Text and photos: Andre Vltchek How low can a country governed by an unbridled greed, a notorious lack of morals and ubiquitous servility to its neo-colonialist masters, really sink? And how can people tolerate lies, the naked cynicism and fanatical incompetence of the rulers? Can the regime in Indonesia, which was created in 1965, and then nurtured by the West,[Read More…]
The Horn of Africa has been plagued by conflicts and war for decades, and finally it seems that peace has come to the region. Political changes in Ethiopia have opened for a rapid peace agreement with Eritrea signed on 8 July 2018 by president Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea and prime minister Ahmed Abiy of Ethiopia. As a dream that finally[Read More…]
2018 is on its last breath and I, for one, will not shed a tear. In fact I hope that such a year will never be repeated. Not for us Palestinians. Not for any oppressed people of the world. Nor even for the people of my adopted country, England, who are grappling with the toxic effect of the Brexit debacle.[Read More…]
Ashes, even when washed way, can haunt the living. A cracked Patrick Melrose has come to retrieve the cremated remains of this late father. He is addicted, indulgent, outrageous. He drinks and doses to excess; his moments of brief sobriety are nothing more than painful interludes in poor living and self-inflicted disgrace. Painful lucidity is tampered with; the moments he[Read More…]
The title of this essay is a slightly modified version of the title Let Truth be the Prejudice, the book that W. Eugene Smith intended to publish as his way of making the world face up to the reality of “the greed, the stupidity, and the intolerances” that he witnessed and documented in his photographs. As the New Year approaches, each of us,[Read More…]
New York Times says Pakistan has eagerly turned more toward China as the chill with the United States has deepened and some of China’s biggest projects in Pakistan had clear strategic implications. In a report about Pakistan’s deepening ties with China, the paper pointed out that under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] Pakistan is cooperating with China on distinctly defense-related projects,[Read More…]
While government scheme Deen Dayal Yojana has a vision to provide continuous power supply to rural areas, Wevan a small village in Bandipora District of Northern Kashmir, is still stuck in dark ages. Wevan, a small village on the foothills of a rocky hill in Bandipora district, of North Kashmir is without electricity eventhouth it is 71 years since India[Read More…]
The regions currently administered by the Kurds in Syria include the Kurdish-majority Qamishli and al-Hasakah in northeastern Syria, and the Arab-majority towns of Manbij to the west of the Euphrates River in northern Syria and Kobani to the east of the Euphrates River along the Turkish border. The oil- and natural gas-rich Deir al-Zor governorate in eastern Syria has been[Read More…]
This has been the 7th year that WikiLeaksfounder Julian Assange spent Christmas in confinement inside Ecuador’s London embassy. For nearly a decade, the US government’s aggressive witch-hunt of truthtellers has trapped him in the UK. Assange claimed political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 to mitigate the risk of extradition to the US, relating to his publishing activities. He[Read More…]
It should be a sign for this Indian giant, a company that has done much to illustrate the ethical and moral bankruptcy in Australia’s political classes. Despite support stretching from Canberra to rural Queensland, lifted by the fantasy of job creation,Adani is yet to dig the earth of what would have been one of the largest mining complexes on the[Read More…]
The US commanders planning for the withdrawal of the American troops from Syria are recommending that the Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State be allowed to keep the US-supplied weapons, a move that would likely anger NATO-ally Turkey, according to an exclusive report [1] by Reuters. The report adds: “The proposal to leave the US-supplied weapons with the Kurdish YPG[Read More…]
The Syrian army said it entered Manbij on Friday for the first time in years, after the Syrian Kurds urged Damascus to protect the town from the threat of impending Turkish military offensive, though Turkish President Erdogan has termed the handover a “psyops” by the Kurds. If Turkey mounts an offensive in Manbij, it would be the third invasion by[Read More…]
Days before Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Turkey, Pakistan has declared US-based Fethullah Gulen’s FETO group a terrorist organization. The Supreme Court on Friday (Dec 28) directed the Ministry of Interior to declare Pak-Turk International Cag Education Foundation (PTICEF) of Gulen group as a ‘proscribed organization.’ The judgment said the Pak-Turk International Cag Education Foundation is declared a terrorist[Read More…]
A former northern army commander has twice over recently observed that the military’s operational success in counter insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has not been taken advantage of politically. He was voicing the army’s longstanding position that talks need to proceed abreast with operations to culminate in a return of peace. In the army’s doctrinal view, counter insurgency operations[Read More…]
West Bengal in its contemporary form is a new territory. One that came into existence at the helm of the midnight hour on August 15,1947. Prior to that, it was simply Bengal. Bengal whose geography was once distorted by Britishers who used the blade of divide and rule to slit it in 1905 into East and West Bengal based on[Read More…]
Various studies have been analysed and reported that elderly are mentally vulnerable. They are psychologically alone, isolated and neglected. They have to live in a truncated social network of the relationship in their family, neighbourhood or in their community. Poor elderly have to work for their survival till their end of life. ‘Theories of ‘cumulative advantage/disadvantage’ suggest that inequalities[Read More…]
The Narander Modi led BJP govt passed the Muslim women ( Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017.The reworked bill to make triple talaq or instant divorce among Muslims a punishable offence was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday, 27th of December 2018. The Triple Talaq Bill states that the offence of pronouncing triple talaq is a cognisable and non-bailable[Read More…]
As new year draws closer, there is an increase of tensions on caste and communal lines. The Naseeruddin Shah affair has not yet subsided and another instance of repression took place in Mumbai. The dashing dalit leader Chandrasekhar Azad who was invited to address a rally on December 29, wanted to use the opportunity to visit Dr. B. R. Ambedkar[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr Sriram Kannekanti & B. Leena Rajyalakshmi One of the first generations civil servants of independent India with great contributions on multiple domains as a bureaucrat, intellect, change maker, humanitarian and philanthropist TL Sankar (1928-2018). A 1957 batch civil servant of Andhra Pradesh batch worked in various positions for 35 years and another 25 years of his post[Read More…]
Make an audit of the profit and loss account
From the time of evolution of human life
And the loss of lives of humans and other species
Due to the evolution of human race
Your life and mine deserve nothing better
Than a place in the dustbins that humans failed to create.
Editorial of the current issue of Frontier, Kolkata The long battle over. 61 Mott Lane is over. What is not over is the trauma faced by the employees of Frontier in the morning of December 17, 2018. Finally Frontier will have to vacate this place in a week or two. It all started way back in 1985 when Samar Sen[Read More…]
The NYT wrote yesterday, Christmas Day, that an 8-year old Guatemalan boy died in US Border Control custody. The circumstances are not clear, or are simply not reported. A month earlier, a 7-year old girl, also from Guatemala, died also in US Border Control custody. Here too, the circumstances are not revealed. How many more children, not mentioned by[Read More…]
If we compare the economic thought of Romer and Nordhaus, the two men who shared the 2018 Noble Prize for Economics, and that of Karl Marx, in terms of their conceptions of man, nature and technology, we are better able to understand the differences between capitalist and communist economic theory. One of the factors determining the decision to award the[Read More…]
Year after year, the right-wing Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles publishes its shitlist[1] of the top leading “Anti-Semites” or “anti-Semitic” incidents. It’s always funny to read about this organization distortion of reality and unworldliness. These yearly “Anti-Semitism” Awards come right after the famous Hollywood Awards. At the top of the list, rightly so, ranks the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre. Besides[Read More…]
The Patriarchate of Constantinople will expand its presence in Russia through the parishes of the former Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP). There are also negotiations on the restoration of communion with representatives of the so-called Catacomb church. According to the statute adopted by the episcopate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), as well as the Tomos of[Read More…]
On 6th December, 1992 the news of demolition of 464 years old mosque by Hindu Fanatics, Kar Sevaks, at Ayodhiya UP organised by BJP & VHP through their Rathyatras & speeches, cast a gloom over the entire 180 million Indian Muslim population. It was the forecast of more communal poison & violence in the lap of ever-increasing wave of palengenetic Hindu[Read More…]
Use of electronic materials has increased over the years and waste emanating from disbanding of the equipment is rising rapidly particularly in cities and towns. The city of Moradabad in U. P.( Located on the banks of Ramganga, a tributary of Ganga) is the largest e- waste hub in the country. The city air quality index had peaked at 500[Read More…]
It would have been more pertinent and meaningful if this piece had been written by a journalist friend. Actually, I had waited for some time hoping that one or another journalist friend would turn his attention to this subject and write about it. But unfortunately, journalists who would look into the changing face of Delhi metropolis and speak about the[Read More…]
The successive governments have depended heavily on technology to deal with service delivery and leakages and the use of technology has almost become indispensible in the modern day governance approaches. As a result one can observe the mobile apps, websites, MIS data being the popular talking points among the top officials and technology has become a one stop solution to[Read More…]
A saint is one who can give some inner peace by his/her voice. This will happen only when s(he) will talk about love and harmony. Morari Bapu is one saint who has been conveying the message of love, peace, harmony, fraternity, etc. Today when a number of saffron clad figures with aggressive posture, spewing venom, fanning hatred to polarise voters[Read More…]
First things first: by now, anyone with a tiny bit of brain, honesty and knowledge, should be 100% sure of the fact that ISIS is a US creation and that, when John Kerry mentioned the need for a Plan B, he was not joking. Let’s talk about Plan B and the Plan A. Let’s also talk about the confusing Plan[Read More…]
An interview with Daniel Chavez Daniel Chavez / Photo credit Patricia Alfaro In recent years, many researchers and social activists from very different countries, like myself, have rediscovered the notion of the commons as a key idea to deepen social and environmental justice and democratise both politics and the economy. This reappropriation has meant questioning the vanguardist and hierarchical visions,[Read More…]
Bahia Amawai is a US citizen and Texas-based language specialist who helps autistic and speech-impaired children overcome their impairment. Despite the essential and noble nature of her work, she was fired by the Pflugerville Independent School District, which serves the Austin area. Every year, Amawai signs an annual contract that allows her to carry on with her tasks uninterrupted.[Read More…]
It would be a silly question indeed to ask why December 25th is celebrated. On the other hand, one could ask why it is a national holiday in Pakistan, for it is not because it’s Christmas. By an unusual coincidence it happens to be the birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of the country. Exactly how Pakistan came[Read More…]
Problems of Engaging Modernity and the Muslim Reform Movement in Kerala…. This article is written in commemoration of the 145th anniversary (28 December) of Vakkom Moulavi who played a major role in reforming the Muslim community in Kerala. Even as Kerala has been in the midst of resuscitating the ‘cultural capital’ of the early 20th century ‘renaissance’ (a term widely used[Read More…]
December 25, 1968, termed as ‘Black Thursday’, saw the first mass crime against Dalits in independent India, who were fighting for respectable wages under the leadership of the Communist Party. P Srinivasan, a veteran village functionary who cremates the dead had, in an interview done few years ago, described the darkening early morning on December 26, 1968, when the bodies began[Read More…]
India is presently going through a struggle between the ideologies of these two ideologues and one is not sure which one will ultimately prevail! Three years back one wrote an article titled, “Tagore’s or Golwalkar’s India?” The massive campaign of the Hindutva parties to usher in Hindu Rashtra posed a question as to which India will prevail, the spiritual India[Read More…]
The invasion and occupation of Syria by tens of thousands of jihadists who were recruited from around the world to overthrow Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, was financed mainly by U.S. taxpayers and by the world’s wealthiest family, the Sauds, who own Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest oil company, Aramco. America’s international oil companies and major think tanks and ‘charitable’[Read More…]
So, we have veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah in the news again. No, it’s not in connection with any of his movie projects or even his personal life. He is in the news because he wronged the “right” with his ‘intolerant’ utterings on intolerance . Aamir khan had walked down the road , Shahrukh too did so and even Naseer had[Read More…]
In 1963, an act of serious sacrilege plunged Kashmir into grief and fury never witnessed before. As people in Srinagar woke up to an icy Friday morning on 27 December corresponding to the 7th day of Chilai Kalan, the 40-day long harshest period of Kashmir winter, a shocking news spread like wildfire across the city. The Moi-e-Muqqadas (strand of holy[Read More…]
The shattered pieces of a mirror
Lay at the feet of Sabari.
She looked at the pieces
And wept with her heart.
Rapid progress towards clean energy is needed to meet the global ambition to limit warming to no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures. But how are countries doing so far? In our Energy Revolution Global Outlook report, written with colleagues at Imperial College London and E4tech – and published by Drax– we rank progress in 25 major world economies. Our report provides a league table of their efforts to[Read More…]
As far as Gulf leaders are concerned, President Donald J. Trump demonstrated with his announced US troop withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan that his insistence that the “world is a dangerous place” has never been truer. The troop withdrawals coupled with Mr. Trump’s praising of Saudi Arabia’s alleged willingness to foot the reconstruction bill in Syria, moves that emphasized his[Read More…]
I noticed the other day — a Eduardo Galleano’s book got me started — that not only did Che, Sandino and Zapata each die before they reached their 40th birthday, Malcolm X and MLK were both assassinated at the age of 39; Malcolm and Sandino both bought the farm on February 21st, believe it or not. The powers that be[Read More…]
Managing a bank will always be a more lucrative criminal enterprise than raiding one but this Brechtian styled analysis only goes so far. A closer look at the extraordinary nature of Goldman Sachs and its operations reveals not merely a bank but a flesh-eating cult of considerable proportion, brazen in its operations and indifferent to authorities. While states have been[Read More…]
During a recent visit to the ancient Karnak temple complex in Egypt, I overheard a lady saying Mr Trump should be here. She was suggesting that looking at these gigantic monuments, the U.S. president would realise how small he really is and that the ancient ruins should teach him a lesson. It turned out that the lady was a Parsi.[Read More…]
Ageing scenario in India is under pressure so far as their all-round care is concerned. It may be their finance, healthcare or shelter. The changing family structure and functions do not agree to provide them space in their family which was the once of their own and for which they devoted whole life. At their later age, they are[Read More…]
The dubious performance (failure) of genetically engineered Bt cotton, officially India’s only GM crop, should serve as a warning as the push within the country to adopt GM across a wide range of food crops continues. This article provides an outline of some key reports and papers that have appeared in the last few years on Bt cotton in India. In[Read More…]
According to the latest official figures, 280 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured, when a tsunami suddenly hit coastal cities and beach resort towns adjoining Indonesia’s Sunda Strait at 9.30 p.m. local time on Saturday. The official death toll is expected to rise over the next days. At least 57 people are missing and rescuers have still not[Read More…]
The Anti-Corruption Court in Islamabad on Monday (December 24) sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison for graft, while a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted on the orders of the Supreme Court to investigate the multi-billion rupees fake accounts scam, has held former President Asif Zardari responsible for the suspicious transactions. Nawaz Sharif could not prove[Read More…]
After Donald Trump’s surprise announcement in a tweet on December 19 to withdraw 2,000 American troops from Syria after a telephonic conversation with the Turkish President Erdogan on December 14, the decision to scale back American presence in Afghanistan by 7000 troops has also reportedly been made and the announcement is imminent. It would be pertinent to note here that[Read More…]
A war criminal and a fascist walk into an oval office… this could be the beginning of a joke, but the consequences for humanity are anything but. Trump and his regime’s raison d’être—the reason that they are in power—is to upend what have been the prevailing norms of how the most powerful country in history is ruled and how it[Read More…]
It is significant that US President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw his troops from Syria. The 14th December decision was followed immediately by another announcement by the President to pull out a sizeable number of soldiers from Afghanistan where the US has been involved in a war for the last 17 years — the longest war in its history.[Read More…]
A fortnight back, a single column news item in newspapers announced the death of Mushirul Hasan, an Indian historian and former Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia and author of a dozen and half books. His forte has been Islam in South Asia, communalism and birth of India and Pakistan as independent dominions. Except for some occasional remarks in sync[Read More…]
Socialist Party, on the occasion of 95th birthday of Justice Rajindar Sachar, founder member of the party, organized a one-day seminar on 22 December 2018, on the topic ‘How to Save Constitutional Institutions and Values?’ in Jalandhar city of Punjab. Citizens from different parts of Punjab reached Jalandhar to pay their homage to Justice Sachar on this occasion. The seminar[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The US war against Syria was one that people almost stopped. President Obama was unable to get Congress to authorize the war in 2013, but the Pentagon and foreign policy establishment, who have long wanted to control Syria, pushed forward with war anyway. It has been a disaster. The war has resulted in hundreds of[Read More…]
Recently under the aegis of Institute of Social Sciences(established in 1985), a new 7thchapter has been opened namely, Centre For Ethics, Politics & Global Affairs, headed by the Prof. Ashok Acharya, a prominent political theorist at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. The inaugural event took place on 19th December 2018, which included public lectures by two eminent[Read More…]
If one questions — what do women know about farming and agriculture, the answer will be pretty much everything. Women’s contribution to agriculture all across the world is exemplary. According to United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%. Nevertheless women continue[Read More…]
Writing from Kabul, Carolyn Coe describes experiences of frustration, outbreaks of rage and efforts to cope. Kabul–At a busy four-way intersection in the northwestern part of Kabul, traffic is stuck. There is no traffic signal, and cars are threaded through one another like a woven rug. A passenger car is in front of our taxi. The driver, with two children[Read More…]
On a fresh autumn morning, I was going by an auto rickshaw to my college to give a brief summary or lecture on what really tension means for a biology student. It was the year 2016, when for the very first time I was introduced to the word “Intolerance” as a word which I should be scared about since it[Read More…]
Qazi Zainus Sajidin, the city Qazi of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, has an added responsibility these days. Anyone who listens to his sermons, gets a surprise when nearing the end of his takreer (speech), he underlines the importance of vaccinations and how a timely dose can save the lives of children. Qazisaab is not the only cleric in the region who has[Read More…]
Last month I suggested a limit of USD 5000 and 1 tCO2e ration per person per year for an equitable and sustainable world. (1) Today’s update concerns an article I wrote five years ago about the role of sequestration in reversing anthropogenic climate change. (2) After this year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report came out in October, Peter[Read More…]
If commensurate responsibility of Christian Americans for the death from starvation and bombing of increasingly more than 85 thousand darling Yemeni children has no sobering effect on Christian Americans enjoying Christmas, then there is no Jesus Christ in USA CHRISTmas nor in the CHRISTian religion as practiced by the great majority of Americans who call themselves CHRISTians. No wonder Rev.[Read More…]
All memorialised events, when passing into mythology, must be seen critically. In some cases, there should be more than a hint of suspicion. The Christmas Truce of 1914 remains one sentimentalised occasion, remembered less to scold the mad mechanised forces of death led by regressive castes than to reflect upon common humanity. Common humanity, left to be butchered before the[Read More…]
In a recent article published on the India-based News18 site (CNN), prominent US biologist Nina Federoff was reported as saying it is time for India to grant farmers access to genetically modified (GM) crops. In an interview with the site, she says there is no evidence that GM crops are dangerous when consumed either by people in food or by animals in feed. Federoff says that the commercial[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Believe it or not, but not long ago, Cyprus used to be the only country in the European Union that was governed by a Communist Party. And it was not really too long ago – between 2008 and 2013. Also, relatively recently, unification of the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish administered northern part of[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was reportedly made during a telephonic conversation with the Turkish President Erdogan on December 14, before President Trump made the momentous announcement in a Tweet on Wednesday, December 19. The decision was so sudden that even the Turkish president was caught off-guard, according to a December 22 Associated Press report[Read More…]
A Jamia Millia Islamia MBA student was stopped from giving UGC NET exam in December 2018 in a school in Rohini, Delhi, after she refused to take off her hijab while giving the exam. A similar incident was noted in Goa as well. This took place outside the NET examination centre where she agreed to be checked completely. Who gave[Read More…]
We still remember
The wailing of standing tree
When you were tied
And brutally murdered
Viktor Orbán of Hungary is not to be hectored to. Arching with fury at the EU’s September motion to sanction Hungary for bad behaviour under the Article 7 process, he was resolved to ratchet things up. The motion, while getting 448 votes concerned about judicial independence, corruption, freedom of expression, academic freedom, the rights and migrants, amongst others did have[Read More…]
The ethnic cleansing of 90% of the land of Palestine means that the 2-state solution dishonestly espoused by Apartheid Israel and its pro-Apartheid US Alliance supporters is now dead. Further, it is clear that the racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel are locked in to continuation of Jewish Israeli domination of all of Palestine, with the boundary prospects of endless Apartheid[Read More…]
On an Air France flight from Paris to Latin America, the plane is full, mostly with working class Latinos, going home for Christmas to spend a few festive days with their families and friends. They have worked hard to save their money for the trip. The plane is old and decrepit. Has no properly working entertainment system – and that[Read More…]
War on Peace – The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Power. Ronan Farrow. W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York, 2018. Members of the political corps of the U.S. writing about U.S. foreign policy have a particular insider viewpoint that can provide some good insights into how their diplomacy works along with the personal peculiarities of[Read More…]
In 2001, for the very first time, I took George Orwell’s masterpiece “1984” in my hand. A dystopian novel having a dictator named “Big Brother” who believes in “WAR IS PEACE, SLAVERY IS FREEDOM, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” and used to spread his belief by hook or crook. Big Brother used to spy on every citizen of his rule because he[Read More…]
History is replete with examples of political grandstanding by arrogant leaders. At the same time it’s also full of landmark opportunities that they came across to make major course correction. However, no politician worth his tuft has ever had the guts to choose the latter and create history. The territorial dispute over Kashmir between India & Pakistan is one such[Read More…]
Authorities on Thursday, booked Father of 6 Daughters, of Hajin Bandipora under Stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) for 10th time in a row for his alleged involvement in Anti National Activities. Parray, resident of Hajin Bandipora, is district president of Muslim League led by Masrat Alam Bhat had been arrested in August 2015 for his alleged involvement in anti Govt[Read More…]
Kashmir and its history is replete with intimate massacres. These massacres were not witnessed after the birth of nation states who drafted the independent nation into disputed territory. These massacres were also witnessed during Mughal rule, Afghan rule, Sikh as well as in Dogra rule. In the year 1947, when one side the sub-continent of India got their independence from[Read More…]
The Trump administration announced a new policy that effectively guts the right of asylum for refugees from Central America. From now on, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin expelling non-Mexican refugees as soon as they have made application for asylum after crossing the US-Mexico border. They will be immediately deported to Mexico instead of being allowed to stay[Read More…]
“The President announced an apparently impulsive decision that shook the world, showed little sign of nuanced consideration, confounded top advisers and by the end of the day left Washington in chaos and confusion.” So goes a typical contribution from CNN, this time by Stephen Collinson, pooh-poohing President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out some 2,000 US troops based in Syria.[Read More…]
Almost everyone seems to believe that our energy problems are primarily oil-related. Electricity will save us. I recently gave a talk to a group of IEEE electricity researchers (primarily engineers) about the current energy situation and how welcoming it is for new technologies. Needless to say, this group did not come with the standard mindset. They wanted to understand what the[Read More…]
Brothers and Sisters, we must free ourselves from the consuming money powers and the immoral habits that these have brought. Capitalism should not divide us any further, so that we remain each other’s enemies. We are all brothers and sisters. It can be different, it must be different. A forgotten Brotherhood Today, the realization that we[Read More…]
The just-released autobiography of Prof. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a unique project of substance as it comprises the discourse of production and intellectuality. A discourse of this kind was/is nowhere figured in any autobiography written by notable Indian scholar or politician. In India, the autobiographies like ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’ of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘My Search of Truth’[Read More…]
Identity is a concept for understanding and learning about social conflicts. The issue of Muslim identity in the Kashmir conflict became a concern, thereby turning potentially negotiable issues into intractable conflicts centered on conflicting groups’ self-image and religion. A stalemate has followed because of the perception that the identity of a Kashmiri Muslim is non-negotiable. Identities are complex, historically bound[Read More…]
What kind of world do we want for the future? We want a world where war is abolished as an institution, and where the enormous resources now wasted on war are used constructively. We want a world where a stable population of moderate size lives in comfort and security, free from fear of hunger or unemployment. We want a world[Read More…]
With Christmas coming up, household consumption will soon hit its yearly peak in many countries. Despite homely pictures of tranquility on mass-produced greeting cards, Christmas is more about frenzied shopping and overspending than peace on earth or quality time with family and friends. As with so much of our lives, the holidays have been hijacked by the idea that satisfaction,[Read More…]
In a momentous policy decision on Wednesday, the Trump administration has decided to pull out the US troops from Syria. Although the current redeployment of American troops will be limited only to northern Syria to appease the US-ally Turkey where it has been a longstanding demand of the Turkish President Erdogan that Turkey will not tolerate the presence of the[Read More…]
The horror of the Yemen War is changing minds at last Twenty years ago, a small delegation organized by Voices in the Wilderness lived in Baghdad while U.S. cruise missiles attacked more than 100 targets in Iraq. Following four days of bombing, known as “Operation Desert Fox,” our group visited various Iraqis who had survived direct hits. One young girl[Read More…]
“If children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school, then imagine what we can all do together if we really wanted to.” Greta Thunberg at COP24, Dec. 2018 The world, if it goes off in a burn, will do so courtesy of the rules – or their elastic interpretation. It was a fine show[Read More…]
On 30 December 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a cable (subsequently released to the public by WikiLeaks) to America’s Ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, and Pakistan, headlined, “Terrorist Finance: Action Request for Senior Level Engagement on Terrorism Finance.” — “Terrorism finance” is what’s generally referred-to by the official phrase “state sponsorship of terrorism.” This cable from[Read More…]
(Violence in any form with any motive can never solve a problem. Unless the senseless violence from all sides is ended soon, it will engulf the entire region resulting in an Armageddon!) The recent virtual massacre of the civilians in Pulwama has been likened to the massacre in Jalianwala Bagh during the British rule in India by a former judge[Read More…]
A report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) says, “Dalits and Adivasis – two of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society – make up a considerable number of India’s prison population.” Adivasi is the collective term for the indigenous peoples of mainland South Asia. Adivasi make up 8.2% of India’s population, or 104 million people, according to the[Read More…]
The Pakistani and Indian Diaspora came together in Surrey to celebrate the opening of the Kartarpur corridor, which will provide Sikhs access to their historical gurdwara across the international border. The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, spent the final years of his life in Kartarpur, located close to the now fenced Indo-Pak border in Pakistan. On the 550th birth anniversary[Read More…]
What if protesters in Paris win, and the French government gives in to all their demands? What if taxes are reduced, wages increased, President Macron steps down? I am not talking only about the fuel tax; attempts to impose it have been already abandoned. I am not talking about increase of the minimum wage – the government already agreed to[Read More…]
The Bangladesh government is planning to move hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Burma (Myanmar) into prison-like dwellings on the remote and geographically unstable silt island of Bhasan Char. Around 900,000 Rohingya refugees are currently living in bamboo shelters and other makeshift accommodation in flood-prone valleys in Bangladesh, having fled murderous attacks by the Burmese military and Buddhist supremacist[Read More…]
On December 14, Martin Griffiths—the UN Special Envoy for Yemen—briefed the UN Security Council about the talks that had just concluded in Sweden the previous day. Griffiths, sitting before a large UN logo from Jordan, spoke by video to a Council that had not been able to move an effective agenda to end the brutal war on this impoverished country.[Read More…]
The international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders detailed an “unprecedented” level of violence and hostility toward journalists around the world in 2018, with the number of reporters killed and detained while working—or in retaliation for their work—shooting up from the previous year. Eighty journalists around the world were killed due to their reporting work from January to November 2018,[Read More…]
The spring of hope has arrived at last. The Bharatiya Janata Party and its powerful propaganda machine had pitched this as a contest between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi — Namdar versus Kamdar (the entitled one vs someone who has worked his way up). And the voters have spoken what they think of the performance of Kamdar! The Indians have[Read More…]
I was a member of the team that built the Mayura Factory in the Anamallais where I was the Assistant Manager in charge of the building project. So, I was closely associated with the project from the word ‘Go.’ The factory was built on Lower Sheikalmudi Estate and AVG Menon, my first manager was made responsible for the project. He[Read More…]
In rural Andhra Pradesh, there is a proverb that is reportedly used by rapists against their victims, “Allow me to rape you — or I’ll cut my own organ [presumably, the penis].” The saying reflects deep-seated misogyny and chauvinistic tendencies. The threat of self-immolation now emerging from Thiruvananthapuram against the Supreme Court order that allowed women of all age groups[Read More…]
Binu Mathew is the heroic and dedicated editor of the Internet journal “Countercurrents”. He lives in the Kerala Provence of India, which has recently been hit by enormous floods, despite which he continues to publish his vitally important journal every day. An interview with Editor Binu Mathew, in which he describes his early life, his education, and how he became[Read More…]
Humans are an interesting species … instead of seeing eye-to-eye, they see eye-to-nose. They focus on the present and themselves, particularly where their comfort is concerned, no matter how dire the predictions for the future. Although they are now over, such has been evident at the climate change talks in Katowice, Poland. An effort to mandate the Paris agreement,[Read More…]
There could be no more consequential decision than launching atomic weapons and possibly triggering a nuclear holocaust. President John F. Kennedy faced just such a moment during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and, after envisioning the catastrophic outcome of a U.S.-Soviet nuclear exchange, he came to the conclusion that the atomic powers should impose tough barriers on the precipitous use of[Read More…]
An eerie video composed of a recorded audio prayer and a photo of one ‘Hajj Jamal Ghalaini’ occasionally pops up on Facebook. The voice is that of an alleged religious sheikh, praying for the well-being of the man in the photo for saving the Palestinian refugee youth of Lebanon, by facilitating their departure to Europe. The video would have been[Read More…]
Over many years, I’ve often reflected on the following questions. Why are some University of Maine students in general, Maine Peace Action Committee (MPAC) students in particular, and community members concerned about peace and justice, while others are not? Why do some of these students and community members[Read More…]
Friday morning, I was honored to deliver the commencement address for the graduating class at Morgan State University, a historically black college in Baltimore. Like most graduation speeches, I talked about the twists and turns my life took to get where I am today. How my daddy had a heart attack when I was 12. How my mother saved our[Read More…]
The jail for life conviction of Delhi Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in 1984 anti-Sikh riot case is too little and too late judgment by the Delhi High Court. The Sikh’s killings occurred a day after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards October 31, 1984. There were other Congress leaders, besides Sajjan Kumar like HKL Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and[Read More…]
Much has been discussed in main stream media about the BJP’s war cry of Congress Mukt Bharat, the popular slogan that itself occupies the position of nothing more than a footnote in the BJP’s larger imagination of a Hindu Rashtra. However, the same vigor is missing when it comes to discussing riddance from BJP & RSS’ politics of hate. The[Read More…]
For this term of your life
An imagination incomplete
And an unfinished existence
Like the half burnt bodies
Which float on the breasts of Ganga river
Swatch Bharat Ki Jai
For a collection of currency notes
Of no value.
The US military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) claimed on Monday to have killed 62 members of the al-Shabab Islamist militia in a series of six airstrikes over the weekend in a coastal region south of Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu. The bombings were only the latest in a steadily escalating US air war in Somalia. They follow a pair of air strikes[Read More…]
The arrival of the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier group in the Gulf to deter Iran from further testing ballistic missiles is likely to dampen Indian hopes that the Trump administration’s exemption of the port of Chabahar from sanctions against the Islamic republic would help it tighten economic relations with Central Asia and further regional integration. The group’s presence[Read More…]
Being from the male gender gathering information and taking a surveillance from the social networks on the obscene attacks over the female gender is easy but at the same time it is quite sadist for the mind and body. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter etc., though have been made to initiate connection but at the same time it has facilitated[Read More…]
One of the first things I did when I joined the tea industry was to learn Tamil. I recall Mr. Ahmedullah, the General Manager telling me, ‘You must speak Tamil not only fluently but like a Tamilian, not like a Hyderabadi or an Englishman.’ And that is what I proceeded to do. I engaged the local school teacher in Sheikalmudi,[Read More…]
The institute’s recent order, now withdrawn, of separate entrance for non-vegetarians is just a part of the overall policing and push for vegetarianism after the Modi government’s ascent. Nagesh (name changed), a bright student at the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras, who hails from a very poor economic background, had a shock of his life when he was entering the[Read More…]
Co-Written By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers In recent weeks, racism against Palestinian people and the expansion of apartheid-Jim Crow policies have escalated. The Israeli lobby and its supporters attacked freedom of speech in the United States, showing how far they will go to prevent the US public from being aware of their behavior. If more people in the US[Read More…]
Here are some excerpts from a proposed Earth Constitution. The full text can be found on the following link: http://earth-constitution.org/constitution/english/ 1 Preamble • Realizing that Humanity today has come to a turning point in history and that we are on the threshold of an new world order which promises to usher in an era of peace, prosperity, justice and harmony;[Read More…]
Eminent Indian economist Professor Utsa Patnaik (Jawaharlal Nehru University) has estimated that Britain robbed India of $45 trillion between 1765 and 1938, However it is estimated that if India had remained free with 24% of world GDP as in 1700 then its cumulative GDP would have been $232 trillion greater (1700-2003) and $44 trillion greater (1700-1950). Deprivation kills and it[Read More…]
Be aware of the titty. Or pudenda. Or anything else suggesting a copulative angle familiar to most adults with a decent constituency of desire. The world of Tumblr, home of the expressive identity and sexual subculture, has shrunk before the pressings of those averse to the flesh, and much more besides. The theocrats around the world will be proud; puritans[Read More…]
Once again Canada clearly signals its vassal status in relations with the U.S. The recent arrest and detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer, demonstrates fully Canadian compliance with U.S. desires. Canadian authorities, notably Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and PM Justin Trudeau provide two defenses for Canada’s actions: the first is the tried and not so true[Read More…]
I teach a course here on Jurisprudence where I lecture upon the differences between Conservativism and Neo-Conservativism. Towards that end, I just read Roger Scruton’s new book on “Conservativism” that was published in Great Britain by Profile Books Ltd. in 2017. Scruton is supposed to be one of the leading Conservative Theorists in the West and certainly in Britain and[Read More…]
The chart shows the Greenhouse Gas emissions trajectories of the world’s 4 largest countries. We can devise and predict and hope for a politics in each of these regions to match both what needs to be done and what is going on in each. INDIA India is an important country for making projections about the trajectory of global climate change[Read More…]
Dr BR Ambedkar was right in saying that capitalism and brahmanism are the two evils the workers of the country had to deal with. By the passage of time, it has been converted to neo-liberalism and Hindutva. As education became a constitutionally guaranteed right, the Hindutva brigade had to become friends with the neo-liberalism to stop the students from marginalised[Read More…]
During our childhood, when elders at home talked about prices of essential commodities prevalent during their own childhood that they referred to as prone zamane (old times), our reaction would be of disbelief. Although their prone zamane was only 40 or 50 years backwards in time but the stories they told would bring it into our mind as an ancient[Read More…]
Some ten years back, I reviewed, ‘Journey into Islam, the Crisis of Globalization’ (2007) the first of series of three books written by Prof Akbar Ahmed, an American scholar seeking to establish a dialogue and understanding between the West and Islam. And to find answers for the hatred and mistrust between Muslims and the West intensified after the September 11-[Read More…]
Mumbai | 17th Dec: Last night, the people, who were protesting at Azad Maidan against their failed rehabilitation at #MumbaisToxicHell Mahul, were forced by the police to leave the ground. As there was no substitute Mahul residents had to be spent the night at platform no. 18 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Since thousands of people were asked to adjust[Read More…]
“Yellow vest” protesters mobilized for a fifth day of action in France on Saturday, facing a new police crackdown and clashes centered in provincial cities, as fewer protesters traveled to Paris. Yellow Vest protesters on Opéra square The interior ministry claimed that some 66,000 people had protested across France, down by half after the brutal crackdown organized the previous week[Read More…]
We either keep fossil fuels in the ground, or all of us are going to fry. So essentially posits still another new blockbuster study on climate change, this one just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Our fossil-fuel industrial economy, the study details, has made for the fastest climate changes our Earth has ever seen. “If we think about[Read More…]
Nazareth: Two years of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as a Middle East peacemaking team appear to be having a transformative effect – and in ways that will please neither of them. The American public is now evenly split between those who want a two-state solution and those who prefer a single state, shared by Israelis and Palestinians, according to[Read More…]
Alongside boosting research and development of new tools to prevent, diagnose and treat TB, there is an acute need to optimally deploy and maximally utilize existing tools for preventing, diagnosing and treating TB, says Dr Nguyen Viet Nhung, head of national TB programme in Vietnam and Director of National Lung Hospital, Hanoi. Dr Nhung was conferred upon the ‘Honorary Associate[Read More…]
“The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it.” Edward Dowling We’re seeing a sudden surge of dictatorial fascistic leaders around the globe. Here’s something I wrote several years ago, trying to explain what’s happening[Read More…]
In a recent post, Antonio Turiel proposed that the global peak of diesel fuel production was reached three years ago, in 2018. Turiel’s idea is especially interesting since it takes into account the fact that what we call “oil” is actually a wide variety of liquids of different characteristics. The current boom of the extraction of tight oil (known also[Read More…]
Figure 1: L´aszlo´ Szombatfalvy, a highly successful Swedish businessman born in Budapest in 1927. His concern regarding threats to human civilization and the biosphere led him to establish the Global Challenges Foundation and the 2017 New Shape Awards. La´szl´o Szombatfalvy was born in Budapest in 1927. He came to Sweden as a refugee in 1956 because of the dangerous conditions[Read More…]
Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Italian Nobel laureate honoured for her work in neurobiology, once gave a splendid conference with the title “The imperfect brain”. There she explained that man has a brain that is not used completely, while the reverse is true for the cockroach. In the growing fog that envelops the planet and its inhabitants, looking at things from the[Read More…]
Congress leader Sajjan Kumar has been found guilty and has been sentenced to life in jail for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots by the Delhi High Court, which cancelled an earlier court order acquitting him. Sajjan Kumar, 73, was convicted in the killing of five members of a family in Raj Nagar in Delhi. He has been asked[Read More…]
Recent ups and downs of petrol and diesel prices have made a large impact on people who depend upon them in their daily lives in most parts of the country and the world. The over- dependence on fossil fuels is not only depleting resources but also driving towards a major crisis, especially in transportation of both commodities and people. Hence,[Read More…]
On December 16th, the Russian Senator, Konstantin Kosachev, who heads that body’s foreign-affairs committee, went public accusing the U.S. Government of coercing German corporations to abandon their investments in the key Russia-EU gas-pipeline project, which is now nearing completion. It’s a joint project of Russia and of corporations in some EU countries. He called this U.S. pressure against European[Read More…]
With the 2018 World Cup in Russia behind it, the soccer world’s focus shifts to the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Politics and the Gulf’s internecine political and legal battles have already shaped debate about FIFA’s controversial awarding of World Cup hosting rights to Qatar. The battles highlight not only the sport’s dominance in the Middle East by autocratic leaders but[Read More…]
It is hard to envisage sympathy for a person who made a name as a home secretary (prisons, detentions, security and such) taking the mast and banner of her country before hopeless odds, but inadequate opponents will do that to you. Vicious, venal and underdone, the enemies from within Theresa May’s own Tory ranks resemble the lazily angry, the fumingly[Read More…]
Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI), in partnership with Radical Desi and People’s Voice, released a calendar dedicated to 100 years of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, on Sunday, December 16 in Delta, BC. Scores of people were killed on April 13, 1919, when troops opened fire in British India on peaceful demonstrators who had assembled at Jallianwala Public Park in[Read More…]
On 5th December, a daunting picture went Viral on Social Media in which 14 year old Cute Boy holding an AK-47 in one hand and and Knife in another. Mudasir a resident of Khankah Mohalla of Hajin town along with 16 year old Saqib Bilal had gone missing from home on 31 August this year after an encounter took place[Read More…]
A complete shutdown was observed across Kashmir valley on Sunday to mourn the civilian and militant killings in Sirnoo village of Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Saturday . All shops and other business establishments were closed in the Valley while public transport was off the road. Restrictions were imposed by the authorities in parts of Srinagar and Section 144[Read More…]
Seven-year-old Jackeline Caal died in the custody of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last week, the agency admitted Thursday. The child’s death was a direct consequence of the savage repression of immigrants by the Trump administration, which has intensified to the point where such deaths cannot be considered accidents. They are the inevitable and deliberate result of policies[Read More…]
The time has come for the economics profession to step up to the plate and recognize that it needs to face a cruel economic fact. Here is that fact: If the profession and those who follow its dictates continue to disregard our ecological challenges, there will be for all life on this planet decade by decade enormous pain and suffering[Read More…]
The UN Security Council alone has the power to impose sanctions According to the Charter of the United Nations, only the UN Security Council has a mandate by the international community to apply sanctions (Article 41) that must be complied with by all UN member states (Article 2,2). Therefore sanctions on Iran, unilatterally imposed by the United States government, are[Read More…]
Trump’s declaration on recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli state and the transfer of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is the natural continuation of 100 years of colonization in Palestine and the 1917 Balfour Declaration. It is part and parcel of the ongoing attempt to liquidate Palestinian rights and to accelerate the ethnic cleansing[Read More…]
The pieces were already put in place during the Wentworth federal by-election, a hopeless, needless gambit that reduced the Coalition government’s majority whilst giving the outgoing Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull a crack at some vengeance. His successor, Scott Morrison, decided to make himself a prisoner of policy in advance. That prison cell, it transpired, was Australian policy towards Israel and[Read More…]
The scientific Public Health approach to preventing and controlling sexually transmitted diseases has been well established for some 70 years. Why is it then that the HIV epidemic has continued to claim 40,000 new victims every year for the past 30 years!? What was the role of the government as “guardians of the public interest?” The Supreme Court ruled[Read More…]
Class struggle defined traverse of the Baangaalee people’s victory-1971 in Bangladesh. The people’s War for Liberation achieved the victory by defeating Pakistan in 1971. Dynamics of class struggle also determined pace and forms of the political and other struggles the Baangaalee people were waging since August 14, 1947, the day the British colonial rulers transferred the bifurcated sub-continent to their[Read More…]
A life was pondering around
Between the sky and the earthworms
Neither there nor here
A life destined to be
Meaningful or meaningless
Back in December 2012, all of us were filled with anger, frustration and willing to change society just immediately. It was a reaction after reading, talking and thinking about what happened in New Delhi and later to be called as the “Nirbhaya Case”. I was residing in Oslo as a student and wrote an article with another Indian friend who[Read More…]
After the recent reverses BJP suffered in the assembly elections, many scions of so-called liberal media have got busy theorizing the loss as anti-incumbency. Arguments are repeatedly being made across liberal platforms that people in the three states BJP lost power, voted on local issues and against their respective state government. It appears a full-fledged campaign has been initiated, and to[Read More…]
Précis: The October 27 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh was not just “the latest mass shooting,” or even the latest act of right-wing political violence. With these murders, a virulent undercurrent of anti-Semitism has burst on the scene. Millions of people were shaken deeply by this act, which awoke memories of the terror of the Nazi[Read More…]
There never is a time not to worry in the Balkans. The next conflict always seems to be peering around the corner with a malicious enthusiasm, eager to spring at points of demagogic advantage and personal suffering. The centrepieces of future disaster in the region tend to be Kosovo and Bosnia. The former is now intent on formalising military arrangements,[Read More…]
“To coerce the states is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised… What is the cure for this great evil? Nothing, but to enable the… laws to operate on individuals, in the same manner as those of states do.” Alexander Hamilton, 1787 1 A personal note I have been a World Federalist ever since 1954. Sixty-four years ago,[Read More…]
“We are causing the problem, but our children and grandchildren are going to suffer the consequences “ James Hansen on Climate change Voicing concerns on deteriorating climate and rising pollution levels, children have started to register their protests. Tens of thousands of school children skipped school to march on streets demanding more action on climate change as world leaders gather[Read More…]
From August 31 this year, a part of the media and social media was abuzz with a supposed oracle of some scientists. Headings like: “We Cannot Fight Climate Change With Capitalism, Says Report,” “A dire new report reveals our capitalist economic system may not be up to the task of dealing with the climate disasters to come”, “This is how[Read More…]
Considering recent political developments in India, Canada, which claims to be a human rights leader in the world, should stand up for the Sikhs and recognize the 1984 Sikh massacre as genocide. Thousands of Sikhs were murdered across India during the first week of November 1984 following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The innocent[Read More…]
A recent inglorious defeat of Modi/Shah combine in three Indian states: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and victory of Rahul Gandhi, once labeled immature, part-time politicians by the BJP/RSS, shows that no leader or government can befool the intelligent Indian voters for a long time. Insulating day and night Gandhi family from the public platforms by Modi/RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal made sick[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Yes, there is rubble, in fact total destruction, in some of the neighborhoods of Homs, Aleppo, in the outskirts of Damascus, and elsewhere. Yes, there are terrorists and ‘foreign forces’ in Idlib and in several smaller pockets in some parts of the country. Yes, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and millions are[Read More…]
Nearly 15,000 immigrant children are being held in a network of detention centers across the United States. Changes implemented by the Trump administration have filled the child jails to near capacity, and the government is considering adding more employees and more beds to make it possible to hold even more adolescents. The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees[Read More…]
“Dear Caesar Keep Burning, raping, killing But please, please Spare us your obscene poetry And ugly music ” (From Seneca’s last letter to Nero) The excavation of more than 600 billion tons of toxic carbon and hydrocarbon geological remains of previous biospheres and their transfer to the atmosphere as carbon gases constitutes nothing less than insanity leading to global suicide.With[Read More…]
“Every Night & every Morn, Some to Misery are Born. Every Night & every Morn, Some are Born to sweet delight. Some are Born to sweet delight, Some are Born to Endless Night.” William Blake “Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not.” Hilaire Beloc 1 Intolerable economic inequality The excessive inequality that we can see[Read More…]
Gilets Jaunes! Greetings on your fourth week of Revolutionary struggle! Dalit Marxists extend our Solidarity and Revolutionary Greetings! We offer you an analysis of the world’s crisis we are all struggling against in the hope that you in turn gain strength from our solidarity and we gain strength from your solidarity with us! The first information we need is the[Read More…]
Our media feed us routinely with lies and the story of the involvement of the Russian Secret Service with the Climategate hack is just one of them. I thought it was worth discussing it here in light of the fact that it is one of the most blatant lies I could ever find. Also a good illustration of the incredible[Read More…]
Every one of our policy makers of government, quasi government and private or other sectors in India says proudly about sustainable development or they plan towards achievement of sustainability of the particular programme. But their desired expectation is theoretically a mouthful word. It is perhaps a political demand, and it is only a politically correct concept because practice tells different[Read More…]
Gandhi’s vision of the ideal society was that of a non-violent and democratic social order in which there would be a just balance between individual freedom and social responsibility. He had a very high regard for the place of ideals in human life. Without ideals, he said, life could have no meaning because there would be no goals towards which[Read More…]
Google is owned by Alphabet which is the world’s number 1 media organization and has a Zionist-dominated Board. However Google grossly violates journalistic standards by blatantly censoring the views of numerous anti-racist Jewish humanitarians as recorded in a series of public interest websites. Thus 5 websites involving criticism by anti-racist Jews of genocidally racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel, Israeli state terrorism,[Read More…]
Let me begin by congratulating Binu Mathew on his probing queries during his interview with Andre Vltchek, which brought out a powerfully honest narrative from this world-known public intellectual, who dares to describe himself as a “..Revolutionary and Internationalist.’ Since these two issues – revolution and internationalism – had been a part of my life since the 1950s, both [Read More…]
“Freedom of the press in the world will cease to exist if a judge in one country is allowed to bar publication of information anywhere in the world.” Martin Baron, Executive Editor, The Washington Post, Dec 13, 2018 It had been shrouded in secrecy akin to the deepest conspiracy, but the trial of Cardinal George Pell, while not letting[Read More…]
My previous essay in this series of Essays for Our Times addressed to India got three hundred shares on fb. This surprising fact has made me keep quiet for a long time, wondering what to write next. It was on “why I am an Indian.” Meanwhile, while I go on reifying the definitions of nation, India and what it means[Read More…]
The Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer is a novel read of its kind. It provides an intimate account of life in the 1990’s when insurgency and counter-insurgency engulfed the valley. The author, through his personal experiences, highlights the agonies of being born and living in a conflict situation like Kashmir. Most of the narratives about Kashmir have been centered on[Read More…]
Though Donald Trump’s Black Friday release of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (FNCA) completely backfired–the media relentlessly covered the report, and with devastating detail–Trump nevertheless managed to escape being held to account for what is (arguably) the Assessment’s most damning observation: “Current trends in annual greenhouse gas emissions, globally, are consistent with RCP8.5.” What does this mean? RCPs, or “Representative[Read More…]
The word abortion has been abominable to Catholic Church for centuries and the theological views on abortion from catholic perspective always painted abortion as a heinous moral sin. In tracing the Christian antipathy on abortion in the church history, it become rather an ironic factor[Read More…]
Adivasi Journalist Amit Topno was found dead on Sunday, Groundxero reported. Amit Topno has been bringing exclusive videos covering the Pathalgadi movement. Pathalgadi are a way to demarcate the adivasi territories and tell the Government that the law of the land does not apply here. In June this year, the movement erupted at Khunti, 40 km south-east of Ranchi after[Read More…]
First the Bhartiya Janata Party led government in Delhi was very enthusiastic about conducting the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam on the premise that this process will identify all the illegal migrants from Bangladesh who entered Assam after 24 March, 1971, the date of creation on Bangladesh, who could then be sent back to Bangladesh. The assumption was[Read More…]
1 Sanctions as collective punishment Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, collective punishment is war crime. Article 33 states that “No protected person may be punished for an offense that he or she did not personally commit.” At present, we treat nations as though they were persons: We punish entire nations by sanctions, even when only the leaders are guilty, even[Read More…]
(In spite of tall claims from various politicians and the government functionaries about Tourism being the backbone of Kashmir’s economy, the sector seems to have lost government’s priority!) Kashmir has been a well-known Tourist destination throughout our history. In earlier times, great travelers used to visit the valley and describe its beauty in their travelogues and other writings. Before partition[Read More…]
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered the Second World War. A war of horrors, it normalized the intensive, barbaric bombing of civilian populations. If the Spanish Civil War gave us Guernica and Picasso’s wrenching painting, WW2 offered up worse: London, Berlin, Dresden to name a few, the latter eloquently described in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughter[Read More…]
Dr Denis Mukwege has created a clinic near Bukavu in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. The eastern area of Congo is the scene of fighting at least since 1998 – in part as a result of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994. In mid-1994, more than one million Rwandan Hutu refugees poured into the two Kivu provinces. Many[Read More…]
Could it be that there are inherent evolutionary cranial/neurological deficiencies in our DNA makeup; so deeply embedded that we as a species now in this industrial age are unable to comprehend ourselves as a threat to our own future existence? Could it be that this is the reason our response to our desecration of the planet and its biosphere is[Read More…]
In the week just past, the treatment of the death of George H. W. Bush called forth the hope of a “kinder, gentler America.” But do the facts back up those hopes? Let’s start with this: In 1988, an Iranian commercial airliner, flying its normal route in Iranian airspace, was shot down by a U.S. Navy ship, illegally operating in[Read More…]
The recent defeat of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in three important assembly elections in India has refreshed hopes for the ouster of Hindu supremacists from power next year. The ruling BJP suffered humiliating defeat in the provincial elections held in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The party was in power in these[Read More…]
As if by magic, the fierce political unrest in France appeared suddenly and unexpectedly before the eyes of the world. Of course, it did not appear completely and evenly, but in brief and scattered images, as if a strobe light had been focused upon the people in yellow vests raging through the streets of Paris and then other cities in[Read More…]
If you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening to the nonhuman life forms with which we share this planet, you’ve likely heard the term “the Sixth Extinction.” If not, look it up. After all, a superb environmental reporter, Elizabeth Kolbert, has already gotten a Pulitzer Prize for writing a book with that title. Whether the sixth mass species extinction of Earth’s history[Read More…]
In the incessant self-praise of the US imperial project, kept safe in a state of permanently enforced amnesia, occasional writings prod and puncture. Mark Twain expressed an ashamed horror at the treatment of the Philippines; Ulysses Grant, despite being a victorious general of the Union forces in the Civil War and US president, could reflect that his country might, someday,[Read More…]
While it is now very late in the life cycle of homo sapiens, with extinction now due to consign us to Earth’s fossil record – see ‘Will humans be extinct by 2026?’ – I would like to make a belated pitch for the importance of the human individual and why nurturing each individual’s uniqueness is so important even if it[Read More…]
How does one explain Canada’s contradictory foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel? On December 4, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, praised Canada’s commitment not to follow the footsteps of the US Donald Trump Administration by transferring its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But there is little worth praising here. Respecting the internationally-recognized status of Jerusalem[Read More…]
Whether you consider yourself already well educated on the U.S. empire or are looking for a starting place, “How the US Creates “Sh*thole” Countries” is a strong read. Cynthia McKinney has gathered together a series of essays examining features of the empire as well as a list of some the more seriously affected victims. The histories have been covered elsewhere,[Read More…]
The US had a great deal going from 1953 to 1979 with the Shah of Iran. For 25 years Iran was a cornerstone of the US usurping the British Empire in the Middle East, following World War Two. Iran was a base for projecting US power in the region, and strategically it bordered the Soviet Union during the Cold War.[Read More…]
Donald Trump was right when he said that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been a disaster for the United States and promised to renegotiate it when he became president. However, the renegotiated NAFTA-2 is worse than the original NAFTA and should be rejected. On December 1, NAFTA-2 was signed by President Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of[Read More…]
In response to Robert Delaney’s 12/11 column in The South China Morning Post Robert Delaney, wrote an article today in his column in entitled “In the Huawei, Patrick Ho and Chinese spy cases, Trump sees only bargaining chips for his trade war” It is a column which both states the obvious and bemoans it; the obvious being that, as I[Read More…]
PUDR conducted a fact-finding to probe into the incident of mass termination in a mobile phone manufacturing unit in Noida, Uttar Pradesh where around 180 workers were thrown out of job without any prior notice on 29th November 2018. The abysmal and appalling nature of employment being generated under the 2015 ‘Make in India’ drive becomes starkly visible in this[Read More…]
We are shocked that fasting for the cause of conservation and preservation of Ganga-Himalayan basin since 24th of June, 2018, Sant Gopal Das ji has disappeared from AIIMS, hospital, New Delhi under mysterious circumstances and is missing since 4th of December. The government never tried to have a conversation with the saint in the last 171 days of his fasting[Read More…]
Hindutva has emerged as the clear and present danger to Hinduism and silence is not an option for the sane majority Aijaz Zaka Syed So this is how the cookie crumbles. Who would have thought India would find itself at this dangerous crossroads so early in its democratic journey after all those historic sacrifices offered by the founding fathers for[Read More…]
The Yellow Vest Movement – weekend 8 and 9 December – Round 4. Some say, they are the worst riots in France since the student-driven mini-Revolution of May 1968. Over the four weekends, hundreds of thousands were in the streets, middle class people, from students to workers to outright employees and housewives. The police force increases by every new Round[Read More…]
In a crucial election to five assemblies in what is billed as a semi final before the 2019 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ultra Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party drew a blank. It lost massively in Chattisgarh, a state where it held power for four consecutive terms. The Chief Minister Raman Singh was defeated in his constituency too. In[Read More…]
It was a gathering of activists masquerading as deep thinkers. Ostensibly, it was to celebrate seven decades of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one devised in the aftermath of a traumatised world and easier to do so for that fact. But this gathering on Lonsdale Street, Melbourne which featured irritatingly optimistic speakers showed the lamentable weaknesses in the human[Read More…]
“The global health system is only as strong as its weakest parts” had said UNDP’s Mandeep Dhaliwal in her article around last year’s World AIDS Day. The context has only deepened over the year, not only for ending AIDS but also for health security in general. With Universal Health Coverage Day (UHC Day) on 12th December this year, time is[Read More…]
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our ways of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophes.” “I don’t know what will be used in the next world war, but the 4th will be fought with stones.” Albert Einstein 1 The erosion of ethical principles during World War II When Hitler invaded Poland in September, 1939,[Read More…]
One of the major goals to be achieved in Sustainable development goals (SDG) policy by countries globally is ‘ food security.’ The UNDP made a ‘ universal call to action to end poverty , protect the planet , and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity’ in the year 2016 and India was one of the countries which agreed[Read More…]
The Socialist Party demands from the Bihar government that a judicial inquiry should be constituted into the communal riots took place on the occasion of Durga Puja on 20th October, 2018 in Sitamarhi, Bihar. The party believes that incidents such as burning of an elderly person Zainul Ansari in the public before the eyes of the administration are not possible[Read More…]
Modern industrial societies are having a catastrophic effect on the planet, accelerating contamination of the air, water, and soil, the destruction of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, mass extinction of species, and runaway climate change. A global economic systemfixated with exponential GDP growth at all costs is now not only damaging the natural systems on which we depend, but pushing them towards irreversible[Read More…]
When we look beyond his most offensive personal traits, which are in themselves the products and natural reflection of capitalist character structure: narcissism, bullying, tantrumped tweets, adolescent name calling, the dismissal of all those who do not support him, and the denigration and objectification not only of women, but of other human beings in general, we are able to see[Read More…]
On 10 December 1918 Australian and New Zealand soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) massacred about 100 Palestinian men in the village of Surafend and a nearby Bedouin camp and then burned the Palestinian dwellings. The atrocity was committed as revenge for the death of a New Zealand soldier at the hands of a fleeing thief[Read More…]
People choose various methods of resistance when dealing with ideological issues – from outright belligerence and violence to democratic collectivism. It depends on their perspective, beliefs, or sometimes there is just a selfish agenda. In the long run such methods cannot provide solutions for serious issues which hang on for years, like an incurable ailment which drains the human condition. Let us deal specifically[Read More…]
Mushirual Hasan was born on 15 August 1949 Bilaspur in Uttar Pradesh. He studied at Aligarh Muslims University, and did his M. A. in1969. Later he went to the Cambridge University for higher education. He was an eminent academic historian of modern India. He passed away early morning (10 December, 2018) at the age of 70 years. Hasan[Read More…]
This morning I woke up to two news reports in my mailbox that indicated two things to me: Bigotry against Jews can no more nor less be distinguished from bigotry against any other group of people or religion. Sectarianism by any other name is sectarianism. The insistence on making bigotry against Jews (in its sense of sectarianism) a separate or[Read More…]
“Of course there’s one Spain. If there was another, we’d all be in that one.” Joke on Franco’s Spain, in London Review of Books, 37, July, 2015 Beware the corpse that never truly expires. General Francisco Franco might well be entombed in the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos) – at least for the moment – but his[Read More…]
On November 29th, Gallup headlined “Democrats Lead Surge in Belief U.S. Should Be World Leader” and reported that “Three-fourths (75%) of Americans today think the United States has ‘a special responsibility to be the leading nation in world affairs,’ up from 66% in 2010. The surge is driven by Democrats, whose belief in this idea has increased from 61% eight[Read More…]
As we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time for a serious introspection as why after 70 years the wheel of the rights has turned full and returning to haunt us again. The UDHR came into being after much chaos, anarchy, killings and destruction of the second world war when the world was[Read More…]
Beneficiaries given documents by the CM while launching the scheme are yet to receive land Unkept promises during polls is nothing new for the Indian public. But implementation of land reforms which have been at the fulcrum of a promise to socio-economic justice since the end of the Raj refuses to die down. No wonder, the issue found its echo[Read More…]
Earlier this year, taking a front row seat at a church in Gary, Indiana, I watched as a young rapper, local food leader, and an arts educator beguiled a standing-room-only audience with a theatrical envisioning of their city in the year 2030. To the side of the stage, jazz legend Billy Foster and his trio added a lively soundtrack to[Read More…]
1 The training of soldiers Within individual countries, murder is rightly considered to be the worst of crimes. But the institution of war tries to convince us that if a soldier murders someone from another country, whom the politicians have designated as an “enemy”, it is no longer a crime, no longer a violation of the common bonds of humanity.[Read More…]
A series of Gulf and Middle East-related developments suggest that resolving some of the Middle East’s most debilitating and devastating crises while ensuring that efforts to pressure Iran do not perpetuate the mayhem may be easier said than done. They also suggest that the same is true for keeping US and Saudi interests aligned. Optimists garner hope from the fact[Read More…]
As we observe the 70th anniversary of the adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the UN General Assembly on the 10th of December 1948, it is imperative that we remind ourselves of the vital importance of Human Duties and Responsibilities in the life of a society. In fact there is a profound link between[Read More…]
Adopted by an assembly representing the farmers of India on the occasion of the historic Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee Delhi, 30 November 2018 WE, THE FARMERS OF INDIA, The producers of primary agricultural commodities; Including Women, Dalit, Nomadic and Adivasi farmers; Landowners, Tenants, Sharecroppers, Agricultural Labourers and Plantation Workers; Fishworkers, Milk Producers,[Read More…]
Rrecently a video of a police officer from Maharashtra, Bhagyashree Navtake had gone viral wherein she is seen bragging about how she files false cases against Dalits and tortures them and Muslims. It represents a crude but true picture of social prejudices in India’s police force. After all our police men come from the society, hence the police organisation is the true[Read More…]
When the fountainhead of the State’s governance, its chief minister overwhelms the need to hunt cow-killers over ‘cop-killers’, it crystallizes a practice in gross violation and rule of mob anarchy. Dressing the incident as an ‘accident’, that too four years after the incident and relegating a heart to heart with the victim policeman’s family after the end of his political[Read More…]
In one of the worst massacres in the history of India, the world’s so called largest secular democracy, thousands of innocent Sikhs were lynched and burnt alive, while their women were raped during the first week of November, 1984. The Sikh community, which makes up just two percent of the Indian population, was targeted by mobs all across the country[Read More…]
Bhadrachalam: A dawn of the new state of Telangana doesn’t seem to have done justice to the tribal cause. Activists aver the situation has only worsened. The State governments ‘Haritha Haram’ scheme to bring more areas under green cover seems to have affected them directly. The tribal activists aver the laws like the Forest Rights Act 2005 which was brought[Read More…]
Co-Written By Alex Lantier and Francis Dubois Ahead of today’s marches by “yellow vest” protesters against President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, the French government issued unprecedented threats of a bloody crackdown in the capital. Amid rising support for the “yellow vests” among students and workers, and mounting popular anger with Macron, top officials are warning that they will stop at[Read More…]
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Governed.” Thomas Jefferson, 1776 1 Adoption[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Believe it or not, but decades ago, Indonesia was a socialist country, the cradle of the ‘Non-Aligned Movement’, with the progressive and fiery President Soekarno leading the nation. The Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) was then the third largest Communist Party in the world, after those of China and the Soviet Union, and was it[Read More…]
Governor Malik’s decision to classify J&K Bank as a Public sector undertaking (PSU) should be seen in the broader scheme of Indian efforts to strengthen the tools of occupation which aim at controlling economic resources besides political, military & cultural control of the occupied. Before commenting on the specific act of J&K Bank, it needs to be stated that Under[Read More…]
The Socialist Party believes that the Modi government has brought the issue of AgustaWestland chopper deal as a rebuttal of the Rafale aircraft deal, and not to fight corruption. The BJP leaders, including the PM, have explicitly stated that extradition of James Christian Michel will pose a serious crisis for the Congress and its Gandhi-Nehru family. People should understand that[Read More…]
“It is a curious people. With them, all life seems to be sacred except human life.” – Mark Twain on Indians A single quote sometimes remains the sole memory of a leader. Giriraj Kishor, VHP leader, can be considered a classic example to demonstrate this who had rather (in)famously said “Cow is considered more sacred than human beings in Puranas[Read More…]
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has responded to Monday’s appeal court ruling by concentrating state power in his own hands and working with senior state bureaucrats to directly manage the government. The interim court order was in response to a petition disputing the president’s October 26 sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister. Sirisena replaced him with former president Mahinda[Read More…]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 6, 2018. in a short video posted on his personal Twitter handle to mark the 62nd death anniversary of Ambedkar, said the “mantra of sabka saath, sabka vikas has been inspired by the late leader”. He said Ambedkar pitched for equality before law, equality in opportunities and equality in rights. The prime minister said[Read More…]
In a radio interview on December 6, President Lenín Moreno effectively demanded that WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador in its embassy in 2012 because he faces the danger of prosecution in the US in retaliation for WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked information exposing US war crimes, diplomatic conspiracies, intelligence[Read More…]
The circular economy has become, for many governments, institutions, companies, and environmental organizations, one of the main components of a plan to lower carbon emissions. In the circular economy, resources would be continually re-used, meaning that there would be no more mining activity or waste production. The stress is on recycling, made possible by designing products so that they can[Read More…]
By now you have probably read about the so-called “tech backlash.” Facebook and other social media have undermined what’s left of the illusion of democracy, while smartphones damage young brains and erode the nature of discourse in the family. Meanwhile computers and other gadgets have diminished our attention spans along with our ever-failing connection to reality. The Foundation for Responsible[Read More…]
Australia is being seen as a test case. How does a liberal democracy affirm the destruction of private, encrypted communications? In 2015, China demonstrated what could be done to technology companies, equipping other states with an inspiration: encryption keys, when required, could be surrendered to the authorities. It is worth remembering the feeble justification then, as now. As Li Shouwei,[Read More…]
“Between the experience of living a normal life at this moment on the planet and the public narratives being offered to give a sense to that life, the empty space, the gap, is enormous. The desolation lies there, not in the facts.” – John Berger, “A Man with Tousled Hair” in The Shape of a Pocket A few days ago,[Read More…]
“A fast,emergency-scale transition to a post-fossil fuel world is absolutely necessary to address climate change. But this is excluded from consideration by policymakers because it is considered to be too disruptive. The orthodoxy is that there is time for an orderly economic transition within the current short-termist political paradigm.Discussion of what would be safe—less warming that we presently experience—is non-existent.[Read More…]
Most of the readers, who are good at reading the literature written in their mother tongue or in a language they can read and comprehend well, feel it as an unnecessary step taken; and they often pose a question – “Why would someone translate a work of art from source language to any other language?” For such readers, the answer[Read More…]
Pre-View: State of J & K is most probably only piece of land on the world map that despite being profusely rich in many resources of self-reliance & self-satisfaction is not, & has not been, enabled to reap their benefit to its full advantage. Huge hydroelectric power resources of the State have not been exploited by the government-politicians & State-administration[Read More…]
As I stand here at the tail end of 2018, just a few days before the new year is due to come in, I ask myself how I would like to be remembered. And the answer, hands down is, as a Shameless Idealist. In your life, if you want to achieve anything worthwhile you must do two things. Firstly, surround[Read More…]
As world leaders are meeting at the COP24 in Poland to discuss how to achieve goals outlined in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, scientists and activists are raising alarm about “brutal” new research published by the Global Carbon Project on Wednesday which offers the international community a “reality check” by showing that carbon emissions will hit a record high this year. “We’ve[Read More…]
A draft US Senate resolution effectively portraying Saudi policy as detrimental to US interests and values and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as “complicit” in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if adopted and implemented, potentially could change the dynamics of the region’s politics and create an initial exit from almost a decade of mayhem, conflict and bloodshed. The six-page draft also holds Prince[Read More…]
1 The San Francisco Conference After the unspeakable horrors of World War II, delegates from 50 Allied nations met in San Francisco California. The purpose of the conference, which took place between 25 April and 26 June, 1945, was to set up an international organization that would be able to abolish the institution of war. However, the Charter which the[Read More…]
“We say who, we say when, we say how much…” These are the words of Kit a minor character explaining to Vivienne( played by Julia Roberts) in the movie Pretty Woman about the nuances of their trade. Both of them are prostitutes. The dialogue sounds terrific, very empowering and…absolutely unrealistic. But movies are havens of escapist comfort and as we[Read More…]
“It may be pronounce that they will not construct a temple at the disputed site because this issue had have assisted BJP to polarise people for electoral purpose” Demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 by mob is considered as[Read More…]
On 29 November 2018 at a black-tie event in the Queen’s Hall of the Victorian State Parliament, Melbourne, the inaugural Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize was awarded to Professor Stuart Rees, founder of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University that in turn established the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize. Stuart Rees has been indefatigable in his support[Read More…]
The 10 year old walked bold and fast along the main roads of Thiruvananthapuram. She had no fears as her mother held her hand and she could see her father and grandparents close by. The green leaves of the trees that gave shade on that hot afternoon seemed to be waving at her. For she was part of the SORROWFUL[Read More…]
When you’re an artist, the work often becomes more important than you. Sadly, that’s always been the case for me. I started sculpting in 1991, working only with natural materials. At first, I sold small sculptures made of eggshells at the One of a Kind Show. Later, I created larger pieces modelled after the human anatomy using bones, coral and[Read More…]
My tentative thoughts on the likely political scenario unravelling itself. Today is the BLACK DAY when the saffron forces consisting of RSS/BJP/Shiv Sena/ VHP /Bajrang Dal etc. demolished the Babri Masjid in December 1992 with the complicity of the State. It is clear as daylight what the saffron forces are conspiring to accomplish now and in future. They are hysterically[Read More…]
Raising the slogan for justice, the students of Punjabi Department unite against the blatantly dishonest, anti-student administration! Today, the Punjabi department of Delhi University has presented before us an example of how the administration can turn its back on its students.Days after giving assurances to fulfil the demands raised by students who united against an apathetic administration determined to have[Read More…]
(The opening of Kartarpur Corridor practically signifies a breach in the artificial security barriers created by the two countries to keep their people apart) An interesting short entry in Wikipedia about the corridor sums up the motive behind theproject. “The Kartarpur Corridor is a proposed border corridor between India and Pakistan, connecting the Sikh shrines of Dera Baba Nanak Sahib (located in Punjab, India) and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur (in Punjab, Pakistan). The[Read More…]
A friend sent me a video about an all-women mosque (actually it turned out to be women praying in an all-faith center) in California with the caption, ‘This is Haraam and is a sign of Dajjal.’ I debated with myself whether this was even worth spending time to refute. But I recall the Hadith of Rasoolullahﷺ who emphasized principle of ownership[Read More…]
Violence has always been a tool of oppression, suppression and subordination. Though every form of violence is illegal according to the law of the land, dominant social forces (upper castes/classes) often justifies employing certain forms of violence as they believe that they are essential to keep the supposedly holy and sacred religious, social and cultural systems and customs alive[Read More…]
Co-Written by Badre Alam Khan and Sanjay Kumar The Republic of Caste: Thinking equality in time of Neoliberal Hindutva by Anand Teltumbde, Delhi: Navayana, (2018), pp 432, Rs,600. Anand Teltumbde is a prominent public intellectual and civil rights activist. He is presently general secretary of the committee for protection of democratic rights. He is also associated with the All India forum for[Read More…]
And the Silence Whispered, a remarkable debut collection of poems, by Wani Nazir, an educator, poet and reviewer, is not only beautiful as for the diction and form is concerned, but stands unparalleled in terms of numerous perspectives. The book has a foreword and an introduction written by two distinguished contemporary poets, Santosh Bakaya and Lopa Banerjee, of India, who[Read More…]
India is going through a phase of unparalleled hatred to one another according to their religion, caste, culture, linguistic affiliation etc. It need not be that way. We are all human beings with common origins. It’s history that divided us. We can break these human made barriers if we accept that we are one family. Hundreds of thousands of Indians[Read More…]
If you’re seeking some good news during these troubled times, look at the ecologically sound ways of producing food that have percolated up from the grassroots in recent years. Small farmers, environmentalists, academic researchers and food and farming activists have given us agroecology, holistic resource management, permaculture, regenerative agriculture and other methods that can alleviate or perhaps even eliminate the global food system’s worst impacts:[Read More…]
The play features a young Muslim girl who is in constant debate with her father, a muezzin in a local mosque. With aspirations to touch the sky, this young girl questions many notions of Islam regarding the supposed inequality between men and women. She questions why women are supposed to eat half as much as men. After being chastised by[Read More…]
This transcript is from an interview done by Eritrean President Issias Aferwerki and Al Jazeera “journalist” Jane Dutton in February 2010, shortly after the UNSC passed punitive sanctions against Eritrea based on what has now been proven to be fabrications. The sanctions are now history and this interview stands as an example for aspiring journalists of just how low their[Read More…]
Survive prison I must, for when I come out I would hold no grudges, or hate, or resentment. My belief system tells me that whatever comes upon me is a matter already decreed by Allah. He knows better. Shukri Abu-Baker, HLF5 Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five is about a grave and cruel injustice wielded by both[Read More…]
What is poison? Anything which is more than our needs- be it power, wealth, hunger, ego, greed, ambition, hate or anything… Jalal Rumī (a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar and theologian.) I lived and studied in the USA in the 60s and 70s and witnessed its greatness. People were honest, hard working, generous, sincere and they frowned upon racism[Read More…]
Dear David, I have long admired your dedicated and heroic life-long work for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. You did me the great honour of making me an Advisor to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF). You are both the Founder and the President of the NAPF. Could you tell us a little about your family, and your early[Read More…]
Watching the ongoing debate between US liberal and right-wing pundits on US mainstream media, one rarely gets the impression that Washington is responsible for the unfolding crisis in Central America. In fact, no other country is as accountable as the United States for the Central American bedlam and resulting refugee crisis. So why, despite the seemingly substantial ideological and political[Read More…]
On November 16th, the Washington Post headlined that “CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination” and reported that “The CIA’s assessment, in which officials have said they have high confidence, is the most definitive to date linking [Crown Prince] Mohammed [bin Salman] to the [murder] operation.” Then, after almost a full week of silence on that, U.S. President[Read More…]
It is attrition, suffocation and contortion. While Theresa May’s Brexit program, weak, compromising and cobbled as it is, endures that bit longer, her opponents from within and without government have been essentially undercutting her on various fronts. Foppish and solutions-free Boris Johnson does so from the perspective that the May program as it has been agreed to with the EU[Read More…]
Last night my mother came in my dreams
She asked me, why do you do what you do?
And I said
`Mother, I don’t do what I should do
And I do what I shouldn’t do’
She just smiled and said
`Do what you ought to do
and don’t do what you shouldn’t do’
Co-Written By Siddhartha Negi and Ashish Kumar Singh Country’s last Himalayan Villages of India painstakingly save endangered national herbal treasures with Promising multi-fold in farm income. They remain yet in anticipation of vital government Support. With high aspirations these villages celebrated Kutki (an Endangered Herb) Mahotsav with Chief Minister, Uttarakhand State & Ayush Minister, Govt. Of India. They aspire strengthened[Read More…]
“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” The simple plan of anarchy over Ayodhaya is just not what India deserves after the culmination of intellectuals. From the time of Independence to the present Hindutva throbbing nation, both the Muslims and Hindus should learn something which is[Read More…]
“Akh Daur”, a novel by Kashmiri author Bansi Nirdosh (translated by Qaisar Bashir as “Once Upon a Time”), is a historical fiction: it takes readers to an era which there was once, but is now seen no more. The novel can be divided into two parts: one, that depicts the beauty of Bandipora (fraternity, solidarity, love, peace, care) in general[Read More…]
5 December is the birth anniversary of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, a mass leader who dominated the politics of Kashmir for over half a century before passing away in 1982. For 22 years between his ouster as Prime Minister in 1953 and return as Chief Minister in 1975, he remained a dominant symbol of the popular demand for UN-mandated plebiscite in[Read More…]
The sleepy, cool village of Peringamala nestled in the biodiversity rich hills of Southern Western Ghats woke upon 3rd December morning to the slogans and songs that brought together the villagers all set for a walk to the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram. They were united by the urgent need to raise their protest and concern about the upcoming Waste to[Read More…]
Bibi – The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu. Anshell Pfeffer. Signal/McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House), Toronto, 2018. This morning I read online the current problems Benjamin Netanyahu is having within the Knesset and within his own political party, “Now, Netanyahu’s once stable coalition is hanging by a thread, with the support of only 61 members in the[Read More…]
“With law shall our land be built up, but with lawlessness laid waste.” Njal’s Saga, Iceland, c 1270. 1 What is law? After the invention of agriculture, roughly 10,000 years ago, humans began to live in progressively larger groups, which were sometimes multi-ethnic. In order to make towns, cities and finally nations function without excessive injustice and violence, both ethical[Read More…]
Several days ago, I joined an unusual skype call originated by young South Korean founders of “The Hope School.” Located on Jeju Island, the school aims to build a supportive community between island residents and newly arrived Yemenis who seek asylum in South Korea. Jeju, a visa-free port, has been an entry point for close to 500 Yemenis who have[Read More…]
Let Line of Control (LOC) be a line of peace-Mr. Manmohan Singh,ex-Prime Minister of India. The end of the British rule paved way for the freedom of the masses at the time of independence. However, it was at the cost of the economic and socio-political exploitation of the masses. The division of the British colony into the two states[Read More…]
Uttar Pradesh Police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was killed by a mob in Bulandshahar. The cowardly killings and its videos were viral from yesterday evening. The mob, it is alleged, was protesting against cow slaughter, that was ‘said to have’ happened in the area. Such hearsay have become part of the mob culture and justification of the goons masquerading as[Read More…]
Binu Mathew, Editor of Countercurrents.org interviews Andre Vltchek BM: You are one of the foremost critics of imperialism. Can you tell us how you came to be who you are? Can you tell us about your formative years? AV: Formative years… There were many of them, and actually, I feel that I am still evolving, until now. People always do,[Read More…]
It takes only a spark, from a lightning or human ignition, to start a fire, but it involves high temperatures, a period of drought, a build-up of dry vegetation and strong winds to start a bush fire, such as is devastating Queensland and recently California. When all these factors combine firestorms ensue, enhanced by strong winds from the hot interior[Read More…]
President Trump’s abrupt cancellation of bilateral talks with Mr. Putin at the G-20 meeting in Argentina — following the seizure of Ukrainian ships by Russia — puts any rapprochement on the back burner, at least for the time being. As leaders convene, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is flashing his wallet, his presence awkward, trying to buy friends — this[Read More…]
“Hate is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die”. Saint. Augustine The so-called “Islamic extremism” has become synonymous with the Western definition of “terrorism” to conceal the West’s ongoing war on Islam and Muslims. It is invented and sensationalised by anti-Muslim Anglo-Zionist mass media and the Anglo-Zionist political establishments. Its intention is to demonise Muslims and[Read More…]
The death of certain political figures, notably those of a vast imperium, is bound to provoke less criticism or critical insight than soul searching pursuits. With the US in the mauling clutches of Donald J. Trump, the nightmare that was supposedly never to happen, nostalgia prevails in establishment circles. What ever happened to traditional duplicity and dynasty politicians, with their[Read More…]
Czech president Milos Zeman offered Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist government a fillip during his visit to Israel last week. He inaugurated a cultural and trade centre, Czech House, just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls. At the opening, he expressed hope it would serve as a precursor to his country relocating its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. If so, the Czech[Read More…]
“To remain innocent may also be to remain ignorant.” ― John Berger, Ways of Seeing This November 22nd marked fifty-five years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Perhaps no other major incident in U.S. history has generated more uncertainty and skepticism towards its official account than his Dallas killing in 1963. A 2013 Gallup poll showed that a clear[Read More…]
Third of the three interviews by Subhasis and Arijit from the cradle of the revolutionary uprising, which dispel many distorted analyses on Naxalbari Aneek, an independent, radical Baanglaa monthly from Kolkata, India, in its 53rd years of publication, interviewed three leaders of the Naxalbari Uprising. The leaders with working class background were organizing armed struggle of the poor-landless peasantry[Read More…]
The Carmichael mine being pursued in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland is a dinosaur before its creation. On paper, it is hefty – to be some five times the size of Sydney harbour, the largest in Australia and one of the largest on the planet. Six open cut and five underground mines covering some 30 kilometres are proposed, a[Read More…]
There are 65 million refugees in the world today, forced out of their homes because of wars, poverty, and ecological destruction and desperately seeking a place where they can survive. These conditions have resulted from this system, rooted in the expand-or-die competition of capitalism and the imperialist rivalry over control of the world to serve that end. Those fleeing are[Read More…]
Genetically modified (GM) cotton in India is a failure. India should reject GM mustard. And like the Green Revolution, GM agriculture poses risks and is unsustainable. Regulatory bodies are dogged by incompetency and conflicts of interest. GM crops should therefore be banned. You may have heard much of this before. But what is different this time is that the claims[Read More…]
In Russia no less than in America, in Moscow no less than in New York, people are obsessed with keeping “fit”. When I see people running off to their “fitness clubs” I think of my grandfather and grandmother. My grandfather was a coal miner. He had been a coal miner since he was fourteen years old and his body reflected[Read More…]
The Marwari Public Library at Chandni Chowk is like an oasis in the midst of a business hub of Delhi, says its secretary Raj Narayan Saraf, where people come to quench their thirst for knowledge. Seth Kedar Nath Goenka, a Marwari cloth merchant, was inspired by Gandhi to start this library when Gandhi first came to Delhi in April 1915.[Read More…]
tr Lakhs of women across the world, including in the developed western countries, rallied and joined demonstrations, to mark the UN’s International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 24. It is well known that patriarchy reigns around the world, East or West, and irrespective of religion, and irrespective of caste in India and South Asia, with variation[Read More…]
Indian in Jammu and Kashmir is blinding Kashmiris unabated with each passing day. The pellet horror which started in the year 2016 is still continuing with no end in sight in near future. Small children, young and old and women have become the victims of this pellet horror. Hiba Nisar, 20 month old child, a resident of Shopian is a[Read More…]
Though political disputes could have been resolved politically without breaking human sentiments and emotions, but India and Pakistan could not do this during last 71 years. These political disputes have been made personal and resulted as loss of lives, of people, of soldiers and various kinds of misunderstandings, stereotypes and hatred that got developed in minds of people gradually on[Read More…]
To such a degree has Religion fuelled conflict, complicated politics, retarded social development and impaired human relations across the world, that one is often tempted to propose that Religion is innately an enemy of Humanity, if not indeed of itself a crime against Humanity … it is time that the world adopted a position that refuses to countenance Religion as[Read More…]
On 24 October 2018, the State Government inaugurated in Srinagar a ‘library building’ named after the third generation Dogra ruler, Pratap Singh, whose memory in Kashmir only evokes painful feelings of oppression. On psychological plain, the development could be read as a statement to emphasize that theoretically the Dogra regime (1846-1947) might have since ended but its spirit still rules[Read More…]
I went to Oakwood Friends School since I came from a Quaker family. … I have been on several clearness committees. It is about helping people achieve mission, as well as follow their leading (what Catholics name calling). We sit in silent prayer or meditation. Then we speak. Now there were clearness committees about Quaker Oats and Poughkeepsie, NY. The[Read More…]
One of the best form of effective and precise communication is language. It not only exposes one’ s mood and state of mind but also ability to choose words for expressing the intended meaning. While there are many effective ‘good’ words to indicate happiness and joy, there are few words which hurt certain communities or gender when anger or annoyance[Read More…]
We the following Adivasi organisations hereby express our deep concern on the recent developments and controversies about the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The social, political and economic interests of the upper caste communities on Sabarimala Temple are well noticed by us.We hereby wish to express our need to retain our following rights that have been denied for generations: Many Adivasi[Read More…]
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Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case 
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The End Stage of American Empire 
End the culture of impunity and arrest accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh now 
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Five years behind bars for five activists 
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A shocking picture of health apathy….. 
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Why There Should Be A Treaty Against the Use of Weaponized Drones 
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Women Wrestler’s Protests: Exposing Beti Bachao Slogan 
Inauguration of Parliament Building: Coronation Ceremony? 
FBI appears to be continuing investigation of Julian Assange 
And We Are Much More Than Our Uterus. (In Solidarity With the protesting wrestlers) 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
