PEACE JOURNALISM PERSPECTIVE
EDITORIAL
Religious Fundamentalism-Extremism-Violence
Johan Galtung, 8 Feb 2016 - TRANSCEND Media Service
We can have extremism without fundamentalism. Most people exercising violence believe in nothing, beyond “doing their job”. There are two criteria for “religious extremism”: violence and religious legitimation. How about the secular counterparts to religions, the ideologies, the isms?
Johan Galtung Replies to Prof. Ada Aharoni’s Critique
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service
There are two drawbacks that bother me in TRANSCEND and mars it from making it a true PEACE JOURNAL.
NOBEL LAUREATES
Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire Agrees with the UN Expert Panel Decision on Julian Assange’s Arbitrary Detention
The Peace People – TRANSCEND Media Service
Maguire, who visited Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London several times and has been a long time supporter of Freedom and Justice for Julian Assange, said she was delighted that the UN Panel had found his arbitrary detention for over five years to be unlawful and said this decision has vindicated Julian Assange. However, she expressed her disappointment at the governments of UK and Sweden’s rejection of the verdict.
The True Nobel Candidates 2016
Fredrik S. Heffermehl, Nobel Peace Prize Watch – TRANSCEND Media Service
Letter Feb. 2, 2016 to the Nobel Committee – LIST OF QUALIFIED CANDIDATES FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2016
OTHER COMMENTARIES
OBITUARIES
(Italiano, English, Français) In morte, in death, dans la mort: Nanni Salio [TRANSCEND Member]
Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service
ITALIANO: Gli amici e le amiche del Centro Studi Sereno Regis di Torino comunicano addolorati la perdita del loro Presidente, Nanni Salio, il 1 febbraio 2016.
ENGLISH: The friends of Centro Studi Sereno Regis convey the sorrowful news of their President Nanni Salio’s demise on 1st February 2016.
FRANÇAIS: Les amis de Centro Studi Sereno Regis véhiculent les nouvelles tristes de leur mort président Nanni Salio le 1er Février ici 2016.
BY TRANSCEND MEMBERS
North Korea: How Many Wake-Up Calls Will It Take?
David Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service
North Korea has been roundly condemned for its nuclear tests, including this one. To put this in perspective, however, the U.S. has conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests, continues to conduct subcritical nuclear tests, has not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, is in breach of its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, regularly tests nuclear-capable missiles, and plans to spend $1 trillion modernizing its nuclear arsenal.
Orientalisation and Manufacturing of ‘Civil Society’ in Contemporary Burma (Myanmar)
Maung Zarni - TRANSCEND Media Service
After two decades of post-Cold War hostilities between Burmese generals and their former Cold War ‘friends’ in London, Berlin, Washington and Tokyo, a danse macabre is set in motion. The backdrop this time is the West’s need to contain an increasingly powerful China in Burma’s eastern neighbourhood and the worsening economic decay in Europe and North America. In this new geopolitical drama both the generals in Naypyidaw and the liberals in Western capitals have found a new role for iconic Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Urgent Need for Complete Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service
After discussing the Bikini test and its radioactive fallout with Joseph Rotblat, Lord Russell became concerned for the future of the human gene pool if large numbers of such bombs should ever be used in a war. To warn humanity of the danger, he wrote what came to be known as the Russell-Einstein Manifesto.
The Complex Problematics of Palestinian Representation
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service
This post attempts to address the current quandary that arises from the collapse of Oslo diplomacy and the seeming continuing encroachment of Israel on the territories long believed to provide the Palestinian people with a sovereign state of their own.
NONVIOLENCE
Seeing Flight as a Nonviolent Option
Erica Chenoweth and Hakim Young – CounterPunch
Why we must challenge the conventional refuge narrative. Seeing flight as a nonviolent option will better equip the informed public to contest exclusionary rhetoric and policies, elevate a new discourse that empowers more moderate politicians, and widen the range of policy options available to respond to the current crisis.
ACTIVISM
The Lessons of Zapatista Women Activists for Today’s Social Movements
James Tracy – In These Times
Images of the Zapatistas have always been striking—indigenous peasants with wooden rifles declaring war on the Mexican government; with their faces covered by black ski masks or red bandanas, they symbolically became the face of the faceless, the voice of the voiceless.
EDUCATION
Why Our World Needs Peace Literacy
Paul K. Chappell, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service
Peace literacy is the next step in the development of our global civilization, because peace literacy is necessary in an interconnected world where the fate of every nation is tied to the fate of our planet. Because of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, war, and environmental destruction, being preliterate in peace puts humanity and our planet at great risk. During an era when humanity has the technological capacity to destroy itself, peace literacy means survival literacy.
IN FOCUS
Freeing Julian Assange: The Last Chapter
John Pilger – TRANSCEND Media Service
5 Feb 2016 – One of the epic miscarriages of justice of our time is unravelling. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention – the international tribunal that adjudicates and decides whether governments comply with their human rights obligations – has ruled that Julian Assange has been detained unlawfully by Britain and Sweden.
SPECIAL FEATURE
For the Love of Money: Wall Street’s Money Addiction
Sam Polk – International New York Times
In my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million — and I was angry because it wasn’t big enough. I was 30 years old, had no children to raise, no debts to pay, no philanthropic goal in mind. I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.
Why We Joined ISIS: To Make Friends and Earn a Good Wage
Erin Banco – International Business Times
While experts say some members of the group join because they believe in its extremist ideology, many sign up because they are young, uneducated, poor and vulnerable, not dissimilar to gang members in cities across the United States [and many other countries around the world].
AFRICA
Women’s Rights First — African Summit
Baher Kamal - Human Wrongs Watch
1 Feb 2016 – Despite the enormous challenges facing Africa now, the leaders of its 1.2 billion plus inhabitants have decided to spotlight the issue of Human Rights with a Particular Focus on the Rights of Women in their 26th summit held in Addis Ababa on 21-31 January this year. Why?
ANGLO AMERICA
The Legacy of George W Bush: 10 Million Refugees and 250,000 Deaths over the Past Five Years
Anthony Bellchambers - Global Research
This is a man who had difficulty speaking English: who had no known personal assets but was elected to high office by an accident of history and thereby changed the world irrevocably for the worse. Millions have died as a consequence of the actions of this one single American cowboy who still personifies the banality of US politics at its worst.
Letter to the Canadian Government
Veterans For Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service
We are writing you on behalf of Veterans For Peace, with chapters in 14O U.S. cities, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam. Our urgent mission is to abolish war once and for all and to build a culture of peace. Our primary purpose in writing you today concerns some unfinished business stemming from the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
India Steps Up Pressure on Nepal
W. A. Sunil, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service
5 Feb 2016 – A continued Indian-backed blockade of supplies to Nepal, a small landlocked country wedged between India and China, has escalated tensions between Kathmandu and New Delhi… The Nepal crisis is another expression of the aggressive US moves against China, and the harnessing of India as Washington’s partner. This drive is deepening geo-political tensions and increasing political instability throughout South Asia.
EUROPE
The Irish Slave Trade – The Forgotten “White” Slaves
John Martin - Global Research
They came as slaves; vast human cargo transported on tall British ships bound for the Americas. They were shipped by the hundreds of thousands and included men, women, and even the youngest of children. Slave owners would hang their human property by their hands and set their hands or feet on fire as one form of punishment. They were burned alive and had their heads placed on pikes in the marketplace as a warning to other captives.
Cameron At Large: Want Not to Become a Terrorist? Speak Fluent English!
Baher Kamal – Inter Press Service-IPS
4 Feb 2016 – “Do you speak English fluently? No? Then you risk becoming a terrorist.” IPS posed this dilemma to some young Muslim women living in Cairo, while explaining that this appears to be David Cameron’s formula to judge the level of Muslim women’s risk to fall, passively, into the horrific trap of extremism.
Europe Is Built on Corpses and Plunder
Andre Vltchek - CounterPunch
Speech given in Rome at the Italian Parliament on January 29, 2016. I grew up on your films, on Fellini and de Sica, Rossellini, Antonioni and others. They had tremendous influence on my work, and on how I see the world. But your heart, it seems, is not an internationalist heart. It does not believe that all people are equal. It is because your country is a member of NATO, and NATO is behaving like a fascist thug with some clear mafia behavioral patterns.
PALESTINE / ISRAEL
Jewish Peace Groups Reveal Role in Spoof New York Times That Criticized Paper’s Stance on Israel
Democracy NOW! – TRANSCEND Media Service
The edition even has fake ads. Volunteers distributed 10,000 copies of the fake paper across New York City on Tuesday [2 Feb], but no group took responsibility—until now. Jane Hirschmann of Jews Say No! tells Democracy Now! her group and Jewish Voice for Peace produced the paper.
U.S. Joins the Chorus of Countries Taking Steps to Distinguish between Israel and Its Illegal Settlements
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man - +972 Magazine
The end of normalcy for Israeli settlements? Stricter trade guidelines, harsher rhetoric and corporate responsibility campaigns all send a clear message: Israel’s closest allies are no longer willing to passively accept the occupation, and the only consensus on settlements is that they are illegal.
Behind Israel’s Campaign to Vilify Peace Groups
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service
Far-right activists spying on Israeli human rights community received hidden funds from Netanyahu government.
Israel’s Security Establishment Makes Public Plea for a Two State Solution
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service
7 Feb 2016 – Rarely, if ever, has a newspaper ad mobilized such influential backing for a position of prominent Israelis at odds with the elected leadership of the Israeli state. A full page add appeared in the New York Times on February 4, 2016. Its message was proclaimed in large bold type: “Israel’s Security Chiefs Agree: Separation into two States is in Israel’s vital security interest.”
SYRIA IN DEPTH
The Rise of ISIS and Other Extremist Groups: The Role of the West and Regional Powers
Bouthaina Shaaban - CounterPunch
This essay examines the attempts to break up Syria’s civilian and military institutions, the delegitimization of the Syrian government, the attempts to procure a UN mandate for a military intervention in Syria, the imposition of suffocating economic sanctions on Syria, and most importantly the support that Western and regional powers gave to a plethora of armed groups, including al-Qaeda and ISIS, to fight the Syrian government.
Social Control Is Emerging as ISIS (Da’ish) Motive for Erasing Our Cultural Heritage in Syria
Franklin Lamb – TRANSCEND Media Service
5 Feb 2016 – It is widely recognized that the damage done to our cultural heritage in Syria and to the heritage of those who will follow us, cannot be calculated. Untold quantities of archaeologically vital artifacts have been looted, sold, displaced and discarded through industry-like efforts.
Want Peace in Syria? Put Women at the Negotiating Table
Matthew Rycroft and Swanee Hunt, Defense One – TRANSCEND Media Service
That’s what the Balkan experience tells us, say current and former British and US ambassadors. Women are often best placed to spot signs of radicalization and to counter it, given their central role in the family and the community.
THE UNITED NATIONS
Julian Assange Arbitrarily Detained by Sweden and UK, UN Expert Panel Finds
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service
In a public statement, the expert panel called on the Swedish and British authorities to end Mr. Assange’s deprivation of liberty, respect his physical integrity and freedom of movement, and afford him the right to compensation.
MILITARISM
Obama and the Pentagon Plan Massive Military Escalation and the Media Barely Seem to Care
Adam Johnson - AlterNet
U.S. troops are going back into Iraq, our presence in Libya is escalating, and Obama has widened the war in Afghanistan—all without much of a public debate.
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto [on Nuclear Weapons]
Student Pugwash University of Michigan– TRANSCEND Media Service
“In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the Governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them.”
Taking on Nukespeak
Andrew Moss, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service
“Nukespeak” is a highly militarized discourse that obscures the moral consequences of our policies and actions used by military officials, political leaders, and policy experts – as well as by journalists and citizens. The language creeps into our public discussions like an invasive species, casting shadows on the way we think about our collective present and future.
Deadlock: North Korea’s Nuclear Test and US Policy
Mel Gurtov, PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service
Serious engagement with North Korea remains the only realistic policy option for the United States and its allies. To be effective, however, engagement must be undertaken strategically—as a calculated use of incentives with expectation of mutual rewards, namely in security and peace. And it should be undertaken in a spirit of mutual respect and with due regard for sensitivity in language and action.
TRADE
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Fraud
Jomo Kwame Sundaram – Inter Press Service-IPS
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement privileges foreign investors while imposing substantial costs on partner countries. The TPP has, in fact already been used to try to kill the Doha ‘Development’ Round of multilateral trade talks, but may well also undermine multilateralism more broadly in the near future.
The TPP: A Corporate Bill of Rights
Larry Brown - TeleSur
These so-called trade deals are really not very much about trade at all. They are international corporate constitutions, aimed at limiting the ability of our governments to control transnational corporate behavior. These deals weaken democracy, increase income inequality, endanger our public services, give corporations more rights than the citizenry, further endanger our already stressed environment, and kill jobs.
Signing Polluter-Friendly TPP Trade Deal Is Gambling Away Our Future
Michael Brune, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service
For years, the Sierra Club has reported on and campaigned against the TPP’s threats to our air, water, climate, families and communities. The U.S. Trade Representative is gambling away our jobs, our clean air and water, and our future by pushing the polluter-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership, so it only makes sense that it was signed in a casino and convention center.
CAPITALISM
Why Prosecutors Don’t Target Thieving CEOs
Ian Salisbury – Time
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren issued a stinging broadside against federal prosecutors on Friday [29 Jan 2016], charging U.S. courts with throwing the book at mixed-up teenagers, while letting wealthy corporate executives who commit much larger and sometimes deadly crimes off with essentially no chance of punishment.
Wall Street Worldview: Why Are People Upset?
William Boardman - Reader Supported News
Multi-billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman says he’s puzzled by the discontent felt by other Americans these days. He is a bland-looking, somewhat paunchy, not unattractive, balding man of benign demeanor. He’s worth $12 billion, give or take a few hundred million, and a poster boy for Wall Street success and self-esteem and cluelessness.
VW, GM and Takata: The Case for Jailing Corporate Executives
Russell Mokhiber – CounterPunch
2 Feb 2016 – The Center for Auto Safety’s Clarence Ditlow wants executives at VW, Takata and General Motors jailed for corporate crime. Ditlow says that the Volkswagen diesel case, for example, is one of the most egregious corporate crime cases in history.
REVIEWS
Bad Blood: The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement – A Book Review
Kristian Williams – Toward Freedom
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the canonical authority of Marxism has been much less certain. Yet anarchists have not stepped forward to fill the organizational and philosophical vacuum left behind. The reasons for that failing are numerous, but among them must certainly be counted the fact that we have become accustomed to our own marginalization and have largely ceased to think in terms of mass movements and international revolution.
Global Peace Science (GPS): The Book, its Authors and Significance
Dr. Leo Semashko – TRANSCEND Media Service
In Russian language, the book of 432 pages by 89 coauthors from 30 countries was published in January 2015. In English language, the book of 616 pages by 174 coauthors of 34 countries was published in the early February 2016 in India, Russia and the USA.
Euromaidan Unmasked: Europe Shocked by the Bitter Truth on Ukraine
Oriental Review – TRANSCEND Media Service
The hard-hitting documentary by Paul Moreira “Ukraine, les masques de la révolution” [Ukraine: Masks of the Revolution], released on Monday [1 Feb 2016] by Canal+, created a turmoil both in Ukraine and France well before the premiere… One more pleasant outcome of this story is that the rumors about clinical death of independent journalism in the West are apparently somewhat exaggerated.
Drone, a Norwegian-made Documentary: “We Just Made Orphans Out of All These Children”
Joanne Laurier, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service
The use of drones by the USA for assassinations has greatly increased the past decade. Hessen Schei’s movie brings together opponents of this specialized killing tool, including authors, commentators, human rights attorneys and investigative journalists. The real heart and strength of Drone lies in its interviews with two former drone operators from the US Air Force, Brandon Bryant and Michael Haas, both young men suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
ACADEMIA-KNOWLEDGE-SCHOLARSHIP
How Intellectuals Create a Public
Corey Robin – The Chronicle of Higher Education Review
The problem with our public intellectuals today is that they are writing for readers who already exist, as they exist. Their biggest challenges are imagination and will… Not tenure, not the death of bohemia, not jargon, but the fear that the publics that don’t yet exist — which are, after all, the only publics we’ve ever had — never will exist.
HEALTH
Six Reasons You Should Drink More Water
Baba Mail – TRANSCEND Media Service
As you most likely know, water is a basic need without which we cannot survive. It is also a great way to heal the body. Here are six reasons that you should drink a few more glasses of water each day.
Duty to Warn – The Zika Virus, the Brazilian Microcephaly Outbreak, Cognitive Dissonance and the Elephant in the Room
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service
Covering-up Another Iatrogenic Disorder (Injecting Fetotoxic Aluminum into Pregnant Women)
HISTORY
This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service
Feb 8 – 14 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you; and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” – Steve Jobs
February: This Month in Nuclear Threat History
Jeffrey W. Mason, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service
February 1, 1958 – As part of the U.S. strategy of massive (nuclear) retaliation, the UK agreed to station 60 nuclear-armed Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles at four U.K. military bases. Royal Air Force personnel staffed the bases, but all the nuclear weapons that were provided remained in full U.S. ownership, custody, and control. These same missiles were put on high-alert status during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
BIOGRAPHIES
Adlai Stevenson (5 Feb 1900 – 14 Jul 1965): Reducing Strife without Eliminating Variety
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service
At a time when the narrow nationalism of Donald Trump, expressed in semi-literate style, fills the US media, we can only look back in sadness at the internationalism expressed in an elegant and humorous way by Adlai Stevenson. He was among those who prepared the conference to write the UN Charter during 1944-1945 and later from 1961 to 1965 was the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Alfred Adler (7 Feb 1870 – 28 May 1937): Power and Social Feeling
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service
Alfred Adler, a Vienna psychotherapist and medical doctor, was part of the early circle of Sigmund Freud. However, the two men disagreed on what each felt to be fundamental positions. In 1911, Adler left the Freud circle and founded his own approach, which he called “individual psychology”. For Adler, there are similarities between the evolution of man within history and the evolution of each individual.
SCIENCE / SPIRITUALITY
Why Biology Is Beyond Physical Sciences?
Bhakti Niskama Shanta, Ph.D. and Bhakti Vijnana Muni, Ph.D. - Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Institute, Scientific & Academic Publishing
In the modern era, to study an organism, scientists have mainly adopted Descartes’ ontological view of the organism as a complex machine. The continued usage of physicalist science to comprehend biological systems is the biggest hurdle in the path of understanding life. The materialistic understanding of reality depends on natural laws, mathematics, determinism, and reductionism. This materialistic science has continually failed to provide a theory for biology.
POETRY FORMAT
The Day President Obama Cried
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service
Yesterday on television President Obama addressed his nation
on new measures to be taken concerning gun-control legislation
IN OTHER LANGUAGES
(Português) Maricá, cidade brasileira, mostra que transporte gratuito é possível
Fania Rodrigues – Brasil de Fato
Um ano depois de começar a fornecer transporte público gratuito, prefeitura vai ampliar sua frota de ônibus. Maricá é o primeiro município brasileiro com mais de 100 mil habitantes a oferecer ônibus gratuito. Segundo a prefeitura, foram transportadas mais de 2 milhões de pessoas, em um ano de operação.
(Italiano) Guerre, terrorismi e propaganda mediatica
Prof. Nanni Salio – Centro Studi Sereno Regis
5 febbraio 2016 – Per gentile concessione di Nuova Società che ringraziamo di cuore. Nanni ha scritto questo articolo a metà gennaio. Sarà pubblicato nell’edizione cartacea della rivista il 15 febbraio 2016.
(Português) Rede de Túneis de 12 mil anos que cruza toda Europa intriga pesquisadores
Tonocosmos – TRANSCEND Media Service
Datadas em mais de 12 mil anos, essas passagens subterrâneas ainda permanecem um mistério. Quem as construiu? Para quê? Como foi possível?
(Italiano) In Memoriam – Nanni Salio
Roberto Minganti, Soka Gakkai Italia – TRANSCEND Media Service
Nanni Salio ci ha lasciato ieri sera, lunedì 1 febbraio 2016.
(Português) O Naufrágio de Ulisses
Prof. Paulo Mendes Pinto – TRANSCEND Media Service
Tal como com Ulisses, somos uma sociedade naufragada, com pouco de utopia em nós, recusando abrigo aos sem-abrigo que temos junto das nossas paredes. Mas ao contrário de Ulisses, somos também nós a praia onde damos à costa, sejamos Sírios desesperados a fugir da guerra que nós, Europa, possibilitámos e fomentámos, ou sejamos europeus de direito “burocrático” mas pouco cívico.
(Italiano) Nel frattempo in giro per il mondo: problemi – rimedi
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service
Diamo un’occhiata, e vediamo che cosa si può fare.
SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
Samba do Brasil (Music Video of the Week)
Bellini – TRANSCEND Media Service
Music video by Bellini performing Samba do Brasil, under exclusive license to Polydor/Island, a division of Universal Music GmbH.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Pharaoh
Author Unknown - TRANSCEND Media Service
Pharaonic attraction.
“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.
IMPORTANT: Please whitelist tms-weekly-d
DO NOT REPLY OR WRITE TO tms-weekly-d
CLICK here to SUBSCRIBE or access our website: https://www.transcend.org/tms/.
Use this link to access the list of past Weekly Digests: https://www.transcend.org/tms/weekly-archive/.
Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated. Please write to tms@transcend.org or ‘Contact us’ on the website.
Bookmark or add TMS to Favorites or to your Desktop so you may return to it later, as needed.
Link TMS to your websites and/or mailing lists. You are welcome to use our materials, attribution being equally welcome.
We absolutely do not share your email address with anyone.
If you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE from TMS Weekly Digest, we are sorry that you use this link: https://www.transcend.org/lists//auto_signoff/tms-weekly-digest/liucheng%40nju.edu.cn
Thanks for reading TMS.
Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa, editor
