesters continues. The Madurai Passport Officer has directed PMANE convener Dr SP Udayakumar to surrender his passport. The letter dated 30 March stated that there were 98 criminal cases registered against him in connection with the Koodankulam anti-nuclear struggle. “They are treating me as if I am a terrorist,” said Udayakumar.
→ read full articleREDD: The New Beast in the Forest Brings Hope and Threats to Indigenous Peoples
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Deforestation gobbles up an area the size of Greece (13 million hectares) every year. It also produces huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions — a whopping 15 to 20 percent of all global emissions. In an attempt to reverse this, countries in the United Nations have agreed to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests in a program called REDD: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. But “REDD will fail if forest peoples are kept out of the negotiations and if states do not ensure that our right to free, prior and informed consent is properly respected,” said Tauli-Corpuz, a member of the indigenous Kankana-ey Igorot community in the Philippines. That includes the right to say ‘no’.
→ read full article
Death Penalty in 2011
Amnesty International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
People were executed or sentenced to death for a range of offences including adultery and sodomy in Iran, blasphemy in Pakistan, sorcery in Saudi Arabia, the trafficking of human bones in the Republic of Congo, and drug offences in more than 10 countries. Methods of execution in 2011 included beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. Some 18,750 people remained under sentence of death at the end of 2011 and at least 676 people were executed worldwide.
→ read full articleChinese Insider Offers Rare Glimpse of U.S.-China Frictions
Jane Perlez – The New York Times,
9 Apr 2012
China views the United States as a declining power, but at the same time believes that Washington is trying to fight back to undermine, and even disrupt, the economic and military growth that point to China’s becoming the world’s most powerful country, according to the analyst, Wang Jisi, the co-author of “Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust.”
→ read full articleBlonde Paint Job
TMS Editor,
9 Apr 2012
A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighborhood.
→ read full articleWhy Europe Is Not Yet ‘A Culture Of Peace’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
It is undoubtedly true that the greatest unacknowledged achievement of the European Union (EU) is to establish ‘a culture of peace’ within its regional enclosure for the 68 years since 1944. This has meant not only the absence of war in Europe, but also the absence of ‘war talk,’ threats, crises, and sanctions, with the single important exception of the NATO War of 1999 that was part of the fallout from the breakup of former Yugoslavia.
→ read full articleWhat Do You Want USA, Up or Down?
Johan Galtung, 9 Apr 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
One wonders what the US political leaders want. The incumbent lives in this world, playing an ultra-realist game: extra-judicial executions in maybe 70 countries, drone attacks; minimizing US losses, maximizing direct hits at what he sees as the problem, concrete identified individuals, not concrete unidentified conflicts. He has neither the moral nor the intellectual courage to do that.
→ read full articleRang de Basanti (Colour My Saffron)
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
In support of ‘people of Koodakulam’ whose voices and rights have been suppressed.
→ read full articleWith the Fall of Timbukutu, Is there an Azawad in Mali’s Future?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Timbuktu was once a metaphor for the middle of nowhere. Now it is in the middle of a struggle that has important implications for the whole Sahel zone that runs from Senegal to Sudan. Tuareg armed forces coming from further north have taken control of the key towns of northern Mali: Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu, largely cutting the country in two.
→ read full articleEl Salvador’s Gang Truce
Mike Allison – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
A promising truce brokered by the Church that has reduced homicides by an average of 10 people per day should be upheld.
→ read full articleFinanciers and Sex Trafficking
Nicholas D. Kristof – The New York Times,
9 Apr 2012
The biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States appears to be a Web site called Backpage.com. This emporium for girls and women — some under age or forced into prostitution — is in turn owned by an opaque private company called Village Voice Media. Until now it has been unclear who the ultimate owners are. That mystery is solved. The owners turn out to include private equity financiers, including Goldman Sachs with a 16 percent stake.
→ read full articleDestruction of Spain’s Economy Duplicates Greece
Jeff Nielson – Information Clearing House,
9 Apr 2012
More than two years ago I began warning readers of the most heinous acts of fraud ever perpetrated by the Western banking crime syndicate, which I dubbed “economic terrorism”. These swindles involved nothing less than the destruction of entire European economies, solely so that the banksters could profit on approximately $100 trillion in bets they had placed on the debts of these economies.
→ read full articleIs Portugal Hopeless?
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
In the beginning of 2012, Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, dubbed the situation of Greece and Portugal “hopeless”. In support of his verdict, Darda cited high debt loads and poor prospects for growth in the two countries. The paradox of the current situation is that the European Union’s bailout package came with stipulations that, once implemented, will only worsen every fixable structural problem on the list.
→ read full articleFirst Marines in Australia as U.S. Ramps Up Asia-Pacific Focus
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
About 200 U.S. Marines began a six month deployment in Australia on Wednesday [4 Apr 2012], in the first wave of a buildup of 2,500 troops due eventually to rotate through a de facto base in Darwin, as the U.S deepens its military presence in the Asia-Pacific.
→ read full articleWar Porn: The New Safe Sex
Pepe Escobar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The early 21st century is addicted to war porn, a prime spectator sport consumed by global couch and digital potatoes. Like porn, war porn cannot exist without being based on a lie – a crude representation. But unlike porn, war porn is the real thing; unlike crude, cheap snuff movies, people in war porn actually die – in droves. Iran is the new Iraq; and whatever the highway, to evoke the neo-con motto, real men go to Tehran via Damascus, or real men go to Tehran non-stop.
→ read full articleWhat Really Explains Thein Sein Regime’s Current Pursuit of ‘Ceasefire’ with the Karens while Killing the Kachins
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Obviously, the Burmese generals and ex-generals have outsourced the business of “strategic peace” to its commercial elements – Burmese commercial interests. Investors from Norway, Germany, etc. are licking their lips while the locals do the foreplay with the ethnic virgin lands (and untapped resources).
→ read full articleTerrorism: Origins, Analysis & Resolution
TRANSCEND Member Prof. Charles Webel - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
This course will focus on contemporary international terrorism, including the current “global war on terror.” It will familiarize students with contemporary theories and methods of understanding and preventing terrorism, focusing on international conflicts and conflict resolution.
→ read full articleBahraini Villagers Fear Effects of Tear Gas
Gregg Carlstrom – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
Many towns are blanketed nightly with the gas, raising fears of cancer and other long-term health problems.
→ read full articleA Prayer by Indians
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
With Due Apologies to St. Francis, Reinhold Niebuhr and St. Patrick
Oh, Prime Ministerial Lord, make me a sports authority of your games;
where there is common, let me steal wealth;
where there is contract, commission;
where there is agreement, kickbacks; …
Austerity vs Solidarity: Democratic Legitimacy and Europe’s Future
Andrea Mammone – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
Across the EU, there is an outcry – including from economists – about the potential damaging effects of austerity plans.
→ read full articleText of Annan’s Six-Point Peace Plan for Syria
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The 15-member United Nations Security Council is expected to endorse a deadline agreed to by Syria for a military withdrawal by April 10 [2012] and a comprehensive ceasefire no more than 48 hours later with rebel forces. The ceasefire is the key part of special envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, which was presented to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on March 10 and accepted by him on March 27.
→ read full articleNew Report Documents Systematic Abuse of Palestinian Children in Israeli Military Detention
Nora Barrows-Friedman, The Electronic Intifada – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The United Nations (UN) estimates that during the last 44 years, around 726,000 Palestinian men, women and children have been prosecuted and detained under Israeli emergency military laws. In the past 11 years alone, around 7,500 children, some as young as 12 years, are estimated to have been detained, interrogated, and imprisoned within this system. This averages out at between 500-700 children per year, or nearly two children, each and every day.
→ read full articleThe Doctrine of Intervention
Manuela Picq – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
One does not think of archaic papal bulls when witnessing democratic states like Brazil or the United States building dams on Amazon rivers or drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Yet today’s political ethics are surprisingly similar to the doctrine of discovery set by the Vatican back in 1452.
→ read full articleAn Odious Affair: The UN in Somalia
Abdi Ismail Samatar – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
The organisation may destroy the country’s political autonomy if there is no immediate pro-Somali intervention. This brief essay examines the particular roles played by two UN agencies – the Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea (MG) and the United Nations Special Representative (SR) – in the reproduction of the disaster in the country. These two agencies have separate mandates, but collectively they have been engaged in activities that undermine Somali efforts to rebuild the country.
→ read full articleSolidarity of BRICS
China Daily – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The fourth BRICS summit, which concluded on Thursday [29 Mar 2012] in New Delhi, sent positive signals to the outside world that international stability, security and prosperity can be achieved if everyone pulls together. In the joint declaration issued by leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the five countries vowed to enhance cooperation among themselves and contribute to world development and prosperity.
→ read full articleArt of Resistance – Günter Grass
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Outrage in Germany, Nobel Laureate Günter Grass has, once again told the truth about Israel being the greatest threat to world peace. Günter Grass, Germany’s most famous living author and the 1999 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparked outrage in Germany on Wednesday [4 Apr 2012] with the publication of a poem, “What must be said,” in which he sharply criticizes Israel’s offensive approach towards Iran.
→ read full articleThe South Challenges Globalization
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
9 Apr 2012
The increased strength of emerging countries of the South confronts the challenges of contemporary globalization.
→ read full article
A History Lesson: U.S. Intervention in Iran from 1953 Through 2010 (Video of the Week)
Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
This video gives a basic overview of the history of the U.S. policies regarding Iran that began at the behest of the British Government and big oil interests including British Petroleum (later renamed BP).
→ read full articleDiscrimination in Russia: Arrests for Violation of St. Petersburg Anti-Gay Law
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
In St. Petersburg, Russia, two men were arrested on Thursday [5 Apr 2012] for holding up a sign reading “Homosexuality Is Normal.” It marks the first arrests on the strength of the city’s new law against disseminating information on homosexuality.
→ read full articlePower of 5
Shobhan Saxena – The Times of India,
9 Apr 2012
A few stock questions later, the [World] Bank chief [Robert Zoellick] turned his attention to the proposed BRICS bank. “It’s a complicated venture which will have a hard time getting off the ground and match the expertise of the World Bank,” Zoellick said.
→ read full articleTweeter, Tweeter, Little Star: How I Wonder What You Are
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Produced in a period when use of Twitter has become ever more significant in political processes and democratic protest.
→ read full articleArab League a Divided House
Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
The old regional organizations Arab League (formed in 1945) has shown all weakness of a broken house with members failing to take coordinated position on any of the raging international issues. A simple juxtaposition of the Arab League summit with the BRICS summit, held on the same date, 29 March 2012, brings stark contrast how coordination in one part of the world is failing acutely, while the rise of BRICS in global arena is a foregone conclusion.
→ read full article