Articles by ICH
We found 2433 results.
Titles
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Dec 2017
Someone who farms is a farmer.
→ read full article
Is This Genocide?
Nicholas Kristof - The New York Times,
18 Dec 2017
15 Dec 1017 — “Ethnic cleansing” and even “genocide” are antiseptic and abstract terms. What they mean in the flesh is a soldier grabbing a crying baby girl named Suhaifa by the leg and flinging her into a bonfire. Or troops locking a 15-year-old girl in a hut and setting it on fire. Survivors describe Myanmar soldiers killing men, raping women and burning babies in a Rohingya village.
→ read full article
Put Out the Fire Before It Is Too Late
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Dec 2017
There was a man called Nicolas who was happy in life except for one thing: he and a neighbor distrusted each other. One day, his chicken strayed into the neighbor’s garden.
→ read full article
Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Dec 2017
15 Dec 2017 – Critics, including myself, regard the initiative as a slap at the Palestinians and a confirmation of Trump’s disregard of international law and morality, and the authority of the UN. The status of Jerusalem is a focal point for the tension between the old geopolitics of hard power realism and the normative geopolitics of soft power new realism.
→ read full article
Amy Biehl
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Dec 2017
Amy Biehl was a young Princeton graduate who went to Capetown, South Africa, in 1992 as a volunteer to work with an NGO to help overcome apartheid.
→ read full article
A Religion Called Economy
Michele Migliorino | Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Dec 2017
4 Dec 2017 – You can see how the Economy Religion destroys everything: forest, seas, living species, ourselves and our infinite cultures existing over the whole planet. By now, realism would tell us that it is time to throw the Economy GOd into the wastebasket history and try to create a society which won’t imply such a despicable waste of energy and resources.
→ read full article
Seven Men and an Elephant
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Dec 2017
Seven men were in a dark room touching an elephant. One touched his leg and said, “An elephant is like a tree trunk.”
→ read full article
Fascism in America: A Preventable Danger
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Dec 2017
Over the past few months, the possibility of a fascist America has moved from the realm of academic speculation to that of common concern… If these are some of the causes of potential fascism, what can be done to eliminate or mitigate them before the fascist movement gets stronger? A key concept here is the existence of systemic problems and the need for systemic solutions. Dialogue is a key starting point for this sort of rethinking.
→ read full articleGood Deed
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Dec 2017
A reverend walking down the street noticed a little boy trying to reach the doorbell of a house.
→ read full article
How Peace Journalism Can Deescalate Conflict in the Age of Trump and North Korea
Michael Greenwell – The Conversation,
4 Dec 2017
29 Nov 2017 – Close analysis of events through the lens of Peace Journalism can help theorise when media coverage may have helped escalate or deescalate conflict. PJ aims to improve the conditions for peace through a considered editorial approach and practice. It is a means to peace. Johan Galtung first theorised the notion of Peace Journalism in contrast to the notion of “War Journalism”.
→ read full article
Taking Stock: One Year after Trump
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
20 Nov 2017 – This post addresses the need for dialogue with the political, economic, and cultural ‘other,’ that is, those multitudes acutely alienated from and angry with secular globalism and the Enlightenment legacy often equated with ‘modernity’ and ‘modernization.’ At the core is a search for closure on the nature of reality as well as feelings about equity (given many dimensions of inequality) and ethical innovation (revisionist approaches to gender, sexuality, marriage). Does reason or faith or tradition provide greater closure?
→ read full article
Parallel Universes: Vietnam and Palestine
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 – Not surprisingly, my sixth visit to Vietnam stirred many memories, among them, a recognition of the parallels between the Vietnamese and Palestinian experiences. Dreams don’t become the new reality without the dedication of a people brave and creative, and helped by the inspirational effects on friends and supporters. This blessing of empowering and charismatic resilience is the core identity of the Vietnamese and the Palestinian people, their point of most profound convergence.
→ read full articleAnalogy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
The following analogy characterizes the attitude of a typical Trump administration official in relation to the looming energy crisis.
→ read full article
Getting to the Roots of the Problem
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
A man had frequent nightmares. Someone was hiding under his bed what made him wake up sweating and trembling every night.
→ read full article
(Italiano) Papa Francesco: il disarmo integrale non è un’utopia
M.Michela Nicolais | Servizio Informazione Religiosa – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Nov 2017
10 novembre 2017 – Non utopia, ma sano realismo. Così Papa Francesco, ricevendo in udienza i partecipanti al Simposio vaticano, ha definito l’ambizioso obiettivo del disarmo integrale. Le armi nucleari producono “catastrofiche conseguenze umanitarie”, il grido d’allarme contro la “logica della paura”.
→ read full article
Failing the People of Syria during Seven Years of Devastation and Dispossession
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Nov 2017
13 Nov 2017 – What follows is a wide-ranging interview in November 2017 that that concentrates on the failure of the UN and the world to rescue the people of Syria by a timely and effective humanitarian intervention. The interview is to be published in the Turkish magazine Causcasus International.
→ read full article
U.S. Congress Approves Defense Bill to Pump $700 Billion into Military
Richard Lardner | Associated Press – PBS News Hour,
20 Nov 2017
14 Nov 2017 — House Republicans and Democrats joined forces today to decisively approve a defense policy bill that authorizes $700 billion to restock what lawmakers have described as a depleted U.S. military and counter North Korea’s advancing nuclear weapons program.
→ read full article
Paradise Papers Yet another Example of the Power of Collaboration in Investigative Journalism
Richard Sambrook – The Conversation,
20 Nov 2017
14 Nov 2017 – Established media organisations are collaborating across borders and with new media to break big stories such as global tax avoidance by the rich and powerful.
→ read full articleOldest Profession
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Nov 2017
A surgeon, an engineer and an economist were arguing which was the oldest profession.
→ read full articlePentagon Trained Syria’s Al Qaeda “Rebels” in the Use of Chemical Weapons
Prof Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
20 Nov 2017
18 Nov 2017 – The Western Media Refute Their Own Lies: Not only do they confirm that the Pentagon has been training the terrorists in the use of chemical weapons, they also acknowledge the existence of a not so secret “US-backed plan to launch a chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime”
→ read full article
The Dull Ax
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Nov 2017
A lumber jack worked long hours every day to exhaustion, wasting a lot of time and energy cutting trees with a dull ax.
→ read full articleOne of the World’s Poorest Countries Confronts Ethnic Cleansing on Its Doorstep
Omar Waraich – The Washington Post,
13 Nov 2017
6 Nov 2017 — Over the past two months, more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have crossed the border from Burma, also known as Myanmar, to seek shelter in Bangladesh. Not since the Rwandan genocide has a humanitarian crisis unfolded so fast and on such a scale. If one counts the hundreds of thousands who were already based here, driven out by earlier waves of violence in Rakhine state, there are now more than a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
→ read full articleQuickies
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Nov 2017
George Bush came late to a cabinet meeting. He explained that he wanted to finish a puzzle.
→ read full articleThree for the Week Ahead
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Nov 2017
A young woman suffered from cancer. Her doctor asked her what she enjoyed most in life.
→ read full articleThe Spiritual Sources of Legal Creativity: The Legacy of Father Miguel d’Escoto
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
31 Oct 2017 – Father Miguel d’Escoto was both the Foreign Minister of Sandinista Nicaragua and President of the UN General Assembly, as well as pastor to the poor in the spirit of Pope Francis, an extraordinary person who fused a practical engagement in the world with a deeply spiritual nature that affected all who were privileged to know and work with him.
→ read full articleBalfour: Then and Now
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
2 Nov 2017 – Today, November 2, is exactly 100 years after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the pledge given to the World Zionist Movement in a letter signed by the British Foreign Secretary to support the establishment of a ‘national home’ in the then Ottoman millet of Palestine. Certainly ‘a day of infamy’ for the Palestinian people and their friends around the world, while unfortunately treated as ‘a day of pride’ by the British Government, and all in the West those morally bankrupt enough to regret the passing of the colonial era, and to pretend without embarrassment that the Balfour legacy is something to celebrate, rather than to mourn, in the year 2017.
→ read full articleJokes to Be Taken Seriously
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
The philosophers of ancient Greece concluded that by far the wisest among them was Socrates. They went to him and asked how he had become so wise.
→ read full articleA Tax on the Arms Trade to Fund Peacebuilding?
Michael Brzoska | Vision of Humanity – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
An old idea has recently come up again in the search for new funds for peacebuilding.
→ read full articleHow a Seemingly Bad Luck Can Turn Out to Be a Good Luck
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Oct 2017
How a Loss Can Turn into a Gain – What looked like a total disaster at first turned out to be a lucky coincidence.
→ read full articleHumanity’s Principal Challenge
Howard Richards and Ela Gandhi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Oct 2017
20 Oct 2017 – This paper was written for a seminar in Santiago, Chile, with TRANSCEND member Ela Gandhi, a granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi who continues his work. Each participant was asked to write three pages on the topic, “What is the principal challenge facing humanity today?”
→ read full article‘Drug Dealers in Lab Coats’
Nicholas Kristof – The New York Times,
23 Oct 2017
18 Oct 2017 – For decades, America has waged an ineffective war on drug pushers and drug lords, regarding them as among the most contemptible specimens of humanity. One reason our efforts have failed is we ignored the biggest drug pushers of all: American pharmaceutical companies, which helped get America hooked on opioids.
→ read full articleLucky Coincidence
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Oct 2017
Kenneth Boulding once said, “History is like a pinball machine. A slight change in initial conditions can bring vastly different outcomes.” Johan Galtung gave an illustration of this that he had heard from André Fontaine, the editor of Le Monde, on a flight from Seoul–where they had attended a conference together–to Paris.
→ read full articleMysterious Sounds and Scary Illnesses as Political Tools
Lisa Diedrich And Benjamin Tausig – The New York Times,
16 Oct 2017
10 Oct 2017 – The narrative around the “sonic attack” on the American embassy in Cuba fits a troubling pattern for Trump as the latest example of the way he has attempted to harness vague, unspecified threats to inspire fear and advance his political agenda. He has long signaled his desire to reverse President Obama’s normalization of relations with Cuba.
→ read full articlePicking Berries
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2017
This is a metaphor for work on peaceful conflict transformation. If you look at a conflict from only one point of view, you see a very limited set of problems and possible solutions.
→ read full articleWhich Direction?
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2017
After a summit meeting, Reagan, Brezhnev and Deng Xiaoping were being driven to the airport in a limousine. The driver arrived at an intersection and asked which way to go.
→ read full articleThe Flawed and Corrupted Genius of American Republicanism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2017
15 Oct 2017 – The odiousness of Trump’s presidency gives the people of America what might be their last chance to achieve political redemption for themselves and for others now and in the future who will drawn into the circle of extreme victimization unless this dynamic of renewal suddenly takes hold.
→ read full articleThe One and Only Path to Palestine/Israel Sustainable Peace
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2017
12 Oct 2017 – We should accept our human responsibility to aid and abet the Palestinian struggle for rights, self-determination, and a just peace. The attainment of such goals would also inevitably reshape the destiny of Israeli Jews toward a more humanistic and benevolent future.
→ read full articleKeeping Peace in Transilvania
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
The media tend to report about cases where mediation fails and fighting breaks out, but they almost never report about cases where fighting has been avoided, and how this was achieved. They have turned the old adage “no news is good news” into “good news is no news.” Better coverage of success stories could encourage others to help prevent war.
→ read full articleDisarmament
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
When someone argued, “We have had nuclear weapons for 50 years and nothing has happened,” Helen Caldicott replied,
→ read full articleNobel Peace Prize 2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
8 Oct 2017 – What the BAN Treaty achieves, and the Nobel Prize recognizes, is that the cleavage is now clear between international law and geopolitics with respect to nuclear weapons. The BAN Treaty provides likeminded governments and animated citizen pilgrim throughout the world with a roadmap for closing the gap from the side of law and morality.
→ read full articleVisiting Nuremberg, Reflecting on the Ambiguous Legacies of Nuremberg
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
2 Oct 2017 – I spent two days at Nuremberg to attend the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award ceremony on September 22, 2017. The reason we were in Nuremberg was that my wife had been a member of an international jury that selects an awardee every second year.
→ read full articleMy Ethnographic Moment: In Rome
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Oct 2017
What struck me, in contrast to the U.S, Germany, even France, where I have recently been is that Italy, and specifically Rome, is a deep culture that works for its working and middle classes, or put less structurally, for ‘ordinary people.’ Of course, this is an impression, but for me a rather convincing one, and harmonious with a morning cappuccino and croissant.
→ read full articleEfficiency
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Oct 2017
During the French Revolution, a doctor, a lawyer and an engineer were sentenced to be beheaded on the guillotine.
→ read full articleApartheid and the Future of Israel/Palestine
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Sep 2017
The interview, associated with my current visit to Belgium and France to speak on the report “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid,” brings up to date the controversy generated by the UN Secretary General bowing to U.S. pressure and ordering its removal from ESCWA website. It was published in l’Humanité, Sept. 6, 2017.
→ read full articleWill Opioid Lawsuits by County Officials against Big Pharma Set Legal Precedent to Sue Vaccine Makers?
Catherine J. Frompovich - Activist Post,
25 Sep 2017
“They know what they’ve been doing. They’ve been misrepresenting the dangers of these dangerous addictive drugs for years.” – “Those pharmaceutical companies have made billions of dollars off the deaths of our children and our loved ones.”
→ read full articleCommon Ground
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Sep 2017
Unity based conflict resolution does not focus on the points of disagreement, but seeks points of unity, common interest, and gradually expands from there, to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution to problems.
→ read full articleTrump Misreads North Korea’s Sacred Dynasty at His Peril
Michael Brabazon – The Guardian,
25 Sep 2017
23 Sep 2017 – References to the regime as a cold war relic, or as communist, Stalinist, or a cult of personality, make easy and colourful soundbites. But do they really help in understanding the motivations of what appears to be a dangerous, anachronistic society? The short answer is no. In the escalating war of insults, Trump is a ‘gangster fond of playing with fire’, Kim Jong-un a ‘madman’ who will be tested as never before.
→ read full articleThe Great Nutrient Collapse
Helena Bottemiller Evich - POLITICO,
25 Sep 2017
The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention.
→ read full articleFairness
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Sep 2017
Taking his seat in his chambers, the judge faced the opposing lawyers.
→ read full articleGovernment by Goldman: Gary Cohn Is Giving Goldman Sachs Everything It Ever Wanted from the Trump Administration
Gary Rivlin and Michael Hudson – The Intercept,
25 Sep 2017
Gary Cohn and Trump’s Wall Street Agenda – “Yet now Cohn’s in charge of the economy and talking about eliminating financial reform and basically putting the country back to where it was in 2005, as if 2008 didn’t happen. I’ve started the countdown clock to the next financial crash, which will make the last one look mild.”
→ read full articleRemembering Ebrahim Yazdi
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Sep 2017
For all those dedicated to the attainment of real democracy, the name and life of Ebrahim Yazdi is a precious legacy worth reflecting upon because it has so much to teach us today. Among those who struggled for an Iranian future that was Islamic, genuinely democratic, and humanly decent no one was more steadfast and clear about their commitment than Dr. Yazdi.
→ read full articleTrue Skill
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Sep 2017
The yogi Raman was a true master of the art of archery. One morning, he invited his favorite disciple to watch a display of his skill. The disciple had seen this more than a hundred times before, but he nevertheless obeyed his teacher.
→ read full articleWeather Forecasters
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Sep 2017
A tribe of American Indians on a reservation heard on their radio that there would be a cold winter. So they stacked up plenty of firewood.
→ read full articleCourtroom
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Sep 2017
A man caught in embezzlement asked his lawyer, “Would it help my case if I sent the judge a box of cigars?”
→ read full articleDouble
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Sep 2017
The people of Minas Gerais in Brazil are said to love cheese. A man there met a fairy and she promised to grant him three wishes.
→ read full articleCamp David
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Sep 2017
The key to successful negotiations is to find creative solutions that give all parties what is most important to them.
→ read full articleEvolving International Law, Political Realism, and the Illusions of Diplomacy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Aug 2017
21 Aug 2017 – International law is mainly supportive of Palestinian grievances with respect to Israel, as well as offering both Israelis and Palestinians a reliable marker as to how these two peoples could live normally together in the future if the appropriate political will existed on both sides to reach a sustainable peace.
→ read full articleThe Place Where We Are Right
Yehuda Amichai – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Aug 2017
“From the place where we are right
flowers will never grow
in the Spring.
Charlottesville through a Glass Darkly
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2017
Anti-Semitism, and its links to Nazism and Fascism, and now to Trumpism, are genuinely menacing, and should encourage rational minds to reconsider any willingness to being manipulated for polemic purposes by ultra Zionists. We can also only wonder about the moral, legal, and political compass of ardent Zionists who so irresponsibly label Israel’s critics and activist opponents as anti-Semites, and thus confuse and bewilder the public as to the true nature of anti-Semitism as racial hatred directed at Jews.
→ read full articleMigrating Birds Use a Magnetic Map to Travel Long Distances
Richard Holland – The Conversation,
21 Aug 2017
17 Aug 2017 – Birds have an impressive ability to navigate. They can fly long distances, to places that they may never have visited before, sometimes returning home after months away. Though there has been a lot of research in this area, scientists are still trying to understand exactly how they manage to find their intended destinations.
→ read full articleOpportunity Creation
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2017
A friend of mine and his wife were getting divorced. They quarreled about who should get the house. Both hired expensive lawyers and were close to spending more than the value of the house.
→ read full articleDrunks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2017
Recently, a routine police patrol was parked outside a local neighborhood bar in Minnesota. Late in the evening, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk.
→ read full articleEnd of Nuclearism or the End of the World: Utopian Dreams, Dystopian Nightmares
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Aug 2017
9 Aug 2017 – We are living amid contradictions whether we like it or not, driving expectations about the future toward opposite extremes. Increasingly plausible are fears that the ‘sixth extinction’ will encompass the human species, or at least, throw human society back to a technology of sticks and stones, with a habitat limited to caves and forests.
→ read full articleGoogle: Search Engine or Deep State Organ?
Michael Krieger | Liberty BlitzKrieg – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Aug 2017
9 Aug 2017 – Today’s post should be read as Part 3 of my ongoing series about the now infamous Google memo, and what it tells us about where our society is headed if a minority of extremely wealthy and powerful technocratic billionaires are permitted to fully socially engineer our culture to fit their ideological vision using coercion, force and manipulation.
→ read full articleA Key to Heaven and Hell
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Aug 2017
The physicist Richard Feinman once met a Buddhist monk.
→ read full articleIQ
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Aug 2017
A team of psychologists has developed a new measure of intelligence, a metric measure. The basic unit is the tary.
→ read full articleDogs
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Aug 2017
A man goes into a bar with his dog and tells the bartender,
“I have taught my dog how to talk.”
Living in Dystopian Times
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Aug 2017
3 Aug 2017 – Twenty-five years ago there were three widely held beliefs about future trends on a global level: the assured preeminence of the United States; the continuing globalization of the world economy; and the expanding democratization of national governance arrangements. It was also assumed that these trends were more or less descriptive of regional realities, including the Middle East. Each of these trends that seemed so descriptive 25 years ago now seems to be completely out of touch with what is happening around us.
→ read full articleFacial Recognition ID Moves from Planes and Trains to Conferences and Events
Nicholas West – Activist Post,
7 Aug 2017
4 Aug 2017 – The use of biometric identification is becoming a real-time case study in how the public is incrementally conditioned to accept the total erosion of privacy for supposed convenience and security.
→ read full articleGeopolitical Dirty Dreams: Israel’s ‘Victory Caucus’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2017
29 Jul 2017 – The main Trump assignment within the United States will likely be to lend full support to the Congressional and state-by-state pushback against the BDS campaign, slandering this nonviolent civil society movement of militant solidarity and human rights by castigating it as ‘the anti-Semitism of our time.’
→ read full article(Français) Faut-il détester la Russie ou faut-il réfléchir ?
Michel Collon | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2017
Comprendre comment nous en sommes arrivés là, comprendre les «règles du jeu» entre grandes puissances est essentiel pour que chaque citoyen puisse répondre à la question «Guerre ou Paix» aujourd’hui !
→ read full articleThese Five Countries Are Conduits for the World’s Biggest Tax Havens
Javier Garcia-Bernardo, Eelke Heemskerk, Frank Takes and Jan Fichtner – The Conversation,
31 Jul 2017
Tax sheltering is not just the domain of exotic Caribbean isles. Major world powers, including the United Kingdom, play a critical and previously undisclosed role in global tax avoidance. A new study has now uncovered all the world’s corporate tax havens and, for the first time, revealed the intermediary countries that companies use to funnel their money into these places.
→ read full article
Earth Song (Music Video of the Week)
Michael Jackson – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2017
A pungent, powerful, moving video performed by Michael Jackson showing side by side beauty and destruction, life and death. Much sadness, pain and suffering caused by humankind. What about the earth? What about the children? He asks. Are we really destined to kill the planet and every life in it? What about us?
→ read full articleExpertise
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2017
A foreign tourist’s car got stuck in a small village.
→ read full articleHeart Attacks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
A married couple enjoyed their new fishing boat together, but it was always the husband who was behind the wheel operating the boat. However, he was concerned about what might happen in an emergency.
→ read full articleOpen Letter of California Scholar for Academic Freedom (Palestine/Israel)
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
22 Jul 2017 – Open Letter prepared under the direction of Vida Samiian of State University of California at Fresno on behalf of California scholars defending against any effort to abridge academic freedom anywhere in the world. Here the focus is on the role of the right-wing media in creating a climate of opinion that supports frantic Zionist efforts to intimidate and punish vocal critics of Israel, creating a crisis of confidence with regard to the exercise of academic freedom.
→ read full articlePrevented from Speaking
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
Dr. Hossain B. Danesh was invited to give a series of training sessions on peace education to a group of 100 teachers in Banja Luca in 2000. Banja Luca was the capital of the Republica Srpska during the Bosnian war.
→ read full articleChallenging Nuclearism: The Nuclear Ban Treaty Assessed
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jul 2017
As of now the NBT is a treaty text that courteously mandates the end of nuclearism, but to convert this text into an effective regime of control will require the kind of deep commitments, sacrifices, movements, and struggles that eventually achieved the impossible, ending such entrenched evils as slavery, apartheid, and colonialism.
→ read full articleHolding Officials Accountable
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jul 2017
I met Bona Malwal Madut Ring from Bahr El Ghazal in South Sudan when we were both students and lived at International House in New York. One day in 1969, he received a long phone call from London, and went there a few days later.
→ read full articleBiological Annihilation via the Ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction Signaled by Vertebrate Population Losses and Declines
Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich and Rodolfo Dirzo | National Academy of Sciences – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jul 2017
Using a sample of 27,600 terrestrial vertebrate species, and a more detailed analysis of 177 mammal species, we show the extremely high degree of population decay in vertebrates, even in common “species of low concern.” Dwindling population sizes and range shrinkages amount to a massive anthropogenic erosion of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services essential to civilization. This “biological annihilation” underlines the seriousness for humanity of Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction event.
→ read full articleSafe Trip
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jul 2017
A man went to an airline counter to buy a plane ticket.
“How likely is it that there will be a bomb on the plane,” he asked with concern.
Betwixt and Between: The Shadowy Politics of Political (In)Correctness
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jul 2017
3 Jul 2017 – Assessing the exploits of Trump, and Cosby, at least raise these difficult issues of individual and collective responsibility that need to be resolved before the country can hope to recover its moral compass, and learn to respect the dignity of all of its citizens in spite of their diversities of experience and background.
→ read full articleImprove Yourself
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jul 2017
In ancient times, a king walked barefoot, as it was customary at the time, to visit a neighboring town.
→ read full articleUN Under Siege: Geopolitics in the Time of Trump
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jul 2017
1 Jul 2017 – Why the Peoples of the World Need the UN: Multilateralism, International Law, Human Rights, and Ecological Sustainability – This post is a modified and enlarged version of a talk I gave in Geneva a week ago. The audience was a blend of students of all ages from around the world, with almost none from Europe and North America, and several NGO representatives with lots of UN experience.
→ read full articleSaving a Marriage
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jul 2017
A true mediation history from Johan Galtung. An Italian husband was fitting bathrooms with tiles for a living, while his wife, who was eight years younger, stayed home and took care of the household.
→ read full articleJewish Ethnicity, Palestinian Solidarity, Human Identity
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jun 2017
23 Jun 2017 – The following interview with Abdo Emara, an Arab journalist, was published in Arabic. There are no substantive changes from my earlier responses. I think it worthwhile to share this text because the questions asked by Abdo Emara are often directed at me in the discussion period after talks I have given recently.
→ read full article
Soldier Boy
Keely Hutton and Anywar Ricky Richard – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jun 2017
Greetings from Friends of Orphans in Uganda. I am delighted SOLDIER BOY has been released on June 13, 2017. I am happy that I have lived to tell the world my story, and what is happening to war victims especially the children who did not get the opportunities to tell their stories. It is my honor to represent the voice of the voiceless and I hope that many people will get to know and learn about the plight of children being used in armed forces around the world.
→ read full articleHow Greece Became a Guinea Pig for a Cashless and Controlled Society
Michael Nevradakis – MintPress News,
26 Jun 2017
As Greece moves closer to becoming a cashless society, it is clear that the country’s attitude towards cash is reckless and dangerous. The supposed convenience of switching to a cash-free system comes with a great deal of risk, including needless overreach by the state.
→ read full articleWhy International Justice Still Faces Roadblocks
Richard Dicker – The Washington Post,
26 Jun 2017
22 Jun 2017 – The prospects for justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes are more daunting today than at any time in the past two decades. The Rome Statute’s upcoming 20th anniversary – July 17, 2018 — may provide just such a rallying point. The ICC’s founding document, while imperfect, represents a major historical achievement when impunity, and not accountability, has for too long been the norm.
→ read full articleOvercoming Nuclear Crises: North Korea and Beyond
Richard Falk and David Krieger | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2017
This jointly authored essay was initially published in The Hill on May 30, 2017 under the title, Averting the Ticking Time Bomb of Nukes in North Korea. We did not choose such a title that is doubly misleading: our contention is not that North Korea is the core of the problem, but rather the retention of nuclear weapons by all of the states pose both crises in the context of counter-proliferation geopolitics and with respect to the possession, deployment, and development of the weaponry itself; a second objection is with the title given the piece by editors at The Hill. While acknowledging the practice of media outlets to decide on titles without seeking prior approval from authors, this title is particularly objectionable to me. The term ‘nukes’ gives an almost friendly shorthand to these most horrific of weapons, and strikes a tone that trivializes what should be regarded at all times with solemnity.
→ read full articleSelf-Determination and Peace
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2017
Self-determination is no guarantee that people will always make the optimal decision. But if they make a mistake, it is their own mistake, and they have nobody else to blame. They will learn from their mistake and make a better choice next time. However, if a central government forces them to do something against their will, and they suffer as a consequence, they will naturally turn their anger against that government. Self-determination helps avoid such conflicts.
→ read full articleRemembering a Priest, a Diplomat, and a Voice for Palestine: Miguel D’Escoto
Richard Falk and Phyllis Bennis – The Nation,
19 Jun 2017
14 Jun 2017 – Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, who died a few days ago, was a Catholic priest and former president of the UN General Assembly. The Nicaraguan diplomat was also a leading voice of conscience on Middle East peace — as well as a cherished friend, loved and admired by both of us, who became an inspirational figure to many around the world.
→ read full articleA General Solution to Economic Problems
Prof. Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
I refer to the unsolved ones, not to those that are pretty satisfactorily solved already. I focus on our two acronyms SF1 and SF2, where SF can be read as Staggering Fact or as Structural Fact.
→ read full articleInterrogating the Qatar Rift
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
7 Jun 2017 – The abrupt announcement that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Yemen, the Maldive Islands, and the eastern government in divided Libya have broken all economic and political ties with Qatar has given rise to a tsunami of conjecture, wild speculation, and most of all, to wishful thinking and doomsday worries… We can gain some glimmers of understanding of what is motivating these Arab governments to act against Qatar, but little sympathy.
→ read full article(Français) Michel Collon : « François Houtart était mon Prix Nobel de la Paix à moi »
Michel Collon | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
Hier encore, Alex Anfruns, mon jeune collègue d’Investig’Action, échangeait avec François Houtart à propos de la traduction de son dernier article publié sur notre site. Et puis tombe la triste nouvelle ! Nous savions qu’il avait 92 ans, mais il semblait indestructible. Le choc est rude. Adiós compañero !
→ read full articleGreece Forced to Sell Public Water Utilities under EU-Imposed Privatization Plan
Michael Nevradakis – MintPress News,
6 Jun 2017
Greece’s economic woes continue to pile up, with key public utilities such as water now on the chopping block of privatization. But activists like Maria Kanellopoulou are working to spread awareness of this issue and prevent Greek water from being put into private hands.
→ read full articleAverting the Ticking Time Bomb of Nukes in North Korea
Richard Falk and David Krieger | The Hill – TRANSCEND Media Service~,
5 Jun 2017
30 May 2017 – Alarmingly, tensions between the United States and North Korea have again reached crisis proportions. Until this structure of nuclearism is itself overcome, crises will almost certainly continue to occur. It is foolhardy to suppose that nuclear catastrophes can be indefinitely averted without addressing these deeper challenges that have existed ever since the original atomic attack on Hiroshima.
→ read full articleOn Zbigniew Brzezinski: Geopolitical Mastermind, Realist Practitioner
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2017
When it comes to Brzezinski’s legacy, I believe it to be mixed. He was a brilliant practitioner, always able to present his views lucidly, forcefully, and with a catchy quality of coherence. In my view, his Cold War outlook was driven toward unacceptable extremes by his anti-Soviet preoccupations. After the Cold War he seemed more prudent and sensible, especially in the last twenty years, when his perceptions of world order were far more illuminating than those of Kissinger, his geopolitical other.
→ read full articleSatyagraha
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2017
A British platoon blocked a road against a Satyagraha force, one of Gandhi’s nonviolent but implacable acts of mass civil disobedience.
→ read full articleAlternate Worldviews: Davutoğlu, Kissinger, Xi Jinping
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 May 2017
This post is a much modified version of a shorter opinion piece published by the global-e online publication on May 18, 2017. It is a response to and commentary upon an essay of Ahmet Davutoğlu, former foreign minister and prime minister of Turkey.
→ read full article