Articles by M
We found 37535 results.
Experiments in Democracy: Egypt, Tunisia and the US
Joseph Gainza – Toward Freedom,
28 Feb 2011
Rarely does history present us with events which resemble a scientific experiment. Events in the Middle East over the last nine years, but especially in the last month give us an opportunity to examine how best to establish democracy. Analysis of what has recently taken place in Tunisia and Egypt can be measured against the ongoing tragedies of Iraq and Afghanistan.
→ read full articleThe United States Stands Alone with Israel in the UN Security Council (or How Honest is the Honest Broker)?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
In what appears to be as close to a consensus as the world community can ever hope to achieve, the United States reluctantly stood its ground on behalf of Israel and on February 18, 2011 vetoed a resolution on the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that was supported by all 14 of the other members of the UN Security Council. The resolution was also sponsored by 130 member countries before being presented to the Council.
→ read full articleBrazil to Produce Generic Version of Medication for AIDS and Hepatitis
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
Approximately 64,000 patients with AIDS and 1,500 with hepatitis make use of tenofovir in Brazil. The first national batch of the medication will be available for patients in late March. Domestic production will represent a savings of approximately £410 million to the country.
→ read full articleLibya: Is Washington Pushing for Civil War to Justify a US-NATO Military Intervention?
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
28 Feb 2011
Is Tripoli being set up for a civil war to justify U.S. and NATO military intervention in oil-rich Libya? If Qaddafi is not ousted, are the talks about sanctions a prelude to an Iraq-like intervention?
→ read full articleThe Decline of the US Republic?
Johan Galtung, 28 Feb 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
That the US Empire is falling with the structure so laboriously built in the Middle East crumbling is clear even if there will be fall-back positions. But the US Republic is also in bad shape, with the threat of government shutdown March 5, like in 1995. Why? Because the US polity is inadequate to the challenge.
→ read full articleSupporters in Haiti Make Ready for Aristide
Clarens Renois – Mail & Guardian,
28 Feb 2011
Supporters beat drums in the slums while workers spruced up his private villa as Haitians prepared on Tuesday for the possible return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide with feverish anticipation. “Some people are cleaning the streets, others are getting the residence ready, and we are making preparations for a beautiful party,” Rene Civil, a die-hard follower of Haiti’s first democratically elected leader, told Agence France-Presse.
→ read full articleEgypt/Turkey-Israel: ‘A clean break’
Eric Walberg – Middle East Online,
28 Feb 2011
Israel’s plan was still to replace the Ottoman Turks of yore as the local imperial power. The Arab nations (prepared by British imperial divide-and-conquer and local-strongman policies) would be kept divided, weak, dependent now on Israel to ensure safe access to oil. A year and a half ago, an Israel Navy submarine crossed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea, sending a message of deterrence to Iran. Just one week after the fall of Mubarak, Iranian warships cross the canal on their way to Syrian ports.
→ read full articleThe Project for a New Arab Century
Mohammed Khan – Al Jazeera,
28 Feb 2011
The birth pangs of a new Middle East are being felt, but not in the way many outsiders envisioned.
→ read full articleClimate Change and Agriculture: Biodiverse Ecological Farming is the Answer, not Genetic Engineering
Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
The claim to increased yield is false because yield, like climate resilience is a multi–genetic trait. Introducing toxins into a plant through herbicide resistance or Bt. Toxin increases the “yield” of toxins, not of food or nutrition. Even the nutrition argument is manipulated. Golden rice genetically engineered to increase Vitamin A produces 70 times less Vitamin A than available alternatives such as coriander leaves and curry leaves.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Cercado por Protestos de Todos os Lados, o Japão Desiste da Caça às Baleias, em Plena Meia-Estação
Sociedade Mundial de Proteção Animal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
Após intensas manifestações de repúdio por parte de ativistas, o Japão abriu mão das suas atividades baleeiras no Santuário de Proteção do Oceano Antártico Sul, em plena meia-estação, no momento em que os países latino-americanos exigiram que aquela nação pusesse um fim à matança de baleias.
→ read full articleBehind the Arab Revolt is a Word We Dare Not Speak
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
The revolt in the Arab world is not merely against a resident dictator but a worldwide economic tyranny designed by the US Treasury and imposed by the US Agency for International Development, the IMF and World Bank, which have ensured that rich countries like Egypt are reduced to vast sweatshops, with half the population earning less than $2 a day. The people’s triumph in Cairo was the first blow against what Benito Mussolini called corporatism, a word that appears in his definition of fascism.
→ read full articleConflict and Violence in Africa: Causes, Sources and Types
Adeleye Oyeniyi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
Conflict usually occurs primarily as a result of a clash of interests in the relationship between parties, groups or states, either because they pursuing opposing or incompatible goals. Although the term war is sometimes used as a synonym for conflict, it is more usual to restrict the meaning of war to violent conflict, involving armed forces.
→ read full articleSelf-Liberation: Is There Any Other Kind?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
The largely non-violent people’s revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt followed by large protest demonstrations throughout the Arab world as well as Iran have drawn attention to the use of non-violent strategies in the process of deep social change. When people want to end oppression and achieve greater freedoms and more justice, there are ways to do this realistically, effectively, self-reliantly and by means that will last.
→ read full articleNATO’s Plan Is to Occupy Libya
Fidel Castro Ruz, CubaDebate – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
An honest person will always be against any injustice committed against any nation of the world, and the worst injustice, at this moment, would be to remain silent in the face of the crime that NATO is preparing to commit against the Libyan people. The chief of that military organization is being urged to do so. This must be condemned!
→ read full article(Portuguese) Colombia: Uma Oportunidade Para a Paz
Marcela Valente em Buenos Aires, Argentina – Brasil de Fato,
28 Feb 2011
Participantes do fórum Fazendo a Paz na Colômbia consideram o momento propício para avançar em uma saída política ao conflito armado de mais de 50 anos
→ read full articleWe Take Risks, Others Pay the Price
Naomi Klein - CNN,
28 Feb 2011
When I met George Awudi, a leader of Friends of the Earth Ghana, he was wearing a bright red T-shirt that said “Do Not Incinerate Africa.” We were both attending the World Social Forum, a sprawling gathering of tens of thousands of activists held earlier this month [Feb 7-11, 2011] in Dakar, Senegal.
→ read full articleLex Duvalier: A Corrupt Politician’s Worst Nightmare
Gonzalo Turdera – Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
28 Feb 2011
On February 1, 2011, the Swiss Restitution of Illicit Assets Act (RIAA), commonly referred to as “Lex Duvalier,” came into effect. This law provides for the freezing, forfeiture, and restitution of assets of politically exposed persons or their close associates. It applies in cases where a request for mutual assistance in criminal law matters cannot produce an outcome owing to the failure of state structures in the requesting state (the politically exposed person’s country of origin).
→ read full articleRestorative Justice after Mass Violence: Opportunities and Risks for Children and Youth
Laura Stovel and Marta Valiñas – UNICEF,
28 Feb 2011
There is growing interest in the role that restorative justice can play in addressing mass atrocities. This UNICEF paper describes the associated principles and practices within juvenile justice systems and in societies emerging from mass violence. It also examines the meaning, opportunities and limitations of restorative justice in transitional societies, particularly in relation to the needs of young victims and offenders.
→ read full articleLibya: NATO to Hold Emergency Meeting of North Atlantic Council
Eurasia Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: “It’s a bit pre-mature to go into specifics, but it’s well known that NATO has assets that can be used in a situation like this and NATO can act as an enabler and coordinator, if and when, individual member states want to take action.”
→ read full article(Italian) Leggere Gandhi al Cairo
Ramin Jahanbegloo – Centro Studi Sereno Regis,
28 Feb 2011
Quasi due anni dopo l’emergere di un “Movimento Verde” che protestava contro i risultati elettorali a Tehran, si vanno diffondendo nuove sollevazioni nonviolente contro i regimi repressivi della regione fra la Tunisia e lo Yemen, compreso l’Egitto, paese quanto mai importante.
→ read full article‘Groupthink’ IMF Slammed for Mistakes before Crisis
Bretton Woods Project – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) found major IMF lapses in judgement before the financial crisis, including the promotion of “light-touch regulation”, casting doubt on the Fund’s ability to contribute to taming global finance. As the banking crisis has been transformed into crises of public finance, and while the financial sector returns to business as usual, the IMF has grown increasingly vocal about the insufficient attention being paid to regulation and reform. Analysts ask if we should be looking elsewhere.
→ read full articlePrimary Global Reserve Currency: The Con?
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
Confidence is essentially intangible and it is therefore somewhat extraordinary that it should be so fundamental to what might otherwise be considered the most tangible aspects of the material world — as evident in the world of business and finance, necessarily so economic with the truth. “Confidence” is supposedly not even a matter of consideration in any evaluation of the financial condition of a commercial enterprise or a national economy. This supposition is in fact quite incorrect as the financial crisis of 2008-9 has demonstrated through concern with assumption of risk and “credit ratings”.
→ read full articleGoverning by Obeying the People: Bolivia’s Politics of the Street
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
28 Feb 2011
From across North Africa to Wisconsin, activists are navigating a new terrain of global protest and relationships with their governments. Whether in ousting old tyrants or dealing with new allies in office, the example of Bolivia holds many lessons for social movements. An illustrative dynamic is now unfolding in this Andean country where the movements hold sway over the government palace, and the leftist President Evo Morales says he “governs by obeying the people.” But sometimes the people don’t give him any other choice.
→ read full articleSouth-South Trade Booming Despite High Trade Barriers
Loni Prinsloo, TRALAC – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
Speaking at a Frontier Advisory seminar at the JSE, OECD Development Centre director Mario
Pezzini said that South-South trade had experienced tremendous growth in recent years, with exports from developing countries now constituting 37 per cent of global trade, of which about 50 per cent related to South-South trade.
Identity: Beyond Self, Culture, Nation, and Humanity to “LIFEISM”
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
This article explores the nature and meaning of identity and its personal, cultural, and national nuances and consequences. In this presentation, I note, as have many others, that meaningful personal and social identities are at the core of a meaningful human existence. But this assertion raises critical questions about what is a meaningful identity, and what is a meaningful existence. These questions assume greater importance and consequence in the context of our emerging global era, in which the development, shaping, and assertion of certain personal and social identities can have life-affirming or life-harming consequences for all of us.
→ read full articleThere you go!
Oren Ginzburg, Survival International – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
23 slides depicting the historical and contemporary process of D-E-V-E-L-O-P-M-E-N-T. Funny and instructive, highly pedagogical.
→ read full articleThe Salary Theory…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
Dilbert’s “Salary Theorem” states that “Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives and sales people.”
→ read full articleMonsanto Shifts ALL Liability to Farmers
Cassandra Anderson – MORPHcity,
28 Feb 2011
Farmers who plant Monsanto’s GM crops probably don’t realize what they bargain for when they sign the Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement contract. One farmer reportedly ‘went crazy’ when he discovered the scope of the contract because it transfers ALL liability to the farmer or grower.
→ read full articleCemetery Attack on Children: Israelis Cross the Red Line
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey - Pravda,
28 Feb 2011
16 Feb 2011 – An Israeli bulldozer at the gate of a Bedouin cemetery at Al-Araqib in the Negev Desert advanced against children, injuring some of them. The source is credible, and historically accompanies its accusations with photographs. Where on this planet would a bulldozer be deployed to injure children at a cemetery? Why, Israel, where else?
→ read full article(Portuguese) Brasil Começa a Produzir Genéricos para Tratamento de AIDS e Hepatite
Camila Campanerut, UOL Notícias em Brasília – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
“A produção nacional não traz apenas uma economia por ter produção brasileira, mas pressiona os outros laboratórios a diminuir seus preços. A grande vantagem aumenta a competitividade do setor como um todo. Já conseguimos baixar o medicamento de R$4,02 para R$ 3,6 por comprimido”, destacou o diretor do Complexo Industrial e Inovação em Saúde da Secretária de Ciência e Tecnologia do ministério da Saúde, Zichy Moyses.
→ read full articleBanks Just Too Big To Fail? Iceland Shows Otherwise
Yalman Onaran – NZHerald,
28 Feb 2011
Decision to let banks go under looks smarter by the day, in contrast to Ireland’s costly bailout.
→ read full article
One Love | Song around the World
Playing For Change – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
From the award-winning documentary, “Playing for Change: Peace through Music”, comes an incredible rendition of the legendary Bob Marley song “One Love” with Keb’ Mo’ and Manu Chao.
→ read full articleUnited Nations, an Organisation on Life-Support?
Kanya D'Almeida – TerraViva Europe,
21 Feb 2011
While a mass uprising was toppling a dictatorship in Egypt and tens of thousands were marching for radical change at the World Social Forum in Dakar, a high-level group of ambassadors and experts came together at the United Nations late last week to discuss the future of global governance.
→ read full articleChevron’s Dirty Fight in Ecuador
Guy Adams – The Independent,
21 Feb 2011
The giant oil corporation has been fined $8.6bn for an environmental disaster that has been called ‘the Amazon’s Chernobyl’. But guess what? It may end up paying nothing.
→ read full articleEgypt Decides to Open Gaza Crossing Partially
Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
Egyptian authorities decided on Friday [18 Feb 2011] to open the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian cases and to allow Palestinians stuck in Egypt to return to the enclave, state television reported.
→ read full articleTRANSCEND Africa Report 2009-2010
Rais Reza Boneza - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
African’s Peaceful means
→ read full articleAnonymous and the Global Correction
Anonymous – Al Jazeera,
21 Feb 2011
A loosely organised group of hackers has been targeting oppressive regimes and has said this is just the beginning.
→ read full article(Castellano) Democracia y Exclusión Social: No se Trata de Administrar la Desigualdad, Sino de Eliminarla
Osvaldo Martínez – CubaDebate,
21 Feb 2011
El tema de la democracia no suele ser abordado por economistas. Sociólogos, politólogos e historiadores son los que frecuentan este tema, aunque es evidente que en el modelo económico tiene el debate sobre la democracia un componente sustantivo.
→ read full articleShould Gays and Lesbians Serve in the Military?
Laurence M. Vance – LewRockwell,
21 Feb 2011
Should gays and lesbians serve in the military? Perhaps some more pressing questions are should heterosexuals serve in the military? Should Christians serve in the military? Should atheists serve in the military? Should anyone serve in the military?
→ read full articleBelgium: It’s the French Fries Revolution
Timofei Belov – Pravda,
21 Feb 2011
Belgium overtakes Iraq as holding the record for the longest period without a Government. The population, fed up with the bickering among the politicians, is to launch a Revolution this Thursday [17 Feb 2011] … not a Red Revolution, or a colour revolution, but a Revolution in honour of the country’s national dish – pommes frites, or French Fries…
→ read full articleThink Cosmically Act Globally Eat Locally
Johan Galtung, 21 Feb 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
is the slogan advocated by two University of California Santa Cruz professors, the astrophysicist Joel R. Primack, and his wife, the cultural philosopher (and singer) Nancy Abrams. Their fine book, The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World, based on the Terry Lectures at Yale October 2009, will be published by Yale University Press in April.
→ read full articleClimate: Putting People over Money
Dahr Jamail – Al Jazeera,
21 Feb 2011
Facing climate change, a social movement in El Salvador fights mass flooding and the toxic burning of cane fields. While debate about whether climate change is real or not continues in the US, the world’s leading producer of CO2 emissions per capita, those already living with the effects, like Jose Domingo Cruz in El Salvador, don’t have time to debate.
→ read full article
Islamaphobia ‘on the rise’ in Australia
Andrew Thomas – Al Jazeera,
21 Feb 2011
Australia often bills itself as a multicultural country – but the relationship between new and old residents is not always a smooth one. Al Jazeera’s Andrew Thomas takes a look at how the latest immigration debate is affecting the country’s Muslim community.
→ read full articleUS Vetoes UN Draft on Settlements
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlements as “illegal” and called for an immediate halt to all settlement building. All 14 other Security Council members voted in favour of the resolution, which was backed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), on Friday [18 Feb 2011].
→ read full articleThe World Social Forum and the Battle for COP17
Vishwas Satgar – Pambazuka News,
21 Feb 2011
In a world plunged ever deeper into an uncivilised global capitalist condition, the World Social Forum is a crucial beacon of hope. But while news of Egypt and Tunisia’s revolutions electrified activists at this year’s gathering in Dakar, Vishwas Satgar asks whether progressive civil society is powerful enough to organise for a genuine climate change solution at COP17.
→ read full articleWhat David Kato’s Death Can Teach the World
Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - UN, Africa Renewal,
21 Feb 2011
If David’s murder stimulates discussion about the violence and discrimination facing people because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity, then his death will not have been completely in vain. That discussion must inevitably address the question of decriminalizing homosexuality. Criminal sanctions for homosexuality remain on the statute books in more than 70 countries, including Uganda. Such laws are an anachronism, in most cases a hangover from the old days of colonial rule.
→ read full articleSchooling
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
A young cowboy from Wyoming went off to college, but half way through the semester, he had foolishly squandered all his money. He called home. “Dad,” he said, “You won’t believe what modern education is developing! They actually have a program here that will teach our dog, Ol’ Blue how to talk!”
→ read full articleUNESCO Special Envoy Recognises Cuban Humanitarian Work in Haiti
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
Michaelle Jean, Special Envoy for Haiti of the UNESCO, emphasised the support received from Cuba in the matter of health to the Caribbean country, devastated by an earthquake a year ago. “Whenever we talk about health, we cannot forget the support of that country [Cuba] and this brotherly people,” said Jean, former governor general of Canada, while recognizing the importance of maintaining that link, as somewhat fundamental.
→ read full article
Changing Education Paradigms
Sir Ken Robinson – RSA Animate,
21 Feb 2011
This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award.
→ read full articleEgyptian Riot Gear
TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
Makeshift helmets made by demonstrators during the Egyptian nonviolent uprising on Liberty Square. Very unusual, funny and creative pieces of non-standard armor kit. The last one presents two loaves of bread as ear protectors tied to a plastic container over the head. Some humor amid the initial violent crackdown attempted by the security forces.
→ read full articleMexican Media’s Balancing Act
John Holman – Al Jazeera,
21 Feb 2011
Experts say the Mexican press walk a fine line between censoring their reporting and balancing their revenues.
→ read full article‘Problem Children’ towards Radicalism
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
One of the WikiLeaks revelations, published recently in The Daily Telegraph of London, brings into picture the worrisome scenario in which a section of the British youth visit to madrassas in Kashmir under Pakistan’s control, and end in the net of extremist and terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda.
→ read full articlePeace-Building in Africa
Adeleye Oyeniyi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
What is Peace-building? The term is used to refer to long-term preventive, pre-hostility strategies, for measures to remove the internal causes of conflict and to strengthen structural stability in a country against the threat of civil war.
→ read full article
Lies That Launched a War
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was sanctioned largely because of claims the country had weapons of mass destruction. The source of some of the alleged intelligence behind the claims was an Iraqi defector living in Germany, someone who has now admitted the evidence he submitted was false.
→ read full articleReport of Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Occupied Palestinian Territories
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
14 Feb 2011 – I am posting the official text of my most recent report to the UN Human Rights Council on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The period covered ends in December 2010, and the report will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 21, 2011. Of course, the impact of recent events, especially in Egypt, is not considered. Of primary interest will be the approach taken by the new Egyptian leadership to the Rafah Crossing, especially whether humanitarian goods will be permitted to enter freely and whether Gazans will be allowed to leave and return without difficulty.
→ read full articleAmerican Baroque
Thomas S. Harrington – The Passionate Attachment,
21 Feb 2011
The term Baroque was coined in the Iberian Peninsula—it is said to come from the Portuguese term for deformed pearl—to speak of the ornate cultural products generated in Spain and Portugal during the time when both nations (they were actually joined dynastically between 1580 and 1640) were simultaneously great powers and societies in the throes of self-evident decline and social dislocation.
→ read full articleRevolutionary Prospects after Mubarak
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The bravery, discipline, and creativity of the Egyptian revolutionary movement is nothing short of a political miracle, deserving to be regarded as one of the seven political wonders of the modern world! To have achieved these results without violence, despite a series of bloody provocations, and persisting without an iconic leader, without even the clarifying benefit of a revolutionary manifesto, epitomizes the originality and grandeur of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
→ read full articleWater, Oil and Demographics: The Arab World’s Triple Crisis
Nafeez Ahmed – Europe’s World,
21 Feb 2011
Unless Arab governments invest much more in health, education and citizens’ rights, warns Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, the pressures of water scarcity, oil depletion and population growth will spell their downfalls.
→ read full articleJapan Forced to Halt Whaling in Antarctic As Activists Claim Victory
David McNeill in Tokyo – The Independent,
21 Feb 2011
The US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has been stalking the whaling fleet with their own vessels, claimed that the Japanese ships had managed to harpoon just 30 whales, a fraction of their 945 target. “We’ve shut them down basically,” Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson told The Independent by satellite from aboard the MY Steve Irwin. “It’s silly to say they’ve suspended the hunt. We suspended them.”
→ read full articleThe US Bank and the Secret Plan to Destroy WikiLeaks
Jerome Taylor – The Independent,
21 Feb 2011
The computer hackers’ collective Anonymous has uncovered a proposal by a consortium of private contractors to attack and discredit WikiLeaks. Last week Anonymous volunteers broke into the servers of HB Gary Federal, a security company that sells investigative services to companies, and posted thousands of the firm’s emails on to the internet.
→ read full articleThe Tamil Diaspora and the Future of the Tamil Struggle
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – GroundViews,
21 Feb 2011
Today, the 18th of February, finds us three months away from the second anniversary of the “Mullivaikal Massacre”. At this juncture it is important to ask the question: What constructive action can be taken by the Tamil Diaspora to build a better future for the Tamil nation?
→ read full articleDeclaration of the Assembly of Social Movements, WSF/Dakar
Assembly of Social Movements - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The World Social Forum met in Dakar, Senegal, February 7-11. This declaration was adopted by the Assembly of Social Movements.
→ read full articleDemocracy Born in Chains
Naomi Klein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The inspiring overthrow of Hosni Mubarak is only the first stage of the Egyptian struggle for full liberation. As earlier pro-democracy movements have learned the hard way, much can be lost in the key months and years of transition from one regime to another. In The Shock Doctrine, I investigated how, in the case of post-apartheid South Africa, key demands for economic justice were sacrificed in the name of a smooth transition. Here is that chapter.
→ read full articleCommentary on Events in North Africa
Ramon Lopez-Reyes – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
In a paper written in 2007 on “War in the Middle East” I brought attention to the dynamic of convergence (globalization) that is hurling Homo Sapiens toward a common identity. Clearly a concept of ‘convergence’ projects a metaphysical nuance that falls outside the normal span of dialectics, something akin to the Gaia Hypothesis that holds planet Earth to be a self-regulating organism. Although depth psychology contains aspects of metaphysics, I would list the theory of convergence more under evolution than metaphysics. I am of the opinion that nothing can impede convergence other than the demise of the human species itself.
→ read full articleIt’s Not Radical Islam That Worries the US – It’s Independence
Noam Chomsky – Information Clearing House,
14 Feb 2011
The nature of any regime it backs in the Arab world is secondary to control. Subjects are ignored until they break their chains.
→ read full articleHas The Pro-Israel Lobby Subverted Australian Democracy?
Jake Lynch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
So, was there an elaborate plot, involving the active connivance of pro-Israel groups, the US embassy, the mining industry and the Right faction of the ALP, and kept successfully secret, to bring Rudd down and install Gillard in his place? To pose the question in those terms is to stretch credulity, but of course there is a way to answer it, which resonates with abundant life experience, and is encapsulated in another question: cui bono? (Or perhaps we could simply say: Go Figure).
→ read full articleDrunks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Recently, a routine police patrol was parked outside a local neighborhood bar in Minnesota. Late in the evening, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk.
→ read full article
How People Become Monsters … Or Heroes
Philip Zimbardo – TED Talks,
14 Feb 2011
Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.
→ read full articleThe Role of the World Bank in Carbon Markets
Bretton Woods Project – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
This paper outlines the World Bank’s involvement in the carbon market and reviews concerns about its impacts on greenhouse gas emission reductions and development. First, it introduces the role and aims of the Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit and the various funds and facilities that it manages…. The paper then summarises the concerns that have emerged from official evaluations and scrutiny by civil society groups regarding the effectiveness of Bank carbon finance in reducing emissions and generating development benefits, adding new evidence where available.
→ read full articleEthnicity and Indigene/Settler Conflict
Adeleye Oyeniyi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Ethnicity has been one of the regular features of the Third World societies. Africa has had more than lion share in ethnic-induced wars and violence. The issue of ethnicity has become the most viable factor, which explains the social reality of post-colonial Africa. During colonisation of African people, colonialists failed to put the issue of cultural differences of various ethnic groupings into consideration before lumping them together in (colonial) state formation. The oversight has constituted and remained one of the greatest challenges of post-colonial Africa.
→ read full articleMass Tree Deaths Prompt Fears of Amazon ‘Climate Tipping Point’
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
14 Feb 2011
Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source.
• Amazon ‘could shrink by 85% due to climate change’
• Rate of tree deaths in western US ‘rising due to climate change’
Cairo Intifada
The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
A report on the nonviolent movements for Mubarak’s ouster.
→ read full articleIsraeli Economy for Beginners
Gilad Atzmon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
How is it that Israel is impervious to the global financial disaster? How can Israel be so rich? Wikileaks has revealed lately that “sources in the (Israeli) police estimate that Russian organised crime (Russian Mafia) has laundered as much as US $10 billion through Israeli holdings.” Israel’s economy is booming because mega swindlers such as Bernie Madoff have been channeling their money via Zionists and Israeli institutions for decades. Israel is ‘doing well’ because it is the leading trader in blood diamonds. Far from being surprising, Israel is also the fourth biggest weapon dealer on this planet. As if this is not enough, Israel is also prosperous because, every so often, it is caught engaged in organ trafficking and organ harvesting. In short, Israel is doing better than other countries because it runs one of the dirtiest-non-ethical economies in the world.
→ read full article
TRANSCEND: Methods and Solutions
Johan Galtung | Alternate Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Galtung’s approach to mediation offers concrete proposals that are intended to give both sides the sense that they are winners. In this interview segment he describes his methodology and offers proposals for peace in the Middle East and other areas of conflict.
→ read full articleWikileaks: The Economic Reasons Behind the Siege on Gaza
Shir Hever, Global Exchange – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
This document demonstrates that the Israeli government is in fact strangling the Gazan economy in order to turn Gaza into a captive market for Israeli products and maintain demand for the Israeli shekel — all in the name of “fighting terrorism.” It also demonstrates that the international community — and especially the US — have allowed this policy to continue.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Sondagem Elege o Povo Brasileiro Como o Mais Simpático do Mundo
Pravda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Ranking publicado no site da CNN Internacional no dia 21/Jan/2011 elegeu os povos mais afáveis do planeta.
→ read full articleThe Toxic Residue of Colonialism: Protecting Interests, Disregarding Rights
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Here is the crux of the ethical irony. Washington is respectful of the logic of self-determination so long as it converges with American grand strategy, and oblivious to the will of the people whenever its expression is seen as posing a threat to the neoliberal overlords of the globalized world economy or to strategic alignments that seem so dear to State Department or Pentagon planners.
→ read full articleHaiti Issues Passport for Aristide
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Move paves the way for the ousted president to return from exile ahead of a March 20 presidential runoff election.
→ read full articleWhy Bradley Manning Is a Patriot, Not a Criminal
Chase Madar - TomDispatch,
14 Feb 2011
An Opening Statement for the Defense of Private Manning – Bradley Manning, a 23-year-old from Crescent, Oklahoma, enlisted in the U.S. military in 2007 to give something back to his country and, he hoped, the world.
→ read full articleUK Food Speculation: GM Isn’t the Answer to Hunger
World Development Movement – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
“The Beddington report does not accurately reflect the real cause of hunger in developing countries. The current record food prices are down to banks and hedge funds betting on food. The hot speculative inflows of money into commodity markets are dramatically pushing up the price of foods like bread, sugar and corn. GM is not a magic bullet to cure global hunger. If the UK government really wants to reduce hunger in the developing world, they should break free of the grip of the GM and banking lobbyists, and crack down on predatory speculation by banks and hedge funds which will ensure stable and lower food prices.”
→ read full articleWorld History Unfolding – What Next?
Johan Galtung, 14 Feb 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
And then it happened: Mubarak out. Enormous cheers in Tahrir square; Egypt is Free! A historical deed, triggered by Tunisia, carried by a million heroes. Leaderless of course, as a strategy; leaders can easily be targeted. Everybody rallied around one idea, the ouster of Mubarak–like of Ben Ali in Tunisia. End of Act I…. Sooner or later the Camp David accords and the joint blockade of Gaza–outcomes of autocracy and bribery–will be on the table. Sooner or later the youth wave will hit more dominos; PLO, Syria, Iran, and the Big One–the Saudi Royal House. Maybe even that other Big One–Israel–liberating it from narcissism, paranoia, and generalocracy, to positive judaism. Maybe one day even the Biggest One–the USA–making it less corporate, more democratic.
→ read full articleInvesting in World Peace
Susan Carew (aka Peacefull Clown) - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
A Poem
→ read full articleThe West and the Revolution
Vera Macht – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
With the revolutionary Egyptians being just a mouse click away, you can bethink yourself again of democracy meaning above all not to divide people in “we” and “them”. Remind yourself that you shouldn’t build up concepts of an enemy because of strangeness, but rather remember that all of us, whether in Europe or in Egypt, share a common humanity. And this is perhaps the time to just close the laptop, stop checking our Facebook pages for the hundredth time of the day for the latest news of virtual friends, and step out into the real world. Because our society also needs the Egyptian spark for the fight for a better tomorrow.
→ read full articleFinancial Interests Dictate Sovereign Policy
Michael Hudson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
“Latvia has become a testing ground for how far living standards can be depressed, how steeply an economy can be taxed while removing public social support in the face of a wealthy kleptocratic class at the top.”
→ read full articleWhen Democracy Weakens
Bob Herbert – The New York Times,
14 Feb 2011
As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.
→ read full articleThis Modern World | Summarizing Egypt
Tom Tomorrow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
In Tom Tomorrow’s latest editorial cartoon “Conservabot” discusses the Egyptian uprising.
→ read full articleGoodbye to All That: Pox Americana
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
14 Feb 2011
As we’ve watched the dramatic events in the Middle East, you would hardly know that we had a thing to do with them. Oh yes, in the name of its War on Terror, Washington had for years backed most of the thuggish governments now under siege or anxious that they may be next in line to hear from their people.
→ read full article(French) Remettre les pendules à l’heure au Moyen-Orient
Peter Harling - Le Monde,
14 Feb 2011
L’irruption de la “rue arabe” (concept jusqu’ici bien commode par son abstraction) place l’Occident face à ses contradictions : si l’interpellation populaire de pouvoirs autocratiques et corrompus résonne avec les valeurs démocratiques dont on se targue à Washington, Paris et ailleurs, elle s’accorde mal avec les aspects pratiques d’une politique occidentale qui n’a jamais fait grand cas de l’opinion publique locale. Comment embrasser un élan populaire quand on est tout sauf populaire dans la région ?
→ read full article
TRANSCEND: Ideas and Insights
Johan Galtung | Alternate Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
In this interview Galtung gives his views on a wide range of topics including the banality of diplomacy, as revealed by WikiLeaks, and the root causes of the 9/11 attacks. With his usual frankness, he offers a critique of Israel’s approach to solving the question of Palestine.
→ read full articleFAQ: The Palestine Papers
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
What are these papers? Why are they in English? We answer the most common questions.
→ read full article(French) Moubarak Degage!
Michel Collon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Les dictateurs ne dictent pas, ils obéissent aux ordres- Michel Chossudovsky
“Il ne suffit pas d’abattre la marionnette, le problème, c’est le marionnettiste”
Egypt’s Transformative Moment: Revolution, Counterrevolution, or Reform
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 there have been two further transformative events that have reshaped in enduring ways the global setting. When the Soviet empire collapsed two years later, the way was opened for the triumphalist pursuit of the American Imperial Project, seizing the opportunity for geopolitical expansion provided by its self-anointed global leadership as ‘the sole surviving superpower.’ This first rupture in the character of world order…. The second rupture came with the 9/11 attacks, however those events are construed. The impact of the attacks transferred the locus of policymaking authority back to the United States, as state actor, under the rubrics of ‘the war on terror,’ ‘global security,’ and ‘the long war.’
→ read full articleAussie Human Rights Award for Julian Assange
Ryan Witcombe, Pro Bono Australia - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
The Sydney Peace Foundation has awarded its gold medal for ‘peace with justice’ to controversial WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange. The citation reads, ‘For exceptional courage and initiative in pursuit of human rights.’ The award is expected to be made to Assange in Sydney in mid May or at a ceremony in London later this year.
→ read full articleMemorandum on World Government
Nataraja Guru – World Government of World Citizens,
7 Feb 2011
Humanity is one by its common origin, one in its common interests and motives of happiness here on earth in everyday living, and one in its relation to the aspirations and ideals which bind human beings together by bonds of sympathy for each other. A Unitive and Absolute Value is at the basis of human life. This High Human Value knows no frontier either actual or ideological. It makes no discrimination between rich or poor, high or low, civilized or backward. Sympathy for suffering and indignation against injustice to fellow men transcends time and clime, and reaches out evenly or pointedly, as the case may deserve, to the uttermost recesses of the one world which man inhabits.
→ read full article
Money as Debt – The Money Masters
TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Paul Grignon explains in detail the current perverse monetary system based on debt (2006).
→ read full articleOcracy
Clay Bennett – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Political Cartoon
→ read full articleA Tale of Two Protests
Mohammed Khan – Al Jazeera,
7 Feb 2011
The subdued US reaction to events in Egypt sits in sharp contrast to its previous support for Iranian protesters. Cast your minds back to June 2009 and the aftermath of Iran’s disputed presidential elections. Months of unrest following the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and severe crackdowns meted out by the state security apparatus captured the airwaves not only in the Middle East but across the globe.
→ read full articleHis Name Was João
Jordi Cussó Porredón, Letter of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Letter of Peace Addressed to the UN. Time, many battles and much suffering have taught us that no one person is superior to another. It doesn’t matter if you are a carpenter, gardener, minister, black or white… the only thing that really matters is that we are human beings. Society must provide us all with the same opportunities because we are all equal.
→ read full articleWorld History Unfolding II
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
What a week! And we have no idea how many weeks are ahead of us!! We only know that the process cannot be reversed, and we can watch on CNN+ one reason why. That lack of understanding, picking the wrong discourses.
→ read full articleEarth is Our Common Home: The Forest Year
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
The United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 61/193 has proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Forests “recognizing that forests and sustainable forest management can contribute significantly to sustainable development, poverty eradication and the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.”
→ read full article