Articles by M
We found 36604 results.
Our Involvement in Saving the World from Complete Destruction
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
At this stage of history, the world is going through numerous serious problems, which could be fully brought under control only if we develop the habit of becoming involved.
→ read full articleThe Extreme Israeli Right’s Alliance With Lunatics
Haaretz, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
In recent years, the extreme Israeli right has developed an alliance with heads of the evangelical movement, who define themselves as Christian Zionists, some of whom believe that another Holocaust of the Jews will ensure the resurrection of Jesus.
→ read full articleFamine in the Horn of Africa: Malthus Beware
William G. Moseley – Al Jazeera,
29 Aug 2011
In the Horn of Africa, population growth is not the main cause of famine.
→ read full articleStrategy Lesson at the Soviet War College
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
A general is a guest lecturer and tells the class of officers that the session will focus on potential problems and the resulting strategies. One of the officers in the class begins by asking the first question:
→ read full articleHow Zenawi ‘Weaponizes’ Famine in Ethiopia
Alemayehu G. Mariam - InDepth News,
29 Aug 2011
“Why are Ethiopians starving again? What should the world do and not do?” These are the two enduring questions Time Magazine of December 21, 1987 asked in a cover story. The reply in short was couched as a question: “Is the latest famine wholly the result of cruel nature, or are other, man-made forces at work that worsen the catastrophe?” Something that should strike as déjà vu 24 years later.
→ read full articleLibya without Qaddafi: Decoding an Uncertain Future
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
There is so much spin surrounding the Transitional National Council victory in Libya that it is difficult to interpret the outcome, and perhaps premature to do so at this point considering that the fighting continues and the African Union has withheld diplomatic recognition on principled grounds.
→ read full articleChavez: Libya’s Tragedy Begins With Gadhafi’s Fall
The Associated Press-AP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
Chavez has been a staunch defender of Gadhafi throughout the conflict, and he condemned NATO airstrikes and killings of civilians. “The drama of Libya isn’t ending with the fall of Gadhafi’s government. It’s beginning,” Chavez said. “The tragedy in Libya is just beginning.”
→ read full article(Portuguese) Para Além da Tragédia
Sylvia Colombo em Buenos Aires – Folha,
29 Aug 2011
Para o mexicano Juan Villoro, a imprensa deve repensar a maneira como noticia a violência, sob risco de amplificá-la. Na renovação da linguagem jornalística que propõe para a era da internet, a revalorização da crônica seria análoga à reinvenção da pintura que ocorreu no século 19, com o advento da fotografia.
→ read full articleEmpires Strike Hard, Nations Die Hard: Behind the Libyan Fake Revolution, And the Re-Colonization of Africa.
Raïs Neza Boneza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
“Democracy building” in Libya, we are told, requires the extensive bombing of an entire country, under NATO’s”Responsibility to Protect” (R2P). To say we kill the Libyans for their own good is a deceit.
→ read full articleThey Talk the Talk, But Baulk at the Walk
Dr Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
Twenty three years since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the then freshly minted popular dissident, began her impassioned calls for a resolution to the country’s long-standing problems through dialogue, we seem to have been conditioned like a Pavlovian four-limbed creature.
→ read full articleAn Initial Libyan Scorecard
Mark LeVine – Al Jazeera,
29 Aug 2011
Rebuilding Libya, which is blessed with such a wealth of resources, will take massive efforts on the part of Arab, African and international civil societies, to ensure that the Libyan people aren’t sacrificed at the altar of oil profits and special ops bases for deepening US involvement in Africa; that as has happened in so many other countries, the “oil curse” doesn’t doom the country to another four decades of corrupt and kleptocratic rule.
→ read full articleSomalia? Which Somalia? Just Some Facts About Everybody’s–Nobody’s Land
Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
To begin with, Somalia is situated in the so-called Horn of Africa, bordering with Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Indian Ocean. Its territory covers over 637,000 kilometers, hosting around 10 million inhabitants who speak Somali, Arabic, Italian and English, and are mostly Muslim Sunnis.
→ read full articleThirteen Reasons Why We Do Not Want the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
We have been opposing the [Indian] Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) ever since it was conceived in the mid-1980s. The people of Koodankulam village themselves were misled by false promises such as 10,000 jobs, water from Pechiparai dam in Kanyakumari district, and fantastic development of the region.
→ read full articleThree Questions on Libya
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
29 Aug 2011
Al Jazeera’s chief political analyst interprets what the fall of Tripoli means for Libya, the Arab Spring and the West. A six month NATO-aided rebellion in Libya has advanced on the capital, Tripoli, in an effort to oust 42-year leader Muammar Gaddafi.
→ read full articleSomalia Tragedy, Islamist Extremists and Climate Change Skeptics
Hilal Elver and Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2011
The unfolding tragedy in East Africa is a dramatic indicator of what humanity as a whole can expect in the near future ‘if business as usual’ continues to be the phrase that most accurately expresses global climate change policy. The unwillingness of the developed countries to provide adequate humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable peoples in the world also helps explain this worsening regional tragedy has reached such dire extremes.
→ read full articleKafka at the Rafah Border
Diane Shammas – Al Jazeera,
22 Aug 2011
What should have been a simple border crossing turns into a four-month odyssey through the iron curtain of Gaza.
→ read full articleChristianity and War
Laurence M. Vance - LewRockwell,
22 Aug 2011
Support for the war on terror among Christians remains so pervasive that I’m inclined to agree with Mark Twain in saying that “if Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be – a Christian.” I’m sorry to say that blind acceptance of government propaganda, willful ignorance of U.S. foreign policy, persistent support of the Republican Party, and childish devotion to the military are the norm among the majority of conservative Christians instead of the exception.
→ read full articleSyria: Geopolitical Mentoring versus Rehab for Addicted Geopolitical Leaders
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Of course, the future should not be entrusted to the political leaders representing sovereign states. It is up to the peoples of the world to propose and demand better solutions for the unfolding global tragedies that are sidestepped by the egocentric behavioral goals of national governments. Populist complacency is part of what gives this geopolitical posturing a semblance of credibility in our post-colonial era.
→ read full articleThe World Is Over-Armed; The World Is Over-Hungry
Badriya Khan in Brussels - Human Wrongs Watch,
22 Aug 2011
Think of 1,630 billion dollars being spent on weapons that are designed to kill, and 1,002 million human beings who either do not eat at all or are always hungry. Shouldn’t this atrocious fact make the United States and western European countries, who account for 90 per cent of world’s arms sales, prompt to rethink? Considering that they are the freedom champions proud of imposing their models on the willing or unwilling, through means fair or foul, shouldn’t they turn their focus on ending hunger that robs human beings of their fundamental right to freedom?
→ read full articleThe Goulash Archipelago: EU Remains Silent as Hungary Veers Off Course
Walter Mayr – Der Spiegel,
22 Aug 2011
Supporters of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán say he has a strict leadership style, while critics warn of the threat of forced political conformity, Jew-baiting and labor camps. Meanwhile, the European Union is saying nothing, apparently accepting the fact that a member state is getting out of control.
→ read full articleThe Decline of the West?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
The basic G8-G20 mistake: obsessed with saving the banks through bailouts, they did not save people through stimulus. Learn from China: enter communities with the public-private-civil-technical sectors, jointly making mini-companies for basic needs–food and water, clothes and housing, clinics and schools–employing the most needy. A communist uplift from misery, and an increase in their buying power in the capitalist economy. Capi-communism. Rather decline than learning from China? Then, so be it.
→ read full articleBack in 1967… In Eastern Europe
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Czechoslovakia announced that it was going to create a ministry of the Navy.
→ read full articleFear of the Executioners: The Sinister Power of the Rating Agencies
Michaela Schiessl, Christoph Schult and Thomas Schulz – Der Spiegel,
22 Aug 2011
The most obvious solution — perhaps even the only solution — to break the power of the agencies without also destabilizing the entire financial system would be to remove the rating stipulations from the regulations. This would allow investors to seek alternative sources of information without being bound, for better or for worse, to the agencies’ opinions.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: From a Battlefield to a Business-field
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
Is it necessary that the interested players will have to wait till the violent atmosphere in the region is subsided completely and then think about business? Or is it possible to initiate commercial ventures in a violent atmosphere, which can only succeed with the cooperation of the national government as well as local warlords and also the Taliban?
→ read full articleDaylight Robbery, Meet Nighttime Robbery
Naomi Klein – The Nation,
22 Aug 2011
In early July, the Wall Street Journal, citing a new poll, reported that 94 percent of millionaires were afraid of “violence in the streets.” This, it turns out, was a reasonable fear. Of course London’s riots weren’t a political protest. But the people committing nighttime robbery sure as hell know that their elites have been committing daytime robbery. Saqueos are contagious. The Tories are right when they say the rioting is not about the cuts. But it has a great deal to do with what those cuts represent: being cut off.
→ read full article
Three Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Ric Elias, TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time.
→ read full articleWhy Boycott Israel?
Lisa Taraki and Mark LeVine – Al Jazeera,
15 Aug 2011
A founding member of the campaign for the academic and cultural boycott outlines the motivation behind the movement. Author and history professor Mark LeVine speaks with sociologist Lisa Taraki, a co-founder of the Palestinian campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
→ read full articleSouth Africa: Russell Tribunal on Palestine
Antonio C. S. Rosa, editor - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will convene in District Six, Cape Town, site of a brutal apartheid-era forced removal. The land has remained undeveloped on the edge of the city since it was declared “a white group area” and the homes of black residents were demolished in the 1970s. The Cape Town session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine – to be held on 5-6 November 2011 – will consider whether Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid.
→ read full articleTomorrow, Who Will Govern the World?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
The author of Demain, qui gouvernera le monde? (2011), Jacques Attali, has every reason to be considered an authority on the subject of his new book. Aside from having held many positions in relation to national and international governance, as an academic he has been an extremely prolific author on a wide range of relevant subjects, including A Brief History of the Future (2006), La crise, et après? (2008) and Survivre aux crises: 7 stratégies (2009).
→ read full article
Injured Malaysian Man Mugged in UK Riots
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
Online footage of an injured student being brazenly robbed has shocked the nation. A video posted online depicting a group of youths appearing to help a young Malaysian student who was mugged during the London riots, and then stealing the contents of his bag, has been widely circulating. The footage is just one moment captured on video in recent days showing an ugly side to a city often considered as civilised or forward-looking.
→ read full articleEconomic Crisis or Nonviolent Opportunity? Gandhi’s Answer to Financial Collapse
Michael Nagler – Waging Nonviolence,
15 Aug 2011
The real purpose of an economic system is to guarantee to every person in its circle the fundamentals of physical existence (food, clothing, shelter) and the tools of meaningful work so that they can get on with the business of living together and working out our common destiny. This was Gandhi’s vision, among others’. We can no longer afford to ignore him in this sector any more than we can ignore his spectacular contributions to peace and security.
→ read full articleAnalysis of Financial Terrorism in America
David DeGraw – AmpedStatus Report,
15 Aug 2011
Over 1 Million Deaths Annually, 62 Million People With Zero Net Worth, As the Economic Elite Make Off With $46 Trillion
→ read full articleGreece Begins €50bn Privatisation Drive
Helena Smith in Athens – The Guardian,
15 Aug 2011
Greek officials begin appointing advisers for fire-sale of state assets intended to raise €50bn by 2015. The starting gun for one of the biggest fire-sales in western history was fired as Greek officials began appointing advisers for the country’s ambitious privatisation drive.
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Crise Ambiental Global e a Construção de Alternativas São Tema de Encontro Internacional Indígena
EcoDebate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
Para responder a essas e outras questões, centenas de lideranças de Brasil, Bolívia, Peru, Colômbia, Equador, Venezuela, Guiana, Guiana Francesa e Suriname, se reúnem em Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil, de 15 a 18 de agosto, no “Grande Encontro dos Povos – Saberes, Povos e Vida Plena em Harmonia com a Floresta”.
→ read full articleFrom the Arab Spring to Liverpool?
Yasmine Ryan – Al Jazeera,
15 Aug 2011
The UK riots have unique roots, but British youths’ alienation is similar to the disenfranchisement behind Arab revolts. “These are children who have no purpose. Society does not seem to see them as a significant enough group to invest in.” — Malik Al-Nasir, a poet and social commentator from Liverpool
→ read full articleThe Economics Conditions Driving Riot Fever: Burning Britain
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
However the government chooses to now respond to the escalating violence, there can be no doubt that the episode represents a fundamental turning-point for British society, in a world that has already passed the tipping point on a whole range of interconnected systemic crises. The danger is that the authorities will offer the traditional, knee-jerk, business-as-usual response of maximizing police state powers, rather than addressing the root causes of our predicament.
→ read full articleDichter’s Law
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
“THE PEOPLE Demand Social Justice!” 250 thousand protesters chanted in unison in Tel Aviv last Saturday. But what they need – to quote an American artist – is “more unemployed politicians”.
→ read full articleThe Afghanistan War in the Mirror of the Tet Offensive: When ‘Defeat’ Became ‘Victory’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
It is true the war dragged on for several more years with heavy casualties on both sides, but the Tet Offensive changed the American goal from ‘victory’ to ‘peace with honor,’ that is, ‘defeat in disguise.’ The subsequent Christmas bombing of the North and the disastrous invasion of Cambodia in 1970 were part of the bloody effort during the Nixon/Kissinger period of American leadership to produce ‘honor.’ Actually, when the war finally came to an abrupt end in 1975, the dominant image at the time being that of Vietnamese collaborators with the American intervention desperately seeking to escape from Vietnam by clamoring aboard a helicopter taking off from the roof of the embassy. Not honor but humiliation, chaos, and defeat…
→ read full articleSigns of Change Conference
Susan Krumdieck – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
The Signs of Change e-conference was held in November 2010, and gave individuals and businesses a chance to showcase their sustainable practices. A shared acknowledgement that the ‘business as usual’ mentality is leading us down an undesirable path unified the participants. The conference was a celebration of realistic attempts to have a positive impact on our planet and the quality of life of future generations. Among many reasons for its importance is violent conflict prevention.
→ read full articleTop 10 Signs Your Family Is Stressed…
TMS Editor,
15 Aug 2011
10. Conversations often begin with “Put the gun down, and then we can talk”.
→ read full article(German) Johan Galtung zu den Hintergründen neofaschistischer Gewalt (SB)
Schattenblick – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2011
Interview mit dem Friedensforscher Johan Galtung am 10. August 2011
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Haiti: The Aristide Files
Kim Ives and Ansel Herz – The Nation,
15 Aug 2011
US officials led a far-reaching international campaign aimed at keeping former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exiled in South Africa, rendering him a virtual prisoner there for the last seven years, according to secret US State Department cables. The cables show that high-level US and UN officials even discussed a politically motivated prosecution of Aristide to prevent him from “gaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti.”
→ read full articleA Rebellion against Racism and Poverty
James Illingworth – Socialist Worker,
15 Aug 2011
Symbolically, the riots in London broke out as world financial markets were in turmoil over concerns that the American economy is going back into recession and the European debt crisis is spreading to Italy and Spain. The crisis-ridden capitalist system has nothing to offer young people, and it was only a matter of time before their anger exploded into action. These aren’t the first riots of the crisis, and they won’t be the last.
→ read full article
Chris Hedges: Why I Will Be There (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
October2011org – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
“Civil disobedience is the only weapon we have left.”
→ read full articleNorway 7/22 – And What Now?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
After more than 50 interviews on the 7/22 events in Norway, here is one as editorial-with Swedish free lance journalist Ditte Lundberg.
→ read full article“How Goodly Are Thy Tents”
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
FIRST OF all, a warning. Tent cities are springing up all over Israel. A social protest movement is gathering momentum. At some point in the near future, it may endanger the right-wing government.
→ read full articleMainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack on Republicans
Thom Hartmann – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence? “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”
→ read full articleImplication of Toroidal Transformation of the Crown of Thorns
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Design Challenge to Enable Integrative Comprehension of Global Dynamics – This is an exercise in identifying a set of threads which might be fruitfully woven together into an unusual pattern of significance of relevance to both the challenge of governance and of individuation.
→ read full articleBehind the Scenes with the Reporter Who Took Down Murdoch
Media Matters for America – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Nick Davies is a British journalist and filmmaker who began his career in the mid-1970s. An accomplished freelancer and special correspondent for the Guardian, he is the author of five books, including Flat Earth News, a withering and widely-praised critique of the British press. His forthcoming sixth book will concern the latest and arguably most important scoop of his career — the phone hacking scandal that has rocked News Corp. to its foundation.
→ read full articleOslo: Europe, Islam and the Mainstreaming of Racism
Miriyam Aouragh and Richard Seymour – Jadaliyya,
8 Aug 2011
European media coverage of the Norwegian tragedy has led with dangerous and clichéd arguments about ‘Islamic extremism’ and multiculturalism, even after the identity of the killer was confirmed – thus contributing to the mainstreaming of racism that helped make Breivik what he is.
→ read full articleHow Best to Remove Guns from Post-Conflict Zones?
IRIN News (UN) – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Cash for guns or buy-back programmes in post-conflict states have fallen out of favour as a method of ridding a society of weapons, and have been replaced by often elaborate schemes designed to remove money from the equation, but the debate continues as to the best way forward.
→ read full articleUS Economic Problems: Result of a Careful Plan
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
When a country, like the United States, develops the habit to interfere periodically in the internal affairs of other nations, there are always going to be serious problems. Moreover, this powerful nation has built some 746 military bases in 146 countries. This has stimulated anger in many especially when such military bases are beginning to be viewed as a threat.
→ read full article(Castellano) Si el Autor Fuera del Tercer Mundo
Manuel E. Yepe, aporrea.org – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Behring Anders Breivik, el noruego autor confeso de las horripilantes masacres de Oslo y la isla de Utoya que conmovieron al mundo con un saldo de 76 personas muertas, dejó colocado en Internet un “manifiesto” que define el ideario ultraderechista, anti islámico y anticomunista que movía al repugnante asesino múltiple.
→ read full articleS&P and the USA
Paul Krugman – The New York Times,
8 Aug 2011
On the other hand, it’s hard to think of anyone less qualified to pass judgment on America than the rating agencies. The people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are the judges of fiscal policy? Really?
→ read full articleUS Expands Its Presence in Mexico, Ramping Up Drug War
Ginger Thompson - The New York Times News Service,
8 Aug 2011
The United States is expanding its role in Mexico’s bloody fight against drug trafficking organizations, sending new C.I.A. operatives and retired military personnel to the country and considering plans to deploy private security contractors in hopes of turning around a multibillion-dollar effort that so far has shown few results.
→ read full articleCan Humanitarian Intervention Ever Be Humanitarian?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Not since the debate about the Kosovo War of 1999 has there been such widespread discussion of humanitarian intervention, including the semantics of coupling ‘humanitarian’ with the word ‘intervention.’
→ read full articleGlobal South Key to African Economies
Global development agencies – Al Jazeera,
8 Aug 2011
“South-south” cooperation will help both African countries and other emerging economies.
→ read full articleSpain’s “Indignados” at the Vanguard of a Global Nonviolent Revolt
Pablo Ouziel, Political Thoughts – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
In a truly Gandhian manner, a group of Spanish ‘indignados’ is currently walking from Madrid to Brussels in order to make their voices heard by the bureaucrats of the European Union. They aim to get there before the global protest they have called for to be staged on October 15th. Perhaps by the time they get to Brussels, their indignation will have rubbed-off on those in other European nations who have understood the farce of our imperialist representative democracies, and the Spanish ‘indignados’ will not find themselves camping alone in front of the buildings of the European Union.
→ read full articleHow Much Is A trillion?
TMS Editor,
8 Aug 2011
A million seconds is 12 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
In Cuba, the Revolution Continues, Softly, as Times Change
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Radios that crackle, a new airport terminal with birds nesting, the early morning snores of an official at passport control and the palpable ambivalence of pride and frustration belong to a revolution that sends tens of thousands of doctors across the world for the sole purpose of helping other human beings: an epic internationalism.
→ read full articleTruman Lied, Hundreds of Thousands Died
David Swanson – War Is a Crime,
8 Aug 2011
On August 6, 1945, President Harry S Truman announced: “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British ‘Grand Slam’ which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.”
→ read full articleA Secret War in 120 Countries: The Pentagon’s New Power Elite
Nick Turse - TomDispatch,
8 Aug 2011
Last year, Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post reported that U.S. Special Operations forces were deployed in 75 countries, up from 60 at the end of the Bush presidency. By the end of this year, U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me, that number will likely reach 120. “We do a lot of traveling — a lot more than Afghanistan or Iraq,” he said recently.
→ read full articleUN Challenges Slavery Conditions for Domestic Workers
Dick Meister - Truthout,
8 Aug 2011
With a lot of luck, we may finally take decisive action to guarantee decent treatment for the world’s highly exploited housekeepers, maids, nannies, and other domestic workers. There are an estimated 100 million of them, working in more than 180 countries. Yes, winning the union rights for domestics worldwide will be very difficult. But we know it can be done. And certainly we know that it should be done.
→ read full articleCan Africa Develop a Regional Response to ‘Resource Grabbing’?
Rebecca M.E. Pointer – Another countryside,
8 Aug 2011
Evidence that a new wave of massive land (and water and other raw material) grabs are taking place across Africa is now incontrovertible. Estimates range from 32 to 50 million hectares of African land being allocated in long-term leases to foreign private and public companies in the last two years.
→ read full articlePeak Oil: A Chance to Change the World
Richard Heinberg – Yes! Magazine,
8 Aug 2011
For advice about life after graduation, students at Worcester Polytechnic wanted to hear from peak oil scholar Richard Heinberg instead of Exxon’s CEO. Here’s what he told them.
→ read full articleAn Easily Understandable Explanation of Derivative Markets
TMS Editor,
8 Aug 2011
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar.
→ read full article
Norwegian Muslish Gunman’s Islam-Esque Atrocity
Colbert Report – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
July 25, 2011
→ read full articleThe Corporatocracy: Bailouts Serve the Creditors; Enslave the Debtors
John Perkins – Information Clearing House,
8 Aug 2011
Bailouts serve the creditors; they enslave the debtors. Although protesters swarm the streets of Athens, objecting to the draconian measures being imposed by the EU and the IMF, the country’s leaders are crumbling; they are accepting the bailouts. It has become evident that bailouts in our own U.S. crisis have only benefited the corporatocracy, with CEO’s paying themselves outrageous bonuses. This method of borrowing against the well-being of a country’s citizens merely serves to increase the power of the central banks, the IMF and corporate CEOs.
→ read full articleCan’t Pay Back, Won’t Pay Back: Iceland’s Loud No
Silla Sigurgeirsdóttir and Robert H Wade – Le Monde Diplomatique,
8 Aug 2011
The small island of Iceland has lessons for the world. It held a referendum in April to decide, more or less, whether ordinary people should pay for the folly of the bankers (and by extension, could governments control the corporate sector if they depended on it for finance). Sixty per cent of the population rejected an agreement negotiated between Iceland, the Netherlands and the UK to pay back the British and Dutch governments for the money they spent to recompense savers with the failed bank Icesave. That was less resistance than the first referendum last spring, when 93% voted no.
→ read full articlePortugal: Food Aid for “New Poor”, Extra Wealth for Nouveau Riche
Mario Queiroz – TerraViva Europe,
8 Aug 2011
And while vendors of luxury vehicles worry that they cannot fill their customer’ orders as quickly as they would like, the Food Bank against Hunger is facing a similar problem: it cannot keep up with the demand from the hungry knocking at the door. Up until 2009, the food bank only served the poorest families. But now middle class families, swallowing their pride, are coming forward to ask for food, medical assistance and spiritual support.
→ read full articleJustice and the Struggle for Palestine
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Journalist Ali Abunimah is one of the most important sources of information and analysis of the Israeli war on Palestine and the ongoing struggle for justice. He is cofounder of the invaluable Electronic Intifada website and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He talked to Eric Ruder about the latest developments in the region–and what lies ahead for Palestinians.
→ read full articleA Tainted Water Well, and Concern There May Be More
Ian Urbina – The New York Times,
8 Aug 2011
“There have been over a million wells hydraulically fractured in the history of the industry, and there is not one, not one, reported case of a freshwater aquifer having ever been contaminated from hydraulic fracturing. Not one,” Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of ExxonMobil, said last year at a Congressional hearing on drilling. But there is in fact a documented case, and the E.P.A. report that discussed it suggests there may be more. Researchers, however, were unable to investigate many suspected cases because their details were sealed from the public when energy companies settled lawsuits with landowners.
→ read full articleColombia: Pillage, Promise and Peace
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Colombia stands at the crossroads: it can follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, narco-President Alvaro Uribe and remain a military dependency, a lone outpost of the US Empire in South America.
→ read full articleThe Indoctrination of Missile Launch Officers
David Krieger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
The US Air Force has a history of indoctrinating its missile launch officers to assure that these officers will have no moral qualms about following orders to use weapons of mass annihilation. It includes numerous quotations from both the Old and New Testaments to make the case for the morality of war. For example, “Jesus Christ is the mighty warrior.” (Revelation 19:11)
→ read full article
Johan Galtung: How to Stop Extremism That Fueled Attack (Video of the Week) [1 of 2]
Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
As Norway mourns the tragedy, Democracy Now! interviews Johan Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist who is considered the father of peace and conflict studies. Galtung’s granddaughter was on the island when Breivik attacked.
→ read full articleFamine in East Africa
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
Logistical Nightmare Hinders Aid Efforts in Somalia – Millions are starving and parents are watching their children die. Meanwhile militant groups are terrorizing the region. The situation in the Horn of Africa is becoming increasingly desperate. Aid organizations are facing enormous difficulties in their attempts to help hundreds of thousands of those suffering, but it’s a race against time they seem to be losing.
→ read full article(Italian) OIC: Organizzazione Islamica C = Conferenza-Cooperazione-Comunità?
Abbas Aroua e Johan Galtung, 18 luglio 2011 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
L’idea di collettività di stati è inclusa nella Carta delle Nazioni Unite per promuovere una transizione dal mondo del 1945 a quello odierno. Ma ancor meglio sarebbe una democrazia di stati membri “Uniti per la Pace”, con nessun sabotaggio dalle potenze che vivono nel passato.
→ read full articleParadigm Meltdown and Opportunities for Peacebuilding
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
A question that it would seem to be reasonable to ask is how to raise wages and employ everyone who wants a job, without raising prices, without militarism, and without damage to the environment.
→ read full articleWhat the USDA Doesn’t Want You to Know About Antibiotics and Factory Farms
Tom Philpott – Mother Jones,
1 Aug 2011
Here is a document the USDA doesn’t want you to see. It’s what the agency calls a “technical review”—nothing more than a USDA-contracted researcher’s simple, blunt summary of recent academic findings on the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant infections and their link with factory animal farms. The topic is a serious one. A single antibiotic-resistant pathogen, MRSA—just one of many now circulating among Americans—now claims more lives each year than AIDS.
→ read full article
Johan Galtung: How to Stop Extremism That Fueled Attack (Video of the Week) [2 of 2]
Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
As Norway mourns the tragedy, Democracy Now! interviews Johan Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist who is considered the father of peace and conflict studies. Galtung’s granddaughter was on the island when Breivik attacked.
→ read full articleTim’s Official Statement at His Sentencing Hearing
Tim DeChristopher – Peaceful Uprising,
1 Aug 2011
Tim DeChristopher, who was sentenced Tuesday [26 Jul 2011] to two years in federal prison and a $10,000 fine for ‘disrupting’ a Bureau of Land Management auction in 2008, had an opportunity to address the court and the judge immediately before his sentence was announced. “In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. I do not want mercy; I want you to join me.”
→ read full articleA Poem for Dekha
Emma Leslie, Convener for Southeast Asia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
Dekha was a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. She was killed in a terrible car accident on July 14, 2011.
→ read full articleNorway the Victim. Norway the Perpetrator.
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
Dialogos, theologos. We are mourning, in churches, some in mosques–how about mourning together? The mezquita in Córdoba, with muslim service on Fridays, christian on Sundays, joint services on Saturdays? And in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, building on Erdögan-Zapatero Alliance of Civilizations? Whites and blacks worked together in Southern USA at great risks; moving the USA forward. Show islamophobes, like Breivik, in Oslo, in Washington, and islamists, that dialogue and cooperation are possible. Invite them to join. Moving the world forward.
→ read full articleUser Friendly
TMS Editor,
1 Aug 2011
The new employee stood before the paper shredder looking confused.
→ read full articleWarfare without Limits: A Darkening Human Horizon
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
There are several pressures that push war in the direction of the absolute, and imperil the human future. Perhaps, the foremost of these is emergence, use, retention, and proliferation of nuclear weapons, as well as the development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.
→ read full articleGround Your Warplanes, Save the Horn of Africa
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
1 Aug 2011
“When you are hungry, cold is a killer, and the people here are starving and helpless.”
→ read full articleGruesome but Necessary: Global Governance in the 21st Century?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
Extreme Normality as Indicator of Systemic Negligence – How are people to think of the massacre of less than a hundred Norwegians — in a global society characterized by daily reporting of instances of tragic deaths of every kind and number? What might who do about it and why?
→ read full articleQuestions the Media Are Not Asking about Norway
Michael N. Nagler and Stephanie N. Van Hook – Metta Center for Nonviolence,
1 Aug 2011
The law enforcement entities dealing with the appalling massacre in and around Oslo last Friday have been understandably preoccupied with the question, did the perpetrator, Anders Behring Breivik, act alone. That is an important question for them, but it does nothing to help the rest of us understand and respond to this tragedy.
→ read full articleTim DeChristopher Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison, Taken Immediately Into Custody
Peaceful Uprising – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to 2 years in prison today [26 Jul 2011] at the Salt Lake City federal courthouse. Author and activist Terry Tempest Williams said, “To think that a young man in an act of conscience might [do any amount of time] in a federal prison for raising a paddle in an already illegal sale of oil and gas leases, compared to the CEO of BP or the financial wizards on Wall Street who have pocketed millions of dollars at our expense – and who will never step into a court of law to even get their hands slapped, let alone go to jail, is an assault on democracy.”
→ read full article(Arabic) Appeal: Association of World Citizens
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
اتصل الكاتب العام للأمم المتحدة السيد بان كي مون بالرئيس السّوري بشار الأسد في العشرين من شهر يويليو 2011, قصد التهيئة لحوار عاجل و شامل و ذلك من أجل الرّد الفعلي و الملح بخصوص الضّيم الضاغط منذ فترة طوية على الشعب السوري, و هو نداء استحوذ على اهتمام رابطة مواطني العالم.
→ read full articleUS Department of Defense: Theory versus Practice
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
In this presentation, we will concentrate on the US Department of Defense as to understand fully well its proper nature and purpose. It is fully assumed that through this department the US government tries to protect, to the best of its ability, the American nation. This military entity, created to protect the American nation, may be viewed as proper or not so proper. Everything boils down to the real concept we have formulated of the word “nation.”
→ read full article(Arabic) التعاون الإسلامي: خطوة لتحقيق المجموعة الإسلامية
عباس عروة و يوهان غالتونغ, 18 يوليو 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2011
عاشت جزيرة العرب لزمن طويل تحت أنواع من العصبية على أساس العرق العربي والقبيلة والعشيرة، إلخ. وكان ذلك سببًا للعديد من الحروب الطويلة المنهكة. وفي سنة 610 للميلاد نزلت على الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلّم، وقد بلغ سنّ الأربعين، أولى آيات القرآن الكريم الذي جاء متحدّيًا للنظام الاجتماعي والسياسي القائم. فتحوّلت العصبية إلى أخوّة في […]
→ read full articleReading the World in a Loaf of Bread: Soaring Food Prices, Wild Weather, Upheaval, and a Planetful of Trouble
Christian Parenti - TomDispatch,
25 Jul 2011
What can a humble loaf of bread tell us about the world? The answer is: far more than you might imagine. For one thing, that loaf can be “read” as if it were a core sample extracted from the heart of a grim global economy. Looked at another way, it reveals some of the crucial fault lines of world politics, including the origins of the Arab spring that has now become a summer of discontent.
→ read full articleJapan: Responding Creatively To Crisis
Daisaku Ikeda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2011
Confronted by a disaster of unimaginable scale, the Japanese people are searching for ways to get back on their feet and discover appropriate responses to a series of interlinked problems. Indeed, the greater these challenges, the greater the potential to find creative responses that will inspire people everywhere and contribute to the sum of human wisdom.
→ read full articleTraitor or Whistleblower? The Divided Life of Bradley Manning
Marcel Rosenbach – Der Spiegel,
25 Jul 2011
Chat transcripts by Bradley Manning, the alleged source of secret US government documents for WikiLeaks, will be used as evidence in his military trial. They reveal a conflicted and lonely young soldier who felt strongly about revealing “almost criminal” behavior. He’s spent 14 months in jail, but there is still no date for his trial.
→ read full article
(Français) Rachad TV Accueille Johan Galtung
Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2011
Commentaires sur l’actualité : RachadTV accueille Johan Galtung, 13 juillet 2011
→ read full articleEWG Meat Eater’s Guide Spotlights Meat’s Outsize Carbon Footprint
TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2011
July 18 – The Environmental Working Group today released its groundbreaking Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health, a powerful, multi-featured tool that allows both consumers and experts to understand easily how food choices affect both their environmental footprint and their health.
→ read full articleDifficult Test?
TMS Editor,
25 Jul 2011
A new guy in town walks into a bar and reads a sign that hangs over the bar… FREE BEER! FREE BEER FOR THE PERSON WHO PASSES THE TEST! So the guy asks the bartender what the test is.
→ read full articleCrocodile Tears As Food Aid Blockade Continues in Horn of Africa
Thomas C. Mountain – Foreign Policy Journal,
25 Jul 2011
As predicted here in Foreign Policy Journal, crocodile tears have begun to run down the faces of the likes of Anthony Lake, CIA director nominee turned Executive Director of UNICEF, as some 15 million people starve in the Horn of Africa. Tony Lake appeals to the world for tens, no, hundreds of millions of dollars to save the starving people of Ethiopia and Somalia, never once telling you that the majority, some 10 million, are in the Ogaden and Oromia regions and being subjected to a Western-funded food aid blockade by the Ethiopian military.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Submarino Nuclear Pode Alterar Equilíbrio da Região e Fomentar Sentimento Anti-Brasil em Populistas
Maurício Moraes - BBC Brasil,
25 Jul 2011
A construção de quatro submarinos nucleares no Brasil, iniciada nesta semana, coloca o país na antesala do seleto grupo das cinco nações detentoras de uma das mais avançadas tecnologias militares do mundo. O avanço, no entanto, deve aprofundar diferenças com os vizinhos sul-americanos e eventualmente fomentar o discurso antibrasileiro por parte de setores populistas da região, segundo especialistas.
→ read full article