Articles by UN
We found 3938 results.
UN Independent Expert Calls For Boycott of Businesses Profiting From Israeli Settlements
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Oct 2012
A United Nations independent expert today [25 Oct 2012] called on the world body’s General Assembly, as well as civil society, to take action against Israeli and international businesses that are profiting from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
→ read full article(Italian) Premio per la Pace: Nobel o Ignobel?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Oct 2012
Entrambi, naturalmente. Ben meritato per il passato e per le relazioni interne, nella tradizione dell’Occidente che premia l’Occidente. Ma i critici hanno ragione per quanto riguarda le relazioni esterne e il presente come la stretta debitoria dei cosiddetti Stati GIPSI –Grecia, Italia, Portogallo, Spagna, Irlanda- Periferia UE- verso la Germania.
→ read full articleThe European Finance Crisis: Germany/GIPSI
Johan Galtung,
29 Oct 2012
A crisis so massive–with the health network in Greece collapsing and 50 percent of Spanish youth unemployed–begs for big causes.
→ read full article(Croatian) „Veličanstveni Magnezij“
Katherine Czapp – Weston A. Price Foundation,
29 Oct 2012
Zanemareni mineral, bez kojeg ne možemo živjeti
→ read full articleMagnificent Magnesium
Katherine Czapp – The Weston A. Price Foundation,
29 Oct 2012
The Neglected Mineral We Cannot Live Without
→ read full article(Italian) Guerre Balcaniche a 100: Quattro Strade Per Un Buon Vicinato
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
Discorso programmatico, Istanbul, Università di Hacettepe, 4 ottobre 2012 – Gli imperi vanno e vengono. L’Impero musulmano Ottomano fu fra i migliori mentre quello cattolico iberico e quello protestante europeo furono fra i peggiori.
→ read full article(Italian) Turchia-Cipro-Kurdi-Armenia-SIRIA*
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
Questo non vuol dire affatto che la Turchia sia scevra di problemi; nessun paese lo è. Il punto focale qui è su quattro problemi che coinvolgono altre nazioni: i greci, i kurdi, gli armeni e le molte nazioni presenti in Siria. Una politica come al solito in paesi omogenei, senza soluzioni contemplanti le nazionalità, equivale a corteggiare il disastro. Va su una minoranza, conquista nicchie economiche-culturali e le maggioranze la metteranno a tacere con mezzi politico-militari; come gli armeni in Turchia, gli ebrei in Germania, i cinesi nel SudEst asiatico; Tutsi-Hutu.
→ read full articleDrug Legalization in Latin America: Could It Be the Answer?
Gene Bolton - Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
22 Oct 2012
Last March [2012], Central American nations held a drug legalization summit and garnered support for this policy throughout the region. This analysis compares the potential benefits and shortcomings of drug legalization as a policy initiative to reduce overall drug crime.
→ read full articleThe Peace Prize: Nobel or Ignoble?
Johan Galtung, 18 Oct 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Oct 2012
Both, of course. Well deserved for EU’s past and for relations within, in the tradition of West rewarding West. But critics are right about relations without and the present; like debt bondage of GIPSI–Greece-Italy-Portugal-Spain-Ireland/EU periphery–to Germany.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Paz, Direitos Humanos e Desenvolvimento num Mundo Multi-Polar em Evolução
Johan Galtung, Forum Abel Varzim – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
Palestra proferida no Conselho do Forum Social dos Direitos Humanos em Nova Iorque – 1 de outubro de 2012. O foco está no desenvolvimento centrado nas pessoas – em vez de no crescimento económico centrado no sistema.
→ read full articleUNHCR Issues Guidelines on Protection of Male Rape Victims
UN Refugee Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
The UN refugee agency has for the first time issued guidelines for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff and other aid workers on how to identify and support male victims of rape and other sexual violence in conflict and displacement situations. Access the guidelines: Working with men and boy survivors of sexual and Gender-based violence in forced displacement.
→ read full articleFormer UN Envoy Jean Ziegler on Third World Hunger: “We Let Them Starve”
Thomas M Blaser, Africa is a Country – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
‘According to the UN World Food Programme, there is enough food in the world for 12 billion people. If today people are still starving, then this is organized crime, mass murder. Every five seconds, one child under the age of ten dies, one billion people are permanently and heavily undernourished.’ Quote from Jean Ziegler, who was (2000-2008) the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and subsequently a member of the Advisory Committee to the UN Human Rights Council.
→ read full article(Italian) Sociocidio, Israele e Palestina
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
Testimonianza per il Tribunale Russell sulla Palestine – NewYork City, 7 ottobre 2012 – Sociocidio è un nuovo concetto che non ha trovato posto nel diritto internazionale positivo. Come Genocidio e Ecocidio, il Sociocidio, l’eliminazione della capacità di una società di sopravvivere e riprodursi, dovrebbe ugualmente diventare un delitto preminente contro l’umanità. La Palestina è dunque vittima di sociocidio da parte di Israele? Decisamente!
→ read full article“India’s Democracy Has Been Kidnapped” – Udayakumar
Aditi Prasad - The Sunday Indian,
15 Oct 2012
The government’s expert committee has declared the plant safe. But if the reactors are so safe, why is the Russian company not accepting the liability? Our government has agreed that if there is an accident we will pay from our own pockets – that is, pay from the taxpayers money. That is not fair. Also, the plant itself is situated on a fault line. People are saying that there will be no tsunami because the plant is 1600 kilometers away from the tsunami line. But did we expect tsunami to strike the Indian coast in 2004? There are two major slumps near the plant which can trigger a massive tsunami if there is an earthquake.
→ read full articleBalkan Wars at 100: Four Roads to Good Neighborhood*
Johan Galtung,
15 Oct 2012
Keynote Speech, Istanbul, Hacettepe University, 4 Oct 2012 – How about a federal Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia?–all within an overarching Balkan Community, doing well on all four peace tasks, building symbiosis among its beautifully diverse parts? As model for Europe and the world? Balkans of all kinds, unite! You have only your self-pity to lose.
→ read full articleThe Muslim Diaspora in Europe and the USA
Johan Galtung et al* - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
By far the tallest diaspora in the world is Muslim: about 300 million, of them 177 M in India, 19 M in EU, 23 M in China, 16 M in Russia, and 2.6 M in the USA. This paper is about the Muslim social situation in two of the six poles: Europe and the USA.
→ read full articleTurkey – Cyprus – Kurds – Armenia – Syria*
Johan Galtung,
10 Oct 2012
Turkey is not problem-free; no country is. The focus here is on four problems involving other nations: the Greeks, the Kurds, the Armenians and the many nations in Syria. Politics as usual in homogeneous countries, with no solution for nationalities, is the same as courting disaster. A minority climbs up, conquers economic-cultural niches and the majorities will silence them politically-militarily; such as Armenians in Turkey, Jews in Germany, Chinese in Southeast Asia; Tutsis-Hutus.
→ read full article
Secret of the Seven Sisters (Shell, Exxon, BP, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, Texaco) – Desert Storms and Fortunes (1/4)
Sunset Presse, French TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
MUST WATCH Documentary: The Shameful Story of Oil – Exposing the Oil Cartel – Part 1 of 4
Legendado em Portugues
Secret of the Seven Sisters (Shell, Exxon, BP, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, Texaco) – Safari in a Black Eldorado (2/4)
Sunset Presse, French TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
The Shameful Story of Oil – Exposing the Oil Cartel – Part 2 of 4
Legendado em Portugues
Secret of the Seven Sisters (Shell, Exxon, BP, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, Texaco) – The Dancing Bear (3/4)
Sunset Presse, French TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
The Shameful Story of Oil – Exposing the Oil Cartel – Part 3 of 4
Legendado em Portugues
Secret of the Seven Sisters (Shell, Exxon, BP, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, Texaco) – A Time for Lies (4/4)
Sunset Presse, French TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
The Shameful Story of Oil – Exposing the Oil Cartel – Part 4 of 4
Legendado em Portugues
Sociocide, Palestine and Israel
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
Testimony for Russell Tribunal on Palestine – NYC, 7 Oct 2012 – Sociocide is a new concept that has not found its place in positive international law. Like Genocide and Ecocide, Sociocide, the killing of a society’s capacity to survive and to reproduce itself, should become equally and prominently a crime against humanity. A society is a self-reproducing social system. Is Palestine the victim of sociocide by Israel? Indeed!
→ read full articleScant Oversight of Drug Maker in Fatal Meningitis Outbreak
Denise Grady, Andrew Pollack and Sabrina Tavernise – International Herald Tribune (NYT),
8 Oct 2012
The rising toll — 7 dead, 57 ill and thousands potentially exposed — has cast a harsh light on the loose regulations that legal experts say allowed a company to sell 17,676 vials of an unsafe drug to pain clinics in 23 states. Federal health officials said Friday [5 Oct 2012] that all patients injected with the steroid drug made by that company, the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., which has a troubled history, needed to be tracked down immediately and informed of the danger.
→ read full articleStudy: The Effects of Weaponized Radiation – Health Effects of Radioactive Materials (1945-1970)
Lisa MartinoTaylor, Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
Abstract: This piece analyzes a covert Manhattan Project spin-off organization referred to here as the Manhattan-Rochester Coalition, and an obscure aerosol study in St. Louis, Missouri, conducted under contract by the U.S. military from 1953–1954, and 1963–1965. The military-sponsored studies targeted a segregated, high-density urban area, where low-income persons of color predominantly resided.
→ read full articleThe Gandhian Movement of Empowerment: Revolutionary Acts at the Community Level
Colin Todhunter – Global Research,
8 Oct 2012
Leprosy: Empowering Some of India’s Most Disadvantaged
→ read full articleBurma/Myanmar: Did the Government Incite the Racial Violence Targeting the Rohingya?
Dr. Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
Truthful reports by various inquiry commissions and missions can and will go a long way towards restoring a glimmer of hope in the world’s most persecuted minority community, if the investigators are able to get to the bottom of the recent large-scale racial violence, which left nearly 100,000 both homeless and hopeless.
→ read full articlePeace, Human Rights and Development in an Evolving World
Johan Galtung,
1 Oct 2012
Keynote Speech at the UN Human Rights Council SOCIAL FORUM – Oct 1, 2012. The focus is on people-centered development–as opposed to system-centered economic growth. And on globalization, a challenging process involving all states and regions, nations and civilizations, humans and nature–as opposed to a globalized market with only three free flows, of capital, goods and services, not labor; increasing the global economic gap.
→ read full articleFreedom of Expression = Freedom to Insult?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
There are two key human rights values in this confrontation:
freedom of expression–basic, but not the only value in the world;
freedom from insult and respect for the sacred–basic, but not alone.
Conflicts between two values generally have five outcomes:
An Interview with Noam Chomsky
Ricardo Lezama – CounterPunch,
1 Oct 2012
Obama, Campus Activism, Mexico, the Middle East
→ read full articleDollar Hegemony in the Empire of the Damned
Colin Todhunter – Global Research,
1 Oct 2012
Many commentators and economists wonder if the US is able to turn its ailing economy around. The reality is that it is bankrupt. However, as long as the dollar remains the world currency, the US can continue to pay its bills by simply printing more money. But once the world no longer accepts the dollar as world reserve currency, the US will no longer be able to continue to pay its way or to fund its wars by relying on what would then be a relatively valueless paper currency.
→ read full articlePussy Riot and Amnesty International: The Decline of Political Protest
Diana Johnstone - CounterPunch,
1 Oct 2012
Last January [2012], State Department official Suzanne Nossel was named as executive director of Amnesty International USA. Ms Nossel had played a role in drafting the UN resolution on Libya, which served to justify the NATO bombing campaign that overthrew the Gaddafi regime. AI has devoted extraordinary attention to the Pussy Riot case, while totally ignoring, for instance, the threat of U.S. prosecution that led Julian Assange to seek political asylum.
→ read full articleLiving Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan
Stanford and New York Universities – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
This report is the result of nine months of research by the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School (Stanford Clinic) and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU Clinic).
→ read full articleMEK Delisting is a Gift to the Regime, a Disaster for the Iranian People and the U.S.
National Iranian American Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) deplores the decision to remove the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. The decision opens the door to Congressional funding of the MEK to conduct terrorist attacks in Iran, makes war with Iran far more likely, and will seriously damage Iran’s peaceful pro-democracy movement as well as America’s standing among ordinary Iranians.
→ read full articleBarcelona Manifesto for Peace
Fundación Carta de la Paz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
September 21, 2012 – International Day for Peace. On the occasion of the First International Congress on Building Peace in the 21st Century held in Barcelona from 23rd-25th April 2012, the organising committee recognises the contributions, presentations, papers and pre-congress preparatory work and offers the following manifesto:
→ read full article(Castellano) Manifiesto Barcelona por la Paz
Fundación Carta de la Paz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
21 de septiembre 2012 – Día Internacional de la Paz. Con motivo del Ier Congreso Internacional Edificar la Paz en el siglo XXI celebrado en Barcelona los días 23, 24 y 25 de abril del 2012, el Comité Científico, recogiendo las aportaciones, las comunicaciones y las ponencias que se han presentado y los trabajos precongresuales, da a conocer el siguiente Manifiesto:
→ read full articleBorn Free and Equal
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
The UN Human Rights Office has released a new publication on sexual orientation and gender identity in international human rights law. It sets out the source and scope of some of the core legal obligations that States have to protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
→ read full articleA Day of Peace: For the Americas
Johan Galtung, 24 Sep 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
Straight to the key problem in the theory and practice of peace: Are we thinking of the negative peace of cease-fire and no violence (as distinct from nonviolence), or are we thinking of the positive peace of cooperation for mutual and equal benefit, empathy for emotional harmony, reconciliation of past traumas, and resolution capacity for an endless agenda of future conflicts? Are we thinking of using nonviolence? Or of persuading, or forcing, those with serious grievances to lay down their arms and reintegrate peacefully in civilian life?
→ read full articleGrowing Up a Proud Racist in Burma
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Sep 2012
Like millions of my fellow Buddhist Burmese, I grew up as a proud racist. For much of my life growing up in the heartland of Burma, Mandalay, I mistook what I came to understand years later as racism to be the patriotism of Burmese Buddhists. Our leading and most powerful institutions, schools, media, Buddhist church and, most importantly, the military, have succeeded in turning the bulk of us into proud racists.
→ read full articleSABONA: From Kindergarten to Geopolitics
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Sep 2012
Some global bullies invented a new play: the nuclear game. One child had the monopoly for some time, refusing to give it up to that big kindergarten called the UN. Then other children came, and more, and more. What to do? Give all the weapons to the UN for destruction and then celebrate their demise from earth.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Mapa Hexagonal do Mundo Multipolar
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
Como é que enfrentamos, intelectualmente, o mundo de hoje?
→ read full article
Playing For Change Day 2012 (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
PFCfoundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
21 September 2012 – International Day of Peace. What if you had one day to change the world with music? On 22 September 2012, musicians and fans will come together on Playing For Change Day with a shared intention of doing something positive for the world and supporting music education for kids everywhere.
→ read full articleUS National Defense Act and a Global Peace Agenda
Johan Galtung,
10 Sep 2012
The Democratic National Convention, DNC, floated into oblivion with no debate–Soviet style, hallelujah, amen–,with no mention of overt wars with 5-6 Muslim countries; of covert wars by drones and SEALs-US Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Teams with many others; and the war on terror. Like the Republican National Convention, RNC, squeezing out Ron Paul, who argued for no bases, no wars, no support to Israel. Nor was the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, visible.
→ read full articlePopular ‘Buddhist’ Racism and the Generals’ Militarism
Maung Zarni – Democratic Voice of Burma,
10 Sep 2012
As a Mandalay-born dissident with deep roots in Buddhism, I find it revolting that thousands of Buddhist monks, human rights dissidents and the public in my hometown of Mandalay staged an anti-Rohingya rally this past weekend [2 Sep 2012]. Where has the vociferous human rights rhetoric gone when it comes to the persecuted Rohingyas?
→ read full articleBritain’s Barbaric ‘Special Relationship’ With Arab Dictators
Finian Cunningham - PressTV,
3 Sep 2012
The image of British Prime Minister David Cameron greeting Bahrain’s King Hamad on the steps of 10 Downing Street on August 23, 2012 conveys a subtle message of Britain’s presumption of global superiority. It also betrays the real role of Britain’s rulers in the suppression of democracy and human rights around the world.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Modelo Econômico Venezuelano Combina Socialismo e Mercado
OperaMundi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
Estratégia de Chávez coloca o Estado como principal instrumento do desenvolvimento econômico, mas abre espaço para alianças com o capital privado e o empreendedorismo.
→ read full articleAttacking Iran: A Disaster for the Region and the World
Johan Galtung,
3 Sep 2012
The Israeli attack seems imminent. Richard Silverstein circulates a leaked “shock and awe” strategy of Benjamin Netanyahu / Ehud Barak hard zionism to decapitate, paralyze Iran; and Alon Ben‑Meir, an expert on Middle East politics, says Israel is not bluffing. A Middle East nuclear free zone that would include Iran and Israel. 64 percent of Israelis are in favor; like in Iran, provided Israel participates. Negotiate an agreement of that type and there would be a sigh of relief all over!–and both countries would be embraced.
→ read full articleBurma’s ‘Niggers’
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
President Thein Sein, what really is your analysis of the plight of Burma’s “Bengali Kulars” (or the Burmese equivalent of “niggers”)?
→ read full articleU.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market
Thom Shanker – International Herald Tribune-NYT,
3 Sep 2012
Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks and Free Speech
Michael Moore and Oliver Stone – International Herald Tribune-NYT,
27 Aug 2012
If Mr. Assange is extradited to the United States, the consequences will reverberate for years around the world. Mr. Assange is not an American citizen, and none of his actions have taken place on American soil. If the United States can prosecute a journalist in these circumstances, the governments of Russia or China could, by the same logic, demand that foreign reporters anywhere on earth be extradited for violating their laws. The setting of such a precedent should deeply concern everyone, admirers of WikiLeaks or not.
→ read full articlePeace-Building? Are You Kidding!!!
Punam Yadav, Nepali Advocate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
I still have a vivid memory of my interview with a Cabin Restaurant Worker. When people talk about peace process, peace building, conflict resolution, transitional justice, restoration of peace, or the compensation for conflict victims in Nepal, only thing comes to my mind is that woman whom I met in 2006 when I was writing my Masters thesis.
→ read full articleConspiracies: Theories and Hypotheses
Johan Galtung, 27 Aug 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
Conspiracies exist. They are a part of social reality, have always been, and will always be; as confirmed conspiracy theories, as unconfirmed conspiracy hypotheses, as suspicions, as allegations. The conspiracy-labeling carries all the characteristics of a conspiracy, using the cultural power of the media to steer the discourse away from important issues. Unacceptable.
→ read full articleWhat’s Gone Wrong At The Guardian?
Ali Abunimah – Al Jazeera,
21 Aug 2012
Hiring Joshua Trevino, who endorsed the killing of Gaza flotilla members, is a worrying step for journalism. Treviño is a Republican Party operative, paid political consultant and ideologue for hire. But while some may not like those attributes, they would not make him unique among columnists. What does distinguish Treviño is his propensity to call for violence. Endorsing the killing of unarmed civilians…
→ read full articleHamsun, Ibsen, and Their Utopias
Johan Galtung,
20 Aug 2012
We are celebrating the two greatest Norwegian poets in this beautiful town they had in common. Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) had his farm here, and Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was apprentice in an apothecary. And you have given me the honor of concluding this festival with some words about their relevance for our world today.
→ read full article(Italian) La Mappa Esagonale del Mondo Multipolare
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Qualche tempo fa la mappa geopolitica si basava sul conflitto diretto Est-Ovest, sulle due super-potenze USA/URSS e rispettive alleanze, con i neutrali-nonallineati trattati da categoria residuale. Il mondo era bipolare. L’implosione dell’URSS lo rese unipolare, con l’”unica super-potenza sopravvissuta”: 2-1 = 1. O così ci fu raccontato. Oggi abbiamo quattro stati molto grandi: i tre maggiori per popolazione, Cina-India-USA, e il maggiore per superficie, Russia. E la UE, regione con cinque stati di media grandezza: UK-Francia-Germania-Italia-Spagna. Ma c’è un altro polo sulla mappa geopolitica: l’Islam.
→ read full articleStatement on Syria
United National Antiwar Coalition – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The ominous signs of impending war with Syria escalate. NATO holds a special meeting to respond to the downing of a Turkish fighter plane and issues threats of future action. The U.S. government is supplying arms and logistical support to Syrian militias. The media bombards us with arguments that support foreign intervention. While activists may hold different views of Syria’s internal political system, we must all agree that the U.S. government has no right to impose its will on other countries, especially those formerly colonized and exploited by the West.
→ read full articleThe Hexagon Map of the Multipolar World
Johan Galtung, 13 Aug 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Some time ago the geopolitical map was based on the direct East-West conflict, the two superpowers USA/USSR with alliances, and the neutral-nonaligned treated as a residual category. The world was Bipolar. The implosion of the USSR made it Unipolar, “the only surviving superpower”, 2-1 = 1. Or so we were told. Today we have four huge states: the three largest in population, China-India-USA, and the largest in area, Russia. And the EU, a region with five middle-range states: UK-France-Germany-Italy-Spain. But there is one more pole on the geopolitical map: Islam.
→ read full article
U.S. Guns: The Awful, Shocking Truth!
Gunwar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Over the last 5 to 6 years, over 60,000 people have lost their lives in Mexico’s drug-related wave of violence. More than 70% of the weapons seized in Mexico in the last three years and submitted for tracing came from the U.S. Source: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-ATF.
→ read full articleObama More Sympathetic to Israelis Killed in Bulgaria than to Sikh Americans Murdered in Wisconsin
Ali Abunimah – The Electronic Intifata,
13 Aug 2012
As soon as news came of a bomb attack that killed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria on 18 July [2012], US President Barack Obama condemned it in the most strident terms – even though, then, as now, the perpetrator and his motive remain unknown. Such sentiments at the killing of innocent people are understandable. But why has Obama so far refused to condemn in equally strong terms Wade Michael Page’s murderous rampage that killed six people at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin yesterday [5 Aug 2012]?
→ read full articleNepal: From Contradictions to Compelling Constructive Visions
Naakow Grant-Hayford, Galtung-Institut – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Federica Riccadonna is a research associate of the Galtung-Institut for Peace Theory and Peace Practice and currently a visiting researcher at the Asian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Transformation-ASPECT in Kathmandu. She depicts the Nepalese society as one in the throes of a deeply fraught political transition towards a more stable and just future and identifies important contradictions underpinning – and potentially able to undermine – the current constitutional and federal peace-building efforts, going on to suggest plausible progressive ways ahead.
→ read full articleThe Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic
Richard A. Muller – International Herald Tribune (NYT),
6 Aug 2012
CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.
→ read full articleThe Nordic Countries in a World in Crisis
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Knowing that India and China can meet alone the world’s demand for industrial goods at higher quality/price ratios, and that the South is able to fulfill a world demand for resources and agricultural products, one Western approach was to switch from real to finance economy. Building on the old City of London-Wall Street traditions in private banking and using debt bondage as power, cheap credit and speculation has been another approach, but it backfired.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Willy Brandt Vinte Anos Depois
Johan Galtung, Forum Abel Varzim – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Morreu há já vinte anos, o grande estadista alemão. A Alemanha, a Europa e o mundo têm amplos motivos de gratidão e muito a aprender com este mestre da política, em condições de grande tensão e polarização. O que era a sua “Ostpolitik” – uma nova fórmula de política para com o Leste? Ele tornou a Alemanha de Leste razoável, ao ser ele próprio razoável. Brandt tornou possível o Kohl de 1989.
→ read full articleExtradition Gives America Jurisdiction over the Globe
Wendy McElroy – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
6 Aug 2012
Since June 19 [2012], WikiLeaks whistle-blower Julian Assange has eluded the British authorities by secreting himself within the diplomatically shielded Ecuadorian embassy in London. Given that the embassy is Ecuadorian, the nation is England, and the charges are Swedish, why does America inevitably enter any discussion of Assange? In a word, “extradition.” The U.S. government has had a secret indictment against Assange for more than 12 months that could be produced in a flash should Assange arrive on Swedish soil.
→ read full articleThe Politics of the Economic Crisis
Johan Galtung, 30 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
The transfer of capital from investment in the real economy to speculation in the finance economy done digitally, in microseconds, is to a labor-free economy. Workers, the plague of industrial capitalists, quarrelsome, on strike, always demanding more, are out. The longer the buying and selling chains in the finance economy, the more commissions-and hence, “economic growth”-, the fewer jobs. A handful can do it; Lehman Brothers taking huge risks that are compensated by huge Goldman Sachs bonuses.
→ read full article(Italian) Non Molta Pace? Anche Colpa Dei Mediatori
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
Più difficile è sostenere una pace positiva: cooperazione per vantaggi reciproci e uguali e armonia, consonanza emotiva. Gli studi per la pace non sono soli in questa difficile situazione. Gli studi sulla sanità si concentrano molto più sull’assenza di malattia che sulla presenza di salute positiva, con solo vaghi sforzi per configurarla esplicitamente. Come la psicologia: profusa sui disordini mentali, ma tuttora carente sull’assetto psicologico positivo. Si possono individuare quattro spiegazioni, non giustificazioni.
→ read full articleWill Libya Become Another Somalia? Or Worse?
Counter Currents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
Libya seems well on its way to becoming the next Somalia, with much of the country already ruled by tribal/clan based armed militias. As was the case in Somalia, Libya is in the process of separation, with the eastern, oil rich, Cyrenica region having issued a de facto declaration of independence. Tripoli, the capital of Libya, seems to be headed in the direction of where Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia was 20 years ago, with various well armed militias from outside the city taking up residence and clashing over territory and the spoils of power.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: Militarizing the Land and Terrorizing the Minds
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
Even three years after a destructive and protracted war, the repressive and intransigent character of the ethnocratic Sri Lankan state remains same and nothing but naked brutality lies at its heart.
→ read full articleNot Much Peace? Also the Mediators’ Fault
Johan Galtung, 23 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
Most difficult is to argue positive peace: cooperation for mutual and equal benefit and harmony, emotional resonance. Peace studies are not alone in this predicament. Health studies focus much more on absence of disease than on presence of positive health, with only vague efforts to spell it out. Like psychology: long on mental disorders, but still short on positive psychology. There are, say, four explanations, not justifications, around.
→ read full articleAssassination Nation
Doug Noble - CounterPunch,
23 Jul 2012
Fifty Years of US Targeted ‘Kill Lists’: From the Phoenix Program to Predator Drones – Those who are mortified by the latest revelations of Obama’s kill list have much to learn from a more comprehensive, historical perspective on US killing around the globe.
→ read full articleSyria’s Deadly Bomb Attack on Assad Cabinet: Is This ‘The Price’ Clinton Warned Of?
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
23 Jul 2012
The deadly bomb attack on the top-level meeting of President Bashar Al-Assad’s senior cabinet ministers leaves little doubt that Western intelligence was involved. While two groups claimed responsibility – the Syrian Free Army and a little-known jihadi organisation calling itself the Lord of the Martyrs Brigade – the weight of evidence points to crucial Western military support in executing the strike.
→ read full articleGloomy Thoughts on India Today
Antony Copley – The Gandhi Foundation,
16 Jul 2012
These reflections are prompted by attending the Gandhi Foundation Award ceremony in the House of Lords of the Gandhi International Peace Award for 2011 to Binayak Sen and Bulu Iman and a seminar given by two very bright graduate students of the University of Kent on the writings and film making of Arundhati Roy. The majority of the forest people find themselves in the crossfire of a civil war between the Indian army and the Maoists. Is there scope for non-violent satyagraha?
→ read full article(Italian) Willy Brandt 20 Anni Dopo
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
È morto vent’anni fa, il grande statista tedesco. La Germania, l’Europa e il mondo hanno ampi motivi di riconoscenza e molto da imparare da questo maestro di politica in condizioni di gran tensione e polarizzazione. Che cos’era la sua formula di Ostpolitik – una nuova politica verso l’Est? Brandt rese più facile alla Germania dell’Est la resa a quella Ovest quando i tempi furono maturi, l’accettazione dell’articolo 23 della Germania Federale che concepiva l’Est come parte dell’Ovest.
→ read full articleBreivik: A Part of Norwegian Reality (Part III)
Johan Galtung, 16 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
The court gave him a podium to broadcast his views, nationally and internationally. Of course he had his right to tell his version, the ‘what’ and ‘why’. But he had confessed and horrible details added little to the worst misdeed in Norwegian history. The open court process could have been limited to one week. And the incapability of both sides of the psychiatric divide to reflect what political conflict polarization does to people is not a court issue. And Norway has to come to grips with what happened.
→ read full articleA Gift for Santa
David Inkey, UN Poet – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
I want to live in a world where the past tense, the present tense,
and the future tense–all avoid pre-tense.
(Italian) Dalla Westphalia alla Weltinnenpolitik
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
Il mondo come sistema di stati, il sistema Vestfalia del 24 ottobre 1684, sta giungendo al termine. Un holon pieno di contraddizioni. Per cui la guerra era un diritto (se dichiarata) e il perseguimento degli interessi della nazione dominante in ciascuno stato era la regola. Con le colonie gli europei conquistarono terre e persone; e come imperi comandarono attraverso le elite locali.
→ read full articleHuman Rights Council Establishes Working Group to Negotiate a Draft Declaration on the Right to Peace
The UN Office at Geneva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
Also Adopts Text on National Human Rights Institutions – 5 July 2012 The UN Human Rights Council this afternoon decided to establish a working group to negotiate a draft declaration on the right to peace and adopted a resolution on national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights. 34 votes in favor, 12 abstentions, and 1 against, the USA.
→ read full articleWilly Brandt Twenty Years Later
Johan Galtung,
9 Jul 2012
He died twenty years ago, the great German statesman. Germany, Europe and the world have much to be grateful about, and much to learn from this master of politics under great tension and polarization. What was his Ostpolitik–new politics toward the East–formula? Brandt made it easier for East Germany when time was ripe to capitulate to the West, to accept the West’s Article 23 that conceived of East as a part of West. He made the DDR-Deutsche Demokratische Republik reasonable by being reasonable himself. Brandt made Kohl 1989 possible.
→ read full articleSinking Into Murky Water with Russia
Raminder Kaur - Countercurrents,
2 Jul 2012
Now that nuclear relationships have broadened to encompass US and French corporates in the aftermath of the Indo-US deal, Indian authorities are not just having an affair, but pimping Mother India in the pursuit of profits. Koodankulam has become a region of civil war fought on non-violent grounds led by the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy against a venal state that threatens with violence.
→ read full articleFrom Westphalia to Weltinnenpolitik
Johan Galtung, 2 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
The world as a state-system, the Westphalia system of 24 October 1648, is coming to an end. A holon filled with contradictions. Thus, war was a right–if declared–and the pursuit of the interests of the dominant nation in each state the rule. European conquered others, as colonies, land and people; and as empires ruling through local elites. A major contradiction with many collapsing after WWII, the Soviet empire in 1990-1, and now there is only the declining US empire left.
→ read full articlePlaying For Change Day 2012 (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
PFCfoundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2012
What if you had one day to change the world with music?
→ read full articleItaly: A Portrait
Erika Degortes and Johan Galtung,
25 Jun 2012
For quite some time now reading Italian newspapers or listening to news and radio broadcasts turned into an insult not only to information itself but to all Italians. National television channels are literally monopolized by football and all kinds of weather apocalyptic scenarios. In Italy the system of censorship is very sophisticated: they just talk about anything else, the discourse goes astray.
→ read full articleBreivik: Living In the Historical Present (Part II)
Johan Galtung, 18 Jun 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
The police explores concrete logistic collaborators and-or ideological support; like Peter Mangs in Sweden, the “laser man” who killed what looked like immigrants, wrote a rightwing manifesto and an autobiography; or “Fjordman” with 111 mentions. Breivik was a member of a Norwegian rightwing anti-immigration party, Fremskrittspartiet–a legal stand in a democracy–but left. He also left the Free Masons, with the following Compendium comment:
→ read full article
Rational Conflict Resolution: What Stands in the Way? (Video of the Week)
Johan Galtung | World Peace Academy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
Lecture by Prof. Johan Galtung at the World Peace Academy – Basel, Switzerland, 7 Jun 2012
→ read full articleAnother Bank Bailout
Paul Krugman, Nobel Economics Laureate – International Herald Tribune-NYT,
18 Jun 2012
Oh, wow — another bank bailout, this time in Spain. Who could have predicted that? The answer, of course, is everybody. In fact, the whole story is starting to feel like a comedy routine: yet again the economy slides, unemployment soars, banks get into trouble, governments rush to the rescue — but somehow it’s only the banks that get rescued, not the unemployed.
→ read full articleSanctions Have Nothing to Do With Human Rights in Burma
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
Sanctions have, in the final instance, little or nothing to do with the fact that the Burmese are oppressed and persecuted by the regime in Naypyidaw. There are western allies and/or business partners whose human rights records are equally appalling – Israel, Egypt under Mubarak, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc., as well as China and Vietnam – and these countries aren’t subject to any sanctions.
→ read full articleThe Arab Spring and the Image of Islam
Johan Galtung, 11 Jun 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
Europe has a right to limit its immigration. But once there, as citizens, there is only one way: the rule of law, human rights and democracy. And democracy is more than elections: no discrimination, tolerance, transparency, dialogue of civilizations, based on respect and a minimum of knowledge, engaging in mutual learning.
→ read full articleKoodankulam: Aruna Roy’s Letter to Sonia Gandhi
Aruna Roy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2012
May 23, 2012 – Dear Mrs. Gandhi,
I have already forwarded two petitions on 21st January and 20th April 2012 to bring the matter regarding the protests against the non observation of norms in the nuclear plant at Kudankulam; the clamping down on protestors. Place for dissent is shrinking in India, which is a matter of great concern.
Breivik: A Victim of Collective Psychosis (Part I)
Johan Galtung,
4 Jun 2012
Polarization-escalation is part of conflict dynamics; structuring the attitudinal and behavioral space within and around the victim in an “us vs them” dichotomy. This gives identity and meaning to “us”, and monolithic, evil, unity to “them”. Within the poles all relations are positive, between all are negative; essentializing both. Not only is “us” cohesive, everything mutually supportive, but so is “them”; not only are the poles irreconcilably contradictory, but so are all elements in “us” to all in “them”. Black-white is the world.
→ read full articleTrust Deficit: People’s Struggle at Koodankulam
S.G. Vombatkere, CounterCurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2012
A cursory glance at the Site Evaluation Report shows that its 12 pages are of limited legibility, with no title page, no authorship, no ownership, no publisher, no date, no index, and no names of the site selection committee. With it bearing no authorship, no publisher, no names, etc., could this “orphan” SER be an attempt to dodge responsibility for a haphazard site selection carried out by this highly scientific and technical department staffed by the best brains in India?
→ read full articleUsing a Bogey
Bharat Jhunjhunwala – Deccan Herald,
4 Jun 2012
Opposition to Kudankulam – Instead of raising the issue of foreign hand, the government must ponder why the locals support the agitation. About 23,000 people have decided to surrender their voter ID cards in protest against continuation of work on the Kudankulam Nuclear Plant which is slated to be commissioned in a mere 40 days or so.
→ read full articleThe Rendition Project
Rendition Research Team, University of Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2012
Researching the Globalization of Rendition and Secret Detention – Welcome to The Rendition Project website. This site is the product of a collaborative research project between Dr Ruth Blakeley at the University of Kent and Dr Sam Raphael at Kingston University, funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council.
→ read full articleNeither Capitalism nor Socialism: Eclecticism
Johan Galtung,
28 May 2012
The following are notes for an epilogue to a forthcoming book, Peace Economics, about how to overcome the flagrant structural violence in the misery crisis, and the threat of direct violence, not only terrorism and state terrorism, but a major world war to get the West out of the system–like the Second World War lifted them out of the Great Depression.
→ read full articleFORUM: Why People in Tamil Nadu Are Protesting Nuclear Energy
Prof. Monisha Dasgupta – Center for South Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa,
28 May 2012
Power Games: Why people in Tamil Nadu are protesting nuclear energy – S.P. Udayakumar is a member of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy and the National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements. He is one of the leaders of the non-violent protests against the Koodankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu.
→ read full articleBig Brother Brainwash Comes To Koodankulam
Veena Joshi Datta – The Sunday Standard,
28 May 2012
BANGALORE: The Centre has decided to counsel protestors at Koodankulam on the necessity of nuclear power plants for the development of the country by engaging a team of psychiatrists from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore for the job.
→ read full articleDire la Guerre, Penser la Paix
Johan Galtung, 21 May 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
Important is not only to think peace, but to speak, write and contribute to making, building and keeping it. War is a social evil, causing untold suffering like slavery, colonialism, patriarchy, preventable-curable diseases; soon to join the others in the cemetery for social evils. And talk about “just war” is like talking about just slavery, just colonialism, just patriarchy, and disease as God’s or Nature’s cleansing humanity of those unfit for salvation-survival.
→ read full articleHigh Noon in Koodankulam
Niranjan Ramakrishnan – CounterPunch,
21 May 2012
Many countries are rethinking their nuclear plans post-Fukushima. Some are proceeding to draw down their nuclear power operations… “As the world sleeps, India awakes to freedom”, Jawaharlal Nehru declared as he became free India’s first prime minister. It was the midnight hour of August 14-15, 1947. Today we might be on more solid ground in paraphrasing Nehru’s words: “As the world awakes to its dangers, India sleepwalks into nuclear peril“.
→ read full articleContemporary Slavery: Understanding the New Face to an Old Evil
UNOY – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
On 27 June 2012, Metin Kazak MEP will open a conference in the European Parliament organised in conjunction with UNPO examining the current extent and forms of slavery across the world. Discussing cases from the Haratin in Mauritania to the human trafficking that afflicts Europe, the conference will raise awareness of contemporary slavery and, in bringing together policy makers and experts, posit possible solutions to the mitigation and halting of the practice.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: Mu’l’livaaykkaal – The Slaughter Unheard and Unpunished
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – Colombo Telegraph,
21 May 2012
Criminal goals of ethnically cleansing as many Tamils by orchestrating the slaughter of at-least 40,000 unarmed Tamils in Mullivaaykaal during the finals day of the war. The denial of food and medicine prior to the final assault was intentionally and strategically coordinated by the regime.
→ read full articleAfrica Human Development Report 2012: Towards a Food Secure Future
United Nations Development Programme – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
The 2012 Human Development Report for Africa explores why dehumanizing hunger remains pervasive in the region, despite abundant agricultural resources, a favorable growing climate, and rapid economic growth rates. It also emphasizes that food security – the ability to consistently acquire enough calories and nutrients for a healthy and productive life – is essential for human development.
→ read full articleRational Conflict Resolution: What Stands In the Way? (*)
Johan Galtung,
14 May 2012
Six conflicts, four current, one past and one future are shaping our present reality. Conflict is a relation of incompatibility between parties; not an attribute of one party. It spells danger of violence and opportunity to create new realities. Humanity has vast positive and negative experiences. We should all join building on them, wherever they can be found.
→ read full article