Articles by M
We found 36604 results.
(Castellano) EEUU: Partido Único
David Brooks, surysur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Gore Vidal, el gran novelista y ensayista, ha repetido durante años: tenemos un solo partido, un partido esencialmente del empresariado estadounidense, con dos alas derechas, una llamada los demócratas, una llamada los republicanos”.
→ read full articleKnowing and Not Knowing
Tom Tomorrow, Truthout – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
This Modern World – Political Cartoon
→ read full articlePesticide Linked to Bee Deaths Should Be Suspended, MPs Told
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor and Josephine Forster – The Independent,
31 Jan 2011
A new generation of pesticides is implicated in the widespread deaths of bees and other pollinators and should be suspended in Britain while the Government reviews new scientific evidence about their effects, MPs were told yesterday [26 Jan 2011]. Neonicotinoid pesticides are linked by “a growing weight of science” to insect losses, and the assessment regimes for them are inadequate, the Labour MP Martin Caton told the House of Commons.
→ read full articleWho Says There’re No Leaders?
Federico Mayor Zaragoza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
There is no doubt about what we must do: return to the democratic principles that the globalizers replaced with those of the market; unite together, all different but bound by shared universal values, and “re-found” the United Nations to be able to build this world federation, this coordination that would put us on course and provide momentum, which today is the dream of so many who are aware that our present course is leading us to disaster. People like Johan Galtung are showing us the right path for the future. Let’s follow him.
→ read full articleModern-Day Slaves’ Story Repeats Daily in Plain Sight
Audra D. S. Burch – The Miami Herald,
31 Jan 2011
The case of dozens of Filipino workers held captive spotlights a widespread human- trafficking problem. For up to 16 hours daily, they worked at posh country clubs across South Florida, then returned to deceptively quiet houses in Boca Raton where they were captives — and in the most dreadful cases, fed rotten chicken and vegetables, forced to drink muriatic acid and repeatedly denied medical help.
→ read full articleThe Year’s 10 Best Political Documentaries
Michael Atkinson - In These Times,
31 Jan 2011
From Eliot Spitzer to Daniel Ellsberg, documentary filmmakers didn’t lack engrossing subjects this year. Thanks largely to personal technology and its discontents, we’re living through a renaissance of activist filmmaking — never before in the history of popular media have nonfiction films been so convenient to execute, so inexpensive to finance and so easy to distribute.
→ read full articlePeru Recognises Palestinian State
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
31 Jan 2011
Peru last night [24 Jan 2011] announced it recognises Palestine as a state, becoming the seventh South American country to do so in a rapid diplomatic domino effect which has alarmed Israel.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Quem Roubou a Minha Poluição?
Nelson Peralta, esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
O mercado europeu de comércio de emissões de dióxido de carbono (CO2) está fechado há uma semana depois de ter sido detectado o roubo de 475 mil toneladas em licenças de emissão de CO2. Esta bolsa funciona numa plataforma virtual online e as falhas de segurança têm sido uma constante. A Comissão Europeia estima que cerca de dois milhões de licenças avaliadas em 26 milhões de euros possam estar desaparecidas, mas ninguém parece saber ao certo. O mercado deve reabrir hoje [27 Jan 2011], apenas nos países que adoptaram medidas de segurança adicionais.
→ read full article(Castellano) Foro Social Mundial: 10 Años Después
Emir Sader – ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento,
31 Jan 2011
Diez años después de su primera edición, el Foro Social Mundial (FSM) vuelve África, en un escenario mundial muy diferente al de 2001. En ese entonces la hegemonía del modelo neoliberal aún era grande, la economía mundial no había entrado en crisis y, principalmente, América Latina aún estaba dominada por gobiernos neoliberales, con excepción de Venezuela y Cuba.
→ read full articleWhy ‘Colour’ Revolutions are Multi-shaded
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Adding to the galaxy of ‘colour’ revolutions such as rose, tulip, orange, and many others is the recent jasmine revolution in Tunisia. The North African country suddenly gained worldwide attention in the second week of January as the ruler of country for the last 23 years fled to Saudi Arabia after massive protests. The perplexity of the matter revolved around the question how the immolation of a 26 year old could trigger such a massive unrest in Tunisia and consequently in the almost whole Arab world with protests in countries like Algeria, Syria, Yemen, Jordan are gaining shape.
→ read full articleComplex Answers
Mark Fonseca Rendeiro – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
One of the great dangers of our time, as I have seen in my short life and extensive travels, is this push to simplify everything so that it all fits in a box or a category and we don’t have to learn and appreciate the complexity of what is happening around us.
→ read full articleFood Speculation: ‘People Die From Hunger While Banks Make a Killing on Food’
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
It’s not just bad harvests and climate change – it’s also speculators that are behind record prices. And it’s the planet’s poorest who pay.
→ read full articleStakeholders in the Côte d’Ivoire Crisis
Sanou Mbaye – Pambazuka News,
31 Jan 2011
What is at stake in Côte d’Ivoire ‘are the consequences of French ongoing colonisation and ruthless exploitation in connivance with unscrupulous local leaders of swathes of west and central Africa’, writes Sanou Mbaye, in an analysis of the five parties affected by the country’s post-election crisis.
→ read full articleMahatma Gandhi: Freedom Is Our Goal; Our Lives the Price We Pay
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
There is a certain irony that two of the most violent and dangerous conflicts which face us as peacemakers today are conflicts which Gandhi also faced but left unresolved. The first is violence within the Muslim community of what is now Pakistan. The second is violence and the political status of the Pathan (Pushtun) area that is on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier.
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CrossTalk: American Exceptionalism
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
On this edition of Peter Lavelle’s CrossTalk, he asks his guests whether American exceptionalism is a self-serving myth.
→ read full articleVenezuela-Cuba Undersea Cable Link Work Starts
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Work has begun on laying an underwater fibre-optic cable to link Venezuela and Cuba. It will stretch 1,600km (1,000m) and considerably improve telephone and internet services to Cuba, which currently relies on a costly and slow internet connection via satellite.
→ read full articlePalestinian Papers: What the Al Jazeera Blockbuster Means
MJ Rosenberg, PoliticalCorrection – Media Matters Action Network,
31 Jan 2011
Al Jazeera’s stunning revelations about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have different meanings for Israelis, Americans and for Palestinians. The bottom line is that despite the assurances it gave to the Palestinian people that it was driving a hard bargain with the Israelis, the Palestinian Authority accepted Israel’s position on every key point: borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees.
→ read full articleNGOs in Haiti: “The Handmaidens of Imperial Domination”
Mike Whitney – Information Clearing House,
31 Jan 2011
An Interview with Ashley Smith
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It’s the Occupation, Stupid
Maidhc Ó Cathail - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
It’s the Occupation, Stupid features, in order of appearance, Eliot Spitzer, Ben Stein, Irving Kristol, Ron Paul, Michael Scheuer, Richard Curtiss, Eric Margolis, Loretta Alper, Scott Horton, Alison Weir, Glenn Greenwald, Paul Findley, Ilan Pappé, Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. The narrator’s words are from Maidhc Ó Cathail’s “Ben Stein: America is an underarmed country!” and “Kristol Clear: The Source of America’s Wars.”
→ read full article(Portuguese) Brasil: Estudo Mostra Informações Sobre o Trabalho Escravo no Maranhão
Danilo Augusto, Radioagência NP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Segundo dados da Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), somente no Brasil existem aproximadamente 25 mil trabalhadores que vivem em condições semelhantes à de escravos. De acordo com informações do Atlas, o Maranhão é o que mais fornece força de trabalho escravo. A região do município de Açailândia, fronteira com o Pará, é apontada como de maior ocorrência. As atividades que mais utilizam a prática escrava são a pecuária e a indústria carvoeira.
→ read full articleMubarak’s Dictatorship Must End Now
Guardian-Observer Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Sun Jan 30 2011 – Fittingly, Egypt’s youth led the way against the old order, using not guns or bombs but the arsenal of 21st-century information technology: social media, mobiles, texts and emails. The Paris mob of Bastille notoriety became, through peaceful evolution, the flash mob of Tahrir Square. They espoused no leaders. They wrote no plans. In fast-moving, separate but interconnected street offensives, they out-thought, outfoxed and outran the police.
→ read full articleAnalogy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
The following analogy characterizes a typical Congress member’s attitude about the looming energy crisis: A young man decided that he wanted to become a switching specialist with a railroad.
→ read full articleOlof Palme and World Interests
Johan Galtung, 24 Jan 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Leeds City Hall, UK – Jan 23, 2011. To Palme the two superpowers and their hideous arms were more than a problem to each other. Together they were a world problem and it was in the world interest to sort it out…. Olof Palme’s crime, even treason, was very clear and unpardonable: he defined the waiting room-recovery home as normalcy, and created a new concept of Sweden as a Great Power, based on the welfare state and neutrality.
→ read full articleSecret Papers Reveal Slow Death of Middle East Peace Process
Seumas Milne and Ian Black, Middle East editor – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel’s annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.
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Interview with Johan Galtung (Part 1 of 2)
Mera Szendro Bok | Communicaton is your Right! - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
In this Dec 9, 2010 interview Johan Galtung talks about his experiences, insights, views, and his new book “The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What?”
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Interview with Johan Galtung (Part 2 of 2)
Mera Szendro Bok | Communicaton is your Right! - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
In this Dec 9, 2010 interview Johan Galtung talks about his experiences, insights, views, and his new book “The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What?”
→ read full articleMajor Die-Off of Fish along Lakefront
Dale Bowman – Chicago Sun-Times,
24 Jan 2011
A bizarre scene is evolving on the Chicago lakefront, with Canada geese and mallard ducks gulping down dead or dying gizzard shad.
→ read full articleUnfaithfulness
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Morris returns from a long business trip and finds out that his wife has been unfaithful during his time away. Who was it!?” he yells.
→ read full articlePortugal’s Experiment With Drugs
Kevin Drum – Mother Jones,
24 Jan 2011
Glenn Greenwald wrote a report for Cato a couple of years ago that gave high marks to Portugal’s experiment with drug decriminalization, and now a study in the British Journal of Criminology largely gives it high marks too:
→ read full article(Italian) Le Campagne d’Africa di US Army Vicenza
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Un anno e mezzo fa erano circa 180 i militari e civili assegnati al Comando di US Army Africa a Vicenza. Adesso lo staff della componente terrestre di AFRICOM, l’organismo militare che sovrintende alle operazioni statunitensi nel continente africano, supera già le 400 unità.
→ read full articleNew Jerusalem Settlement Hits Peace Process
Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem – The Independent,
24 Jan 2011
Israel is moving ahead with a project to build 1,400 new homes in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, a development that critics claim will deliver a death knell to the already faltering peace process.
→ read full articleObama: As Bad as Bush
Mike Whitney – Information Clearing House,
24 Jan 2011
His enemies call him a tyrant and a dictator, but he is neither. Hugo Chavez is a tireless champion of the poor and a committed Christian socialist. The only difference between Chavez’s type of Christianity and Barack Obama’s, is that Chavez walks the walk.
→ read full articleThe Brutal Truth about Tunisia
Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent – The Independent,
24 Jan 2011
Bloodshed, tears, but no democracy. Bloody turmoil won’t necessarily presage the dawn of democracy. The end of the age of dictators in the Arab world? Certainly they are shaking in their boots across the Middle East, the well-heeled sheiks and emirs, and the kings, including one very old one in Saudi Arabia and a young one in Jordan, and presidents – another very old one in Egypt and a young one in Syria – because Tunisia wasn’t meant to happen. Food price riots in Algeria, too, and demonstrations against price increases in Amman. Not to mention scores more dead in Tunisia, whose own despot sought refuge in Riyadh – exactly the same city to which a man called Idi Amin once fled.
→ read full articleBlackwater Founder Said to Back Mercenaries
Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt – The New York Times,
24 Jan 2011
Erik Prince, the founder of the international security giant Blackwater Worldwide, is backing an effort by a controversial South African mercenary firm to insert itself into Somalia’s bloody civil war by protecting government leaders, training Somali troops, and battling pirates and Islamic militants there, according to American and Western officials.
→ read full articleFrom Haiti to Australia: The Horrendous Payback of Global Capitalism
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
24 Jan 2011
Decades of exploitation and neglect of social needs are now magnifying manifold the impacts from natural phenomena that are part and parcel of living in a physical world. Such events are inevitable, but the extent of destruction is not – only it is inevitable because of the perverse profit system that mandates death and destruction in the wake of its seismic injustice.
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One Year Later, Life No Better in Haiti
The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Nicole Lee: Stability of markets depends on countries like Haiti remaining poor. Europe’s, US’s commitment is to their own subsidies only.
→ read full articleTribute to Patrice Lumumba on the 50th Anniversary of His Assassination [17 Jan 1961]
Carlos Martinez – Pambazuka News,
24 Jan 2011
Why was Lumumba killed? Because he was a relentless, dedicated, intelligent, passionate anti-colonialist, Pan-Africanist and Congolese nationalist; because he had the unstinting support of the Congolese masses; because he stood in the way of Belgium’s plan to transform Congo from a colony into a neo-colony.
→ read full articleVatican Abuse Cover-Up Bid Revealed
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Irish broadcaster RTE have uncovered a 1997 letter from the Vatican discouraging Ireland’s Catholic bishops from reporting on all suspected child-abuse cases to police. The letter, revealed on Wednesday [19 Jan 2011], documents the church’s emphasis to handle in-house all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments instead of delegating that responsibility over to civil authorities.
→ read full articleThe Balkanization of Sudan: The Redrawing of the Middle East and North Africa
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
24 Jan 2011
Sudan is a diverse nation and a country that represents the plurality of Africa through various tribes, clans, ethnicities, and religious groups. Yet the unity of Sudan is in question, while there is talk of unifying nations and of one day creating a United States of Africa through the African Union…. The balkanization of Sudan is what is really at stake. For years the leaders and officials of South Sudan have been supported by America and the European Union.
→ read full articleAflockalypse: More Mass Animal Deaths, Thousands of Fish Found Floating in Florida and 200 Birds Dead on Texas Bridge
Wil Longbottom – Daily Mail,
24 Jan 2011
• Thousands of fish found floating in Florida after cold snap
• 200 birds found dead on highway bridge in Texas
• 50 dead jackdaws found on city street in Sweden
• 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish wash up dead on Brazilian coast
• Hundreds of fish dead in New Zealand
• And in Britain, 40,000 devil crabs join list of casualties
Are Corporations People?
Los Angeles Times, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
In a case that could erect new barriers to public access to government information, the Supreme Court this week was asked to hold that corporations have a right to “personal privacy.” Fortunately, justices from across the ideological spectrum appeared skeptical that such a counterintuitive concept could be found either in the law or in a dictionary.
→ read full articleIntroducing the Palestine Papers
Gregg Carlstrom – Al Jazeera,
24 Jan 2011
Al Jazeera has obtained more than 1,600 internal documents from a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. There are nearly 1,700 files, thousands of pages of diplomatic correspondence detailing the inner workings of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. These documents – memos, e-mails, maps, minutes from private meetings, accounts of high level exchanges, strategy papers and even power point presentations – date from 1999 to 2010…. Because of the sensitive nature of these documents, Al Jazeera will not reveal the source(s) or detail how they came into our possession. We have taken great care over an extended period of time to assure ourselves of their authenticity. We believe this material will prove to be of inestimable value to journalists, scholars, historians, policymakers and the general public.
→ read full articleWhy Socialism?
Albert Einstein, Monthly Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.
→ read full articleHow Haiti Was Abandoned
Ashley Smith – Socialist Worker,
24 Jan 2011
The broken promises of support for Haiti from the world’s most powerful governments–and the neoliberal agenda they are pursuing instead.
→ read full articleUS Should Recognise Palestine
MJ Rosenberg – Al Jazeera,
24 Jan 2011
If the US is serious about peace, it should follow the current trend and recognise Palestinian statehood in 2011.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Election: a Travesty of Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The OAS’s attempt to rehabilitate a fatally flawed process would be laughable if it were not a tragic injustice for Haitians.
→ read full articleTunisia: The Fall of the West’s Little Dictator
Esam al-Amin – CounterPunch,
24 Jan 2011
With mounting protests forcing President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country, the Tunisian people’s toppling of a deeply unpopular regime may well ‘become a watershed date in the modern history of the Arab World’, writes Esam al-Amin. Once a key regional ally of Western governments, Ben Ali’s fall from grace has been precipitated by an extraordinary wave of sustained protest. Time will tell if the ‘Tunisian revolution’ attains lasting change and success, al-Amin concludes.
→ read full articleThe Spectre Haunting Europe: Debt Defaults, Austerity, and Death of the “Social Europe” Model
Prof Michael Hudson and Prof. Jeffrey Sommers – Global Research,
24 Jan 2011
A spectre is haunting Europe: the illusion that Latvia’s financial and fiscal austerity is a model for other countries to emulate. Bankers and the financial press are asking governments from Greece to Ireland and now Spain as well: “Why can’t you be like Latvia and sacrifice your economy to pay the debts that you ran up during the financial bubble?” The answer is, they can’t – without an economic, demographic and political collapse that will only make matters worse.
→ read full articleA Precedent or a Farce? – Court Faces Daunting Hurdles in Hamburg Pirate Trial
Michael Scott Moore in Hamburg – Der Spiegel,
24 Jan 2011
A Hamburg court is trying to make sense of a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia last April. But even as many hope the trial will produce a precedent for Europe’s approach to high seas crime, the court can’t even figure out how old the suspects are. The challenges to justice are immense.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Boaventura de Sousa Santos: “Os mercados cometem crimes contra a humanidade”
Filipa Martins, ionline – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Para o sociólogo, Portugal está a ser vitima de um ataque especulativo não justificado dos mercados internacionais.
→ read full articleWelcoming the Tunisian Revolution: Hopes and Fears
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Turning back to North Africa, in 1992 when the FIS in Algeria won hotly contested elections for legislative representation, the military intervened to impose its will, Washington was silent, and remained so during the ‘dark decade’ of strife followed in which at least 60,000 Algerians lost their lives. It is part of the reality in the region that American strategic and ideological goals point one way and the popular will of the people point in the opposite direction. It is thus either hypocritical or a sign of deep confusion for American leadership to advocate democracy in the Middle East without being willing to alter its grand strategy.
→ read full article(Castellano) Sudamérica, Una Década que Cambió el Continente
Raúl Zibechi – Americas Program,
17 Jan 2011
En muchos sentidos, la primera década del siglo XXI es la contracara de la última del XX. La lista de cambios es tan larga como trascendente. Resta saber si se trata de un paréntesis o de un nuevo comienzo. En todo caso, la región no volverá a ser lo que fue.
→ read full articleGuyana Recognises Palestinian State
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Guyana is latest Latin American country to state a commitment to the “legitimate aspirations” of Palestinians.
→ read full article(Castellano) Costa Rica: Canciller Castro Ve Necesario Reconsiderar Tradición Pacifista
Álvaro Murillo – La Nación,
17 Jan 2011
Afirma que en tres años podría formarse un cuerpo como lo tienen Chile y Panamá. Ministro dice que no habla de ejército, pero sí de modernizar sistema de seguridad.
→ read full articleWhy Peace Is the Business of Men (But Shouldn’t Be)
Ann Jones - TomDispatch,
17 Jan 2011
A Modest Proposal for the Immodest Brotherhood of Big Men
→ read full articleWhat Happened When Fundamentalist Christians Tried to “Cure” Me of Homosexuality
James Voss, Truth Wins Out – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
I left for North Central University right after high school to become a youth pastor. The one obstacle of graduation was my sexual orientation. According to the university, homosexuals suffer a life controlling disorder that can be overcome through self-discipline, prayer, and by living a life centered in Christ and obeying the N.C.U Way. At a certain point I decided that I needed to love myself enough, and admit that I was gay and leave NCU.
→ read full articlePortugal: The Prospect of a Full Bailout and More Austerity Looms in 2011
Socialist Worker, LeftBanker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Portugal is the latest European country to face a financial crisis, the likelihood of a bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund–and savage austerity measures that come with the “rescue.” The cutbacks, layoffs and regressive tax increases are being championed by the center-left Socialist Party government, with the support of the country’s main conservative party, the Social Democratic Party.
→ read full articleOn Jewish Identity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
As someone who is both Jewish and supportive of the Palestinian struggle for a just and sustainable peace, I am often asked about my identity. The harshest critics of my understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict contend that I am a self-hating Jew, which implies that sharp criticism of Israel and Zionism are somehow incompatible with affirming a Jewish identity. Of course, I deny this.
→ read full articleSomali Pirates Testify in Court
Beate Lakotta in Hamburg – Der Spiegel,
17 Jan 2011
‘I Am Deeply Sad and Don’t Know How to Go On.’ Two out of the 10 Somali pirates on trial in Hamburg for hijacking a German container ship testified for the first time this week. Their stories provided a glimpse of the hardships of life in their lawless homeland.
→ read full articleSpicy…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
The women in a town decided that their men gave them too little pocket money. To remedy the situation, they opened a bordello.
→ read full articleTunisia : The Last Days of Ben Ali
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
The wave of a peoples’ revolution has swept over Tunisia and pushed President Ben Ali to exile in Saudi Arabia.
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Anti-Semitism: Zionism’s Indispensable Alibi
Maidhc Ó Cathail - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Although Zionism typically represents itself as the solution to anti-Semitism, the truth is less flattering. In fact, hostility toward Jews is indispensable to the cause of Jewish nationalism. If anti-Semitism didn’t exist, Zionists would have to invent it.
→ read full articleCosta Rica Foreign Minister Sparks Army Debate
Adam Williams – Tico Times,
17 Jan 2011
René Castro tells a Dutch radio station that external forces are causing Costa Rica to reconsider their official pacifist stance.
→ read full articleAfrica: Letter to AU over Homophobia Concerns
AIDS-Free World – Pambazuka News,
17 Jan 2011
We are writing to express our grave concern about the recent escalation of homophobia throughout the African continent. A vocal minority spouting hatred, paranoia, and intolerance is dominating public discourse. In response, increasing numbers of parliaments are attempting to criminalise homosexuality, and increasing numbers of African leaders are publicly endorsing this criminalisation. Currently, over two-thirds of countries in the African Union have legislation that criminalises homosexuality. AIDS-Free World is disturbed by the silence of AU leaders in the face of this discrimination, and we urgently call upon the African Union to hold a special session to address the issue.
→ read full articleNew Generation of Unmanned Spy Planes: Faster, Deadlier Military Drones Getting Flight Tests in Mojave Desert
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times,
17 Jan 2011
Three drones being flown in the coming weeks are speedier, stealthier and higher-flying. An experimental spy plane with a wingspan almost the size of a Boeing 747’s took to the skies over the Mojave Desert last week in a secret test flight that may herald a new era in modern warfare with robotic planes flying higher, faster and with more firepower.
→ read full articleLiving as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds: Global implications of “betwixt and between” and liminality
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
This is an imaginal exploration of living between conventional sides, modes or choices — living on the bridge between them, or as that bridge. It conflates significance potentially associated with the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte Sospiro) and the Ponte Vecchio — both of them variously covered. Both are iconic “musts” for tourists travelling to Venice and Florence. Both have offered inspiration elsewhere and down the centuries. The Ponte Vecchio dates notably from the Renaissance period and its historical origins in Florence. The question here is whether they together point to a context through which to explore the possibilities of living “in between” the divisive choices by which society is currently faced — at a time when there are many calls for new thinking and reflections on a “new Renaissance”. A concern is whether the requisite cognitive nature of such collective emergent insight might well be “missed” in some way, as previously discussed (Missing the New Renaissance? 2010; From Changing the Strategic Game to Changing the Strategic Frame: missing cognitive possibility in changing the system not the planet, 2010).
→ read full articleMauritania: Activists’ Trial Puts Spotlight on Anti-Slavery Law
IRIN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Six anti-slavery activists are in prison in Mauritania in a case rights experts say points to the challenges of ensuring a 2007 law criminalizing slavery is more than just words on paper.
→ read full articleExposing the Real Tunisia
Soumaya Ghannoushi – The Guardian,
17 Jan 2011
A recent wave of unrest belies the myth of a Tunisian miracle, and offers a stark warning.
→ read full articleThe War on WikiLeaks: A John Pilger Investigation and Interview with Julian Assange
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders, in politics and journalism. The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before.
→ read full articleLatin America: The Decade that Transformed a Continent
Raúl Zibechi – Americas Program,
17 Jan 2011
In many ways, the first decade of the 21st Century was the flip side of the last decade of the twentieth century in South America. There have been numerous and significant changes. We still don’t know if it’s a glitch in time or a new beginning. In any case, the region will never be the same.
→ read full articlePetition in Defence of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
Antonio C. S. Rosa, TMS Editor,
17 Jan 2011
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s public criticism of Israeli policy towards Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank has triggered accusations of anti-Semitism and calls for him to step down as patron of the South African Holocaust Foundation. Sign a petition in support of a man whose ‘life has been lived in the spirit of “never again” – the ultimate lesson of the Holocaust.’
→ read full articleEmpire of Bases 2.0
Nick Turse – TomDispatch,
17 Jan 2011
Does the Pentagon Really Have 1,180 Foreign Bases?
→ read full articleSoldier’s Inhumane Imprisonment
Los Angeles Times, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
For five months, Pfc. Bradley Manning is confined to his cell for 23 hours a day, with no sheets and without exercise, while he awaits trial on charges of providing documents to WikiLeaks…. The conditions under which he is being held at the Marine detention center at Quantico, Va., are so harsh as to suggest he is being punished for conduct of which he hasn’t been convicted.
→ read full articleThe Emerging Peace and Security Architecture in the Horn of Africa: Prospects and Challenges
Alemayehu Fentaw – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
This paper looks at the Horn of Africa as a regional security complex. It attempts to consider the new Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Peace and Security Strategy as laying the foundation for the emerging peace and security architecture for the sub-region and subjects it to critical scrutiny. In so doing, it appraises the prospects and challenges facing the nascent peace and security architecture in the Horn of Africa.
→ read full article(Italian) CM 2011.un invito ad essere cittadini protagonisti
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
COLLETTIVAMENTE MEMORIA 2011 – dedicato ai deportati politici Italo Tibaldi e Ida Desandré e alla staffetta partigiana Anna Dati.
→ read full articleIs Lockheed Martin Shadowing You?
William D. Hartung – TomDispatch,
17 Jan 2011
How a Giant Weapons Maker Became the New Big Brother: After all, it received $36 billion in government contracts in 2008 alone, more than any company in history. It now does work for more than two dozen government agencies from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service.
→ read full articleTwo Indias: Gandhiji and Modern India
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Talk Given in New Delhi, Dec 30 2010 — Gandhi was killed not far from where we are right now by a Pune brahmin, Godse, and I was that 17-year-old boy in Norway who cried when hearing the news. Something unheard of had happened.
→ read full articleAbout the Editorial “Islam and the West – Some Differences” – Nov. 29, 2010
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Readers have kindly pointed out two unfortunate formulations.
→ read full articleSudan Referendum: Southerners Flood Home to Vote in Post-War Secession Poll
Mike Pflanz – The Telegraph,
10 Jan 2011
Tens of thousands of Sudanese are flooding ‘home’ ahead of a vote on Sunday [9 Jan 2011] which is expected to split Africa’s largest country in two and create the world’s newest nation.
→ read full articleDirty Politicians
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
A cannibal was walking through the jungle and came upon a restaurant operated by a fellow cannibal.
→ read full articleThe Very Wealthy Man (an Innocent Parable)
Tom Tomorrow – Truthout,
10 Jan 2011
Award-wining cartoonist Tom Tomorrow brings us the story of “The Very Wealthy Man: An innocent fable of no relevance to contemporary events.”
→ read full articleWikiLeaks: Israel Plans Total War on Lebanon, Gaza
Juan Cole, Informed Comment – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has summarized an Israeli military briefing by Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi of a US congressional delegation a little over a year ago and concludes that: The memo on the talks between Ashkenazi and [Congressman Ike] Skelton, as well as numerous other documents from the same period of time, to which Aftenposten has gained access, leave a clear message: The Israeli military is forging ahead at full speed with preparations for a new war in the Middle East. Note: This war preparation is serious and specific, according to the paper, and clearly is not just a matter of vague contingency planning.
→ read full articleWhat’s Happening On The Korean Peninsula?
Prof. Martin Hart-Landsberg – Global Research,
10 Jan 2011
What’s happening on the Korean peninsula? If you read the press or listen to the talking heads, your best guess would be that an insane North Korean regime is willing to risk war to manage its own internal political tensions. This conclusion would be hard to avoid because the media rarely provide any historical context or alternative explanations for North Korean actions.
→ read full article
Palestine/Gaza: The Siege
Neverbeforecampaing – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
The three year old siege on the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million inhabitants is a testament to the Israeli regime’s disregard of law, decency and morality. This siege amounts to collective punishment, an action outlawed by various conventions and humanitarian laws. This is not to mention the suffering and humanitarian crisis caused by this law. This siege has been disgracefully condoned by the “international community” and justified by the “free world” as a measure that safeguards the security of the Israeli regime.
→ read full articleAmerica in Decline: Why Germans Think We’re Insane
Democrats Ramshield - AlterNet,
10 Jan 2011
As an American expat living in the European Union, I’ve started to see America from a different perspective. The European Union has a larger economy and more people than America does. Though it spends less — right around 9 percent of GNP on medical, whereas we in the U.S. spend close to between 15 to 16 percent of GNP on medical — the EU pretty much insures 100 percent of its population.
→ read full articleJudge Dismisses Cases Against Military Veterans and Antiwar Activists Following December 16 Washington, D.C., Arrests
Stop These Wars – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Antiwar military veterans and other activists celebrated a breakthrough victory today [4 Jan 2011] in DC Superior Court, when charges were dropped, following arrests in front of the White House, on December 16, 2010. Over 130 people were arrested in a major veteran-led protest while participating in non-violent civil resistance in a driving snowstorm.
→ read full articleMore Dead Birds Fall from the Sky in Sweden, Chile, Kentucky — Dead Fish Keep Washing Ashore
Steven D – Booman Tribune,
10 Jan 2011
They have dead birds falling from the skies (twice in the last week) in Arkansas. They have dead birds in Louisiana and Kentucky too. And in Chile. And now in Sweden.
→ read full articleDon’t Just Close Guantánamo, Return It
César Chelala – Common Dreams,
10 Jan 2011
To restore good relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, damaged by several years of neglect, is one of many difficult tasks facing the Obama administration. A measure that could have far-reaching consequences and notably improve the U.S.’ battered image in the continent would be to return Guantánamo to the Cuban people.
→ read full article2 Million Fish Found Dead in Maryland
CNN Wire Staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Authorities in Maryland are investigating the deaths of about 2 million fish in Chesapeake Bay.
→ read full articleChile Recognizes Independent Palestinian State
Haaretz Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera’s announcement preceded by official recognition of Palestine by Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. He announced late Thursday [6 Jan 2011] that he officially recognizes an independent Palestinian state, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
→ read full articleSouth America: Closer to a Palestinian State
Marcela Valente – Inter Press Service,
10 Jan 2011
After Brazil announced in early December that it recognised a Palestinian state, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador followed suit, and Paraguay and Uruguay said they would do the same in early 2011. Chile and Peru are also expected to reach a similar decision. Before this month, Venezuela was the only country in South America to have done so.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Greatest Problem Ignored by US News Media
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
In order for us to understand properly a problem we need to get to its source, without which it is bound to remain and deteriorate to the detriment of everyone concerned and involved. Like many other nations, the United States is confronted with numerous problems due to the fact that one problem leads to another endlessly. In many instances, things tend to get completely out of control and intelligent steps need to be taken to remedy the situation.
→ read full articleIllnesses Linked to BP Oil Disaster
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
10 Jan 2011
Doctor attributes widespread sickness to toxic chemicals from the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe.
→ read full articleCommonsense Money
Jeff Gates – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Since 1913, debt has been the only way that we in the U.S. have known to create money. Choking on debt yet short on money, Americans are reeling from too much monetary theory and too little commonsense. Those who sold us the theory also ensured recurring recessions. Each debt-induced cycle features rich-get-richer booms followed by debilitating busts. We designed our way into this mess. We can design our way out. As yet, there’s no sign that policy-makers know a way out. Nor do their advisers. Over the past century, every economist has been educated the same. They are unable to see the real problem because the theory they were taught is the source of the problem.
→ read full article
Native American on 2012 Truth Prophecy
EXOMATRlXTV - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Our responsibility before life and the survival of the human species. A moving video narrated by a Native American.
→ read full articleThe Great MMR Vaccine Fraud
Kevin Drum – Mother Jones,
10 Jan 2011
The belief that vaccines cause autism got its start in 1998 with a paper in the Lancet authored by Andrew Wakefield. We’ve known for a long time that it was a piece of crap: it used a nonrandom sample of 12 children, it depended largely on observations by parents, it was marred by egregious conflicts of interest, and in 2004 it was renounced by 10 of its co-authors and later retracted by the magazine. That’s all bad enough. But it turns out that it was even worse: the paper was an outright fraud from start to finish.
→ read full article(Italian) Collettivamente Memoria 2011. I Prodromi
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
“Collettivamente memoria” è un qualcosa che qualcuno ha definito “una rassegna”.
→ read full article2011 Higher Prices for Food: World Citizens Call for Coordinated World Food Policy
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
In its most recent January 2011 analysis of the world food situation, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted with alarm the extreme price fluctuation in global agricultural markets. This fluctuation in global agricultural markets is leading to higher food prices and is a threat to world food security. The impact falls heaviest on the poor who spend a high percentage — up to 70 percent — of their income on food.
→ read full articleAn Era of Sri Lanka’s President: From Mullivaikal to Oxford Union
Nirmanusan Balasundaram - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Mullivaikal is where the last phase of the war between Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLAF) and Liberation Tiger of TamilEelam (LTTE) took place. According to the Government of Sri Lanka, this was the place war came to an end with the military defeat of LTTE, but for majority Tamils and international human rights activists, this was the place at-least 30,000-40,000 Tamil civilians were massacred by SLAF. The ‘controversy’ began from here and continues even after 19 months.
→ read full articleHaiti One Year On: Suffering, Lost Opportunities and Political Paralysis
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
10 Jan 2011
1 million people still live in makeshift accommodation and only 5% of rubble left by earthquake cleared, Oxfam report says. Government dithering and lack of coordination between aid agencies and donors have crippled rebuilding efforts in Haiti, leaving the country in ruins almost a year after the earthquake, a report says today [6 Jan 2011].
→ read full article