Week 20 // 14 May - 20 May 2018
Dear TMS subscriber liu cheng, greetings.
TRANSCEND Media Service brings to you its own Peace Journalism Perspective plus a digest of the week’s relevant News, Analyses, Papers and Videos–in various languages.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to read/watch them all immediately. You can always come back to it and also to our archives/database to access a wealth of knowledge, insights and information — the extensive repository of Prof. Johan Galtung life’s work.
Editorials by Johan Galtung and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated and translated, provided a citation and link to the source, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, is included. Please forward the WD to your colleagues, friends and lists. Thank you, enjoy your reading.
PEACE JOURNALISM PERSPECTIVE
EDITORIAL
World Order after the Cold War
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service
The aftermath of the Cold War exhibited several forms of dysfunctionality: failures by the American-led West to recognize and act upon a new global agenda that served the ‘human interest’ rather than continue to pursue ‘geopolitical ambitions’ by relying on coercive diplomacy and militarism. What is politically ‘feasible’ at this point will not do. The peoples of the world deserve and require a politics that recognizes what is ‘necessary’ and aspires to achieve what is ‘desirable.’
TRANSCEND VIDEOS
Transforming Violent Systems: The Key to Social Peace
Dr. Richard Rubenstein | TED – TRANSCEND Media Service
12 Apr 2018 – Richard E. Rubenstein is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment and a professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. His recent book, Resolving Structural Conflicts, was published by Routledge in 2017.
FEATURED RESEARCH PAPER
Prof. Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service
Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik – University of Oslo, Norway 1975
TMS PEACE JOURNALISM
‘Peace Journalism’ To Help Build a More Peaceful World
Vatican News – TRANSCEND Media Service
8 May 2018 – Pope Francis dedicated his Message for World Communications Day 2018 to “peace journalism” and Galtung expressed his gratitude for this. He said he believes that Pope Francis is one of the greatest positive figures of our time and “obviously I am deeply struck by his stance on a concept such as “peace journalism” and find his support a great boost.
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for World Communications Day
Pope Francis | Libreria Editrice Vaticana – TRANSCEND Media Service
I would like to invite everyone to promote a journalism of peace. By that, I do not mean the saccharine kind of journalism that refuses to acknowledge the existence of serious problems or smacks of sentimentalism. On the contrary, I mean a journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans, and sensational headlines. A journalism less concentrated on breaking news than on exploring the underlying causes of conflicts, in order to promote deeper understanding and contribute to their resolution by setting in place virtuous processes. A journalism committed to pointing out alternatives to the escalation of shouting matches and verbal violence.
OTHER COMMENTARIES
TRANSCEND News
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BY TRANSCEND MEMBERS
Violating the Iran Deal: Playing with Nuclear Fire
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service
9 May 2018 – President Trump has demonstrated yet again why he lacks the understanding, intelligence and temperament to be president of the United States. By violating the Iran nuclear deal, he is undermining the security of the U.S., our allies and the world. He has just fired another serious warning shot across the bow of democracy, one that bodes ill for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, for peace and for the future of our democratic institutions.
The Rationality and the Delegitimization of Mahmoud Abbas
Walid Salem – TRANSCEND Media Service
5 May 2018 – The leaders of the underdog party in a protracted and intractable conflict cannot be expected to act all the time rationally, regardless of the context and its history. And also regardless of the general and the overall positions of those leaders. On this basis, one can look to the last statement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas considering the “Jewish usury” as the reason for their hate and therefore the successive killings in Europe.
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service
8 May 2018 – Because of globalization in its manifest forms, it is no longer tenable to confine the ambitions of democracy to national spaces. Global democracy has become, is becoming, a matter of ultimate concern. Issues raised concern transparency, accountability, participation, and responsiveness of global policy processes, and of course, how the global is to be linked to the regional and national.
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service
12 May 2018 – If you are living in Israel, these days, you get the impression that the huge State of Israel is dictating to its American vassal what to do about Iran. President Donald Trump listens and complies. Bibi the Great tells him to tear up the Iranian deal for no obvious reason, and he obeys. He has no choice, poor man.
Trump Fuels Extremism and Violence!
James Albertini | Malu 'Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action – TRANSCEND Media Service
Donald Trump’s May 8 withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear deal and the May 14 US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will only further isolate the U.S. European Prof. Johan Galtung who predicted the crash of the Soviet empire in 1991 now predicts the end of the American empire within the next two years.
The American Psychological Association Speaks Out Against Gina Haspel
Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. | Psychology Today – TRANSCEND Media Service
The APA took an important step last week. In key ways, the APA’s opposition to Gina Haspel’s nomination is important symbolically even if its immediate practical impact proves limited.
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service
An Open Letter to the Affected Mayors, City Councilors and Assorted Thought Leaders Who Inhabit the Areas Downstream and Downwind
The U.S. Just Declared War on Iran
Jan Oberg – The Transnational
8 May 2018 – Against all common sense, moral considerations and international law, U.S. President Donald Trump tonight decided to place the United States outside the international so-called community and isolate itself; not Iran. He withdrew the United States from what is one of the most important negotiated peace-oriented agreements that have ever been signed.
Governance as “Juggling” — Juggling as “Governance”
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service
14 May 2018 – Dynamics of Braiding Incommensurable Insights for Sustainable Governance – There is a case for recognizing the extent to which governance of many kinds is a matter of “juggling” parameters, variables, resources, people, schedules, risks, and disparate skills.
Palestinian Refugees Suffer Setback in Lebanon’s Parliamentary Election
Franklin Lamb – TRANSCEND Media Service
10 May 2018 – Despite the recent election results, Palestinians in Lebanon will continue their struggle to achieve the elementary civil rights to work and to own a home. Their prospects will increase if more of their international supporters active on myriad internet blogs will focus on their plight in Lebanon and hopefully many will come to Lebanon to help organize an effective grassroots civil rights campaign.
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service
14 May 2018 – It is hard to believe that there are still some regions in the world that are without electric power. But there are actually several regions without it. According to a recent report of the Washington Post, there are several countries in Africa and Asia which have either no electricity or suffer from electricity hunger.
ANGLO AMERICA
The CIA Black Sites Program and the Gina Haspel Nomination
George Washington University, National Security Archive – TRANSCEND Media Service
9 May 2018—Today’s nomination hearing for Gina Haspel to be CIA director provides an opportunity for the agency and Haspel to fill in the blanks on the CIA “black sites” and interrogation program. The National Security Archive has already identified key questions about Haspel’s record [see box below]. Today, the Archive provides the basis for an evidence-based review of the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program, posting a selection of the most recent versions of declassified documents that reveal the RDI’s background.
Oliver North Will Be Next President of NRA, Organization Says
Camila Domonoske | National Public Radio – TRANSCEND Media Service
7 May 2018 – Retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, infamous for his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s, will be the next president of the National Rifle Association, the organization says in a statement.
ANALYSIS
The Machiavellian Threefold Game of the Neoconservatives
Laurent Guyénot | Voltaire Network – TRANSCEND Media Service
To realize their fantasies of world domination, the neocons resorted to a triple discourse: a cynical political philosophy developed by their mentor Leo Strauss for domestic consumption; a cold analysis of Israeli strategic interests for the benefit of the leaders in Tel Aviv; and a fear-mongering warning against imaginary dangers besetting U.S. public opinion.
UPDATES ON MYANMAR ROHINGYA GENOCIDE
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service
11 May 2018 – Late last year, as violent repression in Myanmar sent Rohingyas fleeing to safety in Bangladesh, women from the mainly Muslim minority were subjected to what a United Nations official called “a frenzy of sexual violence”.
News from Burma/Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service
11 May 2018 – Travels and intense activist work, and observing INGOs, old and new, treating the ongoing Rohingya genocide as if it were a business item among rivals, have drained me tremendously… Everyone remotely familiar with international justice–if at all–knows that by the time the lawyers arrive and the Court set up, the targets are all dead, their villages bulldozed in the case of Rohingyas, and they have nowhere to go or no place they can call ‘home’ or their homeland.
EUROPE
The Skripals Will Most Likely Never Be Allowed to Talk
The Unz Review – TRANSCEND Media Service
11 May 2018 – It has been two months already since the Skripals are held in total secrecy by the UK authorities. What I see is this: on substance, the Skripal false flag has crashed and burned, just like MH17 or the Douma chemical attack, but unlike MH17 or Douma, the Skripals are two witnesses whose testimony has the potential to result in a gigantic scandal, not just for the May government, but for all those spineless Europeans who showed “solidarity” with Britain.
BIG BROTHER - SPYING - SURVEILLANCE - WHISTLEBLOWING
Business Is Booming for the U.K.’s Spy Tech Industry
Matt Kennard – The Intercept
11 May 2018 – A new “cyber corridor” in England is attracting secretive companies that are producing cutting-edge government surveillance tools.
LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
Nicaragua: The Symbols of Rebellion
Elvira Cuadra - Confidencial
12 May 2018 – Never has the Nicaraguan flag been so prominent in all aspects of social mobilization as it has in these past few days.
PALESTINE - ISRAEL
One Killed, ‘700 Palestinians Wounded’ in Seventh Week of Nonviolent Gaza Protests
Jack Khoury | Haaretz – Reader Supported News
11 May 2018 – One Palestinian was killed and 700 wounded in unarmed protests today along the Gaza border from live gunfire as thousands of Gazans protest along the border in the seventh consecutive week of the “March of Return.” Three critically wounded, 112 of those wounded were hit by live gunfire. Israeli doctors NGO demands entry to Israel for wounded to prevent amputations.
Eclipsing Factionalism: The Missing Story from Gaza Protests
Ramzy Baroud | Politics for the People – TRANSCEND Media Service
10 May 2018 – Palestinians, disenchanted with factional division, are laboring to create a new political space, independent from the whims of factions; because, for them, the real fight is that against Israeli Occupation, for Palestinian freedom and nothing else.
Chris Hedges – Truthdig
“Killing Gaza” will be released Tuesday 15 May, to coincide with what Palestinians call Nakba Day—“nakba” means catastrophe in Arabic—commemorating the 70th anniversary of the forced removal of some 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 by the Haganah, Jewish paramilitary forces, from their homes in modern-day Israel. The release of the documentary also coincides with the Trump administration’s opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
Unearthing Truths: Israel, the Nakba, and the Jewish National Fund
The Editors | Moving Forward Magazine – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Forward courageously reminds American Jews of the reality of the Nakba, the slogans and symbols of the Jewish project that enabled mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people – and the policies that enable it to continue today. Our hope is that pro-Israel communities will honestly confront the history and the present situation in the land, and move toward justice.
THE UNITED NATIONS
The UNO at Crossroads While Warriors Are Destroying Humanity
Mahboob A Khawaja, PhD. – TRANSCEND Media Service
Is There a UNO to Protect the Beleaguered Humanity? Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are destroyed by design. Some of these places were the hub of ancient cultures and human civilizations and will never be rebuilt by the warmongers and raging sectarian bloodbath. It reminds us all of the man-made sadistic events leading to the First and the 2nd World Wars. As a conscientious global community, what have we learned from history?
REVIEWS
Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution
Countercurrents - TRANSCEND Media Service
In a world fraught with violence, misuse of power, corruption and complex conflicts endangering human security and global peace, the book offers an outstanding contribution to rational thinking envisaging intellectual excellence and proactive vision for change and adaptability to the futuristic challenges in global affairs.
As Gaza Sinks into Desperation, a New Book Makes the Case against Israeli Brutality
Charles Glass – The Intercept
13 May 2018 – In his new book, “Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom,” Norman Finkelstein presents Gaza’s case like a veteran prosecutor at a homicide trial. “This book is not about Gaza,” he writes. “It is about what has been done to Gaza.” He asks the reader to decide “whether this writer is partisan to Gaza or whether the facts are partisan to it.”
Gary Brumback | Dissident Voice – TRANSCEND Media Service
28 Apr 2018 – I’m no less skeptical and even more cynical about peace through commerce after reading this book, especially its case studies. The book risks being an insult to people who know the real story about the UN and MNCs. Were the academic contributors in some instances bamboozled or corporatized? I don’t know.
MILITARISM
Which Country Dominates the Global Arms Trade?
Tim Bowler - BBC News
10 May 2018 – Brutal civil wars in Syria and Yemen, coupled with the return of great power rivalries between the US, Russia and China, have brought the world’s arms trade into sharp focus. It is a thriving global industry with the total international trade in arms now worth about $100bn per year. And it is the United States that is extending its lead as the globe’s number one arms exporter.
Military, a Most Sordid Profession
Fred Reed | The Unz Review – TRANSCEND Media Service
A few thoughts on our disastrous trillion-dollar military: It is unnecessary. It does not defend the United States. The US has no military enemies. No nation has anything even close to the forces necessary to invade America, and probably none the desire. “Our boys” are not noble warriors protecting democracy, rescuing maidens, and righting wrongs. They are, like all soldiers, obedient and amoral killers. Pilots bombing Iraq or Syria know they are killing civilians.
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
The Art of War: The B61-12, America’s New “Nuclear Parcel Bomb” – Video
Manlio Dinucci | El Manifesto – Global Research
9 May 2018 – The new B61-12 nuclear bomb – which the US is preparing to send to Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland and other European countries – is now in its final stages of development for a cost of 10 billion dollars for the production of 500 bombs. (This means that each one will cost twice what it would cost if it were built entirely of gold).
ECONOMICS
Yanis Varoufakis – Project Syndicate
It used to be an axiom of liberalism that freedom meant inalienable self-ownership. But liberal individualism seems to have been defeated by a totalitarianism that grew out of its own success at legitimizing the encroachment of branding and commodification into our personal space.
SOCIALISM - MARXISM
Rosa Luxemburg: The Unsung Hero of Postcolonial Theory
Hamid Dabashi – Al Jazeera
12 May 2018 – The world at large is these days celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. Luxemburg’s work gave the postcolonial theorist a veritable voice at the global gathering of critical Marxist thinking.
Peter Singer | Project Syndicate - TRANSCEND Media Service
On the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth on May 5, 1818, it isn’t far-fetched to suggest that his predictions have been falsified, his theories discredited, and his ideas rendered obsolete. So why should we care about his legacy in the twenty-first century?
PARADIGM CHANGES
Don’t Be Scared about the End of Capitalism—Be Excited to Build What Comes Next
Jason Hickel and Martin Kirk – Fast Company Magazine
Instead of fixating on a fight between capitalism and socialism, imagine innovating a future economy that transcends old binaries. We can let the ghosts go. We can allow ourselves the freedom to do what humans do best: innovate.
ENERGY
Iran Deal Represents ‘Significant Verification Gain’ – UN Atomic Energy Chief
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service
9 May 2018 – Speaking the day after the United States withdrew from an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency made it clear that Iran has consistently stuck to its commitments.
Remediating Fukushima—“When Everything Goes to Hell, You Go Back to Basics”
William Steel | Ars Technica – TRANSCEND Media Service
11 May 2018 – Seven years on from the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has come a long way from the state it was reduced to. It may take 40 years for the site to appear like “a normal reactor at the end of its life.” 8 trillion yen ($74.6 billion) approved by the Japanese state last May for the complete decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi.
ACADEMIA-KNOWLEDGE-SCHOLARSHIP
De-Briefing Academics: Unpaid Intelligence Informants
Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND Media Service
3 May 2018 – Many academics are frequently engage in what government officials dub ‘de-briefing’! They meet and discuss their field-work, data collection, research finding, observations and personal contacts over lunch at the Embassy with US government officials or in Washington with State Department officials.
MEDIA
You Can’t Handle the Truth about Facebook Ads, New Harvard Study Shows
Sam Biddle – The Intercept
9 May 2018 – When you tell people you’ve been tracking them across the internet, they freak out and avoid buying your product, research at the Harvard Business School found.
SEXUALITIES
A Broken Idea of Sex Is Flourishing – Blame Capitalism
Rebecca Solnit – The Guardian
12 May 2018 – In this world, women are marketed as toys and trophies. Are we surprised when some men take things literally? Since the Toronto bloodbath, a lot of pundits have belatedly awoken to the existence of the “incel” (short for involuntary celibate) online subculture and much has been said about it. Too often, it has been treated as some alien, unfamiliar worldview.
Who Are the ‘Incels’ and How Do They Relate to Toronto Van Attack?
Alex Hern – The Guardian
25 Apr 2018 – Hours before the Toronto van attack, a post on the Facebook profile of the chief suspect declared that “the incel rebellion has already begun, we will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys”. Suspect appears to have links to misogynistic online community for the ‘involuntarily celibate.’
BIOGRAPHIES
Malcolm X (19 May 1925 – 21 Feb 1965)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service
Civil Rights Activist, Minister – African-American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X articulated concepts of race pride and black nationalism in the 1950s and ’60s.
INSPIRATIONAL
Prof. Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
As long as peace negotiators focus on the elimination of weapons, anyone with a gun or bomb can sabotage the peace process. Violence relates to an unresolved conflict like smoke to fire. To stop the smoke, it is necessary to quench the fire, not the other way round.
POETRY FORMAT
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service
The stain of death spreads below,
but from my cockpit I see none of it.
I only drop bombs as I have been trained
Emanuel E. Garcia – TRANSCEND Media Service
Surrounded by trees,
A public garden steps away,
The autumn-angling sun stirring the roses,
IN ORIGINAL LANGUAGES
Alexandra Antunes | Sapo 24 – TRANSCEND Media Service
13 maio 2018 – Dia Mundial das Comunicações Sociais, proposto pelo Papa Francisco e celebrado hoje. É preciso “um jornalismo que não se limite a queimar notícias, mas se comprometa com a procura das causas reais dos conflitos, para favorecer a sua compreensão e a sua superação através de processos virtuosos; um jornalismo empenhado a indicar soluções alternativas ao aumento do clamor e da violência verbal”, disse o Papa Francisco [aludindo ao Prof. Johan Galtung].
(Português) O centro não é o ser humano mas a vida em sua diversidade
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service
14 maio 2018 – Na compreensão dos grandes cosmólogos que estudam o processo da cosmogênese e da biogênese, a culminância desse processo não se realiza no ser humano. A grande emergência é a vida em sua imensa diversidade e àquilo que lhe pertence essencialmente que é o cuidado.
(Português) Somos estranhos na nossa relação com outras espécies
David Arioch | Jornalismo Cultural – TRANSCEND Media Service
A ideia da inferiorização do que é diferente há muito embruteceu o ser humano. E mesmo hoje, quando o pretexto de suplantar o outro é mais desnecessário do que nunca, até mesmo aqueles que gozam de certas habilidades intelectuais defendem essa prática. Mas por que as coisas são assim? Encarceramos espécies que jamais nos causaram qualquer mal.
(עברית – Hebrew) מצעד השיבה הגדול – עזה, פלסטין
דעזדיןאבואלעיש– TRANSCEND Media Service
“העסקההאולטימטיבית” היאהגשמתארץהקודשכארץשלום. בשותפות, יוכלוהפלסטיניםוהישראליםלחיותכולםבארץזו– מוסלמים, נוצריםויהודים– כאזרחיםשוויםבנידתותאברהם. רפאואתהפצעיםומחואתהדמעות. אלתביטולאחור, הביטוקדימהולימדואתהשיעורים.
SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
Jeff Dekofsky | TED – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Infinite Hotel, a thought experiment created by German mathematician David Hilbert, is a hotel with an infinite number of rooms. Easy to comprehend, right? Wrong.
Tango – Por Una Cabeza (Music Video of the Week)
Nicola Benedetti – TRANSCEND Media Service
Nicola Benedetti, Ksenija Sidorova, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Leonard Elschenbroich and Alexei Grynyuk. Delightful!
EDITORIAL CARTOON / SATIRE
LATUFF – Mondoweiss
… to Satisfy the American Elite’s Addiction
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
An Irishman arrived late at night at a bar in Belfast and saw a big fight.
“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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