US military intervention in Venezuela may begin very soon: Gen. Tata 92% of Venezuelans reject US military invasion Russia’s resolution in the UNSC reaffirms Maduro’s Role in coordinating aid CARICOM for peaceful solution of Venezuela problem Venezuela calmer than Brazil and Mexico, find Leftist Social Movements visiting Caracas S African unions express solidarity with Venezuela Thousands rally in Caracas in[Read More…]
We are on the brink of a disaster What would Mahatma Gandhi say about the threat of war between India and Pakistan, which has brought the two nations and the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe? Throughout the struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi was faced with the serious problem of avoiding conflict between religious groups once independence had[Read More…]
True, the deaths of soldiers have to be lamented. But the Indian authorities’ record is extremely incompetent when it comes to the deaths of innocents in other fields. There is evidence of jingoism when it comes to the deaths of soldiers but on the other hand and utter callousness on the other. Many more people are killed on Indian roads[Read More…]
Saudi plans to become a major gas exporter within a decade raise questions about what the real goal of the kingdom’s policy, and by extension that of the United States, is towards Iran. Officially both Saudi Arabia and the US, which last year withdrew from the 2015 international accord that curbs the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and imposed harsh economic[Read More…]
Mugilan Swamithayal is a well-known environmental activist who has been on the forefront of various struggles against nuclear power, industrial pollution, and sand mining for more than a decade. He always stood for environmental and nationality rights of the people without any compromise. As a rude shock to many of us, he went missing since February 15, 2019. It was[Read More…]
Filing of FIRs against Prime Minister for fraud in NREGA wages of workers on 28th February, 2019, at – Police Station across the country Petition to Prime Minister of India and Minister of Rural Development for immediate release of Rs. 25,000 crores to NREGA Budget On 28th February NREGA workers across the country went to their local police station and[Read More…]
“Kasturba Gandhi is no more. She died at the age of 74 in British jail….I salute this great woman who was like a mother to Indians ….Kasturba was an inspiration for millions of Indian girls with whom she lived and met during the freedom struggle of our motherland. She was party to the many travails and tribulations of life with[Read More…]
Dear Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Greetings from Sagar, Western Ghats, Karnataka. May I draw your kind attention and also the attention of the entire Cabinet of the Union govt. along with the Prime Minister to a recent Court ruling in Australia, wherein a NSW judge has cited climate change in a landmark ruling, blocking plans to develop an open-cut coal mine[Read More…]
Last night my 11 year old son asked me, “Abba, if war breaks out between India and Pakistan can we go to some other country? What will we do if they drop a nuclear bomb?” I told him that it’s not possible to go to another country. They won’t accept us. However, I assured him that there will be no[Read More…]
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s maniacal National Security Advisor of Fox News-fame, tweeted that the whole “world is watching” the US-staged drama in Venezuela. The cast of characters here alone tells the tale. Elliot Abrams, Trump’s neocon “Special Representative for Venezuela,” is the man on the scene, despite (or because of) his record as a war criminal from Ronald Reagan’s war[Read More…]
Let this be a lesson to its detractors, doubters and stuff shirts of the secrecy establishment: the documents sourced from WikiLeaks can have tangible, having significant value for ideas and causes. They can advance matters of the curious; they can confirm instances of the outrageous and they can add to those fabulous claims that might change history. While Julian Assange[Read More…]
Since the mid-1980s, Mexico has been a poster child for globalization. Through free trade treaties and structural adjustment policies imposed by international financial institutions, the country has been “liberalized” – opened up to unfettered corporate investment and imports – to an extent matched by few other countries. Though the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the most well-known trade treaty[Read More…]
“Anthropocene” is a widely proposed name for the geological epoch that covers human impact on our planet. But it is not synonymous with “climate change,” nor can it covered by “environmental problems.” Bigger and more shocking, the Anthropocene encapsulates the evidence that human pressures became so profound around the middle of the 20th century that we blew a planetary gasket.[Read More…]
Here are America’s recent targets for regime-change (against which have been used economic sanctions, invasion, and enormous destruction) — and all of them are nations that never invaded nor threatened to invade America: Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria 2011-2018, Yemen 2015-now, Ukraine 2014, and Venezuela 2017-now. Because all of these were and are aggressive wars by the U.S. against nations[Read More…]
(The events of last few years have affected the Valley people psychologically so much that any rumour sells and puts the inhabitants on the edge!) Kashmiris are traditionally given to rumour mongering and then believing in rumours without any attempt to verify these! During recent years of turmoil the rumours have had a free flow in Kashmir. Many a times[Read More…]
STATEMENT FROM CONSERVATIONISTS ON SUPREME COURT ORDER As conservationists and environmentalists, we are dismayed by the Supreme Court’s order of February 13th, 2019 to evict claimants under the Forest Rights Act whose claims have been rejected. This order came in a case filed by (among others) a group of wildlife organisations. We do not regard this order as pro-conservation. On the[Read More…]
US amasses special ops in Puerto Rico, army in Colombia Russian FM blasts US attempts to create pretext for military intervention No foreign soldier can tread our soil: Venezuela Venezuela’s FM terms US aim as the Politics of Death “Aid” trucks carried nails and wire for barricades Russia ready to mediate South Africa’s ANC expresses solidarity with Venezuela Brazil cannot[Read More…]
Escalating tensions between the two nuclear armed South Asian neighbours, Pakistan carried out an air strike inside India in retaliation to the air strike carried out by India in Balakot yesterday. In the ensuing air battle an Indian Airforce Pilot was captured by Pakistan. Pakistan claimed that they shot down two Indian fighter jets. They claimed that one of the[Read More…]
The way India chooses to respond to the Pulwama suicide attack has consequences for its future and for its relationship with Pakistan. In light of the speech made by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan soon after the attack, India perhaps has a chance to consider responding to the offer made in his speech, although many Indians reasonably feel the speech[Read More…]
On February 18, members of extremist Jewish groups raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem). They clashed with Palestinian worshippers, as the settlers attempted to shut down the gate of Al-Aqsa itself. The clashes involved the Israeli army and police as well, who opened fire and brutally assaulted Palestinians, leading to scores of injuries. On February 19, the Israeli army carried out[Read More…]
I am surprised that no one else is saying it, writing it, shouting it at each and every corner: It is not Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Iran that are in dire and crucial need of ‘regime change’. It is the United States of America, it is the entire European Union; in fact, the entire West. And the situation is urgent.[Read More…]
Many excesses of the police and military forces go unreported or partially reported. A recent incident of injuring hearing impaired has not been covered widely in mainstream media. According to reports in indian express (published February 26, 2019) , Pune City Police lathicharged agitators with hearing impairment when they tried to take out a rally from the Commissionerate of Social[Read More…]
The air strikes in Balakot, Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, by the Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets set in motion waves of jubilation in India and a deluge of anger and war cry in Pakistan. Launched in the early hours of 26 February, the ‘surgical strikes 2.0,’ as it has been characterized by the Indian media, came in less[Read More…]
Indian news channels turned into fish markets! Facebook became one big club of fools! And the whole plot of handshake between politicians and army is a predictable climax of a worse movie! ● While the Indian Foreign Secretary claims of many dead terrorists after the IAF air strike, Pakistan Foreign Secretary says, “No casualties found” and so the information has[Read More…]
As the reports of the Indian Air Force preemptive strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps inside Pakistan territory came, there was a sense of gratitude for ordinary Indian who felt that the terror camps must be destroyed at all cost but the media and those who want to use these bombing to raise the political climate in their favor have[Read More…]
Co-Written by P,. K. Vijayan, and Karen Gabriel The past few months have witnessed the grand spectacle of Narendra Modi emerging as the Prime Minister of India, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finally achieving single-party majority in Parliament. The latter is a development of some consequence, since it means that the BJP’s programs and policies are no longer[Read More…]
Last evening on behalf of the Political Science department (25th Feb, 2019), Jamia Millia Islamia, has organized a public lecture on “Political Thought and Historical Difference”, by Prof. Sudipta Kaviraj, currently Professor of Intellectual history and Indian politics at the Columbia University, USA. The lecture was chaired by well-known political theorist Prof. Rajeev Bhargava, (Centre for study of developing societies,[Read More…]
All of Tamatarland was in great turmoil. There had been a vile attack on its security forces by a suicide-bomber, who had sneaked past dozens of heavily guarded checkpoints and murdered over two dozen Tamatarland soldiers. It was later claimed the culprit was a local Muli, trained and sent by Mataristan, the neighbouring and enemy nation. Not surprisingly, Tamatars across[Read More…]
The news that the Indian Air Force (IAF) has launched an airstrike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camps crossing the Line of Control (LOC), in the wee hours of Tuesday, was well-received by those anxiously waiting for military action in the wake of the Pulwama incident. The “befitting reply” from IAF came 11 days after JeM, a Pakistan-based militant group,[Read More…]
US isolation increasing US allies – EU, Lima Group, Spain, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru – against use of military force China wants constructive help for Venezuela Chile’s Communist Party rejects intervention Expired medicine in the “aid” Hawks within the imperialist camp are facing isolation in their plan for intervention in Venezuela. However, the interventionists are continuing with their[Read More…]
US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a bellicose speech before representatives of 14 Latin American countries at a meeting of the Lima Group in Bogotá, Colombia, yesterday. The remarks were timed to coincide with the US-orchestrated provocations at the Venezuelan border over the weekend, resulting in clashes that left several people dead. Pence rehashed phrases plagiarized from speeches given by[Read More…]
There is one desperate chance left to thwart the impending ecocide and extinction of the human species. We must, in wave after wave, carry out nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to shut down the capitals of the major industrial countries, crippling commerce and transportation, until the ruling elites are forced to publicly state the truth about climate catastrophe, implement radical measures to[Read More…]
I became involved in climate advocacy when I realized how dramatically my son’s life would be affected by climate change if we don’t do anything. He was three years old when I started to imagine what his world would be like when he graduates from school, when he gets his first job, when he wants to start a family, and[Read More…]
Who speaks on behalf of young people about climate? Greta Thunberg does. She is the embodiment of the concept that what matters in communication is not the message but the messenger. Only a believable messenger can pass a believable message. And she is believable: she has a direct stake on the issue, it is HER future she is defending, just[Read More…]
“You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” Malcolm X – By Any Means Necessary Nefarious plot to hoodwink his mother! The second batch of Indians in the ICS comprised only three, all Bengalis—Surendranath Banerjea, Beharilal Gupta and Romeshchandra Dutt—to qualify in 1871. Pioneer among[Read More…]
Notwithstanding the claims and counter-claims of India and Pakistan, one thing is now acknowledged from both sides that the Indian Air Force planes entered the Pakistani territory and returned back safely. That is pretty embarrassing for the Pakistani authorities – both the Prime Minister Imran Khan who, only a few days back, promised retaliation and the Army Chief, General Qamar[Read More…]
First it was Operation Desert Storm inflicted under orders of Bush the father. This was followed by 10 years of sanctions when half a million Iraqi children died from lack of medicines and food. Iraq’s economy was ruined and the infrastructure laid to waste. The resulting humanitarian crisis was blamed on President Saddam Hussein, once an American ally later to[Read More…]
China’s dazzling infrastructure and energy-driven Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a US$1 trillion investment across Eurasia and beyond, has lost its shine. Increasingly, China’s leveraging of the initiative is being perceived by a growing number of recipients and critics alike as a geopolitical power play, a tool to shape a new world order partly populated by autocrats and authoritarians, and[Read More…]
Raising the spectre of another war between nuclear armed South Asian neighbours, India and Pakistan, Indian airforce carried out air strike across the Line of Control (LoC) today morning. The strike was carried out at around 3:30 this morning by 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets. The aircraft dropped 1,000 kg laser-guided bombs on a major terror camp across the Line[Read More…]
In March 2008, one Michael Horvath of the US Army Counterintelligence Center within the Cyber Intelligence Assessments Branch considered the risks posed by WikiLeaks in a 32 page document. Created under the auspices of the Department of Defence’s Intelligence Analysis Program. The overview suggests, importantly, the interest shown in Assange by the defence wing of the United States at the[Read More…]
Nazareth: Israel’s decision to withhold part of the taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and plunge it deeper into crisis starkly illustrates the hypocrisies and deceptions at the core of the two governments’ relationship. Under the terms of what are now the quarter century-old Oslo accords, Israel is responsible for collecting about $200 million each month in[Read More…]
As Ibn al-‘Arabi observes, “Support for one’s family and relatives fulfills the criteria of charity while upholding family kinship”, Muslim religious culture generates the necessity of moral normativeness for care of the family as far as elderly care. This religious and cultural value system of society has been drawn largely from religious teachings of Islam, and hadith “Whosoever desires to[Read More…]
Ever since more than 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Pulwama on February 14, the Indian mainstream has gone mad with more hawkish nationalists calling for revenge and war. The incident took place in Indian-administered Kashmir, where an armed insurgency for independence has been going on for years. The Indian government generally blames neighbouring Pakistan[Read More…]
Rogue elements attack Brazil-Venezuela border Violence on the Colombian side of the border with Venezuela US-backed opposition caught on VIDEO throwing Molotov cocktails at aid truck Violent opposition elements throw Molotov cocktails at Venezuelan Forces For now, the Venezuelan border is calm Venezuela denounces intensification of U.S. aggressive policy US Senator Rubio’s threat to Maduro Guaido supporters heckle journalist By[Read More…]
People in countries are expressing solidarity with the people in Venezuela in their fight against imperialist intervention. Following are a few reports: Sao Paulo Forum condemns U.S. plan to intervene in Venezuela The Sao Paulo Forum on Friday condemned U.S. plans to intervene in Venezuela under the banner of so-called humanitarian aid, and called on the international community to defend[Read More…]
There are a lot of things to like about the recent resolution for the Green New Deal. The commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the acknowledgment of the catastrophic events that will occur if the world does not act soon- these are all healthy signs. Like Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign which removed many stigmas about socialism, raising public consciousness about[Read More…]
Whereas previously SC affirmed indigenous people’s inalienable rights to their land, it now orders their eviction from their land unilaterally There are three significant SC judgments on the indigenous Adivasi people’s rights over their land and natural resources: 1) In 2011 the SC, hearing a complaint petition by a young Adivasi woman who was raped and paraded naked by[Read More…]
Today, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of adivasi and forest dwellers’ organisations, decided on a national Wave of Struggle over the next two weeks against the unjust attack on millions of people whose claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected. The Supreme Court’s order to evict over one million claimant families is the direct[Read More…]
Peace in India and SOAS India Society appeal to students, researchers, academics, workers, activists and members of the Indian diaspora in the UK. We live in times when we are constantly questioning ideas of freedom, democracy, citizenship and nationhood. In India under Narendra Modi’s fundamentalist regime we have seen alarming suppression of dissent along with sustained efforts to reinforce Hindutva[Read More…]
The 21st Century may well mark the end of capitalism as we know it. The groundwork for the revolutionary transformation of the social and economic relations of the capitalist mode of production are already in place and include, but are not limited to, the following: the transformation from a production based to a knowledge and information based mode of production,[Read More…]
The Pulwama attack has yet again brought India-Pakistan relations to a new low. The hopes that the stalled dialogue will resume after Indian elections appear to be remote now. Unless there is a global pressure on both countries to resolve Kashmir issue peacefully through negotiations, it seems that both countries are heading towards a major showdown. And in this atmosphere[Read More…]
Saturday morning, I woke up to many a disturbing news on the grapevine. From the Masjid door to long waiting at the bakers’ shop for hot loaves of traditional bread, lots of news about frightening rattling of aeroplanes and helicopters from 2 A.M in Srinagar, deployment of hundreds of additional companies’ of paramilitary troops in Kashmir to the mid-night crackdown[Read More…]
Collaboration by: JB Graves, Syed Mujtaba According to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “there is almost total impunity for enforced disappearances” in Kashmir. Enforced disappearance are particularly cruel and subversive to human rights in that they usurp the power of democratic institutions by detaining people without causality. States by law require transparency[Read More…]
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Thursday, February 21, “A small peace keeping group of about 200 US troops will remain in Syria for a period of time,” as reported by the CNN [1] on Friday. According to the report: “The 200 troops who will remain will be divided between al-Tanf, an area near[Read More…]
There is hardly anyone in the country today – a consummate media observer, who is not denying the existence of professional ethics, integrity and honesty in main stream media. For a good chunk of end users – the consumers, there exists suspicion beyond doubt that what they are being served as news is largely propaganda and more of stenography that[Read More…]
Edited remarks at Stand with Yemen Symposium and Exhibition 23 February 2019 These are tough times for Saudi Arabia. The drama enveloping the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the brutal way in which it was carried out have captured public attention. In reality, however, Saudi Arabia’s real problems began earlier as a result of its conduct of the Yemen[Read More…]
Text and photos: Andre Vltchek Snow is falling on the wide sidewalks of the historic city of Xi’an, but people don’t seem to be troubled by the bitter cold. One of the oldest cities in China, Xi’an, is now vibrant, optimistic and stunningly beautiful. Sidewalks are paved with expensive stones and have more than enough space for pedestrians, electric bicycles,[Read More…]
Hilel Garmi’s phone is going straight to voicemail and all I’m hoping is that he’s not back in prison. I’ll soon learn that he is. Prison 6 is a military prison. It’s situated in the Israeli coastal town of Atlit, a short walk from the Mediterranean Sea and less than an hour’s drive from Hilel’s home. It was constructed in[Read More…]
On February 18th, Gallup bannered “Record High Name Government as Most Important Problem” and reported that, out of a list of 47 national “problems,” the top ten that were selected (and the percentage of respondents who selected each) were: The government/Poor leadership 35 Immigration 19 Healthcare 6 Race relations/Racism 5 Unifying the country 4 Poverty/Hunger/Homelessness 4 Environment/Pollution 3 Ethics/Moral/Religious/Family[Read More…]
Co-Written by Reza Monem and Shireenjit Johl Unbridled desire to make a sale or profit at any cost and the bank executives’ remuneration schemes linked to profit were at the centre of the much-publicised malpractices of the banking industry. “Greed” is the word used by the Royal Commission in describing the conduct of the banking, superannuation and financial services industry.[Read More…]
The world of conservation has thrown up various voices of tenacity. There was Aldo Leopold, a vital figure behind establishing the first wilderness area of the United States when he convinced the Forest Service to protect some five hundred thousand acres of New Mexico’s Gila National Forest. There was Robert Marshall, the founder of The Wilderness Society. There was Rachel[Read More…]
The rise of authoritarian regimes can now be seen as a global phenomenon under neoliberal democracy; from Bolsonaro taking oath in Brazil this year, to Trump shutting down the US government over a border wall, to the cracks in the European Union as Orban challenges its progressive image to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s targeting of activists under the Urban Naxal[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) rejects the atrocious February 13 order of the Supreme Court that calls for eviction in a summary and time-bound manner of those whose claims for forest rights under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA) have been rejected. This amounts to an attack on the rights of adivasis[Read More…]
Two students from Malappuram district in Kerala were arrested on sedition charges for allegedly sticking posters on the Kashmir issue inside their college campus. The students have been booked under section 124(A) or sedition. The arrested students, Rinshad Reera and Faris (20), belong to the B Com department of the Government College Malappuram. Both of them are part of the[Read More…]
Canada-based Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) came out with a strong statement on Sunday, February 24, against recent attacks on Kashmiris across India, The right wing Hindu nationalists started targeting innocent Kashmiris settled outside Kashmir state of India following a February 14 suicide bombing that left more than 40 Indian soldiers dead in Pulwama. The dead soldiers belonged to[Read More…]
Border clashes, rocks, fire, tear gas, masked thugs, ‘torched aid’, fake Red Cross symbol US “aid”: a Trojan horse and PR stunt Venezuela denounces 2nd false flag operation We are defending our borders and freedom: Maduro Red Cross denounces unsanctioned use of its symbol to smuggle US “aid” Who burnt the truck? Venezuelan FM says ‘false flag expert’ Pompeo should[Read More…]
People in hundreds of cities around the world stood in solidarity to Venezuela on February 23, 2019. The peoples’ gatherings opposed U.S.-led imperialist intervention in Venezuela. Labor unions and people’s organizations, and intellectuals – artists, singers, academics, activists – also raised their voices. The activists opposing the US-led intervention organized some 150 demonstrations around the globe on Saturday to show[Read More…]
For many in the South Block (and several diplomats who served in the West Asia/Gulf region in the past), India’s emergence as ‘Guest of Honour’ at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting of Foreign Ministers, scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi, is a great solace and a ‘mission accomplished.’ Having an observer status in a transcontinental organization of[Read More…]
“The science that we are doing is a threat to the world’s most powerful and wealthiest special interests: the fossil fuel industry. They have used their immense resources to create fake scandals and to fund a global disinformation campaign aimed at vilifying the scientists, discrediting the science, and misleading the public and policymakers. Arguably, it is the most villainous act[Read More…]
Good morning. My name is Roger Waters. I’m in Europe and today is the day of action. It is the 23rd of February, 2019. There is a story here. It’s about Venezuela. In 1998 after the Venezuelan people democratically elected a socialist government, the government nationalized the oil industry that is maybe, where the story starts. [fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters/videos/392784954853717/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARD2Dk9ynbLNAAEIzJMPkj9pF-fiSGoiPEXH6BZ7s2k2Aj8enUJ3ZAkRxtd4DIwDQ8j2cbni05egiqvFnLnSZZFWupkaNEhrBj9tqfVax9tQ3qVoRJ-kNSBYAMI78o-oZMlSjljSvev7eCa6TQReL70jB-KuOLUQzZJ9-ZEQ3AYY3i9KZbd_KI1TjUsb-J2LyKA7s7L8HauDZpKOMkJ0a7Nm11VG1oNZXSEWa1L7AcO5kt37_HikMkexFzCdJ7HP60HAl-JRaFjp9_f2-prcKy92UcbJUk5299dwVkMAn3Ao3csHyeFxyORdhb2ixVcnMFE5C_r8kJZAAS-YEFy6LnbWGQofIIWJUq8&__tn__=H-R” bottom=”30″] This[Read More…]
Presence of mind and the ability to face criticisms with a smiling face are the vital qualities a politician should own. He or She should realise that a slip of tongue might come back and hit them like a boomerang. And sometimes, it might have very disastrous and devastating results. One of Kerala’s youngest MLA V T Balram is not[Read More…]
This week the New Republic published, Will the Democrats Kill the Green Party by Stealing Its Best Idea? The article asks: now that the Democrats are making the Green New Deal a central issue in the 2020 election cycle and they are becoming socialist, therefore is there any need for the Green Party? The article had an important announcement: Howie Hawkins said he will be forming[Read More…]
Overly reliant economies are dangerously fragile things. As it takes two parties, often more, to play the game, the absence of interest, or its withdrawal by one, can spell doom. The Australian economy has been talked up – by Australian economists and those more inclined to look at policy through the wrong end of a drain pipe – as becoming[Read More…]
This February marks 40th anniversary of Iranian Revolution. 1979 Iranian Revolution—having overthrown the last[Read More…]
A few distant centuries ago, on a nondescript day I can barely imagine Upon what craggy hilltop, within a dense sunless forest O sovereign Shivaji Lightning-like, across your forehead, there flashed The thought from above- “With a singular religious thread, this torn up, fragmented Bharata, I shall bind in[Read More…]
Kashmiri students, traders and workmen have suffered violent attacks in different parts of the country after a suicide bomber of jihadi terrorist oraganisation JeM killed more than forty CRPF jawans in Pulwama in Kashmir valley. Students in Dehradun, Ambala, Jaipur and Yavatmal were physically threatened and forced to leave. Two institutions in Dehradun have given a written undertaking to the[Read More…]
Guwahati High Court turned over the new rules of Government of Mizoram regarding changing the reservation category of Chakmas The single judge bench of Guwahati High Court declared unconstitutional to the new reservation rules 2016 of Government of Mizoram regarding the changes in the reservation category of Chakmas schedule Tribes in the State. This decision of the High Court will[Read More…]
Co-Written by Inamul Haq& Tajamul Maqbool Rape as well as sexual violence committed by security forces against women have been an indispensable element of Indian military strategy in conflict zones like Kashmir and northeast. Those who were legally bound to protect the civilian rights have been involved incrimes particularly against women in Kashmir. For two decades there have been incidents[Read More…]
Freedom of speech became a debatable issue in India during the regime of Modi government. From 2014, criticism against any government policy or step becomes the activity of anti-national. Nobody dares to speak against the authority. Even in Indian constitution, article 19 guarantees the right “to freedom of speech and expression.” However, the constitution also allows the government to limit freedom[Read More…]
The deadliest suicide attack at Pulwama has yet again exposed the perennial fault lines in South Asia with epicenter being Kashmir. It has disclosed many old scars which get buried under manufactured arrangements and forced calm. The first of its magnitude, the suicide attack has revealed the hidden truths and nature of the very relationship between a reluctant Kashmir and[Read More…]
It has been stated before that when there is no political will to resolve a long pending dispute then ‘all roads can lead to hell’. Loss of 49 CRPF soldier’s lives in a sucide attack augurs ill. Despite massive military and security apparatus deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, no one had any clue that a suicide bombing was in the[Read More…]
“In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice”- Marquis de Sade Donatien- Alphonse-Francois Marquis De Sade was born in 1741 Paris into an old patrician family. He was educated at the Jesuit college of Louis-le-Grand and at military school at Versailles. The end of the Seven Years War in 1763 dashed his hopes of a military[Read More…]
Part 1: Summary of Actions Steps to re-establish India’s global role as a champion of human rights, peace and demilitarisation, and ecological wisdom, including through the revitalisation of the United Nations and support to people’s democratic access to global decision-making, and advocacy to make trade and other economic agreements subservient to human rights and environment ones. Talisman for every public[Read More…]
When Kashmiris are being attacked across India, let me telly you a story about Kashmiriyat. Last summer I was in Kashmir with my family. We were coming back from Sonamarg. The road to Sonamarg goes through Zojila Pass, one of the highest motorable road in the world. It’s a desert land for dozens of kilometers. Even in summer the temperature[Read More…]
White House warns Maduro S. threatens new sanctions on Venezuela Self-proclaimed “president” Guaido sneaked into a concert in Colombia US companies and NATO purchase arms in East European country Caracas seals Colombia border Border tensions, 2 die, provocations Russia ready to address UNSC if US stages provocation against Venezuela Lavrov to discuss situation in Venezuela with Chinese FM Cuba calls[Read More…]
Travelling with Hugo Chavez, I soon understood the threat of Venezuela. At a farming co-operative in Lara state, people waited patiently and with good humour in the heat. Jugs of water and melon juice were passed around. A guitar was played; a woman, Katarina, stood and sang with a husky contralto. “What did her words say?” I asked. “That we[Read More…]
China warns against military intervention in Venezuela US envoy Abrams heading to Colombia Russia’s solidarity with Venezuela Guaido and three busload of his supporter-lawmaker move towards Colombia border Venezuela closes border with Brazil, may do the same at Colombia border Ortega warns U.S. against war on Venezuela Central American leftist parties express solidarity with Venezuela Investigate US for war crimes[Read More…]
Imperialism has initiated provocation for beginning its planned military intervention in Venezuela. Imperialism is treading a bloody path, the path it prefers. It needs the blood-soaked path. Already it has spilled blood along Brazil border. The MSM including Reuters, BBC, The Independent reported on February 22, 2019: Incident of death and injury at Venezuela’s border with Brazil. However, an AFP[Read More…]
Imagine, the President of the self-declared, exceptional and unique Superpower, Donald Trump of the United States of America, has the audacity to threaten the Venezuelan military with their lives, if they keep standing behind the democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro, and defending his Government. An open threat – yesterday, 18 February, at a Miami University, in a speech of ‘fire[Read More…]
Most people expect that our signal of an impending reduction in world oil or coal production will be high prices. Looking at historical data (for example, this post and this post), this is precisely the opposite of the correct price signal. Oil and coal supplies decline because prices fall too low for producers. These producers make voluntary cutbacks because the prices they receive fall below their[Read More…]
He could not stay away, and few could blame him. Such political tendencies are nerves, conditions, diseases: eventually, we have to succumb to them. Bernie Sanders has announced his intention to run for the White House in 2020. It was as surprising as any statement about US inequality. But what matters here is the crowd – and a large one[Read More…]
It may be reading tea leaves but analysis of the walk-up to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit and his sojourn in Islamabad suggests that Pakistan may be about to fight battles on two fronts rather than just the Indian one in the wake of this month’s attacks in Kashmir. Prince Mohammed’s expressions of unconditional support for Pakistan coupled[Read More…]
Bangalore Feb 22: The Karnataka High Court has quashed the freezing of accounts of Greenpeace India by the Enforcement Directorate, holding the order of freezing to be null and void. Funding to the environmental watchdog from thousands of Indian citizens had been blocked following an unlawful raid by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at their Bangalore office in October 2018, but[Read More…]
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra has ordered eviction of Adivasis and other forest dwelling communities from the ‘forest’ regions whose claims for entitlement have been rejected by the Forest department. The written copy of the order was made available on February 20th, 2019 which makes things unambiguous and the intent. The court order says : “The[Read More…]
From, Admiral L Ramdas (retd) PVSM AVSM VrC VSM Former Chief of the Naval Staff Maharashtra Gaurav Puruskar Magsaysay Awardee for Peace To, The Honorable President Rashtrapati Bhavan New Delhi-‐110011 Dear Shri Kovind ji, This is Admiral Ramdas -‐ former Chief of the Naval Staff, writing to you yet again – this time on the tragic deaths of Central[Read More…]
‘Kashmir Handicrafts Exhibition’is put up on Baba Kharak Singh Marg (BKS Marg)at a venue sandwiched between a Masjid and Pracheen Shiv Mandir every year in winter. BKS marg has all the state emporiums and is a street in Delhi with places of worship of all the major religions. It has few Hindu temples (Hanuman mandir, Shiv mandir and Ganesh mandir),[Read More…]
The Pulwama attack on CRPF convoy on 14th February which left 42 CRPF personnel dead left the entire country numb with shock and pain. The families of the martyrs are still struggling to come to terms with such loss. The immediate response from the government and the opposition of putting a united front in favour of national security was a[Read More…]
There are two significant opinions on Kashmir situation expressed by two eminent personalities from Chennai whose opinion matters in the aftermath of the Phulwama terror attack on February 14 that killed 42 security personals, gives a southern perspective to the Kashmir tangle. The first comment came from actor-turned-politician, Kamal Haasan who when asked to comment on the Pulwama suicide attack[Read More…]
While the bodies of the 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troops who died in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Valentine’s Day are only just now being laid to rest, unrest prevails throughout the Indian subcontinent in the wake of the deadliest attack on Indian security forces in the world’s hottest nuclear flashpoint in 30 years. Sabers[Read More…]
A human being killing another human being is inhuman. Therefore, a terrorist, or a suicide bomber is inhuman. Suicide bombers lose their humanity to political and religious rhetoric brainwashing – and kill. But, being temporarily inhuman, they have nothing to do with religion or politics. They are robots. And what they do is against religion and politics. The accepted understanding[Read More…]
There are three things I know for sure in this fanciful, sometimes inglorious experience we call life: You will never have a safety pin when you need one, and you will have thousands when you don’t need one. Wild animals are breathtakingly majestic until they’re crawling up your pant leg. A U.S. presidential administration will never admit that it invaded[Read More…]
Supreme Court Order for Eviction of a million forest dwellers in more than 16 states perpetuates ‘Historical Injustice’ ! BJP-led Union government jeopardizes the interests of country’s forest dependent people and adivasis: State governments fail in implementing FRA in true spirit Centre must issue Ordinance to stop evictions as per SC Order 21st Feb, 2019: National Alliance of People’s Movements[Read More…]
Massive Bolivarian March for Peace and Sovereignty Venezuelan military reject Trump’s incitement to rebel: “Over Our Dead Bodies” Maduro controls situation in Venezuela, Russian ambassador Venezuela suspends flights, closes several borders amid intervention threats Venezuela protests violation of diplomatic accords after assault on embassy in Costa Rica Costa Rica slams Guaido representatives for taking control of Venezuelan embassy PDVSA pumping[Read More…]
The Supreme Court of India has ordered the forced eviction of more than one million Adivasi and other forest-dwelling households from forestlands across 16 states after the government failed to defend a law protecting their rights. The final country-wide numbers of forced evictions are likely to rise substantially as other states are forced to comply with the court orders. The[Read More…]
Many years ago, I read a moving book appropriately titled “ Cry the beloved Country”. Written by Alan Paton, well-known author of the time, It was set in apartheid-era South Africa. But it could well have been set in India. Every time, I open my newspaper, I read the story of someone or the other who has been denied justice[Read More…]
“Death of a militant, civilian or an army personal is a human loss. It should never be celebrated because nothing can be achieved through it. It only desolate a house, widow a woman and orphan many children. So to celebrate this occasion is never a human quality.” The Lethpora Pulwama attack in Kashmir on the CRPF convoy might have shocked[Read More…]
Many treaties and agreements in international relations are the natural outcome of conflicts and wars between two or more players. In India-Pakistan relations too, the two major agreements signed between them, the Tashkent Declaration (1966) and the Shimla Pact (1972) were the follow-up of negotiations started in the wake of the 1965 and 1971 wars. But the Lahore Declaration, signed[Read More…]
It was not a confused snow; Large flakes bobbing and drifting on meek drafts, Uncertain where to land. Nor was it a helpless snow, Each flake driven to its end By a commanding wind. Neither was it a diamond crystal snow, Each particulate sparkling in the light, As it blasted the skin like sand shot by its cruel wind. It[Read More…]
In 2003, America (and its lap-dog UK) invaded and destroyed Iraq on the basis of lies to the effect that the U.S. (and UK) regime were certain that Saddam Hussein had and was developing weapons of mass destruction. These U.S. allegations were based on provable falsehoods when they were stated and published, but the regime’s ‘news’-media refused to publish and[Read More…]
Even though police have imposed severe restrictions and taken some of their leaders into custody thousands of farmers have gathered at Nashik’s Mumbai Naka for their second historic long march. They are aiming to reach Mumbai on February 27, covering a distance of 180 kilometres. The call for the Kisan Long March was given by the All India Kisan Sabha[Read More…]
As countries continue their squabbles, their home the earth is going to hell in a handbasket. A new review paper in Biological Conservation reports 40 percent of insect species are threatened with extinction. Guess who pollinates our plants where we get our food? All of which is of little concern to President Trump, who disdains science and experts of any[Read More…]
(Due to the misfortune of Kashmiris, the two neighbours have converted the place into a bleeding “Paradise”!) Historically Kashmir has been known as the “Paradise on Earth” because of its natural beauty. Unfortunately, for past some time there has been so much violence and blood shed that it is turning into a bleeding paradise. The recent attack on a CRPF[Read More…]
Senator Bernie Sanders made the expected announcement Tuesday on Vermont Public Radio and in a video posted to YouTube that he will seek the Democratic Party nomination for president in the 2020 election. Sanders is the 10th Democratic candidate to announce a campaign or exploratory committee, with at least 16 others actively considering a run for president. In 2016, Sanders[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas J S Davies Judging from the miserable U.S. record at coercing change in other countries’ governments, U.S. interference in Venezuela threatens to turn a crisis into a catastrophe. We can’t let the violence that plagues the Middle East be transferred to Latin America In 1995 William Blum wrote a masterful book in which he chronicled U.S. involvement[Read More…]
Last year, in October, Haitians followed two Twitter hashtags that went viral—#PetrocaribeChallenge and #KotKobPetwoKaribea. If you are not Haitian and do not follow Haitian politics carefully, you can be forgiven for not noticing this development. The complaint on Twitter—and soon on the streets—was simple: what has happened to the billions of U.S. dollars that was in the Venezuelan-financed Petrocaribe program?[Read More…]
Heightened tension in Kashmir and evidence of a Chinese military presence on the Tajik and Afghan side of their border with China’s troubled north-western province of Xinjiang are putting on display contradictions between the lofty principles of the People’s Republic’s foreign and defense policies and realities on the ground. The escalating tension between Pakistan and India puts to the test[Read More…]
The suicide-bomber attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir has been hogging the headlines over this past one week. This is in the fitness of things, for such a major attack of a similar nature has taken place after a long period of time in the strife-torn state and it involves the loss of more than[Read More…]
In September 2001, the Bush administration launched the “Global War on Terror.” Though “global” has long since been dropped from the name, as it turns out, they weren’t kidding. When I first set out to map all the places in the world where the United States is still fighting terrorism so many years later, I didn’t think it would be[Read More…]
The Russian-sponsored Palestinian unity talks in Moscow on February 11 were neither a success nor failure. Uniting Palestinian factions was not the main objective of the Moscow conference, in the first place. Instead, the nature of the event, the host country and the clear messages sent to Washington and Tel Aviv were all meant to communicate something else entirely. And[Read More…]
On February 8th, the NATO-supporting Atlantik-Bruecke, or Atlantic Bridge, issued their poll, “Vertrauen in der Krise” or “Trust During the Crisis”, and it finds, from scientifically sampling 2,500 Germans, that there is very little trust or confidence in U.S. leadership, and that there is less dis-trust both of Russian and of Chinese leadership than of American. Atlantic Bridge was founded[Read More…]
Wait! Wait! Wait! For what? Again another debate? Where plots are set for an organised lie Tantrums of intellectuals, leaving others to die Fire is all set to burn the city Ignoring all the screams in its vicinity Poverty claims who is going to be its next prey Heads gamble lives, Azaadi stands far away Barren hearted farmer walks restlessly[Read More…]
At a time when venom against Indian Muslims is being splashed all over in the Social Media holding them responsible for the terror attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14, 2019, in which 42 CRPF Jawans were martyred in a dastardly terror attack, a Muslim lady IAS officer in Bihar has silenced such ‘Indian vultures’ by adopting[Read More…]
I have been watching silently some ‘fake’ nationalists on social media and news channels for a few days now. I can’t anymore because now things are on a non sense level. First of all, some of these people don’t even know that CRPF is not army. It is paramilitary force which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs. Jawans of CRPF[Read More…]
They have fought wars and played games against each other. They have done everything in their capacity to destroy each other. They are in arms race despite being poor. Apparently they are being exploited by a third party as a result of their conflicts. However they do help each other in election time. If together, they can be growing powers[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in New Delhi for a 2-day visit on Tuesday evening. He was warmly received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the airport with a hug. The visit will be closely-watched for talks between the two leaders on terrorism and trade. Amid India’s efforts to diplomatically isolate Pakistan as punishment for Pulwama terror[Read More…]
Statement from Executive Committee of Revolutionary Left, (CWI in the Spain) Pedro Sanchez’s term is over. A government formed eight months ago after the vote of no confidence against Rajoy, has brought down by the negative vote in Parliament to the budget proposals. But beyond parliamentary arithmetic, what the premature election shows is the complete instability and discredit that corrodes[Read More…]
“They want to enslave us!” Maduro slams Trump’s “Nazi-style” attack on socialism “You’ll lose everything!” Trump’s ultimatum to Venezuelan military, says all options are open Interventionist European MPs coming to meet Guaido kicked out Venezuela losses $38 bln from U.S. sanctions U. S. Senator Rubio pushes interventionist agenda Imperialists have increased Nazi-style threats in their phase of intervention in Venezuela.[Read More…]
When we first heard of a dramatic comedy theatre play on breast cancer, it was difficult to comprehend how will the three go together? Comedy, theatre and poignant theme of breast cancer! Glad we went for the preview show of this play because it did justice to comedy, theatre and breast cancer issue in a very compelling way. One of[Read More…]
The aircraft business has always been a dear affair. More than other forms of transport, it remains susceptible to oscillating costs (materials, fuel), ever at the mercy of the uncontrollable. The Airbus A380 was meant to be a giant’s contribution to aviation. In time, its makers came to the conclusion that the bird had already flown. In the solemn words[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The political system in the United States is a plutocracy, one that works for the benefit of the wealthy, not the people. Although we face growing crises on multiple fronts – economic insecurity, a violent and racist state, environmental devastation, never-ending wars and more – neither of the Wall Street-funded political parties will[Read More…]
During Imran Khan’s four-month sit-in and political demonstrations in front of the parliament in Islamabad from August to December 2014, the allegations of election rigging and the demand for electoral reforms were simply a smokescreen. A question would naturally arise in the minds of curious observers of Pakistan’s politics that what prompted Imran Khan to make a sudden volte-face when[Read More…]
Kashmir, a contentious region since 1947, has been claimed by both Pakistan and India; war, skirmishes, treaties, posturing, the UN, and the threat of nuclear war have cycled between periods of tension and cooperation that have perpetuated both the security dilemma and détente. The independence of India and Pakistan gave birth to regional competition for control over the outlying territory[Read More…]
There is war talk all around. The war cries that have been an intrinsic feature of some television studios for about the past five years have become shriller during the past couple of days. Calling for a full-fledged war including the use of nuclear weapons is expected of some television anchors, hatemongers and shouting brigades know for screaming, screeching and[Read More…]
Kashmir. The tragic, “cowardly” attack is nothing but a mirror reflecting on the Indian state’s policy, the Indian identity and the Indian conscience: bloodthirsty, no regard for the common life, neither soldier not terrorist, no. The pathological hatred we’ve harboured for our own ancestors; the vile venom spread in the name of love of the nation; the call for war[Read More…]
Normalcy at the historic Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is yet to be restored. Like yours, my heart also trembles at the latest bolt of lightning that has struck AMU. Around 14 students, including the former and current office-bearers of AMU Students’ Union, have been booked under sedition charges. In the FIR filed on Wednesday, it is alleged that they had[Read More…]
In our lives, we meet varied kinds of people, and in that we sometimes are occasioned to converse or even discuss certain things with them, not knowing they are typical kinds of freaks. If it is a business discussion, where the terms of conversation or communication are often pre-fixed, our conversations are not driven by any particular conditions, so both[Read More…]
Since 1998, the United States of America has tried to overthrow the government of Venezuela. What threatened the government of the United States since then was the Bolivarian dynamic set in motion by the election of Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela that year. Chávez won the elections with a mandate from Venezuela’s workers and poor to overhaul the country[Read More…]
Dear All, A lot of people are very angry. But I hope we will all think very carefully before we call on our leaders for war or any extreme measure. India is indeed great. And a great nation can endure acts of free speech, including criticisms of the government. We can endure and appropriately handle acts of terrorism without resorting[Read More…]
I went to participate in a candle light homage paying event at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s statue organised by about 200 dalit students on Hazratganj main crossing in Lucknow on 16 February, 2019 evening, two days after the dastardly terrorist act in Pulwana, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 37 Central Reserve Polica Forces’ personnel was killed. While the condolence meeting by[Read More…]
Caught in the backwater of the world’s existence, Australia struggles for relevance in various ways. It might show itself a leader in creating a sovereign fund (too late for that now); it might demonstrate, in various ways, a singular approach to solar energy (impossible, we are told, on that score). Lacking a decent number of terrorist attacks, it feels left[Read More…]
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s three-nation tour of Asia is as much about demonstrating he stands tall – despite Western criticism of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen – as it is about exploiting geopolitical and economic opportunity. Prince Mohammed is betting on the optics of his visit to Pakistan, India, and China offsetting[Read More…]
In his highly acclaimed 2017 book, Destined for War, Harvard professor Graham Allison assessed the likelihood that the United States and China would one day find themselves at war. Comparing the U.S.-Chinese relationship to great-power rivalries all the way back to the Peloponnesian War of the fifth century BC, he concluded that the future risk of a conflagration was substantial. Like[Read More…]
“Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself”- John Dewey John Dewey was an American Philosopher and educator, founder of the philosophical movement known as Pragmatism, a pioneer of functional psychology and a leader of the progressive movement in education in United States. Dewey’s authority on education was evident in his theory about social learning; he believed that[Read More…]
US military planes deliver cargo in Colombian town bordering Venezuela Stop US military adventure against Venezuela: Cuba Latin American left-wing parties call for peace The US is afraid of truth: FM of Venezuela US orders Venezuelan envoy to UN to limit movement within New York City Imperialism has initiated acts prelude to military aggression in Venezuela. These are parts of[Read More…]
When the whole of the nation bid an emotional farewell to its 44 brave soldiers, who lost their lives in the Pulwama terror attack, dozens of students from the Kashmir valley studying in Dehradun stayed closed inside their rooms fearing attack from a violent mob gathered outside their place of residence. It is exasperating to learn that the right-wing Hindu[Read More…]
“A History of the Global Economy. The Inevitable Accident” by Colin White describes the history of the global economy through its successive stages of foraging, the Agrarian Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the presently expanding Service Revolution economy. Ambitious and full of ideas, it will provoke lots of discussion, and in that sense this scholarly work should be in every[Read More…]
As if the people of northeast (NE) India became more conscious about India’s constitution, rule of law and its secular image abroad. So groups of people, including politicians, civil society group representatives, media personnel etc came to hit the streets raising strong voices against the Union government’s proposed citizenship amendment initiatives. The move by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)[Read More…]
People’s Union for Democratic Rights expresses outrage over the terrorist attack in Pulwama which killed over 40 CRPF personnel on February 14, 2019 and expresses condolences to the families of the deceased. However, the aftermath of Pulwama has shown rising attacks on Kashmiris in different states, a situation which is extremely worrisome and dangerous, despite a notification advisory by the[Read More…]
Friends and Comrades, There is a situation developing across many cities and towns post the Pulwama attack and killings. While we all condemn the killings and terror acts, we also have a responsibility to make sure that the situation is not allowed to turn against Muslims in general and Kashmiris in particular. Already violence is being reported from several towns[Read More…]
As we watch a US-backed coup unfold in a distant country, as in Venezuela today, our eyes are drawn to the diplomatic, military, and economic elements of the US campaign. The picture of a scowling John Bolton with a big yellow notepad with the message “5,000 troops to Colombia” reveals the diplomatic and military elements. The New York Times headline “U.S. Sanctions[Read More…]
In a momentous decision on July 28, 2017, then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding public office by the country’s apex court on the flimsy pretext of holding an “Iqama” (a work permit) for a Dubai-based company, and was subsequently given a ten-year imprisonment sentence, though the latter decision is subject to appeal. Subsequently, sham elections[Read More…]
The terror attack on the CRPF convoy at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir is the most ghastly among all such attacks that so far has happened in the restive state. Every Indian’s heart goes out to the families of the security personnel who were killed or injured in that dastardly attack. The family members of the victims of this barbaric[Read More…]
The Pulwama attack is not a time for revenge as is already happening in many parts of the country. Yesterday, vehicles from Kashmir valley were attacked and set on sire. Curfew was declared in Jammu. Today, students from Kashmir valley were attacked in different parts of the country. Let me make it clear at the outset that Kashmiris in general[Read More…]
President Trump’s proclamation of a state of national emergency on the southern US border is a frontal assault on constitutional norms and democratic rights in America. It is the first time in American history that a president has sought to usurp the constitutional prerogative of Congress to decide how public funds are to be spent. The actual text of the[Read More…]
The terror attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama (Jammu and Kashmir), which killed dozens of soldiers of the paramilitary forces, sent shock waves across the country and the world. The attack came in a crucial time of political uncertainty in J&K, the forthcoming general elections in India, and the meetings planned in connection with the opening of Kartarpur corridor[Read More…]
‘How many Deaths will it take till we know That too many people have died?’ PIPFPD is shocked and saddened by the loss of lives of 44 CRPF personnel in a militant attack in Lethapora, Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir. The gruesome manner in which an explosives laden vehicle, driven by a suicide bomber, rammed into a CRPF convoy and the[Read More…]
When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week, the elephant in the room is likely to be what weighs more: the issues the two men agree on or the ones that divide them. As a matter of principle, Prince Mohammed and Mr. Modi are likely to take their strategic partnership to a new[Read More…]
It may sound incredible, but it is true: in countries that have been damaged, even totally robbed and destroyed by the West, many people are still enamored with Europe and North America. For years, I have been observing this ‘phenomena’, even in the most plundered, devastated war zones and slums. Often I was shocked, other times thoroughly desperate. I did[Read More…]
The focus is now on Venezuela, but the US is really the key actor in this long-running drama. In reality, Venezuela is simply another repeat victim in the US centuries-long imperial campaign that began with the genocide of American Indians. Ever since then, and particularly since WWII, the US has pursued an expansive and aggressive foreign policy. William Blum, a[Read More…]
It’s very clear that conservatives have one plan for dealing with the popularity of the Green New Deal: scaring the hell out of people. Myron Ebell of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, the man who led the drive to pull America out of the Paris climate accords, said the other day that the Green New Deal was a “back-to-the-dark-ages manifesto.”[Read More…]
Climate change reports are seldom sanguine. Carbon dioxide, the principal culprit, is at record levels, about twice the preindustrial value and a third higher than even 1950. Without abatement it could rise to a thousand parts per million in a self-reinforcing loop spiraling into an irredeemable ecological disaster. The UN IPCC report warns of a 12-year window for action. Contrasting[Read More…]
While the nation mourn the deaths of 42 Jawans of the CRPF and rightfully so standing with these people, sons of the farmers and Bahujan communities. The fact is it is the poor who face the challenge but brahmanical elite in India enjoy the money in the TV studios with their pathetic discussions and deliberate provocations. Rather than questioning the[Read More…]
Anti-intervention coalition initiated at UN Caracas receives tons of medical aid from allies Venezuelan Foreign Minister-US envoy meet India to continue buying Venezuelan oil despite US threats Investigation into Guaido’s acts launched Danes protest U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela Venezuela initiates WTO complaint against US measures Anti-interventionist moves centering Venezuela are getting stronger while the imperial interventionists are making[Read More…]
The PUCL strongly condemns the attack on Indian Army personnel in Pulwama, Kashmir, which led to the killing of about 40 CRPF personnel. The killings happened in the most brutal and dehumanised way, with a RDX filled SUV ramming into the Bus which was part of a convoy carrying the army personnel on the Jammu Srinagar highway. The resulting blast[Read More…]
The Maharashtra government and the municipal corporation in Mumbai have starved and crippled India’s once premier bus service BEST and now there is a move to further humiliate the bus service and its users. A Shiv Sena corporator has proposed to the civic body that old BEST buses be used as mobile toilets ostensibly for use of commuters caught in[Read More…]
The federal New Democratic Party of Canada has expressed “serious concern” over the human rights situation in the world’s so called largest democracy. In a statement issued in response to growing repression under the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party government, Cheryl Hardcastle, the NDP Human Rights Critic, has also urged the Canadian government to break its “deafening silence”[Read More…]
At the present time, the latest month for which the U.S. Department of Energy publishes the number of barrels per day (bpd) of oil that’s exported to the U.S. is November 2018. Here are the rankings: Canada 142,206 bpd Saudi Arabia 30,028 Mexico 18,020 Venezuela 16,889 Iraq 11,767 Colombia 7,769 Russia 7,611 Ecuador 5,866 Nigeria 5,392 Algeria 4,848 UK 4,653[Read More…]
The passage of amendments to the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) by the Australian House of Representatives and the Senate this week was less a case of celebration than necessitous deliverance. The mental wellbeing of asylum-seekers on Manus Island and Nauru, or lack thereof, has been documented extensively from Australian legal representatives to members of Médecins Sans Frontières. The Medevac Bill[Read More…]
What dreamers they were! They imagined a kind of global power that would leave even Rome at its Augustan height in the shade. They imagined a world made for one, a planet that could be swallowed by a single great power. No, not just great, but beyond anything ever seen before — one that would build (as its National Security Strategy put[Read More…]
“There will be a time, when tourists will come to India to visit the colourful toilets”, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the Swachch Shakthi -2019 awards ceremony. The Swachch Bharat Campaign,’clean toilets’ target, Swachch Sundar Shauchalaya contest, have all raised an active debate around what toilets we should be able to use. On an average, a person uses the[Read More…]
The terror attack in Pulwama (J & K) which killed more than 40 CRPF personnel is a grim reminder of the fact that these things are not possible if the ‘friendly’ regime in Pakistan deal with them seriously. The Pakistan based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed the responsibility of this suicide attack. We know that on both the sides of[Read More…]
The mystery on the Rafale Aircraft Deal is standing right there even after the deal has been moving around the governments and their leaders of India and France, various governmental institutions and their officials on both sides, weapon companies and their masters, media and independent journalists, civil society activists etc. Rather there is a over casting of darkness in the[Read More…]
In Patanagada block of Balangir district in Odisha, nearly 30 self declared Gorakhakas (cow protectors) had attacked 4 Scheduled Caste people at Balipata village on 5th February while returning from a cow market. Such heinous incident was not in news till 12th February. When many Scheduled Caste people came in a rally to Sub-Collectoriate office at Patanagarh on 12th February[Read More…]
US planes fly to strategic areas to pressure Venezuela US military power is massing near Venezuela Guaido sets date for “aid” entry US Congress rejects Trump’s warmongering China denies The Wall Street Journal report on talks with Venezuela opposition Colombian social leaders express solidarity with Venezuela Chavista march continues Turkey will process Venezuelan gold The U.S. is planning to manufacture a[Read More…]
This week’s suicide attack on Revolutionary Guards in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, the second in two months, could not have come at a more awkward moment for Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan. The assault on a bus carrying the guards back from patrols on the province’s border with the troubled Pakistani region of Balochistan killed 27 people[Read More…]
Enough is enough! There have been plenty of empty talk and peace conferences, more than enough of begging: “Please, West, stop murdering people, stop your genocides, stop robbing all continents of their resources, stop enslaving billions!” Look where it has ended up! Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere.The more people begged, the more they protested, the harder the West hit. Rulers in Washington,[Read More…]
American politicians from the two main parties have finally found something to agree upon: more intervention in Venezuela. “Now, despite (President Nicolas) Maduro, there is hope (in Venezuela)”, wrote Democratic Senator, Dick Durbin, in USA Today. “These events (meaning the current political instability in the country) are a welcome development of Latin American nations defending democracy.” “He’s picked a battle he can’t[Read More…]
What is happening to Venezuela is a coup d’état and it has nothing to do with democracy, human rights, free and fair elections or international law. The US and Canada represent the antithesis of those values; defying the United Nations Charter and international law by interfering in the internal affairs of Venezuela. Their hands are not clean, and their motives[Read More…]
The Forth International Conference for “The Equilibrium of the World” took place in Havana., Cuba from 28 to 31 January 2019. The Conference, organized by the José Marti Project of International Solidarity,was sponsored by UNESCO and a number of local and international organisms and NGOs. It coincided with the 60th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and as such was[Read More…]
A 29 year old American Millennial just challenged the sanity of US President Donald Trump. During an interview with the press by emphasizing the need for a Green New Deal she metaphorically pointed her finger in his face and made it clear that he is destroying life on our planet. XXX Quote: US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “We must be[Read More…]
We now have the remarkable convenience of the internal combustion engine, and also its noise and chaos and emissions to energize climate change. Burning fossil fuels has put us on planet Titanic … The doomsday clock remains at a critical two minutes to midnight, the ‘new abnormal,’ spelling future disaster, and we will continue to be like the “Titanic, ignoring[Read More…]
Constant military surveillance of Afghans yields almost no real intelligence about the problems they face each day. An unusual group of volunteers uses a far different approach. Hossein, a member of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, (APV), which hosted my recent visit to Afghanistan, rolled up his sleeve to show me a still-healing three-inch wound. Thieves had broken into his family[Read More…]
In July 2003, Dr. David Kelly, a British weapons inspector who had disclosed to the media that Tony Blair’s government’s dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was “sexed up,” was found dead in a public park a mile away from his home. The inquiry into his death concluded that Kelly had committed suicide by slitting his left wrist but[Read More…]
Gong Xi Fa Cai: happy year of the Pig 2019! Congratulations, the Year of the Pig has arrived! “According to the Chinese astrology, 2019 is a great year to make money, and a good year to invest! 2019 is going to be full of joy, a year of friendship and love for all the zodiac signs; an auspicious year because the[Read More…]
Such measures were always going to come on the heels, and heavily so, of the utopians. Where there is Internet Utopia, Dystopia follows with dedicated cynicism. Where there are untrammelled means of searching, there will be efforts to erect signposts, usually of a warning nature. Like the librarian ever worried of her reader finding something inappropriate, material will be kept[Read More…]
As the Jamaat-e-Islami’s founder Maulana Abul A’la Maududi (1903-1979) despised democracy, so do all his adherents. Soon after establishing the Jamaat in 1941, he admired Mussolini and considered him to be his role model. He also called himself the “Amir” or “Dictator/Fuherer” of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The JI chiefs in Bangladesh and Pakistan are still called “Amir”. So, the JI is[Read More…]
Towards Understanding the Current Affairs Prime Minister Imran Khan impressed the constituents to imagine the phenomenon of “change” as a driving force for future-making. Was the political power a motivating factor to influence the curious minds of the masses or was it an exercise in self-propagated approach to gain success at a critical juncture of Pakistan’s contemporary history? For too[Read More…]
After the central Government has reserved 10 percent seats to the castes of general category the Andhra Pradesh Government brought out a GO allocating 5 percent of the seats and jobs to only Kapu community of the state. The remaining 5 percent is meant for the other unreserved castes. As it is well known that the Kapus have been fighting[Read More…]
Recently Bhartiy Janta Party (BJP) has got through a bill in Lok Sabha for 10% reservation on economic basis, Constitution has been amended and consent of the President of India has also been obtained. It is also worth mentioning that it got support from all the political parties. The Central government has issued a government order and states like[Read More…]
(The setting up of a third territorial division in the erstwhile State of J & K created by Maharaja Gulab Singhmay result in its finaldismemberment!) For past sometime there has been demand of some people for converting Ladakh into a union territory and the Jammu people too have sometimes raised a similar demand. The recent order creating Ladakh as a[Read More…]
Remember what happened to the Indian telecom sector after Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Mobile was launched? Jio offered dirt cheap call and data tariff. It destroyed many telecom companies. Some disappeared for ever, some merged to stay afloat. Government has advised the state run BSNL to think about the possibility of closing down! Same thing is going to happen in Cable[Read More…]
Russia warns the US not to intervene in Venezuela The aim of the US coup in Venezuela is to dominate the country’s oil resources Arreaza slams indifference of UN members to US coup 80% of Venezuelans oppose intervention Maduro continues call for peace, dialogue, respect Canada Labour Congress with 3M members denounces Trudeau’s support for intervention The imperialist intervention is[Read More…]
ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION MEXICO February 2019 To: Women in struggle everywhere in the world From: The Zapatista Women Sister, compañera: We as Zapatista women send you our greetings as the women in struggle that we all are. We have sad news for you today, which is that we are not going to be able to hold the Second International[Read More…]
Nazareth: You might imagine that a report by a multinational observer force documenting a 20-year reign of terror by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers against Palestinians, in a city under occupation, would provoke condemnation from European and US politicians. But you would be wrong. The leaking in December of the report on conditions in the city of Hebron, home to[Read More…]
Bhubaneswar: On 28 January, 2019, Shatrughan Biswal and Prashant Parida along with Manjulata Muduli were remanded to Alipingal Jail in Jagatsinghpur district after being denied bail by the Sessions Court. They have been charged under sedition and sections 10 and 13 of the UAPA. Manjulata Muduli has already spent more than 10 years as an under trial implicated in the[Read More…]
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, and an over-active participant in imperialist intervention in Venezuela, and Juan Guaido, the self-proclaimed “interim president” of Venezuela, and one of the leading proxies in the imperialist venture are facing serious problem. The problems of the two leaders are of two types. But the two are related to interference, and both of the cases[Read More…]
Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sanghatana, Odisha condemns the arrest of Shri Pravash Pruseth of Burla in the district of Sambalpur under Sec. 504 & 506 of IPC for his mere Facebook posting. GASS will definitely bring this undemocratic and unconstitutional act of Police Administration to the notice of the National Human Rights Commission. The Facebook posting of Shri Pruseth has simply[Read More…]
To the People of Venezuela Recently I wrote an article explaining how you could defeat, using nonviolent strategy, the US coup attempt that is taking place in your country. See ‘A Nonviolent Strategy to Defeat the US Coup Attempt in Venezuela’. I would like to complement that article by now briefly explaining how you can also defeat a military invasion[Read More…]
Introduction Like Hobbes and Locke, the central political concernof Jean Jacks Rousseauhas also been a legitimate public authority in agreement with them about its ultimate source – the people. But similarity ends here. For Hobbes and Locke, even theoretically, sovereignty emanates from the people but moves away to an external sovereign body, for Rousseau the sovereignty mot only emanates from[Read More…]
We are happy that the Chhattisgarh police have dropped our names from the chargesheet in the murder of Shyamnath Baghel. We hope that the many hundreds of innocent adivasis and all others who have been falsely implicated and are languishing in jail will also soon get justice. We are grateful to our lawyers, friends and all those who helped us[Read More…]
US sanctions on Venezuela are illegal and are crimes against humanity under international law. If only this genocide could become a topic of conversation throughout the world, especially in the plundered and militarily attacked or targeted nations of the so called Third World, Americans would not be able to get away with it. The first UN rapporteur to visit[Read More…]
Last month, the National Nuclear Security Administration (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission) announced that the first of a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons had rolled off the assembly line at its Pantex nuclear weapons plant in the panhandle of Texas. That warhead, the W76-2, is designed to be fitted to a submarine-launched Trident missile, a weapon with a range of more[Read More…]
Only immediate climate action can save the future. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon. Here is a recent statement by Jakob von Uexküll, founder of the World Future Council: “Today we are heading for unprecedented dangers and conflicts, up to and including the[Read More…]
“They are but beggars that can count their worth ” . William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet) Whenever poorly- clad, dirty and expectant people gathering major road junctions, bus – stands, temples, mosques or churches, rail- stations, etc pleading for a coin or two are seen, they are either abused or evaded or some coins are thrust into their empty bowls[Read More…]
Disturbing to see how the government of the day want to maintain the Universities campuses ‘apolitical’ though jingoism, irrationality and Hindutva’s toxic thoughts are being encouraged and promoted by the state apparatus. When Akhilesh Yadav, who is President of the main opposition party in Uttar Pradesh and a former chief minister, is invited to speak at a student gathering, then[Read More…]
Story of a bridge that MSM don’t tell Guaido’s money from foreign sources Guaido’s great knowledge Bolivia calls for global support of peace talks UN Secretary General meets Venezuelan Foreign Minister Venezuela seeks to double oil exports to India Venezuela hasn’t asked for military assistance: Russia Proxies of and propaganda for the intervention in Venezuela are exposing their character and[Read More…]
Peoples and organizations in countries are calling: no war on Venezuela. There are calls for solidarity in countries. Imperialism’s subversive acts are also exposed in these statements. Following are a few reports from those solidarity calls: International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity (ICP): We stand with Maduro and the Venezuelan people The following statement [excerpt] was issued by[Read More…]
Signed by Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Subhankar Banerjee, Finis Dunaway & Norma Kassi Fossil fuel development in the Coastal Plain would devastate an Arctic nursery of global significance. It would violate human rights, jeopardize food security, and threaten the health and safety of Indigenous communities. It would contribute to the escalating crises of climate change and biological annihilation. Signatories’ Note: We are inviting[Read More…]
Flavius Theodosius Augustus “The Great” (347- 395 CE) was the last emperor to rule over the whole Roman Empire. His success was probably due in large part to his habit of plundering Pagan temples for the gold he needed to pay his troops. But Pagan temples were a limited resource and Theodosius himself seemed to understand that when, shortly before[Read More…]
Right now, in the name of “humanitarian aid,” the U.S. rulers are deliberately starving and driving people to their deaths in Venezuela. They are doing this in order to push their imperialist interests in that country and deepen their grip on Latin America. Venezuela, whose economy relies on oil exports for 95% of its hard currency—needed to buy food, medicine[Read More…]
Insects are facing extinction all over the world, at a rate that bodes disastrous ecological collapse, reports the first global scientific review published in the journal Biological Conservation. (FranciscoSánchez-Bayo, Kris A.G.Wyckhuys, Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers, Biological Conservation, Vol. 232, Apr. 2019) More than 40% insect species are threatened with extinction and a third are[Read More…]
How can historical facts like ethnic cleansing, Apartheid and the Palestinian struggle for justice in general, be subject to “diverse opinions” by 100 liberal rabbis so highly committed to the Jewish tradition? How is that possible? The 100 rabbis who signed a letter in defense of Michelle Alexander published by Tikkun Magazine perplex and confuse me. What exactly do they[Read More…]
“Al-Araibi’s case has become a crucial test of world football’s commitment to human rights.” So observed the director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights at Monash University, Sarah Joseph, in a piece last month. “Is this commitment real, or is it a public relations statement tossed aside when the going gets tough?” Joseph was inadvertently noting the institutional response[Read More…]
A campaign is gathering steam against MIT inviting BJP leader Subramanian Swamy for a conference on February 16. ‘We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides — on many sides,” – Donald Trump on Charlottesville violence The year was 2017 when the Charlottesville violence happened, when White Supremacists –[Read More…]
With the brutal ‘drawing and quartering’ of the domestic servant Robert-François Damiens, who attempted the assassination of King Louis XV of France in 1757, to ‘make the amende honorable before the main door of the Church of France’ started the slow disappearance of torture as a public spectacle. According to the then punishment code, the flesh from Damiens’ breasts, arms,[Read More…]
The damaging report published by The Hindu Newspaper provides the clinching evidence that PMO was hobnobbing with the negotiations in the purchase of Rafael aircraft from France. In other words it’s the PM who was presiding over the act of corruption using his high office. ‘The Hindu’ reportage by N. Ram that “Government waived anti-corruption clauses in Rafale deal” and[Read More…]
Just few days back, a book titled ‘Denial and Deprivation: Indian Muslims after the Sachar Committee and Ranganath Mishra Commission reports’, authored by Mr. Abdur Rahman who is currently civil servant (IPS) of Maharashtra cadre, was released by the Prof. Manoj Kumar Jha, a renowned academician and currently Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha from RJD at the Indian Islamic culture[Read More…]
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela delivered this Feb. 7 message to the people of the U.S. through social media. If I know anything, it is about the people, because just like you, I am a man of the people. I was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Caracas. I was forged in the heat of popular and union[Read More…]
A plethora of articles have found space surrounding the recent comments made by Hardik Pandya on the popular television show, Koffee with Karan which has landed him into trouble in the cricket world. Although his cricket future does not seem to be in jeopardy at the moment, his comments come at a very crucial cross road of the increased awareness[Read More…]
NAPM extends full solidarity to the protesting students at Jamila Milia Islamia and demands inquiry and action against ‘harasser’ HoD 11th Feb, 2019: National Alliance of People’s Movements extends full solidarity with the students, mostly women, of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, in their struggle against the HoD of Applied Arts Department, who they allege is responsible for multiple reprehensible[Read More…]
When a caterpillar looks in the mirror it does not see a butterfly. Yet hidden in that form is the potential to take the epitome of sluggishness and transform it into the epitome of grace, lightness and flight. The only condition is that the very nature of the thing must change completely. Caterpillars have no choice in the matter. People[Read More…]
A conversation with youngsters – who are by nature bubbling with energy , fired with idealism and suffused with innumerable questions – is a thing which everyone with grey hair looks forward to. For someone like me it is an added gift this morning that after exactly a gap of forty years this writer is with students of engineering helping[Read More…]
INTRODUCTION The case that will be documented here is that Venezuela’s people are suffering from a tragic national situation which actually cannot be reversed by anything that’s within the power of Venezuela’s Government to do or to block. In order to understand this very unfortunate reality (if one wants to understand it), one must first understand the relevant parts of[Read More…]
The Solidarity Center–the AFL-CIO’s organization for acting around the world–has long been active in Venezuela, and not usually for good effect. We demand that the Solidarity Center open their books, and honestly report about their current operations in that country. We hope they are not supporting the current coup attempt against President Nicolás Maduro in any way, as the coup[Read More…]
The Uses of a Well-Regulated Militia by an Unregulated President A young friend is seriously considering joining her state’s National Guard. She’s a world-class athlete, but also a working-class woman from a rural background competing in a rich person’s sport. Between seasons, she works for a local farm and auctioneer to put together the money for equipment and travel.[Read More…]
In perhaps the most significant condemnation to date of China’s brutal crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its north-western province of Xinjiang. Turkey’s foreign ministry demanded this weekend that Chinese authorities respect human rights of the Uighurs and close what it termed “concentration camps” in which up to one million people are believed to be imprisoned. Calling the crackdown an “embarrassment[Read More…]
“Trump is hated by everyone,” comes one unnamed former official in an account to Vanity Fair, one supposedly sourced after the President’s State of the Union Address. Another claimed that all was wretched in the White House: “It’s total misery. People feel trapped.” Off record stuff, unnamed and, as ever, doing nothing to concern a leader whose interests have always[Read More…]
History proves Tamils a homeland [North and East of Sri Lanka] The Kingdom of Jaffna had included a vast region. its boundary has said that Jaffna Kingdom was not confined to the Jaffna Peninsula. It had included the following areas namely Valikamam, Vadamarachi, Thenmarachi, Islands and the parts of Vanni from Mannar to Trincomalee(Perera,S.G.trans, 1930, p.51). The Ariyasakkaravatties, had made[Read More…]
On Feb 9th,2019 activists from various Tamil movements and Tamils who gathered in Bangalore to protest against The Hindu and Mahinda Rajapaksa were arrested. Mahinda Rajapaksa was invited to deliver inaugural address to “The Huddle” conclave organized by The Hindu. To condemn this protest was organized by Dravidar Vidudhalai Kazhagam and May 17 movement in Bangalore. Though the police gave[Read More…]
· Russia, US present rival UNSC resolutions on Venezuela Only Venezuelans can solve Venezuela’s issues, reiterates China US blockade on Venezuela has cost US$350 billion Oil reserves would be opened to foreign investors, says Guaido’s envoy US humanitarian aid is a ‘big lie’: Venezuela’s VP Independence, sovereignty non-negotiable: Venezuelan VP Guaido isn’t ruling out ‘authorizing’ US intervention ‘You don’t[Read More…]
It’s about time Rahul Gandhi impressed upon his flock, including his chief ministers, that the Congress cannot return to power by trying to be the ‘B’ team of the BJP The more things change in India, the more they seem to remain the same. How else would one explain the slapping of draconian National Security Act against three Muslims in[Read More…]
First phenomenon : Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team has succeeded in projecting the political debate from the ground on to the virtual world. The political and intellectual class has played a pivotal role in the last three decades in the crystallisation of this successful endeavour of Modi. As political and intellectual discussions began taking shape in a manner which[Read More…]
Why do we not tell people how it is. Or are we afraid we will scare them away? Isn’t this exactly why there is no action, because we are told there is a solution to our predicament, or at least there will be by century end? Don’t people have the right to know that, were we to leave things unchanged,[Read More…]
The “Language Movement” of erstwhile East Bengal/East Pakistan and Bangladesh today was more than a language movement, it was a cultural-political movement for Bangladesh. No wonder, even after the Pakistan Constitution of 1956 had guaranteed Bengali as one of the two state languages along with Urdu, East Bengalis continued to mourn the deaths of half-a-dozen martyrs, who got killed by[Read More…]
My JNU friend Atif Rabbani has been beaten up in Muzaffarpur town, Bihar. As the information has reached us so far, the attack on him took place on Saturday. He has sustained injuries. But he is said to be safe. Saturday’s attack is seen as a fallout of an earlier incident of misbehavior and intimidation. Last week, some persons, collecting[Read More…]
This valley of mountains and forests has been the source of attraction for tourists all over the world. The rush of tourists both foreign and domestic has reduced to a great extent because of total unrest here. This chaos and confusion has hit us hard. This adorable piece of land, popularly known as “heaven on earth” has been stuck in[Read More…]
US National Security Advisor John Bolton has more or less admitted that the ongoing destabilisation of Venezuela is about grabbing its oil. He recently stated: “We’re looking at the oil assets… We’re in conversation with major American companies now… It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies really invest in and[Read More…]
In an effort to encourage defections from Venezuela’s elected President Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration is reportedly holding secret talks with members of the Venezuelan military as top U.S. cabinet officials continue to issue aggressive threats and push for regime change. According to Reuters, which cited an anonymous senior White House official, the U.S. “is holding direct communications with members of Venezuela’s military[Read More…]
This article is part of a series on degrowth.info discussing strategy in the degrowth movement. The introduction to the series and an ongoing list of contributions can be found here. In a previous piece in this blog series, Joe Herbert and colleagues pointed out the “how to move towards a degrowth society” gap in degrowth discourse. As I have also come[Read More…]
At its peak in 2014, when the Islamic State declared its “caliphate” in Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, the Islamic State, according to the mainstream media’s count, used to have 70,000 jihadists. But now, only several hundred fighters seem to have been left within its ranks, who have been cornered in a holdout in Hajin in eastern Syria[Read More…]
India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water. Today the country’s chronic mismanagement of water has led to drought in nearly 2,00,000 villages. According to the World Bank data, Indian farmers use almost 70 percent of the total groundwater that is drawn in the country each year. Shockingly, India uses more groundwater annually than China and the United[Read More…]
INTRODUCTION This news-report is being submitted to all U.S. and allied news-media, and is being published by all honest ones, in order to inform you of crucial facts that the others — the dishonest ones, who hide such crucial facts — are hiding about Venezuela. These are facts that have received coverage only in one single British newspaper: the Independent,[Read More…]
Continued, albeit slower-paced US and Turkish leaks potentially provide insight into far more than the circumstances of the October killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. They focus attention on crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s strategic thinking as well as his tightened control of the kingdom’s media. In the latest disclosure, The New York Times, quoting anonymous[Read More…]
Many analysts have pointed out the ‘ interim’ budget as ‘ populist’ and promising ‘sops’ to many sections of society. Most of these promises are, in actuality, the need of the hour to weaker sections which have been long overdue. But, will these promises be kept after elections? Unanswered While presenting the budget, many crucial questions remained unanswered. The rate[Read More…]
“The only way we’ll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world”. ~ Malcolm X From more than seventy years of our Independence, the Parliament is being ruled by the leaders who cannot lead without the help of a vague support. The vague support can be religion, caste, gender or class. They need[Read More…]
You and I have a responsibility to create a world where, you, me, and our grandchildren can live without apprehensions. No matter where we go, we should feel secure about our faith, race, ethnicity and our political and sexual orientation. Would this book bring attitudinal change among Muslims? Yes, it will, it’s akin to planting a seed and nurturing it[Read More…]
We the undersigned strongly condemn the invitation to Mahinda Rajapaksa, war criminal and former President of Sri Lanka, to deliver the inaugural address at the “The Huddle”, an annual conclave organized by The Hindu, News Paper, in Bangalore. The conclave, according to The Hindu, is a “thoughts and ideas conclave, a platform that attempts to bring under a single roof[Read More…]
Martin Chulov reported [1] for The Guardian yesterday, February 7, the Islamic State’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had survived a coup attempt last month by foreign fighters within the ranks of the terrorist organization in its holdout in Hajin in eastern Syria near the town of Al-Bukamal on the border between Syria and Iraq, and the Islamic State had reportedly[Read More…]
When Thomas Piketty published his book “Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century” five years ago, it was a sensation. He had analyzed historical concentrations of wealth. Why do the rich get richer? Because the rates of return on capital exceed the rates of economic growth, and the inevitable wealth inequality leads to destabilization. Tax cuts favoring the wealthy can only worsen[Read More…]
10 million-signature petition: “Hands off Venezuela” Bolivia, Mexico, Caricom reject EU-sponsored resolution on Venezuela UN warns against politicizing humanitarian aid and using it as “a pawn” Peru President rejects military intervention in Venezuela 500 luminaries for peace Labour Party in UK rejects EU’s recognition of Guaido Venezuela reveals evidence of plotters behind US-backed coup attempt Venezuela seizes US weapons destined[Read More…]
Interview by Iran’s Fars News Agency (FNA) with Peter Koenig Introduction by FNA, Tehran: Economist and Geopolitical Analyst, Peter Koenig, says it is profoundly clear that French President, Emmanuel Macron, is pursuing a policy against his pre-election promise, “enmarche” movement. Commenting on Macron’s taxing policy, former World Bank Economist says “he transforms public wealth into private wealth and shifts it[Read More…]
Interestingly, success seems to breed fear of failure. This is a paradox, since success should really build confidence. It does that too, but what seems to happen over the years is that we become progressively more afraid of losing what we have created and our ability to take risks decreases. This to me explains why entrepreneurs who have built large[Read More…]
Venezuela in the limelight, on practically all the written, audio and visual mainstream media, as well as alternative media. A purposeful constant drip of outright lies and half-truths, “fake news”, as well as misleading information of all shades and hues about Venezuela is drumming our brains, slowly bending our minds towards believing that – yes, the US has a vital[Read More…]
Life and death for whole communities hang in the balance of achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that include eliminating poverty, conserving forests, and addressing climate change, passed by the United Nations unanimously in 2015. Take for example, the Indigenous Amazigh people who live in the mountains around Marrakech. They are representative of people who need to be served[Read More…]
“Equality, Human dignity and Social justice” – the visionof independent Bangladesh, stipulated at the Proclamation of Independence by the Bangladesh Government-in-Exile on 17th April, 1971 in Mujibnagar In recent times, similar to Trump’s ‘Making America Great Again’ (an exclusionary ultra-right slogan) or Modi’s ‘Achche Din’ (promise of good days through Hindutva ideology that seeks to establish the hegemony of Hindus[Read More…]
9th of February 2013 was unlike any other day, not because on this day Dr. Muhammad Afzal Guroo was hanged which no doubt was the major reason but many things were unveiled before the people. They perceived many unusual things and happenings around, which gave them an insight about who’s what. They found themselves in a strict curfew when they[Read More…]
People from different occupations in Venezuela held demonstration and solidarity marches to oppose imperialist intervention in their country. The people organizing and participating in these marches included oil workers, dairy workers, transport workers, Afro groups, communards – members of communes, teachers and students from universities. Members of trade unions, grassroots level organizations, social movements, Popular Defence Brigades and the National[Read More…]
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued an ultimatum to the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday, demanding that it throw open its borders to a US-orchestrated scheme to deliver “humanitarian aid.” Washington’s aim is either to provoke a fissure within the country’s armed forces or set the stage for a US-led military intervention. “The Venezuelan people desperately[Read More…]
The US government acknowledges that it is knowingly, consciously driving the Venezuelan economy into the ground, but US media make no such acknowledgment, which sends the message that the problems in Venezuela are entirely the fault of the government The US media chorus supporting a US overthrow of the Venezuelan government has for years pointed to the country’s economic crisis[Read More…]
On Monday, February 5th, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that the 14 countries of the Lima Group have now been joined (though she didn’t say to what extent) by the EU, and by 8 other individual countries. The Lima Group had actually formed themselves under her direction into this new group on 8 August 2017 in order to overthrow[Read More…]
It had the semblance of a play lacking key actors. They were deemed the difficult ones, and a decision was made to go through with the performance. The Taliban were willing to talk with their adversaries, but they were keen on doing so with opposition politicians rather than the stick-in-the-mud types in government led by the current President Ashraf Ghani. [Read More…]
(The continuous blockade of the National Highway linking Kashmir with the rest of the world in spite of the best efforts of the Border Roads Organization calls for an alternate link) The continuous landslides taking away portions of the road has virtually cut off Kashmir by surface from the outside world. The tragedy is that it is the only link[Read More…]
After the major European powers recognized far-right politician Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s “interim president,” Paris is stepping up threats and calls for regime change in Caracas. Reprising the methods of the Trump administration, which recognized Guaidó as president via Twitter, Paris and the other European powers are resorting to utter lawlessness, trampling Venezuelan sovereignty underfoot in a bid to plunder[Read More…]
On January 25, 2019, a dam burst in the town of Brumadinho, north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The dam was built by the iron-ore company Vale to store residue after the iron ore had been extracted. Once the dam began to crumble, it did not take long for its 13 million cubic meters of iron waste to sweep down[Read More…]
The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 released the following statement on Monday: “On Friday, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the landmark Intermediate Range Nuclear Missile Treaty (INF). ‘There is a real and present danger that this action will provoke a renewed nuclear arms race and brings us closer to nuclear war,’ says Martha Hennessy, granddaughter of Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The United States has been working with oligarchs in Venezuela to remove President Maduro since he came to office in 2013 after the death of Hugo Chavez and was re-elected that year. After he won re-election to another six-year term in 2018, the regime change planners sought new strategies to remove Maduro, including[Read More…]
We, the readers of Countercurrents, are very well-informed people, perhaps more well informed than the readers of any other newspaper in the world. Since the situation in Venezuela has become apparent, scholar after scholar, journalist after journalist, commentator after commentator has come forward to provide information on what is going on there. America’s actions in Venezuela have been put in[Read More…]
Five years after spearheading what is inaptly referred to as a ‘government of national reconciliation’, Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah, has finally resigned. “We put our government at the disposal of President Mahmoud Abbas and we welcome the recommendations of the Fatah Central Committee to form a new government,” Hamdallah tweeted, shortly after Abbas had ordered him to dismantle the[Read More…]
“And as the flames climbed high into the night To light the sacrificial rite I saw Satan laughing with delight The day the music died” – Don McLean, “American Pie” The Nazis had a name for their propaganda and mind-control operations: weltanschauungskrieg – “world view warfare.” As good students, they had learned many tricks of the trade from[Read More…]
Where Are We Now? Here’s a handy way to spot the division in our country. There are red states and blue states and we can’t name anything else. The purpose of this essay is to recognize this divide while turning it on its head, but before continuing it is necessary to distinguish this overarching political divide from a sub-divide that[Read More…]
Teltumbde is a popular Dalit scholar and activist and his writings expressing deep disagreements with Maoists are very much in the public sphere. How did the state miss seeing them? On February 2, Dalit scholar and intellectual Anand Teltumbde was arrested from Mumbai domestic airport by the Pune police around 3:30am — very promptly after his anticipatory bail petition was[Read More…]
On Tuesday noted journalists P. Sainath and Niranjan Takle and noted author Urmila Pawar and activists from Mumbai, Jatin Desai and Feroze Mithirborewala condemned the police action against Prof. Anand Teltumbde and urged people to speak up against the undemocratic practices of the current government, which Mr Sainath said was criminalising dissent. They were speaking at a press conference organised[Read More…]
[Flipside of Sheikh Abdullah’s narrative] Sheikh M Abdullah who was key political figure from Kashmir in the whole story has written that it was Pakistani authorities in UN that, on many occasions, when the solution to Kashmir-issue was “almost finalised” or “within reach”, stumbled which, to him, seemed their “intellectual bankruptcy” or “politicking”. In support of his contention, he refers[Read More…]
Co-Written by Masood Ali Mir & Zahoor Ahmad Mir Dr Shah Faisal has resigned, he has resigned from the top most post and a dream job of millions of Indians. From Home Ministry to Governor to common masses every one is in a kind of shock over his decision of resignation. Dr Faisal has now joined politics, although he has[Read More…]
End US’s threats of war: Maduro asks world community Trump threatens with military “option” Japan declines to join any side EU states directly interfering: Russia A divided Europe Left in Europe oppose their govt’s stand As threats of imperialists’ militarized intervention in Venezuela have resurfaced, and new rounds of suffocating sanctions against the country’s economy is being imposed by the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas J S Davies In his masterpiece, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II, William Blum, who died in December 2018, wrote chapter-length accounts of 55 U.S. regime change operations against countries around the world, from China (1945-1960s) to Haiti (1986-1994). Noam Chomsky’s blurb on the back of the latest edition says[Read More…]
Organized labor in Canada is voicing its opposition to the government’s decision to embrace Guaido as Venezuela’s president. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) — Canada’s largest union — the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Canadian Labour Congress have expressed concern over Canada’s move to recognize Guaido as interim president. They’re sharing that stance with the federal New Democrats, who came[Read More…]
Sometimes it happens that you are asked a question that forces you to reflect. So, a few days ago, I was at a public meeting on energy and climate and I was telling about the work we do at the university and with the Club of Rome. In the debate, someone asked me: “But, professor, from all these models of[Read More…]
London: A bleak London assailed by daily news about Brexit negotiation, prospects of food shortages and higher prices in the event of a no-deal with the European Union, provides the perfect apocalyptic backdrop for headlines. The city is ailing; the residents are panicked; and the authorities are gloomy. Such environments are ideal for talk about emergencies. One doing much filling on[Read More…]
This opinion emerged out of my discussions on Caste among Muslims, with my ‘Ashraf’ friends. In general, Ashraf Muslims evade ‘Caste debate within Muslim community’, for Caste has no theological recognition in Islam. Nonetheless, the Ashraf having prefix’s like Syed, Khan, Pasha, Mirza, Sheikh, Siddiqui, Farooqui, in their name, argues for the idea of equality in Islam, and blame ‘diffusion[Read More…]
I am not a fan of Mamata Banerjee’s rhetorical politics nor do I believe that BJP cant gain in West Bengal. The problem in India is that everything is between the parties and the real issues somewhere are left because those who are sitting on our discussion tables too dont want certain things to come out. When institutions have failed[Read More…]
Palestine – A Four Thousand Year History. Nur Masalha. Zec Books, London, 2018. The Israeli narrative of a nation/state returning to its homeland after a fifteen hundred year exile requires ongoing deft work by the David Ben-Gurion initiated Governmental Names Committee (Va’adat Hashemot Hamimshaltit, 1949). The Hebraization of Palestine is described in Nur Masalha’s “Palestine – A Four Thousand Year[Read More…]
Resolution of the Middle East crisis cannot be obtained on a battlefield. It can be won by exposing media deceptions engineered by Israel and its supporters, and by actions that change Israel into a just and genuine nation, into a state that recognizes its duty to the world community and obligations to all peoples that inhabit land that it occupies.[Read More…]
The Unites States withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (1987) and the subsequent Russian decision to quit the regime generated considerable fears and anxieties across the world about a renewed nuclear arms race and showdown. The allegations and counter-allegations in respect of the violation of the Treaty by both parties continued for several years and Washington and Moscow[Read More…]
Kashmir is a zone of chaos, a highest militarised zone in the world.Kashmir is a bone of fight between the two Nuclear Countries. The independence of India and Pakistan gave the birth to conflicts, chaos, and hatred. The two independent dominions of Pakistan and India were born on 14th and 15th of August respectively. Princely states were a peculiar issue,[Read More…]
President Trump, Vice President Pence and National Security Advisor John Bolton escalated threats to launch a war against Venezuela, as large pro- and anti-government demonstrations filled Venezuela’s streets on Saturday. In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” program that aired before the Super Bowl yesterday, Trump reiterated that military intervention “is an option.” Pence assured a crowd of far-right[Read More…]
It’s been exactly a week since the colonisers of our land, Mr. Netanyahu and his gang of war criminals, decided not to renew the mandate of TIPH, the Temporary International Presence in Hebron whose role has been to observe and report. These observers were volunteers and they come from Turkey, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Italy and their job was to[Read More…]
Abstract In 2012 when Nirbhaya had been raped brutally in a moving bus in Delhi, the massive protest that went for several days could awake the then government which then constituted the Justice Verma Committee and made amendments in the criminal laws relating to rape. However, in January 2018, the socio-political situation is completely altered. Ironically, a Hindutva government is[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese & Margaret Flowers A lot has happened and we have learned more since last week when we wrote, Venezuela: What Activists Need To Know About The US-Led Coup. This article updates activists so we remain well-informed and can educate others in the face of a bi-partisan and corporate media narrative supporting the coup. This weekend, there were[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of besieged Gaza to show their support of the democratically-elected government of Venezuela and it’s legitimate leader, President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela is struggling to defeat a coup attempt that is supported by the United States, Israel and many Western governments. The relationship between Venezuela and Palestine[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek It is truly an amazing site: monstrous US hotels and casinos, just few hundred meters from the Mainland China. All that kitsch that one usually associates with Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but bigger, much bigger! In fact, Macau is the biggest casino sprawl in the world. Casinos, most of them confined inside the US[Read More…]
The United Arab Emirates is projecting itself as a leader of inter-communal and inter-faith harmony with the first ever visit by a Catholic pope to the Gulf and an inter-faith conference that is as much about dialogue as it is about absolute political control. There is no doubt that the UAE is a leader in the Muslim world in promoting[Read More…]
The Central Government has forgotten that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee ACT is an employment generation programme and not merely a rural asset generation scheme. The idea of MGNREGA was conceived, based on the fact that the planning and implementation of the schemes will be done in a decentralized manner, which will honor the local and traditional knowledge[Read More…]
Mumbai: Mr Nitin Gadkari, union road transport minister, is one of the more efficient ministers. He often comes up with innovative solutions like converting waste water and garbage to profitable use. Unfortunately, there is little innovation in urban transport with which his department is closely concerned. In fact, instead of innovation, regressive , costly solutions are being thrust on civic[Read More…]
193 governments including those of India, committed to reducing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancers by 25% by 2025 and one-third by 2030 (UN Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs), but many cancer rates are rising, not declining, especially in several high burden countries. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally (cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the top[Read More…]
In contemporary literary theory nothing seems to put breaks on the ever-complicating thematics of fluidity, arbitrariness or the slipperiness of the signified in human languages. The complexities of language, its inherent tendency to generate a series of ambiguous meanings when words, like that of a nuclear fission reaction, collide with each other in a vast system of signification, and its[Read More…]
Writer and activist Anand Teltumbde was released by a Pune court after he was produced before it on Saturday afternoon. The court termed his arrest by the Pune police in the early hours of Saturday in Mumbai “illegal” and observed that the protection granted to him was for four weeks, and that either the Bombay High Court or the Supreme[Read More…]
Maduro: “I stand firm defending Venezuela’s sovereignty” UN rejects Guaido, favors dialogue with Maduro Italy rejects Guaido, says Venezuela is a sovereign state US rejects Uruguay and Mexico’s initiative for dialogue Chavista mobilizations Vowing to resist imperialism is bold in Venezuela while imperialist intervention in the country is intensifying. Media reports from Europe and the Americas said: Venezuelan President Nicolas[Read More…]
Co-Written by Alex Lantier and Alejandro Lopez The European Parliament has voted a resolution supporting the brazen US-led coup to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, endorsing the Trump administration’s aggressive policy. While right-wing oppositionist Juan Guaidó unilaterally declared himself president amid a mass rally in Caracas on January 23, Trump Tweeted: “Today, I have officially recognized the President of the[Read More…]
On September 15, 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger authorized the U.S. government to do everything possible to undermine the incoming government of the socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende. Nixon and Kissinger, according to the notes kept by CIA Director Richard Helms, wanted to “make the economy scream” in Chile; they were “not concerned[Read More…]
Thousands of NREGA workers across Jharkhand spilled to the streets today to express their anger at the continued denial of their entitlements. In over 30 blocks of the state, workers raised their voice against the abysmal wage rate, acute shortage of work, increasing delays in payment of wages, and violation of several other rights. They also demanded work and submitted[Read More…]
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” – Desmond Tutu The quote applies appropriately to Canada, which claims to be a human rights leader in the world, considering its indifference toward some recent ugly events that unfolded in India. Widely known as the world’s largest democracy, India is going through an[Read More…]
In the last article I had come to the crux of what ails Indian socially or sociologically and pointed out that this has an effect on its economics, politics, philosophy, psychology history and everything else for its detriment. I had said that the malaise was called Brahiminism or Brahmanism. I am not the first person to say this and I[Read More…]
To the People of Venezuela Yet again, the United States elite has decided to attempt to impose its will on the people of another nation, in this case, and not for the first time either, your country Venezuela. On 23 January 2019, following careful secret planning in the preceding weeks and a late night telephone call the previous day from[Read More…]
Canada’s CBC talk show, Power and Politics, hosted by Vassy Kapelos, demonstrated today (Friday, February 01, 2019) the usage of the big lie technique for disseminating news about Venezuela. At the same time some of it could be simple ignorance, stating an supposed ‘fact’ when that simply is not the case. The Power and Politics panel are mostly frequent pundits[Read More…]
A Poem After Martin Niemoller’s First They Came for the Communists. When they went to South Korea to slaughter Communists, they were ordered to “kill em all” . They did what they were told And slaughtered helpless innocents at No Gun Ri. I was too young to know or care. My indifference was clearly forgivable By the time they[Read More…]
It doesn’t take much to imagine the following scenario: ‘Cross my heart, I swear it’s a low-yield,’ as a Trident is launched! One wonders if the new low-yield W76-2 warhead advocated by Donald Trump comes with a broadcast tape identifying it. Otherwise it looks exactly the same, is delivered by the same missile, and is made essentially by disabling the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Rahul Pandey Narendra Modi’s ascension to power was accompanied with jubilation and expectation. His supporters were expecting an end to era of corruption and initiation of good governance which was described as Achche Din. His party’s adherence to idea of nationalism was believed to make India a vibrant country and guide India to be a[Read More…]
Renowned British economist and a Labour Party member of the House of Lords, Lord Meghnad Desai on January 23rd wrote a letter to the Guardian, as a rebuttal to Simon Murphy’s investigative op-ed, posted from Gazipur Bangladesh, “Inhuman conditions: life in factory making Spice Girls T-shirts”, published on January 20th in the same paper. Lord Desai’s letter is simply a[Read More…]
While the general condition of prisons and the prisoners is pathetic, those suffering disability is horrific to say the least. The basic right to life ( Article 21 of the constitution) is mostly violated in dealing with prisoners who are handicapped. Treatment The Veena Sethi case in the early 1980s brought to light the treatment of persons with mental illnesses[Read More…]
Writer and activist Anand Teltumbde was arrested at 3.30 am from Mumbai domestic airport when he was returning to Mumbai from Kochi. Adv Pradeep Mandhyan spoke to Inspector Indulkar from Pune who was at airport to take him into custody. Indulkar claimed Teltumbde was being arrested since his bail had been rejected by the Pune trial court! This action blatantly[Read More…]
Imperialists’ move to steal Venezuela’s assets and their secret preparations over a long period are now becoming known. The US, the self-appointed guardian of “democracy”, has already seized $7 billion in assets of Venezuela by imposing sanctions against PDVSA, the state oil company of Venezuela. The imperialist power, declares that it likes “to help prevent the further diversion” of assets[Read More…]
By 29-January a photo from a press conference of US National Security Advisor John Bolton went viral, Mr Bolton had some yellow note sheets in his hand on which ‘5000 soldiers in Columbia’ was written. Speculation was high that US gathered or arranged 5000 soldiers in Columbia to invade Venezuela giving a final touch to the awaited coup d’état. Russian[Read More…]
In spite of the fact that the Dogra Ruler in 1933 fulfilling “its obligations to its own Muslim subjects” 19 conferred proprietary rights upon the occupancy hereditary cultivators, a good chunk of land still continued to be under the iron grip of Jagirdari & Chakdari systems, and the tenants-at-will of different categories of the landlords continued to be at their[Read More…]
This past January when India marked its 70th Republic Day, some Sikh and Kashmiri separatists burnt Indian flags in UK and US to protest against mistreatment of minorities in the world’s so called largest democracy. Unable to tolerate this, the Indian government objected and raised the issue with foreign governments. While the Sikh separatists have been campaigning for a separate[Read More…]
According to NOAA (https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card) Arctic surface air temperatures continued to warm at twice the rate relative to the rest of the globe, leading to a loss of 95 percent of its oldest ice over the past three decades. Arctic air temperatures for the past five years (2014-18) have exceeded all previous records since 1900 and are driving broad changes in[Read More…]
I open Countercurrents (No easy task here in Russia where it is blocked) and I am filled with joy at the number of articles that appear day after day on the situation in Venezuela. They show just how important the situation there is to people on the left; how important it is to those who cry out against injustice, against[Read More…]
“The essence of what exists in the U.S. is not democracy but capitalism-imperialism and political structures to enforce that capitalism-imperialism. What the U.S. spreads around the world is not democracy, but imperialism and political structures to enforce that imperialism.” Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:3 Over the last week politicians and media have been spewing honeyed bullshit over their direct efforts to[Read More…]
Since 2015 Venezuela has endured gruesome economic hardships. Inflation rates have spiraled out of control, and the public is facing a recession that is tearing the country apart. Now, Venezuelans not only face economic turmoil, but also direct military aggression. A sane response of anyone who wishes to help Venezuelans through these troubles is to try to understand why this[Read More…]
Venezuela’s Constitution simply does not permit what U.S. President Trump is demanding, which is overthrowing and replacing the elected Venezuelan President by the second-in-line-of succession. What Trump demands is comparable in Venezuela to, in America, removing Trump and skipping over the Vice President and appointing Nancy Pelosi as America’s President, and it also violates the Venezuelan Constitution’s requirement that the[Read More…]
“Science without conscience is nothing but ruin to the soul”- François Rabelais Lately, the world famous business magazine, The Economist, has received quite a bit of international media attention; and understandably so. Indeed, close to the end of each year, going back decades, it publishes an eagerly awaited special edition, which predicts the major political, business and social trends and[Read More…]
A group of 30 respected intellectuals, writers and historians has published a manifesto bewailing the imminent collapse of Europe and its supposed Enlightenment values of liberalism and rationalism. The idea of Europe, they warn, “is falling apart before our eyes”, as Britain prepares for Brexit and “populist and nationalist” parties look poised to make sweeping gains in elections across the[Read More…]
“We came to work. I know I’m not getting asylum because they don’t give you asylum for hunger,” a young migrant from Honduras told a reporter. “But us on the caravan would rather die fighting than sitting in Honduras waiting to starve or be killed.” These stark words show the desperation of thousands of people, half of them women and[Read More…]
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to declare a national emergency if Congress refuses to pony up $5.7 billion to build the “great, great wall” he promised his base during the 2016 election campaign. In an apocalyptic televised address early in January, he even warned — falsely, as fact checkers revealed during the speech — that a tsunami of hard-core criminals and[Read More…]
American Abrams tanks roll into Ukraine 
An open letter to JNU VC – Your association with RSS defies humanism, anti-colonial struggle Indian democracy! 
From Education to Incarceration 
Tunakataa! Saying ‘No’ to Capitalism and Imperialism in Kenya 
Rising Islamophobia and Communal Discord: An Alarming Trend in BJP-Ruled States 
Speak Truth to Power and Pay the Price! 
USA’s Wars Took 12 Million Lives in The Last 25 Years 
US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
In Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan makes us an offer we can refuse 
Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma 
On the Brink of Famine 
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
“Making a thriller from grain” 
Key Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Likely To Collapse In 2025-2095 
Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
The Nijjar Murder and Indian Government’s alleged “involvement”: Reactions and Reflections 
France Will Pull Out Its Diplomats And Military From Niger, Says Macron 
Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM 
Hunger in Africa has its roots in a History of Colonialism and Neo-colonialism 
The Climate March: Magnificent and Misdirected 
Imagining a Progressive Pentagon 
“Lost Voices of Fentanyl” Rally at the White House 
Indian Government Must First Evict Dalai Lama & his Followers before Admonishing Canada for Separatist Activities 
Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
Hate Speech Inside Parliament: Reaching a New Low 
Criminal Justice And Freedom of Speech 
75,000 Climate Protesters Marched In New York With Demand To End Fossil Fuels 
On the Dark Side of the Moon.. 
Avoiding the War on Terror would have saved over 10 million lives at home and abroad 
The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
