Co-Written by K. Rajasekharan Nayar and Arathi P. Rao The possibility of developing vaccines and drugs against COVID-19 is being closely watched by the world. The journal ‘Nature’ reports that there are about 115 vaccine development initiatives in the world of which 78 are confirmed as active and 37 are unconfirmed and of the 78 confirmed active projects, 73 are[Read More…]
In 1966 Crispian St. Peters wrote and sang the hit song ‘ The Pied Piper’. It resonates well in 2020 with this current Snake Oil Salesman: The Pied Piper Crispian St. Peters You With your masquerading, and you Always contemplating what to do In case heaven has found you Can’t you see That it’s all around you So follow me[Read More…]
On May 12, 2020 the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi in his address to the nation announced the ‘Aatmnirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’— ‘Self-reliant India Mission’. He mentioned this pandemic can be changed into an opportunity to develop the nation and help the world. Addressing to the nation he said that today there is a ‘will and way’ both, to become[Read More…]
Co-Written by Abass Rather & Aqib Yousuf Government’s announcement to switch over from physical class room to virtual class room during the Covid 19 Pandemic lockdown period seems to be a digital revolutionary step. It seems that govt is in no mood of compromise on the issue of education. Students should not suffer due to the outbreak of covid 19[Read More…]
This is Part-4 of a series of articles on a crisis in India-Nepal relations that led to mutual allegations of a cartographic war, and smacked of being a part of cold war against China. It is a still unfolding controversy, being reported and analysed exclusively for the readers of Countercurrent.org. Part-4 now being published, deals with the international context and[Read More…]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft take off from the Kennedy Space Center on the first orbital spaceflight from U.S. soil since 2011. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Spaceflight Now Two veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rocketed away from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday to begin a test flight of a[Read More…]
Some Palestinian friends in wonderful, peaceful but presently Covid-19 lockdown Melbourne, were considering celebrating International Falafel Day (12 June). The falafel is a delicious Palestinian and Middle Eastern delicacy that is a spicy, deep fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Apartheid Israel having stolen the whole country of Palestine has also appropriated the falafel as[Read More…]
I remember on MA tv news watching a white man getting arrested in my state by police for verbally harassing a black couple on a motorcycle in his neighborhood. It was considered a hate crime. I recall my black friend leading a peaceful protest outside of an MA library against NH white supremacists together in a meeting there. Library administration[Read More…]
A brutal attack by unidentified religious fanatics on May 27, in Mau district in the state of Uttar Pradesh in the Madhuban police station area has confined Pastor Dinesh to the ICU with severe injuries, including 16 stitches on his head and 7 stitches on his arm. After praying at a church member’s home, it had only been a few[Read More…]
“Nuclear weapons will not go away by themselves” says Plowshares activist Steve Kelly, SJ. Inscribed on a wall across from the United Nations in New York City are ancient words of incalculable yearning: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war[Read More…]
Keith Lyons writes of Tendol Gyalzur, a COVID 19 victim, a refugee and an orphan who found new lives for many other orphans with love and an ability to connect. This story is about how one person found joy and happiness, not in accumulating material possessions or going viral on social media, but in finding her purpose through doing service, and[Read More…]
We have a saying in Arabic that literally translates into “An unprotected property will encourage a thief.” In this case the thief needs no encouragement. This is a particular thief, well-practiced, seasoned and used to getting away with ill-gotten gains. We are speaking of course of Israel. And most particularly about the current longest serving Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu.[Read More…]
Israel knew the drill even before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boarded his flight to Tel Aviv earlier this month four days after the death of his father. It was Mr. Pompeo’s first and only overseas trip since March. Echoing a US warning two decades ago that Israeli dealings with China jeopardized the country’s relationship with the United States,[Read More…]
Two of the biggest democracies in the world now face the biggest challenges in their political history. Yes, I am speaking about United States and India. One has failed to accommodate the huge Black population victim of the racism in that country while the other has failed to include the Dalits in the decision making as caste hatred and caste[Read More…]
Just a week after the nation-wide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24, Tablighi Jamaat, a twentieth-century reformist Muslim organisation, was blamed for spreading coronavirus. The national media, particularly Hindi news channels and newspapers, were at the forefront of selling the establishment’s agenda of putting all blame on this organization (read Muslims) for the spread of[Read More…]
Human history as cultural history 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 and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the history of[Read More…]
Sawing off the branch you sit on can hardly be the best of policies. But that all depends on the nature of the branch. US President Donald Trump has huffed himself into another small historical moment, going on the offensive against social media companies using the very language his faux progressive opponents use against them. All seem to be in[Read More…]
It is deeply disturbing that 81 years old poet Varavara Rao did not get bail and now admitted to a hospital in Mumbai. Reports suggest that the said prison in Taloja, Navi Mumbai have several Covid patients. The family and friends of Varvara Rao protested in Hyderabad as they were not even allowed to visit him. Sudha Bharadwaj dedicated her[Read More…]
The best leaders have a high consideration factor. They really care about their people. … Brian Tracy 21st Century has produced lot of political leaders all over the world. We have Trump from America, Erdogan from Turkey, Modi from India, Imran Khan from Pakistan, Trudeau from Canada, Boris Johnson from England, Jair Bolsonaro from Brazil and Jacinda Arder from[Read More…]
On every 23rd March, the leaders of the nation pay homage to three supreme martyrs of freedom struggle-Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev! 89 years after their martyrdom, Bhagat Singh, who became an icon of revolutionary movement, even during his lifetime, continues to be one of the most popular icons of the nation, along with Mahatma Gandhi and perhaps Subhash[Read More…]
(This is part-3 of an article on India Nepal relations. Part-1 and Part 2 were published on May 24 and 26 respectively.) In Nepal, despite apparent unanimity, the new map adopted and announced got stuck up as a Constitutional Amendment was needed, which required two-thirds majority. Two parties, Nepali Congress and a Madhesi-based new party created some obstacles, though[Read More…]
Co-Written by Iffat Jahan Azhar Prof. Mohammad Akram According to World Health Organisation (WHO), healthcare services, all over the world, aim to ensure that necessary services are accessible to people at affordable prices. But it seems different in low and middle income countries including India, where government’s spending on healthcare is very little and healthcare financing is heavily relying upon[Read More…]
One nurse told Clay. . . “I’ve given him the highest dosage I can. It’s enough to kill a horse. Most hospice patients die from morphine, but I can only OD him within an acceptable margin of error.” -From Christopher Bollen, A Beautiful Crime In this age of coronavirus, it has become abundantly clear that Western culture has little[Read More…]
Is globalisation over after the COVID-19 pandemic? There are three visible signs during the unending Coronavirus led health crisis, which substantiates the end of globalisation thesis. The first sign indicates reversal of capitalist globalisation led by market integrations. The people and their nation states are fighting the pandemic alone. As a result, there is growth of ultra nationalist and right-wing[Read More…]
From a recent report by the Insider publication: ” George Floyd and Officer Derek Chauvin actually worked for the same Minneapolis night club- Chauvin as a security guard for many years, and Floyd as a bouncer during 2019.” It begs the question of just how well these two may have known each other, or worse, if Chauvin had some sort[Read More…]
International Governmental Organisations (IGOs) have grown steadily over time – in number and in their scope. The growth in numbers is characterised by sporadic bursts in their birth rates, determined typically by global events of economic and political conflict, like the two World Wars. When global politics is altered substantially and the world order is thrown into flux, there is[Read More…]
On the 3rd day – Thursday – of protest on the murder of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man, demonstrators broke into a Minneapolis police precinct station after the department abandoned it, setting it ablaze and igniting fireworks as three days of violent protests spread to cities across the U.S. Gov. Tim Walz late Wednesday called it an “extremely dangerous[Read More…]
The Parque Taruma cemetery during the coronavirus outbreak in Manaus, Brazil. Brazil now has the second-highest number of reported coronavirus cases, surpassing Russia. Blue, turquoise, and white crosses mark the dead in mass graves in Manaus, Brazil, a visual reminder of the toll the novel coronavirus has had on the country. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and[Read More…]
The epidemic is almost over in Italy. After almost three painful months of lockdown and the loss of about 30.000 lives, the daily number of victims of the coronavirus is slowly dwindling to zero. In a couple of weeks at most, the epidemic will be completely gone. It is time to restart, but the damage has been terrible. The lockdown[Read More…]
SC Directs Simplified & Time-bound Registration Process, No Collection of Travel Fare from Workers and Food, Water & Other facilities by Government. NAPM calls for immediate implementation of the Order to address the massive distress of Migrant Workers 29th May, 2020: The Hon’ble Supreme Court heard the issues related to the migrant workers yesterday. Along with the matters taken up[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies On May 6th, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Iran. Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of deadly sanctions and threats of war against Iran has seen no let-up, even as the U.S., Iran and the whole world desperately[Read More…]
A valiant freedom fighter and an indomitable spirit during the liberation war and afterwards, Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury is a known figure in the sub-continent. With a larger than life persona he does not need a grand introduction. On Sunday night, the last thing that I had read before going to bed is that Zafrullah Chowdhury has tested positive for Covid-19.[Read More…]
Back in the headlines Even as we were getting used to a new set of technical terms and headlines, from the brand new name of the virus to social distancing to quarantine, suddenly there reappeared a word that we all assumed had receded for ever from the front page, namely, labour. When is the last that we heard of ‘labour’ attracting[Read More…]
New Socialist Initiative (NSI) on India’s ‘war against Covid 19’ # Today, India has emerged as a new epicentre for the novel coronavirus in the Asia Pacific region.With 1,58,333 confirmed cases of Covid 19 and deaths of total of 4,531 people after contracting the virus, it has already crossed China’s COVID-19 numbers. # New Socialist Initiative (NSI) feels that the[Read More…]
I never met the great basketball player, Bob Cousy, the man known as “the Houdini of the Hardwood,” yet he somehow influenced my life in ways I never knew, or to be more accurate, in ways I didn’t reflect upon except in superficial ways. He was the guy who brought professional basketball into the modern era with his bag of[Read More…]
When you kill a person you kill more than just another body. You kill a brain, a soul, a congealed set of experiences, emotions, and connections. You kill loves, wants, thoughts, desires, ideas. You kill futures and pasts. You kill loves ones’ hopes and calm. You kill sleep. You kill joys and laughs. You kill all the books read, all[Read More…]
Atrocities on women are increasing day -by- day and they are struggling to cope with gruesome attacks by male. Disabled women, especially visually disabled, are all the more disadvantaged and their handicap is being used as a convenient condition for assault and exploitation. Recent example In Bhopal, a 53 year old visually impaired woman was allegedly raped by an unidentified[Read More…]
Part I My motive for writing this piece is to reach, by some other way, Barbara Bryson, and tell her that we love her. The citation below is taken from the album “Exodus” by the late Bob Marley, whose music rekindles hope for a better future. It stands out because it brings us peace of mind at a[Read More…]
To Drugs Controller General of India Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Directorate General of Health Services Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India FDA Bhavan, ITO, Kotla Road, New Delhi -110002 Sir, This is to draw your immediate attention of CDSCO towards the announcement dated May 19, 2020 by Johnson & Johnson, a multinational company[Read More…]
Many economists believe that a recession is already underway. So do millions of Americans struggling with bills and job losses. While the ghosts of the 2008 financial crisis that sent inequality soaring to new heights in this country are still with us, it’s become abundantly clear that the economic disaster brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic has already left the initial shock[Read More…]
What is it that you are staring at me for? With those eyes of yours that are like blank gaping holes Any sign of life, I have sucked out from those eyes long ago By naming you, shaming you, calling you a parasite, till my voice turned hoarse I was rejoicing in the cover of protectiveness that your ‘parasitic’[Read More…]
In the second day of demonstration, protests against police violence have spread across the U.S. in response to the death of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody May 25. Thousands of people are decrying the killing by police. Among many places, protests spread in Los Angeles, Memphis, Minnesota, Houston, Chicago. In Minneapolis, protesters turned to violent confrontation as[Read More…]
Insurance is no replacement to building strong national health Infrastructure Corona crisis has brought into lime light the issue of medical ethics apart from the absolute failures of the government to protect people suffering from other diseases. There is no doubt that this is a dangerous virus yet we always believed that human spirit and science will always overcome whatever[Read More…]
Dehing-Patkai protected area is located at upper Assam in Northeast India. This vast tropical rainforest is also known as Amazon of east in India. Last few weeks are seen statewide protest against coal mining in the protected area. The protest and campaign was mainly on social media platforms due to COVID-19 nationwide lockdown. Thousands of students, activist, environmental enthusiasts and[Read More…]
Is “God” really deaf, that you need to call out so loud to communicate your prayers? In his time Kabir, the great 15th-century poet-saint, raised this question in his own inimitable style. One can only imagine the ire of both Hindus and Muslims that he must have invited, yet that did not deter him from questioning their rites and practices. He continued to expose the society he lived in. Now his poser about noise being an integral part of religion has received a fresh lease[Read More…]
The Enlightenment substituted reason and the scientific method for primitive superstition. Science brought huge advances in agriculture, industry and medicine but has had the downsides of over-population, massive biodiversity loss, deadly high-technology wars and the existential threats to Humanity and the Biosphere from nuclear weapons and climate change. However in seriously addressing these horrendously damaging deadly downside consequences we must[Read More…]
‘To be or not to be productive’ is an old constructed dilemma that surfaces during the Coronavirus pandemic. This Shakespearean tragedy is pushing people in two contradictory directions. In one hand, the states and governments are asking people to stay at home and stay safe during the lockdown period. The inevitable lockdown and physical distancing policies produce social alienation and[Read More…]
The Dooars is a geographically descriptive name. The word Dooars/Duar means the door, the gateway. Historically, there were a total of eighteen Dooars, eleven in Bengal, and the remaining seven in Assam. The Bengal Dooars is also popularly known as the Western Dooars. In the past, during 18th century it was under the occupation of the Bhutanese[Read More…]
A Jewish family looks out over Haram al-Sharif compound, March 2013. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) Netanyahu’s impending annexation of the Judaized parts of the West Bank (he says July 1st) is a transformative event for Palestinian politics, and the Palestinian people, who have long been reined in by impositions that accept Zionist myths and outright falsehoods and pay only lip-service[Read More…]
Abstract There are so many articles, reports and research on covid-19 (corona) by different institutions, researchers and banks of various countries. There are economic research on it there are physiological researches on it and in coming time there will be more psycological researches also conduct on it. But as we know to prevent to cure or to procure for any[Read More…]
Just after the end of World War 2, American writer and political radical Dwight Macdonald wrote the essay Responsibility of the Intellectuals in 1945, in which he strongly criticised the war. He was depressed of war efforts and its horror, the bombings and destruction of cities. He asked the question: ‘To what extent the German or Japanese people were responsible[Read More…]
This time, we are told, it is different and that President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is absolutely serious about his decision to absolve his leadership from all previous agreements signed with Israel and the United States. But this time is not different, and Abbas is not serious. “The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the state of Palestine are[Read More…]
U.S. Defense Department officials are reportedly planning to brief President Donald Trump on several options to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, that include an option to pull them out before the 2020 U.S. presidential election in November. Trump has expressed a desire to end the U.S.’s wars throughout the course of his presidency. In 2019, he abruptly ordered the[Read More…]
Co-Written by K Rajasekharan Nayar, Bindhya Vijayan & Muhammed Shaffi The proactive strategies adopted by the Government of Kerala for controlling the COVID 19 pandemic have been appreciated world-wide. The strict enforcement of the age-old strategies and the almost near compliance by the people are exemplary. These may help in sailing through the pandemic to the next stage. Unfortunately, the[Read More…]
Recently, I came across an article in The Indian Express by writer, teacher and social activist Apoorvanand. It was rejoinder to some article. Initially, it appeared to me to suggest that there is no need to imitate Lenin’s model of revolution in India. But when I went through the whole piece, I was astonished and highly disappointed. He not only[Read More…]
“Darya bhi main, darakht bhi main … Jhelum bhi main, chinar bhi main … dair bhi hoon, haram bhi hoon … Shia bhi hoon, Sunni bhi hoon, main hoon pandit … main tha, main hoon aur main hi rahoonga” Roohdar in Haider In his piercing, shrill and slightly rough-textured voice, the words reverberate. Rare are the moments when the mainstream[Read More…]
Last Bloom, April 2017 Early 1998, I visited Bhopal for some work. Bhopal has a lot of plant nurseries and supplies them to many places in India. I also decided to buy some plants. I knew little about exotic plants then. A friend of mine helped me select some nice plants and one of them was a small sapling of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ruchi Sachan & Aditya Bordalai “Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice”- Jacques Diouf, Former Director General of FAO Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seeks to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by the year 2030. “Every year, around 9 million people die of hunger; that’s more[Read More…]
Some years ago, I was lucky enough to have a rich email dialogue with Colonel David Glantz, the foremost historian of the Eastern Front in World War 2. He was gracious in his thoughts and supportive of the lay-history I was doing. He even offered a compliment or two for some of the thoughts I had regarding the redaction of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Tehzeeb Anis & Prof. Mohammad Akram After three consecutive lockdowns, the countrywide lockdown got extended again for another two weeks in the form of Lockdown 4.0. This episode of lockdown is witnessing extended relaxation related to travel, market and permission to work in specific sectors. Lockdown is used by the union government as the main instrument to combat[Read More…]
Mr Amit Shah Union Home Minister of India Ministry of Home Affairs Government of India Dear Home Minister, I am William Nicholas Gomes, a British Human rights activist and freelance journalist. I am writing to share my great concern regarding the situation of student activists Safoora Zargar, who is four months pregnant, Meeran Haider, Shifa-Ur-Rehman and Sharjeel Imam, all[Read More…]
Public Statement by concerned faculty members of colleges and universities in West Bengal Schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions in West Bengal were closed from 15th March 2020, more than a week before the nationwide lockdown. Colleges have been closed for more than 60 days already, with no clear indication emerging about the resumption of vehicles, or the slowing[Read More…]
Covid-19, an ongoing global human tragedy, may have at least one silver lining. It has led millions of people to question America’s most malignant policies at home and abroad. Regarding Washington’s war policies abroad, there’s been speculation that the coronavirus might, in the end, put a dent in such conflicts, if not prove an unintended peacemaker — and with good reason,[Read More…]
(This is Part-2 of a two-part Report; this one deals with various dimensions of the issue. Part-1 was published on May24, with the title, India-Nepal Border Issue Raked Up, Relations Strained Once Again.) Even as Covid-19 health crisis, and its cascading effect on the economic crisis — both are aggravating in India — are upsetting Modi Government’s claims and calculations[Read More…]
Among many crises unfolding in the form of Corona Pandemic, Amphan cyclone, Indo-Nepal border disputes, etc, a Nepali speaking community in India is grappling with the question of nationality and racism after the recently broadcast web series Pataal Lok in Amazon Prime Video. A dialogue in the second episode of the series which used offensive a sexual and racial slur[Read More…]
Satyajit Ray’s film is a heady cocktail of dystopia and comic fantasy Eleven years after Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (‘The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha’) came its sequel, Hirak Rajar Deshe (‘The Kingdom of Diamonds’), in December, 1980. In the interregnum, Satyajit Ray had made eight full-length feature films, one television short and three documentaries, and the genres[Read More…]
In days to come, social scientists will write varied accounts on the responses of the Indian state to the ongoing pandemic called Covid-19. Academicians will deploy the visible categories of class, caste, race, gender, religion, economy, centre, state, region, demography and many more to enquire and weave multiple narratives. Each study would offer us new perspectives to look into ourselves,[Read More…]
Manish Azad is a political activist. That is why he has been a victim to State repression. On February 29, he returned from prison after 8 months. Even before this, he has been writing for Dastak. Here is his article, presenting all the aspects related to the corona virus pandemic. This article is especially important in the context that while[Read More…]
I have had the honor and the privilege to know two Freedom Riders. One was killed for Freedom Riding and had been a friend of mine. Irwin Wadler was my childhood and my young adult dentist. He loved brutally murdered Andy Goodman as I did. So Irwin took up the mantle. He did so willingly after Andy was butchered. Here[Read More…]
The State Subject Law of erstwhile State of JK had travelled a checkered path before it was adopted in the Constitution of India in the shape of Article 35-A in 1954. Before 1933, peasants of Kashmir had no ownership rights in the land. Muslims did not have proportionate education & employment rights even in the autocratic rule. Towards the end[Read More…]
Lockdown tryst with Biodiversity – Episode 1 Serious and sincere, little Aadi walked the hot and burning slope of the hill opposite his suburban home with his parents – he was happy that the trio could be together after a long time because of the lockdown. Not fully aware of the impact of this pandemic, Aadi did realise that his[Read More…]
Globally, three million children a year die of hunger or malnourishment according to theworldcounts.com. The site also notes the number is dropping steadily. In a May 2019 editorial ,Voice of America reports, “Today, some 821 million people suffer chronically from hunger. And although this is significantly fewer people than the numbers we saw a decade ago, hunger still kills more people than AIDS,[Read More…]
On the evening of 23rd May 2020, the Delhi Police arrested Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, activists of Pinjra Tod and students of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Charged under FIR 48/2020, both were initially interrogated by the police at their home. They were then taken into police custody and presented the next day before Duty Magistrate in Mandoli Jail who ordered[Read More…]
The COVID 19 has proved us how much public health system is important. They are emerging as the life-saver in most of the states. Shamelessly, the private health institutions have started projecting themselves, as ‘reserved army’ in this corona war may be to save their face. But they were the institutions who had closed their doors for patients of[Read More…]
I was born and bred in Dehra Dun. Then, in search of job and a future, for some years of my life I worked and lived in Delhi and Ahmedabad. In the twelve or so years at the time, no one in Delhi nor Ahmedabad ever called me a “migrant”. Today many young women and men, having studied engineering, medical,[Read More…]
Words Jihad and Jihadi have been in abundant use for the negative purposes from last two decades in particular. They have been closleyl linked to the word terrorism and violence, done by section of Muslims here and there. This global use of word is particularly a post 9/11 phenomenon. Just to recapitulate after the WTC was hit by two aeroplanes;[Read More…]
One They named him Corona, it is not uncommon for babies to be named after special events, or characters in history. But that is not the point. Two One assumes giving birth is essential to the continuity of life, but birthing On footpaths? At roadsides? Under flyovers? How else does one define apocalypse? Three These women, many, too many in indignity.[Read More…]
Memories are like those fireflies that sparkle your vision on a deep hot summer night. They entice you with their sudden appearance and just as sudden departure. So it is with this baby boomer’s mind, transversed back so many decades until… 50 years appear as if it was today. This brings tears to your tired eyes within this pandemic hibernation.[Read More…]
Israeli media and Zionist apologists everywhere are busy whitewashing Israel’s globally-tattered image using the rare indictment of an Israeli terrorist, Amiram Ben Uliel, who was recently convicted for murdering the Palestinian Dawabsheh family, including an 18-month-old toddler in the town of Duma, south of Nablus. The conviction of Ben Uliel by an Israeli three-judge court on May 18, is expectedly[Read More…]
The pandemic is helping to understand a few facts of the current state of geo-politics. One of these facts is China’s voice – voice with all its meanings. China has called for international cooperation against COVID-19, popularly named coronavirus, to tide over darkest hours. China has said: Cooperation and solidarity are the most powerful weapon to prevail over the epidemic.[Read More…]
Co-Written by Akhter Hussain Bhat & Dr. Mohammad Akram The novel COVID-19 has caused widespread concern, fear, anxiety and stress among millions of people worldwide. The virus has affected more than 5 million people causing more than 3.3 lakh deaths while many are battling for recovery around the globe. Owing to the stern and infectious nature of the virus, the[Read More…]
The spread of COVID-19 infused crisis has huge impact on all aspects of life and economy across India. It is particularly posing a serious challenge to the social and economic development of rural poor, migrants and farmers. The local businesses and communities are significantly affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. The Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced[Read More…]
Forecasts and news did not prepare us for the actuality of it all till it actually happened. We had taken all necessary precautions but what happened on the evening of the 20th of May 2020 rattled and disturbed a lot. Cyclone Amphan was moving slowly over the Bay of Bengal and was expected to make a landfall in the southern parts[Read More…]
On the 5th of May, a group of Christians namely *Ramu, *Manu and 7 others, including women, were mercilessly beaten up by a group of religious fanatics at a village in the Bastar District of the Indian State of Chhattisgarh. Why? Because they refused to forsake Christianity. Narrating this incident to Persecution Relief, *Ramu said that for a while now,[Read More…]
We have been in a state of lockdown for two months. It has been a very harsh time for lakhs of our citizens, who have lost work, possessions, and been left hungry and homeless. Dalits, adivasis and the working Bahujan poor are the worst affected, with women amongst all communities having to bear the brunt of hunger, unemployment, illness,[Read More…]
On Memorial Day, after mourning our loved ones, taken away from us by our ruling criminally insane murderous investors in Weapons of Mass Destruction on Wall Street, let us at least indict these pathetic racist colonial powered accumulators of capital in our hearts and minds and look to the day when pale skin bankers will no longer wield such incredible[Read More…]
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Asian Human Rights Commission, International Federation for Human Rights and Odhikar on the occasion of International Week of the Disappeared 2020 Dhaka/Manila/Hong Kong/Paris, 25 May 2020: To commemorate International Week of the Disappeared (the last week of May), the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), the Asian Human Rights Commission[Read More…]
In April 1976, when the Emergency was in place in India, the New York Times in a glorifying article titled ‘Fading Hope in India’ eulogised the dissenting opinion of H.R. Khanna in the now famous ADM Jabalpur v Shivakant Shukla case (1976). The Times wrote thus; “If India ever finds a way back to the freedom and[Read More…]
Co- Written by Kamala Tamirisa, Ritu Thamman and Martha Gulati Health care professionals need more support. Based on a survey of 553 health care professionals in mid-April, 2020. The death by suicide of Dr. Lorna Breen, the medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in New York City, is just the beginning of yet another health care[Read More…]
COVID-19 Pandemic: Surpassing Islamic Republic Of Iran, India Now 10th – Out Of 188 Countries – Worst-Affected Globally! The number of n-Coronavirus cases in India has raced past the cases in Islamic Republic of Iran. It may be recalled that Iran was the worst hit country in the middle-east; outside China it was the 2nd hardest affected. In the beginning[Read More…]
1. “Girasole,” Italians say, accent on soul, “g” as in gyro, the last syllable, lay–a medieval song. In my uncle’s garden there were many (heads taller than I, taller even than the tomato plants he trained to staves heading towards trellises of overhead vines from which he squeezed–sweet!– grapes’ wine-dark blood). But these were different— golden, star-petaled…serene; yet…eerie how they[Read More…]
Two months after imposition of the most stringent and large-scale lockdown in the world, with the pandemic still undefeated, it is the Indian Republic that is looking more and more like a struggling COVID-19 patient. It is running low on oxygen in its blood, several organs are already failing, costs of treatment shooting up and the country’s leadership looks utterly[Read More…]
Leadership is tested during times of crisis. The present pandemic is seeing it happen across the world. Many unexpected parts of the world have shown better corona control than those expected of better performance. Many wise men have said before that empathy, not disdain, separates great leaders from the rest. This behavioral aspect is what present New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda[Read More…]
King cried out “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is my own government.” Obama’s pastor, “God Bless America? No! God damn America for her crimes against humanity!” Michael Moore, “sick and twisted violent people that we’ve been for hundreds of years, it’s something that’s just in our craw, just in our DNA. Americans kill people, because that’s what[Read More…]
Feet of God is revered flowers offered at feet. Elders’ feet touched for paying respect. Saintly person’s feet are cleansed. Entered home with feet washed. Gurus’ feet smeared with herbal oils. Apologies offered at master’s feet. Blessings seeked at parents feet. Stand on your own feet often it is said so. On feet, clans moved nations to nations. Pilgrims gone[Read More…]
It is circa 2020 and we are in the middle of a declared pandemic and a nation-wide lockdown. In the current extraordinary circumstances, university students have been simply asked to concentrate on their studies, and now, be ready to appear for open book examinations in several leading universities. Of course, it is presumed that the poorest of the poor students[Read More…]
Democracy is a product of struggles and sacrifices of the working classes. The October revolution, French revolution in Europe and anti-colonial struggles in Africa, Asia and Americas shaped democracy. The struggles for freedom, equality and justice, anti-capitalist struggles, and people’s movements against war and terrorism, social and political movements for livelihoods have helped to deepen democratic practices all over the[Read More…]
(This is Part-1 of a two-part article) “ We remain committed to resolving the border issue,” said Anurag Srivastava, India’s Official Spokesperson. “If the coronavirus was an obstacle for negotiations between friendly nations, then we were surprised that it wasn’t an obstacle for this decision (inauguration of the link road). ..This wasn’t the time to create unnecessary controversy which can[Read More…]
Letter to the Prime Minister To Shri Narendra Modiji Prime Minister Dear Shri Modiji, I forward here a copy of my last letter dated 15-5-2020 and copies of the previous letters addressed to you on the excruciating problems faced by crores of the migrant workers across the length and the breadth of the country. I am not sure whether my letters have[Read More…]
Remember when you were a kid, locked within that monster called a grade school, at dismissal time? You must recall how the seas just opened and the throng descended on the schoolyard… like , well… ants at a picnic. Thus, the expression becomes almost timeless. So it is with so many of our Amerikan public whenever the opportunity reveals itself[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic is seen as a ‘useful crisis’ in which to transform the economy. Yet the university system has not received any such ‘stimulus’ of fresh ways of thinking about education. While exams do play a role, they are being fetishized as the return of ‘normalcy’ even as many students have been left to themselves in the face of[Read More…]
Lately when India is undergoing the massive crisis of the Corona epidemic and the offshoots of its mishandling, we have also seen the pandemic being used to demonise a particular community in India. These hate mongers, operating through powerful medium of TV, and widespread social media which also has resorted to Fake news has intensified the Hate against religious minority.[Read More…]
Every year before we think of celebrating EID in Kashmir, anything devastating happens that dashes out the hopes of everybody and all are put to mourn the deaths & destruction of our fellow Kashmiris Burhan wani, Shujaat Bukhari, abrogation of Article 370 & 35A, domicile act and now Junaid Sehrai to mention few are some of the very devastating[Read More…]
What does it mean to be a dissident? At its simplest, it means to critically engage with and seek to change the material and the ideological structures of the society in which you find yourself, whether local, national, regional, or global. It means the ability to say “no” to those in power, even if the immediate opportunities for real change[Read More…]
A lot had already been written about the high morbidity conscious Kerala society and especially what was being called in the early eighties as the ‘Kerala Paradox’. This essentially is a conceptual complex which meant that the morbidity rate was very high in Kerala compared to the low mortality and it also meant that the state could achieve better health[Read More…]
Introduction COVID-19 pandemic, its emergence, global spread and the crisis therefrom are inseparably linked up with the character of neoliberal accumulation today. As is widely recognised, its origins are rooted in profit-driven corporate capital’s unbridled plunder of nature and consequent invasion and intrusion in to wild life ecosystem leading to spill-over of viruses to humans and their subsequent mutations. That[Read More…]
As a student of political science we have been familiar with Samuel Johnson’s amazing words on patriotism, an essential ingredient of nationalism. He wrote: ‘Patriotism is last refuge of scoundrel.’ History has been witness to the truthfulness of this dictum multiple times globally. Back at home what does it mean could be witnessed personally and closely by observing what RSS-BJP[Read More…]
Dr Goparaju Vijayam or popularly known as Dr Vijayam, passed away, in the morning today at his home at the Atheist Center in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. The loss is tremendous as far as the humanist movement in India is concern as Vijayam Garu was one of the pioneers. He was also the Executive Director of Atheist Center founded eighty years[Read More…]
In spite of India’s perceptible economic and social development, the caste system still obstructs and isolates the section of its population, the Scheduled Caste (SC) also called as Dalits and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The Dalits, who form around 16.6 per cent of Indian population[1], undergo systemic discrimination, and excluded from the development process even after 72 years of independence is[Read More…]
20th March 2020, the Nirbhaya accused were hanged in the wee hours, at 5 o’ clock, and we all woke up inhaling the sense of closure. Deep down it wasn’t so oblivious that the death sentence would actually never serve as a future deterrent. But, nevertheless the perpetrators left no stone unturned to make the crime what is called ‘the[Read More…]
Earth at 10°C above pre-industrial is unimaginable. It’s a deadly horrifying thought, but as shall be explained herein, it should not be dismissed out of hand. The following story might be labeled as reckless, and it might be criticized as a fearmongering piece of journalism and probably will be. Nevertheless, “10C Above Baseline” explores a dystopian world envisioned by John[Read More…]
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has slashed its growth forecast for this financial year and warned of inflation uncertainties as India’s economy suffers due to the Covid-19, pandemic. While the country’s GDP growth is set to “remain in the negative territory with some pick up in second half” of the 2020-21 fiscal year, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das did not[Read More…]
“In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.” -Bertolt Brecht These historic lines are prophetically relevant today as we witness the forward march of right wing and reactionary forces in India and UK. These forces are destroying the multicultural mosaic of our society and all other progressive achievements of[Read More…]
HERE I AM The Polish word, jestem—‘I am’, ‘here I am’, ‘present’—seems to define the life of the writer and cult figure for a generation, Andrzej Kusniewicz. On an overcast, pollution-infested Warsaw afternoon over thirty years ago in his crowded study in a surprisingly bourgeois apartment in a quiet residential area of the capital city, the poet-novelist insisted on the Polish[Read More…]
Co-Written by Abass Rather & Aqib Yousuf Covid-19 Pandemic has brought the world under a precarious situation as the millions of people have been rendered jobless. Over 122 million people in India lost their jobs in April, according to estimates from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. Around 75% of them were small traders and wage-labourers. The sudden and unexpected outbreak[Read More…]
Stories about the thirties, in our childhood, were not that old. Every elder in the family had a story to tell about one or the other martyr of July 31, 1931, buried just three hundred yards from our house. They remembered stories of the movement against the Maharaja like textbook lessons. Even an old small earthen pitcher painted green had[Read More…]
A daughter still waits for her father to wed her off. A wife searches for her husband. And a mother still pines for her son and waits for him to be a pallbearer when she dies. Shahnaz Bashir The continuous conflictive conditions in Kashmir and its illegal occupation by the Indian military have caused a massive and unimaginable devastation mainly[Read More…]
How many people cried? How many people died? Sunderbans submerged Nearly five thousand starved Will they die of Corona Hunger or Amphan? And the animals? Biodiversity Day — what happened to them? Lakeside Gardens No water No electricity No internet Poles broken Cars shattered Distress, distress, distress. The cities are all in a mess! In Sunderban, Do they have access[Read More…]
Mutiu Olawuyi in conversation with Mitali Chakravarty He is a maker of dreams for writers – a man who believes in dreams that are woven in words and multimedia across the world. He connects writing with multimedia, not just by writing and YouTube screenings but also by putting upcoming writers on his television show to battle out challenging questions about how[Read More…]
The sector must meet the environmental norms to ensure ‘our right to breathe in clean air,’ says CSE report New Delhi: With barely two years to go before the deadline hits India’s coal-fired power plants to meet the stringent new emission norms by 2022, which were set in December 2015 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC),[Read More…]
We urge civil society organisations and peoples movements in India to express unconditional solidarity and support to the Central Trade Unions in India as they observe the nationwide protest on May 22, 2020 against the draconian changes in labour laws being brought about by various State Governments in India. The anti-labour virus has spread all over, as shown by the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Asmita Verma, Surabhi Agarwal and Bobby Ramakant The Epidemics Act, 1897 gives the central and state governments authority to impose any regulations which may be necessary to contain the outbreak of a disease. Some state governments such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh have already used this power to bring private healthcare facilities in their state under government[Read More…]
How should ordinary citizens understand the nature of responsibility in the case of the recurring deaths of migrant workers that they are witnessing? So many have died on the road, absolutely needlessly, in the process of trying to escape death by hunger which the Indian Covid-19 lockdown was making a reality. India has a very large number of (internal) migrant[Read More…]
On the night of the 20th of May 2020, a group of religious fanatics broke into the homes of 2 Christian families who live in Kokkar Pal Panchayat in Sukma District, Chhattisgarh. The group wielded lathis (wooden clubs) and bows and arrows. At roughly 9pm, the families woke up to a nightmare. A total of 10 people including 5 children[Read More…]
The National Green Tribunal had asked all States to finish preparing People’s Biodiversity Registers by end of January 2020. This made various States make greater efforts to mobilise volunteers in local government in Taluk Panchayat. Collecting and documenting wild plants is a beautiful task and a never ending one, as new species are added to these registers every day by[Read More…]
The soul shall rise from the deep depths of darkness. The darkness that has layers after layers, hence exists in many forms. The manyness of this darkness, its different shades, blurs the realities and forces the soul to leave the search for the truth and negotiate with the environment- dark indeed. The force of darkness is so mighty that[Read More…]
I live in North Kolkata, West Bengal. I stand witness to the damaging consequences of Amphan, the strongest storm ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal. Till the afternoon of May 20th, there were heavy showers and sporadic gusts of wind in the northern part of Kolkata. The intensity of the wind increased steadily and so did the rain. By[Read More…]
Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli has identified dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves, and she warns there are more out there. Scientificamerican.com Editor’s Note (4/24/20): This article was originally published online on March 11. It has been updated for inclusion in the June 2020 issue of Scientific American and to address rumors that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from Shi Zhengli’s lab[Read More…]
In Solidarity with the All India Protest organised by Central Trade Unions on 22nd May ’20 the New Socialist Alternative will be participating, demanding the immediate reversal of policy proposals by the Modi government attacking the laws and legislations concerning the welfare of the Working Class of India. Modi’s authoritarian regime has continued its notorious practice of adding more fuel[Read More…]
A particular scene in Paatal Lok, which is a series in Amazon Prime used a racist and a sexist remark on a Khasi woman calling her a “Nepali whore” (in Hindi). This was followed by uproar and petitions from Nepalies across India demanding to mute that particular line followed by an apology for the same[i]. This recent incident further triggers[Read More…]
The above is the title of news release by WHO. The two-day meeting of the 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) was held in Geneva on May 18-19, discussed Covid-19 and how the world is coping with that. Even as the media in India is engaged 24×7 on Covid-19, this historic session was given poor coverage, and many of those that[Read More…]
There’s a meme that appears now and then on Facebook and other social media: “Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.” That’s funny. What’s not is that the Trump administration and its coterie of China-bashers, led by Secretary of State[Read More…]
Imagine the house you live in being raised to ground and you don’t even know whether the land that once held your house still belongs to you. The papers like most of your valuables might have perished in the debris of your once home. This is a possibility if you live in kashmir and an armed rebel happens to be[Read More…]
As a singular event, Covid-19 could be an opportunity for a total political and economic reconfiguration. Instead, Modi capitalizes on daily fatality statistics (short term chaos) and uses the fear of death as the basis of his strategies; best exemplified by his death discourses directed at the nation. Faced with an emerging humanitarian catastrophe (long term focus), the national response[Read More…]
Super cyclone Amphan has wrecked havoc in the Indian state of West Bengal, especially the state capital Kolkata, and the southwestern part of the neighboring country Bangladesh after the Amphan made landfall in West Bengal. The death toll, yet to be counted finally, in both the countries is over 20. The Amphan became the strongest storm ever recorded in the Bay of[Read More…]
The world’s progress in eliminating poverty is set to suffer a major setback due to the coronavirus pandemic, forcing more people to survive on less than $1.90 per day, the World Bank has said in a recent statement (Press release no.: 2020/193/EXC). “The pandemic and shutdown of advanced economies could push as many as 60 million people into extreme poverty[Read More…]
Co-Written by Prabal Saran Agarwal, Harsh Vardhan Tripathy & Ankur Goswami “We find many ardent youth contending themselves with distributing grain among the poor and nursing the sick all their life. These men are noble and self-denying but they cannot understand that charity cannot solve the problem of hunger and disease in India and, for that matter, in any other[Read More…]
The novel corona virus has infected more than 100,000 people in India. WHO has declared the virus to be pandemic. But pandemics have always been anti-urban. Coronavirus undermines the most basic notions of the urban life that is the idea of ‘public’. It undermines the idea of shared spaces- one shouldn’t be coming out in large numbers. One shouldn’t be[Read More…]
Even as the world, including the Nagas, continue to frantically battle with the Corona Virus Pandemic, along with the world, side by side, the Government of India, continues to militarily wage war on innocent Naga civilians on one pretext or the other. While on the one hand, the Indian army in recent times have been aggressively intruding into Naga areas[Read More…]
It is not only about physically surviving the pandemic. People miss people, and places, sometimes desperately. And they die, when separated. We are bombarded by briefings and numbers. We are scared into submission by horrifying medical stories, by shocking images, and then, simultaneously, by predictions of economic and social downfall. Day and night, day and night. But somehow, so often[Read More…]
It had been clear from the speeches of the Finance Minister that the government was not sitting silent during time of lockdown. It was making a roadmap for welcoming multinational companies to new sectors at a time when people of India were in panic due to Coronavirus. The Finance Minister’s announcement of COVID package largely comprises of loans about which[Read More…]
Is something as basic as being with your loved ones and being able to maintain social distancing a privilege in this pandemic? Walking for miles in the scorching heat of May, with minimal water and food to reach a place that would make one feel a little more comfortable than the rest of the world, a place we all[Read More…]
Edouard Louis’ novel, Who Killed My Father, is a collection of short and riveting letters addressed to his 50-years-old father resting on his deathbed. The author, with splendid eloquence and brevity, put forth the plight of working-class of France, who has been rendered redundant in an era of unregulated capitalism. The sheer contempt for the political elite is clearly visible[Read More…]
The Nepali community is one the distinctive groups comprises of several ethnic groups in India, settled in all over the country. Majority of the community found in the north-east Indian state, and West Bengal. The Nepali is only a community among several other communities in India who have been witnessed an identity crisis from time and again in their own[Read More…]
Co-Written by Vijaya Ramachandran and Sandeep Pandey Lockdown in the wake of coronavirus threat has seriously affected the livelihood options for the migrant workers and daily wage earners. While the government has announced that they will be given free ration, even if they are not linked with local Fair Price Shop part of the Public Distribution System, which is the[Read More…]
On May 15, thousands of Palestinians in Occupied Palestine and throughout the ‘shatat’, or diaspora, participated in the commemoration of Nakba Day, the one event that unites all Palestinians, regardless of their political differences or backgrounds. For years, social media has added a whole new stratum to this process of commemoration. #Nakba72, along with #NakbaDay and #Nakba, have all trended[Read More…]
SARs Cov-2, the virus that has caused the lockdown of 1.3 billion human beings in India has also caused an unprecedented humanitarian crisis across the country. The International Labour Organization estimated in April that around 400 million workers were at risk of slipping into poverty due to sudden and unplanned stringent nationwide lockdown. However, a lockdown of such magnitude has[Read More…]
On 2nd January 2020, India Today published news with the title “Haryana: Sisters denied passports because they “looked Nepali’” in which two sisters were denied a passport and wrote on their documents that “applicants seem to be Nepali”[1]. Not much of havoc had been seen in social media as it has become a common practice of considering Nepali as an[Read More…]
20th May, 2020: NAPM express its grave concern at the numerous recent moves of the Govt of India to dilute pro-people, pro-environment legislation and push forth massive projects that are detrimental to national interest. Instead of investing in robust public health infrastructure, amidst the worst pandemic, the nation-wide ‘lockdown’ is being used as an opportunity to ‘clear’ many controversial projects.[Read More…]
Trump is blaming China for the Covid-19 pandemic to hide his criminal negligence during the crisis. A detailed Timeline of the disaster reveals that China informed the WHO and the World of the Wuhan outbreak on 31 December 2019 but Trump spent the following 4.5 months minimizing the seriousness of the pandemic and slagging both China and the WHO. With[Read More…]
Since the higher Judiciary especially the Supreme Court is seen as the protector and enforcer of rights but off late the Supreme court has created an impression that it has failed to protect the rights of the migrant workers during the pandemic lockdown. Over the last few weeks, a number of Public Interest Litigations (PIL) were filed in the supreme[Read More…]
I Through an ordinance on May 6, 2020 the Uttar Pradesh government exempted all factories and manufacturing establishments from prominent labour laws for the next three years. Titled temporary, the stipulations of an already undefined ‘labour law’ mean there is more scope of exploitation in its absence. The consequences of the exemption would mean a frozen minimum wage for three[Read More…]
Presently, the Indian defence paraphernalia is ranked as the fourth mightiest army in the world after USA, Russia and China with Japan at the fifth place. It has approximately 3,544,000 on roll, 1,444,000 being on active duty with 2,100,000 as reserve personnel.[i] It is credited with innumerable military operations of glory like Bangladesh War 1971, Kargil War 1999, surgical strikes[Read More…]
Suspension of crucial labour laws for varying lengths of time by some of the states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan etc., reflects the paradigm shift in relation to labour policies consequent to Covid-2019. Already the economy is struggling with the lockdown and the labour is starring at the uncertain future. It is claimed that the labour laws have[Read More…]
It promised to be bruising to both dignity and wallet. However brazen Australian politicians have been drumming up support for an international inquiry into the origins of the novel coronavirus, the first ones to be slapped in anger would have to be those in agriculture. Barley exporters find themselves facing a suffocating, and potentially market killing tariff, of 80.5 percent. [Read More…]
There, I said it. One Democratic state in Palestine from the river to the sea. Yes, that means no Jewish state, but rather a dismantling of the structures and ideologies of the colonial apartheid Jewish state of Israel and its occupied Palestinian lands (including those parts of the West Bank about to be annexed by Netanyahu) and replacing them with[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic has aggravated existing economic, and social crisis in India. The country is witnessing incomprehensible distress among the migrant workers, farmers, and poor masses both in urban and rural areas. In such a situation of utter crisis, Mr Narendra Modi; the Prime Minister of India is busy in manipulating Indian public by false propaganda to hide all his[Read More…]
When Stan Cox was writing his book, The Green New Deal and Beyond: Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can, he scripted these prophetic words: “The oft-predicted national decline in use of fossil fuels is nowhere to be seen, and it is unlikely to occur on its own, at least until the next economic meltdown.” He became one of[Read More…]
This spring, the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism — this time in two countries that think of themselves as polar opposites and enemies: Supreme Leader Ali Khameini’s Iran and Donald Trump’s America. On the U.S. side of things, New Orleans pastor Tony Spell, for instance, has[Read More…]
India has started Lockdown 4.0 with dismal numbers. We are already over 1 lakh cases, and as much as NITI Aayog would predict otherwise, the slump in cases is yet to come. A large part of the country’s 1.3 billion population has been at home since over 50 days now; I say a large part because it excludes the homeless[Read More…]
They say “the art of art, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.” And indeed, there is something mystic about simplicity. And watching “Walking Over Water” was a similar kind of experience for me. It was earthy and fresh. A child always gets stuck in between the never ending quarrel of parents. This[Read More…]
The unprecedented situation that the global community faces in the wake of Corona induced pandemic and the fear, panic, isolation and uncertainty that it has brought with it, has left many wondering about the future of the world in general and their lives in particular. We, and I am sure I can say this for almost the entire world population,[Read More…]
As the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 continues and the nation staggers in its recovery from the debilitating impact of the pandemic, many are left stranded away from home and battling hunger every day. Many migrant workers and students walked hundreds of kilometres to reach home but several others couldn’t and they are left without shelter and[Read More…]
Barack Obama speaking on 16th May spoke for the first time about the coronavirus pandemic and the responses of the ruling elite. He observed that, “More than anything this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Obama told graduates from several dozen historically black[Read More…]
The working class, which successfully accomplished revolutions in many countries in the modern age, which played its invaluable role in productive growth in India, too, since freedom movement, undergoing such tragic and inhuman suffering today in the days of Corona pandemic, is a matter of shame for independent India. However, it can’t erase the role of working class from history.[Read More…]
How could the Great Patriotic War in which the Soviet people (including many members of my own family) lost at least 25 million lives, have anything in common with the latest outbreak of the novel coronavirus? You think this is an absolutely insane question? However, before you dismiss it, think twice. There are similarities how they are being portrayed. There[Read More…]
Pro-Corporate Thrust of Economic Package Flies in the Face of ‘Atma-Nirbharta! Govt must address Lockdown Crisis which has pushed millions into penury.Urgent measures of food, transport, income, and work support are needed 19th May, 2020: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) condemns the absolutely insensitive, anti-poor and anti working-class approach of the Govt of India, reflected once again in the[Read More…]
The “gate” suffix has been wearing thin since the break-in scandal that gave it its birth. Since Watergate, virtually anything dubious and suggestive, and much more besides, is suffixed. Which brings us to the issue of President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. Finding himself in hot water (did he ever leave it?) Trump has been sowing the seeds of “Obamagate”,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Vijay Prashad, Weiyan Zhu, and Du Xiaojun This was dated March 31, 2020, by which time Anti-china tirade was already going on in a high pitch. Subsequently, it was further accentuated, with more and more lies, now shaping into anti-China measures, bordering on sanctions. Globalization principles thrust by imperialists led by USA, are sought to be reversed or[Read More…]
Ok, let me be perfectly clear here. I know, from years of studying the real Amerikan history from writers like Parenti, Chomsky, Zinn, Chossuduvsky, even Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik, that the fix has always been in. Meaning, that this Two Party/One Party political system has always done the bidding for the Uber Rich… Period! As a socialist I have[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sanghmitra S Acharya, Sunita Reddy & Nemthianngai Guite The COVID-19 pandemic, which has engulfed the world, has betrayed the informal sector migrant labour stranded all over the country. The dreams which were nurtured by the pull factors exerted by the ‘citylights’, were further fueled in the wake of ‘Jandhan’, which heralded a new chapter in the lives of[Read More…]
K.P.Sasi is a film maker, cartoonist, writer and activist SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWS LETTER
Co-Written by Ishrat Mushtaq Malik, Sajad Hassan Khan, Sartaj Hafiz Rathore Dirilis Ertugrul (Resurrection Ertugrul) is a Turkish T.V series, produced and directed by Mehmet Bozdag, which began airing on TRT1 in Turkey in December 2014. It consists of five seasons (450 episodes of 45 minutes each on Netflix). It has been dubbed in more than twenty (20) languages, including[Read More…]
Co-Written by Tehzeeb Anis & Prof. Mohammad Akram COVID-19 is highly contagious infection and has already affected more than 4.5 million people globally. India is also setting up new records in spike of Covid-19 cases almost daily. Within 24 hours, India has recorded biggest single day spike in number of cases with 5242 new patient as of 17th May 2020.[Read More…]
Chinua Achebe’s ‘There was a country’, a compelling account of Nigerian Civil War and the history of Biafra, not only details, from his perspective, the events that lead to the war and the war itself, but also throws light on various other relevant issues and topics, otherwise subdued and forgotten in the graphs and numerical of the war figures. Achebe[Read More…]
The Central Government through its Finance Minister announced on 16th of May what it calls major structural changes which they claim will catapult India on the world stage and thanked Covid-19 for giving them this opportunity to make India a self-sufficient world economic power. Firstly, commercial mining of coal and minerals will now be open to all private parties which[Read More…]
Co-Written by Aqib Yousuf & And Abass Rather Suspension of labour laws means more exploitation of Workers and more power to the bosses. Workers earned these rights through a lot of toil and sacrifices and consistent struggle. The right to have ‘eight hour work day’ was not simply gifted to the working class. It was achieved by working class through[Read More…]
Political speeches are often scripted. They not only reveal intentions and priorities, but also the politician’s art of communicating with the people. It is in this context that Prime Minister Modi’s two recent speeches, one on March 24 and the other on May 12, gain significance. To be sure, Prime Minister’s two speeches focused on different themes. The March 24[Read More…]
No doubt the clarification that India will not map Covid-19 infections on the basis of religion has many heaving sighs of relief. But will the peace last? “Move for community-based mapping of coronavirus?” a recent news item in a prestigious daily asked, getting tongues wagging about “closed-door meetings at the highest level”, though no “official” decision had been taken in them. The Ministry of Health declared that any such news is “baseless, incorrect and[Read More…]
The last most remembered pandemic can be traced to the general crisis facilitated by the First World War. The “Spanish Flu”, as it was popularly known, was connected to a strain of the influenza viruses, which was in circulation among troops from 1916 onwards. By 1918, the virus strain triggered a full-blown pandemic, spreading in waves that lasted up till[Read More…]
Book Review of A Dictionary Of Foreign Dreams by Slovakian Poet Pavol Janik by Sarita Jenamani Fall of Berlin Wall thirty years ago had marked the end of an era in the European history: the division between capitalist West and the satellite states of Russia, that is, the East Europe. The cold war and the iron curtain had pushed the entire East Europe into[Read More…]
If you cannot discover or create something, best steal it. It has been the operating principle for everything from wealth to technology. With the efforts to discover a vaccine to the novel coronavirus being all but bound by solidarity, the race on plundering secrets has already begun in earnest. No one party can claim particular innocence in this endeavour. All[Read More…]
We are living in the time of Covid-19 pandemic caused by a newly identified coronavirus. This pandemic along with collateral economic crisis has threatened human life all around the globe. However, in these tough times, there is another shadow epidemic of domestic violence, which is putting the physical and mental health of many women in Indian households in danger. The[Read More…]
Indian Muslims always get a bad press and the blame is put on the community for not doing anything spectacular that may give them positive coverage. This is a hackneyed narrative that is going on since independence against the largest minority of the country. Muslims has been on the receiving end, searching souls, looking for faults within themselves which aren’t[Read More…]
An Interview with Shibu Thomas, Founder, Persecution Relief by K.P Sasi In December 2019, the UK-US based monitoring group Open Doors that publishes an annual World Watch List of 50 countries, ranked India 10th in the world where it is most dangerous to live as a Christian. The report states that political rhetoric and ambiguous interpretations of the[Read More…]
‘Is it possible for machines made from industrial civilization to save us from industrial civilization?’- Planet of the Humans General complaints against ‘industrial civilization’ in its various forms have always been the most reactionary of sentiments. Indeed, for a long time that was the very point. Longing for the days of pre-industrialization and was always the realm of aristocracies,[Read More…]
The novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 has already touched 212 countries and territories around the world and two international conveyances. According to the latest records on worldometer, India stands at 11th position with 96169 COVID-19 cases and 3029 recorded deaths is moving towards a much more difficult phase. Since 24 March, 2020 India is under a lockdown, however this phase has[Read More…]
The home of a Christian was mysteriously set on fire, endangering the lives of the entire family. On the fateful night of the 15th of May, *Nandu and his family woke up to the smoke and loud screams of “fire”! They had only fallen off to sleep a couple of hours ago not expecting to wake up to a nightmare.[Read More…]
Remember the song “Over There”? “Over there, over there Send the word, send the word over there That the Yanks are coming, The Yanks are coming, The drums rum-tumming everywhere…” Maybe not, since it was popular so long ago, but it was meant to inspire American troops saying goodbye to their country on their way to a Europe embroiled in[Read More…]
The trap was set at least twenty-five years ago and the mice jumped at the smell of the cheese. I am referring to the introduction of the computer as a mass necessity and the Internet that followed. I was slow to enter the trap, “forced” finally in 2007 by the college where I was teaching. Up to that point I[Read More…]
The title is a riff on James Carville’s disingenuous (and stupid) phrase from 1992 when he was Bill Clinton’s campaign director. Carville’s pithy quip, “It’s the economy, stupid,” became the campaign’s de facto slogan. It functioned as a clever ruse to help Clinton beat Bush by pandering to workers and creating the impression that his policies would actually help them.[Read More…]
First the good. There’s an outpouring of spontaneous actions, large and small, to feed the hungry, help the desperate, aid seniors, the economically afflicted. There is public art and and an endless steam of performances, gatherings and flash mobs on line. Mask Oakland distributes N95 Masks to the homeless. In Aurora Colorado, librarians assemble kits of essentials for seniors[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has, once and for all, settled the doubts on the Court’s jurisdiction to investigate war crimes committed in occupied Palestine. On April 30, Bensouda released a 60-page document diligently laying down the legal bases for that decision, concluding that “the Prosecution has carefully[Read More…]
Odin, the Norse All-Father, is said to have hung from a tree for 9 days and sacrificed one of his eyes to acquire the knowledge of the world. These days, thankfully, all the Nordic people have to do to acquire knowledge is… well, live in the Nordics. The five countries which make up the Nordic region are: Denmark, Finland,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Arundhati Dhuru and Sandeep Pandey All the narratives of a progressing nation, Rajiv Gandhi’s ‘marching into the 21st century,’ Atal Behari Vajpayee’s ‘shining India,’ A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s ‘providing urban amenities in rural areas,’ Manmohan Singh’s achievement of 8-9% Gross Domestic Product growth rates and Narendra Modi’s ‘smart cities’ have crumbled in the wake of national level migrant workers’[Read More…]
After the pandemic, a rethink on the way our society is can be undertaken but currently the focus has to be on survival. Reproduced below, in summary, the salient points Kumar makes which should be Must Reading for policymakers: In India, the human cost of a misadventure will be enormous. Migrant workers travelling in a truck in Patna, to get[Read More…]
After announcement by the honourable Prime Minister, the Finance Minister took four days to distribute mammoth 20 lakh crore rupees to the countrymen. What the countrymen would get out of it? This is the analysis made by the Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakha Sangathan, Odisha. You may agree or not. We would be happy to answer if you ask. Let us[Read More…]
Two recent reports deserve our attention: The first one is the case of a young labourer named Amrit, s/o Ramcharan and his friend Mohammad Yakub was travelling to Basti, UP from Surat, Gujarat. Suddenly Amrit became unconscious. Since the passengers in the truck protested, the boy was dropped on the road side in the middle of the night. Amrit’s friend,[Read More…]
I have a problem. “Sure, but who doesn’t?”, is a valid rejoinder. At one end, people have life-or-death, existential problems. Then there are problems like: Next meal when?; Job/income/social security; Children’s future; Dependent parents; Match income with commitments and price rise; Loan for medical/surgical problems; … …, How to manage EMI for house/car/education?, … … and, at the ‘top’ end,[Read More…]
Misfortunes never come singly, do they? The pandemic which has turned us into emotional cripples illustrates our culpable sin of negligence of duties and obligations to the environment. Like old age, it has diminished our power to live our life as we used to see fit. To speak of the growing sense of pessimism that has taken hold of us[Read More…]
The State as a ‘conception’ or as an ‘imagination’ remained in the flux situation from 1648 to the second decade of the 21st century. Are we moving from ‘Westphalia’ to ‘Westfailure’? Susan Stranger excellently articulated this idea of “The West-failure System” in the finishing years of the 1990s, where she portrayed the negotiating situation of ‘State’ in modern times.[Read More…]
Indicative of the multi-layered responses on ‘worker-employer-government’ problematic that characterises the Covid-19 lockdown days, the Central trade unions have declared a day of protest on 22 May 2020. CTUOs call has come in the wake particularly of the radical changes in the labour laws being initiated by various state governments. COVID-19, besides the health risks it entail, has also brought[Read More…]
Once you recognise something beautiful, you are bound to fall in love. Love is a beautiful feeling and only the living heart can feel such feelings. The speaker of living speech and the writer of living thoughts can attest those beautiful feelings because he is carrying a living heart and has eyes like the thoughtful poet instead of dead bulbs[Read More…]
The migrant is returning home. Some on foot, others using various means of transport, some of which never seen or heard before. Some are hungry, some surviving on biscuits. Their stories are disturbing, their sight disconcerting. The long march has weakened their bodies, but not their will. Whatever it takes, the migrant wishes to return home. But what is home?[Read More…]
After dithering on two previous occasions, when Narenda Modi addressed the people of this country with pious speeches, when he spoke not of the steps government he heads needed to take to build a suitable response against the looming coronavirus epidemic (he suggested a clamour of pots and thalis on the first occasion and lighting a diya or a torch[Read More…]
In the movie Annie Hall directed by Woody Allen there is a dialogue which goes something like this: “I would never wanna belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.” The essence of the dialogue invokes deep philosophical understanding. However, I shall not go into the depths of this meaning in[Read More…]
As COVID-19 spreads, the government has already started to address the economic and livelihood challenges posed by the constraints the pandemic has put on behavior and employment. It is designing economic support measures to target the tens of thousands to millions of small businesses. These efforts intend to provide a lifeboat to help businesses survive the coming months, and importantly,[Read More…]
In January this year, the first case of COVID-19 disease was confirmed in India, when a student from china travelled back to his home state, Kerala. In March, when the COVID-19 positive cases reach close to five hundred, the Govt. of India on 24 March announced the nationwide lockdown for a period of 21 days, to control the[Read More…]
An encounter between a Jewish couple in Ijzim, Israel (south of Haifa) the the displaced Palestinians in whose house that couple resides, who are denied return to their village and property. “On the anniversary of the Nakba … a tour through depopulated Palestinian villages within Israel … and rare meetings between the owners of the original Palestinian homes and their[Read More…]
“There are things which are worth suffering for” wrote the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka shortly before his death which was caused, in part, by the treatment he received from the Czechoslovakian secret police in March 1977. My first admittedly cynical response to this rather Christian remark is: Really? What things exactly? And how much suffering? In Václav Havel’s famous essay of[Read More…]
There are huge differences in Covid-19 deaths per million of population (Covid-19 deaths/ M) in the nations of the Anglosphere 5-Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, to whit 4/M (New Zealand), 4/M (Australia), 151/M (Canada), 272 (US) and 508 (UK). These huge differences in national Covid-19 deaths per million of population loosely correlate with political conservatism and neoliberal greed. Neoliberalism and deficient intra-national[Read More…]
The miseries of the workers relating to Covid19 is unending one. Few weeks before we had condemned the reform of labor laws, initiated by the Union Government and subsequently followed by various states, because it was an attempt to take away the rights of workers they had achieved through their fight. In another incident, Supreme Court took a reverse stand[Read More…]
To Members of the Expert Appraisal Committee Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Members of the EAC, I understand from the enclosed Agenda notice that the EAC will be holding its 33rd meeting on 18th–19thMay, 2020 for considering the proposals involving violation of EIA Notification. I further understand that Item No 33.4.4 concerning a proposal submitted by LG Polymers[Read More…]
It’s always darkest right before dawn. In this dark time, which is the most frightening experience for a lot of people, we must find our strength to go on. The Coronavirus pandemic is going to be over one day and we must try our hardest to make it. Many have been lost and many are fighting for their life.[Read More…]
Lockdown Series 5 As lock down moves to 50 days, there is a “new normal’ emerging. Human beings have the amazing and scary capacity to adapt and endure in myriad ways to crisis and tribulations maintaining the minimum “ business as usual” attitudes”. The days of lock down and Corona scare have brought out this fortitude and coping strategies of[Read More…]
The spectre of pandemic led crisis and its relationship with social transformation is not new. The Plague of Justinian and the Black Death had huge impact on weakening of feudalism in Europe. It did not pave the path for democratic movements in Europe but made people conscious about the difference in sufferings. The masses suffered in different plagues while the feudal[Read More…]
Co-Written by Surabhi Agarwal, Sandeep Pandey and Shreekumar At a time when there can be no mass mobilisations or street protests, and when so many people are distressed, anxious and distracted by the unprecedented challenges our country is facing due to the COVID-19 crisis, the government’s actions against activists, journalists, intellectuals and Muslims appear to be calculated and insidious. Needlessly[Read More…]
The death of a 5-year old girl in Hesatu village (Donki GP, Latehar district) on 16 May 2020 is widely attributed to hunger by local villagers. Nimani, about 5 years old, was the daughter of Jaglal Bhuiyan and Kalawati Devi. This Dalit family of ten (husband, wife and eight children aged from 4 months to 12-13 years) has no land[Read More…]
On 22nd March, 2020, to show gratitude to doctors, paramedics, policemen and sanitation workers, lakhs of people came on their balcony to emote their sentiments and were seen beating in cacophony whatever utensil they found suitable. This clarion call (as some liked to call it) was given by PM Modi. All kudos to the intention of the PM, however, what[Read More…]
Dr Sandeep Pandey, Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant Mahatma Gandhi’s talisman is perhaps the best guiding light to reform the public health system in the wake of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test- “Recall the face of the[Read More…]
Nothing could have brought the global economy to a grinding halt like the COVID-19 pandemic in recent history. Barring essential goods, the production, sale, and consumption of all goods and services have been affected. This article offers a low-down on the stalled economy, and also makes projections for India’s post-pandemic economy. At the time of writing this article, the Government[Read More…]
Due to the worldwide outbreak of the Coronavirus, India announced lockdown on March 24 to curtail the spread of the disease. Ever since, many alumni of the country’s public funded universities marched towards helping the hungry with food and daily use items. Imteyaz, an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),said, “A seven-month-pregnant woman had to undergo surgery.” Our team members[Read More…]
Jamal Uddin had lived an ordinary and extraordinary life at the same time. His life story is about hard work, determination, and resilience in living the life of an immigrant in New York City. “Mr. Uddin was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh, where the Karnaphuli River flows into the Bay of Bengal. He was not poor, but he knew what it[Read More…]
1. If I come back to earth as a movie star, I want to be that guy nobody knows. You know who I mean, don’t you? As a young man, he gets slapped around by Bogie in The Maltese Falcon. He’s Sidney Longstreet’s punk and foil. He’s got a pug nose and he makes you want to rub…him… out![Read More…]
Was Man made for Money? Was Money made for Man? On which side lies the land What is the truth? Did Man for Money walk straight — From Ape to Homo Habilis 2.8 million years ago? Where was the Money, the Economy? And then came Homo Sapiens — smart, intellectual, established Money, Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, all the isms that divide[Read More…]
Whether revisionists and debunkers agree or not, the Café de Flore on Paris’ Boulevard Saint Germain is a living institution. Since its founding in 1870 it has existed as a café and a second home for French-speaking writers, artists and intellectuals of the likes of Apollinaire, Camus, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and frequented by Hemingway and Truman Capote.[Read More…]
When J&K had not yet forgotten what was done by the ruling party of India on 5th August 2019, the new type of virus- COVID-19- broke out killing humans rampantly, irrespective of religion, race, colour or caste. Given the fatality of it we all are facing together nobody dares to venture out, meanwhile BJP went further to intensify the sufferings[Read More…]
Covid 19 has brought migrant crises to the forefront. While migrants had always faced challenges, this has only become more visible now. This also presents with an opportunity to look back at the immediate implications of the crises, draw lessons from the same and to develop a migrant inclusive policy in urban areas. Implications Loss of Trust: The news reports[Read More…]
In May 1886, tens of thousands of workers throughout United States of America came out on street to demand 8 hour working day. 8 hour working day became a norm later not just in America, but also all over the world. Ironically, 134 years later in India, in May 2020, this law which working class struggled for throughout the world[Read More…]
Less than two weeks after an abortive mercenary invasion aimed at overthrowing Venezuela’s government and murdering its president that was hatched by the Trump White House, the US State Department on Wednesday renewed it classification of the country as “not fully cooperating” with Washington’s global war on terrorism. Also added to the list was Cuba, whose embassy in Washington was[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Rahul Kumar & Anshu Kumar The world has witnessed another pandemic covid-19 and triggered the churning of a plethora of ideas concerning the rescue plan. The curve of Corona affected people is ever rising followed by the deaths in thousands. In India the spread of Coronavirus and subsequently constant lockdown has put the people under tremendous stress[Read More…]
As a society, we humans both consciously and unconsciously draw upon an indefinite, already existing cultural repertoire of knowledge for making meanings. Making meanings is only possible when we temporarily halt the otherwise ever-flowing and elusive system of signification. It is the complex cohesion within the perpetual intersexual deferral of the absolute connotations of signs that enables, constrains and constitutes[Read More…]
Co-Written by Waseem Ahmad Bhat & Adil Qayoom Mallah “Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.” Karl Marx Background For more than 130 years, May Day has symbolized the common struggles of the workers around the globe. For all these years and every passing day the voices of the proletariat have become[Read More…]
Australia matters little when it comes to international muscle. It is the retainer and pretender of power, a middle-distance runner who runs out of puff on the final stride. The big boys and girls look, agog. Why did you even bother? In the recent international relations shouting match (for Australia, shouting; for China, sotto voce with a touch of menace),[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sanghmitra S Acharya, Mala Mukherjee and Chandrani Dutta The present global health crisis caused by COVID-19, necessitates that the world learns from history. The Ebola crisis in three African countries in 2014; Zika in 2015–6; and recent outbreaks of SARS, swine flu, and bird flu. These outbreaks have had deep, long-lasting effects on gender equality. After Ebola, men’s[Read More…]
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. James Baldwin Leaving aside the economic and educational position of Muslim minority in India, the question that needs address here is: Are Muslims safe and secure in contemporary India? The answer to this contentious question is: No! This can be verified by a chain of incidents and[Read More…]
Part-2 of a two part article We have noted in Part-1 of this article the key role assigned by RSS to Ram Madhav, a student of political science, inducted into BJP in 2014 when NDA-1, led by Modi arrived, to work on Kashmir and on foreign policy(FP) among other things. India can collaborate with the US and Germany in[Read More…]
How many times a day, and in how many different presentations, has President Donald Trump suddenly departed from script to exclaim, “This was the greatest economy we ever had, the greatest in the world, the greatest ever, and it all went down because of a pandemic?” A large part of the United States electorate has accepted this political statement, which[Read More…]
The Corona virus outbreak has presented unprecedented challenges to different areas of public life, especially the education system. Due to the pervasiveness of a novel virus, the closure of educational institutions and rebooting of learning, educational institutions are accompanied by frantic efforts to accomplish the syllabi in some or the other way. In this desperate situation, online education has been[Read More…]
Transfer of CA funds to Forest Departments will allow land grabs for commercial plantations, will increase distress in Tribal areas Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday that plans worth Rs. 6000 crores would be approved under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)[1] as part of the “Atma Nirbhar” or “self-reliant” India economic package announced by the[Read More…]
Labour Laws Necessary to Protect Fundamental Rights of Workers PUCL is deeply concerned at the swiftness with which many states in the nation are dismantling the protection afforded to workers under their various labour laws. These laws provide many of the basic guarantees to workers – ensuring that employees get paid decent wages on time, have reasonable working hours, and[Read More…]
Migrant workers walking home , walking … For many a kilometer No water No food No shelter No time to brood On past or future …. Economy staggering Industrial output declining Manufacture of products stopped Tools are lying untouched … Where are the workers? The ‘ real’ economic torch bearers ? Pregnant woman delivers on road (1) And walks with[Read More…]
COVID-19 is the latest in a long line of devastating zoonoses. Unless we radically alter our behaviour, it won’t be the last. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is one of a family of coronaviruses, named for the wreaths that ‘coronate’ them. As of March 16, SARS-CoV-2 has infected 171,000 and killed 6,500. SARS-CoV-2, first reported in China, is[Read More…]
The world faces an unprecedented moment of crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic is pushing humanity’s resilience to the limit and has vast impacts on the wider social, economic and environmental fabric of our world. The pandemic especially affects older people, people with disabilities, and those with underlying health conditions, and highlights the importance of a whole-of-society approach to deliver well-resourced health[Read More…]
The policy practitioners in the World Bank, OECD, and other development agencies used the term ‘fragile state’ during 1990s before using of the term ‘failed state’. The failure to provide security to the citizens, failure to provide public services including health and monopoly of state violence are three central components that define ‘failed state’. The incubation and spread of deadly[Read More…]
It is time for the United States to end its bipartisan blanket support for Israeli policies that violate the human rights of Palestinians. At this critical moment, where Israel has announced its intention to annex Israeli settlements on the West Bank with the support of the Trump administration, we must speak out and resist this blatant violation of international law[Read More…]
Dr. Ghada Ageel and Dr. Ramzy Baroud have more in common than their scholarly research on Palestinian history and politics. They are both refugees, and the direct descendants of Palestinian refugees who have been expelled from their historic village of Beit Daras at gunpoint during the catastrophic events that led to the Palestinian Nakba of May 15, 1948. Starting on[Read More…]
Only a day ago CounterCurrents.Org brought in a very informative article on world nuke spending to a tune of almost 73$ billion. While the entire humanity is facing a far worse survival crisis currently, one has to seriously ask how obscene such one spending is and for whose benefit. It is simply put, a bizarre veritable shame on civilised humanity,[Read More…]
India has crossed 80,000 cases with no peak in sight in the near future after fifty-two days of lockdown; phase IV of lockdown will become effective from 18 May, 2020 onwards. The daily increase of cases even as of today is 5 %; with no hope of reaching under 1% in the foreseeable future. It means that unlike China, Indian[Read More…]
Today, May 15th, is the 72nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) and counting. I say ‘and counting’ because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation with Jews with dual nationality from around the world continues more aggressively than ever.[Read More…]
‘Sorry, we have run out of all words today, National Shame”, said the front page headline of Mumbai Mirror, a sister publication of Times of India, on the horrific killings of 16 migrant workers who were walking back to their homes in Madhya Pradesh nearly 800 kilometers away. Most of the ‘walkers’ are doing that in the night as[Read More…]
A Military Spouse’s Perspective on Fighting This Pandemic “When he first came home, it was tough.” So Aleha, the wife of an airman in Colorado, told me. She was describing her family’s life since her husband, who lives with chronic depression, completed a partial hospitalization program and, in March, along with other members of his unit, entered a pandemic lockdown. He[Read More…]
It is rare to come across a person like Ronald Vivian Smith these days. The message of his ill timed demise during a state of widespread anxiety and impoverishment has come like a jolt of thunder. It feels as if a close family member has passed away into oblivion with all the precious stories still buried deep inside his youthful[Read More…]
Farkhre Alam of Bangladesh was not just a journalist, but also a poet and writer. He never speaks, but tells stories. In fact, when he speaks he talks as if he is telling stories. He was a contemporary journalist. He wrote smoothly with colloquial Bangla language, for which he have had his own style. I met him at his Chansra[Read More…]
It would be pertinent to remember in these turbulent times what Mahatma Gandhi had suggested in the 1940’s for making the rural India as the centerpiece of planning and growth. “I am convinced that if India is to attain true freedom and through India the world also, then sooner or later the fact must be recognized that people will have[Read More…]
Friends and Comrades! We are going through the darkest moment in this country not because of the COVID-pandemic as much as the ill planned and insensitive lockdown and its distress borne out by millions of migrant workers across the country who are left to fend for themselves in the shelters and on the roads. As the country enters lockdown 4.0,[Read More…]
The Ho people are an ethnic group of India. They are an Adivasi people group concentrated in the state of Jharkhand and Odisha, where they constitute around 10.5% of the Scheduled tribes. Most of their population inhabit forests areas of Jharkhand and Bihar. In one such ‘Ho’ village in Jharkhand, around 35 Christian families reside. Over a 100 Christians including[Read More…]
The world’s nuclear powers are increasingly streaming money into their nuclear arsenals, and the U.S. is leading the trend, says a new report. The U.S. has also exited a major arms control treaty and deployed a new tactical weapon. The report – Enough is Enough: 2019 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending (May 2020) – by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear[Read More…]
We are in the midst of a new mobility revolution, declared Mr Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, at the global mobility summit in New Delhi in 2018. The gentleman who waxed eloquent on mobility then was completely silent in his recent address to the nation about the misery of thousands of workers stranded , immobilised all over the country without shelter[Read More…]
The recent outbreak of coronavirus has already entrenched approximately 74,281 confirmed positive cases, with 2,415 deaths in India. It is not the aggressive virus that is haunting the nation alone, but an artificially inserted strain of communalism within it, that is bedevilling and importuning the Muslim community in India. From initially blaming China as the “creator of coronavirus”, the right-wing[Read More…]
The country-wide lockdown was announced on March 24. Within the four hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcing the lockdown, it was to be put in place. A well-known newspaper aptly calls the measure “the most severe step taken anywhere in the war against the coronavirus”. Most of the people had no clue what was going to happen. They were told to[Read More…]
Sub-inspector Kuttan Pillai lived with illusions about himself. The only realistic self-analysis understood by Kuttan Pillai was that he was not an efficient or good policeman – neither to the expectations of the structure of the police machinery nor to the concerns of the people. He always felt that his uniform was a barrier for his creative search. To overcome[Read More…]
Marking 11 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered around the world as ‘Tamil Genocide Day’. The total number of Tamil civilians killed during the final months is widely contested. After providing an initial death toll of 40,000, the UN[Read More…]
Smug assertions of liability in history are often incautious things. They constitute a fruit salad mix: assertions of the wishful thinkers; hopes of the crazed; the quest of genuinely aggrieved generations who feel that wrongs need to be rectified (the Elgin Marbles and transatlantic slavery come to mind). Before you know it, the next historical act will require compensation, the[Read More…]
‘Heinous racism,’ is how the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor described a recent decision by Lebanese authorities to bar Palestinian refugee expats from returning to Lebanon. Lebanon’s restrictions on its ever-diminishing population of Palestinian refugees is nothing new. However, this event is particularly alarming as it may be linked to a long-term official policy regarding the residency status of Palestinian[Read More…]
Every Indian had few questions in their mind, when they turned on their TV sets at 8 PM on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, to listen to the Prime Minister Narandra Modi. Their questions were; will there be extension to lock down 3.0? What government has achieved in containing the Covid-19 and what are its future plans? What efforts government is making to revive[Read More…]
Little Chinchu was in the much loved space of her grandparents home in a city far away from where she and her parents lived. She had come here two months back for the birth of her baby brother born a month ago. By the time words like COVID, Corona and Lockdown were household names. Chinchu was intrigued by the anxiety[Read More…]
The story of Avtar, John, Nic and Others “What the f**k is going on in my mind? Last night I was sitting in bed and looked across the room to a chair in my room and there was a young girl covered in blood. What happened after that I don’t remember. I was told a full-scale panic attack. This is[Read More…]
India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great-grandmother of tradition…Mark Twain India has ever been the land of peace and harmony. It has been a heaven for co-existence, brotherhood and religious tolerance. The country managed to sustain secular values in[Read More…]
I am sure we will recognise that there are some things in our society, some things in our world to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to[Read More…]
This is Part-1 of a two-part article. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fifth address on Covid-19, of around 1500 words and 30 minutes, May 12, was focused on a call for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, a campaign for self-reliant India, and a stimulus package worth Rs 20 lakh crore (10 % of GDP). Underlying his speech, however, there was a message of[Read More…]
To me, an American-Palestinian, the world tainted by the corona virus is analogous to Israel tainted by the evil it contains. Every day for the past few days, I have been listening to New York Governor Cuomo give his daily briefing on the virus. His words resonate with me eerily transforming themselves to advice on how to handle Israel’s cruel[Read More…]
Book Name- I Could Not be a Hindu – A Story of Dalit in RSS Author- Bhanwar Meghawanshi Publication & Year- Navayana 2020 Bhanwar Meghwanshi, a renowned Ambedkarite activist, writer, and journalist from Rajasthan does not need much introduction. His work in the field of Dalit activism and the Ambedkarite movement in Rajasthan is admired nationally by many scholars and[Read More…]
The situation of migrant workers, who had started walking to their far-off villages since the second day of the declaration of national lockdown, showed us the lack of minimum job security at their workplace. Today, the government has chosen them, who were depending on it up to yesterday for relief-food, to carry responsibilities of ‘reviving the economy’ and has decided[Read More…]
The country is one and a half months into the lockdown but the plight of the toiling labourers at the country-wide level continues unabated. Every day huge crowds of workers suffer from hunger, insult and alienation/ignorance in their own country, from their own countrymen and the images are for every one of us to see. It may be noted that[Read More…]
Viruses Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes Covid-19 is just one of the more recent viruses in our environment, and it is here to stay [“One in 3 recover, time to learn to live with virus, says govt”; Deccan Herald; 09.05.2020, p.1]. It will add one more virus to the billions of viruses to which human bodies are already host. The problem[Read More…]
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla has accused the U.S. government of criminal negligence because the attack on Cuba’s embassy in Washington DC could have been avoided. He has asked that the attacker’s links with anti-Cuban, Florida-based groups be investigated. “Twelve days after the attack, the State Department is complicit in silence and does not condemn the incident,” Rodriguez said, recalling[Read More…]
CO-Written by Waseem Ahmad Bhat & Adil Qayoom Mallah The contemporary world is an insecure place full of threats on many fronts. Natural disasters, violent conflicts, chronic and persistent poverty, health pandemics, international terrorism and sudden economic and financial downturns can impose significant threats for the prospects of sustainable development, peace, order and stability. Such crises are complex, entailing multiple[Read More…]
As the worldwide response to the novel corona virus (COVID-19) continues, nurses are working to assist the sick, quell community fears and address concerns. Nurses, the largest sector of healthcare workers in every country, play a pivotal role in preparation for a possible pandemic. Nurses account for more than half of all the world’s health workers, yet there is an[Read More…]
A report on the events at various police stations In Bengaluru on the 12th of May 2020 Yesterday I got a call from Avani, a lawyer working with a trade union. It was about going to a police station nearby and filling an application to help migrant workers stuck in Bengaluru to reach their home-states. In the next few minutes[Read More…]
It was early summer, but the sun was hardly very hot for the time of the year. There was even a pleasant breeze blowing and the path ahead was a stunningly scenic one. And yet, every passing day, the comrades were dropping dead by the wayside, some succumbing to disease or injury, some just too tired to continue. Nila stopped[Read More…]
Our perception of ourselves; our bodies, our relationships, our understating and, above all, our behavior comes from the complex system of rules unconsciously governing us all the time. Like the rules of the popular sport cricket enable, constitute and control the identity of a cricketer, so does the rules of a culture discipline our collective behavior. On transgressing the organized[Read More…]
12th May as International Nurses’ Day is celebrated worldwide. However, this Nurses’ Day is marred by the harrowing accounts and mounting discontent of nursing cadre battling with the apathetic attitude of the Central and State governments during the Covid-19-cum-lockdown situation. The situation ushered in by the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly revealed, yet again, the highly unsafe and insecure work conditions[Read More…]
I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon. Tom Stoppard Journalism, as a professional art is very challenging but a pious mission. It is associated with writing, editing and reporting to the print[Read More…]
Covid-19 has affected the vulnerable section particularly the disables badly, rest all other sections including middle class will come into the fold, while the measures for handicaps from the authorities is too little to succour. Coronavirus has posed an unprecedented challenge to the world health organisation, governments and more importantly to the individuals across the globe without any viable treatment,[Read More…]
To Shri C K Mishra Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Shri Mishra, You are aware of the ghastly gas leak accident that took place at LG Polymers unit near Visakhapatnam in the early hours of 7-5-2020. Several persons in the vicinity of the accident site could not escape to safe places and got[Read More…]
It’s her turn today. She is facing the wrath of being erudite and empowered. But do remember that she represents a gender which undergoes teasing, harassment and the worst- rape, everyday. Nearly all women organisations are facing criticism[Read More…]
“Every day is a copy of a copy of a copy.” That meme, from the moment when Edward Norton’s character in Fight Club offers a 1,000-yard stare at an office copy machine, captures this moment perfectly — at least for those of us removed from the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis. Isolated inside a Boston apartment, I typically sought new ways[Read More…]
For this writer there are events and incidents that transcend the usual causes of sadness for many of us. Yes, we all have a myriad of memories of sadness. Perhaps when a loved one or pet becomes ill or passes away. Perhaps when someone we love moves away from us, and we hurt from missing them. My earliest memory of[Read More…]
Two years back a little girl, Asifa Bano, was abducted, raped and murderd in india, where the people are so keen on emphasizing their culture and moral values in everything from salt to camphor. The cold blooded murder of the young Muslim girl is and always will be a shame! The realities and the aftermath of this case will haunt[Read More…]
The human body has limits. If “temperature plus humidity” is high enough, even a healthy person seated in the shade with plentiful water to drink will suffer severely or likely die. It’s the Wet-Bulb Temperature WBT effect. There is an upper limit to human capacity to adapt to excessive global heat when combined with excessive levels of humidity. That limit[Read More…]
Here am I, living in a muddy house in the lap of nature, farthest from the crowds, in mesmerizing beauties, on lush green carpets, surrounded by mountains that kiss the skies. No wonder if people call it a paradise, but isn’t it that paradises get lost. The fall of Adam illustrates it in the finest of the manners. But who[Read More…]
The movie ‘Thappad’ (translated as ‘the slap’) is not merely a movie that narrates the tales of domestic violence and its normalization, it displays the everyday forms of gendered roles and labour that are largely invisibilized in the processes of internalization and performance of heteronormative male privilege in the institution of family. The movie is based on the story of[Read More…]
About eighty days after the riots that convulsed NE Delhi, what is the status of the investigation into the ‘over 700’ FIRs reportedly registered, according to the Home Minister’s statement in Parliament on 11 March, two months ago? If recent media reportage of the investigation and prosecution in the riots related cases is to be followed, the impression conveyed is[Read More…]
Recently history of a medical science professor Frank M. Snowden (who is emeritus professor at Yale University, USA) in his book, “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present”, which appeared in 2019 has reminded that if we look at epidemics from the historical and political economy perspective view, most of the epidemics (like tuberculosis, plague, and Spanish[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, cartoonist and a writer SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWS LETTER
U.S. President Donald Trump is culpable for thousands of deaths in the U.S. and beyond due to his Covid-19 pandemic response, from making states deal with the crisis individually to cutting the World Health Organization (WHO) funding, Professor Noam Chomsky has said. The radical intellectual has said: Donald Trump has done it to boost his electoral prospects and line the[Read More…]
In the absence of a vaccine, the increasingly discussed idea of beating the coronavirus pandemic through achieving so-called herd immunity could be a disastrous miscalculation, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official has warned. “This is a really dangerous, dangerous calculation,” Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said at a briefing on Monday. “Humans are not herds,”[Read More…]
To flare up more tensions in the Middle East, United States has said that West Bank settlements are not inconsistent with international law. In November 2019, Mike Pompeo told reporters that the Trump administration believes any legal questions about settlements should be settled by Israeli courts, and that declaring them as an infringement of international law, hinders a negotiation for any[Read More…]
Against the institution of war The United Nations has designated the 16th of May as a day devoted to Living Together in Peace. It therefore seems appropriate to mark this day by discussing the reasons why war must be eliminated as a human institution. Science and technology are double-edged As we start the 21st century and the new millennium, our[Read More…]
Let not communal forces undo the great heritage of joint sacrifices Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the Firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in[Read More…]
The Coronavirus Pandemic or COVID-19 has forced millions of people to stay at their homes over the past two months. It has created havoc on the economy and the health system. The lockdown has forced millions of people to work from home. Under the lockdown, many courts have taken steps so that the court proceedings should not come to a[Read More…]
In search of profit, the growth of managerialism and marketisation of education crippled the abilities of teachers and destroyed institutions of learning all over the world. The managerialist revolution in education is designed to transform education as a commodity for sale by privatisation. The processes of commodification and privatisation of education is central to the principles of market in education[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The Trump administration, in seeking to divert attention from its bungled response to the COVID-19 pandemic and mishandling of the economic collapse, is escalating the bipartisan anti-China policy, which has a long history. This increases the potential of military conflict and economic war between our countries. President Trump is making both a global[Read More…]
Genetically engineered crops are a form of food imperialism. This technology allows mega-corporations like Bayer/Monsanto to patent seeds, lure farmers into buying them with visions of high yields, and then destroy the ability of small farmers to survive. Genetic engineering produces an artificial combination of plant traits which often results in foods with less nutritional value while introducing health problems[Read More…]
The same problem exists in the USA as in India and other countries. Farmers are dumping huge amounts of their produce back in the fields. A pig farmer in America is considering just killing off her pigs since they can’t go to a slaughterhouse and to markets. I saw about this farmer problem happening in various newsfeeds in MA, USA[Read More…]
Where there is oppression, there is resistance. Michel Foucault Kashmir, as everyone knows, has been at the onslaught of military oppression and atrocities from times aeon. It has witnessed this oppression in the form of fake encounters, mass rapes like Kunan Poshpora, crackdowns, and forced disappearances. Over the years, this oppression has given birth to its own brand of[Read More…]
To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: They make desolation and they call it peace- Publius Tacitus When rest of world is under virtual lockdown to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, Kashmir is under the twin garb of both, Virus-lockdown and imposed normalcy. In Kashmir, the very words, lockdown and normalcy[Read More…]
Another Day In Paradise: Lock down Series 4 Dear Jamlo , This is not a letter or a conversation that I never ever want to do again in my life. And this is not the language in which I should be talking to you, a 12 year old girl. But times are such that one has not much choice. Or[Read More…]
Caste is an institutional ‘lockdown’ that has existed, developed, and fortified itself in an organic relationship with the material conditions of history. In his pioneering journal Mooknayak, Dr. Ambedkar used a potent metaphor to describe the caste system— a multistoried building with no staircase connecting the floors, in which people live and die in the same floor they were born[Read More…]
Three Indian photojournalists based in Jammu & Kashmir won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the region during the clampdown that followed the Union government’s decision last August to divest the region of its special status and reorganise it into two Union Territories. Associated Press photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan, and Channi Anand have been[Read More…]
Growing up in urban India, in an English-medium boys-only school run by Jesuits, I had access to all the English-language novels and comic-books that Indian kids do – Enid Blyton, Archies etc. Immersed in their world of boarding schools, “Riverdale High” etc, the one thing I never really got was the idea of lockers and locker-rooms, which were depicted in[Read More…]
Fred Magdoff, Professor Emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and author of many articles and books on ecology, agriculture and economy, frequent Monthly Review contributor and closely associated with struggles of the working people, discusses the coronavirus pandemic in light of capitalism and agriculture in the following interview conducted on April 2, 2020 by Farooque[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia announced a slew of austerity measures to cope with the fiscal impact of the coronavirus pandemic and oil price rout, tripling its value-added tax (VAT) and cutting allowances for government workers. The steps taken to shore up revenue and rationalize spending are valued at about 100 billion riyals ($26.6 billion) in total, according to the official Saudi Press[Read More…]
A shootout erupted on Saturday at a protest in western Afghanistan by residents demanding economic assistance, leading to the deaths of at least six people including a local reporter and two police officers, officials said. The reporter has been identified as local volunteer radio presenter Ahmadkhan Nawid, according to the Afghanistan Journalists’ Centre. The protesters were demanding relief after weeks[Read More…]
Tens of thousands of Syrian and non-Syrian families, who are affiliated with the members of the Islamic State, pose a daunting challenge for the Syria’s northeast. These families live in camps, such as al-Houl and Ain Essa, which have evolved from a few tents in a muddy field into a sprawling grid of shops, cafeterias, falafel stands, schools, clinics, mosques,[Read More…]
Do you hear that silence? That’s the absence of footsteps echoing through our nation’s public school hallways. It’s the silence of teaching in a virtual space populated with students on mute who lack a physical presence. It’s the crushing silence of those who are now missing, who can’t attend the classroom that Zoom and Google built. Maybe you heard the[Read More…]
When it comes to the politics of medicine and disease, the United States has always attempted to steal the limelight, while adding the now faded colouring of universal human welfare. In 1965, Washington pledged financial and technical support to the international effort to eradicate smallpox, though the initiative had initially been spurred by the Soviet Union at the behest of[Read More…]
With identity-based politics on surge along with the tinge of Islamophobia, Indian Muslims have lately been under question regarding their identity. Many have been made to believe that there exists a lack of Indianess in their identity. Many Sociologists have described their identity in several different ways. The most accepted definition states that Indian Muslim identity is at the center[Read More…]
Aruna Chakravarti in discussion with Sunil Gangopadhyay Rabindranath Tagore (1861 to 1941) was born on May 7th. He was a brilliant poet, writer, musician, artist, educator – a polymath — and of course, we all know of him as the first Nobel Laureate from Asia. His writing spanned across genres, across global issues and across the world. Today to jubilate this great[Read More…]
The human tragedy; the social and economic chaos engendered by the Coronavirus Pandemic now sweeping the globe is something completely unprecedented for those of us alive today, but it has in a few months accomplished more positives for the earth environment than many years of often acrimonious wrangling about greenhouse gas reductions by various world leaders. This is immediately obvious[Read More…]
Those who know me the best know the many number of years that I’ve fought to protect and foster forests, meadows, wetlands, wild animals and peoples across the world, including ones in a lepers’ colony not located in the USA. I started in my direction as a toddler and got better in my associates tasks year by year. Yet as[Read More…]
The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) held a Mother’s Day car rally for Safoora Zargar in Surrey on the afternoon of Sunday, May 10. The student activist who is an expectant mother is being held under draconian laws for opposing the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the right wing Hindu nationalist government in India. Zargar[Read More…]
The empty stare we have been projecting onto the outside world ever since SARS-Cov 2 invited itself into our life is pretty disconcerting. Although spring is here, and it is perfect, with no sign of a cataclysm like the ones we experienced in the past (drought, flood, famine, war), we do not seem to take notice of it, let alone[Read More…]
“This probably doesn’t need to be said but planning for low probability, high impact, worst case scenarios is looking pretty smart right now.” Gavin Schmidt The building climate change dangers promise to make the coronavirus pandemic look like a day off work with a cold. Increasing global temperature means rising sea levels, worsening extreme weather, more forest fires, and widening[Read More…]
Mr. Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia ought to be applauded for his remarkable leadership for mobilisation of best scientific advice and pursuing coherent federal/state policies and enlisting trust and cooperation of ordinary Australians, in tackling the COVID 19 crisis so successfully. By now, spread of the deadly virus in most parts of the country has come to a[Read More…]
Co-Written by Shilpi Shikha Phukan, Rinzing Ongmu Sherpa and Garima Rath. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic depression, another issue that hit the internet recently is the ‘bois locker room’ controversy. Bois Locker Room, a closed Instagram page of elite South Delhi school-boys uploaded explicit sexual content of minor girls, objectifying women bodies to the extent of normalizing rape culture. The Delhi[Read More…]
The Pandemic ‘Covid-19’ is among the Worst Crises that has hit the mankind all around the Globe, like never before. While the Covid-19 ‘Monster’ continues to play havoc in the lives world over, the Economy is struggling at critical stage. Amid this Pandemic there is an emerging ‘Hue & Cry’ regarding Sinking Economy and vanishing Human life. The Whole World[Read More…]
Co-Written by Toushali Raina & Ronojoy Banerjee The spectacular demise of India’s pluralistic democracy and the growing normalization of intolerance within the country has caught the attention of many scholars across the world ever since Indian politics took its fateful turn towards the ideological right in 2014. Probably India has moved in the direction that John Stuart Mill in his[Read More…]
The Story “Bois Locker Room” is a private instagram group of young teenage school boys, aged between 13 and 17 of prominent schools in Delhi. This group seems to have started as a meme group on Instagram – one of those fun groups where teenagers bond by exchanging jokes, silly videos and more. By the time it had around 50[Read More…]
Hyderabad, May 10–A crisis brings out the best and the worst in us. The Corona lockdown has done that. Not only that, the crisis has held up a mirror to us, showing both the good and bad in us. The best came out from among us as we showed kindness in thousands of ways to the less privileged fellow citizens:[Read More…]
Co-Written by Roli Misra & Nagendra Kumar Maurya “Corona se mare na mare, bhook se zaroor mar jayega”(If I don’t die with Corona, I will surely die with hunger). These were the words of the carpenter who has been working in our house since last ten years. He had visited our place amidst the lockdown with his scary face. The[Read More…]
Late last year I started wearing a hijab to protest against the communal virus spread against Muslims by the Indian government by promulgating Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. Now the entire world is facing a secular n-coronavirus which makes no distinction between various religions/ regions/ communities/ class. In India religion wise statistics of infected people is not available and that is[Read More…]
To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Shri Heeralal Samariya Union Labour Secretary Dear S/Shri Bhalla and Samariya, I understand that several important labour laws, meant to safeguard the welfare of the workers and to ensure industrial safety, have been “suspended” for three years in UP, MP and Gujarat. I hope that the Union Home Ministry and the Labour[Read More…]
Co-Written by I.D. Khajuria and Sandeep Pandey As the humans stayed inside for close to a month and a half since the announcement of lockdown in the wake of coronavirus threat, most people observe that life seems to have start breathing in nature. The air is fresh, trees look more green and rivers are cleaner. It is a further and[Read More…]
The first of two terrifying realities rush to mind when one stops long enough to consider what the underlying revealed human and environmental truths, realities, causes and hypocrisy’s are of the COVID-19 PANDEMIC, and what those who variously argue how to resolve it have to say about the future of not only human life but the survival of all lifeforms[Read More…]
The black flag of the Islamic State is flying on the frontlines of Sahel, on the southern bounds of the Sahara. It has been over seven years since international forces of France, United Nations, United States, and G5 Sahel Joint Force have tried to stop the Jihadism spreading. So far they have failed in their efforts, as the allies are[Read More…]
Neoliberalism as an ideology emerged in central Europe during early 20th century in opposition to socialism as an alternative to imperial, colonial and capitalist plunder, war and economic crisis. The Department of Economics at the University of Chicago shaped neoliberalism as a strategy to shift the power from workers to the owners of capital by weakening the state and expanding[Read More…]
In the Post-COVID situation, the issue of migrant workers has come to the forefront. While on the one hand, it provides an opportunity to reflect and correct, on the other hand it also brings out the deeply held biases in Government decisions. While Migrants go on to build a city, they never form part of mental frame of the decision[Read More…]
COVID- 19 is spreading globally like fire in the jungle, and everybody is trying to maintain social distancing to prevent the spread of the infection of the virus. The situation in India isn’t different from other countries. However, the death rate is still less than a few other countries. but besides the corona issue, India is facing few other important[Read More…]
But, after all, shadows themselves are born of light. And only he who has experienced dawn and dusk, war and peace, ascent and decline, only he has truly lived. Stefan Zweig —The World of Yesterday, 1941 2020 is turning out to be one of the most challenging years since the end of the Second World War. A coming disruption for[Read More…]
In 1921, when Mahatma Gandhi called for the non-cooperation movement, thousands of tea plantation workers in Assam left to partake in India’s fight for independence against the British rule. Prohibited to move out of their plantations without permission under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, these workers defied authorities to leave the premises to join the freedom struggle –[Read More…]
Mother’s Day will be celebrated on May 10 this year. On this day, people celebrate motherhood and mothers in their families. We mothers are remembered and pampered and we simply love it. Mothers are thanked profusely for their efforts, sacrifices and children make this a special day for the mothers. Our children send us handmade or store bought gifts, flower[Read More…]
A thread in our lives That never unravels Pinching at the seam Of our civilization As an unhealed cut Bleeds, even in dribbles Pains us until We learn to ignore We can watch And not see We can see But not register Each one matters Loved ones shattered Potential lost Over before the bell A flame Might flicker A flame[Read More…]
Religion has always been a very sensitive yet unavoidable topic in India. It is woven into the very tapestry of the country. An average Indian may have an acquaintance from almost every religious community in the country and may have never considered religious orientation as a condition of their relationships, but somehow, over the years the poison of religious nationalism[Read More…]
As Southern Transitional Council has declared self rule in the southeast part of the country, a north – south regional divide once again has come to the forefront. Now, it seems likely that there will be new conflicts emerging, not only within warring sections in the country, but also involving Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iran, signaling a proxy[Read More…]
In as many as 13 states and Union Territories of India, Non-Government Organizations(NGOs) have fed more people than the government during the coronavirus induced lockdown. The data shows that in states like Kerala and Telangana with exclusive success stories, NGOs have played a huge role. States like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram, and Maharashtra have seen a similar contribution of these[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film maker, cartoonist and writer SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWS LETTER
It is unbelievable that two months have passed since the dreaded word LOCK DOWN became part of our lives- 2 months of staying indoors, making oneself believe that this is safe and secure, 2 months of not meeting friends and family, 2 months of physical and social distancing, 2 months of a new kind of social discrimination where the[Read More…]
The chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission Dr Zafar ul Islam Khan face sedition charges for one of his tweets. I am not surprised these days how our police is behaving. While those who spread hatred, threat people openly and intimidate them through social media as well as ‘popular media’, screaming loudly on television channels have never been touched. Look[Read More…]
In the 21 day run-up period up to the start of lockdown, the average rate at which the COVID-19 cases were doubling was calculated to be 4.64. We assessed data provided by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (as compiled on Wikipedia: COVID-19 pandemic in India – last accessed on 06.05.2020 at 4.29 p.m.). It[Read More…]
Passion for Freedom: The Story of Kisanin Jaggi Devi by Deepti Priya Mehrotra Published by Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, New Delhi, pp. 72 The story of the militant Awadh Kisan movement of 1920’s & 30’s, led by the Awadh Kisan Sabha,under the leadership of the legendary Baba Ram Chandra, remains incomplete without the story of its Women’s[Read More…]
Mats Svensson is a former Swedish diplomat, an author and a photographer. His books include “Crimes, Victims and Witnesses – Apartheid in Palestine.” His latest volume, “Apartheid is a Crime – Portraits of Israeli Occupation,” was just released by Cunepress in Seattle. Svensson joined me and my co-host Romana Rubeo on “Palestine Chronicle TV”, on May 6, to discuss his[Read More…]
“Accumulate, accumulate! That is Moses and the prophets.” — Karl Marx I’ve been negligent in failing to acknowledge my gratitude to op-ed writers at the New York Times for their frequent doses of insidious misinformation which demand disassembling and refutation. They didn’t disappoint on May 5, 2020. In the lead op-ed, “Will We Get Used to the Dying?” Editor-at-Large Charlie[Read More…]
While the world is witnessing the wrath of the virus COVID-19, which has caused havoc across the globe and has questioned the mere intelligence of our species, some are involved in other nasty acts of intelligence. A recent case which has woken up the virtual space of the nation the “Bois Locker Room”, a chat group in a social media[Read More…]
In the shadow of Covid- 19 locked down, there has been a spate of arrests being made in Delhi, mostly against the peaceful anti-CAA protesters and also against alleged instigators of communal riots in North-East Delhi. This is an alarming development happening in the national capital that too under the watchful eyes of the Home Minister and the National Security[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) calls for criminal prosecution of management of LG Polymers as well as officials of regulatory bodies for the criminal negligence that led to leak of toxic gas on May 7. The case registered against the LG Polymers must be pursued diligently and to the fullest extent rather than diluted as has[Read More…]
Inquests into the deaths of National Health Service (NHS) workers from COVID-19 will be barred from addressing government failures in providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). Mark Lucraft QC, the chief coroner for England and Wales, issued guidance at the end of April stating that “an inquest would not be a satisfactory means of deciding whether adequate general policies and[Read More…]
Since my childhood I wanted to be a journalist. I began my journey with an Urdu newspaper. Some of my first articles were about cricket. I wrote on cricket after watching it on TV and playing it with friends. Soon, I started working as a correspondent from my home town Raxaul. After coming to the field of journalism, I realised[Read More…]
It was nearly twenty years ago at a Muslim conference in Washington D.C. that I heard the distressing argument that Palestine should not be made a central topic in the American Muslim political agenda. The point, which took many by surprise, was enunciated by a young American Pakistani Muslim academic, whose name is not important for my purpose here. What[Read More…]
For Muslims this is the month Ramadhan, the dawn-to-dusk fasting month, a month which is not merely about fasting but also a reminder to all Muslims of a key obligation of Islam – ‘giving’! For that matter, ‘giving’ as a religious duty is an integral component of every religion. In some religion ‘giving’ is compulsory and in others it is[Read More…]
This article is in two parts. First about the Grim Situation of Dharavi. Second a Housing plan to help turn crisis into an opportunity. Experts say we have to live with Covid-19, may be for two more years…until herd immunity builds up, there is no real solution to masses of people : Vaccines and medicines, as and when they come,[Read More…]
Right to Food Campaign Demands Free Rations, Transport Facility and Dignity for Stranded Migrants This morning, 15 migrant workers were harrowingly run over by a train in Maharashtra while sleeping on railway tracks due to exhaustion. Another couple from Chhattisgarh were also run over on the highway while cycling home. Migrant workers are the backbone of India’s labour force and[Read More…]
The ongoing threat from coronavirus that the world is facing today has caused to change in the entire socio-economic and political narrative of India. It has unmasked all the social institutions and their stakeholders. Whether it is political class, media, bureaucracy, police, and doctors and for that matter a common individual, this pandemic has brought out the best and[Read More…]
Since death is one idea that has no history except as an idea and not a reality any of us have experienced, it is the most frightening idea there is and also quite simple. It is the ultimate unknown. It has always haunted human beings, whether consciously or unconsciously. It lies at the root of war, violence, religion, art, love,[Read More…]
Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea. Dylan Thomas “Fern Hill” Fate show thy force, ourselves we do not owe What is decree’d must be, and be this so Shakespeare from “Twelfth Night” I often catch myself doing semi-conscious automatic things (such as needlessly refreshing my email web page, repeatedly touching[Read More…]
In the midst of a massive global pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of people and wrecked economies all over the world leaving millions jobless, some terrorists and mercenaries allegedly backed by certain governments had on 3rd May 2020 attempted to invade the independent, sovereign state of Venezuela. Organised and trained in neighbouring Colombia, they had landed on the[Read More…]
“Commenced preparations for Vande Bharat Mission. Planning underway for stranded Indian nationals to return home starting 7th May. Urge them to keep in regular touch with their Embassies”, the tweet by Dr. S. Jaishankar, Foreign Minister of India on May 5, 2020 was the much awaited announcement of evacuation and repatriation mission to bring home stranded Indian diaspora amid the[Read More…]
You poisoned my sweet water. You cut down my green trees. The food you fed my children Was the cause of their disease. My world is slowly fallin’ down And the airs not good to breathe. And those of us who care enough, We have to do something……. (Chorus) Oh…….oh What you gonna do about me? Oh…….oh What you gonna[Read More…]
On the 3rd of May 2020, a family living in a village in Jharkhand, India, was forced to go through Ghar Wapsi (a ceremony of reconversion to Hinduism). This family accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior 4 years ago and has been faithfully walking with the Lord ever since. Persecution Relief was informed about the incident by *Pastor[Read More…]
Hope we remember this brutal agenda of Hindutva that united the secularists and commoners of our country together. We were all a part of it fighting for the rights of ‘us’ the common people, who loved the concept of India… We fought together for the future of our country with tiranga in one hand and the Constitution in the other.[Read More…]
In the month of February, the world saw an absolute carnage suffered by the civilians in a particular part of the globe following a devastating Nerve Gas attack. This led to many being homeless and igniting persistent fear travelling undercurrent. The repercussions can still be felt in the midst of catastrophic Corona outbreak. What sets this attack different from the[Read More…]
It was exactly 13 years back that the Thorat Committee, constituted in September 2006 to enquire into allegations of differential treatment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students at the premier medical institute, AIIMS—was released. The first of its kind in independent India, this three-member committee led by then chairman of the University Grants Commission, Sukhdeo Thorat, had looked deeply[Read More…]
I have borrowed nothing excepting title from Liu Shao Chi, the famous Chinese leader and author of the book ‘How to be a good Communist?’ which converted thousands to Communism. Besides the ‘Communist Manifesto’ and the ‘Das Kapital’ perhaps the Emile Burns ‘What is Marxism’ is perhaps another world famous book which appealed to the educated people and explained Communism[Read More…]
Donald Trump is not a president. He can’t even play one on TV. He’s a corrupt and dangerous braggart with ill-concealed aspirations for a Crown and, with an election coming up, he’s been monopolizing prime time every day, spouting self-congratulation and misinformation. (No, don’t inject that Lysol!) His never-ending absurd performances play out as farce against the tragic background of the Covid-19[Read More…]
The Me Too movement was meant to be more than a howl or rage with a trending hash tag. It was a surge that threatened to pulverise all before it, arming accusers with weapons of merit and disarming predators who had, for decades, acted in beastly fashion from positions of power. It did net some mighty scalps and also, at[Read More…]
Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention state unequivocally that an Occupier must provide its conquered Subjects with life-sustaining food and medical requisites “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”. However in relation to huge Subject avoidable deaths from deprivation, and ventilator non-provision in the context of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the US and Australia[Read More…]
May 7th 1924 was the day Alluri Sitarama Raju (1897 July 4– 7 May 1924), a unique revolutionary involved in the Indian independence movement, was killed by the British armed forces. He was one of the few Indian revolutionaries, who had developed a mass base and a mass movement, that culminated in a sustained armed struggle (1922-24), and adopted guerilla methods and[Read More…]
Rarely, it would so happen that an experience is both liberating and occupational, simultaneously. The digital media gave a “personal” space to people. With increased trolling, abuses and rape threats, social media platforms are now more poisonous than being fruitful. Earlier, decent debates would take place on wide range of topics including philosophy, business, politics, art, culture, sex and[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic will plunge most of Europe into its worst recession since the 1930s, according to a grim forecast released by the European Commission (EC). Brussels has had to abandon any hope of growth for both the EU and euro area in 2020, as the economies are set to contract by 7.5 and 7.75 percent respectively, according to this[Read More…]
The pandemic Covid-19 which originated in Wuhan province, China sometime in December 2019 made its cruel impact as a global deadly disease in January 2020 declared as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. It then spread to other countries causing fear, panic and deaths. Currently more than 3.5 millions have been infected with about 240,000 deaths reported. Sri Lanka reported[Read More…]
Amid COVID-19 pandemic Markaz (Center), Tabligi Jamat (Preaching religion), Nizamuddin, New Delhi suddenly glare media attention for wrong reason that they made a mistake unknowingly. They asked permission from local Police to decongested the Markaz but the same became the controversy and media run the stories in various negatives shades. Why media is unaware about Tabligi Jamat? Or else institutional[Read More…]
Understanding the ‘Hindu’ fear of Muslims and Christians We have been seeing attacks on Christians and Muslims in India for the last few years. Several Indians are worried about it and fear for the future of democracy in India. People wonder what the logic of all these attacks is. How can nearly 80% of ‘Hindus’ feel threatened by some 13%[Read More…]
The Government of India on 23rd March 2020 announced a country wide 21-day lockdown. A total of 4 hour was awarded to those in Indian territory to prepare for the lockdown that would strictly remain enforced for three weeks. Prime Minister in his address called this a Mahabharata like war, which will be won in 21 days. Immediately people rushed[Read More…]
This is yet another news story underplayed by Big Media, and being reported by us. A Delhi HC judgment showed that ICMR agreed to pay 2.5 times the price for Corona rapid test kits, imported from China, to help private traders to loot the public exchequer. Public interest must outweigh private gain, the Court observed. And Justice Najmi Waziri slashed[Read More…]
Trump Threatens the future of human civilization There is so much wrong with Donald Trump that one hardly knows where to start. He is a bully, braggart, narcicist, racist, mysogenist, habitual liar, and tax evader, in addition to being demonstrably ignorant. He has contempt for both domestic and international law, as well as for the US Constitution. However, it is[Read More…]
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Virtual Summit “United against COVID-19” was held on Monday, May 4, via videoconference. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev chaired the NAM summit. The meeting took place in the format of the Contact Group, which includes regional representatives. The Republic of Azerbaijan convoked the meeting as president of the Movement for the period 2019-2022, given the need for[Read More…]
One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I. It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was passed by the post-World War[Read More…]
This book “Towards Water Wisdom Limits, Justice, Harmony” has been written by Ramaswamy R. Iyer is really a path-breaking exercise. There are several books in his account which has been written on water[Read More…]
On Sunday, 3rd May, the Covid-19-triggered lockdown completed forty days in India. We are caught in the cusp of two moments – the completion of the forty days-cycle and the lurching forward of the entire country into another 14 days of lockdown that was recently notified by the Government. This conjuncture calls for close reflection on the model adopted for[Read More…]
Amidst Covid-19 national lockdown, our country is passing through the most difficult times, perhaps since India’s partition. The current threat of lethal virus (the curve is still not getting completely flatten as expected earlier) has not only pose serious threats in the public health system but has also created huge challenges and crises in the socio-economic realm too. Till now,[Read More…]
“When we think of the repression of journalists, we automatically evoke foreign lands. We rarely, however, evoke or remember our own dissidents.” Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye, May 5, 2020 It all spoke well of British justice, which meant poorly. As one correspondent from the Australian Associated Press put it in describing the latest case hearing for Julian Assange, “There[Read More…]
Lockdown Series 3 Little Aadi is always most happy when his father and grandmother stayed home not going to the “office”, which is where they both vanish early morning long before he wakes up. He has tried many tricks in his books to stop them from going which includes hiding his father’s bag, his granny’s footwear and purse and so[Read More…]
Nalini Priyadarshni in conversation with Anu Mahadev An abuse victim in the past, Anu Mahadev is a poet based in New Jersey. She is a 2016 MFA graduate of the Drew University’s MFA program in Madison, NJ. With two poetry collections to her credit, Myriad (2013) and Neem Leaves (2015) Anu is a curious reader and lifelong learner. She is passionate and outspoken about[Read More…]
Co-Written by Thomas Klikauer and Nadine Campbell Ever since the Catholic Church gave the world propaganda in its Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide) in the year 1622, propaganda has been with us. The triumph of populist propaganda has been shown in the USA with the election of Donald Trump. As in the USA, right-wing[Read More…]
Cuban Doctors, photo Cubadebate Cuba has carried out more than 600,000 internationalist missions in 164 countries. Cuba has been at the forefront when it comes to fraternally assisting other countries in need, without ever interfering in the internal affairs of any of these countries. With more than 1.7 billion medical examinations, 12.5 million surgical interventions and just as many vaccinations[Read More…]
