Salem-News.com Peace articles

EU Sanctions Target Humanitarian Aid

Hindering Restoration of Global Heritage in Syria...

(DAMASCUS, Syria) - Today, a civilization that used to lead the world and for centuries was the beacon of learning, tolerance and trade, and that still protects our global cultural heritage, is damaged—and only the Syrian people can rebuild it for all of us. We need to help them.

Last month, half-heartedly and without unanimity among its 28 member states, the European Union levied yet more sanctions on Syrian officials.

Passed under pressure from the usual suspects (the US, France, Britain, and the international Zionist lobby), the EU measure targets 12 government ministers, none of whom wields or holds police authority of any type.

Syrians Working to Preserve Jewish Cultural Heritage

A volunteer with the Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program, Franklin Lamb is in Syria doing research.

(Jewish Quarter, DAMASCUS) - It’s always encouraging when one comes upon some inspiring human enterprise, here in Syria or elsewhere, that refutes the worn shibboleths and clichés about how this or that group, or this or that religion, hates others and won’t cease targeting them until they are destroyed and burning in Hell.

In Syria today there is much evidence to refute the claims, often politically motivated, that Jewish cultural heritage sites are being singled out for destruction by rabid anti-Semites.

World Indigenous Domestic Violence and Indigenous Health Conferences Slated for December in Queensland

Calling for papers - second and last round reopen until May 31st

(QUEENSLAND) - Greetings to the Indigenous Peoples of the World from Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people, the fist people Australia. Indigenous Conference Services is proud to host two great world conferences the 2014 World Indigenous Health Conference and the World Indigenous Domestic Violence Conference.

Both conferences will be held in the heart of tropical Queensland, Australia at Cairns Pullman International Hotel, gate way to the Great Barrier Reef. We wish to extend a formal invitation to you and your organisation to take part in this extraordinary chance to present on a national and international stage.

Honestly, War is Over

Remarks in Los Angeles, May 10, 2014.

(LOS ANGELES) - When we start talking about ending war, one common reaction -- not as common as "You're a lunatic," but fairly common -- is to propose that if we want to get rid of war we'll have to get rid of something else first, or sometimes it's a series of something elses.

We'll have to get rid of bankers or bribery or the current structure of our government, or the corporate media monopoly. We'll have to get rid of racism or bigotry or extreme materialism. We'll have to abolish capitalism or environmental exploitation or religion or greed or resource shortages or sociopaths, and then we'll be able to move on to abolishing war.

Human Emotions: Genetically Programmed or Socially Learned?

In contrast to the philosopher Descartes: I feel, therefore I am.

(TASMANIA) - It is easy to fall into the trap of assuming that each human being has a more or less identical range of emotions. This is not so.

Just as each human individual is physically unique while fitting into a general physical shape (that usually, but not always, includes four limbs and an adult size of between 1.5 and 2.5 metres) so, too, the range and intensity of emotions felt by human beings varies from one individual to another.

Middle, Rich, Poor: Why Inequality Matters

The talk is organized by the Oregon Center for Public Policy and co-sponsored by the Salem Progressive Film Series.

(SALEM) - Come listen to one of the nation's foremost experts on income inequality, David Cay Johnston, on May 3 in Salem. This event is free and open to the public.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author has just published Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality. Johnston edited and contributed to this collection of essays by leading scholars and political figures, including President Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman.

Musical Notes Can Carry A Great Tune

Tim King interviews Michael Krapovicky.

(AUBURN, ME) - Tim King: Michael, your music has a unique sound, strong and reminiscent of some of the really nice songs from the 70's through today, what is your inspiration?

Michael Krapovicky: All music that is out there has the ability to shape and influence, to emulate or reject. Bands like Pink Floyd and America challenge me to make the best music possible, where sound creates colors and evokes emotional experience. Lyrically, I try to glean from a wide variety of sources: novels, poems, songs of intellectual artists such as Bob Dylan and Steely Dan, in order to capture a feeling in the most concise way possible. Maine is a beautiful state, it is not surprising that it has its share of talented musical artists.

Transcending Death

The divine energy of transcendental consciousness heals our nervous system of stresses, or karma, that we've accumulated in the past.

(OLDENBURG, Germany) - Death. The very word casts a pall of doom. Why is it so upsetting to us?

Perhaps because it conflicts with two different ways in which we know the world. We know intuitively we are immortal beings, an essence deep within us is eternal. Our sense perceptions, though, tell us we die and cease to exist. We see that the person we knew is gone. The body lying there is not them at all.

`My Verse` by Prof. Wilson Santos: Giving a Voice to the Voiceless

Think Your Life is Hard? Watch This Short Film.

(ORLANDO) - Jamal Belica of Aldin Entertainment Music Group has brought a very moving video to the attention of the Salem News. While working on his own projects to spread the word for a better world he came across “My Verse” by Prof. Wilson Santos of Full Sail University that speaks of the pathos of the deprived, especially the children.

Though it is hard-hitting and graphic and not for the squeamish, he found it so motivational that he knew he had to share it with others and he had me take a look at it.

The Struggle for Humanity

Are you sane enough to consider the evidence and to join (or recommit yourself to) the fight for human survival?

(TASMANIA) - Sociologists, political scientists, activists of various persuasions and many others often describe social stratification in terms of such measures as class, race and gender.

There is much talk in the academic and other literature about the working class, the middle class and the ruling class, for example. And about relationships defined by such factors as race, gender, religion, employment, income and other measures.