Today I opened my Facebook and discovered that two of my very good friends in another country were getting married. It seemed odd as they have been together for many years, they have grown up children and did not make any announcements. But the FB post looked genuine; there were relevant pictures and various congratulations. So I sent a message[Read More…]
Who says President Trump doesn’t have a coherent foreign policy? Pundits and critics across the political spectrum have chided him for failing to articulate and implement a clear international agenda. Look closely at his overseas endeavors, though, and one all-too-consistent pattern emerges: Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to prolong the reign of fossil fuels by sabotaging efforts to curb carbon[Read More…]
We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy.
“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” — William Shakespeare **** **** Nobel Peace Prize Awardee, Liu Xiaobo ((28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) of China died of multiple organ failure due to liver cancer on July 13. He was 61. He was incarcerated as a political prisoner[Read More…]
In the classroom of international security, Australia remains an infant wanting attention before the older hands. During the Paris Peace talks, Prime Minister William Morris (“Billy”) Hughes screamed and hollered Australia’s wishes to gain greater concessions after its losses during the Great War, urging, among other things, a more punitive settlement for Germany. In the post-September 2001 age, recognition comes[Read More…]
New York City, with an estimated population of 8.55 million inhabitants, is made up of 5 distinctive boroughs—Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Most New Yorkers think of Staten Island, the city’s largest, whitest and least populous borough, as the most right-wing part of the city. After all, it provided the margins that put both former Mayors Michael[Read More…]
PM of Iceland David Gunlaughsson became the first political prey of the sprouting Panama papers tax scandal after the disclosures drew demonstrations against him. The panama papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5 files from the data base of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm. Mossacle Fonseca. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the[Read More…]
The first public rally by Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) in Surrey on Sunday evening received a welcoming response. Organized in solidarity with #NotInMyName campaign against ongoing violence against minorities in India by Hindutva extremists, the rally was attended by activists from diverse backgrounds. The event was held near the Surrey City Hall. The participants also raised slogans and[Read More…]
Over five thousand people from different parts of the country came to attend a one day National Convention organised by All India Milli Council, in New Delhi at the Talkatora Stadium which saw a galaxy of activists, political leaders, academics and other concerned citizens condemning the attempt of the government to muzzle freedom of expression AIMC-Resolutions, Eng-Final-1and creating fear psychosis[Read More…]
New Delhi, July 30, 2017: Eminent American linguist, social critic, and political activist, Noam Chomsky extended his support to the project affected people of the Narmada Valley when the indefinite fast and dharna of 100s people are underway in Narmada valley. Signing the petition started by former IIM Kolkata professor and environmentalist Jayanta Bandopadhyay, Chomsky joins 100s of other people[Read More…]
When Administration starts to behave like a Cruel Father and begins to dominate your life and lifestyles, it becomes difficult to live in the city. We never know what cruel strategy would then they will use to attack us. The administration of Indore (The largest city in state of Madhya Pradesh) is behaving like a similar Cruel and Arrogant[Read More…]
Scientists unanimously agree that massive quantities of greenhouse gases released from combustion of fossil fuels are primarily responsible for global warming and have unleashed an internecine cycle of melting polar ice and thawing permafrost which greenhouse gases and further warm up the earth’s temperature. They warn that the present fossil fuel based economy is unsustainable and if efforts are not[Read More…]
Venezuela is now super-charged with struggle for democracy as propertied interests and imperialism are mounting a campaign against the Venezuelan people’s initiative to determine their political arrangement. Now, there is a news report by the mainstream media (MSM) that bombs are being prepared by a group of protesters in their struggle for “democracy”. The group is also planning to[Read More…]
Entitlement to or actual foreign citizenship should be renounced as a condition of political office. However this is not required in Zionist-subverted and perverted America. Such renunciation is required for membership of the Australian Parliament from which several Senators have recently resigned after discovering their inadvertent dual citizenship. However Zionist-subverted Australia ignores 100,000 Australians including 6 MPs actually or[Read More…]
It all happened without much fuss, since fuss was bound to be the enemy. Dignitaries, guests and various partners lined up for a gathering at Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory on Saturday, commemorating the secret base’s half-century. The Alice Spring News Online described it, not inaccurately, as a “stealth party”. The Convention Centre hosting the dinner was tight lipped[Read More…]
The situation in the Gaza Strip is an infamous event that will be remembered as a landmark of the atrocities of our time, in vicious competition with so many other situations of human mistreatment. The experience the Gaza Strip is being made to suffer comes from the application of the technique that IshhakLeibPeretz attributed to Zionism, of constraining the victim[Read More…]
The Coalition Against Foreign Military Bases is a new campaign focused on closing all US military bases abroad. This campaign strikes at the foundation of US empire, confronting its militarism, corporatism and imperialism. We urge you to endorse this campaign.
“One airplane program, the F-35, could be canceled and the funds used to convert every home in the United States to clean energy.” — David Swanson The above, a line from David Swanson’s Bringing Movements Together, provides a point of departure for teaching elements of Math and Science. And, of course, it could be a lead in for instructive exploration in other[Read More…]
“Nowhere is a place in its own right: everywhere is a resource waiting to be exploited. No one is a person in their own right; everyone is a worker, consumer or debtor whose potential for profit generation has yet to be realised. Satiety, well-being, peace: these are antithetical to globalised growth, which demands constant erasure and replacement. If you are[Read More…]
The Venezuelans go to the polls on Sunday (July 30) to elect delegates who will rewrite Venezuela’s constitution. In Latin America generally, society is broadly divided into three groups: whites, mixed race mestizos and the original native peoples. The elite ruling classes, namely whites, select and have elected white presidents. Evo Morales in Bolivia, the late Hugo Chavez and now[Read More…]
It’s an important question if the removal of Nawaz Sharif from office is just another Pakistani Prime Minister’s meeting his nemesis, or it’s another unceremonious removal of a head of government for all the wrong reasons and excuses! We know, since the assassination of the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951, no Pakistani Prime Minister has been[Read More…]
India commemorates the end of British rule 70 years ago on 15 August. Now might be an apt moment to consider where India might be heading, especially given recent developments. If one policy stands out over the past 12 months, it would have to be demonetisation. Removing all 500- and 1000-rupee notes from circulation overnight was in part a bail[Read More…]
Badwani, Madhya Pradesh. 29, July 2017: Today is the third day of indefinite fast in the Narmada Valley. Hundreds of the villagers today entered the Narmada waters and observed jal satyagraha. They challenged the government’s plan to force death upon 40,000 families by closing gates of Sardar Sarovar Dam without any complete rehabilitation in the Narmada Valley. Shyama Behn, Bhagirath[Read More…]
It is an emotionally loaded term like ‘faith’, ‘nationalism’ and ‘family’, that is often used by the middle-classes to provoke strong feelings of anger and disgust against politicians. And yet on closer scrutiny the phrase ‘corruption’ turns out to be a fuzzy concept, that fails to capture how power and injustice really operate in human societies. In its popular[Read More…]
Aspects and Causes of the Crisis The climate crisis is only one aspect of the global crisis. Yet, generally speaking, Western governments, media, politicians, NGOs, and publicists have been trying to make us believe that it is the only dangerous and the only global crisis. It appears that for them all other crises in the world are only partial or regional problems of secondary[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Pakistan’s three times Prime Minister and a businessman turned politician Nawaz Sharif has been declared disqualified by the apex court in Pakistan in corruption case. The petition was initiated by cricketer turned politician Imran Khan and others. In a country like Pakistan where political culture is of lower quality and the constitutionalism is still to take roots and most of[Read More…]
Apparently I have been owned by my USA government from the day that I was born and passed out of my mother. From that day onward, it became illegal for me to kill myself. (What is the judge in my trial case going to do if I try to do so and don’t succeed – put me in jail?[Read More…]
This article is part of a series called “Heroes And Sheroes Of Plural India” under #AnHourForCommunalHramony campaign to celebrate the Heroes and Sheroes who struggled to shape modern India in all its plurality. Today we celebrate Fatima Sheikh who along with Savitribai Phule pioneered girl’s education in India. All are welcome to contribute an hour of your day, in[Read More…]
In most museums, the name signifies the thrust. The recently opened Palestine Museum of Natural History, located within the Bethlehem university campus in Palestine, is more than its collections and its name; it is testimony to the spirit, vision, and courage of the Palestinian people, to their need for ontological security, a sense of order and continuity in their experiences,[Read More…]
“Mohammed frequently went to a cave in the desert three miles from Mecca, where he would spend months in prayer and meditation.” — Swami Sivananda’s introductory sentence to The Birth of Islam The posting of this article might — in the future — prevent me from securing a teaching position at more than 99% of the schools in the[Read More…]
Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif’s third term in power ended Friday (July 28) unceremoniously after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding public office in a landmark unanimous decision on the so-called Panama Papers case. “The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) shall issue a notification disqualifying Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif from being a member of the[Read More…]
Continuing my new metaphor for effectively treating climate change (I’ve been traveling into town everyday: ferry, bus, Canada Line to the Cancer Agency and same back from treatment) – this quote was in my post-Canada Day Guardian Weekly: “I can’t believe how long I’ve been on hold,” says the Canadian who’s been on hold for the length of time it takes a kettle to[Read More…]
Seventy years after his initial Broadway success with All My Sons and 12 years after his death, Arthur Miller continues to cast a long shadow over theater in the United States. His plays are staples ofhigh school drama clubs, college and university theater departments and regional theaters around the country, and his best-known works – Death of a Salesman,[Read More…]
When I write about the Jewish state, I am forced to write about Jews. Although there is controversy among Jews themselves about Jewish identity, the fact remains that Israel manifests itself in Palestine as Jewish, both in the sense of “Jewish nationality”, an invention of political Zionism whose early leaders were atheists, as well as in the religious sense[Read More…]
This week Just Asia begins with the case of Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights defender Adilur Rahman Khan, who was detained by Malaysian immigration authorities for more than 12 hours at Kuala Lumpur airport last week. Without giving any reasons for the detention, the authorities finally deported him back to Dhaka. Just Asia speaks to Adilur for details on his[Read More…]
The Attorney General has argued that citizens do not have the fundamental right to privacy. That the citizen should be open to scrutiny by the government other bodies of authority for ‘national interests’. That their body or their data is not a right of their own. The AG states that this is because the right to privacy is an[Read More…]
Tackling poverty requires a fundamentally different approach: one that starts with people themselves and encourages the initiative, creativity and drive from below .This principle must be at the core of any programme aiming at transformation of their lives. It is only then that if it can be lasting and meaningful. If people can be given the support they need[Read More…]
It’s a beautiful sight in it’s natural habitat , but the snow leopard (Panthera uncia ) a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia is endangered. It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened species, because, as of 2003, the size of the global wild population was estimated at 4,080–6,590 adults. According to Wiki, fewer than 2,500 individuals may[Read More…]
News reports of 27.07.2017 state that an Armed Forces Tribunal has suspended the life sentences awarded by a General Court Martial in 2014 and which were confirmed in 2015, to five army personnel for the killings of three Kashmiri civilians in April 2010, at Machil. The reason for suspension rests on presentation of ‘facts’ which have allegedly broken the chain[Read More…]
One of the toughest tasks I had to handle in my long career as a banker was handling the recalcitrant defaulters who made us literally beseech and supplicate before them when they refused to pay up the loan. I had to make regular appearances in the witness box whenever we filed a law suit against any tough loan defaulter.[Read More…]
“The world is watching.” Cathy Kezelman, Blue Knot Foundation president, The Washington Post, Jul 25, 2017 The show on Wednesday was grim, busy, crowded. Cardinal George Pell, the highest Vatican official thus far to be brought within the legal fold of accusation and accountability for historical crimes of sex abuse, fronted for the briefest of shows at a lowly[Read More…]
The morning papers bring me the news that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world. Actually he overtook Bill Gates for a few hours on Thursday as the richest person on earth as the Amazon share prices rose. Bill Gates regained his position as the richest person later in the day. So what the[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Sandwiched between the months of June — which saw the 50th anniversary of Israel’s Palestine occupation — and August — the 71st anniversary of India’s Independence from British rule and India’s subsequent occupation of Kashmir — this July can perhaps be remembered as a month when two nationalist ideologies — Zionism and Hindutva — that have thrived on these two[Read More…]
It was midday on Sunday, May 7th, when the U.S.-led coalition warplanes again began bombing the neighborhood of Wassim Abdo’s family. They lived in Tabqa, a small city on the banks of the Euphrates River in northern Syria. Then occupied by the Islamic State (ISIS, also known as Daesh), Tabqa was also under siege by U.S.-backed troops and being hit[Read More…]
Political corruption often leads to a constitutional crisis. The Watergate scandal that took down Richard Nixon shook up American politics. Over four decades later, we are now seeing another scandal associated with campaign officials. Dubbed “Russiagate”, a liberal media frenzy began over the claim of possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia before and during the 2016 election. Now, new intelligence[Read More…]
The headline for my town’s local newspaper reads: “Grant secured, library looks toward construction.” Do you think that this news makes me happy? No, it actually makes me glum. The reason is that we do not need bigger, better, more of everything at the expense of the natural world. Our library is fine just the way that it is. It[Read More…]
Microsoft’s Bill Gates is one of the richest and most influential people on earth. He announced in 2015 that his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was aiming at achieving full digitalization of the payment systems of India and other populous developing countries by 2018. This “financial inclusion” program for India dates back to well before Narendra Modi came to power. It was elevated[Read More…]
The JD(U) have joined up with the BJP again, a damning indictment of the INC that failed to mobilise a united let alone effective opposition to the NDA. There is a tendency in the national press to judge the political parties in Bihar on the basis of their caste composition. The argument is that the JD(U) is a good[Read More…]
In Multan a 17 years girl was ordered to be raped by panchayat because his brother had raped another girl. Thus revenge rape was ordered by the kangaroo court. The incident took place and innocent girl was raped according to the order issued by panchayat. According to CNN “the Village elders in Pakistan ordered the rape of a 17-year-old girl[Read More…]
The struggle against the proposed Vizhinjam International Deepwater port by AAP had kick started with the 8days long district wide travel in a vehicle with corner meetings at various points and a conclusion on every evening at important venues. The jatha had covered 14 legislative assembly constituencies in the district. On an average 20 persons were travelling with the[Read More…]
This article is part of a series called “Heroes And Sheroes Of Plural India” under #AnHourForCommunalHramony campaign to celebrate the Heroes and Sheroes who struggled to shape modern India in all its plurality. Today we celebrate Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain a pioneering woman literary person who also pioneered girls education . All are welcome to contribute an hour of your day, in[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
There is a Senate bill, along with a companion bill in the House, working its way through Congress with strong bipartisan support, that poses a significant danger to free speech. One would think this bill would be a big deal but, surprisingly, the bill has not received much coverage in the mainstream media. Fortunately the American Civil Liberties Union[Read More…]
“Why aren’t they screaming?” — from Philip Larkin’s The Old Fools Belleville gets a bad name from people who’ve never been there or who feel threatened by diversity. Immigrants and refugees from all over — Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Greece, Armenia, Poland, Russia, Auvergne and many French provinces — have settled there and worked side[Read More…]
Traditionally Elders in Kashmir used to be given all the love and care but the “Modernisation” has left some of them isolated and lonely! The ancient civilisations were always rooted in extended families. People used to live together where the elders were not only respected and cared for but were the guides and the inspiration for the new generations. Kashmir[Read More…]
Human beings are now waging war against life itself as we continue to destroy not just individual lives, local populations and entire species in vast numbers but also destroy the ecological systems that make life on Earth possible. By doing this we are now accelerating the sixth mass extinction event in Earth’s history and virtually eliminating any prospect of[Read More…]
Israel, which has played a precarious role in the Syrian war since 2011, is furious to learn that the future of the conflict is not to its liking. The six-year-old Syria war is moving to a new stage, perhaps its final. The Syrian regime is consolidating its control over most of the populated centers, while ISIS is losing ground fast[Read More…]
Having poured scorn and not an indecent amount of bile upon the refugee deal between the Obama administration and Canberra last year, US President Donald Trump was never going to make things easy for the resettlement of various groups held on Nauru and Manus Island. Repeated emphasis has been made on the issue of how the anti-terrorism regime outlined in[Read More…]
Venezuela, it seems, is a riddle to the audience of the mainstream media. Yet the riddle conceals a fact. A conflict between opposing interests is roaring in Venezuela, and attempts to stoke that conflict are being intensified by the imperialist-interventionist quarter as the day for a vote on the proposed Constituent Assembly—July 30—is nearing. Every day the mainstream media showers[Read More…]
Covering the recent battle for the city of Marawi on Mindanao Island in the Southern Philippines, the Western media has been grossly exaggerating unconfirmed reports and rumors. It has been spreading twisted information and ‘facts’. At the beginning of July, I visited Mindanao as one of only a few foreigners allowed inside the besieged city of Marawi and to its[Read More…]
Around a month ago, my sister said to me, “This world is disgusting.” She knew that I would understand her and, so, she didn’t need to say more. In other words, she had no imperative to explain her meanings, nor an inclination to back them up with facts to prove her viewpoint. She comprehends me well enough in[Read More…]
It is important to recognize how gender injustices underpin the caste, class and social inequities. “I did start going to school. But as I am a Dalit (untouchable), I was made to sit away from the rest of the children. If I touched some upper caste child, even by mistake, I would be thrashed by the teachers – who were[Read More…]
This has been a phenomenon quite old with the corporate world, but now it has acquired a glamorous face. .It is rural development or euphemistically called CSR tourism—brief visits by corporate leaders whose businesses are obliged to take up community development as part of public commitment. But, as is their wont, many businesses are using these opportunities for brand[Read More…]
The Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s resignation brings an end to not just an alliance, but an idea which was called Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) against Modi and the BJP at the national politics. A well-rehearsed play is going on, the characters are selective, and management team and director are quite smart. An alliance which was growing slowly with a hope[Read More…]
Since the gun battle at the al-Aqsa compound on 14 July that ended in the deaths of three Palestinian citizens of Israel and two Israeli police, Israeli media have largely focused on outrage that anyone would carry out an attack at a holy site, while praising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s collective punishment against the Palestinian population. “They are the strife mongers,” Yedioth Ahronot columnist[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
The RSS affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas headed by Dina NathBatra has sent a list of recommendations for the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) which had recently solicited public response for its review of school textbooks. The list includes removal of Paash’s poem, “The Most Dangerous”.
It plays out as a horror story of law enforcement. A distress call to the Minneapolis police about activity taking place behind the house on Washburn Avenue, possibly a sound of intercourse, distress, or both, taking place after 11 during the night of July 15. “Hi, I’m, I can hear someone out back and I, I’m not sure if she’s[Read More…]
All over the world, political speech and activism is being criminalized, no matter how peaceful, non-violent and warranted the protests may be. No where better can this criminalization be found than in Palestine where, for decades, Israeli military occupation forces continue to brutally suppress Palestinian’s people peaceful civil disobedience so much so that some organizations, like the Center for Constitutional[Read More…]
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane[Read More…]
Al Jazeera’s Arabic TV channel has been promoting both ISIS and Al Queda/Al Nusra for years now. ISIS and Al Nusra representatives appearing on the channel are greeted with “welcome back brother” and when finished are told to “go with god”. Rayan Mishaal, founding Director of the ISIS-Aamaq news agency, was a regular guest and when he was killed in[Read More…]
In a memo to President Trump, a group of former U.S. intelligence officers, including NSA specialists, cite new forensic studies to challenge the claim of the key Jan. 6 “assessment” that Russia “hacked” Democratic emails last year. MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Was the “Russian Hack” an Inside Job? Executive Summary Forensic studies of “Russian[Read More…]
PUDR investigated the aftermath of July 12, 2017, when Zohra Bibi, a domestic worker in Noida’s Mahagun Moderne, was severely beaten up and later went missing from her employer’s flat after allegations of theft were leveled against her. Subsequently, the local police, administration, Resident Welfare Association, as well as the MP and BJP minister Mahesh Sharma have been complicit in[Read More…]
The BJP’s new Bankruptcy and Insolvency Rules 2016 in India bluntly provide that individuals with debts over Rupees one thousand will lose their assets to a resolution professional if declared bankrupt or insolvent. The only excluded assets under fresh start rules are tools, books, vehicles and other equipment as are necessary to the debtor or bankrupt for his personal[Read More…]
This article is part of a series called #HeroesAndSheroesOfPluaralIndia under #AnHourForCommunalHramony campaign. This series will celebrate the Heroes and Sheroes who struggled to shape modern India in all its plurality. We kick off the series with the revolutionary Adivasi leader Komuram Bheem who raised the slogan ‘jal, jangal, jameen ‘ ( water, forest and land). All are welcome to contribute an hour of your day, in celebrating these Heroes and Sheroes of plural India
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
‘Overshoot’ is when a species uses resources faster than can be replenished. We’re already there. And show no signs of changing. Humans have a virtually unlimited capacity for self-delusion, even when self-preservation is at stake. The scariest example is the simplistic, growth-oriented, market-based economic thinking that is all but running the world today. Prevailing neoliberal economic models make no useful[Read More…]
Which is the most important bilateral relationship in the international arena today? Many analysts would argue that it is the relationship between the United States of America and China that has the greatest significance for the world. Some see it as the relationship between an established power and a rising power which has often led to war in the[Read More…]
There are two kinds of people: those with, and without, grace. President Trump can decide on which side he falls, although Mrs. Abe the Japanese Prime Minister’s wife has clearly made up her mind. Anyone who can read a whole speech in English knows enough to say, ‘Excuse me, I do not speak English well’. So, to not respond[Read More…]
It is an indisputable fact that the British colonizers built roads and railways in India, they established missionary schools, colleges and universities, they enforced English common law and the goal of exploiting the natural resources and the four hundred million strong Indian manpower at the time of independence in 1947, and trading raw materials for pennies and exporting finished goods[Read More…]
For decades the working people have been paying millions more than was needed into Social Security and for years the excess money has been borrowed by the government. Presently there is almost $3 trillion owed by the government to the Social Security Trust Fund. The Republican Party now controls the government and has a budget plan that will give[Read More…]
Rabbi Uri Pilichowski Yeshivat Migdal Hatorah Modi’in, Palestine Your article, My Jewish and Palestinian students visited Yad Vashem together is a welcome, albeit small step towards the reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis that will underpin harmony in the inevitable one democratic state underwriting equality for all its citizens. To ensure such steps truly bring the younger generations to respect[Read More…]
“In 1937, Winston Churchill said of the Palestinians, I quote, ‘I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to[Read More…]
“The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” — Wilfred Owen drawing upon Horace’s Odes Kipling’s Plain Tales from the Hills, Forster’s Passage to India, Orwell’s Burmese Days and Paul Scott’s Jewel in the Crown are read in academic circles and viewed by wider audiences courtesy of various media. And other dramatic fare focused on similar unfair settings has come down the pike. But — in[Read More…]
It appears that the massive, almost decade-long transfer of wealth to the rich known as ‘quantitative easing’ is coming to an end. Of the world’s four major central banks – the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan – two have already ended their policy of buying up financial assets (the[Read More…]
It is estimated that 40,000 people died in the US Alliance’s Mosul Massacre involving the explosive demolition of a huge city of 2 million inhabitants. This is but the latest atrocity in an Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide. Iraqi deaths from Western violence and imposed deprivation total 9 million since the British invasion in 1914. The post-tsunami peaceful settlement[Read More…]
In the ‘Safa Tempo,’ everyday whistles a chilled exhaustion of human struggle for survival. Every day the smell of a burnt human hope mingles with the unwashed dreams, reeking old sweat and limp manure of the commuters’ unfulfilled wishes. Safa Tempo, a metaphor of survival, reminding me of my villages I had left behind, the lips I’ve yet to kiss.[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
“King Trump is no more or less than a malarial mosquito in a stinking swamp of quicksand we’ve created. You can say the same about the Queen of England with regard to the British historical record and present momentum. They’re both deadly forces, but — ultimately — distractions from ourselves, our responsibility.” — Richard Martin Oxman Malaria comes from[Read More…]
The Human rights organisation, Amnesty International has brought out two reports, one in 2016 and another in 2017, highlighting details of prisoners facing death penalties and of undertrials in India. However both reports fail to mention that a majority of those facing death penalties or undertrials awaiting a hearing belong to the historically marginalised Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribes[Read More…]
In the natural world, a mother bear, during a particularly harsh winter in which it is hard to capture prey, will often eat one of her cubs. It will nearly always be the runt unless the larger one is sickly. If she is still hungry and unable to locate food from other species later that same winter, she will consume[Read More…]
As usual, commentary on the latest stand-off between Israel’s forces and Palestinian Muslims due to the closure of al-Aqsa mosque compound to Friday prayers on July 21, 2017 was confusing. One commentary goes like this: Yes, these are Muslims being killed, gassed and pushed around, but the “clashes” are not really about the encroachment on al-Aqsa by the so-called Temple[Read More…]
Particularly, in the US and some European States, the Israeli and Zionist versions of history are wide-spread. Israel’s narrative relies on a collection of myths aimed at bringing the moral right and the ethical behavior of the Palestinians into twilight and making their claim to their country appear as illegitimate. Israel’s negation of Palestinian existence in the Land of Palestine[Read More…]
What will entertainers do in his absence? White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was more than grist to the mill of celluloid delights, becoming, by the admission of the US President, a “tv hit” smoking the ratings. When a press secretary’s conduct is valued, not for the substance of his material, but the entertainment he garners, the Republic is surely[Read More…]
The morning newspaper of 21st July brought a sad news. Shabir Salaria, Former advocate General of the State & M.P had passed away, the previous day at the age of 83. Ina lillahi wa ina illahi rajaoon. Many persons have since expressed their grief and condolences to the bereaved family. Among them are leaders & stalwarts of National conference[Read More…]
Woman Work I’ve got the children to tend The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry The baby to dry I got company to feed The garden to weed I’ve got shirts to press The tots to dress The can to be cut I gotta clean up this hut Then[Read More…]
First phase of 8 day long campaign exposing the scam in Vizhinjam port project started on 15th July was inaugurated by Aam Admi Party Kerala state convener Adv. CR Neelakandan . The campaign covering entire Trivandrum where the new port is coming up. Every day campaign team with announcement vehicle covering 16 points and various speakers addressing the crowd at[Read More…]
According to intelligence reports from Iraq, the US-led massacre in Mosul has claimed a staggeringly higher toll of Iraqi civilian lives then had previously been reported. More than 40,000 men, women and children were killed in the grinding nine-month-long siege of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, according to a report published Thursday by the veteran Middle East correspondent for the British[Read More…]
This week Just Asia begins with India, where the Supreme Court passed a historic judgment last Friday, ordering the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into the allegations of ‘fake encounters’ by uniformed personnel in the conflict ridden state of Manipur. To ensure an impartial investigation, the Court ordered that no member of the Manipur police will be a part[Read More…]
Billions, perhaps trillions, will be spent to send weapons, weapon systems, fighter jets, ammunition, and military support to the region, fueling new arms races and raising the profits of U.S. weapon makers. But, we can choose to stand at the doors of our leaders and of our neighbors, honoring past sacrifices and the innocent lives we were unable to save, as we redouble efforts to stop war makers from constantly gaining the upper hand in our lives.
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
It seems that, when we are in trouble, we tend to revert to our childhood memories, seen as happy times that, somehow, could return. That may explain why President Trump is dreaming of an impossible return to coal. He may see the idea through his memories of childhood as a time of happy miners and prosperous families. Some others, instead,[Read More…]
You remember. It was supposed to be twenty-first-century war, American-style: precise beyond imagining; smart bombs; drones capable of taking out a carefully identified and tracked human being just about anywhere on Earth; special operations raids so pinpoint-accurate that they would represent a triumph of modern military science. Everything “networked.” It was to be a glorious dream of limited destruction combined[Read More…]
The final version of Turkey’s national school curriculum has left evolution out and added the concept of jihad as part of Islamic law in books. Announcing the new school curriculum, Turkish Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz told a press conference in Ankara on Monday, “Jihad is an element in our religion; it is in our religion… The duty of the[Read More…]
Abstract In this brief essay, I examine how public policy as a commodity under a business model, in which the state operating in accordance with neoliberal policies has evolved toward a more authoritarian orientation in the early 21st century. Whether in developing countries with high levels of public and private sector corruption, or in the US, the manner by which[Read More…]
“Our soils are sick from greed-based, irresponsible agricultural practices, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, erosion and mineral depletion, all of which stop or reduce adequate microbial activity in the soil, rendering them sick and/or dead and sterile. Sick soils make for sick plants and sick plants make for sick humans and animals.” Scott Tips, president of the National Health Federation, Crashing Monsanto’s Pesticide[Read More…]
Increasing control of economic and political elite in influencing national decisions and their usage of threats against those who question them are proving to be a threat to Indian Democracy. Voices of Dissent who keep a check on unquestionable exercise of power and control exercised by forces of economic and political power are being curtailed. Critical media and socially conscious[Read More…]
At least 217 farmers have ended their life in the month following Maharashtra Government’s farm loan waiver announcement on June 2 this year.This numbers for the month of June equal the average monthly figures in the past six months.
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Sunday, July 30, 5.00 PM Surrey City Hall Plaza 13450 104 Avenue, Surrey, BC There has been a systematic attack on the rich pluralist society and culture of India since Narendra Modi came to power with a Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) majority in 2014. A secular, democratic republic with guaranteed citizenship rights and constitutional protection of minorities is in the[Read More…]
In recent times, there hasn’t been much cheery in the power circles of Washington. The US is gradually finding itself unmoored and floating from international agreements at a dizzying rate. Its president is cool-mad distant, self-serving and occasionally clenching in peculiarity. And the traditional buffet room of conflict continues to be stacked with US interests and US armaments, armaments sales[Read More…]
We commit a big fallacy when we assume that our educational accomplishments are our individual achievements. We like to believe that we were born with a certain innate talent which makes us intellectually superior to all the rest. But the fact of the matter is that our innate talents aren’t all that different. Some people are born with genes that[Read More…]
Mashal Khan, a 23 year old journalism student was seized from his dorm room by a mob that stripped and beat him, then shot him dead on 13 April 2017 in Mardan in North West Pakistan. Khan was accused of offending Islam (Rasmussen and Baloch 2017). In the month of May 2017, a mob attacked a police station demanding that[Read More…]
On the green terrain of the fortitude, I have built a house out of the broken bricks, and the pebbles they had thrown at me. And I have painted my rooms bright, with the redness of the volcanic wound they had bequeathed me. And I’ve planted the thorns they had pierced me with in the garden, hoping to see them[Read More…]
The viability of Planet Earth to sustain human civilization in its present form is now being questioned. We are heading toward a cliff. The fall will not just be painful; it could spell the end of Homo sapiens. For a start, we urgently need to examine the rational undergirding our Capital Market system. Certain elements of that system, laboriously pieced[Read More…]
How you react to a threat depends on how serious you consider it. Small or moderate threats don’t deserve a strong reaction, while extreme, “existential” threats generate emergency measures. In between, there is an intermediate threat zone where you can think that it is a good idea to save yourself by cheating. It is what I called the “camper’s dilemma.”[Read More…]
“Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability”.[1] This is how ex- Secretary General Ban Ki Moon described energy in an event address at Washington DC. This single statement reflects how access to energy can be vital in bringing positive change to lives especially for the marginalized. Studies have shown a strong correlation[Read More…]
A few times a year, my parents took me to a restaurant in NYC when I was very young, indeed under school age. For the occasion, my parents asked me to dress-up – to put on best fancy clothes and shoes, my patent leather ones — all black, shiny and perfect to go out on the town. I complied. So[Read More…]
Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and then drove to an Israeli police station in Occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. The 39-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a term of 4 months in jail for, allegedly, trumped up charges of ‘trying to hit an Israeli soldier’. Misbah is familiar with[Read More…]
‘Let alone China, India cannot win a war against Pakistan. And this has nothing to do with possession of nuclear weapons-the roles of nuclear & conventional weapons are separate in the war planning of India, China and Pakistan.” These are the first three lines taken from ‘Prologue, of the recently published book ‘Dragon on our doorstep’ by Pravin Sawhney &[Read More…]
Helicopter service to Kargil has been overdue but the real requirement is a regular civilian air connection to the area pending for decades which could put it on the World Tourism Map! It was a pleasant surprise to see a video of the dramatic Nun-Kun peaks in the Suru Valleyof Kargil on the Facebook taken from a helicopter of Pawan[Read More…]
Next week, Hyderabad is set to host the 19th round of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) from July 24 to 28, a regional trade agreement between India, the ten member states of the ASEAN and, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and Republic of Korea. This trade deal threatens to undermine the ability of some of the world’s poorest people to[Read More…]
The Gaza Strip is often seen as a place apart, cut off from the rest of the world and the rest of Palestine by Israel – with the collusion to varying degrees of Egypt – which appears bent on its isolation. But while it is true that the passage of people and goods to and from Gaza is severely restricted,[Read More…]
United States of America has been the leader of nations for a while. From fashion and food to “war on terror” other nations simply follow the leader. But people embrace American products like McDonald, Nike, iPhone and other American lifestyle by choice. So it is unfair to say that the US gets the world to follow it under the gun.[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
This article was originally published in February 2017 and is even more relevant now. This “Pussy hat Project” group has morphed now into something called “The Resistance”, which invites the discredited Democratic Party and right wing liberals under its tent, and is funded by Hillary Clinton and George Soros. At a time when capitalism is in its worse world crisis ever,[Read More…]
Abstract The review article discusses the condition of Air Quality and Pollution in India with relevant references from prominent sources like The Environment Performance Index 2016, The Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) 2016, Ambient Air Pollution Database, WHO, May2016, Clear the air for children: The impact of air pollution on children UNICEF 2016 and many others. It comprehensively studies the[Read More…]
The Guardian,UK. had a suggestion for the battle against climate change“Want to fight climate change.Have fewer children .” This was known already & yet, since this has been extensively researched in a scientific fashion, this makes for a few headlines. And yet, will it make us, the humans ( ? ! ) any wiser ? Highly doubtful..Weare depleting natural resources[Read More…]
You can smell it at a distance, in the burnt out, blackened frames of torched homes and vehicles from yet another communal pogrom. You can see it in the blood stained corner of a railway platform, still fresh from a recent lynching. And you can hear it in the guttural cries of the frenzied, saffron swathed mobs, pledging murder[Read More…]
Last Week, David Wallace-Wells wrote a cover story for of New York Magazine, “The Uninhabitable Earth,” on some of the worst-case scenarios that the climate crisis could cause by the end of this century. It describes killer heat waves, crippling agricultural failures, devastated economies, plagues, resource wars, and more. It has been read more than two million times. The article has[Read More…]
Jantar Mantar is the protest street of Delhi. People from all over India gather in this street to vent their anger, frustration and despair. Vidyabhushan Rawat takes a walk down the street to document the various protests happening in Jantar Mantar today. Text and Photos by Vidya Bhushan Rawat Delhi witnessed huge protests by diverse sections people affected by the[Read More…]
I was recently reading Rabindranath Tagore’s essay on Nationalism and that was when the enormity, farsightedness and the sheer genius of his thoughts stuck me….and stuck me hard. While we are busy today, coming to terms with a whole new dimension that is being provided to the term ‘nationalism’, while we are busy defining and redefining the ways in which[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
That matters have come to a head in South Africa is going to prove to be the catalyst for change that is overdue. The myth that the ANC is governing the country for the benefit of all its people has been smashed. It has become a party of the ANC elites who have one agenda, which is using their[Read More…]
It’s all well and good to huff at the current President of the United States, who has managed to get under more irritated skin than an army of dedicated leaches. The immersion of the White House into the reality television show of Trumpland has set people on edge, lighting volatile fires and driving some commentators, quite literally, around the bend.[Read More…]
“A People’s History of the World is an indispensable volume on my reference bookshelf.” — Howard Zinn Over the course of several months this year, I surveyed four-year college and university History departments at select academic institutions in the fifty United States. To determine whether or not professors thought slavery caused racism or racism caused slavery. I also addressed the same[Read More…]
The Six Day War – The Breaking of the Middle East. Guy Laron. Yale University Press, New Haven/London, 2017. Between a short Introduction that attempts to construct the underlying social science rationale for the outbreak of the Six Day War and a short epilogue that simply highlights the major trend of the Six Day War lies what appears to be[Read More…]
My take on the situation in our country today is that the BJP must decide what it is – bird or beast. It must decide what its core ideology is. I am happy to do a Core Ideology Workshop for them and the RSS if they want. The problem is that they seem to be confused in this respect and[Read More…]
Deep into the pit Surrounding dark sewage and dirt With nauseated stench And Whole body drench With human urination And defecation Manual scavengers clean Risking lives Leaving family bonds Sitting in cozy toilets And air-conditioned rooms Pass our wastage Into long winding drainage We talk of technology Development and ecology But With their bare hands, legs and misery And[Read More…]
A photo shared on Twitter by activist Ye Du was inserted in arecent front-page story in the New York Times. The skeletal like couple (Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia) clinging onto one another will break any heart. In the photo, frail Xiaobo is pictured in his hospital pajamas and delicate Xia with shaved head in her everyday street clothes. The[Read More…]
Here, white are the nights
Where moonwalk the women in white.
I lie in the nude and close my eyes
And they roll a cool moon down my spine
And laugh like the patter of hailstones
That strum my sun bleached heartbeat strings.
It is far from unusual in recent times: a spate of terrorist activity, followed by police seemingly agog, then the call for cavalry, usually in the form of military forces to guard vital installations and furnish the public with a reassuring presence. Unfortunately, such moves tend to take place long after the horse has bolted, an ineffectual measure in terms[Read More…]
I view Saudi Arabia as a dysfunctional manifestation of Islam. In the same way, I view Israel as a dysfunctional manifestation of Judaism. This is not to mean, I hasten to say, that either Judaism or Islam is inherently at odds with the social, cultural or political lives of its adherents or with universal moral values. The point I am[Read More…]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday there will be no mercy for traitors. Speaking at a rally in Istanbul to mark one year of a failed coup, Erdogan warned to “chop off the heads” of traitors. The opposition says his call for “chopping off the heads” may return the capital punishment abolished in August 2002, in a bid[Read More…]
The Ancient Greeks knew: “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.” No less a figure than the late Zbigniew Brzezinski and the CIA made use of this saying by recruiting the Muslim Brotherhood to fight a proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which led to the[Read More…]
“What type of poem am I?” I am as formless as the clouds, and as elegiac as the silence, in the itinerary of the noise. I am not a classic written by the author God. The rhythms of my verses are supplied by the parable of their tears. I am not in me, though I abide within myself. I am[Read More…]
The PUCL condemns the action of Mumbai Police for registering on 16th July, 2017 a criminal case of defamation and obscenity against the comedy group, `All India Bakchod’ (AIB) for allegedly caricaturing the PM, Narendra Modi. According to the police AIB had on Thursday, 15th July, tweeted a picture of a Modi look-alike standing in a railway station, peering into[Read More…]
Comedian turned politician Kumar Vishwas received an angry reception from several activists in Surrey, BC on Friday evening. The group of protesters included Sikh and leftist activists, besides supporters of Aam Aadmi Party. Though Vishwas also belongs to the AAP, a section of the local AAP support group is upset with his “right wing ” politics. The protesters were offended[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
The arrival of monsoon has again brought the deadly flood havoc in Assam and the rest of the North-East. Over the years, it has been witnessed that during monsoons especially, in between May- July, Assam has to undergo heavy floods, river bank erosions and its severe consequences of loss of lives, livelihood and property. This year’s flood is also[Read More…]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan is expected to decide the fate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when it takes up the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report on Monday, July 17. The JIT has charged the ruling family with perjury, having disproportionate income and living beyond their means. Two judges of the court have already declared the Prime Minister as not[Read More…]
Australia threatens the world as a major greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter but also kills 75,000 people globally each year via toxic pollutants from the burning of its world-leading coal exports. Below is an Open Letter sent to journalists of the ABC (Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC) over ABC censorship of horrendous, Australia-complicit, Australian and global air pollution deaths[Read More…]
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has launched a private security firm “Parakram Suraksha Private Ltd’. The aim of the company ensuring security and developing military instinct. According to Acharya Balakrishna, CEO of Ramdev’s Patanjali, “Security is a very important issue either for a man or a woman. Our aim is to prepare individuals for self and country’s security and for this[Read More…]
The recent terror attack on innocent Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir has evoked an outrage throughout the world. Seven people died and more than dozen got injured in an attack on a bus carrying pilgrims to Amarnath shrine that houses an iced idol of Lord Shiva. Every year thousands of Hindus visit Amarnath from across India. Due to ongoing armed[Read More…]
13th July, 2017, Hyderabad: WSS and THITS express outrage at the brutal physical and sexual assault of a 34 year old transgender woman by a group of army personnel. WSS demands stringent penal action against all the accused, a speedy investigation and trial, as well as complete medical treatment, compensation and legal support to the survivor (name concealed to respect[Read More…]
The Catholic Church, much in the manner of a modern corporation, is a sprawling edifice of operations and functions. To hold part of it accountable for abuses – against human, bank account, or country – has presented a formidable legal obstacle. This nightmare has taken place amidst a broader question: the extent Church officials believe they are accountable to secular[Read More…]
“The Declaration of Independence said governments are not sacred things. The laws are not sacred things. Governments are set up by people to defend rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And when governments become destructive of those ends, it’s the right of the people to alter or abolish those governments.” — Howard Zinn The obligation of the[Read More…]
The Italian Kautalya, Niccolo Machiavelli, is supposed to have said that ‘Politics is the art of deception’ (or maybe it was the Indian Machiavelli, Kautilya, himself). Whoever it was, he has an able student in the Indian prime minister (PM) – a prestidigitator par excellence. Now, a good prestidigitator is one who will distract you with some dazzling spectacle[Read More…]
The election of Donald Trump as president of United States has sent waves of condemnation and fear throughout Western states. Western “humanitarian” interventionists, political commentators, “progressives” and academics are concern that a “pre-fascist” or a “crypto-fascist” regime is “on the rise” in America. This is an empty rhetoric designed to mislead people for undeclared propaganda aims and deflect attention[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh): Aruna Athaluri. Media person. My friend. She was working with a Telugu television news channel when I first met her. Now she is with the Telugu daily, Sakshi. Despite being friends, we had not spent even four hours together during my four-year stay at Hyderabad. Both of us had tight deadlines to meet, almost always. At that time, I[Read More…]
The country is experiencing a spate of violence with cases of lynching in different parts of India. The citizen is hapless and government is unresponsive betraying its authoritarian tendencies rooted in its ideology. Over a couple of decades , BJP has grown on vigilante politics rooted in ideology of RSS and Hindutva, a distorted interpretation of Hinduism which is[Read More…]
Chinese Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo has met his end. The end signifies several things- that no state oppression can ever defeat the strong will of the people. Liu stood for a cause and state did its oppressive acts as is the nature of the non democratic states, but he defeated the Chinese policy of restriction to dissidents as[Read More…]
I asked my employer yesterday about the way that he dealt with tragedy in life, especially since there is so much of it always erupting everywhere. He answered that he tries to find something of joy to celebrate in every day and tries to bring something good to others – other people, other animals and other life as a[Read More…]
Visit My Home, Be My Guest is a simple campaign directed to change the preconceived notions and opinions that we hold about people of other community, class, caste, religion, sexual orientation, language, region etc. It is easy to spread hatred in the absence of direct contact with each other. The objective is simple and direct, people must go to each[Read More…]
Two officers sought me from within a crowd at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. They seemed to know who I was. They asked me to follow them, and I obliged. Being of Arab background, often renders one’s citizenship almost irrelevant. In a back room, where other foreigners, mainly Muslims, were holed for ‘added security’, I was asked numerous questions about[Read More…]
Hasan Breijieh is a Palestinian activist and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He participates in weekly protest activities against the Israeli military presence in the West Bank (aka occupation), the illegal Jewish colonies turned into townships on stolen Palestinian land (aka settlements) that choke off Palestinian villages around Bethlehem and elsewhere, and the illegal[Read More…]
Peaceful, or not, Islam is only a religion just like any other cosmopolitan religion whether it’s Christianity, Buddhism or Hinduism. Instead of taking an essentialist approach, which lays emphasis on essences, we need to look at the evolution of social phenomena in its proper historical context. For instance: to assert that human beings are evil by nature is an essentialist[Read More…]
Members of an Ahwazi Arab family were arrested after Iranian security forces beat them and ransacked their home. On July 11, 2017, human rights activists in Arab Ahwaz region in the south and south west of Iran reported that Iranian security forces arrested an Ahwazi Arab woman, Zahra Sawari, and two of her sons, Mohammad Sawari and Ali Sawari, after[Read More…]
Report By National Co-ordination of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO) and Bandi Mukti Committee In the early morning of 18th May, 2017, Sobhapur (Dist. – Saraikela, P.S. – Rajnagar, Jharkhand) witnessed the brutal torture and subsequent killing ofSheikh Naim, Sheikh Siraj,Md. Sajjad, and Sheikh Halim by a mob, on the suspicion of kidnapping children (‘bachchachor’ in local language).On the same day,Goutam[Read More…]
Co-Written by V. Ramaswamy & V. Srinivasan “Few object to liberty in the sense of a right to free movement, in the sense of a right to life and limb. There is no objection to liberty in the sense of a right to property, tools, and materials, as being necessary for earning a living, to keep the body in a[Read More…]
A Group of GMOA members and the medical faculty undergraduates were on their way to pelt stones on SAITM building in Malabe. On the way, they saw Lord Buddha meditating under a ‘Bo’ tree. They all went to him and told ‘Oh, Most Venerable! We are on our way to pelt stones at SAITM in order to protect the standard[Read More…]
All sections of Kashmir Society have condemned the dastardly attack on a bus ferrying Yatris to Holy Amarnath cave. Seven yatris were killed in the cowardly attack and many more injured. While feeling grieved and outpouring of emotions is a natural human trait, what is bad and loathsome, is the mention of Islam & Muslims in their condolence messages. Many[Read More…]
(Modi’s hug of President Ruvi reminds one about the two opposites embracing each other just for the hatred of the third one considered by the both, a common enemy!) Like the North Pole and the South Pole meeting for the formation of the present State Government in J & K, the hug between President Ruvi and Prime Minister Modi[Read More…]
In the upcoming presidential election, the BJP candidate Ramnath Kovind’s election to the post of the President of India is fait accompli. The debate around the presidential election is restricted to BJP playing the caste-card. The Congress fielding Meira Kumar against BJP’s caste-card, merely changes the discourse as to whose candidate is the better or more authentic ‘Dalit’. One[Read More…]
“Earlier my husband would taunt me for not conceiving and said that I was barren. Then he became angry when I gave birth to a daughter. He warned me that if I ever produced a girl again, he would kill me. My in-laws would instigate him and he would thrash me. Father and son both used very abusive language[Read More…]
This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where police brutality and violence continues. Three videos show how law enforcement officials regularly transcend their authority and abuse ordinary citizens, with a complete lack of accountability. In the most recently surfaced video, a group of police officers are baton charging unarmed women mill workers in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. Next, three journalists have been[Read More…]
Ivor Jennings, who was primarily responsible for drafting our Constitution upon gaining Independence from the British, handed us a secular constitution. Multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural as Ceylon was then and now is, the Jennings Constitution safeguarded certain rights of the country’s minorities in no uncertain fashion. It was commonly known as Soulbury Constitution and consisted of The Ceylon Independence Act,[Read More…]
While the government is set to forgive billions of dollars of farm debts, the actually distressed class among them will have little respite from their misery .They owe their debts to moneylenders whereas the government waiver applies only to formal credit. In Maharashtra, farmers’ dependence on private money lenders has shown a steep rise. Loans disbursed by private money[Read More…]
The second book from Countercurrents.org publishing is out. It is a book on the cow politics in India and the resultant lynchings that’s happening around the country. It is titled “The Political Economy Of Beef Ban”. This volume contains 57 articles on beef and the politics around it, how it has affected the social fabric of India and the people,[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
A friend of mine from India tells a story about driving an old Volkswagen beetle from California to Virginia during his first year in the United States. In a freak ice storm in Texas he skidded off the road, leaving his car with a cracked windshield and badly dented doors and fenders. When he reached Virginia he took the car[Read More…]
In the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration, George Orwell’s 1984 soaredonto bestseller lists, as did Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which also hit TV screens in a storm of publicity. Zombies, fascists, and predators of every sort are now stalking the American imagination in ever-greater numbers and no wonder, given that guy in the Oval Office. Certainly, 2017 is already offering[Read More…]
The need to tick off the tactical and strategic boxes in the interminable war against Islamic State is so pressing it acquires the quality of ham acting, where generals and leaders become thespians of exaggerated promise before the camera. Nothing typified this more than the euphoric statements outlined by the Iraqi leadership in the aftermath of its efforts to retake[Read More…]
The seven-million-strong American Muslim Community Sunday (July 9) mourned the death of Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, a prolific author and professor whose career centered on dismantling stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in the US media. He was perhaps most famous for his book “Reel Bad Arabs,” where he chronicled over 900 movies where Arabs were represented negatively. In addition[Read More…]
When Israel passed a new counter-terrorism law last year, Ayman Odeh, a leader of the country’s large minority of Palestinian citizens, described its draconian measures as colonialism’s “last gasp”. He said: “I see … the panic of the French at the end of the occupation of Algeria.” The panic and cruelty plumbed new depths last week, when Israeli officials launched[Read More…]
The case surrounding the approval of genetically modified (GM) mustard in India is coming to a head on the back of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) recommending approval. The final decision now rests with Harsh Vardhan, minister of the environment. As India’s first commercial GM food crop, the concern is that it is in effect a Trojan horse crop and an[Read More…]
Please share these counter-arguments far and wide, in order to educate your fellow citizens, and, if necessary, to provide the intellectual beat-downs needed when arguing with pro-capitalists. So without further ado, here is our list of the most devious “Lies that Capitalists Tell Us”:
Liu Xiaobo (born-28 December 1955), the only Nobel Peace Prize winner from authoritarian Communist state China appears to be on death bed. Chinese government has disallowed him to move out of the country for the liver cancer treatment. China fears lest he should emerge as the magnet for the anti Chinese forces which are gaining ground at least in the[Read More…]
In the 13 Rules for Radicals by American Activist Saul Alinsky for the Community Organisers, the first rule is “Power is not what you think you have but what the enemy thinks you have.” These rules are for the low income Communities towards gaining social, political, economic and legal power. Also, the radicalism has been described a sone of the[Read More…]
Having just bought the novel, I read Sukamaran’s reluctantly negative review of Arundhati Roy’s, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and discovered for myself that I had not entered “The Ministry of Utmost Boredom” but a world intensely crammed, like India itself, with the vicissitudes and minutae of the human condition ranging from rapture to agony, from goodness and evil[Read More…]
Israel and India have become great friends with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Jewish nation. As a result Israel will help India to have more sophisticated weapons to fight terror. Friendship should usher in greater peace. That is what friendship in my understanding means. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies[Read More…]
No glass in the windows a shell hole in the roof wretched tanks, old fighter jets and rust kissed guns lie around as discarded toys. In the distance traits of dust rises from Anglo-American vehicles running after the Taliban cocoons. Fighter bombers passes overhead repeatedly cough, cold and stomatch bug rules. Nearby, a seven year old child picks up[Read More…]
Book Review: India & Communism by B R Ambedkar, Introduction by Anand Teltumbde, Left Word, New Delhi, 2017, p. 156 History repeats itself twice, not infrequently as tragedy for the masses of the people. All across the word, there is the emergence and rise to power of neofascism under various garbs and leaderships–from Hungary’s Viktor Orban to Greece’s Nikos Michaloliakos[Read More…]
Nandini Sundar’s case study of Podiyam Panda’s plight as a victim of the police plot to show him off to the press as a surrendered Maoist’ (re: Questionable legality of the Surrender Process in Chhattisgarh’ in the Counter-currents website of May 23, 2017), not only re-iterates the well-established notorious role of the Indian police in framing innocent people, but also throws [Read More…]
July 4, 1946 was the day of martyrdom of Doddi Komarayya, a young man from a poor peasant and shepherd family of Kadivendi village of the then Nalgonda district. (Now it is in Warangal district of Telangana state, TS.) This day is regarded as a marker indicating the beginning of armed struggle of Telangana. Martyrdom of Komarayya: A Turning[Read More…]
Despite being a land where Jewish communities thrived, historically, Kerala’s public mind remained a natural sympathizer for the cause of Palestine. Deeply embedded in Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much hyped alliance with Isreal is an affirmation from the Left of their strong ideological support for Palestine in changing times. Narendra Modi[Read More…]
A fifteen-year old boy was lynched to death in a train by a mob, when he was returning home with his relatives, on the evening of Thursday, 22nd June after doing his Eid shopping in Delhi. The mob threw his body at Asaoti railway station near Faridabad. The boy’s name was Junaid Khan. There have been more than a dozen[Read More…]
The ‘Not In My Name’ campaigners held a vigil at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday, 11 July, 2017, 7 p.m. to mourn the killings of Amarnath pilgrims a day earlier. For this gathering arithmetic (numbers) went against the protesters. At any given point of time the number was under one hundred. There were no slogans, no speeches, a two minute silence[Read More…]
Soon after the Attack on Civilian Bus in which Seven Amarnath Pilgrims Killed and Dozens Injured, on Monday. Widespread condemnation poured out from every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley. Kashmiris took Social media, (Facebook, Twitter) Responses against the Painful attack Here are some Responses; Is Mehbooba Mufti in senses? What has Islam to do what Yatri killing, and why[Read More…]
Any cowardly, armed or mobbed attack on unarmed people must be condemned in no uncertain terms. We, who came out in “Not in my name” protest at Jantar-Mantar against Gorakshak mob lynching, also came out to protest against the ghastly act of attack on Amarnath pilgrims. But why the Salim Sheikh, is, instead of being praised for his presence of[Read More…]
Our call for #An Hour For Communal Harmony has got wonderful response from around the country. As our first event, blood and organ donation camps will be held in major cities/towns in India in the first week of August. New Delhi, Kolkotta, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Trivandurm, Kochi, Calicut have come on board. The slogan of the campaign is “India United[Read More…]
In the periphery of the circles in which I travel, people do not actively defend what it means to be a member of the Democratic Party. They come on much stronger when they say they are against the Republican Party. And why not? The Republican Party is the party of old money, inheritance, white supremacy and fundamentalist Christianity. Republicans and[Read More…]
Some people have likened the Earth to a relatively small lifeboat wheeling in an incredibly vast sea of outer space. If they also think that the sinking of the Titanic was a sad disaster, they will be heartbroken over the tragic devastation when this sort of decimating occurrence happens on a planetary scale … Some time ago, I read[Read More…]
Virtually every segment of society was impacted by the democratic upsurge in the United States in the 1960’s and Puerto Ricans were no exception. Puerto Ricans in a number of places came together to form organizations and participate in multiracial coalitions in order to address a number of pressing problems. Among the most popular Puerto Rican organizations was the Young[Read More…]
The portrayal of Muslim women in the media is grim and sombre. The public perception of them is one of stubborn stereotypes: supposedly powerless and oppressed, behind walls and veils, demure, voiceless and silent figures, discriminated and bereft of even basic rights. This picture keeps reinforcing itself, largely because this is how the Western media caricatures women in Islam.[Read More…]
Hate speech, lynching, mob violence, ransacking public property etcetera have become a part and parcel of our daily lives. The right wing cultural brigade of the Sangh Parivar increasingly finds itself at the very centre of all such episodes. At the same time, there is little clarity among people about who exactly does the “dirty work” for a particular party[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Since 2013, Sri Lanka has been witnessing a spike in targeted attacks on the Muslim and Christian minorities by hard-line Sinhala-Buddhist groups. It began with a fringe organisation’s campaign against halal certification, forcing shops to stop selling meat labelled for Islamic guidelines. A series of attacks on mosques and shops owned by Muslims followed. Within a year, violent communal clashes[Read More…]
The notion of economic growth as a regular, ongoing, self-sustained process no longer holds up to critical analysis. Even during what’s been called “The Glorious Thirty” – the years between the end of World War II and the 1974 oil crisis – growth occurred almost solely in industrialized countries and involved a minority of the world population; it was built[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Several days a week, Laurie Hasbrook arrives at the Voices office here in Chicago. She often takes off her bicycle helmet, unpins her pant leg, settles into an office chair and then leans back to give us an update on family and neighborhood news. Laurie’s two youngest sons are teenagers, and because they are black teenagers in Chicago they[Read More…]
On its 20th anniversary, the Asia Society of Australia has issued a very important collection of essays by over 20 scholars and other professionals that considers future mutually beneficial interactions between rich and peaceful Australia (the Switzerland of Asia) and South Asian, East Asian and South East Asian countries, notably India, China, Japan and Indonesia. Despite some major key omissions[Read More…]
This new global alignment is a positive. The US has dominated the world for too long and must learn to become a cooperative partner. And as US power is waning on the world stage, there is an opening for people power in solidarity across borders to grow.
There is no denying that much of the Arab-Muslim world is in political, social and economic confusion and disarray as it strives for religious harmony in a similar manner that had divided Europe. The American Empire, however, is in chaos as it struggles with the economic, political and social home grown problems effecting and mirroring the Roman Empire2000 years ago.[Read More…]
Goods & services tax Act has finally been applied on the State of Jammu & Kahmir . After receiving concurrence from the State Govt., the president of India has issued an order under section 370(1) – The constitutional(Application to J&K) Amendment order 2017—which paves way for application of GST to State The application of GST Act was preceded by[Read More…]
Atmosphere polluted Food adulterated Water contaminated Earth! Why are you silent? Meandering along The strife – torn lands With people lynching River ! Why are you silent ? (1) Crops failures Farmers suicides Wailing bereaved families Conscience ! Why are you silent? Bombings and shootings Killing Innocents with drones Battles on borders Peace! Why are you silent? Rapes and murders[Read More…]
Book Review: Bashir Ahmad Dabla. Domestic Violence Against Women in Kashmir Valley. Srinagar: Jay Kay Book Shop, 2009. XIII+ 115 PP. Rs. 495 (INR). ISBN 81-87221-23-2 Professor Bashir Ahmad Dabla, was a prominent Sociologist the soil of Kashmir has ever produced. He was the founder of the Department of Sociology and Social Work at University of Kashmir. Dabla , has[Read More…]
What happened in Baduria and Basirhat of West Bengal is a warning. What is happening in Darjeeling is a warning. What is happening in Jammu and Kashmir is a warning. When people are getting lynched for their food choices, it is a warning. What is happening to dalits, adivasis and other minorities in present day India is a warning. Can you[Read More…]
“I think it’s very clear that we could not reach consensus, but the differences were not papered over, they were clearly stated.” Angela Merkel, BBC News, Jul 8, 2017 Such gatherings and summits are not always smooth, but on a planet bearing witness to a Trump presidency, there was always going to be a chance for more excitement at[Read More…]
The recent confessional “I Like Gaza”, written by Uri Avnery –Peace Activist, Journalist, founding member of the peace bloc Gush Shalom, former publisher and editor-in-chief of the news magazine Haolam Hazeh, founding member of the Knesset, founding member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, and columnist for Internet – will break the heart of anyone who has ever anguished[Read More…]
The Reminiscent of the Beloved Witness-Aga Shahid Ali They ask me to tell them what Shahid means- Listen: It means ‘The Beloved’ in Persian, ‘witness’ in Arabic. (Aga Shahid Ali) From the ancient times, Kashmir has remained a hot seat of learning and scholasticism. The land has produced a great number of writers and intellectuals who wrote about the congeniality[Read More…]
Citizens enable the modern democratic State. With all its highs and lows and the complexity, democracy enables citizens to actively participate in the process of governing. Although democratic system allows citizens to actively participate in the governing process, it is up to the citizens to take that decision whether to participate in the governing or not. While social, political and[Read More…]
Governments are not known to be benevolent organizations. On the contrary, when it is question of ensuring their own survival, they are ruthless. And they are well known to lie to people. The case of the “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq is well known but, at least, eventually it became clear that it was a lie: these weapons didn’t[Read More…]
The role of power generation for sustained economic growth of a country cannot be denied. India generates about 330,000 MW of power each year. Thermal Power project generates about 218,330 MW of power. This includes power generation through Coal, Gas and Diesel. Nuclear, Hydro and other renewable sources generate about 1, 11,670 MW of power. Power generated meet the growing[Read More…]
If anything, this is the first time this century is faced with a seemingly intractable set of overlapping problems.They range from Poverty and Unemployment, Human Rights and Climate Change, to xenophobic levels of fear of Global Terrorism, Wars in the Middle East and Africa and, importantly the climacteric threat of war in the Japanese Peninsula.The latter concern must receive priority[Read More…]
Resistance to the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, climate change policy, and economic fairness has been fierce. But alongside these efforts—from flooding representatives’ phone lines to packing town hall meetings to marching in protest—it’s also important to begin the work of building alternatives to the systems that underlie the exploitation of people and planet. The understandable focus on Trump—with his[Read More…]
About a hundred miles north of Bangalore, India, in the village of Thimmamma Marrimanu grows an eponymous banyan tree. There are all kinds of records for trees: the tallest, the stoutest, the oldest, and so on, but the record for the largest canopy, at an astounding five acres, is held by this banyan. And it also holds the key to[Read More…]
More than 90 years has passed since the important event where the Iranian regime occupied Alahwaz. It began on the 20th of April 1925 where they practiced all forms of oppression and persecution against Alahwazi Arabs, policies of internationally banned and Arab ethnic cleansing, where they began the confiscation of land and the destruction of villages, settlement building and changed[Read More…]
The more conservative a society, the more is its ritualistic overtone, and vice versa. In other words, by the very definition of conservatism – an ideology built around the idea to conserve – is heavily dependent on various rituals and practices epitomizing that ‘ism’ of conservation. Therefore, conservatism and ritualistic celebration are directly proportional to each other and not at[Read More…]
Something strange happened to the British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and to the British public on the way to the recently held election in the UK. Once the target of widespread criticism from within his party and the mainstream media, his leadership deemed a disaster and his policies too extreme to be winnable, Corbyn surprised his critics and the pundits[Read More…]
This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where police brutality and violence continues. Three videos show how law enforcement officials regularly transcend their authority and abuse ordinary citizens, with a complete lack of accountability. In the most recently surfaced video, a group of police officers are baton charging unarmed women mill workers in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. Next, three journalists have been[Read More…]
There’s warning and concern, there’s assurance and optimism, and, there’s accusation and threat. All these were delivered and expressed by Mr. Donald Trump, the US president. The US president was in Warsaw, a historic city, and was delivering a speech in front of people gathered at Krasinski Square, and was speaking at a news conference. All these happened on[Read More…]
The immediate need of the families affected by this incident is related to water, Food, temporary shelter (Shaded) till they recover their belongings from under the debris and start to make their living. As a secondary need they will require support for the proper rehabilitation within the legal framework. Things to be taken in notice is that although there’s a big population of women in the slum, no women police officers were present at the time of demolition.
The last few decades has seen the rise of religious nationalism, fascism, conservative right wing politicsall over the world. As these authoritarian forces of hate and repression rise inexorably, it is no longer tenable toconfine resistance or struggles for social change entirely within the boundaries of the nation-state. The fact is that national borders are modern day mirages, conjured up[Read More…]
It’s all fine while it remains on the stage, a matter of contained, almost camp displays of grunting and strutting. The diplomats can still have some say; the foreign ministries retain some hold over the military instinct. But the longer the Korean Nuclear Dance continues, the more likely it will repel the jaw jaw option in favour of war war.[Read More…]
The Coordination of Science and Technology Institutes’ Student Associations (COSTISA) expresses its solidarity with the ongoing students’ movement against the fees hike in IIT Bombay. Barely a year after introducing a two-fold hike in tuition fees for UGs, the institute has made a unilateral decision to increase the fees for all students. There has been, a 300 % hike in[Read More…]
The Indian state’s response to New York- based Sikh advocacy group’ s controversial posters asking for the referendum for independent Sikh state in 2020 shows double standards. The Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) is asking for the referendum in Punjab so that the Sikhs can decide their political future. The SFJ supports Khalistan, an imaginary Sikh homeland to be carved out[Read More…]
There have been several brutal lynchings of Muslims and beatings of dalits on the issue of Holy cow. Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Pehlu Khan in Mewat being just two of the cases from the long list. In these cases some pretext is cooked up to beat the cow traders or those consuming meat or beef. The incidence of Una shows that[Read More…]
The North Koreans sent us a gift on July 4th. In the morning, — their time, it was still July 3rd evening here — they launched a missile. It reached a height of 1741 miles (2802 Km) which was 400 miles higher than the earlier May 14 launch. Calling it the Hwasong-14, they have claimed it has a range[Read More…]
The Middle East. Could there be a more perilous place on Earth, including North Korea? Not likely. The planet’s two leading nuclear armed powers backing battling proxies amply supplied with conventional weapons; terror groups splitting and spreading; religious-sectarian wars threatening amid a plethora of ongoing armed hostilities stretching from Syria to Iraq to Yemen. And that was before Donald Trump[Read More…]
The arrests of 31 Dalit activists in Lucknow, state capital of Uttar Pradesh, is an ominous marker of the things to come. Add the circumstances of their arrest and they also hint at an authoritarian regime lurching around, set for the takeover of whatever little is left of dissent, democracy and the rule of law in the state. The arrests[Read More…]
Bhupendra Singh Chudasama, Education minister of Gujarat and his colleague AtmaramParamar, who handles the Social Justice Ministry, were in the news sometime back- albeit for wrong reasons. A video went viral which showed them participating in a felicitation ceremony of exorcists in Botad. They were also seen watching how a couple of the exorcists were beating themselves with metal[Read More…]
A law student in any university anywhere in the world is taught that before convicting a person of a crime a detailed reasoned judgement ought to be ready. In fact in criminal cases the judgement convicting a person is pronounced on a particular day; and the quantum of punishment is announced later after the lawyers have had a[Read More…]
Known worldwide as the champion of human rights and gender equality, the United States of America, it seems, has failed miserably to live up to its own standards when it comes to the issue of gender pay gap. A report by PayScale Inc., published on July 5, 2017 said that for equal work women in the U.S are paid less[Read More…]
In this blistering, nuanced, and timely critique of work culture and society, Romi Mahajan argues in his new book ” Coporate Society And Its Perils” that young people can (and must) forge a career path based on freedom, creativity, and citizenship. Mahajan argues that the pressure from almost all quarters for young people to succumb to the blandishments and enticements[Read More…]
With the failure of the Democratic establishment, the crisis of liberal democracy is now seized by a new rise of power. The US empire with Trump as commander-in-chief has renewed its vow toward colonial domination. With nationalism and militarism in full swing, Trump’s America aims to radically alter the future of this country. His campaign slogan “make America great again”[Read More…]
The new Israeli law giving police power to block websites that purportedly publish “criminal” or “offensive” content follows a similar blockade of various websites in Palestine by the 13-year president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas – all in the name of “law and order”, “peace” and “fighting terrorism”. The equation is simple and has long been propagated by[Read More…]
No matter how hard White House officials try, they cannot construct a coherent ‘Trump doctrine’ that would make sense amid the chaos that has afflicted US foreign policy in recent months. However, this chaos is not entirely the making of President Donald Trump alone. Since 1945, the United States has vied for total global leadership. The 1991 dissolution of[Read More…]
The public is being poisoned, disease rates are spiralling, waterways are contaminated, soil is being degraded, insects, birds, invertebrates and plant diversity are in dramatic decline. Humanity and the planet are being poisoned for profit. We are experiencing an assault on life by the agrotoxins industry, which is in fact contributing to a sixth mass extinction. Armed with a harmful chemical cocktail of[Read More…]
I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about attending the play ‘Untouchable’ by Peter Oswald as part of the [R]evolution in Theatre at the RADA Festival in London last night. My main concern was how the subject might be treated. The promotion material describes the play as “the story of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, born ‘Untouchable’, who led his[Read More…]
Affordable health care is now becoming increasingly inaccessible to the poor and lower middle classes in India, given the drive to privatization in all parts of the social sector. Sally Ogun, a patient’s rights activist from America says, “The provision of health care … is part of a social contract, one that assures citizens access to the tools they need[Read More…]
The DNA of New India is being redesigned. Genetic Engineering for a new India is being undertaken. This new India legitimises the usage of mob violence by Lynchers. The new India creates an environment where lynchers are assured that they have unprecedented freedom to undertake their actions. They will never be punished for their actions, even if they are criticised[Read More…]
This is an excerpt from Gandhi’s prayer discourse of July 25, 1947, from the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 88, as published online by the Gandhi Heritage Portal. Rajendra Babu tells me that he has received some 50,000 postcards, between 25,000 and 30,000 letters and many thousands of telegrams demanding a ban on cow-slaughter. I spoke to you about[Read More…]
The Union Home Minister has declared that there will soon be a “Permanent Solution” for the Kashmir problem. The declaration appears more scary than comforting! Kashmir problem has been hanging fire since the partition of the sub-continent. In fact, the creation of the two countries itself created the problem! Kashmir as an independent sovereign country has a history of more[Read More…]
North Korea’s test launch yesterday of a long-range missile has markedly heightened the danger of a war in North East Asia that would have catastrophic consequences for the region and the world. The launch was followed by threatening missile tests by the South Korean and US militaries, as well as condemnations by the US and its allies and a call[Read More…]
This piece is inspired by the query of a respected activist who asked this writer, “While protest statements against heinous crimes are necessary, should there not also be statements when armed forces or security forces personnel get killed by mobs or militants?” Hence, this article attempts to present a view which will do justice to both sides of the[Read More…]
The experience of violence that women face behind closed doors is a global disease. There are no boundaries, cultural or social, for this violence, as it is deeply ingrained in a society that is patriarchal. Domestic Violence is a phenomenon that is usually accepted within families and is brushed under the carpet as a matter that is personal, so others[Read More…]
“This is Gandhi’s land!” people often tell me. Where multicultural acceptance is a part of every Indian’s day to day life. This is the land which has a tradition of accepting into its fold all divergent views including religions. They tell me that Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, even Zoroastrianism have flourished for millennia under the benevolence of the majority[Read More…]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Israel. It is a historical visit. It is the first time an Indian Prime Minister is visiting Israel. Putting aside all protocol norms Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Ben-Gurion Airport to welcome Modi. Let’s step back and take a broader view of this historical visit. The Israeli Knesset (parliament) recently passed[Read More…]
In 1932, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein conducted a correspondence subsequently published under the title ‘Why War?’ See ‘Why War: Einstein and Freud’s Little-Known Correspondence on Violence, Peace, and Human Nature’. In many ways, this dialogue between two giants of the 20th century is symbolic of the effort made by many humans to understand that perplexing and incredibly damaging[Read More…]
A week ago, I was eating lunch and turned on the TV. (Sometimes I don’t know the reason that I bother since so much is disturbing to view on the television, such as murders, car thefts, nightclub shootings, wars, rapes and so on, along with nonsense programs.) Yet I did so anyway and saw part of a show about a[Read More…]
There has been much disingenuous criticism of those, like me, who question why the western corporate media have studiously ignored the latest investigation by renowned journalist Seymour Hersh on Syria. Hersh had to publish his piece in a German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, after the entire US and UK media rejected his article. There has still been no mention of[Read More…]
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1,500 Yemenis have died in a deadly cholera epidemic which has infected some 250,000 people since April. Children account for a quarter of the deaths and half of all infections. The deadly outbreak is the direct result of the criminal Saudi-led, US-backed war to reinstate the puppet[Read More…]
According to a recent infographic [1] by New York Times, 79,000 US troops have currently been deployed in Europe out of 210,000 total US troops stationed all over the world, including 47,000 in Germany, 15,000 in Italy and 17,000 in the rest of Europe. By comparison, the number of US troops stationed in Afghanistan is only 8,400 which is regarded[Read More…]
No, my world!
“I shall never be hopeless …
whatever you may say.
I shall rhyme my life with the
rhythm of God’s chime, and
row my boat of love over the human’s core
until the stream of abhorrence runs dry,”
sang the infant to the world.
She read to us. “The Works of Mercy: Feed the hungry; Give drink to the thirsty; Clothe the naked; Visit the imprisoned; Care for the sick; Bury the dead.” And then she read: “The Works of War: Destroy crops and land; Seize food supplies; Destroy homes; Scatter families; Contaminate water; Imprison dissenters; Inflict wounds, burns; Kill the living.” The following[Read More…]
“…so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.” — from the Down the Rabbit-Hole section of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland When Humpty Dumpty shakes hands with Alice he extends only one finger. In Victorian Days, when someone shook hands with a person of inferior social status it[Read More…]
Yesterday, July 1st, 2017, was Canada’s sesquicentennial, its one hundred fiftieth birthday. A youngster in comparison to many, not an elder statesman to any. The Canadian maple leaf flag hung on our porch rail, not for pride in our government, but for the realization that by pure chance we live in a remarkable region of the world geographically with a[Read More…]
‘Why do armed women cut off a particular organ of Indian soldiers engaged in combating armed insurgencies across India, be it Punjab, Kashmir, Arunachal, Assam, Bengal or Jharkhand?’ asked senior opposition leader Azam Khan. The insinuation was unmistakable, and it had a basis: armed Maoists had indeed chopped off private parts of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel slain in their latest big ambush[Read More…]
Consecutively on 13th and 14th June, major disasters hit Bangladesh and the United Kingdom. On the morning of 13th, landslides killed more than 150 people, and four army personnel, in Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts districts of Bangladesh. And in the early hours of the 14th, a fire in a 24-storied apartment complex, the Grenfell Tower, killed around 80 people[Read More…]
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” –Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius was a stoic and a man of great wisdom; very unusual in a ruler. So, I present my musings to you as something from my perspective and not “The Truth”. As I reflect on our world, someone sent[Read More…]
Sun! Don’t rise like a scaffold ..! Let the darkness engulfed like the dark cloth round the neck Of the victim clear itself …. Sun! Don’t rise till the gallows Are removed for ever From the face of the Earth Till a hangman Refuses to take the life of another person By force… For a few bucks When the person[Read More…]
Recently, a Spanish group called “Ecologist in Action” asked me to give them a presentation on what kind of financial crisis we should expect. They wanted to know when it would be and how it would take place. The answer I had for the group is that we should expect financial collapse quite soon–perhaps as soon as the next few[Read More…]
Hello again Ms. Goldsmith-Jones, At a climate meeting you arranged at Gibsons Yacht Club before the election I said I thought you were in what Kari Norgaard describes as implicatory denial: climate change itself is not denied but “the psychological, political and moral imperatives that conventionally follow”. And then again after you were elected MP I talked with you after[Read More…]
The well-known journalist, Seymour Hersch, has published an article in the German newspaper Die Welt refuting President Trump’s assertions blaming the Syrians for the chemical incident at Khan Shaykhun on April 4th. Worse, it accuses him of ignoring the intelligence that supported the Syrian and Russian version of events. Mr. Hersch’s source(s)? Senior U.S. intelligence operatives. The subsequent bombing[Read More…]
The World War Second was a source of big, deep and far reaching changes in the international power structure. All the super powers of the pre-war multi-polar power structure like Britain, France, Spain , Italy, Germany, Japan , Portugal, Austria etc. became very weak as a result of the heavy losses that they suffered during the War (1939-1945). So[Read More…]
For a reduction of violence on the U.S. domestic front educators on all levels will have to do what I suggest here, or attempt to implement or embrace some significant variation of it. Educators cannot think that our present wars are necessary, cannot believe and teach that we are “exceptional” in a positive way with our ongoing behavior overseas.[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) views with extreme concern the serious health crisis in the Agency area of East Godavari district. In what is reflective of the precarious situation, 16 adivasis from a single village – Chaparai of Boddagandi panchayat in Y Ramavarammandal, located in the jurisdiction of the Rampachodavaram ITDA of the district – died over a period of[Read More…]
GST row is refusing to die down. The civil society and every other segment of society has refused to accept it in the present form. Their concern is genuine. The law, if applied in its present form will be a lethal assault, ever mounted on the fiscal and political autonomy of our state. To find a way out, the[Read More…]
Introduction In an article in The Hindu of 14.5.2016, C. Rangarajan, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India had said: “The “potential” to grow at 8 to 9 per cent at least for a decade exists. We have to make it happen.” The successive governments in the country have been focusing on such a high GDP growth rate,[Read More…]
The mishaps in the recent Jallikattu events come with a fear of the sport being banned again over the poor conduct and not necessarily owing to the essence of the sport. The petitioners who are seeking a ban on the sport remarked, …“A binding judgment [Nagaraja judgment] cannot be rendered ineffective by enactment of legislation that substantially overrules the intended[Read More…]
My hunger is more red and blue.
More holiness craving passion.
More core to me than your imposing
Dark-kindness and darker-laws.
Tolerance is overrated. In order to appreciate this, some basics should be covered. First, tolerance is not kindness nor is intolerance hate. Second, tolerance as an unswerving philosophical principle leads in equal part to acts of decency and of savagery. Third, for most of its votaries, tolerance is simply a euphemism and cover for utter cowardice. Judgmentalism is underrated. “Live[Read More…]
India is all set to sail in its new taxation policy set out after three months of the new financial year. The move is definitely going to make a niche of its own down in history. But having said that, there are umpteen number of issues connected with its implementation in such a country as diverse as India. Still several[Read More…]
A modified and enlarged version of a talk Richard Falk gave in Geneva a week ago. The audience was a blend of students of all ages from around the world, with almost none from Europe and North America, and several NGO representatives with lots of UN experience. Why the peoples of the world need the UN: multilateralism, international law, human rights, and[Read More…]
Several years ago, Glen Sweetnam, director of the International, Economic and Greenhouse Gas division of the Energy Information Administration at the Department of Energy (DOE), announced that worldwide oil availability had reached a “plateau.” However, his statement was not made known through a major US mainstream media outlet. Instead, it was covered in France’s Le Monde. One could assume[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement was by no means a surprise. For, the US has always been seeking to subvert the multilateral, global initiatives to address the vexing global problems. Those who express surprise at the US withdrawal seem to be unaware that the US was not a Party to the Kyoto Protocol, the global accord under[Read More…]
We are living in a country that appears to have gone mad. All sane voices are being silenced. All insanity is being given free reign. Since fascists don’t read history it has no lessons for them. For it is too easy to see what happened every single time to those who went down this road of self-annihilation…they were very successful.[Read More…]
Abstract: The decision by the govt. of India in May 2017 to commission ten nuclear reactors of the type PHWR of 700 MW capacity each, and the other proposal to add four more reactors of the type VVER of 1,000 MW capacity each at Kudankulam NPP, has given rise to serious concerns to the communities around these projects,[Read More…]
On the 30th of June 2017, the lower house of the German Parliament passed a bill legalizing same sex marriages throughout Germany. A long pending move in Germany and something that has been in the docks for quite some time. However, a complete understanding of the relevance and significance of Germany legalizing same-sex marriage will be incomplete unless a historical[Read More…]
‘Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sangathan, Odisha’ condemns death of Bari Pidikaka, a Dongaria tribal in judicial custody. He died on 24th June, just few hours after his admission, at SCB Medical College, Cuttack.But his family members were informed on 25th June, 2017 after one day of his death by the local police. His son Dabru Pidikaka received the body on 27th[Read More…]
Mahesh Gurung was shot on his forehead. He died instantly leaving behind his ageing parents, his wife and an infant son. He was 26 years old. A catapult and 2 rotis were found in his knapsack. He was a Gorkha; not a terrorist; fighting for Gorkhaland; with a catapult against bullets. Six bullet holes in the pillar where he[Read More…]
It was the summer of 2010. This was my first visit to London and I couldn’t resist to go to Madam Tussaud’s famous wax museum. I wanted to see the wax statues of my favorite celebrities. I was so delighted to see them there and came back with sweet memories, but the most cherished memory was not about these[Read More…]
Modi’s policies and empty promises will lead India to utter ruin. So many lynchings, protests, murders and arrests have happened this week across in India, it is hard to keep up with. In 21st century, horrendous crimes are on the rise in India. Non issues are being projected to divert attention from the daily problems with the common men.[Read More…]
It starts with division
‘We’ the majority all powerful against fewer ‘you’
righteous in our indignation against your beliefs
and much aggrieved by your actions
even if there is no evidence of your actually doing it
your caste or religion is enough
to multiply our aversion
your name alone aggravates us
your beards, caps or turbans are dead giveaway
that you don’t belong here
Noam Chomsky on Why This Is the Most Dangerous Point in Human History 
HAK Birthdays: Henry Kissinger Turns 100 
Brotherhood and Friendship in a time of War- Reflections on The Mercenary, by Jeffrey E. Stern 
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 8: The NSS falsely claims that Russia and Putin have malicious goals and spurn negotiation 
What role did trade unions play in the struggle for independence in Kenya? 
The plight of Meitei Pangals or Manipur Muslims remains unheard 
A Timely Warning on Avoiding the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that Deserves Wide Attention 
Tinsel Gods 
Kirti Kisan Union conducts massive rally in Moga on issue of Canal Water 
The Importance of Convenient Payment Options in Enhancing Travel Experiences 
Book Review – A Reader on Financial Inclusion 
Nuclear Turns Fashionable 
Taiwan’s Quest to Upgrade Its Battle Readiness Continues to Evolve 
Trade Unions in Kenya and Britain in a Changing World 
Why Phalke Award Has Eluded Classic Hindi Cinema Heroines 
Modi in Australia: Down Under Bliss for Hindutva 
Both Blocs Behind Iron Curtain? 
Demand for scrapping of iron fortified rice distribution in India’s public food schemes intensifies 
Government destroying public spaces rather than protecting them 
Dalit agricultural labour organisations stage protests in Punjab 
The Influence of Higher Wages and Better Job Opportunities on Migration from Small Towns to Big Cities or Other Regions New Parliament building- Appearance Vs Substance 
International body slams Media Repression in Kashmir During G-20 Event 
More Than 43 Million People In Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia Suffer Due To Droughts 
Shudra Wrestlers Vs Ksatriya Controllers: The Battle For Women’s Rights 
Blindman’s Buff-America’s Continuing Quest to Hide Torture 
Ever Again – Setting the Stage for the Genocide of the Palestinian People 
Does China Have a Huge Problem Despite Impressive Economic Development? 
Capitalist Exploitation Entrenched in Kenya 
A Call for Safe and Ethical AI (Artificial Intelligence) for Health 
Farruggio for President 2024 
Cracks in India’s armoury – Achilles’ heel in the security and intelligence apparatus 
Whose Sentiments are Hurt? 
On Doing the Most Important Thing 
Inauguration of new Parliament complex on Savarkar’s birthday shall not whitewash his anti-national and anti-human crimes 
How do we know what is true? 
On 56th Anniversary of Naxalbari 
Next 5 Years Will Smash Global Temperature Records, Says WMO 
Censorship Of Stan Grant, Indigenous Australians & Palestinians, Julian Assange & Truth Tellers 
How Women Wrestlers’ Movement Has Become a Wider Symbol for Justice, Dignity and Safety for Women 
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…]
