While we mourn the tragedy that fear, prejudice and ignorance “trumped” in this election, now is the time to go deeper and broader with our work. There is a growing recognition that the scary situation we find ourselves in today has deep roots. To better understand what happened – and why – we need to broaden our horizons. If we[Read More…]
I was asked to give a talk to a committee of actuaries who are concerned about modeling the financial future of programs, such as pension plans, given the energy problems that are often discussed. They (and the consultants that they hire) have been using an approach that puts problems far off into the future. I was trying to explain why[Read More…]
In the wake of Arab Spring uprisings in March 2011, protests began in Syria against the government of Bashar al-Assad. In the following months, violence between demonstrators and security forces led to a gradual militarization of conflict. Moreover, the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq was completed in December 2011. Thus, during the initial few months of the Syrian[Read More…]
The Israeli state has violated international law more than any other country, yet has rarely, if ever, been held accountable for its crimes and misconduct. Israel’s successful public relation campaigns through the ever-willing western media partners, coupled with the relentless work and pressure carried out by its powerful backers in Washington DC, London, Paris and elsewhere, has borne stupendous results. For a while,[Read More…]
“To them that walk in power; to exceed is madness, and not wisdom” Antigone The creation and slow demise of the two state solution in the Palestinian tragedy of the 20th and 21st centuries has been brought about by the hubris of the main antagonist, Israel. “Hubris, Ate, and Nemesis are three minor Greek deities, mostly remembered today for their[Read More…]
I often wondered why was it that when there were so many social programmes for the poor that poverty was yet so endemic and stubborn. Despite such vast investments there were regions in which we could just nibble at the frozen layers of poverty. This is not to discount the enormous progress we have made in improving the social indicators,[Read More…]
The river Brahmaputra is one of the most important part of the cultural and social part of the life of the north-eastern state of Assam. The thespian Bhupen Hazarika in his songs have evoked the mighty river as the “holy site of great synthesis, Has for untold been propagating The message of unity and harmony” . The river which[Read More…]
(China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which includes Gilgit-Baltistan area of the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir can revive historical connection of Kashmir with China) Presently, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is the hot news. The project is being implemented by China and Pakistan at an accelerated pace. Work in full swing started on it in 2015 after an agreement[Read More…]
This week marks the commencement of negotiations at the United Nations Headquarters in New York wherein most member states of the UN General Assembly are discussing on a comprehensive legal prohibition on the use, possession, production, stockpiling and deployment of nuclear weapons. The treaty, if adopted, would mark a significant step towards the eventual goal of the complete elimination of[Read More…]
Eminent Jurist and Citizens – Mr. Fali Nariman, Girish Karnad, TM Krishna, Aruna Roy, Jayati Ghosh, Zoya Hasan, Medha Patkar, Bezwada Wilson, Nandita Das, Swami Agnivesh, Usha Ramanathan, Prabhat Patnaik and more than 200 other concerned citizens have expressed concern on the classification of the Finance Bill, 2017 as a ‘Money Bill’ which is illegitimate and should not be considered as ‘Money Bill’.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday set about aggressively dismantling Obama-era climate policies with an executive order decried as “sheer reckless folly,” which will increase U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the climate crisis. “Aside from provoking a large-scale nuclear war, it is hard to imagine an American president taking an action more harmful to the U.S. than Trump’s effort to[Read More…]
Compare: —— Russian TV covered hundreds of thousands Yemenese protesting U.S.-Saud’s Bombs. —— versus: —— http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/327-jared-kushner-to-tell-senate-intel-committee-about-contacts-with-russian-bank-meet-leah-the-overcomer-a-young-girl-who-is-inspiring-the-world/ (at 11:11-13:11) U.S. TV covered 8,000 Russians protesting Vladimir Putin’s government. —— If they’re both propaganda, then which was more honest, more news that was really worth covering? Both were about foreign affairs, but which was more important, more worthy of being included in[Read More…]
Bombs do not have a conscience, however named, blessed or created. They go, at least in a rough sense, where directed, and if the deliverer is ill disposed, confused or simply incompetent, disaster follows. Between the ideological rants and principled feelings about killing the enemy, there is only one fact worth nothing: death and the ordinance used to cause it[Read More…]
Security measures are often exercises in futility. Resembling placebos, they are the reassurance authorities make as acts of intrusive inconvenience. Queues are increased at airports in the vain hope that an elusive gel carrier will be nabbed before the next detonating device is activated on a flight. Shoes are checked to see if they pass muster. Devices are scrutinised. Now,[Read More…]
The opposition to Aadhaar mostly centres on the issues of surveillance and privacy. While these are very important issues, the lofty platform on which Aadhaar stands is supported on the myth that biometric based identity is infallible, robust and safe. None of this is true, which therefore brings into question the very utility of Aadhaar, as also the unforeseen complications[Read More…]
You are aware of the repression on us by the nexus of Company management-Police-Government, as 13 MSWU members have been sentenced to Life Imprisonment and 4 more workers handed 5 years by the Gurgaon Sessions Court on 18 March 2017 – without a shred of evidence, and solely on the false witness accounts by the management. The MSWU body[Read More…]
People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) condemns the murder of rationalist H. Farook in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu on March 16, 2017. Farook was a member of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (Dravidian Freedom Organisation) which is inspired by the rationalist ideas of Periyar. According to the police, the six men who killed Farook were self-radicalised and ‘claimed that their radical thought had[Read More…]
Kashmir over the years has been presented as an internal issue to the international forums by Indian state or merely a “law and order” situation. Historically whenever people in Kashmir have demanded their rights, the state has responded by trampling more rights. The latest developing trend is that the pop-up war rooms, The big Indian media houses, their paid analysts[Read More…]
Note: Imaginary debate with opponents is a thought process adopted since ages by thinkers such as Sankara, Madhvacharya and many others to demolish prativada (counter arguments). This samvada (debate) also follows this technique. The characters are fictitious, but the arguments are real. The Chief Pracharak had a brain wave, while pondering about how to make the Indian universities fall in[Read More…]
The world stands out on either side No wider than the heart is wide; Above the world is stretched the sky,— 205 No higher than the soul is high. The heart can push the sea and land Farther away on either hand; The soul can split the sky in two, And let the face of God shine through. The above[Read More…]
The U.S. has been at war throughout much of its history. Some wars were blatantly wars of conquest, e.g., the Indian Wars (the near genocide of Native Americans) and the Mexican-American War. Whatever the real reasons for our military actions, they were usually sold to the public as being defensive in nature and this practice still goes on. Some[Read More…]
Late in 2016 the Rwandan Government indicted several senior French Army Generals for crimes against humanity including genocide for their role in the 1994 Rwandan holocaust. The Rwandan case against the French Generals is based on the French having instigated and trained the Interhamwe para military Hutu militia that was responsible for most of the killings of the minority Tutsi[Read More…]
For the proponents of Hindu Rashtra, the University and Academic spaces acquire importance for the propagation of the concept of Hindu Rashtra. Rather than treating them as spaces to foster critical thinking, they are seen as spaces to manufacture and condition a ‘Hindu mind’ in its Communal Avataar. These spaces are seen merely as extensions of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS)[Read More…]
The perception that the poor do not have skills or would not be able to survive on their own is a myth. My experience with development finance has demonstrated that we have to encourage strategies that ensure wider participation of poor in schemes aimed at solving their problems. It is the unleashing of their social and mental energies and,[Read More…]
The Association of African students in India is calling on the government of India to taking concrete steps to protect the lives and properties of all African students in India, and especially in Uttar Pradesh following the recent false allegations laid on five Nigerian students. We are tired of the appeasement and promises made by the Indian government and therefore[Read More…]
A young boy was found dead in Noida. The family and the people alleged that it is the Africans who have drugged him so he got cardiac arrest and after that the crowd swell and become violent against them. Police as usual arrest some of the Nigerian students and found nothing incriminating against them so release them later but the[Read More…]
And when the dead bodies do not wake up
I keep telling myself
That it is safer to get drunk
On the silence of the graves.
While Obama and Cameron take “selfies,”
shedding crocodile tears
at Nelson Mandela’s final farewell,
our Lady Mandela gazes over
the path she has made by her walking.
The Pentagon has formally asked the Trump White House to lift limited restrictions imposed by the Obama administration on US military aid to the Saudi Arabian monarchy’s near genocidal war against the impoverished people of Yemen. The Washington Post reported Monday that Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis, a recently-retired US Marine general, had submitted a memo earlier this month[Read More…]
Hawkeye was one of the most colorful people whom I’ve ever known since the time of my first having met him as a toddler. It was because of his basic life’s position and sometimes unusual choices. Indeed, his alternative selection to the norm as a way to move forward in life was impressive to me. He embodied the Quaker outlook[Read More…]
“If the building starts to break up, protect yourself w[sic] mattresses, rugs etc under strong table or hold onto solid fixture.” Queensland Ambulance, Twitter, Mar 28, 2017 Townsville, North Queensland: The eerie sense that something is about to happen, with unsolicited fulsome vicious force was hard to avoid. There is a pregnant sense in the air, the pre-moisture in the winds[Read More…]
Foreign capital is dictating the prevailing development agenda in India. There is a deliberate strategy to make agriculture financially non-viable for India’s small farms, to get most farmers out of farming and to impose a World Bank sanctioned model of food production. The aim is to replace current structures with a system of industrial (GM) agriculture suited to the needs[Read More…]
“To err is human. Courts including the apex one are no exception. To own up the mistake when judicial satisfaction is reached does not militate against its status or authority. Perhaps it would enhance both.”, so goes the pronouncement of Supreme Court of India in Antulay’s matter where a seven judges bench of Supreme Court reviewed and recalled its own[Read More…]
Both Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Mohan Karamchand (“Mahatma”) Gandhi (1869-1948) would be very alarmed by the U.S. elections of 2016 and what we are now facing with President Donald Trump and the Trump Administration. They would be alarmed by the campaigns and elections, the language used, the power relations, the role of money, the role of the media, and the[Read More…]
“The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says an internal review into World Vision funding in Gaza has uncovered nothing to suggest any diversion of government aid funding to Hamas.” ABC The blow to Israel’s credibility is colossal because, the investigation had teeth, fangs in this case, as “DFAT has in place rigorous processes to investigate any report[Read More…]
They are in Delhi for last 15 days for demanding compensation and relief as Cauvery water supply in Tamilnadu is drying up resulting in massive drought. Over 250 farmers have committed suicide since October 2016 as their loans piling up and they are unable to pay the huge debts which they have taken to survive. Most of them grow rice[Read More…]
“Portraying the current crisis [the political development in 1971-Pakistan] as something from the theater of the absurd, he [Bhutto] observed that framing a constitution for Pakistan without the participation of the PPP [Pakistan People’s Party] would be ‘like staging Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark’.” (Richard Sisson and Leo E Rose, War and Secession, Pakistan, India and the Creation of[Read More…]
First, the facts. Yes, crimes against women are a major problem in Uttar Pradesh. As per the data of the National Crime Records Bureau, the state has the dubious distinction of being the most unsafe Indian state for women in 2015 despite losing ‘top rank’ in number of rapes reported, to Madhya Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra. Further, the state lost[Read More…]
On 19 March, Yogi Adityanath is sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. He is the choice of none other than Narendra Modi. When the BJP announced it the previous day, it shocked the inertial world of Indian intellectuals. They thought that by choosing Adityanath, known to be hindutva hardliner and firebrand anti-Muslim, Modi is shelving the[Read More…]
The whole episode lacks any originality like most of the programmes that the television news channels in Kerala air! A news channel launches itself by airing a purported lurid telephone conversation between a minister and a woman. Within hours the 71-year-old minister resigns. The eight-minute-long clip was telecast on Sunday morning by Mangalam TV, a private channel that was launched[Read More…]
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is convening the 4th session of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD 2017) from 29 to 31 March 2017, in Bangkok, Thailand. The APFSD is expected to define a regional roadmap to support member States’ implementation of the 2030 Agenda over the next 15 years. The conclusions[Read More…]
It has happened again! In the wake of the latest rounds of ISIS terror attacks in Bangladesh, authorities in the country have again started denying the existence of any ISIS terror network there. Rejecting any ISIS involvement in terror attacks in Bangladesh as “propaganda”, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal poses the question: “Why will the ISIS come here?” One wonders if[Read More…]
Big news – at times – go completely unnoticed. (Thanks to the mediatised times we are passing through) And thus it did not appear surprising that the decision by Posco, the South Korean steelmaker, the fourth biggest in the world, to exit the proposed 12 million-tonnes a year steel plant in Odisha did not cause much flutter. Yes, newspapers[Read More…]
As you may know from the media about recent the statement by Odisha’s Industry Minister, Devi Prasad Mishra that “POSCO confirmed the withdrawal of its project by requesting the Odisha government to take back the land transferred in its name”. We strongly believe this is not just a victory for our people but also the victory for the all the[Read More…]
(The National Highway presently connecting Kashmir Valley to the outside world is in the throes of death and there is urgent need to find an alternative) Kashmir valley remained cut off during the current winter a number of times. This was due to the closure of the National Highway connecting it with Jammu, the only land route presently available during[Read More…]
Don’t you know promises were never meant to keep? Just like the night, they dissolve off in sleep I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true I’ll come to your emotional rescue I’ll come to your emotional rescue -Rolling Stones, Emotional Rescue, 1979 Of course, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were not thinking deeply about social change, when they wrote these[Read More…]
On March 11, survivors of violence against women and their allies and supporters held marches in six Caribbean countries. Started by two Barbadian women, Ronelle King and Allyson Benn, the movement had the hashtag #LifeInLeggings. In Jamaica, one of the groups marching was the Tambourine Army, a movement of activists dedicated to eradicating sexual violence against women and girls. Some[Read More…]
Congratulations, you won—you are the last and richest person on Earth. In the security of your sunless underground bunker, you will be the last to die in a dying Earth’s paroxysm of fire and flood. In a recent column for YES! Magazine, Chuck Collins, “born on third base” social activist and commentator, has a message for the superrich who are[Read More…]
“This may well be the most important US History book you will read in your lifetime.” — Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley providing a testimonial for the work of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. According to Harper’s Magazine (April, 2017), the minimum number of American colleges that have programs to study their past reliance on slavery is twenty-eight. Well, I trust that it’s[Read More…]
The ranks of the world’s billionaires registered a sharp increase in 2016, with the number rising by 233 to reach a record 2,043, according to Forbes magazine’s annual survey. This was the first time that the Forbes list of the world’s richest has included more than 2,000 individuals. The combined wealth of those on Forbes’ billionaires list rose 18 percent[Read More…]
It’s a familiar story. On his final journey toward Jerusalem, Jesus stops in Bethany to eat at the home of Simon, a leper. A woman enters with an alabaster jar of expensive ointment; she breaks the jar and pours the ointment on his head. Her gesture invokes the fury of some of those present. The ointment was worth a year’s[Read More…]
The UN notes the world is “facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the UN … more than 20 million people across four countries face starvation and famine. Without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death. Many more will suffer and die from disease.” One of the reasons scholars like Gary Francione have said[Read More…]
Access to the right financial tools at critical moments can determine whether a poor household is able to capture an opportunity to move out of poverty or absorb a shock without being pushed deeper into debt. When microfinance-provision of financial services tailored to fit the needs of low income people – made its first appearance, everyone was infatuated by[Read More…]
A remorselessly neoliberal, climate change-denying and anti-science Trump aims to slash science, technology, international aid, and medical research funding in favour of extra funding for the military and nuclear terrorism. 30 Americans are predicted to die from terrorism in America in the next 8 years but over 14 million Americans will die preventably under a US- and world-threatening 2-term[Read More…]
“Hindutva rashtra ki sanchetna hai. Is par prahaar mahapralay ko aamantran hai”. This is a statement that figures on the front page of the official website of the new Chief Minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath. I will attempt to unravel and decipher this statement in order to understand its meaning and import better. The first thing that is clear from[Read More…]
The United States has banned laptops, e-readers, cameras, tablets, printers, electronic games and portable DVD players on flights from eight Muslim countries. The passengers on flights originating in eight Muslim countries from carrying any electronic device bigger than a mobile phone, the Department of Homeland Security said. The move comes days after President Donald Trump’s second bid to curb[Read More…]
As Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, I am convinced that many Indian citizens like myself saw an idea of India completely vanish before our eyes. This quite obviously has not happened overnight. The cries for help to save this idea of India have been visible in the protests across the country since the Lok[Read More…]
If anyone doubts that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid, he should read the report “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid” commissioned by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The report released on the 15th March 2017 and posted on the ESCWA website has now been removed on[Read More…]
Let’s hear the alarm that our climate system is sounding, loud and clear. Let’s prove that we are rational beings (as Aristotle, possibly the greatest philosopher of Ancient Greece, famously claimed). Rationality today doesn’t mean exploring options for colonizing another planet, it means an unprecedented journey into our own survival on planet Earth: Apollo-Earth.
The rift between the European Union and Turkey is escalating as President Erdogan has accused the EU countries of persecuting Muslims like Jews were during World War II while the spirit of fascism was running wild on the streets of Europe. The EU-Turkey rift was sparked on March 11when Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, was barred from landing in the[Read More…]
This week at the Voices for Creative Nonviolence office in Chicago, my colleague Sabia Rigby prepared a presentation for a local high school. She’ll team up with a young friend of ours, himself a refugee from Iraq, to talk about refugee crises driven by war. Sabia recently returned from Kabul where she helped document the young Afghan Peace Volunteers’ efforts[Read More…]
The crawl toward despotism within a failed democracy is always incremental. No regime planning to utterly extinguish civil liberties advertises its intentions in advance. It pays lip service to liberty and justice while obliterating the institutions and laws that make them possible. Its opponents, including those within the establishment, make sporadic attempts to resist, but week by week, month by[Read More…]
Leaders in Global Lens The 21st century global politics is fraught with conflicts, deaths and destruction of human lives, indifference to the vital problem of global warming and climate change and leadership failure to resolve the issues via peaceful dialogue. Those claiming to be the leaders of the elected masses, discard people’s voices of reason and accountability. Most leaders act[Read More…]
Every year, 21st March is celebrated as the International Day of Forests, so designated by the United Nations to highlight the importance of forests. This year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has announced the theme of “Forests and Energy”, calling forests “nature’s power house,” highlighting that forests are not anymore just energy providers for basic cooking and heating needs,[Read More…]
There is only one Cabinet-level federal Department that is so wasteful — so corrupt (&/or incompetent) — that its financial records can’t even be audited, meaning that no auditors can be found who will certify its books: the Defense Department, otherwise called “the Pentagon” — it’s 54% of the Fiscal Year 2016 federal budget for all Departments of discretionary (i.e., legally non-obligatory)[Read More…]
It is in the nature of capitalism to turn every human disaster into an opportunity to make profit. The war in Yemen has not only destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians; it has also created a landscape whereby multinational corporations can more easily behave like outright gangsters in robbing their workers. The French energy giant multinational TOTAL[Read More…]
In the presence of the eminent activists the Iron Lady, Irom Sharmila, received a warm welcome threaded in love at Calicut in Kerala. Solidarity Youth Movement of Kerala, which was at the forefront in supporting Irom Sharmila’s heroic resistance for civil rights, hosted the program . A massive crowd was present to hear Sharmila. The crowd waited impatiently for hours[Read More…]
With all the focus on a wall to (in a way) quarantine Mexico and President Trump’s notorious disinclination to read, one wonders if he would be interested in a brief history of Mexican immigration … For years and years there was an informal guest worker program. Farmers and fruit growers had a need for farm labor — work that was[Read More…]
Yogi Adityanath is the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. As unbelievable as this might sound, this is a fact that cannot be wished away. Yogi Adityanath has been quite in the news owing to the multitude of statements he has made time and again, clearly announcing his religious preferences and his attitude towards other religious communities and the people[Read More…]
One Kamal didi ( she signs as Kamal didi too) of the Rashtriya Mahila Gau Rakshak Mandal was trying to catch stray cows with the help of the nagar nigam to take them to the Gau shalas, when Qasim a cleaner boy from Rabbani Hotel came to throw garbage in an empty plot near the dustbin on Kanti Chandra road.[Read More…]
Will we experience a Methane (CH4) Hydrate Feedback Loop that will place us on a repeat path like that of the Permian Triassic mass extinction? Or, to our horror, will there be some other self-induced something even more horrific and impossible to reverse? “Biosphere” is a term used to define the relatively thin layer of the earth’s surface that[Read More…]
Workers have gone on indefinite strikes at Chile and Peru’s largest copper mines and ignited the potential for further struggles in the sector. The neighbouring South American countries are the world’s first- and second- biggest producers of copper, respectively. Mining companies there have benefitted over the past few years from rising global demand and prices, but workers have seen little[Read More…]
“The glorification of one race and the consequent debasement of another — or others — always has been and always will be a recipe for murder.” — James Baldwin Religion is now one of the major fault lines of American politics. Here, though, I’d like to address something that impacts potentially on both religion and politics, a fault line of[Read More…]
Every year the US State Department releases reports on human rights but the Western media ignores their real purpose: to promote capitalism globally and reinforce US imperialist dominance of the world. Every year since 1975, as mandated by law, the US State Department has submitted Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, called “Human Rights Reports” for short, compiled by the[Read More…]
This article presents a brief history of Al-Ahwaz. It highlights the sufferings of the Ahwazi Arab people under the Iranian occupation, and offers an introduction to the contemporary history of the Ahwaz struggle for liberation and the fight to regain independence stolen by Iran in 1925. For too long, Ahwazi Arabs have suffered in silence, the ultimate invisible victims.[Read More…]
13 of our brothers have been given ‘life sentences’ – including 12 Maruti Suzuki Workers Union body members – on the baseless charge of ‘murder’ on 18 March afternoon by the Gurgaon Additional Sessions Court. 4 workers given 5 year sentences. 14 workers given 3 years, but have already spent 4 years in prison, so released. Of the earlier acquitted[Read More…]
Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women ― Maya Angelou Over the years several strategies have been used to empower women .One of them relies on community groups whose members can be trained and equipped to use their collective strength and wisdom to tackle their problems. [Read More…]
I’m sick of the wars, utterly sick of all of them. They happen abroad in a panoramic view involving thousands if not a million or more and right on USA soil on a greatly curtailed scale. Sometimes they are big and sometimes they are small. The types that happen within families, I suppose, are small versions and can involve even[Read More…]
India is truly on the move. It is a move in the direction of a ‘New India’. If the name of a ‘New India’ provides the image of something in the direction of modern, hi-tech, advanced, progressive then it is time to think back. Yes the new India would be modern in terms of amenities for few but with supremacy[Read More…]
The rain pours with torrential fury in north Queensland, opening up with ominous welcome as it slices through layers of stifling humidity. But the fury is also being registered in the rag like bleating sheet known to locals as the Bullie, that beacon of local sentimentality that noisily proclaims its voice. Another creature in the vast enterprise known as the[Read More…]
Populists have chosen a bad time to wrest power. The main weapon at the disposal of the populist is the power to turn conjecture into fact. The danger is in the steady march of populists around the world turning conjecture to fact to law. The populist remains agile and formless, shaping opinion according to necessity, the only consideration being a[Read More…]
The sessions court in Gurgaon on 18 March, 2017 sentenced 13 workers of Maruti Suzuki to life imprisonment for murder. Twelve of these are the erswhtile leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union. Eighteen others were sentenced from three to five years for rioting and causing grievous injury. Cases against these workers were filed in July 2012 after violence in[Read More…]
Education is a basic human right and all education should be free for all. However the commodification and corporatizing of higher education has meant that free university education presently only obtains in about 25 countries, and the young are brainwashed into acceptance of fee-charging higher education. The present ruling generations should grant free university education to the young who[Read More…]
You believe in expert marketing strategies of moustached-uncles sitting patiently inside wholesale shops of Sadar Bazaar, and indulge in ‘chai-pe-charcha’ for the latest political gossip, and immediately turn to your best buddies in need of a life-turning advice rather spending on professional psychiatrists. Don’t worry, you are just an average Indian. The country that contributed ‘jugaad’ as a new term[Read More…]
Yogi Adityanath has been appointed chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. That shows the power of ‘mobocracy’ when we call it ‘democracy’ and paid thugs define it in their different ways wasting time of the nation and confusing people further. I am not surprised at the choice of the Sangh Parivar as they believe in building leaders for future. Other parties[Read More…]
Way back in the 1960s and 1970s, noted political scientist Rajni Kothari used to characterise the Indian political system as essentially ‘Congress System’ with ‘one party’ exercising its ‘authoritative’ hegemony, depicting the Congress as the “spokesman of the nation as well as its affirmed agent of criticism and change.” Kothari even predicted that the Congress would likely to be the[Read More…]
An Apache gunship opened fire on a boat carrying Somali refugees off the coast of Yemen early Friday morning killing at least 42 people and wounding dozens of others. The boat, which came under attack 30 miles off the Yemeni coast, was reportedly ferrying more than 100 men, women and children from Sudan. Bullets from the attack helicopter riddled the[Read More…]
The Sessions Court in Gurgaon today announced the quantum of sentence for 31 workers convicted by it on 10th March in the State of Haryana Vs. Jiyalal and Others case. Thirteen union leaders have been awarded life imprisonment, four others five years imprisonment and remaining 14 sentence as already undergone. Peoples Union for Democratic Rights strongly condemns not just the[Read More…]
I met Mary H. when I was sixteen years old. She was twenty at the time and my parents had been asked by NYC Quakers to take her for the summer months. Her “story” went like this. Born in a fundamentalist Christian Maryland, USA family — she had parents paying for her to attend a university in Maryland. Then one[Read More…]
Agriculture in our country today is in a profound crisis. Wherever we look we see the evidence of this: static or falling crop yields, crop failures due to too little or too much rainfall, rampant diseases and pests and wild animal attacks, loss of crop and domestic animal biodiversity, soil erosion, deforestation, falling water tables, water-logging and soil salinisation, chemical[Read More…]
A senior United Nations official has resigned, following pressure from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to withdraw the landmark report published earlier this week finding Israel guilty of apartheid. Rima Khalaf, the head of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) which published the report, announced her resignation at a press conference in Beirut on Friday. Reuters reports that Khalaf[Read More…]
Corporations today are run as if their employees are members of a military at war. Obedience to hierarchy is prized above every other consideration. Loyalty to the corporation comes before loyalty to the laws of the country. Like the ‘thin blue line’ employees are expected to never go outside the chain of command no matter how illegal or dangerous is[Read More…]
Ecuador will return to the polls on April 2 after a first round presidential vote failed to deliver a decisive victory for Lenin Moreno, the candidate seeking to continue outgoing President Rafael Correa’s pro-poor “Citizens’ Revolution”. Moreno now faces the challenge of ensuring Ecuador does not join the list of countries in the region where the left has recently lost[Read More…]
A prominent Iraqi Sunni politician, Khamis Khanjar, who is in touch with civilians on the ground in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, which is being bombarded by US airstrikes and Iraqi ground forces, told Washington this week that …a sudden surge in civilian casualties … [is threatening] to undermine the effort to crush the [ISIS] militants. …at least 3,500 civilians[Read More…]
Following the talk of Áche Din’, India of the past two and half years saw a series of events. It saw the eagerness of the state to push the Hindutva agenda. Efforts in the direction of picking and punishing those opposed to the agenda were undertaken. Similarly those wedded to RSS ideology saw a garlanding. In the process several sections[Read More…]
WikiLeaks dropped a bombshell on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named “Vault 7”, the whistleblowing site began releasing the largest publication of confidential documents, that have come from the top secret security network at the Cyber Intelligence Center. Long before the Edward Snowden revelations, Julian Assange noted how “The Internet, our greatest tool of emancipation, has been transformed into the[Read More…]
Today the National Federation of Indian Women and the Right to Food Campaign held a protest outside the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Shastri Bhawan to protest against the move of the Central Government to make Aadhaar mandatory for Mid Day Meal Scheme. People from more than ten states including UP, West Bengal, Odisha, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Delhi[Read More…]
Dedicated to Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Fight for Sacco and Vanzetti “With his hand on my mouth He shall drag me forth, Shrieking to the south And clutching at the north.” — Edna St. Vincent Millay, from Moriturus As everyone paying attention knows, we are about to die. Unless indigenous people — the ones whose lead must be followed according to[Read More…]
The expansion of public relations and propaganda (PRP) firms inside news systems in the world today has resulted in a deliberate form of news management. Maintenance of continuous news shows requires a constant and ever-entertaining supply of stimulating events and breaking news bites. Corporate media are increasingly dependent on various government agencies and PRP firms as sources of news.[Read More…]
The biggest fault in democracy, as it is practiced all over the world, is the election campaign funding part, because the individuals and corporations that finance an election campaign always have ulterior motives: that is, they treat political funding as investment from which they intend to make profits by influencing executive policy and legislation. In Pakistan’s political system, there are[Read More…]
JNU has been celebrated for critical thinking, political activism and regarded as one of the premier institutions for higher education and excellence in research. Students also strongly believe that campuses like JNU would be a ‘cultural mechanism’ for interactions within the student community, who are from diverse social groups, and a resourceful platform for academic learning. For some months now[Read More…]
The agrichemicals industry wallows like an overblown hog in a cesspool of corruption. With its snout firmly embedded in the trough of corporate profit to the detriment of all else, it is most likely responsible for more death and disease than the combined efforts of the tobacco companies ever were. It indulges in criminality that hides behind corporate public relations, media misrepresentations and[Read More…]
[God knows] By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways I met this crown; and I myself know well How troublesome it sat upon my head (William Shakespeare Henry IV Part 2) Phew what a relief. Finally a brief halt to high decibel campaigning. How I love to course through the streets in a vehicle that appears to float in a[Read More…]
Like many of us I find it impossible to look away from what is going on South of our border. Every day it seems we are greeted with another insult to reality. Another blow to our sciences and our humanity. Kill the EPA. Defund NASA. Can ‘Meal on Wheels’ to seniors. More tax cuts for the few and less healthcare[Read More…]
Federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland have blocked President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0. In their ruling both judges cited Trump’s statements about Muslims during the presidential campaign. A federal judge in Hawaii Wednesday ordered a temporary restraining order nationwide, hours before it was set to go into effect on Thursday. Another federal judge in Maryland Thursday morning specifically[Read More…]
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the ObamaCare-replacing, Trump Republican American Health Care Act would mean 14 million more uninsured Americans in 2018 and 24 million by 2026. Lack of health insurance kills about 45,000 Americans each year (Harvard Medical School) and Trump’s removal of millions of Americans from Health Cover will kill 43,000 Americans over 2 Trump terms[Read More…]
Behold today’s edition of Empire’s End—the biggest, best-ever 24/7 reality TV show! It’s been decades in preparation, with a budget in the trillions, a cast of billions! Its hero-villain is far more colorful and pathetic than Tony Soprano or Walter White. One day he and his team of oddball supporting characters appear to be winning bigly; the next, they’re crashing[Read More…]
Almost a full decade since first applying for a presidential permit, TransCanada looks set to finally receive go-ahead in the U.S. for its massive $8-billion Keystone XL pipeline. But here’s the thing: U.S. approval, while a great leap forward for TransCanada, doesn’t guarantee the Keystone XL pipeline will ever be built. New U.S. President Donald Trump was elected with the explicit promise to[Read More…]
What is “value” and how shall we protect it? It’s a simple question for which we don’t have a satisfactory answer. For conventional economists and politicians, the answer is simple: value is essentially the same as price. Value results when private property and “free markets” condense countless individual preferences and purchases into a single, neutral representation of value: price. That[Read More…]
I couldn’t believe my eyes while flipping TV channels. There on one station are two guys smacking each other upside their heads. All that I could see was them inflicting injury and life-long damage onto each other via teeth loss, broken noses, concussions, skull cracks and so on. Meanwhile the audience is cheering as these two fellows slam each[Read More…]
“We must look back twenty-five years to realize how far Israel has fallen in world support,” wrote famed Jewish scholar, Harvard sociologist, Nathan Glazer in 1976. In the last forty years since Glazer wrote his piece, which was uncovered and transmitted by Philip Weiss, Israel’s global support has fallen much further. The country that once appealed to both United States’[Read More…]
I’ll be frank. I do not like everyone. For example I strongly dislike Josef Mengele, a Nazi medical doctor who tied a Jew’s legs together while she was giving birth so as to see the medical results. I also do not like Marjorie M. She was the wealthiest woman in the world when I was a child. She sent[Read More…]
The Claims Commission was essentially a mopping-up operation, established to clarify ambiguities about land ownership that still remained after a century of white assault. It simply asserted that the Indians had lost land that they often had not, and gave them money as a panacea. Usually these claims awards were dutifully hailed in the American press as if the U.S. was generously giving down-and-out Indians a gift, when actually the opposite was the case.
(The recent state elections show that the “New India” would probably be the realisation of the Golwalkar’s dream!) After a resounding victory in the UP and Uttrakhand State elections, the Prime Minister declared that it was the beginning of a “New India”. According to him this India of progress and development which would be completed by 2022 and would be[Read More…]
The Trump White House has secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to resume drone assassination strikes that in the latter years of the Obama administration had been largely reserved for the US military, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The Journal cited unnamed US officials revealing that the authorization was granted shortly after Trump visited CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia[Read More…]
If you are an American male of a certain age — Donald Trump’s age, to be exact — you are likely to have vivid memories of Victory at Sea, the Emmy award-winning NBC documentary series about the U.S. Navy in World War II that aired from October 1952 to May 1953. One of the first extended documentaries of its type, Victory at[Read More…]
Just held 2017 Punjab assembly election has not proved a different game from what RSS brand nationalism played on the demographically polarized chessboard of other northern Indian states that went to polls simultaneously. Much expected political change could not take place even as new entrant – Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made its assertive debut in Punjab breaking the binary of[Read More…]
I’ve six categories greatly bothering me as I speculate about the future and they’re all interrelated — inextricably connected to each other in myriad ways like a web that can’t ever be pulled apart. Here, though, they are separately and categorically exposed in an artificial manner that abnegates the connections, the fusions and tentacles that tie all together in a[Read More…]
Dedicated to my memory of Thich Quang Duc It’s relatively easy to get all fired up about the blatant abominations of a given administration. It’s quite another thing for concerned citizens to look in the mirror, and get down with a proper take of their own inappropriate behavior. Our habits that are fouling us up as much as Fukushima. The latest[Read More…]
“A political system devoted to decline instinctively does much to speed up that process.” — Jean-Paul Sartre One does not have to be a supporter of Donald Trump to recoil in horror at the unprecedented attack that’s being waged on an ongoing basis against the new First Lady. The late night comedy shows are going to town at her[Read More…]
It has attracted money and the implementation of programs, another standard diversionary tactic common in many societies. It is all touted as a good bit of social engineering, a form of anger management by other means. The basis of that problematic term “deradicalisation” entails the erroneous idea that telling a person something should not be done politically is necessarily going[Read More…]
A recent report from Equality Now titled ‘The World’s Shame: The Global Rape Epidemic’ http://www.equalitynow.org/campaigns/rape-laws-report offered a series of recommendations for strengthened laws to deter and punish sexual violence against women and girls. However, there is substantial evidence that legal approaches to dealing with violence in any context are ineffective. For example, the empirical evidence on threats of punishment (that[Read More…]
With the latest election results in Manipur, the public mandate brought the state again to limelight. During the election process Manipur received very little attention but the focus started shifting after news came out that Irom Sharmila, better known as Iron lady of Manipur who contested against its Chief Minister Ibobi Singh received only 90 votes. Everyone felt shocked and[Read More…]
[From Deen Daan] by Rabindranath Tagore Thus offered the royal servant- “Your Highness, despite much pleading Narottama, the greatest of the Sadhus, Shunning the opulent shelter of your golden temple Is engaged upon the sacred devotions of sankirtana Under the shade of a tree by the roadside. Scores of devotees swarm the holy man Tears of uncontrollable bliss overflow[Read More…]
I’m at the home of one of the greatest living intellectuals on earth. In the cold, windy Copenhagen weather as we ring the bell John Scales Avery opens the door and welcomes me and my friend John Graversgaard warmly into his home. He serves us coffee and we talk. I’m stunned by his humility and breadth of knowledge. John Avery[Read More…]
The Trump administration has further exacerbated the extremely tense standoff on the Korean Peninsula by dispatching attack drones to South Korea and sending special forces units to participate in massive war games already underway. The military build-up takes place as the White House considers launching strikes on North Korean nuclear and military sites. US Forces Korea announced on Monday that[Read More…]
On March 7th, Russia’s top parliamentarian dealing with the Ukrainian refugee influx into Russia — dealing, that is, with the people who have fled Ukraine as a result of U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2014 coup overthrowing Ukraine’s democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych — presented the first-ever comprehensive number of asylum-applicants from Ukraine who have received asylum there after that[Read More…]
The Lakota, my people in spirit, fighting the Dakota pipeline know. Whatever else is best for us to do as a life aim than to serve helpfulness? Seven generation stewardship is a concept that urges the current generation of humans to live and work for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future.- From Seven generation sustainability – Wikipedia[Read More…]
A lively debate is ongoing on what should be the minimum energy return for energy invested (EROEI) in order to sustain a civilization. Clearly, one always wants the best returns for one’s investments. And, of course, investing in something that provides a return smaller than the investment is a bad idea. So, a civilization grows and prosper on the net[Read More…]
Just a year after the shocking suicide of dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University, another dalit scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Muthu Krishnan (28) committed suicide in a friend’s home. He was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his friend’s house in the national capital on Monday. Muthu Krishnan had been at the forefront of the[Read More…]
We have been handed an anti-worker political verdict in the Maruti Suzuki workers case going on since July 2012. This is Judgment is ‘class justice’, clearly on the side of the multinational companies. It is not only against the workers directly involved in struggle for Trade Union Rights and the 2500 working class families of Maruti Suzuki facing exploitation-repression all[Read More…]
WINTER It is now winter in Kabul, end of February 2017. At night the temperature gets near zero. The mountains surrounding the city are covered by snow. It feels much chillier than it really is. Soon it will be 16 years since the US/UK invasion of the country, and 16 years since the Bonn Conference, during which Hamid Karzai was[Read More…]
If we were to draw parallels between the Soviet-Afghan jihad of the ‘80s and the Syrian civil war of today, the Western powers used the training camps located in the Af-Pak border regions to train and arm the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. Similarly, the training camps located in the[Read More…]
On March 7, 2017 Lyda Krewson won the Democratic Party nomination for mayor of St. Louis City with only 32.0% of the vote. Ms. Krewson is white. Six black candidates split over two-thirds of the votes. The problem goes beyond color. One of the hot-button issues has been the New Life homeless shelter, called a shelter-of-last-resort because it offers beds[Read More…]
“It is now up to the device and OS manufacturers, like Apple, Google, or Samsung, to fix their volcanoes back into mountains.” Telegram Statement, Mar 8, 2017 The paradox with information releases that expose a supposedly grand internal stratagem is that they merely provide the food of confirmation otherwise lacking. Such food is potent. It blows the lid off the[Read More…]
A recent move by the Government to allow child marriage is tantamount to excluding many Bangladeshis from the benefits of growth and development. Women are likely to become the main victims of the recently enacted Child Marriage Restraint Act-2017. It allows a Bangladeshi boy or girl to get married before reaching the minimum age limit – 18 for women[Read More…]
In 2009, the Government of India announced a new nation-wide initiative viz. “Integrated Action Plan” (IAP) for broad coordinated operations to deal with the ‘Naxalite’ problem. This plan included increased funding for special police for better containment and reduction of Naxalite influence. Kobad Ghandy’s arrest in September 2009 was a direct fall out of this IAP.
More than 20 million people face imminent starvation in four countries, United Nations officials warned over the weekend, the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II. All four countries—Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and Nigeria—are wracked by civil wars in which the US government is implicated in funding and arming one of the contending sides. UN emergency relief[Read More…]
The ruling corporate elites no longer seek to build. They seek to destroy. They are agents of death. They crave the unimpeded power to cannibalize the country and pollute and degrade the ecosystem to feed an insatiable lust for wealth, power and hedonism. Wars and military “virtues” are celebrated. Intelligence, empathy and the common good are banished. Culture is degraded[Read More…]
WHO claims that as many as 20 million people will die within 20 – 25 years every year because of infections and resistant bacteria. Penicillin and different antibiotics simply will not work anymore. Medicins Sans Frontier claims, that 700, 000 people die every year because antibiotics is not working any more. The problem seems to be worldwide. And we have[Read More…]
Professor Shanthu Shantharam recently wrote a response to Viva Kermani’s well thought out article about injecting some honesty into the debate about genetically modified (GM) food and crops. Both pieces appeared the Indian publication Swarajya. Shantharam’s response is typical of what we have come to expect from him: a mixture of abuse, personal attacks and gross misrepresentation of both issues and facts. He says of Kermani’s[Read More…]
“There has never been a case like this in a zoo in Europe, an assault of such violence, evidently for this stupid trafficking of rhinoceros horns.” Thierry Duguet, head of Parc Zoologique de Thoiry It was a matter of time. The war of poachers against those attempting to conserve species, and the animals themselves, took a gruesome turn this week. [Read More…]
At least six U.S. states are challenging President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0 executive order that bars new visas for people from six Muslim countries and temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee program. On March 8, the state of Hawaii filed suit, arguing the new federal order will harm Muslims living in the state. As of March 10, five[Read More…]
Democracy has been described as a system ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’. India boasts itself to be the largest democracy in the world. It is pointed that it is the people’s choice which ultimately matters in a Democracy. It is true that India continues to have regular elections. People continue to make choices of their[Read More…]
The Malaysian government has done the right thing in keeping the channels of communication with the North Korean Government open. It wants an amicable resolution of the friction arising from the murder of Kim Jong-Nam, the elder brother of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, at KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) 2 on the 13th of February 2017. Prime[Read More…]
“DEENDAYAL UPADHYAYA is to the BJP [BharatiyaJanata Party] what Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was to Congress” opined R. Balashankar, former editor of the RashtriyaSwayamsewakSangh’s (RSS) organ Organiser and now a member of the BJP’s central committee, on Prasikhshan Maha Abhiyan (The Indian Express,; September 24, 2016). Cows inhale, exhale oxygen, says Rajasthan education minister VasudevDevnani (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/cows-inhale-exhale-oxygen-says-rajasthan-education-minister-vasudev-devnani/articleshow/56612529.cms) Rajaram (name changed)[Read More…]
Mumbai Press Club, March 10 2017: Bastar Solidarity Network, Mumbai organised the book release of “ Bearing Witness : Sexual Violence in South Chhatisgarh” on 10th Mach 2017. The book has been brought out by Women against Sexual violence and State repression ( WSS ). Dr. Ilina Sen, academician and activist released the book. While releasing the book she said[Read More…]
Matters have been far from plain sailing for the parties in the Ukrainian conflict, and Kiev was determined to remind international audiences about matters in taking Russia to the International Court of Justice. This action is one of several fronts the Ukrainian government has been using against the persistent Russian bogey. In addition to making good its January 2016 promise[Read More…]
The “all”-correct mainstream media has recently “discovered” a very, very hard fact: journalists are kept under surveillance. Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the country’s foreign intelligence agency, spied upon scores of foreign journalists, said media reports from Germany. The business went for almost two decades. At least 50 telephone and fax numbers, and email addresses from journalists and editors around[Read More…]
A Maharashtra court on Tuesday convicted wheel-chair bound Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and five others under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for ‘waging war’ against India and for their alleged Maoist links, and sentenced all but one to life imprisonment. GN Saibaba, JNU student Hem Keshavdatta Mishra, journalist activist Prashant Rahi, tribal farmers from Gadchiroli district Mahesh Kariman Tirki[Read More…]
The much awaited results of the state elections are out. The ‘Éxit Pollsters’ who went wrong in Bihar are thumping their chests and claiming ‘victory’. The SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab was voted out of power from Punjab while the existing chief ministers of Uttarakhand and Goa faced humiliating defeats. In Manipur, Erom Sharmila, the symbol of people’s protest against Armed[Read More…]
Large numbers of persons fleeing war and famine in sub-Saharan Africa are transiting through Libya in a desperate effort to reach Europe, UNICEF reported last week. An estimated 80,000 refugees, including 25,000 children, left Libyan ports in an effort to cross the Mediterranean Sea and enter southern Europe last year, with 4,000 of them dying during the crossing. Another 320[Read More…]
The plight of immigrant families in the United States facing threat of deportation has provoked a massive compassionate response, with cities, churches, and colleges offering sanctuary and legal assistance to those under threat. It is an inspiring expression of our human response to others in need that evokes hope for the human future. At the same time, we need to[Read More…]
..The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living. ..My birth is my fatal accident.[Read More…]
After Daniela Vargas’ recent arrest, the future for DACA’s more than 750,000 recipients is more uncertain than ever. They need political support, but also safe spaces to process their anxiety. The migraines came out of nowhere. Nanci Palacios, who lives in Tampa, Florida, had headaches before but never with the intensity she’s currently experiencing. The back of her head throbs[Read More…]
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” —Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Last week, on February 22, 2017, water protectors at the Oceti Sakowin camp, the primary camp of Standing Rock, were evicted by the Army Corps of Engineers in a military style takeover. A peaceful resistance that began with a[Read More…]
At a glance, Israel appears a true democracy. Take a closer look, and that facade of democracy will soon dissipate, turning into something else entirely. Tuesday, February 28 was one of those moments. The chain of events was as follows: An official Israeli State Comptroller issued another report on the Israeli government’s handling of the July 2014 war on Gaza; it chastised Israeli Prime Minister,[Read More…]
When I read that in the New York Times article, ” A Critical History Asks, What Does It Mean to Be Modern?”(Aug.26), the Counter Currents article “‘Gandhi Was Perfectly Sensible To Call Industrial Civilisation ‘A Nine Days Wonder’” (Sep.23) came to mind. Has modernity been about allowing the short term to blind us to the long term?: For too[Read More…]
The way the authorities are destroying the flood channel with peoples’ connivance gives one the feeling that the most destructive flood of the century has been totally forgotten both by the authorities as well as the people! The other day late in the night there was movement of road clearing machinery in Jawahar Nagar. On being asked what was happening[Read More…]
The wall of special status accorded to State of J&K is being demolished brick by brick. The latest in the series of New-Delhi’s demolition drives is to amend Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 (hereinafter referred to as Central Act )so as to apply it to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Union Cabinet has already approved the proposal[Read More…]
The bitter internecine struggle within the US state apparatus and ruling political establishment, featuring unsubstantiated Democratic claims of Russian hacking in support of Trump, on the one hand, and Trump’s own charge that his campaign was bugged by Obama, on the other, was overshadowed Tuesday by a massive release of CIA documents by WikiLeaks. The 8,761 documents contained in what[Read More…]
The US has begun the installation of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea, provoking an angry reaction from China, which warned that it could trigger a nuclear arms race in the region. The provocative move will heighten the already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula as the US and South Korea engage in[Read More…]
It is said that Twitter has been responsible for stirring nascent revolutions in the Middle East, going beyond its initial description as the Seinfeld platform of social media. It has also been targeted by authorities for stirring the pot, lighting fires and generally being a nuisance. From useless babble and inane navel gazing, users became connected activists, Molotov cocktail throwers[Read More…]
I don’t want you to celebrate my existence on a particular day I want you to understand that before being a woman I am a human, just as you I don’t want you to offer me to stand ahead of you in a queue I want you to let me stand on my own, just as you I don’t want[Read More…]
“Ah! ás the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie” –from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Spring and Fall: To a Young Child (in which the line “It ís the blight man was born for” appears) This week I responded to Craig’s List calls for[Read More…]
We, a group of responsible and committed citizens, are writing to you with suggestions to improve and ensure the safety of women in Indian railways. The Railways is an important communication link in our country. Every day, millions of Indians commute through the railways. However, there are several challenges in this sector. Recently, there have been many efforts to improve the Indian railways but a lot needs to be done for the safety of passengers, especially the women passengers.
To celebrate Women’s Day without recognizing the contribution of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule, and Ambedkar is hypocrisy and shameful act. Here are few of the highlights of work done by Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule for women empowerment. On 1st Jan. 1848, India’s first school for girls was started at Bhide’s wada in Pune by Mahatma Jyotirao Phule[Read More…]
Much of the argument in favour of GM agriculture involves little more than misrepresentations and unscrupulous attacks on those who express concerns about the technology and its impacts. These attacks are in part designed to whip up populist sentiment and denigrate critics so that corporate interests can secure further control over agriculture. They also serve to divert attention from the underlying issues pertaining to hunger and poverty and genuine[Read More…]
Bill Gates, with $75 billion owns at least twice as much wealth as the poorest 1/10th of humanity – 750 million fellow human beings suffering hunger throughout the year and watching millions of their children die of starvation. If Bill gave the UN the $30 billion it needs to end hunger everywhere for one year, he would drop to fourth[Read More…]
Nazareth: Dustin Pfundheller, 30, an American dentist living in Singapore, was set to become the youngest person to visit every country in the world while in a full-time job. His globetrotting has taken him to 192 of the 193 recognised states, bringing his medical skills to the world’s remotest places. But in January he was barred for the second time[Read More…]
Gorge Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four depicts a situation of extreme state power in which the super state is controlled by a privileged few of the Inner Party. It is overseen by Big Brother who enjoys intense cult of personality. In this state there is omnipresent government surveillance. The government persecutes those with independent thinking which is considered as thought[Read More…]
The present day post modern, neo liberal world is still embedded with social inequity and discrimination. The situations of women in the larger world and within the systems of State, community and family control, coerces her to exist without self-expression, thereby forcing her to live within the[Read More…]
President Donald Trump Monday issued a new Muslim ban executive order that will temporarily halt entry to the U.S. for people from six Muslim nations who are seeking new visas, though allowing those with current visas to travel freely. According to the Associated Press, Trump’s new order aims to address legal issues with the original order, which caused confusion[Read More…]
Donald Trump is absolutely correct when he says the main stream news media lies, purveys fake news, and is the enemy of the American people. The organizations he banned from the White House informal “gaggle” — The New York Times, L.A. Times, CNN, etc., are all guilty as charged. But the organizations not banned by Trump, CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC,[Read More…]
Many years ago, my parents visited a Masai village in Kenya. Many of the Masai are environmentalists, and know that maintaining assorted wildlife, including a variety of plants in their region, is good for the planet. Simultaneously their orientation supports the tourism industry. It’s because regions in their country rich in biological diversity attract visitors from other countries. Yet they[Read More…]
Recent reports of criminal activities committed by some clergies of the Kerala Church have shaken many of its faithful followers. These reports have become favourite themes of the social media,not only among the Malayalam speaking community in Kerala but also among people from other states too[1]. It is a grave situation and has precipitated a crisis within the Catholic[Read More…]
Honouring All Palestinian Women by Honouring Three: Hanin Zoabi, Ahed Tamimi, Samah Sabawi “Palestinian women have always stood side by side with their fathers, brothers, husbands, comrades to resist the Zionist occupation, to fight for freedom and legitimate rights. They are the first to go to the streets to protest the brutality of the Israeli military occupation, the first[Read More…]
We must create a society in which women – including Black women, Native women, poor women, immigrant women,[Dalit and Adivasi women], disabled women, Muslim women, lesbian queer and trans women – are free and able to care for and nurture their families, however they are formed, in safe and healthy environments free from structural impediments. –Statement from Women’s March’s Unity Principles, with[Read More…]
Of all the world’s major ills – such as war, hunger, and natural disasters – none can quite compare to the millions of baby girls and female fetuses killed by parents .The National Family Health Survey 4 data for 2015-16 indicates that the practice of aborting female fetuses and murdering girls after birth is being contained efforts The sex[Read More…]
The workers and their Union are holding a strike and demonstration on 8th March 2017 at BBMP main office, Corporation Circle from 10.00 a.m. onwards. Please join and show your support and solidarity. On 8th March, International Working Women’s Day, the BBMP Contract Powrakarmika Union of Bengaluru are going on strike and will hold a large rally to intensify their ongoing struggle for[Read More…]
Who is that outsider? Countering the narrative of the powerful whether its social protests or labour reforms.. Till January 22nd 2017, the police, administration and media had used words ‘protesters’ to identify those who had congregated in various parts of Chennai including Marina and OMR, Coimbatore, Madurai etc to protest the Jallikattu ban. The bonhomie and the orderliness of[Read More…]
The entire union cabinet is now camping in Varanasi. Modi ji has already done a road show and reports are coming in that he will embark on another road show soon. The UP voters have given our big guns a run for their money. It is not only the cabinet, friends are reporting, that hotels in Varanasi are already booked[Read More…]
In the realm of songbirds one never finds any creatures attempting to force others to embrace their singular song. Humans do exactly that with their wars abroad. And with their domestic political squabbling, expecting those with different points of view to sing the same tune.
NAAC’s idea of IEQA flawed; it’s a quiz where you aren’t told the answers. An objective assessment would show that an automated reply can’t be charged Rs 28,000 For all new colleges seeking assessment, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NACC) has a rigorous process. The colleges have to write a letter of intent, first making clear their intention to go[Read More…]
An Ahwazi human rights activist who was denied asylum in the Netherlands and forced to return to Iran after fleeing Iranian regime persecution was sentenced on Friday to six years imprisonment in an Iranian court for the ‘crime’ of attending protests calling for freedom. According to reports, he was savagely tortured during his detention to force him into signing[Read More…]
As Transition Network turns 10, Rob Hopkins looks back to when it all began… This month represents the 10th anniversary of the founding of Transition Network. That’s Transition Network the organisation you understand, not the network of Transition groups which the organisation was set up to support. We thought that as we begin this anniversary month, it might be good[Read More…]
Back in Congress following February recess’s raucous town meetings, Republicans are shuddering. Instead of nearly empty auditoriums, where legislators’ staff often outnumber voters in attendance, meetings were packed with citizens determined to block the “take away” agenda of the Trump Republicans. It takes provocation for people to show up for face-to-face confrontations with their Senators or Representatives. So when out[Read More…]
Our enigmatic Ocean Mother has always fascinated poets. Rachel Carson is a singular writer, who — as an eminent scientist who absolutely loved and spiritually respected the sea — provided a factual, instructive and comprehensive survey of the expanse that covers the vast majority of the earth’s surface (in 1950). My family began reading the overview to me when[Read More…]
We should not forget the encouragement: hack those emails, extolled Donald J. Trump during the presidential campaign in 2016. It was the first public evocation of its sort, an invitation to a foreign power, in this case Russia, to indulge in cyber activity that has now been described by various US members of congress as “an act of war”. The[Read More…]
The German Chancellor Angela Markel visits Cairo amid reports of severe human rights violations by the Egyptian Junta led by Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who overthrew President Mohammad Morsi, the first democratically President of Egypt in 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Egypt Thursday where she met with e-Sisi before travelling to Tunisia on Friday to meet with[Read More…]
Coming from Donald J. Trump it was a remarkable speech, the measured tone, the presidential timbre … plus it offered something to everyone. Increased military expenditure of $54 billion to establishment Republicans, immigration controls to the Tea Party wing, tax cuts and a repeal of Obamacare for both, and the sop of family leave to the Democrats. Thus went[Read More…]
The right to food campaign strongly opposes the central government’s move to make Aadhaar compulsory for children under the midday meal scheme in government schools. This is nothing but an attempt to coerce people to enrol their children under Aadhaar. School meals are an important entitlement of Indian children, legally enforceable under Supreme Court orders as well as under the[Read More…]
Fourteen months older than am I, my sister was a terror as a toddler. I understand it from an evolutionary standpoint now, although I didn’t then as a little girl. Often there wasn’t enough food for all for ancient ancestors and the dominant child would get the brunt. It’s like a baby bird in the nest — the stronger and[Read More…]
“Habit is the great deadener.” — Samuel Beckett An intrepid investigative journalist recently produced six minutes and seventeen seconds of footage that underscores how attachment to high tech gadgetry is causing abominations which are the equivalent of The Holocaust (which Hollywood never lets us forget). The atrocities being committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — by any standards —[Read More…]
The “deep state” is the aristocracy and its agents. Wikispooks defines it as follows: The deep state (loosely synonymous with the shadow government or permanent government) is in contrast to the public structures which appear to be directing individual nation states. The deep state is an intensely secretive, informal, fluid network of deep politicians who conspire to amplify their influence over national governments through a variety of deep state milieux. The term “deep[Read More…]
Dear MR.President, On Sunday Mister President, you went, as always, to the Church of Christ with your family. As you know God is a “God of love”, and in the church the priest is praying about love, peace, respect and understanding for you Mister President, and for all who live. In all probability, You pray every day for yourself to[Read More…]
The weather here in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark is always shifting. It’s rainy and windy now. In another minute the sun would be out giving a little respite to the cold of this late winter or early spring weather. Come rain or sunshine they are outside the parliament house in Copenhagen, protesting against the involvement of Danish troops in[Read More…]
Let us tear through these Trumpland evocations, the business pitches of this show and publicity act that was the first address by the President to a joint sitting of the US Congress. There were the common themes; there were the contradictory messages; and there was plain, traditional nonsense. In the undergrowth were olive branches being offered (“The time for trivial[Read More…]
I had recently been asked to give a talk about “being an American Muslim in the United States.” Although wary of the uses and abuses of the term, I obliged. Islam is a religion propelled by values, not race nor, theoretically, by blind tribal allegiances, I explained. The ‘American Muslim’ identity which has been under constant investigation in[Read More…]
The global populist fever is catching. Put the nation first before all else, patria before sense. Make America Great Again. One Nation before any other. Australia has been a fairly non-responsive patient to that effect, keeping its symptoms to the rural fringes of the country, or the more bitter blue-collar edges disgruntled by immigrants. While essentially conservative and reactionary, the[Read More…]
While the Boys’ Club prez was busy enjoying and amplifying locker-room talk, as in “grabbing them by the putty” (or did I get that wrong?) and in general was being disdainful and disgusting primarily about women but also on issues relating to “other people” and “other faiths” his loyal followers who had been suppressing their very own but similar urges[Read More…]
Mumbai | 1st March: The Report prepared by Special Rapporteur on adequate housing United Nations which is to be presented today in UN Human Rights Council, highlights the extreme scarcity in availability of proper housing to 58.6 million households. A deeper study of the report brings out that among this large community, schedule castes and schedule tribes, homeless people, Muslims and manual[Read More…]
In the spring of 2016, I asked a student of mine to do me a favor and figure out which day would be the 100th before Barack Obama’s presidency ended. October 12th, he reported back, and then asked me the obvious question: Why in the world did I want to know? The answer was simple. Years before I had written[Read More…]
Introduction A five member fact finding team visited Metapal village on 20 December, 2016 to probe an alleged encounter of a minor named Pottam Somaru that took place on the 16th of December. The team had come to attend a meeting organized by People’s Union of Civil Liberties in Matenar, Dantewada for researchers, activists and journalists to learn about the issues[Read More…]
Much has been commented on the Gurmehar Kaur issue. The young girl has been trolled and abused by many. Others have stood by her and appreciated her courage. The issue has occupied center stage in media (print and visual), on facebook, whatsapp groups, among politicians, celebrities and the entire nation. The crux of the views expressed by Gurmehar was that[Read More…]
I The biases and misconceptions about conversions and population growth have been used by communal forces to divide the society. This became apparent once again when Minister of state of Home, Kiren Rijuju tweeted that that Hindu population is decreasing in the country as Hindus don’t convert and that minorities in India are flourishing unlike in the neighbouring countries. Threat[Read More…]
(The J & K Assembly some time back passed a resolution for the return of migrant Pandits. Will mere passing of a resolution be enough to facilitate their return?) One felt very nostalgic recently during the celebrations of the famous Pandit festival of Herath. The festival used to be celebrated on two days. The first day Pandits would perform the[Read More…]
Apart from the attacks made by their students’ wing on various universities across the country, the BJP government who is ruling the centre has surpassed two and half years of its fascist regime. They have been till now using communal polarization to achieve their electoral pursuits. The government has failed immensely not only on just keeping their promises fulfilled, but[Read More…]
India , as a country, seems to be under terrific confusion, while entire media and Govt. talks about a statement related to a war between Pakistan and India , where to place the same in the matrix of morality. What Gurmaher talked was – ‘ Pakistan did not kill India but war has’ . This is an important statement pertaining[Read More…]
The situation we face First, let’s please just acknowledge there is a crisis. I’m afraid any reasonably educated, rational, and unbiased adult (or younger) can understand what the climate science has been telling us now for two decades: the Earth is warming (so far by about 1 degree Celsius since 1800), slowly but surely, due to humans’ putting carbon dioxide[Read More…]
Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump reaffirmed the core pillars of his presidency: vastly expanding military spending, slashing taxes on corporations, scapegoating immigrants for the crisis of American capitalism, and promoting economic nationalist trade policies. In contrast to his inaugural speech, Trump couched his extreme right-wing policies in the traditional conventions of American[Read More…]
Syria’s peace-talks are about settling a horrific six-year-long war, but this is more of an international war that’s being waged on the battlefields of Syria, than it is a civil war within Syria itself. This fact is often ignored by the press, but the peace-talks are really more between the foreign powers than between their proxies who are killing[Read More…]
Behind the deadly, Zionist-promoted, warmongering, and civil rights-abusing terror hysteria in US Alliance countries is the Awful Truth that deaths from jihadi terrorism in these countries is negligible compared to over 30 million Muslim deaths from violence or imposed deprivation in the 21st century US War on Muslims. In the 21st century there have been 1,615 non-terrorism Israeli deaths from[Read More…]
Salim Khan, a Muslim driver was burnt alive after a message was passed on the police wireless that a Muslim driver was coming that way. On the night of February 28, when people were attacked in Vatwa, all they could see was heads and more heads. Swords were being waved in the air, shots were fired by privately owned guns.[Read More…]
The recent attacks on Gurmehar Kaur by Internet Trolls firstly, for her criticism of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) violence at Ramjas College and secondly, for her expression of anti war sentiments through the Video made by her last year point to the aggressiveness of forces of hyper nationalism to put down alternative viewpoints. In this hyper nationalism, any dissent[Read More…]
From Education to Incarceration 
Tunakataa! Saying ‘No’ to Capitalism and Imperialism in Kenya 
Rising Islamophobia and Communal Discord: An Alarming Trend in BJP-Ruled States 
Speak Truth to Power and Pay the Price! 
USA’s Wars Took 12 Million Lives in The Last 25 Years 
US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
In Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan makes us an offer we can refuse 
Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma 
On the Brink of Famine 
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
“Making a thriller from grain” 
Key Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Likely To Collapse In 2025-2095 
Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
The Nijjar Murder and Indian Government’s alleged “involvement”: Reactions and Reflections 
France Will Pull Out Its Diplomats And Military From Niger, Says Macron 
Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM 
Hunger in Africa has its roots in a History of Colonialism and Neo-colonialism 
The Climate March: Magnificent and Misdirected 
Imagining a Progressive Pentagon 
“Lost Voices of Fentanyl” Rally at the White House 
Indian Government Must First Evict Dalai Lama & his Followers before Admonishing Canada for Separatist Activities 
Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
Hate Speech Inside Parliament: Reaching a New Low 
Criminal Justice And Freedom of Speech 
75,000 Climate Protesters Marched In New York With Demand To End Fossil Fuels 
On the Dark Side of the Moon.. 
Avoiding the War on Terror would have saved over 10 million lives at home and abroad 
The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
