Johan Galtung

For the World Forum on Urban Violence, Madrid, 19-21 April 2017, Johan Galtung wrote an editorial piece for Transcend Media Service which we reproduce in full here. Mayors from around the world, Ladies and Gentlemen, To reduce direct violence in…

Coming from Malaysia, the two neighbours are incredibly different. Indonesia, richer in ancient cultures, larger in territory, an archipelago of thousands of islands, has GDP per capita of 3,500 while Malaysia is 11,500; three times plus more. By Johan Galtung*…

The state system at its worst: trading insults and threats, sanctions, readiness to use extreme violence, forward deployment of US troops in Israel as hostages to guarantee US involvement, disregard for common people and the effects of warfare in the Middle East and the world.

“Democracy is a contract with the voters: “if elected I will try to enact my program.” That traitor to democracy, Obama, with a rhetoric of change, attracted the underprivileged–blacks, reds, Hispanics, women, youth, workers, and betrayed them all; but not his benefactor Goldman Sachs, favoring bailing them out way above stimulus.”

The London conference on Afghanistan was a done deal and has been in the works for a long time. The Taliban seem to be resistant to killing, they actually add to their numbers like amoeba and launch attacks ever closer to the hearts of power. So, if military power, the Big Stick, even carried by 44 countries in a coalition does not work, let us try economic power, the carrot.

The Nobel Peace prize to a president for rhetoric, with no real achievement, is like a peace prize for a movie to a former vice-president, with no real achievement either. People are touched by a rhetoric everybody has heard, but that it does not meet the criteria Nobel states in his will: understanding among nations, reduction of standing armies, and peace conferences.

The self-appointed Inter Action Council, IAC, chaired by German ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt had its 27th Annual Meeting in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia 10-13 May, with 20 other former prime ministers and presidents, many right wing social democrats, attending. They issued a Final Communiqué with a Present State of the World. My comments follow.

The abrahamic Occident expanded three times: islam 622-1492 from Iberia to the Philippines; christianity from 1492 on all five continents; and judaism from 1948 in the Middle East. They left and leave behind enormous clashes of civilizations in their wake, many extinguished. South America is building on an incredible rich history and wisdom like Bolivia’s Morales is now doing.