Articles by RD
We found 3495 results.
How Nuclear Apologists Mislead the World over Radiation
Helen Caldicott – The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
George Monbiot and others at best misinform and at worst distort evidence of the dangers of atomic energy.
→ read full articleRethinking Germany
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2011
For Germany to stand alone among its Western allies while being in solidarity with the BRIC countries should be a moment of national pride, not a time for solemn soul searching as the German mainstream media has been encouraging.
→ read full articleBradley Manning: Top US Legal Scholars Voice Outrage At ‘Torture’
Ed Pilkington in New York - The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
More than 250 of America’s most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his “degrading and inhumane conditions” are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture. The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America’s foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
→ read full articleBolivia Enshrines Natural World’s Rights with Equal Status for Mother Earth
John Vidal in La Paz – The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings” and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.
→ read full articleA Hapless Fukushima Clean-Up Effort
Veronika Hackenbroch, Cordula Meyer and Thilo Thielke – Der Spiegel,
11 Apr 2011
The lack of an effective emergency crisis management has underscored how poorly prepared TEPCO and indeed the Japanese authorities were for a nuclear disaster. Engineers seem helpless in their efforts to cope with radioactive water and workers aren’t even getting proper meals.
→ read full articleLatin America Shakes Off the US Yoke
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
11 Apr 2011
The current spat with Ecuador is symptomatic of Washington’s failure to grasp that it no longer exercises regional hegemony.
→ read full articleObama’s Libyan Folly: To be or not to be…
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2011
The outcome in Libya remains uncertain, but what seems clear beyond reasonable doubt is that military intervention has not saved the day for either the shadowy opposition known as ‘the rebels,’ and certainly not for the people of the country.
→ read full articleBRICS to Promote More Inclusive Global Partnership
Gordon Ross – Inter Press Service-IPS,
11 Apr 2011
At the upcoming Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit, to be held on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan Apr. 14, discussion will focus not only on deepening economic ties among members, but will also likely touch on global political events, including the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. But China insists the club has no political agenda.
→ read full articleNarco Violence in Mexico: Eight Theses and Many Questions
Paco Ignacio Taibo II – Toward Freedom,
4 Apr 2011
Calderón negotiated the launching of this war with President Bush, not with the then newly-arrived Obama. And he agreed in terms of a package deal with absurd conditions. The drug war has never been, nor should it be, a Mexican War. It was, and is an essentially American war generated by increased consumption of drugs on a global scale which initiated in the United States.
→ read full articleLibya is another Case of Selective Vigilantism by the West
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
4 Apr 2011
The US-Nato intervention in Libya, with United Nations security council cover, is part of an orchestrated response to show support for the movement against one dictator in particular and by so doing to bring the Arab rebellions to an end by asserting western control, confiscating their impetus and spontaneity and trying to restore the status quo ante.
→ read full articleJoint Statement on the Japanese Nuclear Disaster
The Right Livelihood Award & World Future Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Apr 2011
Hamburg, Stockholm, 29 March 2011. In a joint statement 50 Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award and members of the World Future Council demand a global nuclear phase out.
→ read full articleContinuing Colonialism: World Bank Funds Mining in Africa
Cyril Mychalejko – Toward Freedom,
28 Mar 2011
Dr. Aaron Tesfaye, a professor of International Political Economy and African Politics at William Paterson University, said he is not surprised by the announcement because of the economic and security implications mining and strategic metals have for industrialized nations.
→ read full articleQaddafi, Moral Interventionism, Libya, and the Arab Revolutionary Moment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2011
Recently [Qaddafi] confirmed this assessment, referring to his own people as ‘rats and dogs’ or ‘cockroaches,’ and employing the bloodthirsty and vengeful language of a demented tyrant. Such a tragic imposition of political abuse on the Libyan experience is a painful reality that exists beyond any reasonable doubt, but does it validate a UN authorized military intervention carried out by a revived partnership of those old colonial partners, France and Britain, and their post-colonial American imperial overseer? I think not.
→ read full articleThe Ransoming of Raymond Davis
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
What does the United States’ record on justice and human rights look like after it has paid to get its alleged CIA killer out of jail?
→ read full articleBradley Manning’s Military Doctors Accused Over Treatment
Ed Pilkington in New York – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
A leading group of doctors in the US concerned with the ethical treatment of patients has questioned the role of military psychiatrists in Quantico, Virginia, where the suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning is being subjected to harsh treatment that some call torture. The advocacy body Physicians for Human Rights has sounded the alarm over the role of psychiatrists at the brig in the marine base where Manning has been in custody since last July.
→ read full articleAnonymous Hackers Release Bank of America Emails
Dominic Rushe in New York – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
The hacker group Anonymous has released a cache of emails obtained from someone said to be a former Bank of America employee.
→ read full articleGroundbreaking New UN Report on How to Feed the World’s Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture
Jill Richardson - AlterNet,
21 Mar 2011
A new report from the UN advises ditching corporate-controlled and chemically intensive farming in favor of agroecology. There are a billion hungry people in the world and that number could rise as food insecurity increases along with population growth, economic fallout and environmental crises. But a roadmap to defeating hunger exists, if we can follow the course — and that course involves ditching corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive farming.
→ read full articleLearning from Disaster? After Sendai
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Mar 2011
Let us fervently hope that this Sendai disaster will not take further turns for the worse, but that the warnings already embedded in such happenings, will awaken enough people to the dangers on this path of hyper-modernity so that a politics of limits can arise to challenge the prevailing politics of limitless growth. Such a challenge must include the repudiation of a neoliberal worldview, insisting without compromise on an economics based on needs and people rather than on profit margins and capital efficiency.
→ read full articleJulian Assange Tells Students That the Web Is the Greatest Spying Machine Ever
Patrick Kingsley – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
“While the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing, and to let us co-operate with each other to hold repressive governments and repressive corporations to account, it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen,” he told students at Cambridge University. Hundreds queued for hours to attend.
→ read full articleThis Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning
Daniel Ellsberg – The Guardian,
14 Mar 2011
The WikiLeaks suspect’s mistreatment amounts to torture. Either President Obama knows this or he should make it his business.
→ read full articleWill We Ever Learn? Kicking the Intervention Habit
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Mar 2011
It should be obvious that a no-fly zone in Libyan airspace is an act of war, as would be, of course, contemplated air strikes on fortifications of the Qadaffi forces. The core legal obligation of the UN Charter requires member states to refrain from any use of force unless it can be justified as self-defense after a cross-border armed attack or mandated by a decision of the UN Security Council. Neither of these conditions authorizing a legal use of force is remotely present,…
→ read full article(Portuguese) 8 De Março: Simbolismo ou Luta Permanente?
Mariana Aiveca – Esquerda.net,
7 Mar 2011
A par da luta contra a violência, o direito ao trabalho e à independência económica devem estar no centro das reivindicações das mulheres neste dia 8 de Março de 2011.
→ read full articleThe Story of Citizens United (Short Video)
Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff Project – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
Why have corporations gotten so powerful? And what can we do about it? The Story of Citizens United v. FEC, an exploration of the inordinate power that corporations exercise in our democracy.
→ read full articleCommentary on Recent Developments: Interview Responses
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
The following Q & A interview consists of my responses to questions put to me by the outstanding Greek journalist, C. J. Polychroniou, and is being published in a Greek newspaper.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Charged With Aiding the Enemy — Whistleblowing Punishable by Death?
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - AlterNet,
7 Mar 2011
These new charges are dangerous to Bradley — as well as to the transparency movement, the free press, and the foundations of open democracy in general — because they carry with them the penalty of death. Through some bizarre series of events we have arrived at a point in which our nation, once a beacon of Enlightenment-era ideals, has put the death penalty on the table as a viable method for dealing with whistle blowers. If you aren’t concerned, you aren’t paying attention….
→ read full article(Italian) Il difficile passaggio dal tecnozoico all’ecozoico
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2011
Le grandi crisi comportano grandi decisioni. Ci sono decisioni che significano vita o morte per certe società, per una istituzione o per una persona.
→ read full articleExperiments in Democracy: Egypt, Tunisia and the US
Joseph Gainza – Toward Freedom,
28 Feb 2011
Rarely does history present us with events which resemble a scientific experiment. Events in the Middle East over the last nine years, but especially in the last month give us an opportunity to examine how best to establish democracy. Analysis of what has recently taken place in Tunisia and Egypt can be measured against the ongoing tragedies of Iraq and Afghanistan.
→ read full articleThe United States Stands Alone with Israel in the UN Security Council (or How Honest is the Honest Broker)?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Feb 2011
In what appears to be as close to a consensus as the world community can ever hope to achieve, the United States reluctantly stood its ground on behalf of Israel and on February 18, 2011 vetoed a resolution on the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that was supported by all 14 of the other members of the UN Security Council. The resolution was also sponsored by 130 member countries before being presented to the Council.
→ read full articleSupporters in Haiti Make Ready for Aristide
Clarens Renois – Mail & Guardian,
28 Feb 2011
Supporters beat drums in the slums while workers spruced up his private villa as Haitians prepared on Tuesday for the possible return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide with feverish anticipation. “Some people are cleaning the streets, others are getting the residence ready, and we are making preparations for a beautiful party,” Rene Civil, a die-hard follower of Haiti’s first democratically elected leader, told Agence France-Presse.
→ read full articleLex Duvalier: A Corrupt Politician’s Worst Nightmare
Gonzalo Turdera – Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
28 Feb 2011
On February 1, 2011, the Swiss Restitution of Illicit Assets Act (RIAA), commonly referred to as “Lex Duvalier,” came into effect. This law provides for the freezing, forfeiture, and restitution of assets of politically exposed persons or their close associates. It applies in cases where a request for mutual assistance in criminal law matters cannot produce an outcome owing to the failure of state structures in the requesting state (the politically exposed person’s country of origin).
→ read full articleThis Is an Arab 1848. But US Hegemony Is Only Dented
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
28 Feb 2011
With western-backed despots being turfed out politics has changed forever. So just how far can the revolution spread?
→ read full articleGoverning by Obeying the People: Bolivia’s Politics of the Street
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
28 Feb 2011
From across North Africa to Wisconsin, activists are navigating a new terrain of global protest and relationships with their governments. Whether in ousting old tyrants or dealing with new allies in office, the example of Bolivia holds many lessons for social movements. An illustrative dynamic is now unfolding in this Andean country where the movements hold sway over the government palace, and the leftist President Evo Morales says he “governs by obeying the people.” But sometimes the people don’t give him any other choice.
→ read full articleReport of Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Occupied Palestinian Territories
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
14 Feb 2011 – I am posting the official text of my most recent report to the UN Human Rights Council on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The period covered ends in December 2010, and the report will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 21, 2011. Of course, the impact of recent events, especially in Egypt, is not considered. Of primary interest will be the approach taken by the new Egyptian leadership to the Rafah Crossing, especially whether humanitarian goods will be permitted to enter freely and whether Gazans will be allowed to leave and return without difficulty.
→ read full articleRevolutionary Prospects after Mubarak
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Feb 2011
The bravery, discipline, and creativity of the Egyptian revolutionary movement is nothing short of a political miracle, deserving to be regarded as one of the seven political wonders of the modern world! To have achieved these results without violence, despite a series of bloody provocations, and persisting without an iconic leader, without even the clarifying benefit of a revolutionary manifesto, epitomizes the originality and grandeur of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
→ read full article
How People Become Monsters … Or Heroes
Philip Zimbardo – TED Talks,
14 Feb 2011
Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.
→ read full articleMass Tree Deaths Prompt Fears of Amazon ‘Climate Tipping Point’
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
14 Feb 2011
Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source.
• Amazon ‘could shrink by 85% due to climate change’
• Rate of tree deaths in western US ‘rising due to climate change’
Egypt’s Joy as Mubarak Quits
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
14 Feb 2011
With Hosni Mubarak’s departure, the age of political reason is returning to Egypt and the wider Arab world. A joyous night in Cairo. What bliss to be alive, to be an Egyptian and an Arab. In Tahrir Square they’re chanting, “Egypt is free” and “We won!”
→ read full articleThe Toxic Residue of Colonialism: Protecting Interests, Disregarding Rights
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2011
Here is the crux of the ethical irony. Washington is respectful of the logic of self-determination so long as it converges with American grand strategy, and oblivious to the will of the people whenever its expression is seen as posing a threat to the neoliberal overlords of the globalized world economy or to strategic alignments that seem so dear to State Department or Pentagon planners.
→ read full articleGoodbye to All That: Pox Americana
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
14 Feb 2011
As we’ve watched the dramatic events in the Middle East, you would hardly know that we had a thing to do with them. Oh yes, in the name of its War on Terror, Washington had for years backed most of the thuggish governments now under siege or anxious that they may be next in line to hear from their people.
→ read full articleYoung Activist Faces 10 Years in Prison After Trying to Save Public Lands From Oil and Gas Companies
Tina Gerhardt - AlterNet,
14 Feb 2011
On Friday, December 19, 2008, Tim DeChristopher participated in a public auction. As the Bush administration moved to auction off 77 parcels of federal land totaling 150,000 acres for oil and gas drilling, DeChristopher, a student at the University of Utah at the time, bid $1.7 million for 14 parcels totaling 22,000 acres of land, although he did not have the funds to pay for it. Last year, Dr. James Hansen, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Robert Redford and Terry T. Williams wrote an open letter that was widely circulated in support of TimDeChristopher’s “creative protest against runaway energy policy.”
→ read full articleEgypt’s Transformative Moment: Revolution, Counterrevolution, or Reform
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 there have been two further transformative events that have reshaped in enduring ways the global setting. When the Soviet empire collapsed two years later, the way was opened for the triumphalist pursuit of the American Imperial Project, seizing the opportunity for geopolitical expansion provided by its self-anointed global leadership as ‘the sole surviving superpower.’ This first rupture in the character of world order…. The second rupture came with the 9/11 attacks, however those events are construed. The impact of the attacks transferred the locus of policymaking authority back to the United States, as state actor, under the rubrics of ‘the war on terror,’ ‘global security,’ and ‘the long war.’
→ read full articleHis Name Was João
Jordi Cussó Porredón, Letter of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2011
Letter of Peace Addressed to the UN. Time, many battles and much suffering have taught us that no one person is superior to another. It doesn’t matter if you are a carpenter, gardener, minister, black or white… the only thing that really matters is that we are human beings. Society must provide us all with the same opportunities because we are all equal.
→ read full articleProcess of Mediation
Jordi Palou Loverdós – Letter of Peace,
7 Feb 2011
It is true that the use of mediation in conflicts is now presented as a new instrument, mainly because in the last thirty or forty years it has been used in the Anglo-Saxon world, where people are very good at presenting things as if they were new. However, we must point out its existence, for example in ancient Chinese texts, where mediation was used in all kinds of conflicts. This is also true of many cultures from the North, South East and West of the planet, where mediation was formerly used theoretically and practically. The good deeds of third parties who attempt to accompany the other parties in their conflict process and facilitate communication, and where applicable, an agreement between them, is as old as humanity itself.
→ read full articleThe Carbon Market – Gone in a Puff of Smoke?
Sabina Manea – The Guardian,
7 Feb 2011
The entire EU trading system was shut down last Wednesday [23 Jan 2011], with credits worth €28m missing following a series of highly effective cyber attacks that have plunged the still emerging carbon market into chaos. To make matters worse, the EU’s ETS is a serial victim; eco-activist hackers shut down the EU carbon exchange website only six months ago. The European Commission’s decision to suspend trading was taken in the wake of break-ins into online accounts in a number of European countries, with the Czech Republic being the latest casualty. The chances of recovering the stolen credits are slim, even more so once the criminals have sold them on. Unlike the money paid for indulgences, carbon credits are nothing more than records in an online account.
→ read full articleDavos: An Unrealistic View from the Mountain
Larry Elliott – The Guardian,
7 Feb 2011
For those at the Davos World Economic Forum the future looks bright – but the truth may be bleaker for the rest of us. The theme of Davos this year was “shared norms for the new reality”, one of those phrases where the words can be rearranged in any order and remain utterly vacuous. Business leaders, policy leaders and the world’s smartest academics had five days in the high Alps to work out what this actually meant. Despite much head scratching not one of them could.
→ read full articlePeru Recognises Palestinian State
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
31 Jan 2011
Peru last night [24 Jan 2011] announced it recognises Palestine as a state, becoming the seventh South American country to do so in a rapid diplomatic domino effect which has alarmed Israel.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Quem Roubou a Minha Poluição?
Nelson Peralta, esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
O mercado europeu de comércio de emissões de dióxido de carbono (CO2) está fechado há uma semana depois de ter sido detectado o roubo de 475 mil toneladas em licenças de emissão de CO2. Esta bolsa funciona numa plataforma virtual online e as falhas de segurança têm sido uma constante. A Comissão Europeia estima que cerca de dois milhões de licenças avaliadas em 26 milhões de euros possam estar desaparecidas, mas ninguém parece saber ao certo. O mercado deve reabrir hoje [27 Jan 2011], apenas nos países que adoptaram medidas de segurança adicionais.
→ read full articleFood Speculation: ‘People Die From Hunger While Banks Make a Killing on Food’
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
It’s not just bad harvests and climate change – it’s also speculators that are behind record prices. And it’s the planet’s poorest who pay.
→ read full articleMubarak’s Dictatorship Must End Now
Guardian-Observer Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
Sun Jan 30 2011 – Fittingly, Egypt’s youth led the way against the old order, using not guns or bombs but the arsenal of 21st-century information technology: social media, mobiles, texts and emails. The Paris mob of Bastille notoriety became, through peaceful evolution, the flash mob of Tahrir Square. They espoused no leaders. They wrote no plans. In fast-moving, separate but interconnected street offensives, they out-thought, outfoxed and outran the police.
→ read full articleSecret Papers Reveal Slow Death of Middle East Peace Process
Seumas Milne and Ian Black, Middle East editor – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel’s annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Brasil: Tragédia Mostra o Preço de Não Escutar a Natureza
Leonardo Boff – Pátria Latina,
24 Jan 2011
Estamos pagando alto preço pelo nosso descaso e pela dizimação da mata atlântica que equilibrava o regime das chuvas. O que se impõe agora é escutar a natureza e fazer obras preventivas que respeitem o modo de ser de cada encosta, de cada vale e de cada rio.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Election: a Travesty of Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The OAS’s attempt to rehabilitate a fatally flawed process would be laughable if it were not a tragic injustice for Haitians.
→ read full articleWelcoming the Tunisian Revolution: Hopes and Fears
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jan 2011
Turning back to North Africa, in 1992 when the FIS in Algeria won hotly contested elections for legislative representation, the military intervened to impose its will, Washington was silent, and remained so during the ‘dark decade’ of strife followed in which at least 60,000 Algerians lost their lives. It is part of the reality in the region that American strategic and ideological goals point one way and the popular will of the people point in the opposite direction. It is thus either hypocritical or a sign of deep confusion for American leadership to advocate democracy in the Middle East without being willing to alter its grand strategy.
→ read full articleOn Jewish Identity
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
As someone who is both Jewish and supportive of the Palestinian struggle for a just and sustainable peace, I am often asked about my identity. The harshest critics of my understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict contend that I am a self-hating Jew, which implies that sharp criticism of Israel and Zionism are somehow incompatible with affirming a Jewish identity. Of course, I deny this.
→ read full articleExposing the Real Tunisia
Soumaya Ghannoushi – The Guardian,
17 Jan 2011
A recent wave of unrest belies the myth of a Tunisian miracle, and offers a stark warning.
→ read full articleHaiti One Year On: Suffering, Lost Opportunities and Political Paralysis
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
10 Jan 2011
1 million people still live in makeshift accommodation and only 5% of rubble left by earthquake cleared, Oxfam report says. Government dithering and lack of coordination between aid agencies and donors have crippled rebuilding efforts in Haiti, leaving the country in ruins almost a year after the earthquake, a report says today [6 Jan 2011].
→ read full articleHopes of Gaza Cast in Lead
Richard Falk – Al Jazeera,
10 Jan 2011
Israel is gearing up for another major offensive into Gaza, yet the world community still remains bafflingly silent. The influential Israeli journalist, Ron Ren-Yishai, writes on December 29, 2010, of the likely prospect of a new major IDF attack, quoting senior Israeli military officers as saying “It’s not a question of if, but rather of when,” a view that that is shared, according to Ren-Yishai, by “government ministers, Knesset members and municipal heads in the Gaza region”.
→ read full articleSoft Power: China on the Global Stage
Alan Hunter – Oxford Journals,
10 Jan 2011
This article considers a further dimension of international relations, namely ‘soft power’. The author does not propose to make a detailed critique of the ‘soft power’ concept, but rather to use it as a basis for evaluating aspects of China’s rise and stated commitment to peace. This is a relatively new field of study; partly because China’s rise is itself relatively recent, and partly due to lack of sinological expertise among interested commentators.
→ read full articleHaiti: Where Aid Failed
Unni Karunakara – The Guardian,
3 Jan 2011
Why have at least 2,500 people died of cholera when there are about 12,000 NGOs in the country?
→ read full articleIndonesia’s ‘Slow Motion Genocide’
Jay Griffiths – The Guardian,
3 Jan 2011
By ignoring Indonesian army killings in West Papua, the western press is tacitly colluding in mass murder
→ read full article(Portuguese) Portugal: O BPN e a Economia do Crime
José Gusmão, Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
O caso do BPN é exemplar do ponto de vista do papel estratégico que têm os off-shores na promoção da fraude e evasão fiscais, e também na protecção da criminalidade financeira.
→ read full articleThe Arrogance of Cancún
Gustavo Esteva – The Guardian,
27 Dec 2010
The lesson of this feeble climate deal? Governments have played God and failed. It is up to the activists now.
→ read full articleThe Palestinian ‘Legitimacy War’
Prof. Richard Falk – Al Jazeera,
27 Dec 2010
These ideas [Nuremberg Principles] underlie the recent prosecution of geopolitical pariahs such as Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic, and several African tyrannical figures. But when it comes to the lead political actors, as understood by the American-led hegemonic hierarchy, the leadership of the rest of the world enjoys impunity, in effect, an exemption from accountability to international criminal law.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Wikifugas, Novo Site do Esquerda.net
Esquerda.net – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Depois de já ter instalado um “espelho” do site da WikiLeaks, o Esquerda.net lança agora o Wikifugas, o site do nosso portal totalmente dedicado à divulgação das principais revelações do chamado “Cablegate” e à luta em defesa da WikiLeaks e da liberdade e transparência da informação.
→ read full article(Castellano) Liu en Oslo, Vanunu en Berlín
Rafael Poch – La Vanguardia,
20 Dec 2010
Tras 18 años en una cárcel israelí, once de ellos en régimen de aislamiento, el israelí Mordechai Vanunu tampoco puede venir a Berlín a recoger el premio de la Liga Internacional de Derechos Humanos.
→ read full articleThe Delusions of the Peace Process
Richard Falk – Al Jazeera,
20 Dec 2010
In effect, a habitual armed robber was being asked to stop robbing a few banks for three months in exchange for a huge financial payoff. Such an arrangement qualifies as a transparently shameless embrace of Israeli lawlessness on behalf of a peace process that has no prospect of producing peace, much less justice.
→ read full articleBaby Steps Made at Climate Summit Pale in Comparison to the Change Needed
Tina Gerhardt - AlterNet,
20 Dec 2010
“All of us will be affected by the lack of ambition and political will of a small group of countries,” concluded one NGO.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks’ Lesson on Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
20 Dec 2010
What the US embassy cables reveal about Washington’s malign influence should make Latin American nations quit the UN force…. This logic is why they got rid of Aristide – who was much to the left of Preval – and won’t let him back in the country. This is why Washington funded the recent “elections” that excluded Haiti’s largest political party, the equivalent of shutting out the Democrats and Republicans in the United States. And this is why Minustah is still occupying the country, more than six years after the coup, without any apparent mission other than replacing the hated Haitian army – which Aristide had abolished – as a repressive force.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Backlash: The First Global Cyber War Has Begun, Claim Hackers
Mark Townsend, Paul Harris in New York, Alex Duval Smith in Johannesburg, Dan Sabbagh, Josh Halliday – The Guardian,
13 Dec 2010
As Julian Assange is held in solitary confinement at Wandsworth prison, the anonymous community of hacktivists takes to the cyber battlefields.
→ read full articleUS Involvement in Iraq: A Lot of Blood for Little Oil
Cordula Meyer – Der Spiegel,
13 Dec 2010
Contrary to what many people believe, the Iraq war provided few advantages for the US oil industry. The diplomatic cables show that, in most cases, it was competitors to the Americans who often did better in the country. Only one US company truly profited: Halliburton.
→ read full articleFBI Wiretapping of Internet Users: “All Your Data Belongs to Us”
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
6 Dec 2010
A Seamless Global Surveillance Web. In a further sign that Barack Obama’s faux “progressive” regime will soon seek broad new Executive Branch power, The New York Times disclosed last week that FBI chief and cover-up specialist extraordinaire, Robert S. Mueller III, “traveled to Silicon Valley on Tuesday to meet with top executives of several technology firms about a proposal to make it easier to wiretap Internet users.”
→ read full articleIreland’s Debt Servitude
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – The Telegraph,
6 Dec 2010
Stripped to its essentials, the €85bn package imposed on Ireland by the Eurogroup and the European Central Bank is a bail-out for improvident British, German, Dutch, and Belgian bankers and creditors. The Irish taxpayers carry the full burden, and deplete what remains of their reserve pension fund to cover a quarter of the cost. This arrangement – I am not going to grace it with the term deal – was announced in Brussels before the elected Taoiseach of Ireland had been able to tell his own people what their fate would be.
→ read full articleBailout Talks: Four Truths Ireland Can’t Ignore
Richard Douthwaite - ConstructIreland,
29 Nov 2010
[Governor of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan, the financial regulator Matthew Elderfield, and the head of the National Treasury Management Agency John Corrigan]: unless these three men insist that the following four truths are accepted by those on the other side of the table, the country will be presented with an agreement that will blight its future for at least a generation…. Ireland has no alternative but to renege on the guarantees and to build itself a future within the EU but outside the eurozone.
→ read full article[WikiLeaks] US Embassy Cables Leak Sparks Global Diplomacy Crisis
David Leigh – The Guardian,
29 Nov 2010
• More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies
• Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies
• Hillary Clinton leads frantic ‘damage limitation’
The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today [28 Nov 2010], with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year.
Haiti: One More Shameful UN Betrayal
Peter Hallward – The Guardian,
29 Nov 2010
Cholera is just the latest disaster to be linked to the UN in Haiti – and the election won’t change the nature of the mission.
→ read full article
The Story of Electronics
Annie Leonard, Story of Stuff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Nov 2010
Why “designed for the dump” electronics are toxic to people and the planet … and what to do about it.
→ read full articleWhy Desperate Haitians Want to Kick Out UN Troops
Isabeau Doucet – The Guardian,
22 Nov 2010
It’s a familiar pattern – in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world’s attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs – homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian – having brought the disease to the US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world must take its share of the blame. The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water, sanitation or medical infrastructure?
→ read full articleHubble: Why the World-Famous Telescope Will Go Out in a Blaze of Glory
Nick Harding – The Independent,
22 Nov 2010
When it blasted off 20 years ago, few thought it would succeed. But it showed us a universe we didn’t know existed.
→ read full articleHaiti: Refugee Camps May Model Future Society
Elizabeth Senatus and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
8 Nov 2010
While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps ten months after the earthquake, still camp residents have managed to create in a few of those camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. Their camps have achieved democratic participation by community members, autonomy from foreign authority, a focus on meeting the needs of all, dignified living conditions, respect for rights, creativity, and a commitment to gender equity.
→ read full articleThe Tide Has Changed in Gaza: A Musical Lesson on Humanity
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
25 Oct 2010
If one tried to fit music compositions into an equivalent literary style, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble’s latest release would come across as a most engaging political essay: persuasive, argumentative, rational, original, imaginative and always unfailingly accessible. But unlike the rigid politicking of politicians and increasingly Machiavellian style of today’s political essayists – so brazen they no longer hide behind illusory moral façades – the band’s latest work is also unapologetically humanistic.
→ read full articleA World Made by War: How Old Will You Be When the American War State Goes Down?
Tom Engelhardt - TomDispatch,
18 Oct 2010
I’ve had two mobilized moments in my life. The first was in the Vietnam War years; the second, the one that leaves me as a nine-year-old, began on the morning of September 11, 2001. I turned on the TV while doing my morning exercises, saw a smoking hole in a World Trade Center tower, and thought that, as in 1945 when a B-25 slammed into the Empire State Building, a terrible accident had happened. Later, after the drums of war had begun to beat, after the first headlines had screamed their World-War-II-style messages (“the Pearl Harbor of the 21st century”), I had another thought. And for a reasonably politically sophisticated guy, my second response was not only as off-base as the first, but also remarkably dumb. I thought that this horrific event taking place in my hometown might open Americans up to the pain of the world. No such luck, of course.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Loyalty Oath: Discriminatory by Design
The Guardian, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Oct 2010
New pledge requires future citizens declare their loyalty to an ideology, one intended to exclude Palestinians.
→ read full articleChilean Miners Rescue: This is a Rare Moment of Global Joy
Michael White – The Guardian,
18 Oct 2010
When was the last time this happened? I’ve been racking my brains. I can think of a few happy ones. Unfortunately most such unifying experiences seen around the planet are negative.
→ read full article(French) Retour sur l’Émergence du Mouvement pour la Justice Climatique
Michael Hardt & Nicolas Haeringer, Entretien avec Michael Hardt – CETRI,
11 Oct 2010
Pour Michael Hardt, Copenhague pourrait bien être une étincelle qui débouche sur un nouveau cycle de luttes – des luttes plurielles, non dénuées de contradictions. Les penser, et éventuellement les dépasser, implique un travail de théorisation, autour, entre autres, de la question des “communs” : pour sauver le climat, sortir de la propriété ?
→ read full article(Portuguese) No Brasil, pela Primeira Vez, um Deputado Federal É Condenado à Prisão
Antonio Carlos Lacerda, Correspondente no Brasil - Pravda,
11 Oct 2010
O deputado federal do Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB) do Estado de Goiás, no Centro-Oeste do Brasil, José Fuscaldi Cesílio, o Tatico, foi condenado pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) a sete anos de prisão, em regime semi-aberto, por apropriação indébita e sonegação fiscal. Esta é a primeira vez que no Brasil um deputado federal é condenado à prisão.
→ read full articleMedia Disinformation: Washington’s “Regime-Change Hit-List” – Iran vs. Honduras (Part 1)
Edward S. Herman and David Peterson – Monthly Review,
11 Oct 2010
It would be hard to find a better test of the integrity of the establishment U.S. media than in their comparative treatment of Iran and Honduras over the past couple of years (2009-2010).
→ read full articleEcuador’s Correa Haunted by Honduras
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
4 Oct 2010
This was a coup attempt – encouraged by Washington’s shameful support for the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya last year. In June of last year, when the Honduran military overthrew the social-democratic government of Manuel Zelaya, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador took it personally. “We have intelligence reports that say that after Zelaya, I’m next,” said Correa.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Não É Possível Pensar em Desenvolvimento sem Valorizar as Pessoas
Marcus Eduardo de Oliveira - Pravda,
4 Oct 2010
O desenvolvimento, em suas múltiplas manifestações, não é uma questão de ter, mas sim de ser mais. Sábios e filósofos de todos os tempos e de todos os horizontes profetizaram a esse respeito. Gandhi argumentou que o desenvolvimento seria bom e justo somente se elevasse a condição dos mais modestos. Em defesa de uma economia com uma face mais humana, padre Louis Joseph Lebret pontuou que o desenvolvimento não deve ser visto apenas pelo prisma econômico (acúmulo material), mas também pelo social, ético, político, moral. Adam Smith, preocupado em estudar a riqueza das nações, afirmou que a verdadeira riqueza deve ser avaliada pelo padrão de vida das famílias.
→ read full articleAn Alternative Environmental Future for Haiti
Aldrin Calixte and Beverly Bell – Toward Freedom,
4 Oct 2010
Haiti is famous around the world primarily for its problems, one being advanced ecological destruction. However, as with its other problems, citizens – with international friends and the occasional help of the government – are working to turn this around and create a healthy environment.
→ read full article(Castellano) Irak Indemniza a Estados Unidos
Carlos Sardiña – Periodismo Humano,
27 Sep 2010
El Gobierno iraquí ha accedido a pagar 400 millones de dólares a varios ciudadanos estadounidenses que fueron prisioneros del régimen de Saddam Hussein durante la primera guerra del Golfo…. Como no podía ser de otra manera, la decisión del Gobierno iraquí ha suscitado una enorme indignación entre la población que ha sufrido y sigue sufriendo una guerra que dura ya siete años y ha destruido el país. Lo más sangrante es que los iraquíes no tienen posibilidad alguna de exigir un mínimo de justicia en Estados Unidos por su responsabilidad en una tragedia mucha mayor que los daños sufridos por varios centenares de estadounidenses hace dos decenios ni a pedir el mismo tipo de compensaciones a las fuerzas de ocupación.
→ read full articleNuclear Dangers and Opportunities in the Middle East
Richard Falk and David Krieger – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
27 Sep 2010
Hardly a week goes by without an Israeli top official threatening to attack Iran so as to disrupt or destroy its nuclear program, which is suspected of moving in the direction of acquiring nuclear weapons. Shamelessly, as well, the extreme right think tanks in the Washington Beltway and many faithful followers of Israel echo these dangerous sentiments. They send Tel Aviv a signal that it has a green light to launch an attack on Iran at the time of its choosing, along with the reassuring message that the United States Government will step forward in support, whatever the adverse economic and diplomatic consequences for the region.
→ read full articleHaiti: Don’t Give Us Food, Help Us Produce
Beverly Bell and Jonas Deronzil – Toward Freedom,
27 Sep 2010
Since foreign rice has invaded Haiti, we plant our rice but we can’t sell it. The foreigners have all the possibilities: they have water, they have machinery, they have easy access to fertilizer and other inputs. They can grow their rice in quantity. The peasants, poor devils, we spend a lot to grow it, but we can’t sell it. Sometimes we have to go to the loan sharks just to get enough money to survive.
→ read full articleChris Hedges on Moral Courage
Toward Freedom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Sep 2010
Chris Hedges begins this speech to the Veterans for Peace convention by saying, “Physical courage is something you see on a battlefield. Moral courage you almost never see.”
→ read full articleSudan: Prospect and Lesson
Richard Cockett – Open Democracy,
20 Sep 2010
The forthcoming referendum on independence in south Sudan could lead to the break-up of Africa’s biggest country. But if Sudan has failed as a unitary state its end carries dangers.
→ read full articleRebel Soldiers: Dissent Grows in the British Military
Dan Read – Toward Freedom,
6 Sep 2010
Glenton had spent the last nine months behind bars for refusing to return to Afghanistan and espousing his anti-war views. Addressing a meeting of the Stop the War Coalition after his confinement, he said it was “badge of honor to have gone to prison” and that he has “more in common with the people of Afghanistan than my own political and military leaders.”
→ read full articleSpace Warfare: Preparing the “Battlespace” for a New Imperial Adventure
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
30 Aug 2010
Secretive Mini-Shuttles and Spy Satellites
→ read full articleBreaking the Information Monopoly
Darian Worden – AlterNet,
30 Aug 2010
With modern information and publishing technologies, it’s easier than ever for average folks to actively participate in the spread of information. We can look beneath the official stories and create our own narratives that are not based in helplessness, isolation, or politicians’ posturing.
→ read full articleTwo Dangerous Ingredients in Everyday Products That Are Threatening Our Health
Jill Richardson - AlterNet,
30 Aug 2010
Numerous chemicals that are legally used in personal care products are untested, inadequately tested, or even proven harmful, but few are as widely used and as unnecessary as the endocrine disrupting chemicals triclosan (an ingredient in 75 percent of liquid hand soaps) and triclocarban (most commonly found in deodorant bar soaps).
→ read full articleThe Transformation of Latin America is a Global Advance
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
The radical tide is about to be put to the test in Brazil and Venezuela. If support holds, it will have lessons for all of us.
→ read full articleFrance Urged to Repay Haiti Billions Paid For Its Independence
Kim Willsher in Paris – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
A group of international academics and authors has written to Nicolas Sarkozy calling on France to reimburse the crushing “independence debt” it imposed on Haiti nearly 200 years ago.
→ read full article