One hundred years ago, the proletariat in Petrograd celebrated the historic May Day in jubilation and honor. “Thousands of people turned out for the 1917 May Day parade. They carried […] banners and posters, which became the main elements of the decorations in Petrograd.” (Natalia Murray, “Feast in a time of plague, May Day celebrations of 1917-1918”, Baltic Worlds, vol.[Read More…]
Progressive, left, and social movement forces in the U.S. need to build on successes of the past as well as move beyond them, taking on, for instance, a more pro-active position against militarism and a deeper critique of capitalism. Reaching out across racial and gender lines to working and lower income people, such a movement cannot allow for itself to fall under the hegemony of corporatist political actors. Rather it must be a project that provides a real fight back to the Trumpian right and the permanent war state it now inhabits.
( The following are extracts from A paper presented by Dr KS Sharma at the XXXII Indian Social Science Congress held at New Delhi from 18′” December to 22nd December 2008. The Paper quotes Dr. B. R. Ambedkar extensively and seeks to bring out some views he had expressed at one stage in his political life. A few extracts focussing[Read More…]
“All options for responding to future provocation must remain on the table. Diplomatic and financial levers of power will be backed up by a willingness to counteract North Korean aggression if necessary.” Rex Tillerson, Apr 28, 2017 The theatre unfolding in various international forums regarding North Korea is garnering top prices for front seats. The press corps await the next[Read More…]
President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office were a frightening experience for the seven-million strong Muslim American community. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest American Muslim civil advocacy group, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) profiling of Muslims accounted for 23 percent of cases in the first three months of 2017. This represents[Read More…]
Absolutely, I get deeply angry at the carnage that our species demonstrates towards others of our kind and other species, the ones that are a part of the natural world that we dismantle for economic growth. Yet sometimes anger is necessary as it pushes one to where he doesn’t want to tread and to be someone he’d like to avoid[Read More…]
Moral Injury and Nonviolent Resistance is not an easy train read. It is, however, a “Must Read” and very compelling. In a culture where war is taken for granted, whether it be on a foreign battleground or in a domestic arena, the Lynds offer their book as a plea for Peace. Peace through nonviolent actions. Peace through voices speaking[Read More…]
In the early days of hip hop, most of the artists either lived in or were born in New York City’s South Bronx. That area was devastated in 1929 by the building of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, which displaced 60,000 Bronx residents. Although the white residents who lived in the realm moved to the suburbs, many of the poor African-American[Read More…]
Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul by Clara Bingham is a valuable contribution to further understanding and popularizing the radical upsurge of the 1960s. The book is an oral history and we hear from well-known figures of the time such as Ericka Huggins, Tom Hayden and Robin[Read More…]
This is the fourth part (of 5 ) of a paragraph by paragraph commentary on a recent article posing as journalism in the March 6, 2017 issue of The New Yorker. I hope to demonstrate that this article is basically a totally mendacious concoction of cold war US propaganda constructed out of unsubstantiated opinions expressed by US government officials[Read More…]
Nagpur’s oranges, which were the pride of the country, are fast losing sheen. Nagpur still retains the appellation of “Orange City” but the scene today is nowhere near the mystical description that famous Englishman Major Henry Bevan gave following his visit to Nagpur in 1818. “The greatest ornament of the garden is… (an) orange tree called Cintra (santra) or[Read More…]
In recent times, the suppression, attempts of arm twisting and cancellation of FCRA of NGOs have been a subject of debate among various circles in India. Most of these NGOs have been either organisations belonging to minority communities or organisations critical of the Government’s policies on development or those involved with human rights issues. The recent clampdown on the human[Read More…]
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has suggested the UK could join US military action against the Syrian government without parliamentary approval. Johnson said he and PM Theresa May agreed that in the event of another chemical attack by the Assad regime, it would be hard for the UK to refuse any request to join military action. No evidence has been provided that[Read More…]
A universal truth was revealed by the recent chemical weapon tragedy in Syria’s Idlib Province and the MOAB bombing of Afghanistan. Namely, that as the human world continues to tear itself asunder and make a mockery of the United Nation’s concept of international law and the sovereign rights of nations – supposedly intended to protect them from unprovoked, preemptive[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Dr. Gus Abu-Sitta is the head of the Plastic Surgery Department at the AUB Medical Center in Lebanon. He specializes in: reconstructive surgery. What it means in this part of the world is clear: they bring you people from the war zones, torn to pieces, missing faces, burned beyond recognition, and you have to[Read More…]
On April 26th, 2017, in Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, the Saudi-led coalition which has been waging war in Yemen for the past two years dropped leaflets informing Hodeidah’s residents of an impending attack. One leaflet read: “Our forces of legitimacy are heading to liberate Hodeidah and end the suffering of our gracious Yemeni people. Join your legitimate government[Read More…]
To do nothing what-soever except minimally (such as recycling garbage) in light of coming climate change impacts for a small portion of the world — well, we know to where this feebly enacted, but basically empty non-action leads. Same-old patterns exist until forcing a change as the same-old ones are no longer workable given changing impacting variables at the[Read More…]
At the Boston Science March this past Saturday, April 22 , I did not notice any signs proclaiming “SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT” or “SCIENCE FOR PEACE, NOT FOR WAR.” (1) Were there any? The few scientists I have known personally believe that science is value-free, unconcerned with politics or morality. It exists as pure truth born of[Read More…]
The United Nations (UN) together with the governments of Sweden and Switzerland which have often led humanitarian issues in the UN system held a high-level pledging conference in Geneva on April 25, 2017 to again draw attention to the deepening humanitarian crisis in war-torn Yemen, currently the largest food security emergency in the world. Some 60% of the population[Read More…]
On Australia’s Anzac Day, Muslim, feminist social advocate and humanitarian journalist Yassmin Abdel-Magied (who works for the ABC, Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC) posted on her Facebook page: “Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine)”. Savaged by public outcry, Ms Abdel-Magied rapidly deleted the post and apologized. The post was correct and her silencing by rabid jingoists is[Read More…]
Any doubts that Turkey’s involvement in the conflict against Islamic State is purely symbolic were dispelled by a latest round of air strikes against Kurdish positions in northeast Syria and Iraq’s Sinjar region, killing at least 20 fighters. (The number from Ankara is a more inflated 70). Iraqi government officials were flawed by the action, infuriated by its audacity; the[Read More…]
Israel has resorted to three main strategies to suppress Palestinian calls for justice and human rights, including the Right of Return for refugees. One is dedicated to rewriting history; another attempts to distract from present realities altogether and a third aims at reclaiming the Palestinian narrative as essentially an Israeli one. The rewriting of history happened much earlier than[Read More…]
To survive and live well we must reduce our population back to 2 billion as it was 80 years ago. Why did we allow our world population to keep growing to an unsustainable 7.4 billion, and passing on to our children the task of feeding and managing 9 billion people on a planet of degrading soils, acidifying and rising oceans[Read More…]
Angela Merkel, in her congratulatory message to Donald Trump after his election victory, struck a reminder of the values connecting Germany and America: “democracy, freedom and respect for the law and the dignity of man.” Merkel alluded to the so-called Wertegemeinschaft, or community of values, that many politicians and citizens of Western countries frequently invoke. The term not only implies[Read More…]
(Rome) Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 resulted in the overthrow of the US-supported Pahlavi dynasty at that time under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Iranian Revolution was a violent and widely popular overthrow of a ferocious US-inspired regime installed following the CIA-organized coup d’état of the democratically elected government led by PremierMohammad Mossadegh on August 19, 1953. Eventually led[Read More…]
When life is uncertain
Death certain
How long can 1%
Live with wealth of 99% ?
Column article titled Silence is not an Option by Neera Chandhoke appeared in “The Hindu, April, 2017, brings to the foreground the layers of silence that the citizens of the country maintain to a maze of issues that they confront day in and day out. In nuanced ways Neera swipes at the problems that would drastically altar and significantly change[Read More…]
Maoists (or Naxals, according to some) ambushed a 100-strong CRPF road-opening patrol (ROP) on 24 April in Chintagufa Police Station limits of Sukma District of Chhattisgarh, killing 25 CRPF personnel and wounding six. The Maoists were reportedly around 200 in strength, and they ruthlessly continued engaging the pinned-down CRPF patrol for about one hour. The killing and wounding[Read More…]
(A view of the various economic and political activities reveals that it is the Brahmins and Banias who practically run and control India!) Sometimes one wonders how such a large country is run and who really runs it? Arundhati Roy calls India, “An Upper Caste Hindu Corporate Republic”! One would have thought that she may have been saying this in[Read More…]
Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered suspension of internet services in the trouble-hit valley for a period of one month or till further orders. In an order, the Home Department has said that internet services in Kashmir valley shall not be transmitted for a period of one month or till further orders. The state home department invoked powers conferred on[Read More…]
http://www.amazon.in/Scattered-Souls-Shahnaz-Bashir/dp/9352641248 I recently finished reading Shahnaz Bashir’s “Scattered Souls”, which is a collection of powerful short stories depicting the price that ordinary citizens living in Kashmir are paying because of excessive militarization. The Indian Government may justify this as much needed policing against the Kashmiri insurgents, to maintain internal security. But with all due to respect to the National Security[Read More…]
The BSP was formed in 1984 after a long span of preparatory activities by the All India Backward and Minorities Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF) and the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS-4). Its founder Kanshiram used to say that the Indian society and politics is marked by the hegemony of 15% upper castes and they rule over the rest 85%[Read More…]
Just a few days back one of the cows at our Prerna Kendra delivered a male calf. My colleague called me to inform about the birth of it. Everyone there was waiting for the cow to deliver and as usual each one was expecting a female calf. My colleague was sad to inform me about the birth of male calf.[Read More…]
The battle lines were drawn up.
The snow girls with books in backpacks.
The olive green troopers with guns.
An eagle perched on a white cloud
relayed the proceedings to Times Now.
The establishment got another burning in the French elections on Sunday, revealing again that there is no level of voter disgust that will not find some voice in the current range of elections. The terror for pollsters and the establishment now is whether Marine Le Pen will realise her anti-Euro project and drag the French nation kicking and moaning into[Read More…]
A court of Egyptian military leader, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who assumed the title of Field Marshal after overthrowing the elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Monday sentenced 20 supporters of Morsi to death. The brutal military dictator el-Sisi has been cracking down on the opposition since the overthrow of President Morsi. He has killed more than 800[Read More…]
“…there neither is, nor has ever been, an educational practice in zero space-time—neutral in the sense of being committed only to preponderantly abstract, intangible ideas.” — Freire, Paolo (2014) Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Bloomsbury, p.67 “Paulo Freire says that reflection and action… action… action should be directed at the structures that need to be[Read More…]
I hadn’t seen J. in more than a week and that was concerning. It always worries me when one of my “regulars” vanishes. Often, this situation has resulted in me eventually encountering them and getting updates about illnesses, hospital visits, and/or surgeries. Whenyour mission is offering food, clothes, supplies, and more to New York City’s homeless women, you quickly learn[Read More…]
Maybe not now. But that’s what he could well become. Pope Francis’ Encyclical “On Care for Our Common Home” recognizes the incredible damage being done to climate change and biodiversity. Few realize how strong his beliefs are and the unused power of persuasion he has. Here’s 10 ways that power could be used. 1. Francis could call for a[Read More…]
Paul Atwood, a Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, provides a concise summary of the history that informs North Korea’s “relations with the United States” and “drives its determination never to submit to any American diktat”. Excerpts from Atwood’s summary are here used as a framework, with other sources where indicated. Atwood notes it is[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s crafty manipulation of Islamophobia, we are told, was one of the factors that propelled him to the presidency of the United States of America. He was very much aware of the prevalence of negative sentiments towards Islam and Muslims within segments of the American electorate. Because Islamophobia was part of the public imagination, he had no scruples[Read More…]
After violent protests on April 9, the day of by polls to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, rumors spread that the Mehbooba Mufti government had been dismissed. My next door neighbor, currently based in New Delhi called me on phone and said, ‘’I don’t know how to break this news to you, but Mehbooba Mufti is not now J &K[Read More…]
North-eastern region of India has always been a tumultuous region since 1947. Also, this is one of the most backward regions in terms of economic and political development. It helped giving birth to the insurgency in the area, which once again, hampered its growth. It is a landlocked and mountainous region, while Bangladesh is almost situated between it and[Read More…]
Eleanor Sirleaf Johnson is the Harvard educated, Nobel Prize winning President of Liberia with a long bloodstained history of support for warlords both past and present. She used to be the de facto foreign minister for that most bloodthirsty of warlords former Liberian “President” Charles Taylor, and she addressed the US Congress in his support. President Johnson is the queen[Read More…]
Soaked to the core, Melbournians gathered around the War Memorial in thousands, gazing at the flickering, all-resistant eternal flame in an annual tribute to Australia’s fallen. Each year, the secular religion of Anzac (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) receives more adherents, gathers a few more followers, and nabs a few more converts among the young. This also shows[Read More…]
US authorities are reported to have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This overreach of US government toward a publisher, whose principle is aligned with the U.S. Constitution, is another sign of a crumbling façade of democracy. The Justice Department in the Obama administration could not prosecute WikiLeaks for publishing documents pertaining to the US government, because they struggled[Read More…]
The Abrahamic concept of “evil” has to some extent left the Western vocabulary. The time has come for Americans to bring it back. They can do so by answering these questions: Is their country now under its control? Could Donald Trump and his followers bring down not just the country but human civilization? My essay provides answers. XXXXXXX As Donald[Read More…]
In the era when most of the government regimes all over the world are being installed by the multinational companies and transnational corporations behind the garb of parliamentary electoral set up or in the name of democracy (21st century’s – White man’s burden) to facilitate naked plunder of natural and human resources; it then becomes the responsibility of every person[Read More…]
So;President Trump launches 59 Tomahawk missiles(each costing over $1 million) to obliteratea Syrian air base because, we’re informed, he was moved by footage of chemically impacted children.As it turns out, it was, according to Fairfax’s Paul McGeogh, one of the Trump family members, Ivanka, who was so moved. Still, thes hocking images apparently drove the President to the final moral[Read More…]
We live in a world in which women living in poverty face gross inequalities and injustice from birth to death. From poor education to poor nutrition to vulnerable and low pay employment, the sequence of discrimination that a woman may suffer during her entire life is unacceptable but all too common. When we want to help the poor, we usually[Read More…]
Cow vigilantes attacked six people, including a 9-year-old girl in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday and fled away with their flock. The vigilantes beat up the nomad community blue and black and the minor girl has suffered multiple fractures when the community was en route to Talwara area… (http://www.timesnow.tv/india/video/cow-vigilantes-attack-6-including-9-year-old-in-jammu/59745) In yet another chilling instance of self-styled[Read More…]
The Chhattisgarh PUCL severely condemns the ruthless ambush carried out by Maoists at the Burkapal area under Police Station Chintagufa limits in district Sukma on 24th April 2017, and expresses its deep grief at the killing of 25 jawans, mostly young persons of poor families. According to initial reports, this attack, the most lethal of its kind in five years,[Read More…]
When I hear the degradation of nature I think of the tender touch of Helen Keller! When I hear of the inhuman bombings of warmongers I remember the odyssey of Homer …! When I read of children with hunger I console myself in the music of Stevie Wonder When there are so many suffering around me Still living with hope[Read More…]
Unavoidably, we all sometimes face seemingly insurmountable tragedies in our lives that can disassemble us in dreadful ways, such as a death of an only child or a deeply loved mate. So what do we do to pull ourselves back together after such overwhelming loss? It’s all about the ways that we use outrageous, totally devastating tragedies in their aftermath[Read More…]
New Delhi, April 24: Prafulla Samantara, National Convener, National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements and the leader of Lokshakti Abhiyan, Orissa has been awarded The Goldman Environmental Prize, Asia, 2017. The Goldman Environmental Prize honours the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists for their sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the Natural environment. He has been awarded the[Read More…]
25 April is Anzac Day commemorating the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli in 1915, the day after the commencement of the Turkish Armenian Genocide (1.5 million Armenians killed) that was precipitated by the prior prolonged Allied naval bombardment. On Anzac Day Australians utterly ignore Australia’s complicity in horrendous UK and US[Read More…]
After the long wait, the Supreme Court Chief Justice J.S. Khehar opined that long pending dispute of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid should be settled out of court. (March 2017) He even offered to mediate himself in the matter. Uniformly most of the spokesperson from RSS Combine welcomed the move, while large number of Muslims and other elements have been surprised[Read More…]
Raising major privacy concerns truck loads of Aadhaar numbers and other personal details of individuals are being leaked. Yesterday, it was revealed that the personal details over one millions Aadhaar subscribers were leaked on a website run by the Jharkhand Directorate of Social Security. Today, it is reported that the Aadhar numbers and other personal details of Public Distribution System[Read More…]
As colleges opened on Monday in Kashmir after five days, students of Shri Pratap Higher Secondary school clashed with police in Srinagar. Students held a march from the school premises and marched towards MA road, making their way by breaking the gate of school. The students later blocked road that was followed by clashes between forces and the students. Meanwhile,[Read More…]
The United Nations is currently preparing a world conference 5-7 June 2017 devoted to the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal N° 14: Conserve and sustainable use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the U.N. are invited to submit recommendations for the governmental working group which is meeting 24 to 27 April[Read More…]
Vassal visiting time, and the next slot in the US imperium tourism schedule was one of America’s more cosy allies, Australia. The US Vice President Mike Pence popped in to keep an eye on matters just to make sure that all was in order. There had been that issue of the notable phone call, when Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull[Read More…]
This is the third part (of 5 ) of a paragraph by paragraph commentary on a recent article posing as journalism in the March 6, 2017 issue of The New Yorker. I hope to demonstrate that this article is basically a totally mendacious concoction of cold war US propaganda constructed out of unsubstantiated opinions expressed by US government officials[Read More…]
In the demise of MaaAranganathan, 83,the Tamil literary world has lost a writer known for bringing out deep meaning and great beauty through very simple, detailed depictions of the mundane. Known for his artistry, modernity and unique use of language Aranganathan’s tales are a product of his observations of the lives of very ordinary people and his deep study of[Read More…]
Introduction: Humanity’s Future in AI-Biosynthetic World In a few centuries or perhaps a few decades, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and biosynthetic engineering will be perfected to the degree that androids will closely resemble humans and biosynthetically engineered humans will resemble androids. Despite the nightmares of such a prospect for some scientists, humanist scholars and theologians, AI will be a dream becoming[Read More…]
World Environment Day (WED) occurs on 5 June every year. Promoted by the United Nations, its aim is to encourage global awareness and action for the protection of the environment. Since its inauguration in 1974, WED has helped bring attention to various issues, including global warming, sustainable consumption and wildlife crime. We also have Earth Day, celebrated annually on 22 April. On this day. various[Read More…]
I have for many years now held a deep fascination for Ford Madox Hueffer’s Antwerp, a poem as little known as the man himself, a poem written in 1915 that vividly recreates the horror of the war fields of Europe during the so-called Great War and the even greater horror of mothers waiting at Charing Cross station for sons who[Read More…]
April has been an eventful month geopolitically so far. President Trump carried out a much-trumpeted-about Tomahawk missile strike at the Syrian regime, held responsible by him for a nerve-agent attack on the village of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, a province largely held by rebels. Trump has changed his mind on China, which he previously accused as a ‘currency manipulator’. He[Read More…]
Demonstrators hold flags of the region of Al-Ahwaz as they take part in a rally in support of the Ahwazi people in Iran, in Berlin, Germany, 21 April 2017. Dozens of demonstrators took part in the march striving for the recognition of this population and their human rights. Ahwazi exiles marked important anniversaries in the state’s history during the past[Read More…]
The Great Barrier Reef on the north-east coast of Australia which contains the world’s largest collection of coral reefs, has been the only reef which has been in the news of late and has a UNESCO heritage label. Today with oceans heating up reefs are threatened and the world holds its breath, hoping to reverse the trend. Interestingly, a newly[Read More…]
How does one move on with all this deep, searing pain over the mob lynching of a body that bore a beautiful heart and a precious mind? And with our senses still reeling, we hear of at least two more horror stories of blasphemy related violence. Grueling as it is, one has to navigate a path out of the all-consuming[Read More…]
Not since World War II have more human beings been at risk from disease and starvation than at this very moment. On March 10th, Stephen O’Brien, under secretary-general of the United Nations for humanitarian affairs, informed the Security Council that 20 million people in three African countries—Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan—as well as in Yemen were likely to die if not provided[Read More…]
How many books have been authored by Donald Trump? The answer: a steady stream totaling a whopping 17 — more than enough to keep a full-time writer fully occupied without all of Mr. Trump’s other activities. The word ‘writer’ of course is key, for Mr. Trump has not actually written any of them. He hires a ghost writer and[Read More…]
“We live in one global environment with a huge number of ecological, economic, social, and political pressures tearing at its only dimly perceived, basically uninterpreted and uncomprehended fabric. Anyone with even a vague consciousness of this whole is alarmed at how such remorselessly selfish and narrow interests – patriotism, chauvinism, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds – can in fact[Read More…]
There has been no transparency in discussions arising from bilateral talks on Kashmir. From the last few years, calling off the Kashmir dispute has been the favourite argument arising out of Indian media commentators and political leaders. It is because of existing narration of implanting fervent Indian nationalism inside Kashmir valley. Economic development, financial incentives and being part of India’s[Read More…]
In the recent past, one has witnessed violence being increasingly inflicted by actors such as Gau Rakshaks, Anti Romeo squads and Hindu Yuva Vahini. Violence by Hindu senas, Ram senas, Bajrang dal was always there. These are extra-constitutional actors aiming to impose a culture through usage of physical violence. Under the current National regime and State regimes in BJP ruled[Read More…]
“I’m glad that the Justice Department has found a way to go after Assange. He’s gotten a free ride for too long.” Rep. Peter King (R-New York), Apr 20, 2017 There had been some doubts from initial enthusiasts about WikiLeaks once information from leaks released on its site started puncturing holes in an already worn Democratic campaign in 2016. Accusations[Read More…]
![On hard substrata, frequently observed epilithic organisms include corals, actiniarians, hydroids, sponges, ascidians and crinoids - from 2011 seamounts expedition in the SW Indian O_C_IUCN [fwdslash] NERC](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/coral-reef-200x150.jpg "An Expedition to Explore Life on Undersea Mountains 154")
For the common man, mountains are a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. In geography we were taught that a mountain is generally steeper than a hill. And that mountains are formed with movement between tectonic plates or volcanoes erupting. So it is amazing to know that[Read More…]
The US military forces committed a classical example of the aggression on one sovereign and independent state on April 6th, 2017 by bombing a territory of Syrian Arab Republic by 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles killing civilians who are proclaimed as usually as “collateral damage”. A formal excuse for the aggression was based as many times before (from Vietnam, Kosovo, Afghanistan,[Read More…]
Last spring Donald Trump was widely viewed as a petulant oddity in the primary race. Nonetheless, he won the electoral vote; and here we are – an unprepared commander-in-chief who recently discovered new tools of an intoxicating military. I cannot be alone in thinking that Mr. Trump is tragically off course. Mr. Trump inherited a nation that is perpetually at[Read More…]
While much of the world is engulfed in violence of one sort or another (whether violence in the home or on the street, exploitation, ecological destruction or war), a global network of individuals and organizations is committed to ending this violence in all of its manifestations. With individual signatories in 100 countries and organizational endorsements in 35 countries, each of[Read More…]
A multi-author 2017 paper in the prestigious UK medical journal The Lancet estimates 1.1 million Indian deaths annually from ambient (outdoor) air pollution, notably from fine carbon particulates (PM2.5). Assuming coal burning causes 50% of ambient air pollution in India, pollutants from the burning of coal exported to India from the giant, Australia-approved Adani coal mine will eventually kill[Read More…]
“Billy Graham, a key figure at the Christian Woodstock in 1972, once compared life to a golf course, where it was only important to follow the rules in order to be embraced by the Lord once the game was over.” — Vine Deloria, Jr. in conversation with the author Explo ’72 was a gigantic rally held at the Cotton[Read More…]
Student of Nawa Kadal College Srinagar, Iqra, who was injured during the student protests on Monday is stable and recovering in hospital. A resident of Rajouri Kadal, Iqra, was seriously injured after a paramilitary CRPF trooper used his catapult to target her. She was hit by a stone on the left side of her head, caused a concussion and fracture.[Read More…]
The worst crimes against humanity committed by India in Kashmir are going unchallenged. The absence of any censure or reprimand by the international community particularly UN, is taken as a license or tacit permission by India to continue with its dastardly & grotesque action of annihilating the natives of the place, physically, socially & economically. And while as the[Read More…]
India is a mosaic of great cultures. Not now. The culture which we inherited from our founding fathers and martyrs who wanted to preserve the greatness would be ashamed to see India today. India today which is digital, India which is nuclear and India one of the fastest growing economies of the world is now also the land of[Read More…]
Anand Teltumbde is a civil rights activist, political analyst, columnist and author of many books. He has a long association with peoples’ struggle spanning over three decades backing his theorizations on various issues. Trained in technology and management from the top institutes in the country, he marshals his insights of the modern techno-managerial world to sharpen strategies of struggles. In[Read More…]
When I think about North Korea, what first comes to my mind is a mist over the calm and majestic surface of the Taedong River near Pyongyang. Next I always recall two lovers, locked in a tender and almost desperate embrace, sitting side by side on the shore. I saw them every day, while taking brisk walks at dawn. Now[Read More…]
China has renamed six places in Arunachal Pradesh in retaliation against the Dalai Lama’s visit to India’s easternmost state. The move is apparently aimed at reaffirming Beijing’s territorial sovereignty to the region. China’s civil affairs ministry carried out the name changes on April 13, a day after the Dalai Lama left Arunachal Pradesh following a nine-day high-profile visit. The[Read More…]
Books Reviewed in this Essay: Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race. London and New York: Verso, 2012. Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, 2014. Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015. On a recent visit to[Read More…]
(Srinagar has once again passed through a nightmarish situation due to a sudden flood in River Jhelum. It is nature’s warning for a big one which may hit us soon unless preventive measures are taken on a war footing!) Just two days of incessant heavy rain swelled River Jhelum to dangerous flood level. There was panic all over and many[Read More…]
The recent video clip of a civilian strapped to the front of an army vehicle deployed in internal security (IS) operations in Kashmir has made headlines. Many army veterans are defending it as a tactical means to avoid stone-pelting and thus permit operations with minimal bloodshed of protestors and army personnel alike. Some journalists aver that this tactic[Read More…]
The US national security advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, was in Afghanistan over the weekend, speaking with President Ashraf Ghani and General John Nicholson, the US military commander in the country. The aim of the talks, the Military Times reported prior to McMaster’s arrival in Kabul, was to “assess whether more military personnel are needed to break the stalemate there.”[Read More…]
The novelist Anthony Powell spoke of old age as penalisation for a crime one had not committed. Obviously, not being biblically inclined in that sense, the antics of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were discounted. Through the histories on the subject of aging, mythologies have accumulated as eager moss crossing moist rock. These have assumed something of[Read More…]
What does genuine economic progress look like? The orthodox answer is that a bigger economy is always better, but this idea is increasingly strained by the knowledge that, on a finite planet, the economy can’t grow for ever. But what is a steady-state economy? Why it is it desirable or necessary? And what would it be like to live in?[Read More…]
When I was a child, I took it for granted that my world would always be surrounded by the beauty and wonder of many other species included in it. For example, I thought that it was normal to see many mourning doves flap out of a stand of trees next to my home while starting, shortly before dawn’s[Read More…]
“Near Eastern religions have a propensity for building massive temples and tombs and this tradition has been emulated by Christian tendencies to construct gigantic cathedrals. Temples, churches, and synagogues separate the faithful from the secular world and from the natural world as if religion needs to be isolated from the rest of human activities.” — Vine Deloria, Jr., God is Red:[Read More…]
Back in the Middle East for a few months, I find myself astounded by the absence of the strong voices of Arab intellectuals. The region that has given rise to the likes of Michel Aflaq, George Habash, Rached al-Ghannouchi, Edward Said and numerous others has marginalized its intellectuals. Arab visionaries have either been coopted by the exuberant funds allocated[Read More…]
Nazareth: Israel is to hold lavish celebrations over the coming weeks to mark the 50th anniversary of what it calls the “liberation of Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights” – or what the rest of us describe as the birth of the occupation. The centrepiece event will take place in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. The West Bank settlement[Read More…]
The claims of microfinance are not necessarily dubious but then as the saying goes, there are three sides to every story—your side, his side and the truth. The good claims are trumpeted and the bad evidence is rubbished. It is a reminder that those who provide microfinancial services need to monitor carefully not only their positive impacts but also their[Read More…]
Dear all I am a Kashmiri student of psychology. While studying the topic of resistance to persuasion, I came across this: “Few of us like orders or being told what to do. We all have probably experienced advertisers, politicians or individuals pressurising us to change our attitude about some issue. In all such cases if we feel like our personal[Read More…]
‘If you are black or you are brown or you are gay or you are lesbian or you are Trans or you are Introvert , Anyone that is treating you unkindly , It’s only because they are afraid or they have been taught to be afraid of how important you are. Because being different means you make a difference. so[Read More…]
..nothing to eat nothing to wear boundless is the anguish who indeed can bear to see such misery among the world’s creatures let my soul be condemned to hell but let the Universe be redeemed. – Bhima Bhoi, [Source: BiswamoyPati in Religion and social ‘subversion’, Re-examining colonial Orissa (EPW, July/2010).,BidyutMohanty in Orissa famine of 1866 Demographic and economic[Read More…]
Warring toddlers, fanatical children, one-eyed adolescents who confuse noise with constructive contribution – this is the state of the world, with the recent, and ongoing spat chapter of Washington and Pyongyang. However you wish to describe the stout, proud and foolishly dangerous Kim Jong-un, murderous leader of North Korea, comparisons must diminish somewhat before the trigger happy CEO of United[Read More…]
The USA, according to Defense Secretary “Mad Dog” Mattis, he who ordered the use of chemical weapons in Fallujah, Iraq, is about to take a major step towards direct intervention in support of the Saudi Arabia war on the Yemeni people. According to Jeffrey St. Clair, Editor of Counterpunch, this war has already seen 90,000 Saudi airstrikes on Yemen, or[Read More…]
This is the second part (of 5 ) of a paragraph by paragraph commentary on a recent article posing as journalism in the March 6, 2017 issue of The New Yorker. I hope to demonstrate that this article is basically a totally mendacious concoction of cold war US propaganda constructed out of unsubstantiated opinions expressed by US government officials and various[Read More…]
Even as social media remains abuzz with the fake news of Yogi Adityanath, the newly appointed CM of Uttar Pradesh, cutting down reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs in private medical colleges (which never existed in the first place), what has taken the country by storm is BJP’s major upset in the UP assembly elections of 2017. Known to be[Read More…]
The crackdown on illegal abattoirs was one of the first decisions taken by Yogi Adityanath soon after taking over as Chief Minister of the most populous and politically crucial state of the country following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) resounding victory in the recently held assembly elections. The UP is the country’s largest meat exporting state having a business[Read More…]
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players;” (As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7) The quoted lines, written by Shakespeare somehow, explain the cycle of our life. We are born and then we die. But it’s the “in between” where we actually live. We’re actors of the play called ‘Life’ and we go[Read More…]
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sunday (April 16) achieved victory in a historic referendum on a package of constitutional amendments that will introduce presidential form of government like France and the United States. In a press conference in Istanbul following his party’s declaration of victory, Erdoğan said that unofficial results showed there were about 25m yes votes, 1.3m[Read More…]
Protests against the Pulwama raids by police have escalated to other towns outside Srinagar. While Srinagar police is battling students in SP College, reports about similar protests came from Shopian, Sopore, Pattan, Gaderbal and now from Kashmir University. Police reportedly used force at almost all places. The students of various colleges boycotted their classes and staged protests inside their college[Read More…]
These are the times where magnitude and size matters. Bombs in number with much heft and presence are being sought to root out those non-state jihadists of the Prophet, destructively maiming and killing all before them in the name of the next heavily drawn out cause. On Friday, United States armed forces busied themselves with dropping such a weapon of[Read More…]
The U.S. Thursday (April 13) dropped a bomb with an explosive force equal to 11 tons of TNT on a cave complex used by the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) , the Pentagon said. The bomb is officially called a GBU-43 or Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), the origin of its nickname as[Read More…]
Yesterday one of my friends visited my home. I offered her big fluffy kernels of organic popcorn cooked in sunflower oil. I recommend both products: Great Northern Popcorn Organic Yellow Gourmet Popcorn All Natural, 5 Pounds and Baja Precious – Organic Sunflower Oil, 750ml (25.3 Fl Oz). You don’t have these products in your country? Then go for something comparable.[Read More…]
Kashmir is undoubtedly the human rights hell of the world . The tale of human misfortune in Kashmir is of unprecedented nature. Every form of brutal human rights violations and tactics of suppression have been committed against the masses of Kashmir to quell their sentiments of solution and right to self determination . Most of the voices of conscience in[Read More…]
A Presentation made at XL Indian Social Science Congress, Dec 19-23, 2016, University of Mysore, Mysuru , focused on PEOPLES HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN INDIA. It was widely appreciated as one focussing on a key problem faced by vast masses of India, neglected by all the (un-)concerned agencies
“We don’t have any faith in statue-worship but as a symbol the importance of a statue cannot be underestimated. We adore our homes with the pictures or statues of our heroes, mentors or beloved ones and these pictures or statues inspire and enthuse us. Had the statues been devoid of any importance then after the defeat of socialism and[Read More…]
The first part of the article (Countercurrents.org, 14.03.2017) dealt with Kobad Ghandy’s trial under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in Delhi, during which he was detained in Tihar Jail for about seven years!; and acquitted by the court of charges under UAPA on 10 June, 2016!! Kobad Ghandy was acquitted of even being a member of CPI (Maoist).
What is the meaning of victory of Farooq Abdullah from the Srinagar constituency where not even 7% votes polled. In many of the booths merely 2% votes were polled. I know there are past precedences of such a situation in at least three Indian states when people boycotted and government determinedly went for polls and were ‘able’ to form governments.[Read More…]
Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump unleashed one of the most powerful U.S. bombs—the 20,000 pound GBU-43, known as “the mother of all bombs”—on Afghanistan on Thursday, the Pentagon has confirmed. The MOAB, which stands for massive ordinance air blast, reportedly struck an Islamic State (ISIS) tunnel complex in Nangarhar province. According to the Department of Defense statement, “the strike was designed to[Read More…]
“Vested interests deflect from the facts that WikiLeaks publishes by demonizing its brave staff and me.” Julian Assange, The Washington Post, Apr 11, 2017. The Central Intelligence Agency’s current director, Mike Pompeo, has a view of history much like that of any bureaucrat as understood by the great sociologist Max Weber. The essential, fundamental purpose of bureaucracy is a rationale[Read More…]
Under a climate criminal Coalition Government Australia is lurching towards an environmental and human catastrophe represented by the huge, Government-approved Adani Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin of Queensland. Pollutants from burning Australian coal exported from the proposed Adani coal mine are estimated to kill 13,000 people annually and 500,000 people over the lifetime of the coal mine.[Read More…]
At a time when military planners intensify the demonic work of softening the world up for a normalisation of the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the ever-growing fields of war, let our hearts more fully awaken to the pain of the world, and particularly to the pain of those innocents caught up in war and preparations for war.
A Kashmiri civilian is tied to an Indian army jeep as a human shield in Beerwa, Budgam area of Kashmir. The Indian army personnel on the top of the jeep is warning local Kashmiris of same fate if they pelt stones. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah has tweeted a photograph and a video, showing a Kashmiri youth tied by Indian[Read More…]
The definition of the term “terrorism” has been deliberately left undefined by the Western powers to use it as a catch-all pretext to justify their interventionist policy in the energy-rich Islamic countries. Depending on context, “terrorism” can mean two markedly distinct phenomena: that are, religious extremism or militancy. If terrorism is understood as religious extremism, then that is a cultural[Read More…]
What does an “America-first” foreign policy look like under President Donald Trump? As a start, forget the ancient label of “isolationism.” With the end of Trump’s first 100 days approaching, it looks more like a military-first policy aimed at achieving global hegemony, which means it’s a potential doomsday machine. Candidate Trump vowed he’d make the U.S. military so strong[Read More…]
Scenario ONE: Imagine that you are on board a ship, which is slowly sinking. There is no land in sight, and your radio transmitter is not functioning properly. There are several people on board and you care for them, deeply. You don’t want this to be the end of ‘everything’. What do you do? A) You fix for yourself[Read More…]
Today is Ambedkar Jayanti. It would be appropriate to take a re-look at Ambedkar’s idea of nationalism in the face of virulent Hindutva nationalism in India and also on the global context
Keystone XL Pipeline is a long-controversial proposed Canadian pipeline project through the U.S. north to south, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, to trans-ship the world’s most global-warming filthiest oil, from Canada’s tar-sands, to be burnt and used in Europe. On March 24th, U.S. President Trump informed the to-be-owner of the Keystone XL Pipeline project, that he gives them[Read More…]
For Palestinians, 2017 is a year of significant anniversaries. While historians mark May 15th as the anniversary of the date on which Palestinians were expelled from their historic homeland in 1948, the fact is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians began in earnest in 1947. In strict historical terms 1947 and ‘48 were the years in which Palestine was conquered[Read More…]
The real truth revealed by the chemical weapon tragedy in Syria’s Idlib Province is that as the world continues to tear itself asunder and make a mockery of the United Nation’s concept of international law and the sovereign rights of nations – supposedly intended to protect them from such unprovoked, preemptive attacks by rogue countries like the United States and[Read More…]
One of the world’s leading rocket scientists, national security advisor and MIT Professor Theodore Postol, who has won awards for debunking claims about missile defense systems and has been a scientific adviser to the US Chief of Naval Operations, says today in a nine-page report that a four-page report released by the Trump administration yesterday intended to blame the[Read More…]
I recently awoke from a rather pleasant dream in which members of Congress and the President embraced the unique proposition that they had been elected to serve the People of the United States. Congress had determined that healthcare was a matter of right (by simply reducing the age at which a person qualified for Medicare to birth) and that every[Read More…]
(Rome) The recent death of the Russian poet with whom I was acquainted, Yevgheny Yevtushenko, prompted these considerations of the role of poets in social-cultural-political progress in general and in a particularly spectacular fashion in Russia. In few other countries have poets played a more significant than in Russia. Nonetheless, for centuries Russian poets have been harassed, persecuted, and punished[Read More…]
(Total boycott accompanied by gruesome mayhem clearly shows the oft bandied “Balloon” of elections has been fully deflated!) George Bernard Shaw had said “Democracy is a balloon filled with hot air. Fools watch it when it rises and the clever pick their pockets”! This has been happening in Kashmir from the very start. The best excuse oft used by[Read More…]
One Pehlu Khan from Haryana came to the cattle fair in Jaipur to purchase a buffalo. He was a dairy farmer. In the fair he was impressed by high milk yielding Cow and bought that instead of his plan of buying a buffalo. On way back in Alwar ‘Go Rakshak’ (Protectors of Cow) attacked his group and mercilessly beat[Read More…]
How many deaths will it take ‘til he knows That too many people have died The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, The answer is blowin’ in the wind. –Bob Dylan, Nobel Laureate India’s economy may be soaring, but agriculture remains its Achilles’ heel, the source of livelihood for hundreds of millions of people but a fraction[Read More…]
Flying United Airlines was never a pleasant business. Functional, sterile, with staff more appropriately disposed to a deep freeze morgue than the hot blood of enthusiastic living, the airline was always an entity you wished ill towards, even as the flight started taking off. Dreams of flying a Gulf carrier or Singapore Airlines would fill the mind in the uneasy[Read More…]
I once stayed up all night reading a book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip Dick. The book was made into the movie Blade Runner. The main character in the book, Rick Deckard, has to figure out something that seems like quite a challenge: is he a human being, or is he a “replicant”? Replicants are artificial beings[Read More…]
The Russian and Syrian denials are true if they are innocent and lies if they are guilty of the suspected chemical weapons attack that killed 90 people including 30 children in Syria. However Trump, US and US Alliance certitude over Russian and Syrian guilt is clear, proven, warmongering lying in the absence of findings from expert and independent investigators.[Read More…]
On a positive note, it has been a good development that the Trump administration has owned the “regime change” policy of the Obama administration in Syria by launching cruise missiles strike against the Syrian air force in al-Shayrat air base. Because over the decades, it has been a convenient stratagem of the Western powers with two-party political systems, particularly the[Read More…]
This is the first part (of 5 ) of a paragraph by paragraph commentary on a recent article posing as journalism in the March 6, 2017 issue of The New Yorker. I hope to demonstrate that this article is basically a totally mendacious concoction of cold war US propaganda constructed out of unsubstantiated opinions expressed by US government officials and[Read More…]
Ms. Yayoi Segiis based in Beirut, Lebanon, and she has worked in Syria for almost 3 years. She is extremely passionate about the country, which she admires and tries to support in her position as an accomplished specialist in national education development. She agreed to share her collection of personal photos from Damascus, Homs and Aleppo.
Recent attacks upon African people in India has come as a shock for many of us who believe in equality and human rights. Though, no words are enough to condemn this incident, I not only condemn this, but as an Indian national, I also apologise to every African citizen for this shameful incident that happened in my country by my[Read More…]
Today, we remember little about what we call the Crimean war (1853-1856), even though it was the largest war ever fought in history up to that moment. It prefigured many of the elements that would later reappear in the two world wars of the 20th century, so much that we might call it “World War 0.” It included fossil fuels[Read More…]
In early morning darkness on April 7th the United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian al-Shayrat Airfield from two American destroyers stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean. It described the targets as Syrian fighter jets, radar, fuel facilities used for the aircraft. It asserted prior notification of Russian authorities, and offered the assurance that precautions were taken to[Read More…]
“Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.” Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (1904). At the psychological heart of every liberal is a milk soft tendency to succumb to the authoritarian personality, a feeling that, just around the corner, resistance will fold. Before such authority, adoration and bruising follow in menacing union. As US President[Read More…]
The use of chemical weapons in Sheikhun, in the Idlib province of Syria on 4th April 2017 was a heinous act. The world has rightly condemned it. Because it was so cruel and callous, it is vital that the truth about the attack is established as soon as possible. The United States of America and a number of its[Read More…]
“Russia needs to be aware, made aware of its responsibility in the bloody actions last week by the Assad regime and therefore we are always open to working with our friends, allies and partners allies to send clear messages through sanctions and other means to Russia.” PM Justin Trudeau. Canada’s PM Trudeau displayed all the sycophancy of a stalwart U.S.[Read More…]
Hot water tolerant Red Sea corals could be the key to saving the worlds reefs. It will take an international effort to create the massive coral nurseries here in the Red Sea needed to begin to bring back to life the enormous areas of bleached dead coral reefs in places like The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, or from the[Read More…]
There was once a city called ‘The City of Ideas’. It was known far and wide for its culture of questioning, debating, discussing, disagreeing, arguing and naturally, generating more and more ideas in the process. It was a city filled with numerous schools, colleges, Universities and Institutions of learning. People from all over the world vied to earn themselves the[Read More…]
The recent deaths of eight young civilians on the polling day once again underscores the need move beyond the sovereignty versus azaadi debate or even the embittered dynamics of the neighbourhood territorial dispute and mend fences closer home, before the embers of dissatisfaction spill over the streets again.The narrative should shift stance on justice dispensation, a crucial facet, which is often ignored by the political class and state institutions alike.
Over the last 2-3 years there have been a surge in targeted attacks on African nationals living in India, people from the North-Eastern provinces settled elsewhere in our country, people belonging to minority communities and members of backward castes particularly Dalits. Last year alone a Congolese teacher was attacked and killed in Delhi, a group of six Africans—two women, a[Read More…]
This is the centenary year of the Champaran sayagraha (policy of passive political resistance) – the first experiment by Mahatma Gandhi of his epic philosophy .This tool was to become Gandhi’s most powerful amour and earned him a cherished and coveted place in the pantheon of world ‘s legendary leaders . Gandhi launched his satyagraha in Champaran district on[Read More…]
It’s war in the Gulf and the U.S. Navy is on hand to protect us. No, not that Gulf! I’m talking about the Gulf of Alaska and it’s actually mock war — if, that is, you don’t happen to be a fin whale or a wild salmon. This May, the Navy will again sail its warships into the Gulf of[Read More…]
![“A homeless sleeps amid a snow storm outside the White House in Washington D.C., capital of the United States…” [Photo: Xinhua/Zhang Jun]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/homeless1-200x150.jpg "On Finding A Homeless Person In A Blizzard! 302")
Personally if I were to find even one homeless person sleeping in the icy snow not far from my home, I’d make it a habit to always nightly check the area for others in the same condition and, in the least, call a local shelter for a pick-up of him, give him hot tea and a sandwich, as well[Read More…]
Shooting from the hip with unerring accuracy was the Wild West according to Hollywood. As anyone who has ever fired a pistol will tell you it is improbable, and historically the West’s few gun duels were rather unremarkable. The latest hip-shooter is of course Donald J. Trump whose foreign policy seems to turn on a dime — from not[Read More…]
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in New Delhi today on a four-day visit. It is widely expected that he will advocate for, among other things, increased coal and Uranium export from Australia to India. The issue of coal export to India gains significance in the backdrop that world’s largest coal mine in Australia is being planned to be developed[Read More…]
There is widespread criticism of Trump’s Syria attack on the left, and many of the reasons stated are spot on: The attack was surely not motivated by humanitarian considerations, contrary to what is claimed. The attack is illegal, both under US and international law, and hence constitutes an act of war. The US has been conducting military strikes in Syria[Read More…]
Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) strongly condemns the manner in which our member Ms Bondita Acharya, a well known women’s activist from Jorhat, Assam, is being criminally intimidated, abused in sexual language, defamed and trolled on her Facebook account only because she expressed her personal opinion regarding eating of beef, a common practice in her state of[Read More…]
This article is based on the Presidential Speech by well-known physician, Dr BM Hegde at the 40th Annual Congress of the Indian Social Science Academy, held in Mysore, Dec 19-23, 2016. We are publishing the entire content of the speech in the light of the many brilliant and thought-provoking observations made on science and health but cannot verify all the[Read More…]
We must not conceal from ourselves that no improvement in the present depressing situation is possible without a severe struggle; for the handful of those who are really determined to do something is minute in comparison with the mass of the lukewarm and the misguided. And those who have an interest in keeping the machinery of war going are a[Read More…]
All bets are off in the latest round of escalation in the Syrian conflict. The attack on al-Shayrat airbase involving 59 cruise missiles launched from the USS Ross and Porter in the Eastern Mediterranean was meant to be a lesson of sorts. For US President Donald Trump, it was in the “national interest of the United States” to deter the[Read More…]
There are contradictory opinions about who on last Tuesday April 4th used chemical weapons, which killed more than 80 civilians including children in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Syria. Some pundits impute the deadly Sarin gas attack to Bashar al-Assad, while others believe terrorists belonging to the al-Nusra Front, which is an al Qaeda surrogate and friends with[Read More…]
Madhavikutty, the renowned Malayalm writer, was ahead of her times. Here is a short story she wrote in Malayalam in the sixties. It foretells what’s happening in India now. One day, while a boy was picking up banana skin from the waste bin and eating it, a cow reached there and grabbed it from him. He pushed the cow[Read More…]
“The horror in Syria is terrible, but much worse has been going on in the Congo — greater numbers sacrificed — for a much longer period of time… with our clear complicity.” — one of the author’s home schooled youngsters Comedian Mitch Hedberg used to tell a joke about the Dufresnes which is germane today. If you viewed the[Read More…]
On May 28, 2016, a gorilla named Harambe was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo. A small child had fallen into the primate’s enclosure and… well, you know the rest. “As I watched the sort of public outrage and mourning rarely afforded murdered women, it was the final straw,” explains Dawn Wilcox, a registered nurse for 22 years. Wilcox is no “expert,”[Read More…]
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee or Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who is considered as the father of Hindu Rashtra, has written three novels all in the last ten years of his life: Anandmath, Debi Choudhurani and Sitaram. All of them can be justly described as anti-Muslim. B.C.C played an important role in reducing Indian nationalism to Hindu nationalism, which is anti-Muslim to the[Read More…]
Pride and dignity would belong to women if only men would leave them alone. Egyptian Proverb Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake from advancing gender equality than any of the ten regions analyzed in a McKinsey Global Institute report, The Power of Parity:[Read More…]
Devi Prasad Sadan Ghat has managed to exist and battle the innovations of technology that brought washing machines to every household. Almost hidden and unnoticed by people the biggest dhobi ghat in Delhi is located in CP at the otherwise quiet and serene Hailey lane. Families of 60 washermen, try to sustain themselves by washing and ironing clothes from dawn[Read More…]
Being imprisoned for a crime one did not commit, being acquitted and freed after going through a hard ordeal of physical and mental agony, granting of ‘Good Service Entry’ to those officers whose hands played key role in unreasonably locking up innocent persons in prisons, being denied any sort of a compensation for the deprival of valuable years of their[Read More…]
The undersigned students’ organisations and unions from North East India, would like to extend solidarity with people of African origin living in India and particularly those who were attacked in Greater Noida recently. We empathise with the violence, ordeals, and humiliation faced by Africans in India. We are distressed to learn of the ongoing situation, and denial of the Indian[Read More…]
Internet services in three districts falling under the Srinagar Parliamentary constituency, going to polls tomorrow, will be shut down from midnight as a precautionary measure to prevent floating of rumours by anti- national elements. Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal, which form part of the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, will have no Internet connections amid reports that Pakistan-based groups were engaged in[Read More…]
Introduction Nothing unifies America at home and rallies support among its allies quicker than a bombing of a Muslim nation, no matter the ideological, political, and moral justifications about the military option as a first resort before or after the bombing. Governments divided and lacking popular support, governments questioned by a segment of the military, political and business elites, and[Read More…]
The day after US warships rained some 60 Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian government airbase, US officials made it clear that this unilateral and criminal attack against an oppressed former colonial country is merely the first shot in what is to be an escalating and widening campaign of American military aggression. The governor of Syria’s central Homs province reported Friday[Read More…]
When asked about why India chose to go with the UID/Aadhaar model when several countries like France, Britain and Germany have disbanded such identification projects, Nandan Nilekani, a former official of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) replied, “Their purpose was not development, inclusion, saving government money or curbing corruption. How can you compare Aadhaar with the smart card project[Read More…]
It is apparent given the timelines and the lack of time given to verifying the validity of accusations concerning the gas attack in Homs, Syria, that plans had already been coordinated for such an attack. Watching the mainstream media the viewer receives the impression from the wording of the announcers reports and questions for the “experts” that the matter was[Read More…]
The attack on Syria is a violation of the U.S. Constitution, International Law, and the Geneva Convention. Why did President Trump make this disastrous decision? We may never know why. BUT we do know that the decision was not made to protect those ‘beautiful little babies’. No U.S. president in recent history has ever placed any value on the lives of babies,[Read More…]
Australia is a major exporter of coal, gas and iron ore, and is set to become the world’s largest exporter of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). However, depending upon the degree of systemic gas leakage, burning gas for power may be worse greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal. However a remorselessly neoliberal, anti-science and anti-environment Australia is committed to massive[Read More…]
Fifty years ago Dr. King risked his life to tell us that ‘the world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve,” that a nation focused on military defense more than social uplift “is approaching spiritual death,’ and that we still had a choice: “nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.” How much longer will[Read More…]
Three people, including a minor, was arrested on 5th of April for cooking beef. The news is not from the state of Uttar Pradesh or Chhattisgarh, where eating or possessing cattle meat is prohibited. Sadly, It is a news from the North Eastern part of India and to be precise, it is from Jorhat district of Assam. “They bought beef[Read More…]
Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression. – Margaret Sanger Providing women with more and better opportunities to fulfill their social, economic, and political roles is now deemed so essential for reducing poverty and[Read More…]
After 30 years from now India will be celebrating its 100thyear of independence from the colonial rule. What will happen in the year 2047-48? Will India be able to fulfill the vision of those who fought for the freedom? Will the country be able to adapt itself to the dreams and aspirations of the present and the future citizens of[Read More…]
These communal incidents are becoming a commonplace and the religious fervor of the people who commit them are proud to be a participant of this mad race to fulfill their brutal agendas. With the streets getting bloodier and darker, turning a blind eye to such incidents could mean an end the delicate social fabric of love and mutual harmony of our country and converting minorities to mere statues and puppets divorced from their own religious ideologies.
After the long wait, the Supreme Court Chief Justice J.S. Khehar opined that long pending dispute of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid should be settled out of court. (March 2017) He even offered to mediate himself in the matter. Uniformly most of the spokesperson from RSS Combine welcomed the move, while large number of Muslims and other elements have been surprised as the[Read More…]
Historically, this latest eruption of American militarism at the start of the 21st Century is akin to that of America opening the 20th Century by means of the U.S.-instigated Spanish-American War in 1898. Then the Republican administration of President William McKinley stole their colonial empire from Spain in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; inflicted a near genocidal war[Read More…]
With the pounding of 59 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles on Shayrat airbase in Syria the Empire has widened its aggression in the strategically crucial country. The sounds of destruction announce imperialism’s and aggression, interference and intervention. This is the sound of “peace” imperialism likes to impose on peoples of other countries. Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Donald[Read More…]
Between 8 and 9 p.m., US Eastern Time Thursday, two US warships in the Mediterranean fired a barrage of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base at Shayrat, near the city of Homs. The attack is the first direct assault by the United States on the Russian- and Iranian-backed government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has[Read More…]
I am told it was the best moment of their lives When my parents saw my pretty little face, they say they forgot all strife They loved me, adored me I felt I was the most blessed child They made me feel special, beautiful, strong, dignified, let me have fun, allowed me to get wild In the world I grew[Read More…]
Dr. Noam Chomsky, a scholar who taught classes on US foreign policy at MIT and whom International Business Times notes is “one of the world’s most eminent academics and political commentators”, gave a more than one hour-long interview this week to Democracy Now. In it, he points out that while the US government and oligarchy (see below) encourages US[Read More…]
Today, as the dominant global power, the US roles out its brand of unfettered capitalism across the world. US citizens constitute just five percent of the world’s population but consume 24 percent of global energy. Consider the consequences of a US-style model of ‘development’ if it were to be aspired to and copied throughout the world (which it is in places[Read More…]
Henry Hampton‘s work — like his groundbreaking Eyes on the Prize (1987-1990) — should be applauded. His grand efforts and accomplishments — along with those of his many hardworking, talented colleagues, such as the dedicated and incomparable Judy Richardson — are praiseworthy by any standards. That said, to have one’s eyes on any prize in the realm of social activism usually means a[Read More…]
Pope Francis Wednesday (April 5) held a private audience with a delegation of four Imams from England who were accompanied by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster. Pope Francis told the imams that listening to each other was essential for the common future of humanity as we walk together in our shared lives. “What we should do to[Read More…]
Putting my “camera between the skin of a person and his shirt is the most difficult thing for me,” says Henri Cartier-Bresson, a renowned French humanist photographer. Cartier-Bresson was speaking of his predicament as a photographer while taking a portrait. Cartier-Bresson’s anxiety was apparently about reaching the subject/object as close as possible – an intellectually fascinating but a real time challenge[Read More…]
Women are the mainstays of small-scale agriculture, the farm labour force and day-to-day family subsistence. The biggest myth is that the rural woman is part of her land’s wealth. Yes, but only to the extent of generating it. They don’t own land but produce secondary crops, gather food and firewood, process, store and prepare family food and fetch water[Read More…]
Let’s start with what we don’t know. Experts remain uncertain what chemical(s) were involved in the horrific chemical attack, almost certainly from the air, on the village of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province in Syria. The nerve agent sarin, chlorine, and unknown combinations of chemicals have all been identified as possible, but in the first 48 hours nothing has been[Read More…]
Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his boldest and perhaps most defining speech. It alienated liberal allies in the North and the Northern press, plus many in King’s own civil rights movement, and prompted President Johnson to withdraw King’s secret service detail. Exactly one year later, forty-nine years ago on April 4, he was assassinated. He said, “As[Read More…]
Due to continuous rain and snow, two passengers went missing after a cab plunged into river in Dandipora Kokernag area of Islamabad district of Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday afternoon. The vehicle in which eight passengers were travelling from Kokernag to Larnoo, plunged into Nalla Brangi, said SHO Larnoo, while talking with Counter currents. Six people were rescued with the[Read More…]
President Donald Trump Monday, April 3, 2017, welcomed the Egyptian military dictator, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who assumed the title of Field Marshal after arresting and deposing the democratically elected President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013. After the meeting Trump told the press: “We agree on so many things. I just want to let everybody know, in case there was[Read More…]
Once more, the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 is taking center stage. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas insisted during his speech before the recently-concluded Arab League Summit in Jordan, that the Initiative is the only solution on the table; asserting that it will not be changed or even tweaked. But why is this Initiative, which was put forward by Saudi Arabia 15 years[Read More…]
It was hard to tell whether Australia’s Federal Police authorities, along with their Victorian colleagues, were gloating at their latest effort. Thrilled at the unearthing of a stash of methamphetamine, a form of it colloquially known as ice, trumpeted as the “biggest seizure” in Australian history, there was a sense of achievement. They had gotten one up on the drugs[Read More…]
I always believe that people can do wonders, if their energy is channelized and focused on a given task. Tomorrows are made by people. A lesson I learnt early in life is that great leaders don’t teach. They touch and transform. They don’t instruct; they inspire by their conduct and disposition. They help people discover within themselves the strength to[Read More…]
(CNS): Growing political commitment of governments globally to #endTB is indeed welcoming but governments need to walk the talk too to #endTB and deliver on promises of integrated sustainable development by 2030. Reality check on any specific indicator to show progress made towards ending TB will raise serious concerns regarding meeting these commitments in a timely manner. For example, TB[Read More…]
Text of a Speech circulated on Dec24, 2016, at XL Indian Social Science Congress Organized by Indian Social Sciences Academy(ISSA) , held from 19th Dec. 2016 and 24th Dec. 2016, in collaboration with University of Mysore, Mysuru, Karnataka
The recent strike of doctors across Maharashtra (and other parts of the country) against violence unleashed on them by disgruntled relatives of patients have thrown up uncomfortable questions. Whenever and wherever, violence must be abhorred and condemned in all its forms. Without doubt, all healthcare providers should be ensured safety at places of work. Violence at place of work can[Read More…]
Former Chief Minister and Supremo of National Conference (NC) Dr Farooq Abdullah, on Wednesday come out in support of stone pelters in Kashmir and lashed out at the Modi government. Former CM , Farooq Abdullah Who is also contesting the by-election to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat as the joint candidate of opposition National Conference and Congress. While reacting to Prime[Read More…]
(With the unprecedented victory of BJP in the U.P. elections giving rise to militant Hindutva proclaiming India to be a Hindu Rashtra, the relationship of Kashmir to India loses the very basic premise of accession!) After the recent phenomenal success in the U.P. elections, the RSS is going full steam ahead to give practical shape to Golwalkar’s dream of[Read More…]
We solemnly and earnestly appeal to you to save the present and future citizens from unlimited government as a consequence of an unlimited database of Indians and anonymous financing of political parties under the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and amended Companies Act, 2013 by seeking Hon’ble Supreme Court’s opinion under Article 143(2) of the Constitution of India on the constitutionality of biometric UID/Aadhaar in supreme national interest. This Article has not been used so far but extraordinary situations create compelling logic for extraordinary patriotic steps which can set a healthy precedent for all times to come.
Current carbon dioxide levels are unprecedented in human history and could reach a level unseen in millennia if their rates continue at this pace, a new report out Tuesday warns. Research published in Nature Communications finds that if fossil fuel use continues unabated, the atmosphere could revert “to values of CO2 not seen since the early Eocene (50 million years[Read More…]
Since 1948 the state of Israel has celebrated annually its independence as a nation, though it is not clear from what or whom it has declared independence. The UN had portioned Palestine in November of 1947 and the British Mandate had made clear that its last day in Palestine would be May 15, of 1948. The Zionists determined that[Read More…]
This article was written as a rebuttal on the article that appeared in Business Line on April 1, 2017. It might be slightly technical but I will try to keep it within comprehensible limits for a person without Computer Science degree. Claim 1 from Nandan Nilekani: When seeding and authentication are done properly, the success rate is over 95 per[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump, Trumpist Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and pro-oil sands Canadian PM Justin Trudeau are acutely threatening the world with unlimited greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from unlimited fossil fuel exploitation. For the US Canada and Australia, full exploitation of presently recoverable fossil fuel reserves would generate GHG pollution vastly exceeding (37-fold) the whole world’s remaining Terminal Carbon[Read More…]
How dreadfully depressing life has become in almost all of the Western cities! How awful and sad. It is not that these cities are not rich; they are. Of course things are deteriorating there, the infrastructure is crumbling and there are signs of social inequality, even misery, at every corner. But if compared to almost all other parts of[Read More…]
Vladimir Putin is the devil incarnate of the present media frenzy supporting all things USA! USA! USA!. Having just read a trio of books concerning Putin it is obvious that the lense through which Putin is viewed has blinders on the side and rose coloured tints as a lense coating. The blinders are those things the authors just do not[Read More…]
The association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, popularly known as BRICS, finds itself at an interesting juncture in its existence. After limited success in restructuring international financial institutions, which was the stated intention of the forum, the BRICS governments established the New Development Bank that has been functioning for more than two years. At a time when[Read More…]
For over 40 years Anand Patwardhan’s documentary films have stood for freedom of expression. He faced censorship on numerous occasions, took the government to court, and won each time. Anand is not just a filmmaker but an activist in the cause of Indian democracy, clearly under threat today. In this candid conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Anand discusses his views[Read More…]
“Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.” – Office Of High Commissioner, Human Rights Referring to the definition given above,[Read More…]
Alternative Readings of the Durga-Mahishasur Myth. A Revolt Against Brahmanical Epistemology: The beginning of a new cultural renaissance in India The alternative readings of myths from Brahmanical mythological reservoir mark the beginning of a new cultural consciousness among the Dalits, Adivasis and other deprived sections of the Indian society. The deprived peoples have realized that the Brahmanism has been able to[Read More…]
Despite a great threat to their own existence inside the JNU campuses which is being ‘cleaned’ to maintain Brahmanical purity and hegemony ( it was always there but in a better ‘coordinated’ and sophisticated way) the young Ambedkarites of Birsa Ambedkar Student Association ( BAPSA) today protested against the killing of a young Dalit boy in Telangana a few days[Read More…]
Any sensible government must learn to unleash the energy of its people and get them to perform instead of trying to get a bureaucracy to perform ―Verghese Kurien, I Too Had a Dream Tackling poverty requires an approach that must start with the people themselves and encourages the initiative, creativity and drive from below. The strategy must be at the[Read More…]
Then he thought he should have a drink
And all the bars were closed.
They told him ` get married and you will be fine’
Then he just asked them this:
`Will it cover my nudity?’
“Anti-Romeo Squads” are policemen and women and vigilante groups, operating outside the purview of law, with the support of the Uttar Pradesh State, which threaten women’s freedoms. The serious issue of violence against women and routine sexual harassment of women in Uttar Pradesh cannot be addressed by setting up anti-Romeo squads. These “squads” impose their own aggressive and arbitrary code[Read More…]
Nazareth: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed cohorts of Israel loyalists in the United States by video link last week at the annual conference of Aipac, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. They should, he said, follow his government’s example and defend Israel on the “moral battlefield” against the growing threat of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. In[Read More…]
The questions come after talks, on Twitter, in the days’ incoming tide of email—sometimes even in old-fashioned letters that arrive in envelopes. The most common one by far is also the simplest: What can I do? I bet I’ve been asked it 10,000 times by now and—like a climate scientist predicting the temperature—I’m pretty sure I’m erring on the low[Read More…]
Iranian regime militia shot an unarmed wheelchair-bound disabled Ahwazi activist dead in front of his wife and children in their home, apparently “revenge” for his civil rights activism. The armed group belonging to the Basiji (also known as Sāzmān-e Basij-e Mostaz’afin), one of the five forces of the ‘Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution’, stormed into 39-year-old Saeed[Read More…]
Violence is the bane of Indian society and a manifest agenda of communal forces, which thrive on divisive politics and polarization. This is part of their political agenda. While Hindu-Muslim violence during British period had a particular beginning and characteristics, the same violence became anti-Muslim violence after Independence. The major brunt of communal violence has been borne by Muslim community[Read More…]
The Iraqi parliament on Saturday, April 1, 2017, voted against raising the flag of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on public buildings and institutions in the city of Kirkuk. In a session attended by 186 members of the 328-seat parliament, the MPs voted in favor of flying only the Iraqi flag on Kirkuk’s public buildings. Kurdish lawmakers have walked out[Read More…]
If you want to be successful, you must respect one rule: never lie to yourself. ~ Paulo Coelho UP elections are over and the results are out. They are surprising for some of us who have become used to living our lives in slumber. But for those who had their eyes open, the result in UP was neither unexpected[Read More…]
For going on 3 years now a “rebel army” of some 20,000 South Sudanese soldiers have been fighting to overthrow the Salva Kiir government without any visible means of support. The government has oil revenues and aid funds but the “rebels” (and their propaganda arm in the west) have not been asked by anyone in the international media to “show[Read More…]
South Africa is poised on a knife edge. Anything can happen. Last week Pravin Gordhan the Minister of Finance and former head of the S African Revenue Service, plus his deputy were recalled from London in the midst of a promotional roadshow for potential investors. Upon their return home, each was fired by the very president who appointed them. You[Read More…]
Australian government officials are at it again, and the visit by President Ashaf Ghani to Canberra on Sunday piqued interest amongst various members of the Afghan community concerned about the next innovation in cruelty practiced by Canberra. If there is something exceptional in the otherwise dreary annals of Australian policy making in recent years, repelling unwanted refugees and asylum seekers[Read More…]
The editor-in-chief of Lebanon’s prestigious al-Akhbar newspaper, Ibrahim al-Amin, has revealed in his recent editorial [1] that Tulsi Gabbard, the United States Representative for Hawaii whose trip to Syria in January and meeting with Bashar al-Assad was widely reported in media, had conveyed President Trump’s offer of cooperation to Assad during the meeting. The editorial in Arabic is full[Read More…]
Interviewer: “All sides in this war have been accused of civilian casualties, but Western media has been almost completely silent about the atrocities committed by the rebels” [who, according to internal US government analysis, operate predominantly under the umbrellas of al Qaeda and ISIS, which are directly sponsored by US-backed dictatorships including Saudi Arabia and Qatar].Syrian president Bashar Assad: “Whenever[Read More…]
Not too long ago, while leaving the gym, I overheard a conversation about the best female tennis players of all-time. As I walked home, I pondered my own list and came up with five women with whom we’re on a first name basis: Serena, Steffi, Martina, Chrissie, and Venus. When considering who might be next, I suddenly remembered Monica Seles.[Read More…]
Reacting to the recent statement of PM Narendra Modi where-in he asked the Kashmiri youth to choose between terrorism and tourism, the APHC in a statement said , ” Kashmiris were not against the tourism, neither were they supporters of terrorism” . Stating that the Kashmiris were not against the development and progress, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference ( APHC)[Read More…]
Education is instrumental in empowering girls and women, and eventually their entire families; therefore India is determined to educate all children, especially the girl child. By declaring education as a fundamental right, constitutional provisions were made to provide free and compulsory education to all children ages six to fourteen. Since the Right to Education (RTE) was enacted in 2010, gross[Read More…]
Are you confused about climate change/global warming: is it real, or is it fake news? And if it is real, what can be done about it? I have just published (April 2017) a peer-reviewed article on this subject and what we can do about it in the (relatively new) journal “Class, Race and Corporate Power” on this very subject, and[Read More…]
“You could send Congress to space.” Senator Ted Cruz, Mar 21, 2017 The NASA authorisation bill was another Trump huff and puff show, brimming with the usual air of minted if misplaced confidence. “My fellow Americans, this week in the company of astronauts I was honoured to sign the NASA Transition Authorization Act right into law.” The bill was meant[Read More…]
The incessant drumbeat demonizing Russia has reached a crescendo here in the U.S. Half-truths lead, and outright lies follow. A Congressman on National Public Radio accuses the Russians of interfering in the November election; as a member of the Intelligence Committee, he should know better. The hacking was during the primaries six months previously. It revealed a corrupt Democratic[Read More…]
The Indian Constitution opens up as, “WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity[Read More…]
There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil. -Walter Lippmann In an ideal world, journalism is a profession of incredible integrity. Good journalists are amongst the most dexterous and skilled people in the world—and also the most respected. We have all benefited from the work of indefatigable journalists who[Read More…]
Jammu and Kashmir witnessed no thaw in the militant activities, killings, fresh recruitments and infiltration attempts even after the September 29, 2016 surgical strike claim across the line of control (LOC) of the central government. On 29 September, 2016 i.e. eleven days after the Uri attack, the Indian army said it had conducted surgical strikes against suspected militants in Pakistani-administered[Read More…]
One policeman named Shamin Ahmad was killed while around a dozen injured after unidentified gunmen lobbed a grenade at a joint party of police and paramilitary CRPF in Nowhatta area of Srinagar downtown Sunday evening. “Constable Shamim Ahmad was killed in the grenade attack,” Police said. The police constable and other injured policemen were rushed to hospital for treatment but[Read More…]
In late 2015, the world agreed to limit the global temperature rise to “well below 2C”. Ever since the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change, scientists, think tanks and policymakers have been scrambling to define exactly what meeting this temperature limit will mean in policy and investment terms. A new report released this week by the International Energy[Read More…]
Udhampur: Amid high alert and multi-tiered security, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Chenani-Nashri Tunnel, India’s longest road tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway today, making it operational for traffic. Multi-tier security was put in place ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit amid alert along the border and high degree of vigilance in Jammu and Kashmir. However reports suggest that there[Read More…]
Bolivia’s government and social movements have announced they will host a global people’s summit on migrants and refugee rights. The “People’s Conference for a World without Walls and Universal Citizenship”, set for June 20 and 21, is expected to draw together immigration experts and pro-migrant and refugee rights organisations and activists from around the world. “Given the alarming situation of[Read More…]
The each death on the streets of Kashmir resonate the belief that Kashmir once called paradise on earth has become a lost paradise on earth. The streets are witness to blood oozing out from warm bodies.The place of encounter sites reiterates the support and desire to live in a peaceful Kashmir. The brutal killings of innocent people on the streets[Read More…]
Lee Fang at The Intercept revealed on March 31st, that the Republican Party were defrauding the American people with assertions that their Party has an alternative to Obamacare — the Affordable Care Act — and that they’ll pass it if and when they come to power. His headline summarized the considerable evidence for this, “GOP Lawmakers Now Admit Years of[Read More…]
“We live on a beautiful and a delightful planet, which is so awesome and so perfect that we wonder at its creation.” — The opening to Prithiraj Dullay’s Humanity on the Road to Extinction? Early this morning, I half-awoke thinking of Steve Biko, who was murdered in the midst of my raising funds for the fight against South African[Read More…]
Islamic State’s second-in-command, Ayad al-Jumaili, has been killed in an airstrike in al-Qaim region on Iraq’s border with Syria. The most important fact to note in al-Jumaili’s biography is that was the head of the terror group’s internal security unit and that he had previously served as an intelligence officer in Iraq’s Baathist army until 2003. Excluding al-Baghdadi who was[Read More…]
“One night, in the summer of 2013, I felt a twitch in my breast. It was something like if you hurt your toenail. Having a family history of cancer, I did not want to take any chance, and promptly saw my doctor the very next day. He reassured me that there was nothing to worry, more so because there was[Read More…]
Believe it or not but Jammu and Kashmir has become second state in the country which has issued highest number of Gun Licenses in the country. J&K is second only after the country’s most populous state in the country, Uttar Pradesh where Deputy Commissioner’s have issued more than 3 lakh gun licenses. In Utter Pradesh, more than 1277914 persons have[Read More…]
India spends more on programs for the poor than most developing countries, but it has failed to eradicate poverty because of widespread corruption and faulty government administration. India is not getting the ‘bang for the rupee’ that its significant expenditure would there is need for a radical overhaul of India’s social programs. Marginal changes alone may not deliver the kind[Read More…]
Now we have heard the whisper again
That India may change
Its no-first use-nuclear policy
It is enough for counter lunatics
To convert sanity into lunacy
To transform the meanings
Of `peace and harmony’.
Any amount of income above these amounts listed below translates to one’s family presumably not being in poverty in the USA. So no or very few government benefits accrue for those involved in low income status if above the federal impoverishment guidelines. To put it all in a realistic perspective, let’s look at the monthly cost for a one[Read More…]
We live on a beautiful and a delightful planet, which is so awesome and so perfect that we wonder at its creation. This has to be the greatest gift given to humanity by the force that created our world. We can call this force ‘God’ or some other force. We can only marvel at the purity and its absolute[Read More…]
Hawaii Federal Judge Derrick Watson extended his order blocking President Trump’s travel ban to six Muslim majority countries Wednesday, as the state’s attorney general denounced the executive order as a “Muslim ban”. Hawaii’s attorney general Douglas Chin told the judge the controversial measure issued by President Trump on January 27 and then revised on March 6 was like a[Read More…]
That Europe has jumped to the Right and the Far Right is no longer a matter of debate. Each day sees a a new and closer ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ of the rejected, the unwanted, the ‘other’ and those variously described as not belonging to Europe. To use an Apartheid term: the Non-Europeans. Each day sees a more outrageous ‘debate’[Read More…]
Counter-terrorism has been a pop field for some decades. As vague as what it purports to counter, it has generated a pundocracy of sorts, guns and mouths for hire across the US imperium and its associate powers. Much of this resembles the various fictions common during the Cold War: the notion that insurgencies could be defeated from the outside; the[Read More…]
Today,Sarvodaya Karnataka Party merges with Swaraj India. I do not see anything new in this neither am I surprised by this. Because we, who founded Sarvodaya Karnataka, and Yogendra Yadav and his companions, who founded Swaraj India, have walked together harbouring dreams of building a healthy India, even before the birth of Sarvodaya Karnataka and Swaraj India.Hence this seems to[Read More…]
When journalist Rania Khalek’s lecture was cancelled on February 27, the group that invited her, Students for Justice in Palestine – University of North Carolina (SJP-UNC) issued a statement saying that the cancellation was because of Rania’s “views” on Syria, and that they believed “her invitation would mistakenly imply SJP to hold such views”. They also added that they “do[Read More…]
In the scheme of RSS’s Hindu nation concept the government or the state is secondary to nation. That means political power is secondary. Ex RSS chief m s Golwalkar in his book “We or our Nationhood Defined” 1939, has categorically stated ‘We stand for national regeneration and not for that half hazard bundle of political rights – the state.’ (p.3)[Read More…]
Painful moves and painful movements have been underway in Brexiting Britain. Prime Minister Theresa May of the UK initiated the Brexit bluster via letter, and March 29, 2017 may well go down in the annals of the European project as more than a mere bruising farewell. The letter has the sense of having cake and munching on it too. There[Read More…]
The Arab League does not represent the masses but the symbolic thrones of power managed by the secretive police apparatus and questionable authority of leaders assembled for two days at the Dead Sea resort (Jordan).Any rational observers cannot imagine the usefulness and productive outcomes of the conference. All the major Arab actors except Bashar al-Assad (Syria) were present to[Read More…]
(CNS): The eight Istanbul Principles, adopted in 2010 by over two hundred civil society organisations (CSOs) from 82 countries, constitute a statement of common values and approaches to guide CSOs’ work. Seven years down the line, civil society has made strides in improving their effectiveness and accountability. However, progress in realizing Istanbul Principles in CSO practice, depends largely on[Read More…]
President Trump, in announcing his immigration and travel ban stated “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” He added, “… it is[Read More…]
The suggestion of chief Justice of India to even act as a mediator in pending Babri Masjid demolition case, showed his concern but was a little odd considering that it has come at the instance of an inter meddler, and without parties involved being before the Court – that is why it caused amongst the parties a certain concern. In[Read More…]
It definitely looks like law enforcement in Bangladesh–as also apparently in many other countries, e.g. reference: the British Home Minister’s recent opinions regarding social media, not forgetting similar persistent efforts in the US–is going through a phase that maybe described as mid-life crisis. That’s the time when people—especially men, we’re told, but lots of women too though theirs are[Read More…]
The recent elections – from civic body elections in Maharashtra to Assembly elections across India – have indeed marked a watershed moment in the life of the Republic. Ironically, they have not done so for the discourse they have produced in the Indian media – discourse ranging from the imminent threat of fascism to sectarian strife. They have marked a[Read More…]
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 
Ukrainian president holds crisis talks in Washington amid failure of “spring offensive” 
Zelensky Faces Difficult Time In Washington D.C. 
Stumbling Towards Old Age And Looking for Someone to Lean On 
Tolstoy’s Dilemma 
Ukraine Peace Activists Protest During Zelensky White House Visit 
“Our world is becoming unhinged”: Antonio Guterres 
How Chances of Direct War between the USA and Russia Are Increasing 
G20 Biofuel Alliance threatens Food security 
Thousands Of Auto Workers Strike In Three U.S. Plants, Face Financial Hardship 
Submission To Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission, NACC: Mainstream Media Lying 
In The Name of Decolonization 
Is This the End of French Neo-Colonialism in Africa? 
Tel Aviv’s Losing Brands: Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy 
Tackling Global Emergencies – UN International Day of Peace 
The Futility of Feudalistic Democracy 
Bayer over-riding Bhartiya Krishi 
Pulwama Bombing 14th February 2019: Unanswered Questions 
Himalayan Apple Growers Worried Over Increasing Threat from Imports 
After protests in flood-hit Derna, Libyan officials order journalists to leave 
International Day of Peace: Fostering Harmony and Unity in a World of Diversity 
More Butterflies, Fewer Billionaires — Unrigging the Global Economy 
Veganic Farming: How My Tiny Plot Produced 5,000 Pounds of Food Without Using Manure 
Fighting the Diaspora: India’s Campaign Against Khalistan 
CAIR Files Lawsuit to End Islamophobic No Fly List 
N.D.Mahanor, The Poet Who Taught Us to See Culture in Agriculture 
Dark and light streaks in India-China relations 
Why the Central Government Should Rush Special Aid Package for Himachal Pradesh 
Special Session: Another Image-Boosting Move? 
Eddelu ( Wake up) Karnataka: The Great Citizen’s Wall Against BJP 
Urgency of Improving Dam Safety Re-Emphasized in Libya and Ukraine 
Climate Crisis Threatens Largest U.S. Cities 
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…]
