Articles by M
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Private Memo Exposes US Fears Over WikiLeaks
Guy Adams in Los Angeles – The Independent,
10 Jan 2011
The White House has instructed every US government department and agency to create “insider threat” programmes that will ferret out disgruntled or untrustworthy employees who might be tempted to leak the sort of state secrets recently made public by the website WikiLeaks. A 13-page memo detailing the new policy urges senior civil servants to beef up cyber security and hire teams of psychiatrists and sociologists who can “detect behavioural changes”. They will then monitor the moods and attitudes of staff who are allowed to access classified information.
→ read full articleCuban Medics in Haiti Put the World to Shame
Nina Lakhani, Ezili Dantò – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Castro’s doctors and nurses are the backbone of the fight against cholera. They are the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America’s doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate. Except these heroes are from America’s arch-enemy Cuba, whose doctors and nurses have put US efforts to shame.
→ read full articleAnti-Sanctions Chorus Out of Tune
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
The emerging anti-sanctions lobby should be understood for what it is – the bald promotion of Western strategic and corporate interests. Ending sanctions now will only further entrench military rule, giving it a veneer of normalcy and acceptability, at the expense of Myanmar’s long-suffering people and the country’s equitable economic development.
→ read full articleWith Air Force’s New Drone, ‘We Can See Everything’
Ellen Nakashima and Craig Whitlock – The Washington Post,
3 Jan 2011
The hunger for these high-tech tools was evident at the conference, where officials told several thousand industry and intelligence officials they had to move “at the speed of war.” Cartwright pressed for solutions, even partial ones, in a year or less.
→ read full articleThe US Media Hit on Helen Thomas
Danny Schechter – ConsortiumNews,
3 Jan 2011
Editor’s Note: Last June when the mainstream Washington press corps rode the 89-year-old journalistic icon Helen Thomas out of the news business on a rail, a key count in the professional “indictment” against her was that she lacked “objectivity” with her impertinent questions to U.S. presidents and in her criticism of Israel. However, for years among big-time U.S. journalists, “objectivity” has been a principle most noticeable in its absence, especially on the sensitive issue of Israel, the topic that touched off the furor that ended Thomas’s career, as Danny Schechter notes in this guest essay.
→ read full articleWikiWishes for WikiPromises for 2011
Johan Galtung, 3 Jan 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
The world needs knowledgeable and skilled women and men promoting the interests of nature, humans everywhere, all nations and states, civilizations and regions, and the world. Some might even be called diplomats and narrow it to one point, their nation. And the Country of the Year, Turkey, showed that consistent peace politics, creating amazing friendly relations with all neighbors is possible. What it takes is a decision to do so.
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Export of Mass Destruction: Afghan Addicts Drowning in Drug Flood
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
(You may find some images in this video disturbing) Afghanistan – the world’s largest producer of heroin – does not only make other states suffer from its deadly export – the country itself is flooded with cheap drugs. With the tense situation and very vague prospects of a peaceful life even those who want to kick the mortal habit find themselves at a dead end.
→ read full articleThe Finite World
Paul Krugman – The New York Times,
3 Jan 2011
So what are the implications of the recent rise in commodity prices? It is, as I said, a sign that we’re living in a finite world, one in which resource constraints are becoming increasingly binding. This won’t bring an end to economic growth, let alone a descent into Mad Max-style collapse. It will require that we gradually change the way we live, adapting our economy and our lifestyles to the reality of more expensive resources. But that’s for the future. Right now, rising commodity prices are basically the result of global recovery. They have no bearing, one way or another, on U.S. monetary policy. For this is a global story; at a fundamental level, it’s not about us.
→ read full article2011
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts – Information Clearing House,
3 Jan 2011
”Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.” — Lewis H. Lapham. The lawlessness of the U.S. government, which has been creeping up on us for decades, broke into a full gallop in the years of the Bush/Cheney/Obama regimes. Today the government operates above the law, yet maintains that it is a democracy bringing the same to Muslims by force of arms, only briefly being sidetracked by sponsoring a military coup against democracy in Honduras and attempting to overthrow the democratic government in Venezuela. As 2011 dawns, public discourse in America has the country primed for a fascist dictatorship. The situation will be worse by 2012. The most uncomfortable truth that emerges from the WikiLeaks saga is that American public discourse consists of cries for revenge against those who tell us truths.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks, Michael Lind, and the ‘New’ Nationalism
Justin Raimondo – Antiwar.com,
3 Jan 2011
The Authoritarian Left Comes Out of the Closet. The international debate engendered by WikiLeaks’ ongoing publication of classified US diplomatic cables has sent most American liberals into hiding. Gone AWOL when it comes to the Obama administration’s escalation of the federal government’s war on civil liberties, mainstream liberal defenders of WikiLeaks are few and far between.
→ read full articleClever
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
President Bush was informed that there was a threat of a bird flu epidemic.
→ read full article(Italian) Il Tramonto della Democrazia nell’era della Globalizzazione
Danilo Zolo, Jura Gentium – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
Il declino dei modelli classici e post-classici della democrazia
→ read full articleIndia: Need for Peace and Equity Audit as a Parameter for Development Planning
Mazher Hussain, COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
The objective of Planning should be to secure development and progress for all. But it is seen that development initiatives in India are leading to exclusion of large sections, increase in income disparities, intensification of social tensions and onset of conflicts between different communities/groups and even between the people and the State.
→ read full articleAnarchists Are Bad People?
The Daily Bell – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
Anarchy is a social environment, one that simply seeks a lifestyle without a distant and non-responsive ruling class. It has nothing to do with violence, which is a strategy not a sociopolitical philosophy. One believes in various forms of social organization: communism, socialism, anarcho-capitalism. But one does not believe (as a communal structure) in violence or peace – or jumping jacks or cartwheels for that matter.
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Why Has Cholera Hit Haiti So Hard?
Haiti Grassroots Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
For Dossier #4, Haiti Grassroots Watch took a look at cholera, water and sanitation and asked, why has cholera hit the country so hard? What is the real situation of water and sanitation? How did things get this way?
→ read full articleWhat is Real Wealth?
John Robbins – Yes! Magazine,
3 Jan 2011
When I was 21, I told my father that I didn’t want to work with him any longer at the ice cream company he co-founded, Baskin-Robbins, and I didn’t want to depend on his financial achievements. I did not want to have a trust fund or any other access to or dependence on his money. I wanted to discover and live my own values, and I knew that I wasn’t strong enough to do that if I remained tethered, even a little, to my father’s fortune. I left Baskin-Robbins and the money my father had made selling ice cream because I didn’t want to live a life of affluence based on a product that could harm people’s health. I also recoiled at the idea of inheriting a life of privilege while so many others had to struggle for their basic livelihood.
→ read full articleThe Five Myths of Aging
Lauri M. Aesoph N.D. – Global Healing Center,
3 Jan 2011
If you were an alien visiting our planet, you might think Earthlings never age. Even as awareness about aging rises, most major magazines and television stations still fail to display vital, older people. Medical journals, on the other hand, harp on the infirmities of old age. It’s no wonder we fear and even deny our own inevitable aging. Grower older can’t be avoided, but it doesn’t have to mean the loss of health, mind and independence. In fact, research seems to indicate the opposite. By paying a little attention to lifestyle, most older individuals can live active, healthy lives and we can all shatter those old age myths.
→ read full articleDrug Gang ‘Threatens Guatemala War’
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
Group claiming to belong to Zetas cartel issues warning on radio broadcasts after Guatemalan forces launch crackdown.
→ read full articleOpen Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre, a Demand for Justice
Gazans Seeking Justice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
Besieged Gaza, Palestine, 27 December 2010: We, the Palestinians of the Besieged Gaza Strip, on this day, two years on from Israel’s genocidal attack on our families, our houses, our roads, our factories and our schools, are saying enough inaction, enough discussion, enough waiting — the time is now to hold Israel to account for its ongoing crimes against us.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks and World Citizen Diplomacy
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
WikiLeaks’ release of a large number of US diplomatic archives gives us a broad vision of the culture of US foreign policy policy-making. Such a vision could also be gained from reading the diplomatic archives as they are published after a “25 or 50 year rule”, but it is more fun to read material of a nearer time, especially if it is classified “Secret”.
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The Happy Planet Index
Nick Marks, TED Talks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
In the words of Robert F. Kennedy, why does Gross National Product “measure everything […] except that which makes life worthwhile”? Happiness and health are what we really want, but we have the perception that those things can be measured on an economic scale. If happiness is what we want most, why aren’t we measuring it directly? Good news: statistician Nic Marks does just that. Watch as Marks explains the Happy Planet Index, his alternative to GDP, and what it tells us about which countries are really the happiest.
→ read full articleThe Great Islamophobic Crusade
Max Blumenthal - TomDispatch,
27 Dec 2010
Inside the Bizarre Cabal of Secretive Donors, Demagogic Bloggers, Pseudo-Scholars, European Neo-Fascists, Violent Israeli Settlers, and Republican Presidential Hopefuls Behind the Crusade.
→ read full articleEcuador Recognizes a Palestinian State
CNN Wire Staff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Ecuador is the latest country to recognize an independent Palestinian state. The government said on Friday [24 Dec 2010] that President Rafael Correa recognized “the Palestine State as free and independent within its borders since 1967.”
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U.S. Gov’t Responds to Questions about Imprisoned Palestinian Nonviolent Protester Abu Rahmah
PopularStruggleCC - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Abu Rahmah was sentenced to one year in Israeli prison on the charge of “incitement” for organizing nonviolent protests against the confiscation of land and Israel’s illegal wall in his West Bank village of Bil’in. One year has since passed and Abu Rahmah is still being held indefinitely by the Israeli military.
→ read full article“Coexistence” with Monsanto: Hell No!
Ronnie Cummins – Common Dreams,
27 Dec 2010
After 16 years of non-stop biotech bullying and force-feeding Genetically Engineered or Modified (GE or GM) crops to farm animals and “Frankenfoods” to unwitting consumers, Monsanto has a big problem, or rather several big problems. A growing number of published scientific studies indicate that GE foods pose serious human health threats.
→ read full articleFoundations for the Economy of a New Civilisation
Guillermo Sullings – Pressenza Int’l Press Agency,
27 Dec 2010
The challenge of thinking about how a new civilisation would be, can be very attractive because one could get carried away with ones imagination and in theory design a new utopia, like the one imagined by Thomas More, author of the book [Utopia] which gave a name to social ideals. This literary exercise is valid in itself, though it could not go any further than the events shaped on the page with all the naïveté and incongruence of the writer and his era.
→ read full articleUniversal Decriminalization of Homosexuality a Human Rights Imperative — Ban Ki-moon
ILGA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Noting that over 70 countries still consider homosexuality a crime, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today [10 Dec 2010] appealed for its complete and universal decriminalization, stressing that human rights must always trump cultural attitudes and societal strictures.
→ read full articleCold Burn
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Yes, the extreme cold in the UK right now really could be a result of global warming.
→ read full articleScientists Focus on Male Mosquitoes in Bid to Control Malaria
Timothy Spence – Inter Press Service,
27 Dec 2010
After successfully suppressing scourges of fruit, tsetse and screwworm flies in the Americas, researchers are exploring whether the same sterilised insect technique can be used to control malaria, which kills some one million people every year, many of them in Africa.
→ read full articleYes, There is An Alternative
Robin Broad & John Cavanagh – Yes! Magazine,
27 Dec 2010
More and more people, communities, and nations are taking steps to reduce their vulnerability to a volatile global economy.
→ read full articleWhen Pixels, Bytes and VJs Unite
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Everyone could hear the collective gasp that filled the auditorium – and no one would forget – the very moment when the first signal transporting Aung San Suu Kyi’s animated face to a large screen in London arrived last week.
→ read full articleNonviolent Peace Force Needs Recruits
FOX – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
An organization looking to help with world peace wants to recruit some special people. The Nonviolent Peace Force was co-founded by a Minnesota man in the early 1990’s. There are peace keepers in Sri Lanka, the South Philippines and the Sudan. The peace keepers are unarmed and only go to places where they are invited. The Sudan is expected to possibly have violent outbreaks before a January vote to for independence between Northern and Southern Sudan
→ read full article(Portuguese) Portugal: O BPN e a Economia do Crime
José Gusmão, Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
O caso do BPN é exemplar do ponto de vista do papel estratégico que têm os off-shores na promoção da fraude e evasão fiscais, e também na protecção da criminalidade financeira.
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Hollywood and the War Machine
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Empire examines the symbiotic relationship between the movie industry and the military-industrial complex.
→ read full article(Italian) La Nonviolenza Degli Studenti Romani
Mao Valpiana – Centro Studi Sereno Regis,
27 Dec 2010
I giovani liceali e universitari che oggi hanno manifestato a Roma per contrastare la cosiddetta “riforma Gelmini”, hanno offerto una bella lezione di pratiche nonviolente. Bravi davvero.
→ read full articleTo the Gay Community: Now That You Can Join the Military, Please Don’t!
Medea Benjamin - AlterNet,
27 Dec 2010
As we struggle to find a more civilized way to treat each other in this world, let us recognize the commonalities in the fight for gay rights and the fight to end war.
→ read full article
Palestine for Dummies – Nablus
TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
6 dicembre 2010. Nablus.
→ read full articleFrom Changing the Strategic Game to Changing the Strategic Frame
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
This is a commentary on the argument of Mexican activist Gustavo Esteva following the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Mexico, 2010 (The Arrogance of Cancún, The Guardian, 16 December 2010; Spanish version). He concludes that the lesson of this feeble climate deal is that “governments have played God and failed. It is up to the activists now”. He cites the alternative Cancún Declaration by the International Forum for Climate Justice — The People’s Dialogue (Foro Internacional de la Justicia Climática — Diálogo de la Pueblos) with its slogan: Let’s change the system, not the planet. Specifically the text of the alternative declaration [original Spanish versions: Declaración de Cancún Foro Internacional de Justicia Climática; Declaración del Foro Alternativo por la Justicia Climática Cancún 2010; Foro Mundial de Alternativas: Declaración de Cancún; Declaración de Cancún – Foro Internacional de Justicia Climática] includes the phrase:
→ read full article(Castellano) Ecuador Reconoció a Palestina como Estado Libre e Independiente con Fronteras de 1967
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
El gobierno de Ecuador reconoció este viernes [24 Dic 2010] a Palestina como Estado libre e independiente con las fronteras de 1967, previas a la invasión israelí, informó la Cancillería en un comunicado.
→ read full articleHow to Help the Two Koreas Become One
Michael N. Nagler & Stephanie N. Van Hook - Truthout,
27 Dec 2010
Anyone who studies conflict knows that there are two ways to go about resolving one. There is, of course, a violent path, which ultimately leads to war, but there is also a nonviolent route that leads to reconciliation and the resumption of normal ties…. As in any conflict large or small, one has to start with the assumption, so far conspicuously absent here, that the people of North Korea – yes, including their leadership – are rational.
→ read full articleA Human Approach to World Peace
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
When we rise in the morning and listen to the radio or read the newspaper, we are confronted with the same sad news: violence, crime, wars, and disasters. I cannot recall a single day without a report of something terrible happening somewhere. Even in these modern times it is clear that one’s precious life is not safe. No former generation has had to experience so much bad news as we face today; this constant awareness of fear and tension should make any sensitive and compassionate person question seriously the progress of our modern world.
→ read full articleAge Matters
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
A 70-year old man told his friend, “I met a fabulous 20-year old girl, I am madly in love with her.
→ read full articlePortugal: Economic Crisis Looms, But Clean Energy Shines On
Mario de Queiroz – Inter Press Service,
27 Dec 2010
While the shadow of a speculative assault looms over Portugal, similar to the economic crises that hit Greece and Ireland, this Iberian nation manages to hold up the beacon of renewable energy.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Wikifugas, Novo Site do Esquerda.net
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Depois de já ter instalado um “espelho” do site da WikiLeaks, o Esquerda.net lança agora o Wikifugas, o site do nosso portal totalmente dedicado à divulgação das principais revelações do chamado “Cablegate” e à luta em defesa da WikiLeaks e da liberdade e transparência da informação.
→ read full articleCell Phone Security: Mobile Phone Taps
Bill Rounds J.D., HowToVanish – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
There has been considerable discussion lately about the ease of eavesdropping on cell phone conversations through mobile phone taps and the lack of cell phone security. There are many products and hacks available which allow for monitoring of cell phone activity. Is your phone bugged and what can you do to keep your private information from being intercepted?
→ read full articleHomophobia Plagues Africa
Pambazuka News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Monday’s [20 Dec 2010] statements by a prominent Ghanaian activist provide further evidence of the alarming homophobia that is sweeping across Africa. Bernice Sam, National Programme Coordinator of WiLDAF (Women in Law and Development) in Ghana argued publicly for the Constitution Review Commission to limit Ghana’s definition of marriage to include heterosexual couples only. Sam then went even further. She was quoted as saying that it will be ‘almost impossible for the act of homosexuality to be considered criminal’ if the constitution is not reworded in this way.
→ read full articleThe Social Basis of America’s Imperial Politics: Rethinking Imperialist Theory
Prof. James Petras – Global Research,
27 Dec 2010
The ‘fluidity’ of US power relations with Latin America is a product of the continuities and changes in Latin America. Past hegemony continues to weigh heavy, but the future augurs a continued decline. The current balance of power will however be determined by shifts in world markets, in which the US is destined to play a lesser role. Hence the greater probability of more divergences in policy, barring major breakdowns within Latin America.
→ read full articleHave We Really Solved the Mystery Behind the Shocking Die-off of Bees?
Tom Laskawy – Grist,
20 Dec 2010
These devices throw up a toxic cloud of pesticide as they work: bees fly through the cloud and either die or take the pesticide back to the hive. Once inside, even at low doses, it can cause disorientation or, as Girolami calls it, “intoxication” of whole hives. The maker of this pesticide is Bayer CropScience. What does a corporation do when it discovers it may have developed and marketed a dangerous and potentially devastating product? Here in America, you confuse, you obfuscate, and you buy off scientists. And as Eban skillfully details, that’s exactly what Bayer has been doing for the last decade or so.
→ read full articleEverything Is Negotiable, Except with Nature
Bill McKibben - TomDispatch,
20 Dec 2010
You Can’t Bargain About Global Warming with Chemistry and Physics
→ read full articleTAPI Pipeline Prospects
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
The leaders of four nations Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) met in the second week of December 2010 in the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat to sign two agreements called Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) and Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA) to foster the prospects of TAPI pipeline.
→ read full articleWhy Are Wars Not Being Reported Honestly?
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
In the US Army manual on counterinsurgency, the American commander General David Petraeus describes Afghanistan as a “war of perception… conducted continuously using the news media”. What really matters is not so much the day-to-day battles against the Taliban as the way the adventure is sold in America where “the media directly influence the attitude of key audiences”. Reading this, I was reminded of the Venezuelan general who led a coup against the democratic government in 2002. “We had a secret weapon,” he boasted. “We had the media, especially TV. You got to have the media.”
→ read full articleFatherhood
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
A girl used to tell everyone, “I am the daughter of Dr. Smith.”
→ read full articleWho is Behind WikiLeaks?
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
20 Dec 2010
“World bankers, by pulling a few simple levers that control the flow of money, can make or break entire economies. By controlling press releases of economic strategies that shape national trends, the power elite are able to not only tighten their stranglehold on this nation’s economic structure, but can extend that control world wide. Those possessing such power would logically want to remain in the background, invisible to the average citizen.” (Aldous Huxley) – WikiLeaks is upheld as a breakthrough in the battle against media disinformation and the lies of the US government…. In turn, we must ensure that the campaign against WikiLeaks in the U.S., using the 1917 Espionage Act, will not be utilized as a means to wage a campaign to control the internet. In this regard, we should also stand firm in preventing the prosecution of Julian Assange in the US.
→ read full articleWhy I’m Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
Michael Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010. Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail. Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
→ read full articleAlleged Breach of UN Treaty Obligations by US
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Press Coverage and Commentary Following WikiLeaks Cable Dissemination: A classified directive which appears to blur the line between diplomacy and spying was issued to US diplomats under Hillary Clinton’s name in July 2009, demanding forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications. It called for detailed biometric information “on key UN officials, to include undersecretaries, heads of specialised agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [secretary general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders” as well as intelligence on Ban’s “management and decision-making style and his influence on the secretariat”.
→ read full article
Fareed Zakaria Trashes Glenn Beck’s Affirmation That 10 Percent of All Muslims Are Terrorists
Fareed Zakaria-GPS, CNN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Fareed Zakaria took to his latest show on CNN to rebuff –using common sense and logical arguments– Beck’s insane claim that there are “157 million Muslim terrorists in the world.”
→ read full article(Castellano) Honduras: Campesinos Bajo Ataque de Terratenientes y el Ejército
Red Morazánica de Información – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Helicópteros, vehículos armados con ametralladoras y tanquetas antidisturbios, han sido parte del gran despliegue militar policial a la zona donde campesinos exigen se desmilitarice el departamento y les sean devueltas la tierras que les pertenecen.
→ read full articleReclaim the Cyber-Commons
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
The internet is being captured by organised trolls. It’s time we fought back. They are the online equivalent of enclosure riots: the rick-burning, fence-toppling protests by English peasants losing their rights to the land. When MasterCard, Visa, Paypal and Amazon tried to shut WikiLeaks out of the cyber-commons, an army of hackers responded by trying to smash their way into these great estates and pull down their fences.
→ read full articleThe Nobel War Prize
Tariq Ali, London Review of Books – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
For the record, Liu Xiaobo has stated publicly that in his view: (a) China’s tragedy is that it wasn’t colonised for at least 300 years by a Western power or Japan. This would apparently have civilised it forever; (b) The Korean and Vietnam wars fought by the US were wars against totalitarianism and enhanced Washington’s ‘moral credibility’; (c) Bush was right to go to war in Iraq and Senator Kerry’s criticisms were ‘slander-mongering’; (d) Afghanistan? No surprises here: Full support for NATO’s war. He has a right to these opinions, but should they get a peace prize?
→ read full article(German) Interview mit Johan Galtung
Schattenblick – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
17. September 2010 in Hamburg
→ read full articleBurma Needs Inter-Ethnic and Inter-Class Solidarity
Dr Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
The world knows plenty about Aung San Suu Kyi and what she represents. But it knows almost nothing about the generals beyond their international pariah status.
→ read full articleNobel Peace Prize 2010: Norwegian Dynamite
Annar Cassam – Pambazuka News,
20 Dec 2010
New head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, one-time leader of the Labour Party, one-time prime minister, one-time foreign minister of Norway and currently secretary general of the Council of Europe, is bit of a national joke…. Furthermore, [Wen Huibao, writing in Le Monde 10 December 2010] explains that [Liu Xiaobo] caused a second scandal by publicly supporting George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, an act of war which was condemned in China, Scandinavia and all over the globe. So the question has to be asked, what links the Nobel Peace Prize with its current laureate’s support for this illegal war in Iraq?
→ read full articleUS House Passes Anti-Palestine Bill
MJ Rosenberg – Al Jazeera,
20 Dec 2010
Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, rushed to the House floor with a resolution drafted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] condemning the Palestinians for publicly suggesting that, in the wake of Netanyahu’s refusal to freeze settlements and negotiate, they will consider a unilateral declaration of statehood. Congress passed the Berman bill, drafted only this week, on Wednesday [15 Dec 2010]. When it comes to pleasing AIPAC, there are simply no limits.
→ read full articleCriminality of Nuclear Weapons and Deterrence
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Speech delivered in Berlin, 12th December, 2010. The International League of Human Rights (Germany) awards the Carl-von-Ossietzky Medal to Mordechai Vanunu and campaigns for his freedom to leave Israel and receive his prize in Berlin. My Dear Friends,
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Prémio Nobel da Guerra
Tariq Ali – TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE,
20 Dec 2010
Liu Xiaobo não deveria nunca ter sido detido, mas o Comité quis dar uma lição à China, ignorando os pontos de vista do seu herói.
→ read full article
There Once Was an Island (trailer)
Briar March – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Award Winning Film: You’ve heard about the islands in the Pacific Ocean that are disappearing due to rising sea levels. But have you heard from the people there? Have you listened and watched as an entire culture faces extinction or mass displacement? Will traditions and identities survive in the face of such a crisis? Briar March spent many months working on a film about one such island community in Papua New Guinea and looking at all these questions.
→ read full articleOperation Avenge Assange as Digital Direct Action
ReadWriteWeb – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
“Nonviolence (ahimsa) is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of violence. Thus, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression or of armed struggle against it.” And direct action “is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels.”
→ read full articleNorway Accused of Funding Abuse in Burma
Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent – The Independent,
20 Dec 2010
State pension fund invested billions in energy projects, report says. The Norwegian government has been accused of complicity in illegal land seizures, forced labour and killings, by investing national funds in international companies that operate inside Burma on projects where widespread abuses are alleged to have taken place.
→ read full articleWomen and the 21st Century
Johan Galtung, 20 Dec 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Feminism has made an enormous contribution by identifying patriarchy as a pattern underlying capitalism and militarism…. Making patriarchy visible through brilliant feminist articulation is a transcending contribution, reminiscent of the marxist focus on another deep structure hidden to the unguided eye: the interface of means and modes of production. Or Lenin and others on imperialism, Gandhi and many others on colonialism. Race. And agism: like placing people above 67 etc. in a ghetto called retirement (or children in a ghetto called schools?).
→ read full articleUNMIN’s Withdrawal Formally Winds up Maoist Army Cantonment and Barracking of the Nepal Army
Bishnu Pathak, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
The Sanskrit adage Buvukshitah kim na karoti papam? (What vice is unthinkable to an empty stomach?) occurred in mind when we (including Freelance Journalist Jibanath Khanal) were deliberating upon the “U-turn” of Nepal’s peace process, wondering whether the successor of UNMIN could take over the monitoring and supervision of the arms and armies. While a full-stomach seeks freedom first, an empty stomach looks for food above all temptations.
→ read full articleThe Oceans’ SOS
Tony Haymet and Andrew Dickson – Los Angeles Times,
20 Dec 2010
Our stubborn addiction to burning coal, oil and natural gas is changing not only the composition of the atmosphere but the composition of the ocean as well. The carbon dioxide those fuels pour into the air inexorably dissolves into the oceans, causing a process known as ocean acidification. The oceans have absorbed 30% of the carbon dioxide that humans have ever produced, and they continue to absorb more each year. This force-feeding has changed ocean chemistry.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks’ Lesson on Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
20 Dec 2010
What the US embassy cables reveal about Washington’s malign influence should make Latin American nations quit the UN force…. This logic is why they got rid of Aristide – who was much to the left of Preval – and won’t let him back in the country. This is why Washington funded the recent “elections” that excluded Haiti’s largest political party, the equivalent of shutting out the Democrats and Republicans in the United States. And this is why Minustah is still occupying the country, more than six years after the coup, without any apparent mission other than replacing the hated Haitian army – which Aristide had abolished – as a repressive force.
→ read full article(Castellano) Crecen los Huertos en las Azoteas de Gaza
Eva Bartlett – Periodismo Humano,
20 Dec 2010
El gris del cemento de los campos de refugiados de Gaza contrasta con el color de los huertos de verduras de las azoteas. ”En los campamentos no hay espacio, ni árboles, ni parques públicos”. La “zona de exclusión” impuesta por Israel en las fronteras ocupa un tercio de las tierras agrícolas de la franja.
→ read full article(Castellano) Malvinas: La Cuestión Pendiente de un Exitoso Proceso Descolonizador
Embajador Jorge Argüello – TELAM-Agencia de Noticias de la Republica Argentina,
20 Dec 2010
El formidable proceso de descolonización que el mundo comenzó en 1960 con la Resolución 1514 de la Asamblea de las Naciones Unidas cumple este 14 de diciembre medio siglo, pero el compromiso que tuvo Argentina en ese proceso histórico sigue hasta ahora sin la mejor recompensa para nuestro propio país, por el resabio colonialista que significa la “Cuestión Malvinas”.
→ read full articleHo’oponopono
Puanani Burgess – Yes! Magazine,
20 Dec 2010
How Hawaiian Tradition Sorts Out Family Disputes. Ho‘oponopono is a traditional Hawaiian way to make peace in families when there’s the kind of conflict that starts with something small and just gets bigger and bigger.
→ read full articleLegitimate Civil Disobedience: WikiLeaks and the Layers of Backlash
Deanna Zandt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Anonymous launched a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack against the websites of the companies that took away people’s rights to support a political organization [PayPal, Master Charge, Amazon.] Many, myself included, consider DDoS in this context to be much like a sit-in in the offline world. The point of a sit-in is to render a building/room/service unusable for a temporary period of time. Sit-ins aren’t “legal”– you get arrested, and most activists who participate in them know this ahead of time and prepare for it…. Most of the time, it’s a misdemeanor charge, and you’re issued an ACD.
→ read full article
Inside the Dark Legacy of the US ‘School of Assassins’
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
For 62 years, the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, has trained some of the worst human rights abusers in the hemisphere. From Pinochet’s soldiers in Chile, D’Aubuisson’s death squads in El Salvador, Banzer’s minions in Bolivia, Galtieri’s operatives in Argentina and Rios Montt’s soldiers in Guatemala to the present-day generals responsible for the coup in Honduras and the drug war killings in Colombia, the School of the America has a dark legacy. Renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the school has graduated 65,000 soldiers from 18 countries.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Backlash: The First Global Cyber War Has Begun, Claim Hackers
Mark Townsend, Paul Harris in New York, Alex Duval Smith in Johannesburg, Dan Sabbagh, Josh Halliday – The Guardian,
13 Dec 2010
As Julian Assange is held in solitary confinement at Wandsworth prison, the anonymous community of hacktivists takes to the cyber battlefields.
→ read full articlePeacekeeping: A Civilian Perspective?
Stean Auguste Nkumb Tshiband – Journal of Conflictology,
13 Dec 2010
How effective are peacekeeping operations in preventing and stopping violence? Is there an alternative to UN and regional peacekeeping operations? Would civilian unarmed peace operations be the best alternative? These and similar questions are fed into the ongoing debate on peace operations and the possibility of civilian alternatives to current peace operations. This article presents an analysis of the development of civilian peacekeeping, its relevance in the field of conflict resolution and its autonomy from multidimensional peacekeeping, championed by the UN and regional organizations. Written by a scholar of Peace and Conflict Research with practical experience in both UN Peacekeeping Operations and “civilian peacekeeping” missions, it gives practical and theoretical insights into traditional, multidimensional and civilian peacekeeping.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks and the First Global Condom War
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
This is an exploration of the curious mirroring between the role of Julian Assange, as the founder of WikiLeaks, and that of the US as the world’s currently acclaimed sole superpower. As is now typical of any global crisis, many are now focused on who to blame and whether they can be neutralized or eliminated — getting the justice they deserve — whilst others complicit in the process escape with impunity, honours and rewards as the exemplification of the universal values of humanity.
→ read full articleRabbis Say ‘No Housing for Arabs’
Mya Guarnieri – Al Jazeera,
13 Dec 2010
Hundreds of Israeli rabbis have signed a religious edict forbidding Jews from renting or selling homes to Arabs.
→ read full article(Castellano) Belicismo en el Premio Nobel por la paz
Manuel E. Yepe – Argenpress,
13 Dec 2010
Noruega tiene un per cápita de tropas en la OTAN mayor que cualquiera otro de los 28 Estados miembros. En una conferencia de parlamentarios europeos que tuvo lugar el pasado año, el actual presidente del Comité del Premio Nobel por la Paz expuso con crudeza: “Cuando no somos capaces de detener a una tiranía, la guerra comienza. Es por ello que la OTAN es indispensable.
→ read full articleHaitian Diary: SOPUDEP and Local Organisation
Sokari Ekine – Pambazuka News,
13 Dec 2010
As she visits Haiti, Sokari Ekine writes of the history behind the community-run SOPUDEP school, the efforts of local organisations to organise in response to the devastation of the country’s earthquake, a micro-credit scheme and people’s broad lack of faith in the power of the current elections to promote change.
→ read full article“Miami Rice”: The Business of Disaster in Haiti
Beverly Bell and Tory Field – Common Dreams,
13 Dec 2010
What is at stake in Haiti? What interests underlie the grab for power in the country? One answer is the large amount of aid and development dollars that are circulating. Among those benefiting handsomely from the disaster aid are U.S. corporations who have accessed U.S. government contracts. Below is the tale of one U.S. corporation and its subsidiaries, who have received contracts which involve both a conflict of interest and harm to one of Haiti’s largest and most vulnerable social sectors, small farmers.
→ read full article
Professor Johan Galtung on Nuclear Weapons as Theological Statements
TalkWorks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
TalkWorksEXTRA Films 2010: A virtual forum of leading experts and policy makers talking about the way forward for nuclear disarmament and sustainable global security
→ read full articleBolivia: Cancun Deal is Hollow and False – Its Cost Will Be Measured in Human Lives
Plurinational State of Bolivia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
A so-called victory for multilateralism is really a victory for the rich nations who bullied and cajoled other nations into accepting a deal on their terms. The richest nations offered us nothing new in terms of emission reductions or financing, and instead sought at every stage to backtrack on existing commitments, and include every loophole possible to reduce their obligation to act. While developing nations – those that face the worst consequences of climate change – pleaded for ambition, we were instead offered the “realism” of empty gestures. Proposals by powerful countries like the US were sacrosanct, while ours were disposable.
→ read full article
Doha Debates: This House Would Prefer Money to Free Elections
Tim Sebastian - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
The Doha Debates ask whether people prefer to make money and leave politics to the elite.
→ read full articleJeremy Scahill Testifies Before Congress on America’s Secret Wars
The Nation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
Editor’s Note: Nation national security correspondent Jeremy Scahill today [9 Dec 2010] testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the US’s shadow wars in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. His complete testimony is below. – While some of the Special Forces missions are centered around training of militaries in allied nations, that line is often blurred. In some cases, “training” is used as a cover for unilateral, direct action. As a former special ops guy told me: “It’s often done under the auspices of training so that they can go anywhere. It’s brilliant. It is essentially what we did in the 60s. Remember the ‘training mission’ in Vietnam? That’s how it morphs.”
→ read full articleDarwinism Dead at 150
Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
The concept that natural selection provides the foundation for evolutionary change has long been challenged for its failure to explain how different forms arises in nature, but only how they may be favored once they do arise. Through the work of scientists like Motoo Kimura, Tomoko Ohta [Theoretical aspects of population genetics, Motoo Kimura and Tomoko Ohta (1971)] and others, it has been concluded both theoretically and empirically that natural selection has little or no effect on the vast majority of the genomes of most living organisms…. It was Darwin, himself who explained how he should be buried: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”
→ read full articleUS Involvement in Iraq: A Lot of Blood for Little Oil
Cordula Meyer – Der Spiegel,
13 Dec 2010
Contrary to what many people believe, the Iraq war provided few advantages for the US oil industry. The diplomatic cables show that, in most cases, it was competitors to the Americans who often did better in the country. Only one US company truly profited: Halliburton.
→ read full articleSovereign State of Palestine: Asset to Middle East Peace
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
The struggle in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians has been going on for decades. In the spiritual sphere, they both claim by all means to be the descendants of Abraham, viewing God as their Father. The question that needs to be raised here is this: To what extent do they respect and love this divine Father? The deepest sorrow that good parents may possibly experience is to see their children being hurt and deprived from good opportunities in life.
→ read full articleArgentina Joins Brazil in Recognition of Palestinian State
Haaretz Service and Natasha Mozgovaya – Haaretz,
13 Dec 2010
Argentine President sends Abbas letter stating it recognizes Palestine defined by 1967 borders; Uruguay says it will recognize Palestine in 2011; Israel calls announcement ‘regrettable’.
→ read full articleObama’s Israel Policy: Speak Softly and Carry a Very Big Carrot
Maidhc Ó Cathail – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
Even those familiar with the long and shameful history of America’s appeasement of Israel were taken aback by the Obama administration’s extraordinary offer to Netanyahu. In exchange for a paltry one-off 90 day freeze on illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), Israel will get 20 F-35 stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion and a slew of other goodies. Yet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly gave up to eight hours with Netanyahu trying to persuade him to accept “one of the most generous bribes ever bestowed by the United States on any foreign power.”
→ read full articleWhatever…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
A father told his young son, “You have gotten a little sister.”
→ read full articleHow Journalists Help to Promote War – And What Can Be Done To Stop It
Daniel Trilling interviewing John Pilger – New Statesman,
13 Dec 2010
The War You Don’t See is about the media’s role in promoting and sanitising contemporary wars. Why make this film at this particular moment?
→ read full articleWikiLeaks and the Worldwide Information War: Power, Propaganda, and the Global Political Awakening
Andrew Gavin Marshall – Global Research,
13 Dec 2010
The recent release of the 250,000 WikiLeaks documents has provoked unparalleled global interest, both positive, negative, and everywhere in between. One thing that can be said with certainty: WikiLeaks is changing things.
→ read full articleThe OSCE Looks East
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
The OSCE remains very much a governmental organization. Unlike the United Nations where the UN Secretariat members come from a wide range of backgrounds, the OSCE Secretariat is made up of national diplomats or other national civil servants such as the police. Many will return to national posts after serving at the OSCE. There is less a spirit of being world civil servants than there is at the UN.
→ read full articleThe Seven Myths of ‘Slums’
Adam Parsons – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2010
Conventional thinking on development issues is often characterised by many assumptions, clichés and rationalisations about the residents of slums. In challenging some of these core myths, we can focus on the structural causes of urban poverty that result in the rapid growth of informal settlements.
→ read full articleMr. Fish’s Cartoons
Truthdig – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Dec 2010
Wanted
Julian Assange wanted for…
Global Domestic Policy – And WikiLeaks
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Dec 2010
Nor is class fading out: the world upper classes enrich themselves in the financial system, greatly aided by the International Monetary Fund–and the world lower classes use the drug system for similar purposes, as acted out in Rio de Janeiro. Two perverse systems coming out of the absurdity of world hyper capitalism, supported by a fading empire. We need and deserve something better, nothing perfect, but much better. We cannot build globalization on such absurdities.
→ read full article