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World
Readying Knives: The Mortality of Australian Prime Ministers
The opinion poll prime ministership is a modern Australian disease. Not only does it suggest an ailing in the Westminster system, but a profound contempt for the democratic sensibility on the part of party representatives, hacks and the industry that supports them. Prime Ministers are merely the icing, to be whipped off and replaced on going stale. Little wonder that[Read More…]
India
Kerala Floods: Operation Chlorine Tablet, Operation Bleaching Powder Needed
I am making a few suggestions in the wake of monumental tragedy caused by floods in Kerala. Apart from whatever the administration is doing to contain epidemic of water borne diseases, stress should be on two very simple steps: The Kerala government could announce and initiate on a war footing ‘Operation Chlorine Tablet’ The Kerala government could announce and initiate[Read More…]
Globalisation
Walmart’s backdoor entry
US retail giant Walmart bought 77 per cent stake in Indian online website Flipkart in a $16 billion deal. India does not allow retail monoplies like Walmart to enter Indian market. Walmart’s acquisition of Flikart is seen as a back door entry which may put thousands of small vendors out of business. Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist. https://www.facebook.com/Ferraodesigns
Human Rights
Dr. Kafeel Khan and UP government apathy towards children
While speaking on Independence day, the PM announced launching of the world’s largest Healthcare scheme ( Ayushman Bharat Yojana) , little was mentioned about the pathetic medical facilities in hospitals in the country. Gorakhpur incidents are still fresh in peoples’ memories. BRD Hospital and Khan When children were dying of encephalitis, the doctor in charge of the ward tried his[Read More…]
Imperialism
Military Parade Cancelled, How Does Peace Movement Build On This Victory?
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers This week, the Trump military parade, planned for November 10, was canceled for 2018. In February, a coalition of groups went public, announcing we would organize to stop the military parade and, if it went forward, to mobilize more people at the parade calling for peace and an end to war than supporting militarism. The coalition[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
Hindutva terrorism on the Prowl in India
The ugly face of Hindutva terrorism has once again come to limelight with the arrest of three persons in Maharashtra for conspiring to carry out “terror activities” in several of places of the state. According to Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), it has recovered 22 items from the accused home in Pune. These include; 20 crude bombs, two gelatine sheets, a note[Read More…]
Climate Change
Undeniable Human Agency in Climate Change While Disasters Multiply
To be rational is to know that weather events cannot be causally related to climate change, although exacerbation is another issue. Yet when the news is full of record setting fires in California and Greece and Australia, temperature records tumbling, and typhoons and hurricanes relentless in their intensity, one might be forgiven for wondering. Those who are not climate scientists[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Reclaiming Democracy
Media release by Heather Stroud before her trial at York Magistrates Court on 30th August for chaining herself to the gate at Third Energy Fracking Site at Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, UK (30th January 2018). An earlier trial scheduled for 16th July was adjourned due to the Court copy of the defence ‘harms evidence documents’ , submitted in June, being[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
Systems Thinking and How It Can Help Build a Sustainable World
In Brief Humanity stands at a precipice. Overpopulation, resource scarcities, degraded ecosystem functioning from pollution and biodiversity loss, and anthropogenic climate change are damaging the life-supporting capacity of the planet. Diminishing returns on fossil fuel energy investments, combined with their dwindling availability and environmental harm, threaten industrial civilization. Many people recognize the need to transition to sustainable, resilient ways of[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
How the World Elites are Going to Betray us: Lessons from Roman History
The more I study the story of the Roman Empire, the more I see the similarities with our world. Of course, history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it is impressive to note how with the start of the collapse of the Western Empire, the Roman elites abandoned the people to build themselves strongholds in safe places. Something similar may be[Read More…]
Alternative Energy
Exponential Growth Towards a Sustainable Future: the Limits of Solar Panel and Wind Turbine Production
Many people, including myself, fear that the great acceleration (1, 2) of our consumption and destruction of resources such as land, biodiversity, soil, minerals, and fossil energy sources, could lead us into a catastrophe. Other people point out the positive side of near-exponential growth in various fields: renewable energy production, “biotechnology and bioinformatics; computational systems; networks and sensors; artificial intelligence; robotics;[Read More…]
Patriarchy
Shelter Homes or Hell Holes ?
Jabbar Patel’s ” Subah ” in Hindi & ” Umbartha ” in Marathi was a film, which won many awards. In that movie, Smita Patil plays the role of the in charge of a shelter home for women. She discovers that a local MLA has been abusing the inmates of the home for his lust.Umbartha was released way back in 1982. Jabbar Patel knew, about the[Read More…]
Palestine
Israel normalizing war crimes in Gaza
Gaza’s fuel crisis remains unresolved a week after a United Nations humanitarian official warned that hospitals and water sanitation facilities would soon shut down as a result. “Despite our continued engagement with the concerned bodies, we have not encountered any preparations to contain the fuel crisis that threatens health services and facilities in the Gaza Strip,” the health ministry in the territory stated on[Read More…]
Kashmir
The Cup of “Poison”!
(The cup of poison called “Hemlock” which Socrates was forced to drink has always turned out to be the cup of the “Water of Life” for the mainstream politicians of Kashmir!) The former Chief Minister after losing the seat of power by sudden and unannounced withdrawal of support by BJP to her coalition government declared that the initial alliance with[Read More…]
South Asia
Pakistan at a crossroads as Imran Khan is sworn in
Criticism of Pakistan’s anti-money laundering and terrorism finance regime by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) is likely to complicate incoming Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s efforts to tackle his country’s financial crisis. Addressing the criticism of the 41-nation APG, which reports to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism watchdog that earlier[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
Celebrate Mandal day with introspection
Today is a historic day and must be celebrated by all those who believe in social justice. On this day in 1990, the then Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, accepted the recommendations of the Mandal Commission Report in Parliament. The hero of the nation, a man of great integrity in his own personal life, V P Singh became the biggest[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
A Tribute to Samir Amin
200 years after Marx’s birth, 101 years after the October revolution, and 50 years after thetumult of 1968, Samir Amin is dead. To the torrent of tributes that is surely pouring in at this time, I would like to add my own reflections on my engagement with Amin’s life and work.Due to the timing with which I came into contact[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
A Writer’s Last Port of Call: V.S. Naipaul
V. S. Naipaul, the Nobel winning author who just died, was, like so many people, an enigma, at least in his writing. Lauded for his prose style and exquisite way with words, he was seriously criticized for his demeaning of Islam, women, Africans, and others in post-colonial countries, including the Caribbean from whence he came. Such criticism was amply justified. [Read More…]
Book Review
Zinnophobia: The Battle over History in Education, Politics and Scholarship by David Detmer
Zinnophobia: The Battle over History in Education, Politics and Scholarship by David DetmerWashington, DC: Zero Books, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-78535-678-0 (pbk) It is rare to get an intelligent, well-sourced and coherent discussion of issuestodaysuch as the role of history in education, politics and scholarship, but David Detmer of Purdue University Northwest has provided such with this book. Detmer has very carefully[Read More…]
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