Nonviolence
& forgiveness
Real
peace builds on people, from the ground-up as well as by
top-down peace agreements:
Peace
that starts in the hearts
In October, millions of Colombians - perhaps a third of
the population - took to the streets in the country's
largest protest against a decades-long civil war and in
support of fresh peace talks between the government and
Marxist rebels.
Dr.
Daisaku Ikeda, President of the Buddhist organisation,
Soka Gakkai International, SGI, who is also a
TFF
adviser reflects on the necessary peace
culture we must learn to develop:
Towards
a Culture of Peace. A Cosmic View
"...I suggest that for the sake of overcoming the
identity crises undermining the soul of modern humanity
we must attempt to discover a new cosmology. Unless we
raise our sights this high, hopes of nurturing true world
citizens must inevitably prove illusory."
A
global inter-generational dialogue initiated by young
people:
The
G 21 Initiative
This website is a fruitful way to understand for whom we
are making decisions today...
Human rights
This
is a thought-provoking perspective on the country which
has made humanitarian issues and human rights a top
priority on its formal foreign policy agenda:
United
States stands in the way of a world ban on child
soldiers
"The United States is one of a
minority of countries that still recruits minors,
although it has fewer than 7,000 minors in its 1.5
million active duty force," Human Rights Watch reported.
"Five years of U.N.-sponsored negotiation have failed to
produce a comprehensive ban on the use of child soldiers,
largely due to U.S. opposition."
Militarization, New
Cold War - and the EU
Stratfor monitors US Secretary of Defence
Cohen's visit to Europe and his statement about the
United States feels that NATO should have a "first
option" before Europe takes independent military action -
which means having a veto right:
Europe's
new defence force
- but there is a bit more to it...
Kosovo - the mantra of European
turbo-militarization,,,
Eurocorps
to replace NATO as Kosovo force
Europe's defence ambitions were given a boost when
Britain and other key Nato nations backed plans to put
the Franco-German Eurocorps at the heart of peace-keeping
operations in Kosovo as early as next year. The
ministers' approval comes one week before leaders unveil
their plans for a rapid-reaction force, and reinforced
the EU's determination to play a greater role in "crisis
intervention" and peace-keeping.
NATO's Secretary-General pushes for ever higher
military expenditures everywhere and tells us that life
is fine in Kosovo:
Lord
Robertson's statement to the press, December 2,
1999
"The time for a peace dividend is over because there is
no permanent peace - in Europe, or elsewhere. If NATO is
to do its job of protecting future generations, we can no
longer expect to have security on the cheap."
Keep an eye on next NATO ministers meeting and the EU
meeting in Finland in a few days. These militaristic
views will most likely be reflected there.
And
remember to always check one of the best sources to
military affairs anywhere:
The
Centre for Defense Information in
Washington
CDIs Weekly updates are extremely useful.
Conflict-resolution
- Burundi
Nelson Mandela succeeds Julius Nyerere as
mediator among the conflicting Burundi parties:
Mandela
to head Burundi peace process
Kosovo
A leading intellectual of Kosova reflects
on theAlbanian hardliners and their relations with the
international community:
Kosova's
independence abandoned?
Ethnic Albanian demands for independence and continued
reprisals against Serbs are undermining the morale and
sense of purpose among international organisations
operating in Kosovo.
Is
France involved in an attempt to kill Milosevic - and KLA
leaders? Or is it just "little more than fantasies"? See
well-researched articles from the Institute for War and
Peace Reporting, IWPR:
Alleged
'Assassins' Were No Strangers To France
and Belgrade's
French connection
So
Clinton's pathetic appeal for reconciliation and
co-existence in a virtually mono-ethnic Kosovo was given
an answer. The mob Albanian terror continues in Kosovo.
When will the international community's see that as a
problem?
Serbs
shot in mob attack
Ethnic hatred flares on the streets of Kosovo, where
peacekeepers are powerless to protect minorities, reports
the Guardian. But how on earth can NATO be powerless, is
the US this powerless? Is this the response.
Kosovo is a legal vacuum, with uncertain laws,
missing judges and ill-equipped courts. Crimes go
unpunished, cases are delayed, and the entire legal
framework has become politicised.
Justice
delayed in Kosovo
Nearly half a year after NATO troops entered Kosovo, the
international community is still struggling to establish
the rudiments of a judicial system. Under-funding,
bureaucratic labyrinths, institutional rivalries, and a
lack of qualified staff have complicated the already
difficult task of bringing justice to a post-war
environment.
Peace
in Kosovo is not worth the money half a day of bombing
cost...The American press - in contrast to most - seems
fully aware that the UN does not function well - or at
all - in Kosovo. Who is listening?
The
UN needs helps in Kosovo
The United Nations administration in Kosovo, what there
is of it, cannot pay teachers, doctors, lawyers more than
a minimal stipend, and then only every other month. The
police force remains embryonic, garbage is not collected
in Pristina, and people still have not received new
identity papers to replace the ones forcibly taken away
when they were expelled.Officials estimated that there is
still a shortfall of $25 million for this year's
scrimping budget and an estimated gap of $150 million
next year. ''That is the price of half a day's bombing,''
a UN official told Steven Erlanger of The New York
Times.
Globalisation &
WTO
Civil
society is coming together in Seattle:
For
opponents of WTO, this is a kind of
Woodstock
They are pouring into Seattle this weekend in vans and on
buses, by air and on foot - the college students and the
church groups, the environmental campaigners, the
Teamsters, Ralph Nader, Chinese dissidents and a man who
became a hero in France for defacing a McDonald's. All of
them say they are outraged at the growing power of a
group that few had even heard about five years
ago..writes David E. Sanger in International Herald
Tribune
Is
there a new 'protectionism' or is it legitimate concerns
about the environment, child labour, consumer rights
etc?
The
protection myth
These concerns miss the point. It's true that
environmentalists wish to protect biodiversity, consumers
fear genetically modified foods, and unions are concerned
about child labor and poor working conditions. But
efforts to use trade sanctions to enforce labor,
environmental, and health standards only confirm that
trade now touches more lives in more ways.
Here
are the main alternative sources to understanding
globalization and WTO's role in it - conveniently
different from mainstream media coverage:
Alternative
press sets sight on WTO
Protests - what protests? Corporate media close ranks.
From the "Media Channel. Eye on Global Media." And of
course, there is ZNet.
No
matter the protests, free trade rolls on...
No
halting the trade juggernaut?
But beneath the tear gas and nightstick imagery lurks a
fundamental question: In the end, will any of it make a
difference? The short answer is probably no. The subject
of the protesters' displeasure, the World Trade
Organization, will continue to meet through the week to
set a trade-liberalization agenda for the next
millennium.
Media in war and
peace
Satellite images can help us monitor
humanitarian catastrophes and human rights violations. It
depends on what Pentagon wants us to know - and on the
price. A new perspective for governments as well as
NGOs
From
Kosovo to Chechnya, selling images from
above
Images from the satellite are clear enough to
distinguish objects on the ground no larger than 1-by-1
meter. And while the defense community uses spy
satellites to look at hot spots such as Chechnya as a
matter of course, the utility in the NGO
[nongovernmental organization] community is not
realized yet.
The
WTO meeting, like the Kosovo war, conveys messages about
media and news coverage of the future. And from this
interesting article, you can visot the Independent Media
Centre in Seattle:
War
of words: virtual media versus mainstream
press
They are part of the new virtual media and, without the
help of the mainstream media - ABC, NBC, Reuters,
Associated Press - they are sending hundreds of accounts
from the riotous streets and orderly seminars to
thousands tuning in around the globe. If the mainstream
media are like elephants, then these eclectic
independents are like mosquitoes.
Militarism versus
development
If you read only one, let
this be
it:
So much for the West's
humanitarian concerns - did YOU ever hear about the
thousands of dead in Orissa? ...In
where??...
The
West squanders billions in Kosovo, while a life in India
is valued at 30 cents.Weep for poor Orissa
"I can tell you why. Orissa is far away and boring. The
whole ritual of Western humanitarianism, boasted so
bravely in Yugoslavia, is a sham, cover for the
exploitation of foreign affairs for domestic ends.
"Humanitarian intervention" is code for political and
military meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign
states - and damn the consequences," - writes Simon
Jenkins in The Times of London and calls the whole affair
obscene.
No,
we should not expect a real human, humanitarian
intervention that could help where it is most
needed...
U.S.
Grows Stingier on Foreign Aid
Amid Prosperity, Country Is World's Least Generous in
Helping Poor. In 1997, the U.S. government spent about $7
billion on traditional, nonmilitary foreign aid, or less
than one-tenth of 1 percent of the $8.1 trillion gross
national product. That was the lowest percentage of any
donor country and less than half the proportion that the
United States spent just 10 years earlier.
Arms
exports
The
United Arab Emirates gets advanced F16s in a
multi-billion dollar deal with the US. Part of a larger
strategic build up...
Pentagon
backs an unusual sale in which an ally gets better planes
than US pilots
fly.
A spectacular news report by the Christian Science
Monitor. Look at a map, look at the oil, combine NATO
expansion, Kosovo, Macedonia, Turkey and the new oil
pipelines and it begins to look like a grand
strategy.
WIRE Editor
Jan Oberg with TFF
Associates