Articles by M
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Observing the 63rd Nakba
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The Nakba is of course a day of grievance and resolve for all Palestinians including the several million living in refugee camps for decades in the countries surrounding Palestine and other millions in exile throughout the region and the world. A sustainable peace must realize the rights of all Palestinians, and must be broader and deeper than ending the occupation or establishing a Palestinian state. Palestinian representation to be legitimate and effective must keep faith with this wider Palestinian reality, and not confine its political program to a territorial imaginary.
→ read full articleSecret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder
Mark MazzettI and Emily B. Hager – The New York Times,
16 May 2011
Mr. Prince, who resettled here [United Arab Emirates] last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.
→ read full articleA Moment of Silence, Before I Start This Poem
Emmanuel Ortiz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Before I start this poem,
I’d like to ask you to join me
In a moment of silence
Press Release-UN High Commission for Human Rights: Palestinian Nakba
Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
On May 15 2011 the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr. Richard Falk, marks the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophic beginning of the Palestinian tragedy of dispossession and occupation, with the following statement.
→ read full articleManifesto
Palestinian Youth – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
I´m sick of The Wall
I´m sick of the checkpoints between Palestinian cities
I´m sick of illegal Israeli settlers and settlements
I´m sick of having the Hebrew language on my ID card
I´m sick of people not knowing anything about our history
but knowing so much about Jewish history
What Happened to the Western Left?
Johan Galtung, 16 May 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The Western right wing is today not challenged by the Western left, but by the subtlety of Chinese capi-communism and yin-yang, far beyond Western thought, right or left. And by islamist terrorism, countered by right wing hard christianist and judeaist state terrorism. The Left fails to understand the former, rejects the latter and is unable to be enriched by the best in the buddhist, muslim, Japanese and Chinese models.
→ read full article
Blood Bonanza: UK Private Security Firms Eye Libya as New Cash Cow
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Libya might soon turn into a goldmine for private security firms. Reports say that the UK is already hiring mercenaries to protect the interests of the big corporations there, once Colonel Gaddafi goes.
→ read full articleRejoice Not…
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The young men and women of Tahrir Square, with their longing for freedom, have consigned bin Laden to history, months before his physical death. His philosophy has a future only if the Arab Awakening fails completely and leaves behind a profound sense of disappointment and despair.
→ read full articleHow A Big US Bank Laundered Billions from Mexico’s Murderous Drug Gangs
Ed Vulliamy – The Observer,
16 May 2011
As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored. “For the time period of 1 May 2004 through 31 May 2007, Wachovia processed at least $$373.6bn in CDCs, $4.7bn in bulk cash” – a total of more than $378.3bn, a sum that dwarfs the budgets debated by US state and UK local authorities to provide services to citizens. The document gives a fascinating insight into how the laundering of drug money works.
→ read full article
New Egyptian Stance towards Israel, Hamas and Iran
The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Paul Jay interviews Samer Shehata: Egyptian government may not cooperate with siege of Gaza and isolation of Hamas; restoring relations with Iran.
→ read full articleKeepers of the Seeds
Winona LaDuke – Yes! Magazine,
16 May 2011
How Native farmers and gardeners are working to preserve their agricultural heritage.
→ read full articleReport 2011: Amnesty International at 50 says Historic Change on Knife-Edge
Amnesty International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
People are rejecting fear. Courageous people, led largely by youth, are standing up and speaking out in the face of bullets, beatings, tear gas and tanks. This bravery – combined with new technology that is helping activists to outflank and expose government suppression of free speech and peaceful protest – is sending a signal to repressive governments that their days are numbered.
→ read full articleTony Kushner and the Angels of Dissent
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
16 May 2011
During the McCarthy era, the U.S. was a dark and dangerous place as well. Now, amid the uprisings in the Arab and Muslim world, the recent rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas, and the likely recognition of Palestinian statehood by the United Nations General Assembly, there is no more urgent time for vigorous and informed debate. The future of peace in the Middle East depends on dissent. Those, like Tony Kushner, with the courage to speak out are the true angels in America.
→ read full articleIsrael Stripped 140,000 Palestinians of Residency Rights, Document Reveals
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem – The Guardian,
16 May 2011
Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.
→ read full articleThe War Lovers: Why It Feels So Good to Be Embedded with the U.S. Military
Peter Van Buren - TomDispatch,
16 May 2011
Objective reporting on the SEAL team that killed bin Laden was as easy to find as a Prius at a Michele Bachmann rally. The media simply couldn’t help themselves. They couldn’t stop spooning out man-sized helpings of testosterone — the SEALs’ phallic weapons, their frat-house, haze-worthy training, their romance-novel bravado, their sweaty, heaving chests pressing against tight uniforms, muscles daring to break free… You get the point. Towel off and read on.
→ read full articleRed Rosa
Christopher Hitchens – Atlantic Monthly,
16 May 2011
The writings of the martyred socialist Rosa Luxemburg give a plaintive view of history’s paths not taken. In January 1919 she was arrested, and her capacious skull splintered by a rifle butt in the hands of a member of the Freikorps, the debased militia that was to form the pattern and nucleus of the Brownshirts. “In her assassination,” wrote Isaac Deutscher, “Hohenzollern Germany celebrated its last triumph and Nazi Germany its first.” Over her corpse—later thrown into the Landwehr Canal—was to step a barbarism even more ruthless and intense than any she had dared to imagine. Had Germany gone the other way, is it completely fanciful to imagine an outcome that would have preempted not just Nazism but, by precept and example, Stalinism too?
→ read full articleStingy
TMS Editor,
16 May 2011
-How many Frenchmen does it take to defend the city of Paris?
→ read full articleHow the Murdoch Press Keeps Australia’s Dirty Secret
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The Australian publishes long articles that present Aboriginal people not unsympathetically, but as perennial victims of each other, “an entire culture committing suicide,” or as noble primitives requiring firm direction: the eugenicist’s view. It promotes Aboriginal “leaders” who, by blaming their own people for their poverty, tell the white elite what it wants to hear. The writer Michael Brull parodied this: “Oh White man, please save us. Take away our rights because we are so backward.”
→ read full articleInsecurity in Security
Bishnu Pathak, PhD, Peace and Conflict Studies Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
The burgeoning Chinese, Indian and Pakistani influence raises alarm in transitional Nepal which has an open border with both China and India. Escalating Chinese influence in Nepal has been a grave concern to India. Indeed, a small land-locked country surrounded by two of the world’s most populous and growing superpower nations, Nepal is caught in a unique pull-push insecurity situation as it gropes for true democracy.
→ read full article(Castellano) De Nobel a Nobel: Carta Abierta a Barack Obama
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Un día como hoy, hace 34 años volví a la vida, tuve un vuelo de la muerte durante la dictadura militar argentina apoyada por los EEUU. Gracias a Dios sobreviví y tuve que salir del laberinto por arriba de la desesperación y descubrir en las estrellas el camino para poder decir como el profeta: ”la hora más oscura es cuando comienza el amanecer”.
→ read full articleBin Laden Out, Gaddafi Next
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
16 May 2011
In the whirlwind of lies and hypocrisy engulfing the Osama bin Laden hit job, the key justice-related fact is how an unarmed man, codename “Geronimo”, was captured live then summarily executed in front of one of his daughters – after an invasion of a theoretically “sovereign” country. As for the war waged by NATO against Libya, the fact is that Western public opinion was fed a military attack against a sovereign country that has committed no violation of the United Nations charter. Talk about a wolf – neo-colonialism – in sheep’s clothing – “humanitarian war”.
→ read full articleThe Audacity of Genetically Modified Foods
Bruce Robinson – Boulder Daily Camera,
16 May 2011
I maintain that the real discussion should be about the audacity and illegitimate way GM crops have been forced on a reluctant United States and world — the money, corruption, politics and obfuscation that characterize its rise to dominance. The discussion should focus on how GM crops have taken over our food supply with little concern for safety or our right to choose.
→ read full articleGlobal Capitalism and 21st Century Fascism
William I. Robinson – Al Jazeera,
16 May 2011
As unprecedented economic and environmental degradation continues, right-wing extremists are increasing their power, particularly in the US, according to a professor of global studies at the University of California.
→ read full articleSchengen Zone Dispute: EU Slams Denmark over Plans to Reintroduce Border Checks
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
Denmark’s decision to reintroduce permanent border controls has met with criticism from the European Union, which sees the move as a challenge to the principle of freedom of movement. Copenhagen insists the new checks are compatible with Schengen rules.
→ read full articleA Fatal Addiction to Plastic – Trashing the Oceans and Our Own Health
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2011
With 440 participants from 35 countries, including experts from governments, research institutes, corporations like the Coca-Cola Company, and plastics industry associations such as Plastics Europe and the American Chemistry Council, the conference was the first major international effort to tackle the issue in 11 years. The end result was the Honolulu Commitment, which invited everyone to work on “a global platform for the prevention, reduction and management of marine debris” called the Honolulu Strategy.
→ read full articleThe Other BRIC in Latin America: India
Jorge Heine and R. Viswanathan – Americas Quarterly,
9 May 2011
India emerges as a major partner for Latin America. Welcome to the new kid on the block.
→ read full articlePeace Studies – For Children Too
Letter of Peace Addressed to the UN, Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Galtung’s assertions lead me to think that maybe we should not only bring peace to universities as a subject but also to schools. Things would be much better if someone explained to children that peace is a valuable asset, that we must care for it, that we can only achieve it together, that we must avoid imposing the will of the all-powerful minority over the majority. If generations had a conceptualization of peace integrated in life and society, it is likely that future citizens would see the world through different eyes, understand differences, appreciate diversity and love peace.
→ read full articleAl Jazeera: One Organisation, Two Messages
Teymoor Nabili – Al Jazeera,
9 May 2011
A few days ago, an article with the above headline appeared on the website of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Penned by David Pollock, the piece has been a metaphorical pebble in my shoe ever since. So here’s an attempt to add some clarity, by pointing out some of the inconsistencies in Pollock’s article.
→ read full articleChina in Latin America
Americas Quarterly – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Interview – Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Li Jinzhang on his country’s plans as it increases economic and political ties to Latin America.
→ read full articleReflections on Brazil’s Global Rise
Celso Amorim – Americas Quarterly,
9 May 2011
The man who led Brazil into its new global era discusses his diplomatic vision and Brazil-U.S. relations.
→ read full articleA Guide to ALBA
Joel D. Hirst – Americas Quarterly,
9 May 2011
The Bolivarian Alternative – What does ALBA actually do? A guide to President Chávez and Fidel Castro’s regional project.
→ read full articlePalestinian Unity and the New Middle East
Ramzy Baroud – Common Dreams,
9 May 2011
But frankly, at this juncture of Middle East history, Israel is almost negligible. It no longer has a transformative influence in the region. When the Arab people began revolting, a new dimension to the Arab-Israeli conflict emerged. As the chants in Cairo’s Tahrir Square began to adopt a pan-Arab and pro-Palestinian language, it became obvious that Egypt would soon venture outside the political confines of Washington’s patronizing labels, which divide the Arabs into moderates (good) and radicals (bad).
→ read full articleTranslating Southern Successes into LDC Solutions
Rousbeh Legatis interviewing Josephine Ojiambo, Ambassador of Kenya – Inter Press Service-IPS,
9 May 2011
“In South-South cooperation we are all partners,” Josephine Ojiambo, ambassador of Kenya to the U.N. and president of the U.N. General Assembly High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation, said. “SSC specifically shies away from the donor-client relationship.”
→ read full articleApplying the Law in Guantanamo: ‘The Government’s Narrative Was a Lie’
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
When he arrived at Guantanamo in 2005 as chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis thought that he would be dealing exclusively with fanatical terrorists. But he soon realized that many prisoners shouldn’t have been imprisoned at all. In a contribution for SPIEGEL, he describes his path from idealism to disillusionment.
→ read full articleHaiti’s New President: Welcome to the Toughest Job in the Americas
Robert Maguire – Americas Quarterly,
9 May 2011
Haiti’s next president must put the country on a path to real development.
→ read full articleEgypt’s Moves Raising Anxiety in Washington
Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service-IPS,
9 May 2011
With U.S. lawmakers threatening this week to cut aid to Pakistan over its alleged harbouring of the late Osama bin Laden, concern is growing steadily here over the future of ties with another key predominantly Muslim ally heavily dependent on U.S. aid: Egypt. The most recent action was Egypt’s mediation of the reconciliation agreement signed Wednesday [4 May 2011] in Cairo by the leaders of Hamas and Fatah, an agreement that has been strongly denounced by leading lawmakers, as well as by the administration of President Barack Obama itself.
→ read full articleHazards and Hopes of Limitless Freedom of Expression
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
One of the glories of the Western Enlightenment, especially as embodied in the lifeblood of political democracies is freedom of expression, the right to give voice in public spaces to unpopular, tasteless, provocative, and even outrageous ideas, and especially those critical of the prevailing political order without fear of retaliation.
→ read full articleChild Victims Have ‘Leading Role’ in Creating a Nonviolent Society
Marcela Valente – Inter Press Service-IPS,
9 May 2011
Interview with a U.N. Expert on Violence against Children. Appointed to the gigantic task of building international understanding of violence against children and adolescents, 58-year-old Portuguese lawyer Marta Santos Pais is based in New York and works with a small staff of only seven people.
→ read full articleWar of the Sexes
TMS Editor,
9 May 2011
A plane is falling rapidly from the sky and the passengers are dead scared. Suddenly a woman in the front stands up and taking off her blouse and bro yells,
→ read full articleIconic Extrajudicial Execution of Jesus through Osama by US?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Whither a cyclopean global Pax Americana lacking depth perception?
→ read full article
Barenboim Conducts Peace Concert in Gaza
Khadija Magardie – Al Jazeera,
9 May 2011
The Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim has given his first concert inside Gaza. Barenboim is a lifelong activist for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He entered the blockaded strip from Egypt, along with an orchestra of top European musicians.
→ read full articleColumbia Journalism School’s Highest Honor Goes to Al Jazeera English
Jim Romenesko, Poynter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism will bestow its highest honor, the Columbia Journalism Award, to Al Jazeera English. The award is given annually during the school’s commencement ceremony to recognize an individual or organization for “singular journalism in the public interest.”
→ read full articleLibya-Tunisia: Cross-frontier Conflict and Peace-building
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Tunisia’s deputy foreign minister, Radhouane Nouicer said his government had summoned a Libyan government envoy to complain about the incursions. “We are not a party to the conflict” he said to al Al Jazeera reporter. Whenever there is a spill-over of fighting from one country to another, officials will usually say “We are not a party to the conflict”. However, armed conflict does not respect political or territorial borders. Often there is a spill-over effect through refugee flows, ‘nomadic’ armed groups, small arms flows, narcotic or other criminal networks and sometimes as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the sale of natural resources.
→ read full articleFukushima Nuclear Power Plant Update [6 May 2011]: Get All the Data
Ami Sedghi - The Guardian,
9 May 2011
Japan is racing to gain control of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Where does the most detailed data come from?
• Get the data
GM Soy: The Invisible Ingredient ‘Poisoning’ Children
Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent – The Telegraph,
9 May 2011
The home of Petrona Villasboa is surrounded by genetically modified (GM) soy fields. The golden crop looks like a bumper harvest but for her it is a symbol of death. “Soy destroys people’s lives,” she says. “It is a poison. It is no way to live. Soy is deadly to us”. Sitting outside her painted green shack in rural Paraguay, the mother of eight describes the day in January 2003 when her 11-year-old son Silvino Talavera came home from cycling to the shops.
→ read full articleWar Hawk or Deficit Hawk? You Cannot Be Both
Michael True – Common Dreams,
9 May 2011
Must we, as a people, squander our wealth and our young people in wars of conquest and intervention, financing 1,000 military bases around the world, funding corrupt dictatorships, and imposing “democracy” on countries whether they want it or not? Going along to get along, Democrats and Republicans support policies that justify torture, undermine the right of habeas corpus, destabilize unions, abandon our once-admired educational system, and neglect our own people.
→ read full articleOsama bin Laden’s Death: Celebrating the Celebrations
Peter Maass – The New Yorker,
9 May 2011
Photos were featured on newspaper front pages and websites this week of jubilant college students celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death, which weren’t so different from images of young Muslims elsewhere burning our flag and shouting ‘Death to America!’ Yet both those burning the American flag and the flag-wrapped college kids do not represent their societies’ majority views. These images could be just as inflammatory as the photo of bin Laden President Obama refuses to release.
→ read full articleBrazil Supreme Court Awards Gay Couples New Rights
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
5 May, 2011 – Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals. The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention. The ruling will give gay couples in “stable” partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships.
→ read full articleEscalation of a “Humanitarian” War
Nicole Colson & Alan Maass – Socialist Worker,
9 May 2011
THE U.S.-led military operation in Libya has morphed from the initial imposition of a “no-fly zone,” ostensibly to prevent Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime from carrying out a massacre, into an ongoing bombing campaign with no end in sight–and now there’s increasing talk of the use of ground forces until Qaddafi is overthrown and a new government, no doubt Western-approved, takes his place. This transformation of the aims of the intervention–often called “mission creep”–helps to further expose the deception that “humanitarian” concerns is motivating the U.S. or its European allies.
→ read full article(Castellano) Osama: Insignificante
Fernando Montiel T. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
El asesinato de Osama bin Laden es insignificante porque en nada afectará el modo de operar de esa entelequia a la que el mundo conoce como Al Qaeda. Y la razón es simple: Al-Qaeda no es un grupo estructurado y controlado de forma centralizada, es decir, Al-Qaeda no es una organización sino un movimiento. No es monolítico en su estructura ni jerarquizado en su control y comando. Esto es bien sabido desde hace años. “Todos somos Marcos” fue el grito de batalla de todos los simpatizantes de la causa indígena en su momento.
→ read full articleIs the Arab Spring a Black Swan?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Having just visited Egypt for a week I came away with this dual sense that the revolutionary dynamics have produced remarkable results that form a glorious chapter of Egyptian history, but also that there are a variety of dark forces that are working under the radar to contain if not reverse this exhilirating democratizing momentum.
→ read full articleSupport the Palestinian Unity Government
Jimmy Carter – The Washington Post,
9 May 2011
This is a decisive moment. Under the auspices of the Egyptian government, Palestine’s two major political movements — Fatah and Hamas — are signing a reconciliation agreement on Wednesday [4 May 2011] that will permit both to contest elections for the presidency and legislature within a year. If the United States and the international community support this effort, they can help Palestinian democracy and establish the basis for a unified Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that can make a secure peace with Israel.
→ read full article
Zionist Backpack Squatters Evict Palestinian Grandma from Her Home Forcefully
bdsmovement.net - TMS Editor,
9 May 2011
Imagine this being your grandma. How would it make you feel? They do this as a matter of course, without humanity or sentiment; like animals.
→ read full articleMy Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death
Noam Chomsky – Guernica Magazine,
9 May 2011
We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Operation Geronimo: The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”
→ read full articleJSOC: The Black Ops Force That Took Down Bin Laden
Jeremy Scahill - The Nation,
9 May 2011
The team of US Special Operations Forces who killed Osama bin Laden in a pre-dawn raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, were led by elite Navy SEALS from the Joint Special Operations Command. Operators from SEAL Team Six, also known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or just DevGru, are widely considered to be the most elite warriors in the US national security apparatus.
→ read full articleA Human Right to Resist
Maciej Bartkowski and Annyssa Bellal – Open Democracy,
9 May 2011
Civil resistance – popular nonviolent struggle waged by ordinary people against dictatorship, foreign intervention, colonial occupation, corruption, or injustice with the use of diverse methods of nonviolent action – is by no means a new phenomenon. It has been practiced in a strategic manner for at least two centuries…
→ read full article
TRANSCEND Member Vandana Shiva on Nuclear and Coal Energy, George Monbiot and More [Part 1 of 2] (Video of the Week)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
2 May 2011
On Earth Day, Democracy Now! interviews Vandana Shiva, prominent activist, environmental leader, feminist and thinker from India. Shiva discusses the anti-nuclear movement in India, which has gained momentum over stopping the construction of a new six-reactor nuclear power station, the largest in the world, in Jaitapur. She called Monbiot’s view arrogant as he ‘rubbishes’ views and positions adopted by governments worldwide as well as studies from thousands of scientists and physicists, herself included, just because he has a newspaper column.
→ read full article
TRANSCEND Member Vandana Shiva on the Corporatization, Commodification and Marketization of Nature [Part 2 of 2] (Video of the Week)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
2 May 2011
“Democracy under corporate control has mutated from of the people, by the people, for the people into of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations. So it is the democratic rights of the people and the earth versus the fictitious corporate rights that corporations have assigned to themselves”.
→ read full articleLibya: It’s Not About Oil, It’s About Currency and Loans
John Perkins – Information Clearing House,
2 May 2011
The US, the other G-8 countries, the World Bank, IMF, BIS, and multinational corporations do not look kindly on leaders who threaten their dominance over world currency markets or who appear to be moving away from the international banking system that favors the corporatocracy.
→ read full articleHow Will the Empire End?
Anthony Gregory – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
2 May 2011
Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope, by Chalmers Johnson (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010); 212 pages.The empire will end – but how? With a bang, a whimper, a thud? Will it be peaceful, as with the Soviet Union? The people of the British Isles chose democracy over imperialism. “It is hard to imagine any sector of the American economy more driven by ideology, delusion, and propaganda than the armed services.” But “the estimated trillion dollars we spend each year on the military and its weaponry is simply unsustainable.”
→ read full articleAre Auto Makers Still Killing the Electric Car? The Electric Car Strikes Back?
Kiera Butler – Mother Jones,
2 May 2011
The director of Who Killed the Electric Car? on his new film, his personal fleet, and why he thinks EVs are ready to rise from the dead.
→ read full articlePalestinian Factions in Reconciliation Bid
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Fatah and Hamas agree to form interim government and fix general election date following talks in Cairo. With the US keeping a distance, Israel not delivering the goods on the peace process and the settlements, it was time for Palestinians to come together and agree on what they basically agreed on almost a year and a half ago. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said on Wednesday [27 Apr 2011] that “the Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both.”
→ read full articleThe Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill
Nick Buxton – Yes! Magazine,
2 May 2011
A new law expected to pass in Bolivia mandates a fundamental ecological reorientation of the nation’s economy and society.
→ read full articleThe Credit Rating Hoax
William Greider – The Nation,
2 May 2011
Standard & Poor’s, the self-righteous credit-rating agency, has a damn lot of nerve. It provoked scary headlines by solemnly threatening to “short” America. That is, downgrade the credit-worthiness of US Treasury bonds unless Congress and the president oblige creditors by punishing the citizenry with severe budget cuts. What a load of crap.
→ read full articleHuman Rights Record of United States in 2010
China Daily – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 on April 8, 2011. As in previous years, the reports are full of distortions and accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. However, the United States turned a blind eye to its own terrible human rights situation and seldom mentioned it. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 is prepared to urge the United States to face up to its own human rights issues.
→ read full articleThe Middle East’s Oldest Dictatorship
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
2 May 2011
As the conventional wisdom goes – especially in the West – Israel is the “only democracy” in the Middle East. However, Israel has been anything but democratic for the indigenous people of the land, the Palestinian Arabs. By nature and precedence, foreign military occupation is temporary. Colonialism on the other hand, and more precisely civilian colonisation, is a socio-political system of ruling over another people.
→ read full articleIsrael Withholds Palestinian Cash Transfer
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Israel will hold up an $89 million cash transfer to the Palestinian Authority [PA] planned for this week because of a new unity deal between rival Palestinian factions. “Israel wants assurances that any money transferred to the Palestinians will not reach the militant Hamas organisation, which is set to become part of the Palestinian government,” Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli finance minister, said on Sunday [1 May 2011].
→ read full articleWhat Are They Afraid of?
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
For some peculiar reason, both Zionists and UK Jewish so-called ‘anti Zionists’, insist that discussing ‘Jewishness’ is a taboo which should never be explored, certainly not in public, and definitely never outside of the ghetto. UK Event: Zionism, Jewishness and Israel – Tuesday, May 3 • 6:30pm – 8:30pm – University Of Westminster, Cavendish Campus – A panel discussion examining Israeli Criminality in the wake of the Goldstone Retract – Alan Hart, Gilad Atzmon and others.
→ read full articleUrging the U.N. Security Council to Establish a “No Fly Zone” Over Gaza under the Principle of “Responsibility to Protect”
TMS Editor,
2 May 2011
Please Sign the Petition
→ read full articleA Mother’s Call for the Re-awakening
Nirmanusan Balasundaram - GroundViews,
2 May 2011
Mrs. B. Thilagamani began her nonviolent resistant activism when she was 18 years old and played a key role during the 1961 Satyagraha Campaign. During that campaign, Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLAF) brutally retaliated against the nonviolent protesters. In the SLAF terror campaign of 18 April 1961 Thilagamani was sprayed with tear gas and her sari was partly burnt. Today, 18 April 2011, marks her 50 symbolic years in nonviolent activism.
→ read full articleCulture of Complicity Tied to Stricken Nuclear Plant
Norimitsu Onishi & Ken Belson – The New York Times,
2 May 2011
In 2000, Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese-American nuclear inspector who had done work for General Electric at Daiichi, told Japan’s main nuclear regulator about a cracked steam dryer that he believed was being concealed. If exposed, the revelations could have forced the operator, Tokyo Electric Power, to do what utilities least want to do: undertake costly repairs. What happened next was an example, critics have since said, of the collusive ties that bind the nation’s nuclear power companies, regulators and politicians.
→ read full article(Italian) Decollano da Sigonella i Predator Contro la Libia
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Operano da Sigonella gli aerei senza pilota UAV MQ-1 Predator che il Pentagono ha destinato per le operazioni di bombardamento in Libia. La notizia, filtrata nei giorni scorsi su alcuni quotidiani statunitensi, ha trovato l’autorevole conferma dell’International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) di Londra.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Acordo entre a Fatah e o Hamas na Palestina
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Principais facções vão formar um governo transitório de personalidades independentes e realizar eleições presidenciais e legislativas dentro de um ano. Decisão pode facilitar o reconhecimento da ONU ao Estado Palestiniano.
→ read full articleSwazi Village Tastes Sweet Success with Sugarcane
Mantoe Phakathi – TerraViva Europe,
2 May 2011
The previously impoverished community of Malibeni, previously ravaged by drought, is bustling with farmers who have transformed the area into a bread basket. Lush green fields of sugarcane and vegetables have replaced an expanse of dry shrubs near this community in northeastern Swaziland.
→ read full article(Italian) Aosta. Un 25 Aprile Giovane
Silvia Berruto, antifascista – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Imane El Baladi, 18 anni insieme ad Andrea Lamberti, 19, sono i due giovani studenti protagonisti del 25 aprile 2011 ad Aosta (Italy). Entrambi hanno fatto una scelta di impegno civile. Entrambi, con emozione ed entusiasmo giovanili, sono stati i protagonisti sinceri di un giovane 25 aprile 2011 ad Aosta che la cittadinanza, e non solo, non dimenticherà facilmente.
→ read full articleGuantanamo’s Child Soldiers
Gregor Peter Schmitz – Der Spiegel,
2 May 2011
The Guantanamo files reveal many of the inmates in the controversial detention camp were under 18 at the time of their capture and that the charges against them were often based on hearsay. Even detainees who US interrogators admitted were innocent had to wait a long time before being freed.
→ read full articleSource of Life and Energy in the Industrial World
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Source may refer to something without which anything that depends on it cannot exist. In other words, when it comes to the solution of a problem, we must try to get first to the source that originates it. Otherwise, it may keep on repeating itself.
→ read full articleThe Four Horsemen behind the Oil Wars
Dean Henderson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The Four Horsemen have interlocking directorates with the international mega-banks. Exxon Mobil shares board members with JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and Prudential. Chevron Texaco has interlocks with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. BP Amoco shares directors with JP Morgan Chase. RD/Shell has ties with Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, N. M. Rothschild & Sons and Bank of England. Former Citibank chairman Walter Shipley sat on Exxon Mobil’s board, as did Wayne Calloway of Citigroup and Allen Murray of JP Morgan Chase. Willard Butcher of Chase sat on the board of Chevron Texaco. Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan came from Morgan Guaranty Trust and served on the board of Mobil. BP Amoco director Lewis Preston went on to become president of the World Bank.
→ read full articleThe Guantánamo Papers
The New York Times, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Innocent men were picked up on the basis of scant or nonexistent evidence and subjected to lengthy detention and often to abuse and torture. Some people were released who later acted against the United States. Inmates who committed suicide were regarded only as a public relations problem. There are seriously dangerous prisoners at Guantánamo who cannot be released but may never get a real trial because the evidence is so tainted. Hampered by ideologues and cowards in Congress, President Obama has made scant progress in healing it.
→ read full articleCheck-Up
TMS Editor,
2 May 2011
An 85-year-old man was requested by his doctor for a sperm count as part of his physical exam.
→ read full articleEgypt Warns Israel: Don’t Interfere With Opening of Gaza Border Crossing
Haaretz Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Sami Anan warned Israel against interfering with Egypt’s plan to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on a permanent basis, saying it was not a matter of Israel’s concern, Army Radio reported on Saturday [30 Apr 2011]. Egypt announced this week that it intended to permanently open the border crossing with Gaza within the next few days.
→ read full articleVoyager, the Love Story
Dr. Tony Phillips, Science NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
April 28, 2011: NASA’s Voyager probes are at the edge of the solar system carrying a message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations. Highlights include greetings from humans and whales, some of Earth’s greatest music, and the brainwaves of a young woman in love. Rewind to 1977.
→ read full articleSorry but it’s not YOUR project
How Matters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
I’m talking about possessive adjectives. MINE – YOURS – ITS – HERS – HIS – OURS – THEIRS – WHOSE. Let’s be honest. How many of you, when talking to a friend, another NGO colleague, or donor refers to “our program” in [insert Country X or District Y or Village Z]? But let me ask you something – Do you live in Country X or District Y or Village Z?
→ read full articleBoxed In
Andrew Thomas – Al Jazeera,
2 May 2011
Now Australia’s Federal government is demanding cigarettes are sold in ‘plain packaging’. Regardless of brand, those elements of the box not covered by off-putting pictures will have to be olive green – research suggests that’s the colour least appealing to consumers. The name of the brand, and product name, will have to be in a uniform font, in tiny writing at the base of the box. For tobacco companies, this is a big deal. Worldwide, they already operate an ostracised industry.
→ read full articleOne Word
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
BINYAMIN NETANYAHU is jubilant already. The ink was not yet dry on the preliminary agreement initialed in Cairo, when Netanyahu made a solemn speech on TV, something like an address to the nation after an historic event. “You have to choose between us and Hamas,” he told the Palestinian Authority. That would not be too difficult – one the one side a brutal occupation regime, on the other Palestinian brothers with a different ideology.
→ read full articleLibya and the Imperial Re-Division of Africa
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
2 May 2011
Plans to attack Libya have been longstanding. The imperial war machine of the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and their NATO allies is involved in a new military adventure that parallels the events that led to the wars against Yugoslavia and Iraq. The war machine has been mobilized under the cover of “humanitarian intervention.”
→ read full article
ScienceCasts: Voyager
ScienceAtNASA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
More than 30 years after they were launched, NASA’s two Voyager probes have traveled to the edge of the solar system and are on the doorstep of interstellar space.
→ read full articleThis Modern World: Two Guys Standing on an Incline
Tom Tomorrow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Award-winning cartoonist Tom Tomorrow depicts America’s slippery slope on Libya.
→ read full articleBurkina Faso: Organic Cotton Under Threat from GM Cotton
Inoussa Maiga, Farm Radio – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Producers and project staff are worried about the future of organic cotton. What concerns them is the jump in plantings of genetically modified or GM cotton. By 2009, genes from GM crops had been found in organic cotton. At that time, only 10% of conventional cotton farmers were growing GM varieties. But with the massive spread of GM cotton in 2010, almost 90% of conventional producers now grow GM cotton.
→ read full articleHueys over Yemen
Nick Turse – TomDispatch,
2 May 2011
How to Arm a Dictator – In recent weeks, Yemeni protesters calling for an immediate end to the 32-year reign of U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been met with increasing violence. Some of the military helicopters used in the crackdown may be recent additions to Saleh’s arsenal, provided courtesy of the Obama administration as part of an $83-million military aviation aid package. Despite weeks of violence and hundreds dead or wounded, President Obama has yet to publicly and unequivocally call for Saleh to step down as he did, albeit belatedly, with former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and, more recently, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
→ read full articleThe Guantánamo Files: Leaks Lift Lid on World’s Most Controversial Prison
David Leigh, James Ball, Ian Cobain and Jason Burke - The Guardian,
2 May 2011
• Innocent people interrogated for years on slimmest pretexts
• Children, elderly and mentally ill among those wrongfully held
• 172 prisoners remain, some with no prospect of trial or release
• Interactive guide to all 779 detainees
(Castellano) Se Recrudece el Terrorismo de Estado en Bahréin
Kanya D'Almeida – periodismohumano,
2 May 2011
Las organizaciones de derechos humanos denuncian despidos masivo por razones políticas, redadas nocturas, secuestros o arrestos masivos de manifestantes pacíficos. Amnistía Internacional ha pedido que la comunidad internacional intervenga para proteger a la población civil.
→ read full articleAn Opportunity for Peace That Must Not Be Squandered
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The EU made a serious mistake five years ago when it refused to recognise Hamas.
→ read full articleThe Tragic Fate of the Baghdad Museum
Enrique Gonzalez-Manet - Pravda,
2 May 2011
Only the memory remains of the creations, mostly carvings and sculptures, which were left by the primary creators from the times of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Hittites, almost 3,000 years BC. This has been one of the consequences of the invasion and conquest of Iraq by the Empire a few years ago. They left nothing of value except the winged lions of granite because they weigh 25 tons each. Pieces that are real jewels of the most remote antiquity have begun to appear in Los Angeles and New York.
→ read full articlePanamanian Corruption Concealed Amidst Free Trade Negotiations
Eric Jackson, Panama News - Council on Hemispheric Affairs-COHA,
2 May 2011
Obama welcomes Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli in the midst of major scandal and corruption in Panama. Once again, Obama falls short of his commitments to Latin America as he collaborates with Martinelli to negotiate a flawed trade agreement. It’s not possible to have a reliable anti-drug ally in a Panamanian government that is in bed with the mob.
→ read full articleUS, EU & Media’s Complicity in Crimes against Humanity: Bahrain’s Secret Terror
Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor – The Independent,
2 May 2011
Desperate emails speak of ‘genocide’ as doctors who have treated injured protesters are rounded up. The intimidation and detention of doctors treating dying and injured pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain is revealed today [21 Apr 2011] in a series of chilling emails obtained by The Independent.
→ read full article(Castellano) Sólo la Resistencia Pacífica Dará la Victoria a los Palestinos
Carmen Rengel – TeleSur,
2 May 2011
Mil personas de dan cita en Bil’in, Cisjordania, el epicentro de las protestas no violentas contra la ocupación israelí, en la sexta conferencia anual. Cooperantes y líderes sociales lamentan la imposibilidad de reproducir revoluciones como la egipcia ante la dura represión de Tel Aviv. Israel mantiene en vigor una Ley de Emergencia desde 1948, que abre la puerta a la supresión de derechos esenciales.
→ read full articleGuidelines in Response to Degrees of Anti-social Behaviour: Airline Passengers and Children as a Case Study
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The argument has implications for those obliged to spend time in closed environments where they are exposed to various levels of disruptive behaviour, including bullying and harassment: prisons, military, schools, work environments, etc. Especially relevant is the disempowerment experienced by those exposed to such behaviour and the rights assumed by those engaging in it — and the complicity of those aware of such behaviour.
→ read full articleMumia Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence Declared Unconstitutional
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
2 May 2011
The death penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal took a surprising turn this week, as a federal appeals court declared, for the second time, that Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was unconstitutional. While the disputes surrounding Abu-Jamal’s guilt or innocence were not addressed, the case highlights inherent problems with the death penalty and the criminal justice system, especially the role played by race.
→ read full articleIMF Bombshell: Age of America Nears End
Brett Arends, MarketWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed: China’s economy will surpass the U.S. in 2016. For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.
→ read full article