December 2004

Måske er Moder Jord vred? I så fald har hun gode grunde til at være det. De ubegribelige proportioner på den menneskelige tragedie i Asien giver os den bedste anledning i årtier til at tænke medfølende og dybere over hvordan vi handler, hvad vi planlægger og hvordan vi prioriterer på vor fælles klode. Hvis der i stedet for det nationale militære sikkerhedsparadigme havde været ét for global, menneskelig sikkerhed, havde vi formentlig ikke set noget lignende hvad angår død og ødelæggelse. Hvis regeringer havde haft en rimeligt objektiv analyse af hvad der truer ikke bare deres egne lande men menneskeheden og Jorden – og forberedt sig lidt på at imødegå sådanne trusler – ville redningsarbejdet være kommet i gang hurtigere. Hvis politik og økonomi handlede om mennesker og deres velfærd mere end om magt og økonomiske kalkuler, ville flere mennesker være i live i dag. Og hvis verden fungerede lidt...

Read also PressInfo 207 about the real tsunami scandal  Perhaps Mother Nature is angry? If so, she has good reasons. The incomprehensible proportions of the human tragedy in Asia offers us the most serious opportunity for decades to rethink deeply and with compassion how we act, what we do and how we make priorities on our common Earth. If instead of military security, human security had been the main paradigm, we would probably not have seen anything like this death and destruction. If governments had had a reasonably objective analysis of what threatens not only their own countries but humankind and the Earth – and prepared for it – the rescue work would have been better prepared. If politics and economics were about human beings and welfare, not about power and profit, more people would be alive today. And if the world was operating less on male-dominated thinking, chances are...

Är Moder Jord måhända rasande? I så fall har hon bra anledning. De obegripliga proportionerna av den mänskliga tragedin i Asien ger oss den mest seriösa möjligheten på årtionden att tänka om på djupet; hur vi handlar, vad vi gör och hur vi prioriterar vår gemensamma värld. Om mänsklig säkerhet hade varit det huvudsakliga tankesystemet, istället för militär säkerhet, skulle vi troligen inte ha upplevt så mycket död och förstörelse som vi nu varit med om. Om regeringar hade gjort en någorlunda objektiv analys om vad som hotar inte bara deras egna länder utan mänskligheten och jorden – och förberett sig på detta – skulle räddningsarbetet ha varit bättre planerat. Om politik och ekonomi handlade om människor och välfärd, inte makt och vinst, skulle fler människor vara i livet i dag. Och om världen styrdes av ett mindre mansdominerat tänkande är chansen större att det skulle ha funnits en klarare...

Prior to the 2003 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that “Gender-based violence is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace.” In this article we seek to relate the gender-based violence to the issue of human security and ideas about a new type of defence policy. (When this was written in Swedish at the time of the debate about the future of Sweden’s official defence policy, it was refused by a series of leading newspapers, right, middle and left). The Swedish edition of this article here From patriarchal exertion of power toward human security and democracy We know of no one, neither men nor women, who want war and death. 99 per cent of people on earth do not want violence in their lives...

Vice President, Strategic Nonviolence Committee National Security Council One of the most important features of the present violence in Southern Thailand is its sustained deadliness which engenders the state’s violent responses. The phenomenon is fast becoming normalized due to its continuing violence. A possible consequence of this normalization of violence is that Thai society risks losing its capability to find political solutions to violence and being suffocated in the pool of violence itself. The Queen’s speech on November 16, 2004 was a remarkable wake-up call for the whole Thai society about the seriousness of violence in Southern Thailand. Heeding Her Majesty’s admonitions from a nonviolence perspective, some concrete nonviolent alternatives, necessary if this deadly conflict is to be mitigated and the prognosis of deepening violence and hatred in Thai society altered, will be proposed here. Nonviolence Perspective It goes without saying that there are a number of ways “a nonviolence...

LinksTFF’s Comprehensive Link Library Collection Iraq 4Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 1Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 2Read the newest materials on Iraq here Articles by non-TFF Associates Articles by non-TFF Associates F e a t u r e s “Transfer” to IraqJune 30, 2004 Iqbal Siddiqui, Media Monirots NetworkTransfer of power in Iraq is no more than a cynical exercise in public relations Robert Fisk, ICHA Pitiful Occasion for the People Annia Ciezadlo, CSMOld Iraqi council clings to key roles Dan Murphy, CSMSurprise ending: occupation over Warren Hoge, TruthoutU.N. Rights Chief Warns of War Crimes in Iraq TomDispatch.comA cut-and-run transition Rajiv Chandrasekaran & Walter Pincus, WashingtonpostU.S. Edicts Curb Power of Iraq’s Leadership Iraq Occupation FiascoJune 30, 2004 Mark Follman, ICHA Temporary Coup Robert Parry, consortiumnews.comBush Sr.’s Iraq-Iran Secrets CBC NewsBush continues to insist on link between bin Laden and Saddam...

I dag, på den Internationale Menneskeretsdag, godkendte den japanske regering – bestående af det Liberale Demokratiske Parti, LDP, og “New Komeito”-partiet – planen for det nye nationale forsvarsprogram samt oprustning ifølge midtvejsbudgetet for 2005 – 2009. I går bestemte den at forlænge sin tilstedeværelse med de såkaldte selvforsvarstyrker, (Self-Defence-Forces, SDF) i Irak. Mens hver eneste sikkerhedrelateret beslutning i disse år betyder en faktisk underminering af Japans freds-grundlov, ligesom militær oprustning og samarbejde med den krigeriske Bush-administration, så har Japan langtfra i tilsvarende udstrækning udviklet sine intellektuelle eller politiske muligheder. Disse forbliver grundlæggende afhængige, bekvemt vage og følgsomme. Billedet af Japan som et slags amerikansk hangarfartøj bliver stadig mere realistisk. Samtidig er store dele af den japanske offentlighed imod dette, især SDF’s tilstedeværelse i Irak. Men japansk demokrati er tilsyneladende helt foreneligt med en regering, der viser en fremmed magt større loyalitet end det bryder sig om det egne folks meninger...

Today, on the International Human Rights Day, the Japanese government – i.e. the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito party – approved a draft of the new National Defence Program Outline and the fiscal 2005-2009 midterm defence build-up program. Yesterday it decided to extend for another year the presence of the Self-Defence Forces, SDF, in Iraq. While every security-related decision these years represents a de facto undermining of its Peace Constitution as well as military build-up and integration with the belligerent Bush administration, Japan has built up neither its intellectual nor its political capabilities proportionately. It remains fundamentally dependent, conveniently vague and acquiescing. The image of Japan as a U.S. aircraft carrier is becoming more and more real. By and large, the Japanese public opinion is against all this, particularly the presence of the SDF in Iraq. But, Japanese democracy is compatible with a government more loyal with a foreign...

Lund, Sverige og Nagoya, Japan – I forbindelse med Byrettens dom på 6 måneders fængsel til Frank Grevil udtaler statsadvokat Karsten Hjorth (Politiken 30. november 2004) at han vil “anke dommen med påstand om en skærpelse af straffen til ikke under et års fængsel.” Han citeres desuden for at “Der er så meget, som er i offentlighedens interesse, men som alligevel må holdes hemmeligt.” Straffelovens § 152 stipulerer netop 6 måneder, men 152e siger formildende at “Bestemmelserne omfatter ikke tilfælde, hvor den pågældende: er forpligtet til at videregive oplysningen eller handler i berettiget varetagelse af åbenbar almeninteresse eller af eget eller andres tarv.” Der er almindelig enighed om at Grevil har ikke afsløret noget som helst hemmeligt og rapporterne er siden blevet offentliggjort. Statsadvokatens udsagn er derfor lige så politisk som irrelevant. Danmark har imidlertid, altfor længe, haft en tradition for lukkethed, som Grevil nu har brudt netop i offentlighedens interesser....