Opinions

Japan will hold elections of the Upper House of the Diet on 21 July 2013. Several parties, notably Prime Minister Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, have made constitutional revision a priority. If they obtain a majority – and they are in…

By Eric Walberg* The removal of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, by the army threatens to open a Pandora’s box. Al-Qaeda’s post-Bin Laden leader, (Egyptian) Ayman Zawahiri, has always been focused on combating local regimes and Arab rulers,…

By Ismail Serageldin* Egypt is once more doing things its own unique way. After millions of people went into the streets and in 18 days that shook the world succeeded in toppling the regime of Hosny Mubarak after 30 years…

Freedom and democracy. How I have come to loathe this phrase. Two-lofty-words-and-a-conjunction bandied around by handmaidens of Empire: verbal grenades that can gut entire nations. When I hear “freedom and democracy” I instinctively look for cover – just as “Allahu…

More than 160 years ago, the greatest abolitionist in U.S. history, the escaped slave Frederick Douglass, addressed the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass asked those gathered, “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” His words bear repeating…

Success in free elections held after the “Arab Spring” protests in Tunisia and Egypt has brought Islamists to power through democratic means, and Islamist influence is on the rise throughout the Arab world. Much of the debate about liberal democracy’s…

Pressenza publishes here a report prepared by members of a team of German peace activists who recently travelled to Afghanistan to see for themselves to situation for the people in Kabul.  The report is long but well worth reading.  In…

No, not number one in military spending (which we are). Not number one in incarceration rates (which we are as well). What if, instead of these things, the U.S. became hyper-focused on becoming the most peaceful nation on earth? The…

As the keynote speaker on the final day of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, Dr. Vandana Shiva[1], an Indian environmental activist and anti-globalisation campaigner spoke about the values required for a new economic model that respects the planet and…

Mr. Blueh was one of the Speakers at the Pressenza Workshop of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum,. Here we publish his words: “We thank Pressenza news agency for inviting us to participate in this Global Media Forum “The Future…