Articles by M
We found 36604 results.
FIA-Bahrain: Putting Money before Morality?
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Motorsports world governing body [Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile-FIA] votes to hold Bahrain Grand Prix despite concerns from human rights groups.
→ read full articleA Shameless Secretary General versus Freedom Flotilla 2
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
In light of these surrounding circumstances, including the failure of Israel to live up to its announced promise after the attack in 2010 to lift the blockade, it shocks our moral and legal sensibilities that the UN Secretary General should be using the authority of his office to urge member governments to prevent ships from joining Freedom Flotilla 2.
→ read full articleWho Does the Preah Vihear Temple Belong To?
Tom Fawthrop – Al Jazeera,
6 Jun 2011
Thailand-Cambodia conflict over ancient temple site sparks debate over borders and historic rights. Aggressive nationalism, a politicised Thai army asserting a stronger role in politics, the current election campaign, and the country’s chronic instability, have effectively derailed plans by Cambodia and UNESCO to move forward with heritage conservation to restore the temple.
→ read full articleBuying Time: Global Leaders Play the Game As Israeli Settlements Expand
Ashley Lackovich-van Gorp – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Young Israelis, who have grown up with the social construction that Palestinian land is nothing more than a fabrication of the anti-Semitic international community, do not realize that some of the East Jerusalem communities, such as the entire city of Ma’ale Adumim, are actually settlements. These settlements look, act and function like any other Israeli town. These young Israelis, then, are more victims of an ideology than deliberate perpetrators of occupation. The Occupation is a tragedy not only to Palestinian youth, but Israeli youth as well.
→ read full article‘The People Don’t Want War’
Jim Albertini, Center for Nonviolent Education and Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Truth From An Unexpected Source – ”Why of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” – Herman Goering, Nazi Germany
→ read full articleOxfam: Hunger Will Strike
The Independent – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The charity warns that we will be unable to feed the world by 2050. Is it politics, global warming or greed that has got us here? And, asks Sean O’Grady, why aren’t we changing our behaviour to ensure a safer future?
→ read full articleThe Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families (Part 1)
Dean Henderson | Global Research - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The Four Horsemen of Banking (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) own the Four Horsemen of Oil (Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco); in tandem with Deutsche Bank, BNP, Barclays and other European old money behemoths. But their monopoly over the global economy does not end at the edge of the oil patch. According to company 10K filings to the SEC, the Four Horsemen of Banking are among the top ten stock holders of virtually every Fortune 500 corporation.
→ read full articleElections-Portugal: Rubberstamping IMF Prescriptions
Mario Queiroz – TerraViva Europe,
6 Jun 2011
Voters in crisis-stricken Portugal will go to the ballot boxes next Sunday [5 Jun 2011] to choose not a government, but something more like delegates who will administer decisions already taken by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. The new government has already been described by analysts as a “board of administrators” delegated by the troika that approved the country’s financial rescue plan.
→ read full articleWorld’s Food System Broken
Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter – The Independent,
6 Jun 2011
Doubling of prices and 70 per cent rise in demand means millions more will go hungry.
→ read full articleThe Last Nail by Ron Paul — With Documented Hyperlinks
Thomas R. Eddlem - New American,
6 Jun 2011
Congressman Ron Paul delivered a five-minute speech on the floor of the House of Representatives May 25, a short speech that may sound to the uninformed like one wild statement after another. In his speech, Dr. Paul (he’s an obstetrician) made a number of charges that the executive branch of government has established a virtual dictatorship with the willing assistance of Congress and many Americans who fear for their “security.”
→ read full articleHelp
TMS Editor,
6 Jun 2011
One afternoon a man was riding in his limousine when he noticed two men eating grass by the road side. He ordered his driver to stop and got out to investigate.
→ read full articleGlobal War on Drugs ‘A Failure’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
A high-level international commission has declared the global “war on drugs” to be a failure, and has urged countries to consider legalising certain drugs, including cannabis, in a bid to undermine organised crime. The Global Commission on Drug Policy, in its report released on Thursday [2 Jun 2011], called for a new approach to the current strategy of reducing drug abuse by strictly criminalising drugs and incarcerating users.
→ read full articleA Report That Dares to Tell the Truth to Power
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Global commissions normally tell international leaders what they want to hear. But the Global Commission on Drug Policy – which has called on the services of distinguished names such Paul Volcker, Kofi Annan, Mario Vargas Llosa and Javier Solana – has done something very different. Instead of telling world leaders what they want to hear, the commission has, instead, told them the truth.
→ read full articleDumb Question of the Twenty-first Century: Is It Legal?
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
6 Jun 2011
Is the Libyan war legal? Was Bin Laden’s killing legal? Is it legal for the president of the United States to target an American citizen for assassination? Were those “enhanced interrogation techniques” legal? These are all questions raised in recent weeks. Each seems to call out for debate, for answers. Or does it? My answer is this: they are irrelevant.
→ read full articleThe U.S.-Israeli Train Wreck
Jeff Gates – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
Critics doubt that the General Assembly has the authority to recognize Palestine. Yet protection of member sovereignty has been a goal of the U.N. since its founding. Thus the priority that Israel placed on U.N. recognition after President Harry Truman acknowledged Israel on May 14, 1948, eleven minutes after the Zionist enclave declared itself a state.
→ read full articleAn Unpalatable Truth: The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism
John Pilger – Information Clearing House,
6 Jun 2011
This prize is in honour of one of the 20th century’s greatest reporters. Julian Assange is an editor, publisher and journalist in the oldest and finest tradition of our craft. He is brave. He is a true agent of people; and I should say that those who dismiss him a hacker merely betray themselves as hacks.
→ read full article8 June: Day of the Oceans
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The Spirit of Thor Heyerdahl Sails On – The United Nations General Assembly has designated 8 June each year to be The Day of the Oceans and the Law of the Sea.
→ read full articleTime Running Out for Two-State Solution
Mel Frykberg – Inter Press Service-IPS,
6 Jun 2011
Time is of the essence if the implementation of a two-state solution to end the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to succeed. Changing demographics both within Israeli and Palestinian society could render this impossible, with a one-state solution the only feasible outcome. An eventual one-state solution, however, would lead to two possible scenarios. Either Israel would extend the franchise to all Palestinians in the occupied territories, which would lead to the end of Israel’s Jewish character, or Palestinians would be denied the vote and Israel would be officially pronounced an apartheid state.
→ read full articleGod Is Not A Christian: And Other Provocations
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
‘God is clearly not a Christian. His concern is for all his children. To claim God exclusively for Christians is to make God too small… God is bigger than Christians and cares for more than Christians only.’
→ read full article“Business is Booming”: Wall Street’s Role in Narco-trafficking
Mike Whitney – Information Clearing House,
6 Jun 2011
Repeat: “Every major bank in the US has served as an active financial partner of the murderous drug cartels…” The War on Drugs is a fraud. This isn’t about interdiction; it’s about control. Washington provides the muscle so the banks can rake in the big doe. One hand washes the other, just like the Mafia.
→ read full article(Castellano) America la Bella
Johan Galtung, 23 de mayo de 2011 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
¿Qué es lo que caracteriza, de modo específico, único, a los EE.UU.? Es la gente, ¡estúpido! Los americanos – disculpas a América Latina – América, la bella. ¿Cómo? ¿Qué? ¿Por qué? Vamos a intentarlo. Empezando con un hecho fundamental: con nadie en el mundo es tan fácil, no aburrido, hablar como con un americano. Abiertos, con nombres propios, sin barreras, lenguaje corporal y lenguaje verbal con encanto, contacto visual directo.
→ read full articleTowards the Eradication of Global Hunger and Undernutrition
Xin-Ying Ren and Fred Dubee, UN MaximsNews – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
While we tend to think in terms of hundreds of millions of deprived and stunted lives, the reality is that each starving child, each malnourished expectant mother, each person who does not have the energy to develop, learn or contribute is a horrible tragedy, and together these individual tragedies add up to an unacceptable loss to the human commonwealth. Simply stated hunger and undernutrition are among the most severe and least addressed challenges facing humanity today.
→ read full articleAre Palestinian Children Less Worthy?
Joseph Massad – Al Jazeera,
6 Jun 2011
Although Palestinian children endure lives of suffering, Obama’s love for their Israeli counterparts knows no limit. What is it about Jewish and Arab children that privileges the first and spurns the second in his speeches? Are Jewish children smarter, prettier, whiter? Are they deserving of sympathy and solidarity, denied to Arab children, because they are innocent, “the children of Israel”? Or, is it that Arab children are dangerous, threatening, guilty, even dark and ugly? Not only are Palestinian children guilty of hating Israeli Jews, but also, Obama insists, they have no reason to hate Jews unless their evil elders indoctrinate them to do so.
→ read full articleArab Spring Wary of Economic Lifelines
Cam McGrath – TerraViva Europe,
6 Jun 2011
Governments and international institutions that once bankrolled the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak have begun floating aid packages to speed up the economic recovery and transition to democracy in these countries. Arab revolutionaries have reason to be wary.
→ read full articleFukushima 3/11 – A Turning Point?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
We had 9/11; now we also have 3/11, March 11 2011 (AT 1446), the triple seaquake-tsunami-radiation disaster. Ground zero was an ocean zero, and the country that gave the world the word “tsunami” was hit by one up to 41 meters high. And there was Fukushima Dai-ichi, one of Japan’s 54 nuclear power plants, with six units, 1-6; on the beach, offering itself to the primordial rage of the tsunami.
→ read full articleCamp Sol: Spain’s “Indignant” Give Lessons in True Democracy
María Carrión – Common Dreams,
6 Jun 2011
The seeds sown by Camp Sol are the assemblies and open mike sessions that have spread to hundreds of neighborhoods, towns and villages across Spain. Although there is a prevalence of young people, the movement is increasingly attracting older folks ranging from families with children to middle-aged professionals and retirees — all deeply affected by the deep economic crisis and the government’s austerity measures. Young “Indignants” in other cities such as Paris, Athens, Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Brussels have supported the movement with protests of their own.
→ read full article‘Europe Worsening Hunger Worldwide’
Timothy Spence – TerraViva Europe,
6 Jun 2011
With spiralling food prices threatening to leave millions more people hungry every year, European countries must abandon subsidies and higher production targets for biofuels, the anti-poverty group Oxfam warns.
→ read full articleAnonymous Declares ‘Cyberwar’ On the IMF
Jérôme E. Roos – ROAR Magazine,
6 Jun 2011
The struggle of the Greek people against the IMF has taken a new turn recently, as Anonymous declared its intention to launch a series of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on the Fund in retaliation for the IMF’s treatment of the Greek people.
→ read full articleChiquita Bananas Fund Terrorists
Curt Anderson, Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
The Chiquita lawsuit cites a number of AUC massacres, including a July 1997 operation in the town of Mapiripan in which at least 49 people were tortured, dismembered and decapitated. In February 2000, about 300 AUC troops tortured dozens of people and killed 36 people. In 2001, Chiquita was identified in invoices and other documents as the recipient of a shipment from Nicaragua of 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition. The guns and ammo were unloaded by Chiquita employees, stored at Chiquita warehouses, and then delivered by trucks to the AUC, court papers said.
→ read full articleHope and Resistance in Honduras
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
6 Jun 2011
As the only U.S. journalist on Zelaya’s flight home, I asked him how he felt about his imminent return. “Full of hope and optimism,” he said. “Political action is possible instead of armaments. No to violence. No to military coups. Coups never more.” When Zelaya landed in Honduras, he kneeled down and kissed the ground. He was greeted by tens of thousands of people cheering and waving the black-and-red flag of the movement born after the coup, the FNRP, or National Front of Popular Resistance, “the resistance” that Zelaya now leads.
→ read full article
Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Effort to Build a Private Army in the UAE (Part 1 of 2)
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW! - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill is interviewed on Democracy Now! about how the United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm Blackwater. According to the New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries. Documents show the force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attacks, and put down internal revolts.
→ read full article
Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Effort to Build a Private Army in the UAE (Part 2 of 2)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
30 May 2011
Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill is interviewed on Democracy Now! about how the United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm Blackwater. According to the New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries.
→ read full articleMladic Arrest: What about the NATO War Criminals?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey - Pravda,
30 May 2011
Ratko Mladic has been arrested and his extradition to the International Penal Court is under way. As the NATO leaders make their victory speeches, let us ask this question: When is NATO going to stand in the dock and when are its leaders going to answer for their crimes? The answer in a world without international law is very simple: Never.
→ read full article(Castellano) ‘La Unasur Seguirá Trabajando para Fortalecer Zona de Paz’
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
“Lo más importante es mantener a los presidentes, a los jefes de Estado, a las jefas de Estado con ese convencimiento, no bajar la guardia nunca, a pesar de que no haya una crisis inminente ni una amenaza real a la democracia en nuestra región. Que en épocas de paz logremos el mismo poder de convencimiento que ellos y ellas tuvieron en épocas de confrontaciones o de dificultades.”
→ read full articleBad News from the BBC: ‘Replete with Imbalance and Distortion’
Media Lens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
One of the main headlines on the BBC news homepage earlier this month read, ‘Violence erupts at Israel borders’. Israeli soldiers had shot dead at least 12 protesters and injured dozens more. BBC ‘impartiality’ decreed that the brutal killings were presented almost as an act of nature, a volcanic eruption that simply happened.
→ read full article
FBI Targeting Political Activists as Terrorists
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists, peace, animal and political activists who hold different views than the government. It was recently revealed that a counter-terrorism firm spied on individuals who attended film screenings of the documentary Gasland. The film focuses on the practice of natural gas fracking and what impact it has on the environment and in the communities where it is used.
→ read full articleThe Consensus Delusion: Mysterious Attractor Undermining Global Civilization As Currently Imagined
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The so-called global civilization is a quarrelsome environment. Appeals for consensus are typically pathetic exercises in tokenism in their effective influence on the reality of psychosocial dynamics. Vast resources are nevertheless allocated on the assumption that consensus will be achieved. Is it possible that the quest for consensus, as currently imagined, will be considered pathological by the future? An approach to the challenge has been helpfully made in the highly controversial study by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, 2006), from which the above title is adapted as a “methodological device”.
→ read full articleArab League Seeks UN Recognition of Palestine
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The Arab League has said it backs seeking UN recognition for a Palestinian state, as Qatar proposed at a meeting that the Middle East peace process be suspended until Israel was “ready” for talks. In a statement it said that it “supports the appeal to the UN asking that Palestine, within the 1967 borders, becomes a full-fledged state” of the international organisation.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Humanitarian Crisis: Rooted In History of Military Coups and Occupations
Roger Annis and Kim Ives – International Socialist Review,
30 May 2011
“We want to turn Haiti into a capitalist country, an export platform for the U.S. market, it’s absurd,” he said. “When the level of unemployment is 80 percent, it is unbearable to deploy a stabilization mission. There is nothing to stabilize and everything to build.” We must build roads, erect dams, participate in the organization of the State, the judicial system. The UN says it has no mandate for that. Its mandate in Haiti is to keep the peace of the graveyard.
→ read full article(Castellano) Chile: Senado Vendió a Monsanto la Semilla Campesina e Indígena
Lucía Sepúlveda Ruiz - Movimiento Anti Nuevo Orden Mundial (NWO),
30 May 2011
Con 13 votos a favor (de la derecha y uno de la Concertación), 5 en contra y 6 abstenciones, el Senado de Chile aprobó el 11 de mayo [2011] el Convenio Upov 91 que impedirá a los campesinos guardar la semilla y extenderá el tiempo de vigencia de los derechos y garantías de las transnacionales que vendan semillas híbridas y transgénicas en el país.
→ read full articleSlash and Burn: Brazil Shreds Laws Protecting Its Rainforests
Guy Adams – The Independent,
30 May 2011
The new bill relaxes laws on the deforestation of hilltops and the amount of vegetation farmers must preserve. Partial amnesties will also be offered for previous fines.
→ read full articleObama’s AIPAC Speech: A Further Betrayal of the Palestinian People
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
After such a speech the only responsible response by the Palestinian leadership is to conclude once and for all, however belatedly, that it is no longer possible to look to Washington for guidance in reaching a peaceful, just, and sustainable resolution of the conflict.
→ read full articleGreat Discovery
TMS Editor,
30 May 2011
A fifteen year old Amish boy and his father were in a mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again.
→ read full articleSelf-Proclaimed Pro-Life American Politicians in True Perspective
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The United States is a very complex nation. Although we may understand various facets of this politically confused country, we do encounter problems. In the first place, the ultimate source of power does not lie with its government but with its big corporations that finance the election of all leading governmental officials.
→ read full articleEgypt Opens Rafah Border with Gaza
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Egypt has reopened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing the coastal territory’s Palestinian residents to cross freely for the first time in four years – a sharp departure from the policies of Hosni Mubarak, the deposed president. The opening on Saturday morning [28 May 2011] provided long-awaited relief for Palestinians. The move was ushered in by Egypt’s new government in a bid to ease the suffering of the territory’s residents.
→ read full articleWelcome To the Violent World of Mr. Hopey Changey
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
And as “Mr. Hopey Changey” (the name that Ted Rall, the great American cartoonist, gives Barack Obama), is fawned upon by the British elite and launches another insufferable presidential campaign, the Anglo-American reign of terror proceeds in Afghanistan and elsewhere. In Libya there is a tribal civil war; and the armed uprising against Gaddafi has long been appropriated by the Americans, French and British, a repeat of the “shock and awe” in Iraq that left thousands of civilians dead and maimed. As in Iraq, the victims, which include countless incinerated Libyan army conscripts, are media unpeople.
→ read full articleIs Fukushima Now Ten Chernobyls into the Sea?
Harvey Wasserman – Common Dreams,
30 May 2011
New readings show levels of radioisotopes found up to 30 kilometers offshore from the on-going crisis at Fukushima are ten times higher than those measured in the Baltic and Black Seas during Chernobyl. Fukushima’s owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, has confirmed that fuel at Unit One melted BEFORE the arrival of the March 11 tsunami. This critical revelation confirms that the early stages of that melt-down were set in motion by the earthquake that sent tremors into Japan from a relatively far distance out to sea.
→ read full articleUS Military Contractor Attacked by Hackers
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
Lockheed Martin Corporation, the world’s largest military contractor, has been attacked by hackers in what officials say is “significant and tenacious” cyber attack. The world’s biggest aerospace company and US government’s top information technology provider said on Saturday [28 May 2011] it thwarted the cyber attack but refused to give further details.
→ read full articleAre We in The Presence of the Fourth Reich?
Basem Tajeldine - Pravda,
30 May 2011
William I. Robinson says: “You cannot currently qualify the U.S. regime as fascist. However, all the conditions and processes are present and being propagated.” But it can be said that the conditions for revolutionary possibilities in the capitalist centers of the world are being created. The popular uprisings in Europe have begun to spread to Greece, Spain, Portugal, and possibly to France and Britain. The idea is correct that capitalism in crisis becomes more violent. It resembles a cornered and wounded animal that attacks because of fear and the instinct for survival. The violence of capital in crisis is the act of survival.
→ read full articleBibi and the Yo-Yos
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
There they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the world’s only superpower, flying up and down like so many yo-yos, applauding wildly, every few minutes or seconds, the most outrageous lies and distortions of Binyamin Netanyahu.
→ read full articleGreenpeace Slams Japan Response to Nuclear Crisis, Cites Sea Radiation
Reuters – Scientific American,
30 May 2011
Environmental group Greenpeace on Thursday [26 May 2011] slammed Japan’s “continued inadequate response” to the nuclear disaster at a power plant after new data showed seaweed radiation levels 50 times higher than official limits. “In contrast, Japanese authorities claim that radioactivity is being dispersed or diluted and are undertaking only limited marine radiation monitoring,” it said.
→ read full articleStalin’s Discs Torment Mainstream Media
NameNotFound – Russia Today,
30 May 2011
Joseph Stalin and Nazi doctor Josef Mengele joined forces and bred deformed children who looked like aliens but were able to fly advanced aircraft like Top Gun pilots. No, seriously. I read it in a book written by “a national security reporter and contributing editor to The Los Angeles Times Magazine”, one Annie Jacobsen. I kid you not. The quote is from the New York Times review of her book.
→ read full articleLatin America Progresses Forward- A Victory for Gay Rights
Katie Soltis – Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
30 May 2011
The recent victories for gay rights exemplify the considerable progress toward the region’s consolidation of democracy. The three Latin American countries that have now legalized same-sex unions—Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay—were each ruled by repressive military regimes just over two decades ago.
→ read full articleRatko Mladic’s Arrest and Coming Trial: A Step Forward for World Law
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
The wheels of karma turn slowly. As there is no longer anything at stake, more people today will agree that killing people who thought that they were protected in UN-proclaimed safe havens is not a good thing.
→ read full article(Castellano) ¿Qué pasó con la izquierda occidental?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
La izquierda occidental ha de abrirse, no sólo limitarse a recitar “¡Globalización NO!” Un No no lleva a ningún lado. Se necesitan algunos Sí. Y creatividad.
→ read full articleWhat Price the Fukushima Meltdown? Comparing Chernobyl and Fukushima
Prof. Matthew Penney & Prof. Mark Selden – The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus,
30 May 2011
On April 12, 2011 the Japanese government officially announced that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster had reached level 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Before Fukushima, the only level 7 case was the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, whose 25th anniversary was marked on April 26. Following the upgrade to level 7, Japan’s Prime Minister’s Office released a statement comparing Fukushima and Chernobyl, arguing that apart from children who contracted thyroid cancer from drinking contaminated milk, there have been no health effects among ordinary citizens as a result of Chernobyl radiation. Is this really the case? Hardly.
→ read full articleThe Secret Wars of the Saudi-Israeli Alliance
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
30 May 2011
The ties of the Al-Sauds to Tel Aviv have in recent years become increasingly visible and pervasive. This secret Israeli-Saudi alliance exists within the context of a broader Khaliji-Israeli alliance. The alliance with Israel is formed through strategic cooperation between the ruling families of Saudi Arabia and the Arab sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf. Together Israel and the Khaliji ruling families form a frontline for Washington and NATO against Iran and its regional allies. The alliance also acts on behalf of Washington to destabilize the region.
→ read full articleMani Bhavan and Gandhi
Dr Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
In Gandhi’s living room on the second floor, one can see from the glass the original Charkha (the spinning wheel, Gandhi’s symbol of self-dependence) he was using, his bed on the floor, his Kadam (wooden slipper), his book stand, and many other things. I imagined Gandhi while viewing that room. The room is still there, the great soul has departed, but his ideas still reverberate in the world. We all know how great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela and many others were influenced by him. I remember reading somewhere how one of the great peace activists of our time Johan Galtung started crying at the news of the departure of the great soul.
→ read full articleThe Unchanged Path to Mideast Peace
Jimmy Carter – The New York Times,
30 May 2011
It was not a new U.S. policy concerning the borders of Israel, nor should it have been surprising to Israeli leaders, when President Obama stated: “The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”
→ read full articleOnce Upon A Time
Tom Tomorrow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
This Modern World – Political Cartoon
→ read full articleFoodies vs. Darwin: How Meat Eaters Ignore Science
James McWilliams – Atlantic Monthly,
23 May 2011
Cooking and savoring animals used to be acceptable—but then came evolution, genetics, and the study of non-human thought. What if we discussed the moral and legal rights of animals with the same level of detail we bring to discussion about where to find the best prosciutto?
→ read full articleCurbing Foreign Ownership of Farmland
Marcela Valente – Al Jazeera,
23 May 2011
As international food prices continue to soar, land purchases by foreign investors face ban in much of Latin America. The governments of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are drafting laws to curb acquisition by foreigners of extensive tracts of their fertile agricultural land.
→ read full articleRating Agencies Face Crackdown
Ben Protess – The New York Times,
23 May 2011
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed sweeping new rules on Wednesday (18 May 2011] to overhaul the rating business — regulations that would force tougher internal controls, potentially curb conflicts of interest and even mandate that the agencies periodically test the competence of their employees. The rating agencies in recent years became a target in Washington, as regulators and lawmakers blamed them for feeding the mortgage bubble by awarding top grades to bonds backed by subprime mortgages. The investments later soured, driving the economy to the brink.
→ read full articleEurope: The Epidemic of Xenophobia
Emma Bonino – TerraViva Europe,
23 May 2011
Diversity, which has been a positive constant throughout our history, is now considered a threat. The signs are plain to see: a propagation of intolerance and fanaticism, growing support for populist and xenophobic parties, an ever more massive presence of immigrants without status or rights, “parallel” communities that do not interact with the rest of society, the repression of individual freedoms, and democracies in crisis.
→ read full articleWorlds Collide in a Luxury Suite
Rebecca Solnit – TomDispatch,
23 May 2011
How can I tell a story we already know too well? Her name was Africa. His was France. He colonized her, exploited her, silenced her, and even decades after it was supposed to have ended, still acted with a high hand in resolving her affairs in places like Côte d’Ivoire. Her name was Africa. His name was IMF. He set her up to be pillaged, to go without health care, to starve. He laid waste to her to enrich his friends. Her name was Global South. His name was Washington Consensus. But his winning streak was running out and her star was rising.
→ read full articleThe Reckoning: Press Freedom in Sri Lanka
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
We are living in a world where committed journalists write the news not only with ink, but also with their blood. This is the very reason that their souls still exist with us even after their tragic deaths. Sri Lanka is the very recent example for such context. Thirty-four journalists and media workers have been killed with no recourse to justice since the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government came into power in April 2004 with the present President Mahinda Rajapaksa as its prime minister.
→ read full articleDefiant Spaniards Continue Protests
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Tens of thousands of protesters furious over soaring unemployment keep up their week-long movement on Election Day.
→ read full articleWho’s Killing the Journalists of Honduras?
Andrew O'Reilly - Latin American News Dispatch,
23 May 2011
While many blame drug-trafficking organizations that use Honduras as a stopover point between South America and Mexico for the spike in violence against media workers, others point a finger at the Honduran government and their crackdown on opposition journalists after the June 2009 coup.
→ read full article
Organized Crime ‘Industry’ Gone Mainstream Worldwide
TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
From the Russian mafia, to giant drug cartels, his sources include not just intelligence and law enforcement officials but criminal insiders. His book, McMafia, is an exhaustive look at an unseen industry that Glenny believes may account for 15% of the world’s GDP. Glenny suggests that conventional law enforcement might not be able to combat a problem whose roots lie in global instability.
→ read full articleGlobal Leadership: American Retreat, BRIC Ambivalence, and Turkey’s Rise
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
As the American president, Barack Obama, sets forth his views on the future of the Middle East it seems a good time to take stock of the leadership vacuum in world affairs, and whether there are alternatives to the role the United States has played ever since World War II.
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New World in Middle East
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Robert Fisk speaks on the prospect of a Palestinian state after Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments during his US visit. Pres. Obama at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee-AIPAC conference on Sunday, 22 May 2011.
→ read full articleFears of Disruptions: Spain Bans Protests Ahead of Sunday Vote
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
With the protest movement in Spain growing, Spanish authorities on Friday [20 May 2011] banned demonstrations this weekend as regional and municipal elections take place. Youth are protesting in the country against high unemployment and austerity measures, with protests in Madrid even being compared to Tahrir Square in Cairo.
→ read full articleMajority of LGBTI Asylum Seekers in Western Countries Still Face Rejection
Behind the Mask – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
A vast majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people seeking asylum in the European Union on the basis of their sexual orientation, have been met by a severe blow as most of their applications have been rejected due to failure of giving accurate account or valid proof of persecutions they claim to have experienced or might incur if they were sent back to their country of origin.
→ read full articleObama’s Flawed Approach to the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
In many respects, Obama’s speech, aside from the soaring rhetoric, might have been crafted in Tel Aviv rather than the White House. It is a tribute to Israel’s extraordinary influence upon the American media that has been able to shift the focus of assessment to the supposed Israeli anger about affirming Palestinian statehood within 1967 borders.
→ read full articlePre-Judging an Institution’s Implicit Strategy by the Director’s Private Behaviour
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Remarkable parallels in the case of the IMF and Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The question explored here is whether there are useful parallels to be recognized between the strategic policies pursued by the IMF over the years — both publicly and discretely — and those exemplified by the behaviour of its Managing Director, again both publicly and privately. Any such parallels would be especially noteworthy to the extent that they reflect the unchallenged attitudes of the powerful to those who are relatively vulnerable — and whose vulnerability is exacerbated in consequence. Fruitful questions include:
→ read full articleImperialism: Bankers, Drug Wars and Genocide
Prof. James Petras – Information Clearing House,
23 May 2011
While the Pentagon arms the Mexican government and the US Drug Enforcement Agency enforces the “military solution”, the biggest US banks receive, launder and transfer hundreds of billions of dollars to the drug lords’ accounts, who then buy modern arms, pay private armies of assassins and corrupt untold numbers of political and law enforcement officials on both sides of the border.
→ read full articleWhat about the Woman Strauss-Kahn Allegedly Raped?
Tiffany Williams – Institute for Policy Studies,
23 May 2011
She deserves compassion as the global punditocracy conjectures about what’s going happen to the IMF without that French “rockstar” at its helm.
→ read full articleAnonymous and the Arab Uprisings
Yasmine Ryan – Al Jazeera,
23 May 2011
The cyberactivists discuss their work and the broader global push for freedom of speech and freedom from oppression – Anonymous’s rapid rise from the depths of geekdom to becoming a catalyst and nerve centre for real-life revolutionaries is one that has taken even some of its own members by surprise. The loosely-knit hive brings anonymous techies, hackers and, increasingly, activists together under a single appellation, united in their non-violent but often illegal collective action.
→ read full articleHundreds of Brazilian Indians Set Up Protest Camp in Capital
Survival International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Over 700 Brazilian Indians from more than 230 tribes set up camp last week in the country’s capital city, Brasília, to urge the government to respect their rights. The Madeira dams, currently being built in the Amazon, are putting immense pressure on uncontacted Indians’ lands as migrants are arriving in the area and deforestation is increasing. The Belo Monte dam planned for the Xingu river in the Amazon threatens the livelihoods of thousands of tribal people, who have not given their consent for the dam to be built.
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Iraq’s Abandoned Children (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Jane Arraf reports from Baghdad – Al Jazeera,
23 May 2011
Iraq is full of street kids; children with one or both parents killed, or some who have merely been abandoned. It has been estimated that there are now over a million orphans in the country. But there are just four small orphanages in the capital, Baghdad – none of them filled to capacity. The Iraqi government says that relatives would rather abandon children they are unable to take care of, than bear the shame of bringing them to an orphanage.
→ read full articleIndia: Tribes and Tribulations
Graham Davey – Gandhi Foundation,
23 May 2011
How do we bring peace and justice to the dispossessed and who is responsible?
→ read full articleBest Seller
TMS Editor,
23 May 2011
Three men, selling bibles door to door, bet who will sell the most in a day.
→ read full articleEscaping the Matrix
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The defining moment in The Matrix occurs when Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red and a blue pill. The red pill promises “the truth, nothing more.” Neo takes it and awakes to reality. What Neo had before assumed to be reality was only a collective illusion. The story is intended as metaphor, and the parallels that drew my attention had to do with political reality. Are you ready for the red pill?
→ read full article(Castellano) Escapar de la Matriz
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
El momento dramático definitivo en la película La Matriz ocurre inmediatamente a continuación de la invitación de Morfeo a que Neo escoja entre una píldora roja y una azul. La píldora roja promete “la verdad, nada más”. Neo toma la píldora roja y despierta a la realidad. Lo que Neo había antes tomado por la realidad resulta ser sólo una ilusión colectiva, inventada por la Matriz. La intención de la trama es metafórica, y el paralelo que atrajo mi atención tiene que ver con la realidad política.
→ read full articleIf Arab Spring Threatens Israel, Why Does Saban Support It?
Maidhc Ó Cathail – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
“The test of a first-rate intelligence,” F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” When it comes to what’s been dubbed the “Arab Spring,” most Middle East analysts pass Fitzgerald’s test with flying colours.
→ read full articleAmerica the Beautiful
Johan Galtung, 23 May 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
What is the US-specific pattern, what is unique, what is that IT? It is the people, stupid! The Americans–apologizing to Latin America–Americans, the beautiful. How? What? Why? Let us try. Starting with a basic: nobody in the world is so easy, not stuffy to talk with as an American. Open, first name basis, fences down, body language and verbal language charming, direct eye contact.
→ read full articleGreenpeace Statement on TEPCO, Fukushima
Greenpeace - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The environmental organisation says that TEPCO’s admission – that with temperatures reaching 2,800°C, melted fuel dropped and accumulated at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel, which was the breached, causing radiation to leak from the core and to spread via cooling water to the ground and ocean – clearly shows that there are significant risks to the marine ecosystem along the Fukushima coast.
→ read full articleIsrael and Palestine: Here Comes Your Non-Violent Resistance
The Economist, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Will we even bother to acknowledge that the Palestinians are protesting non-violently? Or will we soldier on with the same empty decades-old rhetoric, now drained of any truth or meaning, because it protects established relationships of power? What will it take to make Americans recognise that the real Martin Luther King-style non-violent Palestinian protestors have arrived, and that Israeli soldiers are shooting them with real bullets?
→ read full articleLimited Liability – Nuclear Energy’s ‘Mother of All Subsidies’
Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The nuclear energy industry only exists thanks to the “mother of all subsidies”. Every nuclear power plant in the world has a strict cap on how much the industry might have to pay out in case of an accident. Japan has the largest liability cap, of 1.2 billion dollars, but that is not nearly enough for the estimated 25 to 150 billion dollars in liability costs at Fukushima. No one knows when the reactors will finally be in cold shutdown. One report suggests decommissioning will take 30 years.
→ read full articleHanna Newcombe: The Passing of a Peace Research Pioneer
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
Hanna Newcombe, who with her husband Alan, were leading Canadian peace researchers, died on 18 April 2011. As an In Memoriam I would like to highlight some aspects of her work. Hanna and Alan were long time friends and colleagues in the world citizen/world federalist movement and in efforts at conflict resolution.
→ read full articleFrom Nobel to Nobel – Open Letter to Barack Obama
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
A day like today, 34 years ago, I came back to life after a flight with death during the Argentinean military dictatorship backed by the U.S.A. Thank God I survived. I had to get out of the maze by overcoming despair and discover the way in the stars above to say with the prophet, “The night is darkest before dawn”.
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May 15, 2011: 63 Years of Nakba (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Palestinian Youth Manifesto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
That the 15th of May 1948 never be forgot. And that Palestinians may have their freedoms and rights back; especially the right of return to the land of their ancestors, where they were born.
→ read full articleWanted Dead or Alive
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
President Obama’s attempts this past week to call forth a heightened sense of national unity around Osama bin Laden’s assassination is a devil’s bargain because the need for more violence will never end. However, this need — for the next war, the next political assassination — always seems so reasonable. And as part of the bargain, “The meaning you’re making around violence is your own goodness.”
→ read full articleJulian Assange: The Man Who Leaked the World
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
WikiLeaks: the dream of an idealist or a tool to manipulate global politics? Who is the real Julian Assange? He says his dream is a world without secrets. But is that true?
→ read full articleVanunu Demands Revoking of His Israeli Citizenship
Mark Weiss in Jerusalem – Irish Times,
16 May 2011
Mordechai Vanunu, the man who revealed Israel’s nuclear secrets to the world in 1986, has demanded that Israel rescind his citizenship and allow him to leave the country. In a weekend letter to Israeli interior minister Eli Yishai, the nuclear whistleblower cited a new law passed in March under which Israelis convicted of treason automatically lose their right to citizenship. “I request that you set me free of Israel, since Israel does not want me nor do I want Israel,” he wrote. “I have no interest in Israeli citizenship, I don’t want to go on living here.”
→ read full articleTragedy Is Ignored Because the Victims Are Not White
Jerome Taylor – The Independent,
16 May 2011
The Italian and Maltese coastguards were working around the clock to try rescuing those vessels they knew to be in distress. One rescue official I spoke to told me how even heavily pregnant women were arriving on the boats. One had given birth on the way over. Although some dramatic rescues take place, many more boats simply sink in an ocean that is teeming with European vessels providing support for the NATO-led assault on Libya.
→ read full articleSamoa Skips From Last to First Country to See the Sun
Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent – The Independent,
16 May 2011
For visitors, the highlight of a trip to Samoa has always been the opportunity to stand on a rocky promontory at Cape Mulinu’u, the westernmost point of the planet, and – with the International Dateline only 20 miles away – to gaze into tomorrow. Once the changes take effect, visitors to the Samoan islands will be able to experience the same day twice, by flying between Samoa and American Samoa, just one hour apart. “You can have two birthdays, two weddings and two wedding anniversaries on the same date – on separate days … without leaving the Samoan chain,” Mr Tuilaepa said.
→ read full articleIs Pakistan Being Cast as the Next Plausible Evil Doer?
Jeff Gates – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The missing component is not trust but a shared vision of what both nations require to restore and sustain their national security. As the largest contributor of personnel to U.N. peacekeeping missions, Pakistan is well positioned to become a global force for positive change. At this key juncture in an essential relationship, should Americans kill more Muslims, further advancing The Clash storyline? Or should Pakistan and the U.S. join forces to create a new narrative founded on peace through human dignity and solar-powered prosperity?
→ read full articleThe Brutal Face of Bahrain’s Monarchy
Tithi Bhattacharya and Bill Mullen – Socialist Worker,
16 May 2011
While the West continues the “humanitarian” bombing of Libya, its weaponry is being used on the people of Bahrain against their struggle to oust a monarchy backed by the West. Solidarity activists expose the regime’s barbaric torture of children.
→ read full article(Castellano) Osama y Obama
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
El jeque Osama permanecerá en la mente de la gente mucho tiempo después de que el presidente Obama sea olvidado. Ambos sumamente violentos, matando a civiles en masse, retóricamente dotados, inteligentes, atractivos, guapos. Pero uno está del lado de la historia, luchando, aunque equivocadamente, por los injustamente reprimidos, y el otro por los ilícitos represores, por un imperio moribundo, en contra de la historia. Sic transit.
→ read full article