TFF global posts 2020

Pulling down statues may make us feel good but will not eliminate the root causes of racism and discrimination Farhang JahanpourTFF Associate June 23, 2020 Part Two – Part 1 here The protests to the cruel killing of George Floyd and many others before him and even some after him have not remained confined to the United States or among black people alone, but have given rise to a global movement for change and an end to racism and discrimination. Many protestors in the United States have called for the toppling of the statues of Confederate generals and for the names of places and institutions named after them to be changed, while in many European countries demonstrators have called for the toppling of statues of those who are symbols of racism, imperialism and white supremacy. Clearly, toppling a few statues may give temporary satisfaction to those who have been the...

Part One – Part 2 here The gruesome killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 May 2020 has given rise to an unprecedented campaign against police brutality in the United States, and in turn has acted as a fuse for a worldwide uprising against racism and inequality. Floyd’s killing triggered massive demonstrations in more than 350 cities in the United States and around the world, and has probably started a movement that goes well beyond the civil rights movement of the 1960’s and may prove to be a turning point in human history. What is remarkable is that those who have taken part in those massive demonstrations are not all black and ethnic people, but they have been joined by millions of white people who are ashamed of the legacy of slavery and are determined to help their fellow human beings to achieve the dignity and equality that...

With its traditionally cruel approach to other human beings, the US has now imposed new sanctions on Syria – that is, for all practical purposes, on the Syrian people. Haven’t they suffered enough in their double cage – that of the al-Assad leadership and, worse, that of the US and Western allies’ attempts at regime change since 2006? My answer is: More than enough. The US should be ashamed of itself for maintaining such a sadistic approach by means of almost 8000 sanctions on 30+ countries – most of them not leading to anything politically, only to the suffering of the people. Cuba since 1962, Syria and Iran since 1979, to mention a few. I am happy to speak about this stupid policy on Iran’s equivalent to BBC, PressTV. The (self)censorhip today is such that no Western mainstream media would dare interview me with that critical attitude to the US....

Perspective and proportion are everything in this Pandemic of Fear that now consumes our attention and our daily lives. With very rare exceptions the media ignores this. As I write there have been world-wide 436,005 deaths from coronavirus. But a remarkable, barely noticed, 4,137,712 have recovered. In comparison, the number who died last year from AIDS/HIV is 770,000. In its worst year – 2004 – it claimed 1,600,000 lives. The number who died from alcohol consumption last year was 3 million.  Smoking claimed 8 million deaths last year. The number from malaria was almost the same as deaths from Corona – 416,000. The number who died in motor accidents was 1.4 million. Traffic injuries are now the top killer of people aged five to twenty-nine. The screamers must stop or at least get a hold of themselves – except in countries like India and Brazil where the Coronavirus is in...

Världen efter Corona – konstruktivt Hur kommer världen att se ut de närmaste årtiondena?Vilka val har vi? Hur kan fred och rättvisa fortfarande bli möjliga? 11:e juni 2020 Jan Öberg I maj höll jag en internationell föreläsning i två delar om förändringarna i världsordningen och om hur framtiden kan bli bättre för oss alla. Den var på engelska. Jag har nu spelat in en svensk version, dock med viss anpassning här och där till svenska förhållanden och en svensk publik. Det är en föreläsning som var tänkt att hållas i Henåns Kulturhus för Fredsrörelsen på Orust, Nordens bästa. Men den fick ställas in med anledning av Coronan. Här har du den i två delar – som den också finns på på TFF:s Vimeo-kanal: Del 1 Del 2 Stort tack om du kan hjälpa sprida budskapet eller återanvända föreläsningen i dina sammanhang – t ex i seminarer, undervisningsförlopp eller på din...

June 10, 2020 Jan Oberg The horrific police murder of the black American George Floyd is, of course, not the first, neither will it be the last. Fortunately, it has set in motion significant protests not only in the United States but around the world – on top of the Corona Crisis. And it has created an opportunity for people to do symbolic acts such as taking a knee, criticising President Trump’s Bible Show after he had – classical dictatorship-style – used violence on peaceful demonstrators, etc. And people posted black images on Instagram. These are individual protests in response to an individual being killed in a single event. They are very human, noble and understandable, indeed, necessary – as markers that enough is enough. But where will it go from that first reaction? The comprehensive perspective To approach and answer, read carefully this statement by Martin Luther King, Jr.:...

June 9, 2020 John Scales Avery In written Chinese, the word “crisis” is represented by two characters. One of these, taken alone, means “danger”. The other, by itself, means “opportunity”. A crisis nearly always leads to great change. There is a danger that this will be a change for the worse. But there also is the opportunity to change society for the better – to reform and improve it. Both paths are present in a crisis like our present one. We must strive with all our strength to make society take the right path. Our present crisis In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is in itself a crisis, many American cities have erupted in massive protests over the senseless killing by police of yet another black man – George Floyd. The country is deeply divided. Throughout the world there have been anti-racist protests, partly in sympathy with the...

Shouldn’t we be Panglossian when it comes to the progress now being made to defeat the Coronavirus? Pangloss in his youth was unreasonably optimistic. He was in Voltaire’s novel “Candide” Candide’s mentor, and coined the phrase, “All this is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” But how can one be Panglossian, you might say, when Russia still seems to be bogged down with the pandemic and Britain now has the developed world’s highest number of deaths per capita, and the US recently reached a total of 100,000 deaths? Partly because there are Panglossian islands, some very large like Germany, Vietnam and South Korea, which started early as soon as the warnings from China came in and chose to have less severe lockdowns or none at all. Germany has shown the way in Europe with its policy of intensive testing and tracing and, as a result, never...

Johan Galtung June 02, 2020 Here is a Table with fifteen faiths organized according to mono-poly-pan-atheism; some might find the table somewhat controversial: Originally posted on Transcend Media Service’s website February 3rd, 2020 here Table 1.  Figures of thought, faiths, and beliefs of true believers Figures Faiths Beliefs Mono Judaism Israel, Zion; as Chosen People Mono Catholicism Pope (infallible), Vatican Mono Evangelism Dualism-Manicheism-Armageddon, DMA Mono Islam Togetherness under Alla’h, sharing Poly Hinduism Creation-Preservation-Destruction Pan Buddhism dukkha-sukha, sentient life networks Pan Daoism Holism-Dialectics-Transcendence, HDT Pan Confucianism Authority-Harmony; educated old men Pan Shintoism Japan; as Chosen People Pan Polynesism lokahi, ‘ohana, alo’ha, mana A Humanism Humans; as Chosen species with rights A Liberalism Individuals-Choice-Equilibrium;Markets A Marxism Classes-Struggle-History;Plans A Nature Diversity, Symbiosis The focus of this table is on concrete, this world, implications. Abrahamism, mono-centric, indicative of a centrism that could serve Occident I.  Jesus Christ universalized tribal Judaism to global Christianity, expressed institutionally...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has announced that in a month’s time he will start to annex the large-scale Jewish settlements inside Palestinian territory, a step as provocative as one can imagine. Not even President Donald Trump’s administration which has supported Israel with many measures has not gone along with such thinking. Supporting the creation of settlements, Trump appears to think, is one thing, annexing a step too far. On the other hand, he has made it clear how close to Netanyahu he feels. He may well end up supporting the prime minister. Most of the world, including all the European allies of the US, will not go along with annexation. The UN ruling that Jewish settlements are illegal under the Geneva Convention is supported by almost every country except the US. It’s as clear as it’s ever been that a two-state solution can no longer be a viable...

Part 4 Part 1 and 2 were introductory and then made the diagnosis. Part 3 analysed the fraudulent threat analysis that fuels militarism.This 4th part focus on some theories and concepts about human security and how that concept differs fundamentally from the state-anchored, military policies that have dominated so far. Part 1 of this series • Part 2 of this series • Part 3 Jan Oberg May 28, 2020 As pointed out in earlier parts of this series, the obsolete security concept was about national security – national military-first security. A new concept must take its departure elsewhere, namely in individual security, humanity’s security and – thereby, implicitly – the security of the environment. That is, individual and global human security and the security of the environment. It’s a much-needed holistic way of looking at it – also in the sense that human life cannot be secured if the environment...

May 26, 2020 By David Loy Maybe every modern generation feels confronted by some crisis that will affect the fate of the world, but unless your head is buried in the sand (or some Buddhist equivalent) it’s impossible to be ignorant of the extraordinary planetary emergency that confronts us today. The recent IPCC report states clearly that ecological collapse no longer merely threatens — we are well into it. It’s become apparent that civilization as we know it is about to be transformed in some very uncomfortable ways by climate breakdown, mass extinction of species, resource depletion and various types of pollution — perhaps including some kinds we don’t even know about yet. Originally published at Huffington Post Although our globalizing economic system is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the biosphere, most of the CEOs who supervise it (as much as anyone controls it) can’t seem to plan much further than...