In their moment of grief, I wish to express my complete solidarity with family members of Vivek Tiwari. His killing by the trigger happy UP police is a direct outcome of the policy of complete impunity given by the Yogi Adityanath to the police to kill citizens. We can’t even imagine the pain and grief of Vivek’s family. But it[Read More…]
‘When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it – always.’ M.K. Gandhi As we remember Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October, the Mahatma’s 149th birthday and the[Read More…]
Egyptian military junta led by US-client Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has executed 32 people since al-Sisi overthrew the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. According to the New Khaleej, Egyptian authorities have executed 32 people in nine cases since the coup d’état while 64 people are awaiting the death penalty in 13 other cases. There is no precise[Read More…]
Sexual assault and abuse have happened to me seven times. The incidents all took place when I was younger. They occurred when I was eighteen years old and in my twenties. One: I was on a rush hour subway in Manhattan. I felt a gooey sticky wad of something hit the backs of my legs. It was sperm from a[Read More…]
In a recent New York Times column, Jennifer Weiner plumbed the depths of her fury at the lifetime of patriarchal insult and injury faced by her and all women. But rather than aim her fury at ending sexual assault, violence against women, and the system that gives rise to it, she plunges headlong into a gruesome, small-minded vision of revenge.[Read More…]
The other day, checking in at a European airport for an international flight – within about an hour it took to deposit my luggage, going through airport security, the metal detectors, body screening machines, the automatic passport reading procedure, waiting at the gate and finally boarding – I have heard or read the words security and safety, honestly speaking,[Read More…]
There is a new version of a 1980 film on the CIA called “On Company Business” that is now posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyRUlnSayQE . It is a history of the CIA told by men and one woman who have worked for the CIA, and later turned against the CIA. There is a lot of amazing real-time video included. I have heard[Read More…]
In cities and towns, houses are being rapidly demolished paving way for construction of flats/ apartments. The house owners are selling their houses for ‘ development’ with the intention of making money and the contractors are constructing flats selling each one with huge profit margin. Rubble created by demolishing structures and the spreading of dust particles in the air is[Read More…]
For some time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is generally viewed by Muslims with skepticism because of its stridently anti-Muslim politics, has suddenly started projecting itself as savior of Muslim women and systematically raising the issue of “gender justice and gender equity” among them. The Union Cabinet on September 19 approved an ordinance criminalizing the practice of triple Talaq (divorce)[Read More…]
Dear Aruna Roy, I received your statement “Reclaiming our Heritage: Statement condemning the attack on classical musical expression in south India” for endorsement. As you are aware, I grew up immersed in (or force fed) Carnatic music for the first 20 years of my life. I have attended perhaps a thousand concerts in that period, not all out of choice. Long[Read More…]
Nearly 400 people were killed and thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed Friday night after a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. As the Washington Post reported: More than 384 people have died in the city of Palu alone, one of the two cities worst-hit by the tsunami, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s National[Read More…]
Friday marked what Gaza’s health ministry described as the single bloodiest day of the Great March of Return protests since 14 May, when Israeli occupation forces fatally injured more than 60 Palestinians. A photo shared on social media following news of his death shows Muhammad al-Hawm, 14, taking part in the football team sponsored by his local mosque. (via Facebook) Seven Palestinians, including two[Read More…]
Three recent developments lay bare the fragility of Middle Eastern alliances and a rebalancing of their priorities: the Russian-Turkish compromise on an assault on the rebel-held Syrian region of Idlib, the fate of troubled Abu Dhabi airline Ettihad, and battles over reconstruction of Syria. These developments highlight the fact that competition among Middle Eastern rivals and ultimate power within the[Read More…]
My heart broke watching her testify. She’s a hero – brave, compelling, credible – and she made it clear: Brett Kavanaugh doesn’t belong anywhere near the Supreme Court. Based on the multiple, credible accusations against him from Dr. Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick – and based on his unhinged, dishonest performance in the hearing – it’s even more clear[Read More…]
It was a performance “to narrate and retell the stories of women of Delhi who have been resilient in the face of adversities….. [and] have changed/ altered some parts of their lives by being their true selves.” A performance that more or less seamlessly “flowed into” what is characterized as “Playback Theatre” in which, after the main performance, someone from[Read More…]
The pulse of negotiations, a flurry of communications, and the person central to this is one who threatens to go nowhere – for the moment. But go somewhere these parties would wish Julian Assange to do. For six years, cramped within a space in London a stone’s throw away from Harrods, one he has made his tenuous home, a citadel[Read More…]
Michelle Guthrie , the Chinese-Australian Managing Director of the Australian ABC (Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC) has been sacked by the ABC Board without satisfactory public explanation. After it was revealed that Ms Guthrie had failed to respond to suggestions that she sack top ABC journalists Emma Alberici and Andrew Probyn that the Coalition Government did not like, the[Read More…]
Plastics are found in the products we use every day: the toys we give our children, the clothing we wear, the disposable cups we drink from, the automobiles we make, the straws we use, the list goes on. Cheap and easy to make, plastic goods and plastic production have exploded in recent years. Yet the junked cars, the used straws[Read More…]
It is a known fact that Ram is politically owned by the Sangh Parivar whereas Krishna is owned by the Yadavs across the country as their divine and political legacy. In North India the Yadavs remained as an opposite political and social block to the Hindutva block. In this context, I want to examine two opposite streams of thought that emerged around Rama and[Read More…]
Very quietly, without fanfare, in a story that went by almost unnoticed, the U.S. State Department website posted a report this week on the Rohingya massacres and atrocities. Based on a survey, for which it contracted a Washington-based law firm (PLPG — Public International Law and Policy Group) to conduct the interviews, the report relied on 15,000 pages of supporting[Read More…]
WSS deeply condemns the majority judgment of the Supreme Court which has dismissed the PIL filed by Romila Thapar, Devaki Jain, Satish Deshpande, Prabhat Patnaik and Maja Daruwalla and has in effect granted the notorious Pune Police impunity to carry on with its fabricated and malafide investigation in the Bhima Koregaon (FIR No. 4/2018) case. The Court in its vague[Read More…]
The US government’s decision to slash funds provided to the United Nations agency that cares for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is part of a new American-Israeli strategy aimed at redefining the rules of the game altogether. As a result, UNRWA is experiencing its worst financial crisis. The gap in its budget is estimated at around $217 million, and is rapidly increasing. Aside from future catastrophic[Read More…]
Priscilla Murolo is a professor of history at Sarah Lawrence College, where she formerly directed the graduate program in Women’s History. She also teaches in the Union Leadership and Activism Master’s Program at the University of Massachusetts. Beginning in the 1960s, she has been involved in the women’s movement, labor organizing and many community campaigns and organizations. Murolo is the[Read More…]
In Los Angeles, 11 members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club have been criminally charged for engaging in and/or supporting non-violent civil disobedience and political protests which took place from September 2017 through March 2018. These protests included holding banners across the length of the Los Angeles 101 Freeway, with one stating “Trump/Pence Must Go!” and several protests at[Read More…]
Our “liberal” media push back when riled up MAGA heads spit venom laced with ignorance and stupidity. But the same media turn a deaf ear to the many articulate voices for justice and accountability that have been rising from all across this fracked nation, in their respective communities. And while the media spends its umpteenth week covering, non-stop, what the[Read More…]
Here in MA, USA — we don’t put up and we don’t shut up. Here is evidence: Tens of Thousands March Against Hatred and Bigotry in Boston Estimated 175,000 Gather on Boston Common for Women’s March – NBC10 … You should also see our anti-gun marches and others carried out in our state, but they are all pretty much directed[Read More…]
Exactly a year ago, 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari of Simdega died of starvation while asking her mother for rice. Her family’s ration card was cancelled for not being linked to Aadhaar. In the last one year, at least 15 people have died due to hunger. Of these, 6 were Adivasis, 4 Dalits, and 5 of backward castes. All these deaths happened[Read More…]
(CNS): While reaffirming their commitment to end TB by 2030, the draft Political Declaration in the fight against tuberculosis by governments at the first UN High-Level Meeting on TB (#UNHLM to #endTB) acknowledges that “TB, including its drug-resistant forms, is a critical challenge and the leading infectious disease cause of death, the most common form of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally.”[Read More…]
The RSS has set about rebranding itself with the recent lectures given by Mohan Bhagwat. With the constitution, secularism, Hindutva and other such aspects being discussed, vis-à-vis RSS’s policies and thoughts towards them, the RSS seems to be undergoing a tectonic shift in its ideologies. The threat of normalising the RSS and it tenants however, appear to be minimal. Already,[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump used his second day of high-profile appearances at the United Nations Wednesday to amplify Washington’s war-threats against Iran and bully countries around the world. At a UN Security Council session ostensibly devoted to preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, Trump put the world on notice: the US—acting in flagrant violation[Read More…]
September 26th is the United Nations’ International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. One year on from the historic adoption of an international treaty which aims to make these weapons illegal, it is urgent that we step up the treaty’s implementation and remind ourselves why these weapons of mass destruction must be banned to build a peaceful world.[Read More…]
The first vast work of “worldwide” occupation and predation of the Earth and its inhabitants was that begun in the sixteenth century by a number of European states (Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and France). After the First World War, new actors – no less conquerors and predators than the former (in particular, the United States, Soviet Union, Japan and[Read More…]
“Eventually you’ll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you an answer.” Larry Page, co-founder of Google The Verge starts with a statement that has become commonplace, the compulsory nod to power one has come to expect when engaged with that whole mammoth enterprise known as Google. “No technology company is arguably[Read More…]
Bolton’s Game: Not Sovereignty, Not International Law—Clearing the Path for U.S., Geopolitical Primacy To be sure, on September 10thJohn Bolton, Trump’s National Security Advisor, pushed all the thematic buttons that might beexpected of a luncheon speaker invitedto address the Federalist Society, long known asthe ideological home of rabid advocates of the so-called ‘new sovereignty.’ The hallmark of this pre-Trump neocon[Read More…]
Wake Up India: Essays for Our Time – 2 We know that all the people who say that India is not a nation but divided are not speaking anything wise. To divide Indians on the basis of religion or caste or language against language or languages or region against region or regions on the basis of class or gender or[Read More…]
The other day I was driving down from Hyderabad to Guntur and Vijayawada on some personal errand. The stretch between Nalgonda and Piduguralla on the NAM express way is relatively free of heavy traffic. As I was cruising along at a steady speed my mind relaxed and eyes wandered taking in all that was moving past. As I drove in[Read More…]
When US National Security Advisor John “The Walrus” Bolton threatened the International Criminal Court with US Sanctions many of us here in Africa cheered, long having given up hope that the ICC would ever be held to even the slightest account, least of all for its crimes against our continent. The Peoples Indictment against the ICC is a long one[Read More…]
(Reportedly, Prime Minister Modi is going to announce the “Final” solution of the Kashmir problem before 2019 elections!) Recently there was a news report that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to announce the “Final” solution of the Kashmir problem very soon. In fact, the Eurasian Times on September 12 carried an item titled, “PM Modi will divide Kashmir in[Read More…]
The people of the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh have always shared a deep connection with their water system. After all, it is here that people live right below the stunning Dhauladhar range, from the glaciers of which they get their waters. The glaciers flow down in streams or khuds from where water is diverted towards habitation and agricultural lands[Read More…]
More than six years after the first legal challenge to the Unique Identification project were filed in court, today the Supreme Court ruled on the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar project. While four judges wrote upholding the validity of the Aadhaar project, one judge ruled that the Aadhaar project is unconstitutional and the database must be deleted. The Aadhaar Act[Read More…]
Supreme Court Judgement on Aadhaar was expected on these lines too though the dissenting judgement of Justice D Y Chandrchud will definitely go down in the history of modern India a valiant stand of judiciary and will be quoted more than the majority judgement in future, by the legal experts, judges, activists and other who believe in freedom of human[Read More…]
Eleven days after Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, rivers are continuing to surge as a result of record rainfalls, forcing more evacuations in the Carolinas and threatening to poison water supplies with coal ash and hog waste. According to official estimates, the storm has already killed 43 people across the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.[Read More…]
Media giant Facebook recently announced (Reuters, 9/19/18) it would combat “fake news” by partnering with two propaganda organizations founded and funded by the US government: the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). The social media platform was already working closely with the NATO-sponsored Atlantic Council think tank (FAIR.org, 5/21/18). In a previous FAIR article (8/22/18), I noted that the “fake[Read More…]
India’s Aadhar card ,World’s largest biometric database, was declared constitutional by Supreme Court of India, in a 4-1 verdict on 27 petitions that challenged the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar card. Although the court cleared the use of Aadhaar for access to welfare schemes, struck down attempts to make it mandatory for bank accounts, mobile phone connections and school admissions.[Read More…]
Mr. Saral Sarkar has done a nice job with his article “From Marxist Socialism to Eco-Socialism — Turning Points of a Personal Journey Through a Theory of Socialism”, (Countercurrents.org on September 16, 2018), in which he has attempted to look back at a lot of issues: his political learning from his student days’, juvenile imagination on socialism, Marx, Lenin, Mao,[Read More…]
A Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report criticizing Saudi Arabia’s anti-money laundering and terrorism finance measures puts the kingdom on the spot 17 years after the 9/11 attacks and casts a shadow over its diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar on the grounds that the Gulf state supports militants. In a nod to the kingdom, the international watchdog described as[Read More…]
Exciting news for capitalism is the recent achievement of trillion-dollar value for both Amazon and Apple, making them the first corporations to obtain such a lofty status. Amazon’s skyrocketing growth makes its CEO, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person with an $160 billion net worth. Driving the engine of global wealth concentration are giant transnational investment management firms. In 2017,[Read More…]
It was with consternation that I read Post Flood Kerala In The Age of Climate Change And Peak Oil by Binu Mathew Here we have studied climate change issues and have developed a timetable to anticipate ways to mitigate climate related problems over the century in Boston. We know about what happens if we do not do so: So[Read More…]
” War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it”. Benito Mussolini (Italian Politician) There are number of instances when the present ruling party promoted ‘ nationalism’ through various programs. It is leaving no stone unturned to express its patriotic intent and[Read More…]
Mr. Modi announced reportedly the world’s largest health care scheme by any Govt. on the Independence Day and launched the schemeformally on birth day of RSS founder Deendayal. PM Jan Arogya Yojana ( PM – JAY , another self-obsessive acronym) i.e. September 25. The highlights of the scheme are like – Rs. 5 lakh medical insurance for each family covering[Read More…]
September 17, 2018 was the sixty-eighth birthday of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on which occasion a new edition of a 670 page coffee table biography was released. Entitled ‘Narendra Modi – A Charismatic and Visionary Statesman,’ it is co-authored by an Indian, Dr. Adish C. Aggarwala, and an English woman, Sarah J. Marchington. It was first published in [Read More…]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – an international body that develops non-policy prescriptive climate science assessments for decisionmakers – is currently compiling a Special Report that will provide information on what it would take to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The report will also assess the climate impacts that could be avoided by[Read More…]
For the past 40 years in this country, our great middle class — once the envy of the world — has been disappearing. All over America, people are working two or three jobs, scared to death about the futures of their children, while almost all new income goes to a small number of people at the top. But this is[Read More…]
It’s easy to dismiss Iranian denunciations of the United States and its Middle Eastern allies as part of the Islamic republic’s long-standing rhetoric. The rhetoric makes it equally easy to understand American distrust. But as President J. Trump and Hassan Rouhani, his Iranian counterpart, gear up for two days of diplomatic sabre rattling at the United Nations in advance of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Boddu Srujana & Boddu Bhaskar It’s been a long journey which we often hear about actors coming out on the existence of casting couch in film industries. Just earlier, in the past year did we come across on allegations of sexual harassment against the Hollywood film magnate Harvey Weinstein. Several actresses and artists came upfront in detailing the[Read More…]
Few days back another voluminous biography was added to grand list of biographies on Mahatma Gandhi.Seventy years after the British sailed across the Indian Ocean the stories of the two protagonists of the India’s independence movement Mahatma Gandhi and Quaid Azam Jinnah continue to engage scholars and biographers. Notwithstanding, the two charismatic leaders of the subcontinent largely forgotten by[Read More…]
His mother’s dream and aspirations and also the inspiration that he derived from the long history of struggle led by Jotiba Phule, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Annabhau Sathe and others remained the beacon lights for him throughout his life. Dalit activist, Eknath Awad, wrote his memoir, “Jag Badal Ghaaluni Ghaav” in Marathi language, which was published by Samkaleen Prakashan, Pune[Read More…]
The health of Thirumurugan Gandhi, Coordinator of May17 Movement, has deteriorated in prison and the prison authorities are not giving him due treatment, said the May17 Movement in a statement. He has been kept in solitary confinement for the past 45 days in Vellore prison. He is not allowed to step out of his cell, meet others or talk with[Read More…]
In early September 2018, I spent four days in the Chicago, Illinois region in order to protest the World Hindu Congress (WHC). Here’s why. On September 6, I participated in a panel at the University of Chicago which formed to “Stop Hindu Fascism.” On September 7, I was honored to be invited to join a delegation which visited U.S. Congressman[Read More…]
A month has passed since the mammoth Kerala floods. I’ve travelled through many flood affected areas and talked to many affected people. The loss is huge many of them are irreparable. Even after one month many people haven’t come out of the psychological trauma caused by the floods. Many say they feel a heaviness in their heart. They feel weak[Read More…]
Current temperature trajectories are on par with or exceed the IPCC’s dangerous projections (Figure 1). Acting as the lungs of the biosphere, over tens of millions of years the atmosphere developed an oxygen-rich carbon-low composition, allowing the flourishing of mammals. The anthropogenic release to the atmosphere to date of more than 600 Gigaton of carbon (GtC) is reversing this trend,[Read More…]
Where is the world economy heading? In my opinion, a large portion of the story that we usually hear about how the world economy operates and the role energy plays is not really correct. In this post (to be continued in Part 2 in the near future), I explain how some of the major elements of the world economy seem to[Read More…]
The Club of Rome is inextricably linked to the legendary report that it commissioned to a group of MIT researchers in 1972, “The Limits to Growth.” Today, nearly 50 years later, we still have to come to terms with the vision brought by the report, a vision that contradicts the core of some of humankind’s most cherished beliefs. The report[Read More…]
The US military industrial complex reigns like a ravenous ruler in search of new funding prospects. It has done well this year, with the Trump administration pushing the sale that the imperium needs more ruddy cash and indulgent expenditure to cope with all manner of evils. Empire must be without equal. The dissenters to this program have been pitiably small,[Read More…]
(PART THREE OF A CASE FOR PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN CANADA) Canada, B.C. and the North Shore of North & West Vancouver are about to endure yet another unfair, inadequate first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system, where the majority of voters never vote. Some say that why the citizenry don’t vote is a phenomenon occurring not only throughout Canada but the world at[Read More…]
Co-Written by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese Every war being fought today is illegal. Every action taken to carry out these wars is a war crime. In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact or Pact of Paris was signed and ratified by the United States and other major nations that renounced war as a way to resolve conflicts, calling instead for peaceful[Read More…]
(CNS): The world’s eyes and ears are expectantly focussed on the forthcoming first-ever UN High Level Meeting (UNHLM) to #endTB: “United to End TB: An Urgent Global Response to a Global Epidemic.” The global TB community is hailing this as a landmark opportunity to marshal political will and resources to end TB by 2030. Will this meeting actually turn[Read More…]
Contrary to promises made in Geneva that in the name of peace and reconciliation the Sri Lanka government would dismantle High Security Zones, close army cantonments and return lands seized from the people, the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, considered the Tamil homeland, continue to be occupied zones even nine + years after the end of the war. There are[Read More…]
The two statements (1) Reservation should stay(2) If Muslims are unwanted, there is no Hinduvta made by the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat at three –day lecture series, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi carries a lot of social and political meaning. For a moment, let us presume that Mohan Bhagwat and his lethal, corrosive and[Read More…]
PUDR strongly condemns the abduction and slaying of one constable and two Special Police Officers (SPOs) by unidentified militants in the Shopian district of Kashmir.The deceased identified as Nisar Ahmad Dhobi (aged 38), Firdous Ahmad Kuchey (aged 28) and Kulwant Singh (aged 35), were picked up from their homes in Batgund and Kapren villages on the morning of 21 September,[Read More…]
There is a Persian distich “agar kahat ul rijal uftad, azehan uns kamgiri yake afghan , doyum kamboh, soyam badzaat kashmiri”: (translation: although there is no dearth of men to be there in the world, yet never cultivate acquaintances with three kinds of people: (1) Afghan, (2) Kamboh & (3) Badzaat Kashmiri) This Persian couplet has, from time immemorial, been associated with the name of[Read More…]
With the statement of former French President Francois Hollende, the truth has come to the fore again that in the Rafale Aircraft deal, the Indian government has played a direct role in favoring industrialist Anil Ambani’s company Reliance Defense Ltd. an offshoot partner of Dassault Aviation of France. It is a bitter fact even for the BJP as a political party that[Read More…]
An attack on a military parade in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz is likely to prompt Iranian retaliation against opposition groups at home and abroad. It also deepens Iranian fears that the United States. Saudi Arabia and others may seek to destabilize the country by instigating unrest among its ethnic minorities. With competing claims of responsibility by the Islamic[Read More…]
Text and photos: Andre Vltchek Imagine a country with 5.6 million inhabitants (of which around 4 million are citizens), surrounded by a collapsing giant – Indonesia – in the south and south-west, by the historically hostile Malaysia in the north, and that proverbial deep blue sea (Strait of Malacca, full of nasty pirates) over the horizon. Officially Indonesia has 250[Read More…]
There is an image engraved in our minds of a stoic, reserved, elegant Aung San Suu Kyi unbending in her struggle against Burma’s generals for democracy, and we assumed for human rights. Last year, when the refugees streamed out of her country in the wake of atrocities, it blocked all UN agencies from delivering food, water and medicine to affected[Read More…]
None of us would be cheering on a war that could easily be the absolutely final one if President Putin had not defused the situation while clearly signalling that he holds Israel accountable for downing the Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft even though it was shot down by a Syrian missile. If he did not why would he have signed off[Read More…]
They are some of the most remunerated officials of one of Australia’s most importantly lucrative sectors, drawing huge “packages”, as they are termed, for little more than ribbon cutting, attending meetings and overseeing policies that, if implemented, will have to be reversed at some point. The modern university is neither corporation nor government agency. But it has the worst elements[Read More…]
The world is awash with thousands of anecdotes about large-scale migration of people to places away from their homelands. Compelled by reasons to escape persecution, evade conflicts, economic and nature-driven pressures, et al. Ideally to make a living, which erupts from a longing for infrastructure, homogenous and pervasive, quintessential for survival. However, a deliberate reducing of millions to the position[Read More…]
Marriage is a sacred institution in the human societies.Down the passing phases of time,the human beings have tied knots of man and woman in pairs to continue the order of the universe.God created human being in pairs and created humans out of those predecessors.This is even today the order of the nature and will remain so forever. Marriage is a[Read More…]
Tinkutudu got up very early in the morning. The sun was yet to rise. It was still dark. Upon seeing his wife and two children in deep sleep, he set out with his bicycle to the nearest canal where he saw many Ganesh idols being immersed the previous night.Tinku is a santhali from Mayurbhanj who had migrated to the city[Read More…]
In a historic development in Catholic Church in India, Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal has been arrested allegedly for raping a nun. He was arrested after a three day long drilling by Kerala police in Kochi. In an unprecedented protest nuns came out on the street demanding the arrest of the Bishop. The arrest comes after a two week long protest[Read More…]
News reports of “starvation deaths” have been coming in a steady trickle over the past few years. One particularly tragic episode was that of eleven-year old Santoshi Kumari in Jharkhand. She died one year ago, on 28 September, begging her mother for rice as she slipped into unconsciousness. It was later learnt that her family had lost their ration card[Read More…]
It is appropriate and necessary to scrutinize the response of the Central Government in a non-partisan and fearless manner as required in a democracy. When the 2001 Bhuj earthquake occurred, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee issued an appeal for contributions in money and kind addressed to ” Dear Brothers and Sisters” giving a list of officials to be contacted along with[Read More…]
Stage set Washington. Object: adulterating power. The arm of government: the judiciary. That particular group of high ranking paladins remains up in the air as US Supreme Court appointee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh floats around in a stage of grinding limbo, as sexual allegations made start to bite. This purgatorial state promises to resolve itself next week. Palo Alto professor[Read More…]
A lot of residents who make Bangalore their home from another country or state tend to suffer from acute breathing allergies from September to April, which is the high allergy season in Bangalore. Infact over the years, long time residents also begin to suffer from respiratory issues. During this time, many residents suffer from constant runny nose and difficulty in[Read More…]
Nazareth: Washington’s decision to intensify swingeing aid cuts to the Palestinians – the latest targets include cancer patients and peace groups – reveals more than a simple determination to strong-arm the Palestinian leadership to the negotiating table. Under cover of a supposed peace effort, or “deal of the century”, the Trump administration hopes to solve problems closer to home. It[Read More…]
Fascinated by black holes Which do not allow even light Ray’s To pass? They are hypothetical Scientific marvel…. Look at the real holes On Earth …. They drag red blooded human ‘stars’ Squeeze their lives Leave their families In tatters! Look at the forced labor Cleaning humus and sewer Entering death traps Breathing stench with excreta …. No statistics or[Read More…]
Islamic year, consisting of twelve months begins with the month of Muharram. Although all these months are significant, holding a special importance but the Quran has declared four months much sacred, which involves Zulqadah, Zulhijjah, and Rajab and the first month – Muharram. Even before the advent of Islam, it was considered as blessed owing to many historical events of[Read More…]
Islam is a massive faith with 1.6 billion followers spread across the Islamic world that stretches over 15,000 kilometers. A considerable section of the community lives as a minority community in many countries, battling issues of stereotyping, discrimination and identity. With the powerful influence of Islamophobic brigades, there has been a massive surge of hatred against Islam and its adherents.[Read More…]
She is a senior journalist from NDTV. Got many awards and is known for ‘fair’ reporting from Andhra-Telangana states but one tweet actually said so many things which she might have been trying to hide under the pretext of ‘progressive’. Problem in this country is that ‘progressive’ have enjoyed patronage of power for long and how they are compelled to[Read More…]
September 6th, 2018 will perhaps be memorable in the history of socio-political struggles in India, not only as an achievement of LGBTIQKHA+ organising and movement, but as a legitimization of principles of democracy, the fundamental rights of equality, justice and freedom. Freedom of choice, right to form ‘companionships’, ‘be it physical, mental, sexual emotional’ (all quotes from Navtej Singh Johar[Read More…]
Something is cooking in the RSS. Certainly, it is fishy (apologies to fish). Otherwise, why this turnabout? Why this change of heart? Out of nowhere.Even the Hindutva spokespeople have become civilized suddenly, giving up their abrasive, aggressive, intolerant rant as has been evident in the English language TV news channels. They are using more reasonable language, have toned down voices,[Read More…]
Co-Written By Ed Hightower and Barry Grey On Wednesday, President Donald Trump toured portions of North and South Carolina still reeling from the record-setting floods spawned by Hurricane Florence. Trump carefully avoided the scenes of intense human suffering and destruction in the region, including thousands of homeless residents in impoverished areas still waiting for desperately needed aid. He avoided any[Read More…]
In a shocking development affecting the acclaimed musicians of the carnatic tradition, it has come to light that artistes like T M Krishna, O S Arun and Nithyasree Mahadevan have been harangued by some fringe groups in India and the US for performing songs on Christian or supposedly non-Hindu themes. It has been reported that many musicians have received threats[Read More…]
“Without quick action to curb CO2 emissions, global warming is likely to increase by 4 degrees Centigrade (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above today’s normal during the 21st century and that is dangerously close to the temperature of 6 degrees Centigrade above normal that initiated the Permian-Triassic extinction event 252 million years ago when 96%* of all marine species and 70% of[Read More…]
Due to the approach of Hurricane Florence, today marked the end of the Disarm Trident Peace Walk. Some 50 people in all took part in the walk from Savannah to Kings Bay, Georgia, in support of the 7 Catholic peace activists of the Kings Bay Plowshares. On April 4th, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King[Read More…]
Like vultures, Israeli soldiers descended on Khan Al-Ahmar, on Sep. 14, recreating a menacing scene with which the residents of this small Palestinian village, located East of Jerusalem, are all-too familiar. The strategic location of Khan Al-Ahmar makes the story behind the imminent Israeli demolition of the peaceful village unique amid the ongoing destruction of Palestinian homes and lives throughout[Read More…]
The Trump/Pence regime, acting through the Department of State has officially adopted a definition of anti-Semitism (racist hatred of Jewish people) that classifies a broad range of opposition to the state of Israel and/or the ideology of Zionism as, by definition, anti-Semitic. And now the Department of Education is using this definition to attack and suppress campus protests in support[Read More…]
This past weekend over 1,500 Oromo freedom fighters made a triumphant return to Addis Ababa from many decades of exile in Eritrea to a jubiulant rally of over 100,000 where a giant photo of Eritrean President Issias Aferwerki graced the stage. Thats right, not the Oromo Prime Minister of Ethiopia Dr. Ahmed Abi, no sir, Issias picture was front and[Read More…]
It’s fitting that the same society that produced George Orwell with his warnings of a totalitarian dystopia stacked with all-prying monitors, surveillance and paranoia should yield up some of the most invasive surveillance regimes imaginable. While some states have found the revelations from Edward Snowden the sort that should initiate, at the very least, modest changes, the United Kingdom preferred[Read More…]
Like people of all regions and religions, a large number of Hindus have been migrating to all the parts of World. The reason behind this is better pastures and better living standards in those places. In most of the parts of the World one can see a substantial number of Hindus/people of Indian origin. The concentration of these émigrés[Read More…]
(Instead of wasting time in mock drills to test the flood preparedness, the government should get down earnestly to implement urgent measures for flood prevention) Recently there was a high level meeting to discuss the flood preparedness and it was decided that mock drills would be conducted to test the flood preparedness. In fact a tented colony to house the[Read More…]
When marginalised and dalit sections of society are being hounded from almost every quarter, the brutal murder of a dalit RTI activist comes as another shock and ghastly incident. Kedar Singh Jindan was allegedly murdered on Friday, 7 September while he was on his way back home. The RTI activist was first attacked and run over by a Scorpio, the[Read More…]
For over 70 years, unarmed Kashmiris, including men, women, school-going boys and girls and aged people have continued to witness mental, psychological as well as physical humiliation and torture. Every day, there are incidents of gashing of eyes, use of ever-new methods of persecution during unending curfews, torching of their villages along with crops and destruction of their business as[Read More…]
Mohalla Clinics are primary health centres in the state of New Delhi in India, that offer a basic package of essential health services including medicines, diagnostics, and consultation free of cost.Mohalla in Hindi means neighborhood or community. These clinics serve as the first point of contact for the population, offer timely services, and reduce the load of referrals to secondary[Read More…]
Women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat…They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving – Mahmoud Fathalla, Chair of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research Inclusive growth is now perhaps the strongest buzzword in development discourse. We have all been talking about growth without understanding that development[Read More…]
This is in response to the article: “People are free & fast with their accusations” by Hardeep S Puri published in Hindustan Times dated 13 .09.2018. Let me make the readers acquainted who is Mr. Hardeep S Puri, an IFS of 1974 batch and currently Union Minister of State with independent charge in the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs[Read More…]
In the several days since hurricane Florence made landfall near the border between North and South Carolina, the storm’s floodwaters have set one record after another. The storm’s official death toll now stands at 32 and is expected to rise with entire cities inundated by flood waters. The Cape Fear River in southeastern North Carolina was predicted to crest Wednesday[Read More…]
We need new societal patterns. Likewise, people with limited financial means can’t take care of all tragedies. We have our own ongoing in MA right now with recent gas explosions and fires as this picture of a house shows.. Kerala, India has a giant torment with almost two million people displaced and hundreds dead due to a monsoon. Who knows[Read More…]
In the last few years I have become aware of the impossibility of removing misery externally to myself. But even very recently when a dire issue presented itself to my senses whether through mind ears etc, like the rape of girls and women housed up a few steps from their NGO newspaperman protector, I was furious and reached into[Read More…]
This essay is inspired by Professor James Petras’ article, describing that the US never wins wars despite trillions of investments in her war budget and obvious military superiority https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-us-the-century-of-lost-wars/5653844 Professor Petras is of course right, the United States is currently engaged in seven bloody wars around the globe (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya) and has not been winning[Read More…]
Since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 when the Islamic Republic of Iran was established, Iran has been a target of US destabilization efforts in the form of sanctions and support for armed opposition groups seeking regime change. (One such group—Mujahedeen Khalq, or MEK, a known terrorist group—has the blessings and backing of John Bolton, the recently appointed National[Read More…]
No doubt, anti-Iran propaganda out of Washington abounds. There are numerous Zionist-run think-tanks (sic) that make US Foreign Policy – and are ratcheting up anti-Iran anger in the US, but targeting especially the Iranian population at home, in Iran. The notorious chief-villain of these agencies, by the way, highly subsidized by the US State Department, and perhaps even more[Read More…]
It is only a coincidence that this piece is being written on the day of protests against petrol and diesel prices , but that draws attention to the domestic impact of foreign policy. It is being argued that India could have handled the US sanctions on Iran in a smarter way. The three countries form a geopolitical triangle ,different from[Read More…]
It’s the war from hell, the savage one that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with seven other Middle Eastern and North African states, have been waging in Yemen since March 2015, with fulsome support from the Pentagon and American weapons galore. It’s got everything. Dead children in the dozens, a never-ending air campaign that pays scant heed[Read More…]
The flexibility of English, and thriving sign that it is not a dead language, permits repeated atrocities to be committed in the name of new terms. We are told that what is new is supposedly good, a sign of evolution. More accurately, such terms simply describe an old phenomenon, giving the false impression that the novel has appeared before the[Read More…]
The South Indian city of Bidar -the northernmost part of Karnataka, 145 km from Hyderabad-is a placid habitation where Hindus and Muslims peaceably coexist to the eternal rhythms of sowing and harvest. It is barely known beyond the subcontinent. But in recent years, it has built a great reputation in the field of education. It is drawing students from[Read More…]
Members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India honoured Niranjan Takle – a courageous journalist who exposed the mysterious death of Justice B.H. Loya – in Delta on Monday, September 17. Takle was in Vancouver on the invitation of South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy. He was presented with a medal by IAPI members, including its President Parshotam Dosanjh, Outreach[Read More…]
Across the Carolinas, a scene of utter devastation continued to unfold on Monday, as tens of thousands of people have had their homes destroyed by floodwaters caused by Hurricane Florence, now downgraded to a tropical depression. Fallen trees and flooded highways blocked rescue attempts as stranded residents struggled to obtain food and water. Widespread power outages, landslides, and tornadoes continue[Read More…]
Trump’s policies towards the Arab/Israeli conflict have demolished all illusions some Palestinian politicians might had about the US as an honest broker in peace negotiations that previous administrations had built. The fact is all successive American administrations since 1948 until the present have been completely pro-Zionist and anti-Palestinian. Through money, sexual exploitation, bribery and intimidation the Zionist Jewish influence and[Read More…]
Co-Written by James Hansen and Makiko Sato Maps below show the temperature anomaly for the past three months and the seasonal mean (Northern Hemisphere Summer). We draw attention to the cool region southeast of Greenland and warmth in the middle of the North Atlantic. Wally Broecker suggested decades ago that freshwater injection onto the North Atlantic could cause shutdown of[Read More…]
“Social exclusion, malnutrition and degradation in quality education are the major challenges and break the speed of development process. Grassroots level development needs inclusion of all the stakeholders like civil society organizations, policy makers, government officials, academia and community based organizations, said Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Government of India during the OdishaVikash Conclave 2018 held in Bhubaneswar[Read More…]
It was almost four years ago that Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke fired his gun and struck 17-year-old Laquan McDonald as he was walking away from Van Dyke and other cops, with his arms at his side. Laquan was spun around by the impact of the bullet and fell to the ground, motionless. But the killer pig did not[Read More…]
I’m sitting at the splendid building of the Singapore National Library, in a semi-dark room, microfilm inserted into a high-tech machine. I’m watching and then filming and photographing several old Malaysian newspapers dating back from October 1965. These reports were published right after the horrible 1965 military coup in Indonesia, which basically overthrew the progressive President Sukarno and liquidated then[Read More…]
There is something peculiar doing the rounds in Australian food circles. The land down under, considered something of a nirvana of fruit and vegetable production despite horrendous droughts and calamitous cyclones, is facing a new challenge: human agency, namely in the form of despoliation of strawberries. The results have knocked Australia’s highly concentrated supermarket chains, with both Coles and Aldi[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers There has been a spate of articles recently on the ten year anniversary of the financial collapse. We wrote about this anniversary two weeks ago, describing the cause of the collapse and the reasons why we are still at risk for another one. Now, we look at how the aftermath of the collapse is shaping current politics,[Read More…]
Pentecostalist Evangelical Christian Scott Morrison became the latest Australian Prime Minister (PM) after Australia’s 4th Prime Minister-removing Coup in about 8 years. PM Morrison leads a Liberal Party-National Party Coalition Government that survives by a 1 vote majority in Parliament and may fall at any time. As documented here, successive Coalition Governments with which Morrison has been associated since[Read More…]
Co-Written By Swami Agnivesh and Sandeep Pandey There was major police action against Sudha Bhardwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Varvara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira on 28 August, 2018. Before this police arrested Professor Shoma Sen, Adocate Sudhir Gadling, Sudhir Dhawle, Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson on 6 June. Even before this Dr. Binayak Sen, Soni Sori, Ajay T.G., Professor G.N.[Read More…]
If the United States is given a chance to erase some past events from everyone’s mind, it would be the three decades from 1950s to 1970s, particularly Vietnam War, communist witch-hunt and other cold war ‘games’. The ‘Red Scare’ during the Cold War, fueled with exaggerated anti-communist campaign, ensued what was come to known as ‘McCarthyism’. Hundreds of civilians were[Read More…]
One of the famous political philosophers, Montesquieu, in his 18th century book “The Spirit of the Laws” wrote that “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” The quote holds true especially in the context of 21st century India. Recently, Jharkhand was in news for all[Read More…]
After the Bharatiya Janatha Party came to power and ruled the nation for two terms from 1999-2004 and 2014 to present a lot of propaganda by the Brahminic pundits belonging to that ideology clamour that all modern sciences, originated in Europe, America and China and Japan is no match to the Vedic science that the ancient Brahminism has built. Particularly[Read More…]
As Australia’s tattered yet new government, led by the increasingly oafish and amateurish Scott Morrison trundled into its post-climate phase, states which see their existence as dependent on the cutting of carbon emissions have been more than a touch concerned. Their reality remains divorced from the paper clip conspiracies of Canberra and the energy cliques obsessed with cutting prices. Morrison’s[Read More…]
How bad is the situation with plastic pollution? Rather bad, by all means. Citing from a recent paper by Geyer et al., more than 8 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s. Of this plastic, 9% percent was recycled, 12% was incinerated, the rest is in part still in use, in part dispersed in the ecosystem. It is this[Read More…]
Introduction “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls at the same time the means of mental production, so that the ideas[Read More…]
A response to Saral Sakar’s “ From Marxist Socialism to Eco-Socialism — Turning Points of a Personal Journey Through a Theory of Socialism.” Dear Comrade, I want you to know that you are not alone; that anyone who has taken the long walk with and through Marx has at times felt like there was something “missing” some “not quite right”[Read More…]
China, in an implicit recognition that at least some of its Belt and Road-related projects risk trapping target countries in debt or fail to meet their needs, has conceded that adjustments may be necessary. “It’s normal and understandable that development focus can change at different stages in different countries, especially with changes in government. So China can also make some[Read More…]
‘Democracy day’ was being celebrated yesterday on social media where political leaders ‘greeted’ their ‘bhakts’ and hailing India as one of the ‘biggest’ democracies of the world. Things are moving so fast these days that it has become too difficult to focus. The power of information sharing has reduced the power of ‘thinking’. Visual world is so attractive[Read More…]
The recent ghastly murder of young man in Miryalaguda of Nalgonda district (Telangana) has once again proven that the scrouge of caste based racism still has its vice like grip on our society. This remorseless thought process of entitlement and percieved distinctions of superior and inferior castes has once again snuffed the light out of a bright young man. It[Read More…]
What is’way of life’? Till the emergence of organised religions, it seems there is no point in history where there has been a single ‘way of life’. In actuality, human in his/her struggle to survive, sustain and socialise, develops a way of life which is dominated by the reason, logic and commonsense. Imagined and incomprehensible elements play lesser role just[Read More…]
PM Modi at the BJP’s national executive meet coined a new slogan setting the tone of the campaign for Assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha elections; displaying his party’s eagerness for a redecorated narrative. Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the valedictory speech to conclude the two-day national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Sunday. PM[Read More…]
The World Hindu Congress held a conference in Chicago in the first week of September 2018, and it was attended by about 3000 Hindus from around the world. Unfortunately, many speakers fouled, here is an accounting of the two who are divisive and sowed the seeds of ill-will between Indian communities. Every faith group holds similar conferences, as Americans, we[Read More…]
” I rise to speak on behalf of unknown hordes – yet very important – of unrecognised warriors of freedom, the original people of India who have variously been known as backward tribes, primitive tribes, criminal tribes and everything else, Sir, I am proud to be a ‘Jangli’ that is the name by which we are known in my[Read More…]
News of villagers in Phulpad village of Dantewada district being beaten by Maoists emerged a few days ago in the local media. We went to Phulpad on 15 September to ascertain the facts. Soon after we reached, the villagers assembled outside the local school and spoke to us about the incident. Most of them were very poor people who subsist[Read More…]
The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) unanimously condemned the action of an Indian diplomat at Malyalee Samajam event in Delta on Saturday, September 8. The IAPI team had gone to the event to show their solidarity with the people of Kerala, where massive floods have left close to 500 people dead. IAPI had raised $1,375 to help[Read More…]
The US-client regime of Field Marshal Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi continues mass executions spree as an Egyptian kangaroo court sentences another 75 anti-government people to death. According to Reuters report, an Egyptian kangaroo court sentenced 75 people to death on Saturday (Sept 8) including prominent opposition leaders Essam al-Erian and Mohamed Beltagi over a 2013 sit-in which ended with killing hundreds[Read More…]
I once taught elementary science in Andover, Massachusetts, and raised my family there. So my heart goes out to all the people suffering from at least 39 house fires and explosions in South Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover. An eighteen-year-old was killed sitting in his van when natural gas exploded a house and the brick chimney toppled on to it.[Read More…]
Hurricane Florence downgraded to Category 1 but still huge in moisture content will continue to pour rain on Georgia and the Carolinas over the weekend. At the same time, Typhoon Mangkhut in the Pacific will be ravaging the Philippines, Hong Kong and China. It is larger and much more powerful, a category 5, and the Philippines, which lacks the[Read More…]
At the beginning of the journey stood the most famous two sentences of Marx, which I read as a college student: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point however is to change it.”1 I was immediately faced with a dilemma. There was no need for me to interpret the world; that had already been done for us by Marx,[Read More…]
Spain’s President, socialist Pedro Sanchez, canceled a week ago the sale of 400 laser-guided missiles to the Saudis for humanitarian reasons (value of the missile contract € 9.2 million –US$ 10.7 million). A couple of days ago, he reversed that noble decision, reinstating the sale, because the Saudis threatened cancelling their contract for 5 “Corvette” warships to be built[Read More…]
George Washington’s Farewell Address — one of the most important documents of America’s Founders — warned against any and all permanent alliances; he said, on 19 September 1796: The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of[Read More…]
Disables in India are extremely vulnerable section of society. They were and still treated as outcast. Post independence several marginalised sections got their share through constitutional provision of ‘positive discrimination’i.e. reservation. Seats for SCc/STs are reserved in legislative bodies, educational institutions, in executives and in other fields same is the case with OBCc. However things are not satisfactory still these[Read More…]
On the evening of 08 November 1926 Antonio Gramsci was arrested in Rome and in accordance with a series of “Exceptional Laws” enacted by the fascist-dominated Italian legislature, committed to solitary confinement at the Regina Coeli prison. This began a ten-year odyssey, marked by almost constant physical and psychic pain as a result of a prison experience that culminated, on[Read More…]
![Flooding in New Bern, North Carolina [photo credit: Twitter user @cityofNewBern]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/new-bern-florence-200x150.jpg "Hurricane Florence kills five in North Carolina, leaves nearly one million without power 350")
Hurricane Florence continues to churn over North Carolina after making landfall Friday morning. As the storm slowly moved inland, it brought widespread flooding and power outages throughout the region. With an additional 15-20 inches of rain expected in the next day, the lives of untold thousands are at risk. Across the Carolinas, millions were unable to evacuate and have been[Read More…]
“Storm of a lifetime” is how the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C., described Hurricane Florence as it came lumbering across the Atlantic to hurl its ferocious winds and rain onto that coastal state. Pointing to the storm’s unusual path, one meteorologist said, “There’s virtually no precedent for a hurricane moving southwest for some time along the Carolina coast.” Florence is expected[Read More…]
Amid ongoing media coverage about the dangers of Hurricane Florence—which has already killed multiple people in North Carolina—and warnings from extreme weather experts that such storms are made worse by human-caused climate crisis, the “bigger, stronger, and more dangerous” Super Typhoon Mangkhut made landfall early Saturday in the northern Philippines with sustained winds of 165 mph and gusts up to 200 mph. “Nine tropical storms wrapping[Read More…]
Sweden’s elections are normally dull affairs. The same political arrangements have been in place for decades, featuring mild oscillations around the centre between the green-red bloc (Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left Party) and the conservative Alliance (the Moderates, Christian Democrats and the Centre and Liberal Parties). The favoured line for political watchers of Sweden is standard. Few monumental[Read More…]
Chandra Shekhar Azad ‘ Ravan’ has been released from the jail by the Uttar Pradesh government. The police says that the cases were not pursued because his mother has requested. Some says that the state government would have faced criticism in the Supreme Court while other says that it is a political move given the nature of situation emerging in[Read More…]
Ms Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the European Union for Foreing Affairs and Security Policy We, the undersigned Members of the European Parliament, condemn the raids on homes and arbitrary arrest of human and democratic rights activists across India, on August 28, 2018. Amongst the people raided are Anand Teltumbde, Stan Swamy, Kranti Teluka and Prof K Satyanarayana. But[Read More…]
Hurricane Florence, one of the most powerful storms ever to strike the US mainland, came ashore early Friday morning north of Wilmington, North Carolina. The hurricane generated winds of more than 100 miles per hour and drove a ten-foot storm surge over beaches and boardwalks along a wide swathe of coastline. The worst impact of the storm surge was expected[Read More…]
As Hurricane Florence churns menacingly toward the Mid-Atlantic coast, residents of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia hold their breath, wondering where the massive storm surge, howling winds and torrents of rain will hit hardest. Over 300 miles inland, southwest Virginia residents may also face dangerous flooding, and some worry that Florence may exacerbate the threats from a different, manmade[Read More…]
The history of Earth is marked by at least seven major mass extinctions, including asteroid impact effects 580 million years ago, the end Ordovician glaciation, late Devonian asteroid impacts, end-Permian volcanism and ocean anoxia, end-Jurassic volcanism and Cretaceous-Tertiary asteroid impact—mostly associated with an extreme rise in atmospheric CO2. Currently the seventh mass extinction of species is taking place, mainly as[Read More…]
In examining the future, we must look to the past. As we watch the media today, we are spoon fed more and more propaganda and fear of the unknown, that we should be afraid of the unknown and have full faith that our government is keeping us safe from the unknown. But by looking at media today, those of us[Read More…]
University of Illinois College of Law, Before the Foellinger Auditorium, September 7, 2018 (Transcript revised) I am Francis Boyle, Professor of Law here at the College of Law. I’m the Senior Professor at the College of Law. I’ve taught here 41 years in a row without a break. I know Obama. He was behind me at Harvard Law School.[Read More…]
While many reports indicate women face immense hardships in their lives, there is one more report indicating their distress. Almost four in ten women who commit suicide are from India: 71.2% of women who commit suicide were under the group 15- 39 age group between 1990- 2016, according to the findings published in a paper titled ‘ Gender Differentials and[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump has been speaking with hyperbole, over the last several months, that his ‘trade war’ with China, tough bargains with the European Union as well as the emerging economies (like India) would bring the ‘American glory’ back, besides generating more jobs in his country. More recently, Trump rolled out a red carpet to Apple Inc. and Ford[Read More…]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQbA_Gko5d0 I live in MA, USA. We just had the start of and still have an emergency situation here in MA taking place. Because our towns, cities and villages are connected to each other in advance of problems, we all jump when we learn of problems. We also jump outside of our state and know about what to do since[Read More…]
Chandrasekhar, also known as Ravan,30 was arrested in June 2017 in connection with the May 5 clashes in which one person was killed and 16 others were injured at Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur,Uttar Pradesh. The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to revoke the dreaded National Security Act filed against Chandrasekhar Azad ,the young and dynamic leader of[Read More…]
The number of hungry people in the world continues to grow, reaching 821 million in 2017, or one in every nine people, according to the report, “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018,” released Tuesday in Rome by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other groups.[Read More…]
The narrative is the story of a community of people , Dogistan, named after the dogs that its every household owns. The Dogistan’s dogs are of two kinds: tailless and curly tailed dogs. The former are gentle and docile, while latter are very mean and abject. The curly tailed dogs outnumber the tailless dogs. A Dogistani lady, Miss Ruby, does[Read More…]
Already 30,000 people have fled their homes in northwestern Syria in anticipation of battles that are seen as inevitable. These people—according to the United Nations—have moved across the province of Idlib, which borders Turkey, many entering camps set up by humanitarian organizations. The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs says that as many as 800,000 people might[Read More…]
Dr Salman Abu Sitta is a pragmatic and principled visionary whose unwavering yearning for home has morphed into the Palestinian Land Society, his literal pièce de résistance, that has created the phenomenal Atlas of Palestine, 1917-1966 and meticulous plans for the inevitable return home. His every breath and step that began in the 1948 Nakba from Bir as Saba to a refugee camp[Read More…]
US slave owners wrote and spoke about liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness. Similar hypocrisy, buried in the foundations of settler Australia, has escaped comparable scrutiny. The nature of the early settlements is so well known that it is frequently taken for granted. But for the first 50 years New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land were, above all[Read More…]
The Trump administration’s national security advisor John Bolton has never been a fan of international law, a concept he has found, at best, rubbery. Any institution supposedly guided by its spirit was bound to draw the ire of both his temper and temperament. Before members of the Federalist Society on Monday, Bolton took to the pulpit with a fury reserved[Read More…]
The Green Party has endorsed a letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that was drafted by the party’s Peace Action Committee. The letter, which is appended below, outlines the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and requests that alleged war crimes by Israel that have been reported since June 2014 be investigated by the ICC. The ICC opened a preliminary examination into[Read More…]
Yossi Beilin is back. This unrepentant Israeli ‘peacemaker’ is like the mythical phoenix, constantly resurrecting from its own ashes. In a recent article in Al-Monitor, Beilin wrote in support of the idea of a confederation between Israel and Palestine. A confederation “could prevent the need to evacuate settlers and allow those interested to live in Palestine as Israeli citizens, just as a[Read More…]
America is a country in which dollars count far more than voters do, and that’s what all of the data shows. And that’s a dictatorship by the richest. This kind of country, this kind of country, and this kind of country, get this kind of President. And the rulers blame it on the public, instead of on the billionaires, the[Read More…]
On June 8, 2018, RS Narayanan, a farmer in Kuppanur village in Salem district got into an argument with officials asking them why they were marking fields without giving any farmer a notice or telling them how much they will get for the land. “The next morning, at 4 am, a police team came home and picked me up. Till[Read More…]
In the recently concluded World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu stated that “the only country that accepts all religions is India”. He also said, “Even though we have so much strength, we never attacked anyone in history.” In 2015, love jihad and gharwapsi episodes have been topped by the lynching of a Muslim in Dadri over[Read More…]
(Lack of accountability, lopsided governance, dishonesty and corruption in every field stem from the basic malaise which is the perennial political uncertainty) During last 70 years or so Kashmir has off and on faced one or the other turmoil. In fact, it has seen four wars between its neighbours. There have been some periods of apparent calm but the uncertainty[Read More…]
We are going through one of the most repressive times in post-Independent India where the fundamental rights of expression and the right to form any organization or association that can question government policies or fight for rights of the people have been criminalized. The government, armed with acts like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), is coming down heavily on all those standing up for the rights of[Read More…]
We representative of political parties, academics, Social activist and social movements, media representatives and concern citizens of the state met here at IIA Bhavan in Lucknowon 12th September, 2018, for the Uttar Pradesh State Conference organized by Campaign for electoral reforms in India (CERI) Uttar Pradesh state chapter,and have unanimously adopted the following resolutions. 1-We are deeply concerned for the[Read More…]
The matter of purchase of Rafale fighter aircrafts from France has consistently remained within the realm of suspicion. There are allegations that this deal is the largest defense scam so far in India. The Rs 64-crore Bofors gun scam does not stand anywhere in comparison to the Rs 1000 crore rupees scam of Rafale deal. This is becoming gradually evident[Read More…]
Beset with allegation of sexual abuse of minors by its clergy from around the world, Catholic Church is facing an unprecedented protest in Kerala, India. A group of nuns are on a week long protest in Kochi demanding justice for a fellow nun who was raped by the Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal. It’s the first time in the history of[Read More…]
With 1.5 million residents now under orders to evacuate their homes in preparation for Hurricane Florence’s landfall in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, the region faces the possibility of catastrophe should the storm damage one or more of the nuclear power plants which lie in its potential path. As the Associated Press reported on Monday, “The storm’s potential path also includes half a dozen[Read More…]
17 years after 9/11 terrorist attacks, American Muslims remain on the receiving end since 9/11/2001 but their plight has taken a new twist under President Donald Trump whose anti-Muslim policies alarmingly fomented hate crimes against them. According to a report released in July by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization,[Read More…]
By continuing to punish the Palestinian people for being Palestinian and unfortunately in the way of the American/Zionist juggernaut of power and supremacy Mr Trump and his team of right wing ultra Zionists have done us all a favour. The final fig leaf has just dropped revealing the true nature of the American ‘honest broker’ for the so-called Deal Of[Read More…]
All roads to peace in the Horn of Africa seem to run through the Eritrean capital of Asmara these days, with the latest peace initiative allying Ethiopia and Eritrea looking like it will be bringing peace to South Sudan. To understand the South Sudan civil war you must look no further then the Chinese oil fields, the only such owned[Read More…]
Debates on vegetarian diet have increased in recent years and many analysts are coming forward to defend it as healthy diet over non vegetarian food. While everyone has a right to choose food s/he likes, some brahminical fanatics are forcing people to stop eating the food containing non- vegetarian diet. It may be worthwhile to think of the causes behind[Read More…]
The Trump administration announced Monday that it would retaliate against the International Criminal Court (ICC), a judicial panel established under the auspices of the United Nations, if the ICC took any action against US military or civilian officials over charges of war crimes in Afghanistan. The announcement was made by National Security Advisor John Bolton in a speech to the[Read More…]
Jacobin recently published an article calling for a national and worldwide expansion of air-conditioning usage. In it the writer, Leigh Phillips, used the suffering of economically and ecologically stressed people and communities during heat waves as a rationale for doubling down on a technology that, at the same time it’s cooling the indoors today, is heating up the outdoors of[Read More…]
As an Indian citizen, progressive or liberal call what you may, I feel alarmed at the atmosphere of hatred that has caught the nation by its throat. As a woman, feminist undoubtedly, I am full of foreboding at what the women of this country will face if the Hindutva followers get another term in office. As a true-blooded Hyderabadi,[Read More…]
Indonesia (RI), the 4th most populous nation on Earth and the country with the largest Muslim population is, and since the 1965 US-orchestrated anti-Communist coup has been, the most radically pro-Western and anti-socialist place in Asia. This is where you could end up in prison for publicly declaring that you are a Communist, or just an atheist. And this[Read More…]
Should it matter this much? A wealthy, successful individual expressed fury at the most popular object of vitriol in any sport. The umpire or referee is only ever neutral in the eyes of a falsely contrived standard: that someone must be objective, neutral and mindful of enforcing the rules of the game. In the eyes of the player, the figure[Read More…]
A Review of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth If you want to fathom today’s world, absolutely nothing is more important than to understand the truth about the attacks of September 11, 2001. This is the definitive book on the subject. For seventeen years we have been subjected to an onslaught of U.S.[Read More…]
Ethiopia is a landlocked country, bordering on Somalia which is dominating the Horn of Africa. Due to several border conflicts during the past decades with Somalia, many of them supportive of Ethiopia by the US military, the border between the two countries has become porous and ill-defined. Ethiopia is also bordering on Djibouti, where the United States has a Naval[Read More…]
We Don’t Need to “Save ‘Our’ Court”–We DO Need to Resist & Stop Kavanaugh, STOP a Fascist America and Get Organized for an Actual Revolution! The past week has witnessed Senate hearings over the most monumental Supreme Court nomination in decades. In a matter of weeks, the Supreme Court could have not just a “conservative majority,” but a solidly[Read More…]
On September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India in a historic judgment Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India heralded a new dawn for the personal liberty in India as it decriminalised section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. It is thought to be a major victory for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community in India. It did[Read More…]
In the light of the devastating floods of 2018 many people are coming forward with suggestions for the future of Kerala’s development. I too came up with a ten point agenda for Kerala. 1. All Dams in the Western Ghats, including Mullaperiyar Dam should be decommissioned 2. Determine the Flood Zone of the Rivers 3. All homes created in the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The Global #RiseForClimate actions are just one example of many that the climate justice movement is building the power needed to transform the economy and put in place policies to confront climate change. The ingredients exist for the climate justice movement to rapidly succeed. A challenge is not knowing how much time we have. Scientists have[Read More…]
The next blow in Boris Johnson’s chapter of political suicide has been made: a piece in the Mail on Sunday which supplied him ample room to take yet another shot at the ghostly British prime minister, Theresa May. There was nothing new in it; everybody knew what Johnson’s views were, and the position he had taken since hyperventilating over July’s[Read More…]
Once again India-Pakistan relations are getting enmeshed in the emergent ‘neo-cold war between Washington and Moscow. Since Donald John Trump took over as President of the United States, it has become more than obvious. The two countries are apparently yet to learn lesson from the past- that it was they joining the cold war politics, which immensely contributed to[Read More…]
Indian democracy is in grave danger. First it was all about lynchings of muslims and dalits and killing of some selective activists but now the tide of intolerance and bigotry has entered the houses of all, including the urban intellectual class, labellled by present regime as “Urban Naxals”, which has derived widespread condemnation. No one is being spared now. Those[Read More…]
The world of today is altogether in contradiction to the times of the previous ages. Technology has taken the global order by a major revolutionary storm and made the world a knowledge driven global network. Internet forms the mainstay of the current times and is in fact a boon companion of man in the modern times. Internet is the constitutive[Read More…]
Last Friday was an eventful and emotional day for this exiled Palestinian. I recorded a TV programme, ‘Eye on Palestine’ for Al Magharibia Channel on the continuing plight of the Palestinian refugees. I’ll share the link with you when I receive it. But the evening was the major event when both my wife and I attended the second yearly awards[Read More…]
A curious case ( though those who know the reality understand it well) of a person being posted as a senior functionary in Uttarakhand under the ST category happened to be a Brahmin. Nautiyal in Uttarakhand are brahmins and that is a well known and established fact but then if Nautiyal Saheb is an ST on a piece of paper[Read More…]
In my earlier article “Shudras Built The Indus Valley Civilization!” I argued that the Agni and Vayu worshipping Rigvedic Aryans might have caused the destruction of 1500 years of Harappan and post-Harappan civilization. My broad thesis that the South Indian names and spiritual cultures match with the productive and spiritual cultures of Harappan civilization is confirmed by the DNA analysis[Read More…]
Nepal and China have made a significant step in bilateral relations by finalizing the text of the protocol to the proposed agreement that would help facilitate Nepal to use Chinese sea and land ports for third country trade. This has come as a sequel to the signing of the Transit and Transportation Agreement by Prime Minister K P Oli two[Read More…]
On September 7, 2018, speaking at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, President Obama said that Democrats are running on “good new ideas like Medicare for All…” This indicates a significant shift in support of National Improved Medicare for All (NIMA). President Obama is campaigning for Democrats in the mid-terms and his public support for NIMA right at the start shows how[Read More…]
A Review of David Ray Griffin’s The American Trajectory: Divine or Demonic? The past is not dead; it is people who are sleeping. The current night and daymares that we are having arise out of murders lodged deep in our past that have continued into the present. No amount of feigned amnesia will erase the bloody truth of American history,[Read More…]
Racist Religious Right Republican (R4) US President Donald Trump is making indignant claims about Fake News and Media Bias on a daily basis that are variously disputed by his opponents. However his latest claim that he is being censored by Google does have some substance. Zionist-dominated Google heavily censors important assertions by both Donald Trump and Al Gore about US[Read More…]
The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) walked out in protest from the Malayali Samajam event in Delta on Saturday, September 8 after its cofounder Gurpreet Singh was stopped from speaking at the behest of an Indian diplomat in Vancouver. The IAPI delegates, including Singh, Parshotam Dosanjh, Navtej Johal, Rakesh Kumar and Amrit Diwana had gone there to[Read More…]
This opinion Piece was widely circulated through the Independent Newspapers Group and was published in the Daily News (08 Sept 2008), Cape Argus (11 Sept. 2008) and in other newspapers belonging to the group. It has since been republished over the past decade by universities, NGOs and in international media. The repeated requests to have it republished is based on[Read More…]
India’s gross domestic product (GDP) has grown at a robust 8.2% in the first quarter of the current financial year, according to recently released official data. This is the highest in the last two years which has seen two shocks to the economy in the form of demonetisation and GST. The spurt in growth is due to a sharp increase in the[Read More…]
A large number of countries undertakes the general obligation to protect political refugees. However, the responsibility to safeguard humanitarian refugees is still moral and humanitarian for a large number of countries. In some cases, the principle of asylum for refugees is expressly acknowledged in the national constitution. In others, ratification of the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status[Read More…]
The beginning and the end of cinema halls in Kashmir is linked with the turmoil it has witnessed for about nine decades now. During the early 1930s, when Kashmir was passing through an uncertain situation following the massacre of about two dozen unarmed civilians on 13 July 1931 and the consequent public revolt against an autocratic rule, a Punjabi speaking[Read More…]
We, the undersigned faculty, staff, and students of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) community, are issuing this statement in response to the arrests of, and raids on, human rights activists and academics, in the last week of August 2018. We believe that democracy thrives when dissent is allowed, and not in an environment of fear and persecution and[Read More…]
The irresistible allure of invasion and interference has never been far from US law makers. The imperium needs its regular feed and what a feed it has been over the decades, notably within the sphere of influence discomfortingly termed Washington’s backyard. The current US president has shown himself a keen follower of the idea that the US military, that old,[Read More…]
Sweden – Massive Up-scaling of False-flagging to Nationwide High Crimes – Will it Make the Right-Wing Swedish Democrats to Kingmakers on 9 September 2018? The current Swedish Government, led by the Social Democrats, is governed by a coalition with the Green Party since 2014. Incumbent PM, Stefan Löfven, intends to continue his government and hopes to win on general[Read More…]
The sensation this week is Bob Woodward’s book on the Trump White House titled, “Fear: Trump in the White House.” It shows a President Trump universally disparaging his own White House staff, even cabinet members. His first Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is likened to a rat, “He just scurries around.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions is, “mentally retarded. He’s this[Read More…]
India`s agriculture sector is under deep threat. Farmers are observed protesting almost in every state of the country struggling for their genuine demands of Minimum Support Price (MSP). The farmers are being compelled to sell almost all their produce at prices much below MSP and the Modi Government is a mute spectator. The poor farmers are committing suicide. On the[Read More…]
I am appalled and angry at the British government’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism following pressure by various Jewish Zionist groups for the same reason I am against another document the British government was pressured into adopting – the Balfour Declaration of 1917, “a short letter by Arthur Balfour to arguably one of the[Read More…]
The supreme court has extended the house arrest of five human rights activists who were arrested last week. However, when the case comes before it on 12th September, it would be a enormous service to nation if it could reflect on the larger picture of the country in which human rights activists are branded, framed, arrested and sent to jail[Read More…]
The “Carte Blanche” of Jammu and Kashmir legislative Assembly-Article 35-A was incorporated in the Constitution of India by presidents order in 1954. The president’s order provision is under the Article 370 (1)(d) of Indian constitution. This article allows the president of India to make certain “exceptions and modification” to the constitution for the welfare of residents of Jammu and Kashmir.[Read More…]
(The most important confidence building measure between India and Pakistan initiated in April, 2005 has virtually become an unbearable ordeal for the passengers!) It was for the first time since the establishment of a ceasefire line in 1947 (present LOC or the line of control) that people were allowed to cross from both the sides in April, 2005. Even though[Read More…]
The outcome of the 2+2 Dialogue between the Foreign and Defence Ministers of India and the United States held in New Delhi is on expected lines. It is clear from the statements issued by the leaders of the two countries— jointly and in different contexts—that India has been incorporated into the US strategic games in the Indo-Pacific region with attendant[Read More…]
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. This year is is the tenth anniversary of Kandhamal violence. During this brutal invasion on the Christian community, around 393 churches and worship places which belonged[Read More…]
On August 6 a team of climate scientists led by Will Steffen of Australian National University published a paper in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Science and issued a stern warning to humanity. The paper which has come to be known as “Hothouse Earth” warns, “We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System[Read More…]
The solidarity economy is a global movement to build a post-capitalist world that puts people and planet front and center, rather than the pursuit of blind growth and profit maximization. It isn’t a blueprint but a framework that includes a broad range of economic practices that align with its values: solidarity, participatory democracy, equity in every dimension including race, class[Read More…]
Supreme Court of India has ruled to decriminalise gay sex, in an historic and unanimous verdict handed down by a five-judge panel that will have a profound impact both here in India and across the world. The court ruled that consensual sex between adults of any gender was no longer deemed a crime. Until now, gay sex had been punishable[Read More…]
Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) admininstrators have stopped the screening of the students’ documentary film Hora directed by Harishankar Nachimuthu raising security concerns after receiving threats from ABVP. The film mainly revolves around Kabir Kala Manch. This is what we have always been afraid of! Most of our earlier GBMs during strike was about how the new appointments,[Read More…]
Imagine a state of laws where murder is illegal if the victim is clad in a blue shirt, but legal if the victim is not wearing blue. A system where robbery is illegal if the victim has white skin but legal if the victim has dark skin. Such a system would be an outrage in human society. But this is the system of[Read More…]
It has been nearly three decades since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Despite Russia’s reemergence on the world stage as a respected power after market-oriented ‘reforms’ destroyed its economy for the duration of the nineties, the breakup of the USSR is an event regarded by an increasing amount of Russians as a catastrophic tragedy rather than a triumph[Read More…]
Seconds after exiting his patrol car, Jason Van Dyke pumped 16 shots into 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, murdering him in cold blood. For over a year, the authorities lied and covered up the video. When it was finally released, millions of people around the world learned the truth: Laquan McDonald was gunned down as he walked away from the police.[Read More…]
Signs of opposition to policies of Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and potentially increased domestic polarization have in the past week spilled on to the streets of London while a just released report questioned the economic and political benefits of Britain’s relationship with the kingdom. The London incidents, involving a brother of King Salman[Read More…]
” The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves ‘ S. Radhakrishnan While ‘teachers day ‘ is being celebrated with statements about their role in society and contribution to ‘ education ‘ of students, little light is being shed on their plight as well as some dangerous tendencies. Vacancies According to data compiled by The Times of[Read More…]
The reason India’s Dalits hate Gandhi is that, to the Dalits, he helped preserve the caste system, or Varna, in post independence India. To understand India you must understand caste, or what the real word is for this religious practice, Varna. To start with in the Indian language of Sanskrit, Varna literally translates into the word “color”. Your varna, your[Read More…]
My previous section dealt with India’s political and civic under-preparedness regarding water scarcity. But now I want to talk of the other extreme, as to our under-preparedness in the case of floods, in the realm of disaster management which is wider and includes earthquakes for which too India is not prepared and diseases etc., as witnessed to in the recent[Read More…]
Last month the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) declared the entire state in drought or drought-affected. The prolonged dry period is enhancing bushfire risk considerably, and will prolong the fire season to an unprecedented extent. Government indifference has exacerbated the plight of many farmers and rural communities that are reeling under[Read More…]
Tamil Nadu government which killed 13 people in Tutucorin, protesting against Sterlite Copper smelting factory owned by Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resource is turning even more repressive. In the latest episode Lois Sofia, 28 year old student studying in Canada, was arrested for shouting a slogan “fascist BJP government down, down” on board a flight in the presence[Read More…]
We, a group of alumni of IIT Kanpur and others as students, researchers, faculty, staff and other community members affiliated with the same institute strongly condemn the arrest of IIT Kanpur alumna Sudha Bharadwaj (Integrated MSc., Mathematics, 1979-1984) and other activists namely, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao, and the raiding of houses of Anand Teltumbde, K.[Read More…]
“The US has delivered an object lesson in how not to conduct diplomacy”, said the first sentence of an editorial of Dawn, a leading Pakistan daily. (“US aid cut”, September 3, 2018) The claimed “object lesson” was in reference to the US permanent aid cut to Pakistan of $300 million. The US announcement came only days proceeding to the planned[Read More…]
Hothouse Earth is this summer’s Uninhabitable Earth, a chilling reminder of how close we are to possibly fatal climate change. The Steffen et al PNAS paper is a review of the climate science concerned with the interplay of ten potential tipping points which when triggered by temperature rise due to anthropogenic warming could potentially push the Earth out of it’s[Read More…]
Behavior acculturated to ancestral norms, originally necessitated by occupation, is the focus of a new study in China with interesting ramifications for climate change. In general, farming requires more stable relationships than, say, herding with the constant movement of animals. Now the authors have taken farming a step further: They observed that northerners were three times more likely than southerners[Read More…]
Israel wants to change the rules of the game entirely. With unconditional support from the Trump Administration, Tel Aviv sees a golden opportunity to redefine what has, for decades, constituted the legal and political foundation for the so-called ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict.’ While US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has, thus far, been erratic and unpredictable, his administration’s ‘vision’ in Israel and[Read More…]
(Gurrinder Chadha’s film Viceroy’s House released last year reveals Churchill to be the real author of the conspiracy to partition India as well as Kashmir!) Last year a British Indian Director, Gurinder Chadha released a movie “Viceroy’s House” about the partition of India. The feature film is based on the goings-on at Viceroy’s House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) in Delhi. The[Read More…]
The conjugal act—the act of sexual intercourse—bring humanity into existence and sets in motion the next generations of society. Healthy societies maintain their stability by channeling the sexual energies of young adults into marriage, an institution that legitimizes sexual intercourse, protects the children that are the fruit of intercourse, and channels the giving and receiving of sexual pleasure in a[Read More…]
There is no doubt that the founding philosophy of administration in India is based upon the pre-independence British rule, and Our Indian constitution does hold true many laws that then existed. However, the British Law In India and the Indian Constitution are widely divergent in letter and in spirit. The Government of India Act, and subsequent acts were to legacy of the[Read More…]
There is a nation-wide scare about a plot to kill our beloved prime minister Narendra Modi-ji by Maoists. Thanks to the ever alert police force of Maharashtra – and aided by our even more alert national investigative agencies – the conspirators have been apprehended before they could carry out their plot. But it is a matter of grave concern [Read More…]
Brazil’s National Museum in Rio de Janeiro was gutted Sunday night by a massive fire that consumed not only the historic 19tth century palace that housed the institution, but a vast and irreplaceable collection of what was by far the largest natural history and anthropology museum in Latin America. The majority of the 20 million items it contained were[Read More…]
For over two decades, US neo-cons have been pushing for an attack on Iran on the pretext that it was developing nuclear weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been a key player in this effort, exerting as much pressure as he and the Israeli lobby can for an US attack. Netanyahu also often threatens that Israel might attack Iran. Note[Read More…]
It is appalling to be British and observe the circus of hysterical, ridiculous accusations being flung at Jeremy Corby by the Jewish Board of Deputies and their conservative and labour cohorts. I wonder if these self-righteous accusers have any perception of how we are viewed from afar by the more sane countries around the world. There is a simple question[Read More…]
Nazareth: The Trump administration’s decision to scrap all future aid payments to the main agency helping Palestinian refugees marks a new – and most likely disastrous – chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The US State Department said on Friday it would no longer continue its $360 million annual contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees[Read More…]
“Every notion of progress is refuted by the existence of the Iliad.” – Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony “The spectacle is the nightmare of imprisoned modern society which ultimately expresses nothing more than its desire to sleep. The spectacle is the guardian of sleep.” – Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle It’s still the same old[Read More…]
The past 10 days have seen an extraordinary spectacle around the death of Senator John McCain. The press gave a remarkable celebration of McCain’s entire life and character and implicitly, as well as in some instances explicitly, contrasted this with Trump. There was a weeklong series of commemorations, in different parts of the country. McCain himself planned his own funeral[Read More…]
“….Human nature is at least in part wicked and in part foolish, how can human beings be prevented from suffering from the results of their wickedness and folly? ….Men simply do not see that war is foolish and useless and wicked. They think on occasion that it is necessary and wise and honourable, for war is not the work of[Read More…]
The Press Conference Parambir Singh, ADG (Maharastra Police), flanked by his two deputies – Shivaji Bodkhe, JCP, Pune and the investigating officer, Shivaji Pawar, ACP, in a press conference in Mumbai, inaugurated a distinctly new storyline, incorporating and retaining only fragments of the earlier official versions, on the nationwide raids and arrests carried out on August 28. (Ref.: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=PCVKfstx2Qc&app=desktop#dialog>,[Read More…]
Maharashtra police held a press conference in Mumbai on August 31, 2018. Additional Director-General (law and order) of Maharashtra police Mr. Parambir Singh told the media that in relation to the incident of Bhima-Koregaon, initially a FIR was lodged on January 8, 2018. According to him the name of Stan Swamy was added in the aforesaid FIR on August 23[Read More…]
CDRO condemns the raid and arrests of democratic rights activists in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ranchi and Goa by Maharashtra police on 28th of August under the pretext of investigation in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. Following the arrests of five academics, lawyers and activists in June, the second wave of arrests have expanded to include writers and journalists as[Read More…]
Be wary of the self-satisfied and morally soothed. The complacent have a habit of giving the game away, glorifying themselves in satisfied satiation. Australia’s parliament seemed to be very self-congratulatory in their condemnation of the newly arrived Senator of the Katter Australia Party, Fraser Anning. Last month, the rough, seemingly untutored Anning became the convenient freak show for his fellow[Read More…]
“Learn about the dangers of the Internet before you start using it!” “Anyone who thinks their computer or smartphone is not installed with government software is a child. We are all on the grid and we are all traceable to someone.” These are only two comments from many on an Associated Press report headlined “Lawsuit lays bare Israel-made hack tools[Read More…]
For the past seventy years the war of words, on the floor of the United Nation’s Security Council on the Kashmir Dispute, has been a routine with India and Pakistan. It, in fact, began, on 30 December 1947, when New Delhi sent a cable to the Security Council, through its representative at UN. The cable, making a complaint under Article[Read More…]
Majority Humanity, especially people whose 3rd World countries have suffered bombing by Americans, as did Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Grenada should take carful note of the adulation awarded a pilot, like McCain, who dutifully bombed cities with women and children in a non-Caucasian nation, for some time soon there will[Read More…]
Haya Nahin Hai Zamane Ki Ankh Mein Baqi Khuda Kare Ke Jawani Teri Rahe Be-Dagh (Iqbal) Violence against woman is a universal phenomenon. The main idea behind this article is to see the multiple forms of violence against women prevalent in our society. Resorting to cruel treatment like sexual assault against her done by her brother-in-law, father-in-law, cousin,[Read More…]
My friend, a senior UN official based in Amman, Jordan, recently received a newsletter from an Israeli institution – “IMPACT-se”. Their report was called, ‘modestly’, “Reformulating School Textbooks During the Civil War”. It is full of analyses of the Syrian curriculum. Interesting stuff, without any doubt:Manipulative, negative, but interesting. It made it to many other places in the Middle East;[Read More…]
Co-Written By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Ten years ago, there was panic in Washington, DC, New York City and financial centers around the world as the United States was in the midst of an economic collapse. The crash became the focus of the presidential campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain and was followed by protests that created a[Read More…]
A cradle of civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egyptian, a region which saw the rise and fall of some of the illustrious empires like Assyrian, Neo-Assyrian, Achaemenid, Macedonian, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman, the birthplace of three Semitic religions – West Asia – is at present an arena for social, religious, political, cultural and ethnic conflicts and where perpetual peace[Read More…]
Since his recent Gestapo-style abduction, rather than arrest, Shahidul Alam of Bangladesh is no longer a stranger to people, well-beyond the boundaries of his country. Twenty-odd Bangladeshi law-enforcers – all in plainclothes – stormed into his house, destroyed the cc cameras on the premises, neutralized the security guards, and picked him up around midnight on August 5th. By now twelve[Read More…]
The assault on the Palestinian people by the Trump administration has taken a vicious turn. Not only does it deny them their right of return, and compensation for damage done to their lives and livelihoods as enshrined in UN resolution 194, it also just denies them their daily bread. This is not new. In 2016, Mr Trump, the then Republican[Read More…]
The Australian press have been in a state of drooling ecstasy. Part of it is because Australia can be relevant, however negative it might be, to their monster cousin, defender and protector known as the United States. This time, its cultural – in the legal sense. Erin Brockovich has found herself doing the media rounds on yet another legal project,[Read More…]
I have been writing a series on how America and Americans interfered in Russian at all levels of Russian society to bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. First of all, they sent American economic advisors to Russia to implement “shock therapy” policies which rapidly transformed The Soviet Union from a communist to a capitalist country, giving rise to[Read More…]
Ten days of incessant downpour has turned Kerala into a theatre of destruction. 483 deaths, thousands of homes inundated, over a million and a half people in relief camps, roads and the major airport flooded and damaged- an unparalleled tragedy in the history of the state renowned for its high social indices and progressive political ambience. The Kerala deluge[Read More…]
Do not be afraid, my dear For your fear is what they want And if you agree with them You will become a stagnant slave. Do not become a slave, my child For your slavery is what they want And if you agree with them You will vanish from this landscape. Do not vanish my darling For your disappearance is[Read More…]
The summary The new educational policy and proposed reforms like CBCS, RUSA, Central Universities’ Act are steps towards conformity of the WTO demands commoditization, liberalization and privatization of education on the so-called developing countries and the least developed countries. It is to be noted that the WTO representing the interests of the imperialist global capital, has included education in GATTS[Read More…]
The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) held a rally against the recent arrests of five political activists in India. The Friday rally organized at Holland Park in Surrey was attended by the representatives of various progressive groups. The speakers unanimously condemned the the arrests of revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, Human Rights lawyer Sudha Bhardawaj, besides authors and[Read More…]
Any argument against Article 35-A of the Constitution of India in isolation from the political and social conditions in which partition of India, accession of JK with India took place and in which Orders and Notifications of 1927 and 1932 were issued by the then Ruler of JK Maharaja Hari Singh is patently bound to lead to wrong conclusions about[Read More…]
Is there really no solution to Kashmir problem? Are we all going to face this Democratic Hitlerism for generations? Every morning I wake up I get to know someone has been killed, someone arrested, some innocent school going kids losing their eyesight for something that they don’t even know. I am feared; if I go outside I might not come[Read More…]
This September, hundreds of thousands of Russian, NATO and Chinese troops are being mobilized in dueling war games across Eurasia. These exercises, the largest in Russia and Europe since the end of World War II, come amid an escalation of military conflicts and tensions directly posing the danger of a clash between nuclear-armed powers. Today, as the Russian Navy[Read More…]
A friend whatsapped me a clip of a news item published in The Hindu of today instant under the heading “Activist held meets abroad: police” in which in reference to me the following lines are written
An aggressive sign of an affluent society can usually be gauged by its invidious misuse of its privilege. Poverty is deemed necessary, and the rich must try to understand it. To be privileged is to be guilty, a tickling of the conscience as the pennies pile up and the assets grow; and from that premise, efforts must be made to[Read More…]
Almost all leaders especially popular do good things to gain the status of a popular leader. But they also make mistakes. However, people often seem to get fiercely divided in portraying leaders in a balanced manner, especially posthumously. McCain, an immediate example of contradictions Senator John McCain for example, who died of brain cancer on August 28, 2018 is a[Read More…]
Ahwazi rights groups worried about the suicide trend; highest rate was among Ahwazis aged 18-25. Several workers at a sugar processing plant in the Haft Tepe district, located about 15 km south-east of Susa city in the northern Ahwaz region, have attempted to commit suicide by dousing themselves with Benzene and setting themselves on fire. Their colleagues intervened, rescuing them[Read More…]
Last year marked 40 years since the end of the Vietnam War. At least that’s what it’s called in the United States, the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, it’s called the American War to distinguish the phase involving the United States from those involving other aggressors and colonizers — China, France and Japan most notably. The occasion has been marked by[Read More…]
The long Rohingya run is passing more than a year in its current phase – a huge number of the Rohingyaas in Bangladesh. Amidst diplomatic dialogues, and imperialist intrigues the Rohingyas staying in Bangladesh are passing difficult days. The Rohingyaas’ days are harsh and hard, very difficult to bear. Their days are uncertain and undignified also. Living on doles is[Read More…]
Introduction U-S President, Donald Trump, has threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organization. Trump, in an interview with Bloomberg News, said he will pullout from the organization if it QUOTE does not shape up. The U-S president warned that he could even take action against the WTO. Trump has complained that the US is being treated unfairly in[Read More…]
An organised expose by the Syrian and Russian governments over a 3 day period starting 27th August may have thwarted a British backed plan to stage a “false flag” chemical weapons attack in Idlib province that would have forced the US to launch a missile and air assault on Syria. According to Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson, Igor Konashenkov, a militant[Read More…]
In a strong setback to the backers of right wing ideology, the Law Commission of India has said that a uniform civil code “is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage” in the country.. the Commission said secularism cannot contradict the plurality prevalent in the country. The Commission, led by former Supreme Court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan, said “cultural diversity[Read More…]
“An unarmed, peaceful protest procession in the land of `salt satyagraha’, fast-unto- death and `do or die’ is no jural anathema” –Krishna Iyer A valuable aspect of political life in India is a tradition to express grievances through direct action or peaceful protest and a distinguishing feature of any democracy is the space offered for legitimate dissent. One cherished Organized,[Read More…]
ABVA organizes the first ever gay rights protest in India at Police Head Quarters, New Delhi; 11 August, 1992 As the Supreme Court of India is on the verge of decriminalizing adult consensual homosexual sex in India an attempt to capture ABVA’s struggle for gay rights in India in the twentieth century is in order. The struggle was unique as[Read More…]
Chapter 2 – Poverty and Class analysis with reference to 2014-2018 BJP rule (I Part on Water) Coming to water next – an issue so pressing that all governments should suspend themselves and concentrate on solving this if they are to make any sense in India for the 2019 election. “A few numbers from the World Bank highlight the plight[Read More…]
I am writing to voice my deep concern about the the arrests of Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Varavaa Rao, as I strongly believe that they are directly linked to their peaceful and legitimate work in defence of human rights.
I know well in advance that the followers of Baba Ramdev would not like this piece of writing. I also know that there would be a strong criticism and disapproval by the Babas loyalists. People will blame me as if I am writing like a party man. I am a political man. Rather I am a common man who is[Read More…]
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes. Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, a choking gall and a preserving sweet.” ~ William Shakespeare The Philosophy of Love is considered as the field of social philosophy, which is specifically focused[Read More…]
A Statement Issued by New Socialist Initiative (NSI) on the recent arrests of human rights defenders and public intellectuals With Ground Slipping Fast Beneath Its Feet, BJP government Resorting to Draconian Measures ! 1. New Socialist Initiative strongly condemns the arbitrary and malicious manner in which the Pune Police, at the behest of its saffron masters, raided the houses of[Read More…]
Dear Shri K. Venkateshan I feel terribly sorry about your future career. You missed a chance of winning a police medal – or even a Padmashri. Even though you got custody of the five rights activists (Varvara Rao Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira) – you failed to bump them off in a false `encounter’, the oft-repeated [Read More…]
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My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
