Articles by M

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Samba de Janeiro (Music Video of the Week)
Bellini – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

Brazilian Samba — wishing you a Wonderful Carnival time.

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Ticking Toward Doomsday
Ira Helfand, M.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

26 Jan 2016 – Recently, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced it was keeping its famous Doomsday Clock at three minutes to midnight. In making this decision, their panel of experts, including 16 Nobel Laureates, cited the growing danger of nuclear war.

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Doomsday Clock Hands Remain Unchanged, Despite Iran Deal and Paris Talks
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – TRANSCEDEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

January 26, 2016 – The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board announced today that the minute hand of its closely watched Doomsday Clock will remain at three minutes to midnight, since recent progress in the Iran nuclear agreement and the Paris climate accord “constitute only small bright spots in a darker world situation full of potential for catastrophe.”

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World Interfaith Harmony Week: Steps toward a Harmony Renaissance
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

The United Nations General Assembly on 20 October 2010 designated the first week of February of every year as the World Interfaith Harmony Week between all religions, faiths and beliefs.

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(Castellano) Bachelet crea Ministerio de Pueblos Indígenas en Chile
Culture of Peace News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

15 Jan 2016 – La Presidenta de Chile, Michelle Bachelet, firmó hoy en el Palacio de La Moneda las leyes que crean el Ministerio de Pueblos Indígenas, el Consejo Nacional y los Consejos de Pueblos Indígenas.

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Gandhi’s Assassination: In the Midst of Death, Life Persists
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

As has been said before, there is no guarantee that non-violent action will succeed, no more than violence is always successful. Gandhi viewed spiritual and political efforts as united through many of the people he worked with saw them as separate. For Gandhi, the spiritual and political means were interdependent and could not be separated.

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Reconciling Canada: Hard Truths, Big Opportunity
Ry Moran, Rabble – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

The Truth and Reconciliation final report: Six years. Seven volumes. Thousands of pages. The sobering realization that the systematic destruction of indigenous cultures, languages, family structures, lands and ceremonies amounted to cultural genocide. The cold hard truth is that Canada has failed indigenous peoples miserably.

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That Guy
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

If I come back to earth as a movie star,
I want to be that guy nobody knows.
You know who I mean, don’t you?

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Meanwhile Around the World: Problems-Remedies
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

Let us have a look, and see what can be done.

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Advice to Palestinians
Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

“What would YOU advise Palestinian to do? I am genuinely curious as to how many of my readers have constructive advice based on what they know of geostrategic structures, capabilities etc.” I received dozens of answers including some really very insightful commentary.

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Ending the Horror of Myanmar’s Abuse of Muslims
Editorial Board – International New York Times, 1 Feb 2016

By the hundreds of thousands, Muslims in Myanmar have been stripped of their citizenship, sent to concentration camps where they are deprived of basic medical care, jobs and even food, and held prisoners in villages they are not allowed to leave. Thousands more have fled the camps by risking their lives at the hands of criminal syndicates that traffic them to Malaysia and Bangladesh or force them into servitude on fishing boats.

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Dilema
David Sipress – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

Conflicting Desires

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Climate Change: Post-Paris Challenges and Concerns
Hilal Elver and Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

It is time to move on from the aura of good feelings of accomplishment created by the Paris Climate Change Conference and begin asking some hard questions. Above all we need to assess whether an agreement that consists of voluntary pledges is workable and sufficient, and whether its contribution to slowing global warming should be celebrated or lamented at this stage.

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Time for Justice in Sri Lanka
Editorial Board – International New York Times, 1 Feb 2016

The wounds of war cannot be healed until a transitional justice process demanded by the UN in a resolution last October moves forward. On that score, President Maithripala Sirisena says his government will not act “in haste.” This is unacceptable.

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On Refugee Migrants` Right to Live: A Nonkilling View
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

Migrant
Refugee migrant
Migration
Refugee migration

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What Is Happening in Haiti Is a Genuine Anti-Imperialist Popular Revolt
Carlos Aznárez, Resumen Latinoamericano – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

23 Jan 2016 – Port-au-Prince and other Haitian cities are today the stage of the largest popular uprising in decades of the suffering Haitian nation.

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Rome Conference on NATO – January 2016
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

I believe we, the human family, have no less a task before us, than transforming our thinking and mind-sets of violence and war, and moving to a demilitarized Europe and World. We have imagination and genius and with confidence and trust in ourselves and each other, we can move away from nationalism and war, towards Regional solutions built on demilitarized societies of peaceful co-existence.

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President Creates Ministry of Indigenous People in Chile
Culture of Peace News Network – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

15 Jan 2016 – Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed today at La Moneda Palace the laws that create the Ministry of Indigenous People, the National Council and the Indigenous People”s Councils.

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A Subjective Objection: Objecting to Subjection
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

Interplay of Questions Enabling Transcendence of Fundamental Dilemmas?

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Myanmar Nazi Monk Wirathu, TIME Magazine’s “Face of Buddhist Terror”
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

Myanmar’s “Nazi monk” Wirathu (and networks), plot to unleash new Islamophobic waves of violence against Myanmar’s Muslims and Rohingya.

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Political Correctness 2.0
Katrin Anger – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

In recent times, political correctness has evolved. It lurks above us like a sword and with the smallest wrong word that may come over our lips, it threatens to defame us. In our society – and this is not only true for Germany – public speaking can sometimes feel like walking on broken glass.

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Dispossessed in the Name of ‘Security’
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

A new book, edited by Nick Buxton and Ben Hayes, both involved with The Transnational Institute, brings together a thoughtful collection of scholars, journalists and activists to explain the pre-eminence of the military and corporations in shaping the global response to the climate catastrophe as an ‘opportunity’.

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Can the US Turn Fascist?
Şahin Alpay, Today’s Zaman – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

31 Jan 2016 – Johan Galtung, the Norwegian mathematician, political scientist, sociologist and the founder of the field of peace and conflict resolution studies, argued in his book The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What? (TRANSCEND University Press, 2009) that just as the Roman Empire disintegrated, the American Empire (or the US and Western hegemony over the world) would collapse not later than the year 2025.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

Feb 1-7 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir

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Engaging the ISIS Threat
Marc Pilisuk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Feb 2016

It is difficult to engage in direct violence against those whom you have met face-to-face, even if they have been identified as enemies. Sprinkling doubt among present ISIS followers and potential recruits may reduce killing while promoting hope. Given the alternative, this is a time to test our beliefs in the power of creative non-violence.

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The Radical New Face of the Jewish Settler Movement
Naomi Zeveloff, Forward – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

“There is no doubt that the hilltop youth today are outside the boundaries of normal life. That is the way it is perceived in Israel,” said Tzvi Sukkot, a former member. “Some people feel threatened by their lifestyle. They say that these people live on the fringe of society or that they were thrown out of their homes.” The so-called hilltop youth, a loosely affiliated group of Jewish settlers in their teens and 20s live away from their parents on the hilltops surrounding established settlements.

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(Castellano) África, ¿es noticia solo si sangra?
Baher Kamal – Inter Press Service-IPS, 25 Jan 2016

Las raíces profundas que yacen debajo de la mayoría de los dramas africanos: largos siglos de colonialismo, esclavitud, empobrecimiento, dilapidación de los recursos naturales por corporaciones transnacionales, millonarias ventas de armas a las partes en conflicto, extendido acaparamiento de tierras y el grave impacto del cambio climático, causado lejos de África por los países industrializados, son solo algunos de ellos.

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(Português) Sobre insetos perigosos aos humanos
Sônia T. Felipe - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais, 25 Jan 2016

Estamos reféns deste verbo matar para dar conta, agora, de tudo o que fizemos com nosso modo de viver dos últimos 50 anos, que foi o de matar algo da casa dos hoje 70 bilhões de animais para consumo humano, todo ano. Estes animais, mortos para consumo humano, são alimentados com a soja e o milho, a alfafa e a aveia, cultivados nos campos glifosatados, nos quais não vemos nenhum sapo proliferar.

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Wealth, Influence of Gates Foundation Distorting Int’l Development – Global Justice Now
Russia Today – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

20 Jan 2016 – Enormous wealth and influence wielded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is distorting the direction of international development in a global vacuum of accountability, a new report claims. With assets totaling $43.5 billion, the BMGF is the world’s biggest charitable group. It is viewed by some as the most powerful actor on issues of international health, environment and agriculture, and distributes more aid for global health than any democratically elected government.

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(Português) Podem as religiões ajudar a superar a crise ecológica?
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

Agora o que se pede, é ver de que forma, a partir de seu capital religioso positivo, estas religiões podem chegar a convergências para além das diferenças e ajudar a enfrentar a nova era do antropoceno (o ser humano como o meteoro rasante ameaçador) e a sexta extinção em massa que está já há muito tempo em curso e se acelera cada vez mais.

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(Italiano) Ci sono alternative alla guerra?
Angela Dogliotti Marasso – Centro Studi Sereno Regis, 25 Jan 2016

La cultura profonda, sedimentata e più lenta a cambiare, porta l’idea che, per far fronte ad un’aggressione o difendere dei diritti violati, solo la violenza sia efficace e dunque inevitabile. E’ la tentazione forte, la reazione istintiva della trappola simmetrica: se dai un pugno a me, io ne do uno a te, così siamo pari e abbiamo fatto “giustizia”.

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Police Mediation: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Johan Galtung, 25 Jan 2016 - TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

The state system emerged in the 17th century, with institutions for force. One was for internal and one for external use: the national police and the national military, national standing for the dominant nation in the states… May police mediation take roots and blossom. For more peaceful societies. For peace in general.

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Collapse of a Peace Presidency: Obama’s Speech Highlights Foreign Policy Failures
Spencer Ackerman – The Guardian, 25 Jan 2016

The expectations for Obama were so high he received a Nobel Peace Prize within months. Never a pacifist, he accepted the award with a speech defending the use of military force. He will leave office as Bush did: passing on two wars – one the longest in American history, the other a reboot of the conflict he promised to end.

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“Modernizing” the Opportunities for Nuclear War
Lawrence S. Wittner, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

A fight now underway over newly-designed U.S. nuclear weapons highlights how far the Obama administration has strayed from its commitment to build a nuclear-free world. The fight concerns a variety of nuclear weapons that the U.S. military is developing or, as the administration likes to say, “modernizing.”

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Africa, Only If It Bleeds It Leads?
Baher Kamal – Human Wrongs Watch, 25 Jan 2016

Deep roots lying beneath most African dramas: centuries-long colonialism; slavery; massive depletion of natural resources by voracious multinational corporations; big sales of western weapons to parties in conflicts; extensive land grabbing and the heavy impact of climate change caused far away from Africa by industrialized states, just to mention some.

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How Kenya Confirmed the Deathbed of WTO
Horace Campbell – Pambazuka News, 25 Jan 2016

The outcome of the meeting, the so-called Nairobi Package, was a slap in the face for the peoples of the South. It was especially egregious that the US used the 10th Ministerial, with the help of the Kenyan leadership, to undermine the future of Pan-African trading relations and to drive a wedge between the BRICS societies and those that the US wants to manipulate in the poor countries. The 10th Ministerial has hastened the demise of the WTO.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Timeless Vision
Michael Nagler, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

He came out against the war. Against all advice. Just as Gandhi honed his nonviolence in South Africa and then felt that he was ready to carry the struggle into the heart of the empire, King here announced that he had enlarged his passion from those of his own race in one region of the country to the policies of that country itself.

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Aung San Suu Kyi [Nobel Peace Laureate], the Dragon’s Lady
Min Zin – International New York Times, 25 Jan 2016

Why would Beijing, which has long backed Myanmar’s military regime and refused to engage with pro-democracy parties, now support the N.L.D.? One reason is that the political tide is turning in Myanmar. Another is that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is a consummate pragmatist. “In this type of geopolitical analysis We the People have no role, no power, in history making.” – Maung Zarni

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Evolving to Earth Ethics: the Beginnings of Charlie Prewitt – Atom Bomb Chemist, to Educator, to Peace Maker
P.K. Willey, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

This first article on Dr. Prewitt restricts itself from childhood up to meeting his remarkable wife when he was just 18. In just a few years, he was to begin mandatory work for the US Government on the Manhattan Project, which contributed to the outrageous human, environmental, and political catastrophe of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 9, 1945. Charlie’s outspoken Earth ethical responses to this horrific use of human intelligence and endeavor have continued to this day.

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The US Tiger and the North Korean Mouse
John LaForge, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended increased radiation exposure limits. It would save the industry a bundle to permit large human exposures, rather than shut down rickety reactors. The EPA proposal is a knock-off prompted by Fukushima, because after the triple meltdown Japan increased — by 20 times — the allowable radiation exposures deemed tolerable for humans.

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Arrested
Copley News Service – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

What are the charges?

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(Italiano) Venti pii desideri per il 2016: prestare attenzione alle menti
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

Empiricamente, l’Occidente è sovente sul versante sbagliato. Tuttavia, come ogni cosa empirica, è soggetto alla legge del cambiamento. Gli occidentali non sono schiavi delle mentalità dell’Iliade e di Beowulf che si estendono per l’Europa. La liberazione è attesa da troppo tempo. Prestando attenzione alle menti.

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A World Divided: Elites Descend on Swiss Alps amid Rising Inequality
Ben Hirschler and Noah Barkin, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

Just 62 people, 53 of them men, own as much wealth as the poorest half of the entire world population and the richest 1 percent own more than the other 99 percent put together, anti-poverty charity Oxfam said on Monday [18 Jan]. Significantly, the wealth gap is widening faster than anyone anticipated, with the 1 percent overtaking the rest one year earlier than Oxfam had predicted only a year ago.

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Australia’s Day for Secrets, Flags and Cowards
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

On 26 January, one of the saddest days in human history will be celebrated in Australia. The racism that allows this in one of the most privileged societies on earth runs deep. In the 1920s, a “Protector of Aborigines” oversaw the theft of mixed race children with the justification of “breeding out the colour”. Today, record numbers of Indigenous children are removed from their homes and many never see their families again.

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(Italiano) Migliorare la democrazia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

La gente può creare e riconquistare con lotte nonviolente un processo decisionale democratico. Rafforzare il livello locale. Riflettere le differenze etniche. Boicottare i deputati comprati. Più referendum. Più decisioni con dialogo-consenso, da continuarsi in coalizioni. Più decentramento. Più diversità. E molta più creatività.

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The Learned Helplessness of Israeli Youth
Jews for Justice for Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

The passivity of Israelis, especially its youth, in the face of political injustice. Many have tried, and failed, to right the wrongs of the occupation. Now they have accepted their powerlessness as normal.

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British Empire Compared to ‘ISIS on Steroids’ after UK Public Says It Is ‘Proud’ of Colonial Past
Adam Withnall – The Independent, 25 Jan 2016

20 Jan 2016 – After a new poll found that the British public is generally proud of the country’s imperial history, people have started comparing the worst atrocities of the Empire to the present-day horrors of ISIS.

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Rightward Bound – ‘Dark Money,’ by Jane Mayer
Alan Ehrenhalt – International New York Times, 25 Jan 2016

Mayer begins with revealing that the Kochs’ father, industrialist Fred Koch, helped build an oil refinery in Nazi Germany—a project approved personally by Adolf Hitler. The refinery was critical to the Nazi war effort, fueling German warplanes. [Democracy Now! interview] The Kochs and their allies have established a Republican Party in which donors, not elected officials, are in charge.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

Jan 25-31 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Render others spiritual. Irradiate your spirituality. Treat every moment of your life with divine respect.” – Robert Muller

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Dancing for Joy and Friendship
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

Another element is depiction of violence and controlling it by dance. There is violence in all of us – sometimes it is muted and sometimes it comes out in the open. Some dance forms especially of Nagaland depict dancers carrying spears and sticks and making war like sounds to terrorise an enemy. The dance is riveting and it is a means of subsuming the violence that we occasionally feel for some unspecified opponent.

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Seven Top Challenges Facing African Women
Baher Kamal – Inter Press Service, 25 Jan 2016

These challenges are now top on the agenda of the “8thAfrican Union Gender Pre-Summit on 2016 African Year of Human Rights,with Particular Focus on the Rights of Women” taking place in Addis Ababa on 17 – 21 January.

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Global Resources and Challenges for 2016
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

What is different this year – 2016 – is the “global stage” in which the challenges and resources are being tested and contested. It is clear to me we are unable to grasp the “global” level of events and forces. We are unprepared for the magnitude of stage! The problem is our resources, those things we have reflexively, conventionally, and traditionally relied upon (i.e., political, economic, cultural, military) are inadequate in the face of our challenges.

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When ‘Your Heart Is a Muscle,’ Empathy Is a Revolutionary Act
US National Public Radio – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

«Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist» was inspired by a real-life event; in 1999, thousands of demonstrators disrupted a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. Badly outnumbered police resorted to using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets.

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Pitirim Sorokin (21 Jan 1889 – 11 Feb 1968): The Renewal of Humanity
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

The two World Wars convinced him that humanity was in a period of transition, that the guideline of earlier times had broken down and had not yet been replaced by a new set of values and motivations. To bring about real renewal, one had to work at the same time on the individual personality, on cultural values, and on the social framework.

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Relationships – Reflections on Refugees
Dr Hakim, Afghan Peace Volunteers – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

As relationships are built on various aspects of love, they are powerful. If we build more and more relationships, they will be an alternative power to the abusive power of governments and corporations, and that’s when governments and corporations will become more obvious in their efforts to sabotage relationships.

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Gates Foundation’s “Corporate Merry-Go-Round”: Spearheading the Neo-liberal Plunder of African Agriculture
Colin Todhunter – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

Global Justice Now’s analysis of the BMGF’s programmes shows that the foundation’s senior staff are overwhelmingly drawn from corporate America. As a result, the question is: whose interests are being promoted – those of corporate America or those of ordinary people who seek social and economic justice rather than charity?

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Extreme, Extremer, Extremest
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

As is well-known, Israel is a “Jewish and democratic state”. That is its official designation. Well… As for Jewish, it’s a new kind of Jewishness, a mutation. Since 1967, Israel has been a hybrid creation – half democratic, half dictatorial. Like an egg that is half fresh, half rotten.

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An Open Letter to the American People: Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age
Richard Falk, David Krieger and Robert Laney – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

What is most notable about the Nuclear Age is that we humans, by our scientific and technological ingenuity, have created the means of our own demise. The world currently is confronted by many threats to human wellbeing, and even civilizational survival, but we focus here on the particular grave dangers posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear war.

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(Français) Gouvernements populaires en Amérique latine: «fin de cycle» ou nouvelle étape politique?
Isabel Rauber, CETRI-Centre Tricontinental – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

19 janvier 2016 – Quelques intellectuels qui se définissent comme étant de gauche ou de centre gauche, ont affirmé récemment que nous vivons une fin de cycle des gouvernements progressistes, caractérisée par l’épuisement de leurs programmes néo-développementistes – qui incluent l’extractivisme – et leur « inefficace » capacité de gestion.

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The End of Liberal Europe
Peter Schwarz, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

The shift to the right by the European elites is rooted in explosive social, economic and political contradictions that have been building up since the collapse of the Soviet Union 25 years ago, and especially since the international financial crisis of 2008. German imperialism has played a crucial role in these developments.

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‘Voluntary’ International Law and the Paris Agreement
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

16 Jan 2016 – Now that the celebrations by the diplomats have ended, it is time to take a hard look at what was and was not accomplished by the Paris Agreement. What we need and should seek is a moral epistemology that reconnects knowledge with human values configured so as to achieve justice, sustainability, and the pleasures of ‘a good life.’

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Man in the Mirror (Music Video of the Week)
Michael Jackson - michaeljacksonVEVO, 25 Jan 2016

Music video by Michael Jackson performing Man in the Mirror. © 1987 MJJ Productions Inc.
44,401,244 Views on YouTube (Lyrics below video)

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After the Iran Agreement: How Close Are We to “a World Free of Nuclear Weapons?”
Amb. Sergio Duarte – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

The JCPOA is undoubtedly a victory for non-proliferation advocates, but the current possessors of nuclear weapons do not seem willing to apply the same logic to their own continuing programs of increase and “modernization” of their arsenals and point to the technological advancement of their rivals in order to justify their own military efforts. The nuclear arms race takes on new forms as bombs become smaller, lighter and smarter.

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Parallel Standards Offer Way Out of Violence
Kristin Christman – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

One Step to a Change in Mideast Relations Is a Change in the U.S. Mindset

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Nonprofits: Beware the Hand That Feeds
Auset Marian Lewis - TeleSur, 25 Jan 2016

Can we really depend on big money to fund change? With dissent bent and compromised to fit a corporate 501c(3) model, the cry for change can be muted and misdirected. To that extent nonprofit models can coopt social justice movements who depend on them for support.

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Duty to Warn – Does Prescribing Anti-psychotic Drugs to Infants, Toddlers and Young Children Meet the Definition of Reckless Endangerment?
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

When physicians (or medical paraprofessionals) prescribe psychiatric drugs to children without the parent or legal guardian’s fully informed consent, the prescribers could reasonably be charged with reckless endangerment and/or child endangerment because such drugs commonly cause a multitude of well-known adverse effects.

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Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti
Mark Schuller - CounterPunch, 25 Jan 2016

Foreign imperialism in the form of NGOs. As Gina Athena Ulysse has powerfully demonstrated, Haiti needs new narratives. Maybe the earthquake story has run its course, in the foreign memory at least.

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(Français) Terrorisme – «Culture de l’excuse»  : les sociologues répondent à Valls
Sonya Faure , Cécile Daumas et Anastasia Vécrin — Libération, 25 Jan 2016

«Expliquer le jihadisme, c’est déjà vouloir un peu excuser.» Samedi [9 jan], le Premier ministre a exprimé, une nouvelle fois, sa défiance envers l’analyse sociale et culturelle de la violence terroriste. Une accusation qui passe mal auprès des intellectuels.

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A Tale of Two Grandmothers – Jailed for Photographing Protest Outside Drone Base
Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan – Democracy NOW!, 25 Jan 2016

The group, the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, gathered there on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, protesting the weaponized drones used in the Obama administration’s targeted killing program. It was only one of many of the group’s peaceful vigils.

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Israel: Businesses Should End Settlement Activity
Human Rights Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

19 Jan 2016 – Businesses should stop operating in, financing, servicing, or trading with Israeli settlements in order to comply with their human rights responsibilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Those activities contribute to and benefit from an inherently unlawful and abusive system that violates the rights of Palestinians.

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(Italiano) Siria (Prestare attenzione alle menti, II)
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

La Siria ha offerto una scelta povera fra una dittatura di minoranza provvista di tolleranza e una dittatura di maggioranza – la democrazia – sprovvista. Così ha prosperato la violenza, resuscitando vecchi sospetti di guerre per procura. “Bombardiamo la Siria” è stata la panacea, dopo “bombardiamo la Libia”. Che vergogna. Fatela finita.

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Can Targeted Killing Work as a Neutral Principle?
Jeremy Waldron, New York University School of Law - Social Science Research Nework, 25 Jan 2016

Abstract. This paper casts doubt on the prospects for legitimizing what is known as “targeted killing” – the use of assassins, death squads, or other murderous techniques – against identified civilians whose continued existence is thought to pose a serious threat of some kind to a given community and its members.

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(Italiano) “Persone comuni che vivono in tempi straordinari”_4
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

989. E’ il numero delle/dei sottoscrittori della petizione “Il servizio migranti di Aosta non deve chiudere” le cui firme sono state consegnate, con lettera raccomandata con ricevuta di ritorno, in data 14 gennaio 2016, al Presidente della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta.

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How Does It End?
Winslow Myers, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

What makes our own arrogant and pompous leaders one whit less adolescent than theirs? We are subject like the North Koreans to the same self-perpetuating paranoia, the same lack of moral imagination, the same suppression of truth-telling, the same wildly unnecessary secrets and lies, the same demagogic rationalizations of the status quo, the same folly of an endless arms race, the same nuclear dictatorship that leaves citizens without a voice when world-ending decisions are made.

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Goldman Sachs Will Pay $5 Billion to Settle Financial-Crisis Claims
Jim Zarroli, NPR – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

14 Jan 2016 – Goldman Sachs will pay about $5 billion to resolve state and federal investigations into its handling of mortgage-backed securities in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, the bank said today. Regulators have already won large multibillion-dollar settlements from several large banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup.

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West Papuans Testify
Jason MacLeod – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jan 2016

We have come to testify. There is much that we want the world to know. We want you to hear stories of suffering from the mouths of ordinary people. Our memories are clear and sharp. ‘In this river our father was murdered.’ ‘On that mountain slope there used to be villages. They were destroyed by the military.’ ‘On that open field, our old men were forced to burn their koteka [penis sheaths] because they were considered primitive.’ ‘In the past that mountain was ours, now people have destroyed our mother.’ We want you to travel with us to the sites of the massacres. We want to testify about the killings and the beatings with rifles.

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This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

Jan 18-24 QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires will come to you.
If your heart is in your dream,
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star as dreamers do.”

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Encyclopedia of Evil Claims, Claimants, Counter-claims, and Sigils
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

Considerable significance is currently attached, at the highest level of authority, to the determining role of evil with respect to ongoing global crises and those recently past. As declared by Hannah Arendt in 1945: The problem of evil will be the fundamental question of postwar intellectual life in Europe (Essays in Understanding, 1994, p. 134).

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Bishnu Pathak’s Nine Freedoms Doctrine to Truth, Justice and Dignity
Meena Pathak, Bimip Pathak and Bimish Pathak - TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

Transnational Professor Bishnu Pathak is the creator of the Peace-Conflict Lifecycle, the architect of Human Security Studies, the founder of the Principles of Process Documentation (End-to-End-Lifecycle) of any development project and the pioneer of Process Documentation for Interfaith Peacebuilding Cycle.

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The Struggle for Merdeka in West Papua
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

In Jason MacLeod’s new book, Merdeka and the Morning Star: Civil Resistance in West Papua, the failure to develop a comprehensive strategy of any kind, violent or nonviolent, to liberate West Papua is overwhelmingly evident. And MacLeod does an excellent job of identifying why this has happened as he provides us with an overview of the history and geopolitical circumstances of the occupation of West Papua as well as a history of the resistance, both violent and nonviolent, to this occupation.

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Once Auctioned, What to Do with the ‘Stock’ of Syrian Refugees?
Baher Kamal – Human Wrongs Watch, 18 Jan 2016

13 Jan 2016 – Few months ago, an unprecedented “humanitarian auction” was opened in Brussels at the European Commission, shortly after watching the image of the three-year old Syrian child that the sea threw up on the Turkish shores. The “auction” was about deciding upon the number of Syrian refugees to be hosted by each EU country.

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A New Era of Global Protest Begins
Rajesh Makwana, Share the World’s Resources – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

14 Jan 2016 – Research by Dr. David Bailey provides empirical evidence that we have entered a prolonged period of dissent characterised by an escalation in the magnitude and diversity of public protest. The catalyst was the financial crisis of 2008, which continues to have a detrimental impact for the vast majority of citizens – even while the combined wealth of the richest 1% continues to soar.

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On Ghada Ageel’s Edited ‘Israeli Apartheid in Palestine’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

Ghada Ageel’s expertly edited ‘Israeli Apartheid in Palestine: Hard Laws and Harder Experiences’ has just been published by the University of Albert Press. It is an important contribution to Palestinian studies with an especially welcome linking of activism, scholarly analysis, and experiential narrative, each a vital perspective represented by excellent chapter writers.

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‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ (Music Video of the Week)
Amira Willighagen & André Rieu, Talented Young Musicians - TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

11-year-old Amira Willighagen performs ‘O mio babbino caro’ with André Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra at a concert in Maastricht, The Netherlands. 10 thousand standing ovation…

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Publication of My Collected Essays
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

“I know John Avery as a scholar and an advocate of peace. If the Old Testament command of an eye for an eye is followed, the whole world will be blind. A far better path for humanity, as John shows in the Essays, is to apply the tools of reason, science and morality to eliminate the underlying causes of war and poverty.” — Hon. Matt Robson

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Should Criminalizing War Start by Pretending It’s Legal?
David Swanson – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

6 Jan 2015 – There’s a terrific new book on abolishing war called ‘Abolishing War: Criminalizing War, Removing War Causes, Removing War as Institution.’ Johan Galtung, who was recently on my radio show, is brilliant as always, drawing on vast knowledge and wisdom.

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Ringling Circus Elephants to Retire in May
Tamara Lush, Associated Press – Reader Supported News, 18 Jan 2016

12 January 16 – The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its elephant acts a year and a half early, and will retire all of its touring elephants in May. The move comes amid increasing scrutiny of circus elephant acts with local governments passing “anti-circus” and “anti-elephant” ordinances in response to concerns over animal cruelty.

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Remembering Hawaii’s Queen Lili’uokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
James Albertini – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

January 17th marks the date of the illegal overthrow of Hawaii’s Queen Lili’uokalani and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893 by U.S. business interests with the assistance of U.S. Marines. January 18th marks the holiday named for Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. who was a champion for civil rights, justice, peace and the power of nonviolent action, assassinated in 1968.

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Surveillance and Surveys in Kabul
Kathy Kelly, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

Billions of dollars have been invested in a variety of blimps which various vendors such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and Aeros have shipped to Afghanistan. All of this surveillance purportedly helps establish “patterns of life” and bring security to people living here …tax money to the insatiable appetite of the “defense” corporations and their illusions of omniscient security.

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Robert M. Hutchins (17 Jan 1899 – 17 May 1977): Building on Earlier Foundations
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

Much of our current work for a more just and peaceful world builds on the thinking and efforts of earlier foundations. An important foundation is the leading role of Robert M. Hutchins, long-time President of the University of Chicago.

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Yemen: Five Medical Staff Dead in Third Bombing of Doctors Without Borders Facilities
Thomas Gaist, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

MSF officials remained uncertain whether the explosion was caused by an airstrike or by a missile fired from ground forces. The identity of the attackers also remains contested, with reports from the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency asserting that the attack was launched by the Saudi coalition forces and US media reports maintaining that the origins of the strike are still not known.

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New Year’s Resolution
Bizarro Comics – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jan 2016

Good question…

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The Lady and the Generals
Soe Lin Aung & Stephen Campbell – Jacobin Magazine, 18 Jan 2016

Aung San Suu Kyi’s electoral victory could bring political reform to Myanmar. Economic justice is another story.

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Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territory Resigns Due to Continued Denial of Access by Israel
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jan 2016

4 Jan 2016 –The independent expert expressed deep regret that, throughout his mandate, Israel failed to grant him access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way,” said Makarim Wibisono.

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Suu Kyi Govt Must Not Continue State Persecution of Rohingya
Dr. Maung Zarni, DVB – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jan 2016

As Aung San Suu Kyi prepares to take over the reins of the new government [Burma/Myanmar], the international community – of diplomats, world leaders, journalists, human rights researchers and world citizens – needs to press the Burmese leader to reflect critically on her stances on the Rohingya.

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Police Agent-Provocateurs Exposed at Montreal Anti-Austerity Demonstration
Carl Bronski, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jan 2016

Initially the police refused to admit that they had infiltrated the December 18 protest. But now they are strongly defending the actions of an undercover cop who drew his revolver and threatened protesters who had “outed” him as a police agent provocateur.

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Pharming
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jan 2016

The resistance factors produced by shovelling antibiotics into animal food produces resistance factors (plasmids) which can easily be transferred to human pathogens. A related problem is the excessive use of pesticides and artificial fossil-fuel-derived fertilizers in agriculture. Pharming is not a joke. It is a serious threat.

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Saudi Arabia a Force for Stability? Dream On!
William Boardman - Reader Supported News, 11 Jan 2016

The Saudi mass beheadings on January 2 proved nothing new to a world that well knows Saudi Arabia is still a tribal police state with a moral code of medieval barbarity. Saudi Arabia is a Sunni-Muslim country that executes people for witchcraft, adultery, apostasy, and homosexuality (among other things).

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(Français) Les massacres sont-ils plus intéressants lorsqu’ils sont commis par des “musulmans” ?
Asma Mechakra, Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jan 2016

Déjà presque deux mois se sont écoulés depuis les attentats meurtriers de Paris et l’émotion est encore vive. Pendant la même période, un hôpital de médecins sans frontières (MSF) a été délibérément bombardé par l’aviation Etasunienne en Afghanistan, un double attentat suicide a été perpétré dans la banlieue sud de Beyrouth et une école Irakienne au Mossoul a été bombardée par l’aviation Française.

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The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare
Nathaniel Richjan – The New York Times Magazine, 11 Jan 2016

The farmer said that his cows were dying left and right. He believed that the DuPont chemical company, which until recently operated a site in Parkersburg that is more than 35 times the size of the Pentagon, was responsible. Tennant had tried to seek help locally, he said, but DuPont just about owned the entire town.

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