Archive for July, 2020

Unsung martyr: Udham Singh who avenged the Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Unsung martyr: Udham Singh who avenged the Jallianwala Bagh massacre

It was 80 years ago (July 31, 1940) Udham Singh died on the gallows in the Pentonville prison of London. Through the contemporary police documents, we come to know that before reaching London he had been to Mesopotamia, Kenya, Uganda, USA, and USSR, all in quest of Indian revolutionaries and ammunitions. It was on reaching the English shores that he[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
(Photo: Matt Zimmerman/flickr/cc)

Our Lungs Are Under Attack—We Must Protect Them to Stay Alive

Since I was a child in the 1980’s I have heard calls to protect the Amazon. I remember watching videos of massive trees being cut down, soil washed away, and areas of lush forest burnt and cleared. I was told McDonalds was the villain, as the land was being destroyed for cattle farming, soy monoculture and fast-food burgers. As a[Read More…]

How the national movement influenced our art, culture and cinema

How the national movement influenced our art, culture and cinema

Today is the 30th death anniversary of legendary playback singer Mohammad Rafi. Rafi Saheb passed away on 31st July, 1980. We also remember Munshi Prem Chand doyen of Hindi writing on his 140th birthday. But there is another important day today which is the martyrdom day of Shaheed Udham Singh who was executed by the British for killing General Micheal[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
U.S. jobless claims top 1 million again in latest week as the pandemic keeps on biting workers

U.S. jobless claims top 1 million again in latest week as the pandemic keeps on biting workers

In the U.S., the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits rose for the second consecutive week last week as coronavirus cases surged around the country. The number of people collecting jobless benefits also increased to 17 million, up from 16.2 million the week prior. More than a million people filed for unemployment benefits in the latest week, showed[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
EIA 2020: Why is it so perilous?

EIA 2020: Why is it so perilous?

Amidst the corona virus pandemic, the government of India (The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change) unveiled the Environment Impact Assessment 2020 draft to the public in March 2020 seeking to replace the 2006 version of the law. The latest draft has already created a lot of hype amongst the concerned citizens, with many environmental activists and climate[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Hagia Sophia: Heritage of Entire Humanity

Hagia Sophia: Heritage of Entire Humanity

The re-conversion of Hagia Sophia from a patriarchal cathedral built by Justinian I in 537 CE to Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in 1453 after the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II and into a museum of the same name by Kemal Ataturk in 1934 and again into a mosque of the same name on 24th July 2020 has thrown[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 3 comments World
Commemorating the writings of Emily Bronte

Commemorating the writings of Emily Bronte

A common concept today about the children portrayed in Victorian literature is that they are innocent in spite of their sufferings and brutalization by the society. One can refer to an apotheosis of childhood innocence through characters like Dickens’s Oliver Twist, Little Nell in Old Curiosity Shop, and Pip in Great Expectations, or Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. During the Victorian era morality and didacticism[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Narendra Modi has no right to lay the foundation of Ram temple

Narendra Modi has no right to lay the foundation of Ram temple

In 2018, Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, earlier known as Professor Guru Das Agrawal when he used to teach at Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, wrote four letters to the Prime Minister when he went on a fast for 112 days demanding a law for conservation of Ganga before he succumbed on 11th October at All Indian Institute of Medical[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 1 comment India
Gender stereotypes plaguing the pandemic response

Gender stereotypes plaguing the pandemic response

As per a recent news, a senior bureaucrat in Lucknow said, “The increase in female infection (of COVID-19) ratio is a clear indication that women are going out in the market and not following the precautions [for COVID-19 prevention]”. This statement is not only devoid of any scientific evidence but also reeks of a deep-rooted patriarchal mindset. It also assumes[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Eulogy or Elegy?

Eulogy or Elegy?

First the words; Eulogy: a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, especially a tribute to someone who has just died. Elegy: An elegy is a sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead.  But eulogies, Wikipedia assures me, can also be delivered at retirement functions and other such events when a person[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
CPI Opposes Privatisation and Commercialisation in New Education Policy

CPI Opposes Privatisation and Commercialisation in New Education Policy

The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (on July 30, 2020): The RSS-led NDA government has approved the New Education Policy (NEP). The policy brings with it a fundamental change in the system towards creating education markets and away from ensuring universalisation of education through government schools and rejecting quality education to poor[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
A strong voice against Hindutva in Greater Vancouver lost

A strong voice against Hindutva in Greater Vancouver lost

The news of Chinmoy Banerjee’s death has greatly saddened the South Asian community in BC. 80-year-old scholar and activist of Indian heritage, Chin Daa, as we affectionately called him, was not keeping well for the past several days. He passed away on the morning of July 29, leaving behind a powerful legacy of tireless activism. He previously taught English at[Read More…]

by 31/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
 How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs

 How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs

  How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs.  Elizabeth F. Thomson.  Atlantic Monthly Press, NewYork, 2020. Having just read The War That Ended Peace [https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-war-that-ended-peace-book-review/] the title How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs appeared as an intriguing and fortuitous follow up.  Its subtitle describes its more narrow focus: The Syrian-Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
How Americans Remember (and Forget) Their Wars

How Americans Remember (and Forget) Their Wars

Some years ago, a newspaper article credited a European visitor with the wry observation that Americans are charming because they have such short memories. When it comes to the nation’s wars, however, he was not entirely on target. Americans embrace military histories of the heroic “band of [American] brothers” sort, especially involving World War II. They possess a seemingly boundless[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Iran And Israel Spar Over Cyber Warfare

Iran And Israel Spar Over Cyber Warfare

There is a whole lot of churning going on in Iran, which has been at loggerheads with US, for around more than five-decades, as it traces its modern tussle with US to the way Muhammed Musaddiq government was over thrown by US in 1953 1, which later was followed by setting of a new nationalist government after US sponsored Shah[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 1 comment World
Christian Preacher Found Dead In Punjab

Christian Preacher Found Dead In Punjab

In a shocking series of unfortunate events, yet another Pastor was found dead in the Zira Tehsil of Ferozepur, a district that is situated in the Indian state of Punjab. The body of Balwinder Bagicha Bhatti was discovered by a few people by the roadside on the 27th of July 2020. Joseph and Alisha, both Persecution Relief Coordinators of Punjab,[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Should Muslims sacrifice cattle on Eid-al-Adha? 

Should Muslims sacrifice cattle on Eid-al-Adha? 

On Friday, July 31, 2020, over a billion and a half Muslims around the world, will be slaughtering millions of goats, camels, and cattle to carry out Abraham’s tradition of sacrificing the symbolic lamb. Is there an alternative to the ritual of slaying animals on Eid Al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice? The answer is yes! Rituals are the pathways to[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Reality of sacrifice in Eid-al-Azha

Reality of sacrifice in Eid-al-Azha

The companions of Prophet Hazrat Muhammed Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam(Peace and blessings be upon him) asked, “What is this sacrifice(Qurbani)?” He answered that it is the Sunnah of your father Hazrat Ibrahim Alaihissalam(Peace be upon him).” This historic Qurbani incident took place about five and a quarter thousand years ago in “Mina” near “Khana-e-Ka’aba” located in Mecca, a desert region of[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
CDRO condemns the arrest of Delhi University Prof. Hany Babu

CDRO condemns the arrest of Delhi University Prof. Hany Babu

Co-Ordination of Democratic rights Organisations (CDRO) condemns the arrest of Delhi University Prof. HanyBabuand demands his immediate release after dropping the false charges levied against him. His arrest is part of the Modi’s Government attempt in silencing the dissent. Prof. HanyBabuis arrested by NIA  on 28thJuly2020 on the allegation that he was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Human Rights Organisations Condemn The Arrest of Prof. Hany Babu

Human Rights Organisations Condemn The Arrest of Prof. Hany Babu

         The Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangatan (GASS, Odisha) and Human Rights Forum (HRF, AP&Telangana) strongly deplore the arrest in Mumbai of Prof Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Prof Babu, who teaches at the Department of English, Delhi University was recently summoned to Mumbai by the NIA for questioning in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
U.S. dollar’s grip on global markets might be over, warns Goldman

U.S. dollar’s grip on global markets might be over, warns Goldman

Goldman Sachs has issued a bold warning Tuesday that the dollar is in danger of losing its status as the world’s reserve currency. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has put a spotlight on the suddenly growing concern over inflation in the U.S. With the U.S. Congress closing in on another round of fiscal stimulus to shore up the pandemic-ravaged economy, and[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Coronavirus Criminality: Bolsonaro and the International Criminal Court

Coronavirus Criminality: Bolsonaro and the International Criminal Court

This could be the stuff of fiction. But then again, many legal principles began, at some point or rather, in the sludge of speculation before hardening into legal briefs and prosecutorial documents.  Holding heads of state to account for crimes against their people remains a perennial project with a patchy record.  This is particularly the case when it comes to[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
List of Israeli Targets Leaked: Tel Aviv Fears the Worst in ICC Investigation of War Crimes

List of Israeli Targets Leaked: Tel Aviv Fears the Worst in ICC Investigation of War Crimes

When International Court of Justice (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, confirmed last December that the Court has ample evidence to pursue a war crimes investigation in occupied Palestine, the Israeli government responded with the usual rhetoric, accusing the international community of bias and insisting on Israel’s ‘right to defend itself.’ Beneath the platitudes and typical Israeli discourse, the Israeli government knew[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Examination, Education And Selective Amnesia

Examination, Education And Selective Amnesia

It has been few weeks now that we have been watching the University Grants commision (UGC) and the Students’ differences unfold over the question of conducting examination in times of the Pandemic. The Supreme Court too has been invoked to adjudicate the matter at the earliest. By all possibilities, even thinking of an exam, be it online or offline mode[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Online Education: New Tool For Division

Online Education: New Tool For Division

In this time of the COVID pandemic, it is often heard that Coronavirus doesn`t differentiate between rich and poor. Though the virus infects both rich and poor equally, the steps to control it, the reaction of the state, consequences of lockdown — all these don`t paint a picture of equality in a most unequal society. In a country like India,[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Chardham Highway project and the environmental destruction of the Himalayas

Chardham Highway project and the environmental destruction of the Himalayas

Co-Written by Surabhi Agarwal, Lubna Sarwath and Sandeep Pandey Disregarding Ravi Chopra’s Recommendations on the Chardham Project Will Destroy the Already Fragile and Threatened Ecology of the Himalayan Region The ecologically sensitive citizens had barely recovered from the excruciating death of Professor G.D. Agrawal aka Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, who gave up his life after a 112 days of fasting[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Tiger by the tail

Tiger by the tail

There is a welcome awareness about the need to protect tigers in the wild and the wild places they live. Welcome even more because it comes now at a time when the tiger population in India (numbers are even more elusive and ephemeral than the tiger) has fallen from 100,000 in 1900’s to less than 3000 today. Frankly, one needs[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Some of the 40 blue backpacks worn in a protest in New York city against the war in Yemen. Each backpack was accompanied by a sign with the name and age of a child killed on a school bus in Dahyan, northern Yemen, on August 9, 2018, in a Saudi/UAE airstrike.  Photo: CODEPINK

Yemen: A Torrent of Suffering in a Time of Siege

“When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out “stop!” When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable, the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.” —  Bertolt Brecht In war-torn Yemen, the crimes pile up. Children who bear no responsibility for governance or warfare endure the punishment. In[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Commercial surrogacy as a means of Exploitation

Commercial surrogacy as a means of Exploitation

The term infertility is considered ailment in the society which should be catered as soon as possible. This is due to the idea of a blood child which is deeply rooted in society and to make it happen various technological marvels are developed by humans to solve the problem of infertility. One such miracle is Surrogacy. Commercial gestational surrogacy refers[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 1 comment World
COVID-19; A Comparative Study of the Pandemic In Kerala, India and Washington, USA – March-July 2020

COVID-19; A Comparative Study of the Pandemic In Kerala, India and Washington, USA – March-July 2020

There were 16.9 Million Covid-19 cases in the world as on 28 Jul 2020.  This represents about 0.22% of the global population.  Among the countries, the USA is on top with 4.5 M, closely followed by Brazil – 2.5 M and India 1.5 M.  In short, these three countries with a total population of 1.9 billion have about half the[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
What is really radical in sex/gender politics?

What is really radical in sex/gender politics?

The political left, and much of mainstream feminism, is characterized by an analysis of how systems and institutions shape our choices, a critique of capitalist media, and a commitment to a scientific/materialist worldview. But when faced with radical feminism’s compelling critiques of patriarchy, leftists and many feminists routinely abandon those principles. Radical feminist critiques of prostitution, pornography, and transgender ideology[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Hagia Sophia: From Museum to a Mosque-Times are a Changing

Hagia Sophia: From Museum to a Mosque-Times are a Changing

Last three decades have seen a drastic shift in the global political scenario. Earlier decades were marked by national liberation struggles; focus on the issues related to ‘this World’. Many a countries who came out from the grip of colonialism, under different banners gave primacy to industrialisation, education and agricultural growth. India, Vietnam, Cuba being some of those, which despite[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Globalisation of Capitalist Crises

Globalisation of Capitalist Crises

The post pandemic economic recovery looks uncertain and the economic growth projections look gloomy in every stretch of policy paradigm within capitalist imaginations. The strong and existing multilateral cooperation within the Westphalian international system is falling apart and facing its existential threats due to its entrenched Eurocentric bias, democratic deficits and institutional dominance by the erstwhile colonial powers. The world[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Globalisation
Mother Earth

Mother Earth

once i used to be complete one whole there were no parts of me but now i am mincemeat you have done this to me since millennia you are ripping me apart pulling me to shreds scratching my body with lines and cutting me into bits bits you proudly call your own but, strangely each time after you cut out[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 3 comments Arts/Literature
Woman is looking at a man communicating with her rom a monitor standing on the table before her. Woman has a tablet, potted plant and red cup of coffee are on the table before her. Blank bulletin board is hanging on the wall.

Covid 19 exposes the way we treat our teachers   

“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition”, said Jacques Barzun. Rightly, did he point this out that ‘teaching’ is no more respected as a profession neither ‘teachers’ are accorded their due share of acknowledgement for the work that they do. This is not to say that teaching has always been a respectful[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
 The Capitalism Virus — Etymology of an Epidemic

 The Capitalism Virus — Etymology of an Epidemic

Five months into the pandemic, it is evident that the government is in denial. The political rhetoric is harking back a failed status quoism, with grand delusions of recovery. Rather than call for a complete reset and reconfiguration of the prevailing order, the Indian government’s approach to tackling the pandemic betrays an overwhelming faith in business-as-usual. The economic fallouts of[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 1 comment India
Virus-linked hunger tied to 10,000 child deaths each month

Virus-linked hunger tied to 10,000 child deaths each month

All around the world, the coronavirus and its restrictions are pushing already hungry communities over the edge, cutting off meager farms from markets and isolating villages from food and medical aid. Virus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of 10,000 more children a month over the first year of the pandemic, according to an urgent call to action from the[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 2 comments World
Coronavirus is going to be “one big wave”, warns WHO

Coronavirus is going to be “one big wave”, warns WHO

A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official has said that coronavirus pandemic is likely to be “one big wave” as they warned people to remain vigilant despite lockdowns being eased. Margaret Harris, the WHO spokesperson, said the idea of a “second wave” is flawed since infection rates do not seem to be affected by the seasons. Instead, Harris said, people[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Julian Assange’s Political Indictment: Old Wine in Older Bottles

Julian Assange’s Political Indictment: Old Wine in Older Bottles

The book of hours on Julian Assange is now being written.  But the scribes are far from original.  Repeated rituals of administrative hearings that have no common purpose other than to string things out before the axe are being enacted.  Of late, the man most commonly associated with WikiLeaks’ publication project cannot participate in any meaningful way, largely because of[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Nazi-colluder Bayer Starts COVID Treatment Centre In India

Nazi-colluder Bayer Starts COVID Treatment Centre In India

Co-Written by Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal   Bayer being allowed to hawk its drugs and agri-products in India like any other multinational corporation is one thing; being permitted to have COVID facility right within its plant premises leaves room for mischief given its track record since the Holocaust days. Bayer’s parent company – Bayer AG became a[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Vote By Mail: An Alternative To The USPS

Vote By Mail: An Alternative To The USPS

The US Postal Service is in trouble According to an article by Prof. Philip F. Rubio, entitled “Save the Postal Service”,  published in Atlantic Monthly on April 24, 2020, “The USPS has said that it needs $89 billion in assistance, including $25 billion in grants.” Republicans realize that they will lose if the 2020 election is fair Donald Trump’s disastrous[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Remember Gandhi

Remember Gandhi

Remember Gandhi.  Practice nonviolence.  Adhere to nonviolence.   Refrain from attacking people as the means to achieve an interpersonal goal.  You seek to change policies and systems that make policies, and attitudes and behaviors implementing policies of injustice and oppression. In opposing pernicious systems and the policies of pernicious systems you bring about change through clarified strategy, organized, and often[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Lorca And A Certain Left Sentiment

Lorca And A Certain Left Sentiment

About 85 years ago, Spanish fascists murdered Federico Garcia Lorca (1898 – 1936), the most important Spanish dramatist of the twentieth century who said “Spain is the only country in the world where death is a national spectacle.” Some 35 years ago, a young woman named Roop Kanwar was burnt alive by her in-laws and village elders on her dead[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Hate Crimes against Christians in India Increased by 40.87%

Hate Crimes against Christians in India Increased by 40.87%

Hate Crimes against Christians in India have risen by an alarming 40.87%, in Spite of the Nation-Wide Lockdown, announces Persecution Relief in its Half Yearly Report of 2020 which was released today. The Report records 293 cases of hate crimes against Christians including 5 rapes and 6 murders. Persecution Relief aims to sound an alarm about the intensifying hostility against[Read More…]

by 29/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Condemn the arbitrary arrest of Prof. Hany Babu!

Condemn the arbitrary arrest of Prof. Hany Babu!

Stop the witch-hunt of human rights defenders by the NIA! Immediately release all political prisoners! The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns the arrest of Professor Hany Babu MT at Mumbai by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case. Despite the surging cases of COVID-19 in both Delhi and Mumbai, Prof. Babu of the[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
India Caught Between US And China-Russia Duel

India Caught Between US And China-Russia Duel

The events unfolding in terms of military deployment and military exercises by US in South China sea are a  clear sign that any small spark is to lead to triggering a war between US and China as US is slated for its elections where Trump wants to hone a point to US citizens that in order to contain China all[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 How Covid-19 Could Upend Geopolitics

 How Covid-19 Could Upend Geopolitics

I don’t trust you. Don’t take it personally. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a friend or a stranger. I don’t care about your identity or your politics, where you work or if you work, whether you wear a mask or carry a gun. I don’t trust you because you are, for the time being, a potential carrier of a deadly[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
What Indian electronics media missed to report during Indo-China Crisis?

What Indian electronics media missed to report during Indo-China Crisis?

Almost after five decades India and China tension unfolded in the same Galwan area. And the tension ran on the television for more than one month. Most of the channels hiked the adrenaline for the perceptual war and almost run no other news apart from Indo-china tension. Undoubtedly it was an unprecedented issue and in five decades first time so[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy

System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy

Co-Written by Emily Kawano and Julie Matthaei The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our world. It has laid bare the inequity, the limits, and the failures of capitalism. The door to a better future beyond capitalism, already cracked open by the Great Recession, has been pushed open a little wider. Things that seemed impossible a few months ago now seem both[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 2 comments Counter Solutions
Prostitution and the Pandemic: Social Distancing and Stigmatisation during Covid-19

Prostitution and the Pandemic: Social Distancing and Stigmatisation during Covid-19

Covid-19 presents a new muddle and risks for sex workers, pandemic of poverty has affected the lives of sex workers; Desperation has kicked in for vulnerable, undocumented workers unable to access help, it has left them with distress, uncertainty, with social distancing rules getting more stringent there is a fear of losing livelihood, health issues troubling, as sex work is[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 6 comments Human Rights
When Minimum is interpreted as Maximum

When Minimum is interpreted as Maximum

Co-Written by Anurag Singh and Sandeep Pandey Atma-nirbhar (self-reliant) India must perform on several fronts in order to vindicate itself on its adopted path in the current economic crisis coupled with crippling pandemic, two of which are Education and Employment. As a matter of considerable advantage, two recent historic social legislations offer a means to overcome the times of crisis[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Covid-19 Pandemic, Climate & Australia: Risky Ignoring Of Science-based Advice

Covid-19 Pandemic, Climate & Australia: Risky Ignoring Of Science-based Advice

Australia has done vastly better than other rich European countries in the Covid-19 pandemic because (a) it is a  large island that accordingly could readily minimize Covid-19 importation, and (b) while notoriously  anti-science over climate change, Australia’s  neoliberal government chose in this instance to listen to the health experts. However an Australian Senate Covid-19 Inquiry noted but declined to publish[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Mir Syed Ali Hamadani – Founder of Islam in Kashmir And his Model of Good Governance and Justice

Mir Syed Ali Hamadani – Founder of Islam in Kashmir And his Model of Good Governance and Justice

  Kashmir has had many a period of glory before the advent of Islam. It has a long chain of dynasties, Suraj Bansi, Pandava, Maurya, Kushan, Gonandya, white Huns, Karokata, Utapala, and Loharas. Some of the regimes had not only their periods of glory in this beautiful land, but their borders extended deep in South of India and touched the[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Is Constitutional Morality Eroding…?

Is Constitutional Morality Eroding…?

After the Rajasthan High Court ordered ‘status quo’ in relation to the notices issued by the Speaker initiating the proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, Chief Minister Mr. Ashok Gehlot paraded more than 100 MLAs in front of the governor and requested the governor to convene the session but the governor exhibited reluctant to convene the session of[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Intimidating China is One Thing, Overpowering It, An Absurd Dream!

 Intimidating China is One Thing, Overpowering It, An Absurd Dream!

At the end of the Cold War in 1990, we all heaved a big sigh of relief, as the two superpowers didn’t destroy themselves and the world! What was seemingly “inevitable” – the Third World War – didn’t take place. Despite having some major military conflicts and proxy wars between the Western and Communist blocs – the Korean, Vietnam, Cambodian,[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Does MY Jesus Really Support Trump?

Does MY Jesus Really Support Trump?

“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” Channel surfing this AM I caught a meeting of ‘ Evangelicals for Trump’ on C-Span. White[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 2 comments World
 Report Card- One Year of Direct rule in Jammu and Kashmir

 Report Card- One Year of Direct rule in Jammu and Kashmir

The Forum for Human Rights, an informal group of 21 concerned Indian citizens have come up with a report of the one year direct rule in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The informal group comprises six top level judges of India, six high level bureaucrats, three members from Indian armed forces, two members from human rights organization ,[Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Remembering comrade T. Nagi Reddy (1917 Feb-1976 July 28)- How Indian Is The Indian Bourgeoisie ?

Remembering comrade T. Nagi Reddy (1917 Feb-1976 July 28)- How Indian Is The Indian Bourgeoisie ?

July 28 is the day comrade Nagi Reddy died in 1976, while he was under-ground. He and his comrade-in-arms DV Rao ( 1917 June-July 12, 1984)  are  remembered  in July every year through various  programmes  at different places across AP and Telangana. Thousands of people and activists, led by UCCRI-ML which they founded in 1975, are carrying forward their goals [Read More…]

by 28/07/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
The One-State ─ Deposition Before Imposition

The One-State ─ Deposition Before Imposition

The one-state cannot be achieved without changing Israel’s legal and administrative structures, difficult tasks whose possibilities are remote. Deposing the characteristics of the Zionist mission that defines Israel is more plausible. Deposition precedes imposition; destroying the framework that supports Israel allows a new foundation for constructing a new state ─ a one-state, the natural state. Now that the two state[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 1 comment Palestine
The Patriarch Country

The Patriarch Country

Unjust social system that subordinates, discriminates or is oppressive to women.The society is where men hold the control and make all the rules and women stay home and care for the kids. Especially in India, Patriarchy is a socially-constructed system where males have primary power. I think it affects many aspects of life, from political leadership, business management, religious institutions,[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 1 comment Patriarchy
Economics of the Pandemic

Economics of the Pandemic

The Covid-19 spell has left governments, markets, and civil society wobbling through disruptions and damage. The ambiguity that envelops not only the evolution of the disease but also its impact makes it a challenging and complex task for policymakers to devise a suitable policy response. The pandemic has brought to the forefront some key ethical questions that we must explore.[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Covid-19 in India: Who is to be blamed?

Covid-19 in India: Who is to be blamed?

                         On 23rd March 2020, I was packing my bag to leave for Kashmir (my hometown) from Pune as the threat of Covid-19 was increasing and everyone wanted to stay with their families in this time of distress.  I was happy and sad, happy because it was an unexpected visit to home and sad because the disease was spreading rapidly,[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 1 comment India
Dump Trump then Combat Biden

Dump Trump then Combat Biden

The U.S. presidential election has so far involved and will undoubtedly continue to involve a clash over voting strategy for the left. A significant array of left commentators, for example, Cornel West, AOC, Angela Davis, and Noam Chomsky have been and will likely continue urging all progressives to vote for Biden at least in swing states, even if they can’t[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Covid-19 Pandemic in Kerala heading towards Community Spread

Covid-19 Pandemic in Kerala heading towards Community Spread

As on 26 July 2020, there are 16.5 million confirmed cases and 0.65 million deaths of Covid-19, an infectious disease caused by the virus- SARS-Cov-2 in 214 countries and territories under the United Nations system.   In India, Kerala State reported the first laboratory confirmed Covid-19 on 30 Jan 2030, ten days after the eminent Chinese epidemiologist Dr Zhong Nanshan announced[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Manusmriti and the Judiciary – A Dangerous Game

Manusmriti and the Judiciary – A Dangerous Game

Between 1950 when the Constitution was adopted and today, the judiciary of India has been playing a dangerous game. It has been quoting, citing or otherwise referring to Manusmriti while passing Judgments. As both SCC Online and indiankanoon.org indicate, between 1950 and 2019, the Manusmriti has been thus used for the by the Supreme Court and several High Courts a[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 2 comments India
Prof John Weeks Humanised Economics as a Discipline

Prof John Weeks Humanised Economics as a Discipline

Prof John Weeks, widely admired development economist passed away on 26th of June 2020 at the age of 79.  His death is a blow to many friends, comrades, colleagues, students and fellow progressive economists. He was born in Austin, educated in Texas and Michigan, lived and worked most of his professional life in the School of Oriental and African Studies[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Momin Khawaja – the forgotten Canadian detainee of 9/11

Momin Khawaja – the forgotten Canadian detainee of 9/11

It has been almost 19 years since the USA, joined by its western allies (esp. the UK, Canada and Australia), launched the so-called global war on terror (GWOT) invading first Afghanistan, soon after 9/11 for Taliban government’s sheltering of Al-Qa’ida and its leader OBL, and then Iraq (in 2003) under the false pretext of destroying the weapons of mass destruction,[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
 Post-Brexit Agrochemical Apocalypse for the UK?

 Post-Brexit Agrochemical Apocalypse for the UK?

The British government, regulators and global agrochemical corporations are colluding with each other and are thus engaging in criminal behaviour. That’s the message put forward in a new report written by environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason and sent to the UK Environment Agency. It follows her January 2019 open letter to Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer CropScience, where she made it clear[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Preventing another migrant-worker crisis

Preventing another migrant-worker crisis

Despite tremendous mechanical advancements, manual labour still remains the unflinching backbone of many cardinal industries in the modern world. No matter how ‘automated’ an industry becomes manual-labour would always be a critical resource particularly if the industry is functioning at primary or secondary (manufacturing) sector level. Although, the tertiary (services) sector contributes more than 50% to the GDP of India,[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
A Book of One’s Own: The Story of Women’s Writing

A Book of One’s Own: The Story of Women’s Writing

Human beings have always told stories. However, in the course of history, the voices of many groups fell silent, their lives — and their stories-hidden from ‘his’ story. Before the story of women’s writing can be recounted, we have to look at the term itself. Why are we still using the term Women’s Writing? Do we use the term  mens’[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Popular Movements Can Overcome Authoritarian Policing

Popular Movements Can Overcome Authoritarian Policing

Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Today is the 60th day of protests since the murder of George Floyd. This weekend, people marched in cities across the country in solidarity with Portland and in opposition to the US becoming a police state. President Trump sending troops to cities added fuel to the nationwide uprising against racist police violence. Protests have grown not[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 1 comment World
 Killing Democracy in America: The Military-Industrial Complex as a Cytokine Storm

 Killing Democracy in America: The Military-Industrial Complex as a Cytokine Storm

The phrase “thinking about the unthinkable” has always been associated with the unthinkable cataclysm of a nuclear war, and rightly so. Lately, though, I’ve been pondering another kind of unthinkable scenario, nearly as nightmarish (at least for a democracy) as a thermonuclear Armageddon, but one that’s been rolling out in far slower motion: that America’s war on terror never ends because it’s[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 Until the Rich and Poor alike use the same Public Health Services we cannot beat the Pandemic

 Until the Rich and Poor alike use the same Public Health Services we cannot beat the Pandemic

Co-Written  by Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant and Sandeep Pandey “COVID-19 has exposed the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all, the fiction that unpaid care work isn’t work, the delusion that we live in a post-racist world.We are all floating on the same sea, but some are in super-yachts and others clinging to drifting debris” said Antonio Guterres,[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Power of Non-Violence in 1965 and 2020

The Power of Non-Violence in 1965 and 2020

Watching a horse drawn wagon carrying the body of John Lewis cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma Alabama one final time is a stunning testament to the power of non-violence in 1965 and 2020. The body of Congressman John Lewis will lie in state in Montgomery and the U.S.capital as an honored American hero, a brave man, a moral[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
‘Let’s Feed a Bedouin’: Roy Oz and Israel’s Outrageous Racism 

‘Let’s Feed a Bedouin’: Roy Oz and Israel’s Outrageous Racism 

On July 11, a video footage, which showed a popular Israeli TV celebrity demeaning Palestinian children from the Bedouin community in the Naqab area, went viral on social media. “Let’s feed a Bedouin. Don’t you want to feed a Bedouin?” Israeli children TV host, Roy Oz, repeatedly asks his children, who were seated in the back seat of his car.[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 1 comment World
Eight Christians Brutally Assaulted In Odisha

Eight Christians Brutally Assaulted In Odisha

A group of Christians were brutally attacked by a gang of raging religious goons at midnight on the 21st of July 2020. This attack took place in the Indian state of Odisha in a village named Badaguda which features in the district of Koraput. Speaking to Persecution Relief, Pr. Ayuba Khora, the local Pastor said, “The goons broke into the[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
From Bujha Singh to Varavara Rao: Indian state’s barbarity has no bounds

From Bujha Singh to Varavara Rao: Indian state’s barbarity has no bounds

July 28 marks 50 years of the extra-judicial killing of an 82-year-old former Indian freedom fighter by none other than the police force of his own nation. Bujha Singh, who deserved state honours for participating in the struggle to rid India of the British occupation, was instead murdered by the police for his association with revolutionary communist movement sparked by[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Nursing Profession through the prism of disappointment

Nursing Profession through the prism of disappointment

1st December 2011, a typical chilly day of winter in Kashmir, when after getting admission to pursue Nursing, I stepped into a Nursing college. With all the formalities done, I along with my father got the instructions regarding the commencement of regular college activities from a madam, who seemed to be very calm and composed in her approach. On 15th[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Growing China – Israel Conflict

The Growing China – Israel Conflict

  The ‘annexation deal’ which is referred as ‘deal of the century’ under which Israel is to annex West Bank of Palestine and for which Donald Trump is being heavily coerced to make ‘it possible’ in exchange of Jewish and Christian Zionists votes in America does now surely stands debunked as China, for the first time has so openly come[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 1 comment World
Woman is looking at a man communicating with her rom a monitor standing on the table before her. Woman has a tablet, potted plant and red cup of coffee are on the table before her. Blank bulletin board is hanging on the wall.

It Isn’t Just About Online Learning: Broadening the Post-Coronavirus Discussion on Teaching in Higher Education

We live in a time where various technologies are advancing at an exponential rate. This accelerated progress is influencing all aspects of our lives, and inevitably, has a profound impact on the job market. Surveys conducted among employers show that, although knowledge is important, a greater emphasis is being put on skills – specifically “soft” skills, more than ever before.[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The agony of the Pet dog of Jayaraj and Bennix the two who were done to death in Police Custody

The agony of the Pet dog of Jayaraj and Bennix the two who were done to death in Police Custody

The agony of the Pet dog of Jayaraj and Bennix the two who were done to death in Police Custody , is seeking the spine of Justice.   The unbearable tragedy has rendered Tomy, the pet dog reared affectionately by Bennix and Jayaraj. totally drained and exhausted. Jayaraj and Bennix were brutally tortured and killed in Police Custody by the[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Athithi, Sayanam – Stories Of Attractive Misfits

Athithi, Sayanam – Stories Of Attractive Misfits

K. P. Kumaran made his first film, Athithi (b/w, 35 mm., 112 mins.) in 1974. I was able to catch up with it in 2017, thanks to a retrospective devoted to the veteran director at the 22nd edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala. Athithi is a tense family drama that unfolds, for the most part, within the ghostly[Read More…]

by 27/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Lord Ram: Where was he born?

Lord Ram: Where was he born?

As the foundation stone of temple in the name of Lord Ram is being planned at the site where Babri Masjid once stood (August 5, 2020) , two new controversies have surfaced. One was that some Buddhist groups claimed that the remnants of Buddha Vihar have been found at the site as the ground was being levelled for the temple.[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 1 comment India
Amid corona pandemic, media is busy celebrating Ram Temple construction

Amid corona pandemic, media is busy celebrating Ram Temple construction

  Last week the media – particularly Hindi newspapers – prominently covered the news of the construction work of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. At times it appeared that the Ram Temple issue for media was a much bigger issue than the sufferings of people reeling under the corona pandemic. The fact that the media is celebrating the beginning of[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 1 comment India
Minutes from Makkah : Hajj 2019

Minutes from Makkah : Hajj 2019

The vast lands of Arafat, the circumambulation around Kaaba, the humongous swarms of humanity at Rami Jamrat, the long, very long queues outside the washrooms at the tent city Mina! The list of memorable moments from our last year’s Hajj is endless. No one in his wildest of the nightmares had dreamed Hajj 2020, would be so contrastingly different. Can’t[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Why Is The Hindustan Times Pimping For An Investigating Agency?

Why Is The Hindustan Times Pimping For An Investigating Agency?

  The PIL Watch Group views with serious concern the reporting in the print edition of Hindustan Times (HT) dated 25 July, 2020 (later uploaded on its website) regarding Gautam Navlakha’s interrogation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) about Bhima Koregaon case. Questions arise: Was it a planted story in the HT as no other newspaper or news agency carried[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
It’s Futile…. We’re FEUDAL!!

It’s Futile…. We’re FEUDAL!!

As of a year ago Wal-Mart’s CEO pay was 1076 times that of their average worker worldwide ( 2.3 million employees). Those workers average $21,952 a year, with little or NO major benefits… sometimes NONE at all! The Nike CEO received 379 times the pay of his  MEDIAN  employees ( $ 29,955 a year), not even the lowest worker. Those[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 2 comments World
The Haqeeqat of our defense policy

The Haqeeqat of our defense policy

   There is a new body-posturing everyday by China over the parts of India, some already under its control in Ladakh, and China is now putting claim over Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, and in the middle of this unfolding conflict India has lost 20 of its soldiers on June 15, 2020 1 who were unarmed 2  and succumbed to the[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Republi-Fascists’ Multi-Pronged Drive to “Win” the November Elections

The Republi-Fascists’ Multi-Pronged Drive to “Win” the November Elections

This letter from a revcom.us reader exposes systematic efforts by the fascist Trump/Pence regime and its supporters to undermine the integrity of upcoming elections in their favor. This is an extremely dangerous attack on democratic—and in the case of Black people, extremely hard fought*—rights, and escalation towards fascist consolidation. These moves need to be firmly opposed and fiercely struggled against—even[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The arrest and harassment of Sudha Bharadwaj – A People’s Advocate

The arrest and harassment of Sudha Bharadwaj – A People’s Advocate

Co-Written by Atul and Sandeep Pandey Professor Sudha Bharadwaj has been in jail since August 2018. She was taken into police custody on 26 August 2018 on suspicion of being involved in Maoist terror activities after Republic TV claimed that she had allegedly written a letter to Maoists and was conspiring to create public disorder and unrest in India. The[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Rising Assaults on Medicos a Big threat to Health care delivery system

Rising Assaults on Medicos a Big threat to Health care delivery system

Health Care is a fundamental right of each individual. Every person irrespective of his race, creed, colour, religion or community has a right to avail basic health Care . The initiative of primary health Care started by the government of India is one of the crucial and most important steps taken towards the achievement of ‘’Health For All Goal’’ through[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Becoming “flesh”: Society shaping women’s body image

Becoming “flesh”: Society shaping women’s body image

“We don’t need Afghan-style burqas to disappear as women. We disappear in reverse – by revamping and revealing our bodies to meet the externally imposed vision of beauty” – Robin Gerber Existentialists argue that everything we are today is the result of our choices, and we build our own values with the available choices and resources that society gives us.[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Samir Amin on Cuba

Samir Amin on Cuba

Samir Amin was one of the great anti-imperialist Marxist intellectuals of the 20th century. I have elsewhere called him a ‘global organic intellectual’ because he drew his conclusions from a wealth of primary data little considered by mainstream academe; namely, the sincere theoretical/political reflections of ‘third-world’ radical intellectuals, with whom he engaged in constant discussions, on seven continents, for over five decades[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Kashmir In search of Subhan Hajam

Kashmir In search of Subhan Hajam

History has become witness to the fact that when plans to destroy the identity or the character of any nation were conspired in political institutions, one of the strategies induced in the society was to create social chaos and confusion. Creating an environment of threat perception, robbing of identity, grabbing of property or reducing social cohesions had been made the[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Retrenchment, Attack and Arrest of Journalists during COVID 19

Retrenchment, Attack and Arrest of Journalists during COVID 19

The most stringent nationwide lockdown was imposed during the start of covid19 pandemic. This caused widespread retrenchment and job cuts throughout the country. The journalists of mass media have not also been spared from this. This has been an all India phenomenon. The corporatisation of mass media, like any other business, is always looking for its investment of capital and[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
U Sambasivarao : Tribuate to a great Bahujan visionary

U Sambasivarao : Tribuate to a great Bahujan visionary

It was early January when I traveled to Vijayawada to participate in the World Atheist Conference and while returning, I thought to travel to Hyderabad too to meet friends. My dear friend Sujatha Surepally told me that I could stay at the office of Desidasa, the magazine, Usaa Sambasiva Rao garu had started and which she has been the editor.[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
COVID-19 And President Gotabaya’s Military Rule In North And East Of Sri Lanka

COVID-19 And President Gotabaya’s Military Rule In North And East Of Sri Lanka

Tamils in Sri Lanka especially in the North and East are now living between the devil and deep sea. Heavy presence of the military [to the ratio of one soldier to every four civilians 1: 4] and on the other side they are scared of the Covid-19. The President is determined to hold the election on August 05, 2020 without taking[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled South Asia
A Caged Journey to Home

A Caged Journey to Home

Co-Written by Shivangini Piplani and Sandeep Pandey ‘Madam, Jhooth nahi bolenge, ‘1500 pada hai, hum 75 aadmi ek truck me aae the (Madam, I’ll not lie, we came back in Rs. 1,500 per head, 75 of us packed in one turck),’ Ram Kishore confessed to the first writer when she called him up in his village Dalkheda in Unnao District[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The mistreatment of a political activist fighting COVID 19 reveals doublespeak of Modi

The mistreatment of a political activist fighting COVID 19 reveals doublespeak of Modi

If the insensitivity being shown towards a senior revolutionary poet by the Indian state is any indication, the government of the world’s so-called largest democracy lacks compassion. 81-year-old Varavara Rao, a well-respected political activist and poet, has been recently tested positive for COVID 19, leaving his family and admirers deeply worried. In spite of old age and poor health, he[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Watching God vs No God Media ‘Dangal’ in Tamil Nadu

Watching God vs No God Media ‘Dangal’ in Tamil Nadu

There is a media ‘dangal’ going on in Tamil Nadu between those who believe in god’s party and those who do not. A fictitious pro god party is created with a mission to attack godless parties, as a devised political strategy in an attempt to capture power in the state. How far such political strategy to divide people between on[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
India, Dalai Lama, US And Their Buddhist Diplomacy As Against China

India, Dalai Lama, US And Their Buddhist Diplomacy As Against China

 (This is Part- 4 of the series on India-China Relations. Part-3 was published on July 17, 2020 : Oppose US Moves To Drag India-China Conflict Into Its Indo-Pacific Strategy.) “The CIA goal was never independence for Tibet. In fact, I do not think that the Americans ever really even wanted to help.They just wanted to stir up trouble, using Tibetans[Read More…]

by 25/07/2020 2 comments India
For a better world, our lifestyle must be based on as less resources as possible

For a better world, our lifestyle must be based on as less resources as possible

Senior activist Medha Patkar launched a youth led, Towards A Better World campaign, in an online session where several youth leaders of Fridays For Future (a global movement led by Greta Thunberg) and other youth activists took part. We must change our life, lifestyle and sources of livelihood for a sustainable and just development, said Medha Patkar. “People should commit[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Encounter of the Rule of Law

Encounter of the Rule of Law

 A country which once gave the right to fair trial even to a dreaded terrorist like Ajmal Kasab, today its people are glorifying the Vikas Dubey Encounter in the name of “instant justice”. It’s dismaying to see people celebrate the encounter of the rule of law in the guise of justice. The sheer display of police vigilantism in such instances[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Thawing Arctic Permafrost

Thawing Arctic Permafrost

It’s no surprise that first prize, or the blue ribbon, for exceeding 2°C above baseline goes to the Arctic with permafrost that covers 25% of the Northern Hemisphere. Recognition is long overdue, as it’s been totally neglected far too long by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This crucial nugget of knowledge comes by way of a recent virtual[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Condemn atrocities against Rehna Fathima

Condemn atrocities against Rehna Fathima

Political Resolution Proposed by the Democratic Alliance for the Immediate Attention of the Public and the Government against the Atrocities against Rehna Fathima. We, who work in artistic, cultural and socio-political arenas strongly protest against the atrocities perpetrated by the patriarchal values of society and the government against Rehna Fathima who has been working for the democratic rights, gender equality[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Climate Change Litigation: The Australian Government Gets Sued

Climate Change Litigation: The Australian Government Gets Sued

“It’s time the government told the public about the impact climate change will have on our future and the economy.” Katta O’Donnell, The Guardian, Jul 24, 2020 While coronavirus ravages life, dominates policy and clouds debate, that other pressing issue of addressing climate change has moved into a more modest gear.  That has not prevented some bubbling activity from taking[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Raika pastoralists graze inside Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sactuary_@Meenal Tatpati

Protected Areas, Covid 19 and people’s rights

As India went into a lockdown to prevent the spread of the Covid 19, we witnessed a different kind of opening-up of our Protected Areas. As we worked from home, we were greeted with reports of several controversial projects being given a go-ahead in and around some of the most biodiverse regions, ironically by the Standing Committee of the very[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Online Education: A Student’s Perspective

Online Education: A Student’s Perspective

I have been attending online classes for three months but the experience continues to be the same – surreal and absurd. In these times, when the world is going through a crisis of great magnitude and death could be right there knocking on the door, what most school students do or rather, what they have to do is to open[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
New Normal & Corona Puja

New Normal & Corona Puja

Covid_19 has been changing a lot of things. We are trying to get used to the ‘new normal’. Most of us are still indoors, working from home, trying to deal with things in the best way we can. Those of us who are into teaching are working from home too and trying to learn new ways of engaging with our[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Need to Oust Professional Society

Need to Oust Professional Society

In his book The Rise of Professional Society England since 1880, Harold Perkin wrote: “The 20th century has seen the dissolution of the concept of absolute property. It has been replaced by a contingent concept of property based on professional service, which has inserted a series of intermediated subinfeudated tenants or beneficiaries into the hierarchy of ownership. This system is[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Mapuche people expressing their frustration

Racism in Chile

Recently, when a retired Chilean U.N. employee tried to enter ECLAC (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Santiago de Chile) to claim her pension in a bank inside the compound, her car was stopped by a U.N. security officer. She was asked to complete formalities. To her taste, the process was taking too much[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 San Francisco becomes sixth US city to denounce Indian Citizen Amendment Act

 San Francisco becomes sixth US city to denounce Indian Citizen Amendment Act

San Francisco Wednesday became the sixth US city to pass a resolution against India’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The resolution, reaffirming San Francisco as a “welcoming city,” comes in the wake of five other cities (Seattle WA, Albany NY, St. Paul MN, Hamtramck MI, Cambridge MA) having passed similar resolutions denouncing the[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
A Nun’s story

A Nun’s story

One of the most widely-known and deeply-admired of all Indian nuns who gave up the habit after receiving the call of liberation theology, is a daughter of Kerala who goes by the name of Dayabai. When she left home at Pullattu Veedu in Poovarani, near Pala in Kottayam district, to become a missionary nun, she used to be called Mercy[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Indian Matchmaking- the ugly side that is not streaming on Netflix

Indian Matchmaking- the ugly side that is not streaming on Netflix

Netflix’s recently released web television series ‘Indian Matchmaking’ is whistleblowing a lot to the West. In its trailer, the real-life elite matchmaker Sima Taparia herself list some well-known facts about the Indian marriages: In India, the marriages, they are between two families. So the parents guide their children, and that is the work of a matchmaker. Matchmaking has become a[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Why Does Essential Work Pay So Little… And Cost So Much?

Why Does Essential Work Pay So Little… And Cost So Much?

In two weeks, my partner and I were supposed to leave San Francisco for Reno, Nevada, where we’d be spending the next three months focused on the 2020 presidential election. As we did in 2018, we’d be working with UNITE-HERE, the hospitality industry union, only this time on the campaign to drive Donald Trump from office. Now, however, we’re not so sure[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Agriculturalism And Hindutva

Agriculturalism And Hindutva

In China there was a philosophical school called Agriculturism between 770 BCE and 221 BCE. The main philosopher, who represented this school with a sophisticated exposition of that philosophy, was Xu Xing (372-289 BCE). His main philosophy was that people’s propensity is based on farming than to any other thing. By the third and the fourth century BCE the Chinese[Read More…]

by 24/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
NOAA revealed Thursday that July 2019 was the hottest month on record since the U.S. government began recording temperature date in the lat 19th century. (Photo: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images)

Scientists finally see Earth’s climate destiny more clearly

Human-caused carbon emissions islikely to trigger irreversible damage to the planet, according to a comprehensive international study released Wednesday. Researchers studying one of the most important and vexing topics in climate science — how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to a doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — found that warming is extremely unlikely to be[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
A few explanations on Bhabani Shankar Nayak’s article on crime, justice and capitalism

A few explanations on Bhabani Shankar Nayak’s article on crime, justice and capitalism

Countercurrents has posted an article – “Crime, Justice and Capitalism” – by Mister Bhabani Shankar Nayak (Coventry University, UK) on July 12, 2020, which deserves a few explanations. The spirit and orientation of the article – anti-capitalism – is nice. It joins today’s millions tormented and tortured by capitalism. The voice must be appreciated. However, a few points raised in[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 5 comments World
A vaccine for COVID-19: So near and yet so far

A vaccine for COVID-19: So near and yet so far

With the numbers of those infected with COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) escalating everyday globally we are indeed wading through turbulent waters with no end at sight. Scientists around the world are literally burning the midnight oil, searching frantically for a treatment to rid the world of this pandemic. It is a race between humans and the virus. And although it is too[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Contempt case against Prashant Bhushan is a violation of the basic democratic spirit

Contempt case against Prashant Bhushan is a violation of the basic democratic spirit

  Janhastakshep takes serious note of the news of the contempt of the court case initiated by the Supreme Court against the well-known lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan for his comments on tweeter. This unfortunate news is a matter of serious concern to any democratic minded person. This is to bbe noted that the Supreme Court has taken[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 1 comment India
Can we talk less?

Can we talk less?

(1) It is a well-known truth about civilization that a person deeply immersed in philosophy, spirituality, religion, science, art, literature, other diverse disciplines of study, or even in independent study etc. is prone to less verbal articulations i.e. he talks less. Taking the concept of Gandhi, it can also be considered true about politics. (India’s Independence Movement was also brilliant[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Anglo Mainstream Censors List Of 60 Holocaust & Genocide Atrocities

Anglo Mainstream Censors List Of 60 Holocaust & Genocide Atrocities

In recent years there has been increasing censorship of Alternative media by the Mainstream. Google is owned by Alphabet, the world’s biggest media organization,  and has a bad record of censoring progressive  voices. I have just published a 400-page book “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” that contains a List of 60 Holocaust and Genocide atrocities (many UK- or[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Road: Uprising in West Papua by John Martinkus

The Road: Uprising in West Papua by John Martinkus

There are two good reasons to read John Martinkus’ most recent book, The Road: Uprising in West Papua. First reason; as an act of defiant resistance to the censorship on the truth of the 50 years of Indonesia’s brutal occupation of West Papua endorsed by western governments mainly Australia, USA, the UN. Through his own experiences and those of his colleagues such[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
FSDR – The Ghost of FRDI: Rescuing failed banks at whose cost?

FSDR – The Ghost of FRDI: Rescuing failed banks at whose cost?

In 2019, media reported that Government was preparing to table a new legislation, the Financial Sector Development & Regulation (Resolution) Bill (FSDR, hereafter). [Ref.1]. Reportedly FSDR is meant to rescue banks, among other financial sector institutions, from collapse. It replaces the Financial Regulation and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 (FRDI hereafter), which was withdrawn in 2018 following public outcry against a[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Home Minister Et Al Made Provocative, Threatening Speeches:  Statutory Body’s Report On Delhi Violence

Home Minister Et Al Made Provocative, Threatening Speeches:  Statutory Body’s Report On Delhi Violence

Co-Written by Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal “If crime itself assumes authority and power And hunts down people, holding them criminals, Everyone endowed with a mouth who keeps silent, Becomes (a) criminal himself.” Varavara Rao   Incarcerated Telegu poet Varavara Rao must feel satisfied that several brave men and women coming from different faiths have refused to be[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Why Palestinian-Israeli Prisoners Exchange Deal Could Happen Soon? 

Why Palestinian-Israeli Prisoners Exchange Deal Could Happen Soon? 

For the first time since the Israeli war on Gaza in 2014, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is signaling its willingness to engage in negotiations regarding the release of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers believed to be held by resistance groups in Gaza. But will another prisoner exchange similar to that of October 2011 follow anytime[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
That Damn Camouflage Again!!

That Damn Camouflage Again!!

If you watch old footage of WW2 US Army commanders, like Marshall, Eisenhower and even George Patton, they wore regular dress uniforms when not in the midst of combat. Camouflage was worn only in areas of combat, never back at the base or domestically. So, what happened that camouflage has become the ‘ In ‘ garment for this empire’s military?[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 2 comments World
Why go organic?

Why go organic?

An assortment of organically grown produce lay out at a Farmer’s Market Prior to this pandemic summer, every year from May to November — there was something magical about waking up on Sunday mornings. I could walk three blocks from my house to the open space under large Walnut trees near the Hospital to get a week’s worth of organic[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
(Un)Authorized Way of Capturing Banks By the Government

(Un)Authorized Way of Capturing Banks By the Government

Co-Written by Tanya Singla and Achintaya Soni   Introduction July 19, 2020 marked the 51st anniversary of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Ordinance, 1969. Simply termed the Banking Nationalization Ordinance of 1969, it announced the taking of ownership and control by the State of 14 commercial banks namely Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Neoliberalism and the Indian Educational Apparatus

Neoliberalism and the Indian Educational Apparatus

India is currently reeling under the deleterious effects of decades of neoliberalism. It is increasingly becoming clear that the financial imperatives of neoliberalism have severely subverted social infrastructures which could have alleviated the impact the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, with India ranking 3rd in the daily increase in Covid-19 cases and having experienced the migrant worker crisis, the deep-seated economic fault-lines[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 1 comment India
Mehmood Gami

Mehmood Gami

I fell in love with the word GAMI so adopted it as my Pen name Mehmood Gami, the 19th century Sufi poet of Kashmir, born at Dooru Shahabad in 1765 A.D and passed away in 1855 A.D. Shahabad, then called Ver Pargana (Verinag), is one of the ancient villages of valley Kashmir. When Mughal Emperor Jahangir along with his wife[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
33 Prisoners and 10 Staff of Odisha Jail Test Positive For COVID-19

33 Prisoners and 10 Staff of Odisha Jail Test Positive For COVID-19

To Shri Naveen Pattnaik, The Chief Minister, Odisha   SUB:    PRISONERS AND PRISON CONDITIONS IN ODISHA – AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHIEF MINISTER   Sir, We, in Jan Adhikar Manch, Odisha, are deeply concerned that the Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly spreading in Odisha too. While reports in the mass media state that jail inmates are getting increasingly affected by[Read More…]

by 23/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
      Baz Ratner/Reuters US troops in Afghanistan, June 2011

 King Joe and the Round Table: Biden’s America in a Multipolar World 

Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies   In an article in Foreign Affairs in March titled, “Why America Must Lead Again,” Joe Biden claimed that “the world doesn’t organize itself,” and promised to “put the U.S. back at the head of the table” among the nations of the world. But the premise that the world can only[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
US In A Downward Spiral

US In A Downward Spiral

  The US Presidential election by November 2020 is slowly-slowly gaining momentum and Donald Trump and Joseph Biden are into a gruelling battle for the coveted rank.  US all over has been hit by the anti-racism riots in the wake of US black citizen George Floyd killing on May 25, 2020 1 and internet is all too splashed with mobs[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Celebrity Culture, Propaganda and Capitalism

Celebrity Culture, Propaganda and Capitalism

The triumph of capitalist chimeras based on false propaganda and its criminal follies at the millennium, raises several questions on the rise of celebrity culture of fame and fortune. The celebrity cultures use popular culture and establish its grip over public imagination on different issues in the society, politics, economy, culture and religion. The celebrity culture shapes people’s ideas, interests,[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
No End to Humiliation of Dalits Even After Death

No End to Humiliation of Dalits Even After Death

Does anybody still remember the Dalits of Chakwara, a village around 50km from Jaipur in Rajasthan, who had launched a struggle to gain access to the pond in their village? It is more than 18 years since the Dalits, supported by human rights organisations, won that fight for water. Their undertaking had echoes with the historic struggle launched by Dr[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Crying for school infrastructure and remedial classes, villagers chose wall-writing to bring government in their favour

Crying for school infrastructure and remedial classes, villagers chose wall-writing to bring government in their favour

More than 6000 wall-writings have been organised in 17 rural districts in the state, in efforts to raise public awareness and build pressure on the government. Bhubaneswar, 22nd July: Villagers chose wall-writing to put forth their demand on education. In its efforts to urge the state government to build school infrastructure and start remedial classes for weak students of government-run[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Environmental Disaster and Health Crisis in Cerrejon

Environmental Disaster and Health Crisis in Cerrejon

At Cerrejon (Colombia), the largest open-pit coal mine in Latin America owned equally by BHP (Australia), Anglo American PLC (United Kingdom) and Glencore (Switzerland), the situation of the indigenous people is progressively worsening. Cerrejon Limited has informed the workers that “all the existing shifts will be unified into a single 7-day work, for three days off.” With the enforcement of the new shifts, “workers[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Free image download: https://pixabay.com/de

The People’s Republic of Walmart

Co-Written by Thomas Klikauer and Nadine Campbell Many people know that Walmart is an execrable, sinister, low down dirty villain company best described by the term “flagitious,” i.e. horribly, criminal, and wicked. Walmart exploits workers and pays poverty wages. Walmart boss Sam Walton admitted, I pay low wages. His company depends on Asia sweatshops with child and prison labor. Walmart[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 1 comment World
The World Around Us, 2020

The World Around Us, 2020

  We saw you coming, with dreamy eyes A resurrected year, born from the ashes Of sufferings of the past years, rechristened in The divinity of a newborn body, But then, 2020, you ushered in our lives With the fury and madness of demolition. With the rapacious monster of a virus, a deadly battle consuming our fragile flesh.   Held[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
A Choice Between Existence And Extinction For The Tamils

A Choice Between Existence And Extinction For The Tamils

The forthcoming general election on August 5th 2020 is crucial for the Tamils for their survival as a race and lives with respect, equal rights and dignity, and as a nation in Sri Lanka as Rajapaksas. Ranil Wickermasinghe. Sajith Premadasa and Buddhist clergy are openly advocating and moving to establish a Sinhala Buddhist unitary state in Sri Lanka. The Tamils[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 2 comments South Asia
Plight Of Children Of Migrants During COVID-19 Pandemic

Plight Of Children Of Migrants During COVID-19 Pandemic

Co-Written by Madhu M Gohain  and Aditya Raj In the midst of pandemic Covid-19, attention is on migrants because of their unimaginable plight. When their adopted milieu showed them the back, they longed to return “home”. Now they are being lured back. Several news and views have been about them. However, migrant as a category is not homogenous. The plight[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Appropriating Budha In The Age Of COVID-19

Appropriating Budha In The Age Of COVID-19

The PM Modi should implement Buddha’s Egalitarian Principles to overcome the Sufferings of Masses rather than Symbolically Appropriate him in the Age of Covid-19    A few days back PM Modi addressed three significant meetings virtually at New Delhi in which he had given motivational speeches and underlined India’s contributions in terms of providing medicines and other necessary goods to several[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
NHRC Must Intervene To Save The Life Of G.N Saibaba

NHRC Must Intervene To Save The Life Of G.N Saibaba

To, Honourable Justice  H L Dattu Chairman National Human Rights Commission New Delhi Subject: Plea for your Intervention for Shifting Dr. G N Saibaba to a Medical Facility for Treatment Respected Justice Dattu, The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) is a cross disability rights organisation with state level affiliates working in various states in the country.[Read More…]

by 22/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Libyan youths wave Libyan flag from the top of a buiding after the muslim Friday prayer at Martyrs Square, seeing in background in Tripoli, Libya, Friday Oct. 21, 2011. The death Thursday of Gadhafi, two months after he was driven from power and into hiding, decisively buries the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Libya’s war becomes a global scramble for power

Libya is becoming a crucible for would-be regional powers. The intractable civil war that has carved apart the oil-rich North African country is in reality a multisided chess match between a variety of outside actors, from Turkey to the United Arab Emirates, France and Egypt. The battle involves thousands of Syrian militiamen and Sudanese mercenaries. Countries are deploying drones, fighter[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Long Overdue For Latin America: A New “Good Neighbor Policy”

Long Overdue For Latin America: A New “Good Neighbor Policy”

Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Steve Ellner U.S. policy towards Venezuela has been a fiasco. Try as it might, the Trump regime-change team has been unable to depose President Maduro and finds itself stuck with a self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaidó, who President Trump was reported to have called “a kid” who “doesn’t have what it takes.” The Venezuelan people have[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Hagia Sophia – Babri Masjid And Temple Mount

Hagia Sophia – Babri Masjid And Temple Mount

There hasn’t been any news in the world media as to what Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al Makli  said on June 16, 2020, about how the purported annexation of Jordan Valley, Northern Dead Sea and parts of Judea and Samaria,  by Israel, is actually a ploy to demolish Al Aqsa 1 mosque  and raise the Third-Temple of Jews on[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 1 comment World
Trucks at Chuquicamata, the world’s biggest open pit copper mine in Calama, Chile

Photo by Martchan/Shutterstock.com

Financialization of Copper Mining in Chile

As Chile gets convulsed by the aggravating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the structural brutality of copper mining is being starkly outlined. At Codelco or the National Copper Corporation of Chile, approximately 3,000 workers have been infected with Coronavirus and El Teniente and Chuquicamata are the hardest hit regions with 1,044 and 636 cases, respectively. In June itself, unionized workers had reported the suspect[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Globalisation
Distancing to Discrimination: Plight of Domestic Workers during Lockdown

Distancing to Discrimination: Plight of Domestic Workers during Lockdown

The persistent vulnerability of domestic workers during lockdown is a phenomenal issue in India. There is a however an intricate relationship between the madam-maid where upper class women and the lower class maid have got class based relation which is quite historical in nature. According to the International Labour Organisation, the terms of employment of domestic workers are often not[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 1 comment India
COVID protocol violation at foundation-laying ceremony for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya

COVID protocol violation at foundation-laying ceremony for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya

To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Bhalla, I write this in continuation of my previous letter dated 26-3-2020 regarding the need to comply with the lockdown restrictions in order to prevent the spread of COVID. It is unfortunate that several persons occupying high positions have time and again violated the lockdown restrictions laid down by your[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
All About Me: The Kanye West Campaign Rally

All About Me: The Kanye West Campaign Rally

In many ways, rapper and footwear mogul Kanye West fits the mould.  That mould – the star or celebrity running for high office – had already been made by the actor-cum-amnesiac Ronald Reagan, who, with his dabbling in astrology and conveniently re-imagined reminiscences, did much to prepare the White House for what one might call the “reality show”.  The fruit[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
In Quest for Peace: The Other Side of the Divide

In Quest for Peace: The Other Side of the Divide

Title: The Other Side of the Divide – A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan Author: Sameer Arshad Khatlani Publisher: Penguin Random House, 2020 Journalist Sameer Arshad Khatlani’s maiden book, The Other Side of the Divide – A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan, published end February 2020, seemed to, at the outset, suffer the fate that the India- Pakistan relationship[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Decrying vilification of social democrats as novel threat preceding to Corona virus

Decrying vilification of social democrats as novel threat preceding to Corona virus

Context “Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of one party – however numerous they may be – is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of “justice” but because all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
India’s Illegitimate Daughter

India’s Illegitimate Daughter

“Because of the ascendancy of lawlessness, Krishna, The family women are corrupted; When women are corrupted, O Krishna, The intermixture of caste is born. Intermixture brings to hell The family destroyers and the family, too; The ancestors of these indeed fall, Deprived of offerings of rice and water. By these wrongs of the family destroyers, Producing intermixture of caste, Caste[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 1 comment Annihilate Caste
 The Top Brass is Shattered in Bangladesh: Aftermath of a Retired General’s Interview

 The Top Brass is Shattered in Bangladesh: Aftermath of a Retired General’s Interview

Although neither the puppet and illegitimate government of Sheikh Hasina nor the pro-Indian Deep State, which has been running Bangladesh for the last twelve years, gathered enough courage to broadcast or publish the transcript of the video interview of Lt General (ret) Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardy with a US-based journalist, Kanak Sarwar, on 14th July, yet the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled South Asia
“Don’t Need A Weatherman…..

“Don’t Need A Weatherman…..

         “Don’t Need A Weatherman….. to know which way the wind blows.”  Yes, another snippet from Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues where Dylan, as only a few great lyricists can do, lays it all out so succinctly. As usual, Dylan’s assessment is right on! I don’t need to be an expert, or sometimes not even relying on experts, to[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 1 comment World
The Coronavirus-Climate-Air Conditioning Nexus

The Coronavirus-Climate-Air Conditioning Nexus

A wave of persistent, intense heat and humidity has enveloped the Midwest, South, and Northeast in this second half of July. By the time it subsides, more than half of the U.S. population will have been hit with heat indexes above 100; for many, the heat wave will last for several days. The severe heat is driving almost all social[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Thank God For The Commune!

Thank God For The Commune!

The first edition of what began as the Bombay International Film Festival for Documentary & Short Films (there was no mention of animation in the naming then) was held between March 1 and 7, 1990. I had no place to stay in Bombay, yet the will to attend the festival was strong. One evening, over a cup of tea at[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
 Gulfisha Fatima: 100+ Days of Wrongful Imprisonment

 Gulfisha Fatima: 100+ Days of Wrongful Imprisonment

19 July 2020 marked 100 days of the wrongful incarceration of Gulfisha Fatima, a young student and community educator from Seelampur, in North-East Delhi who has been falsely charged under the draconian UAPA law for defending constitutional values and peacefully resisting the anti-people CAA-NRC-NPR project. Thousands took to Twitter to condemn #100DaysofInjustice and demand #FreeGulfisha – sharing pictures, posters, solidarity messages and memories of the exuberant Gulfisha,[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Pandemic, AI, and end of Democracy

Pandemic, AI, and end of Democracy

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” ― George Orwell, 1984 The year 2020 is going to be recorded by future historians as a watershed moment in the history of mankind. The coronavirus pandemic is causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, causing unprecedented economic devastation on global proportions, forcing lockdowns across[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Scope of Invocation of Anti-defection Law

Scope of Invocation of Anti-defection Law

One-upmanship in Rajasthan political crisis has lead to making a complaint by the congress chief whip to the Speaker alleging that Mr. Sachin Pilot and his supporters abstained from the congress legislature party meetings and are involved in a conspiracy to bring down the government. The Speaker was asked to initiate proceedings for their disqualification. Article 191(1) of the constitution[Read More…]

by 21/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Why India needs to amend the Epidemic Act 1897 further

Why India needs to amend the Epidemic Act 1897 further

While we are bracing for a life in masks it seems unlikely that the restrictions in place will be revoked fully in the near future. It may be the only way around to prevent further damage, but like everything else the police excesses have dominated the headlines for several times during the lockdown period. Though a section of the people[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Time to put a complete moratorium on evictions and displacement

Time to put a complete moratorium on evictions and displacement

The horrific incident of brutalities unleashed by the Madhya Pradesh police on a Dalit farmer’s family in Guna yesterday did not catch the attention of India’s mainstream media initially and got noticed only when a campaign on twitter started trending seeking chief minister Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan’s resignation. Today, the ‘national’ media too reported the story and as per latest[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
A Plan for Social and Ecological Justice

A Plan for Social and Ecological Justice

The death of John Lewis is a reminder that power concedes nothing without a struggle and that social and ecological justice is a consequence of generational efforts. Building a fair, just, and prosperous ecological future, rooted in social and ecological justice means fundamental change of how we treat one another, how we govern, how we work, how we protect and[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Return the gold to Venezuela

Return the gold to Venezuela

On July 2nd 2020 British Judge Nigel Teare, with regard to a Central Bank of Venezuela litigation for 31 tons of gold entrusted to the Bank of England to be returned to the Venezuelan state, issued a verdict in favor of ‘interim president” Juan Guaidó. The real Venezuelan government has proposed that the gold was given to the United Nations Development[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 Covid 19 and Furthering of Sectarian Agenda in Education

 Covid 19 and Furthering of Sectarian Agenda in Education

As Covid 19 has created havoc all rounds, the rulers of certain countries are using it to further intensify their set agendas. The democratic freedoms are being curtailed in certain forms, the reaction to which has come in America in the form of a campaign, which is opposing “stifling” cultural climate that is imposing “ideological conformity” and weakening “norms of[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
ca. 2004, New Zealand, Pacific --- Flock of sheep, New Zealand, Pacific --- Image by © Mula Eshet/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis

Revolutionary Group Dynamics: How Minorities Influence Majorities, From Group Complicity To Collective Creativity

Orientation From the macro to the micro When it comes to stereotypes of the masses of revolutionary people, the masses have built barricades that look like forts which they hide behind, armed with guns. But if we trace the behavior of masses back far enough to pre-revolutionary situations, masses become groups. In order to understand how masses of people become[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Independence Day Celebration in Centre Square, Philadelphia, by John Lewis Krimmel, 1819

This Independence Day, Let’s Celebrate the Apocalypse

“…rather these question marks arise when the human condition is so improved and ameliorated that the inevitable mosquito bites of body and soul are found to be altogether too gruesome and gory, and in the poverty of their experience of actual pain, people will even take being troubled by ideas to be suffering of the highest order.” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyous Science trans. R.[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Oligarchs of Mainstream Mass Media in Service of Capitalism

Oligarchs of Mainstream Mass Media in Service of Capitalism

In early 15th century Europe, news used to be political, economic, military and diplomatic messages of the ruling classes. There was no mass media. It was often the voices of the businessmen and ruling elites circulated within their own networks. The revolutionary upheavals and democratisation of society during 19th century led to the growth of mass media. People used mass[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Pentagon Confronts the Pandemic Or How to Make War, American-Style, Possible Again

The Pentagon Confronts the Pandemic Or How to Make War, American-Style, Possible Again

  On March 26th, the coronavirus accomplished what no foreign adversary has been able to do since the end of World War II: it forced an American aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, to suspend patrol operations and shelter in port. By the time that ship reached dock in Guam, hundreds of sailors had been infected with the disease and nearly[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 1 comment Imperialism
Americans Are Guilty of Genocide Right Now in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria    

Americans Are Guilty of Genocide Right Now in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria    

Many tens of thousands of precious Yemeni children have already starved to death, died of cholera, or been blown to bits by US made and managed missiles. It is the American public’s cruel indifference that makes Americans guilty of genocide. As Martin Luther King once said, “comes a time when silence is treason.”   US WARS AND MILITARY ACTION INTERNATIONAL LAW,[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Chuck Puchmayr honoured for bringing a motion against CAA

Chuck Puchmayr honoured for bringing a motion against CAA

Indians Abroad for Pluralist India honoured New Westminster City Councillor Chuck Puchmayr with a medal of courage on Sunday, July 19, for bringing a motion against India’s highly discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The medal was presented to Puchmayr by the IAPI President Parshottam Dosanjh and another member of the group, and prominent poet Amrit Diwana, at an event held[Read More…]

by 20/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Business-as-usual porn – or, We need to talk about collapse

Business-as-usual porn – or, We need to talk about collapse

I think we need to talk openly and calmly about the possibility of societal or civilizational collapse arising from humanity’s present predicaments. And that’s mostly what I want to pursue in this post – not so much what the likelihood or the underlying mechanisms of collapse might be, but the idea that it would be useful if, as a society,[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis
Netflix, Chattichoru and Chumpak……

Netflix, Chattichoru and Chumpak……

Late capitalism is all about cultural metamorphosis. The intriguing share of pie is the choices of adaptation, resuscitation or both in a 3rd world economy. The cultural envisage of neo liberalism has fleshy credits on the consumer patterns of the global south. Not being the birthplace of a good amount of these ideas, the cultural schizophrenia trapped in dual time[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Globalisation
Appeal to Chhattisgarh CM: Stop Eviction & Demolitions in Workers Bastis, Bhilai Industrial Area

Appeal to Chhattisgarh CM: Stop Eviction & Demolitions in Workers Bastis, Bhilai Industrial Area

  To, Shri Bhupesh Baghel Chief Minister House, Civil Line, Raipur, Chhattisgarh – 492001 Sir, Sub: Request to stop the eviction of workers in the Bhilai Industrial Area and demolition of their houses in Bijli Nagar We, the members of National Alliance of People’s Movements have received some disturbing information about violation of the housing rights of workers in the[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Policeman as the mighty hero: How cinema normalises violence by Policemen?

Policeman as the mighty hero: How cinema normalises violence by Policemen?

It is high time one questions the eulogization of police brutality by cinema as it justifies custodial deaths and encounters. The custodial death of Jeyaraj and Fenix had led to a lot of protests in some parts of the country but did not gain a momentum that could be seen in the protests of George Floyd’s Murder. The report by[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
The way homo sapiens stopped living

The way homo sapiens stopped living

Photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash That vendor in the neighborhood who would come singing a ballad in the hope to sell his vegetables. The fistfights during a Jal board tanker visit would be all but become a people bonding activity. The sleep-disturbing cacophony of parents dropping children to their schools and unsuccessful attempt of children to avoid school by crying and shouting[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Minority panel report, faulting police & BJP leaders for Delhi riots, gets a lukewarm media response  

Minority panel report, faulting police & BJP leaders for Delhi riots, gets a lukewarm media response  

  The mainstream media – particularly Hindi newspapers – has downplayed the news about the release of a fact-finding report by Delhi Minorities Commission on February Delhi riots, 2020. Releasing its report on Thursday, the commission has faulted the role of top BJP leaders in giving hateful speeches and inciting the violence. It has also accused the police of inaction[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
John Lewis: The Iconic Civil Rights Leader Dies

John Lewis: The Iconic Civil Rights Leader Dies

FILE – In this Feb. 15, 2011, file photo, President Barack Obama presents a 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Lewis, who carried the struggle against racial discrimination from Southern battlegrounds of the 1960s to the halls of Congress, died Friday, July[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Bomb

The Bomb

When a defense researcher and an aggressive reporter takes us into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s “Tank” in the Pentagon, and the gigantic chambers of Strategic Command to bring the myriad stories of how America’s presidents and generals have thought about, threatened, broached, and just about avoided nuclear war, it is bound to be an exceptional[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
‘Optimism of the Will’: Palestinian Freedom is Possible Now

‘Optimism of the Will’: Palestinian Freedom is Possible Now

In a recent TV discussion, a respected pro-Palestine journalist declared that if any positive change or transformation ever occurs in the tragic Palestinian saga, it would not happen now, but that it would take a whole new generation to bring about such a paradigm shift. As innocuous as the declaration may have seemed, it troubled me greatly. I have heard[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
The ‘Appearance’ & ‘Disappearance’ of the Migrant Worker

The ‘Appearance’ & ‘Disappearance’ of the Migrant Worker

The following account stems from stories that a group of volunteers engaged with the Right to Food & Work Campaign, West Bengal ,encountered while working with migrant labourers from the state stuck in other parts of the country due to the lockdown announced from 24th March 2020 onwards. We have kept the stories as true to the narratives except only[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 India Both Internally And Externally Strained

 India Both Internally And Externally Strained

As if the Chabahar debacle was not enough, as Iran scrapped its deal with India and instead entered into a 400 billion USD deal with China,  that Iran has also now decided to keep India ‘out’ from Gas Field Right Exploration by saying that India would be involved ‘appropriately’ at some later stage 1.   Bad news for India.  One thing[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Image Credits- Ye_Jinghan, Unsplash

Female Political Prisoners in West Bengal Jails

The movement to release political prisoners is gaining steam nationwide. There are 75-76 political prisoners in the various districts of West Bengal. Most of them were associated with the historic mass movements of Nandigram and Lalgarh. There are also some Maoist activists who were directly associated with the party who were caught when they entered the state. All of them[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Hasn’t Hasina’s Gambit Backfired? Isn’t Bangladesh Today a Battlefield of Sino-Indian Proxy War?

Hasn’t Hasina’s Gambit Backfired? Isn’t Bangladesh Today a Battlefield of Sino-Indian Proxy War?

Bangladesh since its birth has gone through too many intra-military and intra-civilian conflicts to mention in one breath. As on 14th July, Bangladeshi Lt General (ret) Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardy revealed in a bold and candid video interview from Dhaka with Kanak Sarwar, a Bangladeshi American journalist in New York (who fled the country of his birth and now lives in[Read More…]

by 19/07/2020 1 comment South Asia
The picaresque parables Federico Fellini created around lives lived on society’s margins

The picaresque parables Federico Fellini created around lives lived on society’s margins

In ‘La Strada’ and ‘Nights of Cabiria’, Fellini’s boundless formal and narrative energy is married to his profound humanism                                                  A still from ‘La Strada’ (1954) To most cinephiles, Federico Fellini’s reputation rests on his triple masterpieces from the 1960s and early 1970s– La Dolce Vita (1960), 8 ½(1963) and Amarcord (1973). Each of these later films is a[Read More…]

by 18/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Colourism: How Different Shades Lead To Differences

Colourism: How Different Shades Lead To Differences

As soon as a child is born, the second question asked is, “gora hai ya kala” as obviously the first being, “ladka hai ya ladki”. We live in a society where being born as a male is already a privilege in itself let alone your complexion, as it doesn’t really matter, but God forbid if you’re a girl, that too[Read More…]

by 18/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Makhan Singh, Who?

Makhan Singh, Who?

            In 2006, I had an opportunity to visit  Zanzibar, a fabled island in the Indian Ocean with which India has had commercial and cultural relations for hundreds of years. Zanzibar is a part of Tanzania where thousands of Indian Africans have lived since long. A few months before I landed in Zanzibar, an important book launch had taken place,[Read More…]

by 18/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Baritone of Our Renaissance:  Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (1920-1989) at 100

The Baritone of Our Renaissance:  Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (1920-1989) at 100

Part I:  The Life-Changing Rabindra-Sangeet He Revealed to Me I was born in a post-renaissance, post-independence Bengal, in the city of Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta from colonial times), at a time when the Bengal Renaissance, which began with Raja Rammohun Roy (1774-1833) and many would argue reached its zenith with Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), was beginning its gradual descent into mediocrity (in[Read More…]

by 18/07/2020 2 comments Arts/Literature
A Matter of Citizenship: Shamima Begum, Islamic State and Natural Justice

A Matter of Citizenship: Shamima Begum, Islamic State and Natural Justice

Rarely do terms such as “Islamic State” and “natural justice” keep company.  Both seem alien, uncomfortable, fundamentally ill-suited.  For one, Islamic State’s own approach to natural justice, archaic and stone-age obscurantist, has tended to be distinctly unnatural and particularly brutal.  But it has also invited, in response to its particular brand of terrorism, a troubling approach on the part of[Read More…]

by 18/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia Calls for The Release of Varavara Rao

Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia Calls for The Release of Varavara Rao

We have watched with growing horror the treatment meted out to the 81 years old Revolutionary Poet, Varavara Rao by the Indian state. Varavara Rao has been incarcerated in Taloja jail in Mumbai for almost two years. According to the latest media reports and press conferences held by his family, Varavara Rao was exhibiting signs of serious illness, with the[Read More…]

by 18/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Image Credits- Ye_Jinghan, Unsplash

The Forgotten Child of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan

If you know Dr. Kafeel Khan then chances are, you have read the letter that he allegedly wrote to his family from Mathura district jail where he is currently locked up. He was slapped with the National Security Act after reportedly making an inciting speech during anti-CAA protests at the Aligarh Muslim University. Further, a case was registered against him[Read More…]

by 18/07/2020 1 comment Human Rights
Only Political Vendetta Can Explain Varavara Rao’s Incarceration

Only Political Vendetta Can Explain Varavara Rao’s Incarceration

Co-Written by Surabhi Agarwal and Sandeep Pandey The renowned Telugu poet and political activist Varavara Rao has been in police custody since 18 November 2018. The charges against him are: waging war against the state, conspiring to overthrow the government and plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Varavara Rao is one of India’s foremost intellectuals who has inspired[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 1 comment India
Oppose US Moves To Drag India-China Conflict Into Its Indo-Pacific Strategy

Oppose US Moves To Drag India-China Conflict Into Its Indo-Pacific Strategy

Human Rights violation in Tibet  is a bogey. It is an alibi for interference by US.  PM Modi had said, less than one year ago, that the  Mahabalipuram (Chennai) summit (Oct 11-12, 2019) had begun “a New Era of Cooperation between the two countries”.                      He had famously said, about his[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 1 comment India
The Undoing of “White Privilege”

The Undoing of “White Privilege”

“Of course it is … impossible until it is done.” Daniel K. Young, A House Divided, 139. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. Peggy McIntosh, White[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Never say die: Disability is not about inability

Never say die: Disability is not about inability

They may be differently abled, but they do not lack in ability. Yes, I am talking about the more than one billion people in the world who live with some form of disability. They could be persons with impaired functions of the senses, mobility, cognition or with psychosocial difficulties. Out of these, an estimated 690 million live in the Asia[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Journalist Shamsur Rahman killing: waiting for justice for 20 years

Journalist Shamsur Rahman killing: waiting for justice for 20 years

Waiting for Godot is a play written by French playwright Samuel Beckett, which I watched on the television several years back. In the play- two characters- Vladimir and Estragon- were seen engaged in a variety of discussions and encounters while waiting for Godot, who never arrives. The play premiered in Paris on 5th January in 1953. Relative and colleagues of[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 1 comment South Asia
River Nile dam: Sudan blasts unilateral move as Ethiopia begins filling dam

River Nile dam: Sudan blasts unilateral move as Ethiopia begins filling dam

Sudan says River Nile water levels have dropped as a reservoir behind Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance dam has filled up, hitting out at “any unilateral actions taken by any party.” Egypt has also demanded “quick official clarification” from Ethiopia. Sudan and Egypt are downstream, and fear the large dam will greatly reduce their access to water. Ethiopia sees the hydroelectric project[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Release People’s Poet Varavara Rao & ensure his effective treatment

Release People’s Poet Varavara Rao & ensure his effective treatment

We, the Women Poets of Kerala condemn the unconstitutional custody of the people’s poet, Varavara Rao which has led to the situation of the poet becoming covid positive. We believe the case of his arrest to be groundless and against the norms of the constitution. Citizen groups and Human Rights activists of national and international repute has repeatedly reminded the[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
A Manifesto For An Inclusive Electoral System 

A Manifesto For An Inclusive Electoral System 

India is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest country by area, and the most populous democracy in the world. India is a diverse country in every aspect of life viz. social, political, economic, geographical etc. India has been a secular federal republic since 1950, governed in a democratic parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. The President[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Palestine Lost?

Palestine Lost?

In all the years that I have been involved in the desperate story of my country and my people I have never felt more despair than at this moment. My despair does not stem from the loss of faith in my people’s ability to fight, resist and sacrifice. No, not at all. We Palestinians have been resisting and fighting our[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 2 comments Palestine
Racist Mainstream Ignores “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”

Racist Mainstream Ignores “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”

I am a long-time Countercurrents correspondent and on 4 June 2020  published in Germany a large book entitled “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” that is substantially based on articles I have published in Countercurrents as well as in other progressive media over the last 2 decades.  Despite thousands of Mainstream journalists around the world being informed over the[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
The plight of Milk Producers in Odisha need urgent attention of Government

The plight of Milk Producers in Odisha need urgent attention of Government

During this COVID-19 pandemic one of the worst among sufferers are about 11 Lakh Milk producers family of Odisha who have been facing with crisis of milk sale since March 2020 and continued uncertainty. Even in normal time also, diary sector in the state have been struggling with the crisis of distress sale with continued problem in supply side arrangement[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Revolutionaries, Fasts & Prisons – Cue For Jailed Activists!

Revolutionaries, Fasts & Prisons – Cue For Jailed Activists!

A grim scenario is unfolding itself in India over the last 6 years and 2 months. Social activists are being arrested on fabricated charges under Draconian laws – where in bail is denied – and incarcerated with no end in sight to their trial. The period of imprisonment itself becomes a long punishment. Many of the detenue are from the[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Zohra, what if you were my daughter?

Zohra, what if you were my daughter?

On May 31st 2020, Zohra Shah, an eight-year old domestic worker in Pakistan was beaten to death by her employers. Each year over one billion children across the world experience physical or sexual abuse. Dear Zohra, I am sorry you are not Black. I am sorry the police have not released the video of how your employers, Hassan Siddique and his[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
US-India-Israel Versus China-Pakistan-Iran Axis

US-India-Israel Versus China-Pakistan-Iran Axis

The Chabahar (Iran), which means four-springs, fiasco for New Delhi was quite in the making.  India invested in Chabahar to reach to the market in the Arab world and more significantly, to entail Pakistan in its wings, by keeping an eye from the ‘other’ side and also to counter Gwador-port of Pakistan. India’s betrayal of Iran had long become full-circle,[Read More…]

by 17/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Callous Disregard For The Health Of Varavara Rao Must Be Condemned! Release Him Immediately!

Callous Disregard For The Health Of Varavara Rao Must Be Condemned! Release Him Immediately!

   Release Varavara Rao immediately! Condemn the State’s blatant and callous disregard for the health of the 80-year-old revolutionary poet! Demand the release of all political prisoners! The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) demands the immediate release of the revolutionary poet Varavara Rao who has tested positive for COVID-19. As per information received by family members, Varavara Rao’s health has[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
A Dangerous Moment – The COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

A Dangerous Moment – The COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

An unusual increase in SARS CoV-2 infections and an enhancement of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States are disturbing and dangerous. Disturbances come from President Trump’s cavalier and inept handling of the epidemic, emphasized by his constant prevarications, departure from reality, misleading the American public, and sidetracking the important health issue into becoming an economic issue. Danger arises from the nation losing[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Inertia Bugaboo

The Inertia Bugaboo

Planetary heat is turning skeptics into climate change worrywarts with record temperatures galore! But wait, the worst is yet to come. It’s guaranteed, as future heat is already locked and loaded into the vast climate system. It’s the inertia bugaboo. Today, we’re living with yesteryear’s carbon emissions from the turn of the century. Meantime, the next decade and a half[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 1 comment Climate Change
Condemn the hate campaign against independent journalists in Tamil Nadu!

Condemn the hate campaign against independent journalists in Tamil Nadu!

Indian Democracy Matters, strongly condemns the vicious social media campaign being carried out against certain senior journalists in Tamil Nadu, who are known for their independent and unbiased views on political and social issues. The attacks are part of a pattern also seen in many other parts of India, where independent journalist voices are sought to be suppressed using a[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Osama bin Laden Won (Twice)

Osama bin Laden Won (Twice)

It’s July 2020 and I’m about to turn 76, which, as far as I’m concerned, officially makes me an old man. So put up with my aging, wandering brain here, since (I swear) I wasn’t going to start this piece with Donald J. Trump, no matter his latest wild claims or bizarre statements, increasingly white nationalist and pro-Confederate positions (right down to[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Parveena Ahangar: The Iron Lady Of Kashmir

Parveena Ahangar: The Iron Lady Of Kashmir

The Valley We live in is the only place in the world where there are Enormous Civilians who suddenly got disappeared from their homes and never Returned.. Thousands of Families in the valley are still longing for their loved ones but Only God Knows where they are, Are they alive or they have Sunk beneath the soil… A Valley where[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Varavara Rao tests positive for Covid 19! Release of All Political Prisoners Now!

Varavara Rao tests positive for Covid 19! Release of All Political Prisoners Now!

People’s Poet Varavara Rao has been shifted to the Saint George Hospital today after he tested positive for Coronavirus. The 80 year old poet has been jailed along with 10 others activists in a false case post the attacks at Bhima Koregaon in 2018. Varavara was taken from Taloja jail to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital on 13th July 2020 after he[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Human Nature

Human Nature

Human nature as a central theme of philosophy What is human nature? Are we humans good or evil? To what extent is the character of a person produced by heredity, and to what extent by environment? Is competition more central to our existence than cooperation, or is it the other way around? How can a happy, peaceful and stable society[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Why do right wing political and religious forces impose mass morality?

Why do right wing political and religious forces impose mass morality?

The reactionary upheavals are taking place in different parts of the world with diminishing democratic culture in 21st century. The conservative alterations are pushing humanity into the darkness of dictatorship in the so-called glory of god, gold and national greatness. The god is represented by religious right-wing forces to capture gold or resources for the capitalist forces and national greatness[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The trajectory of India’s Democracy and Contemporary Challenges: Prof Suhas Palshikar

The trajectory of India’s Democracy and Contemporary Challenges: Prof Suhas Palshikar

( Prof Suhas Palshikar, Chief Editor, Studies in Indian Politics and Co-director, Lokniti at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, delivered the inaugural lecture in the ‘Democracy Dialogues’ Series initiated by New Socialist Initiative. In this lecture he attempted to trace the roots of the current moment of India’s democracy in the overall global journey of democracy, the[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Good News from Washington: AIPAC, Israel Losing to Progressive Democrats

Good News from Washington: AIPAC, Israel Losing to Progressive Democrats

While the US administration of President Donald Trump remains adamant in its support for Israel, the traditional democratic leadership continues to employ underhanded language, the kind of ‘strategic ambiguity’ that offers full support to Israel and nothing but lip service to Palestine and peace. Trump’s policies on Israel and Palestine have been damaging, culminating in the outrageously unfair ‘Deal of[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The situation of Auto Rickshaw Operators of Kolkata

The situation of Auto Rickshaw Operators of Kolkata

Auto rickshaws are a dominated transportation of Kolkata. According to a record of 2018, about a half lakh registered auto rickshaw (and a few thousand unregistered) used to ferry a few lakh passengers daily in different routes of the city before the lockdown. From unlock 1.0, government has been allowed to play auto rickshaw with some strict rules. i.e. regular[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
We Have Met the Enemy….’

We Have Met the Enemy….’

And he be US!’ The late great cartoonist and political satirist Walt Kelly created his Pogo comic strip that ran from 1948 to 1975. Pogo was syndicated and seen by millions each day. One famous Pogo was the aforementioned ‘ We have met the enemy… and he be US!’ How true it has always been for us working stiffs. The[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Remembering Hegel- A pandemic odyssey from no recognition to full-fledged recognition of the proletariats in India

Remembering Hegel- A pandemic odyssey from no recognition to full-fledged recognition of the proletariats in India

The buzzing tunes of a crisis at the starting of 2020 have encompassed the whole globe within a realm of euphoria setting apart new discourses of predicament, accumulating every section of the population for visualizing the unseen, thinking of the unthinkable ever. The subalterns of the working class have played a major role in today’s times of pandemic, settling differences[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Lockdown lessons: How Covid-19 fuelled my passion for learning

Lockdown lessons: How Covid-19 fuelled my passion for learning

Covid-19 did the impossible: it changed the concept of time as a finite resource. Type A individuals, like me, were faced with the realisation that we had time on our hands. Therefore, we just had to make it as productive as possible. It sounded like good news. Gone were the dreadful Mondays that spoiled all our Sundays, and along with[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
A Support Group can be your Emotional safety net & lifeline

A Support Group can be your Emotional safety net & lifeline

This morning when I pulled opened the curtains to my dining room window overlooking the neighborhood park, I spotted one of my neighbors (let me call her Lillete) is power walking in the park. She looked radiant and chic in her joggers outfit. She appeared much energized. Looking back a few months ago, I remembered last year’s Halloween night (October[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Gunawan Kartapranata /CC BY-SA 4.0

The Story of Ram

Was Ram a Nepali, Indian or Thai Or was he from Indonesia?   Celebrated worldwide human rights   The story trumpeted with fanfare as Ravana inflamed burns evils to ashes and dust   Exquisite dances with long- nailed grace Or wayang kulit puppets elaborate stories of a hero   blue coloured ruler of democrats that to appease his protectorate questioned[Read More…]

by 16/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Ayudya in Thailand

Monolithic Concept of Ramayana is anti-Ramayana

Nepal Prime Minister, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli as initiated a debate that what is known as Ayodhya in India is not original and the original Ayodhya of Sri Ram is on the west of Birganj in Nepal. According to him, it is a misunderstanding that Sita married an Indian Sri Ram. But Sri Ram is not Indian and he was[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Is bad politics overshadowing science of COVID-19 vaccine research?

Is bad politics overshadowing science of COVID-19 vaccine research?

Co-Written by Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant and Sandeep Pandey The letter dated 2 July 2020 by Indian government’s apex medical research body ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) with a directive to begin and finish all human clinical trials of COVAXIN- an indigenously developed vaccine for COVID-19- by 15 August 2020 (India’s Independence Day) so that the vaccine can be[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Floods: Third of Bangladesh underwater

Floods: Third of Bangladesh underwater

From some of the heaviest rains in a decade that has created monsoon flood, a third of Bangladesh is already underwater, and at least 1.5 million people are already affected, marooned or have left their homes for higher ground along with their cattle and other belongings with villages and roads flooded. Almost four million people have been hit by this[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Cisco Case Shows Indians Still Take Caste Where they Go

Cisco Case Shows Indians Still Take Caste Where they Go

What happens to caste when Indians migrate to Western countries? Do their feelings of being born superior or inferior, their belief in the purity-pollution ethic, just melt away? The “model minority” has tried to avoid a conversation on this issue but it returns to haunt them time and again. Now the American state of California is at the centre of[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Need for urgent and systemic changes in the treatment of survivors of violent sexual crimes in the Araria District Court, Bihar

Need for urgent and systemic changes in the treatment of survivors of violent sexual crimes in the Araria District Court, Bihar

Letter from Lawyers to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Patna High Court and other Hon’ble Judges To Hon’ble the Chief Justice of Patna High Court and other Hon’ble Judges: Subject: Need for urgent and systemic changes in the treatment of survivors of violent sexual crimes in the Araria District Court. Lordships: We, the undersigned are lawyers practicing in different places[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Journeys Into Caribbean Consciousness

Journeys Into Caribbean Consciousness

“Beyond the geographic and cultural identity that defines the Caribbean, is the more complex question of a Caribbean cinema aesthetic which has captured the imagination of some writers and critics. The search for the essence of Caribbean cinema has included theories of Créolité, diversity and Negritude from Martinique and Guadeloupe; Negrismo from Cuba; Indigenisme from Haiti; and Pan-Africanism from the[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Fake news and the power of confirmation bias

Fake news and the power of confirmation bias

Internet offers pathways of enhancing democratic participation, increased interconnectedness and access to knowledge and entertainment. However, uncritical use of digital platforms and uncritical consumption of digital content can impede achieving the very goals it promises. For example, Fake news is currently a serious threat to democracies worldwide. Collins dictionary defines ‘Fake news’ as ‘false, often sensational, information disseminated under the[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
COVID-19 outbreak in Nagpur Prison: G.N. Saibaba’s wife and mother appeals for urgent action to save his life

COVID-19 outbreak in Nagpur Prison: G.N. Saibaba’s wife and mother appeals for urgent action to save his life

The prison authorities gave special permission to Prof Saibaba to explain his condition to lawyer and family. Dr. G.N. Saibaba in his most recent call to his family and advocate informed that there has been an uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19 in Nagpur Central Prison. Despite the preventive measures taken by the jail administration in an active way, COVID-19 has infected[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Oniomania

Oniomania

When life hasn’t got a swing anymore, people may give in to obsessive oniomanic compulsions, in as much as they are going out of their way to construct a flamboyant life style and change their identity from “don’t- need” to “must-have” consumers, so as to satisfy their gripping buying desire. Erike Pevernagie Man is a creature of instincts, desires, feelings,[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Police Can Not Infringe The Constitutional Mandate

Police Can Not Infringe The Constitutional Mandate

In the midst of sever Covid-19 pandemic the world is witnessing human right violation exhibited by the police force whose primary duty is to enforce law and order. In US George Floyed was arrested by police outside a shop, hand cuffed and a white police officer knelt on his neck resulting in his death. It demonstrates infringement of due process[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Feeling blue

Convert Hard Times Into Opportunities- “If winter comes, can spring be far behind”

Do you feel you’re passing through hard times? We may be facing a new health, financial, or relational problems, but more frequently, our hard times arise from our mind. Mental hard time is mostly a wounded ego. In such times, all we need is a shift in our thinking, the way we see and that life. Here are five tips[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Mitali Chakravarty Interviews Binu Mathew

Mitali Chakravarty Interviews Binu Mathew

Can you interview an online site? You can’t. So, I did the next best thing. I interviewed Binu Mathew, the man behind the award-winning million readers a month or three million-page views a month online journal, Countercurrents. Mathew claims this is not a big thing except that his journal is based on ideology and openness. He calls it a “people’s journal”[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
New Westminster passes motion against CAA, becomes first Canadian municipality to denounce India’s Islamophobic law

New Westminster passes motion against CAA, becomes first Canadian municipality to denounce India’s Islamophobic law

Brutish Colombian city passed a motion on Monday, July 13 against the highly discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) adopted by the Indian government. Moved on March 9 by City Councillor Chuck Puchmyar, a well known human rights defender, the motion was finally passed with 5-1 votes in favour, with one city councillor absent. The Mayor Jonathan Cote voted in favour[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Beyond tokenism: Accelerating rights of women and girls in a post-COVID era

Beyond tokenism: Accelerating rights of women and girls in a post-COVID era

I am tempted to share this very recent photograph of a newly done up mural in a very prominent area of my city barely a stone-throw distance from the state parliament. It is a clear depiction of what our patriarchal society wants its women to be-meek submissive, docile, their colourless faces devoid of any hope or desires. I fervently hope[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Congress need long structural overhauling and focus on the constitutional idea of India

Congress need long structural overhauling and focus on the constitutional idea of India

As the world doing every effort to overcome the Corona virus, in India our political leaders never fail to surprise us that for them ‘power’ is everything. For the ruling party, the best game, in which they seems to be unquestioned champion is ‘how to dislodge’ the opposition governments in the state. Sachin Pilot is out. Prior to him Jyotiraditya[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Indo-China Standoff and Kashmir Dispute

Indo-China Standoff and Kashmir Dispute

The recent standoff between Chinese and Indian forces at Line of Actual Control in Ladakh has again brought the focus to the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh is part of the larger Kashmir region which has been a matter of dispute between three nuclear armed nations. The region has again been the theater for disturbances but this time[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
“One Palestine, complete” was no joke

“One Palestine, complete” was no joke

The only traceable copy of the document, though not the one commonly quoted. (The Klau Library, Hebrew Union College) Jaffa, June 20, 1920, Herbert Samuel’s arrival in Palestine, ten days before the end of military rule and the beginning of his tenure as High Commissioner. (Library of Congress) Original hand-written title: Sir Herbert Samuel reading his Proclamation to the notables[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Homelessness in the Covid-19 Era

Homelessness in the Covid-19 Era

The novel SARS-CoV-2 has roared through the American landscape leaving physical, emotional, and economic devastation in its wake. By early July, known infections in this country exceeded three million, while deaths topped 135,000. Home to just over 4% of the global population, the United States accounts for more than a quarter of all fatalities from Covid-19, the disease produced by the coronavirus. Amid a[Read More…]

by 15/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War

 10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War

Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Zoltán Grossman Credit: CreativeCommons Since George Floyd was murdered, we have seen an increasing convergence of the “war at home” against Black and brown people with the “wars abroad” that the U.S. has waged against people in other countries. Army and National Guard troops have been deployed in U.S. cities, as militarized police treat our[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
India Is Well Into The Great Game

India Is Well Into The Great Game

What has triggered the on-going Indo-China face-off , if not its roots are to be found in August 5, 2019 when BJP led NDA-2 abrogated J&K Article 370 and made Ladakh a UT, inviting snarls from China.  It may be pertinent to recall China’s sensitivity towards Ladakh, when only a month before Chinese forces had intruded 6 kms inside Ladakh[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Politics Behind Changing Curriculum

The Politics Behind Changing Curriculum

“Every major change in the education structure needs to be understood as being intimately connected to a shift in power.” Stuart Hall Ages ago, Hall rightly thought of education as a pursuit of politics ‘by other means’. Today when the Indian government has decided to eliminate certain chapters from school books, we need to see how this step is not[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Ravages of Lithium Extraction in Chile

The Ravages of Lithium Extraction in Chile

In Chile, the Covid-19 pandemic is raging with an unprecedented speed. There are more than 300,000 confirmed cases with one of the highest per capita infection rates of 13,000 cases for every 1 million people. The economy is severely experiencing the repercussions of Coronavirus-caused restrictions and the historically high national unemployment rate of 11.2% is an indicator of such damage. Chileans have took to the[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Coronavirus pandemic may get worse and worse and worse, warns WHO

Coronavirus pandemic may get worse and worse and worse, warns WHO

The coronavirus pandemic is set to get “worse and worse” if countries do not stick to strict healthcare guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. The disease has already killed more than half-a-million globally. Speaking on Monday during a press briefing from the WHO headquarters in Geneva via videolink, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave an alarming prognosis on[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Almost 10 million children may never to return school after the pandemic

Almost 10 million children may never to return school after the pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has caused an “unprecedented education emergency” with up to 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class, warned Save the Children Monday. The British charity cited UNESCO data showing that in April, 1.6 billion young people were shut out of school and university due to measures to contain COVID-19 –[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Photo by peterme

Tsundoku

          The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones: J. Joubert Book buying like other things is a passion. Academicians and students love to buy books. Students and academicians have natural propensity towards book buying. Everyone of us has a natural and unconditional passion for books. Whether we[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Violence Against Christians Spreads To 50% of Indian States, 95 Incidents of Mob Violence So Far in India

Violence Against Christians Spreads To 50% of Indian States, 95 Incidents of Mob Violence So Far in India

The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown does not appear to have brought much relief to Indian citizens following the Christian faith. The first half of this year has so far witnessed 121 incidents of violence against Christians in 15 states of India as per the recorded data of New Delhi based United Christian Forum (UCF). The 121 incidents of[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
 The Economics of Reservation and the Dysfunctional Question of Representation: Contextualizing the Exclusion of OBC’s

 The Economics of Reservation and the Dysfunctional Question of Representation: Contextualizing the Exclusion of OBC’s

Overlooking the partial move, the rubber stamp institution of National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) gave its nod for the central government’s appointed B. P. Sharma committee recommendations for incorporating the salary and the farm income while calculating the creamy layer within the OBC category. In the famous Indira Sawhney case, the highest court decided the creamy layer, a limitation[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The virus may kill, but your problems are man-made

The virus may kill, but your problems are man-made

The COVID-19 virus gets the blame for almost every problem we are facing today. We are too focused on the temporary immediate problem caused by the virus and don’t pay any attention to deeper and more dangerous systemic problems. It is a natural human tendency to pay more attention to acute problems that appear suddenly than slow-developing problems that develop[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
UAPA- Sword against dissent

UAPA- Sword against dissent

Co-Written by Saumya and Harsh Kumar Peasant leader and RTI Activist Akhil Gogoi from Assam booked under the amended UAPA act 2019 tested positive for COVID-19 in jail. He has been allegedly booked for his role in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act last year under the sections 120B(punishment of criminal conspiracy), 153A(unlawful association) and 153B(imputations, assertion prejudicial to national-integration),[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 1 comment Human Rights
How not to be a leader like Mr Narendra Modi

How not to be a leader like Mr Narendra Modi

The prime master of propaganda, Mr Narendra Modi survives all ordeals of Indian politics with the help of media myth making and diversionary strategies. It gives Modi an immediate edge over other political opponents. The organisational network of RSS and BJP provide the ideological framework on which Modi pursues his politics of otherness. In short run, Modi and his ideological[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of Journalists in India

COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of Journalists in India

The suicide by a scribe jumping from the roof top of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on July 6, 2020 was shocking. Journalist Tarun Sisodia (37) was working with Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and hailed from Bhajanpura locality of Northeast Delhi. He was admitted to the AIIMS with specific symptoms and tested positive for Covid-19. He ran[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Pray for Bachchan But Free The People’s Poet Varavara Rao

Pray for Bachchan But Free The People’s Poet Varavara Rao

Ever since the Bollywood star tested positive for COVID 19, the social media is flooded with messages for his speedy recovery. Amitabh Bachchan and three generations of his family, including son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, and their eight-year-old daughter, were tested positive. This has obviously alarmed their fan following, as husband and wife too, like the family patriarch, have[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
The Grammar of Galwan

The Grammar of Galwan

The Kashmiri word galwan is quite riveting. In common idiom, it has an unsavoury connotation laced with an overwhelming pejorative sentiment. Anyone described as a galwan would be uncouth both in visual representation and in deed, provoking an insalubrious characterisation in mind. Another meaning is to describe somebody who possesses a clamorous voice. But that is not what galwan is[Read More…]

by 14/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 ‘Cancel Culture’ Cannot Erase a Strong Argument

 ‘Cancel Culture’ Cannot Erase a Strong Argument

In the current squabble on the liberal/progressive/left side of the fence over so-called “cancel culture”—in which one open letter in favor of freedom of expression led to a rebuttal open letter in favor of a different approach to freedom of expression—I can offer a report on the experience of being canceled. Several times over the past few years I’ve been[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
 ‘Cancel culture’ letter is about stifling free speech, not protecting it

 ‘Cancel culture’ letter is about stifling free speech, not protecting it

An open letter published by Harper’s magazine, and signed by 150 prominent writers and public figures, has focused attention on the apparent dangers of what has been termed a new “cancel culture”. The letter brings together an unlikely alliance of genuine leftists, such as Noam Chomsky and Matt Karp, centrists such as J K Rowling and Ian Buruma, and neoconservatives[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 1 comment World
Japan is furious at the U.S. after coronavirus outbreak at Marine bases in Okinawa

Japan is furious at the U.S. after coronavirus outbreak at Marine bases in Okinawa

  Japanese authorities have demanded answers from the U.S. after a large scale COVID-19 outbreak among U.S. Marines stationed in Japan’s southern prefecture of Okinawa. The U.S. military officials told the two bases have since been put in lockdown. In recent days, 61 U.S. Marines have been infected with the virus, spread across two bases in the archipelago — which[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Foreign Policy Is Not An Easy Cake

Foreign Policy Is Not An Easy Cake

In BJP led NDA-1 Narendra Modi was quite much on a whirlwind tour of the world. It is estimated that by July 2020 he had visited 60 countries with many countries a couple of times 1 , US being the exception where he visited 6 times, the place where once he was banned to enter and he visited China 5[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
President Erdogan declares Hagia Sophia a mosque after Turkish court ruling

President Erdogan declares Hagia Sophia a mosque after Turkish court ruling

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia a mosque on Friday hours after a top court ruled the ancient building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal. “With this court ruling, and with the measures we took in line with the decision, Hagia Sophia became a mosque again, after 86 years, in the way Fatih[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The curious case of Sharjeel Usmani and Psychological Cognitive Distortion Disorder of islamophobic crowd

The curious case of Sharjeel Usmani and Psychological Cognitive Distortion Disorder of islamophobic crowd

Human right activist Sharjeel Usmani was picked by Uttar Pradesh police from his Azamgarh home on Wednesday evening. His brother says that around 5 p.m, five unknown people dressed in plain clothes came to their house and claimed to be from the Crime Branch. When they were asked who they are! “you don’t need to know why we are here,[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Battle Lines Drawn And Ready

Battle Lines Drawn And Ready

Writing some month ago in a Bengali daily about, among other things, his stint as a security adviser to the vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University from 1999 to 2004 , Debanjan Chakraborty recalled an incident in April 1999 when a large mob was seen  scouring the campus looking for the office-bearers of the university students union. From time to time,[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
President Trump’s Potential Re-Election: Corporate Press, Wall Street And Shadowy Fascist Collusions

President Trump’s Potential Re-Election: Corporate Press, Wall Street And Shadowy Fascist Collusions

48 years ago this American Ex-Pat fled to Canada in search of emotional, spiritual and political solace following the election of Richard Milhous Nixon as America’s 37th President. The shocking potentially-possible re-election of Donald Trump in 2020, eight Presidents later, has once more thrust into this ex-Pat’s conscious recall the many reasons why he chose Canada as the closest, most[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 The Vet Conundrum and America’s Wars

 The Vet Conundrum and America’s Wars

If you still follow the mainstream media, you’re probably part of the 38% of registered voters who knew something about the op-ed Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) published in the New York Times early in June, exhorting the president to use the Insurrection Act to “restore order to our streets.” This was in response to what he called “anarchy” but others saw as peaceful Black Lives Matter[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Freedom to Kill. Freedom to be Killed

Freedom to Kill. Freedom to be Killed

United States governments have sent their children to kill and to be killed in many wars. Freely using mendacious stories, such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where Vietnam torpedo boats (motorboats) supposedly attacked U.S. warships close to the Vietnam shores, and the false allegation that Saddam Hussein was ready to manufacture nuclear weapons and wreak havoc on the United[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
File photo of Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army soldiers in September 2019 | Photo: ANI

India Needs High Jump, Not Yoga To Win War With China

War between India and China is on the cards. Though there is a retreat on both sides for the time being there is every possibility that war would break out any time in future.   Unlike a war between India and Pakistan or with any other neighbouring country war with China will have to be fought on two fronts. One, the[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
PUCL Demands immediate transfer of Varavara Rao to specialised Hospital!

PUCL Demands immediate transfer of Varavara Rao to specialised Hospital!

Vara Vara Rao is a nationally renowned Telugu poet and intellectual who has been incarcerated since August, 2018 in the Bhima Koregaon case. He is considered one of the best critics in Telugu literature and has taught Telugu literature to undergraduate and graduate students for about 40 years. He founded Srujana (creation), a forum for modern literature in Telugu in[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Kerala, Moplah Rebellion and Communalization

Kerala, Moplah Rebellion and Communalization

Kerala has been in the news from last few months for all the right reasons. After the attempts to curtail the impact of Covid 19 came to be undertaken, Kerala led the path with humane, competent and effective measures. These ensured the best possible results and minimum suffering to the people of the state. Kerala is one state where the[Read More…]

by 13/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Romila Thapar And Others Appeal For Prompt Treatment For Varavara Rao

Romila Thapar And Others Appeal For Prompt Treatment For Varavara Rao

According to press reports and the statement of his family, the renowned Telugu poet and writer, P. Varavara Rao is extremely ill in Taloja jail. He is suffering from low levels of sodium and potassium as diagnosed by the JJ Hospital, Mumbai, where his treatment was abruptly terminated and he was taken back to Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai. This[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Comrade DV Rao: Unique Role In  Indian Communist Movement

Comrade DV Rao: Unique Role In  Indian Communist Movement

Prominent communist revolutionary (CR) leader of India, DV Rao (Devulapalli Venkateswara  Rao 1917 June 1-1984 July 12), was  known for his unique role in leading the historic Telangana People’s Armed Struggle (1940-51). Every year  in July he, and his inseparable comrade-in-arms T. Nagi Reddy (TN 1917-1976), who also died in the same month,  are remembered by thousands of people through[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
 Post-Facto ‘Clearance’ of 16 years of Illegal Coal Mining in Dehing Patkai  and Fresh Approval for Mining by NBWL is an Environmental Travesty!

 Post-Facto ‘Clearance’ of 16 years of Illegal Coal Mining in Dehing Patkai  and Fresh Approval for Mining by NBWL is an Environmental Travesty!

12th July, 2020: National Alliance of People’s Movements expresses deep concern over the series of destructive and extractive projects being taken up in the bio-diverse rich regions of the North-Eastern states that jeopardize the interests of wildlife and humans alike. ‘Dehing Patkai’ in Upper Assam became a flash point of resistance last month after the recent “recommendation for approval” by[Read More…]

A Village Sarpanch Steers Her People Through The Pandemic

A Village Sarpanch Steers Her People Through The Pandemic

  Warora is a small township in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra. It is best known for the small village republic the great humanist Baba Amte set up for disabled people alienated by mainstream society. The most vulnerable among these are leprosy patients who still suffer from social stigma but find love and dignity in this wonderful village named Anandwan,[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Don’t Kill Varavara Rao in Jail!

Don’t Kill Varavara Rao in Jail!

We, the family members of Varavara Rao, world-renowned Telugu revolutionary poet and public intellectual, who is incarcerated in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail, are very much worried about his deteriorating health. His health condition has been scary for over six weeks now, ever since he was shifted in an unconscious state to JJ Hospital from Taloja Jail on May 28, 2020.[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 2 comments Human Rights
Crime, Justice and Capitalism

Crime, Justice and Capitalism

The right-wing henchmen and their liberal brethren provide moral justifications for extra judicial deaths during colonial plunders and imperialist wars. From Iraq wars to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and from honour killings to domestic violence, police encounters, and custodial deaths around the world are part of the same genealogy, that justifies violence on moral grounds. Colonialism as civilising[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Floods, landslides kill more than 40 in Nepal, many missing, thousands displaced

Floods, landslides kill more than 40 in Nepal, many missing, thousands displaced

  Torrential rainfall for the past three days has triggered floods and landslides in different parts of Nepal, claiming more than 40 lives and displacing thousands of families in western Nepal. Narayani and other major rivers have swollen due to the continuous downpour. Meteorological Department on Friday had forecast that the monsoon rains would last for another three days. Twenty-seven[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Media stoops to a new low: Vikash Dubey encounter is portrayed as “instant justice”

Media stoops to a new low: Vikash Dubey encounter is portrayed as “instant justice”

While covering the encounter of the gangster Vikas Dubey by Uttar Pradesh (UP) police, the mainstream Indian media – particularly Hindi newspapers – appears to have condoned the extra-judicial killing. They have again failed to act as a defender of civil rights. The diseased, Dubey’s, criminal life spanned 30 years. He has been accused of 62 criminal cases. The criminal charges[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 1 comment India
Community is safe in villages – Let us not make them unsafe

Community is safe in villages – Let us not make them unsafe

It should surely be taken seriously that Bharat till date is distanced from community transmission of Corona virus 2019/2020 or COVID-19, as reported by the Government of India. This is notwithstanding the fact of death of persons exceeding 20,000 and affected persons more than 7,00,000 while around 10 million had already been Corona-tested. There remains 1290 million to be tested,[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 1 comment India
 Bosnia marks 25th anniversary of Srebrenica Genocide

 Bosnia marks 25th anniversary of Srebrenica Genocide

Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. Every year on July 11, newly identified victims of the genocide are laid to rest at a memorial cemetery in Potocari, eastern Bosnia. On Saturday, nine Bosnian men and boys were laid to rest, 25 years after[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Spiteful Authority: Malaysia Goes for the Journalists

Spiteful Authority: Malaysia Goes for the Journalists

Malaysia’s record on letting journalists be is a blotted one.  This month, authorities have been kept busy intimidating the independent news outlet Malaysiakini, with a seven-member federal court panel agreeing to hear contempt proceedings against its editor-in-chief Steven Gan.  Charged under section 114A of the Evidence Act, Gan and his outlet are said to have permitted the publication of over[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The War That Ended Peace

The War That Ended Peace

On a recent hiking trip I took along Margaret MacMillan’s pre World War I history, “The War That Ended Peace – The Road to 1914” (Penguin Canada, 2013). It is a well written history that I have read before – and may have formally reviewed although that is not of consequence now. It is a book I highly recommend as[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Christian Preacher Shot Dead In Maharashtra

Christian Preacher Shot Dead In Maharashtra

Pastor Munsi Deo Tando was abducted and murdered in cold blood near his village named Bhatpar, situated in the Bhamaragad Taluka of the Gadchiroli District in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The Pastor was conducting a prayer and fasting meeting on Friday, the 10th of July 2020 at 4 pm. He concluded the meeting at around 5:30 pm. “After the[Read More…]

by 12/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Online Exams and the Presumption of Privilege in a Pandemic

Online Exams and the Presumption of Privilege in a Pandemic

Delhi University seems to have been changing its stance every day in the High Court as petitions challenging the Online Open Book Exams are being heard. Meanwhile, even University Grants Commission revised its guidelines, taking a complete U-turn, recommending universities to conduct exams. Alongside the Covid-panic, confusion and paranoia have become constants in the lives of students. The ongoing petitions[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Gearing Up or Dying Down

Gearing Up or Dying Down

Since the 1960s, how many movements have excitedly exploded into existence, only to later morbidly melt away? In contrast, how many movements have constantly interminably grown and strengthened over time? The answer, best we can tell, is that most movements have rapidly grown during their initial stages, only to lethargically decline later. Most movements gloriously birth and later ingloriously die.[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Mob Physically Assaults And Forces Christians To Worship Idol In Uttar Pradesh

Mob Physically Assaults And Forces Christians To Worship Idol In Uttar Pradesh

A mob of over 100 religious fanatics attacked a Church at 3pm on the 4th of July 2020 in a village at Dasmada in Azamgarh, a district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The mob broke into the house that belongs to Senior Pastor Sunita Mourya and beat up the church members that were present there, vandalizing the entire[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 2 comments Human Rights
Vikas Dubey Encounter Killing: Time For Serious Action On Police Reforms

Vikas Dubey Encounter Killing: Time For Serious Action On Police Reforms

It is strange that suddenly a large part of public opinion is speaking of ‘rule of law’ after the killing of terrorist Vikas Dubey. Of course, for many, he was not a terrorist but a petty criminal but then anyone who spread terror, kills innocent people whether with political patronage or without it is a terrorist. However, what is disturbing[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 1 comment India
The Bell is tolling; Are you listening, Growth maniacs?! Economy of Development Vs Economy of Permanence

The Bell is tolling; Are you listening, Growth maniacs?! Economy of Development Vs Economy of Permanence

Kenneth E Boulding, an English-American economist and an interdisciplinary philosopher once said;  “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” Further, he added, “unfortunately, we all are economists.” Boulding made this statement in 70’s. Sad to say that, we still adhere to the illusion implied by Boulding for[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Mosques, Museums and Politics: The Fate of Hagia Sophia

Mosques, Museums and Politics: The Fate of Hagia Sophia

When the caustic Evelyn Waugh visited the majestic sixth century creation of Emperor Justinian, one subsequently enlarged, enriched and encrusted by various rulers, he felt underwhelmed.  “‘Agia’ will always win the day for one,” he wrote of Istanbul’s holiest of holies, Hagia Sophia, in 1930. “A more recondite snobbism is to say ‘Aya Sofia’, but except in a very sophisticated[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Death In The Time Of ‘Development’

Death In The Time Of ‘Development’

In ways more than one, Quarter Number 4/11, a documentary about demolitions and displacements and resultant miseries to a defenseless but defiant working class family, is reminiscent of Anand Patwardhan’s epic Hamara Shahar, made a quarter century earlier. “Quarter Number 4/11 is a ground-zero perspective of urban real estate development, narrated through the plight of ex-factory worker Shambhu Prasad Singh,[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Ambedkar’s radical moves beyond Dewey’s pragmatism

Ambedkar’s radical moves beyond Dewey’s pragmatism

Co-Written by Dag-Erik Berg and Torjus Midtgarden The scholarship of Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956) has become visible during the last couple of years, but the discussion of his conceptual contribution and his relevance to contemporary political theory appears underdeveloped. Ambedkar was a scholar on caste, democracy and law; and he has been celebrated as the chairperson of the drafting committee of[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Ideological logic around the validity of “Dalit Patriarchy “

Ideological logic around the validity of “Dalit Patriarchy “

Of late, I am coming across on the strange discussion on “ Dalit Patriarchy “ . I see a lot of confusion around this concept and this write up tries to delve deeper into the validity, rationality and viability of the concept on the established principles of creating an ideology. Feminism is considered as- “ the advocacy of women’s rights on[Read More…]

by 11/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
A Love Story in a Turbulent Time

A Love Story in a Turbulent Time

Egyptian actor Omar Sharif poses for a photograph in 2009. Photo: Reuters. He passed away on July 10, 2015 Egyptian born debonair actor Omar Sharif’s passing on July 10th marks the end of an era. After hearing the sad news, I immediately sent a text to my best friend Maryam (a diehard fan of Omar Sharif). She immediately texted me[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
It’s the economy, stupid!  Or is it the stupid economy?

It’s the economy, stupid! Or is it the stupid economy?

According to statistics from the World Health Organisation, the number of coronavirus cases being reported worldwide remains significant.  For example, in the 24-hours between 9th and 10th July, over 200,000 new cases and 5,575 deaths were reported globally with the highest occurrences in the US, Brazil and India, followed closely by large swathes of Asia, the Middle East and South[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
About half of Oklahoma is Native American land, rules U.S. Supreme Court

About half of Oklahoma is Native American land, rules U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that about half of the land in Oklahoma is within a Native American reservation. The court ruling will have major consequences for both past and future criminal and civil cases in the U.S. The U.S. court’s ruling hinged on the question of whether the Creek reservation continued to exist after Oklahoma, one of the[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Fetishising ‘The Number’: How Not To Govern Pandemics, Climate and Biodiversity

Fetishising ‘The Number’: How Not To Govern Pandemics, Climate and Biodiversity

As the pandemic continues to dominate public politics around the world, a single number – the reproduction rate (R) – has become the focus of policy-making and public communication.  Keeping R below 1.0 appears to be the primary objective of public health policy.  In the case of climate change the number 2°C (or 1.5°C) operates in a similar way.  And[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Caste Atrocities in Tamil Nadu in the wake of Covid-19 Pandemic

Caste Atrocities in Tamil Nadu in the wake of Covid-19 Pandemic

Humanity, which aspires to move to the moon to expand its empire by virtue of its so-called scientific advancement is forced to learn an indelible lesson taught by the virus Covid-19. The invisible tiny virus has completely overturned our perspectives of high and low; haves and have nots; rich and poor; black and white; male and female; educated and uneducated;[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
us supreme court

The Hypocrisies of Recognition: The Supreme Court, Native Americans and the McGirt Case

The Supreme Court of the United States has barely had time to gather its collective breath this last few days.  Among its decisions, including those dealing with President Donald Trump’s financial records, was that of McGirt v Oklahoma. The case furnishes a detailed discussion on the extent Native American self-governance survived the assaults of the US Congress and the creation[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Sharjeel Usmani, another Muslim student leader, falls victim to Hindutva State

Sharjeel Usmani, another Muslim student leader, falls victim to Hindutva State

  Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) student leader Sharjeel Usmani has been victimized because of his Muslim identity. A bright youth leader, emerging scholar, and asset of the country as well as the community has been picked up from his house in Azamgarh by the U.P. Police and sent to judicial custody. The media reports suggest that he has been accused[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
The Tremendous But ‘Secret’ Success Of Socialist Vietnam

The Tremendous But ‘Secret’ Success Of Socialist Vietnam

Some twenty years ago, when I moved to Hanoi, the city was bleak, grey, covered by smog. The war had ended, but terrible scars remained. I brought my 4WD from Chile, and insisted on driving it myself. It was one of the first SUVs in the city. Each time I drove it, it was hit by scooters, which flew like[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Corona, caste discrimination and the lives of Sanitation Workers

Corona, caste discrimination and the lives of Sanitation Workers

Calamities are the occasion when nations and societies unlearn many things and build bridges in the greater interest of humanity.  Corona crisis would have turned into a great opportunity for countries like India to overcome historical baggage of deep rooted prejudices and respect the dignity of the work and contribution of those who have made our homes, offices, cities and[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
JCPOA: The Deal That Wasn’t

JCPOA: The Deal That Wasn’t

July 14th, 2020, marks the fifth anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Agreement, often referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal (or simply the Deal) – the Deal that wasn’t.   It was yet another attempt at regime change. Of all the plans to control Iran beginning from Operation Ajax to Operation JCPOA and everything in between, the[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The Dogs Of Empire!

The Dogs Of Empire!

All Americans of any persuasion need to search the archives of both the Nazi Holocaust and the 1950- 1960s Civil Rights movement. One will see, quite vividly, the use of trained, tough and violent dogs on unarmed civilians. In Germany it was Jews and political rivals ( Communists and Social Democrats) that were set upon by men with sticks and[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 2 comments World
Trump, Tulsa, and the Rise of Military Dissent

Trump, Tulsa, and the Rise of Military Dissent

It was June 20th and we antiwar vets had traveled all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the midst of a pandemic to protest President Trump’s latest folly, an election 2020 rally where he was to parade his goods and pretend all was well with this country. We never planned to go inside the cavernous arena where that rally was[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Veterans Statement On India – China Stand-Off

Veterans Statement On India – China Stand-Off

To: The President of India The Prime Minister of India The Raksha Mantri Chief of the Defence Staff Chief of the Army Staff Chief of the Naval Staff Chief of the Air Staff We, the signatories, are all Veterans of the Indian Armed Forces, who have served in the defence of our nation in various ranks and appointments in peacetime[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Introducing The African Cheetah In India: A Risk Worth Taking?

Introducing The African Cheetah In India: A Risk Worth Taking?

Background The conservation of endangered carnivores is critical to maintaining the structure and balance of diverse ecosystems. Today, drivers of ecosystem change such as climate change, overexploitation of habitats, and land-use change are pushing many vulnerable species towards extinction at alarming rates. The Asiatic cheetah is one such species that roamed the grasslands of India before it was declared extinct[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Letter To Prime Minister On Coal Auction

Letter To Prime Minister On Coal Auction

Respected Sri Narendra Modi ji, We understand that the Union Ministry of Coal is going ahead with the auction of 41 coal blocks in MP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra and that the private players to whom those coal blocks will be allotted will have the freedom to mine the coal and put it to any end-use they wish. Apparently,[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Indo-China Conflict And USA

Indo-China Conflict And USA

Hindustan wrote editorially on July 7 that there are indications of improvement in Indo-China tension. It further says that even if China has retreated from Galwan, we should not be in hurry to reciprocate. Its claim on Bhutanese territory is also in news. Many defence experts are also talking in the same vein. And many liberals go to the extent[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 1 comment India
COVID-19: Infection Rate Per Million Population In Select Countries, Provinces And Countries – 4 July 2020

COVID-19: Infection Rate Per Million Population In Select Countries, Provinces And Countries – 4 July 2020

We have been seeing and hearing a lot of visual and print media news and statistics of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.  This will continue for some time to come.  Almost all reports give the absolute number of cases and deaths.  As on 7 Jul 20, with nearly 3.1 million cases and 134,000 deaths the USA is on top, Brazil with[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
A Look At The Past, Present And Future Of The China –Indian Border Dispute

A Look At The Past, Present And Future Of The China –Indian Border Dispute

After five decades of status quo in their unresolved border issue, India and China have locked horns again, this time at Galwan Valley. With the first casualties in nearly 53 years, this face off is essentially becoming a cause for concern among people. While the BJP-led government is out to squeeze the last drop of publicity through their toxic ultra-nationalism,[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Elderly and the Culture of ‘Adda’

Elderly and the Culture of ‘Adda’

            ‘Adda’  is a popular culture of Bengalis. Now it has been spread over. It has social, psychological importance in the daily life of almost all ages of the population. But it has no economic productivity. The word, ‘adda’ has been incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004. It has been defined as ‘a conversation among members, who were[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
The Coronavirus Republic: Three Million Infections and Rising

The Coronavirus Republic: Three Million Infections and Rising

The United States is famed for doing things, not to scale, but off it. Size is the be-all and end-all, and the coronavirus is now doing its bit to assure that the country remains unrivalled in the charts of infection.  In time, other unfortunates may well catch up.  Brazil, with a president freshly diagnosed as having COVID-19, is currently on[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
ICMR Exhumes, Revives Nazi Era Template For Vaccine Trials

ICMR Exhumes, Revives Nazi Era Template For Vaccine Trials

  “No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.” – Nuremberg Code The ABVA (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan) views with serious concern the manner in which the alleged n-coronavirus vaccine in India is being[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Neoliberal Psychological Romanticism: From The Primal Scream To The Collective Unconscious – Part II

Neoliberal Psychological Romanticism: From The Primal Scream To The Collective Unconscious – Part II

Orientation In Part I of this article, I begin by grounding neoliberal psychology in the political and economic reality of neoliberalism between 1970 to 2020. First, we discussed the historical origins of neoliberalism, and then its economic exploitation, mystification and ideological use to control people. I briefly discussed the realities of the practice of neoliberal economic policies which has resulted in cannibalization of the[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Globalisation
On Israel’s Bizarre Definitions: The West Bank is Already Annexed

On Israel’s Bizarre Definitions: The West Bank is Already Annexed

Wednesday, July 1, was meant to be the day on which the Israeli government officially annexed 30% of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and the Jordan Valley. This date, however, came and went and annexation was never actualized. “I don’t know if there will be a declaration of sovereignty today,” said Israeli Foreign Minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, with reference to the[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
China achieving its Military Objectives in Ladak de-escalates tension

China achieving its Military Objectives in Ladak de-escalates tension

As news reports are coming that China is disengaging its forces from the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the words of former National Security Advisor Shivsankar Menon comes as a handy quote. The former Ambassador to China says; China moves two steps forward and then takes one step backward, having a net gain of one step, each time it withdraws[Read More…]

by 09/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The ‘Invaluable’ Bud

The ‘Invaluable’ Bud

One day, a rose bud Spoke to all the flowers In the garden ‘Let all flowers in the world blossom Let every flower live In peace and tranquility ….’ The Gardner was furious Delirious And thought ‘If this bud blossoms, It is dangerous …’ He plucked it out from the sapling Tore it apart And threw it in a heap[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
Donald Trump

Donald Trump

His niece Mary L. Trump has written in Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man “His egregious and arguably intentional mishandling of the current catastrophe has led to a level of pushback and scrutiny that he’s never experienced before, increasing his belligerence and need for petty revenge as he withholds vital funding, personal[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Industrial Peril- An ongoing phenomenon in India amidst COVID 19 pandemic

Industrial Peril- An ongoing phenomenon in India amidst COVID 19 pandemic

A long series of never-ending dystopias have generated during the COVID 19 pandemic.  The mega corporates from time immoral have quenched their thirst by exploiting and extracting resources from the earth without anticipating risks and harm. The dystopias of mishaps in various industrial units have led to corporate wrongdoing in our country. The saga of catastrophes from Chhattisgarh gas leak[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Party building, the way of the Communists and the Congress

Party building, the way of the Communists and the Congress

It would be interesting to recall in the context of the current India China relations that Liu Shaoqi’s book How to be a Good Communist was translated into Gujarati in the 1940s by Chandrakant Parikh, a full time CPI worker, in Mumbai. How much history has changed. Gujarat has come to this sad pass politically today. But it had a[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 2 comments India
The Pandemic Must Transform Our Agriculture

The Pandemic Must Transform Our Agriculture

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the risks of an unhealthy diet and the extreme fragility of food systems. The economic reconstruction that will follow the pandemic is the perfect opportunity to provide better nutrition and health to all. The pandemic should spur us to redefine how we feed ourselves, and agricultural research can play a vital role in making our[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Unbecoming of Indian Women

The Unbecoming of Indian Women

“In rape cases it’s strange to me when people say, Well why didn’t you fight him? If you woke up to a robber in your home, saw him taking your stuff, people wouldn’t ask, Well why didn’t you fight him? Why didn’t you tell him no? He’s already violating an unspoken rule, why would he suddenly decide to adhere to[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Lal koul : The lost treasure

Lal koul : The lost treasure

Co-Written by Aamir Altaf  &   Nisar Wani The earth , the air, the land and the water are not an inheritance from our forefathers but on loan from our children . so we have to handover to them at least as it was handed over to us.                                                                                                 (M.K. Gandhi) Lal Koul a canal flow from Bumhama through Drugmulla, shalpora,[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Who got U.S. Paycheck Protection loans? They include Hedge funds and Kanye West

Who got U.S. Paycheck Protection loans? They include Hedge funds and Kanye West

COVID-19 pandemic is making the poor poorer and the rich richer. The following is such a story: An AP report said: “The U.S. government’s small business lending program has benefited millions of companies, with the goal of minimizing the number of layoffs Americans have suffered in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the recipients include many you probably would[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Shadow of Laxmanpur Bathe on Bihar Election

Shadow of Laxmanpur Bathe on Bihar Election

The outlawed Ranvir Sena—the private army of upper caste landlords of Bihar—is in the news again. It recently threatened the Bihar chief of the Bhim Army, Gaurav Siraj, and one of its activists, Ved Prakash, through a Facebook post. The so-called army has “ordered” its “sainiks” to “arrest” him dead or alive. The sena is apparently peeved over how the[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 1 comment India
Kerala: Urgent Need for Review of Cost-Benefits of Proposed Semi High-Speed Train Project 

Kerala: Urgent Need for Review of Cost-Benefits of Proposed Semi High-Speed Train Project 

To, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Government of Kerala Sub: Urgent Need for Review of the Cost-Benefits of Proposed Semi High Speed Train Project and Decision in the interest of the ecology, economy and people’s livelihoods. Sir, At the outset, which wish to convey our appreciation for the methodical and diligent way in which your administration, with the able leadership[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Netanyahu’s Annexation Drive

Netanyahu’s Annexation Drive

Land seizures, annexations, and conquest.  These are words axiomatic to the state of Israel.  In the main, the state has maintained an uncomfortable position based on patience and attrition.  We have waited this long; you will wait longer.  Be it dispossessed Palestinians and their aspirations for state recognition or what are loosely described as the objections of the “international community”,[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Buffalo Soldiers and House Niggas

Buffalo Soldiers and House Niggas

This is not really an article of any sort, it is more like a story being said in many parts. If you stick with me on this; you may like it: you may even learn something about why things are the way they are today by the end of it all. It’s a long story. Story of my Father and[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 2 comments India
Desperation As Art: 50 Years Of  Güney’s ‘Hope’

Desperation As Art: 50 Years Of  Güney’s ‘Hope’

Yilmaz Güney’s phenomenal many-sided genius made him a force to reckon with when he came to direction after a long stint as Turkey’s most popular film hero. But in the post-Second World War history of the Turkish State and society, Güney occupies a higher place than just that of a trail-blazing film personality. His strong sympathies for the inhabitants of[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
The United States has set out to fish in the muddy waters of the Indo-China conflict

The United States has set out to fish in the muddy waters of the Indo-China conflict

LiedAbout Wars “Advertising campaigns, marketing schemes. The target is public opinion. Wars are sold the same way cars are, by lying.In August 1964, President Lyndon Johnson accused the Vietnamese of attacking two U.S. warships in the Tonkin Gulf.Then the president invaded Vietnam, sending planes and troops. He was acclaimed by journalists and by politicians, and his popularity sky-rocketed. The Democrats[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Wistful Memories: The dying Shitalakhya River

Wistful Memories: The dying Shitalakhya River

I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers – Langston Hughes A bridge is always beautiful. This bridge is located in Ghorashal, Narshingdi, Bangladesh on Shitalakhya River Until the Harvard College admission acceptance letter came I did not see[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Turkey: Hagia Sophia should not be converted to a Mosque  

Turkey: Hagia Sophia should not be converted to a Mosque  

Washington, DC: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is considering converting the Hagia Sophia to a Mosque, which has been a museum since its conquest. As Muslims, we appeal to President Erdogan to keep it as a Museum, and not convert it to a Mosque. “Hagia Sophia was one of the largest Christian Cathedral in the Eastern Roman Empire for 1000 years,[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Hunger in COVID19: Pandemic of Symbolic Interest

Hunger in COVID19: Pandemic of Symbolic Interest

Introduction Frank Snowden[i] defines Covid-19 as the first pandemic of globalization which exploits massive population growth, crowding and mega cities; an industrial model that encourages rapacious growth without counting the environmental cost. Spillover events are becoming more and more common. All these vulnerabilities are man-made. Humans provide the conditions for epidemic to flourish. In his view, “each epidemic is unique,[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Defunding America’s Wars at Home and Abroad

Defunding America’s Wars at Home and Abroad

Think of it as a war system that’s been coming home for years. The murder of George Floyd has finally shone a spotlight on the need to defund local police departments and find alternatives that provide more genuine safety and security. The same sort of spotlight needs soon to be shone on the American military machine and the wildly well-funded[Read More…]

by 08/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Eviction drive of the government of Odisha at the time of Corona, strongly condemned

Eviction drive of the government of Odisha at the time of Corona, strongly condemned

It is a matter of concern that the Government of Odisha and its agencies such as Bhubaneswar Municipality Corporation (BMC), Bhubaneswar Development Authorities (BDA) made a forcible attempt on 6th July 2020 to demolish the houses of 431 urban poor families of Tarini Bustee at Damana square of Bhubaneswar. Odisha. As per media report, the authorities armed with large contingent[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Life’s survival is now in question

Life’s survival is now in question

What we have already done to our planet by maintaining economic growth. We have and are over populating it, which is reducing our per capita of resources and our functionality. But worst is we must grow the economy and to do that we must burn more fossil fuels, which’s changing the biosphere that increasingly retains heat that’s raising the planet’s[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Centre’s directive on Pedestrianisation. Will our Babus listen ?

Centre’s directive on Pedestrianisation. Will our Babus listen ?

The central government’s ministry of housing and urban affairs has recommended holistic planning for pedestrian friendly market spaces in various cities and municipal areas in the country in consultation with stake holders. The advisory issued by Mr Durga Shanker Mishra, department secretary, last month has also suggested million plus cities to select at least three market places for pedestrianisation &[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Effectiveness Of The Model Code Of Conduct During 2019 General Election In India

Effectiveness Of The Model Code Of Conduct During 2019 General Election In India

The Model Code of Conduct is a set of norms and guidelines to be followed by political parties, candidates, polling agents and covers under its ambit, eight provisions; namely, general conduct, meetings, processions, polling day, polling booths, observers, the party in power and election manifestos.[1] The Model Code of Conduct is enforced as soon as the Election Commission makes the[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Lawfare, Crisis and Hindutva Fascism in India

Lawfare, Crisis and Hindutva Fascism in India

The Hindutva fascism is replacing seven decades of secular democratic traditions and liberal constitutional practices in India. The well-established decentralised institutions of governance are destroyed with processes of the centralisation of power by the BJP government led by Mr Narendra Modi. The civilizational traditions of inter-faith dialogue and religious harmony in Indian society is ruined by the majoritarian politics of[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
India with Chinese Characteristics

India with Chinese Characteristics

As India and China squabble over a tiny but strategic strip of land along their long border, some may be tempted to classify this as a clash between a democracy and a communist dictatorship. And yet, a closer look reveals that India is not much of a democracy anymore – with rampant state repression, subversion of institutions, mass surveillance and[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 4 comments World
Arun Gupta

On Coronavirus and the Anti-Police-Brutality Uprising

By Arun Gupta and Raghav Kaushik An investigative reporter, Arun Gupta has been consistently ahead of the news. In September 2011, he founded The Occupy Wall Street Journal with the help of the Yes Men to help build support for the fledgling occupation in Zuccotti Park. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he warned that if elected Trump would carry out[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Emergency declared and National Guard deployed in Atlanta amid Black Lives Matter protests

Emergency declared and National Guard deployed in Atlanta amid Black Lives Matter protests

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has ordered National Guard troops to deploy in Atlanta, after rioters ransacked the state police headquarters. Shootings in the city have doubled in the wake of protests against police brutality. Some 1,000 soldiers will be deployed to protect the state Capitol, the governor’s mansion, and the Department of Public Safety building that was vandalized over the[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Right-Wing Resentment in Germany

Right-Wing Resentment in Germany

The rise of AfD right-wing extremism may well threaten Germany’s democratic society. It applies even more since the AfD mutated into Björn Höcke’s national-revolutionary movement party while also moving [its focus] from the earlier scapegoat (the Jew) to the current scapegoat, the Muslim. Others might argue that the AfD has not replaced one scapegoat with the other but has simply[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Assault on the Rule of Law and Article 19 of the Constitution of India

Assault on the Rule of Law and Article 19 of the Constitution of India

Statement Of The Constitutional Conduct Group This statement by our group of former civil servants arises from our deep concern at the assault on the Rule of Law in India and on its citizens’ rights to free speech and dissent, basic elements of any democracy. The whole constitutional edifice is dependent on the Rule of Law, which implies the subjection[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Colours

 Colours

Am I white, black, purple or pink?   Names given by mankind to diverse reflections of light   Names given to create borders between colours   Colours earlier that rainbow spelt Now lead only to bloodshed, violence, gore, hatred.   Where is the love that Lalon sang?   Where is the note that played on the flute harmonising black with[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
The Plight of Migrant Workers

The Plight of Migrant Workers

  Corona pandemic finds no end. And the unending miseries of migrant labourers marching towards their native villages still continues Fainting and frowning with anger and anxiety – migrant workers caged in lockdown imbroglio bore the brunt of challenging hardships. The survival of migrant workers in makeshift settlements in cities and towns remains at stake due to shortage of resources,[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 Terrorist, Don and Bahubali: Role of Media in the Construction and Institutionalisation of Categories

 Terrorist, Don and Bahubali: Role of Media in the Construction and Institutionalisation of Categories

Eight police personnel lost their lives in the Kanpur crime scene in Uttar Pradesh in a gunfire from the history-sheeter, criminal Vikas Dubey. Vikas Dubey is not the first or the last criminal in politics, nonetheless, he has again exposed the nexus of politics and criminals. The Bahubali saga is not an old story in the politics of Uttar Pradesh.[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Finally: A Way Out of This Mess!!

Finally: A Way Out of This Mess!!

First off, this writer is simply a Socialist- not a Marxist or Trotskyite or Stalinist, Leninist or whatever flavor of left wing tastes there are. All of them are categorically better than what we here in Amerika ( and most of the industrialized world) live under. That being Corporate Capitalism On Steroids! Yes, what Adam Smith proselytized hundreds of years[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 1 comment World
Intersectional identities- Book review “My father’s garden” by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Intersectional identities- Book review “My father’s garden” by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

“My father was working in his garden, like he always did, though he appeared calmer. But every time I saw him, I would feel a quiet panic. I lacked the vocabulary, the courage and the cruelty I needed to tell him that I was not the son he expected me to be. And if I did, would he understand?” The[Read More…]

by 07/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Dalai Lama turns 85 today and 60 years of that he served US imperialism, operating from Indian soil, playing havoc with India-China Relations

Dalai Lama turns 85 today and 60 years of that he served US imperialism, operating from Indian soil, playing havoc with India-China Relations

For 60 years he served US imperialism, operating from Indian soil, playing havoc with India-China Relations The 14th Dalai Lama, born as Lhamo Thondup on 6 July 1935, turns 85 today and 60 years of that he served US imperialism,operating from  Indian soil. He presided over a so-called Tibet Government -in-Exile (CTA), against all cannons of Panch Sheel and international law, [Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 3 comments World
Columbus statues toppled in U.S.

Columbus statues toppled in U.S.

Protesters pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore, U.S. They threw the statue into the city’s Inner Harbor. Statues of Columbus have also been toppled in cities including Miami; Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Virginia; St Paul, Minnesota; and Boston, where one was decapitated. In Baltimore, Demonstrators used ropes to topple the monument on Saturday night near the Little Italy[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Lamberto Zannier: “Global Problems Need Global Solutions”

Lamberto Zannier: “Global Problems Need Global Solutions”

Ambassador Lamberto Zannier of Italy took up the mandate of OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities on 19 July 2017. Before taking up the position of High Commissioner, Zannier was OSCE Secretary General for two consecutive three-year terms, from 1 July 2011 until 30 June 2017. He spoke online at the “FROM VICTORY DAY TO CORONA DISARRAY: 75 YEARS OF[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Gulabo-Shitabo In The First Place

Gulabo-Shitabo In The First Place

I am not a polyglot. I am unbeknownst to Urdu-my mother’s language for I am the unfortunate generation who learnt English as well as Urdu sonnets but without Urdu in its script and is one who can hardly scramble through Urdu in its Persian form, just by virtue of tying its tit-bits conforming ever to their orthographic details. But, I[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Gaumutra to Coronil: Infodemics in Times of Pandemic

Gaumutra to Coronil: Infodemics in Times of Pandemic

In the month of March, people got lined up for ‘miracle drink’ in Delhi at a Sabha organised by Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha, to have their share of Gaumutra (cow’s urine). The craze for this madness was created by an infodemic, which said: ‘Covid is an avatar, which has taken form of virus to kill non – vegetarians and people[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
COVID19: An Opportunity To Gotabaya To Establish His Military Rule

COVID19: An Opportunity To Gotabaya To Establish His Military Rule

  Gotabaya Rajapakshe the first time President, an Army veteran has proved himself as guardian of Sinhala Buddhist heritage and champion of the Armed forces. He openly and loudly said NO to Tamil political party TNA} for devolution or power sharing and the full implementation of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. In his vocabulary devolution has become a bad[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled South Asia
COVID-19 Pandemic: The Drug Pushers On Top Of The World

COVID-19 Pandemic: The Drug Pushers On Top Of The World

India has become the third worst affected country globally in relation to COVID-19 pandemic; the triad consists of India, USA and Brazil. Quite early in the course of the pandemic the Indian government either gifted or sold the drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) – a drug primarily used against malaria and a host of other diseases including autoimmune diseases like SLE. A[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Mass media, why all of them report on a similar way

Mass media, why all of them report on a similar way

The freedom of press comes from the Right to Speech which is guaranteed to all the citizens by the constitution of India vide article 19 (1) (a). The media has been recognised as the fourth pillar of democracy, four in row to save and to strengthen it. In the last seventy years of independence, we have seen exponential growth in[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Lemmings

Lemmings

(Author’s Note: Here’s a poem about US—and much of the world’s–politics in this “modern age,” in which the emphasis of our “hidden persuaders” (and, often, blatant manipulators) is not so much on what we think as on how we think—i.e., shallow thinking.  Those who dare to chart their own course, probe deeply, think for themselves,draw their own conclusions, are too[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
After George Floyd’s Murder: Social and Ecological Justice Converge

After George Floyd’s Murder: Social and Ecological Justice Converge

The visceral reaction to the murder of George Floyd unleashed deep personal reflection about racism, social justice, and fairness, and launched a powerful, broad based social movement. The pursuit of justice, fairness, and the shape of our common futures encompasses but also transcends the questions of racism and raises questions about the nature of our civilization. In this way, the[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Akhil Gogoi: A peasant leader jailed for supporting the poor and oppressed

Akhil Gogoi: A peasant leader jailed for supporting the poor and oppressed

Co-Written by Atul and Sandeep Pandey Akhil Gogoi-a peasant leader and Right to Information activist from Assam has been in jail since December 2019. His crime is that he exercised his fundamental right of speech and expression by protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The police took him in custody on December 12, 2019, and since then he has been[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Rhetoric of Victimisation in Delhi Crime and Unbelievable   

Rhetoric of Victimisation in Delhi Crime and Unbelievable  

The explosion of the #MeToo movement, the burgeoning discussion around sexual predators and the vulnerability of victims of sexual assault makes it even more pertinent to carefully and minutely examine the vocabulary of sexual assault in popular culture.  Rape narratives that pervade literature, newspapers, popular culture, law, activism etc, help “organize, understand, and even arguably produce the social world” (Sara[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Love, Dating and Relationships in Covid-19

Love, Dating and Relationships in Covid-19

Co-Written by Sritama Chaudhuri  & Dr. Suraj Beri Meghna (name changed) looks anxiously at her phone. She has been one of those ardent “woke millennials”, who would campaign for every right cause on internet. She did the same when lockdown rules where declared for the first time. Hand-wash, sanitizer in bag, mask on face, 6 ft distancing…everything check. Her meticulous[Read More…]

by 06/07/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Flood in Assam: Watch The Documentary “Māti”

Flood in Assam: Watch The Documentary “Māti”

Co-Written by Wenceslaus Mendes and Anupam Chakravarty Torrential rains, this monsoon like every other has worsened the flood situation in Assam. This year already around 1.1 million people have been affected in 23 districts and the fatalities due to flood this year has gone up to 24 and counting. While the state administration is doing its best to tackle the[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Activists and members of different tribes block the road to the Mount Rushmore National Monument as they protest in Keystone, South Dakota on July 3, 2020.

Native Americans blocked road to Mount Rushmore hours before Trump’s fiery speech as protesters refuse to celebrate July 4

A group of mainly Native American protesters blocked the road leading up to Mount Rushmore for three hours before President Donald Trump gave a speech at the national monument Friday night. When they refused to disband, the protesters faced off with the South Dakota National Guard, which shot close-range shells at their feet and sprayed some protesters with pepper spray,[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 1 comment World
Black Lives Matter a lot in Cuba… since 1959

Black Lives Matter a lot in Cuba… since 1959

When in 1868, Cuban slave-owner Manuel de Céspedes embarked on a 10-year nationalist uprising against Spain, the colonial master, he did not imagine he would be building not only the political bases of an independent Cuba but also the ideological blocks of a new Cuban identity. Scholars correctly point out that Ten Years War (1868-78) turned out to be the[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Politics Of Keeping People Away From Politics

Politics Of Keeping People Away From Politics

Forty-Five summers ago when Emergency was declared by Indira Gandhi, among those who welcomed it with open arms were many so-called captains of industry, notably J. R. D. Tata and K. K. Birla; they did it in the name of discipline, efficiency and good work culture. Talking to J. Anthony Lukacs of The New York Times, J. R. D. Tata[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
We Need Digital Detox

We Need Digital Detox

 Cell phones are so convenient that they’re an inconvenience. Haruki Murakami Technology, as we know, has transformed our life. It has made things easy for us. It has lessened the humdrum of our day to day life through its entertaining tools and gadgets. Because of technological and communication revolution modern man has become a kind of post-human (a person or[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Reopening Vs Lockdown Is A False Dichotomy

Reopening Vs Lockdown Is A False Dichotomy

California is seeing a surge in coronavirus infections, and most of our government misleaders, from Governor Gavin Newsom on down, are trying to sweep the true story under the rug with the same kind of blowhard fake news that we hear from the Trump administration. The politicians don’t want to admit that the real problem is a serious lack of[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Coronavirus structure. Credit: https://www.scientificanimations.com / CC BY-SA

A Virus and the New Normal

In the absence of a pharmaceutical remedy to the outbreak of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), non-pharmaceutical interventions have become necessary. Physical distancing, containment of areas by restricting movement of people, and a nationwide lockdown have been the strategies adopted globally.  In India, after about two months of nationwide lockdown and the subsequent unlocking process, most of us are hoping for a[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
In search of ‘Unity, Solidarity and Peace’ in a Fragile World

In search of ‘Unity, Solidarity and Peace’ in a Fragile World

The horrors of deaths, destitutions and common vulnerabilities due to the pestilence of COVID-19 has brought back the ideals of universal unity, peace and solidarity into the center stage of a fragile world. These ideals are historically proved shelter during every crisis created by colonial, imperialist and reactionary nationalist adventures during 19th century, and productivist plunders of capitalism during 20th[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Modi’s visit to Leh: Media uses the occasion to sing his praises

Modi’s visit to Leh: Media uses the occasion to sing his praises

Amid India-China border standoff, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday made a “surprise” visit to Leh and indirectly referred to China by saying that “the era of expansionism is over”. Making a mountain out of a molehill, the mainstream media used the occasion to indulge in an act of hero-worship. It turned blind to critical questions and concerns raised by the[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Important Growth Lessons from Life in Lockdown days…

Important Growth Lessons from Life in Lockdown days…

The World changed in March of 2020. We’ll be able to to tell coming generations of this season we’re living through. We will speak of the pain and the harm. And we will talk of the wisdom and honour that this time has delivered to us and also reflecting on the good that we may find as we stay inside,shelter-in-place[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
A Statue of Hatuey

A Statue of Hatuey

If you look at a US $20 bill, you might notice Andrew Jackson nervously watching statues of Columbus and Robert E. Lee coming down and wondering if his face is going to disappear from currency. As Democrats ponder which militarist they wish to glorify in the next round of monuments, it is critical to realize that statues which go up[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
US, Australian & Anglosphere Responses To Apartheid Israel’s Illegal West Bank Annexation Plan

US, Australian & Anglosphere Responses To Apartheid Israel’s Illegal West Bank Annexation Plan

US lackey, Coalition-ruled Australia is second only to Trump America as a fervent supporter of Apartheid Israel, with similarly pro-Apartheid Israel and hence pro-Apartheid and US lackey Canada coming a close third in this Anglosphere race to the bottom of the Palestinian Genocide barrel. Evangelicals-beholden Trump has not yet committed to supporting further illegal Apartheid Israeli annexation in the West[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Palestine, Annexation and the Wrong Story

Palestine, Annexation and the Wrong Story

Image: Capture from a Facebook Middle East Monitor video clip titled “Jewish settlers protest West Bank annexation plan” https://www.facebook.com/middleeastmonitor/videos/2683394251938434/ The other night I watched PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff. The report on the annexation (do I need to qualify or explain “annexation”? What other country has or is likely ever to declare its impending annexation of someone else’s land to[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Will the ICC Investigation Bring Justice for Palestine?

Will the ICC Investigation Bring Justice for Palestine?

Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo  In the past, there have been many attempts at holding accused Israeli war criminals accountable. Particularly memorable is the case of the late Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, (known, among other nicknames, as the ‘Butcher of Sabra and Shatila’) whose victims attempted to try him in a Belgian Court in 2002. Like all[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Palestine
A Story of Human Grit And Kindness During COVID Lockdown

A Story of Human Grit And Kindness During COVID Lockdown

The country has been going through an unprecedented health crisis. There is despair and desperation all around. We are constantly getting news about uncontrolled virus spread, rising death tolls and collapsing health systems. Add to this chaos the unimaginable levels of sufferings of the workers walking hundreds of kilometres to reach back their homes, sights of police beating up or[Read More…]

by 05/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Co Dependence Day

Co Dependence Day

They’ll be shooting off the fireworks, eating and drinking like ‘ Ants at a picnic’ and sending ‘ Social Distancing’ out the window. Why not? It’s July 4th once again, a time to celebrate. Celebrate what? This pandemic is showing its teeth once again, the economy that Trump needs to be vibrant (for his biggest ‘ Deal’) going down the[Read More…]

by 04/07/2020 2 comments World
Large majority of Americans say U.S is a mess, finds new poll

Large majority of Americans say U.S is a mess, finds new poll

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that no matter how polarized they might be politically, Americans finally seem to agree on something: that everything about America is getting worse. In his 1989 farewell address, President Ronald Reagan famously described the United States as a “shining city on a hill” — a beacon of hope and a model for the rest[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Should Shudras And Dalits Suffer In The Age Of George Floyd?

Should Shudras And Dalits Suffer In The Age Of George Floyd?

Following the brutal police killing of Georg Floyd, an African-American Citizen of US, an unprecedented wave of movement for black rights is sweeping all over the world. The powerful message of Black Lives Matter has been conveyed through mass rallies, demonstrations, and more forcefully by setting fire to the Minneapolis Police Department building and, in some places by toppling the[Read More…]

My son had passion, not a gun

My son had passion, not a gun

Any news from Kashmir to the outside world is mostly related to the armed confrontation that gives details of the exchange of fire between militants and Indian security forces. Then, the clashes are claimed to have killed “terrorists” who were equipped with heavy arms and ammunition. For a long time now, there has been a successful attempt to create this[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
A view of Household belongings under the debris of demolished houses

Roses on a dump

Home! Scooped out of the bowels of solid waste, like other huts, perched on various levels of the accumulated waste that grows vertical by the hour. The typical Asian shack consists of the usual elements—the blue tarpaulin, corrugated sheets and flattened-out cardboards. Anna is proud of this piece of space snatched away from other migrants that keep on pouring. Every[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Film And Family: Revisiting An Early Patwardhan Classic

Film And Family: Revisiting An Early Patwardhan Classic

 It has been said of Anand Patwardhan, who turned 70 on February 18 this year, that he is ‘a kind of phenomenon in that he has all along faced official apathy, disapproval and, at times, censorship and open discrimination’. Perhaps, this is the way it should be for any creative artist wanting to grapple with political abuses, social injustices and[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Turn Guaido and grab gold

Turn Guaido and grab gold

Now a days, anyone can take away anyone’s gold. It just needs turning Guaido, and master’s backing. Master’s law is there to help Guaido turn a gold grabber. The United Kingdom’s English High Court (EHC) has ruled that Juan Guaido is Venezuela’s legitimate president.  According to the EHC, Nicolas Maduro is not the country’s president. The discovery of a self-proclaimed[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Venezuelans, and especially the elderly, have been encouraged to wear facemasks when out and about, and to try to stay home where possible. Photo: @jacoli44 / Twitter

The 21st Century’s Time Of The Great Plague; A Long Overdue Cleansing And Purification Of The World

  To this writer’s mind wherever one is at anywhere in the world – given the yet unknown first, second, third, fourth or however more waves of Covid-19 are yet to come, with no vaccine in sight, for perhaps another 18 months or more, if ever, one literally must continue as if they daily are taking one’s life into their[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Criminalising Journalism: Australia’s National Security Craze

Criminalising Journalism: Australia’s National Security Craze

There has been a lot of noise made in Australia about the need for broader protections when it comes to the fourth estate and the way it covers national security matters.  In a country lacking a backbone in terms of constitutional free speech, journalists are left at the mercy of authorities when it comes to exposing egregious abuses of power. [Read More…]

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Dropping “Fair” from Fair & Lovely: Can we change the mindset?

Dropping “Fair” from Fair & Lovely: Can we change the mindset?

The finest clothing made is a person’s own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this. — Mark Twain An advertisement for Fair and Lovely, a skin whitening product showing results of before and after use Pico Iyer who writes about cultures converging refers to India as his “stepmother land.” In next to the last chapter of his[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Perpetuated Insanity against Besieged Humanity:  Racial Injustice, Kashmir and Palestine  – Dark Days Ahead

Perpetuated Insanity against Besieged Humanity:  Racial Injustice, Kashmir and Palestine  – Dark Days Ahead

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”  Albert Einstein How to Mirror the Racial Injustice and Insanity against Mankind? There is much evil and less goodness in the 21st century global affairs – amassed collection of unthinkable junk history. Flamboyant[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Fireworks behind statue of liberty

 Not All Americans Celebrate the Birth of a Racist Slave Owning USA! Homicidal at Home Genocidal Abroad

Prominently placed statues of famous racists are no longer acceptable, just as policemen shooting African Americans has finally become unacceptable. Why not dispense with the far out illusion of a racist colonial capitalist USA being worth celebrating. Meanwhile left undone is the protecting of non-American Black lives from killer American GIs invading and bombing their beloved countries. Since prominently placed[Read More…]

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Orders Banning The Chines Apps Amenable To Judicial Scrutiny 

Orders Banning The Chines Apps Amenable To Judicial Scrutiny 

As a retaliatory measure consequent to ‘Galwan Valley’ aggression, the Government of India invoked Sec.69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and banned 59 smart phone applications which include the most popular ‘ TikTok’, ‘Cam Scanner’ etc. The reasons cited was that these apps pose threat to sovereignty and integrity of India as per credible inputs received by the government.[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
When Will We Have Equitable Access To Fruits Of Development?

When Will We Have Equitable Access To Fruits Of Development?

Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Kushagra Kumar One of the writers of this article is reminded of an incident, when he was teaching at Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar which was then functioning from a campus in Chandkheda in Ahmedabad. On 16 December, 2011, a dog picked up a 2 months old boy child Akash who was lying on ground[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Mahatma Gandhi, Race and Caste

Mahatma Gandhi, Race and Caste

  During the course of agitation ‘Black lives matter’ some protestors defaced the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in US. Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of Indian Nation, has the unique distinction of leading the biggest ever mass movement in the World and leading the strong anti colonial movement. In this direction he contributed two major tools as the basis of the[Read More…]

by 03/07/2020 3 comments World