Anyone who grew up in my generation of 1980s kids remembers G.I. Joe action figures — those green-uniformed plastic soldiers you could use to stage battles in the sandbox in your backyard or, for that matter, your bedroom. In those days, when imagery of bombed-out homes, bloodied civilians, and police violence wasn’t accessible on TV screens or in video games like Call of[Read More…]
If the poorest of the poor people must get the topmost priority in terms of welfare programs, then surely those households who have been employed in manual scavenging (MS) work in India should get the highest priority. The scheme for self-employment based rehabilitation of those employed in MS has therefore been considered a high priority scheme. Despite this, it is[Read More…]
Imran Khan, a cricketer-turned politician, former Prime Minister of Pakistan is found openly alleging the US administration for the fall of his elected government. In his interview to numerous national and international TV channels, he claims that his visit to Russia amid the Ukraine crisis in the month of February, 2022 was not fully digested by the US administration. On[Read More…]
When it comes to the tawdry, hideous business of politicising the right to asylum, and the refugees who arise from it, no country does it better than Australia. A country proud of being a pioneer in women’s rights, the secret ballot, good pay conditions and tatty hardware (the Hills Hoist remains a famous suburban monstrosity) has also been responsible for[Read More…]
On the occasion of the Prohibit Nukes, Promote HOPE—Memorial Day walk, rally at the Kansas City National Security Campus, Kansas City, Missouri, on May 30, 2022 Four months ago, two days before the civilized world celebrated one year since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force on January 22, officials here at the Kansas City National[Read More…]
(This is part of my memoir I published successively on the pages of Countercurrents on the Zionist invasion of Lebanon 1982 ) We were handcuffed, and a bandage was placed over our eyes so we could not see anything. Then the buses moved towards Palestine. Next to me was sitting an Egyptian named Gamal. He had nothing on his eyes,[Read More…]
As one might have expected, the already severe problems of Churnalism have become even worse with the arrival of news’ websites demanding ever faster output. Churnalism is a form of journalism based on corporate press releases and pre-fabricated stories provided by external news agencies. Churnalism uses pre-packaged materials instead of reporting news and it is done for fast output. It[Read More…]
The images that I saw on screen Could never compete with the images in real life The magic lantern never had The magic of real life. Stories were too many To blast any troubled brain With experiences and ideas unlimited. In an attempt to reduce life in frames The creation of images became superior To the creation of life itself.[Read More…]
“Hospitals are supposed to be sanctuaries from shelling, not targets,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “While doctors and nurses struggle to save lives in overcrowded and under equipped facilities, Sri Lankan army attacks have hit one hospital after another.” The Sri Lankan armed forces have repeatedly struck hospitals in the northern Vanni region in indiscriminate artillery[Read More…]
The judgement of Supreme Court releasing A.G. Perarivalan, convicted in the case of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, has been widely hailed as upholding the human rights of prisoners. Yet, Yasin Malik, Kashmiri separatist leader, has been given two life terms and there is hardly any debate on him. At the same time Government of India is engaged in a dialogue with[Read More…]
The war in Ukraine is increasing food prices, which is increasing hunger in Africa. An AP report from Mogadishu, Somalia cited Ayan Hassan Abdirahman, who is now paying twice as much as she did just a few months ago to buy the wheat flour she uses to make breakfast each day for her 11 children in Somalia’s capital. Abdirahman has[Read More…]
1. BJP : to undertake politics for gaining power. It is created in 1950s. RSS was banned by the Congress government after Gandhi murder. 2. Bharatiya Majdur Sangh To work among working class. This organisation is number one in India today. It has by passed all other working class organisations which were founded by the Congress party and by the[Read More…]
On July 5 2021 the world was shocked by the news of 84 year Jesuit priest and human rights activist Fr. Stan Swamy breathing his last in Mumbai in the course of his jail sentence. He had spent a lifetime defending rights of tribal communities and other weaker sections. Arrested in October July 2020, all through the nine months of[Read More…]
BOLLYWOOD, TOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND – LITERARY ESSAYS ON INDIAN FILMS – By Somdatta Mandal, Pencraft International, New Delhi, 2021. Pages 344, Price: Rs.1200 Somdatta Mandal recently retired from her position as Professor of English and Chairperson of the Department of English, Viswa Bharati, Santi Niketan where she was very active in organizing seminars, panel discussions and conferences on subjects linking[Read More…]
Paradigm for peace applied to Russia, Ukraine and the US: Proposal for a peaceful Pathway forward PART 3. THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE: NEEDS FOR POWER AND FREEDOM Part 3C. The National Endowment for “Democracy”: A Second CIA We’ve been describing the threats to power and freedom that are driving the current crisis in Ukraine, specifically threats of foreign political interference.[Read More…]
This Memorial Day, as the nation reflects on, mourns and honors the sacrifices of U.S. military personnel who have died in the line of duty, another senseless killing of innocent elementary school children by a deranged gunman has marred the Federal holiday. First observed on May 30, 1868, the holiday allows us for one day to reflect on those sacrifices[Read More…]
I have been numb and silent. Not like me. But I guess I am also human and sometimes the pain is too much. 19 children dead? Should I be thankful that none of those who died in Buffalo, Uvalde or in the many instances of mass shootings that happen as regularly as rainfall in America, didn’t have the name of[Read More…]
Recently concluded QUAD in Tokyo, Japan (23-24 May, 2022) leaves several questions unanswered. However, the level of synergy among the QUAD members (US, Japan, India and Australia) was at the highest pitch. The joint statements released by the QUAD members are well polished. From the body language one can also gauge that the QUAD leaders (US President Joe Biden, Indian[Read More…]
A Nation, its Freedom and Future in Crisis For long, Pakistan portrays a hybrid political culture – part human and part vulture overwhelmed with traditions of neo-colonialism, elite control, neglectful of people’s care, political change and elite systematic corruption to undermine the national freedom, security and sustainable future. Suspicious and paranoid political elite imply dogmatic scenarios and management concepts to[Read More…]
Can animals get infected with the Covid virus? What are the chances for human-to-animal and animal-to-human transmission of the virus? Among numerous other uncertainties, these two also remained the prominent unanswered questions in the early days after the pandemic set in. There were conflicting news reports. Some fake news reports were also making the rounds. Regarding the origins of the[Read More…]
“ My father sleeps in the house or he fights with my mother after drinking alcohol. He says that his factory has been closed during Covid. They don’t have any work. Mummy is asking them to find another job. He goes in the morning and comes in the evening. Says, he could not find a job. We sell balloons that[Read More…]
A few days back,a story jointly authored by The Wire journalist Sangeeta Pisharoty Barua and the online Assamese newsportal Cross Currents created a sensation in Assam and elsewhere.The report states that during the first onset of COVID 19 then Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma claimed that he was the only minister of any state government to have ordered PPE[Read More…]
Introduction The current stage of human societies on Planet Earth has three defining characteristics. One: The extremely rapid penetration of science and technology into human societies, with concomittant changes in their social, economic and political structures. Two: An explosion in the totality of energy-use by industrialized and industrializing human societies, resulting in planet-level (climate) changes posing an existential threat to[Read More…]
The battle rages on For reasons little known War and hunger Symbiotic One nourishing the other Fiercely… Women clutching their offspring And in their clasped palms The seeds of sunflower As roots cling soil For an identity For survival… The nightingale’s plaintive song Across drooping branches of willow Across all barrenness To the Creator… Dr. Supatra Sen, Associate[Read More…]
Paradigm for peace applied to Russia, Ukraine and the US: Proposal for a peaceful Pathway forward PART 3. THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE: NEEDS FOR POWER AND FREEDOM Part 3B. PNAC’s American Empire: Aggressive Desires for Power and Freedom We hear constantly in mainstream media that Russian President Vladimir Putin craves conquest and a revival of the Russian Empire. You[Read More…]
Death, remarked Gore Vidal about Truman Capote’s passing, was a good career move. The novelist Saki also considered the good qualities of shuffling off the mortal coil. “Waldo,” he writes in “The Feast of Nemesis”, “is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.” But what of those instances when death is foiled, the Grim Reaper cheated?[Read More…]
Activists from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) “Climate Can’t Wait” project assemble on a street corner each week near the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill intercepting senators’ staff members as they walked to work. The group’s weekly action is a unique attempt to get their message across to the legislators through their staff that they need to take[Read More…]
In Colombia, the Historic Pact presidential ticket is favored to win the May 29, 2022, national elections, with between 37.9% to 48% of votes, according to various opinion polls. Historic Pact is a coalition of 20 different political parties and formations, ranging from the radical Left, Comunes, to the centre-Left’s Todos Somos Colombia and the Communist Party of Colombia. Its[Read More…]
May the reader permit a 91 year old Korean War vet to offer a review of his past Memorial Day advisories from today back to 2006 For this year’s Memorial Day advisory we quote from “Memorial “Daze”: Nightmares of Empire” by Phillip Faruggio / May 29th,2013 Dissident Voice[1] To Americans: Thousands of our young kids have been killed just in Iraq[Read More…]
On May29th we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dalit Panther Party .Its formation was a landmark event in the post-1947 era of India defining a new epoch in the assertion of the dalit community. It was a manifestation of the rage simmering at a boiling point against their subjugation for centuries which hardly diluted after Independence. The Black Panther[Read More…]
Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, heading a Supreme Court vacation bench, while hearing an appeal by a lawyer on May 23, flared up in an outburst of anger saying that it had become a “fashion” to make allegations against the judiciary. He added: “The stronger the judge, the worse the allegations.” (THE HINDU, May 24). Why is the honourable Justice Chandrachud [Read More…]
At a time of increasing concern over climate change, contributions of several women, farmers and innovators have given reason for increasing hope in mitigation as well as adaptation work in villages of India. When Leela Devi was married in Tilonia village (Ajmer district of Rajasthan), she had not heard of solar energy. But making use of the existence of solar[Read More…]
The baby formula crisis that is threatening the lives of infants across the US deepened this week as the out-of-stock rate for baby formula on store shelves surged to 70 percent for the week ending May 22. The shortage rate during the previous week was 45 percent, according to the retail tracking firm Datasembly. The supply shortage is so severe[Read More…]
There is a persistent belief in both Europe and the United States that the “Western” economies are the most developed around, just as the “Western” culture and democracy, with its culture of abolition and total tolerance, is the only correct and advanced system. Russia, which is a bridge connecting Europe with Asia since Tsar Peter, has apparently chosen the European[Read More…]
May 28 is the 92nd death anniversary of Bhagwati Charan Vohra who sacrificed his life in 1930 at the age of only 25 while making preparations for rescuing Bhagat Singh from jail. As he was preparing for his own martyrdom in jail, Bhagat Singh paid very rich tributes to the great sacrifices of Bhagwati Charan Vohra in the course[Read More…]
Australia’s federal election May 18th turned left with a new power broker named climate change. Major networks refer to the election as: “Australia’s Climate Election,” with newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowing to turn Australia into a “renewable energy superpower.” The incumbent PM Scott Morrison led the Coalition opposed by the Labor party behind the candidacy of Anthony Albanese.[Read More…]
Anxiety about the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) toward the Russian border is one of the causes of the current war in Ukraine. But this is not the only attempt at expansion by NATO, a treaty organization created in 1949 by the United States to project its military and political power over Europe. In 2001, NATO conducted an “out[Read More…]
PART 3. THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE: NEEDS FOR POWER AND FREEDOM Part 3A. Fears of US Political Interference and Coups, Much Like the 9/11 Coup of Allende We’ve been discussing one way to approach non-violent conflict resolution by applying the Paradigm for Peace model to the current crisis in Ukraine. In our imaginary chart for the Roots of Violence, we[Read More…]
Introduction: The Transition Towns Movement In the year 2005, our capitalist societies saw the inception of a movement called ‘Transition Towns’. This is a grassroots network of communities that are working to build resilience in response to Peak Oil, climate change, food insecurity and economic instability. ‘Transition Towns’ is a catchphrase for environmental and social movements founded upon the principles[Read More…]
“I think for me the struggle to defend the truth is a precondition for defending our democracy, and the struggle to defend our democracy is a precondition for taking the effective action that needs to be taken in order to meet the climate crisis in a serious way and turn it around.” — U.S. House member Jamie Raskin of[Read More…]
You turn on any recent professional sport competition and you see the obscene propaganda. Before the game starts they call out the honor guard ( many times dressed in camouflage) carrying the flag, as they have the singer belt out our anthem. Where is this ‘ War’ that we apparently are in? To this writer the last war our country[Read More…]
In a recent interview with the Press Trust of India (PTI) published on May 25, former advisor to the Government of India has given a timely warning against the increasing polarization in India’s society. Prof. Kaushik Basu, who also served as chief economist at the World Bank, stated, “The rise in divisiveness and polarization in Indian society is sad not[Read More…]
If the war in Ukraine, that was initiated three months ago, does not end, and without a reduction in the growing number of conflicts in other parts of the world, hunger will only continue to increase. As rarely seen in recent history, issues related to agrifood systems and world food security are at the centre of global and regional debates and[Read More…]
The Washington Post (WashPost) made a front-page headline after the Buffalo’s East Side mass shooting. The headline – “‘That’s not the devil. – That’s America.’” tells state of the one of the most advanced bourgeois states – the United States of America. The report (May 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/17/buffalo-tops-shooting-neighborhood/) by Silvia Foster-Frau formulated its heading by citing James Baldwin, 60, a citizen[Read More…]
This is a mild punishment for the arrogant IAS officer of Delhi but there is some imagination in it. He has been shunted to Ladakh bordering Pakistan and his IAS officer wife sent to the other end of the country to Arunachal Pradesh bordering China. A positive fallout of the case is that stadiums in Delhi will now be open[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Union Cabinet Secretary Dear Shri Gauba, In the past, I had written to your predecessors and the Ministry of Mines not to divest the government’s share of equity in Hindustan Zinc Ltd. (HZL), keeping in view the strategic nature of Zinc as a scarce mineral. I understand from recent news reports (https://www.news18.com/news/business/vedanta-cant-buy-more-than-5-stake-in-hindustan-zinc-if-divestment-happens-anil-agarwal-5243107.html) that the government has[Read More…]
The combination of information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology (IT-BT-NT) is the cutting edge of civilizational transformation in the on-going “digital era”. This technological trio is based upon digitizing and manipulating data. [Ref.1] IT-BT-NT are becoming primary tools for research in the physical, natural, and social sciences, and connected technologies. Perhaps the most influential technologies created by IT-BT-NT in the social,[Read More…]
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the Biden administration aims to lead the international bloc opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into a broader coalition to counter what it sees as a more serious, long-term threat to global order from China. Media reports including a report by AP from Washington DC said: In a speech outlining the administration’s China policy, Blinken laid[Read More…]
In our world today many leaders and their followers refuse to acknowledge a planetary/cosmic reality: The future of Homo sapiens hinges not on their thought process and actions but on a reconfigured societal form that will allow human evolution to proceed by way of reciprocal planetary/cosmic interrelationship. This refusal is now a danger to Homo sapiens continuation on Planet earth. Here is an outline of the problem and a step by step process explaining how humanity can remove these leaders and[Read More…]
Most in the white West are not raised to expect seriousness. A carefree lifestyle is that of privilege. Individuals, of course, suffer hardships from disease, domestic or social violence. Some from poverty despite color. Some from disabling, intimate betrayals. But generally, life is not expected to be a tragedy. Yet the world has become serious, and none are excused[Read More…]
by Sheila Xiao and Manolo De Los Santos In a recent interview, Brian Nichols, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was asked the question that is on everyone’s mind ahead of the June 2022 Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California: Will three particular countries in Latin America (Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua) be invited? Nichols responded with[Read More…]
Established by Congress in 1984, The US Institute of Peace (USIP) works to promote the building of peace “to prevent, mitigate and resolve violent conflict” abroad. The independent, nonpartisan institute aims to reach that monumental goal through its work by resolving armed conflict peacefully and in thwarting future crises. Apropos of their mission, an exhibition of photographs by photojournalists working[Read More…]
For observers of President Biden’s recent visit to Asia it will come as no surprise that, as in the past, the US sought to encourage Asian allies to join in further strengthening its political, economic and especially military containment of China. Like the US role in prolonging the war in Ukraine in order to weaken Russia, the US hopes to[Read More…]
The African Union was founded in 2002 as a successor to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), an intergovernmental organisation that functions as a link between the African countries. With the union commemorating its 20th anniversary this year, the continent has faced several challenges in recent years, including civil wars, stalling transitions, Islamic militancy, food insecurity, and climate change-related threats. The[Read More…]
Tradition teaches us that democracy has four pillars – legislature, executive, judiciary and the media. This is not the absolute truth any longer. Each of these has suffered severe distortions over the last several years leaving democracy in peril. Fascist-dictatorial trends assumed political dominance and democracy goes kaput! Peoples power is an additional pillar needed to remedy the total collapse[Read More…]
We, the participants of the conference on “Embracing Solidarities through Sharing Stories of Struggles to Resist Empires”, a four day consultation organized by Global Kairos for Asia Pacific Palestine Solidarity (GKAPPS) in collaboration with the Academy for Contextual Theologies in Taiwan (ACTT), from April 27 to 30, 2022, seek to express our radical solidarity with the people in Palestine in[Read More…]
Global Kairos for Asia-Pacific Palestine Solidarity (GKAPPS) calls for respect for human rights, an end to political instability and, the re-building of Democracy in Sri Lanka Global Kairos for Asia-Pacific Palestine Solidarity (GKAPPS) is a collective of Asian Christian Theologians working in partnership with scholars and human rights activists of different faiths to express our radical solidarity with the people[Read More…]
In recent days reports of hunger strikes by two political prisoners Sagar Gorkhe and G.N.Saibaba have deeply hurt the conscience of a nation preparing to celebrate its 75th independence day. During the freedom movement several political prisoners had gone on very valiant hunger strikes taken up in very difficult conditions. These included such great freedom fighters as Bhagat Singh, Jatindranath[Read More…]
According to Article 7, paragraph 2(i) of the Rome Statute[1], an Enforced disappearance is defined as “…the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons,[Read More…]
It is a true mark of greatness if what a leader struggles to achieve in his lifetime is widely realized to be even more valuable in the years or decades after he has left the world. This is exactly how Jawaharlal Nehru is being remembered by more and more people of his country, despite a persistent tendency on the part[Read More…]
The agricultural dalit Community in Sangrur district of Punjab led by the Zameen prapt Sangarh Commiteee, remain as determined as ever in waging a battle for rights promised to them to procure Panchayat land and against injustice meted out on them. Protest in Hardike Village On 21 st May In Village Hadike in Sangrur dalit women waging battle for prompt [Read More…]
Police should not abuse Sex Workers, media should not publish their pictures of raid and rescue operations The Supreme Court of India directed that the police should treat sex workers with dignity and should not abuse them, verbally or physically. The State governments have been asked to ensure this through adequate sensitisation of the police. In addition, those sex workers[Read More…]
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Constitution Amendments that led to the three-tier Panchayati Raj structures. The 73rd Amendment further led to legislation for its extension into tribal areas (Scheduled Areas) and the Forest Rights Act. Tracing the history of 30 years, the saga of decentralisation without democratisation is the story of hope to despair, writes C.R. Bijoy[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar is considered the father of Dalit politics. He raised the demand for political rights to the Dalits in the Round Table Conferences and despite Gandhiji’s strong opposition, the Dalits got the status of a minority class and political rights apart from the Hindus, which were announced in the form of Communal Award. In this, Dalits got the right[Read More…]
Ukraine conflict has now entered in the area of intensive diplomacy. Davos, now the seat of the World Economic Forum (WEF), is rich with Ukraine debate. Media reports said: Veteran U.S. statesman Henry Kissinger has urged the West to stop trying to inflict a crushing defeat on Russian forces in Ukraine, warning that it would have disastrous consequences for the[Read More…]
Dr. G.N. Saibaba, a 90% physical disabled person languishing in Nagpur central Jail started a hunger strike for the second time from Saturday 21st May 2022 seeking immediate resolution of his demands. Dr. G.N. Saibaba, also sat on hunger strike one and half years ago during lockdown in the jail demanding the immediate handover of medicines supplied by his family[Read More…]
The war in Ukraine has already caused massive death and destruction, with more undoubtedly to come as the fighting intensifies in the country’s east and south. Many thousands of soldiers and civilians have already been killed or wounded, some 13 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes, and an estimated one-third of the country’s infrastructure has been destroyed. Worse yet, that war’s brutal[Read More…]
Israel’s coalition government of right-wing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is on the verge of collapse, which is unsurprising. Israeli politics, after all, is among the most fractious in the world, and this particular coalition was born out of the obsessive desire to dethrone Israel’s former leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. While Netanyahu was successfully ousted in June 2021, Bennett’s coalition has been left to[Read More…]
Ernakulam: The Solidarity Youth Movement launched its second state-level conference on the title theme ‘The tradition of liberation and the proud testimony of faith’ at Kaloor, Ernakulam, Kerala. The conference’s main goals were to prepare the Muslim community for resisting fascism in India, engender the creative potentiality of youth for the wellbeing of society, and address the infliction of islamophobia[Read More…]
Societies generate their own economies of tolerable cruelties and injustices. Poverty, for instance, will be allowed, as long a sufficient number of individuals are profiting. To an extent, crime and violence can be allowed to thrive. In the United States, the economy of tolerable massacres, executed by military grade weapons, is considerable and seemingly resilient. Its participants all partake in[Read More…]
America continues to unleash unparalleled madness in the world. It’s the madness spawned by an all-consuming hatred against: Children, Women, Men, Black-Brown-White folks, Russians and Communists, Palestinians and Houthi, Nature, the Environment, Beauty and Life itself. It remains mindless, formless and knows only violence. The manufacturers of all this violence can be found permanently-embedded in every state of the American[Read More…]
On the sidewalk at the entrance to the National Press Club a large crowd of journalists, Palestinians and their supporters held a candlelight vigil May 17 to honor the memory of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The popular 51-year-old Al Jazeera TV reporter while on assignment in the West Bank with her crew was slain less than a week ago in[Read More…]
The Nakba is back on the Palestinian agenda. For nearly three decades, Palestinians were told that the Nakba – or Catastrophe – is a thing of the past. That real peace requires compromises and sacrifices, therefore, the original sin that has led to the destruction of their historic homeland should be entirely removed from any ‘pragmatic’ political discourse. They were[Read More…]
Kudos to the fine hit song by War entitled ‘ The World Is a Ghetto’ ( 1972). Again, as with so many other incidents, issues and complications within this empire, can you comprehend that this song, resonating so well now, was written 50 years ago? If anything, we have regressed further down that rabbit hole as I write this. Corporate[Read More…]
Brookings, a think tank founded in 1916, presented a timely discussion this week titled “Finland, Sweden, and the future of NATO.” Discussing the urgent need to join NATO were Finnish ambassador to the U.S., Mikko Hautala, and the Swedish ambassador to the U.S., Karin Olofsdotter. The two ambassadors appeared in the wake of last week’s official state visit by their[Read More…]
On midnight 31st May 1981, the Jaffna Public Library, famous for being the crucible of Tamil literature and heritage, was set ablaze by Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs. The burning has since been marked by Eelam Tamils as an act of genocide. This was one of the most heinous ethnic-based book burnings of the twentieth century. The library[Read More…]
Three great poems By Narayan Surve, which take leap into the Inner Psychic – Mental World and expresses the Inner turmoil of the Toiling, Repressed, deprived, outcast Women who have lost everything. The Poetic narrations have deep impact on Listeners and readers and profusely disturb them. Narayan Surve (15th October 1926 to 16th August 2010) can be counted as one[Read More…]
On May 15, 2022, the military junta in Mali announced that it would no longer be part of the G5 Sahel platform. The G5 Sahel was created in Nouakchott, Mauritania, in 2014, and brought together the governments of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger to collaborate over the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel belt—the region just below the Sahara desert[Read More…]
(A Dystopian Nation) Under the rubble of a whole nation we have only phalluses billions of phalluses nothing else where history is edited and the future is smoky phallus rules everything. Everything for phallus phallus for everything. Every hour four women are raped Innumerable vaginas tattered Millions murdered Some burnt alive Deep inside me a phallus rules my anatomy threatens[Read More…]
Discarding a Question on Linkages of Hindutva with Nazism/Fascism is blatant Academic Dishonesty! Dear Professor Sibaram Khara Saheb, Namaskaar! According to your esteemed University’s portal “The name of University, ‘Sharda’ is synonymous to ‘Goddess of knowledge and learning-Saraswati’. She is identified with ‘veena’ an Indian musical instrument and the ‘lotus’ where she resides. The lotus in our logo symbolizes the[Read More…]
by Aseem Hasnain and Abhilasha Srivastava The California State University system, America’s largest public higher education system, recently added caste, a birth-based social hierarchy system, to its anti-discrimination policy, allowing students, staff and faculty across its 23 campuses to report caste bias and discrimination. CSU’s move has drawn a sharp response from some in the Indian diaspora: About 80 faculty members of[Read More…]
(This is part of my memoir I published successively on the pages of Countercurrents on the Zionist invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the destruction of the Palestinian refugee camp.) When the Zionist arrested us, we were put aside, and the rest of the people of the camp left. Before my father left, he looked at me sadly, which made[Read More…]
On May 16, the Biden administration announced new measures to “increase support for the Cuban people.” They included easing travel restrictions and helping Cuban-Americans support and connect with their families. They mark a step forward but a baby step, given that most U.S. sanctions on Cuba remain in place. Also in place is a ridiculous Biden administration policy of trying[Read More…]
In case you have lingering doubts about the reality of human-caused global warming, hop on an airplane to parts of India or Pakistan and spend a few days. And, as long as you’re there, maybe be a good citizen and pick up a few of the dehydrated birds that drop out of the sky. Then, use the syringe you brought[Read More…]
“There is really no true solution to the problem of global food security without bringing back the agriculture production of Ukraine and the food and fertilizer production of Russia and Belarus into world markets despite the war.” These blunt words by UN Secretary-General António Guterres accurately describe the present global food crisis. As the U.S. and the G7 (comprising Canada, France, Germany,[Read More…]
Tigers and leopards are among the 10 apex predators most threatened by the world’s roads. Designed for speed and efficiency, roadways across the globe are effectively killing wildlife whose futures are intrinsically linked to the future of the planet: apex predators, those species including big cats like tigers and leopards who sit at the top of the food chain and[Read More…]
The government of India shut down the consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, the biggest city in the north of Afghanistan, considering a threat to the embassy staff from the Taliban which took over the reins of the government on 15 August, 2021. It is a fact that there is a perception among the international community including Indians that the Taliban would commit[Read More…]
Freedom as ‘mukti’ “Human freedom, in its widest and deepest sense is fundamental, and needs to be fought for at every step. That is the most central of Vedantic messages” – was a comment made by a learned friend, during a conversation about freedom. This is of course, about “mukti” as a spiritual concept of freedom or final liberation from[Read More…]
South Asian activists came together to mark the 100th birthday of a towering human rights defender of Punjab, at Strawberry Hill Library in Surrey on Sunday, May 22. The late Ajit Singh Bains passed away on February 11, leaving a rich legacy of tireless work for social justice. He would have turned 100 on May 14. Bains, a retired judge,[Read More…]
Naxalbari Movement ushered a new era in Indian history. It pioneered the aspect of seizure of state power in a concrete for, integrating it with agrarian revolution. It propelled the peasantry, agricultural workers, industrial workers, students and youth to revolt against all the mechanisms of semi-colonialism and semi-feudalism and galvanise every ounce of their energy to challenge the echelons of[Read More…]
On his 150th birth anniversary on May 18th we must salute late Bertrand Russell .He ranked amongst the greatest intellectuals of the last millennium who gave philosophy a new dimension. Even Although a committed atheist he exuded spiritual overtones. Russell challenged dogma and tradition in the very thick of it’s skin and opened up the mind of his generation to[Read More…]
Ukraine is not Afghanistan. Ukraine-crisis is, however, likely to be prolonged with a similar objective responsible for Afghanistan-war lasting for years. Geographically, culturally, historically and at numerous other levels, there is no comparison between Afghanistan-wars fought at different periods by United States as well as former Soviet Union and the ongoing Ukraine-war. The only similarity is that people have suffered[Read More…]
In 2020 present NDA government while bringing three farm laws said they are intended to facilitate fair markets and enhance farmers incomes. Exactly opposite the government acted by banning exports all of a sudden when global wheat prices are attractive and watered down the hopes of Indian wheat farmers. In the context of Russia- Ukraine war (both the nations account[Read More…]
In the post-Covid era, even while the deprivations and despair of the pandemic and lockdowns continue, not only Muslims and Christians, Adivasis too are being systematically attacked by the Sangh Parivar front organizations, specifically in the BJP-ruled states. The latest brutal assaults in the rural area of Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh is a pointer to these litany of atrocities[Read More…]
A Fact-Finding Report on Forced Evictions, Rehabilitation Betrayals and Fortress Conservation in Nagarhole A joint fact-finding by: Fridays for Future Karnataka Philip Kujur, Adivasi Activists’ Forum for Indigenous Peoples, Jharkhand Subrat Sahu, Documentary Film Maker, New Delhi Sharanya Nayak, Rangmatipadar Commune, Odisha Abstract: This fact-finding report attempts to bring to light the struggles and challenges of the Adivasi people living[Read More…]
Palestinians are organizing CSA programs and small farms to become food sovereign and protect their culture against colonialism. Food sovereignty is an urgent issue in communities around the world, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic led to further disruptions in the already fragile global food supply chains. In Palestine, where traditional farming has been a way of life for millennia (and perhaps where farming began, according[Read More…]
Woody biomass, or burning trees to produce renewable energy, is spreading beyond the shores of Europe, where it’s wildly popular and outpacing solar and wind. It’s headed for Japan and South Korea, where subsidies for woody biomass displace funding for solar and wind. Umm, what’s wrong with this picture? In order to know specifically what’s wrong it’s pertinent to take[Read More…]
Killings by Pakistan trained; pro- Pakistan terrorists have been unrelenting in Kashmir. When Modi announced demonetization one of the arguments was that this is aimed at containing terrorism in Kashmir. Later even while abolishing article 370 and 35A this was to be one of the aims. In this background we get the disturbing news of the killing of Rahul Bhat[Read More…]
Wheat prices surged to a new record high on Monday after India decided to prohibit exports of the commodity as a heatwave hit production. The price climbed to $453 per ton as the European market opened. Soft red winter wheat for July delivery rose 4.2%. Media reports said: India, the world’s second-largest wheat producer, said this weekend it was curbing[Read More…]
During the heyday of the Non-co-operation Movement led by Gandhijee,the firebrand Bengali rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote a poem where he held out a warning to the leaders.He was aware of rising Hindu-Muslim tensions and growing indiscipline among its ranks.The title and the first line of the poem is :”Beware helmsman!”,obviously addressing the leaders of the movement. I have[Read More…]
Never underestimate the potency, and deceptive malice, of the British political mind. In responding to the threat posed by Imperial Germany during the First World War, the British propaganda campaign made much of the atrocity tale, the nun raping German and the baby bayoneting Hun. The effectiveness of the campaign was so impressive it sowed doubt amongst a generation about[Read More…]
In the first half of April 2022, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar made some revealing remarks at a press conference in Washington, D.C. He was standing beside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. When asked about India’s purchase of Russian oil, Jaishankar said: “If you’re looking at energy purchases from Russia, I’d suggest that[Read More…]
The ‘sedition’ law in India is repressive and regressive, archaic and obsolete, draconian in nature and blatantly violative of the freedoms guaranteed to every citizen of the country in the Constitution. It specifically goes against Articles 19 1 (A), 14 and 21 of the Constitution dealing with the Right to Equality, Freedom of Speech and Expression and Protection of Life[Read More…]
by Noam Chomsky and Raghav Kaushik This interview with world-renowned scholar and leading dissident Noam Chomsky has two goals. The primary goal is to understand America’s role in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 21st century, the Syrian civil war. While there has been a lot of commentary on the Syrian civil war, there is confusion about the exact[Read More…]
Israeli police attack mourners at funeral for slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Image is a capture from a video clip circulating on social media (https://fb.watch/c_28BmgFX9/). Of the hundreds of thousands of images flowing in quick succession on social media in the aftermath of Shireen Abu Akleh’s extrajudicial execution undertaken by a State actor, namely Israel, three in particular will never[Read More…]
The Empire is currently fighting a war – a partly-proxy and partly direct war – in Ukraine. The war between capitalist interests whether identified as ‘bipartisan unity’ in a country or ‘oligarchs’, is basically with the same bourgeois interests. Ukraine, once a part of the Soviet Union, is now controlled by the US and Western European interests. While the hopes[Read More…]
by Sandeep Pandey and Arundhati Dhuru Uttar Pradesh’s Director General of Police Mukul Goel has been removed from his post for disregarding government work and not taking interest in departmental duties. Quite obviously not everything has been alright with UP Police department. On 1 May police raided the house of Kanhaiya Yadav in Manrajpur village of Chandauli district and when[Read More…]
Geopolitical Update: Historic Shifts In Europe’s Balance Of Power As NATO Expands North With Sweden And Finland Joining The Military Alliance Sweden’s ruling party dropped the country’s historic military nonalignment on Sunday and agreed to join NATO, shortly after Finland’s leaders officially announced they would do the same. Media reports from Europe and other places said: The moves were[Read More…]
It has dominated news cycles, debates and policies since 2020, but COVID-19 continues to exercise the interest of number crunchers and talliers. While the ghoulish daily press announcements about infections and deaths across many a country have diminished and, in some cases, disappeared altogether, publications abound about how many were taken in the pandemic. The World Health Organization, ever that[Read More…]
WASHINGTON (05-15) – It has been 74 years since 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and land by Zionist forces on May 15, 1948, during the creation of the state of Israel. The global commemoration of the “Day of Palestinian Struggle” acknowledged each year is always mired in conflict. As such the scheduled Nakba (catastrophe) events in Berlin this[Read More…]
(This is part of my memoir I published successively on the pages of Countercurrents on the Zionist invasion of Lebanon 1982 and the destruction of the Palestinian refugee camp.) At that time, most of my dreams at night were constant nightmares, something I didn’t know before. Perhaps this is a natural matter because dreams reflect the reality that a person[Read More…]
In a democratic and peaceful struggle which started in 2020 and lasted for more than a year, farmers as well as agricultural labourers of Punjab had left no stone unturned in making their contribution to the best of their ability. Farmers, agricultural labourers, and many other working classes from most of the states of the country played their part in[Read More…]
The directive principles enshrined in the Constitution of India declare that India is a welfare state. It is said that the welfare schemes protect the poor and the downtrodden, provide the skills needed to participate better in the process of accelerating economic growth, and equip the economically inferior workforce. Social welfare systems provide assistance to individuals and families through programs[Read More…]
The Forum for Gram Sabha Committee, a local people’s organization, has been protesting against the proposed land acquisition for limestone mining of OCL India Ltd. at Rajgangpur, Sundargarh. It has also been raising voices against the gross violations of constitutional provisions related to the 5th Schedule Area and LARR Act, 2013 in the process of land acquisition. PUCL constituted a[Read More…]
The following is an unpublished transcript of an interview the author did for a UK-based TV channel that covers issues of interest to the worldwide Sikh diaspora. It concerns three pieces of farm legislation in India that were repealed in late 2021 after a prolonged protest by India’s farmers that gained global support and recognition. Although the interview took[Read More…]
The saga continues of the betrayal of the administration to fulfill promise of distributing Reserved panchayat land in Punjab for dalit community. In no uncertain terms leaders of the Zameen Prapt Sangharsh commitee challenged the rulers that they would under no conditions accept land auctioning till the panchayat land reserved for dalits is distributed. Rage of dalit agricultural community is[Read More…]
Today is Nakba day—- the day that Palestinians throughout the world remember as the great catastrophe. For it was on the 14th of May 1948 that the illegitimate entity called Israel was formally established on Palestinian land. It was the beginning of the dispossession of the Palestinian people. It has continued for the last 74 years. Palestinians continue to be[Read More…]
Following the 1857 so-called Great Indian Rebellion during the rule of the East India Company, British monarch Queen Victoria, issued proclamation in 1858 that India would be governed by and in the name of “the Crown”. Thus, the British territory of India (the State) and the British Government of India, were embodied in the British Monarch. An Indian subject who[Read More…]
WASHINGTON (05-14) – Today in over 450 towns and cities across the USA, abortion rights activists rallied under the theme of “Rise up 4 Abortion Rights.” This follows a week of nationwide abortion rights demonstrations, die-ins, banner drops, walkouts, art installations and chalking to bring their message in a show of support for this vital right of personal choice. According[Read More…]
All those who are committed to peace are once again passing through a sad phase of introspection regarding why they cannot be effective enough to check what is very clearly a very alarming phase of further drift towards militarization, that too at a time when the world can least afford it due to very serious worries relating to pandemic and[Read More…]
by Don Fitz and Susan Armstrong The change in marijuana laws across the US raises issues far beyond, “Hey, dude, we can blow a joint now without getting busted.” The racism that permeated the age of criminalization now lurks throughout the phase of decriminalization. The burgeoning business of growing pot raises the specter of corporate agriculture with its threats to[Read More…]
True, individuals can be paid, ideals “sold”, dreams “auctioned”, democratic values “bartered”, independence of media “pawned” and more- at a price and at several levels by leaders to spread communal tension. But the same cannot be said of secularism of all Indians. At this stage, attempts by people to display their “secularism” through peace-marches and other moves together with certain[Read More…]
There has been a lot of discussion in the Constituent Assembly on whether the country is to be unitary state or federation of states. The result of that discussion is the state of affairs that we see today. Which of the two views is in vogue in the country today is to be seen. The various states in this country,[Read More…]
We had the feeling that the Zionist arrest campaigns did not end after the first campaign and the individual arrests here and there. The question is political and moral, which I was asking myself. Does a person stay in the place if he thinks he will get arrested? I remember discussing this question with a friend who said that[Read More…]
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke over telephone on Friday, marking the first call between the two since Russia launched the special military operation in Ukraine. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement following the call that Austin “urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines[Read More…]
“Is my baby getting enough food? It is a typical fear among new parents — and an acute one now, because of a national shortage of baby formula.” A New York Times report — The Baby Formula Crisis (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/13/briefing/baby-formula-shortage-us-economy.html, May 13, 2022) — begins in this way. The New York Times report said: ‘A potential bacteria outbreak led to the[Read More…]
Has anything changed in the Indian healthcare system – in terms of facilities or quality of care – because of the traumatic experience of Covid over the last two years? Many would have expected such a big phenomenon as a global pandemic to make a big impact on many aspects of health policy, infrastructure and even public attitudes. However, on[Read More…]
Part II. The Roots of violence: Needs for life and safety In the Paradigm for Peace model, the Roots of Violence are divided into seven categories. While a few of the categories aren’t as easily divided into defensive and aggressive motivations, for the most part, we examine how each party to the conflict may be defensively motivated or aggressively[Read More…]
In an incident that raised eyebrows recently, budget airline IndiGo denied boarding to a specially-abled child on a Hyderabad-bound flight at the Ranchi airport. The wheelchair confined boy in his teens apparently posed a safety hazard for the flight because he was in a state of panic. There were doctors on board the flight who felt otherwise and suggested that[Read More…]
Weapons, lacking sentience and moral orientation, are there to be used by all. Once out, these creations can never be rebottled. Effective spyware, that most malicious of surveillance tools, is one such creation, available to entities and governments of all stripes. The targets are standard: dissidents, journalists, legislators, activists, even the odd jurist. Pegasus spyware, the fiendishly effective creation of[Read More…]
Climate change is the result of a deadly calculus: human lives are worth risking and even losing over the profits of global corporations. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently dropped a bombshell announcement that should have garnered news headlines in the major global and U.S. media, but did not. New WMO research concludes that “[t]here is a 50:50 chance of the annual[Read More…]
In April, the UN’s climate scientists warned it’s “now or never” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. You can almost hear them screaming at their keyboards, desperate for governments to actually do something, when they outline the need for “rapid, deep and immediate” cuts in CO2 emissions. But their words are not just a warning about the[Read More…]
The Russia-Ukraine war has quickly turned into a global conflict. One of the likely outcomes of this war is the very redefinition of the current world order, which has been in effect, at least since the collapse of the Soviet Union over three decades ago. Indeed, there is a growing sense that a new global agenda is forthcoming, one that[Read More…]
Humanity finds itself at a crucial moment. It’s not only war and climate change that threaten life on our planet. Ideologies and some people do too. We know that money and the production of wealth and well-being have created an ever greater and more profound gap between people, neighborhoods, cities and countries—a gap that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.[Read More…]
While the dalit community has been always known for higher levels of poverty as well as social discrimination, even within the dalits there is a sub-section known for even worse levels of poverty as well as social discrimination. This is the section which was traditionally involved in manual scavenging. The shocking injustice they have suffered from over the years has[Read More…]
The House of Representatives May 10 approved $40 billion of aid to Ukraine 368-57. All Democratic representatives voted yes. Previously antiwar Democrats like Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Jim McGovern, Barbara Lee, and Pramila Jayapal, who should know better, have uncritically embraced the Administration’s escalating war against Russia to the tune of $40 billion. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must be condemned. But the[Read More…]
Geopolitical developments are expanding quickly in various regions of the world. Media reports from various regions said: Japan and the European Union on Thursday agreed to step up their sanctions against Russia as leaders from the two sides raised concerns about the war’s impact in the Indo-Pacific, where they seek to strengthen their partnership and increase engagement amid China’s growing[Read More…]
At least 500 Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died while attending Indian boarding schools run or supported by the U.S. government, a U.S. Interior Department report said Wednesday. The Interior Department said in a statement that federal Indian boarding school policies for more than a century and a half resulted in “the twin goals of cultural assimilation and[Read More…]
French economist Thomas Piketty’s latest West-oriented book “Time for Socialism” is about worsening wealth inequality in an ever worsening global climate crisis. His solutions for Western economies include a just and progressive income tax, wealth taxes, carbon taxes, and economic justice for the poor and the young. Because capital begets more capital he argues for a big grant to 25[Read More…]
The Zameen Prapt Sangharsh Commitee on May 12th launched a protest besides the residence of chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence, voicing their outrage against their being denied procurement of panchayati land . Over 2000 agricultural labourers stormed in raising slogans. Preceding the protest in the morning a march was undertaken starting at the fruit market to traverse other areas of[Read More…]
Birds are the most endearing friends of humanity, so why is it that we are hearing less often the Good Morning call of sparrows and why is it is increasingly more difficult to see the enchanting spectacle of a dancing peacock? A recent study stated that over the last 5 decades the number of birds declined by about 3 billion,[Read More…]
PART 1. INTRODUCTION US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that Western nations will continue “moving Heaven and Earth” to send weapons to Ukraine in its war against Russia.[1] While they may be moving Earth, it’s doubtful they’re moving Heaven, which could very well be enraged at US policymakers’ habit of seizing for itself divine powers to inflict massive amounts of[Read More…]
On May 12th, Russia’s RT bannered “Finland’s NATO membership will trigger response – Moscow”, and reported that Moscow has warned that Finland joining NATO would pose a direct threat to Russia’s security and its acceptance to the military alliance would prompt Russia to develop measures to ensure its safety. That’s after Finnish officials confirmed on Thursday their commitment to join[Read More…]
At first, there was an explosion. The six-story building vibrated, and a few wires snapped with the force of a whiplash. Immediately afterward, more than half of the facade collapsed without any warning, with each floor swallowing the one above as the ceiling crushed against the floor and the floor against the ceiling during the explosion, and a cloud of[Read More…]
Militarized Israel has seized control of the mindset of the Jewish people. Israel is a Jewish problem. and the Jewish people, if they want to be considered a just, humane, and peace loving people, have a responsibility to resolve that problem. Identification of Israel as a criminal state that has willfully murdered Palestinians, stolen their lands, ethnically cleansed them, buried their[Read More…]
by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young Recently, the idea of Academentia has entered the public domain. Academentia combines academia – those working in post-secondary education – with dementia, i.e. the progressive impairments to memory, thinking, and behaviour which negatively impacts a person’s ability to function. In short, Academentia describes a state of organisational insanity in which university academics can no longer function as academics and scholars. Academentia occurs in neoliberal universities run by faceless[Read More…]
WASHINGTON (05-12) – The killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli sniper on May 11 has outraged journalists, human rights defenders and ordinary people around the world. In several countries there have been large demonstrations in protest of the killing of the 51-year-old veteran correspondent for Al-Jazeera. Reporting on an early morning raid by the Israeli military[Read More…]
I think we are in the midst of an undeclared multiple emergency that is flattening all our familiar signposts in every sphere of public life.Mere refutation of the prolific lies and recourse to conventional remedies seem no longer of any avail.Included of course is the alarming fact that most of the institutions guarding the public interest have been totally disarmed.There[Read More…]
Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, center, who resigned on May 9, seen with his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who three days before in a Cabinet meeting, pressed for the resignation, so as to buy an elusive peace. Colombo has been a witness to terrorist bombings and assassinations, but not to the scenes of mass violence, that unfolded on May[Read More…]
A book announcement Humans, in their arrogance, call themselves not just “Homo sapiens”, but “Homo sapiens sapiens”, the “wisest of the wise”! Admittedly, our species has enormous technical and scientific progress to its credit, as well as great cultural achievements. But wisdom? Wisdom is another matter entirely. Our suicidal wars against nature and against each other can hardly be called[Read More…]
Humanity is “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought and accelerating mitigation must be done “urgently, using every tool we can,” says a new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Droughts have increased 29% in the space of a single generation, according to a paper the United Nations released on Wednesday, which observed that[Read More…]
From neighborhood gas stations to U.S.’s interstate highway system to the friendly skies, soaring fuel costs amid dwindling supplies look set to further squeeze consumers and businesses alike this summer. A Bloomberg report said: Across the board, fuel prices are at or near records. Average retail gasoline prices have remained firmly above $4 a gallon since early March, while diesel[Read More…]
>> The young one had gone to the city to earn his livelihood and food for his poor family. The pandemic and lockdown stopped all work and all earnings. Thereby he had no option but to walk for 20 days under the scorching sun with little food and no shelter. After he reached, the villagers, fearing the spread of the[Read More…]
The slain Palestinian TV journalist Sherine Abu Akleh holds American citizenship. But I expect that the United States will not do anything because Sherine is Palestinian and the killer is Zionist. And when the killer is a Zionist, America always does nothing, even if the victim is an American. I read a while ago the testimony of an American sailor[Read More…]
On May 2, 2022, a statement was made by Mali’s military spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga on the country’s national television, where he said that Mali was ending the defense accords it had with France, effectively making the presence of French troops in Mali illegal. The statement was written by the military leadership of the country, which has been in power since May[Read More…]
The suspension of collaborative projects between Russian and Western space agencies will enhance their traditional rivalries. But the new space race is also being driven by other countries—as well as private companies. Shortly after Russia was sanctioned for invading Ukraine in late February, Russia’s state-run space agency, Roscosmos, announced that it was officially suspending the U.S. from an upcoming Venus exploration mission.[Read More…]
Inge Deutschkron, Holocaust survivor, author, and lecturer, was a force of nature. She died at the age of 99 on March 9, 2022, and was buried on April 8 in her hometown of Berlin, where she fought for justice against right-wing extremists. She was honored by officials and political leaders from Berlin, few of whom knew her personally, at the[Read More…]
There cannot be any plausible reasons to deny the fact of a genocidal agenda initiated by the Sri Lankan Governments immediately after the independence in 1948 against the Tamils living in the North and East. Sinhala majoritarianism, communalism and later adding Buddhism provided the keys to open up and launch several discriminatory measures which commenced from Sinhala Only Act of[Read More…]
In the Supreme Court today, a bench headed by the present Chief Justice NV Ramana heard that four former Chief Justices J.S. Against the backdrop of the tenure of Khehar, Deepak Mishra, Ranjan Gogoi and SA Bobade, a historic verdict has been passed that a law of treason should be enacted. Will not be used until reconsidered. Should go The[Read More…]
People’s Campaigns Raise Serious Objections to Rice Fortification Scheme, with Special Concerns Regarding Tribal Communities At a time when the plans of the Government of India to hurriedly spread rice fortification have already become highly controversial with several serious objections being raised by several experts, leading food rights campaigns have prepared a detailed report in the specific context of Jharkhand[Read More…]
Will recent changes sound the death knell of good old atta chakki, oil press and small rice mill? In a recent widely publicized scheme the new AAP government in Punjab has announced that instead of supplying wheat in public distribution, the government will supply atta or wheat flour right at the footstep of consumers. While this is generally seen as[Read More…]
Professor Joma Sison in recent times has come out with some most analytical Marxist-Leninist works which are an invaluable collection in the treasure house of all Marxist or Progressive readers. In March in Netherlands there were book launches of his recent works on Critique of Philippines economy and politics and “On a Peoples War’. I recommend reference to the reviews[Read More…]
For the Turban-headed Orthodox I am their headline of meets and seminars Yet, they keep me out of every stage And gloat about Islam’s Equality age For the self-serving Extremists I am the trump card of revolution They appropriate my name and form To escalate their identity game For the liberal Agnostic I am the eternal victim Of[Read More…]
The Ukraine War is today’s most important geostrategic issue. Along with capital flow/investment, trade and profit, it’s impacting the global dominance map. At the end of the war, significant changes in geopolitics will appear. Different parts of world capital are behaving/moving in different ways; and a few parts are interacting with, pushing/pulling each other, at times, in antithetical ways. This[Read More…]
Media is full of news about Gyanvapi Mosque (May 2014). Currently Rakhi Singh and others in a lawsuit filed by them are seeking permission to worship and perform rituals at Shringar Gauri, Hanuman and Ganesh on daily basis. The exterior wall of Gyanvapi mosques has image of Shringar Gauri, one of the Goddess. The daily access of devotees to the[Read More…]
The economic and political turmoil in Sri Lanka has turned worse with the people’s protests assuming violent bouts, snowballing across the island nation. Predictably, the ruling Rajapaksa family has become the principal target of attacks, and there are reports that Mahindra Rajapaksa—who resigned as prime minister—and his family had to flee from the capital even as President Gotabaya remained[Read More…]
To Respected Chief Minister Sir, Kindly see my letters addressed to you sometime ago (accessible at the following links) on the need for the States to come together to set up a federal front to take up common issues with the Centre, so as to uphold the spirit of federalism that lies at the core of the Constitution. https://countercurrents.org/2022/03/proposal-for-a-federal-front-to-contain-the-onslaught-on-federalism/ https://countercurrents.org/2022/02/welcoming-the-opposition-to-centres-likely-move-to-privatise-singareni-collieries/ https://countercurrents.org/2022/02/onslaught-on-federalism-an-appeal-for-a-federal-front/ https://countercurrents.org/2022/02/welcoming-the-opposition-to-centres-likely-move-to-privatise-singareni-collieries/[Read More…]
There is a 50:50 chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily reaching 1.5 °C above the pre-industrial level for at least one of the next five years – and the likelihood is increasing with time, according to a new climate update issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The report was prepared by a team of 11 different forecast centers, including[Read More…]
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Americans’ confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court has collapsed over the last 20 months — a period that began with former President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans installing a 6-3 conservative majority ahead of the 2020 election and culminated last week with the leak of a draft opinion signaling that five GOP-appointed justices[Read More…]
“Ukrainians,” in the words of Ben Wallace, the British Defense Secretary, “are fighting for their very lives and they are fighting for our freedoms.” “Ukraine’s success,” the White House stated, “is central to the global struggle between democracy and autocracy.” The Russian invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked” and proves that Putin is intent on brutally reconstructing the Russian empire. That[Read More…]
Like typical analyses offered by western intelligences when trying to assess risks or understand major political phenomena in the Middle East, Israeli intelligence is equally short-sighted. It insists on analyzing the attitudes and body language of individuals instead of focusing on the behavior of collectives. This is the case today as Israel is desperately trying to understand the changing political[Read More…]
Saikat Majumdar is no new name within contemporary Indian writers writing in English. I was introduced to his writing by a very young friend who is a noted food critic. Firebird, Saikat’s second novel was amazing in the way he structured his story opening with a small boy shocked by the cremation of his mother even when it was a[Read More…]
This uprising in Sri Lanka has brought the family rule of Rajapakshas’ to its knees before the angry and hungry crowds who once brought them to power. The unique beauty of this uprising is the participation of people from all walks if life irrespective of their race, religion or region, people from north to south and east to west are[Read More…]
This year’s Mother’s Day must have been the hardest for 92-year-old Anusaya Teltumbde. She has not recovered from the recent loss of her insurgent son, while the other one is locked up in jail for the past two years. Milind Teltumbde, a Maoist leader, was gunned down by the police in November 2021, while Anand, his elder brother, a well[Read More…]
There is increasing worry that in some areas of critical importance the situation in India has been deteriorating steadily during the last 8 years or so. As India is home to about 18 per cent of people in the world, this is clearly a matter of urgent concern. Hence a review of these disturbing trends is urgently needed with a[Read More…]
As some of you are aware, I am a Shudra intellectual and activist, working and writing to change the unequal conditions of the Dalits, Adivasis and Shudras (including the Other Backward Classes) in the Indian Brahminic Hindutva rule. My books Why I am Not a Hindu, Post-Hindu India and Buffalo Nationalism have been attacked by the Brahminic Hindutva forces and also dragged to[Read More…]
The G7 leaders held a video conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, promising to do more to help poor nations at risk of food crisis due to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Media reports said: Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has been “causing global economic disruptions, impacting the security of global energy supply, fertilizer and food provision, and[Read More…]
German officials are quietly preparing for any sudden halt in Russian gas supplies with an emergency package that could include taking control of critical firms. An exclusive Reuters report said: The preparations being led by the Ministry for Economic Affairs show the heightened state of alert about supplies of the gas that powers Europe’s biggest economy and is critical for[Read More…]
Because of your negligence, the State government is facing loss of face. Why should the government suffer for your negligence…… Mamata Banerjee during the administrative review Committee on 27.04.2022 Ms Banerjee, it is late, very late! The steps that the Chief Minister of West Bengal prescribe on 27/04/2022 to contain corruption are a must know to the administration[Read More…]
I first came across the concept of abortion at the age of 17 when I watched the film “ Julie” where an Anglo Indian girl falls in love with a Hindu boy and gets pregnant with him. Abortion is briefly considered and equally quickly abandoned as it is a forbidden act for devout Christian. Eventually, Julie is sent away before[Read More…]
The planet is wheezing, coughing and sputtering because of vicious attacks by worldwide droughts aided and abetted by global warming at only 1.2C above baseline. Some major metropolises are rationing water. What’ll happen at 1.5C? It’s not as if droughts are not a normal feature of the climate system. They are, but the problem nowadays is highlighted by reports from[Read More…]
The world wants to see an end to the conflict in Ukraine. The NATO countries, however, want to prolong the conflict by increasing arms shipments to Ukraine and by declaring that they want to “weaken Russia.” The United States had already allocated $13.6 billion to arm Ukraine. Biden has just requested $33 billion more. By comparison, it would require $45[Read More…]
“The grass grows over the graves, time overgrows the pain. The wind blew away the traces of those who had departed; time blows away the bloody pain and the memory of those who did not live to see their dear ones again—and will not live, for brief is human life, and not for long is any of us granted to[Read More…]
Why has the United States already become so heavily invested in the Russia-Ukraine war? And why has it so regularly gotten involved, in some fashion, in so many other wars on this planet since it invaded Afghanistan in 2001? Those with long memories might echo the conclusion reached more than a century ago by radical social critic Randolph Bourne that “war is the[Read More…]
One of the difficult things during the first period of the Zionist occupation was that I could no longer move at night after seven in the evening, especially since we were in semi-destroyed houses with no water or electricity. By evening, the camp was completely silent. And darkness hover over the camp. But when the dogs howled, we knew there[Read More…]
When I immigrated to Canada in 2001, most of my colleagues and relatives in India questioned – why was I abandoning my home country? They had logic. I was a staff reporter with a major northern Indian daily. I had a stable income. My wife too was working. Economically, we were privileged, and gradually I would have started earning more[Read More…]
Sinn Fein celebrated its election victory in Northern Ireland on Saturday night. To the Sinn Fein, and its supporters, history had been made. Sinn Fein assembly victory fuels debate on future of union. Leader Mary Lou McDonald raises issue of unification as nationalists become biggest party in Northern Ireland. Jubilant Sinn Féin supporters celebrated across the region on Saturday when final vote[Read More…]
The governor of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa said Friday: Japan should focus more on peaceful diplomacy with China instead of on military deterrence as tensions rise around Chinese-claimed Taiwan. He also urged that the burden on Okinawa of hosting a majority of the American troops in Japan be reduced. Media reports said: “We are strongly alarmed,” Okinawa Governor[Read More…]
One has lost count of religious conclaves of Hindu ‘saints’, friendly to RSS, calling for violent cleansing of lawful Indian Muslims. It was not long ago that a senior RSS luminary who also graced the high constitutional office of Governor of Tripura, Tathagata Roy reminded through a tweet that “the Hindu-Muslim problem won’t be solved without a Civil War.” Roy[Read More…]
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a statement on Friday supporting the secretary-general’s efforts to search for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine, in the first such display of unity since February 24. The entire meeting on Friday lasted only about a minute. Russia’s support for the statement, drafted by Mexico and Norway, shows Moscow’s readiness for diplomacy,[Read More…]
They are often victims of neglect and even cruelty, while the wild ass is badly endangered People who are sincere and hard-working, simple and quiet should be highly valued for these virtues, yet their simplicity and sincerity are often misused by others. This can also be said about donkeys, who have much the same virtues and have suffered much the[Read More…]
The deepening current Ukraine Crisis is properly linked to the Russian aggression that commenced with a massive military attack against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has continued to ravage the country since, including inducing a refugee flow numbering several million. There is a broad consensus around the world that such aggression is a criminal violation of international law, and[Read More…]
I spoke yesterday with a friend who also lived through the horror period in the aftermath of the camp’s destruction after the Zionist invasion of Lebanon. He told me that he felt he was living in times of terror again when reading this memoir, and indeed these were days of horror par excellence. The white Mercedes cars of the Zionist[Read More…]
In the name of rationalization of curriculum many a topics have been removed from the CBSE syllabus (April 2022). From the tenth standard syllabus; the topics excluded are democracy and diversity, rise of Afro-Asiatic Islamic states, history of Mughal Courts, non alignment movement, impact of globalization on agriculture, popular struggle movements, poems of Faiz in the section of Communalism and[Read More…]
Freedom fighters often face immense difficulties, all the more so if they are challenging the biggest imperial power in the world. This is precisely what Sufi Amba Prasad (1858-1917) did ever since his young days. In fact he took up this challenge not in one but in two countries—India and Iran—and finally died fighting for this cause in Shiraj ([Read More…]
The auction of Common Panchayat land reserved for dalits was withdrawn by the administration in Balab Kalan village in Sangrur. The Dalits had raised a demand to obtain the land for lease for three years. In a virtual conspiracy in denying dalit agricultural community their rights Auctions of panchayat land were scrapped in a cluster of 11 villages of Sangrur,.They[Read More…]
Splintered lies the ethics, In varying degrees Which both have bent The Pandavas less, the Kauravas more Oh, when will this bloodletting end …? (‘Andha Yug’, Dharamveer Bharati) 1 The Russia-Ukraine war shows no signs of ending. However, there continue to be constant statements, discussions, and write ups from leaders, diplomats, experts, officials, scholars and ordinary citizens on various aspects[Read More…]
The World Health Organization (WHO) released Thursday its much-awaited and anticipated report on global excess deaths associated with COVID-19 for the period from January 2020 to December 2021. By the end of last December, officially reported global deaths had reached 5.42 million. However, the WHO study found that almost 15 million more people perished in the same period than usual, 2.75 times[Read More…]
The UK and Japan have agreed a defense deal that will allow their national forces to “work more closely together”, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday. The British PM, speaking in Downing Street alongside his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, said he is “so glad” the two nations have agreed a reciprocal access agreement for the armed services. He said allies in[Read More…]
24 April 2022 saw renewed violence in the Darfur Provence of Sudan between Arab militias and the indigenous tribes of the area, the Masalit and the Fur. The violence began in 2003 and has caused some 300,000 deaths and some three million displaced. While most of the fighting was when General Omar al-Bashir was President, his overthrow by new military[Read More…]
A three-member Delimitation Commission has submitted its report on redrawing assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir on May 5, 2022. The delimitation panel has earmarked 47 assembly seats for the Kashmir division and 43 for the Jammu division after freshly redrawing the electoral map of Jammu and Kashmir. A gazette notification to this effect was issued by the panel headed[Read More…]
He is not from the troubled, picturesque, paradise Valley. He is from Jammu. And soon, sooner than India or the world can imagine, Umran Malik, 22, the newest fast-bowling sensation, will play for India in the world stage. According to another opening batting legend, who has faced the best of fast bowlers during his hey-days, on fast-tracks, in foreign lands,[Read More…]
On May Day the Dehli state Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union stormed into the Jantar Mantar. Other Unions that joined the protest were the Karaval Nagar Mazdoor Union, and Delhi Metro Rail Worker Union. Overall around 1000 workers participated. Recently the Anganwadi and other workers were terminated from their work. A police patrol was stationed to obstruct the rally at[Read More…]
It is increasingly clear that climate change is a social justice issue that can be resolved only if global inequalities are addressed. There is a well-documented wealth gap – reflecting historical injustices and unequal power relations – between the nations responsible for emissions and those forced to deal with their harsh effects, which range from flooding to droughts and wildfires.[Read More…]
First, it was the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vehicles speeding along on the road in front of our campsite. Then it was the Border Patrol’s all-terrain vehicles moving swiftly on a ridge above us. I was about 10 miles north of the border with Mexico, near Peña Blanca Lake in southern Arizona, camping with my six-year-old son and some[Read More…]
Life, of individual and of class, doesn’t move without contradictions. And, people’s life doesn’t sit immobile. Life and contradiction, thus, is inseparable. Dynamics in people’s struggle moving on the matrix of class contradictions is complex. Individual ideology and culture, economy, fairy tales and musical instruments and life within home and in production places and markets cannot escape contradictions with respective[Read More…]
The US Supreme Court Chief Justice was furious. For the first time in history, the raw judicial process of one of the most powerful, and opaque arms of government, had been exposed via media – at least in preliminary form. It resembled, in no negligible way, the publication by WikiLeaks of various drafts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the forerunner to[Read More…]
Palestinians are justifiably worried that the mandate granted to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, might be coming to an end. UNRWA’s mission, which has been in effect since 1949, has done more than provide urgent aid and support to millions of refugees. It was also a political platform that protected and preserved the rights of several generations[Read More…]
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted that attempts to build the Common European Home failed. He made this statement at a press conference after the talks with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest. The press conference was livestreamed on Iohannis’ website. Media reports said: The German President said: “We all supported the great concept, proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s[Read More…]
The North Atlantic media is entangled in an unprecedented information war. It is characterized by a relentless erosion of the distinction between facts and the manipulation of emotions and perceptions, between conjectures and unassailable truths. I saw this kind of information war in the United States firsthand during the last years of the war on Vietnam and in the lead-up[Read More…]
“A strange dusk has descended upon the earth today/ ….. Those whose hearts are devoid of any love and affection, never swayed by any sense of pity/ These are the people who advice us now as to how the world must move./ And those who still feel it’s better to believe in[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Dear Shri Gauba, Kindly see my letter dated 4-4-2022 to Coal Secretary on how private companies are openly exploiting the State power utilities with passive and active support from Central Ministries (https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/private-companies-exploiting-the-coal-crisis-need-for-an-investigation/). While the CIL and the SCCL, the two premier public sector coal companies, are doing their best to ramp up coal production[Read More…]
The paralyzing fear and distrust emerging from the horrors of war in Ukraine must make us conscious to record the truth of global leadership failure and truth must be written in the annals of history that we all failed to stop the tyranny of war by the people against the people and that we had no idea how we continued[Read More…]
Dr. Jonaki Mukherjee is a Kolkata-based, dedicated teacher of small and growing children and is a distinguished counsellor. She is also a part of the West Bengal Women’s Commission. The book is a powerful reflection of emotional nostalgia that are narrations of her personal journey with women she has interacted with, mostly as counsellor. Books authored by counselling experts are[Read More…]
Many thoughtful people of world are now concerned deeply about aggravation of several serious problems led by life-threatening environmental problems and accumulation of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time they realize that the earlier problems of inequalities and injustice are also worsening in many contexts. As life-nurturing conditions of our planet are also threatened there is greater urgency[Read More…]
Gone are the days when menstruation, one of our country’s major taboos, was spoken with a ‘hush’ or a ‘shh’ in our society. With films like ‘Padman’, ‘Phullu’, ‘Period. End of Sentence’, the sanitary pads have suddenly gone mainstream. But let’s not forget the fact the country still has limited acceptance with menstrual cups and the discussion around sustainable menstrual[Read More…]
Chile authority has imposed new water restrictions for the capital city of Santiago, a city with six million population, as the country enters its 13th year of drought. Claudio Orrego, the governor of the Santiago metropolitan region said: “And we are in an unprecedented situation in Santiago’s 491-year history where we have to prepare for there to not be enough water[Read More…]
America’s western metropolises are thriving in the midst of the fiercest drought in over 1,000 years. Not all climate change/global warming news is negative. Positive pushback to global warming is real and happening right under our collective noses. Still, climate scientists wring their hands in despair over the failure of the corporate-controlled world to come to grips with climate change’s[Read More…]
I received several reactions to the memoirs that I published successively on the pages of the countercurrents. Some blame me for waiting a long time to write about that period, and they are right. But let us remember the proverb that says it is better to be late than Never. However, I must admit that I tried to write about[Read More…]
Why the Conflict in Ukraine Is a Disaster for the Poor of This Planet In 1919, the renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace, a book that would prove controversial indeed. In it, he warned that the draconian terms imposed on defeated Germany after what was then known as the Great War — which we[Read More…]
When the US became involved in both world wars in the 20th century, all sides knew the outcome would be in favor of US allies. However, they had no idea of the length nor could they guess that the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1919 would be the first long-term cause of WWII, any more than anyone could[Read More…]
We all know by now, the all too familiar term Godi Media. A media which has been purchased by a particular economic or ideological entity either explicitly through a formal accusation or through other ways of inducement or coercion. Either way, the media identity; be it a print medium or a digital one ceases to report or analyse news in[Read More…]
Similar to the two navigational hazards mythologized as sea monsters in ancient Greece—Scylla and Charybdis—which gave rise to sayings such as, “between the devil and the deep blue sea” and “between a rock and a hard place,” modern energy policy has its own Scylla and Charybdis. On the one hand is the requirement to maintain sufficient energy flows to avoid[Read More…]
While the meaning and practice of “colonialism” hardly needs to be described, the meaning of “neo-colonialism” is far less understood. This is because neo-colonialism is much less evident to the eye, unless, that is, one cares to look for it. Let us begin our search with the dictionary definition of the term. Merriam-Webster defines “neo-colonialism” as: “The economic and political[Read More…]
South Africa and other countries that have abstained from voting against Russia at the United Nations General Assembly in response to the war in Ukraine face intense international criticism. In South Africa, the domestic criticism has been extraordinarily shrill, and often clearly racialized. It is frequently assumed that abstention means that South Africa is in support of the Russian invasion, and this[Read More…]
Recently Amit Shah, the home minister brought up the issue of Hindi to act as a link language among people speaking different languages in states. There was also a discussion in social media between Kannada actor Sudeep and Bollywood actor Ajay Devgan. The point made by Ajay Devgan was that Hindi is a national language implying (though un-stated) that it[Read More…]
dem On May 1, in the presence of heavy police force, demolition squads of Chandigarh swooped on huts and houses of colony number 4, Industrial Area Phase 1. The homes and hearths of nearly 5000 people, all of them from the poorest sections of one of the most affluent cities of India, were destroyed within a few hours. Many of[Read More…]
The Chidananda Dasgupta Best Book Award to Vidyarthy Chatterjee’s book on Calcutta and the Joshy Joseph Trilogy- A critical review Published by Cerebrum Books, India, 2022 Stuart Hall identifies three ways of reading media messages.[1] According to Stuart Hall, Dominant Reading takes what the film says for granted. The Negotiated Reading questions the minor premises but accepts the major ones.[Read More…]
Exactly 40 years ago on May 3rd Rajni Patel left us. Whatever his flaws his human touch to offer selfless service and ability to galvanise or influence human beings from all walks of life, was remarkable. Few people would ever go out of the way to help someone or serve as selflessly without aim of personal gain.Rajni championed Nehruvian secular[Read More…]
The first and second waves of the Covid pandemic in India saw health personnel in both government and private hospitals risking their lives to save patients, often working late hours day after day. For this, the Indian public will always remain indebted to them for their selfless service. However, the stories of Covid patients being fleeced by private hospitals that[Read More…]
Barhampur or Mahisha-Barhampur is an island-village nestled into Chilika lake, located in Krishnaprasad Tehsil of Puri District of Odisha. A news concerning some Dalit families leaving this village under compulsion due to the incidents of ethnic harassment and social ostracise buzzed around in various media. After leaving their village Barhampur, these migrated Dalit families took shelter in a temporary hutment,[Read More…]
Members of the Punjabi Press Club of British Columbia (PPCBC) came out to hold a rally against growing repression of journalists in India on Tuesday, May 3. Held at Holland Park in Surrey on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the rally was attended by Mayor Dough McCallum and City Councillor Mandeep Nagra, besides BC Federation of Labour Secretary-Treasurer[Read More…]
While international news headlines remain largely focused on the war in Ukraine, little attention is given to the horrific consequences of the war which are felt in many regions around the world. Even when these repercussions are discussed, disproportionate coverage is allocated to European countries, like Germany and Austria, due to their heavy reliance on Russian energy sources. The horrific[Read More…]
Genocide of 147,000 Tamils – Tamils demand justice from UN, UNHRC, UN Security Council and the International Community. May 18, 2021, marks the 13-year anniversary of the end of the 26-year armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE); Tamils all over the world [more than 82 million] will remember the Mullivakkal[Read More…]
Today is May 1, 2022, the May Day. It’s workers’ day, working people’s day, working people’s international solidarity day. All divisive, sectarian, supremacist ideology and politics is opposed by the working people all around the world. On this day, this position is reiterated by the working people. Today, this task – oppose divisive, sectarian, supremacist politics – is much urgent,[Read More…]
There is a terrifying prospect that in excess of a quarter of a billion more people will fall into extreme levels of poverty in 2022 alone. Without immediate radical action, we could be witnessing the most profound collapse of humanity into extreme poverty and suffering in memory. That is according to Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher. She adds this scenario[Read More…]
The fervour of coming back, and the inbuilt resilience of the exiles, to mould from the debris, that was whatever, that forced us back ahead the end of war. Even the coming back to a defeated homeland was enthralling, we built tall dreams en route, clinging to mirages, as though, nothing came about, and sought ways to wipe out[Read More…]
All those committed to protecting democracy, and more specifically to stopping the recent trend of highly undemocratic assaults on political opponents, will feel greatly relieved by the happy ending of the 10 day ordeal of Jignesh Mewani on April 29 by the acceptance of his bail by the Barpeta district and sessions court. As a bonus gain for the democracy[Read More…]
In 1971 , when I left school, I was sure that I was opting out of the traditional Brahmin world–it was too burdensome for a woman to carry that cross. Gita Ramaswamy in her just released Memoirs Land, Guns, Caste, Woman (2022) Gita Ramaswamy was born in a Brahmin family, never remained one in her later life. She is an[Read More…]
The world’s most powerful government will be able to suppress scrutiny and accountability from journalists anywhere in the world if Assange is successfully extradited, tried, and sentenced. Just thirteen days before World Press Freedom Day 2022 the very existence of world press freedom inched closer to its possible demise. On April 20, a U.K. court formally approved extradition of WikiLeaks founder[Read More…]
In a generic industrial park a short distance from this town’s famous university sits the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center where the military contractor does research and development for its space division. It is here where, according to the company’s website, they “…create game-changing technologies.” Nobody would argue with that as it has over the years created many notable accomplishments[Read More…]
Isn’t it always? With the start of World War III by the United States “declaring” war against Russia by its actions in Ukraine, we have entered a time when the end of time has become very possible. I am speaking of nuclear annihilation. I look down at my great-uncle’s gold Elgin pocket watch from the 19th century. His name was John[Read More…]
A massive mahapanchayat was staged on April 26th at Udham Singh Nagar in Parle Chowk Sidkul ,Patangar in Uttarakhand .Organized jointly by Interarch workers org, Shramik Sanyukt Morcha (joint platform of workers organizations in the uttrakhand terai industrial areas), & SKM Samyukt Kisan Morcha. Other than workers and Trade Unions, leadership & mobilization from farmer’s movement were present. Workers of[Read More…]
Workers in India Feel Increasing Need for Unity in the Middle of Increasing Unemployment, Inflation and Privatization This year May Day is being observed at a time of increasing need for wider unity by workers in the wake of adverse government policies leading to increasing burden of unemployment and inflation at the same time. Policies relating to demonetization, poorly conceived[Read More…]
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
How the Cuban Government and Its People Collaborated on the Family Code 
Stop Criminalizing Journalism and Human Rights Activism: Release Irfan Mehraj and Parvez Khurram 
Politics of Bhagat Singh’s trial 
The Tragedy of Footpaths: Impressions of a Pedestrian in Bangalore 
Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans 
U.S. Trying To Cover Up Its Role In Nord Stream Sabotage, Says Seymour Hersh 
Open Letter To Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress Party 
Future Scenarios in Ukraine 
West Sends Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine: MEP to Warmongers – “You Make Me Sick!” 
Sri Lanka’s unconvincing response to Universal Periodic Review’s forthright findings 
Kisan Mahapanchayat stages massive rally in Delhi 
The betrayers of Julian Assange 
The Truth About Our Failure to Curb Carbon Emissions 
They’re liars, Mexico’s President on U.S. 
Grameena Pedala Sangham, Telangana State conference, is an important mile-stone 
Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific Enough is enough. Restore parliament 
Disgrace at the New York Times 
‘Israel is (Not) Back to Africa’: How African Countries are Challenging Israeli Plot on the Continent 
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex 
Accelerating Change on United Nations World Water Day 2023 
Defence Daredevilry 
Selling One’s Soul – The betrayal of Christ and Constitution 
Climate Crisis Has Caused Increasingly Irreversible Losses, Says UN Report 
Yarrow Mamout Masjid Dedicated at Georgetown University 
Adolf Hitler, Carl Orff & Sophie Scholl 
Algeria’s Gas vs. Rightwing Ideology: Will Italy Change Its Position on Jerusalem? 
From Balloons to AUKUS: The War Drive Against China 
Paul Keating’s criticism of Australia’s AUKUS deal is damming but not “astonishing”, – in fact, timely! 
In memory of 20th anniversary of the Iraq War 
CBI investigation against Harsh Mandar’s NGO is nothing but travesty of justice 
Concept of Gram Swaraj (‘Village Self-Reliance’) and Its Increasing Relevance for Our Times Indian Democracy & Chaos in Parliament! 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
