From Bernays to Trump, Hooked on Misery
The father of modern public relations and spin, Edward Bernays was a cold, cynical manipulator of mass perception. He knew that by shaping people’s desires in a certain way, governments…
May 2018
Our Energy Problem Is a Quantity Problem
Reading many of today’s energy articles, it is easy to get the impression that our energy problem is a quality problem—some energy is polluting; other energy is hoped to be less polluting.…
US Trade War with China
Transcript of PressTV Skype Interview of 29 May 2019 Background WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday that it will continue pursuing action on trade with…
Venezuela 1998-2018: 20 years, 7 elections, 2 charts and Some Hypotheses
Elections seldom act as a true mirror – a century ago we heard about soldiers ‘voting with their feet’ in favour of demobilisation and Bolsheviks getting only about a quarter of popular…
Thus Spake Spymasters
In Pakistan, it is rare of rarest happenings when a spy chief in the office or out of office is publicly summoned to GHQ the headquarters of Pakistan Army, Rawalpindi…
Ceasefire in“Ramadan”!
(Linking cessation of military operations against militants with the holy month of Ramadan amounts to communalizing the move which should normally have no connection with religion) The Central Government recently…
KHOKH: A bogey of fear that was created in Kashmiri Muslims-minds
Kashmiri Dictionary defines the word “Khokh” as "an effigy used to scare away birds from fields of crop". Its English equivalent is “scarecrow” which is used by peasants during harvest…
Rape as war weapon for Indian Armed Forces
Ever since the beginning of the conflict Kashmir has witnessed a remarkably high incidence of violence in general and the rape of Kashmiri women by security forces in particular. Rape…
Naval Kishor Kumar, Hindi Editor of Forward Press, Recieves Death Threats
Naval Kishor Kumar, Hindi Editor of Forward Press, has received death threats from the supporters of Brahmeshwar Mukhiya. Over the last 24 hours, he has received numerous phone calls issuing…
Eight Things I learned About Palestine While Touring Eight Western Nations
On February 20, 2018, I embarked on a global book tour that has, thus far, taken me to eight nations. The main theme of all my talks in various cultural,…
Universities, Branding and Saudi Arabia
The modern university is a tertiary colonising institution. Like the old mercantilist bodies – the Dutch East India Company and its equivalents – the educational world is there to be…
Sikhs, As True Gems, Are Welcomed Neighbors in Massachusetts, USA
I am not the only one who strongly admires and respects the Sikhs. My Governor Charlie Baker, the most popular one in the USA for all fifty states, does…
Two Dalits Hacked To Death In Tamil Nadu For Sitting Cross Legged In Front Of An Upper Caste Hindu
Two dalits were killed in Tamil Nadu's Kachanatham village near Manamadurai on Monday night in Sivaganga district for not respecting a uuper caste Hindu. It is alleged that during a…
Venezuela Defeats US In Election, Now Must Build Independent Economy
Upon returning to the United States from Venezuela and reading the terrible media reporting of the election, it was evident that the people of the United States are being lied…
Freedom of Expression: A Global Threat
India, a complex, beautiful and enchanting land, a melting pot of innumerable cultures, religions, ethnicities and traditions. India, a society deeply rooted in tolerance, compassion and forbearance. India, a land…
Spy Chronicles: A one-sided narrative
Pakistan’s former spy chief, General Asad Durrani, is facing flak. His former colleagues in the army are fuming for his latest endeavour – writing a book in collaboration with Amar…
Umpteen suicides – Are we qualified to stop it? Some educational measures to adopt…
An 11-year-old girl from South Carolina shot herself to death because she was being bullied at school… A 12-year-old boy jumped from an overpass above Interstate 66 in northern Virginia…
The Blatant Conspiracy behind Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s Assassination
Early in 1968, Clyde Tolson, F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover’s deputy and bosom buddy, a key player in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed both the hope…
Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas and Ache Din- Is it real?
The current Government came to power with the slogans of ‘Ache Din’ and ‘Sabka saath, Sabka vikas’ in which promises of better days and an inclusive model of development was…
Make in India to Kill in India
After Raigad, Jaitapur (Maharashtra), Kalinganagar, Niyamgiri, Gandhamardhan, Dhinkia and Khandadhar (Odisha), Nandigram, Singur (West Bengal), Dandakaranya, Raipur (Chhatishgarh), Jharkhand’s Saranda, MP’s Singrouli, Kovvada, Sompeta (Andhra Pradesh) and Koodankulam and Neduvasal…
Gaza Massacre Update – Decent Humanity Will Boycott Apartheid Israel & All its Supporters
The latest Israeli Gaza Massacre in which Apartheid Israeli soldiers shot and killed 116 unarmed Palestinian protesters and wounded 13,000, has divided the world into 2 camps, (1) the Good,those…
Fathi Harb burnt himself to death in Gaza. Will the world notice?
Fathi Harb should have had something to live for, not least the imminent arrival of a new baby. But last week the 21-year-old extinguished his life in an inferno of…
13 Inconvenient Truths About What Has Been Happening In Gaza: Another Corporate Media Spin
The Palestinian peoples historic Great March of Return has begun in Gaza in the face of horrendous Israeli military violence and the massive moral, logistical, corporate financial aid and support…
How Long Can The Sri Lankan Government Hoodwink The UN And The International Community?
The Sri Lankan State runs on Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism, the Maha Sanga and the Buddhist Clergy. The Sri Lankan State has to obtain the blessings of these people to enact…
Conflict Theory and Biosphere Annihilation
In a recent article titled ‘Challenges for Resolving Complex Conflicts’, I pointed out that existing conflict theory pays little attention to the extinction-causing conflict being ongoingly generated by human over-consumption…
‘Honour Killing’ Of A Dalit Youth Shocks Kerala
Swami Vivekananda Kerala a 'lunatic asylum' 125 years ago because of its stringent caste system. It seems it holds true in more than one sense after the 'honour killing' of…
An American Babushka in Moscow: On falling in love with Moscow and its pastrami
I am from New York City, and what that means is that I know a good pastrami sandwich when I see, or more properly, taste one. For those of you…
Saudi Wahabbism Serves Western Imperialism
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek When the Saudi Crown Prince gave an interview to the Washington Post, declaring that it was actually the West that encouraged his country to spread…
India’s Public Banks Are Its Lifeline: Privitisation Will Ruin Them
The world’s investment leader, Warren Buffett, once said, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you realise who has been swimming naked”. When the banking system hit the rocks…
Donald Trump, Summits and Cancellations
It was the sort of party you would be reluctant to turn up to, and its cancellation would have caused a sigh of relief. But when the US president replicates…
What Dead GIs Would Say To the World on Memorial Day About Being Praised As Heroes
If they could speak from their graves, GIs who died shamefully killing, maiming and destroying within innocent populations would appeal to Majority Humanity in the ever targeted for plunder 3rd…
Mass Shootings In The U.S. – An Historical Perspective
A week ago on May 18, 10 students were killed and 13 wounded at Santa Fe High school just south of Houston, within its metropolitan area. The shooter was a…
I Ask That A Proper Play About Muslims Be Written
"To think that we can understand Islam through current headlines and the conflicting opinions of political pundits is sheer illusion. But the misrepresentations embedded in many scholarly tomes from prestigious…
That Peace Train Track
Something good has begun Oh, I've been smiling lately -- Cat Stevens There is environmental degradation under Trump, for sure. However, it would be a major mistake to think that things were better under…
Election observer: ‘The majority have chosen the path they want for Venezuela’
By Eulalia Reyes de Whitney & Federico Fuentes More than 300 international representatives from organisations such as the African Union, the Caribbean Community and the Electoral Experts Council of Latin America, as well as former heads…
Why we need gender sensitive trade policies?
Holding on to the assumptions and apprehensions tightly may deny us, many a times, the opportunity to assess the concerns and constructive possibilities that lie ahead. This specially holds relevance…
Rally against the killings of protesters in Tamil Nadu held in Canada
South Asian activists came together to protest against the killings of 12 demonstrators by the Tamil Nadu police at Holland Park in Surrey on Saturday evening, May 26. Organized by…
The Time of the Great Slaughter: the Seneca Cliff of Rabbit Island
Little rabbits, little rabbits, come to me and hear this story. I can tell it to you because I am the oldest rabbit of all the island and I have…
The Politics of Pink
“But my favourite colour is pink Mamma”, he said with pleading eyes for the umpteenth time. “I know, but blue is such a lovely colour. And grey, black, green are…
Sting Operation Reveals Big Indian Media Outlets Agree To Spread Communal Hatred
In what could be a bombshell in Indian journalism Cobrapost, an investigative news portal on Friday May 25 posted ‘sting’ videos to show executives of media houses discussing lucrative offers…
The Climate Justice Movement Splits from Environmentalists
The science behind climate change is well known: an overabundance of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, raising the average global temperature and causing widespread melting of glaciers and ice…
Incompatibility of Capitalism and Life
“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted,…
Donating yourself – The tortuous journey to donate your organs
The Finance minister , Shri Arun Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant operation successfully recently, following in the footsteps of Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, the External Affairs Minister in 2016. Even as…
Sikh cop save the life of Muslim boy from a violent mob
Recently a video is making round on social media where a Sikh police officer saved a Muslim boy from the violent mob in Uttarakhand. In the video, the officer Gangandeep…
Houses Demolished in the Name of Housing Scheme in Indore
Co-Written by Ankit Jha & Anand Lakhan On the morning of May 23rd 2018 more than 110 houses were demolished at Bhuri Tekri in Indore by Indore Municipal Corporation. Houses…
An American Babushka in Moscow: The Tai Chi Babushki: How I was taught I wasn’t a Communist
It is late spring in Moscow, and the day is exquisite. I sit on my balcony and drink my coffee and watch a mischievous breeze run through the trees. It…
Dark Web: The darkest corner of internet
New Delhi: Buying illegal items has never been easier. With a click of a mouse, one can purchase almost any illegal commodity and get it delivered to any location worldwide.…
500 years is long enough! Human Depravity in the Congo
I would like to tell you something about human depravity and illustrate just how widespread it is among those we often regard as ‘responsible’. I am going to use the…
Survival
We have little time to save our children. Life is facing extinction within the near future. In the last session we all stated our major concerns and what needs to…
States of Cruelty: The Dead Refugees of Manus
In those seemingly interminable refugee debates being held in various countries, cruelty is pure theatre. It is directed, stage managed, the victims treated as mere marionettes in a play of…
The US and CHINA in the Oil and Dollar Game
This cartoon depicts the poor mouse (Trump) in a trap and the question (by China) for him to rate his dining experience. Trapped, the US will be in no position…
That’s Why We Shouldn’t Be Killing Anyone
"The world is charged with the grandeur of God." -- Gerard Manley Hopkins Everyone... everyone seemed to be "bleared, smeared with toil." I made an attempt to interact at the…
How to Deal with the NFL and the USA: Thoughts of Smith, Carlos and Robeson
"There is a cross to bear when you go out there far enough, departing severely from what's permissible, like what Paul Robeson did." -- Richard Martin Oxman The Vets Administration…
The Mystery Snipers In Tuticorin
The mystery of the police firing in Tuticorin (Thoothukudi) has deepened with the emergence of a video in which snipers are seen shooting from atop a vehiccle at the crowd.…
Kartar Singh Sarabha – A Hero Who Inspired Bhagat Singh
India has produced great young persons who dared to lay their lives fighting for freedom from British. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and others are well known. But there were many others…
The ‘Trump Card’ In Korean Peninsula In Times of Uneasy Peace
The US President Donald Trump has done it again. He has withdrawn from his commitment to a planned summit with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12…
Weapons of the Weak: Bringing Democracy to Streets
Kiran Nagarkar, well-known novelist, floated the idea during his recent interaction with activists that some kind of a rasta roko agitation could be held to check the growing congestion caused…
The Angle From Which I Chose to Teach Eight-Year-Old Children About Guns
The mother of one of the dozen third graders I was teaching last year in a home school setting crossed paths with me the other day. She reminded me of…
Eternal Disappearance: MH370 and the Hangar Gossipers
It has fuelled enough speculation to fill libraries and populate databases at catchy speed. The disappearance of MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, one…
Iran and Pompeo’s 12-Point Ludicrous Wish List–Empire’s End of the Rope?
When you listen to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s 12-Point wish list, what he calls Plan B to confront Iran – one can but wonder, has this man, or for…
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