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Environment
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India
12th Congress of CPI (ML) Red Star Calls for All Out Offensive Against RSS Fascism
The 12th Congress of CPI (ML) Red Star held at Shivaram-Sharmishta Hall (SK Pottekad Hall) from September 24 to 29 concluded with a call to resist and defeat RSS neo-fascism. The Congress attended by around 300 delegates and observers from 16 states, following intense discussion, adopted the updated Party Program and Path of Revolution along with amendments to Party Constitution,[Read More…]
COVID Response Watch
Shadow of Covid lingers over the erstwhile Kingdom of Cooch Behar
The princely state of Cooch Behar merged with the Dominion of India on August 8, 1949 and became a part of the State of West Bengal on January 1, 1950. To go to Cooch Behar, one has to cross Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts, which were also once part of other neighbouring hill kingdoms and annexed by the British. During my[Read More…]
World
Sabotage of Nord Stream Pipe Lines: A new phase of hybrid war
On Tuesday, September 27, Gazprom announced unprecedented damage to the company’s two gas pipelines that run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to Germany – Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. Almost immediately, this information was confirmed by the Danes, in whose exclusive economic space near the island of Bornholm the accident occurred. Then the Swedish seismologists spoke about[Read More…]
Globalisation
How the policies of globalization exploited the resources and economy of the developing countries
In last five decade of twentieth century has been perhaps the most remarkable in period of human history in terms of scientific development as we have unlocked countless secrets. In this same period saw the creation of institution of global governance: the United Nations, the International monetary fund, the world bank, and the GATT which turned into World trade organization.[Read More…]
Human Rights
UAPA: Criminalising Dissent and State Terror – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009 – 2022
We are happy in releasing to the public the first part of the study of how the Indian state has weaponised the UAPA law against anyone who dares to challenge the Indian state and assert their fundamental rights to information, association, dissent and democracy. As part of the Campaign to repeal the UAPA, we had undertaken to study the[Read More…]
Imperialism
Why Foreign Military Bases of USA Should be Reduced Significantly
Soon after the Second World War ended, the British government with its vast colonial empire made significant territorial concessions to the USA which could facilitate the rapid spread of USA military bases in many parts of the world. In addition of course the defeated Axis countries and their territories could provide another suitable place for the rapid proliferation of the[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
Leicester Spells “Communal” Tension For British Society?
Who is to be blamed for ongoing tension in Leicester (United Kingdom) between two groups of people? Given that recent history of this country has not witnessed communal tension of this nature on its own soil, one is prompted to raise questions as to who has failed, where? Understandably, the people responsible for participating in violence and trying to promote[Read More…]
Climate Change
Sea Level Acceleration
This article addresses the most current research on sea level rise, as well as adaptation measures being taken around the world. Of special interest, brilliant adaptation measures are taking place in the face of higher seas. “Sea level has been fairly stable for 6,000 years, which is most of human civilization… but its risen eight (8) inches or twenty (20)[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Why Are Wild Horses Brutally Uprooted From Public Lands While Private Livestock Can Stay?
Every year, thousands of wild horses and burros are chased by helicopters and ripped from their native land in terrifyingly brutal, and often deadly, roundups. After capture, they are corralled in crowded dry lot holding pens, where many contract diseases or injuries and some then die or are killed. Some of the captured wild horses and burros are adopted out or sold[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
GDP is a useless measurement. But what should replace it?
We must place true value on the environment and go beyond gross domestic product as a measure of human progress and well-being,” said United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres in June at Stockholm+50, a meeting convened by the UN to discuss the world’s environmental and ecological crises. It was an astonishing statement. This once-fringe idea of going ‘beyond GDP’ is finally appearing[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
The Project of Capital and the Project of the Proletariat in a time of World Crisis
ABSTRACT This is a response to the two sets of articles written by Sajai Jose on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and on the world’s and India’s hunger crisis. It is in two parts. In the first part it lays the historical background of the response of capital in the face of periodic crises it faces and people’s response to it.[Read More…]
Patriarchy
Right to Bodily Autonomy v/s Right to Life: Is there a just half-way?
The US Supreme Court’s overturning of the Roe vs. Wade judgment which provided a constitutional right to abortion on June 24, 2022, triggered a spark of debates all over the globe. The altercations between advocates of abortion rights (preserving the right to patient choice and bodily autonomy) on one hand and the advocates of the anti-abortion movement (seeking to preserve[Read More…]
Palestine
Will the United Nations Finally Deliver Justice for Palestine?
In his anticipated speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected to, once more, make a passionate plea for the recognition of Palestine as a full member. Abbas’ ‘landmark speech’ would not be the first time that the President of the Palestinian Authority has lobbied for such a status. In September 2011,[Read More…]
South Asia
Nagarkovil Massacre of School Children
On September 22, 1995, a SLAF aircraft bombed the Nagarkovil Maha Vidyalayam schoolyard crammed with 750 children on their lunch break, killing more than 30 – of whom 12 were six or seven-year-olds – and injuring 150 others. The overall death toll from the raids reached 71. The bombing occurred just hours after the Sri Lankan government imposed press censorship[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
Bhojpuri Songs and Branding of Caste Pride
The popularity of Bhojpuri music has grown to reach a wide audience, both in terms of listeners and watchers. Songs, in a sense, are a means through which cultural identities may be asserted. Bhojpuri songs promote certain prejudiced natures and settings in terms of gender, caste, class, and regions, among other categories. Some of the key aspects that are prevalent[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
We Need a New Society, Not More Psychiatric Diagnoses
Are you sad because a bout of Covid-19 disrupted your life with illness, bills, or even the death of a friend or family member? Are you anxious because your benefits have ceased and you can’t find a new job? Are you worried because the brain fog after Covid has persisted so long? Are you angry because you are being evicted[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
Neo-Realist Films on the Lingering Impact of War Devastation
Charlie Chaplin called this the most beautiful Italian film he had ever seen, but then this is also an extremely tragic film. Based on the life of a family in post-Second War Berlin, ‘Germany Year Zero’ (1948) is not a film you can forget easily. War is over, but its devastation lives on in the life of so many people.[Read More…]
Book Review
The Aerodynamics of Velvet: What Owls Can Teach Humans
Owl physiology can help advance technology to address noise pollution—and maybe even help the deaf hear. To the ancient Greeks, the owl symbolized wisdom, but the Romans saw it as an evil omen. Their myths tell of an owl-like strix that stalked the night and preyed on human flesh. Ovid’s poem Fasti describes how such a demon slipped into the nursery of the sleeping[Read More…]
