Articles by M
We found 37535 results.
Challenging the Ruling Global Corporate Conglomerates – Regaining the Real Economy
Prof. John McMurtry – Global Research,
19 Mar 2012
As Adam Smith says in a little-known overview of the market’s supply-demand system, “among the inferior ranks of people the scantiness of subsistence can set limits to the further multiplication of the human species; and it can so in no other way than by destroying a great part of the children which their fruitful marriages produce”. This is why market-capitalist ideology has been so long bent on assimilating the system to natural laws. It drapes the monstrous mechanism in a macro alibi of ‘natural struggle for existence.’
→ read full articleEvangelist Sued in U.S. for Inciting Anti-Gay Hatred in Uganda
Charundi Panagoda and Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Mar 2012
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts Wednesday [14 Mar 2012] on behalf of the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) and against Scott Lively, a right-wing evangelist, for inciting a hatred that has led to increased violence against LGBT persons. He is also the author of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party”, a 1995 book that claimed Nazism was created and propagated by homosexuals, and a second book, “Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”, a how-to guide for parents to “prevent” their children from becoming homosexual.
→ read full articleAll Red Meat Is Bad For You, New Study Says
Eryn Brown - Los Angeles Times,
19 Mar 2012
Eating red meat — any amount and any type — appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to a long-range study that examined the eating habits and health of more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years.
→ read full articleBeyond Fukushima
Yukiya Amano – Project Syndicate,
12 Mar 2012
The accident at Fukushima resulted from an earthquake and tsunami of unprecedented severity. But, as the Japanese authorities have acknowledged, human and organizational failings played an important part, too.
→ read full articleEminent Indians Speak Out Against Harassment of Anti-Nuclear Activists in Koodankulam
DiaNuke – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Several eminent citizens, concerned about nuclear safety and the government’s campaign of slander against the Koodankulam anti-nuclear plant agitation in Tamil Nadu, have signed a public statement denouncing the government’s high-handedness against the peaceful protesters in Koodankulam. The signatories also include writers Arundhati Roy, Adil Jussawalla and Vandana Shiva. The statement is of vital public importance in view of the government’s plans to forge ahead with nuclear power expansion regardless of its safety and economic issues, and strong public opposition to new nuclear reactors.
→ read full articleIsraeli Apartheid Week Kicks Off in South Africa
The Voice of Palestine – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
The cultural week against the Israeli apartheid regime in occupied Palestine were launched in more than 13 South African cities in the context of global activities and events taking place in about 90 cities around the world. These events include university seminars, lectures, documentaries movies, photo galleries and many other activities on the apartheid system pursued by Israel.
→ read full article
CNN Silences War-Skeptical Soldier (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
CNN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Watch what happens when 28-year-old Cpl. Jesse Thorsen touches a neuralgic nerve by suggesting that Israel can take care of itself. It’s impossible to say exactly what happened to the remote feed that suddenly got lost in transmission back to CNN Central, but the minute-long video is truly worth a thousand words. The interview, which dates back to Jan. 3 2012, is symbolic of how the US Corporate Media treats dissident voices that clash with the prevailing pro-war-on-Iran bias.
→ read full articleReciprocity, Lawfare, and Self-Defense: Targeted Killing
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
There is an emergent Israeli/American controversy on the lawfulness of targeted killing. Although the policy has not yet attained the status of being a national debate, there are signs that it may be about to happen, especially in light of the Attorney General, Eric Holder’s Northwestern Law School speech on March 5, 2012 outlining the Obama’s administration’s controversial approach to targeted killing in some detail.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Stratfor Emails Devastating
TYT Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
“Some 5m internal emails from Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based company that brands itself as a “global intelligence” provider, were recently obtained by Anonymous, the hacker collective, and are being released in batches by WikiLeaks. The most striking revelation from the latest disclosure is not simply the military-industrial complex that conspires to spy on citizens, activists and trouble-causers, but the extremely low quality of the information available to the highest bidder.”
→ read full articleMystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World
Michael Parenti – Information Clearing House,
12 Mar 2012
Isn’t it time that liberal critics stop thinking that the people who own so much of the world—and want to own it all—are “incompetent” or “misguided” or “failing to see the unintended consequences of their policies”? You are not being very smart when you think your enemies are not as smart as you. They know where their interests lie, and so should we.
→ read full articleNigeria Oil Corruption Highlighted by Audits
Joe Brock and Tim Cocks, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
An important supplier to the United States because of the oil’s high gasoline content, Nigeria has attracted billions of dollars of investments from the world’s top oil companies. Yet poverty in Africa’s second biggest economy is rising, with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day, data released last month shows. The percentage of Nigerians living in absolute poverty – those who can afford only the bare essentials of food, shelter and clothing – has risen to around 60 percent.
→ read full articleWhy Putin Is Driving Washington Nuts
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
12 Mar 2012
So Washington and its minions have been warned. Before last Sunday’s [4 Mar 2012] election, Putin advertised his road map: no war on Syria; no war on Iran; no “humanitarian bombing” or fomenting “color revolutions” – all “illegal instruments of soft power”. For Putin, a Washington-engineered New World Order is a no-go. What rules is “the time-honored principle of state sovereignty”.
→ read full articleLanguage of Politics in True Perspective
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
In view of what has been stated and based on the tangible evidence that was presented, we can fully understand that when China and the United States speak of “national defense and security” they do attribute to this phraseology an entirely different meaning, even though the sound is identical. For China, “national defense and security” means simply the “protection of the country from any possible invasion.” For the United States, “national defense and security” means merely the “preparation for the waging of never-ending wars around the world by using the most devastating weapons available.
→ read full articlePeace Mathematics – Does It Exist?
Johan Galtung, 12 Mar 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
It does, even in print; pardon some publicity! You may start at the end with the table of contents, then, here, the book epilogue:
Enthusiast E and Skeptic S: Dialogue at a Higher Level:
S: I worried that you would put something belonging to all of us, peace, into a big machine with parameters and then the machine would produce outputs about what to do. Like economists do with something belonging to us, our own livelihood. I liked your distinction between equations and formulas, between mathematics and mathematese…
China to Export Yuan to BRICS
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
China is reportedly to begin extending loans in yuan to BRICS countries in another step towards internationalizing the national currency and diversifying from the US dollar. Brazil and South Africa were quick to react to the proposal, saying they expect the lending pledge to be included into a master agreement to be signed in New Delhi on March 29 [2012].
→ read full articleLab Tests Find Carcinogen in Regular and Diet Coke and Pepsi
Center for Science in the Public Interest – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
New chemical analyses have found that Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Diet Coke, and Diet Pepsi contain high levels of 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), a known animal carcinogen. The carcinogen forms when ammonia or ammonia and sulfites are used to manufacture the “caramel coloring” that gives those sodas their distinctive brown colors, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit watchdog group that commissioned the tests.
→ read full articleMonsanto’s Roundup Shown to be Ravaging Butterfly Population
Mike Barrett, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Monsanto’s Roundup, containing the active ingredient glyphosate, has been tied to more health and environmental problems than you could imagine. Similar to how pesticides have been contributing to the bee decline, Monsanto’s Roundup has been tied to the decrease in the population of monarch butterflies by killing the very plants that the butterflies rely on for habitat and food. What’s been shown to be an even greater threat to the population, though, is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready corn and soybeans.
→ read full articleDon’t Bank on the Bomb
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
A fantastic report with many detailed tables.The Financing of Nuclear Weapons Producers – With a Foreword by Desmond Tutu. The first major global report on the financing of companies that manufacture, modernize and maintain nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. It identifies more than 300 banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers from 30 countries that invest significantly in the, also listed, 20 major nuclear weapons producers.
→ read full articleThe War on WikiLeaks Is Now Trial by Media in Sweden
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
War by media, says current military doctrine, is as important as the battlefield. This is because the real enemy is the public at home, whose manipulation and deception are essential for starting an unpopular colonial war. Like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, attacks on Iran and Syria require a steady drip-effect on readers’ and viewers’ consciousness. This is the essence of a propaganda that rarely speaks its name.
→ read full articleRevenge of the Settlers
Nour Samaha – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Palestinians are under increasing attacks from Israeli settlers, especially in the last few years, reports have found. For Israeli activist Nawi, the motivations of settlers are much more straightforward. “Most of the settlers are motivated by religious ideas; that the Arabs are unwelcome people and they need to leave,” he said. “It is not an argument you can reason with. They want Palestine.”
→ read full articleKoran Burning in Afghanistan: Mistake, Crime, and Metaphor
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
In this regard Koran burning may be as provocative in its assault on Afghan political culture as was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi with respect to the authoritarian cruelty of the Tunisian regime presided over by the tyrannical rule of Zine El Alindine Ben Ali, who was driven from power as a direct result. When the culture screams it is time to leave!
→ read full articleThe Fukushima Syndrome
Martin Freer – Project Syndicate,
12 Mar 2012
The dramatic events that unfolded at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant after last year’s tsunami are commonly referred to as “the Fukushima disaster.” We need look no further than this description to begin to understand the significant misconceptions that surround nuclear energy.
→ read full articleU.N. Chastises Mexico’s Support for Agribusiness
Emilio Godoy – Inter Press Service-IPS,
12 Mar 2012
The United Nations criticised Mexico’s food policy, a month and a half after President Felipe Calderón launched to great fanfare an alliance of agribusiness for sustainable development, which was welcomed by giant food corporations. At a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, spoke out against the financial aid that Mexico will give to large producers at the expense of small farmers. He also criticised trials of genetically modified crops in this country.
→ read full articleTracking the Trackers: Mozilla’s Anti-Big Brother Add-On
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
The owner of Firefox, the world’s second most popular browser, is backing an add-on which would allow users to monitor in real-time how their actions are tracked and shared by various websites as they surf the net. The amount of data collected by Google, Facebook and other players less-known to the general public is astounding. But the majority of Internet users are oblivious to this fact. Mozilla’s new add-on – called Collusion – aims to change that.
→ read full articleStructural Crisis Needs Structural Change
István Mészáros – Montly Review,
12 Mar 2012
It cannot be stressed enough that the crisis in our time is not intelligible without being referred to the broad overall social framework. This means that in order to clarify the nature of the persistent and deepening crisis all over the world today we must focus attention on the crisis of the capital system in its entirety. For the crisis of capital we are experiencing is an all-embracing structural crisis.
→ read full article(Italian) Brescia: Primo Marzo 2012 per i Diritti di Tutti i Migranti e per i Diritti di Tutti
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Brescia*, Piazza Loggia, 1 marzo 2012
→ read full articleGauging Arab Public Opinion
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
The first of its kind – a poll conducted in 12 Arab countries, representing over 80 per cent of the population of the Arab world, in an attempt to gauge the region’s political mood, shows: Israel and the US are seen as more threatening than Iran. A high 84 per cent believe the Palestinian question is the cause of all Arabs and not the Palestinians only, and 84 per cent reject the notion of their state’s recognition of Israel. Only 21 per cent support, to a certain degree, the peace agreement signed between Egypt, Jordan and the PLO with Israel.
→ read full articleThe Continuing Saga of UN Impunity
Kristen Saloomey – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
The United Nations is no stranger to scandal. There are the wayward peacekeeping troops who take advantage of the vulnerable people they are supposed to be protecting and commit rape and sexual abuse. Think: Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then there’s corruption, as happened in the Oil-for-Food Programme.
→ read full articleA Revolution in Botanical Nomenclature
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Since January 1, botanical terms are to be named in English rather than Latin, changing a centuries old practice.
→ read full article10 Unanswered Questions on Iran and Israel
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Produced in the light of the Press Conference of President Barack Obama (6 March 2012)
and a crisis meeting of the IAEA (Vienna, 7 March 2012) seeking consensus on action against Iran. Why is the case against Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons of mass destruction always presented without systematic comparison with the track record relating to Israel’s capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction?
Say NO to ACTA
laquadrature – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Learn more and take action about ACTA.
→ read full articleThe Policeman and the Drunkard
TMS Editor,
12 Mar 2012
One night, a police officer was stalking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible violations of the driving under the influence laws.
→ read full articleBig 6 Oil Companies Complete a Trillion-Dollar Decade
David Wallechinsky, AllGov – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Times are good for the six largest oil companies, with profits easily surpassing the figures from before the 2008 financial meltdown. In 2011 ExxonMobil led the way with profits of $41.1 billion. Shell was in second place at $28.6 billion, followed by Chevron at $26.8 billion and BP at $23.9 billion. Total was back at $15.9 billion and ConocoPhillips trailed at $12.4 billion.
→ read full articleCancer of the Spirit
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
Can we squeeze the glory out of the word “war”? Can we talk about savage irrationality and lifelong inner hell instead? Can we talk about the wreckage of two countries? Can we talk about spiritual cancer? In the extraordinary documentary On the Bridge — an unstinting look at the reality of war and the terror of PTSD.
→ read full articleChina: Rise, Fall and Re-Emergence as a Global Power – Some Lessons from the Past
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
The study of world power has been blighted by Eurocentric historians who have distorted and ignored the dominant role China played in the world economy between 1100 and 1800.
→ read full articleUN Official Slams WikiLeaks Suspect Manning’s Treatment
Agence France Press-AFP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
US authorities’ treatment of WikiLeaks suspect Private Bradley Manning was “cruel and degrading,” the UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Ernesto Mendez said Monday [5 Mar 2012]. “I believe Bradley Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the excessive and prolonged isolation he was put in during the eight months he was in Quantico,” he told AFP, referring to the US military prison near Washington.
→ read full articleTroubled Waters: How Mine Waste Dumping is Poisoning Our Ocean, Rivers, and Lakes
Earthworks & MiningWatch Canada – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
A new investigative report from Earthworks and MiningWatch Canada documents how mining companies are using the world’s waterways as dumping grounds for their toxic mine wastes. These mine wastes, or tailings, can contain up to three dozen dangerous chemicals, including arsenic, lead, mercury, and cyanide. Each year, mining companies dump over 180 million tonnes of these hazardous mine wastes into rivers, oceans, and lakes – that’s more than 1.5 times the amount of waste that US cities send to landfills each year.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Islamic Blind Spots
Naomi Wolf – Project Syndicate,
5 Mar 2012
Burning a conquered people’s sacred texts sends an unmistakable message: you can do anything to these people. As Heinrich Heine put it, referring to the Spanish Inquisition’s burning of the Koran, “Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings.” Jews understand that very well: from the Inquisition to Cossack massacres to Kristallnacht, the aggressors destroyed Torahs as a logical and well-understood precursor to destroying Jews.
→ read full articleIceland’s Ex-PM on Trial over Banks Crisis
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
The former prime minister of Iceland has gone on trial in a special court in Reykjavik on charges of negligence over his handling of the country’s 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of the country’s banking system.
→ read full articleFrom Empire to Global Fascism
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
A disconnect between speech and action is Obama’s trade mark. A key to his global fascism: instead of acknowledging wrongs of US foreign policy, he hides his extra-judicial killings with drones and JSOC’s (Joint Special Operations Command) in, maybe, 120 countries. Covert, CIA, less overt, Pentagon; with little Congress control. JSOC has been operating an extra-legal “kill-capture” campaign that a former counterinsurgency adviser calls “an almost industrial scale counterterrorism killing machine”.
→ read full articleGandhi and the Dalit Controversy: The Limits of the Moral Force of an Individual
Miki Kashtan – Waging Nonviolence,
5 Mar 2012
When I first heard that Gandhi was viewed as “the enemy” by many Dalits in India (formerly called “untouchables”), I was dumbfounded. How and why could Gandhi be seen as having betrayed the Dalits when he opposed untouchability even in the face of active discomfort on the part of close associates?
→ read full articleA Look at the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Armies
Luke McKenna and Robert Johnson – Business Insider-Military & Defense,
5 Mar 2012
Business is booming for a growing army of private military contractors, who take their military training and offer it to the highest bidder. Modern-day mercenaries are stationed throughout the world fighting conflicts for governments that are reluctant to use their own troops. Security giant G4S is the second-largest private employer on earth.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks: Leaked Emails Expose Inner Workings of Private Intelligence Firm Stratfor, a “Shadow CIA” (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
5 Mar 2012
The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun publishing what it says are 5.5 million emails obtained from the servers of Stratfor, a private U.S.-based intelligence-gathering firm known to some as a “shadow CIA” for corporations and government agencies.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks vs. Stratfor: Pursue the Truth, Not Its Messenger
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
5 Mar 2012
The White House is holding a gala dinner this week, honoring Iraq War veterans. Bradley Manning is an Iraq War vet who won’t be there. He is being court-martialed, facing life in prison or possibly death, for allegedly releasing thousands of military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks revealing the casualties of war. President Barack Obama would better serve the country by also honoring Assange and Manning. We should pursue the truth, not its messengers.
→ read full articleBe polite… and laugh
TMS Editor,
5 Mar 2012
Q. What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?
→ read full article
Inside MONSANTO
Denkmal Film - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Scientists Speak the Truth
→ read full articleLibya ‘Close to Disintegration’ – PM
The Voice of Russia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Speaking on the first anniversary of the anti-Gaddafi revolution in Misurata Monday, interim Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abdeljalil warned of complete national disintegration if the rival tribes and clans that had laid hands on Gaddafi’s arsenals continued to refuse to submit to the authority of the central government.
→ read full article8 March: International Day of Women – Women as Peacemakers
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
8 March is the International Day of Women first proposed by Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1911. Zetkin, who had lived some years in Paris and active in women’s movements there, was building on the 1889 International Congress for Feminine Works and Institutions held in Paris under the leadership of Ana de Walska.
→ read full articleFukushima – Worse Than Chernobyl
Janette Sherman and Joseph J. Mangano – San Francisco Bay View,
5 Mar 2012
The epidemic increase in childhood and adult cancer has occurred since World War II, when both chemical and radiological pollution spread over the world. Half a century later, there is no longer any doubt that radioisotopes in concert with industrial chemicals have caused this epidemic. Unless the earth stops turning and the laws of chemistry, biology and physics are rescinded, the radioisotopes being released from Fukushima will cause worldwide harm to life. It is in our hands to prevent another Chernobyl or Fukushima.
→ read full articleNobel Peace Laureate Calls For Ceasefire and Nonviolent Solution to the Conflict in Syria
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
“The only people who can solve Syrian problems are the Syrians themselves. The international community must insist that all international and human rights laws be upheld by the Syrian government and that they enter a dialogue with all opposition groups whose voices have a right to be heard and not ‘silenced’ by persecution, torture and/or killings.”
→ read full articlePsychologists and Torture, Then and Now
Laura Melendez-Pallitto and Robert Pallitto – Foreign Policy in Focus,
5 Mar 2012
Psychologists’ involvement in torture has done damage to the reputation of the profession, and the boards’ unwillingness to act undermines the integrity of ethics rules. It is both unconscionable and absurd that a psychologist can lose his or her license for Medicaid fraud but not for involvement in torture.
→ read full articleUS Must Seize Opportunity to Support Palestinian Nonviolence
Yousef Munayyer – Al Jazeera,
5 Mar 2012
More than ever, polling data shows, Palestinians are supporting nonviolent resistance. A series of polls of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza which included a question on nonviolence reveals an undeniable trend in the past 18 months. In June of 2010, 51 per cent of Palestinians polled responded that nonviolent resistance was a preferred alternative to stalled negotiations. In a poll at the end of 2011 that number jumped to over 61 per cent.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: Government Promises, Ground Realities
International Crisis Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Nearly three years since declaring victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government has weakened democratic institutions, deepened ethnic polarisation and aggravated the country’s long-standing impunity for human rights violations. The former warzones in the north and east are heavily militarised and controlled from Colombo, while disappearances, killings, torture, gender-based violence and other abuses continue with impunity throughout the island. Sri Lankans who speak out about the situation risk reprisal.
→ read full articleBahrain Delays UN Investigator Visit
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Government requests torture investigator to delay visit, while strengthening restrictions on visits by rights groups. The UN human rights office in Geneva said on Thursday [1 Mar 2012] that Bahrain had formally requested that the visit of the special rapporteur on torture be delayed until July. Bahrain, an ally of the United States and home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, is ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa family, and has been under pressure to institute political and rights reforms since its violent crackdown on the uprising.
→ read full articleMonsanto Pays 93 Million to Victims in Settlement
Cassandra Anderson, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
February 27, 2012 – Monsanto tentatively agreed to a $93 million settlement with some residents of Nitro, West Virginia. Nitro is a small town that got its name from manufacturing explosives during WWI. It was also the site of a Monsanto chemical plant that manufactured 2,4,5-T herbicide that was half of the Agent Orange recipe. Monsanto has now set a precedent for settling claims, and hopefully some good attorneys will seize the opportunity in order to hold Monsanto accountable.
→ read full articleI Was a Warehouse Wage Slave
Mac McClelland – Mother Jones,
5 Mar 2012
My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine.
→ read full articleColombia’s Quest for Peace and Justice
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Between April 21 -23 [2012], the National Patriotic Council will convoke thousands of activists from most of the major urban and rural social movements and trade unions, human rights groups and indigenous afro-colombian movements, who will meet to unify forces and launch what promises to be the most significant new political movement in recent history. The democratization of Colombia requires the growth of independent social movements, judicial investigation and prosecution of ex narco-President Álvaro Uribe and his closest collaborators, and needs to extend to the present Santos regime.
→ read full articleKeiser Report: D.I.C.s and Hackers
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert – Russia Today,
5 Mar 2012
The Stratfor bimbo and the bank that is in bed with it. WikiLeaks as the modern day Gutenberg press.
→ read full articleThe WikiLeaks GiFiles: Stratfor Predicts Huge Oil Profits from Attack on Iran
Anissa Haddadi – International Business Times,
5 Mar 2012
WikiLeaks has started publishing more than five million emails hacked by Anonymous from the servers of Stratfor, a US intelligence gathering company. An email sent by Chris Farnham, senior officer for Stratfor, to an internal unnamed source inside the company titled “Israel/Iran Barak Hails Munitions Blast in Iran” provides details about who would benefit from an Israeli attack on Iran, and say such a plan would be motivated by economic factors.
→ read full articleCheerleading Is No Revolution: “Democracy in Burma”
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Cheerleading is no revolution. That society is not going anywhere humanistic. The current discourse of revolutionary changes is nothing but a self-interested spin from vultures and vampires of all stripes and colours, native and foreign.
→ read full articleHow to Acquire an Underclass While Doing Good
Vithal Rajan – TRANSCEND Media Serivce,
5 Mar 2012
Winston Churchill once famously declared that the British Empire was acquired in a fit of absence of mind. Most probably he was right.
→ read full articlePrivacy Betrayed: Twitter Sells Multi-Billion Tweet Archive
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Twitter has sold billions of archived tweets believed to have vanished forever. A privacy row has erupted as hundreds of companies queue up to purchase users’ personal information from the new database. Every time you use social networks you become mere product – it’s an idea we will all have to get used to. So, should we give up worldly goods and hide in a Tibetan monastery till the end of our days, or start putting up a fight to protect our privacy?
→ read full articleTribalism, Racism and Projection (Part 1)
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
In this paper and the one to follow, I expose the misleading aspect that is, unfortunately, inherent to some ‘anti’ racist ideologies. I will elaborate on the role of anti racism in maintaing both Zionism and the Left discourse.
“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” ― Anaïs Nin
Tribalism, Racism and Projection (Part 2)
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
In this part I explore the misleading role of Jewish politics (both Zionist and anti Zionist) within the ‘anti racist’ campaign.
→ read full articleCooperatives over Corporations
Jim Hightower - Truthout,
27 Feb 2012
We’re being told by today’s High Priests of Conventional Wisdom that everyone and everything in our economic cosmos necessarily revolves around one dazzling star: the corporation. This heavenly institution, the HPCW explain, has such financial and political mass that it is the optimal force for organizing and directing our society’s economic affairs, including the terms of employment and production. While other forces are in play (workers, consumers, the environment, communities and so forth), they are subordinate to the superior gravitational pull of the corporate order.
→ read full articleOur Duty to Sri Lanka, And Human Rights
Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson – The Guardian,
27 Feb 2012
This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal rights and international legal obligations we all share.
→ read full articleDon’t Northwoods Iran
Jacob G. Hornberger – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
27 Feb 2012
Another option for avoiding the appearance of being the aggressor power is the Operation Northwoods option. During the Kennedy administration, the Pentagon and the CIA wanted to invade Cuba to effect regime change there. But they didn’t want to appear as the aggressor power. So, the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with a proposal that it unanimously approved and presented to JFK. To Kennedy’s ever-lasting credit, he rejected Operation Northwoods.
→ read full articleUN Peacekeepers Not About to Leave Haiti
Benedict Moran – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
A bas Kolera, a bas Minista,– Creole for “down with cholera, down with MINUSTAH,” the United Nation peacekeeping force in Haiti – can be seen spray-painted across Port-au-Prince. After years of scandal, including allegations of sexual abuse and accusations of introducing cholera into the country, many Haitians want the UN’s third-largest peacekeeping force to leave. But despite calls to leave, the UN Security Council, which recently made a visit to the country to assess its mission, foresees a UN military presence in the country for years to come.
→ read full articleBreakfast Order
TMS Editor,
27 Feb 2012
A resident in a posh hotel breakfast room called over the head waiter one morning and read from the menu.
→ read full articleFrance to EU: Stop Monsanto’s Corn
Common Dreams staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
France has asked the European regulators to suspend the authorization to plant Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) MON810 corn. France’s ecology minister says the decision is based on studies showing GM crops “pose significant risks for the environment.”
→ read full articleMetaphorical Insights from the Patterns of Academic Disciplines
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
This document explores use of a particular metaphor from physics as a means of articulating understandings of openness and closedness in support of individual or collective identity. It follows from consideration of pattern language in a more general argument (Way Round Cognitive Ground Zero and Pointlessness: embodying the geometry of fundamental cognitive dynamics, 2012) of which it is is Annex D.
→ read full articleLimits to Growth and Fractional Reserve Banking
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
Economists (with a few notable exceptions) have long behaved as though growth were synonymous with economic health. If the gross national product increases steadily most economists express approval and say that the economy is healthy. If the growth rate should fall, economic illness would be diagnosed. However, it is obvious that on a finite Earth, neither population growth nor economic growth can continue indefinitely.
→ read full articleThe Best Information Is Quantum Information
Joseph Emerson – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
Quantum computing could revolutionise the field of cryptography, with major implications for privacy and security.
→ read full articleJapan’s Spiritual Crisis
Johan Galtung, 27 Feb 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
This author published with Ikuro Anzai, ‘Nippon wa Kikikan’, Is Japan in a Crisis? And the answer was yes, a spiritual crisis. Japan sold its soul to Washington, and is left in a spiritual vacuum; neither US nor Japan. Walking through the marvelous bullet train, Shinkansen, only sad, grey, tired faces; no laughter, no enhancing conversation seen or heard.
→ read full article
ACTA Blueprint for a Global Takeover of the Internet (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
occupyvancouvermedia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
ACTA – The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is yet another treaty being developed by the global elite in an attempt to censor the internet and block the free flow of information.
→ read full articleBan Ki-moon Hails Latin American Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone on 45th Anniversary
UN News Centre- TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
14 February 2012 – On the 45th anniversary of the treaty that created a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today hailed the pact as an example of how regional initiatives can advance global norms on nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful use of atomic energy.
→ read full articleIcelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story
Omar R. Valdimarsson - Bloomberg,
27 Feb 2012
Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association. “You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”
→ read full articleSaving Khader Adnan’s Life and Legacy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
It is a great relief to those millions around the world who were moved to prayer and action by Khader Adnan’s extraordinary hunger strike of 66 days that has ended due to Israel’s agreement to release him on April 17 [2012].
→ read full articleThe European Union and the Rhetoric of Immaturity
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
The tendency to infantalise select member states is in line with their animalisation, evident in the insulting abbreviation of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain in the word PIGS, neither as human nor as rational as the rest of the EU countries. Throughout Western philosophy, both children and animals, with their capricious wills, have been considered deficient from the standpoint of fully developed rational adults and, hence, in need of training, education, and disciplining.
→ read full articlePain Without Gain
Paul Krugman, Nobel Economics laureate – The New York Times,
27 Feb 2012
Last week the European Commission confirmed what everyone suspected: the economies it surveys are shrinking, not growing. It’s not an official recession yet, but the only real question is how deep the downturn will be. Look, I understand why influential people are reluctant to admit that policy ideas they thought reflected deep wisdom actually amounted to utter, destructive folly. But it’s time to put delusional beliefs about the virtues of austerity in a depressed economy behind us.
→ read full articleBP Goes to Court
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
The largest environmental trial in US history begins February 27 [2012], as BP is sued for its 2010 oil spill disaster.
→ read full articleGreece: The Epicenter of Global Pillage
Stephen Lendman – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
Predatory bankers make serial killers look good by comparison. Their business model creates crises to facilitate grand theft, financial terrorism, and debt entrapment. They steal all material wealth and then some, and systematically rob investors and strip mine economies for self-enrichment. They demand they get paid first and hold nations hostage to assure it, turn crises into catastrophes and leave mass impoverishment, high unemployment, neo-serfdom, and human wreckage in their wake.
→ read full articleForgetting the Past, One Military Movie at a Time
David Sirota – In These Times,
27 Feb 2012
When the entertainment industry gets in bed with the Pentagon, censorship is inevitable.
→ read full articleTop Social Media Websites Caught Censoring Controversial Content
Washington’s Blog – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
Facebook pays low-wage foreign workers to delete certain content based upon a censorship list. For example, it deletes accounts created by Palestinian resistance groups. Digg was caught censoring stories which were controversial or too critical of the government. See this and this. Now, even social media site Reddit – which helped launch the anti-Sopa Internet blackout and publicize GoDaddy’s slimy Sopa support – is doing the same thing.
→ read full articleBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement: The Power of the People at Work
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
27 Feb 2012
The issue is not about hummus, chocolate bars or Dead Sea vacations. It is about civil society taking full responsibility for its own actions (or lack of). The issue is not exactly about Israeli products either, but rather about how even a seemingly innocent decision like buying Israeli dates may enable the continued subjugation of the Palestinian people.
→ read full articleHappy Savages
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
“John is a savage, but a happy, amenable savage.” Thus intones the voice on a ’50s-era newsreel clip in the documentary, showing footage of seven male Marshall Islanders who have been brought to the United States for radiation testing. “John is mayor of Rongelap Atoll. John reads, knows about God and is a pretty good mayor.” The film does a stunning job juxtaposing examples of our smug ignorance of South Sea culture with the reality of what we did to it. John the happy savage is actually John Anjain, who is one of many former residents of Rongelap Atoll interviewed in the film. He talks about his thyroid cancer, the thyroid cancer of three of his children and one grandson, and about the death of another son from leukemia.
→ read full article“Losing” the World: American Decline in Perspective (Part 1)
Noam Chomsky - TomDispatch,
20 Feb 2012
Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated — Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, for example. Others are ignored. At the moment, we are failing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s decision to launch the most destructive and murderous act of aggression of the post-World War II period: the invasion of South Vietnam. The threat of socialist democracy in Chile was ended on another forgotten date, what Latin Americans call “the first 9/11,” which in violence and bitter effects far exceeded the 9/11 commemorated in the West.
→ read full articleThe Imperial Way: American Decline in Perspective (Part 2)
Noam Chomsky – TomDispatch,
20 Feb 2012
In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible internal problems of societies ruled by mostly Europeanized elites. They have also rid themselves of all U.S. military bases and of IMF controls. A newly formed organization, CELAC, includes all countries of the hemisphere apart from the U.S. and Canada. If it actually functions, that would be another step in American decline, in this case in what has always been regarded as “the backyard.”
→ read full article(Portuguese) O ACTA Ameaça a Net
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
Quem nunca ouviu um CD emprestado, viu um DVD de um amigo, recorreu a uma biblioteca? A partilha de bens culturais sempre existiu. Na era digital, tem especificidades próprias, mas é falso que a cópia de um ficheiro não autorizado seja um ‘roubo’. Os Estados Unidos assinaram o ACTA em outubro [2011], assim como a Austrália, o Canadá, a Coreia do Sul e o Japão. A 26 de Janeiro [2012], 22 países europeus e a Comissão Europeia assinaram-no igualmente. Entraria em vigor depois de seis Estados signatários o terem ratificado. Nenhum o fez até à data. E, se depender das populações, tudo indica que nenhum o fará.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Banned From UN Conference on WikiLeaks
Common Dreams staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
WikiLeaks has lodged a strong protest with the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) for “banning’’ it from an international conference it is hosting at its headquarters in Paris on the impact of the whistle-blower website’s activities. It said the U.S. organizers of the two-day conference, which opened on Thursday [16 Feb 2012], had “stacked’’ it with WikiLeaks’ opponents and “blocked all speakers from WikiLeaks, stating that the decision to censor WikiLeaks representation was an exercise in ‘freedom of expression… our right to give voice to speakers of our choice’’.”
→ read full articleWhen Is An ‘NGO’ Not An NGO? Twists and Turns Beneath the Cairo Skies
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
A confusing controversy between the United States and Egypt is unfolding. It has already raised tensions in the relationship between the two countries to a level that has not existed for decades. It results from moves by the military government in Cairo to go forward with the criminal prosecution of 43 foreigners, including 19 Americans, for unlawfully carrying on the work of unlicensed public interest organizations that improperly, according to Egyptian law, depend for their budget on foreign funding.
→ read full articleIceland’s Viking Victory
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – The Telegraph,
20 Feb 2012
Congratulations to Iceland. Fitch has upgraded the country to investment grade BBB – with stable outlook, expecting government debt to peak at 100pc of GDP. The OECD’s latest forecast said growth will be 2.4pc this year, after 2.9pc in 2011. Unemployment will fall from 7pc last year to 6.1pc this year and then 5.3pc in 2013.
→ read full articleThe Big Green Question
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
Is environmentalism compatible with social justice? Journalists writing for the corporate press, with views somewhere to the right of Vlad the Impaler and no prior record of concern for the poor, suddenly become their doughty champions when the interests of the proprietorial class are threatened. If tar sands cannot be extracted in Canada, they maintain, subsistence farmers in Africa will starve. If Tesco’s profits are threatened, children will die of malaria. When it is done cleverly, promoting the interests of corporations and the ultra-rich under the guise of concern for the poor is an effective public relations strategy.
→ read full articlePreventing a Nuclear Iran, Peacefully
Shibley Telhami and Steven Kull – International Herald Tribune,
20 Feb 2012
Despite all the talk of an “existential threat,” less than half of Israelis support a strike on Iran. According to our November poll, carried out in cooperation with the Dahaf Institute in Israel, only 43 percent of Israeli Jews support a military strike on Iran. Most important, when asked whether it would be better for both Israel and Iran to have the bomb, or for neither to have it, 65 percent of Israeli Jews said neither. And a remarkable 64 percent favored the idea of a nuclear-free zone, even when it was explained that this would mean Israel giving up its nuclear weapons.
→ read full articleWho is Threatening Whom? 45 US Bases Surround Iran
Information Clearing House – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
Each star on the map is a US base. But just to be clear, Iran is the one that is threatening the US.
→ read full articleChevron Rig Burns Off Nigeria as Damage Hits Shore
Sapa-AP – Times Live, South Africa,
20 Feb 2012
The burning inferno of what used to be a Chevron Corp. natural gas rig still stains the night’s sky orange more than two weeks after the rig caught fire, and no one can say when it will end as swarms of dead fish surface.
→ read full articleHow Did Rwanda Cut Poverty So Much?
Emily Alpert – Los Angeles Times,
20 Feb 2012
The small African nation of Rwanda recently announced that it had cut poverty by 12% in six years, from 57% of its population to 45%. That equals roughly a million Rwandans emerging from poverty — one of the most stunning drops in the world.
→ read full articlePrivate Prison Company to Demand 90% Occupancy
Noel Brinkerhoff & David Wallechinsky, AllGov – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has reached out to 48 states as part of a $250 million plan to own existing prisons and manage their operations. But in return CCA wants a 20-year contract and assurances that the state will keep the prisons at least 90% full.
→ read full articleSaving Khader Adnan’s Life Saves Our Own Soul
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
The world watches as tragedy unfolds beneath its gaze as Khader Asnan enters his 63rd day as a hunger striker in an Israeli prison being held under an administrative detention order without trial, without charges, and without any indication of the evidence against him.
→ read full articleWorld Day of Social Justice: The People’s Revolution is On the March
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
The United Nations General Assembly, on the initiative of Nurbch Jeenbrev, the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to the U.N. in New York, has proclaimed 20 February as the “World Day of Social Justice”.
→ read full article