TFF Blog

It’s time overdue that the misleading myths on immigration are thrown into the trashcan. They are causing untold damage. The fact is that President Donald Trump’s own government research shows that Mexican migration has dropped sharply in recent years. In Britain, the Brexit debate which began with a whipped up crisis about immigration has now moved to a level where it’s tearing the country apart.  In France and Belgium immigrants are falsely blamed for Islamic terrorism. In Sweden and Denmark the myth-makers have pushed traditionally left of centre electorates rightwards. A new book on the subject, “Blaming Immigrants”, by University of Columbia professor, Neeraj Kaushal, says it all. It pulls together most of the research so far done. Immigration is one of the most divisive issues of our times. Yet the increase in immigration globally is largely in line with the growth in world population. It was 3% in 1990...

A conversation with Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif The Western mainstream press hasn’t done much to enlighten their audiences to the plain fact that there is more than one side to a conflict between at least two. The Transnational is happy to make available some other views, particularly since Iran is the David and the West the Goliath and since omission is more effective in propaganda terms than fake. Iran’s views, its history, its reasons to do what it does and see the world as it does is woefully under-represented in the said press. So is leading media’s criticism of US policies vis-a-vis Iran. They systematically take the side of the strong, the bully and the war-threatening side of the conflict. If the Munich Security Conference has no other merits, it does offer an opportunity to hear many voices and here them from their own representatives and not through Western...

Nigeria is a veritable factory of sophisticated novelists. It was no surprise that Ben Okri won the British Booker Prize that goes annually to the best novelist of the year. Considering that high-class novel writing in English only began in Nigeria in 1958 with Chinua Achebe’s famous work, “Things Fall Apart”, now a classic, it has come a long way in a short time. Will Nigeria move at a similar speed with its economy and banish poverty as it once promised to? Read Ben Okri’s vivid capture of poverty in his novel, The Famished Road, where the words are illuminated as if they had been thrown up in the air, then descend, sparkling like diamonds and rubies: “Everywhere there was the crudity of wounds, the stark huts, the rusted zinc abodes, and the rubbish in the streets, children in rags, and the little girls naked on the sand playing with...

With Trump the silences are usually as expressive of his intentions as the incoherent dogmas. Indeed, his Second State of the Union Address delivered in Congress on February 5, 2019 gives a clear insight into the political mentality of tormentor in chief when it comes to the human condition. The speech contains many tensions, but none more illuminating than his denunciation of socialism and his silence about the resurgence of fascist tendencies throughout the world, and not least in his own country, which he several times anointed that night as the best the world has ever known. He not the first leader to make such a claim, of course, but he is undoubtedly the least qualified, and his own two years of faulty leadership has contributed to making America far less admired, and far more feared, than previously. His diatribe against socialism had at least two targets: First, the Sanders...

On February 11, 2019, the Islamic Republic of Iran marks the fortieth anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. In his latest speech at a conference of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), for which he received huge fees, National Security Advisor John Bolton said: The outcome of the president’s policy review should be to determine that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution will not last until its fortieth birthday. I have said for more than ten years since coming to these events that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran…and that is why before 2019 we here will celebrate in Tehran. Even more ominously, late last year Bolton instructed the Pentagon to produce options for attacking Iran. Addressing the same conference on June 29, 2018, President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani also predicted: “Freedom is right around the corner...

By Ina Curic February 8, 2019 The story teller who also just became TFF board member for a second time has set up her video channel on YouTube, of course called Imagine Creatively. She did that while working in Zambia – as you will see in the videos. So play for peace, use the love glasses and create happiness making children smile across borders and differences. Isn’t that peace? Now explore the first spontaneous videos on the Imagine Creatively channel! Ina Curic And read more about Ina here.

This is how Dr. Vankovska, TFF Associate for over 20 years, succinctly has responded to an inquiry by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.  And on this very day, Macedonia signed its accession protocol to NATO. Let’s make clear a few things: first, the so-called Prespa process, in which the Republic of Macedonia had to change its name and the constitution, had primarily been inspired by wider geopolitical reasons and run by Western power centers. In my view, the collateral damage of this – alleged Nobel Peace Prize worthy – success is the internal political situation and stability. Second, if the NATO enlargement process teaches us anything it is that the political will of the member-states has dominance over the declared criteria for admission to the Alliance. It seems that everything is set now (unlike 2008) so there is no doubt that Macedonia’s accession to NATO is certain. Objectively speaking, the country finds...

Or just how unreasonable US policies against Iran are President Trump doesn’t accept the view of Iran and its behaviour that is stated in the report from the National Intelligence Office. He characterizes his intellligence people as “extremely passive and naive” and says – “Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!” here quoted from Newsweek: “The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong!” So now you know it: Donald Trump has better intelligence than the rest of the US. Here Robert Kelley, former inspector at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and Jan Oberg, TFF, discuss the general issues of inspections, sanctions and US foreign policy against Iran in spite of Iran’s 100% compliance with the 2015 JCPOA – Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – which is one of the most...

By Dragana Maksimovic January 28, 2019 The author, MA student at University of Belgrade, become a TFF Associate in 2018. More here. There is one thing about which many peace researchers disagree and constantly debate: Are we really living in the most peaceful era ever, or are we facing a dangerous era of conflicts and struggles for global supremacy – very often masked as a fight for human rights but which can lead to a global war? There are those who agree with Steven Pinker when he claims that “today we are living in a most peaceful time in our species’ existence” (1) or with Barack Obama, the 44th president of The United States, who wanted to highlight how “worth it is reminding ourselves of how lucky we are to be living in the most peaceful, most prosperous, most progressive era in human history.’’ (2) Trying to validate his claims,...

The Algerian philosopher and revolutionary writer, Frantz Fanon, wrote, “Africa is shaped like a gun, and Congo is its trigger. If that explosive trigger bursts, the whole of Africa will explode”.  The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s largest country, is now caught up in the aftermath of its first proper election since independence from Belgium in 1960. Towards the end of last year one could say, after years of non-stop wars and massive carnage, the country was 90% bereft of fighting. The authoritarian regime of President Joseph Kabila was still in power but at last it had been pressured to call an election by the African Union, the Western aid-givers, some of the big Western businesses that mine in the mineral-rich country and, not least, the Catholic Church. At first the election held on December 30th seemed to be peaceful and reasonably well organized, but then as the ballots were counted...

– Martin Luther King Day Since The Transnational is also a public education site, we believe a handy, comprehensive guide to materials about Martin Luther King, Jr. should be found here: For his indisputable greatness as a human being, thinker and activist and for you to see just how far today’s United States of America is from its basic ideals, ideals that he stated so clearly and convincingly. Such ideals must never be allowed to die, neither be turned into lifeless traditions over time that are only paid lip service to at memorial occasions. Martin Luther King, Jr. has a series of messages for today’s world – and inspires anyone who wants to bring about change towards peace. We are particularly fascinated by his elaborations of the concept of The Beloved Community. And we’ve published two other guides earlier: Michel Chossudovsky, TFF Associate, Global Research Guide to Martin Luther King,...

Many know about Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat in Budapest, who led his embassy in a successful attempt to issue “protective passports” to at least 6,000 Hungarian Jews so they could escape the Nazi occupiers and travel to Sweden. He also helped forestall a planned massacre. He became the second person to be given honorary US citizenship.  Many also know about the magnificent effort by the occupied Danes to use small boats to enable around 7,000 Jews to cross the water that separates Denmark and Sweden to get them to neutral Sweden.  And about the German businessman, Oskar Schindler, who later became the star of Stephen Spielberg’s masterpiece film, Schindler’s List, that showed how he used his business in Poland as a means of sheltering a thousand Jews. But how many know about Count Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish aristocrat, who arguably did the most to save people from the concentration...