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World
Blundering American Ambassadors Unmask the War on Terror
We know that U.S. ambassadors tend to be bureaucratic and boring. If you challenge them forcefully, however, the resulting outbursts can provide stunning insights into their ineptitude and State Department policies. Consider the mind-boggling statements made by then-Ambassador to Armenia Richard M. Mills during the Q & A at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Cambridge, MA. I had bluntly questioned[Read More…]
India
Liberalism and Sabarimala: Why Shashi Tharoor is Wrong
Shashi Tharoor, in an article published in The Print on 10th November, has made some arguments against the appropriateness of the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala. In making his case, he criticises the firm position of the Left-led state government on the issue and calls it misplaced. It may be recalled that on 3rd October, the prominent Congress leader had welcomed the judgment and said that “every time[Read More…]
Globalisation
The psychosocial dimension of power: An emotional analysis of the Davos elite’s discourse on globalization
Understanding for intervening Constructivist and psychoanalytic oriented social research provides evidence that human behaviour is driven by the shared meanings of the subjective social experience (Blumer 1969, Mead 1934, Berger and Luckmann 1966, Moscovici 1961, Matte Blanco 1975, Carli 1993). This perspective can be used to understand the cultural drivers underlying the elite’s political and economic action. The understanding of[Read More…]
Human Rights
Crucifying Julian Assange
What is happening to Assange should terrify the press. And yet his plight is met with indifference and sneering contempt. Julian Assange’s sanctuary in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has been transformed into a little shop of horrors. He has been largely cut off from communicating with the outside world for the last seven months. His Ecuadorian citizenship, granted to[Read More…]
Imperialism
Canada’s “Sunny ways”: $160,000 per Yemeni death
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who declared “sunny ways” were back after the last election, continues to waffle on what is to be done about the Khashoggi killing in Turkey by the Saudi Arabians. The problem is being “investigated” and more consultation is to be held. The real problem as presented by CBC news tonight (Monday, November 12, 2018) is[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
Ten years of Kandhamal anti-Christian violence in Odisha
I remember those days when the former prime minister of India late Atal Bihari Vajpayee had suggested for a national debate on conversion though our constitution, even then pointing that the practice of religion is a fundamental right. This was when, he was on an official visit to Dang, Gujarat on 10th January, 1999. Here,religious violence were taking place[Read More…]
Climate Change
How to Process Climate Grief Over the California Wildfires
I follow the weather obsessively, but I can’t remember any other time in modern American history when a town of more than 25,000 people was demolished in just six hours, like Paradise, California, was. Maybe Homestead, Florida, during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 — but Homestead at least had a few days warning. Maybe Moore, Oklahoma, which suffered four devastating tornadoes between 1999 and[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Forceful land acquisition and government brutalities define Jharkhand’s Adani power-plant project
With much fanfare, Jharkhand government signed an MoU with Adani groups in 2016 to setup a powerplant in Godda district. A recent fact-finding visit of members of Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, an umbrella network of more than 30 people’s organisations, found that this project has gathered several accolades in the last two years – forceful acquisition of land, severe violation of[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
Who is Safe from Amazon? Worldwide Store Closings
Amazon has reached the far corners of the earth… and the highest elevations. Delivery men venture 11,562 feet up in the Himalayas to leave a package. While the company may serve a useful purpose in remote regions, its phenomenal growth also reveals that no town is immune from its less desirable consequences. The online retailer’s omnipresence has been all too apparent in[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
Why we get bad diagnoses for the world’s energy-economy problems
The world economy seems to be seriously ill. The problem is not overly high oil prices, but that does not rule out energy as being a major underlying problem. Two of the symptoms of the economy’s malaise are slow wage growth and increasing wage disparity. Tariffs are being added as solutions to these issues. Radical leaders are increasingly being elected.[Read More…]
Alternative Energy
Can New Energy Technologies Save the Planet? Ask the Sperm Whale
An oilman, a green techie and a sperm whale walked into a bar. They got to drinking and, inevitably, boasting. The oilman looked at the whale and declared that if it hadn’t been for fossil fuels, all 75 species of whales would have been hunted to extinction for oil. “My industry and its technology saved your large ass.” The greenie[Read More…]
Patriarchy
MeToo India: A Small Step For A Long Way Ahead
While sifting through my Instagram feeds, I accidently stumbled upon a weird video of the actress Rakhi Sawant in which she wears a chain and a lock around her waist. In the video, she mocks every other woman coming out with the stories of the sexual abuse suffered at the hands of men and disparagingly suggests women to wear a[Read More…]
Palestine
US- , Apartheid Israel- And Zionist-beholden Australian Government & ABC Betray Australia’s Reputation & International Relations
Australia has an appalling 70 year record, surpassed only by the US, of support for genocidally racist Apartheid Israel and hence of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide that commenced with the British invasion of Palestine in WW1. Recently the fervently pro-Zionist and hence pro-Apartheid Australian Coalition Government caused suspension of the signing a major Free Trade Agreement with Indonesia (the world’s most[Read More…]
Kashmir
Shrinking Political Space In Kashmir!
(For last few years the political space in Kashmir has been gradually made to shrink and now even the so called “mainstream” is being squeezed out!) Recently Omar Abdullah in an interview said that the political space for main stream parties has shrunk in Kashmir. One could ask him whether there ever was real political space in Kashmir any time[Read More…]
South Asia
In another anti-democratic act, Sri Lankan president dissolves parliament
Yesterday Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena blatantly violated the country’s constitution and dissolved parliament almost two years before its term officially ends. According to the gazette notification issued last night, new elections will be held on January 5 and the new parliament convened on January 17. Sirisena’s anti-democratic actions came just two weeks after he sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
RSS/BJP And The Shudra Neo-Slaves
What is the status of Shudras who constitute the largest social bloc in India? In the North India, the Yadavs, Kurmis of Bihar, Yadavs and Jats of Uttar Pradesh, Gujjars of Rajsthan, the Shudras of Bengal, who are still outside the bracket of Bhadralok, the Patels of Gujarat, Marathas and Kumbis of Maharashtra, Lingayats, Vakkalingas of Karanataka, Nairs and Menons[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Baselines for Activism: Brecht’s Stance, the New Science, and Planting Seeds
I’ve often wondered about the limits of activist’s reach and the lack of coherent, organized progressive social movements in the US. Does it come down to the precarious nature of our jobs, the stress, strain, and exhaustion caused by the realization of being a paycheck away from penury? Or is it all the fault of our monopolistic media, with the[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
The paradoxical anomaly – DEATH
The death of morality….
the death of reasoning ….
The death of rationality ….
I am bizzare I am death !
Book Review
Working class and the power of capital
The working class, if it decides to win in class struggle, has to assess the power of capital. Without this assessment, the struggles the working class carries on against capital turn to adventurism or capitulation or puerile disorder. Consequently, the struggle lurches in a political wilderness, or, resorts to individual heroism, formulating programs that reach the level of utopia, produce[Read More…]
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