On November 9th 2019, 19 year old Fathima Latheef, a first year topper student of IIT-Madras, committed suicide citing harassment by Prof. Sudarshan Padmanabhan in a note left behind on her cell phone. This is the fifth suicide on the campus of the elite institution this year with Fathima being victim to not just institutional casteism but anti-muslim harassment from[Read More…]
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi declared on Friday that he will resign in the wake of the bloodiest day yet in two months of mass protests against social inequality, mass unemployment, the failure of basic public services and rampant corruption. “I will submit to the esteemed parliament a formal letter requesting my resignation from the premiership,” he said. While[Read More…]
Co-Written by Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer and Angela Valenzuela After more than a year of grim scientific projections and growing activism, world leaders, and the public alike are increasingly recognizing the severity and urgency of the climate crisis. And yet nothing has been done. For more than a year, children and young people from around the world have been striking[Read More…]
An official communication from the office of the Vice- Chancellor, University of Delhi dated 28th August, 2019 has put the teaching career of more than 4500 ad-hoc teachers in jeopardy. The letter directs all DU colleges to appoint only guest faculty, instead of ad-hoc faculty as has been the norm in DU since 1990s, from academic session 2019-20 in case[Read More…]
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to stay construction of the Metro rail car shed at the controversial Aarey forest site in Mumbai needs to be seen in the proper perspective. The point is people are not against development, they are against an insensitive system riding rough shod over them. The point is people are seeing through the one size fits[Read More…]
Modern day Odisha is known to be the ‘epicenter’ of Brahmanism as the socio-cultural-economic dominance of the brahmanical castes in Odisha is complete. One wonders as what happened to it and why Odisha, once the hub of Buddhist activities and culture completely lost to it. I am sure a fair analysis of history need to be done in the greater[Read More…]
Every October as the rains recede, Delhi prepares to choke on poisoned air which peaks for 3 months from around Deepawali. This year the Delhi Government even asked public for suggestions on how to cope with these recurrent foul air episodes, which was particularly bad this year. PM2.5 (particulate matter below 2.5 microns in diameter) concentrations, a good surrogate for[Read More…]
Generally, international days are to celebrate or remember special events or achievements of humanity. These occasions can give understandings about the day and educate the international community on specific issues. It can also help to invite international attention and to mobilise political will to address global issues. By creating special observances, the United Nations Organisations (UNO) promotes general awareness and[Read More…]
Alex Lo is one of my favorite journalists; he writes for one of my favorite non-left newspapers, “The South China Morning Post.” This morning he wrote a piece, which while merely stating the obvious, does so with remarkable clarity and understated eloquence. The title of his article: “The United States is once again selective in caring about rights.” He opens[Read More…]
(Includes a meal brought to you by Discomfort Foods) I’ve been living on Custer Street in Salina, Kansas since the day I moved to the United States from India in 2000. At that time I had no idea who General George Armstrong Custer was and what he had stood for. Now I do. On Thanksgiving Day I was in my[Read More…]
Turkey, the increasingly wayward NATO member, has been making more national and international headlines than usual. On Oct. 29, for instance, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed (405-11) Resolution 296. It recognized the Armenian, Assyrian, Greek, and other Christian genocides committed by Turkey. A contentious, widely criticized White House meeting involving President Trump, Turkey’s autocratic President Erdogan, and Republican[Read More…]
Academician, writer and social activist Zaheer Ali in Conversation with SubhashGatade about his latest book ‘Romancing With Revolution : Life and Works of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’ (Aakar Books, Delhi, 2019) and why Faiz is ‘ extremely relevant in today’s India’ This is the hour of madness, this too the hour of chain and noose You may hold the cage in[Read More…]
Iraqis are mourning 60 protesters killed by police and soldiers on Thursday in Baghdad, Najaf and Nasiriyah. Nearly 400 protesters have been killed since hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets at the beginning of October. Human rights groups have described the crisis in Iraq as a “bloodbath,” Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi has announced he will resign, and Sweden has opened an investigation against Iraqi Defense[Read More…]
A rapid and deep decarbonization of power supply worldwide is required to limit global warming to well below 2 °C. Beyond greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the power sector is also responsible for numerous other environmental impacts. An international team of scientists in their study has found this. Producing electricity in a climate-friendly brings huge benefits for our health – mainly due[Read More…]
As reported by Mainstream media, on 21 November 2019 the Australian Coalition PM, Scott Morrison, accepted the Australian Zionist Jerusalem Prize. The extremist Coalition Australian Government and most of the cowardly Labor Opposition fervently support Zionism and nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, serial war criminal and democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. Ignored by Mainstream media, on 22 November 2019 anti-racist Jewish Australian writer[Read More…]
Imagine this rather typical SF scenario: alien invaders arrive on Earth. They are vastly superior in intelligence, technology, and most importantly, ethics. They quickly perceive that Earthlings are a dire mortal threat to the Earth’s biosphere. They reason that they must take decisive action soon, or else the Earth will meet its biological death. What are they to do? First,[Read More…]
Let me begin by saying that whenever people rise up against the powers that be, which in modern times are primarily capitalist and liberal democratic, it reflects well on the people: it bespeaks their courage, their social sense of self, their feelings of unity and of power and hence the actual power of their unity. Without question, the resistance of[Read More…]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday (Nov 28) limited the three years extension in the term of Army Chief of Staff General (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa to six month. A three-member court bench led by the Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who retires in less than one month, on Wednesday (Nov. 27) suspended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s August 2019[Read More…]
For any one to understand Joti Ba Phule, it is the pre-essential quality that change begins from home. We speak a lot, lecture others about change and communicate with people in such a language unknown to them or un-understandable to them. Many times, I found, people speak of their ‘knowledge’ and not what the audiences want. In India, the biggest[Read More…]
The movement of Students along with other Universities and Institutes of Excellence in the country do raise questions on the importance of Public Education. Education in India has always received a low priority with only about 3% of the National Budget spent on Education. Even within this, there is a lot of inequity with IITs, IIMs receiving the larger share[Read More…]
China has warned that continued U.S .meddling in Hong Kong is “doomed to fail” and threatened “firm counter measures,” after President Donald Trump passed two bills backing ongoing protests in the territory. Washington has “ignored facts” and “blatantly supported violent radicals who oppose the rule of law” in Hong Kong, the Foreign Ministry of China said on Thursday. The warning[Read More…]
The Modi government’s extravagant projects are being seriously questioned by experts. These include the Metro rail projects and the absurdly expensive proposed high speed railway between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. With the Shiv Sena-led coalition government assuming power in Maharashtra, the high speed project is likely to face strong opposition. Metro railway alone cannot solve urban traffic and transport problems. There[Read More…]
Chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has not only misrepresented the known facts about Labour and its supposed antisemitism crisis. He has not only interfered in an overtly, politically partisan manner in the December 12 election campaign by suggesting that Jeremy Corbyn – against all evidence – is an antisemite. By speaking out as the voice of British Jews – a false[Read More…]
In my opinion this aptly describes our country at the moment. We are in the throes of a general election. The country has been embroiled in a near civil war over the issue of Brexit for the last three years. Mr Boris Johnson, never one to ever speak the truth, decided to call a general election on December 12th simply[Read More…]
In this age of Manustream media, when your history is being rewritten and when every attempt is being made to erase the glorious chapters, forget leaders who have immense contribution towards social justice and secularism, it is our duty to continuously remembering them whether the brahmanical media has time for them or not or whether they consider them ‘irrelevant’ today.[Read More…]
It is Thanksgiving holiday in the US. The Europeans do not celebrate Thanksgiving and the European Parliament has held an election. It has chosen former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen as the new President of the European Commission. Hailing from a political family of conservatives — her father narrowly lost a party leadership election to Franz Josef Strauss[Read More…]
China’s failure to kick a long-standing addiction to coal has thrown a knockout punch to the Paris Agreement of 2015, including its 195 signatories. Suddenly, out of the blue, the world has turned upside down! Sixteen months ago July 16th, 2018: “China and the European Union on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris climate change pact and called other[Read More…]
“Sesame Street” and the International Rescue Committee have collaborated in efforts to help Syrian refugee children. A new program called “AhlanSimsim” is set to air in February 2020. Quite often I think about what kind of trauma and distress the Syrian refugee children are going through in the camps of Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. I am specifically talking about[Read More…]
Clearing the FOG hosts Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese interviewed Alison Weir, journalist and founder of If Americans Knew, a website that provides factual information about the Israeli State and Palestine. Weir describes how she learned firsthand that US media provide a false and one-sided narrative about Occupied Palestine and why she has dedicated the past twenty years to counter that.[Read More…]
South Africa Human Rights Defenders Fund aims to provide holistic support and solidarity to community based human rights defenders working on land, housing and environmental rights Whilst the crackdown against civil society and human rights defenders in Mozambique and Zimbabwe this year received widespread international attention and press coverage, less is known about the steady increase in harassment, intimidation and[Read More…]
According to a PressTV Report of 24 November, 2019, Iran and China are working on a trade or barter deal that would circumvent US sanctions. It would bypass US-dollar denominated transactions, exchanging Iranian oil for Chinese goods and services and investments. The head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA), Masoud Khansari told Teheran’s Tasnim news[Read More…]
Manning, is an incredible example of the American Working Class leading the way forward, (showing the way, if you will), for the rest of the World’s Workers, in their quest for Justice and Dignity. His Affidavit (on the 5th of May, 2019, below), as to the reasons why he will not betray the others involved to a Grand Jury is[Read More…]
Hong Kong has been gripped by more than five months of social unrest, claimingly sparked by an extradition bill that would have allowed for the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which the city has no such agreement, including mainland China.The Bill was withdrawn several weeks ago, but the protests continued, in fact intensified, hinting at the imperialists’ conspiracy, chiefly[Read More…]
She cries in pain, Mother, hold me tight, I feel cold. Mother tells her, It is not cold, It is the icicles making you chill. She laments, Mother, hold me tight. It is darker than the night around, Mother tells her, It is not the night that is dark. It is the burnt coal surrounding the village. She whispers, Mother,[Read More…]
Due to capitalism’s rapaciousness, our species is hurtling towards ecocide at a frightening pace. In the early twentieth century, tens of millions died under the Stalinist regime. We blame these deaths on the wickedness of socialism. Later, in Germany, around 6 million Jews were systematically murdered in gas chambers. We blame these deaths on the ills of fascism. At the[Read More…]
The United Nations Environment Programme issued its tenth Emissions Gap Report yesterday, which highlighted the stark failure of the 2015 Paris Agreement to curb global greenhouse gas emissions and halt global warming. Even if countries hold themselves to their emissions pledges from four years ago, the report warns that global average temperatures will still increase to 3.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels[Read More…]
Argentina’s leftist president-elect Alberto Fernandez said Tuesday that he would renounce the remaining $11 billion tranche of the country’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan as soon as he takes office next month. Outgoing center-right President Mauricio Macri agreed a massive $57 billion loan package last year, but the austerity measures he imposed failed to right the economy. “What I want[Read More…]
It is hardly shocking that the United States government has finally decreed that illegal Jewish settlements which have been built in defiance of international law, are, somehow, “consistent” with international law. US foreign policy has been edging closer towards this conclusion for some time. Since his advent to the White House in January 2017, President Donald Trump has unleashed a[Read More…]
(This is Part-1 of a two part Report) Landslide victory for Hong Kong pro-democracy parties in de facto protest referendum : This ( it was CNN’s) is the tone and tenor of headlines in mainstream media.There is nothing new in this kind of reportage for Indians fed on inobjectivity and hyperboles. This notion however needs to be objectively analysed,[Read More…]
On 26th November 2019 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of our Constitution Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized that we should celebrate the Constitution Day with pride and enthusiasms. It is to be noted that on 26th November 1949, the Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly in accordance with the recommendation of the Cabinet Mission plan.[Read More…]
Do you recall a situation when you gave a gift or complimented someone, but they did not thank you? Did you feel something was missing? Later, if that person came back and said, thanks, did you feel a sense of completion to that transaction of giving and receiving? If your attitude was affected, it also got restored, didn’t it? Likewise,[Read More…]
French king Louis XV reputedly said, “Après moi, le déluge.” (“After me, the flood.”) Whether that line was really his remains unclear, but not long after his death did come the French Revolution. We should be so lucky! Our all-American version of Louis XV, Donald I, is incapable, I suspect, of even imagining a world after him. Given the historically unprecedented way[Read More…]
In January 2018, four top Supreme Court Judges in a surprise move, held a press conference declaring that ” Democracy is at stake, and we have a debt to the nation.” Justice Ranjan Gogoi, as he then was, had also remarked that, “independent judges and noisy journalists are democracy’s first line of defence”. Three of these judges have retired as[Read More…]
Between the 5th and 10th of November 2019, a nine person team comprising of members of Women against Sexual Violence and State repression (WSS) visited the state of Assam in order to understand the implications of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), particularly for the most marginalised people of Assam. The team travelled to the Barak Valley region,[Read More…]
An alarming United Nations report released Tuesday said global temperatures are on track to rise as much as 3.9°C by the end of the century, meaning only drastic and unprecedented emissions reductions can stave off the most devastating consequences of the climate crisis. The annual Emissions Gap report (pdf) from the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP) warns that nations’ commitments under the Paris climate accord—from which U.S.[Read More…]
If Julian Assange were to succumb to the cruelties heaped upon him, week after week, month after month, year upon year, as doctors warn, newspapers like The Guardian will share the responsibility, writes John Pilger. Newspapers and other media in the United States and Britain have recently declared a passion for freedom of speech, especially their right to publish freely. They are worried by the “Assange[Read More…]
Lebanon is going through turmoil. Clashes between supporters of Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, and Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal turned into gunfire in Beirut late on Monday, reported state news agency NNA. The clashes marked the second consecutive night of violence linked to Lebanon’s political crisis, threatening to tip largely peaceful demonstrations directed at the country’s ruling[Read More…]
Lessons from Bolivia. Where Che was Murdered. Where Again a Coup was Staged. Forty-six years and two months. Eduardo Galeano wrote La Trampa on events of Chile that happened on September 11, 1973, in a few touching paragraphs. The last two we can reread now. “In those difficult times, the workers were discovering the secrets of economy. They were understanding[Read More…]
Nazareth: The decision to indict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on three separate criminal counts pushes the country’s already unprecedented electoral stalemate into the entirely uncharted territory of a constitutional crisis. There is no legal precedent for a sitting prime minister facing a trial – in Netanyahu’s case, for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud[Read More…]
This is meant to be an article for activist education and therefore on the one hand it starts with explaining basic concepts; on the other hand it avoids academic references. The population problem is complex and has been debated since Marx’s time. In the past leftists maintained that it is not a real problem, but a creation of capitalism. However[Read More…]
The latest war in Yemen, ongoing since 2015, started when the Houthi tribes in the north made a deal with former President Saleh (whose son remained head of the army under the agreement made with the Saudis to get him to vacate the Yemen Presidency) to work together to conquer all of Yemen militarily. The Houthis and the Yemen Army[Read More…]
Rarely is out-of-the-box thinking needed more than in this era of geopolitical, political and economic turmoil. The stakes couldn’t be higher in a world in which civilizationalist leaders risk shepherding in an era of even greater political violence, disenfranchisement and marginalisation, and mass migration. The risks are magnified by the fact that players that traditionally stood up for at least[Read More…]
The island nation: Sri Lanka began to increasingly feature in discussions on the Indo- Pacific geopolitical environment in recent years, particularly in the light of Chinese led Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) and as a nation which has been occupying a strategic location astride the Indian Ocean lines of communication. Sri Lanka has been attracting the interests of major powers[Read More…]
The President of India is speaking about ‘constitutional morality’ while the prime minister is saying that Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar would have been the ‘proudest’ person to see the ‘democracy’ flourishing in India and the ‘success’ of our ‘democracy’. Yesterday, friends talked about Gandhi’s Gram Swaraj and we were sitting in the place ‘owned’ by Lord Jaggannath. It is reported[Read More…]
At least 13 protesters were killed and 150 were injured Sunday in Baghdad and the southern cities of Basra and Nasiriya during clashes between security forces and the protesters. Sunday was one of the “worst” days since protests began. Many of these deaths were due to the use of live ammunition and tear gas by security forces against demonstrators. At least 342 people have been killed in[Read More…]
Since its inception the Paris climate accord has been in questiondue to,among other(1) its broad definition, intended to keep a mean global temperature rise this century to below 1.5oC and efforts to limit temperature increase well below 2oC above pre-industrial levels; (2) its non-binding nature; accounting tricks by vested interests. The goal assumes pre-determined limits can be placed on greenhouse[Read More…]
Poor people are not generally concerned about the adverse affects of climate change. Atleast this was the conclusion that several recent articles wanted to reach as far as I understood by reading them. These articles had mentioned poor people’s lack of understanding about the climate change as the major reason for their dis-concern. While this cannot be denied outright, it cannot[Read More…]
The Vatican comes with its ills, contradictions and blatant hypocrisies in the field of moral theology and human existence, but on the issue of atomic and nuclear weapons, the position has been fairly consistent, if marked by gradual evolution. On February 8, 1948, Pope Pius XII held an audience with members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. “What misfortunes,” he[Read More…]
There is some incongruity between my role as an editor of a book about the costs of America’s wars and my identity as a military spouse. I’m deeply disturbed at the scale of human suffering caused by those conflicts and yet I’ve unintentionally contributed to the war effort through the life I’ve chosen. I am the co-editor with Catherine Lutz[Read More…]
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also called the New Silk Road, is based on a 2,100-year-old trade route between the Middle East and Eastern Asia, called the Silk Road. It wound its ways across the huge landmass Eurasia to the most eastern parts of China. It favored trading, based on the Taoist philosophy of harmony and peaceful coexistence –[Read More…]
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in an overwhelming bipartisan majority to officially recognize the Armenian genocide more than a century after the atrocities were committed. The motion was a departure from decades of U.S. government refusal because of its ‘realpolitik’ considerations of regional ally and fellow NATO member, the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman Empire’s successor state[Read More…]
The September 14 attack on the Abqaiq petroleum facility in eastern Saudi Arabia was an Armageddon for the global oil industry because it processes five million barrels crude oil per day, more than half of Saudi Arabia’s total oil production. The subversive attack sent jitters across the global markets and the oil price surged 15%, the biggest spike witnessed[Read More…]
The world already produces enough food to feed 10 billion people but over two billion are experiencing micronutrient deficiencies (of which 821 million were classed as chronically undernourished in 2018). However, supporters of genetic engineering (GE) crops continually push the narrative that GE technology is required if we are to feed the world and properly support farmers. First of all, it must be[Read More…]
If the bizarre Ayodhya verdict of India’s Supreme Court is a classic case of adding insult to injury, on the one hand, it marks the final and total surrender of the country’s democratic institutions to Hindutva, on the other. But this had long been coming and should have been apparent to all those watching the meltdown of the republic under[Read More…]
The Maharashtra Farce which was played at the ‘stroke of late night’ yesterday with President Kovind signing the removal of the Presidential Rule there therefore allowing the Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari to swear in Devendra Fednavis and Ajeet Panwar as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of the state is the modus operandi of how two leaders who are running[Read More…]
A poem on Arundhati Roy Fountain pen unfurling from the curls After the blood carpet why history never unfurls Everyone makes a full stop with decoration To declare how it’s “The End of Imagination” Millions think of the magician thinking above Her pen thinks how he bluffs wearing a glove Curating the structured Homo sapiens To validate that they work[Read More…]
According to reports from the Marshall Islands, plutonium is leaking into the Pacific Ocean from a massive concrete bunker the United States built in the 1950s to dispose of nuclear waste. A potential disaster is looming. Situated mid-way between Hawaii and Australia, the Marshall Islands has a population of 53,000 people. The island chain was occupied by Allied forces in[Read More…]
Climate change is real, happening. It is human caused – mostly through our use of fossil fuels, and could be catastrophic, could be a tragic end to our present evolution. Without effective mitigation. But we’ve gone three decades of failure to even slow the increase in burning coal, oil and natural gas, with consequential greenhouse gases (GHGs) increasing in the[Read More…]
If motivated to find the pinnacle of callous and hypocritical American statecraft one would have no shortage of choices. Of course the Middle East alone provides quite a bevy. From the numerous betrayals of the Kurds, to the ceaseless support for the House of Saud, including in its brutal war in Yemen, to the billions of dollars regularly pumped into[Read More…]
Saudi efforts to negotiate an end to the Yemen war in a bid to open a dialogue with Iran could call into question continued Gulf support for US President Donald J. Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic republic. Saudi officials hope that talks mediated by Oman and Britain between the kingdom and Houthi rebels will lead to a revival[Read More…]
The surge in demand for market skills led to a complete overhaul of higher education with the result being universities becoming mere affiliation hosting bodies for the vocational colleges located at a distance from its main campus. Once the demand overshot even this customary practice was done away with and autonomous institutes were allowed to function outside the purview of[Read More…]
I am writing from Bolivia just days after witnessing the November 19 military massacre at the Senkata gas plant in the indigenous city of El Alto, and the tear-gassing of a peaceful funeral procession on November 21 to commemorate the dead. These are examples, unfortunately, of the modus operandi of the de facto government that seized control in a coup[Read More…]
“We are next to none in our love for humanity. Far from having any malice against any individual, we hold human life sacred beyond words. We are neither perpetrators of dastardly outrages, nor, therefore, a disgrace to the country […]” This was the statement by Bhagat Singh and B K Dutta in the sessions court, Delhi, on June 6, 1929.[Read More…]
People in thousands joined in protests in Chile on Monday (November 18). It marked the first month of the most serious public protests against neo-liberal policies in recent time in Chile. The protests show the people’s distrust of the social agenda the government announced, and the parliamentary agreement on a new constitution. Anti-riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and[Read More…]
Why is the Hindu media, newspapers and news channels so gung-ho over All India Muslim Personal Law Board ( AIMPLB)-the prime most Muslim body in the nation, deciding to file Review in the judgement of Ramjamanbhumi/Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, Faizabad, UP case of Nov 9, in which the site where Babri Masjid existed has been given to Hindus and a[Read More…]
On 19 November, the news portal Scroll.in reported, on the basis of analysis of 19 First Information Reports (FIRs) filed in cases related to Pathalgadi movement in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, that 10000 people were accused of sedition as ‘unknowns’ in the FIRs. The Khunti police in a statement on 21 November called the media reports “totally incorrect” and “hugely inflated”.[Read More…]
After my work in the Middle East had finished, at least for the time being, I was waiting for my flight to Santiago de Chile.In Paris.I could count on a few ‘free’ days, processing what I had heard and witnessed in Beirut. Day after day, for long hours, I sat in a lounge, typing and typing; reflecting and typing.[Read More…]
SeñoraEva Maria Duarte de Perónwas one of Argentina’s most beloved first ladies.Sixty-six years after Eva’s death, the persistence of Peronism makes her one of the most fascinating characters in Argentina. Peronism has a deep rooted influence on the political structure of this Latin American nation. Long after Juan and Eva Perón, Peronist legacy is very much alive and it seems[Read More…]
Reputed Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported [1] on Thursday that the Turkish police had identified the cause of death of the founder of the White Helmets, James Le Mesurier, as ruptured aorta in the chest, and not the fractured skull as previously described by the police in its preliminary report. Le Mesurier was found dead on November 11 in suspicious[Read More…]
How to Fudge, Obfuscate, and Lie Our Way into a New Universe These days, witnessing the administration’s never-ending cruelty at the border, the shenanigans of a White House caught red-handed in attempted bribery in Ukraine, and the disarray of this country’s foreign policy, I feel like I’m seeing a much-scarier remake of a familiar old movie. The cast of characters[Read More…]
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Clearing the FOG (forces of greed) hosts Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers interviewed Chip Gibbons, an expert on Constitutional Law and the legal and policy counsel for Defending Rights and Dissent about a recent right to protest victory in Washington, DC plus his new report, “Still Spying on Dissent: The enduring problem of FBI[Read More…]
(Includes a recipe brought to you by Discomfort Foods) In February 2018 on Fox News, Laura Ingraham ended her interview with former CIA director James Woolsey by asking him if the United States continues to “mess around in other people’s elections.” To which Woolsey, as though tasting the tasty lie in his mouth, replied: “Welllllllll aummmm yum yum yum yum[Read More…]
The Supreme Court decided its appeal. The Constitution Bench of five judges settled its own doubts by declaring that the judiciary as such is a public authority and hence answerable under Right to Information Act, on 13th November 2019. This is special because it was deciding the appeals filed by its own officers. One can also criticise that Supreme Court[Read More…]
After the verdict of supreme court on Ayodhya, the words of justice JS Verma that supreme court is supreme but not infallible, becomes more relevant. Often sitting before television and watching hotly news debates over Ayodhya dispute with full of fiery assertive slogan like mandir wahin banayenge (temple will be built there only) has become a part of my entertainment.[Read More…]
A four-member fact-finding team of Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan, Odisha visited Gadakujanga, Dhinkia, Noliasahi and Govindapur villages of Jagatsinghpur district on 19th November 2019. The government of Odisha is handing over the land already acquired for POSCO to Jindal Steel Works Ltd for setting up of a steel plant (13.2MTPA capacity), Cement plant (10MTPA), Power plant (900MW) and a port[Read More…]
The first article I confronted when I opened my email this morning was F. William Enghdahl’s short but extremely informative piece in “Global Research” titled “China, USA and the Geopolitics of Lithium”. In it he elaborates in far greater detail the point also brought out by Vijay Prashad in his article, “After Evo, the Lithium Question Looms Large in Bolivia”[Read More…]
Tech titans Google and Facebook employ “surveillance-based business models” that threaten human rights and erode privacy worldwide, said Amnesty International (AI) in its new report Surveillance Giants: How the Business Model of Google and Facebook Threatens Human Rights (Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW, UK). The AI in its report called for an end to the[Read More…]
The opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) in RajyaSabha(Council of States) could initiate the proceedings for the impeachment of the President of India for violation of the Constitution in right earnest in this winter session of the Parliament. Article 61 of the Constitution of India details the procedure for impeachment of the President. One fourth of the total number of MPs[Read More…]
Nick Hanauer, a self-professed capitalist billionaire, spoke at a TED conference only recently. He exposed neoliberalism’s brand of capitalism getting away with murder in plain sight. Mr. Hanauer described himself: “After a 30-year career in capitalism spanning three dozen companies, generating tens of billions of dollars in market value, I’m not in the top one percent (1.0%), I’m in the[Read More…]
China has by far the largest lithium market. China produces already today the most electric cars, about 1 million in 2018, and will at least triplicate their production by 2025 – and in the following decade or two, demand is expected to increase exponentially. Bolivia has the world’s largest – by far – known lithium reserves. A long-term win-win contract[Read More…]
On November 9, 2019 Supreme Court delivered its verdict on Babri Mosque-Ram Janmabhoomi Temple dispute. In contrast to simple thinking that the dispute regarding political Ram has come to an end and there was need to move on, many people courted arrest in state like Kerala against Supreme Court verdict, and criticisms against those at higher echelons of establishment have[Read More…]
Kashmir issue has always been a tool for all the mainstream political parties in general and BJP in particular to invoke it for the consolidation of Hindu vote bank. After doing all the wrongs with the state of Jammu and Kashmir from overthrowing Sheikh Abdullah from the office in 1953 to Election rigging of 1987; abrogation of Article 370 was[Read More…]
Examination of Israel’s November 2019 missile attacks on Gaza reveals deliberate actions that can be expressed by propositions, which lead to formulation of a syllogism – a syllogism of death that does not spare civilians. Israeli military targeted Bahaa Abu al-Ata, “a top Islamic Jihad commander,” who, Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed, “… was a ticking bomb, in the midst[Read More…]
Democratic institutions are in danger Today there is a deep split in public opinion in the United States. Democratic institutions are in danger from racism and neo-fascism. Progressives are fighting to save the values and institutions on which their country was founded. They are fighting to save America’s soul. Racism, discrimination and xenophobia Progressives today would like to eliminate all[Read More…]
With armored vehicles and helicopters, Bolivian military forces and police used tear gas to crack down on protesters blocking access to a major gas plant, operated by state-run YPFB, in El Alto city on Tuesday. Helicopters flew above roads around the Senkata gas plant while heavily armed police dispersed protesters with tear gas and bullets. The number of dead was 2[Read More…]
Colonialism and knowledge production: Colonialism is much more than establishing colonies in the non-western world to exploit raw materials for the western metropolitan centres. It is a system of hegemonic power and domination of the colonized by the colonizers, economic, physical as well as psychological. Colonialism is a product of ‘western’ civilization who is obliged for its internal reason to[Read More…]
If one is constantly imbued with certain kinds of the doctrine and thought processes through reinforcing visuals or ideas, gradually it starts to set its place in their subconscious. That’s how ideology works, its 24*7 presence around us through the media, songs, posters, street art or the cinema can internalize or mould the gravest of the wrongs. Freud would call[Read More…]
The Oudh Public School was hosting a modelling clay workshop. The eve of the event found next-door neighbours and best friends Ram Lal and Rahim Babbar embroiled in a particularly harsh squabble. Mere minutes into the event, an apparent dispute had emerged. Ram was of the opinion that he was the rightful owner of the piece of clay that his[Read More…]
The issues raised by the students and teaching fraternity of JNU are highly important and need to be understood in the right spirit, at the time when there is a sinister campaign going on to discredit the University and shut its door for the poorest of the poor of the country. Why is there so much of hatred towards JNU[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Arundhati Dhuru It was heartening to hear Narendra Modi praise Imran Khan for facilitating the opening of 4.7 km corridor so that Sikh pilgrims from India could visit the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan, after a mostly anti-Pakistan narrative first during the general elections and then after the decision related to Jammu and[Read More…]
Sex, the late Gore Vidal astutely observed, is politics, and not merely from the vantage point of those who wish to police it. In the case of whistleblowers, claims of aberrant, unlawful sex serves the purpose of diminishing credibility, tarring and feathering the individual and furnishing a distraction. Forget what was disclosed; focus, instead, on the moral character of the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers We spent the last week in Occupied Palestinian Territory, commonly referred to as Israel, where we traveled around the country to visit communities in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Bethlehem, the West Bank, the Nagab, and more. We call Israel Occupied Palestine because it is not just the West Bank and Gaza that are occupied, but[Read More…]
“Today I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter’s gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat, do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.” Yasser Arafat November 13th 1974 UN General Assembly. The late Abu Ammar – Yasser Arafat -believed not only his Arab[Read More…]
It was evening and we were in a windowless room in a Massachusetts jail. We had just finished a class — on job interview skills — and, with only a few minutes remaining, the women began voicing their shared fear. Upon their release, would someone really hire them? Beneath that concern lurked another one: Would they be able to avoid[Read More…]
Three Taliban commanders have been released today, on Tuesday, by the Afghan government as part of a prisoner swap involving two Western hostages. Reportedly, the militant leaders, including senior Taliban leader Anas Haqqani, had landed in Qatar, which hosts the Taliban political office. In exchange, two university professors identified as US citizen Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks were reportedly[Read More…]
It is a very good question that Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies pose in their recent Countercurrents article – “Why aren’t Americans rising up like the people of Chile and Lebanon?” It is a good question and they give several very good answers to it; answers the people of America and the people of the world need to[Read More…]
Do these women have rights? These women who break rocks These women who carry bricks These women who in Temples please Gods What Gods? Devdasis? Can they Me Too? Farmers’ wives, sweepers, Women who clean dirt From homes and yet Live in dirt themselves. Women who could not go to school Can they Me Too? Women who remain Unlettered, Unfed,[Read More…]
In a letter sent today to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, 17 persons who were informed by WhatsApp Inc that their electronic devices had been targeted by advanced spyware, Pegasus, have demanded a detailed probe into the cyber-attack that occurred earlier this year. The Standing Committee, chaired by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthpuram, is scheduled[Read More…]
The public lecture in the memory of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer has been organized by the Department of Political Science, Jamia, Millia Islamia in collaboration with the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (Mumbai) on the theme of “Democracy versus Majoritarianism” on 18th November, 2019 at JMI. The keynote of memorial address was delivered by the eminent left-[Read More…]
Citizens participating in preservation of environment are an important aspect of fighting decay of environment. Scientists have proposed (“Researchers explore how citizens can become agents of environmental change: A blueprint for how to educate people to maximize their impact.”) a blueprint for methods of educating people to maximize impact of people’s participation. By walking in the woods, rafting a river,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Arshad M. Khan and Meena Miriam Yust If humans have been lucky, basking in the comforting warmth of an inter-glacial period for the last 10,000 years, that luck may be about to turn. Rest assured we are not entering a glacial period. No, our quest for greater comfort has us pumping fossil fuel residues in the air—particularly CO2—warming[Read More…]
Thirty years ago, a friend of mine published a book called 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save The Earth. It described the huge environmental benefits that would result if everyone made some simple adjustments to their way of life. Six hundred thousand gallons of gas could be saved every day, for example, if every commuter car carried just one[Read More…]
The Fact That Millions Are Not in the Streets and Demanding His Ouster Shows How Late Is the Hour This week a former associate of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller revealed more than 900 racist emails written by Miller, the mastermind of the Trump immigration policy. In these emails, Miller complains bitterly about Confederate flags being taken down[Read More…]
“You do not mean the moon?” I asked incredulously. Sarbajnanam gave a patient but an all-knowing smile. “Yes, the moon” he said. “You mean, there is a Ram Janmabhoomi on the moon?”, I barely stammered out these words, completely flabbergasted. “And why not? Do you think Ram was a mere earthly creature?” Sarbajnanam (or maybe we should call him SJ[Read More…]
Co-Written by Punsara Amarasinghe and Eshan Jayawardane Civilizational influence in shaping national political consciousness is an indispensable factor that one cannot deny or completely abandon albeit how rationalized or tries to be radical he is. The Oath ceremony of the president of the US is traditionally culminated by pledging alliance to the US constitution and God and the people in[Read More…]
Exile, Or, Home? They asked, Which home? The one you bulldozed, Or the one you occupied, They are furious, And, Outraged, Or, the one that is a rubble, They look They scare, stay there, Hands up, How can I stay without name Without face Or without eyes. Leave then, Go in exile They laugh Or smirk, How can I go[Read More…]
J.N.U a university where voices speak up where streets protest where classes struggle where birds are still free where azaadi isn’t just a word where democracy lives Sutputra Radheye: He is a young Indian poet for whom poetry is a medium of protest against the authority. He channelizes his words to write what he sees, and how he sees.He doesn’t[Read More…]
Thousands of students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India, who were marching to parliament to protest the massive hike in hostel fees were detained and baton-charged, leaving some of them grievously injured yesterday. The students continued their march but were stopped at many places. The protesters said they would not relent until the government withdrew the fee[Read More…]
The hardships endured by rural women during pregnancy and childbirth tend to go unnoticed. Their husbands and in-laws rarely go out of their way to support them as they experience fatigue, illness and pain. Public services, too, are grossly deficient. A recent survey sheds light on this hidden ordeal. The JABS Survey The Jaccha-Baccha Survey (JABS), conducted by student volunteers[Read More…]
Any human being who values justice and freedom would condemn the coup that ousted the Bolivian president Evo Morales on the 10th of November 2019. Morales obtained 47.08 % of the vote to secure a fourth term as president in the election held on the 20th of October. Since his vote was more than 10% of what his closest rival[Read More…]
Massive fires raged at the campus of Hong Kong Polytech University (PolyU), where anti-government protesters have holed up, and pelting petrol bombs at riot police, who have taken position around the university campus. The protesters feared police raid in the campus. The campus turned into a battleground between the rioters hurling Molotov cocktails and rocks at police, and police firing[Read More…]
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro denounced this Sunday that the country’s right-wing has received more than US$400 million with the objective of buying politicians, policemen and members of the Bolivarian National Armed Force, to put them at the service of foreign nations’ interests. During an interview for the ‘Jose Vicente Hoy’ show, Maduro affirmed that despite bribes, the Venezuelan Armed Forces have remained loyal to the Constitution, the[Read More…]
Justice, in normal parlance, is supposedly neutral and seemingly fair attainment of what is equitable, righteous and just in its moral correctness, ethical consideration, rational perspective and from legal point of view. Edmund Burke sees justice from the prism of humanity and reason while Mahatma Gandhi has evoked the conscience to envision justice. Bentham upheld utilitarian principles that promote human[Read More…]
Coexistence between social groups was a social reality and a primary tenet of Indian life, long before the word secular was included in its Constitution in 1976. Now that a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court has delivered a “historic” judgement on the Babri Masjid dispute, there is a sense of disquiet. This is not just on account of the[Read More…]
Many throughout the world are beginning to understand that our continuance on this planet will require recognition of the presence of an underlying planetary and cosmic “implicate order.” (David Bohm) And they are beginning to understand that humanity is not now living in a harmonious relationship with that order. These many are beginning to recognize that it will call for[Read More…]
Reformed teaching of history Human nature has two sides: It has a dark side, to which nationalism and militarism appeal; but our species also has a genius for cooperation, which we can see in the growth of culture. Our modern civilization has been built up by means of a worldwide exchange of ideas and inventions. It is built on the[Read More…]
The 50-Year History of U.S. Dominance of the Middle Eastern Arms Trade It’s no secret that Donald Trump is one of the most aggressive arms salesmen in history. How do we know? Because he tells us so at every conceivable opportunity. It started with his much exaggerated “$110 billion arms deal” with Saudi Arabia, announced on his first foreign trip as[Read More…]
The world hosts many oppressions — Royhingya in Myanmar, ethnic groups in both North and South Sudan, Shi’a communities in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are just a few examples. Although a large part of the international community sympathizes with the oppressed groups, petitions world bodies to relieve the oppressions, and provides some relief and support, substantial action is not taken to[Read More…]
The choking cloud of Jeffrey Epstein’s paedophilic legacy has been floating over the Atlantic for some time. It does its best (or worst) in matters of US and British celebrity, warts and all. It has not, for instance, exempted the British Royal Family, whose cupboard stocked with misbehaviours and raunchiness got just more crowded with the antics of the Duke[Read More…]
On November 4, India announced its decision to exit the negotiations on the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a mega-regional free trade agreement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed the decision at the third RCEP Summit that took place in Bangkok. The summit was attended by the leaders of all 16 RCEP Participating Countries (RPCs). The full text of[Read More…]
Like Túpac Katari, indigenous Aymara leader more than 200 years ago, confronting the Spaniards, Evo Morales was betrayed and ‘dismembered’ by his own people, recruited and paid by the agents of the most destructive, nefarious and murderous dark elite that governs and has governed for over two hundred years our planet, the United States of America. With their worthless fiat-Ponzi-pyramid[Read More…]
ZakiaSoman, the founder of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (an organisation of Muslim women in India), has been the wheel behind the mass movement demanding the law to criminalise the draconian practice of Triple Talaq.Soman, the epitome of pluralistic faith, remained untouched of hatred peddled in the aftermath of 2002 Gujarat violence while her activism brought together thousands of women to[Read More…]
The institutional murder of nineteen year old Fathima Latheef at IIT Madras has once again hogged the national limelight on the oppressive nature of India’s higher educational institutions, especially technical institutions. The stark irony of anti-caste movement is the mocking fact that the very educational institutions established to ensure upward mobility of marginalised sections continue to benevolently patronize the neo-casteism.[Read More…]
An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was foreseeable because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when”. The answer came on November 12, when the Israeli military launched a major[Read More…]
There are a lot of similarities in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October last year and the alleged suicide of the founder of the White Helmets, James Le Mesurier, who was found dead on November 11 in suspicious circumstances after falling off a two-story apartment building in downtown Istanbul. Before his[Read More…]
Propaganda is essential to the Deep State’s operation. The Deep State is the small number of people who control the organizations that donate the majority of the funds which finance the political careers of national officials, such as Presidents, Prime Ministers, and members of the national legislature. Almost always, the members of the Deep State are the controlling stockholders in[Read More…]
Cuba is the “criminal-country”. That’s central reason that pushes imperialism to punish Cuba. Following imperialism’s directive and advice, a number of countries have rejected Cuba’s offer for medical help during those countries’ hours of need, when natural disasters battered parts of the countries on different occasions. Now, in the latest series of punishing Cuba, imperialism backed coup-authorities in Bolivia harassed[Read More…]
A statement made by Ramdev on Periyar is on the air and is being circulated. He calls Periyar and other who spoke of Moolniwasi philosophy as ‘intellectual terrorists’. One should not take Ramdev too seriously as he has got exposed completely and if there was a neutral government both ED and IT department would have arrested him. He is the[Read More…]
Security forces opened fire on supporters of evicted Bolivian President Evo Morales in a central town of Sacaba, killing at least five people, injuring dozens. Most of the dead and injured Friday in Sacaba near the city of Cochabamba suffered bullet wounds, Guadalberto Lara, director of the town’s Mexico Hospital, told The Associated Press. He called it the worst violence[Read More…]
They pledged to do it, and they did – Bolivian feudal lords, mass media magnates and other treasonous “elites” – they overthrew the government, broke hope and interrupted an extremely successful socialist process in what was once one of the poorest countries in South America. One day, they will be cursed by their own nation. One day they will[Read More…]
Evo Morales spoke the truth when he explained the reason for his fall as leader of his country – it was for no other reason than because he was a socialist who sought to socialize the resources of his country and serve the interests of his people at the expense of the profits of international capitalist corporations. From the time[Read More…]
Another anniversary of Bhopal Gas tragedy will pass by next month but still many poor people are suffering the after effects of the release of poisonous gas. Many activists are still engaged in struggle for justice. One of the oldest activist Abdul Jabbar led the largest group of survivors of the Union Carbide gas leak in 1984. Activism Abdul Jabbar[Read More…]
Barring the Hindu Right, the Left-liberals and secular oriented academics and civil society groups have time and again emphasized that Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru’s secular legacy needs to be remembered in the current political scenario. While remembering the contributions of Nehru on the occasion of his 130th birth anniversary, at New Delhi, the Congress President Sonia Gandhi vividly reminded us that[Read More…]
It is over three months that the Article 370 has been abrogated. The procedure laid down by the law has been given a go bye and through a majority in Lok Sabha, bypassing the people of Kashmir the act has been done. While many a falsehood has been promoted, lately two such surfaced yet again. Paying tribute to Sardar Patel[Read More…]
An old man envisions Burial of his Dead self in Kashmir, Appalled how this thought precipitates his imagination, Is it merely a serendipity or causation? Imageries of horror & terror are never bereft of causations, They are complexly situated, ideational, relational & ideological, This is Land of syncretism; Kashmir, less admired & more envied, Here Children of conflict are traumatized,[Read More…]
The suicide of bright young scholar Fathima Latheef at the IIT Madras is reflective of the brutal and atrocious caste order prevailing in these institutions which discriminate against Dalit, OBC, Adivasi and Muslim students. This suicide is an institutional murder where the masterminds and caste supremacists are well protected. The list is long in recent years as how bright young[Read More…]
Data from the world’s major economies, released over the past few days, show that the “synchronised” global slowdown pointed to by the International Monetary Fund is worsening. In its report on the latest figures from China, the world’s second largest economy, Bloomberg said the “engines of China’s economy are spluttering with exports falling, factory output slowing, investment at a record[Read More…]
Bolivia has flared up with violent clashes between people protesting the coup and security forces. Fresh clashes have broken out in as the self-declared interim president Jeanine Anez faced challenges to her leadership in the Bolivia Congress and the streets from supporters of the exiled President Evo Morales. Evo Morales, forced out by the armed forces in the country has[Read More…]
Israeli soldiers’ demand to know one’s religion, begs two larger questions: What does it mean to “be” a certain religion? And for what purpose is the question being asked? “Religion” here has nothing to do with theology, but with descent, one’s lineage — essential information for a state founded and perpetuated on the basis of ethnic identity. If Israel’s[Read More…]
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales was overthrown in a military coup on November 10. He is now in Mexico. Before he left office, Morales had been involved in a long project to bring economic and social democracy to his long-exploited country. It is important to recall that Bolivia has suffered a series of coups, often conducted by the military and the[Read More…]
The effects of encroaching deserts andof fire storms onterrestrial forests, originally developed under moderate conditions distinct from those emerging under rapid global warming and extreme weather events, may have been underestimated. Average global temperatures do not tell the story — it is the increasingly frequent weather anomalies which do. Powerful psychological factors prevent many scientists from expressing their worst fears,a[Read More…]
The Situation Room, October 2039: the president and vice president, senior generals and admirals, key cabinet members, and other top national security officers huddle around computer screens as aides speak to key officials across the country. Some screens are focused on Hurricane Monica, continuing its catastrophic path through the Carolinas and Virginia; others are following Hurricane Nicholas, now pummeling Florida and[Read More…]
The founder of the White Helmets, James Le Mesurier, was found dead on November 11 in suspicious circumstances after falling off a two-story apartment building in downtown Istanbul. He was a former British army veteran and a private security contractor from 2008 to 2012 working for Good Harbor [1], run by Richard Clarke, the former Bush administration counter-terrorism czar. Much[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies The waves of protests breaking out in country after country around the world beg the question: Why aren’t Americans rising up in peaceful protest like our neighbors? We live at the very heart of this neoliberal system that is force-feeding the systemic injustice and inequality of 19th century laissez-faire capitalism to[Read More…]
Today, as the public phase of impeachment hearings are underway, I am watching while reading from the Life of Frederick Douglass. Sadly, I admit to not trusting the American people as much as I might to see clearly, think honestly, and do what is right. I would welcome being mistaken in my skepticism. However, I am certain not to trust[Read More…]
While Empire-blessed dirty dictators, notorious for murdering and looting, survive, Evo Morales, the socialist leader forced out of presidency by an Empire-engineered coup in Bolivia, had to take political asylum as his physical security was threatened in Bolivia. The Empire-fed bloodhounds are after Evo. Even, he was denied airspace for his safe air transit to Mexico, his place of political[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey, Yugal Kishore Shashtri and Lubna Sarwath With the exception of few, every leader of political or social importance is making an appeal to the common people to maintain peace and communal harmony in the wake of Supreme Court judgement in the Ram Janambhumi-Babri Masjid case as part of which the entire 2.77 acres of disputed land[Read More…]
Thousands of supporters of deposed Bolivian President Evo Morales gathered in La Paz, the Bolivian capital city, to demand the resignation of self-declared “interim” leader Jeanine Anez. Riot police squared off the protesters during street clashes. Thousands of Bolivians are demonstrating against the coup, which was orchestrated by opposition leaders Luis Fernando Camacho and Carlos Mesa and supported by the country’s[Read More…]
There is an inherent bestiality in the politics of the Americas that signals coup, assassination and disruption. No state is ever allowed to go through what is weakly called a transition, except over corpses, tortures and morgues. When a social experiment is conducted, rulers must ensure their wills are well inked ahead of time. Opponents, often funded and sponsored by[Read More…]
The Ayodhya Judgement to hand over the disputed land for construction of Ram temple and providing alternative land to Muslims for construction of Mosque is being welcomed not only by the Sangh Parivar but also the parties which claim to be secular. This includes Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Telugu Desam Party. This is being[Read More…]
The National Alliance of People’s Movements condemns the ‘unanimous’ verdict by the 5-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya matter. The judgement, instead of holding accountable before law all those who criminally demolished the 450 year old Babri Masjid has rewarded the violators. The judgement legitimizes majoritarianism and mobocracy and strikes at the very secular fabric of our[Read More…]
National Adivasi Alliance (NAA), a collective of people’s organizations espousing the cause of the tribals’ on Forest Rights Act (FRA) drawn from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Delhi assembled at Rangapadar in Kalahandi district of Odisha. In its National Review and planning meeting held on 12th and 13th October 2019, the NAA registered its[Read More…]
Over 11,000 scientists have signed up to a World scientists’ warning of a Climate Emergency that sets out trends in 24 climate-related areas over the last 40 years. Scientists became aware of the climate change threat from greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in the 1980s, but in 23 of these 24 areas the trends are (a) huge, (b) in the wrong[Read More…]
The release on November 6 of two Jordanian nationals, Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mi’ri from Israeli prisons was a bittersweet moment. The pair were finally reunited with their families after harrowing experiences in Israel. Sadly, thousands of Palestinian prisoners are still denied their freedom, still subjected to all sorts of hardships at the hands of their Israeli jailers. Despite[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek It is wrong, totally wrong to abandon Jakarta and try to build some Potemkin village in the middle of Borneo, an island known in Indonesia as Kalimantan. There are many reasons why, and we will be addressing at least some of them here. But before we begin, let us state the obvious:the cowardly and spineless[Read More…]
Muslims had pinned their every hope for Justice in Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid case, for it was only Supreme Court where-in laid their last recoup. But, the spleen in the name of Ram Mandir, now guaranteed on the demolished site of Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, Faizabad, UP since the Karachi born LK Advani charioted his Rath Yatra (Sep 25, 1900) from Somnath to[Read More…]
Raja bola raat hai, Mantri bola raat hai Court bola raat hai Yeh subah-subah kee baat hai (The King said it was night; The Ministers said it was night; The Court said it was night; It was early morning) The Court of the Honorable Chief Justice of India’s below the central dome of the Supreme Court building, is the setting[Read More…]
There are many dreadful things we all know about human societies and institutions, which are absolutely true and yet we like to think otherwise, lest we come across as being too cynical. Even more so we live in the hope that, some of our wishful thinking about how things really are, will rub off on reality and magically produce a[Read More…]
The changes from a pretension of secularism to a majoritarian Hindutva culture within the mainstream psyche was slow and steady during the post independent India. The growth of Islamophobia from the partition period to the destruction of Babari Masjid was one stage in this. The destruction of Babari Masjid and its justification changed the pace in which communal forces acted[Read More…]
I had heard of people in abusive relationships— Of torture made to disappear, Of tyrannies of the mind calculated to blind and crippling dependence cultivated, Of phantom foes and spectral fears and hollow promises renewed, Of shrunken lives under constant vigil terrorised into compliance, Of gaslit rebellion and curfewed movement, isolated from the world’s concern; I marvelled at how all[Read More…]
Jeanine Áñez, a senator from the rightist opposition camp, declared herself president of Bolivia on Tuesday although the legislative body failed to meet with the constitutional requirements for such a move. The Parliament did not achieve a quorum because the lawmakers of the Movement to Socialism (MAS), the movement ousted president Evo Morales represented, could not attend, due to a lack of[Read More…]
Ayodhya Verdict unravels a new sensibility and a distinctly different social reality, in several diverse ways. One aspect to be mentioned here is the extraordinary rush of appeals for peace in the country. With large battalions of police force deployed throughout the nation, the government and mass media and the social media sent out appeals again and again. The[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ryan Summers and Ben Freeman Foreign influence in America is the topic du jour. From the impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s request that a foreign power investigate a political opponent to the indictment of associates of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, for illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. elections, the nation has been transfixed by news of illegal foreign influence in the political[Read More…]
The world has just honored yet another Armistice Day – Remembrance Day – Veterans Day for all those who lost their lives in armed defense of their nation’s right to exist and remain a free people. Nation’s like the United States, Canada, Australia, UK and Israel pay constant tribute to those key battles and wars that once determined their continued[Read More…]
I just interviewed former World Bank staff member and geopolitical analyst Peter Koenig via telephone at his home in Geneva. Koenig had just returned from South America , a place where he has travelled to many times . One of the issues that he is very passionate about is the agenda by ( so called ) world health and finance[Read More…]
Imperialist imprint in the just carried out Bolivia coup is visible. Donald Trump, the US President, has said in a statement: “The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia’s constitution.” Who these “people” are? The fascists, the rich, the appropriators,[Read More…]
Paraguayan media including the newspaper ABC Color reported on Tuesday: An aircraft of the Mexican Air Force carrying resigned Bolivian President Evo Morales has landed in Paraguay after a request for landing in Peru was rejected. At the same time, thousands of pro-Evo protesters were marching towards Bolivia’s legislative assembly. The plane was supposed to refuel in Peru before heading[Read More…]
Despite the Internet, connectivity, and linking technologies, distance has not shrunk the Australian sense of self, an often provincial appraisal of the world seen in slow motion and stills. Whether it’s the “flower revolution” or Michel Foucault, trends and ideas are often delayed, and seem almost cutely anachronistic by the time they make landfall down under. Wedded to the insatiable[Read More…]
The Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy Government recently issued orders for implementation of English medium in Government schools from the academic year 2020-21. It said that from next academic year from class 1 to 6th all Government schools will teach in English medium with one subject compulsory in Telugu. The orders are issued almost seven months in advance before the academic year starts.[Read More…]
US GIs have been duly honored on Veterans Day. Now let everyone remember regarding any order to invade and or kill in another country: “An order which is unlawful not only does not need to be obeyed but obeying such an order can result in criminal prosecution of the one who obeys it. Military courts have long held that military[Read More…]
Climate change is a nagging issue for many people because it is so big, diverse, and overwhelming, as big as the planet itself. So, how to explain climate change? Sociologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and even anthropologists and economists have tackled the phenomenon of Climate Weltschmerz, meaning people experience angst as the enormity of climate change overrides sensibilities, and sanity, and sadly[Read More…]
Nazareth: It has been a week of appalling abuses committed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank – little different from the other 2,670 weeks endured by Palestinians since the occupation began in 1967. The difference this past week was that several entirely unexceptional human rights violations that had been caught on film went viral on social media. One shows[Read More…]
Text of Peter Koenig’s Presentation at the International Forum on “China’s 70-Year Development and the Construction of the Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”, Shanghai, November 2019 China’s vision for the future is “Give Peace a Chance”. It is also the title of one of John Lennon’s most prominent songs. It became the anthem for the anti-war movement, at the[Read More…]
The date 11 November is well known and commemorated in many parts of the world because it marks the Armistice ending World War I – ‘the Great War’ – in 1918. In the evocative words used by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., an atheist humanist, in his novel Breakfast of Champions, the day is remembered thus: ‘When I was a boy …[Read More…]
“Whether nuclear weapons are actually illegal under international or domestic law (a doubtful proposition) is not relevant or an appropriate issue to litigate in this case,” so ruled Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, late on Friday October 18. This last-minute order, restricting the defense of seven antinuclear activists at a[Read More…]
When the chief investment officer (CIO) at one of the world’s largest asset managers, PIMCO, publically admits what you have been saying and writing for the past 10 years then it is both a time of worry and hope. Worry: because when the present economic system – built on greed, deception and speculation – will collapse then it will spread[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) calls upon the AP government to rescind GO 2430. The GO, issued on 30-10-2019 accords permission to government functionaries to file complaints and lodge appropriate cases through public prosecutor against defamatory news items in the print, electronic and social media. HRF believes GO 2430 undermines the fundamental freedom of the Press and expression and is[Read More…]
The Supreme Court judgment on Babri Mosque-Ram Janmbhumi dispute gave the verdict that the whole land where the mosque stood from 1528 to 6th December 1992 be given to the ‘Hindu Side’, Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas, set up by VHP. Just to recall it was demolished in broad day light by the RSS combine led by Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar[Read More…]
Whether one likes it or not, celebrates it or rues it, appreciates it or criticizes it, the unanimous Ayodhya verdict by a 5-Judge constitution bench is now law. Flawed it may be, imbued with strange logic in places it may be, but it is final, because the Supreme Court is structurally supreme and constitutionally final. Following the Ayodhya verdict, a[Read More…]
Amidst a right wing coup, Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to resign Sunday. Evo’s forced exit from the Bolivian presidency was a right wing coup by army and police chieftains with imperialist backing. Prior to the putsch, imperialism-backed rightists organized unrest, violence and arson including setting fire to residences of two governors’ and of Evo’s sister. The rightists organized[Read More…]
The strike by 48000 workers and employees of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has completed 37 days by now. It is a stalemate now, caused chiefly by the adamant attitude of State Government led by TRS headed by Chief Minister KCR. The High Court had several sittings till now, but could not end the stalemate, and is going to[Read More…]
The pro-fascist Vox party surged into third place in national elections in Spain Sunday, doubling its presence from 24 to 52 seats in the Congress as a hung parliament emerged for the fourth straight election in Spain since 2015. Absention rose to over 30 percent, after a reactionary election campaign oriented around calls for violent police repression of mass protests[Read More…]
In her testimony to the US Congress, Greta Thunberg did not prepare a statement for submission to the record. Instead, she submitted the most recent scientific report, issued by the IPCC three weeks earlier. She said simply, “I am submitting this report as my testimony because I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the[Read More…]
It’s a tale for all time. What might be the greatest scam in history or, at least, the one that threatens to take history down with it. Think of it as the climate-change scam that beat science, big time. Scientists have been seriously investigating the subject of human-made climate change since the late 1950s and political leaders have been discussing[Read More…]
“Australia is a glaring absence in this case. They’re just not around, as if Assange was not an Australian citizen”, UN Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Nils Melzer. The Australian political and media establishments attitudes toward Julian Assange is summed up by no other than one of Australia’s most despicable corporate journalists. In early May 2019, The Melbourne Age newspaper published[Read More…]
For the new generations You and bride, side-by-side At new son’s cradle side, First son at grandpa’s side, Daughter at grandma’s side, All at full tableside— Fortunate family! Springtime ride, riverside. Summer swim, oceanside. Autumn hike, mountainside. Winter song, fireside. Countryside, cityside, Sweet life of bourgeoisie! But there’s another side— Rat-race-cide, ed-debt-cide, Rush-hour- cide, autocide, Boob-tube-cide, junk-food-cide, Beer-gut-cide, pharma-cide— All[Read More…]
M S Swaminathan is often referred to as the ‘father’ of India’s Green Revolution. In 2009, he said that no scientific evidence had emerged to justify concerns about genetically modified (GM) crops, often regarded as stage two of the Green Revolution. In a December 2018 paper in the journal Current Science, however, it was argued that Bt insecticidal cotton (India’s only officially[Read More…]
The whole story of Indian independence struggle against British empire was a glamorous saga with many dedications and it epitomizes the courage held by a nation despite its people were trampled under imperial yoke. However, it seems to indicate the larger picture of Indian independence movement has been narrated from how Gandhi launched his famous Satyagraha as a mean to[Read More…]
Last year, a statue of freedom fighter and first education minister of independent India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was destroyed by Hindutva mobs at Kankinara in North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal. At the time, there were communal flare-ups in many districts of the state in the aftermath of aggressive Ram Navami marches, the first of their kind in the[Read More…]
Walls have always served a dual purpose: they keep people in, and others out. The mentality of the wall is one of imprisonment and exclusion. Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we see such infrastructure, both symbolically and in actuality, potent. On August 13, 1961, the German Democratic Republic began construction of the structure officially dubbed the[Read More…]
“Cause how many times can you wake up in this comic book and plant flowers?” – Rodriguez, “Cause” It’s not funny, that’s for sure. When I went to see Joker, the new Todd Philips’ film, there were five other people in the theater in the liberal, up-scale tourist town populated by wealthy second-home owners, exiles for the most part from[Read More…]
Text and photos: Andre Vltchek There seems to be no limit to Qataris tossing around their wealth. This tiny kingdom with 2.6 million inhabitantsis full of ridiculously lavish gold-plated palaces, most of them built with terrible taste. It is overflowing with Lamborghini racing cars and Rolls Royce limousines, and now, even with ludicrously wasteful air-conditioned sidewalks (cold air blows from[Read More…]
India’s Supreme Court on Saturday granted Hindus permission to build a temple at the centuries-old site of Babri Mosque demolished in 1992 by Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) led right-wing mobs. In their unanimous and historic judgment, the five Supreme Court judges stated that the site rightfully belonged to Hindus, based upon the claim it is the birthplace of their god[Read More…]
On 09-Nov-19, Hon. Supreme Court of India’s 5 judges Constitution bench comprising CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Dhananjay Chandrachud, Sharad Bobde, Ashok Bhushan & Abdul Nazir given entire 2.77 acre land to Hindus. By seeing the judgment it is not clear whether all 5 judges agreed to it or someone dissented like in Aadhar validity case where Justice Chandrachud given a scathing[Read More…]
Oh house of Gods! Oh house of Gods! Temples or Mosques Churches or Synagogues Displaced they stand— A black stone Rectangle or phallic Does it matter? In streams refugees pour out Bloodshed, Gore Hatred and More More and More Ring- a- round the roses Pocketful of doses You think when they Burnt, Singed, they would have learnt Flames should be[Read More…]
A Mosque stood in Ayodhya, it was built in the 15th century – since then, Tulsidas, the writer of the Ramayana, (that is the story of Lord Ram) did not write that Lord Ram was born in the precise place the mosque stood, Swami Vivekananda, the Icon of Hinduism did not mention it. The surveys did not indicate that, nor[Read More…]
The Ayodhya verdict is out. People are interpreting it according to their positions. A one thousand page verdict will have many point and perhaps would be useful for the scholars as a research material. There are things which make verdict the best possible solution in todays vitiated political climate. It is unambiguous that the court has been unanimous in ‘respecting’[Read More…]
What if the Ram temple were demolished on December 6, 1992 instead of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya? Do you think the Supreme Court judgment would have been the same? Do you think the demolished structure would have been given to the party that was involved in razing it to the ground or supporting its demolition? These questions are unlikely[Read More…]
The Presidential election on November 16, 2019 will usher in a new President, either Gotabaya Rajapaksha or Sajith Premadasa. Intensive campaign with promises suiting the locations and people are pouring from candidates to woo the voters, particularly Tamils by Sajith Premadasa. The promises thrown before Tamils will have a short life span as their deaths will be a certainty once[Read More…]
They tell me it is your country, but prove your love to keep the peace, gift the land to us to please, and obey the majority or cease. They tell me it is your country but as long as I don’t affirm my belief, remain silent when in grief, and mourn my history in silence. They tell me it is[Read More…]
Someone demolished my house. I went to court to get justice. The court ordered that the demolisher can build house in the place where my house stood. As a consolation I’ve been allotted some land. Is this justice? This is a fictitious scenario, but not dissimilar to what happened to Rama Janmabhumi – Babri Masjid that was delivered in the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ana Paula Vargas and Vijay Prashad Just before 5pm on Friday the 8th of November, Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva walked out of his prison in Curitiba (Brazil). Lula went to prison in April last year on a 12-year sentence. Five-hundred and eighty days of prison are now over, as the Federal Supreme Court ruled that[Read More…]
The planet is coming apart at the seams right before the eyes of scientists at work in remote fringe areas of the North where permafrost crumbles and collapses. It’s abrupt climate change at work in real time,but the governing leaders of the world either don’t care or don’t know. If they did, there would already be a worldwide Climate Marshall[Read More…]
Forever known by his phrase ‘reverence for life’, Albert Schweitzer was a theologian, moral philosopher, physician and missionary. He was born in Alsace when it was German, and became a French citizen when it reverted back to France after the First World War. To him this reverence implied regard for and a duty to all human beings, not “confined to[Read More…]
Reports on electoral strategies are often written in order to be avoided. They are scripted for the express purpose of gathering dust on shelves, or decaying in digital files rarely to be consulted except by historians. But the review of the reasons why the Australian Labor Party lost the May 2019 Australian federal election was deemed of particular interest. Authored[Read More…]
We can leverage our power as workers through high-impact, disruptive labor strikes that halt the economy’s gears until politicians can no longer ignore us, and are forced to cede to demands that will save the world. This September, the world erupted when over 7 million people — young and old—poured into the streets for the Global Climate Strike. The mass action, which made a Green New[Read More…]
12:05 pm The voting process begins. Result: 187 in favor; 3 against; 2 abstentions Against: Israel, the United States, Brazil Abstaining: Colombia and Ukraine The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday overwhelming voted in favor of the resolution demanding ending of the U.S. blockade against Cuba with 187 countries voting in favor, three including the U.S. against while two countries abstained.[Read More…]
I heard In real or in a dream? Home is white… Or red? Tulip tree is buried…. In ice, Or in debris? Kangri is in shed. Or dead in the cold? My pheran… The one with red dots on chest…. Is like a scarecrow on tilted pole, Or cut into shreds? Who tells me?????? My umbilical cord…… Is missing……………… In[Read More…]
We, the undersigned, have all received messages from WhatsApp Inc. over the last fortnight, informing us that our mobile devices were the target by a highly sophisticated cyberattack. According to this message, an attempt was made to send spyware to our electronic devices through the WhatsApp video calling service, highly compromising our digital security. WhatsApp attributes this attack to a[Read More…]
As the Ramjanambhumi/Babri Masjid, Ayodhya/Faizabad,UP case draws to a close the Muslim society faultlines, contradictions, loopholes and potholes have all as yet again come out in the open. In fact since independence out of the thousands of Muslim organisations, devoted to charity, welfare, human rights, culture or community service, probably all been have ‘engineered’ by agents or agencies . The[Read More…]
An enduring US political tradition was in evidence in Seattle recently. Amazon had decided that the city council elections would be too important to leave alone. Seattle was their city after all. The aim of the company was much in keeping with the manor lord who prosecutes keen poachers: fund pro-business candidates sympathetic to its cause and defeat such Amazon[Read More…]
Patches, pins, medals, and badges are the visible signs of an exclusive military culture, a silent language by which soldiers and officers judge each other’s experiences, accomplishments, and general worth. In July 2001, when I first walked through the gate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point at the ripe young age of 17, the “combat patch” on one’s[Read More…]
Why did I testify at the Massachusetts State House on Oct. 7 against legislation that would require public schools to teach the Jewish Holocaust, Armenian and Greek Genocides, and other genocides and “atrocities”? Good question, especially as I’m an Armenian American journalist and activist. My Christian grandparents landed on these shores over 120 years ago. My answers: A brazenly[Read More…]
Although the Houthi rebels based in Yemen claimed the responsibility for the September 14 complex attack involving drones and cruise missiles on the Abqaiq petroleum facility and the Khurais oil field in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and they have UAV-X drones having a range of 1,500 kilometers, Washington dismissed the possibility. Instead, it accused Tehran of mounting the[Read More…]
Part biography and part astute analysis of traditional fascism (1920s and 1940s) and of today’s version, US politician Madeleine Albright clarifies not just what fascism is but she also outlines the differences between it as a time-bound political movement and populism. Albright was the first female Secretary of State in US history, serving from 1997 to 2001 under Bill[Read More…]
As an international student in UC-Berkeley who has only been in the United States for just over a month, my journey has not only been geographical, from Nanjing, China to Berkeley, USA, but also philosophical and intellectual. When going through the course offerings list, my attention was drawn by a seminar called “Intimate Partner Violence and the Law.” This was[Read More…]
The cat is finally out of the bag. The secretly well-kept decision of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to back Sajith Premadasa of the United National Party is now disclosed 10 days before the election, after playing the hide and seek and cat and mouse games. TNA leadership particularly Sumanthiran and Sampanthan have been making often confusing and conflicting statements hiding[Read More…]
Nation, and nationalism can be, at times, quite confusing terms at philosophical level of thinking. Why am I saying so? Because of a simple fact- every nation has a different nationalism despite having the same fabrics in it. It is like all the nations are wearing clothes which are made of thread, but each have its own form and characteristics.[Read More…]
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said: Mexico does not need “foreign intervention” to deal with its security issues. The Mexican President was making comments following an offer of “help” from U.S. President Donald Trump after the ambush and murder of a family from the U.S. “It’s a firm no,” he said on Tuesday morning. He said: “Of course[Read More…]
A group of great scholars unremittingly condemns the Great October Revolution and the Bolsheviks for leading the revolution. They deny looking at the reality the revolution and the Bolsheviks were encountering. A look at the telegrams and messages Lenin sent, and taking into consideration the circumstances in which those were sent help perceive the reality within which Lenin and his[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies Uprisings against the corrupt, generation-long dominance of neoliberal “center-right” and “center-left” governments that benefit the wealthy and multinational corporations at the expense of working people are sweeping country after country all over the world. In this Autumn of Discontent, people from Chile, Haiti and Honduras to Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon are[Read More…]
Ghazala Hashmi on Tuesday (Nov. 5) became the first Muslim women elected to the Virginia Senate. Ghazala Hashmi, 55, upset the Republican incumbent Glen Sturtevant to represent a district based in Chesterfield County. With all 70 precincts reporting, Hashmi won 43,806 votes, while Sturtevant had 36,811 votes. Sturtevant narrowly won in 2015 against his Democratic opponent. Her victory helped to[Read More…]
It seems a tall, ambitious and very authoritarian order: imposing bans on persons under the age of 18 from playing online games between 22:00 and 08:00; rationing gaming on weekdays to 90 minutes and three hours on holidays and weekends. This is the response of the People’s Republic of China to fears that video game addiction must be combated, less[Read More…]
Over the last one hundred and two years, the Great October Revolution in Russia has been celebrated and condemned, cherished and abhorred, epitomized as a struggle for emancipation and identified asa “coup by criminals”. It has been subjected to merciless criticism and skeptical scrutiny, by a part of the “left” and, of course, the entire right. The one thing that[Read More…]
In the past, Israel used basic technologies to identify Palestinians who take part in protests and mobilize the people in various popular activities. TV news footage or newspaper photos were thoroughly deciphered, often with the help of Israel’s collaborators in the Occupied Territories, and the ‘culprits’ would be identified, summoned to meet Shin Bet intelligence officers or arrested from[Read More…]
It is difficult to win a debate on ethics when you are pitted against a crowd of tech-acolytes. I was taking the position that a more vital consideration in developing cities are ethical ones rather than the smartness of the technology utilised in the infrastructure and running of facilities or services in cities. The organisers of the Maxis Innovation Dialogue[Read More…]
The lights dim, the crowd goes quiet, and viewers begin to leave worries of this world behind, anticipating instead a new and mysterious alternative world that will soon envelop their eyes and ears…Films create worlds…! (Brent Plate) Film festivals across the globe are more often than not venues to celebrate masterpiece works of art-house filmmakers, creating space for indie cinema,[Read More…]
History is witness that Buddhism, which originated in the Indian subcontinent, posed a challenge to brahmanical Hinduism. It is also recorded history that Buddhism was completely wiped out of this region centuries later, through means violent and non-violent. But the Hindutva supremacists, compelled by their desire and fantasy to re-shape national identity, want India’s past to match their views on[Read More…]
Who should rule a family, community or commonwealth, humanity? What hierarchy should we, who know what’s best impose on those who don’t? We ask them in elections, though that doesn’t guarantee that our Divine Right to command and then consume the fruits of rule will be confirmed. It’s best if we don’t ask, just act instead to organize[Read More…]
Do you have the right to screw up your children’s lives by poisoning them against fellow humans, in our case, fellow Americans? If you are biased towards others, that is entirely up to you, but you have the choice to free yourself and enjoy the rest of your life or carry it to your grave or crematorium. A doctor kid,[Read More…]
Though traveling, I eagerly awaited the Seattle election results on November 5th; all day I had a knot in my stomach and a sense of foreboding. “Is it possible they were in the end too powerful for her to withstand?” I asked myself. Hardly a psephologist and with no particular apparatus to gauge the effects of the Goliath versus David[Read More…]
Governments are failing to address the climate crisis, says a new study, which is based on 40 years of data on a range of measures. Another team said: Paris carbon-cutting pledges are “too little, too late”. The alarming assessments came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump formally notified the UN of the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Climate[Read More…]
“Homo Deus. A brief history of tomorrow” by secular Jewish Israeli historian Yuval Harari is fascinating, well-organized and best-selling, but is also a Eurocentric and Anglocentric book with massive omissions e.g. the deadly subjugation of the Palestinians and the Third World in general, existential threats to Humanity (Homo sapiens) from nuclear weapons and climate change, and the worsening Climate Genocide[Read More…]
Dear son, You must be aware of the many happenings in Kerala, including the arrest of young men in recent days. As sleep evaded me and I lie awake at midnight, I felt like sharing some thoughts with you. These are my dreams and hopes for a person like you with intense thoughts and stances in life. I am aware[Read More…]
As the concentration of atmospheric CO2has risen to 408 ppm and the total greenhouse gas level, including methane and nitrous oxide, combine to near500 parts per million CO2-equivalent, the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, currently melting at an accelerated rate, has been exceeded. The consequent expansion of tropics and the shift of climate zones toward the[Read More…]
The terrible and terrifying conditions of wind and fire devastating parts of California are showing us what happens when Earth Trauma approaches critical mass. We are not yet at global critical mass, but we do continue to move ever closer. Critical mass relative to environmental trauma or environmental catastrophe would be when either one of two major developments occur, both[Read More…]
It is now clear that on 14 April 2018, the three Governments of U.S., UK, and France, fired over a hundred missiles against Syria, on no more ‘justification’ than staged videos that had been done by those regimes’ own proxy boots-on-the-ground fighters in Syria, who are trying to overthrow Syria’s existing, non-sectarian Government and replace it by a Sharia-law regime[Read More…]
Lately, in an Introduction to Cultural Studies class I’m teaching at the University of California, Riverside, in between oral surgery and putting in work for lecture duties at another institution, I’ve been discussing socioeconomic class on – and as satirized as well as normalized by – The Simpsons. For this multi-part lecture focused on the class dynamics of everyone’s favorite[Read More…]
An excellent article “The Inescapable Casino”, written by a professor of mathematics is definitely worth reading. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-inequality-inevitable/ The article shows how-physics and mathematics can describe the distribution of wealth in modern economies with unprecedented accuracy. Oxfam estimates that today some 26 individuals possess as much household wealth as the lower half of the world’s population combined—over 3.5 billion people! Statistics[Read More…]
A few nights ago, I watched a poignant and slightly heart wrenching Bengali drama on YouTube that shines a light on disorders like autism. It was the first time that I saw a drama script was written to raise awareness about autism in a developing country like Bangladesh. The 2014 drama showcases what parenting a child with special needs is[Read More…]
Iraqi protesters and security forces clashed at the edge of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone Monday, leaving at least another six demonstrators dead and scores more wounded as the mass protests that have gripped the country continued into their second month. Monday’s clashes came after demonstrators forced their way across the Ahar Bridge, which spans the Tigris River, and into[Read More…]
They called it Castle Black, an obvious homage to the famed frozen citadel from the HBO series Game of Thrones. In the fantasy world of GoT, it’s the stronghold of the Night’s Watch, the French Foreign Legion-esque guardians of the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. This Castle Black, however, was all too real and occupied by U.S. Special Operations forces, America’s most elite troops.[Read More…]
Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, said: People across the Latin America region are rising against “savage capitalism” especially the neoliberal model pushed by the International Monetary Fund. Maduro was delivering his closing statement at the III Anti-Imperialist Congress against Neoliberalism held in Havana Sunday. Maduro said that although neoliberalism seems to have taken the reins in Latin America, it is[Read More…]
When Babri Masjid had lay demolished on December 6, 1992, at the hands of Hindu fanatics, the world sympathised with Muslims of India. Muslims were outraged, betrayed and flabbergasted and resorted to legal recourse to safe Babri Masjid, which is now seeking completion, coupled with virtually nothing coming their way as far as demolition accused, which is BJP top echelon,[Read More…]
By Sandeep, Babloo Loitongbam and Meera Sanghamitra Thuingaleng Muivah, the supreme leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) says that Nagaland may be weaker in material sense but it is strong in politics. No wonder, the organisation which started of as an insurgent group was able to engage Government of India in a process of dialogue for 22[Read More…]
Hydroelectric power from dams might be the thorniest question that proponents of the Green New Deal (GND) have to grapple with. Providing more energy than solar and wind combined, dams could well become the backup for energy if it proves impossible to get off of fossil fuels fast enough. An August 2019 forum on the GND included representatives from the Sunrise Movement, Renew[Read More…]
It gets funny, this shallow analysis of the deep state that is currently big news. There’s something ghoulish about it, perfectly timed for Halloween and masked jokers. What was once ridiculed by the CIA and its attendant lackeys in the media as the paranoia of “conspiracytheorists” is now openly admitted in reverent tones of patriotic fervor. But with a twisted[Read More…]
Delhi’s choking is in the news every year during this period. This year, it broke all the ‘box office’ records of worst air quality. The Supreme Court ‘acted’ as a ‘concerned’ authority. It asked the Delhi and other related government to ‘stop’ ‘blame’ game. It has given some order and ‘decided’ that ‘enough’ is ‘enough’. Arvind Kejriwal blamed the Punjab[Read More…]
While discussing the rise of the Hindu nationalism, a noted French scholar Christophe Jaffrelot has reminded in his recent study that the sole purpose of the RSS-BJP combine is to capture state power and transform the Indian democracy into the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ ( the Hindu Nation). After 2014 and more importantly in 2019 general elections, the dreams of building the[Read More…]
The Kerala police has arrested two Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists, Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fazal under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) from Kozhikode on Saturday. The two were accused of having circulated notices criticising the alleged encounter killing of four Maoists in the Manjakkatti forests in Palakkad district. K.P Sasi is a film maker,[Read More…]
An indigenous Amazon Guardian has been shot dead by loggers and another wounded after they were ambushed by loggers. Paulo Paulino Guajajara, known also as Kwahu Tenetehar, was shot in the neck and died in the forest. His colleague, Tainaky Tenetehar, was shot in the back and arm but escaped. The Amazon Guardians have been patrolling their territory in the[Read More…]
U.S. Treasury Department figures released Friday show: U.S. public debt has surpassed $23 trillion for the first time in history, rising more than 100 percent in less than a decade and more than a trillion dollars this year alone. Of the total, less than US$17 trillion is owed to individuals, while the remaining $6 trillion comes from loans within government agencies.[Read More…]
I am an untouchable My whole body is filled with the scent of the earth My whole life’s filled with the sorrow of veTTi, My eyes are filled with the heat of the sun, My head is covered with dried braids Like the branches of a Banyan Hardened by sun and rain. You pushed me outside the village, You asked[Read More…]
A car bomb exploded [1] in northern Syria killing 13 and wounding 20. The blast on Saturday ripped through a crowded market in Tal Abyad, a town recently occupied by Turkish-backed militant proxies. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast targeted pro-Turkey fighters and civilians were also among the dead. Even though the Turkish Defense Ministry promptly laid[Read More…]
There can be no question about it. Donald Trump is Lewis Carroll’s Queen of Hearts. “Off with his head!” was the president’s essential suggestion for — to offer just one example — a certain whistleblower who fingered him on that now notorious Ukrainian phone call. And if The Donald hasn’t also been playing the roles of White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, and other characters from Carroll’s[Read More…]
Widespread perceptions see Russia together with China as the rising powers in the Middle East as a result of America’s flip flops in Syria and US president Donald J. Trump’s transactional approach towards foreign policy as well as Russian and Chinese support for regimes irrespective of how non-performing and/or repressive they may be. Russia has sought to capitalize in[Read More…]
Pt. 4: We Have Nothing to Fear but Capitalism Itself Like a world that rides on the slow and bumpy back of The Turtle, The M.I.T Report on the Work of the Future balances precariously on the four legs of four assumptions. The first of these, as I have discussed in the first part of this article, is that that[Read More…]
by Dr Wakar Amin & Ashish Kumar Singh While the status of Jammu and Kashmir has been changed, there remain various issues yet to be redressed by the current Modi-led NDA government. One among them is to maintain the peaceful co-existence of different religious communities in the state. As per the 2011 census data, Jammu and Kashmir is a Muslim[Read More…]
The United Nations special rapporteur on torture reiterated Friday a warning that Julian Assange’s life is at risk and said the WikiLeaks founder must not be extradited to the United States as a consequence of “exposing serious governmental misconduct.” “While the U.S. government prosecutes Mr. Assange for publishing information about serious human rights violations, including torture and murder, the officials[Read More…]
Tons of papers by thousands of popular writers in India & abroad have been written while giving advice to the Gandhis on how to revive the party. A few like Sagarika Ghosh suggested forming a new party called the“Swatantra Congress Party” without ideological baggage. Mary Tully, a renowned writer has suggested to shed darbari culture & centralization of power. In[Read More…]
My spine is bent, Sir You can see the bones jutting out; My hands I have stretched, To touch your feet My index finger on your right toe: Can’t you see, Yes? Thank you! (glee) I beg your pardon? Yes, I made sure I burnt all the books before we met And my pen is now the river My brain[Read More…]
It has been brought to our notice that the official website of LGBT Studies, Yale University states that the Brudner prize 2019-20 is being awarded posthumously to Siddhartha Gautam(SG) for his invaluable contribution to the LGBT struggle in India. SG joined AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) briefly for about two years and worked with six other co-authors of Less than[Read More…]
Casting aspersions over the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Russia’s seasoned Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed [1] while speaking to Rossiya 24 broadcaster that the Islamic State and its slain “caliph” were the spawns of the United States. Being a skilled diplomat having intimate knowledge of happenings on the ground in Syria, his statement merits serious consideration. It’s important to[Read More…]
The west has colonized, exploited, ravaged and assassinated the people of the Global South for hundreds of years. Up to the mid-20th Century Europe has occupied Africa, and large parts of Asia. In Latin America, though much of the sub-Continent was “freed” from Spain and Portugal in the 19th Century – a new kind of colonization followed by the new[Read More…]
BJP is a party with a difference in more ways than one. It is the major electoral formation which contrary to the values of Indian Constitution of secular, democratic nation, holds that India is a Hindu nation. It is the only party which is the electoral wing of RSS, the organization formed and pursuing Hindu Nationalism. BJP also has the distinction[Read More…]
Iconic statue of EVR Periyar at the Periyar Thidal. His powerful presence in the Dravidian land ensured that the hate-mongering caste supremacists remain out of the power game in Tamilnadu but now the Tamil land is being targeted by the Hindutva forces and their agenda is to finish the Dravidian movement in the state. I asked this question to Dr[Read More…]
Ghatam Bhindyat, Patam Chhindyat, Kuryat Rasbharohanam Yenken Prakaren, Prasidho Purusho Bhavet Break earthen pots, tear clothes, ride a donkey: Men try to achieve popularity by any means. It was 2006 and DH Shankarmurthy, a nondescript swayamsevak, was handling the higher education ministry in the HD Kumarswamy-led coalition government suddenly hit the national headlines. The trigger was his unusual demand to[Read More…]
We condemn the clandestine and illegal manner in which the Odisha government is facilitating the transfer of land acquired from the local betel vine growers and fisherfolk in Jagatsinghpur district to Jindal Steel Works. The alienation of agriculturally fertile land from the peasantry for the purpose of industry snatches away from them their perennial source of income and livelihood. The[Read More…]
Today, November 2nd 2019 is the 102nd anniversary of one of the darkest days in the bloody history of the British Empire. For exactly 102 years ago today the then British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour wrote a personal letter to Lord Walter Rothschild in which he gifted him Palestine as a ‘home’ for the Jews. That fact that Palestine,[Read More…]
President Trump has stated his intent to withdraw US troops from Syria on several occasions since March 2018. Each time politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, supported by the corporate-controlled media, have, based on US imperial interests, vehemently challenged the withdrawal proposal. These folks also based their opposition to withdrawal on their supposed concerns for the Syrian Kurds.[Read More…]
The Prime Minister of Australia is fuming. Having made his mark on Australian politics by being the mining sector’s most avid defender, Scott Morrison was disturbed by the week’s events in Melbourne that saw clashes between police and protesters outside the sixth annual international mining and resources conference. It made sense for the protesters to kick up a fuss at[Read More…]
कठीण आला काळ, मातीशी तुटे नाळ, युगाचा अंध खेळ, डोळेच केले गहाळ. सावात दिसे चोर, घुबडात दिसे मोर, लहानात दिसे थोर, थोरात दिसे पोर. – Ballad from the movie ‘Court’ There is only one way to shorten and ease the convulsions of the old society and the bloody birth of new – revolutionary terror. Karl Marx Justice has always[Read More…]
He was the only son of his landless parents in a village named as Udaypura in Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh. When the brick kiln season is off, most of the people from Mushahar community who live on the river bank are engaged in fishing as they have no other source of food.. This time, with so much of rain,[Read More…]
Before the evacuation of 1,000 American troops from northern Syria to western Iraq, the Pentagon had 2,000 US forces in Syria. After the drawdown of US troops at Erdogan’s insistence in order for Ankara to mount a ground offensive in northern Syria, the US has still deployed 1,000 troops, mainly in oil-rich eastern Deir al-Zor province and at al-Tanf military[Read More…]
“Can we change their attitude?” “No.” “Can they change their own attitude?” “Yes.” “So, what is our goal? To change their attitude, or to convince them that they need to change it themselves?” “That is challenging, difficult, will take sweat and tears……….do I really want to even try it?” “Ah! We are now at the root of the problem and[Read More…]
Prevention of TB was the focus of many a sessions at the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Hyderabad, India, on the theme of ‘Ending the Emergency: Science, Leadership, Action.’ This conference comes one year after the first ever United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB. One of the commitments made in the political declaration of the UNHLM[Read More…]
To infringe upon the privacy ofcitizens and convert the country into a surveillance state the government enacted Adhaar Act. There were atleast 30 challenges to the law in the apex court.The court gave the interim judgment prohibiting government from making it compulsory.The government didn’t listen and by the time the final judgement came had implemented over 50 centrally sponsored schemes[Read More…]
A lawsuit filed in a US federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday threw up a few interesting, and disturbing considerations. In it, the Facebook-owned platform WhatsApp advanced an allegation that now seems commonplace: that the Israeli spyware Pegasus (known in computer wonderland as a remote access trojan) had again made an appearance, deployed against 1,400 WhatsApp users. In a[Read More…]
U.S. troops and armored vehicles entered Syria Thursday with the proclaimed mission to protect oil fields from the Islamic State (ISIS). Dozens of U.S. soldiers and fewer than 10 Bradley armored vehicles moved into the northeastern part of Syria. On the other hand, citing a witness and Reuters video footage a Beirut datelined and “U.S. forces patrolling in Syria near[Read More…]
Confirming the deaths of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State’s spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, who was killed in a US airstrike in northwest Syria a day after the killing of al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s al-Furqan media has announced Abu Ibrahim Hashemi al-Quraishi as the new caliph of the terrorist organization. Al-Quraishi is such an obscure jihadist that even national[Read More…]
Let us stipulate at the outset that Donald Trump is a vulgar and dishonest fraud without a principled bone in his corpulent frame. Yet history is nothing if not a tale overflowing with irony. Despite his massive shortcomings, President Trump appears intent on recalibrating America’s role in the world. Initiating a long-overdue process of aligning U.S. policy with actually existing[Read More…]
by Punsara Amarasinghe & Prof. Sanjay Rajhans The exact meaning carved by Joseph Nye in coining his notable concept “Soft Power”referred to a strong influence over states where as governments cannot totally get rid of its influence. Because, unlike the hard power which pushes states to the edge, the influence of soft power brings more sentimental effects to targeted[Read More…]
Our drive to satisfy our need for food and water has stoked the physical and social evolution of our species; it has driven us to wander, labor, innovate. The avoidance of hunger and thirst has been the bedrock upon which great human communities have been erected and cooperative actions taken up. The need for food and water have also driven[Read More…]
This is a review of an academic article by Ali Gowher (aka Gowher Rizvi), who is the International affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh. I strongly believe Rizvi’s partisan vies and unsubstantiated assertions have marred the quality of the academic exercise. Had Mujib’s Soviet-style one-party dictatorship (the BAKSAL regime) survived a decade or so, what is Bangladesh[Read More…]
The Ancestor’s Tale (2nd ed.) (2016). Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Great Britain. The subject of Richard Dawkins’s popular-science books has always been ambitious: life itself. The Ancestor’s Tale is an even more ambitious entry in his oeuvre. It dives into the findings, challenges,and methods of evolutionary science using the frame narrative from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: a[Read More…]
George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm is the clear cut reflection of the cruelties put by the authorities. In this novel the author has expounded the exploitative lot of the society. Same could be said of the private school teachers who despite being the disseminators of real and quality education in our society are still the worst sufferers. They work tirelessly[Read More…]
At least 40 immigrants dead in fire at US-Mexico border 
Contemporary Anti-Semitism – A Jewish View from Germany 
In memory of 40th Anniversary of Military Dictatorship in Argentina 
Poor work conditions, non-compliance with Constitutional provisions seriously impact adolescent girls in workforce 
Take action against K Surendran for insulting Women 
Calculated Exoneration: Command Responsibility and War Crimes in Afghanistan 
DOJ Called Upon to Investigate Environmental Activists Abuses 
The World’s Coffee Shops Have Emerged as Plant Milk’s Front Line 
Lara Sheehi’s ordeal, like Steven Salaita’s, is not quite over 
“Facing Clear Evidence of Peril” in a Country of Lies 
The case of Kashmir: A Gandhian Resolution 
Non-Availability of Badly Needed Funds for Dalit Students Increases Their Difficulties 
A bureaucrat-turned- minister in a mess 
Hundreds Of Thousands Of Workers’ 24-Hour Mega Transport Strike Halts Germany 
Oldest Interfaith Organization in America Calls for Children to Have More Rights Than Guns 
What’s the Best Way Out from the War in Ukraine? 
How Indigenous Land Management Practices Are a Blueprint for Climate-Resilient Agriculture 
In memory of Hugo Chavez on 10th death Anniversary 
Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: A Multipolar World Offers Challenges and Opportunities to the Middle East and Africa 
Ukraine War – US-China Relations And the Doomsday Clock 
Anti-Rahul Defamation Card Has Its Limitations! 
Questions We Should Ask to Understand Real Impact of Poverty Reduction and Welfare Schemes 
Punjab: Democracy Under Siege? 
Declaration excessive dividends by the Board of HZL may not be in compliance with Section 123 of the Companies Act 
Men, masculinities, and gender equality 
EU Warns After Russia Plans To Place Tactical Nuclear Weapon In Belarus 
A Hazardous Decision: Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells 
Media and the March to War 
The Basic Issue is not of Taking Sides in Superpower Rivalry, it is of Durable Peace to Save Earth’s Life 
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell 
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane 
Bundelkhand Must Choose its Priorities Carefully 
Citizenship: Beyond the Forked Vision 
Caste-wise census is necessary for balanced development 
Tribal woman murdered after rape in Rohtas and strong protest demanding punishment of culprits 
Why Avoiding Catastrophic War is the Biggest Priority Today 
Labor in market, and the mainstream economics 
Serbia Shall Never Forget NATO Aggression, Vows Serb President 
Kerala’s New Public Health Bill 2023: Subservient to Market Forces rather than Deliberative Democracy 
The Piracy of Development – The 3-Ds: Dispossession, Displacement, Destitution 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
