Articles by RD
We found 3495 results.
After Capitalism: ”Beyond Capitalism”
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
Guardian columnist George Monbiot argues that a world after capitalism is not a communist state but an advanced form of social democracy where the distribution of wealth is more stringently regulated.
→ read full articleNetanyahu’s Secret War Plan: Leaked Document Outlines Israel’s “Shock and Awe” Plan to Attack Iran
Richard Silverstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
In the past few days, I received an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel’s war plans against Iran. The document was passed to me by a high-level Israeli source who received it from an IDF officer. My source, in fact, wrote to me that normally he would not leak this sort of document, but:
→ read full articleConstipation and Cleansing the Colon
Dr. Edward Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2012
Millions of Americans exhibit constipation symptoms on a frequent basis, both minor and severe. Given how many people experience this, and how often, it gives support to the argument that constipation is so prevalent and widespread it should be considered an epidemic.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Noam Chomsky: “Querem Vencer Assange pelo Cansaço”
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
Nesta entrevista ao site equatoriano GkillCity, o linguista e filósofo norte-americano defende que Assange não teria hipóteses de ter um julgamento justo nos Estados Unidos. Chomsky acrescenta que do ponto de vista de quem ama a democracia, o fundador do Wikileaks merecia “uma medalha de honra” em vez de um julgamento.
→ read full articleTen Years of AKP Leadership in Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
It needs to be appreciated that Turkey viewed from outside by most informed observers, especially in the region, remains a shining success story, both economically and politically. Nothing could bring more hope and pride to the region than for the Turkish ascent to be achieved elsewhere, of course, allowing for national variations of culture, history, and resource endowments, but sharing the commitment to build an inclusive democracy in which the military stays in the barracks and the diplomats take pride in resolving and preventing conflicts.
→ read full articleHuman Rights Critics of Russia and Ecuador Parade Their Own Hypocrisy
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
27 Aug 2012
The media’s new converts to civic freedom over the Pussy Riot and Assange asylum affairs show a jingoism blind to US abuses.
→ read full articleDon’t Lose Sight of Why the US Is Out To Get Julian Assange
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
27 Aug 2012
Ecuador is pressing for a deal that offers justice to Assange’s accusers – and essential protection for whistleblowers. Considering he made his name with the biggest leak of secret government documents in history, you might imagine there would be at least some residual concern for Julian Assange among those trading in the freedom of information business. But the virulence of British media hostility towards the WikiLeaks founder is now unrelenting.
→ read full articlePalestinian Hunger Strikes: Why Still Invisible?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2012
When it is realized that Mahatma Gandhi shook the British Empire with a series of hunger strikes, none lasting more than 21 days, it is shameful that Palestinian hunger strikers ever since last December continue to exhibit their extreme courage by refusing food for periods ranging between 40 and over 90 days, and yet these exploits are unreported by the media and generally ignored by relevant international institutions.
→ read full articleToward a New Geopolitics?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
The Chinese proverb is correct in its chilling reminder that ‘it is a curse to live in interesting times,’ but given the changing historical experiences with warfare, the growing sense of great ecological hazard, and the strengthening attachment to global justice agendas, maybe just this once, the fascinations of our age will turn out to be ‘a blessing.’
→ read full articleA Message in Blood That No One Wants to Hear
Tom Engelhardt – Al Jazeera,
20 Aug 2012
Foreign troops are dying at the hands of their Afghan “allies” in large numbers, underscoring a lack of trust. Perhaps the sole historical example that comes close might be the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In reality, the American mission in Afghanistan failed years ago. It’s as if we refused to notice, but the Afghans we were training did. Now, they are sending a message that couldn’t be blunter or grimmer from that endlessly war-torn land.
→ read full articleSoul Searching and Common Sense after Oak Creek
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
President Obama has responded to the killing of six members of the Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin this last Sunday [5 Aug 2012] with these words: “All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity….” To fail to mention the grotesque absurdity of legally allowing almost everyone in the United States to buy assault weapons and large quantities of ammunition online or at neighborhood shops can only be explained by the intimidating influence of the gun lobby, and its accompanying gun culture, in this country as currently heightened by an ongoing, nasty presidential election campaign.
→ read full articleFinancial Crisis: 25 People at the Heart of the Meltdown – Where Are They Now?
Rupert Neate – The Guardian,
13 Aug 2012
In 2009 the Guardian identified 25 people – bankers, economists, central bankers and politicians – whose actions had led the world into the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression. On the fifth anniversary of the credit crunch, what are they doing?
→ read full articleBeyond Words: Poet’s Lament
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Poetry at its finest stretches the expressiveness of language beyond its prior limits, not necessarily by its choice of words, but through the magical invocation of feelings embedded deeply within consciousness. When we do not respect the unspeakable by our silence we domesticate the criminality of the horror that human beings are capable of inflicting on one another, and give way to the eventual emergence of normalcy as has happened with nuclear weapons detached from the happenings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
→ read full articleNepal: From Contradictions to Compelling Constructive Visions
Naakow Grant-Hayford, Galtung-Institut – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Federica Riccadonna is a research associate of the Galtung-Institut for Peace Theory and Peace Practice and currently a visiting researcher at the Asian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Transformation-ASPECT in Kathmandu. She depicts the Nepalese society as one in the throes of a deeply fraught political transition towards a more stable and just future and identifies important contradictions underpinning – and potentially able to undermine – the current constitutional and federal peace-building efforts, going on to suggest plausible progressive ways ahead.
→ read full articleThe Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic
Richard A. Muller – International Herald Tribune (NYT),
6 Aug 2012
CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.
→ read full articleBradley Manning’s Lawyers Seek To Show Torturous Holding Conditions
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
Civilian lawyer David Coombs wants to call a military psychiatrist who consistently recommended to Manning’s captors at the brig at Quantico that the prisoner should be removed from restrictive conditions. But his advice was ignored and Manning continued to be subjected to solitary confinement, being stripped naked, held in a bare cell and made to wear a rough smock at night. Witnesses will testify, the defence motion states, that when the psychiatrists objected to the conditions, they were told by the military chiefs in the brig: “We will do whatever we want to do.”
→ read full articleHow the European Central Bank Came To Control the Fate of the World Economy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
World stock markets and European bond markets rallied last week in response to three words that came from the mouth of Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank: that the ECB would do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. What does this all mean to the average person in the eurozone, or in Spain, where unemployment just hit a record 24.6%?
→ read full articleWhat Dani Dayan Says and Why It Is Interesting
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
Dani Dayan’s article, “Israel’s Settlers Are Here to Stay,” was published by the NY Times on July 26, 2012. Dayan is the chairman of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities, and has been long known as a leading spokesperson of the settler movement. An obvious response to such a settler screed might be to dismiss it out of hand as an extremist expression of Israeli views, which it certainly is, but it would seem a mistake to do this before taking some account of its content and timing.
→ read full articleToward a Gandhian Geopolitics: A Feasible Utopia?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
There is no doubt that I would like to live in a borderless soft power world that was consistently attentive to human suffering, protective of the global commons, and subject to the discipline of global constitutional democracy. As global conditions now confirm, such a benign fantasy lacks political traction at present, and is thus an irresponsible worldview from the perspective of humane problem solving.
→ read full articleUS Officers Tell Congress That General Blocked Probe of Hospital in Kabul
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
30 Jul 2012
The American general who led a NATO training mission in Afghanistan opposed an investigation into corruption and “Auschwitz-like” conditions at a US-funded hospital in Kabul for political reasons, US military officers told Congress on Tuesday [24 Jul 2012]. One active-duty officer testified that the three-star general, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, who headed the training mission in Afghanistan, forced him to retract a request for an inspector general’s investigation into the Dawood national military hospital.
→ read full articleA Brief Further Comment on Syria
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
Military intervention rarely succeeds, violates the right of self-determination, and often expands the scope and severity of violence, especially if carried out from the air. Furthermore, we know little about the opposition in Syria, to what extent its governance of the country would be based on the rule of law and human rights. There are confusing reports about rebel atrocities as well as concerning the role of Al Qaeda operatives leading some of the rebel forces, and also indications that Gulf money and weapons have been supplied to these forces ever since the beginning of the anti-Damascus uprising.
→ read full articleParaguay’s Bitter Harvest: Multinational Corporations Reap Benefits from Coup Government
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
30 Jul 2012
A look at how the coup government is opening up Paraguay to multinational corporate exploitation, from the Canadian Rio Tinto Alcan mining company to Monsanto’s seeds. As Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano said in an interview regarding the coup in Paraguay, the Lugo government tried “to bring about changes that were aimed at making the country more independent and just, but this was an unpardonable sin for the power brokers.”
→ read full articleOccupy the Dam: Brazil’s Indigenous Uprising
John Perkins – Toward Freedom,
30 Jul 2012
In the Amazonian backcountry, tribes are challenging construction of the world’s third-largest dam—by dismantling it. Here’s what they can teach us about standing up to power.
→ read full articleThis Global Financial Fraud and Its Gatekeepers
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
The media’s ‘bad apple’ thesis no longer works. We’re seeing systemic corruption in banking – and systemic collusion.
→ read full articleThe Syrian Opposition: Who’s Doing the Talking?
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
The media have been too passive when it comes to Syrian opposition sources, without scrutinising their backgrounds and their political connections. Time for a closer look… This is a story about the storytellers: the spokespeople, the “experts on Syria”, the “democracy activists”. The statement makers. The people who “urge” and “warn” and “call for action”.
→ read full articleWest’s Mistake: Focus on Al Qaeda
Dr Robin-Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
The Real Big Problem Is Saudi Arabia – One of our really big foreign policy mistakes in the West has been to focus on Al Qaeda, as if it were an isolated phenomenon.
→ read full articleGlobal Banks Are the Financial Services Wing of the Drug Cartels
Ed Vulliamy – The Guardian,
23 Jul 2012
“Steal a little,” wrote Bob Dylan, “they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you a king.” These days, he might recraft the line to read: deal a little dope, they throw you in jail; launder the narco billions, they’ll make you apologise to the US Senate.
→ read full articleHuman Corpses Harvested in Multimillion-Dollar Trade
Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller, Thomas Maier and Gerard Ryle - The Sydney Morning Herald,
23 Jul 2012
A grisly trade in human body parts leaves relatives grieving and some recipients at risk of life-threatening disease. On February 24 [2012], Ukrainian authorities made an alarming discovery: bones and other human tissues crammed into coolers in a grimy white minibus.
→ read full articleFor 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 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 articleEvidence of A US Judicial Vendetta against WikiLeaks Activists Mounts
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
9 Jul 2012
Iceland’s government warns me not to visit the US, which tried to hack my Twitter account: Julian Assange has legitimate fears. I knew when I put down my name as co-producer of a video, released by WikiLeaks, showing United States soldiers shooting civilians in Baghdad from a helicopter that my life would never be the same. Telling the truth during times of universal deceit might be considered a revolutionary act, but only to those who want to keep us in the dark, not by those who feel compelled to do so.
→ read full articleThe Lessons Washington Can’t Draw From the Failure of the Military Option
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
9 Jul 2012
The Pentagon is, by now, a world unto itself, with a staggering budget at a moment when no other power or combination of powers comes near to challenging this country’s might. Even the once-civilian CIA has undergone a process of para-militarization and now runs its own “covert” drone wars in Pakistan and elsewhere. In a sense, even the military has been “militarized.” In these last years, a secret army of special operations forces, 60,000 or more strong and still expanding, has grown like an incubus inside the regular armed forces.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Parlamento Europeu Põe Ponto Final no ACTA
Esquerda – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
O Acordo Comercial Anticontrafação (ACTA) foi esta quarta feira [4 Julho 2012] rejeitado no Parlamento Europeu com 478 votos contra, 39 votos a favor e 169 abstenções. Vital Moreira foi o único eurodeputado português a votar a favor deste Tratado. O ACTA ficará agora sem efeito no espaço da União Europeia.
→ 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 articleDeath of Democracy in America
Terrence Edward Paupp – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
Democracy in the United States is completely dead. The American people are living under the tyranny of an oligarchy that is run between the financial sector on Wall Street and its bought-and-paid-for minions in Washington, D.C. With the exception of a few elected officials, the main concern of senators and congressmen is not the welfare of the people but the business interests of US big corporations, generally headed by the weapons industry and the military industrial complex.
→ read full articleFinal Declaration of the People’s Summit Rio+20
Robert Pollard – Pressenza International Press Agency,
2 Jul 2012
Peoples’ Summit Rio +20 for Social and Environmental Justice in defense of the commons, against the commodification of life. The syntheses were approved in plenary integrate and complement this policy document for the people, movements and organizations can continue to converge and deepen their struggles and building alternatives in their territories, regions and countries all over the world.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Falando Um Pouco Sobre “A Economia da Natureza”
Marcus Eduardo de Oliveira – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
Enquanto as leis da Economia continuarem ignorando, por completo, as leis da Natureza, o futuro (o nosso futuro!) estará mais e mais comprometido, expondo todos nós em sério risco. Somente quando o colapso ambiental se fizer evidente, é que nos lembraremos das sábias palavras do cacique Seattle: “Quando a última árvore for abatida, quando o último rio for envenenado, quando o último peixe for capturado, somente então nos daremos conta de que não se pode comer dinheiro”.
→ 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 articleParaguay’s Parliamentary Coup
Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber – The Bullet,
2 Jul 2012
Authors and activists Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber analyze the ouster of Paraguay’s president. A soft coup has ousted center-leftist Fernando Lugo from the presidency in Paraguay and replaced him with a long-time political enemy.
→ read full articleLatin America: How the US Has Allied With the Forces of Reaction
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
It was three years ago this week [29 Jun 2012] that the Honduran military launched an assault on the home of President Mel Zelaya, kidnapped him, and flew him out of the country. The Obama administration knew in advance and did not condemn the coup. The US has lost most of its influence in the vast majority of the Americas over the past decade. It is only a matter of time before even poor countries like Honduras and Paraguay gain their rights to democracy and self-determination.
→ 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 articleProminent Americans Urge Ecuador to Accept Julian Assange’s Asylum Request
Ben Quinn – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
A letter signed by leading US figures in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s application for political asylum in Ecuador has been delivered to the country’s London embassy. Among those who signed the letter were Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky, Danny Glover, author Naomi Wolf, comedian Bill Maher, and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and has been a long-standing supporter of Assange.
→ read full articleVitamins and Minerals
Dr. Edward Group – Global Healing Center,
2 Jul 2012
Even though they’re in almost everything we eat and drink, many people aren’t exactly clear what the distinction is between vitamins and dietary minerals. We’re told they’re important and we need them to keep us healthy, but what’s the difference?
→ read full articleJulian Assange’s Right to Asylum
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
25 Jun 2012
If one asks current or former WikiLeaks associates what their greatest fear is, almost none cites prosecution by their own country. The primary fear is being turned over to the US. That is the crucial context for understanding Julian Assange’s 16-month fight to avoid extradition to Sweden, a fight that led him to seek asylum, Tuesday [19 Jun 2012], in the London Embassy of Ecuador.
→ read full articleMonsanto: A Modern Day Plague
Lisa Cerda, CityWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2012
Monsanto’s history is one steeped with controversial products, deadly consequences, massive cover ups, political slight of hand, and culminates as a modern day plague on humanity, a plague that is about to peak to biblical proportions.
→ 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 articleJulian Assange Loses Appeal against Extradition to Sweden
John Aston & Cathy Gordon – The Independent,
19 Jun 2012
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has failed in his bid to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden where he faces sex crime allegations. The announcement was made today [14 Jun 2012] by the Supreme Court.
→ read full articleBusted: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths from GM Corn
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2012
In a riveting victory against genetically modified creations, a major biotech company known as Syngenta has been criminally charged for denying knowledge that its GM Bt corn actually kills livestock.
→ 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 article(Portuguese) Rio+20: Economia Verde Para Salvar o Planeta Ou o Capitalismo?
Rita Calvário, esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
Colocar no centro das soluções a “economia verde” é, em termos gerais, justo. O problema é quando esta transição verde não questiona nem transforma os fundamentos da economia que existe, o capitalismo. Nos dias 20 a 22 de Junho [2012] os líderes mundiais juntam-se na Conferência da ONU sobre “Desenvolvimento Sustentável”, intitulada Rio+20. A sua antecessora ocorreu 20 anos antes sob o lema “Ambiente e Desenvolvimento”, mais conhecida por Cúpula da Terra ou Rio 92.
→ read full article(Portuguese) A Ausência de Uma Nova Narrativa na Rio+20
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
18 Jun 2012
O vazio básico do documento da ONU para a Rio+20 reside numa completa ausência de uma nova narrativa ou de uma nova cosmologia que poderia garantir a esperança de um “futuro que queremos” lema do grande encontro. A narrativa atual é a da conquista do mundo em vista do progresso e do crescimento ilimitado.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Lawyer in Struggle to Have Government Documents Released
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
11 Jun 2012
The US government is in possession of 250,000 pages of documents relating to the transmission of state secrets to whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which it is refusing to disclose to defence lawyers representing the alleged source of the leaks, Bradley Manning.
→ 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 articleThe Health Benefits of Sungazing
Dr. Edward Group – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
The practice of sungazing closely resembles its name. At sunrise and/or sunset, when the sun is closest to the earth, sungazers stand barefoot on the earth and look directly at the sun for 10 seconds. The theory is that the sun is the force of all life, and staring at it can infuse the body with large amounts of energy.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Rio+20: Em Busca de Um Civismo Planetário
Eduardo Febbro – Carta Maior,
11 Jun 2012
O coordenador executivo da Rio+20, Brice Lalonde analisa, em entrevista especial, os desafios e obstáculos que estão colocados para a conferência. “Uma das grandes dificuldades que temos hoje está em que dentro da cada país há pouquíssimos negociadores que pensam no planeta, na humanidade em seu conjunto. Eles pensam em seus países e em seus interesses nacionais. Há muito civismo nacional e pouco civismo planetário”, diz Lalonde.
→ read full articleMother Nature Doesn’t Quit
Jim Hightower – Other Words,
11 Jun 2012
So much of Monsanto’s poison was spread in the past decade that weeds naturally developed a resistance to it. Rather than find ways to cooperate with the natural world, America’s agribusiness giants reach for the next quick fix in a futile effort to overpower nature. Their attitude is that if brute force isn’t working, they’re probably not using enough of it.
→ read full articleIceland Economy Grows At Fastest Pace in Four Years
Niklas Pollard, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
Iceland’s economy expanded in the first quarter at its fastest pace since its near-meltdown, powered by a surge in exports, tourism and domestic consumption. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year to put annual economic growth at 4.5 percent in the period, the highest since the first quarter of 2008, data from the statistics office showed on Friday [8 Jun 2012].
→ 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 articleBradley Manning, America’s Martyr for Open Government
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
4 Jun 2012
The alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, detained and abused for two years in prison, now on secret trial, defends all our freedoms. The land of the free has long gone into a cloak of dark secrets. If freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of information are taken from the marginalized few, you will never know when you will be next: do nothing and when they come for you, there will be no one left to defend you.
→ 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 articleFrench Ban of Monsanto GM Maize Rejected By EU
Adam Vaughan – The Guardian,
28 May 2012
France’s attempt to ban the planting of a Monsanto strain of genetically modified maize was rejected by the EU’s food safety body on Monday [21 May 2012]. In response to scientific evidence submitted by France backing its bid to ban the GM maize, the European Food Safety Authority ruled that “there is no specific scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human and animal health or the environment” to support a ban.
→ read full articleGM Crops: Protesters Go Back To the Battlefields
Leo Hickman – The Guardian,
28 May 2012
A decade ago anti-GM protesters tore up fields and Britain roundly rejected so-called ‘Frankenfood’. Now, as researchers trial new crops, activists are once more squaring up to the scientists. But have the arguments changed?
→ 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 articleBig Brother Brainwash Comes To Koodankulam
Veena Joshi Datta – The Sunday Standard,
28 May 2012
BANGALORE: The Centre has decided to counsel protestors at Koodankulam on the necessity of nuclear power plants for the development of the country by engaging a team of psychiatrists from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore for the job.
→ 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 articleAfghanistan’s’ Chicago Resistance
Malalai Joya – The Guardian,
21 May 2012
Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Chicago this weekend [20-21 May 2012] for Nato’s annual summit where Afghanistan will be top of the agenda. It promises to be one of the most important anti-war demonstrations of our generation.
→ read full article
Norman Finkelstein – Political Scientist
BBC HARD Talk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
May 2012 – What happens if American Jews fall out of love with Israel? That’s what the Jewish American academic Norman Finkelstein claims is happening. He says they are now so unhappy with what Israel is doing that they want to distance themselves from the country.
→ 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 articleRemembering Talal Hamseh, Murdered by Wahabbists in Damascus
Robin Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2012
On April 27 Talal was parking his car when a Syrian terrorist shot him through the head. He was a kind young man, my daughter’s friend. This murder has been proudly displayed on the murderers’ website, a ‘rebel’ trying to overthrow the Syrian regime. Why would we support Sunni Wahabbist terrorists murdering other Muslims, Christians and Alawites?
→ 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 articleMore Palestinian Prisoners Join Hunger Strike
Harriet Sherwood, Ramallah – The Guardian,
30 Apr 2012
26 Apr 2012 – The number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails has grown to 2,000, with more preparing to join the protest next week, according to human rights groups in the West Bank. The Israeli prison service is taking punitive measures against hunger strikers, including solitary confinement, the confiscation of personal belongings, transfers and denial of family visits, say Palestinian organisations.
→ read full articleThe Obama Contradiction: Weakling at Home, Imperial President Abroad
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
30 Apr 2012
He has few constraints (except those he’s internalized). No one can stop him or countermand his orders. He has a bevy of lawyers at his beck and call to explain the “legality” of his actions. And if he cares to, he can send a robot assassin to kill you, whoever you are, no matter where you may be on planet Earth. He sounds like a typical villain from a James Bond novel.
→ read full articleBlamed for Bee Collapse, Monsanto Buys Leading Bee Research Firm
Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. It appears that when Monsanto cannot answer for their environmental devastation, they buy up a company that may potentially be their ‘experts’ in denying any such link between their crops and the bee decline.
→ 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 articleCISPA Will Give the US Unprecedented Access, Internet Privacy Advocates Warn
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Washington looks set to wave through new cybersecurity legislation next week [23 Apr 2012] that opponents fear will wipe out decades of privacy protections at a stroke. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) will be discussed in the House of Representatives next week and already has the support of 100 House members.
→ read full articleWars Leave Crumbling Infrastructure At Home for US
Clifford A. Kiracofe - Global Times, China,
16 Apr 2012
While politicians in Washington recklessly call for bombing Syria and Iran, they ignore the economic costs of failed US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past, the US paid for its wars through increased taxes and the sale of war bonds. The recent wars, however, have been paid for mostly through borrowing. Thus, there is an adverse economic impact with respect to the increased national debt, to the increased budget deficits, and to the upward pressure on interest rates. So how did the US get into its current predicament?
→ read full articleAfghan War Whistleblower Daniel Davis: ‘I Had To Speak Out – Lives Are At Stake’
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
The career soldier is now a black sheep at the giant defence department building where he still works. The reason was his extraordinarily brave decision to accuse America’s military top brass of lying about the war in Afghanistan. When he went public in the New York Times, he was acclaimed as a hero for speaking out about a war that many Americans feel has gone horribly awry.
→ 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 article‘New’ Burma Has Winners and Losers
Esmer Golluoglu in Rangoon – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
As business opportunities explode after the relaxing of domestic and international restrictions, many doubt whether Burma’s poor will benefit. Zayar Thaw, one of Burma’s best-known rappers, who spent three years as a political prisoner and has just been elected to parliament, says only time will tell what lies ahead: “Burma is changing, and it’s changing very fast. I am very surprised and a little bit nervous, to be honest.”
→ read full articleLiving In a Nuclear Hell
Charles Stratford – Al Jazeera,
9 Apr 2012
The town of Muslymovo has to be one of the saddest places on earth. The thousands of people who have little choice but to live here, on the banks of the Techa river not far from Russia’s southern border with Kazakhstan, are the victims of a nuclear disaster that began more than six decades ago.
→ 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 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 article(French) Le Monde Anglo-Saxon du XXI° Siècle: Retour au Féodalisme
Frédéric Beaugeard – Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin-GEAB,
9 Apr 2012
Lorsqu’il s’agit de comprendre le Monde Contemporain en vue d’en analyser ses possibles futures évolutions, force est de constater que le principe apparent de synergie regroupant les différents éléments le composant n’était qu’une apparence trompeuse.
→ read full articleWho Is Jim Yong Kim, Nominee For World Bank President?
Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke – The Christian Science Monitor,
2 Apr 2012
23 Mar 2012 – The selection of Jim Yong Kim took many by surprise since he is not well known in Washington circles and wasn’t an expected candidate for the World Bank position. President Barack Obama has nominated Jim Yong Kim, a global health policy expert and the president of Dartmouth College, to run the World Bank.
→ read full articleJournalist Seeking Truth about Khmer Rouge ‘Fears for His Life’
Kate Hodal in Phnom Penh – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath says he has been followed, harassed and chased during his research.
→ read full articleUS Anti-Terrorism Law Curbs Free Speech and Activist Work, Court Told
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
A group political activists and journalists has launched a legal challenge to stop an American law they say allows the US military to arrest civilians anywhere in the world and detain them without trial as accused supporters of terrorism. The seven figures, who include ex-New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, professor Noam Chomsky and Icelandic politician and WikiLeaks campaigner Birgitta Jonsdottir, testified to a Manhattan judge that the law – dubbed the NDAA or Homeland Battlefield Bill – would cripple free speech around the world.
→ 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 articleFighting Fire in Haiti
Alexis Erkert – Toward Freedom,
2 Apr 2012
Camp Kozbami is the fifth camp to be arsoned in two months. As landowners and the government push to close camps inhabited by those displaced by the earthquake that rocked Haiti 26 months ago, a reported 94,632 individuals are facing forced eviction. Residents of the 660 displacement camps scattered throughout the Port-au-Prince area are experiencing increasing levels of threats and violence.
→ read full articleThe Reason I’m Helping Chris Hedges’ Lawsuit against the NDAA
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
By placing journalists in jeopardy for reporting on ‘terrorists’, the Homeland Battlefield Bill has had a chilling effect on media work and upon my ability to investigate and document matters of national controversy that would ordinarily be subject to my professional inquiry. It has therefore prevented my readers from receiving the full spectrum of truthful reporting which, in a functioning democracy, they have a right to expect.
→ read full articleWhy Barack Obama is the More Effective Evil
Glen Ford – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
No matter how much evil Barack Obama actually accomplishes during his presidency, people that call themselves leftists insist on dubbing him the Lesser Evil. Not only is Obama not given proper credit for out-evil-ing George Bush, domestically and internationally, but the First Black President is awarded positive grades for his intentions versus the presumed intentions of Republicans. As the author says, this “is psycho-babble, not analysis. No real Left would engage in it.”
→ 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 articleU.S. Government Still Not Ready for Democracy in Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
Haitians were ready again in 2000 when they elected Aristide a second time with 90 percent of the vote. But Washington would not accept the results of that election either, so it organized a cut-off of international aid to the government and poured millions into the opposition. As Paul Farmer (Bill Clinton’s Deputy Special Envoy of the UN to Haiti) testified to the U.S. Congress in 2010: “Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration.”
→ read full articleBolivia Has Transformed Itself by Ignoring the Washington Consensus
Luis Hernández Navarro – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
In the past six years, Bolivia has become one of the Latin American countries most successful at improving its citizens’ standard of living. Economic indicators such as low unemployment and decreased poverty, as well as better public healthcare and education, are outstanding.
→ read full article