Salem-News.com Peace articles

Shell-Shocked Syrian Town Freed After Savage Massacre

291 Days of ‘Islamic Justice’

(Adra al-Omal, DAMASCUS, Syria) - Last week’s battle for Adra al-Omalia was a significant turning point. The town is now liberated but the story of what took place here over the past 291 days is presently emerging, and it is a horrifying one.

With a pre-massacre population of over 100,000, Adra housed 600 manufacturing plants and grain silos. It was a key area. The occupation of Adra al-Omalia lasted nearly ten months, commencing in December 11, 2013. Many apartments in the area were quickly burned or gutted with grenades or other explosive devices. What quickly took place was a massacre, and many eyewitness accounts of the events are now surfacing.

Street Scenes from a Damascus Neighborhood

Da’ish (IS), FSA and al Nusra Compete for Dwindling Support...

(Barzeh neighborhood, Damascus) - Changes are underway in Damascus’s suburban neighborhoods. In some of these neighborhoods there are few families’ left—only fighters. But in others, residents are trickling back in (or in some cases never even left) despite the danger.

Here in these areas, those who have chosen the armed opposition route fall are grouped roughly in the following percentiles: 70% FSA, 25% Al Nusra, and, as of now, relatively few, Da’ish (IS).

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.