Is a war in the making — a third world war? If there is much talk about such a possibility, it is mainly because of the tensions between the United States and Russia. Tensions between the two most powerful nuclear states in the world have never been this high since the end of the Cold War in 1989 and[Read More…]
The Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is one of the first international instruments to include the term ‘climate justice’. While the notion of justice has been explored in several contexts – purely legal, economic, and social –, the visible effects of climate change, most notably in the form of extreme weather events, have[Read More…]
In its 10th years of existence, WikiLeaks has been at the center of controversy. Ever since its global debut with the 2010 Apache helicopter gun-sight video depicting the killing of civilians in Baghdad, the whistleblowing site has consistently exposed the naked power of empire for the world to see. As a result, the organization has been subject to relentless retaliation.[Read More…]
A cascade of developments should make us afraid of what seems to be emerging politically in the United States at this time. Although politicians keep telling us how great we were or will be or are. Donald Trump has ridden a wave of populist enthusiasm touting his brand with the slogan ‘make America great again’ emblazoned. One wonders whether he[Read More…]
Wikileaks’ released emails prove Hillary knew US close allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar were funding/equipping ISIS while Americans were also being murdered by ISIS, show her pretending Saudis and others were not from the beginning part of US conspiracy to create a fanatical Islamic state in order to destroy Syria and the Shiite government in Iraq. Why this is NOT[Read More…]
There were strong signs last year that the public was ready to repudiate both establishment parties, but the cream rose to the top. A billionaire who brags about being rich and a billionaire-in-training. Their parties deserve to have them. Before that water went under the bridge there was a third way. The one Sanders didn’t take. To get attention he[Read More…]
“The function of ethics is not even so much to insist upon the defects of man, and to reproach him with his ‘sins,’ as to act in the positive direction, by appealing to man’s best instincts.”[1] Those best instincts are the very ones that urge us to engage in acts of mutual-aid, justice, and self-sacrifice. Peter Kropotkin writes that nature is[Read More…]
Twitter’s recent travails in the market have created a very strange sensation in me- for once I actually like the company. Though I’m a marketer, I don’t really use Twitter. I tried once- years ago- and found it to be too distracting. I also succumbed to the problem of Tweeting and “responding” for the sake of doing it. I[Read More…]
Mention Gandhi in certain circles and the response might be one of cynicism: his ideas are outdated and irrelevant in today’s world. Such a response could not be further from the truth. Gandhi could see the future impact of large-scale industrialization in terms of the devastation of the environment, the destruction of ecology and the unsustainable plunder of natural resources.[Read More…]
Human right groups are alarmed at the spate of deaths of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers in the custody of para-military force in Karachi. The MQM has called these brutal deaths as extra-judicial killings. On September 30, Syed Abdul Naveed, a MQM worker who was killed in the custody of para-military force. According to MQM sources, Naveed was brutally[Read More…]
Kerala becomes 60 years old on 1st November. Over the past 60 years, this Indian state has witnessed phenomenal changes in politics, economy and ecology. Such changes may be true for other Indian states too. Individuals, groups, and communities everywhere in Indiaare indeed changing. But the trajectory of change for the women in Keralais different – both as ‘change makers’[Read More…]
A recent version of displaying nationalism is the call to boycott Chinese products. The appeal would have acquired nationalistic sense if it would have been guided by the desire to protect the local producers and workers in India. But the call for boycott is only because of Chinese position on Kashmir. Using the same logic, will the same nationalism be[Read More…]
Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million. —Jean-Jacques Rousseau The 21st century poses many challenges that require new ways of thinking, none more important than the economic role of women in a rapidly changing world. Over the last several decades, it has become accepted wisdom that improving the[Read More…]
The worst sufferers of social discrimination in today’s India are the Other Backward Castes (O.B.C.) This is because, after the exit of the British, instead of equal opportunities, their share, in both the political and administrative power, had been almost entirely eaten by the higher castes, especially the Brahmins. As per the Mandal Commission Report, O.B.C.s are 52% of the[Read More…]
India is a country of villages. Accordind to 2011 Census it has got 6,40,867 villages. According to the same Census out of a total population of 121 crores 83.3 crores live in villages and 37.7 crores live in cities. As such nearly 70% population of this country is rural and 30% only is urban. Out of the total 24.39 crore[Read More…]
The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions. In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade –[Read More…]
US-backed Islamist rebels, dominated by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, launched a counteroffensive against Syrian government troops Friday in Aleppo. The offensive was preceded by the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in government-controlled western Aleppo. Russian General Sergei Rudskoi reported that 43 civilians were killed and 96 wounded in the days prior to the offensive in rocket and mortar attacks.[Read More…]
In a military-diplomatic move Russian President Vladimir Putin has not accepted the advice of his military staff that attacks on Aleppo be restarted which have been stopped by the Russian forces. The strikes were started on 22 September in order to evacuate the eastern Aleppo from the hold of the terrorists who are in opposition to Assad government and has[Read More…]
First, the context in which the issue of war against Russia is being raised: Syria’s government is allied with Russia’s government, and ‘The West’ is trying to overthrow Syria’s government and is bringing into Syria, and arming, tens of thousands of jihadists there, as the footsoldiers to do it. Syria and Russia are bombing the people that we are[Read More…]
This morning, politics is crowded out by injustice. Every preposterous and painful image from North Dakota is another reminder of injustice: The massive military-style police occupation of Standing Rock treaty lands, the rush to protect the frantic construction schedule for the Dakota Access pipeline, and the brutal law enforcement march against people who are fighting for the simple idea that water[Read More…]
Playing off of John Reed’s classic work about the Russian Revolution, I picked my title because of something that was whispered to me today by folks on the inside, who claim that the Justice Department’s new focus on Hillary’s past faux past with emails did not rear its troubling (for the Clinton candidacy) head by chance. With ten days left[Read More…]
In the US, the political system has now disgorged two candidates the citizenry cannot be less enthusiastic about. Driven by ambition more than a love of the people or a sincere desire to serve, one can be forgiven for wondering if they are just as trapped by their motivations as the public in its two-party myopia. No authentic leader among[Read More…]
Last week, millions of Americans spent hours without their favorite websites after a series of cyber attacks hit crucial internet infrastructure. Dyn, a prominent internet performance management company, was hit by a wave of distributed denial-of-service attacks that left Twitter, Netflix, Paypal, and other major websites inaccessible. Though a relatively unknown hacker group called The New World Hackers claimed responsibility[Read More…]
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCCU) — Protesters lined up outside the University of Illinois Law School Friday. An anti-war group who expressed their concerns about guest speaker Harold Koh, who they believe is an advocate toward violence. Koh served as a Dean at Yale Law School and spent four years as the 22nd Legal Advisor of the United States. “He is an[Read More…]
GENEVA (28 October 2016) – The trade deal set to be signed by the European Union and Canada is a corporate-driven, fundamentally flawed treaty which should not be signed or ratified without a referendum in each country concerned, a United Nations human rights expert says. Alfred de Zayas, the UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international[Read More…]
Amid mounting anger against the US-client government of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi because of tax rises, soaring food prices, inflation and cuts in state subsidies, a kangaroo court in Cairo has confirmed a 20-year prison sentence against Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically elected President who was deposed by Al-Sisi in July 2013. In April 2015, a Cairo court had[Read More…]
In one of its recent reporting the Guardian reports that at the entrance to Thaungtan village in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta a brand-new signasserts, “No Muslims allowed to stay overnight. No Muslims allowed rent houses. No marriage with Muslims.” Al-Jajeera also reports of similar rise in systematic eviction, rape, loot and arson of Rohingyas (the Muslim ethnic minority of Myanmar’s Delta)[Read More…]
India has yet again denounced Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) call to settle Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN resolution, a stand which the organization has consistently taken and regularly renewed . In the past also, India has treated such calls with disdain either by charging the organization to act at the behest of Pakistan or on the[Read More…]
On 27th October 2016 several organisations in Delhi came together in protest at Jantar Mantar demanding restoration of civil liberties and democratic rights in Kashmir. People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) affirms its solidarity with the people of Kashmir who have been battling a state of siege for over 100 days. In 111 days, since July 8th, the aged, the infants,[Read More…]
In a historical vote a United Nations General Assembly committee voted to launch negotiations on a new treaty banning nuclear weapons. It was for the first time in its 71 year history that the global body voted to begin negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. The resolution was presented by Austria, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and Brazil.[Read More…]
President Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union and recipient of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, has appealed to world leaders to reduce the dangerous the tensions which today threaten to plunge human civilization and the biosphere into an all-destroying nuclear war. In an October 10 interview with RIA Novosti, Gorbachev said: “I think the world has reached[Read More…]
Arrests have begun at the recently erected frontline camp in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), as police and military move in on Indigenous water protectors and their allies in North Dakota. With law enforcement seemingly interfering with cell signal, it is difficult to get a live feed from the ground. Some social media users were able to[Read More…]
No one likes being lectured, and when it comes in the form of Gallic smugness delivered from literally the left of centre, it can grate. The equally smug social engineers and commentators who see their society as an exemplar to emulate find that hardest to stomach. Thomas Piketty, repeatedly introduced as a “rock star” economist by those short of words,[Read More…]
Of course, one of Hillary Clinton’s proudest claims is that as the U.S. Secretary of State she championed reproductive choice throughout the world. She championed it in words, but her actions were sometimes in the opposite direction, and there is perhaps no nation where her actions as the U.S. Secretary of State had a bigger impact than Honduras, which[Read More…]
The Prime Minister recently made a statement that he can’t allow lives of Muslim women to be ruined by Triple Talaq. He tried to pass on the message that he stands with women from minority communities on issues of gender justice. Saffron brigade as a whole has been consistently arguing for Uniform Civil Code. In this process, the Uniform Civil[Read More…]
We all constantly hear the lament of how our education system is in a mess. Education today is no more about exploring new ideas, seeking multiple forms of knowledge and an eagerness to get introduced to hitherto unknown terrains of intellectual wealth. Job security precludes the possibility of[Read More…]
Universalizing education involves issues of both distributive justice and quality. While former embodies education to reach to the marginalized, later counts for education of comparable and meaningful quality. Indian school education system is among the largest with almost 26 Crore children enrolled in class I to XII. In the last decades education system in the country has witnessed a huge[Read More…]
NATO defense ministers convened a two-day meeting in Brussels Wednesday to thrash out final plans for the deployment of some 4,000 combat troops organized in four battle groups within striking distance of Russia’s border. These front-line forces are to be backed by a 40,000-strong rapid reaction force capable of going into battle within days. The plan represents the largest military[Read More…]
It’s been a long run, coal, but your reign is over. Renewable energy sources have passed coal as the largest new source of electricity in the world, according data released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The transition of the world’s energy sources is critical for avoiding a 2°C rise in global temperatures. Coal, for instance, represented about a[Read More…]
PUDR strongly condemns the burning of the effigies of activists and a journalist by the Chhatissgarh Auxiliary police force across Bastar in a widely publicised ‘offical protest on 24th October. This show of strength by state forces against civilians was the latest and most brazen example of the patronage extended by the government and its systematic fostering of a Police[Read More…]
The decision whether to allow the commercialisation of the first genetically modified (GM) food crop (mustard) in India rumbles on. As I have previously discussed here, the bottom line is government collusion over GM crop technology (that is not wanted and not needed) with transnational agribusiness, which is trying to hide in the background. The real story behind GM mustard in India[Read More…]
Ahwazi human rights activists have reported the murder of a three-year-old girl, Raghad Abbas (pictured), who died instantly on being shot through the heart as she sat in the back of her parents’ car when Iranian security forces opened fire indiscriminately on the vehicle on Monday October 24th. Her father, Abbas Hassan Mashal Al-Sari, aged 41, who was driving the[Read More…]
Meet Xkqfbl. He is a Martian. He can pronounce his name, but we can’t. So we’ll call him “Marty.” Marty is very interested in us earthlings. Moreover, his interest is entirely benevolent. Because he cannot live on our planet — our gravity and atmosphere forbid it — and because he has no use for our natural resources, Marty has no[Read More…]
History should tell us that writing scolding, even scornful letters, to electorates as part of a conversation for persuasion do not work. They are even less effective when coming from outside that electorate, however well-intentioned. Non-voters should be careful to judge and lecture. Consider the attempt on the part of The Guardian to mount its electoral high horse prior to[Read More…]
Did Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, actually read the full text of the UNESCO resolution on Palestine and Israel, before he raved with anger? “I think this is a mistaken, inconceivable resolution,” he said. “It is not possible to continue with these resolutions at the UN and UNESCO that aim to attack Israel. It is shocking and I have ordered[Read More…]
The Chief Executive of the State having all the residuary powers under the constitution and presiding over the destiny of the millions of the state subjects has to be honest and decisive rather than apologetic and demeaning The Chief Minister, who is at present the Chief Executive of the State, in a Police function “pleaded” before the Police to spare[Read More…]
The Central government’s decision to conduct a socio-economic caste census (SECC) was a ray of hope for many marginalised classes, especially for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as it is the most populous among them. This work was completed about two years ago and it is being released in dribs and drabs. So the main question over which we have to[Read More…]
Okay! So, you are laughing. Good! I love to make people happy and after all we all have our right to fantasize. The question I asked myself was, ‘If I were to be invited to advise the AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board ) at this rather heated moment, what would I say?’ Key word? IF. Please don’t get[Read More…]
With the US-led offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS), there are increasing reports of death and suffering on the part of Iraqi civilians caught up in the fighting and facing retribution from both ISIS and troops and militias loyal to Baghdad. Abdul-Ghani Asadi, the commander of the Iraqi army’s anti-terrorism contingent, reported Monday that Iraqi artillery has[Read More…]
Emminent Indian journalist and author, Ms. Rana Ayyub’s talk at the Indian Cultural Centre, Doha on October 22nd was allegedly cancelled by the Embassy of India, Doha, at the very last minute. Alleging stifle of freedom of expression at the behest of the Government of India, Rana took to social media to vent her irk and made the news[Read More…]
How should a socially committed communist react when his or her leaders are working for the capitalists? This seems to be a question for a number of sensitive communists in Kerala. Karl Marx envisaged the restructuring of the control of means of production in the economic process of society where by the the means of production will be controlled by[Read More…]
Punishment is a popular pastime for humans. Parents punish children. Teachers punish students. Employers punish workers. Courts punish lawbreakers. People punish each other. Governments punish ‘enemies’. And, according to some, God punishes evildoers. What is ‘punishment’? Punishment is the infliction of violence as revenge on a person who is judged to have behaved inappropriately. It is a key word we[Read More…]
For humane, anti-racist, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-human rights American voters the Green Party candidate Dr Jill Stein ticks all boxes. However, as controversially argued over the Ralph Nader Green Party candidacy in the 2000 George Bush versus Al Gore presidential race, support for Stein might decrease Democrat votes (by wooing Bernie Sanders supporters) and deliver victory for Trump. However from a[Read More…]
Elections in the United States are far and away the most expensive in the entire world. In 2012, the Federal Election Commission reported that $7 billion was spent on the presidential campaign. By the time the ink is dry on the 2016 election, the number will likely be even higher. American voters take for granted that political campaigns provide value[Read More…]
Sabia Rigby reports from Calais as police are dismantling a camp where refugees wait to cross into Britain. Most of those aiming to claim asylum are from Afghanistan and Syria. The camp has become an impromptu village of sorts, where residents take care of each other. Despite the independent nature of the camp and its non-interference with most of French[Read More…]
In her recent open letter to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason documents what amounts to a cesspool of corruption surrounding sections of the agrochemicals industry and the regulation of glyphosate (as found in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup). As with all her previous ‘open letters’ to officials, Mason cites ample sources to support her arguments and[Read More…]
The police are estimated to kill three white people and two black people every day. The US Government does not compile or publish annual statistics on the number of people killed by the police. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health states “no reliable data exist on the number of person’s killed by the police”(12/8/15). There are estimates of[Read More…]
Harold Koh: Former Top Legal Advisor to Hillary Clinton & Legal Architect of U.S. Crimes against Humanity – Not Welcome! Protest Koh’s speech at the University of Illinois College of Law, Champaign! When: 11:30 am, Friday, Oct. 28 Where: North Courtyard, Law Building Complex, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave, Champaign, IL 61820 If you are on Facebook, please “join” and share[Read More…]
If there’s one overwhelming sign that numbers mean nothing and organization means everything, it is the plight of Dalits and Muslims in India. Dalits and Muslims are officially 17% & 13% of the population. That means that together one in three Indians is a ‘Dalim’ – Dalit Indian Muslim (my coinage today – in case it ever makes it to[Read More…]
The Obama administration’s National Security Council has discussed proposals for a “Plan B” in Syria, involving a major escalation of the five-year-old US intervention aimed at toppling the government of President Bashar al-Assad. “Plan B”—meant to signal Washington’s response to its failure to secure its goal of “regime change” by means of a negotiated agreement with Russia, the main ally[Read More…]
At lease 59 cadets were killed and more than 116 injured as terrorists attack the Police Training College in Quetta, Pakistan, in one of the deadliest extremist attacks this year. Three gunmen burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters home to some 700 recruits, and sent terrified young men aged between 15 and 25 fleeing, Dawn News reported.[Read More…]
The small east African nation of Eritrea has implemented the Mother Tongue policy nationwide to prevent cultural genocide within its nine different ethnic groups. This is done by educating all children in tribal environments in their mother tongue until literacy at grade 5. By making sure that the ethnic minorities learn to read and write in their mother tongue the[Read More…]
“Nobody foresaw it. Nobody was ready for it – neither in Budapest, Moscow, Washington or anywhere else.” – Ralph Walter, Radio Free Europe executive, RFE, Oct 22, 2006 Magic, and tragic years, tend to fill the calendar of commemoration for central European patriots. There are religious intercessions; guiding symbols; omens. Then there are the calamities, the crushing battles that empty entire[Read More…]
The elephant in the room is now visible to everyone. All the developments of the past years, from the extreme violence and cynicism of the “memoranda of understanding” imposed upon Greece to the decision of the British referendum in favour of Brexit, point to the same direction: the deep crisis of European Integration. It was supposed to be the[Read More…]
Man, I dream of just being able to paint. Go to sleep when I want, get up when I want, eat when I want. Try to enjoy what’s left for me. Talk to the little children—be an elder for my people.—Leonard Peltier, United States Penitentiary, Coleman I in Florida, July 4, 2016. This is not a good time to be[Read More…]
The United States government has escalated the Cold War against Russia: demonizing Putin as the new Hitler, imposing sanctions on Russian leaders, implementing aggressive NATO military expansion to Russia’s border including installing an anti-ballistic missile “defense” that is actually a key component of an offensive nuclear strike, and threatening to impose a no-fly zone in Syria that would entail shooting[Read More…]
Lalita Ramdas writes on the renewed vilification of Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand. Prof. Apoorvanand’s article follows this intro: Too many things on my mind – not least of all the wide and growing gap between those PLUs – [people like us] – who we realise are not really like us at all – maybe they never were![Read More…]
What happened in Lucknow today exposed the intricacies of the biggest political family in Uttar Pradesh. The aim was like a palace coup against Akhilesh Yadav in which the father became a prisoner of his past and ‘greatness’ who saw virtual humiliation of his son Akhilesh Yadav. Have you seen any one attempting a coup against a son who[Read More…]
Tensions between Turkey and Iraq heightened over the weekend as the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces pushed towards the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul. US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Ankara Friday, before traveling to Iraq for meetings in Baghdad Saturday and Irbil, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) capital yesterday. Carter announced after meeting with Turkish President Recep[Read More…]
An all India team of the PUCL visited the Kashmir valley after the 100th day of people’s protests beginning 9th July and the government clampdown that were taking place there. The team was led by Dr. V Suresh, General Secretary of the PUCL and included Kavita Srivastava (National Secretary), Ramdas Rao (National Council Member) and Pragnya Joshi (National Council Member).[Read More…]
Miraculous nature is being murdered. Everywhere we look inequitable over-consumption is devastating the natural ecosystems that sustain a living Earth. Together we yield to ecological truth – personally embracing a global ecology ethic, and demanding others do so as well – or we all needlessly die at each others’ throats as the global ecological system collapses and being ends. The[Read More…]
In the 1950s, during the high times of the “atomic age”, someone had the unfortunate idea of claiming that nuclear technologies would give us, one day, “energy too cheap to meter.” We might call it “the mother of all promises” and, of course, it was not maintained. But, as propaganda often does, it stuck in people’s minds and it seems[Read More…]
The ongoing debate on the questionnaire circulated by the Law Commission on the proposed implementation of a Uniform Civil Code and the predictable knee-jerk reaction of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), is a very good opportunity to learn the basics of conflict resolution. With over thirty years’ experience in negotiation, conflict resolution and arbitration on three continents[Read More…]
America has become an eviscerated country draped in a gigantic flag. Day by day, its culture becomes more grotesque and obscene, a luna park of lunacy. Leached of essence, it burps up slogans, but who’s convinced? What define America, exactly? Paul Craig Roberts narrows it down to the Constitution and Christianity, “All Americans have a huge stake in Christianity.[Read More…]
An idea of ‘Nationalism’ propagated by Bollywood has come to hit it back. Bollywood has loads of films, which try to depict ‘Nationalism’ through Pakistan bashing and Army glorification. It also depicts India as a peaceful country but a sufferer and victim of sponsored terrorism from outside. Films such as Roja, Zameen, Sarfarosh, Gadar, Diljale and Agent Vinod have instances[Read More…]
According to N. Lebedev, Kropotkin’s editor with whom he frequently corresponded both in person and through letters, two central reasons prompted the celebrated anarchist to devote the last years of his life to writing about the fundamental questions of ethics. The last decade of the nineteenth century saw an influx of ideas about the relativity of ethical conduct and even[Read More…]
The threat of the US military intervention in Iraq and Syria erupting into a far wider war has increased sharply in the wake of a series of Turkish air strikes against Syrian Kurdish militia forces that are aligned with Washington. The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reported that Turkish war planes carried out 26 strikes against[Read More…]
Khartoum, Sudan: “What could be the most striking image, one that would clearly illustrate the destructive involvement of the United States in Sudan?” I ask. “In short, what should I photograph, that could show the suffering of the Sudanese people?” “Let’s go and photograph what is left of the Al-Shifa factory,” I am told. “It is terrible, and truly symbolic.”[Read More…]
On 19 and 20 October 2016 the Supreme Court held its first two days of hearings to review the Hindutva Judgement that had been pending for 20 years. The next hearing is on October 25. In the two days of discussions to kick off a process that according to Supreme Court Advocate Rana Raj K Singh may last up to[Read More…]
Beirut: As many of us would agree, the continuing conflict in Syria has created a devastating humanitarian crisis: the magnitude of humanitarian needs is overwhelming in all parts of the country and affects the region and beyond. The Syrian conflict has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, the estimated number of people in need of the[Read More…]
This column is the second part of a series. To read Part One, click here. In Part One, I argued that a healthy society requires that governments be accountable to the people for the well-being of all, and that corporations be accountable to democratic governments. Last week, Bayer, a transnational drug and pesticide company, secured funding for its $66 billion offer[Read More…]
Hey, Twitter! Remember us? Your users? Hi. So, we heard you may be sold, or that people close to you are at least considering it. That affects us. We’re not sure how, but it’s sure to. You’re such a neat tool, and your future will help determine how we connect with our friends, how we learn about the world, and[Read More…]
“We live in a country where the Hamburglar can freely walk down the street, but Ronald McDonald can’t.” Twitter post by ‘BH’, Oct 12, 2016. They were always perfect as a foil to the criminal and dysfunctional outsider, with smile grotesque, garish mask, and nose obscenely red. The clown, in history, has often proved to be a fairly revolting[Read More…]
Ahwazi freedom activists and supporters held a mass demonstration against Iranian regime executions outside the German Parliament in Berlin on Friday, with many members of the country’s Arab communities joining their call for freedom and human rights. Protesters at the demonstration, entitled ‘No to Executions in Ahwaz’, organised by the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA), carried[Read More…]
It is time to pivot the plus. The very symbol that has served as an anachronistic additive for the LGBTQIA community has woefully subtracted. The very “+” that has elucidated the “freedom” that comes along with identifying as LGBTQIA has heretofore restricted. That is, the very image of the “+” has not invited intersectionality into the conversation but invalidated identities. It has not[Read More…]
Be it conventional or non-conventional, the war in both terms is a great catastrophe for the humanity. When we turn the annals of human history great wars have been fought to colonize and conquer the territories but all ended up with the massive humanitarian crisis. The first and second world war may have redrawn the world map and christened new[Read More…]
Iraqi Army units and troops of the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), backed by US and allied air power, special forces and “advisors,” continue to push toward the Islamic State (ISIS)-held northern city of Mosul and the estimated 1.5 million civilians trapped within its confines. In the past 24 hours, Kurdish forces claimed to have captured villages and towns to[Read More…]
There still exists a lack of effective monitoring mechanisms: ill-treatment, neglect (despite RTE banning discrimination); disabilities not ensured – ‘remains a distant priority among school authorities’ – not enough done to bring and keep girls in classrooms
I’ve written often about our Iraqi refugee friend and his oldest son from Baghdad. I will call them Mohammed and Ahmed. They made the torturous flight last year from Baghdad to Kurdistan and then across Turkey. They were on three Greek islands before permission was granted them to continue their trip. They passed through several countries at the time the[Read More…]
Decades ago, Andre Gunder Frank wrote: “[T]he solutions to the problems of underdevelopment become even more impossible within the capitalist system which creates them, and as the bourgeoisie is less and less able even to face these problems with bourgeois programs, the long exploited people themselves are being taught and prepared to lead the way out of capitalism and[Read More…]
From campaign finance reform to gun violence to poverty to education to LGBTQ rights,lots of important subjects were ignored by corporate media debate moderators in the presidential (and vice-presidential) debates. All of these topics are urgent and deserve a spotlight on the national stage. But one topic stands out as a non-factor: climate change. Climate change—or, more accurately, climate disruption—is[Read More…]
Hideousness is only one word that covers the third and last presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. But prior to that, as a warm up of mischief, Trump was insisting that he would find accepting a public vote for Clinton hard to stomach at the electoral level. The only way he would accept any electoral result would be,[Read More…]
During the final Presidential candidates’ debate, on October 19th, Hillary Clinton said that workers’ “social security payroll contribution will go up” if she becomes President, and she went on to add, “as will Donald’s — assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it.” The “Social Security payroll contribution” is the phrase (a euphemism, actually) policymakers customarily use[Read More…]
On 13 October 2016, Anu Muhammad received two messages on his phone from the same number. The first one was sent at approximately 1 am and stated “Death keeps no calendar, and Ansatullah knows no time!”. The second one was sent at 8.43 pm, when he was on his way to Rampura police station to file a complaint about the first threat. It said “Say ‘yes’ to Rampal, otherwise, you must will be hacked to death incredibly by us!”.
The US-directed attack on Mosul and fallout from the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July, backed by Washington and the European Union (EU), is fueling explosive tensions inside Turkey and in Turkey’s relations with the major imperialist powers. Desperate to stabilize his regime, Erdogan is stoking nationalist sentiment and implicitly reserving the right to intervene militarily across[Read More…]
Forging certainty in the dust of Middle Eastern plays of power is an impossibility its participants never wish to accept. The imminent defeat of Islamic State forces in Mosul – deemed imminent, at least, by the forces assaulting the stronghold – provide a suggestion that there will be greater stability in the region. Nasty fundamentalist forces will be banished, paving[Read More…]
A little bird just whispered in my ear that the Syrian Government is in the final stages of securing a Reconciliation plan for East Aleppo. The buses are waiting, my friend said. According to Al Masdar, a Syrian news outlet, the SAA are holding the high ground in Aleppo. There are a few details to be resolved, but it appears[Read More…]
“The United States has the power to decree the death of nations,” wrote Stephen Kinzer in the Boston Globe. Kinzer’s article was entitled: “The media are misleading the public on Syria.” In his piece, the scholar at a Brown University Institute contested that his country’s media misinformation on Syria is leading to the kind of ignorance which is enabling the[Read More…]
Five years after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow and brutal murder (on October 20, 2011) the situation is now far worse than it was five years ago, as rival militias fighting for control. Libya has been split between rival parliaments and governments, each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes. Now five years on, Libya is caught[Read More…]
As Liz Goodwin and Michael Isikoff noted on 11 October 2016 regarding a recent wikileak: The Clinton email states: “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” That email from Hillary Clinton, https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/7243, was sent on 17 August 2014.[Read More…]
The longest mass uprising in Kashmir has conveyed a definite “Message” to India and to the World at large! The mass uprising which was triggered by the killing of Burhan Wani has already crossed 100 days. The uprising had resulted in total shutdown throughout the valley with massive protest marches. To prevent the marches and public meetings for “Azadi”, the[Read More…]
Join people from all across the UK who care about the lives of innocent people and #RallyForAleppo outside Downing Street on Saturday, October 22. This is the chance to take a giant stride towards stopping the heartbreaking violence in Syria. In Aleppo, hundreds of bombs are being dropped every day on a population roughly the size of Coventry – this[Read More…]
The offensive by the US-led coalition to retake Mosul continued Tuesday, as leading participants acknowledged the fighting could take months, and aid organizations issued dire warnings of the impact on the more than 1 million civilians living in Iraq’s second largest city. Since ground operations were launched at dawn on Monday by the Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters under the[Read More…]
It was presumably intended as an Israeli history lesson to the world. A video posted to social media by Israel’s foreign ministry shows an everyday Jewish couple, Jacob and Rachel, in a home named the “Land of Israel”. A series of knocks on the door brings 3,000 years of interruptions to their happiness. First it’s the Assyrians, followed by the[Read More…]
Last month was the hottest September on record, which means 2016 is all but locked into being the hottest year on record, according to new NASA statistics released Tuesday. “With data now available through September, 2016 annual record (~1.25ºC above late 19th [century]) seems locked in,” tweeted Dr. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. With data[Read More…]
Two items of interest have tickled the airwaves and triggered some commentary over the last few days. The first was an ABC Four Corners program covering the fate of refugees in the detention facility on Nauru, known euphemistically as a “processing centre” costing $35.3 million a year to the Australian tax payer. The Four Corners program was, in turn, informed[Read More…]
On the eve of the last presidential debate, some observations on this unique election are in order. In the forty years I have been following US presidential elections, I have never seen a more crass, a more vulgar and for most citizens a more embarrassing election campaign. Bimbos to the left of them, bimbos to the right of them, onward[Read More…]
Signs are ominous! On Thursday Oct 13, US Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed pro-Iranian / anti-Saudi Houthi rebels’ radar sites in Yemen, “retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer”, U.S. officials claimed. Washington has again complained about Houthi missile attacks on a US naval ship on Saturday, Oct 15. Meanwhile, Iran has deployed two warships off[Read More…]
Hardly any knowledgeable person doubts that Zionist ideology is the purest form of racism. Zionism is Jewish disguised racism as a raison d’etat. Israel comes right after the U. S., as far as racism is concerned. That is why the U. S. donates to this racist regime $ 3.8 bn per year in order to keep this occupation regime going.[Read More…]
With ethnic uprisings spreading across an Ethiopia now ruled by martial law there is only one nationally based organization in place to lead the eventual regime change in the country and that is the revolutionary Islamic movement. Presently all the liberation resistance movements in Ethiopia are ethnically based with their senior leadership in exile, mainly in neighboring Eritrea. The only[Read More…]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdC3iS1kGkI I am 16 years old, a student of a government school in Muzaffarpur in Bihar. For the last few days, everyone wants to know why I was beaten so mercilessly and why I kept silent for so long. Well, I am exhausted and frustrated from repeating my story time and again – for the cops, for my classmates, for[Read More…]
The first 24 hours of the US-directed assault on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)-held city of Mosul in Iraq has shed further light on the calculated and murderous character of the operation. Tens of thousands of Kurdish and Iraqi Army forces have begun a slow advance on the city, tightening a noose around the estimated 5,000 ISIS[Read More…]
Today Tuesday 18 October 2016 a seven-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court of Chief Justice TS Thakur and justices MB Lokur, SA Bobde, AK Goel, UU Lalit, DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao will be constituted to examine the scope of inquiry to be conducted when charges of corrupt practices under Section 123 (3-A) of the Representation of the[Read More…]
Note: This article is based on a lecture delivered at a conference of the People’s Health Movement in Cochabamba, Bolivia on 24 September 2016. Dear Friends, I am privileged to be here to talk to all of you from the health and environmental movements from all over Latin America. First of all, as someone coming from India I would like[Read More…]
Even today, the fossil fuel industry remains one of the biggest contributors to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, raising the temperature of the earth by 1.5 degrees which is lethal for life to survive. For these ‘Big Oil’ companies are bringing about an economic cost for the world in terms of impact of climate change. But these companies are[Read More…]
INTRODUCTION: Journalism and the Open Society In contemporary US, and in most countries, the media presents itself as a sentinel of the ‘public interest’. This implies that ‘public interest’ is universally encompassing and equally distributed in its benefits for all classes. The implication is that there is no difference for a pauper than a billionaire when it comes to the[Read More…]
Wow, the world gets crazier every moment! Stephen Lewis, former socialist NDP leader from Canada’s province of Ontario was asked about PM Justin Trudeau’s letter to the UN asking for a special General Assembly meeting, as reported by the CBC yesterday: The Canadian Mission to the United Nations has submitted a rare request asking the president of the General Assembly[Read More…]
“[Shimon Peres] thought about history where Netanyahu thinks about the next election.” Itamar Rabinovic, New York Times, Sep 30, 2016 “We learned from the British,” explained the late Shimon Peres in The Guardian in 2011, “what democracy means, and how it behaves in times of danger, war and terror. We thank Britain for introducing freedom and respect of human rights[Read More…]
Rodrigo Duterte, the outspoken President of the Philippines has by now, most likely, joined the concealed, prestigious and permanent hit list of the Empire. The hit list isvery long; it hasalready been long for several decades. One could easily lose count and get confused: how many personalities have been marked and secretly condemned to death? How many of them actually[Read More…]
In the 1970s, the agrochemicals industry was able to evade effective regulation in the UK. Robert van den Bosch, wrote in 1978 in The Pesticide Conspiracy: “If one considers how dangerous these chemicals are, one would suppose that it would be government policy to minimize their use by every possible means. However, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution notes,[Read More…]
Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873 to unite all oppressed, Sthree-Shudra-Atishudra, Adivasis, Muslims and other minorities under one banner of Bahujans to fight against discrimination based on birth. The highly successful Satyashodhak Samaj was however, after the death of Phule and Savitribai Phule, disintegrated. Most Shudras joined the Congress, Atishudras joined the[Read More…]
The long-planned, US-directed offensive to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has begun. On Monday morning, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared on national television: “Today, I declare the start of these victorious operations.” The assault on Mosul starkly raises the boundless hypocrisy of the US and European resolutions in the United[Read More…]
First Chinese ship, named Tianfu, finally docked on Sunday (Oct 16) at Pakistan’s Gwadar port that is center of $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project between Beijing and Islamabad. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is about 3,000 kilometers long consisting of highways, railways and pipelines that will connect China’s Xinjiang province to rest of the world through Pakistan’s Gwadar[Read More…]
“We are being ranched,” says Michael Brownlee, and what is more, most of us are living in one kind of food desert or another. In this book, author Michael Brownlee is inciting a local food revolution, and this revolution is far more expansive, far more radical, and far more life-altering than creating a few farmers markets and promoting one’s local[Read More…]
In an ominous sign for press freedom, documentary filmmaker and journalist Deia Schlosberg was arrested and charged with felonies carrying a whopping maximum sentence of up to 45 years in prison—simply for reporting on the ongoing Indigenous protests against fossil fuel infrastructure. Schlosberg was arrested in Walhalla, North Dakota on Tuesday for filming activists shutting down a tar sands pipeline,[Read More…]
Does the concept of a living planet uplift and inspire you, or is it a disturbing example of woo-woo nonsense that distracts us from practical, science-based policies? The scientifically-oriented nuts-and-bolts environmental or social activist will roll her eyes upon hearing phrases like “The planet is a living being.” From there it is a short step to sentiments like, “Love will[Read More…]
!["Across the globe, generations of farmers have been able to save seeds from each year's crops, store them, exchange them and re-use them in the next season," Heidi Chow writes, but "[f]armers’ seeds and their rights to keep their seed systems are under threat." (Photo via Global Justice Now)](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/seeds-200x150.jpg "CETA's Threat To Seed Freedom 240")
Seeds are an emotive issue. Across the globe, generations of farmers have been able to save seeds from each year’s crops, store them, exchange them and re-use them in the next season. Seeds are the source of our food and for many communities seeds lie at the heart of culture. Women are traditionally the seed-savers, passing on knowledge down the[Read More…]
Agriculture is under pressure to perform on this World Food Day. As governments pay lip service to combatting climate change in the Paris Agreement, few of them are taking the real action necessary to reduce emissions. While just this month Hurricane Matthew, almost certainly made worse by climate change, battered Haiti and El Nino related drought is wreaking farming across[Read More…]
From the time when energy became a state ambition and the central, almost paranoid platform of security, its messiness became apparent. Energy reserves needed to be controlled; corrupt regimes with access to such resources needed to be placated, or, if not, overthrown and replaced by compliant puppet governments. The world of energy is one governed by invasion, acquisitive brutality and[Read More…]
George Woodcock, a prominent Canadian writer and anarchist thinker, writes that anarchism’s “ultimate aim is always social change; its present attitude is always one of social condemnation, even though it may proceed from an individualist view of man’s nature; its method is always that of social revolution, violent or otherwise.”[1] Peter Kropotkin was not a pacifist. More often than[Read More…]
In September, the German pro-government think tank “Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik” (SWP) published a study on the implications of US policy towards Russia and European security. [1] The 28-page document is aimed at a professional audience and is written in political and military jargon that couches the annihilation of millions of human lives in matter-of-fact terms, as if dealing with[Read More…]
The most prestigious newspaper in Peru is no more than another mouthpiece for power. But this shouldn´t surprise anyone familiar with mainstream media and its propagandistic role in our society. Sadly, most people remain unaware of this reality and still approach this kind of media for understanding on the appalling problems of contemporary life. For them there are real news:[Read More…]
Kevin Frost, a special forces sergeant in the Australian Army, has done something unusual. He wishes, even demands, to be tried for his role behind the summary execution of an Afghan prisoner in his captivity during a tour of the country. From Frost came a statement to an inquiry digging through allegations of war crimes by Australian troops that took[Read More…]
Mumbai: Despite advances in technology, life is getting worse for users of public transport . This is at least partly because of the callous way the technology is being handled. The seats in the big brand new coaches in the local Western railway trains in Mumbai are clearly uncomfortable. I tried out both in first and second class. I[Read More…]
People’s Union for Civil Liberties condemns the ongoing attack on civilians by Indian security forces in Kashmir which has resulted in the killings of more than 80 young people, causing injuries to nearly 9000 people and the loss of vision of more than 500 people. PUCL condemns the impunity exercised by Indian Security Forces in perpetrating large-scale human rights violations[Read More…]
Scientists have reached a near unanimous agreement that the earth has entered a new geological era – anthropocene – characterised by human induced climate change. The resulting super floods, typhoons, and heat waves have caused several thousands of deaths in the past ten to fifteen years. However, climate change not only claims its victims through the occurrence of these mega[Read More…]
In this most bizarre of presidential elections, no one is talking about one of the biggest—if not the biggest—issues of our time. Namely, the global power imbalance between corporations and governments. Not Donald Trump, as he obsesses over the weight of a long-past Miss Universe. Not Hillary Clinton, despite her many substantive proposals that the media largely ignores. Not even[Read More…]
On a hill overlooking the Sacred Stone Camp, Lakota artist Charles Rencountre has worked from sunup to sundown over the past month. His sculpture “Not Afraid to Look,” the origins of which can be traced back to early 19th century pipestone carvings, watches over the encampments bustling below. From this perch above the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers,[Read More…]
“Attacking hospitals and medical workers is a non-negotiable red line. As such, it must be set out – in clear and simple terms – in all military manuals, rules of engagement and standard operating procedures. Too often, unverified intelligence, or opaque claims that a hospital is a quote “command and control center,” is justification enough for an attack. To stop[Read More…]
Tuesday’s House of Commons debate in Britain was filled with the hollow anguish of impotence, fresh with statements about Russian war criminality tossed about like freshly made blinis. Ever easy to point to, Russian support for a regime which Western powers wish to remove, at the expense of further catastrophe, has accelerated the ruthless disposition of the conflict. Peace talks[Read More…]
President Barack Obama’s official visit to Cuba in March 2016 has deluded a lot of people into believing that relations between the United States and Cuba are now normal. They do not realise that the severe US economic sanctions against Cuba are still in force. Of course there have been slight improvements in the application of some of the[Read More…]
With 3 weeks to go before the US Presidential Elections the lying Mainstream media have ignored the extremely serious issues raised by Donald Trump of 9-11 truth, US military interventions and the impact of globalization, and have launched an hysterical, grubby, sex-based personal campaign against Donald Trump in support of mendacious warmonger and war criminal Hillary Clinton. And why the[Read More…]
The ongoing Mahishasur movement in North India has stirred up the Dravidian subconscious in south India. This year, on the day of Dussehra, effigies of Ram, Sita and Lakshman were burnt in Chennai. Eleven Periyar supporters who dodged a large police presence to burn the effigies were arrested. These Periyarites have been demanding a ban on the practice of burning[Read More…]
I heard the news today…. I caught the CBC news this morning (Thursday, October 13, 2016) as the French Prime Minister and Canada’s PM were talking to the media. From the little bit I caught – a bit that makes for a good sound bite – it appears that Canada, under the guise of ’peacekeeping’ will be sending some 600[Read More…]
People’s Forum on BRICS held in Goa develops a declaration for heads of state attending the 8th BRICS Summit GOA, 14 October 2016: The People’s Forum on BRICS that took place in Goa on the 13th and 14th of Goa witnessed several social movements and civil society formations, representing the people of at least 10 countries, make a declaration towards[Read More…]
Maldives has finally decided to quit the Commonwealth, the oldest political organization, an organization of 53 countries and presently a transformed institution since the time of imperialism , a group of voluntarily organized nations about which Pt. Nehru had said that ‘it is an organization which we can join or leave at our own free will.’ Maldives perhaps had learnt[Read More…]
In the 2011 dystopian film In Time, Justin Timberlake works literally to earn his living, as the monthly currency is additional time for living. Billionaires can live for thousands of years, practically becoming immortals, while poor people struggle to survive every day, many of them failing in that endeavour. This science fiction film resembles painstakingly our real world, although instead[Read More…]
The recent Kashmir uprising, furious speeches at UN, threatening statements by politicians and the subsequent escalation of tensions on ‘Line of Control’, has brought yet another conflict wave with regard to India and Pakistan. The new cycle of tension between the two countries has increased resentment and worry particularly among the masses in Kashmir. Their hopes of peaceful settlement of[Read More…]
We the members of Ambedkarite Women Against Atrocities’, India (AWAA) condemn the wording of the report by retired judge K. Roopanwal, which indicates an attempt of defamation and character assassination of Radhika Vemula. Under the garb of fact finding the committee has done all efforts to find out the cast of Radhika and Rohit as the remarks were made by[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar in his speech delivered on Oct 13, 1935, in Yewala, in Nashik district had thundered that although he was born as a Hindu, he would not die as one. He advised the Depressed Classes to abandon all agitation for temple-entry privileges; instead, he advised that they should leave Hinduism entirely and embrace some another religion. Vexed by the rampant[Read More…]
On the morning of Oct. 8, a group of US veterans who were deported to Mexico, in some cases after having fought in U.S. wars, congregated in Plaza Ochoa, Nogales, Sonora. They were joined by members of Dreamer Moms International, which advocates for women deported while their children stayed in the U.S., by the Mesoamerica Migrants’ Movement, and by other[Read More…]
Germany is smaller than California. Within the last two years, it has allowed in roughly two million Muslim refugees and immigrants, all by fiat. Having no voice in this radical demographic change, many Germans are fuming. Last year, I wrote from Leipzig that Germany has lost its autonomy and sanity. Teaching at the university, I registered that all my students[Read More…]
Amid anti-Islam and anti-Muslim euphoria, fomented by opportunist right-wing politicians, a lawsuit has been filed in Bucharest against building a mosque in the Romanian capital. The lawsuit seeks to reverse a June 2015 decision by the then Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta, to approve construction of what could become the largest mosque in Eastern Europe — second only to the[Read More…]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (and President Obama — and some NATO partners) did it previously to Libya, and here was the result (as discussed by the retired British career diplomat Craig Murray, at his craigmurray.org.uk, who has kindly allowed me to distribute it to other newsmedia) [and I as editor will add a few clarifiers and questions in brackets] (and then afterward, I[Read More…]
With the recent unfolding of several events in the political gallery it appears that the BJP government at the centre is again gearing up for implementing Uniform Civil Code (UCC) across the country. This move of the government came in the backdrop of the previous refusal of Supreme Court to entertain a petition filed by a Delhi BJP leader seeking[Read More…]
India’s 29 September cross-LOC strike was conducted professionally, as expected of the apolitical army of the Indian Republic. Pakistan’s predictable response is denial of its ever having happened. It could have been left at that, but government and the opposition (such as it is), encouraged by TRP-hungry TV channels provoking certain publicity-hungry military veterans, have been using the apolitical army’s[Read More…]
This past summer witnessed yet another people’s uprising in one of the longest running, and most ruthless, military occupations in modern times: the Indian occupation of Kashmir. The callous indifference to decades-old Indian atrocities against the people of Kashmir, including well-documented incidences of torture, disappearances, ‘encounter killings,’ rapes, and outright massacres, ought to put the international community to shame. This,[Read More…]
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi While Australia slept, John Salisbury, a true gentleman activist from Melbourne, rose daily to the moral occasion of walking the tough 300 kilometres from the Sydney Opera House to Canberra, the seat of the Australian parliament. There, on 11 October, he presented to Maria Vamakinou MP, head of[Read More…]
We have been hearing a great deal about IMF concerns recently, after the release of itsOctober 2016 World Economic Outlook and its Annual Meeting October 7-9. The concerns mentioned include the following: Too much growth in debt, with China particularly mentioned as a problem World economic growth seems to have slowed on a long-term basis Central bank intervention required to produce[Read More…]
The killing of 140 people by a Saudi airstrike, on October 8, in Yemen has renewed focus on the Saudi atrocities and war crimes in Yemen. More than 6,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2015 – half of them civilians and more than 1,100 of them children, according to the UN. Tellingly, while the mainstream[Read More…]
There is no getting away from the degradation that is taking place, on colossal scale, in US presidential politics. The sense of two dysfunctional candidates beating each other over the remains of the US republic as it suffers the last paroxysm of what might have been an interesting future are all too evident. Sunday’s second presidential debate featured the depravity,[Read More…]
(The widely projected “Surgical Strikes”according to many commentators have political objectives within the country rather than military objectives across the border!) Recently Captain Amrinder Singh, the Congress leader from Punjab took a TV team to the border to show that everything was normal and there was no war like situation. A video about the visit has been posted on the[Read More…]
Indian Democracy has ample examples of progressive policies not being able to meet people’s aspirations due to systemic inadequacies, implementation shortages and loopholes being misused by economic elite to dilute the process. Scheduled Tribes and other Forest dwellers act (2006) is one such legislation. The act was passed after prolonged people’s struggles for recognition of Adivasi and Forest dwellers[Read More…]
While British Prime Minister, Theresa May, keeps insisting that Brexit pathway will be a smooth, relatively painless process filled without dramatic compromise to lifestyle and outlook, the traders, stockbrokers and wolves of the City have gone about their own business. They, the suggestion goes, knew better, whereas the idiotic Brexiteer ventured to the ballot in total ignorance. Central to the[Read More…]
Share the bounty of the Earth!
Make a joyful sound!
A teaspoon’s worth
can give new birth;
let the hills resound–
there’s plenty to go around,
sharing in rebirth.
As the evidence mounts that we are fast approaching the final point-of-no-return beyond which it will be impossible to take sufficient effective action to prevent climate catastrophe – see ‘The World Passes 400 PPM Threshold. Permanently’ http://www.climatecentral.org/news/world-passes-400-ppm-threshold-permanently-20738 – the evidence of ineffective official responses climbs too. See, for example, ‘Climate Con: why a new global deal on aviation emissions is[Read More…]
The Israeli official narrative regarding its conflict with the Palestinians is deliberately confounded because a muddled up discourse is a convenient one. It allows the narrator to pick and choose half-truths at will, in order to create a falsified version of reality. For instance, this is part of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the United Nations[Read More…]
Friday, October 7 went by quietly unnoticed by major US media. It was the 15th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan — a war with no foreseeable end in sight. The number of troops due to remain in Afghanistan has been raised 50 percent to 8400. Drones based in Pakistan continue to play their deadly role. On the anniversary date,[Read More…]
A 2012 World Bank report stated that without quick action to curb CO2 emissions, global warming is likely to add 4 degrees Centigrade (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit) during the 21st century which is dangerously close to the temperature that initiated the Permian-Triassic extinction event 252 million years ago when 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrates were[Read More…]
#SaveHinduismFromHalfPants was a campaign Countercurrents.org ran in October 2015 in association with CPI (Mohammad Rafi) . Now that the RSS changed their uniform from half pants to full Khaki trousers, let’s hope that RSS will change their half baked Hindutva ideology to a fulsome understanding of Humanity! #FromHindutvaToHumanism
Recently Indian Motion Producers Association (IMPPA) took a decision to ban Pakistani artists and technicians from working in Indian films until normalcy returns. The pretext of the ban is the terrorist attack on an army camp in Uri allegedly carried by JeM, killing 20 army personnel. The attack created poignant enragement and attracted widespread condemnation, which it must. Terrorism[Read More…]
The context of nationalism in India has lately been supercharged- post India’s ‘Surgical Strike inside PoK’ in view of repeated Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks in India – the latest of which, in a significant way, was Uri terror attack. The so-called claims, counterclaims and ‘independent’ global media coverage have made it complex and confusing for the ordinary citizens, considering both[Read More…]
Time has come to unite against the Yuddhists in India and Pakistan and to generate a strong public message that the sensational mainstream media, the corrupt army officials, and the politicians with their dwindling power mechanism and shrinking images on both sides do not own the share market of our freedom, peace and harmony. Time has come to isolate the Yuddhists on both sides. If the people across the boundaries can not protect their peace, then who else can?
When the rainy season came early to the highlands of Madagascar in 1983, the rice seedlings in the nursery were still too young for transplanting, and French Jesuit priest Henri de Laulanié had to make a decision: either to wait another two to four weeks to transplant (which would obviously result in a lower yield due to delayed planting) or[Read More…]
I’d been hoping to pay another visit to the Peasant’s Republic of Wessex, but red tape has been holding me up at the border so it’ll have to wait probably for another couple of weeks. Instead, I thought I’d offer a few top-of-the-head thoughts on Felicity Lawrence’s recent article about agricultural pesticide use in The Guardian – or, more specifically,[Read More…]
How much is the life of a Yemeni worth? Not much, according to the Saudi regime that has been bombing and starving the people of Yemen for since March 2015, or to the Saudi’s western backers, particularly the US and UK, which have been supplying the Saudi regime with weapons, military training, logistical support and diplomatic cover for its dirty[Read More…]
Turkey and Russia Monday (Oct 10) signed the Turkish Stream gas pipeline agreement. The signing of the strategic deal came after a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin who was in Istanbul to attend the 23rd World Energy Congress which gathered 10,000 participants, including four presidents, 250 energy ministers, academia, policymakers and CEOs of top energy companies. This[Read More…]
Few people can honestly dispute that Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) is the Queen of Flip-Floppery and that her flip-flop record is lengthy: The North American Free Trade Agreement, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Cuban embargo, Keystone oil pipeline, sanctuary cities, same-sex marriage, charter schools, and more. But[Read More…]
For many onlookers who reside outside the US, the run-up to that country’s presidential election appears to be some kind of made-for-TV soap opera. Amid evidence of rigging, it seems Bernie Sanders was always destined not to win the Democratic Party nomination. It seemed a sure-fire bet that Clinton would. Hilary Clinton, a war monger who supported the attack on Libya and the[Read More…]
It was March 1969. Andhra Pradesh State Assembly was in its budget session. T Nagi Reddy was delivering a speech in the Assembly. While announcing his resignation as member of the Assembly and the path he was choosing to carry forward the struggle for emancipation of the people he was making his observations on the condition of the country, policies[Read More…]
Tasting the bitterness of our own bleeding hearts awakens us to the sins we have committed against ourselves and lets us rediscover our own humanity. Out of this dying empire that stretched out to the four corners of the Earth, paths that once diverged have come together. At the center of this crossroad, a new world is being born. We hear the silent pulse of our heart that has been guarded by Natives -the custodians of our future
The flame-like tree and yellow stars from Van Gogh’s Starry Night burn on B.B.’s right shoulder. Blonde, slim and 33, she bartends at Friendly Lounge twice a week. She calls everyone “darling,” as in, “Are you good, darling? You need another one?” When B.B. told me she had lived in the Tenderloin, had drifted much, was fond of Jameson and[Read More…]
Today, Christopher Columbus is celebrated as a mythical hero by some – complete with songs, poems, and fictional tales about his great adventure across the Atlantic to explore the majestic land that would eventually be known as the Americas. There are fifty four communities named after the explorer in the United States, including the District of Columbia. “Hail, Columbia” was the United States’ unofficial national anthem until 1931. A federal holiday, “Columbus Day,” is celebrated every second Monday in October. Despite all of this, historians have begun to tear down the Columbus myth: That he discovered America.
We need to remind ourselves that a unique Ramlila, is being staged since 1972, at Bakshi Ka Talab, about 20 km from Lucknow, where lead characters like Rama, Lakshman and Hanuman are played by Muslim youths, a clear departure in a region known for communal flare-ups. This four-day Ram Lila starts on the day of Dusshera day, and has also been adapted into a Radio play, ‘Us Gaon ki Ram Lila’, by Lucknow All India Radio, which won the Communal Harmony Award in 2000
Days after the Jharkhand police opened fire on farmers protesting land acquisition for coal mines by the National Thermal Power Corporation in Badkagaon, Hazaribagh, on 1st October 2016 resulting in several deaths, the demonstrators are still shocked at what they claim was the excessive use of force by the administration.
Nichlagarh, an adivasi village in the forest region of Southern Rajasthan, is caught between the bureaucratic regime of the Forestry Department (FD) of India and progressive legislation that claims to restore the traditional rights of commoners. While the state has its own ideas about how villagers should manage their forest commons and their lives, the women of this adivasi community have stepped forward as the knowledge keepers, managers of the forests and champions of democratic representation to protect the right to common.
I have been following the development of airborne wind energy (AWE) for more than 10 years and I keep following it. This summer, I visited the campus of the Technical University of Delft, in Holland, where I met the people of “Enevate”, the university spinoff dedicated to kite power, a field in which the university of Delft has been active[Read More…]
“If you’re listening to this, then you will know that myself and all the women who sailed on the Women’s Boat to Gaza have been arrested and are in detention in Israel.” These pre-recorded words by Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire open a 2-minutevideo, released October 5, after Maguire and 12 female companions aboard the small sailing vessel the Olivia-Zaytouna were detained by Israeli[Read More…]
“So we have two Hillary Clintons, which says we have a person who is a liar.” Rudy Giuliani, The Guardian, Oct 9, 2016 Again, WikiLeaks made its sniping foray into the US election with ample juicy material prior to the second presidential debate, this time revealing excerpts of paid speeches shedding light on Hillary Clinton’s view on banking, finance and[Read More…]
On Friday, October 5th, the U.S. Secretary of State – John Kerry calls for war crimes investigation of Russia’s and Assad governments for the destruction of Syrian city of Aleppo. The western corporative mass media was a very quick, like, for instance, The New York Times, immediately and clearly to accuse the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Syrian President[Read More…]
Finally the humanitarian morality of USA has woken up after the Saudi Arabian air strike on a funeral procession gathering in Yemen took place. The Saudi-led coalition forces targeted a building hosting a Houthi funeral ceremony and killed a total of 140 people. It was worst of the anti human act with no logic and no morality. The loss of[Read More…]
As Sec. of State Clinton oversaw US wars for regime change that continue in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, and now threatens Russia and China. Her opponent says enough. (US regime change wars from Greece, Korea, Iran, Vietnam, Laos, Guatemala, Congo, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Cuba, Panama, Ethiopia Somalia, S. Sudan, Grenada, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq,[Read More…]
Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon described in 1973 in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors. Wikipedia In political terms, most people might tend to associate the word ’occupation’ with a (foreign) military presence that controls a region or country. Any such[Read More…]
RVK Satyanarayana, the General Secretary of the OPDR (Organization for the Protection of Democratic Rights, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States) and a leading functionary of the UCCRI(ML), passed away in the early hours of 8-10-2016 while battling his illness. He was suffering from chronic kidney failure and its various complications for several years. He was under dialysis for the last[Read More…]
At least 800 people in Haiti were killed by Hurricane Matthew, according to new figuresreleased Friday as remote regions cut off by the storm were able to resume outside contact. As humanitarian groups struggled to reach the hardest-hit areas, residents took stock of the damage left by the most powerful cyclone to hit the Caribbean nation in decades. Aid workers[Read More…]
Ethiopia is home to one of the oldest, most effective conservation management systems in sub-Saharan Africa, the Menz-Guassa Community Conservation Area, an 11,100-hectare region that is home to a rich endowment of grasslands, plants and rare animals such as the Ethiopian wolf, gelada and Abyssinian hare. The history of the indigenous land tenure system known as Atsme Irist 1 reveals a[Read More…]
In its latest act of piracy, Apartheid Israel has seized a Gaza-bound ship Zaytouna-Oliva in international waters and kidnapped, robbed and imprisoned 13 humane, anti-racist women including the Australian captain, Madeleine Habib (from my hometown Hobart, Tasmania), Northern Ireland Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire and New Zealand Greens MP Marama Davidson. Apartheid Israel has repeatedly kidnapped Australian women[Read More…]
A heroin epidemic is on fire all across America. Heroin deaths shot up from 1,779 in 2001 to 10,574 in 2014 as Afghan opium poppy fields metastasized from 7,600 hectares in 2001 (when the War in Afghanistan began) to 224,000 hectares currently. The Taliban outlawed opium in Afghanistan in 2000 and within a year it was all but gone, demonstrating[Read More…]
Planet Earth, our habitat, is in dire straits And our world is suffering from various crises, conflicts and problems. There is hardly any sign that something is seriously being done to solve these problems. Some Americans – not government officials, not corporate big-wigs, but civil society activists – have now come forward to save the earth and, along with it,[Read More…]
Americans since the founding of the United States seem to be in a perennial state of narcissist obsession. Narcissism is all about excessive self-love, extreme interest in oneself, arrogance, selfishness, and a grandiose view of one’s own talents, virtues, and righteousness. This collective disorder of self-glorification is not a new phenomenon for Americans. French historian/diplomat Alexis Tocqueville pointed out this[Read More…]
“Realize that the system can’t exist without belief Appreciate your true potential, un-twist your mouth and speak We’re working on building a world our children can live in Understand I can’t be free while you’re still in this prison And I can spend my days preaching and so on and so forth But it won’t change ’til we don’t wanna[Read More…]
Introduction Prince Peter A. Kropotkin (1842-1921), second only to Mikhail A. Bakunin among the Russian anarchist philosophers in terms of popularity and influence on the anarchist communist thought, authored a momentous scientific work which asserted that cooperation within a single species was a more significant factor of evolution than were the competition and struggle for existence. On the other hand,[Read More…]
The decision of Indian Motion Pictures Association (IMPA) to ban Pakistani artists and technicians from working in India is a reflection of politics preceding art. The implications could go beyond and may widen the Indo-Pakistan cultural contacts. The more widening of the divide between the two, the better it serves the communal agenda of the Hindutva brigade.
“History shows that the United States has benefited politically and economically from wars in Europe. The huge outflow of capital from Europe following the First and Second World Wars, transformed the U.S. into a superpower … Today, faced with economic decline, the US is trying to precipitate another European war to achieve the same objective.”… Sergey Glazyev, Russian politician and[Read More…]
Aleppo University Faculty of Law, Aleppo, Syria: Contrary to most recent media reports, and frankly to this observer’s surprise, forces defending both rebel controlled East Aleppo as well as government controlled West Aleppo during the unrelenting slaughter of this savage war, do sometimes appear restrained in their attacks. This observer does occasionally sense some concern among belligerents for civilian[Read More…]
Today completes the fifteen years of US entry in Afghanistan. It was on 7th October 2001 when US had entered the Afghanistan when it declared that US was attacked by the terrorists and war on terror was now to be carried on. US was attacked on 11 September 2001 and this was attack on its existence. ‘At 8:46 on the[Read More…]
Eight years after the eruption of the global financial crisis, the conditions are being created for another meltdown of even bigger proportions, amid rising geo-political and economic tensions between the major capitalist powers. This is the implication of three reports issued by the International Monetary Fund in preparation for its annual meeting, which begins in Washington today. The World Economic[Read More…]
Many hail the Paris agreement—set to cross the threshold this week to come into effect—as a panacea for global climate change. Yet tragically, this perspective neglects to take into account the scientific reality of our climate system, which tells a much different story. Our latest research, Young People’s Burden: Requirement of Negative CO2 Emissions, appeared Monday as a “Discussion” paper[Read More…]
In the Vrancea Mountains of Romania, the Eastern Carpathians, people in dozens of villages have used community-based institutions known as obştea to manage forest commons since the sixteenth century.1 The original sense of the word, coming from Slavonic, is “togetherness,” and it underlines the participatory essence of the institution. The traditions of obştea are so deeply rooted among Vrâncean villagers[Read More…]
The Oxford Martin School is based at Oxford University in the UK. In what seems to be a laudable aim, the school has set up the ‘Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations’ (OMC), which has brought together 19 international leaders from government, business and civil society to address the growing short-term preoccupations of modern politics and business and identify ways of overcoming[Read More…]
Yes, it is a bit odd to include Amanda in my series of obscured Americans. She is a very successful editor of films that have appeared on television and in theaters. Her credits include Paul Bowles: The Complete Outsider (1994), Carmen Miranda: Bananas is my Business (1994), The Lost Children of Rockdale County (1999), Drinking Apart (2000), The Last[Read More…]
Unfinished Portrait is a project in perpetuity, tracking the footsteps of our post- 9/11, post-Iraq War world.I began work on the project in 2005. And, today, eleven years later, the content and execution of this work has evolved, much like the illegal wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have themselves evolved, you might say.
Israeli forces intercepted a boat carrying women solidarity activists as it was approximately 40 miles from Gaza’s shore on Wednesday. Israel said its navy escorted the vessel ashore and that the takeover was brief and “uneventful.” “The Israeli military said the navy carried out the raid ‘after exhausting all diplomatic channels,’” the Associated Press reported. “It said forces ordered the[Read More…]
We are being told that we need still more economic growth in order to overcome the present multi-layer crises. Actually we have been hearing this for quite some time now. Both right and left, capitalist and socialist governments, offer their theories about how we need more production and consumption, in order for our societies to progress and overcome the present[Read More…]
As soon as we start speaking about “globalization,” we inevitably associate it with the excessive financial markets that are disconnected from the real economy. There is less public awareness of another type of globalization that also involves the forced unification of institutions all over the world: the institution of private property and privatization strategies. The driving forces behind this development[Read More…]
The persons creating the War Hysteria should first get educated about the consequences of a present day war especially between the nuclear armed countries!
The political resolution of the crisis warrants discussions with all the stake holders after the Government of India first unilaterally announces a period of ‘truce’ and ‘amnesty’
Two Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been killed in suspicious circumstances by the Egyptian security forces. A ministry statement carried by the official MENA news agency said 61-year-old Dr. Mohammed Kamal, a physician by profession, was killed along with Yasser Shahata Ali Ragab in an exchange of gunfire as police tried to arrest the two late on Monday (Oct 3, 2016)[Read More…]
The clogged channels of my mind were set into action by an innocent status of a friend recently. -“I would’nt shoot the man who made the cage , but the bird that sings happily inside “! The complexities that lay enmeshed within these simple words taking me by surprise ! A coin has two sides …the beauty being they never[Read More…]
A year has passed since Mohammad Akhlaq, a Muslim ironsmith, was brutally killed in Dadri’s Bishara village by a mob of cow vigilantes in front of his family for allegedly having stored and consumed beef. Notwithstanding the widespread national and international condemnation there seems to be no let up in violence by Cow vigilantes. In the latest incident on September[Read More…]
Much against the propoganda let loose in the media, including social one, my research shows that – since independence, we have had approximately 1050 retaliatory surgical strikes across border/LOC, but had let them remain in anonymity of unpublicized encounters at battalion levels, except the latest one, over killed by a publicity hungry dispensation, no doubt for their own narrow short term political gains.
From the days of yore I continue to run through the vast chest of a paradise, nestled in the lap of tall and guarding mountains. The wheels of time keep running, albeit without bringing a healing- balm to the bleeding wounds of my countrymen. The long shores that guide my waters have been helplessly watching the cyclones of[Read More…]
September’s carbon dioxide output failed to drop below 400 parts per million (ppm) despite historically being the year’s low point for CO2 emissions, which means the Earth has very likely passed that symbolic climate threshold forever. The Earth has hit 400ppm before, but seasonal cycles have always reduced carbon dioxide output back below that level. Now, climate scientists say it[Read More…]
“We believe in what we are doing… If you are pushed you push back.” Julian Assange The mutterings have become furious, and it is clear that the Democratic contender for the White House has again shown how traditional her ploys towards power are going to be. Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have again managed to pull the blinds off an episode[Read More…]
Multiple killings in the U.S. are becoming so common (almost daily in the week past) that they no longer attract top billing in the news. Moreover, incidents of road rage leading to murder are also increasing at an alarming rate. On Friday, the Eisenhower Expressway in President Barack Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago was closed for two hours in the[Read More…]
Peace Plays is a splendid book: a lens with which to contemplate our modern world of foibles, follies, self-and-mass destruction. It’s a book to read, and re-read, and savor. It is whimsical and sobering; grating in a positive way; uplifting and transformative
As the Syrian Arab Army dug in for a fight against the self-declared Islamic State on September 17, they were struck by an air raid that killed 62 soldiers and injured 100 more. The culprit was a foreign military that has never been attacked by, and has not declared war on, Syria. Two weeks later, that same nation’s military killed[Read More…]
“To me, freedom of speech is something that represents the very dignity of what a human being is… that’s what marks us off from the stones and stars.” These are words spoken by Mario Savio, the spokesperson for the Free Speech Movement in the 60’s. Decades later, the power of free speech has surged onto the global stage and began[Read More…]
The greatest problem of our time is that for centuries we have been steadily weaned away from treating our common resources responsibly and carefully so that they can either regenerate or be repaired or replaced after use. Until the Middle Ages local resources such as pastures, woods and fishing waters were really handled that way. But since the 16th century,[Read More…]
I would like to announce that an updated and very much enlarged edition of mu book “Science and Society” will very soon be published by World Scientific (in November, 2016). The book can be purchased at a 20% discount at the following address by quoting the code number WSSPPS20. http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10227 This book has a very interesting history. In 1986,[Read More…]
Over the last week or so, there is an increasingly shrill demand coming from the hawkish ‘foreign policy advocates’ and the right wing war mongers that as a “fitting reply” to the tragic killing of 18 of our soldiers in the condemnable Uri attack on Sept.18, India should abrogate the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between the two countries, thereby ‘choking[Read More…]
Enough of the CIA’s “Enough Project” in Africa. With Hollywood superstar George Clooney as it’s talking head, EP, as it is known, was founded by senior US Intel “spook” Gayle Smith, former Senior Director of the National Security Council under President Obama and now head of the USAID/CIA. Today EP is headed by Ms. Smith’s protégé John Prendergast whose history[Read More…]
A decade ago left-wing governments, defying Washington and global corporations, took power in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Venezuela, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador. It seemed as if the tide in Latin America was turning. The interference by Washington and exploitation by international corporations might finally be defeated. Latin American governments, headed by charismatic leaders such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Luiz Inácio[Read More…]
The Palestine human rights movement and its advocates in the U. S. are under a growing pressure because of their criticism of Israel’s oppressive and deadly policy against the People of Palestine.[1] The BDS campaign was the last straw that led to a coalition, which uses all available means to suppress freedom of speech. Since the BDS movement gained momentum,[Read More…]
During the first presidential debate, on Monday evening, September 26, Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton boasted of her support for tough sanctions on Iran: I spent a year and a half putting together a coalition that included Russia and China to impose the toughest sanctions on Iran . . . And we did drive them to the negotiating table[Read More…]
Kamaraj was a rarity in Indian politics, and undoubtedly the tallest leader in Tamil Nadu. A school dropout and freedom fighter who went on to become the Congress president despite knowing no Hindi and no English. His genuine concern for the poor was matched only by his scrupulous honesty and integrity.
Tension between nuclear armed South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan continues to mount after terrorists on Sunday night attacked an army camp in Baramulla in Northern Kashmir killing constable Nitin of 40th battalion of the BSF and the injuring constable Pulwinder of the same battalion. According to news reports the terrorists are likely to have escaped taking advantage of night[Read More…]
We are only gradually beginning to realize that global common-pool resources are assets to humankind that should be managed as commons. Wasting them would be disastrous. We are trustees of these assets and thus, trustees for future generations. We have the duty to invest so as to increase or at least maintain these assets
In the four years that it took to negotiate this peace deal, Colombia has been moving inexorably towards October 2, the day that the people could have their say about the deal that would end the five-decade long war. The polls predicted an easy win for the “yes” side. The government’s negotiators and the guerrillas (FARC) campaigned for a strong[Read More…]
The honorary degree system at universities tends to be a rotten business, though Stephen Edward Epler, in his Honorary Degrees: A Survey of Their Use and Abuse (1943), regarded them as “perhaps the most important honorific in the nation.” Left to lauding the achievements of the exceptional, notably those who might not have spent much time in the direct line[Read More…]
Only with honesty, truth and justice can there be a future for our species, and I don’t see any of it-anywhere
It is tough to fight any real war. And it takes true guts, discipline and determination to win it. For years and decades, the so-called ‘left’ in the West has been moderately critical of North American (and sometimes even of European) imperialism and neo-colonialism. But whenever some individual or country rose up and began openly challenging the Empire, most of[Read More…]
The decision whether to allow the commercialisation of the first genetically modified (GM) food crop (mustard) in India is close. Serious conflicts of interest, sleight of hand and regulatory delinquency – not to mention outright fraud – could mean the decision coming down in favour of commercialisation. The bottom line is government collusion with transnational agribusiness, which is trying to[Read More…]
The short answer to the above question is, both! Recent bout started with Uri, the Indian border post at the Kashmir front. 18 Indian soldiers were killed by across-the-border assailants. India blames Pakistan and Pakistan denies and says it is the work of the disaffected Kashmiri insurgents. In the ensuing row India is winning diplomatically, Pakistan is rambling madly and[Read More…]
I wash my face and come back, back to the battle that has been raging— that I have been raging. No, its not a physical battle, but a virtual one against and inside a world where jingoism and bigotry are served up on a platter garnished and intricately designed with nationalism. Its a plate I cannot digest, even though to[Read More…]
Indian Army conducts surgical strikes. The Government thumps its chest. The media debates that this is the way to respond. The media channels compete debating this issue and try to increase their TRP ratings. Discussions get carried out on how skillfully the surgical strikes were carried out and comparisons made with similar strikes by Israel and United States.The urban middle[Read More…]
October 2, like all public holidays, is cherished as a token appreciation for the reason behind the holiday. Can we try and make a modest effort to move beyond this ennui of arrogance for understanding Gandhi, the phenomenon? What does Gandhi mean for us in the 21st[Read More…]
Kashmir is in international news once again. The killing of Burhan Wani followed by fresh mass uprising has provided a fresh impetus to the issue locally as well as internationally. The Fidayeen attack on Indian brigade headquarters at Uri and the subsequent alleged Indian surgical strike across LOC has stirred the hornet’s nest once again. Though the two Countries[Read More…]
Early morning today Jharkhand Police opened fire on protesting villagers against the forcible land acquisition for a thermal power plant being built by NTPC in district Hazaribagh, Chirdudih area. The firing has left five people dead, 12 critically injured and nearly 50 injured. There is a curfew in the area, outsiders can’t go and many missing are yet to be[Read More…]
It was a day of quiet on the India-Pakistan front except for the sporadic gunfire exchanged between the two sides in the Akhnoor sector of the international border in Jammu and Kashmir. On the other hand, it is a worrying sign to see no diplomatic efforts being taken up by both the sides to diffuse the tension. The South Asian[Read More…]
The ideas and theories of Elinor Ostrom, one of the world’s leading economic scholars studying the way people in communities cooperate (or don’t), have inspired their own collective action hub. It includes students and scholars of many disciplines as well as people actively involved in managing community water use, organizing fishing industries, delivering urban services, and operating cooperatives. This “hub”[Read More…]
To much fanfare, global leaders have agreed to tackle the climate crisis by ratifying theParis climate agreement, but a group of esteemed scientists is warning that current pledges to reduce emissions are far from sufficient and, in fact, put the world on track to reaching the dangerous 2°C climate threshold by 2050. “The pledges are not going to get even[Read More…]
Genocidally racist Zionist, war criminal and nuclear terrorist Shimon Peres (1923-2016) has been buried in Apartheid Israel with leading pro-Zionists, war criminals and nuclear terrorists in attendance. Known as the Butcher of Qana for green-lighting a 2001 Israeli atrocity against the UN and civilians in Southern Lebanon, Shimon Peres was a stalwart in the ongoing racist Zionist Palestinian Genocide. Peres’[Read More…]
If you have seen an African elephant on a visit to Kenya, the awe that one feels when you see the majestic beast is all consuming. African elephants are the world’s largest land animals. According to the WWF site, the biggest can be up to 7.5m long, 3.3m high at the shoulder, and 6 tonnes in weight. There are two[Read More…]
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) of the Government of India (GoI) is in a tussle with the boards of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) over several proposals in the Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2015, but the fiercest debate has been over reserving faculty positions. The government insists on a quota system, but the IIMs say the[Read More…]
Education plays a vital role in enlightening the society. However it is also one among powerful tools in the hands of State through which a particular domain of knowledge is transferred to working mass and thus serves the ruling class interest and lay the foundation for seamless exploitation. Modi govt.’s “New education policy-2016(NEP)” is another step towards this. The recent[Read More…]
This is the wall of stone faces
This is the plain of lost skulls
How much blood must fallow
Before we’ve had enough?
Righteousness is rarely endearing, and when concocted in a brew of hypocrisy, it becomes noxious. US political campaigning tends to overflow in it, a mixture of rights, noisily championed liberties and supposed exceptionalism. To that end, Donald Trump is enigmatic. He does, to a large extent fit that bill, only in so far as he assumes making money is a[Read More…]
We need people to understand that better living standards would eliminate most of the valve problems. Let us do the less publicized but humane methods in medical care instead of the media savvy hi-tech but top-heavy procedures, which would reach only the rich.
Sukli Hemla of Palnar village (Bijapur) remembers that as a widowed woman, she had done everything to save her son when he would fall ill during his childhood. But when on July 5th 2016, the security forces tied his hands and dragged him away, while they were together working in the rice fields, she could do nothing to save him.[Read More…]
At least 40 immigrants dead in fire at US-Mexico border 
Contemporary Anti-Semitism – A Jewish View from Germany 
In memory of 40th Anniversary of Military Dictatorship in Argentina 
Poor work conditions, non-compliance with Constitutional provisions seriously impact adolescent girls in workforce 
Take action against K Surendran for insulting Women 
Calculated Exoneration: Command Responsibility and War Crimes in Afghanistan 
DOJ Called Upon to Investigate Environmental Activists Abuses 
The World’s Coffee Shops Have Emerged as Plant Milk’s Front Line 
Lara Sheehi’s ordeal, like Steven Salaita’s, is not quite over 
“Facing Clear Evidence of Peril” in a Country of Lies 
The case of Kashmir: A Gandhian Resolution 
Non-Availability of Badly Needed Funds for Dalit Students Increases Their Difficulties 
A bureaucrat-turned- minister in a mess 
Hundreds Of Thousands Of Workers’ 24-Hour Mega Transport Strike Halts Germany 
Oldest Interfaith Organization in America Calls for Children to Have More Rights Than Guns 
What’s the Best Way Out from the War in Ukraine? 
How Indigenous Land Management Practices Are a Blueprint for Climate-Resilient Agriculture 
In memory of Hugo Chavez on 10th death Anniversary 
Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: A Multipolar World Offers Challenges and Opportunities to the Middle East and Africa 
Ukraine War – US-China Relations And the Doomsday Clock 
Anti-Rahul Defamation Card Has Its Limitations! 
Questions We Should Ask to Understand Real Impact of Poverty Reduction and Welfare Schemes 
Punjab: Democracy Under Siege? 
Declaration excessive dividends by the Board of HZL may not be in compliance with Section 123 of the Companies Act 
Men, masculinities, and gender equality 
EU Warns After Russia Plans To Place Tactical Nuclear Weapon In Belarus 
A Hazardous Decision: Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells 
Media and the March to War 
The Basic Issue is not of Taking Sides in Superpower Rivalry, it is of Durable Peace to Save Earth’s Life 
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell 
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane 
Bundelkhand Must Choose its Priorities Carefully 
Citizenship: Beyond the Forked Vision 
Caste-wise census is necessary for balanced development 
Tribal woman murdered after rape in Rohtas and strong protest demanding punishment of culprits 
Why Avoiding Catastrophic War is the Biggest Priority Today 
Labor in market, and the mainstream economics 
Serbia Shall Never Forget NATO Aggression, Vows Serb President 
Kerala’s New Public Health Bill 2023: Subservient to Market Forces rather than Deliberative Democracy 
The Piracy of Development – The 3-Ds: Dispossession, Displacement, Destitution 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
Trump’s Misogyny And The Media’s “Righteous-Indignation Dollar”
Twenty years ago, the great Bill Hicks had a classic stand-up bit in which he imagined ad executives watching his rant against advertising, and saying to each other: “Oh, I see what Bill is doing! He’s going after the anti-marketing dollar, the righteous-indignation dollar! That’s a good dollar!” Hicks was pointing out the ability of advertising to, in an utterly[Read More…]