Today, we hear a lot about White supremacy but very little about Jewish supremacy, as if the former stands for the latter. It is true there are more similarities than differences between Jewish supremacy and White supremacy. Both are based on ethnic/nationalist bias and racism. They are both “historically based, institutionally perpetuated system[s] of exploitation and oppression … a web of[Read More…]
Very little, almost nothing has been mentioned in the press or on TV about Jimmy Carter and his negotiation resulting in an agreement by the North Koreans, in 1994, to halt its nuclear weapons program and to put its facilities under international inspection – an agreement that held for eight years until the treaty regime decayed due to lack of[Read More…]
Sometimes I think about how difficult it must be to be a climate science denier. I have been studying climate science for years and I can tell you that it is tough stuff and that climate scientists are smart people who have been building their competency over decades of work. Climate science deniers can have a good time telling each[Read More…]
Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), first world countries based on their historic responsibility of maximum contribution to global warming, have agreed to contribute financially in order to enable vulnerable developing and least developed countries to combat the effects of climate change. Although the term climate finance has gained currency post theCopenhagen climate talks in 2009,[Read More…]
Authorities in Myanmar say close to 100 people have been killed since Friday when armed men, reportedly from the ArakanRohynga Salvation Army (ARSA), launched a pre-dawn raid on police outposts in the conflict region and this has been the main cause of the latest violence in Arakan. According to one report, “The army has declared a war against ‘terrorism’, encircling[Read More…]
On a summer noon A crow perches (not in want of water) Gripping the bamboo bars of your fence And you yell at it until it flies away from your noise You are angry with the silly bird! The previous week when you offered the pinda In the name of your mother The crow didn’t bother, left you sleepless Wondering[Read More…]
Kashmir continues to withstand turmoil & turbulence and rein of terror from it’s counter establishment. Enough blood had been spilled in the name of freeing Kashmir from contractors of bloodshed from India, but nothing substantial has happened so far in releasing this state from the scotches of galloping ghost. The bloodshed in Kashmir continues unabated without any regional or international[Read More…]
After Tuesday’s deluge and many people staying indoors on Wednesday, due to state government advisories advising to do so, most of the people in Mumbai were back to work today. I too had to stay overnight in my office and reached back home on Wednesday morning. After staying at home yesterday, I came back to work today by the local[Read More…]
Education plays a catalytic role in the socio economic development. The relationship between education and development is well documented and fairly well understood. Education is an important indicator of inclusive growth, development and in bringing social change. In Punjab, while there has been a surge in number of educational institutions and literacy rates, education sector is in the state[Read More…]
(The controversy surrounding Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and the mayhem caused by his conviction for rape seems only the proverbial tip of the ice-berg!) For quite some time India was known in the west as the land of snake charmers and naked sadhus. Well, the Sadhus are considered to be the holy men who have been associated with India from[Read More…]
Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, has been reduced to rubble. It has been finally conquered, snatched back from the notorious group, Daesh, after months of merciless bombardment by the US-led war coalition, and a massive ground war. But ‘victory’ can hardly be the term assigned to this moment. Mosul, once Iraq’s cultural jewel and model of co-existence, is now a[Read More…]
Do you remember the Vietnam War, which produced somewhere between 1,450,000 and 3,595,000 deaths? What good did America’s invasion do? If America had won instead of lost, would the invasion have been good? Is any invasion, by any country, ever good? World War II was different — and not only because it was global, and not only because our[Read More…]
Advocate Dr Shalu Nigam Last few days witnessed the pronouncement of several significant celebrated judgements by the courts in the cases relating to right to privacy[1], triple talaq[2], and sentencing of 20-years life term to a self-proclaimed Godman who raped women[3]. All these three cases, somehow uphold people’s trust in courts as the custodian of rule of law. Even otherwise,[Read More…]
Review of You Have the Right to Remain Innocent- James Duane, Little A, New York, 2016 Much has been written about US rates of incarceration and of the Police’s and Legal System’s machinations and conspiracy in denying justice in the United States. Both the statistics and individual stories are heart-rending and frustrating. Entire communities have been devastated by basic attacks[Read More…]
The international community commemorates 30th day of August as the International day of the Disappeared. Kashmir, which has witnessed thousands of enforced disappearances is commemorating this day with a renewed appeal to international community to force India to divulge information about the enforced disappearances. In international human rights law, an enforced disappearance (or involuntary disappearance) occurs when a person is secretly arrested,[Read More…]
The conviction of Ram Rahim and the judgement to put him behind bars should ideally be welcomed by all sections of Society. But what cause worry are the incidents of violence which took place in support of Ram Rahim when he was convicted of the crime. These do raise questions as to whether Society finds it acceptable if crime is[Read More…]
Only about 11 years ago, Saddam Hussein was sitting in a Baghdad court and facing trial. His crimes were defined and dissected by the world-masters. And, Saddam, shackled and subdued, was delivered the masters’ judgment: face a knotted rope from gallows. Only about 14 years ago, smoke was billowing up from Saddam’s presidential palace compound in Baghdad. An invading force[Read More…]
As humans, we have evolved with the natural environment over millennia. We have learned what to eat and what not to eat, what to grow and how to grow it and our diets have developed accordingly. We have hunted, gathered, planted and harvested. Our overall survival as a species has been based on gradual, emerging relationships with the seasons, insects,[Read More…]
Since 2011, the coal cess has been at the heart of India’s climate finance mobilization strategy. The recent reports suggest that National Clean Energy fund(NCEF), formed through coal cess accrual, had collected more than Rs 54,000 cr until early this year. NCEF was created with a mandate to fund research and innovative projects in clean energy technology. It was symbolic[Read More…]
Whatever the West may think, and no matter what the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri may say publicly, the Lebanese army, in clear coordination with Hezbollah (which is outlawed in many Western countries) as well as with the Syrian army, is now pounding the positions of deadly ISIS/Daesh, right at the border region. The army began the operation on[Read More…]
We are bewildered and dismayed to learn about the recent banning of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s collection of short stories, The Adivasi Will Not Dance, by the Government of Jharkhand. This ban is absurd and sets a dangerous precedent. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution. The same article, admittedly, allows the state to[Read More…]
On Monday, August 21, President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time speech almost shocking in its ordinariness. It was such an address as either of his immediate predecessors, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, could easily have given over the previous decade and a half. While hinting at nebulous new strategies and ill-defined new metrics to measure success, President Trump[Read More…]
What a colourful run this outfit has had. Branded in 2013 by Judge Alex Kozinski of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as pirates, the Sea Shepherd crew will be hanging up their hooks while rethinking their whale protection strategy. Their long designated enemy, the Japanese whaling fleet, will be given some respite this hunting season. A[Read More…]
We celebrate Labor Day by honoring workers – especially the forgotten workers. Stay-at-home mothers who home school their children are often forgotten. Other forgotten members of the labor force are those who work in school cafeterias, those who empty bedpans in nursing homes, and ordinary local guys, like my plumber. He is smart, honest, and he never over-charges. These are just ordinary[Read More…]
When looking at the world today, one gets the impression of living on a sick planet, with sick world leaders in an ailing democracy. It sometimes seems as if the planet has the flu, and no-one seems able to come up with a workable cure. Few will deny the fact that there is a terrifying lack of wisdom in the[Read More…]
Are public private partnerships helpful or harmful to increase progress on sustainable development? CNS spoke with Gerifel Cerillo, the coordinator of ‘Tanggol Bayi’ – an association of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in the Philippines on this issue. Gerifel will also be a key participant at the forthcoming 3rd Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF 2017), to be held in Chiang[Read More…]
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” –George Orwell Too much of the thinking about Muslim rulers is now being shaped along predictable, clichéd lines. This is true of all shades of opinion, perception and scholarship. There is evidence from a number of established scholarly discourses that the public[Read More…]
“That gives us great cause for concern that there’s something out there that we’re not getting at.” Admiral John Richardson, New York Times, Aug 21, 2017 The large question for naval watchers and those with an interest in maritime matters is what is happening to the US navy. All powerful, seemingly all invincible, it has been humbled of late by[Read More…]
A quagmire is defined as a complex or unpleasant position that is difficult to escape. President Trump’s recently announced war plans in Afghanistan maintain that quagmire. They come at a time when US Empire is failing and its leadership in the world is weakening. The US will learn what other empires have learned, “Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.” During the presidential campaign, some became convinced[Read More…]
This would have been early eighties,then as a public servant in Bangladesh I visited a district called Kushtiato inspect progress of implementation of development projects. At that time I was working at the central monitoring organization of the government of Bangladesh. Upon arrival in Kushtia after I met the concerned officials to discuss my project inspection itinerary the officials told[Read More…]
The tragic events at Charlottesville and UnPresident Trump’s embrace of Nazis and KKK members provide for a teachable moment on fascism and race. The rise of the American fascist and racist far right-wing, of the sort that festered and spread from the state of Wisconsin, threatens national and global well-being and security. Historically lynching and gassing of individuals based upon[Read More…]
The theory that individual rights were inherited and endowed by nature as an inalienable right is a big assumption. In this scheme, preferential divine rights were extracted from natural law. The argument goes that in a state of nature we are not social creatures but rather co-exist in disorder and anarchy, therefore we must identify a natural right where the[Read More…]
Former GOC of India’s Srinagar based 15 Corps, Ata Hasnain has written an article in praise of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) which appeared first in South Asia Defence & Strategic Review, and was later reproduced by Swarajya Magzine The article is available at https://swarajyamag.com/defence/rashtriya-rifles-the-story-of-independent-indias-finest-military-experiment . Sh. Hasnain, now associated with Vivekanand International Foundation and the Institute of Peace and Conflict[Read More…]
Recently a well-known chain of supermarkets opened a fresh-only outlet inside a rich residential society in Mumbai to much gratitude and fanfare. The residents had a difficult time locating a proper greengrocer, and a facility like this was invaluable. The store became successful from day one, garnering lots of footfalls. Sensing a need gap, the store offered, apart from[Read More…]
A Walk for Pluralist India against growing attacks on religious minorities under Modi government was held here on Sunday evening. Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI), the walk started from the Simon Fraser University Harbour Center and went up to the Komagata Maru Memorial. The participants stopped by at the Indian consulate for sloganeering and dropped some[Read More…]
Before any debate and discussion on the “implementation of Juvenile Justice” it is mandatory to understand who is Juvenile? What Juvenile Justice system is? Why we are discussing the issue? And why there is different mechanism of justice for juvenile especially when we have already a transparent and democratic justice system in a place? Juvenile is a term used[Read More…]
There are four things that I have learnt in building a leadership consulting practice across the globe that are related to Customer Service. They are: The customer is not always right but the customer is always the customer. All rules related to customers must be clearly for the customer’s benefit. Good recovery after service failure results in more customer loyalty[Read More…]
Co-Authored by:- Ayaz Nabi Malik/ Muhammad Asif Shah The normal life in Kashmir has always remained an unfulfilled desire as it continues to be threatened by the two Asian nuclear giants- India and Pakistan- who claim it as their territory. With the result, concepts like peace and normalcy became far-fetched notions here as our routine existence continues to be haunted[Read More…]
The rapist is not the stranger in the night. Between pitaji ki maafi and pati ka haq most rapes in India are covered. A good portion of rapes in India happen with a known person rather than a stranger. The 2015 National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data shows that in 95 percent of all rape cases, the offender knew the victim.[1] Many[Read More…]
It has been a week of bollards. And defence barriers. And hedges and vegetation. No, not the radio garden hour, or the herbaceous borders special featured on prime time television, delivered by a bearded man with a facial forest so vast it could regenerate several lost species. This is the anti-terrorist flick of the week, and given that Australia’s Turnbull[Read More…]
On 22 July 2015, the Attorney General (AG) Shri Mukul Rohatgi representing the Union of India (Centre, hereinafter) argued before a 3-Judge Bench (Justices J.Chelameshwar, S.A.Bobde & C.Nagappan) considering a batch of petitions challenging Aadhaar, that # the Constitution-makers did not intend to make the right to privacy a fundamental right, # since there is no fundamental right to[Read More…]
Troubling times, indeed, if we are noting the ecstasy of Wall Street traders at the departure of a White House official. What troubles the financiers and banksters would surely delight Main Street. But this was not any ordinary cheer, nor ordinary celebration. It was August 7, 2017, and the White House had bled another casualty. Steve Bannon, the key strategist[Read More…]
“A major challenge for activists is to acknowledge that they need to develop a sense of language, a feeling for words. One needs to become acquainted with their shape, their color, and their flavor. There are three easy ways to do this: extensive use of the dictionary, extensive reading and — of course — listening. Activists at the barricades[Read More…]
Shortly after the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders of his ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) extended greetings to the nation on Ganesh Chaturthi, violence started by the followers of a controversial god man convicted for rape left more than 30 people dead. The arson took place in BJP ruled state of Haryana where a[Read More…]
Civil rights groups and Democrats Friday condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of disobeying a court verdict ordering his agency to stop racially profiling Latinos. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted the move “makes a mockery of rule of law, & says communities of color can be targeted & abused[Read More…]
I have stopped watching the 24-hour TV news drama channels long back. However, yesterday, I switched on the TV and put on the news channels in the morning itself. I was anxious about the verdict in the Gurmeet Ram Rahim case. This additional interest in the case stemmed from the fact that all the action was centred in and around[Read More…]
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, a self-styled spiritual guru and head of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect has been found guilty in rape case by court. In a country where politicians are in hands and gloves with such false God men, the verdict proves that judiciary is still an institution which can be dependent upon for the security and protection of[Read More…]
An operation that began as a seemingly obscure academic discussion three years ago is now becoming a full-blown propaganda campaign by some of the most powerful institutions in the industrialized world. This is what rightly should be termed the War on Cash. Like the War on Terror, the War on Cancer or the War on Drugs, its true agenda is sinister and[Read More…]
I’ve been upset to read that some blacks in the USA want to burn down white people’s properties and homes or take them over. It reminds of events currently happening in some African nations wherein whites are being murdered and their properties are being taken over by others. I’ve been unhappy with our recent strife in Charlottesville, VA and elsewhere[Read More…]
A mendacious, bullying, serial war criminal, exceptionalist and American-killing Trump has delivered a bellicose Afghanistan Speech in which he promises endless war in war-devastated Afghanistan, threatens nuclear armed Pakistan, demands further Hindu-majority Indian involvement as a US agent in Muslim Afghanistan, and advises the world that “no place is beyond the reach of American might”. The US-imposed, 4-decade Afghan[Read More…]
It was nothing short of fabulous. Before the public, the political lie is deemed an imperative, instinctively cultured to repel anything that might appear, let alone resemble, truth. Never, whatever you do in political garb, reveal the game, convey the reality, even if power is only held on trust. Those idiots (the voters, that is) won’t know. Before the judicial[Read More…]
“Eventually, religion and business merged as they did nowhere else.” — Barry Spector Benjamin Franklin wasn’t so cool. He had upsides, but he had utterly unconscionable downsides. The former are pretty much all that’s covered in schools. And yet the latter have a lot to do with having contributed to our evolving into the greatest threat to peace on[Read More…]
This week Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, where there is much protest and outrage against the jailing of three democracy activists for their role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow to six-eight months imprisonment for the non-violent protest related crime of unlawful assembly last Thursday. Thousands of supporters[Read More…]
With 2022 occurring regularly in the speeches of the Prime Minister, it is important to look into what it meant. The Prime Minister vowed that by 2022, the poor shall have pucca houses, access to electricity, healthcare, sanitation and education, doubling of farmer’s income, expanded opportunities for the youth and women and India being free from communalism, casteism and terrorism.[Read More…]
While activists across India observed August 25 as Kandhmal Day in commemoration of the victims of anti Christian pogrom in 2008, a conversation was held at the University of British Columbia (UBC) on growing attacks on religious minorities under Modi government. Held at the CK Choi Building in UBC, the conversation was between visiting journalist from India Rana Ayyub and[Read More…]
The US-backed onslaught on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa is claiming hundreds of civilian lives every week, including dozens of women and children. US aircraft and troops on the ground are deploying indiscriminate force on a civilian center where an estimated 25,000 people remained trapped and a further 270,000 have already fled. According to Airwars, which monitors air strikes by[Read More…]
Beijing and Moscow have come to Pakistan’s defense in light of President Donald Trump’s Afghan and Pakistan strategy unveiled on Monday. After China’s strong message defending Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan and asking the global community to acknowledge its sacrifices in war against terrorism, Russia has echoed similar sentiments following US President Donald Trump’s allegations that Pakistan was offering safe[Read More…]
Until fairly recently, anthropologists and geologists were greatly puzzled by an unusual finding. Their perplexity concerned the almost total disappearance of humankind many years ago. Finally, they were able to put together the various factors related to this happening and came up with the following scenario. Over much of the Earth, crude stone tools have been found at the[Read More…]
Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. is known for its regular polls. It asked voters what words came to mind when they thought of President Donald J. Trump. Different adjectives ascribed to him were subsequently ranked: “Smart” came in at number 28, but “idiot” was number one. In Mr. Trump’s home town, New York City, the public library reports fully[Read More…]
A full nine judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court have a landmark judgement that makes Privacy a Fundamental Right in India. Honestly, I feel overwhelmed by this judgement. It has been nearly seven years that I have been involved in opposing Aadhaar. Often called mad by people who ridiculed me and gave examples about the “success” of Aadhaar[Read More…]
One of the major pre requisites of women empowerment has been increasing educational opportunities for women. Such a need was acknowledged by various social reformers in India followed by Indian forefathers and fore mothers as well. After independence, various efforts were taken by the Indian government to educate women in order to achieve the goal of gender equality. Education was[Read More…]
(There seems to be a deliberate hype for retaining the so called “Special Status” in order to dilute the universal demand for total freedom called “Azadi”!) Some people have opined that the Central Government has deliberately shifted the focus of Kashmir agitation from “Azadi” to “Special Status”. Almost all so called mainstream political parties are totally worked up by the[Read More…]
Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie. — Gloria Steinem Poor women’s suffering has long been a surefire way to pull on the heartstrings of rich[Read More…]
40 thousand people 40 thousand phantoms are marching towards you right now you have taken their lands you have taken to hatred you have been taken by greed they knew nothing of this they knew everything their backs, painted by barbwire, cooked by bullets know everything 40 thousand dreams that couldn’t connect how the price of onion & flour and[Read More…]
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court today said that privacy is a constitutional right. Nine judges were unanimous in their finding. The verdict on the right to privacy today is a major setback for the government, which had argued that the constitution does not guarantee individual privacy as an inalienable fundamental right. The judges concluded today, “The right to[Read More…]
Supreme Court of India has once again come to rescue the citizens of India by declaring that right to privacy is a fundamental right. This is a big jolt to a government which was turning itself to a surveillance state by intruding every aspect of the life of the individual. This decision was made unanimously reflecting the absolute legal voice[Read More…]
History, as we all know, may not repeat itself, but it surely rhymes. So, the theme of a civil war and of a return of Fascism is much discussed in the US nowadays. What kind of rhymes with past events can we perceive? On this point, I can propose to re-examine how Fascism took over in Italy, in the early[Read More…]
I suggest that Zionists fond of smearing critics of Israel as ‘anti-Semites’ take a sobering look at the VICE news clip of the white nationalist torch march through the campus of the University of Virginia the night before the lethal riot in Charlottesville. In this central regard, anti-Semitism, and its links to Naziism and Fascism, and now to Trumpism, are genuinely menacing,[Read More…]
“As companies building the technologies in artificial intelligence and robotics that may be repurposed to develop autonomous weapons, we feel especially responsible in raising this alarm.” Open Letter to the UN on Autonomous technology, August 2017 Melbourne: Do you leave the gruesome task of killing, pulverising and maiming to robots? The US Defence Department gave a portion of its report Unmanned[Read More…]
Not too far away from Seattle, Washington there are eight ballistic-missile submarines carrying the world’s large shipments of nuclear weapons. The 560-foot-long black submarines are docked at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, hauling what is described by Rick Anderson in a recent Los Angeles Times article as “the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the US.” “If it were[Read More…]
When former Punjab Police Chief KPS Gill passed away in May, the leaders of almost all the mainstream political parties of India paid rich tributes to the deceased and described him as a national hero who according to them had decimated terrorism in Punjab. At an event organized in his memory, the leaders from both the left and the right[Read More…]
I am a professional banker taught and trained in the hard and coarse grammar of banking. At the same time I am a developmental worker at heart always keen to empathize with the poor and their cause. Although I began my career in the exciting and turbulent world of corporate finance, microfinance (which in a common man’s language means[Read More…]
Indore/Barwani | 23rd August, 2017: Medha Patkar gets bail from Indore High Court today after she was was denied bail from session court. Narmada Bachao Andolan hails it as a victory against the repressive Madhya Pradesh government which came down heavily on the peaceful protest against forceful eviction and illegal unjust submergence. Three other oustees, Vijay, Santu and Dhurji, who[Read More…]
An air strike launched by the United States on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in northeastern Syria Monday claimed the lives of 42 civilians, 19 of whom were children. It is the bloodiest incident thus far in a ramped-up series of strikes over the past eight days that have killed at least 167 civilians, including 59 children. The air assault[Read More…]
Republicans believe that Corporations are people too !!! So either make sure they pay … [Who does he mean … like himself? – S. D.] In many affairs, the bottom line involves boosting profits regardless of the methods used to achieve this aim. The reason is that unbridled greed can express itself with no limits in sight. Indeed, certain[Read More…]
I saw an interesting French comedy film Boss’s Daughter recently. It was also remarkable because of the intelligent use of the concept of ergonomics which involves right use of technology for the human body at the workplace, home or travel. In his film the boss’s daughter uses the science of ergonomics to see how work in her father’s factory is[Read More…]
The ‘Quit India’ movement 1942, 75th anniversary of which is currently being celebrated, was the major landmark in the struggle for India’s Independence. On 8th August the Indian National Congress working Committee Meeting at Gowalia Tank Maidan (now August Kranti Maidan) decided to launch the movement against British rule. This was the major popular mass movement after the non cooperation[Read More…]
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) congratulates millions of Muslim women of this country along with the Muslim women’s organizations, other feminist, rights groups and lawyers, who deserve to be applauded for the long overdue judgement of the Supreme Court, delivered yesterday, reading down the arbitrary and inhuman Triple Talaq as both ‘Unconstitutional’ and ‘Un-Quranic’. The judgement, by a 3:2[Read More…]
KOLKATA; Aug 23: The National Green Tribunal, Eastern Zone Bench, today on Wednesday, 23 August 2017 served notice on the matter of ecological disaster and environmental pollution caused by mining activity to Tata Steel Limited and others. The respondents include the MOEF, New Delhi; the Dept of Forest and Environment, Govt of Odisha; the Odisha Pollution Control Board and the[Read More…]
We, the undersigned women’s rights groups, activists and academics, are shocked to learn that the JNU administration has adopted a biased and mala fide procedure to institute an enquiry against Professor Nivedita Menon, eminent academic and well-known feminist who is Chairperson of the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Thought at the School of International Studies, JNU. We are appalled to learn[Read More…]
Walls may stall
Movement of humans
But they cannot stop at all
Spread of thoughts and ideas
Ghulam ( second from left ) working on our community’s greenhouse, together with Zek, Khamad and Ali Ali, Zekerullah, Khamad and I miss Ghulam and his family. We feel sad that life in Afghanistan had finally become too burdensome for them. They are now Afghan refugees in Iran. We have known Ghulam for many years, Ali and Ghulam[Read More…]
Detroit is the most gut-wrenching movie I have ever seen. Fifty years ago, in 1967, San Franciscans here in our City by the Bay were being beseeched to wear flowers in their hair and bask in the glow of the so-called Summer of Love. That same summer, the Detroit ghetto exploded in rebellion, one of the biggest of the ghetto[Read More…]
Introduction After 6 months of blaming Russia for the Democratic Party’s Presidential election debacle, the Party stalwarts have finally realized that the American electorate is not listening. Democratic Party investigators in Washington still hold hearings and the mass media are still scandal mongering, but the public is not rallying to their cause. Trump’s demagogymay have lost its appeal,while the Republican[Read More…]
The story continues with dispiriting relentlessness. The remark by Samuel Beckett in The Unnamable comes to mind: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” With the sense of incapacity about going on, yet doing so with a drone’s dedicated commitment, President Donald Trump did what US Presidents have done since George W. Bush: commit. Commit, that is, to the mission;[Read More…]
The decision of Supreme Court by declaring the Triple Talaq as unconstitutional and with its immediate stoppage of the practice is landmark in every aspect as it has established the dignity of the women at par with others. It is landmark decision in the sense that it has proclaimed that in India nothing is paramount except the Constitution. The decision[Read More…]
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” –George Orwell Too much of the thinking about Muslim rulers is now being shaped along predictable, clichéd lines. This is true of all shades of opinion, perception and scholarship. There is evidence from a number of established scholarly discourses that the[Read More…]
The visiting journalist from India Rana Ayyub has been denied an opportunity to address the congregation at the Ross Street Sikh temple in Vancouver, Canada. Ayyub has published Gujarat Files, a book based on her undercover investigation of the complicity of the government in anti Muslim pogrom of Gujarat in 2002 and the killings of the Muslim men in staged[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Last week there was a news account of a woman crashing her car in New England as she swerved off of the road into a tree with an approximate three foot girth and with such force that it broke its top off twenty feet above her car from the impact of her collision. The car, then, caught fire. Driving[Read More…]
Of all the lawful acts the most detestable to God is divorce –Prophet Muhammad (This an authentic saying recorded by Abdullah ibn Umar, a highly respected companion of the prophet in an authoritative treatise “Divorce (Kitab Al-Talaq)” of Sunan Abu-Dawud (Ref. 63-2173) The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down the practice of instant triple talaq, calling it unconstitutional and in[Read More…]
President Donald Trump announced a major escalation of the US war in Afghanistan in a nationally televised speech Monday night, although he gave no details either about the number of additional troops that will be sent or the extent or duration of the military commitment. Trump also made menacing threats against Pakistan in remarks clearly crafted in close coordination with[Read More…]
There is a full scale propaganda war going on against Venezuela. Speaking at a press conference in Cartagena, Columbia with Columbian President Juan Manuel Santos, US Vice President Mike Pence said that “Venezuela is sliding into dictatorship” and that “the United States will not stand by” as democracy “crumbles”. “That once rich nation’s collapse into authoritarianism has pushed it into[Read More…]
Racism is not a new phenomenon and while it is an ongoing daily reality for vast numbers of people, it also often bursts from the shadows to remind us that just because we can keep ignoring the endless sequence of ‘minor’ racist incidents, racism has not gone away despite supposedly significant efforts to eliminate it. I say ‘supposedly’ because[Read More…]
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha strongly condemns the arrest of Sanjay Sahni in Muzaffarpur, Bihar on 21 August and the police lathi charge on other members on Samaj Parivartan Shakti Sanghathan (SPSS) who were protesting outside the office of the district’s Deputy Development Commissioner (DDC). Sudha Devi of the Sangathan was badly injured on the head. Other Sangathan members who were hit[Read More…]
In their rush to readily promote neoliberal dogma and corporate-inspired PR, many government officials, scientists and journalists take as given that profit-driven transnational corporations have a legitimate claim to be custodians of natural assets. There is the premise that water, food, soil and agriculture should be handed over to powerful and wholly corrupt transnational corporations to milk for profit, under the pretence these entities are[Read More…]
Since May, 2017 an ongoing insurgency has been raging in the Shia heartland town of Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia and its only thanks to the BBC being allowed to enter the area and film the destruction that the world can see how the House of Saud’s war against the Shia population of Yemeni has now expanded to include the[Read More…]
On 28th July, I posted an essay of mine entitled The Global Crisis and Role of So-called Renewable Energies in Solving It on this blog-site (see below). It had been published a few days earlier in the online magazine Insurge-Intelligence as a contribution to a symposium on renewable energies (https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-clean-is-clean-energy-why-renewables-cannot-solve-the-global-crisis-10205baeb781). Several readers responded to it with comments, both positive and negative. Prof. Mark Diesendorf, another[Read More…]
Statues of historical weight tend to represent heroism – of sorts. It might be of the doomed variety, and often is. Rebellious causes assume the visage of a stony form, to gaze soullessly across promenades or parks, often ignored by many who have long lost a sense of their meaning. In history, their removal is an act that flies directly[Read More…]
As Richard Falk points out, “anti-Semitism, and its links to Nazism and Fascism, and now to Trumpism, are genuinely menacing”, but Jews who call Trump himself an anti-Semite (in the sense of having an animus against Jews) are being false and so are those who perceive that the Labour Party in the U.K. is “too tolerant of anti-Semitism”. Consider these[Read More…]
Barack Obama was the only U.S. President who at the United Nations defended nazism — racist fascism — and Holocaust-denial. It received almost no reporting by the press at the time (or subsequently). But his successor President Donald Trump could end up being removed from office because he said that racist fascists are just the same as are people who[Read More…]
To the believers in reactionary ideologies, one’s position in life or social identity based on social background in life is the primary determinant of one’s political beliefs. This is true to some extent, but beliefs in more progressive ideologies or political beliefs can enable one to break away from this pattern is a reality. It has to do with a[Read More…]
The farmers in northern Maharashtra had suffered badly on account of low yields of cotton; additionally, the government procurement prices for cotton were pegged low. As a result, our loan recoveries plummeted. I conducted a detailed assessment of the farmers and realized that their plight was genuine and a rehabilitation package had to be worked out. I informed my[Read More…]
Badwani, Madhya Pradesh | August 21, 2017: A letter writing campaign to Prime Minister was undertaken in numerous villages of Narmada Valley demanding withdrawal of all criminal cases and unconditional release of Medha Patkar, Santu, Vijay, and Dhurji, NBA activists lodged in jail since August 9th. They gave detailed picture of the incomplete and unjust rehabilitation work and asked, “will[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Where should be limits in medical intervention? When is enough simply enough? Who’s to pay for any excesses? … It’s an ethical kind as well as other sorts of dilemmas, such as the legal sorts or the kinds related to the emotional trauma involved. Recently an associate of mine, Steve K., sent me this link with the following comment:[Read More…]
The 100 year Middle East conflict including the genocidal Zionist colonization of Palestine has been about Anglo-American desire for hegemony and control of oil. However the horrendous deaths from the now global US War on Muslims may be dwarfed by a predicted 10 billion deaths in a near-terminal Climate Genocide from burning fossil fuels. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)[Read More…]
Since almost all US presidents from Truman to Obama – with the exceptions of Ford, Carter and Clinton – had blood on their hands, one possibly can’t single out Donald Trump for not being the exception. One may possibly disagree with me for including Kennedy and Obama in my list of US Presidents as war criminals. I wish I[Read More…]
Since January when this administration entered office, has anything significant been accomplished? Not really. The only major bill slapping more sanctions on Russia was entirely the work of Congress. Whether it is a positive or a foreign policy disaster is debatable, but one thing is certain: we continue to antagonize, irritate, humble, press militarily, encircle and threaten the only[Read More…]
The missive below was sent to my colleagues at Point Arena Community Charter School in Calfiornia, U.S.A. They are preparing to blend their theme for the year (Mythology, Magic and Mystery) with the curriculum. Parents will also be made privy to the email. Perhaps this will help. A society that begins by denying the soul’s longing cannot possibly satisfy[Read More…]
Finance is the glue that holds all pieces of our life together. Ideal financial societies are those which provide safe and convenient ways of managing these simple monetary affairs. This philosophy is known as financial inclusion. It is providing financial tools to people —tools that people can afford, that are safe and properly regulated, that people can access conveniently[Read More…]
The case related to annulment of interreligious marriage between a Muslim groom and Hindu turned Muslim bride by the Kerala High Court has caught the imagination of the entire nation. This national interest in this case is because it has reached the Supreme Court where some high profile lawyers of the country are arguing for and against, bringing out[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Timir Basu, editor of Frontier, the famous radical weekly from Kolkata, India, for about 40 years, was organizing the poor peasantry during the Naxalbari-days identified as the Spring Thunder Over India. As a young professional revolutionary with a political program for radical change of the entire system Timir Basu was practicing the revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Mao’s thoughts. Timir Basu’s and[Read More…]
Barcelona, 18th August, 2017. Yesterday it was Barcelona’s turn to suffer the indiscriminate madness of a terrorist attack. The killing of people is deplorable, and it saddens me a great deal. I could say “innocent” people but I don’t want to discriminate on this point: any killing, for whatever reason, is terrible to me. And I don’t like the subsequent[Read More…]
On July 30, 2017 the people of Venezuela went to the polls to elect a National Constituent Assembly (ANC). The vote was Constitutional, verifiable, secret, direct and universal, and over 8 million people participated. Despite this reality, the government United States and their allies, along with mainstream capitalist media have all decried the elections as “illegitimate,” “unpopular” and a “sham.”[Read More…]
There are two states that I think are best in my country, USA. That’s here in MA where I live and VT. My state is called the pinko (meaning communist) state by many people. I don’t think that the moniker fits, but who cares about the way that we are named? I have not met a single commie in my[Read More…]
Our core ecological problem is not climate change. It is overshoot, of which global warming is a symptom. Overshoot is a systemic issue. Over the past century-and-a-half, enormous amounts of cheap energy from fossil fuels enabled the rapid growth of resource extraction, manufacturing, and consumption; and these in turn led to population increase, pollution, and loss of natural habitat and[Read More…]
Look at me. Look at me as I am — a fellow human being. Look at me independently from your Jewish identity and your Jewish suffering. Are you offended? Does your worldview need wrenching out of a life-long schooling in a painful collective memory? Does it need, as a Jewish friend explained, an “internal revolution” to coax you out into a[Read More…]
In few environments could this work. A member of Parliament (barely breathing, but still a parliament) running within a Muslim minority country (a small minority, at that) with mocking intent, dons a burka, sits in the stands, and receives appropriate mind bending outrage when she strips it off. One thing can be said: Australia’s Pauline Hanson of her self-described One[Read More…]
you’ve the loud cries
of mothers :
your national anthem –
the song of veneration –
all went on admirably simple ,
dear gang graffiti ,
when you all stood
in attention
on this day
in the capital of gang’s territory .
This week Just Asia begins with Thailand, where student activist Pai Dao Din has been sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment for sharing a BBC biography of King Vajiralongkorn. Despite more than 2,000 people sharing the controversial BBC article on Facebook and millions reading it, Jatuphat was the only one arrested for lèse majesté. A week earlier, a 61-year-old man[Read More…]
Thirumurugan Gandhi, is one of the most committed and honest activist from Southern India, who fights for the democratic rights of all people for the past nine years. He consistently advocates for the democratic aspirations of Eelam Tamils, Palestinians, Kurds , Kashmiris ,Western Saharans and Sikhs. He has also spoken in the Geneva human rights sessions in the United Nations[Read More…]
The increasing tendency towards seeing people in terms of one dominant ‘identity’ (‘this is your duty as an American’, ‘you must commit these acts as a Muslim’, or ‘as a Chinese you should give priority to this national engagement’) is not only an imposition of an external and arbitrary priority, but also the denial of an important liberty of a[Read More…]
North Korea has remained a pain in the neck for the “Free World” since the beginning of the Korean Crisis in 1945. The Cold War is over, but the crisis in the Korean peninsula, and the trumped-up nuclear threats from North Korea to its neighbours, and now even to the US, aren’t over. The end of the Korean War[Read More…]
Perhaps taking cue from the Trump fomented rising tide of ultra-rightists, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, Australia’s rightwing One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson Thursday (August 17) staged a burqa stunt to stir anti-Muslim sentiments. Pauline Hanson Thursday appeared in the Australian Senate clad in ‘burqa’ but drew rebuke from the Attorney General George Brandis, who said: “Senator Hanson, I’m[Read More…]
It is illegal to shout “fire” in a crowded theater. The idea of fire creates intense fear deep in the primitive human brain known as the Limbic System, or emotional center. The “Fight or Flight” reaction is activated causing a stampede, resulting in injury and death. Similarly “Hate Speech” can activate the emotional centers of the primitive human brain. [Read More…]
Freedom is like a metro
Rushing through all stations
Leaving us all behind
In full speed
And our freedom is gone.
I, along with four others, reached Bombay Hospital, Indore on August 8 to meet Medha Patkar who was forcefully hospitalised on the 12th day of her indefinite fast by the Madhya Pradesh Police. Medha Patkar was fasting to protest against the illegal submergence of 192 villages and one township in Madhya Pradesh by the backwaters of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.[Read More…]
Now that the violence in Charlottesville has forced “white supremacy” into our political vocabulary, let’s ask an uncomfortable question: “When will the United States transcend white supremacy?” My question isn’t, “What should we do about the overt white supremacists who, emboldened by Trumpism’s success, have pushed their way back into mainstream politics?” I want to go beyond easy targets[Read More…]
Several years ago I read a children’s non-fictional book about a young American girl, who had a pen-pal in Holland shortly after WWII. This meant that they wrote letters to each other back and forth about their lives and became long-distance friends. One of the facts that the American child learned was that the war had taken a terrible toll[Read More…]
The butcher gets his reward
For reducing the polestar of the oppressed
To a suicide note and
A fistful of anonymous ash.
Even as India celebrated its 70th year of independence, the number of suicides of beleaguered farmers in Marathwada, the drought prone belt of Maharashtra, touched a new high. In the last seven and half months ending with !5th August ,580 cultivators have committed suicide .At the end of July, the toll stood at 531 and it has gone up[Read More…]
Whether he holds good on it is beside the point. President Donald J. Trump’s great value to US foreign policy is its lack of artifice and sophistication, a bullying force of nature that alters with the next burst of adolescent acne and the breaking of the voice. Even less than the traditional stereotype of the American behaving badly, he is[Read More…]
A. Murrugan, a young lawyer practicing at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court was arrested from his residence on 8th January 2017. The police had gone to his house in the early morning 4 o’clock, and after arresting him seized his case papers, files, preparations for final arguments for some cases and books, Homeopathy medicines & a medical[Read More…]
Prasad Pannian (2016) Edward Said and the Politics of Subjectivity, United States: Palgrave Macmillan. Pg. XII, 205 Edward said, a towering intellectual and political philosopher of our times, was also a crusader of justice and human rights. He taught us to rethink the colonial enterprise in precise political terms by delineating the epistemological violence at its core. He underscored the[Read More…]
(Aadhar, the new ID card which is virtual indexing of the entire population, is reminiscent of George Orwell’s famous novel 1984!) One of the most important aspects of a totalitarian or a fascist regime is indexing of the population so as to keep watch over their activities. It is virtually practical implementation of the famous slogan in 1984, the “Big[Read More…]
On August 1, the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb was destroyed for the 116th time. As soon as Israeli bulldozers finished their ugly deed and soldiers began evacuating the premises, the village resident immediately began rebuilding their homes. 22 families, or about 101 residents, are estimated to live here. By now, they are all familiar with the painful routine, considering the[Read More…]
A speech delivered by international law Professor Francis A. Boyle at East-West University, Chicago Illinois, April 20, 2012, before the IHRAAM Conference on Civil Rights, Human Rights, & Self-Determination In order to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s invasion of the Americas, in early 1992 I was asked by the Organizers of the International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed[Read More…]
When editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg asserts that “the struggle in Charlottesville is a struggle within our own civilization, within Trump’s own civilization,” and that in the wake of such events “an American president should speak up directly on behalf of the American creed, on behalf of Americans who reject tribalism and seek pluralism, on behalf of the idea[Read More…]
In the cacophony of high decibel debate , Indian media presents article 35A as something which bestows various rights, privileges & favors on people of Kashmir. There can be nothing further from truth when it is repeatedly said & fed to Indian public that article 35A of Indian constitution grants property & employment right to people of Kashmir to[Read More…]
If you’re not familiar with the run-up to the Charlottesville demonstration, let me briefly outline what has happened. It started with some people announcing a protest of the removal of a statue honoring a Confederate general. It quickly became apparent this was going to be something big, an orgy of white supremacy. So, with that a call came to create a[Read More…]
Wish you a very happy independence day! On a new journey…towards a ‘New India’, we are being ably led, being guided all the way This ‘New India’ will be something like we have never seen before Or is it that we have been seeing it so often that our eyes have now dulled and turned sour? They say that truth[Read More…]
World GDP in current US dollars is in some sense the simplest world GDP calculation that a person might make. It is calculated by taking the GDP for each year for each country in the local currency (for example, yen) and converting these GDP amounts to US dollars using the then-current relativity between the local currency and the US dollar.[Read More…]
The question of EROI – the energy return on energy invested – is raging nowadays, with some people insisting that a civilization cannot exist without an EROI of at least variously estimated values, at least 10 and higher . And that is said to mean we absolutely need sophisticated technologies, such as nuclear, in order to survive. Yet, this morning I[Read More…]
The day before I graduated from high school, at the oldest coeducational private school in the USA and a Quaker (Religious Society of Friends) one, my parents honored me by a fantastic breakfast and lunch. Then they drove me to school for one last night to sleep there, where I’d boarded for three years, because people from my class were[Read More…]
The violent display of white supremacist power at the “Unite the Right” rally by a gathering of men and women openly proclaiming that America is for the whites with slogans such as “you will not replace us” and “Jew will not replace us” directed against the minorities and the democratic minded people of the country and the city is outrageous[Read More…]
In 1951, the US placed nuclear weapons in Guam, and Truman gave the order to use them on North Korea. That order was not sent – literally, by accident. The reason: Truman was in the process of removing General MacArthur “because he wanted a reliable commander on the scene” in case he “decide[d] to use nuclear weapons”. … “In the[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has told two former US officials that he “wants out” of the two-year war he started in Yemen, and that he is not against US rapprochement with Iran, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday (August 15) quoting leaked emails published by Middle East Eye. The revelation sheds light on the thinking of Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz[Read More…]
The only surprise was that it did not come sooner. Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has gotten on with the gruesome task of making 85 recommended changes to the law that will provide some measure of future protection for victims of child abuse. The notable words that should be highlighted and even shouted from every[Read More…]
In November 2016, a casino owner and reality show host was somehow elected President with 63 million votes. The USA is now a casino. You get what you vote for (or at least what you allowed the deep state to vote for). A war of words accompanied by hostile fly bys and war “games” seems to be escalating toward[Read More…]
As someone who has cut one’s teeth working on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) before working on social accountability practices, I read with interest Nayanika Mathur’s Paper Tiger: Law, Bureaucracy and the Developmental State in Himalayan India. It is based on the study of the implementation of MGNREGA, in its early years in 2006 and[Read More…]
Since September 11, 2001, the United States has been fighting a “war on terror.” Real soldiers have been deployed to distant lands; real cluster bombs and white phosphorus have been used; real cruise missiles have been launched; the first MOAB, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal, has been dropped; and real cities have been reduced to rubble. In revenge[Read More…]
“You know, when you nominate for Parliament, there is actually a question, you’ve got to address that section 44 question.” Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce It is proving to be a toxic gift that continues to give with increasing regularity. The latest potential victim of section 44 of the Australian Constitution, one barring a member of parliament from having[Read More…]
In a massive show of strength hundreds of Indians living in United Kingdom gathered at Tavistock Square to express their disapproval of the politics of hatred and growing incidents of mob lynching against minorities, Dalits and other marginalised sections in India. They expressed their horror how the constitutional values of secularism, pluralism, democracy and dissent are under the assault by[Read More…]
The Betrayal of India, Pharos, New Delhi 2017, 905 pp. Perhaps the FBI needs guys like Elias Davidsson to solve the circumstances of the 9/11 attacks. Could he have been successful within such an organization? Usually, the FBI investigators can only go so far as their superiors want them to go. That’s why a highly qualified researcher such as Davidsson[Read More…]
The tumultuous events that dominate international news today cannot be accurately understood outside of their underlying context, which connects them together, into a broader narrative — the actual history of our time. History makes sense, even if news-reports about these events don’t. Propagandistic motivations cause such essential facts to be reported little (if at all) in the news, so[Read More…]
When the people of the country hoist flag and celebrate ‘ independence ‘ they rarely think about the woman who was responsible in designing the flag. The hindutva forces rarely acknowledge the contribution of Mohd Iqbal whose famous lyric ‘ saarey Jahan sey achcha hindostan hamaara ‘ rings in the ears on every Independence and republic day. Allama Iqbal is[Read More…]
As the nation approaches yet another birthday, its seventieth, to be precise, this Independence Day, I am reminded of the letter that a dear friend of mine sent to his wife on her birthday (which also happened to be recently). She was kind enough to share that letter with many of us well-wishers – indeed, with the world, by posting[Read More…]
As per the order of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s 5-Judge Bench dated 15 October 2015, Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for the purposes of linking to mobile phones. This has been reiterated by the Hon’ble Court on 9th June and 27th June, 2017.
70 years of freedom have passed. It is time for us to reflect on what it meant people of India – Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and other marginalised sections. Do we really have the moral strength to face another Kandhamal massacre in India? If not, it is too important that we remember and observe Kandhamal Day on August 25, 2017 and[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw. -Nelson Mandela Most of us who lead lives of privilege tend to take freedom for granted. On the edge of our own realities are those that can’t. Between the time a young IT professional was[Read More…]
On the eve of India’s 70th Independence Day, the longest and most recognised people’s movement in independent India is on dock, despite it being non-violent, worked relentlessly for the tribals and farmers who are affected by the mighty Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) dam, consistently raised issues of displacement and rehabilitation, and helped country ponder over a question which sums up the[Read More…]
Badwani, Madhya Pradesh. August 14, 2017: The day Medha Patkar and others broke their 17 day indefinite fast, Madhya Pradesh police foisted cases of disturbing peace, kidnapping and many other trumped up charges on 55 named and 2,500 unnamed project affected and activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan. Most of the cases are related to the incident on August 7th when[Read More…]
From Lebanon, text and photos: Andre Vltchek It came unexpectedly, rapidly and with great force: on 21 July 2016, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Syrian army from their side, in unison, attacked positions of the malevolent terrorist group,Jabhat Fatah al-Sham(formerly known as Al-Nusra Front),in the mountainous province of Jroud Arsal in Bekaa Valley, on the border of two countries.[Read More…]
The BJP government won with a 31% mandate and is primarily in power because there was no meaningful opposition in 2014. In 2019, forget “meaningful”, there is NO opposition worth it’s name that can stop the BJP. BUT HOLD ON. When I say, no opposition, I mean“political opposition.” – Not that there is no civil resistance to the fascist BJP/RSS[Read More…]
This is another tragedy that once again reflects the sordid state of hospitals and health care through out India. News of deaths coming from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh is spiralling on a daily basis and that too from just one hospital viz. BRD Hospital, the government-run hospital of the city. It is the only hospital with reasonable faciliities in a[Read More…]
This Day,
72 infants sounded the bugles.
72 infants hoisted the flag.
72 infants saluted the flag.
72 infants formed the infantry.
They had neither coveted for the stars nor for the moon, At most, they would have just wished to regain their health soon. So that they could get back to the ‘normal’; be that normal be exciting or mundane, At least it was better than lying sick in a room, experiencing all this pain. They didn’t think what they were[Read More…]
The National Food Security Act 2013 puts special emphasis on transparency where information relating to the entitlements under the Act should be placed in public domain. The section 27 of the Act particularly mandates, placing all documents relating to the Targeted Public Distribution System in public domain and creating mechanism for public inspection. However, the spirit of transparency norm is[Read More…]
“Rationalism. A critique of pure theory” by Brian Ellis contrasts the scientifically and socially productive rationalism of mathematics and physics based on valid a priori assumptions with the social, economic, and environmental failure of neoliberalism (economic rationalism) that is based on flawed assumptions. Rather than discard a failed model, the politically dominant One Percenter beneficiaries of neoliberalism have destructively[Read More…]
This year, the country celebrates the 75th Anniversary of one of the most glorious chapters of our Freedom Struggle, the Quit India Movement, that was launched on August 9, 1942. Our freedom struggle has been an epic example of unity in diversity. We have centuries old tradition of harmonious integration of various streams of human civilisation of the world comingling[Read More…]
The Australian banker is a smug species, arguably more than his international peers. Caught off guard by the financial disasters of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Australian banking system has become an expression of a classic oligopoly, manipulating prices and squeezing customers. Such an Australian banker is perky as well, self-assured that any inappropriate, let alone illegal behaviour,[Read More…]
It has been a week of barking out military options, a week of ‘everything is on the table’, a week of threats no longer veiled. Not an example of ‘cool as a cucumber’, rather a red-face turning to purple with the intensity of the phrasing. What brought on this apoplexy, the ‘fire and fury’ to be unleashed not just at[Read More…]
India wants to reap the benefits of Islamophobia from which the world is suffering…. the Indian government has to reconcile its own people to body bags coming from Kashmir…. If the Indian people were told the truth that Kashmiris don’t want to be with India, and the struggle here is sustained by them primarily…. the public opinion in India too[Read More…]
Happy Independence Day to you. Independence doesn’t just happen. It must be earned. Let us reflect that real bondage is of the mind and spirit. Nelson Mandela for 27 years in the South African apartheid prison was actually free. But today in India we have accepted the slavery of discrimination against each other, of corruption and of mutual hatred. It’s[Read More…]
Trump has stolen the headlines again with more saber rattling against North Korea. American have to worry about Kim Jong-un. Preparing for war leads to war. Preparing for peace might lead to peace. Humankind never prepares for peace. Two schoolyard bullies threatening each other. Both are crazy so who knows if one or both of them will start a[Read More…]
Courageous author and journalist Rana Ayyub – who exposed the involvement of the Indian officials in the systematic killings of Muslims was honoured by Radical Desi in Surrey on Saturday. She was presented with Courage in Journalism Award at a well attended event held at Dr. Ambedkar room in the Surrey Central Library. Those who presented her the award included[Read More…]
Then they reached, seventy of them,
In shrouds as white as the lilies of the field.
They cried, they wailed, they gasped for air,
Their caring moms left behind
The green conscience received a setback last week with revelations that the Australian recycling industry is not what it seems. The middle class sensibility here is simple and dismissive: bin it and forget about it. Place the sorted items in the appropriate set place and let others do the rest. Such an attitude means that the Australian recycler can been[Read More…]
From its very beginning it defined the human civilizational understanding of our relationship to Planet Earth and the cosmos. And it all worked very well for over three thousand years. But now we have a problem. That belief system turned our attention away from planetary/cosmic reality. That reality can be defined as the sacredness of all life and nonlife on[Read More…]
One’s living in a proactively progressive family is not easy from a number of standpoints. Especially as a youngster, one can feel torn between wanting to fit in with contemporaries and standing up for an altogether different viewpoint and lifestyle — an alternative that could cause one to be ostracized and shunned by peers. Relative to this, I well remember[Read More…]
When the outgoing vice president Mr. Ansari expressed that Muslims feel a sense of unease (Sense of unease among Muslims: Hamid Ansari in his last interview as vice president www.ndtv.com posted in kracktivist.org August 10, 2017) there was a furore in the BJP circles and many leaders started to hurl jibes at him. (Shame, shame, SHAME on PM….. www.hindustantimes.com posted[Read More…]
It has been the practice of the government of Odisha to handover land and forest of local people without asking their consent to various mining companies either in a back-door policy or using police force or both which Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sangatha, Odisha (GASS) has been opposing. On 11th August 2017,the villagers of five villages,namely,Singaram, Biriguda, Biriguda colony, Balijodi and[Read More…]
The Empire’s unhappy mood with Venezuela is old news. It is now showing its teeth to the Latin American nation. It’s now talking in military terms. The mainstream media including the AP, CNN and Miami Herald said in one of their latest dispatches: Mr. Donald Trump, the US president, said August 12, 2017 that he wouldn’t rule out possibility of[Read More…]
When I was five years old, my parents bought a television set. It was in 1955 when TV’s became affordable for the common household in the USA. One of the first films that I saw on it was a very scary cartoon of upright vertical accordions hopping around and squeezing down on a stage with a sound as they alternately[Read More…]
Seasons six and seven of The Good Wife, an otherwise smart, sophisticated TV series with inspired acting, does a pretty good hatchet job on Palestine and Palestinians by hardly mentioning them and whitewashing Israel. This series, written by Robert and Michelle King, has attracted millions of viewers all over the world. The accumulation of bits and pieces about Israel and[Read More…]
The science of Climate Change has come to be well established. Predictive models indicate its dangers to the existence and survival of the future generations. While future technologies can arrest the dangers and reduce the pace of increase of atmospheric CO2, it has already crossed the alarm level of 408 PPM much above the acceptable limit of 350 PPM. Yet[Read More…]
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and it’s very important to know who’s running the show.” — Arthur C. Clarke In 1942, when I was born, Walt Disney came out with the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (featuring the famous mouse, Mickey). Disney was inspired by the work of nineteenth-century French Composer Paul Dukas, a piece of music written in the[Read More…]
Once upon a time there was a beautiful land in which clear rivers flowed through lush forests. Birds flocked to the trees which were heavy with fruit until one was almost deafened by the cacophony of their cries. And if one dared to walk under the trees, then one needed an umbrella which quickly changed color and became white with[Read More…]
“The anger and the creativity are so closely intertwined with me, and there’s plenty of anger left,” says film maestro Ingmar Bergman. If there was so much anger and creativity intertwined with a person in Kerala’s film world, that was none other than John Abraham, a master of ‘Arts’ in every sense, whose 80th birth anniversary falls on 11[Read More…]
At least 30 children have died in Gorakhpur BRD medical College. The family members of the dead infants have accused that due to deficiency of the Oxygen in the hospital deaths were caused. Whereas administration has denied it. The stand of administration is that all died due to serious diseases and deficiency of Oxygen was not the cause though investigating[Read More…]
Presently, there is not a single state in Central, North-West and North India where complete rule of law as required by the Constitution prevails. A greater part of the nation is ravaged by criminals operating under the guise of ‘saving ‘Indian culture’, unleashing violence against the citizenry, blatantly violating Constitutional rights and guarantees. The writ of cultural vigilante groups even[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
INVESTIG’ACTION interview with ANDRE VLTCHEK Q1:You are preparing a new documentary film about a big island, Borneo, which is shared by three Asian countries. Which was the triggering factor for making this film now? AV: The triggering factor was a simple shock. I’m not what you’d call an environmentalist. Of course I care about our planet, about our wonderful creatures, plants,[Read More…]
“The only responsible and humane thing for our government to do is immediately evacuate every single man on Manus, every single family and child on Nauru to safety on Australia.” Daniel Webb, Human Rights Law Centre, Aug 7, 2017 Murder comes in various forms. It can be directly inflicted. It can be willed and directed from afar. It can also[Read More…]
–Part one of an interview with Law Professor Angela A. Allen-Bell By Angola 3 News Robert H. King and Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 are issuing a call to everybody concerned about the human rights of US prisoners: “We know the economic situation for African Americans, other minority communities, and poor whites is very difficult. However, if there is[Read More…]
“Background noise,” was the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the decision of his former chief of staff, Ari Harow, to become a state witness. The following day, the prime minister’s press officer declared–for the hundredth time–that “Nothing will happen, because nothing happened.” Despite the relentless effort to paint a business-as-usual atmosphere, this time it looks as if[Read More…]
Gujarat assembly fiasco in electing members to Rajya Sabha is an addition to the political muddle facing India. The comment of Jairam Ramesh that Congress is in existential crisis and similar views expressed by Mani Shankar Aiyer can be broadly applied to the political system as a whole. Decay over the decades This ‘ crisis ‘ is not a[Read More…]
The ‘Make in India’ drive and its claim of generating employment by getting multi-national companies to manufacture in India is characterized by appalling and inhuman work ‘opportunities’ of which the Vivo India Pvt Ltd is a glaring example. Vivo Company is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that entered the Indian markets in December 2015 under the ‘Make in India’ initiative[Read More…]
In this essay, the arguments of Mearsheimer and Walt in their pioneering study would be supplemented with an inquiry into the dynamics of the Israel Lobby’s influence on US domestic politics and its predetermination of its outcome. This is supplemented or, otherwise reinforced by,the mainstream media’s manifest bias when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Examples will be cited, and[Read More…]
A civilization reveals itself as fruitful by its ability to incite others to imitate it: when it no longer dazzles them, it is reducedto a mere collection of odds and ends and vestiges of former worldly greatness. The successive attempts of Napoleon and Hitler to create a world empire failed, as the United States of North America has failed[Read More…]
A broad coalition of citizens and organisations came together today under the banner of Sajha Kadam to discuss the menace of growing communalism in Jharkhand and possible responses to it. The threat of communalism, evident in recent lynching incidents, was seen in the context of other threats to the right to life, including attempts to dilute people’s rights to land,[Read More…]
In the nondescript landscape of Tetariakhar coal mines in Basiya village, India the localvillagers bear the brunt of development, for ‘others’ far away. At the fringes, the Dalitfamilies are coerced to move out due to expansion of mines. 1 The miners have tocontend with air filled with coal dust that exacerbate health issues like asthma andother respiratory problems. The carbon[Read More…]
As Medha Patkar and other Narmada Bachao Andolan activists continue their peaceful and non-violent protest by going on an indefinite fast, for just rehabilitation (as mandated by the Supreme Court of India), to be provided to the 40,000 families affected by the closing of sluice gates of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) dam, the state administration has replied by[Read More…]
We are living amid contradictions whether we like it or not, driving expectations about the future toward opposite extremes. Increasingly plausible are fears that the ‘sixth extinction’ will encompass the human species, or at least, throw human society back to a technology of sticks and stones, with a habitat limited to caves and forests. This dark vision is countered by[Read More…]
Alex Jensen questions the assumption that countries like China and India are in fact the “worst offenders” in terms of contributing to global air pollution and other environmental ills. He concludes that the blame should instead be placed where it belongs – with transnational corporations and their highly-profitable global trade networks. A recent study of air pollution in the western[Read More…]
There is something immoral in Washington D.C., and its consequences can be dire for many people, particularly for the health of US democracy. The US government is declaring war on the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The fight to defeat BDS has been ongoing for several years, but most notably since 2014. Since then, 11 US states have passed[Read More…]
It all began as a series of daring accretions starting last December. Now, Tent City in Sydney’s Martin Place has become something of an institution, albeit of the fleeting sort. But this gathering of the homeless, rather than being considered a social consequence of galloping house prices and general cost of living, has been uneven in pulling heartstrings. Benedict Brook,[Read More…]
According to the New York Times, 8/7/17, the neo-fascist Freedom Caucus “is fixated on cutting entitlement spending” and if these cuts are not made, “they’ll refuse to vote on raising the debt ceiling”.[1] The Government owes the Social Security Trust Fund $3 Trillion that they have borrowed over the last decades. They have used the money to fund endless[Read More…]
“Whoever is not prepared to talk about capitalism should also remain silent about fascism?” -Max Horkheimer, from the essay “The Jews and Europe”, December 1939 Aren’t we all tired of capitalism? Haven’t most of us gotten sick of the drudgery, the monotony, the exploitation, sucking up to our bosses and management who pretend to care about the average worker? The[Read More…]
The U.S. press don’t report this fact, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. The following will document its truth, by recent prominent examples, and will explain how and why this rampant lying by the government and press is done. The lies are usually about the most important policies and actions of the United States government regarding international relations[Read More…]
That the Zionist and the Saudi regime are cooperating very closely and intensively is all over town. They have a common enemy: Iran. So, Israel doesn’t mind supporting the most radical, anti-democratic, fundamentalist, and repressive Islamic regime on the face of the earth. Besides that, both regimes are not that different. In the last decade under the Netanyahu reign, Israel[Read More…]
(Slowly increasing border problem may be a fore runner of a limited border engagement similar to 1962 clash which had a basis other than the disputed demarcation line!) There is a media hype on the Chinese side regarding possibility of a border clash in the Doklam plateau. Some reports have even suggested the possibility of a clash within two weeks![Read More…]
Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar was arrested again after being released from hospital. She is on the 14th day of her fast. Today after discharged from hospital in the afternoon, Medha Patkar started at 4 PM from Indore after meeting her supporters and resting a little. As their vehicle was moving towards Barwani, her vehicle was intercepted by nearly[Read More…]
Today we celebrate World Indigeneous people’s day but in the backyard of the biggest democracy of the world is the systematic isolation and displacement of millions of adivasis in the name of development. A veteran activist is fighting for the rights of the aadivasis on the Narmada valley but the government is determined to ‘develop’ the state even when it[Read More…]
Protests to be held by communities affected by British miner Vedanta Resources in India and Africa. Activist shareholders to again disrupt London AGM on 14th August. Vedanta battles international arbitration and UK compensation case over Zambian pollution. Loud and theatrical protests will again be held outside the AGM of British mining company Vedanta Resources'(1) AGM at the Lincoln Centre, Lincoln[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 Akshay Brahmachari who worked for communal harmony in Ayodhya. All are welcome to contribute an hour of your day, in celebrating these Heroes and[Read More…]
“I don’t know what he’s saying and I’ve long ago given up trying to interpret what he says.” Senator John McCain on President Donald J. Trump, Aug 8, 2017 Moral equivalence is the enemy of the noble and the exceptional, and the screeching rhetoric currently being fired across the diplomatic bows of Pyongyang and Washington have become mirrors of brute[Read More…]
Turkish and Qatari navies have carried out a joint exercise as Qatar’s economic blockade by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries entered into third month. The Qatari military said the exercise was aimed at exchanging information, training senior military officials, and improving coordination between the two forces to boost security. Brigadier Hadi Rashid Al Shahwani, commander of the exercise,[Read More…]
Everywhere along the shores of Planet Earth, endless development and the pressures of over-population continue to escalate a pitched battle among the people: It’s the Nimby’s versus the Yimby’s. So much so that this tale about what is happening on the North Shore of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada could be called The Battle of North Shore, Planet Earth. “Here’s[Read More…]
20 years ago this month, a run on the Thai currency triggered a financial crisis that quickly devastated the economy of the entire region, sinking the currencies of Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea and ultimately spreading as far as Russia and Brazil. Far from ‘lessons being learned’, however, history looks worryingly set to repeat itself. On 2nd July 1997, Thailand’s[Read More…]
The Indian economy is heavily dependent on coal. Infamous as the world’s fourth largest polluter, India’s current energy mix has an enormous proportion of coal. Close to 60 % of power supply is derived from coal fuelled power plants. Consequently, in 2016, half of the country’s emissions – 805.4 million tonnes – came from the power sector. However, for the[Read More…]
A wonderful thing about observing and analyzing the human mind is that there is a seemingly infinite variety of phenomena to observe and analyze. I sometimes wonder if it is even remotely possible to master this subject but, even if it is not, at least it provides an unending source of ‘entertainment’. The phenomenon that I want to discuss[Read More…]
My friend, Ashok A. in India, wrote me: “Clearly the main wealth of America lies in the vast territories it has usurped [from Native Americans – S. D.] and holds. I agree, much of the world’s population will perish in this century. We’ll be long gone. Our children – those who survive – will find it in them to sustain[Read More…]
First of all, Nepal is a great point of departure for motivating students to become engaged with Climate Change issues. For some age levels the World Resources Report on “Impacts and Adaptive Strategies” is ideal for getting down with the environmental concerns, making use of Mathematics and Science, its old publishing date notwithstanding. I have contact with more than[Read More…]
With criminal corporate monopoly media masking the US created prosecutable genocide ongoing in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan by focusing attention on Russia, fantasized as a dangerous enemy needing military confrontation, it might be a good time to review past US planned, facilitated and at times perpetrated genocidal crimes in Russia. Article recalls those after WW I[Read More…]
This summary is up-to-date as of August 6th, but it will start with a leak from a phone-conversation on August 1st, in which Seymour Hersh reveals “what I know” about the Russiagate matter, the matter that dominates today’s U.S. international news. Hersh, of course, is the investigative journalist who broke the My Lai massacre, was among the first reporters to[Read More…]
North Korea A few days ago I heard a short clip from former Federal Cabinet Minister Peter Mackay discussing the issue of missile defense. It was his reaction to the unproven statements that North Korea has ICBMs that can deliver nuclear warheads to North America. While this may be within their reach, and while the rhetoric is extremely hostile, there[Read More…]
Asia is home to the largest number of indigenous peoples on Earth, with an estimated 260 million of a total of 370 million original inhabitants worldwide. In spite of their huge number-equaling half of the combined population of Europe– they are often victims of discrimination and denial of their rights. With its 4.4 billion inhabitants, Asia is, in fact, one[Read More…]
Not much was known about Article 35A of Indian constitution , till Civil Society of Kashmir smelt a rat in the intentions of New-Delhi, ruled by right wing ahistorical Hindutva forces, to scrap it and initiated a debate on it some three years ago. Since then much has been said about the article but very little done to save[Read More…]
While Western countries have wealth, peace, and free speech not found in many other countries, corporate Mainstream media ensure very limited effective free speech for dissident humanitarians. The disproportionately Zionist-dominated US media giant Google has responded to “fake news” assertions with massive but sneaky Google censorship that further limits effective free speech of dissidents worldwide, further empowers the neocon- and[Read More…]
Courageous author and journalist Rana Ayyub – who exposed the involvement of the Indian officials in the systematic killings of Muslims will be honoured by Radical Desi in Surrey, Canada this Saturday. The writer of Gujarat Files – based on her undercover investigation of the administrative and police officers who were responsible for the murders of the members of the[Read More…]
I urge the government of India to immediately end the shocking forceful evictions of 40,000 families in Narmada Valley….
New Delhi | August 08, 2017 : Today people across the country protested against the high handed action of MP Police of the Dhar and Badwani administration which used excessive force leaving 48 people injured, some of them were admitted to ICU in Badwani. In Delhi, more than 50 protestors marched to the MP Bhavan and submitted the memorandum demanding[Read More…]
Illustration from the recent paper by Olivia Judson on “Nature Ecology & Evolution (2017) “The Energy Expansions of Evolution”. Olivia Judson published a very interesting paper this March on “Nature Ecology & Evolution“. It is a wonderful cavalcade along 4 billion years of the history of the Earth, seeing it in terms of five “metabolic revolutions.” It is an approach that goes in[Read More…]
What a fabulous mess. And a churning one it is for the Australian government, now mired in yet another farce of weak leadership and bullying factions. A mess for those who feel that this issue need never have gotten this far. A mess for others who just wish to be left alone with their decisions. Such is the nature of[Read More…]
The seven-million strong American Muslim community is alarmed over Saturday’s mosque bombing in Minnesota, which the community sees as a further evidence of an anti-Muslim backlash that has worsened in recent months. A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked the Dar Al Farooq Center before dawn Saturday (August 5), just as a small[Read More…]
“History has not ended, and the need to understand its main features is as great as ever. Certainly, academics must stop teaching the Trivial Pursuit version of History.” — Chris Harman One prejudice we all have to face up to is the idea that the key features of successive societies and human history have been a result of an[Read More…]
“One day, when my first child was barely 6 months old, my husband kicked away the water and food I had served him. On asking him the reason, he started pulling my hair and thrashing me. I was stunned at his sudden violent behaviour. But this was just the start of a never-ending saga of domestic violence that continues till[Read More…]
The Game of Dice of the Mahabharata epic is being enacted on the banks of Narmada river. The actors are Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) as Dushasana; Government of India (GoI) as Duryodhana; the Narmada river represented by the people who are being forcibly evicted for protesting and demanding their rightful due, as Draupadi being disrobed; the Legislative and[Read More…]
Two mine workers, Rabi Murmu and Abhimanyu Mahanta, of Sukinda Chromite mining area of Jajpur district of Odisha, while opposing their illegal suspension from their work, while they were uniting other workers to place their common demands before the management and while both of them were questioning the silence of existing trade unions on workers’ issue have been arrested[Read More…]
On 5th May 2017, an incident of attack on Dalits by the Rajputs occurred in the village Shabbirpur, located near Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. During the attack a youth from the Rajput community died, 13 Dalits were grievously injured, more than 40 Dalit houses were burnt, some of their shops looted and burnt. The incident was widely reported in the media[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 Savitribai Phule “The First Lady of Indian Women’s Education”. All are welcome to contribute an hour of your day, in celebrating these Heroes and Sheroes[Read More…]
New Delhi | August 07, 2017 : In response to Indefinite fast led by 11 Sardar Sarovar Dam affected people and Medha Patkar in Chikhalda, Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh, India, Govt of Madhya Pradesh send police forces in thousands and attacked the peaceful meeting going on there around 6 PM Today. There was no attempt to talk to the protesters[Read More…]
The high level individuals leaving the Trump administration must be a record. Eleven since the end of January averaging out to almost two per month. The latest Mr. Anthony Scaramucci now holds a record of sorts as the shortest serving White House communications director in history. He was in office exactly ten days when the White House Chief of[Read More…]
From the number of deceased Russian dissidents, complicity in their demise seems plausible. From evidence, thought, and logic, complicity seems unlikely: (1) Only circumstantial links to Putin’s office have been established in the cases. (2) Because political opposition is weak, and no obvious threat to the ruling United Russia Party, what would the government gain in assassination of opposition figures? (3) Because Putin’s approval rating[Read More…]
People are celebrating the recently concluded elections of the Constituent Assembly in Venezuela although the mainstream media reports completely ignore the fact.
For starters, I needed housing during my stay for a week to visit my daughter in PA from my home in MA, USA while she carried out her undergraduate education southward of me. So my daughter looked for a cheap motel for me. It turns out that it was a welfare motel, a place where low income people live, something[Read More…]
“We should be alarmed today, yesterday and every day, because every day on average 16 American youth are taking their lives.” — Dr. Christine Moutier of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention “Why are students grunting through school instead of singing?” — One of the author’s home schooled youngsters Why aren’t adults in academia killing themselves in greater[Read More…]
More than hundred military veterans wrote to the prime minister last week dissenting growing violence against people in the country. Earlier, last month, thousands of people in several cities protested against the widespread incidence of mob violence against Muslims and Dalits. According to IndiaSpend, a data journalism website, 38 people have been killed in 61 attacks since Narendra Modi[Read More…]
Kashmir is on the brink once again. The recent surges in military operations and encounters in Kashmir underline the urgency in the official circles to curb militancy and take control of the situation in Kashmir. The visibly tough stand in the approach of the government is in sync with the on ground activities which have placed talks on the backseat, advocating a military course of action instead.
The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them -Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus When I first initiated livelihood finance projects through women collectives called as self help groups, more than two decades back, I encountered stiff resistance from the local elders who[Read More…]
In 1945, US president Harry Truman (who had dictatorial control over the atomic bomb) and his advisor James Byrnes intentionally prolonged the US war with Japan until, and apparently so that, they could target Japanese civilians, without warning, with atomic bombs. The bombings were planned and carried out, as Alperovitz notes in an almost thousand-page study, in a way that[Read More…]
Is this life?
Is this the life I had dreamed of?
I might have foreseen big, beautiful things
but all I have in my cup now
is a peg of a poet’s anguish and nothing else.
The public perception and the private perception on an individual may be very different and even contradictory in many cases. But there are few intellectuals and social activists who have passed this test to the extent they can, within the limits of the historical time they have survived. C. Unniraja perhaps belonged to such a small community of people, being[Read More…]
The sad thing about democracy is that every time you vote, a politician wins and for Bangladesh its tryst with ‘democracy’ its politicians have been anything but happy. Most Bangladeshis feel that they have been betrayed by their politicians especially by their leaderships. They have witnessed how their leaders that sought votes and got themselves elected through democratic frameworks[Read More…]
9th August 2017 will be the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement. To mark the occasion, the Socialist Party has decided to organize “Anti-Constitutional Elements Quit Power” rally in Delhi.
Introduction Sometime towards the end of 2016 the Nobel Institute and the University of Oslo decided to initiate the activity of a Nobel Peace Prize Forum. The organisers thought that Dr. Henry Kissinger and Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski would the appropriate persons to invite. It was a well considered choice, prof. Olav Njölstad, a distinguished historian at the University, serving both[Read More…]
The US labor movement is in terrible shape; in 2016, union membership was only 6.4 percent of workers in the private sector, and 34.4 percent of the public sector, giving an overall percentage of 10.7 percent.[1](It had been 33.4 percent in 1954.) But, worse than the actual numbers and percentages is the all-but-total lack of vision as to what[Read More…]
This week, Just Asia begins with the resignation of Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. The country’s Supreme Court disqualified Nawaz Sharif on July 28, and called for criminal charges to be filed against Sharif and his family. Under the constitution of Pakistan, the prime minister is elected for five years. Until today however, no elected prime minister has completed their[Read More…]
Death of a freedom fighter normally evokes mixed emotions. For a section of people – whose number is diminishing fast – it is a moment of nostalgia when idealism was in air and sacrificing oneself for the cause of emancipation of humanity was looked at with respect, whereas for a larger section which is being intoxicated with glories of[Read More…]
Barwani, Madhya Pradesh | August 4, 2017: On the 9th day of indefinite fast in Narmada Valley, Medha Patkar and 11 others are still continuing their indefinite fast in Chikhalda against the illegal and unjust submergence and forced evictions without complete and just rehabilitation of more than 40000 families affected by Sardar Sarovar Dam in Narmada Valley. In Delhi, at[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 Nangeli, who challenged the caste system by refusing to pay the inhumane ‘breast tax’. All are welcome to contribute an hour of your[Read More…]
My friend K. Sheshu Babu wrote a statement: If government’s see people as private property, that may be ok because at least they ‘ value ‘ them. But, they see people as ‘ voting machines ‘ which is worse than slaves … The politicians Garner votes during elections and forget that they are in the govt because of[Read More…]
We, as Indian Christians, are concerned at the steady shift we see in our country from a pluralist, secular, democracy to a Hindu Rashtra. What used to be fringe, has now become mainstream. There is a systematic design to undermine the Constitution. Official machinery often seems working in tandem with the ‘vigilantes’. Street lynching, victims charged as accused, stage-managed trials;[Read More…]
What to do? What’s necessary? Not a vow of poverty, but close to it. Not a vow of abstention from gratuitous violence in entertainment, but close to it. Not a vow to totally transform the ground of being of American education, but close to it. Not a vow of silence, but an opening up to listening much more than preaching[Read More…]
“I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would never have made. It is an embarrassment to the United States of America and you can say it just the way I said it.” Donald J. Trump to Malcolm Turnbull, Jan 28, 2017 It acts as a Rorschach test on policy making in the United States, upon[Read More…]
A Parliamentary Committee on Demonetisation has submitted its report, which will be tabled during the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Accordingly, the report calls demonetisation a blunder. Not a single objective has been met, it reportedly says. Findings of the Committee reveal no major black money was found. It says Finance Ministry accepts that only details of 4,172 crores of suspicious[Read More…]
Across the world, emerging far right political movements, religious fanatic groups and fascist regimes are trying to silence people who voice different opinions and embrace divergent paths. If at all we may perhaps brag about the advancement in digital communication and the apparent economic progress as the hallmarks of the third millennium, the present age is so alarming for[Read More…]
I first heard of Ariel Gold through a Haaretz article that described her in the headline like this: Jewish Mother and BDS Activist: Code Pink’s Ariel Gold vs. Israel’s Travel Ban: The pro-Palestinian provocateur is under attack after a newspaper alleged that she ‘tricked’ her way into Israel last month. She says she will be ‘heartbroken’ if the authorities ban[Read More…]
The US President Donald Trump has signed executive order to impose sanctions on Russia, though he did so reluctantly. He was not in a position to prevent the Congress decision. This is a bizarre situation in USA. Since the election of Trump the foreign policy front is highly volatile. Relations with Russia are the most complex front where Trump is[Read More…]
Life can be killed humans murdered
Flora and fauna completely destroyed
But sounds cannot be hanged
Maimed or mutilated
Sounds cannot be dead
Though ‘ voices’ silenced
I am dedicating this piece to all the common people who, in their small but significant ways have stood up for peace and communal harmony that unequivocally underlines the cultural heritage of this nation. I would first like to share a news report that I came across while reading a newspaper back in 2014. The link to the news report,[Read More…]
FREEDOM WEEK PROGRAMS: August 9 – 15 This year, the country celebrates the 75th Anniversary of one of the most glorious chapters of our Freedom Struggle, the Quit India Movement, that was launched on August 9, 1942. The irony is that the Hindu fundamentalist forces, who today are attempting to redefine nationalism and instill their false nationalism in us, had[Read More…]
That the living experience is akin to a joyous festival with multiple stimuli is made clear literally stanza by stanza in this poem, and requires little elaboration or exposition.
Neither Fatah nor Hamas have been of much relevance to the mass protests staged around Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Neither have American pressure, half-hearted European ‘concern about the situation’ or cliché Arab declarations made one iota of difference. United Nations officials warned of the grim scenarios of escalation, but their statements were mere words. The spontaneous mass movement[Read More…]
Few people know that, as a condition for admission to the UN in 1949, Israel accepted UN Resolution 194, which stipulates that Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the Jewish takeover of 1947-49 in Palestine, have the right of return. As with every other legitimate claim that Palestinians have made about their situation over the long years since[Read More…]
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” — from Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead as translated by Constance Garnett What Dostoyevsky says about the incarcerated applies to how we treat children and animals too, of course. And — of course — we’re failing immeasurably on all those counts. But you’d[Read More…]
Bodoland has become synonymous to everyday violence. Such everyday violence takes multiple forms. It can be physically harming a human body or throwing insults, even passed on as everyday humour. The desire for a separate homeland or an autonomous area of Bodoland has provoked conflicts of a variety. This desire for separate homeland has manufactured ‘hardman’ and ‘gunman’, like in[Read More…]
An excellent review of global debt in the Economic and Political Weekly last month concludes that capitalism is probably insolvent. The article by T Sabri Öncü is entitled Debts That Cannot Be Paid Will Not Be. The author makes the excellent observation that whilst total global debt has increased to USD 217 trillion or about 327% of global GDP,[Read More…]
Women are the mainstay of small-scale agriculture, the farm labour force and day-to-day family subsistence. The biggest myth is that the rural woman is part of her land’s wealth. Yes, but only to the extent of generating it. They don’t own land but produce secondary crops, gather food and firewood, process, store and prepare family food and fetch water[Read More…]
(The outside workers in Kashmir both skilled and non-skilled result in an outflow of over Rupees 40 crores everyday which could be easily earned by the locals if they were motivated and trained in various jobs!) Kashmir is facing a typical dichotomy in relation to employment of the local youth. According to reports almost a million youth are without any[Read More…]
Human rights activist and lawyer Amandeep Singh was honoured by Radical Desi at an event held at Surrey, BC, Canada, Central Library on Sunday afternoon. Singh who had unsuccessfully contested the May provincial election as New Democratic Party candidate from Richmond Queensborough had drafted the petition seeking Canadian intervention for the release of Prof. G.N. Saibaba was presented with Radical[Read More…]
This year we commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the unjustifiable US use of nuclear weapons against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those two attacks demonstrated the horrific power of the atomic bomb, a bomb that is tiny in comparison to the nuclear weapons available today. Here are a few quotes that are worth pondering as we now face an[Read More…]
Somehow, the new book of Arundhati Roy: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, does not seem to have received the reception it deserved. Partly this is understandable, because the fanfare, with which the first novel was celebrated when it received the Booker, could not be repeated. I saw only a few reviews of the new book. They were either written by[Read More…]
The icy look at the Russian Federation has taken a new twist; not only is President Vladimir Putin’s Russia responsible for unnerving and destabilizing Eastern Europe and Syria, antagonists accuse Russia of undermining the 2016 United States presidential election and attempting to destroy faith in the U.S. democratic electoral process. Media have packaged incomplete information, spurious information, and misinformation[Read More…]
While debates continue to rage on reforming the agricultural sector to improve the economic conditions of farmer, there has till now recently been no attempt to focus on the likely mental problems arising out of economic stress that may be leading to suicides. Farm suicides are a reflection of the economic plight of an ailing rural economy but demonstrate the utter state of mental hopelessness and weak resilience of farmers who have become emotionally so fragile that they are meekly taking their own lives.
He was the chief priest in the Ram janmabhoomi temple and he vehemently opposed the actions of hindutva forces responsible of demolition of Babri Masjid and the riots that followed it. Sitting in the heart of Ayodhya, he made sure that his views on communal harmony reach masses.
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek It often appears that “true Afghanistan” is not here in Kabuland not in Jalalabad or Heart either; not in the ancient villages, which anxiously cling to the steep mountainsides. Many foreigners and even Afghans are now convinced that the “true” Afghanistan is only what is being shown on the television screens,depicted in magazines, or what[Read More…]
Irom Sharmila Chanu is not someone who is yet a part of only history books. She is very much a contemporary personality, living and breathing right now, as I am dedicating this piece to her. However, she is very much a super-shero of plural India. Her life story is also not hidden from anyone, so there is nothing new that[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at kpsasi36@gmail.com
Anti-Semitism should not be used as an issue in discussions and debates over the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Ever since the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine and all throughout the unfolding of Zionist policy, Jews like Chaim Weizmann have expressed the idea that Zionist crimes in Palestine are to be deplored, not so much because of[Read More…]
Blue-collar workers die at a disproportionate rate on the job, and afterward, from job-related illnesses. But the harsh reality slips from our grasp, gets pushed aside as the cost of doing business, their difficult and dangerous labors taken for granted. This essay looks at some of the most compelling stories that got book-length treatment, and together, capture the full dimension of death on the job and the aftermath. They provide a blueprint of the issues involved in lost lives, fractured families, regulation, compensation, and culpability.
Dogs live in a world of smells— succulent, sensual: a melange of sexuality–known and unknown, friendly and prohibitive. They’re color-blind, love blindly, lead the blind (when so inclined). Dogs live in the world of Now—leaping catching frisbees, canines gripping, tail-wagging; or—snarling, menacing, loyal to a fault—and faultlessly alert to guard their master’s home; their master’s spies, their[Read More…]
Water is crucial to all societies as it has a myriad of uses. However, in India, it is of much more importance as over 600 million people make a living off the land. They rely on the monsoon to replenish their water sources and the unpredictable nature of rain leaves them vulnerable. The country breaks out in a cold sweat[Read More…]
I grew up in one of the big cities of India and recall celebrating every festival with family and friends. To be honest my young eyes never really differentiated between Holi, Eid, Easter, Ramadan or Christmas. I should be grateful to the wonderful upbringing by my parents who probably believed that India is defined by so many religions, cultures and[Read More…]
In George Orwell classic ‘1984’ as Winston is tortured in Room 101, strapped to a chair he is asked “How does a man assert his power over the other, Winston? To which Winston answers “by making him suffer”. This chilling scene painted the picture of a dystopian state where the ideas and actions that differed from one preached by the[Read More…]
At least 40 immigrants dead in fire at US-Mexico border 
Contemporary Anti-Semitism – A Jewish View from Germany 
In memory of 40th Anniversary of Military Dictatorship in Argentina 
Poor work conditions, non-compliance with Constitutional provisions seriously impact adolescent girls in workforce 
Take action against K Surendran for insulting Women 
Calculated Exoneration: Command Responsibility and War Crimes in Afghanistan 
DOJ Called Upon to Investigate Environmental Activists Abuses 
The World’s Coffee Shops Have Emerged as Plant Milk’s Front Line 
Lara Sheehi’s ordeal, like Steven Salaita’s, is not quite over 
“Facing Clear Evidence of Peril” in a Country of Lies 
The case of Kashmir: A Gandhian Resolution 
Non-Availability of Badly Needed Funds for Dalit Students Increases Their Difficulties 
A bureaucrat-turned- minister in a mess 
Hundreds Of Thousands Of Workers’ 24-Hour Mega Transport Strike Halts Germany 
Oldest Interfaith Organization in America Calls for Children to Have More Rights Than Guns 
What’s the Best Way Out from the War in Ukraine? 
How Indigenous Land Management Practices Are a Blueprint for Climate-Resilient Agriculture 
In memory of Hugo Chavez on 10th death Anniversary 
Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: A Multipolar World Offers Challenges and Opportunities to the Middle East and Africa 
Ukraine War – US-China Relations And the Doomsday Clock 
Anti-Rahul Defamation Card Has Its Limitations! 
Questions We Should Ask to Understand Real Impact of Poverty Reduction and Welfare Schemes 
Punjab: Democracy Under Siege? 
Declaration excessive dividends by the Board of HZL may not be in compliance with Section 123 of the Companies Act 
Men, masculinities, and gender equality 
EU Warns After Russia Plans To Place Tactical Nuclear Weapon In Belarus 
A Hazardous Decision: Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells 
Media and the March to War 
The Basic Issue is not of Taking Sides in Superpower Rivalry, it is of Durable Peace to Save Earth’s Life 
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell 
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane 
Bundelkhand Must Choose its Priorities Carefully 
Citizenship: Beyond the Forked Vision 
Caste-wise census is necessary for balanced development 
Tribal woman murdered after rape in Rohtas and strong protest demanding punishment of culprits 
Why Avoiding Catastrophic War is the Biggest Priority Today 
Labor in market, and the mainstream economics 
Serbia Shall Never Forget NATO Aggression, Vows Serb President 
Kerala’s New Public Health Bill 2023: Subservient to Market Forces rather than Deliberative Democracy 
The Piracy of Development – The 3-Ds: Dispossession, Displacement, Destitution 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
