Features

Af Birgitte Rahbekkultursociolog og forfatter til bogen “En stat for enhver pris” 27 august 2002 Store begivenheder kræver ikoner. Camp David forhandlingernes ikon blev en stump TV-film med Barak, Clinton og Arafat vej på ind ad døren til forhandlinger en smuk julidag år 2000. Clinton er den venlige vært, og de to mellemøstlige herrer pjatter om hvem der er mest høflig, et after-you-Sir-ritual mellem den stive Barak og den mere slebne Arafat spilles igen og igen. Så gode venner var de vist, siger billedet, men hvorfor gik det så alligevel galt? Det gjorde det fordi Arafat ikke ville tage imod Baraks generøse tilbud om at få næsten hele Vestbredden og dele af Østjerusalem tilbage. Forklaringen kom et par måneder senere, den 28. september, da den anden intifada brød ud og bekræftede manges antagelse om at palæstinenserne i virkeligheden ikke ønsker fred. Denne fremstilling vil formentlig forekomme mange læsere bekendt, for...

Af Mikael Witte 6 augusti 2002 Hver eneste gågade i Danmark er vist forsynet med en vandkunst. Kaskader, rislende og perlende, springende og strømmende vand i tilsyneladende uendelige mængder. Lignende kan opleves i udlandet. I Kassel, hjemby for den internationale Documenta-ud-stilling, er etableret en vandkunst ned gennem hele den skrånende gågade. I Amsterdam og Venedig gør de menne-skeskabte kanaler det ud for gader. Og Stockholm ville ikke være sig selv uden Skærgårdens vandskab. Kunst-nere har længe dyrket vand. Vand er uendeligt. Vand er vedvarende. Vand er tidløst. Derfor kunne den japanske Hokusai (1790-1949) igen og igen fortrylle sit publikum med træsnit af blåhvide skumsprøjt og bølger. I dag kan den amerikanske fotograf Roni Horn udsende et storværk ‘Dictionary of Water’ – 96 næroptagelser af Themsens bølger og blanke vand. (89 euro, Edition 7 L) Man behøver ikke være tørstig for at forstå at vand både er liv og kultur. Vand...

The international community should intervene to stop the growing number of attacks on Serb civilians and their holy sites By Father SavaDecani, Kosovo August 6, 2002 After the terrorist attack in Klokot village near Vitina on July 31, in which five Serb homes were destroyed by powerful explosives, and the recent unsuccessful raid on the Holy Archangels monastery near Prizren, it is more evident than ever that Albanian terrorist groups act freely and with impunity in Kosovo today. Their targets are Serb civilians, their homes and holy sites &endash; especially cemeteries. Dozens of Orthodox churches destroyed after the war in Kosovo were demolished with explosives, despite the strong NATO-led military presence in the area. Such devastating attacks could have been executed only by well-trained people with military experience and surely not by ordinary frustrated civilians. The cause of today’s terrorism is the simple fact that the paramilitary structures of the...

By Majid TehranianProfessor, University of Hawaii at ManoaDirector, Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, Tokyo and Honolulu  July 26, 2002 When someone asked Mahatma Gandhi what do you think of Western Civilization, he promptly replied, “It is a good idea!”   Having traveled on the ancient Silk and Spice Roads and beyond, I am dubious of distinctions between Eastern and Western Civilizations.  It is much more realistic to think of civilization in the singular rather than plural.  There are many cultures but only one global civilization.  Globalization is not a new phenomenon.  Cultural exchange has been going on for centuries. We can find few cultures in the world that have not borrowed from others.  The first globalization took place along the ancient Spice and Silk Roads.  The second globalization occurred when Columbus “discovered” the New World.  The European colonization of Africa, Asia, and Americas forcibly brought East and West...

Af Udarbejdet af Phyllis Bennis, Stephen Zunes og Martha Honey Foreign Policy In Focus  July 26, 2002 USAs nuværende politik over for Irak har slået fejl. Våbenkontrol – Artikel 14 i FNs Sikkerhedsråds resolution 687 (resolutionen om sanktioner) udpeger som mål, at der i Mellemøsten skal etableres en zone, “der er fri for masseødelæggelsesvåben og alle fremføringsmidler hertil samt et globalt forbud mod kemiske våben”. – I år 2000 blev 20% af den internationale våbenhandel på 80 mia $ importeret af de seks provestlige monarkier i området ved den persiske bugt. I stedet for at arbejde frem imod en regional våbenkontrol i området er USA stadig den største leverandør af alle slags våben til dette område, der allerede er overforsynet med våben. Alternativer – USA skal fortsætte med et ensidigt forbud mod våbeneksport til Irak. – IAEA og FN skal foretage regelmæssige inspektioner i Irak, langs Iraks grænser og -med...

Champaign, IL, fboyle@law.uiuc.edu LETTER FROM UNITED STATES CITIZENS TO FRIENDS IN EUROPE The central fallacy of the pro-war celebrants is the equation between “American values” as understood at home and the exercise of United States economic and especially military power abroad. Following the 11 September 2001 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush has declared an open-ended “war on terrorism”. This war has no apparent limits, in place, time or the extent of destruction that may be inflicted. There is no telling which country may be suspected of hiding “terrorists” or declared to be part of an “axis of evil”. The eradication of “evil” could last much longer than the world can withstand the destructive force to be employed. The Pentagon is already launching bombs described as producing the effect of earthquakes and is officially considering the use...

Today, despite many significant achievements in science, technology, medicine, transportation and communications, and a vast increase in world trade, the globalised world economy is facing serious socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental problems, of potentially catastrophic proportions. Although many attempts have been made through neo-classical and neo-liberal policies of market economy, free trade, deregulation and privatisation to raise living standards, the dire poverty of billions of people and the widening gap between rich and poor, both within and between nations, point to the failure of these policies. Today, at the dawn of the third millennium, over three billion people have to survive on less than $2 a day. This is less than the daily subsidy provided for each cow in the European Union (EU). Moreover, every day 24,000 people worldwide die of starva-tion or malnutrition &endash; for want of food and water, the basics of life, in this supposedly globalised world...

A Buddhist Response to “The Clash of Civilizations” “The next world war, if there is one, will be a war between civilizations.” (Huntington 1993: 16) Has September 11th vindicated Huntington’s claim in “The Clash of Civilizations,” that the new battle lines today are the faults between the world’s civilizations? Or is his argument becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy &endash; because, for example, the U.S. response to 9-11 is deepening those fault-lines? The collapse of most communist states in 1989 and the end of the Cold War raised worldwide hopes that were short-lived. Francis Fukuyama claimed that we had reached “the end of history,” but history didn’t seem to notice. Although neither the United States nor the Soviet Union needed to support proxy wars anymore, violent conflicts continued, even in the backyard of a paralyzed Europe that could not figure out how to respond to Yugoslavia’s disintegration. Despite the pre-eminence of the...

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? – Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago In his autobiography Gandhi writes that “those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means” (p. 370). Perhaps this is more obvious to us after September 11th, but it should always have been obvious: religion is about how we should live, and politics is about deciding together how we want to live. The main reason it has not been obvious is because most modern societies have been careful to distinguish the secular public sphere from the...

TFF does not work with the larger Middle East and the Israel-Palestine conflict inside it. But the situation in spring 2002 is so serious that we feel we cannot ignore it on our website. We want to help disseminate information and assist our visitors in understanding and taking action for peace. What you find below – a work in progress by the day – is by no means systematic, comprehensive or impartial. But it offers access to perspectives often left out in mainstream media coverage, including nonviolent options and possible longterm solutions. We will post links, analyses and articles as we find them. So come back soon and read more. Local peace organisations Ariga The Courage to Refuse. Combatants’ letters Neve Shalom-Wahat al-Salam, Oasis of Peace Peace – A Mid-East Dialogue Group Peace Now Yesh Gvul. Supports soldiers who refuse B’Tselem Dor Shalom An Entire Generation Demands Peace Givat Haviva...

Bush-Blair must be Indicted for War Crimes by the ICC By Christian P. Scherrer Professor at Hiroshima Peace Institute (HPI) of Hiroshima City University, JapanHead, ECORHPI April 9, 2002 In these hours the Iraqi people become victims of superpower aggression. How could that be justified? In the USA the governments and media propaganda machinery made Saddam the scapegoat for 9-11. We know that this is a big lie. The US government lies when talking of a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. There is not a shred of evidence; the Bath party has traditionally tried to uproot Islamist tendencies. Any operational link with al-Qaeda is due to ideological and political incompatibility to be excluded. The US government also maintained that Saddam Hussein possesses what the UN inspectors did not find, but what US-UK stockpile and might even use in case of failing to achieve Iraq’s surrender: weapons of mass destruction. Abuse...

By Yves Contamine World Global Trends, Québec, Canada April 9, 2002 Some facts :  306 billionaires totaling $1.300 billion in wealth. 1.3 billion people – live on incomes of less than $1 a day. The world spent on its military sector in the three decades from 1960 to 1990 $21,000 billion. Total world military expenditure has been rising again since 1998. Total world military expenditure in 2000 amounted to about $798 billion, in current dollars. 2002: Pentagon will devour some $379 billion. Arms transfers USA 50%, followed by Russia, France, the UK and Germany. US chemical weapons incineration program $15 billion (1). Space station $60 billion. Agricultural subsidies in the developed industrial member states of the OECD total $300 billion a year. U.S. pet food industry: $11 billion per year. USA adult entertainment industry:$10 billion. Largest population of overweight adults: United States = 61% of adult U.S. population. USA dieters currently spend an average of $30 billion annually on products that promise to remove...