Look, pal, You are the resurrection day of a nation and I am the remembrance day of the Father of the same nation. In a way we are closely related too being neighbours divided by just four days. Yet, I am sad to say that there is truly nothing common in between us. I am a minute’s silent prayer.[Read More…]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a “public health emergency of international concern” over the outbreak of the 2019nCoV, or the Wuhan coronavirus. The international body did not recommend travel and trade restrictions. The declaration comes hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first case of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus in the U.S., in[Read More…]
A Brussels, January 30, 2020 datelined AP report – “EU: Russia, China use ‘digital war’ to undermine democracies” – cites European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova: Russia and China are waging a “digital war” with fake news and disinformation to undermine democracy in Europe. She said: “Digital war” is a favored method of Russia and China because “they see that[Read More…]
My friends advised me to avoid the issue of Sharjeel Imam. They said that it was not the ‘right time’ to show solidarity with him. I know they were concerned about my safety. But how could I ignore the safety of my friend for the sake of mine? My conscience compels me to stand with Sharjeel Imam. Those who have[Read More…]
Bhubaneswar, 30.01.20:The State Capital of Odisha witnessed today an unprecedented March against CAA, NPR and NRC in response to a unitedcall given by progressive political organizations, social groups, academics, media persons, artists and students in the State under the banner of ‘We The People Of India’. A peaceful gathering of about 30 thousand people solemnly reaffirmed their faith in the[Read More…]
Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Exactly 100 years ago Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar started his first newspaper named Mooknayak on 31 January 1920.Once Ambedkar entered into the[Read More…]
This July 2019 photo provided by Peter Westley shows carcasses of chum salmon lie along the shore of the Koyukuk River near Huslia. Alaska scientists and fisheries managers are investigating the deaths of salmon that may be tied to the state’s unusually hot, dry summer. (Peter Westley, University of Alaska Fairbanks via AP) You plan on eating Pacific Ocean seafood[Read More…]
A new book by the name of MEAN GIRL AYN RAND AND THE CULTURE OF GREED by Lisa Duggan speaks to this American problem today. Who was Ayn Rand? How did she become what she became? She was a powerful figure in the rise of American neo-liberalism. She was instrumental in the formation of the Reagan approach to the capitalist[Read More…]
As we enter 2020, Cultural Survival remembers 28 courageous Indigenous human rights and environmental defenders who were murdered in 2019 in the Latin American countries where we do our work. We invite you to take a moment to learn about and support the human rights and environmental defense work being carried out by these individuals that likely led to their[Read More…]
I have dents and bumps On my shanks from soccer. My shins are covered With them and I marvel At their feel that took place When I was a teen And there were no shin guards. My son-in-law is More. He was a professional soccer player, A doctoral physicist and a MD. He is so much younger than me So[Read More…]
Luminous messages silently comes every dark nights, Every night bleeds there,I hear the noises of marching boots… Down the narrow lanes and paths, My mother is crying in chains… Not for a single moment Bhagat’s mother winked her eyes.. She remained calm as she would be a brave martyr’s mother… My mother is weeping, she is chained by them.. They[Read More…]
A few days ago, I was in Jaipur for the Jaipur Literature Festival. It has now become an annual ritual for me and a dear friend. We were absolutely delighted with the scope and variety of the topics of discussion, the speakers and genres of books launched this year. There was an evident absence of censorship in the talks and[Read More…]
On the occasion of 72th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and to save his dream of ‘Secular India’ from the current onslaught of Hindutva forces, a long march ( from Jamia to Rajghat on 30th January 2020) was organized by Jamia’s students to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and register protest against the CAA–NPR-NRC at his Samadhi, Rajghat. However,[Read More…]
A terrorist fires at the peaceful protesters in Delhi as police watch silently, injuring a student from Jamia Millia Islamia. Protests have been organised all over the country to mark the martyrdom of Gandhi who was murdered by Pandit Nathu Ram Godse, the first terrorist of independent India. We might differ with Gandhi on his various approaches and need not[Read More…]
This January I went to Venezuela with a group of North Americans to see for ourselves how economic “sanctions” are affecting people’s access to food. We wondered how the Venezuelan popular classes are responding to the massive attack on their economic well-being. We saw a complicated scene, with virtually every kind of productive activity crippled in many ways, some not[Read More…]
Palestine has erupted in protest against the U.S. President Donald Trump announced plan on Palestine. Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to protest Trump’s proposal. The plan is a sellout of the Palestine people, as the Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas has told. Gaza Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza Strip observed a general strike on Wednesday. All the[Read More…]
“The study of the evolution of disease patterns provides evidence that during the last century doctors have affected epidemics no more profoundly than did priests during earlier times. Epidemics came and went, imprecated by both but touched by neither. They are not modified any more decisively by the rituals performed in medical clinics than by those customary at religious shrines.[Read More…]
Modi and Amit Shah would ignore the lessons of history at their own peril Narendra Modi is in a league of his own. He swept back into power in May 2019, defying disasters like demonetisation, GST, unemployment and agrarian distress. His is the first government in the last 30 years to return to power with full majority and a massive[Read More…]
After more than two years of preparation for the American initiative known as the Deal of the century, we have Trump, with proposals that will back away from everything that was decided by the international community throughout the past years. It reached a ridiculous level when the US foreign minister considers Jewish settlement as maintaining peace: Trump’s plan finds its[Read More…]
Recently, a new coronavirus has been causing many illnesses and deaths. The virus first became active in Wuhan, China, but it has already spread to the rest of China. Scattered cases have been identified around the rest of the world as well. There are two important questions that are already being encountered: How much of an attempt should be made[Read More…]
Much of Donald Trump’s long-trailed “deal of the century” came as no surprise. Over the past 18 months, Israeli officials had leaked many of its details. The so-called “Vision for Peace” unveiled on Tuesday simply confirmed that the US government has publicly adopted the long-running consensus in Israel: that it is entitled to keep permanently the swaths of territory it[Read More…]
Jewish Groups, like J Street, are being called “progressive” as in a Newsweek headline in connection with the so-called “Deal of the Century”, when they “Dismiss Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan As ‘Utterly Bankrupt’ and a ‘Sham’”. I have to ask — of them and of all such Jewish “progressives”, who hold “diverse opinions” regarding the origins of and solutions[Read More…]
It is another one of those contests and disagreements where the contestants should all loose, or at the very least, be subjected to a torturous stalemate. Hillary Clinton remains the nasty sprinkle on the Democratic Party in the United States, ever hopeful that some door might open to enable her to come sliding in, taking the reins to what she[Read More…]
The beautiful, ancient and populous Iraqi city of Fallujah (the City of Mosques) in Iraq’s Anbar province suffered 13 years of US-enforced sanctions, and then 3 bloody sieges and 2 substantial demolitions or sackings at the hands of the genocidally racist, serial war criminal and child-killing American invaders. This appalling atrocity cries out for justice and is documented in the[Read More…]
How many Americans know that even in Hindu India, Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani (whom Trump has assassinated) was recognized as having been perhaps the world’s leader of the fight against both ISIS and the Taliban — two fundamentalist-Sunni (that is, pro-jihadist) groups that especially threaten India. Why don’t Americans know this crucial fact? In whose benefit is it that they[Read More…]
We live in a fabricated reality where the visible world became nearly meaningless once the screen world became people’s “window on the world.” An electronic nothingness replaced reality as people gleefully embraced digital wraparound apparitions. These days people still move about in the physical world but live in the electronic one. The result is mass hallucination. This is the fundamental[Read More…]
A friend of mine sent me this entire article. He prefaced it with: Spot on. S…. The appalling vanity of Western feminists who think Margaret Atwood writes about them | The Spectator Imagine a country where women have no jobs, no rights and are valued only for reproductive success. Imagine a country where girls aren’t taught to read in case[Read More…]
The Mass Uprising of 1969 In the book A Soldier’s Debt (ASD), the author thought Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon was the greatest event of 1969. He then quickly added the following lines: “One hundred and twenty-five thousand miles below that historic moon walk, the Bengalis of East Pakistan started a renewed but aggressive, at times violent, march for their rights. It[Read More…]
1. The government’s decisions on the Kashmir-problem, the temple-mosque dispute, the Assam-problem (National Register of Citizens) and the Citizenship Amendment Act highlight four things: (1) That the decisions are motivated with an intention of communal polarization. (2) That the role of democratic institutions and processes has been merely perfunctory in these decisions. (3) These decisions are not characteristic of a[Read More…]
The arrest of yet another alleged bomb-maker with right-wing links should lead to action at last. ‘When Crimes shoot up, they become invisible. When pain becomes unbearable, cries are no longer heard.’ —Bertolt Brecht Can the provocations of a cabinet minister, who openly raises controversial slogans, be considered a “breach of peace” or are they merely attempts to “gauge people’s mood”,[Read More…]
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East “peace” plan, declaring “Jerusalem is not for sale”. Abbas warned that the “conspiracy deal will not pass.” “Your conspiracy deal will not pass and the Palestinian people will reject it,” Abbas warned on Tuesday after Trump unveiled his long-awaited plan for peace between Israel and Palestine. Calling it[Read More…]
Premeditated criminal violence has been around for a long time. Deliberate criminal violence has motive, involves planning, and is cruel and harmful. The motive often involves the attempt at some real or imagined gain, or forceful seizure. Surprise attacks are favored. Because the evil of such violence is obvious if in clear view, criminals usually attempt to hide such acts,[Read More…]
The irony of the ruling party’s appropriation of Gandhi comes undone time and again by its antithetical practices. What else captures the irony better than the fact that the government which is celebrating Dandi March across its various cultural organs for his 150th birth centenary is also simultaneously, not only disallowing or overlooking democratic protests but unleashing brutal repression[Read More…]
How many days people keep silence how many days keep them in prisons How many batons and bullets in store to keep a nation scared now and forever Listen to the cries it is not for mercy but for the rights granted by nation Look at these people who are gathered all under skies meek, weak and tired Still they[Read More…]
The flowers blossom in the gardens of Shaheen Bagh Lifting the spirits and releasing a fresh aroma The air filled with the spirit of the republic Bringing freshness in an environment filled with poison Attracting pilgrims to this temple called Indian republic Where devotees hold the sacred text called the constitution And read out the prayer from the preamble Perform[Read More…]
Massive natural gas discoveries off the eastern coast of Israel and Palestine is slated to make Tel Aviv a regional energy hub. Whether Israel will be able to translate positive indicators of the largely untapped gas reserves into actual economic and strategic wealth is yet to be seen. What is certain, however, is that the Middle East is already in[Read More…]
In a positive appeal to the Chinese people, last Saturday, President Xi Jinping has called on the nation’s courage to defeat the deadly epidemic which has already claimed more than 80 lives and more than 2,000 infected worldwide, the vast majority in China. These figures are changing fast, as the spread of the epidemic is accelerating. President Xi warned that[Read More…]
Sixteen years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, most Americans understand that it was an illegal war based on lies about non-existent “weapons of mass destruction.” But our government is now threatening to drag us into a war on Iran with a nearly identical “big lie” about a non-existent nuclear weapons program, based on politicized intelligence from the same CIA teams that wove a web of lies to justify the[Read More…]
New research suggests that the Wuhan coronavirus, which has killed at least 100 people, may not have originated in the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan, Hubei, China. The virus is zoonotic, meaning it can be passed from animals to humans. So experts thought people in Wuhan likely caught the virus from snakes in a wet market, where meat is[Read More…]
The Government of Maharastra has made reading Preamble of the constitution compulsory in the school assembly meetings every morning. From primary school to high school, students must remind themselves that they live in a democracy under this constitution. This is a great nationalist step. Every state Government in the country must do this needful thing at this juncture of our[Read More…]
A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book, which deals with the world’s failure to adequately address the existential danger of catastrophic climate change. The book consists mainly of book chapters and articles that I have previously published, although a considerable amount of new material has been added. It can be freely downloaded[Read More…]
“President Emmanuel Macron made a scene in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday when he angrily told Israeli security officers to get out of the Church of Saint Anne, which is traditionally under France’s control: “Everybody knows the rules. I don’t like what you did in front of me,” Macron ordered. “Go out – outside!” Abunimah Ah the Hypocrisy! Macron telling[Read More…]
While celebrating the Republic Day, a public lecture on the topic of ‘Citizenship’ (which now has become a contentious issue after the passing of the CAA, and which has also triggered massive protests at the nation-wide,) was organized by a group of students and activists, teachers (mainly associated with JNU, DU and Jamia) under the aegis of Shaheen Ki Taleem[Read More…]
On hearing the door bell ringing, Mr. Krishna Murthy got up from his reclining chair and walked to the front door with difficulty. He was experiencing cramps in both his legs for the last fortnight. On opening the door, he found two government officials with files and registers in hand and two policemen. The other two wore saffron kurtas and[Read More…]
“ I do not support any political party “ I declared in front of my group of friends last week, all the while trying to make them see sense. Pat came the reply, “ so you are supporting congress. Or worst you support Anti national Kanhaiya kumar. You are an anti national .” “ What rubbish . I do support[Read More…]
Hail you ruler! In my country,in my land, Alms were distributed to us as beggars received, Food,clothes,livelihood and the most desired freedom, You rewarded us with very little on which we may just survive, Here mosques full of dust and nobody enters in namaz, our land was a tulip bed, you deliberately turned into debris!! The whole planet watching us,[Read More…]
As we approach the 72nd anniversary of the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi on 30 January 1948, it is worth reflecting on one simple fact that he did not realize. His efforts to teach humanity that conflict, including violent conflict, could be resolved without violence were based on one fundamentally flawed assumption: that at least some humans were interested in,[Read More…]
West Bengal became the fourth opposition-ruled state to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in its assembly, after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan. The resolution, moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee was passed unanimously by the House, with Congress and Left members, along with those of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), supporting it. The BJP opposed it.[Read More…]
Coronavirus is impacting the gold, oil, tourism crop markets. Virus fears has driven sell-off in stocks, oil, yuan. The death toll from the virus has risen to at least 80, and confirmed cases in the U.S. rose to five on Sunday. Case has been detected in Canada also. Thailand has so far confirmed eight cases, with five already discharged and[Read More…]
There are obviously some serious linguistic issues and disagreements between the West and the rest of the world. Essential terms like “freedom”, “democracy”, “liberation”, even “terrorism”, are all mixed up and confused; they mean something absolutely different in New York, London, Berlin, and in the rest of the world. Before we begin analyzing, let us recall that countries such as[Read More…]
Orwell is best-known for his novel 1984. His essays, invaluable for themselves, gain further interest as workshops where Orwell developed the ideas that he was to immortalise in his last and greatest novel. 2020 is the 70th anniversary of Shooting an Elephant And Other Essays: a collection of some of George Orwell’s nonfiction (Secker & Warburg, 1950). Penguin republished[Read More…]
New Delhi, January 27th 2020: In a National Consultation co-organised by MahilaKisanAdhikaarManch (MAKAAM) and UN Women on the “Status of Women Farmers in Farm Suicide Families”, affected women demanded a special support package from the government from this Budget itself. “We find that governments are not doing enough to prevent farm suicides. They are not even extending adequate and uniform[Read More…]
1. The title of the article is not reflective of the defeat of politics that stands against the politics which imposes neo-imperialist slavery on the country. That defeat has already been taken place. The reason is that almost all the claimants and intellectuals of socialism, secularism and democracy in the country are against the anti-neo-imperialist politics. The experience since 1991[Read More…]
Let me betray my age for a moment. Some of you, I know, will be shocked, but I still read an actual newspaper. Words on real paper every day. I’m talking about the New York Times, and something stuck with me from the January 9th edition of that “paper” paper. Of course, in the world of the Internet, that’s already ancient history[Read More…]
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro, is the chief guest at India’s Republic Day Parade on January 26 this year. But sugarcane farmers around the country are not happy with his visit and protesting around the country for the last three days. Brazil, largest producer of sugarcane and sugar exporter in the world complained to WTO (World Trade Organization) questioning the support[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Rajendran Narayanan The decision on 5th August, 2019 to abrogate Articles 370 and 35A and division and downgrading of State of J&K into two Union Territories J&K and Ladakh was taken in a most undemocratic manner without consulting a single person of J&K. The State Assembly is not in existence for 18 months now. There[Read More…]
Chhotu Mushahar, 30 years, s/o YogendraMushahar, was found murdered because of some dispute over a fish by the two persons of the Udaipura village in district Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, on October 28th, 2019. His dead body was found floating at the river chhotiGandak in village Raman Chhapara which is about a kilometer from his home. The accused Lav Mishra[Read More…]
A 620 km long human chain from the northern part of Kerala to the south was formed on Republic Day by the CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front, to register the protest against the ‘unconstitutional: Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). People from all walks of life including newly weds participated in the human chain. The organizers claimed that around 60 to 70[Read More…]
In a scathing denouncement of CAA, the lawmakers have drafted a formal five-page resolution to be tabled during the plenary session of the European Parliament starting in Brussels next week India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) could trigger the “largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause widespread human suffering”, a powerful group of 154 European Parliament members have warned. In[Read More…]
The participation of the students of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in the movement against the CAA and NRC is a fight between a fascist government and our democracy and is fully justified. Actually, this fight is about fascism versus democracy, which is being expressed through the idea of ‘Save the Constitution’. At present, it has become the biggest political contradiction,[Read More…]
The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Order to the Government of the Republic of Myanmar to adopt various provisional measures to protect the Rohingya community from “physical destruction” and to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article 11 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide including killing members of the group and imposing[Read More…]
On January 8, 2020, during a student demonstration within the campus of the University of Mysuru at Manasagangothri, Ms.Nalini Balakumar reportedly displayed a banner which bore the words “Free Kashmir”. For this reason, the Police suo moto registered a case of sedition against her. Whether or not displaying a “Free Kashmir” sign is an offence deserving being booked for sedition[Read More…]
The afternoon sun began waning over the dove-white shrine, Alone stood there the shrine,almost in the solemnity, Chirping sounds of birds coming from distant willows, Where not a single shadow guarded the wintry ray of sunshine, The shrine remarked the sign of the deep Love, And wounded several times by the bullets and guns, Everytime blood spilled masive from the[Read More…]
Two fires were on the headlines not long ago, though they were taking place at countries one-third of the world circumference apart (about 14,000kms) – Brazil and Australia. And one architect of those, who was given the Title of “Captain Chain-Saw” as the destroyer of the Amazon rainforest by the big media houses like Telegraph (of the UK) or Bloomberg[Read More…]
In the time of Trumpism, we need more people like Andrew Bacevich producing more books like “The Age of Illusions.” A self-labeled conservative, a military man, and a person of faith, Bacevich possesses two elemental qualities – a keen sense of history and a desire to understand and tell the truth- that make his voice both important and clear. In[Read More…]
( Text of a Plenary Lecture at ISSA by Dr. KS Sharma is given below, on the eve of 70 years of Indian Republic. 43rd Indian Social Science Congress was held, by the Indian Social Science Academy-ISSA, January 17-21, 2020, at Bengaluru Central University, attended by hundreds of scientists and social scientists from all over India. It was held with[Read More…]
Rajasthan Assembly passed a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Rajasthan is the third state to pass a resolution against CAA. The resolution asked the Centre to repeal the CAA and withdraw the new questionnaire for preparation of the National Population Register (NPR), as the people would face inconvenience with the proposed additional information. “The CAA flouts the Constitution’s[Read More…]
It is being increasingly larded with heavy twists and turns, a form of state oppression in slow motion, but the Julian Assange extradition case now looks like it may well move into the middle of the year, dragged out, ironically enough, by the prosecution. Curiously, this is a point that both the prosecutors, fronted by the US imperium, and the[Read More…]
New Delhi, January 25 : The Brazilian President, Jai Bolsonaro is on a four day visit to the country, starting January 24th. He has been invited by the Indian government to be the chief guest at the 71st Republic Day celebrations. This is a special day that we cherish and reassert the values of freedom, equality, plurality and diversity, the values enshrined[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal The time for patriarchy to gracefully let women be is ripe in India right now. Last few months have seen hundreds and thousands of girls and women on the streets protesting for their political rights. Even the corporate press has been forced to report – whatever is apparent to any[Read More…]
Dear Bhakts As you go ahead with adoring your god and live in the imaginary world that everything that your god is doing is great, please do go through certain facts. It is known that according to you facts are only those which emerges from ‘Nagpur’, ‘IT Cells’ or ‘Fake media’. You are not ready to trust the real[Read More…]
In 1962, Rachael Carson warned us, with the publication of Silent Spring, that the indiscriminate use of pesticides was disrupting critical ecosystems and causing severe damage to human health. Her message led to a ban on the use of DDT in the United States and eventual restrictions on its use in much of the world. Her warning also helped launch[Read More…]
Thwaites, in West Antarctica, is the world’s most dangerous glacier. As of January 15th, scientists have labeled it: “A Climate Time Bomb.” Thwaites isc rumbling apart on the underneath side where warm ocean currents circulate, which is clear evidence that global warming is really, truly hitting its stride even as America, obeying President Trump’s orders,rejected its commitment to Paris ’15,[Read More…]
The U.S. Government, which had lied its way into invading and destroying Iraq in 2003 (with a little help from UK and Europeans), wants Europeans to pitch-in for more U.S.-run invasions. Europeans find this disturbing, but not repulsive enough to say, flat-out, “No!” to it. However, only that “No!” can stop the onrush toward a massive U.S. war against both[Read More…]
Why does Switzerland, neutral by her Constitution, fund, support and reward the partial and I dare say, western-biased and corrupted Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and their fake reporting – with a donation of CHF 300,000 (US$ 300,000)? – It is a shame. It is one more of these situations when Switzerland has to show the great[Read More…]
When the Hindu sages developed their way of life, they divided people into four castes: Brahmins, the thinkers, scholars and priests at the top for they were the guides; Kshatriyas, the soldiers including the king second for they protected and governed society; Vaishyas the merchants third with their commerce facilitating daily living; and Shudras who were the laborers and service[Read More…]
Co-Written by Badre Alam Khan & Sanjay Kumar “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.” (BR Ambedkar) Since the BJP government has passed the anti-constitutional CAA in Parliament on 12th December 2019; massive protests triggered and as a result currently, India is witnessing unprecedented protests in the history of Independent[Read More…]
Co-Written By Mahmoud Alshrafi and Professor M. Adil Khan In September 2015 at UN Headquarters in New York, the member states adopted the 2015-2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,the global framework of development. Underpinned by the principle of ‘Leave No One Behind’ the Agenda has set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and 230 indicators. The outstanding feature of[Read More…]
There are ten great claims, which can easily be proved baseless. There are ten great claims, which can easily be proved baseless. By the time the reader verifies the claim, the untruth travels long and their IT or social media managers, print and electronic media agents and PR teams will make it viral. Some claims made by Constitutional office holders[Read More…]
The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 of India is discriminatory on several grounds. It does not promote equality but violates it. It destroys the secular character and Article 14, as ‘religion’ is made basis of discrimination. India did not include all neighbouring countries to fast track citizenship grant to immigrants. Sri Lanka is a significant exclusion, because of which Hindus and[Read More…]
In March 1906, on the heels of the U.S. Army’s massacre of some 1,000 men, women, and children in the crater of a volcano in the American-occupied Philippines, humorist Mark Twain took his criticism public. A long-time anti-imperialist, he flippantly suggested that Old Glory should be redesigned “with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.” I got[Read More…]
The super-indoctrinated, Trump-voting American working class, dulled by the mass media and the “American dream”,has changed very little since the crushing of the great textile strikes that swept The United States in the 1920s. Not an iota of class-consciousness has it absorbed. (Nor has it been explained and offered to all wage earners in sufficient doses.)For also the middle[Read More…]
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) has become the most controversial legislation since the promulgation of Constitution of India on 26 January 1950. Different arguments for and against CAA have been discussed in the Parliament, in media and even on streets, yet common people are highly confused regarding its short term and long term impact on them. The only big[Read More…]
More than three months of political blockade have passed since protests in Lebanon erupted. A new government has sworn-in. Still violent protests continue with call for an end to corruption, economic woes and sectarian politics. Protesters have called for a “Week of Rage”. Protesters on Tuesday chanted “Revolution, Revolution:. More than 540 people have been wounded during the protests. Despite the[Read More…]
Introduction : The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the BJP government has been challenged by uprisings nationwide. The questions raised by the masses are met with denial, deflection and deceptive statements. The government defends the Act, citing there are no plans to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) nationwide and that the National Population Register (NPR) and CAA[Read More…]
Human history as cultural history At present, history is taught as though power struggles were its most important aspect. Furthermore, the present teaching of history is an indoctrination in nationalism. We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations[Read More…]
Danish writer Soren Korsgaard (editor of Crime & Power) has written a very long and detailed account entitled “One World Digital Dictatorship” that describes the accelerating movement by both Western-style democracies and one-party states (notably China) towards world-wide Digital Dictatorship (Digital Imprisonment) involving mass data collection on everyone, mass surveillance, facial recognition-based tracking, crypotocurrency-based cashless societies, and social credit-based disempowerment.[Read More…]
Co-Written by Peter Phillips & Tim Ogburn The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has diverted over $100 million from safety and maintenance programs to executive compensation at the same time it has caused an average of more than one fire a day for the past six years killing over 100 people. PG&E is the largest privately held public utility[Read More…]
When the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, was in Oslo for the award ceremony, eyebrows were raised when he declined to attend any event where he would be asked questions in public. Organizers expected him to meet the international press in keeping with the Nobel tradition, but his spokeswoman cited “pressing domestic issues” and his[Read More…]
We the following Adivasi organisations in India unanimously condemn the decision of the Queensland government to extinguish title of over 1385 hectares in Wangan and Jalingou country in Australia for the proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. We are shocked to understand that such a decision affecting the indigenous people of Australia was made without even any public[Read More…]
The risk of severe impacts on coastal communities and marine biodiversity from the loss of coral reefs is highlighted in a new report by the Environmental Justice Foundation. 275 million people directly depend on reefs for their livelihoods and sustenance, but the IPCC predicts that 99% of corals will be lost under 2°C of global heating. Pollution and unsustainable fishing present[Read More…]
While the nation is fighting against the vehemently totalitarian governance of the central government, I stand here in solidarity with a man who dared to challenge the corrupt system, Prof Brijesh Rai of IIT-Guwahati. As it is not a headline that will bring the media houses TRP like the puppetry broadcasts that media houses broadcast, it is silent. Silent like[Read More…]
A landmark ruling by the UN Human Rights Committee said: It unlawful to return refugees to countries where their lives may be threatened by the impacts of the climate crisis. The non-binding ruling is a move, which could set a precedent for future protection claims. The committee’s judgment centered on the case of Ioane Teitiota, a man from the Pacific[Read More…]
Friends, this year the WEF is celebrating its 50th Anniversaries. Forty-nine (49) of the insanely pompous – and every year more – WEF events took place in Davos, Switzerland. Just one, in 2002, after 9/11, was moved to New York City, paradoxically for ‘security reasons’ they said – the logic of such a move was as ludicrous as the WEF[Read More…]
psy·cho·sis (/sīˈkōsəs) a mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality. Fear is the most primal defensive instinct, but fear can also be exploited as a tool of control, leading people to act with thought and emotion so impaired that, to borrow from the above definition of psychosis, contact with[Read More…]
Billions of US tax-payers’ money will continue to be funneled into Israel in the next fiscal year, and for many years in the foreseeable future. Republican and Democratic Senators have recently achieved just that, passing a bill aimed at providing Israel with $3.3 billion in annual aid. The Bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Senator, Chris Coons and Republican Senator, Marco Rubio,[Read More…]
The public demands the truth and is willing to accept dishonest exaggerations. Despite its polarizing effect, which has disturbed the political process and crippled relations between the major political Parties, the story of Russian Interference in the 2016 United States (US) presidential election has no end in discussion and no room for contradiction in the United States. It has achieved a[Read More…]
Cartoon by Suhail H Naqshbani This day, January 21 marks a very gory picture of history. It has seen blood flowing under Gaw Kadal Bridge in Srinagar and also marks the 96th death year of the Russian Revolutionary V. I. Lenin. In 1914, Lenin who stood affirm on nation’s right to self-determination wrote, “…we must inevitably reach the conclusion[Read More…]
In the ongoing movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act the images of Gandhi, Ambedkar and even Bhagat Singh have been put forward as symbols of religious tolerance, non-violence, Dalit empowerment and even socialist revolution. However, outside Tamil Nadu, few seem to have remembered E.V.Ramaswamy ‘Periyar’, the founder of the Dravidian movement– who perhaps offers the most potent challenge to the[Read More…]
Libya devastated by imperialist intervention is still conflict-torn, and in unstable condition. Recently concluded Berlin conference has begun a process. Still uncertainty is there as the conference is yet to produce fruitful progress in Libya-situation. Much remained to be done, says Lavrov Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov has said that his country considers the Berlin Conference a “small step” towards[Read More…]
The ecological fabric of being is fraying and Earth is at imminent risk of become uninhabitable. The collapse of major ecological systems that provide for the well-being of all life is intimately entwined with the personal despair, and political and social chaos, roiling global societies. Many growing social ills such as poverty, violence, and addiction are ultimately driven by environmental[Read More…]
by Karthik Ramanathan / Noam Chomsky An interview I did with Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics, University of Arizona at his office in Tucson. Noam Chomsky taught at MIT for over 50 years and is a leading critic of US foreign policy and an inspiration for many generations of human beings. Audio can be a bit difficult, so best heard[Read More…]
New Book Delivers Resistance Message from Palestinian Prisoners to the World On Monday, January 20, Clarity Press, Inc. of Atlanta announced the launch of These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons, by Palestinian author and journalist, Ramzy Baroud, and The Palestine Chronicle Editorial Team. Bookended by a Foreword by Khalida Jarrar Member of the[Read More…]
Recently, the ridiculous real estate company WeWork has faced intense scrutiny after their business model was absurdly overvalued and their CEO, one Adam Neumann, was exposed as an abusive boss as well as an overall crazy person. Investors from the Saudi royal family, companies like SoftBank and J.P. Morgan, and numerous venture capitalists poured vast sums of money into[Read More…]
This is my eyewitness account of events, which took place in erstwhile East Pakistan, exactly 51 years back in January-February 1969. Although not fully comparable with what 1789 signifies for France, yet 1969 signalled the beginning of some revolutionary changes in the history of Pakistan. It witnessed the end of Ayub Khan’s decade of “guided democracy”, and the end of[Read More…]
Over the past few years, frequent incidences of infant deaths at the government run hospitals pointed to a deeper crisis of the health care system in India. The major concern and the way out after recent incidence of infant deaths in Rajasthan’s Kota district (a Congress-ruled state) could be sorted out by seeking government attentions for ensuring accountabilities, but the[Read More…]
INTRODUCTION With usual high hope and promise, the Davos annual ritual is on the stage. But, the promise and hope appear false. The World Economic Forum (WEF) Switzerland meeting beginning from January 21 has become one of the voices of the world capitalist system as it considers itself “the foremost creative force for engaging the world’s top leaders […] to[Read More…]
A super-rich one percent of the world’s population has accumulated twice as much wealth as the remaining 90 percent, said a new report by Oxfam, a global charity. The report has been released on January 20, 2020 on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The gap between the filthy rich and the rest of humanity[Read More…]
Two tribal communities famed for their honey-gathering skills have written to the US authorities urging them to scrap support for a conservation project that could lead to the tribe’s eviction from their ancestral forests. The villagers, members of India’s Jenu Kuruba (“honey collectors”) tribe, object to the US Fish and Wildlife Service funding a project in Karnataka state, home to the Nagarhole[Read More…]
The third Monday of January every year has been designated a national holiday in the USA to honour the memory of slain civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. — who was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis. This honour was proposed during the Reagan era in 1986 but it was not recognised nationally until the year 2000. Even[Read More…]
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” are famous words of Martin Luther King Jr delivered on August 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C. With those words he changed the course of history,[Read More…]
Ramchandra Guha is quite dangerous and ‘expert’ in balancing thing. His problems with Congress are manifold but many ‘experts’ feel that if they criticise the Sangh Parivar, it is their duty to criticise Congress more than them. Ram Chandra Guha has done that in past. I dont know why Rahul Gandhi should come in the picture. Does he not has[Read More…]
Back around 1990 it became time to replace my old chain saw, an American-made model. It had done a lot of work, but could be perplexing and temperamental. Some of that was no doubt my fault. Meanwhile, Swedish-made chainsaws had become popular locally for well-earned reasons. So I took the plunge and bought a Swedish model for nearly twice that[Read More…]
Co-Written by Karen J. Greenberg & Joshua L. Dratel In January 2002, the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility in Cuba opened its gates for the first 20 detainees of the war on terror. Within 100 days, 300 of them would arrive, often hooded and in those infamous orange jumpsuits, and that would just be the beginning. At its height, the population would rise to nearly[Read More…]
In the West, there is a new wave of political correctness at work: it is all about one’s sexual orientation; who has sex with whom, and how.Suddenly, the mass media in London, Paris and New York is greatly concerned about who has the right to change his or her sex, and who does not want to belong to any ‘traditional’[Read More…]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to further his deeply-sectarian and divisive agenda at Belur Math, global headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda, has backfired. His controversial defence of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 at the historic math in which he invoked Vivekananda himself has enraged a broad spectrum of people and formations. The CAA is, of[Read More…]
On 26 January 2020, as India marks 70 years of becoming a modern Republic, it also faces its biggest crisis as a democratic federation of religious, linguistic, ethnic and regional groups. Not only is the soul of India – its traditions of secularism, tolerance and respect for diversity – under threat, even the very flesh and bones of the nation[Read More…]
Amid ongoing protests against CAA-NRC-NPR across the country, some protesters are also claiming this nation-wide resistance to be one community’s affair. Their arguments come from their pungent criticism to one politician’s statement saying the battle is for India’s soul. Although, not just one but a number of them from different political outfits are impelling the same idea to cover their[Read More…]
India has entered the new year on many negatives. Its economy is simmering and showing no signs of recovery. And protests are everywhere happening in the country and these are increasing with each passing day and first started by common people are now joined by students of various colleges and universities across the country. The right-wing party BJP came again[Read More…]
Why, after so many assurances to the contrary, have the three European Iran’s Nuclear Deal Partner’s – Germany, France, the UK – decided to go after Iran, to follow the US dictate again? The short answer is because the cowards. They have zero backbone to stand up against the US hegemony, because they are afraid to be sanctioned – as[Read More…]
In an unprecedented move Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal has granted power of detaining authority to the Delhi Police Commissioner under the National Security Act, according to a notification. Under the National Security Act, an individual can be detained without a charge for up to 12 months. The individual also need not be informed of the charges for 10 days.[Read More…]
Narendra Modi (with folded hands): Jai Shriram. Bhagwat ji. It is a long time, almost a month since I spoke to you and sought your guidance. I want to know, are we falling short in implementing the Hindutva agenda. Mohan Bhagwat: No Modi. You are doing a good job. We are going to have a Ram Mandir soon. The court[Read More…]
The northern continental shelves of Russia, inclusive of the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea (ESAS) are some of the least researched yet most controversial subjects in climate science today. It’s the one region that has the biggest potential to trigger runaway global warming because of sizeable sub sea methane deposits, thereby taking civilization down to[Read More…]
“This is a bold bet – a moonshot – for Microsoft.” So claimed Brad Smith, Microsoft President, in a Thursday announcement painting a picture of a company that intends to be carbon negative by 2030. “And,” Smith continued, “it will need to be a moonshot for the world.” That vision entails the removal of more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere[Read More…]
The failure of the Madrid climate negotiations, the Cop25, was not really unexpected. Even today, very few people, be they politicians or citizens, understand the risks of what’s happening, and those who do are accused of “alarmism”. But how long can we carry on as if nothing is happening? What do we risk if we do nothing? The answer is[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ashish Kumar Singh & Abhijit Anand In this part, we summarize another important research article focusing on Foreign Imposed Regime Change, noting the fact that the recent crisis is connected with the political events taking place in Iraq. We must also not forget that Iraq’s parliament has passed a resolution calling on the government to end all foreign[Read More…]
The Punjab Assembly on Friday passed a resolution by voice vote against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, the second state in the country to do so. The resolution moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra was passed after over three hours of discussion. While the ruling Congress and main opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supported the resolution, the BJP opposed[Read More…]
The inclusion of climate activists Extinction Rebellion (XR) by police in a guide to “ideological extremism” marks a serious escalation of the assault on democratic rights. Although the guide has now been withdrawn, the Conservative government has still defended including XR. The Guardian reported last week that Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) had included XR among extremists requiring reporting to the[Read More…]
A common claim is that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are essential to agriculture if we are to feed an ever-growing global population. Supporters of genetically engineered (GE) crops argue that by increasing productivity and yields, this technology will also help boost farmers’ incomes and lift many out of poverty. Although in this article it will be argued that the performance[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ashish Kumar Singh & Abhijit Anand Iran and USA reached on the brink of a war due to the series of events that took place in the beginning of 2020. We are going to give a time-line of the recent events, and then present main points of two academic articles relevant to understand these events in totality. We[Read More…]
The world’s elite are set to descend on Davos, a Swiss mountain resort, in the World Economic Forum (WEF). It is an annual gathering of world political leaders, business executives including chief executives of some of the world’s biggest and powerful companies, academics and non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders. The Davos WEF has an image of being an elitist event meant[Read More…]
On August 10-11, 2019 Green Party members in St. Louis joined others from across the state to hear from the leading contenders for the party’s nomination for President: Dennis Lambert, Dario Hunter, David Rolde, and Howie Hawkins. All had a very clear understanding that it would be futile to support a Democrat, because, even though they often use sweet-sounding words,[Read More…]
A new Wild West has taken root not far from Tombstone, Arizona, known to many for its faux-historical reenactments of the old West. We’re talking about a long, skinny territory — a geographic gerrymander — that stretches east across New Mexico and down the Texan Rio Grande to the Gulf of Mexico. It also runs west across hundreds of miles[Read More…]
Co-Written by PunsaraAmarasinghe & Esshan Jayawardane The pandemonium erupted following Soleimani’s death seems to have encircled the embattled regime in Iran after admitting that Ukrainian flight was shot down by their force with 176 people on board. The protestors who chanted death to America at Soleimani’s funeral changed their tune when they realized the government they reverently supporting[Read More…]
I don’t know how many Indian Americans are bigots. but know a few who have not learned about America and the values it stands for. We have a diamond among us that shines and has become a true Indian-American hero who understands liberty and freedom. I salute Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. “Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella strongly criticized a new[Read More…]
Recently majority of the countries are witnessing massive protests and agitations world over on the issues of economic inequality, public corruptions, political freedom, and suppression of dissenting voices by the state agency such as police and army. The ongoing protests on the said issues in the countries like, Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, India and other West Asia[Read More…]
The 2019 was the world’s second-hottest year on record. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), U.S. space administration NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the finding Wednesday. The Geneva-based WMO combined several datasets, including two from the NASA and the UK Met Office. The decade beginning in 2010 was the hottest ever, and it’s the[Read More…]
They choose me to bleed, They hurt me to bury my soul, “Don’t shout, don’t oppose, or you gotta be finished”…they shouted out, They frightened me and locked me behind the rails, “Fight Dude Fight!” My comates inspired me! They stabbed my back, with the edge of their weapons, They bullied me to kill my rage, Even they tortured me[Read More…]
In groundbreaking news President Putin announced today, 15 January, in his annual address to the Nation, major changes in his government. First, he announced that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his entire cabinet resigned and will eventually be replaced by a new PM and a new cabinet. A timeline was not given. In the meantime, they would carry on with[Read More…]
A seemingly ordinary news story, published in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on January 7, shed light on a long-forgotten, yet crucial, subject: Israel’s so-called “firing zones” in the West Bank. “Israel has impounded the only vehicle available to a medical team that provides assistance to 1,500 Palestinians living inside an Israeli military firing zone in the West Bank,” according to[Read More…]
Following the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Shiite Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad International Airport, the Iraqi PM, the Iraqi Parliament Speaker and the Iraqi Parliament have demanded that the US Alliance forces leave Iraq. The US, UK, Australia, Canada and Germany have rejected the Iraqi Parliament’s Quit Iraq demand, with the US threatening[Read More…]
Two sets of US government cables suggest that Iran hawks in and outside the Trump administration appear to have the upper hand as European countries give hardliners a helping hand by attempting to force Iran to seek a diplomatic solution to a crisis that threatens to engulf the Middle East in yet another military conflict. Disclosure of the cables advocating[Read More…]
● Time to speak your mind,its now or never : A little something has died in everyone of us today_ In some compassion & empathy, In some zeal & positivity, In some happiness & peace, The shades of grey,with hues of red of blood,are taking away_ The spark of every sunshine with it The warmth of relations with it, The[Read More…]
Global warming and its disastrous consequences are now truly with us since the second part of 2019. At the moment a change in the weather has given parts of the country a respite from the raging fires, some of which are still burning or smoldering, waiting for another warm spell to flare up. The danger zones include the Australian Capital[Read More…]
London: Another slot of judicial history, another notch to be added to the woeful record of legal proceedings being undertaken against Julian Assange. The ailing WikiLeaks founder was coping as well as he could, showing the resourcefulness of the desperate at his Monday hearing. At the Westminster Magistrates Court, Assange faced a 12-minute process, an ordinary affair in which he[Read More…]
Amidst obstacles to the creation of a new administration in Lebanon angry protesters have begun returning to streets. Protesters are returning with the slogan, “The revolution is coming back.” There were clashes between the protesters and army and security forces. Protesters burned tires, blocked roads and brought traffic in Beirut to a standstill on Tuesday in renewed demonstrations against economic[Read More…]
There is mounting evidence that a healthy soil microbiome protects plants from pests and diseases. One of the greatest natural assets that humankind has is soil. But when you drench it with proprietary synthetic chemicals or continuously monocrop as part of a corporate-controlled industrial farming system, you can kill essential microbes, upset soil balance and end up feeding soil a limited doughnut diet of unhealthy[Read More…]
This seems like a strange moment to be writing about “the deep state” with the country entering a new phase of open and obvious aboveground chaos and instability. Just as we had gotten used to the fact that the president is, in effect, under congressional indictment, just as we had settled into a more or less stable stalemate over when (and if) the[Read More…]
During an assembly to remember those killed in the Iranian Air Flight 752 Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he wanted “answers” and was looking for “justice and accountability.” My empathy stands with the families, friends and loved ones of those who died in this tragic mistake. When I really think about the accident it sickens me, then makes[Read More…]
Open letter to Parliament with regard to the Hansard debate of 7th January 2020 Vol: 669, relating to the targeted assassination of Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani. Having read the Hansard Parliamentary discussion on the targeted assassination of Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani, along with the Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and the other Iraqi military leaders, I am stunned by[Read More…]
Narendra Modi: What is this Amit Bhai! With each of our step our opposers are only growing. Amit Shah: True Narendra Bhai! If this goes on, a time will come when we will be doomed Narendra Modi: What is Mohan Bhagwat saying? Amit Shah: He said us to take action against our opposers, even if it meant physical attack against[Read More…]
Educational Institutions are meant to be places of learning and authorities managing them are expected to provide a liberal space where diversity of ideas can exist. Of course, this ideal is present at very few places but Jawaharlal Nehru University, before the Modi government came to power was one such place of international standing in India. It was comparable to[Read More…]
Air pollution is a big killer. Air pollution has also been linked to an increased risk in depression and suicide. More than 160,000 people could die in the next decade from strokes and heart attacks caused by air pollution, a charity has warned. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) said there is an estimated 11,000 such deaths per year at the[Read More…]
A deadly winter storm brought severe impacts to millions of people from parts of the Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan beginning late last week and through the weekend. According to media reports, at least 54 people were killed by the combination of heavy snowfall, brutal cold and severe flooding in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The storm got underway on Thursday with scattered[Read More…]
The Citizenship (Amendment)Act, 2019 (CAA) is being vaguely labelled as Anti-Muslims. Though it is certainly designed to exclude and disparage Muslims to become lesser rights holder in India, the Act’s design reflects to a larger nefarious social agenda. In 2014, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists from Pakistan were given Long Term Visas (LTVs)for stay in India. In 2015, the notification[Read More…]
We went to Iran because you have to see these places before the U.S. blows them up, and it’s very good to see you here today in downtown Chicago, that’s also precious, for a similar reason. Because we have reason to believe that when Iran goes, a lot of other places go as well. Every war the U.S. begins is[Read More…]
How much is an American green card and ultimately a naturalized citizenship worth to elderly sub-continental parents? A lot! How many more do you think would be willing to give up their independence and the comfort of their own cocoon to immigrate to America? Many parents would happily give up living their retired lives in the sub-continent in exchange for[Read More…]
Women around the world, regardless of their status, nationality, color, are at a constant state of war with the patriarchy, a war that has been raging since the Agricultural Revolution and that has its roots deeply embedded in property relations. Rapes are the by-products of that war, patriarchy’s trophies won in shameless battles. And,as long aswe would not acknowledge the[Read More…]
The sale of national flag is gone manifold. The reading on Constitution is growing and perhaps for the first time in history of independent India, the faith in our constitution has grown tremendously. It was never so much. In fact, those who are supposed to uphold the constitutional values are actually protecting Manusmirit and people have realized now that it[Read More…]
It was late in the evening inside JNU campus. Two Muslim students were engaged in a fierce debate. Close to them were standing two girls and a boy. They were silent and holding placards against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor was already late by several hours. But the students were patiently waiting for him. Even the cold wind[Read More…]
The National Register for Citizens (NRC), that created havoc among the lives of 19 lakh people in Assam, if extended to entire India, what will happen to 130 crore people? How many of them could prove their citizenship? In the 70th year of Indian Republic, the people are burdened to prove that they are citizens of India. Top constitutional authorities[Read More…]
India does not need the CAA-NPR-NRIC. They need to be resolutely opposed. Withdraw the Foreigners (Tribunals) Amendment Order, 2019 Issued on 09 January 2020, by CONSTITUTIONAL CONDUCT GROUP, with 106 signatories, Full Text given below. Most of them were IAS, and include IPS, IRS, IFS officials. And include top former Secretaries, DGPs, RAW officials too. The signatories included those connected[Read More…]
Learn more about nuclear weapons and what you can do to stop them
Finally, the storm over General Qassem Soleimani’s death seems to be over. Had it not been for the strategic restraint and wisdom of the Iranian regime, the war seemed imminent which would have certainly resulted in the decimation of the stranglehold of the religious elite and wide-scale destruction of the country and beyond. It is now clear that the sustained[Read More…]
We live in times when students act as torch bearers while the senior citizens act like idiots, cowards and opportunists. A country or society is shaped by education and education itself acts as a boat which travels large distances for people who battles with the waves and paddles the anchor! It is often said that an educational institution should not[Read More…]
On 10th January 2020, the Citizenship Amendment Act came into effect all over India. Debating about the CAA is a pointless exercise, since it is only a problem if there is a register to tie it to, and until the NPR starts, we really have nothing to go on regarding the legality, or morality of the[Read More…]
In north Gujarat a 19-year-old Dalit woman was kidnapped, gangraped and murdered before her body was hanged from a tree to make it look like a suicide. The victim had gone missing on December 31 and her body was found on January 5. According to the details of the Nirbhaya-like case, after the deceased went missing, her family had approached[Read More…]
Before documenting that many trillions of dollars in U.S. Government military spending have been and are unaccounted-for, and that by far the most corrupt U.S. federal Department is the ‘Defense’ Department, it is important to document here, by means of the links that will be provided in this article, that, at least after the 9/11 event, the most respected institution[Read More…]
From Obama to Trump, the Escalation of Drone Warfare We’re only a few days into the new decade and it’s somehow already a bigger dumpster fire than the last. On January 2nd, President Trump decided to order what one expert called “the most important decapitation strike America has ever launched.” This one took out not some nameless terrorist in a distant land[Read More…]
United States (US) and Iran confront each other as if to prove who can be more nefarious. After the assassination of Qassim Soleimai, the Islamic Republic, momentarily, portrayed a less wicked role. Downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by an Iranian missile and the lateness of the Iran government to admit the error weakened Iran’s protests of being unfairly treated[Read More…]
In the beginning of January 2020 two very disturbing events were reported from Pakistan. One was the attack on Nankana Sahib, the holy shrine where Sant Guru Nanak was born. While one report said that the place has been desecrated, the other stated that it was a fight between two Muslim groups. Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan condemned the[Read More…]
There is no denying of the fact that Tamils in Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end since 1949, when power was transferred to the majority Sinhala Government. Successive Sinhala Governments continued and still continue the marginalisation of minorities to achieve their goal of a SINHALA-BUDDHIST STATE. Peaceful protests, non-violent and violent campaigns were ruthlessly crushed by the 99%[Read More…]
International relations is typified by its vagueness of definition and its shallowness of justification. Be it protecting citizens of a state in another, launching a pre-emptive strike to prevent what another state might do, or simply understanding the application of a treaty provision, justifications can prove uneven and at odds. The pre-emptive jerk behind the killing of Major General Qasem[Read More…]
An Iran hawk who advocated killing general Qassim Soleimani, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered his diplomats to limit contacts with militant Iranian exile and opposition groups that support either regime change or greater rights for ethnic groups like Kurds and Arabs. Coming on the back of the Soleimani killing, Mr. Pompeo’s directive appears to put an end[Read More…]
How to Hide an Empire – A History of the Greater United States. Daniel Immerwahr. Farrer, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2019. The Greater United States of the title is not just the contiguous states of the mainland plus insets for Alaska and Hawaii, but includes many of the smaller – and not small – territories and possessions held by[Read More…]
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead A highly welcome and discernible sign on the Indian development landscape is that many bright brains from the best of universities are foregoing high salaries to commit themselves to development issues such as[Read More…]
When the Pentagon confirmed the assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media to post a single image of the American flag to the adulation of his followers. Unfortunately, most Americans are ignorant of the other flag synonymous with U.S. foreign policy, that of the ‘false flag’ utilized to deceive the public[Read More…]
Co-Written by Debmalya Nandy and NIlakshi Bhattacharyya The doldrums of the current political scenario is also witnessing a changing face of the society. Not just our citizenships, our sense of reasoning and rational thinking are under threat as well.. Amidst the NRC( National Register for citizens) and CAA( Citizenship Amendment Act) row and the turbulence brought about by the introduction[Read More…]
Presently most of the countries are witnessing massive protests, agitations, and public demonstrations across the world around the issues of economic inequality, corruptions, political freedom, and suppression of democratic rights including the police brutality. The ongoing protests on said issues in the countries like, Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, and other West Asia regions could be cited as cases[Read More…]
Why doesn’t the U.S. respect the decision made by the Iraqi Parliament and move out of Iraqi territory? – The short answer is, because the US doesn’t respect anybody’s – any country’s – decision or sovereignty, as long as it doesn’t meet their objectives. Now, the US is steadfast and will not leave the region. Already President Assad has[Read More…]
Delhi Police’s press conference on the JNU issue yesterday was deeply disappointing though not surprising given the nature of the political pressure on the police and ‘ready to do anything’ variety of officers violating commitment to the constitution of India. JNU faced unprecedented violence on January 5th in the night when masked goons attacked the university students and faculties as[Read More…]
Co-Written by Rajendran Narayanan and Sandeep Pandey “Jab har saans mein bandook dikhe toh baccha kaise bekhauf rahe?” (How can a child be fearless when she sees a gun in every breath?) remarked Anwar, a gardener from Srinagar, when asked about the situation in Kashmir.On 30 November, 2019, a walk through an iron gate in a quiet neighbourhood of Srinagar[Read More…]
The attack by masked forces, who were freely allowed to enter the JNU campus and injured teachers and students tell a new story of the BJP rule in Delhi. It is likely that they want to dismantle JNU and some other universities in the country. Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) have major issues with universities that teach[Read More…]
In the mid-seventies, when I came to Delhi University (DU) from a small village in Haryana, the deployment of police or private security guards either in the college or university campus was unheard of. There used to be university watchmen at the gate of college, hostel and faculty, who were generally befriended by the students. In the entire north campus,[Read More…]
Cocooned as it is from the world of science scepticism, the handling of the bush fire catastrophe unfolding in Australia is going to one of the more notable (non)achievements of the Morrison government. They were warned; they were chided; they were prodded. But the measures lagged and the flames came. To a certain extent, this remains unfair. Australian governments, across[Read More…]
Throughout the world, mega droughts are hitting hard with a ferocity not seen in decades and in some cases not seen in centuries. It’s not merely coincidental that as global warming accelerates droughts turn more vicious than ever before. All of which begs the logical question of when will world leaders wake up with a unified plan of action to[Read More…]
In the days of yore, Savitri saved Satyavan The legend of Savitri and Satyavan in the Hindu mythological epic, the Mahabharat, is a love story. Savitri, a beautiful princess, marries Satyavan, a penniless woodcutter, despite Sage Narada warning her that Satyavan, is a dead man walking. A year later, on the day of reckoning, Yama, the God of death, comes[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies The U.S. assassination of General Qassem Soleimani has not yet plunged us into a full-scale war with Iran thanks to the Iranian government’s measured response, which demonstrated its capabilities without actually harming U.S. troops or escalating the conflict. But the danger of a full-blown war still exists, and Donald Trump’s actions[Read More…]
According to a recent report in The Hindu Business Line, India’s intelligence agencies are investigating the role of a global investment company and international seed companies in supporting farmers organisation Shetkari Sanghatana (SS) in the distribution of illegally procured genetically modified (GM) herbicide tolerant (HT) cotton seeds. The planting of such seeds is an offence under the Environment Protection Act[Read More…]
Once again, information has surfaced regarding United States governmental efforts to mislead and misinform people about disgraceful, cruel destruction caused by a United States war of choice against people who meant the U.S. no harm. In the Afghanistan Papers, the United States government officials acknowledged, privately, their own uncertainty about why they were going to war against Afghanistan in 2001.[Read More…]
At a talk I delivered in Northern England in March 2018, I proposed that the best response to falsified accusations of antisemitism, which are often lobbed against pro-Palestinian communities and intellectuals everywhere, is to draw even closer to the Palestinian narrative. In fact, my proposal was not meant to be a sentimental response in any way. “Reclaiming the Palestinian narrative”[Read More…]
Five days after masked goons attacked students in New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in which about 20 students including JNU Students Union President Aishe Ghosh and teachers were grievously injured, the Delhi police have accused that Aishe Ghosh and other left wing students were among the attackers. The police released photos puported to be that of Aishe Ghosh.[Read More…]
Australia has been devastated by catastrophic bushfires in all states across the continent. The Australian fire season used to encompass the 6 months of Spring and Summer but now encompasses 9 months from late Winter to early Autumn. The effective climate change denialist and anti-science Coalition Government has a major responsibility. Mechanical fuel reduction coupled with biochar (charcoal, carbon, C)[Read More…]
COP 25: Hiring a thief to guard one’s home The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded its 25th Conference of Parties (COP 25) meeting in Madrid on 14 November 2019, where it discussed how to tackle the growing climate crisis. After nearly a fortnight’s deliberations by representatives of nearly 200 nations, COP 25 closed without a satisfactory[Read More…]
Co-Written by Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Mohd Lateef Mir and Adil Bashir It is said,‘life is full of uncertainties, and one never knows what transpires in a moment.’ The uncertainty is part of our existence because of mortality. Life has many aspects, although intriguing which makes it a treasure to spend. It is like a journey which starts at the time of[Read More…]
The new year greets us with the murderous rampage by the Hindutva brigade in the JNU campus against students and teachers who have been protesting against the authoritarian policies and acts of the BJP regime. The practice of assaults and lynching against Muslims and Dalits in the public space since Narendra Modi’s coming to power, was extended to students of [Read More…]
This is a watershed moment for the judiciary not to falter and for judges to undo the wrongs of the past. This is a reflection of the times we live in and signals that the youth in our country have to spend the next significant amount of time battling a leadership that comes across, at once, as communal and authoritarian.[Read More…]
Cathy Breen, an eyewitness to sanctions and war in Iraq, struggles to imagine crueler punishment afflicting Iraqi children. Try as I did, I found it impossible to send New Year’s greetings to friends in Iraq given the unthinkable and shameless actions of Trump and his regime in the last weeks. His decision to assassinate Iranian Major General Qasim Soleimani[Read More…]
Yes, our infrastructure stinks, our schools are failing, this country’s a nightmare of inequality, and there’s a self-promoting madman in the White House, so isn’t it time to take pride in the rare institutional victories America has had in this century? Arguably, none has been more striking than the triumphal success of the American war system. Oh, you’re going to bring that up immediately?[Read More…]
“it was true that there were two nations in this story, but unfortunately there was only one land, and that fact could not be altered by all the borders and fences and barriers and roadblocks in the world. ‘The land is the same land. And, Bazi, what was it you said once, remember? In the end all the rivers flow[Read More…]
On November 14th the Canadian group Wellington Water Watchers organized the «All Eyes on Nestlé» conference in the city of Guelph, Ontario, bringing together indigenous’ peoples and citizens’ movements fighting Nestlé’s water takingsfrom Canada, the US, France and Brazil. Following this public event, the representatives of the organizations involved met for a workshop to exchange information and discuss possible common[Read More…]
biscuit a pellet hit her small palm that clutched a half eaten biscuit. she broke into a rasping wail “bikoot mama bikoot” the biscuit fell to the ground near her, near her mamma. mamma a pellet hit her left breast that smelt of milk. a fount of blood spurted all over her baby and soaked a biscuit on the ground.[Read More…]
Iranians play chess, Americans play backgammon when it comes to warfare, military strategy and conflict management. That is becoming increasingly obvious in the US-Iranian tit-for-tat on an Iraqi gameboard. Hobbled by harsh US economic sanctions and a weak military hand, Iran has perfected the art of asymmetric warfare and carefully calibrated operations as well as acts of political violence,[Read More…]
A Japanese adage rightly says that “A close neighbor is better than a distant relative”. A country can change its friends but altering neighbors is simply out of the question. Neighbors either they are belligerent or peaceful; the state ought to take a proactive and inclusive foreign policy for a conducive environment. Pakistan and India, thus, are fortunate; both states[Read More…]
Cow vigilantism, Article 370, Ayodhya verdict and now the evil conjoined twins NRC-CAA. This dispensation is unsurprisingly on an exclusionist rampage and will one leave no stone unturned till they are well on their way to attaining Hindu-rashtra as they have purported to achieve directly and indirectly. Nevermind the fact that Article 14, which many people believe applies only to[Read More…]
Kudos to students of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Delhi for protesting in the campus against fascism on 8 January, 2020. Almost the entire college walked out in protest and marched towards other colleges where more students joined. It was the collective decision of students of this college. This was an unprecedented political outrage by the students. They raised the[Read More…]
‘Go to Pakistan’ has probably been most often used phrase used against Muslims in India. Recently in yet another such incident the SP of Meerut, UP has been in the news and a video is circulating where he, Akhilesh Narayan Singh, is allegedly using the jibe ‘Go to Pakistan’. In the video he is seen shouting at protestors at Lisari[Read More…]
There is a significant body of evidence that human extinction is now imminent; that is, it will occur within the next few years and possibly this year: 2020. There is also a significant body of evidence that human extinction is now inevitable; that is, it cannot be prevented no matter what we do. There are at least four distinct paths[Read More…]
At its root, capitalism not only meant slavery and white supremacy but also the ethos of the gangster – Gerald Horne The film ‘Joker’ presents a contemporary phenomenon present in several countries, but which can only be understood in its complexity through the history of the origins of the USA. African-American historian Gerald Horne argues in the book[Read More…]
I am your voice but I will not say a word. I am politically numb. I fear that we may be entering an age of authoritarian populism and one day it will munch us all. We seek rainbow but we often get clouds of tear gas and a hail of bullets. My friend, that day is not far away when[Read More…]
India woke up on January 8, to witness the largest ever strike with an estimated 25 crore (250 million) workers, employees, farmers and rural labourers stopping work and hitting the streets to protest against the Modi government’s economic policies and divisive politics. Reports coming in from various states indicate that the strike was complete in the country’s massive public sector[Read More…]
They say he came from a humble background, and worked himself up the ranks, becoming, as many believe, the second most powerful man in Iran. They say he had the chance to become the next Supreme Leader of the country. Whenever I visit Iran, I am told how much he is loved by his people. He became the symbol[Read More…]
At long last, Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has uttered the long-anticipated conclusion that “all the statutory criteria under the Rome statute for the opening of an investigation (into alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) have been met”. Bensouda’s verdict has been in the making for a long time and should, frankly,[Read More…]
Something about 5th January night’s state sponsored attack on students and professors in JNU hostels left me completely shaken up. Because I felt a lot of things, for the first time. For the first time, sitting in my home in Mumbai, I felt unsafe. When I saw videos of a mob with weapons marching brashly at night in private living[Read More…]
The recent attack on students and teachers at JNU by right-wing goons associated with Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) exposes the threat being felt by the BJP. The party which believes in an ideology of exclusion and hardly pays attention to the real concerns affecting people, JNU is a nightmare. JNU is seen as troublesome in building their agenda of[Read More…]
There were no lines that drew you from me I had no flag, no anthem, no lines that said you stood outside I had nothing, only the world which housed many worlds Where you and I were one; Till the day they drew barbed wires between you and me And shoved me into a sky like a square grey patch[Read More…]
All Nature Conservation Activities/ Struggles Will have the nature of Nature itself The coolness of trees The calmness of rivers The ability of wind To set in a motion all that it touches A person devoid of kindness Love and care A person without a rainbow and a song in his/ her heart Can never be part of a Nature[Read More…]
In the movie adaptation of John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill,” Carl Lee Hailey’s defense lawyer Jake Brigance, in his summation, asks the jury members to close their eyes while he tells a horrid tale of a little girl being attacked, raped, beaten, tortured and left to die by two grown men. The jury squirms as they hear the story[Read More…]
Thirty years ago this month, President George H.W. Bush appeared before a joint session of Congress to deliver his first State of the Union Address, the first post-Cold War observance of this annual ritual. Just weeks before, the Berlin Wall had fallen. That event, the president declared, “marks the beginning of a new era in the world’s affairs.” The Cold War,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Inamul Haq & Dr. Beryl Anand The ongoing student protest in India against the policies of government is not new in the history.It is revolution among the young students, who does not believe in boundaries, religion, identity, class and region. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is considered as a hub of anti-government protests. However, the rest of the[Read More…]
The US killing of Iranian general Qassim Soleimani has further opened the door to a potential restructuring of the Gulf’s security architecture. In line with an Iranian plan launched at last year’s United Nations General Assembly by president Hassan Rouhani that calls for a security architecture that would exclude external forces, cooler heads in Tehran argue that an expulsion of[Read More…]
Are we on the brink of a Third World War? There are signs that demand that we ask this question. Three clusters of signs compel us to probe a question that could well determine the future of our civilisation. One, the nature of the event itself — the reckless assassination of the Iranian general, Qassem Sulaimani, on the orders of[Read More…]
In India, the ‘development’ paradigm is premised on moving farmers out of agriculture and into the cities to work in construction, manufacturing or the service sector, despite these sectors not creating anything like the number of jobs required. The aim is to displace the existing labour-intensive system of food and agriculture with one dominated by a few transnational corporate agri-food[Read More…]
A commentator has it that Kashmirisation of India is underway ever since methods law and order maintenance tried and tested in Kashmir found their way into the national capital with the invasion of the armed police into a university campus to rough up students. Alongside, Gujratification of India is also underway, evident from the foray of a right wing lynch[Read More…]
Based on what their loyalists on Twitter are clamouring for. You see 2019 has been a year that saw sweeping changes in India. It has been pretty bad on the economic front but it did have all the ingredients to keep right-wing loyalists fixated with the BJP. Article 370 which granted special privileges to India’s only Muslim majority state Jammu[Read More…]
To, Mr. Prabhu Chawla Editorial Director New Indian Express Chennai. Dear Mr. Prabhu Chawla You have invited me to speak in a panel on 8 January in the Educational Conclave you are organizing. You have been organizing this conclave on education called ThinkEdu for quite some time. This year invitation said: ‘It is my honour to invite you to speak[Read More…]
Once in a while, people ask me: “Why did you accept the US citizenship, many years ago?” “After all,” they say, “now you are one of the most vocal critics of the United States, and of the West in general.” Perhaps I never explained, or I did, some time ago, and now it is forgotten. So, let me try again,[Read More…]
The killing of Iranian leader of famous Quds force Gen.Qasem Soleimani in Bagdad seems to have made an apocalyptic move in the beginning of this new decade as some critics have already viewed this incident similar to the the assassination of Austrian crown prince Duke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo which paved the path to the First World War in 1914.[Read More…]
It is not the first time that JNU is witnessing the wrath of the right wing. But on what had happened recently cannot be seen as just another usual incident amongst others. Never in the history of JNU did it see such chaos reigning on the campus. The backdrop of the whole series of protest that happened in JNU was[Read More…]
It is a system not a sudden gathering or attack, it doesn’t have a group it has a body planning to speed up chaos, attack wasn’t just about fifty men in masks it was about the doors they found open so easily! It is a crime yet it is done with no fear, happy are they to masturbate out every[Read More…]
Persecution of minorities is a perennial problem in the South Asian region. Muslims in India, Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tamils in Sri Lanka are under the dark shadow of majoritarianism. Countries in the region seem to have found new interest in the minority questions of neighbours; and the issue has got new dimension. Nowadays, the heads of the two[Read More…]
The terror attack on JNU last night is the reminder how the BJP has increasingly supported lumpenism and goondaism of its student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad during the last few years particularly after the Narendra Modi government took over. It is a well known factor that ABVP is unable to take the opponent head on in most of the[Read More…]
I strongly condemn the brutal attack on JNU Teachers and Students on 5 January, 2020. Under the present BJP/RSS rule unusual levels of violence has been let loose on campuses. For the first time in higher education history after independence masked forces with lethal weapons entered the campus and brutally beat teachers and students. This signals a new level of[Read More…]
New Delhi, January 6 : NAPM strongly condemns the unprecedented violence unleashed by the masked goons on the JNU campus specifically targeting Student Union activists, students active in anti fee hike agitation and the faculty members supporting them and some Kashmiri and Dalit students. The attack has left more than 20 students and faculty members with grievous injury, fracture and cuts[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Anandi Pandey At New Delhi’s Jamia Millia University if one visits the library it may appear as if a pitched battle was fought here. Almost all glasses have been broken by tear gas shells or stun grenades and furniture has been vandalised. And this was in response to some peaceful protests outside the library. Although[Read More…]
Starting 2002, USA has been negotiating foundational military cooperation Agreements with India. They are GSOMIA (General Security of Military Information Agreement) signed in 2012; LSA (Logistic Support Agreement), signed in 2016 as LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement); CISMOA (Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement), signed in 2018 as COMCASA (Communications Compatibility & Security Agreement); and BECA (Basic Exchange[Read More…]
International law may not be a major consideration in debates about the US killing of Iranian military commander Qassim Soleimani, yet the legality of the assassination could prove to have long-term consequences for whether the rule of law or the law of the jungle dominates a new world order. The Trump administration has asserted that killing Mr. Soleimani was[Read More…]
Shocking! The shape of things to come. Unless we can fight it back. Gangs of armed and masked thugs, from outside, attack the agitating students, with police standing by or even helping. To break up the agitation against sharp fee hike and offer alibi to the administration for taking drastic actions. JNUSU President grievously injured. So are many others. More[Read More…]
The world has been rocked by the U.S. assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force, an Iranian government force that commands militias in different countries of the region. The assassination of a high government official of one sovereign state on the soil of another sovereign state is objectively an act of war[Read More…]
On the surface, it made not one iota of sense. The murder of a foreign military leader on his way from Baghdad airport, his diplomatic status assured by the local authorities, evidently deemed a target of irresistible richness. “General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” The words from[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo By killing top Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani, American and Israeli leaders demonstrated the idiom ‘out of the frying pan into the fire.’ US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are both politically and legally embattled – the former has just been impeached and the latter is dogged by an[Read More…]
U.S. “Plans” for the Afghan War Might Prove a Crime Against Humanity On February 4, 2002, a Predator drone circled over Afghanistan’s Paktia province, near the city of Khost. Below was al-Qaeda’s founder Osama bin Laden — or at least someone in the CIA thought so — and he was marked for death. As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld put it later, both awkwardly[Read More…]
We see And yet we will see — The war clouds turn the sky aflame The razing ground do much the same Neanderthals died of unknown cause Homosapiens crossed a borderless world. Civilisation spread Nuclear Armament Bloodied wars Unhouse the ones who read Shroud them Beat them till they bleed Only one can lead[Read More…]
A beauiful actress with a fan club for her looks Looked at the mirror when she was old and said: `I am not this one and where did I go?’ A tough man with muscles all around him Asked his son by the end of the game `Who took my muscles away and why?’ An intellectual who controlled the[Read More…]
Masked goons entered New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University and went on a rampage, targeting students and teachers and vandalising property. Several students have been injured, including the head of its students’ union. The police, “who are in the campus and the security personnel did nothing,” said JNUSU vice-President Saket Moon. The JNUSU has alleged the complicity of Akhil Bharatiya[Read More…]
DEMOLITION OF BUILDINGS VIOLATING COASTAL REGULATION ZONE (CRZ) NOTIFICATIONS IN KERALA, INDIA, 2020 Executive Summary The Kerala State is the biggest violator of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, which regulates construction activities in the sensitive coasts of the sea and the backwaters in India. According one report, there are 1800 buildings, including star hotels, luxury apartment blocks, shopping malls[Read More…]
The assassination by the United States of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, near Baghdad’s airport will ignite widespread retaliatory attacks against U.S. targets from Shiites, who form the majority in Iraq. It will activate Iranian-backed militias and insurgents in Lebanon and Syria and throughout the Middle East. The existing mayhem, violence, failed states and war,[Read More…]
Remember Faiz Ahmed Faiz writing about Allah? He was a communist. But many communists in Kerala believe that when the Muslims in this country are hit from head to toe for their culture, identity and faith, they should not even utter the word Allah’ in their protests on streets. In the ballroom dance of electoral politics, these communists forgot to[Read More…]
Interestingly, after the US attack on Iraqi Militia fighters on 31 December 2020, and the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, on 2 January, the first thing President Trump could come up with, was bragging that it was him who gave the order to murder the popular military leader. General Qassem Suleimani, was the commander of the Iranian special Quds Force.[Read More…]
As most days, this morning I opened the Tao – Dao DeJing –at random, at Dao-42. In its conclusion it says “Those who are forceful and aggressive… die a painful death – This I use as the foundation of my teaching.” And so it may be. The reaction of “painful death” may not be immediate. Time in the dimensions of[Read More…]
Reports cite that India’s carbon emissions are growing at a faster rate than the United States of America or China. The World Air Quality Report 2018 prepared by Greenpeace revealed that of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 18 are in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In January 2019, the Government of India launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP),[Read More…]
“Injustice in the end produces independence.”–Voltaire The people of East Bengal, who are majority Muslims, suffered injustice for ages. After the fall of Plassey in 1757, they came under the wrath of the British and its Hindu surrogates. When the British left in 1947, partitioning India on religious divide, East Bengal became part of Pakistan, their condition was no[Read More…]
The first thing to understand is that this CAA+NRC is the best thing that could have happened to India at this stage. We had become a rapidly polarized, fascist, extremist society with the voices of the ‘silent’ majority conspicuous by their silence while the strident and raucous screech of hate speech was echoing off the walls of our collective conscience.[Read More…]
As we usher in 2020, there is only one resolution to avoid- silence. For many, the New Year is a time of reflection, of calm deliberation. That’s all fair enough in placid circumstances. In such times- such that they exist-everyone has a right to stop, to think, to consider, to audit the soul. To indulge. But we must do so[Read More…]
“Everyone wants the man who is still searching to have already reached his conclusions. A thousand voices are already telling him what he has found, and yet he knows he hasn’t found anything. Should he search on and let them talk? Of course.” – Albert Camus, “The Enigma” in Lyrical and Critical Essays Albert Camus’ search ended sixty years ago[Read More…]
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 was awarded “for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos” with one half to James Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”, the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.” It recognised[Read More…]
Life was never an easy go for Jayanti Ekka who struggled through the thick and thin to reach the pinnacle of success. However, she is an iconic figure now, thanks to the Odisha Government’s Mission Shakti Movement. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was so much enthused by her success story that he gave a standing ovation during a state-level meeting in[Read More…]
For many of us, a university is (was?) a critical place for the interpretation and making sense of everydayness; a place for envisaging a just society; an important site where ideas and ideologies are debated and developed. Freedom of criticality and liberty of creativity were always remained the core and central to university teaching-learning processes. The ideas on education[Read More…]
The killing of Iranian military leader Qassim Soleimani proves the point: The United States has perfected the art of strengthening Iranian hardliners fuelled by an apparently ingrained misreading of Iranian politics and strategy sustained over decades. It also suggests that the Trump administration has walked into a trap in which spiralling tension between the United States and Iran is likely[Read More…]
The assassination of General Qasem Soleimani On Friday, 3 January, 2020, progressives in the United States and all peace-loving people throughout the world were horrified to learn that Donald Tromp had added to his long list of crimes and imbicilities by ordering the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, who is a hero in his own country, Iran. The murder, which[Read More…]
Neoliberalism has put the blinders on public imagination, hindering our ability to envision, and thus build, a world free from fossil fuels. Fremstad and Paul It’s the beginning of a new year and decade. 2020 beckons. Life is good, better than the human condition has ever been, but climate change is happening, is accelerating and has become an existential danger[Read More…]
The title of this piece may seem stupid to many. They would respond that obviously the US is civilized. After all, we have a highly developed society and culture which is a definition of civilized. In addition, as a sign of our culture, they proudly point to our museums, theaters, and symphonies that, along with our colleges and universities, are[Read More…]
The 2003 “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq had finally stopped. From the balcony of my room in Baghdad’s Al Fanar Hotel, I watched U.S. Marines moving between their jeeps, armored personnel carriers, and Humvees. They had occupied the street immediately in front of the small, family-owned hotel where our Iraq Peace Team had been living for the past six[Read More…]
Over 7.3 crore people, mostly youth, are currently unemployed. This is perhaps the largest army of jobless people India has ever seen, and definitely the biggest in the world. According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s monthly estimates, the unemployment rate stood at 7.7% in December 2019, the ninth month in which it has been above 7%. In urban areas, unemployment[Read More…]
The targeted assassination of the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad’s international airport early Friday morning has sharply intensified the spiraling conflict between the US and Iran, placing the outbreak of a catastrophic new war in the Middle East on a hair trigger. The Iraqi and Lebanese media, as[Read More…]
Home minister of India Amit Shah started his office by promising to security, liberty, prosperity and right to life to the common masses. However, this self-styled Chanakya Amit shah came withdifferent plan. Whatever he used to saying in the election campaign tried to Implement on ground. Amit shah, a man with criminal charges became the president of BJP first and[Read More…]
Half Widow, a film based on the plight of women whose husbands were abducted and killed by the Indian forces in disputed region of Kashmir, is set to be released in India next week. Made by Kashmiri filmmaker Danish Renzu, it enthralled an audience at the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival in Surrey in 2018. An armed struggle has[Read More…]
Clearing the FOG cohosts, Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, interviewed journalist and author Chris Hedges about the significant events of 2019 and what activists must prepare for in 2020 and beyond. Hedges covered uprisings and wars in the Middle East, Balkans, and Central America for twenty years as a foreign correspondent. He has studied and written books about sacrifice zones,[Read More…]
There’s a problem with America’s favorite statistic:GDP. It avoids pretty much everything that’s actually, truly, really good for society, including the importance of robust ecology. Still, it’s the biggest measure of what’s happening with the economy and used around the world,even though horribly flawed. According to some forward thinkers, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the monetary value of all finished goods[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies It’s a new year, and the U.S. has found a new enemy—an Iraqi militia called Kata’ib Hezbollah. How tragically predictable was that? So who or what is Kata’ib Hezbollah? Why are U.S. forces attacking it? And where will this lead? Kata’ib Hezbollah is one of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that[Read More…]
Human history as cultural history At present, history is taught as though power struggles were its most important aspect. Furthermore, the present teaching of history is an indoctrination in nationalism. We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations[Read More…]
At age 11, Saabir Gulmadin began chopping wood to support his family. Now 18, he earns about $1.50 US (120 Afghanis) for every 56 kg of wood he splits. It takes him 2 to 3 hours. “Is the work hard on your body?” I ask. “Ohhh, yes,” he says, without hesitation. “Where does it hurt?” Saabir raises his right hand[Read More…]
A new year. A new decade. What we Palestinians need is a new revolutionary approach and a new school of thought based on total unity of purpose for the common good, not just for the benefit of one faction or another. For that to happen, without shedding one drop of Palestinian blood, both Fateh and Hamas, the two main Palestinian[Read More…]
In one of the poorest neighborhoods of Bogota, Belen,I saw two people bleeding in the middle of the road. One person was clearly dead. A group of onlookers was moving frantically, shouting loudly. There was an attempt to resurrect an injured man. I asked the driver to inquire whether our help was needed, but he was told something insulting by[Read More…]
In February 2019 Germany opened a brand new intelligence complex in the city of Berlin. The new headquarters of the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst or Federal Intelligence Service) occupies a huge space—by the way, much as STASI or State Security Service once did in East Berlin the former German Democratic Republic—and supposedly employs a total of over six thousand persons. The move[Read More…]
The United States stirred a hornet’s nest that stretches far beyond Iraq when it this weekend attacked an Iranian-backed militia. The fallout of the US strikes was immediate in Iraq with pro-Iranian militiamen besieging the US embassy in Baghdad in scenes reminiscent of the run-up in 1979 to the 444-day occupation of the American diplomatic mission in Tehran. The[Read More…]
Perhaps I read too many alternative articles on too many internet sites, but with all the counter-perspective information (counter to the MSM), my information addled brain is waiting for one of several events (or a combination thereof). Essentially there are three ideas, all related, as to where the future of humanity lies. All the scenarios are negative from lesser to[Read More…]
With the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (‘CAA’) and the initiation of processes for creation of a National Register of Indian Citizens ( ‘NRIC’), a citizenship vesting apparatus based on religion, has now been operationalized. In a pre-NRIC exercise, the ‘residents’ of India will be identified by updating the National Population Register (‘NPR’), which will then be worked[Read More…]
The Media is tasked with the responsibility of making people aware. Besides being the watchdog of democracy, it should also conscientiously serve as the watchdog of upholdment of Constitutional values and directives enshrined in the constitution such as the Fundamental Duties. Acting on this lines, journalists in developing countries, as the creme-de-la-creme educated intelligentsia also act as diligent instruments of[Read More…]
Child prodigies have been with us since early times. But over the epochs, many of them have had their genius questioned—mostly as to whether or not a parent or a mentor was behind their amazing skills. It is only when their talents were authentically established that people around them could acknowledge them as teenage wonders. Nagpur’s Shreenabh Agrawal is[Read More…]
IIT Kanpur’s decision to form a ‘committee’ to ‘investigate’ whether Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Nazam ‘ Hum Dekhenge, Lazim hai ke hum dekhenge’ i.e. ‘we shall see’ , constitute anti Hindu prejudices as it was being sung by a group of students who were protesting against the CAA-NPR-NRC like many others in different parts of the country. People like me will[Read More…]
Co-Written by Meena Miriam Yust & Arshad M. Khan If one can imagine looking at our globe from the South Pole end, one can observe the ocean currents circulating water across the oceans. First one would notice a current all the way around the perimeter of the Antarctic. A surface current circulates clockwise but there is also a deep undercurrent[Read More…]
Introduction “I want to live and work with humans, so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people,” said ‘Sophia’[i], the World’s First Robot citizen, in an exchange with moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin nearly two years ago. When countries started thinking of granting citizenship to robots and robot citizen(s) can speak of building trust[Read More…]
As 2020 approached, the sense that the barbarians were not only at the gates but had breached the walls of indifference had come to the fore. But these were not conventional human forms; rather, they were the agents of conflagration, driving people to the sea, forcing them from homes and consuming territories the size of small countries. Australia was burning.[Read More…]
“They will run and not grow weary,” is a quote from the Bible (Isaiah, 40:41) that adorns the homepage of Kairos Palestine. This important document, which parallels a similar initiative emanating from South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle years, has come to represent the unified voice of the Palestinian Christian community everywhere. One of the main advocates of Kairos Palestine[Read More…]
The ongoing and widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India, has rightly inspired the hopes of decent and freedom loving peoples in India. In this context, the ruling Modi regime’s spin machine has sprung into action, to try and “contain” the fallout and seek control of the narrative around the[Read More…]
Taking into consideration the statements by the Sri Lankan President and the top officials regarding justice to the Tamils seems to be a deadlock. The only way out from this is to initiate a UN sponsored referendum in the North and East of Sri Lanka, for which the co-sponsored countries of the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 and other member countries in[Read More…]
You find her giving your birth, Even though you try to corrupt her, She is the most vigorous icon in the Earth, that may adore you or smash you, according to your will.. Show your gratitude to her, You born from her womb, Hail you Man!!always you unwrap her in your different form of words.. The temple of her is[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…]
