Articles by UN
We found 3812 results.
2008 GLOBAL ARMS SPENDING HITS RECORD
China Daily – Jun 9 2009,
10 Jun 2009
STOCKHOLM – Global military spending reached a record $1,464 billion last year with the United States taking up by far the biggest share of the total, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Arms shipments were up 4 percent worldwide from 2007 and 45 percent higher than in 1999, the think tank said in […]
→ read full articleWhat Peace Research Would Be Like If Founded Today
Johan Galtung,
8 Jun 2009
On the occasion of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo-PRIO 50 Years – Oslo City Hall, 5 June 2009 Lord Mayor, friends: Incredible all that happened only 50 years ago! Like PRIO, the institute we are celebrating today, In the English name there are four letters. There was some thinking behind all of them, not only […]
→ read full articleUNPUNISHED 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 […]
→ read full articleQUESTIONS ABOUT NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO IT
Gunnar Westberg,
31 May 2009
North Korea is again at the centre of the world stage. The regime has challenged the strong powers in the world and in the UN Security Council (UNSC). The strong reactions from international politicians and media serve the interest of the leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea and give him an undeserved […]
→ read full articleNORTH KOREA: THE U.S. AND RUSSIA ARE GREATER GLOBAL THREATS
Gunnar Westberg,
31 May 2009
Once again Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea, has succeeded in placing his country, and himself, in focus, “The developments in North Korea represents a serious threat”, state media headlines. How concerned should we actually be? And in what ways has the government of the DPRK, North Korea, broken international agreements and treaties? […]
→ read full articleDialectics of History: Germany-Israel
Johan Galtung,
31 May 2009
“I feel uneasy. I love him, but how do I know how he is?” The councilor said, “Watch how his father treats his mother. This is his key model. Unless challenged to the contrary this is what he takes for normal, natural. If you have problems with that as his model, rather challenge it now. […]
→ read full articleOn Truth
Johan Galtung,
27 May 2009
Norwegian Literature Festival, Lillehammer-Norway, 26 May 2009 The idea of Truth is as relevant for the arts as for the sciences. Truth is an attribute of a symbolic articulation–a thesis, a text, a painting-sculpture, a piece of music–when held up against reality: does it reflect, agree with what we consider “reality”? Some deny the existence […]
→ read full articleObama 100: Trop Beau, Ce Président!
Johan Galtung,
17 May 2009
“Too handsome that president” was the conclusion of the French women’s magazine Voici (27/12/08) “le président plus sexy jamais élu”, the most sexy president ever elected, “attendu comme le Messie”, awaited like the Messiah”. In the swimming trunks, also appearing in an IHT column 16/05/09 calling Michelle’s remark about being “proud about her country for […]
→ read full articleCambodia’s Killing Fields and the Rule of Law
Johan Galtung,
12 May 2009
There are many of those fields in this country treated extremely badly by history. An enormity of structural violence by Phnom Penh on the countryside for centuries, legitimized by a Hindu caste system, softened by a Buddhism that eventually became state religion. Thai and Vietnamese invasions and occupations. French colonialism (as part of “Indo-China”) 1863, […]
→ read full articlePiracy and Somalia
Johan Galtung,
4 May 2009
To start with the conclusion: the piracy issue–in 2008 40 of 100; in 2009 so far 25, attacks succeeded, 18 vessels with about 310 sailors captive, ransom average $2-3 million–can be solved but only if treated as part of the whole Somalia complex. But USA and EU detach piracy as a crime to be fought, […]
→ read full articleFOUNDATION FOR MODERN TERRORISM FROM THE ANNALS OF THE WORLD HISTORY
Victor Ragunathan,
29 Apr 2009
"The Black War of Van Diemen’s Land" was the name of the official campaign of terror directed against the Black people of Tasmania between 1803 and 1830. The Black aborigines of Tasmania were reduced from an estimated five-thousand people to less than seventy-five. With the declaration of martial law in November 1828, Whites were authorized […]
→ read full articleWOMEN 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 […]
→ read full articleJesus, 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 […]
→ read full articleNIGER VILLAGES SAY NO TO FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
UNICEF Television,
16 Apr 2009
Ten villages in western Niger have decided to end the practice of female genital mutilation. The Real News Network1:40-Min. VideoCLICK TO VIEW
→ read full articleInto Africa: Cameroon
Johan Galtung,
14 Apr 2009
This is about non-news from a country not high on the scale of countries, elites not world famous, no particular event to report, only something quite permanent: a country that works, with smiling, gentle, generous, kind people, 18 million of them, in the midst of Africa; in peace with itself and others. True, there is […]
→ read full articleREPORT 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 […]
→ read full articleG20, and NATO, and the World.
Johan Galtung,
6 Apr 2009
The white, tall, Anglo-American, Wall Street defenders in London won; but Lula was wrong about blue eye color, and one was black. No “turning point” (Obama) in the 29 points, but: * one trillion, in bailout money for the financial economy, no stimulus for the real economy, protecting wrong banks, not right people, on top […]
→ read full articleTHE SILENCE SURROUNDING SRI LANKA
Arundhati Roy,
1 Apr 2009
New Delhi – The Horror that is unfolding in Sri Lanka becomes possible because of the silence that surrounds it. There is almost no reporting in the international press – or in the mainstream media in India, where I live – about what is happening. From the little information that is filtering through, it looks […]
→ read full articleRetired in all Lands, Unite!
Johan Galtung,
30 Mar 2009
You have only your exclusion, your marginalization to lose. We simply have a major flaw in our social construction: the institution of obligatory retirement, the final stage in biological life, the R in Childhood-Education-Work-Retirement. Nobody will argue against the right of the tired to be retired, from the duties of work, of inputs into […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) SOBERANIA ENERGÉTICA E REFORMA AGRÁRIA UNIFICAM MOVIMENTOS DE BRASIL E PARAGUAI
Daniel Cassol - Correspondente em Asunción, Paraguai,
25 Mar 2009
Um ato simbólico nesta quinta-feira (26/Mar) reunirá organizações sociais do Paraguai e do Brasil na Ponte da Amizade, entre Ciudad del Este e Foz do Iguaçu. A iniciativa simboliza o começo de um processo de articulação entre movimentos sociais dos países vizinhos, em defesa de soberania energética e reforma agrária. O Congresso Unitário Político e […]
→ read full articleThe Energy-Environment-Development Triad
Johan Galtung,
23 Mar 2009
A very felicitous idea to bring together three major concerns in what could become a political, economic and intellectual pact. Like a poor, creative family in Kerala wanting to boil their rice, having neither electricity nor kerosene nor wood nor matches but a sheet of black paper, a used tire, a piece of window glass […]
→ read full articleU.N. PANEL SAYS WORLD SHOULD DITCH DOLLAR
Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent,
21 Mar 2009
LUXEMBOURG, Mar 18 2009, (Reuters) – A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar. Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of […]
→ read full articleEconomy, Economics, Economists
Johan Galtung,
9 Mar 2009
What would we say about meteorologists unable to foresee major hurricanes devastating humans beings and their creations, like towns and houses, whirling them into the air to crashland them far away? We might accept their inability to do anything about it, but would we accept the absence of any early warning? No, and they are […]
→ read full articleEND THE USE OF CHIMPS IN RESEARCH
The Humane Society of the United States – Mother Jones,
6 Mar 2009
EXPOSÉ Watch Our Video, Then Take Action 6:50-Min. VideoCLICK TO VIEW
→ read full articleFreedom of Expression vs. Freedom from Humiliation
Johan Galtung,
2 Mar 2009
Basic thesis: A false dichotomy. With some skill we can deliver both, refusing to be trapped by fundamentalists of either kind. How? Well, let us first do our best to clarify the two freedoms. On the Big Island, Hawai’i, a US army physician was once asked to identify the most vulnerable points of the […]
→ read full articleFORGET NUCLEAR AND FOCUS ON RENEWABLES
Tony Juniper,
23 Feb 2009
Very careful analysis is still needed before going with the nuclear option. By making this choice we could inadvertently waste time and money and therefore not achieve what we could do by pursuing other options – for example, through energy efficiency, cleaner cars and renewable power. The first issue is the scope of what nuclear […]
→ read full article1421 1434
Johan Galtung,
20 Feb 2009
In 1421 the Chinese traveled to America – more than 70 years ahead of the event used by the West to celebrate itself: Columbus “discovering” America and taking the Watling Island in the Bahamas in possession for Spain 12 October 1492. “These remarkable Chinese admirals rounded the Cape of Good Hope sixty-six years before Bartolomeu […]
→ read full articleClass, Nation and the Philippines
Johan Galtung,
14 Feb 2009
Key comments in the conversations in Manila 4-9 February 2009 about the process between Government panels and Parties for change in class and nation relations were: paralyzed, no prospect, limbo, stuck, insincere, agreements unimplemented, broken. But Parties are mesmerized by the peace process, and want to get unstuck. How? The key positions of the Parties–lifting […]
→ read full articleTHE UNITED NATIONS AND NATO
Hans Christof von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary General,
13 Feb 2009
Which security and for whom? The world the UN advocates looks good on paper.1 In June 1945, the Charter of the United Nations was signed by 51 member states. Several years later, the two great conventions for civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights came into being, and in subsequent years, important conventions on torture, […]
→ read full articleHOW WILL GADAFFI FARE AT THE HELM OF THE AU?
Jerry Okungu,
9 Feb 2009
Kampala (Uganda) – Fellow Africans, another ritual for the African Union ended in Addis Ababa early this week. As expected, outgoing Chairman, Jakaya Kikwete handed over the baton to the incoming Chair, Muammar Gadaffi of Libya. As usual, Gadaffi’s flamboyance and showmanship almost overshadowed the main event; what with traditional rulers from a few countries […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) ESQUIZOFRENIA MORAL
Nuno Franco,
7 Feb 2009
"O erro da ética até o momento tem sido a crença de que esta só se deve aplicar em relação aos humanos." Albert Schweitzer A relação que os humanos estabeleceram com os animais é, no mínimo, estranha. Enquanto elegemos alguns como nossa companhia e os tratamos como se fossem membros da nossa própria família, enquanto […]
→ read full articleOBAMA SEEKS NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT DEAL WITH RUSSIA
Ian Traynor in Munich and Luke Harding in Moscow,
7 Feb 2009
Hillary Clinton to head US efforts to reduce warheads to about 1,000 The Obama administration is looking for a quick deal between the US and Russia to more than halve their nuclear weapons stockpiles, reversing the Bush White House’s refusal to be bound by international treaties. Diplomats and officials say they are optimistic Washington and […]
→ read full articleFamily-School-Work Bullying: What is on?
Johan Galtung,
5 Feb 2009
There is much talk of global warming and overheated finances. But society is also overheating, only that sociologists have not come up with good figures for heating, melting and negative growth. The three pillars of our societies, the Family delivering children reasonably socialized to School, which in turn delivers students reasonably educated to Work, which […]
→ read full articleCAN MITCHELL TURN JERUSALEM INTO BELFAST?
Ali Abunimah,
5 Feb 2009
US President Barack Obama’s appointment of former Senator George Mitchell as his new Middle East envoy is a good choice. Mitchell showed even-handedness uncharacteristic of US officials when he led a fact-finding mission to the region in 2000. Had its recommendations been followed — cessation of all violence and a full freeze of Israeli settlement […]
→ read full articleObama: The First Ten Days
Johan Galtung,
29 Jan 2009
Few politicians have been met with so high expectations as the 44th president of the USA, Barack Obama. So many people love the USA, and love to love the USA, making a distinction between the USA and its foreign policy. Love makes blind, the saying goes, and much blindness was needed to love the USA […]
→ read full articleStatement to the European Parliament on Conscientious Objection
Johan Galtung,
26 Jan 2009
Mr. Chairperson, Parliamentarians, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have six points, three about conscientious objection for soldiers-officers in bello, when the war–organized violence with one or more governments–is on, and three about objection ad bellum, to specific wars or war as such. But first a question: Why is the right to conscientious objection important? For the […]
→ read full articleSUDANESE GOVERNMENT AND UNICEF SIGN AGREEMENT TO PROTECT CHILDREN
UN News Centre,
25 Jan 2009
Sudan’s military and child welfare authorities have partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to protect children’s rights and prevent the recruitment of child soldiers in the war-torn African nation. The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), Sudan’s National Council for Child Welfare (NCWW) and UNICEF signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday to create a Child […]
→ read full articleHOPING FOR A NONVIOLENCE MOVEMENT IN PALESTINE
Achmad Munjid,
25 Jan 2009
Since I was a small child, I have been taught that the powerless party always deserves “affirmative action” in any unbalanced conflict before a true resolution can be settled. As a Muslim who now lives in the West, I keep trying very hard to understand why the mainstream West always assumes that the much more […]
→ read full articleA Murderer Says Good-Bye
Johan Galtung,
21 Jan 2009
Iraq, from being “a brutal dictatorship, is now an Arab democracy”, he said, W, after having set the USA back more than his eight years. And Iraq? Let us try an evaluation. Politics, like all human action, is about ends and means; a useful if not sharp distinction. Bush’ phrase covers two ends–let us accept […]
→ read full articleGaza
Johan Galtung,
12 Jan 2009
Beyond the immense human tragedy unfolding in the Gaza atrocity a question takes shape: have the Israeli leaders, politicians and military alike, totally lost their senses? A sledgehammer for a toothache, those tiny needle-pricks of missiles fired in anger, 8 killed–and then killing 800? Where is the sophistication of the attack on Egypt, timed to […]
→ read full articleTHE MARTYRS OF AMRITSAR
Andrew Buncombe,
9 Jan 2009
After 90 years and a long campaign, the victims of a British atrocity in a holy city are being recognised as martyrs and freedom fighters by the Indian government On a sweltering afternoon 90 years ago in April, a squad of Gurkha and Baluchi troops under the command of British officers marched into an enclosed […]
→ read full articleWelcome to you, 2009!
Johan Galtung,
5 Jan 2009
With some trepidation. There is that Rumanian joke born out of pessimism tempered by realism: it will be an average year. Average? Yes, worse than 2008, but better than 2010. The emblematic expression for 2008 are two whirling shoes thrown at the US Empire in person, expressing disgust and contempt. The emblematic expression for 2009 […]
→ read full articleISRAEL VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
Prof. Richard Falk - United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories,
4 Jan 2009
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war. Those violations include: Collective punishment – the entire 1.5 million people who live […]
→ read full articleOn The Fruits Thou Shalt Know The Tree
Johan Galtung,
29 Dec 2008
We hear about fundamentalist, violent Islam, sadly correct at times. But what is the Christian counter-message? Read Pope Alexander VI, in his Papal Bull Inter Caetera of May 4 1493, celebrating Columbus and his “discoveries”: Wherein dwell very many peoples living in peace–going unclothed and not eating flesh–disposed to embrace the Catholic faith and be […]
→ read full articleThere Is Gentle Wisdom In Them All
Johan Galtung,
25 Dec 2008
“Best wishes for the Season and the New Year” we easily write and read these days. So let us reflect on the Season, a time for religare, reconnect between that out there, and that in here, in us, for globalizing truths on the still unborn 2009. Seven years ago these unpublished lines for the Season […]
→ read full articleA UN Economic Security Council
Johan Galtung,
22 Dec 2008
The world needs a UN Economic Security Council to intervene against massive economic crimes against humanity. Why? How? To produce, we are told, one needs nature (“land”), workers (“labor”) and capital (adding technology and management). Any healthy economic system based on these factors will see to it that quantity and quality of the stock of […]
→ read full article60 Years: Human Rights as a Discourse
Johan Galtung,
15 Dec 2008
A meeting honoring the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948 was just concluded in Paris: the 9th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, dedicated to “Human Rights and a World without Violence”. An impressive parade of 50 statements, half by Nobel peace laureates and half by “invited guests”. […]
→ read full article9 IS NOT 11
Arundhati Roy and Tom Engelhardt,
13 Dec 2008
The single omnipresent historical reference in the American media immediately in the wake of September 11, 2001, was, of course, "Pearl Harbor" – and those code words for it, "infamy" and "day of infamy," splashed in mile-high letters across the front pages of papers. What we had experienced, it was commonly said then, was "the […]
→ read full articleIt’s The Economy, Stupid!
Johan Galtung,
8 Dec 2008
Let’s assume that. Then, what follows? Let’s have a look. Money is needed, for production of goods and services by existing enterprises, and for creating new ones–investment–to produce more goods and services. Money is also sometimes needed to buy and consume those goods and services by existing, and by new consumers as net population increase. […]
→ read full articleISRAEL BLOCKS ‘SIEGE-BUSTING’ SHIP
Aljazeera.net – Sun Dec 7/08,
7 Dec 2008
Special security forces have been deployed in and around Jaffa’s streets and port in order to stop a ship carrying medical and food supplies reaching Gaza. Elias Karram, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Jaffa, said on Sunday that the ship had been prevented from docking at the small city port where it was due to pick […]
→ read full articleCUBA HAS LOWEST AIDS RATE IN CARIBBEAN
Brazil Sun,
6 Dec 2008
Cuba has the lowest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate at 0.1 percent of the population in the Caribbean, the National AIDS Prevention Center (NAPC) said. While AIDS-related mortality is low in the island, and mother-to-child transmission is negligible, the epidemic shows a sustained growth, mainly among the male population, NAPC chief Rosaida Ochoa told journalists on Thursday. […]
→ read full articleCRAFTING A BLUE-PRINT FOR A GREEN GLOBAL ECONOMY
UN Environment Programme,
6 Dec 2008
Leading environmental economists researchers, business leaders and senior figures from international organizations are to meet in Geneva to take forward the United Nations’ Green Economy initiative. Also headlined as a ‘Global Green New Deal’, the $4 million initiative was recently announced in London by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director, UN Environment Programme […]
→ read full articleWORLD CONGRESS AGAINST THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS COMES TO A CLOSE IN BRAZIL
UNICEF,
6 Dec 2008
Nations Leave With Blueprint for Action in the Fight to Protect the World´s Children The sexual exploitation of children is not inevitable. That was the message coming out of Rio de Janeiro today where 137 governments have been meeting with children, international organizations, NGOs and private sector companies. While those gathered in Brazil recognize that […]
→ read full articlePirates, Mumbai, and then?
Johan Galtung,
1 Dec 2008
We are back again to the basics. Atrocities are committed along the Somali coast and in Mumbai, and our thoughts are with the victims and the bereaved. “Life as normal” is a casualty. And yet we have that burning question, why, why, why!? Why is journalism so bad at getting at motives; not that motives […]
→ read full articleProf. Johan Galtung Interviewed by Kimberlye Kowalczyk
Johan Galtung,
30 Nov 2008
The “father of Peace and Conflict Studies” and founder of TRANSCEND on the US presidential election of Barack Obama.
→ read full articleFINANCING POVERTY – RESCUING THE RICH INSTEAD OF THE POOR
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Peter Saunders,
28 Nov 2008
Taxpayer’s money is being misused in the global financial crisis to rescuing those that have grown super-rich by draining the real economy, creating poverty, and fuelling the destruction of the earth. Time to replace the dominant model with a circular eco-economy that mimics nature More than 116 million people around the world demonstrated on October […]
→ read full articleAn Empire Named Charisma?
Johan Galtung,
24 Nov 2008
Change? Or – maybe not, because No, We Cannot? Major foreign policy positions have emerged as Obama had to make some concrete positions known: Jerusalem, united for Israel forever; a surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan to get rid of terrorism once and for all; Georgia and Ukraine members of NATO; a League of Democracies to […]
→ read full articleGLOBAL TRENDS 2025
Chairman of the National Intelligence Council,
23 Nov 2008
"Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World" is the fourth unclassified report prepared by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in recent years that takes a long-term view of the future. It offers a fresh look at how key global trends might develop over the next 15 years to influence world events. Our report is not meant […]
→ read full articleISRAEL CONTINUES STARVATION OF GAZANS DESPITE UN PLEAS
The Irish Sun - Editorial,
22 Nov 2008
In what the UN has described as collective punishment, the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip continues. Notwithstanding 56% of the 1.5 million Gazan population consists of children, Israel has shut down access to the region refusing to allow desperately needed food trucks to reach their destination. UN food agencies in Gaza that have had […]
→ read full articleFull Moon Over Bolivia
Johan Galtung,
17 Nov 2008
La Paz-Santa Cruz 17/Nov/08 A full moon illuminates the mountains, the altiplano, and that vertical capital La Paz, as well as the plains around Santa Cruz, center of the four (of nine) departments of the medialuna, half moon shaped, part demanding autonomía from La Paz, and for municipalities. Deep polarization and serious violence. Why? History, […]
→ read full articleHARNESSING CARBON FINANCING TO BOOST SUSTAINABLE FARMING
UN-FAO,
15 Nov 2008
Win-Win-Win for Development, Climate Efforts Some 100 experts from five continents meet today (28/Oct/08) to chart the way to harnessing a large new flow of funding – carbon finance – to agricultural development and to improving the lives of poor farmers the world over. Billions of dollars are available every year under the Kyoto Protocol’s […]
→ read full articleYOUNG EUROPEANS PRESENT STRATEGIES TO COMBAT RACISM IN SPORTS TO EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
unescopress,
15 Nov 2008
Representatives of the project “Youth Voices against Racism”, an initiative of UNESCO, FC Barcelona and the European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR), in partnership with the European Parliament, visited the Parliament in Brussels on 6 November and presented a document containing 10 recommendations to counteract racism in and through sports. These recommendations emerged from […]
→ read full articleThe Economic Crisis And The US Empire
Johan Galtung,
10 Nov 2008
The crisis in the US economy would also have happened even without the empire. The crisis is an outcome of US hyper-capitalism, capitalism at maximum pressure, with no constraints or “regulation” as the market forces say. And more particularly of the pumping, sucking up of wealth from below, placing 90 million US citizens in misery, […]
→ read full article4 November 2008: A New Beginning?
Johan Galtung,
5 Nov 2008
Yes, it is. The race barrier broken, the referendum on the 43d US president, George W. Bush won overwhelmingly, there will be a basic change in the image of the United States of America all over the world. People around the world love to love USA, warts and all. Bush made it impossible for most, […]
→ read full articleGLOBAL COOLING IS HERE
Prof. Don J. Easterbrook, Department of Geology, Western Washington University,
4 Nov 2008
Evidence for Predicting Global Cooling for the Next Three Decades Global Research Editor’s note The following article represents an alternative view and analysis of global climate change, which challenges the dominant Global Warming Consensus. Global Research does not necessarily endorse the proposition of "Global Cooling", nor does it accept at face value the Consensus on […]
→ read full articleAmerica The Beautiful
Johan Galtung,
26 Oct 2008
We had left Harrisonburg VA early to get the sunrise when crossing the Skyline Drive–a national, historical landmark–with hilly Virginia, a little misty, in front of us. The sun was redlining that traditionally Republican state. The flaming fall colors were lighted by the rising sun as the road twisted and curled and rose and sank […]
→ read full articleAFRICOM, MILITARIZATION AND RESOURCE CONTROL
Nunu Kidane,
25 Oct 2008
Source: Pambazuka News For years, the US never considered Africa as a priority foreign policy agenda. The only context in which Africa came up in Washington was for preferential trade as in AGOA (Africa Growth and Opportunity Act) or in AIDS-funding from PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and of course humanitarian assistance. […]
→ read full article(A MUST READ) THE FALL OF THE U.S. EMPIRE–AND THEN WHAT?
Johan Galtung, 22 Oct 2008 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2008
[Economic Contradictions- (2)]- between productive and finance economy: Domestic and global market turnover being high even if the growth is sluggish in the productive economy in many countries, and distribution being low, there will be heavy accumulation of liquidity high up searching for an outlet. Luxury consumption and productive investment being limited, the obvious outlet […]
→ read full articleReconstructing USA
Johan Galtung, 20 Oct 2008 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Oct 2008
Greensboro and the Blue Ridge, North Carolina, 20/Oct/2008 There is tremendous excitement in the air, carried by the name Obama. Change. The mantra word. The feeling that a New Beginning may be around the corner. For one who has the privilege of organizing workshops on the concrete content Americans might like to see happen, there […]
→ read full articleDECONSTRUCTING THE POWER OF THE GLOBAL ELITE: BRUTE FORCE, THE POWER TO HURT, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL
Judith H. Young,
17 Oct 2008
In the aftermath of Congressional approval of bailout legislation granting sweeping powers to the financial elite, the body politic appears to be helplessly mired in the relentless unfolding of classical fascism before its very eyes. Coming to terms with this terrifying predicament can benefit from a primer that renders naked the forms of raw […]
→ read full articleVegetarianism against Global Hunger
EVANA-Swiss Union for Vegetarianism - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2008
On 7-8 October 2008, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the United Nations marked the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights which assures everyone’s entitlement ‘to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food’. Sixty years after signing that declaration of good will, […]
→ read full articleAlfred Nobel’s Will Betrayed
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Oct 2008
A Norwegian lawyer and peace activist, Fredrik Heffermehl, has done the world a great favor with his book Nobels Vilje, Nobel’s Will, just out, showing that the Nobel Peace Prize committees have strayed away from Nobel’s testament. The prize, according to Nobel’s will, is for “the most or the best work for fraternity between the […]
→ read full articleMORAL CAPITALISM
Stephen B. Young,
12 Oct 2008
Is Moral Capitalism Possible? Can morality be made relevant to business? Can virtue and self-interest ever coincide? If not, then a moral capitalism is not possible. Morality is an idea invented by people; it does not exist of its own in the natural order. Therefore, morality must be made to happen through human action. The […]
→ read full articleUN WELCOMES UAE’S PLAN TO TACKLE PLIGHT OF STATELESS PEOPLE
UN News Centre,
12 Oct 2008
The United Nations refugee agency has welcomed a decision by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to resolve the situation of thousands of stateless people living there, and voiced the hope that the Persian Gulf nation’s efforts will encourage other countries in the region to do the same. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees […]
→ read full articleLEADERS AT UN LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE MALARIA DEATHS BY 2015
UN News Centre,
12 Oct 2008
Government, business and civil society leaders gathered at the United Nations today to launch a global campaign to reduce malaria deaths, currently at more than 1 million each year, to near zero by 2015, with an initial commitment of nearly a $3 billion. The Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) aims to cuts deaths and illness […]
→ read full articleJohan Galtung’s Published Books
Johan Galtung,
11 Oct 2008
→ read full article
Galtung – 50 Years with Peace Studies
Johan Galtung,
7 Oct 2008
→ read full article
Johan Galtung Talks about His Forthcoming Books
Johan Galtung,
7 Oct 2008
On Understanding Conflict: Matti, 22
Johan Galtung,
6 Oct 2008
6 Oct. 2008 Last month tragedy visited a peaceful place in a peaceful Nordic country, Kauhajoki in southeastern Finland; the second time in less than a year, after November 2007 in Jokela in southern Finland, 19 killed; last month Matti, 22, killed 10 with himself. At their own school, entering a class, gun in hand, […]
→ read full articleWILL NATO’S EXPANSION BUBBLE BURST?
Sara Flounders,
6 Oct 2008
U.S. imperialism’s every effort to assert itself and reverse its declining global domination confirms its weakened position. Washington increasingly looks to threats of sanctions and/or military attack to resolve its every problem and challenge. But the Bush administration finds it more difficult to line up its imperialist allies for each new aggression. Even some U.S. […]
→ read full articleWHAT WE HAVE KNOWN AS “WALL STREET” IS NOW STUNNINGLY NO MORE
Stephen B. Young,
6 Oct 2008
Manhattan’s great investment banks are gone. The last two – Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – are converting into banks, submitting to more intrusive government regulation in return for more secure sources of capital. Communism couldn’t kill this Wall Street; capitalism, however, did. Adam Smith won out over Karl Marx. This "Wall Street" died at […]
→ read full articleTHE GENTLE GIANT
Jun Togo & B. Blue,
6 Oct 2008
What is the cause of wars and terrorism? Why do humans continue to fight each other? We dedicate this peace message picture book to a world torn by terrorism and wars.GO TO ORIGINAL
→ read full articleTMS Message from Johan Galtung
Johan Galtung,
2 Oct 2008
The US Economic Crisis: 10 Proposals
Johan Galtung, 29 Sep 2008 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Sep 2008
Stavanger-Norway, September 29/2008 What a cynicism to talk about “crisis” as a phenomenon of a month or a year or two, when every day about 125,000 die from system-produced hunger and curable-preventable diseases! Much of the responsibility lies buried in an economism privileging the transaction system above the basic needs of the actors. Economics as […]
→ read full articleIsrael-Palestine: What Peace Looks Like
Johan Galtung,
22 Sep 2008
Israel and Palestine met for peace this weekend or, so did positive parts of their civil societies, under the good auspices not of Italy’s government but of the Regione Toscana, in Pisa, where a tower is leaning, but still standing. The theme was European Union as a mediator. With the Israeli government in permanent coma, […]
→ read full articleThe US Elections
Johan Galtung,
16 Sep 2008
Should the world have the right to vote in US presidential elections given their importance for world affairs?Formally speaking, a better solution would be a UN Peoples’ Assembly. But the second best would be a US president with the interests of the world, all nations, humans and nature on top of his mind and deep […]
→ read full articleJapan: A Stagnant Country with NGO Dynamism
Johan Galtung,
16 Sep 2008
The news from Japan is that there are no news. Thecountry seems lost between a rapidly declining US Empire and a quicklyrising China-India, Chindia, with the yuan-rupee (yupee?) soonovershadowing the yen. The State seems to have no other project thannourishing status quo. Capital is lost in small and big scandals ofthe type capitalism seems to […]
→ read full articleThe Korean Peninsula Conflict is not North-South, but North-USA
Johan Galtung,
16 Sep 2008
Peace studies divide into two parts, negative and positive. Negativepeace studies are about prevention of violence, and the most promisingapproach is to solve underlying conflicts through mediation andconciliation. Positivepeace studies are about building equitable relations, not only formutual but also for equal benefit, and the most promising approachesare through cooperation, harmony and fusion into a […]
→ read full articleOn Conferences and Anti-Conferences
Johan Galtung,
15 Sep 2008
Point of Peace in Stavanger, Norway, just concluded a 3 days so-called summit conference with some Nobel Peace Prize Laureates on Alarms and Solutions; with no solutions. The themes: “Facing the Climate Challenge”, “9/11 And Then What?”, “The Challenge of Informing the Public”, and the Millennium Development Goals, MDG. Much money, much establishment, a crown […]
→ read full article10 Steps to Millennium Development Goals
Johan Galtung,
8 Sep 2008
The Millennium goals by 2015 are well chosen, even laudable: [1]Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; reducing by one half those wholive on less than $1 a day and those who are starving. [2] Ensure that all boys and girls complete elementary school. [3] Promote gender equality and empower women; removing the proportion difference of girls […]
→ read full article12 Approaches to Global Warming
Johan Galtung,
1 Sep 2008
There is much talk about global warming, and rightly so. But we need concrete ideas about moving from talk to action, possibly with two concerns lurking in the back of the mind: What is the human-generated percentage, as opposed to giant cosmic processes; and where is the good laboratory simulation? How much of this is […]
→ read full articleSpirituality and Peace
Johan Galtung,
25 Aug 2008
Our world is clearly missing something, in fact much, in its efforts to achieve peace. And one of them is expressed by the word “spirituality”, about as overused as the word “peace” precisely because they both embody so many of our dreams. Having spent much time demystifying peace (50 Years: 25 Intellectual Landscapes Explored, TRANSCEND […]
→ read full articleEnergy Conversion and Its Discontents
Johan Galtung,
18 Aug 2008
There is much talk about energy and it conversion these days. Actually, as the sum of energy is constant, it is about conversion from one form to the other, like thermal energy stored in oil-gas-coal, or kinetic energy from moving water and wind to electric energy, bio-mass energy to thermal energy, etc. There are problems, […]
→ read full articleCaucasus: The Powder Keg at Work
Johan Galtung,
11 Aug 2008
In 2003, from a TRANSCEND perspective on Caucasus (50 Years: 100 Peace & Conflict Perspectives, TRANSCEND University Press 2008, chapter 39c, see also chapter 64): TRANSCEND was asked in June 1997 to explore possible ways out for the (South) Caucasian situation. As nothing along the lines suggested (broadly speaking, a Caucasian Community for the 3 […]
→ read full articleThe Host Country/Immigrant Contract
Johan Galtung,
4 Aug 2008
A sad drama is unfolding in one European countryafter the other: higher barriers for immigrants, and for citizenship. Denmark, today one of the least tolerant countries, has an exam inDanish facts and values, Germany and France are planning the same,Norway’s opposition party, probably in government next year, iscontemplating; as opposed to Sweden, with citizenship automatic […]
→ read full articlePerfide Albion And Grand Strategy
Johan Galtung,
28 Jul 2008
Like today, Anglo-America (A-A) faced two major challenges in Europe in the first between-wars period: communism from Lenin took power in 1917, and nazism from Hitler was given power in 1933. The latter was a geo-political challenge with Germany demanding revision of Versailles, Neuordnung in Europe with Lebensraum–a New Order and space–as did Italy more […]
→ read full articleG8 and Global Pollution
Johan Galtung,
14 Jul 2008
There are figures in the air. CNN’s Todd Benjaminpointed out that the G8 countries account for 50% of the world wealth,but major developing countries for 70% of the world growth. And AlJazeera estimated the G8 share at 48% some years ago, now down to 43%,whereas-because major developing countries’ share has risen from 12% to27%, like […]
→ read full articleHousing, Food, Oil – What Next
Johan Galtung,
7 Jul 2008
“You see, this is a buying-and-selling car, not a driving car!”, the Chilean said as he wrapped the car I had sold him in plastic. I had used it, as a UNESCO expert, and did like they all do (the standard excuse): had a garage make it look new, and pocketed the difference. Seller and […]
→ read full articleCold War I and II – Solutions Anyone?
Johan Galtung,
30 Jun 2008
Cold War-I, say 1949-1989, came and went. Whathappened? Cold War-II started mid-1990s, building on the ruins of ColdWar-I and is now building up. What will happen? Anything to learn? Whatwas Cold War-I about? Reading the rhetoric of the time byestablishment and anti-establishment we might believe it was about armsrace in general, nuclear arms in particular, […]
→ read full articleThe West and Islam
Johan Galtung,
23 Jun 2008
We have been there before, many times. The West, particularly the United Kingdom-Britain-England, have attacked Islam after the massive Christian attack known as the Crusades. By no means forgetting the Omayyad Islamic attack on the Iberian peninsula and close to 800 years occupation up to Poitiers in France, nor the Ottoman expansion into Southeastern Europe […]
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