COMMENT

WAR PROPAGANDA: The statement "Russia has the right to rule over its neighbour", which is attributed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an NTB article that was reproduced in several Norwegian media in April, is based on quote fraud. We see here 'war propaganda' in the Norwegian media.

MIGRATION: What experiences can be connected with the theory of 'the Other' when visiting a migrant island like Lampedusa? Perhaps some philosophers can show the way. Unless the migrants are the best guides.

NOW: Barely 50 years after the publication of Anti-Oedipus by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the work has not lost its relevance according to the Norwegian magazine AGORA's new theme issue. Anti-Oedipus has rather proved to be a prophetic and highly applicable conceptual toolbox for the examination of a financial and information capitalist contemporary. In this essay, reference is also made to the book's claim that there is no economy or politics that is not permeated to the highest degree by desire. And what about the fascist where someone is led to desire their own oppression as if it meant salvation?

IRAQ: In Iraq, young people trust neither the politicians nor the parties. MODERN TIMES has met the director and producer of the film Baghdad on Fire, which deals with the mobilization of the youth fighting for change in the bad governance of the country's leaders. Karrar Al-Azzawi says the following about the US invasion in 2003: "They brought 'democracy', but we got only chaos and corruption – with politicians who only wanted to steal. The religious leaders were also involved in this."

Are we responsible for our actions both individually and as companies and industry? As individuals, in most areas we can be asked...

UKRAINE/RUSSIA: Talking about an "unprovoked Russian attack" is pure propaganda. The Minsk agreement with Ukraine in 2014 was supposed to ensure Ukraine's neutrality and integrity and give the Russian-speakers in Ukraine the right to practice their mother tongue. But in 2021/22, Kyiv and Washington canceled the agreement at the same time as the US built up militarily in Ukraine. Today, journalists and other commentators do not understand why Russia cannot afford to lose the war. How is it possible that the entire Norwegian, and much of the Anglo-American, media world could be bewitched by such propaganda?

MEMORIAL WORDS: Johan Galtung. Could the 21st century see the abolition of war – just as slavery was abolished in the 19th century and colonialism in the 20th?

ESSAY: Russia's war and the scare campaign that it will be extended to other countries turns out to be just a cover for a policy that, in the long term, intends to tie Sweden more strongly to the US's military geostrategy – primarily through NATO. We take a closer look at one of the people primarily responsible for this development – ​​Defense Minister Pål Jonson.

THE REALITY: We perceive reality very differently. Let me therefore suggest three areas where reality is real, strong and direct for all of us. But also what a new translated book by Pier Paolo Pasolini says about the film's contact with reality.