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Protesting workers and youth in Angra dos Reis, a coastal town about 100 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, blocked an Olympic procession Wednesday night, seizing and extinguishing the Olympic torch before being driven back by police firing teargas and rubber bullets. The protest, coming barely a week before the August 5 opening of Rio Olympics, is emblematic of[Read More…]
The row over the appointment of Harvard Professor, Gita Gopinath, as Economic Advisor to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, has thrown open an ideological foray within the left camp. The veteran leader V S Achuthanandan had written to the CPI (M) central leadership expressing his concern over her appointment. In his letter to[Read More…]
South East Asia is in the grip of new cold war. There are two clear signals, after the Hague International Tribunals ‘verdict which clearly rejected the Chinese claim on the sea; the first is that China- Russia have come together on the issue of South China Sea, this is visible as Russia and China have decided to organize a joint[Read More…]
Riyadh-based Yemen government in exile Thursday pulled out of the peace talks underway in Kuwait after Houthi militants and their allies formed a 10-member “supreme council” to run the war-torn nation. “The negotiations have completely ended,” said Abdallah al-Olaimi, a member of the exile government team to the talks. UN special envoy Ismail Ahmad Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who has been[Read More…]
“He [Bill Clinton] wanted people to know the real Hillary.” John Podesta, Jul 28, 2016 Moving beyond idea, beyond type, beyond cardboard cuts, was always going to be a central feature of the Democratic National Convention in 2016. With a US presidential election set to run between two largely unpopular characters, Hillary Clinton needed to show that she was a[Read More…]
The DNC emails released by WikiLeaks showed that the Democratic National Committee has been implementing a coordinated force to undermine Bernie Sanders’ campaign and also the media’s collusion with the DNC. It is now clear that the democratic presidential primary was rigged from the start. Just before the Democratic National convention kicked off, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced[Read More…]
As expected, authorities on Wednesday imposed strict curfew in South Kashmir districts and in parts of Srinagar city to thwart a march to Kulgam called by the separatist leadership. Earlier on Monday also, this is what was done to thwart a march to Anantnag, and this is what they did on Friday to stop people from converging at the Srinagar’s[Read More…]
31 years ago people living along the vicinity of River Narmada rose up against a government decision to convert the pristine river into a series of dams and reservoirs which would submerge their lands. In these 31 years much is gained and a lot lost but nothing is forgotten. Narmada Bachao Andolan till this date remains the largest people’s mobilization around environment that this country has ever seen
Backward or forward
Life is still
But minds are terrorized
Hearts moan
And home is a war zone
The U.S.-led coalition has been accused of killing as many as 28 civilians, including a woman and seven children, near the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Thursday—the same area where U.S.-led airstrikes last week may have killed scores of civilians. “The Manbij area,” as the Associated Press describes, “has seen extensive battles between IS [Islamic State or ISIS] extremists[Read More…]
“Donald Trump is bad for America, but he is good for CBS” Leslie Roy Moonves, President of CBS Physicians have a sacred duty to their patients, whose lives are in their hands. The practice of medicine is not a business like any other business. There are questions of trust and duty involved. The physician’s goal must not be to make[Read More…]
What changes in state power must occur for commoning to flourish as a legal form of self-provisioning and governance? What does the success of the commons imply for the future of the state as a form of governance? My colleagues and I at the Commons Strategies Group puzzled over such questions last year and decided we needed to convene some[Read More…]
My Dear Indians. Let me express my mann ki baat. Let me express how my heart beats for India. Let me express the dream and vision I have for India. Whether I am asleep or awake, what drives me is how to make India into a Saffron India and a Corporate India. Let me convey how deeply I am committed[Read More…]
The Australian ABC TV Four Corners program has revealed shocking CCTV images of mostly Aboriginal children being horrendously abused, assaulted and tortured by prison guards in a juvenile detention centre in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT). Australia has been shocked. The Coalition Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull set up a Royal Commission to investigate the matter but this (a) involves the complicit[Read More…]
Possibly I have spent too many years ‘abroad’, outside of North America and Europe. Perhaps I don’t feel ‘white’, or ‘Western’ anymore. Or who knows, maybe I never really felt too ‘Western’ anyway, thanks to my Russian and Chinese blood. That could help to explain why, when I listened to the acceptance speech delivered by Donald Trump at the Republican[Read More…]
Jablah, North Syria: “Don’t cry for us Syria” has recently become a motto/logo of sorts for many physically and psychologically brutalized youth around this ancient land. They are the youngsters who represent a new generation of Syrians, many of whom were born in this century. It is into their patriotic hands that the Syria’s Torch has been passed. Amid all[Read More…]
Here is a brief update on the activities of the US Peace Council delegation in Syria. I could spend many words and hours debunking every lie you have been told about Syria and Syrians in the last 5 years, a Sisyphean task in today’s environment. Instead I will share some of my perceptions of recent events based on my experiences[Read More…]
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, in August 2011, to April 2013, Islamic State and al-Nusra Front were a single organization that chose the banner of “Jabhat al Nusra.” Although, the current al-Nusra Front is led by Abu Mohammad al Jolani but he was appointed as the Emir of al-Nusra Front by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader[Read More…]
I was on the Floor of the Chicago Amphitheater for all 4 nights of the DNC Convention in 1968. Most of us were against the Vietnam War. In any event, the DNC did not subject us to the Massive Display of Militarism, Bloodshed, Violence and Warfare that we just saw. How low the Dems have sunk into the pit of[Read More…]
In March 2011, the Syrian ‘uprising’ against President Bashar Al-Assad gradually progressed into a full-scale rebellion. By July of the following year – Syria was officially considered in the throes of civil war. July, 2016 – Syria has been in a state of civil war since the last five years. Five long, bloody and barbaric years that altered the course[Read More…]
Narmada Jal, Jangal, Jameen Haq Satyagrah starts on the morning of 30th July, 2016 on the banks of Narmada alongside the Mahatma and Kasturba Gandhi Memorial in Badwani district of MP with thousands of displaced people coming together in a peaceful protest against gross injustice meted out to them in the name of rehabilitation for construction of the Sardar Sarovar[Read More…]
PUDR condemns the incident of flogging, stripping and parading of seven men belonging to the chamar caste by vigilante gaurakshaks on 11 July 2016 in Mota Samadhiyala village, Una taluka, Gir Somnath District Gujarat, which has brought the Brahmanical character of Hindutva cow politics and the caste character of the state to centre stage. It has been widely reported that[Read More…]
Mahasweta Devi is no more. With her passing one great intellectual who wrote for the most unprivileged sections of the Indian society, the tribals leaves the earth. Her writings are socially relevant than any other contemporary writer. In fact the truth is that no one has written so prolifically, as she has done at the global level, for the underprivileged section of[Read More…]
Few sights are sadder in international diplomacy than seeing an aging figure desperate for honours. In a desperate effort to net them, he scurries around, cultivating, prodding, wishing to be noted. Finally, such an honour is netted, in all likelihood just to shut that overly keen individual up. Such a figure is former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has[Read More…]
(Open letter to professor Stephen Hawking.) In your 6 part GENIUS TV presentations, you made it easy to understand that we cannot possibly be alone in the universe, and gave people much to think about. How sad that you had to challenge us, earlier, with these words: “How can the human race sustain another 100 years? A month later you[Read More…]
Erdoganism is a new terminology introduced by the opinion writers against President Tayyib Erdogan who has launched a cleansing operation in the civil and military bureaucracy in the aftermath of July 15 abortive coup blamed on the US-based pro-Israel cleric, Fatehullah Gulen who is described by Pape Escobar as a CIA asset. Tufail Ahmed, Director, of the Washington-based South Asia[Read More…]
US invaded and occupied Haiti 101 years ago today, and remained there for nineteen years. Accomplishments of the occupation include raiding the Haitian National Bank, re-instituting forced labor, establishing the hated National Guard, and getting a 25-year contract for the US corporation, United Fruit. There was a pretext for the invasion – the assassination of Haiti’s president in 1915. But[Read More…]
Over half the population of the European Union (EU) is overweight or obese. Without effective action, this number will grow substantially in the next decade warns an important new report. ‘A Spoonful of Sugar: How the Food Lobby Fights Sugar Regulation in the EU’, by the research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), notes that obesity rates are rising fastest[Read More…]
I read a column recently, and it was imbued with hopeful thinking about America’s political establishment dealing with its constituents concerning the now increasing threat of nuclear catastrophe. The author said the piece was intended as “Drano” to clear the political pipes, but I am afraid that much as I sometimes enjoy the same author’s pieces, this one for me[Read More…]
What Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson have in common is they have failed to respond to this Media Inquiry emailed to their individual Press Offices on July 24, 26 and 27
Despite all of the serious flaws demonstrated by successive United States governments that this author has amply documented elsewhere during the past quarter century as a Professor of Law, the truth of the matter is that America is still the oldest Republic in the world today. “We the People of the United States” must fight to keep it that way! Podesta and the DNC did not!
America’s press cover the Trump campaign with barely concealed hostility toward it, and with an obsessive emphasis upon the candidate’s positions regarding Russia; they’re attacking Trump as being (wittingly or unwittingly) an agent of Russia — and portraying Russia as being America’s enemy. It’s not only Republican newsmedia that are apparently agreeing with the Republican Mitt Romney’s famous statement made[Read More…]
A car is stolen. It’s a car that has been in the family for generations: picnics, road trips, weddings, funerals, accidents. There are pictures, memories, indelible life events. Then there is a series of violent robberies in the neighborhood. The house is ransacked, family members are taken hostage, others killed, children—young daughters–are kidnapped, and in the confusion, mayhem, and distraction,[Read More…]
It is an indisputable fact that morale and ideology plays an important role in the battle; moreover, we also know that the Takfiri brand of most jihadists, these days, has directly been inspired by the puritanical Wahhabi-Salafi ideology of Saudi Arabia, but ideology alone is not sufficient to succeed in the battle. Looking at Islamic State’s spectacular gains in Syria[Read More…]
The Maharashtra government is back to its policy of privatizing open public spaces in Mumbai. Ordinary people are the losers because of this policy declared on July 27. . The upper class is not bothered because it has created its own spaces for recreation when it is not grabbing public space. I got a glimpse recently when I attended a[Read More…]
Year 2000: Irom Sharmila Chanu started her hunger strike in Imphal, Manipur when she was 28 years old. It is started just after ‘Malom Massacre’ where soldiers of Assam Rifles opened fire on persons who were standing on a bus stop and around 10 people were killed in this firing including a 12 year old bravery award winner and a[Read More…]
“Flowers may be losing their diverse and delicious fragrances, thanks to increasing temperatures associated with global climate change, scientists say.”The research was published in the journal Plant, Cell and Environment. The ideal temperature required for cultivation of flowers – 28 degrees and 18 degrees respectively for day and night – is not available anymore, not even during winter.Due to climate change[Read More…]
Like the Dharavi Belt protest the East Indians (natives of Mumbai) also protested at Azad Maidan on 18 July 2016. The East Indians of Mumbai are an ethnic group who fear the development plan will take away their ethnicity and cultural roots . In order to over come this fear they have submitted a signature campaign to the Chief minister[Read More…]
Today was a black day for forest dwellers’ rights. The Rajya Sabha has passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2016. This Bill essentially gives carte blanche to forest officials to spend gigantic amounts of money (over 40,000 crores) without any accountability to the people whose forests, lands and lives will be damaged or destroyed by their activities. The Congress moved[Read More…]
It was when I saw a comment on my FB page from an old friend who asked me if I would like to spare a kind word for ‘them’ – those who lost their lives in Kargil – that I realised how deep was the yawning chasm between my worldview and my interpretations about current affairs , role of the[Read More…]
The dream of a free nation made Muhammad Salman Yusuf sacrifice everything he possessed in life. Living a nomadic life since last 20 years this former JeI teacher has documented almost every painful memory of Kashmir’s troubled history.
My daughter lies on a hospital bed at this moment. Her entire body has deep red marks that have seeped inside her skin like a poisonous wasp’s sting. Doctors are trying their best to heal the wounds. My daughter, she is only four. She looks at the tik-tok of the clock to pass her time. She does not look outside[Read More…]
How many stones should a Vizhinjam Port fill
So that life in the sea will be gone?
How many houses will the project destroy
So that the leaders will look look down with shame?
How many crores will an Adani loot
From taxes of the people of this land?
The answer my friend, is blowing in wind
The answer is blowing in the wind.
Record global heat in the first half of 2016 has caught climate scientists off-guard, reportsThompson Reuters Foundation. “What concerns me most is that we didn’t anticipate these temperature jumps,” David Carlson, director of the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) climate research program, told Thompson Reuters Foundation late Monday. “We predicted moderate warmth for 2016, but nothing like the temperature rises we’ve[Read More…]
Irom Sharmila’s decision to end her fast is a welcome step. This would be the end her 16 year long non-violent resistance against a violent state. She had started her fast following the shooting of 10 Manipuris at a Bus stand in 2000. One cannot get a better image of resistance, opposition and struggle than the one displayed by Irom[Read More…]
The Olympics remains a black hole of needless expenditure, sucking services into it with impending and merciless doom. Unused stadia, tracks left to moulder, services supposedly linked to urban renewal turned into dilapidated wonders. That is the Olympic legacy in its lingering aftermath. Another feature of the Olympics is the tendency to turn a city into a super security haven,[Read More…]
New Cold War is now in full swing and the West is using both old and new tactics, in order to demonize and discredit all of its opponents: from Russia to China, Venezuela, North Korea, South Africa and Iran. Our anti-imperialist media outlets, including those of the RT, TeleSUR, Press TV, CCTV and Sputnik are being labeled as ‘propaganda’[Read More…]
So, I recently told you all about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s positive assessment of Mussolini and how FDR was the architect of U.S. prison camps. There’s much more but even with such stellar authoritarian credentials, there’s also strong evidence that home-grown fascists may have openly explored the option of anti-FDR coup in 1934. That year, the DuPonts and the Morgans tried[Read More…]
The signs are now clear and unmistakable: On July 25th, CNN headlined “Mike Pence to skip Koch brothers event” and reported that, “GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence will not attend the summer donor summit organized by Charles and David Koch, now unable to commit to an event after he was added to the ticket with Donald Trump. Pence, a Koch favorite, had originally[Read More…]
For last three weeks the entire valley has been converted into a prison and a virtual concentration camp. There is continuous curfew in the entire valley without any relaxation or break. All communication links within Kashmir and with the outside world have been snapped. Nonstop protests are taking place all over the valley. Protesting teenagers, children and women are being showered with bullets and pellets. Over 50 people have been killed and more than 3,000 injured. As per latest reports, the pellets have affected the eyesight of over 185 persons. The newspaper presses and offices were sealed and papers confiscated
According to the Gujarat CID, a lion killed Najabhai Ahir’s cow in Bediya village. Najabhai informed Balu Sarvaiya of Mota village on the morning of July 11, 2016 to come and dispose the dead cow. Whereupon, the sons of Balu Sarvaiya, a SC by caste who traditionally skin and dispose off dead cows, brought the dead cow to their village[Read More…]
July 28, 1976 was the day when veteran communist revolutionary leader Com TN, as he was called, died of a sudden illness when he was not even 60. It was the period of Internal Emergency proclaimed (on 1975 June 26) by Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s regime, a watershed in India’s political history. He along with his comrade-associate DV Rao ( the[Read More…]
The privileged are hypocritical in large ways and small. Working one’s way out of that hypocrisy is no mean-feat but it’s vital if we are to have a decent society to call our own. While I’m struck by the disregard the privileged have for the less-lucky, even more shocking perhaps is that they lambast others for reasons that more resemble[Read More…]
The World Meteorological Organization(WMO), a specialized UN agency has decided to constitute a committee to know whether Kuwait’s Mitrabah had experienced the hottest day with the temperature 54.0°C; the temperature is the highest for the eastern hemisphere. The WMD is itself worried and to know whether the data was accurate, a high level scientific committee with Kuwait and WMO official[Read More…]
Wonderful, the news were flashes while stating that you are cleared for the release! But the questions arise over and over. 14 years or otherwise 5110 days of your life was behind the bars with no charge in the Guantanamo prison, one of the most deplorable and ruinous places in present days. Then, they have “cleared” you. Do we need[Read More…]
“What we’re changing is a culture in an organisation within the youth detention system and I think we’ve come a long way in that time.” Adam Giles, NT Chief Minister, ABC News, Jul 26, 2016 It was an image that would not have been out of place in the sickly procession of pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib and[Read More…]
(Based on interviews with Palestinian refugees from Syria.) The refugee camp of Yarmouk was ever present in his being, pulling him in and out of an abyss of persistent fears that urged him to never return. But what was this refugee without Yarmouk, his first haven, his last earth? How could any other spot in this unwelcoming universe ever be[Read More…]
Justifying the War on Terror, George Bush huffed, “We’re fighting them there, so we don’t have to fight them here.” Broke, gullible or crazed Americans must be sent overseas to combat Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, the Taliban and ISIS. Otherwise, endless terror would devastate the homeland. Periodically, terror plots must be orchestrated by the FBI to keep domestic fear from[Read More…]
It has been a long time since my family has had reason to celebrate. For nine years my wife Faten and I have been intermittently separated from our school-age children as we traveled back and forth between our home in Gaza and Cairo as Faten needed brain surgery and radiotherapy treatment unavailable here. Palestinians in Gaza are not able to[Read More…]
Inspired by the Hollywood thriller movie plot ‘The Rock’ the intelligence agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom fabricated evidence leading to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 which resulted in the sufferings of millions of people in the Middle East and deaths of many hundred soldiers of the United States, the United kingdom and of several other[Read More…]
Two of the drivers of world affairs that manifest in the daily decisions that affect our lives are ideology and religion. Ideology is the term widely used to describe the underlying set of values, myths, ideas, attitudes, beliefs and doctrine that shape the behavioral approach to political, economic, social, cultural and/or ecological activities of an individual or organization. This organization[Read More…]
I’m hoping these comments will bring some analysis to 5 seemingly innocuous but misguided words: “Not all cops are bad” and “good cops versus bad cops”. If you’re in the company of someone who says this or posts this on social media, and if you have seen and heard this as much as I have lately, then perhaps it’s time[Read More…]
On the first day of the Republican National Convention, while Republican delegates were arguing about voting rules, and the anti-Trump delegates were being put in their place, I was touring the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the California desert. An historic marker at the entrance to Manzanar reads, “May the injustices and humiliation suffered here as a result of hysteria,[Read More…]
It was a classic instance of bolting the barn door after the horse had made its getaway… But wait, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s begin at the beginning. Without any sliver of doubt it can be unequivocally declared that almost the entire fault for the enhanced mayhem—with its concomitant loss of precious lives—in Bangladesh should justifiably be[Read More…]
It was a solidarity protest against atrocities on Dalits in Gujarat and other parts of the country. Numerous organisations came. Jantar Mantar, during the session of Parliament, was crowded as usual with diverse group. On the left hand side of our protest was the MRPS, the biggest organisation representing Madiga community in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Madigas are one of[Read More…]
Press Release by Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign New Delhi, 27 July 2016: Save sharmila Solidarity Campaign welcomes decision of Irom Sharmila to break her fast in coming days. SSSC believes that it is a befitting reply to Government’s ignorance of her sixteen years of fast where an extra ordinary example of non violent appeal was made with the govt with[Read More…]
(CNS): At the 2015 United Nations General Assembly, governments committed to achieve SDGs by 2030, one of which is to end AIDS and TB by 2030. If people living with HIV continue to die of TB, we will not only fail to achieve SDGs but also lose gains made in the fights against HIV and TB. Keeping in mind the[Read More…]
The Kashmir death toll has been increasing day by day and stands at 49 on 25th July. More than 5000 people have been injured in the protest that has gone on continuously for many days without let up. Curfew continues in Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts while restrictions will continue in parts of Srinagar, Kupwara, Sopore and Baramulla. The[Read More…]
Irom Sharmila, the iron lady of Manipur, who was on hunger strike for the past 16 years has decided to end her fast and contest election. The 44-year-old told a district court in Manipur today that she will end her fast on August 9. She also told the court that she wants to marry. Sharmila is expected to contest the[Read More…]
When American firms dominate a global market worth more than $70 billion a year, you’d expect to hear about it. Not so with the global arms trade. It’s good for one or two stories a year in the mainstream media, usually when the annual statistics on the state of the business come out. It’s not that no one writes about[Read More…]
About two thousand years ago, the Romans had developed the most effective military apparatus seen before in history and, with it, they had created a vast empire. However, with the first century before our era, they found that they had a problem: their stupendous military power was going out of control. One of the warlords of that time, Julius Caesar,[Read More…]
For USA the major foreign policy challenge after the problem of terrorism is South China Sea where China has become quite assertive with open show of the intimidation to the neighbourng states and the world community at large particularly after The Hague Tribunal decision. USA has been placed in a very precarious and diplomatically sensitive position if it confronts the[Read More…]
Investigative book ‘Who killed Swami Laxmanananda?’ authored by senior journalist Anto Akkara, came in for wide acclaim at its release in Bangalore on July 23 with eminent jurist and former Advocate-General of Karnataka Ravivarma Kumar describing it as a ‘wake up call for the nation’. “The content of the book has grave implications for Indian democracy,’ remarked Kumar while releasing[Read More…]
Two aspects of Hillary Clinton’s response to the Bernie Sanders campaign have been notable in 2016. One has involved her attempts to “adjust” to his views to make tactical gains. (Mixed mutterings of scepticism, for instance, about the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership.) Of more interest is the undermining effort made by the Clinton camp, which has certainly veered well beyond Queensberry[Read More…]
Does it make a difference if our models of energy and the economy are overly simple? I would argue that it depends on what we plan to use the models for. If all we want to do is determine approximately how many years in the future energy supplies will turn down, then a simple model is perfectly sufficient. But if[Read More…]
Co-Written by Mateo Pimentel and Edward Martin “Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men?” – Shakespeare, The Life and Death of Julius Caesar “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” – Luke 23:31 The folks supporting[Read More…]
I felt impelled to write this letter after reading your open letter to slain Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani and your subsequent Facebook post on the same topic. I have also seen the Buck Stops Here show in which you appeared on the panel along with General Malik, Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari, Supreme Court lawyer Shabnam Lone and others. I will[Read More…]
On 24th July 2016, the Dharavi Beth (island) comprising villages of Gorai, Manori, Uttan, Pali, Chowk, Dongri, and Tarodi on the outskirts of Mumbai came to a halt. Over ten thousand fisherfolk, farmers, the Catholic clergy i.e. priests and nuns, hotel owners, ferry and rickshaw drivers, shopkeepers just about everyone had gathered at a public meeting and rasta roko to[Read More…]
Cryptography can become our non-violent democratic weapon. It can be used as a shield for our collective dissent against institutional hierarchies. Elections have become a distraction to pull the wool over our eyes. Now networks of ordinary people, empowered by a deep obligation to one another, can fight against this two-horned beast that would have us all descend into a dystopia. Only a democracy freely claimed by all people can defeat the rise of demagoguery.
(Rome) The world has lost its anchors. The concept of permanence no longer exists anywhere. What were once perceived as anchors of security have transformed into uncertainty and darkness, to fear and terror,. Everything people thought of as integral is today disjointed, and once significant words themselves empty and meaningless. Everything has changed. Love has lost its power to dominate[Read More…]
Four men assaulted a young Muslim writer in Kerala on Sunday night for allegedly insulting God in the title of his new collection of short stories. P Jimshar, 26, whose collection of short stories — “Padachonte Chithra pradarshanam” (The Painting Exhibition by the Creator) — is slated for release on August 5. In Malayalam, the word Padachon means (Creator), a[Read More…]
Thousands and thousands of Dalits have come out on streets in different parts of the state, gheraoed government offices, damaged government property, enforced state-widebandh and tried to bring the government to its knees, demanding severe punishment to the guilty and strict action against the police and government officials who failed to act upon their complaint when they were being publicly brutalised.
Dear Gau Rakshaks, I am happy to see your anxiety in connection with the protection of the members of my species. I have heard that you stripped, flogged, and paraded some poor men for skinning a dead cow. You flogged them tethering their hands together and fastening them to the backside of a posh vehicle! If you are[Read More…]
Arresting of an intelligence officer attached to Sri Lanka Army over the murder of late Lasantha Wickramatunge has sparked questions about the underworld of the state, and questioned the very ruling elements of the government. The investigation of this blatantly committed daylight murder has turned into yet another all-consuming matter in the political arena. Flies are around, bugs are moving,[Read More…]
China is fuming. It hasobviously had enough, it is reaching the limit. For decades it tried to appease the West, to play by international laws, to be a good and responsible member of the international community. And for decades it never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, it sponsored no coups and attacked no foreign lands. Even its[Read More…]
The response of Malaysian government authorities to the civil suits filed by the US Department of Justice to seize more than US$ 1 billion (RM 4.02 billion) in assets allegedly linked to 1MDB has been a huge disappointment. Faced with suits that allege massive embezzlement of funds and one of the worst money laundering scams in history, Cabinet Ministers and[Read More…]
The current regime with much more hostile policies in comparison with the previous Pahlavi system, has continued to carry out the ethnic cleansing policies through altering the demographic makeup of Ahwaz in south west of the country. In this era, the policy of changing the population structure of Ahwazi areas in numerous forms has been widely implemented. Among the[Read More…]
The predicament of Imran Khan’s fanboys has been somewhat like the pubescent girl who falls head over heels in love with a promiscuous playboy; and when her friends try to knock some sense into her by telling her that your sweetheart is cheating on you, instead of opening her eyes up, she thinks that her friends are jealous of her[Read More…]
The idea of excluding a country wholesale brings with it dangers that decision makers may well not see. It eliminates specific, untainted talents who also deserve to be protected in international sport. It also violates that great presumption of innocence by pre-emptively judging the conduct of all athletes.
Senior HIV activists who have not only helped shape HIV responses on the ground over the years, but also have been living with the virus for several years, shared their personal battle against self-stigma at a press conference session hosted by The Work For Change (www.theworkforchange.org) and partners at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) held in Durban, South[Read More…]
The Sharif rejected British imperialism’s bribes, threats and its colonial Zionist project in Palestine. By the mid-1920s Ibn Saud and the Wahhabis had invaded and occupied Hijaz. The Sharif of Mecca was deposed, exiled and thereafter the British and Saudis have been living happily ever after in war, occupation and venality.
“Some fell to the ground and their stomachs already expanded full, burst and organs fell out. Others had skin falling off them and others still were carrying limbs. And one in particular was carrying their eyeballs in their hand.” The above is an account by a Hiroshima survivor talking about the fate of her schoolmates. It was recently read out in[Read More…]
Often, the best works about public affairs don’t even get published at all — and the few that do get published, get iced by the ‘news’ media (regardless of their quality), and thus flop. And that’s the reality. In a dictatorship. Getting to the truth, and getting it published, can be dangerous to one’s career, if one’s country is a dictatorship, such as in the U.S.
For many political pundits, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reflects only the Hindutva sentiment with plentiful arrogances, but the enthusiastic party has cleverly formed a northeastern political alliance comprising various regional and ethnic political parties to dilute the said impression. The saffron party, which thrashed the ruling Congress in 2014 Lok Sabha elections under the banner of National Democratic[Read More…]
The Social Consciousness of Law Makers and Politicians at large when it comes to Rights of Children is missing, leading to the rise in violations against children. The recent passing of the bill in the Rajya Sabha with less than 25% of its member being present and conspicuous silence and ignorance of the middle class only reflects the larger design to maintain the status quo. It suits the industry, it suits the economy and finally the family both employing and those sending. With State becoming part of the larger controversy – voiceless children with no political or economic say are left helpless. Lets acknowledge that State in its role of Parens Patriae has failed miserably to provide a robust legal and institutional mechanism, when it comes to Children.
Zionism is primarily a Christian Protestant enterprise that has little to do with Judaism. This explains why US Christians are the most ardent Zionists and the most powerful supporters of Israel. The largest opposition to Zionism came initially from the rabbinical elite, which viewed it as heretical and an aberration of the Jewish faith. Zionism represents a break with Jewish[Read More…]
The United Nations Human Rights Council, along with the global community and many in Lebanon, has become increasingly concerned about the massive violations of Palestinian civil rights. As noted in Part I of this discussion, Palestinians in Lebanon suffer from more than two dozen targeted violations including ambiguous legal status, absence of protection; the outlawing of their right to work[Read More…]
Let us begin with theettam. Or if you prefer, with Leelamma’s kitchen, where thee (fire) burns. Between the wood-burning stove and the community pit-loo, an ecological picaresque unfolds. Perhaps this is why, in Malayalam, theettam (excretum) and thee’tta (food) are near-homonyms.Newcomers to the language, whose ears (and tongues) cannot distinguish between ‘tt and tt (slight upward flick of[Read More…]
We are better people, individually and collectively, when we reject hubris and embrace humility, and we stand a better chance of making real progress — defined by Rowe as “whatever is conducive to sustainable participation in Earth’s ecosystems” — when we better understand the world and our place in it
New alternative and complementary currencies are a growing worldwide trend, and many states in the US have created their own local curriencies. Our local alternative currency, the Hudson Valley Current, has members in several counties straddling the Hudson River, just above New York City. It began with just a few of us; each coming to the idea from very different places
Airstrikes by the American-led war coalition killed as many as 212 civilians in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday, according to estimates published Thursday by Al Jazeera. The original civilian death toll produced by the strikes was reported to be 56. The strikes, which were allegedly carried out with significant support from the French military, “pulverized entire families, including[Read More…]
Donald Trump formally accepted the nomination as the Republican Party candidate in the 2016 presidential elections Thursday night with a fascistic rant delivered before cheering delegates at the convention hall in Cleveland, Ohio. In contrast to most of his speeches, Trump’s remarks on Thursday closely followed a prepared script, eschewing his characteristic stream-of-consciousness rambling. However, this change in form did[Read More…]
What can decent people do? Decent people must (a) inform everyone they can, (b) urge and apply zero tolerance for racism and lying, and (c) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, politicians, parties, companies and corporations that are actively or passively complicit in racism and lying. Decent, anti-racist Australians will vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last.
Preface: This is not an article. This is a desperate plea to evolve. During the many, many talks and lectures I gave between 2008 and 2013, I’d often provide a healthy (read: jolting) dose of reality (read: gloom and doom) that would typically bring the proceedings to a palpable pause. That would be my cue to ask: So, who’s ready[Read More…]
(Based on an exclusive interview given by Nqobile Zungu, and her doctor Dr Samele Madela to CNS – Citizen News Service) I met 37 years old Nqobile Zungu, at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) that is being held in Durban. And yes, her looks were deceptive in the sense that one could never guess that her outwardly healthy[Read More…]
“Nuclear weapons and nuclear power are both leading instances of the irrationalities that result from a social world that has been constructed to concentrate power in the hands of tiny minorities, and to make it possible for them to maintain and defend their power.” Andrew Lichterman, 2012 “. . . because a few, by fate’s economy, shall seem to move[Read More…]
It has now become a pattern for RSS to disown its own actions which emanate from its divisive Hindutva mindset. The RSS plays the game of association and disassociation. It associates with masses and its own saffron network and spreads hatred through multiple ways till an event occurs. It continues to promote a divisive mindset till then. However, as protests[Read More…]
A letter send to Shri Hamid Ansari Chairman of Rajyasabha by concerned citizens on the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) Bill that is being considered by the house
The Connecting the Dots series has convincingly shown a number of interconnected reasons why the global system is in crisis, and why there is no way out without a structural transformation of the dominant neoliberal system. In our contribution, we want to stress the key importance of what we call a “value regime,” or simply put, the rules that determine[Read More…]
It was yet another period of dark days in the history of Jamaica, where gobbled and devoured political parties along with other interest groups were instigating and fueling brutal civil war. The people in the country had no escape but to pray for their last moments of life to be lived in peace. Both political parties were using gangsters to[Read More…]
Every workday, for eight hours a day, often for many years on end, a worker gets up and has breakfast, then goes in to the office, picks up a blade, and starts slitting the throats of live dogs. That day, he or she will personally slit the throats of about 600 or more dogs per hour, every hour, all day,[Read More…]
Speech given by V.S Achuthanandan, former Chief Minister of Kerala, inaugurating K.P Sasi’s documentary “Voices From The Ruins, Kandhamal In Search Of Justice” in Trivandrum, Kerala on 19th July, 2016 K.P Sasi’s documentary “Voices From The Ruins, Kandhamal In Search Of Justice” raises some burning questions about the social reality of the present times. This documentary brings to us the[Read More…]
Never doubt the ballistic factor of Laura Ingraham. Ingraham is never into facts, which tend to be the unwanted gate crashers of her party. What matters in that particular world view is sentiment, often tinged by viciousness. In so far as it matters, she is the great weapon that someone like Trump needs: intangible, but feeling; vicious but at heart[Read More…]
The recent Chennai High court judgment concerning the writer Perumal Murugan is a requisite addition to the Indian jurisprudence as it underlines the relationship between the writer and society, which has lately suffered from grave confusion. Permual Murugan was hauled up in the court of law for describing a cultural practice of Tamil Nadu through a novel Madhurobhagan, published in[Read More…]
On July 20th, a Republican U.S. Senator lost his main financial backers for having urged Republicans to vote for Donald Trump instead of for Hillary Clinton. The Koch brothers speak with their words, which can’t be trusted, but they also speak with their money, their investments, which are always honest expressions of their actual beliefs and desires. This time, the Kochs spoke[Read More…]
Events in Turkey just become stranger with each passing day. We now have Middle Eastern and Persian sources, cited by Russian and German papers, that Russia’s security agencies overheard helicopter radio transmissions by the coup participants, and President Putin warned Erdogan about what was happening, likely saving his skin. If true, this would help explain the apparent ineptness of the[Read More…]
Neither it was world earth day, nor there were any nimbo stratus or cumulo nimbus clouds, but still the Kashmir valley witnessed a dark evening on Wednesday, 20th July. The lights suddenly went off, in view of the blackout call given by the pro freedom camp. As the time passed the night appeared to be dressed more like a nightmare[Read More…]
Republican, Newt Gingrich, long known for his fascistic views, recently declared that “Western Civilization is in a war”. Truth be told, he is on solid ground. Indeed, Western Civilization is in a war, a war that has been raging since its inception. It has been at war with itself and with the entire non-European world for centuries. Long before anyone[Read More…]
An example of coral bleaching. (Photo: SarahDepper/flickr/cc) Climate change is the primary cause of coral reef degradation around the world, according to a groundbreaking new study that casts doubt on the previous scientific understanding of reef erosion. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, finds that even isolated coral reefs, far away from localized human degradation like[Read More…]
Our predicament, as we have just begun to slide down the fossil fuels thermodynamic cliff, similarly requires such a nexus if we are to succeed at a new “energy pool shift”. Just focusing on thermodynamics and technology won’t suffice. The kind of paradigm change I keep referring to integrates technology, social innovations and innovation concerning the human psyche about ways of avoiding cognitive failure. This is a lot to ask, however it is necessary to address Tainter’s questions
When a small group of people defy the authority of a state, it is called rebellion but if the entire population stands up, it is a revolution! For last two weeks the entire valley has been converted into a prison and a virtual concentration camp. There is continuous curfew in the entire valley without any relaxation or break. Clashes with[Read More…]
“The bulldozers were running over our homes even without any prior notice. We all ran to save our belongings, only to find most of them destroyed,” says Geetha, a former iron carver who is now working as a maid in homes nearby. She belongs to Gadia Lohar community, which seeks its origins from Rajasthan and finds its existence in History[Read More…]
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? ― Albert Camus Here is the disastrous and forlorn situation that many are facing in the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka. Seven years have been passed but the wounds of the bloody conflict keep putrefying society due to absence of healing. In his recent[Read More…]
Kandhamal is not a new subject to me. Countercurrents.org had published an article on 2nd November 2003 by Angana Chatterjee “Orissa: A Gujarat In The making”. It was five years before the worst communal violence against Christians in modern India happened in Kandhamal in 2008 in which 93 people were killed, over 350 churches and worship places which belonged to[Read More…]
“There is a rich thesaurus of things I have said that have, one way or the other, I don’t know, that has been misconstrued.” Boris Johnson, Jul 19, 2016 It might have been seen as a form of expressive penal servitude. The UK Foreign Secretary’s position is usually one of the more prestigious ones. Even with Britain being a faded power,[Read More…]
On Wednesday, July 20, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey in order to hunt down all those deemed to be behind an attempted coup. The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organization involved in the coup attempt,” he told a press conference. Turkey has[Read More…]
I visited Iraq in 1999. At the time, there were no so-called ‘jihadis’ espousing the principles of ‘jihadism’, whatever the interpretation may be. On the outskirts of Baghdad was a military training camp, not for ‘al-Qaeda’, but for ‘Mojahedin-e-Khalq’, an Iranian militant exile group that worked, with foreign funding and arms, to overthrow the Iranian Republic. At the[Read More…]
Narmada | 20th July, 2016: The agitation by the Sardar Sarovar Project oustees in Gujarat has entered the 6th day. Hundreds of adivasis from various resettlement sites as well as farmers and other oustees from Nimar of Madhya Pradesh who have shifted to Gujarat are sitting before the Resettlement Office in Keodia Colony. Not less than 50 women from affected[Read More…]
The choreography of violence is being staged yet again in Kashmir. This time the spark lighting the accumulated tinder has been the killing of a popular militant leader. And the elected leaders cowering inside their guarded residences bear silent testimony to the cogency of the state’s democracy. Crowd control is not the usual remit of the military. Yet long periods[Read More…]
A friend in Frankfurt emailed me on July 19th: It is sheer madness what is happening here… The noose is tightening and yet—it is still only the beginning… What took place in some dull regional express close to Würzburg, a town in Franconia in the middle of Germany, was—in some respect—like a watershed event—just like the mass sexual assaults in[Read More…]
Several days have gone by since the BJP President Amit Shah blew up a political bombshell on Kashmir. While speaking at a function in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in New Delhi, Shah accused Jawaharlal Nehru of having committed a ‘historic blunder’ on Kashmir. Referring to the declaration of ‘ceasefire’ when the Pakistan-backed tribal raiders in 1948[Read More…]
It was good to see Ms Mayawati in her strong way taking on the Sangh Parivar. She need to return to her old self. There is no need to read from written text in Parliament. It is time for her to now go back to cader and ask them to go for full blow. BJP’s attempted over enthusiasm to defame[Read More…]
On Friday July15th, as the national newsmedia were either on vacation or preparing for the opening of the Trump National Convention on Monday the 18th, the long-awaited release of the ‘missing 28 pages’ from the U.S. Senate’s 9/11 report (“DECEMBER 2002: JOINT INQUIRY INTO INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES BEFORE AND AFTER THE TERRORIST ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001”) occurred. The official[Read More…]
Gujarat is simmering again. Dalits are agitating over criminals indulging in criminality. These criminals, who are fondly referred to as “cow vigilantes” by the mainstream media, have recently stripped and flogged four Dalit youth in Una. The resultant protests have claimed two lives: a policeman has reportedly been killed in stone pelting in Amreli and a youth consumed poison in[Read More…]
An old man with a red eye standing next to me said, ‘Kashmir was one country. Half was taken by India, the other half by Pakistan. Both by force. We want freedom.’—Arundhati Roy I am a Keralite and I have never been to Kashmir. But the fate of the Kashmir valley which has once been described by Jahangir as: ‘If[Read More…]
Imagine Moscow being taken over by someinternational corporate cartel.By a monster which has its own factories and office buildings, security services, private prisons, re-education (‘training’) centers, and its obedient mass media outlets. Imagine that it also has detailed databases on almost everyone who really matters in the capital. Imagine that human lives suddenly don’t matter. People are only expected to[Read More…]
Nazareth: The grubby underside of US electoral politics is on show once again as the Democratic and Republican candidates prepare to fight it out for the presidency. And it doesn’t get seamier than the battle to prove how loyal each candidate is to Israel. New depths are likely to be plumbed this week at the Republican convention in Cleveland, as[Read More…]
SOG personnel who participated in the killing on five civilians near Gumudumaha village on July 8 be booked under provisions of the IPC including murder as well as relevant sections of the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminally prosecuted
Gujarat is witnessing widespread protests following the incident at Una where seven Dalit youths were beaten up for skinning a dead cow on July 11. 16 members of the Dalit community, including local Congress leader Anil Madhad, attempted suicide in Saurashtra on Monday and Tuesday as a form of protest. Several suicide attempts were reported on Tuesday from Junagadh, Gondal,[Read More…]
As the party of climate science denial convenes in Cleveland this week—minus the few Republicans who care about global warming—new data further confirms that the world is on fire. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) announced Tuesday that June 2016 was 1.62° F above the 20th century average, breaking last year’s record for the warmest June on record by[Read More…]
India with third largest population of Muslims in the world would have been a good recruitment place for Islam-o-fascists. But Indian Muslims have never been part of any such project in the past and there is no likelihood of their falling prey to such a nefarious project. It is heartening to know that out of almost 17 crores of Muslims, according to Indian intelligence agencies, less than fifty persons have joined Islam-o-fascist ranks
The Brexit crisis was being used as an excuse to fascistify things, regardless what other outcome it might have. Even an essentially progressive vote of the public, to free their nation from the dictatorship in Brussels (the EU), was thus turned into an excuse for the nation to veer far to the right.
The Kashmir issue has crossed decades of violence and unrest. It has, unfortunately, become one of the Asia’s longest and bloodiest conflicts today. Since 1947, when India and Pakistan divided their borders on the basis of “two nation” theory, the final “political settlement” of Kashmir remained an “unsolved” political problem. Although, the problem was brought under UN consideration and more[Read More…]
Co-Written By Dr. P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal The Kashmiris were promised a plebiscite after India’s independence but it has never come about. There is a U.N. resolution to this effect but it has been given a silent burial. All assurances given to the people of Kashmir by the Government of India and the ruling class parties in India have[Read More…]
In a rule of law jurisdiction, the story of a victim of gang rape being raped by the same accused against whom court proceedings continue, might be outlandish. But, in India today, these are the common stories that confront anyone willing to see reality: A Dalit gang rape survivor has allegedly been gang raped again by the same five accused[Read More…]
A few weeks after the dawn of the third anniversary of the Gezi resistance (uprising), the popular non-violence movement spreads countrywide in 2013, and the people of Turkey have had an experience the “military coup”. Hundreds were dead, thousands were arrested and put behind bars. The leaders around the world rushed to condemn those conspirators behind the coup while enhancing[Read More…]
Politics in many ways has become a bully boy gimmick. One has to read beyond headlines and think of deeper processes and consequences. One such event was the recent cabinet reshuffle by the Modi led NDA government. What fascinates me in these events is the amount of strategies that are tactfully played out to portray a sense of sustainability within[Read More…]
The GMO agritech sector and food companies have spent tens of millions of dollars in the US to prevent the labelling of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The public have genuine concerns about GM but are being denied the right to know if GMOs are in the food they eat. And the concerns they have are valid. There is sufficient evidence[Read More…]
The term “mandate” has been sluicing through the Australian electoral system in its predictable wash-up. In that particular country, it never matters whether one wins by one vote or a hundred thousand: everyone has a “clear mandate” to do what they damn well wish they think they were encouraged to do. It is worth remembering that the Australian prime minister,[Read More…]
In July 2016 a substantially ignorant, greedy, racist, pro-Zionist, US lackey, extreme right-wing and neoliberal Murdochracy Australia re-elected (albeit by a wafer-thin margin) a mendacious, corrupt, anti-equity, anti-science, anti-environment, pro-war, war criminal, pro-coal, climate criminal, human rights-abusing, pro-Apartheid and child-abusing Coalition Government. Those supporting the Coalition are on a continuum from egregious ignorance and stupidity to homicidal greed. Responsibility[Read More…]
Hon’ble Supreme Court (Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Judge Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla) has accepted major recommendations of R M Lodha Panel’s report on BCCI, thus lays the major edifice of reformation and cleaning up of the richest cricket board BCCI. The truth is that in the modern Indian history no institution has functioned uncontrolled, above the basic democratic[Read More…]
He was the kingpin of the whole affair by suggesting it. In December 2015, the US Republican presumptive nominee for President, Donald Trump, came up with that daft suggestion which seems so utterly devoid of informed meaning. Ban Muslims from entering the United States and the phenomenon of terrorism would somehow be abated. His prepared statement was characteristically dramatic in[Read More…]
Janhastakshep demands immediate end to the repression in Kashmir; strict punishment for the perpetrators of this violence against the people; and immediate resumption of unconditional dialogue with the non-official, but the real leaders of the Kashmiri people in order to find a lasting solution of the problem that takes into account the democratic aspirations of the people of Kashmir
A practical solution for re-invigorating a moribund Democratic Party and renewing faith in a broken political system is to have Hillary Clinton release her delegates and open the convention floor
Clearly it is the easy availability of guns that is the cause of the firearms-related tragedies we have been observing throughout the United States__ the horrific mass murder of a whole cohort of the very young children in Newtown, Connecticut and the recentkilling of Dallas and Baton Rouge police officers while performing their lawful duties, though surpassing all previous tragedies, are only the continuation of the same pattern of violence.
Shahid,
i sent you a postcard
neat 6×4 inch
slab avalanche of grief
disfigured black flag
punched with pellets
the night sky’s
braille ligatures
Security states, heavily policed and run by surveillance gurus and juju men of the intelligence community, have more failings than meritorious attributes. If liberty is to succeed, then holes, sometimes gaping, will have to be permitted. Freedoms can be costly. Even any crude assessment of France’s state of emergency since November last year would suggest that such political states are[Read More…]
Think of it as the Trojan Drone, the ultimate techno-weapon of American warfare in these years, a single remotely operated plane sent to take out a single key figure. It’s a shiny video game for grown ups — a Mortal Kombator Call of Duty where the animated enemies bleed real blood. Just like the giant wooden horse the Greeks convinced the Trojans to[Read More…]
The news of the killing of Burhan Wani, commander of militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, had an electrifying effect on the entire Kashmir. Within no time, streets were transformed into battle fields between angry protestors and state forces. Mosque loudspeakers were blaring out Pro-Burhan slogans and songs. Social Media users made his images as their profile and display pictures. In his early[Read More…]
The on-going protests in Kashmir following the killing of Burhan Wani were met by police firing resulting in over 40 deaths and over 2,000 injured including hundreds of blindings due to pellet-shot. This is of serious concern to every thinking Indian, whichever side of the argument he/she happens to be on, because large-scale social unrest in any part of[Read More…]
It was second day of the Hizbul-Mujahideen commander Burhan WaniKilling and I have to return to my work. So to ensure that I catch the flight I reached Srinagar airport 8 hours before the scheduled departure of my flight.While waiting with a person who happened to work for JK police we noticed a group of tourists which included Yatries ([Read More…]
The unsuccessful coup in Turkey is a matter of great relief to the Turkish people and world at large. The coup has been widely condemned even the HDP party and the government of Iran have condemned the coup attempt. Why did the coup take place? There are domestic and regional factors behind it. President Erdogan in the recent time has[Read More…]
For the mainstream Indian mindset on Kashmir, the land called Kashmir is an Indian property which should be protected and remain with India at any cost. The use of military is to protect this property. For them it is assumed this property might be grabbed away by the indigenous Kashmiris who are inspired by a neighboring country. It is never[Read More…]
The just-released 28 pages of a 2002 congressional report into Saudi Arabia’s possible ties to the 9/11 hijackers have stirred speculation about the U.S. government’s continued relationship with the Gulf kingdom. Amnesty International criticized the White House’s statement that the pages, hidden from public view for 13 years, have not changed the government’s assessment that “there’s no evidence that the[Read More…]
Kevadia/Vadodara | 16th July, 2016: Hundreds of adivasis affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project have begun their Dharna (sit in) and relay fast from yesterday, the 15th of July. They have been demanding full and fair rehabilitation which they haven’t yet got despite being displaced in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.These adivasis who sustained their livelihood on the land, forests[Read More…]
Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, died on September 9, 2009. Alfred G. Gilman died on December 23, 2015. Both were Nobel laureates and now both dead. Gilman was a signatory to a recent letter condemning Greenpeace and its opposition to genetic engineering. How many Nobel laureates does it take to write a letter? Easily ascertained—the dead Gilman and[Read More…]
Interesting but frightening reports are coming out from the mainstream media in India on the ongoing ideological covert operations by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria known as ISIS or ISIL or IS, in Sri Lanka. Almost all news stories are able to quote the Indian intelligence sources anonymously, while those news pieces have been dramatically decorating the imminent threats.[Read More…]
The willingness of humanity to continue to accept the white world’s profitable investments in genocide will end in 25 years when world economic power shifts from Europeans, and their descendant nations, to the six sevenths of humanity they plundered. Realizing this, leaders of 1/10th of 1% who rule America have Trump demanding investment in the US instead of in the low wage[Read More…]
I find my White American students – even the very bright ones – totally confused, the moment I ask them if White police brutality against Black people in America amounts to terrorism. Most White students attribute the killings of black people by White police as undesirable, accidental, or simply due to bad judgment by the proverbial “bad cops”. Mostly Black[Read More…]
I’ve been hibernating since I heard the news about the massacre in El Kharadah district in Baghdad. It is the district where my memories from childhood were, the district where I was raised and taught to be a good woman and be good to others. In Al Kharadah I had my first love, it’s there where my heart broke and I cherished[Read More…]
Normally, when the head of the FBI under one President says something like “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case”, as the FBI reported regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails, that would be the end of the matter; but Clinton actually still isn’t off the prosecutorial hook of this criminal case, unless and until she becomes President herself. The decision as to whether[Read More…]
A magisterial / judicial order directing the police to register a first information report and investigate a family that lost its provider in a mob lynching would seem impossible for anyone living in a rule of law system. But in the self-designated largest democracy of the world, this is what happened on 14 July 2016. Here is a quick recap[Read More…]
Inas Abu Muhadi cannot understand that she will never see her dad again. She remembers that her dad had a scooter. And each time she hears one, she expects to see her dad arriving home. The young girl’s father passed away from natural causes in July 2013. “Our life turned upside down after that day,” said her mother, Rajaa Abu[Read More…]
I call the process we are in an “Oil Pearl Harbour”, taking place in a kind of eerie slow motion. This is no longer retrievable. Within roughly ten years the oil industry as we know it will have disintegrated. The GIW is presently defenceless in the face of this threat
Day 8. Kashmir is curfewed. At least 43 civilians are killed. All of them have been identified by the local media. More than 2200 persons are seriously injured, out of which at least 100 on the verge of losing their eyesight permanently after being hit by the lethal pellet guns. Yes, it is a war-like situation in curfewed Kashmir. Despite[Read More…]
Dear Ravish Kumar ji, Namaskar. This is a season of open letters. Recently you wrote one to Journalist-turned-minister M. J Akbar and then your colleague in NDTV Barka Dutt wrote one to Smrit Irani. Now, before you think this is coming in defense of them, let me tell you I’m neither writing about it nor do I belong to the[Read More…]
It is not anger or frustration but simple horror and doom that one is immersed in. A non partisan observer is bound to baulk at the ‘colossal waste’ on which every new crop of humanity has been grown on Kashmir’s century after century- only to feed the cannon. So many years of ‘ accumulated’ deaths have left trauma in every[Read More…]
New Delhi, July 16 : National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) condemns this complete arbitrary arrest of environmental activist Piyush Sethia, who has been a crusader for several national level issues including Bhopal Gas Survivors, rights of adivasis and founder of Salem Citizen Forum. He has worked hard to change the face of the city Salem by organising citizens led[Read More…]
Emilia Romagna, a region with nearly 4.5 million people whose capital is the medieval university city of Bologna, has one of the densest cooperative economies in the world. About two out of every three inhabitants are co-op members, together producing around 30 percent of the region’s GDP…
Police on Saturday raided news paper offices and printing presses in Kashmir valley and confiscated already printed copies. In South Kashmir and Kupwara all communication system with the outside world are cut off with telphone lines and cable TV networks blocked. Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor of Kashmir Times, said no information is coming out from these areas. She said ”[Read More…]
Yarmouk Palestinian camp, Damascus: In Lebanon today, Palestinians are beingthreatened by the governmentthat ISIS (Daesh) and Al Nursa are plotting to take over Ain el-Helweh and the other 11 camps in Lebanon. Palestinian factions and the residents of the Ain el HilwehPalestinianrefugee camp in Saida Lebanon know verywellthat militant jihadist groups including ISIS (Daesh) and Al-Nusra are nowdeeplyimplanted in theirmidst[Read More…]
Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential nominee-to-be, has effectively ended his chances to become U.S. President, by his choice of the Mike Pence to be his Vice Presidential choice. Pence’s only articles about his vision for the nation and for the Republican Party were published at his campaign site “Mike Pence for Congress,” between 1991 and the year 2000, when he finally[Read More…]
India is going to host the 8th BRICS Summit in Goa on October 15-16, 2016 as part of India’s chairmanship of BRICS this year. BRICS is the acronyms of its member nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, all of which are fast growing developing economies. The formation came to existence in 2009 but South Africa was taken as[Read More…]
A few days ago, I was driving through Qalandiya checkpoint for the first time since I came back to Jerusalem. My dad, sitting next to me, had to yell “stop here!” at me as I was queuing behind a car at the checkpoint. “You’re too close,” he said, “stop and wait for them to call you, otherwise they’ll shoot[Read More…]
Less than a day after becoming the U.K.’s unelected leader, Prime Minister Theresa May closed the government’s climate change office, a move instantly condemned as “shocking” and “plain stupid.” May shuttered the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on Thursday and moved responsibility for the environment to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. The decision comes[Read More…]
“A minority within the armed forces has unfortunately been unable to stomach Turkey’s unity.”- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jul 15, 2016 Any aspect of instability in the state of Turkey is going to be greeted with trepidation by those partners who bank on its security role between East and West. The European Union, that rattled club of members who fear the[Read More…]
A military coup attempt in Turkey on Friday night has left at least 60 people dead and hundreds injured. Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose whereabouts had been unknown for hours after the plotters claimed to have taken control of Tukey flew into Istanbul Ataturk Airport from an undisclosed location early Saturday and said that the coup was failing. Speaking[Read More…]
The new “Unicef report, 2016—Assisting Refugee Children,” detailing the fate of children in war zones and those forced to flee, was released at the beginning of this month. It describes the horrific consequences, for children and young people around the world, of wars and civil wars lasting years and even decades. According to estimates made by Unicef, the UN’s children’s[Read More…]
A hundred-and-fifty-one years after the abolition of slavery, America has a half white, half black president, a black Nobelist in literature, whites who attribute not just every form but instance of black dysfunction to white racism, blacks who demand reparations, the mainstreaming of innumerable black slang terms, including “diss,” a new phrase “negro fatigue” and the bumper sticker, “IF I[Read More…]
Co-Written by Richard Heinberg, David Fridley Ed. note: This is Chapter 10 of Richard Heinberg’s and David Fridley’s new book, Our Renewable Future, now available from Island Press. Post Carbon Institute’s companion website,ourrenewablefuture.org has also just been launched and contains additional content not in the book. Sound national and international climate policies are crucial: without them, it will be impossible to[Read More…]
British politics has seen it before: a good deal of political bloodletting in a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan did so on July 13, 1962 in what became known as Britain’s own variant of the much cruder and bloodier German event of 1934. Similarly, the new Prime Minister Theresa May, was intent on going a bit deeper than[Read More…]
In the early morning of July 5th, 37 year-old father of five, Alton Sterling, was shot in both his chest and his back by law enforcement officers outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Following this tragedy, on the night of July 6th, a 32 year-old father, Philando Castile, was brutally slain with 4 to 5 shots by a[Read More…]
Rufus Yerxa, the top lobbyist for the National Foreign Trade Council, told World Trade Online, on July 12th, that he believes “there is enough time and congressional support to get TPP passed during a lame-duck” session of Congress, meaning the session between November 9th and January 3rd, which would be in time for U.S. President Barack Obama to sign it into U.S.[Read More…]
July 12 is the death anniversary, and 2016 marks the beginning of the centenary, of Com DV Rao. Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao (Born 1917 June 1- died on 1984 July 12), prominent communist revolutionary (CR) of India , known for his unique role in leading the Telangana People’s Armed Struggle (1946-51), was the youngest member of the Central Committee of the[Read More…]
Picture a small village somewhere in rural Kenya. Darkness has fallen and there is no light to even go to the fields to relieve yourself. The only succour are kerosene lanterns, that are proven health hazard for the people living in the home. It was several years ago when UNEP, Nairobi, took us selected journalists from around the world to[Read More…]
The Brexit earthquake, possibly the biggest since the 2008 financial collapse, provides another opportunity to question the economic and political structures that cause such quakes. I’ve heard only a handful of voices amidst the high-pitched cacophony of the Brexit debate that have gone beyond the the narrow and racist nationalism of the dominant ‘leave’ voices, and the free-trade nationalism of[Read More…]
November 2002. It was an unusual audience at the Music Academy in Chennai, drawn there by an unusually eloquent speaker. The giant hoardings in the city calling attention to a ‘Communal Harmony Meet’ had drawn my attention too, having just returned from Gujarat after listening to painful personal stories from the victims of the ‘riots.’ I had dropped everything else[Read More…]
Contradiction of praxis has been the perennial contradiction of capitalism from the very outset. It never says what it does and never does what it says; it promises the sky and plunders the earth. It appropriated power with the slogans of ‘equality; liberty; fraternity’, but its very existence, as aptly articulated by Adam smith, in terms of “individual profit making[Read More…]
A five judge Supreme Court bench has given a decisive verdict on Arunachal Pradesh that Government of Nabam Tuki should be restored. The ruling also points several deficiencies on the part of the Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa . The decision also lays down norms to be followed by the constitutional position holder, the Governor. It is a landmark judgment as it[Read More…]
Here’s the good news: wind power, solar power, and other renewable forms of energy are expanding far more quickly than anyone expected, ensuring that these systems will provide an ever-increasing share of our future energy supply. According to the most recent projections from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy, global consumption of wind, solar, hydropower,[Read More…]
Taybeh is the last all-Christian and self-sufficient community in the occupied state of Palestine. “Taybeh” means delicious when referring to food or drink. “Taybeh” means “kind” and “good” when referring to people or places. Following the signing of the Oslo Peace Agreement [1993] and inspired by their late father, Canaan David Khoury, David and Nadim returned to their home village[Read More…]
A lorry struck a crowd after Bastille Day celebrations in the southern French city of Nice, killing at least 80 people. About 50 people were injured, 18 of them critically. The driver was shot dead and guns and grenades were found inside the lorry. President Francois Hollande said the attack was of a “terrorist nature”. He said he was extending[Read More…]
One more uprising in the Kashmir valley, one more scenario where people suddenly realize the gravity of the issue is here. The political ferment is ubiquitous, the ham handed approach of the State is self evident and the multiple local stakeholders have found themselves in a state of profound chaos and bewilderment. The[Read More…]
This three-part post was inspired by Ugo Bardi’s recent post concerning “Will Renewables Ever ReplaceFossils?” and recent discussions within Ugo’s discussion group on how is it that “Economists still don’t get it”? It integrates also numerous discussion and exchanges I have had with colleagues and business partners over the last three years. Introduction Since at least the end of 2014[Read More…]
Imagine a war that goes on for almost six decades. A war that nobody notices, even though it would be counted as the thirteenth longest war in human history. This is a conventional war, where ‘enemy’ territory is looted, its women are raped, its men killed. With only one difference. In this war, the enemy, technically, belongs to the same[Read More…]
The slimmest of hopes, which got extremely threadbare in the last month, was nursed that Bernie Sanders might have taken his support base and made it into a third movement. A US political scene so typified by the banking retainers, the counterfeit pioneers and fraudulent managers, could have done with a new force. Sanders, having watered and cultivated a genuine[Read More…]
Earlier this year, a collection of papers was published under the title of Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization (Scipes, ed., 2016). It was a strong effort by seven labor activists and scholars from different parts of the world to think out how workers today can support each other globally; initially so as to defend against[Read More…]
by GRAIN Staff In October 2008, GRAIN published a report called “Seized: the 2008 land grab for food and financial security”. It exposed how a new wave of land grabbing was sweeping the planet in the name of addressing the global food and financial crises. “On one hand”, we wrote, “‘food insecure’ governments that rely on imports to feed their[Read More…]
This is [ Pakistan] a good country. It’s just run by bad people – Abdul Sattar Edhi The most fundamental question every human being at least one time in life will ask himself/herself is – ‘what is the meaning of the life?’ There is no fixed answer to this question but in fact, the answer is itself is a representation[Read More…]
Recently there was an alarm and panic because of alleged move for replacement of the Persian script of Kashmiri language by Devanagari or Sanskrit script. There is no doubt that the original Kashmiri language from ancient times was written in Sarada script. However, after the advent of Islam in Kashmir, the Persian script was introduced. Now for almost 7 to[Read More…]
Unless Martin Luther King is wrong, the movement to protect US Blacks from White people will go nowhere while Black GIs help white people kill Africans in Africa and other non-Caucasian people all around the globe. Slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’ is ignominious, humiliating, undignified, embarrassing, pleading, definitely not noble, not appropriate to repeated murdering of innocent folks and children and other inhuman behavior
A dubious website, the SITE Intelligence Group, has quoted Hamza bin Laden, a son of Osama Bin Laden, as threatening revenge against the U.S. for assassinating his father. The SITE Intelligence Group referred to an audio message of Hamza posted online where he said: “We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to[Read More…]
Especially the foreign services and the military of any country are being paid like lawyers are standardly paid: they’re paid to make the case for their employer. They’re ‘mercenaries’ wielding words not (merely) arms, who become the more effective to the extent that they can deceive themselves to believe the propaganda (or, in the military case, the justifiability of their[Read More…]
Have I been out-Trumped?
(He doth bestride the narrow world like a Collosus!)
Out-Foxed by one “extremely careless”?
Oh, what Ailes me now? What Ailes us all?
But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East–and Jill Stein is the sun!
Only half a year in power and it is apparent that Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, is essentially following Harper’s footsteps when dealing with Canada’s foreign policy – militarily, politically, and economically. The recent NATO meeting and Trudeau’s sojourns to Ukraine have indicated – that like Obama using “hope and change” to replicate Bush’s U.S. policies – that like Harper,[Read More…]
AIDS 2016, the XXI International AIDS Conference – (with the theme of ‘Access Equity Rights Now’) which will be held in Durban, South Africa, from 18 to 22 July 2016, marks a dramatic change in the country’s AIDS response in the 16 years since XIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2000), which was also held in Durban “When Nelson Mandela[Read More…]
Africa is facing a new and devastating colonial invasion driven by a determination to plunder the natural resources of Africa, especially its strategic energy and mineral resources. That’s the message from a damning new report from War On Want ‘The New Colonialism: Britain’sscramble for Africa’s energy and mineral resources’ that highlights the role of the British government in aiding[Read More…]
CITIZENS’ STATEMENT ON KASHMIR JULY 12 , 2016 We write this in anguish at another alarming spiral of violence in Kashmir, when a discredited old playbook has yet again been deployed to wreak havoc with civilian life. Kashmir’s escalating violence follows a familiar pattern: a killing, a funeral where rage is vented through slogans and stones, and volleys of lethal[Read More…]
There was a small news item in the Times of India dated 3rd July, 2016.It related to Bhopal .It read , ” 3 peons breach MPs-2 child norm ,sacked.” It stated that they were removed from service at Damoh District Court as the year long enquiry determined that they had more than two children.It went to to say that more peons would[Read More…]
The decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague on the China- Philippines territorial dispute announced on the 12th of July 2016 may well emerge as a turning-point in the long-standing wrangles over islands in the South China Sea. China expectedly has rejected the decision. It has reaffirmed its claim of territorial sovereignty and maritime rights over almost[Read More…]
Researchers are finding that kelp, eelgrass, and other vegetation can effectively absorb CO2 and reduce acidity in the ocean. Growing these plants in local waters, scientists say, could help mitigate the damaging impacts of acidification on marine life
Perhaps you’ve heard the expression: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Cartoonist Walt Kelly’s famed possum, Pogo, first uttered that cry. In light of alien disaster movies like the recent sequel Independence Day: Resurgence and America’s disastrous wars of the twenty-first century, I’d like to suggest a slight change in that classic phrase: we have met the[Read More…]
One of the many interesting details to be learned by understanding human psychology is how a person’s unconscious fear works in a myriad of ways to make them believe that they bear no responsibility for a particular problem. This psychological dysfunctionality cripples a substantial portion of the human population in ways that work against the possibility of achieving worthwhile outcomes[Read More…]
For the popular Indian imagination on Kashmir across India, the land Kashmir acquires more importance than the people Kashmiri. That is how while the land gets adored for its natural beauty, the people Kashmiris are less appreciated. While the travelogues in media start showing the beauty of the land, the same media when it comes to political reporting constructs[Read More…]
We must assess the consequences of our lifestyle on the planet’s declining liveability, as we already have a rising chemical imbalance in the biosphere which impairs life’s ability to control its climate. Furthermore, we’re expecting 9 billion people within thirty odd years; this, in a world of depleting organic and inorganic resources, rising sea levels, and increasing temperatures, that will[Read More…]
Facing what seems like an endless stream of news about racialized conflicts and violence, many people call for us to get beyond our history and find solutions for today, concrete actions we can take immediately, ways of expressing love right now to help us cope with the pain. This yearning is understandable, but it’s just as important that we grapple[Read More…]
Last year, I wrote an article that made many readers unhappy. As soon as it was published, I began receiving messages of abuse and angry, threatening calls. I hesitated about reporting the threats to the local police in Washington State and, in the end, I resolved to file the unpleasant experience under a burgeoning folder of ‘controversies’ caused by my[Read More…]
It wouldn’t be strange for a contemporary 2D artist to imagineher sketchbook as a kind of immediate scientific laboratory, a site wherever repeated experiments and knowledge-building practices get drawn into existence. Moreover, the art that accumulates within the pages of the artist’s sketchbook would likely provide a unique description of her as an individual, especially aftera lifetime of drawing.[Read More…]
” I go about the world, hand out-stretched, and in the stadium I plead : ‘ A pretty move, for the love of God.’ And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.” – Eduardo Galeano. Watching as a neutral spectator, this is exactly what I[Read More…]
The unanimous award of Hague International Tribunal on the South China Sea arbitration is historical, overpowering and decisive in the sense that Chinese claim on the disputed sea area has been rejected by the International Tribunal while giving decision on the petition filed by The Republic of the Philippines against The People Republic of China. As was expected the Chinese[Read More…]
While the police have been dishing it out extensively for years to the black community, often with murderous effect, retaliation was bound to come. A movement scolded for being narky and lacking respect became a sounding board for some who felt that violence was merely logical, the last refuge for the desperate. This is hardly an excuse, but it constitutes some explanation. The motor of revenge tends to be a hungry, and not always rational one
Press Release By Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association India and its politicians must introspect as to why there has been such a mass outpouring of grief and support for Burhan Wani, a militant who was killed in an ‘encounter’. Already news reports confirm that over 30 unarmed protestors have been killed by the police and scores more have been injured. The death[Read More…]
With climate change, resource limits, and secular stagnation, this make-believe “resolution of real contradictions” reveals itself as clearly “imaginary.” Consequently, in order to dismantle the hegemony of growth, degrowth has to develop a profound and critical understanding of the real societal contradictions, hierarchies and power dynamics shaping capitalism and transform them in new ways
In early May of this year, Portugal ran on renewable electricity alone for four consecutive days. And later that same month, on May 15, Germany filled almost all its electricity needs with solar, wind, and hydro power. This is good news: it tells us we’re making progress toward a zero-carbon energy system. But it also helps us see the challenges to a full renewable[Read More…]
When I woke up on June 24th and checked the news, I cried. Along with millions of people around the world. I’m a diehard believer in independence, freedom, democracy, and strong local economies. For some, the Brexit result represented those things. If that had been the reality, I would’ve supported it too. But like every other choice offered in the[Read More…]
Hardly a day goes by without news of a police killing. And each time we hear from scholars and observers that the police is too militarized. No doubt! In 2014, I was flattered to have been approached by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Shasta Chapter to be their keynote speaker to address Government Secrecy, Drones, and Militarization. After each[Read More…]
Subsequent to the chilling account written by a known investigative journalist, Kim Zetter, towards the end of 2014, the new documentary film has been just released to the public domain and started screening as of July 08. This is indeed shocking! How are we going to deal with this? Is this going to outline the next world war? We are[Read More…]
VCNV organised a 150 mile peace walk between 28th May to 10th June, from downtown Chicago to Thomson Prison, a new supermax federal facility due to open next summer with 1,900 solitary confinement cells. The U.S. currently incarcerates 2.3 million people, that’s 10% of the population, or 25% of world prisoners. Nationally, Blacks and Latinos are 5 times more likely to be incarcerated than Whites, and[Read More…]
The EU is a precarious subject these days. Both backers and detractors are subject to harsh criticism, and those wanting to leave the EU are habitually considered populists or nationalists. However, this Europe, with its undeniable capitalist and neoliberal penchants, isn’t MY Europe, or at least not the Europe I once pictured it to be. That is why, as it[Read More…]
The article will critically examine and explore the recent Dhaka café terror attack. It will specifically examine the role of the law enforcement agencies in handling the crisis and will question the effectiveness and appropriateness of law enforcers’ interventions. In addressing this issue, the key focus will remain whether the human rights of victims and perpetrators were respected (Masferrer[Read More…]
On Saturday, the second and final day of the NATO summit in Warsaw, NATO officials and heads of state approved a major military escalation in Eastern Europe and continuing deployments to Afghanistan. These initiatives, together with expanded NATO military cooperation with former Soviet republics, including Georgia and Ukraine, are all aimed at encircling and preparing for war against Russia. The[Read More…]
Police officers carry out random acts of legalized murder against poor people of color not because they are racist, although they may be, or even because they are rogue cops, but because impoverished urban communities have evolved into miniature police states. Police can stop citizens at will, question and arrest them without probable cause, kick down doors in the middle[Read More…]
This is not the first time that innocent blood is being spilled in Odisha or in India in the name of containing Maoism. PUCL has consistently alerted the public that in the name of ‘encounters’ often innocent people are being killed by the security forces, and innocent poor Adivasis are being arrested after branding them as ‘Maoists’.
The situation across Kashmir is not normal, neither under control, nor is the situation under law and order. It has been third day since this disputed portion of earth started witnessing deserted looks and blood bath started on each street. The situation started remained tense when people were communicated with heart wrenching news that “the local rebel, who at his[Read More…]
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organizations, (CDRO), expresses grave concern at the situation in Kashmir which has seen the death of 23 people and injuries to more than 300 persons over the last three days at the hands of Police and the Para military forces.
When NATO was founded, that was done in the broader context of the U.S. Marshall Plan, and the entire U.S. operation to unify the developed Atlantic countries of North America and Europe, for a coming Cold War allegedly against communism, but actually against Russia — the core country not only in the U.S.S.R. but also in Eastern Europe (the areas that[Read More…]
The Brexit verdict brings out the weakness of the concept of European Union. It raises questions whether integration based on the concept of common markets and free flow of capital and goods, services and people can be transformative for all the social classes. Whether integration based on supremacy of finance capital and markets and designed at promoting their profitability at[Read More…]
As many observers around the world have pointed out, the United States is no longer a true democracy. It is an oligarchy. The US government ignores the safety, wishes and needs of the majority of its citizens, and instead makes decisions which will bring profit to enormous corporations, or satisfy the wishes of powerful lobbies. Governmental secrecy occurs in[Read More…]
The allegations came recently in newspapers that two transsexuals are brutally attacked by the police in Kochi. This is the current situation of transgender life in Kerala albeit the existence of the transgender policy the state triumphs. They are being faced discrimination continuously in various forms. Apropos to this incident the allegation is charged against those who should actually assure[Read More…]
The Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, still gets high marks at least in Europe, compared to the Republican candidate Donald Trump, demonized by corporate media because of his outlandish remarks about Muslims, women, the wall with Mexico, and other bizarre statements he had made. Despite Trump’s crude political opinions, he has many followers among predominantly white Americans. He portrays himself[Read More…]
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is here in Colombo on a two day official visit. It has been very interesting and a pinking diplomatic relationship that Sri Lanka as a sovereign nation has developed since the ancient times with the Republic. Whatever may the recorded history placed before us be, one thing is certain and that is that China[Read More…]
The killing of technocrat turned militant from Tral, Burhan Muzaffar Wani has generated a Tsunami which may ultimately engulf the entire sub-continent
Kashmir blessed by rich history & gorgeous geography has always been cursed & abused by its politicians. Its sanctity has been violated times without number & the latest among these is the shelving of the bill aimed at amending certain provisions of law which make it easier to acquire immovable property by non state subjects in Jammu .The nefarious objective[Read More…]
What role the womb? Politically, it is exploited by the conservative creed as the indispensable mechanism for reproduction. To not add offspring to the ledger of life is not doing the good work of some sky god or inner instinctive voice. Not being able to do so somehow renders the political figure barren in a more than figurative sense. Such[Read More…]
The issues that were discussed at this year’s NATO Summit were mainly preparations for a possible war against Russia. The two-day Summit in Warsaw Poland ended on Saturday July 9th, with a 139-part “Warsaw Summit Communiqué” which used the word “terrorism” 17 times, “jihad” and “jihadist” and “jihadism” 0 (zero) times, and “Russia” 58 times — never favorably, and often with overt[Read More…]
Over the years, I’ve written a fair amount of autobiographical pieces but it’s only recently that I’ve begun to re-explore some of these episodes from a more critical, radical perspective. With that in mind, to follow is yet another revised memoir-of-sorts. Even though I grew up in a “tough” neighborhood and trained myself in hand-to-hand combat, I’ve never been eager[Read More…]
Past is used by communal politics for their present political agenda. In India on one hand we have the use of medieval history where the Muslim Kings are presented as ‘aggressors due to whom Hindu society had to suffer’, on the other now we are witnessing the distortion of ancient history being marshaled to undermine Buddhism vis a vis Brahmanism.[Read More…]
More than a decade after the military intervention in Iraq which killed hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians and wounded many more; damaged an entire nation, which otherwise is likely to have enjoyed more inner peace, the Chilcot inquiry report sparks internationally, burning revelation and arguments through which the finger of blame is pointed at Tony Blair, one of the[Read More…]
Common experience Anybody going out in any city or metro, is assaulted by smoke and exhaust fumes of every sort of motor vehicle. In reducing size, we notice buses and trucks, SUVs, plush sedans, and “commoners’ small cars”, to use the elitist turn of phrase of Mr.Mukul Rohatgi representing government, when arguing against Supreme Court’s ban on large diesel[Read More…]
Zakir Naik Quotes from the Quran, He Quotes from the Vedas, He Quotes from the Upanishads, from the Puranas, He Quotes from the Bible, Torah, Guru Granth Sahib etc etc. ie He Quotes from almost all Religious scriptures. His debates include ‘Similarities between Islam and Hinduism’, ‘between Islam and Bible’ and so on –He has a fantastic memory and can[Read More…]
This time Eid celebrations, for me, were hollow, void and barren, not because that I could not make it to my home on eid, but more so because of the fact that the preceding month; the holy month of Ramzan, has witnessed series of tragic/unholy attacks from Orlando, Istanbul to Dhaka and Masjid-e-nabwi in Medina. These traumatizing terrorist attacks have[Read More…]
In Ethnic America, Thomas Sowell observes, “American pluralism was not an ideal with which people started but an accommodation to which they were eventually driven by the destructive toll of mutual intolerance in a country too large and diverse for effective dominance by any one segment of the population. The rich economic opportunities of the country also provided alternative outlets[Read More…]
Police fatally shot an African-American in the early hours of Saturday in Houston, Texas. The man, identified by media as Alva Braziel, was reportedly shot ten times after he pointed his gun at law enforcement. The shooting took place at about 12:40am on Cullen. According to the police, they spotted a man on the road with a revolver. When they[Read More…]
Normal life was hit for the second day today in Kashmir Valley due to curfew and strike following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. The restrictions have been imposed in most of Kashmir Valley as a precautionary measure. According to Kashmir Monitor, the civilian death toll on Sunday rose to 16 after a youth was killed and four other[Read More…]
In continuing war on its own people security forces in Kandhamal district of Odisha state in India killed six poor Adivasi and Dalit labourers. Four others have been seriously injured by CRPF firing in Malapanga forest under Tumudibandha police limits. They were returning from Balliguda ,( the block and Sub-Divisional head quarter of their village Gungudmaha under Parampanka G.P) with[Read More…]
(CNS): “It did not strike me even for a second how fatal it could be for my child to ride a two-wheeler as a pillion rider – without a helmet. If I was conscious about the risk then I would have definitely given a helmet to my child” said the mother of a child who died in an unfortunate[Read More…]
When the media and the cyber world of Indians are agog with reports and comments on the results of Britain’s referendum on quitting the European Union, we fail to notice the most pertinent point underlying the whole event. That is, the importance of a well mandated regional organisation. It is high time Asia had its regional organisation to secure a[Read More…]
US police kill approximately 1,000 people per year according to Federal statistics, disproportionately targeting particularly African and Native Americans. The UN expert panel on people of African descent observed this week that these killings “demonstrate a high level of structural and institutional racism. The United States is far from recognizing the same rights for all its citizens.” The two men[Read More…]
Neil Armstrong once said that ‘science has not yet mastered prophecy, we predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next ten’. This quote is so true in the Indian context as none can imagine exactly ten years ago that drones can be used for civilian purposes but now they are all set to[Read More…]
In a powerful short novel by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, “No One Writes to the Colonel” (El coronel no tiene quien le escriba) set during the period of “La Violencia”, an old retired colonel struggles to survive, forgotten by the government which promised him a substantial pension some fifteen years earlier. The state is corrupt and brutal, and[Read More…]
Acres of Skin—Human experiments at Holmesburg Prison, A widely reviewed Book and a true story of abuse and exploitation in the name of medical science, is written by Allen M. Hornblum. It was published in 1998 by Rutledge New York and London. The title signifies the thousands of prison inmates (vulnerable trial subjects) whose skin was the playground for Dr.[Read More…]
In a historic ruling, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice U.U.Lalit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court have spoken out in favour of democracy. The judgment came on a plea by hundreds of families in the north-eastern State of Manipur for a probe by a Special Investigation Team into 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters involving the Army and the[Read More…]
(Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the stealthy movements of a fugitive, enters a small, nondescript Catholic church in South London. Before letting the door close, he looks behind him as if he fears someone has been tailing him, someone from whom he is desperate to escape. Tony sports a fake mustache and wears the somewhat rumpled outfit of[Read More…]
In another example of outrageous British Establishment mendacity, the inexpert, Zionist-subverted, UK Iraq Inquiry, aka the Chilcot Inquiry, criticized intelligence failures re non-existent Iraqi WMD but whitewashed the US-, UK- and Australia-complicit, 1990-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust in which 4.6 million Iraqis died from violence (1.7 million) or from violently-imposed deprivation (2.9 million) by (a) suggesting that about 150,000[Read More…]
Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the 22-year-old commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, has been killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir, police have said. Two other militants also were killed in the encounter. J&K police chief K Rajendra confirmed that Wani was killed in the exchange of fire between security personnel and militants in Anantnag. Burhan Wani had emerged as the new[Read More…]
Five Dallas police officers were killed and six others were wounded by snipers on Thursday night during a demonstration protesting shootings by officers in Minnesota and Louisiana this week. The gunfire broke out around 8.45 pm on Thursday while hundreds of people were gathered to protest against fatal police shootings this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. The[Read More…]
The recent report produced by John Chilcot to look into UK role in US led invasion exposes the hollowness of such actions by allied forces. Some of the key highlights of the report are that a) UK chose to join the invasion before peaceful options had been exhausted; b) Blair deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein; c) There[Read More…]
There’s a good reason (actually, 30 good reasons covered here, plus at least 90 others to be discussed in later issues) why no-one has been able to come up with a better term for what’s called “urban agriculture.”
Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the world, recent studies show. Researchers say various factors, from monoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems
WHO recently announced new recommendations to speed up diagnosis and improve treatment outcomes for multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) through the use of a novel rapid diagnostic test called MTBDRsl, and a shorter, cheaper 9-12 month treatment regimen. The new treatment regimen can be completed in 9-12 months— less than half the time required by the current 24-month[Read More…]
All NATO leaders will meet together at a crucial July 8th-9th Summit meeting in Warsaw, to agree regarding what to do to Russia, about which U.S. General Philip Breedlove, then the Supreme Commander of NATO, said earlier this year “Russia has chosen to be an adversary and poses a long-term existential threat to the United States and to our[Read More…]
Months of single-minded work since the formation of Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee last year, could yield some encouraging results, especially on February 20 and May 30 when veteran leader of the revolutionary women’s movement in the country and founder of Nari Mukti Sangh, Comrade Sheela Marandi walked out of jail in after a long spell of persecution, and was last[Read More…]
Way to go America! Our police shoot to kill Blacks Just like “unlawful combatants” In our Global War on Terrorism GWOT Blowback On the Streets of these United States. Military training, weapons, tactics, mentality Brought to bear By our White Racist paramilitarized police Against our Forever Untermenschen Blacks Our Ku Klux Klan in Blue Next coming to you. No end[Read More…]
The June temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 71.8°F, or 3.3°F above the 20th century average, surpassing the previous record of 71.6°F set in 1933. The year-to-date (January-June) temperaturewas 50.8°F, 3.2°F above the 20th century average, making it the third warmest on record. The June precipitation total for the contiguous U.S. was 2.46 inches, 0.47 inch below the 20th century[Read More…]
Shrinking sea cover means the Earth’s surface darkens, increasing absorption of the sun’s energy. (Photo: Christopher Mikel/flickr/cc) Arctic sea ice plummeted to a record low in June, shrinking 56,900 square kilometers (22,000 square miles) per day last month, according to new figures from the National Snow & Ice Data Center. June’s “sea ice extent” was 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square[Read More…]
Philando Castile, another African-American, a 32-year-old school cafeteria manager, was killed during a traffic stop near St. Paul, in Falcon Heights, Minnesota where his distraught girlfriend broadcast his final moments in real time on Facebook. As blood soaked through Castile’s shirt Wednesday night, his girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, began broadcasting live video to her Facebook page, saying on camera that[Read More…]
In a terrorist attack near a mass Eid prayer gathering in Kishoreganj in Bangladesh two policeman and a woman were killed and 13 people were wounded. One attacker had been shot dead. Three terrorists were arrested, one of them injured. A group of terrorists reportedly attacked one of the policemen with a knife and threw homemade bombs at a school[Read More…]
Chelsea Manning, the military whistleblower serving a 35 year sentence, was rushed to hospital after reportedly trying to take her own life. According to media reports Manning, who us being held at in a cell at the US Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was taken to hospital early on Tuesday morning. CNN said that it was believed that[Read More…]
The release of the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry, examining the feeble reasons for launching a war against a sovereign state in 2003, did not merely land former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the soup. It suggested that other leaders should keep him in drowning company. The most obvious culprit was the person who led it all, US President George W.[Read More…]
Two major news stories here in the U.S., both chilling, point out how readily U.S. authorities will murder people based on race and the slightest possibility of a threat to those in places of power. On July 5th Baton Rouge police killed Anton Sterling in a Louisiana parking lot. Sterling was a 37-year-old Black father of five selling CDs outside[Read More…]
Recent research by IISc reveals startling numbers on Bangalore’s reckless urbanization and its consequences: during 1973–2016 (1005% concretization or increase of paved surface) has had a telling influence on the natural resources, such as decline in green spaces (88% decline in vegetation), wetlands (79% decline), higher air pollutants and a sharp decline in groundwater table.
On June 27th, I reported Hillary Clinton’s having privately told GMO industry lobbyists, on 25 June 2014, that the federal government should subsidize GMO firms in order to enable them to buy “insurance against risk,” and that without such federal subsidies, “this [insurance] is going to be an increasing challenge” for the industry to afford. I also reported that,[Read More…]
With their government under the control of corporations and special interests, the People of the United States may think they have the right to vote, but, unfortunately, they do not. When the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written, the authors intentionally omitted this very significant detail. They failed to include the right to vote, and the error has[Read More…]
Hilary Wainwright, of the Transnational Institute and co-editor of Red Pepper magazine, made a lasting impression on the Commons Transition/P2P Foundation team with her panel presentation at the recent Commons Collaborative Economies event in Barcelona. During her presentation, Wainwright shared her insights on the hidden commons of care. “Women have been creating a Commons for a long time: the domestic[Read More…]
It’s been three years now of food shortages, inflation, and queues in Venezuela, and the millions of people involved in community and movement organizing have been the most affected. But they’ve also defied right-wing and general expectations, and even perhaps the expectations of the Maduro government, and have become stronger and better organized as a result of the hardships. ‘We can[Read More…]
The Chilcot report that enquired into Britain’s decision to join US coalition that attacked Iraq which was released today finds that Britain decided to join the 2003 invasion of Iraq based on “flawed intelligence”. John Chilcot, the chair of the Iraq Inquiry said that the invasion went “badly wrong”. The 2.6 million-word Iraq Inquiry – which took seven years to[Read More…]
As was expected PM Narendra Modi shifted HRD minister Smriti Zubin Irani to less consequential position, the textile ministry, in the recent reshuffle of the council of minister. To have a particular minister in a particular position is the well established convention and the prerogative of PM in a parliamentary democratic system, on this ground the shifting is natural but[Read More…]
Prices of oil, coal, and natural gas tend to rise and fall together–just as we would expect, if they are all responding to the same changes in debt levels, and indirectly, the same changes in world economic growth rates. If energy prices are based on debt levels, our concern should be that all fossil fuels will peak within a few years of each other. The cause of the peak will be low prices, not “running out” of energy products
Clinton was spared, even if the FBI recommendation remains just that. It was a textbook outcome pointing to the failures of consistent approaches all too familiar to that of her husband. Yet again, this eel of history escapes the realms of legality with institutional dispensation.
The food waste debate has gone mainstream. People at every level from individual consumers to national governments are beginning to pay attention to the issues which lead to a third of food produced for human consumption being wasted every year. However, there is one side to the story that is often overlooked: the impact of food waste in the Global[Read More…]
FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday that his agency will not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server to handle government communications during her four years as secretary of state in the Obama administration. Comey read out a lengthy prepared statement that criticized Clinton and her staff in harsh terms, saying they had[Read More…]
Hung parliaments are deemed the bane of the Westminster System. It makes politicians sweat, policy makers work, and the broader system of representative government unusually representative. The latter part is particularly irksome for the majoritarians. Authoritarian tendencies are never far away from the politically elected. It is always easy to become hubristic when voters go your way, less so when[Read More…]
Hyped emotions, and political opportunism aside, the Israel-Turkey normalization deal, signed on June 27 is unfavorable for Palestinians – and for Gazans, in particular. There is much that is being said to blame Turkey or placate the damage of seeing Turkey – which has for years been one of the most visible backers of Palestinian Resistance – reaching out to Israel. Yet, no amount of[Read More…]
Today, with these words, I light a candle to remember the children who died in Sunday’s firestorm in Baghdad, the families who were obliterated, the individuals burned beyond recognition, the surviving friends and relatives looking for answers in the still-smoldering ruins and weeping in wave upon wave of inconsolable grief. My heart is with you, dear sisters and brothers. My hope is that others will light candles too and be moved to stand beside you and call in one invincible voice for an end to war in all its forms.
Japan’s Supreme Court has rejected a second appeal by the country’s Muslim community against nationwide surveillance of Muslim groups, mosques and even halal restaurants. This may not be surprising to America’s seven-million-strong Muslim community which has been under real and virtual surveillance since 9/11. After 15 years of broadly targeting the community and extensively monitoring its activities, the FBI declared[Read More…]
What the Women and Child Development Minister Ms. Maneka Gandhi, admitted on the floor of the Lok Sabha was startling, between 2012 and 2014, around 25,000 women either committed suicide or were killed due to dowry harassment; this vindicates the claim of women’s movement in India. Taunts, mental and physical abuse and ultimate death by murder or ‘forced-to-commit-suicide’ is an open fact of the Indian society
An old controversy resurfaced lately. After the alleged denial of government jobs to candidates linked to the RSS, Minister of State in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, said last week that “the central government has not issued any such order (prohibiting government staff from joining RSS activities) recently”, and “if any old order exists, we will review it.” (16 June,[Read More…]
Anger over job losses and declining living conditions, combined with years of bitter political experiences with both Labor and Liberal-National Coalition governments, were the primary factors in the further collapse of support for the major parties in last Saturday’s Australian election. With 1.5 million postal votes still to be counted, some of which will not arrive until July 15, it[Read More…]
Frederick Douglass was asked to speak on July 4,1852 to commerate the Declarationof Independence. He pointed out that the Declaration of Independence was not a declaration with any meaning for slaves or ex-slaves, nor was the constitution a document for black people, only white people. That isa thought expressed and asked by black prisoners today, who number more than the[Read More…]
The month of Ramadan witnessed unspeakable carnage in three Muslim cities in three different countries. On 28 June 2016, 41 people, both locals and foreigners were killed in shootings and suicide bombings at the Istanbul Ataturk Airport. On 2nd July, 20 people taken hostage by militants in an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh were shot andmurdered. On the 3rd of[Read More…]
Chinese government’s massive open-pit mine in the rainy Papua New Guinea highlands, with its tons of toxic tailings full of sulphides and heavy metals, is to be poised above the Sepik River and its primary rainforests, intact local cultures, and the South Pacific Ocean. Apparently Papua New Guinea’s urban elites have learned little from decades of foreign industrial mining (and logging) causing conflict and despair, environmental damage, and social and economic decline.
On Monday the Jerusalem Magistrate indicted Israel Nuclear Whistle Blower Mordechai Vanunu for allegedly sharing classified information in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 television channel. Vanunu was also indicted because he moved into a different apartment [in the same building] without informing the police, and because he was caught meeting with two foreign nationals three years ago! Modechai Vanunu[Read More…]
Frederick Douglass, one of the most brilliant minds in history, had many praises for the US and its founders. However, he experienced the nation more fully than any of them, beginning his life a victim of the totalitarian fascism they practiced and promoted, and ending it a statesman and a friend of President Lincoln. Thus his understanding and analysis of[Read More…]
The contemporary Arab world is fraught with formidable forces of diverse enemies – the self, the authoritarian rulers and foreign interventionists – the ex-colonial masters. Common sense stops at various levels to reflect on the real problems. Greed of power, sectarian hatred and missing sense of moral and intellectual visionary leadership to deal with the real problems of political[Read More…]
When people don’t possess sufficient expertise on matters, they require simplicity. They desire easily manageable packages of knowledge, and these packages become taken for granted stocks of ‘common sense’ that enable them to cope with or to understand the world around them, no matter how faulty or misrepresented that ‘knowledge’ may be. Powerful corporations and the media recognise people’s need[Read More…]
The small press items that slip by but should not, offer a lot of wonderful materials this summer and perhaps for me in particular, perhaps, plucking the chords of memory. More important, they offer a glimpse of leftwing writers hard at work. Andy Piascik’s deft In Motion (New York: Sunshine Publishers, 298pp, $29.95) had me when a lead character’s sister[Read More…]
Veteran journalist Diana Johnstone has given the American people and the world a weak-up call about Hillary Clinton. The author, who has been living in Paris for over 40 years, has characterized Ms. Clinton aptly. She is not interested in the existential problems of the man in the street, instead, she is the voice of the criminal big shot elite,[Read More…]
This is not an exclusive list, nor does it relate to charges that might possibly be made against Ms. Clinton on grounds other than the unquestionable and basic ground that she moved all of her State Department email operation to a private and non-secured computer outside the State Department, and then attempted to destroy the record of those emails. Here[Read More…]
When news of Elie Wiesel’s death broke on July 2, the predictable paeans and plaudits flowed. President Barack Obama, for example, called his fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner “the conscience of the world.” As for me, I instead reflected back to July 4, 2004, when Parade Magazine to hired Wiesel to pen a little something for Independence (sic) Day[Read More…]
Artist Paramesh Jolad’s letter to Umashree, Minister for Kannada and Culture, Government of Karnataka and an award winning artist.
Following the stabbing of a 13-year-old Israeli girl in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba by a young Palestinian on Thursday, Benyamin Netanyahu’s coalition government moved swiftly to implement their now standard measures of collective punishment, in flagrant violation of international law. At the same time, the government is using the attack to expand the settlements and incorporate Area[Read More…]
An equal level of consumption for everyone around the world at the level of today’s Cuba offers the possibility of substantially lowering human impact on the biosphere while at the same time maintaining a rather decent standard of living for all.
Rana Ayub requires a high appreciation for bringing the book to the public domain. With an idealism to bring out the truth of Gujarat, the courage shown is highly appreciable. This is particularly more in an environment where publishing houses backed out from publishing the book and she had to do self-publishing.
Katherine Hoof Illinois—probably your average Hillary supporter. She published a letter to the editor in the Times the very day after Bernie’s piece and titled it“Dear Bernie Sanders: What You Didn’t Say”. In her letter, Ho claimed that“…[Bernie Sanders] needs to wake up to a modern reality in which globalization is both inevitable and beneficial, creating domestic jobs and raising millions worldwide out of poverty.”
The Paris climate conference set the ambitious goal of finding ways to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, rather than the previous threshold of 2 degrees. But what would be the difference between a 1.5 and 2 degree world? And how realistic is such a target?
The Dinh Dynasty lasted only 12 years and ended in 980, but in the 20th century, there were around a dozen plays about one of the Dinh queens, Duong Van Nga. When I was a kid in Saigon in the 1970s, a folk opera about her could pack a theater night after night. In 2013, an elaborately produced 12-part[Read More…]
In 1931, a new theater ensemble was formed in New York City. The vision of Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg,[Read More…]
A new wave of militancy, mostly comprising of educated young men, is sweeping through the trouble-torn Kashmir valley. This new breed of Kashmiri militants is more radicalized and more firm in its convictions than its predecessors. Lately, there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of militants operating in the Kashmir valley with South Kashmir erupting as the new[Read More…]
Independence Holiday in the USA becomes a time when citizens tend to reflect on the nations two hundred forty year history. It is a history typical of six European empires in the areas of genocide and plunder. US genocides perpetrated after 1945 will be prosecuted once economic power shifts to a China led plundered world. A plethora of lawsuits for[Read More…]
It may seem strange to begin a review of a “spy story” by noting the stalwart morality of an apparently irredeemable and ruthless spy. But, Stewart’s creation of Misha Nikiforov, ex KGB and Russian successor to his influential and unforgettable Anatoly Nikitin of the novel, The Trojan Spy, and a spiritual brother of Oleg in the accompanying story in this[Read More…]
In India, economic development and modernity have transformed livelihoods into deadlihoods. They are wiping out millennia-old livelihoods that were ways of life with no sharp division between work and leisure, and replacing them with dreary assembly line jobs where we wait desperately for weekends and holidays. Economic progress, we are told, is about moving from primary sector jobs to[Read More…]
Bangladeshi politicians, analysts, intellectuals, and media should do the following three things for the sake of durable peace and order in the country: a) stop denying the existence of terrorism, as there is hardly any country without terrorists or terrorist sympathisers, in the post-9/11 world; b) fight terrorism not only with force but also through education and mass motivation; and c) do not think of gaining political leverage by falsely implicating political rivals or personal adversaries as terrorist agents. Terrorists gain most in divided and fractured countries. Examples abound.
This essay considers the etiology of Australian Fascism, an often latent disease during the past one hundred years, a means often used to attempt the solution, albeit temporary, of social problems. The narrative follows the 2004 seminal work by Dr. L. W. Britt on the subject of Fascism. The learned author listed fourteen characteristics of that movement; the present[Read More…]
Oh that poor old United Kingdom! Armies of political commentators based on all continents are now feverishly trying to define to what extent the Brits got fooled, or how severely they will soon get punished for their ‘bold move’. All over Europe, the neo-Nazis and other right-wingers are celebrating, while most of ‘liberals’ are panic-stricken, running around like a[Read More…]
In another attempt to kick the leader of the British Labour down and out, a campaign has been hatched with a now commonplace virulence. A report into anti-Semitism within Labour party circles authored by Shami Chakrabarti was to be released with little fanfare, filled with the pieties that come at a time when language is a matter of moral policing[Read More…]
Interculturality is a dynamic concept and refers to evolving relations between cultural groups. It has been defined as “the existence and equitable interaction of diverse cultures and the possibility of generating shared cultural expressions through dialogue and mutual respect. Interculturality presupposes multiculturalism and results from ‘intercultural’ exchange and dialogue on the local, regional, national or international level.
Brexit (British exit from the European Union) would be a ferocious kidney-blow to the international aristocracy, the people (and their agents) who own controlling blocs of stock in international corporations, and who control politicians in every country (except Russia and perhaps China), and who especially control international organizations such as the executive body of the EU, which is the European Commission (or “EC”). The EC,[Read More…]
Unlike their predecessors, early 21st century missionaries do not come armed with bibles. They come as members of a scientific priesthood, spouting slick PR and are supported by the likes of Bill Gates, taxpayer ‘aid’ and the global agritech cartel and rely on the leverage of international institutions like the World Bank, IMF and WTO. More than 100 Nobel laureates have[Read More…]
This paper examines the historical events related to asylum for Muslim refugees in the formative years of Islam and its impact upon the development of the first Muslim community in Medina. This paper is also part of an ongoing historical study to identify socio-political and humanitarian responses to refugee populations in Muslim civilizations. The research aims to analyze the[Read More…]
The Bihar police have arrested Ruby Rai, a 17-year-old girl, under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, and 120(B) of the India Penal Code on 26 June 2016 and have duly sent her to jail, i.e. an adult jail. Her alleged crime is that of cheating to secure top rank in the state senior secondary school examination. Questioned by a[Read More…]
To any historian buff, it should be a known fact that Britain’s “special relationship” with Washington has been a tough one, subjected to periods of bruising and disagreement. States caught in a web of imperial domination can only be special to a certain extent. Despite this, the mythology of a special relationship between London and Washington continues to sound its[Read More…]
Insane Policy Towards North Korea 
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Book Review 
Russia and the United States’ Presidential Election 
A Therapy For India’s Suicidal Farmers 
Heroes And Sheroes Of Plural India : Pujari Laldas 
Afghanistan Is Right Here! Lies, Myths And Legends 
Heroes And Sheroes Of Plural India: Irom Sharmila Chanu 
India Now! 
Anti-Semitism Is Not The Issue; Palestine Is 
Danger! Men Working 
Dogs 
Al-Qaeda, A CIA by-product, Is Antithetical to Kashmiri Struggle 
India Must Act Before Water Runs Out 
Introspection on Urban Activism 
State Sponsored Suppression in Gorkhaland 
Fake news By Algorithm 
Trump’s Fossil-Fueled Foreign Policy 
114 Army Veterans Condemn The Targeting of Muslim, Dalits In An Open Letter To PM 
RIP Liu Xiaobo: Nobel Peace Awardee Who Supported All Wars Unleashed By US Imperialiasm 
Fanciful Terrors: Bomb Plots And Australian Airport Security 
The morning papers bring me the news that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world. Actually he overtook Bill Gates for a few hours on Thursday as the richest person on earth as the Amazon share prices rose. Bill Gates regained his position as the richest person later in the day. So what the[Read More…]
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