PEACE JOURNALISM PERSPECTIVE
EDITORIAL
Meanwhile–Around the World
Nº 449 | Johan Galtung, 3 Oct 2016 - TRANSCEND Media ServiceThe Debate: Somebody said the problem is Trump possibility and Clinton probability. A very poor choice between an autistic person in his own bubble and a war criminal even privatizing her warfare? It was short on concrete politics and long on ad hominem. The media after-focus was on “who won”, not on any new policy.
TMS PEACE JOURNALISM
October 2: Nonviolence Day, Gandhi’s Birthday
Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media ServiceIt doesn’t matter the amount or prevalence of violence employed or practiced anywhere anytime. It was from within a violent environment, which oppressed him both in South Africa and in India, that the Mahatma, born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, gave birth to his philosophy of nonviolence. Yin-Yang. The world is readier than ever for it. Nevertheless, besides a philosophy NV can be many things for many people depending on contexts.
NOBEL LAUREATES
The Real Scandal behind the Panama Papers
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Economics Laureate, and Mark Pieth – Vanity FairAfter the leak of more than 11 million documents detailing sensitive, and often terrifying, information about offshore financial and legal activities, the Nobel-laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz was enlisted to help Panama reform its practices. But nothing could have prepared him for what came next.
OTHER COMMENTARIES
ARTS
How Do We ‘Package’ Peace? Can We Make It Palatable?
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media ServiceA review of Peace Plays by Johan Galtung, Vitahl Rajan, and S. P. Udayakumar; Kolofon Press, 2010. 95 pages. It is a splendid book: a lens with which to contemplate our modern world of foibles, follies, self-and-mass destruction. It’s a book to read, and re-read, and savor. It is whimsical and sobering; grating in a positive way; uplifting and transformative.
BY TRANSCEND MEMBERS
Gandhi: ‘My Life Is My Message’
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media ServiceGandhi’s life was dotted with many memorable quotes but one that is less well known is this: ‘You may never know what results come of your actions but if you do nothing there will be no results’. Fortunately, there are many committed people who have identified the importance of taking action to end the violence in our world – whether it occurs in the home or on the street, in wars, as a result of economic exploitation or ecological destruction – and this includes the courageous people below.
Engaging Proactively with the Risk of World Misleadership
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media ServiceTrump vs Clinton and the potential of carpe diem in the democratic process? The future will no doubt be appalled by the current presidential campaign in the USA through which the leader of the world’s superpower will emerge. But by what exactly might the future be appalled?
Ukraine as the Border of NATO Expansion
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future ResearchAnd Why Russia Doesn’t Have to Be a Threat to the West
Three Minutes to Midnight!
James Albertini | Malu 'Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action – TRANSCEND Media ServiceNew “Dial a Nuke” weapons have various explosive power options, including smaller, more useable weapons, thus making nuclear war more thinkable in battlefield situations. The theory goes that nuclear war can now be “limited” and not necessarily “all out.” But who is going to be the referee once the nukes start flying? And won’t the losing side resort to bigger, more destructive weapons?
Abu-Mazen’s Balance Sheet
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media ServiceIn a nonviolent struggle of civil disobedience, many Palestinians will get killed; the general suffering will increase a lot. But such a struggle will win. It always did when applied anywhere. The world, which is expressing deep sympathy with the Palestinian people while cooperating with the occupation regime, will be compelled to intervene. The Israeli public, which is now looking at what is happening a few dozen miles from their homes as if it was happening in Honolulu, will wake up. The best of our people will join the political struggle. The weak peace camp will become strong again.
The Enigma That Was Shimon Peres
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media ServiceMy own experience of the man was direct, although rather superficial, but it did give me greater confidence to trust my reservations about his impact and influence, which collides with the adulation that he has inspired among American liberals, in particular.
Second October –A Day of Peace and Harmony
Ravi P. Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media ServiceMost people know that Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat. Few people outside India would know that this day is also the day when another simple and self effacing man Lal Bahadur Shastri was born in 1904. From his simple beginnings Shastri rose to become the second Prime Minister of India when Jawaharlal Nehru died in 1964.
The Simple Act of Pushing a Button
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media ServiceOn one side of the ledger is everything natural and extraordinary about life with its long evolution bringing us to the present and poised to carry its processes forward into the future. On the other side of the ledger is “the button,” capable of bringing most life on the planet to a screeching halt. Also on this side of the ledger are those people who remain ignorant or apathetic to the nuclear dangers confronting humanity.
SPECIAL FEATURE
Fake News and False Flags
Crofton Black and Abigail Fielding-Smith – The Bureau of Investigative JournalistsHow the Pentagon paid a British PR firm $500 million for top secret Iraq propaganda.
ACTIVISM
Military-Style Raid Ends Native Prayer Against Dakota Pipeline
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media ServiceUp to 21 people were arrested during a peaceful prayer service.
Boycott Launched After Nestlé Outbids Drought-Stricken Town to Buy Well for Bottled Water
Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service26 Sep 2016 – Nestlé’s grab of a Canadian community’s water supply has sparked international outrage and calls to boycott the company and bottled water. The multinational food and drink giant outbid the Township of Central Wellington in Ontario for water rights to a local well to ensure “future business growth.”
Robert Redford: I Stand with the Standing Rock Sioux
Robert Redford - TIMEIn their protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will affect far more families than their own.
IN FOCUS
The Long, Long Journey to Female Equality
James A. Haught | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media ServiceFor millennia, female inferiority was presumed, and mandated, in virtually every human culture. Through most of history, the brawn of heavier males gave them dominance, leaving women in lesser status — often mere possessions of men, confined to the home, rarely educated, with few rights.
The Politics of Bombing: Wholesale, Retail and Improvised
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media ServiceBombs, domestic and foreign, are defining the nature of politics in the United States, the European Union and among radical Islamist groups and individuals. The scale and scope of bomb-politics varies with the practitioner.
ANGLO AMERICA
US Court Protects ‘School of the Assassins’ Graduates
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media ServiceSince the Cold War the infamous military school formerly known as the School of the Americas has been a training ground for dictators, death squad members, and torturers, fueling human rights abuses and coups across Latin America, earning it the moniker “the School of the Assassins.”
BRICS
Contrasting the Foiled American Fascist Coup Plot of 1934 with the Successful Brazilian Fascist Coup Plot of 2016
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media ServiceAs always, US financial elites from 80 years ago (as is true of the today’s financial elites from Brazil), met the definition of both sociopathic personality disorder AND neo-fascist. Now it is the Market that matters. Someone who wants medical treatment must go to the Market; and pay. Whoever wants to go to a University must first go to the Market and pay. Everything will be turned into merchandise to be bought and sold. Can dignity be bought? Can solidarity be bought? Must love be purchased?
Brazil’s Impeached Ex-President Dilma Rousseff Says Successor “Confessed to the Coup”
Inacio Vieira – The InterceptThe impeached president highlights the stunning comments from Michel Temer that Brazil’s big media has ignored.
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
‘Terrorists vs. Moderates’: Lessons from the MI5 Middle East Files
Nikolai Gorshkov – Sputnik NewsAnother batch of MI5 files just released by the National Archives in London reveals more details regarding the origins of present day troubles in the Middle East, as well as the machinations of western allies trying to upstage one another.
How the US Armed-up Syrian Jihadists
Alastair Crooke – Consortium News29 Sep 2016 – The West blames Russia for the bloody mess in Syria, but U.S. Special Forces saw close up how the chaotic U.S. policy of aiding Syrian jihadists enabled Al Qaeda and ISIS to rip Syria apart, explains ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke.
PALESTINE / ISRAEL
Shimon Peres from the Perspective of His Victims
Ilan Pappe |The Electronic Intifada – TRANSCEND Media Service28 Sep 2016 – The obituaries for Shimon Peres have already appeared, no doubt prepared in advance as the news of his hospitalization reached the media. My guess is that very few of the obituaries will examine Peres’ life and activities from the perspective of the victims of Zionism and Israel.
Ban Ki-moon’s Legacy in Palestine: Failure in Words and Deeds
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media ServiceWhen the UN chief is gone, he will be missed – but certainly not by Palestinians in Gaza or refugees in Syria, or war victims in Afghanistan. In his last visit to Palestine in June, Ban Ki-Moon told distraught Gazans that the “UN will always be with you.” As tens of thousands there still stand on the rubble of their own homes, denied freedom to move or rebuild, his statement is as forgettable as the man’s legacy at the UN.
Palestinian Youth Art Festival in India Spotlights Hardships
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media ServiceGaza51 showcases the artwork of young Palestinians from Gaza produced after the 2014 Israeli invasion.
Shimon Peres Was No Peacemaker. I’ll Never Forget the Sight of Pouring Blood and Burning Bodies at Qana
Robert Fisk – The IndependentPeres said the massacre came as a ‘bitter surprise’. It was a lie: the UN had repeatedly told Israel the camp was packed with refugees.
SURVEILLANCE / SPYING / WHISTLEBLOWING / BIG BROTHER
A Look Back at What Snowden Told the World about the U.S.-Israel Relationship
Alex Kane | Mondoweiss – TRANSCEND Media ServiceSnowden revealed a great deal about the U.S.-Israeli relationship. His leaks provide an unprecedented look at how the U.S. and Israel share intelligence, and also reveal the tensions in the relationship. What he told the world about the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Every Move You Make
James Bamford – Foreign PolicyOver eight years, President Barack Obama has created the most intrusive surveillance apparatus in the world. To what end?
Orwell 2016: Censorship in the Age of Social Media
Catherine Shakdam – Russia Today30 Sep 2016 – If George Orwell is watching from above, he must be impressed. In his novel 1984, what was meant as a cautionary tale against government control and intellectual obscurantism, seems to have come to pass without our full knowledge.
ENVIRONMENT
Greenland’s Receding Icecap to Expose Top-Secret US Nuclear Project
Jon Henley – The GuardianCamp Century – part of Project Iceworm – is an underground cold war toxic waste network that was thought to have been buried forever.
Bees Added to US Endangered Species List for the First Time
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media ServiceSeven types of the yellow-faced or masked bees once found in great numbers in Hawaii are under threat, federal officials say.
The World Passes 400 PPM Threshold. Permanently
Brian Kahn | Climate Central – TRANSCEND Media Service2016 is the year that carbon dioxide officially passed the symbolic 400 ppm mark, never to return below it in our lifetimes, according to scientists. Because carbon pollution has been increasing since the start of the Industrial Revolution and has shown no signs of abating, it was more a question of “when” rather than “if” we would cross this threshold. The inevitability doesn’t make it any less significant, though.
MILITARISM
U.S. Military Is Building a $100 Million Drone Base in Africa
Nick Turse – The InterceptAs the only country in the region willing to allow a U.S. base for MQ-9 Reapers — a newer, larger, and potentially more lethal model than the venerable Predator drone — Niger has positioned itself to be the key regional hub for U.S. military operations.
The “Major and Deadly” Wars to Come
Andre Damon | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service3 Oct 2016 – A report by a leading geopolitical strategy think tank makes clear that the US military is engaged in intensive planning for wars involving massive casualties.
MEDIA
NGOs: Grassroots Empowerment or Tool of Information Warfare?
Daniel Deiss, J.Hawk and Edwin Watson | South Front – TRANSCEND Media ServiceFake NGOs as Bellingcat, White Helmets, Syria Observatory for Human Rights and other self-styled “open-source information analysts” have become the tip of the spear in the ongoing information war. These fake NGOs play a leading role in what US military refers to as “shaping the information battlefield.” Their second function is allowing interested governments to refrain from directly lying to the media and the public themselves.
The Internet Was Just Taken Over by a Global Monopoly, and No One Even Noticed
Claire Bernish | Activist Post – TRANSCEND Media ServiceOn Saturday [1 Oct], the United States ceded oversight of one of the Internet’s most basic and fundamental functions — the so-called “root zone,” which governs new domain names and addresses — handing it over to a small non-profit group by allowing a 47-year contract to expire.
CAPITALISM
The Economist Magazine Warns of Revolutionary Consequences of Unprecedented Corporate Power
Gabriel Black | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media ServiceOn Sep 17 The Economist published a special report titled “The Superstar Company: A Giant Problem” where it details the sharp growth in the economic and political power of the world’s top corporations. The editorial warns that today’s economic climate contains “worrying similarities to a much earlier era,” the period leading up to the Russian Revolution.
REVIEWS
Transforming Broken Relationships: Making Peace with The Past
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media ServiceMark Salter and Zahbia Yousuf (Eds) Transforming broken relationships: Making Peace with the Past (London: Conciliation Resources, 2016) – The term “reconciliation” is used in different ways when dealing with conflicts between individuals, groups, or States.
Discovering Antonioni’s Neglected Masterpiece, Zabriskie Point
Emanuel E. Garcia – TRANSCEND Media ServiceZabriskie Point is well worth seeing, revisiting, absorbing: it’s a subversive and startling work of art that is fresher and more relevant than ever.
SPORTS
The White Man in That Photo
Riccardo Gazzaniga - GRIOT Magazine3 Oct 2016 – Today marks the 10th anniversary of Peter Norman’s passing. We want to commemorate him by publishing the story of the Australian sprinter. It’s a historic photo of two men of color rebellious gesture the day they won medals for the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. For this reason I never really paid attention to the other man, white, motionless on the second step of the medal podium.
HISTORY
October: This Month in Nuclear Threat History
Jeffrey W. Mason | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media ServiceOctober 30, 1961 – The Soviet Union’s “Tsar Bomba,” the most powerful nuclear weapon ever constructed was detonated after being dropped from a TU-95 bomber at approximately four kilometers altitude over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Russian Arctic Sea. This hydrogen bomb formally designated RDS-220, which weighed about 27 tons and was eight meters long, had an estimated yield of 50 megatons or the equivalent of 3,800 Hiroshima bombs. The tremendous blast triggered a seismic shock wave, equivalent to an earthquake registered at 5.0 on the Richter Scale, that travelled around the world.
This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media ServiceOct 3-9 ~ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” – Christopher McCandless
BIOGRAPHIES
Václav Havel (5 Oct 1936 – 18 Dec 2011)
Encyclopædia Britannica – TRANSCEND Media ServiceHavel was the son of a wealthy restaurateur whose property was confiscated by the communist government of Czechoslovakia in 1948. As the son of bourgeois parents, Havel was denied easy access to education but managed to finish high school and study on the university level. He found work as a stagehand in a Prague theatrical company in 1959 and soon began writing plays with Ivan Vyskočil.
John Lennon (9 Oct 1940 – 8 Dec 1980)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service“If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliché that should have been left behind in the ’60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.”
—John Lennon
HEALTH
The Hidden Danger in Your Hand Soap
Sarah Ades and Kenneth Keiler – The GuardianAntibacterial agents in handsoaps have been banned in the US. That’s good news – they seep into urine and breast milk, and can promote bacterial resistance. About 40% of soaps use at least one of these chemicals, and the chemicals are also found in toothpaste, baby pacifiers, laundry detergents and clothing. It is in some lip glosses, deodorants and pet shampoos.
Could Turmeric Really Boost Your Health?
Michael Mosley – BBC Magazine20 Sep 2016 – Bold health claims have been made for the power of turmeric. Is there anything in them? There are at least 200 different compounds in turmeric, but there’s one that scientists are particularly interested in. It gives this spice its colour. It’s called curcumin.
EDUCATION
Teachers’ Day: 5 October
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media ServiceBeing a teacher calls for multiple abilities.
INSPIRATIONAL
True Realism: From ‘I’ to ‘We’
Libby & Len Traubman – TRANSCEND Media Service“In the end, it cannot be doubted that each of us can see only a part of the picture. The doctor sees one, the patient another, the engineer a third, the economist a fourth, the pearl diver a fifth, the alcoholic a sixth, the cable guy a seventh, the sheep farmer an eighth, the Indian beggar a ninth, the pastor a tenth. Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.”
POETRY FORMAT
(Português) Animicídio
José Santa Rita Xisto – TRANSCEND Media ServiceAs garras aceradas da desgraça
Meu corpo invisível dilaceram;
E agora que as esp’ranças já morreram,
Maior é esta dor que me trespassa!
Death of a Toddler
Barbara Millar – TRANSCEND Media ServiceO, Syrian child, armies of refugees, huddled together
on rotting boats, on a fickle sea, washed ashore
like detritus of a shipwrecked land:
death by hunger
death by mortar …
IN OTHER LANGUAGES
(Italiano) 21 settembre 2016: 10 indicazioni
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media ServiceI media sono stati aggiornati a riguardo della sanità, ma non sulla pace. Immaginiamo dei media gestiti dall’industria farmaceutica. Non sospetteremmo che un’informazione governata dai propri princìpi possa essere soppressa a favore di malattie che procedono per conto proprio fino a che sia arrivato il momento per le pillole? Le notizie sanitarie sarebbero brutte notizie; i media traboccherebbero di trattazione di malattie e minacce di malattie. Che sono appunto i media che abbiamo, sostituendo l’industria delle armi a quella farmaceutica. Le notizie sulla pace sono brutte notizie per alcuni; e i media sono zeppi di notizie di guerra e minacce di guerra. Non sanno neppure come identificare e scrivere di pace, dovesse mai succedere. D’altronde i soldi in questione sono quadrilioni.
(Italiano) Lo stato del Mondo – secondo il giornalismo
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media ServiceQuello che vogliamo dai giornalisti: che ci diano la situazione del mondo, da un “luogo di guai” – teatro di violenza passata-presente-futura – a un altro. Non lo specchio del mondo, ma renderlo più trasparente. Quali domande sarebbero da porre per fare un buon lavoro, sotto la superficie?
(Castellano) Bolivia celebrará jornada de poesía a favor de la paz en el mundo
teleSUR – TRANSCEND Media ServiceEl Movimiento Poético Mundial espera organizar actividades similares en 24 países de América latina.
(Français) Shimon Peres du point de vue de ses victimes
Ilan Pappé | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media ServiceLes nécrologies de Shimon Peres ont déjà été publiées, préparées sans aucun doute à l’avance, dès que la nouvelle de son hospitalisation est parue dans les médias. Le verdict sur sa vie est très clair et a déjà été prononcé par le président américain Barack Obama : Peres était un homme qui a changé le cours de l’histoire humaine dans sa recherche incessante pour la paix au Moyen-Orient. Mon intuition est que très peu des nécrologies examineront la vie et les activités de Peres du point de vue des victimes du sionisme et d’Israël.
(Italiano) 2 ottobre. Giornata internazionale della Nonviolenza
Silvia Berruto – TRANSCEND Media ServiceOggi le amiche e gli amici, persuasi della Nonviolenza, sono particolarmente coinvolti. Agire la nonviolenza a partire dall’affrontare, per risolvere, la propria violenza interiore. A partire da sè.
(Português) Sobre o fim dos testes em animais e o envolvimento das empresas nas mudanças necessárias
Amelia Gonzalez - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais“Um dos maiores problemas do mundo dos negócios é que a ganância tornou-se culturalmente aceita. Existe uma conexão direta entre essa ganância, no momento em que ela se torna difundida na sociedade em geral, e alguns dos piores problemas sociais do cotidiano – por exemplo, quando crianças matam outras para roubar um par de tênis de marca”, escreveu ela.
(Português) Dilma diz que Michel Temer e seus aliados “confessam o golpe”
Inacio Vieira – The Intercept BrasilNa primeira entrevista desde seu afastamento, a ex-presidente Dilma Rousseff citou a declaração em que Michel Temer diz que o impeachment foi motivado por Dilma não aceitar o plano econômico do PMDB, e não por supostas irregularidades praticadas por ela.
SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
Ain’t Got No, I Got Life (Music Video of the Week)
Nina Simone – TRANSCEND Media ServiceNina Simone Playing Live in London, 1968 – A Classic!
Watch the Trailer for Leonardo DiCaprio’s New Documentary ‘Before the Flood’
National Geographic – TRANSCEND Media ServiceSep 27, 2016 – A riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change. BEFORE THE FLOOD will be in theaters in NYC and LA starting October 21, and air globally on the National Geographic Channel starting Oct 30.
These 13 Corporations Are “Big Pharma”: Their History, Crimes, and Products
Era of Wisdom – TRANSCEND Media ServiceSep 26, 2016 – This video provides insight into what exactly “big pharma” is. It is a preview to the documentary “Toddlers on Adderall: History of Big Pharma and the Major Players,” to be released December 28, 2016.
SATIRE
Command & Control
Posted by Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media ServiceNo Comment
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Feedback
Posted by Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media ServiceDon’t complain…
“Capitalism and State sovereignty are goners. Bankism rules the world in all respects now.” “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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