Articles by M
We found 37259 results.
War Hawk or Deficit Hawk? You Cannot Be Both
Michael True – Common Dreams,
9 May 2011
Must we, as a people, squander our wealth and our young people in wars of conquest and intervention, financing 1,000 military bases around the world, funding corrupt dictatorships, and imposing “democracy” on countries whether they want it or not? Going along to get along, Democrats and Republicans support policies that justify torture, undermine the right of habeas corpus, destabilize unions, abandon our once-admired educational system, and neglect our own people.
→ read full articleOsama bin Laden’s Death: Celebrating the Celebrations
Peter Maass – The New Yorker,
9 May 2011
Photos were featured on newspaper front pages and websites this week of jubilant college students celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death, which weren’t so different from images of young Muslims elsewhere burning our flag and shouting ‘Death to America!’ Yet both those burning the American flag and the flag-wrapped college kids do not represent their societies’ majority views. These images could be just as inflammatory as the photo of bin Laden President Obama refuses to release.
→ read full articleBrazil Supreme Court Awards Gay Couples New Rights
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
5 May, 2011 – Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals. The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention. The ruling will give gay couples in “stable” partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships.
→ read full articleEscalation of a “Humanitarian” War
Nicole Colson & Alan Maass – Socialist Worker,
9 May 2011
THE U.S.-led military operation in Libya has morphed from the initial imposition of a “no-fly zone,” ostensibly to prevent Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime from carrying out a massacre, into an ongoing bombing campaign with no end in sight–and now there’s increasing talk of the use of ground forces until Qaddafi is overthrown and a new government, no doubt Western-approved, takes his place. This transformation of the aims of the intervention–often called “mission creep”–helps to further expose the deception that “humanitarian” concerns is motivating the U.S. or its European allies.
→ read full article(Castellano) Osama: Insignificante
Fernando Montiel T. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
El asesinato de Osama bin Laden es insignificante porque en nada afectará el modo de operar de esa entelequia a la que el mundo conoce como Al Qaeda. Y la razón es simple: Al-Qaeda no es un grupo estructurado y controlado de forma centralizada, es decir, Al-Qaeda no es una organización sino un movimiento. No es monolítico en su estructura ni jerarquizado en su control y comando. Esto es bien sabido desde hace años. “Todos somos Marcos” fue el grito de batalla de todos los simpatizantes de la causa indígena en su momento.
→ read full articleIs the Arab Spring a Black Swan?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2011
Having just visited Egypt for a week I came away with this dual sense that the revolutionary dynamics have produced remarkable results that form a glorious chapter of Egyptian history, but also that there are a variety of dark forces that are working under the radar to contain if not reverse this exhilirating democratizing momentum.
→ read full articleSupport the Palestinian Unity Government
Jimmy Carter – The Washington Post,
9 May 2011
This is a decisive moment. Under the auspices of the Egyptian government, Palestine’s two major political movements — Fatah and Hamas — are signing a reconciliation agreement on Wednesday [4 May 2011] that will permit both to contest elections for the presidency and legislature within a year. If the United States and the international community support this effort, they can help Palestinian democracy and establish the basis for a unified Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that can make a secure peace with Israel.
→ read full article
Zionist Backpack Squatters Evict Palestinian Grandma from Her Home Forcefully
bdsmovement.net - TMS Editor,
9 May 2011
Imagine this being your grandma. How would it make you feel? They do this as a matter of course, without humanity or sentiment; like animals.
→ read full articleMy Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death
Noam Chomsky – Guernica Magazine,
9 May 2011
We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Operation Geronimo: The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”
→ read full articleJSOC: The Black Ops Force That Took Down Bin Laden
Jeremy Scahill - The Nation,
9 May 2011
The team of US Special Operations Forces who killed Osama bin Laden in a pre-dawn raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, were led by elite Navy SEALS from the Joint Special Operations Command. Operators from SEAL Team Six, also known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or just DevGru, are widely considered to be the most elite warriors in the US national security apparatus.
→ read full articleA Human Right to Resist
Maciej Bartkowski and Annyssa Bellal – Open Democracy,
9 May 2011
Civil resistance – popular nonviolent struggle waged by ordinary people against dictatorship, foreign intervention, colonial occupation, corruption, or injustice with the use of diverse methods of nonviolent action – is by no means a new phenomenon. It has been practiced in a strategic manner for at least two centuries…
→ read full article
TRANSCEND Member Vandana Shiva on Nuclear and Coal Energy, George Monbiot and More [Part 1 of 2] (Video of the Week)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
2 May 2011
On Earth Day, Democracy Now! interviews Vandana Shiva, prominent activist, environmental leader, feminist and thinker from India. Shiva discusses the anti-nuclear movement in India, which has gained momentum over stopping the construction of a new six-reactor nuclear power station, the largest in the world, in Jaitapur. She called Monbiot’s view arrogant as he ‘rubbishes’ views and positions adopted by governments worldwide as well as studies from thousands of scientists and physicists, herself included, just because he has a newspaper column.
→ read full article
TRANSCEND Member Vandana Shiva on the Corporatization, Commodification and Marketization of Nature [Part 2 of 2] (Video of the Week)
Amy Goodman – Democracy NOW!,
2 May 2011
“Democracy under corporate control has mutated from of the people, by the people, for the people into of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations. So it is the democratic rights of the people and the earth versus the fictitious corporate rights that corporations have assigned to themselves”.
→ read full articleLibya: It’s Not About Oil, It’s About Currency and Loans
John Perkins – Information Clearing House,
2 May 2011
The US, the other G-8 countries, the World Bank, IMF, BIS, and multinational corporations do not look kindly on leaders who threaten their dominance over world currency markets or who appear to be moving away from the international banking system that favors the corporatocracy.
→ read full articleHow Will the Empire End?
Anthony Gregory – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
2 May 2011
Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope, by Chalmers Johnson (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010); 212 pages.The empire will end – but how? With a bang, a whimper, a thud? Will it be peaceful, as with the Soviet Union? The people of the British Isles chose democracy over imperialism. “It is hard to imagine any sector of the American economy more driven by ideology, delusion, and propaganda than the armed services.” But “the estimated trillion dollars we spend each year on the military and its weaponry is simply unsustainable.”
→ read full articleAre Auto Makers Still Killing the Electric Car? The Electric Car Strikes Back?
Kiera Butler – Mother Jones,
2 May 2011
The director of Who Killed the Electric Car? on his new film, his personal fleet, and why he thinks EVs are ready to rise from the dead.
→ read full articlePalestinian Factions in Reconciliation Bid
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Fatah and Hamas agree to form interim government and fix general election date following talks in Cairo. With the US keeping a distance, Israel not delivering the goods on the peace process and the settlements, it was time for Palestinians to come together and agree on what they basically agreed on almost a year and a half ago. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said on Wednesday [27 Apr 2011] that “the Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both.”
→ read full articleThe Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill
Nick Buxton – Yes! Magazine,
2 May 2011
A new law expected to pass in Bolivia mandates a fundamental ecological reorientation of the nation’s economy and society.
→ read full articleHuman Rights Record of United States in 2010
China Daily – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 on April 8, 2011. As in previous years, the reports are full of distortions and accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. However, the United States turned a blind eye to its own terrible human rights situation and seldom mentioned it. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 is prepared to urge the United States to face up to its own human rights issues.
→ read full articleThe Credit Rating Hoax
William Greider – The Nation,
2 May 2011
Standard & Poor’s, the self-righteous credit-rating agency, has a damn lot of nerve. It provoked scary headlines by solemnly threatening to “short” America. That is, downgrade the credit-worthiness of US Treasury bonds unless Congress and the president oblige creditors by punishing the citizenry with severe budget cuts. What a load of crap.
→ read full articleWhat Are They Afraid of?
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
For some peculiar reason, both Zionists and UK Jewish so-called ‘anti Zionists’, insist that discussing ‘Jewishness’ is a taboo which should never be explored, certainly not in public, and definitely never outside of the ghetto. UK Event: Zionism, Jewishness and Israel – Tuesday, May 3 • 6:30pm – 8:30pm – University Of Westminster, Cavendish Campus – A panel discussion examining Israeli Criminality in the wake of the Goldstone Retract – Alan Hart, Gilad Atzmon and others.
→ read full articleThe Middle East’s Oldest Dictatorship
Marwan Bishara – Al Jazeera,
2 May 2011
As the conventional wisdom goes – especially in the West – Israel is the “only democracy” in the Middle East. However, Israel has been anything but democratic for the indigenous people of the land, the Palestinian Arabs. By nature and precedence, foreign military occupation is temporary. Colonialism on the other hand, and more precisely civilian colonisation, is a socio-political system of ruling over another people.
→ read full articleIsrael Withholds Palestinian Cash Transfer
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Israel will hold up an $89 million cash transfer to the Palestinian Authority [PA] planned for this week because of a new unity deal between rival Palestinian factions. “Israel wants assurances that any money transferred to the Palestinians will not reach the militant Hamas organisation, which is set to become part of the Palestinian government,” Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli finance minister, said on Sunday [1 May 2011].
→ read full articleUrging the U.N. Security Council to Establish a “No Fly Zone” Over Gaza under the Principle of “Responsibility to Protect”
TMS Editor,
2 May 2011
Please Sign the Petition
→ read full articleA Mother’s Call for the Re-awakening
Nirmanusan Balasundaram - GroundViews,
2 May 2011
Mrs. B. Thilagamani began her nonviolent resistant activism when she was 18 years old and played a key role during the 1961 Satyagraha Campaign. During that campaign, Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLAF) brutally retaliated against the nonviolent protesters. In the SLAF terror campaign of 18 April 1961 Thilagamani was sprayed with tear gas and her sari was partly burnt. Today, 18 April 2011, marks her 50 symbolic years in nonviolent activism.
→ read full articleCulture of Complicity Tied to Stricken Nuclear Plant
Norimitsu Onishi & Ken Belson – The New York Times,
2 May 2011
In 2000, Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese-American nuclear inspector who had done work for General Electric at Daiichi, told Japan’s main nuclear regulator about a cracked steam dryer that he believed was being concealed. If exposed, the revelations could have forced the operator, Tokyo Electric Power, to do what utilities least want to do: undertake costly repairs. What happened next was an example, critics have since said, of the collusive ties that bind the nation’s nuclear power companies, regulators and politicians.
→ read full article(Italian) Decollano da Sigonella i Predator Contro la Libia
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Operano da Sigonella gli aerei senza pilota UAV MQ-1 Predator che il Pentagono ha destinato per le operazioni di bombardamento in Libia. La notizia, filtrata nei giorni scorsi su alcuni quotidiani statunitensi, ha trovato l’autorevole conferma dell’International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) di Londra.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Acordo entre a Fatah e o Hamas na Palestina
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Principais facções vão formar um governo transitório de personalidades independentes e realizar eleições presidenciais e legislativas dentro de um ano. Decisão pode facilitar o reconhecimento da ONU ao Estado Palestiniano.
→ read full article(Italian) Aosta. Un 25 Aprile Giovane
Silvia Berruto, antifascista – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Imane El Baladi, 18 anni insieme ad Andrea Lamberti, 19, sono i due giovani studenti protagonisti del 25 aprile 2011 ad Aosta (Italy). Entrambi hanno fatto una scelta di impegno civile. Entrambi, con emozione ed entusiasmo giovanili, sono stati i protagonisti sinceri di un giovane 25 aprile 2011 ad Aosta che la cittadinanza, e non solo, non dimenticherà facilmente.
→ read full articleSwazi Village Tastes Sweet Success with Sugarcane
Mantoe Phakathi – TerraViva Europe,
2 May 2011
The previously impoverished community of Malibeni, previously ravaged by drought, is bustling with farmers who have transformed the area into a bread basket. Lush green fields of sugarcane and vegetables have replaced an expanse of dry shrubs near this community in northeastern Swaziland.
→ read full articleGuantanamo’s Child Soldiers
Gregor Peter Schmitz – Der Spiegel,
2 May 2011
The Guantanamo files reveal many of the inmates in the controversial detention camp were under 18 at the time of their capture and that the charges against them were often based on hearsay. Even detainees who US interrogators admitted were innocent had to wait a long time before being freed.
→ read full articleSource of Life and Energy in the Industrial World
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Source may refer to something without which anything that depends on it cannot exist. In other words, when it comes to the solution of a problem, we must try to get first to the source that originates it. Otherwise, it may keep on repeating itself.
→ read full articleThe Four Horsemen behind the Oil Wars
Dean Henderson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The Four Horsemen have interlocking directorates with the international mega-banks. Exxon Mobil shares board members with JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and Prudential. Chevron Texaco has interlocks with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. BP Amoco shares directors with JP Morgan Chase. RD/Shell has ties with Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, N. M. Rothschild & Sons and Bank of England. Former Citibank chairman Walter Shipley sat on Exxon Mobil’s board, as did Wayne Calloway of Citigroup and Allen Murray of JP Morgan Chase. Willard Butcher of Chase sat on the board of Chevron Texaco. Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan came from Morgan Guaranty Trust and served on the board of Mobil. BP Amoco director Lewis Preston went on to become president of the World Bank.
→ read full articleCheck-Up
TMS Editor,
2 May 2011
An 85-year-old man was requested by his doctor for a sperm count as part of his physical exam.
→ read full articleThe Guantánamo Papers
The New York Times, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Innocent men were picked up on the basis of scant or nonexistent evidence and subjected to lengthy detention and often to abuse and torture. Some people were released who later acted against the United States. Inmates who committed suicide were regarded only as a public relations problem. There are seriously dangerous prisoners at Guantánamo who cannot be released but may never get a real trial because the evidence is so tainted. Hampered by ideologues and cowards in Congress, President Obama has made scant progress in healing it.
→ read full articleEgypt Warns Israel: Don’t Interfere With Opening of Gaza Border Crossing
Haaretz Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Sami Anan warned Israel against interfering with Egypt’s plan to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on a permanent basis, saying it was not a matter of Israel’s concern, Army Radio reported on Saturday [30 Apr 2011]. Egypt announced this week that it intended to permanently open the border crossing with Gaza within the next few days.
→ read full articleVoyager, the Love Story
Dr. Tony Phillips, Science NASA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
April 28, 2011: NASA’s Voyager probes are at the edge of the solar system carrying a message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations. Highlights include greetings from humans and whales, some of Earth’s greatest music, and the brainwaves of a young woman in love. Rewind to 1977.
→ read full articleSorry but it’s not YOUR project
How Matters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
I’m talking about possessive adjectives. MINE – YOURS – ITS – HERS – HIS – OURS – THEIRS – WHOSE. Let’s be honest. How many of you, when talking to a friend, another NGO colleague, or donor refers to “our program” in [insert Country X or District Y or Village Z]? But let me ask you something – Do you live in Country X or District Y or Village Z?
→ read full articleOne Word
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
BINYAMIN NETANYAHU is jubilant already. The ink was not yet dry on the preliminary agreement initialed in Cairo, when Netanyahu made a solemn speech on TV, something like an address to the nation after an historic event. “You have to choose between us and Hamas,” he told the Palestinian Authority. That would not be too difficult – one the one side a brutal occupation regime, on the other Palestinian brothers with a different ideology.
→ read full articleBoxed In
Andrew Thomas – Al Jazeera,
2 May 2011
Now Australia’s Federal government is demanding cigarettes are sold in ‘plain packaging’. Regardless of brand, those elements of the box not covered by off-putting pictures will have to be olive green – research suggests that’s the colour least appealing to consumers. The name of the brand, and product name, will have to be in a uniform font, in tiny writing at the base of the box. For tobacco companies, this is a big deal. Worldwide, they already operate an ostracised industry.
→ read full articleLibya and the Imperial Re-Division of Africa
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
2 May 2011
Plans to attack Libya have been longstanding. The imperial war machine of the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and their NATO allies is involved in a new military adventure that parallels the events that led to the wars against Yugoslavia and Iraq. The war machine has been mobilized under the cover of “humanitarian intervention.”
→ read full article
ScienceCasts: Voyager
ScienceAtNASA – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
More than 30 years after they were launched, NASA’s two Voyager probes have traveled to the edge of the solar system and are on the doorstep of interstellar space.
→ read full articleThis Modern World: Two Guys Standing on an Incline
Tom Tomorrow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Award-winning cartoonist Tom Tomorrow depicts America’s slippery slope on Libya.
→ read full articleBurkina Faso: Organic Cotton Under Threat from GM Cotton
Inoussa Maiga, Farm Radio – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
Producers and project staff are worried about the future of organic cotton. What concerns them is the jump in plantings of genetically modified or GM cotton. By 2009, genes from GM crops had been found in organic cotton. At that time, only 10% of conventional cotton farmers were growing GM varieties. But with the massive spread of GM cotton in 2010, almost 90% of conventional producers now grow GM cotton.
→ read full articleHueys over Yemen
Nick Turse – TomDispatch,
2 May 2011
How to Arm a Dictator – In recent weeks, Yemeni protesters calling for an immediate end to the 32-year reign of U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been met with increasing violence. Some of the military helicopters used in the crackdown may be recent additions to Saleh’s arsenal, provided courtesy of the Obama administration as part of an $83-million military aviation aid package. Despite weeks of violence and hundreds dead or wounded, President Obama has yet to publicly and unequivocally call for Saleh to step down as he did, albeit belatedly, with former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and, more recently, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
→ read full articleThe Guantánamo Files: Leaks Lift Lid on World’s Most Controversial Prison
David Leigh, James Ball, Ian Cobain and Jason Burke - The Guardian,
2 May 2011
• Innocent people interrogated for years on slimmest pretexts
• Children, elderly and mentally ill among those wrongfully held
• 172 prisoners remain, some with no prospect of trial or release
• Interactive guide to all 779 detainees
(Castellano) Se Recrudece el Terrorismo de Estado en Bahréin
Kanya D'Almeida – periodismohumano,
2 May 2011
Las organizaciones de derechos humanos denuncian despidos masivo por razones políticas, redadas nocturas, secuestros o arrestos masivos de manifestantes pacíficos. Amnistía Internacional ha pedido que la comunidad internacional intervenga para proteger a la población civil.
→ read full articleAn Opportunity for Peace That Must Not Be Squandered
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The EU made a serious mistake five years ago when it refused to recognise Hamas.
→ read full articleThe Tragic Fate of the Baghdad Museum
Enrique Gonzalez-Manet - Pravda,
2 May 2011
Only the memory remains of the creations, mostly carvings and sculptures, which were left by the primary creators from the times of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Hittites, almost 3,000 years BC. This has been one of the consequences of the invasion and conquest of Iraq by the Empire a few years ago. They left nothing of value except the winged lions of granite because they weigh 25 tons each. Pieces that are real jewels of the most remote antiquity have begun to appear in Los Angeles and New York.
→ read full articlePanamanian Corruption Concealed Amidst Free Trade Negotiations
Eric Jackson, Panama News - Council on Hemispheric Affairs-COHA,
2 May 2011
Obama welcomes Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli in the midst of major scandal and corruption in Panama. Once again, Obama falls short of his commitments to Latin America as he collaborates with Martinelli to negotiate a flawed trade agreement. It’s not possible to have a reliable anti-drug ally in a Panamanian government that is in bed with the mob.
→ read full articleUS, EU & Media’s Complicity in Crimes against Humanity: Bahrain’s Secret Terror
Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor – The Independent,
2 May 2011
Desperate emails speak of ‘genocide’ as doctors who have treated injured protesters are rounded up. The intimidation and detention of doctors treating dying and injured pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain is revealed today [21 Apr 2011] in a series of chilling emails obtained by The Independent.
→ read full article(Castellano) Sólo la Resistencia Pacífica Dará la Victoria a los Palestinos
Carmen Rengel – TeleSur,
2 May 2011
Mil personas de dan cita en Bil’in, Cisjordania, el epicentro de las protestas no violentas contra la ocupación israelí, en la sexta conferencia anual. Cooperantes y líderes sociales lamentan la imposibilidad de reproducir revoluciones como la egipcia ante la dura represión de Tel Aviv. Israel mantiene en vigor una Ley de Emergencia desde 1948, que abre la puerta a la supresión de derechos esenciales.
→ read full articleGuidelines in Response to Degrees of Anti-social Behaviour: Airline Passengers and Children as a Case Study
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The argument has implications for those obliged to spend time in closed environments where they are exposed to various levels of disruptive behaviour, including bullying and harassment: prisons, military, schools, work environments, etc. Especially relevant is the disempowerment experienced by those exposed to such behaviour and the rights assumed by those engaging in it — and the complicity of those aware of such behaviour.
→ read full articleMumia Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence Declared Unconstitutional
Amy Goodman - Truthdig,
2 May 2011
The death penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal took a surprising turn this week, as a federal appeals court declared, for the second time, that Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was unconstitutional. While the disputes surrounding Abu-Jamal’s guilt or innocence were not addressed, the case highlights inherent problems with the death penalty and the criminal justice system, especially the role played by race.
→ read full articleIMF Bombshell: Age of America Nears End
Brett Arends, MarketWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed: China’s economy will surpass the U.S. in 2016. For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Revelations: A View Deep Inside Guantanamo
John Goetz, Marcel Rosenbach and Britta Sandberg – Der Spiegel,
2 May 2011
The latest documents obtained from WikiLeaks provide an inside view of a highly controversial system: More than 700 classified US government files on the prisoners held at Guantanamo show how lax the American military was in its dealings with the facts. SPIEGEL has analyzed the documents.
→ read full articleCivil Society Stand In Solidarity with African Negotiators: “Developed Countries, Put Up or Shut Up”
Third World Network Africa – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
At a press conference hosted by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), a network of over 300 organisations from over 45 countries, civil society leaders stood in solidarity with African negotiators. These negotiators were continuing to fight against the EU’s refusal to sign up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and against the United State’s blocking tactics over the adoption of a comprehensive work plan for the negotiations for 2011.
→ read full articleSyria: The Downward Spiral
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2011
The United Nations has tried to stop the downward spiral of Syria into repression and potential chaos. It has been five weeks that what began as peaceful protests and demands for limited reforms have been increasingly met by government violence. Discussions on what the UN could do to help the Syrian people and to speed up necessary reforms started in both New York and Geneva.
→ read full article
Seeding Deep Democracy – Vandana Shiva (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Ecological Options Network-EON - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Member of TRANSCEND scientist, activist, author Vandana Shiva talks about the importance of saving non-GMO seeds and her concept of ‘Earth Democracy.’
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Islândia Põe os Seus Banqueiros na Prisão
Claudi Pérez, El País – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
“A primeira vítima da crise financeira constitui-se como uma valente tentativa de pedir responsabilidades”. Claudi Pérez (El País) conta neste artigo a história da ascensão e da queda da economia islandesa.
→ read full articleThree Myths of Israel’s Insecurity: And Why They Must Be Debunked
Ira Chernus - TomDispatch,
25 Apr 2011
Most Zionists have been unable to see that once they founded a state committed to regional military superiority, they were bound to be on the receiving as well as the giving end of acts of war. It is the absence of peace far more than the presence of anti-semitism that renders Israelis who live near Gaza or in the West Bank insecure. However, according to the myth, it’s not only physical violence that threatens Israel’s existence. In the last two years, right-wing Israelis and their supporters in the U.S. have learned to lie awake at night worrying about another threat…
→ read full articleStaying Human: The Heroic Legacy of Vittorio Arrigoni
Ramzy Baroud – Global Research,
25 Apr 2011
“No matter how (we) will finish the mission…it will be a victory. For human rights, for freedom. If the siege will not (be) physically broken, it will break the siege of the indifference, the abandonment. And you know very well what this gesture is important for the people of Gaza. That said, obviously we are waiting at the port! With hundreds of Palestinians and ISM comrades we will come to meet you sailing, as was the first time, remember? All available boats will sail to Gaza to greet you. Sorry for my bad English…big hug…Stay Human. Yours, Vik”
→ read full articleBP Anniversary: Toxicity, Suffering and Death
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
25 Apr 2011
April 20, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of BP’s catastrophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. At least 4.9 million barrels of BP’s oil would eventually be released into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was capped 87 days later. BP has used at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic dispersants to [try unsuccessfully to] sink the oil. Marine and wildlife biologists, toxicologists, and medical doctors have described the impact of the disaster upon the environment and human health as “catastrophic.” This is only the beginning of that what they expect to be an environmental and human health crisis that will likely span decades.
→ read full articleWorld Citizens Call For a Thai-Cambodian Peace Zone: From Periodic Flair-Ups to Permanent Cooperation
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The World Citizens’ proposal for a Thai-Cambodian peace zone is based on a “peace park-condominium zone of peace” between Ecuador and Peru proposed by Professor Johan Galtung at a time of growing military confrontations between the two South American countries and published in his collection of peace proposals: Johan Galtung, 50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives (Transcend University Press, 2008, 263 pp.)
→ read full articleThe Fukushima, Japan Mega-Disaster (updated)
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The Fukushima, Japan Mega-Disaster that occurred on March 11, 2011 (2:45 PM Japan Time) will continue to unfold its tragic consequences for years to come. The tragedy must not pass without extensive public and private discussions and reports of the lessons learned from the disaster.
→ read full articleIs the World Too Big to Fail? The Contours of Global Order
Noam Chomsky - TomDispatch,
25 Apr 2011
The current economic crisis is traceable in no small measure to the fanatic faith in such dogmas as the efficient market hypothesis, to what Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, 15 years ago, called the “religion” that markets know best — which prevented the central bank and the economics profession from taking notice of an $8 trillion housing bubble that devastated the economy when it burst. Worse, for example, the new head of a subcommittee on the environment explained that global warming cannot be a problem because God promised Noah that there will not be another flood. All of this, and much more, can proceed as long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
→ read full articleIslamism, Christianism, Judeaism
Johan Galtung, 25 Apr 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Right now the ultimate christian mega-empire fights muslim communities with mega-weapons, drones, cruise and other missiles, fighter-bombers, high on cowardice–protected, few casualties–low on accuracy; the muslims with IEDs at $10 a piece, high on courage and devotion up to suicide, high on accuracy. US empire christianism is fighting not only for the economic-political-military-cultural empire, but also for God’s rule on earth via USA, a country under God, invoking his support. And at the root of it all is Cana’an, Zion, Israel; one land for all the chosen ones, bent on defending itself by all means, nuclear included.
→ read full articleWhat Future for the Goldstone Report? Beyond the Name
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Only half satirically, I would think that the Goldstone Report might be time to rename the Goldstone Report as the Chinkin Report or blandly let it be henceforth be known as the ‘Report on Israeli and Hamas War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity during Operation Cast Lead.’ Whatever the name, the main allegations have been confirmed over and over again, and it is now up to the governments making up the UN General Assembly and Security Council to show the world whether international criminal accountability and the International Criminal Court is exclusively reserved for sub-Saharan African wrongdoing!
→ read full articleMidEast Democracy: Israel’s Diamond in the Rough
Maidhc Ó Cathail – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
“The toppling of Egypt’s modern-day pharaoh through peaceful mass protests, aided by Facebook and Twitter, marks a watershed for Egypt and the entire Arab world,” wrote Larry Diamond, in a noteworthy February 14 op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Contrary to widespread anxieties in the U.S. foreign policy establishment,” the prominent advocate of American taxpayer-funded “democracy promotion” maintained, “it will also serve the long-term interests of the United States—and Israel.
→ read full article
News Media: Rupert Murdoch’s Watergate
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
When a reporter with the British tabloid News of the World was jailed for illegally tapping into the phones of high profile names back in 2007, the newspaper insisted it was the work of a rogue reporter. But as more cases of phone hacking were brought to light and senior News of the World staff members implicated, the company finally conceded that the practice of phone tapping had been widely used within the organisation. It has since publicly apologised to all the victims and has reportedly put around $33mn into a compensation fund. Rupert Murdoch’s Watergate – the phone hacking scandal, the extent of the crime and the implications for News Corp.
→ read full articleBRICS to Show Its Weight at WTO
Marwaan Macan-Markar – Inter Press Service-IPS,
25 Apr 2011
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has, not surprisingly, been singled out as a venue to demonstrate the collective strength of the informal coalition of major emerging economies across three continents – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the BRICS nations. All member countries but Russia are members of the Geneva-based WTO.
→ read full articleRights Groups Slam Bahraini Crackdown
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
“North American and European governments, so vocal recently in espousing the cause of human rights in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, need also to speak out loudly about what is going on in Bahrain,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa. “To avoid the charge of double standards, they must be much more robust in pressing the Bahraini authorities to uphold their international human rights obligations.”
→ read full articleMadagascar: Community Resistance to Corporate Land Theft
Stefan Christoff, farmlandgrab.org – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
In Madagascar grassroots struggles against corporate-driven land grabbing have emerged as a political point of focus in the growing global spotlight on land grabs throughout the global south, a process that the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food says has “negative effects on the right to food as well as other human rights.” Mass scale corporate land occupations are expanding throughout Africa, and Madagascar is an example of the intensity of the corporate push for national lands but also on the ability for communities to resist such land grabbing.
→ read full articleMeritocracy: A Myth?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
If you are anti-imperialist, ‘Third Worldist’ type – like I unapologetically am – it may warm your heart to know that historically Oxford produced the highest number of folks who gave the rest of the world ‘the British Empire’, which among other things grew opium in India for export to China – as a brilliant economic policy to address the Raj’s trade deficit. (Cambridge was the runner up). Often our own Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is talked about as ‘Oxford-educated’ as if her Oxford education turned her into who she is and what she is made of. As a matter of fact, it was/is her (self-acknowledged) awareness of her parents’ exemplary lives as citizens that was/is her source of inspiration.
→ read full articleWhen War Games Go Live: “Staging” a “Humanitarian War” against “SOUTHLAND”
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
25 Apr 2011
Military operations of this size and magnitude are never improvised. The war on Libya as well as the armed insurrection were planned months prior to the Arab protest movement…
→ read full article(Português) Portugal: O Triunfo dos Agiotas – Uma História de Gangsters
Alfredo Barroso, Informação – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Sovado pelas agências de rating, Portugal atirou a toalha. Quando sairmos das mãos do FMI não teremos à espera os fundos comunitários que foram a alegria do cavaquismo
→ read full articleSleepwalking into the Imperial Dark
Tom Engelhardt – TomDispatch,
25 Apr 2011
But then, how often do empires end well, really? They live vampirically by feeding off others until, sooner or later, they begin to feed on themselves, to suck their own blood, to hollow themselves out. Sooner or later, they find themselves, as in our case, economically stressed and militarily extended in wars they can’t afford to win or lose.
→ read full articleFukushima Residents Seek Answers amid Mixed Signals from Media, TEPCO and Government
Makiko Segawa in Fukushima - The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus,
25 Apr 2011
Report from the Radiation Exclusion Zone
→ read full articleMartelly-Clinton Seal Deal for Next Wave of Disaster Capitalism in Haiti
Kanya D’Almeida – Inter Press Service-IPS,
25 Apr 2011
Miles from his island nation’s earthquake-ravaged capital city Port-au-Prince, Haitian president elect Michel Martelly exchanged warm handshakes and heartfelt promises with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington Wednesday, just prior to the formal announcement of the pop star’s victory in the highly-contested Mar. 20 election.
→ read full articleWorld Bank President: ‘One Shock Away From Crisis’
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The president of the World Bank has warned that the world is “one shock away from a full-blown crisis”. Robert Zoellick cited rising food prices as the main threat to poor nations who risk “losing a generation”. He was speaking in Washington at the end of the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
→ read full articleUK: The Endgames of Our Empire Never Quite Finished – Just Look At Bahrain
Madeleine Bunting – The Guardian,
25 Apr 2011
It has all the ingredients of a John le Carré novel. For decades there are allegations of terrible abuse during the Mau Mau rebellion; historians are baffled by missing documentation. A court case finally prompts the Foreign Office to discover hundreds of boxes of previously hidden papers stored in a house, Hanslope Park, in Buckinghamshire. They reveal not just the brutality – which historians had already unearthed – but official recognition of the illegal violence and dogged determination to cover it up.
→ read full articleLocal Currencies to Replace Dollar
India Times – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the BRICS group of fastest growing economies – Thursday [14 Apr 2011] signed an agreement to use their own currencies instead of the predominant US dollar in issuing credit or grants to each other.
→ read full article(Italian) Stay Human. Riamaniamo Umani. Per Vik
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Prima della lettura costante del blog di Vittorio, prima ancora della lettura di “Gaza. Restiamo umani”, è dai reportages, dalle schegge o dai frame linguistici inviati da Gaza e pubblicati sulle pagine del Manifesto, che leggo quotidianamente dal 1977, che ho potuto apprezzare il pensiero e l’azione Vittorio.
→ read full articlePortugal Negotiates Draconian Bailout Plan
Mario Queiroz – TerraViva Europe,
25 Apr 2011
The strangling of the Portuguese economy by the international capital markets has led to what was expected: a bailout with tough conditions that will bring the country to its knees.
→ read full articleHow the Wheels of This Misadventure Were Oiled
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Tony Blair has always maintained that Iraq’s oil reserves did not cross his mind in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. But Iraq’s abundant oil supplies had certainly crossed the minds of the British energy giant BP. As this newspaper reported yesterday [19 Apr 2011], documents reveal that the oil company discussed Iraq’s fossil fuel reserves in considerable detail with government officials in late 2002.
→ read full articleRoyal Wedding Dance Routine
TMS Editor,
25 Apr 2011
FUNNY – The T-Mobile royal wedding look-alike dance routine.
→ read full article(Italian) Catania-Fontanarossa per la Guerra Contro la Libia
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
C’è chi chiede più aerei, più missili e più bombe, chi vorrebbe lo sbarco dei marines e l’intervento delle forze terrestri. Tutti in ordine sparso, il coordinamento tra i comandi è scarsissimo e le divisioni in ambito NATO si fanno giorno per giorno sempre più evidenti. E alla fine, la “coalizione dei volenterosi” in guerra contro la Libia rischia di trasformarsi in un’armata Brancaleone alla nuova crociata del XXI secolo.
→ read full articleTriumph of Right-Wing Populists: How Dangerous Is Finland to the Euro?
Sven Böll and Maria Marquart – Der Spiegel,
25 Apr 2011
Will the election of right-wing populists in Finland derail the euro rescue package? A Helsinki veto would indeed be expensive for the rest of the euro zone, particularly for Germany. Experts are also warning that other European countries may follow suit if Finland decides to pull out of the euro bailout.
→ read full article
A Brief History of Palestine
TMS Editor,
25 Apr 2011
From its early inception and up to the 1930s, Zionist thinkers propagated the need to ethnically cleanse the indigenous population of Palestine if the dream of a Jewish state were to come true. The preparation for implementing these two goals of statehood and ethnic supremacy accelerated after the Second World War.
→ read full articleSri Lanka ‘War Crimes’ Is ‘Srebrenica Moment’
Channel 4 News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
The former UN spokesman in Sri Lanka Gordon Weiss tells Channel 4 News that a leaked UN report into “credible allegations” of war crimes represent Sri Lanka’s “Srebrenica moment”. A leaked United Nations report estimates that tens of thousands of civilians were killed during the fighting between Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE – known as the Tamil Tigers in 2009. The document cites “credible allegations” that government forces deliberately shelled civilians and repeatedly targeted hospitals. If proven, the allegations amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
→ read full articleRussia: NATO Has Overstepped UN Mandate on Libya
Yevgeny Shestakov, Special to Russia Now – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
At a Berlin meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Russia reiterated its stance that the western alliance’s Libya campaign has overstepped its UN mandate through use of excessive force. It also pressed home concerns in the ongoing issue of missile defences in Europe. “We consider that certain actions by NATO in Libya do not correspond to its mandate, and we would like to investigate this,” Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said after Friday’s [22 Apr 2011] talks.
→ read full articleUnrest in Algeria: The Window is Closing Fast
Lakhdar Ghettas – London School of Economics,
25 Apr 2011
The regime would be making a costly mistake to believe that the chaotic situation in Libya and the fragile one in Tunisia and Egypt would make the west favour stability in Algeria for the simple reason that Algeria cannot escape the ripple effects of the geopolitical earthquakes in the region, two of which on its eastern borders. History is on the march.
→ read full articleTahrir Square, Tel Aviv
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Well, there are surprises in history. Sometimes, when the need arises, peoples can surprise themselves. It can happen here [in Israel]. If it does, it will not surprise those of us who believe in our people. True, Rabin Square is not Tahrir Square. But then, neither was it.
→ read full articleMassive Elicitation of Psychosocial Energy: Requisite Technology for Collective Enlightenment
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Insights arising from the multiple disaster of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan (2011) and from the massive Arab uprisings in the same period. The following discussion is necessarily speculative in an attempt to explore alternative ways of thinking about the “crisis of crises” in all its cognitive complexity — about which there would appear to be a dearth of the much-sought creative “new thinking”.
→ read full articlePerspective on Thai-Cambodia Border Clashes
Emma Leslie – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
This is the moment for Thai and Cambodian leaders to rise above politics, and bring together two nations with shared history, culture and religious traditions, putting people first.
→ read full articleLibya: Use of Depleted Uranium, Partition and Regional Risks
Farouk James – Pambazuka News,
25 Apr 2011
In the wake of NATO’s imposition of the ‘no-fly zone’ over Libya on 31 March 2011, there is serious scepticism around the United States Pentagon’s denial of the use of depleted uranium (DU), writes Farouk James. With the US, the UK and France now calling for a full-scale invasion the veto powers of the UN Security Council’s permanent members should be called into question once again.
→ read full articleMore on Lawyers…
TMS Editor,
25 Apr 2011
How come sharks will not bite lawyers?
→ read full article(French) Le Socialisme Cubain, Cinquante Ans Après
Renaud Lambert – Le Monde Diplomatique,
25 Apr 2011
« Cuba, c’est comme une telenovela de cinquante mille épisodes dont chacun pense que le prochain sera le dernier », résume Fernando Ravsberg, journaliste à la British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Avant d’ajouter, dans un sourire : « Mais elle continue toujours. » Cinquante-deux ans après le « triomphe de la révolution », le volet qui s’ouvre en 2011 débute par un événement et un double anniversaire.
→ read full article(Castellano) EE.UU. Rechaza “Declaración Unilateral” de Estado Palestino por Parte de la ONU
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2011
Estados Unidos (EE.UU.) reiteró este martes [19 Abr 2011] que el pueblo palestino está equivocado si busca que Naciones Unidas (ONU) lo reconozca como Estado independiente sin acuerdo con Israel, esto en el marco del prolongado fracaso en las negociaciones de paz.
→ read full articleClimategate: What Really Happened?
Kate Sheppard – Mother Jones,
25 Apr 2011
How climate science became the target of “the best-funded, best-organized smear campaign by the wealthiest industry that the Earth has ever known.”
→ read full article