Articles by UN
We found 3938 results.
Nuclear 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.
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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 articleWHY DO WE CELEBRATE NEW YEAR?
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, PhD – Univ. of Mumbai,
29 Dec 2009
Why do we celebrate New Year? When the year approaches its end we start preparing ourselves for celebrations to bid farewell to passing year and to welcome New Year. We do it in our own ways but anyhow we do it. My point is besides the customary repetition of pomp every year in welcoming New […]
→ read full articleGood News From The Holy Land
Johan Galtung,
28 Dec 2009
There was midnight mass in the little village church. The news–or olds–from the Holy Land were recited by the young priest: For us is today a Savior born, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. The amens filled the church. Next morning an AlJazeera panel about the Holy Land: “West Bank settlers are dominated by a messianic-eschatolgical minority”, […]
→ read full articleA Week of Bad Climate
Johan Galtung,
21 Dec 2009
The mountain in Copenhagen gave birth to a mouse that can hardly crawl. No legally binding agreement, only vague promises for Mexico in 2010. There are national and corporate interest- guided pledges with figures ending in 0 for a year ending in 0 (USA 18%, though). Adding confirmed proposals reduces warming by 2050 from 4.8 […]
→ read full articleA Nobel War Prize Speech by a War President
Johan Galtung,
14 Dec 2009
President Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance lecture in Oslo 10 December 2009–the Human Rights Day!–added tragedy to the comedy. It was vintage Orwell, war is peace, serving outdated thoughts by nations trying to legitimize their warfare, with the eloquence and charm that came through to many of that persuasion. A reactionary speech, more becoming to war […]
→ read full articleIS FREE PEACE RESEARCH POSSIBLE? IMPOSSIBILITY OF FUNDING PEACE RESEARCH THAT REFUSES TO BE INTELLECTUALLY “EMBEDDED”
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
14 Dec 2009
Reflections on the increasing impossibility of funding peace research that refuses to be intellectual ‘embedding’ in power. SUMMARY This analysis has come about for four reasons: 1. Over the last couple of decades, it has become virtually impossible to do research that is truly free. This applies particularly to smaller organizations which, if they do […]
→ read full articleWHY NOT TURKEY IN THE EU?
Jonathan Power – The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
11 Dec 2009
LONDON – Enlargement of the European Union to bring in Turkey was never meant to be so tense an affair. When the Berlin Wall came down opinion makers in Western Europe were breathless before the quite unexpected overthrow of tyranny and were falling over themselves in their attempt to wave broadly stretched arms of welcome […]
→ read full article(ITALIAN) GANDHI NEL XXI SECOLO
Prof. Bhikhu Parekh – The Gandhi Foundation,
11 Dec 2009
The Second Fred Blum Memorial Lecture Se dovessi riassumere Gandhi in una sola (sua) espressione, direi che impegnò la sua vita “per crescere di verità in verità”. In altre parole, egli disse che come essere umano aveva solo percezioni parziali della realtà ultima, ossia della verità su qualunque cosa, e la vita consiste nel nostro […]
→ read full articleGANDHI IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Prof. Bhikhu Parekh – The Gandhi Foundation,
11 Dec 2009
The Second Fred Blum Memorial LectureIf I were to sum up Gandhi in just one phrase (his phrase) I would say he committed his life, as he called it, “to grow from truth to truth”. In other words, as a human being he said he only had partial perceptions of ultimate reality, or what is […]
→ read full articleTHE POWER OF NONVIOLENT ACTION IN HONDURAS
Stephen Zunes – Yes! magazine,
11 Dec 2009
The massive nonviolent movement that put pressure on the coup government may be only the first chapter of an important and prolonged struggle for justice in one of Latin America’s poorest and most inequitable countries. The decision by Honduran coup leader Roberto Micheletti to renege on his October 30 agreement to allow democratically-elected president Manuel […]
→ read full articleGlobal Warming in Copenhagen
Johan Galtung,
7 Dec 2009
Of course we all wish the Copenhagen conference the best of luck. It is billed as a conference on a major social evil, even a martian invasion of the world supposedly uniting us all. The problem is, as usual, whether it is the right approach; and what may be lurking underneath the surface. We have […]
→ read full articleCARING AND KILLING: TIME IS RUNNING OUT, MR. PRESIDENT
Robert C. Koehler - Tribune Media Services,
4 Dec 2009
Dear Barack . . . Mr. President . . . brilliant, courageous (I once thought) guy I voted for: You’re great. I mean the way you put words together. As I listened to you on Tuesday night, I thought about the interlocking, dovetail-joint perfection of your language: the crisp-edged certainty of your delivery, the clean […]
→ read full articleHUMAN RIGHTS: THE EMERGENCE OF THE PERSON
Rene Wadlow, at the UN,
4 Dec 2009
All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis. While the significance of national and regional peculiarities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be born in mind, it is […]
→ read full article“Incredible India”…
Johan Galtung,
30 Nov 2009
… they say in the publicity spots. Yes it is truly incredible how India is selling itself to that bidder, USA, in one display of americanization after the other. The Washington angle to this is easily understood. Their empire falling, fighting three unwinnable wars on terrorism, Afghanistan and Iraq, allied with problematic regimes in Israel […]
→ read full articleANOTHER EUROPEAN DEFICIT: DOES RESPONSIBLE SCHOLARSHIP EXIST?
Biljana Vankovska, in Macedonia – Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
30 Nov 2009
A spectre has been haunting the intellectual circles in the region of former Yugoslavia for years. It’s probably more appropriate to talk about a haunting fear of being seen as a follower of any of the nationalistic policies that ended in a Balkan tragedy. Even the new generations of scholars and intellectuals bear the scars […]
→ read full articleWHAT’S IN A NAME
Håkan Wiberg – Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
30 Nov 2009
There are many cases of conflicts where one party (sometimes both) makes demands that appear absurd to an outsider, not least because they will obviously be unacceptable to the other party. The eight points in the Greek position on the name issue of Macedonia looks like a good example.Sovereign and internally recognized states sometimes change […]
→ read full article(SWEDISH) KRIGET I AFGHANISTAN, PALME OCH ORBACK: NÅGONTING MÅSTE HA GÅTT FRUKTANSVÄRT FEL
Håkan Wiberg – Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
30 Nov 2009
Replik till artikel om kriget i Afghanistan av Jens Orback, Generalsekreterare för Olof Palmes Internationella Center, Aftonbladet 11. november 2009 Efter massmordet den 11 september 2001 måste USA:s president (vem han än hade varit) för att överleva ta en fruktansvärd hämnd. De flesta av gärningsmännen, inklusive den förmodade ledaren, var saudiska och aktionen hade planerats i […]
→ read full articlePTSD and PGED: Post Glory Exuberance Disorder
Johan Galtung,
23 Nov 2009
Washington: There is much talk about post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, these days. Yes, it must be tough to kill so many Afghans who fight secularism, Kabul and foreign soldiers dying for that fraudulent dictator Karzai, and invasions by some chess game drunk players. And, at a risk of an IED, US$ 10 per piece, […]
→ read full articleA Paradise Lost; An Empire Gained
Johan Galtung,
16 Nov 2009
Asunción: The tragedy Paraguay suffered is emblematic. It carries messages of the soft vs the hard Occident, and of soft development vs hard “growth”. And how a genocide drove out the soft. The reference is to the attack in 1865 on Paraguay by the Triple Alianza (or Quadruple): Argentina-Uruguay-Brazil, indeed encouraged by No. 4, England, […]
→ read full articleHOW THE SERVANT BECAME A PREDATOR
William K. Black, Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City,
16 Nov 2009
Finance’s Five Fatal FlawsWhat exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector’s […]
→ read full articleA GANDHIAN CRITICISM TO MODERN SCIENCE (Part 1)
Prof. Antonino Drago - Univ. of Pisa and Univ. of Florence,
15 Nov 2009
Contents: 1. Is Western progress a truly human development, or a misleading spiritual direction? 2. A radical criticism by authoritative non-violent figures of the dominant scientific and technological progress; 3. Any conflict within science? 4. The birth of conflict and pluralism in science during the French revolution; 5. Formally qualifying the conflict in […]
→ read full articleA GANDHIAN CRITICISM TO MODERN SCIENCE (Part 2)
Prof. Antonino Drago - Univ. of Pisa and Univ. of Florence,
15 Nov 2009
6. A verification: Pluralism in stating the inertia principle The clearest demonstration that science as a whole diverges with regard to its formal foundations is obtained by an examination of the inertia principle, which, being the starting pointing the most important theory of traditional science, Newton’s mechanics, represents the beginning of modern science. Descartes-Newton’s version […]
→ read full articleSTEALING MONEY, SELLING HEROIN AND RAPING BOYS
Patrick Cockburn - Counterpunch,
15 Nov 2009
Meet Our Afghan Ally There is a dangerous misunderstanding outside Afghanistan about what ‘corruption and mismanagement’ mean in an Afghan context and a potentially lethal underestimation of how these impact on American and British forces. Just when President Barack Obama looked as if he might be railroaded into sending tens of thousands more US troops […]
→ read full articleWHAT CAN PALESTINIANS LEARN FROM THE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?
Aziz Abu Sarah – Common Ground,
13 Nov 2009
Appealing to the Jewish Conscience The struggle for civil rights, freedom and independence is not unique to the Palestinian people. Many nations have travelled the same road. Palestinians today have the advantage of looking back and learning from those who succeeded in their struggles. The American civil rights movement in particular has important lessons for […]
→ read full articleBELLO, CLAPPERTON-1824, YARADUA’S AMNESTY, AND THE NIGER DELTA
Rev. Olufemi Oluniyi, Ph.D. - Centre for Values and Social Change, Nigeria,
12 Nov 2009
In 1823 Hugh Clapperton, a British adventurer, set out to unravel the Niger waterway. He arrived in the Bornu in the Lake Chad region late that year and went westward to Kano in 1824, and later to Sokoto in the same year. Sultan Bello, the ruler of the Muslim empire founded by his predecessor, Uthman […]
→ read full articleThe Trilateral Conflict USA – North Korea – South Korea
Johan Galtung,
9 Nov 2009
Seoul: Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen; a great honor to be invited for a keynote on unification–a key concern of mine since 1972–in a room in the National Assembly, the symbol of democracy. And we are meeting in the context of the 20th anniversary of that 1989 miracle, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and then […]
→ read full articleA STEP TOWARDS A WAR-FREE WORLD: CRIMINALIZE WAR
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia,
9 Nov 2009
Why We Must Reject War Criminalise War Conference, Opening Address, 28th October 2009 Speech by [former Malaysian Prime Minister] Tun Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad at the Criminalise War Conference and War Crimes Tribunal 2009 at Putra World Trade Center, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 28 October 2009 WAR AND CRIME 1. As one of the convenors […]
→ read full articleA PALESTINIAN VIEW: PALESTINIAN RECONCILIATION AND THE PEACE PROCESS
Walid Salem - Center for Democracy and Community Development, Jerusalem,
2 Nov 2009
With the current paralysis in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process–which is due to the Israeli government’s refusal to abide by its obligations under previously signed agreements, notably the roadmap–it might at first glance seem strange to ask what are the ramifications of Palestinian unity for Palestinian-Israeli relations. But this is an Israeli government that tries to […]
→ read full articleDisconnected Giant on Clay Feet
Johan Galtung,
2 Nov 2009
Greensboro-NC, USA: What is the mood of the giant these days? One method is through the excellent TV channel C-span, with congressional hearings, politics in the open, debates over the double crisis, the economy, and the war. Another method is to ask people, like down in Heartland USA, North Carolina, bordering on the Blue Ridge, […]
→ read full articleDRUG DECRIMINALIZATION: A TREND TAKES SHAPE
Coletta A. Youngers and John M. Walsh,
28 Oct 2009
Latin American frustration with the “war on drugs” is growing. Harsh anti-drug laws have failed to stem apparently rising drug use, and incarceration rates are climbing—up 40 percent on average in Mexico and South America over the last decade—with more drug users and low-level dealers behind bars. But high-level drug traffickers carry on with impunity. […]
→ read full articleChina and the Economic Crisis
Johan Galtung,
26 Oct 2009
Chongqing: The American Friends Service Committee (the Quakers) and the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament–a state-supported NGO like many in the West–had a conference 18-21 October on the economic crisis and social conflict and harmony. World experiences in conflict resolution and state-civil society cooperation were shared with Chinese experts; to handle the […]
→ read full articleFULL TEXT OF THE ‘GOLDSTONE REPORT’
UN Human Rights Council,
24 Oct 2009
United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza ConflictPresentation of the report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to the Human Rights Council – 29 September 2009 Head of the UN Fact Finding Mission Justice Richard Goldstone presented the report of the Mission to the Human Rights Council in Geneva […]
→ read full articleLANDMARK PACT INDICATES GLOBAL SUPPORT FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, SAYS UN EXPERT
UN News Centre,
24 Oct 2009
19 October 2009 – The international community showed its support for the world’s nearly 400 million indigenous people by adopting the landmark 2007 declaration outlining their rights, a United Nations independent human rights said today.The adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People came after more than two decades of debate. “The adoption […]
→ read full articleTurkey Getting Unstuck
Johan Galtung,
18 Oct 2009
Istanbul – Imagine a country losing an empire in their command for more than five centuries, ending with the occupation of Istanbul 1918 at the end of World War I. England (Mr. Sykes), France (M. Picot) and the Russians had conspired, engineering Arab uprisings against the Ottomans (“Lawrence of Arabia” being a part of that)–promising […]
→ read full articleThe Nobel Peace Prize
Johan Galtung,
12 Oct 2009
The Nobel Peace prize to a president for rhetoric, with no real achievement, is like a peace prize for a movie to a former vice-president, with no real achievement either. True, people are touched by a rhetoric everybody has heard, and even by a movie few have seen; but neither of them meets the criteria […]
→ read full articleMANIFESTO: GLOBAL ECONOMIC ETHIC – CONSEQUENCES FOR GLOBAL BUSINESSES
UN Headquarters, New York,
9 Oct 2009
6 October 2009 Preamble For the globalization of economic activity to lead to universal and sustainable prosperity, all those who either take part in or are affected by economic activities are dependent on a values-based commercial exchange and cooperation. This is one of the fundamental lessons of today’s worldwide crisis of the financial and product […]
→ read full articleGandhi and Mao: Two Giants Compared
Johan Galtung,
5 Oct 2009
The past week had two important anniversary messages. One came through loud and clear in the Western media: the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Chinese Revolution, guided by Mao, restoring China to its own people, violently, on October 1. The other message was considerably more subdued: the 140th anniversary of the birth of […]
→ read full articleWHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DEMOCRACY?
Arundhati Roy,
3 Oct 2009
The U.S. and Europe Have Propped Up So Many Corrupt "Democracies" That the Word Is Losing Meaning Of Nearsighted Progress, Feral Howls, Consensus, Chaos, and a New Cold War in KashmirWhat’s next in a world where democracy has been so hollowed out? While we’re still arguing about whether there’s life after death, can we add […]
→ read full articleThe Tide is Turning: UNGA 64
Johan Galtung,
28 Sep 2009
This UN General Assembly will go down in history because of three persons: Hu Jintao, Qaddafi and Chávez, from the three Third World continents. And Obama will be less remembered for a speech–a high school essay promising to honor the UN multilateralism his country is committed to as a UN member–than for Chávez’ comment about […]
→ read full articleTHE GUAM TREATY AS A MODERN ‘DISPOSAL’ OF THE RYUKYUS
Kunitoshi Sakurai, Introduction by Gavan McCormack,
22 Sep 2009
Introduction Little attention internationally was paid to the agreement signed in February, 2009 between the newly commissioned Obama government in the US and the declining and soon to be defeated Aso government in Japan — the Guam Treaty. Many commentators drew the bland conclusion that by choosing Tokyo as her first destination Secretary of State […]
→ read full articleThe Cold War as a Metaphor
Johan Galtung,
21 Sep 2009
The Cold War is worth remembering. There is much to learn about conflict and meta-conflict. For West vs. Islam. That self-inflicted threat to humanity lasted officially 40 years 1949-89. But it started with the Bolshevik revolution October 1917, and ended with the combined collapse of Communism and the Soviet Union. 1917-1991. Almost a century. I […]
→ read full articleSpirituality and Conflict Work
Johan Galtung,
14 Sep 2009
There is an important connection: with some spirituality conflict work is much easier, whether directed toward the past as conciliation after violence–and after a solution has been found–toward the present as mediation, or the future as peace-building, weaving webs of positive peace as a protection against conflicts turning violent. An example: the ubuntu ‘I am […]
→ read full articleSOMALIA: WHO IS FIGHTING WHOM?
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN),
10 Sep 2009
Somalia has experienced conflict since 1991 when the late President Mohamed Siad Barre’s government was overthrown by opposition forces. Up to 2006, the fighting was largely between clan-based warlords clashing over territory and resources. In the process, one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world was created. In 2006, Islamic groups in Mogadishu fought […]
→ read full articleTHE FREE GAZA MOVEMENT
Tun. Dr. Mahathir Mohamad,
10 Sep 2009
We all remember the brutal Israeli attacks against Gaza last year. Many of us were outraged by the killings of some 1,300 Gazan Palestinian, men, women, the disabled, the children, the sick and the maimed.Hospitals and schools were destroyed. The condemnation of this brutal assault had forced the Israelis to stop the massive retaliation against alleged […]
→ read full articleThe World Peace Academy in Basel
Johan Galtung,
7 Sep 2009
Ladies and gentlemen: Today, 4 September 2009, will go down in the history of peace studies as a day to remember: a true world peace academy has been inaugurated, here in Basel, the city straddling three countries, Switzerland, Germany and France. The WPA, brilliantly conceived and launched by Pierre and Catherine Brunner, has a three-point […]
→ read full articleMore Creativity, Please!
Johan Galtung,
31 Aug 2009
The world is often seen in terms of two or more nuclear superpowers; a more positive perspective would be two culinary superpowers, China and France. We had just enjoyed a *** (Guide Michelin) French meal. Indescribable, so better not try. But immensely creative. Tastes unknown were conjured unto the human palate. The esthetics of each […]
→ read full articleSEARCHING FOR PEACE IN A KINGDOM OF VULTURES
Nirmanusan Balasundaram,
29 Aug 2009
“Peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.” The armed conflict in Sri Lanka came to an end by mid May 2009 – after more than three decades – with a ‘military victory’ of the Sri […]
→ read full article