PEACE JOURNALISM PERSPECTIVE
EDITORIAL
Toward a Northeast Asian Community
Johan Galtung, 24 Aug 2015 - TRANSCEND Media Service
Abe’s policy of “collective self-defense”, an alliance with the most belligerent country in the world, USA, with 248 military interventions abroad since 1805–78 after the Second World War– is a policy of national insecurity.
OTHER COMMENTARIES
BY TRANSCEND MEMBERS
The Magician’s Apprentice
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service
One has to choose: Binyamin Netanyahu is either incredibly shrewd or incredibly foolish. Take his Iran policy. Actually, there is little to choose from. Netanyahu has no other policy to speak off.
Enhancing Strategic Discourse Systematically Using Climate Metaphors
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service
Widespread Comprehension of System Dynamics in Weather Patterns as a Resource – Given the psychological engagement and familiarity with weather and climate phenomena, and their use as metaphors to describe social dynamics, the question here is whether the systemic integrity of the phenomena is suggestive of insights that could be adapted to strategic discourse.
Why Congress Must Support the Nuclear Agreement with Iran
Akbar Ganji & Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service
Akbar Ganji is an important human rights defender who spent several years for his efforts in an Iranian jail. He is a leading commentator on Iranian affairs and recipient of an International Press Association World Press Hero award. Our article stresses the critical importance of obtaining American approval of the nuclear agreement.
Myths of the Green Revolution and GMOs
A backgrounder by Dr Vandana Shiva – TRANSCEND Media Service
15 Aug 2015 – I wrote a book for the United Nations University titled ‘The Violence of the Green Revolution’, which has been republished by many publishers globally, including the Kentucky University Press. Extracts from the book are available on Google.
Enforced Disappearance Commission: Truth, Justice and Reparation for Dignity
Prof. Bishnu Pathak - TRANSCEND Media Service
Enforced disappearance is a prototypical continuous act. The act occurs when a person secretly arrests, detains, tortures and disappears by conflicting forces, but refuses to acknowledge whereabouts of his or her fate . The dead body decomposes in such a way as not to ever be found.
The Five Political Prophecies of Lanza Del Vasto
Antonino Drago – TRANSCEND Media Service
Likewise Gandhi, also his disciple Lanza del Vasto promoted a reform of the religiosity, ethics and politics of the Western context. With this in mind he wrote a book in which he elevated non-violence at an intellectual system, where his religious argumentations are paralleled by corresponding anthropological, economical, political –national and international – argumentations.
The Need for a New Economic System – Part 5: The Threats and Costs of War
John Scales Avery, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
The costs of war, both direct and indirect, are so enormous that they are almost beyond comprehension. Can we not rid ourselves of both nuclear weapons and the institution of war itself? We must act quickly and resolutely before our beautiful world is reduced to radioactive ashes, together with the people that we love.
ACTIVISM
Talking Democracy: How Movements Decide – Reassessing Formal Consensus
Derek Royden – Nation of Change
As way to highlight some of the Occupy movement’s successes, Formal Consensus isn’t ideal for every situation or issue. So where do we go from here to develop a better system?
IN FOCUS
Here’s What Actually Gets Terrorists to Tell the Truth — And It’s Not Torture
Peter Aldhous, BuzzFeed News – TRANSCEND Media Service
Over the past five years, psychological research — some involving real terrorist suspects — has shown how to get information from people who don’t want to talk. Now Washington has the chance to put these findings into practice.
War Begets War Refugees: The Moral Bankruptcy of Italy and NATO
Ramzy Baroud – TRANSCEND Media Service
17 Aug 2015 – On April 26, 2011, a meeting that can only be described as sinister took place between the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The most pressing issue discussed at the meeting in Rome was how to deal with African immigrants.
“The Iranian Threat” – Who Is the Gravest Danger to World Peace?
Noam Chomsky – TomDispatch
“In the eyes of much of the world, in fact, the prime rogue state today is the United States.” As we have seen, global opinion supports this judgment by a substantial margin. Furthermore, the mantle is worn with pride. The Clinton Doctrine, for instance, confirmed that the U.S. was entitled to resort to the “unilateral use of military power” even to ensure “uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources,” let alone alleged “security” or “humanitarian” concerns.
SURVEILLANCE / SPYING / WHISTLEBLOWING / BIG BROTHER
Julian Assange and the Value of WikiLeaks
Norman Solomon, Occupy – TRANSCEND Media Service
From the Vietnam War era to today – from aerial bombing and torture to ecological disasters and financial scams moving billions of dollars into private pockets – the high-up secrecy hiding key realities from the public has done vast damage. No wonder economic and political elites despise WikiLeaks for its disclosures.
SPECIAL FEATURE
Singapore Challenges the Idea That Democracy Is the Best Form of Governance
Graham Allison – Harvad Belfer Center – TRANSCEND Media Service
Was Lee Kuan Yew correct in his belief that Mandarins (in the tradition of Plato’s philosopher kings) who put the public good above their personal interests are necessary for good governance? If so, will Singapore be able to sustain such high levels of talent and sacrifice in its public service? As more Americans see D.C. as an acronym for “Dysfunctional Capital,” these are questions that deserve a rigorous debate.
AFRICA
“We Come As Friends” Explores the Beautiful Nightmare of South Sudan
Nick Turse – The Intercept
As a filmmaker, Hubert Sauper does not take the road less traveled. That would be far too easy. He doesn’t, in fact, take roads much at all. First he spent two years on his French farm building his own ultralight plane out of tin and canvas and lawnmower wheels. Then, in 2010, he flew it from France to southern Sudan. And then things got interesting.
ANGLO AMERICA
Most Disgusting Game Ever
David Swanson – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Nazis never reached this height of banality in the general German public, but had they done so it would be a sinister feature of tens of thousands of Hollywood movies. If Russians sat around playing a board game that involved blowing up Ukrainian children, the Washington Post would have already published several front-page articles.
Corporate Sociopaths Out of Minnesota!
Gary G. Kohls, MD – TRANSCEND Media Service
“Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person.” — Anonymous
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
Nepal’s Constitution and Religion of State
Kedar Neupane – TRANSCEND Media Service
Religion is a personal faith and individual’s belief that cannot be imposed by a law in any modern democracy in free world. All citizens should have freedom to profess and practice whatever religion or faith one has and this should be protected and respected by law and by state without discrimination.
BRICS
Eurasian Counter Gambit: Sino-Russian Alliance ‘Acting as Magnet for World’
Sputnik News – TRANSCEND Media Service
22 Aug 2015 – While US interventionists continue to promote a collection of policies that have repeatedly failed, China and Russia are acting as a magnet for forces of “the rest” aiming to build an entirely new economic infrastructure, US experts Dimitri K. Simes and Richard Burt note.
EUROPE
Occupy Greece: Germany Wins Bid to Run Regional Airports
Sputnik News – TRANSCEND Media Service
The sale is on but the money isn’t in the bank yet. While Greece waits for European Parliaments to approve the country’s bailout package, German airport operator FRAPORT has won the bid to takeover and run 14 Greek regional airports in the first (of many) privatization deals done by the Syriza government.
Yanis Varoufakis: Bailout Deal Allows Greek Oligarchs to Maintain Grip
Phillip Inman – The Guardian
17 Aug 2015 – Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has accused European leaders of allowing oligarchs to maintain their stranglehold on Greek society while punishing ordinary people in a line-by-line critique of the country’s €86bn (£61bn) bailout deal.
After the Bailout: The Spoils of Greece Are Bound for Germany
Sputnik News – TRANSCEND Media Service
The ‘Asset Development Plan’ for Greece is out and it’s all go for the privatization of the country. Hellenic seaports, airports, motorways, petroleum companies, water and gas supply, real estate, holiday resorts – it’s all for sale.
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
Religious Eugenics: How Saudi Arabia Is Sponsoring a Frightening New Movement in the ME
Catherine Shakdam - Russia Today
22 Aug 2015 – Blanketed by its wealth and protected by political alliances, Saudi Arabia has covertly run and promoted a new movement in the Middle East: religious eugenics, under the false pretense of opposing the rise of Iran. From Syria to Bahrain and Yemen, the evidence is overwhelming.
Turkish State Launches Massive Assault on Kurds under Cover of Finally Tackling ISIS
AndrewNFlood, Anarchist Writers – TRANSCEND Media Service
One very clear illustration of whom Turkey has really gone to war with is found in this record of who has been arrested in the raids over the last days (21 – 28 July). People arrested: total 1034 (36 are children).
140 ISIS member,
22 Fetullah Gülen movement,
872 PKK/KCK and other leftist groups.
PALESTINE / ISRAEL
Anonymous Hacks Israeli Government, Officials Blame Hamas, So They Hack Again to Prove It Was Them
Zeidy David – Counter Current News
August 16, 2015 – This past week we reported on a new wave of #OpIsrael attacks by Anonymous on the State of Israel. A new attack, being termed #OpBurnedAlive was reported on in an article entitled Anonymous Hacks Israel After Police Release Terrorist Who Murdered Toddler
Leading Israeli Journalist Says Israel Is an Apartheid State
Ben Norton, Mondoweiss – TRANSCEND Media Service
What I’m about to write will not come easily for me. I used to be one of those people who took issue with the label of apartheid as applied to Israel. I’m not one of those people any more. Not after the last few weeks.
The Doctor Who Dared to Come Out Against a Torturous Law
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz – Jews For Justice For Palestinians
Israel Medical Association chairman Dr Leonid Eidelman announced that the IMA would not torture, its members would not force-feed hunger-strikers and would not enforce the law that the Knesset had passed. He appeared “like a beam of light in the darkness”, highlighting the everyday collaboration with the occupation and the settlers the entire society is involved.
Outrage at Israeli Plan to Build on Historic Muslim Cemetery
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service
19 Aug 2015 – Officials in Jerusalem have approved a massive construction project, including plans for housing, shops and a hotel, on one of the largest and most historically important Islamic cemeteries in the Middle East.
SYRIA IN DEPTH
Two More ‘EverySyrian’ Heroes Murdered while Protecting Our Shared Cultural Heritage
Franklin Lamb – TRANSCEND Media Service
On 8/20/2015 this observer received a credible report from Palmyra that Da’ish (ISIS) militiamen are currently laying explosives among Palmyra’s ruins as a sort of ‘antiquities shield ‘against armed attack from the Syrian army or from the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, the latter now in its second year of targeting the jihadists with checkered results.
CAPITALISM
Appellate Court Judges Cite “1984” to Expand Corporate First Amendment Rights
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept
Telling companies they have to disclose if they are financing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is too big a step toward totalitarianism, the D.C. Circuit rules.
ECONOMICS
From Greece to Spain to Britain: National Debt Audits Are Challenging Austerity
Steve Rushton, Occupy – TRANSCEND Media Service
After being ravaged by austerity measures and unjust debts for years, Ecuador’s 2008 Debt Audit Commission found a large portion to be “illegal and illegitimate.” Consequently, Ecuador cut repayments and instead redirected millions of dollars into public services.
TRADE
Free-Trade Treaties Are Anti-Free Trade
Immanuel Wallerstein - Toward Freedom
So-called free-trade treaties are about managing the protectionist interests of the various parties to these treaties. Whatever they do, the results are anti-free trade. To understand what is going on, we have to start with that, and evaluate any proposal with that in mind.
SOCIALISM / MARXISM
Seventy-Five Years since the Assassination of Leon Trotsky
Joseph Kishore, WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service
The murder of Trotsky came at the high point of international political reaction that included the victory of fascism in Germany in 1933, the defeat of the Spanish Revolution of 1936-39, the Moscow Trials and Great Terror of 1936-38, and the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939.
ANARCHISM
The Anarchist Impulse
Richard Swift – New Internationalist Magazine
The other great historic alternative to capitalism has been anarchism. Often dismissed as a dirty word, its influence ebbs and flows but its libertarian principles remain profoundly influential.
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
The Nuclear Challenge: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service
The time is now ripe for the total de-linkage of nonproliferation from disarmament with respect to nuclear weapons policy. Without such a de-linkage false consciousness and confusion are unavoidable. It is time to generate populist impatience with the refusal of decades by government establishment to act on the basis of reason, ethics, and prudence.
MILITARISM
Is the New U.S. ‘Law of War Manual’ Actually ‘Hitlerian’?
Eric Zuesse – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Obama U.S. Department of Defense has quietly issued its important Law of War Manual. This new document has been alleged specifically to allow for such attacks as the United States did on Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Iraq and elsewhere.
Pentagon to Expand Drone Flights by 50 Percent
Gordon Lubold - The Wall Street Journal
Expanded drone flights to give military commanders access to more intelligence and greater firepower amid more global hot spots.
ENERGY
Climate Policymakers Can Learn from Germany
Paul Hockenos – Al Jazeera America
Germans have a decade’s worth of best practices on how to switch from fossil fuels and nuclear to renewables.
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a Third Nuclear Atrocity: The Corruption of Science
Chris Busby – Russia Today
The bombings can be extrapolated onward in time through the atmospheric testing fallout and Chernobyl, to the more recent contamination in Japan after Fukushima. Today, the analysis of the health risks from the Japanese A-Bombs is being cleverly twisted to provide a rationale for the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.
ENVIRONMENT
Unspoken Death Toll of Fukushima: Nuclear Disaster Killing Japanese Slowly
Sputnik News – TRANSCEND Media Service
20 Aug 2015 – The Japanese government is still in denial and refuses to recognize the disastrous consequences of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, London-based independent consultant on radioactivity Dr. Ian Fairlie states, adding that while thousands of victims have already died, thousands more will soon pass away.
Epidemic of Sea Mammal Deaths Explodes as Fukushima Radiation Contaminates One-Third of the Earth
David Gutierrez – Natural News
Aug 19, 2015 – Dead and dying sea mammals continue to wash ashore at unusual and alarming rates along the California coast. Scientists are stumped, suggesting that the cause may be food shortages caused by abnormally warm waters – but unsure of what has caused the ocean off the California coast to warm so rapidly.
The Teflon Toxin – Part 3: How DuPont Slipped Past the EPA
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept
Part 1: DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception Part 2: The Case Against DuPont Aug. 20 2015 – Mike Romine grew up in Blennerhasset, West Virginia, not far from DuPont’s Parkersburg plant. Throughout his childhood and young adulthood, Romine was probably exposed through his drinking water to C8, a slippery, soap-like chemical used to make Teflon pans and […]
PERMACULTURE
30-Year-Old Trial Finds Organic Farming Outperforms Conventional Agriculture
Permaculture Magazine – TRANSCEND Media Service
Is organic farming more resilient, higher yielding, more energy efficient, and more profitable? The Rodale Institute’s latest report of a 30-year trial says it is. Full report here.
GENETIC ENGINEERING
Monsanto’s Code of Silence Is Deafening
Colin Todhunter - CounterPunch
19 Aug 2015 – In his book Altered Genes, Twisted Truth, US public interest attorney Steven Druker exposed the fraudulent practices and deceptions that led to the commercialisation of GM food and crops in the US. He followed up by delivering a challenge to Monsanto’s headquarters on May 20, 2015 calling on the company to address the evidence presented in the book.
Scotland Bans Growing GM Crops
Stephen Lendman - CounterPunch
12 Aug 2015 – Independent evidence shows GM foods and ingredients harm human health. UN General Assembly measures and international humanitarian laws say all nations are responsible for protecting the health, safety and welfare of their people. Harmful to human health GMOs should be universally banned. Scotland acted responsibly.
ARTS
Banksy’s Theme Park “Dismaland” Shows Darker Side of History and Pop Culture
John Vibes, True Activist – TRANSCEND Media Service
21 Aug 2015 – The mysterious and world famous activist and artist Banksy recently unveiled one of his largest projects to date, a mock theme park that shows the darker side of history and pop culture. The park is called “Dismaland”, which seems to be a play on words with Disneyland.
STORIES TO INSPIRE YOU
Peace Research Is Value-Oriented
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
Imagine you are sick and visit a doctor. He takes your temperature, pulse, listens to your lungs and looks at your tongue. Then he tells you, “You have a very interesting disease, I will write it up in my next scientific publication.” You ask, “But don’t you have a cure for me?” The doctor protests, “Oh no, I am objective! I simply observe, I do not intervene.”
HISTORY
This Week in History
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service
August 24-30 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Hasten slowly and ye shall soon arrive.” – Milarepa
BIOGRAPHIES
Leon Trotsky (7 Nov 1879 – 21 Aug 1940)
Robert V. Daniels - Encyclopædia Britannica
In the struggle for power following Vladimir Ilich Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin emerged as victor, while Trotsky was removed from all positions of power and later exiled (1929). He remained the leader of an anti-Stalinist opposition abroad until his assassination by a Stalinist agent.
HEALTH
Why You Should Be Sleeping on Your Left Side
Andrew Jenkins – TRANSCEND Media Service
Did you know that how you sleep is just as important as how much you sleep? Your chosen sleep position can impact your health, help you keep your skin looking young, and improve your digestive health.
POETRY FORMAT
A Short History Lesson: 1945
David Krieger – TRANSCEND Media Service
August 6th:
Dropped atomic bomb
On civilians
At Hiroshima.
On Compassionate Care
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service
Rhymed Reflections
IN OTHER LANGUAGES
(Português) Silêncios Ruidosos
Prof. Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Carta Maior
O Estado burocrático, impessoal, não se deixa impressionar por dramas pessoais, individuais. Em tempos de imposição de austeridade aos cidadãos mais vulneráveis, qualquer pretexto é bom para reduzir os encargos do Estado, por mais ilógico e injusto que seja.
(Português) Eles querem animais de raça! Raça?
Cynthia Gonçalves - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais
Raça tem os animais que sofrem maus tratos, que vivem perambulando pelas ruas tomando chuva, queimando as patas no asfalto quente, convivendo com a sede, a fome e o frio. Raça tem os que mínguam dia a dia esperando pela sorte de atravessar o caminho da pessoa certa, mas na maioria dos casos a pessoa certa não vem. Antes de comprar pense! Adoção é um ato de amor.
(Français) Le véritable but de la « thérapie de choc » en Grèce
Michel Collon, Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service
12,5 millions d’Allemands vivent sous le seuil de pauvreté. Malgré ce bilan pitoyable, Angela Merkel prétend imposer le « modèle allemand » au monde entier. L’exemple de l’Allemagne.
(Français) Après le politique, faut-il «tuer la géopolitique»?
Robert Charvin, Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service
21 août 2015 – La « révolution » conservatrice, à l’œuvre dans l’ensemble des sociétés occidentales, a pris des chemins variés d’un pays à l’autre. En Europe, elle s’appuie parfois sur la collaboration des droites traditionnelles et de mouvements de l’ultra-droite (en Hongrie, par exemple), voire dans certains cas néonazis (en Lettonie ou en Ukraine, par exemple).
(Português) A 75 anos de seu assassinato: Trotksy e seu tempo
Guillermo Ameyra – TRANSCEND Media Service
Trotsky nasceu, viveu, lutou e foi assassinato em 21 de agosto, 75 anos atrás, em um mundo repleto de revoluções anticapitalistas e de libertação nacional.
SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
Hiroshima Day Peace Lantern Ceremony – Canada
Nuno Ramalho, PeaceQuest – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Hiroshima Day Peace Lantern Ceremony takes place every year on August 6 to remember the atomic bombings by the United States of America over Japan.
Gimme Shelter (MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK)
PlayingForChange – TRANSCEND Media Service
This song expresses the urgency we all face to unite, together, as a planet and offers us wisdom with the words, “War, children, it’s just a shot away… Love, sister, it’s just a kiss away”. It really is that simple. We dedicate this song to all the lost, homeless and forgotten people in this world. It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.
The Difference between Empathy and Sympathy
The RSA – TRANSCEND Media Service
What is the best way to ease someone’s pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Among Geniuses
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
Albert Einstein met a colleague on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
“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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