PEACE JOURNALISM PERSPECTIVE
EDITORIAL
Learning from Mathematics
Johan Galtung, 29 Feb 2016 – TRANSCEND Media Service
To make the Queen boring is a crime against humanity. Stop it.
OTHER COMMENTARIES
BY TRANSCEND MEMBERS
Variety of System Failures Engendered by Negligent Distinctions
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service
Global civilization is currently witness to a variety of systemic failures — and the recognized potential for more. There is an evident degree of incapacity to encompass their nature, whether or not efforts are made to frame them in terms of a global problematique, or the possibility of a global resolutique.
Moral Courage – Stand Up to Wall St. & the U.S. War Machine!
James Albertini – TRANSCEND Media Service
“Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.”
– – Robert F. Kennedy
An Open Letter to the People of West Papua
James Burrowes & Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
We have recently been discussing your ongoing courageous struggle to liberate yourselves from more than 100 years of occupation, first by the Netherlands, briefly and brutally by Japan during World War II, and now by Indonesia. In that regard, we would each like to share a brief message with you, our friends from West Papua.
SPECIAL FEATURE
The Opium War – Tasked with Combating Opium, Afghan Officials Profit from It [Part 1)
Azam Ahmed – International New York Times
This is the first in a two-part series examining the fight to control the Afghan drug trade. Read Part 2: Penetrating Every Stage of Afghan Opium Chain, Taliban Become a Cartel.
The Opium War – Penetrating Every Stage of Afghan Opium Chain, Taliban Become a Cartel [Part 2)
This is the second in a two-part series examining the fight to control the Afghan drug trade. Read Part 1: Tasked with Combating Opium, Afghan Officials Profit from It.
AFRICA
Africa Launches Largest Trading Block with 620 Million Consumers
Baher Kamal – Human Wrongs Watch
22 Feb 2016 – More than 1,500 public and private business delegates and state leaders agreed on 20-21 February in Egypt to mobilize massive investments for the implementation of Africa’s largest trading bloc which was created last year by 26 African countries with a total of 620 million consumers and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) nearing 1,2 trillion dollars.
LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
Debt and Drugs: A Toxic Colonial Legacy for Puerto Rico
Kari Lydersen - TeleSur
Drug addiction rates in Puerto Rico are sky high, with an estimated 60,000 intravenous drug users. Injection drug use has fueled HIV and hepatitis C infection rates among the highest in the Western Hemisphere. The island’s debt crisis and subsequent austerity cuts are exacerbating social problems.
PALESTINE / ISRAEL
Major American Jewish Leader Changes His Mind about Israel
Rabbi Michael Lerner - Tikkun
The Israel of today is very far from anything I dreamed of and worked for throughout my career. I can clearly remember the day in 1948 when the State of Israel was established. I was in the fourth grade at the Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn. The entire school was summoned to the schoolyard in celebration of the momentous occasion.
Roger Waters: Pink Floyd Star on Why His Fellow Musicians Are Terrified to Speak Out against Israel
Paul Gallagher – The Independent
“If they say something they will no longer have a career. The only response to BDS is that it is anti-Semitic,” Waters told The Independent, in his first major UK interview about his commitment to Israeli activism. “I know this because I have been accused of being a Nazi and an anti-Semite for the past 10 years.”
SURVEILLANCE / SPYING / WHISTLEBLOWING / BIG BROTHER
WikiLeaks: NSA Spied on Israel’s Attempts to Repair Relations With U.S.
Nicky Hager – The Intercept
Newly published classified documents show the National Security Agency spied on a 2010 conversation between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Italian-Israeli conversation is included in one of five NSA documents released Tuesday [23 Feb 2016] by WikiLeaks, which has not disclosed the source of the leaks.
Dark Spots, Light Spots, and Apple’s Protest
Mel Gurtov, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service
By their logic, 1984 is finally here, and embedding security (i.e., surveillance) chips in toothbrushes, children’s toys, and everywhere else The Enemy might lurk is both necessary and proper. You’d better consider flossing regularly and having your kids play with sticks and stones. Barbie is watching, and even Tim Cook can’t stop her.
REVIEWS
Publication of My Book: ‘The Need for a New Economic System’
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Need for a New Economic System is a new book based on the series of articles that I published on TRANSCEND Media Service during the autumn of 2015. It deals with the very urgent problems that are facing the world today, all of which are linked to our need for a reformed and sustainable economic system.
GENETIC ENGINEERING
Scientist Who Discovered That GMOs Cause Tumors Wins Lawsuit
JBA Healthy News – TRANSCEND Media Service
19 Feb 2016 – A court has ruled that French Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini was correct when he concluded that GMO food, when fed to rats, caused serious health problems including tumors.
HEALTH
Meet the Scientist Connecting the Dots between Air Pollution and Dementia
Clayton Aldern, Grist – TRANSCEND Media Service
Increasingly, research suggests a link between air pollution exposure and the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. How might this relationship be possible, and what might it mean for what the world is – or isn’t – prepared to handle in the coming decades?
Duty to Warn – Why We Need to Be More Cautious about America’s Over-Vaccination Program
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service
“PhRMA (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America [Big Pharma’s trade association and lobbying group]) is quoted as saying that “the 271 vaccines in development span a wide array of diseases, and employ exciting new scientific strategies and technologies. These potential vaccines – all in human clinical trials or under review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – include 137 for infectious diseases, 99 for cancer, 15 for allergies and 10 for neurological disorders.”
HISTORY
This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga - TRANSCEND Media Service
Feb 29–Mar 6 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they’re yours.” – Richard Bach
POETRY FORMAT
Diplomatic Relations: A Nonkilling Perspective
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service
When between two countries diplomatic relations are broken
what peace-building-reuniting language could be spoken?
SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
What’s Next with the 350,000 Soldiers, 20,000 Tanks & 2,500 Warplanes Outside of Syria
WeAreChange – TRANSCEND Media Service
Feb 17, 2016 – Luke Rudkowski breaks down the latest about threats to an all-out global war.
Telephone (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
Martynas – TRANSCEND Media Service
Martynas Levickis is one of the brightest young accordion musicians from Lithuania. He has received over 30 prizes and awards, being a Bachelor graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Keen Observation
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
A famous surgeon told his students,
“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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