July 2004

Riane Eisler’s speech at the World’s Women Forum July 29, 2004 in Barcelona, Spain. It is a pleasure and an honor being here with you today – with so many women and men dedicated to creating a better future by empowering women worldwide – a cause I have been passionately committed to for over three decades, as a scholar, author, and activist. We are all aware that women must become economically empowered. We need equal access to education, well-paying jobs, credit; we need to change laws and customs that discriminate against us simply because we were born female. But – and this is what I want to focus on in the short time we have together today – we need more than that. If we are to change the shameful fact that worldwide the mass of the poor and the poorest of the poor are women and their children, we...

LONDON – I know how to tell you to keep healthy: don’t smoke, exercise every day but, if you ignore my advice, I have no idea how to do surgery on your arteries. I think I knew how to avoid war in Iraq and how to keep Saddam Hussein boxed in and weak militarily without hurting the innocents too much. But now that George W. Bush and Tony Blair have turned Iraq upside down with their single-minded pursuit of the chimera of weapons of mass destruction I have very few ideas on how to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Does this make me a useless political voyeur? I refuse to apologize. It is Bush and Blair who have lost their credibility in the Middle East, and for the world’s next big crisis, not my side. When, like Matilda, they next shout “fire, fire”, many of us will say, “be quiet,...

Here is a short critique of Javier Solana’s paper on European security of 20 June 2003, which Johan Galtung gave two weeks ago at a meeting with EU officials in Luxembourg.Another longer paper with constructive proposals will follow later. Comments are welcome to galtung@transcend.org By Reading Javier Solana’s “A Secure Europe in a Better World” calls to mind the famous prison director Herr Obermeyer in Germany with a fabulous record of low recidivism. His prisoners became law-abiding citizens upon release. Of course there was a study commission to uncover his method. And the conclusion: “Die Methode des Herrn Obermeyer ist Herr Obermeyer selbst” – Mr Obermeyer, meaning his personality, is his own method “Das Problem des Herrn Solana ist Herr Solana selbst”? Mr Solana is his own problem? Partly, yes. Long time ago he was against Spanish membership in NATO to win Spanish elections, then worked for that membership, and finally became NATO’s...

LONDON – Just when the cause of human rights seemed becalmed a new wind has blown up. The Guantanamo case before the U.S. Supreme Court was but one sign. All manner of influences are driving U.S. law to practice what political leaders have preached against – the globalization of U.S. human rights law. The Guantanamo case was the easy one. The Administration did not have that much of a leg to stand on. But in another more difficult decision decided the next day the Supreme Court protected the right of foreigners under the Alien Tort Claims Act to sue in U.S. courts over serious human rights offences committed outside the U.S.. Also in the same week the U.S. was forced into an important compromise over the reach of the International Criminal Court, established by statute in 1998 to try those accused of grave war crimes or crimes against humanity when...

LONDON – If parliamentary politics were a simple yes and no business, as in a referendum, British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be out of office by the end of the week. It’s a subtle process, as it should be, and his party, bruised though it is by being seriously misled on the reasons for going to war in Iraq, is apparently not yet ready for it. Still, after the publication of the latest report – authored by Lord Butler, a former head of the UK civil service – that has plumbed the murky world of intelligence and the office of the prime minister in the decision making that led up to the Iraqi war – historians if not yet parliament are already fashioning their judgments. Anthony Seldon, author of a recent biography of Blair, has observed, “No prime minister in the last 100 years has added to their achievements after...

Af Gerald Kaufman, Labour medlem af parlamentet for Manchester Gorton Det, der virkede mod apartheid, kan bringe fred til Mellemøsten Gerald Kaufman skrev dette i The Guardian 12. juli 2004 Bombeangrebet i Tel Aviv i går belyser det desperate behov for at opnå en fredsløsning. Det belyser også formålsløsheden i den mur, Israel bygger på palæstinensisk land, en mur, der blev fordømt af den Internationale Domstol sidste fredag, en mur hvis linieføring fordømtes af Israels højesteret sidste måned. Hvad skal der til for at få en afslutning på denne dødsdans? Da den Internationale Domstol forlangte at få muren fjernet, svarede den israelske regering, at den har en “moralsk pligt” til at forsvare sine borgere. Ganske bortset fra, at denne regering – den mest højreorienterede og krigeriske i Israels 56-årige historie – ikke ville kunne kende en moralsk pligt, hvis den blev slået i ansigtet med den, så er forsvaret af...

LONDON – There is a tendency these days – and I share it – that urges one on to hit George Bush whilst he is down. But before he goes permit me a word in his favor – or, more accurately, his regime. Briefly put, the world is more at peace than when he came to power. The big powers have never been so relaxed with each other since the late part of the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth and the number of small wars – ethnic disputes, tribal punch ups and territorial disputes – has been going down every year. Through all the vicissitudes of Iraq the Bush Administration has managed to keep relations with Russia at their calmest and most fruitful since before the Revolution. Despite the earlier tensions over abrogating the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty, Bush appears to have won the trust of President Vladimir...

Politiken-journalisten Anders Jerichow har begået en let ironiserende og selektiv omtale af min bog “Forudsigelig Fiasko. Om konflikten med Irak og Danmark som besættelsesmagt.” (Tiderne Skifter). En anmeldelse er der ikke tale om, snarere adspredt fægtning, der nok skal vise at jeg ikke kritiserer Saddam nok og er for hård i kritikken af Vesten. Han nævner hvor mange kurdere Saddam dræbte, ikke hvor mange irakere vore sanktioner har dræbt. Den teori han ubevidst bygger på er at der kun er to parter, den ene god (os selv) og den anden ond (Saddam/Irak). Er man kritisk til vestens håndtering, så er man automatisk pro-Saddam. Jeg tror der er brug for en firefelts-tabel, der kan rumme det gode og det dårlige i hver part. Og en forståelse af at der forresten ikke kun er to men mange flere parter. Samt en klar distinktion mellem konflikten og volden. Efter min egen opfattelse er...