Articles by M
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WikiLeaks Revelations: A View Deep Inside Guantanamo
John Goetz, Marcel Rosenbach and Britta Sandberg – Der Spiegel,
2 May 2011
The latest documents obtained from WikiLeaks provide an inside view of a highly controversial system: More than 700 classified US government files on the prisoners held at Guantanamo show how lax the American military was in its dealings with the facts. SPIEGEL has analyzed the documents.
→ read full articleSyria: The Downward Spiral
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The United Nations has tried to stop the downward spiral of Syria into repression and potential chaos. It has been five weeks that what began as peaceful protests and demands for limited reforms have been increasingly met by government violence. Discussions on what the UN could do to help the Syrian people and to speed up necessary reforms started in both New York and Geneva.
→ read full articleCivil Society Stand In Solidarity with African Negotiators: “Developed Countries, Put Up or Shut Up”
Third World Network Africa – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
At a press conference hosted by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), a network of over 300 organisations from over 45 countries, civil society leaders stood in solidarity with African negotiators. These negotiators were continuing to fight against the EU’s refusal to sign up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and against the United State’s blocking tactics over the adoption of a comprehensive work plan for the negotiations for 2011.
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Seeding Deep Democracy – Vandana Shiva (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Ecological Options Network-EON - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Member of TRANSCEND scientist, activist, author Vandana Shiva talks about the importance of saving non-GMO seeds and her concept of ‘Earth Democracy.’
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Islândia Põe os Seus Banqueiros na Prisão
Claudi Pérez, El País – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
“A primeira vítima da crise financeira constitui-se como uma valente tentativa de pedir responsabilidades”. Claudi Pérez (El País) conta neste artigo a história da ascensão e da queda da economia islandesa.
→ read full articleThree Myths of Israel’s Insecurity: And Why They Must Be Debunked
Ira Chernus - TomDispatch,
25 Apr 2011
Most Zionists have been unable to see that once they founded a state committed to regional military superiority, they were bound to be on the receiving as well as the giving end of acts of war. It is the absence of peace far more than the presence of anti-semitism that renders Israelis who live near Gaza or in the West Bank insecure. However, according to the myth, it’s not only physical violence that threatens Israel’s existence. In the last two years, right-wing Israelis and their supporters in the U.S. have learned to lie awake at night worrying about another threat…
→ read full articleStaying Human: The Heroic Legacy of Vittorio Arrigoni
Ramzy Baroud – Global Research,
25 Apr 2011
“No matter how (we) will finish the mission…it will be a victory. For human rights, for freedom. If the siege will not (be) physically broken, it will break the siege of the indifference, the abandonment. And you know very well what this gesture is important for the people of Gaza. That said, obviously we are waiting at the port! With hundreds of Palestinians and ISM comrades we will come to meet you sailing, as was the first time, remember? All available boats will sail to Gaza to greet you. Sorry for my bad English…big hug…Stay Human. Yours, Vik”
→ read full articleBP Anniversary: Toxicity, Suffering and Death
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
25 Apr 2011
April 20, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of BP’s catastrophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. At least 4.9 million barrels of BP’s oil would eventually be released into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was capped 87 days later. BP has used at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic dispersants to [try unsuccessfully to] sink the oil. Marine and wildlife biologists, toxicologists, and medical doctors have described the impact of the disaster upon the environment and human health as “catastrophic.” This is only the beginning of that what they expect to be an environmental and human health crisis that will likely span decades.
→ read full articleWorld Citizens Call For a Thai-Cambodian Peace Zone: From Periodic Flair-Ups to Permanent Cooperation
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The World Citizens’ proposal for a Thai-Cambodian peace zone is based on a “peace park-condominium zone of peace” between Ecuador and Peru proposed by Professor Johan Galtung at a time of growing military confrontations between the two South American countries and published in his collection of peace proposals: Johan Galtung, 50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives (Transcend University Press, 2008, 263 pp.)
→ read full articleIs the World Too Big to Fail? The Contours of Global Order
Noam Chomsky - TomDispatch,
25 Apr 2011
The current economic crisis is traceable in no small measure to the fanatic faith in such dogmas as the efficient market hypothesis, to what Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, 15 years ago, called the “religion” that markets know best — which prevented the central bank and the economics profession from taking notice of an $8 trillion housing bubble that devastated the economy when it burst. Worse, for example, the new head of a subcommittee on the environment explained that global warming cannot be a problem because God promised Noah that there will not be another flood. All of this, and much more, can proceed as long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
→ read full articleThe Fukushima, Japan Mega-Disaster (updated)
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The Fukushima, Japan Mega-Disaster that occurred on March 11, 2011 (2:45 PM Japan Time) will continue to unfold its tragic consequences for years to come. The tragedy must not pass without extensive public and private discussions and reports of the lessons learned from the disaster.
→ read full articleWhat Future for the Goldstone Report? Beyond the Name
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Only half satirically, I would think that the Goldstone Report might be time to rename the Goldstone Report as the Chinkin Report or blandly let it be henceforth be known as the ‘Report on Israeli and Hamas War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity during Operation Cast Lead.’ Whatever the name, the main allegations have been confirmed over and over again, and it is now up to the governments making up the UN General Assembly and Security Council to show the world whether international criminal accountability and the International Criminal Court is exclusively reserved for sub-Saharan African wrongdoing!
→ read full articleIslamism, Christianism, Judeaism
Johan Galtung, 25 Apr 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Right now the ultimate christian mega-empire fights muslim communities with mega-weapons, drones, cruise and other missiles, fighter-bombers, high on cowardice–protected, few casualties–low on accuracy; the muslims with IEDs at $10 a piece, high on courage and devotion up to suicide, high on accuracy. US empire christianism is fighting not only for the economic-political-military-cultural empire, but also for God’s rule on earth via USA, a country under God, invoking his support. And at the root of it all is Cana’an, Zion, Israel; one land for all the chosen ones, bent on defending itself by all means, nuclear included.
→ read full articleMidEast Democracy: Israel’s Diamond in the Rough
Maidhc Ó Cathail – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
“The toppling of Egypt’s modern-day pharaoh through peaceful mass protests, aided by Facebook and Twitter, marks a watershed for Egypt and the entire Arab world,” wrote Larry Diamond, in a noteworthy February 14 op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Contrary to widespread anxieties in the U.S. foreign policy establishment,” the prominent advocate of American taxpayer-funded “democracy promotion” maintained, “it will also serve the long-term interests of the United States—and Israel.
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News Media: Rupert Murdoch’s Watergate
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
When a reporter with the British tabloid News of the World was jailed for illegally tapping into the phones of high profile names back in 2007, the newspaper insisted it was the work of a rogue reporter. But as more cases of phone hacking were brought to light and senior News of the World staff members implicated, the company finally conceded that the practice of phone tapping had been widely used within the organisation. It has since publicly apologised to all the victims and has reportedly put around $33mn into a compensation fund. Rupert Murdoch’s Watergate – the phone hacking scandal, the extent of the crime and the implications for News Corp.
→ read full articleBRICS to Show Its Weight at WTO
Marwaan Macan-Markar – Inter Press Service-IPS,
25 Apr 2011
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has, not surprisingly, been singled out as a venue to demonstrate the collective strength of the informal coalition of major emerging economies across three continents – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the BRICS nations. All member countries but Russia are members of the Geneva-based WTO.
→ read full articleRights Groups Slam Bahraini Crackdown
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
“North American and European governments, so vocal recently in espousing the cause of human rights in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, need also to speak out loudly about what is going on in Bahrain,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa. “To avoid the charge of double standards, they must be much more robust in pressing the Bahraini authorities to uphold their international human rights obligations.”
→ read full articleMadagascar: Community Resistance to Corporate Land Theft
Stefan Christoff, farmlandgrab.org – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
In Madagascar grassroots struggles against corporate-driven land grabbing have emerged as a political point of focus in the growing global spotlight on land grabs throughout the global south, a process that the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food says has “negative effects on the right to food as well as other human rights.” Mass scale corporate land occupations are expanding throughout Africa, and Madagascar is an example of the intensity of the corporate push for national lands but also on the ability for communities to resist such land grabbing.
→ read full articleMeritocracy: A Myth?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
If you are anti-imperialist, ‘Third Worldist’ type – like I unapologetically am – it may warm your heart to know that historically Oxford produced the highest number of folks who gave the rest of the world ‘the British Empire’, which among other things grew opium in India for export to China – as a brilliant economic policy to address the Raj’s trade deficit. (Cambridge was the runner up). Often our own Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is talked about as ‘Oxford-educated’ as if her Oxford education turned her into who she is and what she is made of. As a matter of fact, it was/is her (self-acknowledged) awareness of her parents’ exemplary lives as citizens that was/is her source of inspiration.
→ read full articleWhen War Games Go Live: “Staging” a “Humanitarian War” against “SOUTHLAND”
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
25 Apr 2011
Military operations of this size and magnitude are never improvised. The war on Libya as well as the armed insurrection were planned months prior to the Arab protest movement…
→ read full article(Português) Portugal: O Triunfo dos Agiotas – Uma História de Gangsters
Alfredo Barroso, Informação – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Sovado pelas agências de rating, Portugal atirou a toalha. Quando sairmos das mãos do FMI não teremos à espera os fundos comunitários que foram a alegria do cavaquismo
→ read full articleSleepwalking into the Imperial Dark
Tom Engelhardt – TomDispatch,
25 Apr 2011
But then, how often do empires end well, really? They live vampirically by feeding off others until, sooner or later, they begin to feed on themselves, to suck their own blood, to hollow themselves out. Sooner or later, they find themselves, as in our case, economically stressed and militarily extended in wars they can’t afford to win or lose.
→ read full articleFukushima Residents Seek Answers amid Mixed Signals from Media, TEPCO and Government
Makiko Segawa in Fukushima - The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus,
25 Apr 2011
Report from the Radiation Exclusion Zone
→ read full articleMartelly-Clinton Seal Deal for Next Wave of Disaster Capitalism in Haiti
Kanya D’Almeida – Inter Press Service-IPS,
25 Apr 2011
Miles from his island nation’s earthquake-ravaged capital city Port-au-Prince, Haitian president elect Michel Martelly exchanged warm handshakes and heartfelt promises with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington Wednesday, just prior to the formal announcement of the pop star’s victory in the highly-contested Mar. 20 election.
→ read full articleLocal Currencies to Replace Dollar
India Times – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the BRICS group of fastest growing economies – Thursday [14 Apr 2011] signed an agreement to use their own currencies instead of the predominant US dollar in issuing credit or grants to each other.
→ read full articleWorld Bank President: ‘One Shock Away From Crisis’
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The president of the World Bank has warned that the world is “one shock away from a full-blown crisis”. Robert Zoellick cited rising food prices as the main threat to poor nations who risk “losing a generation”. He was speaking in Washington at the end of the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
→ read full articleUK: The Endgames of Our Empire Never Quite Finished – Just Look At Bahrain
Madeleine Bunting – The Guardian,
25 Apr 2011
It has all the ingredients of a John le Carré novel. For decades there are allegations of terrible abuse during the Mau Mau rebellion; historians are baffled by missing documentation. A court case finally prompts the Foreign Office to discover hundreds of boxes of previously hidden papers stored in a house, Hanslope Park, in Buckinghamshire. They reveal not just the brutality – which historians had already unearthed – but official recognition of the illegal violence and dogged determination to cover it up.
→ read full articlePortugal Negotiates Draconian Bailout Plan
Mario Queiroz – TerraViva Europe,
25 Apr 2011
The strangling of the Portuguese economy by the international capital markets has led to what was expected: a bailout with tough conditions that will bring the country to its knees.
→ read full article(Italian) Stay Human. Riamaniamo Umani. Per Vik
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Prima della lettura costante del blog di Vittorio, prima ancora della lettura di “Gaza. Restiamo umani”, è dai reportages, dalle schegge o dai frame linguistici inviati da Gaza e pubblicati sulle pagine del Manifesto, che leggo quotidianamente dal 1977, che ho potuto apprezzare il pensiero e l’azione Vittorio.
→ read full articleHow the Wheels of This Misadventure Were Oiled
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Tony Blair has always maintained that Iraq’s oil reserves did not cross his mind in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. But Iraq’s abundant oil supplies had certainly crossed the minds of the British energy giant BP. As this newspaper reported yesterday [19 Apr 2011], documents reveal that the oil company discussed Iraq’s fossil fuel reserves in considerable detail with government officials in late 2002.
→ read full articleRoyal Wedding Dance Routine
TMS Editor,
25 Apr 2011
FUNNY – The T-Mobile royal wedding look-alike dance routine.
→ read full article(Italian) Catania-Fontanarossa per la Guerra Contro la Libia
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
C’è chi chiede più aerei, più missili e più bombe, chi vorrebbe lo sbarco dei marines e l’intervento delle forze terrestri. Tutti in ordine sparso, il coordinamento tra i comandi è scarsissimo e le divisioni in ambito NATO si fanno giorno per giorno sempre più evidenti. E alla fine, la “coalizione dei volenterosi” in guerra contro la Libia rischia di trasformarsi in un’armata Brancaleone alla nuova crociata del XXI secolo.
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A Brief History of Palestine
TMS Editor,
25 Apr 2011
From its early inception and up to the 1930s, Zionist thinkers propagated the need to ethnically cleanse the indigenous population of Palestine if the dream of a Jewish state were to come true. The preparation for implementing these two goals of statehood and ethnic supremacy accelerated after the Second World War.
→ read full articleTriumph of Right-Wing Populists: How Dangerous Is Finland to the Euro?
Sven Böll and Maria Marquart – Der Spiegel,
25 Apr 2011
Will the election of right-wing populists in Finland derail the euro rescue package? A Helsinki veto would indeed be expensive for the rest of the euro zone, particularly for Germany. Experts are also warning that other European countries may follow suit if Finland decides to pull out of the euro bailout.
→ read full articleSri Lanka ‘War Crimes’ Is ‘Srebrenica Moment’
Channel 4 News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The former UN spokesman in Sri Lanka Gordon Weiss tells Channel 4 News that a leaked UN report into “credible allegations” of war crimes represent Sri Lanka’s “Srebrenica moment”. A leaked United Nations report estimates that tens of thousands of civilians were killed during the fighting between Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE – known as the Tamil Tigers in 2009. The document cites “credible allegations” that government forces deliberately shelled civilians and repeatedly targeted hospitals. If proven, the allegations amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
→ read full articleRussia: NATO Has Overstepped UN Mandate on Libya
Yevgeny Shestakov, Special to Russia Now – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
At a Berlin meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Russia reiterated its stance that the western alliance’s Libya campaign has overstepped its UN mandate through use of excessive force. It also pressed home concerns in the ongoing issue of missile defences in Europe. “We consider that certain actions by NATO in Libya do not correspond to its mandate, and we would like to investigate this,” Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said after Friday’s [22 Apr 2011] talks.
→ read full articleUnrest in Algeria: The Window is Closing Fast
Lakhdar Ghettas – London School of Economics,
25 Apr 2011
The regime would be making a costly mistake to believe that the chaotic situation in Libya and the fragile one in Tunisia and Egypt would make the west favour stability in Algeria for the simple reason that Algeria cannot escape the ripple effects of the geopolitical earthquakes in the region, two of which on its eastern borders. History is on the march.
→ read full articleTahrir Square, Tel Aviv
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Well, there are surprises in history. Sometimes, when the need arises, peoples can surprise themselves. It can happen here [in Israel]. If it does, it will not surprise those of us who believe in our people. True, Rabin Square is not Tahrir Square. But then, neither was it.
→ read full articleMassive Elicitation of Psychosocial Energy: Requisite Technology for Collective Enlightenment
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Insights arising from the multiple disaster of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan (2011) and from the massive Arab uprisings in the same period. The following discussion is necessarily speculative in an attempt to explore alternative ways of thinking about the “crisis of crises” in all its cognitive complexity — about which there would appear to be a dearth of the much-sought creative “new thinking”.
→ read full articlePerspective on Thai-Cambodia Border Clashes
Emma Leslie – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
This is the moment for Thai and Cambodian leaders to rise above politics, and bring together two nations with shared history, culture and religious traditions, putting people first.
→ read full articleLibya: Use of Depleted Uranium, Partition and Regional Risks
Farouk James – Pambazuka News,
25 Apr 2011
In the wake of NATO’s imposition of the ‘no-fly zone’ over Libya on 31 March 2011, there is serious scepticism around the United States Pentagon’s denial of the use of depleted uranium (DU), writes Farouk James. With the US, the UK and France now calling for a full-scale invasion the veto powers of the UN Security Council’s permanent members should be called into question once again.
→ read full articleMore on Lawyers…
TMS Editor,
25 Apr 2011
How come sharks will not bite lawyers?
→ read full article(French) Le Socialisme Cubain, Cinquante Ans Après
Renaud Lambert – Le Monde Diplomatique,
25 Apr 2011
« Cuba, c’est comme une telenovela de cinquante mille épisodes dont chacun pense que le prochain sera le dernier », résume Fernando Ravsberg, journaliste à la British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Avant d’ajouter, dans un sourire : « Mais elle continue toujours. » Cinquante-deux ans après le « triomphe de la révolution », le volet qui s’ouvre en 2011 débute par un événement et un double anniversaire.
→ read full articleClimategate: What Really Happened?
Kate Sheppard – Mother Jones,
25 Apr 2011
How climate science became the target of “the best-funded, best-organized smear campaign by the wealthiest industry that the Earth has ever known.”
→ read full article(Castellano) EE.UU. Rechaza “Declaración Unilateral” de Estado Palestino por Parte de la ONU
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Estados Unidos (EE.UU.) reiteró este martes [19 Abr 2011] que el pueblo palestino está equivocado si busca que Naciones Unidas (ONU) lo reconozca como Estado independiente sin acuerdo con Israel, esto en el marco del prolongado fracaso en las negociaciones de paz.
→ read full articleBurma: Grasping at Straws – ICG’s Latest Report is Ill-Informed, Unsubstantiated and Wrong-headed
Benedict Rogers - Mizzima,
18 Apr 2011
The latest report from International Crisis Group (ICG), Myanmar’s Post-Election Landscape, is one of the most extraordinary documents I have read in a long time. Rarely have I seen such naïve and ill-considered analysis from an otherwise highly-respected and intelligent organisation.
→ read full articleFukushima: Openness Can Be the Only Policy
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Panic and nuclear technology go together. But that does not mean the nuclear authorities in Japan, as elsewhere in the world, should withhold information. It means the opposite. The more educated public opinion becomes, the less purchase alarmist scares and inaccurate comparisons will have. Honesty and openness is the best long-term strategy for the nuclear industry if it is to stand any chance of playing a major part in meeting the world’s future energy needs.
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Johan Galtung on Libya: ‘Obama stuck in wars, Sarkozy aims to rule NATO‘ (Video of the Week)
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
A NATO-led international group is meeting in Quatar, to decide how to proceed with its military intervention in Libya. France and the UK want to step up the assault on Colonel Gaddafi, and are considering arming the rebels. For more, RT talks to Johan Galtung, rector of the Transcend Peace University…
→ read full articleRethinking Germany
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
For Germany to stand alone among its Western allies while being in solidarity with the BRIC countries should be a moment of national pride, not a time for solemn soul searching as the German mainstream media has been encouraging.
→ read full articleHooked On Drugs, Medical World Needs Change
Kanya D'Almeida – Al Jazeera,
18 Apr 2011
Although resistant bacteria and viruses may be killed by innovative methods, the focus remains on pharmaceuticals.
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American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
American Radical is the probing, definitive documentary about Jewish-American political scientist Norman Finkelstein. A devoted son of holocaust survivors, an ardent critic of Israel and US Middle East policy, Finkelstein has been steadfast at the centre of many intractable controversies, including his denial of tenure at DePaul University. Called a lunatic and self-hating Jew by some and an inspirational street-fighting revolutionary by others, Finkelstein is a deeply polarising figure.
→ read full articleIn U.S. Prisons, Inmates Sold Into Sex Slavery
Claudia Núñez – New America Media,
18 Apr 2011
In prisons across the country, gangs are selling their fellow inmates into sex trafficking in order to increase their power and profits. Ex-convict Scott Howard, a survivor of the prison sex trade, described being smuggled from prison to prison over a two-year period. His “owners” — members of a white supremacist gang — sold him to a group of Norteño gang members, who forced Howard to prostitute himself in exchange for $7 to $20 per sexual encounter, an abuse that was repeated over the course of many years.
→ read full articleCan Libya Be a Test Case?
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
As the situation demands active diplomacy on parts of responsible powers of the globe, it also provides an opportunity to restore the august international body the United Nations its rightful position. Here lies the crucial barometer for the proponents as well as opponents of military intervention as to whether they can act together.
→ read full articleJapan’s Nuclear Cover-Up
Peter Symonds – World Socialist Web Site,
18 Apr 2011
The Fukushima disaster has underscored the corrosive and corrupting character of the profit system. It is not nuclear technology as such that presents the danger, but the social and economic order under which it has developed. If nuclear power remains in the hands of private corporations and under the domination of the capitalist market, the environment and public health and safety will inevitably be subordinated to the drive for profit.
→ read full articleEU Grants Palestinian Produce Duty-Free Access
Haaretz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
The European Union announced Wednesday [13 Apr 2011] it would grant duty-free access to produce from the West Bank and the Gaza strip in a bid to support Palestinian state building.
→ read full articleMilitary Debris Threaten Oceans
Malini Shankar – Inter Press Service,
18 Apr 2011
Military debris dumped into the world’s oceans are hazardous to coral ecosystems, reefs, fish and marine wildlife, say experts, who also warn – in light of the recent tragedy in Japan – that earthquakes and tsunamis could disturb this debris and even wash it ashore.
→ read full articleTackling Fake Drugs Needs Technology and Collaboration
David Dickson and Anita Makri – Science & Development Network,
18 Apr 2011
Developing countries must be given all the scientific, technical and legal help they need to counter the growing trade in fake medicines.
→ read full articleShow of Love
TMS Editor,
18 Apr 2011
A man escapes from prison where he has been for 15 years. He breaks into a house to look for money and guns and finds a young couple in bed.
→ read full articleArab League Calls for No-Fly Zone over Gaza
Morning Star – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
The Arab League called on the United Nations on Sunday [10 Apr 2011] to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza and lift an Israeli siege of the territory after a flare-up of violence that is stoking fears of a wider escalation.
→ read full articleWhy Elections in Finland Could Doom Portugal’s Bailout
Der Spiegel Staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Right-wing populism has arrived in Finland. The True Finns stand to gain close to 20 percent of the vote in Sunday’s elections on an anti-Islam, anti-Europe platform. That could be bad news for Portugal.
→ read full articlePrediction: 20 Years of War in Libya
David Swanson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Johan Galtung, sometimes called the father of peace studies, predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union and the refusal of Egyptian soldiers to attack civilians. His prediction of the collapse of the US empire in 2020 appears to be on schedule. So, it was noteworthy when he predicted on Tuesday [12 Apr 2011] at the University of Virginia that the war in Libya would last 20 years. If, however, NATO and the opposition were to kill Gadaffi, he said, the fighting could go on for more than 20 years.
→ read full articleTowards the Conquest of Africa: The Pentagon’s AFRICOM and the War against Libya
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
18 Apr 2011
AFRICOM’s main objective is to secure the African continent for the U.S. and its allies. Its mission is to help secure a new colonial order in Africa that the U.S. and its allies are working to establish. In many ways this is what the military intervention in Libya is all about. The recent London Conference about Libya can even be compared to the Berlin Conference of 1884. The difference in 2011 is that the U.S. is at the table and more importantly leading the other participants in carving up Libya and Africa.
→ read full articleU.S.-Backed Bloodshed Stains Bahrain’s Arab Spring
Amy Goodman – Truthdig,
18 Apr 2011
One month into the uprising, Saudi Arabia sent military and police forces over the 16-mile causeway that connects the Saudi mainland to Bahrain, an island. Since then, the protesters, the press and human-rights organizations have suffered increasingly violent repression.
→ read full articleTime to Close the Nuclear Labs – The Atomic Breeding Grounds
Karl Grossman - CounterPunch,
18 Apr 2011
“Sadly,” said the Global Network, “Japan is now the victim of three gargantuan nuclear disasters: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima,” said the Global Network. “Unless the nuclear juggernaut is stopped, we all live in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima.”
→ read full articleVittorio and Israel’s Attack On the Intellectual Intifada
Lauren Booth – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
The headline ‘Italian peace activist killed by Palestinian extremists’ is an Israeli propagandists wet dream. A gift as potentially large in its political implications as the now inevitable retraction by the UN of the Goldstone report. Why? Two reasons.
→ read full articleTime to End Corporate Impunity
Nnimmo Bassey – IDN-InDepthNews,
18 Apr 2011
Think how instructive it would have been to line up the directors of Chevron for the environmental crimes in the Ecuadorian Amazonia or those of Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Agip and the rest for their human rights and ecocide in the Niger Delta. If manslaughter charges are pressed against officials of BP, then the days of companies only being fined and the directors avoiding the dock will soon become history.
→ read full articlePalestinian PM Hails UN ‘Birth Certificate’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, has said that a United Nations endorsement of his administration’s readiness to govern amounts to “a birth certificate” for Palestinian statehood. Fayyad’s comments on Wednesday [13 Apr 2011] came as diplomats and donors met in Brussels to discuss Palestinian state-building efforts and follow a UN report that assessed the Palestinian Authority as “sufficient for a functioning government of a state”.
→ read full articleThe Fukushima, Japan Mega-Disaster
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
In a global era in which all of our lives and the lives of all living beings, including the environment, has become increasingly interdependent, efforts must be made to promote an understanding of the growing frequency, severity, and consequences of natural and human-made disasters.
→ read full article(Castellano) Países del Grupo BRICS Se Oponen al Uso de la Fuerza Militar Contra Libia
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Los países del grupo Brics (Brasil, Rusia, India, China y Sudáfrica) o de economías emergentes emitieron un proyecto de declaración este jueves [14 Abr 2011] en el contexto de la cumbre que llevan a cabo en el sur de China, en el cual consideran que el uso de la fuerza debe ser evitado en Libia y en los demás países de Medio Oriente.
→ read full articleThe Reconstruction of Haiti: A Record of Failure
Colette Lespinasse – Pambazuka News,
18 Apr 2011
Last March, donors pledged billions of US dollars for the reconstruction of Haiti, after an earthquake devastated the country. But a year later, a group of 40 Haitian organisations finds that ‘nothing significant has really been undertaken’. Instead Haitian players have been excluded from strategic decision-making and the ‘millions of people affected directly or indirectly by the earthquake continue to face the consequences in destitution, and with no support whatsoever.’
→ read full article(Castellano) EE.UU Instalará Nueva Base Militar en Honduras
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Estados Unidos (EE.UU.) decidió instalar una nueva base militar en la costa norte de Honduras, tras la reunión entre el ministro hondureño de Defensa, Marlon Pascual, y el jefe estadounidense del Comando Sur, Douglas Fraser, informó un diario local.
→ read full articleThe Most Dangerous Thing You’ll Do All Day
Bill Phillips and the Editors of Men's Health – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Scientists at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana analyzed the lifestyles of more than 17,000 men and women over about 13 years, and found that people who sit for most of the day are 54 percent more likely to die of heart attacks. That’s right—I said 54 percent!
→ read full article(Portuguese) Mumia Abu-Jamal: Do Corredor da Morte ao Mundo
Glória Muñoz Ramírez – Brasil de Fato,
18 Apr 2011
Durante um ano tentamos uma entrevista com Mumia, um dos presos políticos mais conhecidos do mundo. Enviamos cartas e pedidos através de todos os contatos possíveis que tivemos à mão, entre eles os membros do coletivo Amigos de Mumia México, os quais se ofereceram amavelmente para nos apoiar com uma gestão que tinha como destino o corredor da morte da prisão de Waynesburg, Pensilvania, onde Mumia permanece preso há 29 anos. Até que, certo dia, deslizou por baixo da porta um envelope com o nome de M. A. Jamal como remetente.
→ read full articleBrazil: Tensions Escalate Over Amazon Mega Dam
Benjamin Dangl – Al Jazeera,
18 Apr 2011
Indigenous communities say $10bn reservoir in Brazil’s largest rainforest will destroy their way of life.
→ read full articleBahrain: U.S. Keeps Quiet over Repression
Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service-IPS,
18 Apr 2011
If President Barack Obama wanted to place Washington “on the right side of history” during the ongoing “Arab Spring”, his reaction to recent events in Bahrain will likely make that far more difficult, according to a growing number of analysts and commentators here.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: UN Experts Submit Report
Human Rights Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
The report by a panel of experts to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on April 12, 2011, about laws-of-war violations in Sri Lanka should be used to pave the way for justice, Human Rights Watch said today. Ban commissioned the report in May 2010 after the Sri Lankan government failed to investigate violations committed in the final months of its decades-long conflict with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
→ read full articleU.N. Diplomat Is Denied Private Meeting with WikiLeaks Suspect Bradley Manning
Ellen Nakashima – The Washington Post,
18 Apr 2011
A United Nations diplomat charged with investigating claims of torture said Monday [11 Apr 2011] that he is “deeply disappointed and frustrated” that U.S. defense officials have refused his request for an unmonitored visit with Pfc. Bradley Manning… Juan E. Mendez, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, said his request for a private interview with Manning was denied by the Defense Department on Friday. Instead, he has been told that any visit must be supervised.
→ read full articleIs Japan’s Elite Hiding a Weapons Program Inside Nuclear Plants?
Yoichi Shimatsu – New America Media,
18 Apr 2011
The nihilism at the heart of this nuclear threat to humanity lies not inside Fukushima 1, but within the national security mindset. The specter of self-destruction can be ended only with the abrogation of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, the root cause of the secrecy that fatally delayed the nuclear workers’ fight against meltdown.
→ read full article(Castellano) Austeridad, Recortes y Crímenes Contra la Humanidad
Xavier Caño Tamayo – Toma la Palabra, Periodismo Humano,
18 Apr 2011
Quienes han provocado la crisis no temen castigo alguno. Nadie investiga sus responsabilidades ni sus decisiones. Los Gobiernos los protegen y el aparato judicial no los persigue. Pero igual que se crearon instituciones y procedimientos para perseguir los crímenes políticos contra la humanidad, es hora de hacer lo mismo con los crímenes económicos contra la humanidad.
→ read full articleMena Revolution and Counter-Revolution
Johan Galtung, 18 Apr 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
Africa. The key to the whole exercise: in 1956 still mainly owned by Anglo-France, Libya becoming an Italian colony in 1911; posing threats of union, independence and ties to China. NATO wants to control it through AFRICOM and EUCOM–three different words for Pentagon–and this is where Libya enters; rejecting AFRICOM with Sudan, Eritrea, Zimbabwe and Cote d’Ivoire (and Sahraoui). No US bases–hence countries to be subdued. The Libya action may put Africa on fire.
→ read full articleThe Link Between War and Big Finance
Kevin Zeese – War Is a Crime.org,
18 Apr 2011
Americans are recognizing the link between the military-industrial complex and the Wall Street oligarchs—a connection that goes back to the beginning of the modern U.S. empire. Banks have always profited from war because the debt created by banks results in ongoing war profit for big finance; and because wars have been used to open countries to U.S. corporate and banking interests.
→ read full articleThe Grand Failure of Conventional Economics
Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
The “fixes” of conventional economics such as Keynesian stimulus will all fail catastrophically within the next 10 years.
→ read full articleWhy This Matters
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
We have to be sure our facts about nuclear power are right, as the latest exchange with Helen Caldicott shows. My request was a simple one: I asked her to give me sources for the claims she had made about the effects of radiation.
→ read full articleThe Ivory Coast: Behind Laurent Gbagbo’s Last Stand
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that what would happen in the Ivory Coast would have an impact on UN policy in the rest of Africa. The follow up to the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo will merit watching.
→ read full articleLet Me Bomb You in Peace
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
11 Apr 2011
If former Pentagon supremo Donald “known unknown” Rumsfeld were still in business, he’d be grumbling that Libya presents no bombable targets – as in Afghanistan in 2001. As far as United States quagmires go, Libya is bigger than Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. But any possible “targets” concentrate in a few cities along the Mediterranean coast.
→ read full article
Meet the Shministim – Israeli Conscientious Objectors (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Editor, TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
The Shministim are Israeli high school students who have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in an army that occupies the Palestinian Territories.
→ read full articleWar Is Not Peace
Christa Hillstrom – Yes! Magazine,
11 Apr 2011
It’s known as the School of Assassins among the poor of Latin America; a vessel for the spread of democracy among its U.S. military proponents; and one of the world’s most infamous human rights offenders for the thousands of protesters who gather in Fort Benning, Georgia, each November to honor the names of union leaders, campesinos, priests, and children who have been gunned down by its alumni.
→ read full articleA Hapless Fukushima Clean-Up Effort
Veronika Hackenbroch, Cordula Meyer and Thilo Thielke – Der Spiegel,
11 Apr 2011
The lack of an effective emergency crisis management has underscored how poorly prepared TEPCO and indeed the Japanese authorities were for a nuclear disaster. Engineers seem helpless in their efforts to cope with radioactive water and workers aren’t even getting proper meals.
→ read full articleA Morning at an Israeli Checkpoint
Alain Salomon and Katia Salomon – The New York Times,
11 Apr 2011
As we entered this narrow space I looked at the barbed wire further on. We are Jewish, and began to weep. How was it possible that our own people, who have gone through such suffering, can inflict this ordeal, intended to humiliate and intimidate another people?
→ read full articleLatin America Shakes Off the US Yoke
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
11 Apr 2011
The current spat with Ecuador is symptomatic of Washington’s failure to grasp that it no longer exercises regional hegemony.
→ read full articleClimate Change: Developing Countries Step In Where Richer Nations Fear to Tread
Marwaan Macan-Markar – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Apr 2011
Led by countries like Indonesia, 48 developing nations are rolling out a range of pledges to voluntarily cut their respective emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2020, the year climate scientists say the earth’s rising temperature should peak by if an environmental catastrophe is to be avoided.
→ read full articleColombia: Court Documents Reveal Chiquita Paid for Security
Jim Lobe and Aprille Muscara – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Apr 2011
Contrary to claims by Chiquita Brands International that its payments to Colombian paramilitary and guerrilla groups over more than a decade were extorted, internal company documents released here Thursday [7 Apr 2011] strongly suggest that the transactions provided specific benefits to the banana giant.
→ read full articleOur Lives Are under Threat from Some of the Most Powerful and Richest Entities — Here’s How We Can Fight Back and Win
Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben - AlterNet,
11 Apr 2011
To us, the lesson is pretty clear. Since we’re never going to have as much money as the fossil fuel industry, we need to rebuild the kind of mass movement that marked 1970: bodies, passion, and creativity are the currencies we can compete in. It’s not impossible.
→ read full articleDo Western Strikes in Libya Betray Peaceful Revolt Everywhere?
Michelle Chen – Colorlines,
11 Apr 2011
Is the Arab Spring already coming to an end? The foreign intervention in the rebellion in Libya has clouded the rosy vision of nonviolent, youth-led uprisings that had enchanted activists around the world. Will the surge of grassroots pro-democracy solidarity hit a dead end in the streets of Tripoli, as a nebulous armed insurrection aligns with U.S. and European forces?
→ read full article(Italian) Da Lampedusa. Quei Ragazzini … Occhi Che Scoppiano di Intelligenza
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
4 aprile 2011. Il giornalista e amico Karim Metref, recatosi a Lampedusa per rendersi conto di persona della situazione, risponde ad alcuni miei quesiti.
→ read full articleClimate Policy: RIO+20 – Toward a New Green Economy—Or a Green-Washed Old Economy?
Jim Thomas – Grist,
11 Apr 2011
2012 Rio Earth summit’s focus on a green economy a threat to progress made by the 1992 original. Far from cooking up a plan to save the Earth, what may come out of the summit could instead be a deal to surrender the living world to a small cabal of bankers and engineers — one that will dump the promises of the first Rio summit along the way.
→ read full articleHow to Build A-tomb (A Poem)
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
To build anything, my dear friend,
You must be clear what it is you want.
(Italian) Quando Gheddafi Piaceva Tanto ai Generali USA
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
Cane furioso, pazzo, sanguinario, assassino. A Washington descrivono così il colonnello Gheddafi, ma alla vigilia della guerra contro la Libia erano tanti gli ufficiali delle forze armate USA a tessere le lodi del leader africano.
→ read full article10 Everyday Acts of Resistance That Changed the World
Steve Crawshaw & John Jackson – Yes! Magazine,
11 Apr 2011
Václav Havel called it “the power of the powerless.” How regular people, from Denmark to Liberia, have stood up to power—and won.
→ read full articleLiberal Imperialism: The History of ‘Humanitarian Intervention’
Adam Curtis - BBC,
11 Apr 2011
Even if one’s instincts are to help those fighting Gadaffi, it is no longer enough just to see it as a struggle of goodies against baddies. For it is precisely that simplification that has led to unreal fantasies about who we are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
→ read full article