A fact that the arrow of time has moved away from the ‘yearning for peace’, in the past seven decades, to obsession with wars, shows that the lessons from the second world war have been all but forgotten. This perversion in values in the west, is a real threat to the prosperity and peace on the planet. This May has[Read More…]

Interview with author Wei Ling Chua Free trade is much ballyhooed by the US and the capitalist world, but critics have been skeptical as to whether such trade freely takes place. Investopedia provides a useful definition of free trade: A free trade agreement is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them.[Read More…]

In the first five months of 2023, 130 strikes have sparked in several Chinese towns and cities. The number of 130 strikes indicates more than double of registered strikes in China in the whole 2022. This manifests a new era of explosions of proletarian strikes and people’s struggles in the whole planet. The strikes, mainly at a localised level, occurred[Read More…]

by C.J. Polychroniou and Noam Chomsky The renowned public intellectual explains the threats of climate change, nuclear annihilation, rising inequality, and the decline of democracy. We live in a world facing existential threats while extreme inequality is tearing our societies apart and democracy is in sharp decline. The U.S., meanwhile, is bent on maintaining global hegemony when international collaboration is[Read More…]

On May 15, 2023, Berkshire Hathaway reported in a Form 13F filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had completed the sale of its $4 billion stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). This sale completed a process that began in February 2023, when Berkshire Hathaway announced that it sold 86 percent of its holdings in TSMC. In April, Berkshire Hathaway’s[Read More…]

by Saurav Sarkar and Rupam Deb In 2015, after you were done gawking at the statue of Princess Di in the world’s largest department store, Harrods in London, you could head on over to the world-famous food halls where you could buy, among other high-priced indulgences, a type of tea branded “Ambootia Snow Mist.” At $7,864 per kilogram—enough to make about 300 cups—Snow Mist regularly made appearances[Read More…]

A revolution involves extensive and systemic changes, a significant break with the past. It is needed when the present system, its dominant thinking and ways of functioning, become incompatible with the welfare of people. It is most urgently needed when the present system is not just incompatible with the welfare of people, but rather it is seen to be becoming[Read More…]

As the year 2000 dawned, thoughtful people of planet earth were filled with concern that this may prove to be the most challenging, difficult and possibly the most high-risk century their planet has ever seen as enough evidence was available by then that the basic life-nurturing conditions can be disrupted by serious environmental problems (led by climate change) as well[Read More…]

The G-7 Disconnect to Sense of One Humanity How do you cure political cynicism with intellectual foresights? The G-7 used to be a G-8 including Russia but since 2014, it was changed to an exclusive club of the likeminded America-European think tanks for their own politics and future-making. They share political interests and values of their own but not the[Read More…]

The G7 Annual Summit for 2023 was convened in Hiroshima, Japan, over the weekend and it has taken some key resolutions that should concern all of us in the Global South. The G7, firstly, is an intergovernmental political forum that consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. The EU is regarded as a strategic friend[Read More…]

Minerals and raw materials are the building blocks of industrial capitalism. No industrial revolutions would have been possible without iron, coal, copper, rubber, and similar substances. The extraction of such materials from the earth has been, without exception, a human enterprise mired in misery, in which one small class of persons viciously exploited other more numerous classes of workers and[Read More…]

A very important aspect of all wars is the great distress suffered by people and in particular the loss of human lives. This is certainly true of the Ukraine war. However there is one other aspect of the Ukraine war which may ultimately prove to be even more important when later the history of these very unfortunate and needlessly destructive[Read More…]

The international community will not fall in line with the pro-Western rules pushed by the Group of Seven (G7) and not allow the U.S.-led group to dominate world affairs, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. “China will never accept the so-called rules imposed by the few. The international community does not accept and will not accept[Read More…]

In a display of shameless hypocrisy, the leaders of the G7 group of the major powers—the US, Britain, France Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada—laid wreaths yesterday at the Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan prior to their summit this weekend. Far from the ceremony signifying a pledge to never use nuclear weapons[Read More…]

Not so long ago, political analysts were speaking of the “G-2” — that is, of a potential working alliance between the United States and China aimed at managing global problems for their mutual benefit. Such a collaborative twosome was seen as potentially even more powerful than the G-7 group of leading Western economies. As former Undersecretary of the Treasury C. Fred Bergsten,[Read More…]

Among all the countries and regions of the world, the west is supposed to have the best capacity for conducting research, carrying out investigations and gathering intelligence. This is due to the existence of very well-funded intelligence agencies, academic and research organizations, universities and think –tanks as well as very well-resourced and networked media organizations. In addition there is supposed[Read More…]

Donald Trump is about as useless as a tastebud on an anus. Anyone who has paid attention to the verdict in the E. Jean Carrol case and/or the CNN “townhall” on May 10 in New Hampshire knows that Trump is an inveterate liar; and that’s only if you hadn’t learned that over the past eight years or so.  I’ve just[Read More…]

  How to measure soft power? As social power is to a very extent a kind of social capital, the measurement of soft power is, in principle, difficult from the methodological viewpoint concerning social sciences. Methodologically, some indicators are usually used to measure the size of hard power, like geographical resources, economic power, or military potential. Compared with the relatively[Read More…]

‘Revolution’ is a very positive word that has been increasingly used in a negative sense as well. So it is important to be clear about how this word is used here in a very positive sense. When the problems of any system increase, normally   it should be possible to resolve these or reduce these within the system. However when the[Read More…]

Albert Einstein’s letter to Sigmund Freud In 1931, the International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation invited Albert Einstein to enter correspondence with a prominent person of his own choosing on a subject of importance to society. The Institute planned to publish a collection of such dialogues. Einstein accepted at once, and decided to write to Sigmund Freud to ask his opinion[Read More…]

by Waseem Ahmad Bhat and Adil Qayoom Mallah Online scams and frauds have become a major concern for individuals, businesses, and governments worldwide. The rapid growth of internet and digital technologies have provided ample opportunities for fraudsters and scammers to prey on unsuspecting victims. The youth are vulnerable to these scams due to their lack of experience and knowledge in[Read More…]

There is one critically important aspect of human life in the 21st century which is unique to this century. This highly significant factor was not present in any other century but is certainly present in the 21st century as perhaps the most important aspect of our life. What is it? In all previous human history, no matter how big the[Read More…]

In 1935, the Congress of American Writers was held in New York City, followed by another two years later. They called on ‘the hundreds of poets, novelists, dramatists, critics, short story writers and journalists’ to discuss the ‘rapid crumbling of capitalism’ and the beckoning of another war. They were electric events which, according to one account, were attended by 3,500[Read More…]