Articles by UN
We found 3984 results.
Nuclear 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 articleThe Angola-Cabinda Conflict
COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 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
A New Generation of Muslim Peace Educators
Amina Rasul and Qamar-ul Huda – Common Ground,
26 Jul 2010
In this age of widespread misperceptions that Islam is a religion of violence and intolerance, an Islamic peace education curriculum, addressing peacebuilding from an authentic Islamic perspective, is essential.
→ read full articleThe Algerian Insurgency
COVA-Confederation of Voluntary Associations – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jul 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
In Memoriam of Three Colleagues Who Recently Passed On
Johan Galtung,
26 Jul 2010
Elise M. Boulding (1920–24 Jun 2010)
John Wear Burton (2 Mar 1915–23 Jun 2010)
Hakan Wiberg (12 Jun 1942–3 Jul 2010)
I Support Mairead Maguire’s Appeal to Free Mordechai Vanunu
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jul 2010
Mordechai and I got the Right Livelihood Award, aka the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, the same year, 1987. He embodies the best of Western Civilization: courage, honesty, truth, dedication to peaceful resolution.
→ read full articleSpirit and Science in the Vedanta
Michael Nagler – Tikkun Magazine,
19 Jul 2010
But that was then. Now the great breakthroughs of Einstein and Bohr have delivered a rude shock to the paradigm of Western science, and “only Vedanta,” as a prominent Indian physicist who joined religious orders as Swami Jitatmananda said in 1986, “seems to be in a position to absorb the tremendous impact of the new science.” The Vedanta—a general term for the spiritual culture of ancient India—developed a quantum theory of mind 5,000 years before Planck discovered that energy comes in discrete packets (or quanta).
→ read full articleConflict Transcendence as Driving Force in History
Johan Galtung,
19 Jul 2010
Speech delivered at the International Sociological Association – Gothenburg, Sweden, July 2010.
→ read full articlePolitics
Unknown – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jul 2010
Socialism: You have two cows, and you give one to your neighbor.
→ read full articleHedonism as Australia Theory
Johan Galtung,
12 Jul 2010
Sydney: Much can be said about Australian politics, on mining taxes and commodity values up up up, with China buying, of Labour changing chairperson and prime minister like in the Soviet Union, the Party decides, of Australia in Afghanistan heading for Gallipoli II. And the new prime minister rejecting the former, mandarin-speaking Kevin Rudd with a project, a vision for Asia, with close ties to China and ASEAN, ASEAN+8. A world statesman, with a project beyond retired Australia with no project beyond status quo and being a US client. And neurotically concerned with a thousand asylum seekers.
→ read full articleVeterans of Current Wars: Some Perspectives
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jul 2010
And these are not good wars, in the sense of clear-cut wars of Good against Evil. The goals of USA-West, beyond suppressing “insurrection”, seem to include revenge, pure paranoia, clear economic interests, getting bases for future wars that may also be far from “good”. The goals of the enemy, defined by the US-West as Evil, are often very badly understood or not at all. These are not winnable wars. Like the English experienced 19 April 1775, being attacked by an invisible American enemy on the Boston-Concord road fighting “like savages”: savages have a tendency to win, even it may take time. “Asymmetric war” is in their favor, fighting for sacred values, freedom, human rights, ready to sacrifice their lives, with unlimited time perspective.
→ read full articleThe Death of the Fourth Estate
Rodolfo F. Acuna - Reader Supported News,
5 Jul 2010
The press, in theory, is supposed to safeguard democratic principles. During a parliamentary debate in 1787, Edmund Burke supposedly referred to the press corps reporting the activities of the House of Commons as the Fourth Estate. Hypothetically, the press was the champion of the public…. Hence, the journalist’s foremost duty was to tell the truth. But, over the years there has been an erosion of the public trust in the Fourth Estate, as the media has been monopolized by those President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 called “economic royalists” that control the country.
→ read full articleReflections on God
Negeen Sai Zinovieff – The Gandhi Foundation,
28 Jun 2010
“But as long as I have not realised the Absolute Truth, so long must I hold by the relative truth as I have conceived it. That relative truth must, meanwhile, be my beacon, my shield and my buckle.” –Gandhi. These teachings have been practised for several thousand years and we have to find them again. Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius have all had the taste for God, self-realisation and Fana (self-annihilation in God).
→ read full articleMythmaking: How the U.S. Corporate Media Got the Israel Flotilla Catastrophe So Wrong
Arun Gupta – Alternet,
28 Jun 2010
The founding editor of the Indypendent newspaper documents the lies and distortions perpetrated by the U.S. media about the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
→ read full articleAre We Heading for NATO vs. SCO?
Johan Galtung,
28 Jun 2010
How is this working out? Two huge alliances, one mainly Christian, one to a large extent Muslim, but also much broader and representative? Dialoguing with Afghanistan, ASEAN and countries in the former Soviet Union like white Russia, and also with Sri Lanka? The famous West against the Rest? To a large extent, yes–and also USA against China as the key countries on either side. With a difference, though: the USA is at the end of its imperial career, losing ground all over; China is building its position with talent and energy.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Editor Interview on Censorship
Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Jun 2010
“Privatized Censorship”
WikiLeaks, a publisher of last resort.
→ read full articleJeju and a Naval Arms Race in Asia
Kyoungeun Cha – Foreign Policy in Focus,
21 Jun 2010
Jeju Island has long been a focus of strategic and security interests in Northeast Asia. During World War II, the Japanese used the island to defend Japan from American forces. There were supply bases on the island for 75,000 Japanese soldiers. The U.S. military later attempted to fortify the island after the fall of Japanese empire. And today, Jeju Island is again the focus of attention. But this time, it is the latest escalation in a naval arms race in Northeast Asia.
→ read full articleThe Perils of Protest
Stephen Keim & Ann Cunningham - Justinian,
21 Jun 2010
The aid flotilla attempting to breach the Israeli blockade is just the latest in the Gaza protest movement … Australian lawyers Ann Cunningham and Stephen Keim report on the Cairo protests earlier this year … US Embassy showed it has the muscle to halt violence by Egyptian security forces.
→ read full articleThirteen Religious Views of Life
Unknown – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jun 2010
Taoism: Shit happens.
→ read full articleConflict Transformation as a Way of Life
Johan Galtung,
21 Jun 2010
“If you cannot remove conflict, why not adjust your thinking about it? Why not try and see conflict as the salt of life, the big energizer, the tickler, the tantalizer, rather than as a bothersome nuisance, as noise in perfect channel, as disturbing ripples in otherwise quiet waters? In short, why not treat conflict as a form of life, particularly since we all know that it is precisely during the period of our lives when we are exposed to a conflict that really challenges us, and that we finally are able to master, that we feel most alive”.
→ read full articleTwo Empires Falling – But How?
Johan Galtung,
14 Jun 2010
The significance of the Rosenstrasse nonviolence in the heart of Berlin in the middle of the war is neglected, just like Obama neglected the role of nonviolence in ending both colonialism and the cold war in his Nobel Peace Prize speech, probably the most belligerent ever given (and his contempt for the prize was emphasized by giving the money away to organizations that had nothing to do with peace).
→ read full article(Portuguese) Dando Nome aos Bois: O Que Houve Foi ‘Pirataria’ e ’Sequestro’
Celso Lungaretti – Pravda,
14 Jun 2010
Quase ninguém diz que se tratou de um ato de PIRATARIA. E foi. Não há outro nome para a agressão de um bando armado a embarcações civis em alto mar. O que houve não passou de um SEQUESTRO. Nem mais, nem menos. Então, nunca existiram 700 pessoas detidas, o que há são 700 pessoas sequestradas.
→ read full articleInternational Law and Israel’s War on Gaza
Prof. Francis A. Boyle – Counter Currents,
7 Jun 2010
Third, we must abandon the fiction and the fraud that the United States government is an “honest broker.” The United States government has never been an honest broker from well before the very outset of these negotiations in 1991. Rather, the United States has invariably sided with Israel against the Palestinians. We need to establish some type of international framework to sponsor these negotiations where the Palestinian negotiators will not be subjected to the continual bullying, threats, harassment, intimidation and outright lies perpetrated by the United States government.
→ read full articleU.S. Blocks Security Council Criticism of Israeli Raid
The Salt Lake Tribune – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jun 2010
The Obama administration refused to endorse a statement that singled out Israel, and proposed a broader condemnation of the violence that would include the assault of the Israeli commandos as they landed on the deck of the ship.
→ read full articleMexico-USA: Drugs-Arms-Money
Johan Galtung & Fernando Montiel T., 7 Jun 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jun 2010
In 1846-48 the USA conquered 53% of the Mexican territory in a terrible war; the USA says it was 33%. Today a fifth of the Mexicans live in the USA, legally or not; 53% of them would mean 30 million more in the USA. Far too much, says Arizona in the anti-illegal immigration law, denounced by Calderón as threat to human rights and democracy. Obama, to the right of Bush, sends 1,200 soldiers to the border; with 1 million Americans now living in Mexico, mainly close to beaches, to stretch meager pensions…. Meanwhile, Hugo Chávez was on CNN-Español and claimed that during his presidency Venezuelan poverty dropped from 73% to 40%, and misery from 23% to 5%. Given his social policy it might simply be true, or close to it. So much more important than GNP growth. And threatened by Obama’s seven bases in Colombia, and the Fourth Fleet. And yet the voice of the future.
→ read full articleNuclear Fuel Swap Deal: US Sabotages ‘Unique Opportunity’ for Peaceful Resolution with Iran
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
31 May 2010
In his inaugural speech in January 2009, US president Barack Obama promised a new beginning in foreign policy towards Iran, saying “we will extend a hand if you are willing to un-clench your fist”. He didn’t actually mention Iran by name then, but everyone knew he was saying that the Bush administration’s confrontational approach to the Islamic Republic was being replaced by a more reasonable policy based on mutual dialogue.
→ read full articleWhen Media Acts Responsibly Everybody Wins
Prof. Parvez Ahmed – Common Ground,
31 May 2010
Instead of the usual criticisms often heard about media providing misinformed coverage of Muslims and Islam, commentator and University of North Florida Professor Parvez Ahmed commends media in his Jacksonville, Florida hometown for the way in which they dealt with two potentially polarising issues.
→ read full articleWhere Is the World Economy Heading?
Johan Galtung, 31 May 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 May 2010
Imagine you are ill. A health rating agency, let us call it Moody & Poor, publishes your rating. Somebody bets on your death. Others withdraw life support; what might have been a self-denying becomes a self-fulfilling, demoralizing, prophecy. The betting company cashes in “some serious money”–the expression used in Goldman Sachs when they celebrated the fall of the US housing market (Washington Post 24 April 2010). Remedy: outlaw most, make credit rating–teleconferences by 5 voting experts–transparent. They are paid by the people who issue the debts to be rated.
→ read full articleThe US Civil Rights Revolution
Johan Galtung, 24 May 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 May 2010
A research project 1958-60 on school desegregation in Charlottesville VA brought this author close to that abominable century of deliberate delay. Interviewing white segregationists brought up three major factors in their prejudice: they, the blacks, are angry because of slavery and will take revenge, stab us in the back; they are all communists against our society; they are ugly. Hidden in this was a recipe for individual black advance in white society: take history with a smile, be right wing Republican, be pretty-handsome. At least two out of these three may take you there. It is not pigment. Examples are obvious.
→ read full articleHung Parliament or Hung Parliamentarism?
Johan Galtung, 17 May 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 May 2010
Is Anglo-America a conspiracy against conflict resolution, in favor of conflict settlement through victory? Hosting a Karl Marx, yet for those who think class is out look at the composition of the new cabinet in terms of education, family and nation-within-nation.
→ read full articleHow One Palestinian Village Started a Movement
Sara Reef – Common Ground,
17 May 2010
Most of the media coverage surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict focuses on stories of violence and despair. Little is known about the growing Palestinian-led non-violent movement that has united rival Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, and encouraged hundreds of Israelis to cross into the West Bank and Gaza for the first time to join this non-violent effort.
→ read full articleVanunu Returns to Prison and the End of Israel’s Nuclear Ambiguity
Eileen Fleming - Countercurrents,
17 May 2010
On May 11, 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Mordechai Vanunu, will “serve a three-month jail sentence handed to him by Jerusalem District Court and not community service.”
→ read full articleWhy Privacy on Facebook Is ‘Virtually Impossible’
Erik Hayden - Miller-McCune,
17 May 2010
“Earlier this month, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and 14 other privacy and consumer organizations filed a complaint against Facebook with the Federal Trade Commission, accusing the popular social network of “unfair and deceptive trade practices” and violating users’ expectations of privacy and consumer protection laws. And last month, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., asked the FTC to develop guidelines instructing social networks on how private information can be used.
→ read full articleMps Push for Continent-Wide Ban on Female Genital Mutilation
UN IRIN-TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 May 2010
Parliamentarians from all over Africa are pushing for a continent-wide ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and are calling on the UN to pass a General Assembly resolution appealing for a global FGM/C ban, as it violates human rights, they say.
→ read full articleNon-Violence Needs Women
Asma Asfour – Common Ground,
10 May 2010
Palestinian women as Palestinian citizens have much to say in this context. They are the ones who raise men. Partly because they are mothers, women are the real partners in building the future state. In addition, women—who are arguably naturally more predisposed to non-violence—could exercise significant pressure to stop internal violence first and then to form a common vision towards the future state.
→ read full articleDo Peace Studies Reach Out, Including Others?
Johan Galtung,
10 May 2010
Some personal reflections on some personal experiences: it depends on how we conceive of peace studies.
→ read full articleHow Do Wars End?
Johan Galtung, 3 May 2010 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 May 2010
Gone are the old days when might was right and unconditional surrender was the end of a 141-year unbroken chain of US wars, from 1812–the final battle in the War of Independence– to 1953, the Korean war armistice. And gone are the days when might was a sign of divine mandate, God is behind. Among christians God may favor the mightiest. Among muslims, perhaps. But certainly not across that divide. Gone are the days of direct battle heroism. Sitting at a computer in the Pentagon directing drones, or in a cockpit at 44,000 feet hitting “coordinates”, in favor of pure cowardice. Or, rather: the risks change with the war. When more commit suicide than are killed in the field reality has changed. Confronted with a choice between a very elusive victory, defeat, and flight, conflict resolution might grow in attractiveness.
→ read full articleThe Three Nuclear Issues
Johan Galtung,
26 Apr 2010
Add to this the divinity problem. God uses extreme force, causing desertification, to punish pagans. So do nuclear bombs, and birds of a feather go together. They can be used to punish Japanese (who had capitulated) telling whose God is the stronger. They confirm divinity on their owners; civilizations, not states and certainly not non-states. Divine power to them is worse than proliferation. It is profanization.
→ read full articleMorocco: U.S. Lawmakers Support Illegal Annexation
Stephen Zunes – The Huffington Post,
19 Apr 2010
In yet another assault on fundamental principles of international law, a bipartisan majority of the Senate has gone on record calling on the United States to endorse Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony invaded by Moroccan forces in 1975 on the verge of its independence. In doing so, the Senate is pressuring the Obama administration to go against a series of UN Security Council resolutions, a landmark decision of the International Court of Justice, and the position of the African Union and most of the United States’ closest European allies.
→ read full article
Ikunga – “Di Bombs”
Ikwunga – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Apr 2010
A socially conscious music video by the First Afrobeat Poet Ikwunga. It addresses the ills of war that plagues our beloved African continent.
→ read full articleInternational Norms, International Standards
Johan Galtung,
19 Apr 2010
“International” spells Western, the leading norms and standards being those of the leading countries. In no way does this mean that they are irrelevant, or harmful. But it could mean that they are incomplete, dated, Western views, with the state system as the material, and secular enlightenment as the spiritual, pillar.
→ read full articleThe New U.S. Nuclear Posture Review
David Krieger, TFF & Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Apr 2010
While pausing to celebrate the incremental steps in arms reductions and the limitations on nuclear weapons use that are being made now, we should also recognize that a policy of No First Use and a commitment to negotiate a Nuclear Weapons Convention would move us far more rapidly toward the peace and security of the nuclear weapon-free world envisioned by President Obama.
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) 46 VELINHAS VERMELHAS… DE SANGUE
Celso Lungaretti - Pravda,
12 Apr 2010
Ao completarem-se 46 anos da quebra da normalidade institucional no Brasil, mergulhando o País nas trevas e barbárie durante duas décadas, é oportuno evocarmos o que realmente foi essa nada branda ditadura de 1964/85, defendida hoje com tamanha desfaçatez pelos jornalões, seus editorialistas e articulistas.
→ read full articleGlobalizing God: Religion and Peace in the Social Sciences
Johan Galtung,
12 Apr 2010
God has to globalize and should have done so before the stock exchange. Hard readings lead to intolerance or grudging tolerance. Badly needed: respect and curiosity; dialogue and mutual learning. There is so much wisdom! Select! Eclect! Go beyond state-territorial and national-cultural borders, and transcend those jealously guarded borders in the mind, between disciplines and religions.
→ read full articleABSURD TRANSCENDENTAL PRETENSE
Prof. Chung-Yue Chang -TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Apr 2010
Aristotle’s “Square of Opposition” diagrams shows how the four basic categorical propositions can be opposed as “true” or “false”. No middle ground is allowed. The Aristotelian logic is designed for a dynamic world made static. In contrast, China’s circular yin-yang diagram shows the moving fields of yin and yang spread out to build each other up toward a new unity of dynamic harmony. This is possible because within the yin there is a trace of yang, and within the yang there is a trace of yin. Chinese logic is designed for a dynamic world that moves creatively toward harmony.
→ read full articleA World of Regions — And the EU Role?
Johan Galtung,
5 Apr 2010
The US Empire is leaving an economic-military-political-cultural gap, China is not signing up, nor the EU with its recent experience of how colonialism crumbles. The state system is also fading–except for the biggest ones–being increasingly region-oriented. EU is the most mature, but …
→ read full articleThe Cocoyoc Declaration
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Mar 2010
October 8-12, 1974 a symposium on “Patterns of Resource Use, Environment and Development Strategies” was convened in Cocoyoc, Mexico by the directors of United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Maurice Strong and Gamani Corea. The rapporteurs were Barbara Ward for resource use and the environment and Johan Galtung […]
→ read full articleIZZY AWARD WINNER JEREMY SCAHILL: “WE’RE AT A GROUND ZERO MOMENT TO SAVE REAL JOURNALISM”
Byard Duncan – Alternet,
28 Mar 2010
The winner of the second annual Izzy Award, named after muckraking journalist I.F. Stone, discusses independent media and this critical moment in journalism. On March 24, 2010, the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, NY announced that award-winning independent journalist Jeremy Scahill would receive the second annual “Izzy Award.” The Izzy, […]
→ read full articleIn Praise of Nonalignment
Johan Galtung,
22 Mar 2010
We are living a world battle against terrorism. With the words of the present US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, then, in 2001 a Senator, in our ears: “if you are not with us (meaning US) you are with the terrorists”. Not the bland, “if you are not with us you are against us, no, […]
→ read full articleIRAQI HOLOCAUST
Dr Gideon Polya - Countercurrents,
20 Mar 2010
7th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq It is the 7th anniversary of the illegal and war criminal invasion of Iraq by US, UK and Australian forces on 20 March 2003. What has been the human cost? As of 20 March 2010 post-invasion violent deaths in Occupied Iraq total 1.4 million (according to the eminent […]
→ read full articleA MORAL VEST
Dr. June Terpstra – Information Clearing House,
20 Mar 2010
In the film, Fidel, The Untold Story, there is an interview with Fidel Castro where he says he does not need a Kevlar vest to protect him from countless CIA assassination attempts because he wears a moral vest. I am back in Havana, Cuba today after visiting a natural medicine clinic in Santa Clara, Cuba; […]
→ read full articleWhen Will Men Catch Up with Women?
Johan Galtung,
14 Mar 2010
The Women’s Day came and went, even the 100th after the day was proposed by Clara Zetkin at a woman’s conference in Copenhagen 1910. Later, on 8 March, there were demonstrations in Europe against a male stupidity known as World War I. And that is the point made here: when will men finally catch up […]
→ read full articleDemocracy At Work
Johan Galtung,
8 Mar 2010
This weekend has given us two cases, Iceland and Iraq. In Iceland the referendum, by an overwhelming majority of 90-95%, rejected the idea that Iceland, meaning tax-payers, shall compensate the English and Dutch governments for compensating the losses of US$ 5.3 billion suffered by 300,000 citizens due to the abusive banking by Icesave that collapsed […]
→ read full articleINDIGENOUS STRUGGLES IN THE AMERICAS
Roxanne Dunbar-ortiz - ZNet,
6 Mar 2010
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, a writer, teacher, historian, and social activist, is Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies at California State University. She spoke to NLP (http://www.newleftproject.org) about the historical and contemporary impact of imperialism in the Americas, and the nature of Indigenous peoples’ resistance to it. You have been deeply involved in Indigenous peoples’ activism […]
→ read full articleABE OSHEROFF ON THE STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER WORLD: GETTING RID OF HOPE AND FAITH
Robert Jensen - Counterpunch,
5 Mar 2010
After a recent talk about the struggle for social justice and the threats to the ecosystem, a student lingered, waiting to talk to me alone, as if he had something to confess. “I feel so overwhelmed,” he finally said, wondering aloud if political organizing could really make a difference. The young man said he often […]
→ read full articleIsrael Against Herself
Johan Galtung,
27 Feb 2010
Yes, incapacitating Hamas missiles is as understandable as firing them on an occupier. But the Gaza massacre a year ago is something else. The extreme rejection of the Goldstone report–if anything biased in Israel’s favor–tells another story. Israel was supported by a vote in a US Congress essentially endorsing itself having done the same, occupying-colonizing […]
→ read full articleMORE PAIN FOR DEVASTATED HAITI: UNDER THE PRETENSE OF DISASTER RELIEF, U.S. RUNNING A MILITARY OCCUPATION
Arun Gupta – Znet,
26 Feb 2010
Official denials aside, the United States has embarked on a new military occupation of Haiti thinly cloaked as disaster relief. While both the Pentagon and the United Nations claimed more troops were needed to provide "security and stability" to bring in aid, according to nearly all independent observers in the field, violence was never an […]
→ read full articleDevelopment as a Way of Life
Johan Galtung,
21 Feb 2010
The way development has been conceived of in this book(1) goes far beyond a comparison of countries in economic achievement. All kinds of dimensions are considered, economic, military, political, cultural, and social, seen as structural and cultural. All spaces are there, nature, human, social, world. And a very simple philosophy: development as unfolding of the […]
→ read full articleA PERSONAL STAKE IN SANITY
Robert C. Koehler - Tribune Media Services,
20 Feb 2010
When we write about mass slaughter, even the good kind, which we call “war,” the waging of it should be on trial in every sentence. Anything less than that is propaganda, the chief characteristic of which is moral opacity. Sadly, this is how our news is delivered to us. Reading it makes me feel homeless. […]
→ read full articleSerbia Past and Future
Johan Galtung,
12 Feb 2010
Beograd: The NATO attack May-June 1999 left scars still not healed, like the bombed out Ministry of the Interior (Israelis want to invest in a hotel at that site). But the place is as vibrant with culture and restaurants-cafes and intellectualisms of all kinds as ever. An enviable resilience. Orthodox optimism? Processing the past is […]
→ read full articleMISUNDERSTANDING GANDHI
Antony Copley – Gandhi Foundation,
12 Feb 2010
All the evidence suggests that Mohandas Gandhi today is more keenly followed outside of India than within. He has been appropriated by western concerns. Within India he has become more of a figurehead, so much so that even right wing and communal political movements such as the BJP see fit to claim him as one […]
→ read full articleDESCENT INTO BARBARISM: THE US AND NATO WAGE WAR ON THE WORLD
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
10 Feb 2010
The argument is won: capitalism as an effective system to organise society and provide for human needs has expired. The evidence is conclusive. Trillions of dollars to kickstart the economy in the US and Europe may have given an ephemeral lease of life to the financial class to spin the casino wheel once again, but […]
→ read full articleINVITE NORTH KOREA TO THE GLOBAL NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT
Jae-Jung Suh – Foreign Policy in Focus,
10 Feb 2010
Denuclearize North Korea or end the Korean War? Here’s a proposal for doing both at the same time.North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells into waters near the disputed western sea border with the South last week, and the South Korean military returned warning shots, heightening the already high tension on the peninsula. The rising […]
→ read full articlePEPE LOBO, IMPERIALISM AND THE RESISTANCE: CONSOLIDATING THE COUP IN HONDURAS
Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber – Counterpunch,
10 Feb 2010
A country of sharp inequality and class polarization, Honduras recently returned to the frontlines in the battle for Latin America’s soul. The terrain of struggle has shifted on multiple occasions over the last seven months, following the military coup against the democratically-elected President, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya. The battle entered its latest phase last week with […]
→ read full articleCHALLENGING “WEST VERSUS ISLAM” MEDIA PARADIGMS
Gabriel Faimau – Common Ground,
10 Feb 2010
At an international conference on “Islam and the Media” organised by the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado-Boulder in January, many of the participants, including myself, examined the negative stigma attached by the media to Islam and Muslims, especially after 9/11 and various terrorist attempts made in the name of […]
→ read full articlePoor America
Johan Galtung,
7 Feb 2010
Consider this. Obama promised change we can believe in and delivered non-change we certainly believe in, betraying those who voted for him. His deeds do not match his rhetoric, so he will lose badly at the mid-term elections. A one-term president? Worse, maybe his lame duck presidency is over. Not even one term. Take the […]
→ read full articleAfghanistan: From Killing to Bribing
Johan Galtung,
31 Jan 2010
The London conference on Afghanistan was a done deal and has been in the works for a long time. The Taliban seem to be resistant to killing, they actually add to their numbers like amoeba and launch attacks ever closer to the hearts of power. So, if military power, the Big Stick, even carried by […]
→ read full articleMARTIN LUTHER KING ON GANDHI
Gandhi Foundation,
31 Jan 2010
Excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Radio Address to India – All India Radio – March, 1959 Leaders in and out of government, organizations, particularly the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and the Quaker Center, and many homes and families have done their utmost to make our short stay both pleasant and instructive. We have learned […]
→ read full articleAUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR: ‘ISRAEL ACTS LIKE NAZIS’
Graeme Murray and Chris Watt – Sunday Herald,
27 Jan 2010
One of the last remaining Auschwitz survivors has launched a blistering attack on Israel over its occupation of Palestine as he began a lecture tour of Scotland. Dr Hajo Meyer, 86, who survived 10 months in the Nazi death camp, spoke out as his 10-day tour of the UK and Ireland – taking in three Scottish […]
→ read full articleSTAND SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE PEOPLE OF HAITI
Marilyn Langlois - Haiti Emergency Relief Fund Board Member, TRANSCEND Convener for USA,
22 Jan 2010
–When asked “How are they surviving?” Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre responded, “Well, they’re all sharing. That’s what we do. That’s the way Haitians are.” (January 16) –“The city has seen little violence, despite persistent fears that shortages of food, water and shelter will spark unrest.” (January 21) –Photograph of a white female US Navy medic cradling and […]
→ read full articleLAST CHANCE TO SAVE WILD BUMBLE BEES — HAS COMMERCIAL SHIPPING BEEN WIPING THEM OUT?
Adam Federman - CounterPunch,
22 Jan 2010
Getting to the bottom of why bee populations have collapsed.In the early 1990s, the USDA conducted risk assessments of the interstate transport of bumble bees for commercial greenhouse pollination, particularly tomatoes. Because of the risk of introducing non-native pests and diseases into new areas, they concluded that commercially reared bumble bees should not be shipped […]
→ read full articleThe Past as a Resource
Johan Galtung,
20 Jan 2010
Tunis, 30 Mouharram 1431. One reason for traveling to Tunisia was its absence from international media these days. So things must be good, even better than good. No major tragedy, nor anything entertaining, just people managing like people usually do, with mutual rights and obligations, sometimes unequal, sometimes not. And this is exactly the case […]
→ read full articleJOHN DARA: NIGERIA’S OBAMA?
Rev. Olufemi Oluniyi, Ph.D.,
16 Jan 2010
The Peoples Democratic Party, Nigeria’s ruling party, since the transition from military dictatorship to civilian manipulation, which prides itself as the largest party in Africa boasted on 1 October 2009, the 49th independence day anniversary, that the party will rule Nigeria uninterrupted for the next 60 years. That boast was three months ago. Since then, […]
→ read full articleNEVER MIND THE FACTS, LET’S HAVE A WAR…
Finian Cunningham – Global Research,
12 Jan 2010
A missile test-fired by Iran last week was reported on the BBC World Service as being “capable of striking Israel”. The choice of words was not unusual. On previous occasions when Iran has test-fired a long-range rocket, the BBC and other western news media dutifully inform us that the said device is “capable of striking Israel”. […]
→ read full articleJohn Grisham the Sociologist
Johan Galtung,
11 Jan 2010
In front of me are about half of Grisham’s 22 books, each about 450 pp, brick sized bestsellers, fed to passengers boarding airports all over the world. Thus, exiting from Delhi recently no book by or about Gandhi was in sight (business manuals, yes), but Grisham. So I am negative, maybe envious (oh yes, some?). […]
→ read full articleTHE FUTURE TAMIL POLITICS
Balasundaram Nirmanusan,
10 Jan 2010
Eelam War IV shattered and devastated Tamils social, economical, cultural and political structural factors. These four structural factors were corner stone’s of the Tamil National Struggle and were intricately interconnected to each other. These became primary targets during the war and were destroyed. To give this research paper a focus and due to contextual developments […]
→ read full articleU.S. KICKS HORNET’S NEST IN YEMEN
Eric Margolis – Toronto Sun,
9 Jan 2010
Failed attack on Detroit-bound plane was retaliation for American military ops in the Arabian country, sources say.Welcome to the Afghanistan of Arabia. Yemen, the likely source of the failed Christmas Day airliner bombing at Detroit, has just rudely intruded into the west’s awareness. Sources there claim the attack by a young Nigerian was retaliation for […]
→ read full articleSome New Year Wishes
Johan Galtung,
4 Jan 2010
Dear friends: I actually prefer the old method: a walk in the wood or the desert, the discovery of that old, rusty lamp, picking it up, rubbing a little, making it shine: and out comes that fairy granting you three wishes! Just as if the calendar turning around accompanied by fireworks, if you live […]
→ read full articleGAZA FREEDOM MARCH: WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED SO FAR
Robert Naiman - Sun, 3 Jan 2010,
3 Jan 2010
CAIRO, Egypt – Some of us reached Gaza and particpated in the Gaza Freedom March as planned. All of us significantly raised the profile of dissent – particularly, American dissent – against the blockade of the people of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt, with the backing of the United States and the acquiescence of […]
→ read full article