National security advocates have been crotchety ever since the release of Chelsea Manning for a sentence they hoped would go the full, crushing 35 years. Her sins were intimately tied up with making WikiLeaks the publisher of fame, less than fortune: the disclosure of 750,000 classified diplomatic and military documents which revealed, to various degrees, the inner workings of the[Read More…]
“ yet straw upon straw was laid till the last straw broke the camel’s back.” How many straws will it take to finally break the back of the Palestinian Authority (PA)? Well, here’s three that should be the last straws to dismantle the Abba$ dictatorship and trigger democratic elections. Ceasefire for Gaza: “Over my dead body will there be a[Read More…]
On August 14, a report from a grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania identified 300 Catholic priests across the state who had sexually abused more than 1,000 children. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” the grand jury wrote in one[Read More…]
3rd World must demand justice for her kids! Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s, cry “God bless America? No, no, God damn America for her crimes against humanity!” And American film maker Michael Moore’s “sick and twisted violent people that we’ve been for hundreds of years, it’s something that’s just in our craw, just in our DNA. Americans kill people, because that’s what[Read More…]
Internationally-renowned Bangladeshi scholar, activist and photojournalist Dr Shahidul Alam has been badly beaten and imprisoned as a result of giving an Al Jazeera interview and posting videos in relation to Bangladeshi student road safety protests and the violent Bangladeshi Government response. This gross human rights violation has prompted international demands from media and humanitarian organizations, notably Amnesty International, for[Read More…]
The phenomenon of a random pattern of winds coalescing into a hurricane may not be caused by global warming, but warmer ocean temperatures powering it up is entirely possible. Hawaii is experiencing one of the two worst hurricanes in its history, and last week Kerala in India, was flooded almost in its entirety by a record-breaking monsoon season leaving a[Read More…]
The new data on GDP have raised a political storm, with the back series for GDP growth since 1993-94 becoming available. Its importance lies in the fact that in 2015, a new series was announced which showed India’s GDP growing faster than the earlier series had shown. This was politically advantageous to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government which came to[Read More…]
Hyderabad: Prof Sridhar Madabhushi, (Central Information Commissioner) on August 24, Thursday, launched YouRTI.in, a website on quick process of RTI requests. The website in both English and Telugu languages is an initiative of Young RTI activists based in the city who have come up with the idea to help general public file RTI. While launching the website at Press Club,[Read More…]
“Our earliest memories shape us as people . We might add a new layer of learning on a foundation of grainy ideals , but at our core we hold on to the beliefs and ideas we absorbed as children . The ones our mother taught us . Mothers are our bridges between the inner and outer worlds . I believe[Read More…]
A few serious questions have been raised about the arrest of activists. People are talking about their caste and connections and suggesting that ‘India’ is ‘waking’ up because of their castes, as most of them are savarnas or brahmins but I think it is a generalisation without understanding the realities. Yes, a number of them may be well connected with[Read More…]
Since early morning 28th August, homes of 10 well-known public activists in Mumbai, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Delhi, Faridabad and Goa were raided by Maharashtra Police, and 5 have been arrested. With the intervention of the Delhi HC and SC on 29th Aug stalling their transit remand, there are presently under house arrest. The arrested include Human Rights activist Gautam Navlakha and[Read More…]
The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), a forum for media professionals from across the country, is deeply dismayed at the unprofessional, biased and non-factual reporting on the case of the recent arrests of human rights activists from several Indian cities. On the morning of August 28, 2018, a team of the Pune Police arrested advocate and law teacher[Read More…]
On 28th August 2018, simultaneous raids were conducted by Police on the premises of prominent human rights and civil liberties activists and public intellectuals – Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj (National Secretary, PUCL) in Faridabad, Father Stan Swamy in Jharkhand, Senior Writer and Poet VaravaraRao, his two daughters – Anala and Pavana, ‘The Hindu’ journalist KV Kumaranath, English and Foreign Languages[Read More…]
The action of Pune police arresting a number of progressive intellectuals and human rights activists in various parts of the country is highly condemnable. The world knows that the violence perpetrated on thousands of Dalit men and women on 1st Jan. 2018 in Bhima-Koregaon, Maharashtra, was planned and wickedly executed by certain ‘Hindutvwadi’ persons. One of them Milind Ekbote was arrested[Read More…]
This morning’s papers (August 30 2018) settle something that we have been debating for a while. A front-page report in the Indian Express says “Police to Court: Those held part of anti-fascist plot to overthrow govt.” We should know by now that we are up against a regime that its own police call fascist.In the India of today, to belong[Read More…]
We, the undersigned, strongly oppose and condemn the illegal raids carried out in different cities, and arrests of Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Varavara Rao by the Maharashtra Police on 28 th August 2018. These are only the most recent arrests in a continuing wave of repression spearheaded by the police at the behest of their[Read More…]
Statement by People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) against arrest of five Intellectuals and Human rights Activists on 28 August, 2018 Pune police under BJP government in Maharashtra arrested five well known left leaning intellectuals and activists under UAPA on 28th August. Eighty years old Varvara Rao is a famousTelegu poet.Sudha Bhardwaj is general secretary of People’s Union for[Read More…]
We, the undersigned, are shocked by the serial raids across the country on the homes of activists and public intellectuals who are critical of the government and the ruling party at the Centre. The arrests of prominent activists and intellectuals Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira and others are nothing but an attempt by the government[Read More…]
The incumbent occupying the seat of the Prime Minister of India may live under the delusion that the aforementioned equation – a product of his politics – is at par with Einstein’s E = mc2and which lets him erroneously experience a eureka moment in the Archimedean spirit. Nevertheless Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is a Sanskrit phrase found in Hindu texts such as the Maha-Upanishad which means the[Read More…]
A UN fact-finding panel issued a report on Monday calling for the prosecution of six senior Burmese generals on charges of genocide over their role in the state persecution of the country’s Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority. The document is the sharpest rebuke by the international body against the Burmese regime, since it launched wholesale ethnic cleansing last year. The findings[Read More…]
Why should our children die because of tests on the medicines of an American company? Why don’t our Babus bother about ethics and norms in permitting them to conduct such fatal tests, and thus allow US pharma companies to earn millions? It is so strange that none bothers even to compensate the death of children. Doesn’t it amount to[Read More…]
On 17th August (2018), during the funeral procession of the former Prime Minster of India, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Swami Agnivesh was assaulted outside the BJP head office, when Swami was trying to participate in the procession. The assaulters, the some members of the crowd, began to heckle him and then they physically attacked him. They were raising the slogans, Bharat[Read More…]
In international law, a category regarded by certain legal philosophers as non-existent (there being no overarching sovereign to police it), aspirations reign like obstinate fantasies. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty is one such example, decorated by such expressions as outer space being the “province of all mankind” (Art. 1), with the “common interest of all mankind in the progress of[Read More…]
Developing the tradition charted by C. Wright Mills in his 1956 classic The Power Elite, in his latest book, Professor Peter Phillips starts by reviewing the transition from the nation state power elites described by authors such as Mills to a transnational power elite centralized on the control of global capital. Thus, in his just-released study Giants: The Global Power[Read More…]
A few days ago, Reuter reported that Switzerland’s second largest bank, Crédit Suisse, has ‘frozen’ about 5 billion Swiss francs of Russian money, or about the same in US-dollars, for fear of falling out of favors with Washington – and being ‘sanctioned’ in one way or another. Crédit Suisse, like her bigger sister, UBS, have been amply punished already by[Read More…]
One of my first memories of watching TV during the early 1950s was ads promoting leaded gasoline for reducing engine knock. Little did I suspect the strange history of that gas. By the beginning of World War I, it became clear that the internal combustion automobile was edging out its rival steam cars and electric cars. Shortly afterwards, Thomas Midgley[Read More…]
Hanan al-Khoudari resorted to Facebook in a cry for help when Israeli authorities rejected her request to accompany her three-year-old son, Louay, to his chemotherapy treatment in East Jerusalem. The boy is suffering from an ‘aggressive soft tissue sarcoma’. Israeli authorities then justified their decision based on a vague claim that one of Hannan’s relatives is a ‘Hamas operative.” The rights group, Gisha[Read More…]
Obituaries are not the best places to identify faults unless they assume the form of a hatchet job. The opposite is more often the case: worshipful and respectful to the point of being cloying. As the tears dry, and the sobs of reflection pass, the figure transmogrifies. For a politician, aspects of the hero are sketched out, crumples and creases[Read More…]
The communist-ruled Indian state of Kerala, hit by the most severe rains and floods in nearly a century, has had to overcome not just nature’s fury but also the active hostility of the central government in Delhi led by the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Even in normal years, Kerala receives an annual average of 2,924.33 millimetres of rainfall, the[Read More…]
Last week, the government stated that states and union territories have been paid Rs 52,077 crore since July 2017 to compensate them for the shortfall in their tax revenue. After the last goods and services tax (GST) council meeting in July, it was reported that several states and union territories have reported shortfall in revenue of up to 43%. Given this background, should the[Read More…]
PUCL STRONGLY Condemns and denounces THE ARRESTs under the draconian UAPA OF – Sudha Bharadwaj, PUCL National Secretary Gautam Navalakha of PUDR, Prof. Anand Teltumbde of CPDR, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, advocates, and Vara Vara Rao, noted poet and rights activist. PUCL also denounces the simultaneous multi-city raids conducted today, 28th August 2018 in a concerted and pre-meditated manner[Read More…]
I had just woken up somewhat late, tired of late night arrival of the flight. Just saw missed calls from Prof Ajit Parulekar, who is a colleague and director of Goa Institute of Management where I work a Senior Professor and Chair, Big Data Analytics. He shocked me by informing that the Pune Police accompanied by Goa Police entered the[Read More…]
The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India have unanimously condemned the arrests of five political activists in India. In all, ten resolutions were passed at the emergency meeting of the IAPI in Delta on Tuesday evening, August 28. One of the resolutions condemned the arrests of political activists and raids on the houses of others across India. Those arrested[Read More…]
We, the undersigned, are shocked by the serial raids across the country on the homes of activists and public intellectuals who are critical of the government and the ruling party at the Centre. The arrests of prominent activists and intellectuals Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Kranthi Tekula and others, are nothing but an attempt by[Read More…]
Operation Cactus is often remembered as one of the finest piece of military activity ever conducted by the Indian Armed Forces. It was a response move towards the open distress call made by the Maldivian government, which was about to overthrown by the mercenary force backed by the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). It was an iconic operation,[Read More…]
4th BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit is being held in Kathmandu on 30-31 August under the theme, ‘Towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region.’ The summit is held at a time when the countries under the grouping, i.e., Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan and Thailand are all[Read More…]
Despite five high-level reports (listed here) in India advising against the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops, the drive to get GM mustard commercialised (which would be India’s first officially-approved GM food crop) has been relentless. Although the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has given it the nod, GM mustard remains held up in the Supreme Court mainly due to a[Read More…]
Much of the ongoing acrimonious and toxic debate in Britain about allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party centers on expressions of opposition to Israeli laws, policies, ideologies, actions and declarations. No thinking person, for example, is expected to believe that descriptions of Jews as engaging in a “worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization,” as Winston Churchill accused “international[Read More…]
The culture of impunity to the security forces under the DRACONIAN PREVENTION TERRORISM ACT [PTA] and their licence to kill especially the Tamils caused several disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Sri Lanka. It is to be noted that the Mass Graves, Disappearances and the Prevention of Terrorism Act [PTA] are all inter-connected. The Office of the Missing Persons is toothless[Read More…]
Punjab’s Congress government trading a dangerous path again trying to ‘beat’ BJP in using religion as a pretext. Why Mr Amrinder Singh feel that any critique to religion is sacrilege and the person need to be punished for life? While, I can understand that in multicultural societies we need to be very careful. As administrator we must be above our[Read More…]
The news (1) today that the State Government of Karnataka has been betrayed by public sector banks who initially agreed to buy zero interest bonds from the State Government and then backed down, should be protested up and down the State on the streets and on the highways. The Indian Express reports that all nationalised banks refused to accept[Read More…]
Natural calamities such as floods, droughts, cyclones etc happens all over the world according to the severity in weather conditions. Every year the number of forcefully displaced population due to these natural calamities may mount up to millions, and sometimes they sprout into international attention. The latest addition to this group are the flood victims in India, from the southern[Read More…]
Glencore, according to statistica.com is the world’s largest mining company by revenues. As a way of introduction, here is what statistica.com has to say about Glencore. Glencore-Xstrata is a public limited company founded in 1974 by Marc Rich whose headquarters are based in Baar, Switzerland and also has registered office based in Saint Helier, New Jersey. Glencore-Xstrata is also a[Read More…]
We hope you remember the grave communal genocide in Kandhamal in Odisha, which happened in 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence day, India witnessed the biggest organized communal attack against the Christians in the last few centuries. Since 2009, people of Kandhamal and outside have been organizing 25th August as Kandhamal Day each year. This year on[Read More…]
That an economic world war has already started is beyond dispute. Whether it is Washington or Trump who has lost it is immaterial but between the sanctions imposed on several countries and prohibitive tariffs inflicted on friends and foes alike most are warning against a catastrophe, not just for those directly involved, but the world generally. Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from[Read More…]
The water rose in our house to the first floor The water came suddenly from the river to where it had never come before as the dam had been unleashed into it and it had overflowed even to the midst of the town We left without further ado An old man and an old woman a daughter and her husband[Read More…]
It is a continuation of Malcolm Turnbull by other means. The new Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison and his freshly appointed Deputy, Josh Frydenberg have ensured that the “insurgents”, as Turnbull deemed them, did not come through. Both were respective architects – failed ones at that – of the company tax plan, voted down in the Senate, and the[Read More…]
The Korean War has been called “America’s forgotten war”. The heavily weaponized US Army was fought to a draw by Soviet-equipped North Korean and Chinese armies. For the very first time in its storied legacy of military campaigns dating back to American Independence, the US Army did not prevail in war. In its next colonial war against communism in Asia[Read More…]
Plato’stheory of justice quite different from and contrary to the justice as we understand it in constitutional-legal terms, can be precisely summed in following two quotes from the Republic: “Justice is having and doing what is one’s own”and “A just man is a man just in the right place doing his best and giving full equivalent of what he receives”.[Read More…]
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” French Nobel Prize winner Anatole France Sebastopol, California: Searching for a dog, I recently visited three animal shelters. At the final one, I saw a dog that I instantly connected to. I consulted with my friend Debbie Melmon and decided to adopt her—one of the best decisions[Read More…]
“One owes respect to the living; but to the dead one owes nothing but the truth.” – Voltaire (Lettres sur OEdipe) Obituaries arepourng in after the death of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is being paid respects to by all leaders across the national political spectrum . He is being hailed as a charismatic prime minister, a great orator, a ruler [Read More…]
India’s new social justice system through lynch mob that’s making hay while sun shines, has resonance in Bihar as well. This time their target was a helpless woman who was stripped and paraded naked on the streets of Arrah town. The most conspicuous part of this justice system was the mood of the lynch mob that was captured in their[Read More…]
The floods in Kerala has wreaked havoc on the entire state and plunged the state into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. With over 243 people dead since August 8,2018 , and above 725000 people living 5645 relief camps, and thousands of houses destroyed or rendered unfit for habitation, the impact on the lives and livelihoods of the affected families is going[Read More…]
Naomi Klein coined the term ‘Disaster Capitalism’. After the devastating flood of Kerala the fascist BJP and their parent organisation RSS are coining a new term, ‘Disaster Fascism’. It’s nothing new to them. This is a tried and tested method for them. Awaaz – South Asia Watch Ltd in a report pointed out in a report, titled ”In Bad Faith?[Read More…]
Israel is fighting constantly not only against Gazans, and against Palestinians generally; it is fighting constantly against freedom-loving people everywhere, who oppose dictatorship of any type, and in any country, on principle, irrespective of nationality. Here’s an example showing how much of a dictatorship and enemy of democrats it is: Anna Dressler was a ship-hand on a flotilla of two[Read More…]
American progressives have been desperate lately that their cries merely echo through a wilderness, but now comes Andre Vltchek’s latest book, Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism to magnify our voices. As a Russian born but Western raised ‘professional expat’, Vltchek has spent his life covering the world’s tragedies, in film and word, until he can no longer bear the pain. As[Read More…]
The 15th Finance Commission is about to write its recommendations in India. The Chairman NK Singh is the same man who wrote a report on the functioning of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act 2003 (FRBMA2003) on January 19th 2017, in which he found it reasonable to repeat that State and Central Governments should stick to the Act and[Read More…]
The present government has opened almost all areas – from education to defense- for intervention by foreign capital. The loot of the country’s resources and labor is closely associated with this decision of the government. The ministers of the ruling party often make a variety of anti-constitutional announcements that includes declaration about changing the very Constitution. Education is being commercialised[Read More…]
Floods are a common occurrence in India as imbalance in climate every year causes lot of variation in rainfall geographically. But the floods in Kerala have not only caused havoc on unprecedented scale, but also politics has taken the upper hand over humanitarian aid to the victims. While the state needs more than 2,000 crore for relief and rehabilitation, the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar In what comes as a significant step towards free and transparent democracy, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC) comprising CJI Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud has quashed the circulars of the Election Commission of India (ECI) introducing NOTA in elections to the Rajya Sabha. In fact,[Read More…]
Thirumurugan Gandhi, civil rights activist and coordinator of May 17 Movement has been booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) act for expressing his solidarity to the Palestinian struggle in a public meeting, in 2017. Thirumurugan Gandhi is in jail for the past 14 days. He was detained in the Bangalore international airport on his return from Geneva[Read More…]
“And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever While Suzanne holds her mirror” – Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne”[Read More…]
Trumpist, right-wing Australian Senator Fraser Anning (formerly of One Nation Party and now of Katter’s Australia Party) has variously offended both progressive anti-racist Australians and politically correct racist (PC racist) Australians by demanding a return to the racist White Australia Policy, demanding a bigoted ban on Muslim immigration and explicitly denigrating non-Britishers, non-Europeans, non-Christians, Asians, Chinese, Africans, Muslims, Progressives, Socialists,[Read More…]
The archaeological evidence shows that the first ever city—Harappa– was built in the Indian Sub-continent around 2850-2900 Before Christ in the world. The name Harappa sounds like a South Indian divine man’s name among agrarian and cattle herding communities. For example, Mallappa, Beerappa, Veerappa are very famous names in South India. In Kannada and Telugu regions the names that end[Read More…]
It is procedurally and morally wrong for India government to block international assistance to Kerala from friendly countries and UN. This is a step that belies the faith of ordinary citizen on India’s federal polity. 350 dead, 1m displaced, $20B in damages – Kerala floods is a high order calamity which wiped away livelihood of millions and has thrown state[Read More…]
A possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, is proving to be much more than an effort to end escalating violence that threatens to spark yet another Middle Eastern war. United Arab Emirates-backed Egyptian and United Nations efforts to mediate an agreement, with the two countries’ nemesis, Qatar, in the background, are about[Read More…]
Without understanding what happened to the Herero and Nama people, it is impossible to understand what occurred right before and during World War II Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek In 2014, after I published my report about Namibia, exposing the German ‘semi-denial’that it had committed a Holocaust in its former Southwest African colony; a renowned German university sent me a[Read More…]
It was long overdue, but Pope Francis’s letter of condemnation and apology regarding the abuse of children by Catholic priests did sent a few ripples of comfort and reckoning. He conceded that the Church “showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them”. He acknowledged the “heart-wrenching pain” of the victims who had been assaulted by the clerical class,[Read More…]
In a Nutshell: Donald Trump’s move to revoke security clearances of former high-level CIA and other “intelligence agency” officials is a major move to consolidate a fully fascist regime able to wield compliant repressive institutions of the capitalist-imperialist state against its foes. Sharp struggle has erupted over this involving other ruling class—that is, imperialist—forces that fear Trump’s approach could[Read More…]
The Guardian recently published an opinion piece by its economics editor Larry Elliott, in which he argued that capitalism can rescue civilization from the global climate emergency. Here are excerpts, with me interrupting. From Elliott’s piece: Innovation is what capitalism is all about, and there has been staggeringly rapid progress in developing clean alternatives to coal, oil and gas. The[Read More…]
#ALLWOMENBLEED a hashtag coined by prabha raj @deepsealioness on twitter sets the mood for these words that flow through … The capacity and strength of a woman to be herself standing tall in her femininity has been made wrong since time immemorial ! Against all odds whether it be mythology or fact it has been a woman who takes blame[Read More…]
The flood disaster that struck the entire state of Kerala following the unprecedented monsoon has raised many questions of survival-in-crisis transcending the traditional paradigm of security. For many years, the coastal States of India—from Gujarat to West Bengal covering more than 7500 kilometers of coastline—have been facing several threats from the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.[Read More…]
The Kerala State Government is absolutely right to disregard FRBMA limits and raise its own funds for reconstruction. (1) We should further bring out how a new Government at the centre next year can then monetise the fiscal deficit not only of Kerala but of all States, akin to a debt jubilee. (2) This is the way in other words[Read More…]
Dear All, I know this letter is a bit late, but I have always been a bit late in responding, as for eons I have tried to be the epitome of the patient, suffering feminine image that has been attributed to me. Now I have been pushed back to the wall and though late I need to make certain things[Read More…]
On Sunday August 12, news from Gaza was distressing: The Ministry of Health announced that it would no longer be able to treat cancer patients in the Israel-besieged Strip. “Colon and lung cancer, as well as lymphoma patients cannot be provided with the necessary therapy now,” said Dr. Mohammed Abu Silmiya, director of Abdulaziz Al-Rantisi Hospital for Children. Israel is ultimately[Read More…]
No one is in charge in Australia. Monday’s leadership challenge by Home Affairs minister, the potato-headed former police officer Peter Dutton, was cutting enough to leave Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull a wounded animal. The 48 to 35 margin of victory demonstrated the sheer degree of disaffection for the leadership within party ranks, and risks keeping that unenviable record of no[Read More…]
A decisive political fight between two powers – the exploited and the exploiters – engulfed the path of the Great October Revolution following the victory of the Soviets in October as the revolution changed class equation/array of class power. A new vista for the working people was unfolding. Kerensky’s expectation After the February Revolution, the Soviets and the Provisional Government[Read More…]
Communism in the Soviet Union did not, as anti-communist propaganda would have us believe, fail because it was inhumane, impracticalor unworkable. It failed because it was not allowed to grow in a world dominated by American capitalism. It was assaulted from without by American armed forces, and from within by spies and agents provocateurs. It existed under the constant threat[Read More…]
India is the confluence of 29 states and 7 Union territories, with a distinct demography, language, culture, lifestyle, etc. Jammu and Kashmir forms the part of the northern portion of the country with the privilege of the special status state among the whole gamut of states. Constitution as the basic guide of principles gives rights to all the people of[Read More…]
Wake Up India: Essays for Our Times- Chapter 2 This whole second book of mine is of course on voting out the BJP in 2019 and giving the Congress the next chance because that is how democracy should work and a large nation like India should have at least four major national parties and give them turns so that they[Read More…]
Who rules the land? A deeper and truer version of this question is: What rules the land? Is it the money (the aristocracy), or is it the people (the public, the residents on that land)? (For the interest of paleoconservatives, the issue of residents’ citizenship will come later here, as “immigrants” instead of as “citizenship”; but our basic focus is[Read More…]
Left, Right – Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada. Yves Engler. Black Rose Books, Montreal. 2019. This short work is another in a wonderful series by Canadian author Yves Engler that examines much of the foreign policy actions and policies of Canadian politics. In Left, Right, Engler examines the positions of many of the institutions and organizations of the[Read More…]
It’s been ten years since the sheltered calmness of the plateaus of Kandhamal witnessed one of the bloodiest episodes of communal violence unleashed on Christian minorities in India; since Dalits and Tribals found themselves under siege from mobs led by Hindutva fanatics. Dismembered limbs, axed bodies, rape, arson, razed churches, loot and terror plagued the district for months while the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar In a latest move, the Supreme Court (SC) has agreed to revisit the issue of Quotas in promotion which it held not mandatory for the state to make reservations for SC/ST in promotions in the M. Nagraj judgment delivered in 2006. The fundamental contentions against the reservations in promotions are that the[Read More…]
Kerala is under unprecedented crisis after massive monsoon rains hit the state compelling all the dams to open their gates resulting in one of the biggest humanitarian crisis after independence. Over 400 persons are reported killed while nearly 4 lakh people have been displaced. The final figure of those who are dead or untraced may rise once the situation[Read More…]
Natural calamities like flood cause severe loss of life and property. This loss of life not only includes loss of human but the loss of animal’s life also. Recently, Kerala has struck with huge problem of flood in which more thousands of animals have been affected and many have been died. During calamities like flood, drought, radioactive explosions, etc. saving[Read More…]
It is an unprecedented calamity that has struck now Kerala. The magnitude was not predicted and naturally neither individual nor the collective could be expected to take matching steps. Clean drinking water is a serious problem in this situation. I suggest the following and it may be given due consideration: A layered approach may be adopted Chlorine tablets as a[Read More…]
The dreadful Kerala flood disaster (350 deaths and 1 million people displaced) is not a natural disaster – it is a man-made disaster involving local Indian contributions (inadequate water storage hazard response and landslides from deforestation) and a major international contribution from global warming due to ever-increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, with the prosperous First World and Anglosphere countries[Read More…]
Within a week we have suffered floods in France, Toronto, and now a record-breaking monsoon season in Kerala, India which has flooded or endangered 12 of its 14 regional areas. Almost a quarter of a million people are homeless, forcing them into some 1500 relief camps. Sadly many have lost their lives, the toll in Kerala and the states of[Read More…]
PressTV Interview – Transcript Introduction The US Chamber of Commerce warns against the consequences of new tariffs on Chinese imports proposed by the administration of President Donald Trump. The top business lobbying group said the tariffs dramatically expand the harm to American consumers, workers, businesses, and the US economy. It said the Trump administration lacks a coherent strategy to address[Read More…]
Being the head of a creature essentially without spine, and, even more to the point, with vague form, must be something of a challenge. Part of the failing of the United Nations probably lies in its disparate existence, a scattered composition of bureaucratic entities that, when they come together, supply a perfect picture of inertia. (Perhaps for the best: a[Read More…]
Trump and his cohorts are justifying their war on immigrants by viciously demonizing them as “rapists” and “vermin” from “shithole countries” who are “infesting” America. This is the same language Adolf Hitler used to target and dehumanize Jews, Roma people (gypsies), and others in Nazi Germany. Laura Ingraham of Fox News recently chimed in to the fascist chorus, expressing her[Read More…]
Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT, Peter Temin, argues that the ongoing decline of the American middle class has resulted in the emergence of two distinct countries within the United States (U.S.), typical of developing nations. In The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power[Read More…]
On August 20th, Gallup headlined “More in U.S. Favor Diplomacy Over Sanctions for Russia” and reported that, “Americans believe it is more important to try to continue efforts to improve relations between the countries (58%), rather than taking strong diplomatic and economic steps against Russia (36%).” And yet, all of the sanctions against Russia have passed in Congess by[Read More…]
Nazareth: There are few places in Israel where its apartheid character is more conspicuous than the imposing international airport just outside Tel Aviv, named after the country’s founding father, David Ben Gurion. Most planes landing in Israel have to circle over the West Bank before making their descent. Below, more than two million Palestinians living under cruel Israeli occupation are[Read More…]
I sometimes watch a show on TV about New Hampshire while eating dinner. It always includes a history segment and I like it because it puts our current times nestled into a larger framework.. One of the most interesting ones was about Livermore, NH — a long abandoned town. According to the TV show: the town was entirely owned[Read More…]
It’s frustrating that whereas all human beings wish to live meaningful lives, we seem helpless in the face of a few individuals waging wars and exploiting our world. But we can each do something about this insensible status quo, as ordinary folk of the People’s Peace Movement ( PPM )show us by taking one barefoot-step at a time, traveling to[Read More…]
Today is known in Islamic tradition as ‘Youm Arafah’ Or ‘Waqfet Arafah’ . What it means is that all Muslims who are able to make the Pilgrimage, ‘Al-Hajj’ to Mekka, a main tenet of Islam will gather on top or around Mount Arafat cloaked in their white unstitched shrouds in total subjugation to their faith and maker. They will spend[Read More…]
The final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has rejected the claim of citizenship of about 4.07 million persons. The administrative head of NRC in Assam has said that the four million rejected persons would get another chance to reapply with additional documents and their cases would be reassessed. The Supreme Court has also said that the[Read More…]
I have received through my counsel a reply from Phoenix Legal on behalf of Republic TV dated 7th August to my Legal Notice dated 16th July 2018. Both my Notice and the Reply thereto have been annexed here. First of all this reply claims that in my notice I “have reflected wanton prejudice against Mr Goswami with the intention to[Read More…]
Co-Written by Peer Bilal Baba and M. Altaf Imran Khan was born in 1952 in Lahore into a well off Pashtun family. He received an oxford university education studying politics and economics but his real passion was sports. He began, as most greats do playing at a very early age in Pakistan and then continuing in England. And even today[Read More…]
In all literature; history, memoirs, and travelogues, Kashmir is described as a country.Notwithstanding, being ruled by Moguls, Durranis, and Sikhs through their governors for exacting taxes to the extent of famishing people, it continued to be known as a country.It retained, this title even after India and Pakistan were born as an independent dominions.For the first time, it lost this[Read More…]
The beginning of monsoon session of Parliament has read like a cliffhanger, with usual heavy punches and counter punches thrown in by Opposition vis-a vis- the government. The high voltage drama of the 27th no confidence motion brought in by the TDP supported by the congress party, though without any seriousness or consequences was enough for scoring many political brownie’s[Read More…]
Poverty is humanity’s cruellest affliction and India is home to the largest absolute number of poor people on the planet. People who are trapped in a cycle of poverty can’t often realise their lives can be changed for the better through their own efforts. Once they understand that, it’s like a light getting turned on. For serving the poor and[Read More…]
I am making a few suggestions in the wake of monumental tragedy caused by floods in Kerala. Apart from whatever the administration is doing to contain epidemic of water borne diseases, stress should be on two very simple steps: The Kerala government could announce and initiate on a war footing ‘Operation Chlorine Tablet’ The Kerala government could announce and initiate[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers This week, the Trump military parade, planned for November 10, was canceled for 2018. In February, a coalition of groups went public, announcing we would organize to stop the military parade and, if it went forward, to mobilize more people at the parade calling for peace and an end to war than supporting militarism. The coalition[Read More…]
The opinion poll prime ministership is a modern Australian disease. Not only does it suggest an ailing in the Westminster system, but a profound contempt for the democratic sensibility on the part of party representatives, hacks and the industry that supports them. Prime Ministers are merely the icing, to be whipped off and replaced on going stale. Little wonder that[Read More…]
200 years after Marx’s birth, 101 years after the October revolution, and 50 years after thetumult of 1968, Samir Amin is dead. To the torrent of tributes that is surely pouring in at this time, I would like to add my own reflections on my engagement with Amin’s life and work.Due to the timing with which I came into contact[Read More…]
PT 2 – The Gentlemen From Harvard Russia has been invaded, but it has never been conquered. When the Mongols invaded her Ivan responded first by becoming their agent and collecting tribute from the other princes, then later by refusing to pay them their tribute and finally by uniting the princes against the invaders. The Nazis tried, but they faced[Read More…]
Zinnophobia: The Battle over History in Education, Politics and Scholarship by David DetmerWashington, DC: Zero Books, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-78535-678-0 (pbk) It is rare to get an intelligent, well-sourced and coherent discussion of issuestodaysuch as the role of history in education, politics and scholarship, but David Detmer of Purdue University Northwest has provided such with this book. Detmer has very carefully[Read More…]
B R Ambedkar: India and Communism, introduction Anand Teltumbde, Left Word Delhi, 2017 ed., pages 156, price 225/ Rupees Dr. B R Ambedkar was in constant dialogue with Communist thought, at least at ideological level, throughout his writings. Some vested sections among both sides-Ambedkarits and Marxists have tried to put both sides more in conflict than in agreement on many[Read More…]
Media release by Heather Stroud before her trial at York Magistrates Court on 30th August for chaining herself to the gate at Third Energy Fracking Site at Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, UK (30th January 2018). An earlier trial scheduled for 16th July was adjourned due to the Court copy of the defence ‘harms evidence documents’ , submitted in June, being[Read More…]
Bridges are the great symbols of human connection. They suggest a certain animal pride in the human race, a technological capacity to trick, and even subordinate nature. Across ravines, rivers and bodies of space, the bridge suggests the raising and linking of the miraculous, a suspension that facilitates contact and speed. They also suggest power, triumph, and continuity. Little wonder[Read More…]
Kerala is reeling under the worst ever floods in its history. Since this is state that has a long sea coast and many rivers the unprecedented flooding has damaged the whole economy of the State. Hundreds of people died, thousands of cattle died. Several thousands of people are trapped in the inaccessible flood waters. When I enquired from friends living[Read More…]
The south Indian State of Kerala has been going through a calamity of unimaginable proportions following the unexpected turn in monsoon rains which played havoc with the state’s life and livelihood. Floods and landslides were unprecedented. Displacement too witnessed massive rescue operations and relocation. Nearly a million people are directly affected. It may take several months and years to restore[Read More…]
Political Resolution -Socialist Party (India) National Executive Committee Meeting, Delhi The Indian Constitution is passing through the crisis of a serious threat from the ruling establishment of the country. The present government is not only destroying the basic values of socialism, secularism and democracy embedded in the Constitution, but its leaders are also openly declaring that they are working in the[Read More…]
Financial injections by Qatar and possibly China may resolve Turkey’s immediate economic crisis, aggravated by a politics-driven trade war with the United States, but are unlikely to resolve the country’s structural problems, fuelled by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s counterintuitive interest rate theories. The latest crisis in Turkey’s boom-bust economy raises questions about a development model in which countries like China[Read More…]
The current floods in Kerala are unprecedented and clearly a national disaster. In the midst of this disaster, there is fear for the structural safety of the Mullaperiyar dam on the Periyar river. Madras Engineers Colonel John Pennycuick commenced construction of this 173-ft high dam in 1887, and it was commissioned in 1895. This gravity dam was considered an engineering[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Have you ever considered the possibility that almost everything that you have been told about the world by the Western mass media is a lie and fabrication? I am sure you have, at least lately, when the insanity of Western propaganda is becoming very clear and obvious. But what about the extent of indoctrination you[Read More…]
The Zionist Khazarian mafia; the shadow government, has been gradually taking control of the American government system since the mid-1940s until it gained total control in our present day. Presidency has been a bought commodity granted to the presidential candidate, who would play as the complete puppet in their hands following their sinister agendas. President Donald Trump represents the ultimate[Read More…]
World Water Week August 26-31, 2018 India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water. The country’s chronic mismanagement of water is staring at it now. The country breaks out in a cold sweat every time the monsoon is delayed. Despite these alarming signals we continue to abuse and use water so profligately. Complex and capricious, the South Asian monsoon[Read More…]
Sanctions left and sanctions right. Financial mostly, taxes, tariffs, visas, travel bans – confiscation of foreign assets, import and export prohibitions and limitations; and also punishing those who do not respect sanctions dished out by Trump, alias the US of A, against friends of their enemies. The absurdity seems endless and escalating – exponentially, as if there was a deadline[Read More…]
All of the sanctions (economic, diplomatic, and otherwise) against Russia are based on clearly demonstrable intentional falsehoods; and the sanctions which were announced on August 8th are just the latest example of this consistent tragic fact — a fact which will be proven here, with links to the evidence, so that anyone who reads here can easily see that all[Read More…]
While speaking on Independence day, the PM announced launching of the world’s largest Healthcare scheme ( Ayushman Bharat Yojana) , little was mentioned about the pathetic medical facilities in hospitals in the country. Gorakhpur incidents are still fresh in peoples’ memories. BRD Hospital and Khan When children were dying of encephalitis, the doctor in charge of the ward tried his[Read More…]
Criticism of Pakistan’s anti-money laundering and terrorism finance regime by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) is likely to complicate incoming Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s efforts to tackle his country’s financial crisis. Addressing the criticism of the 41-nation APG, which reports to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism watchdog that earlier[Read More…]
We the following Dalit and democratic rights organisations/groups in the UK condemn the continued unjust imprisonment of Dalit activists and Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government in India. On 5th May 2017 in Saharanpur, UP, 50 houses of Dalits were set on fire and destroyed, Dalit men were beaten up and their women molested.[Read More…]
The morning of August 6th 2018, preliminary news reports indicated that 15 ‘Naxals’ had been gunned down by the Chhattisgarh police in Sukma district. This encounter, the reports claimed, also included injuries to two others, a man and a woman, who were then arrested. This encounter happened near Nalkatong village in the Mika Tong forests near Gollapalli and Konta Block[Read More…]
V. S. Naipaul, the Nobel winning author who just died, was, like so many people, an enigma, at least in his writing. Lauded for his prose style and exquisite way with words, he was seriously criticized for his demeaning of Islam, women, Africans, and others in post-colonial countries, including the Caribbean from whence he came. Such criticism was amply justified. [Read More…]
From the age of nine (1942) I was allowed to attend the Saturday afternoon matinee at the Killester cinema in Dublin where we children were exposed to the diet of Hollywood junk projections spreading throughout the world at that time. At the mesmerising vanguard of American ethnological assumptions, the cowboy-and- indian genre…Hollywood’s nest egg…became the flagship of the film[Read More…]
When 12 boys and their coach were trapped in a Thailand cave, the international community rose up as one. Thai Navy Seal took up the lead in rescuing the kids. Several international agencies sent in their experts to support the rescue operations. Tesla chief Elon Musk took his mini-submarine to the rescue operation’s command centre. It was all over news[Read More…]
Kerala has seen the worst and devastating flood in it’s past 100 years. All the 14 districts have been affected by the heavy rain, flood and land slide. 3,14,391 people are living in 2094 relief camps. The people of Kerala are trying hard to survive and help and rescue as many as they can with the rescue mission teams and[Read More…]
It is really sad that the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has passed away after a prolonged illness. I express my deepest condolences for the departed soul. I have all my sympathy to the relatives and friends of the former Prime Minister. I wish and pray that his soul may rest in peace. For some reasons I cannot ignore[Read More…]
Kerala floods will turn into a calamity of unimaginable proportions if help is not forthcoming warned Saji Cheiyan MLA, law maker from Chengannur of Pathanamthitta district. He warned that at least ten thousand people will die from starvation if more rescue teams and supplies are not deployed in the area by tomorrow morning. He said that at least 50,000 food[Read More…]
Curious thing about H. sapiens is that we are clever enough to document — in exquisite detail — various trends that portend the collapse of modern civilization, yet not nearly smart enough to extricate ourselves from our self-induced predicament. This was underscored once again in October when scientists reported that flying insect populations in Germany have declined by an alarming 75 per[Read More…]
Monday evening, the English language page of the television network Telesur, which is published by the Venezuelan government, was taken down by Facebook in a direct act of censorship of content critical of US government policy. After administrators received a notice that the Telesur English page had violated Facebook’s “Terms of Use,” the page reappeared two days later, with Facebook claiming, in an[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Where precisely,is Jordan now? Is it with the West, or with the Arab world? How independent is it, really, and what future lies ahead? Recently, in the middle of the capital city – Amman – several sleek 5-star hotel towers grew towards the sky, including the trendy “W” and Rotana. Dressed to kill women from[Read More…]
Djibouti has been landlocked Ethiopia’s only access to the sea and depends of port taxes paid by Ethiopia for most of its income and with the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab on the Red Sea about to open finds itself faced with losing most of the Ethiopian trade it has enjoyed a monopoly on for the past twenty years.[Read More…]
Australia’s environment has been in precarious hands since European settlement found its lengthy and persistent way to the continent. It has been mined, mauled, drained, farmed, deforested and despoiled at a rate that was only restrained by the size of its small but rapacious populace. When environmental matters have made an appearance, they have done so with a veil of[Read More…]
(The cup of poison called “Hemlock” which Socrates was forced to drink has always turned out to be the cup of the “Water of Life” for the mainstream politicians of Kashmir!) The former Chief Minister after losing the seat of power by sudden and unannounced withdrawal of support by BJP to her coalition government declared that the initial alliance with[Read More…]
Headlines that 356 serving army personnel have taken the unprecedented initiative of petitioning the Supreme Court of India (SCI) against “persection” is extremely worrying, to put it mildly. This comes after the Supreme Court directed the CBI SIT to file chargesheets against army personnel allegedly involved in extra-judicial killings in Manipur. No right-thinking officer would support a soldier (here[Read More…]
Prime Minister Narandra Modi’s 72 Independence day speech from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort was a damp squib affair. It was just a talk the talk with no meaningful take away. Millions of Indians were expecting that he will come up with pointed achievements that have been made under his rule. However, the high sounding words of[Read More…]
Recently, I came across two films dominated by a theme of an apocalyptic future, one of them was Avengers Infinity War and the other one was Mission: Impossible-Fallout. What makes them important for me is the political philosophy of the antagonists behind their zeal for a balance in the cosmos. The rationale behind their reasoning’s were crudely utilitarian at its[Read More…]
अवध का किसान विद्रोह, सुभाष चन्द्र कुशवाहा ,२०१८, राजकमल प्रकाशन दिल्ली, प्रष्ठ 328, मूल्य 299/ रुपए This is Subhash Kuhwaha’s second book “Awadh ka kisan vidroh” on history of people’s movements, he earned laurels with his first book on Chauri Chaura and now he has come up with peasant revolts in Awadh region during 20th century in British colonial period.[Read More…]
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is no more. He lived a complete life and was inactive for nearly a decade. The end came around 505 pm in the evening though speculations had been in the rife for the last two days. He was known to be a great speaker as most of his speeches which were laced with wits and humors but[Read More…]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constant efforts to undermine Democracy and instate himself as an absolute leader Four years ago when Narendra Modi became the prime minister of India, he entered the parliament with unprecedented pomp and show. The propaganda that worked day and night prior to him becoming the Prime Minister, concentrated on the portrayal of economic development of Gujarat[Read More…]
After Amit Shah reiterating his position on the need for simultaneous elections, it was Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat’s turn to voice his opinion on the same. He said at most eight states can vote with Lok Sabha, given our logistical issues and emphasised as to how it is possible if all the parties agree to it. It is[Read More…]
A lot has been written about 9/8/1953 removal of Sheikh M. Abdullah (for brevity, SMA) from chair of State PM. In spite of that, more curiosity stills fills many minds among pro-n-anti-SMA to know why he, after helping India, internally as well as externally, in taking JK, was considered threat to India which led to his unceremonious dismissal from PM-ship[Read More…]
Born in a Dalit family in Parakkappara, one of the remotest migrant-settler villages in the northern district of Kannur Kerala, Sanal Mohan has his early schooling, undergraduate education and research studies in various institutions in the state of Kerala. Mohan joined Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam in 1993 as a Lecturer in Ethnography, and has completed 25 years of service to[Read More…]
The death toll brought on by floods, landslides and bridge collapses in India’s monsoon-hit state of Kerala has jumped to 94. More than 1.5 lakh people are lodged in relief camps across the state. The airport at Kochi, the busiest in Kerala, will remain closed till Saturday due to heavy rains and resultant flooding. The runway and the parking area[Read More…]
To be rational is to know that weather events cannot be causally related to climate change, although exacerbation is another issue. Yet when the news is full of record setting fires in California and Greece and Australia, temperature records tumbling, and typhoons and hurricanes relentless in their intensity, one might be forgiven for wondering. Those who are not climate scientists[Read More…]
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has gone about its annual business of releasing its World’s Most Liveable City index, the sort of flotsam that matters less to urban planners than hedge-fund managers. The previous seven time winner had been Melbourne, whose supposed ascendancy had been threatened, at points, by Vancouver and Vienna. Now, the Austrian capital has assumed the mantle,[Read More…]
Divest From War, Invest In Peace, Reclaim Armistice Day A network of 187 organizations has come together to urge a mass protest against the military parade in November called for by President Trump. The military parade is widely opposed. Army Times conducted a poll of its readers; 51,000 responded and 89 percent said, “No, It’s a waste of money and troops are[Read More…]
Video link: https://av.voanews.com/Videoroot/Pangeavideo/2018/08/6/61/61c5c34a-8423-42b6-a9c5-de80b804fb7c.mp4 Iran has raised the spectre of a US-Saudi effort to destabilize the country by exploiting economic grievances against the backdrop of circumstantial evidence that Washington and Riyadh are playing with scenarios for stirring unrest among the Islamic republic’s ethnic minorities. Iran witnessed this weekend minority Azeri and Iranian Arab protests in soccer stadiums while the country’s Revolutionary[Read More…]
The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is becoming increasingly evident in the oil pricing policies of the two large Middle Eastern producers. The two countries are currently reigniting the market share and pricing war ahead of the returning U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, has been boosting oil production to offset supply disruptions elsewhere,[Read More…]
One of the most gifted politicians in the Democratic Party — and fastest-rising — is the 37-year-old Eric Swalwell, whose first elective office was as a member of the Dublin, California, City Council in 2010, and who stepped up from there to his current seat in the U.S. Congress, in 2013. His main financial backers are the military industries, including[Read More…]
Gaza’s fuel crisis remains unresolved a week after a United Nations humanitarian official warned that hospitals and water sanitation facilities would soon shut down as a result. “Despite our continued engagement with the concerned bodies, we have not encountered any preparations to contain the fuel crisis that threatens health services and facilities in the Gaza Strip,” the health ministry in the territory stated on[Read More…]
Stories about corruption and internally government-generated violence concerning most unaligned countries abound in the MSM. These lies fuel hatred. And the public at large start a malicious rumor circuit. Which, in turn is taken over by the MSM, so that their lies are pushing in open doors. The war drums start beating. The populace wants foreign imposed order, they want[Read More…]
Lord Mountbatten, then Viceroy of India, describes the 15th August as ‘the most remarkable and inspiring day of my life’…. He was asked to become the Governor-General of India after independence, which he accepted for a limited transitional period… Viceroy’s personal report no. 17, dated 16th August, 1947, marked as Top Secret and Personal, says : “ At 6 p.m.[Read More…]
The iconic poster of that memorable film ‘Garm Hava’(hot winds), with the inimitable Balraj Sahni’s grim face and downcast, apparently moist eyes reflecting a quiet determination, has these lines on it in comparatively small print: ‘…. every pain of mine, I hid even from myself.’ The recently released ‘Mulk’, in some ways reminds one of ‘Garm Hava’- and these[Read More…]
Tamil Nadu is the latest lab for fascist experimentation. Voices of civil rights activists and movements are stifled in every possible way. Arrests of activists have become an everyday affair. While permission to conduct a public meeting or protest is denied to movements, the sangh organizations are given a free hand.With its firm clutches on the state government, the ruling[Read More…]
With the demise of Samir Amin—an indispensable component of the new genre of the Radical Political Economy School of Marxism—the Global South has lost an important intellectual prime mover of its history. A critique of the capitalist world-system/imperialism, the ultra-right regimes and reactionary forces across the world, Amin had talked and written about strategies of transforming the world through political[Read More…]
There is almost unanimous agreement among climate scientists and organizations – that is, 97% of over 10,000 climate scientists and the various scientific organizations engaged in climate science research – that human beings have caused a dramatic increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide released into Earth’s atmosphere since the pre-industrial era and that this is[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s biggest success, thus far into his Presidency, has been his sale of $400 billion (originally $350 billion) of U.S.-made weapons to the Saudi Arabian Government, which is owned by its royal family, after whom that nation is named. This sale alone is big enough to be called Trump’s “jobs plan” for Americans. It is also the biggest weapons-sale[Read More…]
Comedy, Boris Johnson, and the Tories – these three share a certain comforting, if chaotic affinity, lobbed together in some nightmarish union that risks consuming itself. But times are serious – profoundly so, we are told: Brexit exercises the nerves as if Britannia were a patient about to expire, and there is the cultural irritation posed by those naughty elements[Read More…]
Can electing Black district attorneys stop police murder and terror? That’s what the system’s media is telling us. On Tuesday, August 7, Wesley Bell, a young Black city councilman, defeated longtime St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch in the Democratic Party primary. Bell will now run, unopposed, for district attorney in the general election. McCulloch is white and had[Read More…]
When Mike Treen, the National Director of the ‘Unite Union’ in New Zealand arrived at the airport in the capital, Auckland, on August 1, a group of people were anxiously waiting for him at the terminal with Palestinian flags and flowers. They hugged him, chanted for Palestinian freedom and performed the customary native Haka dance. For them, Mike, as all[Read More…]
Even from the dawn of the recorded history of mankind, West Asia was one of the centre stages of human activity. This region has seen many sorts of people of different heritage, culture, religion etc. West Asia over the course of human interference was exposed to many conquests and was part of several kingdoms and empires. The West Asian region[Read More…]
There is a great wailing arising and much wringing of hands going on in the United States over the assertion that Russia interfered inour last electionto ensure that Donald Trump and not Hilary Clinton was elected president. This is sheer hypocrisy. The fact of the matter is that American presidents, universities, economic and political advisers, government institutions and banks worked[Read More…]
Hariyal, a village situated 17kms from Nainital, a popular tourist destination is just like any other village in the hills of Uttarakhand. Roti, kapda, makaan and migration have always been an issue for the locals here, but in the last 10-15 years water scarcity seems to have taken over all the other issues. ‘Jal hi jeevan hain’ says Suresh Rawat,[Read More…]
At a time when India has shelved several planned coal power plants across many of its states, it is constructing a new coal power plant to supply electricity to energy starved Bangladesh. Located at the edge of the Sundarbans, one of the world’s largest mangrove forests shared by India and Bangladeshand a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Rampal power plant[Read More…]
National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements has planned a Samvidhan Samman Yatra – a nationwide tour to restore and protect the core values of our Constitution and democracy. The Yatra shall commence on 2nd October 2018 from Dandi, Gujarat the place where Gandhi led his famous salt march in 1930. It will travel through various States in the country holding meetings,[Read More…]
The Khasis from Meghalaya are one of the well known tribes from North-east India. The hills of Meghalaya are inhabited by the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo tribes. The Khasi mostly inhabit the east and west Khasi hills, Ri Bhoi and Jaintia hills. They are considered to be unique as they are one of the few tribes which follow matrilineal system[Read More…]
We have a story, with a beginning, middle and end- but it is the end that is confounded by “the others,” who have their ‘meal tickets in the pursuit.’For confusing the end, they not only collaborate with the coercive forces in strengthening the ‘hegemonic discourse’ but also indulge in what academic’ describe as the ‘violence of hermeneutics.’ The ‘others’ that[Read More…]
Samir Amin lives as long as peoples’ revolutionary journey moves forward. And, peoples’ revolutionary march is unending as revolutionary advancement opens path for further revolutionary advancement. Samir Amin walks along peoples struggling against exploitation, against imperialism in countries. Samir Amin transcends all borders capital creates to divide peoples struggling against exploiters, against all divisive politics, against all sectarian ideologies, which[Read More…]
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid was shot at by an unidentified man outside Constitution Club of India in New Delhi on Monday afternoon. Umar Khalid managed to escape unhurt. Khalid was at the venue to attend an event titled ‘Khauff Se Azaadi’, organised by an organisation named ‘United Against Hate’. Talking to reporters after being attacked, Khalid said,[Read More…]
Lit by chlorophyll and the conjurations of trees, there’s a trail through a forest along the Stone River where the light never repeats. Slender and winding, this is a generous trail; always bearing gifts. Some days it offers melodies; other days, stories. Often it offers ideas and memories. It does this, I’ve now come to understand, through streams of sensory ticklings. Paintings:[Read More…]
Despite a global warming of plus 1C, the unavoidability of a catastrophic plus 2C and now regular, high energy hurricane catastrophes in tropical Island Nations, the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is relentlessly increasing as is carbon fuel burning for energy. This climate criminal greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution and climate inaction is enabled by the remorseless mendacity of One Percenter-dominated Mainstream[Read More…]
‘ Beware of false knowledge : it is more dangerous than ignorance’ George Bernard Shaw Even before official announcement of dates of elections in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh or elections to the lok sabha, campaigns, rallies and advertising have already started. Politicians are already beginning to woo voters. Parties have begun to promote fake news and disseminate[Read More…]
The ugly face of Hindutva terrorism has once again come to limelight with the arrest of three persons in Maharashtra for conspiring to carry out “terror activities” in several of places of the state. According to Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), it has recovered 22 items from the accused home in Pune. These include; 20 crude bombs, two gelatine sheets, a note[Read More…]
Saudi conduct of its ill-fated war in Yemen coupled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s alignment with the Trump administration and Israel, and his often coercive approach to diplomatic relations, has opened the door to challenges of the kingdom’s moral leadership of the Sunni Muslim world, a legitimizing pillar of the ruling Al Saud family’s grip on power. The cracks[Read More…]
Contrary to any popular perceptions of Australia’s legal system, a dislike of rights reigns with pious conviction on both sides of the political aisle. Rights are the stuff of nonsense and nuisance, revocable for those deemed undesirable. The Australian constitution, a heavily dull document, remains silent on many important liberties; the common law is relied upon to fill in gaps[Read More…]
American President Donald Trump has a lot to take back home from Londoners than to what he had come to say in the UK during his first official visit. Potus left unhappy and angry. He even said that he felt unwelcome because of the protest against him. During the trip preparation, Trump and his staff were asked to avoid facing[Read More…]
Every war in human history is remembered for many things, the heroism of people who fought in the war, atrocities that happened throughout the war etc. Second World War is often remembered for the damage it caused on humanity, especially because of the atrocities and human right violations happened throughout the course of war. Humanity still remembers the massive death[Read More…]
The Maldives has asked India to withdraw its military choppers and personnel posted in the island as the Indo-Maldives agreement has expired in June 2018. The Maldives’ ambassador in India, Ahmed Mohamed, told Reuters that two military helicopters provided by India were mainly used for medical evacuations but were no longer required as the islands had built up enough resources[Read More…]
Jabbar Patel’s ” Subah ” in Hindi & ” Umbartha ” in Marathi was a film, which won many awards. In that movie, Smita Patil plays the role of the in charge of a shelter home for women. She discovers that a local MLA has been abusing the inmates of the home for his lust.Umbartha was released way back in 1982. Jabbar Patel knew, about the[Read More…]
Official Policy Of Class Collaboration But in Telangana there was a different, revolutionary line There are several aspects of Quit India Movement (QIM) noteworthy like: It was a movement that was full of contradictions: No party was united or consistent on that, neither Congress nor Communists nor others. No party could own it up or disown it in an unqualified manner.[Read More…]
On August 9, a U.S.-supported Saudi airstrike bombed a bus carrying schoolchildren in Sa’ada, a city in northern Yemen. The New York Times reported that the students were on a recreational trip. According to the Sa’ada health department, the attack killed at least forty-three people. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, at least twenty-nine of those[Read More…]
On Friday, August 10th, CNN headlined “Saudi-led strike kills dozens of children on school field trip in Yemen” and reported as if the United States doesn’t have any important role to play in targeting and supplying the bombs and missiles for what the news-report refers to as “the Saudi-led coalition.” It even says at 0:15 in the video, “Saudi Arabia,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ana Felicien, Christina M. Schiavoni & Liccia Romero Few countries and political processes have been subject to such scrutiny, yet so generally misunderstood, as Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution.1 This is particularly true today, as the international media paints an image of absolute devastation in the country, wrought by failed policies and government mismanagement. At the same time, the three[Read More…]
My new book, Giants: The Global Power Elite, follows in the tradition of C. Wright Mills’ work the Power Elite, which was published in 1956. Like Mills, I am seeking to bring a consciousness of power networks affecting our lives and the state of society to the broader public. Mills described how the power elite were those “who decide whatever[Read More…]
Co-Written by Suraj Gogoi and Parag Jyoti Saikia It is rather unfortunate that we have to share these questions and concerns with you, because you have been an epitome of courage and one who held human dignity above all. Marginalised people of Assam and in civil society respects you for those solidarities that emanated from your pen when they needed[Read More…]
Plato’s theory of Idea or the Form constitutes the philosophical foundation of Plato’s political theory. The problems variety and the change have been common questions for ancient Greeks, who were trying to discover the uniting element in the variety, i.e. the one in many; and the permanence in the ever changing world. Pre-Socratic Greek philosophy generally addressed to the observation of life and motion[Read More…]
Kashmir is a vexed issue of the Asian sub-continent that assumes dynamic dimensions and increases its momentum with the currents of time with a sort of deep permeated growing alienation of the masses and simultaneous floating wave of armed rebellion against the system. It is the problem of multitude and a vendetta which refuses to cow down with the periodic[Read More…]
86 years old Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand is on a fast unto death since 22 June, 2018 in Haridwar demanding a law for conservation of river Ganga but the Central government has not taken a step to convince him to give up his fast. This raises question on the intention of government. It appears that the government is deliberately ignoring[Read More…]
Of course there are many more than the ones that I will share, but here is a good start. 1.) In the US Virgin Islands if you dig downward for water, you get salt water. So you need rain water, especially for drought periods. So my Dad put in a system wherein the water came off of the roof and[Read More…]
Fire-weapons have been used from ancient times. Napalm-like weapons were used by and against the Romans and Greeks. One term used for them was “wildfire”; another was “Greek fire”, as incendiaries were widely used by the Greeks. Some ships were equipped to shoot other vessels with flaming oils emitted from tubes in their bows. Individual soldiers were equipped with flaming[Read More…]
Jeremy Corbyn’s British Labour Party continues to be monstered and defamed by racist Zionists despite cravenly bending over backwards trying to accommodate its humane, anti-racist and democratic values with the detailed definitions of antisemitism promulgated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and adopted by 31 countries in support of racist Zionists and nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, serial[Read More…]
An offer by a Saudi-backed bank to lend financially strapped Pakistan US$4 billion is likely intended to bolster Saudi influence when former international cricket player Imran Khan is sworn in in the coming week as the South Asian country’s next prime minister. The offer was most immediately related to a statement by Asad Umar, Pakistan’s new finance minister-in-waiting, that Pakistan[Read More…]
The intellectual world is teleological. That is to say nothing is written without purpose and each intellectual responds to; reflects upon; provides intellectual explanation and justification or critique and alternative to the issues and circumstances prevailing in his contemporary time-space. Plato’s Republic is not an utopia addressed to no-one but a passionate appeal to fellow Athenians to overthrow the existing democratic governance[Read More…]
The ruling dispensation in India is facing a crisis of low growth, protests by major sections of the population – farmers, youth and traders – and criticism about non fulfillment of the many promises it has made. It has announced many policies but not only is their implementation tardy, many of them are a continuation of the past policies under[Read More…]
India has an impeccable history of welcoming the stranger and giving refuge to the oppressed, rejected and the evicted. She has welcomed Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and the Baha’is. Indeed the very first mosque built outside of Arabia was in India by a Hindu King in the state of Malabar. The Tibetan Buddhist refugees found a home in India; the Ahmadiyya[Read More…]
15th August is the most cherished date in the Indian calendar .it was on this momentous day, more than seven decades back, that we were born an independent and free country .Mahatma Gandhi’s luminous leadership finally made the British Quit India in 1947. It is certainly an occasion for celebration. More than that, it is a point in a nation’s[Read More…]
As IIT Bombay students, we are proud that this institution has now stepped in its Diamond Jubilee year and has occupied a prominent place among the other well-known institutes of learning in this world. However, invitation of Mr. Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, as a guest of honour in the convocation of this year, has raised some concerns[Read More…]
India’s success story as the fastest growing economy of the world coexists with’ an insular, selfish, and antidemocratic elite in an unequal society, where “predatory forms of capitalism”, supported and promoted by the State prevail driving the poor to the wall. Recent corruption scandals in the mining and the telecom sector only serves to highlight the fact that crony capitalism and rent seeking are the main drivers of the GDP growth not innovation or entrepreneurial dynamism.
India celebrates its independence from Britain on 15 August. However, the system of British colonial dominance has been replaced by a new hegemony based on the systemic rule of transnational capital, enforced by global institutions like the World Bank and WTO. At the same time, global agribusiness corporations are stepping into the boots of the former East India Company. The[Read More…]
A story unfolds .. A carpet of time unrolls … the story- fiction married to fact , the two intrinsically interwoven with the legacy of tresspasses of brutality across the length and breadth of the worlds largest so called secular democratic country and the daily mundane lives of its inhabitants ! The most recent significant massacres such as the sikh[Read More…]
A friend forwarded a test by politicalcompass.org on WhatsApp the other day. It was a very interesting test, which plotted an individual’s social and economic leanings. I was very intrigued by it, and I forwarded the same to my various WhatsApp groups requesting people to share their responses. The results were very fascinating. Most people fell into the same quadrant[Read More…]
The prime minister quoted in the parliament “the decision of neem-coated urea has helped the farmers of India”no doubt without any statistical or general explanation. This was not the first time Mr. Prime Minister quoted something without documentary evidences either from governmental side, think-tank or civil society side. Let alone from the farmer’s side, who is the last one to[Read More…]
Unprecedented shutdown against Supreme Court hearing on Article 35-A shows Kashmiris’ concern not only to protect their unique identity but their very existence! Before one delves on the threat to the existence and the identity, it would be worthwhile to describe the unique Kashmiri identity. There are many theories about the origin of Kashmiris. It is one of the most[Read More…]
He is treated as the bogeyman of conspiracy entertainment, and Alex Jones has become a prominent figure for advancing a host of unsavoury views. High on his list of incendiaries is the claim that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting never took place and was the work of paid fantasists, with the victims’ parents being “crisis actors”. “Sandy Hook,” went[Read More…]
When I first came to Russia, the key political event of the moment was the “war” over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two independent provinces in Georgia. The response of the American media to the situation was, quite unsurprisingly, to accuse Russia of instigating the “war” by invading Georgia. The people of Russia were furious over what was a blatant lie,[Read More…]
According to the information received, on August 5, 2018 at around 10.30 pm, Mr. Shahidul Alam was forcibly taken from his house in Dhanmondi, Dhaka, by a group of men in plain clothes, who identified themselves as officers of the Detective Branch (DB) of the Police. Mr. Shahidul Alam’s house was searched and all the CCTV cameras were destroyed.
Human rights defender and leader of May17 Movement, Thirumurugan Gandhi has been arrested at the Bangalore airport early morning today. Thirumurugan Gandhi was travelling back from a recent visit to Europe, where he addressed the UNHRC meeting in Geneva where he spoke about the recent protest against the sterlite plant in Tuticorin in which 13 people lost their lives in[Read More…]
As US sanctions on Iran “snapped back” into force, US President Donald Trump yesterday issued a blunt warning to countries and corporations around the world: “Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States.” The punitive measures follow the Trump administration’s decision in May to abrogate the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, known as the[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Do you want to see perhaps the spookiest island on earth – Hashima (also known as Gunkanjima–the Battleship Island) – which is located just 30 minutes by speedboat from the historic Japanese port city of Nagasaki? Now you can. Just book online, pay the equivalent of US$40, and then hop on one of those shiny[Read More…]
On July 19, Markeis McGlockton, a 28-year-old Black man and his five-year-old son were in a convenience store in Clearwater, Florida, when he heard his girlfriend Britany Jacobs and two other young children were being accosted in their car parked outside. Michael Drejka, an older white man, was aggressively berating Jacobs for being in a handicapped parking place. Markeis came[Read More…]
The father of 11-year-old, Abdul Rahman Nofal contacted me, asking for help. His son was shot in the leg during Gaza’s ‘Great March of Return’ protests. The Strip’s dilapidated health care system could not save the little boy’s leg, as it was later amputated. His father, Yamen, himself a young man from the Buraij Refugee Camp in central Gaza, only wants his[Read More…]
The more I study the story of the Roman Empire, the more I see the similarities with our world. Of course, history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it is impressive to note how with the start of the collapse of the Western Empire, the Roman elites abandoned the people to build themselves strongholds in safe places. Something similar may be[Read More…]
This is Part I of a 3-part essay that uses predation as a metaphor to unpack power relations in human societies. Introduction A lion runs down a gazelle; a raiding band brandishing clubs, bows, and arrows descends on a tribal village; a loan shark confronts a delinquent borrower. In each of these three scenarios one party seeks to gain at[Read More…]
Did “The Crocodile”, Zimbabwe’s President and former National Intelligence chief Emmerson Mnangagwa steal the 2018 election? While no can say for sure outside of those party loyalists on the Election Commission appointed by President Mnangagwa, it sure looks that way. To start with Zimbabwe has been in a bad way economically with unemployment and inflation sky high while a critical[Read More…]
Reflections on the 73rd commemoration of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while reading Murder Inc, by Mumia Abu Jamal: What kind of people plan and carry out massive genocidal slaughter of other human beings? What motivates them to believe they have a mission to repeatedly rid the world of undeserving others–predominantly innocent children, the elderly, woman and men[Read More…]
A Book Review and Commentary on Andre Vltchek’s new book: “Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism”, by David William Pear How can I write a review of Andre Vltchek’s new book Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism? I am damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. Andre himself says that: “There is nothing to add to the writing of maverick revolutionary philosophers. [Read More…]
Among the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set up by UN to be achieved by 2030, quality education stands at the number four positions from the top. That means ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all is a top priority of SDGs worldwide. UN states that education is a right. It empowers individuals to[Read More…]
The attempt to assassinate Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, has failed. This news is days-old. But, the facts are reiterated boldly. And, there are a few questions, and a few answers to some “progressives” now in close collaboration with imperialism. The assassination attempt was made while Maduro was addressing the nation on live TV during a military celebration in Caracas.[Read More…]
In a key paper titled “Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene“,published in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Science (6.8.2018),a group of 17 climate and environment scientists (Will Steffen, Johan Rockström, Katherine Richardson, Timothy M. Lenton, Carl Folke, Diana Liverman, Colin P. Summerhayes, Anthony D. Barnosky, Sarah E. Cornell, Michel Crucifix, Jonathan F. Donges, Ingo Fetzer,[Read More…]
Transcript (slightly expanded) of a PressTV Skype Interview PressTV – referring to the New Sanctions regime imposed by the US, as of 7 August 2018. PressTV question: How do you see this? Reply PK First off – this is just another flagrant violation of international law, even of US law, after having ratified the Nuclear Deal. Any interference in another[Read More…]
The one who controls the language, controls the debate. Today Indian Muslims are in a peculiar situation where they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. and interestingly it is all a product of language. ‘Secularism’,which was the refuge, not only of Muslims but all those who believe in our Constitution and in the freedom and dignity[Read More…]
There are several aspects of Quit India Movement noteworthy like: It was a movement that was full of contradictions: No party was united or consistent on that, neither Congress nor Communists nor others. No party could own it up or disown it in an unqualified manner. Because, among other things, every party had differences at the top, the bottom and[Read More…]
“Ahab is forever Ahab, man. This whole act’s immutably decreed. ‘Twas rehearsed by thee and me billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act under orders.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick “The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint…But it is conceived and ordered[Read More…]
From the Revolution Club, Chicago In the wake of intense repression, brutality, and murder by Chicago police all summer, on August 2, hundreds of people marched on Chicago’s North Side to demand an end to the segregation, poverty, and violence against Black people in particular. In just the past two months, Chicago pigs shot several people, most recently murdering[Read More…]
We have been seeing over the last few decades the birth of the non-university, an institution hollowed out of its seminal functions: teaching and scholarship. Such an institution emphasises the functions of commerce and branding not dissimilar to the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company), dedicated to goods and services and the establishment of[Read More…]
Can Afghans convince us that the method of war doesn’t work? If we’re still quietly hoping that wars would end and people all over the world would get along peacefully, the dreams and demands of the Helmand Peace Convoy would give us courage and evidence. When Amanullah Khateb joined the Convoy, now called the People’s Peace Movement (PPM), he didn’t[Read More…]
Many a pundit, commentator or analyst witnessing what has been going on in Palestine for the last hundred years can draw parallels between our situation and that of Apartheid South Africa and/or the liberation movement in Algiers. Though there are similarities with our cause in the struggle for freedom in both those countries there are also vast differences. International conditions[Read More…]
Will all the detergents and
Oceans full water of the world
be sufficient to wash away
The stains of sins
That are committed by these beasts..
On women of this country?
Once again, the preparations for celebrating independence have begun and many martyrs are being remembered. Among those who have laid down their lives for freedom, many have been forgotten or not remembered very frequently. One such young person who fought the tyranny of colonialism was from Bengal – Khudiram Bose . According to historians, as many as 200 or more[Read More…]
As a political scientist interested in studying civil conflicts and postconflictretirement and reintegration of rebels, I was in Nepal this July to study the process of peaceful transition of the Maoist movement in the country. In 2006, after ten years of armed struggle, the Nepal Maoists embraced electoral democracy after signing a Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The people of Nepal voted[Read More…]
Today is a historic day and must be celebrated by all those who believe in social justice. On this day in 1990, the then Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, accepted the recommendations of the Mandal Commission Report in Parliament. The hero of the nation, a man of great integrity in his own personal life, V P Singh became the biggest[Read More…]
Bangladesh student spirit marched ahead of the mainstream politics as streams of school students overflowed Dhaka roads recently – beginning from the last day of July. The unprecedented heroic move is historic and significant as it turned out flowers were blooming in the urban monsoon setting. Then, usual in a society super-charged with factional conflicts within dominating classes and with[Read More…]
Can you imagine ever? When we need water we just switch on water pump and get water but that will not be the case in less than a decade. According to the United Nation, 1.8 billion people will face acute water scarcity by 2025.“Green” is a buzz word these days and the Green movement is very much prominent throughout the[Read More…]
The draft has some flaws, but talk of bloodbath, deportation does not measure up to the facts of the exercise. The final draft of the National Register of Citizens for Assam, published on July 30, is a good document with some shortcomings. But the real problem is the fear-mongering by many Indian media outlets outside the North East. Some TV channels have[Read More…]
The horrifying news from a state sponsored shelter home at Muzafarpur town in Bihar has lowered the national esteem beyond imagination. All over the country there has been shock and dismay at this shameful news. No one believed that even such kind of ghastly act can take place in a state run shelter home. Now, when the heat and dust[Read More…]
Humans are a funny species. They create settlements along fault lines that, on moving, can create catastrophe, killing thousands. They construct homes facing rivers that will, at some point, break their banks, carrying of their precious property. Importantly, they return in the aftermath. Existence continues. The same follows certain settlements of parts of the planet where hostile, environmental conditions discourage[Read More…]
Within months of the Union victory in the Civil War in 1865, a small band of soldiers from the defeated Confederate army gathered in Pulaski, Tennessee, and formed an organization they dubbed the Ku Klux Klan. Very quickly, like-minded individuals—mostly professionals and former plantation owners—joined what was initially a loose network of chapters throughout much of the South. Their[Read More…]
Raids by U.S. commandos in Afghanistan. (I could be talking about 2001 or 2018.) A U.S. drone strike in Yemen. (I could be talking about 2002 or 2018.) Missions by Green Berets in Iraq. (I could be talking about 2003 or 2018.) While so much about the War on Terror turned Global War on Terrorismturned World War IV turned the Long War turned “generational struggle” turned “infinite war” seems repetitious, the troops most associated with this[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The United States is going in the wrong direction on a wide range of social, economic and foreign policy issues and people are justifiably upset and angry. One question we are regularly asked is: “What should I do?” In our last two newsletters, we examined the stages of successful social movements to show how movements can[Read More…]
Could it be that there are inherent evolutionary cranial/neurological deficiencies in our DNA makeup; so deeply embedded that we as a species now in this industrial age are unable to comprehend ourselves as a threat to our own future existence? Could it be that this is the reason our response to our desecration of the planet and its biosphere is[Read More…]
The storyof contemporary Kashmir would have remained under wraps, marked as “classified,” “top secret” never to be toldto the world.But,for some journalist living true to their professional ethics, it was reported.Annie Gowen, graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas recipient of Human Rights Press Award of Special Merit 2018,[Read More…]
What exactly are ‘commons’? What resources should come under the umbrella idea of commons? Who owns them? Who should govern and regulate them? Who should it benefit and what has been the practise so far? All these are extremely complex questions involving a layered and extensive understanding of history, societal context, political and economic dispensation, and more. Academic scholarship has[Read More…]
Road rage in Bangladesh is not new. And not new is death due to road rage. The new phenomenon is the student spirit has stood against road rage. To the students, life matters. A movement against road rage has recently been carried out by the students in Dhaka. They stood for life. And they stood against disregard to life. It[Read More…]
One hopes that human wisdom and ethics will continue to grow, but unlimited growth of population and industry on a finite earth is a logical impossibility. Today we are pressing against the absolute limits of the earth’s carrying capacity. There are many indications that the explosively increasing global population of humans, and the growth of pollution-producing and resource-using industries are[Read More…]
It was Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, when he was India’s prime minister, who coined the slogan “Jai Jawan! Jai Kisan!”, in the realistic understanding that the Jawan provides national external security (since then he has also been providing internal security due to failure of governance) and the Kisan provides the nation with food security. Were Shastri alive today, it seems[Read More…]
It seems a distant reality, or nightmare now: a company that was near defunct in 1996, now finding itself at the imperial pinnacle of the corporate ladder. Then, publications were mournful and reflective about the corporation that gave us the Apple Computer. An icon had fallen into disrepair. Then came the renovations, the Steve Jobs retooling and sexed-up products of[Read More…]
I have just arrived in Hiroshima with a group of Japanese “Okinawa to Hiroshima peace walkers” who had spent nearly two months walking Japanese roads protesting U.S. militarism. While we were walking, an Afghan peace march that had set off in May was enduring 700km of Afghan roadsides, poorly shod, from Helmand province to Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul. Our march[Read More…]
Sharat G. Lin, in addressing the International Anti-war Anti-nuke Rally in Hiroshima held on August 5, 2018, offered a resolute apology for the U.S. government’s dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. He called it a “monstrous war crime” that must never be allowed to happen again. He called for universal nuclear disarmament that must[Read More…]
The people of Kosovo were and still are cheering for joy. The European Commission (EC) recently decided that Kosovars won’t need visas any more to visit EU countries. Up to now, getting such visas was a horrendously complicated and bureaucratic procedure, especially hurtful, since Kosovo, with a population of about 1.8 million Kosovars living in Kosovo, has a diaspora estimated[Read More…]
Are you being lied to or misled? Environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason certainly thinks so and has provided much supporting evidence. She has been campaigning against the agrochemical industry for many years (all her work can be accessed here) and has borne witness to the destruction of her own nature reserve in South Wales, which she argues is due to the widespread spraying of[Read More…]
Vasco is choking under the coal dust. Can the greed for coal ever be satiated. No matter the human cost, the industrial machine chugs on. Angela Ferrao is an independent editorial cartoonist. https://www.facebook.com/Ferraodesigns
“ A Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) used dignified language to explain the criminality of an American company and support to it by corrupt Indian officials. “They are murders. But we call ‘deaths’ before enquiry and ‘killings’ in conclusion. Most surprising is we do not even give exact number of children killed, we simply say some deaths. This is trivialisation of[Read More…]
In a few weeks time, school will resume in many countries, and quite a few parents now worry about the dangers of vaccination. Are they real or false? What are the facts? First, a word on what we can believe to be real. Some might remember Ripley’s Believe It or Not? We are all fascinated by the odd, the unusual,[Read More…]
It’s true, with Western propagandistic headlines like this, who needs NATO, who really needs them as even friends. Perhaps the barrage of such vitriol has caused two vital allies of Washington, Ankara and Islamabad, to be fare more cautious from here on out. It was bad before in previous decades, but headlines like this – NOT in right wing cheerleaders[Read More…]
The news from the Philippines has been horrific over the last couple of years, especially worsening since the installation into office of President Rodrigo Duterte in July 2016. Duterte, initially seen as a progressive hope, instead initiated a “War on Drugs,” in which somewhere over 20,000 people–some as young as 14–have been killed. Jerome Adonis, Secretary General of the Kilusang[Read More…]
“Attempting to control rural areas in Afghanistan always eventually ends up boiling down to personal survival.” Evan McAllister, former Marine staff sergeant, New York Times, July 28, 2018 It genuinely doesn’t matter how the security boffins within the Pentagon frame it: the Taliban have fought the United States, through sheer will of force and mania, to the negotiating table –[Read More…]
“With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve.” ― Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The elections are over and now it is Imran Khan the 19th Prime Minister of Pakistan . Prior to the elections process there were some horrific acts of terrorism that spoiled the election process but the courage of the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court (SC) comprising of 5-judges headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra is examining the constitutional validity of S.497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This 158-year-old criminal provision is said to be archaic which promotes gender inequality and patriarchy. It reads, “Whosoever[Read More…]
It has been happening for quite some time, but no one has been paying much attention: Western academia, mainstream media, and the most visible propagandists, were trying to convince the world that 1) ideology has died, or at least became irrelevant 2) in case it did not die, the Left is actually… hold your breath…right-wing! Especially the Left that is[Read More…]
There was a time when the contamination of drinking water constituted a punishable crime. Nowadays those who willfully ignore or promote the destruction of the Earth’s atmosphere and ocean acidification through the rise in emission of carbon gases (2014 ~36.08 billion ton CO2/year ; 2017 ~36.79 billion ton CO2/year), hold major sway in the world. Consequently the rise rate of[Read More…]
Data is rarely inert. It moves, finds itself diverting, adjusting and adapting to users and distributors. Ultimately, as unspectacular and banal as it might be, data sells, pushing the price in various markets whoever wishes to access it. Medical data, given its abundance, can do very nicely in such domains as the Dark Web. With governments attempting to find the[Read More…]
U2’s Bono picked a Capo Grande from the US intelligence community to run his “One” NGO, choosing Gayle Smith, who as Senior Director of the US National Security Council and Special Advisor to President Barack Obama used to tell the CIA what to do, especially when it came to Africa. Ms. Smith, also known as “Obama’s Quiet Consigliere”, is infamous[Read More…]
Brijesh Thakur is the man accused of sexually abusing 34 out of 44 young women in his care as sex slaves, and terrorising 11 others to flee from another care home run by him. Aman Sharma in the Economic Times on August 1 2018 sums up the fascist reality of rape in India in his article about this man,[Read More…]
Energy is a subject that is greatly misunderstood. Its role in our lives is truly amazing. We humans are able to live and move because of the energy that we get from food. We count this energy in calories. Green plants are also energy dependent. In photosynthesis, plants use energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into[Read More…]
In 2017, Sweat won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Playwright Lynn Nottage based her play on interviews with steelworkers in Reading, Pennsylvania, conducted in 2011, at a time when the U.S. Census Bureau officially ranked Reading as one of the poorest cities in America. Nottage cast her factory[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ashish Kumar Singh & Dr. Wakar Amin Being ranked as the fourth-worst country for religious intolerance out of 198 nations in April 2017, it is high time that the claims of “unity of diversity” are crosschecked in every nook and corner of India. This ranking was done a Pew Research Canter’s study. The state of Kashmir has been affected[Read More…]
The social media giant Facebook carried out a major escalation in the campaign to censor the Internet Monday, deleting the official event page for an anti-fascist rally scheduled for August 12 in Washington, D.C. on the grounds that it was engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The event, entitled “No Unite the Right 2 – DC,” was scheduled as a counter-protest[Read More…]
Immigrant prisoners forced to choose between separation from kids or indefinite detention together, as government prepares military bases for concentration camps The whole world watched in horror in June as the Trump/Pence regime showed what “zero tolerance” looks like in the hands of sadistic, cold-blooded fascists. The images of terrified immigrant children torn from parents who’d just been arrested[Read More…]
The famed Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz once wrote about the plight of ordinary people who must walk, eyes lowered, the body crouched in fear due to the onslaught of dictatorship(.nisaar mai.n terii galiyo.n ke ae watan is the opening line of the original poem). Faiz wrote in a different context but people in Mumbai now walk with more dread[Read More…]
The worst calamities for Kashmir apart from natural disasters are the adulteration in food products and the sale of fake medicine! Kashmiris have now become used to both natural and man-made disasters striking one after the other. In fact, Nature has been rather very kind and it is the fellow human beings whose material greed has turned into the instruments[Read More…]
Are the New National Elections a Prelude to Change? People have spoken out loud and quite logically, Imran Khan is the elected candidate to lead a futuristic system of political governance. To discard the incurable resentment against the former indicted criminals turned politicians, people of Pakistan have rejected them at the ballot box. The July 25 national elections under a[Read More…]
One of the more curious developments in recent months has been the bipartisan effort to pass the First Step Act, a “prison reform” bill that was approved by the House of Representatives in May. If passed by the Senate, the bill will lead to some minor improvements in the treatment of prisoners currently incarcerated in federal prison. However, the bill[Read More…]
Co-Written by Rita Jacobs and Wesson Gaige All of humanity is being put at risk by the duopoly of Democrats and Republicans opposition to dialogue with Russia. The combination of Russophobia and the Democratic Party’s compulsion to criticize Trump’s every action, even when he accidentally does something sensible, is preventing the two largest nuclear powers, with the two most advanced militaries in[Read More…]
Though women constitute at least half of the world’s population, their representation in political system is not in commensurate with the proportion of their numbers. Even many advanced countries like US and UK have less number of women when men in Senate and parliament. Mexico is leading the way in giving women to have more say in their politics.[Read More…]
Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, visited Israel on July 19, where he met Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks. So why is Orban wining and dining with the leaders of the so-called ‘Jewish State’? The answer does not pertain[Read More…]
Message to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Tel Aviv: Not to worry, US President Donald J. Trump has no intention of meeting his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, unconditionally. On the contrary, Mr. Trump’s surprise announcement that he is willing to talk to Mr. Rouhani is likely part of a plan formulated almost a year before he returned to government service by[Read More…]
The GST is not bigger than the policy changes introduced in 1991 and hence not the biggest reform. It is not yielding more revenue to enable governments to spend more on services for the poor. Further, by damaging the unorganised sectors, it has set back output and employment in the economy rather than leading to a higher growth rate. These[Read More…]
Is India sliding itself into the world capitalist centre as a ‘sub-imperialist’ country fulfilling the ‘responsibilities’ of the imperialist core? Going beyond the conventional Leninist conceptualisation, India, an emerging economy with a credo of neoliberal aspirations and militarism, appears to be exercising a particular form of imperialism over its partners in the Global South, by fulfilling the role of a[Read More…]
Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar Few days ago, the All India Muslim Personal Board (AIMPLB) expressed its desire to establish Darul-Qaza (Sharia courts) in all districts of the country in order to provide speedy adjudication in matters of Muslim men and women as per the Islamic laws. The Government of India rejected the request by AIMPLB. In[Read More…]
Co-Written By Ashish Kumar Singh and Praloy Majumder A study done by Korn Ferry said that India is projected to have a skilled labour surplus of 245 million workers by 2030, mainly on the back of “vast supply of working age citizens”, even as most of the developed and developing economies are expected to grapple with talent crunch at that[Read More…]
The problem of presence of illegal Bangladeshi nationals in Assam is quite complex and old. When the students movement against the Bangladeshi infiltration in Assam held in the eighties, they were supported by socialists and Gandhians of the country. Then that movement was secular and its emphasis was on Assamese citizens identity. Although there was opposition to Bangla-speaking population, but[Read More…]
After making nearly 40 lakh people predominantly Muslims as suspect as an Indian citizen, BJP leaders seems to have found new hopes to create turmoil in rest of the country. Now they are demanding that this exercise should be taken in their states too. The chorus will be louder day by day with the thuggish anchors competing each other in[Read More…]
Rohingya refugees are back in the news again. On Tuesday (July 30) Mr. Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home said some of the Rohingya living in India do not have the status of “refugee” but are “illegal migrants” who would be deported once their details have been prepared. Reiterating his earlier position, Rijiju said since they are illegal migrants,[Read More…]
Dear Friends, We hope you remember the grave communal genocide in Kandhamal in Odisha, which happened in 2008. Barely after eight days after celebration of Independence day, India witnessed the biggest organized communal attack against the Christians in the last few centuries. Since 2009, people of Kandhamal and outside have been organizing 25th August as Kandhamal Day.each year This year[Read More…]
The violent assault upon a number of unarmed passengers on board Al Awda, a ship bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza has exposed yet again the hideous face of Israeli occupation. Reports suggest that some of the victims of the 31st July attack had sustained injuries —- one of them being the renowned Penang-born Palestinian activist, Dr.Ang Swee Chai. An eye-witness[Read More…]
Three minor girls Mansi (8), Shikha (4) and Parul (2) died on July 24, 2018 in Mandawali, East Delhi and the post mortem reports listed starvation as the cause of the deaths. Members of the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA)- Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri along with Harsh Mander (former special commissioner to the Supreme Court in the Right[Read More…]
The Yes Minister series portraying the skulduggery of Whitehall during the Thatcher years throws up a salient reminder how certain things do not mix. Should the art portfolio be slotted alongside television? Probably not, but politics is politics. Civil servants will intrigue and seek to influence the minister of the day for their own advancement. The minister either resists or[Read More…]
A decade since the global financial meltdown, social and economic decay continues with regional conflicts creating tension around the world. The panic of 08 unraveled the demise of Western liberal democracy, a model of governance managed through control of the markets. The global crisis of legitimacy brought by the breakdown of the system exposed the forces that defined the contemporary[Read More…]
40 lakh people have been excluded in the final draft of National Register of Citizens which was prepared jointly by Central Government and State Government of Assam and monitored by Supreme Court. The total expenditure incurred till date for conducting NRC is reportedly Rs1200 crore with a half lakh people engaged in collecting data and processing it which includes both[Read More…]
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
How the Cuban Government and Its People Collaborated on the Family Code 
Stop Criminalizing Journalism and Human Rights Activism: Release Irfan Mehraj and Parvez Khurram 
Politics of Bhagat Singh’s trial 
The Tragedy of Footpaths: Impressions of a Pedestrian in Bangalore 
Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans 
U.S. Trying To Cover Up Its Role In Nord Stream Sabotage, Says Seymour Hersh 
Open Letter To Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress Party 
Future Scenarios in Ukraine 
West Sends Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine: MEP to Warmongers – “You Make Me Sick!” 
Sri Lanka’s unconvincing response to Universal Periodic Review’s forthright findings 
Kisan Mahapanchayat stages massive rally in Delhi 
The betrayers of Julian Assange 
The Truth About Our Failure to Curb Carbon Emissions 
They’re liars, Mexico’s President on U.S. 
Grameena Pedala Sangham, Telangana State conference, is an important mile-stone 
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 
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! 
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…]
