Articles by UN
We found 3938 results.
The Politics of Equality
Johan Galtung,
7 May 2012
The less inequality, the easier to sit down and talk it over, or accept a mediator. The less inequality, the easier to clear past traumas, to reconcile. The less inequality, the easier to solve conflicts by trading or compromise, or transcending the issues, finding something new. The less inequality, the easier some cooperation for mutual and equal benefit can come about. The less inequality, the easier for empathy to grow, making parties suffer the other’s suffering, and enjoy the other’s joy. These four–reconciliation, resolution, equity, harmony–are not conditions for peace. They ARE peace.
→ read full articleMemories Conscious and Subconscious
Johan Galtung, 30 Apr 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Two kinds of memories serve politics: glories and traumas. The glories–victory, liberation, constitution–are celebrated as the birth of a nation. The traumas–defeat, invasion-occupation, decline and fall–are surrounded with the oath NEVER AGAIN! We are guided not only by future goals, but also by past memories. They set the discourse, the frame for what happens. Anybody attacking the USA on US territory invokes Pearl Harbor; 9/11 is then sedimented on top of that, tripling the response should there ever be one more. Better know the wounds imprinted on the collective soul
→ read full articleCapitalism: A Ghost Story
Arundhati Roy, Outlook India - The Gandhi Foundation,
30 Apr 2012
Rockefeller to Mandela, Vedanta to Anna Hazare…. How long can the cardinals of corporate gospel buy up our protests?
→ read full articleUSA-Pakistan-Afghanistan: A Global Perspective
Johan Galtung,
24 Apr 2012
Pakistan can probably only survive as a federation with very much autonomy for the parts, and as part of a Central Asian community with eight Muslim neighbors. The more open the border the more will the Durand wound heal, not by Pakistan or Afghanistan yielding territory to the other, or a new Pashtunistan, but more creatively. And that region will be more interested in good relations with China–already owner of enormous resources in Afghanistan–than with the USA.
→ read full article(Castellano) A Coruña: El Concello Retira la Ayuda a los Toros y Solo Habrá Feria si se Autofinancia
G. Malvido & Á. Fernández – La Opinión A Coruña,
23 Apr 2012
El Gobierno local suspende la ayuda a la feria taurina que, cada año durante las dos últimas décadas, se ha desarrollado en agosto. El portavoz municipal, Julio Flores, no descarta que llegue a haber corridas en verano, aunque, eso sí, tendrán que realizarse a cargo de la empresa organizadora y no con dinero público.
→ read full articleCases against Koodankulam Protestors a Parody of Law: Fact Finding Team
Battleground Koodankulam – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
Just between 10 Sep 2011 and 23 Dec 2011, the Police had filed 107 FIRs against 55,795 people. Of this, 6,800 have been charged with “sedition” and/or “waging war against the State,” perhaps the largest ever number in British or independent India for one police station. The recent FIR alleging “attempt to murder” by S.P. Udayakumar, V. Pushparayan and other leaders was fabricated and designed to malign the peaceful movement and its leaders.
→ read full articleThe Meaning of Burma’s Elections
Giles Ji Ungpakorn – Socialist Worker,
16 Apr 2012
A critical assessment of the Burmese military’s attempt to use the veneer of democracy to establish legitimacy for its continued rule.
→ read full articleContinuities in US History
Johan Galtung,
16 Apr 2012
We sense a theme: no recognition of collective actors with a cause. Conflict is seen as rebellion-insurgency-treason of individuals, perhaps with leaders (get them!). A theme inherited from the English: wherever they invaded and occupied, they were law and order and legitimacy; any resistance was insurgency. Up till today, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia. When resistance is equated with rebellion, insurgency and treason, then peacemaking becomes very difficult. There is nobody to sit down with to talk it over, to search for solutions; only rebellious individuals.
→ read full articleWhat Do You Want USA, Up or Down?
Johan Galtung, 9 Apr 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
One wonders what the US political leaders want. The incumbent lives in this world, playing an ultra-realist game: extra-judicial executions in maybe 70 countries, drone attacks; minimizing US losses, maximizing direct hits at what he sees as the problem, concrete identified individuals, not concrete unidentified conflicts. He has neither the moral nor the intellectual courage to do that.
→ read full articleWhat Really Explains Thein Sein Regime’s Current Pursuit of ‘Ceasefire’ with the Karens while Killing the Kachins
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
Obviously, the Burmese generals and ex-generals have outsourced the business of “strategic peace” to its commercial elements – Burmese commercial interests. Investors from Norway, Germany, etc. are licking their lips while the locals do the foreplay with the ethnic virgin lands (and untapped resources).
→ read full articleThe Face of the Crisis – And Alternatives
Johan Galtung, 26 Mar 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
The trade in derivatives is now at $1 quadrillion a year (15 zeros), ten times the industrial economy of the whole 20th century. Many got rich, but the system collapsed. Maybe prison would have been more adequate for intellectual sloppiness? That equation is a part of the closed paradigm of economism. Does it offer a solution, not only for banks and bankers, but for the bottom 99.9%? The 0.1%/99.9% income ratio USA 2007 was 140; an unbelievable inequality, both cause and effect of the crisis.
→ read full articleProject Brings Peace Journalism to Uganda
Steven Youngblood, Peace Portal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
As I taught Peace Journalism in Uganda for five weeks in 2009, I kept hearing from the journalists in my seminars that they liked and needed what I was teaching. However, they emphasized that Uganda needed many more peace journalism lessons. At their urging we put together a proposal for a comprehensive Peace, Development, and Electoral Journalism project for 2010-2011. It’s our hope that this model can replicated elsewhere, since it proved to be such a powerful tool for peace and reconciliation in Uganda.
→ read full articleA New Kind of Anti-Capitalism?
Shaun Harkin – Socialist Worker,
26 Mar 2012
First published in Argentina, Anti-Capitalism: The New Generation of Emancipatory Movements aims to be an accessible guide to understanding what capitalism is, why the “traditional left” failed, and the content, strategies and goals of the new “anti-capitalist” movement. This book aims to be an introduction to ideas that can be termed broadly as “horizontalism.”
→ read full articleSyria
Johan Galtung,
19 Mar 2012
The search could be for solutions, not for the solution. UN-supported facilitators, with knowledge of mediation, rather than with guns and binoculars. To do this, let the parties, outside and inside Syria, talk. Let them state their goals, the Syria they would like to see. What comes to mind is a Swiss solution. One Syria, federal, with local autonomy, even down to the village level, with Sunnis, Shias and Kurds having relations to their own across the borders. And non-aligned, which rules out foreign bases and flows of arms.
→ read full articleMillennium Development Goal Drinking Water Target Met
Danny Schechter – Al Jazeera,
19 Mar 2012
6 Mar 2012 – The world has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, well in advance of the MDG 2015 deadline, according to a report issued today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). Between 1990 and 2010, over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells.
→ read full articleEvangelist Sued in U.S. for Inciting Anti-Gay Hatred in Uganda
Charundi Panagoda and Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service-IPS,
19 Mar 2012
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts Wednesday [14 Mar 2012] on behalf of the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) and against Scott Lively, a right-wing evangelist, for inciting a hatred that has led to increased violence against LGBT persons. He is also the author of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party”, a 1995 book that claimed Nazism was created and propagated by homosexuals, and a second book, “Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”, a how-to guide for parents to “prevent” their children from becoming homosexual.
→ read full articlePeace Mathematics – Does It Exist?
Johan Galtung, 12 Mar 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
It does, even in print; pardon some publicity! You may start at the end with the table of contents, then, here, the book epilogue:
Enthusiast E and Skeptic S: Dialogue at a Higher Level:
S: I worried that you would put something belonging to all of us, peace, into a big machine with parameters and then the machine would produce outputs about what to do. Like economists do with something belonging to us, our own livelihood. I liked your distinction between equations and formulas, between mathematics and mathematese…
From Empire to Global Fascism
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
A disconnect between speech and action is Obama’s trade mark. A key to his global fascism: instead of acknowledging wrongs of US foreign policy, he hides his extra-judicial killings with drones and JSOC’s (Joint Special Operations Command) in, maybe, 120 countries. Covert, CIA, less overt, Pentagon; with little Congress control. JSOC has been operating an extra-legal “kill-capture” campaign that a former counterinsurgency adviser calls “an almost industrial scale counterterrorism killing machine”.
→ read full articleUS Must Seize Opportunity to Support Palestinian Nonviolence
Yousef Munayyer – Al Jazeera,
5 Mar 2012
More than ever, polling data shows, Palestinians are supporting nonviolent resistance. A series of polls of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza which included a question on nonviolence reveals an undeniable trend in the past 18 months. In June of 2010, 51 per cent of Palestinians polled responded that nonviolent resistance was a preferred alternative to stalled negotiations. In a poll at the end of 2011 that number jumped to over 61 per cent.
→ read full articleCheerleading Is No Revolution: “Democracy in Burma”
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
Cheerleading is no revolution. That society is not going anywhere humanistic. The current discourse of revolutionary changes is nothing but a self-interested spin from vultures and vampires of all stripes and colours, native and foreign.
→ read full articleDon’t Northwoods Iran
Jacob G. Hornberger – The Future of Freedom Foundation,
27 Feb 2012
Another option for avoiding the appearance of being the aggressor power is the Operation Northwoods option. During the Kennedy administration, the Pentagon and the CIA wanted to invade Cuba to effect regime change there. But they didn’t want to appear as the aggressor power. So, the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with a proposal that it unanimously approved and presented to JFK. To Kennedy’s ever-lasting credit, he rejected Operation Northwoods.
→ read full articleJapan’s Spiritual Crisis
Johan Galtung, 27 Feb 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
This author published with Ikuro Anzai, ‘Nippon wa Kikikan’, Is Japan in a Crisis? And the answer was yes, a spiritual crisis. Japan sold its soul to Washington, and is left in a spiritual vacuum; neither US nor Japan. Walking through the marvelous bullet train, Shinkansen, only sad, grey, tired faces; no laughter, no enhancing conversation seen or heard.
→ read full articleBan Ki-moon Hails Latin American Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone on 45th Anniversary
UN News Centre- TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
14 February 2012 – On the 45th anniversary of the treaty that created a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today hailed the pact as an example of how regional initiatives can advance global norms on nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful use of atomic energy.
→ read full articleTen Questions for Coming Leaders China-USA
Johan Galtung,
21 Feb 2012
Well, Japan fears something, probably what Western aggressors fear too: Of course, we never did anything wrong, but one day they may come and treat us the way we treated them. China has as a principle not to confront the USA, and has attacked neither Japan nor the US; the latter are the ones that attacked China. Hence, a little et tu Brute, watch yourself, may be useful in identifying key world problems.
→ read full articlePreventing a Nuclear Iran, Peacefully
Shibley Telhami and Steven Kull – International Herald Tribune,
20 Feb 2012
Despite all the talk of an “existential threat,” less than half of Israelis support a strike on Iran. According to our November poll, carried out in cooperation with the Dahaf Institute in Israel, only 43 percent of Israeli Jews support a military strike on Iran. Most important, when asked whether it would be better for both Israel and Iran to have the bomb, or for neither to have it, 65 percent of Israeli Jews said neither. And a remarkable 64 percent favored the idea of a nuclear-free zone, even when it was explained that this would mean Israel giving up its nuclear weapons.
→ read full articleFor a Latin America Free from Colonialism – The Malvinas Islands Are Argentinean
Socorro Gomes, World Peace Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
The decision made in several multilateral forums – such as Mercosur, Unasur and Alba – with a view to support the Argentinean claim so that England returns to negotiations, therefore complying with the United Nations resolutions on the issue, constitutes a significant fact in Latin American solidarity. In defense of a peaceful continent, free from colonialism and foreign military bases.
→ read full articleIsrael-USA vs Iran: Talk Peace!
Johan Galtung, 13 Feb 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
When Israelis were asked “what would be better: for both Israel and Iran to have the bomb, or for neither to have it, 65 percent of Israeli Jews said neither. And a remarkable 64 percent favored the idea of a nuclear-free zone, even when it was explained that this would mean Israel giving up its nuclear weapons.” (IHT, 16 Jan 2012). Vox populi vox Dei.
→ read full article“Responsibility to Kill” (R2K): Washington Gives Green Light to Toxic Terror in Bahrain
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
6 Feb 2012
“Responsibility to Protect ” (R2P) or “Responsibility to Kill” (R2K)? Just as Bahrainis are being poisoned in their homes from indiscriminate firing of massive teargas by regime forces, Washington is showing its approval by going ahead with an arms sales deal to the Persian Gulf kingdom.
→ read full articleA Light in Algerian Darkness: Mourad Dhina 6 Feb 2007
Johan Galtung,
6 Feb 2012
On Sunday, 15 January 2012, French minister of foreign affairs, Alain Juppé, met Aung San Suu Kyi at her residence in Rangoon and decorated her with the insignia of Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honor. The day after, January 16th, the men of the French minister of interior, Claud Guéant, arrested in Paris the Algerian political figure and human rights defender Mourad Dhina. So similar conflicts, so similar resistants but very different French treatment.
→ read full articleArne Næss: The Next Hundred Years
Johan Galtung,
31 Jan 2012
Oslo, 27 January 2012 – Norway’s by no comparison greatest philosopher was born one hundred years ago today, and died close to the age of 97. A world philosopher, a human being with an incredible radiation. Nobody who came close remained the same. What was his basic theme? In one word: nonviolence, but in a broader and deeper sense than most approaching demanding idea.
→ read full articleThe French Study: Childhood Leukemia Spikes near Nuclear Power Plants
John Laforge - CounterPunch,
30 Jan 2012
The “International Journal of Cancer” has published in January [2012] a scientific study establishing a clear correlation between the frequency of acute childhood leukemia and proximity to nuclear power stations. The paper is titled, “Childhood leukemia around French nuclear power plants – the Geocap study, 2002-2007.” This devastating report promises to do for France what a set of 2008 reports did for Germany — which recently legislated a total phase-out of all its power reactors by 2022.
→ read full articleThose Poor, Moody Standards
Johan Galtung, 23 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
What are the three credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch–95 percent of the rating “industry”–about? Not very transparent, yet “Standard & Poor’s: silent but deadly” (El País, 16 Jan 2012), stimulates some reflections.
→ read full articleDavos: The 1% World
Johan Galtung, 16 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
How are the 1%’ers going to handle the country that has attacked more other countries and peoples than any other, and mainly in defense of a special type of hyper-connection: hyper-capitalism? It still has a monopoly on the world reserve currency exercised by a club of private banks, among them the worst culprits in the finance economy coup, the Federal Reserve. How are they going to handle the US hold on the rating agencies? And the growing inequality, from comfortable seats at the top? Answer: the same way as feudal aristocracy in France in the 18th century; by not handling it.
→ read full articleLearning from the Northern Ireland and South Africa’s Conflicts (Cont’d)
Pierre Celestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
Through my own participant observation during research at Queen’s University from September 2008 to March 2009, the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement is of a great help. Nowadays both communities coexist in peace even though some isolated cases of attacks can be observed. Some people believe that the wounds would take generations to be healed while others think that the South African process through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission-TRC would be an asset to grant forgiveness and amnesty to the ones who committed wrongdoings.
→ read full article(Italian) Chi Era Gesù?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
La chiesa non era strapiena come soleva esserlo per la messa di mezzanotte alla vigilia di Natale. Ma il rituale si svolse come era stato fatto per secoli, attorno alla “piccola bibbia” di Giovanni 3:16, “Perché Dio amava il mondo tanto da dare il suo unico Figlio cosicché ognuno che creda in lui non perirà ma avrà vita eterna”.
→ read full articleWhere Are We Heading?
Johan Galtung, 9 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
The clouds are dark. And we sense one on the horizon, black; a point so far. The name of the cloud: using a major war, even with Russia-China, to revive an economy in depression; destroying capital, rebuilding.
→ read full articleWho Produces the Wealth in Society?
Duncan Hallas – Socialist Worker,
9 Jan 2012
Marx’s purpose in analyzing capitalism was, first, to show how working people were exploited, and second, to uncover what he called the “economic law of motion” of the system. The first point becomes clear when you consider other system of exploitation that existed in the past.
→ read full article2012: The Davids and the Goliaths
Johan Galtung, 2 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
So, what is the message? Davids all over the world unite, you have only your goliaths to lose? Something like that, but with a major proviso: use david’s nonviolent slingshots. David knew what he wanted, so did Goliath: to slay each other. We have had enough of that. Smartness yes, but nonviolent, and of the positive variety, taking in, not only on, the adversary. Let the Icelands and Argentines teach them how to get their economies in order. Reduce the armor; save! Get down from nine feet to normal.
→ read full articleTen Social Justice Trends Changing the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Global Trends:
[1] The Decline and Fall of the US Empire; [2] The Decline of the West; [3] The Decline of States and Rise of Regions; [4] The Rise of the Rest; [5] The Rise of China.
Social Trends:
[6] The Rise of Nations; [7] The Rise of Civil Society; [8] The Rise of Youth; [9] The Rise of Women; [10] The Rise of Inequality and Revolts.
Violence and Conflict Theories & Obstacles to Peace in Africa’s Great Lakes Region
Dr. Pierre Celestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Parson Talscott analyses Marx’s theory in terms of social classes and class conflict in the light of sociological theory. His analysis brings about the state of the weaker and the powerful classes showing that Marxian ideas have had an important place, forming a point of departure for the formulation of many of the fundamentals of theory of social institutions.
→ read full articleWho Really Has Power In Burma?
Thelma Young – Waging Nonviolence,
26 Dec 2011
The question remains how much power does President Thein Sein actually have? Some have compared him with De Klerk or Gorbachev, and Thein Sein might genuinely want reform, but his powers are limited. Constitutionally the military still has complete autonomy in not just its own affairs, but also has vast powers over the three branches of government. “The whole constitution is based on a “wait and see” strategy: if the civilian government does what the Tatmadaw [the armed forces] wants, then it will be allowed to rule; if not, then not.”
→ read full articleWho Was Jesus?
Johan Galtung, 26 Dec 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
Jesus rejected the finance system in the Jerusalem temple, encouraged tax boycott, and had disciples-apostles from a caste known for violence. He enters with the disciples the enormous 262mx262m temple, carefully divided into sections also for non-Jews, only for Jews, also for women, only for men, only for priests and the Most Holy. He overthrew the tables of the money exchangers and seems to have propagated a very concrete political message about the Jewish people in a federally structured country, independent of Rome, with apostles as political leaders. When asked by Pontius “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “Yes, it is as you say” (Mark 15,2). INRI (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum), Jesus from Nazareth, the King of Jews they wrote ironically, but that may have been exactly how he saw himself. This is politics.
→ read full article‘Alliance between Banks and Governments at the Heart of Eurozone Crisis’
Edmund S. Phelps, Nobel Economics laureate - Deutsche Welle,
26 Dec 2011
The ‘monstrous irresponsibility’ of European banks contributed to the current euro crisis, says Edmund Phelps. But at its core lies a fatal collusion between governments and banks, argues the Nobel Winner in Economics.
→ read full articleRight Wing Extremism? Or Fascism?
Johan Galtung,
19 Dec 2011
That is what the “peace” of Westphalia was about in 1648: the right to kill, provided the war was declared. Like Norwegian soldiers in Afghanistan, with a mandate from a democratic country and from NATO. There are disturbing reports from them, “combat is better than sex”, fascinated with that mandate to kill, comparisons with the Vikings. Making psychiatry a state servant turns it as useless as the security police.
→ read full article(French) Le Rwanda Dans Son Etat Politico-Economique et Conflictuel
Dr .P. Célestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Des économistes, historiens et hommes d’État ont traditionnellement considéré “une nation” comme un groupe de personnes affirmant le contrôle d’institutions économiques, religieuses, juridiques et éducatives reconnues officiellement légitimes.
→ read full articlePeace Building-Based Conflict Resolution: Lessons from Other Conflicts
Pierre Célestin Bakunda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
Power, Authority and Leadership for Peace
→ read full articlePoor USA: What a Choice!
Johan Galtung, 12 Dec 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2011
The Occupy Movement is a sign of US sanity. Leaderless makes it less vulnerable, immensely consciousness-raising, not insisting on any one single analysis or remedy–for the time being. People so concerned that they sacrifice some personal comfort–gaining togetherness and a sense of meaning, a gift for a democracy. The Occupy Movement becomes a movement to revive a dying economy, creating thousands of small enterprises, banks for savings, not speculation. They start a parallel society.
→ read full articleFanon, Coloniality and Emancipation
Eunice N. Sahle – Pambazuka News,
12 Dec 2011
Fifty years after his death, Fanon remains ‘the entry point in any project geared to the realisation of substantive emancipation, as opposed to elite-led projects,’ writes Eunice N. Sahle.
→ read full articleArab Revolutions and the Power of Nonviolent Action
Stephen Zunes – Nation of Change,
12 Dec 2011
Freedom House, in its 2005 study “How Freedom Is Won: From Civic Resistance to Durable Democracy,” observed that, of the nearly 70 countries that had made the transition from dictatorship to varying degrees of democracy in the previous 30 years, only a small minority did so through armed struggle from below or reform instigated from above. Hardly any new democracies resulted from foreign invasion. In nearly three-quarters of the transitions, change was rooted in democratic civil-society organizations that employed nonviolent methods.
→ read full articleNeutralising Burma’s Ethnic Rebellions
Dr. Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2011
In his Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), Karl Marx wrote: ‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.’ Such an assessment is only half-right when it comes to Burma’s internal conflicts, of which ethnicity is of equal importance to class.
→ read full articleThree Crises – Three Ideas
Johan Galtung,
5 Dec 2011
The formula is to raise the bottom, and that can only be done by their own work, it has never been in the interest of the top 1 percent. The root cause is rampant capitalism pumping liquidity upward, sinking the masses into poverty, even misery, and turning the upper 1 permil into speculators. The real economy does not work for lack of acquisitive power, and the finance economy works so well that the gap between money value and created value leads to one crash after the other. Speculation, as opposed to investment with commitment, should be treated as a crime, with names revealed. Moreover, the vast suffering should trigger action, not finance ratings.
→ read full articleRepresentative Schakowsky Receives Letter of Intimidation from Former Blackwater CEO
Yana Kunichoff - Truthout,
5 Dec 2011
Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Illinois) attempt to end the multimillion dollar business of outsourcing in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t sit well with the former CEO of the notorious Blackwater company, Erik Prince, who sent a hand-delivered cease-and-desist letter to the Congresswoman threatening legal action if she continued to make “false and defamatory” statements about him.
→ read full articleArundhati Roy: ‘The people who created the crisis will not be the ones that come up with a solution.’
Arun Gupta – The Guardian,
5 Dec 2011
The prize-winning author of The God of Small Things talks about why she is drawn to the Occupy movement and the need to reclaim language and meaning.
→ read full articleThe Arab Revolt – What Next?
Johan Galtung,
28 Nov 2011
It changes character, like in quantum mechanics, just by watching. The French revolution did that in the late 1780s-early 1790s. However, spring is gone, revolt is in, but so far not revolution. There are layers of rulers and layers of opposition. Unveiling has started.
→ read full articleWho Was Fritz Schumacher?
Diana Schumacher – The Gandhi Foundation,
28 Nov 2011
Although from a distinguished intellectual background, and having himself experienced a short but meteoric academic career in Germany, England and America, Schumacher always believed that “an ounce of practice is worth a tonne of theory”. Like Gandhi in both his outer and inner life he was a searcher of truth and dedicated to peace. Unlike so many of his contemporary academics, however, he needed to see these ideals translated into practical actions.
→ read full articlePeace Activism Can Be Spontaneous Too
Amir Telibečirović Lunjo in Sarajevo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2011
Sarajevo Haggadah, a unique book in its significance, is one of the oldest Sephardic Jewish Haggadahs in the world. It originated approximately 700 years ago in Spain. Bosnian Muslim scholar, Derviš Korkut, risked his life to hide this precious Jewish manuscript from Nazis during World War II.
→ read full articleKashmir-Afghanistan-Central Asia
Johan Galtung,
21 Nov 2011
Your Excellencies: I am deeply honored and grateful for the Abdul Ghaffar Khan International Peace-Builder Award; named after the Frontier Gandhi, the Muslim Gandhi, Badshah Khan, a hero of the anti-colonial struggle from 1930. He saw nonviolence as “a weapon from the Prophet”, rooted in the Qur’an. I met him once–a giant in more than one sense–viewing with sharp eyes an inconsequential peace conference unfolding in New Delhi, in 1970. A model for us all, like Gandhi.
→ read full articleDark Economics Fuels Burma’s Perpetual War
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
For the past 200 years at least, Burma has been seen as a strategic venue by outside powers, be they European imperialists such as the French and the British in the 19th Century, or the 20th Century imperial and fascist powers of the US and Japan during the Second World War. These countries have always seen Burma as a commercial backdoor to China and India, a military launching pad, a half-way safe harbour, and a resource brothel.
→ read full articleThe Bad in the Good and the Good in the Bad
Johan Galtung, 14 Nov 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
(Same as last week. -TMS editor) The world is ambiguous, with forces and counter-forces, for good and for bad. Contradiction is the rule, with bad in the good and good in the bad, etc. And there are verbal contradictions; there is the opinion, and the other opinion, as Al Jazeera says, valid and invalid, whether such verbal debates reflect non-verbal contradictions or not. Thus, this column and author reap counter-arguments, and any author should be grateful to opponents. What can I learn? Factual mistakes? Logical? How to be so clear as to avoid misunderstandings? Or state assumptions, like ambiguity?
→ read full articleUN and Brazil Launch Initiative to Combat Hunger Among School Children
UN News Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
7 November 2011 –The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Brazilian Government today launched a new initiative to help countries run their own national school meal programmes to advance the nutrition and education of children. “As a world champion in the fight against hunger, Brazil has a wealth of experience that can be shared with governments eager to learn how they achieved that success and adapt it to their own countries,” said WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, who is on an official visit to the country.
→ read full articleWorld Bank Partners With Nestlé to ‘Transform Water Sector’
Corporate Accountability International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
New Venture Aims to Privatize Water Country by Country – The World Bank has launched a new partnership with global corporations including Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Veolia. Housed at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the new venture aspires to “transform the water sector” by inserting the corporate sector into what has historically been a public service. The new partnership is part of a broader trend of industry collusion to influence global water policy.
→ read full article
Lessons from Iceland (VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Al Jazeera, Counting the Cost – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
13-min Interview with Iceland President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson – Can the Eurozone learn any lessons from Iceland’s 2008 meltdown? Iceland apparently succeeded in letting the banks, not the people, go bust. Is anyone paying attention?
→ read full articleAlarming Rise in Mercenary Activities Calls for Attention
UN Human Rights Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
The United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries warned Tuesday [1 Nov 2011] of an alarming resurgence of the use of mercenaries in armed conflict –“often in new and novel ways”. Contracts and grants in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to exceed $206 billion in 2011. In 2010, the number of contractor employees hired by the US Departments of Defense and State and USAID exceeded 260,000, in contrast with the 9,200 contractors hired by the US military during the first Gulf War.
→ read full articleThe Bad in the Good and the Good in the Bad
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
The world is ambiguous, with forces and counter-forces, for good and for bad. Contradiction is the rule, with bad in the good and good in the bad, etc. And there are verbal contradictions; there is the opinion, and the other opinion, as Al Jazeera says, valid and invalid, whether such verbal debates reflect non-verbal contradictions or not. Thus, this column and author reap counter-arguments, and any author should be grateful to opponents. What can I learn? Factual mistakes? Logical? How to be so clear as to avoid misunderstandings? Or state assumptions, like ambiguity?
→ read full articleJudaism and Zionism Are Not the Same Thing
Neturei Karta, Jews United Against Zionism – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
The truth is that the Jewish faith and Zionism are two very different philosophies. They are as opposite as day and night. The Jewish people have existed for thousands of years. The Zionist movement created the Israeli state. The latter is a persuasion less than one hundred years old. Its essential goal was and is to change the nature of the Jewish people from that of a religious entity to a political movement. From Zionism’s inception the spiritual leaders of the Jewish people stood in staunch opposition to it.
→ read full articleBehind Burma’s Cosmetic Changes
Thelma Young – Waging Nonviolence,
31 Oct 2011
There has been a lot of discussion about whether Burma is finally on the path to reform, now that Aung San Suu Kyi is free, and a parliament is in place. However, it is important to look beyond the facade and see the big picture.
→ read full articleMexico, te quiero!
Johan Galtung, 31 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2011
What a blessed geography; the major bi-oceanic country in Latin America! The winds are blowing from Asia: winds of hope, with a Japanese-Chinese model of how to overcome misery. The winds of the Arab Spring are blowing from the Middle East carrying whispers of an African Spring in a year or two. The winds are blowing from the South, from Latin American brothers and sisters, new winds, with the voices of the indigenous, of Mother Nature, of lifting the poor, of patient work for integration. The “Rest” is coming.
→ read full articleChange the Burmese Public Can’t Believe In
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Burma is undergoing top-down changes, we are being told. Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, after his whirlwind trip to the country, told the Financial Times on Oct 11, “I almost left the country thinking they’re moving a little too fast. I never thought I would say that about Myanmar.”
→ read full articleCreate an Anonymous Website
Bill Rounds – How to Vanish,
24 Oct 2011
Anonymous speech is important, even for more mundane reasons than scathing political criticism. Advocates of medical marijuana, proponents of evolution, gay rights activists, critics of local police, and many others may need the protection of anonymous speech to protect themselves while they voice their opinion. Efforts to censor online speech are doomed to fail because people will find ways to publish unflattering material online without leaving any trace of identity behind.
→ read full article(French) Action et Réaction: Créer des Passerelles Avec Soi-Même
Heshmi Ferjani – UNSpecial,
24 Oct 2011
Chacun réagit à ce qui lui semble ne pas convenir à son mode de pensée, à ses habitudes, parfois à ce qui peut l’interpeler au plus profond de lui-même. La réaction exige de nous une énergie formidable : La force que je mets pour libérer une personne bloquée derrière une porte est incommensurable.
→ read full articleColombia Revisited: Ultra-Stability!
Johan Galtung, 24 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Ultra-stability: institutionalized structural violence, and ritualized warfare; legitimized by multi-party democracy licensed to exploit and kill if only the parliament agrees. The narco-traffic finances poor and rich. The violence follows the flow of US arms and money, with a counter-flow of drugs, paying good commissions when the drugs change hands. End consumption mainly in the USA. Or destruction, being selling-buying drugs, like derivatives?
→ read full articleUN: Nearly 470,000 Cholera Cases Reported In Haiti over the Past Year
UN News Service – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
21 October 2011 –Almost 470,000 cases of cholera, including 6,595 deaths, have been reported in Haiti since an epidemic of the disease erupted in the Caribbean country one year ago, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.
→ read full articleThe Economic Crisis: Seven Proposals
Johan Galtung, 17 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
Lift the bottom up through stimuli, bail-out the worst hit, let incompetent institutions sink. What we are doing is the opposite: not only bailing out but stimulating, rewarding incompetence and greed, letting the bottom sink further. Massive revolts are the optimistic reading. Massive suffering is realistic, and already here. And the most pessimistic reading: the continuation of the same doomed politics.
→ read full articleLooking for the „Ancient Bosnian Pyramid“ Leads to Friendship
Amir Telibečirović Lunjo in Sarajevo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
Despite all chauvinist propaganda, which is occasionally present in some local media, people of different ethnic backgrounds, faiths, from various cities and villages of Bosnia, spontaneously came here to work together. Bosnian Serbs, bosnian Muslims, bosnian Croats, kids from the so called „mixed marriages“, they all work, sleep, eat, using toilet and laugh together here, against prognoses from international self proclaimed „Balkan experts“ in developed countries, who claim that people here can’t live together any more.
→ read full articleUnderstanding the Changes in Burma
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
All the “dramatic” developments in Burma, including the release of 6,000-plus prisoners, are, as US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell put it, certainly welcome. And yet despite these loud applauses of “changes” in Burma, the Burmese public is finding it very, very difficult to feel hopeful. These changes do not include the change of heart among Burma’s rulers. They are in fact principally related to only two things.
→ read full articleThe World Moves South and East
Johan Galtung, 17 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
Please join me in a spiritual West-South-East move. We know the landscapes: the abrahamic religions (judaism-christianity-islam) in the Occident, the hindu conglomerate in the middle, and the buddhist space spanning the Orient, as buddhism alone or with daoism and confucianism in East Asia. What are some key messages?
→ read full article
Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
Stanford University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death itself — at the university’s 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.
→ read full articleThe Right to Exist: Why Kosovo But Not Palestine?
Zoltan Grossman - ConterPunch,
10 Oct 2011
The United Nations has not d Kosovo because it would set a negative precedent for unilateral secession around the world. Many states in the Arab League and European Union, on the other hand, view Kosovo as a positive precedent for Palestine. Some governments may oppose sovereignty for both Kosovo and Palestine. But the US is virtually alone in its backing for the State of Kosovo, while at the same time hypocritically blocking a State of Palestine.
→ read full articleAfghan and German Deep Cultures at War
Johan Galtung, 10 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Let Afghans be Afghans. Hold the Swiss model high. Let muslims help muslims. Stop the nonsense about running the world from Central Asia; let central Asians find their own form. Germany has a message, and it is Article 23, unification; by Schengen borders. And Martin Luther’s preface to the first printed Qur’an, in Latin, Basel 1541.
→ read full articleOf Bases and Budgets
Christine Ahn and Hyun Lee – Foreign Policy in Focus,
10 Oct 2011
Why, after 66 years, 28,500 U.S. troops remain on 87 bases and installations on the Korean peninsula and whose security they are safeguarding.
→ read full article13 Ways to Look at the Occupation of Wall Street
Charles M. Young – Nation of Change,
3 Oct 2011
5) I think that the corporate press has a difficult time understanding Occupy Wall Street because, like 99% of Americans, they have no experience with democracy. They spend most of their time enslaved by large totalitarian collectives known as “corporations” and have never once decided anything for themselves as a group of equal workers. Instead they follow orders and write about elections, which are big puppet shows financed and scripted by Wall Street.
→ read full articleThe Dead Begin to Speak Up In India
Arundhati Roy – The Guardian,
3 Oct 2011
So somebody who wants to invest in a dam, or build a steel plant or a buy a bauxite mine is not considered a security hazard, whereas a scholar who might wish to participate in a seminar about, say, displacement or communalism or rising malnutrition in a globalised economy, is. Terrorists with bad intentions have probably guessed that they are better off wearing Prada suits and pretending they want to buy a mine than admitting that they want to attend a seminar.
→ read full articleAnd Then the Decline and Fall of China?
Johan Galtung,
3 Oct 2011
Talk given in Beijing at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, 27 Sep 2011 – Yet a rule is written in the stars: nothing human is forever. There is an organic curve: birth-rise-peak-decline-fall. China is human if at a higher level: the comparative advantage of China is not cheap labor or such economisms but the culture, drawing on the san fa, the three teachings of daoism-confucianism-buddhism. The Occident would have been much better off drawing on judaism-christianity-islam and secularism instead of wasting time fighting each other to death.
→ read full article(Italian) Libia Scontata
Johan Galtung – Il Manifesto,
3 Oct 2011
La rivolta scatenata dai ribelli di Bengasi contro Gheddafi è parte di un disegno neo-imperiale condotto in prima fila dalla Nato e dall’Europa per assumere il controllo delle risorse del Nordafrica.
→ read full article(German) Die Macht der Bilder von 9/11: Zeugen wider Willen
Constantin Binder – Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung,
26 Sep 2011
Den Bildern des 11. September konnte keiner entkommen – genau, wie es die Terroristen wollten. Doch welche Rolle spielten die Medien dabei? Und welche Rolle sollten sie spielen? Ein Essay unseres Redakteurs Constantin Binder.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Dez Teses Sobre Dez Anos Perdidos
Johan Galtung, 12 Set 11 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Tese 9: A República dos EUA, pela sua reação ao 11/9, acelerou muito seu processo de auto destruição. Os Patriot Acts I e II, a vigilância implacavel da população americana e outras, torturas e rendições extraordinárias, tudo isto destrói o espírito democrático de dentro para fora, além da destruição da economia por três guerras extremamente caras. (teses 2-4).
→ read full articleActivism Anthem
Bhuchung Sonam – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
I have principle and no power
You have power and no principle
You being you
And I being I…
New Law Prohibits Practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Guinea-Bissau
Iain Murray, UNICEF – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
This past June [2011], the National Popular Assembly (ANP) of Guinea-Bissau approved a law prohibiting female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) nationwide. The controversial law had been on the table for discussion for 16 years, before it was ultimately approved by 64 votes in favour to 1 vote against.
→ read full article(German) „Zehn verlorene Jahre“
Constantin Binder - Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung,
26 Sep 2011
Friedensforscher Galtung kritisiert Vorgehen der USA nach 9/11
→ read full articleA (North) East Asian Community
Johan Galtung, 26 Sep 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Northeast Asia Peace and Development Forum. Dalian, China, 24 Sep 11 – There is the negative peace of reconciliation after the traumas of the past and mediating ongoing conflicts; and the positive peace of cooperation for mutual and equal benefit, harmony, and integration-fusion. Across this diverse geographical-historical-cultural space there is an East Asian similarity: social-economic human rights first, civil-political later–the Chinese “opening up”. Any (N)EAC would search for cooperation with the USA on equal terms, including observer status; but by no stretch of imagination is it a (North)East Asian country. The times when the USA could also claim membership in Latin America, Europe and Asia are gone.
→ read full articleChina’s Peaceful Development (Full Text)
Information Office of the State Council, The People's Republic of China – TRANSCEND Media Servivce,
26 Sep 2011
At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century and on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China declared solemnly again to the world that peaceful development is a strategic choice made by China to realize modernization, make itself strong and prosperous, and make more contribution to the progress of human civilization. China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development.
→ read full articleMonsanto’s Cotton Strategy Wears Thin
April Davila – United Nations University,
19 Sep 2011
When pulling on their pants in the morning, most people don’t think about Monsanto. When it was first introduced in 1996, Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) cotton seemed like a dream come true. However, after the first harvest of Monsanto’s GE cotton, outraged American farmers began filing lawsuits against Monsanto, claiming that the company misrepresented the effectiveness of their product.
→ read full articleIn Paraguay a Familiar Story is Playing Out
Sean O’ Leary – Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
19 Sep 2011
In Paraguay, the Ayoreo people are fighting for their very survival. These indigenous people are struggling to save their ancestral home in the Chaco region from cattle companies, farmers and religious sects who are moving into the region and clearing the land.
→ read full articleJapan, Article 9 and the Self-Defense Forces
Johan Galtung,
19 Sep 2011
How about a fourth possible use of Self-Defense Forces, as a nonviolent peace force? Without arms, of course, protecting civilians, accompanying them, based on solid training, exercises, courage? They might even be superior to nonmilitary often short on those three. Disaster relief, development, defensive defense, nonviolent peace force–all preferably reciprocal–could transform the military on the way to its abolition, like in the 30 states without armies. Add training in reconciliation, mediation and peace-building and Japan would have a formidable peace force.
→ read full articleHuman Rights in Sri Lanka: Impunity against Accountability and Justice
Nirmanusan Balasundaram, Groundviews - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2011
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.” – Lord Buddha.
→ read full article(Italian) La Strategia della Monsanto sul Cotone per Farci Vestire Leggeri
April Davila – United Nations University,
19 Sep 2011
Quando fu introdotto nel 1996, il cotone geneticamente modificato (Genetically Engineered, GE) della Monsanto sembrava un sogno divenuto realtà. Tuttavia, dopo il primo raccolto di cotone GE della Monsanto, gli indignati agricoltori americani hanno intentato azioni legali, poi archiviate, contro la Monsanto, sostenendo che l’azienda aveva mistificato l’efficacia dei propri prodotti.
→ read full articleKilling, Denial and Manipulation
Gladson Dungdung – Gandhi Foundation,
19 Sep 2011
When I completed this piece [30 Aug 2011], a report in the newspaper stated that the Adivasis of Tholkabad village in Saranda Forest have vacated their village in fear of the police torture. Right from when I started writing on so-called anti-Naxal operations, I have been mentioning that the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ was launched with the clear intention to create fear, insecurity and livelihood crisis in the villages. The Jharkhand government has allotted iron-ore to 19 steel companies including Mittal, Jindal, Tata, Atro-Steel and Torian in Saranda Forest. Therefore, of course, they want to clear the land.
→ read full articleUNHCR Launches Campaign to Combat Statelessness
UN High Commissioner for Refugees – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2011
Around the world today there are millions of people who are not recognized as citizens of any country. On paper they don’t exist anywhere. They are people without a nationality, stateless. Statelessness may be caused by gender, when countries do not recognize the nationality of a woman due to discriminatory laws. Statelessness may be inherited, by children born to stateless parents. It may be created in newly formed states, such as South Sudan, by intentional or unintentional legislative exclusion of any ethnic groups.
→ read full articleEgypt’s Military Ruler Tantawi and the American Siege of Gaza
Ali Abunimah – Pambazuka News,
12 Sep 2011
Revelations from WikiLeaks – As a WikiLeaks cable reveals, the US was even more actively involved than originally thought in ‘enforcing the siege of Gaza along Egypt’s border’.
→ read full article9/11: Ten Theses on Ten Lost Years
Johan Galtung,
12 Sep 2011
9/11 itself set the tone for the decade: violence as a tool of politics backfires. The media reported war-violence with no analysis, no proposals. The economic contradictions accumulated, as did military non-victories, increasing non-attention, and increasing lack of faith in the USA as “exceptional”. The magic was gone.
→ read full article