Re-reporting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett
In Bonn, Germany, for the thirtieth anniversary of the Right Livelihood Awards, Pacifica program Democracy Now today interviewed peace and conflict studies founder Johan Galtung. Galtung observed a disgraceful dissembling — start to midterm.
“Practically speaking,” he said, [U.S. President Barack Obama has gone back on] everything he promised [or appeared to promise] —
Guantánamo is still there.The Right Livelihood Foundation from which Democracy Now was broadcasting its 30-year anniversary this week awards an alternative to the Nobel Prize. The prize gives moral weight and financial support to those combating environmental damage, underdevelopment or human rights violations worldwide.
Rendition is still there.
There is the saying that says ‘no torture should take place’ —
I ‘haven't seen the mechanism ensuring that’s the case.’
Withdrawal from Iraq retains 50,000 forces
Stepping up, war escalates in Afghanistan. …
[W]hatever withdraws from Iraq goes to Afghanistan.
A ‘nuclear-free’ world promise gets rid of old-fashioned weapons with the Russians, then argues for $180 billion to modernize the nuclear material: $100 billion for the weapons carriers, $80 billion for new warheads.
In contrast to Nobel’s favoring of the West, the Right Livelihood is awarded to people from Asia or Africa about 40 percent of the time. Many of the recipients of the Right Livelihood Award are completely unknown on the international stage until they receive the award. Unusual among award winners is Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathei who won the Right Livelihood Award in 1984 and the Nobel Prize in 2004. Maathei’s case though unique to the 30-year history of the Right Livelihood Award is a testament to the weight carried by the prize.
The Right Livelihood Award’s 137 winners so far have been spread over 58 countries. Not only do these award winners more frequently than Nobel hail from developing countries; they are also younger on average and more likely to be female.
Fruits of entrenched, disastrous foreign and domestic policies and priorities
How many (est.) in two-theater
U.S.-led
WAR DEAD?
Casualty sites reporting
September 16, 2010 (accurate totals unknown)
• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003
[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 191]
Wounded 31,934-100,000
U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000
Suicides [estimated] 18 a day
Latest update on this site September 16, 2010
• Iraq Body Count figures
97,994 – 106,954
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,419 U.S., 4,737 Coalition
AFGHANISTAN: 1,278 U.S., 2,073 Coalition
September 12 Pakistan — “Deaths in Pakistan ‘drone’ attack”
Four people [“fighters”] died in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border when a “suspected U.S. drone” attacked. The frequency of civilian deaths is highly disputed but statistics compiled by Pakistani authorities reveal, “more than 90 per cent of the more than 700 people killed in attacks targeting the tribal areas in 2009 were civilians.”
September 16 West Bank — “‘Our situation worsens every day’” Nora Barrows-Friedman reports Palestinians in the West Bank’s Dheisheh refugee camp “have little faith in [three-way peace] talks”
—“Jewish settlements deadlock remains”“No indication of progress after second day of direct Netanyahu-Abbas talks” says U.S. peace envoy. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter among others has said “any future permanent Israeli-Palestinian agreement has to include Hamas”
— “Hamas has got to be involved before peace can be concluded”
September 15— “Israeli jets hit Gaza tunnels”
“Israeli missile kills one Palestinian after rocket and mortar fire from Gaza”
One Palestinian died and two others suffered wounds [medics’ estimates] “after Israeli fighter jets bombed three smuggling tunnels running between the Gaza Strip and Egypt … The violence follows clashes between Israel and Hamas, which began on September 1. Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006 and then seized full control of the enclave the following year.” Hamas controls Gaza but is not a participant in the three-way Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. ‘peace’ talks.
U.S. homeland — providing for its common defense, promoting its general welfare
September 16 — “U.S. poverty rate ‘hits 15-year high’”
The rise in U.S. poverty is the highest since 1994. One in seven people of the United States live in “economic hardship.”
The U.S. Census Bureau report released today shows that “one in seven Americans lived in poverty last year, while the overall poverty rate climbed to 14.3 percent (43.6 million people) from 13.2 percent (39.8 million people).
The government began its reports of poverty estimates in 1959 and this latest report’s findings show —cold comfort — that the poverty rate in 2009 was “8.1 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959.”
Taken together, this amounts to deep regression, a demonstration of entrenched, disastrous foreign and domestic policies and priorities out of Washington awaiting powerful progressive, global alternatives.
Sources and notes
“Johan Galtung on the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mideast Peace Talks, and Why Obama Is Losing His Base,” September 16, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/16/johan_galtung_on_the_wars_in
“‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ gains moral traction,” September 16, 2010,
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6003399,00.html
A Norwegian mathematician and sociologist and a principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies, Johan Galtung (born in Oslo, October 24, 1930) is Professor of Peace Studies, founder of TRANSCEND, A Peace and Development Network; founder of TRANSCEND Peace University, TRANSCEND Media Service, TRANSCEND University Press, TRANSCEND Peace Service, TRANSCEND Research Institute.
Since its founding in 1993, most of TRANSCEND’s work “has been on conflict mediation and violence conciliation, using Diagnosis-Prognosis-Therapy, on often very difficult and complex conflicts.” Peace journalism, peace education and peace business have played important roles in this process.
TRANSCEND is organized in a dozen regions around the world: Northern Europe, German-speaking Europe, Eastern Europe, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), Europa Latina, Africa, the Arab World, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, (North-)East Asia, North America, Latin America. Each region has a convener. The Board of Conveners is TRANSCEND’s highest authority [http://www.transcend.org/].
There are traditionally four traditional but unsatisfactory ways of handling conflicts between two parties. Johan Galtung tries to break with four unsatisfactory [A wins, B loses-B wins A loses-solution postponed because neither A nor B feels ready to end the conflict-confused compromise results in which neither A nor B is happy] ways of handling a conflict by finding a ‘fifth way.’ In the fifth way “both A and B feel that they win. The method insists on maintaining respect for basic human survival, physical well-being, liberty, and identity needs. Galtung views his role as that of helping the parties clarify their objectives and working to come up with solutions that meet the objectives of all parties. He has employed the ‘Transcend’ Method while serving as a negotiator in a number of international conflicts [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Galtung].
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/201091233614720302.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2010/09/2010914122645134498.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/201091520229665176.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/20109151393302881.html http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/2010916182855740657.html
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Bennett's books available at New York independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Present Tense books and gifts: presenttensebooks.com [Batavia, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]
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