Articles by ICH
We found 2477 results.
For What?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
Why am I giving the Palestinians so much more attention and psychic energy than the Kurds, Tibetans, or Kashmiris, and a host of other worthy causes? And how do I explain to myself a preoccupation with the unlawful, immoral, and imprudent foreign policy of the U.S. Government, the sovereign state of my residence upon whose governmental resources I depend upon for security and a range of rights?
→ read full article
Kucinich Explains “LIBOR”
DJKucinich – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
Late last month, Barclay’s Bank, a multinational bank and financial institution based in the United Kingdom, admitted to regulators that it tried to manipulate something called “Libor” before and during the financial crisis in 2008. ”Libor” is an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate. It is a rate used as a benchmark for the cost of lending throughout the financial system, and it is also used as a reference rate for a wide range of financial products like car loans, adjustable-rate mortgages, student loans and credit cards.
→ read full articlePros and Cons of Solidarity with the Palestinian Struggle
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
The posture of solidarity with the struggle of ‘the other’ is more complex than it might appear at first glance… As Alsaafin powerfully reminds us who attempt to act in solidarity, while she is addressing a related message to the Palestinians, it is for the Palestinians to exert leadership and find inspiration, and for the rest of us to step to one side.
→ read full articleThe Wall Street Scandal of all Scandals
Robert Reich – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
“Yes, just when you thought the Street had hit bottom, an even deeper level of public-be-damned greed and corruption is revealed. Sit down and hold on to your chair.”
→ read full articleKenneth Waltz Is Not Crazy, But He Is Dangerous: Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
It seems surprising that the ultra-establishment journal, Foreign Affairs, would go to the extreme of publishing a lead article by the noted political scientist, Kenneth Waltz, with the title “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb” in its current issue.
→ read full articleOn Human Identity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
Early in my blog life I wrote about Jewish identity. It was partly an exercise in self-discovery, and partly a response to those who alleged that I was a self-hating Jew, or worse, an anti-Semite. These attacks on my character were hurtful even as I felt their distance from my actual beliefs and worldview.
→ read full articleYes, There Is an Alternative to Capitalism: Mondragon Shows the Way
Richard Wolff – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
There is no alternative (“Tina”) to capitalism? Why are we told a broken system that creates vast inequality is the only choice? Spain’s amazing co-op is living proof otherwise. “We are not some paradise, but rather a family of co-operative enterprises struggling to build a different kind of life around a different way of working.”
→ read full articleIs the Threat of a “Mafia State” Real?
Michael Busch – Foreign Policy in Focus,
25 Jun 2012
Earlier this spring, Moisés Naím provocatively warned against an emerging menace facing our world today—the advent of what he terms the “mafia state.” Analyzing the role of transnational organized crime in the age of globalization has been Naím’s bailiwick for some years now, and familiar readers will find little that catches them off-guard.
→ read full articleAssessing the Israel Palestine Conflict on U.S.S. Liberty Day
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2012
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” I think that we need to do our best to avoid such deference to authority to overcome the weight of conventional thinking on these issues, to get around the distortions of government policy, and to do something to correct for the biased media filter that gives us such a selective presentation of the facts as the conflict unfolds.
→ read full articleA Stronger ‘Political Europe’ Might Save a Stumbling ‘Economic Europe’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
All is not yet lost, but there is a message beyond that of the obsessive bailout/default dialogue. It is that Europe to ensure its future must renovate its political architecture. This means overcoming the peculiar capitalist brand of economic materialism that seems perversely convinced that if money and banks are the problem, then money and banks must be the solution.
→ read full articleUN Alliance of Civilizations, Istanbul Partners Forum, May 31-June 1, 2012
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
The UN Alliance of Civilization (AOC) was initiated by Kofi Annan in 2005 while he was Secretary General of the UN with the joint sponsorship of Turkey and Spain, with its principal center of operations in Istanbul.
→ read full articleBeyond the Politics of Invisibility: Remembering Not to Forget Palestinian Hunger Strikers
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2012
With a certain amount of fanfare in Israel and Palestine, although still severely underreported by the world media and relatively ignored by the leading watchdog human rights NGOs, it was observed with contradictory spins that the Palestinian hunger strikes had been brought to an end by agreement between the strikers and Israel.
→ read full articleWhat Can Be Done About Syria? Tragedy and Impotence
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2012
The dilemma exposes the weakness of empathetic geopolitics in a world that continues to be dominated by territorially supreme sovereign states with insecure and antagonistic minorities. In the Syrian situation this tragic reality is revealed in all its horror, complexity, and contradictions. It is unacceptable to remain a passive spectator in a media wired world where events are reported visually almost as they are occurring, or immediately thereafter.
→ read full articleReflections on the Great Palestinian Prison Hunger Strikes of 2012
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
Ché Guevara was once asked what was at the root of his revolutionary commitment. His response, which we should all take some moments to reflect upon, “it is about love.” Reading the words of Khader Adnan (‘Open Letter to the People of the World’) and Thaer Halahleh (‘Letter to my Daughter’), or the comments of Hana Shalabi’s mother and sister, or Bilal Diab’s father, led me to recall Guevara’s illuminating comment.
→ read full articleWhat is New in the Palestine/Israel Conflict
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
The Israeli/Palestine conflict has changed its character in fundamental respects during the last couple of years.
→ read full articleModernity’s Other and the Transformation of the University – I
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
Society as a whole and the university as a leading part of society need to revive some of the norms of African society prior to European contact. One could say the same about traditional norms in other parts of the world. I mention Africa because we are here.
→ read full articleTraining To Overcome Institutional Racial Bias in Policing
Michael Motto – Tampa Bay Times,
21 May 2012
Police officers in America shoot and kill African-Americans four times more often than whites, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That figure actually reflects progress from the 1970s, when the ratio was 8 to 1.
→ read full articleThe Nakba: 2012
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
The recent parallel hunger strikes in Israeli prisons reignited the political imagination of Palestinians around the world, strengthening bonds of ‘solidarity’ and reinforcing the trend toward grassroots reliance on nonviolent resistance Israeli abuses.
→ read full articleChávez’s Economics Lesson for Europe
Richard Gott – The Guardian,
21 May 2012
Chávez and his co-religionaries in the new “Bolivarian revolution” have called for “21st-century socialism”, not a return to Soviet-style economics or the continuation of the mundane social democratic adaptation of capitalism, but, as the Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa has described it, the re-establishment of national planning by the state “for the development of the majority of the people”.
→ read full articleLearning from the Irish Hunger Strikes of 1981 and the Palestinian Challenge
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
John Hurson in Ireland has been keenly conscious of the affinities between the historic Irish hunger strike of 1981 and the ongoing Palestinian hunger strikes. He has travelled to Gaza on several occasions on humanitarian aid convoys, and is the founder of the on line Gaza TV News service. I suggested that we collaborate on an article that might recall the Irish experience, especially the parallels and the potential implications for the future of the Palestinian struggle.
→ read full articleHistoric Hunger Strikes: Lightning in the Skies of Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2012
Recourse to this desperate tactic of courageous self-sacrifice is an extreme form of nonviolence, and should whenever and wherever it occurs be given close attention. We cannot now know whether these hunger strikes will spark Palestinian resistance in new and creative ways. What we can already say with confidence is that these hunger strikers are writing a new chapter in the story line of resistance sumud, and their steadfastness is for me a Gandhian Moment in the Palestinian struggle.
→ read full articleJohan Galtung an Anti-Semite? I Don’t Think So!
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2012
I think that Galtung’s main difficulty, in all this brouhaha, has been to speak carelessly and somewhat peremptorily about highly sensitive matters, previously taboo, that require much care and precision of speech in order to avoid arousing post-traumatic fears and giving an impression of insensitivity to people’s basic needs. “An anti-Semite used to be someone who didn’t like Jews. Now it means someone Jews don’t like.”
→ read full articleThe Massive Palestinian Hunger Strike: Traveling below the Western Radar
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2012
Can anyone doubt that if there were more than 1300 hunger strikers in any country in the world other than Palestine, the media in the West would be obsessed with the story? It would be featured day after day, and reported on from all angles, including the severe medical risks associated with such a lengthy refusal to take food.
→ read full articleOpening the Other Eye: Charles Taylor and Selective Criminal Accountability
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
From all that we know Charles Taylor deserves to be held criminally accountable for his role in the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone during the period 1998-2002. But there are some elements of this conviction that feed the suspicion that the West is up to its old tricks of seizing the high moral ground while pursuing economic and geopolitical goals that obstruct the political independence and sovereignty of countries that were once their colonies.
→ read full articleChoosing a President for the World Bank: West Centrism Prevails over Global Democracy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2012
This post seeks to use the selection of an American as the new President of the World Bank both to expose the fraudulent claim of a merit-based selection process and to insist indirectly that the future peace and justice of the world requires a more democratic and legitimate structure of global governance that reflects the post-colonial rise of the non-West, a rise that is not reflected in antiquated structures that persist despite changed conditions.
→ read full articleBritain Destroyed Records of Colonial Crimes
Ian Cobain, Owen Bowcott and Richard Norton-Taylor - The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Review finds thousands of papers detailing shameful acts were culled, while others were kept secret illegally.
→ read full articleThe Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret
Michael Hastings – Rolling Stone,
23 Apr 2012
An inside look at how killing by remote control has changed the way we fight.
→ read full articleNuclear Weapons Are Not Instruments Of Peace!
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
To witness otherwise perceptive and morally motivated scholars succumbing to the demons of nuclearism is a bad omen; for me this nuclearist complacency is an unmistakable sign of cultural decadence that can only bring on disaster for the society, the species, and the world at some indeterminate future point. We cannot count on our geopolitical luck lasting forever! And we Americans, cannot possibly retain the dubious advantages of targeting the entire world with these weapons of mass destruction without experiencing the effects of a profound spiritual decline.
→ read full articleThe Real Costs of Nuclear Energy
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
The only reason that nuclear energy now looks relatively cheap compared to other energy sources is that it receives huge subsidies from governments (that is from the people, without being asked). The operators of nuclear power plants are not held liable for accidents.
→ read full articleWhy Europe Is Not Yet ‘A Culture Of Peace’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
It is undoubtedly true that the greatest unacknowledged achievement of the European Union (EU) is to establish ‘a culture of peace’ within its regional enclosure for the 68 years since 1944. This has meant not only the absence of war in Europe, but also the absence of ‘war talk,’ threats, crises, and sanctions, with the single important exception of the NATO War of 1999 that was part of the fallout from the breakup of former Yugoslavia.
→ read full articleFinanciers and Sex Trafficking
Nicholas D. Kristof – The New York Times,
9 Apr 2012
The biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States appears to be a Web site called Backpage.com. This emporium for girls and women — some under age or forced into prostitution — is in turn owned by an opaque private company called Village Voice Media. Until now it has been unclear who the ultimate owners are. That mystery is solved. The owners turn out to include private equity financiers, including Goldman Sachs with a 16 percent stake.
→ read full articleIs Portugal Hopeless?
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
In the beginning of 2012, Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, dubbed the situation of Greece and Portugal “hopeless”. In support of his verdict, Darda cited high debt loads and poor prospects for growth in the two countries. The paradox of the current situation is that the European Union’s bailout package came with stipulations that, once implemented, will only worsen every fixable structural problem on the list.
→ read full articleHana Shalabi’s Hunger Strike Has Ended, but Not Her Punishment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
As with Khader Adnan, Israel supposedly compromised with Hana Shalabi on the 43rd day of her hunger strike in protest against administrative detention and her abysmal treatment. But Israel’s concept of ‘compromise’ if considered becomes indistinguishable from the imposition of a further ‘vindictive punishment.’
→ read full articleWhy Not Get the Law and Politics Right in Iran?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
As it is there is no legal foundation in the Nonproliferation Treaty or elsewhere for the present reliance on threat diplomacy in dealing with Iran. These threats violate Article 2(4) of the UN Charter that wisely prohibits not only uses of force but also threats to use force. Iran diplomacy presents an odd case, as political real politik and international law clearly point away from the military option, and yet the winds of war are blowing ever harder.
→ read full articleThe Ordeal of Hana Shalabi: Medical Urgency and Spiritual Defiance
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
The respected human rights NGOs, Addameer-Palestine and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, have expressed their deep concern for the mortal danger facing Hana Shalabi who continues her historic hunger strike to protest abuse that she experienced and her objections to the Israeli practice of prolonged detention without charges, without trial.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: The War Turns Pathological—Withdraw!
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
16 Afghan civilians, including women and children, were shot in their homes in the middle of the night. American soldiers urinating on dead Taliban fighters, Koran burning, and countryside patrols whose members were convicted by an American military tribunal of killing Afghan civilians for sport: whatever the U.S. military commanders in Kabul might sincerely say in regret and Washington might repeat by way of formal apology has become essentially irrelevant.
→ read full articleHana Shalabi: A Brave Act of Palestinian Nonviolence
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2012
Despite the calls to Palestinian from liberals in the West these extraordinary hunger strikes have met with silence or indifference in both Israel and the West. The UN has not raised its voice, as well. Hana Shalabi seems a young tender and normal woman who is dedicated to her family, hopes for marriage, and simple pleasures of shopping. She had previously been held in prison in Israel between 2009 and 2011, being released in the prisoner exchange that freed 1027 Palestinians. As she was returning to normalcy she was re-arrested in an abusive manner, which allegedly included a strip-search by a male soldier.
→ read full articleWhite House Says Child Soldiers Are OK, If They Fight Terrorists
Michelle Chen – ColorLines,
19 Mar 2012
The phenomenon of child soldiers, like genocide, slavery and torture, seems like one of those crimes that no nation could legitimately defend. Yet the Obama administration decided to leave kids stranded on the world’s bloodiest battlegrounds. It issued a presidential memorandum granting waivers from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Yemen, citing that “it is in our national interest.”
→ read full articleHow the News Media Doesn’t Give Peace a Chance
Richard Schiffman - Truthout,
19 Mar 2012
“Israel vs. Iran” reads a recent cover of The New York Times Magazine – the words written ominously in ashes from which smoke and flame still rise. Inside the magazine, Ronen Bergman a military analyst for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth argues that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2012 is inevitable… War at its root is a failure of imagination, a failure to think creatively about alternatives to violent conflict. Such is the argument of “Peace Journalism,” a field of study and practice which first emerged in the 1970s from the work of Norwegian sociologist, Johan Galtung.
→ read full articleReciprocity, Lawfare, and Self-Defense: Targeted Killing
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
There is an emergent Israeli/American controversy on the lawfulness of targeted killing. Although the policy has not yet attained the status of being a national debate, there are signs that it may be about to happen, especially in light of the Attorney General, Eric Holder’s Northwestern Law School speech on March 5, 2012 outlining the Obama’s administration’s controversial approach to targeted killing in some detail.
→ read full articleMystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World
Michael Parenti – Information Clearing House,
12 Mar 2012
Isn’t it time that liberal critics stop thinking that the people who own so much of the world—and want to own it all—are “incompetent” or “misguided” or “failing to see the unintended consequences of their policies”? You are not being very smart when you think your enemies are not as smart as you. They know where their interests lie, and so should we.
→ read full articleKoran Burning in Afghanistan: Mistake, Crime, and Metaphor
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
In this regard Koran burning may be as provocative in its assault on Afghan political culture as was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi with respect to the authoritarian cruelty of the Tunisian regime presided over by the tyrannical rule of Zine El Alindine Ben Ali, who was driven from power as a direct result. When the culture screams it is time to leave!
→ read full articleA Revolution in Botanical Nomenclature
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
12 Mar 2012
Since January 1, botanical terms are to be named in English rather than Latin, changing a centuries old practice.
→ read full articleSaving Khader Adnan’s Life and Legacy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
It is a great relief to those millions around the world who were moved to prayer and action by Khader Adnan’s extraordinary hunger strike of 66 days that has ended due to Israel’s agreement to release him on April 17 [2012].
→ read full articleThe European Union and the Rhetoric of Immaturity
Michael Marder – Al Jazeera,
27 Feb 2012
The tendency to infantalise select member states is in line with their animalisation, evident in the insulting abbreviation of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain in the word PIGS, neither as human nor as rational as the rest of the EU countries. Throughout Western philosophy, both children and animals, with their capricious wills, have been considered deficient from the standpoint of fully developed rational adults and, hence, in need of training, education, and disciplining.
→ read full articleWhen Is An ‘NGO’ Not An NGO? Twists and Turns Beneath the Cairo Skies
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
A confusing controversy between the United States and Egypt is unfolding. It has already raised tensions in the relationship between the two countries to a level that has not existed for decades. It results from moves by the military government in Cairo to go forward with the criminal prosecution of 43 foreigners, including 19 Americans, for unlawfully carrying on the work of unlicensed public interest organizations that improperly, according to Egyptian law, depend for their budget on foreign funding.
→ read full articleSaving Khader Adnan’s Life Saves Our Own Soul
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2012
The world watches as tragedy unfolds beneath its gaze as Khader Asnan enters his 63rd day as a hunger striker in an Israeli prison being held under an administrative detention order without trial, without charges, and without any indication of the evidence against him.
→ read full articleThe Menace of Present & Future Drone Warfare
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
This nonproliferation approach has been accompanying by three massive forms of deception that continues to mislead public opinion and discourage serious debate about the benefits of nuclear disarmament even at this late stage: First, the fallacious implication that the states that do not possess nuclear weapons are currently more dangerous for world peace than the states that possess, develop, and deploy these weapons of mass destruction, and have used them in the past; secondly, …
→ read full articleTurkey’s Foreign Policy: Zero Problems with Neighbors Revisited
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
We can only hope that Turkey stays the Dautoglu course, pursuing every opening that enables positive mutual relations among countries and using its diplomatic stature to encourage peaceful conflict resolution wherever possible. Rather than viewing ‘zero problems’ as a failure, it should be a time to reaffirm the creativity of Turkish foreign policy in the course of the last decade that has shown the world the benefits of soft power diplomacy, and a pattern that other governments might learn from while adapting to their own realities.
→ read full articleSupport for BDS [Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions] National Conference at the University of Pennsylvania
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
I commend the conveners for taking this initiative in the face of efforts to intimidate and confuse by those who systematically oppose debate and free inquiry concerning the various dimensions of the Israel/Palestine conflict and its bearing on American foreign policy. I have long supported the BDS as a constructive and creative movement that raises awareness and mobilizes support for the Palestinian struggle to achieve a sustainable peace based on international law and a sense of justice.
→ read full articleNuclear Free Middle East: Desirable, Necessary, and Impossible
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2012
Finally, there is some argumentation in the West supportive of a nuclear free zone for the Middle East. Such thinking is still treated as politically marginal, and hardly audible above the beat of the war drums.
→ read full articleStop Warmongering in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
To be objective commentators we must ask ourselves whether Iran’s posture toward its nuclear program is unreasonable under these circumstances. When was the last time [Iran] resorted to force against a hostile neighbor? The surprising answer is over 200 years ago! Can either of Iran’s antagonists claim a comparable record of living within its borders? Why does Iran not have the same right as other states to take full advantage of nuclear technology?
→ read full articleJulian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview
Michael Hastings – Rolling Stone,
23 Jan 2012
Under house arrest in England, the WikiLeaks founder opens up about his battle with the ‘Times,’ his stint in solitary and the future of journalism. It’s a few days before Christmas, and Julian Assange has just finished moving to a new hide-out deep in the English countryside.
→ read full articleHunger Is a ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’, Says Jean Ziegler
Siv O'Neall - ICH,
23 Jan 2012
In his latest book “Mass Destruction – the Geopolitics of Hunger”, Jean Ziegler talks about the current state of the world and the neoliberal politics of starvation of the poor, which has led to a crisis situation amounting to calculated murder. What we are witnessing today is the worst hunger crisis in human history is. And it is all because of human greed, colossal mismanagement for profit.
→ read full articleHealing Wounds: Seeking Closure for the 1915 Armenian Massacres
Richard Falk & Hilal Elver,
16 Jan 2012
Recently the National Assembly, France’s lower legislative chamber, voted to criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide in 1915, imposing a potential prison sentence of up to one year as well as a maximum fine of 45, 000 Euros. The timing of this controversial initiative seemed to represent a rather blatant Sarkhozy bid for the votes of the 500,000 French citizens of Armenian descent in the upcoming presidential election.
→ read full articleHow to Start a War: The American Use of War Pretext Incidents
Richard Sanders – Global Research,
16 Jan 2012
With regard to the confrontation in the Persian Gulf, is the Obama administration prepared to sacrifice the Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain as a means to create public outrage and drum up support for a war on Iran on the grounds of self-defense.
→ read full articleRemembering the Best and Worst of 2011
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
We will learn in 2012 whether we are moving closer to fulfilling our hopes, dreams, and goals or are trying to interpret and overcome a recurrence of disappointment and demoralization with respect to progressive change in world affairs. The stakes for some societies, and for humanity, have rarely been higher.
→ read full articleFrom the East, Long Ago…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Shortly after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, Hungary’s interior minister called the prime minister, telling him that his office had been burglarized.
→ read full articleWhat is Shame?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
‘Shame’ is a disturbing, much admired, Steve McQueen film that has been misleadingly reviewed, but deserves our serious attention. Let me put my reasoning in provocative language: ‘Shame’ depicts with chilling realism the degeneracy of high-end capitalist life style in the urban landscape of Sodom on the Hudson, otherwise known as ‘The Big Apple,’ that is, New York City.
→ read full articleSee you soon…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
A couple from New York agreed to take a week vacation together in Florida.
→ read full articleChristopher Hitchens: RIP
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
I knew Christopher Hitchens casually, envied his rhetorical fluency, abhorred his interventionist cheerleading, and was offended by his arrogantly dismissive manner toward those he deemed his inferiors in debate or discussion. Perhaps, his sociopathic arrogance is epitomized by the explanation he often gave of why he was such a heavy drinker: “I hate to be bored, and when I drink other people seem less boring.”
→ read full articleA Man in Tunisia, a Movement on Wall Street, and the Soldier Who Ignited the Fuse
Michael Moore – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
It’s Saturday [17 Dec 2011] night and I didn’t want the day to end before I sent out this note to you. One year ago TODAY (December 17th), Mohamed Bouazizi, a man who had a simple produce stand in Tunisia, set himself on fire to protest his government’s repression. Three months ago TODAY, Occupy Wall Street began with a takeover of New York’s Zuccotti Park. Twenty-four years ago TODAY, U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Manning was born. He has now spent 570 days in a military prison without a trial — simply because he allegedly blew the whistle on the illegal and immoral war in Iraq.
→ read full articleRole Model
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2011
With a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary at the church’s marriage marathon, the minister asked Brother Ralph to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he managed to live with the same woman all these years.
→ read full articleMuddle and Create
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2011
World leaders and the economists who advise them are now debating whether more stimulus or more austerity, or some combination of the two, is the path toward restoring the normal functioning of capitalist accumulation, and therefore toward higher levels of employment and economic growth. There is no solution within the terms of their debates, only an historical necessity to muddle through somehow. Nor are there well-known solutions waiting in the wings, for both central planning and social democracy are discredited by good logical reasons and by historical experience.
→ read full articleIsrael and Apartheid? Reflections on the Russell Tribunal on Palestine Session in South Africa
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2011
This post is a modified and expanded version of an article published by Al Jazeera and also a continuation of a series of posts on the general theme of a jurisprudence of conscience.
→ read full articleClassless Society
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2011
President Nehru from India was on a state visit in Moscow.
→ read full articleLincoln: “Labor is the Superior of Capital”
Alan Grayson, Michaelmoore.com – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2011
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” -Pres. Lincoln.
Capital is wealthier, better organized, and far more powerful today than it was in Lincoln’s time. Capital gorges on Republican tax cuts for the rich, on bailouts, on government contracts and corporate welfare, on free money from the Fed, and on monopoly profit. Capital treats politicians and whole political parties like puppets.
Representative Schakowsky Receives Letter of Intimidation from Former Blackwater CEO
Yana Kunichoff - Truthout,
5 Dec 2011
Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Illinois) attempt to end the multimillion dollar business of outsourcing in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t sit well with the former CEO of the notorious Blackwater company, Erik Prince, who sent a hand-delivered cease-and-desist letter to the Congresswoman threatening legal action if she continued to make “false and defamatory” statements about him.
→ read full articleKuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal: Bush and Blair Guilty
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2011
This is a modified version of a text published by Al Jazeera. It is a sequel to the piece entitled “Toward a Jurisprudence of Conscience,” and will be followed by an assessment of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine session in Cape Town, South Africa investigating the allegations that Israel is guilty of imposing apartheid on the Palestinian people, considered by the Rome Treaty framework of the International Criminal Court to be a crime against humanity.
→ read full articleGetting Even
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2011
A very loud, unattractive, mean woman walked into a market with her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance.
→ read full articleBeg Your Pardon
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2011
Saddam Hussein came to hell. The devil received him and said…
→ read full articleToward A Jurisprudence of Conscience
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2011
The existence of double standards is part of the deep structure of world politics. It was even given constitutional status by being written into the Charter of the United Nations that permits the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, that is the winners in 1945, to exercise a veto over any decision affecting the peace and security of the world, thereby exempting the world’s most dangerous states, being the most militarily powerful and expansionist, from any obligation to uphold international law.
→ read full articleLanguage, Law, and Truth
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2011
It may be time to acknowledge that governmental lawlessness in foreign policy has become a bipartisan reality for the United States Government, and that the face in the White House or the political party in control, while not yet irrelevant, is a matter of secondary interest, at least to those who are drone targets or torture victims.
→ read full articleOn (Im)Balance and Credibility in America: Israel/Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
I could not begin to count the number of times friends, and adversaries, have give me the following general line of advice: your views on Israel/Palestine would gain a much wider hearing if they showed more sympathy for Israel’s position and concerns, that is, if they were more ‘balanced.’
→ read full articleOccupy Movement: Two Texts in Solidarity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
I wish to disseminate two texts that I have signed in support of the Occupy Movement. United for #Global Democracy deserves careful study and reflection. We got comments, suggestions, support, and wrote and rewrote it again and again. The text has been supported by Canadian-based Naomi Klein, Indian-based Vandana Shiva, the US-based Michael Hardt and Noam Chomsky, as well as Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano.
→ read full articleReturning the Favor
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
A man asked his neighbor, “May I read your newspaper when you are done with it?”
→ read full articleGlobal Revolution after Tahrir Square
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
This history-making global Occupy Movement with a presence in over 900 cities would not have happened without the revolutionary awakening culminating in driving Hosni Mubarak from Egyptian state power. We need also to acknowledge that the courage exhibited by those gathered at Tahrir Square might not have been exhibited to the world if not for the earlier charismatic self-immolating martyrdom of an unlicenced street vendor of vegetables, Mohamed Bouazi, in the interior Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010.
→ read full articleEurope Bans X-Ray Body Scanners Used at U.S. Airports
Michael Grabell – ProPublica,
21 Nov 2011
The European Union on Monday [14 Nov 2011] prohibited the use of X-ray body scanners in European airports, parting ways with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. The European Commission, which enforces common policies of the EU’s 27 member countries, adopted the rule “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.” X-ray body scanners use ionizing radiation, a form of energy that has been shown to damage DNA and cause cancer.”
→ read full articleBig Change Whether We Like It or Not: Only Washington Is Clueless
Andrew Bacevich – TomDispatch,
21 Nov 2011
By attributing cosmic significance to every novelty and declaring every unexpected event a revolution, self-assigned interpreters of the contemporary scene — politicians and pundits above all — exacerbate the problem of distinguishing between the trivial and the non-trivial. Arrangements that once conferred immense prerogatives upon the United States are coming undone. In Washington, the governing class pretends that none of this is happening, stubbornly insisting that it’s still 1945 with the so-called American Century destined to continue (reflecting, of course, God’s express intentions).
→ read full articleRedeeming Desire
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
My digital friend, the respected author and journalist, Erik Wahlberg, sent me a message recently suggesting that I abandon the use of ‘horizons of desire’ as a way of framing human aspirations. He believed, with abundant justification, that desire is tied to consumerism, and the social construction of market demand for the luxurious, the wasteful, and the superfluous.
→ read full articleTwo Occupations
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
If we are to find ‘solutions’ we all need quickly to liberate our imaginations from the tyranny of ‘the feasible.’ The ‘realists’ presently holding the reins of power are unknowingly inhabiting realms of fantasy while the train of history approaches a station named DOOM. The young people are awakening to this grim realization, and for this the rest of us can be thankful, and even allow ourselves to enjoy the momentary privilege of hope.
→ read full articleCriminalizing Diplomacy: Fanning the Flames of the Iran War Option
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
How many times have we heard in recent weeks either outright threats to attack Iran mainly emanating from Israel or the more muted posture adopted by the United States that leaves ‘all options’ on the table including ‘the military option’?
→ read full articleRejecting Neoliberalism, Renewing the Utopian Imagination
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 two dismal consequences followed that have been rarely acknowledged: neoliberal orthodoxy became unchallenged and unchallengeable in the formation of global economic policy; the World Economic Forum, convening annually in Davos, became the true capital of world order after the ending of the Cold War.
→ read full articlePreparing For Revolution
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
To be human
is to be
naked
before and after
the law
‘J. Edgar’: Hoover’s Hubris Writ Large
Richard Schickel - Trughdig,
14 Nov 2011
Even by Clint Eastwood’s austere standards, “J. Edgar” is a very plain movie. It simply tells the story of J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation—or America’s “top cop” from 1924 until his death in 1972. There were, of course, oddities about him, notably his sexuality. He lived in an era when “perpetual bachelorhood” was not an automatic signal of covert homosexuality. The idea that a highly placed public figure might be gay was simply not thought about.
→ read full articleStingy…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
Why did Adam and Eve have a perfect marriage?
→ read full articlePalestine’s Time
Michel Rocard – Project Syndicate,
7 Nov 2011
For a long time, Israeli leaders have lobbied supporters like me, who, since the Holocaust, have defended the Jewish people’s right to security and statehood. But Israel’s tactics regarding Palestine have been unconscionable. They have strengthened Hamas, a hostile opponent of peace, pushed the US to vote against the Palestinian state whose birth it defends, and refused outright to accept any conditions that might resolve the conflict. No civilized country can permit this behavior.
→ read full articleUNESCO Membership and Palestinian Self-Determination
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
It may not ease the daily pain of occupation and blockade or the endless anguish of refugee status and exile or the continual humiliations of discrimination and second class citizenship, but the admission of Palestine to membership in UNESCO is for so many reasons a step forward in the long march of the Palestinian people toward the dignity of sunlight!
→ read full articleGoldstone’s Folly: Disappointing and Perverse
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
Now on the eve of the third session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine scheduled to be held in Cape Town between November 5-7 Goldstone has again come to the defense of Israel in a highly partisan manner that abandons any pretense of judicious respect for either the legal duties of those with power or the legal rights of those in vulnerable circumstances.
→ read full articleTwo More
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
An Indian went with his wife on a trip to Jerusalem.
→ read full articleLibya after Muammar el Qaddafi’s Execution
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2011
The death of the despised despot who ruled Libya for forty-two years naturally produced celebrations throughout the country. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s end was bloody and vindictive, but we should remember that his rants against his own people—and his violent repression of what was initially a peaceful uprising—invited a harsh popular response.
→ read full articleTaking Offense
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2011
A man had been through a difficult divorce and been taken to the cleaners.
→ read full articleDetail
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Two girlfriends were married for ten years and still childless.
→ read full articleOral Statement Introducing Report on Israeli Violations of Human Rights in Occupied Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Oral Presentation on 20 October 2011 of Report to the General Assembly by Special Rapporteur on “Situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967,” submitted in 13 September 2011.
→ read full articleSome Church
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
At an Irish bar, there was a contest for the best toast.
→ read full articleOccupy Wall Street and “The American Autumn”: Is It a “Colored Revolution”? (Part I)
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research,
17 Oct 2011
There is a grassroots protest movement unfolding across America, which includes people from all walks of life, from all age groups, conscious of the need for social change and committed to reversing the tide. The grassroots of this movement constitutes a response to the “Wall Street agenda” of financial fraud and manipulation which has served to trigger unemployment and poverty across the land.
→ read full articleDrone Attacks: American Citizens and Foreign Civilians
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
The execution of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-Yemeni imam, by a drone attack in Yemen on September 30, 2011 has generated a lively debate among liberally minded lawyers in the United States because al-Awlaki was an American citizen.
→ read full articleWhy No Demands – Occupy Wall Street is a Rebellion, Not a Protest
Michael Levitin – Nation of Change,
17 Oct 2011
Let’s get something straight: this movement has issued no demands. It is not a protest. It’s an occupation. Rebellions don’t have demands.
→ read full articleIs this a Global Gandhian Moment?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
Mahatma Gandhi has been dead for more than 63 years, and yet his relevance to the politics of our time has never been greater. It is a tribute to the power of Gandhi’s inspirational ideas and life that his current influence is far greater than that of any other leader of the past century.
→ read full articleMissing the Point Twice: International Law as Empire’s Sunday Suit
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
In effect, post-9/11 American ideas of self-defense incorporate by stealth the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war used to justify aggression against Iraq in 2003, which had seemed discredited in international until quietly revived by the Obama presidency.
→ read full article