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August 15,
2000
Peace &
nonviolence & other good thoughts
The
Millennium World Peace Summit at the
UN
Visit the official website of this historical gathering
of leaders from all religions coming together to
strengthen the work for peace, and the United Nations'
role in it.
Canada
- a foreign policy with some hope for the
future?
The diamonds issue is another sparkling example of
Canadian diplomatic triumph in recent years as the end of
the cold war has, in the words of one analyst, "opened a
diplomatic space for Canada" to operate more
independently of the United States. It's a trend that's
been particularly apparent under the current minister of
foreign affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, who has been willing to
pursue global consensus on initiatives such as the
land-mine ban, the International Criminal Court, and
nuclear disarmament without having the US "on side."
(Christian Science Monitor, Aug 7, 2000).
Armament and the new
Cold War
Cluster
bombs, the hidden toll
Landmine campaigners accuse Nato of suppressing evidence
casting doubt on weapon's effectiveness. The number of
civilians prey to unexploded cluster bombs is
significantly higher than admitted by governments,
including the British, which have consistently suppressed
evidence about the weapon's military effectiveness,
according to a devastating report published today. (The
Guardian).
Missile
warning to the United
States
A decision by the United States to proceed with its
controversial national missile defence system (NMD) could
trigger a huge build-up of nuclear arms by China and
Russia and increase nuclear proliferation on the Indian
subcontinent, intelligence chiefs have warned President
Clinton.A still-classified report reiterates that North
Korea could threaten the US with a ballistic missile
attack within a few years - the ostensible original
reason for the development of NMD. But it paints a
dramatic picture of the worldwide consequences as other
nuclear and would-be nuclear powers respond to fresh US
missile deployments. (The Guardian).
Globalization -
imperialism
Paving
the way to a new world order: let us globalize the
struggle
Final resolution from the Geneva 2000 Alternative Summit.
"We have adopted the following declaration, which we
invite all social movements, trade unions, NGOs, groups
and associations who are engaged in the strufggle against
neo-liberal, sexist globalization to sign. In this way we
aim to globalize our struggle and together pave the way
to a New World." (Focusweb)
Special
on debt
Debtspeak, the dictatorship of debts, the facts and the
social consequences of debt worldwide. Also, read TFF
associate, Michel Chossudovsky's short analysis of
Vietnam's fate under globalization. The New
Internationalists superb special issue from May 1999.
What did the rich do since then?
The
United Nations signs up with big
business
The companies have agreed to join the U.N. Global
Compact, vowing to eliminate child labor, to protect
human rights and even to honor the ability of workers to
unionize. Once a year on a special U.N. Web site, they
must publicize how they have succeeded in applying the
nine U.N. principles of good international behavior.
Worried about free-market expansion trampling on human
rights, especially in developing countries, Annan said he
was spurred to act by the disturbances at the World Trade
Organization conference in Seattle. "What we must do
instead is to ensure that the global market is embedded
in broadly shared values and practices that reflect
global social needs," Annan said. (CNN).
The Balkans and
Kosovo/a - and Corsica....
NATO
in Kosovo - in bed with a
scorpion So NATO is left with only one realistic option -- it
must militarily face down the KLA to stop the rearmament
process and in turn shut down the drug trafficking that
is not just affecting Kosovo, but all of Europe. NATO,
the saviour, may be forced to become the oppressor in
Kosovo - writes Sunil Ram in Globe & Mail.
"Democratic"
elections in Kosovo instigate ever more violence among
Albanians While media attention has focused largely on violence
between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo, UN police
reports show most violence is committed by Albanians
against other Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the
population. The attacks and intimidation threaten to mar
what Western officials hope will be the next big step
toward democratic self-rule in Kosovo - writes the
Christian Science Monitor.
Nigeria
- a mediator between Yugoslavia and the
West? The government in Abuja now appears to be auditioning
for another role: that of mediator. Opening ties with
Milosevic can improve Nigeria's international standing
and boost leverage with international and foreign
lenders. In Yugoslavia, the United States finds itself in
an uncompromising position. Unable to simply withdraw
from the Balkans, the United States has begun to seek an
acceptable exit strategy. Meanwhile, Washington's
declared enemy, Milosevic, remains securely in power.
Montenegro,
Milosevic - and the arrest of
Westerners According to reports in the British Sunday Times and
Independent newspapers members of the British Special Air
Service, SAS, were operating in the republic around six
months ago to "protect and evacuate British citizens in
case of unrest." An official who works for the Montenegro
security services said, however, no SAS members were in
the country at the moment. But he did not rule out the
possibility such people had operated in the country in
the past or could return in the future. (IWPR)
The
New World Order Rebecca Sumner summarizes the implications of NATO's
bombing of Yugoslavia (London Daily).
Milosevic
mocks NATO and reveals the West's utter
confusion Serbian opposition leaders failed to convince
Montenegrin officials Aug. 2 to end their boycott of the
upcoming Yugoslav presidential poll. Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic, by calling early &endash; and
democratic &endash; elections, has challenged NATO and
the United Nations on several levels, without deploying a
single soldier. His goals &endash; to stress the already
tense relationships among NATO members while publicly
illustrating the failure of the Kosovo mission &endash;
are not out of reach. (Stratfor).
Where
are all the bodies
buried? Just before the end of the air campaign, British
Foreign Office Minister Geoff Hoon said that "in more
than 100 massacres" some 10,000 ethnic Albanians had been
killed (averaging 100 victims per massacre). Though
substantially reduced from the 100,000 to 500,000 bandied
about by U.S. officials, this was still a considerable
number. A day or two after the bombings stopped, the
Associated Press, echoing Hoon, reported that 10,000
Albanians had been killed by the Serbs. No explanation
was offered as to how this figure was arrived at...
(Michael Parenti in Z Magazine).
Chomsky
on Kosovo Two articles by Noam Chomsky, from April and May -
worth reading while the global media are silent on the
whole issue...Part
2also
from Z Magasine.
New
presidential candidate in
Yugoslavia Fifteen Serbian opposition parties yesterday chose
the nationalist leader of the Democratic party of Serbia
as their candidate to run in September against the
Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic. (The
Guardian).
What was the
truth then, what is it today? The media...
The
NATO-Media lie
machine NATO's "humanitarian" enterprise in Kosovo was built
on a structure of lies, many of them flowing from NATO
headquarters and officials of the NATO powers, and
uncritically passed along by the mainstream media of the
NATO countries. One of the great ironies of Operation
Allied Force, NATO's brief 1999 war against Serbia, was
that Yugoslavia's broadcasting facilities were bombed by
NATO on the claim that they were a "lie machine" serving
the Yugoslav apparatus of war. This was contrasted with
the NATO media, which in the view of NATO officials, and
in that of media personnel as well, were "objective" and
provided what Richard Holbrooke described as "exemplary"
coverage. (Writes Edward Herman & David Peterson in Z
Magazine)..
A
peacemaker who was in fact a peacewrecker - what about
today's peacemakers? On the eve of his election in 1968, Richard Nixon
secretly conspired with the South Vietnamese government
to wreck all-party Vietnam peace talks as part of a
deliberate effort to prolong a conflict in which more
than 20,000 Americans were still to die, along with tens
of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians. (The
Guardian)
Iraq
under siege - book
recommendation In this groundbreaking new book, leading voices in
the struggle to save Iraq show how the willful blindness
of lawmakers in the world's most powerful country has led
to the social and environmental devastation of an entire
country (Plough).
UN
Atomic Agency, IAEA, threatened by financial crisis - US
not paying on time The U.N. agency responsible for preventing the
proliferation of nuclear weapons is facing a financial
crisis and may soon have to cease key operations because
the United States and other countries refuse to pay their
bills on time, according to senior diplomats (Washington
Post).
Lost
nuclear bomb back to haunt Clinton on
BMD The story about the greenland bomb that has suddenly
surfaced. The Guardian: "The US secretly stored about
12,000 nuclear weapons in 18 countries and nine
territories at the height of the cold war, including
several that forbade the practice, including Japan,
Taiwan and Greenland." (The Guardian)
Humanism, human
rights and "humanitarian" intervention
Soldiers
in the name of human
rights
Amnesty International's S-G, Pierre Sané's
thoughtful analysis and arguments. It's the foreword in
this year's Amnesty Report and one of the best articles
written on the pros and cons of humanitarian
intervention.
World future,
alternative economics and sustainability
General
Agreement on a New Economy
(GANE)
"If you know that something is wrong with how the economy
is working today but you don't hear politicians talking
any sense about what should be done, we invite you to
stay and browse our website. You may be asking some of
the same questions we are and you may like some of our
ideas. While we suggest some new directions, we believe
the answers should come out of a broad public dialogue.
We invite your thoughts."
Women's
perspectives
Statement by Peggy Antrobus, DAWN (Development
Alternatives of Women for a New Era) about the role and
perceptions of women - women everywhere - vis-a-vis
globalization. (Third World Network).
Inequality
in Latin America worsens - but some have a better
profile
According to a new study by the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean, 224 million people in
the region are living in poverty. The study attributes
increased social inequality in the region to disparate
productivity and income levels between the minority
large, modern companies and the informal sector which
provides most of the employment. - The countries showing
the greatest progress in reducing poverty are those that
have managed to reconcile relatively fast growth rates
over several years with reduced unemployment and high
employment rates for people from poorer families.
(South-North Developmetn Monitor).
-
and next time you eat
shrimps...
Environmental groups at an international gathering here
have called for global action to halt the expansion of
shrimp farming, blamed for the destruction of local
mangrove ecosystems in tropical coastal regions. (Third
World Network).
The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future
Research
Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
Phone + 46 - 46 - 145909 Fax + 46 - 46 -
144512 http://www.transnational.orgE-mail:
tff@transnational.org
