Articles by M
We found 37535 results.
Small Price
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
A pole goes to a bank with 100 zlotys and asks, “What is the safest thing to do with my money?” “Deposit it in a bank,” the teller says.
→ read full articleSign Our Petition to End Fiesta Cruelty
Humane Society International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Help end the Toro de le Vega fiesta in the Castilla y León region of Spain, where bulls are pursued, taunted and tormented by spear-wielding men and then stabbed to death in an annual spectacle every September.
→ read full articleIAEA Won’t Discuss Israel’s ‘Nuclear Capabilities’ After Arab Proposal Dropped
Yossi Melman – Haaretz,
3 Oct 2011
Behind-the-scenes diplomacy at the International Atomic Energy Association leads to Arab states withdrawing their motion. Israel secured a diplomatic achievement at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) Friday [23 Sep 2011] in Vienna when the Arab states withdrew their proposal to discuss Israel’s “nuclear capabilities.”
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Meltdown – The Men Who Crashed the World
AlJazeeraEnglish – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
The first of a four-part investigation into a world of greed and recklessness that brought down the financial world.
→ read full articleCrisis Thinkers or Thinkers in Crisis?
Dr. Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Last Friday [23 Sep 2011], the International Crisis Group’s Myanmar: Major Reform Underway made me sit up and read. But once I got past the title I realized the report suffers from multiple shortcomings so fundamental to comprehending Burma’s/Myanmar’s crises – note the plural here – that it lacked a credible basis either for exile excitement or any serious international policy discussions. Here is a shortlist of ICG’s intellectual sins.
→ read full articleLibya and the Big Lie: Using Human Rights Organizations to Launch Wars
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Rerearch,
3 Oct 2011
The war against Libya is built on fraud. The UN Security Council passed two resolutions against Libya on the basis of unproven claims that Qaddafi was killing his own people in Benghazi.
→ read full articleUS Consolidated Domination of Global Arms Market In 2010
PressTV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
The United States consolidated its domination of a shrinking global arms market in 2010, signing 21.3 billion dollars in new weapons orders with foreign countries, according to the latest edition of an annual report on conventional weapons transfers by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). As in previous years, developing countries were the biggest buyers on the international arms market in 2010, accounting for 76 percent of all new arms agreements.
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“Governments don’t rule the world; Goldman Sachs rules the world.”
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
In a scary and painfully frank interview a freaked out BBC interviewer is visibly shaken when market trader Alessio Rastani predicts that the “Market is Toast.” Apparently, there is nothing Euro governments can do. “Anyone can make money from a crash,” he affirms. The worst thing to do now is nothing. People should act to protect themselves against an inevitable crisis still approaching.
→ read full articleLatin America: Growth, Stability and Inequalities – Lessons for the US and EU
James Petras – Information Clearing House,
3 Oct 2011
The contrasting performance between Latin republics and Euro-American empire builders is striking. The US and EU should shed their self-centered images of “successful” developed countries and outdated stereotype of Latin America as a collection of “volatile”, coup prone underdeveloped countries.
→ read full articleReflections on the Abbas Statehood/Membership Speech to the UN General Assembly
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
There is a natural disposition for supporters of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination to suppose that the Palestinian statehood bid must be a positive initiative because it has generated such a frantic Israel effort to have it rejected.
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Spanish Region Says Adios to Bullfighting
Associated Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia has banned bullfighting. Animal rights activists had pushed for the step, but observers also believe the move fits with the area’s desire to be distinct from the rest of the country.
→ read full article(Italian) Libia Scontata
Johan Galtung – Il Manifesto,
3 Oct 2011
La rivolta scatenata dai ribelli di Bengasi contro Gheddafi è parte di un disegno neo-imperiale condotto in prima fila dalla Nato e dall’Europa per assumere il controllo delle risorse del Nordafrica.
→ read full articleMy First AK-47: Kids Awarded Guns in Somali Recruitment Game
Der Spiegel – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2011
Islamists fighting a civil war in Somalia have come up with a new way to find young new recruits. To stir up interest, they have reportedly resorted to using games, offering automatic weapons, hand grenades and cash as prizes to children who call in to take part in the fun.
→ read full articleU.S.: Battle Escalates Against Genetically Modified Crops
Kanya D'Almeida – Inter Press Service-IPS,
3 Oct 2011
Home to a fast-growing network of farmers’ markets, cooperatives and organic farms, but also the breeding ground for mammoth for-profit corporations that now hold patents to over 50 percent of the world’s seeds, the United States is weathering a battle between Big Agro and a ripening movement for food justice and security.
→ read full articleAre You an Imperial Christian?
Laurence M. Vance - LewRockwell,
3 Oct 2011
The tenets of imperial Christianity include things like blind nationalism, belief in American exceptionalism, willful ignorance of U.S. foreign policy, childish devotion to the military, cheerleading for the Republican Party, acceptance of the U.S. empire, and support for a perpetual war on terror – all, of course, with a Christian twist for effect. I have some simple yet pointed questions for Christians who subscribe to, or can be characterized by, the above things.
→ read full articleThe Palestinians Go For Statehood
Daniel Horgan – TRANSCEND Media Service(1),
3 Oct 2011
Both Palestine and Israel claim that the other is denying their right to security. However, the Palestinians have also been denied in some shape or form every other internationally recognized human right, and that is so because the US has monopolized the mediator role, producing no tangible results according to the 1967 guidelines set forth by the UN.
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Introducing the Global Nonviolent Action Database (Video of the Week)
Prof. George Lakey – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
George Lakey, renowned peace activist and visiting professor at Swarthmore College, presents the launch of the Global Nonviolent Action Database, which catalogs the successes and failures of nonviolent direct action campaigns across the entire globe, throughout the course of human history.
→ read full articleDick Cheney’s Song of America: Drafting a Plan for Global Dominance
David Armstrong - Harper's Magazine,
26 Sep 2011
The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.
→ read full article99 Percenters Occupy Wall Street
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
26 Sep 2011
David Graeber teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has authored “Debt: The First 5,000 Years.” Graeber points out that, in the midst of the financial crash of 2008, enormous debts between banks were renegotiated. He said: “Debts between the very wealthy or between governments can always be renegotiated and always have been throughout world history. … It’s when you have debts owed by the poor to the rich that suddenly debts become a sacred obligation, more important than anything else. The idea of renegotiating them becomes unthinkable.”
→ read full articleThe Australian North West Cape Military Base
Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
We call on the Committee to reject the reintroduction of the US Navy into North West Cape. We recommend that the base become a centre for tourism and scientific research rather than a military base threatening our regional neighbours and Australia’s security and economy.
→ read full article‘Tears of Gaza’ The Movie (on TMS In-Depth Videos)
Susan Abulhawa – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
And we should all allow our hearts be broken over Gaza. It’s the least we can do. To hear these three children and ask others to hear them is the very least we can do. Vibeke Lokkeberg has given us a monumentally important record of what happened in December 2009 to January 2010; so no one can ever say “I didn’t know”.
→ read full articleA Truly Courageous Response to Terror
Fran Korten – YES! Magazine,
26 Sep 2011
“Our answer will not be hate and revenge, but more openness, more tolerance, and more democracy.” What the U.S. could learn from Norway about how to respond to terror.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Dez Teses Sobre Dez Anos Perdidos
Johan Galtung, 12 Set 11 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Tese 9: A República dos EUA, pela sua reação ao 11/9, acelerou muito seu processo de auto destruição. Os Patriot Acts I e II, a vigilância implacavel da população americana e outras, torturas e rendições extraordinárias, tudo isto destrói o espírito democrático de dentro para fora, além da destruição da economia por três guerras extremamente caras. (teses 2-4).
→ read full articleActivism Anthem
Bhuchung Sonam – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
I have principle and no power
You have power and no principle
You being you
And I being I…
New Law Prohibits Practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Guinea-Bissau
Iain Murray, UNICEF – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
This past June [2011], the National Popular Assembly (ANP) of Guinea-Bissau approved a law prohibiting female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) nationwide. The controversial law had been on the table for discussion for 16 years, before it was ultimately approved by 64 votes in favour to 1 vote against.
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Recognizing Palestine
AlternateFocus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The Algiers Declaration of 1988 claimed a sovereign Palestinian state. But will this idea take hold? Is it a serious proposal or just a meaningless gesture? And has the reality of Israel’s occupation already made an independent state impossible? We examine these implications as the United Nations decides in September 2011 whether to adopt a resolution recognizing Palestine.
→ read full articleSuper Weeds Pose Growing Threat to U.S. Crops
Carey Gillam - Reuters,
26 Sep 2011
An estimated 11 million acres are infested with “super weeds,” some of which grow several inches in a day and defy even multiple dousings of the world’s top-selling herbicide, Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate.
→ read full articleIndia to Convene BRICS Finance Ministers’ Meet in Washington
The Hindu - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The BRICS Finance Ministers would explore the manner in which this grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) can coordinate in addressing the evolving economic and financial situation in various countries of the world, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said.
→ read full articlePeace Efforts in Afghanistan Jeopardized
Dr Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The killing of Barhanuddin Rabbani, an ethnic Tajik and leader of High Peace Council to broker peace in the conflict-torn country is certainly a setback to the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan.
→ read full articleRethinking Afghanistan After a Decade
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
This post is a short essay responding to a question about my dramatic change of position on the Afghanistan War with regard to its initial justification and flawed execution. It is both a reconsideration of errors of judgment and reflections on how the world has changed in the course of this decade, focusing on the inability of the United States to grasp either its own decline or the related decline in the historical agency of hard power approaches to security.
→ read full articleStrategic Complexity ∞ Attracting Consensus
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Klein Is Beautiful ∞ Sustaining Identity in Time – Recent events continue to demonstrate that the probability of achieving global agreement on conflict-inducing issues and emergencies is low — within the frameworks and worldviews currently considered appropriate in negotiations to that end. Temporary compromises are primarily conducive to subsequent dysfunctional game-playing and collapse of any consensus.
→ read full articlePalestine & UN: History of a Double Standard
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
26 Sep 2011
Failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Israel’s 40-year occupation, in the words of UN former Secretary General Kofi Annan, would “continue to hurt the reputation of the United Nations and raise questions about its impartiality”. No cause has consumed as much UN paper work as the plight of the displaced and occupied Palestinians. But hundreds of its resolutions on Palestine have not been respected let alone applied for over half a century.
→ read full articleSocialism, Communism…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
At a political meeting the chairman asks the audience, “Who is Gomulka?” There is silence.
→ read full articleHomophobia in Africa
Peter Kenworthy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Many African leaders in particular see homosexuality as “un-natural” and “un-African” and do not believe that homosexuals should have any rights at all. Homophobia is therefore not only illegal and punishable in many African countries, but also legitimised by the leaders of these countries, and African homosexuals are frequently assaulted, expelled from their jobs, or chased from their homes.
→ read full articleWe the Ruled
Michael S. Rozeff - LewRockwell,
26 Sep 2011
And the Criminals Who Dominate Us – I am saying little that is new, although it bears repetition until it motivates action. I echo and strongly endorse Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience (1849): “When a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.”
→ read full articleChina, India, Brazil Doing More to Cut Carbon Emissions Than USA, Canada, Australia
Stephen Leahy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Negotiations over a new international climate agreement are on the brink as new analyses show that carbon emission reduction promises by industrialised nations are actually lower than those made by China, India, Brazil and other developing nations.
→ read full articleA (North) East Asian Community
Johan Galtung, 26 Sep 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Northeast Asia Peace and Development Forum. Dalian, China, 24 Sep 11 – There is the negative peace of reconciliation after the traumas of the past and mediating ongoing conflicts; and the positive peace of cooperation for mutual and equal benefit, harmony, and integration-fusion. Across this diverse geographical-historical-cultural space there is an East Asian similarity: social-economic human rights first, civil-political later–the Chinese “opening up”. Any (N)EAC would search for cooperation with the USA on equal terms, including observer status; but by no stretch of imagination is it a (North)East Asian country. The times when the USA could also claim membership in Latin America, Europe and Asia are gone.
→ read full articleDisintegrating European Diplomacy and the Necessary Rise of NGO Mediators
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Currently the Palestine Liberation Movement (PLO) has an observer status as an “entity” at the UN from the time that the South African African National Congress, another South African movement, a South West African liberation group and the PLO were given “observer entity” status. With the changes in South Africa and what is now Namibia, the status of the other movements disappeared and only the PLO remains.
→ read full article(Castellano) ONU Debatirá por Vigésimo Año Consecutivo el Bloqueo Contra Cuba
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
En 2010, el repudio al bloqueo fue respaldado por 187 países frente a los únicos votos en contra de Estados Unidos e Israel y las abstenciones de Islas Marshall, Micronesia y Palau.
→ read full articleErik Byes Memorial Prize to Johan Galtung
Synove Faldalen – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
On 5 September 2011 Professor Johan Galtung was awarded the Erik Bye Memorial Prize in Norway.
→ read full articleLiberating Nations from Public Debt
Mohamed Rabie – Al Jazeera,
26 Sep 2011
An alternative solution to the financial crisis is to create a single global currency to manage debt requirements. The near collapse of the international financial system in September 2008, and the Great Recession which followed, have highlighted the need for economic, political, social and cultural change around the world.
→ read full articleThe Call to Occupy Wall Street Resonates Around the World
Micah White and Kalle Lasn – The Guardian,
26 Sep 2011
On Saturday 17 September, many of us watched in awe as 5,000 Americans descended on to the financial district of lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners, beat drums, chanted slogans. #OCCUPYWALLSTREET was inspired by the people’s assemblies of Spain. Emboldened by an outpouring of international solidarity, these American indignados said they’d be there to greet the bankers when the stock market opened on Monday.
→ read full articleShowdown in Peru
Benjamin Dangl – The Dominion,
26 Sep 2011
Earlier this spring, an anti-mining Indigenous movement in Peru successfully ousted a Canadian mining company from their territory. “In spite of government repression, if the people decide to bring the fight to the bitter end, it is possible to resist the pressure of mining and oil companies,” Peruvian activist and journalist Yasser Gómez told The Dominion.
→ read full articleU.S. Assembling Secret Drone Bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Officials Say
Craig Whitlock and Greg Miller – The Washington Post,
26 Sep 2011
The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said.
→ read full articleChina’s Peaceful Development (Full Text)
Information Office of the State Council, The People's Republic of China – TRANSCEND Media Servivce,
26 Sep 2011
At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century and on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China declared solemnly again to the world that peaceful development is a strategic choice made by China to realize modernization, make itself strong and prosperous, and make more contribution to the progress of human civilization. China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development.
→ read full articleUgandan Bishop Calls on Christian America to “Stop Exporting Hate”
Melanie Nathan – Gay USA,
26 Sep 2011
The work of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a retired Anglican Bishop from the Diocese of Western Uganda, has become increasingly vital over time, heightened by the intensifying persecution of homosexuals in his country. Taking the courageous step of ministering to LGBT people in his country, the Bishop is calling on America to “stop exporting hatred” as he continues to advocate for the global decriminalization of homosexuality.
→ read full articleWashington on the Wrong Side of History over Palestine
Eric Margolis - LewRockwell,
26 Sep 2011
Considering that Abbas is called a US/Israeli cat’s paw or Quisling by many Palestinians, it’s a bold gesture indeed. One that has rightly shaken Washington and left it isolated and the target of the Muslim world’s wrath. Now, comes the moment of truth for the western powers. A majority of the world’s nations are fed up by the endless suffering of the stateless Palestinians and support creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza.
→ read full articleThe Greatest Problem of the American People
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The American people are the backbone of the nation. We have a strong country not when we have a strong military but when we have healthy people that are properly educated and who enjoy living in adequate facilities. Besides, let us keep in mind that honesty is the best policy, which means we should realize that the weapons industry wants to keep in business through the never-ending of wars.
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Tears of Gaza
whereisthejustice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
‘Tears of Gaza’ by Vibeke Lokkeberg is a documentary film that should be watched by every American, to see how Israel spends our taxes.
Every European should watch it, to see the true face of Israel.
It should be viewed by every Arab, to renew our resolve not to allow a racist nation to wipe Palestine and her children from the map and from history.
The Next Earth Summit: Rio Plus 20
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
The United Nations, member governments, and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are preparing policies and evaluations for the next Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, June 2012: 20 years after the original 1992 Rio conference that drew up guidelines for ecologically-sound development for the 21st century expressed as Agenda 21.
→ read full articleResisting the Corporate Theft of Seeds
Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
But the biggest threat we face is the control of seed and food moving out of the hands of farmers and communities and into a few corporate hands. Monopoly control of cottonseed and the introduction of genetically engineered Bt cotton has already given rise to an epidemic of farmers’ suicides in India.
→ read full article(Castellano) 11 de Septiembre de 1973
Rebelión – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
A muchos les incomoda la sola mención de la fecha. Mediante el expediente hipócrita de las “responsabilidades compartidas”, se omiten datos tan innegables y contundentes como la traición de los altos mandos castrenses, la conspiración de las derechas política y económica y, sobre todo, el decisivo accionar del imperialismo, personificado en la siniestra pareja Nixon-Kissinger.
→ read full articleThe American and Global Experience of 9/10, 9/11, 9/12 +10:
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
There is unacknowledged freedom associated with any event inscribed in our individual and collective experience of profoundly disabling and disturbing public occurrences. For most older Americans what is most vividly remembered among such occurrences is likely to have been Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, and the 9/11 attacks, each coming as a shock to a shared societal sense of exceeding the limits of what could be expected to happen.
→ read full articleWalter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home—Guess Who He Saw Doing the Killing
Valencia Mohammed - Afro,
19 Sep 2011
In an interview last week the noted civil rights leader told the Afro that he watched French and Danish troops storm small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control. The rebels told Fauntroy they had been told by the European forces to stay inside. According to Fauntroy, the European forces would tell the rebels, “‘Look at what you did.’ In other words, the French and Danish were ordering the bombings and killings, and giving credit to the rebels.
→ read full article(Italian) Il Lavoro Quotidiano Della Nonviolenza
Angela Dogliotti Marasso, Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Nel preparare il breve intervento di questa sera riflettevo, nei giorni scorsi, sull’approssimarsi del decimo anniversario dell’attacco alle Torri Gemelle, l’11 settembre prossimo, tra tre giorni.
→ read full article‘Liberticidal Anti-Terror Laws Must Go’
Asad Hashim – Al Jazeera,
19 Sep 2011
International rights advocacy group says laws used pretext of fighting “terror” to legalise discrimination and torture. As the United States positioned itself to respond to the September 11, 2001 attacks, it began by rearranging more than just military assets, but legislative ones, too. It went on to pass the infamous USA PATRIOT Act, which greatly reduced the restrictions on law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Other countries followed suit, and the last 10 years have seen a raft of new anti-terrorism legislation put in place, from Pakistan to Britain, from India to the Philippines.
→ read full articleIn The Line of Fire: A Date with Despots at Britain’s Arms Fair
Tom Peck – The Independent,
19 Sep 2011
As London invites dictators to the world’s biggest weapons expo, Tom Peck finds out how easy it is to assemble a hi-tech arsenal. The 65 national delegations asked to buy weapons in London include 14 regimes defined as “authoritarian” by human rights groups, who have highlighted the use of British arms in suppressing opposition movements in the Middle East. “Securing Nations Around The World” is the slogan of AeroVironment Inc, a company which produces “unmanned aircraft systems”. It is not hard to spot the VIPs. They mostly wear military uniform, with big red badges saying “delegate”, and wander in packs. Those from Ukraine seem particularly intimidating.
→ read full articleIn Paraguay a Familiar Story is Playing Out
Sean O’ Leary – Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
19 Sep 2011
In Paraguay, the Ayoreo people are fighting for their very survival. These indigenous people are struggling to save their ancestral home in the Chaco region from cattle companies, farmers and religious sects who are moving into the region and clearing the land.
→ read full article(Castellano) ¿Qué Hay que Conmemorar un 11 de Septiembre?
Marcos Roitman Rosenmann – La Jornada,
19 Sep 2011
Pocos y cada vez menos, tendrán en sus mentes, al hablar de un 11 de septiembre, el golpe de Estado que derrocase, en 1973, al gobierno constitucional de Salvador Allende en Chile. Pero ambos acontecimientos se entrecruzan y tienen explicaciones complementarias. Para los estadounidenses, con honrosas excepciones, Chile, la Unidad Popular y Salvador Allende no signifiquen nada.
→ read full articleThe $2 Billion UBS Incident: ‘Rogue Trader’ My Ass
Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone,
19 Sep 2011
The news that a “rogue trader” (I hate that term – more on that in a moment) has soaked the Swiss banking giant UBS for $2 billion has rocked the international financial community and threatened to drive a stake through any chance Europe had of averting economic disaster. They’re not “rogue” for the simple reason that making insanely irresponsible decisions with other peoples’ money is exactly the job description of a lot of people on Wall Street. Hell, they don’t call these guys “rogue traders” when they make a billion dollars gambling.
→ read full articlePreliminary Libyan Scorecard: Acting Beyond the UN Mandate
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
If the governments will not act to uphold agreed and fundamental limits on state violence, especially directed at vulnerable countries and peoples, then as citizens of the world, ‘we the peoples of the United Nations,’ as proclaimed by the Preamble to the Charter need to raise our voices. We have the residual responsibility to act on behalf of international law and morality when the UN falters or when states act beyond the law.
→ read full articleHuman Rights in Sri Lanka: Impunity against Accountability and Justice
Nirmanusan Balasundaram, Groundviews - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.” – Lord Buddha.
→ read full article
UK: Police Raid Travellers’ Site to Free Men ‘Kept As Slaves’ for 15 Years
ITN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
A group of men have been freed by police after being found imprisoned as slaves at a caravan site at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
→ read full articleConcrete Impact of Palestine’s U.N. Bid Still Uncertain
Elizabeth Whitman – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Sep 2011
Despite the frenzy of media attention bestowed upon Palestine’s expected bid for statehood at the United Nations later this month, some doubt the impact it would have on the political complexities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or the humanitarian issues and human rights abuses that many Palestinians face regularly.
→ read full articleLast Wishes
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
A dying man asked his wife, “Are you going to marry again?” “If you wish, I will,” she said.
→ read full articleU.S. ‘Not Encouraged’ by India, South Africa, Brazil at UN
Nicole Gaouette - Bloomberg,
19 Sep 2011
Splits between the so-called IBSA group of countries and the U.S. arose as protest movements swept the Middle East. India and Brazil, along with Russia, China and Germany, abstained from a UN resolution that formed the legal basis for military intervention in Libya.
→ read full articlePope Accused of Crimes against Humanity by Victims of Sex Abuse
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
19 Sep 2011
Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have accused the pope, the Vatican secretary of state and two other high-ranking Holy See officials of crimes against humanity, in a formal complaint to the international criminal court (ICC). The submission, lodged at The Hague on Tuesday [13 Sep 2011], accuses the four men not only of failing to prevent or punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence but also of engaging in the “systematic and widespread” practice of concealing sexual crimes around the world.
→ read full articleObama’s Arc of Instability: Destabilizing the World One Region at a Time
Nick Turse - TomDispatch,
19 Sep 2011
It’s a story that should take your breath away: the destabilization of what, in the Bush years, used to be called “the arc of instability.” It involves at least 97 countries, across the bulk of the global south, much of it coinciding with the oil heartlands of the planet. A startling number of these nations are now in turmoil, and in every single one of them — from Afghanistan and Algeria to Yemen and Zambia — Washington is militarily involved, overtly or covertly, in outright war or what passes for peace.
→ read full article
Sloppy Journalism or War Propaganda? Fake Images from Tripoli
Michel Chossudovsky – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Tripoli’s Greeen Square in India: BBC 24 Aug 2011 Hoax Report – It’s not Green Square and it’s not the King Idris Flag (red, black green) of the Rebels. It’s the Indian flag (orange, white and green) and the people at the rally are Indians. Sloppy journalism at the BBC or outright Lies and Fabrications? Image manipulation seems to be a routine practice of the mainstream media.
→ read full articleThe Legal Flaws of the Palmer Commission Flotilla Report
Richard Falk & Phyllis Bennis – TRANSCEND Media Serivce,
19 Sep 2011
The latest United Nations report on last year’s lethal flotilla incident – in which nine people were killed and many injured by Israeli commandos on board a humanitarian ship bound for Gaza – was released at the beginning of September, and generated much controversy. Astonishingly, the only other independent member was its vice-chair, the former president of Colombia. Alvaro Uribe’s notorious history as a human rights abuser who called human rights advocates such as Amnesty International “rats,” as well as his legacy of seeking out the closest possible ties to and defense of Israel while in office, make him wildly inappropriate for such an assignment.
→ read full articleOpen Letter to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers
Varios Organizations – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
At the 2009 CHOGM, Sri Lanka’s candidature for hosting the meeting was deferred from 2011 to 2013 because of concerns about human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan government. While war-time abuses have ended, the situation in Sri Lanka continues to be characterised by serious human rights violations, including assault on democratic institutions, such as the media and trade unions.
→ read full articleThe Observer
Tom Tomorrow, Truthout – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Award-winning cartoonist Tom Tomorrow on the process by which the USA elects its leader.
→ read full articleObama, the Palestinian State & Zionist Schizophrenia
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
It is clear by now that President Obama is not going to be saved by any of the so- called ‘America’s best friends’. For AIPAC and the Lobby, Obama is an instrument. By now the Lobby is used to regarding American politicians as their subservient puppets. Israel, on the other hand, is too suspicious of the current administration. It will be happy to see Obama beaten. The time is certainly right for America, Britain and the West to find the strength to oppose Zionist Lobbying and the power of Jerusalem.
→ read full article(Italian) I Guarani del Brasile Chiedono alla Shell di Lasciare la Loro Terra
Survival International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
I Guarani del Brasile hanno chiesto al gigante dell’energia Shell di non utilizzare più la loro terra ancestrale per produrre etanolo. “La Shell deve lasciare la nostra terra” ha detto a Survival International Ambrosio Vilhalva, un Guarani di una delle comunità interessate. “…La compagnia deve smettere di utilizzare la terra indigena. Vogliamo giustizia, e chiediamo che la nostra terra sia demarcata e protetta”.
→ read full articleMonsanto Denies Superinsect Science
Tom Philpott – Mother Jones,
19 Sep 2011
As the summer growing season draws to a close, 2011 is emerging as the year of the superinsect—the year pests officially developed resistance to Monsanto’s genetically engineered (ostensibly) bug-killing corn. Monsanto, for its part, is reacting to the news with a hearty “move along—nothing to see here!”
→ read full articleThe Dark Side of “Soldier of Fortune” Magazine: Contract Killers and Mercenaries for Hire
David Holthouse - Media Matters for America,
19 Sep 2011
The magazine caters to mercenaries but tries to broaden to its appeal to war fans, weapon-lovers, fanatic anti-commies and those who enjoy reading about blood and guts.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Memorabilia Auction on eBay to Raise Funds
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
The computer, which has a buy it now price of $552,615, was used to “prepare the cables for media partners and releases”. “In this exclusive auction item you will get the full set of WikiLeaks Cables, the WikiLeaks computer and its passwords,” WikiLeaks said in a statement released on Twitter.
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‘unLawful Access’ – Battle for the Net
PressForTruth – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
Unlawful “lawful access” that would allow government’s surveillance of everything you do on the Internet — not only in Canada but everywhere. All the powers that be need is a precedent. Every citizen is a suspect – Preposterous!
→ read full articleNATO in Libya a ‘Model’ For Euro-US Cooperation: US Official
The Telegraph – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
The operation in Libya was “in many ways a model on how the United States can lead the way that allows allies to support,” Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Philip Gordon said at an event in Washington.
→ read full articleThere Is a Better Way: How the Norwegian Tragedy Forces Us to Reexamine Our Response to 9/11
Ida Hartmann - AlterNet,
19 Sep 2011
“This country has become dependent on the dead of 9/11 — who have no way of defending themselves against how they have been used — as an all-purpose explanation for our own goodness and the horrors we’ve visited on others, for the many towers-worth of dead in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere whose blood is on our hands.”
→ read full articleCongress Sees Middle East Through AIPAC-Colored Glasses
Medea Benjamin and Allison McCracken – Information Clearing House,
19 Sep 2011
At a recent Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, entitled “Promoting Peace? Reexamining US Aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA)”, we got a glimpse of what happens when Congress views the Middle East through AIPAC-colored glasses. Here are a few of examples of their tunnel vision.
→ read full articleMen Rescued From Squalid Forced Labour Camp Refuse to Help Police
Jerome Taylor – The Independent,
19 Sep 2011
Nine “modern day slaves” who were freed by police over the weekend have refused to co-operate with the investigation in one of the worst cases of forced labour in modern British history. Experts said it was often common for victims to empathise with their abusers. “We can’t prejudge what has happened here,” said Paul Donohoe, of Anti-Slavery International. “But you do find sometimes that institutionalisation… creates a situation where captives psychologically identify with their captors.”
→ read full articleNo End in Sight for Oil in the Gulf of Mexico
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
19 Sep 2011
Fifteen months after BP’s crippled Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico caused one of the worst environmental disasters in US history, oil and oil sheen covering several square kilometers of water are surfacing not far from BP’s well. Al Jazeera flew to the area on Sunday, September 11, and spotted a swath of silvery oil sheen, approximately 7 km long and 10 to 50 meters wide, at a location roughly 19 km northeast of the now-capped Macondo 252 well.
→ read full article
9/11: BBC Reported Building 7 Collapse Twenty Minutes Before It Fell (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
BBC – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Evidence of a planned event – An astounding video uncovered from the archives shows the BBC reporting on the collapse of WTC Building 7 over twenty minutes before it fell at 5:20pm on the afternoon of 9/11. The incredible footage shows a BBC reporter talking about the collapse of the Salomon Brothers Building while it remains standing in the live shot behind her head.
→ read full article9/11 Did Not Start or End At Midnight
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
All too often we view 9/11 from the perspective of the nation-state rather than from a global standpoint.
→ read full articleWas War the Only Answer to 9/11?
Noam Chomsky – Nation of Change,
12 Sep 2011
The impact of the attacks is not in doubt. Just keeping to western and central Asia: Afghanistan is barely surviving, Iraq has been devastated and Pakistan is edging closer to a disaster that could be catastrophic. The jihadi movement could have been split and undermined after 9/11 if the ‘crime against humanity’ had been approached as a crime.
→ read full articleVann Nath Personified Cambodian Reconciliation
Emma Leslie – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
This week Cambodia bids farewell to Vann Nath, well-known as one of the seven survivors of the Khmer Rouge prison facility S21 or Tuol Sleng. But for me he will always personify the Cambodian capacity to remember, heal and reconcile their past. It was his abilities as a painter, which in effect saved him from execution, and later enabled him to portray vividly the horrors he had witnessed and heard about in Tuol Sleng prison. Vann Nath was indeed a survivor, but more than that, he was a great Cambodian peace builder, who chose not to live a bitter, angry life, but took a unique moment to transform his personal story, so as to teach future generations and, in some small way, break the victim-perpetrator cycle.
→ read full articleEurope’s “Troubled Assets” Bank Bailout: Germany’s Chancellor Merkel Pushes for a Eurozone “Banktatorship”
Mike Whitney – Global Research,
12 Sep 2011
The Bundestag will have one chance to stop Angela Merkel’s plan to provide hundreds of billions of dollars to underwater EU banks that made bad bets on sovereign bonds. If the German parliament fails to block Merkel on September 23, then–under the “expanded powers” of the European Financial Security Facility (EFSF)– insolvent banks will be bailed out and the costs will be passed on to eurozone taxpayers.
→ read full articleKeystone XL: A Pipeline to Europe?
Stephen Leahy, Tierramérica – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The promoters of Keystone XL, a huge new oil pipeline from northern Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, claim that it will reduce U.S. reliance on oil imports from unfriendly countries. But based on falling U.S. oil demand, the controversial Keystone XL pipeline may simply allow tar sands oil currently landlocked in Alberta, Canada to be exported to Europe, say U.S. and Canadian environmental activists.
→ read full articleHail to the True Victors of Rupert’s Revolution
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
NATO is raining fragmentation bombs on civilian-populated Sirte and other “Gaddafi strongholds” where, says a Channel 4 News reporter, “until they cut off the head of the snake, Libyans will not feel safe”. I quote that not so much for its Orwellian quality but as a model of journalism’s role in justifying “our” bloodbaths in advance. This is Rupert’s Revolution, after all. Gone from the Murdoch press are pejorative “insurgents”. The action in Libya, says The Times, is “a revolution… as revolutions used to be”.
→ read full articleAgainst Our Principles
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
A Rabbi, a Hindu and a lawyer are riding down the road when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
→ read full articleCIA Has Become ‘One Hell of a Killing Machine,’ Official Says
Alex Newman – The New American,
12 Sep 2011
The dramatic evolution of the agency’s priorities and operations has become so extreme that a former senior intelligence official told the Washington Post the CIA had been turned into “one hell of a killing machine.” The official said the paramilitary transformation was “nothing short of a wonderment.” But the dramatic metamorphosis, detailed in a recent exposé by the Post, entitled “CIA shifts focus to killing targets,” is hardly without critics. Some experts have even warned Congress that the illegal killings may constitute war crimes.
→ read full article
9/11: US Abuses Power It No Longer Has
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, Ex-Chief of Staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell – “We seem to think that we are exceptional, so exceptional that we don’t have to think about other people,” he says. “Ends never justify the means.” He believes some of the Bush administration members deserve to be put on trial, and he would be ready to testify against them.
→ read full articleResource Rich Arctic Severely Threatened
Devinder Kumar - InDepthNews,
12 Sep 2011
A new study is pleading for the resource rich Arctic located at the northern-most part of the planet Earth to be treated as “a global common and a common heritage of mankind”, in the interest of preserving an important ecosystem and halting morbid militarisation of the region.
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Colin Powell Regrets Iraq War Intelligence
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Former US secretary of state says information he provided leading to the invasion of Iraq is a “blot” on his record and regrets providing misleading intelligence that led the US to invade Iraq, believing it had weapons of mass destruction.
→ read full articleUNHCR Launches Campaign to Combat Statelessness
UN High Commissioner for Refugees – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Around the world today there are millions of people who are not recognized as citizens of any country. On paper they don’t exist anywhere. They are people without a nationality, stateless. Statelessness may be caused by gender, when countries do not recognize the nationality of a woman due to discriminatory laws. Statelessness may be inherited, by children born to stateless parents. It may be created in newly formed states, such as South Sudan, by intentional or unintentional legislative exclusion of any ethnic groups.
→ read full articleWomen and DDR-Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration
Bishnu Pathak, PhD – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The paper provides an overview of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) practices existing in the world. It researches when and for what purposes the United Nations initiate DDR programs in post-conflict countries. It examines the scale and consequences of the various roles of ex-combatants, particularly the women ex-combatants in a transitional society. It aims to compare and explore some of the best and worst practices of DDR and militarized masculinity before, during, and after the violence. Secondary literatures mostly draw on to learn from yesterday, analyze to live for today, and encourage to hope for tomorrow.
→ read full articleUN Secretary General: Palestinian Statehood Is ‘Long Overdue’
Haaretz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The Palestinian people are “long overdue” in their quest for an independent state, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday [9 Sep 2011], ahead of a Palestinian push for statehood in the UN planned for later this month.
→ read full article(Italian) Un Battaglione Logistico per US Army Africa Vicenza
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Il Dipartimento della difesa potenzia US Army Africa, il comando militare statunitense con sede a Vicenza che sovrintende alle operazioni terrestri nel continente africano. Da un mese circa, è stato attivato in Veneto un piccolo battaglione dell’esercito USA, denominato “Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion”, che avrà il compito di fornire servizi e supporto logistico al personale impegnato in Africa.
→ read full articleThe Aftermath of Fukushima in Koodankulam
S. P. Udayakumar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
The three-in-one disaster at Fukushima has stirred human consciousness all over the world. On the one hand, it has prompted Germany’s decision of phasing out nuclear energy by the year 2022, Italians’ overwhelming vote against nuclear power in a national referendum, and some 20,000 Swiss citizens’ rallying against nuclear power and so forth. Even the Chinese government put all its nuclear activities on hold and decided to do stocktaking before proceeding any further.
→ read full article