Articles by M
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Overkill: Future Weapons, Future Wars, and the New Arms Race
Nick Turse - TomDispatch,
7 Feb 2011
Six terrifying new weapons being created by the Pentagon. Here is the Pentagon’s battlefield vision of tomorrow.
→ read full articleWhy Egypt 2011 is not Iran 1979
Prof. Juan Cole, Informed Comment – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Egypt is, unlike Iran, not primarily an oil state. Its sources of revenue are tourism, Suez Canal tolls, manufactured and agricultural exports, and strategic rent (the $1.5 bn. or so in aid from the US comes under this heading). Egypt depends on the rest of the world for grain imports. Were it to adopt a radical and defiant ideology like that of Iran, all its major sources of income would suddenly evaporate, and it might have trouble even just getting enough imported food. Moreover, the social forces making the revolution in Egypt have a significantly different profile and different dynamics than in Iran. Let us just go through the same list.
→ read full articleRemembering Howard Zinn on the Anniversary of His Death and Germinating the Seeds of Truth
Mark Karlin, Buzzflash editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
“You can’t be neutral on a moving train,” Howard Zinn said. Although he died over a year ago (January 27, 2010), no statement could be more timely considering the upheaval in Egypt.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Como É Que o Dinheiro É Criado ?
TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
A maior parte das pessoas acredita que o Governo cria dinheiro cunhando moeda e imprimindo notas. Mas não é bem assim que isto acontece. Nos tempos em que se utilizava dinheiro físico (por exemplo moedas de metal precioso) as pessoas começaram a aceitar as notas de papel emitidas por um Banco em vez do metal precioso.
→ read full articleThe Pakistan Domino
Dr. Paul D Scott and Sarwar Bari – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
What has happened in Tunisia has spread to Morocco, the Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia. Though many revolutions had small and spontaneous beginning, early signs of alarm were always there. In all cases the ruling elites felt they were insulated from the flames. Here in Pakistan the elites are out of touch. It is as if the plight of millions in the countryside is happening in a faraway distant land. One only has to listen to know that something is in the making, the air has changed.
→ read full articleJohn Pilger in Conversation with Julian Assange
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Watch a 70-minute interview with Julian Assange recorded during filming of John Pilger’s latest film ‘The War You Don’t See’.
→ read full article(French) Le Monde Arabe se Révolte
Alain Gresh - Le Monde Diplomatique,
7 Feb 2011
De la Tunisie à l’Egypte, un air de liberté.
→ read full articleShell Annual Profits Double to $18.6bn
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
The oil giant Shell has reported profits almost doubled from $9.8bn to $18.6bn (£11.5bn) for 2010, partly thanks to rising oil prices and output.
→ read full articleDisastrous Floods as Indicators of Systemic Risk Neglect
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Implications for Authoritative Response to Future Surprises. This is an exploration of the level of neglected risk visibly and dramatically highlighted by a number of recent highly publicized floods which have been framed as unforeseeable surprises. At the time of writing the prime example is in Australia on the occasion of the Queensland flood of 2010,which has been followed by flooding in Victoria.
→ read full articleIceland Shows Ireland Did ‘Wrong Things’ Saving Banks
Yalman Onaran - Bloomberg,
7 Feb 2011
Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country’s banks.
→ read full articleStop Belo Monte—No Mega-Dam in the Amazon
Antonio C. S. Rosa, TMS Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Belo Monte would be a project bigger than the Panama Canal, flooding at least 400,000 acres of rainforest, displacing 40,000 indigenous and local people, and destroying the priceless habitats of countless unique species — all to create power that could easily be generated through investments in energy efficiency.
→ read full articleHaiti Allows Ex-President’s Return
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Haiti’s government has said it was ready to issue a new passport to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former president, to would allow him to return to his country after almost seven years in exile in South Africa. “The government will give assurances that as soon as it receives such a request, it will be swiftly granted,” the information ministry said in a statement on Monday [31 Jan 2011].
→ read full article(Portuguese) Pare Belo Monte: Não à Mega Usina na Amazônia
Antonio C. S. Rosa, TMS Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
A hidrelétrica iria inundar pelo menos 400.000 hectares da floresta, impactar centenas de quilômetros do Rio Xingu e expulsar mais de 40.000 pessoas, incluindo comunidades indígenas de várias etnias que dependem do Xingu para sua sobrevivência. O projeto de R$30 bilhões é tão economicamente arriscado que o governo precisou usar fundos de pensão e financiamento público para pagar a maior parte do investimento. Apesar de ser a terceira maior hidrelétrica do mundo, ela seria a menos produtiva, gerando apenas 10% da sua capacidade no período da seca, de julho a outubro.
→ read full article
Will Hunting Had It Right 14 Years Ago
compelled2283 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
My favourite scene from Good Will Hunting and pertinent to the principles of liberty in its condemnation of killing people abroad who have done no harm to you personally. With inspiration from Howard Zinn.
→ read full articleIsrael Places Resources at Suleiman’s Disposal “To Protect the Egyptian Regime”
Middle East Monitor – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Well-placed Israeli sources have disclosed that the Zionist state has offered to place “all its capabilities” at the disposal of General Omar Suleiman, the recently appointed Vice President of Egypt, for the “protection of the regime in Egypt”. This offer includes the implementation of “various operations to end the popular revolution”. Israel has also asked Suleiman to work on preventing arms being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
→ read full articleHackers Shutdown Egyptian Regime’s Websites
Alex Newman - The New American,
7 Feb 2011
A loosely affiliated network of hackers around the world known as “Anonymous” took credit for shutting down the Egyptian regime’s websites in support of anti-government protestors. The group is also targeting other tyrants in the region.
→ read full articleTunisia and Egypt: Why Now?
Lawrence Davidson – Information Clearing House,
7 Feb 2011
For a very long time now the U.S. has put its money on the dictators. Washington has bought both them and their armies so as to have the leverage to economically exploit their countries and dictate their foreign policies. We officially call this arrangement “stability.”
→ read full articleWhen Corporations Choose Despots over Democracy
Amy Goodman – Truthdig,
7 Feb 2011
“People holding a sign ‘To: America. From: the Egyptian People. Stop supporting Mubarak. It’s over!” so tweeted my brave colleague, “Democracy Now!” senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, from the streets of Cairo.
→ read full articleHaiti: Not for Amateurs
Amy Wilentz – The Nation,
7 Feb 2011
On election day in November, only 22.3 percent of Haiti’s eligible voters cast their ballots in what turned out to be an election plagued with fraud. The reason for the low turnout was apathy, coupled with the catastrophic loss of identity papers in the earthquake of January 2010. Given the miserable conditions of so many Haitians since the earthquake, the anemic turnout provided resounding evidence that Haitians don’t believe their vote matters.
→ read full articleWomen Lead Latin America’s Growing Anti-Militarization Movements
Laura Carlsen – Americas Program,
7 Feb 2011
When George W. Bush left the White House, the rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief. The National Security Doctrine of unilateral attacks, the invasion of Iraq under the false pretext of weapons of mass destruction, and the abandonment of multilateral forums had opened up a new phase of U.S. aggression. Despite the focus on the Middle East, the increased threat of U.S. military intervention cast a long shadow over many parts of the world. Two years later, that sense of relief has given way to deep concern. After hopes of a something closer to FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy of (relative) non-intervention, we find ourselves facing a new wave of militarization in Latin America–supported and promoted by the Obama administration.
→ read full articleReport: Cyprus Recognizes Palestinian States within 1967 Borders
Haaretz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Cyprus has recognized a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said on Sunday [30 Jan 2011], following similar recent declarations coming mostly from South American states.
→ read full articleThe Carbon Market – Gone in a Puff of Smoke?
Sabina Manea – The Guardian,
7 Feb 2011
The entire EU trading system was shut down last Wednesday [23 Jan 2011], with credits worth €28m missing following a series of highly effective cyber attacks that have plunged the still emerging carbon market into chaos. To make matters worse, the EU’s ETS is a serial victim; eco-activist hackers shut down the EU carbon exchange website only six months ago. The European Commission’s decision to suspend trading was taken in the wake of break-ins into online accounts in a number of European countries, with the Czech Republic being the latest casualty. The chances of recovering the stolen credits are slim, even more so once the criminals have sold them on. Unlike the money paid for indulgences, carbon credits are nothing more than records in an online account.
→ read full articleThe Great Unravelling: Tunisia, Egypt and the Protracted Collapse of the American Empire
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
The toppling of dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia in the wake of mass protests and bloody street clashes has been widely recognized as signifying a major transformation in the future of politics and geopolitics for the major countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). There is little doubt that the Tunisian experience triggered the escalation of unprecedented protests in Egypt against the Mubarak regime. The question on every media pundit’s lips is, ‘Will events in Tunisia and Egypt have a domino effect throughout the Arab world?’
→ read full articleWikiLeaks: US and China in Military Standoff over Space Missiles
Tim Ross, Holly Watt and Christopher Hope – The Telegraph,
7 Feb 2011
The United States threatened to take military action against China during a secret “star wars” arms race within the past few years, according to leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph.
→ read full articleWorld Social Forum 2011 Dakar-Senegal Feb 6-11
TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
1) What is the World Social Forum? The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action.
→ read full articleOmar Suleiman & “Foreign Elements”: A Chronology
Stephen Soldz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
This is the monster the US considers an “acceptable” alternative leader in Egypt.
→ read full articleAge Is Not the Problem
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
A fifty year old man went for his annual health check-up to the doctor.
→ read full articleBrazil: Lending a Hand to Less Developed Countries
Mario Osava – TerraViva Europe,
7 Feb 2011
Mothers’ milk banks that are helping reduce infant mortality in Guatemala and are starting to be set up in Africa as well form part of the numerous social technologies developed by Brazil that are driving the fast growth of its international development cooperation.
→ read full article
Johan Galtung on ‘Breaking the Cycle of Violent Conflict’
UCtelevision – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
“Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series,” University of California-San Diego, Jan 20 2011 — A noted pioneer in the field of Peace Studies, Johan Galtung makes the case for incorporating human rights as key to successful peace building around the world.
→ read full articleWorld History Unfolding I
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
And then it happens, right there, for our eyes. The pattern, above all a product of the US-Israel alliance (inspired by Jesaiah 2:1-5), is unraveling. The pattern was always the same, by force or bribes or both to create “friendly governments”, “allies in the peace process” as VP Joe Biden–Obama’s foreign policy expert–says. These hours, these days. Some process.
→ read full article(French) Capitalisme Transnational ou Impérialisme Collectif?
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
31 Jan 2011
Samir Amin pense que le capitalisme est une réalité historique et sociale – et non seulement économique – qu’il importe d’étudier comme un ensemble de sociétés capitalistes à caractère nationale. Cela en dépit la transnationalisation. Et pour lui, «dans l’analyse de ces capitalismes nationaux, aujourd’hui comme hier, l’accent dans la recherche ne doit sans doute pas négliger l’examen des réalités que les firmes capitalistes représentent».
→ read full article(Castellano) EEUU: Partido Único
David Brooks, surysur – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Gore Vidal, el gran novelista y ensayista, ha repetido durante años: tenemos un solo partido, un partido esencialmente del empresariado estadounidense, con dos alas derechas, una llamada los demócratas, una llamada los republicanos”.
→ read full articleKnowing and Not Knowing
Tom Tomorrow, Truthout – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
This Modern World – Political Cartoon
→ read full articlePesticide Linked to Bee Deaths Should Be Suspended, MPs Told
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor and Josephine Forster – The Independent,
31 Jan 2011
A new generation of pesticides is implicated in the widespread deaths of bees and other pollinators and should be suspended in Britain while the Government reviews new scientific evidence about their effects, MPs were told yesterday [26 Jan 2011]. Neonicotinoid pesticides are linked by “a growing weight of science” to insect losses, and the assessment regimes for them are inadequate, the Labour MP Martin Caton told the House of Commons.
→ read full articleWho Says There’re No Leaders?
Federico Mayor Zaragoza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
There is no doubt about what we must do: return to the democratic principles that the globalizers replaced with those of the market; unite together, all different but bound by shared universal values, and “re-found” the United Nations to be able to build this world federation, this coordination that would put us on course and provide momentum, which today is the dream of so many who are aware that our present course is leading us to disaster. People like Johan Galtung are showing us the right path for the future. Let’s follow him.
→ read full articleModern-Day Slaves’ Story Repeats Daily in Plain Sight
Audra D. S. Burch – The Miami Herald,
31 Jan 2011
The case of dozens of Filipino workers held captive spotlights a widespread human- trafficking problem. For up to 16 hours daily, they worked at posh country clubs across South Florida, then returned to deceptively quiet houses in Boca Raton where they were captives — and in the most dreadful cases, fed rotten chicken and vegetables, forced to drink muriatic acid and repeatedly denied medical help.
→ read full articleThe Year’s 10 Best Political Documentaries
Michael Atkinson - In These Times,
31 Jan 2011
From Eliot Spitzer to Daniel Ellsberg, documentary filmmakers didn’t lack engrossing subjects this year. Thanks largely to personal technology and its discontents, we’re living through a renaissance of activist filmmaking — never before in the history of popular media have nonfiction films been so convenient to execute, so inexpensive to finance and so easy to distribute.
→ read full articlePeru Recognises Palestinian State
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
31 Jan 2011
Peru last night [24 Jan 2011] announced it recognises Palestine as a state, becoming the seventh South American country to do so in a rapid diplomatic domino effect which has alarmed Israel.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Quem Roubou a Minha Poluição?
Nelson Peralta, esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
O mercado europeu de comércio de emissões de dióxido de carbono (CO2) está fechado há uma semana depois de ter sido detectado o roubo de 475 mil toneladas em licenças de emissão de CO2. Esta bolsa funciona numa plataforma virtual online e as falhas de segurança têm sido uma constante. A Comissão Europeia estima que cerca de dois milhões de licenças avaliadas em 26 milhões de euros possam estar desaparecidas, mas ninguém parece saber ao certo. O mercado deve reabrir hoje [27 Jan 2011], apenas nos países que adoptaram medidas de segurança adicionais.
→ read full article(Castellano) Foro Social Mundial: 10 Años Después
Emir Sader – ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento,
31 Jan 2011
Diez años después de su primera edición, el Foro Social Mundial (FSM) vuelve África, en un escenario mundial muy diferente al de 2001. En ese entonces la hegemonía del modelo neoliberal aún era grande, la economía mundial no había entrado en crisis y, principalmente, América Latina aún estaba dominada por gobiernos neoliberales, con excepción de Venezuela y Cuba.
→ read full articleWhy ‘Colour’ Revolutions are Multi-shaded
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Adding to the galaxy of ‘colour’ revolutions such as rose, tulip, orange, and many others is the recent jasmine revolution in Tunisia. The North African country suddenly gained worldwide attention in the second week of January as the ruler of country for the last 23 years fled to Saudi Arabia after massive protests. The perplexity of the matter revolved around the question how the immolation of a 26 year old could trigger such a massive unrest in Tunisia and consequently in the almost whole Arab world with protests in countries like Algeria, Syria, Yemen, Jordan are gaining shape.
→ read full articleComplex Answers
Mark Fonseca Rendeiro – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
One of the great dangers of our time, as I have seen in my short life and extensive travels, is this push to simplify everything so that it all fits in a box or a category and we don’t have to learn and appreciate the complexity of what is happening around us.
→ read full articleFood Speculation: ‘People Die From Hunger While Banks Make a Killing on Food’
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
It’s not just bad harvests and climate change – it’s also speculators that are behind record prices. And it’s the planet’s poorest who pay.
→ read full articleStakeholders in the Côte d’Ivoire Crisis
Sanou Mbaye – Pambazuka News,
31 Jan 2011
What is at stake in Côte d’Ivoire ‘are the consequences of French ongoing colonisation and ruthless exploitation in connivance with unscrupulous local leaders of swathes of west and central Africa’, writes Sanou Mbaye, in an analysis of the five parties affected by the country’s post-election crisis.
→ read full article
CrossTalk: American Exceptionalism
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
On this edition of Peter Lavelle’s CrossTalk, he asks his guests whether American exceptionalism is a self-serving myth.
→ read full articleVenezuela-Cuba Undersea Cable Link Work Starts
BBC News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Work has begun on laying an underwater fibre-optic cable to link Venezuela and Cuba. It will stretch 1,600km (1,000m) and considerably improve telephone and internet services to Cuba, which currently relies on a costly and slow internet connection via satellite.
→ read full articleMahatma Gandhi: Freedom Is Our Goal; Our Lives the Price We Pay
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
There is a certain irony that two of the most violent and dangerous conflicts which face us as peacemakers today are conflicts which Gandhi also faced but left unresolved. The first is violence within the Muslim community of what is now Pakistan. The second is violence and the political status of the Pathan (Pushtun) area that is on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier.
→ read full articlePalestinian Papers: What the Al Jazeera Blockbuster Means
MJ Rosenberg, PoliticalCorrection – Media Matters Action Network,
31 Jan 2011
Al Jazeera’s stunning revelations about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have different meanings for Israelis, Americans and for Palestinians. The bottom line is that despite the assurances it gave to the Palestinian people that it was driving a hard bargain with the Israelis, the Palestinian Authority accepted Israel’s position on every key point: borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees.
→ read full articleNGOs in Haiti: “The Handmaidens of Imperial Domination”
Mike Whitney – Information Clearing House,
31 Jan 2011
An Interview with Ashley Smith
→ read full article
It’s the Occupation, Stupid
Maidhc Ó Cathail - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
It’s the Occupation, Stupid features, in order of appearance, Eliot Spitzer, Ben Stein, Irving Kristol, Ron Paul, Michael Scheuer, Richard Curtiss, Eric Margolis, Loretta Alper, Scott Horton, Alison Weir, Glenn Greenwald, Paul Findley, Ilan Pappé, Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. The narrator’s words are from Maidhc Ó Cathail’s “Ben Stein: America is an underarmed country!” and “Kristol Clear: The Source of America’s Wars.”
→ read full article(Portuguese) Brasil: Estudo Mostra Informações Sobre o Trabalho Escravo no Maranhão
Danilo Augusto, Radioagência NP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Segundo dados da Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), somente no Brasil existem aproximadamente 25 mil trabalhadores que vivem em condições semelhantes à de escravos. De acordo com informações do Atlas, o Maranhão é o que mais fornece força de trabalho escravo. A região do município de Açailândia, fronteira com o Pará, é apontada como de maior ocorrência. As atividades que mais utilizam a prática escrava são a pecuária e a indústria carvoeira.
→ read full articleMubarak’s Dictatorship Must End Now
Guardian-Observer Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Sun Jan 30 2011 – Fittingly, Egypt’s youth led the way against the old order, using not guns or bombs but the arsenal of 21st-century information technology: social media, mobiles, texts and emails. The Paris mob of Bastille notoriety became, through peaceful evolution, the flash mob of Tahrir Square. They espoused no leaders. They wrote no plans. In fast-moving, separate but interconnected street offensives, they out-thought, outfoxed and outran the police.
→ read full articleAnalogy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
The following analogy characterizes a typical Congress member’s attitude about the looming energy crisis: A young man decided that he wanted to become a switching specialist with a railroad.
→ read full articleOlof Palme and World Interests
Johan Galtung, 24 Jan 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Leeds City Hall, UK – Jan 23, 2011. To Palme the two superpowers and their hideous arms were more than a problem to each other. Together they were a world problem and it was in the world interest to sort it out…. Olof Palme’s crime, even treason, was very clear and unpardonable: he defined the waiting room-recovery home as normalcy, and created a new concept of Sweden as a Great Power, based on the welfare state and neutrality.
→ read full articleSecret Papers Reveal Slow Death of Middle East Peace Process
Seumas Milne and Ian Black, Middle East editor – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel’s annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.
→ read full article
Interview with Johan Galtung (Part 1 of 2)
Mera Szendro Bok | Communicaton is your Right! - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
In this Dec 9, 2010 interview Johan Galtung talks about his experiences, insights, views, and his new book “The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What?”
→ read full article
Interview with Johan Galtung (Part 2 of 2)
Mera Szendro Bok | Communicaton is your Right! - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
In this Dec 9, 2010 interview Johan Galtung talks about his experiences, insights, views, and his new book “The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What?”
→ read full articleMajor Die-Off of Fish along Lakefront
Dale Bowman – Chicago Sun-Times,
24 Jan 2011
A bizarre scene is evolving on the Chicago lakefront, with Canada geese and mallard ducks gulping down dead or dying gizzard shad.
→ read full articleUnfaithfulness
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Morris returns from a long business trip and finds out that his wife has been unfaithful during his time away. Who was it!?” he yells.
→ read full articlePortugal’s Experiment With Drugs
Kevin Drum – Mother Jones,
24 Jan 2011
Glenn Greenwald wrote a report for Cato a couple of years ago that gave high marks to Portugal’s experiment with drug decriminalization, and now a study in the British Journal of Criminology largely gives it high marks too:
→ read full article(Italian) Le Campagne d’Africa di US Army Vicenza
Antonio Mazzeo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Un anno e mezzo fa erano circa 180 i militari e civili assegnati al Comando di US Army Africa a Vicenza. Adesso lo staff della componente terrestre di AFRICOM, l’organismo militare che sovrintende alle operazioni statunitensi nel continente africano, supera già le 400 unità.
→ read full articleNew Jerusalem Settlement Hits Peace Process
Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem – The Independent,
24 Jan 2011
Israel is moving ahead with a project to build 1,400 new homes in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, a development that critics claim will deliver a death knell to the already faltering peace process.
→ read full articleObama: As Bad as Bush
Mike Whitney – Information Clearing House,
24 Jan 2011
His enemies call him a tyrant and a dictator, but he is neither. Hugo Chavez is a tireless champion of the poor and a committed Christian socialist. The only difference between Chavez’s type of Christianity and Barack Obama’s, is that Chavez walks the walk.
→ read full articleThe Brutal Truth about Tunisia
Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent – The Independent,
24 Jan 2011
Bloodshed, tears, but no democracy. Bloody turmoil won’t necessarily presage the dawn of democracy. The end of the age of dictators in the Arab world? Certainly they are shaking in their boots across the Middle East, the well-heeled sheiks and emirs, and the kings, including one very old one in Saudi Arabia and a young one in Jordan, and presidents – another very old one in Egypt and a young one in Syria – because Tunisia wasn’t meant to happen. Food price riots in Algeria, too, and demonstrations against price increases in Amman. Not to mention scores more dead in Tunisia, whose own despot sought refuge in Riyadh – exactly the same city to which a man called Idi Amin once fled.
→ read full articleBlackwater Founder Said to Back Mercenaries
Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt – The New York Times,
24 Jan 2011
Erik Prince, the founder of the international security giant Blackwater Worldwide, is backing an effort by a controversial South African mercenary firm to insert itself into Somalia’s bloody civil war by protecting government leaders, training Somali troops, and battling pirates and Islamic militants there, according to American and Western officials.
→ read full articleFrom Haiti to Australia: The Horrendous Payback of Global Capitalism
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
24 Jan 2011
Decades of exploitation and neglect of social needs are now magnifying manifold the impacts from natural phenomena that are part and parcel of living in a physical world. Such events are inevitable, but the extent of destruction is not – only it is inevitable because of the perverse profit system that mandates death and destruction in the wake of its seismic injustice.
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One Year Later, Life No Better in Haiti
The Real News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Nicole Lee: Stability of markets depends on countries like Haiti remaining poor. Europe’s, US’s commitment is to their own subsidies only.
→ read full articleVatican Abuse Cover-Up Bid Revealed
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Irish broadcaster RTE have uncovered a 1997 letter from the Vatican discouraging Ireland’s Catholic bishops from reporting on all suspected child-abuse cases to police. The letter, revealed on Wednesday [19 Jan 2011], documents the church’s emphasis to handle in-house all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments instead of delegating that responsibility over to civil authorities.
→ read full articleTribute to Patrice Lumumba on the 50th Anniversary of His Assassination [17 Jan 1961]
Carlos Martinez – Pambazuka News,
24 Jan 2011
Why was Lumumba killed? Because he was a relentless, dedicated, intelligent, passionate anti-colonialist, Pan-Africanist and Congolese nationalist; because he had the unstinting support of the Congolese masses; because he stood in the way of Belgium’s plan to transform Congo from a colony into a neo-colony.
→ read full articleThe Balkanization of Sudan: The Redrawing of the Middle East and North Africa
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Global Research,
24 Jan 2011
Sudan is a diverse nation and a country that represents the plurality of Africa through various tribes, clans, ethnicities, and religious groups. Yet the unity of Sudan is in question, while there is talk of unifying nations and of one day creating a United States of Africa through the African Union…. The balkanization of Sudan is what is really at stake. For years the leaders and officials of South Sudan have been supported by America and the European Union.
→ read full articleAflockalypse: More Mass Animal Deaths, Thousands of Fish Found Floating in Florida and 200 Birds Dead on Texas Bridge
Wil Longbottom – Daily Mail,
24 Jan 2011
• Thousands of fish found floating in Florida after cold snap
• 200 birds found dead on highway bridge in Texas
• 50 dead jackdaws found on city street in Sweden
• 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish wash up dead on Brazilian coast
• Hundreds of fish dead in New Zealand
• And in Britain, 40,000 devil crabs join list of casualties
Are Corporations People?
Los Angeles Times, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
In a case that could erect new barriers to public access to government information, the Supreme Court this week was asked to hold that corporations have a right to “personal privacy.” Fortunately, justices from across the ideological spectrum appeared skeptical that such a counterintuitive concept could be found either in the law or in a dictionary.
→ read full articleIntroducing the Palestine Papers
Gregg Carlstrom – Al Jazeera,
24 Jan 2011
Al Jazeera has obtained more than 1,600 internal documents from a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. There are nearly 1,700 files, thousands of pages of diplomatic correspondence detailing the inner workings of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. These documents – memos, e-mails, maps, minutes from private meetings, accounts of high level exchanges, strategy papers and even power point presentations – date from 1999 to 2010…. Because of the sensitive nature of these documents, Al Jazeera will not reveal the source(s) or detail how they came into our possession. We have taken great care over an extended period of time to assure ourselves of their authenticity. We believe this material will prove to be of inestimable value to journalists, scholars, historians, policymakers and the general public.
→ read full articleWhy Socialism?
Albert Einstein, Monthly Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.
→ read full articleHow Haiti Was Abandoned
Ashley Smith – Socialist Worker,
24 Jan 2011
The broken promises of support for Haiti from the world’s most powerful governments–and the neoliberal agenda they are pursuing instead.
→ read full articleUS Should Recognise Palestine
MJ Rosenberg – Al Jazeera,
24 Jan 2011
If the US is serious about peace, it should follow the current trend and recognise Palestinian statehood in 2011.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Election: a Travesty of Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The OAS’s attempt to rehabilitate a fatally flawed process would be laughable if it were not a tragic injustice for Haitians.
→ read full articleTunisia: The Fall of the West’s Little Dictator
Esam al-Amin – CounterPunch,
24 Jan 2011
With mounting protests forcing President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country, the Tunisian people’s toppling of a deeply unpopular regime may well ‘become a watershed date in the modern history of the Arab World’, writes Esam al-Amin. Once a key regional ally of Western governments, Ben Ali’s fall from grace has been precipitated by an extraordinary wave of sustained protest. Time will tell if the ‘Tunisian revolution’ attains lasting change and success, al-Amin concludes.
→ read full articleThe Spectre Haunting Europe: Debt Defaults, Austerity, and Death of the “Social Europe” Model
Prof Michael Hudson and Prof. Jeffrey Sommers – Global Research,
24 Jan 2011
A spectre is haunting Europe: the illusion that Latvia’s financial and fiscal austerity is a model for other countries to emulate. Bankers and the financial press are asking governments from Greece to Ireland and now Spain as well: “Why can’t you be like Latvia and sacrifice your economy to pay the debts that you ran up during the financial bubble?” The answer is, they can’t – without an economic, demographic and political collapse that will only make matters worse.
→ read full articleA Precedent or a Farce? – Court Faces Daunting Hurdles in Hamburg Pirate Trial
Michael Scott Moore in Hamburg – Der Spiegel,
24 Jan 2011
A Hamburg court is trying to make sense of a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia last April. But even as many hope the trial will produce a precedent for Europe’s approach to high seas crime, the court can’t even figure out how old the suspects are. The challenges to justice are immense.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Boaventura de Sousa Santos: “Os mercados cometem crimes contra a humanidade”
Filipa Martins, ionline – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Para o sociólogo, Portugal está a ser vitima de um ataque especulativo não justificado dos mercados internacionais.
→ read full articleWelcoming the Tunisian Revolution: Hopes and Fears
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Turning back to North Africa, in 1992 when the FIS in Algeria won hotly contested elections for legislative representation, the military intervened to impose its will, Washington was silent, and remained so during the ‘dark decade’ of strife followed in which at least 60,000 Algerians lost their lives. It is part of the reality in the region that American strategic and ideological goals point one way and the popular will of the people point in the opposite direction. It is thus either hypocritical or a sign of deep confusion for American leadership to advocate democracy in the Middle East without being willing to alter its grand strategy.
→ read full article(Castellano) Sudamérica, Una Década que Cambió el Continente
Raúl Zibechi – Americas Program,
17 Jan 2011
En muchos sentidos, la primera década del siglo XXI es la contracara de la última del XX. La lista de cambios es tan larga como trascendente. Resta saber si se trata de un paréntesis o de un nuevo comienzo. En todo caso, la región no volverá a ser lo que fue.
→ read full articleGuyana Recognises Palestinian State
Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Guyana is latest Latin American country to state a commitment to the “legitimate aspirations” of Palestinians.
→ read full article(Castellano) Costa Rica: Canciller Castro Ve Necesario Reconsiderar Tradición Pacifista
Álvaro Murillo – La Nación,
17 Jan 2011
Afirma que en tres años podría formarse un cuerpo como lo tienen Chile y Panamá. Ministro dice que no habla de ejército, pero sí de modernizar sistema de seguridad.
→ read full articleWhy Peace Is the Business of Men (But Shouldn’t Be)
Ann Jones - TomDispatch,
17 Jan 2011
A Modest Proposal for the Immodest Brotherhood of Big Men
→ read full articleWhat Happened When Fundamentalist Christians Tried to “Cure” Me of Homosexuality
James Voss, Truth Wins Out – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
I left for North Central University right after high school to become a youth pastor. The one obstacle of graduation was my sexual orientation. According to the university, homosexuals suffer a life controlling disorder that can be overcome through self-discipline, prayer, and by living a life centered in Christ and obeying the N.C.U Way. At a certain point I decided that I needed to love myself enough, and admit that I was gay and leave NCU.
→ read full articlePortugal: The Prospect of a Full Bailout and More Austerity Looms in 2011
Socialist Worker, LeftBanker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Portugal is the latest European country to face a financial crisis, the likelihood of a bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund–and savage austerity measures that come with the “rescue.” The cutbacks, layoffs and regressive tax increases are being championed by the center-left Socialist Party government, with the support of the country’s main conservative party, the Social Democratic Party.
→ read full articleOn Jewish Identity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
As someone who is both Jewish and supportive of the Palestinian struggle for a just and sustainable peace, I am often asked about my identity. The harshest critics of my understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict contend that I am a self-hating Jew, which implies that sharp criticism of Israel and Zionism are somehow incompatible with affirming a Jewish identity. Of course, I deny this.
→ read full articleSomali Pirates Testify in Court
Beate Lakotta in Hamburg – Der Spiegel,
17 Jan 2011
‘I Am Deeply Sad and Don’t Know How to Go On.’ Two out of the 10 Somali pirates on trial in Hamburg for hijacking a German container ship testified for the first time this week. Their stories provided a glimpse of the hardships of life in their lawless homeland.
→ read full articleSpicy…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
The women in a town decided that their men gave them too little pocket money. To remedy the situation, they opened a bordello.
→ read full articleTunisia : The Last Days of Ben Ali
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
The wave of a peoples’ revolution has swept over Tunisia and pushed President Ben Ali to exile in Saudi Arabia.
→ read full article
Anti-Semitism: Zionism’s Indispensable Alibi
Maidhc Ó Cathail - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Although Zionism typically represents itself as the solution to anti-Semitism, the truth is less flattering. In fact, hostility toward Jews is indispensable to the cause of Jewish nationalism. If anti-Semitism didn’t exist, Zionists would have to invent it.
→ read full articleCosta Rica Foreign Minister Sparks Army Debate
Adam Williams – Tico Times,
17 Jan 2011
René Castro tells a Dutch radio station that external forces are causing Costa Rica to reconsider their official pacifist stance.
→ read full articleAfrica: Letter to AU over Homophobia Concerns
AIDS-Free World – Pambazuka News,
17 Jan 2011
We are writing to express our grave concern about the recent escalation of homophobia throughout the African continent. A vocal minority spouting hatred, paranoia, and intolerance is dominating public discourse. In response, increasing numbers of parliaments are attempting to criminalise homosexuality, and increasing numbers of African leaders are publicly endorsing this criminalisation. Currently, over two-thirds of countries in the African Union have legislation that criminalises homosexuality. AIDS-Free World is disturbed by the silence of AU leaders in the face of this discrimination, and we urgently call upon the African Union to hold a special session to address the issue.
→ read full articleNew Generation of Unmanned Spy Planes: Faster, Deadlier Military Drones Getting Flight Tests in Mojave Desert
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times,
17 Jan 2011
Three drones being flown in the coming weeks are speedier, stealthier and higher-flying. An experimental spy plane with a wingspan almost the size of a Boeing 747’s took to the skies over the Mojave Desert last week in a secret test flight that may herald a new era in modern warfare with robotic planes flying higher, faster and with more firepower.
→ read full articleLiving as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds: Global implications of “betwixt and between” and liminality
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
This is an imaginal exploration of living between conventional sides, modes or choices — living on the bridge between them, or as that bridge. It conflates significance potentially associated with the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte Sospiro) and the Ponte Vecchio — both of them variously covered. Both are iconic “musts” for tourists travelling to Venice and Florence. Both have offered inspiration elsewhere and down the centuries. The Ponte Vecchio dates notably from the Renaissance period and its historical origins in Florence. The question here is whether they together point to a context through which to explore the possibilities of living “in between” the divisive choices by which society is currently faced — at a time when there are many calls for new thinking and reflections on a “new Renaissance”. A concern is whether the requisite cognitive nature of such collective emergent insight might well be “missed” in some way, as previously discussed (Missing the New Renaissance? 2010; From Changing the Strategic Game to Changing the Strategic Frame: missing cognitive possibility in changing the system not the planet, 2010).
→ read full articleMauritania: Activists’ Trial Puts Spotlight on Anti-Slavery Law
IRIN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Six anti-slavery activists are in prison in Mauritania in a case rights experts say points to the challenges of ensuring a 2007 law criminalizing slavery is more than just words on paper.
→ read full articleExposing the Real Tunisia
Soumaya Ghannoushi – The Guardian,
17 Jan 2011
A recent wave of unrest belies the myth of a Tunisian miracle, and offers a stark warning.
→ read full articleThe War on WikiLeaks: A John Pilger Investigation and Interview with Julian Assange
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders, in politics and journalism. The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before.
→ read full article