TFF global posts 2018

  By Nikolaj Nielsen and Damiano Bacci Brussels, June 27, 2018 Originally published by euobserver here Five years ago, Italian and EU leaders stood in silence as they watched coffins pile up in a warehouse on the island of Lampedusa. “Coffins of babies, coffins with the mother and the child that was born just at that moment. This is something that profoundly shocked me,” Jose Manuel Barroso, then EU commission president, said following his visit. It was early October 2013, when some 373 people had drowned off Lampedusa’s coast in their efforts to seek help, asylum, and opportunities in Europe. The European Commission then quickly announced big plans to curb the deaths. Border surveillance would be stepped up, boats rescuing people would not face sanctions, regional protection, resettlement and legal ways to access Europe would be offered, and diplomatic channels stepped up with African countries. A similar refrain would be...

  Navel-gazing can sometimes be a good thing. But, as the self-help books and articles advocate, looking at one’s achievements to date to boost one’s morale is always a good step forward before attempting to improve the mind and spirit. Europe’s summit opens on Thursday. With immigration the central point on the agenda it’s going to be a big one. So what is the central achievement that won the EU the Nobel Peace Prize six years ago? It’s the abolition of war among EU countries. Today Europe is the most peaceful part of the world with the highest human rights standards of anywhere. Europe used to be the most war-stricken place on earth. Between 1648 and 1789 Europe was the site of 48 wars. The British army was at war in some part of the world throughout the entire nineteenth century. The twentieth century saw two world wars, centered in...

. This exciting opportunity stimulated the development of a bigger idea that combines Oberg’s work for peace and art photography with a focus on the Chinese-initiated Silk Belt and Road Initiative, the largest and most visionary in today’s world in terms of linking people and cultures into cooperation rather than confrontation. In various ways the project – with the Road as metaphor – stretches from Shanghai over Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran and Syria to Venice and seeks to promote cooperation and peace in the process. It’s a joint project between Oberg PhotoGraphics and TFF. The “Silk PeaceArt Road” project is made public at this very early development stage where only little funding is secured to encourage you to share co-operative ideas, share contacts you may have in China and along the Silk Road or to potential partners, artists, sponsors, art institutions, etc.   Summary in 7 elements 1. To stay...

  Af Henrik Dahl & Jan Øberg 27. juni 2018 17 år efter 11. september og USA’s invasion af Afghanistan spørger Ræson: Gør vesten verden bedre? Chefredaktionen skriver: På en række områder har præsident Trump udfordret den traditionelle opfattelse af USA’s globale rolle, og givet sine allierede – herunder EU-landene – lejlighed til at overveje hvor langt de fælles interesser rækker. I Mellemøsten har Iran, Saudi-Arabien og Rusland de seneste år indtaget nye roller. I Asien bliver Kina stadig stærkere. En række iagttagere har de seneste år – med eller uden beklagelse – erklæret, at vestens mulighed for at sætte dagsordenen er ved at brænde endegyldigt ud. I en række artikler rejser RÆSON disse temaer over for eksperter, politikere og meningsdannere, herunder fredsforsker Jan Øberg og medlem af Folketinget, sociolog Henrik Dahl. I denne email-duel – “To meninger mødes” – skriver de på skift, fire indlæg hver. Artiklen er på...

  Danish media have just informed the gaping Danes that their country is entering no less than “two military alliances” this week. That’s how the Ritzau News Bureau describes it and since a decent basic journalist capacity to problematize security and defence issue – as well as the peace discourse – has vanished, or been abolished, years ago, this is how both the leading conservative daily Berlingske Tidende and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Danmarks Radio, describe it too. Such headlines should raise a few eyebrows. They don’t. The Danes have – also long ago – willingly accepted that their country is among the most interventionist and war-fighting in Europe. One reason is that the media have virtually no people left who could perform deeper research or ask critical questions, especially about US/NATO affairs, let alone provide a diversity of perspectives. Abroad few bother to know about H.C. Andersen’s idyllic little...

  By Gunnar Westberg June 21, 2018 The North Korea – USA nuclear crisis should teach us several lessons regarding nuclear weapons: 1. Nuclear weapons do not prevent nuclear proliferation. In 1970, the nuclear weapon states accepted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT. In this treaty, they agree to negotiate the complete disarmament of their own nuclear weapons. They have – equally completely – disregarded this pledge and insist that they must retain nuclear weapons in order to prevent other countries from acquiring them. The North Korea example shows us that this does not work.   2. Nuclear weapons are contagious. The nuclear weapons states also insist, contrary to their pledge in the NPT, that they must keep their nukes “for their own security”. This provides an excuse for other states to acquire them. A small country such as North Korea, DPRK, has stronger reasons to build nuclear weapons than a...

Here is what the Guardian’s critic, Peter Bradshaw, has to say about it as film, as drama.  One wonders what role such a “Destiny Pictures” production has to do with handling and solving one of the most dangerous issues facing humanity – that of a country loaded with nuclear weapons telling a military dwarf that it should not have a single of these weapons? One wonders whether Mr. Trump, who during his long press conference after the meeting seemed very proud of having shown this on his iPad to the allegedly impressed Chairman Kim, sees this as a way of bonding? Whether it comes out of a reality  show master’s way of thinking – or it was made to impress Kim, alternatively threaten him into submission by a medium that is known to fascinate him: movies. At another level, we are here facing the complete intellectual decay of US international...

  • Give the man a break. Donald Trump found out in Singapore that, as Churchill said, “Jaw-Jaw is better than War-War”. If war can be avoided by a warm, long, very private chat without advisers, with effusive body gestures and promises of a world stage when his opponent, Kim Jong Un, is invited to the White House, then Trump has showed the way. It was learning the hard way because a few months ago when Trump threatened to incinerate North Korea he met counter threats from North Korea that could have led to the deaths of 30 million people in South Korea alone, never mind what numbers might die in an attack on American troops stationed in Japan and Guam naval base. I have no proof but I do think Trump can make a grand peace with North Korea, unlike his predecessors. They too had the will but were...

  Rusland og Vladimir Putin har en lang og væmmelig historie bag sig. Den ene fortælling efter den anden i de danske medier har berettet om forkastelig adfærd fra Rusland, som har manifesteret et stereotypt og negativt billede af vestens fjende nummer ét. I løbet af foråret 2018 har de danske medier fortalt om to sager, hvor anklager om, at Rusland står bag, er blevet bragt i de danske medier, uden at beviset er blevet fremført. Sergei og Julie Skripal, der blev forgiftet den 4. marts 2018 og senest den russiske journalist Arkadij Babtjenko, hvis død den 29. maj 2018 viste sig at være iscenesat. Spørgsmålet er, hvilken betydning har det for at skabe fred med Rusland? Det vil jeg forsøge at give et perspektiv på i denne artikel med udgangspunkt i begrebet ”Masterplots”. English summary at the bottom Denne analyse tager udgangspunkt i, at alle skriftlige gengivelser er en...

  Af Jan Øberg 11. juni 2018 Artiklen publiceredes den 10. jun i 2018 og overskriften må vække opmærksomhed. DR stiller ikke spørgsmålet om det er OK at USA har dem. Nej, man forklarer hvorfor det er OK. DR’s journalist trækker ikke substantielle modargumenter frem og interviewer kun en ekspert hvis udsagn bekræfter at det er OK. Efter hvad man kan søge sig frem til har journalist Josefine Hummelmose ingen som helst specielle kvalifikationer hvad angår disse spørgsmål. Hun tog studentereksamen i 2013 og er, iflg sin Facebook side, praktikant på DR og har arbejdet på bar og restaurant. Det er jo i og for sig helt i orden, men spørgsmålet er hvilken kvalitetskontrol DR bør udøve, hvilken mere erfaren kollega eller redaktør, der har set manuskriptet igennem inden publicering? Emnet er ikke ligegyldigt. Kvaliteten på en artikel om atomvåbnene må vel være mindst lige så høj som hvad der...

  Af Jan Øberg 11. juni 2018 Udenrigsudvalget have den 6. juni indkaldt to personer til at diskutere den så kontroversielle Magnitzky-lov om sanktioner mod russiske enkeltpersoner, der menes at have tjent penge i forbindelse med forbrydelser mod menneskerettigehderne. Det har DR skrevet om blandt andet den 13. marts 2018, der indledes sådan: “For at ramme Ruslands præsident, Vladimir Putin, skal man gå efter hans venner og allierede i form af rige russiske forretningsmænd og oligarker. Sådan lyder det fra en række af Folketingets større partier. Og i forlængelse af giftangrebet på den russiske eksspion Sergej Skripal og hans datter Julia i den engelske by Salisbury, som Storbritannien beskylder Rusland for at stå bag, bør Danmark netop indføre sanktioner mod særligt udvalgte russere tæt på Putin.” Det er altså Skripal-sagen, der har sat især Venstre igang. Skripal-sagen forsvandt pludselig fra medier skønt to i princippet dødsdømte pludseligt rejste sig fra...

  There is a clock ticking – towards July 20th. That is when the International Criminal Court for War Crimes goes into its summer recess. The question is will it be able in the six weeks that remain start proceedings against the US for alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan? The court originally held a preliminary investigation in 2006. It ruled that evidence of war crimes existed, but with fewer than 20 allegations it decided to proceed no further. But later that year fresh evidence came to light and it reopened the case. Afghanistan joined the ICC in 2003.  The US never did although President Bill Clinton tried hard to win approval. At the moment the ICC has seven cases, beside the US one, that remain under on-going examination: Colombia, the UK in Iraq and Afghanistan, Palestine, Nigeria, Ukraine and Gabon. On November 3rd last year the ICC’s chief prosecutor,...