Major cities of the world are at risk of being submerged under rising sea levels over the next 30 years. This could put hundreds of millions of people at risk – their homes and jobs lost. A new study finds this. New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding. A new digital elevation[Read More…]
Children in unison rise Crying for the ultimate reprise. Bus fares hike Water jets strike Murderers walk free The land is no longer safe Asperger bound The world round Children protest In anger and unrest Where do they stand? Why have they become the voice of The angry clans? Why is it they scream In angst against the regime? Why[Read More…]
It is happy moment for all of us that Jamia Millia Islamic, a ‘lusty child’ of the non-cooperation and the Khilafat movement, is going to soon complete its 100 years in 2020. To celebrate birth contrary, several programmes, seminars and conferences are scheduled to be held in the next one year. Currently, Jamia fraternity is celebrating, 99th ‘Foundations Day’ on[Read More…]
Only starting on 28 October 2019 — after seven years of the U.S. and its allies stealing Syria’s oil — did U.S. ‘news’-media start to apply the word “theft” or “steal” (or any equivalent term) to what was happening to Syria’s oil; and, even then, the blame for stealing it was focused only against U.S. President Donald Trump, who was[Read More…]
Chile is experiencing the largest and most serious political crisis and public unrest throughout Santiago and the country’s major cities, since the return to ‘democracy’ in 1990. A weeklong of fire, teargas and police brutality, left at least 20 people dead, thousands arrested and injured. More than 1.2 million people protested on Friday 25 October in the Streets of Chile’s[Read More…]
There is a saying ‘Vyaparam droha chintanam’. I don’t know whether it is a saying or something that was brought into being by common people coming face to face with trade. After globalisation, trade has been prancing around as betrayal. Now intellect and commerce have come together and that is being seen as knowledge. These two together are weaving a[Read More…]
It is a fact that politics and crime are inseparable particularly in India. Soutik Biswas argues that criminals get elected not only because many voters are ill-informed, but also for sociopolitical reasons. According to a report released this April by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a nonprofit that works on electoral and political reform, a total of 1,580 Members[Read More…]
Following an unprecedented popular revolt for 13 days over decades of political corruption and economic turmoil in Lebanon, Prime Minister Saad Hariri has resigned on Tuesday. After the announcement, the main protest square in central Beirut erupted into applause, less than an hour after counter-demonstrators ravaged the site and attacked protesters. Cries of celebration and joy went up across Lebanon,[Read More…]
A pretty odd thing, this. The prime minister of Britain, supposedly of the conservative creed, making an almost violent dash against both parliament and the courts of law. While his presence is barely a patch on Margaret Thatcher, there is something about the Johnson rabble that reeks of demagogic aspiration. Thatcher, for one, was not a conservative but a neoliberal,[Read More…]
Or What It Means to Experience America’s Wars From a Computer Screen Away Think back to the last time you cried at work. Did the tears come after your boss sent you a curt email? Or when you accidentally cc’d (instead of bcc’d) everyone? Maybe you just had a really, really long day and that one last little misstep pushed[Read More…]
About 12,000 years ago, late stone age humans precipitated the neolithic (agricultural) revolution that marked the start of the steady rise to civilization. Coincidentally, this occurred at the same time as the beginning of what is now known as the Holocene Epoch, the geological epoch in which humans still live. However, since the industrial revolution commencing in about 1750, just[Read More…]
Transcript of a PressTV Interview – Following a live press Conference by the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey at the UN Geneva, Switzerland Background GENEVA, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) — The UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said here on Monday that the Constitutional Committee’s launch should be a sign of hope for the long-suffering Syrian people. Speaking[Read More…]
Economist Thomas Piketty has analyzed the rise of inequality-driven Trumpist populism and increasing support by ignorant and xenophobic poor people for the Right that serves the interests of the wealthy and opposes the Left that is paradoxically increasingly supported by high education and high income voters. Piketty’s “Brahmin Left versus the Merchant Right” analysis deals with France, the US and[Read More…]
Tires are burning, smoke is rising towards the sky. It is October, the 18th day of the month, the capital city of Lebanon, in the past known as the “Paris of the East”, is covered in smoke. For years I was warning that the country governed by corrupt, indifferent elites, could not hold together, indefinitely. For all those five[Read More…]
Palestine’s Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The world’s most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel. Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on October 15. Their gathering was titled: “The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective”. One major issue that highlighted itself[Read More…]
October: its pumpkin spice lattes, its sweater weather, and its spooky Halloween. For a day, or even days if you count “Halloweekend” (or more appropriately “Halloweekends”), you can pretend to be someone or something else. You can escape your reality and dive head-first into a world of manufactured fear: laughing at every non-threatening jump scare, watching all too similar horror[Read More…]
Although President Trump claimed in his address to the American public after the killing of al-Baghdadi that he was a “bigger terrorist” than Osama bin Laden, fact of the matter is the Islamic State’s self-styled caliph was simply a nobody compared to Bin Laden. As a Saudi citizen and belonging to the powerful Saudi-Yemeni clan of Bin Ladens, which has[Read More…]
In all the years that I have been actively involved in our struggle for liberation and justice I have never reached such a low point than in the last few weeks. Listening to pronouncements from both Ramallah and Gaza about the so-called forthcoming general elections had me hitting rock bottom. Can a meaningful, unencumbered, straightforward election happen in Palestine? Of[Read More…]
US Congressman Ro Khanna’s tweet rejecting Hindutva echoed at the Cupertino Town Hall meeting called by the congressman earlier this month. Chinmoy Roy, a Khanna supporter who attended the Oct. 3 town hall meeting, told India-West that about 25 people stood outside, bearing placards reading: “Ro Khanna, Stand with Gandhi. Do not mix with bigots (alluding to Pieter Friedrich of the Organization[Read More…]
by Sandeep Pandey and Meera Sanghamitra The Nagas claim that their leader Phizo never signed any instrument of accession with India like the other 562 princely states and Nagaland or Nagalim, as they prefer to call their land, was never part of India either with consent or by conquest. Nagas are proud of their unique history in which they have[Read More…]
The nation is bracing for the judgement in the most controversial issue of India, the Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, Faizabad, UP case where Muslims are waiting with bated breath and Hindus in an over joyous mode are waiting for victory as a ‘double-diwali’, already there are voices from BJP parliamentarians (latest by Sakshi Maharaj on Oct 27) and legislators that construction[Read More…]
The 27-member delegation of European Parliament members visited the troubled region of Jammu and Kashmir. It’s the first foreign delegation allowed to visit Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, this year. The MEPs are drawn largely from extreme right-wing parties like the German Alternative for Germany (AfD) famous for its anti-immigrant stand, and France’s Rassemblement National. In[Read More…]
The Movement to Socialism (MAS), the progressives, has secured a majority presence in the Senate and Deputy Chamber of Bolivia, Vice President of the country Álvaro García Linera said Monday. During a presentation explaining the results of the election on October 20, the vice president said MAS obtained 21 representatives in the Senate while securing 68 lawmakers in the House of Representatives. The Bolivian senior official said, “the MAS has prevailed in[Read More…]
The irreversible victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia’s recent elections, (with 46.64% of the vote vs. 36.83% for Carlos Mesa), has shed light on several aspects of the role of the Organization of American States (OAS) and Washington throughout their campaign to destabilize popular or left-wing governments, and return control to those who raise the banners of neoliberalism and submission[Read More…]
The renowned author and whistleblower Evaggelos Vallianatos describes British environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason as a “defender of the natural world and public health.” I first came across her work a few years ago. It was in the form of an open letter she had sent to an official about the devastating environmental and human health impacts of glyphosate-based weed[Read More…]
Yesterday morning, President Trump announced the death of Abu Bakr Al- Baghdadi and three of his children. President Trump said Al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, was fleeing U.S. military forces, in a tunnel, and then killed himself by detonating a suicide vest he wore. In 2004, Al-Baghdadi had been captured by U.S. forces and, for ten months, imprisoned in both[Read More…]
In the event of the death of the Islamic State’s self-styled caliph, Amaq, a news agency affiliated with the Islamic State, reported on 7 August 2019 that the terrorist organization’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had appointed Abdullah Qardash as his successor. Abdullah Qardash is from Tal Afar, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city in northwestern Iraq, and has served as an[Read More…]
Nazareth: The United Nations’ independent expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories issued a damning verdict last week on what he termed “the longest belligerent occupation in the modern world”. Michael Lynk, a Canadian law professor, told the UN’s human rights council that only urgent international action could prevent Israel’s 52-year occupation of the West Bank transforming into de[Read More…]
If there is one theme, beyond corruption and a host of economic and social grievances, that have driven protests — large and small, local, sectoral and national – across the globe, it has been a call for dignity. Reflecting a global breakdown in confidence in political systems and leadership, the quest for dignity and social justice links protests in Middle[Read More…]
“You should therefore know that there are two ways to fight: one while abiding by the rules, the other by using force. The first approach is unique to Man; the second is that of beasts. But because in many cases the first method will not suffice, one must be prepared to resort to force. This is why a ruler needs[Read More…]
No commentator even asked why the home minister—a graduate in bio-chemistry who has also worked as a stockbroker and in co-operative banks [Sheela Bhatt, “What Amit Shah’s fall really means”, July 28, 2010]—was found the most apt person to inaugurate a two-day seminar on a subject of history at Banaras Hindu University where he shared his pearls of wisdom. His emphasis was that[Read More…]
INTRODUCTION ” कथा सुनो रे लोगों एक व्यथा सुनो रे लोगों हम मजदूर की करून कहानी आओ करीब से जानो खाने को खाना नही पिने को पानी नही पेहेनेको कपडा नही ये कैसा राज हैं भाई ये झूठा राज है भाई ll” शाहीर विलास घोगरे “कशाला झाली शिक्षणाची ओळख बरा तो ओहळयाचा गोटा गावची गुरे वळली असती[Read More…]
It was indeed a humbling experience for me to interact with a few frontline healthcare workers who are courageously fighting the #endTB battle on the ground in Hyderabad, India (the venue for the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health). My day began with meeting G Swamy Reddy, project officer at Lepra Society in Hyderabad. He has been involved with[Read More…]
In a dramatic comeback, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, progressive and one of Argentina’s most popular presidents during her two terms in 2007-2015, has been voted back into office as vice president. A large crowd of supporters burst into a roar outside the Frente de Todos (Everybody’s Front) party bunker in the Chacarita neighborhood of the capital city of Buenos Aires[Read More…]
The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, seems to be in some sort of a pickle, at the time of writing, in the process of seeking a fourth term of presidency. Earlier, in 2016, he had not exactly endeared himself to the citizens of Bolivia when he decided to run for a fourth term as president, in defiance of existing laws[Read More…]
Frank Hebert rightly said, “Absolute power attracts the corruptible.” The fractured assembly election 2019 result in Haryana shows that the foundation of collapse in the BJP turf has been laid down by the Congress Party. The result also shows that Congress has emerged as a strong opposition party with 30 MLAs despite the NDA`s government anti-congress, anti-dynasty 24×7 feisty &[Read More…]
Inducing Flag Waving Patriotism, Indian Media Stands Unmasked and Exposed Since Independence, the Indian media has been a carrier of flag-waving patriotism. Anything that infringed New Delhi’s project of ‘nation-building’ invariably fell into the ‘anti-national’ category deserving no sympathy or critical appreciation from the media. The Indian periphery- deep south, far west, Punjab, Kashmir, and north-east—have already experienced hostile press[Read More…]
Iran is a country that maintains something of the fascination it had in ancient times, when it was both fabulous and remote. In our times, it remained somewhat remote, but also something that couldn’t be ignored as it went through a series of dramatic events, from the revolution of 1979, the hostage crisis, the Iraq-Iran war from 1980 to 1988,[Read More…]
Pain to be documented for the sake of civilization. Pain, language of the unspoken, censored, plugged and precluded. Pain of mothers daughters and lovers, of sons, fathers and admirers. Pain of separated caged minors of mums in the dread for their teens. Pain of kids deprived of children’s play and tempers. Pain of teachers in empty schools like haunted sanctuaries.[Read More…]
Some anniversaries are less about the past than the future. So it should be with November 9, 1989. In case you’ve long forgotten, that was the day when East and West Germans began nonviolently dismantling the Berlin Wall, an entirely unpredicted, almost unimaginable ending to the long-entrenched Cold War. Think of it as the triumph of idealistic hope over everything that[Read More…]
The first ever two-day Russia-Africa economic summit ended Thursday in the resort city Sochi, Russia resulting over 500 commercial agreements worth $12 billion. About four dozen African leaders and high-level government officials attended the summit and economic forum, from Nigerian President Muhammad Buhari to African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat. Over 40 African nations were represented by heads of[Read More…]
The Case Against Free Speech: The First Amendment, Fascism, and the Future of Dissent by P. E. Moskowitz (Bold Type Books, 2019) In my last couple years of university teaching before retiring, I repeated two catch phrases as often as possible—“reasonable people can disagree” and “if two things are both true, then both are relevant.” The first assertion—which I[Read More…]
Promoters of genetic modification (GM) in agriculture have long argued that genetically engineered Golden Rice is a practical way to provide poor farmers in remote areas with a subsistence crop capable of adding much-needed vitamin A to local diets. Vitamin A deficiency is a problem in many poor countries in the Global South and leaves millions at high risk for[Read More…]
The smorgasbord of Brexit terms has been further plated up with the latest acronym: the WAB or Withdrawal Agreement Bill. It comes in at 115 pages, with an added bonus of 126 pages of explanatory notes. For something seemingly so significant, not much time was on offer for those in the Commons to peruse, let alone digest it. Rushed before[Read More…]
California wildfires are again in the news as the Kincade Fire now raging risked 50,000 people, who have been evacuated. It might come as a surprise but there have been 41,074 wildfires compared to 47,853 in 2018 for the first nine months of the year. Blame the downslope Santa Ana winds for fanning them. Fires can occur naturally through lightning[Read More…]
During the month and year of Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, the BJP has the audacity to celebrate Savarkar, the plotter of Mahatma’s assassination Whatever you may think of the BJP and its extended Parivar, they have a sordid sense of humour. At a time when India and the world are celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi, the governing party[Read More…]
On October 21st , 2019, Harsha a student in Amrita School of Engineering in Bangalore, committed suicide within the college premise, by jumping off the main college building. Ever since then the students have been protesting in the college demanding justice for Harsha who was pushed to take this step by the college administration. This write up is by alumni[Read More…]
The poll results of the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly as well as by-polls in about 52 constituencies across the country are out and wronged the pollsters as well as the arrogant ‘spokespersons’ on the Manustream media who were out and out ‘determined’ to ‘decimate’ the opposition. In any democracy, if we wish to strengthen it, people must ensure that a[Read More…]
Without infection there is no disease: Nip the TB infection Prevention of new infections of TB bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and their progression to active TB disease is critical to reduce the burden of TB disease and to achieve the goal of ending TB by 2030. Around 587 million (35%) of the total estimated 1.7 billion people infected with latent TB[Read More…]
Millions of people protesting social inequality and state violence poured into the streets across Chile yesterday in the largest demonstrations in the country’s history. Stunned Chilean television commenters described the scene as a “human sea,” an “interminable column” and a “carnival of people,” though few were watching the reports because half the adult population of the country was already in[Read More…]
THE OPENING SCENE The 14th September 2019 attack which had caused significant damage to Saudi based Aramco Oil plants in Abqaiq and Khurais, was the trigger for much of the recent rise in regional tension at least when it comes to Saudi- Iran relations. However, given the way that recent events have unfolded, it seems that a commitment to a[Read More…]
Results of the latest state assembly elections in Haryana and Punjab, and some by-elections in other states indicate a slight awakening from the slumber in which the Indian electorate had sunk, since the last Lok Sabha polls. It seems that not all voters are willing to be taken in by the media-fashioned image of Narendra Modi as their messiah, and [Read More…]
It is a pity that some groups and individuals are urging palm oil importers in India to refrain from buying the commodity from Malaysia. The Solvent Extractors Association of India, India’s top vegetable oil trade body is one such outfit. Apparently, this boycott is a sort of “punishment” for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’sremarks on Kashmir at the United Nations[Read More…]
On October 24, following a three-day trial in Brunswick, GA, seven Catholic Workers who acted to disarm a nuclear submarine base were convicted on three felony counts and one misdemeanor. The defendants face 20 years in prison, yet they emerged from their trial seeming quite ready for next steps in their ongoing witness. Steve Kelly, a Jesuit priest who[Read More…]
The owners of capital favour unemployment, because the unemployed workers have to accept poorly paid jobs to be able to feed their families. A higher unemployment rate produces cheaper labour. Unemployment is not difficult to maintain because employers most often do not need to hire employees. Also, the owners of capital support political parties that keep unemployment through economic policy.[Read More…]
Ms. Suhag Shukla, Executive Director of the Hindu American Foundation was upset with the congressional hearings on October 22nd, 2019, about Modi government’s gross violations of Human rights, democratic norms and abrogation of the article 370 without the consent of the governed. All their expensive and powerful lobbying effort went down the drain at the hearing. Even though the Asst[Read More…]
While prisons in the country in general lack basic amenities and prisoners are made to live in sub-human conditions, women in jails suffer more than their male counterparts in most states. In its own report, NCRB has acknowledged that overcrowding is one of the major problem affecting inmates which results in lack of hygiene, lack of sleep, etc and this[Read More…]
The world seems roiled by a “million mutinies now,” to use a term used by VS Naipaul to describe a situation in India in the 1980s. Yet, while India still might be witnessing a million small mutinies…there is hardly any countrywide or even more localized mass movement which encompasses, expresses and embraces the protests of all the disadvantaged classes in[Read More…]
RSS ideologues and leaders regularly keep stating that India is a Hindu Rashtra. This has been most annoying for the religious minorities, particularly Muslims, Sikhs and all those believing in Indian Constitution. This Dussera; when RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat; in his hour long speech reiterated the same formulation, a large number of Sikh organizations and intellectuals showed their opposition to[Read More…]
The U.S. is reportedly planning to deploy tanks and other heavy military hardware to protect oil fields in eastern Syria. This would mark the first deployment of U.S. tanks to Syria. A senior Pentagon official told Newsweek Wednesday that the U.S. is seeking to deploy half of an Army armored brigade combat team that includes 30 Abrams tanks to eastern[Read More…]
Co-Written by Areeb Rizvi and Kuriakose Mathew Recently there was a genocidal campaign against Muslims in India, launched by diehard Hindu Nazis. It called for the complete untouchablisation of Muslims (In Hindu Social Order, sampoorna bahishkar means turning someone into a Sapoorna Bahishkrit, an Untouchable, a point that Hindu Leftists/Liberals fail to understand, since they misunderstand it as mere boycott).[Read More…]
Kusumabale by D.Mahadeva acts as Rastafarianism in the Dalit literature movement especially in Kannada Dalit literature movement which is marked by 2 strands i.e Navodaya movement and Navya movement as noted by Vivek Shanbhag in his classic introduction. It could be a work of fiction,nonfiction or even an autobiographical one woven in the form of mysticism and mythology that gives[Read More…]
Two things in America create “bipartisanship”: support for Israel’s apartheid regime and support for endless US war and intervention around the world. — Ali Abunimah, October 16. It’s September-October and I’m sitting at my Sidewalk Museum of Congress (SMoC) studio outside Kansas’ 1st District Rep. Roger Marshall’s office embroidering portraits of the Palestinian al-Farra family, most of whom were killed[Read More…]
It was never going to be pretty. The Facebook CEO knew in appearing before the House Financial Services Committee to answer questions on the company’s proposed cryptocurrency that a few sizeable bumps would appear. As it turned out, much of the questioning had little to do with the Libra currency, along with its digital wallet format known as Calibra. New[Read More…]
A Seminal Event: (Defined as an event that will strongly influence what comes after), It revealed: The Need for a New American Formula The time has come for serious introspection in America. The Nation is locked in a race between self-discovery and self-destruction. It is losing that race. It needs to recognize that the present equation does not equate. It[Read More…]
When Americans think of militarism, they may imagine jackbooted soldiers goose-stepping through the streets as flag-waving crowds exult; or, like our president, they may think of enormous parades featuring troops and missiles and tanks, with warplanes soaring overhead. Or nationalist dictators wearing military uniforms encrusted with medals, ribbons, and badges like so many barnacles on a sinking ship of state. (Was Donald Trump only joking recently[Read More…]
It is true that many in Europe have stumbled upon a state of insecurity, xenophobia and skepticism as an offshoot of mass immigration, refuge issues and multiculturalism which have agitated European minds about the realty of multiculturalism. The loophole created by European doubt about their own continent dwells in state crisis has eventually paved the path for rightwing populist agendas[Read More…]
Bernard Schwartz, a former Vice Chairman and top investor in Lockheed Martin (which is by far the largest seller to the U.S. Government, and also the largest seller to most of America’s allied Governments), is one of Joe Biden’s top donors. CNN headlined, on October 28th, “Biden allies intensify push for super PAC after lackluster fundraising quarter”, and reported that,[Read More…]
Indian government by abrogating Article 370 has put the entire population in Kashmir valley in deep pain and agony. Since October 5, 2019 the people of the valley are subjected to untold hardship and they are silently suffering the pain without any hope of redemption. In the post Article 370 abrogation phase some uneasy questions are being asked about the[Read More…]
The bodies of 39 migrants were found yesterday in the back of a freight lorry parked in Grays, Essex, in the United Kingdom. The deaths have evoked public outrage and revulsion toward the British government’s brutal “deterrence” regime against migrants and refugees. Police were called to the Waterglade Industrial Park in Essex by East of England Ambulance Service at 1.40am.[Read More…]
The Iraqi government is now taking legal action against the uninvited presence of the U.S. forces in Iraq. The U.S. forces entered western Iraq without authorization as it withdrew from Syria. The Iraqi government is also seeking international help after U.S. troops entered western Iraq without any authorization from the Iraq government. Baghdad did not give permission for U.S. forces[Read More…]
While Australian journalists bonded and broke break in condemning national security legislation that some of them had previously supported, one figure was barely mentioned. Julian Assange was making his first public appearance since April for a case management hearing at the Westminster Magistrates Court. Those in attendance were disturbed. Craig Murray professed to being shaken. “Every decision was railroaded through[Read More…]
Individuals like Steve Bannon, often greatly influence leaders like President Donald Trump.Then they fall out of grace, sometimes because of some personal quarrels, and “get fired”. But, regularly, at least some of them, bounce back. And, even if they do not return to the White House, do they disappear into thin air? Hardly. Their destructive legacy marches on. Mr.[Read More…]
Due to its awkward characterization and specific reference to Jewish people, modern anti-Semitism is a term that has been criticized and debated. Is it a condition, or a response to what people observe as Israel’s oppressive policies toward the Palestinians and its contrived association with the Jewish community? The words anti-Semite and anti-Semitism are relatively knew, and, if taken in[Read More…]
“Bhagat Singh”, writes Professor Chaman Lal, “was searching for the ultimate ideology of human liberation from all kinds of oppression and exploitation, he had almost become a committed Marxist through his contacts with Kirti group of Ghadrite revolutionaries of Punjab.” Professor Chaman Lal discusses the revolutionary in the “Introduction” of his The Bhagat Singh Reader (HarperCollins Publishers India, Noida, Uttar[Read More…]
Many people keep quoting Karl Marx, as “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” But he never used that exact phrase.The exact quotes from the essay on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, published in 1844 in “Deutsch-FranzösischeJahrbücher”, during his stay in Paris, are: “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against[Read More…]
On Monday 21 October 2019 Australians around the country picking up their daily newspaper found that page 1 was blacked out in a facsimile of comprehensive redaction by a censor’s black pen. No, pre-police state Australia had not suffered a neo-Nazi putsch or overt US takeover – the blacking out was a collective protest by Australian Mainstream media (MSM) against[Read More…]
[Author’s Note:The 39thPresident of the United States (1977-1981), Jimmy Carter has been in the news recently, and we wish him well…. I consider him one of the great people I’ve had the honor of meeting. Following his too-brief tenure in the White House, Carter worked gratis for decades with “Habitat for Humanity,” physically building and refurbishing houses for those in need…. In[Read More…]
Dr.Ambedkar’s role in crafting of the majestic document called Constitution of India(not Indian Constitution as there is a still a long way to go in becoming a nation!) is undisputed.His entire repertoire of works when keenly read invokes passion and inspiration among the Bahujan masses especially Dalits.He is the epitome of excellence and a goal for them to mould their[Read More…]
Tens of thousands of Lebanese protesters kept the country on lockdown on Tuesday, rallying for a sixth consecutive day to demand new leaders despite the government’s adoption of an emergency economic rescue plan. The protesting people remain defiant despite Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s reforms, insisting the government resign. Media reports said: Demonstrations have grew into an unprecedented cross-sectarian street mobilization[Read More…]
Turkey’s ambassador to China, Emin Onen, didn’t mince his words this week when he took his Chinese hosts to task for failing to support Turkey’s military campaign against a Kurdish militia in Syria. Speaking in Turkish through a translator at a news conference at his Beijing embassy, Mr. Onen implicitly put China on the spot by calling on it[Read More…]
Around a month ago, a workshop intended to address the gender gap in the sciences called Pressing for Progress 2019 was held at the University of Hyderabad (UoH). Early this October, Telangana Today reported that the UoH Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile addressed the attendees, sharing with them his thoughts on the conference and its aims. I read this with[Read More…]
Few politicians come across more as products of hashtag committee management than Justin Trudeau. His image has been doctored, massaged and spruced, and even then, the Instagram-Twitter committee did not quite see those corrupt influences that are bound to tarnish someone who believes in endless, indestructible parliamentary majorities. The image can do much, but not that much. After being elected[Read More…]
What else can we call it when a publisher does what the New York Times did when it published the Pentagon Papers and was ruled by the Supreme Court in 1971 (New York Times Co. v. United States) to have been protected by the First Amendment, but the publisher this time has been kept for years in various types of[Read More…]
The White House Targets Refugees, Green Card Applicants, and Poor Immigrants On September 26th, President Donald Trump’s White House announced that, in 2020, refugee admissions to the United States will be limited to 18,000, drastically lower than any yearly ceiling over the past 40 years. Along with that announcement, the White House released a separate executive order intended to upend many years of precedent[Read More…]
In December 2018, 17-year-old Palestinian teen, Ayham Sabah, was sentenced by an Israeli military court to 35 years in prison for his alleged role in a stabbing attack targeting an Israeli soldier in an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Sabah was only 14 years old when the alleged attack took place. Another alleged attacker, Omar al-Rimawi, also 14,[Read More…]
Prime Minister Boris Johnson came back from Brussels with a deal better than any Theresa May ever achieved, so he says. His talks with the departing European Commissioner, Jean-Claude Juncker, were very fruitful. But precise details are never known. Juncker, emotional about his leaving and handing over the office of EU Commissioner on 1 November to Madame Ursula von der[Read More…]
Last month, on the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, the European Parliament voted on a resolution entitled “On the Importance of European Remembrance for the Future of Europe.” The adopted document: “…Stresses that the Second World War, the most devastating war in Europe’s history, was started as an immediate result of the notorious Nazi-Soviet Treaty on Non-Aggression of 23[Read More…]
The countdown to the judgement in the nation’s 134 years old suit of Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, Faizabad, UP has begun and is certain to find its conclusion on or before November 15 as it would be the last working day before Chief Justice of India Rajan Gogoi is set to retire on November 17. The Constitution bench consists of Justice[Read More…]
Technology has revolutionized the world. Without innovating & adopting new technologies, no country in the world can make a sustained and fast economic and social advancements in a globalized world. India`s story of digitalization began when the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, introduced computer science in the country. Taking this step forward, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, launched Digital[Read More…]
Extinction Rebellion (“XR”) has hit the world stage like a flash of light with participants in more than 70 countries all within one year’s time. Its allure is simply “telling the truth” about the climate crisis… for a change. A breath of fresh air in a world filled with deceit and lies by people in positions of power. Recently, Roger[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Student protests, West Papua independence struggle, monstrous forest fires, an assassination attempt against Coordinating Minister, sinking capital city, earthquakes and a collapsing economy – the increasingly religiously fundamentalist Indonesia is suddenly facing too many disasters. It cannot cope with any of them. Nothing seems to be going well for Indonesia, these days. People in[Read More…]
Print, online and on-air news outlets on Monday joined in a concerted campaign to pressure the Australian government to soften its restrictive secrecy laws. In a rare show of unity, the Australian media published redacted front pages in a protest against press restrictions. News outlets of the News Corp Australia and Nine mastheads showed blacked-out text beside red stamps marked[Read More…]
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance The crisis in Syria has taken a new direction with the Turkish invasion into the Northeast ostensibly to push the Kurdish peoples out. The US has added to this crisis by its green light to Turkey to attack after using the Kurds as a proxy force in the battle against ISIS. The[Read More…]
On 21 October, a team of Khunti police attached the belongings of 83-year old Stan Swamy, a well-known activist of Jharkhand, from his residence at the Bagaicha campus in Namkum, near Ranchi. The police took away two tables, three chairs, one almirah and one mattress from his room. Stan was not present during this procedure. The attachment was in connection[Read More…]
That national interests determine foreign relations is the received norm and has been operating, especially under Western hegemony, forever. Hence, the inability of Western foreign relations experts to perceive of a win-win configuration of the Chinese kind in Africa and Asia. And, nothing has changed. American imperialism today, is no less about its own interests. This premise denies the possibility[Read More…]
A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which discusses himan emotions from an evolutionary perspective. The book consists mainly of book chapters and articles that I have previously published, although some new material has been added. It can be frely downloaded and circulated from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Passions-of-Mankind-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Human emotions: An evolutionary[Read More…]
“If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end”~ Bayard Rustin For people[Read More…]
A nationwide general strike has begun across Lebanon as protests aimed at ousting the government entered its fifth day. The main labor union announced the general strike. A mass revolt is continuing in the country over the last four days. Banks said they would remain closed on Monday. Schools and universities will also remain closed. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators[Read More…]
There is something profoundly deceitful in the way the Democratic Party and the corporate media are framing Donald Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria. One does not need to defend Trump’s actions or ignore the dangers posed to the Kurds, at least in the short term, by the departure of US forces from northern Syria to understand that[Read More…]
The pendency of cases in Indian courts is as high as 3.3 crore. The Indian courts are burdened to the extent that if the crisis is left unattended, it might destroy the stability of the judiciary as an institution. Alarmed by all this, the ministry of law and justice recently conducted a meeting in New Delhi in order to come[Read More…]
A Convention is being held on Telangana and Punnapra-Vayalar struggles, on October 26 (2.30 to 6.30pm) in Sahitya Academy Hall, Thrissur, Kerala. Speakers from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are scheduled to speak there. It seeks to go beyond a ritual, by reflecting on the History, Significance and Lessons of both the struggles. Thrissur Meet is being organized by a[Read More…]
Benedict Cumberbatch. Olivia Colman. Fine actors. They believe in Extinction Rebellion, or perhaps, rebelling against the prospect of extinction. The environment thing, humanity as a damnably scandalous, ecologically damaging species. But they also believe in taking sponsorship from the very same entities who are doing their best (or worst) to engage in matters of existential oblivion. So the circle of[Read More…]
My friend Marianne Goldscheider, who is 87, suffered a broken hip in July, 2018 and then, in June 2019, it happened again. When she broke her hip the first time, she was running, with her son, on a football field. After the second break, when she fell in her kitchen, she recalls her only desire as she was placed on[Read More…]
The far right is on a roll. Just a few years ago, liberals and conservatives would have considered its recent political victories a nightmare scenario. Right-wing extremists have won elections in the United States, Brazil, Hungary, India, and Poland. They pushed through the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom. In the most recent European Parliament elections, far-right parties captured the[Read More…]
“I don’t want to be the best President in the history of Bolivia, I want to be the President of the best Bolivia in history.”So proclaimed Evo Morales in a pre-election rally a few days before general elections, today, 20 October 2019. At the same time, Evo declared that ever since the Tribunal Constitucional Plurinacional (TCP–Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal) in November[Read More…]
Early this month, Donald Trump withdrew American soldiers from a Kurdish area of Syria.1 This gave Turkey a green light to cross the border and attack the Kurdish-led militias controlling the region, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF had earlier allied itself to the U.S. to drive out the reactionary Islamic fundamentalist force ISIS. In doing so, Trump came[Read More…]
MOSTAFA AFZALZADEH INTERVIEWS ANDRE VLTCHEK FOR FARHIKHTEGAN Q: Do we see an increase in the number of countries resisting the bullying of the United States and its allies? What makes this resistance happen? A: I believe that there are two main factors. The first one is the ‘moral one’: People are more and more aware of the brutality of the[Read More…]
15th August: Early Morning: After entering the premises of Srinagar airport, I must admit that my nation has been robbed of its identity, its constitution, its land and its skies. My people are caged to mourn this broad daylight robbery by putting nine hundred thousand guns at their heads. The valley has become graveyard of silence. The road is deserted.[Read More…]
a paradise weakening in the mist as the signals of light are jammed the houses smelling of local herbs boiled in the saucepans filled with water saline lanes have leaves fallen uncrunched yet ailing and roads filled with boots and barood microphones are tapped and locked in rooms painted in tricolour- all shades of saffron then azaan arrives, whispers began[Read More…]
The idea of picturising Vivekananda just as an old school master of Hindutva is where we commit the mistake. Forever it has been said that Vivekananda established the road to Hindutva just because the right wing brigade uses him to establish a monopoly over Hinduism in the name of Hindutva. The roof of Hinduism has been interpreted in a very[Read More…]
It is a historic moment for all of us to note that Jamia Millia Islamia is one of the first nationalist universities in our country which is going to complete one hundred years in 2020. To celebrate its (Jamia) centenary, several seminars, conferences, exhibitions and public meetings are scheduled to be held in the upcoming months which will be continued[Read More…]
Kashmir has been cut off from the rest of the world for more than two months now, with little certainty about what is coming next. Kashmiris living in and outside the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir remain disconnected with hardly any means to communicate with each other. Just a few days ago some mobile connectivity was restored. Terrible stories[Read More…]
“That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it,” observed Aristotle, highlighting an all-too-common human tendency. His warning is still relevant today, especially in our fight against climate change. The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, is an international framework to strengthen efforts to mitigate global warming. However, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns,[Read More…]
The following is the full text of an interview of SGI President Daisaku Ikeda by the news agency IDN-InDepthNews. In it, he shares his perspectives on the current state of nuclear disarmament and the development of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) in the days leading up to the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the[Read More…]
Modi government has recently doled out 1.45 lakh crore gift to the corporate houses[i]. For the last five years, the corporates in India in connivance with the Modi government, has been accruing financial burden to the country leaving behind the majority of the poor people to be future slaves. The Modi Government is doling out tax payers` money to the[Read More…]
Current events concerning Turkey and the Kurds in Syria remind me of a conversation I had with a US Air Force colonel almost 17 years ago in a courtroom in Des Moines. To refresh my memory, I dug deep into my closet and dusted off the transcript of the case, “STATE OF IOWA, plaintiff vs. CHRISTINE GAUNT et al.,” in[Read More…]
The only certainty in war is its intrinsic uncertainty, something Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could soon chance upon. One only has to look back on America’s topsy-turvy fortunes in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Syria for confirmation. The Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria has as its defined objective a buffer zone between the Kurds in Turkey and in Syria. Mr.[Read More…]
Savarkar petitioned the British Govt from Andaman Cellular Jail seeking pardon and promising loyalty to the Govt if released, says Justice Markendaya Katju. The Congress has thrown further light that Sawarkar had agreed with Jinnah on the two-nation theory. Documents further show that the Hindu Mahasabha of which Savarkar was a leader, joined hands with Muslim League and formed coalition[Read More…]
A general strike has been called in Catalonia on Friday, marking the end of a week of protests following the ruling of Spain’s Supreme Court on Monday. The court sentenced nine Catalan pro-independence leaders to jail for sedition. Thousands of people have joined a series of “marches for freedom”, which are set to converge in the Catalan capital on Friday.[Read More…]
BJP’s poll promise of Bharat Ratna for Savarkar, who inspired a wide spectrum of fanatic individuals and violent organisations, shows the moral vacuousness of the Hindutva project It was in the wee hours of dawn of the 21st century that renowned scholar and historian, Eric Hobsbawm, had talked about the process of “destroying the past” to “modify” it or how[Read More…]
The actual probity on any part cannot be achieved by revisiting historical accounts on pages of history books, what Champaran episode of Indian independence movement teaches us is the need of pragmatic approach and implementation of historical standards on current day sets. In foothills of Himalayas, on the contours of Nepal and India, Bihar’s largest district in terms of area[Read More…]
As the federal Election Day gets closer, the surge in popularity of New Democratic leader Jagmeet Singh following political debates is giving anxiety to the Indian establishment and its apologists within the South Asian Diaspora in Canada. The Indian state sees Singh – the first turbaned Sikh leader of any national party in Canada – as a threat to its[Read More…]
In Ecuador, the fight against IMF austerity measures is far from over. Just a few hours after my article was published on Sunday, 13 October,Ecuador – and the IMF’s Killing Spree – https://www.globalresearch.ca/ecuador-imf-killing-spree/5691857, President Lenin Moreno declared the infamous Decree 883 was canceled, i.e. the astronomical price increases for fuel were reversed, the (police) state of emergency and curfew were[Read More…]
“We are in a new era to which I do not belong,” ex-President Calvin Coolidge confided to a close friend on a cold December day in 1932 when the country and the world were already in the depths of the Great Depression. A few weeks later, he punctuated that melancholic thought by dying. Coolidge was right. Within months of his death, President[Read More…]
It is very popular these days to talk and write about the “trade war” between the United States and China. But is there really one raging? Or is it, what we are witnessing, simply a clash of political and ideological systems: one being extremely successful and optimistic, the other depressing, full of dark cynicism and nihilism? In the past, West[Read More…]
The Decent Protester, appropriately capitalised and revered is, from the outset, one who does not protest. It is an important point: to protest in the visage of such a person is an urge best left to inner fantasy and feeling. You come late to the scene: the best work and revolt has been done; the people who made the change[Read More…]
Sad years had passed when hundreds of thousands died in a senseless war. It destroyed one of the most stable countries in the Middle East. Billions of dollars were allocated to bomb Syria. According to the former foreign minister of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have paid more than two billion dollars to support terrorism, whose gangs have spread death[Read More…]
Global fight against tuberculosis (TB) is making modest gains, although largely not yet on track to end TB. 2019 Global TB Report of the World Health Organization (WHO) launched on 17 October 2019 gives hope, not despair, because sustained efforts have yielded some significant results. Only European region is on track to meet 2020 targets of 20% reduction in[Read More…]
MGNREGA( Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) this year has almost come to a standstill. While the nation is debating the economic slowdown and falling demand in the rural areas , economists emphasizing that increase in the rural income and generating resources for the poor as a potential solution to the on going crisis, the so called world’s largest[Read More…]
300 people from 80 countries and 203 civil society organisations participated in the People’s Assembly 2019 on 24-25 September in the UN Church Center in New York. There were many representatives from social movements fighting for justice at the local level. They analyzed the people’s perspectives and challenged heads of state attending the UN SDG Summit across the road in the UN[Read More…]
One of the major processes at the United Nations (UN) that gives hope for a better tomorrow where “no one is left behind” is the UN binding treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights. History is marred with examples how transnational trade and businesses kept profit over people. Domestic laws and legal frameworks failed[Read More…]
I have recently been reading and re-reading some of the important works which attempt to understand the various strands that make up the tangled strands of present-day India. In my day to day work too I have been encountering facets of the Indian state and its institutions as encountered by the women especially those marginalised in society. Their access to[Read More…]
U.S. President Donald Trump is facing troubling time in his Turkey-game. His political allies and opponents are furious. Embarrassing sounds are being heard in Washington D.C. while the Democratic leaders walked out of a meeting with Trump on Syria. Media reports from Washington D.C. said: Congressional Democrats walked out of a White House meeting on Syria Wednesday, claiming President Trump[Read More…]
The whole of the first half of October, was consumed by Chinese President Xi Jinping informal summit to India and thereafter a formal summit in Nepal, hogging the media limelight. Just ahead of his visit India had undertaken a massive military exercise on Sino-India border in Arunachal Pradesh, 100 kms from the Line of Actual Control, in an operation called[Read More…]
Extinction Rebellion, XRest. October 31, 2018,has become a powerful force across the globe, almost overnight!!! It is the fastest-growing environmental movement ever. As such, it is only too obvious that “people get it” when it comes to climate change/global warming because they’re jumping aboard like swarms of locusts. In fact, XR’s truthful exposure of the climate crisis/global warming is single-handedly[Read More…]
The call by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for elections in the Occupied Territories is a political ploy. There will be no true, democratic elections under Abbas’ leadership. The real question is: why did he make the call in the first place? On September 26, Abbas took on the world’s most important political platform, the United Nations General Assembly, to[Read More…]
Nazareth: The decades-long struggle by tens of thousands of Israelis against being uprooted from their homes – some for the second or third time – should be proof enough that Israel is not the western-style liberal democracy it claims to be. Last week 36,000 Bedouin – all of them Israeli citizens – discovered that their state is about to make[Read More…]
In early-September, the US President Donald Trump called-off the peace negotiations with the Taliban after they had carried-out a suicide car bomb attack that took several lives in Kabul, including a US soldier. The decision to call-off the negotiations came at a time when some sort of agreement was about to be reached between the USA and the Taliban. This decision[Read More…]
(Pt. 3: Education, Impoverishment and Inequality) The MIT Fall Report (https://workofthefuture.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2019-09/WorkoftheFuture_Report_Shaping_Technology_and_Institutions.pdfviews education from two perspectives as regards the condition of the working class in America. The first is as the primary factor which bifurcates the working people into an “elite” component which earns good wages and enjoys a good life, and a much poorer segment which labors but earns little. [Read More…]
by Vidya Bhushan Rawat & Prof Kevin Brown Prof Kevin Brown is an African American, who teach law at the Indiana University, US and who is inspired by Dr Ambedkar’s struggle for the untouchables and other marginalized sections of society in India. He has been a regular visitor to India bringing the African American, Hispanic, religious minorities in United States[Read More…]
Through persistent struggles, the differently abled have achieved access to crucial jobs in society. The number might be small but they have proved that ‘disability ‘ is not hindrance to performing important productive tasks in society. Significant achievement Pranjal Patil , the young woman who battled great odds to become the country’s first visually challenged woman IAS officer took over[Read More…]
Pseudo-nationalism : Venom against neighbours Modi-led NDA-1 regime Government was inaugurated in 2014 with a Neighbors First Policy, with neighbouring countries including Pakistan as the guests, and that was good. Modi had been to Pakistan unannounced, visited and greeted his family, embraced Premier Nawaj Sharif in 2015 December. However, Sangh Parivar , as part of its double talk, and a[Read More…]
The political scenario at the end of the 18th century in the Indian subcontinent was drastically different in comparison to that at the beginning of this century. The 19th century began for the people of the Indian subcontinent with the establishment of a colonial power as their ruler and this meant that the upcoming century was going to be a[Read More…]
“Sham dar sham jalenge tere yadoun ke chiragh.. Nasl dar nasl tera dard numaya hoga” – Majaz Life is battle; one has to fight it fearlessly. Fight with confidence, positive attitude, right aptitude, with determined and concentrated efforts, leads to the surest path of success and Aligarh Muslim University is the result of it which Sir Syed had achieved. Aligarh[Read More…]
In October 2019, approximately 7.5 million humans, world-wide, led by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future International Movement, marched in protest of the human-caused climate crisis that is contributing to the Anthropocene Epoch’s sixth greatest mass extinction of species in the history of the planet. Other activists, like those in the Extinction Rebellion Movement, smaller in numbers yet[Read More…]
Turkey, like much of the Middle East, is discovering that what goes around comes around. Not only because President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have miscalculated the fallout of what may prove to be a foolhardy intervention in Syria and neglected alternative options that could have strengthened Turkey’s position without sparking the ire of much of the international community.[Read More…]
You cannot get away from it, at least in print or in Google land. African swine fever is doing its rounds, cutting through the swine population of Asia with remorseless dedication. Since its deadly debut in China last year, it has done away with some 25 percent of the globe’s pig population. The symptoms are dramatic and lethal (mortality rates[Read More…]
Recently a friend who follows the news a bit less obsessively than I do said, “I thought George W. Bush was bad, but it seems like Donald Trump is even worse. What do you think?” “Well,” I replied, “in terms of causing death and destruction, I suspect Bush still has the edge.” In fact, the U.S.-led forever wars begun under the[Read More…]
“Strike with Creativity” proclaims Raytheon. Writing about his visit to the world’s largest weapons bazaar, held in London during October, Arron Merat describes reading this slogan emblazoned above Raytheon’s stall: “Strike with Creativity.” Raytheon manufactures Paveway laser-guided bombs, fragments of which have been found in the wreckage of schools, hospitals, and markets across Yemen. How can a weapons manufacturer that[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Once again, the left is rising in Latin America as people revolt against authoritarian regimes, many of whom were put in place by US-supported coups. These regimes have taken International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and are under the thumb of international finance, which is against the interests of people. After the embattled President[Read More…]
Any system is a perfect system so far as people lend their allegiance and faith to it, accept it as their destiny and grind themselves in fulfilment of it’s objective. It gets irrelevant whether the system is a law abiding one or stands in violation. The calmness of the cities and suburbs, in the wake of fascist uprising is classic.[Read More…]
According to Wikipedia, Xi Jinping, President of the People`s Republic of China, the world most influential and powerful leader, is a Bachelor of Engineering (BE), Doctor of Law (LLD) from Tsinghua University. No college or university education background of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is mentioned on the Wikipedia page. Xi Jinping having[Read More…]
In a remark made by Narendra Modi at the UNGA recently, he observed, not for the first time as a broad theme, that India was a land of peace and not a land of war, with obvious reference to Pakistan’s allegations against India’s actions in Kashmir. He reportedly said: “Hum us desh ke vaasi hain jisne vishwa ko Yuddh[Read More…]
It is glad to note that Jamia is going to complete 100 years in 2020. To celebrate one hundred years of the centenary, several seminars, programs, exhibitions are going on in Jamia campus. In this respect, different centers and departments are organizing academic programmes and cultural activities which will continue till mid- 2020. To commemorate hundred years, Department of Urdu[Read More…]
It was a very spirited anti-Fascist protest meeting on “Where is Najeeb?” at Jantar Mantar yesterday afternoon, organised by the peaceful resistance movement of United against Hate. The main speakers slated for the meeting were the brave, inspiratonal victims of hate : Najib’s mother, Nafisa-ji, and Tabrez Ansari’s wife, Gauri Lankesh’s sister and Subodh Singh’s wife. Besides, those who spoke[Read More…]
The war unleashed by Turkey’s invasion of Syria, targeting formerly US-backed Kurdish forces, escalated out of control this weekend as the Syrian army and Iran moved to counterattack. With Turkish troops and allied Al Qaeda militias advancing deep into Kurdish-held territory in Syria, the Middle East is only days away from an all-out war between the major regional powers that[Read More…]
(This is Part-1 of a two-part article, with focus on certain external policy dimensions.) While Article 370 was being discussed in Aug 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah repeatedly asserted in parliament that Farooq Abdulla (ex-CM of JK, now MP) was NOT detained or arrested. By evening it was clear that it was a lie. Farooq is still in prison,[Read More…]
Full Text issued by PM’s office after the Second Informal Summit The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi and the President of the People’s Republic of China Mr Xi Jinping held their Second Informal Summit in Chennai, India, on 11-12 October 2019. The two Leaders had an in-depth exchange of views in a friendly atmosphere on overarching, long-term[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is opening up to the world. It used to be absolutely impossible to get a visa to enter, unless you were a religious pilgrim (therefore officially a Muslim), NATO military personnel, or a businessman or woman, invited by a local company or by the Saudi government.Even if you secured[Read More…]
If U.S. greenhouse emissions are to be driven down to zero within a decade or even two, it will not be accomplished through building more solar and wind energy capacity and relying on market competition to eliminate fossil fuels from the economy. A direct, foolproof mechanism is required to drive oil, gas, and coal out of the economy, by law[Read More…]
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on climate change mitigation advocates a Carbon Tax of $75 per ton of CO2 by 2030 that, if progressively implemented in the G20 countries alone, would prevent an estimated 4 million air pollution deaths by 2030. However the effective climate change denialist Coalition Government of Australia, a G20 country that is among world leaders[Read More…]
Syrian Kurds are a distinct group and they have lived and owned their lands close to the Turkish and an Iraqi border for decades. They have been subjected to systematic discrimination. The People’s Protection Units is a mainly-Kurdish militia in northern Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The YPG mostly consists of ethnic Kurds, and also[Read More…]
“It is the first and foremost duty of all the well wishers of the country to strive for the welfare of all people irrespective of their caste or religion. For, just as human life and its health is not possible without the soundness all the organ of the body, the prosperity of a nation also is not possible without all[Read More…]
It was a massive gathering that had jolted many hearts but brought a new hope in the lives of millions who thronged the venue which today is called as ‘Deekshabhumi’, in Nagpur. The impact is so much that no other political or spiritual leader in the history of post-independence India has that much of following as of Dr Baba Saheb[Read More…]
United Nations-backed dialogue between the right wing Lenin Moreno’s government and leaders of protesting people including indigenous people’s organizations reached a deal Sunday to revoke pro-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Decree 883, end strikes across the country, and to set up a commission that will write the new document, which will replace the decree issued earlier. Indigenous groups that led the[Read More…]
For close to 40 years the IMF has weaponized its handle on the western economy through the dollar-based western monetary system, and brutally destroyed nation after nation, thereby killed hundreds of thousands of people. Indirectly, of course, as the IMF would not use traditional guns and bombs, but financial instruments that kill – they kill by famine, by economic strangulation,[Read More…]
Turkey’s military assault on the Kurdish people in Syria has already become a full-blown disaster. Horrific public executions have also been carried out amidst reports of rising death toll. Media reports said: The Turkish Defense Ministry informed Sunday that its troops have pushed 30-35km into the Kurdish-held territory in Syria, several kilometers beyond its proposed 30-km ‘safe zone.’ It[Read More…]
In India, the development has become a sacrosanct religion of which no question can be asked. Opposing environmentallydestructive developmental projects makes one antidevelopment and antinational. Being an Adivasi Right Activists for over 30 years, I haveexperienced this myself. The climate change impact is changing the narrative a bit. This can be witnessed in the support for Aarey tree felling issue[Read More…]
Australian politicians, and the consular staff of the country, are rarely that engaged on the subject of protecting their citizens. In a couple of notorious cases, Australian authorities demonstrated, not only an indifference, but a consciously venal approach to its citizens in overseas theatres. Mamdouh Ahmed Habib, a dual Australian-Egyptian national, was detained in Pakistan in October 2001 and subsequently[Read More…]
The working pattern of the RSS has been better exposed by those who were part of it once upon a time. There were many people, who were part of it and got disgruntled with its mechanism of using divisions for the ulterior purpose of maintaining the Status Quo. One of the finest critique of RSS was Dr D R Goyal[Read More…]
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Peace which begs the question, if it takes two sides to fight a war doesn’t it take two sides to make peace? Just as it takes two hands to clap it takes two to make peace and P.M. Abiy has taken pains to give credit where credit[Read More…]
“We will prevent the Israeli occupation army from raiding Area A, not with violence but with our bodies.” So said the recently appointed Prime Minister of the so-called Palestinian Authority, Dr Mohammed Shtayyeh . He went on to say, “Israel is invading the PA’s territories, and the signed agreements do not allow for such invasions.” There is a very apt[Read More…]
Donald Trump may prove to be the ultimate Brexiteer. Back in August 2016, in the midst of his presidential campaign, he proudly tweeted, “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!” On the subject of the British leaving the European Union (EU) he’s neither faltered nor wavered. That June, he was already cheering on British voters, 51.9% of whom had just opted[Read More…]
Campaigner and environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason has just written an open letter to Bayer Crop Science shareholders and Chairman of the Board Werner Wenning. She has also sent them a 13,000-word report. Mason is appealing to shareholders to put human health and nature ahead of profit and to stop funding Bayer. In her report, she sets out why shareholders should[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Happy Birthday, People’s Republic of China! Heartfelt Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday, and thank you for being here, for standing, for not bending down and never surrendering. The capitalist world is in decay. The West is rotting. Anger and nihilism are pouring from the imperialist empire whose citizens are frustrated; not at peace with themselves. Imperialist[Read More…]
When Russian President Vladimir Putin lands in Riyadh this week for the second time in 12 years, his call for endorsement of his proposal to replace the US defense umbrella in the Gulf with a multilateral security architecture is likely to rank high on his agenda. So is Mr. Putin’s push for Saudi Arabia to finalize the acquisition of[Read More…]
Whither the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party)?Let’s Still Identify with It, the Largest Political Party of Bangladesh, to Confront the Ongoing BAL (Bangladesh Awami League) Brutality on All Fronts “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” That is how the 30-yr old Prince Hamlet of Denmark is deeply and frightfully pondering over whether to continue to live a[Read More…]
The media is full of articles and videos on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of the ‘father of the nation’, Mahatma Gandhi. While there is a genuine attempt by most to recapture the teachings and path of Gandhi as relevant to contemporary India, there are those also those who are using the occasion to increase their own legitimacy.[Read More…]
“Congress party’s biggest problem is our leader Rahul Gandhi has walked away,” Khurshid told the Associated Press. “We need to know why we are in the state in which we are. Unfortunately despite our earnest pleading Rahul Gandhi decided to step down and resign from the president post. We wanted him to continue but it was his decision and we[Read More…]
Mahatma Gandhi’s spectacles are being used as an emblem for Government of India’s sanitation campaign Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Even though Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha, the ideological parent of ruling Bhartiya Janata Party, abhors Gandhi’s ideology, yet Narendra Modi has decided to use Gandhi as a symbol for his drive for cleanliness. First he knows that Gandhi is the only truly mass[Read More…]
A much bigger fight lies ahead for sensitive citizens after the brutal felling of over 2000 trees under cover of darkness in Aarey colony in Mumbai. The massacre was carried out for the Metro rail project on October 4 and 5. The Metro project may provide a fast ride when it finally comes up but this may be at[Read More…]
On the special occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, an exhibition has been organized by Dr. Zakir Husain Library (from 2 October to 12th October), in Jamia Millia Islam. On this occasion, several books and photographs and manuscripts related to Gandhi works, life, contributions and his positive role towards Jamia including Indian Muslims has been displayed for[Read More…]
Dr. RM Pal (July 17, 1927 – October 13, 2015) Dr. RM Pal was the principal of the Rajdhani College in Delhi who actively worked with the human rights organization People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), gave lectures on secularism and issue of Dalits and minorities at various government institutions including police academy and other such places. He was an[Read More…]
Dear Sisters, I am…I could be Subaida, Shameema, Khurshida…I could be living in any of the districts of Pulvama, Shopiyan or Bandipura…but I am the woman, one of the tens of thousands of women living in Kashmir. Mine was a quiet life with a security and safety many of you might not even dream of. Yes, the picture postcard beauty[Read More…]
The eighteenth century was the start of the end of civilisation. That was due to burning fossil fuels to power society’s energy needs instead of using muscle, and renewable power. Now our end is near and we are speeding it up. Our hopes are fading as fast as we try to grow our economy. So we flutter about in the[Read More…]
Violence is pervasive throughout human society and it has a vast range of manifestations. Moreover, some of these manifestations – particularly the threat of nuclear war (which might start regionally), the climate catastrophe and the ongoing ecological devastation, as well as geoengineering and the deployment of 5G – threaten imminent human extinction if not contained. Separately from these extinction-threatening[Read More…]
For the better part of a century, the United States could claim the moral high ground despite allegations of hypocrisy because its policies continuously contradicted its proclaimed propagation of democracy and human rights. Under President Donald J. Trump, the US has lost that moral high ground. This week’s US sanctioning of 28 Chinese government entities and companies for their[Read More…]
There are numbers for everything these days, and as President Trump makes clear often enough his favorite number is 1. But then in the wealth number categories, he really would not want to be assigned a 1 — such a low number signals poverty. He doesn’t quite make a 10, but he can join his kind, like Silvio Berlusconi with[Read More…]
The Swedish Nobel Committee is simply trying to Whitewash Serb genocide against the Bosnians and rehabilitate these Nazis and their Nazi supporters like Handke. Notice that his father and step-father both “served” in Hitler’s Wehrmacht that was exterminating innocent people all over Europe and North Africa. Like fathers, like son. This Nobel Prize in Literature comes out of Sweden. And[Read More…]
He was tired that night A long day; Work can grind And of course there’s more Smart, Black, numbers in his head He liked Ice Cream Soothed by the TV Feet up A long day; Home at last; refuge Young man; career ahead; ambitious What was tomorrow going to hold? Smooth, creamy, buttery Late night sweet snack A long day;[Read More…]
Every year, India celebrates 2nd October in shape of the birth anniversary of the two great personalities – Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri – who have an irrefutable contribution to the independence of our country from colonial power. We often less remind the birth anniversary of Shri Lal Bahadur as this date is profoundly chosen to remind our beloved[Read More…]
What does the Valmiki Ramayana tell us about Non-Vegetarianism of its protagonist and deuteragonists? “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” ~George Orwell (Ninteen Eighty-four) The Rāmāyana is the world’s second longest poetic composition, after another Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata. The mythological epic poem narrates[Read More…]
The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in recent Vijay Dashami speech pointed out that ‘Lynching’ is a ‘Western concept’ and alien to India. It has its origins in Bible and that ‘lynching’ is being used to defame India. He was in a denial mode for the criticism being raised on incidents of ‘lynchings’ in India. It does not really matter whether[Read More…]
“the wound of possibility” Soren Kierkegaard Earth is our home; Earth is our origin. There is not now any more than there has ever been a single, sane human being who can or could have claimed otherwise. Over billions of years, Earth has been in the process of evolving into a robust, living planet—a life place, abundant with intricate interweavers[Read More…]
Global warming is on speed, especially in northern latitudes where an international team of scientists led by Igor Semiletov of Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia’s oldest technical institution, recently made a startling discovery aboard the Academic Mstislav Keldysh (see photo above), the kind of discovery that sends chills down the spine, i.e., “methane bubbles boiling in water.” According to Semiletov: “This[Read More…]
When the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three scientists who developed lithium-ion batteries, it noted the importance of their research in making “a fossil fuel-free world possible,” with electric vehicles and renewable energy storage helping cut emissions that drive climate change. The great twist in the story is that the Nobel recipient[Read More…]
The speech by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supremo Mohan Bhagwat on its foundation day (Dusshera) has now become an event, watched with interest. The speech itself has a long tradition within the organisation, which all its affiliated (anushangik) bodies look upon as a guiding light. This year was no different. Donning the Sangh’s uniform, the top echelons of its organisations[Read More…]
Another Bill that gives more powers to bureaucrats at the Centre over interstate river basins is going to become law. Here the Chief Ministers of States of 13 river basins will advise. Another Bill that gives more powers to bureaucrats at the Centre over interstate river basins is going to become law. Here the Chief Ministers of States of 13[Read More…]
With the entry of Modi government at the center in 2014, BJP leaders claim that ‘New India’ under the leadership of Modi has emerged. Through event management, the Modi government has been selling dreams to the poor Indian citizens. Statics reveal that the way this New India has been emerging, no doubt, is quite alarming. Prime[Read More…]
Despite all the cringing efforts made by our newly appointed foreign minister S. Jaishankar to cajole the UN and the European Community to fall in line with the Modi government’s claim that developments in Kashmir are India’s `internal affair’, the exposure of the horrid happenings in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley through the international media is making Modi [Read More…]
What hides underneath all those layers? The layers you got padded with since birth? The layers you did not get to choose But accept without questioning The unwarranted layers You feel comforted in The layers You think Define you Your identity Your being Your existence Peel away the layers My friend Peel Layer After layer Until You emerge To yourself[Read More…]
Normandy Format for Russia – Donbas – Ukraine Conflict Resolution Re-activated. Serious Negotiations Still Needed. For the first time in several years, there are realistic possibilities for a negotiated settlement of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine between the Ukrainian government and separatist forces backed by the Russian Federation in which an estimated 13,000 persons have been killed The Normandy[Read More…]
Pakistan on Monday (Oct 7) established the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority to speed up the delayed projects as Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Beijing The establishment of CPEC Authority was aimed at accelerating the pace of CPEC related activities. Multi-billion dollar CPEC was launched in 2015 and several projects under the first phase are close to completion.[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Hong Kong is losing to Mainland China. Its poverty rates are high, it suffers from corruption and savage capitalism.It is now the most expensive city on earth. People are frustrated, but paradoxically, they are blaming socialist Beijing for their problems, instead of the legacy of British colonialism. ‘Across the line’, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Xiang and[Read More…]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched “Operation Peace Spring” – aggression against the Kurdish people in northeastern Syria. The Turkish attack was greenlighted by a U.S. announcement of withdrawal from northeast Syria after a phone call between Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) warned in a statement Wednesday that Turkey’s assault[Read More…]
GOMA, North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo — The boy was sitting next to his father, as he so often did. He mimicked his dad in every way. He wanted to be just like him, but Muhindo Maronga Godfroid, then a 31-year-old primary school teacher and farmer, had bigger plans for his two-and-a-half-year-old son. He would go to university[Read More…]
The popularity of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which present female role models before young readers, has proved rather phenomenal. Within a span of three years, it has been published in 47 languages around the world and has sold more than a million copies. The plan to render a Turkish version has met with a big roadblock. A board for[Read More…]
Bethesda, Maryland, Sunday, October 6, 2019 — The Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Society of Washington (JIDS) organized an open dialogue titled, “If You Could Make a Plea, What Would it Be?” The First topic was about Israel and Palestine Conflict – presented by three speakers; Hal Kassoff, Kay Halpern, and Dan Spiro. The second topic was about the Kashmir Conflict – Presented[Read More…]
The controversial issue of custodial death is not a recent phenomenon and it is not limited to any particular country. In India for that matter in the north eastern state of Manipur, many people including innocent ones have lost their lives due to custodial atrocities like rampant use of third degree torture methods by police during interrogation as a[Read More…]
A National Alliance of People’s Movements delegation was detained at Srinagar airport on the morning of 4th October, 2019 by the District administration of Badgam and then sent back to Delhi. Individual notices in the name of three activists issued by District Magistrate of Badgam say that there was an apprehension that these activists would organise a protest in Srinagar[Read More…]
It remains one of the more unusual arrangements in terms of funding. Like a club filled with members of erratic disposition, the United Nations can never count on all dues to come in on time. Some members drag their feet. The bill is often delayed. In the United States, responsible for some 22 percent for the operating budget of the[Read More…]
On August 20, Heba Ahmed al-Labadi fell into the dark hole of the Israeli legal system, joining 413 Palestinian prisoners who are currently held in so-called administrative detention. On September 26, Heba and seven other prisoners declared a hunger strike to protest their unlawful detention and horrific conditions in Israeli prisons. Among the prisoners is Ahmed Ghannam, 42, from the[Read More…]
The globalised industrial food system that transnational agri-food conglomerates promote is failing to feed the world. It is responsible for some of the planet’s most pressing political, social and environmental crises. Whether it involves the undermining or destruction of what were once largely self-sufficient agrarian economies in Africa or the devastating impacts of soy cultivation in Argentina, localised, traditional methods of food production have given way[Read More…]
Presented here is a short list of some of the most ridiculous statements, absolute gems really, from some of the hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President. These are all either verbatim quotes from speeches, interviews, or official Twitter posts from the candidates. After I was initially rendered catatonic by examining the collective ignorance, I got it together to[Read More…]
From the time of Donald Trump’s election, American elites have hungered for this moment. At long last, they have the 45th president of the United States cornered. In typically ham-handed fashion, Trump has given his adversaries the very means to destroy him politically. They will not waste the opportunity. Impeachment now—finally, some will say—qualifies as a virtual certainty. No doubt[Read More…]
13-14th Aug 2019: Midnight: Sitting beside the bed of an old patient in SMHS hospital is not easy when everything seems to have been made to collapse as a “collective punishment” to eight million people of Kashmir on 5th august by a mere government order. This old and lifeless patient is on his own and in severe pain. His eyes[Read More…]
Co-Written by Meena Miriam Yust and Arshad M. Khan The emaciated polar bear, a sorry remnant of magnificence, raiding garbage cans in an iconic, even infamous photo, is one consequence of global warming. As the September (2019) National Geographic cover story displays depressingly, Arctic ice collected over winter is sparser, thinner, and now disappears completely during summer in parts of Canada. If[Read More…]
From political speech to social media tirades, for half a decade or more now, the use of rude language, gestures and threats has become ubiquitous around the globe. The complete absence of politeness – along with (or because of) growing economic woes, political turmoil and ecological destruction – seems to be the chief characteristic of our times. Politeness emerged in[Read More…]
Amid widespread demonstrations by people, clashes with riot police, and general strike by transport workers over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dictated neo-liberal measures, protesters stormed Ecuador’s parliament building in Quito, the capital city. Thousands of people are demonstrating in the capital city over the last seven days to protest against the neoliberal economic measures, particularly elimination of state fuel[Read More…]
Big powers, as with the greatest of gangsters, have always had a certain, indulgent luxury; their prerogative is to make promises they can choose to abide by or ignore. A vision is assured, guarantees made. Then comes the betrayal. The small powers, often pimped in the process, can only deal with the violent consequences. The United States has gone the[Read More…]
There’s a déjà vu feeling to this year’s wave of protests across the Arab world. It’s not that this year saw the toppling of the leaders of Algeria and Sudan as a result of popular revolts, a harking back to the 2011 protests that overthrew the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. It’s that it’s the protesters in Iraq,[Read More…]
Americans don’t do it voluntarily, but mainly because they don’t understand the way the U.S. system works. Part of that is the nation’s legal system; part of it isn’t, but is instead international. Regardless of whether or not today’s United States is a democracy, our legal system possesses two features that make corruption especially difficult to prosecute to conviction, and[Read More…]
Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) honoured renowned documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan in Vancouver on Monday, October 7. Patwardhan was presented with the Radical Desi medal of courage for making powerful documentaries challenging the state power and reactionary forces. He was here in connection with the screening of his latest documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). Reason is[Read More…]
One of the greatest physicists that the world has ever witnessed was Sir Issac Newton. Many of us have a presumption that the theories established by this genius are applicable only in the world of physics, but the truth is, his laws even have a major impact on the functioning of the society we reside on. Newton during his lifetime,established[Read More…]
The nation’s longest case of Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, Faizabad, UP is now to be heard for only four days more, after Dusherra holidays, from October 14 to October 17 and then it would be curtains down, as finally the judgement over it would come on or before November 17, as Chief Justice of India Rajan Gogoi superannuates on that day. [Read More…]
According to state-run Syrian news agency SANA, Turkish forces launched airstrikes against Kurdish and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions in al-Hasakah province in northeastern Syria. According to Saudi broadcaster al-Ikhbariya, Turkish planes attacked SDF headquarters in Hasakah province. Other reports suggest Turkey targeted the Kurdish YPG militia. Videos circulating on social media appear to show Turkish forces targeting Kurdish troops near[Read More…]
A little more than one year ago, I wrote a post titled “Why, in a Few Years, Nobody Will be Talking About Climate Change Anymore.” It turned out that I was completely wrong: Greta Thunberg changed everything. My mistake was the typical one we all make when we try to predict the future. As I tend to say, “the surest[Read More…]
An outside view from the Palestinian Camps of Lebanon raises troubling questions: who and what is driving injustice and conflict. Every time I return from visiting Palestinian refugee camps dispersed throughout Lebanon, I’m haunted by the monumental suffering that has been systematically imposed on the twelve million Palestinians. There are between 5-6 million Palestinians in exile;, and 6 million under[Read More…]
Whom exactly does Amit Shah want to impose the learning of Hindi on in south India and the northeast? Clearly, this proposal is only applicable to poor children in villages who study at government schools. A few days ago, I was giving lectures around the Silicon Valley in California. The IT hub of the world, the Silicon Valley is the[Read More…]
Monday, Oct. 7. marks the start of what the British-based group Extinction Rebellion is calling the International Rebellion. Thousands of people will occupy the centers of some 60 cities around the globe, including Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris and New York, to stage nonviolent occupations of bridges and roads for at least a week. The goal is to paralyze commerce to force the[Read More…]
Protests against unemployment, poor public services and corruption in Iraq have seen blood over the last few days. The death toll from anti-government protests in Iraq is at least 104. A total of 540 protesters have been arrested, of whom nearly 200 remain in custody, the human rights commission said. More than 6,000 people have been wounded, according to the[Read More…]
When the compromised speak of judgment, the voice of credibility vanishes. In its place, a certain niggling sense of hypocrisy and weakness prevails. Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell is one of those of those compromised voices. He presided over a redundant State Department before the pressures of the Pentagon and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, keen to initiate[Read More…]
“The New Enlightenment. On Steven Pinker & beyond” by Brian Ellis argues that the 17th century onwards Enlightenment that replaced superstition, dogma, subjugation and subservience with science, reason, freedom and human rights has led to huge improvements in the human condition, but that human rights must be accompanied by human social obligations and that a New Enlightenment is urgently needed[Read More…]
In November, Seattleites will vote again on the constitution of their City Council. Few cities in the United States, likely, will witness the same level of intensity and acrimony regarding what many outside this particular city will no doubt deem “just a local” issue. Most closely watched will be the elections for Seattle’s District Three, in which Kshama Sawant[Read More…]
In September 2019, facing everyday dangers of the war and under constant pressure to view those from other tribes as enemies, young people from each of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces gathered for a three day “On the Road to Peace” conference in Kabul. 30th September 2019 / 8th Mezan 1398 Despite the violent crises which we human beings have created for[Read More…]
With war and peace hanging in the balance, tensions in the Gulf are running hot and cold. Saudi and Iranian leaders are this week walking back from the brink, signalling that they want to avoid outright military confrontation and manage rather than resolve differences. In fact, there is every reason to believe that neither Riyadh nor Tehran has a[Read More…]
While the European family seems to be having its internal spats – populist sparks within threatening to light the powder keg – the marshals and deputies, for the most part, are attempting to contain the British contagion. Britain is still scheduled to leave on October 31 without a deal with the European Union. The divorce papers remain unimplemented, and the[Read More…]
What could it be if not the chill of the Autumn air and the thought of winter — some people love it of course with its winter sports even if only on TV. Whatever the reason, we have simultaneous challenges to legislatures on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, with the thorny Brexit issue to be resolved, Boris[Read More…]
South Asian activists came together to show solidarity with the people of Kashmir at a rally organized by Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) in Surrey on Saturday, October 5. The Indian-occupied Kashmir remains under siege since August 5. This week marks two months of the blockade. The participants at the rally carried placards in support of the people of[Read More…]
With ever increasing onslaught from the internet, electronic media and urban lifestyles, many critics have started voicing their worries about whether Literature, in its written form, is becoming more and more obsolete and dying. Death pronouncements about Literature have been made several times and they continue to be made whenever writers start forecasting and start expressing anxiety about their irrelevance[Read More…]
(This is a fictional scene with no direct or indirect relation with persons living or dead. Any name or scene is utterly co-incidental. The purpose of this poem is to reflect a segment of the society.) So, the sheep-head citizens- You’re here today. Welcome. Have a seat- Like you’ve for decades now. Make yourself comfortable. I know. I know. Nothing[Read More…]
The little boy smiled charmingly through the evening just before the surgery.His young parents were dumb with fear about the impending operation the next day when his tiny pelvic girdle would be realigned to enable his almost atrophied limbs to move. With bright lovely eyes that focussed on your face and an ever willing capacity to smile and respond, he[Read More…]
Nothing is so prized in politics as a short public memory. As India and the world mark the 150thbirth anniversary of Gandhi and world leaders ply us with the usual platitudes about the greatness of the Mahatma and his teachings, it’s extraordinary how anachronistic the man deified as the ‘Father of the nation’ has become in today’s India. And those[Read More…]
International diplomacy, corporate diplomacy, and economic diplomacy, public diplomacy need special experts who can envision a strong & stable future for a country in the forthcoming centuries. International relationship largely rests on trade & commerce. Cross (2007) argues that diplomacy is a process that individuals engage in. It is a known fact that International diplomacy is quid pro quo, not a[Read More…]
Amid rising tension over Kashmir between the two nuclear neighbors, India and Pakistan, a new US study examines how such an hypothetical future nuclear conflict would have consequences that could ripple across the globe. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could, over the span of less than a week, kill 50 to 125 million people that is more than[Read More…]
“The Return. Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between” by Hisham Matar is a beautifully written and moving account by an expatriate Libyan writer of his over 2 decade search to find out what happened to his father, Jaballa Matar, a leading opponent and a secret political prisoner of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. However there are some surprising total[Read More…]
The Little Green Women and Men (LGWM) are us, humanoids, especially those living in the west, believing we command Mother Earth. Well, no wonder, there is a group among us, who claims to be “God’s Chosen People” – and they act it all the way. So much so, that they and their influence on LGWMs, have almost managed to dominate[Read More…]
I just returned from New York. While there I attended lectures at the Museum of Natural History by two noted Climatologists; Katherine Hayhoe and Cynthia Scharf. Greta Thunberg was at the UN for the UN Climate Summit. Every word of her presentation was prescient. Deadly irreversible tipping points are approaching us. They could lead to our extinction. This was confirmed[Read More…]
1) Democracies often behave like little children: reluctant to take their medicine—unless irrationally coerced. 2) A democracy’s great weakness is its vanity. The people’s vanity. A mortally dangerous tendency that is constantly in need of assurances that it is the world that is at fault rather than it. 3) In a democracy, it is often the most unpopular president or[Read More…]
The question put above should not surprise anybody who is informed about the state of the world today. In the past, other civilizations have collapsed or withered away. So our civilization too may not be able to avoid that fate. Currently, this possibility is being associated with global warming,1 But even earlier, the end of the current civilization was speculated on[Read More…]
The United Kingdom government has rejected calls from MPs to stop spending billions on overseas fossil fuel projects. The UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) had warned that Britain is sabotaging its climate credentials by paying out “unacceptably high” oil and gas subsidies in developing countries. But UK’s international trade secretary Liz Truss shunned the cross-party group’s recommendation that investment in fossil[Read More…]
During the era of Sovietology, experts would pour over images of the gathered politburo in Red Square, gazing with grey monolithic interest upon the military hardware moving across the forum. An absent figure might suggest a potential coup; a new face, a sinister reshuffle. A wink, a smile, a glare, a compendium of bodily moves that might shed light on[Read More…]
Turkey has an ambitious plan to settle two million displaced Syrians in a 30 kilometer wide safe zone in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyi Erdogan unveiled the plan at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly last month. “Our aim is to settle 2 million Syrians, with the support of the international community, by providing a peace[Read More…]
(Pt. 2: The Repercussions of the Destruction of Organized Labor in America) Like the aftereffects of a nuclear bomb, repercussions from the decimation of organized labor in The United States, would spread across the land. While undeniably, the development of technology defines the conditions of the working class and revolutionizes society as a whole, equally undeniable is the fact that[Read More…]
The new generation of “pro-Western heroes” and “saints” is clearly failing to impress the world. Juan Guaido and Joshua Wong are definitely as right-wing as Mother Teresa was, but not as “credible”. * A long time ago I visited a place in Calcutta, India, where Mother Teresa used to operate.According to the Catholic Church and Western propaganda apparatus, she[Read More…]
The hangman brought the noose Near an erect neck of a prisoner I must apologise to you,’ whispered the hangmanI am only doing a job for the survival of my family.’ `Execution has been my family occupation for generations The reason is unknown to me Why I should kill and who I should kill. You are only a subject in[Read More…]
Sections of students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University protested on Thursday opposing a lecture titled Abrogation of Article 370: Peace, Stability and Development in Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh to be delivered by Union Minister Jitendra Singh. Heated arguments escalated when some members of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) barged-in on the spot where the students protesting the minister were standing[Read More…]
Okay, I’ll admit it. Sometimes I can’t take the bad news. It’s too much. It’s so extra, as the kids like to say. When I hit that wall of hopelessness and anxiety so many of us have become familiar with, I take what I think of as a “kid break.” I stare into the faces of my three children seeking[Read More…]
In the end, Joker remains a laughter-free, irony-free, subtle-as-a-sledgehammer disappointment, partly redeemed by an Oscar worthy performance from Joaquin Phoenix. I wanted to like Joker. I became a fan of all things Batman in middle school, when Batman: The Animated series was on reruns in India. Christopher Nolan’s masterful Batman trilogy sent me to the source material: the comics. [Read More…]
The reasons why the Green New Deal won’t really work are fairly subtle. A person really has to look into the details to see what goes wrong. In this post, I try to explain at least a few of the issues involved. [1] None of the new renewables can easily be relied upon to produce enough energy in winter. The[Read More…]
On September 16, I visited South Africa, a country where many Palestinians have always felt welcomed, if not overwhelmed by the degree of genuine and meaningful solidarity. While having the honor to address many audiences in six, major cities, I have also learned a great deal. An important and sobering lesson is that while apartheid laws can be dismissed in[Read More…]
Nazareth: It would be a grave mistake to assume that the continuing political deadlock in Israel – with neither incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main rival Benny Gantz seemingly able to cobble together a coalition government – is evidence of a deep ideological divide. In political terms, there is nothing divided about Israel. In this month’s general election,[Read More…]
INTRODUCTION The Soviet Union contributed more than did any other nation to the defeats of Germany and Japan in World War II , but America and Britain together defeated Italy. Many prominent Western ‘historians’ white-out the Soviet roles in defeating Hitler and especially Hirohito, and they overstate the importance of America’s victories to the ultimate outcome, and ignore or underplay[Read More…]
People’s Union for Democratic Rights(PUDR) today released its report on deaths of workers in Delhi while cleaning sewers/septic tanks over the last two years, titled “Chronic ‘Accidents’: Deaths of Sewer/Septic Tank Workers, Delhi, 2017-2019.” The release marks the occasion of the declared ‘target’ year for the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan (campaign) on 2 October 2019, coinciding with the 150th birth anniversary[Read More…]
Mohan Das Karmchand Gandhi would have turned 150 yesterday. The entire nation is celebrating his birthday. There was an edit page article by Narendra Damodar Das Modi on Gandhi in the New York Times whose cover page ironically showed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. His home minister who was in West Bengal warned that all the ‘infiltrators’ i.e. Muslims[Read More…]
The ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston was an eye catcher for more reasons than one. While Modi was saying ‘All is Well’ in India, thousands of protestors outside were showing the real mirror to state of affairs in India. At the same time Donald Trump, US president, while on one hand due to face the process of impeachment, on the[Read More…]
by John Bellamy Foster and Farooque Chowdhury [The following interview of Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster, completed on August 5, 2019, was conducted by Farooque Chowdhury for Kolkata’s famous socialist weekly Frontier and has appeared this month in their special Autumn issue. It was thus originally intended for a non-U.S. audience. Monthly Review is publishing it as well because[Read More…]
Hong Kong police have seized weapons, armor and materials used to create Molotov cocktails, which the police said belonged to some extremist groups among the protesters labeled ‘pro-democracy’ by western media. The police arrested 51 people, including seven women, aged between 15 and 44, and charged them with crimes related to the rioting. At about 4 p.m. Tuesday, a large[Read More…]
Earlier, this week, the Reserve Bank of India( RBI ) , ordered that the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative ( PMC) Bank must stop doing business for the next six months. RBI’s order stated that depositors can withdraw only 1000 rupees or less every six months from the PMC bank. The fact, that deposits of up to 1 lakh are protected[Read More…]
Yesterday (1 October 2019) I had the opportunity to share a car ride with Virendra Kumar Barnwal who is the author of ‘Hind Swaraj: Nav-Sabhyata Vimarsh’. We both were en route to the South Campus of Delhi University where he was invited to address the audience on the topic ‘Gandhi and literature’. On the way the discussion inter-alia turned towards[Read More…]
The PIL Watch Group views with concern the developments unfolding in judiciary – and not just on Kashmir issue. In the case of Gautam Navlakha’s bail plea which is being heard in the Supreme Court the entire bench of three judges recused itself on 01.10.2019. The order as uploaded on Supreme Court’s official website reads: “List on 03.10.2019 before a[Read More…]
It was a pleasant surprise last week to come across a news report about the findings of a survey done by what was described as a ‘RSS think tank’ on the status of women in India. Besides claiming that married women and women who seek spiritual help are happier than others, it also acknowledged that employment was found to be[Read More…]
Hypersonic weapons close in on their targets at a minimum speed of Mach 5, five times the speed of sound or 3,836.4 miles an hour. They are among the latest entrants in an arms competition that has embroiled the United States for generations, first with the Soviet Union, today with China and Russia. Pentagon officials tout the potential of such[Read More…]
When the squalid, absurd and occasionally hilarious accounts are compiled by a sober mind, the Trump administration will stand out as much gargoyle with more than a touch of paranoia. But there will be one thing that might save the man who has given an era his name: The fact that there were those out to get him from the[Read More…]
We need solidarity to face future stress Stress can produce conflict. For example shortages of food or water can lead to regional wars. But wars only make original problems worse. Today the world is facing a number of severe problems, and solidarity will be needed to minimize the suffering with which we and future generations are threatened. The problems include[Read More…]
Despite the furor over the Green New Deal (GND), many of its supporters have no idea of the wide variety of views on it, especially within the Green Party (GP), where it originated in the US. From June through August, 2019 Missouri Greens held public discussions contrasting at least three distinct GP views to those from the Democratic Party (DP).[Read More…]
Speaking for Israel – A Speechwriter Battle’s Anti-Israeli Opinions at the United Nations. Aviva Klompas. Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2019. I expected much more from a book speaking for Israel, something to truly engage the mind and require some concerted thought. Unfortunately I was disappointed and found myself reading one person’s personal journal about endless speechwriting written and using only[Read More…]
by Anurag Bhaskar and Sandeep Pandey The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) is considered to be one of the most reputed academic institutes of the country. IIMs are the most sought after institutions by students trying to get admission into a two year management programme. Among the several IIMs, IIM Ahmedabad has developed itself into a very fine institution with evolved[Read More…]
Today on the occasions of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Jamia Millia Islam has organized a public meeting on the theme of, “Gandhi- his life, work and contribution to society”. On this special occasion, several eminent academicians and renounced Gandhians and social activists have expressed deep solidarity and affections towards Gandhi’s contributions and underlined that in today’s political and[Read More…]
In Mahatma Gandhi’s lifetime climate change or threat to environment was not yet a perceived problem. Therefore it is no surprise that there is no explicit mention of it in Gandhi’s concerns. Yet his entire worldview was environment friendly. Protection of environment or non-destruction of nature was in-built in his philosophy. He expected his most ardent followers, especially the ones[Read More…]
During one week in late September, U.S.-led forces killed at least 70 civilians in two incidents in Afghanistan. A U.S. drone strike on September 19th killed at least 30 farmers harvesting pine nuts in Nangarhar province. Then on September 23rd, at least 40 civilians, including women and children, were reported killed in a combined U.S.-Afghan attack on a village in Taliban-controlled territory[Read More…]
13th August 2019…( Day after Eid): No sooner had the Sun turned into the red balloon over the horizon there is a knock at my main gate. The lane is dark; my neighbours prefer dark lanes so that they can watch the outside shadows through their windowpanes. I turn the lights off, withdraw curtain of my windowpane to see who[Read More…]
Much ink has been spilt in textbooks describing situations where autocratic states can behave badly. They abuse rights; they ignore international law and they ride roughshod over conventions. Liberal democracies may boast that they follow matters to the letter of the law, and make sure that citizens are given their fair and just cause in putting forth their cases. The[Read More…]
In a world where natural resources are getting depleted and emissions from pollution are being produced faster than the blink of an eye, citizens and bureaucrats are pitting against each other to save the environment. While citizens adopt conservation and ancient wisdom to save the environment, bureaucrats adopt creating an infrastructure to save the environment. One thing common in the[Read More…]
With incessant monsoon rains, wreaking havoc parts of India, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states are reeling under floods over the past few days. The country has received highest ever rainfall recorded in last 25 years, and Mumbai has broken 61-year record. The Indian Meteorological Society (IMS), a non-profit organization, said the ongoing deluge will ensure this September will be the wettest in[Read More…]
As a writer and human being this one continues to reflect upon what all lies behind the climate crisis protests of the past and his recently generated article “Tackling the Forces Crushing the Planet” (https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/262498430/tackling-the-forces-crushing-the-planet). Especially when it comes to just how hopelessly out-of-touch many of the politicians of the world still are today, in 2019, about the climate crisis[Read More…]
Is it possible to speak of social justice and democracy without talking about the privileges of those who have looted the resources as well as exploited the social system and provided it ‘divine’ sanctity to justify the caste discrimination. I have found this biggest challenge in India from those who claim to fight for the ‘poor’. Now we should all[Read More…]
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 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
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…]
