Fascism: Classical and present form...
In recent times, the term ‘fascism’ has become...
Environment
Featured Stories
World
Revive the Role of Trust in Economy and Politics
The pandemic driven lockdowns have triggered worldwide growth of unemployment, hunger, homelessness and poverty. The speed of economic descent in world economy is extraordinary. The world is sleep walking into greater economic depression of the century and its impacts will reverberate for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led economic crisis has been used by ruling and non-ruling classes to reconfigured the[Read More…]
India
Modi’s India has lost Kashmir
While ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured people that the time had now come when gold would grow instead of grass, milk canals would flow in exchange for water in the rivers and springs and the skies would sight flight of Kashmiris not the birds. Article 370 of the[Read More…]
Globalisation
Globalisation of Capitalist Crises
The post pandemic economic recovery looks uncertain and the economic growth projections look gloomy in every stretch of policy paradigm within capitalist imaginations. The strong and existing multilateral cooperation within the Westphalian international system is falling apart and facing its existential threats due to its entrenched Eurocentric bias, democratic deficits and institutional dominance by the erstwhile colonial powers. The world[Read More…]
Human Rights
On Community Control of Police: An interview with M Adams
The nationwide uprising against police brutality has completely changed the conversation around policing and safety. The demand to defund police which would have been deemed unthinkable in the mainstream not long ago, but are now being taken up as official policy in towns and cities across the country. At this moment, it is crucial to expand the conversation to include[Read More…]
Imperialism
Selective Maritime Rules: The United States, Diego Garcia and International Law
There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People’s Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations. In July, Mike Pompeo released a statement putting any uncertain minds at ease on where Washington stood on the matter. “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
India’s Composite Culture and Muslim Stalwarts
Contrary to present impression that Muslims are separatists due to whom the partition of India took place, the truth is that majority of Muslims contributed to freedom movement and upheld India’s composite culture in equal measure. The partition process, mainly due to British policy of ‘divide and rule’ well assisted by Hindu and Muslim communalists is being hidden from the[Read More…]
Climate Change
The World on Fire
Massive uncontrolled unprecedented wild fires are consuming portions of the Amazon rainforest and several regions of the Arctic. Somebody somewhere must be asking why all of a sudden in unison, all over creation, two of the planets largest ecosystems are going up in smoke. It’s eerily spine chilling. “Major fires have hit the Amazon and the Arctic for the second[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Pushing GMO Crops Into India: Experts Debunk High-Level Claims of Bt Cotton Success
On 6 July 2020, an article extolling the benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops appeared on the BloombergQuint website based on an interview with Dr Ramesh Chand, a member of the key Indian Government think tank Niti Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) . On 17 July, another piece that placed a positive spin on GM crops and gene editing[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy
Co-Written by Emily Kawano and Julie Matthaei The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our world. It has laid bare the inequity, the limits, and the failures of capitalism. The door to a better future beyond capitalism, already cracked open by the Great Recession, has been pushed open a little wider. Things that seemed impossible a few months ago now seem both[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
Business-as-usual porn – or, We need to talk about collapse
I think we need to talk openly and calmly about the possibility of societal or civilizational collapse arising from humanity’s present predicaments. And that’s mostly what I want to pursue in this post – not so much what the likelihood or the underlying mechanisms of collapse might be, but the idea that it would be useful if, as a society,[Read More…]
Alternative Energy
SMART? – Solar In Massachusetts
Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) will finalize by July 15 regulations doubling the size of MA SMART solar photovoltaic program from 1,600 to 3,200 megawatts (MW). On the surface this is a reasonable, if limited, step forward. But like most things, the devil and long-term consequences are in the details. Unless changed by DOER, or the legislature, the latest[Read More…]
Patriarchy
Growing up as a girl in rural India: What does it mean?
Adolescence or teenage is that critical phase when one transitions from childhood to adulthood. It is marked by important biological changes and the onset of puberty. This ‘growing up’ is also about experiencing the joys and challenges of youth. However, for many girls especially those living in rural India, growing up in patriarchal socio-cultural set ups also signifies the[Read More…]
Palestine
Apartheid or One State: Has Jordan Broken a Political Taboo?
What will it take for the idea of a two-state solution, which was hardly practical to begin with, to be completely abandoned? Every realistic assessment of the situation on the ground indicates, with palpable clarity, that there can never be a viable Palestinian state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Politically, the idea is also untenable. Those who[Read More…]
South Asia
Peace process in Afghanistan: En route to failure?
The ongoing peace process provided an opportunity for Afghan factions to unite and undo all the wrongs committed against them in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the internal strife of Afghanis has again prevailed over this opportunity. Explicitly, compelled by the upcoming election promise, the US wishes to withdraw forces from Afghanistan. China and Pakistan are earnestly pushing the peace[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
Commemorations of the Bhima Koregaon Battle Are a Reminder that Colonialism in India Predates the Arrival of the British
The Bhima Koregaon battle took place on 1 January 1818 between a contingent of the East India Company army mainly consisting of soldiers belonging to the Mahar caste (one of the many “untouchable” castes in India whose members are today known as Dalits) and the army of the Peshwas, who were the rulers of the Maratha confederacy. The Peshwa army[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Rising Suicidal Tendencies Among Teenagers
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults worldwide. Close to 800 000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is a global phenomenon and occurs throughout the lifespan. Studies from India consistently document the highest suicide rates in the world, and the majority of completed suicides had been[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
Philosophers Of Patience
Fifty two years ago, on 20th August, Russian tanks moved into Prague to suppress what has passed into history as the ‘Spring of 1968’ when artists, intellectuals, public personalities and reforms-minded politicians joined hands in an attempt to secure freedom of expression. Among the sufferers was the great long-distance runner, Emil Zatopek, who was dismissed from his senior position[Read More…]
Book Review
How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs
How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs. Elizabeth F. Thomson. Atlantic Monthly Press, NewYork, 2020. Having just read The War That Ended Peace [https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-war-that-ended-peace-book-review/] the title How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs appeared as an intriguing and fortuitous follow up. Its subtitle describes its more narrow focus: The Syrian-Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of[Read More…]
