Articles by UN
We found 3962 results.
Perfide Albion
Johan Galtung,
8 Mar 2011
As the Arab revolt broadens and deepens the roles of a global and a regional empire, USA and Israel, will surface increasingly. There will be more about that next week; here the focus is on the third one of the kind, the United Kingdom, or simply England, Albion, known for its perfidy, Lord Palmerston’s famous “no permanent friends, no permanent enemies; permanent interests”. John Bull = John Bully? That empire had model character, and Tony Blair did his best to revive Albion by serving an Eagle across the Atlantic:
→ read full articleDeChristopher Guilty of Placing Bogus Bids
Brandon Loomis & Aaron Falk - The Salt Lake Tribune,
7 Mar 2011
Newly convicted climate activist Tim DeChristopher appreciated the songs, the banners and the hugs outside the courthouse Thursday [3 Mar 2011], but he expects more. “We know that now I’ll have to go to prison,” DeChristopher said. “If we’re going to achieve our vision, many after me will have to join me as well.” The 29-year-old Salt Lake City man said he is prepared to do time after Thursday’s two felony guilty verdicts for misrepresenting himself and placing bogus bids at a federal oil and gas lease auction.
→ read full article(Italian) UniCredit, Finmeccanica, i capitali libici e le armi italiane a Gheddafi
Giorgio Beretta - Unimondo,
7 Mar 2011
Pare si sia risolto il mistero della scomparsa del vicepresidente di UniCredit, il libico Farhat Omar Bengdara, governatore della Central Bank of Libya che nei giorni scorsi era stato dato dai vertici della banca come non ritracciabile.
→ read full articleEndless Cry in the Red Corridor
Gladson Dungdung – The Gandhi Foundation,
28 Feb 2011
Now both the parties – the Security Forces and the Maoists have been exploiting the innocent villagers but they can do nothing except shouting, weeping and crying… Whenever, a vehicle enters the village, all the villagers including children, women and men run away to hide, shield and protect themselves. These days, the police visit the village almost every day and humiliate, beat and torture the innocent villagers and also destroy their food and shelter. Therefore, they assume that each vehicle entering their village belongs to the Police.
→ 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 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 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 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 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 articleArab Authoritarian Order Shattered
Robin Wright – United States Institute of Peace,
21 Feb 2011
The Arab world’s old authoritarian order is being shattered, whatever happens next. With Egypt accounting for roughly one-quarter of the Arab world’s 300 million people, the transition of political power in Cairo will have widespread effect across the twenty-two nation bloc. From Casablanca to Kuwait, Tripoli to Damascus, Egypt’s transition will affect every other Arab country in some way—small or large, direct or indirect.
→ 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 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?
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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 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.
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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 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 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 articleWhat Would a Gandhian Society Look Like?
George Paxton – Gandhi Foundation,
31 Jan 2011
Much of Gandhi’s constructive programme was based on village India where the majority of Indians lived (and I believe still do). However, in the West, and increasingly throughout the world, most people live in urban centres. This, along with changes in society brought about by rapid technological developments perhaps require some adaptation of Gandhi’s ideas.
→ 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.
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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?”
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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 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.
→ 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 articleGreeting the Fall of the US Empire: a Message of Peace
Jan Lundberg - Culture Change,
24 Jan 2011
Please join me in greeting the fall of the U.S. Empire, a healthy way to begin this new year. It is a positive sentiment among some thoughtful Americans. Their ungiddy feeling flows from observation of world developments and the state of the U.S. political system and economy. The timetable is fuzzy, but trends are clear. It’s not pretty, but there is a thin silver lining.
→ read full articleUSA versus China, and a Peace Prize
Johan Galtung,
17 Jan 2011
What we see is rather that countries high on civil and political rights-CPR seem to feel entitled to warfare to impose human rights. But, like democracy, human rights must come from the inside, not imposed, even by breaking them. Free and fair multi-party national elections can even legitimize going to war, and their absence in China comes with almost no inter-state war. If we add to that definition “transparency and dialogue”, then WikiLeaks shows the lack thereof. Democracy by majority serves as license to kill rather than a duty to be transparent across borders and use dialogue for solutions.
→ read full articleIs Lockheed Martin Shadowing You?
William D. Hartung – TomDispatch,
17 Jan 2011
How a Giant Weapons Maker Became the New Big Brother: After all, it received $36 billion in government contracts in 2008 alone, more than any company in history. It now does work for more than two dozen government agencies from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service.
→ read full articleTwo Indias: Gandhiji and Modern India
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Talk Given in New Delhi, Dec 30 2010 — Gandhi was killed not far from where we are right now by a Pune brahmin, Godse, and I was that 17-year-old boy in Norway who cried when hearing the news. Something unheard of had happened.
→ read full articleAbout the Editorial “Islam and the West – Some Differences” – Nov. 29, 2010
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Readers have kindly pointed out two unfortunate formulations.
→ read full article40,000 Crabs Join Slew of Animal-Death Mysteries
Jenni Dunning – Toronto Star,
10 Jan 2011
First, it was birds falling from the sky, then thousands of dead fish washing up on shore. Now, more than 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs have wound up dead on England beaches. The possible reason? Hypothermia.
→ read full articleMore Dead Birds Fall from the Sky in Sweden, Chile, Kentucky — Dead Fish Keep Washing Ashore
Steven D – Booman Tribune,
10 Jan 2011
They have dead birds falling from the skies (twice in the last week) in Arkansas. They have dead birds in Louisiana and Kentucky too. And in Chile. And now in Sweden.
→ read full articleAn Era of Sri Lanka’s President: From Mullivaikal to Oxford Union
Nirmanusan Balasundaram - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
Mullivaikal is where the last phase of the war between Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLAF) and Liberation Tiger of TamilEelam (LTTE) took place. According to the Government of Sri Lanka, this was the place war came to an end with the military defeat of LTTE, but for majority Tamils and international human rights activists, this was the place at-least 30,000-40,000 Tamil civilians were massacred by SLAF. The ‘controversy’ began from here and continues even after 19 months.
→ read full articleSoft Power: China on the Global Stage
Alan Hunter – Oxford Journals,
10 Jan 2011
This article considers a further dimension of international relations, namely ‘soft power’. The author does not propose to make a detailed critique of the ‘soft power’ concept, but rather to use it as a basis for evaluating aspects of China’s rise and stated commitment to peace. This is a relatively new field of study; partly because China’s rise is itself relatively recent, and partly due to lack of sinological expertise among interested commentators.
→ read full articleAnti-Sanctions Chorus Out of Tune
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jan 2011
The emerging anti-sanctions lobby should be understood for what it is – the bald promotion of Western strategic and corporate interests. Ending sanctions now will only further entrench military rule, giving it a veneer of normalcy and acceptability, at the expense of Myanmar’s long-suffering people and the country’s equitable economic development.
→ read full articleWikiWishes for WikiPromises for 2011
Johan Galtung, 3 Jan 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
The world needs knowledgeable and skilled women and men promoting the interests of nature, humans everywhere, all nations and states, civilizations and regions, and the world. Some might even be called diplomats and narrow it to one point, their nation. And the Country of the Year, Turkey, showed that consistent peace politics, creating amazing friendly relations with all neighbors is possible. What it takes is a decision to do so.
→ read full articleHaiti: Where Aid Failed
Unni Karunakara – The Guardian,
3 Jan 2011
Why have at least 2,500 people died of cholera when there are about 12,000 NGOs in the country?
→ read full articleThe “Family” – Who Really Is Behind This Secret Organization?
Yana Kunichoff - Truthout,
3 Jan 2011
“Jesus plus nothing” is the mantra of the Fellowship, also known as the Family, a secret, fundamentalist Christian organization peopled primarily by devout policy makers and high-ranking individuals. Though the nonbeliever’s view of religion can often be dismissive when faced with such catchphrases, in “C Street,” a nonfiction account of the extended reach of the Family, these phrases fuel moral crusades with real, and terrifying, impact.
→ read full articleIndia: Need for Peace and Equity Audit as a Parameter for Development Planning
Mazher Hussain, COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jan 2011
The objective of Planning should be to secure development and progress for all. But it is seen that development initiatives in India are leading to exclusion of large sections, increase in income disparities, intensification of social tensions and onset of conflicts between different communities/groups and even between the people and the State.
→ read full articleThe Middle East: One More Look
Johan Galtung,
27 Dec 2010
Taming all Arabs with Jesaiah 2:1-5 geopolitics? Impossible, forget about it. No, change has to come from inside Israel, already in Ibn Khaldun stage 4: from kibbutzim idealism via ritualism via moral torpitude to all fighting all. But who are the new Bedouins knocking down the gates, shouting “your time is up”? My best bet and hope: young Israeli women, enraged by (ultra)-orthodoxy, wedded to a state with a Jewish character, but not to zionist geopolitics. You are there, somewhere. The clock of history is ticking for you.
→ read full articleWhen Pixels, Bytes and VJs Unite
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Everyone could hear the collective gasp that filled the auditorium – and no one would forget – the very moment when the first signal transporting Aung San Suu Kyi’s animated face to a large screen in London arrived last week.
→ read full articleCell Phone Security: Mobile Phone Taps
Bill Rounds J.D., HowToVanish – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
There has been considerable discussion lately about the ease of eavesdropping on cell phone conversations through mobile phone taps and the lack of cell phone security. There are many products and hacks available which allow for monitoring of cell phone activity. Is your phone bugged and what can you do to keep your private information from being intercepted?
→ read full articleNorway Accused of Funding Abuse in Burma
Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent – The Independent,
20 Dec 2010
State pension fund invested billions in energy projects, report says. The Norwegian government has been accused of complicity in illegal land seizures, forced labour and killings, by investing national funds in international companies that operate inside Burma on projects where widespread abuses are alleged to have taken place.
→ read full articleWomen and the 21st Century
Johan Galtung, 20 Dec 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Dec 2010
Feminism has made an enormous contribution by identifying patriarchy as a pattern underlying capitalism and militarism…. Making patriarchy visible through brilliant feminist articulation is a transcending contribution, reminiscent of the marxist focus on another deep structure hidden to the unguided eye: the interface of means and modes of production. Or Lenin and others on imperialism, Gandhi and many others on colonialism. Race. And agism: like placing people above 67 etc. in a ghetto called retirement (or children in a ghetto called schools?).
→ read full articleThe Korean Peninsula: Two Scenarios
Johan Galtung,
13 Dec 2010
Acceptance Speech of the DMZ Peace Prize – Chuncheon, South Korea, 5 Dec 2010 – “Today North Korea’s economy is sluggish to say the least, South Korea’s brilliant but vulnerable to crises; having had some of them. And more may be coming if South Korea adopts too much of the US economic style. South Korea may accompany the US economy on its way down, just like North Korea may be hanging on to the Chinese economy on its way up. One falling, one rising. Double digit growth for North Korean capi-communism and crisis, devaluation etc., for South Korean hyper-capitalism? Not impossible.”
→ read full articleGlobal Domestic Policy – And WikiLeaks
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Dec 2010
Nor is class fading out: the world upper classes enrich themselves in the financial system, greatly aided by the International Monetary Fund–and the world lower classes use the drug system for similar purposes, as acted out in Rio de Janeiro. Two perverse systems coming out of the absurdity of world hyper capitalism, supported by a fading empire. We need and deserve something better, nothing perfect, but much better. We cannot build globalization on such absurdities.
→ read full articleThe Education of a Peacemaker
Philip Grant interviewing Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Dec 2010
“Nationalism is not the same as culture…. This triad of chosenness, glory and trauma produces vicious types of nationalistic ideologies that are constantly threatening world peace…. Nationalism lays claims on land and times…. Education has degenerated into schooling, schooling has mutated into a way of earning degrees, and degrees are seen simply as a ticket to earning a living.”
→ read full article(Italian) Stati Uniti, il Dramma Silenzioso dei Reduci
Alberto Tundo, PeaceReporter – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Nov 2010
Il numero dei soldati che si suicidano ha superato quello dei militari morti in Afghanistan dal 2001.
→ read full articleWhat Does Aung San Suu Kyi’s Release Mean for Burma?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Nov 2010
Since the release of a single dissident Aung San Suu Kyi – while holding 2,100 of her fellow dissidents behind bars who are serving up to 90 years imprisonment – the loud calls for lifting sanctions are repeated by some well-known supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi such as East Timor’s Jose Ramos-Horta, as if pouring more foreign direct investment in Burma’s gas and oil sector and increasing trade with the country’s kleptocratic, dysfunctional State would automatically translate into public welfare.
→ read full articleU.S. Military Suicides Kill More Than the Battles
Alberto Tundo, PeaceReporter - Pravda,
29 Nov 2010
The number of soldiers committing suicide is higher than that of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001. The list continues to grow inexorably. It contains the names of those who returned home from the trenches of the war against terrorism, but lost control of themselves, a war that has left more dead than the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
→ read full articleUpsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara
Stephen Zunes – Open Democracy,
29 Nov 2010
Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause.
→ read full articleIslam and the West: Some Differences
Johan Galtung, 29 Nov 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Nov 2010
The three abrahamic religions judaism-christianity-islam are similar in being revealed truths 4,000, 2,000, 1,400 years ago; and different by being revealed into different contexts, and by the latter building on the former. These 16 debatable points are based on themes frequently coming up in dialogues.
→ read full articlePreventing More Ethnic Disputes
Jonathan Power – Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
22 Nov 2010
Just before he died at the end of the twentieth century, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin said, “It was the worst century that Europe ever had. Worse, I suspect, even than the days of the Huns. And why? Because in our modern age nationalism is not resurgent; it never died. Neither did racism. They are the most powerful movements in the world today cutting across many social systems”.
→ read full articleHitler and the Germans
Johan Galtung, 22 Nov 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Nov 2010
Berlin: The exhibition with that name is on and very much worth visiting. The fact that it exists is laudable in itself, and people come, many, standing in line. There is much expertise behind this effort to explore why Hitler attracted the support he got, including with a coalition party winning an election as free and fair as they come early March 1933, right after what is referred to as the Machtergreifung, grabbing the power and actually was a Machtübergabe, giving the power–to Hitler. And his NSDAP, the national socialist German labor party, Na from National and zi from Sozialist add up to Nazi. Imagine now that they actually stood for both.
→ read full article
(Italian) Galtung – Intervista a “due”: Medicina Nonviolenta
GUNA TV – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Nov 2010
Il teorico di fama internazionale degli studi sulla non violenza Johan Galtung e il presidente di GUNA spa Alessandro Pizzoccaro.
→ read full articleThe Decline and Fall of Norway
Johan Galtung, 15 Nov 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Nov 2010
Then the third revelation. Wars among states decrease as wars among nations increase; the state system going down and the nation system up in salience. What could make young men kill Afghans when Norway is not attacked? Constructing Norway as a killer nation, digging deep down in Norwegian archaeology, to the Vikings, invoking their symbols, helmets and Valhalla, with craniums to boot. Like SS. Quisling, from the Telemark province, also used the Germanic cult of anything old Nordic for his fascist Norwegian Legion. Name of the Norwegian Afghanistan ISAF battalion: Telemark. Ominous.
→ read full articleMyanmar Election Was ‘Categorically Anti-Democratic’
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Nov 2010
The constitution also stipulates the commander-in-chief will be above the law, and that the president must have substantial “national security experience”, something which only military officers can claim. Twenty five per cent of parliamentary seats are reserved for the military and any constitutional amendment must have more than 75 per cent of votes, making reform virtually impossible unless, of course, the generals acquiesce. The parliament is required to meet only once a year.
→ read full articleThe Privatization of War: Mercenaries, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC)
Jose L. Gomez del Prado – UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries,
15 Nov 2010
Beyond the WikiLeaks Files: The United Nation Human Rights Council, under the Universal Periodic Review, started on 5 November 2010 in Geneva, reviewing the human rights record of the United States. The following is an edited version of the presentation given by Jose L. Gomez del Prado in Geneva on 3 November 2010 at a parallel meeting at the UN Palais des Nations on that occasion.
→ read full articleCivilization as a Way of Life
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Nov 2010
Right now the West of the West, the USA, is losing not only its empire, but after .com, housing and finance bubbles comes the US$ bubble, with the federal debt increasing 3,2 billion dollars per day since 2006, the unemployed 7,300 per day since 2008 and 1,400 jobs lost in industries per day since 2006. And 2 1/2 times more money circulating, meaning printed, than before the 2008 crash (Der Spiegel, 44-2010). Worse than a failed state: a failed society. Will this make the West less arrogant, learning to pay attention to economic-social rights, to togetherness and sharing, to neither too little nor too much, to spiritual growth, to economic and political eclecticism, and democracy by dialogue? To harmony through mutual and equal benefit? The better a Western country manages to learn from the rest of the world, not only preach, the better the people will fare. And the more a non-Western country develops of its own, independent of the West, the better it will fare; not belittling what it can learn from the West for dynamism, democratic transitions and human rights.
→ read full articleInciting Mob Anger Against Me
Arundhati Roy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Nov 2010
On October 31, 2010 members of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which has links with neo-fascist organizations, gathered outside Roy’s home in New Dehli and chanted slogans for half an hour. The group vandalized property outside a security gate, and then broke onto the grounds of the home. Roy was not present at the time of the attack. Roy, the celebrated author of the novel The God of Small Things and of several non-fiction books, including Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers, issued this statement after the attack, drawing particular attention to the apparent collaboration of the Indian media with the mob that carried out the attack.
→ read full articleThe Cultural Unity of Black Africa?
Johan Galtung,
1 Nov 2010
Douala, Cameroun: That is the title of the fascinating book by Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-86), published by Presence Africaine in Paris and Dakar first time in 1959. A very original doctoral thesis presented at the Sorbonne in 1954, and it passed the test: it was refused by some minor French character. After that, Diop published a number of books on related themes till his demise in 1986, arguing a federal United States of Africa, with 700 million inhabitants, eight natural regions, incredibly rich.
→ read full article
American War
YoungBrotherMusic – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Nov 2010
American War is a folk-rock, Americana, classic, anti-war song created in three versions, by John Hart Young of the Young-Brother Band with Richard Del Maestro co-producing and performing.
→ read full articleNehru On Gandhi, Views On Political Culture
Prem Misir – The Gandhi Foundation,
1 Nov 2010
Nehru admired Gandhi’s constant focus on the ‘right way’ of doing things; using the correct methods for doing things. Stress on using the right means to achieve ends was one of Gandhi’s great contributions to public life. Where most people think about ends, it seems strange that Gandhi would concentrate on means; but it is an extraordinary way of thinking; thinking linked to the moral law of truth that may have hugely impacted India.
→ read full articleThe UN, Peace and Peace Education
Johan Galtung, 25 Oct 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Oct 2010
Voksenåsen, Oslo: Ladies and gentlemen, what an honor to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the United Nations on my own 80th birthday, this 24 October 2010, being invited to deliver the Dag Hammarskjöld lecture! My own health is good, how about the 15 years younger UN?
→ read full articleDear Chilean miners, please do not accept Israel’s invitation
Robin – Under the Holly Tree,
25 Oct 2010
Today I read that you have received an invitation from the Israeli Tourist Ministry to visit the Holy Land where Christianity began, where the holiest of Christian sites are located. They have offered to pay for your entire trip there, for you to visit “Israel”. They are offering you this trip at Christmas time as a “gift to you” I am asking you please to not accept this invitation. You are not just being invited to visit “Israel”, you are being asked to visit holy sites which have been under the Israeli occupation of Palestine for 42 years, sites that Palestinian Christians are routinely denied access to by their occupier. In June the Vatican issued a paper deploring the denial of access to Christians to the holy sites under occupation, calling the occupation “unjust”.
→ read full articleTunisia Ratifies International Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs
Cluster Munition Coalition – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Oct 2010
The Republic of Tunisia ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 28 September 2010 during the United Nations General Assembly. Tunisia is the first country in the Middle East/North Africa region to formally ratify the treaty, which took effect as binding international law on 1 August 2010.
→ read full articleMoldova Becomes Latest State Party to International Criminal Court
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Oct 2010
Moldova has become the latest country to ratify the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is tasked with trying people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
→ read full articleReporters Without Borders and Their Junk Index of “Press Freedom”
NameNotFound – Russia Today,
25 Oct 2010
The Paris-based lobby proudly calls itself “an international press freedom organization” but during the 25 years of its existence it has become a symbol of anything but. Today it is a scandal-surrounded outlet funded primarily by the US state budget through USAID and National Endowment for Democracy, accused of having links with (and sponsored by) gung-ho Bush neocons like Otto Reich. Nonetheless, it maintains its innocence and swears to abide by its chartered principles. Let’s look at some of these principles and see how they work in practice.
→ read full articlePeace as a Way of Life
Johan Galtung, 18 Oct 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Oct 2010
Clear the past, move on. Conflicts are waiting for you, embrace them as challenges. Fight to solve them for mutual and equal benefit; no flight, please. Identify the sticky issues, search for a solution beyond the passive co-existence of avoiding violence. Fine goals those, but be more ambitious. Search for an active co-existence where all move on, based on the solution, into challenging futures no doubt filled with new conflicts to take on.
→ read full articleWhy the U.S. Has Launched a New Financial World War — And How the Rest of the World Will Fight Back
Michael Hudson – Counterpunch,
18 Oct 2010
“Who Needs an Army When You Can Obtain the Usual Objectives (Monetary Wealth and Asset Appropriation) Simply by Financial Means?”
→ read full articleThe Western Peace Prize
Johan Galtung, 11 Oct 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Oct 2010
One more abuse of the Nobel Peace Prize to promote Western, read US, foreign policy. Last year a speech prize with no follow-up except scrapping some old-fashioned nuclear monsters paving the way for major US nuclear rearmament of warheads and the weapons carrier tripod, protesting possible UK cuts of the Trident. But, verbally the prize touched the reduction of standing armies in Nobel’s testament–whose money they are handling. This year they give a human rights prize for domestic matters in what USA sees as its major competitor, China, far removed from any reduction of armies or Nobel’s concern for understanding among nations.
→ read full articleA Yugoslav Community for a Yugosphere?
Johan Galtung, 4 Oct 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Oct 2010
The countries were born in deep anger, much too quickly, much too violently, traumas being heaped on top of old, and new trauma mountains. Time passes, no wounds are healed, but a new decade has sedimented new events on top of the 1990s horrors. For a new generation this is already history. But history has much to tell.
→ read full articleUN-Backed Anti-Corruption Academy Inaugurated in Austria
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Oct 2010
2 September 2010 – An anti-corruption academy co-sponsored by the United Nations opened today in Austria with the aim of filling the rising global need for training, research and contemporary measures and techniques in the fight against corruption. The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), based in Laxenburg, will educate public and private sector anti-corruption practitioners in more effectively implementing the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
→ read full articleThe Generals’ Election
Maung Zarni – Himal Southasian,
4 Oct 2010
In the run-up to Burma’s fraught polls, some of the junta’s leading cheerleaders are Western governments who are bending over backwards to justify their stance.
→ read full articleChina and World Harmony: Some Ideas
Johan Galtung, 27 Sep 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Sep 2010
China should become better at explaining herself, both in a Western market-growth-democracy-human rights discourse, and in a Chinese discourse of both-and, yin-yang dialectics, distribution and social and world harmony. An oriental Davos in Hong Kong in dialogue with that Western one; and a global TV, more like multi-angle Al Jazeera than BBC-CNN, would give the world a strong, not abrasive, Chinese voice. With very much to say that the world in general, and the West in particular, badly need to hear.
→ read full article(Castellano) Informe Mundial de Cultura de Paz 2010
Federico Mayor Zaragoza, presidente Fundación Cultura de Paz – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Sep 2010
El mencionado Informe, en el cual usted ha colaborado activamente mediante el aporte de datos sobre sus actividades en el campo de la cultura de paz, será presentado ante la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas en el próximo mes de octubre. Agradecemos su interés, compromiso y participación para que este Informe Mundial de Cultura de Paz 2010 haya sido posible. Para la elaboración de este informe, un equipo internacional de Jóvenes Voluntarios, logró recopilar y analizar la información proporcionada por más de 1000 organizaciones de todo el mundo, en las que se reflejan sus esfuerzos y actividades para la promoción y fomento de una Cultura de Paz.
→ read full articleReconciliation in Sri Lanka: Breaking the Myth and Bringing the Truth
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Sep 2010
“There cannot be reconciliation without justice. Justice and equity are at the core of reconciliation” -– Professor Hizkias Assefa. The platform for an “genuine reconciliation” should be rooted via the democratic exercises, rights and participation of all citizens throughout a country. But, if people are under fear to express their grievances and aspirations, including opposition political parties, dissident voices, independent media and even some ruling party government ministers how can a national minority discriminated and oppressed for more than five decades practice their rights in Sri Lanka?
→ read full articleArming the Saudis
Stephen Zunes - Truthout,
27 Sep 2010
The Pentagon has announced a $60 billion arms package to the repressive family dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, the largest arms sale of its kind in history. Rejecting the broad consensus of arms control advocates that the Middle East is too militarized already and that the Saudis already possess military capabilities well in excess of their legitimate security needs, the Obama administration is effectively insisting that this volatile region does not yet have enough armaments and that the United States must send even more.
→ read full articleNuclear Dangers and Opportunities in the Middle East
Richard Falk and David Krieger – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
27 Sep 2010
Hardly a week goes by without an Israeli top official threatening to attack Iran so as to disrupt or destroy its nuclear program, which is suspected of moving in the direction of acquiring nuclear weapons. Shamelessly, as well, the extreme right think tanks in the Washington Beltway and many faithful followers of Israel echo these dangerous sentiments. They send Tel Aviv a signal that it has a green light to launch an attack on Iran at the time of its choosing, along with the reassuring message that the United States Government will step forward in support, whatever the adverse economic and diplomatic consequences for the region.
→ read full articleNuclear Detonation: Fifteen Scenarios
David Krieger – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
27 Sep 2010
Many people are complacent about nuclear weapons. They would prefer to deny the nuclear threat and put nuclear dangers out of their minds. Unfortunately, this is a dangerous approach to a serious threat to humanity. There are many ways in which a nuclear detonation could take place, including accident, miscalculation and intentional use. Any use of nuclear weapons, including by accident or miscalculation, could lead to the destruction of a city as occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
→ read full articleCountries Lay Claim to Arctic in Battle for Oil and Gas Reserves
Shaun Walker in Moscow – The Independent,
27 Sep 2010
Nations laid out their claims to territory in the polar North yesterday [22 Sep 2010] and the vast untapped mineral wealth that lies under the Arctic Ocean. Shrinking polar ice has opened up new opportunities, with five nations – Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the US – claiming jurisdiction over parts of the polar region which could contain as much of one quarter of the world’s undiscovered reserves of oil and gas.
→ read full articleHenri Dunant, Red Cross, What Next?
Johan Galtung, 20 Sep 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Sep 2010
[Henri Dunant’s] moment of truth, as we all know, was the battle of Solferino in Lombardy, 24 June 1859, a little more than 150 years ago, where he witnessed the unspeakable suffering brought about by one more stupid battle, pitting 300,000 soldiers against each other, in one more stupid war, between France and Austria that time; mainly waged by their upper classes sacrificing their underlings.
→ read full articleThe Trickledown Revolution
Arundhati Roy – The Dawn,
20 Sep 2010
On the sixty-fourth anniversary of India’s Independence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh climbed into his bullet-proof soap box in the Red Fort to deliver a passionless, bone-chillingly banal speech to the nation. Listening to him, who would have guessed that he was addressing a country that, despite having the second highest economic growth rate in the world, has more poor people than 26 of Africa’s poorest countries put together?
→ read full articleTibet: The Gandhi Way
Anupma Kaushik – The Gandhi Foundation,
20 Sep 2010
The Tibetan leadership claims that they are pursuing a nonviolent struggle to gain meaningful autonomy but their efforts are clearly not bearing the desired results. Can the Gandhian method show the way forward?
→ read full articlePeople’s Initiative on Jammu & Kashmir: Visit of Civil Society Delegation
COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Sep 2010
A Delegation of Civil Society comprising Swami Agnivesh, Admiral L. Ramdas, Ms. Mohini Giri, Fr. Dominic Emmanuel and Dr. Mazher Hussain visited Kashmir Valley from 30th August to 2nd September 2010. The objective of the visit was to gain first hand knowledge of the prevailing ground situation in the valley and to commiserate with the people of Kashmir for their suffering and loss of life. Over 65 youth and children have lost their lives in the past three months, besides many hundreds have been injured. The team visited the homes of some families to share our concern and condole with them.
→ read full articleChina Yin/Yang
Johan Galtung,
13 Sep 2010
Talk at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, Sep 2010.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Brasil e as Medidas Antidumping
Sergio Dias Teixeira Junior – Pravda,
6 Sep 2010
Com a proximidade do final da 2ª Grande Guerra Mundial os países aliados perceberam a necessidade de se reconstruir a economia mundial. Tal fato fez com que, em 1944, fosse firmado em Bretton Woods – EUA um acordo que visasse criar um ambiente mais favorável à área econômica através do estabelecimento de três organismos internacionais. Nesse sentido foram criados o FMI – Fundo Monetário Internacional, o Banco Mundial e a OIC – Organização Internacional do Comércio.
→ read full articleUFOs
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Sep 2010
Being an agnostic on UFOs, let me give one justification, and then one metaphor, for a serious exploration of the UFO scenario.
→ read full articleJapan Right Now: What Happens?
Johan Galtung, 30 Aug 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Aug 2010
There are reasons for deep concern. Of the countries in the grip of the US alliances Japan may have become the most American. Beaten in its deep cultural foundations, not only militarily, Japan is like a monotheistic country with God residing 7/24 in Washington. Being so different, americanization was not a dialect, a variation on one’s own idiom, like in Germany and Norway, but a new language.
→ read full articleThe Two-Tier Internet: Fighting for Control of the Web’s Future
Frank Dohmen, Martin U. Müller and Hilmar Schmundt - Spiegel,
30 Aug 2010
As data volumes continue to grow, it’s clear that the Internet’s infrastructure needs upgrading. What’s not clear is who is going to pay for it. Web activists fear the development of a two-tier Internet, where corporations have priority and dissenting voices get pushed to the margins.
→ read full articleRed Shirt vs. Yellow Shirt: Thailand’s Political Struggle
David McNeill in Lamphun – The Independent,
23 Aug 2010
The supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are massing again.
→ read full articleEducation and Peacebuilding
Johan Galtung, 23 Aug 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Aug 2010
Talk at the Japan Education Research Association, Hiroshima
→ read full articleCivilian Peace Service
Johan Galtung, 16 Aug 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Aug 2010
Thus, the Nonviolent Peaceforce, and the Civilian Peace Service, are riding on these waves into the future. What could they pick up from past and present? There is a basic problem: now coming from the West, there is always the danger that they could become the continuation of aggressive Western governmental politics by nongovernmental means.
→ read full articleChina-Japan: Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands Conflict
COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Aug 2010
Through 2009 we had brought to you a series briefly outlining disputes in 188 countries. Now we are happy to announce that we shall be sharing with you, every week, details of some major conflicts in different countries around the world. We hope that an understanding of the genesis and nature of different conflicts we help us in resolving these and making the world what it should be – A Heaven for all!!!
— The COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations team
Ministries of Peace?
Johan Galtung,
9 Aug 2010
The text, the message of a ministry, is revealed in its subsections, like the 64 US Congressmen headed by Dennis Kucinich do so well in the proposal for a law to establish a US Department of Peace. Let us think in terms of three major tasks: mediation of present conflicts, conciliation for the traumas of past violence, and construction of a more solid pace for the future. The general formula would be equality and equity between genders, generations, races, classes, nations and districts. This is not the same as human rights; human rights lift the bottom up, but equity is a relation, building equality into the interaction.
→ read full articleAdvocacy from Afar – Towards Human Rights for Victims of Sri Lanka’s Civil War
Nirmanusan Balasundaram – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Aug 2010
In 2009, the global media turned its attention to the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). At the time, many questions were raised on the treatment of the Tamil civilians trapped in the conflict.
→ read full articleThe Burma Insurgency
COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Aug 2010
Through 2009 we had brought to you a series briefly outlining disputes in 188 countries. Now we are happy to announce that we shall be sharing with you, every week, details of some major conflicts in different countries around the world. We hope that an understanding of the genesis and nature of different conflicts we help us in resolving these and making the world what it should be – A Heaven for all!!!
— The COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations team
The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What? (Part 1)
Paul Jay interviewing Johan Galtung and Dennis Kucinich -The Real News Network,
2 Aug 2010
Johan Galtung and Dennis Kucinich discuss the proposal for a Department of Peace.
→ read full articleThe Fall of the US Empire – And Then What? (Part 2)
Paul Jay interviewing Johan Galtung and Dennis Kucinich - The Real News Network,
2 Aug 2010
Dennis Kucinich and Johan Galtung discuss the proposal for a Department of Peace.
→ read full articleThe Shame of the Fourth Estate
Charles Kaiser, Hillman Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Aug 2010
“Let me make this utterly clear: What you see on Fox News, what you read on Right Wing websites, is the utter and complete perversion of journalism, and it can have no place in a civilized society. It is words crashed together, never to inform, only to inflame. It is a political guillotine. It is the manipulation of reality to make the racist seem benevolent, and to convict the benevolent as racist – even if her words must be edited, filleted, stripped of all context, rearranged, fabricated, and falsified, to do so.
→ read full articleSpying for the USA-And for Peace
Johan Galtung, 2 Aug 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Aug 2010
To expose war crimes parading as “secrets” is a service for peace. Ellsberg got the alternative Nobel Peace Prize. So will Assange.
→ read full article