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.”
CLIMATE CHANGE and MIGRATIONS THREATEN PEACE
Climate change is now officially a major security threat, according to the White House, the State Department, the Coordinator of National Security and the Pentagon. Of course it is. How clever of them. The rest of us had worked that out around twenty or thirty years ago.
Read MoreUduak-Abasi Akpabio has written an excellent book about processes that can broker peace, marrying peace theory with peace practice. Making peace is tough, in a world where vast sums of money fuel the makers and users of weapons.
Read MoreDid you know that July 12th each year is MALALA DAY?
On 12 July 2013, Malala Yousafzai's 16th birthday, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. It was her first public speech since being shot by a Taliban gunman. The UN dubbed the event "Malala Day."
Read MoreThis book tells the story of removing firearms and explosives from Cambodia, a peaceful and neutral country destroyed by the USA's war in Vietnam. NATO Member States have sown war and misery in so many places; and yet USA and Britain, France and others claim to love peace.
Read MoreI decided to create an annex for my African Peace Facility (APF) evaluation, to put on record what CONFLICT is really all about. Here it is: this is now an official EU definition of conflict management and prevention published in the referenced report. Please use it, dear reader! And please do not believe that violent conflict is permanent and unending. Violence is not inevitable !
Read MoreIs MIGRATION a PROBLEM?
If you think about it clearly, MIGRATION is the SOLUTION for the migrants. They would love to stay at home, if they were not terrified by violence . Or they leave home because they are unable to make ends meet, feed their children, or imagine a future with jobs and incomes for their youth.
THE SOLUTION: make their lives better at home!
And yes! There are plenty of things that the rich countries could do to make life better in the poor countries, if we would think “food and health and education” instead of “guns, soldiers, repression” and taking resources out of poor countries to make ourselves richer.
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 MoreHonoring my dear friend General Hendrik van der Graaf.
General Henny created and perfected a system of persuading people with firearms to adopt micro-disarmament in exchange for peace and development. General Henny, former member of the Board of UNIDIR – the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva - died March 10th 2021 at the age of 88, in his hometown of Eindhoven.
Read More“Weapon management” is something every American should be able to understand and approve. [In Afghanistan] we moved from “disarmament” into “management,” which meant registration of legal firearms, verification of an owner’s good reputation, checks on safe ammunition storage, etc. While every hunter may need a gun, no hunter needs a “weapon,” which is for war.
Read MoreThe Nonzero Newsletter by Robert Wright criticizes David Sanger at the New York Times for orienting the US-China meeting towards a specific aggression interpretation of China’s actions. While it is clear that China flexing its muscles in the seas around its coastline, any world map of US and Chinese military bases would show very easily that it is the US that has surrounded China, and not the other way around.
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 MoreThe answer from historical experience seems to be that you need to crush Fascism before it crushes you. You do not compromise. You do impeach Donald Trump. You do imprison all those people who invaded the Capitol, breaching and looting the Temple of American Democracy.
Read MoreIt is time to leave Mr Assange in peace. Liberate him NOW, and allow him to find ways to recover from the last eight years of persecution, isolation, and mental torture.
Read MoreThe NYT is sympathetic to this tragedy, but the authors miss a lot of context. They accuse the United Nations of using people who were “woefully unprepared” (that is the journalists’ judgment) for their task of investigating human rights abuses in DRC. I thought it would be useful for us all to share some of these experiences and to explain the context which – naturally enough – a couple of well-meaning journalists might not be able to “feel” or understand.
Read MorePEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO WRITE THIS STUFF - it is disgusting! This is not “free speech” : it is hate speech and bullying. It should be banned.
Read MoreBut after the Taliban attack of December 16th 2014 on a school in Peshawar, what will the Ghilzai ladies be singing this New Year inside their fortified qala? Will they be singing glorious bravery of the men who slaughtered 7 and 8 and 9-year-olds in their classrooms – or will they keep silent in face of this cowardly butchery of innocent infants?
Read MoreThe latest report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva highlights the changing nature of warfare from bilateral and internal armed splits, to regional conflicts. One reason for this, is neglect by the United States and its NATO allies of an historical and geo-strategic truism: we need buffer states to avoid direct confrontation between regional powers.
Read MoreNATO’s summit in Wales (September 4-5) was BAD NEWS for peace makers, and bad for all world citizens. Led by the pugilistic David Cameron, and urged on by the gladiatorial military that pushes Barack Obama’s policy machine, the NATO summit decided to create a new 4,000 strong rapid reaction force for initial deployment in the Baltic…. And then where will this policy lead us?
Read MoreBut whether you believe that NATO is a force for peace and stability, or a malevolent and militaristic alliance of bully-states, what Trump said about defense is hardly reassuring. He signaled his intention to increase military spending by $54 billion: meaning the Pentagon will get an increase of 10% over its current regular budget.
Read MoreLet it be clear that I am not in favor of chemical weapons, and I am shocked by the death of 1000 people in a suburb of Damascus – whether the sarin gas was used by Assad’s troops or by Al-Qaeda, it is appalling. But I am even more appalled by the deaths of 100,000 Syrians during the civil war of the past two years. How can killing more Syrians using Cruise Missiles, possibly help the situation?
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