In this blog I write about world affairs, presenting a view of the world free from NATO propaganda.
Peace Anthropology and Development Anthropology and History are the tools with which I analyze international affairs, as part of a world-wide web of people working for peace through Transcend, UNIDIR and other agencies. Terrorism? This is largely political propaganda: my EPES Mandala Consulting group specialized in “terrorism” and far more people die each year from road accidents or from the flu, than from terror attacks. A lot of news is fear-mongering and most comes from a small number of corporate and government sources. Investigative journalists are a threatened species.
“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”
A different leader would have saved the hostages, negotiating without bombs in favor of peace. Instead, Netanyahu has opted for destruction and genocide: and I agree with the governments of South Africa, Brazil, and others that genocide is what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza.
Read MoreThe war-mongering, and profit and revenge-driven calls for Russia to be defeated, are based on the mistaken assumption that the theater of war—including nuclear war—can be limited. This was not, however, the case in either the First or Second World Wars.
Read MoreThe evidence suggests that inside the Israeli State Apparatus, there are people who wish to destroy Gaza and use famine as one weapon of war. The killing of aid workers is a deliberate policy of these people, aiming to disrupt the flow of aid.
Read MoreNetanyahu has lost the support of most of the world.
Now we are all witness to his IDF drones bombing aid workers, killing the dedicated volunteers devoted to alleviating the famine Netanyahu has created in Gaza. These aid workers could have been my friends or members of my family.
Read MoreGenocide is genocide, whoever commits it.
We were horrified by the deaths of 1200 Israelis on October 7th, and we cannot be anything other than horrified by the deaths of >30,000 Gaza citizens at the hands of Israel.
Read MoreWhile the Hamas attack against Israel in October 2023 was appalling, brutal, savage, and unacceptable, the Netanyahu response has been worse. Hamas created a criminal, disgusting massacre. Netanyahu created war.
Read MoreA sustainable peace needs to be rooted in the particular community itself. Each conflict and each peace process is different and specific to the people involved. Unarmed civilian protection draws on the peace infrastructure that exists within all communities.
Read MoreHow can I stay silent when American bombs, dropped by Israeli planes, are flattening the city of Gaza and killing Palestinian children? Of course, the October 7th attack by Hamas on civilians dancing, or living in their houses, was horrendous. But the Jewish law “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” produces nothing but a world filled with blind and toothless people, all hating one another.
Read MoreWar is never a win: both sides always lose.
Associated Press (AP) reported May 17th that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have agreed to separate meetings with a delegation of leaders from six African countries to discuss a possible plan to end the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s president said Tuesday.
Read MoreKeeping the peace is not what turns on military leaders. American generals have new weapons they are longing to try out on the battlefield. You should not be giving these people a platform, Mr Kristof. You should be talking to the Peace Makers, and providing a platform to people who seek to end the war.
Read MoreTo get the best deal possible and transform NATO’s military withdrawal into a peaceful Afghanistan, President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken and Ambassador Khalilzad will need to persuade Russia and Pakistan to give practical support to their withdrawal agreement, while obtaining the tacit agreement (or neutrality) of China, India and Iran. President Ashraf Ghani is a nice fellow, but he is not part of the solution.
Read MoreI hope that you will commit yourself to being a President for Peace. Many defects in America’s foreign policy come from the reality that since 2001, the Pentagon has dominated American foreign policy. Successive Secretaries of State, starting with Colin Powell, have been sidelined.
Read MoreRobert Fisk, who has died at the age of 74, was one of his generation’s best-known foreign correspondents, admired for his indomitable courage and inimitable writing skills, but sometimes criticized for a lack of objectivity and exaggeration in his reports. His reputation rested primarily on his frontline coverage of wars and civil conflict in the Middle East and Islamic world.
Read MorePeace proved to be Possible, even after thirty years of Cambodian Civil War. As proponents of Peace Journalism in a world of wars and conflicts, a conflict resolution and disarmament success story is a precious commodity. Cambodia at the turn of the Millennium provided such a story.
Read MoreThis book wrestles with fundamental questions of practical disarmament and peace building in Sierra Leone. Although they were written prior to the May-June 2000 upsurge of violence in Freetown that led to the arrest of Foday Sankoh, these incidents underline the relevance of the authors' analyses.
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