Archive for September, 2021

So Long, CENTCOM, and Good Riddance!

So Long, CENTCOM, and Good Riddance!

The bad news stemming from the ill-planned and ill-managed U.S. evacuation of the Afghan capital just kept coming in. The Washington Post put it this way in blowing the whistle on the culminating disaster: “U.S. military admits ‘horrible mistake’ in Kabul drone strike that killed 10 Afghans.” Following the August 26th terrorist attack outside Hamid Karzai International Airport that took the lives of 13[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
A farewell note for Professor Yogesh Tyagi

A farewell note for Professor Yogesh Tyagi

  A new vice chancellor has been appointed in Delhi University (DU) after a wait of six months. Prof. Yogesh Singh will conduct the affairs of DU from the vice chancellor office. His predecessor Prof. Yogesh Tyagi, in the last phase of his tenure met with a serious illness. Unfortunately, at such a time he also became a victim of[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
75 Years of ‘Neecha Nagar’

75 Years of ‘Neecha Nagar’

A film on struggles of slum-dwellers, won the first top international award for India Much before the advent of the new wave in Indian cinema, during the decade of the 1950s several films of great social commitment which reflected the ideals of the freedom movement. However what is even more remarkable is that even before independence, braving the even higher[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Telangana’s Revolutionary Songs

Telangana’s Revolutionary Songs

Songs That Reflect The Political Consciousness Of The People  During Revolutionary Times Of Telangana Peasants’ Armed Struggle (1946-51) By MA Krishna and S. Jatin Kumar Photo (by Sunil Jena): Peasant Revolutionaries of Telangana 1946-51: Training in arms and drill.  Telangana people’s armed struggle (1946-51) spawned a huge literature in Telugu, particularly hundreds of songs and stories. A few novels too[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 1 comment India
Photo credit: CommonDreams

Challenge the Adult World, Pope’s Call to Youth Climate Change Activists

Pope Francis thanked a youth climate activist conference on Wednesday for the participants’ “dreams and projects of goodness” and encouraged them to keep up their advocacy of action to combat climate change. Speaking in Spanish via video to the Youth4Climate event in Milan, which drew 400 young activists from 197 countries, the Pope said their work is “for the good of humanity,”[Read More…]

Love jihad has no truth to it

Love jihad has no truth to it

Love jihad is a highly debated  topic in India today. Whenever the issue starts to peter out someone will come up with a statement or an action to bring it back to the limelight. The latest being Pala Bishop’s controversial statement about both love jihad and narcotics jihad. Narcotics jihad is something that was hitherto unheard of , the credit[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The Global North isn’t ready for climate breakdown

The Global North isn’t ready for climate breakdown

When I was growing up in Kolkata, every monsoon the streets would get flooded. I remember looking forward to the days when school would get cancelled and I would get to stay home and watch cartoons. I would look out from the balcony to see life carrying on, people wading through sometimes waist-deep murky brown water. Somehow it all still[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 1 comment Climate Change
What Might an Ecosocialist Society Look Like?

What Might an Ecosocialist Society Look Like?

Before describing possible features of a future ecosocialism, it is worthwhile to consider why such a system is even needed. Why can’t the problems that ecosocialism would solve also be remedied within the current global capitalist system? Part I of this essay addresses that question by summarizing recent scientific reports on the state of the climate and extent of the[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Chinese ambassador Wang Yu met Acting Foreign Minister of Taliban Mawlavi Amir Khan Muttaqi, Kabul, September 26, 2021

US, UK prepare to re-engage Taliban

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has written yet another opinion piece in the Washington Post, sensing a turning point lies ahead with the Biden Administration assembling a sustainable, durable policy toward Afghanistan taking into account the new reality of the Taliban government.  Quintessentially, Imran Khan revisited his argument in the earlier WaPo piece in July where he had concluded: “I believe that promoting economic[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 1 comment World
Murderous Fantasies: The US Intelligence Effort Against Assange

Murderous Fantasies: The US Intelligence Effort Against Assange

If there was any reason to halt a farcical train of legal proceedings, then the case against Julian Assange would have to be the standard bearing example.  Since last year, the efforts by the US government to pursue his extradition to the vicious purgatory of American justice has seen more than a fair share of obscene revelations.  While prosecutors for[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Millions of Afghans have been displaced by the war. Photo: MikrofonNews

Afghanistan’s Impoverished People Live Amid Enormous Riches

On September 25, 2021, Afghanistan’s Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammad Hanif said that his government does not want “help and cooperation from the world like the previous government. The old system was supported by the international community for 20 years but still failed.” It is fair to say that Hanif has no experience in running a complex economy, since he has spent[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
On Afghanistan and Legitimate Resistance

On Afghanistan and Legitimate Resistance

An urgent task is awaiting us: considering the progression of events, we must quickly liberate ourselves from the limits and confines placed on the Afghanistan discourse, which have been imposed by US-centered Western propaganda for over 20 years, and counting. A first step is that we must not allow the future political discourse pertaining to this very subject to remain[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Petition Against Hudson Institute

Petition Against Hudson Institute

The UN Secretary General His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres in his September 2020 document titled United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech said: “Fighting hate, discrimination, racism and inequality is at the core of United Nations principles and the Organization’s work…Hate speech, including online, has become one of the most frequent methods for spreading divisive and discriminatory[Read More…]

by 30/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Capture of Public Land in Mumbai

Capture of Public Land in Mumbai

The Piramals are the in-laws of the Mukesh Ambani family. This article has for its reference point a new high rise luxury building recently built by the Piramals in Mumbai. The capture of textile mill land by capitalists and throwing out thousands of workers from central area in Mumbai is one of the biggest land scandals in modern India. I[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
A Look At The ‘Other Kareena’!

A Look At The ‘Other Kareena’!

Review of ‘ From ‘Nazneen to Naina’   “To get a name is one of the few things that cannot be bought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted.” – British writer Samuel Johnson ( 1709-1784) – poet, playwright, essayist, biographer, critic, editor The idea to be fascinated by individuals –[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Child Labor: Which Side are Democracies On?

Child Labor: Which Side are Democracies On?

Two years ago, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro favorably promoted the idea of labor for children as young as eight or nine, his minister for Human Rights, Family, and Women shot back: “Let us be clear that for children to work is a violation of their rights, something that cannot be allowed.” The Brazilian National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
A man grieves during a mass funeral for members of a family was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

Assassins-in-Chief and Their Brood

What a way to end a war! Apologies all around! We’re so damn sorry — or actually, maybe not! I’m thinking, of course, about CENTCOM commander General Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr.’s belated apology for the drone assassination of seven children as the last act, or perhaps final war crime, in this country’s 20-year-long Afghan nightmare. Where to begin (or end, for that[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The Untold Story of Why Palestinians Are Divided

The political division in Palestinian society is deep-rooted, and must not be reduced to convenient claims about the ‘Hamas-Fatah split’, elections, the Oslo accords and subsequent disagreements. The division is linked to events that preceded all of these, and not even the death or incapacitation of the octogenarian, Mahmoud Abbas, will advance Palestinian unity by an iota. Palestinian political disunity[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 1 comment Palestine
The U.S. Is ‘Out of Step’ on Primate Research With the Rest of the World

The U.S. Is ‘Out of Step’ on Primate Research With the Rest of the World

While the European Union votes to phase out animal research, the United States wants more. In the last two years, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested nearly $29 million to breed more monkeys for biomedical research, with an additional $7.5 million to be spent by October. The investments, which include infrastructure improvements at the U.S. National Primate Research[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
André Vltchek – A Year since You are Gone

André Vltchek – A Year since You are Gone

On 22 September 2020, André Vltchek, quietly passed away – on a night-ride from the Black Sea in Turkey to Istanbul, accompanied by his wife, Rossie. He just fell asleep in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven car and didn’t wake up. His legacy is diverse, heavy in substance and revealing – revealing about the world, about the dark forces[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Doctors Mobilize in COVID Times To Protect Essential Conditions of Proper Care to Patients

Doctors Mobilize in COVID Times To Protect Essential Conditions of Proper Care to Patients

 At world level an increasing number of eminent doctors have  been expressing anguish since the advent of COVID-19 that   that they are under increasing pressure to work only in the narrow confines of what is imposed from above, and when they  they try to act on the basis of the best of their judgment then they face undue opposition and[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
PM CARES Fund: Centre inflicts big blow on RTI Act

PM CARES Fund: Centre inflicts big blow on RTI Act

Whether PM-CARES did not care for RTI? We get this doubt because PMO refused to give information about the thousands of crores of rupees of public money given into the accounts of government-controlled PM CARES fund. An under-secretary of PMO in Government of India filed affidavit on behalf of PM CARES before Delhi High Court on September 23 and claimed[Read More…]

by 29/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flanked by Taliban officials attending a conference on Afghanistan, Moscow, November 2018

Afghanistan and China, NATO, Russia

Afghanistan is now a hot issue among the world powers. China has talked to NATO while Russian Foreign Minister has said about a common approach by U.S., China, Russia and Pakistan. Media reports said: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held a virtual meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, amid longstanding disagreements between[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 1 comment World
Religion, Amity and Society: Call for Human Harmony

Religion, Amity and Society: Call for Human Harmony

In an increasingly convoluted world of religions and cultures, it is imperative to develop and foster social harmony so as to meet the challenges posed by diversity. Recognizing religious diversity and differences is quite important today, and it is quite significant that all religions sustain and reinforce mutual understanding and empathy through dialogue. They also have an obligation to uphold[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Captain Should Play a Higher Role Than High Command

Captain Should Play a Higher Role Than High Command

I do not generally opine on the internal affairs of any political party. Hence, I have no comments on the machinations of leadership change in Punjab and the strength or potential of the new leadership. I will only say that Captain Amarinder Singh, a veteran leader of about 80 years, was punished by the Congress high command for not visiting[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Intersectionality – becoming a trojan horse!

Intersectionality – becoming a trojan horse!

Diminishing return as a concept- Unmixed blessing is a rarity. It is difficult to find in social science a concept that takes care of everything. The notion of intersectionality is one such case. It is supposed to be an advancement over social stratification categories like race, caste, class, gender. However, if we look closely, we can see that it has[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Remembering Two Great Martrys Shahid Bhagat Singh and Shahid Shankar Guha Niyogi   

Remembering Two Great Martrys Shahid Bhagat Singh and Shahid Shankar Guha Niyogi   

September 28 is the 113th birth anniversary of the most loved and remembered freedom fighter of India Shahid Bhagat Singh. It is also the 30th death anniversary of Shahid Shankar Guha Niyogi. Subhash Chandra Bose while broadcasting his message to people of India from his Azad Hind Fauz camps had referred to Mahatma Gandhi as the Father of Nation ([Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 1 comment Life/Philosophy
German Finance Minister, Vice-Chancellor and Social Democratic SPD Party’s candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz holds up a bouquet of flowers at the party’s headquarters in Berlin. September 27, 2021

Rise of centre-left in Germany

The big take-away of Germany’s first election of the post-Merkel era is that none of the parties has ‘won’ and each of the parties has reason to look miserable and feel disappointed with their performance. A new political landscape is struggling to be born.  For the ruling Christian Democrats [CDU], this has been their worst ever performance in post-war history, faring significantly[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Shankar Guha Niyogi with family

Remembering Comrade Shankar Guha Niyogi

Today, September 28, is the 30th death anniversary of Comrade Shankar Guha Niyogi (February 14, 1943 – September 28, 1991). He was murdered by the agents of the capitalist class. He was just 48 years old! In spite of the efforts of good lawyers like Kannabiran, his murderers went unpunished because of the collusion between the state, bureaucracy and judiciary[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Fallout and Lessons Learnt from HRC and UN September 2021 Sessions

The Fallout and Lessons Learnt from HRC and UN September 2021 Sessions

The 48th UN Human Rights Council’s sessions has evoked much interest for Sri Lanka’s Human Rights activists and Government coupled with mixed signals from the Human Rights Commissioner. While the Commissioner appreciates Sri Lanka’s moves which are apparently opportunistic and face saving farcical measures, she has also issued a warning to Sri Lanka that it will remain in the watch[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 1 comment Human Rights
Sonagachi sex workers band together to brave the Covid pandemic

Sonagachi sex workers band together to brave the Covid pandemic

 Even as the fear of the third Covid wave lingers, for the sex workers in Kolkata and other districts of Bengal, life is just about limping back to a fragmented, broken and incomplete sense of ‘normalcy’. This is but a semblance of normalcy, coming as it does after a prolonged period of hardship and difficulty. A ‘sense of normalcy’, which[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
New Blocs, new conflicts

New Blocs, new conflicts

‘China eyes on Afghan copper’, ‘Pakistan has become the mistress of China’, ‘Britain is a lapdog of the America’, ‘France is furious over the submarine deal’, ‘India trying re-entry in Kabul through Iran via Russia’. The media across the globe has turned into a noisy circus with its fear-provoking news headlines.  It is forcing many people to say goodbye to[Read More…]

by 28/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
US government, CIA plotted to kidnap or assassinate Assange in London

US government, CIA plotted to kidnap or assassinate Assange in London

An explosive investigative report by Yahoo News has revealed plans at the highest levels of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Trump administration to illegally kidnap or even assassinate WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange when he was an internationally recognised political refugee in Ecuador’s London embassy. Based on discussions with more than 30 former US officials, the report alleges conduct on[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Miya has no Human Right

The Miya has no Human Right

A few videos surfaced from Darrang, Assam. In one of the videos, a poor man was seen running with a lathi in his hand towards the security forces. There were alteast ten armed men in uniform. He was alone. With angst in his eyes, he attacked the troops and then, the next movement, he was lying there, lifelessly. There was[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Need for reservations in Judiciary for women/SCs/STs/OBCs

Need for reservations in Judiciary for women/SCs/STs/OBCs

To Shri Ram Nath Kovind President of India Respected Rashtrapati Ji, It has been widely reported ( https://indianexpress.com/article/india/cji-50-womens-reservation-judiciary-7535963/) that Shri N V Ramana, Chief Justice of India (CJI) has recently made a statement on the need for 50% reservation for women in the judiciary. He is reported to have made the following observations on the subject, while addressing the Lady Advocates[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen Has Failed - Council on Foreign Relations

Humanitarian Crisis Ravages Yemen: Yet Biden Administration Continues To Service Saudi War Machine

President Joe Biden began his presidency with a promise to confront Saudi Arabia and treat the murderous regime as a “pariah.” In particular, he pledged to end “all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.” Yet nearly eight months later little has changed. The president undercut his initial promise when he said “We’re going to[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) with the US President  Joe Biden at White House, Washington DC, USA, September 24, 2021.

What Biden told the Indians

Given the state of the Indian media today, it is difficult to cut through the Indian-American rhetoric from a distance of 10,000 kilometres and get a rounded view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States and his meeting with President Biden.  So much has changed since Modi last visited America two years ago. India has changed, America[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
A man grieves during a mass funeral for members of a family was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

A Forever Wall for Our Forever Wars

As a parting shot, on its way out of Afghanistan, the United States military launched a drone attack that the Pentagon called a “righteous strike.” The final missile fired during 20 years of occupation, that August 29th airstrike averted an Islamic State car-bomb attack on the last American troops at Kabul’s airport. At least, that’s what the Pentagon told the[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Problems With Capitalism

Problems With Capitalism

One of the problems with capitalism is that it is driving us towards disaster. Greed is good? Adam Smith (1723-1790) maintained that individual self-interest can and should be the principle guiding our economic behavior . He told the readers of his book “The Wealth of Nations”, that, as if guided by an invisible hand, individual self-interest leads to the general[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Every little girl has a dream, a dream that will not die….

Every little girl has a dream, a dream that will not die….

                                                                         Every little girl has a dream A dream to study, a dream to play, A dream to dance, a dream to fly, A dream[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Dying for an iPhone

Dying for an iPhone

Dying for an iPhone:  Apple, Foxconn, and the Lives of China’s Workers By Jenny Chan, Mark Selden, and Pun Ngai Chicago:  Haymarket Books, 2020 ISBN: 978-1-64259-124-8 Paperback Like many of you, I use an iPhone.  It is a technological wonder and allows me to do things unimaginable even a few years ago; it has more computer power than NASA had[Read More…]

by 27/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Why River Pollution and Depletion Remains A Serious Threat In India

Why River Pollution and Depletion Remains A Serious Threat In India

In recent decades India has heard a lot about such appealing, consoling programs like the Ganga Action Plan, the Yamuna Action Plan, the National River Conservation Plan and finally Namami Gange. So it is all the more disturbing to know from recent reports and other indicators that the problem of river pollution remains serious, endangering health of human beings and[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
The Real Estate State?

The Real Estate State?

Review of “Capital City:  Gentrification and the Real Estate State” by Samuel Stein.  Verso, 2019. Real Estate is the world’s largest asset class. The numbers are staggering- globally, real estate in aggregate is worth approximately $230 trillion.  Of this, residential real estate is the majority player, worth approximately $180 trillion.  This far exceeds the value of all stocks and is[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Increasing spread of virus infection in Byculla prison is worrisome: Friends & Family of Sudha Bharadwaj

Increasing spread of virus infection in Byculla prison is worrisome: Friends & Family of Sudha Bharadwaj

Friends and Family of Sudha Bharadwaj are extremely worried over the alarming and disturbing news of the rising Covid-19 infection in Byculla women’s jail forcing the authorities to seal the premise. Last week, in a prison supervised phone conversation Koel Sen had with her mother Shoma Sen, former professor of English from Nagpur University, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
 Ostomy-Need for Awareness

 Ostomy-Need for Awareness

October 2, this year,is  not only observed as the birthday of Gandhi, it is also a World Ostomy Day. Ostomy is an artificial opening during operation in the organ of the body such as a colostomy, ileostomy or gastrostomy , a stoma. Ostomy surgery is a life saving procedure that allows bodily waste pass through a surgically created stoma on[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
UCCRI (ML) Supports the Bharat Bandh on September 27, 2021

UCCRI (ML) Supports the Bharat Bandh on September 27, 2021

The Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India –Marxist-Leninist (UCCRI -ML) supports the call for a Bharat Bandh on September 27, 2021, given by the various farmers’ organizations to oppose the Modi Government’s farm laws. It is clear to one and all that the Modi Government’s policies are meant to favour big business houses and big landlords to amass huge[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Oil Politics, Taliban and Islamophobia: Impact on India

Oil Politics, Taliban and Islamophobia: Impact on India

Withdrawal of US army from Afghanistan has led to the Taliban coming to power. The scene created in Afghanistan has been very disturbing. The minorities trying to flee, the Muslims attempting to leave the country desperately have made a sad spectacle. This has drawn global attention to the phenomenon in Afghanistan. The past record of Taliban rule is flashing in[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
World Rivers Day

World Rivers Day

Today, September 26, 2021, is World Rivers Day. World Rivers Day is a global celebration of the world’s waterways, observed every year on the last Sunday in September. Established in 2005, it highlights the many values of rivers and strives to increase public awareness while encouraging the improved stewardship of rivers around the world. Rivers in every country face an[Read More…]

US President Joe Biden at Quad Summit, White House, Sept. 24, 2021. Seated clockwise Australian PM Scott Morrison, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga & Indian PM Narendra Modi

Quad is turning & turning in widening gyre

By coincidence, perhaps, on the same day that President Biden hosted the first Quad summit, he also cleared the way for a senior executive of Huawei Technologies to return to Beijing — “removing one major irritant between the two superpowers,” as the New York Times put it.  Meng Wanzhouthe’s release made headlines overshadowing the QUAD event. Beijing reciprocated instantly by releasing[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Bhimanna Jadhav. Photo courtsey- Bhimanna Jadhav

Sundari players struggle as Covid takes the music out of Indian weddings

Bhopal: Sundari, a wind-instrument is held in high regard among musicians of Maharashtra, as the younger sister of the better-known Shehnai. But sadly, the Sundari-organists in Solapur, are still reeling from the consequences of the pandemic trying out odd jobs to make ends meet after COVID-19 took a toll on their livelihood. “I tried to become an auto-driver a few[Read More…]

by 26/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Assam: Final Solutions

Assam: Final Solutions

People squirm in unease when I refer to the legacy of Nazism while discussing present proponents of Hindutva.But once one sets aside quibbles the mindset of both camps cannot fail to strike one with their remarkable likeness. The fundamental generic unity lies in their deep discomfort with any strand of thought,culture or language that does not agree with their paradigm[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Rest in Power Kamla!

Rest in Power Kamla!

                                Kamla Bhasin, who passed away in wee hours of Saturday, was a social scientist, development professional, poet, author and a stalwart of women’s movement in India and South Asia who advocated gender equality in every walk of life. Throughout her life she has been[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 1 comment Life/Philosophy
The India-U.S-China-Russia Quadrilateral Challenge

The India-U.S-China-Russia Quadrilateral Challenge

India PM took part on Friday afternoon the White House Quad meeting. His relaxed face with smile and Biden’s hearty open smile in a WH photo can speak volumes. Or? The focussed Quad priorities  on the rule of law, navigation and overflight freedom, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values and territorial integrity of states and support for smaller states of[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 1 comment World
WHO/ILO study says nearly 2 million workers globally die from work-related issues each year

WHO/ILO study says nearly 2 million workers globally die from work-related issues each year

A new report, jointly issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) on work-related deaths for the year 2016, shows that workplace-related diseases and injuries led to the deaths of 1.9 million people in that year. The WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-Related Burden of Disease and Injury, 2000-2016, conducted before the outbreak of the[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Kamla Bhasin Combined Great Kindness with Firmness of Resolve

Kamla Bhasin Combined Great Kindness with Firmness of Resolve

Kamla Bhasin passed away in the early hours today ( September 25 2021) at the age of 75. She will be remembered by many people and several organizations in South Asia (and elsewhere)  to whom she reached out at several levels with many-sided contributions. She made valuable and original contributions to feminist thinking and theory, particularly in the context of[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Arrest of Seven villagers in Mali Hill area of Odisha

Arrest of Seven villagers in Mali Hill area of Odisha

We, members of Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan (Odisha), are deeply shocked and enraged with the vindictive attitude of the government of Odisha towards the tribals of the state. The government of Odisha has started hounding tribal leaders of Mali Hill defying statutory and constitutional provisions as well as time to time verdict of the Apex court. The arrests are happening[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
 Promote decentralised solar electricity generation

 Promote decentralised solar electricity generation

  Letter to the Prime Minister  Subject: Promotion of decentralised solar electricity generation, in preference to large centralised solar generation projects To Shri Narendra D Modi Prime Minister Dear Shri Modi, Over the last few years, as a part of the global effort to mitigate the effects of climate change, India has rightly taken conscious strides towards a shift from fossil[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
India is high on the weed of Hateriotism to marginalise Indian Muslims

India is high on the weed of Hateriotism to marginalise Indian Muslims

Looks India is high on the weed of Hateriotism, every day there is one incident of Hate crime getting reported on social media but unfortunately, it gets comfortably ignored by the media in the mainstream. Saw one of the most horrific & depressing videos from #Assam. Where a Muslim poor man who wanted to save his land and home protested[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Atrocity as Mode of Governance

Atrocity as Mode of Governance

Even a couple of days before it hapless Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, or anybody outside a charmed circle,had any idea that they will be set upon by hordes of murderers and hate=filled fanatics. Secrecy and suddenness are the basic elements of such mass assaults on life and property of victims of pogroms. Secrecy is no longer so important as[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Iran’s SCO membership is a big deal

Iran’s SCO membership is a big deal

Like in a Wagnerian music drama, there is an associated melodic theme that accompanies the situations behind the two big regional developments last week — the announcement of the AUKUS, security alliance of three “maritime democracies” on September 15 and Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as full member on September 17.  Both developments broke the glass ceiling. The[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
World Lung Day | Air is deadlier than we thought it is!

World Lung Day | Air is deadlier than we thought it is!

While we observe World Lung Day, let us also pay heed to the latest policy guidelines on one of the major preventable risk factors of deadliest of lung diseases: air pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its latest Air Quality Guidelines that after rigorous scientific review has lowered the maximum upper limit of six top deadly air pollutants.[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Sonipat Accident Again Highlights Urgent Need For Improving  Safety of Schools

Sonipat Accident Again Highlights Urgent Need For Improving  Safety of Schools

On September 23 , in Gannaur area of Sonipat district, Haryana, the collpase of a roof led to  25 students of grade 3 getting injured. They were rushed to hospital. In addition three other persons including a teacher were injured too. This tragic incident has once again highlighted the need for significant improvement in safety conditions in school—governmet schools as[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Corporatization of agri and retail trade will cause huge employment crisis

Corporatization of agri and retail trade will cause huge employment crisis

When we hear of “economic reform”, we think of policies that might make for greater growth and efficiency. However, what we often get is liberalization, privatization and globalization, all of which are aimed at facilitating large corporate players. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements are not negotiated so much by sovereign nations as corporate interests. Farmers, workers[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The Taliban fighters posing for family photo and relaxing in the Presidential Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug 15, 2021

Strict Punishment, Amputations and Executions will Return to Afghanistan, says Taliban Co-founder

Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a co-founder of the Taliban who will control prisons under the new regime in Afghanistan, said strict punishment, including amputations and executions, will return. “Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi said in Kabul during an interview, which was published Thursday by the[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Post-historical POLITICAL NECROPHILIA IN ASSAM 

Post-historical POLITICAL NECROPHILIA IN ASSAM 

  We are shaken and frozen. Is this the last sky? We can hardly gather words to write this. Assembling them to describe the heinousness of the crime we saw is both painful and difficult. On Thursday, a body, a Muslim body was not only gunned down in cold blood from a close range, but a government photographer, masked his[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
US President Joe Biden, UK PM Boris Johnson, and Australia's high commissioner to the UK George Brandis, had met during the G7 meeting in Cornwall in June. The AUKUS which was announced on September 15, was deemed "a forever partnership" by Brandis. Photo: George Brandis/ Twitter

Clear away the hype: the US and Australia signed a nuclear arms deal, simple as that

The AUKUS despite being coined a security partnership, is a nuclear arms deal aimed at increasing pressure against China and should be cause for concern On September 15, 2021, the heads of government of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced the formation of AUKUS, “a new enhanced trilateral security partnership” between these three countries. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 1 comment World
Trumpism with a Biden Face: US Haitian Policy

Trumpism with a Biden Face: US Haitian Policy

With that orange haired brute of a president supposedly ushered out of the White House with moralising delight, the Biden administration was all keen to turn over a new leaf.  There would be more diplomacy, and still more diplomacy.  There would be a more humanitarian approach to refugees and asylum seekers – forget, he claimed, the Border Wall.  Kindness would[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Bridge the North-South divide for a UN Biodiversity Framework that is more just

Bridge the North-South divide for a UN Biodiversity Framework that is more just

This month, the leaders of nation states from around the world have been gathered in New York City to attend the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Covid, climate and biodiversity are among the topics they are expected to address. Indeed, on September 21, in his sobering yet passionate address to the assembly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres focused attention on all[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Image: “Banksy Secretly Gets Into Gaza To Create  Street Art”

Wanted: A Palestinian Front for all Seasons

The Palestinian political scene remains bleak. The status quo in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continues to be backed by the international community at the behest of the the Zionist regime, which is comfortable with having its cake and eating it too, and why shouldn’t it be? In March 2015, then Israeli economy minister Naftali Bennett even proposed[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 1 comment Palestine
What English Has Done To India And The World?

What English Has Done To India And The World?

By October 5, 2021 English language life in India is 204 years. For the last few years the celebration of Indian English Day on that day is catching up. Ever since the first English medium school started in the then Calcutta in 1817 on October 5, India never allowed that language to die. It has been growing and growing not[Read More…]

by 24/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
A Parable of (All-American) Violence – Accountability and the War of Terror

A Parable of (All-American) Violence – Accountability and the War of Terror

As a religious studies professor, I know a parable when I see one. Consider the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the final events in this country’s war in Afghanistan as just such a parable taken directly from the history of our moment. The heart-wrenching last days of that war amounted to a cautionary tale about the nature of[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Human Rights Watch: US Ambassador’s RSS Meet “Troubling” & “Disturbing”

Human Rights Watch: US Ambassador’s RSS Meet “Troubling” & “Disturbing”

Ambassador Atul Keshap’s meet with RSS’s Mohan Bhagwat “sent a terrible message,” says HRW’s Asia Advocacy Director “Meeting with the head of a paramilitary, ideologically-driven organization that promotes extraordinarily racist and, some might say, even autocratic ideas, is highly troubling,” declared Human Rights Watch’s Asia Advocacy Director John Sifton in regards to US Ambassador Atul Keshap’s 8 September 2021 meeting[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Pandemic and surge in food prices deepens global hunger

Pandemic and surge in food prices deepens global hunger

Global food prices have risen 33 percent in the last 12 months, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Basic staples such as vegetable oil, grains and meat have shown some of the highest increases. Coming on top of the economic catastrophe visited on billions by the pandemic, these pressures will fuel inflation making it difficult for[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Machinery operating in the annex pit at the Cerrejon Coal Mine in Barrancas, La Guajira, Colombia. Nicolo Filippo Rosso/Bloomberg via Getty Images

They are murdered: They face violence: They are Defenders of Environment

Hundreds of environment defenders have been murdered in countries. Environment defenders face lethal attacks and violence. Global Witness in Last Line of Defence report said: In 2020, we recorded 227 lethal attacks – an average of more than four people a week – making it once again the most dangerous year on record for people defending their homes, land and[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Remembering Chairman Mao

Remembering Chairman Mao

On September 9th the world commemorated the 45th death anniversary of Chairman Mao Tse Tung. His spirit virtually engulfed the entire globe penetrating the hearts of the opressed masses in depth unparalleled by any political leader. His path breaking experiments defined a new epoch in mankind. The era is still that of Lenin’s or that of Imperialism but is Mao[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
“We Shall Overcome”: How the youth of Darjeeling responded during COVID-19

“We Shall Overcome”: How the youth of Darjeeling responded during COVID-19

On May 4th of 2021, as the second wave of  COVID-19 raged in the hills of Darjeeling, a group of youth came up with an initiative called “We Shall Overcome” to lead their community in the battle against the pandemic. COVID-19 had scorched the Darjeeling hills creating panic among the people, especially rural areas of the hilly district where medical[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 1 comment COVID Response Watch
One Man as a Whole Generation: The Unfinished War of Zakaria Zubeidi

One Man as a Whole Generation: The Unfinished War of Zakaria Zubeidi

Zakaria Zubeidi is one of six Palestinian prisoners who, on September 6, tunneled their way out of Gilboa, a notorious, high-security Israeli prison. Zubeidi was recaptured a few days later. The large bruises on Zubeidi’s face told a harrowing story, that of a daring escape and of a violent arrest. However, the story does not begin, nor end, there. Twenty[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Palestine
The UK Carrier Strike Group 2021, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, departing the UK [Credit: Royal Navy/Flickr]

How AUKUS May Damage NATO

The fallout over the AUKUS deal, as we are now seeing, has been a severe rift in relations between two historic allies, the U.S. and France. And the collateral damage may also include NATO. Only weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden courageously ended the war in Afghanistan—in the face of bitter opposition from the media and Congress—came the announcement of the formation of AUKUS,[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 1 comment World
Who Represents Afghanistan: Genuine Activists vs ‘Native Informants’

Who Represents Afghanistan: Genuine Activists vs ‘Native Informants’

  Scenes of thousands of Afghans flooding the Kabul International Airport to flee the country as Taliban fighters were quickly consolidating their control over the capital, raised many questions, leading amongst them: who are these people and why are they running away? In the US and other Western media, answers were readily available: they were mostly ‘translators’, Afghans who ‘collaborated’[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Duterte’s Last Dirty Trick: Eluding the International Criminal Court

Duterte’s Last Dirty Trick: Eluding the International Criminal Court

            Just a few days ago, the international human-rights groups called INVESTIGATE PH released its final report on the Philippine State’s violations of civil and political human rights aggravated by the lack of domestic remedies to address widespread abuses by the Duterte regime. The first six months of 2021 witnessed an unprecedented rampage of extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, disappearances, and[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 1 comment World
What does the 24 September – Global Climate Strike Mean to Farmers, Workers & Peasants of India 

What does the 24 September – Global Climate Strike Mean to Farmers, Workers & Peasants of India 

The fridays for future organisation that cropped up from worldwide student protest launch first by a lone Swedish girl student of Class IX, Greta Thunberg starting from August-September 2018, has called for a Global Climate Strike on coming Friday, September 24, 2021. For millions of Farmers and Farm labourers in India who are in the 10-month continuing protest sit-in around[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
One Year on Since the Farm Laws – India’s Farmers’ Struggle Set to Intensify

One Year on Since the Farm Laws – India’s Farmers’ Struggle Set to Intensify

  It is now one year since controversial farm bills were passed into law in India in September 2020. The  three bills and the subsequent legislation have triggered a massive 15-month farmers’ protest that has attracted worldwide attention and support. Farmers, farmers’ unions and their representatives demand that the laws be repealed and state that they will not accept a[Read More…]

by 23/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Photo credit: CommonDreams

U.S. Militarism’s Toxic Impact on Climate Policy

by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies President Biden addressed the UN General Assembly on September 21 with a warning that the climate crisis is fast approaching a “point of no return,” and a promise that the United States would rally the world to action. “We will lead not just with the example of our power but, God willing,[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Patriarchy:  The Struggle Continues

Patriarchy:  The Struggle Continues

     In a day when America is ruling over a global Empire maintained with violent enforcement to insure universal subordination to its will;  and in a day when a military-style domestic police state relentlessly makes sure anti-government protest and dissent is contained,  the patriarchal part of that America has been enhanced and strengthened. Feminist movements have launched long, fierce struggles[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Gudiya (name changed) at her house, eating plain rice form a plate, sharing it with her sisters- Photo Courtsey - Sachin Kumar Jain

Simple Processing Reforms Can Ensure Healthier Food 

Everyone agrees that we should get adequate adequate vitamins in our food. But supposing someone first removes the vitamins in your natural food and then asks you to pay extra for artificially putting the vitamins back in this  food then what will be your reaction? Surely you will protest against this, and your protest will be all the louder if[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Bishop of Pala, Joseph Kallarangat

Church And The Question Of Narcotic Jihad

NDCW-National Dalit Christian Watch- expresses it deep anguish and displeasure against the recent unwarranted, unethical and un-Christian remark made by the Bishop of Pala, Mar Joseph Kallarangat of the Syro Malabar Church that ‘Narcotics Jihad is being used to lure Christian Youth’.  This disparaging remark has caused, not only an unprecedented controversy in the socio – religio- political spheres of[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 1 comment India
Opposition Unity: Will they, won’t they?

Opposition Unity: Will they, won’t they?

The second half of the thirties for the Weimar Republic in Germany was marked by both aspirations and apprehensions.The rise of the Nazis,with the connivance at their political thuggery by the police,did arouse anxiety,but Hitler as yet had not earned his evil charisma.The largest group in parliament were the Social Democrats,who were denounced as ‘social fascists’ simply for not joining[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
In this Aug. 24, 2020 photo, fire burns in the hollow of an old-growth redwood tree in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

California wildfires threaten millennia-old giant sequoias

The ongoing wildfires in California are again threatening the state’s millennia-old giant sequoia (also known as giant redwood) trees in central California. The most immediate danger is from the KNP Complex, a recent merging of the recently sparked Paradise Fire and Colony Fire, which has grown to 25,142 acres and is 0 percent contained. The wild land blaze has already[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Avoiding Real Change: The Myth of Green Capitalism

Avoiding Real Change: The Myth of Green Capitalism

Heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires are devastating communities around the world, and they will only grow more severe. While climate-change deniers remain powerful, the need for urgent action is now recognized well beyond activist circles. Governments, international organizations, and even business and finance are bowing to the inevitable—or so it seems. In fact, the world has wasted decades tinkering with[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Bad Business: World Bank and China, A Rigging Scandal

Bad Business: World Bank and China, A Rigging Scandal

A business bad in standard of business has been done, and the business involves the World Bank (WB) and China. Media reports said: Some investors and campaigners expressed dismay on September 17, 2021 at revelations that the WB leaders pressured staff to boost China’s score in an influential report that ranks countries on how easy it is to do business[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Our Government Cares for General Motors, Ford, not  our Pedestrians

Our Government Cares for General Motors, Ford, not  our Pedestrians

 Many parts of the world observed today, September 22, as the international  car-free day, a day for freedom and safety for pedestrians. The United Nations  has supported   priority for pedestrians. But the Indian government  is  busy encouraging cars, it has just announced  a productivity  linked  incentive (PLI) scheme to  subsidise  the industry to the tune of thousands of crores of[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Displaced Afghans from the northern provinces are evacuated from a makeshift IDP camp in Share-e-Naw park to various mosques and schools on August 12, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. People displaced by the Taliban advancing are flooding into the Kabul capital to escape the Taliban takeover of their provinces. (Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

A new model of refugee housing is needed for better integration

As York prepares to welcome Afghan refugees, housing is becoming a critical issue. It is not that York lacks rental housing, but rather that it lacks affordable housing, a particular problem for people who will likely have left their country with nothing. This article seeks to offer an alternative solution and to investigate ways and means of welcoming more refugees[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Hangman’s Noose

The Hangman’s Noose

Does the death penalty work ? Or is it an anachronism which is long past its “use by” date ? But still continues to remain in use ? According to Amnesty International,  there are 106 countries where use of the death penalty is not allowed by law and 8 countries which permit the death penalty only for serious crimes in[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Mark Willacy’s Rogue Forces

Mark Willacy’s Rogue Forces

Respected journalist Mark Willacy’s Rogue Forces is imperative reading for its detonating exposé of Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan and the systematic cover-ups at varying levels of the Australian Defence Force operations. Willacy’s window on war crimes is narrow, focusing on three SAS members of Squadron 3;  Soldier A, Soldier B and Soldier C who murdered in chilling bloodlust innocent Afghan farmers in 2012. It[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 1 comment Book Review
World Car Free Day

World Car Free Day

Today, September 22 is the World Car Free Day. It is celebrated in many cities around the world to create awareness about how our locality will look and feel like without cars. It started on an ad hoc basis after the 1973 oil crisis. Only in 2000 it became a self-standing day held on September 22. On this day a[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Source Vishal Singh

Encroaching a wetland in the name of rejuvenation! Sukhatal Lake restoration project tells the story

Instead of restoring the degraded Sukhatal, developmental authorities are converting the alive wetland into a dead swimming pool, thereby killing its wetland status forever and creating deadly repercussions for the Nainital Town. A wetland restoration project is expected to repair a degraded wetland back to its original and healthy condition. For this, the wetland is modified without disrupting its original[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Changes Needed in Panchayati Raj and Decentralized Administration

Changes Needed in Panchayati Raj and Decentralized Administration

India has established an elaborate three-tier system of decentralisation known as Panchayati Raj. This is in tune with the three tier administrative system of village panchayat, block and district level. However some changes in this system have been overdue.  Before making some important suggestions   this writer will like to clarify that no retrenchment or loss of job ( or even[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Power and Glory in Times of Disease and Death

Power and Glory in Times of Disease and Death

As the weeks long birthday festivity of the leadership is rejoiced country wide, the covid is still raging. The carnival is in line with the post covid decisions and actions of the leadership demonstrating a pursuit of personal power and glory instead of national interest in the times of disease and death. The national interest, a term synonymous with the[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
A Questionable ‘Suicide’ In Rule Of Law

A Questionable ‘Suicide’ In Rule Of Law

Raju’s death and version of suicide, in Telangana on September16 , is questioned by human rights activists, women groups, public spirited lawyers as also by the mother and wife of the killed suspect. It may not be just a coincidence, but dead body was found within a day after a Minister declared that certainly the suspect will be ‘encountered’ following[Read More…]

by 22/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Book on Bebo released on her birthday in Chandigarh

Book on Bebo released on her birthday in Chandigarh

From Nazneen to Naina: 20 years of Kareena Kapoor Khan in Bollywood and what that means for India and the rest of the world was officially launched on Tuesday, September 21 at the Press Club of the Union Territory. Authored by Canadian journalist Gurpreet Singh, the book is based on her film career so far, and what she has faced[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
      Baz Ratner/Reuters US troops in Afghanistan, June 2011

How Corporations Won the War on Terror

The costs and consequences of America’s twenty-first-century wars have by now been well-documented — a staggering $8 trillion in expenditures and more than 380,000 civilian deaths, as calculated by Brown University’s Costs of War project. The question of who has benefited most from such an orgy of military spending has, unfortunately, received far less attention. Corporations large and small have left the[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
5 Urgent Steps Needed to Vaccinate the World and End This Pandemic

5 Urgent Steps Needed to Vaccinate the World and End This Pandemic

The world stands at a critical juncture of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries that lack the first round of vaccine coverage are extraordinarily vulnerable to the highly infectious Delta variant, and are also seedbeds for new variants that could quickly spread worldwide. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, which I chair, is working urgently with the United Nations system to strengthen the multilateral response.[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
UK’s decision to consider vaccinated Indians as ‘unvaccinated’ stinks of apartheid, lacks scientific merit

UK’s decision to consider vaccinated Indians as ‘unvaccinated’ stinks of apartheid, lacks scientific merit

Recent decision of the United Kingdom (UK) to consider fully vaccinated Indians along with some other nationalities as ‘unvaccinated’ lacks scientific merit and instead stinks of white supremacy and apartheid era. It is important to mention that 90% of the vaccines rolled out in India are Covishield. Covishield vaccine, is Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, whose research was done by UK based[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Tribute to Gananath Patro

Tribute to Gananath Patro

Comrade Gananath Patro contributed more to sowing the seeds of the mass revolutionary movement in Orissa, than any comrade. He sacrificed many a lucrative career to serve the people. Few comrades were ever as down to earth or simple, or as astute in how to tackle specific situations. Till his last breath he strived to sharpen the sword of mass[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Kids cannot go without food, migrants say

Kids cannot go without food, migrants say

People trying to migrate to the U.S. tell their stories, which have been collected from media reports. Migrant Charlie Jean had crossed back into Ciudad Acuña from the camps to get food for his wife and three daughters, ages 2, 5 and 12. He was waiting on the Mexican side for a restaurant to bring him an order of rice.[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Massive, Illegal Expulsion of Migrants from U.S.A

Massive, Illegal Expulsion of Migrants from U.S.A

In a massive show of force, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) mounted officers attempted to contain migrants as they crossed the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, into Del Rio, Texas, on September 19, 2021. Thousands of Haitian migrants have been arriving to Del Rio, Texas, as authorities attempt to close the border to stop the flow of[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Right to Clean Air in Jakarta

The Right to Clean Air in Jakarta

It seems utterly beyond debate but acknowledging legal rights to clean hair has assumed the makings of a slow march over the years.  The 1956 Clean Air Act in Britain arose from the lethal effects of London’s 1952 killer smog, which is said to have taken some 12,000 lives.  The Act granted powers to establish smoke-free zones and subsidise householders[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Let Chocolates Fall from the Sky

Let Chocolates Fall from the Sky

Let us go there, you and I, hoping chocolates fall from the sky.   Let us go into a hilly terrain, where flows the ancient Amu Darya, where Marco Polo watched sheep graze on the grass of Pamirs. Do they still browse or is it tamam shud with a rat-a-tat-tat?   Has the river turned red? Incarnadined, gaze ghosts unwounded[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Ajay Rattan from Niun village in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh has transformed the way he grows and markets his crops since the pandemic struck (Picture credit - Raohit Prashar)

Confronted by pandemic, this farmer ditched chemicals, took to WhatsApp

Shimla: When restrictions were imposed last year to contain the coronavirus, Ajay Rattan (38) faced the same troubles other farmers did. To begin with, fertilisers and pesticides were not available. As markets were shut, he did not know where to sell his produce. Having run out of options, Rattan, who is from Niun village in Bilaspur district of Himachal, used[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Sign at the house of someone in favor of Reichsbürger movenent. Photograph Source: Krawattenträger

Germany’s New Neo-Nazis: The Reichsbürger

by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young Only a few weeks ago, a Reichsbürger in Germany shot a police officer with a crossbow during a house’s search in a remote town called Linden, in the north of Hessen. The Reichsbürger is accused of attempted manslaughter and he was sent to prison until his court hearing. Violent attacks by the right-wing extremist Reichsbürger are nothing out of[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
 How About ‘Taking a Knee’ Against USA’s Infamously Greater Racist Homicide in Other Peoples Countries

 How About ‘Taking a Knee’ Against USA’s Infamously Greater Racist Homicide in Other Peoples Countries

The wide spread effectiveness of the ‘Taking the Knee’ phenomenon is proof that celebrities have extraordinary power to influence public action in protest of social injustice (This would seem to imply, by the way, that a celebrity’s power to influence brings a higher level of citizen responsibility to speak out – yet so few do.) One sports celebrity’s protest against[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 2 comments Imperialism
Standing where the top of the Helm Glacier used to be, filling the valley up to the tree line on the far hillside.  In August, 2005, after 40 years, only the snout of the glacier is visible.

Beyond the tipping point

Twenty years and more ago climate talk concerned long term global warming effects not really occurring until mid-twenty-first century at earliest with most problems occurring toward the end of the century. I remember thinking I would not see the changes as the forecasts were well beyond my lifespan. There were signs of change, obviously, or it would not be an[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
From Popovers to Popunders: The Kind of Decarbonization That Can Succeed

From Popovers to Popunders: The Kind of Decarbonization That Can Succeed

by Stan Cox and Priti Gulati Cox From the field and kitchen of discomfort food So much carbon dioxide has now accumulated in the atmosphere that it’s no longer possible to prevent a dangerous rise in global temperatures through purely technological means. In other words, it’s too late to prevent catastrophic ecological damage and human suffering simply through building more[Read More…]

by 21/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
 Will global charter help accelerate action on NCDs to prevent untimely deaths?

 Will global charter help accelerate action on NCDs to prevent untimely deaths?

A report released recently by NCD Alliance during the Annual Global Week for Action on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), calls for integration of NCDs prevention and care into global health initiatives and universal health coverage. Jointly produced by the George Institute for Global Health and NCD Alliance, the report makes a call for breaking down the existing silos in global health,[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Beijing condemns military pact between the US, Britain and Australia

Beijing condemns military pact between the US, Britain and Australia

Beijing has condemned the announcement last Thursday of a new AUKUS military pact between the US, Britain and Australia, which is focused on the Indo-Pacific and aimed against China. The Chinese government has also taken aim at the associated decision to assist Australia in building nuclear-powered submarines. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian criticised the three countries for being “extremely irresponsible.”[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
French officials warn AUKUS alliance undermines US-Europe relations

French officials warn AUKUS alliance undermines US-Europe relations

After taking the unprecedented step Friday of recalling its ambassadors to the United States and Australia, Paris continued this weekend to denounce the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) alliance announced by Biden on Wednesday. While the alliance targets China, it was prepared behind the backs of the European Union (EU) and led Australia to cancel a €56 billion deal to buy French-made submarines.[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
NETHERLANDS PROTEST

People of the world are not taking Chairman Gonzalo’s death lying down

Demonstrations protesting the killing the death in custody of Chairman Gonzalo are encompassing many parts of Europe. Streets of Hamburg, Rome, Paris or Amsterdam were swept with the power of a torrent. Their intensity have made the rulers world over tremble, who patronised his murder. Most encouraging witnessing the participation of youth whose anger simmered at a boiling point. They[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Stay Home: Taliban-run Kabul Municipality Orders Female Workers

Stay Home: Taliban-run Kabul Municipality Orders Female Workers

Female employees of the Kabul municipality have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers. The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
USA’s Military Base in India: Security and Sovereignty issues

USA’s Military Base in India: Security and Sovereignty issues

USA may operationalize the 2016 Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), by insisting on building a military base in India, for use as a staging area for beyond-the-horizon surveillance and “launching attacks on terrorists in and around Afghanistan”. The US Administration is embarrassed by its capitulation to Taliban (signing a peace treaty with Taliban at Doha, February 2020, to allow[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Reclaiming Our Common Home

Reclaiming Our Common Home

 The path to an ecological civilization is paved by reclaiming the commons—our common home, the Earth, and the commons of the Earth family, of which we are a part. Through reclaiming the commons, we can imagine possibility for our common future, and we can sow the seeds of abundance through “commoning.” In the commons, we care and share—for the Earth[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
The Fate of Cassandra:  Dire Predictions Go Unheeded

The Fate of Cassandra:  Dire Predictions Go Unheeded

In ancient Greek mythology, Cassandra was a priestess who was able to predict the future but unable to convince others to act upon her prophecies. The fate of Cassandra seems particularly relevant today, for there has been ample warning about three developments that threaten continued human existence—preparations for nuclear war, climate change, and disease pandemics—without, however, adequate measures being taken[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Handover ceremony at Camp Anthonic, from US Army to Afghan Special Forces, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 2, 2021.

The U.S. Military, Post-Afghanistan – Can We Finally Give Peace A Chance?

Yoda, the Jedi Master in the Star Wars films, once pointed out that the future is all too difficult to see and it’s hard to deny his insight. Yet I’d argue that, when it comes to the U.S. military and its wars, Yoda was just plain wrong. That part of the future is all too easy to imagine. It involves, you won’t[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Lying America Did 9/11 And Then Killed Over 30 Million Muslims

Lying America Did 9/11 And Then Killed Over 30 Million Muslims

The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity in  which nearly 3,000 people died has been commemorated around the world with massive Mainstream media (MSM) coverage. However respect for the victims has been grossly violated by the Orwellian lying of Zionist -beholden US and US Alliance MSM that ignore the  horrible realities that the US did 9/11 and that over 30[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Global Leaders Waging Wars against Humanity Claim Peace and Success

Global Leaders Waging Wars against Humanity Claim Peace and Success

“The culture of peace is universal. It is shared by people and nations Worldwide. Today’s “culture of war” is a US hegemonic project predicated on the creation of conflict and divisions within and between countries. It is this (unilateral) project of global warfare which is intent upon destroying civilization.” (Professor Michel Chossudovsky, “Towards a Culture of World Peace”. Global Research:[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
President Joe Biden speaks about the end of the war in Afghanistan from the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Biden’s confusion: American foreign policy sliding back to Cold War framework

Indications are not lacking in American foreign policy (FP) that the man who took Oval Office in January on an anti-pandemic agenda is bereft of fresh innovative ideas to create world peace and regain American economic strength to lead the world. Where is Biden’s world leadership heading for, if it only withers in engendering wars, confronting Russia and China wherever[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
File photos of a library in Nashik

Public libraries in Maharashtra face crisis during Covid pandemic

Of the many institutions affected by the Covid pandemic and repeated lockdowns, the case of public libraries closing down is the most saddening. In Maharashtra, such libraries were a staple part of daily life for students and residents of many towns and cities across the state in the pre-pandemic period. Today they are in dire straits due to a variety[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Punjab-Politics: Negative Signs? 

Punjab-Politics: Negative Signs? 

What can the new Chief Minister of Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi be expected to achieve within less than a year? Paradoxically, change of guard in Punjab as well as Gujarat doesn’t spell much of a surprise as several other chief ministers have been subject to the same move. One is nevertheless tempted to deliberate on the tendency of respective party heads[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
15 Essential Steps For Proper Nutrition To Reach All

15 Essential Steps For Proper Nutrition To Reach All

India has suffered for a long time from  significant levels of malnutrition and hunger. It is  very important to give high priority to rducing this. Unfortunately, some fiercely propagated solutions such as mandatory fortification of  staple food products and promotion of GM crops  are motivated more by promotion of big business interests than by actual reduction of malnutrition. In fact[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Suket Riyasat Ke Vidroh by Gagan Deep Singh

Suket Riyasat Ke Vidroh by Gagan Deep Singh

Marx had famously said that the history of all existing societies is the history of class struggle. In this context, if one looks into the history of Himachal Pradesh then one can hardly disregard the fact that classes of several sorts had their struggles in the spatial dimensions of what is now known as Himachal. The homogeneity of society which[Read More…]

by 20/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Climate Injustice in the United States

Climate Injustice in the United States

by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young Capitalism will not lead the way out of climate catastrophe (Markus Spiske)  A few days ago, President Biden was urging climate action when saying, we don’t have much more than 10 years. Fighting global warming is inextricably linked to what Bill McKibben and others call climate justice. Commonly, many like to distinguish between climate[Read More…]

by 19/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Why Did US Ambassador Atul Keshap Meet RSS and What Does It Mean?

Why Did US Ambassador Atul Keshap Meet RSS and What Does It Mean?

Imam Malik Mujahid (IMM): US Ambassador Atul Keshap is a temporary ambassador to India. He is Indian–American. He has met the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — RSS, that is — its chief, Bhagwat. That’s a serious issue, but it seems to have not created any noise in America. It’s like American ambassador in Germany meeting Hitler before he came into power. But[Read More…]

by 19/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Step up the pace globally if universal vaccination could lead us out of the pandemic

Step up the pace globally if universal vaccination could lead us out of the pandemic

The Covid pandemic has hard drilled the lesson why health and social security of each one of us is inter-dependent on health and social security of one another. But do we see more equity (or inequity) in the Covid response, such as the rollout of the vaccination worldwide? Inequitable distribution of vaccine, diagnostics, oxygen, personnel protective equipment, and other necessary[Read More…]

by 19/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Please Pay for Great Content

Please Pay for Great Content

Six years ago, I wrote an article that appeared on Countercurrents, just as this one does.  The piece was strident, even didactic, but was in large part a plea.  The notion was to explain why the pathology of “free content” creates a race to the bottom in journalism. A byproduct of this is that – given the “no free lunch”[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The UK Carrier Strike Group 2021, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, departing the UK [Credit: Royal Navy/Flickr]

US, UK, Australia military pact threatens war against China

The dramatic announcement this week of the AUKUS military alliance between the US, Britain and Australia has made the fault lines of a terrible war between nuclear-armed powers explicit. Hatched in months of secret negotiations, the pact revives the World War II alliance in the Pacific against Japan—this time against China. The militarist character of the agreement was underscored by[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

Paris recalls ambassadors to US, Australia over anti-Chinese AUKUS alliance

Last night, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recalled France’s ambassadors to the United States and Australia after the announcement Wednesday of the AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) alliance. Australia had repudiated a massive €56 billion arms deal with France for attack submarines, to instead obtain them from Washington and London. Le Drian’s communiqué stated: “At the request of the President of the Republic,[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
A home is engulfed in flames as the Dixie fire rages on in Greenville, California on August 5, 2021. (Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

Letting the World Burn: The Question of Governance

The sixth report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms yet again that we are rapidly destabilizing the climate and making the earth a more dangerous and biologically impoverished planet. No surprise; we’ve known this since the 1970s. The primary cause of the worsening situation, however, is not the combustion of fossil fuels, but the massive political dereliction that has[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Suicides in Kashmir

Suicides in Kashmir

“Often, I think of taking my own life. I go to orchards and choose the place where I had made the gallows. My mother knows that I am going through a lot of stress, so she has become my shadow. The day I saw the helplessness in my brother’s eyes when he was being arrested by Indian security forces for[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Passing the Torch

Passing the Torch

The baby-boom generation is ending its lap in the human race, and the Fridays-for-future generation is beginning its run. Generational shifts of power are symbolized by the image of passing the torch, but now what the older has to pass on to the younger seems not a torch but a time bomb, a legacy of crises. To find a way[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
US Drones Still Fly Over the Afghan Horizon

US Drones Still Fly Over the Afghan Horizon

Facing unrelenting criticism over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden Administration is insisting that the United States will maintain a capability to launch airstrikes in Afghanistan, regardless of the legal limitations and possibility of perpetuating the war. The Biden Administration vows to keep in place an “over-the-horizon capability,” meaning that the United States will still be able to strike targets in Afghanistan[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Indigenous protesters from Vale do Javari. Photograph Source: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/ABr – CC BY 3.0 br

Indigenous People of Brazil Fight for Their Future

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has given new license to the killing of Indigenous people in Brazil. Before he came to power in 2019, it wasn’t clear what he wanted to build, but he knew exactly who and what he wanted to destroy: the Indigenous people and the Amazon rainforest, respectively. “Bolsonaro attacked a woman first, the land, our mother,” the Indigenous leader Célia[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Divided we fall; some hard lessons for the left and Sikh activists

Divided we fall; some hard lessons for the left and Sikh activists

The recent outburst against Communists by a spokesman of India’s ruling right wing Hindu nationalist BJP should come as a wakeup call for those fighting against each other over the control of an ongoing farmers’ agitation in Punjab. Harinder Singh Kahlon had asked for throwing “comrades” behind bars for instigating the peasantry struggle. The Indian farmers have been camping outside[Read More…]

by 18/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Proposed Mandatory Fortification of Rice and Edible Oils —A Wasteful and Harmful Proposal Best Avoided

Proposed Mandatory Fortification of Rice and Edible Oils —A Wasteful and Harmful Proposal Best Avoided

  Recently a controversy has erupted around the  ‘planned mandatory fortification of Edible Oil with Vitamin A and Vitamin D and Rice with Vitamin B12, Iron and Folic Acid’, as announced by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Early this year the FSSAI had issued draft regulation for mandatory fortification of edible oils and proposal for mandatory[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The rise of Taliban and Taliban-ism

The rise of Taliban and Taliban-ism

One must go back a few decades to understand the birth of Taliban and the continuity of this phenomenon that has shaken the world, quite literally. Yes the world underneath one’s foot shook on 9/11/2001, tremors caused by the country cousin of Taliban called Al Qaida. Getting back to a few decades as proposed in the beginning, it started around[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
“A Certain Terror”: A White Male Perspective on Being an Ally

“A Certain Terror”: A White Male Perspective on Being an Ally

Although the rather inelegant term “allyship” had not yet become part of the social-justice lexicon, I first bumped into the complexity of being an ally in 1988 when I belatedly started to take feminism seriously. I was following a feminist anti-pornography group that challenged men’s use and abuse of women in the sexual-exploitation industries. That is the term I use[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
What’s Up With COP26?

What’s Up With COP26?

The UK (in partnership with Italy) will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, COP26 in Glasgow on October 31- November 12, 2021. COP26 will be one of the most significant meetings in modern human history, comparable to the meeting of the Big Three at the Tehran Conference November 28, 1943 when the Normandy invasion was agreed,[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Taliban patrol after they took over Panjshir Valley, Sept 6, 2021

Panjshir needs help

The Taliban’s rapid advance in Afghanistan has briefly stalled only in the face of strong resistance mounted by the people of the country’s recalcitrant mountainous province of Panjshir. Whoever controls the region’s passes controls the routes leading to China and Tajikistan, but to seize this mountain valley and, most importantly, to keep it permanently under control has always been a[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Documentary on Kandhamal by K.P Sasi released on YouTube

Documentary on Kandhamal by K.P Sasi released on YouTube

This year there was international outrage when a frail 84-year-old Jesuit priest with Parkinson’s disease, Stan Swamy, died after being held in an Indian jail in inhumane conditions, on flimsy charges. When he was eventually moved to hospital, he tested positive for Covid and went on to suffer a cardiac arrest. He had devotedly served the poor and defended their[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature, Editor's Picks
“Do Not Touch My Clothes”: Afghan Women Post Selfies in Colorful Dresses to Protest Taliban Dress Codes

“Do Not Touch My Clothes”: Afghan Women Post Selfies in Colorful Dresses to Protest Taliban Dress Codes

Fatima Kakkar, MD, MPH (@DrFatimaKakkar) wrote: Proudly wearing in our traditional, colourful, vibrant Afghan clothes #DoNotTouchMyClothes #AfghanWoman #AfghanistanCulture #AfganistanWomen Afghan women are protesting Taliban imposed women dress code. At the same time, Taliban organized a head to toe veiled women gathering at the Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on September 11, 2021 attended by a few dozens of women[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Atrocities on Dalits in Uttar Pradesh above national rate

Atrocities on Dalits in Uttar Pradesh above national rate

Recent crime statistics released by the NCRB for the year 2020 shows that the rate of atrocities on Dalits in Uttar Pradesh is much higher than the crime rate at the national level. It is to be known that the population of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh is 21% of the total population of the state, while the crime of atrocities[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
In Memory of Marshall Chu Teh

In Memory of Marshall Chu Teh

On July 6th this year, we commemorated the 45th death anniversary of Marshall Chu Teh.,Few Comrades ever  so creatively applied the military line of chairman Mao or illustrated the spiritual metamorphosis within a revolutionary as Chu.. His name will be permanently enshrined amongst the heroes of the Chinese Revolution. and great military or Communists in world history. Today his spirit[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Open Primary and Upper Primary Schools in Odisha

Open Primary and Upper Primary Schools in Odisha

              Corona Pandemic has deteriorated the Education System of Odisha, and of the country also. The Schools and Colleges have been closed since one and a half year. As a result of which the students have been deprived of from proper education. Now, the shops, markets, malls, religious institutions and cinema halls etc. have been given the permission to[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
ABVA’s tryst with activists, lawyers & judges before, during and after its anti-sodomy law petition was filed

ABVA’s tryst with activists, lawyers & judges before, during and after its anti-sodomy law petition was filed

ABVA members wearing black T-shirts addressing the press at the Ashoka hotel, New Delhi during the Second Asia Pacific AIDS conference, November 1992 In April 1994 ABVA filed a Civil Writ Petition no. 1784 of 1994 titled AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan vs. Union of India and others in the Delhi High Court (DHC) asking for striking down inter alia entire[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Pandemic And The City  

Pandemic And The City  

   Density is desirable in the modern world. Flourishing Cities and their thriving suburbs being living examples of the lure of density. The density which seemed alluring in the past rendered cities vulnerable and perilous amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. As the virus spread, the chorus against urban proximity grew louder. Lockdowns turning lively vibrant cities dormant, their survival being questioned,[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
RSS grows in West Bengal, but no match for Didi’s outreach during Covid

RSS grows in West Bengal, but no match for Didi’s outreach during Covid

The recent victory of the BJP in 70 plus seats in the assembly, while emerging as the main opposition, and its stupendous and surprising gain of 19 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019, have been attributed to the effective grassroots mobilization of the RSS in both the electoral and non-electoral arena in the state. It is believed[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Reason Wounded—Why Peace and Socal  Harmony Activist Harsh Mander and Organizations Associated With Him Are Being Harassed So Badly ?

Reason Wounded—Why Peace and Socal  Harmony Activist Harsh Mander and Organizations Associated With Him Are Being Harassed So Badly ?

OVER 600 ACADEMICS, ADVOCATES, ACTIVISTS, CIVIL SERVANTS, WRITERS, FILM MAKERS, JOURNALISTS, MUSICIANS, ARTISTS and OTHERS. CONDEMN THE RAIDS ON THE OFFICES AND PRIVATE HOME OF ONE OF INDIA’S LEADING HUMAN RIGHTS & PEACE ACTIVISTS, HARSH MANDER Harsh Mander is widely known in India and internationally as a leading peace and social harmony activist of India who was earlier also as[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
History and politics of Sep. 17: Was it a Day of  Liberation of People from Nizam or  Liberation of Nizam from People’s Revolution?

History and politics of Sep. 17: Was it a Day of  Liberation of People from Nizam or  Liberation of Nizam from People’s Revolution?

The Nizam taking oath as Raj Pramukh, the first governor, of Hyderabad state on January 26, 1950.He continued in the post until 1956 October. The recalcitrant Nizam of Hyderabad ((Right in the photo) surrendered to Indian army on Sep 17, 1948, after hardly five days of resistance, and agreed to merge in India. The 50,000-strong Army continued its offensive, for three[Read More…]

by 17/09/2021 2 comments India
The Logic of Hegemony

The Logic of Hegemony

On September 8, 2021, at least five media houses and six offices of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) were vandalized in three of Tripura’s eight districts by the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). These instances of violence come after a growth in the intensity of the Left’s political activity.   While the center-right Congress Party is in a freefall and the Trinamool[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Agriculture, technology, and addiction

Agriculture, technology, and addiction

Even for the smallest ailment, people, these days, resort to medicine. They trust that medicines can ‘cure’ the root cause of the disease. Some people take refuge in medicines even without any detectable illness. Nowadays, the SOLUTION to all the PROBLEMS is prescribed in the form of medicines. The answer to everything must be a ‘product’ – this is a[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 1 comment Counter Solutions
Making Sense of the Eviction Crisis

Making Sense of the Eviction Crisis

The Land of the Free, Where So Many of the Brave Are Homeless. Resisting Evictions Amid a Pandemic Over the past weeks, multiple crises have merged: a crisis of democracy with the most significant attack on voting rights since Reconstruction; a climate crisis with lives and livelihoods upended in the Gulf Coast and the Northeast by extreme weather events and in the West by[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Pegasus and Fables of National Security

Pegasus and Fables of National Security

Government pleads in Supreme Court  in defence of its stubborn refusal to disclose if it has used Pegasus spyware against civilian targets,that terrorists might disappear from the radar if the answer is made public.But the moment it became known that it could be used against suspected terrorists,they would have taken prompt  precaution to disable the spyware or dive deeper into[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Image Credits- Ye_Jinghan, Unsplash

‘Jailed’ Children

Conditions in all spheres of life is going from bad to worse. On September 13, ‘political prisoners’day was observed. On that day, Jatin Das, friend of Bhagat Singh and member of Hindustan Republican Socialist Association, passed away after 63 days of hunger strike. He demanded ‘political prisoners’ status to those who have been jailed by the State. Even 92 years[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Tribute to Sushital Roy Chowdhury

Tribute to Sushital Roy Chowdhury

Earlier this year on 13th March, we commemorated the 50th death anniversary of Comrade Sushital Roy Chowdhury,,who died in mysterious circumstances in 1971. Formally he is declared to have died out of heart attack. Few comrades as valiantly waged a crusade to confront left adventurism fostered by the C.P.I.(ML)led by Charu Mazumdar and establish the massline.Sadly even today sections of[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Caste Census And Secular Intellectuals

Caste Census And Secular Intellectuals

The debate on caste, not just OBC, census is becoming a serious political issue in the country. But the secular, liberal and left intellectuals–economists, sociologists, political scientists– are behaving as if they are a neutral force on this issue. Would they have behaved in the same way if the Government were to say that it would not do religion census as well? I am sure they would not. They would have filled the[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Millions of Afghans have been displaced by the war. Photo: MikrofonNews

The Debacle of “Nation Building” in Afghanistan and Iraq

In one of his interviews before the Taliban retook Afghanistan, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, blamed the American failure in Afghanistan on a change in Washington’s mission from anti-terrorism to “nation building.” In his view, Washington should just have held strategic sites in the country to keep terrorists off balance and not engaged in an ambitious reconstruction of[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 1 comment World
Pentagon claimed its “righteous strike” by a Reaper drone on Aug. 28 in Kabul killed an ISIS terrorist who turned out to be an aid worker. Attack killed 10, including 7 children, in a residential block.

Afghanistan and India’s ‘over-the-horizon’ dilemma

In England, they’d plan a park, build it but wouldn’t complete it until they could observe  for a while the foot tracks of walkers, before deciding where to lay the pathways for optimal utility.  The Blinken Administration and Modi Govt apparently think they don’t have that luxury when it comes to Afghanistan. That is the troubling signal out of the Congressional[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 1 comment World
Energy needed to eradicate poverty ‘compatible with climate goals’

Energy needed to eradicate poverty ‘compatible with climate goals’

From the houses we live in to the food we eat and the education we receive, living a good life requires materials and energy. For many, this means an increase in wellbeing requires an increase in resource use. This necessity has been used by some commentators to argue that eradicating poverty is at odds with the need to reduce emissions and tackle climate change.[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Afghan refugees are surrounded by security forces at the Poland-Belarus border on August 26, 2021. The group of migrants from Afghanistan has been stuck at the E.U.'s eastern border for several weeks as Belarus and Poland both refuse to let them in. (Photo: Maciej Moskwa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

No, The World Is Not Welcoming Afghan Refugees as It Should

Despite the outpouring of international sympathy for Afghans who fled their country after the Taliban takeover last month, it’s by no means certain this will translate into receiving the refuge they are entitled to under international law. Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland and Russia have categorically said they won’t accept new Afghan arrivals. Slovenia’s foreign minister even reportedly issued an outrageous warning[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Beware: Big Oil Lies About the Climate

Beware: Big Oil Lies About the Climate

The Current Situation Shockingly, today’s climate crisis is driven by a mere increase of 1˚C in global temperature, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Unless we take urgent action, the temperature could increase by four times that level within the lifetimes of our children, leaving them to face an apocalyptic future. In the US alone, the recent floods on the[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
A man grieves during a mass funeral for members of a family was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

Shut Down the Drone War

The August 29 U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed ten civilians, including seven children, demonstrates the bankruptcy of the war on terror. Like many other drone strikes, the strike in Kabul targeted innocent people and achieved nothing except to blow up civilians that had the misfortune to be in the vicinity. According to two recent investigative reports in The New York Times and The Washington[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
A Story Poem about Climate Change

A Story Poem about Climate Change

Is this climate change? I asked as rains lashed out. Oh, that is a subject for experts, the bald man with a goatee said. We stood on the clouds and watched   the water slowly submerge — seeping through the marshes rising, rising till it covered the fields, the houses. The cattle — did they swim? The cats and dogs?[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature, Climate Change
Paramedics carry an injured protester during Great March of Return demonstrations east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 28 September. Ashraf Amra  - APA images

From the ‘Iron Wall’ to the ‘Villa in the Jungle’: Palestinians Demolish Israel’s Security Myths

25 years before Israel was established on the ruins of historic Palestine, a Russian Jewish Zionist leader, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, argued that a Jewish state in Palestine could only survive if it exists “behind an iron wall” of defense. Jabotinsky was speaking figuratively. However, future Zionist leaders, who embraced Jabotinsky’s teachings, eventually turned the principle of the iron wall into a[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Book on Bebo to be launched on her birthday

Book on Bebo to be launched on her birthday

From Nazneen to Naina: 20 years of Kareena Kapoor Khan in Bollywood and what that means for India and the rest of the world, will be officially released at Chandigarh Press Club on Tuesday, September 21. Authored by Canadian journalist Gurpreet Singh, the book is based on the film career of the famous Bollywood diva, and what she has faced[Read More…]

by 16/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Climate Change Is the Symptom, Capitalism Is the Problem

Climate Change Is the Symptom, Capitalism Is the Problem

Our planet cannot handle an eternal growth model. We live in a finite system and capitalist innovation can only take us so far. Eventually we run out of resources. Climate appears to be the limit. Too often climate change is reduced to quantification of greenhouse glasses or melting ice caps. These indicators of climate change are important to verify the[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Are Hindutva and Hinduism the Same?

Are Hindutva and Hinduism the Same?

“Dismantling Global Hindutva”, the online global conference was recently held from 10 to 12th September 2021. It was addressed by nearly 15 activists and scholars who are working on the intolerant politics and different facets of the rising Hindu nationalism at home in India and abroad. Fifty two US universities (their 70 departments) came together to put this big meeting,[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 1 comment India
Strong directions of CJI on tribunals

Strong directions of CJI on tribunals

Even as the parliament was lost in protests on Pegasus, the Modi Govt pushed the Bills on Tribunals, with contents rejected by the Supreme Court. The bench of Chief Justice of India and two judges put the government on the dock about the complete absence of material justifying the Bill and also the lack of proper debate in the Parliament[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Canadian Imperialism in Africa

Canadian Imperialism in Africa

Canadian imperialism in Africa has had a rare social media moment. On Twiter K. Diallo recently posted a map of the continent with the sum of Canadian mining investment in each African country under the words “75% of mining companies globally are now Canadian. Canada is a great source of corporate neocolonialism expansion.” The tweet received 25,000 likes and 8,500 retweets. But[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Trade caravan on the Silk Road, Central Asia

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road

The title of an unputdownable 1980 classic by Peter Hopkirk comes to mind even as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation are preparing to hold back-to-back summit meetings at Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on September 17.  Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Treasures of Central Asia tells the breathtaking story of the intrepid men[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Only Long-Range Solution to Climate Change

The Only Long-Range Solution to Climate Change

This article is adapted from POWER: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival (New Society Publishers, September 2021) by Richard Heinberg Climate change is often incorrectly described as an isolated pollution issue. In this flawed framing, humanity has simply made a mistake in its choice of energy sources; the solution entails switching sources and building enough carbon-sucking machines to clear the atmosphere of[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
City Park, in New Orleans, where the Crescent City Gaian Guild meets, after being visited by Ida. (Photo by Bart Everson)

Experiencing the Wrath of Ida and the Bliss of Gaia

Bart Everson, a Gaian and the convener of the Crescent City Gaian Guild in New Orleans, writes about his experience living through Hurricane Ida and her aftermath. If only my back didn’t ache, I could really enjoy this hurricane. Such were my thoughts as the outer bands of Hurricane Ida bore down on my home in New Orleans. I was sitting[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
“2,180+ Scientists Worldwide Demand ‘Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty’

“2,180+ Scientists Worldwide Demand ‘Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty’

As the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly begins Tuesday amid an unrelenting wave of extreme weather, thousands of academics from around the globe are urging governments to negotiate an international treaty to bring about a rapid and just transition away from coal, oil, and gas—”the main cause of the climate emergency.” In an open letter delivered on Monday, 2,185 scientists from 81 countries[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
DEAD BEES and BUTTERFLIES, FLOWES, TREE and the PLASTIC SEA

DEAD BEES and BUTTERFLIES, FLOWES, TREE and the PLASTIC SEA

Globally, bees and butterflies, the winged beauties of the insect-beasty world, are dying, vanishing from habitat and planet.  Bees and butterflies are pollinators.  Without them, there will be no flowers. But it does not stop there.  The agricultural food chain of humanity collapses.  A horrifying explosion of worldwide starvation then results.  What happens when people are chronically hungry?  What are[Read More…]

Need for Caution and Care in Protecting Edible Oil Interests

Need for Caution and Care in Protecting Edible Oil Interests

In recent years the import bill for edible oils has been increasing in a very big way and some big initiative was expected from the union government to reduce this. The direction of government plans was indicated earlier also but more formally  the new plans  for the edible oil sector were announced on August 18. These indicate that  the government[Read More…]

by 15/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Handover ceremony at Camp Anthonic, from US Army to Afghan Special Forces, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 2, 2021.

The True Lessons of the Afghan War

Disagreements over how to assess the American exodus from Afghanistan have kept the pundits busy these last weeks, even though there wasn’t much to say that hadn’t been said before. For some of them, however, that was irrelevant. Having overseen or promoted the failed Afghan War themselves, all the while brandishing various “metrics” of success, they were engaged in transparent reputation-salvaging. Not[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Revisiting the Propaganda Model in the age of Social Media

Revisiting the Propaganda Model in the age of Social Media

A Review of Andrey Mir’s “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers.”   While there are several books analyzing the impact of social media on society, Andrey Mir’s book “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers. The media after Trump: manufacturing anger and polarization” distinguishes itself by focusing on the impact of social media on traditional media. The defining analysis of traditional[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Dalit Agricultural Labourers Lay Siege To The House Of Punjab Chief Minister

Dalit Agricultural Labourers Lay Siege To The House Of Punjab Chief Minister

Under the invitation of the joint front of the rural and farm labour organizations, Ten thousand dalit agricultural labour gheraoed the house of Captain Amrinder Singh at Moti Mahal in Patiala. He was forced to issue a written letter to scrap metres on electricity bills and pay occupation of labourers cut plots in a month, allot residential plots and scrap[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Hindi Has Arrived!

Hindi Has Arrived!

Many writings about Hindi are ‘breast beating’ in the style of Bharatendu Harishchandra’s ‘Bharat Durdasha’. This article has a positive attitude towards Hindi Literature. The history of literary Hindi is relatively brief, starting only around 1860. Modern literary Hindi has an even shorter history, beginning around 1936 with the death of Premchand. In this short period Hindi has covered some[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 1 comment India
Iran’s Vice-President & head of the Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami (second from right) met International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi, Tehran, Sept 12, 2021

Biden Doctrine appears in Persian Gulf

The incipient signs of a US retrenchment from Saudi Arabia have appeared in a series of moves in the past 2-3 weeks. On a parallel track, the Biden Administration is factoring in that new Iranian government is returning to the negotiating table at Vienna on nuclear issues. The interconnected maneuverings are predicated, indirectly at least at this point, on an[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Due to sea level rise, many islands in the Ganges Delta region of West Bengal, India—including Mousuni—are facing fast erosion. Homes and lands are sinking at a steady rate and people are staring at a bleak future where the probability of them becoming climate refugees looms large. (Photo: Arka Dutta/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Climate Emergency May Displace 216 Million Within Countries by 2050: World Bank

Underscoring the necessity of immediate and sweeping action to take on the climate emergency, a World Bank report revealed Monday that 216 million people across six global regions could be forced to move within their countries by midcentury. Groundswell Part 2: Acting on Internal Climate Migration includes analyses for East Asia and the Pacific, North Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia,[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Climate Emergency: The War We Must Fight

Climate Emergency: The War We Must Fight

“Wally, Wally, quick, come and look at this!” These were the words of my roommate on a balmy Taiwanese evening on September 11th, 2001. Emerging into the living room I was just in time to see a plane slam into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Walking through the door to work the next morning, I[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Bitcoin the Messiah: El Salvador Goes Crypto

Bitcoin the Messiah: El Salvador Goes Crypto

In a particular deli store in South Melbourne, a tongue-and-cheek message is attached to the cash register.  “Bitcoin accepted there,” it proclaims brightly.  Naturally, it is nothing of the sort, a teasing ruse for the punters and those casting an eye in the direction of the store.  Cold hard cash remains king, albeit one with a tarnished crown; pandemic times[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
American Muslims 20 years after 9/11

American Muslims 20 years after 9/11

 “The rising power of American Muslims” is the title of special issue of The Newsweek on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.  It published an article by Steve Friess under the title: Since 9/11, US Muslims have gained unprecedented political, cultural influence. It’s been an impressive 2021 so far for Muslim Americans. The U.S. Senate, that bastion of partisan gridlock, overwhelmingly[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 1 comment World
Suicides, drug addiction on rise in MP due to Covid induced job losses

Suicides, drug addiction on rise in MP due to Covid induced job losses

“I am unable to face hunger, future, illness, fee debt, house rent and unemployment” said the four  page suicide note. On the night of 27 August 2021 Ravi Thackeray*, an engineer in Bhopal’s Sahara township, aided by his wife Ranjana*, slit the throats of their young son Chirag* and daughter Gunjan* with stone cutters. Soon after, the couple consumed poison[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Radical Desi honours Sikh temple president for standing up for Indigenous peoples

Radical Desi honours Sikh temple president for standing up for Indigenous peoples

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was presented with a medal on Sunday, September 12 at Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey. Vancouver-based online magazine Radical Desi, which covers alternative politics, gives out medals to individuals who speak out and stand up against injustice and repression anywhere in the world. Nijjar was honoured for organizing special prayers for the indigenous children whose unmarked[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Year After Year, Sages of Matri Sadan Continue Their Struggle and Sacrifice for Protecting the Ganga

Year After Year, Sages of Matri Sadan Continue Their Struggle and Sacrifice for Protecting the Ganga

In recent weeks, the sages of Matri Sadan, an ashram based in Haridwar ( Uttarakhand ) have been very active in their efforts to protect Ganga river. Their preferred method has been again to fast to draw attention to numerous violations of earlier promises to protect the Ganga river. At the time of writing this on September 13, the fast[Read More…]

by 13/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
A man grieves during a mass funeral for members of a family was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

Never Forget Victims of the Drone Program

As the mainstream press spent this past weekend once again ensuring that Americans never forget the fear and anger of 9/11 which prompted 20 years of war, 10 of the latest victims of 9/11 were being wiped from historical memory. Just two weeks before the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a US drone killed the Ahmadi family, including seven children. In[Read More…]

by 13/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Winner in Afghanistan: China

The Winner in Afghanistan: China

A Debacle Marks the Decline of Washington’s World Leadership The collapse of the American project in Afghanistan may fade fast from the news here, but don’t be fooled. It couldn’t be more significant in ways few in this country can even begin to grasp. “Remember, this is not Saigon,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a television audience on August 15th, the[Read More…]

by 13/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
India’s Democracy in a Nutshell

India’s Democracy in a Nutshell

The election of a Pradhan in a small village in UP The following account is almost verbatim from what was related to us in a close-group discussion[1]. Given the sensitivity of situation we will keep the protagonists and the various characters anonymous. Also, because there is nothing unique about this account; it is merely an example of what is probably[Read More…]

by 13/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Smashing The Heads of Farmers: A Global Struggle Against Tyranny

Smashing The Heads of Farmers: A Global Struggle Against Tyranny

According to Reuters, more than 500,000 farmers attended a rally in the city of Muzaffarnagar in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on 5 September. Hundreds of thousands more turned out for other rallies in the state. Rakesh Tikait, a prominent farmers’ leader, said this would breathe fresh life into the Indian farmers’ protest movement. He added: “We will intensify[Read More…]

by 13/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
An Age of Rage

An Age of Rage

A few days ago , a few guys were travelling in an electric rickshaw at about 11 pm in the night. The driver , possibly to break the monotony of the hour had some loud music playing on his FM Radio. One of the passengers asked for the music to be turned off or at least toned down. The driver[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Tribute to Chairman Gonzalo

Tribute to Chairman Gonzalo

Chairman Gonzalo or Abimael Guzman is no more. His was not a natural death but an assassination by the Peruvian state. Exactly 29 years ago on September 12th he was captured by the Peruvian police and placed in the Callao prison.Inspite of a sustained worldwide campaign to demand his release, the Peruvian state kept him entrenched within the jail walls.[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Who Is My Neighbor?

Who Is My Neighbor?

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which discusses religious ethics and cosmology. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2021/09/Who-is-my-Neighbor-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf One often hears the question: “Is there a conflict between science and religion?” In my opinion, there are two aspects to religion – ethics[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
On 9/11, It’s Time for Reflection on Decades of Failed US National Security Policy

On 9/11, It’s Time for Reflection on Decades of Failed US National Security Policy

The steady militarisation of US foreign policy has hampered its ability to address real security concerns that threaten not just American people but the entire planet. A reckoning with America’s failed national security policy is long overdue. Our calamitous misadventures in the Middle East and the global financial collapse of 2008 dramatically exposed the bankruptcy and failures of the bipartisan[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Afghan tribal leaders and religious scholars and youth leaders from the central provinces (Hazarajat) met former president Hamid Karzai regarding formation of inclusive government, Kabul, September 11, 2021

Afghanistan: Enter regional states

The Taliban hoisted their black and white flag on the presidential palace in Kabul on September 11, which happens to be the twentieth anniversary of the Al-Qaeda’s attack on New York and Washington, DC. The symbolism is too obvious to be missed. Although the Taliban had no hand in the 9/11 attacks, it took the brunt of the US’ revenge[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The encampments at Standing Rock worked to keep prayer and nonviolence at the center of their actions. Photo by Joe Zummo.

Standing Rock is Everywhere: The Indigenous Heart of the Climate Change Fight

This is a story of victory for the earth and of the end of the Keystone XL pipeline. It also involves the Dakota Access pipeline and the Standing Rock Lakota reservation, indeed the entire world, all of which is threatened by our desperate last burst of fossil fuel exploitation. It is a story of what the dogged persistence and creativity[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Sustaining the Unsustainable: Why Renewable Energy Companies Are Not Climate Warriors

Sustaining the Unsustainable: Why Renewable Energy Companies Are Not Climate Warriors

In the fight to address climate change, renewable energy companies are often assumed to be Jedi Knights. Valiantly struggling to save the planet, wind and solar interests are thought to be locked in mortal combat with large fossil fuel corporations that continue to mine, drill, and blast through the earth’s fragile ecosystems, dragging us all into a grim and sweaty[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis
To Protect Health ‘Right to Sit’ Needed for All Workers Exposed to Prolonged Standing 

To Protect Health ‘Right to Sit’ Needed for All Workers Exposed to Prolonged Standing 

In recent years increasing  medical evidence has poured in regarding the serious adverse health impacts of prolonged standing. These advese impacts have been noticed in many lines of work as a serious occupational risk. Women workers are even more vulnerable than men workers. In this context the  Tamil Nadu Government deserves praise for  recently introducing an amendment in the Works[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
 If you don’t want to give children eggs in the mid-day meal then give them Paneer and milk daily, says Dr Manisha Bangar

 If you don’t want to give children eggs in the mid-day meal then give them Paneer and milk daily, says Dr Manisha Bangar

This is the second part of my conversation with Dr Manisha Bangar in which she speaks about the health crisis in India and how the government is trying to privatise things, how our response during the Corona period was lacking things. She also gives us understanding of people opposing nutritious meals for children in the mid-day meal. Dr Manisha Bangar[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Travails, Tribulations and Trepidations of a media infected: There are positives too!

Travails, Tribulations and Trepidations of a media infected: There are positives too!

The virus has left a lasting imprint on the present generation. Many people have not yet recovered fully from the infection and many others still lamenting  on the loss of their dear ones and coping with the new realities. It is understandable that the pains will take long time to perish. Apart from such tragedies all over the world, which[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Karnan: A cinematic resistance to caste system

Karnan: A cinematic resistance to caste system

Southern superstar Dhanush’s Tamil film ‘Karnan’ has been released on OTT platform on Amazon Prime Video. The film had earlier been released in cinemas. The film, which was screened in Corona, is getting huge response from the audience. The most interesting thing is that breaking the linguistic wall, the film is being favored from south to north. This has been[Read More…]

by 12/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Source: Shutterstock

Rethinking Sustainable Solution to Rohingya Crisis: Limits of World Bank’s Proposal

Washington-based global lender the World Bank, through concessional lending arms, has gone to bat for Bangladesh to foster its development initiatives since 1972; committing more than $30 billion by backing priorities in economic, social and infrastructural development. Since 2018, this UN affiliated multilateral body, largest source of financial assistance to developing nations, has committed a total $590 million grant to[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
50th Death Anniversary of Lin Biao

50th Death Anniversary of Lin Biao

On 13th September we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Lin Biao,due to a plane crash in 1971 , when allegedly attempting to flee to the Soviet Union. Lin is one of the most controversial or complex and impactful characters of the Communist Movement. Few leaders more befitted the role of a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde.[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Listen to me before I kill myself: Tragedy of being SSK/ MKS teacher

Listen to me before I kill myself: Tragedy of being SSK/ MKS teacher

What our lives have become. Unless a spectacle of life is created no one is bothered.  The marginalised section of the society understands this insensitivity of our political class very well; be it women, people with disability, sexual minorities, religious minorities, Dalits, tribal, economically weaker and oppressed section of our society though together they are the major part of the[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Rwanda’s Military is the French Proxy on African Soil

Rwanda’s Military is the French Proxy on African Soil

On July 9, 2021, the government of Rwanda said that it had deployed 1,000 troops to Mozambique to battle al-Shabaab fighters, who had seized the northern province of Cabo Delgado. A month later, on August 8, Rwandan troops captured the port city of Mocímboa da Praia, where just off the coast sits a massive natural gas concession held by the French energy company TotalEnergies[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Messianic Failure: Pursuing the GWOT Jabberwock

Messianic Failure: Pursuing the GWOT Jabberwock

Anniversaries can provide occasions for reflection and deep consideration.  Past errors and misjudgements can be considered soberly; historical distance provides perspective.  Mature reflections may be permitted.  But they can also serve the opposite purpose: to cake, cloak and mask the record. The gooey name GWOT, otherwise known as the Global War on Terrorism, is some two decades old, and it[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Following Afghanistan Defeat: Can EU Win Own ‘Independence’ from the US?

Following Afghanistan Defeat: Can EU Win Own ‘Independence’ from the US?

Suddenly, the idea put forth by French President, Emmanuel Macron, late last year does not seem so far-fetched or untenable after all. Following the US-NATO hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan, European countries are now forced to consider the once unthinkable:  a gradual dismantling from US dominance. When, on September 29, 2020, Macron uttered these words: “We, some countries more than others,[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
To Counter Terror, Abolish War

To Counter Terror, Abolish War

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was among a small group of U.S. citizens who sat on milk crates or stood holding signs, across from the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan. We had been fasting from solid foods for a month, calling for an end to brutal economic warfare waged against Iraq through imposition of[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
We need government, we need democracy back

We need government, we need democracy back

  In a very insightful essay published a couple of weeks before Canada’s election call, Senator Rosa Galvez called for a seachange from neoliberal government to building government back better to handle the recovery from Covid and to mitigate climate change: “We need democracy back—stronger, wiser, and more open to new ideas—with all its checks and balances restored. Governments must[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Other 9/11: Salvador Allende and Chile

The Other 9/11: Salvador Allende and Chile

On September 11 the world  rightly pays homage to the nearly 3000 victims of the horrible 9/11 attack in the USA. However on this day we should in addition also remember the perhaps even higher number of victims of the US-assisted  military coup in Chile on September 11 1973 which also resulted in the highly tragic and widely mourned death[Read More…]

by 11/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Handover ceremony at Camp Anthonic, from US Army to Afghan Special Forces, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 2, 2021.

Quagmire of American Imperialism in Afghanistan and Beyond

Many commentators from different ideological orientations provide a false equivalence of American withdrawal from Afghanistan with the fall of Saigon. It is false because American imperialism was thoroughly defeated by the revolutionary programmes and fighting spirit of Viet Cong. It led to rise of united, egalitarian, democratic, peaceful, and prosperous Vietnam. On the other hand, the imperialist invasion has ruined[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 1 comment Imperialism
Some thoughts on the Ganesh festival and related matters

Some thoughts on the Ganesh festival and related matters

The Ganesh festival is celebrated country-wide with prayers and rituals, greetings are exchanged, and various food delicacies are prepared. When we relish the delicacies, it is appropriate to remember that every one of those preparations is based upon farm produce, be it grains, vegetables, fruits, or the banana leaves on which the feast is served. This farm produce is the[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Welcome to Kashmir

Welcome to Kashmir

‘Welcome to Kashmir’ one of my Kashmiri friends sighed and exclaimed after I had explained to him about our experience in Srinagar. ‘The way you were thrown out from Kashmir doesn’t indicate mere humiliation to you, but it exhibits the grimed situation here’ he opined. Every time I had prepared to visit the valley earlier, my plans were obstructed by[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
9/11 And American Aggression

9/11 And American Aggression

On September 11th, we mourn the 20th anniversary of one of the most sensational terrorist attacks, delivering a knockout punch in the very belly of the superpower, America. We commiserate the innocent lives lost or sufferers of mortal wounds. However there is no question that it was America that created the breeding pit and in many ways literally asked for[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 1 comment World
Terrorism: A False Threat

Terrorism: A False Threat

Twenty years after the events of 9/11, 2001, and in the midst of the messy withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, it seems apropriate to question the validity of the so-called “War on Terror”.  The Costs of War project estimates the America’s 20-years of wars,  initiated with the supposed intention of fighting terrorism, have killed almost a million peoiple,[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Australia, UK,  Apartheid Israel & Deadly Premature Lifting Of Anti-Covid-19 Measures

Australia, UK,  Apartheid Israel & Deadly Premature Lifting Of Anti-Covid-19 Measures

Apartheid Israel and the UK are among world leaders in Covid-19 vaccination having achieved 63% and 64% of total population fully vaccinated, respectively. However premature cessation of Lockdown and related measures in these countries has led to increased infection and death. For economic and political reasons Australia proposes to follow suit when it achieves substantial vaccination in a few months’[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Paul Wolfowitz: Deluded and At Liberty

Paul Wolfowitz: Deluded and At Liberty

It was all marvellous for Paul Wolfowitz to get on Australian television (why bother?) to brusquely discuss those attacks on US soil in September 2001 and criticism of the invasion of Iraq by US-led forces.  After two decades, the former US deputy secretary of defense has not mellowed. With each show, interview and podium performance Wolfowitz gives, there is a[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Avtar Singh Pash …. the most dangerous is the death of your dreams …

Avtar Singh Pash …. the most dangerous is the death of your dreams …

The death of dreams was considered the most dangerous. Avtar Singh Sandhu ‘Pash’ was a supporter of expressed socio-political freedom. Pash is known as the poet who composed his revolutionary poems and questioned the system. Pash started writing poetry at an early age. By the time the Khalistani movement in Punjab reached its peak, he was opposed to the movement[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Covid-19 and Right-Wing Business in Germany

Covid-19 and Right-Wing Business in Germany

By Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young German coronavirus conspiracy theories are available for just €24.99. Germany’s right-wing media are cashing in on the fear of the pandemic. It is good business when selling snake oil and right-wing ideology. At the top is Germany’s right-wing extremist and loosely AfD-affiliated Compact magazine. It is among the clear winners of the Coronavirus pandemic.[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
India’s northeastern states desertifying most rapidly

India’s northeastern states desertifying most rapidly

 Half of Nagaland is degraded, flags new report Six states in northeastern India were among the top 10 places in the country with the highest rates of desertification between 2003 and 2018, according to a recent report. These are Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Punjab, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand in northern India also witnessed some[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Atrocities on women rise in Rajasthan during Covid pandemic

Atrocities on women rise in Rajasthan during Covid pandemic

The Covid pandemic has adversely affected every section of society in some way or the other in India. The biggest impact, in social and economic terms, however seems to have been on women, for whom the pandemic period has been a nightmare of sorts. Crimes against women have increased significantly as per the monthly crime reports of Rajasthan Police. From[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Punjab Polls:– Taxing Time for Congress? 

Punjab Polls:– Taxing Time for Congress? 

Congress leaders were probably not prepared for taxing political signals surfacing from Punjab. Political drama kicked by Punjab’s Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and a recent opinion poll survey, predicting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gaining more votes than other parties in coming state polls certainly demand deliberation on what is really suggested by these factors? Undeniably, both pose a major[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Revolution or Ruin? Evaluating the Consequences of Artificial Intelligence in Global Society

Revolution or Ruin? Evaluating the Consequences of Artificial Intelligence in Global Society

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) is a burgeoning technology poised to revolutionize the world and bring significant change to global society. AI offers new capabilities and efficiency for humanity in the areas of finance, governance, healthcare, criminal justice, energy, and countless other fields and industries. However, similar to a double-edged sword, the technology also generates serious risks, particularly for the most[Read More…]

by 10/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Jallianwala Bagh: Erasing the Spirit of Sacrifice

Jallianwala Bagh: Erasing the Spirit of Sacrifice

The beautification/renovation of Jallianwala Bagh Memorial done by the central government through a Gujarat-based private company has come under criticism. It was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 28th August. The details of observations made and objections raised by a range of people – scholars, common citizens, peoples’ representatives – from India and abroad have come in the press. Simultaneously[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The Gritty Reality of Solar Power

The Gritty Reality of Solar Power

by Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox Time is fast running out. The world’s affluent nations, with their abundant greenhouse emissions, have to finally drag themselves across the starting line and begin phasing out fossil fuels at the accelerated pace that the climate emergency demands. And if they can manage to do that, they clearly will need to quickly build[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis
Land to Tycoons

Land to Tycoons

Himanta Biswa Sharma,the much-toasted chief minister of Assam, has announced with trademark fanfare that thirty years after the last land-settlement survey he is launching a new land-survey to precisely demarcate,and record the land-rights of Assam with the latest, most modern equipment.There will be no more middle-men in business.Every owner of land will be in undisturbed possession of his land,he thunders,and[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
How Can America Wake Up From Its Post-9/11 Nightmare?

How Can America Wake Up From Its Post-9/11 Nightmare?

 by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies Looking back on it now, the 1990s were an age of innocence for America. The Cold War was over and our leaders promised us a “peace dividend.” There was no TSA to make us take off our shoes at airports (how many bombs have they found in those billions of shoes?). The[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 1 comment World
Why the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Should Be An Overdue Moment of Truth

Why the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Should Be An Overdue Moment of Truth

As the world appproaches the solemn occasion of the 20th anniversary of the most horrible 9/11 attack, it feels weighed down also with the recent reality of the Taliban , still maintaining its links with Al-Queda, being back in the seat of power in Kabul. Questions relating to the when, where and why of the war against terror going wrong[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Uranium contamination of drinking water on the rise in India (Image: Pxhere)

Uranium in drinking water: A growing concern for India

A recent report by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) reveals that uranium contamination of groundwater is on the rise with Punjab and Haryana being the most affected. Groundwater continues to be extracted at frightening proportions in India and the fear of severe depletion of groundwater resources in the coming years is real. As if this is not enough, the available[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
The Dixie Fire Disaster and Me – How I became a climate refugee

The Dixie Fire Disaster and Me – How I became a climate refugee

GREENVILLE, CA — At 10 a.m. on July 22nd, I interviewed a New York University professor about using autonomous robots, drones, and other unmanned devices to suppress structural and wildland fires. I sent the interview to an online transcription service, walked down the steps of my second-floor office and a block to the Greenville post office, where I mailed a[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Those who built my House

Those who built my House

In the film, Dafan found on YouTube, a young civil engineer is giving a tour of a construction site to his manager and boss. When a worker at the site has an accident and sustains serious injuries, he is rushed to hospital. But despite the best efforts of the doctors, he dies. At this stage, the manager leaves after giving[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 1 comment India
Western Union closed down their operations in Cuba at the end of 2020 due to sanctions imposed by Trump.

The money that never arrives in Cuba

Cubans living abroad have been unable to send remittances to their loved ones on the island due to the unilateral coercive measure imposed by Donald Trump just before leaving office With the money she earns cleaning houses in the morning and an office at night, Virgen Elena Pupo, a 47-year-old Cuban migrant, has managed to raise her family in Washington,[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Taliban get a government!

Taliban get a government!

The regional states will be shell-shocked by the brazen way Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), coerced the Taliban to announce an interim government that is guaranteed to preserve Rawalpindi’s control over the levers of power in Kabul. There are several things to be noted about the so-called interim government announced by the Taliban on September[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Climate Crisis: A Prescription from 200 Medical Journals

Climate Crisis: A Prescription from 200 Medical Journals

A momentous statement has just been published in the British medical journal The Lancet and in 200 other health journals. It is the global equivalent of the diagnosis you never want to hear in your own doctor’s office, complete with concurring second opinions from 200 other doctors. The statement’s authors are the editors of those journals, themselves doctors or highly trained health scientists,[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Hashtag ‘Untie_Our_Hands’: How Many More Palestinians Must Die for Israel’s ‘Security’?

Hashtag ‘Untie_Our_Hands’: How Many More Palestinians Must Die for Israel’s ‘Security’?

A large Israeli army campaign is taking social media by storm. The unstated aim of what is known as the “#Untie_Our_Hands” initiative is the desire to kill, with no accountability, more Palestinian protesters at the Gaza fence. The campaign was motivated by the killing of an Israeli sniper, Barel Hadaria Shmueli, who was reportedly shot from the Palestinian side of[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Palestine
20th Anniversary of the Big Lie

20th Anniversary of the Big Lie

We who are so easily dismissed as ‘ Conspiracy Nuts’ know, both intuitively and through careful research, that there was lots more about what really went down the morning of September 11th, 2001. When I first read David Ray Griffin’s 2004 bestseller 9/11 The New Pearl Harbor I literally could not put it down. He laid out countless facts that[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Against Overproduction

Against Overproduction

[This is the final part of an exchange between Robert Pollin and Don Fitz carried in Green Social Thought (GST) and ZNet.  The first portion consisted of two articles by Pollin which originally appeared in Truthout on 7/3/21 and 6/10/21.  The second portion was a response by Fitz to Pollin’s articles.  The third portion was a rejoinder by Pollin to[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Response to Don Fitz

Response to Don Fitz

[This is the third part of an exchange between Robert Pollin and Don Fitz carried in Green Social Thought (GST) and ZNet. The first portion consisted of two articles by Pollin which originally appeared in Truthout on 7/3/21 and 6/10/21. The second portion was a response by Don Fitz which appeared in GST and ZNet.  The final portion will be[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Trump’s Taj Mahal tour guide and others out of work since COVID lockdown

Trump’s Taj Mahal tour guide and others out of work since COVID lockdown

In late February last year Nitin Singh, a tourist guide at the famous Taj Mahal in Agra was on top of the world. He had been entrusted with the prestigious task of showing US President Donald Trump the Mughal monument to love during his tour of India as part of the ‘Namaste Trump’ event organised by the Modi government. He[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Kashmiri Apple Needs Government Patronage

Kashmiri Apple Needs Government Patronage

In a promising apple village of district Anantnag, Sirhama, the month of September was used to be a busy month. It used to be a month of dreams, aspirations, hope and the result of hardwork as it is the month in which the people start the apple harvesting. Throughout the year, the harvesting season is cherished and looked as source[Read More…]

by 09/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Criminalization of Pathalgari Movement

Criminalization of Pathalgari Movement

Thousands of Adivasis involved in the “Pathalgari Movement” were criminalized for fighting for their collective rights to self-determination and protection of their lands, territories, and natural resources in Jharkhand State of India. Forty-six year old Ladu Nag from the Munda Adivasi (Indigenous) community is bound to live alone after her husband Neta Nag, a resident of Kevda village in Khunti[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
‘Air India’ Privatisation Means We  Will Lose  So Much Green Large Space Also

‘Air India’ Privatisation Means We  Will Lose  So Much Green Large Space Also

As one enters the Air India  staff colony in Kalina in Mumbai one is struck by the  large football field, a lovely sight right at the entrance. The ground is now full of overgrown grass.  It is a very big complex with abundant greenery and   other very large open spaces. With the  forthcoming  privatization we will  lose this vital space.[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Are all Fundamentalisms Similar: Can Taliban be compared to RSS?

Are all Fundamentalisms Similar: Can Taliban be compared to RSS?

With Taliban coming to power in Afghanistan, the memories of horror stories of yesteryears have been rekindled. When in power they not only implemented their version of Sharia law but also undertook the horrifying oppression of women. That was not all; they went onto impose dress and beard code on men and went on to destroy the Lord Gautama Buddha’s[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The Taliban fighters posing for family photo and relaxing in the Presidential Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug 15, 2021

Afghanistan: The Tricky Situation for India

New Taliban Government On 07.09.2021 a new Taliban government in Afghanistan was formed. Mullah Muhammad Hassan is declared Prime Minister of Afghanistan. Two important members of Taliban are appointed Deputy Prime Minister – Mullah Abdul Ghani and Moalvi Abdul Salam Hanafi. All stakeholders were expecting an inclusive government in Afghanistan but that did not happen. The Taliban have also announced[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 1 comment World
What Ails the 100 Days Work Guarantee Scheme?  Part II

What Ails the 100 Days Work Guarantee Scheme?  Part II

by T.Venkat & Mathivanan Series introduction: For the past year and half, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, or colloquially called the ‘100 days employment scheme’ has been in great demand in rural Tamil Nadu. While it had already proved its value as an anti-poverty measure across rural India, its popularity has only multiplied during the economic depression[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
COVID-19, Lockdown and Cancer Care in Kashmir, India: Some Glimpses

COVID-19, Lockdown and Cancer Care in Kashmir, India: Some Glimpses

by Akhter Hussain Bhat & Dr. Mohammad Akram As of September 08, 2021, according to WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected 222 countries and territories, with more than 220 million cases and 4.59 million deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread mortality and has exposed the weaknesses of health-care systems worldwide. National responses to the pandemic have varied from[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
‘Surveillance’ Monkey

‘Surveillance’ Monkey

A monkey came to our home. It saw plenty of space to roam! Elated, it went from room to room Looking nook and corner It saw my computer … The shining screen caught it’s eyes It sat on the table, looked here and there twice! Scanned the keyboard Began to type word after word. Finding the sounds odd, It went[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Taliban patrol after they took over Panjshir Valley, Sept 6, 2021

The fall of Panjshir 

Panjshir has fallen to the Taliban with a bang — and a whimper. The bang is because a 40-year old legend lies shattered, the legend of the invincibility of Panjshir Valley. And the whimper is because the short-lived ‘resistance’ had a tame ending.  A BBC report said the revolt’s two top leaders Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh were not even[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 1 comment World
Can we learn from history?

Can we learn from history?

  “We told you so” rings hollow. In the face of tens of thousands of lives lost, trillions of dollars spent, and countless communities destroyed, pointing out that early critics of the U.S. “war on terror” were accurate seems crass and cruel, sanctimonious and self-serving. But it’s also dangerous to ignore the dissenters. Those of us who were active in[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Be Careful What Energy You Wish For

Be Careful What Energy You Wish For

[This is the second part of an exchange between Robert Pollin and Don Fitz carried in Green Social Thought and ZNet.  The first portion consisted of two articles by Pollin which originally appeared in Truthout here and here.  The third portion will be a short rejoinder by Pollin to this article.  The final portion will be a short closing statement[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Heavy Burden of Prices on People, and Monetization

Heavy Burden of Prices on People, and Monetization

The civil society is now grappled with new expressions like “brownfield investment” which means a company or government entity takes over the existing production facilities to facilitate launching a new production activity. Best example for this financial resource strategy is ‘foreign direct investment.’ An alternative expression to this is a ‘greenfield investment,‘ wherein a fresh plant is constructed. In the[Read More…]

by 07/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Handover ceremony at Camp Anthonic, from US Army to Afghan Special Forces, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 2, 2021.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman… Whoops!… American Empire

They weren’t kidding when they called Afghanistan the “graveyard of empires.” Indeed, that cemetery has just taken another imperial body. And it wasn’t pretty, was it? Not that anyone should be surprised. Even after 20 years of preparation, a burial never is. In fact, the shock and awe(fulness) in Kabul and Washington over these last weeks shouldn’t have been surprising, given[Read More…]

by 07/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Lives in Biology

Lives in Biology

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the historical development[Read More…]

by 07/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
A man grieves during a mass funeral for members of a family was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

The “Longest War” is not over

Speaking from the White House on August 31, President Joe Biden lied to the people of the U.S. and to the world: “Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan — the longest war in American history.” The U.S. war on Afghanistan did not end— it has only adapted to technological advances and morphed[Read More…]

by 07/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
In Defense of Military History

In Defense of Military History

Some years ago, I was lucky enough to have a rich email dialogue with Colonel David Glantz, the foremost historian of the Eastern Front in World War 2. He was gracious in his thoughts and supportive of the lay-history I was doing. He even offered a compliment or two for some of the thoughts I had regarding the redaction of[Read More…]

by 07/09/2021 1 comment World
Vigil in memory of Gauri Lankesh held in Canada

Vigil in memory of Gauri Lankesh held in Canada

Members of the South Asian community came together to remember the slain Indian journalist at Surrey’s Holland Park on Sunday, September 5. Gauri Lankesh was a daring editor, who was allegedly murdered by right wing extremists in Bengaluru in 2017. On the fourth anniversary of her assassination, a vigil was organized by Radical Desi, an online magazine that covers alternative[Read More…]

by 07/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Address the Global Public Health Crisis: Ban Glyphosate Now!

Address the Global Public Health Crisis: Ban Glyphosate Now!

Environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason recently wrote an open letter to the head of the Pesticides Unit at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Jose Tarazona. (Since this article was written, Jose Tarazona has stepped down from his position and the letter has been forwarded to his successors, Manuela Tiramani and Benedicte Vagenede.) Mason wrote to Tarazona because the[Read More…]

Handover ceremony at Camp Anthonic, from US Army to Afghan Special Forces, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 2, 2021.

Afghan fiasco – the end of a unipolar world?

Anyone who ever tried to invade Afghanistan was inevitably defeated. The multiethnic mountainous country has become a grave for the British, the Russians, and now for the Americans and their European allies. To make matters worse, the hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan laid bare the political weakness and inconsistency of the White House that could not create a sense of[Read More…]

by 06/09/2021 1 comment World
Nine months of Farmers Protest

Nine months of Farmers Protest

When the ongoing farmers’ protest in India began last year in the states of Punjab and Haryana, nobody could predict that it would go on for so long and its resonance would be felt across the country. It’s been going on for nine months now and is the longest running protest by farmers in Indian history. The farmers have been[Read More…]

by 06/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
A motorist drives a car through a flooded expressway in Brooklyn, New York early on September 2, 2021, as flash flooding and record-breaking rainfall brought by the remnants of Storm Ida swept through the area. (Photo: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

Climate Scientist: This is a Dystopian Moment

I’m a climate scientist and on Wednesday night, I watched the rain outside my New York City window break the local record for the most accumulation in an hour. It was an event that caused catastrophic flooding and infrastructure failures across both the New York Metro area and a wide swath of the Northeast US, delivered by the remnant of a powerful hurricane[Read More…]

by 06/09/2021 1 comment Climate Change
Massive  Indian farmers Conglomeration calls for Sept 27 All India Strike

Massive  Indian farmers Conglomeration calls for Sept 27 All India Strike

A massive Kissan Panchayat was held in Muzfarnagar, UP on September 5  and resolved to intensify ongoing agitation and called for Bharat Bandh on Sept 27. The Panchayat organized by Samyukth Kisan Morcha  witnessed a huge congregation of farmers and farm workers from 22 states from all over India. Large presence of youth and farm women is visibly seen. BKU,[Read More…]

by 06/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Keshav Desiraju Has Left Us When His Contributions  Are Most Needed

Keshav Desiraju Has Left Us When His Contributions  Are Most Needed

Keshav Desiraju, India’s former health secretary who made a lasting contribution to public health in India, breathed his last on September 5. He died from ‘acute coronary syndrome’. He inherited the scholarly legacy of his grandfather, India’s much-admired second President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and contributed at least two very important books which reflected the diversity of his interests. He will be[Read More…]

by 06/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Taiwanese domestically-built Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF) take part in the live-fire, anti-landing Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates an enemy invasion, in Taichung, Taiwan July 16, 2020. © REUTERS/Ann Wang

Taiwan is cynically claiming China can ‘paralyze’ it in order to attract Western support

By overstating China’s military readiness to launch an attack on Taiwan – and downplaying its own ability to withstand it – the opportunistic Taipei government is trying hard to attract more backing from the US and its allies. Taiwan’s parliament has just delivered its annual report on the capability of China’s military to launch an attack on the island. The document was[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 1 comment World
The contribution of Ancient Greek culture to the Modern Age 

The contribution of Ancient Greek culture to the Modern Age 

With the discovery of fossils, artifacts, and ‘destroyed’ cities, archaeologists and historians have uncovered the hidden mysteries of events and cultures that preceded society. Ancient Greece (Greek: Romanized Hellas)  was a similar ancient culture dating back to the 12th century BC (9th century BC) to the 9th century BC (600 BCE). The Greeks made significant contributions to the four fields[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Icicles hang off the State Highway 195 sign in Killeen, Texas on February 18, 2021. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

New Climate Study: Arctic Heat Fueled Deadly February Texas Freeze

New research published Friday suggests that melting Arctic sea ice caused by global heating may be responsible for the deadly deep freeze that devastated much of North America and plunged millions of Texans into darkness in February. While climate researchers have previously connected the phenomena of polar heating and mid-latitute freezes, a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science is the first to link Arctic warming[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Police attack farmers in Moga

Police attack farmers in Moga

The boiling pot of indignation is simmering at it’s optimum point after the attack on the farmers in rally at Moga.The ruling classes are embarrassed in their very backyard, sending shivers down their spine. Contradictions are intensifying within the ruling classes at an unprecedented scale with farmers assaulted even in a Shiromani Akali Dal rally. The Moga police on Thursday[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Patriotic Snitch: Bob Hawke as US Informant

Patriotic Snitch: Bob Hawke as US Informant

Larrikin is a word often, and inaccurately used, in Australian political lingo.  Australia’s longest serving Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, was known as one such figure.  He was praised as the great communicator and healer between the forces of labour and capital, enjoyed imbibing, his sports and varied female company.  He could also be vain and ruthless. In June, a[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The leaky lifeboat of the ‘100 days work scheme’

The leaky lifeboat of the ‘100 days work scheme’

T Venkat and Mathivanan Series introduction: For the past year and half, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, or colloquially called the ‘100 days employment scheme’ has been in great demand in rural Tamil Nadu. While it had already proved its value as an anti-poverty measure across rural India, its popularity has only multiplied during the economic depression[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Gail Omvedt : A tribute

Gail Omvedt : A tribute

Gail Omvedt was a towering figure in the social sciences in India for decades. Author of over 25 books and a series of well-received columns for the Hindu of yesteryears, she was also an incisive and insightful analyst of Indian society, and a grounded grassroots activist as well. Despite being born and educated in the US, she made India her[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Punjab agricultural labour organisations protest in over 100 villages

Punjab agricultural labour organisations protest in over 100 villages

During the Vidhan Sabha session yesterday, various organisations of agricultural or landless labour of Punjab, converged at the public district headquarters in 5 districts and hundreds of villages of Punjab, inspite of the intervention of heavy rainfall. On the other hand levies like electricity bills are imposed on them. It was undertaken as a follow up of a 3 day[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Release Batakrushna Swain

Release Batakrushna Swain

The Hon. Naveen Patnaik Chief Minister, Odisha Sub: Request for the release of Upakuliya Jami o Jangala Surakhya Samiti member Mr. Batakrushna Swain Honorable Sir, We the undersigned people, regret to convey our dissatisfaction regarding the change in the definition of crime in our state. Though the drought situation is not new in the state, however, the increase in the[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Where We Mine: Resource Politics in Latin America

Where We Mine: Resource Politics in Latin America

As the drive to expand renewable energy capacity speeds up, there is a rush for lithium and other materials around the world. What will the expansion of rare earth mining in Latin America mean for the indigenous communities and workers who have historically borne the harms of extractivism? Thea Riofrancos, author of Resource Radicals (Duke University Press, 2020), explains how the energy[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Zapatista women take the stage to deliver their speeches collectively from each Caracol, or administrative center. (WNV/Shirin Hess)

Women on the verge defending life against the global patriarchy

What if, compañera and sister, we learn not only to scream out of pain, but to find the way, place, and time to scream a new world into being? Just think, sister and compañera, things are so bad that in order to stay alive we have to create another world.’ Coordinators of the Zapatista Women for the Second International Gathering of Women Who Struggle[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Twenty Years of the Afghanistan Occupation Ends: A New Phase of Struggle Begins

Twenty Years of the Afghanistan Occupation Ends: A New Phase of Struggle Begins

In 2007, I travelled throughout Afghanistan with an Afghan-Canadian research partner,(1) and we asked more than one hundred Afghans: What do you think about the international intervention in Afghanistan? It was as evident then as it has been proven now that a critical mass of Afghans perceived the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan as illegitimate, unnecessary, and serving the interests[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 1 comment World
Haiti and the Debt of Independence

Haiti and the Debt of Independence

In the vast history of imperialist exploitation few episodes match the depravity of Haiti’s debt of independence. Military blackmail of a small country by a superpower, prioritizing “property rights” over human rights, racial capitalism, a sellout “light skinned” local bourgeoise and the way our past haunts the present are all part of the story. After winning their liberation from slavery[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Millions of Afghans have been displaced by the war. Photo: MikrofonNews

Afghanistan and the US corporate media

The Taliban’s lightning fast takeover of Afghanistan was amazingly achieved with relatively little killing and bloodshed. Since the rout of the government, an entity essentially installed by the US, the Taliban has been assuring the Afghan people that its governance style will be more moderate than under its previous rule. Many people in Afghanistan are very fearful and particularly skeptical[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Money for Something… But Not You!!!

Money for Something… But Not You!!!

Professor Noam Chomsky was interviewed recently about war and peace. One of the facts that he mentioned, which of course NO ONE in our embedded mainstream media ever reports is this: “ Some background facts may be useful.  According to the major international monitor, SIPRI, “The growth in total [military] spending in 2020 was largely influenced by expenditure patterns in the[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Devalued Accountability And Justice In Sri Lanka

Devalued Accountability And Justice In Sri Lanka

Minister of Justice Ali Sabry at a Zoom discussion on 30 August 2021 disclosed that the President in Cabinet meetings and outside has again and again stressed to us his following stand on the issue of disappeared persons. ” If anyone disappeared, there is no need to investigate the reasons for his disappearance.  Do not try to find out if[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 3 comments Human Rights
How Tricontinental Pens History: “One Hundred Years of the Communist Movement in India”!!

How Tricontinental Pens History: “One Hundred Years of the Communist Movement in India”!!

Tricontinental published their “One Hundred Years of the Communist Movement in India” on September 1, 2020 [1]. We are dealing with it only snappily. From here one can learn what may be called a ‘left’ way to rewrite history of the ‘communist’ movement; a ‘left way’, that is certainly different rom a ‘communist’ way – where the ‘left’ stands for decent[Read More…]

by 04/09/2021 1 comment Life/Philosophy
At least 43 dead as massive storm ravages US northeast

At least 43 dead as massive storm ravages US northeast

Massive flooding inundated broad swaths of the US northeast on Wednesday night, including New York City and downstate New York, as well as New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Areas of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were also flooded, and tornadoes were reported on Cape Cod. At least 43 people are dead and more than 250,000 households and businesses are without power.[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Brazil’s Fierce Drought

Brazil’s Fierce Drought

The Amazon rainforest is arguably the world’s premier asset. Indeed, it’s the world’s most crucial asset in a myriad of ways, nothing on Earth compares. Yet, it is infernally stressed because of inordinate drought. The bulk of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil, where, according to the title of an article in NASA, Earth Observatory, the country headline says[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The village of Kulusuk in Greenland. (Photo: Ville Miettinen/flickr/cc)

Blinken Says No to Greenland Real Estate

In May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a visit to Greenland.  In a rather unedifying way, he was called ‘Tony’ by his hosts, a disarming point that was bound to open the floodgates of insincerity.  For all the convivial stuffing, there was a certain sting to the occasion: the previous Trump administration had revisited a fantasy long nurtured[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Kharasrota River Not for Sale

The Kharasrota River Not for Sale

The people of Kendrapada district of Odisha are fighting peacefully for last two years to save their river Kharasrota. This river is the lifeline of farmers, fishing communities and other communities living besides the river.  The Kharasrota river is the source of life and livelihoods for the people of Odisha in general and people of Kendrapada and Jajpur in particular.[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
50th Martyrdom Anniversary of Saroj Dutta

50th Martyrdom Anniversary of Saroj Dutta

 Around a month on August 5th, ago we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Saroj Dutta,which was landmark or black day in the history of the Indian Communist movement. Whatever his gross errors as a Marxist revolutionary, his spirit will shimmer for ever like a lotus in full bloom, in the annals of the Indian Communist Movement. Without[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Apple Growers in Himachal Protest Against Denial of Fair Price

Apple Growers in Himachal Protest Against Denial of Fair Price

The last week  in Himachal Pradesh has witnessed a surge of disappointment and discontent among apple growers of Himachal Pradesh as the price received by them has been much below their expectations. Local newspapers have been full of these reports and Amar Ujala, a leading Hindi newspaper, went to the extent of  full page coverage of this issue, apart from[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
‘Fearless Mind’ for freedom from Oppression

‘Fearless Mind’ for freedom from Oppression

In a society built on inequities based on class, caste, gender, race – existence of constitutional legislations for benefit of oppressed does not by itself ensure their welfare. It requires a conscious collective action by the oppressed against exploitation. It requires a change in mindset from ‘fearful’ to ‘fearless minds’. The book by Vivek Pandit titled ‘Fearless Minds’ tries to[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Dark Shadows – Domestic Violence and the Middle Class

Dark Shadows – Domestic Violence and the Middle Class

A young woman comes to office wearing dark goggles. As her colleagues direct enquiring glances towards her, she says that of late she hasn’t had much sleep and has developed dark circles under her eyes. But her colleagues seem to think they are bruises. In the evening , in the lift of her housing society, a particularly intrusive neighbour looks[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
India’s Afghan Policy : A Review (Part-2)

India’s Afghan Policy : A Review (Part-2)

MEA’s statement Aug 31 said Indian envoy Deepak Mittal met Sher Mohd Abbas Stanekzai, Head of Taliban’s Political Office, in Doha that day, in the first formal exchange. India’s concerns were raised that “Aghanistan’s soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner.” And he “assured that these issues would be positively addressed.” It is high[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 2 comments World
Handover ceremony at Camp Anthonic, from US Army to Afghan Special Forces, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 2, 2021.

Afghanistan – Ominous echoes from the past

Developments in Afghanistan, prior to and after its takeover by the Taliban, remind us of the political realignment of global powers in Europe on the eve of the 2nd World War. Although a tiny state (covering 652,000 km – slightly smaller than Texas – with a population of 26.5 million), Afghanistan might well be the pivot on which the reconfiguration[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
US climate envoy & former secretary of state John Kerry (L) and Chinese Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (File photo)

Biden gives green signal to US-China thaw

The visit to Tianjin by President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry on September 1-3 is assuming a huge dimension holding promise as a defining moment in the tense bilateral relationship between China and the US. Unlike Kerry’s previous visit in April to Shanghai, his conversation has broadened and deepened this time around, going well beyond climate change issues.  Chinese State[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Covid forces artists in Jaipur’s sculpting and blue pottery industry to switch jobs 

Covid forces artists in Jaipur’s sculpting and blue pottery industry to switch jobs 

The Covid pandemic has made life difficult for 67-year-old Shyam Soni, a sculptor by profession and a resident of Jaipur’s Shastri Nagar. With hardly any work coming in,  Soni is struggling hard to make a living for the last 18 months. His son 44-year-old Rahul Soni who was also into sculpting has already left the profession and joined his friend[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
A Simple COVID Solution For The Human Race

A Simple COVID Solution For The Human Race

The Covid Pandemic and Climate Crisis underscores a fatal split in the 21st Century within every society and human being’s better survival instinct’s, mirrored by the irresponsibility of the corporate world’s resistance to a genuine worldwide carbon emissions tax strategy to protect us all from ultimate climate calamity. On all sides of the arguments there exists blood brothers and sisters[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Nithin Lukose Film, Paka (River of Blood), Makes it to Toronto Festival

Nithin Lukose Film, Paka (River of Blood), Makes it to Toronto Festival

As the City of Toronto is less than a week away from the ‘Festival of Festivals’ Indian Cinema has nothing much to write home about except two movies, although the total number of films selected for screening is one-third of its usual strength. And that too not from the major filmmakers. Nithin Lukose’s PAKA (River of Blood) and Ritwik Pareek’s[Read More…]

by 03/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Tribute to Com. Ramnath

Tribute to Com. Ramnath

Com. Ramnath left us a few days ago at the age of 83. He suffered a heart attack and passed away in his sleep early in the morning of August 31st. He was unwell for the last several years but his health had deteriorated severely recently. Without doubt he played an integral role in the history of the Indian Communist[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Now That Afghan War Is Over, Close Gitmo—Now

Now That Afghan War Is Over, Close Gitmo—Now

I was a college student on 9/11. The ensuing “War on Terror,” anchored by the bombing and U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, has been with us ever since—virtually my entire adult life. President Biden was right to end the war in Afghanistan and follow through on a deal that his predecessor Donald Trump had negotiated with the Taliban. As Biden explained, “After 20 years, I’ve[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
us supreme court

Near-total abortion ban goes into effect in Texas

Legislation banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy took effect in Texas at midnight after the US Supreme Court did not act on an emergency appeal by Texas abortion providers Tuesday. Senate Bill 8, ushered through the Republican-dominated state legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, prohibits abortions whenever an ultrasound can detect a “fetal heartbeat,”[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
The Jewish Chronicle citing statistics from the UK Zionist organization Community Service Trust, to spin "hatred of Israel" as "hatred of Jews".

Jewish Chronicle’s libel payouts were a small price to pay for smearing Corbyn and the left

The Jewish Chronicle, a weekly newspaper that was saved from liquidation last year by a consortium led by a former senior adviser to Theresa May, has been exposed as having a quite astonishing record of journalistic failings. Over the past three years, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the misnamed and feeble “press regulator” created by the billionaire-owned corporate media,[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
What Made Kerala’s Women Achievers of the Last Century?

What Made Kerala’s Women Achievers of the Last Century?

Kerala has given birth to many women achievers in the last century. This is a quick analysis based on case studies of three women achievers, from the areas of science, politics, and law. Though these three achievers are selected purposively and there could be some possibility of a selection bias, this analysis offers some key insights. ANNA MANI (23 August[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Enough for Everyone

Enough for Everyone

Given the current climate emergency and the broader ecological breakdown that looms, there are few issues more pressing than that expressed by the single word: enough. Yet, it is possible to satisfy humanity’s universal needs fairly—and keep the world livable. What is enough? Put that question to any economist or politician, and you are likely to get a blank stare in return.[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (R) receiving Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar (2nd-R), Doha, Sept. 2020

Rise and rise of Qatar in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

When the US State Department announced that it would host a virtual ministerial meeting on August  30 with “key partners on Afghanistan,” there was an element of surprise in the list of participants. Apart from the US’ NATO and EU allies, there was a solitary non-western partner country — Qatar.  What qualified this peninsular Arab country to be invited to join such a privileged circle of America’s[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Who Wins Germany’s Election?

Who Wins Germany’s Election?

by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young It has often been said that predictions are hard to make – particularly when they concern the future. We have seen it many times in recent years and this may just as well apply to the upcoming federal election in Germany scheduled for 26th September 2021. Unlike the USA’s first past the post system[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Handover ceremony at Camp Anthonic, from US Army to Afghan Special Forces, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 2, 2021.

On Propaganda and Failed Narratives: New Understanding of Afghanistan is a Must

For twenty years, two dominant narratives have shaped our view of the illegal US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and neither one of these narratives would readily accept the use of such terms as ‘illegal’, ‘invasion’ and ‘occupation.’ The framing of the US ‘military intervention’ in Afghanistan, starting on October 7, 2001, as the official start of what was dubbed[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Covid leaves copper utensil artisans of Songir jobless

Covid leaves copper utensil artisans of Songir jobless

If you enter any kitchen in rural and small town India  chances are you will see these gleaming objects all around. On top of the stove, used to store drinking water, near the space for worshipping various deities, as dinner plates. These are the copper and brass utensils that have been part of Indian homes for centuries – handed down[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled COVID Response Watch
Banks’ legal battle for RTI exemption

Banks’ legal battle for RTI exemption

On August 18, the Supreme Court rejected another attempt of the banks to wriggle out of accountability and responsibility under Right to Information Act. Surprisingly the Central Government joins these petitioners. Whom are they facilitating- the scamsters, big loan defaulters etc? Then why dacoits and way side robbers should be jailed? It is the basic principle of good governance that[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 1 comment India
Jalianwala Bag: Heritage re-made

Jalianwala Bag: Heritage re-made

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calls it an ‘insult to the nation.CPI(M) general secretary describes it as “an attempt to erase all traces of British atrocities in India”.It is both and much,much more.It is a shocking yet dead pan attempt to change the very meaning of India’s freedom movement.As objective observers and analysts of colonialism and imperialism have repeatedly underlined, all[Read More…]

by 02/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
A man grieves during a mass funeral for members of a family was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

Estimated Cost of Post-9/11 US Wars Hits $8 Trillion With Nearly a Million People Dead

With the final U.S. soldiers leaving Afghanistan earlier this week after nearly 20 years of occupation and war, a new analysis released Wednesday shows the United States will ultimately spend upwards of $8 trillion and that nearly one million people have lost their lives so far in the so-called “global war on terror” that was launched after the attacks of September[Read More…]

by 01/09/2021 1 comment World
President Joe Biden speaks about the end of the war in Afghanistan from the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Biden’s speech on Afghanistan: An admission of a shattering defeat

US President Joe Biden delivered a speech Tuesday afternoon declaring an end to the 20-year US war in Afghanistan. Coming the day after a C-17 military transport plane flew the last US troops out of Kabul and in the midst of celebrations in the streets of Afghanistan of the end of US occupation, Biden’s speech included statements never before heard[Read More…]

by 01/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Droning Disasters: A US Strike on Kabul

Droning Disasters: A US Strike on Kabul

No more profoundly disturbing statement was needed.  In the dying days of the official US departure from Kabul, a US drone etched its butcher’s legacy with a strike supposedly intended for the blood-lusty terrorist group ISIS-K, an abbreviation of Islamic State in Khorasan Province.  Its members had taken responsibility for blasts outside Harmid Karzai International Airport that had cost the[Read More…]

by 01/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
A Right-Wing German News Conglomerate Bought Politico for a Billion Dollars

A Right-Wing German News Conglomerate Bought Politico for a Billion Dollars

by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young At the end of August 2021, Germany’s right-wing Axel Springer bought the US political magazine Politico for about $1bn (€850m) – the most expensive acquisition in the history of Germany’s right-wing Springer Group. Until the Springer takeover, Politico used to belong to the Capitol News Company of media owner Robert Allbritton. Allbritton founded Politico[Read More…]

by 01/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Gundahar Murmu: A legendary revolutionary

Gundahar Murmu: A legendary revolutionary

On April 12th earlier this year the Communist revolutionary movement commemorated the 12th death anniversary of veteran Comrade Gundahar Murmu. He passed away leaving his wife, four daughters, son, relatives and comrades but his memories will be embedded forever in the revolutionary movement like an inextinguishable red light shimmering. Few comrades ever from West Bengal staged such an invaluable crusade[Read More…]

by 01/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy