TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE

Solutions-Oriented Peace Journalism

Donate now:

• Peace by Peaceful Means
  
  CLICK HERE TO
  DONATE NOW
  
  TMS Is Independent Media.
  No Government Grants.
  No Advertising.
  
  List of TMS Supporters
  — Make Your Pledge!

• 2024, Week 51

  16 Dec - 22 Dec

• TMS Weekly Digest

  CLICK TO SIGN UP
  OR UNSUBSCRIBE

• Search TMS

  To find articles by the same author, please click on the name.

• Music Video of the Week

  Over the Hill

  

  View in expanded screen

• In Original Languages

  • (Italiano) A proposito di informazione. Un caso-studio: le Olimpiadi 2026
  • (Indonesian-bahasa Indo) Mengapa Elite Melakukan Great Reset Menghancurkan Dunia? Bagaimana Melawannya?
  • (Castellano) El Surgir de la Espiritualidad Natural
  • (Italiano) Per una formazione etica
  • (Italiano) La geopolitica della follia delle élite
  • (Italiano) Opposizione e visione di futuro

• Featured Research Paper

  • Report from the Nordic Delegation to China’s Xinjiang Province, 7-15 Sep 2024

• Galtung’s Corner

  • Editorial Archive
  • Online Papers
  • Publications
  • Welcome Note

• TRANSCEND Highlights

  TMS Edtior receives prize for Peace and Social Justice

  TRANSCEND Track Record on Conflict Solution 1958–2018

• TRANSCEND Links

  • TR International
  • TR Art and Peace Network
  • TR Peace University
  • TR Peace Service
  • TR Research Institute
  • TR University Press
  • Galtung-Institut G-I (Germany)

• Explore TMS by tags

  Activism  Africa  Anglo America  Anti-imperialism  Arms Industry  Assange  Biden  Big Brother  Biography  BRICS  Bullying  Capitalism  Casino Capitalism  Catastrophe Capitalism  China  Climate Change  Colonialism  Conflict  Coronavirus  Corruption  COVID-19  Crimes against Humanity  Cuba  Cultural violence  Democracy  Development  Direct violence  Disaster Capitalism  Eastern Europe  Ecocide  Economics  Economy  Elites  Environment  Ethnic Cleansing  European Union  Fatah  Finance  Food for thought - Editorial cartoon  Gaza  Genocide  Genocide Convention  Geopolitics  Global warming  Greed  Hamas  Health  Hegemony  History  Human Rights  Imperialism  India  Indigenous Rights  Inequality  Inspirational  International Court of Justice ICJ  International Criminal Court ICC  International Relations  Invasion  Israel  Israeli Apartheid  Israeli Army  Israeli occupation  Joke  Journalism  Justice  Latin America Caribbean  Literature  Lockdown  Massacre  Media  Middle East  Military  Military Industrial Media Complex  Music Video  Nakba  NATO  Nonviolence  Nuclear war  Nuclear Weapons  Occupation  Official Lies and Narratives  Oslo Accords  Palestine  Palestine/Israel  Pandemic  Peace  Pentagon  Poetry  Politics  Power  Predatory Capitalism  Profits  Proxy War  Public Health  Racism  Religion  Research  Russia  Science  Science and Medicine  Social justice  Solutions  Spirituality  State Terrorism  Structural violence  Surveillance  Torture  Trump  UK  Ukraine  UN  United Nations  USA  US empire  US Military  Vaccines  Violence  Violent conflict  War  War crimes  War Economy  Warfare  West  West Bank  Whistleblowing  WHO  WikiLeaks  World  Zionism

• Categories

  • EDITORIAL
  • TRANSCEND News
  • TRANSCEND VIDEOS
  • FEATURED RESEARCH PAPER
  • JOHAN GALTUNG MEMORIAL
  • BIOGRAPHIES
  • NONVIOLENCE
  • INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
  • NEWS
  • TMS PEACE JOURNALISM
  • SPECIAL FEATURE
  • NOBEL LAUREATES
  • CONFLICT RESOLUTION – MEDIATION
  • HUMAN RIGHTS
  • TRANSCEND MEMBERS
  • OBITUARIES
  • ANNOUNCEMENTS
  • WAR RACKET–CATASTROPHE CAPITALISM
  • CAPITALISM
  • IN FOCUS
  • ACTIVISM
  • NATO
  • ANALYSIS
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-AI
  • AFRICA
  • ANGLO AMERICA
  • HEALTH
  • MILITARISM
  • ASIA–PACIFIC
  • ENERGY
  • ASIA-UPDATES ON MYANMAR ROHINGYA GENOCIDE
  • BALKANS AND EASTERN EUROPE
  • BRICS
  • CENTRAL ASIA
  • EUROPE
  • LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
  • MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
  • WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
  • PALESTINE – ISRAEL
  • SPOTLIGHT
  • SYRIA IN CONTEXT
  • MEDIA
  • UNITED NATIONS
  • REVIEWS
  • JUSTICE
  • ENVIRONMENT
  • DEBATES ON COVID – VACCINES
  • SPORTS
  • APPEALS
  • ARTS
  • INTERVIEW
  • ACADEMIA-KNOWLEDGE-SCHOLARSHIP
  • SCANDINAVIA
  • EXPOSURES – EXPOSÉS
  • WHISTLEBLOWING – SURVEILLANCE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • GREAT RESET
  • ECONOMICS
  • SOCIALISM – MARXISM
  • PARADIGM CHANGES
  • COOPS-COOPERATION-SHARING
  • EDUCATION
  • TRADE
  • DEVELOPMENT
  • ANARCHISM
  • PERMACULTURE
  • KUDANKULAM ANTI-NUCLEAR SATYAGRAHA, INDIA
  • PUBLIC SERVICE
  • TRIVIA
  • LITERATURE
  • MUSIC
  • CIVIL SOCIETY
  • CURRENT AFFAIRS
  • SEXUALITIES
  • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
  • ANIMAL RIGHTS – VEGETARIANISM
  • COVID19 – CORONAVIRUS
  • ORGANIC, GMO, GENETIC ENGINEERING
  • SCIENCE
  • HISTORY
  • POETRY FORMAT
  • INSPIRATIONAL
  • RELIGION
  • SCIENCE – SPIRITUALITY
  • SPIRITUALITY
  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT
  • JOKE OF THE WEEK
  • ORIGINAL LANGUAGES
  • MEMORABLE QUOTES
  • IN-DEPTH VIDEOS
  • SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
  • Uncategorized
  • COMMENTARY ARCHIVES
  • IPRA 2014 – 50th ANNIV. CONFERENCE
  • Music Video of the Week

• Recent Comments

  • Abdel Samaan on Syria: Assad Is Out, Woke Al-Qaeda Is In
  • Abdel Samaan on Eye-Witness Syria: The Last 12 days
  • Alberto Portugheis on Our Right to Sing — and Create the Future
  • VPR on US Hypocrisy Reaches a New Level: Israel’s Occupation of Syria Is ‘Security,’ Russia’s Moves in Ukraine Are ‘Aggression’
  • Jose on Quantum Physics and Spirituality: The Relationship between Quantum Mechanics and the Vedas

• Extras

  • Useful Links
  • Terms Of Use
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy

• Follow TMS

  Embed TMS on your website!

Peace Journalism Perspective

EDITORIAL

Yin/Yang: China

Talk at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, Sep 2010. Others have much to learn, as China from others, for mutual and equal benefit--the essence of positive peace.

TRANSCEND VIDEOS

Enduring the Trauma of Genocide (w/ Gabor Maté)

13 Dec 2024 - While the trauma that Palestinians face in Gaza is sustained, brutal and seemingly never-ending, the universal susceptibility to trauma unites humanity as much as it divides the self. Dr. Gabor Maté, renowned physician/psychiatrist and expert in trauma and childhood development, illustrates this point articulately.

Gideon Levy on Lebanon Ceasefire, Gaza, Israeli Sanctions against Haaretz: “Israel Wants Wars”

27 Nov 2024 - Israeli journalist Gideon Levy takes a look at the mood within Israel with Israelis "sour" about what is seen as a premature deal. "They would like to see more blood, more destruction in Lebanon," says Levy. "Israel wants wars."

FEATURED RESEARCH PAPER

Report from the Nordic Delegation to China’s Xinjiang Province, 7-15 Sep 2024

16 Nov 2024 - The initiative for the “Nordic Delegation to China” was from the Norwegians. Journalist Arild Vollan wanted to investigate claims in the media about an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in western China.

TMS PEACE JOURNALISM

Our Right to Sing — and Create the Future

11 Dec 2024 - The world “celebrated” International Human Rights Day the other day, even as wars across the planet continued, bombs fell, children died. What if “freedom from war” were a human right?

Other Commentaries

TRANSCEND News

LAST Fundraising Appeal: Make It or Break It…

Since 2008, TMS has been promoting Johan Galtung’s legacy of Solutions-Oriented Peace Journalism--Peace by Peaceful Means. The end? We have faith…

SPECIAL FEATURE

Genocide in Pictures: Worth a Trillion Words

Parental Guidance Advised: Pornographic Violence LEBANON, GAZA and WEST BANK, 16 Dec 2024

TRANSCEND MEMBERS

Use of “Sunrise” and “Sunset” as Harmful Misinformation or Disinformation?

Complicity of Science in Unquestionable Dissemination of Harmful "Fake News" - There is considerable confusion about how "harmful" is to be understood globally, as with the distinction between "misinformation", "disinformation" and "fake news" in that regard.

Eye-Witness Syria: The Last 12 days

10 Dec 2024 - My friend lives in Damascus. I will call him Qusay to protect his identity. He was born and grew up in Aleppo and is a translator and university professor. He personally witnessed events in Damascus where he still is. What Qusay told me about events in Syria the past 12 days.

Educating for Adaptive Change Beneath a Darkening Sky

9 Dec 2024 - Lending support to efforts to ground foreign policy on respect for international law, itself flawed, and the imperatives of peace, equity, justice, and non-theocratic spirituality.

Which Foreign Policy Paradigm for the USA? Hegemony and Annihilation or Restoration of Sanity?

10 Dec 2024 - Compared to the great initiatives of the past 260 years, the USA of the past several decades is a strange and foolish creature running roughshod over the dignity of people and nations in a race for mass nuclear extermination.

Celebrating Biodiversity in India: Vasundhara Festival 2024

11 Nov 2024 - Global leaders at COP16 in Colombia and COP29 in Azerbaijan proposed solutions with top-down, corporate-driven frameworks— carbon credits and the digitalization of nature—which are part of a continuation of the colonial legacy of bio-imperialism. Critical analysis in our fact sheet: Understanding Biodiversity Credits.

Elderly Populations

9 Dec 2024 - India has a population of about 1.35 billion, the world’s second highest after China: about 1.4 billion. We may exceed them and equal 1.5 billion by 2030. What measures India can take for the population growth to slow down?

French Court Convicts French-Cameroonian Journalist Charles Onana for Speech Crime

11 Dec 2024 - A French criminal court has convicted a journalist for writing dissident history about Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

How to Escape the Federal Debt Trap

10 Dec 2024 - The U.S. national debt just passed $36 trillion, only four months after it passed $35 trillion and up $2 trillion for the year. The current debt trajectory is clearly unsustainable, but what can be done about it?

OBITUARIES

In Memoriam: Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. (13 Dec 1947 – 2 Nov 2024)

TRANSCEND and University of Hawaii's Trailblazing Cultural Psychology Leader

IN FOCUS

Sovereignty, Modernization, and Cooperation Championed at Global South Forum in Shanghai

13 Dec 2024 - The forum concluded: “Without socialism, independence movements among weaker nations during the imperialist era cannot address issues of new and old colonialism.”

US Hypocrisy Reaches a New Level: Israel’s Occupation of Syria Is ‘Security,’ Russia’s Moves in Ukraine Are ‘Aggression’

10 Dec 2024 - Netanyahu’s reasoning for his latest land grab lays bare the stark hypocrisy of his Western supporters.

ANGLO AMERICA

Syria Is Absorbed into the US Empire

9 Dec 2024 - Bashar al-Assad fled Syria to Moscow, receiving asylum from Russia. Al-Qaeda affiliates declared victory for the “mujahideen.” Biden and Netanyahu took credit for the regime change, and Turkey’s Erdogan deserves a share of credit as well.

In Syria’s Dirty War, “Our Side” Has Won

12 Dec 2024 - The overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his replacement by the leader of an "Al Qaeda spin-off" fulfills a more than decade-long US-led regime change campaign.

ASIA--PACIFIC

The Hidden Meaning of the Martial Law in South Korea

5 Dec 2024 - South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol declared martial law on the night of 3 Dec 2024, but six hours later, in the early hours of 4 Dec, it was overturned by the Parliament and forced to be retracted. Did Yoon consult with the US government beforehand? Probably he did.

BALKANS AND EASTERN EUROPE

Popular Revolt Looming in Ukraine? Zelensky’s Battle Over Death Numbers Speaks for Itself

12 Dec 2024 - Donald Trump stated on 9 Dec that Ukraine lost around 400,000 soldiers in its armed conflict with Russia: "This is a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.”

BRICS

The BRICS Plan for a New Financial Architecture

1 Dec 2024 - The BRICS difference can be read as decolonised multilateralism with intent and behaviour as an interdependent, plural grouping, committed to development linked to the global South.

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

The End of Pluralism in the Middle East

6 Dec 2024 - A seismic change is happening very fast--a devil’s bargain: Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinians for a Greater Israel, vis-a-vis the annihilation of Syria's and Lebanon's Shia minorities and the imposition of Salafism, which spells also the end of Christian communities.

PALESTINE - ISRAEL

Meditations on a Six-Year-Old Amputee Crawling through Gaza with the Help of a Roller Skate

15 Dec 2024 - This genocide has been going on so long that the child amputees who live all over Gaza are learning strategies to get through life without their limbs.

Gaza Aid Hits Crisis Point Despite US Demands on Israel: Famine Spreads

15 Dec 2024 - Gazans endure extreme food scarcity as looters and IDF attacks on Palestinians guarding convoys choke off supplies. While the US issues warnings to Israel through the media, the occupation continues to delay and obstruct aid.

Special Gaza: Israeli Impunity–Genocide, Occupation and Apartheid

Dec 2024 - Israel has pummeled Gaza since 7 Oct 2023, displacing 90% of its population and causing a 'man-made famine.' The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced a death toll of over 42,000 but the real number could be four times as high, says The Lancet. Join us as we take a look at Gaza over the last year.

SPOTLIGHT

The Prevention of Literature

March 1947 - George Orwell served as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and came to detest tyranny, whether of Communist or Fascist. “To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.” In this vigorous essay, he derides the captivity of the Party line.

SYRIA IN CONTEXT

US Backs Israel’s Land Grab in Syria

9 Dec 2024 - The US State Department framed Israel's incursion into Syrian territory as 'self-defense.'

Israel Says It Launched 480 Strikes in Syria in Two Days Following Assad’s Fall

10 Dec 2024 - The Israeli military announced today the heaviest Israeli bombing of Syria in history. The IDF is said to be only 25km from Damascus.

How the US and Israel Destroyed Syria and Called It Peace

12 Dec 2024 - In the famous lines of Tacitus, Roman historian, “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” In our age, it is Israel and the U.S. that make a desert and call it peace, with over a million dead and open wars raging in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine.

US Bombs over 75 Targets in Syria after Assad Falls

9 Dec 2024 - The U.S. launched dozens of airstrikes on more than 75 targets in Syria yesterday amid ongoing Israeli and Turkish military attacks on the nation's population. "The Western press are waxing lyrical about the new Syria being born—but not a word on the U.S. and Israeli bombs falling from the sky," said Yanis Varoufakis.

Syria Now

9 Dec 2024 - The Assad family regime, sustained by force, was destined to collapse and the infighting between the various armed militias now may produce a situation not unlike Afghanistan.

The Overthrow of Assad Is as Seismic as the Fall of the Shah

Islamist rebels captured Damascus on Sunday [8 Dec] after astonishingly feeble resistance from the Syrian armed forces. A former member of al-Qaeda will take power – and nobody knows what will happen next.

MEDIA

From ‘Terrorist’ to ‘Freedom Fighter’: How the West Rebranded Al-Qaeda’s Jolani as Syria’s ‘Woke’ New Leader

12 Dec 2024 - Corporate media is heralding the emergence of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani as Syria’s new leader, despite his ties to al-Qaeda and ISIS. “How Syria’s ‘diversity-friendly’ jihadists plan on building a state,” runs the headline from the Daily Telegraph UK suggesting he will construct a new Syria.

The Day the Media Decided Militant Jihadism Was Respectable

10 Dec 2024 - Suddenly, after years of misrepresenting Hamas, hypocritical western politicians and media are desperate to clarify – if only in Syria – the difference between jihadists and Islamic nationalists.

UNITED NATIONS

Gaza: ‘Devastation Is Absolutely Staggering’, Says Senior WFP Official

12 Dec 2024 - Describing the level of devastation across the Gaza Strip as “absolutely staggering”, the representative of the World Food Programme said that civilians are desperate for lifesaving aid and there’s a growing risk of widespread famine.

JUSTICE

Meetings at The Hague Reveal Crisis and Turmoil, as State Representatives Grapple with Israeli Warrants

11 Dec 2024 - At a recent convening at The Hague, state representatives to the ICC agonized over the disastrous implications for the international rules-based order should Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant evade accountability for war crimes in Gaza. 

ENVIRONMENT

Mysterious Global Hotspots

13 Dec 2024 - A worrisome trend in the global climate system has popped up. Specific regions of the world are experiencing repetitive severe heat waves so extreme and so deadly that scientists’ models are thrown into a tizzy.

POETRY FORMAT

Let Yourself Be Shattered by Gaza

13 Dec 2024 - These last 14 months have shattered me. Shattered me beyond the power of recollection. But sometimes it’s good to be shattered. 

Letter to Refaat Alareer

A year ago, on 6 Dec 2023, Israel murdered Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer in Gaza. His poems, however, remain, condemning his killers and beseeching us to honor our shared humanity.

INSPIRATIONAL

The Wound Is the Gift: David Whyte on the Relationship between Anxiety and Intimacy

It takes a long time to know a person — to unbutton the costume of personality and unlace the corset of coping mechanisms in order to touch the naked soul. It is a process delicate and difficult, riven by anxiety and absolutely terrifying to both.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Nuclear Nobels on Human Rights Day

The 2024 Nobel Prize ceremony is held on 10 Dec 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden. The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on 10 Dec in Oslo, Norway. The UN Human Rights Day is celebrated on 10 Dec 2024 worldwide.

From Tyrant to Tyrant?

11 Dec 2024 - Assad’s fall didn’t come with a roadmap to democracy or stability. Instead, it is handing power to Jihadi extremists, the kind who burn books and crush the public under their so-called morality. It’s not enough to overthrow a tyrant if what comes next is worse than what came before.

JOKE OF THE WEEK

The Kakistocracy

9 Dec 2024 - Still Trump...

ORIGINAL LANGUAGES

(Italiano) Opposizione e visione di futuro

12 Dicembre 2024 - Come organizzare forme efficaci di opposizione? I cambiamenti sociali e politici più rilevanti sono stati iniziati da frange marginali che hanno saputo aggregare e coinvolgere. Bisogna esserne consapevoli e, poi, costruire una visione di futuro...

(Italiano) La geopolitica della follia delle élite

Mentre il mondo si trova contemporaneamente sull’orlo di una guerra nucleare in Asia centrale per la geopolitica della follia delle élite, manda in frantumi ogni residuo senso di “giustizia internazionale” non intraprendendo alcuna azione efficace per fermare il genocidio televisivo in Palestina...

(Italiano) Per una formazione etica

Bambini e ragazzi sono sempre più esposti alle attenzioni del mondo militare, impegnato a promuovere delle scuole opportunità di studio e di esperienze per orientare i giovani verso gli ideali e le carriere militari.

(Castellano) El Surgir de la Espiritualidad Natural

12 Diciembre 2024 - Hay muchos que están hartos de bienes materiales y del consumismo de nuestra cultura. Como contrapunto a esta situación estamos captando la aparición del mundo espiritual, de la  espiritualidad natural, y verificamos su urgente actualidad frente a las numerosas crisis que asolan a toda la humanidad.

(Italiano) A proposito di informazione. Un caso-studio: le Olimpiadi 2026

La tragedia che osserviamo rispetto alle Olimpiadi 2026, in un contesto come Milano dove ci sono dei movimenti che si danno da fare (comitato insostenibili Olimpiadi, …) è che di fronte a questo «treno in corsa», le Olimpiadi che stanno arrivando, quasi non si muove foglia.

(Indonesian-bahasa Indo) Mengapa Elite Melakukan Great Reset Menghancurkan Dunia? Bagaimana Melawannya?

Sejak awal peradaban manusia 5.000 tahun yang lalu, orang-orang biasa seperti Anda dan saya telah terlibat dalam perjuangan tanpa henti untuk melawan upaya para elit, baik lokal, nasional, internasional atau global, untuk menegaskan kendali penuh atas kita dan sumber daya di sekitar kita.

IN-DEPTH VIDEOS

Whistleblower Daniel Hale Interviewed by Lee Camp

3 Dec 2024 - Hale's first interview since release from prison.

SHORT VIDEO CLIPS

Fall of Syria Is also about Greater Israel

8 Dec 2024 - Speaking from Beirut, the former British diplomat explains the fall of Damascus within the context of the project for Greater Israel.

World Leaders Sign WEF Treaty Introducing ‘Age of Death’ Laws in West

10 Dec 2024 - The World Economic Forum has instructed world governments to dismantle age of consent laws and introduce something more sinister: “Age of Death” laws. This is not science fiction; it’s being planned behind closed doors.

Over the Hill (Music Video of the Week)

Duet with Kate McGarrigle (w/Lyrics)