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INDIA: NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF ANTI-NUCLEAR MOVEMENTS (NAAM) LAUNCHED WITH “THE KANYAKUMARI DECLARATION”
S.P. Udayakumar, Ph.D. - Member of TRANSCEND, 8 Jun 2009

More than one hundred organizations, peoples’ movements and concerned citizens from across the country came together for a National Convention on “The Politics of Nuclear Energy and Resistance” on June 4-6, 2009 at Kanyakumari. They discussed all the different aspects of nuclear power generation and weapons production, the various stages of nuclearization from Uranium mining […]

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IS BAN KI MOON HEADING THE UN’S DEMOLITON SQUAD?
Satheesan Kumaaran, 8 Jun 2009

"This is one of the most unprincipled and shameless resolutions ever adopted by any body of the United Nations in the history of that now benighted Organization. It would be as if the U.N. Human Rights Council had congratulated the Nazi government for the ‘liberation’ of the Jews in Poland after its illegal and genocidal […]

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REPORT ON AFGHANISTAN – Part 1 (Part 2 in the VIDEO section here) – Anand Gopal, Afghan physicist and journalist for the Christian Science Monitor: US focused on military approach but Iraq tactics can’t work in Afghanistan.
TMS Editor, 6 Jun 2009

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Pc1503YrIC4%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

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ISRAEL’S BARRIER (Part 2) – NPR’s Eric Westervelt and David Gilkey traveled the length of Israel’s separation barrier to explore how it has affected the lives of people on both sides.
TMS Editor, 5 Jun 2009

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2oPnXrtYjRk%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

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SRI LANKAN HISTORY AND THE STRUGGLE OF THE EELAM TAMILS
Sam Mayfield, 4 Jun 2009

This video offers a brief history of Sri Lanka and the Eelam struggle according to Thozhar Thiagu, activist and General Secretary of the Tamil National Liberation Movement in Tamil Nadu, India. I met with Thiagu at his office and at his home in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in February 2009. The struggle for Tamils in Sri […]

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AMAZON RAINFORESTS PAY THE PRICE AS DEMAND FOR BEEF SOARS
David Adam in Maraba, 4 Jun 2009

Inquiry highlights concerns over ranching in heartland of Brazil.     Four-year old Daniel Santos da Silva and his older brother Diego Mota dos Santos, 10, heard their first gunshots in April. Their father was shot in a dispute over land on a cattle ranch near the Brazilian town of El Dorado, in the Amazonian state […]

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VIVA PALESTINA: A LIFELINE FROM THE UNITED STATES TO GAZA
George Galloway, UK Member of Parliament, 3 Jun 2009

Fresh from the success of the Viva Palestina: Lifeline from Britain to Gaza aid convoy – which took over 100 vehicles to Gaza from the UK, Minister of Parliament, George Galloway has linked up on his US tour with the Vietnam veteran and peace campaigner, Ron Kovic, to launch a similar, but even larger venture […]

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(A MUST-READ) ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS: CONFLICT & RESOLUTION
Moshé Machover, 3 Jun 2009

HOW SHOULD we think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Please note: how comes before what. Before coming to any substantive conclusions—certainly before taking sides—we must be clear as to how the issue ought to be approached. It would be a mistake to start in normative mode. A moral value judgment must be made: I would certainly […]

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LGBT LIBERATION: BUILD A BROAD MOVEMENT
John D’Emilio, Interviewed by International Socialist Review, 3 Jun 2009

YOUR GROUNDBREAKING essay, “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” published in 1983, uses the Marxist method to root the emergence of a distinctive gay and lesbian identity in capitalism. You argue, “Capitalism has created the material conditions for homosexual desire to express itself as a central component of some individuals’ lives…” What, if anything, would you add […]

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OBAMA HAS 250,000 ‘CONTRACTORS’ DEPLOYED IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN AND IS INCREASING THE USE OF MERCENARIES
Jeremy Scahill, 2 Jun 2009

Newly released Pentagon statistics show that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the number of armed contractors is rising. A couple of years ago, Blackwater executive Joseph Schmitz seemed to see a silver lining for mercenary companies with the prospect of US forces being withdrawn or reduced in Iraq. “There is a scenario where we could […]

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ST JAMES PALACE NOBEL LAUREATE SYMPOSIUM
The Nobel Laureate Symposium Series on Global Sustainability, 2 Jun 2009

The St James Palace Memorandum “Action for a Low Carbon and Equitable Future” London, UK, 26 – 28 May 2009 The St James’s Palace Memorandum calls for a global deal on climate change that matches the scale and urgency of the human, ecological and economic crises facing the world today. It urges governments at all […]

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(PORTUGUESE) Ocupação Militar do Haiti Completa Cinco Anos
Ana Maria Amorim, 2 Jun 2009

A ocupação do Haiti por tropas militares, entre elas tropas brasileiras, completa cinco anos nesta segunda-feira (01). A ação integra a Missão das Nações Unidas para a Estabilização do Haiti (Minustah, na sigla francesa), que, segundo a Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU), tem o intuito de pacificar a região e fornecer segurança aos país. A […]

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BIOPIRACY, GM SEEDS & RURAL INDIA
Priya Kumar, 2 Jun 2009

Introduction The reality for the average Indian remains the same: agricultural cultivation and the ability to farm is the bedrock of rural living. With its historical practices, values, and communal sentiments of respect, cultivation and the practice of farming has embedded roots. Farming for Indians is not only a source of income – it is […]

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BRITAIN’S WEAPONS’ EXPORTS: IT’S THRIVING, BUT LETHAL
Mark Curtis, 2 Jun 2009

Britain’s decade of arms exports puts the lie to any notion of an ethical foreign policy under Blair. Three months before his election in 1997, Tony Blair wrote in BAE Systems’ newsletter that his government would champion arms exports and a "strong defence industry". That, despite the hoopla surrounding the idea of an "ethical" foreign […]

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UNPUNISHED MASSACRE
Le Monde – Editorial 1/Jun/09, 2 Jun 2009

    The Sri Lankan regime is exultant. It’s about to get away scot-free with the massacre of thousands of civilians on its country’s northeastern beaches. According to a UN estimate, close to 20,000 people could have perished in the Sri Lankan army’s end of January to end of May offensive against the ultra-violent Liberation Tigers […]

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NORTHERN IRELAND: BETWEEN PEACE AND RECONCILIATION
Tom Lodge, 2 Jun 2009

The political agreement of 1998 marked the end of thirty years of violent conflict, but ground-level divisions in parts of Northern Ireland remain rooted and bitter. The “interface” areas are where the tensions are most severe and the work of groups seeking a deeper settlement most important. Two years since the establishment of its power-sharing […]

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WHAT IS THE FETISHISM OF COMMODITIES?
Thomas Riggins, 1 Jun 2009

Things are not always as they appear. In proving this old proverb, Karl Marx explained some key features of capitalism that remain relevant today. Towards the end of the first chapter of Das Kapital, after having established the validity of the labor theory of value, Marx presents a section on the Fetishism of Commodities. Understanding […]

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CULTURE OF WAR MENTALITY: GOOD LOOK AT CHURCHES IN USA
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., 1 Jun 2009

    Theologians tell us that one of the great differences that exist between God and human beings lies here. God tends to view things objectively, that is, how they are a parte rei without any deception. At the same time, human beings tend to view things subjectively, that is, how they look at the surface […]

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ANARCHY, TERRORISM AND PIRACY IN SOMALIA: NEW RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Alemayehu Fentaw, 31 May 2009

Somalia has long been anarchic, hitting rock bottom claiming #1 in The Fund for Peace’s most recent Failed States Index. It had no functioning central government in the past 19 years, albeit 14 attempts to reconstitute state authority had been made since 1991, when the former Cold War dictator Mohammad Siad Barre was ousted after […]

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UGLY FACE OF TERROR
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, 31 May 2009

    The first decade of the 21st century has witnessed horrendous incidents of terror. While its beginning witnessed the attack on the twin trade towers in New York, towards its end another horrible attack occurred in the Indian commercial centre Mumbai. The attack further reinforced that terrorism has no religion, terrorists are not humans, and […]

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ISRAEL’S BARRIER (Part 1) – NPR’s Eric Westervelt and David Gilkey traveled the length of Israel’s separation barrier to explore how it has affected the lives of both Palestinians and Israelis
TMS Editor, 31 May 2009

https://youtube.com/watch?v=w3RWzR6jpvQ%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

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DOCTORS WARN: AVOID GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD
Jeffrey M. Smith, 31 May 2009

Immediate Moratorium on All Genetically Modified Foods Recommended On May 19th, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on “Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.” (1) They called for a moratorium […]

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EVERYONE SHOULD SEE “TORTURING DEMOCRACY”
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, 31 May 2009

In all the recent debate over torture, many of our Beltway pundits and politicians have twisted themselves into verbal contortions to avoid using the word at all.     During his speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute last week – immediately on the heels of President Obama’s address at the National Archives – former Vice […]

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NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR TEST MESSAGE
David Krieger – Member of TRANSCEND, 31 May 2009

When a country tests a nuclear weapon, it is sending a message. It is not always clear, however, what that message is. In the case of the recent nuclear test by North Korea, some commentators have argued that the North Koreans are sending a “pay attention to me” message to the international community and particularly […]

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NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE MAIREAD MAGUIRE DETAINED BY U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY
TMS Editor, 31 May 2009

On Thursday, 14th May 2009, Homeland Security Immigration personnel detained Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, on her entry into Houston Airport in Texas, USA. Maguire was on her way home to Northern Ireland after attending a 3-day conference in Guatemala hosted by herself and three Sister Nobel Peace Laureates, Rigoberta Menchu, Jody Williams and […]

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BRITISH DOCTOR 7-WEEK WAIT AT RAFAH BORDER TO GET TO PATIENTS IN GAZA
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate, 31 May 2009

There are not many people (with the exception of the courageous people of Gaza) who match the extreme patience and courage of Dr. Sonia Robbins and her co-worker Nicholas Bolos who have been at the Rafah Border crossing for the past 50 days doing everything they possibly can to try and gain access to Gaza. […]

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MUSLIM CHARITY MEMBER GETS 65 YEARS IN PRISON
Associated Press - May 27, 2009, 31 May 2009

DALLAS (AP) – A founding member of what was once the nation’s largest Muslim charity today was sentenced to 65 years in prison for funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. 50-year-old Shukri Abu Baker, of Garland, was the first Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development to be sentenced. The November […]

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SPIRITUALITY OF HEART IN BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., 31 May 2009

When the heart is spiritually oriented the human being may be termed as good, holy, and saintly. The spirituality of the heart is all that counts. God measures our greatness by the degree of spirituality our heart has reached and not by the visible achievements or good results of our work. How God Views Great […]

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PUTTING A HUMAN MASK ON IMPERIALISM
Paul D’Amato, 24 May 2009

Politicians and historians may argue that the U.S. is a force for good around the world, but the facts show the opposite.MAINSTREAM AND liberal opposition to the Iraq war is based on accepting the aims of the war, but criticizing its lack of success, its "excesses" or its tactical or strategic mistakes. The argument of […]

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A MORATORIUM ON GENETICALLY MANIPULATED (GMO) FOODS
F. William Engdahl, 24 May 2009

US Association of Physicians calls for Moratorium on GMO Foods The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has just issued a call for an immediate moratorium on Genetically Manipulated (GMO) Foods. In a just-released position paper on GMO foods, the AAEM states that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk’ and calls for a moratorium on […]

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NEOCON GROUP CALLS FOR MILITARY STRIKES ON MEDIA
Jeremy Scahill, 24 May 2009

In the era of embedded media, independent journalists have become the eyes and ears of the world. Without those un-embedded journalists willing to risk their lives to place themselves on the other side of the barrel of the tank or the gun or under the air strikes, history would be written almost entirely from the […]

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WHAT CHINA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH MEANS FOR THE GLOBAL ECOLOGY
Frank Joseph Smecker, 24 May 2009

Fueled by Western Capitalism, China is on the rise, knocking down forests, displacing watersheds, and exhaling a toxic amalgam of gases and particulates along its way. Much of the information below was retrieved in 2007, immediately before the unprecedented vagaries in the global ‘market’ (aka the barometer that purports to show how efficiently Capitalism is […]

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AMERICAN AMNESIA: WE FORGET OUR ATROCITIES ALMOST AS SOON AS WE COMMIT THEM
Noam Chomsky, 21 May 2009

Historical amnesia is a dangerous social phenomenon because it lays the groundwork for crimes that still lie ahead. The torture memos released by the White House elicited shock, indignation, and surprise. The shock and indignation are understandable. The surprise, less so. For one thing, even without inquiry, it was reasonable to suppose that Guantanamo was […]

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ISRAEL KNOWS THAT PEACE JUST DOESN’T PAY
Amira Hass, 20 May 2009

Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace would involve serious damage to national interests. Economic damage: The security industry is an important export branch – weapons, ammunition and refinements […]

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THE AUTISTIC TALE OF PARIAH STATES
Adrian Bergmann, 19 May 2009

Two former British colonies, one formerly «the rice bowl of Asia», another formerly «the breadbas-ket of Africa», Myanmar and Zimbabwe are today among the most destitute and isolated countries in the world. Time for a new approach?    Narrowing Minds The recent histories of Myanmar (the UN-recognized name) and Zimbabwe are heartbreaking tes-timonies to human inadequacy […]

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WHY CAPITALISM SHOULDN’T BE SAVED
John Sanbonmatsu, 19 May 2009

From Zurich and Washington to Frankfurt, London, and Tokyo, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men-bankers, economists, policy analysts, and government leaders-are trying to put capitalism back together again. But none of them has stopped to ask whether capitalism is worth saving in the first place. Some will be tempted to dismiss the […]

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REVIEW OF “RIGHT RELATIONSHIP: BUILDING A WHOLE EARTH ECONOMY”
Jack Santa Barbara – Member of TRANSCEND, 19 May 2009

Book written by Peter G Brown and Geoffrey Garver, with Keith Helmuth, Robert Howell and Steve Szeghi; Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. San Francisco, 2009“Right Relationship” is a book for the worrying-about-collapse weary.  It is a book for those of us who realize the world we live in is in great peril and that something fundamental has […]

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THE RUSSEL TRIBUNAL ON PALESTINE
Stephen Lendman, 19 May 2009

After two years of “underground” work, it was launched with a “successful press conference” and announcement that: “The Russell Tribunal on Palestine seeks to reaffirm the primacy of international law as the (way to settle) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Its work will focus on “the enunciation of law by authoritative bodies. The International Court of Justice […]

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BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT: SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., 19 May 2009

    Throughout history there have been as many forms of government as nations. Some 2,500 years ago, Aristotle, a well known Greek philosopher, told us: in media via stat virtus – virtue stands in the middle of the road. Going to extremes, either to the left or to the right is not conducive to good […]

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From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, a track written by Pierre Minetti, performed by musicians around the world: “Don’t Worry”
TMS Editor, 19 May 2009

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tAjFnJuk1Aw%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

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400 WEEKS AGO TODAY, ON SEPTEMBER 12, 200l…
Jim Albertini in Hilo, Hawai’i, USA, 15 May 2009

… we began our HILO FRIDAY PEACE VIGIL, with a new leaflet prepared each week for local and international circulation.  Four hundred leaflets later, the five points at the bottom of the page remain the same. Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (May l5, 2009 – 400th week) – Friday 3:30-5:00 p.m. downtown Hilo Post Office      […]

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“DON’T BUY ANY FOOD YOU’VE EVER SEEN ADVERTISED”
Democracy Now! Amy Goodman, interviewing Michael Pollan, 15 May 2009

"The real food is not being advertised. And that’s really all you need to know." Amy Goodman: Energy, healthcare, agriculture, climate change, global outbreaks like swine flu—what do all these topics have in common? Food. That’s right, none of these issues can really be tackled without addressing some of the fundamental problems of the food […]

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THE DEBRIS OF DUAL CONTAINMENT
Melody Moezzi and Luis Carlos Montalván, 15 May 2009

Most Americans know little, if anything, about the Iran-Iraq War, which is troubling given how deeply involved we were in it. Well over a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers, as well as civilians, perished during the war, with many more injured and wounded. Iranian public animosity toward the US in the 1980s had as much […]

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XSTRATA DREAMING: THE STRUGGLE OF ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS AGAINST A SWISS MINING GIANT
Michael Deibert, 15 May 2009

The McArthur River winds through Australia’s remote Northern Territory creating lush floodplains that sustain vast herds of kangaroos, wallabies and cattle. Above them, finches, wild turkeys, and flocks of migratory birds fill an endless sky. The area around the river, which runs 300 kilometers before emptying into the Gulf of Carpentaria, also provides spiritual sustenance […]

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MY ENEMY – Mohammad and Tom, two teenagers respectively from Palestine and Israel, discuss the difficult issues between them. 10:50-Min Video by PeaceItTogether
TMS Editor, 14 May 2009

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cZH98raeekc%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

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(ITALIAN) “DISOBBEDISCO”
Carlo Olivieri - umanista, 14 May 2009

Appello Alla Disobbedienza Civile La Camera dei Deputati ha approvato il primo dei tre maxiemendamenti al disegno di legge in materia di sicurezza, quello che riguarda l’immigrazione. La maggioranza dei Deputati ha approvato norme che introducono il reato di clandestinità per chi entra o soggiorna illegalmente in Italia, che rendono legali le ronde, che vietano […]

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VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS: THEIR SOURCE OF SUCCESS
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., 14 May 2009

    In virtually every community we find several organizations of one kind or another. Some are political while others are religious; some may be academic while others merely recreational. Some may be profit-making while others may be non-profit, which are usually composed of volunteers. In this presentation we are concentrating on the latter one. In […]

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CAPTIVE KNOWLEDGE
George Monbiot, 13 May 2009

The Funding for Academic Research Has Been Taken Over by Business Why is the Medical Research Council run by an arms manufacturer? Why is the Natural Environment Research Council run by the head of a construction company? Why is the chairman of a real estate firm in charge of higher education funding for England? Because […]

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MARINE PROTECTION AS EMPIRE EXPANSION
David Vine and Miriam Pemberton, 13 May 2009

At the 100-day mark, the new president has tackled an extraordinarily wide-ranging agenda, but one item will need his attention soon: closing the empire of U.S. bases around the world. One place to start is to reverse the marine protection areas that the last president established in the Pacific. In a last-minute bid to salvage […]

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THE PROSPECTS OF A NEW COLD WAR? TOWARDS THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE RUSSIAN-LED CSTO MILITARY ALLIANCE
José Miguel Alonso Trabanco, 12 May 2009

"We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new Cold War, but we don’t want one" -Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev In his 1997 book entitled The Grand Chessboard American geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that if Russia ever attempted to launch its own defense pact, it would include, "at most", Belarus and Tajikistan[1]. […]

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TEN MORE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO OPPOSE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
Tom Hayden, 12 May 2009

Editor’s Note: Peace activist Tom Hayden adds his ideas to Z.P. Heller’s April 8 piece, Ten Things You Can Do to Oppose the War in Afghanistan. This early period of Obama’s presidency is an opportunity to rebuild Afghanistan. It is a chance to become clearer than "out now," while still using the same force in […]

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DR. FARHANG JAHANPOUR TALKS ABOUT PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS OF GLOBAL NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT UNDER NEW US LEADERSHIP
Antonio C. S. Rosa, Editor - TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 May 2009

httpv://www.youtube.com/v/ClfzaFkowSA&hl=en&fs=1

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THE CITY THAT ENDED HUNGER
Frances Moore Lappé, 3 May 2009

A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger. “To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer.”CITY OF BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZILIn writing Diet for a Small Planet, I learned one […]

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THE COWARDICE OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM: FEAR OF THE T-WORD
Norman Kelley, 3 May 2009

Nothing better shows the utter cowardice of American journalism than Washington Post reporters refusing to call a spade a spade. In other a word, calling "enhanced interrogation" torture.Yesterday, during a chat with the Post’s Dana Priest, a questioner revisited the issue, specifically asking why the paper doesn’t call waterboarding "torture." This time however, the questioner […]

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(SPANISH) IRÁN, CUBA, AMÉRICA LATINA… ¿A DÓNDE VA OBAMA?
Fernando Montiel T. – Miembro de TRANSCEND, 3 May 2009

    Alguien dijo alguna vez que, cansada de inventar, la historia tiende a repetir. Los apretones de mano y las sonrisas que atinadamente critica James Petras (Rebelión, Abril 27, 2009) ya se han visto antes: se vieron en los sesentas cuando los Estados Unidos presentaron la Alianza para el Progreso; se vieron en los setentas […]

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(ITALIAN) LIBERARE L’OPPRESSORE
Sami Awad, 30 Apr 2009

La nonviolenza è empowerment (acquisizione di potere). Permette agli individui di riconoscere che hanno scelte, che hanno la capacità di trattare qualunque tematica d’ingiustizia si trovino ad affrontare individualmente o in quanto comunità. L’empowerment aiuta a decidere di cambiare la realtà che si affronta, l’ingiustizia, con modalità che porranno fine all’uso della violenza dalla parte […]

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ZUMA: AN AFRICAN CHAVEZ?
Walter Smolarek, 30 Apr 2009

Africa is an infected continent. Its affliction is spread not by bacteria or parasites, but through loans. Delivered by the IMF and World Bank as part of the neo-liberal wave that enveloped the world after the fall of the Soviet Union, it plunged the continent, especially Southern Africa, into the pits of privatized hell. Neo-liberalism […]

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(100-DAY MARK) PINTER TO OBAMA: “SMASH THE MIRROR”
Mike Whitney, 30 Apr 2009

“Come and see the blood in the streets.Come and seethe blood in the streets.Come and see the bloodin the streets”! — Poem by Pablo Neruda About a month before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski appeared on PBS’s Charlie Rose Show and was […]

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OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, 30 Apr 2009

Dear President Obama, I found your book, ‘Dreams from my Father,’ a moving and inspiring story of your own struggle to find identity and purpose in life. You found it for sure, and today carry the hopes and dreams of so many people in our world. We pray for you and your family. We wish […]

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THE SWINE FLU CRISIS LAYS BARE THE MEAT INDUSTRY’S MONSTROUS POWER
Mike Davis, 29 Apr 2009

The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the faecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already travelling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu. Stealing the limelight […]

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FLYING PIGS, TAMIFLU AND FACTORY FARMS
F. William Engdahl, 29 Apr 2009

If we are to believe what our trusted international media report, the world is on the brink of a global pandemic outbreak of a new deadly strain of flu, H1N1 as it has been labelled, or more popularly, Swine Flu. As the story goes, the outbreak of the deadly flu was first discovered in Mexico. […]

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ICELAND’S NEW DAWN
José M. Tirado, 29 Apr 2009

How the Mighty Have Fallen: A Trouncing for the Right, Huge Support for the Left The numbers are in and they are decisive. The longstanding, corporate-right forces of the Independence Party, known here as Iceland ’s “Republicans”, have received a trouncing at the polls. With 100% of the vote tallied, the Social Democratic Alliance (moderate […]

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GAZA’S SEPARATION FROM THE WEST BANK IS ISRAEL’S GREAT TRIUMPH
Amira Hass, 28 Apr 2009

The total separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank is one of the greatest achievements of Israeli politics, whose overarching objective is to prevent a solution based on international decisions and understandings and instead dictate an arrangement based on Israel’s military superiority. In view of the violent rivalry between the two main movements […]

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DISCOVERING A NATION’S TRUE FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., 28 Apr 2009

            One familiar proverb reads as follows: “Not all that glitters is gold.” Another well accepted saying is: “Actions speak louder than words.” This one is virtually found in every nation with slight changes or modifications. The Romans, for example, used to say: “Aliud est theoria, aliud est practica – one thing is theory, another […]

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TIME TO DEAL WITH HAITI
Paul Farmer and Brian Concannon, 28 Apr 2009

When President Barack Obama went to Trinidad for the Summit of Americas, he brought the promise of "change" to a Latin America policy that has brought suffering to our neighbors while reducing U.S. influence and moral standing in the hemisphere. Change would be especially welcome to Haitians, who have suffered their usual unfair share of […]

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SWINE FLU: DON’T PANIC!
Rahul K. Parikh, M.D., in the USA, 28 Apr 2009

While the virus does reveal some novel traits, so far most symptoms are not out of the ordinary. With spring in high gear and summer just down the road, doctors thought we’d left another year’s influenza season in our collective rearview mirror. All of that changed late last week when the national Centers for Disease […]

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V SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS: THE MORNING AFTER
Tom Loudon, 28 Apr 2009

Hopes raised at the Summit of the Americas for new approach to US relations with Latin America proved to be short-lived when, on the day after the Summit, the US administration announced that there will be no renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and that the US will begin to move forward […]

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CAN CHINA’S WIND POWER SAVE THE PLANET? China pledges to have 15 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. VideoNation
TMS Editor, 26 Apr 2009

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2zQTt4LJ0hg%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

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A CENTURY OF GENOCIDE, 1915-2009
Martin Shaw, 24 Apr 2009

The Ottoman-era massacres of the Armenians also belong to a century of "mass-death" episodes forged in war, state rivalry, ethnic targeting and expulsion.  When Armenian leaders in Constantinople (now Istanbul) were massacred on 24 April 1915, it was the signal for killings and deportations of Armenians across eastern Anatolia, then the heartland of the Ottoman […]

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INTERVIEW WITH JOHAN GALTUNG ABOUT THE CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA
Namini Wijedasa – Journalist, 24 Apr 2009

Editor’s Note: Published on Sun Apr 26 2009 in The Island, a major Sri Lankan daily. NW – The Rajapaksa regime used the attack on Sri Lanka’s embassy in Oslo to officially terminate Norway’s role as facilitator in the peace process. Hanssen Bauer responded via news reports that mediation had ended a long time ago. […]

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THE “NEW GREAT GAME” IN EURASIA IS BEING FOUGHT IN ITS “BUFFER ZONES” – MOLDOVA: CAUGHT BETWEEN NATO AND RUSSIA?
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, 23 Apr 2009

On April 7, 2009 in Moldova’s capital Chisinau, supporters of the Liberal Party of Moldova, the Liberal-Democratic Party of Moldova, and the Our Moldova Alliance ignited violent protests in response to the results of Moldova’s parliamentary elections. They respectively won 13.14%, 12.43%, and 9.77% of the total vote, while the ruling party, the Communist Party […]

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WOMEN IN NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS
Inter-Parliamentary Union, 22 Apr 2009

The data in the table below has been compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the basis of information provided by National Parliaments by 28 February 2009. 188 countries are classified by descending order of the percentage of women in the lower or single House. Comparative data on the world and regional averages as well as […]

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EMPIRE FORECLOSED?
Mark Engler, 21 Apr 2009

Not long ago, excitement over American imperialism reached levels not seen in a century. "People are coming out of the closet on the word ‘empire,’" the right-wing columnist Charles Krauthammer told The New York Times in early 2002. Neoconservatives were on the rise in Washington, and their leading propagandists were not shy in making the […]

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THE LATEST OBSCENITIES
Aaron Smith, 21 Apr 2009

Exxon Mobil tops Fortune 500 Exxon Mobil shoved aside Wal-Mart Stores to retake the top place on the Fortune 500, proving that Big Oil was king of the economy last year. Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) was the top selling-company in 2008, with nearly $443 billion in revenue, a jump of almost 19% from the […]

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OBAMA’S REAL PLAN IN LATIN AMERICA
Shamus Cooke, 21 Apr 2009

At first glance Obama seems to have softened U.S. policy toward Latin America, especially when compared to his predecessor.  There has been no shortage of editorials praising Obama’s conciliatory approach while comparing it to FDR’s ”Good Neighbor” Latin American policy. It’s important to remember, however, that FDR’s vision of being neighborly meant that the U.S. […]

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US-NATO MILITARY AGENDA: THE DESTABILIZATION OF PAKISTAN
Michel Chossudovsky, 20 Apr 2009

Author’s note: In an article published in December 2007, following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, I suggested that the US-NATO course for Pakistan consisted "in  fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan." Recent developments (including the aerial bombardments of Pakistani villages under the auspices of the "war […]

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Jesus, Judas and Che Guevara
Prof. Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Apr 2009

There is an exercise called Western Civilization, and a dramatic narrative at the center of that exercise with two persons in the key roles, Jesus and Judas.  Easter times, now, are here to remind us of the drama. The outer events, delivered through the millennia, by Mark in the 70s, Matthew in the 80s, then […]

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THE TAMIL DIASPORA: SOLIDARITIES AND REALITIES
Nirmala Rajasingam, 18 Apr 2009

The Tamils abroad mobilising in response to events in Sri Lanka need to face difficult truths about the political narratives and forces that have contributed to their compatriots’ plight, says Nirmala Rajasingam. The Sri Lankan Tamil community may not be the largest of the diaspora communities represented in London or other such greatly diverse cities […]

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SOCIALISM HAS FAILED. NOW CAPITALISM IS BANKRUPT. SO WHAT COMES NEXT?
Eric Hobsbawm, 18 Apr 2009

Whatever ideological logo we adopt, the shift from free market to public action needs to be bigger than politicians grasp. The 20th century is well behind us, but we have not yet learned to live in the 21st, or at least to think in a way that fits it. That should not be as difficult […]

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MEDIA AS CRITICAL REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
Mohammed Cherkaoui, 18 Apr 2009

In June 2006, I led a series of workshops for Palestinian journalists in Ramallah, West Bank. I was shocked to discover how party bias influenced their reporting. Five months earlier, the Hamas movement had won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in the West Bank and Gaza, and the divide between the Hamas and Fatah parties […]

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THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
Rannie Amiri, 18 Apr 2009

It is one of the great paradoxes of the modern Middle East: When peace with the Palestinians is in sight, Israel will turn violent. This is quite understandable though, when one realizes that the entire raison d’être of the Jewish state is based on the principle of establishing “greater Israel.” That could not happen of […]

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SUPPORT FOR U.N. INDIGENOUS RIGHTS DECLARATION A WATERSHED MOMENT FOR AUSTRALIA
Australian Human Rights Commission, 18 Apr 2009

This morning’s [April 3 2009] formal support from the Australian Government for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is likely to go down in history as a watershed moment in Australia’s relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said today. […]

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A LETTER FROM NELSON MANDELA TO THOMAS FRIEDMAN
Arjan El Fassed (Media Monitors Network), 18 Apr 2009

To: Thomas L. Friedman (columnist, New York Times)From: Nelson Mandela (former President of South Africa) Dear Thomas, I know that you and I long for peace in the Middle East, but before you continue to talk about necessary conditions from an Israeli perspective, you need to know what’s on my mind. Where to begin? How […]

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Partying for Peace
Submitted by Kimberlye Kowalczyk - TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Apr 2009

The winning DJ from Japan will be flown to Chile to participate in a round of events to promote the protection of the Patagonian mountain range. 9:29-Min. Video CLICK TO VIEW

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DON’T HAVE A COW!
Katharine Mieszkowski, 18 Apr 2009

Famous animal lover Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, the author of "The Face on Your Plate," talks about why you should consider giving up the burgers — and the fromage. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, 68, is a former psychoanalyst, known for his popular books about the emotional lives not of humans, but of animals. As scientists continue to […]

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EMPIRE AND AGENCY
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, 16 Apr 2009

A review of Patrick Tyler’s A World of Trouble: America in the Middle East. United States Middle East policy has been defined since World War II by the tension between two competing concerns: the strategic interests which require good relations with Arab-Muslim states, and domestic political imperatives which demand unquestioning allegiance to Israel. That the […]

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HUMAN NEED AND THE ECONOMY
James Keye, 16 Apr 2009

Human economies have no separate existence; they are not some universal latent design waiting for the human substrate to be displayed. We ask the wrong questions with: “What is wrong with the economy and how can we fix it?” Our first efforts must be to understand the origin of how we have come to exchange […]

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U.S. MERCENARIES TO UN: STOP USING THE WORD ‘MERCENARY’ IN YOUR INVESTIGATION OF MERCENARIES
Jeremy Scahill, 16 Apr 2009

The U.S. mercenary trade association asks the UN to join its rebranding campaign. The latest episode of "Total Makeover: Make Me a More Huggable Mercenary" is just too precious to pass up. As observers of the rise of private paramilitary forces, like Blackwater/Xe (Bush’s thugs) and Triple Canopy (Obama’s hired guns) know, the mercenary industry […]

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LESSONS FROM LATIN AMERICA: PERU’S SHINING EXAMPLE
James McEnteer, 16 Apr 2009

Peru’s Supreme Court sentenced former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori to twenty-five years in prison last week for creating death squads during his presidency – from 1990 to 2000 – which murdered dozens of people. More than seventy thousand people died during Fujimori’s reign in the war between his iron-fisted administration and Maoist guerilla groups, the […]

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THE TWO PIRACIES IN SOMALIA: WHY THE WORLD IGNORES THE OTHER?
Mohamed Abshir Waldo - Journalist/Consultant, 14 Apr 2009

Much of the world’s attention is currently focused on the Somali sea lanes. The navies of big and small powers are converging on the Somali waters in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. The recent hijacking of the Saudi oil tanker and Ukrainian MV Faina, laden with arms for Kenya, off the coast of […]

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WHY WE DON’T CONDEMN OUR PIRATES IN SOMALIA
K'Naan - URB Magazine, 14 Apr 2009

Can anyone ever really be for piracy? Outside of sea bandits, and young girls fantasizing of Johnny Depp, would anyone with an honest regard for good human conduct really say that they are in support of Sea Robbery? Well, in Somalia the answer is: it’s complicated. The news media these days has been covering piracy […]

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A SLAUGHTER OF TAMILS
Joint Statement (names in the end), 14 Apr 2009

The Sri Lankan government is intensifying its ongoing war on the country’s Tamil minority with a new assault on alleged fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam–or "Tamil Tigers"–inside a "safety zone" in the country’s Vanni region that had been set up as a haven for civilians. In recent weeks, the government has reportedly […]

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REPORT ON THE TREATMENT OF FOURTEEN “HIGH VALUE DETAINEES” IN CIA CUSTODY
International Committee of the Red Cross - Regional Delegation for United States and Canada, 14 Apr 2009

ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody along with the cover letter that accompanied it when it was transmitted to the US government in February 2007. This version, reset by The New York Review, exactly reproduces the original including typographical errors and some omitted words.CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE ORIGINAL […]

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Who are the real pirates? The Somalis or the Western nuclear waste dumpers? Somali-Canadian Musician-Poet K’Naan Presents the Somali Side of the ‘Pirates’ Issue.
TMS Editor, 14 Apr 2009

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nrwgiprDBtA%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

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RETHINKING AFGHANISTAN
Anne Miller, 14 Apr 2009

Last week, the US Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was revealed that the Obama administration is planning on sending an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan with no clear benchmarks for progress or "success" yet in place.     The lack of serious scrutiny of the president’s Afghanistan policy is […]

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THE CASSANDRA SYNDROME
Michael N. Nagler, 14 Apr 2009

"As a colleague of mine in Public Health recently declared, ‘We are increasing violence by every means possible.’ He was talking about the mass media. The enormously high, and increasing, level of violence in the ‘entertainment’ industry – including the violent emphasis of the nightly news – makes violence seem normal, unavoidable, sexy and fun […]

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BIG FOOD IS COPYING BIG TOBACCO’S DISINFORMATION TACTICS, HOW MANY WILL DIE THIS TIME?
Fen Montaigne, Yale Environment 360, 14 Apr 2009

The playbook is the same, but this time the the lies and misinformation could be disastrous for everyone — children especially. Increasingly, the question of what we eat and how it affects our health is a subject that is important not just to those concerned about nutrition but to environmentalists. Kelly D. Brownell, a psychologist […]

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EMPIRE AND LATIN AMERICA IN THE OBAMA ERA
Manuel Pérez-Rocha, 14 Apr 2009

Barack Obama’s rise to the U.S. presidency has left most Latin Americans suspended between skepticism and hope. That’s bound to make the V Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, to be held on April 18 and 19, especially interesting.A promising sign of meaningful change in U.S. foreign policy toward the hemisphere would be […]

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MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: STILL A PROPHET FOR OUR TIME
Louie Vitale, OFM, 14 Apr 2009

The following reflection on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was written last year on Dr. King’s birthday by Friar Louie Vitale, OFM while he was incarcerated in the Imperial County Jail following a nonviolent witness at Ft. Huachuca in Arizona calling for an end to torture training.  It is offered as a meditation as we […]

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TEL AVIV, THEN AND NOW
Jeremy Ben-Ami, 12 Apr 2009

One hundred years ago, my grandparents and 59 other families gathered on a sand dune outside Jaffa to draw lots for new homes in a garden suburb to be called Tel Aviv. With their parents, my grandparents immigrated to Palestine — one in the 1880’s, the other in the 1890’s — fleeing oppression in Czarist […]

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