ObergComment: Illiteracy or knowledge? Now an existential choice
In times of fake and omission – not to speak of deliberate deception and lies – society’s very foundation is shaken: What can we believe? Who can we trust? What is reliable and truthful information – and how do I know?
Tragically, substantial knowledge with complex reasoning about our complex world and its problems has been overwhelmed by marketing, smart soundbites, tweets and ignorance.
Diversity has been substituted by uniformity, political correctness and, more recently, the awfully destructive cancel culture and its close companion, self-censorship.
People read less, and less and less the long argument – such as (good) books about global problems. Perhaps because we think we are so busy? Whatever the reason, the attention span has shrunk and many have a comfort zone the size of a pinhead.
It bodes ill – no matter the kind of social body in which this disease takes root. It spread like malign cells in a human body.
And it seems that it is OK to lie, not the least for the big and powerful.
•
Many people ask us: What do you think I should read to better understand the world?
Well, you can always turn to TFF – we’ve been around since 1986 and we are not easily fooled. The large majority of analyses, articles and videos we publish is research-based and written by people with enough life experience to be both factual, critical and constructive – and not in need of getting famous or to pursue careers that might tempt them to join the above-mentioned trends.
– particularly when you act too…
Fortunately, there are still lots of good media and analytical bodies that you can rely on – not the least thanks to solid scholarship and integrity. Certainly, TFF is not the only one but even in the field of peace, conflict and future research, a wide-ranging mainstreaming and uniformity have developed. TFF has not and will not go that way.
TFF is also people-financed and all-volunteer. We receive no funds from corporations or governments and have no sugar daddy. These characteristics is a guarantee for you.
However, we think it is our duty to help you find these other good sources beyond ourselves – win-win for us and for them.
Here are our recommended links to media worldwide you may like to consult instead of holding on to your local mainstream media which perhaps you do because it is difficult and time-consuming to find your own way.
And then you have all the Themes on our front pages – in red.
There is enough to throw yourself into!
All in one place. At your fingertips. We call that public education.
•
There is only one – yes, one – remedy in times of fake, omission, conspiracy and propaganda: Substantial, verifiable knowledge created with objective, scientific methods and intentions while also being open about unavoidable subjectivity and consciously promoted values.
Like medicine, peace, conflict and future research is a value-oriented endeavour. Like doctors, we at TFF believe in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, or healing. That is a value orientation in and of itself and we gladly state that nonviolence is better than violence and that our goal is to push thinking and action in the direction of less, not more, violence in our world.
In these times everyone has a choice: To either become illiterate and be fooled – or to be in the know and reveal and ignore the rampant, unethical newspeak that has spread like a pandemic the last 20-30 years, not the least in the fields of conflict, war and peace.
•
If you found this relevant and want TFF to continue to do what we’ve always done, send us the equivalent of a cup of coffee…
Officially, the drones were not identified. By simply thinking critically – which journalists and selected experts no longer do – there may be a good reason for that. And this article will never be mentioned in Denmark… Drones over Denmark. No damage. No trace. No answers. Yet the headlines scream “Russian threat,” and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks with a certainty that defies logic: “We don’t know they were Russian—but we know Russia is the biggest threat to Europe.” It could be nobody else – unless you make an interest analysis which I did two days ago. This is not security policy. It’s theatre. And the audience is being played. Let’s rewind. These drones—unphotographed, untracked, unclaimed—appear and vanish like ghosts. Airports shut down. Panic spreads. Military budgets swell. And the narrative hardens: Russia is behind it. But what if that’s not just wrong but deliberately misleading? Here’s a hypothesis for...
And why the world, especially the EU, must now declare itself independent of the United States. UN’s 80th anniversary This year, the United Nations celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding. The UN was formed after the scourge of the Second World War, in which 70 to 85 million people were killed and many countries were destroyed. That war came on the heels of the First World War, which also killed between 15 and 22 million people. After the Second World War, especially after the use of nuclear weapons by the United States, which marked a turning point in the history of warfare that could result in the end of civilisation as we know it, humanity decided to move away from the era of empires and big power politics and usher in a new era of peace, freedom and cooperation. These were the principles enshrined in the UN Charter. The United States...
Drones over Nordic airports. No damage. No trace. No answers. Most assume Russia—but what if that’s not so? Why is there so much we are not told? This article explores the strategic ambiguity behind recent drone incursions and asks: Who else might benefit from sending drones into NATO airspace? From Ukraine’s surprising drone supremacy to Russia’s possible signalling, the silence itself may be the loudest message. These are the kinds of questions decent, intelligent investigative journalists and commentators could easily research. Why don’t they? Did you, dear reader, know or think of this? That the most powerful weapon in today’s conflicts might be the one that leaves no trace – and no answers. Just enough fear to justify the next move? Recently, drones have repeatedly appeared over Nordic airports and near some military facilities. They cause no damage – for which reason the designation “hybrid attack” is misleading but serves a purpose. These...
Gandhi, Arun. Lord Richard Attenborough. Kasturba: a lifeNew Delhi: Penguin Books Ltd., 2000.315 pp, 295 Indian Rs, US $22.51 January 29, 2002 Arun Gandhi, grandson to Mohandas and Kasturba, has written a thorough account of Kasturba’s life. Arun begins with a description of Kasturba’s childhood in Porbandar in the late1800s, before she met Mohandas. By having chosen to embark on difficult research into his grandmother’s life, including her first years which are not well-documented, Arun ensures that the reader receives an intimate and life-long portrait of this amazing woman. Kasturba is presented as a lively woman &endash; obedient, yet with a mind of her own. As the relationship between Kasturba and Mohandas developed, Arun maintains that Kasturba’s influence over Mohandas in her own quiet way also grew, to which some of Mohandas’ writings also attest. Arun paints a vivid picture of the beginnings of Mohandas’ non-violence movement in South Africa, a...
In response to an urgent Appeal from all the living Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, the General Assembly of the United Nations, on November 1998, unanimously declared the first decade of the twenty-first century to be The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. While people are naturally concerned about the amount of violence in our world and how it threatens our future, the Nobel Laureates are right to remind us of the potential of nonviolence and our calling to build a culture of peace and nonviolence. The twentieth century is instructive in the way that the philosophy and practice of nonviolence have begun to flourish and in the way that nonviolent movements have had an exponential growth across the world. Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. are the most famous nonviolent leaders but many have built upon the paths they charted as in country after country, tyrannies and...
We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture. In addition, they have turned over prisoners’ medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners’ weaknesses or vulnerabilities. We have not yet learned the extent of medical involvement in delaying and possibly falsifying the death certificates of prisoners who have been killed by torturers. A May 22 article on Abu Ghraib in the New York Times states that “much of the evidence of abuse at the prison came from medical documents” and that records and statements “showed doctors and medics reporting to the area of the prison where the abuse occurred several times to stitch wounds, tend to collapsed prisoners or see patients with bruised or reddened genitals.” http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/080604J.shtml#16 According to the article, two doctors who...
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Gandhi, Arun. Lord Richard Attenborough. Kasturba: a lifeNew Delhi: Penguin Books Ltd., 2000.315 pp, 295 Indian Rs, US $22.51 January 29, 2002 Arun Gandhi, grandson to Mohandas and Kasturba, has written a thorough account of Kasturba’s life. Arun begins with a description of Kasturba’s childhood in Porbandar in the late1800s, before she met Mohandas. By having chosen to embark on difficult research into his grandmother’s life, including her first years which are not well-documented, Arun ensures that the reader receives an intimate and life-long portrait of this amazing woman. Kasturba is presented as a lively woman &endash; obedient, yet with a mind of her own. As the relationship between Kasturba and Mohandas developed, Arun maintains that Kasturba’s influence over Mohandas in her own quiet way also grew, to which some of Mohandas’ writings also attest. Arun paints a vivid picture of the beginnings of Mohandas’ non-violence movement in South Africa, a...
In response to an urgent Appeal from all the living Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, the General Assembly of the United Nations, on November 1998, unanimously declared the first decade of the twenty-first century to be The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. While people are naturally concerned about the amount of violence in our world and how it threatens our future, the Nobel Laureates are right to remind us of the potential of nonviolence and our calling to build a culture of peace and nonviolence. The twentieth century is instructive in the way that the philosophy and practice of nonviolence have begun to flourish and in the way that nonviolent movements have had an exponential growth across the world. Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. are the most famous nonviolent leaders but many have built upon the paths they charted as in country after country, tyrannies and...
We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture. In addition, they have turned over prisoners’ medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners’ weaknesses or vulnerabilities. We have not yet learned the extent of medical involvement in delaying and possibly falsifying the death certificates of prisoners who have been killed by torturers. A May 22 article on Abu Ghraib in the New York Times states that “much of the evidence of abuse at the prison came from medical documents” and that records and statements “showed doctors and medics reporting to the area of the prison where the abuse occurred several times to stitch wounds, tend to collapsed prisoners or see patients with bruised or reddened genitals.” http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/080604J.shtml#16 According to the article, two doctors who...
Gandhi, Arun. Lord Richard Attenborough. Kasturba: a lifeNew Delhi: Penguin Books Ltd., 2000.315 pp, 295 Indian Rs, US $22.51 January 29, 2002 Arun Gandhi, grandson to Mohandas and Kasturba, has written a thorough account of Kasturba’s life. Arun begins with a description of Kasturba’s childhood in Porbandar in the late1800s, before she met Mohandas. By having chosen to embark on difficult research into his grandmother’s life, including her first years which are not well-documented, Arun ensures that the reader receives an intimate and life-long portrait of this amazing woman. Kasturba is presented as a lively woman &endash; obedient, yet with a mind of her own. As the relationship between Kasturba and Mohandas developed, Arun maintains that Kasturba’s influence over Mohandas in her own quiet way also grew, to which some of Mohandas’ writings also attest. Arun paints a vivid picture of the beginnings of Mohandas’ non-violence movement in South Africa, a...
In response to an urgent Appeal from all the living Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, the General Assembly of the United Nations, on November 1998, unanimously declared the first decade of the twenty-first century to be The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. While people are naturally concerned about the amount of violence in our world and how it threatens our future, the Nobel Laureates are right to remind us of the potential of nonviolence and our calling to build a culture of peace and nonviolence. The twentieth century is instructive in the way that the philosophy and practice of nonviolence have begun to flourish and in the way that nonviolent movements have had an exponential growth across the world. Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. are the most famous nonviolent leaders but many have built upon the paths they charted as in country after country, tyrannies and...
We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture. In addition, they have turned over prisoners’ medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners’ weaknesses or vulnerabilities. We have not yet learned the extent of medical involvement in delaying and possibly falsifying the death certificates of prisoners who have been killed by torturers. A May 22 article on Abu Ghraib in the New York Times states that “much of the evidence of abuse at the prison came from medical documents” and that records and statements “showed doctors and medics reporting to the area of the prison where the abuse occurred several times to stitch wounds, tend to collapsed prisoners or see patients with bruised or reddened genitals.” http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/080604J.shtml#16 According to the article, two doctors who...
Jan Øberg behandler i artiklen en lang række faktorer, som ligger til grund for den måde vores samfund er organiseret på – og derfor også for konflikter. Artiklen introducerer således sammenhængen mellem familien, foreninger, regeringer, NGO’ er, nation, stat, nationalstat og alliancer for på denne måde bedre at kunne forstå konflikter og i sidste ende blive klogere mht. at løse disse. Øberg, der er fortaler for global bevidsthed, hvilket skal ses i lyset af den øgede globalisering, skelner mellem kulturkamp og kulturdialog. Endelig behandles begrebet magt og magtesløshed: giver magt ret til at udøve magt – fordi man mener at have ret? Litteraturliste og arbejdsspørgsmål efter artiklen. Ordene vi bruger om verden I satellitperspektiv kan man godt tale om den menneskelige familie eller menneskeheden. Udtrykket understreger, at der eksisterer – eller burde eksistere – et fællesskab fordi vi alle er mennesker og sammen bebor denne klode og ingen anden. Og...
Kapitel 2: Forskellige sider af Europa og USA…fortsat 2.5 Militære relationer I forbifarten har vi allerede sagt nogle ting om USA’s militære situation. Kig lige en gang til på afsnit 2.3. Nu skal vi uddybe det militære forhold mellem USA og EU. Der er en række ligheder mellem visse europæiske landes og USA’s militær. Næsten alle er med på en eller anden måde i NATO, direkte som medlem – selv Island, der ikke har et forsvar – eller indirekte i Partnerskab for Fred. USA og Canada er med i OSCE (på dansk OSSE), Organisationen for Sikkerhed og Samarbejde i Europa, der tæller over 50 lande. USA samt England og Frankrig er kernevåbenstater og de har styrker til intervention langt borte fra hjemlandet, om end USA’s er tifold større. Alle har også en omfattende våbeneksport og bruger den som et middel til at tjene penge og få loyale venner på, det...
Background Christian Harleman and Jan Oberg conducted a fact-finding mission to Burundi between November 26 and December 6, 2003. (See websites about the country here). The first TFF mission took place in March 1999. Unfortunately, since then it has not been practically possible to implement the co-operation with Burundi’s Ministry of Education and Burundian NGOs that was planned at the time. The 2003 mission had three purposes. First, to do fact-finding in general about the situation and, in particular, the progress under the Arusha Peace Process. Second, to explore the possibilities for co-operation between the government and relevant NGOs on the one hand and TFF on the other, in order to develop and deepen the existing competence in fields such as conflict-understanding, reconciliation and peace-building. Finally, third, to find out whether it would be possible, in co-operation with the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (Statens Räddningsverk), to establish a health care unit that...
In times of fake and omission – not to speak of deliberate deception and lies – society’s very foundation is shaken: What can we believe? Who can we trust? What is reliable and truthful information – and how do I know?
Tragically, substantial knowledge with complex reasoning about our complex world and its problems has been overwhelmed by marketing, smart soundbites, tweets and ignorance.
Diversity has been substituted by uniformity, political correctness and, more recently, the awfully destructive cancel culture and its close companion, self-censorship.
People read less, and less and less the long argument – such as (good) books about global problems. Perhaps because we think we are so busy? Whatever the reason, the attention span has shrunk and many have a comfort zone the size of a pinhead.
It bodes ill – no matter the kind of social body in which this disease takes root. It spread like malign cells in a human body.
And it seems that it is OK to lie, not the least for the big and powerful.
•
Many people ask us: What do you think I should read to better understand the world?
Well, you can always turn to TFF – we’ve been around since 1986 and we are not easily fooled. The large majority of analyses, articles and videos we publish is research-based and written by people with enough life experience to be both factual, critical and constructive – and not in need of getting famous or to pursue careers that might tempt them to join the above-mentioned trends.
Fortunately, there are still lots of good media and analytical bodies that you can rely on – not the least thanks to solid scholarship and integrity. Certainly, TFF is not the only one but even in the field of peace, conflict and future research, a wide-ranging mainstreaming and uniformity have developed. TFF has not and will not go that way.
TFF is also people-financed and all-volunteer. We receive no funds from corporations or governments and have no sugar daddy. These characteristics is a guarantee for you.
However, we think it is our duty to help you find these other good sources beyond ourselves – win-win for us and for them.
Here are our recommended links to media worldwide you may like to consult instead of holding on to your local mainstream media which perhaps you do because it is difficult and time-consuming to find your own way.
And here is our link collection to a lot of analyses, serious debates, theories, concepts, ideas and self-learning.
And then you have all the Themes on our front pages – in red.
There is enough to throw yourself into!
All in one place. At your fingertips. We call that public education.
•
There is only one – yes, one – remedy in times of fake, omission, conspiracy and propaganda: Substantial, verifiable knowledge created with objective, scientific methods and intentions while also being open about unavoidable subjectivity and consciously promoted values.
Like medicine, peace, conflict and future research is a value-oriented endeavour. Like doctors, we at TFF believe in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, or healing. That is a value orientation in and of itself and we gladly state that nonviolence is better than violence and that our goal is to push thinking and action in the direction of less, not more, violence in our world.
In these times everyone has a choice: To either become illiterate and be fooled – or to be in the know and reveal and ignore the rampant, unethical newspeak that has spread like a pandemic the last 20-30 years, not the least in the fields of conflict, war and peace.
•
If you found this relevant and want TFF to continue to do what we’ve always done, send us the equivalent of a cup of coffee…
Peace & future researcher + Art Photographer
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