Archive for October, 2018

In the wake of deadly attack on synagogue in Pittsburg PA:American Muslim groups express solidarity with the Jewish community

In the wake of deadly attack on synagogue in Pittsburg PA:American Muslim groups express solidarity with the Jewish community

  American Muslim civil advocacy groups have strongly denounced the killing of worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh PA. In solidarity with the Jewish community two Muslim organizations have raised around $200,000 to help victims and their families of the synagogue shooting. Robert Bowers, a white supremacist stormed into the synagogue during Sabbath and fired upon innocent[Read More…]

by 31/10/2018 1 comment World
Deporting Rohingya will violate the principle of non-refoulement

Deporting Rohingya will violate the principle of non-refoulement

  The international legal principle of non-refoulement and India’s obligation under this has come under intense media discussions following India deported on October 4 seven Rohingya immigrants back to their country of origin i.e. Myanmar where they fear persecution. India is also contemplating en mass deportation of around 40,000 Rohingya immigrants living in different parts of the country. Though the[Read More…]

by 31/10/2018 2 comments Human Rights
Inauguration of Sardar Patel’s Statue of Unity Without People’s Support

Inauguration of Sardar Patel’s Statue of Unity Without People’s Support

Narmada District, Gujarat: Around 90 activists from around Gujarat are reported to have been arrested by Narmada district police in Rajpipla and other places. A whole Government -the executive, administration, regular police, Reserve Police Force, Home Guards- from across the State has descended on Kevadia for the 31st October ‘tamasha’ being conducted in the name of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Sardar[Read More…]

by 31/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Julian Assange warns that Ecuador is moving to end his political asylum

Julian Assange warns that Ecuador is moving to end his political asylum

Before being abruptly cut off by an Ecuadorian government lawyer during a court hearing on Monday, WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange accused that government of seeking to end his asylum in its London embassy and hand him over to the United States. Assange spoke from the tiny embassy via teleconference to a hearing in Quito of a lawsuit in[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
(Photo: Joe Brusky/flickr/cc)

The Clock Is Ticking on Addressing Climate Change — Med Students Can Help

The clock is ticking faster than ever before. The latest report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns us that we have only 12 years left to keep the maximum temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius and, thus, avoid calamitous environmental devastation. This report, over 1200 pages and written by 91 researchers across 44 countries, explains that[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment Climate Change
On Marches:  Military, Murderous and Mighty

On Marches:  Military, Murderous and Mighty

Marches are the supreme symbolic subsumation of the ego.  Individuals do not march, only unified groups of people sharing a common mass identity march.  Soldiers, who qua soldiers, have had their   individualities destroyed and been taught to obey unquestioned and unquestionable orders, move as one.  The very uniform movement their uniformed bodies, the sight and sound of their precision –[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
Why Only Bengalis Of Assam Die For NRC?

Why Only Bengalis Of Assam Die For NRC?

It feels nice when we say that the Constitution believes in equality. But it feels insulting and oppressive to the same extent, when the political policies grant an unequal bill named NRC, just to oppress the Bengali community of Assam. The barrier of language has been there between the Assamese and the Bengali community from decades and never did the[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
All For One And One For All!

All For One And One For All!

One of the topics that severely bothers me involves othering and stereotyping a tribal group of which one doesn’t belong or supposedly doesn’t belong as being bad. Instead one vilifies due to some superficial or imagined difference rather than seeing commonality. In this vein, people only naming Muslims as terrorists in the the USA doesn’t whitewash with me despite that[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 4 comments World
Reforming the Faith: Indonesia’s battle for the soul of Islam

Reforming the Faith: Indonesia’s battle for the soul of Islam

Nahdlatul Ulama, with 94 million members the world’s largest Sunni Muslim movement, is bent on reforming Islam. The powerful Indonesian conservative and nationalist group that operates madrassahs or religious seminaries across the archipelago has taken on the ambitious task of reintroducing ijtihad or legal interpretation to Islam as it stands to enhance its political clout with its spiritual leader, Ma’ruf[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
Partition Angst in Annada Shankar Roy’s Nursery Rhyme

Partition Angst in Annada Shankar Roy’s Nursery Rhyme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0gOLaYH-rk A translation of Annada Shankar’s Teler Shishi with commentary The Jar of Oil Annada Shankar Roy Translated by Monish R Chatterjee   Little Khuku breaks a jar of oil, And here you are fighting mad Yet you, grown-up kids, breaking up, dividing our Bharat You say ain’t half as bad Well, what then? What then? What then?   There you[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 2 comments Arts/Literature
Mercury, the other geologically persistent planetary poison

Mercury, the other geologically persistent planetary poison

The thing that really gets me in the gut about global warming from fossil fuel combustion is how long it will last. Carbon mined from the deep Earth and injected into the “fast carbon cycle” of the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface will continue to affect atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and climate, for hundreds of thousands of years into the future, unless we clean[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment Environmental Protection
President Donald Trump meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Saudi Arabia: A Dark Stain on Islam

Many people around the world wrongly believe that Saudi Arabia “represents” Islam. Nothing could be further from the truth. Islam is not represented by any nation, at least not Saudi Arabia. Like all enemies of Islam, Saudi Arabia has blackened the name of Islam. Since its creation by the Anglo-American imperialism in the early 1930s, Saudi Arabia has served AngloZionism[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 2 comments World
A Debate for Auditor: What the Papers Wouldn’t Say

A Debate for Auditor: What the Papers Wouldn’t Say

  Why does the Green Party elect so few people in the US while similar parties have elected representatives across the globe?  Some have suggested it is the way Greens organize or problems with the leadership.  While these may be contributing factors, they could hardly be a complete explanation since the Democrats and Republicans have elected thousands of incompetent, disorganized[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
Fact-Checking the Establishment’s “Fact-Checkers”: How the “Fake News” Story is Fake News

Fact-Checking the Establishment’s “Fact-Checkers”: How the “Fake News” Story is Fake News

 It would be an understatement to say that during U.S. President Donald Trump’s term in office, the issue of truth and falsehoods has been a central topic of political discourse. It was a reoccurring issue throughout the 2016 election and has only continued following his unlikely triumph. While naïve liberals who fetishize Trump would have us believe he is the[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
Cabral to Bolsonaro: História do Brasil

Cabral to Bolsonaro: História do Brasil

Far-right politician ‘Captain’ Jair Bolsonaro won the second round of Presidential election in Brazil and became the captain of the ‘sinking ship’. Brazil, a wrecked economy, needs a strong political authority to control the economic crisis post-Operation Car Wash tornado. The politico-economic history of Brazil is a roller coaster ride from boom to doom or development to underdevelopment. Brazil fell[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
Distress Signals from Colombo

Distress Signals from Colombo

Sri Lanka has landed itself in an unexpected, unprecedented crisis with the President Maithripala Sirisena taking decisions having tricky political implications. Citing differences over a host of issues, Sirisena cast out Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, dismissed the cabinet and suspended Parliament.  President’s extraordinary move to suspend Parliament and appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as new Prime Minister raised many eyebrows in Sri[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 2 comments South Asia
New Delhi: Traffic policemen wear masks to protect themselves from heavy smog and air pollution while manning the traffic, in New Delhi on Wednesday. The smog and air pollution continue to be above the severe levels in Delhi NCR on Tuesday. PTI Photo by Kamal Kishore(PTI11_8_2017_000037B)

Stubble Burning and Neo-liberal absurdity

Mandeep, 23, completed his graduation in political science from Punjab University in 2015 before he became regular assistant to his farmer father. His father Murari Choudhary owns 10 acre of land in Jogipur village in Patiala district, of which around 6 acres were occupied with wheat. His son, an active worker of SOI (Student Organisation of India), student wing of[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 2 comments Environmental Protection
The Prosperity of Trigger

The Prosperity of Trigger

With the trigger prospering unabatedly without any let off, the autumn in Kashmir is characteristically more auburn, crimsoned and of course paler and tawny russet than before, both the perspiration from sky as well as shedding of the human blood – a deluge of death continues in free style. Death looks a happy go hunting, plucking of the buds, turning[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment Kashmir
Elephant deaths can be prevented

Elephant deaths can be prevented

Elephant deaths due to electrocution, running over by trains (accidents) and killing by people is due to human- animal conflict and could be tackled. Considerable work was done at IIIT Allahabad. It is possible to detect and identify the animal crossing an imaginary sensor line. If the animal is near human habitation, human beings get warning and are advised to[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Land Reforms as political agenda for 2019

Land Reforms as political agenda for 2019

Land Reforms are a forgotten subjects for the political parties and the policy makers. It is ironical that the ‘biggest’ democracy of the world does not give the issue of land reforms a priority. Even the political parties have paid merely lip services. The social movements that we have seen during the past few years were actually against the transnational[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment India
A Not-So-Splendid Caste:  The Hypocrisy of the Bono-rati

A Not-So-Splendid Caste:  The Hypocrisy of the Bono-rati

  On the advice of loved ones—and against my better instincts- I attended an event at Seattle University, October 27th, featuring noted author Khaled Hosseini.  He was accompanied by Razia Jan, founder of Razia’s Ray of Hope. On the surface, such an event would seem not only worthwhile but uplifting.  After all, both of the speakers are of Afghan origin,[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - OCTOBER 28: Jair Bolsonaro, far-right lawmaker and presidential candidate of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), gestures after casting his vote during general elections on October 28, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Far-right candidate Bolsonaro elected as Brazil’s president

Brazil’s presidential run-off election Sunday confirmed what had been anticipated in the first round vote earlier this month and by subsequent electoral polls, with the election of the fascistic reserve Army captain and seven-term federal representative for the state of Rio de Janeiro, Jair Bolsonaro, as president. Bolsonaro won 58 million votes, or 55 percent of the total, against 47[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment World
Eleven killed in deadliest attack on Jewish community in US history

Eleven killed in deadliest attack on Jewish community in US history

Eleven people were killed and six injured after a gunman opened fire Saturday during the morning service at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Two of those injured are in critical condition, and one was undergoing his second surgery Saturday afternoon as doctors attempted to save his life. The names of the victims have not yet been released;[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
HIV prevention: Bridging the gap between research and impact

HIV prevention: Bridging the gap between research and impact

   We are at an incredible moment in the history of the HIV/AIDS response, which reflected in the vibrancy of the HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P 2018) – the only global scientific conference focused on the fast-growing field of biomedical HIV prevention research. Today, the latest research in different areas of biomedical HIV prevention, including vaccines, rings, microbicides and other[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Keep Kangla Sacred

Keep Kangla Sacred

  (Our Mothers sacrificed their modesty to ransom Kangla from the clutches of Indian Army) Kangla is a small area, less than one sq. km, in the heart of Imphal city, the capital of Manipur in North East India. Kangla is an important historical place that includes everything that took place in the history of Manipur. The history includes the[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment India
India’s Farmers Plan Mass March to the Nation’s Parliament as Agrarian Crisis Reaches “Civilization Proportions”

India’s Farmers Plan Mass March to the Nation’s Parliament as Agrarian Crisis Reaches “Civilization Proportions”

With over 800 million people, rural India is arguably the most interesting and complex place on the planet. And yet it is also one of the most neglected in terms of both investment and media coverage. Veteran journalist and founder of the People’s Archive of Rural India P. Sainath argues that the majority of Indians do not count to the nation’s[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 3 comments India
An American Team Won a World Series Another American Team Helps Saudis Slay Yemeni Children for $

An American Team Won a World Series Another American Team Helps Saudis Slay Yemeni Children for $

For three and half years, the Saudi’s have waged a horrendous war on Yemen. They have slaughtered tens of thousands of Yemenis – according to the UN Human Rights Commission more than 50,000 children died by Saudi air raids with UK supplied bombs, and US supplied war planes – through lack of sanitation and drinking water induced diseases, like cholera[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
The Importance of Alternative Media

The Importance of Alternative Media

The superficiality of today’s television Social critic Neil Postman contrasted the futures predicted in Nineteen Eighty Four andBrave New World in the foreword of his 1985 book “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. He wrote: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Working Class: Tale of a multitude

Working Class: Tale of a multitude

The Working Class has millions of tales. These are narrations of contradictions; these are descriptions of deprivations; these are tales of toil and torture; and most of these tales are untold and unknown. However, stories of success are built with the toil of the working class, a class exploited, a class in chains. Michael D. Yates, director of Monthly Review[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 2 comments Book Review
Chidambaram Has A Point

Chidambaram Has A Point

On Saturday, Oct27, 2018, there was a graveyard silence outside, and everything is in mourning over spurt of killings during the autumn-  fifty youth killed in a month. In this weird scenario the moment I sat on my desk to write a weekly column Ispotted an old book titled ‘The Governor Sage or Saboteur’ on a shelf in my small[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
DU Academic Council Protests Decision To Remove Kancha Illaiah Shepherd’s Books

DU Academic Council Protests Decision To Remove Kancha Illaiah Shepherd’s Books

Members of the Delhi University’s Academic Council have protested the university’s decision to remove Kancha Illaiah Shepherd’s books from the curricullum, saying, “The Standing Committee on Academic Affairs carries no brief on the privilege of determining the academic value of his works. By branding him ‘anti-Hindu’, it conflates the philosophical critique of Brahminical Hinduism with the abuse of faith.” In[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Julian Assange, Ecuador and the Dangers of Farce

Julian Assange, Ecuador and the Dangers of Farce

This is the next stage of the Julian Assange chronicles: from the summit of information disclosures and meddlesome revelations on classified state matters, the Australian rabblerouser now finds himself the subject of a new round of jokes and ribbing.  WikiLeaks, in short, must be wary of the dangers posed by a new campaign of farce. Satire, humour and ad hominem[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment World
Pakistan rules out any kind of ties with Israel as Netanyahu visits Oman

Pakistan rules out any kind of ties with Israel as Netanyahu visits Oman

Pakistan President Arif Alvi on Sunday (Oct 28) ruled out establishing any kind of relations with Israel as he strongly rejected reports that an Israeli aircraft carrying some officials secretly landed in Islamabad and flew away after several hours at the airport here. “Islamabad is not establishing any kind of relations with Israel,” President Alvi told the media before his[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment World
Railway project

Laos – China Is Building, West Is Destroying And Spreading Nihilism

 Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek It is one of those complex stories that are so difficult to tell, and yet they should, they have to be shared. Imagine the splendid Mekong River, as it flows not far from an ancient capital of Laos,Luang Prabang. The river is powerful, with muddy banks, surrounded by lush mountains. Imagine poor villages and old[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 3 comments World
Canada doubles down on double standards

Canada doubles down on double standards

Canada recently has been doubling down on two areas of global concern, highlighting its ongoing governmental rhetorical double standards. Humanitarian standards I had noted previously the twitter spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia. After the Saudis were insulted/enraged by Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s tweet concerning the sister of a Saudi journalist, the Saudis kicked out the Canadian ambassador. Since then[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment World
CBI feud : Supreme Court must take steps to restore trust

CBI feud : Supreme Court must take steps to restore trust

Whatever happened and is happening within the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is reminiscent of the conspiracies hatched in the middle ages or in a gang war. Due to its politicization, CBI has undergone tough times earlier too. The story as to how the Congress government used it for its political motives is clearly described in B. R. Lal’s book[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment India
IAPI honours Ravi Singh for standing up for human rights and needy

IAPI honours Ravi Singh for standing up for human rights and needy

Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) has honoured a world-renowned Sikh philanthropist who has made headlines for organizing relief camps in various conflict zones—including Syria and at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border—with a Radical Desi medal for standing up for human rights and needy without discrimination. The medal was presented to him at the Surrey Arts Center following a conference organized by[Read More…]

by 29/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
High sea level rise projections and the IPCC

High sea level rise projections and the IPCC

In a key paper titled “Scientific reticence and sea level rise” (https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/ha01210n.html)(2007)  James Hansen, the renown climate scientist, has been critical of what he regards as major underestimates of the magnitude and pace of global warming, as further elaborated in the article “How the IPCC Underestimated Climate Change: Here are just eight examples of where the IPCC missed predictions)” (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-ipcc-underestimated-climate-change/)[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 1 comment Climate Change
Governor’s revelation over favouritism in J&K Bank appointments

Governor’s revelation over favouritism in J&K Bank appointments

Newly appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik on his interview with Times Now revelled many things including the Major Scam in Jammu and Kashmir Bank. Governor Malik in an interview with Navinka of Times now said that stone pelters will no longer be given amnesty, he also said that stone pelting saw an increase during the BJP-PDP[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 1 comment Kashmir
CDRO Condemns the arrest of Adv.Sudha Bharadwaj,Adv.Arun Ferreira and activist Vernon Gonsalves

CDRO Condemns the arrest of Adv.Sudha Bharadwaj,Adv.Arun Ferreira and activist Vernon Gonsalves

Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO) strongly condemns the arrest of activists and lawyers Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira by Maharashtra police on the rejection of their bail petition by the special court of Additional Sessions Judge K D Vadane in Pune on 26.10.18. In this latest episode of the sordid drama unfolding over the last one and[Read More…]

The Arms Behind the Invictus Games

The Arms Behind the Invictus Games

The origins of the Invictus Games (“For our Wounded Warriors,” goes the slogan) lies in war.  Wars that crippled and caused depression and despair. The games became a project of grand distraction and worth, a form of emotional bread for servicemen and women.  Do not let wounds, mental or physical, deter you.  Move to the spirit of William Ernest Henley,[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 3 comments World
Video- Professor Francis Boyle on Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Sri Lanka on the Genocide of Tamils

Video- Professor Francis Boyle on Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Sri Lanka on the Genocide of Tamils

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Campaign: Stopping The Government of Sri Lanka’s Genocide Against the Tamils! Francis Boyle has been Professor of Law at University of Illinois College of Law since 1978, having obtained degrees in political science (Chicago), law (Harvard) and a PhD from Harvard also. He has been Bertrand Russell peace lecturer at McMaster University (2007) Parhad lecturer, University[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
New Delhi: Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting, M  Venkaiah Naidu interacting with the media on GST, in New Delhi on Friday. PTI Photo(PTI7_7_2017_000043B)

Will  #MeToo call Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu?

The  courageous  all-India  Me-too  campaign  has  nailed  powerful   male  personalities  ranging   from  film  directors  and  actors   to  media  journalists  and   political  leaders.  I  expect  the  veteran  Congress  politician  Renuka  Chowdhury  to  join  the  campaign,  since  according  to  her  own  account  she  had  suffered  sexist  remarks  from  no  less  a  person  than   India’s  present  Vice-President   Venkaiah  Naidu. To  recount,  in  March [Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 3 comments Patriarchy
The Golden Triangle of the Indian Constitution, Article 14, 19, 21 under threat in Telangana

The Golden Triangle of the Indian Constitution, Article 14, 19, 21 under threat in Telangana

Govt. failed the People’s Struggle for Telangana, People of Mehboobnagar and Vemulaghat Revealed Worsening Situations in Telangana More than 1.5 lakh acres of Land for Development Projects and Corporates, Where as mere 13,500 acres of Land for Landless in the State  Unprecedented Betrayal by KCR Govt.; Landless, Cultivators, Adivasis, Workers, De-notified Tribes Communities are Worst Affected  Vemulghat Standing Strong Against[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Market on Jhelum in olden times

Remembering autumns when there would be no bloodbaths

The Sun that like grand artist excited us when we would be still in our bed now stopped to be a painter for us. In wee hours, rising from behind the Zabarwan hillock, it now did not enter our bedroom through the latticed windows, to create those mesmerizing magical floral and geometrical images on the walls daubed with white clay[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Sabarimala Temple Entry: Sandeepananda Giri’s Ashram Attacked, Amit Shah Threatens Kerala Government

Sabarimala Temple Entry: Sandeepananda Giri’s Ashram Attacked, Amit Shah Threatens Kerala Government

An ashram in Kerala, founded by a preacher who supported the Supreme Court verdict allowing the entry of women of menstruating age to Sabarimala temple, was attacked by unidentified persons yesterday. Two cars and a scooter belonging to Swami Sandeepananda Giri’s School of Bhagavad Gita on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram were set on fire at around 2:30 am. The attackers[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Indian media no longer democracy’s fourth pillar

Indian media no longer democracy’s fourth pillar

The web portal, countercurrents.org, has been awarded this year’s Solidarity Media Award initiated by Solidarity Youth Movement. Countercurrents.org received this special award for its courageous interventions in upholding Human Rights and Citizen’s Rights’. Countercurrents editor Binu Mathew will receive the award on October 31 at Press Club Hall, Thiruvananthapuram from veteran journalist Thomas Jacob. The award carries 10,000 rupees and[Read More…]

by 28/10/2018 2 comments India
Highlighting the Need to Combat the Use of Rape as a Weapon of War

Highlighting the Need to Combat the Use of Rape as a Weapon of War

The co-laureate of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Denis Mukwege, has become an eloquent spokesperson for the effort to outlaw the use of rape as a weapon of war. Rape has often been considered as a nearly normal part of war. When an army took a city or town, the rape of women followed, a reward to brave soldiers. Military[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Khashoggi versus 50,000 Slaughtered Yemeni Children

Khashoggi versus 50,000 Slaughtered Yemeni Children

The European Parliament has asked yesterday (25 October) for an immediate embargo on the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, hence sanctioning the Kingdom of rogue Saudi Arabia which is joining the United States and Israel as the main purveyor of crime throughout the Middle East and the world. France still said they will apply sanctions only if it is[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
The Apocalypse Not Now

The Apocalypse Not Now

It was balmy and breezy by the bench where I sat outside a public library east of Atlanta, Georgia, brooding about the state of the world.  It seemed like the end times, and I had just attended a fire and brimstone sermon, not perused the mainstream and alternative press. I had just spent a few hours on the internet, notingso[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Who’s Afraid of Kancha Ilaiah?

Who’s Afraid of Kancha Ilaiah?

Delhi University has proposed removing three books by political scientist Kancha Ilaiah from its curriculum citing their “controversial content” and “vitriolic nature towards Hinduism”.  The three books –Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra critique of Hindutva philosophy, culture and political economy, Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution and God as Political Philosopher: Buddha’s Challenge to Brahmanism – are currently taught[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Countercurrents.org Receives Human Rights Award

Countercurrents.org Receives Human Rights Award

Countercurrents.org has been awarded this year’s Solidarity Media award initiated by Solidarity Youth Movement. Countercurrents receives this special award for ‘its courageous interventions in upholding Human Rights and Citizen’s Rights’. Countercurrents editor Binu Mathew will receive the award on October 31, 2018 at Press Club Hall, Thiruvananthapuram from veteran journalist Thomas Jacob. The award carries Rs 10,000 and a plaque.[Read More…]

Can the Working Class Change the World?

Can the Working Class Change the World?

Can the Working Class Change the World? It’s a fundamental political question in every economy and society, relevant to all concerned with and aware of class interests tangled in exploitative production relations. Politics in countries has centered around this question of class power. At times, the question has shaped geopolitics on the world stage. Michael D. Yates re-examines the question[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 5 comments Book Review
Privatisation of Education is dis-empowering the Poor

Privatisation of Education is dis-empowering the Poor

The pillar of a society that ensures the all round development of its members is ” EDUCATION ” . It enlightens the mind from darkness towards the path of right ideology, right concept and also right decisive action. Education has been framing the minds which is the integral instrument to make true person . In old days, the relationship between[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 1 comment India
Killing of Mohammad Azeem: Barbarism Normalised?

Killing of Mohammad Azeem: Barbarism Normalised?

The incidents of lynching, killing and abusing the opponents particularly of the Muslims in India have become a norm and the country seems to be either satisfied with justifying things or calling these events as aberrations. Every time such incidents happen and some of us shed our tears and go to the families. Some do fact findings, others go and[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 1 comment Communal Harmony
Going for a routine check-up when healthy?

Going for a routine check-up when healthy?

“Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.”Hippocrates I saw a good friend of mine who values his life so much that he thinks he needs to go for all blood tests every six months. He was there yesterday and was all anxious with a thick file of 14 bond paper sheets with all[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Love Patriarchy, Hail Hindu Rashtra !

Love Patriarchy, Hail Hindu Rashtra !

From Hindu Code Bill to Sabarimala via Roop Kanwar ’s Sati — keeping women subjugated under the cloak of tradition It was mid-eighties when a eighteen year old Roop Kanwar’s burning on the pyre of her husband – under controversial circumstances – had made national headlines. There was national outrage over the incident because more than 150 years after the[Read More…]

by 27/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Harps of Kashmir Bleed!

Harps of Kashmir Bleed!

O Mother, do not cry
For I have died but the battle stays
My death is not the full stop
It’s just a question which you must ask!

by 27/10/2018 1 comment Arts/Literature, Kashmir
A sustainable global population -and why we cannot achieve it

A sustainable global population -and why we cannot achieve it

In the period 1975 – 2018, world population increased at an average of 83 million per year, and reached 7.6 billion in 2018. The increase in 2017 was the difference between approximately 145 million births and 62 million deaths. Despite population growth, the global average daily food supply per person rose from 2440 kilocalories in 1975 to 2940 kilocalories in[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 3 comments Resource Crisis
“Because you are a woman?”: On the furore over Sabarimala

“Because you are a woman?”: On the furore over Sabarimala

In the centuries old struggle for justice and dignity, the question of women has always been at the centre, because in spite of forming half of humanity, they have always been wronged by the other half of it. Condemned as weak and inferior, their role was at most, that of being vassals to their self-proclaimed superiors. In our part of[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Sabarimala: Law Alone Cannot Transform the Social Order

Sabarimala: Law Alone Cannot Transform the Social Order

The controversy on women’s entry to the Sabarimala temple has once again drawn attention to the intricacies of social change. One speaks of social change in general, not merely of gender equality. One cannot but support the aspiration for equality that Sabarimala represents. But one is also left with the impression that it is one more case of people from[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 1 comment Patriarchy
Between black and white, more than 50 shades of gray

Between black and white, more than 50 shades of gray

It just takes a humane heart to condemn, raise voice or feel empathetic with regard to the pain and suffering experienced by the people of Kashmir since ages, more specifically the mayhem that occurred quite recently in Kulgam Kashmir where 7 civilians lost their lives and around 50 were injured. It is almost impossible to express the pain and loss[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
The reality behind the MSP hike on Rabi crops

The reality behind the MSP hike on Rabi crops

Days after facing intense farmers’ protests over multiple issues at Delhi-UP border the Union Cabinet on October 03, announced the increase in MSP of all six Rabi crops. The procurement for these crops will begin around Loksabha polls next year. The government notification claims that this will give “… a boost to farmers’ income”. And, this farmer friendly initiative will[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Reality Check: Where Is The ‘56-Inch’ Chest?

Reality Check: Where Is The ‘56-Inch’ Chest?

Now that the Modi government has done more than four years and we still do not know as yet whether Modi will succeed in his plan to succeed himself as Prime Minister following the 2019 general election, it is time to draw a balance sheet of India’s ‘Modified’ foreign policy with its emphasis on a “56-inch chest”. Prime Minister Narendra[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 1 comment India
The Saudi Arabian Model: Blueprints for Murder and Purchasing Arms

The Saudi Arabian Model: Blueprints for Murder and Purchasing Arms

It reads like a swaying narrative of retreat.  A man’s body is subjected to a gruesome anatomical fate, his parts separated by a specially appointed saw doctor – an expert in the rapid autopsy – overseen by a distinctly large number of individuals.  Surveillance cameras had improbably failed that day.  We are not sure where, along the line, the torturers[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 1 comment World
A Break from Double Speak – Trump Tells It Like It Is

A Break from Double Speak – Trump Tells It Like It Is

President Donald Trump’s comments regarding the murder of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, aptly reflect the true nature of the power brokers that he represents. Instead of the usual ‘Empire-speak’statements, hypocritically condemning Khashoggi’s murder, followed by a pep talk on the values of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom of speech’, Trump is basically saying, as the leader of one rogue state, to another,[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Armistice Day ended the War to End Wars; the Treaty of Versailles gave us War Without End

Armistice Day ended the War to End Wars; the Treaty of Versailles gave us War Without End

 Historians debate to what extent the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for Hitler’s march to World War II, but there can be little doubt that the treaty ending the “War to End All Wars” continues to be a major factor in our ongoing “War Without End.” On November, 11, 1918, Europe laid exhausted and nearly bled dry. Just months before[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Death of Prof. Guru Das Agrawal: A State Sponsored Killing

Death of Prof. Guru Das Agrawal: A State Sponsored Killing

Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey, Lubna Sarwath and Gurumoorthy M. Whether it was a slightly high dose of Potassium at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences at Rishikesh which ultimately caused cardiac arrest or deliberate neglect by the government over 112 days of fast-unto-death to demand a law for conservation of Ganga by Professor Guru Das Agrawal turned Swami Sanand,[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Sow hate, and reap violence

Sow hate, and reap violence

  We have all been taught that love begets love. That might not be always true as many of us have learnt at great emotional costs. Is that true of hatred too? Does hatred sometimes beget love, or tolerance or benign indifference?  I wonder going by the events that have taken place across the country with the accession to power[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
‘Sabarimala ‘ and ‘#MeToo – exposition of deep malice in society

‘Sabarimala ‘ and ‘#MeToo – exposition of deep malice in society

This is a rare phase in history where women are fearlessly voicing their rights despite the obstacles raised by male chauvinists. While many people are applauding the movements some are either deriding or expressing some apprehensions. The movements have not only brought out tales of exploitation of women but also exposed caste contradiction and communal discrimination to the fore. As[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Man-elephant conflict on rise in Udalguri district of Assam

Man-elephant conflict on rise in Udalguri district of Assam

The continuing man-elephant conflict has taken a serious turn in Udalguri district in the present month of October causing deaths of one wild elephant and four human beings.In yet another death one Alfash Orang(30) was trampled by wild jumbo while he was on way to work in 13 No. Line area of Bhutiachang Tea garden under Paneri PS in Udalguri[Read More…]

by 26/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
“I Am a Nationalist”: Donald Trump Apes Mussolini in Drive to Destroy America

“I Am a Nationalist”: Donald Trump Apes Mussolini in Drive to Destroy America

Trump proudly says he is a “nationalist.” He is, of course, saying this to shore up support among white nationalists. The Nazi sites on the web were all having wet dreams in the aftermath. From the 1990s, polling has found that about 10% of Americans support far right militias. These are the white nationalists. Trump came to power by mobilizing[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 2 comments World
Delhi University Proposes To Remove My Books From The Syllabus

Delhi University Proposes To Remove My Books From The Syllabus

The meeting of the Delhi University Standing Committee for Academic Affairs, according to media reports, in its meeting on 24 October, 2018 has recommended to drop teaching of my three books for M.A. Political Science course. The three books are ‘Why I am not a Hindu’, ‘God as Political Philosopher: Buddha’s Challenge to Brahminism’; and ‘Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in[Read More…]

Kerala’s #MeToo Moment

Kerala’s #MeToo Moment

The ongoing #MeToo revelations have rattled the Kerala society and taken down some names with it. Prominent among them are veteran journalist and resident of The Hindu in Kerala, C.Gouridasan Nair, the co-founder and secretary of India’s Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Riyas Komu and poet A. Ayyappan. Gouridasan Nair was relieved of his duties and forced to go on leave after Delhi[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 1 comment Patriarchy
Culture of Sexism and Misogyny in India’s leading Law Institute

Culture of Sexism and Misogyny in India’s leading Law Institute

Over the past two week, #MeToo has bared some powerful men in Indian media and entertainment industry over alleged sexual misconduct, assault and harassment, however it is important to look at, a crowd sourced List of Sexual Harassment Accused (LoSha) made public exactly a year ago in October 2017, when the #MeToo campaign actually kicked off in India. The List[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 2 comments Patriarchy
Denials Down Under: Climate Change and Health

Denials Down Under: Climate Change and Health

Richard Horton’s note in an October 2015 issue of The Lancet was cautiously optimistic.  It described the launch of Doctors for Climate Change Action, led by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) in the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference COP21.  The initiative had arisen from a statement endorsed by a range of medical and international health organisations[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 1 comment Climate Change
Ahwaz sees massive surge in arrests as crackdown widens

Ahwaz sees massive surge in arrests as crackdown widens

Iran is witnessing a massive surge in human rights abuses of all types. These include extrajudicial killings, arrests, torture; crackdowns on journalists, intellectuals, activists and human rights advocates, repression of student movements, and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities.  Amongst those arrested are female activists and elderly people, including individuals with no involvement in any sort of activism, who apparently[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
The Khashoggi Crisis: A blessing in disguise for Pakistan’s Imran Khan

The Khashoggi Crisis: A blessing in disguise for Pakistan’s Imran Khan

The death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is proving to be a blessing in disguise for cash- strapped Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Mr. Khan’s blessing is also likely to offer Saudi Arabia geopolitical advantage. On the principle of all good things are three, Mr. Khan struck gold on his second visit to the kingdom since coming to office in[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 1 comment South Asia
Large Scale Ecological Destruction in Konkan Coasts, Samvidhan Samman Yatra reached Karnataka today

Large Scale Ecological Destruction in Konkan Coasts, Samvidhan Samman Yatra reached Karnataka today

Bhatkal, Karnataka: The Samvidhan Samman Yatra travelled through the magnificent Konkan Coast and witnessed the large-scale ecological devastation in the name of so-called economic Development. It was clearly evident that how Madhav Gadgil has rightly alerted the Government long ago through his report on Western Ghats. The pristine beauty of western ghats is being destroyed by widening of roads and[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Bluff In The Name Of Asuras

Bluff In The Name Of Asuras

Mahisasura! Just like everyone I heard this name for the very first time when I was a child and was being introduced to religion (mostly through books and partly through songs and TV shows). It was an exciting event to learn about the different Asuras and their battles with Gods. Constant battle with luminescent arrows flying from one side to[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 1 comment Annihilate Caste
My Tryst with Kashmir and What it Means to Me

My Tryst with Kashmir and What it Means to Me

News of violence and unrest coming from any part of the country – nay, the world – is disturbing. All the more so if it lasts and continues over long periods of time. And yet there are parts of the country that are special in a special way, and such news coming from there has a qualitatively altogether different effect[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 2 comments Kashmir
Kashmir: The Perennial Power Problem!

Kashmir: The Perennial Power Problem!

  (The PDD has been chasing the PPP for a longtime but the current year’s winter may see the climax of the problem!) No doubt because of our run of the river schemes we have extreme shortage due to low water level in winter yet we are unable to cope even though we have enough power available in the market[Read More…]

by 25/10/2018 1 comment Kashmir
Turkish president brands Khashoggi killing a premeditated murder

Turkish president brands Khashoggi killing a premeditated murder

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday provided details of the premeditated murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2 in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. While Erdogan had promised to expose the “naked truth” about the brutal killing, his less-than-full account indicates that his government is intent on exploiting the issue to further Turkish interests in the Middle[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Saudi Arabia pledges $6 billion to ease Pakistan’s economic crisis

Saudi Arabia pledges $6 billion to ease Pakistan’s economic crisis

  After weeks of speculation, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (Oct 23) stepped forward with a $6 billion bailout package for Pakistan’s ailing economy. The package includes $3 billion balance of payments support and another $3bn in deferred payments on oil imports. The Saudi package may provide breathing space to the government for dealing with economic challenges, but would not be[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 Comments are Disabled South Asia
The Jamal Khashoggi Affair

The Jamal Khashoggi Affair

Seventeen days after the October 2 “disappearance” of Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia officially stated that he was killed in its consulate in Turkey when he went there to collect papers permitting him to marry his Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz. The marriage had been fixed for October 3. Cengiz had waited for hours in vain for Khashoggi to come out of[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 1 comment World
Ditching Nuclear Treaties: Trump Withdraws from the INF

Ditching Nuclear Treaties: Trump Withdraws from the INF

President Donald J. Trump has made it his signature move to repudiate the signatures of others, and the latest, promised evacuation from the old US-Soviet pact otherwise known as the intermediate range nuclear forces (INF) treaty was merely another artefact to be abandoned. When it came into force after 1987, it banned ground-launched short- and medium-range missiles within the range[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Will Metoo movement in India challenge brahmanical patriarchy

Will Metoo movement in India challenge brahmanical patriarchy

The Minister has spoken about her #metoo. Yes, in 2004 it was the two female ministers who did a #metoo when they thought that Mrs Sonia Gandhi might become the prime minister of the country. Ms Sushma Swaraj and Ms Uma Bharati threatened that if that happen that they would live like ‘widows’ by shaving their head and doing so[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
‘A Cruel Choice’: Why Israel Targets Palestinian Schools

‘A Cruel Choice’: Why Israel Targets Palestinian Schools

  Several Palestinian students, along with teachers and officials, were wounded in the Israeli army attack on a school south of Nablus in the West Bank on October 15. The students of Al- Sawiya Al-Lebban Mixed School were challenging an Israeli military order to shut down their school based on the ever-versatile accusation of the school being a “site of[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
TOPSHOT - Brazil's right-wing presidential candidate for the Social Liberal Party (PSL) Jair Bolsonaro (C) gestures flanked by his son and Rio de Janeiro's elected Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (L) and the president of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) Gustavo Bebianno during a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 11, 2018. - The far-right frontrunner to be Brazil's next president, Jair Bolsonaro, stumbled Wednesday by spooking previously supportive investors, while a spate of violent incidents pointed to deep polarization caused by the election race. (Photo by Mauro Pimentel / AFP)        (Photo credit should read MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP/Getty Images)

Brazil – Bolsonaro Towards a Military Dictatorship – Worse than 80 Years Ago

  One week before the second round of voting in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, the extreme right-wing candidate from the Social Liberal Party (PSL), against Fernando Haddad from the Worker’s Party (PT), Lula’s Party, for Brazil’s Presidential run-off elections – Bolsonaro leads to polls by double digits, about 58 against 42. And the gap is growing, despite the fact that as[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The Psychology of Fascism

The Psychology of Fascism

  The continuing rise of fascism around the world is drawing increasing attention particularly as it takes firmer grip within national societies long seen to have rejected it. Some recent studies have reminded us of the characteristics of fascist movements and individuals, particularly as they manifest among politically active fascists. For example, in his recent bookHow Fascism Works: The Politics[Read More…]

by 24/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Image: Mr. Fish/Truthdig

The Rule of the Uber-Rich Means Either Tyranny or Revolution

At the age of 10 I was sent as a scholarship student to a boarding school for the uber-rich in Massachusetts. I lived among the wealthiest Americans for the next eight years. I listened to their prejudices and saw their cloying sense of entitlement. They insisted they were privileged and wealthy because they were smarter and more talented. They had[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 3 comments World
Mass Arrests in Ahwaz

Mass Arrests in Ahwaz

Iran is taking advantage of the attack to unite the ranks behind the besieged regime, but they have bigger worry than a single armed operation in Ahwaz as the incident is just another terror attack done by the Iranian regime. But the Ahwazis are paying a high price for the attack. Iranian regime continuous their systematic crack down on Ahwazi[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Understanding Kashmir imbroglio through historical narratives

Understanding Kashmir imbroglio through historical narratives

   History is replete with chronicles of conflicts since the dawn of the human civilization.Although, the scale and intensity of these conflicts can be variable,yet going through the narratives  and counter-narratives of the past,these conflicts ultimately paved way for the inquisitive enquiries and resolutions from the respective parties to the conflict in order to bridge the loopholes for the settlement[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 1 comment Kashmir
Bharatiya Janata Party or Bharatiya Jumla Party !

Bharatiya Janata Party or Bharatiya Jumla Party !

Review of ‘Truth in Fetters : Broken Promises and Shattered Unity’ “Change is in the air”! A retired academic who had his last assignment as Vice Chancellor of a leading university said to me the other day, while we were discussing the contemporary political scenario. Frankly admitting that he had supported Modi’s candidature then and had even discreetly campaigned for[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 1 comment Book Review
#MeToo In India Is Just A Tip Of An Iceberg And It Has Shaken The Patriarchy To Its Core

#MeToo In India Is Just A Tip Of An Iceberg And It Has Shaken The Patriarchy To Its Core

India is witnessing the crucial change where a few women courageously came out with their experience of sexual harrassment they have faced at their work placeand shared with the hastag #MeToo on the social media. Though, their number is small, yet the movement is reaching and spreading out. Still, what is being shared is just the tip of iceberg. There[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 1 comment Patriarchy
India’s #MeToo Moment

India’s #MeToo Moment

Last year when more than 70 women came out with allegations of sexual harassment against celebrated movie producer Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo Movement originally started by Tarana Burke succeeded in grabbing headlines. But Weinstein was not the only one who faced such accusations. Many other actors were accused of sexual harassment. Some like Kevin Spacey of House of Cards fame[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 1 comment Patriarchy
Some Initial Points on the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi…

Some Initial Points on the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi…

Editors’ note: The storm around Saudi Arabia’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is a fast-developing situation. We thought that the following initial points would be helpful for our readers. On October 2, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on personal business. While there, he was attacked and murdered by high-ranking agents of the Saudi government. The murder[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 2 comments World
Pakistan, Russia hold third round of joint military exercises

Pakistan, Russia hold third round of joint military exercises

Russian troops are participating in joint exercises with the Pakistani army in the northern Pakistani town of Pabbi, 20 miles from the historic town Peshawar. A statement from the Pakistan army’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) pointed out that this is the third round of joint Pak-Russia exercise since 2016. The second Pak-Russia joint training exercise was held in[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 1 comment South Asia
A new look at the role of Working Class

A new look at the role of Working Class

Can the Working Class Change the World? Michael D Yates, 2018, Monthly Review Press, New York This book is divided into six chapters and focus is on the role of working class in social transformation or revolution. Michael D Yates is Marxist and is associate editor of most respected international Marxist journal Monthly Review. With the fall of Soviet Union,[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 2 comments Book Review
Petition seeking Honorary Canadian Citizenship for Arundhati Roy launched

Petition seeking Honorary Canadian Citizenship for Arundhati Roy launched

Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) has launched an online petition asking Canadian Parliament to give Indian author Arundhati Roy Honorary Citizenship. A Booker Prize winner and an author of international fame, Roy is known for her strong stand on human rights, social equality and democracy. Based in India, Roy has been facing death threats and intimidation for questioning the[Read More…]

by 23/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
China growth slows to lowest level since financial crisis

China growth slows to lowest level since financial crisis

The growth rate of the Chinese economy has fallen to its lowest level since the beginning of 2009 in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis. Official figures released at the end of last week put the annual growth rate for the third quarter at 6.5 per cent. This was below market expectations of 6.6 percent and down from[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 1 comment World
Brazil: The Eternal Country of the Future Trapped in Its Colonial Past

Brazil: The Eternal Country of the Future Trapped in Its Colonial Past

Former military officer Jair Bolsonaro has advanced to a run-off presidential election in Brazil. (Photo: O Imparcial) Days before the elections in Brazil, a young Brazilian approached me and said, “God willing, Bolsonaro to win. He is a military man and will end corruption.” I did not want to answer. I esteem this boy as a good person, maybe too young to be[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 3 comments World
Socialism or death, onward to victory, says Díaz-Canel, president of Cuba

Socialism or death, onward to victory, says Díaz-Canel, president of Cuba

Díaz-Canel, the president of Cuba, has reaffirmed the firm commitment: We will not give up; we will not betray; and we will never surrender. President Miguel M Díaz-Canel Bermúdez was delivering a speech in early-October, 2018 during the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Cuba’s independence struggle in La Demajagua. Amidst slogans of Viva, Díaz-Canel declared: Socialism[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 1 comment World
International Hypocrisy

International Hypocrisy

By now all international media resources; newspapers, magazines, TV channels, and internet social media, are busy reporting the gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi; a Saudi reporter, who was loyal to the regime until he turned against Muhamad bin Salman (MBS) and his suppressive policies. Once MBS was announced crowned prince in 2015 and started his war against Yemen, critic Khashoggi[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 2 comments Palestine
Srinagrites Are Not ‘Ghetto People’

Srinagrites Are Not ‘Ghetto People’

Honestly, they ‘have been more sinned against than sinning.’ Distraught at the plight of a million people with bright minds and deft hands this Shakespearean quote knocked my mind while walking through the streets, lanes, and bylanes of the heart of Srinagar city. None but the people they catapulted to power after big struggle and sacrifices have betrayed them and[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Why I say Indian #MeToo Movement is just a hip adjustment in “Status Quo” ?

Why I say Indian #MeToo Movement is just a hip adjustment in “Status Quo” ?

Before we talk and discuss these perceivably status quo challenging movements, we are loud and clear that we have no contention in expressing full sympathies for every woman on the globe who undergo traumatic experiences due to their contact with the respective interaction points with Male chauvinists. This #MeToo movement is actually a movement imported from west started a year[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches …

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches …

  Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar A good name is better than precious ointment … (Proverbs 22:1 and Ecclesiastes 7:1 – The Holy Bible) Indigenous cartography existed in various forms in pre-colonial Africa. Unfortunately, the indigenous cartographic heritage of the continent suffered a major setback during the period of imperialism and colonialism. A foremost threat to the traditional[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
China, A New Imperial Power?     

China, A New Imperial Power?     

                        Is China a new imperial power threatening some of the developing economies in Asia and Africa? This is a perception that is being promoted through the media by certain China watchers in universities and think-tanks mainly in the West, various politicians and by a segment of the global[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 2 comments World
Mothers of Exiles: For Many, the Child-Separation Ordeal May Never End

Mothers of Exiles: For Many, the Child-Separation Ordeal May Never End

 Co-Written by Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox From the early days of the Trump administration, the White House and Justice Department have obsessively sought to separate asylum-seeking parents from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border. The American people and the courts have mounted fierce resistance to this sadistic practice, but Trump’s men will not be deterred. Separation continues despite[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Wentworth Blues: Another Nail in the Scomo Coffin

Wentworth Blues: Another Nail in the Scomo Coffin

A sign of desperation before the firing squad is jitteriness and the desperate sense that history needs revision.  You were not the one responsible for the debacles and the cockups; everybody and everything else was.  You knew who was guilty, and needed to tell everybody about it.  You bluster, you boast and you stumble; you look more buffoon than statesman;[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 2 comments World
Indian Diaspora and the Subtle Saffron Shades of  Foreign Policy

Indian Diaspora and the Subtle Saffron Shades of  Foreign Policy

Diasporas have existed since time immemorial. However they have never been so influential, as they are in contemporary times. Their political weight has increased importantly throughout the twentieth century. Historically, there have been numerous examples of American Jewish groups encouraging rightwing extremism in Israel, Tamil tigers in London and Malaysia supporting the Tamil liberation movement, Kurd in Netherlands or the[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 1 comment Communal Harmony
IAPL condemns the threat to arrest Justice H Suresh

IAPL condemns the threat to arrest Justice H Suresh

  IAPL condemns the threat issued by Shivaji Pawar, ACP, Maharashtra Police to arrest IAPL’s President Justice Hosbet Suresh (Retd.) and the most alarming portrayal by him of IAPL as a frontal organization of CPI (Maoist). IAPL believes that such attacks on Judges and Human Right defenders which includes lawyers and organizations, require to be understood in the in the[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 5 comments Human Rights
Slow Death of MNREGA

Slow Death of MNREGA

The Ministry of Rural Development is restricting MNREGA from attaining it’s full potential and at the same time  dictating it’s  implementation  by not honoring local  knowledge and decision making. As per the ACT,  the Gram Sabha has the sole power and responsibilities for  the planning of the schemes under MNREGA and The  Gram Panchayats will be responsible for identification of[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 1 comment India
A solemn heart, A shattered love story !

A solemn heart, A shattered love story !

Where do I begin To tell the story of how great a love can be The sweet love story that is older than the sea The simple truth about the love she brings to me……. (Love story ) The natural disasters #me too the #sabrimala the #all women bleed , the rapes and molestations , nuns , the talaq the[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 1 comment Arts/Literature
Death of the University, Indian Style!

Death of the University, Indian Style!

Are public colleges/universities being  left to die at the cost of private universities in the US? A cursory glance at the case study of Yale University, which also includes other Ivy League universities – namely, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Brown etc. – done by a young scholar serves as an eye-opener Describing how Yale ‘..[s]its on a mountain of money, and yet receives[Read More…]

by 22/10/2018 2 comments India
The Dead Black Male Body

The Dead Black Male Body

Racism reproduces itself in many ways- the use of imagery is one of the most powerful. This is not a profound thought and as such it should it be lost on anyone– even the most bilious and vile racists. In fact, these very people employ racist imagery with impunity because they know it has the desired effect. Some of us[Read More…]

by 21/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Are people really hungry? !

Are people really hungry? !

  ‘ Sujalam suphalam bharat desh mein Roti mehengi kyon rey bhai’ (In the country of Bharat where there is plenty of water and resources Why is roti very costly?) From ‘Bharat apna Mahan Bhumi’ Performed by Revolutionary Cultural Front , the song originally written by poet and singer Gaddar is translated into Hindi by revolutionary poet/ singer Villas Ghogre[Read More…]

by 21/10/2018 2 comments India
A gruesome murder bares world powers’ flawed policies

A gruesome murder bares world powers’ flawed policies

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s gruesome murder raises fundamental questions that go far beyond Middle Eastern geopolitics. They go to the risks of support for autocratic regimes by democratic and authoritarian world powers, the rise of illiberal democracy in the West, increasing authoritarianism in Russia, and absolute power in China in which checks and balances are weakened or non-existent. Mr. Khashoggi’s[Read More…]

by 20/10/2018 2 comments World
Amritsar Train Accident: A Sad Story Of ‘Bad’ Governance

Amritsar Train Accident: A Sad Story Of ‘Bad’ Governance

The train accident at Amritsar at the time of burning of effigy of Ravana on Dusshera is painful and it is difficult to fathom the pain, horror, trauma of victims and associated ones. Politics of blaming each other has started and everyone is trying to save its pachyderm from the attacks of people who have no option except to voice[Read More…]

by 20/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
#Me Too

#Me Too

Not a single one of us can’t say Me Too. Not once, twice or thrice, Each of us were several times.   I was a little girl of seven, buying a loaf of bread Some uncle came from the back, Pressed his crotch in my butt crack. I squirmed and looked at others for help, With their business as usual[Read More…]

by 20/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Devi and Asura: Musings on the Inter-sectional versus the Binaries 

Devi and Asura: Musings on the Inter-sectional versus the Binaries 

The season has just passed by. Autumn has arrived. Long back, the months from autumn to spring would see many carnivals. Since then, the Brahmins have been earning a lot throughout these months. Even today, miles away from the cities and deep inside the woody heart of the Lokayat that informs this subcontinent, in places where people don’t need Brahmins[Read More…]

by 20/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
How Genetics and Pollution Are Threatening Wild Dolphins

How Genetics and Pollution Are Threatening Wild Dolphins

  Dolphins are beautiful, highly intelligent and uncannily human in their interactions. Yet, they also have a language we humans cannot fully hear, and a culture that is in some ways similar to our own, and in others, a complete mystery. Like us, they have circles of friends and acquaintances, with different greetings for different individuals, as if by name.[Read More…]

Leaking for Change: ASIO, Jakarta, and Australia’s Jerusalem Problem

Leaking for Change: ASIO, Jakarta, and Australia’s Jerusalem Problem

Politics can, after a time, becomes a myopic exercise of expedient measures and desperate hope.  Politics, raw and crude, is at its best at points where survival matters. Conversely, it can illustrate human vices in raw fashion, low points of idiocy and the disaster of folly. The Morrison government in Australia risks succumbing to another march of folly.  Having arisen[Read More…]

by 20/10/2018 2 comments World
Kuwait-Turkey military cooperation alarms Saudi Arabia

Kuwait-Turkey military cooperation alarms Saudi Arabia

Turkey has recently signed a military cooperation agreement with Kuwait, member of the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). According to the agreement, signed during the Turkey-Kuwait Military Cooperation Committee meeting, the two countries are planning to share their military experiences and coordinate their activities beginning in 2019. The GCC alliance includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United[Read More…]

by 20/10/2018 1 comment World
Sabarimala An Upper Caste Conspiracy? Here’re Ten Ways To Defuse It

Sabarimala An Upper Caste Conspiracy? Here’re Ten Ways To Defuse It

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stated that the agitation to prevent entry to women of all ages to Sabarimala temple as per the order of Supreme Court of India is an ‘upper caste conspiracy’. No one has made more truer statement and realistic assessment about the situation in Sabarimala than the Chief Minister.  The Chief Minister also categorically stated[Read More…]

(Photo: St. Joseph Health/stock)

When It Comes to Sustainability, We’re a Society of Distracted Drivers

Driving is dangerous. In fact, it’s about the riskiest activity most of us engage in routinely. It requires one’s full attention—and even then, things can sometimes go horribly awry. The brakes fail. Weather turns roads to ice. A driver in the oncoming lane falls asleep. Tragedy ensues. But if we’re asleep at the wheel, the likelihood of calamity skyrockets. That’s[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 5 comments Climate Change
Weaponised Religion

Weaponised Religion

As surely as night follows day if you want to make all before you tremble and kneel at your feet you only have to mention religion. The fear of God and a promise of the hereafter is all that is necessary. Cynical? Yes it is, but I am not talking about myself. I am agnostic. I speak of the cynical[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 1 comment World
Of Dissemblers And Dismemberers

Of Dissemblers And Dismemberers

The maliciously mocking, malevolent, maladroit, misfit, malappropriating the White House got his comeuppance this week … at least for a while.  Senator Elizabeth Warren released her DNA test results conducted by noted Stanford University expert Professor Carlos D. Bustamente.  The results prove a Native American ancestor six to ten generations ago, supporting her claim that her great-great-great grandmother, O.C. Sarah[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 1 comment World
Through the haze, a better democracy

Through the haze, a better democracy

Although you wouldn’t know it from the rhetoric and actions of the Trump Administration, the U.S. is part of the global society. And while most of the U.S. was focused on a Supreme Court nomination that shook our democratic institutions, a watershed moment for democracy quietly took place half a world away. For those in the U.S. seeking evidence that[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Media Trial in Ayodhya Case Must be Carefully Watched

Media Trial in Ayodhya Case Must be Carefully Watched

The Ayodhya case is now ready for hearing by the Supreme Court from October 29, 2018. This is happening after a hiatus of almost eight years when the legal proceedings was last heard with a shoddy judgment pronounced by the  Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court in 2010. This time when the uninterrupted hearing is going to happen, it’s for[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 1 comment Communal Harmony
Kailash Satyarthi should be stripped of Nobel peace prize for glorifying Hindu supremacy

Kailash Satyarthi should be stripped of Nobel peace prize for glorifying Hindu supremacy

The Nobel Peace Prize committee should immediately intervene and strip a children’s rights activist of the prize given to him in 2014. Kailash Satyarthi not only attended the annual event of Hindu supremacist group Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) at its headquarters in Nagpur, India, but went to the extent of praising the organization. He even suggested that the RSS[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 8 comments Communal Harmony
What Is It Like To Be A Muslim In India?

What Is It Like To Be A Muslim In India?

Do not show the face of Islam to others; instead show your face as the follower of true Islam representing character, knowledge, tolerance and piety ― Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898) An educated, secular and liberal Indian Muslim  is in a bind; he is torn between finding the right balance between loyalty to his faith and[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 3 comments Communal Harmony
West Is Losing And So It Is Bashing China And Russia ‘Left And Right’ Literally

West Is Losing And So It Is Bashing China And Russia ‘Left And Right’ Literally

  The insanity and vileness of Western anti-Chinese propaganda used to make some of my Chinese friends cry late at night. But things are changing. The lunacy of what is said and written about China (and Russia, of course), in the US and Europe, is now clearly reflecting frustration and the bad manners of sore losers. One could almost be[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 5 comments Imperialism
Vanquishing the Republic: Harry and Meghan in Australia

Vanquishing the Republic: Harry and Meghan in Australia

“The establishment of a republic… means insurrectionary war, it means the desolation of a thousand households.  When the question shall arise, it will be determined… by balls from cannon and from musket, by grape and shrapnel, by bayonet and by the sword.” Sir Alfred Stephen, NSW Legislative Council , June 16, 1887 The republic has tended to be a dormant[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Guru Das Agrawal: Sacrifice At The Altar Of Development

Guru Das Agrawal: Sacrifice At The Altar Of Development

Co-Written by Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey The legendary Professor Guru Das Agrawal, who got promoted from a Lecturer directly to Professor at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur after having finished his Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in two years and laid the foundation of India’s anti-pollution regimen as the first Member-Secretary of Central Pollution[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Myth of Kashyap Rishi: Origin of valley of Kashmir

Myth of Kashyap Rishi: Origin of valley of Kashmir

Mythical or folklore tales have been a part of all ancient societies & communities. Such stories are still told verbally & even otherwise in writings, songs, paintings, etc, in many societies & communities to keep up their old traditions of culture & art. Romans had richest mythical history, so had Chinese & Arabs. But if you look at any of these[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
#MeToo movement: Fears of backlash are unfounded

#MeToo movement: Fears of backlash are unfounded

For the last few days, #MeToo movement has picked up momentum and many women are coming out with horrific tales of severe harassment in their past lives. They are not afraid anymore to expose famous persons including those at ministerial levels. As a senior journalist Neeraja Chowdhury opined  ( An exit, a beginning, updated October 18, 2018, indianexpress.com), ” The[Read More…]

by 19/10/2018 3 comments Patriarchy
Sabarimala Temple Entry: Fight for ‘purity’ of God in Gods own country

Sabarimala Temple Entry: Fight for ‘purity’ of God in Gods own country

Can there be more shame that the apex court’s order is being openly violated. The mob which has gathered denying women’s entry to Sabarimala temple is just following the ‘historical’ truth that ‘religion’ can’t change. Despite court order, the devotees wont allow as it is the only thing where they dictate things. There is a campaign in the country. Women[Read More…]

by 18/10/2018 1 comment India
Shabarimala Temple Entry: All Shudras Must Oppose  NSS Manuvadam

Shabarimala Temple Entry: All Shudras Must Oppose  NSS Manuvadam

  The Nair Service Society (NSS) is supporting the most destructive anti-women Anti-Shudra Manuvadam in the name of Shabarimala temple’s sanctity . The Nair men for centuries surrendered the Nair women’s self respect to the Brahmin males in worst Manuvadi system called Sambandam.  The Brahmin men exploited the Nair women worse than the slave masters exploited the African American women[Read More…]

Embassy Disappearances: Jamal Khashoggi and the Foreign Policy Web

Embassy Disappearances: Jamal Khashoggi and the Foreign Policy Web

“Do this outside. You will put me into trouble.” Mohammad al-Otaibi, Saudi consul, to Saudi agents, Istanbul, October 2, 2018 It smells, but anything wedged between the putrefaction of Saudi foreign policy, the ambition of Turkish bellicosity, and the US muddling middleman is bound to.  Three powers tussling over image and appearance; all engaged in a wrestle over how best[Read More…]

by 18/10/2018 2 comments World
Durga Puja, also called Durgotsava and Navaratri, is an annual Hindu festival in the Indian subcontinent that reveres the goddess Durga. It is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin, typically September or October of the Gregorian calendar.

Minds of dalits captivated by the hypnotism of Hinduism

I have been impelled to elucidate some inevitable, unarguable, factual events of our Indian society. It’s well known & believed that the another name of ‘Bharat’ is Hindustan. However, the term ‘ Hindu’ is not used in any scripture of Hindu mythologies. Indian history proves that Aryans migrated to India from from middle east thousand of years ago. Today ,they[Read More…]

by 18/10/2018 1 comment Annihilate Caste
The other side of 35-A!

The other side of 35-A!

(Repealing of Article 35-A creates an apprehension among Kashmiris of being swept away by the rich from the mainland. On the contrary, Kashmir may turn into something which no one could have imagined!) The controversy regarding the article 35-A has now been in the news for sometime. The shut downs called by various organizations to show the resentment of the[Read More…]

by 18/10/2018 1 comment Kashmir
Re-Reading Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in Contemporary Milieu

Re-Reading Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in Contemporary Milieu

  As we celebrated the 201th birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan on 17 October 2018—the founder of Aligarh Muslim University, when the whole debate around the nationalism and hyper-nationalism is round the corner. In fact we are living in strange times where false narratives are constructed by none other than ruling establishment to push their political project. There[Read More…]

by 18/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Sabarimala: Brahmanism’s Last Ditch Battle In Kerala

Sabarimala: Brahmanism’s Last Ditch Battle In Kerala

The only code of law for Hindus is Manu Smriti. IX.3 of Manu Smriti says “Na stree svaatantryam arhati” (a woman does not deserve freedom). Manu Smriti is the code of the four fold Varna system, namely Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya and Shudra. Hinduism is in fact is rooted in this pyramidal varna system, Brahmins being at the top. Manu Smriti[Read More…]

Nonviolent Afghans Bring a Breath of Fresh Air

Nonviolent Afghans Bring a Breath of Fresh Air

Grade 12th Afghan student Jamila Omary asked, “Do you have any plans to arm yourselves, because of the threats and dangers you have faced?” Iqbal Khyber answered, “No. Though it is easy to buy weapons today, arming ourselves will worsen the war. Weapons will make us less secure.” What a breath of fresh air in the stench of war-as-usual! Iqbal[Read More…]

by 17/10/2018 1 comment World
A Not-So-Nobel Prize for Growth Economists

A Not-So-Nobel Prize for Growth Economists

William Nordhaus shaping vulnerable minds in his Yale classroom – Oct. 8, 2018.  (Photo credit: Yale/ ©Mara Lavitt) How ironic for the Washington Post to opine “Earth may have no tomorrow” and, two pages later, offer up the mini-bios of William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, described as Nobel Prize winners. Without more rigorous news coverage, few indeed will know that Nordhaus and Romer are[Read More…]

by 17/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Pro-coal Australia & Trump America Reject Dire IPCC Report & Declare War on Terra

Pro-coal Australia & Trump America Reject Dire IPCC Report & Declare War on Terra

US President Donald Trump and his top economic adviser Larry Kudlow have effectively rejected the dire IPCC Report on 1.5C that warns that a disastrous exceedance of the Paris 1.5 degree Centigrade global warming limit is only 10 years away and that burning coal must be completely phased out by 2050. The pro-coal COALition Australian Government has been even more[Read More…]

by 17/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
World’s Ruthless Strongmen Have Their Hands On The Future

World’s Ruthless Strongmen Have Their Hands On The Future

Once again, the pathos of human history repeats itself. Another lot of ruthless strong men once more have their bloodied hands on the future and, as a result, like what has happened so many times before in all the wars and violence of the past, the more recent century in particular, a lot more good human beings and innocent non-human[Read More…]

by 17/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
DNA in Trumpland: Elizabeth Warren’s Native American Dance

DNA in Trumpland: Elizabeth Warren’s Native American Dance

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) made a fundamental error in chasing the coattails of DNA provenance as a response to the jibes of US President Donald J. Trump.  She had been derided by the president as an ordinary “Pocahontas”, and promised at a July 5 rally in Montana a million dollars “to your favourite charity, paid for by Trump, if you[Read More…]

by 17/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The UN ‘Sheriff’: Nikki Haley Elevated Israel, Damaged US Standing

The UN ‘Sheriff’: Nikki Haley Elevated Israel, Damaged US Standing

US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has made her post a “more glamorous” position than her predecessors – as President Donald Trump described Haley’s 2-year term at the UN, following her resignation announcement. We may never know the nature of Haley’s purported ‘glamour’ at the UN, but we certainly know that, during her relatively brief stint, Haley has further diminished her[Read More…]

by 17/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Muslim Anxieties And India’s Future

Muslim Anxieties And India’s Future

Centre for Educational Research & Training (CERT) -a wing of Students Islamic Organization- on Tuesday revealed that the Muslim student   ratio in higher education was mere 4.9% in 2016-17.  It also revealed that a vast section of Muslim populace still remained illiterate due to lack of facilities for primary and secondary education even in MCDs where Multi Sectoral Development Programme[Read More…]

by 17/10/2018 1 comment India
(Photo: Alias 0591/Flickr/cc)

Climate-Driven ‘Bugpocalypse’

When a scientist who studies the essential role insects play in the health of the ecosystem calls a new study on the dramatic decline of bug populations around the world “one of the most disturbing articles” he’s ever read, it’s time for the world to pay attention. The article in question is a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 1 comment Environmental Protection
World Food Day: A Wholistic World Food Policy is Needed

World Food Day: A Wholistic World Food Policy is Needed

Since the hungry billion in the world community believe that we can all eat if we set our common house in order, they believe also that it is unjust that some men die because it is too much trouble to arrange for them to live. Stringfellow Barr Citizens of the World (1954) The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) aims[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 1 comment World
Turkey plays Khashoggi crisis to its geopolitical advantage

Turkey plays Khashoggi crisis to its geopolitical advantage

With Turkish investigators asserting that they have found further evidence that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed when he visited the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago, Turkey appears to be leveraging the case to enhance its position as a leader of the Islamic World and reposition itself as a key US ally. To enhance its geopolitical position vis[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
What Killed Thousands Of Indonesians: The Quake Or The Misery?

What Killed Thousands Of Indonesians: The Quake Or The Misery?

  Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek As I was reading, on board an Air Canada flight from Mexico City to Vancouver, The Globe and Mail coverage of the horrors that have been unraveling for several days on the island of Sulawesi, I felt two powerful and contradictory emotions: I wanted to be there, immediately, ‘on the ground’, in the city[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 1 comment World
Gandhi: The Great Dissenter

Gandhi: The Great Dissenter

India is losing the great tradition of ‘spirit of inquiry and dissent’ which we cherished in the past as the progressive history of cultural tolerance and harmony. In today’s India, the political parties in power and opposition are eyeing human individuals as potential voters and trying to woo them by spreading untruths and rumors. Indian society by and large needs[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
#TheyToo

#TheyToo

The persistence of ‘Me Too’ as used by Tarana Burke in 2006, was to endow women through empathy, mainly young and helpless women. In October 2017, Alyssa Milano refreshed using the catchphrase as a #tagMeToo, to help reveal the extent of problems with sexual harassment and assault by displayinghow many people have faced these events by themselves.Several #tags about sharing stories of[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
The confirmation comes soon after a report from the U.K. Met Office in June warned that the planet was well on its way toward that grim milestone. (Photo: Kevin Gill/flickr/cc)

The IPCC Report: Is There Hope For Our Planet?

Hurricanes and storms on both sides of the Atlantic appeared to encore the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.  It had just concluded the finalization of a special report on the impact of a 1.5 degree Celsius global warming above preindustrial levels.  Meeting in Incheon, South Korea (October 1-5), its three working groups of experts and government officials have huddled and jousted to[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 1 comment Climate Change
The Tyranny of Fashion: Shredding Banksy

The Tyranny of Fashion: Shredding Banksy

The modern art world is filled with pranks and pranksters, the clowns who have decided that play counts for art.  Brattish artists foist a range of projects and conceptual themes upon art galleries who, foolishly, see emperors decked in the finest wear. They refuse to consider that the wear is absent, an expensive mirage that tells to an old tale[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Wake Up, India: Essays for Our Times-Restating what India is and who an Indian is

Wake Up, India: Essays for Our Times-Restating what India is and who an Indian is

The common man/woman knows India is struggling over simple issues. We need clean air and no pollution, we have water problems, we all need food, shelter and clothing as well as proper jobs, good education, good medical care and leisure, families, old age care, care for the disabled etc., plus electricity, good travel facilites, technology like the internet and phones,[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Women In Rural India: The Long Road To Power

Women In Rural India: The Long Road To Power

  International Day of Rural Women–15 October The empowerment of rural women and girls is essential to building a prosperous    equitable and peaceful future for all on a healthy planet — UN Secretary-General, António Guterres Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Ecuador to partially restore Julian Assange’s access to communications and visitors

Ecuador to partially restore Julian Assange’s access to communications and visitors

In a statement issued Sunday, WikiLeaks announced that the Ecuadorian embassy in London has informed its publisher Julian Assange that it intends to partially restore his ability to use the Internet and phone services, and receive personal visitors. Ecuador, on the dictates of the Trump administration and US military-intelligence apparatus, stripped Assange of these basic rights on March 28 this[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
President Donald Trump meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

MbS: Riding roughshod or playing a risky game of bluff poker?

A stalemate in efforts to determine what happened to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is threatening to escalate into a crisis that could usher in a new era in relations between the United States and some of its closest Arab allies as well as in the region’s energy politics. In response to US President Donald J. Trump’s threat of “severe punishment”[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
US, European powers threaten Saudi crown prince after Khashoggi murder

US, European powers threaten Saudi crown prince after Khashoggi murder

Mounting evidence that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome October 2 murder of Saudi journalist and Washington Postcontributor Jamal Khashoggi has unleashed a political crisis of global proportions. Over the weekend, Turkish officials again charged that Saudi Arabia sent a 15-man death squad to the Saudi consulate, armed with a bone saw, to murder and dismember Khashoggi and[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Hurricane Michael Leaves Millions Without Power and Basic Needs

Hurricane Michael Leaves Millions Without Power and Basic Needs

Now that nearly a full week has passed since Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle and proceeded to tear through Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina—obliterating entire neighborhoods, businesses, and schools and killing at least 18 people—many of the millions of U.S. residents affected by the storm are beginning to voice outrage at the inadequate response of the Trump administration[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The "base case" scenario of "The Limits to Growth" 1972 report to the Club of Rome. The strong non-linearity of the behavior of complex systems -- including the global economy -- is nearly impossible to understand for people trained in economics. William Nordhaus, the recent Nobel prize winner in economics, is no exception to the rule. In this post, I'll report how, at the beginning of his career, Nordhaus criticized "The Limits to Growth", showing in the process that he had understood nothing of the way complex systems work.

Why Economists Can’t Understand Complex Systems: The case of William Nordhaus, Nobel Prize in Economics

After having been awarded the Nobel prize in economics of this year, William Nordhaus has been often presented as some sort of an ecologist (see, e.g. this article on Forbes). Surely, Nordhaus’ work on climate has merit and he is one of the leading world economists who recognize the importance of the problem and who propose remedies for it. On the[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis
The US-Led Genocide and Destruction of Yemen

The US-Led Genocide and Destruction of Yemen

Photo: WhatsuPic, “Expanded War, Hunger, Disease, Death i n Yemen, No Big DEal to US” “Only God can save our children”, say Yemeni fathers and mothers as they can do nothing but watch their children die, try to comfort them in their final agonizing hours, and pray for God to spare them from death. The fathers and mothers watch and pray, as one[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 3 comments Imperialism
The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 2

The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 2

The world economy can appear to be operating quite well but can be hiding a major problem that causes it to be fragile. My presentation The World’s Fragile Economic Condition (PDF) explains why we should expect financial problems if energy consumption stops growing sufficiently rapidly. In fact, a global sell off in the equity markets, such as we have started to see[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis
Climate without Borders: putting changing climate into a new perspective

Climate without Borders: putting changing climate into a new perspective

The goal of “Climate without Borders” (CwB) is to unite TV weather presenters from all over the world and bring scientific knowledge to a broader public. This, in turn, creates climate awareness and creates support for the urgent climate action needed. Although the name suggests a kind of connection with Doctors without Borders, members of Climate without Borders won’t be[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Construction of US-Mexico wall

Can President-elect Lopez Obrador pull Mexico out of slumber?

Text and photos by: Andre Vltchek After decades of stagnation, corruption and deadly dependency on the United States, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is considered by many ordinary people, as well as by intellectuals, to be the last chance for Mexico. Two important news developments are circulating all over North America: US President Donald Trump will not attend the inauguration of[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Photo by ctj71081

Agents of Chaos: Trump, the Federal Reserve and Andrew Jackson

“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.” President Andrew Jackson, Washington, July 10, 1832 They are three players, all problematic in their own way.  They are the creatures of inconvenient chaos.  Donald Trump was born into the role, a misfit of misrule who found his baffling[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
New avenues for visually impaired women

New avenues for visually impaired women

  Women are forging ahead in many new sectors which were hitherto considered male bastions. Adding to their achievements, the visually impaired and blind women are being trained in detection of breast cancer. In a unique initiative, the women in Delhi are being trained to detect breast cancer by medical tactile examination. According to a report in Hindustan Times ([Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 2 comments India
Third International Marxist Feminist Conference Participants Express Solidarity To Arrested Activists In India

Third International Marxist Feminist Conference Participants Express Solidarity To Arrested Activists In India

Participants at the Third International Marxist Feminist Conference, held in Lund University, Sweden  express deep concern at the manner in which writers, professors, democratic and civil rights activists, anti displacement activists and activists working for the rights of political prisoners are being increasingly targeted by the Indian state. The Right to Free Speech and Expression along with the more fundamental[Read More…]

by 15/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
"We can’t prevent the suffering and dying of wild life, and the Earth herself, when confronted by the unleashed forces of fire and water, but we can include them in our assessment of the cost. We might even grieve for them. Their losses are indeed ours, and if we do not see them or their importance to our lives, if we continue to either ignore and/or dominate all other life on this planet, it won’t be long till we join them." (Photo: Flickr/ChrisA1995/cc)

Initiation into a Living Planet

Most people have passed through some kind of initiation in life. By that, I mean a crisis that defies what you knew and what you were. From the rubble of the ensuing collapse, a new self is born into a new world. Societies can also pass through an initiation. That is what climate change poses to the present global civilization.[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 3 comments Counter Solutions
Gianni Agnelli—The Grand Contradiction

Gianni Agnelli—The Grand Contradiction

It was raining in Torino. A North European rain. The kind that lasts. Through the restaurant’s great windows the wide avenue lined by plane trees points in the direction of the whitened Alps on the horizon. The rain, the trees, the distant mountains, and the silence create a sensation of nostalgia. Nostalgia for things that once were and can be[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Feminists Denounce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Traditional Balinese Ritual

Feminists Denounce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Traditional Balinese Ritual

Bali, Indonesia: At sunset yesterday, over 50 women’s groups, grassroots communities, farmers and workers groups from across Asia gathered at the Padang Galak Beach in Bali, Indonesia to denounce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a sacred Balinese ritual named Tolak Bala. During the ritual, women from the communities impacted by World Bank-funded projects and IMF policies warded[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Globalisation
IMF – WB – WTO – Scaremongering Threats on De-Globalization and Tariffs – The Return to Sovereign Nations

IMF – WB – WTO – Scaremongering Threats on De-Globalization and Tariffs – The Return to Sovereign Nations

As key representatives of the three chief villains of international finance and trade, the IMF, World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) met on the lush resort island of Bali, Indonesia, they warned the world of dire consequences in terms of reduced international investments and decline of economic growth as a result of the ever-widening trade wars initiated[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Globalisation
Did U.S. and Allies Commit War Crime by Bombing Syria on April 14th?

Did U.S. and Allies Commit War Crime by Bombing Syria on April 14th?

INTRODUCTION Bombardment (or other military invasion) of a country that has not invaded nor threatened to invade the attacking country(s) is “aggression” under international law, and is the chief crime that the Nazis were hanged for at Nuremberg after World War II. The U.S. and its allies have routinely committed aggression, in places such as Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Act Now To Protect Our Right To Protest

Act Now To Protect Our Right To Protest

Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers  The radical attack on our constitutional right to protest in Washington, DC needs to be stopped. The National Park Service (NPS) has published proposed rules that would curtail First Amendment rights to assemble, petition the government and exercise free speech in the nation’s capital. Together, we can stop this proposal from going forward.[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Still a Future for Indian Newspapers

Still a Future for Indian Newspapers

Guwahati: Alternative digital media may be growing in India, but the conventional and mainstream medium including newspapers still has a future in the populous country. India today emerges as a land of millions of smart phone & internet connected computer users, but there is a sizable population which lacks access to the new medium and continues to depend on print[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 2 comments India
How is EVM against the fundamentals of democracy?

How is EVM against the fundamentals of democracy?

When EVMs were introduced to the Indian electoral system, it was generally welcomed by all. We were told that these machines will reduce the election expenses and would help in serving environment as we no longer have to be dependent on paper. In addition, we were told that it will end in curbing the loot of ballot boxes. These features[Read More…]

by 14/10/2018 1 comment India
Crore-Acre Magani in Telangana :  Irrigation project  that is too costly, unsustainable, and adding to environmental burden

Crore-Acre Magani in Telangana :  Irrigation project  that is too costly, unsustainable, and adding to environmental burden

 Koti ekarala magani , in Telugu,  means  One Crore-Acre wetlands. In Telangana, it  has been a popular slogan in the irrigation sector. It has been embroiled in political controversy, the ruling TRS party bent on it, and several other parties opposing it.  An objective, neutral evaluation is attempted here. For the above goal to be realized , from Kaleswaram to[Read More…]

From GM Potatoes To Glyphosate: Regulatory Delinquency And Toxic Agriculture

From GM Potatoes To Glyphosate: Regulatory Delinquency And Toxic Agriculture

Food and environment campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason has just produced the report ‘Shockingly high levels of weedkiller found in popular breakfast cereals marketed for British children’. In this 68-page document, she draws from new research in the UK that mirrors findings from the US about the dangerous levels of glyphosate found in food, especially products aimed at children (glyphosate is[Read More…]

Unbridled Power

Unbridled Power

The power I am speaking of is that of the Zionist occupiers of our land who will not stop at anything to wipe every Palestinian off the face of this earth and erase every semblance of Palestinian life and culture of our ancestral home. This savage power has been enabled and empowered throughout the last century by various western powers,[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Showtime in America: Idiots’ Delight: A Quasi Review

Showtime in America: Idiots’ Delight: A Quasi Review

“The making of a journalist: no ideas and the ability to express them.”           – Karl Kraus, Half-Truths & One-and-a-Half Truths “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.  But I repeat myself.”           – Mark Twain “All cats die. Socrates is dead. Socrates is a cat.”           – Eugene Ionesco, Rhinoceros If believability is[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The State of Undeclared Emergency can only be fought with People’s coalitions

The State of Undeclared Emergency can only be fought with People’s coalitions

Activists, friends and families of arrested under UAPA and Bhima Koregaon speak out at People’s Convention in Mumbai Mumbai, October 13: On a hot October Friday evening, over 500 people attended the People’s Convention against Undeclared Emergency in the Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre, where speakers spoke against the imposition of the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and demanded the release[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Wasting Food In A Hungry World: World Food Day- 16 October 

Wasting Food In A Hungry World: World Food Day- 16 October 

  India produces enough food to meet the needs of its entire population, and has at its disposal arable land that has the potential to produce food surplus for export. Yet, it is unable to feed millions of its people, especially women and children. India ranks 100th among 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017, where it has[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Evacuating Nauru: Médecins Sans Frontières and Australia’s Refugee Dilemma

Evacuating Nauru: Médecins Sans Frontières and Australia’s Refugee Dilemma

It is an organisation not without its problems. Conceived in the heat of idealism, and promoted as the vanguard of medical rescue and human rights advocacy, Médecins Sans Frontières has had its faults.  Its co-founder Bernard Kouchner went a bit awry when he turned such advocacy into full blown interventionism.  As Nicolas Sarkozy’s foreign minister, his conversion to politicised interventionism[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Enforced And Involuntary Disappearances In Sri Lanka

Enforced And Involuntary Disappearances In Sri Lanka

Tamil families of disappeared have been engaged in continuous and indefinite protests in five locations in the North and East for about 550 days. Mothers, wives, sons, daughters and relatives are on the streets in day and night in the hot sun, dust and rain demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. One of their primary demands is[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
We Need Cities of Resistance: Climate Adaptation Is No Longer an Option

We Need Cities of Resistance: Climate Adaptation Is No Longer an Option

IOWA CITY—The arrival of Hurricane Michael on the heels of the landmark IPCC climate report is a reminder that climate “adaptation” is no longer a viable option. Adapting to a failed system in an age of climate change, as the devastation from Hurricane Michael attests, is failure, not adaptation. My own town in Iowa had to cancel celebrations this week for a recently completed[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Badi Ammi:  Educationist Mrs.Fatima Anees 

Badi Ammi:  Educationist Mrs.Fatima Anees 

It seemed Badi Ammi was going to live forever. We were so used to her. The shore that tells you to traipse along braving the storms,  helps you comprehend your mess, allows you to walk over it, the rock you know is there to push you to learn to lean on your own shoulders and not anyone else’s, the proverbial[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Weather and White House Turmoil as Elections Loom

Weather and White House Turmoil as Elections Loom

Hurricane Michael wreaked havoc as it traversed the Florida panhandle.  The first Category 5 hurricane to hit the area since 1881 when records began, its 155 mph winds (only 5 mph short of Category 6) felled massive trees, blew away houses, collapsed buildings and left devastation in its wake.  Relatively fast moving at 14 mph, it was soon gone continuing[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Russian ‘collusion’ is a red herring while a Fourth Reich rises

Russian ‘collusion’ is a red herring while a Fourth Reich rises

 As the 2018 U.S. midterm elections approach, there is still no evidence of ‘collusion’ between the campaign of President Donald J. Trump and the Russian government after nearly two years of inquiry. Thus far in the Department of Justice’s investigation led by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, only a trail of corruption involving Trump associates has been discovered. None[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 1 comment World
Strategic Turn-around in India-Russia Relations- South Asia set to witness Arms Build-up

Strategic Turn-around in India-Russia Relations- South Asia set to witness Arms Build-up

   The strategic turn-around in India-Russia relations is all too obvious with New Delhi getting closer to Moscow in recent years.  The joint statement issued after the 19thAnnual Indo-Russian Summit held on 4-5 October 2018 in New Delhi between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi specifically mentioned that “India-Russia cooperation is based on the solid foundations of the[Read More…]

by 13/10/2018 3 comments World
Facebook carries out massive purge of oppositional pages

Facebook carries out massive purge of oppositional pages

On Thursday, Facebook removed some of the most popular oppositional pages and accounts on the world’s largest social media network in a massive and unconstitutional assault on the freedom of expression. With no public notice or accounting, over 800 pages and accounts have been summarily removed from the Internet. The removed pages include Police the Police, with a following of[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 1 comment India
Nauru Government Condemns Mentally Traumatized Individuals to Life-long Anguish

Nauru Government Condemns Mentally Traumatized Individuals to Life-long Anguish

The Government of Nauru, the small Pacific island State, has expelled the medical and psychological personnel of the international non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Sunday 7 October.  The Government gave no explanation for its actions, but relations with the NGO have been difficult in the 11 months that MSF has been working there.  It is likely that the Government feared[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Punjab Blasphemy Law Violates Constitution and is an Attack on Democratic Rights of Citizens

Punjab Blasphemy Law Violates Constitution and is an Attack on Democratic Rights of Citizens

  Punjab assembly recently passed a bill for an addition to IPC clause 295 to give life imprisonment for any ‘injury, damage or sacrilege’ of four religious books, (Guru Granth Sahib, Koran, Bible and Geeta) ‘with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people’. This is the first time in independent India that a punishment usually given for[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Lament Lenin: The rant

Lament Lenin: The rant

Lamenting Lenin is a regular ritual of a section of scholars donning, on occasions, a red apron. These scholars, a few of them pose as an ardent disciple of Marx, accuse Lenin of practicing autocracy as they point to measures the Soviet Power had to take during its early days. The rant The condemnation-business is transcontinental, beginning from Russia to[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 10 comments Life/Philosophy
IPCC +1.5C Avoidance Report – Effectively Too Late, But Stop Coal Burning For “Less Bad” Catastrophes

IPCC +1.5C Avoidance Report – Effectively Too Late, But Stop Coal Burning For “Less Bad” Catastrophes

  The IPCC has just issued a report that details the numerous bad outcomes of a global +1.5 degree Centigrade (+1.5C) of warming versus the catastrophic outcomes from a +2C e.g. a further 70-90% decline of coral reefs at +1.5C versus more than 99% loss at +2C. Crucially, the IPCC report is a consensus and hence conservative document, and its[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The Great Red Sea Tsunami and the Disappearence of an Ancient African City

The Great Red Sea Tsunami and the Disappearence of an Ancient African City

One day in the 7th Century AD a great earthquake in the Red Sea rocked the sea bed and created a tsunami so powerful that it travelled over six kilometers inland and completely wiped off from the face of the earth the ancient African city of Adulis, capital of Punt, “Land of the Gods” or “God’s Land”. Adulis, built in[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 2 comments World
Global leadership split in Tablighi Jamaat echoes in San Francisco Bay Area

Global leadership split in Tablighi Jamaat echoes in San Francisco Bay Area

The Tablighi Jamaat, a non-political group which concentrates on individual piety, has split in recent years into three major groups over leadership issue. Since its inception in 1929, the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) had its global headquarters in Basti Nizamuddin in New Delhi, India. However in recent years Maulana Saad Khandalvi, grandson of the TJ founder Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi has claimed sole[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
A large crowd of people gathers ahead of the Boston Free Speech Rally in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., August 19, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

Hold the Line

My daughter, a guidance counselor for around 350 young children in another state from mine, understands that she supersedes me in some ways in terms of her understandings and skills. Ditto for my side of the equation/,matter. I know elementary education in far more replete ways and my language skills surpass hers, too.Yet it is all a case of ça[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 1 comment World
Hindutva Poses the Greatest Threat to Women

Hindutva Poses the Greatest Threat to Women

   India is today standing on a precipice, staring at the grave danger of plunging into an ideology that threatens every single citizen. It threatens not just the minorities and the Hindu-oppressed lower castes but the majority of its citizens, the women. Both the ideology and the many pronouncements of  leaders of RSS and its many affiliates, confirm that women[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Ganga flows ….with ‘ blood’ …?

Ganga flows ….with ‘ blood’ …?

  ‘ Naitikta nasht hui … Manavta bhrasht hui Nirlajya bhav se behti ho kyon …’ ( Morality is destroyed … Humanity has been corrupted Why do you flow in this shameless way?) From ‘ Ganga behti hai kyon’ by Pundit Narendra Sharma and lyrics rendered by Bhupen Hazarika One of the present government’s prime mission was cleaning Ganga. It[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
#MeToo Campaign  must take recourse to legal means

#MeToo Campaign  must take recourse to legal means

It is good enough rather necessary, requisite and a need of hour that women have came forward to report the cases of sexual harassment. It is indeed a step towards women empowerment. This campaign should have proceeded and contined with an aim and object to create awareness among women and make them feel empowered by registering such cases in police[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
The Girls Do YELL! – A Season of Sexual Allegations in India

The Girls Do YELL! – A Season of Sexual Allegations in India

  Indian media has few pet topics that come with its own season. The universal themes for such season are Indian Muslims, Kashmir and Pakistan. Rape is another topic that has its own season though it comes in daily doses. Breaking the monotony of seasonal news feed a ‘new season’ has now in Indian media. This is allegation of sexual[Read More…]

by 12/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
To Leave or Remain: Dichotomy or Distraction?

To Leave or Remain: Dichotomy or Distraction?

Ever since the Brexit referendum was first announced, we have been bombarded by an array of starkly contradictory pronouncements – from the Leave camp’s now infamous claim that withdrawal from the EU would release £350 million a week for the NHS to the former Chancellor George Osborne’s assertion that Brexit would leave the UK “permanently poorer”. At first glance, the[Read More…]

by 11/10/2018 1 comment World
A global people’s bailout for the coming crash

A global people’s bailout for the coming crash

Image credit: eyewashdesgin: A. Golden, flickr creative commons When the global financial crisis resurfaces, we the people will have to fill the vacuum in political leadership. It will call for a monumental mobilisation of citizens from below, focused on a single and unifying demand for a people’s bailout across the world. A full decade since the great crash of 2008, many[Read More…]

by 11/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Jamal Khashoggi rejiggers the Middle East at potentially horrible cost

Jamal Khashoggi rejiggers the Middle East at potentially horrible cost

The fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, assuming that his disappearance was the work of Saudi security and military officials, threatens to upend the fundaments of fault lines in the Middle East. At stake is not only the fate of a widely respected journalist and the future of Turkish-Saudi relations. Mr. Khashoggi’s fate, whether he was kidnapped by Saudi[Read More…]

by 11/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Kashmir: Shuffling the Administration

Kashmir: Shuffling the Administration

(For past some time the officers in the state administration are being shuffled like a pack of cards which renders them ineffective) Apart from various political and security issues, the State of Jammu & Kashmir is bedevilled by lack of governance and unresponsive administration. Both the issuers emanate from the virtual absence of accountability which is a direct offshoot of[Read More…]

by 11/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
The Proportional Representation Vote: Canada – U.S. Political Party’s And Corporate Press Keep Voters In The Dark

The Proportional Representation Vote: Canada – U.S. Political Party’s And Corporate Press Keep Voters In The Dark

For the Proportional Referendum (Pro-Rep) ballot vote to succeed in Canada’s up-coming election its essential that the under 35’s vote, since, when polled, 7 in 10 of them want to change the voting system and make it more egalitarian and democratic. The same situation applies to voters in the forthcoming midterm politics in the United States who hope to change[Read More…]

by 11/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
That Single Line of Blood: Nassir al-Mosabeh and Mohammed al-Durrah

That Single Line of Blood: Nassir al-Mosabeh and Mohammed al-Durrah

As the frail body of 12-year-old Nassir Al-Mosabeh fell to the ground on Friday, September 28, history was repeating itself in a most tragic way. Little Nassir was not just another number, a ‘martyr’ to be exalted by equally poor refugees in Gaza, or vilified by Israel and its tireless hasbara machine. He was much more than that. The stream of blood[Read More…]

by 11/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
India alarmed at Saudi oil refinery project in strategic Gawadar port

India alarmed at Saudi oil refinery project in strategic Gawadar port

  Pakistan’s latest announcement about Saudi Arabia’s investment in an oil refinery at the strategic port of  Gwadar has set alarm bells ringing in India. James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, says that Saudi’ oil refinery in Gwadar Port could threaten Iran’s India-backed Chabahar Port. The deal[Read More…]

by 11/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The IPCC’S final warnings of extreme global warming

The IPCC’S final warnings of extreme global warming

Scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicatethat global temperature rise of 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures would constitute a threshold the planet cannot cross without suffering the worst effects of climate change. Yet according to the U.N. report, mean global land-sea temperatures have already risen above 1°C and the planet could pass the 1.5°C threshold as early as[Read More…]

by 10/10/2018 1 comment Climate Change
Remodelling the Belt and Road: Pakistan picks up the torch

Remodelling the Belt and Road: Pakistan picks up the torch

Pakistan, following in the footsteps of Malaysia and Myanmar, is the latest country to balk at the China and infrastructure focus of Beijing’s Belt and Road-related investments. Preparing for his first visit to China as Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan is insisting that the focus of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a US$60 billion plus crown jewel of the[Read More…]

by 10/10/2018 2 comments World
The Sessional Curse: Universities and the Casual Work Force

The Sessional Curse: Universities and the Casual Work Force

Universities have become bastions of sessional torment, feeding grounds for despair.  The term “sessional” is merely a euphemised way of describing an academic employee who has no ongoing employment other than what is offered, a person ever at the mercy of the subject or course coordinator of a department.  They are the toiling poor, the barrel scrapers, the trudged upon[Read More…]

by 10/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The Evolution of Greed – From Aristotle to Gordon Gekko

The Evolution of Greed – From Aristotle to Gordon Gekko

The comfort of rich people depends on an abundant supply of poor people. -Voltaire Greed is as old as time. As long as there are people, greed and avarice will continue to exist. In Ancient Greece they had a special word for it: ‘pleonexia’. Pleonexia is a concept that unites greed, covetousness and avarice in a philosophical context. Strictly speaking,[Read More…]

by 10/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
‘Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century’ – A Review

‘Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century’ – A Review

Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century by John Smith, Monthly Review Press, 2016. Even in the days of Brexit and Donald Trump, the dominant theme of the corporate media remains that the rising tide of ‘globalisation’ will lift all boats. Some go so far as to claim that the UK and the US are not for globalisation because it  favours the developing nations.[Read More…]

by 10/10/2018 3 comments Book Review
Machines and labour – increase in poverty

Machines and labour – increase in poverty

  Since introduction of automated machines in factories and offices, labor force is being slowly dispensed with. For instance, before mechanization and computerization, banks used to employ clerical staff for writing ledger accounts. But after introducing computers to note transactions, many posts were removed on the pretext of ‘downsizing’ or ‘ right sizing’ . The banking industry, which was ‘labour[Read More…]

by 10/10/2018 1 comment World
Though federal estimates put the nation’s homeless number at 554,000, most cities—including Portland, which officially has about 4,000 people without shelter—estimate the homeless, notoriously hard to count, to be at least three times higher.(Photo: Mr. Fish / Truthdig)

Homeless America

It is 8 a.m. I am in the small offices of Street Roots, a weekly newspaper that prints 10,000 copies per edition. Those who sell the newspaper on the streets—all of them victims of extreme poverty and half of them homeless—have gathered before heading out with their bundles to spend hours in the cold and rain. “There is foot care on[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Fighting for the human soul

Fighting for the human soul

A review by Reem Wasay Andre Vltchek is tired. He is tired of the cunning complexities in modern society’s fight for the human soul. In his new book, Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, he takes on a new revolution: today’s foe – a counter culture of vulgarity, war and brutality where his battlefield isn’t the romance of radical zeal but the[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Book Review
An Occupy Movement in Sweden: Interview of Bosse Kramsjo, a participant

An Occupy Movement in Sweden: Interview of Bosse Kramsjo, a participant

Sweden, an amazing economy to many utopians or to the naive about capitalism, is experiencing pains capitalist economies feel. Capitalist crisis has already torn down that façade of the utopia. Ordinary citizens in Sweden are seeing the dream demolished. It is being manifested into politics, into electoral process in Sweden. At the same time, ordinary citizens are trying to stand[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 1 comment World
Women labourers plucking tea leaves at a plantation in Udalguri of Assam.

 Women’s Groups Oppose World Bank Proposals to Weaken Labour Rights, Protections and Corporate Accountability

We, feminist organisations and allies, express opposition and concerns over World Bank’s recent recommendations in the World Development Report 2019, which focuses on increasing flexibilisation of labour and delinking corporate accountability on respecting labour rights. Such recommendations come in the context where the report argues that automation is about to replace workers in large scale, therefore it is necessary for labour[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Orson Welles, Broadcasts and Fake News

Orson Welles, Broadcasts and Fake News

Orson Welles’ spectral return to the screen, ingeniously in posthumous mode, should have come as a comfort to the magicians skilled in the arts of trickery.  Beyond the grave, he seems to be exerting a continuing influence, with his film, The Other Side of the Wind making its debut after 48 torrid years at the Telluride Film Festival.  His delight[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Toward a Socialist Land Ethic: the Foundation of an Ecosocialist Future

Toward a Socialist Land Ethic: the Foundation of an Ecosocialist Future

There will be no future on a dead planet, socialist or otherwise. If the left is to seize power and bring our planet into the rational egalitarian age we envision, we will need to simultaneously tackle a host of environmental crises. Failure to do so will mean that our project is doomed from the onset. Even the most firmly grounded[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 1 comment Environmental Protection
Natwar Thakkar : The pioneer of North – East India

Natwar Thakkar : The pioneer of North – East India

  Many people might not know about the social activist Natwar Thakkar who was popular as Nagaland Gandhi and was awarded Padma Shree. He went to stay in Nagaland in 1955 at the age of 23 and spread the teachings of Gandhi. He set up the Nagaland Gandhi Ashram at a village Chuchuyimlang in Mokokchung district in the year 1955.[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
A Confrontation With Kobach’s Chamcha (Lackey, in Hindi)

A Confrontation With Kobach’s Chamcha (Lackey, in Hindi)

As I write this, Kris Kobach, the ‘He Was Trump Before Trump’ Republican nominee for Governor of Kansas, along with Donald himself, are getting ready for a rally in Topeka at the Kansas Expocenter. Kobach’s campaign manager and chamcha @jrclaeys tweeted recently in regard to the rally, “It’s gonna be YUGE! #ksleg #RemainRed #MAGA.” As you can see Claeys’ chamchagiri[Read More…]

by 09/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Repeal Fabricated Charges On Thirumurugan Gandhi! Resist Undeclared Emergency

Repeal Fabricated Charges On Thirumurugan Gandhi! Resist Undeclared Emergency

We the following writers, film makers, poets, artists, theatre personalities, musicians, activists, academicians and members of civil society demand that harassment of Thirumurugan Gandhi be stopped immediately. Thirumurugan Gandhi, a prominent rights activist and coordinator of May 17 movement from India has been subjected to harassment and imprisoned by the Tami lNadu police since August 9, 2018, for participating in[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 6 comments Human Rights
Of Cows, Bacteria and ‘Human’ Rights

Of Cows, Bacteria and ‘Human’ Rights

  This article is based on a talk delivered in Hyderabad on 7th October 2018 as part of the 9th memorial meeting of ‘Remembering Balagopal’, an annual event commemorating the late social activist K Balagopal It is a truly a great privilege for me to be here today to speak to all of you at this meeting to remember Prof.[Read More…]

Reactions of the Least Developed Countries to the IPCC 1.5°C Special Report

Reactions of the Least Developed Countries to the IPCC 1.5°C Special Report

Monday, 8 October 2018: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading international body for the assessment of climate change, has released its Special Report on the impacts that global warming of 1.5°C will have. In responding to the report and the accompanying summary for policy makers, Gebru Jember Endalew, the Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group said:[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 2 comments Climate Change
Fascistic candidate Jair Bolsonaro places first in Brazilian presidential election

Fascistic candidate Jair Bolsonaro places first in Brazilian presidential election

The Brazilian general elections held on Sunday resulted in the most right-wing Congress since the end of the 1964-1985 US-backed military dictatorship and gave the fascistic former Army reserve captain Jair Bolsonaro a wide lead in the presidential contest. Failing to win an outright majority of the ballots, Bolsonaro faces a run-off on October 28 against Workers Party (PT) candidate[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 1 comment World
US Senate elevates right-wing judge Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court

US Senate elevates right-wing judge Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court

The US Senate on Saturday confirmed Brett Kavanaugh as associate justice of the Supreme Court in a near-party-line vote of 50 to 48. Kavanaugh was sworn in only a few hours later by Chief Justice John Roberts in a private ceremony with no press in attendance. Kavanaugh will take his seat on the high court when it resumes work Monday,[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Kashmiri Started Writing Their Story

Kashmiri Started Writing Their Story

Like many other bibliophiles, the iconic bookstore, ‘The Kashmir Bookshop’ on the Residency Road had also become my haunt. Similar to some morning visitors to the India Coffee House, I also had become an avid dust jacket reader inside the bookshop and had developed the habit of flaunting my knowledge about books over a cup of hot coffee. The bookshop[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Photo by woodleywonderworks

IPCC Special Report on 1.5ºC

Responding to climate change is far more like a marathon than a sprint. The IPCC 1.5ºC Special report (#SR15) has been released: The press release Frequently Asked Questions The Summary For Policy Makers (SPM) The full report Thoughts It’s well worth reading the SPM and FAQs before confidently pronouncing on the utility or impact of this report. The FAQs include[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The confirmation comes soon after a report from the U.K. Met Office in June warned that the planet was well on its way toward that grim milestone. (Photo: Kevin Gill/flickr/cc)

IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC Approved by Governments

INCHEON, Republic of Korea, 8 Oct – Limiting global warming to 1.5ºC would require rapid, farreaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, the IPCC said in a new assessment. With clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems, limiting global warming to 1.5ºC compared to 2ºC could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society,[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 2 comments Climate Change
Barely Breathing: May’s Gasping Premiership

Barely Breathing: May’s Gasping Premiership

The Boris Johnson storm, beating away at the British Prime Minister’s doors with an ancient fury, has been stayed for the moment in the wake of the Conservative Party Conference held at Birmingham last week.  While the potential usurper batters away on the domestic front with red faced enthusiasm, Theresa May faces the impossible sell: convincing the European Union that[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The biggest threat to U.S. national security is the U.S. Government

The biggest threat to U.S. national security is the U.S. Government

A dictatorship does not represent the public but only the aristocracy that, behind the scenes, controls the government. Jonathan H. Adler, Professor at Case Western University School of Law, noted, regarding George W. Bush’s secret policy for the NSA to access everyone’s phone-records, that “The metadata collection program is constitutional (at least according to Judge Kavanaugh),” and he presented Judge[Read More…]

by 08/10/2018 1 comment World
The Truth About Christopher Columbus

The Truth About Christopher Columbus

“In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…. Today, Christopher Columbus is celebrated as a mythical hero by some – complete with songs, poems, and fictional tales about his great adventure across the Atlantic to explore the majestic land that would eventually be known as the Americas. There are fifty four communities named after the explorer in[Read More…]

by 07/10/2018 2 comments World
Even In “Revolutionary Countries” Mass Media Is Still In The Hands Of The Right

Even In “Revolutionary Countries” Mass Media Is Still In The Hands Of The Right

How could a country win her fight against Western imperialism, how could it become truly independent, if its people are fully conditioned, through the mass media and education, by the North American and European doctrines and world view? Wherever I work and struggle in this world, I am always amazed, even shocked, by how powerful the Western tools of indoctrination[Read More…]

by 07/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Empires are short-lived structures created and kept together by the availability of mineral resources, fossil fuels in our times. They tend to decline and fall with the decline of the resources that created them, and that's the destiny of the current World Empire: the American one. Will new empires be possible with the gradual disappearance of the abundant mineral resources of the past? Maybe not, and Donald Trump could be the last great emperor in history.

Could Donald Trump be the Last World Emperor? States and Empires After the End of the Fossil Age

A warlord named Sargon of Akkad was perhaps the first man in history to rule a true empire, around mid 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia. Before him, humans had been warring against each other for millennia, but the largest social structures they had developed were no larger than city-states. Gradually, new forms of social aggregation emerged: kingdoms and empires, structures[Read More…]

by 07/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis
Pakistani poker: Playing Saudi Arabia against China

Pakistani poker: Playing Saudi Arabia against China

Desperate for funding to fend off a financial crisis fuelled in part by mounting debt to China, Pakistan is playing a complicated game of poker that could hand Saudi Arabia a strategic victory in its bitter feud with Iran at the People’s Republic’s expense. The Pakistani moves threaten a key leg of the USD60 billion plus Chinese investment in the[Read More…]

by 07/10/2018 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World

Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World

Joseph E. Schwartzberg. Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2013, 364pp.) In Memory of Joseph Schwartzberg who died on 19 September 2018 There have been a number of periods when proposals for new or different United Nations structures were proposed. The first period was in 1944-1945 when the U.N. Charter was[Read More…]

by 07/10/2018 1 comment Book Review
Food, Justice, Violence and Capitalism

Food, Justice, Violence and Capitalism

In 2015, India’s internal intelligence agency wrote a report that depicted various campaigners and groups as working against the national interest. The report singled out environmental activists and NGOs that had been protesting against state-corporate policies. Those largely undemocratic and unconstitutional policies were endangering rivers, forests and local ecologies, destroying and oppressing marginalised communities, entrenching the corporatisation of agriculture and[Read More…]

by 07/10/2018 1 comment World
Brett Kavanaugh Is Unfit For Supreme Court Position

Brett Kavanaugh Is Unfit For Supreme Court Position

  Here are several key points regarding Brett Kavanaugh during these tumultuous times in the USA: You can like or not like MA Senator Warren. It is immaterial. 2, You can consider her a liar or not. She said that the FBI report, which she has read, contradicts Kavanaugh’s own statements UNDER OATH regarding his behaviors on multiple issues, but[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
An Open Letter To Indian Parliamentarians To Get Section 377, IPC Repealed In Toto

An Open Letter To Indian Parliamentarians To Get Section 377, IPC Repealed In Toto

  By now you must have perused the judgement of the Supreme Court of India which has partially struck down Section 377, Indian Penal Code (IPC) which hitherto criminalized any sexual act against the order of nature. The judgement was delivered on September 6, 2018. To recapitulate, the Indian Government had informed the Supreme Court that it leaves it to[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Syria’s No-Fly Zone

Syria’s No-Fly Zone

The Russian Defence Minister has announced that the promised S-300 air defence system has been delivered to Syria with the Karushka 4 radar systems jammer and other related military equipment, to boost the safety of Russia’s military personnel and facilities. The system will be in place by 20th October. Syrian Army personnel will, meanwhile, be brought up to speed in[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Review: “Silent invasion. China’s Influence In Australia” By Clive Hamilton – Feeding Australian Sinophobia.

Review: “Silent invasion. China’s Influence In Australia” By Clive Hamilton – Feeding Australian Sinophobia.

“Silent invasion. China’s Influence in Australia” by Clive Hamilton (professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, Canberra) explores increasing Chinese influence in Australia but does so in an excited, polemical  fashion that crosses the boundary between critical academic discourse and xenophobia, paranoia, jingoism and Sinophobia. Of course Australia should be concerned about its sovereignty and security but  China is[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Australian Complicity: Nauru and Silencing Journalism

Australian Complicity: Nauru and Silencing Journalism

Journalism is getting something of a battering in Australia.  At the parliamentary level, laws have passed that would be inimical to any tradition versed in the bill of rights.  (Australia, not having such a restraining instrument on political zeal, can only rely on the bumbling wisdom of its representatives.) At the executive level, deals have been brokered between Canberra and[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
One Killer Cop Convicted—Get with the Revolution and Get Rid of This Whole System that Needs Killer Cops!

One Killer Cop Convicted—Get with the Revolution and Get Rid of This Whole System that Needs Killer Cops!

Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago cop who murdered Laquan McDonald, has been convicted—of second degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery. After decades of police and racists getting away with murder—from Emmett Till to Fred Hampton and up to Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Darius Pinex, Justus Howell, Rekia Boyd, Aquoness “Quono” Cathery, and Harith Augustus—we finally got[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 2 comments World
Wake Up India: Essays for Our Times – II (continued)

Wake Up India: Essays for Our Times – II (continued)

It seems to me there can only be two kinds of people on earth, those who hold to untruth and those who hold to truth and the latter will always find themsevels outnumbered by the former. Let us take the idea of language, state, nation, race, class, gender and religion or caste in India and in other places except for[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Sonawar: The Story Of An Uptown Quarter

Sonawar: The Story Of An Uptown Quarter

Shortly before the termination of his rule in 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the last Hindu ruler of Kashmir, was known to have toyed with the idea of converting Sonawar, a quarter of uptown Srinagar, into a lake to accord a unique peculiarity to his palace, Talay Manzil (Abode of Fortune) of sitting between two lakes, the other being the famed[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Kashmir’s flags: A historical overview

Kashmir’s flags: A historical overview

Flag is not a mere piece of fabric that flutters about in the breeze. It represents the feelings & ideals of the people for that for which it has been created & thus stands for. The first Kashmir flag was adopted by the first largest political party of J&K Muslims, All J & K Muslim Conference, which was formed in[Read More…]

by 06/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Achieving religious harmony in a world of fear and populism

Achieving religious harmony in a world of fear and populism

Edited version of remarks made at the Inter-Religious Organization Singapore, 1 October 2018 This is a tough time for men and women of the cloth, at least those whose message is one of peace, tolerance, mutual respect, equality and inter-faith dialogue. Underlying the rise of populism, nationalism, protectionism, fear of the other, anti-migrant and anti-foreigner sentiment, and hate speech is[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 2 comments World
 A call for Comprehensive Agrarian Reforms

 A call for Comprehensive Agrarian Reforms

India need to respond urgently to the agrarian question and engage with the communities, people and movements working for Comprehensive Land Reforms. It is long over due and in the absence of it, we can not build peace and strengthen democracy. India, unlike others, is a caste ridden feudal society. After the independence we promised to our people that we[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Yemenis eat leaves to stave off famine

How Saudi Money Keeps Washington at War in Yemen 

It was May 2017. The Saudis were growing increasingly nervous. For more than two years they had been relying heavily on U.S. military support and bombs to defeat Houthi rebels in Yemen. Now, the Senate was considering a bipartisan resolution to cut off military aid and halt a big sale of American-made bombs to Saudi Arabia. Fortunately for them, despite mounting evidence that the U.S.-backed,[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
The Poison Beer of GDP

The Poison Beer of GDP

Disaggregating reported GDP growth to reveal the differences in growth by income class, as per the Schumer-Heinrich Bill, is a good idea. After all, telling us, say, that average income grew by 4% is not nearly as informative as telling us that the richest ten percent received the entire growth increment while the bottom ten percent suffered a decline in[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Nervous now, future worse: pronghorn antelope at the edge of a growing economy. (Photo Credit: Michael Shealy)

Gross Domestic Problem On World Animal Day

If you like animals, your feelings may have been nurtured by “Hedgehogs Being Adorable,” “Baby Hippo Has Won Our Hearts,” and other such gems. The Huffington Post, The Animal Blog, and various animal-lover media take a heartfelt approach to the appreciation of animals—wild as well as domesticated—reminding us of the needs and vulnerabilities of our fellow creatures. It’s a refreshing approach[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
How to communicate the climate emergency

How to communicate the climate emergency

What are effective ways of engaging people in conversation about the gathering climate crisis and the need for an emergency response? Let’s start with some key content: 1. Urgency and courage     The Earth is already too hot: we are in danger now, not just in the future. Warming will accelerate, and 1.5°C is only a decade away, yet annual emissions[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 1 comment Climate Change
Under  `House  Arrest’   in  Indian  democracy

Under  `House  Arrest’   in  Indian  democracy

The  term   `house  arrest’  does  not  find  any  mention  in  the CrPC (Criminal  Procedure  Code)   or  the IPC  (Indian  Penal  Code).  But  certain   judges  have  invented  this  term  to  justify  their  decree,  presumably   by  falling  back  upon   an  Article  in  our  Constitution.   Article  142  empowers  the  Supreme  Court  to  “pass   such  decree  or  make  such  order  as  is  necessary  for [Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
RSS Supremo’s Public relations Exercise

RSS Supremo’s Public relations Exercise

Do organizations say what they intend to do? Not necessarily. This came out clearly from the three long lectures by RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat. The event was supposed to be a dialogue, but the maximum of dialogue one could see was his answering few questions at the end of lectures. This normal practice of answering the questions was underlined strongly,[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Under the yoke of neo-imperialism : A fake war of patriotism and treason

Under the yoke of neo-imperialism : A fake war of patriotism and treason

1 Civil life in India, especially during the last two decades, has been afflicted by the twin war cry of patriotism (rashtrabhakti) and treason (rashtradroh). The three pillars of the Indian democracy – the legislative, the executive and the judiciary, including the fourth pillar – the press, the education and research institutions as well as independent and committed intellectuals of[Read More…]

by 05/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
International Court of Justice strikes down US sanctions against Iran

International Court of Justice strikes down US sanctions against Iran

Rebuking US moves to scrap the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague unanimously ruled yesterday that Washington must let Iran use international financial payments systems to buy humanitarian supplies. When the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Iran in 2012-2015, it tried to strangle Iran’s economy by freezing it out of all financial transactions[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The mass grave at Mannar

Mass graves in Mannar point to further war crimes in Sri Lanka

Co-Written By Murali Maran and Vimal Rasenthiran Another mass grave has been uncovered in Sri Lanka, near Mannar, a town in the Northern province, where the almost 30-year war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resulted in thousands of deaths. According to reports last month, the skeletal remains of 136 individuals were unearthed from a site near[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Himalayas and Climate Change

Himalayas and Climate Change

(The Himalayas play an important role in shaping the climate of the sub-continent and the recent erratic weather is the direct result of the “desecration” of the Himalayas!) The Educational Multimedia Research Centre of the University of Kashmir recently organized a film festival in collaboration with CMS Vatavaran, the International Forum on Environment and Wild Life. As part of the[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 2 comments Climate Change
Bret Kavanaugh is a Liar, a Perjurer and Belongs in Jail Instead of on the Supreme Court

Bret Kavanaugh is a Liar, a Perjurer and Belongs in Jail Instead of on the Supreme Court

Bret Kavanaugh is a pathological liar and in any position of power he is a danger to society.  I do not say this lightly, nor am I referring to Kavanaugh’s aberrant behavior that Dr. Christine Baisley Fordand others testified about:  the attempted rape, sexual battery, drunkenness, blackouts and aggressions.  All of that is important too. What I am reporting on[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 4 comments World
Photo by indi.ca

Can New Energy Technologies Save the Planet? Ask the Sperm Whale

An oilman, a green techie and a sperm whale walked into a bar. They got to drinking and, inevitably, boasting. The oilman looked at the whale and declared that if it hadn’t been for fossil fuels, all 75 species of whales would have been hunted to extinction for oil. “My industry and its technology saved your large ass.” The greenie[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Alternative Energy
The Dangers of Amhara Chauvinism in Today’s Ethiopia; The End of the Abyssinian Empire

The Dangers of Amhara Chauvinism in Today’s Ethiopia; The End of the Abyssinian Empire

The Amhara people of Ethiopia built the Abyssinian Empire with firearms from Italy in the late 19th century, and in doing so adopted a uniquely African brand of ethnic chauvinism. Anyone familiar with the myth of Haile Sellasie the supposed “anti-colonialist” of modern African legend can find Amhara chauvinism front and center. The major feat of the Amhara was conquering[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
End of Hegemony: UN Must Reflect Changing World Order

End of Hegemony: UN Must Reflect Changing World Order

There is a rational explanation of why India and Brazil, two countries with vast populations and large and growing economies, are not permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The Council – made up of 5 permanent and ten rotating members – was designed to reflect a world order that was birthed from the horrific violence of World[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 2 comments World
Apartheid Super Spy, Craig Williamson’s Trails of Death and Destruction: The Scandinavian Connection

Apartheid Super Spy, Craig Williamson’s Trails of Death and Destruction: The Scandinavian Connection

  Responses to recent exposures in Jyllands Posten It was early in the October 1977 morning that they came. Ironically, they came on the morning of the Hindu festival of lights called Diwali, celebrating justice over injustice, light over darkness and truth over untruth. They stormed into our home in Albesville, Port Shepstone in South Africa. Four burly Security Policemen[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
I cry out to you dear father….

I cry out to you dear father….

You said “Find Yourself in the Service of Others – to make a difference”
Sure you did not mean – “Make others serve you till he is lost”
I cry out to you to come back, dear father
For a satyagraha to relieve us from our own oppression

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Gandhi On Community Specific Colleges And Universities

Gandhi On Community Specific Colleges And Universities

           Mahatma Gandhi dealt with problem of communalism in variety of ways. Throughout his life, he worked for communal harmony among communities of diverse social and cultural backgrounds. Though, the years following Hindu-Muslim riots in 1940s posed a greater challenge for Gandhi and Indian leadership. The challenge was to address the communal sentiment and to bring[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Monkey And Me

Monkey And Me

6.30 am, October 3, 2018, Anekal. I was sitting on a terrace, listening to the birds, occasionally playing my flute, drinking my coffee and watching the forests around as well as the remnants of a lake nearby. It was a beautiful day to begin with. Suddenly, a battalion of monkeys from the nearby trees joined me. Initially, I thought they[Read More…]

by 04/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Good News: Amazon Raises Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour In USA

Good News: Amazon Raises Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour In USA

Today as a result of your help, we have won a major victory for American workers. This morning, after a long campaign, Jeff Bezos of Amazon announced that the company would raise its minimum wage for all United States employees to $15 an hour — a move that will impact more than 350,000 full-time, part-time and temporary workers. I want[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 3 comments World
Life is harsh for ordinanry commuters in the area where the bullet train terminus is to come up. By Vidyadhar Date

Life is harsh for ordinanry commuters in the area where the bullet train terminus is to come up. By Vidyadhar Date

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the exemplary National Health Service of Britain which is important for us in India because NHS gives the right to good health and treatment to citizens. No society can call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means , declared Aneurin Bevan, Britain’s health minister from[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 1 comment India
Autumnal Equinox – 2018: On the way down

Autumnal Equinox – 2018: On the way down

To be completely honest I am not sure what more I can say; certainly nothing that would really help our situation. Here we are at the autumnal equinox, heading for the darkness of winter, and, frankly, it seems appropriate. The collapse of our neoliberal, capitalistic, technological Western culture is well under way in my view. And, in truth, not just[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis
 People Worldwide Will Soon Demand Americans Stop Planing Nuclear War Endangering Us All!

 People Worldwide Will Soon Demand Americans Stop Planing Nuclear War Endangering Us All!

  “We are moving in the direction of a multipolar world,” UN Secretary-General. China is again the world’s greatest economic power as it was through most of human history. As USA loses its economic hegemony it  will eventually lose the power to shut people up by threat of imposing crippling economic sanctions. A wave of voices across the world will[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized, World
 Trial of Killer Chicago Cop Turns into Attempted Second Execution of Laquan MacDonald

 Trial of Killer Chicago Cop Turns into Attempted Second Execution of Laquan MacDonald

 We’ve seen the horror movie over and over—cops murder people in cold blood, and then walk free almost every time. In the very few cases where one is put on trial, the killer cop gets off scot-free, or with a slap on the wrist, by claiming he feared for his own safety. The prosecutors—so skilled at sending Black and Latino[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Why Don’t We Talk About Mental Health?

Why Don’t We Talk About Mental Health?

World Mental Health Day-10 October 2018 Among the many challenges India faces, the most underappreciated is the ongoing mental health crisis.  Mental illness is actually India’s ticking bomb .The National Mental Health Survey of India (2016), the largest exercise to count the numbers of those affected by mental disorders, reported that one of every ten adults experiences a clinically significant[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Gandhiji’s Only Kashmir Yatra That Set The Stage For India In Kashmir

Gandhiji’s Only Kashmir Yatra That Set The Stage For India In Kashmir

Acting on the recommendation of Mountbatten, the British Government on 3rd June, 1947, announced its plan of partition of India into two Dominions of India & Pakistan. The Indian Independence Act, 1947 enacted by the British on 18th July 1947 gave legal recognition to the creation of the two Dominions. Under the Act, British suzerainty over the provinces including 584[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Live Encounters! – Glorifying Murder

Live Encounters! – Glorifying Murder

In states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand , Odisha or North Eastern  states encounters are common but in Utter Pradesh, the UP government and its police have taken a step further by the ‘ filming’ of encounters live. Few journalists were asked by cops if they are interested in ‘ watching and filming a real encounter’ in Machua village under Harduagunj police[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Why has Egg become Danger for Manipur?

Why has Egg become Danger for Manipur?

  When the pen is dangerous for the nation, why has egg become a lethal weapon in the state of Manipur? Over 89 students and 6 professors of Manipur Universities were picked up at midnight on 10 September 2018 after an FIR lodged by the Pro Vice-Chancellor Yugendro. On the streets in Manipur and in social media, the news is[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 3 comments India
Why Trump Is Trump And Why His Policies

Why Trump Is Trump And Why His Policies

Not only are we in a sense defined by our DNA, but new research shows our behavior may also be affected by that of our ancestors.  So observe the authors of a paper published in Science Advances recently.  Thomas Talhelm from the University of Chicago has an interest in the cultural differences between northern and southern China.  Northerners are considered[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 1 comment World
Police Violence on Farmers

Police Violence on Farmers

 The police violence on farmers yesterday at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border need to be condemned unconditionally. It is deeply disturbing that Delhi Police is claiming that no prior permission was taken by the farmer’s associations to enter the Delhi. The farmers had started their March from Hardwar several days ago which was much to the knowledge of the Uttar Pradesh[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Samvidhan Samman Yatra, organised by NAPM, flagged off from Dandi, Gujarat on Gandhi Jayanti

Samvidhan Samman Yatra, organised by NAPM, flagged off from Dandi, Gujarat on Gandhi Jayanti

Dandi, Gujarat | October 02, 2018: NAPM begins the nationwide Samvidhan Samman Yatra today from Dandi, Gujarat against the increased mob violence, hate crimes, casteist attacks, natural resource loot, and consistent attack on constitutional values. People from various people’s movements joined the yatra in Dandi where Prafulla Samantara (Lok Shakti Abhiyaan, Odisha), Suhas Kolhekar (NAPM, Maharashtra), B. R. Patil (Karnataka),[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled India
When Crime Dons the Apparel of Innocence

When Crime Dons the Apparel of Innocence

  In The Rebel, Camus presciently wrote, “One the day when crime dons the apparel of innocence- through a curious transposition peculiar to our times–it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself.” Prescient indeed but also timeless. Ironically, Camus wrote that the transposition was “peculiar to our times” and it turned out, in fact, not to be peculiar[Read More…]

by 03/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Police Brutally Stop Farmer’s March To Delhi; Many Injured

Police Brutally Stop Farmer’s March To Delhi; Many Injured

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a farmers march led by Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) on the outskirts of Delhi. Many farmers were injured.  The protesting farmers are coming to the capital with several demands including farm loan-waiver, friendly crop insurance and support for small and marginal farmers and to implement recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. The[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 3 comments India
Old women appear in the 4th standard examination in Kerala Literacy Mission

Literacy is to language what driving is to cars

In my view the single most significant event in human development is the evolution of languages. It was this process that enabled human beings to preserve their thoughts, teach others, learn from history and talk to generations yet unborn. Language is the elixir of eternal life. Or as close to it as we are likely to come. Literacy or to[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Vedanta De-listed From London Stock Exchange As Protests Erupts At AGM

Vedanta De-listed From London Stock Exchange As Protests Erupts At AGM

Loud protests took place at the company’s last London AGM today. Company founder and Chairman Anil Agarwal was not present, creating uproar among protesters and shareholders. Vedanta Resources officially de-listed from the London Stock Exchange at 8am this morning. Inside the meeting dissident shareholders asked questions about the police shooting of thirteen protesters against Vedanta’s copper smelter in Tuticorin, Tamil[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Limiting Israel:  Russia’s Deploys the S-300 to Syria

Limiting Israel:  Russia’s Deploys the S-300 to Syria

Relations between Russia and Israel have been those of an estranged couple punctuated by occasional breakouts of tense understanding.  As with other such couples, a public row does not necessarily reflect the more placid, if stern discussion that might happen behind closed doors. On the public side of things, Russia’s decision to deploy the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Syria[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 1 comment World
Covert Wars in the UN Halls

Covert Wars in the UN Halls

Last week the UN halls have been the battlefields of aggressive covert wars in the form of speeches by world leaders. Each speech has maneuvers of attacks, defense, threats and bullying, lies and justifications, and rallying support of the international community. My interest is in the speeches concerning the Middle East; a very dangerous and volatile area, whose unfolding battles[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Everyone washes their hands as Gaza’s economy goes into freefall

Everyone washes their hands as Gaza’s economy goes into freefall

Nazareth: The moment long feared is fast approaching in Gaza, according to a new report by the World Bank. After a decade-long Israeli blockade and a series of large-scale military assaults, the economy of the tiny coastal enclave is in “freefall”. At a meeting of international donors in New York on Thursday, coinciding with the annual meeting of the United[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 1 comment Palestine
The Biggest Prison on Earth – A History of the Occupied Territories

The Biggest Prison on Earth – A History of the Occupied Territories

The Biggest Prison on Earth – A History of the Occupied Territories. Ilan Pappe. Oneworld Publications, London, 2018. The history of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is continued with Ilan Pappe’s recent work, The Biggest Prison on Earth. For those who have read Pappe’s earlier histories, it is clear the original Zionists recognized the existence of the Palestinian population and[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 2 comments Book Review
Swatch + Bharath – The sum somehow does not add up

Swatch + Bharath – The sum somehow does not add up

Come october the ‘cleanliness fever’ grips our polity. Mahathma’s birthday is now swatchtha abhiyan day. Mahatma is now the mascot for swatch bharat initiative. His spectacles now adorn municipal bins and government hoardings of clean and pure drive. Government mandated cleaniliness drive takes on fevered and frenzied pitch on 2nd October . Circulars will be sent out to all central[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 2 comments India
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Drought In Thar, Pakistan And The Lives of Hindu Minorities

Tharparkar is a district of Sindh province in Pakistan where Hindus live in majority. Most of them are Bheels, Meghwar, Kolhi, Jogis and other marginalized communities within Hindus. The life status of these communities is extremely bad   because of lack of good governance in this desert. Tharparkar is a deserted area which is why the life of most of the[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Where will you sleep? ( A question to Mahatma )

Where will you sleep? ( A question to Mahatma )

When communal frenzy Was at its peak And hatred led to Massacres of Innocents While India celebrated It’s ‘ freedom at Midnight’, You slept with Strife – torn victims When communal frenzy Is at its peak , Caste conflicts, lynchings, Communal violence Continue unabated, While those who supported Your murderers Are ‘ celebrating ‘ your birth anniversary Where will you[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 2 comments Arts/Literature
Saving Gandhi On Gandhi Jayanti

Saving Gandhi On Gandhi Jayanti

Today is Gandhi Jayanti. If he were alive he would have been 149 year. Official celebrations are there. Narendra Modi is on an overdrive to ‘prove’ that he ‘inherit’ the legacy of Gandhi. His ‘swachchbharat’ campaign is nothing but an attempt to deviate from the real issues of the nation. Gandhi has devotees and detractors both. Many people love his[Read More…]

by 02/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Khan Al Ahmar On My Mind

Khan Al Ahmar On My Mind

Did you hear the story of the small Palestinian, Bedouin community of Khan Al Ahmar? Threatened by the Israeli Occupation Forces’ bulldozers yet again? Please let me remind you here that these Bedouins were forcibly removed from their original habitat in the Negev Desert at least twice before. When they arrived in their area close to Jerusalem in the 1950s[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Julian Assange appoints Kristinn Hrafnsson as WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief

Julian Assange appoints Kristinn Hrafnsson as WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief

WikiLeaks announced last Wednesday that Julian Assange has appointed Icelandic investigative journalist Kristinn Hrafnsson as editor-in-chief, taking over one of his roles within the whistle-blowing media organisation. Assange remains the site’s publisher. WikiLeaks explained in a brief statement: “Due to the extraordinary circumstances where Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been held incommunicado (except for visits by his lawyers)[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Where is Hope? (A report from Nahr al-Bared Palestinian Refugee Camp, Lebanon)

Where is Hope? (A report from Nahr al-Bared Palestinian Refugee Camp, Lebanon)

Situated on a coastal location on the outskirts of Tripoli, with golden sands and an expansive view of the Mediterranean Sea, the Palestinian Refugee Camp of Nahr al-Bared could be a beautiful environment in which to raise a child… It isn’t. The sense of despair is as dark as I have known it during these past three years of visiting[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 1 comment Palestine
A Call  To Shudra/OBC/SC/STs To Celebrate October 5 As Indian English Day

A Call  To Shudra/OBC/SC/STs To Celebrate October 5 As Indian English Day

I appeal to all the Shudra/OBC/SC/STs to celebrate the Indian English Day on 5 October, 2018 as we have no significant place in the world of English even after 201 years of English education in India. The first ever Indian English school was started in 1817 in October by William Carey and Rajram Mohan Roy. But the Shudra/OBC/SC/STs are excluded[Read More…]

Nostalgia and Sunshine: Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black

Nostalgia and Sunshine: Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black

This effort seems to be a bit of camping out on the part of director Bruce Beresford, whose list of cinematic achievements include Driving Miss Daisy and Breaker Morant.  There are many smiles, a few distributed tears and occasional sighs of regret, but generally speaking, little by way of controversial stings.  Ladies in Black, in other words, is all entertainment[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
The Great October Revolution: Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People

The Great October Revolution: Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People

Abolish all exploitation, completely eliminate the division of society into classes, mercilessly crush the resistance of the exploiters, establish a socialist organization of society, and achieve the victory of socialism in all countries were declared as the fundamental aim of the newly established Soviet Russia, a Republic of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. And, the Declaration of Rights[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 14 comments Life/Philosophy
Kavanaugh Is The Wrong Nominee For Our Times

Kavanaugh Is The Wrong Nominee For Our Times

Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The Kavanaugh confirmation process has been a missed opportunity for the United States to face up to many urgent issues on which the bi-partisans in Washington, DC are united and wrong. Kavanaugh’s career as a Republican legal operative and judge supporting the power of corporations, the security state and abusive foreign policy should have been[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 2 comments World
The Other Side of the Wall

The Other Side of the Wall

Richard Hardigan, The Other Side of the Wall. An Eyewitness Account of the Occupation of Palestine, Cune Press, Seattle 2018, 185 pp, $ 19.95. This book is a personal account of a US American professor about his volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) against the Israeli occupation in Palestine in the summer of 2014. His eyewitness report tells the[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Kashmir’s  Tryst with Ballot

Kashmir’s  Tryst with Ballot

  Some days, back on social media network Facebook, someone posted a black and white photograph of a handsome turbaned man draped in an up-button black coat. The picture looked straight into the eyes of the surfers telling terrifying tales of suppression of the yester years. It had hundreds of likes and dozens of shares.It generated scores of euphoric and[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Bapu Kuti: A Reminder of Gandhi’s Forgotten Ideals

Bapu Kuti: A Reminder of Gandhi’s Forgotten Ideals

Eighty kilometres to the east of Nagpur in central India lies Bapu Kuti, a historic site in Sewagram, the ‘village of service’, which is nestled in the serene rustic surroundings of the Wardha district. This dwelling was the residential abode of Mahatma Gandhi from 1936 to 1948 and was the epicentre of the Indian freedom movement. During the 12 years[Read More…]

by 01/10/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
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