‘Toofan Aur Deeya’ (Storm and L...
Binu Mathew, the editor of Countercurrents.org...
Featured Stories
India
Bulli Bai App: PEC demands actions against online abusers of women scribes
Geneva: Expressing shock over the repeated incident of targeting women, including many Indian scribes in social media, the global media safety and rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) demands proper actions against the individuals behind the ‘Bulli Bai’ online application. It may be mentioned that over a hundred women, largely Muslim personalities, were listed with doctored photographs in the app[Read More…]
COVID Response Watch
Kolkata’s domestic workers were worst hit by Covid lockdowns
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the working class suffered the most. And, among the working class, the worst off were those who are not even recognized as the organized working class – domestic helps. When the lockdown began in March 2020 these helps – mostly women – faced a tremendous problem. First of all, they had trouble commuting daily to the[Read More…]
World
The American polity is cracked, and might collapse
By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship. We mustn’t dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible to imagine. In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone[Read More…]
Globalisation
Time for India and other developing nations to quit WTO
The 12th ministerial conference (MC12) of the World Trade Organization will take place from November 30 to December 3, 2021 at Geneva, Switzerland. The negotiation note distributed on the different issues on the agenda shows that the WTO is a developed countries’ club. Developing and least developed countries will be the losers if they align with this organization. The WTO[Read More…]
Human Rights
Speaking Out!
How is anyone responsible for being born where he/she has been and the identity attached to his/her personality primarily because of his/her birth? Whatever is any person’s identity, why is any bias being practiced towards him/her primarily because of this? But this is still happening at this very moment. Prospects of this inhumane trend coming to an end in near[Read More…]
Imperialism
The War on Terror Is a Success — for Terror
Terrorist Groups Have Doubled Since the Passage of the 2001 AUMF It began more than two decades ago. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror” and told a joint session of Congress (and the American people) that “the course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain.” If he meant a 20-year slide to defeat[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam: Uniting India
‘Unity in Diversity’ has been a major phrase which I picked up during my school days. Enjoying Ramlila for ten days before Vijayadhami ran parallel to seeing the Tazia processions, to the Jains processions with slogans Vande Viram (Hail Lord Mahavira), the celebrations of dalits on the day when Babasaheb Ambedkar embraced Buddhism, and the celebration of Christmas with college[Read More…]
Climate Change
Climate Chaos: What to Learn From 2021
To keep acting as if there wasn’t war declared against the planet and humanity is to accept we are already defeated. Continuing to play their game can only guarantee collapse. It’s time to flip the table. This year we saw some of the consequences of the climate crisis devastating rich countries in the Northern Hemisphere. This didn’t lead to any political[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Killing Nature Must Be Treated as a Crime on a Par with Genocide and War Crimes
Ecocide must be elevated into an international crime—on a par with genocide and war crimes—and fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The first United Nations Scientific Conference on the Environment, also known as the First Earth Summit, was held in Stockholm, Sweden, from June 6-15, 1972. Ιt established a Declaration of Principles and adopted an action plan with recommendations for[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
Debunking the Eternal Economic Growth Model
Can those who advocate hitting the brakes on economic growth get their message across before it’s too late? Over the last three decades, a growing number of scientists and ecologists have argued that economic growth has long outstripped the capacity of the planetary ecosystem. They have developed numerous sophisticated models to demonstrate their point. They have boiled down the technical information—about[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
Disempowering Beauty Pageants
The 70th Miss Universe pageant was held recently in Eilat, Israel and there is a lot of celebratory chatter going on. After 21 years another Indian, Harnaaz Sandhu has won the crown. The celebration is for Chandigarh’s daughter having won the title. The last time an Indian won the said beauty pageant was 21 years ago — when Lara Dutta[Read More…]
Palestine
As Israel Plots Endgame in Occupied Golan, Bennett Must Remember Lessons of the Past
With Syria still embroiled in its own war, Israel has been actively rewriting the rule book regarding its conduct in this Arab country. Gone are the days of a potential return of the illegally occupied Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty in exchange for peace, per the language of yesteryears. Now, Israel is set to double its illegal Jewish settler population[Read More…]
South Asia
Sri Lanka: Activating the dormant 13th amendment of 1987
The 1987 13th Amendment, a conceived and delivered baby of India under the Indo/Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 for adoption by Sri Lanka has been lying in the constitution of Sri Lanka partly implemented and mostly ignored by the Sri Lankan Governments since then. This 13th Amendment is now activated and given new life and blood by the Tamil leaders[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
The Shudra/OBC Delhi Declaration
On 21 December, 2021 a majorNational Shudra/OBC conclave took place in Delhi Talkatora stadium with hundreds of Shudra/OBC activists, intellectuals and political leaders across the parties, different universities and civil societal organizations gathered. They put out the first ever Shudra/OBC declaration, which has a historical significance for the nation . After the historic farmers struggle, which essentially was a Shudra/OBC[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Before and Without Marx
Some peoples possess shamans to explain how the world works. We have charlatan economists and politicians posing as intellectuals who claim to be able to reveal the mystery of running society. The ideas of Marx did not arise out of thin air but were grew from the works of many others before him. But the purpose of this short essay is not to explore[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
Ten Great Songs of Hope from Hindi Cinema
by Madhu and Bharat Dogra Songs of hope are always good but these become even better and more relevant in difficult times. This may thus be a good time to remember some of the greatest songs of hope from Hindi cinema. These became hugely popular at the time of their release and are still remembered and hummed by a very[Read More…]
Book Review
Bright Green Lies Torpedoes Greens
Bright Green Lies (Monkfish Book Publishing, 2021) grumbles and growls like a rambunctious thunderstorm on an early spring day opening up darkened clouds of acid rain across the world of environmentalism, including celebrated personalities. According to Bright Green Lies authors Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert: “We are writing this book because we want our environmental movement back.” As[Read More…]
