Dear Indians Jai Bhim, Jai Constitution from Tihar Jail. The way a government responds to our struggle is the best indicator of how strong, constitutional, and in Bahujans’ interest it is. When the Narendra Modi government wanted to make the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act irrelevant under the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s pressure, it was forced to backtrack because of[Read More…]
The chances for those seeking a world of solitude are rapidly run out. A good case can be made that this has already happened. Aldous Huxley’s Savage, made famous in Brave New World, is out of options, having lost to the Mustapha Monds of the world. State and corporate regulation of life, surveillance and monitoring, are reviled only in the[Read More…]
Co-Written by James Anderson and Katy Anderson A few years ago, one of us rode handcuffed in the back of a cop car from Bond County Jail to Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Ill., which would become a near-living hell of a home for two months (prior to a transfer to Decatur Correctional Center). Before getting to Logan, you have[Read More…]
Since 1947, never had post-independent India experienced such a public anti-government outrage and dissent voices. Peaceful protests and brutal state crackdown is happening across India after Parliament passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The law has been contemplated even by United Nations and International Media as blatantly Islamophobic in nature. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) along with CAA raises a[Read More…]
Black Mirror does best when it shows how, in a world that’s almost this world, mass media and social media cause problematic behaviour at the mass level. Premiering in 2011 in Britain, before taking the world by storm on Netflix, Black Mirror blends science-fiction with social commentary to galvanise discussions of how technology and human behaviour intersect in unforeseeable ways. [Read More…]
On the New Year’s Day, Kashmir will complete 150 days of siege – largest ever in any place with the world’s longest-ever internet blockade. Although the curfew-like siege that started on mid-night 4 August has been considerably eased, the wherewithal of the cordon remains entrenched and determined to activate with a wild vengeance whenever Kashmiris display any potential for resistance.[Read More…]
With the recent uprising in Assam against Citizenship Amendment Bill, a parallel sentiment of ‘Assamese’ linguistic hegemony has erupted among the people, who are in favor of ‘One state, one language’. The argument is as absurd as ‘One India, One Language’ propagated by the B.J.P government. Why? There are multiple reasons to it. The first reason is the political and[Read More…]
Co-Written by Jorge Capelán and Stephen Sefton So much confusion and bad faith prevails in the current global information chaos that getting back to basics sometimes seems impossible. But fundamentals never change and merit constant repetition. Above all, anti-imperialist defense of majority world peoples’ right to development against the fascist onslaught of the corporate and political power of the United[Read More…]
If the record of December 2019 is anything to go by 2020 promises to be one of great hope for all Indians interested in preserving their country’s traditions of secularism, democracy and tolerance of diversity. The New Year may well be a turning point in the dismal record of hate and hubris that has prevailed over the last several years[Read More…]
Weapons of dazzling murderousness have always thrilled military industrial establishments. They make money; they add to the accounts; and they tickle the pride of States who manufacture them. From time to time, showy displays of restraint through arms limitation agreements are made. These can apply to either the offensive element of such weapons, or their defensive counters. The calculus of[Read More…]
Co-Written by John Graversgaard and Liz Fekete The previous centre-right government led by the Venstre party (Liberals) was replaced in June 2019 by a centre-left minority government, led by the Social Democratic Party. But has a new government adopted a different approach to immigration, integration and the ‘ghetto package’? Sadly, the answer is a very definite no. But perhaps this[Read More…]
Sri Lanka has been in the limelight of UN and International Community for the last thirty years and more intensively during and after the genocidal war launched against the Tamil civilians and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from 2006 to 2009. After closing their eyes and ears during the war which witnessed torture, rapes, disappearances and killings of thousands of[Read More…]
A fourth round of leaked internal documents from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was published by WikiLeaks Friday, further exposing the official report on an alleged 2018 chemical weapons attack in Douma—a suburb of Damascus then held by CIA-backed Islamist forces—as having been doctored to justify an attack by the United States, Britain and France against[Read More…]
On Christmas Eve, WikiLeaks founder and prize-winning journalist Julian Assange phoned a friend to alert the world that his life is in danger inside London’s notorious maximum-security Belmarsh prison. Vaughan Smith, a freelance video news journalist who gave refuge to Assange in 2010 when he was legally fighting against attempts to extradite him to Sweden, tweeted that Assange called his[Read More…]
The Citizenship amendment act of 2019 is another vicious attempt to change the demographics of India. The Act, along with upcoming National Register of citizens will successfully polarize the electorate and It is aimed to further consolidate the “Us” versus “Them” narrative. The 2014 General Election was contested on the pro-development, Anti-Congress plank. Narendra Modi (then CM of Gujarat) was[Read More…]
When it comes to technology, we depend on others, be it phones, cars, airplanes. Maybe 20 years ago, China was behind us, but now they are light years ahead of India. We are in a pathetic state. In Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I couldn’t find a single Indian company. Out of some 4,500 stalls, about 2,000 were Chinese,[Read More…]
Indian-Australians in Sydney held a huge protest against the unconstitutional, bigoted and divisive Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. Speakers called for the repeal of the CAA and NRC; for an end to police violence; and for the Morrison government to speak out about the human rights abuses occurring under the Modi government. A number of speakers[Read More…]
The niggardly standard of Indian diplomacy with respect to three of its neighbouring countries : Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, is getting exposed. First, the CAB wrongly accused these countries of having persecuted its non-Muslim minorities and assumed that they were thus forced to illegally migrate to India. Second, the NRC imperfectly identified the ‘foreigner’ mainly on account of lack of[Read More…]
When Winter Came, the Power of the People Blazed On The brave protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi have been on protest since Dec 15 after the brutal attack on Jamia students. They have been sitting in solidarity with the protest of the students and against the various steps that the central government threatens against citizenship criteria, like the Citizenship[Read More…]
The hit squad that went about its deadly business with varying degrees of competence in Istanbul last year is set to be thinned. Five members of the group tasked with strangling and carving up the Saudi journalist and out-of-favour Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018 are now facing the generous justice of their employers. As this[Read More…]
As 25,000 to 50,000 people descended on Azad Maidan over a 5 hour period to protest against the CAA-NRC-NPR [Citizenship (Amendment) Act – National Register of Citizens – National Population Register] on December 27, 2019, the portion allowed for protest swelled over and the outside gates were opened by the police. This despite the authorities refusing to allow the originally[Read More…]
Uttar Pradesh is dealing with CAA as it dealt with crime: encounters. Seventy-six year old advocate Mohammad Shoaib fought to have innocents branded as terrorists under repressive laws released, and risked multiple assaults by right-wing lawyers as he took these cases through various courts in Uttar Pradesh. His contemporary, former police officer SR Darapuri became a human rights activist and writer after he retired.[Read More…]
The analysis of Kashmir’s 90-year political history i.e., the period from 1930 to cusp of 2020 reveals a cyclic pattern in which significant political events took place after every 30-year period. I chose to call these events as Kashmir’s 30-year cyclic political turbulences. The first such event was 1931 revolution against Hindu Dogra regime that had been ruling Kashmir since[Read More…]
The Citizenship Amend Act (CAA) is a unconstitutional law passed by the Nazi regime in India led by the ideologically Nazi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh,[Read More…]
The prize has gone to three people studying how the poor can derive more benefit from existing “development” practices. It sees no reason to question the existing market and growth-driven economy and its derivative, development theory. It doesn’t threaten the massively unjust and environmentally destructive global systems that keep billions in poverty. The 720,000 pound Prize has been awarded for[Read More…]
The people of India had been thrilling and ecstatic moods for Jharkhand poll result after the passing of some appalling laws of the BJP government, namely the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, abrogation of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir Re-organization Act, the historical verdict in favor of Ram Mandir and Constitutional Amendment Act 2019. The[Read More…]
Early this year it was learnt that after 17 years of its existence Countercurrents.org (CC) – which has performed a stellar and useful role – was on the verge of closure. There was said to be a shortfall of Rs. 4 lakhs (USD 6000/- approx.) for its minimal requirement of Rs. 10 lakhs (USD 14,000). And that, too, just for[Read More…]
HISTORICAL PARADOX Freudo- Marxism, historically has been identified as a tradition dedicated to or rigorously attempting to synthesize the works of Karl Marx and the Psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud. The first attempts of synthesis were made during 1930 to 1945 in the wake of rise and fall of Nazi flush in History. It was also a process of retreat[Read More…]
If one considers the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) alone, it appears that the Centre is providing some concessions to ‘immigrants’ coming from three neighbouring Islamic nations into India, classifying them as religious minorities persecuted in those nations, to secure citizenship in India. The concession offered is that if they reside six years in India, it will be enough to get[Read More…]
A powerful poem on CAA/NRC by the renowned Malayalm poet Anvar Ali https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GnkBpVgkDc
Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid ‘rich’ tribute to our forces and said that more than 35000 of them have laid their life for the security of our people. Yes, we agree that men and women in uniform work under tireless conditions and despite provocation remain committed to the rule of law. There have been many upright officers both in the[Read More…]
Stop reign of terror in Uttar Pradesh: ‘Ham Bharat ke Log’ asks for immediate end to brutal suppression of dissent and independent probe into police atrocities For the last one week, Uttar Pradesh is under a reign of terror. Uttar Pradesh government is employing unlawful and lethal tactics to harass and intimidate the citizens that are protesting against Citizenship Amendment[Read More…]
A fact-finding report, published by a team comprising activist Yogendra Yadav, CPI (ML)’s Kavita Krishnan, and Riad Azam, says that Uttar Pradesh is under a “reign of terror” following the state government’s “unlawful and lethal tactics” to harass citizens protesting peacefully against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The report, which cites district-wise statistics and[Read More…]
Taking an excerpt from Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second President of India, as he was describing and interpreting the significance of the colors in the Indian flag, which is stated in the Flag Code of India 2002, “Bhagwa or the Saffron denotes renunciation of disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work.” So, are[Read More…]
Broadly speaking most Indian Hindus seem to entertain three perceptions vis-à-vis the Indian Muslims – that Muslims are: (i) ‘invaders’ and thus have no place in Hindu India; (ii) ‘scumbags’, liars, cheats and terrorists and thus be shunned; and finally, to some (iii) they are equal citizens and thus be treated accordingly. Muslims are Invaders and thus have no place[Read More…]
I am a Shudra by birth and a son of shepherd mother and father. My parents and ancestors were meat and milk producers. Their contribution to the nation was through building a food resource and wool based industry and market. They were not Muslims but their occupation was exactly like that of the Kashmiri Muslims—sheep and goat rearing and wool[Read More…]
Two months ago, a day after suffering a fall in his Georgia home, 95-year-old former US president Jimmy Carter was back to building homes for Habitat for Humanity. Wearing a white bandage on his head and with a bruise over his left eye, he was seen handling blocks of wood and a power drill at a building site in Nashville,[Read More…]
As late as the 16th century, the Chinese indigenised “mandarin”, a variant of Sanskrit “mantri”, Malay “mantiri” via Portuguese “mandarim”, which stands for minister, counsellor, or a very high government official. Chinese mandarins were highly educated, well-groomed, powerful, and influential people having sharp intellect and immaculate mannerism. Their attire, mannerism, and language represented the mainstream of Chinese high culture encompassing[Read More…]
By Forum for the Defence of the Indian Constitution For several weeks now, the people of India have hit the streets in a historic protest across the countryagainst the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens – both instruments of imposing fascism on India . Millions, cutting across religious, regional and caste identities have turned out in[Read More…]
“Meeting the climate goals of the Paris Agreement is going to be nearly impossible without removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere” Kevin Drum (2019). No one knows how to impose 1.5 or 2.0 degrees Celsius limits unless drawdown /carbon sequestration of atmospheric CO2 is attempted, nor are drawdown methods normally discussed in most political or economic forums. The release of[Read More…]
The Amazon rainforest is a crucial life-support ecosystem. Without its wondrous strength and power to generate hydrologic systems across the sky (as far north as Iowa), absorb and store carbon (CO2), and its miraculous life-giving endless supply of oxygen, civilization would cease to exist beyond scattered tribes, here and there. Sad to say, a recent scientific analysis of the health[Read More…]
Does Mr. Trump really not grasp that his sanctions left and right – and now on the Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 – is committing economic suicide, not for himself, of course, but for the United States? He attempts to punish not only Russia, but all the corporations, construction companies, Russian, German and from everywhere, which collaborated and are[Read More…]
Daniel Maingi works with small farmers in Kenya and belongs to the organisation Growth Partners for Africa. He remembers a time when his family would grow and eat a diversity of crops, such as mung beans, green grams, pigeon peas and a variety of fruits now considered ‘wild’. Following the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the 1980s and 1990s, the foods of his[Read More…]
Out of total capacity of 166472 MW which has to install FGD by December 2022, only 1320 MW has been done till now As India continues to grapple with unprecedented air pollution levels, one of the largest polluters, thermal power plants aren’t seeming to make serious efforts to reduce emissions. On 7th December, 2015, the Ministry of Environment and Climate[Read More…]
We stand in complete solidarity with the students of IIT Kanpur who marched on 17th December against the police violence inflicted upon protesting students of AMU, JMI and other universities against CAA and NRC. According to the student organisers, they took admin permission for the march on the previous day itself but when they reached the assembly point, they were[Read More…]
Co-Written by Karen Gabriel and Prem Kumar Vijayan The following is a message that has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp and other social media forums. It is apparently a summary of the arguments made by ‘Harish Salve, well known Lawyer, who successfully argued India’s case, in International Court of Justice’, in defence of the CAB (now CAA), in the[Read More…]
The unrest triggered by the passing of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is broiling across the country. Thousands of people, including students and intellectuals, are on the streets fighting to save the Constitution of India. It is time that an iron-willed leadership rise and sustain this movement. CAA is regressive and discriminatory, undoubtedly. It violates the fundamental rights guaranteed[Read More…]
Indians are marching in millions to assert that they remain a united nation and are not prepared to be divided all over again as Hindus and Muslims I have never felt so proud of my country in a long, long time. Led mostly by students and youth, Indians are marching in their millions across the length and breadth of the[Read More…]
The immediate provocation for this article is Bibek Debroy’s essay “Being Fair to Rama” that appeared in The New Sunday Express Magazine on November 24, 2019. Debroy’s central plea – to be fair to Rama, and to read the Ramayana for what it is – is, ironically, situated amid the mounting of a brazen fascist agenda by the Narendra Modi-Amit[Read More…]
On the evening of 11th December, a fellow-researcher and Ihad a lengthy discussion regarding the implications of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. I have previously worked on Bhupen Hazarika’ songs of the Assam Movement while he has written his MPhil on the Nellie massacre (1983); hence the Bill was naturally a point of interest to both of us. We spoke for[Read More…]
Co- written by, Wakeel Ahmed, Badre Alam Khan and Wasim Ahsan After the passing the unconstitutional CAA by the Indian Parliament on 12th December, 2019; it has created a massive unrest at the nation-wide and as a result, students, Left and secular forces have started opposing the said Act on the grounds of violating the basic tenants of our[Read More…]
Our country is currently aflame with continuing protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (CAA) and the as-yet-on-the-drawing-board National Register of Citizenship (NRC), concerning illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are indisputably illegal. There remains a limit to which Indian society can manage to socially, economically and politically accommodate persons who come into India, and claim a share of the diminishing “cake[Read More…]
Fear of losing the job; fear of statelessness; fear of ending the agronomy; fear of being selling off the country. There is a very uncertain future ahead of the millions of working-class in India. Did you ever think about increasing of working shift in factories from 8 hours to 9 hours? Did you ever think that contractual labour has to[Read More…]
To the attention of Prof. Fernand de Varennes Special Rapporteur on minority issues Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland CC: Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Re: India: Citizenship Bill Discriminates Against Muslims Dear Prof.Fernand de Varennes: I am William Nicholas Gomes, a British Human Rights Activist and[Read More…]
I constantly receive such letters; letters which repeat, again and again, year after year, basically the same thing: “If only we would have an opportunity to vote out our damn system!” Such letters, emails and messages keep coming to me from the United States, but also from the United Kingdom. Particularly, after certain events, like when the Western empire[Read More…]
GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER is a study on the killings of and attacks on journalists in India, 2014–2019, and justice delivery in these cases. Since 2014, there have been more than 200 serious attacks on journalists in India. There has not been a single conviction in attacks on journalists in India, targeted for their investigative work. In the latest spate[Read More…]
The Hindutva, a political child of the Brahminic Hindu religion, denied spiritual citizenship to Shudras historically. Now it has decided to deny national citizenship to Muslims. The Brahmin/Bania forces want to consolidate their power with an iron grip on all sections of India by denying basic citizenship to different sections of India in different modes. Shudras and Dalits were denied[Read More…]
At a time when India is already grappling with critical issues, such as economic slowdown, vanishing jobs and agriculture distress, the government’s audacious decision to go ahead with the amendments in citizenship law demonstrate its utter lack of political sensibility. The Prime Minister Modi-led government, since its onset, is obstinately taking reckless decisions that are, in effect, threatening to reverse[Read More…]
On December 20, 2019, the Press Information Bureau (the “PIB”), the nodal agency of the Indian government that disseminates information about the government policies, published a list of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (the “CAA”), via Twitter. Although the government, through these FAQs, has made an obvious attempt to justify and establish the legitimacy of[Read More…]
Rome: Albert Camus in his essay “L’Exil d’Hélène” discusses contemporary disregard for the Greek value of limits. Camus writes that only the artist by his nature recognizes his limits, limits which the historic spirit disregards. The very idea of a super-secret organization like Gladio to remake the world in its own image reflects that same disregard for the Greek[Read More…]
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, construction of which is intended to transport 55 billion cubic metres of Russian gas to Germany per year under the Baltic Sea, is a ragbag of options and promises. The fruit of a deal between Berlin and Moscow, it has troubled those within Russia, Germany, Europe and the United States, though for different reasons.[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The Democratic Party’s electoral strategy of impeaching Donald Trump is backfiring. Before impeachment, Trump was losing to each of the leading Democrats, but the latest USA Today/Suffolk University poll finds for the first time Trump defeating all of the leading Democratic candidates. Gallup reports that Trump’s approval has risen by six points since the launch of the impeachment[Read More…]
Here’s the question at hand — and I guarantee you that you’ll read it here first: Is Donald Trump the second or even possibly the third 9/11? Because truly, he has to be one or the other. Let me explain, and while I do, keep this in mind: as 2019 ends, thanks to Brexit and the victory of Boris Johnson[Read More…]
Democracy of Inhumanity and We, the People of Global Consciousness In a synoptic view, global leaders professing to be wise and smart for being elected, turned out to be naïve, unthinkable and egoistically foolish. Once elected under the so called democracy, they focus their minds on how to get reelected and how to continue a tragic normality of abnormality against[Read More…]
Storied and crowned soccer club Beitar Jerusalem was for decades a pillar of the Israeli right-wing and an often-extreme symbol of Israel’s lurch towards the right as well as its ever more uncompromising attitude towards an equitable peace with the Palestinians and approach towards its Israeli Palestinian minority. Today, in an anti-cyclical development, Beitar Jerusalem, with its acquisition by technology[Read More…]
Scores of people came together to denounce the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), at a rally organized in Surrey on Sunday, December 22. CAA is a divisive law that welcomes only non-Muslim refugees from the Muslim-dominated countries neighbouring India. Aimed at polarizing the Hindu majority against Muslims by excluding[Read More…]
Short story The king was facing a major problem. He has become allergic to sound. The doctors treating him on sound allergy were of the opinion that the shouting on streets against the king must be regulated, so that the king can maintain good health. The citizens were out on the streets shouting slogans against the king. The minister was[Read More…]
The voices rising from all the corners of Assam against the Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) has divided Assam into two sects- one, which is pro-bill or honors the stand of the government in implementing it, and the other, those who are with the populist voice fighting the establishment. But, is it so? I tend to disagree. For me, both the[Read More…]
On December 19th, I left Batla House, Jamia Nagar to Lal Quila to see my city swell up in anger. The BJP-led government had passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and turned it into the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). When the students of Jamia Milia Islamia had protested against it, fearing for their own existence, the Police Force did the[Read More…]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lied to the nation claiming that there never was a pan India National Register of Citizens (NRC). Launching BJP’s election campaign in Delhi he said, “Has anything happened with the NRC yet? Lies are being spread. After my government came to power, from 2014 to now, let me tell the 130 crore citizens of this country,[Read More…]
The bush fire situation in Australia is now deemed catastrophic. And it started early, with a relentless ferocity that has seen thousands of volunteers stretched across the states and a slow but assured rise in the number of deaths. Currently, there are fires raging at emergency level across New South Wales, and major incendiary activity in South Australia and Victoria. [Read More…]
Environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason has just written an open letter addressed to three senior officials in Britain: John Gardiner, Under Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the British government; Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England; and Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Security. Her letter focuses[Read More…]
The mediadarbar.com published a story[1] to explain CAA and NRIC. the story goes like this: A pilot reaches a village with a big aircraft and offers a free ride to its villagers. The villagers had never seen a plane like this, in such a proximity. So many fall prey to the pilot’s ploy and took the seat. The full plane,[Read More…]
Yesterday, the 20th of December, marked the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s release from prison after a failed attempt to seize power. While he was behind bars, he wrote his manifesto. After he was released, Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1925. In the same year, the RSS — a fascist paramilitary — was founded in India with the goal of establishing[Read More…]
As the country offers stiff resistance to the government’s agenda of polarizing the society, the factors at play are not confined to persecution of religious minorities alone. It is a multipronged attack aimed at dividing the country and its people at several levels, each one more destructive than the other. With more than ten protesters dead in the process, the[Read More…]
As we speak, there is currently a massive wave of public resistance within the Indian Republic against the BJP Government’s initiation of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed creation of the National Register of Citizens. Gauhati, in Assam is where the initial pushback began, (and is also where the bloodletting has been the fiercest): spreading on to the Capital,[Read More…]
The waters of fascism have risen in the country where I was born and the country where I have citizenship. Both countries need sustained, non-violent, mass protest to demand the removal of fascist regimes. As morose as it sounds, I sometimes think about where I would be sent if I were deported. I’m a naturalized U.S. citizen, with no guarantee[Read More…]
The death toll in the anti CAA protests through out the country has crossed 20. Situation in many parts of the country is tense and government has imposed section 144 in most of it. Many State governments have imposed section 144 for many days. State like Uttar Pradesh have it till January end but still protests have rocked the state.[Read More…]
It is a general observation that I am having over the past few days as an individual and as a woman in general. Women, I had observed over the years (with my mother and aunts), never really wish or thrive to take the front seat for anything, how much educated they may be! Women tend to be satisfied with the[Read More…]
This week the US House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump. This was a major event—and a very good thing! Even with the narrow terms on which the Democrats carried this out, people seized on this with enthusiasm. Thousands poured into the streets. They were both furious and exhilarated at the fact that Trump was finally beginning to be[Read More…]
Year after year, the right-wing Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles publishes its shitlist[1] of the ten worst Anti-Semetic incidents around the world. To no one’s surprise, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labor Party came in first. On closer inspection, the list turns out to be an instrument of smear and Zionist propaganda against dissidents who don’t buy into the Zionist and the[Read More…]
The recent news of the primary school of Bhulia village under Bhawanipatna Block in Kalahandi District of Odisha has raised the concern of many as the children of this schools are being taught beneath a tree from the last three years. The classroom is one of the most important factors affecting student learning. Because a child spares most of his/her[Read More…]
Historic speech given by Chandrasekhar Azad on the steps of Delhi Jama Masjid “Jai Bhim! This is a bigger fight. CAA and NRC will break this country and we are standing with this nation. This fight is not just of the Muslims, this is a fight for everyone, and we will not let it weaken. I’m surrendering to the government,[Read More…]
Jo aag laga rahe hain, TV pe unke jo drishya aa rahe hain, yeh aag lagaane vaale kaun hain, woh unke kapdon se hi pata chal jaata hai (From the visuals on TV, those setting the fire can be identified by their clothes) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally recently. By alluding to the clothes/dresses of certain protesters,[Read More…]
The Beginning The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (CAB) (ref.: <http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/LSBillTexts/Asintroduced/370_2019_LS_Eng.pdf>) has now become the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), having been notified in the Gazette (ref.: <http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/214646.pdf>), at midnight (Dec. 12/13), following the grant of assent by the President on December 12, in turn preceded by its passage in the Lok Sabha on Dec. 9 and then the Rajya Sabha[Read More…]
On November 27 this year, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, delivered an address to the German Bundestag outlining his approach to understanding the mental health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. These comprised two parts, the initial stage covering his diplomatic asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy, the second dealing with his formal detention in the United Kingdom at the[Read More…]
Decisions about what actions we might have taken in the past appear straightforward. Would we have fought Nazism in its infancy or gone along with the discrimination, mayhem, and violence? Would we have supported civil rights marchers and freedom riders, ignored them or asked them for gradualism? Would we have fought for women’s suffrage or suggest they remain second class[Read More…]
In solidarity with the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 “India cannot cease to be one nation, because people belonging to different religions live in it. … In no part of the world are one nationality and one religion synonymous terms; nor has it ever been so in India.” Mahatma Gandhi in Hind Swaraj (1908); Quoted in S.R. Bommai[Read More…]
The protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed NRC is spreading in many parts of India. Six protesters were killed in clashes that erupted across Uttar Pradesh over the Citizenship Amendment Act on Friday, the state police confirmed. This has taken the total number of protest-related deaths in the state so far to seven. However, Uttar Pradesh Director[Read More…]
We, the Indian recipients of the Magsaysay Award, would like to express our deep sense of concern and anguish at the passing into Law, of the Citizenship Amendment Bill – and the linkage of the same with the National Register of Citizens. Both of these are clearly discriminatory and violative of all the guarantees of right to equality before law[Read More…]
Co-Written by Bikash Sarma and Shofiul A. Pathan Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy recently tweeted,“A democracy is necessarily divisive. If you do not want it, go to North Korea”, even before the protestors against Citizenship Amendment Bill (Now an Act), 2019 in Shillong reached his official residence. His tweet is a small but significant statement that constitutes the supposedly majoritarian discourse[Read More…]
My journey with activism started early on in my youth in 1958 in Jenin, my place of birth. I was fifteen years of age. Angry at the loss of a huge chunk of our land to the Zionists. Angry at the lack of preparation to reclaim not only our land but also our dignity and honour. Angry at what I[Read More…]
Citizenship Amendment Bill, while passed in both houses of Parliament has elicited diverse and negative responses all over India. On one hand we see massive protests in North East leading to death of four people. On the other there is a sever discomfort among those upholding Indian Constitution and among the Muslim community all over the country. This Bill in[Read More…]
Mr. Slavoj Zizek has tried to interpret recent development of the UK Labour Party – its election debacle – but has only exhibited his misunderstanding of the entire capitalist scenario. The heading, if the heading is by Mr. Zizek and not by the editor, of his article in RT on December 17, 2019 – “Big Capital will use every tool[Read More…]
BOOK REVIEW – Islam and God-Centricity: A Theological Basis for Human Liberation (Book 1 and 2) By Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain, Al-Mahdi Institute, Birmingham These volumes are a compilation of transcribed and edited talks of Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain in which the essential message of Islam and Prophet Muhammad’s message of God-centricity is presented in a fresh reevaluation of religion[Read More…]
Extreme temperatures are expected in South Australia, Victoria, NSW and the as the heatwave moves east. Source: Bureau of Meteorology Hellish heatwave is hitting Australia. A state of emergency has been declared in New South Wales, Australia, amid fears a record-breaking heatwave will exacerbate the state’s bushfire crisis. More than 100 fires continue to burn in New South Wales[Read More…]
Several features stand out in the impeachment quest against President Donald J. Trump. There is constitutional discourse as mythology and fetish. There is outrage that the executive office could have been used to actually investigate political opponents through foreign agents. There is cattiness over whether the conduct of the president veered into the territory of criminality, or fell somewhat short[Read More…]
Five years ago: Nations of the world met in Paris to draft a climate agreement that was subsequently accepted by nearly every country in the world, stating that global temperatures must not exceed +2C pre-industrial. Global emissions must be cut! Fossil fuel usage must be cut! Today: Following Paris ’15, global banks have invested $1.9 trillion in fossil fuel projects.[Read More…]
Don’t follow the money – change it! More on such a tremendous undertaking later on. Meanwhile little Greta and millions of other youngsters walking in her footsteps are crying out to us. How long can our only planet be sold for the ever-increasing profit and production that are ravaging it? How long can the human family permit itself to[Read More…]
As Australian activist John Pilger recounts his visit to the world’s most abused US/UK political prisoner Julian Assange, he gives us the brutal details of how the friends and families of political prisoners also face punishment, gauntlets, humiliation. And he tells of the terrible conditions and terrible treatment meted out to Assange, and the weakened, vulnerable state in which[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies The trove of U.S. “Lessons Learned” documents on Afghanistan published by the Washington Post portrays, in excruciating detail, the anatomy of a failed policy, scandalously hidden from the public for 18 years. The “Lessons Learned” papers, however, are based on the premise that the U.S. and its allies will keep intervening militarily in other countries, and that they[Read More…]
One day in October 2001, shortly after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, I stood at the front of a private high school classroom. As a new social studies teacher, I had been tasked with describing violence against women in that country. I showed the students an article from the front page of the New York Times featuring Afghan women casting off their burqas as[Read More…]
(Rome)I have wondered if the German Field-Marshal Friedrich Paulus after his defeat and capture by Russians at Stalingrad in February 1943 really changed when as a prisoner of war in Soviet Russia he joined the National Committee For A Free Germany and the anti-Fascist Union of German Officers. Were his words sincere when he broadcast anti-fascist messages to Germany over[Read More…]
Many would complain that it is unfair to limit Ambedkar to one community. Yes, it is true that his writings, his activism, his work as minister, constitutionalist, law maker does cover politics, economy, foreign affairs, welfare, labor issues, history, caste, rationalism and religion and addresses deprivation of the rights of every vulnerable section of the society. This means that he[Read More…]
I’m a pigeon with legs tied up, Everyday they feed me with donations grains.. They assured me to be in safe, and I suffocate every moment, dying of my freedom. They assure me every time, That I’ll get a blissfull life, Secured from the struggle and insecurity, But I know its a doom to me in the mouth of the[Read More…]
Based on remarks at The Belt and Road Initiative: China-Middle East Cooperation in an Age of Geopolitical Turbulence workshop organized by Brookings Doha Center and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences A first-ever joint Chinese-Russian-Iranian naval exercise signals that closer Chinese military ties with a host of Middle Eastern nations does not translate into Chinese aspirations for a greater role[Read More…]
The nation wide protests against #CAA and #NRC has reflected the mood of the nation and categorically rejected the attempt to divide this country and create a brahmanical theocratic state even when the rulers will pretend everything and bow to the constitution, we know they had in mind, was to polarise the nation and enjoy the fruits of ‘division’. If[Read More…]
94-year old Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, himself a highly respected Muslim leader despite failings of his own during a long political career, really took affection to our Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan when the latter visited Malaysia. It was clear that Dr. Mahathir immediately picked up that this would be a promising Muslim leader in a sea of mostly ineffectual pawns[Read More…]
Hundreds of protestors were detained across India on Thursday as authorities clamped down on protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, social activist Harsh Mander, scholar Yogendra Yadav, and Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja were among those detained in Delhi, where 20 metro stations were closed through the day. Historian Ramachandra Guha and others detained[Read More…]
There are concerns, curiosity and confusion among citizens on CAA (earlier CAB) and protests erupted at many places and in universities across India. Here are few concerns to express what is problematic there in CAA, NRC and in present situation: Even if everything is fine with the bill: If everything was fine with the bill and despite that there were[Read More…]
World hides its monstrosity In being silver around night’s chest World easily presaudes World changes color like we do World lends a hand, heavy like society Coiling what’s night with care World kicks hard out of its property World says, it’s all fair World never wears what it can’t bare World walks miles to gain position World freezes at you[Read More…]
More than 500 Australians presently die from heat stress each year with this disaster disproportionately impacting the elderly, the impoverished and Indigenous First Nations peoples. Australia is currently beset continent-wide with climate change-exacerbated heat waves with sustained temperatures above 40 degrees Centigrade, extraordinary, nation-wide bush fire emergencies commencing in Winter, and a devastating and widespread drought in Eastern Australia that[Read More…]
In Andhra Pradesh Assembly the anti-English medium, opposition leader, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, surrendered in a debate on 12 December, 2019. He said “we are not opposing introduction of English medium in Government schools’. With this surrender all his supporting media network, street dharna teams,the forces of pro-private English medium schools will now follow the suit. Thepro-English medium in Government schools[Read More…]
Is the threat of terrorism real? Or is it like the barking of a dog driving a herd? The threat of catastrophic climate change is very real indeed. The threat to future global food security is real too. Already 11 million children die every year from malnutrition and poverty-related causes. The threat to human civilization and the biosphere posed by[Read More…]
Three years ago, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334. With fourteen members voting in favor and one abstention, the Resolution was the equivalent of a political earthquake. Indeed, it was the first time in many years that Israel was roundly condemned by the international body for its illegal settlement policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Unlike previous attempts[Read More…]
inspired by & freely adapted from a poem by the French poet Paul Eluard On every door at every gate in every doorway on all the windows, mirrors of all the world I write your name. On every road with every step in the wide meander and the sand on the straight and narrow and around each[Read More…]
Globalization, Democracy, and Migration are themes which continually ignite both scholarly and non-scholarly debate. Not so surprisingly, none of this is new. In his own inimitable way, the German Enlightenment philosopher, Immanuel Kant, touched upon all these current hot topics and more. Kant’s political writings have only relatively recently been appreciated by the likes of political philosophers in the Anglo[Read More…]
When the red flag was removed from the top of red square followed by Gorbochove’s statement that declared the official disintegration of USSR, the West was erupted in jubilation as the sole winner of the cold war. Political theorists like Fukuyama coined a new political phase “End of History” which affirmed that the world emerged after the collapse of Soviet[Read More…]
General Naravane takes over as army chief at the turn of the year. His agenda has already been set for him by his predecessor, whose tenure over the past three years witnessed a trend towards politicization of the army. Naravane needs to roll back the damage done by General Bipin Rawat, even if Bipin Rawat is lucky enough to be[Read More…]
Extremely hot, windy and dry conditions are forecast for much of Australia this week, meaning the hundreds of fires already burning across the country will be intensified, and more blazes are likely to start. In South Australia, maximum temperatures above 40C are set to continue until the weekend, causing extreme fire danger in several areas, including the Mount Lofty ranges,[Read More…]
Since the planting of limpet mines on oil tankers off the coast of the UAE in May, the subsequent downing of the US surveillance drone in the Persian Gulf and the brazen attack on the Abqaiq petroleum facility and the Khurais oil field in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on September 14, choreographed protests have erupted in Lebanon and[Read More…]
As we stand in the third decade of astructural economic reform, we must question every side of the coin about their intentions before taking any particular side. The same should be done to the populist leaders of Assam who have sparked protests across the state on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill. It’s interesting how history is on the[Read More…]
Deforestation on protected Indigenous lands in the Amazon was almost three times higher than the loss of trees in the region as a whole and the highest since 2008, finds a new study based on satellite imagery. The data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) studied by the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), a group working with Indigenous people, show that between August 2018 and[Read More…]
People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism strongly condemns the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) passed by the Parliament on Dec 11,2019. Modi government used its brute majority to force it through the Parliament, without addressing any of the concerns raised against it. The law violates principle of secularism, which is part of the basic structure of the constitution. Parliament has no legal[Read More…]
Solidarity statement by Hyderabad Muslim Women’s Forum against the police action on students of Jamia Milia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi became the centre of students protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act which was passed in the parliament last week. Even Aligarh Muslim University students were protesting against this Act. On 15th December[Read More…]
Britain is looking drenched at the moment; colours blue and yellow seem to be streaking through the country. The Scottish Nationalists have re-asserted control lost to the Conservatives in 2016. In the rest of the country, seats never touched by Tory Blue have are now occupied by the party of Boris Johnson. Yet again, British politics shows that the posh[Read More…]
For a decade and a half, the U.S. Army waged war on fierce tribal Muslims in a remote land. Sound familiar? As it happens, that war unfolded half a world away from the Greater Middle East and more than a century ago in the southernmost islands of the Philippines. Back then, American soldiers fought not the Taliban, but the Moros,[Read More…]
Three years after demonetisation was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on November 8, 2016, people still remember it as the beginning of a very difficult period. Many have come to accept what I have been saying that the economic downturn in India began then and now the official rate of growth has come down to below five per cent.[Read More…]
When Nazi Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, they made it illegal for non-Germans to be citizens. Germans to prove that they had Aryan ancestry. India’s Citizenship Amendment Bill mirrors those Nazi laws. Instead of segregating people by genetics, it segregates them by religion. It makes religion the basis for citizenship. CAB is only the latest in a line[Read More…]
A cage grows around me each day Everyone is free they say, Wishes plummet to the bottom and gets locked in platinum vaults Everyone is free they say, A pact is signed today where the larynx is laminated they tell it is to protect all the homes, a fire is built, curfewed are all the nights just to have the[Read More…]
When I turned 40, my friends threw a party for me. We had great food, drink, and music. Several good friends read messages about me aloud. It was touching. I remember thinking how lucky I was to have such a loving family and such caring friends. I also remember the enormous guilt I felt when I made it to 40.[Read More…]
Greenland is losing ice seven times faster than in the 1990s and is tracking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s high-end climate warming scenario, which would see 40 million more people exposed to coastal flooding by 2100. A team of 96 polar scientists from 50 international organizations has produced the most complete picture of Greenland ice loss to date. The[Read More…]
It is amazing how easily, without resistance,the Western empire is managing to destroy “rebellious” countries that are standing in its way. I working all corners of the planet, wherever Kafkaesque “conflicts” get ignited by Washington, London or Paris. What I see and describeare not only those horrors which are taking place all around me; horrors that are ruining human[Read More…]
Dharshini, aged 34 years, one of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living at a camp in Tamil Nadu’s Gummidipundi, is really disappointed these days. (https://www.news18.com/news/india/fear-of-deportation-looming-large-sri-lankan-tamil-refugees-play-wait-and-watch-in-hope-of-indian-citizenship-2419791.html). She was hoping against hope that the government would finally decide to grant citizenship rights to her and her family members after waiting for all these years. Somebody had told her that the government is[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ushosee Pal & Sanchari Basu Chaudhuri Time and again, students have shown the way to dissent peacefully and demand change. And, Friday, the 13th was no different. Three to four teachers were giving a speech about NRC and CAB inside the campus while a number of students (around fifty) listened. It was peaceful inside the campus on that[Read More…]
The end, hopefully, of Jantar-Mantarisation of people’s resistance It took the lesser-in-the-news, supposedly less-flashy Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) to change the complexion of resistance in the country. While we had earlier seen some protests regarding hike in hostel fees, whose narrative was broadened to “affordable public education,” we did not see much mobilization for various egregious national issues like[Read More…]
Anti-Minority attitude Brahmanism Communalism Divisive beliefs Educational destruction Fascism Godse worship Hatred Islamophobia Jumlebaazi Killing institutions Lynching Manuvaad National chauvinism Othering minorities Patriarchy Quelling resistance Riots Saffron sickness Terrorism of majority Unconstitutional act legitimisation Violence War mongering Xenophobia Yelling Zombie creators in form of lynchers and rioters Sreerama is a poet and earlier worked with Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) SIGN[Read More…]
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was brought as a Citizenship Amendment Bill for the purpose of amending the Citizenship Act of 1955 to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before 31 December 2014, eligible for Indian citizenship. It also seeks to relax the requirement of residence in India for citizenship by naturalisation from 11 years to 5 years for these migrants.[Read More…]
This was an election of two illusions. The first helped persuade much of the British public to vote last week for the very epitome of an Eton toff, a man who not only has shown utter contempt for most of those who voted for him but has spent a lifetime barely bothering to conceal that contempt. For him, politics is[Read More…]
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it is estimated that the total number of passenger pigeons in the United States was about three billion birds. The bird was immensely abundant, as illustrated by this passage written by the famous ornithologist, naturalist and painter John James Audubon: ‘I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my[Read More…]
Notwithstanding China being Australia’s biggest trading partner, the Sinophobic and US lackey Australian Government and Mainstream media are publicly highly critical of China and the Chinese for asserted wrongs in many areas from human rights abuse and subversion to territorial occupation, but in stark contrast are utterly silent over horrendous crimes in the same areas by the US, UK, traitorous[Read More…]
Her name means beautiful, and she is despite her tragic life. Hasina recalls the day when the Myanmar army set fire to her village and killed the inhabitants, including 10 members of her family, as she watched. She is appearing as a witness at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the tranquil capital of the Netherlands. The Hague[Read More…]
I find surprising the detailed manner in which history repeats itself. The result of the landslide described here seems to have been replicated in the USA of our times in ways that all of us witness each day. The Germany of say 1939 seems like[Read More…]
Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la la Tis the season to be jolly Fa, la la la la, la la la la In a collection of multiple surveys from the past decade, PEW finds that 65 percent of American adults now call themselves Christian. People of Christian faith celebrate the[Read More…]
Religion is probably the most complex human phenomenon. From Centuries philosophers have tried to understand and define it. Different commentators have emphasized on its many facets. Probably one of its most comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon has been put forward by Karl Marx, when he writes “Man makes Religion…This state, this society produce religion, a reversed World consciousness, because they[Read More…]
The longest ever UN climate talks on record – Conference of Parties (COP)25 – have finally ended in Madrid with nothing, but a compromise deal. Many of those in attendance were unhappy with the overall package, feeling it did not reflect the urgency of the science. A disappointment has overwhelmed many COP25 delegates. Exhausted delegates reached agreement on the key[Read More…]
Prior to the UN Convention on Climate Change talks held in Madrid, the sense that tradition would assert itself was hard to buck. Weariness and frustration came in the wake of initial high minded optimism. Delegates spent an extra two days and nights attempting to reach a deal covering carbon reduction measures before the Glasgow conference in 2020. The gathering[Read More…]
Why their failure? This metaphor can give us an answer: In those few minutes after takeoff as we all lean back in our assigned seats in an American Boeing 737 Max (Donald Trump is our pilot and Bill Barr is our copilot) neither we or they are aware that the plane is about to crash. Bad engineering, inadequate quality controls,[Read More…]
Democrats have a dilemma — determine the best candidate to lead the country or search for the best candidate to beat Donald Trump. The Dems acknowledge their Party has drifted to the left, proposing progressive legislation that will more equitably distribute wealth, more assuredly meet all citizens’ health needs, and prevent crises of climate change and nuclear conflagration. Proposed programs[Read More…]
It is ironical that we have been observing December 10 as the World Human Rights day following two most egregious incidents of violation of human rights in India – one by a gang of rapists and the other by the state police, each occurring within a couple of days. In Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, a survivor of gang rape was [Read More…]
There’s a well-known story, often included in children’s story anthologies, about the legendary wisdom of King Solomon. Once a dispute between two women was brought to him to resolve. Both of them were mother’s of two small babies, and they lived in the same house. One morning one of the babies was found dead, smothered in bed. Then each of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Bishaldeep Kakati and Pranjit Das There was a time when the tales of the Assam Agitation were simply a part of history, for all those who were born in the post Assam Agitation era. But as the common quote itself says, “History repeats itself”, hence it seems that even something similar to Assam Agitation is currently lingering in[Read More…]
India is witnessing a set of massive protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). These protests do offer a ray of hope of preserving and protecting the idea of ‘secular’ India. What the parliament sought to undo to the constitution through the majoritarian numbers is sought to be redone by the mass protests. A regime which is bent on bringing[Read More…]
PUCL strongly condemns the motivated, targeted and brutal attack by the CRPF and Delhi Police on students of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi yesterday, Sunday 15th December, 2019 causing serious injuries to over 150 students including girls, and also arrest of scores of students and youngsters. By all media reports and eye witness accounts, the[Read More…]
Students rose up across India against the unconstitutional Citizenship Amendment Act after their compatriots in Jamia Milia Islamia were violently beaten up in their campus yesterday. Police in both Delhi and Aligarh used excessive force against student protest. The crack down left a total of nearly 50 students injured and the 100 Jamia students – who had been detained after[Read More…]
Co- written by Badre Alam Khan, Wakeel Ahmed and Wasim Ahsan The Delhi Police have forcefully entered Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) university campus without the any permission of university administration (as the Chief Proctor of Jamia has officially tweeted) and started fired tear gas inside campus and even students studying in the library of JMI. Some students were severely injured.[Read More…]
On Saturday, activists staged a protest outside the COP25 summit venue in Madrid to express their frustration at what they see as the failure of world leaders in taking meaningful action on climate change. The conference has become enmeshed in deep, technical arguments about a number of issues including the role of carbon markets and the financing of loss and[Read More…]
“Where do we go from here?” asked a US-based Indian Muslim friend the morning after India lurched further to the right with the smooth passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Yet another ostensibly wild and crazy idea on the Parivar’s agenda has been ticked off and with such ease. Who would have thought that it would take less than 72[Read More…]
Faction: A number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community—James Madison The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the[Read More…]
On the 12th, in the month of December, 2019; a General Election was held in the depth of a British winter. The following day, sections of the Revisionist, pro-Big Money British media announced that Friday the 13th was the day that the British Labour Party died; and they joyfully wished that the Party; now: — Rest In Peace. Pundit is[Read More…]
Martin Neimoller’s confessional poem of how he, a Protestant pastor, did not care or ignored the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany , and how they arrested or persecuted the Communists, the Socialists, the trade unionists, the Jews and so on, one group after another till “Then they came for me – and there was no one left to[Read More…]
The Singapore success is attributed to their leader LEE KUAN YEW developing a society where each race appreciate and respect that of others, encouraged to preserve its unique culture and traditions, let alone that of the majority. It’s fostering such an approach for a multi-race society enabled them to go forward. LEE KUAN YEW was the first Prime Minister of[Read More…]
A new law in India which expedites citizenship for certain religious minorities has been criticized by the UN human rights office for being “fundamentally discriminatory in nature.” The amendment to the Citizenship Act gives priority to Hindus, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before 2014, but excludes Muslims, including minority sects. “Although India’s broader naturalization laws[Read More…]
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared via videolink at Westminster Magistrates Court in London yesterday for a brief administrative hearing. The half-hour proceedings confirm that the fundamental legal rights of the world-famous investigative journalist are being trampled in what amounts to an extraordinary rendition. Assange last appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on October 21 and is being held on remand at[Read More…]
The show of strength during the 1963 “Million Man March” on Washington DC in the United States has been seen as a landmark in the Civil Rights struggle. Though it had its own problems, especially, and ironically, problems of representations since several voices were shut out, it nevertheless demonstrated a unified show of resistance, conviction and dedication for the cause[Read More…]
On the left, Farrukh Mirza and on the right; myself. I have known Farrukh since we were both 5 years old. We went to school together. He is now a Doctor in California. Not bad for 2; 56 year old Asian Uncles from the East. This picture was taken in South London when we met up after many years. Both[Read More…]
The state of the nation is disturbed. The economic data is at a historic low – GDP, Employment, NPAs in banks, cost overruns, even falling demand not only in the automotive but also in rural markets for FMCGs, even undergarments! For the first time in my memory we are seeing falling demand for POWER!! Thermal power plants are shutting down[Read More…]
As a gust of wind sends the curtains flapping wildly, I wonder about our future. The future is signaling us to go back. The future is telling us to stop where we are now. But we pretend not to hear. And we don’t care. We’re not aware of what we’ve lost and are seeking things we don’t need at all.[Read More…]
PUCL Call to Citizens to launch Non-Cooperation Movement against CAA & NRC PUCL deplores the promulgation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on 12th December, as a law which renders asunder the basic structure of India’s constitutional scheme founded on the stated goals of secularism, respect for diversity and peaceful coexistence of all communities, without distinction of community, caste, creed[Read More…]
The Kerala government has decided not to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill enacted by the Centre, calling it unconstitutional. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday that his government had taken the decision based on the “unconstitutional” nature of the bill. Another opposition-ruled state, Punjab, too, decided to not implement the law. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder[Read More…]
Argentina is taking measures to fight out debacles created by implementation of neoliberal policies for years in the country. The measures may appear unusual to many. But the measures show a political leadership’s effort to fight out poverty, lack of medicare for common people. There is also a plan to make current laws related to health and social emergencies ineffective[Read More…]
Storms are savaging East Africa where rainfall in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania is now over 300 mm (about a foot) higher than the 30-year mean tallied since 1981. The subsequent flooding and landslides have affected 2.8 million people displacing many and reportedly killing 300 according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Thousands of miles away at[Read More…]
Desperate for cash, Tajikistan is about to sell yet another vital asset to China at a time that countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives are demanding renegotiation of debt settlements that either forced them to surrender control of critical infrastructure or left them with unsustainable repayments. The pending Chinese acquisition of a stake in Tajikistan’s aluminium smelter, coupled with[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Bolivia, December 2019, three weeks after the fascist coup. It is devilishly cold. My comrade’s car is carefully navigating through the deep mud tracks. Enormous snow-covered mountain peaks are clearly visible in the distance. The Bolivian Altiplano; beloved, yet always somehow hostile, silent, impenetrable. So many times, in the past I came close to death[Read More…]
In the 1920s, the influential American intellectual Walter Lippman argued that the average person was incapable of seeing or understanding the world clearly and needed to be guided by experts behind the social curtain. In a number of books he laid out the theoretical foundations for the practical work of Edward Bernays, who developed “public relations” (aka propaganda) to carry out this task[Read More…]
Justice Markandey Katju, a retired judge at the Supreme Court of India, has launched Ibaadatkahna movement to promote peace in South Asia. Ibaadatkahna, a non-partisan movement, was launched on December 8, 2019 at a unity dinner held at the Chandni Restaurant, Newark CA. The Unity event was attended by people from various faiths. Justice Markandey Katju was the key note[Read More…]
The phrase “Anti-National” is curious, for more reasons than one can count. Still, we Indians both use it and allow it to be used far too often, contributing to the national disease of complicity, muddle-headedness and capitulation that plagues us and always has. The use of the phrase has echoes in eras that have gone before, thankfully some short-lived despite[Read More…]
US Dollar’s world domination is diminishing. Not only are central banks, the world’s rich also hoarding the yellow metal – gold. A Bloomberg opinion piece “World Is Stuck With the Dollar as the Reserve Currency” (December 11, 2019) said: “The U.S. dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency might be weakening. In the last few years, the fraction of global[Read More…]
In 1781, the Bolivian indigenous leader Tupac Katari led a rebellion in which La Paz, the Spanish colonial capital of “Upper Peru,” was besieged for 109 days. The siege ended with the arrival of a Spanish army. Katari was captured, he and his wife, Bartolina Sisa, were gruesomely executed, and thousands of indigenous people were massacred. For many years, this[Read More…]
The Left parties – Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party – have issued the following statement: Both the Houses of Parliament have passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB). The Left parties consider this Bill as being completely violative of the Indian Constitution and aimed[Read More…]
There once existed a city by the name of ‘Multicoloured city’. It had various houses built in it. People were encouraged to build houses as they deemed fit, to colour them with whatever colours they liked. So the houses in that city were all different…vibrant….with various shades of so many different colours. The residents of the city used to look[Read More…]
It was a scandal of the highest caliber. On November 23, the Senate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa was practically bullied to reverse an earlier decision that called for the academic boycott of Israel. While the story may seem relevant in South Africa’s political and academic contexts, in reality, it exemplifies the nature of a[Read More…]
To, The Chief Minister, Odisha Bhubaneswar Sub: Regarding unconstitutional statement by Minister of Law of your Cabinet on the infamous Hyderabad ‘encounter’ killings Sir, As you know the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken,suomotu, cognizance of the infamous Hyderabad ‘encounter’, suspecting the version of the police.The High Court of Telengana has also intervened in the same matter in response[Read More…]
Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). With this India moves one more step further towards ‘Hindu Rashtra’ an anti-thesis to the idea of India. For citizenship by naturalization, a stay of 11 years was sufficient to acquire citizenship. This did not have a religious dimension to it. The current bill allows non-muslims from[Read More…]
Funeral of your democracy warned foresighted ages ago. In spite of fellow beings, you burn your abode willfully. Many nations have been here, reckoning to be invincible Little did they know, they perish notorious in the process. Men of infamy, high on false pride Feeding gullible, treacherous fantasies Selling hate for old brotherhood, you saw it coming in willful silence?[Read More…]
The crackdown on the mainstream leadership in Jammu and Kashmir and the inability of the present dispensation, to take into confidence the Abdullah’s and the Mufti’s, is deeply problematic. The political doctrine that has been operating in Kashmir since 1947 has now been challenged. Using a ‘not so friendly’ mainstream leadership, to check separatist politics, was one compromise Delhi had[Read More…]
Rapes — How many a day? How many a week? How many a year? The victim stays till Doused with kerosene and burnt The victim stays till Pelted with stones and killed The victim stays till Lynched by mobs to death Twelve or twenty-three, What was their fault? Being a woman? Beasts drawn by untasted flesh Tempted by images drawn[Read More…]
BR Ambedkar wrote in Annihilation of Caste that “…the world owes much to rebels who would dare to argue in the face of the pontiff and insist that he is not infallible. I do not care about the credit which every progressive society must give to its rebels. I shall be satisfied if I make the Hindus realize that they are the[Read More…]
I have lived in three Indian cities until now. Guwahati; my hometown, New Delhi; for higher studies, and Mumbai; as a research scholar. The question that lingers in my mind, no matter where I am is, “where is my safe space?” or “where can I go without feeling scared/observed?” This is absolutely a menacing fact. The girls or women facing[Read More…]
The Arctic is increasingly at risk as temperatures warm and sea ice melts away, warns U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in its Arctic Report Card (ARC), an annual report on the state of this crucial ecosystem. Climate crisis is causing chaos in the Bering Sea, home to one of America’s largest fisheries, said the U.S. federal government agency’s scientists[Read More…]
The war The U.S. is waging in Afghanistan is highly costly. Brown University’s Costs of War Project made some calculations of the war years ago. Now, the high cost is being discussed in the circles of the mainstream politics and media. The New York Times in its “What Did the U.S. Get for $2 Trillion in Afghanistan?” report on December[Read More…]
The Constitution of India guarantees the right to citizenship for all Indians; irrespective of their religion, caste, language, culture, gender or profession. This very right is being made void by the Citizenship Amendment Bill. A move to decide citizenship on the basis of religion amounts to a rejection of the Constitution. The is an exercise to divide people on communal[Read More…]
It is a shame that some 30,000 books of the Mantralaya library in Mumbai have been dumped into a godown. Clearly, the government cares more for motor cars than books. It has no space for books but proposes to build a car park under Mantralaya to park 700 cars at a cost of Rs. 70 crores. Besides, the move totally[Read More…]
The culture of raping women both for personal gratification of persons involved or as a weapon of oppression is killing the public morale of the nation within and globally. The brutal gang rape of Disha at Hyderabd on 27 November, 2019 re-enacted the worst case of Nirbhaya in Delhi seven years ago. In Delhi it was a gruesome killing of[Read More…]
It was Monday, March 1, 2032, and the top uniformed officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps were poised, as they are every year around this time, to deliver their annual “posture statement” on military readiness before the Senate Armed Services Committee. As the officers waited for the committee members to take their seats, journalists covering the[Read More…]
US imperialism’s Afghanistan War reveals imperialism’s limit. It’s, as Mao said decades ago, a paper tiger. The war is the evidence. The just published The Washington Post report – “The Afghanistan Papers: A secret history of the war, At war with the truth”, (by Craig Whitlock, December 9, 2019) – carries the story of this limit. It’s, to some, a[Read More…]
How to live a more sustainable life? This question generates a lot of debate that is focused on what individuals can do in order to address problems like climate change. For example, people are encouraged to shop locally, to buy organic food, to install home insulation, or to cycle more often. But how effective is individual action when it is systemic[Read More…]
It is hardly surprising to see Middle Eastern countries at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, as the worst violators of freedom of the press. But equally alarming is the complete polarization of public opinion as a result of self-serving media and, bankrolled by rich Arab countries, whose only goal is to serve their specific, often sinister, agendas.[Read More…]
According to US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, the US will help “legitimate governments” in Latin America, in order to prevent protests from “morphing into riots”. From what we are seeing this “legitimization” may be expanded to rest of the world. Because Washington instigated destabilizing unrest goes on throughout the world. We may as well call it “Operation Condor 2.0[Read More…]
Bringing unity in diversity by harmonizing the opposing forces of centripetal and centrifugal trends in the country for the achievement of common national goals is the purpose of federalism in India. As in all federations, there is a formal division of legislative, administrative and financial powers between the Centre and the constituent units. As provided in the 7th Schedule of[Read More…]
Speculation is rife in the local Turkish media that the founder of the White Helmets, James Le Mesurier, might have been running away from someone before he fell or was pushed to his death in a case that was initially ruled as a suicide. Reputed Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported [1] on Tuesday: “The biggest question is why Le Mesurier[Read More…]
On December 5, while driving down the Embassy Row in NW Washington, D.C.,on the car radio,I was listening to Nancy Pelosi saying the House is drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Pelosi leaning toward impeachment didn’t really come as a surprise. Even though for months Pelosi has been resisting calls for impeachment saying, “Trump isn’t worth it.” However,[Read More…]
Ouch! PISA, OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment has released their global results for 2018 (https://www.oecd.org/pisa). Started in 2000, they run the test every three years for 15-year-olds in the OECD, which has mainly richer, developed nations. In 2009, to compare the OECD’s educational outcomes with the rest of the world, PISA began to invite other countries to participate. To[Read More…]
Can a leopard change its spots? Can the saffron clan led by the RSS and BJP ever give up its core philosophy and agenda that is founded on a pathological hatred of all things Muslim? During the second tenure of the Manmohan Singh government when an elaborate exercise was launched collectively by the Sangh Parivar, India Inc and the media[Read More…]
The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) an umbrella organization of student organizations of North East India have registered their protest by 11 hour bandh on Tuesday against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which is seen as a threat to the indigenous population which have already been overburdened by the large scale influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The bandh brought the[Read More…]
We, the alumni of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), express our solidarity with the current batch students who have entered the seventh day of protest against feet hike. We do understand the hike was not introduced mid-session but the existing structure is deeply problematic. As many as 120 alumni from different batches and courses have given individual line of consent[Read More…]
The moment after the encounter killing of the four accused of raping and murdering of a 26 year old vet in Hyderabad, hundreds of people on the street and social media alike congratulated the Telengana police and government. People distributed sweets, burst firecrackers, showered flower petals on police, and chanted ‘police zindabad’ and ‘CM zindabad’. Perhaps sensing the public mood,[Read More…]
In Disha rape case of Hyderabad, which shook the nation, the delay in registering FIR is an important issue that may weaken the conviction of the dreaded criminals. The investigation into crime cannot be delayed even by a minute in the interests of law and order. Jurisdiction or lack of it cannot be a lame excuse! Police and the people[Read More…]
by The Vaccine Reaction Staff A new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.6 million people die annually in low-and middle-income countries from medical errors, and that most of those deaths are related to misdiagnosis and administration of pharmaceutical products. According to the WHO, “Four out of every ten patients are harmed during primary and ambulatory[Read More…]
Hundreds of journalists and media workers from every corner of the globe have put their name to an impassioned open letter demanding the unconditional freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and an immediate “end to the legal campaign being waged against him for the crime of revealing war crimes.” The 422 signatories to date include WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, world-renowned investigative journalist[Read More…]
In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia, at that time the only remaining free African country. Why exactly that happened is a long story. Let me just say that, in part, it was a revenge for a defeat suffered long before, when an early attempt at invading Ethiopia had failed. In part, it had to do with reacting to the financial crash[Read More…]
Carbon, the essential element underpinning photosynthesis and life, is transformed into toxic substances in the remnants of plants and organisms buried in sediments. Once released to the atmosphere (Fig. 1) in the form of CO2, CO and methane, in large quantities these gases become lethal and have been responsible for mass extinctions of species (Fig. 2). Given amplifying feedbacks from[Read More…]
Recently, I was in Homer, Alaska, to talk about my book The End of Ice. Seconds after I had thanked those who brought me to the small University of Alaska campus there, overwhelmed with some mix of sadness, love, and grief about my adopted state — and the planet generally — I wept. I tried to speak but could only apologize[Read More…]
No election takes place in a vacuum, and for all the assertions of fact-checkers, monitors and gatekeepers of order, some agency, be it corporate, national or international, is involved. To persuade is to interfere. The intensity of this has become more relevant with the saturation, and velocity, of information spread. Often, it is impossible to assess how that distortion in[Read More…]
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held an abbreviated two-day meeting this week in London on its 70th anniversary. On display was a zombie alliance that is bitterly divided on multiple issues and has lost its purpose for existing. Rather than recognizing it is time to end this obsolete military alliance, they decided to expand their[Read More…]
When you feel your generation is being crushed by the twin excavators of the political imbecility and haphazard bureaucracy. When you realize that the government is insensitive to the peoples wishes and is making mockery of their destiny. When your see the naked dance of corruption dismantling the very base of our society. When you see unemployment dancing everywhere and[Read More…]
A new report on ocean oxygen loss released Saturday should serve as the “ultimate wake-up call” to take bold action to rein in planet-warming emissions and save the world’s “suffocating seas,” researchers said. The publication from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shows how the problem known as ocean deoxygenation, driven by global warming and human-caused nutrient pollution, is expanding, with[Read More…]
Peace, Good Will and Joy at Christmas! But what does that mean for Palestine and Palestinians? Every year, on the 11th day of the 11th hour of the 11th month, the human spirit pauses to pay tribute to world peace, good will and joy towards all and commemorate that dark moment in modern world history, a century ago, when an[Read More…]
Natural gas could well emerge as the litmus test of how relations among the Gulf’s energy-rich monarchies evolve if and when a Saudi-United Arab Emirates-led alliance and Qatar bury their hatchet. It could also position Gulf states as key players in shaping the future of the energy architecture of Eurasia. This week’s summit in Riyadh of the Gulf Cooperation Council[Read More…]
It is not some chicken that rests on those breasts they feed your next generation pluck them out and you’ll see death all around, you do think to pluck those every night in a small corner of your bed you might be a father, brother, husband or just some man who is desperate to drive fast! The bra your[Read More…]
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government at the centre is all set to introduce the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Parliament on December 9. The existing Citizenship Act was enacted in 1955 which along with articles 5 to 11 of the Constitution of India determines Indian citizenship. The original Citizenship Act of 1955 has been amended several[Read More…]
“If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country. No matter what the Hindus say. Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On that account it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost.” (Dr. BR Ambedkar) “Until 1990, Ambedkar was untouchable to all[Read More…]
Clearing the FOG hosts Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese interviewed William Camacaro, a Venezuelan activist living in New York City who is active with the Solidarity Committee with Venezuela NYC and organizes food sovereignty tours to Venezuela, on the eve of the December 3 Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) meeting in Colombia. This meeting is the next step in[Read More…]
Time and again rape incidents stir our conscience and sends chills down the spine after listening to brutal,insensitive assault on girl/women & the mental trauma they must have undergone. Although a crime like rape is nothing new but the rate at which it’s increasing in India is quite worrying &gives us goosebumps. I feel we have become more of insensitive,morally[Read More…]
The horror early start to Australia’s bushfire season has continued this week, with fires burning out of control in the states of New South Wales (NSW), Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. Sydney has been enveloped in toxic smoke for days on end as a result of blazes burning to the south, west and north of the city. The NSW Department[Read More…]
A Saudi national opened fire on a classroom at the Naval Air Station Pensacola (Florida), killing three people before he was shot to death by sheriff’s deputies in the second fatal shooting at a U.S. military installation this week. U.S. and Saudi government officials identified the gunman as Ahmed Mohammed al-Shamrani, who had been receiving aviation training at the base,[Read More…]
Summit anniversaries are not usually this abysmally interesting. While those paying visits to Watford, England on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are supposedly signatories to the same agreement, a casual glance would have suggested otherwise. This was a show of some bickering. France, never the most comfortable member, suggested the that NATO was[Read More…]
NATO’s 70th Birthday Party, in London – the Birthday of a brain-dead child! What a feat! The two-day London NATO conference just ended – and calling it a NATO “crisis” is an understatement. The crisis is such that President Trump canceled the Press Conference at the end of the summit, officially saying that there was enough press briefing during the[Read More…]
2012 World Bank Report “Without quick action to curb CO2 emissions, global warming is likely to increase by 4 degrees Centigrade (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above today’s normal during the 21st century and that is dangerously close to the temperature of 6 degrees Centigrade above normal that initiated the Permian-Triassic extinction event 252 million years ago when 96%* of all marine[Read More…]
News stories have Donald Trump being mocked by France’s Macron at a Buckingham Palace reception for the NATO leaders meeting. A nearby open mic caught the incident. Trump’s response was to call Macron two-faced. Macron returns to a France paralyzed by the biggest strike in years. Teachers and transport workers are alarmed by his plan targeting their traditional pension scheme.[Read More…]
Although Russia had a significant military and economic engagement in the Asia Pacific region during the days of the Soviet Union, the demise of the union had significantly hampered Russia’s relations with the regional countries. However, Russia again wants to re-establish its lost military relations with the regional countries and has been trying to do so for the last one[Read More…]
Unnao’s rape survivor has just passed away. The accused are well identified and arrested. There is another Unnao horror story where the accused is well identified and for whom we saw some marches in that city. So far, I am not hearing the same cries about hanging the accused. The TV channels are not beaming the names of the accused.[Read More…]
We have, in India, several collective ego issues when something questions the majoritarianist hegemony. We have this problem when Article 370 was abrogated which is done mainly on account of the fact that majoritarianist mindset do not accept muslim dominated Kashmir should have some special privileges, even, at least, on paper. Typically, Nirbhaya case is one such movement with larger[Read More…]
I have no doubt in my mind that this is not even a stage managed encounter of the four youth who are said to have been involved in the rape and murder of veterinary doctor in the suburban areas of Hyderabad. It is a pure custodial murder. The people’s anger gave strength to the Telangana police who are already blood[Read More…]
For tens of thousands of years the Arctic’s carbon sink has been a powerful dynamic in functionality of the Earth System. However, that all-important functionality has been crippled and could be permanently severed. According to new research based upon field observations conducted from 2003 to 2017, a large-scale carbon emission shift in the Earth System has occurred. The “entire Arctic”[Read More…]
The protests in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have been going on for quite some time now. Though the media is coming up with a number of stories and facts regarding JNU, there is one facet of JNU protests that only very few news pages are talking about. While students are protesting against the sudden hike in fees, news channels are[Read More…]
A countrywide union strike against pension reform has brought transportation across France to a standstill. Thousands of workers marched in what has been described as the largest protest of its kind since 1995. The protest dwarfed the weekly Yellow Vests demonstrations that have been happening every Saturday for over a year now. The massive worker walkouts and marches were called[Read More…]
I often remember the female protagonist of the novel – Milkman by Anna Burns (Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2018). She was sexually harassed by a man when she would be walking while reading. A woman, with a book is an image that is one of the most infuriating sights to patriarchy. In that case, we can only imagine the[Read More…]
by Vikalp Sangam Core Group We congratulate the people of Ladakh for getting a Union Territory status, although we do not endorse the means used by the Government of India to give it this status, especially because of its implications for the people of Kashmir. The people of Ladakh, especially in the Leh district, had been demanding UT status for[Read More…]
Right doesn’t talk of rights because it believes in taking away your rights It does not recognize education as a right as it awakens people to demand more rights Right creates myths and false pride around nation and religion so that you condition yourself to live without rights Right attacks your very basic needs before you realise what is right[Read More…]
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – and its two predecessor organizations, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM) – emerged in the early 1970s, during a long-term rightist movement in the United States. The DSA’s contribution to the American Left was its new founded identity as a radical organization born out of a merger between[Read More…]
Anti-racist Jewish Australian writer, journalist and film-maker Antony Loewenstein has been awarded the 2019 Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize by Palestinian Australian human rights activists. The award was presented at a big function held in Parliament House, Melbourne, by Professor Stuart Rees, winner of the inaugural 2018 Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize, founder of the Sydney Peace Prize and Emeritus Professor[Read More…]
State and private sector power plants are the worst when it comes to cleaning up their act to reduce pollution from power generation, central sector is not doing great too. New Delhi, December 5: On November 2, due to unprecedented air quality, Health Emergency was declared in New Delhi. Much of the public narrative about pollution in Delhi and North[Read More…]
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy remained firm on the question of introducing English medium in Government schools and issued the orders to start the new education programme from 2020-21 academic year. Since then a new theory has been floated by forces that do not want the children of the poor and lower castes learn English. They do not[Read More…]
The proposed Citizenship amendment bill is an assault on the Constitution of India which never based our citizenship on our religious or caste identities. On the one side, the government says that it want to welcome people living in Islamic countries but immediately suggest that Muslims are not wanted. It makes a clear assumption as if all the Muslims living[Read More…]
Braving cold weather and rain on a weekday afternoon, social justice activists came together on Tuesday, December 3, to raise their voices for a physically challenged Delhi University Professor incarcerated in an Indian jail. Wheelchair-bound G.N. Saibaba, who is ninety percent disabled below the waist, is serving a life sentence under inhuman conditions. His health continues to deteriorate because of[Read More…]
Exceptional global heat driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mean this decade will most likely go down as the warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which released its provisional statement on the State of the Global Climate on Tuesday. The WMO also finds that 2019 is on track to be the second or third warmest year[Read More…]
Leaders currently in office rarely make an appearance before either the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court. International law remains affixed to the notion that heads-of-state are, at least for the duration of their time in office, safe from prosecution. Matters change once the time in office expires. Be that as it may, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu[Read More…]
Loving care for our children We give our children loving care, but it makes no sense to do so unless we do everything in our power to give them a future world in which they can survive. We also have a duty to our grandchildren, and to all future generations. Today we are faced with the threat of an environmental[Read More…]
When an announcement of a “Moral Injury Symposium” turned up in my email, I was a bit startled to see that it came from the U.S. Special Operations Command. That was a surprise because many military professionals have strongly resisted the term “moral injury” and rejected the suggestion that soldiers fighting America’s wars could experience moral conflict or feel morally[Read More…]
The Zionist Federation of Australia bestowed in November its 2019 Jerusalem Prize for “exceptional in strengthening Australia-Israel relations” or as Prof. Stuart Rees puts it, ‘for sucking up to Israelis,’ on an exemplary recipient, the prime minister of Australia, Scott Morrison. Former meritorious recipients from the zionist mishpocheh are John Howard, Bob Hawke, Julia Gillard, Alex Downer and serial war[Read More…]
The Iranian port city of Bandar-e-Mahshahr has emerged as the scene of some of the worst violence in Iran’s brutal crackdown on recent anti-government protests. Located in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, home to the country’s restive ethnic Arab minority, the protests in Bandar-e-Mahshahr strengthened Iran in its belief that the anti-government outburst was yet another effort to destabilize the Islamic[Read More…]
It is predicted by many that the societies with greater differentiation and specialization are less prone to executions. Contrary to this assumption, it has been shown that societies with greater social differentiation and structural hierarchy are more likely to embrace death penalty. Social systems with more hierarchical order would have greater brutal punitive culture and repressive legal mechanism. The celebrated[Read More…]
Let’s be practical about the aspect that as the only national party, to me Congress was a far more superior government than the NDA. Buy it or not, but in every case we compared a young leader like Rahul Gandhi to someone so cunning like Narendra Modi. Both are different personalities and to me Rahul had and still has a[Read More…]
NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said that Central Bureau of Investigation Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya’s death should be re-investigated if there is a demand and need for it. Sharad Pawar said in an interview to a Marathi news channel, “If there is something in it [the demands], then maybe a re-investigation should be done.” “I don’t know, I read[Read More…]
Conference of Parties (COP) 25 is on in Madrid. The COP25 is going through discussions and debates. Problems are raised and solutions are sought in the COP. Prospects are searched while promises are made in the conference. But, the outcome of the COP25 may not be hopeful. Political leaders and climate diplomats are meeting in Madrid for two weeks of[Read More…]
The Rohingya refugees have, for decades now, been fleeing their homeland, the Rakhine province in Myanmar. Mostly through Yangon’s inaction, elements of the military and members of the majority Buddhist population were left to run rampage amongst this helpless Muslim minority. Made stateless by Yangon in 1982, left totally vulnerable to the frightful violence of rape, mass killings — some[Read More…]
A paper co-authored by some eminent climate scientists and just published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, analyses critical tipping points impacted by man-made climate change, and concludes: “Act now… the evidence from tipping points alone suggests that we are in a state of planetary emergency: both the risk and urgency of the situation are acute… The stability and resilience[Read More…]
This time, nothing seems to work. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has tried every trick in the book to save his political career and to avoid possible prison time. But for Israel’s longest-serving leader, the honeymoon is certainly almost over. It is an “attempted coup”, is how Netanyahu described his indictment on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust[Read More…]
Once the Arabs were leaders in knowledge, creativity, science and human manifestation, progress and future-making – the Islamic civilization lasting for eight hundred years in Al-Andalucía- Spain. But when they replaced Islam – the power and core value of their advancements with petro-dollars transitory economic prosperity, they failed to think intelligently and fell in disgrace and lost what was gained[Read More…]
Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Good bye, Lebanon, metaphorically and truly. Good bye to a country which, many believe, actually has already ceased to exist. For five long years I have been commuting between the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.And Beirut, for all that time, was one of my homes. I arrived in Beirut when the situation in the[Read More…]
The impunity with which the US aggresses Hong Kong is insane. Equally or more insane is western media coverage of what is going on in Hong Kong. Not one word on how the incredible “pro-democracy” vote of the rather unimportant District Council Elections was achieved. Of the 18 District Councils, 452 of 479 seats (71%) went to “pro-democracy” candidates. Such[Read More…]
One of the very first investigative journalists, Ida Tarbell went after the “throttling hand” of Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller. By 1880, his company owned 90 percent of US oil, its transport and its sale. Writing a series of articles over a two-year period, Tarbell’s expose led to a Supreme Court ruling in 1911 ordering the dissolution of Standard[Read More…]
After the accomplishment of Mandir mission and revocation of special status given to Jammu and Kashmir, the two long cherished dreams of Hindu nationalism at least for the last two decades, the BJP is now heading to another elephantine mission, the redefining of citizenship regime of the country. It is done through two routes: one, the citizenship amendment bill that[Read More…]
Residents brave the floods in Mazive, southern Mozambique, on April 28, 2019, just weeks after the country suffered one of the worst storms in its history. (Photo: Emidio Josine/AFP via Getty Images) As world leaders convened in Madrid for COP25 amid surging grassroots demands for radical action, the charitable organization Oxfam released new research Monday showing that climate-related disasters were the leading cause of[Read More…]
Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) calls for the resignation of the government, a total replacement of the current system by a new system, and for continuing the uprising with the same motivation and power until people’s demands are met. As massive demonstrations over unemployment, rampant corruption, poor delivery of services, and sectarianism are gaining momentum, the ICP – the country’s oldest existing[Read More…]
China has suspended U.S. warship visits and sanctioned American NGOs on Monday in retaliation for the passage of a bill backing pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has been rocked by nearly six months of increasingly violent unrest, which Beijing has frequently blamed on foreign influence. Last week U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Magaret Flowers On December 2, the 25th two-week long United Nations climate conference begins in Madrid, Spain. The stated task of the conference, referred to as COP 25 (Conference Of Parties), is to make sure there are plans to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The goals of that agreement, which are nonbinding, are:[Read More…]
Judge José de la Mata of Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, had been facing a good deal of stonewalling on the part of his British colleagues. He is overseeing an investigation into the surveillance activities of a Spanish security firm aimed at WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, during his stay at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. De la Mata had[Read More…]
Ever since 2007, when I first started writing for TomDispatch, I’ve been arguing against America’s forever wars, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or elsewhere. Unfortunately, it’s no surprise that, despite my more than 60 articles, American blood is still being spilled in war after war across the Greater Middle East and Africa, even as foreign peoples pay a far higher price in lives lost and cities ruined. And I keep[Read More…]
Outstanding contributions of Jewish culture Let us begin by recognizing the brilliant contributions that Jewish intellectuals have given to the world. Of the three great monotheistic Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Judaism was the first. Thus the religious traditions of much of the world have their roots in Jewish culture. We should also acknowledge the remarkable intellectual achievements of[Read More…]
The UK-based Independent online newspaper recently published an article about a potential link between air pollution from vehicles and glaucoma. It stated that according to a new study air pollution is linked to the eye condition that causes blindness. The report explained that researchers had looked at vision tests carried out on more than 111,000 people across Britain between 2006[Read More…]
The turmoil at JNU and other universities demand certain introspections regarding the institutions of higher education across the country. When there is a massive paradigm shift happening in our social discourses, the movement towards a neoliberal economy and culture, student community ought to be an informed and educated one. Apart from these premier institutions, how are the student communities responding[Read More…]
(Following is a news report that pleased all RTC workers and people who supported them in spite of a 52-day long strike from October 5. Around 49000 workers went on strike, hardly one percent workers resumed duties in spite of threats and ultimatums issued by the Management as well as the Chief Minister. The strike was illegal, declared the management,[Read More…]
The horrendous rape and murder of Hyderabad’s vet doctor has again brought into light the dirty realities of our life that women remain the most vulnerable in India. The incidents of brutal rapes are fact of life here where leaders never get tired of sermonizing us of our ‘glorious’ past when women were regarded as ‘goddess’ and what not. Somehow[Read More…]
Little less than 2% of the power plants comply with the emissions norms set by MoEFCC This year, on November 2, 2019, due to severe air pollution, a health emergency was declared in India’s capital, New Delhi. While much of the media’s attention remained focused on Delhi, major parts of North India, beyond the capital, also faced severe pollution menace.[Read More…]
What is India? A question can neither be answered nor be defined easily. However, we celebrate India as a civilization, as an idea, as a nation, as a notion as a culture, as a sentiment, as an emotion and as dynamic geographical concept. We try to define in it many ways. Though everyone has the freedom of visualizing the[Read More…]
On Nov. 12, Veneto, Italy’s regional council was debating climate policy in its Venice offices. Minutes after a majority voted against budget amendments to address climate disruption, the chambers were inundated with water. Venice is known for flooding, but it’s getting worse, and the timing in this instance felt like a message. Our existence is a marvelous phenomenon. We live on[Read More…]
Throughout its history, Earth has experienced five mass extinction events. See, for example, ‘Timeline Of Mass Extinction Events On Earth’. It is now experiencing the sixth. The Ordovician-Silurian Extinction, which occurred about 439 million years ago, wiped out 86% of life on Earth at the time. Most scientists believe that this mass extinction was precipitated by glaciation and falling[Read More…]
Ed. Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall). November 09, 2019. A collection of essays concerning the boundaries being established by walls, Build Resistance not Walls centers its arguments on the walls of Palestine: the so called security fence that runs some 700 km through Palestinian lands of the West Bank, and the Gaza wall of various constructions that[Read More…]
The Rajapaksa duo , Gotabaya and Mahinda ( on November 18& 21) have sworn as President and PM of Sri Lanka, riding on the high tide of ethnic Sinhala nationalist sentiment and quite arguably the 10% Muslims in Srilanka have gone into a huddle. The Muslim phobic Bodu Bala Sena had made a rallying point for Rajapaksas as its chief[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…]
