27 September 2020 marked the start of a renewed armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh among the forces of Azerbaijan, the Armenian-populated Republic of Artsakh, and Armenia. The conflict has provoked a loss of life and the destruction of civilian property. Of the 150,000 persons living in the Republic of Artsakh prior to the start of the fighting, a large percentage[Read More…]
The murder of French school teacher Samuel Paty by an 18 year old Muslim boy of Russian origin has opened the Pandora’s Box all over. Few days’ later three people were killed in Nice, in France again. There were protests against France in few Muslim majority countries like Bangladesh and there was boycott of French goods in many of them.[Read More…]
With the 2022 World Cup in Qatar only two years away, and a resolution of the three-year-old Gulf rift nowhere in sight, government officials, soccer governance executives, and pundits are playing with the notion that the tournament could serve as an icebreaker in the dispute between Qatar and its detractors, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain. It is[Read More…]
Whatever stance taken by followers of the British Labour Party on the subject of antisemitism within its ranks, the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn must be seen as an exercise of muscle on the part of Sir Keir Starmer. Since coming to the leadership, Starmer’s popularity has risen, catching up to that of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But Corbyn and the[Read More…]
A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book. It discusses the role of what might be called decision trees in science, in linguistics, in philosophy and literature, and in our daily lives. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Road-Not-Taken-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Decision trees During each human[Read More…]
Why does Israel hate Palestinian singer, Mohammed Assaf? On October 16, Avi Dichter, Israeli Member of Parliament from the right-wing Likud Party, announced that Assaf’s special permit to enter the occupied Palestinian West Bank would be revoked. Assaf, originally from Gaza, now lives with his family in the United Arab Emirates. He achieved stardom in 2013, when he won the[Read More…]
A rift between the Muslim world and France is widening, as leaders and the public in Muslim countries respond to the October 2 speech of President Emmanuel Macron saying Islam was “in crisis” globally. The fallout deepened with renewed Macron support to show caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and anti-France demonstrations on Friday in several Muslim countries. Tens of thousands[Read More…]
My feeling that a poet, who called cinema a sycophant of literature would have approved Aravindan, a director who explored the medium’s possibilities, lends courage to me. This is uncannily similar to the feeling that Tagore, for a moment was stunned by what Wilfred Owen’s mother had revealed to him. I’m sure Tagore would have dumped the NBT calendar. It[Read More…]
He’s regarded as ‘The Father of the Nation’ and the man who brought down the mightiest global empire without firing a single bullet, yet Gandhi’s ideals and vision go beyond India’s borders and the last century to offer us inspiration and hope. Keith Lyons applauds the Mahatma from New Zealand. I’ve seen Gandhi everywhere. Not just on my recent trips to India,[Read More…]
36 years after the anti-Sikh pogroms, murders– immediate and subsequent– remain unsolved, unacknowledged, unreported. This November marks 36 years since the anti-Sikh pogroms in India. Hearing the voices of survivors debunks the propaganda that this violence was spontaneous; or that it was instigated, condoned, and beneficial to only one political party; or that the violence was contained swiftly—survivor stories exemplify[Read More…]
Bihar Legislative Assembly elections are to be completed by Nov.7. Caste alliances and communal politics dominate the debate, but there is nothing on such a basic issue like ensuring safe drinking water to everyone. NDA allies PM Modi and Lohiaite Socialist CM Nitish Kumar made speeches about Vikas in Bihar flowing from their rule for 15 years, and seeking another[Read More…]
For nearly a decade the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been streaming radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. As it happens, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) struggles to control it. Yet, the bulk of the radioactive water is stored in more than 1,000 water tanks. Assuredly, Japan’s government has made an informal decision to dump Fukushima Daiichi’s radioactive[Read More…]
There have been some horrendous, despicable killings by Muslim extremists in France. Such killings must be condemned. French president Emmanuel Macron played the victim card, saying that France “will not give into terrorism.” Yet when 21st century France engages in overseas militarism, otherwise known as state terrorism, in places with large Muslim populations – places that never attacked France —[Read More…]
The 2020 presidential race has shaped itself similar to the 2016 race ─ neither candidate has shown ability or credentials that satisfy a majority of the electorate. Their choice is not to select the more qualified of two highly qualified, their choice is to accept the candidate who has the lesser disqualifications. As of October 29, the choice tends toward[Read More…]
Panjab University Chandigarh is in turmoil these days. The four-year term of its highest governing body The Senate is coming to an end on 31st October 2020. The last Senate was notified by former Vice President Hamid Ansari in the capacity of Chancellor of Panjab University. It was notified by 25th October to come into existence from 1st November 2016,[Read More…]
According to a newspaper report, the Yogi government will celebrate Valmiki Jayanti on a large scale in Uttar Pradesh this time. The order issued to all the district magistrates from the level of Chief Secretary says that it should be organized on a large scale in all the districts. In this lamp should be lit up at all the places[Read More…]
Soil has the capacity to bind large quantities of carbon in the long term. An international team of researchers, including from the University of Bonn, is now advocating effective use of this potential. Experts estimate that this could reduce the increase of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by a third. At the same time, agricultural yields in[Read More…]
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), La Niña, linked to cooler sea temperatures, is back in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, after nearly a decade’s absence. This is expected to result in sea surface temperatures between two and three degrees Celsius cooler than average, said Dr. Maxx Dilley, Deputy Director in charge of Climate Services Department at[Read More…]
Everyday political parties are changing their political strategies to counter their opponents either what medium to use for election campaigning or issues that can harness as much political support in their favour. Political pundits and all surveys indicate that NDA has a slight margin over Mahagathbandhan. But, the crowds turned towards Tejeswai Yadav during his rallies that made every[Read More…]
Even that title strikes an odd note. It should not. The Fourth Estate, historically reputed as the chamber of journalists and publishers keeping an eye on elected officials, received a blast of oxygen with the arrival of WikiLeaks. This was daring, rich stuff: scientific journalism in the trenches, news gathering par excellence. But what Julian Assange and WikiLeaks did was[Read More…]
The 24 October ratification by a 50th state, Honduras, of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) means that it will take effect from 22 January 2021, from which time the 9 nuclear terrorist states and 32 complicit states will be grossly violating International Law. The US lackey, fervently pro-Apartheid Israel and pro-nuclear terrorism Coalition Government of[Read More…]
These past few months, it’s grown ever harder to recognize life in America. Thanks to Covid-19, basic day-to-day existence has changed in complicated, often confusing ways. Just putting food on the table has become a challenge for many. Getting doctors’ appointments and medical care can take months. Many schools are offering on-line only instruction and good luck trying to get a driver’s[Read More…]
The vicious war against the Armenian Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) and Armenia by Azerbaijan, Turkey, and thousands of their jihadist terrorists has passed the one month mark. The jihadis’ presence, which includes ISIS, is consistent with the debauched political cultures and national ambitions of Azerbaijan and Turkey. It also tells us that the U.S./NATO/EU stance towards those countries continues to[Read More…]
During recent Durga Puja celebrations, RTV drama special titled Shada Megher Mon (A silver lining in the cloud), revisited the widowhood of a young woman in the context of Bangladesh since independence. Though some of the key components of the television are changing, it is still perceived as a social medium. Television always plays a social function as viewing of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Mohd Shahwaiz & Shayenaz Introduction The coronavirus pandemic has unequivocally made impacts on each country and every people, in one way or another, have experienced effects in terms of ruining of social values, economic losses, psychological disorder, and as well as political consequences related to the state’s management of the pandemic situation and continuation of democratic practice.[Read More…]
A few weeks back, Bhagwat Devangan an OBC student died by suicide at Shubhas Chandra Bose Medical College, Madhya Pradesh. Like, other unimportant news, this news also disappeared from the media and unlike death of Rohith Vemula, Payal Tadvi, social media did not witness any hashtag on the death of a OBC student. Do we really think that death of[Read More…]
National vision, which usually reflects long-term goals of progression, is crucial for planned development of any country including Bangladesh. A well-developed national vision provides overall development targets to be achieved within a specified time in planned manner, while ill-formulated vision or lack of national vision may result in haphazard or distorted development. Of course, many countries in different regions have[Read More…]
In Conversation with Michael Taylor, Director, Global Secretariat, International Land Coalition, Rome Michael Taylor is the Director of the global secretariat of the International Land Coalition (ILC). ILC is hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a UN Agency in Rome, Italy. Michael is a citizen of Botswana, with a PhD in Social Anthropology. He has worked on[Read More…]
Comrade Haider Anwar Khan Juno’s life is full of struggles. Now, he lives in his work and memories of his comrades and friends. Haider Anwar Khan Juno (b. December 29, 1944) breathed to his last on October 29, 2020 in a Dhaka hospital. He was 76. Comrade Juno was suffering from pneumonia and following complications. He left behind wife, daughter,[Read More…]
In a recent interview, Chandrashekhar Azad alias Ravana has said that the present is the golden age of Dalit politics. By the way, if we look at the tenor and direction of Dalit politics, then it does not show its golden age from anywhere but it is its downfall. While Dalit leaders have taken refuge in anti-Dalit parties, the remaining[Read More…]
After two nights of protests and looting following the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. in West Philadelphia, a curfew has been imposed in the city. The curfew went into effect at 9 p.m. and will last until 6 a.m. Thursday. Meanwhile, Mayor Jim Kenney says the National Guard is deploying and the first troops are expected to arrive[Read More…]
Jordanian ruler Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein gloated in 1924 when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the visionary who carved modern Turkey out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire, abolished the Caliphate. “The Turks have committed suicide. They had in the Caliphate one of the greatest political forces, and have thrown it away… I feel like sending a telegram thanking Mustapha Kemal.[Read More…]
A young aspiring Nikita Tomar was murdered by Tauseef, who happened to be stalking her since here college days as both studied in the same institution in Faridabad. Nikita, it is reported, had turned down the proposal of Tauseef in the past. The young man could not take the rejection and killed her. The entire incident is recorded in a[Read More…]
Sanjay Macgee a soldier fighting for the Persecuted guided Nirmal E. Browne and his wife, an old retired couple, to Persecution Relief, regarding the persecution they are facing from the neighbourhood where they are living in an apartment in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. As it is now custom in India, they cannot live in peace because of[Read More…]
Why An Innovation That Can Reduce Vast Amounts of Farmers’ Costs, Foreign Exchange and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Still Continue to Suffer From Official Neglect and Apathy After Repeated Official Confirmation of Its Great Value? If an innovation can save billions of Rs. worth of diesel for farmers while at the same time cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, then[Read More…]
“Ambition is the subtlest Beast of the Intellectual and Moral Field,” wrote John Adams to his son, John Quincy Adams, in January, 1794. “It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself from its owner.” Father Adams was thinking of Thomas Jefferson in penning these words, that sly devil of a man who sought to gain power while falsely claiming to eschew[Read More…]
In Bolivia, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) – a major leftist political force – has returned to power following a thumping victory in the 2020 elections. The MAS presidential candidate Luis Arce obtained 55.09% of the votes, decisively ahead of the neoliberal candidate Carlos Mesa and the right-wing extremist Luis Fernando Camacho who garnered 28.83% and 14% of the votes, respectively. The[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies Less than a year after the United States and the U.S.-backed Organization of American States (OAS) supported a violent military coup to overthrow the government of Bolivia, the Bolivian people have reelected the Movement for Socialism (MAS) and restored it to power. In the long history of U.S.-backed “regime changes” in[Read More…]
…the nine essays are a fitting tribute to the inventive beauty of Gandhiji and its wide-ranging applicability in present-day society… As India celebrated the sesquicentennial of MK Gandhi last year, Marg had come out with a special issue on the lesser-known aspects of Gandhi’s engagement with aesthetics. Gandhiji’s aesthetics was two-fold: one, it was a quest for exquisiteness and two; it was a[Read More…]
Domestic Violence- the term is definitely not a new thing for any of us. Domestic violence is apparently defined as any form of violence or assault suffered by a person from his/her biological relatives, but specifically a torment suffered by a woman from the male members of her family. Gender based violence has always been embedded deep into the root[Read More…]
The idea of ‘return’ holds different meanings for different people caught in different circumstances. Calcutta-based Supriyo Sen’s Abar Ashibo Phirey (Way Back Home, Bangla with English sub-titles, video, colour, 120 mins, 2002) is a wrenching and liberating journey into the heart and soul of an elderly Bengali couple – the director’s parents – as they go back in time, space[Read More…]
In Hathras, cops barricade a raped woman’s home, hijack her corpse, set it afire on a murderous night, deaf to her mother’s howling pain. In a land where Dalits cannot rule, they cannot rage, or even mourn. This has happened before, this will happen again. . . . . Sanatana, the only law of the land that’s in force, Sanatana,[Read More…]
This has been the year of fire. Across continents and climates, uncontrollable and destructive wildfires are becoming an expected part of annual calendars. This year has been a case in point. From the 45 million acres scorched during Australia’s 2019-2020 fire season to the record amount of carbon dioxide released from wildfires in Siberia (half of which burned on carbon-rich peatland), wildfires have gone[Read More…]
![Notes on US presidential election: Show of a politics [Part II]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/biden-trump-debate-200x150.jpg "Notes on US presidential election: Show of a politics [Part II] 91")
Politics of the ruling classes in all lands is fundamentally always violent, full with coercion. It varies in appearance – covert or overt. The variation depends on, to say in a simple way, circumstance, which is, in real sense, state of [1] class struggle/class contradiction, [2] ruling classes, [3] machines for rule. These are evident in power of classes, antagonistic[Read More…]
there is a purple poem on my mother’s neck that my father writes for her every full moon night instead, most poets write on paper but my father writes on mother’s skin she smiles, she says she doesn’t mind says, the purple poem is truly a thing of pride and beauty yet, she keeps it covered, carefully with the ends[Read More…]
Prior to the appearance of COVID-related restrictions and lockdowns, neoliberal capitalism had turned to various mechanisms in the face of economic stagnation and massive inequalities: the raiding of public budgets, the expansion of credit to consumers and governments to sustain spending and consumption, financial speculation and militarism. Part and parcel of this has been a strategy of ‘creative destruction’ that has[Read More…]
Book Review – Economyths: 11 Ways Economics Gets it Wrong By David Orrel At the beginning of the year, Bloomberg.com predicted that 2008 would be a year of prosperity, based on forecasts by financial pundits. The growth rate for the year was forecast at 11 percent. No one had even a hint of the impending massive economic collapse. By the[Read More…]
Media reports from Philadelphia said: Looting and demonstrations continued for a second consecutive night Tuesday in Philadelphia following the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. in West Philadelphia. Police have made several arrests. Several hundred troops from the Pennsylvania National Guard have been mobilized in Philadelphia following a night of violent unrest over a fatal police shooting, as city[Read More…]
I kept watching the funerals of people killed by the brutal coronavirus in the global pandemic of Covid-19 on TV channels and read about them in newspapers. Those dead bodies who are described as Hindu are being quickly burnt without anybody around. The usual presence of the Brahmin priest to recite slokas are nowhere to be seen. Only the rich[Read More…]
“It has often been said that the only thing that could unite mankind was a threat from space.” I read this in Arthur C Clarke’s novel, 2061, Odyssey Three. The threat in Clarke’s science fiction was a second star — which mankind renamed Lucifer but was actually Jupiter set ablaze by superior space engineering by an intelligent species far more[Read More…]
ORIENTATION In my last article I showed how the word “totalitarian” was used as a loaded vice word to attack the Soviet Union after World War II and to red-bait communists around the world. The use of the word totalitarian began in the 1930s, but even before then in the 1920’s, the word “dictator” began to surface in order to[Read More…]
Sweet apocalypse in the blood! Stephen-King nightmare in the brain! Mortar rounds at synapses! Invader of our personal stash! SweetSweet as Delilah’s lips! Cooing with the voice of Mom— Bubela, Bambino, come home, come home To peaches and cream and castles of fructose, To sugared hot cocoa and honeycombed words In hives of endearments buzzing on eardrums; To plaudits[Read More…]
“When I first got my periods, I felt I was about to die. I didn’t know what it was,” Says Sonam, a resident of Nalhar village in Mewat district of Haryana, who is now in her 20s and married. Sonam’s experience is the story of every second girl in India. Menstruation as a subject is still a taboo in Indian[Read More…]
On 25th May 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man was murdered in police custody in Minneapolis, USA. A video showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was pinned to the floor went viral. Following this, large anti-racism protests took place with many white people also standing against racism and police brutality.[Read More…]
A week from now is Election Day. How much longer than that until the election tally is decided? No one knows. How much longer than even that until we know who will be President for at least the next four years? No one knows. So what do we who hate Trump and Trumpism and who would celebrate his exit know?[Read More…]
It was July 2017, a few weeks before the “Unite the Right” Charlottesville riots, when white men marched through the streets of that Virginia city protesting the planned takedown of a confederate statue and chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” I was sitting at a coffee shop in my quiet town of Poulsbo in Washington State. I had set aside[Read More…]
Election politics in the US is a show of the politics the ruling classes in the country pursue. Presidential election politics is at times an apex point of that politics. The entire politics of the dominating classes in the country is a case for study of the bourgeois politics. A careful study of the politics tears down all masks and[Read More…]
Background to Bhima Koregaon Event The 1818 Battle of Koregaon is of importance for Dalits. On 1st January, 1818, 800 troops of the British Army, with large number of Mahars, Dalit Community of Maharashtra predominant among them, defeated a numerically superior force of the Peshwa Baji Rao II. A victory pillar (Vijay Sthamb) was erected in Koregaon by the British, commemorating[Read More…]
Among the many challenges India faces, the most underappreciated is the ongoing mental health crisis. Mental illness is actually India’s ticking bomb. An estimated 56 million Indians suffer from depression, and 38 million from anxiety disorders. For those who suffer from mental illness, life can seem like a terrible prison from which there is no hope of escape; they are[Read More…]
The most romantic and probably the only proletarian insurrection of the subcontinent is also the most tragic and the most damned. The Punnapra-Vayalar revolt of October 1946 was Travancore’s ill informed imitation of the Great October Revolution, misled by the Brahmin-Bhadralok leadership and un-Marxist Marxism it preached. The insurrection was based on a single, broad issue – the rejection of[Read More…]
INTRODUCTION My warmest salutes to Alpa Shah for writing her book ‘Night March’ of the Guerrillas. I hardly have an adjective to express my admiration for such a scholastic and creative work which is a vivid firsthand experience of her most penetrative travels in Jharkhand. Above all she was a very witness to the crusaders of liberation, living like one[Read More…]
Co-Written by Shradha Kumari Sikaria & Karen Lobo With thousands of animal cruelty cases being reported every day, this rising animal abuse is a very saddening, yet neglected issue happening worldwide, with people of various social and economic strata indulging in this heinous act. Between the years 2012 to 2016, about 24000 cases of animal cruelty were reported in India[Read More…]
A webinar was organised with major initiative of Indian Christians for Democracy on 25th October, Sunday, 2020 from 11.00 to 1.00 pm. Dr. Fr. Prakash Louis the founder of the Indian Christians for Democracy forum initiated, planned and executed this webinar. Roselle Solomon and Ranjan Solomon hosted the webinar. Dr. John Dayal moderated the webinar. The objectives of the webinar[Read More…]
Is international relations a field for cautious minds, marked by permanent setbacks, or terrain where the bold are encouraged to seize the day? In terms of dealing with the existential and even unimaginable horror that is nuclear war, the bold have certainly stolen a march. The signature of Honduras was the 50th required for the entry into force of the[Read More…]
There is a piece of news on an important anniversary missing from western state and corporate news. This year, 2020, is the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) army entering the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to help in, what the Chinese call, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. It is described by the[Read More…]
India is facing its worst crisis in its history. The Hindutva forces shaped by RSS and politically led by BJP are accelerating the crisis to undo liberal constitutional democracy in India. The political opposition is withering everyday with the help of media, puppet police, investigative agencies and judiciary. The Hindutva blue print is to declare India as a Hindu Rashtra[Read More…]
The impact of domestic violence, sexual and physical abuse on woman and young girls have been devastating for years. With the ongoing lockdown measures following the Covid-19 pandemic, complications have increased for the victims and also for organizations that provide support. The article raises awareness on this growing shadow pandemic. In the postmodern world torn by war and humanitarian crisis,[Read More…]
An estimated 730,000 Rohingyas had crossed into Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh three years ago in order to flee the persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Although the Rohingyas, who are currently residing in Bangladeshi camps as refugees, wish to return to their homes in Rakhine State, very little has been done to create a safe environment for their return. The challenges facing the Rohingya people, described by the United Nations as[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Anamika Roy, Dr. Chandrima Chatterjee & Dr. Parul Malik The tribal population of India comprises of the indigenous people dwelling in the hinterlands who are sometimes extremely susceptible to high levels of inaccessibility to health resources. The health inequalities which have been faced by these people are an evidence of the fundamental failure of the realization of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Krati Shrivastava, Dr. Parul Malik & Dr. Arathi P Rao Globalization with its worldwide economic, political and cultural integration has made the world a small village with the borders being dissolved between countries. It has had a positive aspect and has successfully brought the world closer, but simultaneously, it has also resulted in various important public health[Read More…]
“Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Go forward knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again where free men will walk to build a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the[Read More…]
The outdated notion that China ‘just wants to do business’ should be completely erased from our understanding of the rising global power’s political outlook. Simply put, Beijing has long realized that, in order for it to sustain its economic growth unhindered, it has to develop the necessary tools to protect itself, its allies and their combined interests. The need for[Read More…]
Here is a word that risks deterring you from reading on much further, even though it may hold the key to understanding why we are in such a terrible political, economic and social mess. That word is “externalities”. It sounds like a piece of economic jargon. It is a piece of economic jargon. But it is also the foundation stone[Read More…]
On 27th Oct 1951, Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar started his Punjab election tour from Jalandhar and addressed a gathering of lakhs of people. He had in his heart the pain of overcoming the crisis of his society which made him not giving priority to a government job. After getting higher education from England he came back and joined politics as[Read More…]
Caste plays a role at every stage of an Indian’s economic life: in school, university, the labor market, and into old age. The influence of caste extends beyond private economic activity into the public sphere, where caste politics determines access to public resources. Sure, there has been a convergence in education, occupations, income, and access to public resources across caste[Read More…]
Oh God! End this, the young man begged, As he lay on earth covered in mud, Streaks of hot blood pouring down his form And limbs that lay battered and numb. He knew he had done nothing wrong, He hadn’t snubbed or brought disdain. Yet they called him a “filthy sinner” As they struck his head with intense wrath.[Read More…]
To Shri R P Gupta Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Government of India Dear Shri Gupta, The National Environment Policy, 2006 (NEP) emphasises the need to conserve the rich biodiversity heritage of the country in the following statements. “Pay explicit attention to the potential impacts of development projects on biodiversity resources and natural heritage.[Read More…]
Muslim intellectuals and activists speaking at a webinar on Sunday the 25th of October, condemned the Paris beheading of a school teacher, Samuel Paty, by an 18-year-old Muslim fanatic, Abdullakh Anzorov. The webinar was organised by the Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD). Moderated by its convener, Javed Anand, all four panellists are office bearers and prominent members of IMSD.[Read More…]
For quite some time now, the word ‘ Bahujan ‘ has been used in politics instead of Dalits. According to the promoters of the Bahujan concept, the Bahujans include Dalits and Backward Classes. According to Kanshi Ram, Muslims are also involved and the number is 85%. According to their theory, the Bahujans should come together and take away power from[Read More…]
It is the time for entrance examinations in India. While I was preparing for an entrance, a good friend of mine, made a remark which affected me deeply, prompting me to write this. She says that people like me get into colleges easily and the very presence of me in the examination system is unjust and an indignity to merit.[Read More…]
For over two months after the independence from British rule and the subsequent partition of Indian subcontinent in August 1947, the Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir attempted to remain independent. While there was a war of words going on between Maharaja and the Government of Pakistan, the invasion of a large number of tribesmen from the North-West Frontier Province of[Read More…]
Title: India Dissents — 3,000 Years of Difference, Doubt and Argument Editor: Ashok Vajpeyi Publisher: Speaking Tiger, 2020 Every man loves liberty and freedom. Do not interfere with another’s freedom. – Gautam Buddha They say inside the heart of a black hole there is a point of singularity. A point of singularity is where no laws of nature exist, like[Read More…]
In 2016, Australian Major General Jeff Sengelman approached the then chief of the Australian army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell with a nagging worry. The concern lay in allegations that Australian special forces had committed various war crimes in Afghanistan. Sengelman was then special forces commander; Campbell was chief of the army. Sociologist Samantha Crompvoets was duly commissioned to write a[Read More…]
Donald Trump isn’t just inside the heads of his Trumpster base; he’s long been a consuming obsession among those yearning for his defeat in November. With barely more than a week to go before the election of our lifetime, those given to nail biting as a response to anxiety have by now gnawed ourselves down to the quick. And many[Read More…]
The most radical socialists; Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters (Black, White, Latino or Asian); liberal and conservative zealots; diversity and equity gurus; pacifists; denizens of corporates and non-profits; rappers, rockers and country western musicians; Bernie Sanders; racists and White guilt pushers; Baptists, Catholics, and Muslims; children; bland K-16 teachers; members of the military; indeed, every social, cultural, political and economic[Read More…]
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned continued attacks and incitement against Muslim sentiment and insults of Prophet Muhammad, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported. A statement by the 57-member pan-Islamic OIC criticized the “discourse from certain French politicians, which it deems to be harmful to the Muslim-French relations, hate-mongering and only serving partisan political interests.” It[Read More…]
Co-Written by Atul Bhardwaj and Inderjeet Parmar (This article is of interest not only in the context of US Presidential election, but how pro-US hawks in India indulging in jingoism, are taking Indian people for a ride, drawing India into US strategy against china.) As Donald Trump faces the possibility of a catastrophic electoral defeat in November 2020, he has[Read More…]
Several leading newspapers published from Patna appear biased in favour of BJP. In their coverage, they are giving a large share of space to the BJP. Their major focus is the speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several reports have come, singing praises for him. In return, the newspapers are rewarded with big advertisements. For example, several newspapers carried a[Read More…]
Suresh (Name changed) from West Bengal working as cleaner in a Hotel in Srinagar told me an ordeal of his life. “Cleaning is my job as I have opted for it and neither I regret doing it nor I feel disenchanted, but what hurts me when these so called elite knuckleheads (referring to room occupants) humiliate me on one pretext[Read More…]
Note: From a pro-democracy stand-point, this article attempts to provide some basic background for people who might not know much about Thai politics and who may be confused or alarmed by the current wave of protest that is confronting the Thai government (junta) and also the Monarchy itself. The aim is thus to increase understanding around the world that, right[Read More…]
SHAKESPEARE’S JULIUS CAESAR & AMERICA’S POLITICAL SYSTEM; TWO PARALLEL UNIVERSES The proceedings now have been concluded by the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings of President Trump’s nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Yet the indelible impression these hearings have left on this writer’s mind parallel those of William Shakespeare’s play[Read More…]
The principles and ideological commitments in politics, culture, religion and social practices breed culture of puritanism both in its progressive and regressive forms. The transformation of society to lead an exemplary life is the core in the politics of puritanism as a movement of divinity. Both right wing reactionaries and left-wing radicals use puritanism like applied theology to the concerns[Read More…]
When geopolitical power, malignant governance, military might and petroleum wealth determine the political pecking order, being a landlocked country on the right side of history is a minor detail. It is through this lens that global citizens may observe the tiny besieged Republic of Armenia fighting for its survival alone against neighboring aggressors, ISIS, civilian bombings, foreign actors provoking instability[Read More…]
In 2014, Joshy Joseph directed a long documentary called A Poet, A City & A Footballer which won him the Special Jury Prize at the national awards. The film is about juxtapositions, like night and day, abundant life and impending death, energy amidst decay, and silence that shouts to be heard. The film is a meditation on death, but it[Read More…]
With a long collective history and geographical proximity, the goal of forming an integrated vision for South Asian countries seems like a natural outcome. The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), formed in 1985, was an ambitious move to fulfil the goal of South Asian solidarity. The aim of SAARC was to “strengthen cooperation among themselves to accelerate economic[Read More…]
It is by now widely acknowledged in many circles that domestic work is work that is crucial to the maintenance and reproduction of society and yet is the most neglected area of work and is not even officially recognised as work. In the recent pandemic, while some work like that related to the health care sector was at the forefront[Read More…]
The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhahnom Ghebreyesus has warned: The northern hemisphere is at a critical juncture in the Covid pandemic, and some countries are on a dangerous track. “Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases,” putting hospital capacities at risk, he said. He urged leaders to take quick action to contain the virus’s spread. Europe is again[Read More…]
The U.S. Coronavirus (officially, Covid-19) cases have hit a record daily high as more than 83,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. on Friday. At the same time, scientists have warned that the U.S. approach to fight the Coronavirus pandemic and the inconsistent use of masks to prevent virus spread could lead to the cumulative loss of more than[Read More…]
Education is one of the most important instruments for the development and empowerment of any marginalized community. This plays an important role in gaining a respectful and dignified life within the society and also helpful for earning employment and money for the livelihood. Malcolm X was a famous African American human rights activist who says that ‘education is the passports[Read More…]
Co-Written by Parul Malik, Arathi P Rao, Urvashi Priyadarshini & Sudhamshi Beeram The WHO Health Promotion Glossary describes health literacy (HL) as the empowerment of the individuals to gain and apply health related knowledge effectively. It involves more than just ‘acquiring’ information about diseases and health conditions. It is influenced by socioeconomic, environmental, and demographic factors, as well as by[Read More…]
In Francis Ford Coppola’s second Godfather film we see Michael Corleone, head of the most powerful Mafia family in the country, having a ‘ tete de tete’ with Nevada Senator Pat Geary. The Senator, as crooked as the Corleones, is attempting to shake down Don Corleone over a Las Vegas casino license. When Don Corleone balks, Senator Geary gives him[Read More…]
The Symphony No 5 was inside Beethovan’s brain, when he first conceived it. A group of musicians invoke that experience, aurally, from the atmosphere every time they meet to perform. And a sound, non-existent before, suddenly acquires tones of flesh and blood. The cinema, like music, is an art of time, film makers have said. Rabindranath Tagore called it an[Read More…]
The world has reached its limit. Humanity no longer resists. Who dares to defend this order full of injustice, shame, catastrophes, depredation? In the name of whom or what? What –ism can you defend today? It only remains to delve into natural history and human history in search of the essence of the species. To try to overcome it by tracing[Read More…]
The U.S. presidential election debates show a lot of the country’s politics the ruling classes’ political representatives produce for public’s consumption – an act of manipulation of public psyche. Following are a few points from the latest debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two contending candidates from two factions of the same dominating classes: Wearing mask all the time[Read More…]
Through the panic, through the fear. I felt you there, you were near. Every message, every call. Every time I hit a wall. Every time the road would bend, Every time it was the end. I heard your voice through the noise. I heard you say that I would rise. Some drove by, left me to die. Some jumped in[Read More…]
Dante Alighieri Has Words for Donald J. Trump From the Other Side of Death For some time now, I’ve wanted to send Donald Trump to Hell. I mean this literally, not as a figure of speech. I want him to inhabit the palpable, sensory Hell that religions have long conjured up with scenes of sulfur, damnation, and screams of perpetual[Read More…]
Iran, Russia and electoral interference. It is all part of the delicious mess that any observer of US politics has come to expect. Were the US body politic capable of being examined on the clinician’s couch, historical fears, psychic disturbances, and a range of unsettling syndromes would be identified. The issue of electoral interference would certainly be at the fore;[Read More…]
Last night before dinner as I was deep-frying a batch of my favorite jalebi for dessert, Saroo Brierley’s face came to mind. Afterwards I found the 2016 movie Lion from my CD collection and watched it in bits and pieces. It tells a riveting story of how a hopelessly lost 5-year-old Saroo ends up from the slums of Khandwa, a[Read More…]
We have heard about ‘at a snail’s pace’ which normally describes slow action or movement especially when we think that doing it faster would be much more better. These days snails move faster than the State. It is possible to come to this conclusion even before the introduction if we assess the way our health system functions. We have a[Read More…]
In the new National Education Policy 2020 (hereinafter NEP), there has been a quantum leap towards neo-colonization of Indian education via privatization to further corporatization of education. There is a crucial need to understand this new dimension of the NEP. Significantly, under the NEP, foreign universities and foreign direct investment (FDI) have been allowed entry in the realm of higher[Read More…]
In its recent order Indian Union cabinet declared five languages as official languages in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The President of India, subsequently, put his seal of approval. These include English, Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri and Dogri. Urdu was originally the prime official language in the erstwhile state of J&K. As such, the new order implies Urdu[Read More…]
Today the International Communist Movement faces a major task of averting the crisis within the International Communist Movement of re-organizing the Communist International. It is plagued by many trends like Trotskyism, Post-modernism, Revisionism, ‘Avakianisim’ as well as ‘Gonzalo thought.’ In 1984, without subjecting factors prevailing, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement was formed. Without any sufficient development of Communist parties or Movement[Read More…]
Before writing anything on this subject, some discussion on this picture is necessary. As you can see, the person with black goggles and blue skins descending from the helicopter is Chandrashekhar Azad alias Ravana and below him is Pappu Yadav, a leader of Bihar accused of murder. This scene is probably from Patna in Bihar. This time in Bihar elections,[Read More…]
Murders, kidnapping, rape, police atrocities, sectarian violence, lynch mobs on the prowl. Welcome to a typical day in the life of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, lawless and politically important province, control over which holds the key to power nationally. India’s Uttar Pradesh (UP) province was in the headlines recently for yet another heinous crime – the gang rape and[Read More…]
There is news that in UK, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled (17/10/2020) 50 Pence ‘Diversity coin’ to celebrate Britain’s diverse history and recognise the profound contribution minority communities have made to the shared history of the country. The coin carries the message “Diversity Built Britain”. This is in the backdrop of the campaign led by ‘We too built Britain’ group.[Read More…]
Amidst the increase in the numbers of massacres and murders of social leaders and former members of the then Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) a nation-wide strike has gripped Colombia since Wednesday. The strike has hit the country’s main cities. Supported by peasant organizations, women, Afro-descendant and LGBTI communities and student groups, the mobilizations will be peaceful[Read More…]
In theory, Europe and the United States stand on completely opposite sides when it comes to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. While the US government has fully embraced the tragic status quo created by 53 years of Israeli military occupation, the EU continues to advocate a negotiated settlement that is predicated on respect for international law. In practice, however, despite[Read More…]
It is good to see Jharkhand chief Minister Hemant Soren speaking so powerfully against the arrest of Father Stan Swamy. Many other voices are speaking against his arrest. The 81 year old Stan has been working in Jharkhand for years and has Center at Bagaicha has been a place for the Adivasis particularly those who have been victim of the[Read More…]
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the root of the verb protest is “to make a solemn declaration” or as a noun it refers to a pledge. Throughout The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Mohandas Gandhi notes the oaths he carried with him at various lengths. In Part One: Chapter VIII, he resolves to never steal again after he began[Read More…]
The dismantling of European colonialism in Asia and Africa seven decades ago and then the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late eighties led to the formation of many new independent nation states. From a mere 51 countries in 1945 the membership of the United Nations has grown to 195 currently. The path to independence for many of these[Read More…]
That with deep color was the area that was original stronghold of the movement. Those in lighter color were areas where the guerilla movement expanded after Police Action of 1948 September. Hyderabad princely state was spread over 83,000 square miles, about half of which was Telangana. (The map is taken from P. Sundarayya’s 1972 book.) Telangana Armed Struggle (1946-51)[Read More…]
Written by Betty Biju Varghese & Tanya Sadiza Do you often sit and marvel at videos of professional chefs making beautiful, mouth-watering dishes? Do you get this instant motivation to get up from that sofa and make a dish from scratch? Have you started cooking or mastering your culinary techniques during this pandemic? If you answered “yes” to any of[Read More…]
Don’t tell me You’re ‘like’ A mother to me A sister to me A daughter to me Or compare me To a deity Like Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi My heart beats Because of me Because I am my own Identity Shailaja Rao, Core Member, Dhanak of Humanity (NGO) SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Introduction PUCL organised a virtual Press Conference on 21st October, 2020 to condemn the illegal arrest of Fr. Stan Swamy of Jharkhand and 15 other activists in the Bhima Koregaon case. The Press Conference was to create a platform for different civil society groups and political parties to jointly condemn the brazen abuse of UAPA by the Central Government[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Parul Malik, Prabhu Dutta Shaw and Dr. Arathi P Rao Sanitizing agents or biocides play an essential role in cleaning and disinfecting and are widely used for environmental and personal disinfection in both- the healthcare and the non-healthcare settings. They are also extensively used to disinfect the areas associated with food production and livestock, such as equipment,[Read More…]
Savita Kumari of Rasulpur village of Pindra Block of Varanasi District of Uttar Pradesh was blessed to be born in a lower middle class Other Backward Caste family. She is studying in 9th standard in the village high school. Since the family is engaged in agriculture and milk sale, she has enough to eat and carry on her studies. During[Read More…]
Vaishnav jan to tene kahiye je Peed paraayi jaane re Par-dukhkhe upkaar kare toye Man abhimaan na aane re (Vaishnava) One who is a Vaishnav (Devotee of Vishnu) Knows the pain of others Does good to others without letting pride enter his mind. — Vaishnava-janatho-(With-English-Translation) It is a 600 years old devotional poem by Gujrati poet-saint Narsinh Mehta and we know[Read More…]
With the exception of decent New Zealand and arguably Australia, the rich, European countries of the US Alliance have been involved in deliberate, intentional Gerocide in which their sustained, deliberate, Covid-19 pandemic policies resulted in overwhelmingly elderly “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” that were 10-180 times greater than that obtaining in New Zealand. Indict Trump and Johnson for Gerocide[Read More…]
Venezuela is no stranger to protests, registering thousands of demonstrations, rallies and strikes each year. As of October 1, about 7000 protests had occurred this year (roughly 25 a day), according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflicts. Unlike before, these protests have by and large not taken place in right-wing opposition strongholds nor necessarily demanded the removal of President[Read More…]
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (22 May 1772- 27 Sept., 1833), known as the “Maker of Modern India” and “Father of the Bengal Renaissance”, advocated the study of English, Science, Western Medicine and Technology. For this objective he established the Hindu College in Kolkata in 1817. His progressive views were bitterly opposed by the orthodox Hindus. However, after some years his[Read More…]
In our student days a large part of the year was consumed by three long spells of holidays. The year started after the Christmas vacations which were long, but not as long as the summer vacations in May-June. The Puja vacations were the shortest but in many ways the most exciting. Durga or Kali Puja in the small towns of[Read More…]
When the United Nations was created after the World War II, one of its purposes was spelt out in Article 1 [2] of the UN Charter as:” To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples “ And Article 55 of the UN Charter provides that, “With a view to[Read More…]
Twenty-five percent (25%) of the Northern Hemisphere is permafrost. By all appearances, it is melting well beyond natural background rates, in fact, substantially! Making matters much, much worse, new research has identified past warming events of large-scale permafrost thaw in the Arctic that may be analogous to today, thus spotting a parallel problem of large-scale thawing accompanied by massively excessive[Read More…]
“Look, folks, the air quality is in the red zone today. The EPA says that means people with lung or heart issues should avoid prolonged activity outdoors.” That was J.R. de Vera, one of two directors of UNITE-HERE!’s independent expenditure campaign to elect Biden and Harris in Reno, Nevada. UNITE-HERE! is a union representing 300,000 workers in the hospitality industry — that[Read More…]
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is facing potential extradition to the United States for exposing the US empire’s war crimes. Assange faces charges under the US Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The warrant lists 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act on which he could be jailed for up to 175 years, and one count of conspiracy with Chelsea Manning[Read More…]
The Bolivia-victory says: We return. We, the people, return crossing ages, foiling frontiers, crushing conspiracies the Empire and its gang of imperialists hatch. Following the latest Bolivia-election-victory Evo Morales, the guerrilla turned lead fighter in a bourgeois-electoral arena, has vowed: “We’re going to return to Bolivia; that’s not in debate.” The former president of Bolivia announced: My great desire is[Read More…]
NEW DELHI, October 20: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has appealed to the Government of India to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and NGOs, and their ability to carry out their crucial work on behalf of the many groups they represent.In a statement issued in Geneva on Tuesday, Bachelet expressed regret at the tightening of[Read More…]
To The Honourable Governor of Odisha Raj Bhavan,Bhubaneswar Sub :To protect tribal community land in Nawarangapur district Esteemed Rajyapal ji, In different parts of schedule areas in Odisha the district administration,the state govt and responsible officers do not honour the rights of tribals and their community rights over natural resource in accordance to laws and constitutional provisions specially the power[Read More…]
Standing for justice is bad news for the powers that be. That is why the arrest of the 83-year old Jesuit Stan Swamy had to come sometime because he has fought for justice all his life. But when it really came it shocked those who know him. It had to come because shooting the messenger of justice is basic to[Read More…]
As we sat on the crowded Tagore beach in Karwar with outstretched legs, we are beseeched by the Kulfi sellers to have a Kulfi while watching a sunset. It is a difficult proposition to refuse. We give in and come to know that these Kulfi sellers on the beaches of Karwar riding on their cycles are all from the same[Read More…]
A new study reveals that a large percentage of people globally are hesitant to take a COVID 19 vaccine if and when it is made available. Researchers from The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) conducted a survey in 19 countries that have been hard-hit by the virus, in June 2020 to determine potential acceptance rates and factors influencing acceptance[Read More…]
India entered the year 2020 when the world was grappling with Coronavirus (Covid-19). There were only a few hundred cases when India hosted U.S. President Donald Trump and people assembled in thousands to rally behind Modi to host a right-wing leaning Trump and to make him feel at home, this time more than ever. Then, protests started happening all over India against[Read More…]
Dr. G. N. Saibaba, a professor in Delhi University, is incarcerated under the draconian UAPA since 2014 and is in Nagpur Jail. He has 90% disability and this prolonged suffering in jail, under an abysmal condition with inadequate medical treatment, has produced grave physical ailments including gradual paralysis of his arms due to neglect. Repeated denial of parole or[Read More…]
Jammu and Kashmir Estates Department today sealed the office of Kashmir Times in Srinagar that was allotted to it in a government building in Press Enclave that houses several other newspaper offices in similar buildings. The office was sealed late this afternoon without serving any cancellation or eviction notice to Kashmir Times or following any due process of law. Nothing[Read More…]
Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies Toward the end of Joe Biden’s October 15 town hall session, a Trump supporter asked Biden the only foreign policy question of the night. “So peace is breaking out all over the world,” the questioner claimed. “Our troops are coming home. Serbia is talking to Kosovo. And the Arabs and Israelis[Read More…]
It was all a fitting reminder of Bertolt Brecht’s remark that bank robbery lies in the province of amateurs. The real professionals of plunder establish banks. Last month, the labours of Buzzfeed and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed just that. Centre stage: international banking misbehaviour. And my, was there much to go on. The journalists had been combing[Read More…]
Wherever we lift one soul from a life of poverty, we are defending human rights. And whenever we fail in this mission, we are failing human rights. — Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General Among other items “proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,” the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “… human beings[Read More…]
Time impacts everyone but there are very few who influence time and change the course of history. In the galaxy of 19th century Muslim Reformers, Sir Syed Ahmad khan holds a distinguished place. He was the man of great faculty and vision. Sir Syed was the owner of a multi-sided personality. He was a dignified intellectual, an eminent philosopher, a great[Read More…]
Source: India Ministry of Livestock,2019 Sources: Live Mint, a web portal news service,2019. Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the national election in 2014, India has seen an outbreak of religious hate crimes against Muslims, lower caste Hindus, and Christians. , with an average of one happening every[Read More…]
A year after former Bolivian president Evo Morales was ousted in a military coup that installed a far-right regime, Morales ally Luis Arce declared victory after exit polls showed the socialist candidate with a large advantage over his two main competitors. “Democracy has won,” Arce, who served as Morales’ finance minister, said in an address to the nation after one[Read More…]
Fighting in the Caucasus between Azerbaijan and Armenia is about much more than deep-seated ethnic divisions and territorial disputes. It’s the latest clash designed, at least in part, to shape a new world order. The stakes for Azerbaijan, backed if not egged on by Turkey, are high as the Azeri capital’s Baku International Sea Trade Port seeks to solidify its[Read More…]
An unassailable present Rajapakshas Government could rule for another ten years and possibly more if the 20th Amendment finds its way in the Constitution. An entrenched dynastic rule appears to be looming partly contributed by dishevelled and splintered opposition from UNP and United Peoples Action parties along with contribution from the disunitedly wrangling self-centered Tamil political parties numbering seventeen with seventeen leaders[Read More…]
The pandemic has shaken up the neoliberalism as an economic project of capitalism. The economic architecture of neoliberalism based on austerity, liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation has failed to provide basic dignity of life in terms of basic health, education, home and food security. The rise of unemployment, hunger and homeless are the direct products of neoliberal economic policies followed[Read More…]
We speak of women empowerment and emancipation, yet it is a dictum of truism that being a man is an advantageous position in the society and so to say paradoxically a woman is more vulnerable. The relative existence of the fair gender is itself a manifestation of the plethora of issues that they face and physical aggression/violence is the gravest[Read More…]
‘Hindutva’, a political ideology of unity and patriotism on the face and fist with bigotry and casteism in blood and brain. At the outset, ‘Hindutva’ was never intended to be a benign or inclusive geo-cultural construct but, it was a political ideology that sought to cement an idea of homogenous people, united by their loyalty, geography, race and religion. Its[Read More…]
Roughly 3 out of 4 American billionaires have seen a rise in their net worths. Elon Musk alone has tripled his net worth during the pandemic. Michael Hobbes, Senior Enterprise Reporter, The Huffington Post, wrote in The Huffington Post: “Other than Netflix, Andrew Cuomo and the virus itself, no one has benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic more than American billionaires.[Read More…]
It was highly probable. Given the howls of concern that social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook nurse and nurture a bias (every choice on content entails one), a gift was made to critics to show just that. Last Wednesday, Twitter prevented users from posting links to a New York Post story. The story, claimed Twitter, was “potentially unsafe,”[Read More…]
Laal Juto (Red Shoes, Bangla, 23 minutes, 35 mm, colour), adapted from a short story by the iconic Bengali writer, artist and intellectual Kamal Kumar Majumdar, is about 15-year-old Nitish who goes to a shoe shop to buy shoes for himself. What Nitish had not bargained for is a self-discovery leading to a change in his feelings towards Gouri, his[Read More…]
In recent years, many territories’ declarations of independence have been justifiably affirmed through international agreements. The Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh’s declaration of independence from Azerbaijan three decades ago is as legitimate as any of those. Artsakh is the republic’s ancient Armenian name. Artsakh and Christian Armenia have been under attack by Azerbaijan, Turkey, jihadist terrorists, and ISIS since September 27. [Read More…]
With the advent of the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the country, whose love for the game of cricket knows no bounds, found its much-seeked, collective escape for more than a month and a half. The notion of sport providing a hiatus from the hassles of our everyday life is certainly true, and for many sports aficionados,[Read More…]
The so-called Age of Trump is also an age of instantly forgotten bestselling books, especially ones purporting to provide the inside scoop on what goes on within Donald Trump’s haphazard and continuously shifting orbit. With metronomic regularity, such gossipy volumes appear, make a splash, and almost as quickly vanish, leaving a mark no more lasting than a trout breaking the[Read More…]
“It could be days. It could be weeks until we find out who the new president is…. Will you urge your supporters to stay calm during this extended period, not to engage in any civil unrest? And will you pledge tonight that you will not declare victory until the election has been independently certified?” If those words sound familiar, it’s[Read More…]
The untouchable body is touched until it can be touched no more, touched so often and in so many ways, just to purge you of fears She is powerful for she is woman, you make of her an anthem, her breasts are in mourning, her tortured cries haunt your ripped manhood’s Her sisters are bodies draped over mango trees, gargoyles[Read More…]
The gruesome murder of a French school teacher in a Paris suburb on Friday is yet another pointer to the spirit of Jihadi Islam being conjured up by the young generation to set in a troubling spectre of violence and terror in the name of ‘faith and commitment.’ Sadly—but not surprisingly—Muslim Ulama across the world still remain silent on such[Read More…]
The mainstream media has once failed to critically examine Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement in which he claimed that “the happiest Muslims are indeed those of India” (Sabse adhik sukhi musalman Bharat desh ke hi hain”). Some of them have even published a few articles in praise of Bhagwat and the RSS. Ironically, at the time of[Read More…]
For many, the pandemic has renewed our innate appreciation for and connection to nature. People have taken to growing food on windowsills and in backyard and community gardens. We’re cultivating yeasts to bake bread and getting outside more to walk, run, swim and cycle. In the face of uncertainty, nature brings solace and sustenance. Research shows time spent in forests — and[Read More…]
Today the state of Punjab is hit with an agricultural crisis with the Green Revolution making superficial or cosmetic reforms. No way was the essence or base of feudalism hit with money lenders and commission agents still in the fray and dalit labourers still denied their rightful share of 1,3rd panchayat land. Remunerative prices promised have not been paid[Read More…]
Why Bihar Assembly election 2020 is Important? There are three reasons that made Bihar Assembly 2020 an epitome in India. First, a crucial assembly election during Covid -2019 when digital consultations were given due recognition. Second, the absence of two political veterans-Lalu Prasad Yadav and Late Ram Vilas Paswan from political podiums in the state. Third, digital participation and its[Read More…]
Co-Written by MD Tabrez Alam & Dr Md Afroz The new pandemic Covid-19 engulfed entire world with high and low intensity differing country wise. India has severely affected reached at 2nd most cases in the world. It brought lots of challenges at the same time compelled to restructure the governance system. The use of Information and communications technology (ICTs) ensure[Read More…]
It was praised by Michael Clarke, former Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute, as “clear and entire laudable” – at least up to a point. The UK Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill would “give [British] troops serving overseas much-needed extra protection against fraudulent or frivolous claims against them of criminal behaviour.” It was also part of a[Read More…]
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg had strong words for the abstract stance the Unites States Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett took during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. In answer to the question: What about climate change? Barrett responded: “I have read things about climate change,” then warily emphasizing that she is not a scientist: “I would not say I[Read More…]
Our republic is being crucified by minions of evil portraying themselves as patriots. Yes, to all those like this writer who see through this Military Industrial Empire, regardless of which party runs it: The nails have been driven deeper than ever before! The far right push that began this Proto Fascist surge was baptized during the 1970s, culminated by[Read More…]
Today, October 17th 2020 – the International day for the eradication of poverty the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) expresses solidarity with hundreds of millions of people suffering under the COVID-19 pandemic. Communities worldwide are being pushed deeper into poverty, precarious existence and inequalities – with a massive loss of paid- and self-employment and livelihoods as well as[Read More…]
The number of people affected and displaced by conflicts and natural disasters has almost doubled over the past decade and continues to rise. Climate crisis is a major driver and amplifier of disaster risks and losses, even as armed conflicts compel hordes of people to flee their homes in search of safety. Slow onset disasters, like extreme temperatures and droughts,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Arathi P Rao, Dr. Sudhamshi Beeram, Dr. Parul Malik and Dr. Urvashi Priyadarshini The fight against the threats of COVID -19 pandemic has profoundly impacted almost all sectors of mankind. The field of education is a deeply affected strata, with closures of educational institutions and emergency distance-learning plans turning the teachers’ routines and student interactions totally upside down.[Read More…]
Co-Written by K Rajasekharan Nayar; Arathi P Rao; Lekha D Bhat; Anant Kumar and Parul Malik The World Health Organization has recently published the latest World Tuberculosis Report (2020) and there are many trends which are of serious concern regarding elimination of this age-old disease from the world (1). At one time, the Tuberculosis did not even spare some very[Read More…]
Other than rock, water, and ice, our world consists entirely of ecosystem products and services, those biologically essential constructions of the ecosphere that keep everything alive and functioning. From our myopic human perspective, we tend to view these as global commons, as human ecosystem services that keep humans alive and functioning. This ignores the fact that they are the very[Read More…]
The rising incidence of gag orders by various powerful accused men in sexual assault and harassment cases has been of immense concern, especially because of the manner in which it shields them and further victimises the victims/complainants in these cases. A statement from the Network of Women in Media, India, draws attention to this and urges media houses to continue[Read More…]
Donald Trump has just gotten caught saying those who served, and especially those who died in combat, were “losers” and “suckers.” Not a terribly astute thing to say when you’re the Command-in-Chief of the US Empire. Now, obviously, the men and women who have served in this nation’s military have not been losers and suckers; while some have been folks[Read More…]
Political scientists Alan Chong and Quang Min Pham bring with their edited volume, Critical Reflections on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), originality as well as dimensions and perspectives to the discussion about the Belt and Road that are highly relevant but often either unrecognized or underemphasized. The book is about much more than the material aspects of China’s Belt[Read More…]
This essay is dedicated to the example of Father Stan Swamy, S. J. Briefly and simply put, Liberation Theology is a school of thinking which proclaims that methods of direct action are at times necessary for the material and spiritual liberation of the poor and powerless; that prayer and persuasion have to be occasionally accompanied by frontal assault to produce[Read More…]
PUCL Maharashtra condemns the caste-based brutal rape and murder of the young Dalit woman from Hathras, UP, by upper caste men and the deliberate mishandling of the case, including delayed FIR, medical examination and burning of the body and destruction of evidence by state authorities. PUCL Maharashtra condemns the even more reprehensible act of the UP government to create a[Read More…]
Dear Rachael Maskell MP, I am William Nicholas Gomes; I am your constituent and a human rights activist and freelance journalist. I am writing about the Indian Jesuit priest and human rights defender, Fr Stan Swamy SJ, who has been taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India for alleged Maoist links. Fr Stan is 83 years old[Read More…]
The NIA probe in the Bhima Koregaon case has revealed that mass mobilization of militant Dalit and Muslim forces is happening against the government. ‘According to NIA, the documents seized from (Rona) Wilson mentioned that Dalits and Muslims must come together to build a major anti-fascist front in the Indian subcontinent as soon as possible.’ These documents are evidence against[Read More…]
Background The fourth batch of Yemeni detainees has arrived the in Sana’a as part of the largest prisoner swap between the country’s warring sides. The residents in the capital received 112 prisoners after their plane landed in the Sana’a international airport. 1081 men will be released in two days. A two-day prisoner swap between Yemen’s warring sides is underway. The[Read More…]
Why should we support or pull down the Indian Americans running for US Congress or Senate? The answer is simple, almost all Indian Americans have families back in our motherland, and we must support and elect candidates who subscribe to American values. You and I came to America and have cherished this nation for its values of freedom, equal opportunities,[Read More…]
Jetel living in a village at Jagdalpur district of Chattisgarh state, has been incriminated for his faith in Jesus Christ. He had been receiving many warnings and threatening to recant his faith, and adopt his older ways when he was a Hindu. A mob of around 25-30 people went to his home, verbally abused and threatened him to forsake Christ.[Read More…]
Since the hungry billion in the world community believe that we can all eat if we set our common house in order, they believe also that it is unjust that some men die because it is too much trouble to arrange for them to live. Stringfellow Barr Citizens of the World (1954) World Food Day was set by[Read More…]
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (17 October 1817- 27 March 1898) holds significant importance in Indian history- as an educationist, historiographer, journalist, social reformer, and the founder of Mohammadan Anglo Oriental (MAO) College, which became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. But this does not end here. He was, in real sense a catalyst for reconstruction of his community, an advocate of[Read More…]
The Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr. G. N. Saibaba appeals to the Nagpur Central Jail authorities to provide Dr. G. N. Saibaba with adequate medical care, books and letters immediately! The Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr. G. N. Saibaba is pained to hear that Dr. G. N. Saibaba will be going on hunger strike[Read More…]
Doha peace talks, held in September of 2020, between the Afghan government and Taliban, led by peace council chairman Abdullah Abdullah and Mullah Baradar Akhund respectively, is a remarkable advancement towards the establishment of peace in Afghanistan, despite the fact that it is still difficult to say about when the ongoing conflicts started with the USA invasion in 2001 after[Read More…]
The recent discussions on AMU’s minority status and misinformation among the people has virtually forced me to reiterate some facts to the various stakeholders. It is ironic that many alumni and the existing students of the AMU are unaware of the facts and reality. Normally three basic questions are raised by the people namely: (i) AMU was not established by[Read More…]
The public health experts, or at least some of them, have begun to put the cat among the pigeons. And the latter are not exactly happy about it. We can witness all the fluttering and flapping in countries such as UK, USA and India. In UK, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is up against the Boris Johnson government[Read More…]
Radhika a chirpy teenager, enters puberty. As she was dealing with the physical changes she was hit by a tsunami of blood in her pants; life was never the same thereafter. There was a one-hour lecture on the do’s and don’ts and the rules and rituals to be followed, half of which were totally meaningless and could not be justified,[Read More…]
There is an ancient proverb in Bengali language – ‘bangalir baro mashey tero parbon’ i.e bengali people have 13 festivals in 12 months. However these numbers are gradually increasing after the fall of Left government in West Bengal. Bengal had some popular religious festivals, , like Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Saraswati Puja, Laxmi Puja, Jagadhatri Puja, Viswa Karma Puja etc.[Read More…]
In July 2017, two journalists working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, wrote of a stash of incriminating documents, running into hundreds of pages. They were “secret defence force documents leaked to the ABC”. These documents gave “an unprecedented insight into the clandestine operations in Australia’s elite special forces in Afghanistan, including incidents of troops killing[Read More…]
Co-Written by Romana Rubeo & Ramzy Baroud A Zionist-led war on a Palestinian cultural festival in Rome has exposed the fragility of the Italian political system when it comes to the conversation on Palestine and Israel. The sad truth is that, although Italy is not often associated with a ‘powerful’ pro-Israel lobby as is the case in Washington, the pro-Israel[Read More…]
Climate activists all over the world have been working to try and use the huge Covid opportunity to help to finally transition off fossil fuels. Most have been piggybacking on the Green New Deal framework proposed by the Democrats in the US. How could a plan to invest in a Green New Deal for Australia be serious mis-education of Australians[Read More…]
News is “faked”; elections are “rigged”; a “deep state” plots a “coup”; Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died suspiciously in bed with a pillow over his face; aides of ex-president Barack Obama conspire to undermine foreign policy from a “war room”; Obama himself was a Muslim mole; the National Park Service lied about the size of the crowd at the president’s inauguration;[Read More…]
Strangely enough, the limit we seem to be reaching with respect to fossil fuel extraction comes from low prices. At low prices, the extraction of oil, coal, and natural gas becomes unprofitable. Producers go bankrupt, or they voluntarily cut back production in an attempt to force prices higher. As the result of these forces, production tends to fall. This limit comes long[Read More…]
The Republic of Georgia’s airspace is used by Turkey and Israel to support Azerbaijan in its war against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Flight from Libya to Baku, Azerbaijan, September 30, 2020 Using Georgian Airspace One need only review how many Turkish military transport flights from Libya, Turkey, and those transporting Syrian Jihadists are archived on sites such as[Read More…]
It’s better to stay away from poetics to present in prose someone who wrote in verse that his poems have no forewords, critical studies or words of adulation. My patron saint in this endeavour is Malayalam writer N S Madhavan, who dribbles with words when he writes on football,a style interspersed with quotes and blows of vuvuzela. One can take[Read More…]
October 15, 2020, was Thomas Sankara’s 33rd death anniversary. On this day, he was murdered by imperialist forces at the tender age of 37. A Pan-Africanist, internationalist and Marxist, he was committed to the total liberation of the oppressed masses from the clutches of imperialism. Instead of bourgeoisie nationalism, Sankara believed in radical nationalism: a combination of anti-imperialist courage and unabashed[Read More…]
Recently, when a 17-year-old Santal girl from an indigenous tribe in Rajshahi, Bangladesh went to cut grass for her family’s cattle in the pasture, she had no idea that danger was lurking around the corner. The danger was not that she was going to get attacked by a wild animal, but from a human predator disguised as a priest in[Read More…]
Perhaps the government is being driven by the bad advice given by the World Bank. The bank and other mulilateral agencies like the United Nations are driven by the interests of the industrial countries. The governments of the countries, in turn, are driven by the multinational corporations. These corporations have no interest in developing manufacturing in India. Minister for[Read More…]
Teresa Rehman is a journalist with a difference. She is woman who feels and conquers with her pen. She does not hanker for anything more than being the spokesperson for voices in the remote areas of North-eastern India. In that spirit, she started her own magazine: The Thumb Print, and also wrote a couple of books which have found their way[Read More…]
The economic and health crises which we are now experiencing form part of a more global systemic crisis, a consequence of the degeneration of our socio-economic order. Behind this degeneration lies (among other factors) climate change, ecosystemic destabilisation and reduced availability of materials and energy. What we have experienced in the last few months (huge fires in Australia, California and[Read More…]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an expert in infectious diseases for the last four decades, told CNBC’s Shepard Smith Monday evening that it was more critical than ever to do these five things: wear a mask, social distance, avoid crowded spaces, do things outdoors where possible, and wash your[Read More…]
When once for my fellowmen I shed a drop of tear, The hale of a thousand suns Arises in my soul When once for my fellowmen I expend a hearty smile, A full –blown moon of purest ray Forever floods my heart But all these days I knew it not, This ineffable Joy; And brooding over that heavy loss I[Read More…]
After Dana Majhi in 2016, an Adivasi of Kalahandi who travelled for 10 km with dead body of his wife on shoulder, this time it is Kabir Bhoi, a land less Dalit Labour of Satyabadi block of Puri district, is in news for similar miserable plight. He carried his ailing wife on a Trolley for 90 km. from Sakhigopal to[Read More…]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t mince his words at this month’s opening of parliament. In his first assertion of a claim to a lost non-Turkic part of the Ottoman empire, Mr. Erdogan declared that Jerusalem is Turkish. “In this city, which we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across[Read More…]
“Compassion has no place in the natural order of the world, which operates on the basis of necessity. The laws of necessity are as unexceptional as the laws of gravitation. The human faculty of compassion opposes this order and is therefore best thought of as being in some way supernatural. To forget oneself, however briefly, to identify with a stranger[Read More…]
“Even though I was born in the Hindu religion, I will not die in the Hindu religion–this oath I made earlier; yesterday, I proved it true. I am happy; I am ecstatic!” -Dr.Ambedkar, October 15, 1956, after accepting Buddhism the earlier day at Nagpur While I was doing my engineering degree at the fag end of the 90s, I became[Read More…]
Persecution Relief registered yet another attack to christian worship meetings that happened on October 11 at Babupur Village in Sabour C.D. Block, Bhagalpur district of Bihar. “Around 10 AM we were going to start our Sunday Worship at a leased hut in Babupur, Bhagalpur district of Bihar. Soon enough, few fanatics barged in shouting “you can’t conduct the meeting!” They[Read More…]
From the life and times of the State executioner, Nata Mullick (which was the subject of an earlier documentary, One Day From A Hangman’s Life), the Calcutta-based Films Division filmmaker, Joshy Joseph, transported us to the life and times of a young Manipuri named Tom Sharma, by means of Making The Face, a shorter film but which nonetheless took a[Read More…]
October 15 is marked as Global handwashing day. Development agencies like UNICEF and WHO have been advocating it for many years now, and they starter marking this day, but were unable to reach masses, but with this Corona Virus, which taught all of us importance of handwashing and use of sanitizer. Use of sanitizer is new practice which people have[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sudhamshi Beeram, Parul Malik & Arathi P Rao The term “globalization” used in a variety of contexts over the years is mostly debated to be an evolution across the fields of economy and industry and as the bridging of geographical gaps. It is essentially a functional integration of the global population (Lee & Collin, 2001) and according to[Read More…]
Abstract Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 is a basic and most significant document. It is not only about indivisible, inalienable, basic human rights. Several people in South Asia discredit human rights as the foreign, Eurocentric, or Western and the male concept, however, in contradiction, this piece argues that firstly, the human rights as proclaimed in the UDHR is[Read More…]
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Right to Education Forum (ORTEF) has drawn the attention of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik against closure of Government neighborhood schools in the name of rationalization. Showing its concern about newspaper reports on closure of government primary and upper primary schools, ORTEF – an informal network of civil society organizations and individuals working on the issues of right[Read More…]
The Kashmir dispute has been a bone of contention between two nuclear armed neighbouring nations and has involved a third neighbouring armed nation in this Frey. This dispute has not only halted any long term healthy relationship between India and Pakistan but also led them into three major wars since their birth. This issue has not only given birth to[Read More…]
The Corona crisis has reminded humans once again that they are just one species in nature like any other species – a truth they always tend to forget, knowingly or unknowingly. Nature had been enabling the evolution, sustenance and growth of millions of life species over millions of years that resulted into a grand, unified web of life. The secret[Read More…]
A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, which discusses the question of how oligarchs maintain their grasp on an excessive share of wealth and power when, as Shelley pointed out, the have-nots are many, while the power-holders are few. http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Ye-are-Many-They-are-Few-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf The Peterloo Massacre Rise, like lions after slumber In unvanquishable number![Read More…]
We are living in the age of digital era when consumption of politics and political activities are become inevitable because we are all carrying a platform in shape of smartphones of having features of social media. These social media apps are nonetheless unlike a platform where almost all political parties have their representations more or less or in other sense,[Read More…]
The Abraham Accord signed recently between Israel on the one hand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain on the other, is touted as a peace deal. They were not at war. There was peace between them and much behind the scenes cooperation, reportedly for the last decade. Reports have it that the Accord promises Israel millions of dollars[Read More…]
There are a number of social media posts propagating the falsehood that the soldiers of a ‘Muslim Regiment’ of our Indian army had refused to fight against the Pakistan Army during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, and that the ‘Muslim Regiment’ was thereafter disbanded ( the word used in the tweets is ‘dismantled’). We are all aware of the security problems[Read More…]
I would regard anyone as my leader a) whom I have met personally, b) with whom I work or interact directly face to face on a more or less daily basis c) has proved themselves friendly, kind, sympathetic, compassionate and giving. I only trust someone who demonstrates behaviour in accordance with the positive human virtues and eschews negative actions. They[Read More…]
China’s top diplomat has urged neighboring states to guard against Washington’s geopolitical ambitions in Asia and called for regional cooperation to thwart foreign provocations in the South China Sea. Media reports said: Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister, said during a joint news conference with his Malaysian counterpart that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should work together[Read More…]
Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch’s son and daughter-in-law are two of the biggest backers of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign, federal filings show. James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn Murdoch each contributed $615,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in June, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Biden Victory Fund splits donations between Biden’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee and[Read More…]
A Year ago, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat had stated (October 10, 2019) that Indian Muslims are happiest in the World due to Hindus. Now he goes on to say that most content Muslims are only in India. Not content with that he went on to state that “if there is any example world over wherein a foreign religion that ruled[Read More…]
The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world’s leading arms dealer. It dominates the global trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the endlessly war-torn Middle East. There, believe it or not, the U.S. controls nearly half the arms market. From Yemen to Libya to Egypt, sales by this country and its allies are[Read More…]
What is the price of this view? One of our big challenges in wildlife conservation is to stop poaching and habitat degradation which leads to animal human conflict which always has only one ending, destruction of the animal. The backbone of the conservation team in a Reserve Forest or a National Park is the Forest Guard. This individual lives inside[Read More…]
There have been several rounds of talks between India and China but peace on the border continues to be more elusive. It is because we are trying to deal with the consequence of the conflict without trying to address its cause. It is intriguing why China suddenly turned so hostile despite Modi-Jinping unprecedented bonhomie. The cause of 1962 war was[Read More…]
Co-Written by Badre Alam Khan and Wasim Ahasan Historically, Bihar has been the birth place of several social and political movements. For instance, the “Total Revolution” led by Jaiprakash Narayan had taken deeper roots in Bihar that posed a serious threat to the autocratic government of the then Indira Gandhi at the Centre. In response to that Ms. Gandhi had[Read More…]
Dileswari, who is earning praise from locals for her dedication during the lockdown, underpins the importance of education and why it cannot wait till the schools reopen Balangir, Odisha: At the height of the pandemic, Dileswari Dharua, a 21-year-old intermediate college student from Balangir district hails as a Good Samaritan for her dedication in teaching the academically low performing children,[Read More…]
India has roughly five crore incapacitated people. Persons with Disabilities (PwD) could in fact be as high as 5 – 6% of the total population. Almost half of them are uneducated and a significant number of that populace lives in rural areas. Differently-abled people deserve to progress in all facets of life- whether it is physical, economic, or social. They[Read More…]
CDRO is shocked to hear the news of the arrest of Father Stan Swamy in connection with the infamous Bhima-Koregaon (BK) case. We note with disgust that Father Stan Swamy is the latest victim of the witch hunt operation carried out by the BJP-government in the name of BK case. It is a well-known fact today that the NIA,[Read More…]
It is only down to the doggedness of the campaign to commemorate The Peterloo Massacre that this shorthand for violent state suppression has become so widely recognised. I’ve lived most of my life in Manchester and yet was in my late teens before I ever heard the term and can say from experience that I’m far from being the only[Read More…]
Who is “we”? We humans have made a mess of things, which is readily evident if we face the avalanche of studies and statistics describing the contemporary ecological crises we face. But even with the mounting evidence of the consequences for people and planet, we have not committed to a serious project to slow the damage that we do. One reasonable response to those statements is, “Who is ‘we’?”[Read More…]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against the idea of allowing Covid-19 to simply spread through society, calling this “herd immunity” approach to fighting the pandemic “unethical.” “Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” said WHO chief Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a[Read More…]
A demonstration in Portland, Oregon, that included people breaking windows and taking down statues of former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln has been declared a riot by police. Media reports from Portland including reports by major international news agencies said: The protests were part of a “Day of Rage” declared over the celebration of Columbus Day on Monday. Organizers[Read More…]
International financial authorities and 20 of the world’s largest economies are establishing official standards for regulating and issuing sovereign digital currencies. The Group of Twenty (G20), an organization of finance ministers and central bank governors representing the European Union and 19 countries across every continent, said in a report today that it is working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),[Read More…]
The tide has been turning against UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Oafishly, he has managed to convert that tide into a deluge of dissatisfaction assisted by the gravitational pull of singular incompetence. Much of this is due to such errors of communication as committed last month, when he got into a tangle over new coronavirus restrictions in England’s northeast. In[Read More…]
Over the past year several articles penned by this writer have questioned how well-suited Joe Biden is to lead the Democratic Party’s Progressive Movement in 2020 to make the kind of dramatic changes so sorely needed in every aspect of the American government, society, culture, foreign policy, universal health care and welfare of the American people. Specific questions have been[Read More…]
“No one cares about the prisoners.” Over the past few years, I have heard this phrase – or some variation of it – uttered many times by freed Palestinian prisoners and their families. Whenever I conduct an interview regarding this crucial and highly sensitive topic, I am told, repeatedly, that ‘no one cares.’ But is this really the case? Are[Read More…]
The NATO & US backed war on Afghanistan was launched 7th October 2001, just a month after 9/11, in what most thought would be a lightning war and a stepping stone onto the real focus, the Middle East. 19 years later and the US is still trying to extricate itself out of the longest war in its history, having failed[Read More…]
Diego Armando Maradona turns 60 on October 30. “God is the only being who, in order to reign, doesn’t even need to exist.” – Charles Baudelaire. It is with these words that the renowned filmmaker Emir Kusturica’s ninety-minute documentary on the one and only Maradona begins. Kusturica’s film, structured like a ‘musical’, does more than what a hundred newspaper[Read More…]
Co-Written by Nicolas J S Davies and Medea Benjamin In the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11, the Bush Administration invaded Iraq and tortured prisoners of war and terrorism suspects, in flagrant violation of the U.N. Charter and the Geneva Conventions. As a result, the United States lost standing among many of its traditional allies around the world. President Barack[Read More…]
On October 8th, a day before the deadline for filing the charge-sheet in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case elapsed, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested the 83-year-old Jesuit priest and veteran tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy. He was forcibly taken from Ranchi to Mumbai and produced before the Sessions Court on October 9th. Alongside this, the NIA presented a[Read More…]
It is not surprising when Police, judicial system and mainstream media deny the existence of caste in Hathras rape case. This practice of denial is a historical, ritualistic and expected strategy from the dominant caste ideologies to decontextualise, depoliticise deradicalise responses to Dalit atrocities from their content and context. In such incidents of atrocity, every time, Dalits have to[Read More…]
Knowledge society, information society and industrial society are all interlinked concepts with a particular ideology which places undue faith on science, technology and development. The origin of the terms especially knowledge society is attributed to various scholars culminating in the description of ‘post-industrial societies’ which depend on material production as a key to growth and human welfare. These conceptual developments[Read More…]
Cover page of a biography in Telugu on Raghupati Venkata Ratnam Naidu, by renowned historian Ramakrishna Vakulabharanam and Lalita. Ramakrishna led a team of scholars and published a monumental work on Andhra history in 8 volumes.This biography is a smaller work, not part of that. This is an article on Andhra’s Great Reformers and Writers, who were remembered recently[Read More…]
The human civilization, as we know it, is facing its worst crisis. One that has bought the global village to a standstill, baffled world leaders, claimed thousands of lives and endangered millions more. Not many years ago, in 1967, United States Surgeon General, Dr. William H. Stewart allegedly made a famous (or rather infamous) remark “It is time to close[Read More…]
The old game is again in that state: a formalized factional fight of the ruling classes in the US. It’s the presidential election there. All dirty tricks available are in use in the intra-class fight as the masters follow the much pronounced, and unprincipled dictum: All is fair in […] war. Ergo, the arena named election is overabundant with lies[Read More…]
Flames from forest fire in Ras el-Harf village, in the Baabda district, Lebanon: An aerial picture. Hundreds of massive wildfires ravaged parts of the Middle East over the weekend, forcing thousands to flee their homes. The wildfires triggered by a heat wave hitting the region have killed three people, and detonated landmines along the Lebanon-Israel border. The areas hit by the[Read More…]
The majority of Britons do not trust the government, with confidence among the lowest levels ever recorded, a poll has revealed. The British Social Attitudes survey found that just 15 per cent of people said they have faith in Boris Johnson‘s government ‘most of the time’ or ‘always’. More than double, 34 per cent, instead said that they ‘almost never’ trust the[Read More…]
On 6 October, 2020, foreign ministers of USA, India, Australia and Japan gathered in Tokyo to participate in the second Quad security dialogue, a strategic forum aimed at containing China. The Quad initiative first began in May 2007 with a meeting between the US, Japan, India and Australia in the Philippine capital Manila. In its preliminary years, the Quad did[Read More…]
On August 21st, six nuclear-capable B-52H Stratofortress bombers, representing approximately one-seventh of the war-ready U.S. B-52H bomber fleet, flew from their home base in North Dakota to Fairford Air Base in England for several weeks of intensive operations over Europe. Although the actual weapons load of those giant bombers was kept secret, each of them is capable of carrying eight AGM-86B nuclear-armed, air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) in its[Read More…]
The Friday Sermon On Friday, October 2, 2020, the Muslim Jumma (Friday Congregation) prayer day, French President Emmanuel Macron said this in a speech in the Western Paris suburb of Les Mureaux that “Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country”. He further added that Islam[Read More…]
TANZANIA will be going to the polls on 28 October 2020 to elect the president, national assembly and local councillors. The semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar is, in addition, to elect its president and house of representatives. From a population of 55 million over 30 million are registered to vote at more than 80,000 polling stations. Some 15 presidential contenders have[Read More…]
The Indian Prime Minister recently paid tribute to a Sikh martyr who laid down his life in defence of his faith. On the 300th birth anniversary of Bhai Taru Singh, Narendra Modi took to twitter to recall the sacrifice he made in 1745. Singh was arrested and tortured at the behest of a tyrant Mughal governor, Zakaria Khan. He was[Read More…]
Supreme Court’s order allowing the three accused of abetting murder of Dr Payal Tadavi namely Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehare and Ankita Khandelwal to complete their medical studies is deeply disturbing and indicating a trend where violence against Dalits and Adivasis seems to be happening with impunity. Dr Payal Tadvai belonged to adivasi community and worked harder to reach the stage[Read More…]
Ever since Pakistan has signalled its wish to make Gilgit-Baltistan fifth province, not only have Pakistan’s own political outfits been in a state of disarray, but it has reportedly become a major ‘issue of concern’ in India’s military and political leadership. Various aspects of adopting a new military strategy are being deliberated upon. In the border region of Ladakh, where[Read More…]
WSS is appalled at the arrest of Father Stan Swamy, an elderly Jesuit priest working on adivasi issues for the past 5 decades in the infamous Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad conspiracy case on the night of 8 October, 2020. WSS condemns this most recent arrest of a sterling activist and a reputed authority, and calls out the sheer absurdity[Read More…]
‘You may burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas those books contain have passed through millions of channels and will go on.’” Helen Keller, An Open Letter to German Students ‘Fahrenheit 451’ It was the name of a movie which had appeared in mid-sixties. ( 1966) The only English movie directed by[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sarbeswar Padhan and Pankaj K. Naik The ongoing episodic lockdown against the novel coronavirus has unfolded migration crisis in the country. One would hardly disagree with the fact that it is the migrant workers who have suffered the most due to the prevailing economic and political turmoil conditioned by the pandemic. The pandemic has made the invisible visible[Read More…]
On October 7, a group of religious fanatics including members of the same village, attacked more than 7 Christian homes in a village Hirma under Jharsuguda district in Odisha State of India. Christian families were dragged out of their houses and were beaten up by these fanatics, without even sparing the Women and Children. They want to force more than[Read More…]
Review of “PolyTicks, DeMocKrazy & Mumbo Jumbo: Babus, Mantras, & Netas (Un) Making Our Nation” By Avay Shukla|Forward by Shashi Tharoor. Pippa Rann books & media The public sphere in India- and India’s entire body politic- is virused. Though in the short-term, it suffers from a particularly virulent and persistent strain of neo-liberal Hindutva, the longer-term effects on the surviving[Read More…]
The media, which holds the flag of uprightness, is now reluctant to talk about the dirt defacing its own image. The immediate context is the claim of Mumbai Police that news channels including the Republic TV have indulged in the malpractices of boosting TRP (Television Rating Points). A day after the police allegation, The Telegraph (Kolkata, October 9, 2020, p. 5)[Read More…]
Malaysians at this moment are concerned about two different types of numbers. The overwhelming majority are worried about the recent spike in Covid 19 infections and the increase in the number of related deaths. There is a much smaller segment of the population that is focussed upon the number of members of Parliament that the leader of the Opposition Anwar[Read More…]
Recently Crime in India-2019 Report has been released by National Crime Records Bureau. In this report, in the year 2019, the statistics of crime against Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes) have been published for the whole country, wherefrom it has emerged that Uttar Pradesh tops in the whole country. The Tribal population of Uttar Pradesh is 0.6% percent of the country’s population.[Read More…]
People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) salutes the life and activism of Professor S. Seshaiah who succumbed to Covid 19 on October 10, 2020 at Anantapur, Telangana. Professor Seshaiah began his active participation in politics from his student days in the 1970s and he was the State Joint Secretary of the Radical Students Union of Prakasam district of the then[Read More…]
In March, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal upheld an original jury finding that Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven did not infringe copyright in Spirit’s 1968 song Taurus. Michael Skidmore, who had filed the suit in 2014 as trustee of the estate of the late Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe, was hoping that the US Supreme Court would take time[Read More…]
Representatives of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe gathered in Geneva on 9 October 2020 but were not able to advance beyond their earlier calls for a ceasefire to be followed by negotiations. The Minsk Group, created in 1994 after the 1992-1994 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan has 11 States as members with[Read More…]
Americans are dealing with an upcoming general election, a pandemic that has killed over 200,000 of us, and corporate news media whose business model has degenerated to selling different versions of “The Trump Show” to their advertisers. So who has time to pay attention to a new war half way round the world? But with so much of the[Read More…]
Swati Kamble, a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Geneva. She considers herself a Dalit-Bahujan activist and intersectional feminist. Her research interest involves studying the marginalized communities with an intersectional and reflexive lense and commit to bringing their narratives at the forefront both in academia and policy. These narratives are created collaboratively with the marginalized communities being the active agents[Read More…]
Persecution Relief has recorded more than 90 cases of Hate Crimes against Christians in Uttar Pradesh alone, since January to September 2020. It is shockingly factual that false conversion charges are so easy to be made against innocent Christians. One such case of False Complaint of Conversion by force was registered against Pastor Moti Lal in a village at District[Read More…]
meditation preparing for unemployment what I would say to anyone who asks me what I say to myself thoughts on Louise Glueck’s short speech on being congratulated for receiving the Nobel Prize for her poetry she said the driver is waiting, he has to earn his living, let me go — preparing for unemployment prepares us for unemployment provided we[Read More…]
It has long been said that the best way to know a person is to know the company he or she keeps. The reasons for the recent persecution of the Jesuit activist-priest, Stan Swamy, can be better understood in relation to his comradeship with Sister Valsa, the Malayali nun murdered some nine years ago in the village of Pachwara in[Read More…]
Three new farm Acts were recently introduced in the country. The most important of these, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 is aimed at putting an end to the monopoly of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) mandis. Earlier, under the 1964 APMC Act, all the farmers were required to sell their produce at the Government-regulated mandis.[Read More…]
’My mother was married off when she was 9 -10 years old. I was married off when I was 13 or so. I had to marry my daughter off when she was 15 or 16’, says Kusum (name changed). Kusum is a sugarcane cutter from Beed, who has to migrate every year from her drought-prone village in Marathwada to the[Read More…]
Review of “Dispatches from the Race War” by Tim Wise. City Lights Publishers, forthcoming December 2020 In a few short weeks- achingly painful weeks- the US will hold what is likely the most important Presidential election in its short and violent history. The choices before the populace are telling; the choice we are to make- and its clear which one[Read More…]
Palestine under siege for 72 years. A UK-prompted UN decision in 1947 allowed David Ben-Gurion, then the head of the Jewish Agency, to proclaim on May 14, 1948, the establishment of the State of Israel. The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, a UN proposal, recommended a partition of “Mandatory Palestine” at the end of the British Mandate. “Mandatory Palestine” (picture to the left[Read More…]
To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Stharaman, Kindly refer to my letter dated 10-9-2020 regarding the problems faced by small businesses in repaying loans taken from NBFCs as a result of the lockdown restrictions and the fall in demand for services, an inevitable consequence of the COVID19 crisis. I have enclosed a copy of that letter for your[Read More…]
The conscience of the nation was shaken with the news of gang-raping followed by a brutal murder of a young Dalit woman in the Hathras village in UP. CDRO condemns in no uncertain terms this rape and murder of the young girl of Hathras village. The nineteen-year-old had been gang-raped when she had gone for collecting grass for cattle. Her[Read More…]
Amidst the names of politicians crowded the columns of power corridors in history but in contemporary political and cultural firmaments of India, nobody can match Sheikh Matlub Ali of Odisha. He was born on 16th of December 1942 in a village called Dharoshyam Sundarpur, Sukleswar (Mahanga) in Cuttack district and studied in the famous Ravenshaw College, Odisha. His life was a[Read More…]
Co-Written by Achintya Anita Gurumurthy and Nakul Patwardhan This month marks fifteen years since the Right to Information (RTI) Act came into force. Born out of people’s movements for accountability, the RTI legislation acts as an important cornerstone in institutionalising the everyday practices of participatory democracy. By establishing the institutional mechanisms to ensure systemic transparency, the RTI is an important[Read More…]
After the death of a Dalit girl from Hathras in a hospital at New Delhi, many video cameras turn to members of girl’s family to gather the know about of the incident. Many videos surfaced on social media showing girl’s brother speaking to a journalist just after the death of his sister, a grieving mother sitting on a soiled ground,[Read More…]
These are all very Kolkatan in nature and you really won’t get to see or hear them in any other parts of the country. What? Some years back a national daily carried an interesting photograph in their ‘City Lights’ column. It said that at Bowbazar police station, some paintings of Pablo Picasso were replicated and some of the painter’s quotations[Read More…]
Letter issued to Democratic National Committee to repudiate Hindu American Foundation’s attacks I am humbled and deeply touched by the outpouring of support as eight South Asian groups have issued a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez in support of me in repudiation of a letter attacking me which Hindu American Foundation had sent to Perez in September[Read More…]
There can be no health without mental health, despite this clear evidence nowhere in the world does mental health enjoy parity with physical health in budgets, policies and practice. According to World Health Organisation, Mental Health Atlas, Globally it is estimated that less than 7 percent of health budgets is allocated to address mental health. Persons with mental illness constitute[Read More…]
‘International law’ remains one of the most discussed terms in the context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It is almost always present, whether the discussion pertains to the Israeli wars and siege on Gaza, the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank or the encroaching apartheid throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories. Despite the importance and relevance[Read More…]
The late, great Rod Serling narrated that famous intro of his television show The Twilight Zone: ” You are travelling through another dimension- a dimension of not only sight and sound but of mind… “. Well, dear children, we are arriving into this 21st Century ‘ Twilight Zone’ as prisoners of what our empire is capable of allowing… or perhaps[Read More…]
What is wrong with some men that in the time of Covid-19 they are raping women of all ages? Rape, the most intimate of crimes is happening every day, everywhere in the world. Raping does not fall under behavioral or mental disorder, it is a criminal offense. Sadly, the incidents of rape did not stop while nations across the globe[Read More…]
Politicians of all hues, are celebrating the birth anniversary of Gandhi this month. A leader of one political party has recalled his legacy, by rightly emphasizing the `Gandhian agenda’ of “more openness, freedom and a life of dignity and respect.” (Ram Madhav: `Gandhi’s True Legacy.’ Indian Express, October 2, 2020). Ironically, it is his own party that is in power [Read More…]
T Peter, General Secretary of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), passed away on 8 October 2020 from COVID-19 related complications in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was 62 years old. Peter fought for more than three decades, as a full time activist and union organizer, to empower India’s fishing communities. He played a critical role in advancing their struggles from the margins[Read More…]
Media reports said: The aid circle has pledged to combat the scourge of sexual abuse within its ranks following shock revelations of alleged exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a report published in early-October, more than 50 women levelled accusations against aid workers from the World Health Organization (WHO), other UN agencies and major non-governmental organizations (NGO) during[Read More…]
Ramvilas Paswan, a senior minister in the Modi cabinet passed away due to a heart illness on Thursday. Members across the political spectrum bid a farewell to this leader who hails from Bihar. However, what was striking to me as a journalist was the manner in which various media outlets ran the story of Paswan’s passing away. Not to my[Read More…]
Roosevelt’s New Deal brought an array of acronyms for new government agencies to the attention of the American public, NRA, WPA, CCC, TVA et al. The only one absent was capitalism’s SOS. There is no doubting that many of the projects initiated by the New Deal were indeed beneficial to America’s infrastructure and were a success. It was said that[Read More…]
ORIENTATION Forms of language manipulation As most of us know, verbal language is both a tool and a weapon. Verbal language allows our species to talk about the past and the future. It allows us to label mental and physical illnesses and provides us with diagnosis and prognosis. It allows us to communicate more precisely than we can with non-verbal[Read More…]
Co-Written by Jason Holland and William Hawes Here’s a bit of food for thought about why you should not, we repeat, should not, vote for anyone in November. Now, unlike the rabid pro-voters, there is no intention on our part to “vote-shame” those that choose to vote. If you really feel that strongly about voting, that’s fine and that’s your[Read More…]
On 9 October, 1967, Che Guevara – one of the greatest revolutionaries ever known – was murdered in Bolivia under the orders of Washington. This death was foreseeable. In 1966, Che Guevara had left Cuba to wage an anti-imperialist struggle in the South American nation of Bolivia. The plan was to establish a mother column led by Che in Bolivia,[Read More…]
Years ago there used to be a pleasant face on Doordarshan by the name of Appan Menon. He very ably and effectively anchored a popular programme called The World This Week. It was a visual diary that kept track of events and individuals at home and abroad. Menon did not have the flamboyance of his colleague, Pranoy Roy, but his[Read More…]
Yeah! You!! What are you doing in my home? Let me introduce you to the tiger. He is not an object. He is not a spectacle. He does not exist for your pleasure or like all politicians, for photo ops. He is not living in your land; you are encroaching on his. The tiger (gender neutral term as it refers[Read More…]
The mass migrants to Mars stood poised to take their first step. The Red Planet crimsoned further by the blood of scientists who realised the vision of a musky monied man odoured with fame, made into godhead. Out of deep freeze, led by the god who saved them, stood more monied men. They had left a planet in turmoil.[Read More…]
Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s sudden demise last night has definitely created a big vacuum particularly if we speak Bihar politics. Paswan was a very seasoned leader, a powerful orator and a leader with the masses who broke many records while entering in Parliament. His record win from Hazipur and other constituencies in Bihar showed his grip over the masses.[Read More…]
This Gandhi Anniversary (October 2020) one saw a twitter storm ‘Nathram Godse Zindabad’, (Long live Nathura, Godse). This overshadowed the tributes to Gandhi on the same platform. This year the tweets on Godse exceeded over a lakh, while last year 2019, they were close to twenty thousand. This year many of the tweets notably came from bot accounts that on other days[Read More…]
PUCL is shocked by and condemns the detention and arrest by NIA police team of 83 year old Fr. Stan Swamy from his residence in Bagaicha, Ranchi to take him to Mumbai to be remanded in the Bhima Koregaon (BK) case for allegedly being part of the larger conspiracy to cause unrest. The inhuman and insincere act of the NIA[Read More…]
Edward Van Halen (EVH) was my favorite guitarist of all-time. As a disciple of what is now called “classic rock,” it’s disconcerting for me to be living through this current time period when the guitar is not a major factor in popular music. After all, I can still play note-for-note air guitar to all of EVH’s solos. The following collection[Read More…]
I don’t know who drew this this rape-map of Bangladesh, but this is a telling geography of rape epidemic which as can be see here, has spread widely and reached every nook and corner of the country. The scrolls on each district which are in vernacular are appeals to the predators from the rape victims – desperate pleas to dissuade[Read More…]
Billionaires are “smart” enough. Their wealth now, in this pandemic, tops trillions of dollars. A new report – Riding the Storm, billionaires insights 2020 – by UBS and PwC reveals that the world’s uber-rich have increased their already-huge fortunes by more than a quarter; and this “miracle” happened amidst the ongoing pandemic ravaging life of billions of the poor in[Read More…]
We are going through one of the most dismal times in the history of post-independence India. Anyone who resists, anyone who speaks for the greater common good, for truth and justice, is getting hounded. Hate campaigns are unleashed against them or they are implicated under fabricated charges and thrown into prison. At present, it is extremely unfortunate that many academics,[Read More…]
The last few years have seen incidents of rape, where the BJP has stood with the rapists. This was in Kathua, Unnao or recently in Hathras. In both Kathua and Hathras incidents, the IT cell was out to prove that the incident never happened. The leaders within the BJP in both these incidents undertook activities in defence of the rapists.[Read More…]
Women (idols) in India are worshipped, as they say, but the truth of Indian women is only known to herself. India has a sex ratio of 943 females/1000 males.[1] While the southern and northeastern states are better off, the cow belt (Hindi/Hindu heartland) has a disappointing population ratio. A lot to do would surely have roots in female infanticide, something[Read More…]
The reality of Trump and all those who consider themselves Loyalists of Trumpism are no different than the same ideologically-compromised, fearful followers and sycophants, so in need of a saviour down through the ages of every civilization, culture and society, that they have been willing to follow the irrational, illogical rants of whatever ‘flavour of the month’ demagogue to have[Read More…]
After viewing the first US Presidential debate on September 29, one is left with no doubt about the degenerating political discourse among America’s ruling elites. Following the debate between US President, Donald Trump, and Democratic Presidential nominee, Joe Biden, most analyses focused mainly on the personal insults and name-calling, which, deservedly, earned the event the title ‘worst Presidential debate in[Read More…]
On September 2, US sanctions – the sort normally reserved for fully fledged terrorists and decorated drug traffickers – were imposed on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda and her colleague Phakiso Mochochoko, head of Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation. For Balkees Jarrah, senior counsel for Human Rights Watch, it was a “stunning perversion of US sanctions,[Read More…]
America is becoming exceptionally exceptional. In some votes at the U.N. General Assembly — the Assembly of nations — only Israel, or one or two other U.S. allies, vote along with it, and all others either vote against it, or else abstain in order to prevent U.S. retaliation against their own nation. No other nation is anything like that. In[Read More…]
Title: Beyond the Fields Author: Aysha Baqir Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International, 2019 Recently, an instagram handle questioned women: “No Men for One day — What if there were no men for 24 hours?” Majority of the women replied that they would go for a walk alone. And this is the year 2020. We are living in a so called modern[Read More…]
The recent Hathras incident of violence against a 19-year-old Dalit girl has boomeranged the relevance of caste question in academia and at least digital media. It has again illustrated the complex structure of violence against women, which places the Dalit woman at the absolute bottom. The unfolding of the debates, however, indicate an interesting trend of Savarna spokespersons from various[Read More…]
This year earlier on September 1st we commemorated the 40th anniversary of Punjabi journal Surkh Rekha,which was a landmark event in the history of Indian revolution. Originally it was the mass paper of the Central Team C.P.I. (M.L.) It was founded 40 years ago by Nazar Singh Boparai.on September 1st, 1980.No journal in the history of Punjab illuminated the flame[Read More…]
“I planned Thampu as a documentary feature. It was shot in Thirunnavaya on the banks of the Bharathapuzha. I came to this village with ten to fifteen circus artistes who had already left their circus company. We did not have a script and we shot the incidents as they happened. What we did on the first day was to call[Read More…]
The India Tourism byline is – Incredible India. I agree. I encountered it. Here is what happened. In 2015, two dear friends of mine and I decided to go to Corbett National Park & Tiger Reserve – being one of my favorite places on earth. I am a lifelong wildlife enthusiast and photographer and ensure that I spend at least[Read More…]
Media reports from the U.S. said: President Donald Trump says he has authorized the release of “any and all” documents related to the Russiagate conspiracy theory and the Hillary Clinton email scandal, noting the material would be completely free of redactions. “I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any and all documents pertaining to the single greatest political[Read More…]
On 18 August 2020, Bahujan journalist Prashant Kanojia was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police. He is being held in custody over a tweet he had forwarded, which he had immediately deleted upon learning that it contained fake news. This is a routine social media behaviour that one observes on the platform almost every day. However, this was used as a[Read More…]
Journalist Siddique Kappan who is working with the popular Malayalam website Azhimukham.com and three others who were arrested by the UP police on Monday in Mathura while on their way to Hathras have been booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sedition. On Tuesday, they were remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody by a local court[Read More…]
Senior journalist and executive editor of Kashmir Times, Anuradha Bhasin has alleged that her government-allotted flat in Jammu was ransacked by few “goons” at around 3 pm on October 4. The alleged intruders were identified by Bhasin as Imran Ganai, brother of former Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) Shehnaz Ganai, along with some Personal Security Officers (PSO) in civil[Read More…]
Hathras rape incident is not new to us and for the greater society it might not be shocking either. In India, the cold-blooded reality is the occurrence of rape every 15 minutes. This is as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. What is usually overlooked in the statistics is the Dalit Women who are usually considered as the[Read More…]
Introduction Again, the inhuman and horrible incident of Hathras has put the entire society ashamed as it has been the second occurrence of such cruelty and brutality against women in the last eight years after Nirbhaya 2012, sparking a huge resentment and anguish against the governments exposing the concern of safety and security of the women. Although, the Hathras incidence[Read More…]
As those in power will continue to use Covid 19 as a tool and excuse to further deprive the already deprived, there is an urgent appeal to use the Covid 19 crisis to highlight the crisis of our democracy. The Right to Food & Work Network (RTFWN) in the Time of Covid Since the past 6 months the country has[Read More…]
On March 24th, 2020, the Prime Minister announced a complete lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus. The abrupt lockdown brought every economic activity, except for some essential activities, to a halt. It lead to the shutting down of factories and even small shops, and the workers working in those factories started moving towards their home. The lockdown affected the economy[Read More…]
In 1940, a year before he died, Rabindranath Tagore placed a letter in Mahatma Gandhi’s hand. The letter said: “Visva-Bharati is like a vessel which is carrying the cargo of my life’s best treasure, and I hope it may claim special care from my countrymen for its preservation”. A century after being founded in 1921, Tagore’s life’s treasure – the[Read More…]
During this pandemic period, virtuality has taken over many facets of our life and especially education although it could be a temporary phase. But the academic world may be realizing the immense potential as well as drawbacks of the virtual medium in the ‘give and take’ process of education. It is a near certainty that the hardest hit is pre-primary[Read More…]
Recently Crime in India – 2019 report has been released by National Crime Records Bureau. In this report, in the year 2019, the statistics of crime of Dalit atrocities have been published for the whole country. It has emerged that Uttar Pradesh is far ahead in this. The Dalit population of Uttar Pradesh (UP) is the largest population in the[Read More…]
Pope Francis has presented his blueprint for a post-COVID-19 world, covering a vast number of issues from fraternity and income inequality to immigration and social injustice. The Pope said the Covid-19 pandemic proved that free-market policies have failed to produce the societal benefits promised by their proponents. Pope Francis began writing the document early this year, with the aim of[Read More…]
At the time of writing this analysis, on Oct. 5, 2020, the war between Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh on one side, and Azerbaijan, Turkey and Islamist mercenaries on the other, is continuing with countless deaths of soldiers and civilians, and widespread damage of cities and villages. This week, I will analyze the role of each of the key participants in[Read More…]
Rumors have it that the remaining months of 2020 may bring drastic and explosive changes in the world’s financial system. But such “doomsday” rumors have been floating around every beginning of fall during the last few years. Why? – The US dollar is getting weaker and weaker. It is not quite on a free fall, but still remains a major[Read More…]
by Delia D. Aguilar & E. San Juan, Jr. With Freedom Siyam, May Penuela, Charlie Samuya Veric, Jeffrey Cabusao, Michael Viola, and Delia Aguilar, initiated by Delia D. Aguilar with the collaboration of E. San Juan, Jr. Controversies over the use of names or classifying rubrics for groups of people are rarely amusing, some even dull and soporific. [Read More…]
Your dreams won’t die They can’t kill them They killed you They brutalized you They lied But your dreams won’t die A people Who pride themselves On their spirituality… What spirits indeed Invade their Addled brains? What opiate Suggests such acts? What sickness Can endure? Their bodies, their limbs Are what’s really aflame Your dreams won’t die[Read More…]
On 23 September, 2020, the Industrial Relations Code was passed by rule of majority in the Rajya Sabha. This was hailed by the industry as a rational reform of the pre-existing labor laws. The code is a modified amendment to the Industrial Relations Code bill introduced in 2019. It combines the features of three pre-existing laws – The Trade Unions[Read More…]
Earlier in the month, I woke up to my Facebook account blocked. I could not access anything and, as a result, I could not do my job to amplify your important calls for a more just and green world! In fact, all of Greenpeace USA’s online staff could not access their Facebook accounts, along with frontline Wet’suwet’en Indigenous leaders, grassroots[Read More…]
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was enacted with a main objective to protect marginalised communities viz. schedule castes and tribes against discrimination and atrocities. Sec.3 of the said Act enunciates the nature of various acts committed against a schedule caste or a schedule tribe to constitute an offence punishable under the said Act. The said provision stipulates that any act which is[Read More…]
Introduction National Commission of Scheduled Castes and National Commission of Scheduled Tribes, both constitutional bodies constituted to protect and monitor implementation of safeguards to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been lying vacant at highest level for the past six months. Barring employees, there are no Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Members. The governing body is vacant. Both the constitutional bodies are[Read More…]
Why we Indians are so different, Why we still follow tradition, In looking for a spouse Why is horoscope-matching so important, It is our culture, you say But it is the caste, silly Why is love-marriage still taboo Why is honour-killing still practiced When all over the world no marriage gets ‘arranged’ It is our tradition, you say But[Read More…]
Though corona is born Though earth revived. Though nature gained it power Though families are together. Though schools are closed Though markets are shut. Though we are at home Though we are free. But I am still the same The same girl, Covering my head with a burqa or a dupatta Only able to see my curious eyes. When will I get freedom?[Read More…]
(Context – UNFINISHED CASE STUDY- SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT’S ‘HALLUCINATIONS & KAFKA’S SPELL) FRANZ KAFKA, METAMORPHOSIS, CRONUS (GOYA) MYTH, SIGMUND FREUD, SUSHANT SINGH Sushant Rajput’s demise at his Bandra House on 14th June 2020 has stirred up Indian TV Media, Facebook, Twitter Accounts, Social Media and has generated upheaval of sympathy, barrage of hatred against his Fiancée Rhea Chakravarti and[Read More…]
Our Homo sapiens reality is that global warming, if it continues at the current rate, could trigger a sixth planetary extinction. Unlike past extinctions, this one will not be brought on by a random meteorite/asteroid strike or a convulsive planetary volcanic eruption. It will be self-inflicted; the result of Biosphere degradation because of our use of fossil fuels. CO2 in[Read More…]
Yes, when he was running for president, he did indeed say: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” Then he won — and this November 3rd (or thereafter), whether he wins or loses, we’re likely to find out that, when it comes to his base, he was[Read More…]
The discussion about mining the Moon resembles that of previous conquests: the division of territory; the grabbing of resources; language of theft and plunder. All of this is given the gloss of manifest destiny and human experiment. Such language is also self-perpetuating: the plunderer is only as good as the amount taken; success is dependent on constant replenishment and expansion.[Read More…]
How funny was the Seinfeld show’s episode on the Bizarro world? People who physically resembled the real Jerry and his three friends in a cartoonish way, with their character traits being the opposite, was fantastic. If you recall, the Bizarro folks were into sharing and not self absorbed at all. They not only cared about each other more than even[Read More…]
Sairat(2016) was a huge commercial success that is still being much talked about. But, whichever way you look at it, Sairat is a far cry from Nagraj Manjule’s debut film, Fandry, which deservedly enjoyed much critical support. Sairat is tailor-made to seduce the younger generation of viewers, meaning roughly those in the age-bracket of 15 to 30. The film’s mounting[Read More…]
Even as the United Nations deliberated on the concrete actions that would advance gender equality for women and girls everywhere, marking the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and platform for action – the most comprehensive roadmap for women and girl’s empowerment, the world watched once again in horror another rape and murder story unraveling in India’s heartland.[Read More…]
Review of Bit Tyrants by Rob Larson. Haymarket Books. Big Tech is in the news daily. In fact, Big Tech makes the news, is the news, and owns the news. To live in the 3rd decade of the 21st century is to be subsumed by the all-encompassing reality that is Tech, whether as a consumer, customer, employee, beneficiary, victim, or[Read More…]
Lord Rama, one of the major deities of Hinduism, was born at the very place of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. The mosque was built after the “Muslim invaders” had demolished the Ram Temple. With these historically unsubstantiated narratives, the Hindutva forces, led by the top leaders of the BJP, the VHP and the RSS created frenzied mobs, culminating in[Read More…]
Healthy families are the foundation for healthy communities. When people are healthy, humanity moves forward. There is nothing more important than good health, and reliable healthcare for all the family. Universal health coverage (UHC), which aims to ensure that all people receive quality and adequate healthcare without suffering financial hardship, is an integral part of achieving the UN-mandated Sustainable Development[Read More…]
…so goes an old common blessing given to an Indian bride, talks of gender equality notwithstanding. While the small family norm slogan of ‘hum do, hamare do’ (we two, ours two) has rubbed in well the penchant for begetting at least one son has not waned. Many modern Indian women find their womanhood incomplete without begetting a son. I know[Read More…]
Well, the United States President becomes the third important leader to be caged. First, it was UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, then the Brazilian President Bolsonaro, and now President Trump. With more than 200,000 deaths, the United States is the worst hit Covid country in the world. With over 40,000 deaths, UK is the worst hit country in Europe. And[Read More…]
The Caravan Magazine in August 2020, reported an incident from the month of June this year from Pokhari Village, Uttar Pradesh. Several upper-caste men hailing from the Thakur community (the caste community from which UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also hails from), attacked a colony of the Dalit community in the Gorakhpur district triggered by a puja of Goddess Kali[Read More…]
A frenzied attack or bouts of insanity; “rape is rape”! Every 30 minutes one rape is crafted in India. A woman or a child…they are all prey of the rape lore. The rape cases are up swinging in numbers each day. Bruises and injuries only leave scars not recoveries. The victims soon or later are succumbed or marked as grime.[Read More…]
Covid 19 has taken another toll and this time a very important Ambedkarite activist in Telangana. It is extremely shocking to hear the sudden demise of dear friend Charles Wesley Meesa yesterday due to Covid 19. One of the very few Ambedkarite who could speak for hours on Economic policies and land reforms, Chalrse was based in Hyderabad and was[Read More…]
The Universal Declaration for Human Rights [UDHR] was adopted on 10th December 1948 by the United Nations at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. The UDHR contains thirty Articles. Articles 1 and 2 outline the philosophical claim of the UDHR and emphasise that human beings are born free in equal dignity and are entitled to all rights and freedoms without[Read More…]
According to WHO, “Universal Health Care (UHC) means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. UHC does not mean free coverage for all possible health interventions, regardless of the cost, as no[Read More…]
For generations have we suffered Without any meaningful change in our lives Humiliation and oppression Which has seen no end The world has changed And adopted equality as its universal value Yet a world divided on caste Continues to be the world determined by you An oppressed population rising up Is the thing you do not want A population living[Read More…]
“I know the alternative policy of adopting the line of least resistance. I am convinced that it will be ineffective in the matter or uprooting untouchability. The silent infiltration of rational ideas among the ignorant mass of caste Hindus cannot, I am sure, work for the elevation of the depressed classes. First of all, the cate Hindus like all human[Read More…]
Two time scales The central problem which the world faces in its attempts to avoid catastrophic climate change is a contrast of time scales. In order to save human civilization and the biosphere from the most catastrophic effects of climate change we need to act immediately, Fossil fuels must be left in the ground. Forests must be saved from destruction[Read More…]
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INDIA HALTS ITS WORK ON UPHOLDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA DUE TO REPRISAL FROM GOVERNMENT OF INDIA The complete freezing of Amnesty International India’s bank accounts by the Government of India which it came to know on 10 September 2020, brings all the work being done by the organization to a grinding halt. The organisation has been compelled[Read More…]
Punish the rapists & murderers of dalit women and other victims. Hold the Administration, Police and Political Nexus Accountable. Chief Minister of UP must resign for repeatedly failing to safeguard rights of women from marginalized communities in the state 3rd Oct, 2020: The brutal rape and murder of yet another dalit woman in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh has sent shock waves[Read More…]
Moralistic discussions on social dialectics and civilized ethics are bound to generate euphony if the positive vibes of Harmony vibrate in an environment of Justice. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle summed up the sentiment by saying, ‘Give each man his due’. It’s a classical philosophical assumption that human instinct craves for justice. It is ingrained in the conscious morality[Read More…]
Kandhamal: Two girls from the tribal-dominated Jhimaghia village of Kandhamal districts have stepped up to teach tribal kids when they saw that children of the village are deprived of education after the lockdown was enforced to contain the COVID19 outbreak. Jyotsnamayee Naik (23) and Bidhata Pradhan (22) are the two recent graduates from the same village who took up the[Read More…]
Would you mind rolling your eyeballs on people starving, dying in extreme conditions, in need of the things you can so easily afford to give them? I know, you won’t bother to do so, because you are born like that. Nothing shakes you, makes you think otherwise. You and your like ones are all that matter on this good planet.[Read More…]
Dear Chief Minister, Just when we thought that nothing could numb our consciences and brains further, the handling of the Hathras incident by the Uttar Pradesh administration has shown that, as a nation, we are plumbing the depths of depravity and callousness in governance. A young Dalit woman is brutally violated. Almost three weeks after the incident, the police are[Read More…]
Every October 5 is being celebrated as Indian English day by several equal medium education lovers in India. This is 203rd year of the birth of English medium school education in India. The first English medium school in Calcutta was started by William Carey a British missionary, who came from a cobbler family background. He came to India in 1793[Read More…]
As of September 29th, Brazil’s Bolsonaro government has fired the civilian-run National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which has monitored the Amazon rainforest for the past three decades. INPE is being replaced (drumroll please) by the Brazilian military as the new watchdog over the world famous rainforest. Voila, worldwide concerns about deforestation are… ah… indeterminate, vague, unspecified. All along, the[Read More…]
Let me share a true story about the abuse of innocence. Mohammad Al Halabi, World Vision-Australia’s respected Gaza/WB coordinator, has been been illegally held without charge and tortured by Israel since 2016 and is forced to futilely attend court – now 151 times! He is due in court again on 18-11-2020. Mohammad is a man of peace and love. On[Read More…]
The Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has asserted the Vatican’s right to pursue an accord with Beijing on the appointment of bishops that has been strongly criticized by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo met Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher on Thursday on a visit marked by Vatican irritation over[Read More…]
Covid-19 has brought free market juggernaut to a grinding halt; now if we are serious about changing the course of history, we can’t afford to lay waste to this pandemic It’s nearly ten months since the Covid-19 first broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and now with many parts of the world in the midst of a second[Read More…]
This is an article on Andhra’s Great Reformers and Writers, who were remembered recently on their birth anniversaries, Part-1 focusing on Chilakamarti. Lakshmi Narasimham,Chilakamarti (26 September 1867- 17 June 1946) was a great writer and social reformer who defied and lampooned brahminical orthodoxy in his writings, set up in 1909 a school for dalits, hosted them, his wife cooked and[Read More…]
People wear masks and use handwash to keep the virus away as a result of fear of infection. One may also find this new behaviour as a formality among many persons and as a result of legalities. And this is happening in a society which is least concerned about sanitary practices. In this new sanitary culture, the prominent internalised attitude[Read More…]
By Dr Chandrima Chatterjee and Dr Parul Malik The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had wide ranging consequences for everyone in the world. Not only has the health infrastructure come under close scrutiny and COVID has claimed the lives of many people, but the effect has stretched into the lives of people, who were not even infected by this virus.[Read More…]
South Asians activists came together on the evening of Friday, October 2, to raise voices against the recent gang rape of a Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh, India. The victim died after struggling for life for two weeks. She was brutally assaulted and raped by people belonging to the upper caste. Her death has outraged the community of so-called untouchables[Read More…]
Mr. Satyapal Singh, the BJP MP, while speaking in Lok Sabha on amendments to FCRA went on to support the forthcoming restrictions to the foreign contributions. While making his arguments, to buttress his point, he put forward the case of Pastor Graham Stewart Stains. In the process he poured venom on the late Pastor by saying that the Pastor had[Read More…]
Corruptions and anomalies are almost ever present in the recruitment processes in Assam. In 2018 several sitting senior officers of Assam government recruited by the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) were arrested for a massive cash for job scandal (https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/assam-cash-for-jobs-scam-bjp-mps-daughter-18-other-officers-arrested/article24453102.ece). In a matter of days, again surfaced the alleged scandal in the recruitment of 900 posts for the Panchayat &[Read More…]
Toll the current coronavirus pandemic has already claimed hasn’t desisted imperialism and its media to indulge with politics of pandemic and a vaccine – the Sputnik V. The vaccine is “criminal” as it’s Moscow-made. The global toll, according to the Johns Hopkins University, has crossed a grim line a few days ago: More than a million – a 10-months toll[Read More…]
Pakistan’s ailing former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday accused the country’s powerful military of political interference, saying in a televised speech from exile in London that the military had rigged the 2018 vote that brought the country’s current prime minister Imran Khan to power. An AP report by Munir Ahmed said: The 70-year-old Sharif has had a long uneasy[Read More…]
As we celebrate another birth anniversary of the father of the nation, it is worth recognising that the thinkers, writers, and activists are valuable for a society. Gandhi represented all of these, leaving a mark on the humanity that even his enemies find hard to deny. Some argue that it was the matter of time and Independence would have come[Read More…]
India is currently among the most affected countries by COVID19, recording 6 million cases, by the end of September 2020. The pandemic and lockdown measures have had a drastic impact on a large population of poor and marginalised forest communities, causing loss of livelihoods and employment, food insecurity and socio-economic distress. As per the findings of a preliminary assessment report,[Read More…]
Human civilisation has always believed that there is something primal about the need for privacy, for secrecy, for personal space. This has, in the world of some judicial authorities, taken to mean “the right to be let alone”— that is, the right to privacy. They believe “privacy is the beginning of all freedom”. Every one of us seems to ensure[Read More…]
October 1, 2020. Central Criminal Court, London: The Old Bailey has been the venue for a trial that should never have taken place. But during the course of these extradition proceedings against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder accused by the US Department of Justice for violating the US Espionage Act (17 charges) and one under the Computer Fraud and Abuse[Read More…]
It is abundantly clear that Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, has underestimated the seriousness of the challenges facing Palestine and the Palestinians. The rushed agreement between his party, Fatah and Hamas in Istanbul on September 24, and the Palestinian leader’s speech at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly the following day, indicate that the Palestinian leadership insists on[Read More…]
What pops into your head when you hear the number 1,000 in a political-military context? Having studied German military history, I immediately think of Adolf Hitler’s confident boast that his Third Reich would last a thousand years. In reality, of course, a devastating world war brought that Reich down in a mere 12 years. Only recently, however, such boasts popped[Read More…]
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies Trump holds a chart of weapon sales as he welcomes Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office, March 20, 2018. (Photo: Reuters) Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered on October 2, 2018 by agents of Saudi Arabia’s despotic government, and the CIA concluded they killed him on direct orders from[Read More…]
When the demolishers go scot-free And a demolition is celebrated When the inflictors are adored And the victims are hated Where violence is celebrated In the name of the majority And resistance is suppressed In the name of minority Where marginal lives are crushed And upper lives uplifted Where highs only rise further high Where lows only dip further low[Read More…]
The upcoming Assam assembly elections slated to be held next year. This time the path to power for the ruling BJP would not be smooth due to some policies adopted by the Narendra Modi government. Several organizations protested against the Citizenship(Amendment) Act earlier this year of which two influential outfits already formed a new political party to contest in the[Read More…]
Unity in independent India being diverse and plural nation was a dream come true. We have survived and proved as a truly democratic republic state until recent times with minimal flaws. This was made possible by a more accommodative and flexible conflict resolution mechanism in the form of a colossal constitution. The present majoritarian regime manoeuvres the crevasses existing in[Read More…]