Articles by RD
We found 3647 results.
Righting Wrongs the Maori Way
Allan MacRae & Howard Zehr – Yes! Magazine,
11 Jul 2011
Instead of prison, New Zealand chooses restorative justice and community problem-solving.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Mercados Começam as Apostas Sobre Qual Será o Próximo País a Cair
Marco Antonio Moreno, Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2011
O casino está aberto. William Hill, a maior casa de apostas de Londres, vaticina que o próximo país a pedir auxílio será a Espanha. Paga 1,1 euros por cada euro apostado, enquanto que o resgate italiano é pago a 3 por 1, o da Bélgica a 5 por 1 e o hipotético resgate da Alemanha é pago a 500 por 1. Rendida a Grécia, e submetida aos draconianos planos de ajustamento e cortes que a troika UE/BCE/FMI impõe, o apetite dos mercados começa a procurar a próxima vítima. Portugal e a Itália são os favoritos.
→ read full articleInstances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2010
Richard F. Grimmett, Congressional Research Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2011
March 10, 2011 – This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes.
→ read full articleThe International Criminal Court Plays Politics? The Qaddafi Arrest Warrants
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2011
This politicized use of the ICC in the course of the Libyan War offers an opportunity for those dedicated to global justice, especially in the Arab world, to insist that international law should no longer serve as a plaything for those who intervene with hard power in their region from the comfort zone of NATO headquarters.
→ read full articleChad Signs Plan to End Recruitment and Use of Children in National Army and Security Forces
Cassandra Clifford – Foreign Policy Association,
4 Jul 2011
Last week on 16 June 2011 the government of the African nation Chad signed an action plan to end recruitment and use of children in its national army and security forces.
→ read full articleWorld’s Wealthiest People Now Richer Than Before the Credit Crunch
Jill Treanor – The Guardian,
4 Jul 2011
We are not all in this together. The UK economy is flat, the US is weak and the Greek debt crisis, according to some commentators, is threatening another Lehman Brothers-style meltdown. But a new report shows the world’s wealthiest people are getting more prosperous – and more numerous – by the day.
→ read full articleA Few Notes on WHAT IS LEFT (or Toward a Manifesto for Revolutionary Emancipation)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2011
These notes are meant as tentative and conversational expressions of an emergent political point of view, and will be revised in response to commentary by others. Obviously, also, there is no pretension on my part of comprehensiveness, or else many other issues would have been addressed.
→ read full articleNo Impunity for Killing by Drones
Richard Johnson, Oxford Research Group - InDepth News,
27 Jun 2011
“If you use drones you must confirm and report who they killed,” international lawyers say, adding: “Drones don’t allow hit and run.” In fact, states that authorize or use armed drones as well as those who launch and control them are obliged to identify the deceased so as to provide reparations or compensation for possible wrongful killing, injury and other offences.
→ read full articleTurkey, the Region, and the West after the Elections
Richard Falk & Hilal Elver – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2011
What emerges overall is this American led reluctance to accept Turkey as an independent regional force in the Middle East that has achieved enormous influence in recent years by relying on its own brand of soft power diplomacy. A dramatic indicator of this influence is the great popularity of Erdogan throughout the region, including among the youth who brought about the uprisings against authoritarian rule throughout the Arab world. It is an encouraging sign of the times that these new Arab champions of democracy are coming to Ankara and Istanbul, not Washington, Tel Aviv, or Paris, for guidance and inspiration.
→ read full articleLeaked: Mainstream Media’s Dictionary – Letter C (satire)
Imran Garda – Al Jazeera,
27 Jun 2011
caliphate. n.
Future involving Ayman Al-Zawahiri sitting on a throne watching bearded footballers in long shorts contesting the Islamic Cup final in Seville.
(Portuguese) Vida nos Oceanos Pode Enfrentar Extinção sem Precedentes, Diz Estudo
Richard Black - BBC News,
27 Jun 2011
Um novo estudo indica que os ecossistemas marinhos enfrentam perigos ainda maiores do que os estimados até agora pelos cientistas e que correm o risco de entrar em uma fase de extinção de espécies sem precedentes na história da humanidade.
→ read full articleOur Battle to End Hunger
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – The Guardian,
20 Jun 2011
No country can achieve sustainable development without improving the living conditions of its people; and the Brazilian experience shows that overcoming hunger requires co-ordinated actions, political will and the participation of all society.
→ read full articleLeaked: Mainstream Media’s Dictionary (satire) – Letters A to B
Imran Garda – Al Jazeera,
20 Jun 2011
academic. adj.
Man in bow-tie. Usually represents think-tank or university. Explains the science behind global warming and/or new CERN project while anchor nods pretending to understand.
baggage. n.
Part of travelling entourage left unfondled by the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
(Portuguese) Italianos Votam pela Água Pública, Rejeitam Energia Nuclear e Imunidade de Berlusconi
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
Nos quatro referendos realizados em Itália participaram 57% dos eleitores, tendo o “Sim” ganho por largas maiorias, próximas ou superiores a 95%. Assim, os italianos votaram pela água pública e contra o aumento do preço das tarifas, rejeitaram a energia nuclear e a imunidade de Berlusconi.
→ read full articleIs the State a Monster? Pro and Contra Nietzsche
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
In Part One of Friederich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra there is a particularly provocative section entitled ‘Of the New Idol.’ Remembering that this pivotal writing of the great German thinker/philosopher, so often misinterpreted, was written in 1881, it is surprising how relevant and invigorating its strong language remains in 2011.
→ read full articleLifting the Lid on Sri Lanka’s War Crimes
Callum Macrae – The Guardian,
20 Jun 2011
My film Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields exposes atrocities committed against civilian Tamils that the UN must not ignore. If the UN fails yet again, the message to every tyrant and repressive government will be clear: if you want to kill your own people with impunity, you will probably get away with it. (Watch a 2-min video clip in SHORT VIDEOS and the full documentary in IN-DEPTH VIDEOS).
→ read full articleInterpreting the AKP Victory in Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
The following post was written jointly with Hilal Elver, who is a Turkish scholar and public intellectual. It offers commentary on the recent AKP victory, which is viewed as a significant and hopeful development in Turkish, and regional, politics.
→ read full articleHope in the Andes: What Ollanta Humala’s Victory Means for Peru
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
13 Jun 2011
Ollanta is an Incan name meaning “the warrior everyone looks to.” Indeed, all eyes were on the leftist president-elect as he greeted the crowd. This election puts Humala among a growing number of leftist presidents in Latin America and offers hope to the poorest sectors of Peruvian society. The poverty rate in Peru is just over 31 percent. In Sunday’s elections, it was the impoverished rural areas that went for Humala over Kieko Fujimori.
→ read full articleUnderstanding Political Reality in Syria
Robin Edward Poulton, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2011
In his OpEd of June 3rd entitled The Depravity Factor, David Brooks writes emotionally about a murdered 13-year-old Syrian boy called Hamza Ali al-Khateeb. The descriptions and internet photographs of Hamza’s tortured body are horrible, but Brooks draws from this story a set of political conclusions that are unjustified by anything we know about Syria or the region we vaguely think of as the ‘Middle East’.
→ read full articleBankers and Politicians Have Turned Food into a Betting Game
Aditya Chakrabortty – The Guardian,
13 Jun 2011
The Result Is Soaring Prices and Starving Children
→ read full articleA Shameless Secretary General versus Freedom Flotilla 2
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2011
In light of these surrounding circumstances, including the failure of Israel to live up to its announced promise after the attack in 2010 to lift the blockade, it shocks our moral and legal sensibilities that the UN Secretary General should be using the authority of his office to urge member governments to prevent ships from joining Freedom Flotilla 2.
→ read full articleDumb Question of the Twenty-first Century: Is It Legal?
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
6 Jun 2011
Is the Libyan war legal? Was Bin Laden’s killing legal? Is it legal for the president of the United States to target an American citizen for assassination? Were those “enhanced interrogation techniques” legal? These are all questions raised in recent weeks. Each seems to call out for debate, for answers. Or does it? My answer is this: they are irrelevant.
→ read full articleJulian Assange Wins Martha Gellhorn Journalism Prize
Jason Deans – The Guardian,
6 Jun 2011
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has won the 2011 Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism. The annual prize is awarded to a journalist “whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or ‘official drivel’, as Martha Gellhorn called it”.
→ read full articleBilderberg 2011: All Aboard the Bilderbus
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
6 Jun 2011
As Europe groans, and austerity bites, as defaulting looms, and once proud nations fall to their knees in debt, there’s only one annual conference of bankers and industrialists that can step in and save us all… Bilderberg! Next week, in Switzerland, Henry Kissinger and his brave band of corporate CEOs, high-wealth individuals and heavyweight thinktankers will lock arms with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and David Rockefeller, and stand their ground against the economic contagion. The last thing a bunch of bank bosses and multinational executives wants is for the nation-states of Europe to collapse, allowing their assets to be bought up on the cheap. Right?
→ read full article(Castellano) Chile: Senado Vendió a Monsanto la Semilla Campesina e Indígena
Lucía Sepúlveda Ruiz - Movimiento Anti Nuevo Orden Mundial (NWO),
30 May 2011
Con 13 votos a favor (de la derecha y uno de la Concertación), 5 en contra y 6 abstenciones, el Senado de Chile aprobó el 11 de mayo [2011] el Convenio Upov 91 que impedirá a los campesinos guardar la semilla y extenderá el tiempo de vigencia de los derechos y garantías de las transnacionales que vendan semillas híbridas y transgénicas en el país.
→ read full articleManuel Zelaya Pushes for Peace on Return to Honduras
Associated Press-AP – The Guardian,
30 May 2011
Former president Manuel Zelaya’s return to Honduras almost two years after being forced into exile by a military coup has ended a crippling political crisis and paved the way for the impoverished nation’s reintegration into the international community. The Organisation of American States (OAS), which expelled Honduras following the June 2009 coup, is expected to bring the Central American nation back into the fold this week.
→ read full articleObama’s AIPAC Speech: A Further Betrayal of the Palestinian People
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2011
After such a speech the only responsible response by the Palestinian leadership is to conclude once and for all, however belatedly, that it is no longer possible to look to Washington for guidance in reaching a peaceful, just, and sustainable resolution of the conflict.
→ read full article16 Foods High in Vitamin C
Dr. Edward Group – Global Healing Center,
30 May 2011
Vitamin C is one super important, naturally-occurring nutrient. From preventing colds and flu, rebuilding tissue, bones and blood vessels, to boosting the body’s ability to synthesize calcium and other minerals, Vitamin C is something we want to be eating more of on a daily basis. In fact, studies are now confirming the need for Vitamin C to boost brain function, heal from injuries and recover from illness. A potent antioxidant for neutralizing free radicals, a diet lacking Vitamin C may cause health problems over time.
→ read full articleGlobal Leadership: American Retreat, BRIC Ambivalence, and Turkey’s Rise
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
As the American president, Barack Obama, sets forth his views on the future of the Middle East it seems a good time to take stock of the leadership vacuum in world affairs, and whether there are alternatives to the role the United States has played ever since World War II.
→ read full articleObama’s Flawed Approach to the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
In many respects, Obama’s speech, aside from the soaring rhetoric, might have been crafted in Tel Aviv rather than the White House. It is a tribute to Israel’s extraordinary influence upon the American media that has been able to shift the focus of assessment to the supposed Israeli anger about affirming Palestinian statehood within 1967 borders.
→ read full articleEscaping the Matrix
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
The defining moment in The Matrix occurs when Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red and a blue pill. The red pill promises “the truth, nothing more.” Neo takes it and awakes to reality. What Neo had before assumed to be reality was only a collective illusion. The story is intended as metaphor, and the parallels that drew my attention had to do with political reality. Are you ready for the red pill?
→ read full article(Castellano) Escapar de la Matriz
Richard K. Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2011
El momento dramático definitivo en la película La Matriz ocurre inmediatamente a continuación de la invitación de Morfeo a que Neo escoja entre una píldora roja y una azul. La píldora roja promete “la verdad, nada más”. Neo toma la píldora roja y despierta a la realidad. Lo que Neo había antes tomado por la realidad resulta ser sólo una ilusión colectiva, inventada por la Matriz. La intención de la trama es metafórica, y el paralelo que atrajo mi atención tiene que ver con la realidad política.
→ read full articleObserving 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 articlePress 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 article(French) «En Afrique, les Homosexuels Sont des Boucs Emissaires»
Quentin Girard – Libération,
16 May 2011
Au Cameroun, mon pays, ou au Sénégal, des arrestations d’homosexuels ou de personnes soupçonnées telles ont lieu très régulièrement. Le profil des individus interpellés est presque toujours le même: ce sont toujours des personnes pauvres, d’un niveau d’éducation faible, souvent sans emploi. Est-ce que cela veut dire qu’il n’y a pas d’homosexuels chez les riches? Évidemment non. Cela signifie surtout que les pauvres sont instrumentalisés à des fins politiques. Si les gens protestent contre la famine, la mauvaise gouvernance, les abus, on leur livre des homosexuels.
→ read full articleForty-Eight Women Raped Every Hour in Congo, Study Finds
Jo Adetunji – The Guardian,
16 May 2011
Research shows 12% of the country’s women have been raped at least once, and the problem is not confined to conflict areas.
→ 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 articleJulian Assange Awarded Australian Peace Prize
Reuters – The Guardian,
16 May 2011
WikiLeaks’ Australian founder Julian Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, has been given a peace award for “exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights”. Assange was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation’s gold medal on Tuesday [10 May 2011] at the Frontline Club in London, only the fourth such award to be handed out in its 14-year history. The not-for-profit organisation is associated with the University of Sydney and supported by the City of Sydney.
→ 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 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 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
Who Will Reshape the Arab World: Its People, or the US?
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
9 May 2011
Phase one of the Arab spring is over. Phase two – the attempt to crush or contain genuine popular movements – has begun. Here one has to say that whatever the final outcome, the Libyan people have lost. The country will either be partitioned into a Gaddafi state and a squalid pro-west protectorate led by selected businessmen, or the west will take out Gaddafi and control the whole of Libya and its huge oil reserves. This display of affection for “democracy” does not extend elsewhere in the region. In Bahrain,
→ 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 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 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
Civil 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.
→ 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 articleIsrael and Palestine Don’t Need More Friends – But the Peace Process Does
Jonathan Freedland – The Guardian,
25 Apr 2011
Roleplaying PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat made me see how easily one slips from problem-solving to point-scoring.
→ 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 articleActivists Occupy Oil Rig in Fight to Prevent Arctic Drilling
John Vidal in Sarkoy, Turkey – The Guardian,
25 Apr 2011
The fight to stop the global oil industry exploring the pristine deep waters of the Arctic has been dubbed the new cold war, and early on Friday [22 Apr 2011] it escalated as environmental activists from 12 countries occupied the world’s second largest rig on its way from Turkey to Greenland to drill among the icebergs.
→ 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 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 articleHow Nuclear Apologists Mislead the World over Radiation
Helen Caldicott – The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
George Monbiot and others at best misinform and at worst distort evidence of the dangers of atomic energy.
→ 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 articleBradley Manning: Top US Legal Scholars Voice Outrage At ‘Torture’
Ed Pilkington in New York - The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
More than 250 of America’s most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his “degrading and inhumane conditions” are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture. The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America’s foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
→ read full articleBolivia Enshrines Natural World’s Rights with Equal Status for Mother Earth
John Vidal in La Paz – The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings” and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.
→ 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 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 articleObama’s Libyan Folly: To be or not to be…
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
The outcome in Libya remains uncertain, but what seems clear beyond reasonable doubt is that military intervention has not saved the day for either the shadowy opposition known as ‘the rebels,’ and certainly not for the people of the country.
→ read full articleBRICS to Promote More Inclusive Global Partnership
Gordon Ross – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Apr 2011
At the upcoming Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit, to be held on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan Apr. 14, discussion will focus not only on deepening economic ties among members, but will also likely touch on global political events, including the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. But China insists the club has no political agenda.
→ read full articleNarco Violence in Mexico: Eight Theses and Many Questions
Paco Ignacio Taibo II – Toward Freedom,
4 Apr 2011
Calderón negotiated the launching of this war with President Bush, not with the then newly-arrived Obama. And he agreed in terms of a package deal with absurd conditions. The drug war has never been, nor should it be, a Mexican War. It was, and is an essentially American war generated by increased consumption of drugs on a global scale which initiated in the United States.
→ read full articleLibya is another Case of Selective Vigilantism by the West
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
4 Apr 2011
The US-Nato intervention in Libya, with United Nations security council cover, is part of an orchestrated response to show support for the movement against one dictator in particular and by so doing to bring the Arab rebellions to an end by asserting western control, confiscating their impetus and spontaneity and trying to restore the status quo ante.
→ read full articleJoint Statement on the Japanese Nuclear Disaster
The Right Livelihood Award & World Future Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Apr 2011
Hamburg, Stockholm, 29 March 2011. In a joint statement 50 Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award and members of the World Future Council demand a global nuclear phase out.
→ read full articleContinuing Colonialism: World Bank Funds Mining in Africa
Cyril Mychalejko – Toward Freedom,
28 Mar 2011
Dr. Aaron Tesfaye, a professor of International Political Economy and African Politics at William Paterson University, said he is not surprised by the announcement because of the economic and security implications mining and strategic metals have for industrialized nations.
→ read full articleQaddafi, Moral Interventionism, Libya, and the Arab Revolutionary Moment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2011
Recently [Qaddafi] confirmed this assessment, referring to his own people as ‘rats and dogs’ or ‘cockroaches,’ and employing the bloodthirsty and vengeful language of a demented tyrant. Such a tragic imposition of political abuse on the Libyan experience is a painful reality that exists beyond any reasonable doubt, but does it validate a UN authorized military intervention carried out by a revived partnership of those old colonial partners, France and Britain, and their post-colonial American imperial overseer? I think not.
→ read full articleThe Ransoming of Raymond Davis
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
What does the United States’ record on justice and human rights look like after it has paid to get its alleged CIA killer out of jail?
→ read full articleBradley Manning’s Military Doctors Accused Over Treatment
Ed Pilkington in New York – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
A leading group of doctors in the US concerned with the ethical treatment of patients has questioned the role of military psychiatrists in Quantico, Virginia, where the suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning is being subjected to harsh treatment that some call torture. The advocacy body Physicians for Human Rights has sounded the alarm over the role of psychiatrists at the brig in the marine base where Manning has been in custody since last July.
→ read full articleAnonymous Hackers Release Bank of America Emails
Dominic Rushe in New York – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
The hacker group Anonymous has released a cache of emails obtained from someone said to be a former Bank of America employee.
→ read full articleGroundbreaking New UN Report on How to Feed the World’s Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture
Jill Richardson - AlterNet,
21 Mar 2011
A new report from the UN advises ditching corporate-controlled and chemically intensive farming in favor of agroecology. There are a billion hungry people in the world and that number could rise as food insecurity increases along with population growth, economic fallout and environmental crises. But a roadmap to defeating hunger exists, if we can follow the course — and that course involves ditching corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive farming.
→ read full articleLearning from Disaster? After Sendai
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Mar 2011
Let us fervently hope that this Sendai disaster will not take further turns for the worse, but that the warnings already embedded in such happenings, will awaken enough people to the dangers on this path of hyper-modernity so that a politics of limits can arise to challenge the prevailing politics of limitless growth. Such a challenge must include the repudiation of a neoliberal worldview, insisting without compromise on an economics based on needs and people rather than on profit margins and capital efficiency.
→ read full articleJulian Assange Tells Students That the Web Is the Greatest Spying Machine Ever
Patrick Kingsley – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
“While the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing, and to let us co-operate with each other to hold repressive governments and repressive corporations to account, it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen,” he told students at Cambridge University. Hundreds queued for hours to attend.
→ read full articleThis Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning
Daniel Ellsberg – The Guardian,
14 Mar 2011
The WikiLeaks suspect’s mistreatment amounts to torture. Either President Obama knows this or he should make it his business.
→ read full articleWill We Ever Learn? Kicking the Intervention Habit
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Mar 2011
It should be obvious that a no-fly zone in Libyan airspace is an act of war, as would be, of course, contemplated air strikes on fortifications of the Qadaffi forces. The core legal obligation of the UN Charter requires member states to refrain from any use of force unless it can be justified as self-defense after a cross-border armed attack or mandated by a decision of the UN Security Council. Neither of these conditions authorizing a legal use of force is remotely present,…
→ read full article(Portuguese) 8 De Março: Simbolismo ou Luta Permanente?
Mariana Aiveca – Esquerda.net,
7 Mar 2011
A par da luta contra a violência, o direito ao trabalho e à independência económica devem estar no centro das reivindicações das mulheres neste dia 8 de Março de 2011.
→ read full articleThe Story of Citizens United (Short Video)
Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff Project – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
Why have corporations gotten so powerful? And what can we do about it? The Story of Citizens United v. FEC, an exploration of the inordinate power that corporations exercise in our democracy.
→ read full articleCommentary on Recent Developments: Interview Responses
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
The following Q & A interview consists of my responses to questions put to me by the outstanding Greek journalist, C. J. Polychroniou, and is being published in a Greek newspaper.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Charged With Aiding the Enemy — Whistleblowing Punishable by Death?
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - AlterNet,
7 Mar 2011
These new charges are dangerous to Bradley — as well as to the transparency movement, the free press, and the foundations of open democracy in general — because they carry with them the penalty of death. Through some bizarre series of events we have arrived at a point in which our nation, once a beacon of Enlightenment-era ideals, has put the death penalty on the table as a viable method for dealing with whistle blowers. If you aren’t concerned, you aren’t paying attention….
→ read full article(Italian) Il difficile passaggio dal tecnozoico all’ecozoico
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
Le grandi crisi comportano grandi decisioni. Ci sono decisioni che significano vita o morte per certe società, per una istituzione o per una persona.
→ read full articleExperiments in Democracy: Egypt, Tunisia and the US
Joseph Gainza – Toward Freedom,
28 Feb 2011
Rarely does history present us with events which resemble a scientific experiment. Events in the Middle East over the last nine years, but especially in the last month give us an opportunity to examine how best to establish democracy. Analysis of what has recently taken place in Tunisia and Egypt can be measured against the ongoing tragedies of Iraq and Afghanistan.
→ read full articleThe United States Stands Alone with Israel in the UN Security Council (or How Honest is the Honest Broker)?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
In what appears to be as close to a consensus as the world community can ever hope to achieve, the United States reluctantly stood its ground on behalf of Israel and on February 18, 2011 vetoed a resolution on the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that was supported by all 14 of the other members of the UN Security Council. The resolution was also sponsored by 130 member countries before being presented to the Council.
→ read full articleSupporters in Haiti Make Ready for Aristide
Clarens Renois – Mail & Guardian,
28 Feb 2011
Supporters beat drums in the slums while workers spruced up his private villa as Haitians prepared on Tuesday for the possible return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide with feverish anticipation. “Some people are cleaning the streets, others are getting the residence ready, and we are making preparations for a beautiful party,” Rene Civil, a die-hard follower of Haiti’s first democratically elected leader, told Agence France-Presse.
→ read full articleLex Duvalier: A Corrupt Politician’s Worst Nightmare
Gonzalo Turdera – Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
28 Feb 2011
On February 1, 2011, the Swiss Restitution of Illicit Assets Act (RIAA), commonly referred to as “Lex Duvalier,” came into effect. This law provides for the freezing, forfeiture, and restitution of assets of politically exposed persons or their close associates. It applies in cases where a request for mutual assistance in criminal law matters cannot produce an outcome owing to the failure of state structures in the requesting state (the politically exposed person’s country of origin).
→ read full articleThis Is an Arab 1848. But US Hegemony Is Only Dented
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
28 Feb 2011
With western-backed despots being turfed out politics has changed forever. So just how far can the revolution spread?
→ read full articleGoverning by Obeying the People: Bolivia’s Politics of the Street
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
28 Feb 2011
From across North Africa to Wisconsin, activists are navigating a new terrain of global protest and relationships with their governments. Whether in ousting old tyrants or dealing with new allies in office, the example of Bolivia holds many lessons for social movements. An illustrative dynamic is now unfolding in this Andean country where the movements hold sway over the government palace, and the leftist President Evo Morales says he “governs by obeying the people.” But sometimes the people don’t give him any other choice.
→ read full articleReport of Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Occupied Palestinian Territories
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
14 Feb 2011 – I am posting the official text of my most recent report to the UN Human Rights Council on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The period covered ends in December 2010, and the report will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 21, 2011. Of course, the impact of recent events, especially in Egypt, is not considered. Of primary interest will be the approach taken by the new Egyptian leadership to the Rafah Crossing, especially whether humanitarian goods will be permitted to enter freely and whether Gazans will be allowed to leave and return without difficulty.
→ read full articleRevolutionary Prospects after Mubarak
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The bravery, discipline, and creativity of the Egyptian revolutionary movement is nothing short of a political miracle, deserving to be regarded as one of the seven political wonders of the modern world! To have achieved these results without violence, despite a series of bloody provocations, and persisting without an iconic leader, without even the clarifying benefit of a revolutionary manifesto, epitomizes the originality and grandeur of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
→ read full article
How People Become Monsters … Or Heroes
Philip Zimbardo – TED Talks,
14 Feb 2011
Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.
→ read full articleMass Tree Deaths Prompt Fears of Amazon ‘Climate Tipping Point’
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
14 Feb 2011
Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source.
• Amazon ‘could shrink by 85% due to climate change’
• Rate of tree deaths in western US ‘rising due to climate change’
Egypt’s Joy as Mubarak Quits
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
14 Feb 2011
With Hosni Mubarak’s departure, the age of political reason is returning to Egypt and the wider Arab world. A joyous night in Cairo. What bliss to be alive, to be an Egyptian and an Arab. In Tahrir Square they’re chanting, “Egypt is free” and “We won!”
→ read full articleThe Toxic Residue of Colonialism: Protecting Interests, Disregarding Rights
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Here is the crux of the ethical irony. Washington is respectful of the logic of self-determination so long as it converges with American grand strategy, and oblivious to the will of the people whenever its expression is seen as posing a threat to the neoliberal overlords of the globalized world economy or to strategic alignments that seem so dear to State Department or Pentagon planners.
→ read full articleGoodbye to All That: Pox Americana
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
14 Feb 2011
As we’ve watched the dramatic events in the Middle East, you would hardly know that we had a thing to do with them. Oh yes, in the name of its War on Terror, Washington had for years backed most of the thuggish governments now under siege or anxious that they may be next in line to hear from their people.
→ read full articleYoung Activist Faces 10 Years in Prison After Trying to Save Public Lands From Oil and Gas Companies
Tina Gerhardt - AlterNet,
14 Feb 2011
On Friday, December 19, 2008, Tim DeChristopher participated in a public auction. As the Bush administration moved to auction off 77 parcels of federal land totaling 150,000 acres for oil and gas drilling, DeChristopher, a student at the University of Utah at the time, bid $1.7 million for 14 parcels totaling 22,000 acres of land, although he did not have the funds to pay for it. Last year, Dr. James Hansen, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Robert Redford and Terry T. Williams wrote an open letter that was widely circulated in support of TimDeChristopher’s “creative protest against runaway energy policy.”
→ read full articleEgypt’s Transformative Moment: Revolution, Counterrevolution, or Reform
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 there have been two further transformative events that have reshaped in enduring ways the global setting. When the Soviet empire collapsed two years later, the way was opened for the triumphalist pursuit of the American Imperial Project, seizing the opportunity for geopolitical expansion provided by its self-anointed global leadership as ‘the sole surviving superpower.’ This first rupture in the character of world order…. The second rupture came with the 9/11 attacks, however those events are construed. The impact of the attacks transferred the locus of policymaking authority back to the United States, as state actor, under the rubrics of ‘the war on terror,’ ‘global security,’ and ‘the long war.’
→ read full articleHis Name Was João
Jordi Cussó Porredón, Letter of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Letter of Peace Addressed to the UN. Time, many battles and much suffering have taught us that no one person is superior to another. It doesn’t matter if you are a carpenter, gardener, minister, black or white… the only thing that really matters is that we are human beings. Society must provide us all with the same opportunities because we are all equal.
→ read full articleProcess of Mediation
Jordi Palou Loverdós – Letter of Peace,
7 Feb 2011
It is true that the use of mediation in conflicts is now presented as a new instrument, mainly because in the last thirty or forty years it has been used in the Anglo-Saxon world, where people are very good at presenting things as if they were new. However, we must point out its existence, for example in ancient Chinese texts, where mediation was used in all kinds of conflicts. This is also true of many cultures from the North, South East and West of the planet, where mediation was formerly used theoretically and practically. The good deeds of third parties who attempt to accompany the other parties in their conflict process and facilitate communication, and where applicable, an agreement between them, is as old as humanity itself.
→ read full articleThe Carbon Market – Gone in a Puff of Smoke?
Sabina Manea – The Guardian,
7 Feb 2011
The entire EU trading system was shut down last Wednesday [23 Jan 2011], with credits worth €28m missing following a series of highly effective cyber attacks that have plunged the still emerging carbon market into chaos. To make matters worse, the EU’s ETS is a serial victim; eco-activist hackers shut down the EU carbon exchange website only six months ago. The European Commission’s decision to suspend trading was taken in the wake of break-ins into online accounts in a number of European countries, with the Czech Republic being the latest casualty. The chances of recovering the stolen credits are slim, even more so once the criminals have sold them on. Unlike the money paid for indulgences, carbon credits are nothing more than records in an online account.
→ read full articleDavos: An Unrealistic View from the Mountain
Larry Elliott – The Guardian,
7 Feb 2011
For those at the Davos World Economic Forum the future looks bright – but the truth may be bleaker for the rest of us. The theme of Davos this year was “shared norms for the new reality”, one of those phrases where the words can be rearranged in any order and remain utterly vacuous. Business leaders, policy leaders and the world’s smartest academics had five days in the high Alps to work out what this actually meant. Despite much head scratching not one of them could.
→ read full articlePeru Recognises Palestinian State
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
31 Jan 2011
Peru last night [24 Jan 2011] announced it recognises Palestine as a state, becoming the seventh South American country to do so in a rapid diplomatic domino effect which has alarmed Israel.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Quem Roubou a Minha Poluição?
Nelson Peralta, esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
O mercado europeu de comércio de emissões de dióxido de carbono (CO2) está fechado há uma semana depois de ter sido detectado o roubo de 475 mil toneladas em licenças de emissão de CO2. Esta bolsa funciona numa plataforma virtual online e as falhas de segurança têm sido uma constante. A Comissão Europeia estima que cerca de dois milhões de licenças avaliadas em 26 milhões de euros possam estar desaparecidas, mas ninguém parece saber ao certo. O mercado deve reabrir hoje [27 Jan 2011], apenas nos países que adoptaram medidas de segurança adicionais.
→ read full articleFood Speculation: ‘People Die From Hunger While Banks Make a Killing on Food’
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
It’s not just bad harvests and climate change – it’s also speculators that are behind record prices. And it’s the planet’s poorest who pay.
→ read full article