PEACE JOURNALISM PERSPECTIVE
EDITORIAL
School Shootings in the USA: 10 Points
Johan Galtung, 12 Oct 2015 - TRANSCEND Media Service
The Oregon community college was the 45th school shooting this year in America; the 142nd school shooting since the Newton massacre in 2012. 25% of women experience domestic violence, 6 million children witness it every year, 28% of children are bullied during the year and they are 2 to 9 times more likely to commit suicide. What can be done?
OTHER COMMENTARIES
BY TRANSCEND MEMBERS
Haiti: Will Democracy Be Denied—Again?
Marilyn Langlois – TRANSCEND Media Service
Haitians are in the streets demanding their votes be counted, their voices heard. International solidarity groups are demanding the same. US Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a courageous and consistent champion of the Haitian people, is demanding no less in her recent letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry.
War on Islamic State: A New Cold War Fiction
Nafeez Ahmed – Middle East Eye
The Islamic State group is little more than the proxy bastard child of a New Cold War that looks set to escalate.
Pests, Pesticides and Propaganda: The Story of Bt Cotton
Dr Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service
Bt. crops are a continuation of a non-sustainable strategy for pest control, which, instead of controlling pests, creates new pests and super pests. Monsanto advertised that Bt cotton would not need pesticide sprays, clearly a case of false advertising.
Sound and Persuasive Voice against War
Stephan E. Nikolov, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
Nobel Peace Prize more than other Nobel Prizes lost most of its credibility, more and more politicized and subjected to untrustworthy interests, culminating in recent assaulting of a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders’ hospital, by another Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, US President Obama. However, my intention is to examine another Nobel Prize, controversial and sensitive too – the one in Literature. It was awarded to Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexiyevich.
Weather Metaphors as Whether Metaphors
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service
Transcending Solar Illusion via a Galilean-Style Cognitive Revolution?The argument here follows from that made separately with respect to the possibility of understanding the challenge of climate otherwise. In a period of notably shambolic global governance, that argument was presented in anticipation of the significance of the UN Climate Change Conference (Paris, November 2015).
IN FOCUS
From Blasphemy Law to Freedom of Speech
Dr. Khalid Sohail, The Secular Web – TRANSCEND Media Service
Do people have the right to challenge and criticize things that other people consider holy and sacred? Do people have the right to kill those who offend their religious beliefs?
The Future of Work: Business and Community in the Information Age
Scott Meyer, 9clouds – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Information Age Reverses the Industrial Age – Sleeping next to a snoring dog ensures better sleep. So says evolutionary biologists who argue that for millennia, snoring dogs meant safety. If your dog was not worried, you didn’t have to be either. Meanwhile, the opposite is also true.
Five Leaders Challenging Western Imperialism through Diplomacy, Persuasion and Public Pressure
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service
Pope Francis, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Hassan Rouhani, and Jeremy Corbyn
SURVEILLANCE / SPYING / WHISTLEBLOWING / BIG BROTHER
Manipulating Reality: Facebook Is Listening to You
Mel Gurtov, Peace Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service
We have become all too used to our reality being manipulated. Invading another country is defensive, rigged elections are democracy in action, more guns (or nuclear weapons) ensure the peace, trade and foreign investment increase jobs at home. Orwellian logic has become commonplace.
Top European Court Rules That NSA Spying Makes U.S. Unsafe For Data
Jenna McLaughlin – The Intercept
6 Oct 2015 – The European Union no longer considers the United States a “safe harbor” for data because the National Security Agency surveillance exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden “enables interference, by United States public authorities, with the fundamental rights of persons.”
Mouth Wide Shut
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus
Under Obama, whistleblowers face a total of 751 months behind bars — compared to 24 months for all other whistleblowers combined since the American Revolution.
ANGLO AMERICA
The Making of a Sociopathic Killer: A List of Risk Factors for School Shooters
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service
And the FBI’s Deadly, Deceptive Blind Spot – “What brain-damaging, addictive psych drug(s) was this brain-altered shooter taking or withdrawing from?”
Fortune 500 Companies Stash $2.1 Trillion Offshore as US Taxpayers Foot the Bill
Lauren McCauley – Common Dreams
America’s Fortune 500 companies are “playing by different rules” when it comes to the federal tax system and, according to a new report out Tuesday [6 Oct 2015], are stashing $2.1 trillion in offshore tax havens—with as much as $620 billion owed to the U.S. taxpayers who are left footing the bill.
It Took Me Two Hours to Get My Hands on an AK-47. Welcome to America
Eric Rodriguez – The Guardian
Until we make it harder for everyone to get guns, it looks like mommies and daddies will instead consider buying their little girls and boys backpacks with bulletproof plates inside, forcing them to carry the weight on their shoulders of our collective inaction as a nation.
LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on the 24th Anniversary of the Coup d’état That Deposed Him
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti Action Committee - TRANSCEND Media Service
Hai means no, do not. Tii means obey in the Swahili language. Haiti or Haitii means do not obey. Long ago, slaves were always saying “Do not obey the colonists.” Today we say “Do not obey people who have no respect for human rights. Haitii!
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
French Government Aligns with Russia’s War against ISIS
Paul Craig Roberts – German Economic News
11 Oct 2015 – The French will support Russia’s fight against terrorists in Syria. U.S. President Obama will be kept informed about developments as a permanent information exchange concerning the progress of the raids has been established. Israel is being informed as well and cooperates with the Russians on an informal basis.
The Mystery of ISIS’ Toyota Army Solved
Tony Cartalucci – TRANSCEND Media Service
Mystery Solved: Just last year it was reported that the US State Department had been sending in fleets of specifically Toyota-brand trucks into Syria to whom they claimed was the “Free Syrian Army.” Asking Toyota where the USSD’s own trucks came from is another indication of just how lost US foreign policy, legitimacy, and credibility have become.
PALESTINE / ISRAEL
Missing the Target, Forgetting the Point, Forgetting the Profession
Dr Paola Manduca – Middle East Monitor
The “occupation” of medical journals by pro-Israel professionals without any “preoccupation” about health issues. Here I will write about facts and the lack of facts, and the absence of intellectual, moral and professional adequacy. First, though, some context behind the original letter.
THE UNITED NATIONS
After 70 Years: The UN Falls Short, and Yet…
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service
Seventy years later the UN disappoints many, and bores even more, appearing to be nothing more than a gathering place for the politically powerful. I think such a negative image has taken hold because the UN these days seems more than ever like a spectator than a political actor in the several crises that dominate the current agenda of global politics.
CAPITALISM
Four More Carmakers Join Diesel Emissions Row
Damian Carrington – The Guardian
Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi’s cars are shown to emit significantly more NOx pollution on the road than in regulatory tests.
Wide Range of Cars Emit More Pollution in Realistic Driving Tests, Data Shows
Damian Carrington – The Guardian
Diesel cars made by Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat and Volvo among others emitted far more NOx in more rigorous tests, research shows.
DuPont Found Liable in Teflon Toxin Trial
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept
8 Oct 2015 – A jury has found Dupont liable for negligence in the case of Carla Bartlett, taking less than a day to award $1.6 million to the Ohio woman who developed kidney cancer after drinking water contaminated with a chemical formerly used to make Teflon.
TRADE
TPP Treaty: Intellectual Property Rights Chapter
WikiLeaks – TRANSCEND Media Service
Today, 9 October, 2015 WikiLeaks releases the final negotiated text for the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The document is dated October 5, last Monday. This has been perhaps the most controversial chapter due to its wide-ranging effects on internet services, medicines, publishers, civil liberties and biological patents
TPP or Not TPP? What’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Should We Support It?
Jana Kasperkevic – The Guardian
Twelve Pacific rim countries have signed a sweeping trade deal but will it cut red tape and boost commerce or is it a sellout to big business that will cost jobs? Close to a decade in the making, the most important trade pact in a generation moved closer to becoming a reality on Monday [5 Oct 2015].
WikiLeaks Release of TPP Deal Text Stokes ‘Freedom of Expression’ Fears
Sam Thielman – The Guardian
9 Oct 2015 – WikiLeaks has released what it claims is the full intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the controversial agreement between 12 countries that was signed off on Monday. This chapter appears to give TPP countries greater power to stop information from going public.
ECONOMICS
Meet the Secretive Committees That Run the Global Economy
Andrew Gavin Marshall, Occupy – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Bank are the two most important American institutions in global financial governance. Both institutions are headquartered in Washington, D.C., just down the street from the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group, two global financial bodies created in 1944 to manage the world economy on behalf of the rich Western nations that founded them.
#GlobalGoals? The Truth about Poverty and How to Address It
Rajesh Makwana, Share The World’s Resources – TRANSCEND Media Service
Without a collective worldwide awakening to the injustice of widespread poverty amidst excessive wealth inequalities, it may remain impossible to overcome vested interests and the political inertia of governments. The responsibility for change falls squarely on the shoulders of us all.
GENETIC ENGINEERING
It’s Official: 19 European Countries Say ‘No’ to GMOs
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service
The 19 countries opting out are: Austria, Belgium for the Wallonia region, Britain for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.
Over 40 Rodent Feeding Studies Show GM Food is Disastrous to Health
Christina Sarich, Natural Society – TRANSCEND Media Service
GMO Free USA has published a listing of more than 40 rodent studies showing that animals fed GM corn and soy suffer dire results. For those who say there is no ‘science’ to prove that GMOs are unsafe, I enjoin them to peruse the following list.
Monsanto Fights Back Against Cancer Lawsuits as Company Eliminates 12% of Workforce
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service
9 Oct 2015 – Monsanto is on the defensive after the agricultural giant was sued by two U.S. farm workers who claim that glyphosate—the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s weedkiller, Roundup—caused their cancers.
MILITARISM
A Short History of U.S. Bombing of Civilian Facilities
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept
7 Oct 2015 – On October 3, a U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières in Kunduz, Afghanistan, partially destroying it. Below is a sampling of such incidents since the 1991 Gulf War.
Surgical Strike: NATO’s Bombs Fall like Confetti, Not Containing Conflict but Spreading It
George Monbiot – TRANSCEND Media Service
Syria, Isis, Iraq … there are no easy solutions. But killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan and elsewhere draws more people into insurgencies. The US bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan is just one symptom of comprehensive military failure.
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
The Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Civil Society Activism on Behalf of Nuclear Zero (8)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Jeffersonian faith in the future of democracy rested on the cumulative impact of education on citizen participation encouraging a robust and vigilant civil society. The advocacy of nuclear disarmament must become joined at the hip with the recognition that global demilitarization and conventional disarmament are part of a retrofitted political package of unconditional anti-nuclearism.
JUSTICE
These Salvadoran Women Went to Prison for Suffering Miscarriages
Margaret Knapke – Foreign Policy In Focus
In a country with strict anti-abortion laws, spontaneous pregnancy losses can mean decades behind bars.
10 October: The Death Penalty and Human Dignity Day
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service
10 October is the International Day against the Death Penalty. Since the end of World War II, there has been a gradual abolition of the death penalty due to the rather obvious recognition that putting a person to death is not justice.
HEALTH
Electroconvulsant Shock Therapy: Is It Safe or Even Effective?
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service
General anesthesia plus intravenous sedatives are also administered in order to eliminate any memory of the otherwise painful procedure and also to relax muscles (thus minimizing muscle damage and the possibility of fractured bones during the often violent seizure). Both drugs are brain-altering and potentially brain-damaging but are routinely given.
HISTORY
Columbus Day, 12 October, Is a Reminder That Nothing Exists Until a White Guy “Discovers” It
Jake Flanagin, Quartz – TRANSCEND Media Service
We know that Native Americans were living in the Americas for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. We know their ancestors crossed the Bering Land Bridge from northeastern Asia, and in the ensuing 10,000 to 15,000 years populated the New World with civilizations as diverse and distinct as the Mayans, the Inuit, [the Tupi-Guaranis in the South], and the Mapuche.
October 9, 1967: Che Guevara Is Executed in Bolivia
Richard Kreitner – The Nation
Che Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army on this day in 1967. When his self-selected executioner hesitated before firing, Guevara allegedly spat at him and shouted: “Shoot me, you coward! You are only going to kill a man!”
This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service
October 12–18 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” – Carl Sagan
STORIES TO INSPIRE YOU
The Power of Nonviolence
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
When Ferdinand Marcos tried to rig elections to stay in power in the Philippines in 1986, two army units defected. He sent the rest of his army to crush them, but they were surrounded and protected by half a million unarmed civilians.
SPIRITUALITY
Can Sufism Sanitize Our Planet?
Moin Qazi, New Age Islam – TRANSCEND Media Service
In the chaos that prevails around us the most authentic hope comes from mystics whose poetry and philosophy combines the virtuous message of formal religion with the transcendental values of love and harmony. The finest exponent of this luminous philosophy was Rumi (which means daylight), the great 13th century Sufi mystic.
EDUCATION
Nietzsche on How to Find Yourself and the True Value of Education
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service
No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!
Politics of Good Governance for Nonviolence: The Role of Peace Education
Surya Nath Prasad, Ph. D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
Peace education based on universally inherent five elements, viz. body, vitality, mind, intellect and spirit in every man and woman everywhere without any discrimination should be for all including for parents, teachers, current peace educators, preachers, rulers, representatives of people, bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, personnel in army and police departments and other professionals, and all minor and adult who have no access to educational institutions for natural preparation and practice of good governance leading to nonviolence.
BIOGRAPHIES
Friedrich Nietzsche (15 Oct 1844 – 25 Aug 1900)
Bernd Magnus - Encyclopædia Britannica
Friedrich Nietzsche’s attempts to unmask the motives that underlie traditional Western religion, morality, and philosophy deeply affected generations of theologians, philosophers, psychologists, poets, novelists, and playwrights. He thought through the consequences of the triumph of the Enlightenment’s secularism, expressed in his observation that “God is dead.”
POETRY FORMAT
Forgotten
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service
For the Dalit People of India
(Português) Alerta Ecolinguístico
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service
Atenção à digital descomunhão
Cuidado com a desagregadora WhatsApptidão:
On Japan’s new Pacifism: Questions —
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service
The mass media say that, in Japan, pacifism is being rethought.
What kind of perspective/government policy is being sought?
IN OTHER LANGUAGES
(Português) Ecce Bestia: tratado de zoofilia e de outras transações descaradas entre humanos e bichos
Ezio Flavio Bazzo - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais
A Dinamarca aprovou uma lei nesta terça-feira [6 out] que veda toda forma de bestialismo. A medida foi tomada após ativistas protestarem contra brechas na legislação que estariam incentivando certo turismo sexual com animais.
(Italiano) Politica USA contro sfidanti: 10 punti
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service
La giovane repubblica degli Stati Uniti, non disposta a spartire il litorale Atlantico con Londra, emerse vittoriosamente nel 1812 con un forte esercito centrato nel Sud. Il Destino Manifesto puntava a Ovest, poi anche a Sud, e, sostituendosi al morente impero spagnolo nel 1898, al mondo intero.
(Italiano) L’uomo bianco in quella foto
Riccardo Gazzaniga – TRANSCEND Media Service
Le fotografie, a volte, ingannano. Prendete questa immagine, per esempio. Racconta il gesto di ribellione di Tommie Smith e John Carlos il giorno della premiazione dei 200 metri alle Olimpiadi di Città del Messico e mi ha ingannato un sacco di volte.
(Français) Les Etats-Unis doivent-ils s’allier à Al-Qaida en Syrie ?
Robert Parry, Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service
Aux Etats-Unis, la nouvelle « pensée collective » souligne que le président russe Poutine n’a pas tenu sa promesse d’attaquer seulement l’État islamique lorsque ses avions de guerre ont frappé d’autres cibles rebelles en Syrie. Mais Poutine n’a jamais précisé quels terroristes il allait frapper. Et la coalition des rebelles ciblés comprend des affiliés d’Al-Qaida.
(Deutsch) Gegen die Nato: Frankreich unterstützt Russland in Syrien
Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten - TRANSCEND Media Service
5. Oktober 2015 – Die Franzosen unterstützen den Kampf Russlands gegen andere Terror-Gruppen in Syrien. Sie stellen sich damit auf die Seite von US-Präsident Barack Obama, der die Russen zu ihrem Einsatz ermuntert hat und über den Fortgang informiert wird.
SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
New York New York (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Frank Sinatra – TRANSCEND Media Service
Nov 12, 2010 – Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from ‘New York New York'” performance from the “Sinatra: The Man and His Music ” special.
Does Free Speech Have a Palestine Exception? Dismissed Professor Steven Salaita Speaks Out
Democracy Now! – TRANSCEND Media Service
Oct 7, 2015 – A new report by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal has documented hundreds of cases of Palestinian rights activists in the United States being harassed, disciplined, fired, sued, censored or threatened for their advocacy around Palestine.
SATIRE
George W. Bush Enjoying New Status as Smarter Bush
Andy Borowitz – The New Yorker
Speaking to reporters at his home in Dallas, Bush said he was deriving “quiet satisfaction” from a new poll showing that ninety-one per cent of the American people now consider him the smarter Bush.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Annoying Questions
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
Little Johnny came home from the first day in school. His mother asked him how his teacher was.
“Militaries are the ultimate manifestation of direct, structural and cultural violence—a cancer that must be extirpated from humanity.” — Antonio C. S. Rosa, M.A.
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