PressInfo 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Det finns goda skäl till att George W Bush vann. Omkring två tredjedelar av USA – cirka 60% av den röstberättigade valmanskåren röstade, i runda tal hälften av dem för Bush – och vi andra måste nu leva med både de ackumulerade effekterna av de första fyra åren och med mer av samma slag, och troligen värre, under ytterligare fyra långa år. Ty i George Bushs värld har Guds mandat från ovan nu bekräftats från det amerikanska folkets mandat nerifrån. Därför råder en sorts treenighet bestående av Gud, Bush och de amerikanska gudstroende. Tyvärr fungerar inget av hans politik, utom den som rör återvalet, men det tycks inte bekymra vare sig Bush eller hans anhängare. Låt oss åtminstone hoppas att Gud känner ett slags skuld genom (påstått) samröre. 1. Framkallad rädsla – “fear-ology” Huvudskälet till att Bush vann är rädsla, framkallad rädsla, där man bygger politik på att till egna...

PressInfo # 202 Margaret Hassan has been murdered. That is the most probable conclusion from a video given to Al Jazeera yesterday. For one who met her and got to know her, even if just a little, it is hard to write and read that sentence. But Margaret Hassan – Umm Margaret – in Baghdad has been murdered. Who killed her? Desperate, fanatic people who thereby casts a dark shadow over their nationality, organisation, religion and philosophy. People who mistakenly believe that a better Iraq will emerge from such a crime and who cares nil for the welfare of the Iraqi people to whom she devoted most of her life and work. Or someone related to the occupation forces seeking to discredit the image of all Iraqi resistance. Why she of all? Because she was a courageous, principled and determined humanist who defied danger and could not be intimidated. She...

Margaret Hassan has been murdered. That is the most probable conclusion from a video given to Al Jazeera yesterday. For one who met her and got to know her, even if just a little, it is hard to write and read that sentence. But Margaret Hassan – Umm Margaret – in Baghdad has been murdered. Who killed her? Desperate, fanatic people who thereby casts a dark shadow over their nationality, organisation, religion and philosophy. People who mistakenly believe that a better Iraq will emerge from such a crime and who cares nil for the welfare of the Iraqi people to whom she devoted most of her life and work. Or someone related to the occupation forces seeking to discredit the image of all Iraqi resistance. Why she of all? Because she was a courageous, principled and determined humanist who defied danger and could not be intimidated. She represented the best...

This is a follow-up to PressInfo 200. With some dialectical thinking, four more years with George W. Bush at the helm of the United States Empire may turn out to be a great opportunity for something new and better to emerge. In the ying-yang of crisis, there is both suffering in the old and seeds of visions about the new. And suffering there will be the next four years; none of the arguments below ignore that. However, the one who despairs too much over Bush’s re-election may contribute more to suffering than to realising the positive potentials we have at hand. Let’s at least try to roll up our sleeves now. 1. Criticism and protests without constructive alternatives is a waste of energy One lesson to be learnt from the most recent wars, the war on terrorism and the re-election of Mr. Bush is that it is not enough to...