We need a propaganda filter
RUSSOPHOBIA: The reason for ORIENTERING this time is propaganda and Russophobia
Femicide as a fairy tale
VIOLENCE: If 'feminicide' has not yet established itself as a term in Norway, it is on its way into our language. It simply means femicide, but is often linked to the spouse, partner or a family member. Last year, 90 women were victims of femminicide in Italy, which places the country in third place in Europe.
Citizen journalists
GAZA: Sheikh Jarrah describes how the Israeli authorities subsequently sought to silence the journalists. Here is a current book – in connection with the murdered journalists in Gaza. The democratic function of the media is not always so democratic.
Therefore, the Middle East became a powder keg
50 YEARS AGO: Why has the Middle East been a powder keg for 25 years? What is the background for the irreconcilable attitude between Israel and the Arab states? And what happened to the Palestinian Arabs when the state of Israel was established?
A future without armies
PEACE WORK: There is something vaguely medieval in the narrative of the media, politicians and gun fetishists today. That is why it is refreshing to read the chapter "NATO – out of date" in the book Fredskultur. Or how about Costa Rica: "We have no enemies and we don't need an army!"
The military ambitions of the oil states
ARMS: There are a number of developments in the three oil states of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which Jean-Loup Samaan researches in his latest book. These are the three oil states that account for 17 percent of all arms purchases worldwide. Saudi Arabia's desire to become a nuclear power in order to stand up to Iran.
To risk his life in the attempt
REFUGEES: Every single day, people set out from Turkey to Greece, from Lebanon to Italy, from Morocco to Spain, from Libya to Malta and from Tunisia to Lampedusa. Never before have there been so many people on the run as there are right now. Journalist Sally Hayden gives testimony about the people the world has turned its back on.
The power of water
HISTORY: Terje Tvedt breaks some research norms by seeing the water wheel to a greater degree than the steam engine as the real driving force behind the industrial revolution. It's about water, not cultural superiority.
The fear they are not afraid of
RUSSOPHOBIA: Russophobia has cost hundreds of thousands of lives – not because you are afraid of the Russians, but because you need enemy images. Did the USA/NATO have a carefully planned and announced provocation intended to provoke reactions from Russia?
The assassination of John F. Kennedy
KENNEDY: 60 years after JFK was killed, despite the Biden administration's attempts to renege on its administration's promises, some of the remaining secret documents about the incident are being released. One of the revelations is that the CIA kept an eye on Lee Harvey Oswald.
The media and Corbyn
BLACK CAMPAIGN: What was the biggest obstacle for Jeremy Corbyn when he came close to winning the election – and thus becoming the Prime Minister of Great Britain? A smear campaign and branding as 'Russia's henchman' or 'anti-Semite'?
A revolutionary language
PASOLINI: MODERN TIMES prints the translator's foreword here, in conjunction with our review of Pier Paolo Pasolin's Sao Paolo (Paulus).
"Any expansion of NATO's zone would be absolutely unacceptable."
NATO ENLARGEMENT: The exclusion of Russia was a serious violation of international law. President Bush's promises to Gorbachev were nothing but deception – he appeared as a two-faced Janus, working closely with Gorbachev on a tactical level, while actually forcing the Soviet Union to retreat on a strategic level. We in the West claim that Russia must follow international law, but we ourselves can break it when it suits us.
Why are some victims more worthy than others?
UKRAINE: Sometimes our humanitarian values disappear overnight. Will the rest of the world participate in the West's 'moral parade' over the war in Ukraine?
"You can end up with the only peace being the graveyard peace."
MODERN TIMES CONVERSATIONS: We talk to the former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, the man who could have become Prime Minister of Great Britain, about current issues – such as military rearmament, Ukraine, Israel, climate justice and work, security, democracy, citizens' councils, and not least a hope for the future.
A strategy for peace
KENNEDY: He said in his speech in 1963: "Where ignorance too often abounds and truth too seldom prevails, the most important subject we have is: world peace." Was it possible, as he said, "to create conditions so that weapons can finally be abolished"? According to Kennedy, the struggle for disarmament had been a matter for US governments since the 1920s. This has not been the case for very many of his successors.
The showdown with woke
WOKE: The crime community is pushing people over to the right, which is growing because people feel alienated by woke and identity politics. Moreover, the left has become more interested in monitoring each other than forming a common front against the right. Is solidarity and compassion for the suffering of others a limited resource?
We can all be like Paul
PASOLINI: The apostle Paul shows the revolutionary power of fighting for a cause that defies the usual way of life. Paul becomes the symbol of creating a new reality and defeating hegemonic power. But can we imagine that there is a Paul in today's Israel?
Principles in the UN Charter of effective multilateralism and equal cooperation
UNITED NATIONS: MODERN TIMES prints here Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's speech to the UN Security Council in New York on 20 September 2023. He emphasizes that the UN Charter is the cornerstone of today's international legislation – which has not been followed in terms of peace and security in Ukraine. Lavrov also points out that the Ukrainian constitution states that the state is obliged to respect the Russians and other ethnic minorities. In Lavrov's view, it is the Western countries that do not want to overcome the deep crisis that has arisen in international relations. Here you have the opportunity to (and with ORIENTERINGs several articles) to read and evaluate yourself.
Russia's race to the bottom
THE OIL STATE: In this book, Alexander Etkind states that Russia is the least equal, the most militarized and the most carbonized of all the world's major countries.
"There will probably be a terrible outcry over the exhibition."
PHOTO ART: The lonely person is a prerequisite for the expressive world artist who came to the fore with Edvard Munch in the 1890s. A new biography is now available: According to de Figueiredo, the frivolous reality the bohemians in Kristiania clamored for in the 1880s came to fruition in 1890s Berlin, where Munch was part of a milieu that had conversations about "naturalism and socialism, decadence and Darwinism and psychology – as well as an ever-so-small dose of Satanism”.
Russophobia and anti-Russian propaganda
PROPAGANDA: Glenn Diesen has undertaken a comprehensive academic analysis of 'Russophobia' which we get a small glimpse into with this introductory chapter from his book Russiophobia: Propaganda in International Politics (2022). The West's relationship with this world's largest country is characterized by a mixture of fear and the teacher's superiority.
It is not possible to wipe out Hamas
HAMAS: Leila Seurat provides a good basis for understanding what went terribly wrong on October 7, when Hamas made a drastic change of course. The purpose of it all was to get the Palestinian cause back on the global agenda, and it has largely succeeded.
The Western hegemony plans
ISRAEL/UKRAINA: Support for arms to Ukraine and support for Israel are connected. Everyone who in various ways supports the Western expansion plan with support for Ukraine in the ongoing war, in practice supports the Western hegemony plans, which enable Israel's genocide.
When violence becomes the only thing
POWER: According to Hannah Arendt, the use of violence, weapons and bombs renders us politically speechless. Can her particular analyzes of power teach us anything about the violence that is being carried out from and in Gaza today?