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Archive 1986 - 2017
Jan Oberg

Positive news, views & stories Features collected by TFF • December 2, 2004

Are you sick and tired too of just hearing and seeing negative stuff about the world? Do you feel powerless, losing hope?
Then be inspired and charge you social change batteries by reading some of these stories … people can make a difference!

John Hughes, The Christian Science Monitor
A people-to-people defense against terrorism

Arie Farnam, The Christian Science Monitor
Helpt to Ukraine’s street kids from two US women

The Great News Network, GNN
GNN spreads inspiration and good stories for a better world
GNN

The British Ministry of Peace
Yes, it exists – and here is what it does

International Alert, London
Women building peace

The interview with God…
A moment of reflection of why we live the way we do – and what God (presumably) thinks about it

William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut
The ethics of total opposition

BBC
Deadly foes embrace in Ambon, Indonesia
But Muslims and Christians at the rally – who rarely mix – expressed optimism that the violence would end…

Wendell Berry, Bruderhof
Compromise, Hell!
Our destructiveness has not been, and it is not, inevitable. People who use that excuse are morally incompetent, they are cowardly, and they are lazy. Humans don’t have to live by destroying the sources of their life. People can change; they can learn to do better. All of us, regardless of party, can be moved by love of our land to rise above the greed and contempt of our land’s exploiters.

If you find a positive story, analysis or viewpoint
on the InternetSent it to TFF and let’s spread the word and combat pessimism and cynicism

IOL, South Africa
Burundi on a path to peaceful demobilisation

Aleksandra Marx, The Christian Science Monitor
Jews and Muslims, learning to live together in New York
Shouldn’t it be possible to do the same one day in Israel and Palestine?

Good News India
India is a million new initiatives now…

Robert and Barbara Muller
Good Morning World –
Daily idea dreams for a much better world

AlterNet
A soldier speaks
One of many stories: This Marine was a true believer in the reasons for the Iraq war. He talks to AlterNet about his loss of moral certainty, the gift of wisdom and “regime change” at home. Others became peace activists.

PhD, Peace & future researcher + ‌Art Photographer, Professor Emeritus and media commentator

View all posts by Jan Oberg →

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Archive 1986 - 2017

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Archive 1986 - 2017
Now we know: there need be no clash of civilizations
LONDON – So far so good, at least on the wider level. While internally Iraq seems on the edge of chaos, the much heralded clash of civilizations between the Muslim and Judaeo-Christian worlds has yet to become apparent. We have anger and despair aplenty in the Arab and Muslim worlds. But very little rushing to the standard and there was no great pilgrimage of warriors to join the fight, as happened when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan twenty years ago, and then, having driven the Red Army out, were left to ferment in that mountainous redoubt. With the armaments supplied by the CIA the mujahidin were transformed into Al Qaeda that became, for a relatively brief moment as these things go, ‘the greatest threat to the homeland that America has ever known.’ Nevertheless a ‘Cold War’ between much of the Muslim world and the West is certainly in full swing. Winston...
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Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Statement
The Challenge of Nuclear Weaponsin the Twenty-first CenturyA Path Forward The peoples and governments of the world face an urgent challenge relating to weaponry of mass destruction and particularly to nuclear weaponry.  At the crossroads of technology, terrorism, geopolitical ambition, and policies of preemption are new and potent dangers for humanity. Despite ending the nuclear standoff of the Cold War era, nuclear weaponry is again menacing the peoples of the world with catastrophic possibilities.  We recognize the need for any government to pursue its security interests in accordance with international law; and further, we recognize that distinctive threats to these interests now exist as a result of an active international terrorist network having declared war on the United States and its allies. Nonetheless, we reject the assessment of the current US administration that upgrading a reliance on nuclear weapons is in any sense justified as a response. We find it...
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Sanctions against Yugoslavia – A continuation of NATO’s aggression
By Karin Wegestal MP, the Social Democratic Partyon behalf of the Swedish Committee for Solidarity with the Yugoslav People During the last decade, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has received more than 500,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia, and another 300,000 internally displaced persons, mainly from the province Kosovo and Metohia. For a country with about ten million inhabitants, such an influx of homeless people is obviously a very heavy burden – even under peaceful conditions. But in addition to that, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been the subject to sanctions from the western powers for close to ten years and its infrastructure was badly hurt through Nato’s intense bombardment during 78 days in 1999. The result of all this is that Yugoslavia, once the most developed industrial country in Eastern Europe, is today the poorest country in Europe. In Serbia excluding Kosovo, with about ten million inhabitants and...

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