Humanitarian Texts

2012-06-01: Religion and spirituality as the opiate of the masses;
2012-06-02: Videos about People, Mysteries, Events, not finished Stories … ;
2012-06-03: Tibet’s burning protest;
2012-06-04: Egypt’s working class and the question of organisation;
2012-06-05: The World Tomorrow (VOSTFR);
2012-06-06: Sale of visas: A smuggler’s final song?
2012-06-07: The dirty underbelly of the Jubilee pageant;
2012-06-08: Burden of Silence;
2012-06-09: Lebanon behind Arab Spring states on electoral reform;
2012-06-10: The History of Knowledge: Darkness in the Academy;
2012-06-11: Loreena McKennitt LIVE;
2012-06-12: Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini;
2012-06-13: Spain: A Spiral of Crisis, Cuts and Indignacion;
2012-06-14: Getting Rolled in Wisconsin;
2012-06-15: Vendetta Song;
2012-06-16: Africa Rising: The Grassroots Movement to End Female Genital Mutilation;
2012-06-16: Journée mondiale de lutte contre le travail des enfants;
2012-06-17: American Narcos: The Real Masters of Paradise;
2012-06-18: Those who benefit from failed Iran talks;
2012-06-19: Juan Enriquez: Will our kids be a different species?
2012-06-19: Aufpassen: Phishing-Nachrichten = Betrugsmasche;
2012-06-20: Taking to the streets against stop-and-frisk;
2012-06-21: South Africa: The turning point for Internet freedom;
2012-06-22: The Central Intelligence Agency’s 9/11 File;
2012-06-23: Sam Gindin on the crisis in labor;
2012-06-24: Japan and the United States from Kennedy to Clinton;
2012-06-25: Nobel Peace Prize for Bradley Manning;
2012-06-26: How to Tell if Your Favorite Companies Are Truly Progressive or Secretly Selling Out;
2012-06-27: Five Years of Velib: How Cycling Became Chic in Paris;
2012-06-28: Witness: The Deadliest Beat;
2012-06-29: Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra;
2012-06-30: Mad, Bad, Sad – What’s Really Happened to America’s Soldiers.

Published on ZNet (Source: Tom Dispatch), by Nan Levinson, June 29, 2012.

“PTSD is going to color everything you write,” came the warning from a stepmother of a Marine, a woman who keeps track of such things. That was in 2005, when post-traumatic stress disorder, a.k.a. PTSD, wasn’t getting much attention, but soon it was pretty much all anyone wrote about. Story upon story about the damage done to our guys in uniform – drinking, divorce, depression, destitution – a laundry list of miseries and victimhood. When it comes to veterans, it seems like the only response we can imagine is to feel sorry for them.   Continue Reading…

short videos:

• The Blue Danube Waltz, Live HD, 8.12 min;
• The Most Beautiful Waltzes, 14.55 min;
• Russian Waltz: Shostakovich Waltz No.2, 3.40 min;
• HUNGARIAN DANCE Nº 5 (BRAHMS), 3.22 min;
• Kalinka; 3.20 min;
• Sirtaki Zorba Dance, in Royal Albert Hall, 3.59 min;  Continue Reading…

A look at the journalists who are determined to report the grim truth about Mexico’s violent drug war

Watch this video, 25.09 min, published on Al Jazeera, June 25, 2012.

• Filmmaker: Rick Rowley
• The daily headlines in the Mexican media are filled with the litany of death and violence that is Mexico today.
• The Deadliest Beat is the inside story of Mexico’s drug war as seen through the work of two newspapers in Sinaloa. As the journalists risk their lives to cover – and uncover – the story, the dangers of their work unfold … (full text).

More Witness films.

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Stefan Simons in Paris, June 25, 2012 (Photo Gallery).

Once upon a time, only a small number of Parisians rode bikes, but the French capital city’s Velib bike rental system has shaken up the way locals move from Point A to Point B. Five years after their debut, cycling has become cool in Paris — and there are fewer cars clogging up the city center … // Continue Reading…

Fran Hawthorne, author of “Ethical Chic: The Inside Story of the Companies We Think We Love,” dishes on some big-name companies – Published on AlterNet, by Brittany Shoot, June 18, 2012.

Many progressives know that some of their favorite companies have dirty secrets. Many are also aware that in the last 30 years, a number of socially responsible independent companies have accepted buy-outs from larger corporations for various reasons. French Group Danone acquired organic yogurt purveyor Stonyfield Farms in several stages over the last decade. Unilever bought Vermont-based ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s in 2000. Colgate-Palmolive bought all-natural toothpaste brand Tom’s of Maine in 2006. Clorox purchased natural personal care products manufacturer Burt’s Bees in 2008.   Continue Reading…

Published on The International News Magazine, by Dr. Ludwig Watzal, June 24, 2012. (Linked on our blogs with Opinion: Assange’s appeal to Ecuador is no surprise).

GERMANY 24 June 2012. I support wholeheartedly the nomination of the American soldier Bradley Manning for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Through his courageous decision to have allegedly forwarded material to the website. WikiLeaks, he has drawn attention to the numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity by the U.S. Government.   Continue Reading…

New National Security Archive Publication Makes Available 900 Formerly Classified Documents – Published on The National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 382, by Robert A. Wampler, PhD, June 20, 2012.

Washington, D.C., June 20, 2012 –The National Security Archive announces the publication of its latest digital compilation of declassified records on U.S. ties with a critically important global partner – Japan. The new collection, Japan and the United States: Diplomatic, Security, and Economic Relations, Part III, 1961-2000,    Continue Reading…

Published on LBOnews, by Doug Henwood, June 18, 2012.

… The debacle in Wisconsin is deeply symptomatic of the crisis in American labor, and there’s no smarter commentator on that topic than Sam, even though he lives north of the 49th parallel.
Welcome Sam. The defeat of the Walker recall in Wisconsin has prompted some reflections on the state of the labor movement. What are your initial thoughts on that? I know you’re across the border in Canada, but it certainly has repercussions across North America.   Continue Reading…

Top Secret CIA Documents on Osama bin Laden Declassified – Published on The National Security Archive,  Electronic Briefing Book No. 381, by Barbara Elias-Sanborn with Thanks to Archive Senior Fellow Jeffrey T. Richelson, June 19, 2012.

Washington, D.C., June 19, 2012 – The National Security Archive today is posting over 100 recently released CIA documents relating to September 11, Osama bin Laden, and U.S. counterterrorism operations.  The newly-declassified records, which the Archive obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, are referred to in footnotes to the 9/11 Commission Report and present an unprecedented public resource for information about September 11.   Continue Reading…

Published on Pambazuka News, by Jane Duncan, June 13, 2012.

Media freedom in South Africa has been receiving bad press recently, although most of the attention has focussed on threats to print and broadcasting freedom. Little attention has been paid to creeping censorship of the supposedly most democratic medium of all, namely the Internet … //   Continue Reading…

Gary Lapon reports from a huge protest march against the NYPD’s racial profiling – Published on Socialist Worker, by Gary Lapon, June 19, 2012.

NEW YORKERS came out in the thousands for the “End Stop-and-Frisk Silent March Against Racial Profiling” on June 18. A multiracial procession of about 15,000 people stretched for nearly 25 blocks down New York City’s Fifth Avenue.   Continue Reading…

Zuerst erhielt ich folgendes e-mail:   Continue Reading…

Watch this video, 16.49 min, published on TED talks, filmed April 2012/posted June 2012:  Throughout human evolution, multiple versions of humans co-existed. Could we be mid-upgrade now? At TEDxSummit, Juan Enriquez sweeps across time and space to bring us to the present moment — and shows how technology is revealing evidence that suggests rapid evolution may be under way … (full text).

Links:    Continue Reading…

Published on Intrepid Report, by Kourosh Ziabari, June 15, 2012.

With less than a week remaining to the sensitive, determining talks between the top negotiators of six world powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program, some wicked forces from here and there are trying their best to deliver a lethal blow to Tehran and weaken the chances of a successful, productive agreement between the two sides which, during the past years, have interacted with each other in a fluctuating atmosphere of trust and mistrust.   Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Tom Burghardt, June 15, 2012.

… The Only Liquid Investment Capital:

Earlier this month, The Observer reported that “The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich ‘consuming’ countries–principally across Europe and in the US–rather than war-torn ‘producing’ nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed.”   Continue Reading…

les enfants de Guinée demandent des actions au lieu des discours – Publié dans Guinée News, par Mame Diallo, le 14 juin 2012.

Malgré de vastes campagnes dans le monde entier, le travail des enfants continue de décliner à l’échelle mondiale et la Guinée n’en fait pas une exception. Pour mettre fin à ce phénomène, le ministère des Affaires sociales, de la promotion féminine et de l’enfance en partenariat avec le Fonds des Nations Unies pour l’Enfance et la Femme (UNICEF), a organisé une conférence débats à Conakry. C’était hier mercredi 13 juin, a constaté votre quotidien Guineenews … //   Continue Reading…

Published on Africa Women in Cinema Blog, June 9, 2012.

… Every day, 6,000 girls from the Horn of Africa to sub-Saharan nations are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). With fierce determination and deep love for their communities, brave African activists are leading a formidable, fearless grassroots movement to end 5,000 years of FGM. An insightful look at the frontlines of a quiet revolution taking the continent by storm, this extraordinarily powerful film is one of the first to focus on African solutions to FGM. Learn more about AFRICA RISING at Women Make Movies. (full text).   Continue Reading…

Watch this video, 46.56 min, published on Al Jazeera, by Filmmaker Eylem Kaftan, June 13, 2012.

A young Turkish woman, now resident in Canada, travels to Turkey in an attempt to unravel the story behind her aunt Guzide’s murder, some 30 years earlier in a remote Kurdish village. As she searches for clues and closure, she encounters antiquated customs in a Kurdish culture she has never known. She knows that her aunt was a victim of a senseless vendetta killing and as she ventures from village to village she pieces together the woman’s final days and closes in on the identity of her killer.  Continue Reading…

Why Electoral Politics Sold Out the Popular Uprising in the Badger State and Why It’s Not All Over – Published on ZNet, by Andy Kroll, June 11, 2012.

… Walker is the first governor in American history to win a recall election. His lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, dispatched her recall challenger no less decisively. So, too, did three Republican state senators in their recall elections. Democrats avoided a GOP sweep with a win in the sixth and final senate recall vote of the season, in Wisconsin’s southeastern 21st district, but that was small consolation. Put simply, Democrats and labor unions got rolled.    Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Luke Stobart and Joel Sans, June 11, 2012.

… The immediate cause of the current global crisis was generalized property and financial bubbles in the developed world. Spain was an extreme case of this, with a million housing start-ups taking place in 2007 (more than in Britain, France and Germany combined). This generated massive profits for construction companies and banks which invested heavily internationally (including buying airports and high street banks in Britain). Rising house prices fuelled consumer spending, while half of the jobs then being created in the EU were in the Spanish state … //    Continue Reading…

• Part 1, 125.28 min; Part 2, 82.53 min; Part 3, 136.31 min; Part 4, 135.05 min; Part 5, 74.13 min; Part 6, 131.06 min; Part 7, 145.38 min; Part 8, 119.16 min;

A Romance of the French Revolution: … Classic Literature VideoBook with synchronized text, interactive transcript, and closed captions in multiple languages. Audio courtesy of Librivox. Read by Gord Mackenzie.

… famous to learn the english language – simultaneously read and listen a good text …

Videos with Loreena McKennitt LIVE:

• Nights from the Alhambra, 99.31 min;
• Marco Polo HD, 4.49 min;
• Caravanserai HQ, 7.00 min;
• Mummer’s dance live, 4.24 min;
• Santiago, 5.42 min;
• Highwayman, 10.21 min;
• 42 Top Tracks for Loreena McKennitt in autoplay;

Audios:  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Prof. John Kozy, June 7, 2012.

Knowledge does not always prevail or even endure. When the Empire fell, the Justinian Code was replaced by Canon Law. The augustness of knowledge was transformed into heresy and mankind’s curiosity was virtually extinguished. The age became dark. In the 11th century, people began to study rediscovered Greek and Roman texts. The darkness of the age had begun to lift but the lifting took seven hundred years and was never completed. Today, nothing ensures the light’s endurance despite our pious accolades to learning and science.    Continue Reading…

Published on Daily Star, Lebanon, by Van Meguerditchian, June 8, 2012.

BEIRUT: With no agreement on the horizon about a new electoral law and parliamentary elections a year away, many Lebanese are eyeing the electoral achievements made by Tunisia and Egypt following the Arab Spring.

Items of electoral reform that activists have promoted for years have now been adopted in Tunisia and Egypt, after popular pro-democracy demonstrations led to the collapse of regimes that had ruled for decades.  Continue Reading…