Around a hundred film actors, directors, technicians, writers and activist have signed a statement condemning the decision of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) to reinstate the Malayalm movie star Dileep who is an accused in the adduction and molestation of a fellow actress. They extended their solidarity and support to the actress and demanded that an atmosphere should be[Read More…]
The regulatory system for GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in India is in tatters. So said the Coalition for a GMFree India (CGMFI) in 2017 after media reports about the illegal cultivation of GM soybean in the country. In India, five high-level reports have already advised against the adoption of GM crops: The ‘Jairam Ramesh Report’, imposing an indefinite moratorium on Bt Brinjal [Feb 2010]; The ‘Sopory[Read More…]
It is as clear as day that President Trump is obsessed with regime change in Iran. What is not made clear is how much his gambit is damaging to Americans and American interests. Without cause or justification, Mr. Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), striking a hard blow to America’s European allies – and its[Read More…]
In a paper published last week in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, a team of Australian researchers argue that we need to shift conservation goals to focus on diverse and ambitious “nature retention targets” if we’re to truly safeguard the environment, biodiversity, and humanity. The researchers, who are affiliated with Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ) and the Wildlife Conservation[Read More…]
I frequently write about global politics following an interest in US foreign policy as it tends to strive towards global hegemony by one means or another. Included in that are commentaries on Canada, my home country, and how we run double standards at home and abroad as willing followers of those same policies. This commentary is a departure from that.[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) demands that the government initiate steps immediately to ensure that the Sompeta wetland (known locally as the beela) in Srikakulam district is not vandalised further by the Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC). All attempts by the NCC to set up an “industrial park” must be disallowedsince it will devastate the lives of thousands of farmers and[Read More…]
We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one -Jacques Cousteau While the world has significantly improved food security, it is now faced with a mounting challenge on a more major front: water insecurity. Water has been crucial to all civilizations. In India, however, it is of much more importance as over 600 million people get their[Read More…]
Government assured action within seven days Mumbai | 29th June 2018: Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, Mumbai organized a rally and dharna of residnents of Mahul and Tansa Pipeline Project Affected People to demand better rehabilitation. The rally was organized on Friday 29 June demanding the Relocation of residents of Mahul to a better place, to stop of sending more[Read More…]
Seven years ago a Thomson Reuters Foundation experts’ survey found the five most dangerous countries for women were seen to be Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia. This year we set out to see if the situation had changed. We wanted to find out whether more was being done to address the overall risks faced by women,[Read More…]
The Government of Venezuela called an international Presidential Economic Advisory Commission, 14-16 June, 2018 – to debate the current foreign injected economic disturbances and seeking solutions to overcome them. I was privileged and honored to be part of this commission. Venezuela is literally being strangled by economic sanctions, by infiltrated elements of unrest, foreign trained opposition leaders, trained to disrupt[Read More…]
I do not hold any brief for Indira Gandhi as far her decision to impose emergency is concerned. There is no doubt that emergency period will be recorded as a black chapter in the democratic history of the country. But certainly I have every reason to differ with Arun Jaitely when he compares Indira Gandhi with Hitler. Hitler perhaps was[Read More…]
Such a historical twist, but one that deserves its iniquitous slot in the history books. No secret has been made about US policy towards Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, which continues its trajectory to seek his apprehension and shutter the organisation. Despite its cables being used for political effect by interested parties; despite the exposures of corruption within the ranks of[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek and Mira Lubis Would you ever think of the third largest island on Earth – Borneo (known as Kalimantan in Indonesia) – as one of the cradles of the world’s democracy? Perhaps you wouldn’t, but you should. While Europe was engaged in myriads of internal as well as expansionist wars, in the once lush, tropical[Read More…]
This column is the fourth and final one in this series. Last week’s dealt with some of the overarching problems that need to be worked through as the Resistance develops and gathers force. This one presents some specifics on some of the large set of tasks that need to be undertaken, if this “Repeal and Replace” movement is to be[Read More…]
1) Anthony Kennedy was a so-called “moderate” Supreme Court justice who voted against voting rights for Black people, who voted against union rights, who voted for unlimited corporate financing of political campaigns, and on down the line. In other words, he could only be called “moderate” in the context of the Dark Ages fascists that now make up the solid[Read More…]
The Supreme Court is the most important judicial body in the country. The decisions it reaches impact all Americans, even the ones that end up five votes to four. Since the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court has taken a radical rightward turn. In the past 72 hours alone, it sided with big money interests against working people in[Read More…]
Let me tell you about the time that my daughter Skye was separated from me, and what it did to her. In November 2001, I took my family on a trip to West Africa. We had a six-year-old (my daughter Skye), a three-year-old and a one-year-old with us. We landed in Nigeria, and crossed overland to Benin, Togo and Ghana.[Read More…]
Sunday morning, I flew to McAllen, Texas to find out what’s really happening to immigrant families ripped apart by the Trump administration. There’s one thing that’s very clear: The crisis at our border isn’t over. I went straight from the airport to the McAllen Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center that is the epicenter of Donald Trump’s so-called “zero-tolerance”[Read More…]
The Pakistani government’s removal of a virulently anti-Shiite militant from its terrorism list at the very moment that an international money laundering and terrorism finance watchdog was deciding to put the country on a watchlist highlights Pakistan’s struggle to come to grips with militancy. The decision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that was reported by Pakistani media but[Read More…]
Quotes from Karl Marx’s works reverberated in the unprecedented 5-day long conference organized by the Asian Development and Research Institute (ADRI), participated by the delegates from 18 countries across the 5 oceans, held in Patna, the capital of Bihar that has witnessed many revolutionary and counter revolutionary movements and uprisings. Gist and the central message of the conference in one[Read More…]
Suchitra Dey, formerly known as Hiranmey Dey, underwent a sex-reassignment surgery last year. She has an MA degree in Geography as well as in English and has also done her B.Ed. She teaches in a private school in Kolkata. In a recent interview, she talked to The Indian Express about her job interview experiences with some schools around Kolkata. Recounting[Read More…]
I write not with expectations, because expectations are meant to be shattered, just like promises are meant to be broken. Nevertheless, my intention is to stir some thoughts of yours. This might be one of the weird thoughts you would have ever come across, and, I wonder if anybody else had thought or would think this way… Why we are[Read More…]
As atrocities on women are rising, it is becoming increasing unsafe for women to live without fear. The foindings of a global perception poll conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity which surveyed 558 experts on women’s issues in order to assess nations on overall safety of women found that India is the least safe country. ( Tish Sanghera, June[Read More…]
Only a simpleton will not understand that in a “mutual admiration group” members generally degenerate themselves to a sophistry by exchange of pretended or exaggerated reciprocal praise. In this narcissist group, each member is mostly concerned with his own self-good. In philosophy, Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher, calls it self-downgrading way of making money, when [people] have to resort to sophism[Read More…]
It might seem unbelievable that after Bernie Sanders’ immense success in the 2016 Democratic primaries, running on a grass-roots campaign that condemned Wall Street’s influence and called for social justice, Democrats can still be caught off guardby progressives unseating their heavyweights.And yet, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s win in New York’s 14th Congressional District primary is nothing short of incredible. The victory stunned even her,[Read More…]
Below is the speech delivered by the well known journalist and documentarian John Pilger to the rally to free Julian Assange held by the Socialist Equality Party of Australia on Sunday, June 17 in Sydney’s Town Hall Center. Thank you for coming for Julian and thank you to the SEP for organizing this very important rally. The persecution of Julian[Read More…]
I was reminiscing about the few things of engineering and economics that I’d learnt in university (Tennessee) some 5 decades ago, their values and applications now and the differences from those in the past. What has changed is considerably a whole lot for the worse. After I’d completed bachelor’s degree in engineering, I went on to earn a degree in[Read More…]
“A rehabilitation centre in Gaza has created ‘Heroes FC’, a team formed from the many amputees from Israel’s wars on Gaza and the recent violent response to protests along the border fence.” https://bit.ly/2K3FzBi Hello Gary, With the World Cup being on, we have been seeing a lot more of you than usual. So I have decided to take the opportunity[Read More…]
Where there are refugees and asylum seekers, there will be the assistants, the exploiters and the opportunists. The global anti-refugee sentiment has become an industrial complex, well-funded, sharpened and vicious. The richer the state, it follows, the more developed that complex. In that regard, the Hungarian case has a distinct, rancid flavour to it. For some years, the billionaire financier[Read More…]
Two international items in the news this week highlight, by its absence, an underlying feature of reporting events in ‘troubled’ areas of the world. That absence is simply the historical background of each event. Canada in Mali Canada is maintaining its superficial idealism of peacekeeping as it commits 250 military personnel to Mali, relying on “faith” (rather than respect), operating[Read More…]
Speech delivered at Protest Rally Before Drury Inn I put the course on International Human Rights Law into the College of Law curriculum over three decades ago. One of the things I teach my law students and future lawyers is that the Undocumented have human rights because they are human beings. These rights are all set out here in the[Read More…]
Orientation Russians have had more than ample reasons to be furious at American political regimes and the public that do little to understand any culture but their own. In Part I of this article we saw the contradictions between the actual achievements of Russian society as opposed to how Russia and its history is portrayed in the U. S. Secondly[Read More…]
During the Vietnam War, American historian Howard Zin wrote: all wars are wars against civilians, and are therefore inherently immoral” and “political leaders all over the world should not be trusted when they urge their people to war claiming superior knowledge and expertise.” This holds true just as true today as in the Vietnam War era. While the Western[Read More…]
(The Kashmir Society has become so corrupt that one feels the corruption has gone into the blood stream of the people!) There was a time when word “corruption” would give a scary feeling. In fact, calling somebody corrupt was probably the worst abuse. Not now! It has become a word of daily usage to which all of us seem to[Read More…]
According to the hymn in India, Brahmin were born from the mouth of Brahma, Kshatriyas were born from his shoulder, Vaishyas from his thighs, while the Shudras were born from his feet. Therefore, the Brahmin are considered as most superior, while the Shudras are at the lowest position in hierarchy. Shudras were considered to be the untouchables and were named[Read More…]
Why Jailing of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Did Not Become A News In This Part of Asia “Ordered disorder, planned caprice, And dehumanised humanity…” – Brecht (The Exception and the Rule) (Quoted in http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/04/29/the-mad-men-of-dambulla/) “I have done my duty towards the country,” Gnanasara told reporters as he boarded the bus taking him to prison. “Why should I regret?” (https://in.reuters.com/article/sri-lanka-monk-sentence/sri-lanka-jails-extremist-buddhist-monk-for-six-months-over-threats-to-woman-idINKBN1JA1BW) I Rarely[Read More…]
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, Tuesday (June 26, 2018) ruled in favor of the third iteration of President Donald Trump’s travel ban (known as Muslim Ban 3.0) on five Muslim countries. In his decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Trump had used his executive authority to “suspend entry of aliens into the United States.” “The [order] is[Read More…]
June 26, in a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court upheld the Trump/Pence regime’s openly bigoted, xenophobic Muslim Ban, which severely restricts travel from seven countries. Five of the countries are predominantly Muslim (Yemen, Iran, Syria, Somalia, and Libya), and the two others are North Korea and Venezuela. This decision came on the same day the Supreme Court also ruled[Read More…]
In the Gospels, the disciples of Jesus complain about folks who bring their kids with them to receive his blessings. But Jesus is not somebody who shuns the company of children. In response to his followers’ disapproval, he says, perhaps with the snap of indignation in his voice, “Suffer the little children and don’t stop them from coming to me.[Read More…]
I’m still grappling with what we’ve seen from the Trump administration in the past few weeks: kids in cages, families torn apart, bitter racist politics that vilify and divide. It isn’t who we are. Not as a people and not as a nation. But this isn’t the moment to look away. Through the anger and frustration, we have to stay[Read More…]
This past May, the United States Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced the government’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy at US border crossings. It was a matter of weeks before the new policy began yielding tragic outcomes. Those attempting to unlawfully cross into the US were subject to federal criminal prosecution, while their children were taken away by federal authorities, which placed them in cage-like[Read More…]
Some days ago I returned to my home in Massachusetts, USA from Newfoundland, Canada. Ah, Newfoundland, what a remarkable place!!! For me, at least, its unspoiled beauty and natural wonders provide a brief respite from the chaos I feel so intensely when I am at home and engaged with the distressing issues facing our world. I miss my time in[Read More…]
PADS statement against recent cases of public lynching in different parts of the country The seven day period from 13th June to 20th June, 2018 saw four Muslim men lynched at Hapur (UP) and at Godda and Ramgarh in Jharkhand. The last four years of BJP rule at center have seen steep rise in the numbers communally motivated lynching, with[Read More…]
On June 6, many of us who knew one or few of the five people arrested, supposedly in connection with the ‘violence’ at Bhima Koregaon, woke up with hasty messages of unexpectedarrests. I received a message that Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale was ‘picked up’ and had been taken to the Govandi police station in Mumbai. A huge crowd gathered outside[Read More…]
Wake Up, India: Essays for Our Times – Part 2. Chapter 1 – Dalits in the Spotlight during 2014- 18 BJP Rule. On 17, January 2016, Rohith Vemula died. His suicide letter became the cause of a widespread anger that again highlighted or brought to the forefront the issue of whether Dalits are treated justly or unjustly in India and[Read More…]
An individual who finds that he enjoys seeing others in positions of lesser liberty understands that he has no claim whatever to this enjoyment. ~ John Bordley Rawls (21st February 1921-24th November 2002) John Rawls’ has explained the theory of justice through his political philosophy. The political philosophy of Rawls is based on the tradition of enlightenment that is[Read More…]
As reported by The Times of India, according to a study published in the ‘Future Development’ blog of Brookings, Nigeria has overtaken India in terms of the highest number of extremely poor people (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-no-longer-home-to-the-largest-no-of-poor-study/articleshow/64754988.cms). The study estimates that at the end of May, 2018, Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty compared to India’s 73 million. The[Read More…]
Of the several reviews of Khalid Bashir Ahmad’s – by now – well-known book, KASHMIR- Exposing the Myth Behind the Narrative that one had occasion to go through, two [Chitralekha Zutshi: This book claims to expose the myths behind Kashmir’s history. It exposes its own biases instead, Scroll.in, October 24, 2017, and Reapan Tikoo: Building a Flawed and Divisive Narrative,[Read More…]
Imagine before each match of the World Cup the FIFA World Soccer Federation making an appeal over the loud speaker asking all the fans in the name of the future of soccer to tell officials of their government to demand Americans stop threatening the future of the World Cup with nuclear war. Soccer stars President of Liberia & UN[Read More…]
More than 13,000 refugees and migrants, including pregnant women and children, have been force-marched into the Sahara desert by Algerian security forces over the past 14 months, where many of them have died from hunger and exposure. The shocking revelation by the Associated Press was substantiated by videos showing hundreds of migrants stumbling through a sand storm and others[Read More…]
There are not many International Relations (IR) scholars in India who can make a reasonable claim that their scholarship means many things for the foreign as well as the defence policy decision-makers in the country. K.R. Singh belonged to such a genre of scholarship embedded in a typical Aristotelian notion of Phronetic (practical wisdom) studies. Singh always sought to combine[Read More…]
Growth has remained the buzzword in Indian polity for decades now. It started after the unprecedented economic crisis that the country faced in early 1990s and never really went away after that. It, rather, almost consumed the other big word- development, which now returns to election rallies and then disappears again until the next elections. Ironically, overuse of the concept[Read More…]
New Delhi: Asian Centre for Human Rights in its report, “Torture Update India” (http://www.achrweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TortureUpdateIndia.pdf), released today, the 26th June, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture 2018, stated that a total of 1,674 custodial deaths including 1,530 deaths in judicial custody and 144 deaths in police custody took place from 1 April 2017 to 28 February 2018[Read More…]
The modern detainee in a political sense has to be understood in the abstract. Those who take to feats of hacking, publishing and articulating positions on the issue of institutional secrets have become something of a species, not as rare as they once more, but no less remarkable for that fact. And what a hounded species at that. Across the[Read More…]
As we write, troops commanded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), backed by Saudi Arabian warplanes, are fighting to take control of the port city of Al Hudaydah on Yemen’s western coast, now held by Yemen’s Houthi movement. Aid flowing through Al Hudaydah is the only thing standing between 22 million Yemenis and starvation. And now it’s being threatened by[Read More…]
Writing this week for the Chicago Tribune, Steve Chapman called a U.S. Government report on the war in Afghanistan “a chronicle of futility.” “The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction” report says the U.S. spent large sums “in search of quick gains” in regional stabilization – but these instead “exacerbated conflicts, enabled corruption and bolstered support for insurgents.” “In short,” says[Read More…]
The philosophy of courage involves an examination of a desire of mankind to take risk to know the unknown, to explore the unexplored, to understand the complex, to see the unseen. The human life without the elements of risks becomes a monotonous game of denials. Being a philosopher, every day I often make myself witness how an element of risk[Read More…]
Anote’s Ark is a beautiful movie that follows the fight of Kiribati’s president, Anote’s Tong, on behalf of his people, trying to save them from the rising sea. The movie succeeds in telling the story and in making its case without preaching or pleading. But it hides the last phase of the story: the betrayal of an entire nation, taking[Read More…]
I Before discussing the complex subject of opposition unity, it would be appropriate to look at some obvious facts. Firstly, there exists no opposition to the neo-liberal policies that has prevailed for the past three decades in the country – none at the level of mainstream political parties, none at the level of intellectuals and ‘thinking’ class. Therefore, the[Read More…]
Dear Prime Minister YOU NEED TO ANSWER! As the date of election is closing by- your performance and ability to serve this country will be under much-scrutiny. You cannot accept public scrutiny- even though your bhaktas call them ‘anti-national’ or your hyper active cyber cell attack on your critiques. I am starting from your parliamentary constituency and my home town-[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Last week, rallies in support of Julian Assange were held around the world. We participated in two #AssangeUnity events seeking to #FreeAssange in Washington, DC. This is the beginning of a new phase of the campaign to stop the persecution of Julian Assange and allow him to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without[Read More…]
A cry baby is not an infant, but a fully grown adult who cries over the smallest thing out of self pity. (composed from Urban Dictionary) Israel, one of the most technologically advanced military superpowers, is making a colossal fool of itself on the global stage by crying Wolf – ‘We have the right to defend ourselves from – from[Read More…]
The current U.S. President, Donald Trump, claimed on June 18th, that Germany’s leadership, and the leadership in other EU nations, caused the refugee-crisis that Europe is facing: “The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions[Read More…]
The president of India has appointed Narendra Modi as the country’s 14th prime minister on the strength of his election as the leader of the BJP parliamentary group following the BJP’s electoral victory. The acceptance of the people’s verdict always comes with the expectations that the government that follows will pursue a set of policies and programmes that will provide[Read More…]
Historically, Kashmiris since 1819 have always greeted the voices raised from outside the state against their oppression and in support of their cause. In 1934, when Mahatma Gandhi in response to a missive by a Kashmiri Pandit leader, Prem Nath Bazaz wrote to him in a letter dated May 15, 1934, “Seeing that Kashmiris predominantly Mussalman it is bound to[Read More…]
Have you heard of Caudwell and Conford? Of Ralf Fox? Do you know of Federico Garcia Lorca? These martyrs had reddened Spain The green olive forests are red Mothers lost children, lose children, Yet I say, good days approach Come, let’s go touch their blood And write, with that blood, a song for the good days. The original Bangla[Read More…]
I am born foody. I must have inherited this trait from my mother as she is a great cook as well as food lover. I love to eat everything that is edible; however, somehow I have always kept some distance from red meat and chicken by embracing seafood and eggs. In short, for me food is an object of attraction[Read More…]
By Diego, Marigona, Danny, Alice, Patri and the rest of the Avaaz team There’s only 12 vaquitas left, down from 30 last year! But it’s not just the vaquitas we’re losing — we’re seeing a sixth mass extinction, and it’s human made. Top scientists are backing an ambitious plan to put half of the earth under protection, so nature and species can recover but we[Read More…]
Embattled former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was the main loser in last month’s election upset that returned Mahathir Mohamad to power as his country’s anti-corruption crusader. Yet, Mr. Razak is not the only one who may be paying the price for allegedly non-transparent and unaccountable governance. So is Saudi Arabia with a Saudi company having played a key role[Read More…]
The most dangerous man in history might not be who you think it is. Not Caligula, Pinochet, or Ivan the Terrible. Not Hitler. Trump is dangerous for many reasons. He has no moral compass. He has no ideology, which means he has no limits. Most of those throughout history who were evil had a world view that would limit them.[Read More…]
President Trump’s cruel policy of separating immigrant children from their parents as they sought asylum here mocked the idea that the US government values families. Unfortunately the US has a long and sad history of separating children from their parents. For example, the US took American-Indian children from their parents and Black slave families were often torn apart. Fortunately the[Read More…]
It is a credit to the venality of Australia’s refugee policy that much time is spent on letting others do what that particular country ought to be doing. For a state so obsessed with the idea of a “rule-based order”, breaking those rules comes naturally – all in the national interest, of course. Canberra’s policy makers, since the 1990s, have[Read More…]
Dalit movement has produced great writers who expressed the pain of being discriminated in poignant prose and verse. Among those inspiring writers is Shahir Shantanu Kamble who was known as ‘ vidrohi kavi’ passed away.(maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com). He was only 39 years old. His passing away is a jolt to ambedkarite movement. He belongs to the tradition of ‘ vidroh shahiri’ ([Read More…]
SRINAGAR: Ali masjid which is the second largest mosque in the state after Jamia Masjid was constructed during 600 AD, reason why it is entitled as haunted mosque because people believe that it was surrounded by Jins ( haunted ghosts), initially this mosque had hardly any locality around during the late 90s and the mosque had a water canal starting[Read More…]
The cult of 56 inches does not symbolize courage or strength, it portrays toxic masculinity. And toxic masculinity is not normal.It must be resisted. When Simon de Beauvoir[1] wrote about becoming women’ she was referring to the notion of social construction of a person as a woman. Similarly, masculinity is also related to the notion of becoming aman’ in a[Read More…]
Game Over! The Tigray People’s Liberation Front which has ruled Ethiopia since 1991 has been ousted from power in Ethiopia, replaced by a new breed of leadership who have quickly moved to reassure the people that a real change is in the making. This past Wednesday, June 20, was a busy day for the new Prime Minister Abiy, an ethnic[Read More…]
Yahya Staquf, a diminutive, soft-spoken leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim movement, and Indonesian president Joko Widodo’s advisor on religious affairs, has held a series of meetings in recent weeks that reflect the Muslim world’s shifting attitudes towards Israel and the Palestinians and a re-alignment of socially conservative Muslim and Christian interests. Just this month, Mr. Staquf, a[Read More…]
Killing people on suspicion of possession or trading of beef continues unabated in India. In yet another case related to suspicion on cow slaughter, the Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh (U.P) police thrashed a meat trader Mohammad Salim Qureshi alias Munna so badly that he succumbed to injuries on Thursday after spending eight days in AIIMS. In a written complaint to[Read More…]
We heard quite a lot about “The Iran nuclear deal” and pros and cons of Iran nuclear deal, but what we don’t hear about is that Iran is facing deep internal strife. The recent mass protests in Southwest Iran (Ahwaz region). Iranian regime’s discriminatory policies, racism, poverty and diseases from pollutionin the region angered Arab in Ahwaz. Different nations within[Read More…]
BP recently published energy data through December 31, 2017, in its Statistical Review of World Energy 2018. The following are a few points we observe, looking at the data: [1] The world is making limited progress toward moving away from fossil fuels. The two bands that top fossil fuels that are relatively easy to see are nuclear electric power and hydroelectricity. Solar,[Read More…]
I have an associate of around fifteen years. I work with him on and off in nanotechnology areas. I have nothing except for the highest respect, admiration and caring for him because he is ethical, kindly, dedicated to serving the best interests of humanity, and he is honorable in terms of using his best skills and understandings to train students[Read More…]
In a serious escalation of repression, authorities in Chicago are arresting revolutionaries on bogus charges. In one week, at two public festivals, 11 people with the Revolution Club have been arrested on ridiculous pretexts. In one case, they are mainly charged with misdemeanor obstructing/resisting a peace [sic] officer. This is punishable by up to one year in jail. There were[Read More…]
A great Israeli-German Jew passed away. Her death represents a significant loss to the Palestinian people’s struggle for justice, human rights, and self-determination. She and her late husband Mieciu, who died in 2015, stood for the other, the better Israel after they emigrated to Germany. They rejected colonialism, Israeli wars, Land theft, torture, apartheid, ethnocentric nationalism, chauvinism and countless violations[Read More…]
There is something charming about a first lady making media bloopers; however, one cannot say the same for those born very rich who are often obtuse to the sufferings of others. The news reaching a crescendo this week in the US has not been the World Cup — relatively few understand the game here. No, it’s been Donald Trump’s cruel[Read More…]
This is not the story of a man who once sold tea and later ‘sold’ dreams to a people and managed to reach top echleons of power in the biggest democracy in the world. This is not the story of this man and his rise from the margins of a organisation which is called the biggest cultural organisation in the[Read More…]
Court documents made public in Virginia and Texas give a glimpse of the systematic brutality being meted out to immigrant children in both public and private jails. Children are strapped down, hooded and beaten, or drugged by force, as part of the everyday procedure in what can only be called the American Gulag. An Associated Press report published Thursday gave[Read More…]
“The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one’s mind, is the condition of the normal man. Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years. [Read More…]
The summit meeting in Singapore on 12 June of President Donald Trump of the United States and Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was a highly significant meeting, facilitated by a good number of diplomatic efforts, in particular that of Moon Jae-in, President of South Korea as well as[Read More…]
Nagas are considered to be the people, who belong to old warrior tribe. Some of the myths also inform that these people are from Mongoloid origin. People often believe that there is only one Naga tribe or that Naga is a single tribe. However, there are about 32 known Naga tribes, which are distributed in various areas and territories of Nagaland,[Read More…]
The Jacinda Ardern phenomenon, clumsily dubbed Jacindamania, shows no signs of abating. Journalists have long given up bothering about policy analysis regarding New Zealand’s prime minister, instead focusing on pregnancy and the newly arrived infant. The duration of the prime minister’s tenure has been marked by those signs that suggest celebrity rather than political grit, which must, on a certain[Read More…]
The Trump administration’s actions have continued to threaten the health and wellbeing of immigrant families, border communities, and their local environment with its racist, inhumane deportation agenda. And Congressional Republicans continue to do his bidding. At the Sierra Club, we fight for the quality of the natural and the human environment, so any environment in which families are being torn[Read More…]
Joke: Four years ago, I wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pointing out that widely availably technology called “IMSI catchers” were being used to intercept cell phone signals, locate people, spy on their calls and insert malicious software in their phones. I asked the FCC to put an end to that. And as the Washington Post then reported, the[Read More…]
Both President Trump and former President Obama are commonly said in America’s ‘news’ media to be or to have been “ceding Syria to Russia” or “ceding Syria to Russia and Iran,” or similar allegations. They imply that ‘we’ own (or have some right to control) Syria. That’s not only a lie; it is a very evil and harmful one, dangerously[Read More…]
During the past few weeks, we have seen a true political revolution in Italy. Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian League, has successfully exploited his new position of Minister of the Interior to gain personal prominence. The M5s movement had won the elections, this year, but it has been emarginated to a secondary role, while Salvini acts and looks like[Read More…]
As discontent increases with overly expensive and totally inadequate US health care, it is time to look closely at the beginnings of the modern Cuban medical system. Like the US, Cuba had unintegrated, overlapping medical institutions that failed the poor, especially black, population of the island. Though several European countries have developed health care systems about 40% cheaper than the[Read More…]
Those of us interested in the mammals of the sea have definitely enjoyed the pictures and videos on the internet of Belugas. The Beluga, or white whale, is one of the smallest species of whale. Their distinctive colour and prominent foreheads make them easily identifiable. Calves are born gray or even brown and only fade to white as they become[Read More…]
(CNS): Dr Marie Lisa Dacanay, President of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia, defines social entrepreneurship as ‘a game changing strategy to mainstream social enterprises to help the poor/ marginalized and women at the grassroots become key partners in multi-stakeholder innovation platforms for developing inclusive, sustainable economies; and to partake of the value and wealth created in ways that[Read More…]
The latest horrendous episode of Kashmir saga is the dastardly assassination of Shujaat Bukhari who had risen as the epitome of the finest qualities every Kashmiri will be vying for ages to come. His killing marks a paradigm shift in the very political nature of Kashmir conflict which has altogether shocked each and every sane person of Kashmir, in the[Read More…]
The Indian Association of People’s lawyers (IAPL) condemns the arrest of Advocate Vanchinathan by the Chennai police in the early hours of Thursday, 21 June 2018. Following the brutal police crackdown in Tuticorin on people protesting against Sterlite Copper Smelter Plant in which 13 people were shot dead, Tamilnadu Police has continued the crackdown on various people who have been[Read More…]
![Photo above: First large meeting of One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC) with Israeli Jews in Jaffa: Awad Abdel Fattah, Jeff Halpern, IlanPappe and Yoav Haifawi [Jeff Halper]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/one-democratic-state-200x150.jpg "With help from their Jewish Israeli friends: A Palestinian political initiative (in the making) 200")
A Trump political initiative for peace is looming on the horizon, but no one expects that “Ultimate Deal” to be, in any sense, a “Palestinian political initiative”. It is difficult to formulate a Palestinian “political initiative”, period. Palestinians are not free political agents. A Palestinian citizen of Israel (example, Haneen Zoabi) is not a free agent politically, even as a[Read More…]
Over the past ten months, at least 12 persons have succumbed to hunger in Jharkhand. Instead of taking action against functionaries whose lapses have led to these deaths and measures to improve the situation of food security in the state, Jharkhand government has denied hunger as the cause of any of these deaths and absolved itself of any blame. Instead,[Read More…]
The Credibility of India’s top institutions has lately suffered affecting governance and democracy in the country. Its strong indication came in the form of the impeachment motion against the chief justice of India which was rejected by the Vice president and was subsequently challenged in the highest Court. When the case challenging legality of the vice president’s action came before[Read More…]
(Extraordinarily hot weather in Kashmir is part of the Global Climate change due to which many parts of the world have been experiencing freak weather) Kashmir has been experiencing very hot weather in the month of June. According to MET sources sometimes the temperature has been more than 8 degrees above normal for the same period in previous years! In[Read More…]
The Trump administration has reached a new low. After having nothing but praise for Kim Jong Un, the leader of the most despotic government on Earth, Trump has now initiated policies in our own country that are unprecedented in their cruelty. Like you, I have watched with horror and disgust the countless stories and images of children being ripped away[Read More…]
Introduction. Just because there are elections and an elected government, don’t think that there cannot be fascism. One needs only to look at the Nazi German example. For some years before the German President Paul von Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler Chancellor (Prime Minister) of Germany on January 30, 1933, the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party had simply been one[Read More…]
Today is Juneteenth – the annual and oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official on January 1, 1863, but it wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that the news arrived in Galveston, Texas. That’s right: it took more than two years for the news of freedom to reach some parts[Read More…]
Although the New York Times says that President Donald Trump lies vastly more than did President Barack Obama, the definite liar in that comparison — based on the factual record, to be presented here — is the New York Times itself. It lies in alleging this, which isn’t to say that either President lies more frequently than the other, but[Read More…]
The tradition is represented as noble, the confiding link between confessor and penitent, a bridge never to be broken, even under pain of death. Taken that way, the confessional is brandished as the Catholic Church’s great weapon against the wiles and predations of secular power. The State shall have no say where the priest’s confidence is concerned, for all may[Read More…]
In a recent article titled ‘Challenges for Resolving Complex Conflicts’, I pointed out four conflict configurations that are paid little attention by conflict theorists. In this article, I would like to discuss a fifth conflict configuration that is effectively ignored by conflict theorists (and virtually everyone else). This conflict is undoubtedly the most fundamental conflict in human society, because it[Read More…]
Small and marginal farmers, sharecroppers, landless labourers and other farm and forest workers in India are the single largest natural resource being exploited for capitalist accumulation in India. The market pays the manual work of those who produce their own food and that of others at below social reproduction cost. This is a fundamental market failure in relation to the[Read More…]
If Mrs Indira Gandhi had listened to Mr P.N. Haksar, her reputed principal secretary, India probably would not have landed in the mess in the automobile and public transport sector. Mr Haksar, a staunch socialist, strongly opposed her son Sanjay Gandhi’s arrogant and ill-conceived Maruti car project and this paved the way for his exit as principal secretary in 1973[Read More…]
In the name of Fundamental Research not much has been done in India in comparison with European nations. The right to education was once traditionally confined to ‘one’ community in India which is a fact that also has contributed to great extent to the degradation of Education system. Right from School education to the PhD; the education system in India[Read More…]
The withdrawal of Bhartiya Janata Party’s support from its ally the People’s Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir has plunged the state into a quandary. The Governor’s rule and the promulgation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) have pushed the state into uncertainties. Where do we go from here is story for another day to tell here[Read More…]
Walking through the roads of Shopian, as I proceed towards the main market of Shopian, the great and significant Jamia Masjid grasps my eyes, amid all the hustle bustle of the main chowk where occupants mostly come putting up their stalls, it’s historic prominence and beautiful architecture makes me contemplate over and over again, how beautifully the architecture is carved.[Read More…]
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) politics has once again entered a cycle of uncertainty following BJP’s decision to pull out of the coalition with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) formed three years ago. It eventually led to the resignation of its chief minister Mehbooba Mufti whose decision to join hands with the BJP had, in fact, raised many eyebrows even at[Read More…]
We strongly condemn the late night arrest (on 18th June 2018) by the Tamil Nadu police of Piyush Manush Sethia of Salem Citizens’ Forum, Mansoor Ali Khan, an actor and Valarmathi, a student activist, and possibly others, who have been engaged in opposing a range of socially and environmentally destructive projects. Piyush is a widely respected social and environmental activist[Read More…]
Lurking in the background of a Saudi-Moroccan spat over World Cup hosting rights and the Gulf crisis is a more fundamental competition for the mantle of spearheading promotion of a moderate interpretation of Islam. It’s a competition in which history and long-standing religious diplomacy gives Morocco a leg up compared to Saudi Arabia, long a citadel of Sunni Muslim intolerance[Read More…]
A Muslim man was lynched to death following a rumour of cow slaughter in a village in Pilkhua near Hapur district of western UP. The man named Kashim died in the hospital in the course of treatment. The condition of the other person is also serious. A trivial feud, where men were reportedly driving out stray cows from fields, aggravated into[Read More…]
Trump’s claims of success after his Singapore meeting with Kim Jong-un were in complete contrast to the downbeat mood amongst most of the other leaders who had been with him at the preceding G7 summit in Canada. Trump’s claims of success after his Singapore meeting with Kim Jong-un were in complete contrast to the downbeat mood amongst most of the other[Read More…]
The point of anarchism is to create a better society for everyone. To realize anarchism, many agree, is to do away with power. Why? Because gravitating towards power, hierarchy, and subjugation sullies our politics and makes the aims of anarchism impossible. Of course, even an egalitarian society might give rise to leaders and dominion. And people can be ambitious; they[Read More…]
Is racism at the heart of separating children from the parents? Trump doesn’t care about anyone except himself. After all, these immigrants are less human than him, and he is adept in gathering support from those who are quick to dehumanize others. Is this the stinky disguised racism? Are we are more privileged than others? The only right thing[Read More…]
Europe is facing the most significant refugee crisis since World War II. All attempts at resolving the issue have failed, mostly because they have ignored the root causes of the problem. On June 11, Italy’s new Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, blocked the Aquarius rescue ship, carrying 629 refugees and economic migrants, from docking at its ports. A statement by Doctors without Borders[Read More…]
The margin between what is a human right as an inalienable possession, and how it is seen in political terms is razor fine. In some cases, the distinctions are near impossible to make. To understand the crime of genocide is to also understand the political machinations that limited its purview. No political or cultural groups, for instance, were permitted coverage[Read More…]
In the state of Georgia’s Glynn County Detention Center, four activists await trial stemming from their nonviolent action, on April 4, 2018, at the Naval Submarine Base, Kings Bay. In all, seven Catholic plowshares activists acted that day, aiming to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares.” The Kings Bay is home port to six nuclear[Read More…]
The USA has launched a “Soft Coup” in Ethiopia in an attempt to relieve growing revolutionary pressure from the Ethiopian people after 3 years of failed martial law rule. These past three years had seen brutal repression with thousands killed and tens of thousands thrown into regime dungeons with no end in sight. The devil was taking his due, with[Read More…]
(has America become a muck-raking- fuck-strutting-scam-swamp?) In our technological age, the protocols of the zeitgeist are shrouded in dubious practices. Like the use of the term ‘force’ in Star Wars, force has become a very special fluid simultaneously circulating in the body politic and the imagination of speculative investors.The monographic stamp of neo-conservative politics is everywhere apparent, showing how[Read More…]
In 1920, Eugene Victor Debs ran for president from a cell in the federal prison in Atlanta for a speech opposing World War 1 that he gave 100 years ago – on June 18, 1918. Despite his imprisonment, Debs received 913,664 votes – 3.4 percent of the total. In his speech, the Socialist Party leader told a packed crowd at a[Read More…]
The BJP yesterday pulled out of the Jammu and Kashmir government headed by People’s Democratic Party leader Ms Mehbooba Mufti. Speaking to the media in Delhi, the party in charge of J & K Mr Ram Madhav said that this alliance had become untenable as the situation in the valley was worsening every day. According to Madhav that ceasefire was[Read More…]
The United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on June 14 published “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir: Developments in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir from June 2016 to April 2018”. This is the first such report on Jammu and Kashmir by the UN. It covers both India and Pakistan controlled[Read More…]
Noted river protection activist and ecologist, Dr.A.Latha who passed away in November 2017 left behind a special collection of essays and writings on a even more special subject related to the right of the river to flow and fulfill its ecological niche along with the rights of human communities with deep links to a life dependent on the[Read More…]
On its border with Mexico, America is ripping children from their parents’ arms. In Yemen, for the last three years the U.S. and its allies have bombed, starved, and sickened millions of children, forcing tens of thousands of parents to watch them die before their eyes. Now these criminals are deliberately cutting off the meager food aid in Yemen that[Read More…]
For weeks now, Palestinians everywhere have been galvanized by events taking place in the Gaza Strip, the site of weekly (since March 30) mass protests demanding the end of the siege and blockade of Gaza (in place now since 2007) and the right to return to the homes from which they or their elders had been kicked out. Dubbed the[Read More…]
The history behind Palestine and Israel is a history of Jewish European settler-colonialism — i.e., Zionism. And since racism is a symptom and a tool of settler-colonialism, Zionism is also viewed as anti-Semitism, and as ethno-supremacy or Jewish supremacy, Arabophobia and Islamophobia. The triangulation of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Arabophobia in the history of Palestine and Israel is part of the settler-colonial movement[Read More…]
Disruption, disturbance, eruption, the words crowning the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who has effectively demonstrated an idea made famous by Nazi doodler of law and political theorist Carl Schmitt: politics is defined, not by identifying with friends in cosy harmony but with enemies in constant tension. There are many ways that Trump might be seen as a creature of[Read More…]
Australia is presently in the grip of salivating Sinophobia and the US lackey Australian Coalition Government with the support of the US lackey Labor Opposition is rushing through draconian, implicitly Chinese-targeting, human rights-violating foreign interference legislation. Mainstream public discussion is almost totally confined to China, this ignoring huge UK, US and Apartheid Israeli interference in Australia. British devastation, perversion and[Read More…]
First it was the Panmunjom Declaration and now, after some two months, on 12 June the Singapore Declaration was signed, the former between the leaders of the two Koreas, Chairman Kim Jong-un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or North Korea and President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea (ROK) or South Korea. The latter, meanwhile, was[Read More…]
![[Photo: U.S. Air Force Museum.com]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/us-airforce-200x150.jpg "North Korea Can Never Trust the U.S.A. 272")
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (i.e. North Korea) cannot trust the United States of America. The US does not keep its promises, honor its treaties and obey international laws. This is not opinion; it is the history of the US, beginning with the many broken promises and treaties with the Native Americans. The US has broken promises and treaties[Read More…]
‘ To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country,to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from western nomenclature , and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population ‘ Thomas B. Macaulay (Country, class dialect) With the increase in dogmatism and religion[Read More…]
2018 Football World Cup frenzy in Bangladesh has left everyone astounded. Entire nation seems to have gone crazy over this year’s championship tournament. Supporters have divided themselves among their favourites and doing the most unthinkable to reveal their choices. For example, a guy in a village, a supporter of Germany, had sold a piece of his land and made[Read More…]
I’ve been working with several environmental and other groups, including ones involving local organic farmers, to try to financially secure a 13 1/2 acre, gorgeous farm with fields and an apple orchard near my home. It also has a very lovely old farmhouse. Many of the apple trees are very old — dating from 1600’s or 1700’s. They were brought[Read More…]
It appears that the Western public, both relatively ‘educated’ and thoroughly ignorant, could, after some persuasion, agree on certain very basic facts – for instance that Russia has historically been a victim of countless European aggressions, or that countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Iran or North Korea (DPRK) have never in modern history crossed the borders of foreign nations in order[Read More…]
Five people died and several more were injured near the US-Mexico border Sunday when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and local police pursued a car full of immigrants at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. The driver of the large SUV carrying 12 immigrants lost control and flipped several times, throwing bodies across Highway 85 in Big Wells,[Read More…]
Three minor Dalit boys were allegedly stripped, beaten and paraded nude in a village in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district for allegedly swimming in a village well. The incident occurred on June 10, but came to light only after some videos of the boys’ being paraded in Vakadi village went viral. Maharashtra social justice minister Dilip Kamble told media persons that two[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The ugliness of US immigration policy is once again evident. There is national outrage that separating children, often infants, from their parents is wrong. There is also national consensus (nine out of ten people in the US) that people brought here by their parents, the Dreamers, should not be forced out of the country[Read More…]
“Things are going in the wrong direction and have to get back on track before something terrible happens,” said Gregory Hartl, a W.H.O. spokesman. “So we’re saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, ‘You’ve really got to get your acts together.’ ” — from a 2014 article in the New York Times Things have gotten infinitely worse since[Read More…]
Of all the tyrants, oppressors, and empires in human history, the U.S. has this distinction: None has caused more misery and carried out more screaming injustices against the people of the world. And none has more massively and systematically propagated myths of “greatness” and “exceptionalism”: America the “leader of the free world”… the “shining city on the hill”… the spawning[Read More…]
The prominent journalist and editor, Shujaat Bukhari was leaving work when he and his two bodyguards were shot and killed. Suffice to say newspapers are the lifeblood of democracy and Indian administered Kashmir under the decades-long grip of a half-million strong security force has a questionable claim. Yet brave journalists, unafraid, write and sometimes pay the consequences. Following Mr. Bukhari’s[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Bobby Ramakant (Written on the occasion of India Pakistan Friendship and Peace March, 19 to 30 June, 2018, Ahmedabad to Nada Bet) After a hiatus in the movement for global nuclear disarmament it is heartening to note that there are some positive developments over the last couple of years. The United Nations General Assembly passed[Read More…]
I have never liked the rhetorical politics of Arvind Kejriwal. In fact the seed that they sow in 2011 resulted in the fascist take over of this country. Kejriwal wanted the country to become a gram panchayat at the Ramleela maidan and decisions were taken on the voice vote. All the power elite of the upper caste suddenly turned revolutionary.[Read More…]
A 34-year-old ‘techie’ Abhay Devdas Nayak was abducted by the Chattisgarh police on 31 May 2018 from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and presented before the media on 12 June, as a “top Maoist propagandist.” That he could be picked up by the police and kept in illegal custody and then shown as ‘arrested’ after a gap of 12 days,[Read More…]
In order to make sense of the issue on the table, let us first try to arrange the events in (rough) chronological order. I. Here’s a news report carried by the ToI, June 6 web edition, which informs: <<Human rights activist Rona Jacob Wilson was arrested from South Delhi early on Wednesday [i.e. June 6 2018] in connection with the[Read More…]
The Print is a Delhi-based, online news magazine that began operations in August 2017. On 9 June, it published a short article by Sandhya Ramesh under the title ‘EU study trashes anti-GM paper by French expert who Jairam Ramesh cited to ban Bt Brinjal’. Sandhya Ramesh is a senior assistant editor (science) at The Print. Preceding the piece was the headline: ‘EU[Read More…]
Prof. Keshav Rao Jadhav, a prominent socialist thinker and leader passed away on 16th June 2018 at a hospital in Hyderabad at the age of 86. Prof. Jadhav was running ill for a long time. His funeral took place the same day in Hyderabad in the presence of several leaders and activists associated with the Telangana movement and the socialist[Read More…]
Mounting anger and discontent is simmering across the Arab world much like it did in the walk-up to the 2011 popular revolts that toppled four autocratic leaders. Yet, this time round the anger does not always explode in mass street protests as it recently did in Jordan. To be sure, fury at tax hikes in Jordan followed the classic pattern[Read More…]
The principles of Marxism and the Indian communist movement “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling materialforce of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectualforce. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls at the same time the means of[Read More…]
Over the next 50/150 years our Biosphere will undergo drastic temperature change. That change may bring about our extinction. Unlike past extinctions, this one will not be brought on by a random meteorite/asteroid or natural planetary happening. It will be self-inflicted by Homo sapiens. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Over the next 50/150 years our Biosphere will undergo drastic temperature change. That change may[Read More…]
I’ve always had a special love for the ocean and the whales, dolphins and other animals that call it home. But our oceans are at a critical moment — besieged by oil and gas drilling, pollution, overfishing and other mounting threats. If we don’t fight back now, we risk profound changes for our oceans for centuries to come. That’s[Read More…]
In May 2018 Gaza demonstrations, by Its arrogant and aggressive stance toward legitimate demands of a people it has oppressed for decades, Israel indicted itself several times, validated Palestinian actions, and exposed its tyrannical manner. Translating Israel’s self-indictments to actions by the world community is an obligatory challenge for those who comprehend Israel’s oppressive policies. One self-indictment ─ Israel’s effort[Read More…]
Just over a year ago, four of America’s Arab allies — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt — severed relations with Qatar, another key U.S. ally. They enacted a land, sea, and air blockade to punish the tiny emirate for what they claimed was Doha’s “embrace of various terrorist” entities. Observers widely thought the diplomatic spat would[Read More…]
Leading a double life When my partner, Barbara, first opened an account on Facebook, she used it in a way that most people in Yankeedom use it. Her network was an eclectic assortment of family, current and former workmates, new and old friends, neighbors and relatives living in other parts of the country. Most of what was posted on this[Read More…]
The start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia has seen Western media step up its anti-Russia fervor more than ever. Already we are hearing wild exaggerations of corruption behind its successful bid to host the event and witnessing a similarly overblown depiction of its cultural nationalism. It is specifically identity politics that has never been more effectively weaponized by[Read More…]
“..I am afraid I have no faith in astrology and certainly I should not like to fix up national programmes in accordance with the dictates of astrologers…” Jawaharlal Nehru (In a letter to Rajendra Prasad, who had objected to January 26, 1950 as the date for inaugurating the republic on astrological grounds. Page 77, Volume 2, Jawaharlal Nehru, A Biography, OUP,[Read More…]
Kashmir Centre for social & development studies (KCSDS ) hails UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Report on the situation of human rights in Kashmir and its straightforward recommendation for respecting the right to self determination of Kashmiris. It is as if after a long time parched land has got much needed unexpected rain from a quarter that had maintained studied[Read More…]
Kashmir Centre for social & development studies (KCSDS ) is rudely shocked & terribly grieved at the brutal assassination of senior Journalist & chief Editor of daily Rising Kashmir Shujjat Bukhari. Carried in broad daylight, in a high security zone and coinciding with the indictment of India by UN human rights council for gross human rights violations in Kashmir, the[Read More…]
The United States went ahead on Friday with the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, with the threat of additional tariffs in the future. The decision by the Trump Administration to launch a trade war between the world’s two largest economies will contribute to the already growing tensions and danger of military conflict in[Read More…]
The rate of sea level rise resulting from the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has tripled over the past five years, according to new research from a global team of scientists. The study, published in Nature, finds that ice loss from Antarctica has caused sea levels to rise by 7.6mm from 1992-2017, with two fifths of this increase occurring since[Read More…]
Book: Shadow Armies: Fringe organizations and Foot soldiers of Hindutva Author: Dhirendra K. Jha Publisher: Juggernaut Year of Publication: 2017 While Hindutva is usually associated with Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) and its associated organizations, there are a range of Hindutva groups operating across the country. There is no recorded data on number of such groups. About 175 of[Read More…]
In 1947 India was divided by the foreign rulers by playing a game of divide and rule to which the religious fundamentalists fell prey. India and Pakistan since then have a checkered history and uneasy relationship sometimes climaxing in wars and violent conflagrations. While the governments prefer to maintain adversarial relationship, which now sustains certain vested interests on both sides,[Read More…]
An article by Neil Irwin in the New York Times posted on June 12, 2018, carries the provocative title: “If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do? This question proceeds from two primary assumptions which should not be accepted at face value. The first is that the “Robots” will come for our jobs, which is to[Read More…]
What are the political implications of meeting the established human right for everyone to enjoy an adequate standard of living? In short, it necessitates a redistribution of wealth and resources on an unprecedented scale, which is why activists should resurrect the United Nations’ radical vision for achieving Article 25. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the most[Read More…]
The great, grand BBC was covering the Kim-Trump Singapore summit live. And, as usual it failed to forget its attitude to North Korea: A great show of news-neutrality! The coverage (June 12, 2018) began at 4:32 as it said: “A historic day begins. “Welcome to the BBC’s live coverage of a historic day. The meeting between US President Donald Trump[Read More…]
By the time I reached Episode Four in this ten-episode film, I concluded it should not be touted as an Emmy Award winning documentary. Episode Four “Resolve,” is the story of 1966, a year that the producers of this film have designated as the time when doubt began to worm its way into American troops. This doubt sows the breeding[Read More…]
The regulation of street vending act 2014 is not extended to Jammu and Kashmir the reason is best known to the legislators, however, Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development, Ms. AsieaNaqash promised that her government will enact the ‘J&K Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2016’ on the pattern of ‘Street Vendors (Protection[Read More…]
Young boys are joining the rebel groups consistently that signifies the complete failure of Hurriyat’s policies of leading the conflict to its logical conclusion. No one seems obedient to adhere their thoughts on the peaceful demonstration that could secede Kashmir from the clutches of India. Kashmiris are trying to convince two nations to enter into dialogue and resolve the protracted[Read More…]
PUCL is deeply shocked and strongly condemns the dastardly assassination of Shujaat Bukhari, Editor-in-Chief of `Rising Kashmir’ on Thursday, 14th June, 2018 evening by armed gunmen just as he was getting into his vehicle after leaving office. 2 of his personal security officers also died as a result of the shooting. A very experienced journalist Shujaat was a strong voice[Read More…]
When, then US President, Clinton visited Kashmir, Chattisingpora massacre happened in which atleast 44 sikhs were gunned down. During Zubin Mehta’s visit and musical event at Shalimar, four innocents were silenced in Shopian and later dubbed as militants. When United Nations Security Council was discussing Kashmir in 2016 after massive uprising and revolt against Indian occupation, Uri attack occured in[Read More…]
Baramulla: The skies opened up on Friday as thousands of friends and admirers joined the funeral procession of veteran journalist Syed Shujaat Bukhari, who was laid to rest in his ancestral village here a day after he was shot dead outside his office in Srinagar. Braving heavy rain, crowds of tearful mourners from across the Valley followed the cortege through[Read More…]
The freely lynching Babus To the molesting Babas Highly protected Gau Matas To the disappearing Anna Datas Where reality becomes a Fake And sells like a hot Cake Creating a country of communal Make Never ever to be socially Awake Here Mythology turns to History And History becomes a Mystery Fake science is sweetened like a Pastry And[Read More…]
Preamble of Indian constitution states that India is a secular country and secularism in India means a state that is neutral to all religious groups. There is no provision for citizenship on the basis of religious identity in Indian constitution. But Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 raises several issues. It makes illegal migrants eligible for citizenship based on their religion. Its[Read More…]
The beauty of Islam lies in its teachings.With regard to its teachings, Islam is a unique religion. The teachings of Islam encompass all the necessary elements, which make the essence of humanity. The message of Islam is not restricted to conventional activities of Muslims only but is much broader. Besides five fundamentals of Islam— Kalima (faith), Nimaz (prayers), Zakat[Read More…]
In ancient Kashmir there existed “several market places and bazaars in the city of Srinagar”, while the first “wholesale market” of Kashmir, Maharaj Gunj, was “lately constructed”. (Gazetteer of Kashmir (1890), 772). Sir W R Lawrence writes: “In Kashmir there are certain depots of trade, the chief being Srinagar, Baramula, Islamabad, Shupiyon, and Bandipur. Latterly Panjabi traders have opened business[Read More…]
Shujaat Bukhari, Editor of Rising Kashmir and a man of deep conviction, known through his fearless writings fell to the bullets of assassins today at the time when festive season of Eid is approaching after the culmination of the holy month of Ramadhan. Bukhari’s killing also shows us how difficult it is for the journalists of the Kashmiri origin particularly[Read More…]
GENEVA (14 June 2018) – There is an urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses and deliver justice for all people in Kashmir, who for seven decades have suffered a conflict that has claimed or ruined numerous lives, a report by the UN Human Rights Office published on Thursday says. The 49-page report – the[Read More…]
Senior Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead by unknown attackers in Srinagar on Thursday evening. Mr Bukhari, the editor of the ‘Rising Kashmir’ newspaper, was attacked when he was coming out of his office in Press Colony in the city. He was hit by multiple bullets at close range. A security guard on his protection detail was also shot[Read More…]
Forces led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched a long-anticipated siege of Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah Wednesday, in what is certain to be the bloodiest battle since the Saudis began bombing the impoverished Arab country in March 2015. The charity group, CARE International, reported 30 airstrikes in the space of a half an[Read More…]
The Trump administration is at it again — this time trying to skirt key environmental analysis that protects our waterways and communities from the threat of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Trump administration approved the Keystone XL pipeline in early 2017 and thought it was a done deal. We were fighting then and we’re fighting now. The administration is at[Read More…]
Rome: As shown in the permissive attitude of Italians toward Fascism last century, also contemporary Italians perceive of a strong and charismatic leader as a shield against disorder and their inherent inclination toward anarchy. Someone to protect them against their own nature. Promises of more police and more security are reassuring to those Italians who see today’s enemy in immigrants and[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia has much at stake when its national soccer team enters the pitch for the opening match of the 2018 World Cup in Moscow. With politics a permanent fixture, Saudi Arabia is playing in the World Cup finals for the first time in more than a decade at a moment that the kingdom is vying for enhanced influence in[Read More…]
(We have literally eaten away most of our water bodies after first polluting these beyond redemption) As the legend describes it, Kashmir Valley was a huge lake. Kalhana, the author of the earliest recoded history of Kashmir, Rajtarangni, states that the valley of Kashmir was a huge lake called Satisar. The Lake was drained through the Varmul gorge by[Read More…]
Two Muslim men were lynched on suspicion of stealing cattle in Jharkhand’s Godda district on Wednesday morning. Residents of Dullu village caught hold of the two victims – Sirabuddin Ansari (35) and Murtaza Ansari (30) – and accused them of stealing 13 buffaloes from one Munshi Murmu on Tuesday night. “Villagers claim that that they found the missing buffaloes in[Read More…]
Be wary of the Chinese technological behemoth, goes the current cry from many circles in Australia’s parliament. Cyber security issues are at stake, and the eyes of Beijing are getting beadier by the day. The seedy involvement of Australia in the Solomon Islands, ostensibly to block the influence of a Chinese company’s investment venture, is simply testament to the old[Read More…]
As birds become fewer, wildflowers vanish, butterflies disappear, and animals in the wild are threatened, extinction and a grim future haunts. How often does Rumi write about birdsong … there is a reason. Nature revives the spirit. World Environment Day has come and gone. It was June 5th. A UN outreach program hosted by a different country each year, it[Read More…]
The extremely dangerous situation in which the U.S. had been threatening North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) with annihilation unless they dismantled their nuclear weapons and submitted to intrusive inspections throughout the country has temporarily simmered down after the Trump-Kim negotiations. At the same time, very little is known about what actually was and was not said and/or[Read More…]
India is home to one-fifth of the world’s population which includes a third of the world’s poor and one-eighth of the world’s elderly. Most of them spend their whole lives as informal workers and have no retirement security other than the hope that their children will care for them in their old age. This arrangement worked well as long as[Read More…]
A critique of RSS needs to go beyond the current pattern. The contemporary liberal and left critique has been primarily targeted at their core concept of Hindutva. It is argued that Hindutva as an idea goes against the basic ethos of secularism, pluralism and ideals of the constitution. Commentaries and critics point as to how it is anti-Dalit, anti-minority and[Read More…]
Carl Schmitt, renowned for his wide ranging critique of liberalism, once famously said,” All true politics is based on the distinction between a friend and an enemy.” Explicating his concept of the ‘political’, Schmitt further argues that it is not possible to analyse a thing from a non-political or a post-political prism. He uses the friend-enemy binary to underline this[Read More…]
The hardcore warmongers aren’t happy with the just completed Kim-Trump Singapore summit. The warmongers love warmongering and war as these increase their amount and rate of profit. Reactions to the latest diplomatic development in the Korea region speak this love. The warmongers feel pain as they find Kim, the North Korean leader, in a favorable position. Hence, to this group,[Read More…]
The union government’s proposal of lateral entry of persons from “private sector companies, consultancy firms and international or multinational organisations”, as Joint Secretary (JS) is to “bring[ing] in fresh ideas and new approaches to governance and also to augment manpower”. [“Private sector employees can now apply for top government posts“; <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government-notifies-10-positions-for-lateral-entry-as-joint-secretaries/articleshow/64527221.cms>; Economic Times, June 10, 2018]. This would be unexceptionable[Read More…]
I’m going to lay it out straight because I get worried. … I have no idea about the degree that this following assessment regarding India is accurate or not. I don’t know much about India details. So I am neither agreeing with nor disagreeing with this evaluation. However, I do know this: We are a socialist democracy state in MA.[Read More…]
Why do we deny it? Why do we accept it? Why is it so prevalent? Molestation by a known person is widely prevalent and is somehow, unfortunately acceptable and is considered unavoidable in family structures. As a victim of this heinous act, you can cry out to your mother or husband or friend about it…. And they will all either[Read More…]
Everything about this summit is in the showy warm-up run. “I am on my way to Singapore,” tweets US President Donald J. Trump, “where we have a chance to achieve a truly wonderful result for North Korea and the World.” Such descriptions from America’s ever hustling television president tend to become child like, whether glowingly or indignantly. On this occasion,[Read More…]
Number One: In no way, shape, or form does Muhammad Ali need your pardon. You have the blood of Black people dripping from your jaws and now you want to pose as some kind of savior? You insult and demonize those who stand up, you attack and threaten Black communities around the country, you step up and rev up the[Read More…]
Thousands thronged to pay tribute to Razan al-Najjar, 20, as her mortal remains were buried. She was an intrepid medic who was shot by Israeli forces trying to save lives. She ran towards the Gaza fence, undaunted, to help an injured protester when bullets from Israeli sniper pierced her flesh. Even as an identifiable healthcare professional and non-combatant, she was[Read More…]
What is taking place in Palestine is not a ‘conflict’. We readily utilize the term but, in fact, the word ‘conflict’ is misleading. It equates between oppressed Palestinians and Israel, a military power that stands in violation of numerous United Nations Resolutions. It is these ambiguous terminologies that allow the likes of United States UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, to champion Israel’s[Read More…]
Despite tremendous hardship which the Venezuelan people are having to face, despite the sanctions and intimidation from abroad, President Nicolás Maduro has won a second six-year term. Two weeks ago, at the Venezuelan embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, where I addressed several leaders of East African left-wing opposition, an acting Charge d’ Affaires, Jose Avila Torres, declared: “People of Venezuela[Read More…]
You know things are bad when you confront the blurry image of Robert De Niro on the front page of Revolution Newspaper, that proud electronic banner of the Revolutionary Communist Party, U.S.A. It gets worse when you read the accompanying blurb – “Robert De Niro came on stage at the Tonys on Sunday night and said: “I’m going to say[Read More…]
Water is the driving force of all nature. – Leonardo Da Vinci India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water. The country’s chronic mismanagement of water is staring at it now. Over 600 million Indians rely on the monsoon to replenish their water sources and the unpredictable nature of rain leaves them vulnerable. The country breaks out in[Read More…]
Confounding his critics and an army of pundits who were confidently predicting an unsuccessful summit, President Trump has demonstrated that his deal-making approach can deliver results in an area where patient, plodding, conventional, hesitant diplomacy has signally failed. Trump deserves all credit for the historic success of his summit with DPRK’s Chairman Kim Jung Un. Equally, Kim also deserves full[Read More…]
The much-awaited Trump-Kim summit finally took place, but ended up in an uncertain platform of rhetoric and ‘great expectations.’ After weeks’ of shifting (and even provocative) statements and comments, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un came down to a ‘level playing’ diplomatic table in Singapore to break the impasse in the Korean Peninsula. Though the long-term pay-off of the summit could[Read More…]
United States President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un met this morning in Singapore for the first-ever summit between leaders from the two countries. While it has been touted as step toward peace on the Korean Peninsula, the underlying tensions in the Asia-Pacific will only sharpen, regardless of the reported agreement struck between the pair. After Kim and[Read More…]
Shahzahan Bachchu was known locally and within the secular Bangladeshi movement as an outspoken, sometimes fiery activist for secularism. He printed poetry and books related to humanism and freethought via his publishing house Bishaka Prakashani (Star Publishers). He was also a political activist, serving as former general secretary of Munshiganj district unit of the Communist Party. He was reportedly shot[Read More…]
The US Air Force bombed and napalmed cities, towns and villages across the North. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later[Read More…]
“Well, if we don’t recruit the children from Assam they will get into more trouble as who will then feed them. By working for us, at least they get to eat properly” came a sympathetic response from a village in Kimin Block. As part of the team studying Human Trafficking in our state, I visited Kimin block due to its[Read More…]
Friday June 8th the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, is “International Quds Day” designated in solidarity with the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation by the late Iranian leader Imam Khomeini after the 1979 Iranian revolution that ousted the Shah Reza Bahlavi, who was an American/Israeli puppet. After the revolution Iran denounced the terrorist Israeli state, evicted[Read More…]
Nazareth: For most of the seven decades after its establishment, Israel went to extraordinary lengths to craft an image of itself as a “light unto the nations”. It claimed to have “made the desert bloom” by planting forests over the razed houses of 750,000 Palestinians it exiled in 1948. Soldiers in the “most moral army in the world” reputedly cried[Read More…]
Canada’s parliament has unanimously rejected the Trump agenda on trade and the Trump reaction on his departure from the G7 meeting recently held in Charlevoix, Quebec. The motion contained six items: recognition of strong trade ties between the U.S. and Canada. that the government stand with the workers of Canada, particularly in aluminum and steel and potentially with autoworkers. “strongly[Read More…]
When a bookas fascinating, truthful, beautifully written, and politically significant as American Values:Lessons I Learned from My Family, written by a very well-known author by the name of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and published by aprominent publisher (HarperCollins),is boycotted by mainstream book reviewers, you know it is an important book and has touched a nerve that the corporate mainstream media[Read More…]
Here in Massachusetts, I love it when when people proudly come up to me and say, “I was with Jack Kennedy in 1960” or “I was with Teddy Kennedy in ’94.” The energy and passion hasn’t faded in their voices one bit – and it’s infectious. But there’s something different about the way people say: “I was with Bobby in[Read More…]
There is a lot of tattle going on about why the Australian National University rebuffed, after a series of talks, the offer for the establishment of a specific bachelors degree that would feature Western Civilisation as its content. It would have been managed under the auspices of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. Besides, universities have been directing their attention[Read More…]
There is no history of a dialogue between Srinagar and New Delhi for the resolution of the “Kashmir Dispute.”If a dialogue takes place now, it will be making history. Moreover, the leader from New Delhi, who initiates talks for deciding the future of the state, the cause of wars and skirmishes between India and Pakistan and a nuclear flash point[Read More…]
“The Bonaparte dynasty represents not the revolutionary, but the conservative peasant; not the peasant who strikes out beyond the condition of his social existence, the small holding, but rather one who wants to consolidate his holding; not the countryfolk who in alliance with the towns want to overthrow the old order through their own energies, but on the contrary those[Read More…]
O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may attain Taqwa [God-consciousness] – (The Qur’an, Al-Baqarah: 183) Religious fasting traditions- from Ramadan to Ekadasi to Yom Kippur and Lent -are meant to relieve believers from unburden believers from day-to-day compulsions, helping them replenish their spirituality, remember the poor,[Read More…]
Mr. T. Sakhrie, one of the first Naga intellectuals, a philosopher and a great Naga-nationalist leader of his era who sacrificed his life for the freedom and rights of Nagas stood true till his last breath to his ideologies and convictions which reflect in his quote that further produced verbatim. He said, “Truly we are a peculiar people.[Read More…]
Former president Pranab Mukherjee gave a speech in the RSS meeting on Thursday the 7th of June in Nagpur. Now, let me clarify that this is not a speech on the speech but in fact an article on the speech/ opinions flung around, before and after the speech. When it was announced that Mukherjee had accepted the invite from the[Read More…]
Loneliness, as a reality of modern day, fast paced, expectation loaded life is more common than ever and equally complex, layered and abstractin its causes and consequences. For factors other than biological,the sense of loneliness and number of people confessing to be in its grip has increasedover the last few decades. According to study in 2016 by Centre for Study[Read More…]
11th of June, 2018 should be considered as the darkest day in the constitutional history of India. It is the day when BJP government through the Department of Personnel and Training opened up the doors to the prestigious ‘higher’ civil services of India to the private sector through lateral entry scheme. Central Government through its nation-wide advertisement has call for[Read More…]
Background The war of words has intensified between the U-S and G-7 allies after President Donald Trump retracted his endorsement of the communiqué of the once-united group. The German chancellor called Trump’s abrupt revocation of support for a joint communiqué sobering and depressing. Angela Merkel however said that’s not the end. France also accused Trump of destroying trust and acting[Read More…]
“To ignore evil is to become an accomplice” (Martin Luther King) Humans are of the Earth, physically adapted to its range of climates, gravity, radiation, electro-magnetic field and composition of the atmosphere. Had there ever been a single critical issue science has conveyed, it is that altering the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere can only bearfatal consequences for nature and[Read More…]
Veteran journalist Raj Kishore passed away on 4 June 2018 at the age of 72. He had recently lost his 42 years old son Vivek, also a journalist, merely one and a half months ago. Vivek met a sudden death on 21 April due to a massive brain stroke and was cremated at Nigam Bodh Ghat electric crematorium the same[Read More…]
Chris Hayes’ incredulous tweet on the killing of Palestinian paramedic Razan al-Najjar in Gaza is being echoed everywhere it seems on social media.Hayes hosts All In with Chris Hayes, a weekday news and opinion television show on MSNBC. On June 7, 2018 he tweeted: “The wording of that [Israel Defense Forces] IDF video is so bizarre. Hamas “incited” a woman[Read More…]
A US lackey and Zionist perverted and subverted Australia is second only to the US as a supporter of nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. The Coalition Government with the support of the cowardly Labor Opposition is rushing through draconian foreign interference legislation aimed squarely at China, but there is no Mainstream public discussion of massive US, Zionist and[Read More…]
One of several murals being created by Kabul’s “ArtLords” painters to welcome the Helmand to Kabul peace walkers. This past Friday in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, Hazara girls joined young Pashto boys to sing Afghanistan’s national anthem as a welcome to Pashto men walking 400 miles from Helmand to Kabul. The walkers are calling on warring parties in Afghanistan to[Read More…]
Without my glasses the trees outside the window are misconceived mosaics. No young breezes have come to play among them, nor has the west wind come to make them dance. It is only the residual droplets of water that create motion and a semblance of sound. The birds are quiet. It is a distinctly cold morning in Moscow. It is[Read More…]
The cruel lynching of two innocent and budding youth in Kacharigaon village under Dokmoka police station of Assam’s Karbi Anglong district is the harsh reminder of the state in which we are living today. In last couple of years India’s public spaces have turned into squares of mediaeval Europe in which people were publicly executed for ‘heresy’, ‘witchcraft’, for petty[Read More…]
Mr Mohan Bhagwat,RSS chief in his speech preceding Pranab Mukherjee’s in the RSS headquarters made a reference which seems very questionable but has attracted little notice.In quoting a Sanskrit subhashit, a saying, he virtually ridiculed intellectual debate. Those who use learning for debate are wicked., he said. This was in keeping with the current dumbing down of knowledge and[Read More…]
People from the Ra-khin countries are called Ra-khin-ye – or the Rohingya. In vernacular Bengali, we had learnt of the place as the Arakan Valleys that lie to the east of Bangladesh – beyond the southern hilly walls of Chittagong. We had surmised that the Arakan must have been a great melting pot of Buddhism, Islam and the tribes. Buddhist[Read More…]
The US democracy is facing threat. This has been claimed by Hillary Clinton, former Democratic presidential candidate, former senator and former first lady of the country. Thence, there’s no scope to consider the cautionary signal in a casual way. A Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 25, 2018 datelined Associated Press report (“At Harvard, Clinton warns of threats to American democracy”) said: Hillary[Read More…]
“Further into the Afghanistan mission, after multiple deployments, soldiers began to refer to members going ‘up the Congo’.” Chris Masters, The Sydney Morning Herald, Jun 9, 2018 They operate with impunity in areas already deemed lawless by their civilising superiors. Afghanistan, derided as a country of anarchic sensibilities, was never going to be a place for those abiding by armchair[Read More…]
The police are wonderful when they control traffic, or rescue a cat from a tree, when they talk to school kids about catching criminals and locking them up, when they talk to teens about the dangers of drunk driving and the new legalities around marijuana. Crowd control – who benefits? But give them a G7 summit to watch over and[Read More…]
On Friday, June 1, a top North Korean official, Kim Yong-chol, made a surprise visit to the White House to meet with Donald Trump about the on-again, off-again U.S.-North Korea summit meeting. That night on the “liberal” MSNBC, Rachel Maddow devoted the first 24 minutes of her show to “sounding the alarm” about the situation. Rachel Maddow Gives You the[Read More…]
Is there a celebrity brotherhood? Kim Kardashian, the reality TV star, turned celebrity, visits the White House and promptly there is clemency for a grandmother serving a life sentence for being part of a cocaine distribution ring. Yet she is right. Draconian sentences are seldom fair, and judges’ hands are often tied with strict laws, often lobbied for by[Read More…]
The recent visit of Pranab Mukherjee to RSS headquarter had attracted a lot of attention among political circles. Even before the visit, concerns were raised over the acceptance of invitation as well as the potential content of the speech that might be delivered. Contrary to the fears, the speech of Mukherjee only tried to emphasise Gandhian-Nehruvian concept of Nationalism. It[Read More…]
The month of Ramadan is not only a time of revelry and festivity but also occasion to show brotherhood among people of various communities and religions. One may see the people expressing ‘ Mah-e-Ramzan Mubarak’ on streets ( Greetings on the occasion of the month of Ramzan) irrespective of religion hugging their Muslim brothers and sisters and holding ‘Iftar’ parties.[Read More…]
In an era of profound distortion of news and storytelling, the most pertinent question that is being asked is; ‘what is News now’? Notwithstanding the debatable facts, the fact remains that we are witnessing new trends and upheavals in the media industry particularly transformative issues in the business of news. Today we are facing an increasing focus on the intersection[Read More…]
India’s eager quest for economic dynamism has been severely stifled by chronic corruption. The country needs to urgently modernize its institutions and end the culture of rent seeking and cutting corners if it is to allow the economic wheels to roll seamlessly. Corruption is both anti-national and anti-poor because the resources meant for poverty alleviation schemes get siphoned off by[Read More…]
Yesterday I wrote about the fact that the suicide rate in America had gone up twenty five percent over the course of the last sixteen years, and then drew out some capitalist social relations which could explain this drastic increase. First and foremost is the psychopathology of capitalism itself which tells people they are independent individuals and as such, must[Read More…]
Whether children or adults, we are not your property! We are not your property when young, as wives, nor as employees! … This week, my sister told me that the choice that our parents made for her (involving removal of seven of her adult teeth as a child, although our father was somewhat reluctant about the procedure) has led to[Read More…]
Many people, including myself, fear that the great acceleration (1, 2) of our consumption and destruction of resources such as land, biodiversity, soil, minerals, and fossil energy sources, could lead us into a catastrophe. Other people point out the positive side of near-exponential growth in various fields: renewable energy production, “biotechnology and bioinformatics; computational systems; networks and sensors; artificial intelligence; robotics;[Read More…]
Bruce Chatwin considered movement the indispensable feature of the human species. Sedentary natures killed through asphyxiation; a refusal to move suggested an acceptance of death. Walking he considered a virtue; tourism the ultimate sin. For the late Anthony Bourdain, a chef turned walker and explorer, no dish was odd enough or peculiar to be avoided or exiled by palate. Bourdain[Read More…]
Now that the United States (with the cooperation of its NATO partners) has turned the former Soviet Union’s states other than Russia into NATO allies, and has likewise turned the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact allies into America’s own military allies in NATO, the United States is finally turning the screws directly against Russia itself, by, in effect, challenging Russia[Read More…]
BJP’s chain of defeat which started with Gorakhpur and Phoolpur in Uttar Pradesh bye elections has extended to defeat in Kairana and Noorpur. It has broken the invincibility myth of Modi and Amit Shah. If the opposition parties succeed in joining hands to get rid of unprecedented danger to basic democratic values, institutions, society, culture and civilization created during[Read More…]
I vividly remember my moment of epiphany. It was a balmy afternoon in early 1996 in Warora, a small township in northern Maharashtra. I was posted as a manager of my bank’s branch, dealing mostly with rural clients. I was busy trawling through the day’s mail and going about my tasks.Although transactions had not commenced, there was, as usual, an[Read More…]
RSS, Sangh Parivar goons attacked a Christian pastor and his associates in Kodungallur, Kerala. They were distributing pamphlets in houses. RSS goons prevented them from distributing the pamphlets and forced them to tear up the pamphlets. Pastor Roy Thomas was even physically attacked. They were shooting the whole incident on mobile phone and posted it on social media. In the[Read More…]
Those who cherish justice throw their bodies against the armies of injustice. Those who love freedom die fighting for it. Those who hate oppression are willing to rise up against it. Those whose lives have some higher meaning beyond their own person, love life in a way that only poets can express. Even those of us who fight for bread,[Read More…]
14th General Election of Malaysia held on 9th May 2018 gave birth to three exciting scenarios to be enjoyed and shared by all. This could happen not just because the 61 year old ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, BN was defeated by a newly formed opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan, PH, but because of a historical reapproachment among the top trio-leaders of[Read More…]
Right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has accused the Indian churches of conspiring with the Vatican to destabilize Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The Hindutva organization’s accusation came after the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Father Filipe Neri Ferrao, wrote a letter to churches saying the Constitution is in danger. In May, Archbishop of Delhi Anil Couto had said in a[Read More…]
“There was a young man who said though, it seems that I know that I know, but what I would like to see is the I that knows me, when I know that I know that I know” …Alan W Watts. Propaganda is a language that deals in fear. Its’ modus operandi is to deliver…in pied piper fashion… misnomer[Read More…]
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has gotten himself into so many scandals that I wouldn’t blame you for sleeping through another. But one of this week’s woke me right up: we found out that Pruitt asked an aide to help him acquire a used mattress from the Trump hotel. You might ask, “why on Earth would he want that?” But I[Read More…]
The cute little Panda from China, the cuddly Koala bear from Australia and now the Otter cub have become the fascinating new pet, which pet lovers especially in South East Asia, have begun to crave for. Sadly it is their cute looks as pups which draw the avid pet lover to acquire them. Today with vast online possibilities which are[Read More…]
Most recently,the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill has been the talk of every nook and corner of the state with people from all walks of life joining the bandwagon and raising voices against the ill-fated bill.The state has witnessed severe protest over the past few weeks and protesting slogans even beat the deep blowing horns and revving engines of lumbering trucks on[Read More…]
The use of technology to gather data of people across India was one of the biggest political shenanigans of Modi’s rise. When Modi started campaigning after winning Gujrat Chief Ministerial berth third time, his government started working on his bigger role and used the technology to ensure his obvious win in India’s polity. Fetching data by means of the ruse[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) demands that personnel of the C-60 Commandos, CRPF and regular police who participated in the killing of 40 persons including 22 Maoist armed cadre and 18 civilians on April 22 and 23, in the forest abutting the Indravati river on the Chattisgarh side and the Nainer forests of Aheri tehsil in Gadchiroli, Maharasthra, be prosecuted[Read More…]
Today, Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) organised a press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi in relation to the recent arrests of Advocate Surendra Gadling, Prof. Shoma Sen , Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson and Mahesh Raut. The arrests took place on the 6th June, 2018, by Pune police at the early Hours of morning. The[Read More…]
Suresh Oraon (27) of Purnadih Chatra Jharkhand was shot dead this morning. Suresh and his people were the owners of the land on which the state owned Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) built their Purnadih coal mines. Suresh kept fighting CCL and their mafia against land grabbing. When CCL bulldozed the resistance Suresh and community started fighting for jobs and compensation.[Read More…]
Putin’s latest assertion signals that the world imperialism is going to face tough days in future. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said: “Either Russia is a sovereign country, or there is no Russia.” The world imperialism is not habituated to listen to such assertions. It’s also a tough message to hirelings of the world imperialism. The masters and their lackeys[Read More…]
The mechanical, robotic striving of university politburos and their jack boot managers have always been interesting when it comes to one particular topic: the role of technology and its adoption. For it is in technology that the mediocre paper clip shuffler can claim to have achieved something – on someone else’s back, naturally. The shift to Google by universities as[Read More…]
“Never Again” was the cry after WWII asserting a solemn pledge by the international community to prevent another holocaust or any similar crime perpetrated against any other people. Yet the Jews, particularly the Zionist Jews, took this assertion as never again only to the Jews, but permissible to Jews to perpetrate similar holocausts onto other nations. Zionist terrorist Israeli state,[Read More…]
Argentina’s cancellation of a friendly against Israel because of Israeli attempts to exploit the match politically is likely to reverberate far beyond the world of soccer and spotlights the risks of Israeli efforts to persuade the international community to recognize Jerusalem as its capital. The Argentinian decision suggests that despite the fact several countries, including East European nations, are debating[Read More…]
Background Brussels, June 6, 2018 (AFP) The EU on Wednesday said a raft of retaliatory tariffs, including on whiskey and motorcycles, against painful metals duties imposed by the US would be ready as early as July. The European Commission, which handles trade matters for the 28-country bloc, “expects to conclude the relevant procedure in coordination with member states before[Read More…]
Here in Kabul in early June, outside the home of several Afghan Peace Volunteers, a large drilling machine is parked on what was once a lovely garden. To this now muddy patch, workers will soon arrive for another noisy, dusty day of digging for water. The well dried up a week ago. As of today, the household has no water. Ongoing[Read More…]
Climate justice is integral to development justice, as it is essential for building a brave feminist future sans power and wealth inequalities. This is the dream of feminists in the Asia Pacific region, including Misun Woo, who recently took over charge as the Regional Coordinator for APWLD (Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development). A law graduate from[Read More…]
I was truly amazed to see so much opposition to wind farms, a necessary and desirable part of any renewable energy future. Scientist Carl Safina questioned whether this is the right way to go. Well, there is a wrong way, which is to continue to allow unchecked development and construction and more people without planning a sane energy policy. If[Read More…]
India is a nation of BROKEN PEOPLE who were made the prisoners of the Caste System. The Bramhinicle social order set up an invisible prison where aborigines-the erstwhile rulers of Pax-Indica thrown to rot for thousands of years. They were deprived of their basic human rights. They were robbed off their self-respect and honor. The caste system ghettoized the Indian[Read More…]
(Kashmir has been described as a land-locked country but with the advent of civil aviation it became quite accessible. However, some parts still continue to be remote especially in winter!) Historically, Kashmir has always been known as a land-locked country in the high Himalayan Mountains. In the earliest Chinese records Kashmir is described as, “a country enveloped on all sides[Read More…]
Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) is outraged at the arbitrary arrest of its valued member, Professor Shoma Sen along with other leading Dalit and human rights activists, in an alarming crackdown on civil liberties activists throughout the country. Today, on 6th June 2018 at 6 am in the morning, Professor Shoma Sen, Advocate Surendra Gadling, cultural activist[Read More…]
CDRO strongly condemns the arrest by Maharashtra police in the early morning of June 6, 2018 of Adv. Surendra Gadling, senior advocate from Nagpur and General Secretary of India Association of Peoples’ Lawyers (IAPL), Prof. Shoma Sen, Head of Department of English, Nagpur University, Sudhir Dhawale, poet and Editor of Vidrohi from Mumbai, Rona Wilson, public relations secretary of Committee[Read More…]
Misrepresentation creates confusion, and confusion misleads many. Misrepresentation is unfair also as it carries seeds of injustice. A recent two-parts-article in a Dhaka English daily (“Karl Marx in Bangladesh”, The Daily Star, Dhaka, May 5 and 6, 2018, https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/karl-marx-bangladesh-1571515 and https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/karl-marx-bangladesh-part-2-1571884) is an example of this practice. The article narrates, as it claims, “the intellectual or conceptual footprints of Marx[Read More…]
We need to urgently cut carbon emissions and eventually cease greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in coming decades. Ignored by Mainstream media is the need to drawdown atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from the present dangerous and damaging 410 parts per million CO2 (410 ppm CO2) to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2 i.e. negative GHG emissions. However a feasible, large-scale[Read More…]
“If a president was dumb enough to pardon himself that would be such an arrogant statement of power that the House would probably impeach him in a week and the Senate would convict him.” Newt Gingrich, Jun 5, 2018 It is a view that Charles I would have been proud of: The means by which one can forgive and[Read More…]
Australian Liberal senator, Eric Abetz, on 31 May, enthusiastically backed Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s letter to the Palestinian Authority asking whether Australian aid is channeled to the Martyrs Fund which Abetz repeatedly and falsely asserts funds terrorist activities. Bishop’s Martyr’s Fund letter is cut from the same fake funds-diverted-to-terrorism-template as her fake accusations that World Vision’s Mohammed el-Halabi was[Read More…]
June 5, 2018 marks the 51st anniversary of the Israeli Occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. But, unlike the massive popular mobilization that preceded the anniversary of the Nakba – the catastrophic destruction of Palestine in 1948 – on May 15, the anniversary of the Occupation is hardly generating equal mobilization. The unsurprising death of the ‘peace process’ and the inevitable demise of the ‘two-state[Read More…]
Awareness on climate change and pollution has increased over the years though very little has been done to reduce pollution and protect environment. While Indian landmass is in the grip of extreme vagaries of climate, Himalayas too are being affected by increase in temperature. According to latest scientific research that adds to data officially confirming the glacier loss of Indian[Read More…]
This year the World Environment day was celebrated with the theme ‘’Beat the Plastic Pollution’’-The pollution about which we have been less concerned, so far. Regarding the theme of WED, it is indicative of consciousness of Environmental Crusaders, because Plastic poses a serious threat to our planet. This beautiful Blue Marble- Earth (as it appears from outer[Read More…]
I have been thinking about and reading a bit about psychotherapy. Psychotherapy for sad people is very important. Psychotherapy is very important for example because sadness and tension and stress are the leading cause of heart disease, one of the leading chronic illnesses in women, and of premature death. But at the present moment in history the idea of[Read More…]
It is said that the India is a cradle of civilization that has been following the ‘SANATANA’ Dharma that teaches the principles of Equality and Brotherhood. Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam- ‘The Entire Earth is my Family” has been the celebrated Sanskrit verse that most of the Indians have been taught in the school. “Saare Jaha se Acha, Hindostan Hamara” has been proudly[Read More…]
Internationally-acclaimed journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger issued the following statement on behalf of the Courage Foundationyesterday. Pilger is a trustee of the organisation, which raises funds for the legal defense of persecuted whistleblowers, journalists and publications, including Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Pilger will be addressing the June 17 Sydney Town Hall Square rally, called by the Socialist Equality Party, demanding that[Read More…]
Venezuela is a champion in democracy, in democratic elections, as proven twice within the last twelve months and more than a dozen times since 1999. Never mind that the lunatic west doesn’t want to accept it – simply because the west – the US and her handlers – and her European vassals, cannot tolerate a socialist country prospering – one[Read More…]
Protests that forced Jordan’s prime minister to resign and laid bare the country’s systemic economic and political crisis shed a new light on the root causes of popular protests in the Middle East that swept the region in 2011 and have since continuously erupted at local levels in a swath of land stretching from Morocco to Egypt. The protests,[Read More…]
Despite Israel’s intensive cover-up of its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people, stark images and indisputable facts continue to seep through from the Gaza Strip. The world has never witnessed a braver, more steadfast and resolute people than the en-caged Palestinians of Gaza — and that goes for every man, woman and child, from Hamas down, enduring unspeakable conditions and saying, in a voice[Read More…]
Extrajudicial killings of dissidents and outlaws by states is as old as civilization. The recent world history is replete with such killings. As Hitler had his Waffen-SS and Gestapo, so had Mussolini his Blackshirts to do the job. In the recent past, the last Shah of Iran had his Savak, and the Pakistani occupation Army in Bangladesh had its al-Badr,[Read More…]
Dear Sh. Amitabh Bachchan, We came to know about your association with recent campaign on undernutrition in India and truly appreciate your commitment for the cause. However, we are shocked to see that you are joining hands with Horlicks and Network 18 to launch “Mission Poshan” to support India’s Rashtriya Poshan Abhiyaan. We like to submit as under:- Horlicks is a high sugar[Read More…]
Anything that we can create a notion of in our minds, which could be tangible or intangible, has two attributes: each contradicting other. For instance, darkness and light, good and evil, virtue and vice, matter and spirit, so on and so forth! We, the human beings, remain under two influences all the time: negative impulse which we are prone to[Read More…]
Climate Change, as a global phenomenon, has come to be known as one of the most critical issues facing the humanity today, if not the most critical issue. Many individuals, academic and research institutions, including the global institutions such as IPCCC, WHO, UNEP etc., have tried to address this issue from different perspectives. One such recent analysis has come to[Read More…]
We share with you the Interim Report of the People’s Inquest into the circumstances leading to Tamilnadu Police opening fire on protestor’s demanding closure of Vedanta Group’s Sterlite Copper smelter at Thoothukudi (Tuticorin). The protests had been intensified over the past four months, as twenty years of struggle to demand closure of the highly polluting copper smelter had failed. 15[Read More…]
A sad and distressing anniversary slipped by this week almost unnoticed — the centenary of the first use of a premier killing machine. On May 31, 1918, the Renault FT a French light tank was first deployed in battle. The 30 tanks sent against two German infantry divisions advancing in the sector bordering Ploisy and Chazelles caused havoc, crippling the[Read More…]
This will document that the ‘new Cold War’ between the U.S. and Russia did not start, as the Western myth has it, with Russia’s involvement in the breakaway of Crimea and Donbass from Ukraine, after Ukraine — next door to Russia — had suddenly turned rabidly hostile toward Russia in February 2014. Ukraine’s replacing its democratically elected neutralist Government in[Read More…]
Every night I hear trains, which are pulling stuff into Boston city, MA, USA. Oh wow, it’s amazing. Some of the engines are pulling more than a hundred cars. Clickity-clack again and again for a long amount of time! Then the next train comes with the same sounds. I try to imagine about what is on their cars: drugs,[Read More…]
There are two major issues today that the League of Nations did not have to face. Thus when the League was reincarnated in 1945 as the United Nations, no one considered how to structure appropriate responses. The major political issue today is the disintegration of Member States. The second major issue is the ecological and social consequences of global warming.[Read More…]
The May 18 wedding of British Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, an African-American woman, set loose an astonishing display of euphoria among many progressives and people of color. They were “swept away” by Markle and elements of Black culture—a Black preacher, a gospel choir, a young Black cellist—that broke the mold… that is, the form—of the usually all-white and deadly[Read More…]
Sometimes a new book for its contested contents makes one dust the archives and look for answers and explanations for the controversies raised in it. In a situation like that of our where peopleare caught up in a morass of political uncertaintyandare struggling for ending it many times, books are sponsored by the establishment to cloud the historical realities. [Read More…]
Indian farmers are on a 10-day long nationwide strike demanding fair prices for their produce and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations and farm loan waivers among other things. They are throwing vegetables and pouring milk on the road the farmers are letting out their grievances. The farmers are also preventing the movement of their produce to cities. This has[Read More…]
On Friday, Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene announced at a meeting with employees that the company will not renew its contract with the Pentagon for Project Maven following its expiry in 2019. Under the program, which Google entered in September last year, the company has provided the military with artificial intelligence software to perform real-time analysis of drone surveillance footage.[Read More…]
Dedicated to my friend, a philosopher, John Cobb, Jr. The West likes to think of itself as a truly “peace-loving part of the world”. But is it? You hear it everywhere, from Europe to North America, then to Australia, and back to Europe: “Peace, peace, peace!” It has become a cliché, a catchphrase, a recipe to get funding and[Read More…]
Like Oedipus I was never able to escape my fate. In principle, if not in actuality, I was orphaned before I was born: a father dead from the war, a mother lost to desire and chance. My grandmother came to save me when I was less than two weeks old. The first thing she did the morning after she returned[Read More…]
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform Pages: 402 Genre: Political Thriller A new band of writers has emerged from the valley, in recent times. Young Kashmiris have been writing evocative poetry and fiction. It proves that there is ample talent in the youth who don’t fear to experiment with their time by pursuing their passions. The political turmoil, reflection of cultural[Read More…]
On May 30, 2018, the Jammu and Kashmir Police filed a status report before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Srinagar regarding the case of sexual favours that Major Gogoi of 53 Rashtriya Rifles sought from a local Kashmiri woman, on May 23, 2018. The police claimed that it was a case of ‘consenting adults’ as the woman[Read More…]
By 2050, if current policies continue, India could have numerous mega-cities with up to 30-40 million inhabitants and just two to three hundred million people (perhaps 15-20% of the population) left in an emptied-out countryside. Given current trends in the job market, it could mean tens of millions of city-based rural migrants without much work: victims of the ill thought out policies we currently see[Read More…]
The decision of the Trump administration to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—a major international agreement to address the Iranian nuclear programme—set in motion a wave of reactions across the world. President Trump terminated the US “participation in the JCPOA, as it failed to protect America’s national security interests.” He said that the JCPOA “enriched the[Read More…]
Name of my father’s mother was ‘Kochadima’ (Little Slave). I was ashamed to say my grandmother’s name. I used to think who will give a name like ‘Little Slave’ to a person. Yesterday, when activist Mrudula Devi told me about the ‘Illam’ (family names of dalits) stories I went through a pang. When there was slave trade of dalits,[Read More…]
Over 40 million people experience hunger in our country [the USA] every day. That includes over 13 million children. For me, hunger is a political condition. We have the food. We have the resources. We have the infrastructure. We know what it takes. We have everything we need to end hunger now – everything except the political will. It’s our[Read More…]
A country is on the brink of catastrophe. And its people desperately need our help. Here’s a synopsis of the tragedy unfolding as we speak: A few of the country’s richest inhabitants are spending billions to install political puppets in office — from city councils up to the highest levels of government, even the country’s president — who will do[Read More…]
The election results in Kairana bye elections comes as a welcome development. The ideological investment made into the constituency to create a myth of the Hindu exodus due to criminal Muslim activities did not pay the electoral dividends. This is despite the Modi, Adityanath and Amit Shah Combine at the helm of campaigning and all out efforts to polarise. Neither[Read More…]
Israeli elites failed in their support of terrorists in Syria and were unable to bring down a resurgent Iran (just look at rising science citation index for Iran and compare it to Arab countries!). This failure was o be compensated with by massacres in Gaza: murdering 125 protestors at the borders; injuring thousands; testing new weapons on a captive poipulation;[Read More…]
The Walt Disney Company is an enormously profitable corporation worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion. Last year, it made $9 billion in profits and rewarded its CEO, Bob Iger, with a compensation package worth up to $423 million over a four year period. And as a result of the Trump tax cuts, they were given an additional[Read More…]
Geopolitically, America is an island off the shores of the large landmass of Eurasia, whose resources and population far exceed those of the United States. The domination by a single power of either of Eurasia’s two principal spheres – Europe or Asia – remains a good definition of strategic danger for America, Cold War or no Cold War. . (Henry[Read More…]
Newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Mahathir is adopting policies that could reshape the Southeast nation’s relations with powerful Gulf states. A series of anti-corruption measures as well as statements by Mr. Mahathir and his defense minister, Mohamad (Mat) Sabu, since this month’s upset in elections that ousted Prime Minister Najib Razak from office, are sparking concern in both Saudi[Read More…]
By no means shall you attain righteousness, unless you give of that which you love. (Q 3: 92) The idea that helping others is part of a meaningful life has been around for thousands of years. For Muslims, charity is a central aspect of their faith and practice. In Islam, a culture of giving is interwoven into the fabric[Read More…]
A leading social reformer Savitribai Phule is hailed for her contribution in the field of education. Savitribai was a crusader for women empowerment as she broke all stereotypes and spent her life promoting the noble cause of women’s education. The deprived of India’s exclusion was made to be a slave for thousands of years. Savitribai Phule has made education the[Read More…]
The Kannada saying “murthi chikkadaadaru keerthi doddadu” (meaning that even if the physical form is diminutive, the virtue is great), applies to Lal Bahadur Shastri who, as prime minister, led India with remarkable initiative and verve in the 1965 war against Pakistan. It was he who coined the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”, in the full understanding that the Jawan[Read More…]
Dialogue is an essential part of democratic process. But what do you do when people wanting to usurp democracy through democratic means want to have dialogue with those believing in secular democratic Constitution of India? We are witnessing strong views being articulated for and against Pranab Mukherjee’s agreeing to be the chief guest at RSS cadre program. On one side[Read More…]
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO) strongly condemns the arrest of the leader of the Bhangar anti-power grid peasants’ movement and spokesperson of the Bhangar Land, Livelihood, Environment and Ecology Protection Committee, Alik Chakraborty, from Bhubaneshwar on 31.05.2018 by a team of the West Bengal police. Alik has been suffering from life-theratening ailments for quite some time and had gone[Read More…]
A youth was crushed to death by a speeding paramilitary CRPF vehicle near Jamia Masjid, Srinagar on Friday. Kaiser Bhat, 21, of Fateh-a- Kadal has been identified as the dead person. Another youth also sustained injuries after being run over by the vehicle. The deceased youth is survived by two teenage sisters and had recently started Kashmir art business. He[Read More…]
Co-Written by Junaid S. Ahmad and Zehra Yilmaz One of the most spectacular series to come out recently was based on a novel by the greatest spy thriller of our time, John Le Carre (hence, we shouldn’t be surprised of the novel’s adaptation in TV/movie form). It’s called The Niight Manager. The plot had its own suspenseful and fascinating intrigues,[Read More…]
It is the season for exposures and exposes, and the Catholic Church has been making regular ripples of the wrong and undeniably crude sort. Globally, the church is finding itself being picked bare in terms of institutional malfeasance, not merely on the issue of having harboured abusive priests, but of placing a dark, impenetrable cover over them. No area of[Read More…]
Historians will tell you that a burst of creativity occurs when we start believing that the search for solutions to complex problems has come to an end. This explosion is fate’s way of reminding us that there is always something just over the curve of innovation. As the country continues to face mounting challenges, social entrepreneurs are pairing their ingenuity[Read More…]
After the massive protest on 1st May (Labor Day) for “equal pay for equal work” now Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) contractual staff facing new problem, if they will not collect target amount in a day from the duty they will be punished and also will give the fine. Chandra Prakash is a bus conductor, on 16 may, he just earn[Read More…]
Israel and Myanmar, two countries with troubled human rights records and disputed histories of dealing with ethnic and national rights, have set a worrisome precedent by giving each other a veto over what students are taught about the other. A recently signed education agreement between Israel and Myanmar allows for editing each other’s textbooks as they relate to the portrayal[Read More…]
Police officer Gagan Deep Singh, who had saved a young Muslim boy from being lynched by a Hindutva mob, is facing death threats and has gone underground. His family members are also facing death threats from local RSS and BJP leaders. The reason: he defended “indecent behaviour”. The police inspector in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand shot to fame after saving a Muslim[Read More…]
The death of Kevin became front page news in national as well as international media. Death; nowadays has become a very cheap commodity for news channels and papers to mint money. News of Rapes, Murders, Genocide, Riots, Sexual Affairs, Violence, Gang-wars attract people to the media. Kevin did not die in accident nor did he die due to some physical[Read More…]
Up and down the Rio Grande A thousand footprints in the sand –From “Across the Borderline,” by Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, James Dickinson Claudia Gómez González had studied to be an accountant. But she was unable to earn a living in her homeland, a country wracked by extreme poverty and violence; reeling from decades under the thumb of U.S. imperialism,[Read More…]
Kairana results have signalled to the mighty that the public can wash them out in the 2019 elections. For the first time, RSS spokes person was speaking that government’s come and go but we must protect institutions. He was defending election commission but how come the Sangh Parivar now saying this. Why is Pranab Mukherjee invited. Why did the Sangh[Read More…]
Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific 
Enough is enough. Restore parliament 
Disgrace at the New York Times 
‘Israel is (Not) Back to Africa’: How African Countries are Challenging Israeli Plot on the Continent 
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex 
Accelerating Change on United Nations World Water Day 2023 
Flaming Forest, Wounded Valley -Stories from Bastar and Kashmir 
Defence Daredevilry 
Selling One’s Soul – The betrayal of Christ and Constitution 
Climate Crisis Has Caused Increasingly Irreversible Losses, Says UN Report 
Yarrow Mamout Masjid Dedicated at Georgetown University 
Adolf Hitler, Carl Orff & Sophie Scholl 
Algeria’s Gas vs. Rightwing Ideology: Will Italy Change Its Position on Jerusalem? 
From Balloons to AUKUS: The War Drive Against China 
Paul Keating’s criticism of Australia’s AUKUS deal is damming but not “astonishing”, – in fact, timely! 
In memory of 20th anniversary of the Iraq War 
CBI investigation against Harsh Mandar’s NGO is nothing but travesty of justice 
Concept of Gram Swaraj (‘Village Self-Reliance’) and Its Increasing Relevance for Our Times Indian Democracy & Chaos in Parliament! 
Veterans Condemn Eviction of Aruna Rodrigues from her Residence 
America’s Wars 
Criminals at Large: The Iraq War Twenty Years On 
Massive White House Protest Against Endless Wars 
From ‘Progress’ to an Economics of Happiness 
On Missing Dr. Strangelove Or How Americans Learned to Stop Worrying and Forgot the Bomb 
The Arrest Warrant Against Putin and International Justice 
Illiberal Democracy and Anti-modernization waves in south-Asia 
To prevent a civil war that is about to happen in Pakistan 
Self-Reliant Farmers Improve their Economics and Also Contribute to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation 
Where Do We Go From Here 
Modi Government’s crusade against the opposition India’s shift to a Defence-oriented economy, with increasing role for the private sector 
Spent Matters: The AUKUS Nuclear Waste Problem 
Iraq Invasion 20th Anniversary: 5 Million Dead In Iraqi Holocaust 
The Significance of the Paris Commune 152 Years After 
In memory of Anton Semyonovich Makarenko who championed democratic education 
Genetically Modified Animals Bring New Risks and Uncertainties 
When will the suicide of Dalit, tribal students stop? 
Social media and people’s life: A way of good governance 
In USA Black Farmers are Down From 14% to 1.4%, They Need Help 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
