It has been a deeply ingrained habit to wish everyone ‘Happy New Year’ and I confess to enthusiastic participation in this annual ritual for a long time. Increasingly though, I am beginning to suspect I really don’t understand the phrase or the words it is made up of at all. I get the point that,this greeting,is basically a nice[Read More…]
The attempt to tease, weave and develop a narrative against President Donald J. Trump over a Russian connection began almost immediately after his victory in November last year. This was meant to be institutional oversight and probing, but in another sense, it was also intended to be an establishment’s cry of hope to haul the untenable and inconceivable before some[Read More…]
Western Imperialism continues to use UN to demonize Eritrea with no substantial and valid arguments. With sanctions in the Security Council(UNSC) the masters of the universe and their fellow-travellers hope to cripple this proud and independent nation. But in vain. On the 14 Nov 2017 the UNSC again voted to continue the sanction regime. 11 affirmative and 4 abstained( Bolivia,[Read More…]
What a relief to be empty! Then God can live your life -Rumi In the chaos that prevails around us, there is a growing feeling of desolation and misery. The pace of modern times has upset the rhythm of life and the music is slowly ebbing out. Living in a harsh world we have developed cynicism and hatred. Our[Read More…]
I never got the luxury of studying in the schools owned by the Christians but learnt a few things about them when my daughter got the opportunity to study there. Most of these schools are purely commercial and catering to the middle class upper castes. The children will learn values of different faiths in these schools and even if[Read More…]
What has stood out this year as 2017 draws to a close, is the “globalization of indifference,” a term coined by Pope Francis. An indifference first of all to the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people from their centuries old homeland in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Some 650,000 have fled rape, killings and torture … their houses, villages and crops[Read More…]
1) Nothing. One hand cannot clap…. 2) Half the sound of 2 hands clapping…. 3) Air…. 4) A bowl of rice…. 5) A cup of tea…. 6) “A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou….” 7) A crazy old guy doing a jig on thin ice….[Read More…]
People living now in Yemen’s third largest city, Ta’iz, have endured unimaginable circumstances for the past three years. Civilians fear to go outside lest they be shot by a sniper or step on a land mine. Both sides of a worsening civil war use Howitzers, Kaytushas, mortars and other missiles to shell the city. Residents say no neighborhood is[Read More…]
“He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put[Read More…]
When Donald Trump ran for the U.S. Presidency, his biggest foreign-affairs promise (which he copied from Ted Cruz) was to defeat “radical Islamic terrorism”; but, on December 27th, the Russian Government publicly accused Trump’s military of backing ISIS terrorists to fight against Syria’s Government (which is allied with Russia). Russia’s RT international television network headlined “US lets militants train,[Read More…]
In recent weeks, as much of the Pakistani media remained fixated on the internecine squabbles of the country’s ruling elites, authorities in Sindh have been brutally cracking down on sections of workers and farmers in the province who’ve had the temerity to defend their rights and fight for improved living standards and working conditions. On December 25, primary, secondary[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ashish Kumar Singh, Vidya Bhooshan Singh & Siddhartha Negi Climate Change The climate of the world is changing constantly due to the increasing global warming by the natural and man-made activities. These changes have an enormous impact on the people’s lives and ecosystems. Developing countries, and particularly the poorest people in these countries, are the most vulnerable to[Read More…]
As the year 2017 sets to bid adieu, India finds itself in an embracing situation with the annual statistics of 12 journalists either murdered or died in suspicious situations. The populous country, better known as the largest democracy in the globe, thus emerges as one of the hazardous place for media persons across the world after Mexico, Syria, Iraq,[Read More…]
Sometimes it is useful to take a break from news bulletins and newspapers, and even from ‘friendly’ Internet publications. Occasionally it is good to realize that there are actually two parallel realities that are constantly competing for the ‘hearts and minds’ of people living all over the world. There is real life and ‘fake life’. There is reality and[Read More…]
Union Minister, Mr. Anant Kumar Hegdeji,It is frightening to have to listen to the words you have spoken at Kuknoor in YelburgaTaluk.‘Those who are unaware of their parentage are the ones who call themselves secularists’you say deridingly.Now we have to make you aware of your own parentage – It is hatred that is your father, intolerance your mother, illusion your[Read More…]
( Following is the Text of Presidential Address Delivered By Dr.K.S. Sharma, President, Indian Academy of Social Sciences, ISSA, Allahabad, at the 41st Indian Social Science Congress, held in Salem, Tamilnadu. The Annual event , held for five days from December 18 to 22, 2017, was attended by a few hundred academicians, educationists, and research scholars. Sharma is Joint Director,[Read More…]
Son of Kargil martyr in Haryana’s Sonipat accused that he lost his mother after she was denied treatment in a hospital due to an unavailability of the Aadhaar card. Wife of a Kargil martyr dies at a hospital in Haryana's Sonipat, claims son; says "I brought my mother in a serious condition to the hospital. They asked me to get[Read More…]
“At night, I dream of radiated bulls and peacocks and swans.” — Flannery O’Connor wrestling not only with mortal illness but with the possible extinction of the human race, haunted by the apocalyptic heritage of her Church, its “hair-raising history”…. Political and social breakdown fueled paranoia and fanaticism during the Late Middle Ages. Every religious order manufactured its dissidents[Read More…]
This article is in response to Ashok Swain’s column titled ‘Why does Hindu Diaspora in developed multicultural Countries hate Minorities back Home in India’ published in ‘Outlook’ of 20th December 2017. The essence of Swain’s article is to probe the mindset & behavior of Hindus working & earning abroad in multicultural & secular countries while targeting their fellow citizens[Read More…]
The Bicentennial celebration “Elgaar Parishad” of the Battle Koregaon by the Dalits, Muslims, Christians and Bahujans, both by organizations and individuals, at the Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, followed by a march toward Bhima Koregaon 40 km from Pune, have seen opposition from the right-wing organisations. These organizations had the audacity to call the event, and the organizations[Read More…]
Kulbhushan Jadhav’s mother and wife were made to look like widow, said our external affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj in parliament. She added that the Pakistani authorities actually asked them to remove their Mangalsutra, bindi and Saree and wear simple salwar kameej, before meeting Jadhav in the Jail. It is humiliating, she said, forcing the married woman to look like[Read More…]
The gloating over the forthcoming New Year celebrations has already commenced. The first big city to feature on the roundups in each news segment as the year is ushered in tends to be Sydney, self-proclaimed global city in the antipodes, ever keen to rub its vulgar confidence into the noses of rival Melbourne. And, for that matter, every other city[Read More…]
I know. I sound anthropomorphic. I am assigning human traits to a cat. However, how would you pose it? Last night, I heard a racket outside of my closed bedroom door. It woke me up from a deep sleep. So I went outside to look and couldn’t believe my eyes. Here she was, my female Siamese in a sitting position[Read More…]
Of 193 voting members of the UN, 65 sanctions-deserving, pro-Apartheid states shamefully failed to support the December 2017 UN General Assembly Resolution condemning US-backed Apartheid Israel’s unilateral annexation of Occupied East Jerusalem. While this moral failure is understandable for serial genocidal and genocide-based nations like Australia and Canada and countries complicit in WW2 Nazi atrocities like Croatia, Hungary, Latvia,[Read More…]
In an alarming development for India, after a meeting of foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Beijing on Tuesday (Dec 26), Chinese foreign minister Wang said China and Pakistan are willing to find out ways to extend China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the $57 billion project, to Afghanistan. Wang said China hoped the economic corridor could benefit the whole[Read More…]
Working hard season after season
With one particular reason
Always struggling to produce
Enough food for the Nation
It is not just BJP minister Anantkumar Hegde. Here is a look at some past attempts of the RSS-BJP to tinker with the Constitution. “Line wahan se shuru hoti hai jahan ham khade rehte hain” (The queue starts from the point where we stand). Remember that 70s Bollywood film where teh then bad boy of Hindi cinema (Shatrughan Sinha) barges into[Read More…]
We the undersigned, condemn (i) the illegal, unconstitutional and arbitrary ban under Section 16 of the draconian Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908 (CLAA)on Majdoor Sangathan Samiti (MSS), a 30 year old registered Trade Union, and (ii) the false cases impugned under Section 17 of CLAA against 10 office bearers of the MSS, by the Jharkhand government.The ban and FIR have[Read More…]
India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water—and today the country’s chronic mismanagement of water has led to drought in nearly 2,00,000 villages. According to the World Bank data, Indian farmers use almost 70% of the total groundwater that is drawn in the country each year. Shockingly, India uses more groundwater annually than China and the United[Read More…]
Dear Iqbal: You, and I, and all our common friends know we are very close and good friends since our Dhaka College days (1964-1966). You also met my parents, and they always liked you a lot. My late mother, not long before her death in this September, asked me about you. She mentioned seeing you on TV, and even[Read More…]
The seven-million American Muslims remained under siege since 9/11/2001 through reconfiguration of US laws, policies and priorities but their plight has taken a new twist under President Donald Trump whose anti-Muslim policies alarmingly fomented hate crimes against them. The xenophobic rhetoric and anti-Muslim fear-mongering enjoys unprecedented influence with Donald Trump’s most vitriolic anti-Muslim rhetoric as typified by his election campaign[Read More…]
On 7 December, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; ordered the US Department of State to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; and unleashed a diplomatic storm with the potential for disaster, not exactly unforeseeable. The US’ diplomatic isolation is almost complete. Trump’s action was shocking, but not surprising. The decision fits[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The year 2017 has been another active year for people fighting on a wide range of fronts. The Trump administration has brought many issues that have existed for years out into the open where they are more difficult to deny – racism, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy and the crises they create. More[Read More…]
“A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.” — the first line of Thomas Pynchon’s incomparable Gravity’s Rainbow (describing a rocket portending apocalypse during the Second World War) I was reading Harold G. Vatter’s The US Economy in World War II while riding through San Joaquin County, California yesterday, and I[Read More…]
In the modern democratic societies, the emergence of majoritarianism, as political ideology is a organised well thought of response of the social, religious, ethnic and racial majorities to the new progressive, democratic, secular and political philosophies/ideologies which have posed serious challenge. Afraid of losing the social and cultural monopoly, the majority invents socio-religious rituals, festivals, customs and traditions as tools[Read More…]
We all learn to live with our flaws, weaknesses and shortcomings regardless of whatever they are, especially if they seem to not be changeable. These could include blindness, a limb that does not work right, a temperament prone to anger or, in my case, a sanctimonious nature. I think that I was born with it as part of my genetic[Read More…]
Akshay Kamble, an IIT Kanpur third year Computer Science student, hailing from Badlapur,Maharashtra, has been missing from campus since November 29, 2017. The 20‐year old dalit student had gone missing after he reportedly left the campus on 29th to catch a train for Mumbai. But he did not reach home at the expected time. His father rushed to IIT Kanpur on 30th. He received almost no help from the IIT administration in making inquiries about his son’s whereabouts and the circumstances of his stay on campus. The police at Kalyanpur police station refused to lodge an FIR until very recently and also made insensitive comments. The lack of cooperative behaviour of various authorities has caused additional mental stress for the father who has been looking for his son relentlessly. The matter of missing becomes even more disturbing if we note that even after nearly four weeks since his disappearance, news of the incident has had poor coverage in print and social media. Akshay was a bright student who was doing academically well in IIT Kanpur. He is from an economically modest family and grew up in predominantly Marathi speaking locality. Akshay’s father, Bhimrao Kamble, a school teacher, sees the missing of his son connected to the ragging and mental harassment that his son has been facing from some students in the campus. Akshay had been the target of mockery over different matters ranging from his simple life style, regional [Read More…]
India grows enough food to meet the needs of its entire population, yet is unable to feed millions of them, especially women and children. India ranks 100 in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) — 2017 of 119 countries, where it has consistently ranked poor. Even as millions of Indians go to sleep on an empty stomach, the country wastes[Read More…]
(As always, people from every side are trying to “manage” the problem in Kashmir rather than resolve it once for and all!) The authorities in Delhi and Kashmir are these days announcing a number of measures to somehow engage the “rebellious” youth all over Kashmir. Firstly, harsh measures are being taken to trace and liquidate militants. In fact, the Army[Read More…]
Abstract: The progressive subjugation, appropriation, enclosure and policing of the forests in India since the colonial period has left millions of forest peoples in a precarious struggle for survival and waging a continuous battle for their rights. The exclusionary development and conservation thrust left in its wake, devastated forests and forest peoples. What began as the final uprooting of forest[Read More…]
2017 will be remembered as the year that the so-called ‘peace process’, at least in its American formulation, has ended. And with its demise, a political framework that has served as the foundation for US foreign policy in the Middle East has also collapsed. The Palestinian leadership and its Arab and international allies will now embark on a new[Read More…]
Conspiracies in the extraterrestrial department have always constituted the residue of superstition in a secular age. Chase away a Christ figure, or ward off God, and the mind still wanders, hoping to be bewitched. If something cannot be explained, ignorance furnishes an often poor substitute. The concept of extraterrestrial phenomena straddles scientific probabilities, faith and the sense that governments might[Read More…]
Cyril Ramaphosa, the next President of South Africa, was the man behind the entry of international fast food behemoth McDonalds into the country, earning him the sobriquet “The Big Mac”. Zimbabwe’s new President Mnangagwa bears the nickname “The Crocodile” from his days as head of Robert Mugabe’s secret police for, like his namesake, coming out of nowhere to suddenly snatch[Read More…]
It has been all very ugly, aggressive and often distinctly vulgar: the way the British Foreign Secretary has behaved before and during his official visit to Moscow. Mr. Johnson described Russia as “closed, nasty, militaristic and anti-democratic” concluding that it could not be “business as usual”. He did not define what the UK has become, and the Russian hosts were[Read More…]
It seems most of the people among the oppressed masses of this country have forgotten the Chapter 21- The Revolt of the Untouchables documented and written by Dr.BabasahebAmbedkar himself. It documents the most historical event in the modern history of our Indian subcontinent. Though, for the liberal intelligentsia and many so-called mini-ambedkar’s and their associations or organizations or parties[Read More…]
“I have’t. It is engener’d Hell and night must bring this birth to the world’s light.” — Act I, Scene 3 of Othello, where Iago speaks about his plan to fool everyone, and convince Othello with evil mendacity Don’t read reviews about what I’m recommending. Watch it. One of the early episodes in the first season of Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley received[Read More…]
One sentence summarizes the Zionist expansion from an incursion to ultimate takeover of Palestinian lands – the Zionists act aggressively and the world bodies re-react passively. Institutions that defend the world community and protect regional interests have failed to understand the Middle East crisis, failed to recognize the dangers posed by the Zionist expansion, and have subverted their constituencies. These[Read More…]
To fall in love outward (Robinson Jeffers) is a major accomplishment in the Great Work of planetary renewal. This is especially significant (and challenging) in a commercialized society possessively enforcing estrangement from natural reality. Capitalism works to replace nature with market value. To fall in love outward means to embrace, fully, the implications of a radical awakening, namely that each[Read More…]
The recent elections in Gujarat no doubt brought back BJP into power once again. But however, their influence has certainly declined. Going beyond the electoral results, a major development is the emergence of alternative voices which questioned a fake and make believe model called ‘Gujarat Model’. These alternative voices broke the dominant narrative which tried to project Gujarat as a[Read More…]
You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you -John Bunyan When I got my first job in a small town, I was lucky to get wonderful neighbors. A lady whom I regularly encountered was Samina, a devout and demure housewife who struggled to feed the family. For several reasons,[Read More…]
These days, lynching of dalits, muslins and other marginalised have become common. But, regrettably, even disabled and blind persons are not being spared. According to a report in dailypioneer.com on December23, 2017, the Delhi high court has sought reply from DDA on demolition of a hostel which left atleast 20 visually impaired persons left without a roof in winter. The[Read More…]
Reiterating Mao’s teachings is one of the essentials in the area of political education as a new generation is joining people’s struggle. The class struggle question is one of the areas to learn from Mao Tse-tung [also spelled Mao Zedong] [b. December 26, 1893] as now-a-days confusion dominates political position of a group of “progressives” and “anti-imperialists” engaged with mongering[Read More…]
One hopes that the overwhelming rejection of the Trump Administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the 21st of December 2017 will compel Washington DC to rescind its decision. Given Trump’s track record so far —- on the Climate Change Accord and UNESCO —it is very unlikely. The most we[Read More…]
Amrullah has a small frame and a soft voice. He used to have a reputation as a fighter and would fight with the rich kids. He’d get angry because they had nicer clothes. By fighting, he wanted to show his power. But now, at age 11, he believes that fighting is bad. When he sees those same boys, he[Read More…]
In what has been a nightmare at Christmas, the plight of refugees relocated to other sites on Manus Island after the closure of the facility at Lombrum Naval Base has worsened. The latest scenes at East Lorengau Transit Centre, where 300 men have been since December 19, have been ugly and pitiable. In the broader scheme of things, they have[Read More…]
One of my older friends in India had a now dead father, who was an MD and who worked around twelve hours a day. He saw many patients, but his family never got ahead financially. Why? It was because he often gave his services away for no charge to financially poor people (including lower caste Hindu people) and paid[Read More…]
Warning: President Trump’s national security strategy is going to backfire like a shotgun plugged with mud. In one fell swoop, Trump called for: 1) Locking out foreigners; 2) Growing GDP as the key to national security, and; 3) Better terms of trade. Now many voters, going down the list, will promptly put a checkmark by one or two of the items,[Read More…]
Delegates to the UN are generally referred to as diplomats. But, in the wake of the vote condemning the U.S. decision on Jerusalem, one has to wonder. The permanently scowling U.S. representative, Nikki Haley, threatened reprisals — “We will be taking names” — against those who did not support the U.S. position. The vote was 128-9. Aside from the[Read More…]
During his national security speech last Monday, December 18th Trump introduced his administration’s new “America First” national security strategy in a surprisingly unaccustomed calm and calculated mannerism that is uncharacteristic of him. Although it seemed that he was well coached, yet, he couldn’t escape his narcissistic tendency and kept denunciating previous administrations while praising his own. Trump accused the[Read More…]
Introduction Human rights discourse has given voice to voiceless, empowering weak and vulnerable to fight for their rights around the world, however, there have been cases of misuse of human rights discourse by some powerful nations especially the West. For international politics as a discipline, the language of human rights has become increasingly important both in academic debate and political[Read More…]
The effects of humankind created climate chaos are proving to be more devastating than even the grimmest predictions. Today’s wealth inequity is worse than in the Gilded Age. Around the world, the U.S. empire wages perpetual war, hot and cold, overt and covert, including military brinksmanship with the nuclear power, the Russian Federation. Speaking of the latter, the U.S.[Read More…]
“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards.” — Mark Twain These words seem to carry relevance even today in the 21st century as it did back in 1897 when the author penned these words. On the 12th of this month, the High Court of Kerala passed an order against the Kerala State[Read More…]
International Human Rights Day is observed on 10th of December every year. It commemorates the day on which, the United Nations General assembly adopted the Universal deceleration of Human Rights. This year’s human day is devoted to the launch of a yearlong campaign for the 50th year anniversary of the two International Covenants on the human rights, known as International[Read More…]
The recent controversy over Jimmy Choo’s advertisement that critics are calling tone-deaf has me wondering who indeed is above reproach here. No doubt, such ads are incredibly demeaning to women and in the age when powerful men are being exposed as Emperors with, well, no clothes, this ad is in incredibly poor taste, but in our rush to brandish our[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s reckless policies, belligerence, volatile personality, and rejection of diplomacy have brought the world to the brink of war in Korea. Such a war could rapidly turn nuclear, killing hundreds of thousands or millions of people, spreading deadly radiation across the planet, and likely involving China and Russia. North Korea will never give up its nuclear and ballistic missile[Read More…]
North Korea has been put under more severe sanctions by the Security Council yesterday. The North Korean regime has emerged as threat to the peace in the area surrounding it. There is another aspect of this threat which has come in form of increased weaponisation and psychology of fear and threat in several countries. Japan is among those which has[Read More…]
Krishan Chander(1914-1977) is considered one of the great short story writers, Urdu literature has produced Krishan Chander was a firm believer in the upliftment of the oppressed and downtrdden. Krishan Chander dreamt and strived for a society, in which every human being is respected irrespective of his religion, caste and sect and which is free of exploitation and oppression.[Read More…]
On May 2, 2017, before becoming Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as Minister of Defense, spoke about the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, a war he orchestrated since March of 2015. “A long war is in our interest,” he said, explaining that the Houthi rebels would eventually run out of cash, lack external supplies and break apart. Conversely,[Read More…]
It’s the season to be jolly, and the Trump administration has been busy doling out gifts. Sanctions seem to be top of the pile, derived from that trove of options outlined in the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The law, initially introduced in 2012, targets the bank assets of those unfortunate enough to make it to the US Treasurer’s[Read More…]
The Rohingya crisis reflects intention of the Myanmar government to forcibly oust the Muslims from Rakhine State. The brutal attack on unarmed civilians and placing of landmines along its border by Military in coordination with Border Guard Police and armed Rakhine Buddhists is the proof. Coastal area in Rakhine state is clearly of strategic importance to both China (0ne[Read More…]
Apparently, in a reconfiguration of positions in the geopolitics, Turkey, a NATO-member, has signed a $2 billion deal to buy the S-400 Russian air defense missile system while Russian Duma voted on Thursday (Dec. 21) to extend Russia’s lease of a naval base in Syria for 49 years, Vladimir Kozhin, a presidential aide who oversees Russia’s matters of military cooperation,[Read More…]
It doesn’t take a mystic to look into a crystal ball to realize that America’s new draconian corporate tax cut scam now is not only the greatest financial heist and political con to be committed in recent modern history, that will make the 2008 so-called “bail-out’ of the banks, Wall Street and theft of the US Treasury look like paltry[Read More…]
The detention of Ahed Tamimi of the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, along with her human rights activist mother Nariman Tamimi, for “lightly slapping” an Israeli soldier, as Amira Hass put it in Haaretz, is remarkable only because of the high profile, courage and sumoud (steadfastness) of the Tamimi family, who were featured on the cover of The New[Read More…]
During the last week, a report by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) on the Islamic State’s weapons found in Iraq and Syria has been doing the rounds on the media. Before the story was picked up by the mainstream media, it was first published [1] in the Wired on December 12, which has a history of spreading dubious stories and[Read More…]
I first learned about Cardinal Law some years ago in a news report. A seven year old stood by a busy road or a highway crying. A woman stopped to pick him up. He had jumped at a traffic light or some other type of stop (such as brought by a stop sign) out of the man’s car. He,[Read More…]
Thomas Paine’s pamphlet of January 10, 1776 was, as everyone knows, an important factor in bringing about the issuance of the Declaration of Independence. Common Sense pointed out that the colonies received no advantage from their connection with the mother country, which was intent on exploiting them; a firm and final and violent break from the mother country was[Read More…]
The Trump administration suffered a humiliating defeat in the UN General Assembly Thursday as 128 countries condemned the president’s December 6 announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The 128-9 vote, with 35 abstentions, reflects the extreme isolation of the United States and increases the prospect of a violent clash in the Middle East. The vote was preceded by[Read More…]
To have a viable human future on this overstressed planet, it is essential that we build a solidarity economy that seeks material sufficiency and spiritual abundance for all in balance with a living Earth. We must join in common cause to build local relationships of caring and equitable sharing across the lines of race, religion, and class. Strong and healthy[Read More…]
A review of a new book “Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival” by P. Carter, E. Woodworth and J. Hansen “We’re simply talking about the very life support system of this planet.”(Professor Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impacts). The extreme rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) since the onset of the industrial[Read More…]
World Inequality Report 2018 has been released by World Inequality Lab with which Paris based economists Piketty and Chancel are related. The report has analyzed the inequality in India in depth. The first major conclusion of the report is that in India after independence the inequality was not so much prevalent; the major factor was socialist policies but since the[Read More…]
59% of Indians, or 781,261,099 men and women in India, are of working age, that is to say, over the age of 20. India has 394600000 acres of cultivable land and 196250791 acres of forests, a total of 590850791 acres of land where man and animals may stay and live. India thus has a labour availability, that is to[Read More…]
It was something of a clanger for the ride hailing service that has made authorities across the globe sceptical and stroppy. Uber has lobbied, cajoled, and bullied its way into the transport markets of the globe, while still claiming to be a humble, facilitating technology company. The legal team at Uber has, at times, been ingenious. At other times, it[Read More…]
Muslim- and American-killing Trump has finished 2017 on a high having secured passage through Congress of his deadly Tax-Cut Bill that will shift $1.5 trillion from health, education and welfare to tax relief that will overwhelmingly benefit corporations and the rich. However the Tax-Cut Bill also includes repeal of the ObamaCare individual mandate, a measure that will remove 13[Read More…]
Oxford: Not 20 minutes had passed following President Trump’s outrageous “Capital offense” declaration recognizing all of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel when shouts were heard in parts of Lebanon of an arriving apocalypse.Some self-flagellations were observed in certain Shia quarters, predications of end of times spread as well as many calls for a Third Intifada to “liberate Jerusalem.”[Read More…]
In 2007, Sotheby’s
auctioned a can of artist’s shit
for 180,000 dollars.
“Sophisticated,” “cultured” types
clamored to buy a tin of shit
an auction house called “Art.”
The God imagined the flavour
`Get me one for my lunch’.
An inverted rainbow appeared
On the secretary’s lips.
Last week, at a New Orleans conference center that once doubled as a storm shelter for thousands during Hurricane Katrina, a group of polar scientists made a startling declaration: The Arctic as we once knew it is no more. The region is now definitively trending toward an ice-free state, the scientists said, with wide-ranging ramifications for ecosystems, national security, and[Read More…]
Fifteen thousand scientists have issued a dire warning to humanity about impending collapse but virtually no-one takes notice. Ultimately, our global systems, which are designed for perpetual growth, need to be fundamentally restructured to avoid the worst-case outcome. For a moment, the most important news in the entire world flashed across the media like a shooting star in the night[Read More…]
The bad news streaming through our media in 2017 has been relentless. However it doesn’t tell the full story. Beyond the headlines, there have countless amazing social movement struggles in different regions of the world that deserve to be celebrated. Here are ten stories showing that people power works: 1. El Salvador bans mining In a classic David and Goliath[Read More…]
A 7-year-old girl in the US needs food, blanket and a toy. So, the little girl wrote to Santa, “This Christmas I would like a ball and a food. I need a [blanket].” A “1st grader asks for food, blanket in heartbreaking letter to Santa” headlined Good Morning America report by Morgan Winsor in mid-December, a winter day, said: “Ruth[Read More…]
Co-Written by Valleria Ruselli and C. Russell There are monumentally important new films which break away from the usual journalistic cliches, and experiment with the documentary format in order to find deeper truths in the refugee experience… and to dignify the plight of the displaced. The current cycle of migrant films, including small-budget personal works as well as more expensive[Read More…]
“Forty percent of the United States drains into the Mississippi. It’s agriculture. It’s golf courses. It’s domestic runoff from our lawns and roads. Ultimately, where does it go? Downstream into the Gulf.” —Sylvia Earle Our civilization is headed for a downfall, to be sure, in part due to the massive gulf between our hopes for the future and the omnipresent[Read More…]
The holiday period provides us with a unique opportunity to express the new awareness that must inform a less commercialised and sharing-oriented world. Rather than spending all our time partaking in conspicuous consumption, why don’t we commemorate Christmas by organising massive gatherings for helping the poor and healing the environment? At this time of year, our overconsuming lifestyles in[Read More…]
Seoul: Atrocity tourism and what might be termed the tourism of divisive obstacles (fences, barbed wire, mine fields) can be great money earners. Former concentration and extermination camps in Europe bring in currency even as visitors shake with stunned grief and moral disturbance – tears and foreboding as valuable currency. In South Korea, the money earner is the Demilitarised Zone,[Read More…]
Presenting themselves as shocked bystanders to the growing famine in Yemen, the US and UK are in fact prime movers in a new strategy that will massively escalate it. The protagonists of the war on Yemen – the US, UK, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have been beset by problems ever since they launched the operation in[Read More…]
Co-Written by Rachel Oxman and C.Russell “In July 1952, in a cell block on Ellis Island, C.L.R. James began writing a book about Herman Melville. The Triinidadian journalist, historian and social theorist was awaiting deportation under the McCarran Act. Caught in an administration limbo of the “detainee,” James built his book, Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways on Melville’s abidingly pertinent observation that, in the United States,[Read More…]
Today, December 19, 2017, the US Congress voted for A Trillion dollars in tax cuts for corporations and the rich, but no money for train safety. Yesterday, six people were killed, scores injured as a train jumps tracks and crashes in Washington state, December 18th, 2017. The train had no positive train control system. Remember the Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line[Read More…]
“… A Hero of Our Time, gentlemen, is in fact a portrait, but not of an individual; it is the aggregate of the vices of our whole generation in their fullest expression.” ‘(From Foreword to Á Hero of Our Time, Lermontov’ quoted in Albert Camus novel ‘The Fall’) Shambhu Lal Raigar is a new hero of our times. It[Read More…]
When they amended paragraph 3 section 182 the Companies Act 2013 in part XII of the Finance Act 2017-2018 in Parliament on March 22 2017, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley and the BJP committed the crime of bribery. Under the Representation of People Act 1951 section 123, bribery, that is to say the receipt or agreement to receive, any gratification[Read More…]
Uttarakhand High Court has rejected an affidavit filed by the state government in relation to a writ petition filed by me on behalf of Social Development Foundation, Delhi in 2013, related to issue of the Land Ceiling Laws in the state. In the last hearing the Chief Justice of the High Court Justice K M Joseph and Justice V K[Read More…]
India’s economy is soaring but its healthcare system remains an Achilles’ heel. For millions of people, the high cost of treating illness continues to undermine economic progress. This is largely on account of the abysmal and chaotic healthcare system owing to the declining budgetary healthcare support by the government. India now ranks close to the bottom of the pile[Read More…]
(Any initiative in reviving and expanding the agricultural base of Kashmir which has been the backbone of our economy is most welcome) A columnist friend Arjimand Hussain Talib has recently launched Ziraat Times both a print publication and an online portal to fully revive and promote the dwindling agricultural economy of the State. The focus of the bi-lingual print publication[Read More…]
For many people in the Northern Hemisphere who celebrate Christmas, the iconic image is one of snow or a Santa Claus driving a sleigh through the snow driven by reindeer. Depending on which version of the Santa Claus story you read, his home is in the Arctic, possibly at the North Pole. Images of snowy Santas will adorn many Xmas[Read More…]
These are notes from a short lecture given at Nottingham University on 28th November 2017. Click on the images to enlarge them. 1 Production Increase During the 17th and 18th centuries the rise of mercantile power, colonialism and a slave economy was associated with the development of the idea that “improvement” meant production growth and was an indicator of a[Read More…]
Since 1897, the first Zionist Congress, Judaism has been entangled with Zionism. It’s time to disengage the two – no easy matter. When Zionist Jewish terrorist gangs in Palestine were transformed into Israel’s Defense Forces, they continued systematically practicing sociocide, politicide, ethnic cleansing, and incremental genocide on the Palestinian people under the banner of a bastardized Star of David. “The[Read More…]
Within hours after Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi immigrant, allegedly detonated a pipe bomb in New York City on December 11, severely injuring himself and wounding four others, a most comprehensive official and media narrative emerged. The formulation of the narrative concerning Ullah’s motives, radicalization and assumed hate for the US was so immaculate, one would have thought it took authorities months,[Read More…]
Grossly human rights-abusing and US-backed Apartheid Israel wants Indigenous Palestinian land but not the Palestinian inhabitants and have annexed Occupied East Jerusalem while making the Palestinians they haven’t expelled residents but not citizens. Pro-Apartheid Trump America, Australia and Canada rank 1, 2 and 3 in the world for supporting Apartheid Israel and hence its racist and genocidal policies in[Read More…]
It is the Unlimited Imperialists along the line of Alexander, Rome, Napoleon and Hitler who are now in charge of conducting American foreign policy… Historically this latest eruption of American militarism at the start of the 21st Century is akin to that of America opening the 20th Century by means of the U.S.-instigated Spanish-American War in 1898. Then the Republican[Read More…]
Unfortunately, the hope for peace and justice on earth and goodwill to all seems to be receding with each passing year. US politicians, particularly the neo-cons and neo-libs in Washington DC, seem to respond with a bah, humbug to this desire. These neo-folks, like other Americans, are people who have not directly experienced the ravages, destruction and killing of war[Read More…]
The Voice of America has always been a ploy to coerce the people into believing that state corporatism is the only legitimate voice to be listened to. The American people have been captive to Corporate Capitalism’s branding of language by means of linguistic chicanery for many decades. As capitalism has no charter, it’s modus operandi merely entailsexpediency. American power elites[Read More…]
Before writing anything about Shanta Gandhi, I want to honestly admit something. Up until about a couple of years back, I was completely unaware of the existence of anyone by this name. As luck would have it, I enrolled into an MA course in Education and as a part of my field research therein, I came across what is known[Read More…]
We are writing to draw your attention to two urgent priorities for the forthcoming Budget. 1. Social security pensions, 2. Maternity entitlements
Dr.John Dayal was honoured for his life time contributions for the cause of minorities in India. He was conferred the honour by Sj. Ramesh Chandra Majhi, minister for ST/SC Development, OBC & Minority Welfare, Government of Odisha on behalf of Odisha Minority Alliance, Bhubaneswar at the IDCOL Auditorium, Bhubaneswar. The function was organized on the occasion of International Minority[Read More…]
He had killed the buffalo late the previous night. The dark was his friend. Thanks to the reflectors in his eyes, he could see as clearly in starlight as we can see in bright daylight. If he could have read a book, he would have, reclining on a massive tree branch overhanging a pathway. As the light faded and night[Read More…]
Nazareth: It is tempting to interpret the announcement this week of a delay until the new year in US vice-president Mike Pence’s visit to the Middle East as the ultimate travel warning. It follows an eruption of regional unrest over Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. During protests last Friday, Israeli occupation forces killed four Palestinians and[Read More…]
BJP’s true assessment of its Gujarat victory was best surmised by Dr Shashi Tharoor while talking to India Today. Commenting on the victory speech of PM Modi, he said “the speech was not celebratory but defensive” – a sharp departure from past victory celebrations. The PM has no particular reason to celebrate. Although BJP won the election, his party[Read More…]
A woman waited to vote.
A village waited to vote.
Constituencies were marked ”to be hacked and tampered.”
The economist Branko Milanovic recently wrote a blog post titled “The illusion of degrowth in a poor and unequal world.” He penned it, he says, following a conversation he had with a proponent of degrowth. As it turns out, that proponent was me. First, let me say that I have a lot of respect for Milanovic’s work on inequality. [Read More…]
It was a bright morning in late October, with a light breeze and no mist. Crinkled woody seeds of todayan, a beautiful tree with upturned leaves, cracked open underfoot as I walked through a rainforest at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Wayanad district, Kerala, where I live and work. Balsam capsules sprung open on touch. In the course of a few minutes,[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump has unveiled new National Security Strategy in which he has emphasized to protect the American interests. US President has specifically mentioned the major problem area confronting the nation- terming these as the rouge state North Korea and the dictatorship in Iran. Major focus of the new National Security Strategy is to advance the US interests and[Read More…]
Fulfilling his election promise, President Donald Trump announced on December 6, recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, this reversal of longtime U.S. policy did not come out of blue. A series of reports published since December 6, unveil the role of major Arab countries in Trump’s not-unexpected announcement. Israeli journalist and head of the Arab desk at[Read More…]
Yesterday 15 December 2017 ANI reported that police in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India have filed an FIR against Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh for inciting communal hatred. An FIR has been registered against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telanagana MLA Raja Singh, a leader of the militant Hinfu outfit Ram Sene, one of the Sangh Parivar organisations. The leadership position is[Read More…]
Gujarat’s much awaited results are out. The fraudsters sitting in the mega ‘slaughterhouses’ have been exposed and myth related to invincibility is broken and perhaps shaken the Hindutva camp from inside. These results will have huge impact on the psyche of our nation and the fraudsters will start building up their narratives now about how ‘despite’ 25 years ruling,[Read More…]
The worst of times, and the best of times. This must be a sentiment that filters through the Trump administration as it discusses, disagrees and fights itself on how best to deal with Kim Jong-un and the North Korean situation. With a transactional presidency – one that treats deals as matters of pressure, deception and cornering – situations oscillate, ebb[Read More…]
Co-Written By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Ajit Pai, the former Verizon lawyer who is chair of the FCC, went too far last Thursday in undermining the Internet when he led the dismantling of net neutrality rules. As a result, he has fueled the energy needed to protect Internet rights. It is time for Movement Judo, where the energy created[Read More…]
The Istanbul Declaration adopted at an Extraordinary Islamic Summit Conference in Istanbul on the 13th of December 2017 invites “the whole world to recognise East Jerusalem as the occupied capital of the State of Palestine.” It further pledges to ‘mobilize support in the name of entire humanity to strengthen the State of Palestine and its institutions in every field.”[Read More…]
Israel is the only state in the world that is not allowed to locate its capital in a national city of its choice.” It seems like an innocent enough proclamation, and even accurate pushback against global double standards, until one considers the political and legal dimensions. The dramatic performance of U.S. President Donald Trump , in which he announced he[Read More…]
India’s Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu recently stated that the country cannot survive on imported produce for its food security. He called for a greater focus on agriculture: “We can export (agricultural produce) for the time being but the population is growing.” Naidu pointed out what has become increasingly apparent: “People are leaving agriculture and going to other professions. An agriculturist does not[Read More…]
Recently I saw a two year old or so in age on Santa’s lap on a Boston television news program. He was deaf-person signing to his parents the word “help.” Toddler signs for ‘help’ while sitting on Santa’s lap | Daily Mail Online www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5168465/Toddler-signs-help-sitting-Santas-lap.html 6 days ago – Mother shares a photo of her adorable toddler signing for ‘help‘ while[Read More…]
“The task of setting free one’s gifts was a recognized labor in the ancient world….the spirit that brings us our gifts finds its eventual freedom only through our sacrifice, and those who do not reciprocate the gifts of their genius [daemon, personal spirit that comes to us at birth] will leave it in bondage when they die.” – Lewis[Read More…]
“Teaching children to acclimate is necessary to some degree, of course, but that currently comprises well over ninety per cent of educational effort ‘cross the country, ‘cross the board. And very little energy is devoted to how youngsters can alter society radically, which is what will be necessary, of course, if they are to inherit a world worth living[Read More…]
They came in large numbers from all over the country to protest against attempt to criminalise the issues of Transgender Communities under the The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 which actually rather than helping them, criminalises them and prone to their exploitation at all level. Transgendered have suffered isolation, discrimination and prejudices and therefore we can describe them[Read More…]
Any sensible government must learn to unleash the energy of its people and get them to perform instead of trying to get a bureaucracy to perform ―Verghese Kurien, I Too Had a Dream Tackling poverty requires an approach that must start with the people themselves and encourages the initiative, creativity and drive from below. The strategy must be at the[Read More…]
It was reported in the Hindustan Times today that Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday in Tripura said that “The Muslims in India are also Hindus” and that “Anybody living in India is a Hindu.” Section 153A of The Indian Penal Code punishes whoever by spoken words promotes on any ground whatsoever, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between[Read More…]
“Mamta and Anita, Dalit sisters of Iroli Gurjar village in Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh wait in the district courts for their kin, and a Pastor, to be released on bail. The Pastor and five others were beaten up on 4th December when a mob entered Mamta’s house where a prayer was in progress, and stopped the prayers for the[Read More…]
Bhubaneswar: Police firing on adivasis leading to 13 deaths in Kalinganagar on January 2, 2006 to acquire land for a private company to usher in industrialization had sent shock waves across the country. Today, it is equally painful and shocking to see the findings of the P K Mohanty Commission of Inquiry that was constituted to inquire into the[Read More…]
Bitcoin mining – the mechanism of creating Bitcoins and approving transactions on the blockchain – consumes prodigious amounts of electricity due to the use of a ‘Proof of Work’ cryptographic algorithm. While some Bitcoin is mined using clean energy (hydropower and geothermal energy, mainly) most Bitcoin is mined using coal, because coal power is both ubiquitous and cheap. Unfortunately,[Read More…]
Being a moralist in the Olympics doesn’t carry you very far. Turn one way, and there are enterprising drug cheats; turn another, there are wads of cash in envelopes finding their inexorable way to an official’s accounts. The challenge of the Olympics is, in a fundamental way, a challenge of institutional decay, ruination and sport as profit. Having the International[Read More…]
After Trump announced his decision on Jerusalem being the capital of Israel to be signaled by moving the U.S. embassy there, the condemnation came swift and strong, as well as the praise coming swift and strong from those supporting the decision – in the latter case mainly the Christian evangelicals and the Israelis. The comments were generally clear, without equivocation.[Read More…]
For the second week in a row, Ahwazi demonstrators poured into the streets across the Arab region of south-western Iran earlier this week to protest against the endemic abuse and injustice they are subjected to by the Iranian regime. The regime’s worsening repression comes despite repeated warnings by officials over the devastating effects of its current policies of deprivation, land-theft[Read More…]
Co-Written By Ashish Kumar Singh & Judas Everett South Sudan is a typical example of modern day media saturation, there are only so many cries for UN intervention, only so many pleas for aid and only so much bad news people can absorb before saturation is achieved. Since independence and the follow South Sudanese civil war and various famines there[Read More…]
Having been born in a coal and steel company town but destiny delivered, as an adult, to reside, during extended intervals, in the East and West Coast cities of Los Angeles and New York City, and, at present, the continent of Europe, I have come to conclude, people born into situations providing economic advantage, both liberals and conservatives alike,[Read More…]
We live in a world of denial: The Burmese deny the Rohingya; they call them Bengali even though they have lived in Burma for centuries — some say as early as the 11th century. Even the Pope, afraid of the consequences to a small Christian minority, shied away during his visit, confining himself to the all-encompassing phrase, the rights[Read More…]
At the outset, we must confront a bitter fact that it was a ‘transfer of power’ in 1947 which Indian rulers celebrated as ‘Freedom’ and ‘Independence’. If we use a terse coinage, it was a ‘systematic transfer of power’ between the colonial elite (Britisher) and the post-colonial elite (Congress). That is why, the pre-1947 imperial state has been continuing[Read More…]
The Seven Social Sins of the World: Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Knowledge without character Commerce without morality Science without humanity Worship without sacrifice Politics without principle — given by Mohandas Gandhi to his grandson Arun shortly before his assassination BITCOIN AND BLOCKCHAIN The world is on fire lately with the exponential growth of Bitcoin and other electronic cryptocurrencies. While[Read More…]
The Pentagon has submitted operational plans to the White House which outline at least two years of combat operations in Somalia against the militant group Al-Shabaab. The plans coincide with AFRICOM’s ramped-up campaign of airstrikes in Somalia, carrying out 32 so far in 2017, more than twice the number conducted the previous year. In November, AFRICOM bombed an alleged Al-Shabaab[Read More…]
Recent decision of US President unilateral decision to move its Embassy of Israel in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem made tremors in seven decades old impeccable support to Palestine. Independent India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who was strong believer of democracy, freedom and liberty and an international statesman also known to be as contemporary world leader in modern politics[Read More…]
The FCC is under attack—and so too is the First Amendment. As the primary regulator of how media and information gets to our nation’s citizens, the Federal Communications Commission has a critical role to play in protecting the open Internet, free speech, and free press in our democracy. Though the agency has always enjoyed a cozy relationship with the industries it regulates,[Read More…]
The FCC voted Thursday to repeal all existing net neutrality protections. They are giving giant ISPs like Verizon and Comcast the power to control what we can see and do online with new fees, throttling, and censorship. This will ruin the fundamentally open nature of the internet. This fight isn’t over though, there is still a clear path to victory. The organizations behind Battle[Read More…]
On December 11, in response to the growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, more than 50 concerned people including representatives of various peace, justice and human rights organizations and communities, gathered in New York City’s Ralph Bunche Park, across First Avenue from the United Nations. Our message, which was communicated on signs and banners and by speakers addressing the rally, was[Read More…]
My generation has seen that history does repeat itself. We know world wars I and II and we have seen “regime change” in action from country to country, from Libya to Iraq. Those who think that history does not repeat itself might read some of these lines about what once happened and what is happening today. Sophie with soldiers. After[Read More…]
by Richard Martin Oxman and the Oxman Collective “The bad news: Your wages are declining. The worse news: Surveys documenting falling wage actually under-estimate how much your wages are declining.” — the opening to Pete Dolack’s You Are Working Harder And Getting Paid Less There’s something that can be done about what Dolack is complaining about above, but it must be done[Read More…]
Binu, editor at Countercurrents.org, wrote: The bitcoin bubble could take the world into another economic crash. Writing in the Financial Times and Washington Post, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the US economy was on a “sugar high”. He noted that economic growth this year had been driven by a stock market rally that has seen an increase of[Read More…]
“We condemn the killing of Gauri Lankesh.” “Culprits will be taken under arrest.” ” They will not be spared.” “Justice will be served”. Welcome to the world of Indian platitudes. A place where public life merrily wallows in a framework of banal statements. There is no element of this public life left wherein the forces of subterfuge couched in a[Read More…]
“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” In Khaled Hosseini’s novel about life in Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns, the character Nana, a poor unwed mother, gives this grim advice to her five-year-old daughter, Mariam. In 25 words, she tries to sum up[Read More…]
Criminal law deals with behavior that is or can be construed as an offense against the public, society, or the state—even if the immediate victim is an individual. Examples are murder, assault, theft,and drunken driving. Civil law deals with behavior that constitutes an injury to an individual or other private party, such as a corporation. Examples are defamation (including libel and slander), breach[Read More…]
The inaugural World Inequality Report published on Thursday by economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, Facundo Alvaredo and Lucas Chancel documents the rise in global income and wealth inequality since 1980. The report covers up to 2016, leaving out the last year, in which the stock market has soared on the expectation that the US will enact massive tax[Read More…]
The nonpartisan First Amendment advocacy group Free Press vowed to take the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to court Thursday after the Republican-controlled panel moved to gut net neutrality protections that prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from charging for and discriminating against content, in a 3-2 vote along party lines. The FCC just voted to repeal #NetNeutrality but the fight is[Read More…]
A Parable At a time not so long ago, in a place not so far away, there lay a rich and powerful kingdom. It was a time of frustration and turmoil. The people were agitated as were their representatives who endlessly bickered and fought. Finally a new President was elected by the Election College and installed in the White Castle. [Read More…]
On December 6th in front of a Christmas tree American president Trump gave Israeli Zionist Jews; anti-Christians, who still brag about murdering Jesus and routinely insult every Christian priest in Jerusalem, an early Christmas present when he officially recognized Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the capital of Israel and declared his intention to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.[Read More…]
From Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Samarinda and Pontianak text and photos: Andre Vltchek * Several years ago, a prominent Indonesian businessman who now resides in Canada, insisted on meeting me in a back room of one of Jakarta’s posh restaurants. An avid reader of mine, he ‘had something urgent to tell me’, after finding out that our paths were going to[Read More…]
As part of their efforts to be more nationalist than capitalist Indian capitalists who are the undivided financiers of the BJP need to introspect. They should give up insisting on turning human and ecological material into capital. The Sangh Parivar and the BJP are in league with the capitalists in pursuit of the glory of Hindu Rashtra. The alliance[Read More…]
Woke up with Anxiety Dreams, ‘acute pain in my bones’ transformed into Chilling Mirror Images, of Frightening Triple Headed Monstrous Donkey, ‘Sickening cry with ears like errant wings’. Shoulders fused in to single stomach, Posterior legs kicking in Hatred and loyalty display. I cried out at my painful Metamorphosis Into strange animal, Spewing Saffron Poison. But my broken back[Read More…]
Nepal’s electoral victory of the left alliance is of great relief for the people of that country as we hope that the country will have a stable government which could focus on the basic issues of the people and move ahead rebuilding its society based on equality, liberty and fraternity. It is fortunate that Nepal’s constituent assembly as well as[Read More…]
Imagine you had an infection on your finger-tip, and your doctor decided to amputate your arm without exploring the possibility of curing the infection first. India’s National River Linking Project (NRLP) is just as ludicrous. The NRLP was conceived to primarily address the problems of water scarcity and periodic floods in different parts of the country. This ambitious project envisages[Read More…]
Hell was the gated compound
where the ones inside were holding a party
in their glass houses and ivory towers
while you stood outside
Stone Age man
holding your child’s hand
stone of words, unpelted yet
reading the name plates on the gates
Poor women’s suffering has long been a sure-fire way to pull on the heartstrings of rich donors, but in recent years there has been a newfound appreciation for the role that these women play in breaking the cycle of poverty and stabilising fragile societies. It has been said that women who are closest to the world’s most pressing issues are[Read More…]
On December 8, 2017, SOAS India Society of SOAS, University of London organised a public meeting to highlight and stand in solidarity with Professor GN Saibaba and Chandrashekhar Azad. Below is a solidarity statement released by the SOAS India Society: *** Prof. Saibaba who is a 90% disabled person and worked as an Assistant Professor at the Ram Lal Anand[Read More…]
Now you’re safe, globaliser, to count
your gilt-edged dividends
while the real work is done
by us, digging in the ground
mining the common metal.
“We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing,” saidSenator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in October. That was in the wake of the combat deaths of four members of the Special Operations forces in the West African nation of Niger. Graham and other senators expressed shock about the deployment,[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s now ubiquitous slogan, “Make America Great Again!”, is often chanted at rallies, but rarely scrutinized in public discourse. What era in America’s past is Mr. Trump referring to when he says “Again”? Would Mr. Trump prefer America return to the days of slavery, Jim Crow and labor exploitation in unsafe factories, mines, foundries and plantations? How about the[Read More…]
The overthrow of iniquitous power relations is a point many would celebrate. But such overthrows are themselves marked by the contradiction of their origins. Any revolution must, by its very nature, suffer inconsistency, defeats and weaknesses. In the United States, a different sort of sexual revolution is taking place. It is not linked to liberation in the way sex was[Read More…]
Why is there a gag order on Yogi Adityanath’s hate speech trial in Allahabad? What is the public interest in covering up these crimes? The hate speeches by Yogi Adityanath were the precursor to extra judicial killings by the Uttar Pradesh Government once he became Chief Minister. Police encounter killings were not only threatened but carried out. In his speech[Read More…]
Now that the American mask has completely fallen, Palestinians require an urgent rethink in their own political priorities, alliances and national liberation strategy. Business should not go on as usual after US President Donald Trump accepted Israel’s definition of Jerusalem as its capital, thus violating the overwhelming international consensus on the matter. The Fatah movement, which has controlled the[Read More…]
Is climate change aiding the demise of the Koala bear? The koala is an engaging, docile, cuddly and lovable animal. It is also, tragically, undergoing a rapid decline in numbers. To the extent climate change and a degraded environment are responsible, we can be blamed for not heeding the warnings of scientists and others. Warnings to humanity are much[Read More…]
“Chomsky has provided irrefutable analysis on the U.S. continuous violation of human rights, both within and outside its own borders.” — from a lead in to a Democracy Now! interview with Noam Chomsky from 1998 Human Rights organizations today play a major part in international affairs. Human Rights Watch, for instance, works in ninety countries, including virtually all those[Read More…]
Candidates standing for elections canvass with their symbols and seek peoples mandate by asking to vote for a particular symbol – whether party symbol or symbols for independents. But, the Supreme Court in its judgement Peoples Union of Civil liberties vs union of India, 2013, directed the EC to provide NOTA (None Of The Above) button in all EVMs/[Read More…]
(The operation of a private helicopter service is welcome but it needs full government backing from the State and the Centre to succeed) Recently the announcement about the formation of a private limited company, Kashmir Air Services was made by some local entrepreneurs known as Dar brothers. They have been operating a reputed timber company known as Dar Timber Company.[Read More…]
In the late nineties I was manager of a bank branch at Warora, a small town in western Maharshtra. We had to make frequent trips to the Block Development Office at Warora and the Collector’s secretariat in Chandrapur for discussions on various rural development projects being undertaken by our bank branch. We believed that instead of individual clients going and[Read More…]
Close to 1,000 NREGA workers and other rural labourers converged to Birsa Chowk from 12 districts of Jharkhand today and sat on dharna to protest against repeated attacks on their right to food and right to work. The event was jointly organised by Right to Food Campaign Jharkhand and NREGA Watch. The dharna was prompted by a series of recent[Read More…]
According to the official scenario, the world economy is enjoying its best period of growth since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, which ushered in the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. According to a report issued by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development last month: “The global economy is now growing at its fastest pace[Read More…]
On the campaign trail, in his speeches as well as on TV debates with other presidential contenders, Donald Trump repeatedly mentioned that he has a ‘secret plan’ for defeating the Islamic State without elaborating what the plan is? To the careful observers of the US-led war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, however, the outlines of Trump’s ‘secret[Read More…]
Vineeta Bal, a former member of the Prime Minister’s task force for science, narrated a humorous poem by the Marathi poet Sopandev Chaudhari last week to underscore the importance of scientific temper. The poem points out that Newton could think of the law of gravity when he saw the apple fall to the ground while some of us can[Read More…]
If you are not true to your professed position in life, then you are false to everyone, including yourself. If you take up a religious or ideological position, then there are no half-measures in terms of support for the position presumed to be undertaken. I was raised in a Christian family. While I am no paradigm of virtue, I did[Read More…]
Campaigners have set up an an easy to use website that allows you to automatically petitition your MP, Banks, Mobile phone companies and other service providers like MGNREGA, EPF etc against the coercive attempt to link Aaadhar number. The website https://www.speakforme.in has well written letters, with citations, reasonings and arguments. With a few clicks you can send these letters to[Read More…]
Beatrice Fihn, Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), has delivered the Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Peace Prize award to ICAN. 2 months ago the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was set for ratification and will enter into force 90 days after 50 countries have ratified it. Beatrice Fihn declared: “Will it[Read More…]
President Trump’s unilateral decision to declare Jerusalem as Israel’s capital earned him worldwide criticism and condemnation, except for Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu’s so-called charm offensive in Brussels, where he wanted to convince the EU to follow Trump’s example, was shunt by Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, saying that “this move will not come.” She stressed the support of the[Read More…]
“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” he said, referring to online interactions driven by “hearts, likes, thumbs-up.” “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.” — from an article centered on a former Facebook executive, Chamath Palihapitiya[Read More…]
He feels she called him out of love,
So turns, his life jumps up, they run
Joyously into each other’s arms
As the snow falls upon them
For the first time,alone to face
The gathering storm.
In a historic move 25 European Countries excluding Malta and Denmark have signed the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) pact, a permanent military cooperation based structure aiming for the self reliance in the military matters. The signing establishes the fact that EU is itself geared towards developing its own military capacity. Earlier the 23 EU member states had signed the Joint[Read More…]
The present-day education reformers believe that schools are broken and market solutions are the only remedy. Many of them embrace disruptive innovations, primarily through online learning. There is a strong belief that real breakthroughs can come only through the transformative power of technology or the invisible hand of the market. However, findings suggest that this strategy has not lived up[Read More…]
The Tirupur Principal District and Sessions Judge Alamelu Natarajan yesterday announced death penalty for six accused convicted in V Shankar murder case last year in Coimbatore. This include her father and other conspirators but her mother and distant uncle has been acquitted. It was perhaps the first cases where the judge has handed out six persons the capital punishment[Read More…]
A unique initiative in Chhattisgarh to strengthen Secular, Socialist, Democratic, Republic of India Constitution Day also known as Samvidhan Divas, is celebrated in India on 26 November every year to commemorate the adoption of Constitution of India. The Government of India declared 26 November as Constitution Day on 19 November 2015 by a gazette notification. The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi made the declaration on 11[Read More…]
In 1995, a few short years after the official end of the Cold War when hope-filled nations were focusing on peace and prosperity, the United States Congress unanimously passed the “Jerusalem Embassy Act” into law. The law recognized “Jerusalem” as the official capital of Israel. The passage of this law was left unnoticed by most. Few objected to a law[Read More…]
Across the globe, voices of reason are loud and clear that on peacemaking and the issues of Jerusalem, America and Israeli both have lost the opportunities for peacemaking process and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine to balance the disequilibrium in which State of Israel currently exists. It is becoming more obvious that by challenging the voices[Read More…]
What’s going on in Jerusalem is what has always been going on in Palestine since 1948 –the forced dispossession of Palestinian Arabs of their identity, land and heritage. Because of Donald Trump’s declaration to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and the resultant global outrage regarding this decision, many people have become interested in understanding what is going on in[Read More…]
Americans are instructed that North Korea is an aggressor that violates international agreements and doesn’t negotiate. Until North Korea denuclearizes, we are told, the U.S. must continue rejecting its peace proposals. After all, North Korea withdrew in 2003 from the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Its subsequent nuclear and missile testing violate the 1953 Korean[Read More…]
“What if violence against women is not a by-product of war, but rather a major cause of it?” — a question posed by Leith Greenslade in a 2014 article Hearing sexual assault victims recount their attacks is heartbreaking. Hearing story after story from U.S. soldiers like Kori Cioca, who was beaten and raped by her Coast Guard supervisor, or[Read More…]
“Consumer Reports surveys rank Raley’s among the top U.S. supermarket chains, in particular for customer service, and that fact can be used as a point of departure for changing a great deal about our collective crises.” — one of the author’s home schooled youngsters. We are now heading, eyes narrowed and shut, towards an environmental catastrophe that might end the[Read More…]
Historians will say that an explosion of creativity occurs the moment the world starts complaining that there is nothing left to invent, or that the search for solutions to complex problems has come to an end. This explosion is fate’s way of reminding us that there is always something just over the horizon of knowledge. Social entrepreneurs are now using[Read More…]
What Trump stands for is not “America First”, but unbridled capitalism, growing inequality, increasing racism, white supremacy, hatred of women, protectionism and constant provocation. He is purposely creating a crisis, as Trump’s administration thrives by chaos. One man’s loss is, after all, another man’s gain. The Trump Family is characterized by lawlessness, megalomania, and a general sense of superiority[Read More…]
In addition to making their voices heard in the streets, net neutrality defenders have planned a massive online demonstration this week ahead of the FCC’s scheduled vote on chairman Ajit Pai’s deeply unpopular plan to kill the open internet, which critics have denounced as “naked corporatism.” Slated to begin Tuesday—and continue through to the scheduled vote by the Republican-controlled FCC on Thursday—the “Break the Internet”[Read More…]
When I learned of the death of Kamal al-Assar, a few years ago, I was baffled. He was only in his 40s. I remember him in his prime, a young rebel, leading the neighborhood youth, armed with rocks and slingshots, in a hopeless battle against the Israeli army. Understandably, we lost, but we won something far more valuable than a[Read More…]
In Pakistan, there are three distinct categories of militants: the Afghanistan-focused Pashtun militants; the Kashmir-focused Punjabi militants; and foreign terrorists including the Arab militants of al-Qaeda, the Uzbek insurgents of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Uighur rebels of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The foreign, transnational terrorists number only in a few hundreds and are hence inconsequential.[Read More…]
We all condemned Mani Shankar Iyer for his ‘neech’ remark which the partners in media jumped and began spreading like the rumour spreading mills but now Prime Minister continue to dig and speak like a helpless leader have made things worst to say the least. Have we ever seen a prime minister virtually crying in his attempt to polarise the[Read More…]
“No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize. Revenge should have no bounds.” — Shakespeare compounding ignorance with ignorance in Act 4, Scene 7 of Hamlet Mildred, the middle-aged mother at the center of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is a one-woman Justice League out to avenge the murder of her teenage daughter. She’s got a spectacularly vulgar mouth, a fearless[Read More…]
The largest labour group of British Columbia has raised voice for the physically disabled Delhi University Professor being incarcerated in the Indian jail since March this year. On the International Human Rights Day, the BC Fed issued a statement calling upon the Canadians to sign petition seeking the release of wheelchair-bound Prof. GN Saibaba who was sentenced to life[Read More…]
These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them. — Rumi, Essential Rumi “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. Everyone knows the cliché, of course, and brave people often rise above adversity to climb great heights. Given that life hands lemons to everyone from time to time, the bravest approach is to turn those “lemons” into lemonade. I put[Read More…]
Your honour May I, as an ordinary citizen of India, request you to enlighten me as to whether some of the recent judgments of the Supreme Court over which you preside, have emanated from schizophrenia, amnesia or megalomania ? To quote a few instances – in a judgment delivered by you as Supreme Court judge on November 30, 2016, you [Read More…]
Politics is not absent in the philosophy and culture of punishment ruling machines practice; and there’s nothing like class-neutral politics although a group of bookmen always suffer with annoyance and pain while they enter into discourse with issues like politics and punishment practiced by the poor and the exploited, and especially in case of the Great October Revolution. Punishment[Read More…]
At about 12:30 on 20th November, Indramal Bai, succumbed to her burns, and left us. Even before we were able to get this update ready, she left this world and those who loved her behind. Pushed to the tipping point, Indramal Bai, is one among many in the Pardhi community whose life has been lost because of systemic police torture[Read More…]
Braving cold weather, dedicated South Asian activists gathered at the Holland Park in Surrey on Saturday to hold rally in commemoration of the 25 years of the demolition of Babri Mosque. On December 6, 1992 the Hindu extremists had razed the ancient Muslim shrine at the behest of the right wing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) which currently governs India. The[Read More…]
What can be done of politics that is dangerous and easy? The opinion polls show that Congress and BJP are neck to neck in the upcoming Gujarat assembly polls. Will the violence of Rajsamand and similar communal politics wash off the terror of demonetization, of GST, of Una Dalits flogging, of unemployment woes of Patidars and Thakors? At the time[Read More…]
Over 200 Palestinians were injured and at least two killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday. The protests came in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and pledge to move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, in a move that upended decades of US[Read More…]
Now that US President Donald Trump has fully adopted the Israeli rightwing political discourse on Palestine, the Palestinian Authority is in a very tough spot. “I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Trump said in Washington on Wednesday. The embattled president has done what many had asked him not to do.[Read More…]
by Francis Thicke, with an introduction by Steven Gorelick The organic food movement suffered a major setback recently, when the US National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) voted in favor of allowing hydroponically-grown products to receive the “organic” label. This decision should not have come as a surprise to those who have watched the organic movement steadily taken over by big[Read More…]
“Talking with those farmers in the Tenosique train yard felt, in a way, like a scene from a sequel to the movie The Road in which a father and son walk across a post-apocalyptic North America devastated by an unknown cataclysm. In reality, though, I was just in a typical border zone of the Anthropocene, the proposed new geologic era[Read More…]
Free speech in Australia has been long severely constrained by draconian libel laws and neoliberal corporate domination of a mendacious Mainstream media. This century Australia has passed draconian laws with custodial punishments of up to life imprisonment for saying things. Now it appears that Australian Intelligence has leaked elements of a private conversation of a Chinese businessman with Iranian-born[Read More…]
It barely registered a murmur across the Australian press, though it caused the traditional ripples over the protester fraternity. Christian activists, collectively known as the Pine Gap Pilgrims, had received sentences pursuant to the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 (Cth), a cold war relic used by the Australian government to conceal the nature of Canberra’s association with the joint US-Australian[Read More…]
Humankind, being an inherently tool-making species, has always been in a relationship with technology. Our tools, weapons, machines, and appliances are crucial to forging the cultural criteria of human life. At present, amid the technology created phantomscape of mass media’s lurid — yet somehow sterile — imagery, one can feel as if one’s mind is in danger of being[Read More…]
The U.S. press is now a uniform chorus shouting against America’s widespread ‘sexual harassment’ by men in power, but the press misrepresents fundamentally to call it ‘harassment’, which brings to mind (and which until recently was normally used for) ‘low-class’ or poor men whistling at physically attractive women who walk by and who might reasonably feel insulted — or[Read More…]
By Sheikh Attar & Palvi Singh Ghokrokta Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) said Descartes stating that the very act of doubting one’s existence served as proof of one’s mind, supporting the assertion of an underlying thinking entity i.e. one’s self. Perfection per se is a utopian concept. From a person to an ideology to a society[Read More…]
(International Anti-Corruption Day-9 December, 2017) Corruption is amongst the most debilitating economic illnesses that afflicts large parts of the world. It erodes the quality of life for ordinary citizens, devastates the moral fabric of society, and impedes growth. In the last four decades, despite several government programmes for the welfare of the rural poor, poverty remains endemic. Either the nets were[Read More…]
Recently I criticised the cost of money inflicted on electricity consumers by the Power Finance Corporation. I mentioned that India has always been and can always be self sufficient in electricity and that forcing us to pay six Rupees per kWh to foreign rentiers is shameful. The same is true for food and money. The purpose of the constitution[Read More…]
He may have small hands, but US President Donald Trump appears to have a big foot. And with his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he has shoved it squarely up the part of conventional international Middle East peacemaking diplomacy that never sees the sun. So far, so good, you might think. Decades of international peacemaking efforts have, after all, failed,[Read More…]
You do not have to be an insider, a foreign policy expert, or a political pundit to realize that the Unholy Trinity, the new axis of evil – United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia – are preparing joint military actions against Iran and Hezbollah. The Spanish colloquial word, Ojo, meaning eye, expresses it all – careful – be on watch[Read More…]
The Jerusalem story is the centerpiece of news this week. Donald Trump and Mike Pence, an evangelical, in favor of moving the embassy and Rex Tillerson and John Mattis opposed in their discussion prior to the announcement. That State and Defense departments both found the move detrimental to U.S. interests underlines how politics trump sound policy. Mr. Trump is[Read More…]
Jakarta 7-8th, December 2017: We the participants of the International Palestine Conference held in Jakarta, on 7, 8 December 2017, with delegates from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Argentina, Malalysia, Phillippines & Indonesia hereby declare: This conference resolved to continue to support the cause of the liberation of Palestine with Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as a its capital. We call upon the[Read More…]
American Muslim civil advocacy groups Thursday (Dec 7) vehemently opposed President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. They were of the view that Trump’s announcement serves no one’s interest but undermines the Middle East peace process couple with inflaming anti-U.S. sentiment across the globe. On Wednesday,[Read More…]
“The near-universal opposition to Trump’s decision by much of the military, intelligence, and foreign policy establishment is not out of concern for the fate of the Palestinians or international law. Rather, they fear that effectively recognizing exclusive Israel control over the third holiest city in Islam will provoke a backlash throughout the Islamic world. Reactionary clerics and other Islamist[Read More…]
In early November, without warning, the Indian government declared the two largest denomination bills invalid, abolishing over 80 percent of circulating cash by value. Amidst all the commotion and outrage this caused, nobody seems to have taken note of the decisive role that Washington played in this. That is surprising, as Washington’s role has been disguised only very superficially. US-President Barack Obama has declared the strategic[Read More…]
Iranian regime security forces brutally assaulted defenseless Ahwazi Arab women protesting against the regime’s illegitimate confiscation of their families’ farmlands earlier this week, arresting many of the women whose only ‘crime’ was to demand justice. The regime military personnel reportedly deliberately hit the women in the mouths and chests with batons and rifle butts. The regime forces’ horrific attacks[Read More…]
When I first talked to the three Honduran men in the train yard in the southern Mexican town of Tenosique, I had no idea that they were climate-change refugees. We were 20 miles from the border with Guatemala at a rail yard where Central American refugees often congregated to try to board La Bestia (“the Beast”), the nickname given to the[Read More…]
USers (better known as “Americans”) have been expressing a preference in survey polls for access to a universal health care system for quite some time. Considering their frustration with so-called representatives who do not advocate in their interests and expressed desires, perhaps they should be called The Great USed. In the late Reagan years, 70 percent of the adult population[Read More…]
In the intro to this dialogue between Paul Kurtz and Vince Salandria–poignantly intercut with JFK’s own words on his goals and hopes for salvaging the human race from the prospects of nuclear suicide-homicide–, Kurtz refers to Salandria as “razor-sharp.” Engrossed for some 20 minutes, I concluded the same…and much more. Octogenarian Salandria is one of the best people I’ve[Read More…]
It set X number of people in a region and then looked at population numbers and variety (plus numbers for each kind) for other species in that same region. How ambitious a study! How exhaustive and painstaking a plan! It had a large enough sample of randomly selected, diverse regions to cover the matter accurately — i.e., places in deserts,[Read More…]
Eighty kilometres to the east of Nagpur in central India lies Bapu Kuti, a historic site in Sewagram, the ‘village of service’, which is nestled in the serene rustic surroundings of the Wardha district. This dwelling was the residential abode of Mahatma Gandhi from 1936 to 1948 and was the epicentre of the Indian freedom movement. During the 12[Read More…]
A thoughtful, sensitive and sensible, socially aware youngster raised this question during the course of one of our conversations. It set me thinking, for I had seen all sorts of people involved in social work – those whose families got neglected, others who were able to strike a balance, still others whose relations with friends and family tottered on the[Read More…]
A man was burnt to death in Rajasthan on December 6th when we were moaning and remembering the 25th year of the assault on our constitution. Afrazul Khan (47) was brutally hacked to death in Rajsamund, Rajasthan and his ‘story’ was shown life and now available everywhere on social media. His fault was that he was a poor Muslim[Read More…]
The recent incident of abuse & inhuman treatment of Kashmiri prisoners inside Tihar Jail in Delhi, once again brings into focus the utter negligence & inertia displayed by UN to enforce its own rules governing treatment of political prisoners of around the world. In 1955,Ten years after its birth, United Nations, set Standard minimum rules for the treatment of[Read More…]
In a major policy shift US President Donald Trump has decided to recognize the Jerusalem as capital of Israel and has directed the official to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem which in his opinion the previous Presidents had promised but did not deliver. The President said “I’ve judged this course of action to be in the[Read More…]
A Three Dimensional Collapse Overview Model The Limits to Growth was published in 1972 by a group of world class scientists using the best mathematical computer modelling available at the time. It projected the future collapse of global industrial civilisation in the 21st century if humanity did not curb its population, consumption and pollution. It was pilloried by many “infinite growth on a[Read More…]
I am the son of a ‘criminal’ who died on the tree.
I am also the son of a ‘bitch’
I am the son of a Pulaya woman
that Parayan you wanted to ditch
I am crucified
I am resurrected
Widow dies of starvation in Garhwa after both food ration and pension are denied to her due to Aadhaar-related problems A 64-year old widow, Premani Kunwar, died of hunger and exhaustion on 1 December in Danda Block of Garhwa district (Jharkhand). Contrary to some media reports, there was no money in Premani’s bank account when she died. Two months earlier,[Read More…]
6th December 1956: B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India, leaves this world, albeit, physically. 6th December, 1992: B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India, leaves this world, this time, in spirit. 36 years separate the two incidents, both of which can be said to be among the landmark moments in the history of India. 6th[Read More…]
The battle for the planet has now become a battle between two systems of human thought and governance; one based on the vestiges of Western Neo-Liberalism and the other based on a restating of Marxist Socialism. The implications are profound. One system offers the possibility of the continuation of the human species on this planet, the other negates that possibility.[Read More…]
What would Charles Darwin say, today, if he could? About the legacy that he left behind? Has it evolved? Evolution, after all, is an ongoing ‘creative’ process. In Darwin Online, Darwin’s Origin of Species, first edition 1859 page 484 it says: “Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this[Read More…]
Since the time immemorial, it has been an article of faith of every Muslim that suicide is ‘Haram’ (prohibited) in Islam. There is a well-known Islamic precept that whoever commits suicide will go straight to hell. But the Takfirists (those who declare others as heretics) have invented a new interpretation of Islam in which suicide is glorified as ‘martyrdom’ and[Read More…]
“‘Declaration of war’: Trump’s Jerusalem decision lights Middle East powder keg” – Russia Today Trump does seem like a dangerous idiot suddenly and unexpectedly set loose on the world of international affairs, a world which normally assumes an appearance of restraint and order and careful words. With virtually everything he touches, he resembles a big, ungainly child breaking things –[Read More…]
What ramifications and when? The recognition of Jerusalem as the natural capital for the State of Israel by US President Donald J. Trump was promised by the buffoonish steward of the empire. Delivering on it was not necessarily expected – US presidents, keen on courting pro-Israeli groups, had been promising to do so for years. Overthrowing the shackles of convention[Read More…]
It was a little late when I reached the Mandi House round about where the march was supposed to be to Parliament Street yesterday, To my surprise, I did not find many of the Delhi’s usual participants but mostly from Tamilnadu. Interestingly, the slogans and the placards were in Hindi. Later, I realise that it was a group of protesters[Read More…]
History has it that, a good eighteen centuries ago, there flourished in the Indian subcontinent a Buddhist philosopher named Nagarjuna. He is credited with having introduced a vital ingredient in subsequent subcontinental mystical concept – that of ‘Shunya’ or emptiness. A rather simplified understanding would be a realization of the emptiness or void (‘a-bhava’) – one that would stretch beyond[Read More…]
The Chennai floods, two years ago – in 2015 – was a disaster of unprecedented intensity. By this week two years ago, we witnessed a bulk of stories where people risked their own lives to save the others in trouble. The state machinery failed to provide citizens the necessary support. At this juncture with the temporary dysfunction of the State,[Read More…]
When ideas fail, words come in very handy. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe We live in an age when noisy posturing too often substitutes for reasoned debate and brash opinion trumps hard fact. The thread of the argument often disappears in a blizzard of gee-whiz statistics, acronyms, and catch phrases in interviews with eminent folks of all kinds. Yet the[Read More…]
(Some politicians have been virtually acting as leeches,stuck to the body of “Kashmir”, sucking every drop of its blood and attaching to it again and again even when thrown away!) “Mainstream” is a very commonly used word in Kashmir these days. It is generally applied to the politicians advocating and supporting Kashmir’s relationship with India. When one talks of streams,[Read More…]
The resistance in Kashmir has seen many peaks and troughs in the recent years. The persistent arts have become a tool of the powerful to let oppressed in false sense of hope. The introduction of perverted Sufism and Sufi traditions, the unusual hype by the corporate media houses to divert the attention of commoners, unavailability of promotion platforms of admirable[Read More…]
On August 7th 1990 VP Singh announced his government’s decision to accept Mandal recommendations that ensured 27% quota for Other Backward Communities. The Savarna students in the north India resorted to violence including self-immolation against it.Opposition Congress party played dirty politics and Rajiv Gandhi’s naivety resulted in BJP’s taking it into their hands and countering it with the religious[Read More…]
Pope Francis lost a historical opportunity to truly set his legacy apart from previous Popes. Alas, for him, too, political expediency trumped all else. In his visit to Burma (Myanmar) on November 27, he refrained from using the word ‘Rohingya.’ But what’s in a name? In our frenzied attempts at understanding and articulating the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma,[Read More…]
Idlib, Syria: George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished!” boast takes its name from a banner that was displayed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during his May 1, 2003 televised address. It referred to his claimed victory in Iraq fourteen years ago. In a less publicized incident, US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld also declared an end to combat operations referring to “Mission Accomplished” in Afghanistan on May 1, 2003,[Read More…]
Not much has been written about Donald Trump’s leadership-style, but his style of leadership is essential to understand, in order to be able to understand his values, his Presidency, the roots of his Presidency, and where his Presidency is taking America. His style of leadership has historically been exhibited by a certain type of national leader. Trump is no[Read More…]
In his remarks on the recent International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – see‘Violence Against Women is Fundamentally About Power’– United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres inadvertantly demonstrated why well-meaning efforts being undertaken globally to reduce violence against women fail to make any progress in addressing this pervasive crisis. Hence, while the UN might be ‘committed to addressing[Read More…]
Capital is not equally shared; neither is nature. Our everyday life has become precarious, a life without stability. Spaces that we dwell in are increasingly questioned, mostly spaces that are home to the margins of the society. Such margins and spaces that they dwell in were for a long time considered ‘non-economic’ zones, which lacked interest of movements of[Read More…]
Melvin Krazberg who was considered to be father of History of technology proposed six laws of technology in its relationship with society know as ‘Krazberg laws’. The first law is ‘technology is neither good nor bad nor it is neutral’. There is no doubt, he was right. Yet the level and degree of good, bad and neutrality could be decided by[Read More…]
On Dec 6, 1992 it was yet another normal day in a small town called Burhanpur, in the southern Madhya-Pradesh. It was often known as Deccan Darvaza, the gateway to Deccan plateau for its militarily important geo-political location during the Mughal period. In those days talking about Mughals was a matter of pride and their rich cultural heritage was[Read More…]
With the FCC set to vote on chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to kill neutrality in just over a week, a diverse coalition—ranging from consumer protection organizations to progressive lawmakers to Harvard professors—is denouncing the FCC’s proposals and scheduling nationwide protests to combat the agency’s move to let massive telecom companies “cash in on the internet” at the expense of consumers. This is the free speech fight of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Eric London and Norisa Diaz The United States Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a major political victory yesterday by ordering the administration’s immigration and travel ban to take effect immediately. The orders reverse lower court decisions halting implementation of the revised ban, which bars citizens of Somalia, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Syria, North Korea and many Venezuelans from traveling[Read More…]
I have already written a lot about Cambodia, but each time I return to this ancient and scarred country, I get so outraged by the cynicism that confronts me there, at every corner, that I have to start writing again, re-addressing the same essential issues that I have already been covering for years and decades. One question always comes[Read More…]
Every year Ambedkar is celebrated and remembered across the globe, at least twice a year, on his birth and death anniversary by the political parties, social movements, NGOs and committed individuals at different venues. Of late, the dates are being observed in various international forums. For very first time, in the history of United Nations he was remembered last[Read More…]
The crystal ball gazers, astrologers and tea leave readers have been suffering a lingering fever of late. Bitcoin recently romped through the $10,000 barrier, an event that sent speculators swooning and conservative voices into a gloomy mood of pessimism. Bitt founder and director Gabriel Abed was rushing to declare the imminent funeral oration for cash, a newly founded digital frontier[Read More…]
Nazareth: For decades most American Jews have claimed an “Israel exemption”: resolutely progressive on domestic issues, they are hawks on their cherished cause. Racism they would vigorously oppose if applied in the United States is welcomed in Israel. Reports at the weekend suggested that Donald Trump is about to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, throwing a wrench in any[Read More…]
In U.S. elections between the two political Parties for federal offices — Congress, and the Presidency — the choice that’s offered to the voters is almost invariably between two fascists; so, the meaning of “fascism” is first crucial to understand, in order to understand today’s America, and that it’s fascist: Benito Mussolini, who originated fascism and named his Party[Read More…]
Last month the Power Finance Corporation of India (PFC) issued a so-called green bond in London. It is a 10-year green bond and raised USD 400 million, paying a 3.75 per cent semi-annual coupon and listed on London Stock Exchange’s new International Securities Market (ISM). The cost of money therefore, ignoring the semi-annual payment, is 3.75% of USD 400[Read More…]
The idea that religions are giving way to a more advanced human level of existence is part of common knowledge. Science and technology are emancipating humankind from mythical and religious discourses under the effect of the belief that only rationality should guide us. Reason has replaced the old God. Nietzsche, more than a century ago, warned that God was dead[Read More…]
One of my friends, who is a political conservative/constitutionalist in the USA, wrote me concerning starvation in South Sudan: Then, maybe they should be taught about birth control, and enforce it. Otherwise they are gonna f*ck us all. So no food for idiots who have been living like this for centuries. And now, we feed them so they can procreate.[Read More…]
Dear Veeru (Virendra Sehwag); yesterday as I came back from my work and was checking pictures of my younger brother, a known cricketer of south Kashmir who is currently behind the bars, I came through a news from different news portals that “Sehwag Hails Security Forces for Eliminating over 200 Terrorists This Year, Congratulates Them On A ‘Double Century’.” Let me[Read More…]
In spite of the fact that the Supreme Court of India in its three judge bench judgment on October 12, 2017 said that my book ‘Smajika Smugglerlu-Komatollu’ cannot be banned, the Arya Vysyas of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are trying to attack me wherever I go to speak in meetings and seminars. The latest is their attempt at Khammam on[Read More…]
We spent the day at a beach in Brooklyn. Skyscrapers floated in the distance and my toddler kept handing me cigarette filters she had dug out of the sand. When we got home, I checked my email. I had been sent a picture of a very different beach: deserted, framed by distant headlands with unsullied sands and clear waters. As[Read More…]
The flight on 23 November 2017 of Igor Plotinitsky, President of the separatist Ukrainian area of the Lugansk People’s Republic is a sign of the continuing difficulties of developing appropriate forms of constitutional government in the Ukraine. Plotinitsky was in open conflict with his “Minister of the Interior” Igor Konet whom he had fired but who refused to give[Read More…]
Look! There at the corner, the old man is crossing the children. All the saints and gods and goddesses of India are dancing around them. Pan is dancing. Nymphs and flowing hair maenads. Dervishes whirl around, like star-ribbons circling an astrolabe. Baal Shem Tov and the martyred, prayer-dance Hasidim. Jesus in cosmic circle dance. Sun smiles. Moon overflows with the[Read More…]
“A nuclear weapon can be placed in a shipping container or on a small cabin cruiser, transported by sea, and set off remotely by cellular phone.” — from “Haywire” by Eric Schlosser in Harper’s Magazine/December 2017 This MUST be addressed in classrooms across the United States ASAP. The message here will go in and out of the ears of most[Read More…]
Some times creative writers give insighs into problems better than experts. During the wave of the Theatre of the Absurd Achyut Vaze wrote a play in the 1970s in which the characters wait for a bus which never arrives like Godot in Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot. One is reminded of Vaze’s play Chal Re Bhopalya by the[Read More…]
The Supreme Court recently gave the judgment that sex with minor wife can be considered a rape but if 18 years and beyond, marital rape cannot be considered a criminal offence. As per exception 2 of section 375 of IPC sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 18 years of age, is not[Read More…]
It sent patrons and users into fits of puzzled anger. It numbed a good many more who had placed mistaken faith in its operations. Rapacious, predatory Uber, a ride-hailing company famed for its international ruthlessness, had behaved accordingly. Last week, the firm revealed that it had received a massive hack in 2016, failing to notify customers and regulators that a[Read More…]
Only enough of the openings of these articles are included here so as to indicate the gist, about the rape of the public’s minds, by the ‘news’media. To see the articles themselves, click onto the given article’s URL, which is shown at its start of each of these articles as presented here: —— —— https://off-guardian.org/2017/11/30/pbs-frontline-putins-revenge-if-it-was-satire-it-would-be-brilliant/ Published on November 30, 2017 [Read More…]
Tehran: In many respects the people of Lebanon are gifted if not blessed. Most of whom this observer has been honored to meet are strikingly intelligent, creative, often charming, sometimes cunning and devious, hardworking, ingenious, adaptive, and good natured—much like most people in this region including dear friends in Syria. And all want a real country, and many[Read More…]
The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there. ― Tahir Shah, House of the Tiger Kin The Indian village has been celebrated by every poet who has admitted to having been touched by India including Rudyard Kipling and Rabindranath Tagore. Social scientists[Read More…]
BHOPAL GAS PEEDITH MAHILA UDYOG SANGHATHAN (BGPMUS) 51, Rajender Nagar, Bhopal 462010 & BHOPAL GAS PEEDITH SANGHARSH SAHAYOG SAMITI (BGPSSS) C/o Delhi Science Forum, Kasra No.275, Saiyad Ul Ajaib, Saket New Delhi – 110030 The escape of about 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) – a highly toxic chemical – from a storage tank on the premises of the pesticide[Read More…]
The U.S. president, Donald Trump, revealed his inner nature again earlier this week when he retweeted a series of anti-Muslim propaganda videos from the deputy leader of an ultranationalist, neo-fascist hate group in the UK. Trump sank to a new low in terms of the blatant falsehoods and myths he will invoke and propagate to incite enmity against Muslims. He[Read More…]
On Collins Street, Melbourne lies a monument that acts as a gloriously loud remark about how banks are treated in Australia. The ANZ Gothic Bank, studded with stain glass windows, and equipped with a chapel for bankers is a secular tribute to capitalism. It sprung up as a result of discovering gold and remains a shrine to Australian materialism. Despite[Read More…]
India recently celebrated its 68th Constitution Day on November 26th. A day that commemorates the adoption of the Constitution of India on November 26th, 1949. Albeit contestations whether the Constitution, and the setting up of a Constitutional democracy, has been beneficial to the marginalized, especially the Dalits, women and queer-folk, the occasion calls for a remembrance of the Constitution, its[Read More…]
“Trump campaigned significantly using Garcia Zarate as a scapegoat in 2016.” — one of the author’s home schooled teens This article is important because it underscores what’s wrong with teachers using the usual news sources that respected academics recommend for classrooms throughout the United States. The dynamics related to all that impact on the entire world when it comes to[Read More…]
Thomas Friedman is a big name in the realm of journalism and the study of Globalization. He’s known for his anti-Republican liberal views, and for his pro-Israeli sympathies, especially among Arabs and Muslims. I sometimes agree with his strong opinions, especially his critiquing America’s counterproductive foreign policies. I liked one of his comments on the stupidity of spending billions[Read More…]
Recently a friend sent me the following article. It covers lots of excellent and salient points concerning where humanity and the world as a whole are heading into the future. It is “Genetic Feedback and Human Population Regulation” at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225581823_Genetic_Feedback_and_Human_Population_Regulation and by Russell Hopfenber, apparently from Duke University. Abstract Human population growth has been identified as a primary cause of[Read More…]
A year back the newly elected government in Assam started an eviction drive to free government land of illegal encroachers. While it started with Kaziranga, very soon such drives were carried out all over the state. The government initiative led to a mixed response from people. While many hailed it as a required initiative to save forest land and ensure[Read More…]
Aam Admi Party leader Kumar Vishwas’s video of blaming ‘reservation’ in jobs for ‘destroying’ his age old ‘sanskriti’ is in the air. Actually the full video is about 45 minutes and is available on youtube. I thought to watch it to understand fully what he wanted to say. It is clear that Aam Admi Party’s foundations are shaky as[Read More…]
Since 1992, after the end of observing a decade for disabled persons(1983 -1992) , every year, December 3 is being celebrated as ‘ international day of disabled persons’ and many events felicitating disabled persons has become common in India as in other countries. According to disability statistics, around 10% of total world population or around 650 million suffer some[Read More…]
By Matt Wood & Gaurav Laroia On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released his draft order to completely eradicate Net Neutrality. You can read the full text here. The short version is that Pai’s order takes the Net Neutrality rules off the books and abandons the court-approved Title II legal framework that served as the basis for the[Read More…]
“All good things arrive for them that wait – and don’t die in the meantime.” – Mark Twain It is damp, drizzly November once again, the grim grey in-between month, a time for dying and a time, above all, for waiting. Waiting for the fallen dead foliage to be buried in snow, waiting for the shortest day to come[Read More…]
(Birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad-2nd December 2017) As you read these lines, 1.6 billion Muslims across the world, from Morocco to Jakarta, will be paying homage to the Prophet Muhammad on his birthday. This day, 1,428 years ago, Prophet Muhammad delivered the historic Last Sermon (khutabat al-wida) on the parched terrain of Mount of Mercy (Jabal ar-Rahmah) in the Uranah[Read More…]
On Wednesday, Donald Trump used the bully pulpit of the U.S. presidency to spread neo-Nazi anti-Muslim propaganda to the world. With three tweets, he elevated a white supremacist fascist group in England which has mobilized mosque invasions and publicly and pridefully harassed average Muslims on the street to the international stage. But that is not all. With a move straight[Read More…]
In Siem Reap: A table was set up for two, an advertisement table,a table with a photo of a giant turkey, two elegant plates, and a U.S. flag sticking out into the air. “Thanksgiving at Angkor Royal Cafe”, a flier read. And: “23rd November… Join us for a traditional Thanksgiving Feast”. This was at one of the international hotels inSiem[Read More…]
“In Arab mythology, the al-Sada bird, or death owl, emerges from the body of a murdered man and shrieks until someone takes revenge.” — Lindsey Hilsum “I’m good at killing.” — Barack Obama The one thing most people know about the Islamic Republic of Mauritania — if they know anything at all about that mysterious country in the Maghreb[Read More…]
On November 18th, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt spoke about how Google will help to defeat Russia. He said that Google helps in this effort not by “censoring” Russian newsmedia, but by “de-ranking” them in Google web-searches, so that web-pages from these sites, which he calls “propaganda,” will show so far down in the rankings in any Google-search, so that[Read More…]
The parties had been groping (appropriate, given the daily revelations about harassment) for some common ground. There had been discussions about having further discussions, hedging, ducking and weaving. In a dysfunctional relationship, options tend to shrink rather than expand. And so it turned out in the latest round of Brexit negotiations between the May government and officials of the European[Read More…]
Ahwazi Arab political activist Ahmed Mola – Press Photo More than 100 Ahwazi Arab, regional and international freedom activists and writers have called for an inquiry into the assassination of distinguished Ahwazi leader and political right activist Ahmed Mola, who was assassinated in The Hague on November 8th. The Iranian regime, which had threatened Mola on a number of occasions[Read More…]
Pyongyang tested another intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday. Fired nearly vertically, it reached an altitude of 4500 km (2800 miles). That means it could travel 13,000 km (8150 miles) on a standard trajectory, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, putting the entire continental U.S. within its range. In September, the North Koreans conducted a sixth nuclear test. And[Read More…]
Many years ago, a friend of mine was hitchhiking with a knapsack filled with his meager belongings, indeed all that he had, in the rain. He was hitching a ride to a summer resort where he was employed to work and it was around fifteen miles from where the bus depot left him off in a nearby town where he[Read More…]
Heard so much about the heart, but so less about kidneys, right? Our kidneys don’t get a lot of love, and definitely don’t get the attention or concern associated with other major organs like our heart, liver, and lungs. Kidneys are the unsung organs of public health campaigns. We know how to care for our hearts (exercise and eating well)[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…]
