India is really becoming a Lynchistan. A man accused of carrying beef was allegedly beaten to death by a mob in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district on Thursday. This happened hours after Prime Minister Modi said that killing people in the name of cow protection is not acceptable. The man has been identified as Alimuddin alias Asgar Ansari. He was allegedly carrying[Read More…]
Hafiz Junaid, Pehlu Khan, Akhlaq, Yakub Sheikh, Najeeb Ahmed- these are not just some Muslim names; these are names of the victims of hate crimes, in the newest emerging- The Lynch Republic. The vanguard of the right wing which is hell bent on enforcing Hindutva as a political agenda, is invoking the base and primeval instincts of common people by[Read More…]
Cows, cows and more chocolate brown cows. Driving on the highway that cuts through the vast Argentinian pampas, south of Buenos Aires, that’s all one sees everywhere around for miles and miles on end. Thousands of cows, peacefully grazing on grass or eating non-stop at the feedlots – huge dumps of artificial feed where they grow fatter and fatter- till[Read More…]
The One Day Of The Year is an iconic play by Alan Seymour about Anzac Day, the Australian and New Zealand war dead remembrance day held on the anniversary of the unsuccessful invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli by the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) on 25 April 1915. Anti-war sentiment expressed on or about Anzac Day has[Read More…]
The greed and selfishness that the free market capitalist economy inspires seem to impact every area of social and commercial interaction in consenting societies. It’s not just Wall Street and government leaders caught in the trap. It’s the entire system that is set to keep moving ever more money to the top economic tier by siphoning it from the bottom[Read More…]
This year, sit back with your favorite beverage or herb, prop up your feet and open your head to consider Independence Day in a whole new way. A historically critical article about the American Revolution would typically discuss how the democratic promises of the Declaration were left hanging at war’s end, followed by a decidedly undemocratic constitution six years[Read More…]
At the midnight hour, when the whole world slept, India woke to life and freedom in the emotional words of Nehru’. But, again, in the midnight hour, India will witness one of the most radical tax reforms – GST…! The government is ready to roll out GST from July 1 despite dissatisfaction from many quarters. One of the consequences[Read More…]
Not many people may have witnessed the beauty of forests, but it is certainly something that everyone knows something about. In the narrative of climate change and the destruction wrought on nature by man, the declining forest cover and the thinning canopy take on poetic notes. The forest becomes a singular identity, existing majestically, independent of animals and people. Thus[Read More…]
New Delhi, 29 July 2017: The situation at one of the oldest sites of human civilizations – the Narmada valley of Madhya Pradesh is today worse than a battlefield where the humble, hard working farmers, fisher folk, potters and labourers are struggling day in and day out to simply survive against the onslaught of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the[Read More…]
How many more stars we make?
How many more we need to break the silence
until each one of us become stars?
To lie closer, they folded their plicate wings,
ate blood and shit and the sweat of each other,
retched their names in history’s spittoon,
lay blear-eyed, dreamed-out, dreamless at last.
Mumbai | 29 June: Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan (GBGBA) strongly condemns the rape of a woman environment activist by five men who were apparently aggrieved by the woman’s complaint about destruction of mangroves. GBGBA is also shocked to know the callousness of the Mumbai Police department who didn’t take immediate steps which would have avoided such a heinous crime.[Read More…]
A semi-starved nation can have neither religion, nor art nor organization.—M. K. Gandhi There is no connection between mob violence and democracy. It seems that the streets of our nation today are in the reign and under the total control of lynching mobs. In this month alone (June 2017) we witnessed four gruesome lynchings— that of the 15 year[Read More…]
A thousand seeds of resistance got planted yesterday evening at Jantar Mantar, national protest site, Delhi on the blood shed by Junaid. The name Junaid in Urdu means fighter, warrior whose strength is equal to a small army. I reached Jantar Mantar at 4.30 p.m. when people had already started coming from Delhi and NCR region. The meeting was to[Read More…]
In this powerful two-minute video, Gurpreet Singh, India-born, Canadian journalist asks heads of governments, peace activists, academics, ‘Why are you Silent?” at the Lynchings in India, the targeting of innocents, mostly Indian Muslims, by those in power to turn India into a Hindu State. Why are you Silent? Are You waiting for More Deaths? I wont be Quiet I don’t[Read More…]
Please note that if you have hungry impoverished people in your region, you can find ways to get financial and food donations from various individuals and groups, such as farmers at markets or at their farms, religious groups, charitable organizations, grocery stores and other sources. So they are worthwhile to pursue. While you might not have immediate success on[Read More…]
Mohammed Abed is a 28-year-old taxi driver from the village of Qarara, near the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. He has no teeth. Lack of medical care and proper dentistry work cost him all of his teeth, which rotted and decayed at a very young age. Yet, his dire financial needs prevented him from acquiring dentures.[Read More…]
Israel, a rogue state if ever there was one, pursues its “security” as a Jewish Zionist entity on all of Mandate Palestine through demonizing Palestinian Arabs, whom it has long subjected to a racist campaign that defines their resistance, both violent and non-violent, as anti-Semitism on the one hand and as terrorism on the other. Thankfully, Israel’s cover for its[Read More…]
A major scuffle has erupted along the India-China border as Chinese troops entered the Indian state of Sikkim and destroyed two Indian bunkers. Chinese troops also engaged in a fight with Indian troops, who were guarding the border at the location. The Press Trust of India reported that tension mounted in a remote area of Sikkim after a scuffle[Read More…]
Introduction: Democrats on the Wrong Side of History History is not on the side of the US Democratic Party and not just because Republicans control all branches of government and dominate in legislatures in 32 states and governorships in 33 states. Just as there is not much of a centrist or leftist challenge to bourgeois political parties around the world,[Read More…]
(Balapu Santa and his family :Nawaranpur district) Balapu Santa, age 62, from village Mendra shared his struggle to get back his cultivated land .He says that the land is under cultivation for last 40 years which he has now claimed under the forest rights act 2006 like many others in the village . Though the exact area of cultivation[Read More…]
“It is also a story of deceit and lies, of institutional defensiveness defeating truth and justice. It is evidence of a culture of denial within South Yorkshire Police.” Anne Burkett, BBC, Apr 27, 2016 It took 28 years for the tables to turn on the South Yorkshire police regarding the Hillsborough disaster that took the lives of 96 fans. The[Read More…]
‘There are no stains on my government,’ said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the United States of America. This can only mean that the Prime Minister thinks the bloodstains of innocent Indians are not stains. In actual fact, no one can remember another time when so much blood was spilled in Indian streets. No one can remember[Read More…]
By all indications, Mehbooba Govt. appears all set for lending its approval to adoption of 101st Indian constitutional amendment paving way for application of Goods & Services Tax Act (GST) to the whole state. The bycott by NC Govt. to the 2nd round of All party meeting is all a soap opera drama . With this application, the last post[Read More…]
(The two words which describe the present Kashmir situation appropriately!) The Cambridge dictionary defines “Anarchy” as “a situation in which there is no organisation and control, especially in society, because there is no effective government”. The word “impotence” is defined as, “lack of power to change or improve a situation”. In almost every front whether civil society, or the government[Read More…]
President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee rejected five more mercy petitions between 25th and 26th May, 2017. With his current rejections, he has achieved 42 rejections and seven acceptances of mercy petitions during his tenure. There has been marked increase in rejections of mercy petitions in recent years, especially, after Mr. Pranab Mukherjee assumed office in 2012, former Presidents have[Read More…]
I flinched and hid myself to evade her but she spotted me, her prey. Clad in a national dress, and waving the flags of patriotism in the air she came and raped me, scratching my face with razor sharp nails. Red, blood red were her eyes burning with rage as she thundered her national song again and again. Xenophobia[Read More…]
Saint Francis said: “Blessed is he who loves and does not therefore desire to be loved; Blessed is he who fears and does not therefore desire to be feared; Blessed is he who serves and does not therefore desire to be served; Blessed is he who behaves well toward others and does not desire that others behave well[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia, with the bellicose support of President Trump, has launched a diplomatic and partial economic offensive against the ridiculously small state of Qatar and is dragging its allies, the United Arab Emirates in particular, into a potential major headache. You see the de facto capital of the Emirates is Abu Dhabi which uses Qatari natural gas to generate half[Read More…]
“You can’t make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can’t make peace without Syria.” – Henry Kissinger In Egyptian mythology, gods were considered heroes. In more modern times, it is men who are the heroes. Without a doubt, General Gamal Abdul Nasser has secured his legacy as a hero – a revolutionary who fought for Egypt and[Read More…]
Does our understanding of freedom depend on how we respond to two contra cosmological paradigms…namely the interaction between the ‘particular’ and the ‘universal’ …orif you will…the popular versus philosophical narratives that engage us in exercises that shape reality. Technological innovation…as reality on the trot…did much to ensnare popular imagination in a process that fed off locomotion…as did cinematographic art…by way[Read More…]
When Republic TV journalists carried a so called sting operation on S.P Udayakumar, one of the leaders of the movement against Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu, Koodankulam have again become in the news. There are two allegations that people who were protesting the Koodankulam power project under the umbrella of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy is faced time[Read More…]
“Google’s practices have deprived millions of European consumers of the full benefits of competition, genuine choice and innovation.” Margrethe Vestager, June 28, 2017 Google, for some time, has been the leviathan of the tech world. A KQED radio discussion on a Tuesday morning treats the company as a creator and dispenser: creator of transport infrastructure, funnelling employees from the city[Read More…]
For decades the politicians have refused to tax the rich, the corporations and the banks. They choose instead to borrow to run the government. They borrow money from the rich, whom they refused to tax, and then pay them interest. Politicians keep telling us that the national debt is too high; they say we can’t afford to spend money on[Read More…]
Nazareth: Few books on Palestinian history become bestsellers. But one, titled A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era, managed to rocket to the top of Amazon’s charts this month. Its author, Assaf Voll, an Israeli academic, claims to have reviewed “thousands of sources” to explain “the Palestinian people’s unique contribution to the world[Read More…]
” You have committed sins in your last incarnation” From the time I gained consciousness, I have been hearing this sentence from whoever speaks to me – irrespective of the age or relation of the person. This sentence has haunted me for long and when I heard even educated people say this sentence over and over even in towns[Read More…]
Annie Sullivan becomes Helen’s teacher Helen Keller was born in 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her father had served as a captain in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and her mother, Kate Adams, was the daughter of a Confederate general. She was also related to Robert E. Lee, so by birth she was certainly a Southerner. Today[Read More…]
The Supreme Court Monday (June 25) allowed parts of President Donald Trump’s controversial Muslim ban to go into effect and will hear oral arguments on the case this fall. The apex Court ruled that despite rulings in two different federal courts – that the ban should be put on hold while judges decide whether it’s constitutional – the Trump[Read More…]
More than 30 people were brutally arrested in Ahwaz in Iran on Monday, the second day of Eid al-Fitr, after courageous Ahwazi Arabs held peaceful demonstrations in towns, cities, and villages across the region, demanding freedom and human rights and protesting against the systemic oppression and injustice which generations of Ahwazis have now endured under successive regimes for 92[Read More…]
Are part of the country ruled by the rightist BJP governments going back to Nazi Germany of the late 1930s and early 1940s ? It was at that time that the fascist regime of Hitler forcibly introduced the humiliating identifying mark of the Yellow Star – called the Star of David – to be worn by all Jews in its[Read More…]
Junaid this is for you. Junaid this is to assure you that your death will not go in vain. You are a martyr for the idea of India. You are not a martyr in the conventional sense, that you laid down your life with full consciousness of what you are doing. But your life was snatched away from you in[Read More…]
During World War Two, parents with children in London sent their children to the countryside of Great Britain to live with strangers while not knowing with whom they’d be placed, nor whether they would, indeed, ever see them again. They packed their children’s little suitcases with hairbrushes, toothbrushes, the favorite stuffed animals to comfortingly clutch at night, clothes, shoes,[Read More…]
Several articles have been published about the “legal limbo” in which Palestinian Jerusalemites exist and proposals as to what Israel ought to do about this 50-year old travesty, among them being righting “the wrong” of denying Palestinian Arabs in East Jerusalem Israeli citizenship. In my view, such articles both define the injustice done to Palestinians deceptively and are meant[Read More…]
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. held his world-famous speech; “I Have a Dream”. A dream we all dream and dreamed of. I was almost 7 years old and still remember. His speech was full of fire and passion, right out of his honest heart. A speech, and also in that time the greatest demonstration ever in America,[Read More…]
San Francisco: The Twitter Building on Market Street, San Francisco, sounds like an aviary bustling with activity. With its bright open spaces and chirping entrepreneurs hatching the next project, it might as well be. Several floors are dedicated to what can only be described as a technological frontier, where the tech generation of pimply youths barely out of school are subscribing[Read More…]
Two years ago, on the 26th of June, 2015 the Federal Supreme Court of the United States of America held in Obergefell v. Hodges that state level bans on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. Until then, the legality of same-sex marriages was different in different states. Obergefell, by proclaiming the unconstitutionality of banning same-sex marriages, created a new common pattern throughout[Read More…]
I wish to thank all the friends, well wishers who have send their greetings and messages on my birthday today. In fact, these messages started coming from yesterday and they continue to pour in. I am grateful to each one of you. I did not celebrate anything as I have been feeling suffocated with the growing situation. It was[Read More…]
“…most modern conflict has been grounded in the use of terror to control and silence whole populations. Those abusing power typically refuse to acknowledge their dead victims, as if they had never existed and were mere wraiths in the memories of those left behind. This denial, and the impunity of those who maintain it must be challenged if survivors are[Read More…]
New Delhi | 26th June: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) is shocked and horrified by the gruesome murder of sixteen year old Junaid Khan in running train enroute to Mathura from Delhi on 22nd June. This happened in public view inside a train where ordinary people were travelling to their respective destinations. Junaid and his three brothers were returning[Read More…]
A lower-upper middle class family and education Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was the great-grandson of Charles Blair, a wealthy country gentleman, and Lady Mary Fane, daughter of the Earl of Westmorland. Over the generations that separated Eric Blair from his great-grandparents, some of the gentility remained but most of the wealth[Read More…]
Sudeb, a young revolutionary walking along the path of proletarian revolution, was shot at and beaten to death by jotedar’s [owner of a large farm landholding or a de facto sub-proprietor, often with land leased out to sharecroppers] henchmen at Keshpur, Midnapur in June 1970, said press reports. Sudeb’s father wrote: “Let no other father face the terrible task[Read More…]
The incident of Major Gogoi tying a 24 year old Kashmiri Muslim, Farooq Ahmed Dar, a weaver from a village in Budgam, Kashmir to the front of army jeep and parading him around with the stated objective of ensuring that stone pelters would not be able to harm the personnel in the jeep – government servants, armymen and policemen[Read More…]
The tabs on their shoulders read “Special Forces,” “Ranger,” “Airborne.” And soon their guidon — the “colors” of Company B, 3rd Battalion of the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group — would be adorned with the “Bandera de Guerra,” a Colombian combat decoration. “Today we commemorate sixteen years of a permanent fight against drugs in a ceremony where all Colombians can recognize the special[Read More…]
When George Orwell published his famous novel “1984” in 1949, he wouldn’t have imagined how his fiction will be turned into a reality in the country of his birth only three decades later. Orwell was born on June 25, 1903 in British India in the state of Bihar. His father was a civil servant posted with the Opium Department.[Read More…]
What might a future India look like? If current policies continue, it could mean dozens of mega-cities with up to 40 million inhabitants and just two to three hundred million (perhaps 15-20% of the population) left in an emptied-out countryside. It could also mean hundreds of millions of former rural dwellers without any work and thus anywhere decent to live in these cities. And what[Read More…]
While the government is set to forgive billions of dollars of loans of farmers, the actually distressed class among them will have no respite from their misery .They owe their debts to moneylenders whereas the government waiver applies only to formal credit. Almost every farmer in India’s massive rural swathes is tethered, in one way or another, to the sahukar, the[Read More…]
Statement by Delhi Action Committee for Assam In an unconstitutional and discriminatory move, the Education Department of the Assam government has recently come up with a notification that bars candidates who have studied in the vernacular medium from appearing for the Special Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) for Graduate Teachers in the Adarsha Vidyalayas in Assam. The advertisement No. RMSA/Special TET/842/2017/2[Read More…]
In the spring-early summer of my passage from 17 to 18 years old, Albert Camus helped to solidify my opposition to the war in Vietnam. Camus has never been far since then; a familiar recall to ordinary dignity and decency articulated with extraordinary clarity and courage. Now when I write about America, my words are tears. Every value held in[Read More…]
There is a disturbing, discordant dissonance in the world. It is an uncomfortable feeling that something really bad is about to happen. Events unfold almost daily each of which would have been cause for shock and alarm once upon a time. Worshipers leaving after Ramadan prayers at Finsbury Park Mosque were attacked by a man driving a van, killing[Read More…]
This story is about a friend’s experience while traveling intercontinentally in the eminent Times of Trump. Let’s call him, for the sake of convenience, Max. And also note that he is a US citizen. But I’m getting ahead of myself here because for clarity I must record two facts that Max had mentioned. (Meanwhile another perilous aspect has been[Read More…]
Is the whole world sacred or, if you’re personally not religious enough to use the term “sacred,” worthwhile and NECESSARY to salvage? Are other life forms other than humans worthy to preserve? Do we need the holistic unity of us all to collectively survive, ourselves, as a species in addition to maintaining the world around us? Do we need[Read More…]
Some 350 years ago people came from far west to make us ‘civilised’, because we were a potent market for them to be exploited. And now, they are trying to make us ‘Smart’, because they feel we are ready to move from mere civilisation to smart civilisation. This is from where rises the dilemma of becoming smart and defining what[Read More…]
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, Delcy Rodriguez, recently tweeted that the“US State Department deployed its ambassadors in the region to attack Venezuela. We come with renewed vigor to defeat them at the OAS.” So said, so done. Last week, the US Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway, spewed the US false narrative regarding Venezuela in our local newspapers. US ambassadors in a[Read More…]
No one could accuse the present Government of a lack of a sense of drama. The last few months in particular have witnessed one spectacular move after another – so completely unexpected that they have caught even the Government’s diehard supporters gasping. And each manoeuvre has led to a trail of shrill debates, speculations, analyses, protests, jubilation as to the[Read More…]
Arundhati Roy’s latest novel which is being released at Vancouver Summer Festival on June 26 gives voice to the most condemned groups in the world’s so called largest secular democracy. From the transgenders to the tribals and Dalits or the untouchables to the religious minorities, especially Muslims who are forced to live under constant threat in a country currently being[Read More…]
The game of cricket is the most popular sport in India. It evokes a variety of emotions among the audiences – from extreme forms of happiness, excitement to disappointment. Based on audience connect with the teams, these extreme forms of expressions are at display. From an era where international cricket (between nations) was the most popular, a shift has occurred[Read More…]
I am appalled as to why a war has been declared on me? From television studios to the national highways to the lanes and by-lanes, lynch mobs are out to sniff life out of me. They want me dead for being anti-national, anti-animal, anti-cow, anti-India, pro-Pakistan and an ISIS-inspired Muslim zealot. Come what may, new India won’t tolerate ‘special[Read More…]
Bloated stomachs and rust colored hair strolls everywhere in the countryside and city slums, obliged to perish much before their time empty, naked hungry and cold, their figures are like the edge of the world an embarkation point of hope. The tears, spilling out from their heart, a concoction of a broken mirror and a cigarette burning at both[Read More…]
Zafar Hussein The Madhya Pradesh police has very magnanimously withdrawn the sedition charges against 15 men for allegedly celebrating the victory of the Pakistan cricket team over Team India in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy. The men have now instead been booked under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, for disturbing communal harmony. As profoundly unbelievable as[Read More…]
Yoga was seen practicing by almost everybody on the International Yoga Day. The body language of many of them unequivocally expressed the fact that they don’t practice it daily. I have never practiced Yoga and I don’t intend to practice it ever. It may be or it must be good for the body. But, what the present day India[Read More…]
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation strongly condemns the arrest of three mine workers Rabi Murmu, Abhimanyu Mohanto and Ramesh Majhi on June 12, 2017 on false and fabricated charges of conspiring to wage a war against the Indian state and inciting violence. We understand this arrest and the imposition of severe charges as an attempt by the ruling BJD and[Read More…]
Early life and marriage Baroness Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) was born in Prague as Countess Kinsky. She was the posthumous daughter of a Field Marshall, and during the first part of her life, she accepted the military traditions of her family. Later she vigorously opposed militarism, and she became a leader of the peace movement. It was her arguments[Read More…]
“There is no intelligence in Washington. Only arrogance and hubris. The quarter century I spent there was with the most utterly stupid people on the face of the earth.” — Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan, author of Another Step Toward Devastating War “The EPA was run like the Mafia for the twenty-five years I[Read More…]
It is a tragic measure of the depravity of human existence that genocide is a continuing and prevalent manifestation of violence in the international system, despite the effort following World War II to abolish it through negotiation, and then adoption and ratification of the 1948 Genocide Convention. According to the Genocide Convention, genocide is any act committed with the intent[Read More…]
To become enmeshed in a war of incalculable variables; to be at bloody bruised loggerheads – this is the Syrian nightmare, where there are more punters than odds. Savagely, Syria as a state is being ravaged and mauled to the point of non-recognition. It is now a mere terrain for heavily armed bullies, a smoky crusted ruin of dust and[Read More…]
There is a small courthouse from the ‘British era’, standing right in the center of Hong Kong. It is neat, well-built, remarkably organized and some would even say – elegant. Earlier this year I visited there with an Afghan-British lawyer, who had been touring East Asia for several months. Hong Kongwas her last destination; afterwards she was planning to[Read More…]
Lawfare as used by the Zionist organization The Lawfare Project and others is meant to persuade every Jew in the world (and not just Israeli Jews) that his or her Jewish identity, welfare and security are inextricably related to the continued suppression of justice, equality and freedom of Palestinian Arabs or, in other words, to the Apartheid Zionist Jewish state. Lawfare is a[Read More…]
Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in August 2011 to April 2013, the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front were a single organization that chose the banner of “Jabhat al-Nusra.” Although the current al-Nusra Front has been led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani but he was appointed [1] as the emir of al-Nusra Front by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader[Read More…]
Islamophobia contextually is a global phenomenon, exacerbating an intense dislike or fear of Islam especially as a political force, hostility or prejudice towards Muslims. The term Islamophobia started being used in the early 20th century and emerged as a neologism in the 1970s and reached public policy prominence with the report by the Runnymede Trust‘s Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia (CBMI).[Read More…]
18th June, 2017: National Alliance of People’s Movements expresses its solidarity with the struggle of the scheduled tribes, forest & park dwellers living near the Kaziranga National park (KNP), in Golaghat district, Assam, challenging the unjust and repressive attitude of the Forest Department of Assam and silence of the Govt. of India in the garb of conservation. We salute the[Read More…]
The beautiful red-haired American poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), is known for her lyric poetry, but she also wrote some of the finest sonnets in the English language, combining classic form with modern imagery. Many of these sonnets are based on the emotions that she experienced in her love affairs with both men and[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia’s king Wednesday (June 21) appointed his son Prince Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince, replacing his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, as first in line to the throne. King Salman bin Abdulaziz is 81 and reportedly not in the best of health. Tellingly, replacing a Crown Prince is not unprecedented with the Arab monarchs. In January 1999, while[Read More…]
Field notes from a botanical sanctuary: changing weather patterns are causing havoc to plants. I love being at home, in Wayanad, when the south-west monsoon arrives. This hilly district of northern Kerala is still full of tall trees and myriad creatures, and drenched in rain for several months in a year. From my window, I see Banasuramala, a beautiful mountain[Read More…]
In its latest move early June 2017, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by the United States to expand the scope of sanctions against Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its latest missile tests. Prior to this the UNSC slapped the North Korea with six rounds of sanctions, but Washington and its allies[Read More…]
At this critical moment in human history it is important to recognize that Trump is in charge of very little. Every President struggles to overcome the basic inertia of large systems, entrenched bureaucracies, and a media and media owners with their own ideas on policy. Even when a President is intelligent and engaged with the information there are severe limits[Read More…]
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, seems to be championing a single cause: Israel. When Haley speaks about Israel, her language is not merely emotive nor tailored to fit the need of a specific occasion. Rather, her words are resolute, consistent and are matched by a clear plan of action. Along with Haley, the rightwing[Read More…]
Hiba al-Ashi has to keep the windows of her apartment closed. It is the only way to avoid the foul odors from the polluted sea. “Life has become unbearable,” said the 36-year-old mother, whose Gaza City home overlooks the Mediterranean. Every day, 100,000 cubic meters of raw sewage are discharged into the sea around Gaza. The Gaza Strip’s environmental problems have worsened in recent[Read More…]
“If the Nuremberg Laws were applied, then every post-war American President would have been hanged” Noam Chomsky Eurasia Henry Kissinger, one of the fundamental figures in creating and maintaining the US policy of global hegemonism during the Cold War[1], was quite clear and precise in his overviewing the issue of the American geopolitical position, national goals and foreign policy. His[Read More…]
Concerning new paradigm of development, we already had discussion in 2013 on this topic. Further in 2015, a detailed and well researched paper has been written on this by PJ James and also articles have been written on this by KN Ramachandran and others. We need not rehash the same articles in this paper for study. What we intend to[Read More…]
To hunt crocodiles, the pond was dried.
No crocodiles were found because they can live on land too.
But all the small fish died.
(RSS through the ruling BJP is aiming to turn the Great Republic of India into a “Cowistan” with the help of their Gau Rakhshaks who are India’s “Kaliban”!) The obsessive protection of the cow and the subsequent attacks on people having various professional activities connected with it especially the Muslim minorities and the Dalits have created a piquant[Read More…]
Every morning,
she stands
at the murky corner of her room,
and raises her finger to the world.
Several Kashmiri shawls, a wreath of roses,
an expired passport, feathers of the bald eagle,
a Chinese mandolin, an empty wine bottle
and some antique Newari vases,
lay across her feet.
When Siddharth Varadrajan informed me that his The Wire had run a response to my piece [https://thewire.in/143238/bhim-army-mayawati-bsp/] in the Indian Express, I had not read it as I was traveling in Kerala without proper access to the net. He said he would be willing to publish my response. In reply, I wrote that if it was worth responding to,[Read More…]
Dr. S P Udayakumar files a complaint with the press council of India against the harassment meted out to him and his family by Republic TV and it’s reporters.
Justice C. S. Karnan on being arrested on 20 June, 2017 moved the Supreme Court seeking bail and suspension of six months sentence awarded to him on 9 May, 2017. The vacation bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice D.Y Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul today (i.e. 21 June, 2017) said: “We can’t suspend the sentence as[Read More…]
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our ways of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophes.” “I don’t know what will be used in the next world war, but the 4th will be fought with stones.” Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Besides being one of the greatest physicists of all time, Albert Einstein was a lifelong pacifist,[Read More…]
The plight of farmers in India has been well documented. A combination of debt, economic liberalisation, subsidised imports, rising input costs and a shift to cash crops (including GM cotton) has caused massive financial distress. Over 300,000 (perhaps closer to 400,000) have taken their lives over the last 20 years. From the effects of the Green Revolution (degraded soils, falling[Read More…]
Naomi Klein understands that President Donald J. Trump is a problem, but he is not the problem. In her new book, “No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need”, Klein reminds us to pay attention not only to the style in which Trump governs (a multi-ring circus so routinely corrupt and corrosive that anti-democratic practices seem normal) but in[Read More…]
Qatar has been making waves for some weeks now, and in the deluge, it has also strung along a few companions. One is the UK bank Barclays, which prided itself for having avoided a government bailout in the financial crisis of 2008. In the ensuing chest thumping, executives could claim to have spared the British taxpayer the need to fork[Read More…]
Conceptualization of the Term the term development having many synonyms such as growth, evolution, expansion, enlargement, spread, progress, maturing, event, outcome, occurrence, phenomenon, happening, improvement and so on with shifting nuances depending on the contexts in which it is used came in to frequent use in political discussion with the origin and development of capitalism since the mid- eighteenth century.[Read More…]
Soudagar & Dalal are two urdu words which generally find a mention in the lexicon of trade & commerce. The former means a merchant or simply a person who trades in goods or merchandise while the later refers to a person who acts as a go-between between a seller & purchaser . When you read this article fully, you[Read More…]
Unlike their Western neighbour, Indians have managed to keep the Army strictly away from politics — and vice versa. Indeed, if the country has been a vibrant, multicultural democracy, the credit goes to the nation’s early leadership as well as the Army and the stability it has provided all these years by remain strictly apolitical and neutral. That seems to[Read More…]
This week, in New York City, representatives from more than100 countries will begin collaborating on an international treaty, first proposed in 2016, to ban nuclear weapons forever. It makes sense for every country in the world to seek a legally binding ban on nuclear weapons. It would make even more sense to immediately deactivate all nuclear weapons. But, by boycotting[Read More…]
The Government of India has decided to set up a committee to report back within six month with recommendations on how to regulate digital currencies. Digital currencies are cropping up on the internet to address some fundamental short comings of capitalism and world trade. Whilst some might want to allow only Rupee in India and reform the Reserve Bank[Read More…]
Excellent, short and worthwhile to watch: Man beaten by Sacramento police officer speaks out … caught on camera beating a pedestrian… Excerpted from Washington Post article on the same subject: When Nandi Cain Jr. was seen on video getting slammed to the ground and pummeled repeatedly by a police officer, that was not the end of his ordeal, according to[Read More…]
The well-known social scientist and historian, Partha Chatterjee (in his article ‘In Kashmir, India is witnessing Its General Dyer’ that came out on the news portal The Wire some time ago) , is receiving more hate-mails than accolades, judging by the responses carried by that website. This is expected, given the militaristic jingoism that has been generated by the [Read More…]
Experssing the horror of war Wilfred Owen and his mentor, Siegfried Sassoon were two poets who eloquently described the horrors of World War I. They met in a military hospital, after both had been wounded in the war. Owen had been writing poetry since the age of 11, but not about war. When he became friends with Sassoon during their[Read More…]
The American Revolution has characteristics that guide understanding of the Syrian insurrection. In both situations, ardent and semi-popular groups rebelled against injustices and hoped to create new regimes. In both situations, foreign powers, France and Spain in the American Revolution, and Russia, Iran, United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other nations in the Syrian revolution, stoked the violence,[Read More…]
“Western indifference has been a problem. It continues to be a problem.” — Iris Chang to the author, 2004 On Craig’s List I came across an ad which called for an Elementary School Teacher to provide Spoken English instruction to youngsters in Nanjing, China. I’m highly qualified to serve in that capacity, the pay and benefits are good, and I’d love to[Read More…]
Qatari Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Monday (June 19) ruled out any talks to resolve the current Saudi-Qatari diplomatic crisis unless blockade is lifted. “Qatar is under blockade, there is no negotiation. They have to lift the blockade to start negotiations,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying. “Until now we[Read More…]
The seven-million strong American Muslim Community was alarmed at the killings of worshippers in Virginia and the British capital, London. The Washington Post reported Monday (June 19) police found remains of a missing Virginia teenager who was assaulted and disappeared overnight after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area, and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in[Read More…]
I came into this world not like the river but like a drop of water and will soon evaporate. Though, I am only a drop of water in the majestic ocean of nature, I yearn to create a vigorous ripple of freedom, in the eternity of the water. For I am a man of eternal freedom, and suppression I[Read More…]
The son of a southern Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, Jr received his Ph.D. in theology from Boston University in 1955. During his studies, he had admired Thoreau’s essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” and he had also been greatly moved by the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King applies the teachings of Thoreau and Gandhi to the[Read More…]
Four days after President Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the Global Footprint Network (GFN) reported that Earth Overshoot Day 2017 will fall on August 2. Most Americans likely have no idea what that means. The basic point is quite simple: From January 1 to August 2, the world’s 7.5 billion people will have used as much of[Read More…]
Backed by US airstrikes, artillery and special forces “advisors,” Iraqi troops began storming Mosul’s crowded Old City, where the United Nations estimates that some 150,000 civilians are trapped under the siege. Iraqi commanders have issued triumphalist statements hailing the offensive as the beginning of the end for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which took control of[Read More…]
In a marked escalation of the war in Syria, a US F-18 fighter jet yesterday shot down a Syrian government fighter bomber for the first time, claiming that it had been attacking pro-US rebel forces on the ground near Raqqa. While nominally fighting Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces, the US shoot-down makes clear that the real target[Read More…]
Some of the questions below are, unquestionably, not appropriate for all grade levels. But — certainly — some should be addressed by the time a student secures entrance to, or matriculation status at, one of our institutions of higher education. If you disagree, do let me know. Over the last 34 years, incomes for the top 0.001% richest Americans[Read More…]
Here’s how “awareness” works in 2017: Something happens. We post about. Until something else happens. We revel in the likes, shares, or comments. Or we wallow in self-doubt about the lack of likes, shares, or comments. Meanwhile, “stuff” keeps happening. For example: The rich get richer. The eco-system moves one hour closer to complete collapse. Patriarchy and white supremacy grow[Read More…]
Father, I would have loved you more Had you felt happy When I was born As you felt when at the time of my brother … Dear father, I would have cared you more Had you shared your thoughts On life and property As you did with my brother .. But oh! Father, You commanded me like a priest You[Read More…]
Kawade was expecting his first cup of chai as he flipped through Prajavani In the small balcony adjacent to the living room though his roots took him back to Maratha lineage, His Marathi was laced with Kannada The rituals he followed were a pleasant mix of cultures his ancestors had Followed in a land that they tried to suit Kawade[Read More…]
In order to mark 150th anniversary of the Canadian confederation, the World Sikh Organization (WSO) has started a conversation on Sikh settler privilege. To make a beginning, the Ambassador for Reconciliation Canada and a member of the National Assembly of First Nations Elders Council Chief Dr. Robert Joseph was invited as keynote speaker at their annual dinner in Surrey on[Read More…]
Three documentaries which were denied permission to be screened in the tenth edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) were screened in a parallel event in Trivandrum. The parallel screening was organized by the Fraternity Movement. “The Unbearable Being of Lightness” directed by P.N. Ramachandra based on the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, “March[Read More…]
“NEWS Kashmir Guideline News Service Dozens of Cattle Cross Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri At least 33 cattle including 29 buffaloes have crossed over to Pakistan side in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir. According to KGNS, the cattle crossed the LoC in Kalsian sub-sector. ‘The cattle which belong to Ram Saroop, Ashok Kumar, Charan[Read More…]
Early in the morning on 16 June 2017, Comrade Zafar Hussein, an activist of CPI(ML) in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, was kicked, punched and beaten to death by karamcharis of the nagarpalika (municipality) at the instigation of Nagar Parishad commissioner Ashok Jain when he resisted their attempts to take photographs and videos of poor women from the Bagwasa Kachi basti who were[Read More…]
If humans are ever to achieve a stable global society in the future, they will have to become much more modest in their economic behavior and much more peaceful in their politics. For both modesty and peace, Gandhi is a useful source of ideas. The problems with which he struggled during his lifetime are extremely relevant to us in the[Read More…]
East Jerusalem is occupied by Israel. It is also illegally annexed. It is also illegally separated from the rest of the West Bank by an illegal wall. In Jerusalem, Israel boasts of 220,000 illegal Jewish settlers settled on land confiscated from 300,000 Palestinian residents who are now landless. It boasts of 50,000 illegally displaced Palestinian Arabs and 685 illegally demolished Palestinian homes that have rendered 2,500[Read More…]
From Pyongyang to Kabul, Damascus, Sana’a, on to Tripoli and in scattered parts of Asia and Africa, the United States’ policies for containing violence and achieving peace have been mostly counterproductive and intensified conflicts. The complex mixture of wars, threats, regime change, sanctions, posturing, demonizing, and vituperation have evidently been ineffective in resolving the world’s endless conflagrations. Has something[Read More…]
The British newspaper Times reported Saturday (June 17) that in a dramatic move Saudi Arabia and Israel are in talks to establish economic ties that perhaps explains why Saudi Arabia and its allies have imposed a sweeping blockade on Qatar, in an effort to force the Gulf state to drop its support for Hamas, who control Gaza. The Times[Read More…]
I’ll be the first to admit that members of our species can show incredible acts of kindness to and sacrifice for others, even strangers. Some will even give up their own lives for strangers. I know this is so and have factual evidence testifying to this being true. However, we do have a vicious side to our natures. … Look,[Read More…]
“Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave — and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another, and keep our word along the way. What do they say, In the Beginning there was the Word?” — Kirsty MacColl “Music to my fears this morning, my Muse mourning. For our one sphere of influence comes[Read More…]
Does benefit for the people and the planet conflict with each other? This is the question which arises when one looks atcurrent state of debate between environment and people. An environmental program can have beneficial effects in addressing climate change. Plantation based climate change interventions aims to increase the tree coverage both within and outside forests, villages, roads and riverside.[Read More…]
The shocking statement by the chief minister of Gujarat has sent waves across the Narmada Valley. The level of falsehood involved in the decision taken by NCA on the closure of Sardar Sarovar gates is unprecedented. It is as per news, the decision taken by all the states concerned that since the Resettlement and Rehabilitation of the Project Affected Families[Read More…]
Biswa goes to watch the movie ‘Kuchka Vikas – Unka Haath’ with his class mates
and just as the national anthem is about to start he gets an epileptic fit
and they slap him with cow leather shoes and
sprinkle cow urine on his face and
as he comes back to his senses
he utters feebly
‘Gau mata ki jai’
and the crowd scatters.
On 6th of April, 2017, a day after Ramnavmi celebrations, the evening bulletins of electronic media broke the news of communal tension in the municipal town of Bhadrak, which has a sizeable Muslim population. The next day, the print media carried the news. The trigger for the violence was stated to be some derogatory texts about Ram and Sita that[Read More…]
Dear Shri Pinarayi Vijayan,
We are writing to you in the context of the serious repression by your Government on the people of Puthuvypeen, near Kochi who have been peacefully protesting against the LPG Import Terminal Project of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for the past 108 days. Just as we were pleased to note certain positive decisions by your Govt. on other fronts, we are constrained to note that like in any other state, people’s voices and struggles continue to be muzzled in Kerala, particularly when the justifiability of ‘development projects’, pushed against popular consent is questioned in democratic ways.
Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828. While he was still a child, his parents died, and he became Count Tolstoy, with responsibility for the family estate at Yasnaya Polyana. As a young man, he was attracted to the gay and worldly social life of Moscow, but his diary during this period shows remorse over his pursuit of sensual pleasures.[Read More…]
We need to begin this discussion with the unfinished Presidency of Barack Obama. Some said it was because of his race. Others said it was his deliberative slowness as he explored every possibility and probability to its end before making a decision. Some said it was because he just could not “get along” with Congress. Others said it was because[Read More…]
“What unites all types of evil, which are created in the different worlds of national and social interest groups, is that the “decent citizens” of all the worlds always require a semblance of self-evidence, normality, ideologies, ethos, the legitimization of a majority of some kind, laws of nature and man-made laws, and above all a sense of morality and[Read More…]
“Bush appeared on television to praise the invading troops and to say his cowardly vision – all that a wimp with an inferiority complex could be capable of.” Manuel Noriega on George H. W. Bush The late General Manuel Antonio Noriega has done more to demonstrate the bipolar nature of US foreign policy in the Americas than any single, historically[Read More…]
Climate criminal Australia is among world leaders in per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, climate change inaction, and in exports of coal, gas, iron ore and methanogenically-derived meat. However the Finkel Review chaired by Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel advocates continued gas and coal use for over 50 years, and utterly ignores the worsening climate emergency, the worsening[Read More…]
Arnold Turling is a very angry and unhappy man — vindicated but at what cost. Three years ago, he advised the All Party Parliamentary Rescue Group that cheap flammable insulation filler inside the new waterproof cladding and lack of a sprinkler system made buildings like Grenfell Tower a disaster waiting to happen. Mr. Turling is a Chartered Surveyor as[Read More…]
The gram sabhas have once again given fresh resolutions, supported by their elected representatives, directly to the FAC members. One hopes that the mining companies, the state government, the FAC and MoEF&CC listen to their voices and cancel existing and proposed mines in Gadchiroli. This would be the real celebration of Environment for many years to come and not just on one day in a year!
The Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed [1] that according to information, which is being checked through various channels, the Islamic State’s leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi had reportedly been killed as a result of airstrikes conducted by the Russian aircrafts near Raqqa on May 28. The strikes targeted a meeting of high-ranking Islamic State leaders where al- Baghdadi had reportedly been[Read More…]
The morning newspaper was splattered with The Chief Ministers face in every alternate page One was even an illustration that made him look a rock cut monument Wherein he was extolling on the tourist friendliness of his government A government that turns a ripe four years, the headlines boasted Equivalent to 90, if governments were to be compared to[Read More…]
The battle for Raqqa, a symbolic city for the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria is underway with ever-increasing dangers to civilian populations caught in the cross-fire of ISIS and the advancing Kurd-led Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by air strikes of the US-led coalition. The United Nations Secretariat has raised an alarm concerning the fate of families held by the[Read More…]
In the distant future (and perhaps even in the not-so-distant future) industrial civilization will need to abandon its relentless pursuit of unnecessary material goods and economic growth. Modern society will need to re-establish a balanced and harmonious relationship with nature. In preindustrial societies harmony with nature is usually a part of the cultural tradition. In our own time, the same[Read More…]
On June 15, 2017, theNew York Times reported that the government of Saudi Arabia aims to ease the concerns of some U.S. legislators over U.S. weapon sales to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis plan to engage in“a $750 million multiyear training program through the American military to help prevent the accidental killing of civilians in the Saudi-led air campaign against[Read More…]
In a paradoxical development in the current Saudi-Qatari dispute, Qatar and the United States Wednesday signed a deal to buy F-15 fighter jets for $12 billion while two US warships arrived in Qatar for joint exercise. Tellingly, the $12 billion deal was signed despite Qatar being criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump for supporting “terrorism.” The Bloomberg News quoted[Read More…]
Nazareth: Israeli and US officials are in the process of jointly pre-empting Donald Trump’s supposed “ultimate deal” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They hope to demote the Palestinian issue to a footnote in international diplomacy. The conspiracy – a real one – was much in evidence last week during a visit to the region by Nikki Haley, Washington’s envoy[Read More…]
[Paper presented for a day long discussion in the Central Party School of the CPI(ML) Red Stat held at Kolkata in June, 2016] Human beings, or rather, their dominant economic-industrial systems, have started to change the earth in major ways, leading many observers and thinkers to accept that we are into the new age of “Anthropocene” – a new chapter[Read More…]
An understanding of the political shift of communist revolutionaries into Sikh activists and its relevance today As we mark fifty years of the Naxalbari uprising, there is a need to revisit the circumstances that led to the transformation of ultra leftists to Sikh activists in Punjab to understand the relationship between the current Maoist insurgency in India and other nationality[Read More…]
On May 26, three years back after a landslide victory in Lok Sabha elections in 2014, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed government at Delhi. NDA is coalition of political parties in India led by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). At present the coalition of political parties comprises about 47 political parties which include both regional and national political parties[i]. It is not[Read More…]
When I was in school we used to say a pledge in the morning assembly. It began this way, “India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters….”. This was the India we dreamed of when we were children. But, is this the India we are living now? Distressing news are coming from all around India. From Kashmir[Read More…]
This article is based on a presentation made at a conference on 13 June, 2017 in Rosario, Argentinatitled ‘Madre Tierra: Una Sola Salud” or “Mother Earth: Only One Health” Many years ago when my daughter was just eight years old she sprung a surprise question on me. ‘Papa’, she asked, ‘who are we and where does everything in the[Read More…]
Here is my suggestion for a Single Point Anti-Incumbency Manifesto for 2019 against the BJP for the Grand Coalition of Socialist and Communist Parties. 95% of Indians are agricultural labourers, cultivators and other landless labourers in the informal economy, and outside of the tax regime in India. We depend above all for our survival with dignity on the availability[Read More…]
He was not allowed to have a childhood John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) showed his genius at an early age, and his father, the Utilitarian philosopher and political economist James Mill, immediately began to groom him to replace Jeremy Bentham as the leader of the Utilitarian movement. From the age of 3 onwards, Mill was deliberately kept away from children of[Read More…]
Capitalism is dead. Period. It can no longer serve humanity without destroying the world. As an economic system it is essentially bankrupt. All the lies and all the shoring up of the lies are not going to make a difference to the truth: pursuit of the path of Capitalism means doom not only for the poor of the world,[Read More…]
Samih is demoralized. Two years ago, he graduated with an engineering degree from the Islamic University of Gaza. Despite applying for many jobs, the only work he has found has been as a casual laborer. The pay has only been enough to provide him with some pocket money and let him buy cigarettes. “For a decade now, the Gaza Strip has[Read More…]
Hodgkin’s lymphoma — formerly known as Hodgkin’s disease — is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of your immune system. In Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cells in the lymphatic system grow abnormally and may spread beyond the lymphatic system. As Hodgkin’s lymphoma progresses, it compromises your body’s ability to fight infection. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of two common[Read More…]
On 14 June 2017, Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip and Louisiana Congressman, was wounded by a gunman – small businessman James Hodgkinson, 66 – who opened fire at a baseball park in Alexandria, VA where several legislators and their aides were practicing. Gun violence in America is more prevalent than in any other country in the world. However, instead of[Read More…]
The narrow strip of land on the east shore of the Mediterranean Sea, inhabited by Palestinians, which is the Gaza Strip, has been under siege for a decade. The Gaza Strip is a 32 by 7 mile strip of land containing 1.8 million people – one of the densest populated areas in the world. It is bordered on the north[Read More…]
It took little time for political leaders in the European Union to start dangling the carrot in front of a wounded British Prime Minister. Theresa May’s defeated victory in the British general elections had barely sunk it, and the comments, even invitations, were being issued by various European leaders. This all lies in the interpretation of the British election result. [Read More…]
Presently the Physical Climate in Kashmir and the rest of the sub-continent is quite unpredictable and could turn scary! There has been a significant change in the physical climate both in the entire sub-continent and the Valley of Kashmir. Apparently it is part of the global climate change. In the middle of June it has snowed on Baderwah Mountains and[Read More…]
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
The present crisis of respecting the viewpoints of diverse group in the higher education system in India questions the idea of freedom.The examples such as ‘the barricading of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU), ‘Freedom Square’ sometime back showed that freedom to protest and offer resistance to the despotic policies are not only discouraged but are embarrassing to the university administration. However,[Read More…]
A fellow at the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) in London, Tim Worstall recently argued on the Forbes website that India’s farmers should be allowed to go bust because that is how economic development works. Arguing that loan waivers and support price guarantees for farmers help to undermine India’s growth and prosperity, he stated that farmers should go and do something that is more productive
In a recent article in The Wire, Partha Chaterjee had referred to the use of human shield in Kashmir, and its justification by the military and political establishment as Kashmir’s General Dyer moment. Vivek Katju has launched a spirited counter-attack to this claim of Partha Chaterjee. Katju states that, “It is one matter for an army to handle the breakdown[Read More…]
Far-right activists held anti-Muslim demonstrations in least 28 cities across the United States on Sunday (June 11). The demonstrators, spurred by one of the largest grass-roots anti-Muslim group, and in many cases were met by larger crowds of counter protesters. Counter protesters amassed in several cities to oppose the nationwide marches, with clashes and skirmishes taking place at a[Read More…]
Israel will reduce its electricity supply to the occupied Gaza Strip by 40 percent, turning an already dire situation into a catastrophe. Israel says the further cutback, approved by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday night, is based on a request by the Palestinian Authority. Before the cut, Gaza’s population of two million has received only four hours of electricity a day, with[Read More…]
In the 1970s, the emphasis was on resource limits. The French term décroissance (later translated into English as degrowth) was used for the first time by French intellectual André Gorz. In his book Ecology and Freedom, published in 1977, he wrote that “lack of realism consists in imagining that economic growth can still bring about increased human welfare, and indeed that[Read More…]
During her 2015 campaign, Barcelona’s mayor Ada Colau promoted the idea of launching a local currency in her city. Colau viewed a local currency as a way of defending independent businesses and residents from rapidly-rising rents and benefits that are disproportionately reaped by corporate chains instead of local stores. Though the community currency failed to materialize in Barcelona, the city immediately[Read More…]
I am not in you you are not in me. We are as diverse as the stars in the sky; we are not us we are total strangers. You live in the colour of the rainbow and wear the linings of the cloud whereas I live in the silhouette of the tyranny and wear the costume of disparity. You sleep[Read More…]
I Greetings Guruji. We have been waiting for you anxiously since morning. What happened? Why are you so late? Oh, I see. The road accidents have now become daily occurrence. God knows when the new highway is going to be completed. Until then it will go on like this. So how long was the jam did you say? Three hours?[Read More…]
Che is unvanquished. Proletarian revolutionaries and revolutions don’t get vanquished as they move from one phase to another through class struggle. So, the torch of liberation that Che Guevara carries never gets eliminated; the flame of freedom that Che ignites never gets extinguished; the dream of equality that Che livens never gets wiped out. Today, the day Che Guevara[Read More…]
I found god today at the bottom of a tequila bottle or was that a worm well preserved for eternity con gusano to infidels sans imagination interested only in their impotent virility Impossible is nothing in the cowdom we inhibit right from immaculate conception of virgin peahens to teary head honcho who eats his words for all three meals and[Read More…]
In less than two years time, India might witness another general election which will be polarised more than ever. The hindutva forces have already started the required ground work. Presidential election The major show of battle will start with the election of president next month. The BJP is aware that it’s first litmus test is the election of a[Read More…]
New Delhi | June 13, 2017: Following a call given by Jai Kisan Andonlan of Swaraj Abhiyan, NAPM, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti of MP, Bandhua Mukti Morcha and several farmer organisations, a delegation of their representatives went to visit Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh where 7 farmers were killed in a police firing on 6th of June. The delegation comprised about 25[Read More…]
Riot took place on the next day of “Ramanabami” celebration on April 6 and 7, which the District Administration failed to prevent. Had the administration taken immediate steps and promulgation of Section 144 be strictly observed on 6th April and then also on 7th April such incidents could have been avoided. Religious processions that cause kind of communal tension should[Read More…]
There is a screaming need for us to properly account for the things that come from the bounty of nature. If ever there was something that was not developed privately and belongs to us all publicly that thing is nature. And yet business is taking an extremely costly free ride at our collective expense by failing to account for and[Read More…]
The typical newsroom set-up, where journalists chase after news headlines dictated by some centralized news gathering agency – often based in some western capital – does not suffice any more. In the case of the Middle East, the news narrative has been defined by others and dictated on Arab journalists and audiences for far too long. This hardly worked[Read More…]
A pioneer of social reform During the early phases of the Industrial Revolution in England, the workers suffered greatly. Enormous fortunes were made by mill and mine owners, while workers, including young children, were paid starvation wages for cruelly long working days. However, trade unions, child labor laws, and the gradual acceptance of birth control finally produced a more[Read More…]
We are all star dust. From the searing hot liquid magma inside the earth to the dying polar bears in the arctic, from the rainbow in the sky to the enigmatic Mona Lisa, from the first microbe to the most powerful man on earth are made up of star dust. We are all connected. Human beings in their unbridled hubris[Read More…]
Every day in the papers we are reading about the impacts of the starvation politics of demonetisation by the BJP on agricultual labourers, cultivators and other agricultural workers. During my years long study of the social, political and economic implications of man-made climate change, I found obviously that economists looked into the economic implications, politicians study the political implications,[Read More…]
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner Patrick Cockburn concludes his article Britain Refuses to Accept How Terrorists Really Work with, Contrary to conventional and governmental wisdom, terrorist conspiracies have not changed much since Brutus, Cassius and their friends plotted to murder Julius Caesar. It made me think about how many people Caesar killed or enslaved[Read More…]
I am cold
but not numb.
I am silent
but not dumb.
I am not gazing
but not blind.
Videos published by the Amaq news agency show artillery exploding over Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria that analysts believe could be white phosphorus rounds. Amaq, which often publishes information provided by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) sources, claims that the areas which are shown being bombarded are ISIS-held sectors of the cities still populated by large[Read More…]
Falling interest rates have huge power. My background is as an actuary, so I am very much aware of the great power of interest rates. But a lot of people are not aware of this power, including, I suspect, some of the people making today’s decisions to raise interest rates. Similar people want to sell securities now being held by[Read More…]
The core committee of the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan met today and discussed the ongoing farmers agitation in the country. It condemned the highhandedness of the Madhya Pradesh government and resulting death of six farmers. It expressed concern and demanded that the witch-hunt and vilification of the farmers protests stop immediately and cases against the farmers and their leaders in Maharashtra[Read More…]
Iranians voted in the presidential as well as the city and village councils elections on May 19, 2017. The two elections were arranged to be on the same day to boost participations and show support for the clerical regime in Tehran. The Guardian Council had handpicked six candidates and rejected the rest of more than 1600 applicants who had registered[Read More…]
A pioneer of non-violent resistance to tyranny Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Shelley is today considered to be one of the major English-language poets. Less well known is the fact that he was a pioneer of non-violent resistance to tyranny, whose ideas influenced Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi. Percy Bysshe Shelley was the eldest legitimate son[Read More…]
Several years ago, I saw a dark skinned woman in her early twenties and sporting Nigerian clothes in front of me at a bank ATM station. (I was many decades older than she while also a blond and white skinned. I figured that it was a great opportunity to hear her views about racism in the USA, the country[Read More…]
According to a recent report [1] by CBC Canada, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, which was formerly known as al-Nusra Front and then Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS) since July 2016, has been removed from the terror watch-lists of the US and Canada after it merged with fighters from Zenki Brigade and hardline jihadists from Ahrar al-Sham and rebranded itself as Hayat[Read More…]
The shocking election result in the United Kingdom – the Conservatives losing their majority and the creation of a hung Parliament; and Jeremy Corbyn being more successful than any recent Labor candidate – cutting a 20 point Theresa May lead down to a near tie – gives hope to many that the global shift to the right, fueled by the failures of governments to meet the basic needs of their population and growing economic insecurity, may be ending.
When Donald Trump began his presidential campaign no one believed he could possibly be elected. When David Cameron went to the country on EU membership, he could not imagine ‘Remain’ losing. So it was with Theresa May. Ahead in the polls by 21 points she sought an unassailable majority. Whatever the reasons — and there are many — she[Read More…]
Plots for Spring to blossom
have been pre-allotted.
Don’t violate the boundaries
and carpet the roads with blossoms
and call it freedom of expression.
The entertainment reality show got another instalment on Thursday with the testimony of former FBI director James Comey before members of the Senate intelligence committee. The various birds of prey wishing to find smoking carrion were left only partially satisfied. The Republicans were left confused, and the right wing media felt that Trump had been exonerated. There was something for everyone.
US proposed legislation – Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act of 2017 – threatening to sanction Qatar for its support of the so-called “Palestinian terror” was sponsored by 10 lawmakers who received more than $1m over the last 18 months from lobbyists and groups linked to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Al Jazeera reported Friday. The[Read More…]
A debate between father and son T.R. Malthus’ “Essay on The Principle of Population”, the first edition of which was published in 1798, was one of the the first systematic studies of the problem of population in relation to resources. Earlier discussions of the problem had been published by Boterro in Italy, Robert Wallace in England, and Benjamin[Read More…]
A review of a documentary on John Coltrane reminded me that the iconic jazz musician died on the same day that the Newark Riots officially ended. I trust that the reader knows why I’m using italics here; fact is, the trauma of those riots — fifty years old as of 2017 — never went away. Definitely not for me, as I knew colleagues[Read More…]
By the time Manuel Noriega died on May 29, 2017, the “ousted dictator” or “Panamanian strongman” had long since taken up residency in the proverbial dustbin of history. He hadn’t been useful or “trending” for decades and was thus relegated to virtual invisibility. Even those who vaguely remembered him may have already presumed him dead — a pre-Internet relic without a[Read More…]
Press Club of India is normally an empty space unless a few of those, who don’t have enough resources to pay at the India International Center or India Habitat Center or some Five Star hotels, do organize some events of public concern, but this week, it has a galaxy of journalists who might have forgotten the address of the[Read More…]
A recent article published in the Countercurrents.org by Lalita Ramdas titled ‘Service Brats, Identity and Nationalism’ raised some crucial issues through the comments by honorable serving/retired army personnel. It is felt that a wider dissemination and debate is necessary into this aspect,since it raises the fundamental issue of whether a citizen of India, Lalita Ramdas, wife of Admiral L.[Read More…]
Almost all Indians, when reminded of the promise of a plebiscite made to people of J&K to ascertain their wishes, blame Pakistan for forestalling holding of one, primarily due to her failure to withdraw forces from the portion occupied by her as prescribed under relevant UN resolution. Many of my fellow countrymen nurse the same opinion. It is, therefore in[Read More…]
Please come out strongly against this illegal ban on cattle slaughter. Kindly translate your verbal assurances to concrete actions. Undertake a padyatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari against the illegal, divisive law and uphold the secular value that the Congress professes.
Amit Shah calling Gandhi a ‘chatur bania’ is all over the papers. Do you think his speech is offensive, even provocative, nay seditious? Has he crossed a certain line that pushes one into the ‘reasonable restrictions’ on Freedom of Speech Article 19a? Should he be booked under IPC Section 292 for morally corrupting and obscene speech? To find some[Read More…]
There is no doubt the government of India has attempted to prohibit through the backdoor, beef consumption across the country through new rules made under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The rules per se do not explicitly ban cattle slaughter or beef consumption, but they ban the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter in cattle markets,[Read More…]
The Economic Times reported that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi told party leaders from minority communities in Karnataka to be prepared for polarisation efforts by the BJP in the run-up to the 2018 assembly polls. According to the report he said “We need to be ready to take on polarisation of Hindu votes in the upcoming elections.Let us be very[Read More…]
Economic, Ecological and Agricultural Science Illiteracy of Elites Having already been investigated by the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate, we now get news that NDTV, one of the most viewed nation-wide news channels of India, is again being investigated, this time by the Central Bureau of Investigation. A First Information Report has been filed by or on[Read More…]
The pollsters only got it partly wrong this time, though the most spectacular prediction cock-up was that on what would happen to British Labour prior to the exit polls. Scotland crept up with a Tory surge, netting 12 seats, and there were scattering and skirmishing victories over the Scottish National Party, which suffered a considerable bruising. But what mattered here[Read More…]
A vision of human progress In France the Marquis de Condorcet had written an equally optimistic book, “Esquisse d’un Tableau Historique des Progres de l’Esprit Humain”. Condorcet’s optimism was unaffected even by the fact that at the time when he was writing he was in hiding, under sentence of death by Robespierre’s government. Like Godwin’s “Political Justice”, this book[Read More…]
Lies propagated as truths
Half – truths and ‘ post truths’
Cannot, for long, hide reality
From vast humanity
“We are documenting, discussing, debating, demonstrating, diverting and delaying ourselves to death in lieu of doing something new in solidarity that stands to make a big enough difference in time.” — One of the author’s home schooled youngsters at six years old (calling attention to the collective deadlines we face respecting our collective crises) “Yes, of course, one could make[Read More…]
Fifty five Dalit houses were burnt down during the afternoon of May 5 in Shabbirpur village of Saharanpur in northern UP. Attackers belonged to the dominant Rajput community of the area. They were armed with swords, spears, and lathis, and numbered about three thousand. Several other houses were looted, and fifteen motorcycles were burnt. Twelve Dalits received serious injuries. One[Read More…]
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties strongly condemns the raids by the CBI on 5th June 2017 on the residence and offices of Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy, co-founders of NDTV. While it is a declared position of PUCL that under our Constitutional scheme, the rule of law is supreme and no individual or institution is above the[Read More…]
Political Justice In 1793 the English novelist and philosopher William Godwin published an enormously optimistic book, “Political Justice”. As the eighteenth century neared its end, this book became the focus of hopes for political reform and the center of the debate on human progress. Godwin was lifted briefly to enormous heights of fame and adulation, from which he plunged, a[Read More…]
Text And Photos: Andre Vltchek It was late at night but the new Terminal 3 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport outside Jakarta was still bustling with families and friends waiting for their loved ones returning from abroad. My friend Noor Huda Ismail was just arriving from Singapore, and I decided to pick him up and discuss ‘certain issues’ with him in[Read More…]
Dear Countercurrents readers, please excuse the personal nature of this short piece. We are in a world in which rightward drift has become a Hurricane gale. The world round, racism, misogyny, obscurantism, violence, and demagoguery are on the rise. Multiple theories exist to explain the rise of such base ideas, but irrespective of which theory is most compelling at[Read More…]
In order to simplify the Syrian theater of proxy wars, it can be divided into three separate and distinct zones: that are, the Syrian government-controlled areas, the regions administered by the Syrian Kurds and the areas that have been occupied by the Syrian opposition. Excluding Idlib Governorate which has been occupied by the Syrian opposition, all the major population centers[Read More…]
50 years after the June 1967 Israeli conquest of all of Palestine, the US Alliance-backed, invasion-, occupation- , theft- , genocide-, lying- and race-based pariah state of Apartheid Israel still comprehensively violates all basic human rights of the Occupied Palestinians. The Zionist ethnic cleansing of 90% of Palestine means that the Two-State Solution is dead and demands comprehensive Boycotts,[Read More…]
The extraordinary achievement of Claire Simon’s latest film, The Graduation, relies on its ability to capture power at work. The film documents the entire selection process that hundreds of young candidates go through at La Femis in Paris to obtain a seat at one of the most prestigious film schools in the world.
2014 marked the 70th anniversary of the victory of democracy over fascism. And it was the year in which Hindutva forces unequivocally gained political power over India that emboldened the obscurantist elements to flog people publicly for skinning dead cows. When I see the less privileged and the downtrodden are terrorised by the might of our ‘democratic’ state, when I[Read More…]
A report published by Forbes on 11 September 2014 still stands true as not much has changed in the access to healthcare in India. According to World Health Organization’s 2000 World Health Report ranking India’s healthcare system at 112 out of 190 countries. The below paragraph is based on a friend’s recent experience when he was spending time and energy for the treatment of his[Read More…]
A report on the murder of of Dalit Youth Prithviraj by making him go down to clean a Sewage Tank at the housing complex (Jatti Dwarakamayi Villa) owned by family of India’s former Vice-President Shri B. D. Jatti On the basis of the media reports that appeared on 01/06/2017 in Vijay Karnataka newspaper and Public TV titled “Death of a[Read More…]
Badwani | June 09, 2017: The statement issued and published today by the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Nitin Patel, followed the totally undemocratic and unexpected arrest and attack on the children participating in the peaceful rally of Sardar Sarovar oustees with supporters from across the country, on the border of MP and Gujrat (on 7th June 2017). One[Read More…]
Nineteen people, including all six assailants, were killed as the result of a coordinated terrorist attack Wednesday morning that targeted Iran’s Parliament complex in central Tehran and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founder-leader, some 15 miles to the south. The attack, which took Iranian elite forces close to two hours to end, also wounded 43 people, some[Read More…]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended Qatar after Saudi Arabia and several other countries severed diplomatic ties with it for supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. President Erdogan is the Chairman of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Ironically, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya and Maldives are members of the OIC. “Let me say[Read More…]
This interview was recorded this February and is reported here from the site of the European Project MEDEAS, only minimally edited. Take into account that none of the people involved (interviewers and interviewed) are native English speakers and you can understand why the grammar and the syntax are, well, let’s just say “not perfect”. Then, as in all non-edited interviews, the[Read More…]
Today we were treated to a story in a national newspaper in India that gave a heart-rending list of damning statistics about the sorry plight of India’s Scheduled Tribes, written by none other than Varun Gandhi. Gandhi, a Bharatya Janata Party Member of Parliament and accused under the Representation of People Act 1951 of illegally appealing to religion in[Read More…]
The first of a new genus Mary Wollstonecraft was born in London 1n 1759. Although her family had a comfortable income during her childhood, Mary’s father later lost his fortune through speculation, and the family entered a period of severe financial difficulties. He also subjected his wife to physical violence, and Mary often slept in front of her mother’s[Read More…]
Are we in need of distractions? The political masters obviously think so. There have been hackings, cuttings, slayings and crushing events. As battles continue raging in Syria and northern Iraq, European cities face the next round of urban slayings. As that was taking place, eyes in the western media were taken off brewing troubles among the Gulf States. Eager pots[Read More…]
When activists like me return from visiting the Afghan Peace Volunteers in Kabul, Afghanistan, young seamstresses there often entrust each of us with about fifty sky-blue scarves. The word “Borderfree” is carefully embroidered, in English, on one end of each scarf; on the opposite side, they’ve stitched the translation in Dari, the language they speak. The scarves express their[Read More…]
One: An angry, malcontent species is making an angry, uninhabitable planet. A violent species is making a violent, uninhabitable planet. Political power craves greater power. Flexes pleasure in being above law and question. Flexes pleasure in domination. Corporate wealth craves greater wealth. Buys security through dispossessing. Time in a quantum theory may not be linear. Yet a straight line might[Read More…]
(UN showing Kashmir as a separate country confirms the historical fact known right from the ancient times!) There was recently a news item about the UN showing Kashmir as a separate country in some of its documents. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) have depicted Jammu & Kashmir as a “separate country”. In the “Advanced search[Read More…]
We grew up looking at the stars in the sky,
Every morning we wake up to the screeching sounds,
We happily lived in our beautiful homes that you derogatorily call jungle,
But one fine day they, came for our children.
At every turn in American culture, be it politics, sports or the corporate world, the citizenry is constantly taught, some would argue brainwashed, to believe in the Cult of the Uniform & The Flag, be it that of the armed forces, local law enforcement, or sports. It’s a veritable religion that one ever dares to criticize at their peril. Political[Read More…]
Abstract The more evidence we have that the American century of international hegemony is waning because of an increasingly weaker economy, the more scholars and analysts of international political economy insist that the 21st century will not witness China’s global ascendancy. From prominent academics to journalists there is a refusal to acknowledge structural shifts in the global economy from West[Read More…]
These days we rush from one media story to another, trying to keep up with the latest terrorist attack. Yesterday Paris; today London; tomorrow, who knows? These attacks are tragic enough when they are acts of violence by religious extremists who have outsmarted our police and intelligence agencies. But, of course, many of them are actually violent acts facilitated by[Read More…]
In a historical first, the government of a state has absolutely ‘shocked’ Indian democracy by submitting its progress report for public evaluation on completion of the first year of its tenure. Unsurprisingly, this ray of change comes from Kerala where the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government is winding up its glorious first year with glittering achievements. The[Read More…]
(This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to recent events or people is intentional, fiction after all is the step daughter of reality) Azadnagar was a unique place. It had birds which could speak. Yes, speak as we could. The people of Azadnagar loved their birds but no one knew how they could speak. The secret of the speaking[Read More…]
Gujarat | June 07, 2017: Around 2 PM, Gujarat Police arrested well known social activist Medha Patkar, noted Goldman Environmental Prize 2017 winner Prafulla Samantara, Dr. Sunilam, Aradhna Bhargava, Madhuresh Kumar, Himshi Singh, supporters from Gujarat and approximately 60 more people at Gujarat Border in Chhota Udaipur district. People of Narmada Valley are not going to succumb to any Govt.[Read More…]
I have a facebook group. It is called “Life in India is cheap, Damn cheap”. I started the group after seeing the death stunts of a circus group without any protection gears in a local festival. Yes, hundreds of thousands of lives in India are lost which could have been prevented if government took proper measures to tackle it. As[Read More…]
Sir, The seven judge Constitution Bench – which sentenced Justice C.S. Karnan to six months imprisonment for contempt of court through its order dated 9 May, 2017 states “Detailed order to follow”. Though thirty days have elapsed why has the detailed order not been made public till date through the Supreme Court’s official website(s) both old and new? We have[Read More…]
Jefferson’s Education Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was born in the British Colony of Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson, who was a planter and surveyor, died when Thomas Jefferson was 14 years old, and Thomas inherited an estate of approximately 5000 acres. At the age of 16, Jefferson entered the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia. His studies there[Read More…]
The hallmark of any administration worth its corruptly curing salt is making hay while the sun shines its searing rays. Not long after the slashing and running down was taking place in London, moving from London Bridge to Borough Market, the tweets of blame and fire were already coming through. That nasty sovereign known as social media was already agitating.[Read More…]
This column is about events so counterintuitive that Hollywood would reject the plot as being too unbelievable. Fifty years ago on June 8th, another nation intentionally attacked a U.S. Navy ship in international waters, and the U.S. didn’t respond. The attack The lightly-armed intelligence-gathering U.S. ship was under close observation for at least six hours before an air attack[Read More…]
Most working people think of the buck as the way they pay their bills. But its use goes far beyond the USA’s borders. The greenback is the major world currency for trade and finance. This international role bestows vast power on the U.S. government and the rich. But its status doesn’t help ordinary people much. Fundamentally, the exchange[Read More…]
Nisarpur, Madhya Pradesh | June 06, 2017: Thousands of Sardar Sarovar dam oustees gathered today for ‘Aam Sabha’ (general assembly) in the submergence zone village of Nisarpur as part of the 3-day Rally for the Valley that kicked off from Indore yesterday. Hundreds of students, activists, artists from all over India and affected-people from other destructive developments projects joined hands[Read More…]
The Centre has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that the 6,000 MW nuclear power plant proposed at Mithivirdi in Gujarat will be shifted to Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh due to delay in land acquisition for the project. After the Centre’s submission, the NGT bench, consisting of judicial member U D Salvi and expert member Ranjan Chatterjee, disposed of a[Read More…]
New Delhi | June 06, 2017: Today afternoon, police forces opened fire at the protesting farmers in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh. As per reports, five farmers killed and many left injured in the attack by police officials. The farmers have been on strike from June 1 to June 10 demanding loan waivers and fair prices for their produce. NAPM[Read More…]
This opinion Piece was widely circulated through the Independent Newspapers Group and was published in the Daily News (08 Sept 2008), Cape Argus (11 Sept.2008) and in other newspapers belonging to the group. Thirty years ago in 1977 the beast of Apartheid snuffed out the life of one of the greatest thinkers in the liberation pantheon of South Africa: Steve[Read More…]
Palestinian-American historian, journalist and author, Dr. Ramzy Baroud, speaks on his upcoming book, just-released digital media project – Palestine in Motion – and why Palestinian history has to be urgently retold. When it comes to Palestine, we often see a dichotomy between mainstream media platforms – which are essentially molded out of a Zionist narrative – and a counter-narrative,[Read More…]
There is a saying that goes: “Be careful what you wish for, for you may get it.” This has been Israel’s dilemma from the very beginning. The Zionist movement, which held its first conference in Basel, Switzerland 120 years ago, wanted Palestine but not the Palestinians. They achieved this objective 50 years later, in what Israel termed as its[Read More…]
An exceptionalist Trump America has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Change Agreement and thereby launched a neoliberal War on the Planet (Terra). The US has 4.4% of the world’s population but contributes more to annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution than China (18.6% of world population). The Paris Agreement’s upper limit of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise is[Read More…]
Trump’s action withdrawing US from the Paris accord on climate change calls for outright condemnation. It should be opposed without letup. This US action is not new. His predecessors had taken almost the same attitude towards Kyoto Protocol like earlier agreements also. Imperialism means plunder and wars for plunder. No doubt, world public opinion should be created and intensified uninterruptedly[Read More…]
In the months of April and May we conducted a random survey of 100 U.S. educators nationwide* — on all levels, in public and private institutions — and discovered that less than 10% of teachers and administrators** knew much at all about the 25 major environmental issues plaguing the planet today.
“Not war against our own citizens, but dialogue with all stakeholders in Kashmir, including emerging youth leadership, is the only way to resolve the Kashmir issue.” – This was a common view expressed by all the speakers at a lecture programme on ‘Kashmiriyonka Najariya :Vastavaur Mithak’ (Kashmiri Peoples’ Perspective : Myth & Reality’) held on 3rd June 2017 at Shramik Patrakar Bhavan, Pune.
The whole issue of triple talaq is resounding with conversations on gender equality and rights of women and minorities. There is sudden “awakening” about women’s rights and gender equality. It cannot be mere coincidence that this matter was chosen to be heard by Supreme Court in vacation while delaying equally important issues of right to privacy and threatened surveillance by[Read More…]
This month marks thirty three years of the death of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale – a fiery Sikh preacher who was accused by the Indian state of being involved in terrorist activities. He died fighting against the Indian army at the Golden Temple Complex, the holiest Sikh shrine of the Sikhs that was turned into a battlefield in June 1984.[Read More…]
Civil liberties and Democratic Rights organizations have for long argued that using Indian Army to prosecute war against our own people is to fight an ignoble war, because such wars are Dirty Wars under the very definition of Counter Insurgency warfare where our own people are treated as enemies to be suppressed by using military force. Coordination of Democratic Rights[Read More…]
White racists! Supremacists! Yes! We are dark!… Black! Egoistic imperialists! You are not on the right track! From Asia and Africa We were herded as slaves To serve your America From our birth to graves Without our toil and strain How can you make ‘ America great again’ ? Without our body and brain How much can America gain?[Read More…]
It is difficult to believe that M C Raj is gone. We knew that he was suffering from Cancer, however we felt that he would overcome. M C Raj, the dreamer, intellectual and weaver of word is no more. He passed away in Banglore this morning leaving behind a family as well as all those who cherished his vision and[Read More…]
Thomas Paine, defender of democracy, defender of human rights, defender of ordinary citizens against the tyranny of oligarchies, we need your voice today!
On May 25, Donald Trump, the President of America, visited Brussels and the NATO. His visit concluded that Europe must meet its obligations and buy more mass destruction weapons for the security and democracy of the Western and free world. In a clumsy, arrogant and disrespectful way he insult America’s best and most loyal allies. After Trump had closed a[Read More…]
The distress caused by US President Donald Trump in over the last week continues the theme of exit: old alliances and agreements need revision; compacts need unpacking. Thursday saw Trump add another graceless if direct announcement: the United States would be leaving the Paris climate agreement. “This agreement,” he claimed in a speech of fantastic make-believe, “is less about the[Read More…]
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement follows the path of previous presidents who have undermined international climate agreements. We disagree with Trump but it is important to understand his actions in the context of the history of the United States regarding previous climate agreements. Once again, the political problems in the US are bigger than Trump. His action brings greater clarity to the inability of the US government to confront the climate crisis and clarifies the tasks of people seeking smart climate policy.
This Thursday, June 1, the U.S. decided to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. Like Brexit, the process is not like instant coffee; if anything, it is much more of a slow brew to which one could add harvesting or even growing the coffee in the first place. To prevent disruption for other members, it calls for a period[Read More…]
Mumbai is known as the most cosmopolitan of the Indian cities. Muslims have a huge presence here. Generations of Muslims have lived here. The following is an example of some school children living in such a cosmopolitan Mumbai or its suburbs. But this instance can also be said to be representational. The picture may be a bit different in Andheri,[Read More…]
Do the righteous amongst us choose formulaic thinking over science-based deductive observation? Pulp Fiction, released in 1994 as an American black comedy neo-noir crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, is from a story by Tarantino and Roger Avary. It was, and continues to be a cultural watershed…a great piece of cinematic art capturing the myopia within American culture.Samuel[Read More…]
While all over India citadels of royal families crumbled before the might of British onslaught, the Wodeyars of Mysore through their liberal, progressive and secular outlook and policies retained their domain till 1947. In the long history of Mysore it was under Sri Krishna raja Wodeyar IV who ruled from 1902 to 1940 that the state came to be referred[Read More…]
The Madras High Court comprising of Hon’ble Justices S Nagamuthu and N Seshasayeerecently laid down alandmark judgment wherein they strongly questioned: the prejudice that people belonging to aparticular community will traditionally indulge in commission of particular type of crimes and the same could be inherited like family trade. The Division Bench went on to observe that;“Judiciary cannot afford to[Read More…]
Jaipur — Rajasthan State Commission for Minorities has sought a factual report on a video that went viral on Thursday showing four Sikh men purportedly beaten up by local residents of Chainpura in Ajmer district.The 51-second video shows four members of Sikh community being abused and thrashed by a mob as people witnessing the incident filmed the entire episode…..three[Read More…]
Preface The “Macedonian Question” is today actual for several reasons of whom two are of the fundamental importance: 1. The Albanian secession in the FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); and 2. The Greek dispute with the FYROM authorities over several issues.[1] For the matter of illustration, for instance, Greece is so far blocking Macedonia’s joining the NATO and the[Read More…]
In a previous post titled Information, Energy and Human development, I concluded saying that we don’t know what will happen to our society if the planet will be overheated. I don’t have the answer, and maybe I will never have it, but I have surely been gaining new insights on what has been the influence of the climate on the[Read More…]
President Trump announced Thursday that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement. The move, which repudiates even the most modest and nonbinding targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, takes place amidst growing conflicts between the major capitalist powers and a raging political crisis within the US itself. In a major 30-minute Rose Garden address, Trump justified[Read More…]
The Trump administration on Thursday (June 1) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive his controversial Muslim travel ban executive order which was blocked by lower courts that found it discriminatory. The Justice Department asked the apex court to temporarily lift injunctions that bar officials from carrying out Trump’s March 6, 2017 directive to suspend visa issuance to citizens[Read More…]
University Grants Commission (UGC) has drafted a new set of regulations/ guidelines and released it inviting feedback from public. (http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/9837591_Public-Notice-regarding-draft-Regulations-and-Guidelines.pdf ) These regulations/ guidelines are going to have profound impact on the higher education in the country and are in fact an extension of the thrust towards the assault on the public higher education and the attempts towards creating avenues[Read More…]
A Brief Sketch of Alternative Films: Making, Screening and Orgnising People’s Film Festivals in India When Martin Luther King (Junior) stated: `I have a dream’, he never meant that he wanted to become a film maker. When Lumiere brothers made the first documentary in the world, capturing the images of a train coming towards the audience, some of the audience[Read More…]
Education as an engraver and printmaker William Blake was born in 1757 in the Soho district of London. He was the third of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. His parents, who were English Dissenters, seem to have been reasonable wealthy during his childhood, since his father was able to purchase many books for him. Among these were[Read More…]
Authoritarian styles can come at cost. The manner with which the British Prime Minister has reacted to the concept of debate has been one such point. While the joys of the Westminster system hardly suggest untrammelled enlightenment, one superficial element remains: the need to debate policies. Having called an election, the pollster community were more or less suggesting Theresa May[Read More…]
For some time now, the discourse on Israel has been shifting from a place where Israeli “hasbara” disinformation had the upper hand no matter where one turned, to a place where Israeli criminal policies are more frankly discussed and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which is now championed by some academic associations, church groups and labor unions[Read More…]
During the election campaign of 2008 before he was elected as the president, Barack Obama made an artificial distinction between the “just war” in Afghanistan and the unjust war in Iraq. In accordance with the flawed distinction, he pledged that he would withdraw American troops stationed in Iraq. The unilateral intervention in Iraq by the Bush Administration was highly unpopular[Read More…]
This is the second part of The Chinese-Indian New Cold War series from Andrew Korybko, looking at the region of Southeast and South Asia. Please read Part I Introduction The first realm of rivalry to be explored between China and India is the interconnected strategic space of Southeast and South Asia. While geopolitically separate and not yet functionally integrated with[Read More…]
Ever since the Rajasthan High Court judge made public, his suggestions on declaring the cow, the national animal of India solely based on his inner voice and also went a step further to enlighten us on his knowledge of the non-existence of sexual intercourse between peacocks and peahens, social media is in a frenzy with memes and jokes on the[Read More…]
The Indian women farmer, almost never publicly acknowledged, reviled by superstition and patriarchy, and increasingly troubled by entrenched social and cultural mores and taboos bears the real burden of farm labour. Nearly 98 million Indian women have agricultural jobs, but around 63% of them, or 61.6 million women, are agricultural labourers, dependent on the farms of others, according to[Read More…]
Brothers ! Sisters ! Listen !
Unite and hasten
To counter cow vigilantes
Forced religious conversions
Voice right to dissent
And rights of women empowerment
Release of illegal detainees
Without speedy trial and justice
Around 25 people protesting the ‘beef ban’ in Bangalore were arrested and put under police custody today. About 500 people marching towards the Bangalore town hall were stopped by the police and at least 25 were arrested. Jagdish Chandra , New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India) , Balan (AICCTU) ,Shankar (Politburo member, CPIML), Narasimha Murthy ( Human Rights Defender) Rajan Chinnaiah (Karnatak[Read More…]
Saint Francis of Assisi was born in 1181 in the Italian hilltop town of Assisi. His father, Pietro di Bernardone, was a prosperous silk merchant, and his mother Pica de Bourlemont, was a noblewoman from Provence. Saint Francis was originally called Giovanni, but his father later renamed him Francesco because of his successful business dealings in France and his admiration[Read More…]
There is no getting away from the fact that a visit to that known outpost of American Empire, Australia, softens the mind and leads to a more vigorous wagging of tongues than usual. Away from the scrutiny of a full blooded Washington press corps, politicians can engage in speculation and hyperbole. The paternalists can slip into something more comfortable, and[Read More…]
A few years ago I saw a film of a weak and hungry mother leopard hunting day after day to try to find food for herself and her teenager, a son less adept at hunting than she was due to his being young. It was impossible since drought created water deficits indirectly caused in part by climate change impacts.[Read More…]
How destructive can man get, how ruthless, in his quest to secure maximum profit, even as he endangers the very survival of our planet? The tropical forests of Kalimantan (known as Borneo in Malaysia), the third largest island in the world, have almost totally disappeared. Coalmines are savagely scarring the hills; the rivers are polluted, and countless species are[Read More…]
As ‘mental health’ issues gain more attention, sympathetic and otherwise, in a wide variety of contexts and countries around the world, the opportunity for inaccurate perceptions of what causes these issues, and how to treat them, are likewise expanded. So if you or someone you know is supposed to have a ‘mental illness’ such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive[Read More…]
During our recent “celebration” of Memorial Day, I heard the rumblings of muscular motorcycles outside my window, on the streets below my apartment in Washington, D.C. There seemed to be many such displays in public places or on TV. A former judge in my apartment building told me about “festivities” taking place at the Kennedy Center, to mark the 100th[Read More…]
The reason that I care about this food issue, although I personally can eat beef any day of the week that I may please since I live in the USA, is really simple. It ultimately goes back to the underlying theme of this poem: “First they came …” is a poem written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). It[Read More…]
We are honored to serialize the new book by John Scales Avery “We Need Their Voices Today!”. We are publishing the Preface of the book today. The chapters will be published in the coming days
Man’s greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution goes into the one common atmosphere and one common ocean of all countries on earth. Each year the world adds 66 billion tonnes CO2-equivalent to its inescapable Carbon Debt that in dollar terms is increasing at $13.2 trillion per year. Trump America that threatens to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement has 4.4% of[Read More…]
Pakistan is reconsidering its position on the so-called 41-nation Islamic military alliance, led by Saudi Arabia, to avoid straining its relationship with neighboring Iran, according to Pakistan media reports. The military alliance was to be commanded by General Raheel Sharif, the former commander-in-chief of Pakistan army who retired from the Pak army last year. Its decision comes after statements[Read More…]
The Hindutva winds of Gorakhpur are being stopped by Dalit walls in Saharanpur. The wind had attained significant force through installation of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. This is being stalled by Dalit led Bhim Army at Saharanpur. Goraknath has been a center of Political activity, particularly the Hindutva brand of politics. Gorakhpur has attained the[Read More…]
Many recent posts of mine on Facebook – especially those dealing with the vexing issue of our respected Indian Army using a Kashmiri, and by all accounts a genuine citizen out to exercise his franchise, have been met with strange and often strong reactions – virtually telling me that as a daughter and wife of two former Navy Chiefs I[Read More…]
(The photograph of human shield and the subsequent award to the perpetrator of human rights violation have put the Army as well as the country in a very poor light!) A photograph of Farooq Ahmad Dar, a weaver from a village in Badgam Kashmir, tied to the front of an Army jeep and paraded through 30 odd villages during the[Read More…]
Environmental campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason has just written to the UK’s Policy Advisor Nigel Chadwick at the Chemicals Regulation Directorate of Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
At least 40,000 policemen and women, if needed the army, is on alert and will be pulled in for forcible eviction of thousands of families whose list is announced through the extraordinary gazette notification issued by the Government of M.P., dated 27.05.2017, which is in the public domain, listing the names of 18,346 families. Various government officials are continuously moving[Read More…]
India is now the world’s fastest-growing major economy, but years of drought and a failure to create jobs for a burgeoning young population has left millions of rural Indians struggling. India’s 120 million farmers are considered e the backbone of the country’s food security but disillusionment runs through almost entire rural India. Farming remains the country’s dark spot and[Read More…]
Although governments have promised sustainable development by 2030 by adopting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but tobacco triggered pandemics threaten to stall or even reverse the progress made. Tobacco is a major risk factor of killer non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardio-vascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, among others. In addition to devastating health, tobacco is also linked to poverty,[Read More…]
Last week, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has issued an anti-constitutional gazette notification– Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 –banning cattle slaughter and introduced severe restrictions on the sale of cattle to prevent their killing. The order applicable to the whole of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir, says that[Read More…]
This is a brief account of what happened in the IIT Madras campus in the last two days. The central govt’s notification was a matter of serious discussion amongst students. On Sunday a group of students initiated the idea of holding a discussion on the issue, where cooked beef was also distributed. We shared the invite of the festival in[Read More…]
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
How the Cuban Government and Its People Collaborated on the Family Code 
Stop Criminalizing Journalism and Human Rights Activism: Release Irfan Mehraj and Parvez Khurram 
Politics of Bhagat Singh’s trial 
The Tragedy of Footpaths: Impressions of a Pedestrian in Bangalore 
Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans 
U.S. Trying To Cover Up Its Role In Nord Stream Sabotage, Says Seymour Hersh 
Open Letter To Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress Party 
Future Scenarios in Ukraine 
West Sends Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine: MEP to Warmongers – “You Make Me Sick!” 
Sri Lanka’s unconvincing response to Universal Periodic Review’s forthright findings 
Kisan Mahapanchayat stages massive rally in Delhi 
The betrayers of Julian Assange 
The Truth About Our Failure to Curb Carbon Emissions 
They’re liars, Mexico’s President on U.S. 
Grameena Pedala Sangham, Telangana State conference, is an important mile-stone 
Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific Enough is enough. Restore parliament 
Disgrace at the New York Times 
‘Israel is (Not) Back to Africa’: How African Countries are Challenging Israeli Plot on the Continent 
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex 
Accelerating Change on United Nations World Water Day 2023 
Defence Daredevilry 
Selling One’s Soul – The betrayal of Christ and Constitution 
Climate Crisis Has Caused Increasingly Irreversible Losses, Says UN Report 
Yarrow Mamout Masjid Dedicated at Georgetown University 
Adolf Hitler, Carl Orff & Sophie Scholl 
Algeria’s Gas vs. Rightwing Ideology: Will Italy Change Its Position on Jerusalem? 
From Balloons to AUKUS: The War Drive Against China 
Paul Keating’s criticism of Australia’s AUKUS deal is damming but not “astonishing”, – in fact, timely! 
In memory of 20th anniversary of the Iraq War 
CBI investigation against Harsh Mandar’s NGO is nothing but travesty of justice 
Concept of Gram Swaraj (‘Village Self-Reliance’) and Its Increasing Relevance for Our Times Indian Democracy & Chaos in Parliament! 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
