Articles by TRANSCEND Media Service

We found 26487 results.


Corporate Media: The Real Fake News Specialists
John Andrews | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

5 Dec 2016 – A lot has recently been said about “fake” news. Social media and alternative news websites have been especially blamed. But what about our corporate news providers? Consider, for example, a front page story in last week’s Times.

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EU Desperate to Raises Taxes Starts Cashless Society Project
Graham Vanbergen | True Publica – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

A few months back The Guardian ran an article stating that “Swedes are blazing a trail in Europe, with banks, buses, street vendors and even churches expecting plastic or virtual payment” as if the cashless society was something to be celebrated by modern society.

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The Russians Are Hacking My Poems!!!
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

Dah! It’s true!
Every time I come upon
some clever turn-of-phrase,
they’re in my brain,
they’re at my screen—
hacking, hacking, hacking!

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Fake News about “Fake News”: The Media Performance Pyramid
Media Lens | Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

5 Dec 2016 – In the wake of Brexit and Trump, “mainstream” media have done the formerly unthinkable by focusing on media bias. The intensity of focus has been such that the Oxford Dictionaries have announced that ‘post-truth’ is their ‘Word of the Year 2016’.

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(Português) Ser Tímido
David Arioch | Jornalismo Cultural – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

As pessoas subestimam a timidez quando a relacionam apenas aos aspectos negativos da vida em sociedade. Pessoas tímidas naturalmente ouvem mais e observam mais. Também refletem muito.

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Myanmar Must Strengthen Effort to Diffuse Tension in Northern Rakhine State – UN Special Adviser
UN News Centre – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

The UN said that authorities need to take proactive measures to protect the local civilian population and allow humanitarian access to the areas of conflict. This call follows last month’s visit by nine local ambassadors, the UN Resident and various UN agencies who voiced their concerns after a trip to the Rakhine state.

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Five Years after the Arab Spring: A Critical Evaluation
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

A new political geography has emerged in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) after the Arab Spring. The transformative impact of the popular upheavals appeared to put an end to long-term authoritarian regimes. Today, the region is far from stable since authoritarian resilience violently pushed back popular demands for good governance and is pushing to restore former state structures.

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Life on Earth Is Dying
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

The human onslaught to destroy life is unprecedented in Earth’s history. Planet Earth is now experiencing its sixth mass extinction event and Homo sapiens sapiens is the cause… One of the hidden tragedies of modern human existence is that we have been terrorized into believing that we are not personally responsible. And every time you decide to do nothing and to leave it to someone else, you demonstrate why no-one else should do anything either.

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The Romanza – Spanish Romance (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Miloš Karadaglić – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

The stunning Miloš Karadaglić during a trip to Australia.

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Aleppo Update: An Inspiring Return to the Oft-Bombed National Museum
Franklin Lamb – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Dec 2016

7 Dec 2016 – Of Syria’s 28 museums, the one that holds the record to date for being the most targeted by rebel bombs, mortars, and snipers is probably the Aleppo National Museum, which was opened in 1931, expanded in 1966 and is located just outside of the boundaries of the Ancient City of Aleppo, a World Heritage property.

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Is Peace Possible? A Dialogue with Johan Galtung on Ukraine, Trump, Putin, Gandhi, and…
Dr. Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

I was particularly interested in a statement made by a member of the Trump team about the 200-year relationship between Russia and the United States: the point was made that Russia supported what became the United States, against the French and the English empires. And that was Tsar Alexander I! So, from the beginning of the American War of Independence in Concord, up to the end of it in 1812….

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
United Nations General Assembly – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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(Norsk-Norwegian) Sørkoreansk avhopper: – Vi lurte Nobel­komiteen
Vilde Helljesen | NRK – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

4. desember 2016 – I flere år skal det ha pågått en storstilt og velregissert kampanje med ett mål for øye: Å skaffe Nobels fredspris til Sør-Koreas president Kim Dae-jung. Norske samfunnstopper ble brukt som brikker i et spill i jakten på verdens mest prestisjefulle pris, ifølge ny bok basert på sørkoreanske etterretningsdokumenter.

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(Castellano) Buscando el camino verdadero
Robert Burrowes, Ph.D. | Pressenza – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Una de las manifestaciones más sutiles del vínculo íntimo entre las emociones y conductas humanas (inconscientes) se ilustra por el simple concepto de elección y cómo esto se reduce a menudo a una dicotomía entre dos malas opciones. En tales circunstancias, la mayoría de la gente elige lo que consideran ser “el mal menor”.

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The Political Legacy of Fidel Castro
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Castro’s legacy cannot be evaluated solely through the prism of Cuba, but must take into account the impact of his politics internationally and, above all, in Latin America.

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The Misinformation Machine
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Donald Trump’s staff are drawn from an opaque network of corporate-funded thinktanks and fake grassroots campaigns. You cannot confront a power until you know what it is. Our first task in this struggle is to understand what we face. Only then can we work out what to do.

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Circle of Poison
Al Jazeera News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

A look at the powerful pesticide industry, its effect on the developing world and how small farmers are fighting back.

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The Alzheimer’s Laboratory
CBS News | 60 Minutes – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

27 Nov 2016 – Colombia is home to the largest concentration of people in the world who carry a rare gene that makes them 100 percent certain to develop Alzheimer’s disease. It strikes when people are in their mid-40s and leads to demise a few decades later–generations on end.

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Engaging an Opposing Ideology via Martial Arts Philosophy
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

5 Dec 2016 – Reframing the Challenge of Trump and Jihadism as Worthy Opponents – Much is now made of the increasing challenge of right-wing populism, especially as it is articulated by unconventional leaders held to have dubious associations with dangerous political strategies.

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Nonviolence for Brazilians: Suggested Direct Actions
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

As I see and read about the ongoing massive protests, as well as calls by prominent community leaders to mobilize in defense of your country’s democracy, I feel great hope for Brazil. Having been a nonviolent activist for many years, I would like to support Brazilian activists to develop a nonviolent strategy that will increase your chances of success.

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The Arabs Did It
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

When my parents married in Germany, just before World War I, among the gifts was a document attesting that a tree had been planted in their name in Palestine. Popular Jewish humor in Germany at that time had it that “a Zionist is a Jew who wants to take money from another Jew in order to settle a third Jew in Palestine.” My father certainly was not planning to go to Palestine himself.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Dec 5-11 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Being miserable is a habit; being happy is a habit; and the choice is yours.” – Tom Hopkins

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A World of Difference
Emanuel E. Garcia, MD | Intrepid Report – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

It is only in differences, however, that we sense and reach beyond ourselves. In fact, it is the ability to tolerate differences that allows for pacific cohabitation; and it is the ability to celebrate differences that leads to an appreciation of the wonderful joy of the world around us.

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Pentagon: Looking for a Few Good Hackers
The New York Times | Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

The last thing the Pentagon would seem to need is more hackers. But Defense Department officials are inviting them in.

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Survival of the Fittest
Pawel Kuczynski – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Evolution… ?

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The Treaty of Tlatelolco: Giving Thanks to Our Latin American Neighbors toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
Robert F. Dodge, M.D. | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Latin American nations drafted the treaty on Feb 14, 1967 in Mexico City and it went into force on Apr 22, 1968. Today all 33 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean have signed the treaty as part of the 80 million square kilometers of the entire southern hemisphere that is free of nuclear weapons.

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Haiti 1791: the Cradle of African Nationalism and Internationalism
T.P. Wilkinson | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Recovering the Virtue of Jacobins – Dr. Wilkinson delivered this paper about Haiti to a colloquium commemorating 40 years of study of African literature at the University of Porto, Portugal.

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Turkish Realignment: Prospects amid Uncertainty
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

3 Dec 2016 – In recent months the Turkish President, Recep Teyipp Erdoğan, and his principal advisors have not made it a secret that they are reconsidering Turkey’s relations with neighbors, with the countries of the region, and with leading geopolitical actors.

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‘Palestinian Gandhi’ Issa Amro Charged with ‘Hurting a Soldier’s Dignity’
Jews for Justice for Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

24 Nov 2016 – Issa Hamro has done exactly what the political doctor ordered: opposed the Israeli occupation with an absolute commitment to non-violence. No trumped up charges of terrorism can be brought against him. That doesn’t inhibit Israeli authorities from frequently arresting “the Palestinian Gandhi”. His latest trial has just opened.

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The New York Times’ Biased Obituary of Fidel Castro
Matt Peppe | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

After Fidel Castro passed away Friday [25 Nov] night at 90 years old, the obituaries written about him in the American press typified the U.S. government propaganda used for decades to demonize Castro and obscure the tremendous social and humanitarian advances that the Cuban Revolution was able to achieve in the face of unrelenting interference, subversion and destabilization.

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Harmony with Nature: Toward an Earth Jurisprudence
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

30 Nov 2016 – This post consists of my responses to four questions asked of 189 ‘experts’ around the world by a project of the UN Harmony with Nature Network. My own approach is based on the biopolitical imperative in this historical period of developing an ecological consciousness for the sake of human wellbeing, and possibly species survival.

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Keynes’ Limitations and Trump’s Disasters
Prof. Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

My recommended way forward will be to deepen Keynes’ macroeconomic analysis to make it an historical analysis of social structure leading to a communitarian reformulation of social and economic democracy. This theoretical move supports a flexible approach to practice called “unbounded organization.”

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Kissinger and Brzezinski to Be Honoured by Nobel Institute and Oslo University
Jan Oberg | Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

These two top officials behind major US wars (Iran/Afghanistan and Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos) and regime change (against Allende, Chile) will speak at the first of a new event, The Nobel Peace Prize Forum Oslo, created by the Nobel Institute in Oslo. One way to go: Boycott the event and let Kissinger, Brzezinski, Njölstad and Ottersen be the only ones who turn up in that huge hall on December 11th. Or, go there – students, media and civil society – and raise all the questions any independent, decent academic must.

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(Français) Barack Obama, le prix Nobel de l’hypocrisie
Ahmed Bensaada | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Il s’agissait bien sûr du prix Nobel de la paix attribué au président Barack Obama en 2009 « pour ses efforts extraordinaires pour renforcer la diplomatie et la coopération internationale entre les peuples ». Tout ça neuf mois à peine après son élection ? Comment était-ce possible ?

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Vultures over Havana
James McEnteer | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Fidel Castro and the Castration of U.S. Latin American Policy – With a few dozen men, Fidel Castro crash-landed a leaky boat in the middle of nowhere and took to the hills to oppose the entrenched, oppressive U.S.-backed Batista government. The odds were never in their favor. But their quixotic action was the spark that ignited an incipient rage for justice, in Cuba and beyond.

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Women in Islam: The New Paradigm
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

The portrayal of Muslim women that we glimpse in the media is grim and somber. The public perception of them is one of stubborn stereotypes: supposedly powerless and oppressed, behind walls and veils, demure, voiceless and silent figures, discriminated and bereft of even basic rights. This picture keeps reinforcing itself, largely because this is how the Western media caricatures women in Islam.

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An Initial Set of Sites That Reliably Echo Russian Propaganda
Is It Propaganda Or Not? – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

[Note from TMS editor: Reposting this does not mean endorsement of its content but a record of history–even historical trivia–for our public archives.]

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Traitors
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

When relations between the Soviet Union and China soured in the early 1960s, Khrushchev met Zhou En Lai and told him,

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Open Letter to Trump – Blueprint for Greatness
Diane Perlman, PhD - TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

I am post-partisan and outside the boxes. Your outside-the-box tendencies and pragmatic business skills can enable you to transcend incompatible contrived categories which impede deep understanding, enlightened policies and capacity for progress. As a political psychologist interested in reversing cycles of violence and retaliation, I can envision this possibility.

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Genes and the Holy G: The Dark Cultural History of IQ and Why We Can’t Measure Intelligence
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

“If the history of medical genetics teaches us one lesson, it is to be wary of precisely such slips between biology and culture… Genes cannot tell us how to categorize or comprehend human diversity; environments can, cultures can, geographies can, histories can.” IQ testing perilous cultural legacy is what practicing physician, research scientist, and Pulitzer-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee explores.

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The ASEAN Ulama & NGOs Declaration on the Myanmar Genocide of Rohingya
Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organization - TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

29 Nov 2016 – We the delegates in the emergency meeting of Muslims scholars and NGO activists in the ASEAN region and beyond, on the 29th November 2016, after deliberating the issues and plight of the oppressed Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar conclude the following decisions:

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Aleppo: Short-Term Action Followed by Reaffirmation of Humanitarian Law
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

The Association of World Citizens stresses the need to create immediately internationally-guaranteed safe routes for the evacuation of civilians from the besieged areas of Aleppo. Such guaranteed safe routes can also serve as a model for civilians in other besieged cities.

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Statement: UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide on the Situation in Northern Rakhine State, Myanmar
Relief Web | United Nations – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Following attacks by armed assailants against border security posts in October 2016, the response of the military has reportedly been characterized by excessive use of force and other serious human rights violations against civilian population, particularly the Rohingya Muslim population, including allegations of extrajudicial executions, torture, rape and the destruction of religious property.

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Don’t Worry Be Happy (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Bobby McFerrin – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Released in Sep. 1988, the song’s title is taken from a famous quote by Meher Baba. Dancers: Bobby McFerrin, Robin Williams and Bill Irwin.

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Trump: Peacemaking Revolution of the US Aggressive Geopolitics
20 coauthors (*) – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Trump’s shocking victory has spawned a flurry of very different opinions. We, as the peacemakers, above all, interested in the peacemakers views about the US foreign policy during Trump’s presidency.

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Confronting Genocide in Myanmar: The Urgent Need to Prevent and Protect
Katherine Southwick | Asia & the Pacific Policy Society – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Interethnic divisions in a young democracy cannot be downplayed or wished away, and it’s time Myanmar’s government and the international community acknowledge strong evidence that genocide is being perpetrated against the Rohingya and act to end it.

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Edward Bernays, the Father of American Propaganda
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic (AKA “capitalist”) society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.” – Edward L. Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, from his seminal book Propaganda (1928). Bernays was the founder of the public relations industry in the US.

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(Italiano) Le lotte irrinunciabili di ieri e di oggi. Lidia Menapace ad Aosta
Sivia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

MenaPACE Lidia, alias Lidia Brisca, è una donna dinamica intellettualmente onesta e decisa. Un’intellettuale necessaria. 92 anni compiuti il 3 aprile scorso, Lidia ha percorso l’Italia per condividere la riflessione, e poi l’azione, sul referendum popolare confermativo.

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What’s Next? Parecon, or Participatory Economics
Michael Albert | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

People now fighting economic injustice have no right to decide how future people should live. But we do have a responsibility to provide an institutional setting that facilitates future people deciding for themselves what their own conditions of life and work should be. To this end, participatory economics, or parecon, describes the core institutions required to generate solidarity, equity, self-management, and an ecologically sound and classless economy.

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A Best Selling Author
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

Sylvia Nasar was a brilliant economics student at New York University and one of four assistants of Wassily Leontief, who had won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Economic Science for his invention of input-output analysis.

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What Can Go Wrong?
William Blum | The Anti-Empire Report #147 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

That he may not be “qualified” is unimportant. That he’s never held a government or elected position is unimportant. That on a personal level he may be a shmuck is unimportant. What counts is that he – as opposed to dear Hillary – is unlikely to start a war against Russia. His questioning of the absolute sacredness of NATO, calling it “obsolete”, and his meeting with Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, an outspoken critic of US regime-change policy, specifically Syria, are encouraging signs.

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Mosul and Imperialist “Human Rights”
James Cogan | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

2 Dec 2016 – Samantha Power’s rhetoric in the Security Council was even more grotesque given the character of the US-directed assault underway on the Iraqi city of Mosul. Bombing this week destroyed a major water pipeline cutting off water to some 650,000 people. Electricity is already largely cut. The city’s health system is dysfunctional. The university has been reduced to rubble. On Wednesday [30 Nov], coalition aircraft bombed and “disabled” four major bridges over the Tigris River that link the western and eastern sectors of Mosul.

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(Français) « Les médias font passer les coups d’Etat modernes comme étant une défense de la démocratie »
Alex Anfruns | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

04 Déc 2016 – Ancien rédacteur en chef du Monde Diplomatique, Maurice Lemoine est surtout un fin connaisseur de l’histoire contemporaine latino-américaine. “Les coups d’Etat actuels peuvent être nommés de différentes façons : « golpe blando », « institutionnel », « light » ou « juridico-parlementaire », comme cela s’est passé au Brésil… En effet, depuis la fin des années 1990 et l’arrivée au pouvoir de gouvernements progressistes (le premier étant Chávez en 1998, puis Lula, les Kirchner en Argentine, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales…), quasi tous ces chefs d’Etat progressistes ont été, à un moment ou à l’autre, confrontés à des tentatives de déstabilisation ou de coups d’Etat qui ont parfois échoué, parfois réussi.”

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Food Politics: The GMO Conspiracy
Mel Gurtov | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

One of the longest-standing tricks of corporations is to produce an item that is dangerous, breakable, or soon to be obsolete and then produce another that will supposedly remedy the defect. That is what is happening with GMO-laden crops: As they become resistant to Roundup and other toxins designed to keep them bug- or disease-free, the producers—such as Monsanto and Syngenta—come up with new herbicides for the farmer to apply.

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[Nobel Peace Laureate] Suu Kyi Defends Military Crackdown on Burma’s Rohingya Muslims
John Roberts | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2016

2 Dec 2016 – State Counsellor Suu Kyi, the head of government in Burma, has dismissed mounting allegations of killings by the country’s military of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh. Her office issued a statement declaring: “Regarding those incidents, after asking the Tatmadaw [the military] and border guard troops in those regions, it is known the information is absolutely not true.”

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Yemen Files
WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Today, Friday 25 Nov 2016, WikiLeaks releases the Yemen Files, a collection of more than 500 documents from the United States embassy in Sana’a, Yemen. Julian Assange said: “The war in Yemen has produced 3.15 million internally displaced persons. Although the United States government has provided most of the bombs and is deeply involved in the conduct of the war itself reportage on the war in English is conspicuously rare.”

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(Italiano) Discutiamo del futuro: un saggio sul tempo
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Per agire sulle visioni di pace negativa senza violenza diretta-strutturale-culturale e positiva con pace diretta-strutturale-culturale, si utilizzi il dialogo. Si stabiliscano gli obiettivi – valori, interessi – degli attori e dei coinvolti; si sottopongano gli obiettivi a verifica di legittimità mediante il diritto, i diritti umani e i bisogni basilari a mo’ di guida; si crei quindi una visione di una nuova realtà sociale che soddisfi gli obiettivi legittimi.

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(Castellano) Una Propuesta Muy Importante de José Luis Corragio
Prof. Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Aunque parezca una exageración, creo que señala una pista a seguir para salvar a la humanidad del caos social y para salvar la biosfera de la extinción. Es muy importante.

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FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot to Just Sit Back and Enjoy Collapse of United States
The Onion – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

WASHINGTON—Putting the nation on alert against what it has described as a “highly credible terrorist threat,” the FBI announced today that it has uncovered a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back and enjoy themselves while the United States collapses of its own accord.

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UK Passes Bill Providing Most Extreme Spying Powers in the Developed World
Darius Shahtahmasebi | Activist Post – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

24 Nov 2016 – The House of Lords just passed the Investigatory Powers Bill, which provides immense spying powers to the British government. The only amendment to the bill has been to ensure that MPs could not be spied on under the new legislation. “Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like arguing that you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

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The Call of the Mu’ezzin
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Lovers of the Bible may find some amusement in the words of Pharaoh (Exodus 1) about the Children of Israel: “When there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us.” By a curious turn, now we are Pharaoh, and the Arabs are the new Children of Israel. So what is the situation of Israel’s Arab citizens?

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Rohingya Tribunal Request to Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal
TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

24 November 2016 – We, the undersigned group of researchers, academics, and activists, in coalition with global Rohingya refugees, hereby request that the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal take up the urgent case of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority. We make this request in response to the well documented unfolding and escalating genocide in Rakhine state, Myanmar.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga –TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Nov 28-Dec 4 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “There’s always a way through things if you work hard enough and look close. It all depends on your level of determination.” – Liz Murray

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Relentless Persecution
The Statesman | Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

24 Nov 2016 – The irony is cruel. The persecution of the Rohingyas has intensified in Myanmar with the change of guard — from the junta to a democratic dispensation under [Nobel Peace Laureate] Aung San Suu Kyi. The democratic world had expected quite the contrary.

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(Português) A Proibição de Ensaios Nucleares
Emb. Sergio Duarte – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

O atual esforço de “modernização” do armamento atômico em vários Estados possuidores gera crescente preocupação de que novos tipos de armas nucleares estejam sendo desenvolvidos a fim de tornar seu uso justificável e aceitável em uma confrontação nuclear “limitada”. Embora o CTBT permita os chamados testes subcríticos em laboratório, autoridades políticas, militares e de defesa em alguns desses Estados continuam a argumentar que detonações reais se tornarão necessárias a fim de verificar o efeito prático do armamento no teatro de operações.

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Friedrich Engels (28 Nov 1820 – 5 Aug 1895)
The European Graduate School – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Friedrich Engels was a German author, political theorist and philosopher, most well known for his monumental work with Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.

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Dr. Maung Zarni on the Rohingya Muslim Genocide in Buddhist Burma/Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

26 Nov 2016 – A journalist asked me a few questions to get sound bites and quotes. I turned them into a more comprehensive interview. Thought this may serve as a succinct backgrounder if you are interested in the contextual view of the current annihilation phase of the Rohingya genocide.

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Protests in Asian Capitals over Violence against Rohingya
Channel News Asia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Angry protesters took to the streets in cities from Jakarta to Dhaka on Friday (Nov 25, 2016) to denounce Myanmar over allegations of indiscriminate killing and rape in a military crackdown on the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

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Jesus Walks
Udaya R. Tennakoon – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Christmas carols ring the bell
Fireworks above the heads illume
Lighten and brighten streets are sleepless
Along the roads and among the people, Jesus walks

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No Country for the Rohingyas
The Hindu | Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

25 Nov 2016 – A new humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Myanmar after the military crackdown on “Islamist jihadists” in the Rakhine State, home to more than one million Rohingya Muslims… The army denies targeting civilians, but satellite images taken after the start of the crackdown indicate that hundreds of buildings were burnt down; reports suggest that even those who tried to flee the country were shot dead. The migrants are not welcome in Myanmar’s neighbourhood either.

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Caring about Hunger
TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

In this world of abundant resources and huge wealth, hunger cannot be understood simply as a problem of food production. It is also a matter of human relations. Hunger grows out of widespread indifference and exploitation.

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Gifts
Emanuel E. Garcia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Beggars we were by the looks of it,
Our hosts were gracious making way,
We might have been gods or sly kings

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Strangers as Friends — Keeping Loneliness at Bay
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

In today’s world what do we observe? Friendship is rare and occasionally we cannot even depend on the so called friends who may be putting on a facade of being your friend.

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On Nonconformity: Artist Ben Shahn’s Spirited Defense of Nonconformists as Society’s Engine of Growth and Greatness
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

“Without the nonconformist, any society of whatever degree of perfection must fall into decay.”

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How Harmonious Might Be Our World
Adolf Pavlovich Shvedchikov – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

How harmonious might be our world
Full of spiritual pastoral songs
If we didn’t do wrong or go wrong,

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Australia: Desperate Refugee Sets Fire to Himself in a Bank
Peter Byrne | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

22 Nov 2016 – A young Rohingya who fled Burma as an unaccompanied teenager four years ago doused himself with petrol and set himself alight in a branch of the Commonwealth Bank. Nur Islam, 21, had been living in acute poverty at Melbourne. He was on a temporary bridging visa, which not only denied him refugee status but blocked basic social and political rights, including to work.

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Rwandan Catholic Church Admits Role in Genocide, Apologizes
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Embarrassed for its leading role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which saw more than 800,000 people massacred, the Catholic Church in that country issued a statement apologizing on Sunday [20 Nov]. The Church’s admission of guilt comes after years of denying its role in that and many other genocides around the world.

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UNHCR in Bangladesh Accuses Myanmar Troops of Killings, Rape, Arson in Rohingya Communities
Deutsche Welle – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

24 Nov 2016 – The head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the Bangladesh border with Myanmar has accused the army of crimes against Rohingya Muslim communities. Thousands have fled to Bangladesh in a growing crisis.

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“Nigeria Faces Worst Humanitarian Crisis on African Continent
Human Wrongs Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

With nearly 400,000 children facing starvation in Nigeria, and citizens suffering with little to no protection, security, food or access to clean water, “Nigeria is facing the worst humanitarian crisis on the African continent,” Peter Lundberg, the acting United Nations Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, had on 26 October 2016 – warned.

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To Prevent or Stop Wars – What Can Peace Movements Do?
TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

The present chair of War Resisters’ International, Christine Schweitzer, and Jørgen Johansen have just published a book on one of the key questions for peace movements: Have they ever prevented or stopped a war?

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Many Forms of Violence against Women
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

25 November is the day designated by the UN General Assembly as the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.” Gender inequality and the walls built around the informal sector are the marks of the “silent violence” against women. Amartya Sen defined the major challenge of human development as “broadening the limited lives into which the majority of human beings are willy-nilly imprisoned by the forces of circumstances”.

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The Need for the Entry into Force of the CTBT
Amb. Sergio Duarte – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

25 Nov 2016 – Since its adoption by the UN in 1996, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has remained in a singular and unprecedented situation. The negotiation of a ban on nuclear weapons due to start in March 2017 at the United Nations provides a promising and authoritative forum for reaching agreement on realistic measures of nuclear disarmament as well as on a decisive push for a universal, legally binding prohibition of tests.

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Opportunism & Greed
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business.

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Seeking the True Path
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

One of the more subtle manifestations of the intimate link between (unconscious) human emotions and behaviour is illustrated by the simple concept of choice and how this is so often reduced to a dichotomy between two bad options. In such circumstances, most people choose whatever they consider to be ‘the lesser evil’.

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Bangladesh Pushes Back Rohingya Refugees amid Collective Punishment in Myanmar
Amnesty International – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

• Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers being detained and forcibly returned;
• lack of water, food and medical care;
• both governments preventing thousands from accessing aid;
• harrowing details of Myanmar military attacks on villages.

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A Collection of Thoughts about American Foreign Policy
William Blum | The Anti-Empire Report #146 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Louis XVI needed a revolution, Napoleon needed two historic military defeats, the Spanish Empire in the New World needed multiple revolutions, the Russian Czar needed a communist revolution, the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires needed World War I, Nazi Germany needed World War II, Imperial Japan needed two atomic bombs, the Portuguese Empire in Africa needed a military coup at home, the Soviet Empire needed Mikhail Gorbachev … What will the American Empire need?

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Escaping ‘Fortress Earth’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Reading Journey to Earthland is an extraordinary experience. Paul Raskin is not only a master navigator of the complexities of our world but someone who conveys a vision of the future that manages to surmount the unprecedented challenges facing humanity at several levels of social, cultural, and ecological being.

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Well-being Economy: A Scenario for a Post-Growth Horizontal Governance System
Lorenzo Fioramonti | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

For the past half century, western societies have used a narrow definition of economic growth as the route to development. Growth has become an end in itself. As a result, the true meaning of development has been lost. Rather than an end goal, development should be viewed as a process towards an improved state of existence for humanity and the ecosystem.

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Power Imbalance at the Pipeline Protest
The New York Times | Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

When injustice aligns with cruelty, and heavy weaponry is involved, the results can be shameful and bloody. Witness what happened on Sunday [20 Nov] in North Dakota, when law enforcement officers escalated their tactics against unarmed American Indians and allies who have waged months of protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

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US Arms Syrian Islamists with Surface-to-Air Missiles
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

23 Nov 2016 – A US-backed Islamist militia has been armed with portable surface-to-air missiles, so-called manpads. These weapons are capable of shooting down Syrian as well as Russian warplanes. This marks a major escalation of the US-backed war for regime-change that has devastated the country, leading to the deaths of some 300,000 Syrians.

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The Trump Presidency (X2)
#X2 | Johan Galtung from Washington DC, 23 Nov 2016 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Trump 5 was supposed to be the last mini-column, but things happen, calling for a Trump X for Extra. As a businessman he marketed a product, his presidency, with unlimited praise and contempt for the other product on the market. He won in the sense of monopoly for his product, and then changed the product. No sense of contract with voter-buyer based on his publicity.

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Just How Grey Are the White Helmets and Their Backers? (Part 2)
Jan Oberg | Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

• The – bizarre – White Helmet Mannequin Challenge video;
• The Swedish Institute of International Affairs’s event with the White Helmets on November 24;
• The Right Livelihood Award Foundation’s Award Ceremony to take place on November 25

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(Italiano) Una strategia nonviolenta per la liberazione della Siria
Robert J. Burrowes | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

All’inizio del 2011, mentre le Primavere Arabe si diffondevano nel Nord Africa e nel Medio Oriente, in Siria, sottoposta alla legge marziale dal 1963, piccoli gruppi di attivisti nonviolenti iniziarono a protestare contro la dittatura brutale di Bashar al-Assad e a chiedere riforme democratiche, il rilascio dei prigionieri politici, maggiori libertà, l’abolizione della legge d’emergenza e la fine della corruzione.

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Huge Wall Built In Munich ‘to Protect Families’ from Refugees Who Will Live Next Door
The Mercury – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

16 Nov 2016 – A wall more than 3.8-meter tall is being built in Munich after locals raised fears young refugees would be moving into the area. The wall is taller than the infamous Berlin Wall, which separated West from Soviet Germany.

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India’s NGOs: A Mixed Blessing
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

The recent decisions of Indian government imposing stern controls on foreign nongovernmental organizations is deplorable but, sadly, not surprising. Illiberal and authoritarian governments are inherently allergic to civil society and, more broadly, to any institutions they don’t control. India and several other countries have either passed or proposed similar laws to curtail the activities of nongovernmental groups.

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Settling the Confusion of Sovereignty and Independence
Hawaiian Kingdom Blog – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

Because international law distinguishes between “internal” and “external” sovereignties, a State would remain independent and sovereign, despite its government, which exercises its internal sovereignty, having been overthrown by another State and subsequently occupied. This is why the law of occupation mandates the occupier to administer the laws of the occupied State under Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Convention, IV.

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(Português) Élisée Reclus: “Não é um equívoco relacionar os horrores da guerra com o massacre do gado”
David Arioch | Jornalismo Cultural – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

“A porca chorava sem cessar, e de vez em quando soltava gemidos tão desesperadores que parecia simular a fala humana”.

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O Sole Mio (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Il Volo – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

VIRTUOSI – Enjoy. Simply beautiful!

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Myanmar’s War on the Rohingya
The New York Times | Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Nov 2016

To preserve her reputation as a human rights champion, [Nobel Peace Laureate] Daw Aung San Suu Kyi needs to allow an impartial investigation into the violence.

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The Trump Presidency (X)
#X | Johan Galtung - from Washington DC, 23 Nov 2016 – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Nov 2016

As a businessman he marketed a product, his presidency, with unlimited praise and contempt for the other product on the market. He won in the sense of monopoly for his product, and then changed the product. No sense of contract with voter-buyer based on his publicity.

→ read full article