Interview of Monthly Review analysts In view of the historic May Day, May 1st, analysts from Monthly Review, the famous independent socialist magazine, identify tasks the working classes should press with. In the following interviews, conducted in early-April, John Bellamy Foster, Professor and Editor of Monthly Review; Fred Magdoff, Professor Emeritus, and one of Monthly Review’s closest associates; and Michael[Read More…]
Western Mainstream media are dominated by Jewish and non-Jewish Zionists with few more so than Google or its holding company Alphabet that is the world’s number 1 media company as compared to number 17 Microsoft that owns Bing. Bing Searches involving key terms are much more successful than Google Searches ranking-wise in detecting some key websites documenting humane opinion about[Read More…]
While there are many approaches to it, there is only one truth: that the world is One and thus that all is internally related. The genius of Einstein is that he expressed and established this as the physical truth of the universe by negating Newton’s profound misconception of the world as separate and isolated units coexisting in an ether which[Read More…]
Co-authored by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese Seventy years of attacks on the right to unionize have left the union movement representing only 10 percent of workers. The investor class has concentrated its power and uses its power in an abusive way, not only against unions but also to create economic insecurity for workers. At the same time, workers, both[Read More…]
A Forbes article entitled, “On May Day, Communism Is A Much-Closeted Joke” proclaimed the triumph of neoliberalism and the end of celebrating workers as follows: “Once its biggest self-celebration, May Day now signals Mayday for global communism. Just a half century ago, it seemed irrepressible, now communism is just reprehensible, with the relevance of a renaissance festival. Ironically, it is[Read More…]
Yes! There are atrocities Rapes Murders Lynchings ….. But Also there are protests Agitations Strikes Struggles …. Egging on the masses For future peaceful lives Though the ‘ opium’ of religion Is engulfing the world over People are coming out of intoxication To challenge the fanatic power The legacy of Marx Unites the workers To observe May day With[Read More…]
Indian cities are in crisis. Spend any length of time in a large city there and you will notice the overcrowding, the power and water shortages and, during monsoon, the streets that transform into stinking, litter-strewn rivers. At times, these cities can be almost unbearable to live in. Little wonder then that the concept of ‘smart cities’ is taking hold among[Read More…]
Sen. Gaylord Nelson passed away 13 years ago. There are no second acts in American life, and little that is more “former” than “former Senator.” For most ex-Senators, even their memory is forgotten. But Sen. Gaylord Nelson is worth remembering. He was a friend of the Earth. Gaylord Nelson grew up enamored by Wisconsin’s crisp, clean air, pristine forests, and[Read More…]
“This Lower East Side is the site of slow motion genocide.” — Miguel Pinero “O bailan todos o no baile nadie” — the 60s Uruguayan Tupamaros It was around the time my partner was experimenting with heroin that I crossed paths with Miguel Pinero at a production of his Short Eyes, the much celebrated prison drama in the theatrical scene of 70s[Read More…]
As its term of office nears completion, Pakistan’s scandal-ridden government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League (N), unveiled a pro-business budget last Friday in which the needs and concerns of the country’s working class and rural poor find no expression. Among the most striking features of Rs5.9 trillion ($51 billion) federal budget for 2018-2019 are the cuts to development programs[Read More…]
The Sunni-Shi’a conflict in the Middle East region is essentially a political conflict between the Gulf Arab autocrats and Iran for regional dominance which is being presented to lay Muslims in the veneer of religiosity. Saudi Arabia, which has been vying for power as the leader of Sunni bloc against the Shi’a-led Iran in the regional geopolitics, was staunchly against[Read More…]
Dhawale, A., Sainath, P., Deshpande, S., Prashad, V.(2018). The Kisan Long March in Maharashtra. LeftWord Books. “Land reform is on the agenda of mankind”. So wrote William Hinton over five decades ago, in the preface to his agrarian classic – Fanshen. The events described in The Kisan Long March– 50,000 farmers marching over 200km, in a veritable sea of[Read More…]
A few months back, I was introduced to an Indian settled in the United States who worked with the American military and wrote extensively against Gandhi. One thing that I don’t like is that writing against Gandhi does not mean somebody has become an Ambedkarite. We met in Delhi and there were lots of discussions. He was quite ‘rational’ till[Read More…]
Book: Cellars of the Inferno: Confessions of an RSS Pracharak Publisher: Chintha Publications Author: Sudheesh Minni Pages: 122 RSS has been critiqued for long for its divisive and fascist ideology. Its role in spreading hatred, communal violence, killings – arson and loot, blasts has been pointed out by critics. However, the attempt of RSS to project itself as a cultural[Read More…]
The CAG’s reporttabled in Delhi Legislative Assembly on April 3 has thrown a volley of harsh questions at the ruling AamAdmi Party. The report has highlighted the stark corruption prevalent in the National Capital’s public distribution system (PDS). PDS has been grappling with innumerable problems including faulty Adhaar linkages and failure in verification of biometric data. The National Food[Read More…]
The extraction and transferfrom the earth crust to the atmosphere of every economically available molecule of carbon, including coal,oil, tar sand oil, shale oil, methane gas, coal seam gasand other forms of hydrocarbon, constitutes the most significant shift in composition of the atmospheresince the PETM hyperthermal event about 56 million years ago[i] and the K-T extinction of the dinosaurs some[Read More…]
Taken pleasantly by surprise, not least because of the speed at which the joint Panmunjom Declaration has materialised, the world cannot but rejoice. In the few months from the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea when the buds of peace sprouted, amidst sporting competition between nations, both leaders of North and South Korea have planted a tree of peace, shook[Read More…]
It seems, and certainly feels like a distant number of months since a panel of experts noshed and chatted over how best to overcome the nuclear impasse that pitted North Korea against its southern neighbour and allies. Held in Seoul last December, the project of attendees hosted by the Korean National Diplomatic Academy was ambitious and lofty: the denuclearisation of[Read More…]
This piece is unusual in that it is either going to end up as a fiasco or a scoop. If the latter, then, as they say … remember you read it here first. The possible venues floated by the White House include places like Sweden and Switzerland. But we all know Mr. Kim Jong-un has a chronic phobia of[Read More…]
Palestinians participating on Gaza’s non-violent Great March of Return have called for an arms embargo against Israel. This has been backed by the Amnesty International statement; Israel: Arms embargo needed as military unlawfully kills and maims Gaza protesters. The United Nations has imposed arms embargoes within the sanctions regimes of: Sudan for ‘Those who impede the peace process, constitute[Read More…]
Israel’s use of live fire against unarmed demonstrators at the Gaza border is generating outrage across the world. And the demand of the protests for the Palestinian “right of return” is shining a spotlight on the core nature of Israel as a settler state and bastion of Western imperialism, built on violent ethnic cleansing. This is also giving rise[Read More…]
Back in the day, ten years ago when I first set foot in Moscow, when the Moscow Metro was the home of the Minotaur from which I felt myself lucky to escape each day; when the Russian language was tumultuous; when I could not ask for what I wanted and needed, when the sophisticated splendor of the city sent me[Read More…]
“Each of us has to be like that kid in the Hans Christian Andersen tale, the one where he calls a shovel a shovel. Why? ‘Cause today it’s being used to bury us with and distract us from where we stand respecting Eternity.” — from an essay written by one of the author’s home schooled teens “We do not[Read More…]
women are flesh, maidens are meat. living as women is living hell. demons are gods, gods are satans in the people’s republic, rape republic. a toxic state in state toxic.[Read More…]
“Drawing is the poet’s written line, set down to see if there be a story worth telling , a truth worth revealling ” – Irving stone From within the unfathomable deep depths ,flows the esoteric river of inspiration through the heart /mind of an artist ….that which cannot be contained but needs to flow on its own terms and conditions[Read More…]
A few days ago one saw animal rights activists rejoicing that a film actor was convicted of killing a protected species. The punishment accorded to such a prominent person showed them that none is above the law. This stand is fully understandable and acceptable. But what irked one was the fact that most people protecting wildlife and rejoicing at this punishment were[Read More…]
Many parents unknowingly deprive their sons of pure and selfless love after a certain age. A son, unfortunately, is often treated like an asset, an investment or ‘an adhikar’. And a few things done for him are somewhere, unwittingly motivated by the selfish desire for a return on the emotional or monetary investment. Phrases like ‘shravan kumar’ and ‘agyakari beta’[Read More…]
JOHAR TISS/ ADIVASI STUDENTS’ FORUM’S (ASF) STATEMENT TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 67th Day of STRIKE Our Struggle Continues… The results for the various M.A. programs at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for 2018-2020 batch was declared yesterday (27th April 2018), and with it the institute has made it very clear to discontinue its policy of adjusting the Hostel[Read More…]
The question of sexual violence, its systemic nature, its links to political power, its role in nation and community building – have all been thrown back to us with the rape and murder of 8-year old Asifa Bano in January this year. What followed the filing of the chargesheet and arrest of the accused has again made clear the Hindu[Read More…]
Each year, Earth Day gives us a moment to celebrate our movement and recommit ourselves to action. In a year marked by the #MeToo movement and renewed demands for women’s rights, the solidarity of women in the environmental movement continues to inspire me. When women around the world speak out to defend the planet and our communities, we often risk[Read More…]
A Quasi-Review of The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton by Hugh Turley & David Martin “Killing a man who says ‘No!’ is a risky business,” the priest replied, “because even a corpse can go on whispering ‘No! No! No! with a persistence and obstinacy that only certain corpses are capable of. And how can you silence a corpse?” Ignazio Silone, Bread and[Read More…]
Expression is possible through channels of power. Well established channels like gender, class, race, caste have for centuries aided expression of the few powerful people in this world. The underdogs express only in retaliation. That expression is of power too but of a different kind. It is of asserting oneself. Righting a wrong, it is in answer to or in[Read More…]
“One cannot study the history taught in schools and learn about Black History at the same time.” — Lorraine Hansberry During the formative years of my main mentor, the founder of Flannery O’Connor Academy, one of the most effective literary voices for Southern change was Lillian Smith, who with her partner Paula Snelling edited a liberal journal and[Read More…]
With campaigning for the May 20 presidential elections underway in Venezuela, the United States has stepped up its crusade against the Nicolas Maduro government. Hiding behind claims of a “humanitarian crisis” and “growing dictatorship”, Washington’s aim is to bring down the government by any means. It seems to end the two-decade-long pro-poor Bolivarian Revolution that was initiated by Maduro’s predecessor,[Read More…]
For psychologists the terms superego, ego and id are commonplace and refer institutions of the individual’s mind. In a similar way the words judiciary, executive and legislature are familiar signifiers of the national institutions that organize a nation into an operational State. That these organizing institutions of a State may emanate from common human nature has been discussed heretofore. Consider[Read More…]
“The only girl I’ve ever loved was born with roses in her eyes….” — Jeff Mangum Spoiler Alert: With virtually all reviews of films readers should be warned. This is no exception. That said, it’s worth being told what’s here prior to viewing “Alone in Berlin” because the main reason I’m recommending it has nothing to do with its aesthetic value. Rather, I[Read More…]
Ordinarily, a crime does not spark a widespread reaction from the public unless its guilt is so horrific that no normal human being’s conscience can remain untouched & unshaken by the weight of its gravity. One of such rarest & cruelest inhuman acts was recently done with an 8 year old Muslim girl in Kathua district of Jammu that outraged[Read More…]
Canada-based World Sikh Organization (WSO) has raised its voice for the disabled Delhi University Professor, who continues to be incarcerated under inhuman conditions. G.N. Saibaba – who is ninety percent disabled below his waist – is serving a life sentence after being convicted for being a supporter of the Maoist insurgents. His family and supporters believe that he is being[Read More…]
Environment, Overpopulation, Fantasy Economics, a Resource Crisis Our leaders display little or no strategic vision in a world dominated by corporate power, ignorance, denial, faith and greed. At this crucial time in human history, politics could not be in worse hands. The sheer ignorance and innumeracy of so many powerful people who should know better is astounding. (Abridged, Dr J[Read More…]
Ted Howard’s remarks to the Environmental Funders Network in Cambridge, England, on February 2nd, 2018. These prepared remarks have been lightly edited for publication. Good afternoon. I want to begin by thanking the conference organizers for extending an invitation to address you during your important annual deliberations. I come before you today not as an expert on environmental matters, but[Read More…]
We are approaching the sixtieth birthday of the Keeling Curve. It is such a stunning example of important and clearly presented science that it has been designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. Its creator received the highest US award for lifetime achievement in science, the National Medal of Science, “for his pioneering and fundamental research on atmospheric and oceanic[Read More…]
I am accustomed to having certain friends and family members willing to lay their lives on the line to protect others if need be. They and I have thought long and hard about it. We got firm as a result. Indeed, some of the people who I know have done just that — laid their lives on the line —[Read More…]
Modi’s biggest contribution to India is teaching it to hate. It seems to be finally dawning on the people that “Modistan” is the same as “Rogistan”. As the BJP wins election after election to now rule 21 states in India, victory galas and revelry should swamp party cadres. Instead, what have the BJP and its Sangh ideologues ushered in? The[Read More…]
Republishing a letter written to a friend abroad enquiring about the horrific gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in the Indian capital New Delhi five years ago. Nothing has really changed in India since then it seems, going by the continuing spree of rape – including by self-styled religious ‘Godmen’. Dear Joanna, Thanks for your letter. Yes,[Read More…]
[While Tagore wrote extensively on philosophical exchanges between significant characters from India’s great epics, such as the Karna-KuntiSamvad, the vast compendium of his poetry is essentially reflective and non-historic. He did, however, write a few tribute poems dedicated to heroic figures from India’s medieval years, including the Sikh hero, Banda Singh Bahadur, and the Maratha chief, ChhatrapatiShivaji. In this sequence,[Read More…]
Is There a UNO to Protect the Beleaguered Humanity? Over seventy years of its existence, the UNO should have been enriched with systematic excellence to safeguard the humanity from protracted agony, deaths and deliberate destruction. Not so, the record is otherwise filled with man-made catastrophic conflicts, sarcastic hollowness of indifference to human realities and overwhelming addiction to arrogance mocking the[Read More…]
Potentially a game changing digital technology, the use of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin as a viable alternative to the national currencies like Dollar or Rupee, has largely been seen by countries across the world –with India being no exception- as a danger to the existing government-centralized economic system. With contention over use of crypto-currencies as a medium of exchange, Finance Minister[Read More…]
Dalit writers are gaining prominence in modern literature. But their beginnings was not all that easy. They had to endure social stigma and isolation from society, especially the upper castes. Poets and their sufferings According to en.m.wikipedia, dalit literature started in the 1960s in Marathi language and quickly spread to other languages like Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali and Tamil.[Read More…]
Students have an important role in every society and state. Not only in social and educational affairs but also in the political arena, students have always played a part of paramount significance. A look at the revolutionary movements of the world gives us ample sense about the immense role that students played in shaping the destiny of various nations.[Read More…]
“Not only are ‘leaders’ here not putting money into social uplift in lieu of diverting funds for death abroad, they are — quite by design — undermining safety nets for the express purpose of making the vast majority of concerned citizens incapable of fighting for their enlightened self-interest effectively, being physically too weak. Add moral decline to that, and their[Read More…]
Facebook, the world’s largest social media company, spelled out for the first time the criteria it uses to censor speech on its platform, purely at its own discretion, and with no legal oversight or recourse. Its “community guidelines” are so sweeping and broad that effectively any statement expressing any critical political view can be constrained as violent, defamatory, “extremist,” “bullying”[Read More…]
Recently, the opening of the Constantinople Patriarchate’s metochions in Ukrainian cities Kyiv and Lviv has become quite a hot topic. Not long ago, Director of the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine AndriyYurash confirmed this information in an interview to the RISU news agency and claimed opening of the missions “is an irreversible[Read More…]
Forgetting the relationship between education and society and ignoring the required engagement between thinker theorists and innovators on one side and society on the other, the governments, legislators and people hypnotized by the neoliberal economy have came to an understanding that commericialisation/marketisation of education from first grade to PhD is the best way forward not for any appreciable societal transformations[Read More…]
The killings of at least 37 Maoists by the combined force of the CRPF and the C-60, the elite unit of the Gadchiroli Police, on 22nd and 23rd April 2018 raises some very disturbing questions about the state’s methods of conducting ‘encounters’. In the morning of 22nd April, 64 police and paramilitary personnel gunned down 16 Maoists in Karnasur jungle[Read More…]
The Empire Is Obsessed with Perverse Types Of Punishment Western culture is clearly obsessed with rules, guilt, submissiveness and punishment. By now it is clear that the West is the least free society on Earth. In North America and Europe, almost everyone is under constant scrutiny: people are spied on, observed, their personal information is being continually extracted, and[Read More…]
During the time that Palestinians call The Great Rebellion, or Revolt against British pro-Zionist policies in Palestine, 1936 – 1939, things began to go seriously wrong for Palestinian Arabs living in Jaffa and have continued to deteriorate with no reprieve yet. Jaffa, at the time, was a major economic center in Palestine, a port and commercial hub.In the 19th century,[Read More…]
Albert Einstein, along with other Jewish luminaries, including Hannah Arendt, published a letter in the New York Times on December 4, 1948. That was only a few months after Israel had declared its independence and as hundreds of Palestinian villages were being actively demolished after their inhabitants were expelled. The letter denounced Israel’s newly-founded Herut party and its young leader, Menachem Begin.[Read More…]
For the fourth week in a row, unarmed Palestinians stood up against Israel’s murderous violence. Some 10,000 demonstrated in Friday’s “Great March of Return” at the Gaza-Israel border. They demanded the right to their land, taken seven decades ago when Israel was founded. They called for end to the slow, torturous death imposed on Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants by Israel’s[Read More…]
![Economics and Politics in Early-Soviet Russia and Lenin’s Stand [Part II]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/lenin-200x150.jpg "Economics and Politics in Early-Soviet Russia and Lenin’s Stand [Part II] 120")
Lenin creates controversy as the Bolshevik leader stands against exploiters; and consequently, theoreticians defending exploiters don’t spare any opportunity to condemn Lenin. Immediately after the Great October Revolution, Lenin had to encounter a reality, which was beyond perception of theoreticians busy with bourgeois ideas strengthened by petty-bourgeois imagination. In the situation immediately after initiating the Revolution, Lenin describes “the incredible[Read More…]
We need to seize this momentum right now! The movement is working! Last week, banking giant HSBC, the seventh largest bank in the world, announced it will no longer provide finance for new tar sands projects, including financing for the Keystone XL and Line 3 Expansion pipelines. This is a huge step towards stopping this disastrous pipeline for good! This[Read More…]
(Not Mentioning the Hundreds of Leaky Tailings Dams or the Potential Catastrophic Breaches that will Likely Occur if Copper/Nickel/Sulfide Mining is Allowed in Northern Minnesota) The following group of 5 photographs were taken after the catastrophic Teton River (Idaho) Dam failure that occurred on June 5, 1976. The earthen dam was 305 feet high and held back a 17 mile-long[Read More…]
On 15 March 1929, Sir Albino Banerjee, a Bengali Christen, who for two years had been Foreign and Political Minister of Maharaja Hari Singh had observed that the rulers had been treating “Mohammadan population” worst than “cattle.” Ninety years later, when the idea of governance in the world has undergone a sea change,andcolonialism has crashed themindset of those in[Read More…]
Some self-styled Indian patriots settled in UK have launched a petition seeking action against those who tore the Indian national flag recently. The incident happened during protests against visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The protests were mainly organized by groups representing religious minorities in India that feel threatened under the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government[Read More…]
“Chachi, you are so lucky ya. I must say you really married a handsome hunk.” chirped Sonia. “Your boys are so cute and fair and handsome, just like Chacha.” Meenal had heard this so many times before. In the fifteen years of her marriage, she had heard similar statements from friends, family and mere acquaintances a thousand times. Actually no.[Read More…]
He had forbidden us to call him ‘Justice Sachar’. So I began to call him Sachar Saheb. Four days after his death, I sit down to write this tribute. The personality of Sachar Saheb was like a masterpiece, epic in its dimensions. A classic personality in this absurd period! In a tribute like this, written for the media, there is[Read More…]
Our planet is radically changing and this requires a radical rethink by all of us. It requires an economic, social and environmental revolution. Each day we delay bold climate action, sea levels continue to rise, forests continue to burn in record-breaking heat and the fossil fuel industry continues to put profits ahead of human health and safety. We need to[Read More…]
The quaint, unassuming, elevated area south of Denver known as Columbine rarely, if ever, caught the attention of the average American residing outside the State of Colorado for just over 99% of the twentieth century. When it etched its way into the hearts and minds of shocked onlookers around the world 19 years before Friday, nobody predicted that it would[Read More…]
7 youth and trade union activists have been abducted by the army and Sindh Rangers after participating in rally in support of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday. They were picked up immediately following the demonstration in Karachi, which had been called to express solidarity with a PTM rally in Lahore that was held[Read More…]
Introduced Jyotirao Phule to Andhra Pradesh (United) Freedom fighter Leader for Kisans Leader for weaker sections Leader for backward castes Dr. Gouthu Latchanna was born in Baruva village of the Sompeta mandal, Srikakulam district in the state of Andhra Pradesh on 16 August 1909. He was the eighth child of Chittaiah, a toddy tapper and Rajamma. He married Yashodha Devi,[Read More…]
The oldest stories of human lore have to do with cutting trees and with the disasters that followed as a consequence. Above, Legendary Sumerian heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the guardian of the trees, Huwawa (image source). Several thousand years afterward, we don’t seem to have learned much about how to manage our natural resources. I expected this to happen, perhaps not[Read More…]
Two of the recent international documents concerning the future of the Global South should attract the attention of the foreign policy observers in India for several reasons. One is the Baku Declaration of the 18th Mid-Term Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), held in Azerbaijan during 3-6 April 2018. The other is the Communiqué of the Commonwealth Heads of[Read More…]
Venkadarath Saritha, a 30-year-old contractual bus driver with Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has not taken a day off from her work from last three months – not even on Sundays. She drives a bus for eight hours daily and repercussions of not turning up on duty include a cut from her already meager salary. Saritha is among 12,000 contractual employees[Read More…]
Australia has rightly reacted with shock and indignation to cricket ball tampering involving at least one quarter of the Australian cricket team – it is simply not cricket and is cheating. However US lackey, pro-Apartheid, neoliberal Mainstream Australia largely ignores horrendous realities that indelibly stain the national reputation including endemic child abuse, endemic violence against women, horrendous preventable deaths,[Read More…]
April 3: University of Chicago Police shoot a Black/Asian student who is clearly having a mental health crisis and then charge him with assault. April 5: A young Black man convicted of burglary and theft is also found guilty of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison for the death of his friend who was murdered by the police.[Read More…]
Ahwaz Arabia, whose geography extends from the Shatt al-Arab to the Jagin River in Jask, East of Jamberon (Bandar Abbas), but, since the occupation of Ahwaz on April 20, 1925, the Iranian regime changed the official name of Al-Ahwaz to several provinces such as Khuzestan, Bushehr, Elam, and Hermozgan. The inhabitants of Ahwaz are all Arabs, not the Persians, as[Read More…]
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” — Blaise Pascal I want to volunteer to serve the community in Stockton, California, recruiting educated volunteers to address literacy challenges in the classroom, screening documentaries designed to help youngsters to learn about history from various perspectives, helping youngsters who’ve chosen academic tracks to[Read More…]
Another conflict seems to be brewing in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently accused Iran of sending drones to attack Israel. Netanyahu’s statement comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced Israel for violating international law. These statements come in the light of heightened tensions between the two countries.[Read More…]
When I read Mirza Yawar Baig’s “Silence Is Culpable” at CC, it could have put me into a seething fury if I didn’t control my anger and use it to good purpose (such as trying to foster peace in my own community). It is because I agree wholeheartedly with the stance, as well as find the conditions that are described[Read More…]
Please allow me to walk the street Without being for your eyes a treat Don’t look down my shirt Don’t check the length of my skirt My bosom is round, my hips are tight But none of these are for your delight Burqua, jeans or any clothes are my fashion Why should I dress with caution? I may be a[Read More…]
Indian economy has made rapid strides in recent year but its abysmal health system remains an Achilles heel has impeded millions of people from sharing the gains of India’s new prosperity India has a laggardly record in its healthcare coverage. In per capita terms, adjusted for purchasing power, the public expenditure on health is $43 a year, compared to[Read More…]
Co-Written by OS Rajaraman & Bonny John Most of India is still under the delusional impression that it’s a democracy. The bureaucrats, police officers and politicians who are part of the nation state wear uniforms/badges of nationalism which sub verses justice in a democracy. Democracy is no longer of equals. It has in fact reduced to become a power equation[Read More…]
Metabolic Rifts Today. Beginning a new series by Ian Angus, on how contemporary science illuminates and extends metabolic rift theory in the 21st century. In the 1860s, Karl Marx wrote that capitalism “produces conditions that provoke an irreparable rift in the interdependent process of social metabolism, a metabolism prescribed by the natural laws of life itself.”[1] By preventing the return of essential[Read More…]
In Afghanistan in two separate attacks more than sixty people have died. The major attack took place in Kabul at a voter registration centre which has claimed lives of more than fifty people. Kabul attack was made by a bomber on foot at electoral registration centre. Elections in Afghanistan are due in October and the registration process for the voters[Read More…]
We strongly condemn the recent incidents of rape and sexual violence in the country: the rape of an 8-year old girl in Kathua, Jammu, of a 15-year old in Unnao, UP, of a tea-shop owner as well as 15 year old girl in Meghalaya, of an 11-year old girl in Surat, Gujarat, a 15-year old in Faridabad whose corpse was[Read More…]
The world in which each of us lives does not necessarily yield the world in which we all live together. Where does your world end and mine begin? I live in a world grown from tall trees, tiny tender plants and a scintillating diversity of creatures, which is covered in cloud and drenched in rain for a greater part of[Read More…]
CIA color revolutions have rarely succeeded, but they are increasing in frequency nevertheless. A CIA color revolution is when CIA operatives try to agitate local people to incite riots to try to overthrow governments. CIA color revolutions are a cash bonanza to CIA people, criminal beyond any shadow of a doubt, disastrous on the rare occasions they succeed, for[Read More…]
Imagine – front page headlines in the NY Times, Washington Post, Guardian and anchors on MSNBC, Fox News and the BBC hammering away at a factual and true story that could actually reverse the course of this surreal and unremitting US-NATO Reign of Terror over vast and far reaching areas of the Globe for the past 15 years. Imagine –[Read More…]
Chapter 1. Part 2 The psychopathology of capitalism is, as I have proposed above, rooted in the delusion that there exists anabstract, exclusionary “one” or “I”. This delusion negates the existence of an “inclusionary One” or a larger temporal/spatial natural and social whole of which the “individual” is but a particular moment and manifestation. That is to say, it is[Read More…]
Manzoor Pashteen swears by his commitment and dedication to the cause of Pashtuns who continue to be the victims of an endless war. In the CIA-instigated Afghan Jihad, they had a massive image makeover: from the British colonialists’ categorisation as uncivilised brutes they became celebrated warriors wedded to a holy cause fighting the Communist Russia. Even the Hollywood, that[Read More…]
Historically speaking, from the massacres in Bangladesh in 1971 to the training and arming of Afghan jihadists during the Soviet-Afghan war throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and then launching ill-conceived military operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas under American pressure, leading to the displacement of millions of Pashtun tribesmen, the single biggest issue in Pakistan has been the interference of army[Read More…]
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. ~ George Orwell India has changed. I hate to say it, but that is the truth. It is no longer the nation I grew up in. The question is, ‘Do we want to continue to remain silent and allow this[Read More…]
It is a well known fact that Hindu religion has deep caste divisions. This is one of the major cause of dalits and other backward caste people willing to convert into other religions like Christianity. The disgust with caste system can be assessed when Dr. Ambedkar said that though he was born a hindu, he would not die as[Read More…]
The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves –Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan India’s education sector has expanded rapidly in the last decade but the quality of learning remains pathetic on account of unimaginative and misguided policies. The Modi government’s budget this year was a mixed basket for the education sector, which is bogged with several serious issues aside[Read More…]
The busting of the Hindutva racket who tried to foment communal tension in Kerala in the name of the ‘People’s Hartal’ on 16th of this month has sent shock waves through Kerala society. The hartal was called through Whatsapp groups to protest the gruesome rape and murder of the Kathua minor girl. Since the sponsors remained anonymous, no organisation claimed[Read More…]
Dr Kafeel Khan who managed to save the lives of a number of children in the last August’s Gorakhpur hopital tragedy where 63 children died within a span of five days for a lack of supply of oxygen cylinders has written a heart rending letter from jail, where he is lodged without bail for the last seven months. In the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers On this Earth Day, it is difficult to look at the state of the planet and the current political leadership and see much hope. In “Junk Planet”, Robert Burrowes writes a comprehensive description of the degradation of the atmosphere, oceans, waterways, groundwater, and soil as well as the modern pollution of antibiotic waste, genetic engineering, nanowaste,[Read More…]
“…if every aspect of the non-military sector instantly stopped generating greenhouse gases, the military’s carbon footprint alone will propel the world toward catastrophe.” — Barry Sanders When Jimmy Carter occupied the White House, sun panels were installed. They were promptly removed when Ronald Reagan took over the executive office. That was slightly over a decade had passed since the first Earth[Read More…]
AMIN, S. (2017). OCTOBER 1917 REVOLUTION: A century later. S.l.: DARAJA PRESS. “[R]evolutions are ‘great’ precisely because they…are far ahead of…their time” (36). In the five essays presented inOctober 1917, renowned radical political economist, Samir Amin, pushes far beyond the immediate necessity of emphasizing the historical weight of October, and launches, into an ambitiously broad analysis of the trajectory[Read More…]
“O bailan todos o no baile nadie.” — the Tupamaros The Universe is a poem without foreign words. My loved ones laugh at me when they hear I’ve been listening to John Denver. They’re sweet souls, but when they do that they’re doing — essentially — the same thing Hillary Clinton did when she invoked the image of “deploreables” on her[Read More…]
[Part I] Lenin yet, about 150 years since his birth, creates controversy. Funny figures make funnier statements while a group of scholars, white, pink and “red” in color, continue condemning the Bolshevik leader – a bold show of class conflict in the areas of ideology and politics. This reality makes it an imperative to reiterate Lenin’s analysis and class position[Read More…]
I don’t know how or why I ever got an invitation to come and teach in Moscow. I was hesitant to come: after all I was teaching at two small colleges near my home, I had a large family who lived close to me, and a lot of friends. I was comfortable right where I was. But as one of[Read More…]
The exchange of banters between the outgoing veteran Congress MP Renuka Chaudhury and India’s Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu in the Rajya Sabha, during the ceremony to bid farewell to her and other retiring MPs , has taken an ugly turn. In her farewell speech Renuka Chaudhury while addressing Naidu (who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman), in a self-deprecating humorous vein [Read More…]
For the fourth Friday in a row, the Israeli military responded to unarmed Palestinian demonstrators on Gaza’s eastern border with live ammunition, killing four and wounding hundreds. The wanton repression brings the number killed since the beginning at the end of last month of the “Great March of Return” protests to at least 39. Among those killed Friday was a[Read More…]
A black week for our venerated democratic institutions got a tad darker on Friday. In a whirlwind 5 days we have witnessed acquittals of murder convicts, votives of militant hate and architects of massacre. With the second ever impeachment motion against a Supreme Court Judge, no less the Chief Justice himself (first ever), the country stands at a precipice, an[Read More…]
The social ferment presently being witnessed all over India and abroad, where the Indian diaspora has spread out, is the background in which Modi has set out on his latest whistle-stop tours abroad.The month of April has been very restive, with country-wide Bandh call on 2nd April by the Dalits who constitute about 17% of India’s population. This was followed[Read More…]
We watch in horror as the damages from climate change continue to mount. Last year, Hurricane Harvey dropped more rain on Houston than any storm has ever dropped on any American city, ever. Hurricane Maria set back development in Puerto Rico 25 years, according to early estimates. And the tab keeps mounting: in 2017 alone, the economic cost of hurricanes[Read More…]
The psychopathology of capitalism arises from the delusionthat there exists an exclusionary “one” rather than an inclusionary One. This delusion is both a product of the historical development of capitalism and, as contemporary physics shows us, the natural result of the internal relationship between the structure of reality and ourselves as observers of that reality. Yet, even though it is[Read More…]
“I would clarify here that the history of these three states [U.S., Britain and France] is built on using lies and fabricated stories to wage aggressive wars in order to occupy states, seize their resources, and change governments in them by [genocidal] force.” Dr Bashar al-Jaafari, Syrian Ambassador to the U.N. On 14 April 2018, the U.S., France and[Read More…]
“Like the Platters said so long ago, only you can make the darkness bright.” — Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel With 105 Cruise missiles costing about $1.4 million each, $147,000,000 was blown away with lots of innocent lives, and the whole shebang turned out to be a lovely payday for Raytheon. Especially in the context of all that hardware having to be replaced… after[Read More…]
Dear Narendra, Who do I mean by a common Indian? And why did I choose to write to you? I am writing this to anyone among 1,35,06,87,984 Indians who were alive till Saturday. Among this vast dizzying number of names, among Rams and Shyams, I chose a name for you – Narendra, a name, a phenomenon, you identify most with.[Read More…]
The cry seeking justice for Asifa is becoming stronger and deeper. From Delhi to the United Nations, from social and civil rights organizations to civil society citizens, more and more people are out on the streets shouting slogans and demanding justice for Asifa. The social media is parading her pictures, right from happier times to the horrifying end; protesters unfurl their[Read More…]
Asifa, I have no words to speak of or for you
I had planned to give up poetry
At the end of this month
This National Poetry Writing Month
Poetry is of no use
Words have no beauty
What I need is action to enthuse
My deeds have to fill the stage of this world
So that never again is there an Asifa.
Justice Rajinder Sachar (1923 –2018), the leading human rights activist who with his deep knowledge of law and contemporary social world is no more. Rajinder Sachar left the world at the age of 94 but before leaving he stamped the Indian society with his remarkable work mainly in the field of human rights, succeeded in bringing out the real condition[Read More…]
Is euthanasia legally and morally valid ? This question has been asked in India in different situations. In India, the status of euthanasia is no different. It was the Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug case that got significant public attention and led the Supreme Court of India to initiate detailed deliberations on the long ignored issue of euthanasia The Constitution of India[Read More…]
A US military intelligence report leaked to the corporate media makes the claim that the April 14 missile strikes carried out by Washington in conjunction with both the UK and France have failed to destroy the Syrian government’s alleged chemical weapons capabilities. It makes the implicit case for more extensive and deadly raids that could trigger a military confrontation with[Read More…]
In a time when such revelations as those of Edward Snowden pass a person’s lips with ease and awareness, political clamouring for action and measures against Russia on the subject of cyber attack seem risible. This is not to say that Russia does not engage in an energetic, state of the art program of surveillance and penetration. More significant is[Read More…]
Americans bombed Syria again just as the its army with the help of Russia, had finally defeated the terrorist groups armed by USA and Saudi Arabia. List of 27 bombed nations show that Millions had to die, murdered right in their homelands, because of the support or indifference of ordinary Americans, with enough of them willing to follow[Read More…]
“There is a crisis of disappearance in the Southwest borderlands.” With this introduction, a recent joint report by two humanitarian groups in Arizona—No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos—examines the connection between the policing strategy and practice of the U.S. Border Patrol today and what they describe as “the disappearance of tens of thousands of migrants and refugees[Read More…]
Ultraviolet C (UV-C) is the most dangerous part of the Ultraviolet spectrum, A, B, and C. UV-C coming from the sun has hitherto been declared by science as not damaging to life on earth due to its being entirely absorbed by the atmosphere. Most UV-B, which is also a hazard but less so than UV-C, was also deemed to be[Read More…]
The rights of Tribal Sovereign Nations and our shared climate and environment are in jeopardy today because of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—and I’m asking you to join me in taking a stand. When President Donald Trump was elected, the world looked to Trudeau to be a strong progressive voice and leader. Instead, he’s close to selling out our[Read More…]
I write for the men of a thousand years hence— and the women—and their healthy children. And…, if you are suffering, if night is day and day is night, I will drink the cup of despair with you, for I have tasted of despair. But…, if you are happy and wise, may my words animate your limbs; may[Read More…]
Rape as an instrument of terror will be detrimental to the social fabric Woman/ girl child, the indispensable part of our society continues to survive under the apprehension of fear. Females are soft-targets of violence ranging from domestic to sexual. But the sexual violence particularly rape is most common. Continually,headlines regarding sexual crimes against females, irrespective of their age appear[Read More…]
“Earth Day has become a very general celebration festooned with music, food and feeling good about being with others who are politically correct, acknowledging the importance of Mother Earth on the most abstract terms, specific foci for action being impotent in the face of our real authentic challenges.” — A teen attending the Flannery O’Connor Academy “The future of[Read More…]
Oh, what fun it truly was to experience the “bomb cyclone” in January in New England: the snowfall gave a sense of peace and calm, the winds were less strong than predicted, and the snow, while heavy, was not dense enough to take down trees and power lines in most areas. The following period of intense cold through February and[Read More…]
The explosive trial of eight of Baltimore Police’s Gun Trace Task Force has exposed some of the worst misconduct imaginable — from robbery and extortion to faking evidence, planting drugs, and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars, drugs and valuables from their victims. The eight cops involved have left a wake of destruction within Baltimore’s most vulnerable community. And even[Read More…]
In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee and her 26 co-authors warn that the president is a clear and present danger because he is mentally ill. Their diagnosis? Trump has malignant narcissism. His symptoms? He is alienating our allies, taunting our enemies, threatening our democracy, and undermining our national security. And he’s in control of[Read More…]
In December, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights visited the U.S., including L.A., with its 55,000 homeless; the Deep and not-so-Deep South; and Puerto Rico. He found that although arguably the richest and most powerful country on earth, the U.S. has the highest infant mortality and is close to the bottom in healthcare, inequality, access to[Read More…]
![By DonkeyHotey (Stormy Daniels - Caricature) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Stormy-photo1-200x150.jpg "The public perception of Stormy Daniels, “porn stars” and “hookers.” 283")
“The reasons a woman only has to make one porn film to be a ‘porn star’ are similar to the reasons a man has only to sign on the dotted government line to be a ‘war hero’. The ‘war hero’ and ‘porn star’ are calculated lies told by exploiters to keep expendable flesh walking through their doors.” (Samantha Berg) I’ve[Read More…]
It is the same women who raised hell over Nirbhaya’s rape and murder during UPA rule; the same ones who speak out of turn in matters that remotely do not concern them, the same ones who keep talking about gender justice. Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani, Nirmala Seetharaman, Shaina NC, Meenaxi Lekhi, Kirron Kher…the whole lot of them. Afisa and the[Read More…]
Many members of the civil society all over India are pouring in to condemn the police action on the protesters for justice for Asifa. We are producing a joint statement issued by concerned citizens: `The Kerala police arrested close to a thousand people on April 16, 2018 in connection with the harthal seeking Justice for Asifa. Several youths have been[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sally Dugman and Steve Salmony Steve Salmony thinks: The number of human beings on Earth was 2+ billion in the year of my birth (1945). In all of recorded human history there is no evidence to indicate that the human population was ever larger than it was then. Hundreds of thousands of years passed by without an incredible[Read More…]
Nearly half a century has passed since the publication, in 1972, of the first – and still the most famous – report of the Club of Rome, “The Limits to Growth.” That first report was heavily criticized but, nowadays, it is turning out that it had correctly identified the main lines of the trajectory that the human industrial society was[Read More…]
The head of the commission on missing persons, Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, significantly downplayed the role of the country’s military and intelligence agencies in “enforced disappearances” of Pashtun and Baloch people while briefing the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights on Monday. Iqbal’s attempt to absolve Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus of its responsibility for missing persons was made against the[Read More…]
Animals can be beautiful; they can be sleek, graceful, powerful, or just plain adorable, even cuddly. A field of wild flowers chanced upon can take your breath away. Wordsworth so moved by ‘a host of golden daffodils’ put pen to paper, and we are richer for his poem. And tourists in their thousands visit coral reefs for their stunning beauty[Read More…]
Once the Brits came and imposed their capitalism in India the upper castes and the Brits took the common property resources and shared them out by privatising them. Everyone got to do what the hell they wanted and the poor lost everything. Now the end of capitalism is happening because the commons are getting wiped out. Now if anything[Read More…]
One of the oldest intact dolls in existence other than predated wooden ones is from around the 1500’s and belonged to a little European princess. It is in a case, probably an airless vacuum case, in a museum in Monaco. One can look at the the doll and imagine the long-dead child and other children who played with it several[Read More…]
“Combating… criminal threats are priorities for all Americans — Republicans and Democrats.” — Governor Jerry Brown of California, as he sent national guardsmen to the Mexican border… trying to give the impression that he was only expecting them to engage with the drug cartels… not long after he weakened the new “sanctuary laws” with legislative Democrats. Concerned citizens can’t simply[Read More…]
(This heinous crime has shaken the conscience of the entire world. The most important part now is that justice must not only be done but must appear to have been done!) The savagery and brutalization done with an innocent eight year old girl in a place of worship is an unparalleled crime which goes beyond condemnation. One shudders to think[Read More…]
Today, as I write this, the country is outraged at rapes seemingly happening around the country and causing outrage- in Kathua, Unnao, Surat and now Etah. Nothing has much changed since December 2012 when the rape and murder of a 21-year-old college student on a bus in New Delhi shook the conscience of the entire nation. The incident led to[Read More…]
Valuing Ecosystem Function higher than material things is the paradigm shift that determines whether we understand the meaning of our lives and survive or whether we remain ignorant and selfish and destroy our own habitat trying to gain more wealth or more power. If we reach this level of understanding, not only can everyone live on the Earth but the[Read More…]
The warming of the Earth over the past several decades is throwing Mother Nature’s food chain out of whack and leaving many species struggling to survive, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study offers the latest evidence that the climate crisis that human activity has contributed to has had far-reaching effects throughout the planet. A paper[Read More…]
What limits opinions? Especially by sportspeople, who are often confused for geniuses of the mind and ambassadors of tact outside their very limited field of endeavour. (Yes, he can dribble a ball with sigh-inducing majesty, so he must know a thing or so about social and intellectual problems.) The obverse tends to be true. The sporting personality, presuming it exists,[Read More…]
How many times has the United States bombed Syria to stop the use of chemical weapons? And how many times has that worked? A few years ago, when the war drums were beating loudly, I gave 40 interviews in three days, patiently laying out the case for peace. (Well, someone has to.) For nearly a decade, I have said what[Read More…]
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has basically eliminated the only real international authority the U.N. used to have. Here is how this was done: The equivalent, in international law, to a domestic-law crime involving murder, rape, and theft, is an international invasion that’s purely for aggressive purposes and not at all authentically a defensive act against an authentic foreign[Read More…]
Until the 17th century, India was the richest country in the world and had controlled a third of global wealth. Political unity and military security helped evolve a uniform economic system, increased trade and enhanced agricultural productivity. Once the British had colonised India and left, it was a basket case. Indian politician and writer Shashi Kapoor has documented the state the British left[Read More…]
On Friday, April 13, in justifying the illegitimate U.S., British, and French attack on Syria, Trump warned Syria’s sponsors: “To Iran and to Russia I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children? The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep. No nation[Read More…]
The term ‘media bias’ does not do justice to the western corporate media’s relationship with Israel and Palestine. The relationship is, indeed, far more profound than mere partiality. It is not ignorance, either. It is a calculated and long-term campaign, aimed at guarding Israel and demonizing Palestinians. The current disgraceful coverage of Gaza’s popular protests indicates that the media’s position aims[Read More…]
Three blind rats, three blind rats See how they run, see how they run They all run after the zionist brute who cut off their tongues, now they’re morally mute You never saw such freaks in your life as three dumb rats From Australia, Canada, New Zealand (NZ) comes a tumult of silence on the Jewish state’s massacres of non-violent[Read More…]
It took weeks before Saleh Abu Riyala could bury his son. Ismail Abu Riyala, 18, was shot in the head by the Israeli navy off the al-Sudaniya coast of northwest Gaza on 25 February where the young man had been fishing. His body was then recovered and held for 18 days by the Israeli military due to pressure from the family of Hadar Goldin, an[Read More…]
“That film is a piece of fiction. And through the struggle for independence Gandhi’s greatest antagonist was Dr. Ambedkar. He doesn’t even make an appearance in the film. He doesn’t even show up there.” — Arundhati Roy telling Jeremy Scahill about Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ film, wherein much crucial truth is intentionally omitted Ideologues of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are open admirers of Hitler and Mussolini, and[Read More…]
Human Rights Watch investigations in the former Yugoslavia, Peru, Kashmir, conflicts, whether international or internal in scope. HRW found that rape of women civilians has been deployed as a tactical weapon to terrorize civilian communities or to achieve “ethnic cleansing,” a tool in enforcing hostile occupations, a means of conquering or seeking revenge. Yet rape in conflict or under repressive[Read More…]
A Small little Girl
With innocent smile on her face
Goes to the Forest
To bring back the horses
Nazareth: It seems that many who supported the weekend’s air strikes on Syria are overlooking the significance of Robert Fisk’s report from Douma, the site of a supposed chemical weapons attack last week. Fisk is the first western journalist to reach the area and speak to people there. One is a senior doctor at the clinic that treated victims[Read More…]
The recent UGC move to grant autonomous status to 62 educational institutions have been hailed in various quarters. MHRD has praised it and have equated the move to grant autonomous status to Universities with “New economic policies of 1991”. The new move has been[Read More…]
In a shocking development, the Pune (Maharashtra) police today, April 17, 2018 at around 6.00 a.m. conducted simultaneous searches at homes of prominent activists in Maharashtra namely Sudhir Dhavale (Dalit activist, Republican Panthers), Harshali Potdar (Woman activist, Republican Panthers), Ramesh Gaychor, Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, Rupali Jadhav and Dhawala Dhengle (all Kabir Kala Manch activists) in relation to the violence[Read More…]
There is a certain bullishness in French circles these days, even if there was an initial attempt, with the Macron government, to calm matters down. The need to assert Gallic might in the face of brutality has again surfaced; and has a familiar ring to it. With Syria’s Bashar al-Assad getting more comfortable with military progress, officials in the United[Read More…]
Why Not Emphasize That Assad Had No MOTIVE To Use Gas When He Already Defeated the Terrorists Sent and Armed by USA and Saudi Arabia, While Assad’s Enemies Had a Reason to Stage a Gas Attack To Give USA a Pretext To Bomb Yet Again. This short alert is written in dedication to my readers in nations that have[Read More…]
“It’s one thing for folks to applaud ‘A Raisin in the Sun’, Richard, and quite another for them to force legislators to deal with the housing horrors of Harlem and Chicago.” — James Baldwin to the author in the early sixties. I just applied to be the Outreach Director for Brave New Films, a highly experienced cinematic group devoted to[Read More…]
There are sixteen teens studying History, Journalism and Creative Writing at Flannery O’Connor Academy at present, and the other day we were all engaged in addressing serious issues related to product development. We conducted an experiment which I’d like to make you privy to, hoping you’ll put up with the humor used in this light presentation of a very[Read More…]
Four years ago today, on April 15, 2014, John Judge died ~ or (as he would say) embarked on a new adventure. I miss him… I have become resigned to his absence, but I still crave his wise perspective. Each time I am reminded of the ever-increasing chaos in our country and around the world, I think of what John[Read More…]
Ahwazi Arab People Have Had Enough of being Oppressed by the Iranian Government On a regular basis, Ahwazi Arabs are being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed by The Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran (also known as Ettela’at). Demonstrators around the globe with peaceful demonstrations commemorating the anniversary of the 1925 occupation of Ahwaz and secondly, to[Read More…]
Perhaps the first signs of his bravery were the fights he fought against bigger, tougher boys in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg building where he grew up. He fought not only for himself, but also to protect other boys; one could say that even back then, he fought for justice. Then there was the incident at Dresden when an[Read More…]
Atrocities on women including rapes and murders have been discussed and debated at length. Also, violence on girls and girl- child have been highlighted many times. But, these days, girls below teen age are not only raped and tortured for days but also killed in a most grotesque way. Any word, whether ‘ terrible ‘ or ‘ horrific ‘[Read More…]
Through the title I don’t want to shed a sense of pessimism about the future of Jawaharlal Nehru University, instead my attempt is to lay bare the context which is indeed very frustrating and demotivating. Also, being in the campus from the last two year it seemed to me that somewhere down the line a crisis is also emanating from[Read More…]
“Mission accomplished,” says the President. What, exactly, was the mission? And what exactly was accomplished? Donald Trump is being mocked for using this phrase in a tweet to praise what he claims was a “perfectly executed” airstrike against chemical weapons facilities in Syria. This recalls George W. Bush’s egregious evocation of the phrase in 2003 to claim an early end[Read More…]
The United States government has once again shamelessly violated international law. There was no legal or moral justification for launching more than a 100 missile strikes against so-called chemical weapons’ sites in Syria on the 14th of April 2018. Unlike the last strike targeting a single airfield in April 2017 which was also in retaliation for President Bashar Assad’s[Read More…]
The American, British, French tripartite aggression against Syria last Friday, April 13th, is a grave international war crime violating article 51 of the United Nation charter, that forbids any state to attack any other sovereign state except in the case of self-defense, or with the consent of a majority of UN members according to chapter seven. Added to this crime[Read More…]
People’s Tribunal on Attack on Educational Institutions was held at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, on April 11-13, 2018. The tribunal was organised by the People’s Commission on Shrinking Democratic Space in India (PCSDS). The jury panel of the tribunal comprisedJustice (Retd.) Hosbet Suresh, Justice (Retd.) B.G. Kolse Patil, Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Dr. Uma Chakravarty, Prof. T.K. Oommen,[Read More…]
One of the few good things that emerged out of the Emergency imposed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1975 was the Bonded Labour System(Abolition) Act of 1976 which replaced an ordinance of the same name which was enacted in 1975. In fact, eradication of bonded labour was one of the famous 20-point programme that Mrs. Gandhi implemented and monitored during[Read More…]
And if we don’t fight if we don’t resist if we don’t organize and unify and get the power to control our own lives Then we will wear the exaggerated look of captivity the stylized look of submission the bizarre look of suicide the dehumanized look of fear and the decomposed look of repression forever and ever and ever And[Read More…]
Three Stages of Development in Post-revolutionary China The Chinese government is rare phenomenon in world affairs. We can search through the pages of history for similar regimes. But we are unlikely to find any outside China itself that arevery much like it. For in some waysthe Chinese government is a bit like the governments of the Confucian emperors in ancient[Read More…]
April 15, marks the thirteenth anniversary of the Ahwazi uprising that lasted for several weeks in various parts of Ahwaz and around 220 protestors were killed in the Intifada. And about 16,000 Ahwazi citizens were arrested and hundreds of Ahwazi fled outside Iran. The Ahwazi protested against the Iranian government’s policy of changing the demographics of the region, particularly after[Read More…]
Monogamy and growing old produce the same results. Sleeping with the same person over and over again takes the razor sharp blade of passion and dulls it flat. So too, living in the world, truly living in it and not just in one small cell of it, reduces the sharp peaks of our emotions, rounds them out into dull stones[Read More…]
“I always thought school was a form of torture.” — Valleria Ruselli “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” — Audre Lorde “Parents need to encourage their children to provide their teachers with tools which will enable them to instruct them along entirely new lines.” — Rachel Olivia O’Connor of the Oxman Collective (which sponsors Flannery O’Connor Academy) Stealth torture is the kind of torture[Read More…]
Ah ! The predicament of an engrossing coversation with an indian male The vicissitudes of rape ! A week does not go by without a ” RAPE ” being reported …. How does it get any better than this ! I wonder ! For a country of a billion souls ONE more case ? Well I say -‘ what’s new[Read More…]
Sometimes, some news stories published on the inner pages because of their imminent political fallout are more significant than those that for their immediate news value make the lead stories. On Saturday, a four column news story published on page seven of the newspaper caught my attention more than the two BJP ministers resigning at the insistence of the party[Read More…]
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in his autobiography “Blazing Chinar” ( 2016 edition, Gulshan Books Srinagar) in chapter 36 titled “Medley of Internal Troubles” has in a real medley of things connected “accession” & “sending of Indian troops” to Kashmir to the “Tribal Raid” of 23rd October, 1947. However, he openly admits that it was only at his repeated “request” & after[Read More…]
Co-Written by Haider Ali and Zeeshan Ali New Delhi: Sartaj (40), a resident of North Delhi’s Mustafabad, was arrsted on the grounds of suspicion by the police. The police had been hunting for a man called Sartaj in cases of murder, dacoity and prostitution. However, for weeks their investigation had not yielded any result and then an informant nudged them[Read More…]
On April 11, one of the “smartest” US presidents ever tweeted: “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!” When Donald Trump’s advisers drew his attention to[Read More…]
Political and business leaders have refined the art and science of lying about the economy. From their suites, chauffeur-driven limousines, private yachts and jets, they aren’t too concerned about whether the economy works for everyone, except in speeches and elections. As they tuck into their next fine dining experience, they know that it’s easier and more profitable to mummify[Read More…]
“Two weeks after Kristallnacht, Gary Cooper made a publicity trip to Berlin promoting Paramount’s The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, one of Hitler’s favorite movies. No major newspaper in the U.S. covered that. In 1938, MGM helped finance the production of German armaments, and the head of MGM Germany divorced his Jewish wife at the Nazi’s behest. She ended up[Read More…]
Dear Asifa, It is not quite right that we meet like this…a girl like you so far away in cold Jammu and Kashmir and me down in the warm, tropical state of Kerala. It is not right because I would have loved to see the “chirping bird” that you were with nimble fingers and agile feet like a[Read More…]
Rape as a means of political subjugation has not been new in the country. It has always existed in politically sensitive areas. Incidents of rape as a political tool keep getting reported by human rights groups from the conflict prone areas in the country – whether in North-east or in Kashmir or Chhattisgarh. Rape has always been used as a[Read More…]
Us Quom Ko Shamsheer Ki Hajat Nahein Rehti Ho Jis Kay Jawanun ki Khudi Surat’e Fawlaad. (A nation whose youth are endowed with self as strong and hard as steel; No need of piercing swords in war such people can ever feel)- Allama Iqbal. Youth represent nation’s future. Responsible, conscious, persevering and morally nurtured youth are a symbol of strong,[Read More…]
The airstrikes launched by the US, Britain and France in Damascus and nearby areas on Friday night have worsened the already volatile situation in Syria. The ‘precision’ strikes were purported to destroy Bashar Al Assad regime’s alleged chemical weapons capability. The Anglo-French-American attacks were in response to the “chemical weapons attack” in Syria’s Douma. Curiously, the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team[Read More…]
There’s a scene from the popular American series Homeland where one of the star characters, a US Special Ops/highly trained CIA hitman named Peter Quinn, is asked by his higher ups how he thought US strategy against the Islamic State was going. His response is instructive: he wants to know if someone can please tell him what that strategy is exactly? Only then, he[Read More…]
“In 2016 we allowed 15,479 Syrian refugees into the U.S., in 2017 we reduced that to 3,024, and this year we’ve only permitted 11 to enter. We care a lot about those folks, don’t we? Or should I ask whether or not we’re worried that a parent of one of those kids we’ve blown away will come our way?” —[Read More…]
If Asifa were the first, the last or the only girl child to be tortured, raped, murdered, discarded like garbage, perhaps the callous that has formed around my life would not exist, and I could weep. But she is not, and I do not want to weep but to make revolution against the patriarchy. If Asifa were the first, the[Read More…]
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a/k/a Lula, never went to school, and started working at the age of 12. As a union leader, he led the movement that freed Brazil from military dictatorship, and instituted democracy. Lula then served as President of Brazil from 2003 to 2011, when he lifted 40 million Brazilians out of poverty. Running for President again,[Read More…]
Visiting social justice activist from India Teesta Setalvad was honoured with a medal of courage by Radical Desi publications and Indians Abroad For Pluralist India, at an event organized in commemoration of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on Friday, April 13. Held at the Surrey Central Library, the event was organized to launch the Punjabi edition of Foot Soldier of the[Read More…]
The Challenge is to rise above this hatred and divisiveness and create a new narrative of courage, beauty of diverse life and love. It seems that we as a nation, in India, are experiencing a free fall to some unimaginable abyss. Every day brings news of ever more grisly, convoluted crimes planned not by some petty dirty criminals, but far[Read More…]
Rape culture exists due to the society’s obsession with female bodies as a site to demonstrate power. Rape is unleashed onto a female body to proclaim that a woman has no ownership over her own body and that, she should never desire sex. By doing so, men convert a woman’s body into flesh that is tortured, mutilated, raped and[Read More…]
Feeling that some display of force was needed, US president Donald Trump issued orders on Friday to demonstrate some form of muscle, albeit exercised some thousands of miles away. “A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.” The United Kingdom[Read More…]
Imperialism again carries on direct aggression against Syria. And, with its bloody claws, heinous imperialism again asserts its age-old axiom: Everything is and will be dominated; no effort for a peaceful life will be allowed. The US, UK and France – an imperialist alliance – have bombed multiple government targets in Syria in an early Saturday morning operation. And, with[Read More…]
Friday, April 13, 2018. Tonight the U.S., along with British and French forces, launched bomber and missile strikes on Syrian facilities the Trump/Pence regime claims are linked to chemical weapons production. It’s not known at this writing how many Syrians have been killed or wounded, but there are breaking news reports that at least one strike, on the science institute[Read More…]
This can’t be real, can it? Doesn’t anyone remember the British Iraq Dossier plagiarized from a US doctoral student thesis? Or what about then US Secretary of State Colin Powell making a fabricated presentation to the United Nations on the case for illegally attacking Iraq for its purported weapons of mass destruction? Fifteen years later Iraq, once a functioning, relatively[Read More…]
OF COURSE, the US and their democratic allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, still don’t know what kind of “chemicals” were used by that “animal” Assad “against his own people.” Thousands more Syrian civilians have been killed by “conventional weapons” used against them by the US, its allies and those militarized groups it finances and arms, but “we won’t[Read More…]
My knee jerk reaction to Trump’s action tonight: …and Canada is guilty with this war crime…kind of hard to tell you to fuck off home as you are already there. However the Canadian government’s sycophantic support of US imperial foreign policy makes the government culpable in creating a situation that endangers all of the world. The same lies used to[Read More…]
“More than one in ten Syrians have been killed or wounded since 2011 in the Syrian Civil War, but although the West is responsible for much of that toll, there was a more direct and sinister complicity regarding deaths on the part of the U.S. during the Central American civil wars.” — Richard Martin Oxman Between 1974 and 1996, the[Read More…]
My knowledgeable colleague has written about the deadly blows that Bechtel delivers to the residents of California and elsewhere courtesy of Stanford University previously, but I believe the latest scandal connected to that unconscionable corporation in Washington State deserves special attention right now, since there are many (Hanford) counterparts in the Golden State that beg for our focus immediately. I’m talking[Read More…]
Into the night he releases his wordless poem, rhythmic and perfectly metered; then pauses to consider it before a new trope of sound rises with the steam from his mouth. This cold winter, this Moscow night, loneliness, or some ancient ache for belonging is our common inspiration. But I am the lesser poet, in need of words to beg[Read More…]
Nabeel CKM’s Malayalam book on the stone quarries and the mining mafia in the Western Ghats of Kerala exposes the socio-political pathologies of our times. When Keraleeyam, an exceptional magazine that has set its standards in reporting environmental issues and human rights, comes up with a full length book, it does offer something original and unique. MurivettaMalayazham: Keralathile Paramadakal Srishtikkunna Samoohika[Read More…]
To Dalits, Muslims, subalterns,
To women, the poor, the marginalised sections,
You are a statue full of life
In this world of strife !!
When hate invades the human mind, there is no limit to brutal atrocity. On April 10, a Guardian story showed a video in which there is cheering as an Israeli sniper shoots an unarmed Palestinian a considerable distance away. Shown on TV in Israel, it has been the subject of some introspective debate. Then there is news from Kashmir to[Read More…]
The momentum toward a US-led attack on the Assad government in Syria continued to build over the past 24 hours, with American, French and British warships deploying in the eastern Mediterranean and aircraft being primed for operations at various bases in Europe and the Middle East. The military preparations are being accompanied by diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to[Read More…]
The way the Unnao Case was handled where accusations are on a BJP MLA that a teenage girl was gang raped is show of the poor police and civil administration in the state. It also shows how the poor and weak are treated in the country by protective institutions like police and civil administration. Now the probe has been handed[Read More…]
Nirbhayas, Nancies and Asifas
Must be murdered
As a punishment to be born
A mere helpless girl ?
Unprotected, all unsecured
In her own volatile turf
Be it home, society, state or country
Until her society gives birth
To good and righteous people.
U.S. President Donald Trump asserted on the morning of April 12th, “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” This statement from him is interpreted here as constituting a public promise from him to start the overt phase of America’s invasion of sovereign Syrian territory, no longer just continue the[Read More…]
1. Trump Syrian Foreign Policy and its Consequences The off-the-cuff remarks that Trump usually makes are based partly on his own instincts, partly on intelligence briefings, and partly on the advice and input he receives from multiple sources, in and outside of government. For several years, he has been on record in opposing “regime change” and embracing a rather[Read More…]
Tumultuous Rapids: Review of Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism by Samir Amin (2016) Theo Vynnychenko Kenji Amin, S. (2016). Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism. NYU Press. “History…is not a peacefully flowing river, but made up of different moments, separated by tumultuous rapids” (134). When the USSR broke apart in 1991, an unprecedented[Read More…]
Even the establishment media ultimately could not underplay the Farmers’ March from Nasik to Mumbai in March 2018. And not long ago we saw the Farmers’ Strike in Maharashtra; that happened in June 2017. All the pictures those protests presented showed a queer image of Maharashtra, a state which is set to be a Trillion $ economy by 2025 [[1]][Read More…]
So, this summer as the sun blazes all over,there will be scorching political heat as well.The much awaited poll bugle in Karnataka has been blown and preparations for the showdown are on. We will be witnessing an intensely fought poll battle in the recent times.Political parties are in full swing to prepare the ground and this battle of throne[Read More…]
His full name was Bhalchandra Bhai Vaidya but people used to call him Bhai Vaidya. I always addressed him as ‘Bhai’. In our village, it was an accepted norm to call a father ‘Bhai’ and a majority of people followed this practice. I came in personal contact with Bhalchandra Bhai Vaidya after my father passed away, therefore I never[Read More…]
In Voltaire‘s novel, the title character, Candide, on board, asks another character, an old sage, Martin: “Do you believe that men have always massacred one another as they do today..?” Martin tacitly concurring with Candide, says: “Do you believe that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?” ”Without doubt,” said Candide. Without doubt, on fateful day of[Read More…]
She speaks from my womb
Last time it was her entrails yelling
having been pounded, wrung and spread out to die
in wide eyed surprise
at yet another killing
The Ancience The Charvaka wisdom is all about materialism. It is so much into materialism that it believed only in the four elements. For them, the quint essence, that is the sky, is the absence of the other four elements. For them, the material world, with its fire, earth, water and air, go through processes & systems to make things[Read More…]
The US, France, Britain, Saudi Arabia and other American allies internationally continue to threaten military action against the Assad government in Syria over the unsubstantiated and dubious allegations that its armed forces used chemical weapons last weekend in the now re-captured city of Douma. In response, the Syrian military, backed by Russian and Iranian forces, along with Shiite-based militias from[Read More…]
Poison gas is not only deadly, itoften provokes a slow suffocating death. That, perpetrated on innocent children, is particularly cruel. But when such poison gas attacks are mere false flags, or by the new term, “false news”, and are used to provoke war, perhaps an all annihilating war, then humanity has turned to what it never should have become –[Read More…]
As if a girl named Asifa does not exist, didn’t exist, will not exist
As if Asifa was never raped, never tortured, never ravaged
As if Asifa is a myth, a fantasy, a lie, a fading photo
As if we are we were we will be ……
In this land of the dead You are the only one who is alive my child Don’t look askance at these faces with those horror stricken eyes For how will they answer you, they are nothing but corpses themselves They died the day they traded your pain with their own false insecurities They died the day they killed the God[Read More…]
I know it sounds incredible, but this is how it happened…. I was flipping channels on my Fake News cable box, hunting/searching for a morsel of something tasty, digestible and real, when suddenly there was a strange buzzing in my ears, I felt a bit dizzy, I lay down on my sofa, and I heard a high-pitched, electronic-like voice—some[Read More…]
“Why don’t all schoolchildren know what TCE is?” — Richard Martin Oxman “Not many people want to continue to aid and abet crimes against humanity and war crimes behind big lies launched against weaker nations with fabulous resources to loot.” — John McMurty The Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada who I’m quoting above has written an article recently which puts the lie[Read More…]
Wind has no smell The aroma it spreads is from the Master’s garden. Nor has it any sound Music you hear in the wind is from the singing birds. Alas! Master’s garden has dried up And the birds sing no more! The crackling noise of the broken trumpet That you hear that hurts your eardrums Is from the oppressor’s loud[Read More…]
” ….it is true that the women of every community are equally suppressed by patriarchy. Patriarchy dominates caste and class everywhere. It is also true, to a great extent, Dalit women are more affected by patriarchy …..” ( Need to redefine Dalit movement : Rajni Tilak, interview with Neel Kranti Media,published 17 January 2013, https:// roundtableindia.co.in). At a time when[Read More…]
(The recent security forces anti-insurgency operations appear like the biblical giant Goliath chasing the miniscule David with lot of collateral damage) The “Bloody Sunday” which resulted in the death of 20 persons (militants, soldiers and civilians) and injuries to over 150 persons including pellet injuries in the eyes to over 40 persons has been the worst episode of all round[Read More…]
Satya Ranjan Maitra epitomized love for and allegiance to people, serving people, and revolutionary proletarian practice in Bangladesh. Satya Maitra breathed to his last on April 8, 2018. He was 96. Of this near-century, colonial and neo-colonial political sytems sent him to prisons at different times, which in total was more than two decades. Satya Maitra was suffering from[Read More…]
When the judges of the highest forum to seek justice come out in public to exhort fair treatment and delivery of justice, you fear that even the hallowed walls of courts are not immune to ideology and malignance. When democratic process is impeded through horse-trading and browbeating public leaders while flouting public mandate like in Goa,[Read More…]
South Asian seniors residing at Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) Assisted Living care home in Surrey have joined the chorus in support of physically challenged Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Wheelchair-bound Saibaba, who is ninety percent disabled below the waist, continues to serve a life term in the Maharashtra jail in India. Convicted for being an alleged supporter of Maoist[Read More…]
Over sixty organizations have released a poster demanding the release of Dalit activist and Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ who is incarcerated in Saharanpur jail. Azad is in prison since June 2017, put away as a threat to ‘national security’ for championing the cause of India’s Dalits – a community repeatedly subjected to racist violence, rape, inhumane untouchability practices,[Read More…]
Historically this latest eruption of American militarism at the start of the 21st Century is akin to that of America opening the 20th Century by means of the U.S.-instigated Spanish-American War in 1898. Then the Republican administration of President William McKinley stole their colonial empire from Spain in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; inflicted a near genocidal war[Read More…]
Imagine losing dear, tender teenage daughters in violence and still seeking not revenge but fighting for a new society built on justice and seeking peace. It was inspiring to listen to two peace activists, an Israeli and a Palestinian , in Mumbai last Sunday talk about how they have come to terms with their personal grief. Rami Elhanan’s daughter Smaddar,[Read More…]
What happened in Unnao? Latest reports from the Unnao town in the Uttar Pradesh state of India narrate a shocking story of gang rape of a minor girl and the subsequent horrific murder of her father who tried to get justice to his daughter through India’s public justice system. Though the case is under investigation and only the investigating agencies[Read More…]
“People speak a lot today about the banality of evil, but not all evil is banal. Some of it is carefully structured and well-thought-out. That’s where the real danger lies.” – Alan Dean Foster Massachusetts has very tough animal cruelty laws. If people are caught abusing and/or neglecting animals, they can face jail time and stiff monetary fines in[Read More…]
“When Occupy was chanting ‘99%’ they weren’t accounting for how many folks were drugged coast to coast…on what. What the cost of that was.” — Rachel Oxman There’s a gladiatorial competition as spectacle motif found in a number of popular dystopian narratives, ranging from The Hunger Games to Battle Royale and The Maze Runner to Rollerball. And Stephen King’s writing[Read More…]
On Monday, lawyers from the Kathua Bar Association prevented members of the state police from filing a chargesheet in front of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, in the case of rape of an 8 year old girl from Rasana village in Jammu’s Kathua district. The lawyers in fact took pride in mobilising to prevent the police team from presenting the accused[Read More…]
Washington’s vigilant deputy, doing rounds on the beat in the Pacific, has been irate of late. The central issue here is the continuing poking around of China in an area that would have been colloquially termed in the past “Australia’s neighbourhood”. There have been no formal proposals, but the Australian press is agog with reports that the Chinese are instigating[Read More…]
While conflict theories and resolution processes advanced dramatically during the second half of the 20th century, particularly thanks to the important work of several key scholars such as Professor Johan Galtung – see ‘Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means (the Transcend Method)’ – significant gaps remain in the conflict literature on how to deal with particular conflict configurations. Notably, these include[Read More…]
Thousands and thousands of unarmed Palestinians, defying Israeli snipers, tanks, tear gas, and drones, again protested at the Gaza-Israel border. They demanded their right to return to lands stolen from them and an end to the cruel and crippling blockade imposed on them by Israel and Egypt—and to assert their humanity. Once again, Israel responded with tear gas and[Read More…]
Yuri Drexler’s first thought was, “how did this parcel ever manage to get through to me?” upon examining the markings on the parcel.He was surprized to see that it had come from Gaza. Within the parcel he had just received was a well-crafted hourglass, set in a cedar frame with the word Palestine carved into the upper orb. Great care[Read More…]
The latest scandal swamping Facebook’s top corporate echelons, and capitalist wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg himself (who is clearly out of his depth and, stuck in the mobs that usually surround his appearances of late, often looks like a deer in the headlights), is not about what his company did or didn’t do regarding the safeguarding of privacy of hundreds of millions[Read More…]
At the heart of this growing phenomenon of mass violence and social disintegration is a crisis of values. Perhaps the most fundamental loss a society can suffer is the collapse of its own value system. Many societies exposed to protracted conflicts have seen their community values radically undermined if not shattered altogether. This has given rise to an ethical[Read More…]
On Mar 8, 2018, after an unnecessarily protracted wait, the Supreme Court of India passed an order holding that the High Court of Kerala should not have annulled the marriage of Hadiya to Shafin Jahan in a Habeas Corpus petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The judgment of the High Court was set aside, and Hadiya was ‘allowed’[Read More…]
In the face of increasing attacks on democratic space including higher education institutions, students’ bodies, teachers and civil rights activists, a number of civil society organisations have come together to form PCSDS. This Commission is holding its first people’s tribunal on attack on educational institutions from 11th April to 13th April where over 120 testimonies of students and professors will[Read More…]
The Fifteenth Finance Commission’s (FFC) Terms of Reference (ToR) have generated a lot of criticism across a wide spectrum of thinking, especially among the South Indian states. The States which have already been affected with the winding up of the Planning Commission, as well as with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, are up in[Read More…]
Why did Israel kill many unarmed Gaza protesters and wound over 2,000 on Friday, March 30 and on the following days, when they clearly posed no threat to Israeli soldiers? Hundreds of Israeli soldiers, many of them snipers, were deployed to the deadly buffer zone that the Israeli army has created between besieged Gaza and Israel, as tens of[Read More…]
The reaction of Israelis to The Great March of Return depends on the “nationality” of the Israeli being referred to. In Israel, there are Israeli citizens but no Israeli nationality – only “Jewish nationality” or “Palestinian Arab”, etc. (this is intentionally aimed at maintaining Israel as a Jewish State). So, we have Palestinian-Arab MK Haneen Zoabi reacting to Israel’s massacres in Gaza as follows, and in the[Read More…]
The US Department of Defense is one of the world’s worst polluters. Its footprint dwarfs that of any corporation: 4,127 installations spread across 19 million acres of American soil. The Pentagon, presently, is trying to deal with well over 39,000 contaminated sites. This is old news for many, but it’s particularly germane for my purposes as I gear up to[Read More…]
“Barry Sanders’ book is a brilliant, disturbing reflection on the collapsing moral order of post-modern America. If literacy is the wellspring of selfhood, as Sanders makes clear, our aggressive, image-addicted society is unwittingly committing cultural suicide.” — Mike Davis When I was writing copy for McGraw-Hill Publishing and Random House more than twenty years ago, I wrote the following: “It is[Read More…]
The earth is tired Of rotating around the sun For so many years For so many decades And for so many centuries. `Give me a break’, she cried `I am tired of this routine Going on serving others Like a selfless house wife No more will I withstand your marital rape You are not my husbands You are only my[Read More…]
The term dialectic as it is used here is a way of looking at the world that corresponds to the actual structure of the world itself without regard to whether that word is holographic or material. Put in more philosophical terms, it is an epistemological assumption about the ontological structure of being. Hegel will write a book about it called[Read More…]
Do we enjoy the same quality of life as our male counterparts? How can we, when the figures of women in infleuntial positions tell us otherwise? Assuming that they are in those positions, it is a open secret that women are paid 25% less than men and in many cases much lessor. Some of the data regarding women are self[Read More…]
The International Criminal Court has issued an unprecedented warning that Israeli leaders may face trial for the killings of unarmed Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip. “Since 30 March 2018, at least 27 Palestinians have been reportedly killed by the Israeli Defence Forces, with over a thousand more injured, many, as a result of shootings using live ammunition and rubber bullets,” Fatou Bensouda,[Read More…]
The other day a friend of mine said “What India is witnessing is a rule of radical Hinduism, like radical Islamic, radical Christian and radical Buddhist rule in the world at different phases. In any radical religious party or organization’s rule democracy does not survive”. I did some research on this question of radical religion ruling the state and its[Read More…]
We are living at the cusp of a sixth planetary extinction, possibly with the totality of the Permian Triassic. The primary culprits are the fossil fuel and related extractive industries. This essay will offer a solution by making the case for a transnational 100% Death Tax; the purpose being to demonetize ownership and control over these industries. XXXXX Our generation[Read More…]
Peru, Espinar (Cusco Province), 4 April 2018 – Violent attacks have been carried out by the copper mining giant Glencore’s security forces and Glencore-contracted national police on defenseless women and even children, on the poorest of the poor segment of Peru’s population. Glencore, is a Swiss registered Anglo-Swiss mining corporation, exploiting mineral resources in developing countries around the globe, where[Read More…]
There is nothing sadder and more pathetic, than a notorious liar shouting, spitting saliva, insulting normal people left and right, whileterrorizing those who are telling the truth. Lately, the West has gone clearly berserk. The more it is scared of losing control over the brains of billions of people in all corners of the world, the more aggressively it is[Read More…]
International politics often seems like a subplot straight out of Game of Thrones, with its numerous alliances, strategic agreements and rhetoric of (and sometimes, actual) war. The latest development in this ever-changing game of alliances is the Saudi crown prince’s recent remarks on Israel. In a recent interview on his tour of the United States, Prince Mohammed bin Salman said[Read More…]
The revolutionary movie “PadMan” has already had widespread tremors and it’s impacts can be felt along the length and breadth of the nation.Arunachalam Muruganantham would have never imagined that his invention would transcend geographical boundaries:from Tamil Nadu to Jammu Kashmir and now to Assam.Muruganantham was obsessed with making the perfect sanitary pad for his wife. The obsession led him to[Read More…]
The past Monday, when my column, ‘Geelani Release- A Way Forward,’ appeared in this newspaper, I felt remorseful of having written something outlandish- far fetched from the ground reality.It was flagrantly in contradiction with the black bordered banner lead stories, ‘Bloody Sunday: 20 Killed’ in all the newspapers.The blood curdlingdetails of blood bath enacted in wee morning hours of Sunday[Read More…]
Saeed Naqvi is among the top most authorities of hard core journalism who has been a witness, reporter, writer and editor of the most seminal political events in the post-partition erain India, closely watched the rise and rise of dynastic centered party focused communally charged politics throughout the country that have direct bearings on the Indian Muslims from the day[Read More…]
Two years ago I sent an open letter to the Israelis and the Jews, and I said enough of seventy years of murder and crimes! During the last seventy years, you steal our land and deprive us of living free, and in peace in the homeland, we inherited from our fathers and our forefathers. You destroyed our society, and we[Read More…]
A series of deadly accidents has claimed the lives of 11 coal miners in Pakistan since late March. The tragic deaths of the miners once again demonstrates the dismal state of worker safety in the country. The accidents also highlight the deeply exploitative character of the mining industry, which after years of privatization is now dominated by private corporations.[Read More…]
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four visualized a situation, where a citizen is under the constant surveillance by the State. It keeps a constant watch on the anti-state activities by its citizens. Any perceived or real situation seen to be going against the perceived interest of the state is immediately acted upon. Such conditions continue to prevail in the country[Read More…]
The recent verdict relating to atrocities on SC/ STs and dalits has sparked much debate and controversy. Scores of dalits and their supporters called for ‘ Bharat bandh’ to express their dismay and disappointment over the Court’s judgment. Though the Court has not reviewed its earlier stand, it should have considered facts before delivering its ruling on such sensitive[Read More…]
Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad Raavan has launched hunger strike from Saharanpur district jail, where he is currently lodged. He launched his hunger strike in the aftermath of the nation-wide protests by Dalits on April 2nd against the dilution of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) ACT. Bhim Army defence committee convener Sanjeev Mathur said that Azad had begun[Read More…]
There was nothing of the Siddhartha about her. Modest and sombre middle ways are not the stuff of revolutionary ardour. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s mark on history was always going to render the violent normal, the blood stain a perceived, even psychopathic necessity. If society itself was prone to sanguinary realisations, she would oblige and flourish within its confines. Everyone has their[Read More…]
“…the self no longer coincides with [a] single dominant voice: That voice… is not complete but limited, merely one voice among many. That we are all made up of many conflicting voices — in effect, others — [and]… free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man.” — Flannery O’Connor “Other persons do not limit[Read More…]
India continues to be a dangerous place for working journalists as the largest democracy in the globe has lost three journalists in mysterious accidents within the first three months of the year. Even the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres came out with a strong condemnation against the journo-killings and let the world know about India’s degraded index on safety[Read More…]
No historian on Kashmir has ever used the term “Kashmiriyat” in his reference to its socio-cultural values. There are, however, some “assumptions” about its genesis, all converging on a single point that it was brainchild of NC. Many say it has its origin to post-1947 political developments of JK when NC founder under the influence of his countable number of[Read More…]
After a reportedly heated meeting of the US National Security Council on Wednesday, the Trump White House announced that there was no change in US policy toward Syria, despite a volley of comments and tweets by President Trump demanding an immediate pullout of the 2,000 US troops now deployed in the country. The meeting with the National Security Council was[Read More…]
An Egyptian Kangaroo Court Wednesday (April 4) sentenced 35 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members to life in prison for allegedly forming “terrorist cells” to attack security forces and state institutions. The Sohag Criminal Court sentenced another 155 defendants to three to 15 years on similar charges, including plotting to kill public figures and security officials, and joining an outlawed group,[Read More…]
“People like me are not good for big business, like for animal business, medicine business and for many other businesses. That’s why they are discriminating and censoring us.” Nasim Najafi Aghdam discussing YouTube She claimed to have detested it, issuing fiery calls on her social media outlets, and asserting that this creature was demonic in its effort to limit talent,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox The United States government views human rights not as the foundation of human dignity but as an impediment to corporate profits. — Haley Pedersen & Jodie Evans, AlterNet, January 11, 2018. In the United States of America it’s all about the quantity, not the quality, of so-called freedom. That may be because[Read More…]
March 18: Stephon Clark—gunned down by two Sacramento, California cops who shot him eight times in his grandmother’s backyard; six times in the back, once in the side and once as or after he was falling down, according to an autopsy done by the young Black man’s family. March 27: The Louisiana attorney general announced that the cops who[Read More…]
Palestinians have been victims ofgenocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention since the founding of theState of Israel. I say that because of my practical experience. I single-handedly won two World Court Orders for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia (both Serbia and Montenegro)to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Republic[Read More…]
The tea plantations of the Sub-continent are a unique environment, be that in South India, Assam or Sri Lanka because they represent a completely artificial man-made community. The areas where tea is grown were, until a hundred years ago, pristine rain forest. Then came the British, having discovered wild tea in Assam as well as with stolen tea seedlings from[Read More…]
Mid-day Meal Workers in Assam are up in arms against the privatisation of the mid-day meals scheme for schools in the State and demanding better pay As we went up the narrow steps to the CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Union) office in Chandmari in Guwahati, we were ushered into a room with no natural light, and could vaguely make[Read More…]
Israel’s official mantra to explain and defend its crimes against Palestinians, including massacres, has always been, and continues to be, “security”. For Israel, the word “security” means the security to exist as a Zionist Jewish state on part or all of historic Palestine — to exist as a state meant to be populated by as many Jews from around the world as it[Read More…]
Man’s inhumanity to man reached new levels of odium. The generally trigger-happy Israeli army fired at unarmed demonstrators on the other side of the fence cordoning Gazans into a prison. That hundreds were injured and at least 18 killed evoked little sympathy from our media and certainly no one dared criticize Benjamin Netanyahu’s crowing of the incident as a great[Read More…]
Another year started with gory scenes when Kashmir is engulfed with deadly silence, with tangled concertina wires blocking maximum towns of South Kashmir and parts of Srinagar city. Nervy Indian troops occupying lanes and bi-lanes. The only voices you can hear are from police gypsies, armored vehicles and the sirens of ambulances. This year the uprising started with Killing on[Read More…]
Revelations last month that Google was designing software for the US military’s illegal drone warfare program have sparked outrage among employees. More than 3,000 Google workers have signed a letter to executives demanding that it end its involvement with the Pentagon. The program, known as “Project Maven,” involves the use of artificial intelligence systems to analyze drone footage, potentially assisting[Read More…]
The following is the transcribed text of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, delivered on April 3, 1968 at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It’s always good to have[Read More…]
The West points its finger at Russia, Russia points its finger at the West. As for us, we do not really know who did it or why. We know nothing beyond what we are told, and we can be sure that the details are being kept hidden from us. So, faced with the mystery of who poisoned the Skripals and[Read More…]
The most prevalent view regarding future oil supply, as well as total energy supply, seems to be fairly closely related to that expressed by Peak Oilers. Future fossil fuel supply is assumed to be determined by the resources in the ground and the technology available for extraction. Prices are assumed to rise as fossil fuels are depleted, allowing more expensive[Read More…]
PALESTINE, that enclave of humanity occupied, brutalised and totally without any form of military defence against any and all aggressors is conveniently perceived as a threat by the Jewish state, Israel, the undeclared, sole nuclear power in West Asia and North Africa (WANA). This latter entity, the occupying power, is a usurper legitimised by imperial Britain and today unconditionally supported[Read More…]
Mass killings, massacres and general culling; butchering made normal, sanctified by State practice, and the scientific establishment. This is the killing of Australia’s national symbol, reviled and idealised in various measures, but generally considered, from those away from urban centres, a remote if attractive oddity. Barry Humphries, arguably Australia’s greatest comedic export, did not see his first kangaroo till he[Read More…]
Last month saw the hottest temperature ever recorded in Pakistan during the month of March, according to Meteo France meteorologist Etienne Kapikian. The record was set on March 30, when the temperature in the city of Nawabshah in Sindh soared to 45.5 degrees. On the following day, Mohenjo Daro, also in Sindh, reached the same temperature. The previous record for[Read More…]
“This book describes a world peopled with young folk who have bypassed reading and writing and who thus have been forced to fabricate a life without the benefit of that innermost, intimate guide, the self. It does not take a powerful imagination to describe such a world. The details can be found in the morning newspaper. It is a world[Read More…]
Sexual violence against women has been talked about on many occasions but the abuse meted out to disabled has not been addressed adequately. Specially, the women with intellectual disability suffer the most. They have to face male domination without even realising the dangers posed by sexual abuse by male. According to a report in theprint.in, the risk of sexual abuse[Read More…]
Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led regime took charge of Jawaharlal Nehru University by appointing M. Jagadesh Kumar as its new vice-chancellor, it has demonized this prestigious university as a “den of anti-nationals”. Other Hindutva blows included attempts to dismantle its secular and progressive character, accelerate the already ongoing privatization and scuttle the already shrinking democratic and dissenting spaces. Moreover,[Read More…]
Let’s be clear here: I have nothing except for respect and admiration for the writer Jay Janson. However, I do feel contentious about the viewpoint that we are all responsible for deplorable conditions, such as war, as exposed in King Held All Americans Including Himself Responsible for US Atrocity Wars NOT His Government . Here’s my rebuttal to that,[Read More…]
Co-Written Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant World Health Day 2018 special A senior editor in Thailand is being victimized for putting spotlight on an issue that the World Health Organization (WHO) refers to as “invisible killer” of over 6.5 million people globally every year. Air pollution warrants much more urgency to save lives and help people breathe life, and not[Read More…]
When Indian constitution was drafted by Amedkar, his visionary mind understood the importance of placing specific emphasis on the religious freedom as India shelters for dozens of religions and faiths with its vast cultural homogeneity. The religious freedom of Indian constitution has been verified by Article 25 and secularism in Indian constitution is predominant factor which is accepted by the[Read More…]
One of the first things that strikes you as you enter any ‘Tea District’ is the tea factory. These in many if not most cases are over a century old, build entirely of wood on a structure of steel girders. The machinery, especially in the Orthodox factories is fit for a museum. For the uninitiated, ‘Orthodox’ refers to the type[Read More…]
(Tourism Department needs to direct increased marketing efforts on South India and South East Asia which are emerging as potential Tourism markets for Kashmir) The 64th Convention of the Travel agents Association of India has just concluded in Srinagar. The Convention was attended by over 600 delegates from all over the country. The Convention was held in Srinagar after 31[Read More…]
There is an anonymous saying, you don’t know what is in the people’s hearts, inhistory,and you go by records. The records reveal that the mayhem of April 04 1979 was an expression of mature tendencies in National Conference against any sort of political dissent. Seven decades ago, in the streets of Amira Kadal area of Srinagar city, Sheikh Abdullah[Read More…]
Dawn had only just broken over the mountains. While most of the women and children on the camping grounds were still asleep, others were already wide awake, huddling together in the first rays of sunlight and drinking coffee. To a casual observer, this place might have seemed similar to any mainstream festival campsite. A distinguishing factor, however, was that there[Read More…]
China pledged to continue to respect and protect its citizens’ freedom of religious belief in a white paper published Tuesday (April 3). As a socialist country under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China adopts policies on freedom of religious belief based on national and religious conditions to protect citizens’ right to freedom of religious belief,[Read More…]
Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was cut down by an assassin in Memphis, Tennessee. King was 39 years old and the foremost leader of the civil rights movement. King preached and fought for change, especially against the poverty and discrimination pressing down on Black people, within the framework of this existing system. Before he[Read More…]
Click on the link and read and/or listen to King’s sermon that made headlines in bold print on newspapers around the world fifty years ago, and notice it is NOT addressed to the government but to all Americans. (King’s nightmarish sermon came 4 years after “I Have a Dream” at the March on Washington) King spoke to the people to[Read More…]
My name is Falasteen, I am the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. I am the home and only home to my children the Palestinians. Poets celebrate my beauty, my culture and the courage of my children… I tell the world that all your might, all your weapons and all your injustice will not be able to[Read More…]
“Gramsci and Hedges underscore the fact that learning must be directed by a strong moral and ethical framework.” — from Pedological Advice for Perilous Times Adapted from Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel, The Secret Agent, Hitchcock’s Sabotage was released during a time of mounting unease and fear of war on the international scene. A good part of its expressive power[Read More…]
President Trumps’ histrionics over the US trade deficit seem oblivious to the fact that neocon policymakers had already chosen decades ago amongst paths to “make America great again”! Path one followed the post Second World War scheme where the US rebuilt erstwhile belligerents Japan and Germany into capitalist competitors. It then put a floor under the global economy with an[Read More…]
“Violence and other potentially criminal behaviors caused by prescription drugs are medicine’s best kept secret.” — David Healy, UK psychiatrist and author (and co-founder of www.RxISK.org) “The establishment media ignores the scientific evidence linking psychiatric medications and violent behavior because psychiatry is the religion of the mainstream media, and they don’t want to see the dangers of psychiatrically[Read More…]
The 2003 invasion of Iraq is the best-known example of America’s Government and press lying to fool its public to invade a foreign country that actually posed no threat to U.S. national security (so that America’s Defense Department was obviously America’s Aggression Department, and even its very name was a lie). However, that fraud and its resulting mega-violence were[Read More…]
It was with a combination of dismay, delight and amusement that I watched the following two minute spoof because in an offhand way, it reminded of my own government’s lies (and for which many naive voters fall every time that there is going to be a new election for particular government offices). After watching the spoof, I imagined my own[Read More…]
Students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai have demonstrated an unprecedented protest in the history of their institute campuses at Mumbai, Guwahati, Tuljapur and Hyderabad. TISS is a deemed to be university as per University Act 1954 (3 of 1956) No. F,1122/62U2 fully funded by University Grants Commission (UGC) /Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India[Read More…]
Digging wells when house is in flames cannot save it. We have tendency of doing things that way. We voice concern on facing a situation and keep stiff upper lip when it passes, until it approaches again. Crying for the damages caused is futile, shrewdness would be, planning for unforeseen and learn from mistakes made in the past, that is[Read More…]
14 April 2018 will mark the 127th birth anniversary of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, one of India’s greatest social reformers and architect of the country’s Constitution. The day will also mark ten months in prison for Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, one of Dr Ambedkar’s finest followers in contemporary India. Azad is the leader of Bhim Army – an organisation dedicated to spreading education among[Read More…]
Following the carnage and heart wrenching killing of young boys on Sunday, the 1st April 2018, Kashmir Centre for Social & Development studies (KCSDS ), a prominent civil society group of Kashmir,in an emergency meeting, expressed extreme disgust and outrage at the human and moral depravity demonstrated by Mehbooba led govt in brutally killing boys in their teens and twenties.[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The eruption of youth protests over gun violence in schools and other issues is another indicator that the 2020s could be a decade of transformation where people demand economic, racial and environmental justice as well as peace. Students who are in their teens now will be in their twenties then. They will have experience in how protests[Read More…]
The precipitous demise of China’s prototype space station, Tiangong-1, was the sort of event that took earthbound discussions to more heavenly matters. Human beings, as is their wont, tend to follow the rules of colonisation with a certain automatism. In doing so, they have a distinct habit of leaving debris, a junking phenomenon that has seen space become a celestial[Read More…]
The record is clear that ‘our’ (that is, the ruling Establishment’s) intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, have lied to the public many times, and actually lie routinely — but these lies are always revealed only decades later, by historians, when it’s decades too late, because the damage was already done, decades before. Think, for example, of just two now-famous[Read More…]
“One in ten Americans live within ten miles of highly radioactive Superfund and other sites.” — Richard Martin Oxman You can’t arm the world — like Obama and Trump — and claim that you care about school massacres. Neither can common citizens (who support our unconscionable geopolitical madness, proactively, silently and/or ignorantly) think there’s any chance whatsoever of addressing school[Read More…]
Rim Banna passed away at the age of 51. Her death on March 24, after a decade-long battle with cancer, brought grief to Palestinians everywhere. Rim, a Palestinian Christian from Nazareth, united the Palestinian people across political and geographic divides. When she sang for the Homeland, nothing mattered but Palestine. Christians and Muslims, Fatah and Hamas, Gaza and Ramallah, all[Read More…]
On Friday, March 30, Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of unarmed Palestinians at a non-violent protest along Gaza’s border with Israel. According to available reports, at least fifteen protesters were killed by Israeli troops. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that 805 were wounded by live ammunition. Over 1,400 were injured—with bullets, tank rounds, rubber bullets, and tear gas.[Read More…]
How to conceive of the two-party system Lesser of two evils Among liberals and the different types of socialists, when the subject of the Democratic Party comes up, there are at least two variations. One is the familiar liberal argument that the Democratic Party is the “lesser of two evils”. For them, the Republican Party is the source of most,[Read More…]
How do we treat opponents? In strong democracies, we engage them in cooperative dialogue. In weaker democracies, we exclude and overpower them. If we’re undemocratic, we might kill them. So why has the United States, democracy’s alleged leader, become the world’s largest weapons exporter? In 2016, U.S. government arms exports totaled $38 billion, more than a third of the[Read More…]
(A street artist made it in Bergen, Norway on Easter day. The lady Jesus is the former Justice minister.) The month of March was quite interesting and happening for Norwegian politicians and everyone abroad. It all started with a Facebook post with a picture of threatening-looking guys with weapons (most-likely Al Shabaab militants), the image text translated as something like: “AP[Read More…]
“Education is the simply the soul of society as it passes from one generation to another” G. K. Chesterton T. S. Eliot started his ‘ Wasteland ‘ saying ” April is the cruelest month…” ( 1. The burial of the dead). But, for the students from KG to PG, the ‘ cruelest month’ starts in March itself. They have to[Read More…]
On First April, in many societies & Western countries, lies are spread in the shape of jokes, hoax & pranks by people on their friends, relatives, neighbours & colleagues which put the latter to great embarrassment & sometimes to harassment or actual harm. It is a custom called April Fools’ Day which actually calls upon people to concoct a special[Read More…]
Protests that swept north India have cost five lives today as Dalit groups tried to enforce an all-India shutdown over a Supreme Court order. In Madhya Pradesh, four people died during clashes and a man was killed in firing in Rajasthan’s Alwat. Violence was also reported from parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Punjab came to a standstill[Read More…]
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save human way of thinking and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.” Albert Einstein 1946 Figure 1.The Doomsday Machine, by Daniel Ellsberg. Daniel Ellsberg,former presidential advisor, who has released the famous top-secret Pentagon Papers related to the Viet Nam war[ii],has also possessed a cache of top secret documents related[Read More…]
Fifty years ago, on 4 April 1968, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The night before he died, King gave another of his many evocative speeches; this one at the packed Mason Temple in Memphis. The speech included these words: ‘Men for years now have been talking about war and peace. Now no longer can they just talk[Read More…]
It’s one of those stories of the century that somehow never gets treated that way. For an astounding 25 of the past 26 years, the United States has been theleading arms dealer on the planet, at some moments in near monopolisticfashion. Its major weapons-producers, including Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, regularly pour the latest in high-tech arms and munitions into the most explosive[Read More…]
Similar to Jesus, who was persecuted, tortured, crucified and murdered by ancient Jews, then rose up from the dead confirming his teachings, today’s Palestinians, whose parents had been robbed, persecuted, unjustly imprisoned, ethnically cleansed, and massacred by present day Jews, are rising up against Jewish Israeli terrorism, injustice, land theft, and brute murder, in peaceful mass rallies started on Friday[Read More…]
In Libya, NATO bombed a path to Tripoli to help its proxy forces on the ground oust Gaddafi. Tens of thousands lost their lives and that country’s social fabric and infrastructure now lies in ruins. Gaddafi was murdered and his plans to assert African independence and undermine Western (not least French) hegemony on that continent have been rendered obsolete. In[Read More…]
Truth-force, what is it? Truth is the expressed porousness and the vulnerability of soul, in the same way that soul is the humble courage, non-exploitative perception, reverence and gratitude of love, increasing through applied appreciation. The essence of openness and vulnerability of soul is most beautifully expressed as the passion and pathos of empathetic connectivity and dialogue, and the righteousness[Read More…]
“My understanding is that the elderly demographic has increased dramatically in Japan, and that many old folks are so desperately lonely because of the radical social changes which have taken place that some have resorted to getting themselves arrested and put in jail in order to have human contact. They’re going to have to really think outside the box in[Read More…]
“Let’s take Africa as an example. Whereas there’s no question that it’s admirable, important and the spiritually-correct thing to help immiserated people to self-educate and act responsibly respecting the relationship of hygiene to diarrhea, there needs to be a simultaneous ‘immersion’ in the water-related dynamics stirred up by select corporations and AFRICOM.” — Richard Martin Oxman Greed and appropriation of other[Read More…]
A 5-day-long sit-in by lady health workers (LHW) in Lahore came to an end on Friday, after the Punjab government agreed to the workers’ main demands. The demonstration by LHWs took place on Mall Road, one of Lahore’s busiest areas. The workers showed tremendous determination during the course of their struggle, with some hospitalized due to dehydration. One health worker[Read More…]
Rama Navmi is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birthday of Lord Rama. The festival is a part of the Hindu calendar that typically occurs in the months of March or April every year. The festival is an occasion for moral reflection for many Hindus. Traditionally, a Vashnavite’s, day is marked by reading of Ramayana and other stories of Lord[Read More…]
It might have been festive day for nonagenarian Syed Ali Shah Geelani, when he offered congregational Friday prayers, obligatory on all Muslims at the Jamia Masjid, Hyderpora, some two hundred yards from his residence. For about, three thousands days, five times a day Muezzin had been calling on him from the Masjid in his neighborhood to join the congregational prayers,but[Read More…]
Dalit activists held a demonstration in solidarity with the organizers of an April 2 Bharat Bandh in India, at Holland Park in Surrey on Sunday afternoon, April 1. Braving cold weather, more than two dozen people showed up at the rally, held under the aegis of Ambedkar International Social Reform Organization (AISRO) of Canada. AISRO has intensified its activities over[Read More…]
Israel is shooting at protesters in Gaza again on Saturday, a day after Israeli forces shot dead at least 15 Palestinians. Over 1,400 were also injured Friday by Israeli forces in Gaza, roughly half of whom were hit by live fire, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Thousands of protesters are attending funerals on Saturday. “Medical facilities in Gaza, which have already been overstrained by the[Read More…]
The West is doing everything to fabricate a cause of war against or to isolate Russia further internationally. So far, ‘Novichok’ rests on rumors. The affair was made up the British and the French intelligence agencies without having presented any evidence. The term ‘Novichok’ was used to sound Russian, in fact, this nerve agent is known internationally as A-234. Instead,[Read More…]
I admit that I am largely alienated from my country’s overall, general society. I have been so for a long, long time. Indeed, I have a permanent state of anomie, something akin to this description at Anomie – Wikipedia, which is an excerpt from a longer characterization. Anomie (/ˈænəˌmi/) is a “condition in which society provides little moral guidance to[Read More…]
You can justify what’s happening now to Palestinians in Gaza only if you can justify our Nakba – the violent establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine in 1948 against the will of Palestinian non-Jewish Arabs, the vast majority at the time. UK Jewish Voice for Labor (JVL) is calling for “an unconditional end to Israel’s inhuman siege of Gaza.” They should be calling[Read More…]
Finland, a country noted for deep felt suicides executed during long dark winter months, has become the happiest nation on earth. This statistical superstition, contrived to feed a social-media diet free of substance and light on evidence, belies one fundamental point: Scandinavia can boast its examples of curious killings and extravagant murders. Little wonder, then, that there has been something[Read More…]
Kim Jong Un and his sister conclude their visit to China continuing a relationship once described by Chairman Mao as closer than ‘lips and teeth’. Whatever conclusions political gurus might draw, one thing is certain: President Xi made public his support of China’s long-term ally. Trump seeing the odds of success at the meeting with Kim lengthen is twisting the[Read More…]
“ Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today?” — Samuel Beckett Some people might think it’s a plus to be able to sleep through anything, to not get woken up by the slightest of noises, or the movement of a partner tugging on[Read More…]
“What Upton Sinclair accomplished the year that Adolf Hitler became the Fuehrer of Germany should inspire everyone around the world.” — Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel “Twenty-four EPIC candidates, among them a Los Angeles Lawyer named Culbert Olson, took their seats in the state legislature, and, four years later, Olson, the leader of the state’s EPIC caucus, was elected governor.” —[Read More…]
It has again come up prominently in National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) “Crime in India-2016” Report that BJP ruled States outdo other states in atrocities against Dalits (Scheduled Castes). The same scenario was during 2015 also. At present BJP ruled states are Gujrat, Rajsthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhatisgarh, Goa and Jharkhand where Dalit atrocities cases are more than non-BJP[Read More…]
In recent days, South Indian leaders including Karnataka CM, K Siddaramiah and Andhra Pradesh CM, Chandrababu Naidu (others include DMK working president MK Stalin, Jana Sena Leader Pawan Kalyan) have spoken in one voice against the 15th Finance Commission — arguing that it is unfair to South Indian states. The bone of contention is a directive, in the terms of reference, given to the Finance[Read More…]
Of course, one never knows the degree to which what one sees is distorted by “subjectivness”; the extent to which one projects oneself upon the screen of existence. But it does seem to me that Moscow, from Tverskaya Boulevard to the streets of KitayGorod, to the familiar paths of Perovo Park, a great stillness has descended upon the people. A[Read More…]
Alienation as Disembodiment: considerations on Edward Curtin’s Disembodied Americans and the Crucifixion of the World. I am not writing to criticize Curtin’s piece because to my mind there is nothing to criticize; it is a well written, interesting and insightful piece. I am only writing to address his primary question which, as I see it, is why are so many[Read More…]
Co-Written By Dr. Suresh Khairnar & Feroze Mithiborwala Non-Violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mighter than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. ~ Mahatma Gandhi We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian Right of Return and condemn the Israeli terror unleashed upon the peaceful unarmed marchers. With more than[Read More…]
Stumbling Towards Old Age And Looking for Someone to Lean On 
Tolstoy’s Dilemma 
Ukraine Peace Activists Protest During Zelensky White House Visit 
“Our world is becoming unhinged”: Antonio Guterres 
How Chances of Direct War between the USA and Russia Are Increasing 
G20 Biofuel Alliance threatens Food security 
Thousands Of Auto Workers Strike In Three U.S. Plants, Face Financial Hardship 
Submission To Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission, NACC: Mainstream Media Lying 
In The Name of Decolonization 
Is This the End of French Neo-Colonialism in Africa? 
Tel Aviv’s Losing Brands: Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy 
Tackling Global Emergencies – UN International Day of Peace 
The Futility of Feudalistic Democracy 
Bayer over-riding Bhartiya Krishi 
Pulwama Bombing 14th February 2019: Unanswered Questions 
Himalayan Apple Growers Worried Over Increasing Threat from Imports 
After protests in flood-hit Derna, Libyan officials order journalists to leave 
International Day of Peace: Fostering Harmony and Unity in a World of Diversity 
More Butterflies, Fewer Billionaires — Unrigging the Global Economy 
Veganic Farming: How My Tiny Plot Produced 5,000 Pounds of Food Without Using Manure 
Fighting the Diaspora: India’s Campaign Against Khalistan 
CAIR Files Lawsuit to End Islamophobic No Fly List 
N.D.Mahanor, The Poet Who Taught Us to See Culture in Agriculture 
Dark and light streaks in India-China relations 
Why the Central Government Should Rush Special Aid Package for Himachal Pradesh 
Special Session: Another Image-Boosting Move? 
Eddelu ( Wake up) Karnataka: The Great Citizen’s Wall Against BJP 
Urgency of Improving Dam Safety Re-Emphasized in Libya and Ukraine 
Climate Crisis Threatens Largest U.S. Cities 
Little Amal Entertains and Informs on Refugee Children’s Strife 
Google Trial Must Fuel the Global Movement Against Digital Capitalism 
Linking Aadhaar With NPR Records: Is it Based on Informed Consent? 
In the debates before 2024 Elections in India, Agenda for Justice, Peace, Democracy and Environment Most Needed 
US imperialist hypocrisy and the Libyan flood 
Some Remarks on Russia in Global Politics Today 
A climate of Insanity 
Brief for Murder: Pinochet’s Apologists Five Decades On ‘Epidemic’ or Revolution: The Other Side of the West Africa Upheaval 
White Nationalism and Donald Trump 
How Arab Leaders Betrayed Islam and Defied the Logic of Political Change, Peace and Security? 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
