Archive for May, 2023

Indigenous Australians & Palestinians: Treaty, Truth, Voice, Referendum & Senator Lidia Thorpe

Indigenous Australians & Palestinians: Treaty, Truth, Voice, Referendum & Senator Lidia Thorpe

This year Australians will vote in a Referendum for recognizing Indigenous Australians in the Constitution by giving them a Constitutionally-enshrined  Voice to Parliament. Out of respect for First Nations People  I will vote Yes, a position supported by the Labor Government, the Greens and some others, but opposed by the Coalition Opposition. However First Nations Senator Lidia Thorpe also demands[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Kya Sharmsaar hai hindustan……are wrestling champions of India going the Mohammed Ali way?

Kya Sharmsaar hai hindustan……are wrestling champions of India going the Mohammed Ali way?

 Mohammed Ali born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time. He won a gold medal in boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Unfortunately Ali threw his medal into the Ohio River in frustration over the racism he experienced upon returning home to the United States. The story of Mohammed Ali[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Legislative Gaps Helping Overseas Shell Companies?

Legislative Gaps Helping Overseas Shell Companies?

Have the legislative gaps provided by the Finance Ministry and SEBI indirectly helped domestic corporates having oveseas shell companies to profiteer? To   Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Sitharaman, I had earlier addressed you vide my letter dated 31-1-2023 (https://countercurrents.org/2023/02/overseas-shell-companies-a-shadow-economy-a-threat-t-national-interest/) pointing out how the government failed to define the term “overseas shell companies” in the Companies Act, SEBI[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Book Review: Marginalised but not Defeated

Book Review: Marginalised but not Defeated

Marginalised but not Defeated Tarun Kanti Bose Uppal Publishing House Price: 1,295 Year: 2023 Pg: 277  The book, like the author, a seasoned public interest journalist, travels far and wide, among ordinary and invisible people, in remote regions, across the fragmented landscape of India. Tarun Kanti Bose writes about the demography, topography, society, politics and culture, and the anthropology and[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Stop the War Coalition and CND march through London for peace in Ukraine. Photo credit: Stop the War Coalition

When Will US Join Global Call to End Ukraine War?

by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies When Japan invited the leaders of Brazil, India and Indonesia to attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, there were glimmers of hope that it might be a forum for these rising economic powers from the Global South to discuss their advocacy for peace in Ukraine with the wealthy Western G7 countries that[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
AUKUS, Congress and Cold Feet

AUKUS, Congress and Cold Feet

The undertakings made by Australia regarding the AUKUS security pact promise to be monumental.  Much of this is negative: increased militarisation on the home front; the co-opting of the university sector for war making industries and defence contractors; and the capitulation and total subordination of the Australian Defence Force to the Pentagon. There are also other, neglected dimensions at work[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Wars We Don’t (Care to) See – Aggression Made Easy

The Wars We Don’t (Care to) See – Aggression Made Easy

by Norman Solomon and David Barsamian [The following is excerpted and adapted from David Barsamian’s recent interview with Norman Solomon at AlternativeRadio.org.] David Barsamian: American Justice Robert Jackson was the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He made an opening statement to the Tribunal on November 21, 1945, because there was some concern at the time that it would be an[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Raising the Palestinian flag in Daley Plaza Center, Chicago: A powerful symbolic gesture

Raising the Palestinian flag in Daley Plaza Center, Chicago: A powerful symbolic gesture

Caption: The Palestinian flag next to the American flag at the Flag Raising Ceremony hosted by AMP-Chicago on Friday, May 26th, 2023 at the Daley Plaza Center [Rima Najjar] As a bastion of Jewish Zionism, Chicago is no New York City, but in part thanks to Rahm Emanuel’s tenure as mayor of Chicago (2011–2019) and his ties to Israel, it feels[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Shocking Lack of Concern for World’s Safety by War Mongering Elite

Shocking Lack of Concern for World’s Safety by War Mongering Elite

The very considerable support for continuing weapon supply to Ukraine by policy makers and supporting elites in most western countries is shocking. The decision of Britain to even supply depleted uranium shells with all their longer-term health and safety risks is shocking beyond words. What is the stated rationale behind this? The most common beliefs appear to be that these[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Has Hindutva been defeated in Karnataka?

Has Hindutva been defeated in Karnataka?

The recently published assembly election results of Karnataka has ignited immense conversations regarding the possible impact these results will have on next year’s Lok Sabha elections. And whether Hindutva as a political force is starting to diminish now that it is not in power in any state of southern India. While these are big and important questions let us first[Read More…]

by 31/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
A mother holds her malnourished baby at a hospital in Baidoa, Somalia on September 3, 2022. (Photo: Ed Ram/Getty Images)

UN Agencies Warn ‘Acute Food Insecurity’ Likely to Worsen in 18 Hunger Hot Spots

As El Niño looms and fighting in Sudan rages on, a pair of United Nations agencies on Monday warned that “acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hot spots” across 22 countries from June to November. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) delivered that warning in a joint report. “Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan,[Read More…]

by 30/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Meta and Privacy: The Economy of Data Transgressions

Meta and Privacy: The Economy of Data Transgressions

Meta, to put it rather inelegantly, has a data non-compliance problem.  That problem began in the original conception of Facebook, a social network conceived by that most anti-social of types, Mark Zuckerberg.  (Who claims that these troubled sorts lack irony?) On May 22, the European Union deemed it appropriate to slap a $1.3 billion fine on the company for transferring[Read More…]

by 30/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
A Response to The New York Times’ Ritualistic Denunciation of Mao’s Cultural Revolution…

A Response to The New York Times’ Ritualistic Denunciation of Mao’s Cultural Revolution…

Or How Critical Thinking Is Deleted in “The Decade That Cannot Be Deleted” The May 19 print edition of the New York Times featured an opinion piece by Pamela Paul titled “The Decade That Cannot Be Deleted.” It is a vicious and uninformed takedown of the Cultural Revolution that was initiated and led by Mao Zedong in 1966—and that lasted[Read More…]

by 30/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
GM Crops Likely to Worsen Climate Change Related Problems for Farmers

GM Crops Likely to Worsen Climate Change Related Problems for Farmers

 The shadow of climate change related problems hangs heavy over most farmers as they struggle increasingly against unexpected weather conditions, extreme weather events and disasters. In such conditions it is very important for government policy to avoid any changes that can aggravate such difficulties and problems faced by farmers. Hence it is very unfortunate to see some authorities bent upon[Read More…]

by 30/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Symbolism of Sengol

Symbolism of Sengol

It has become the confirmed habit of the saffron zealots to embroider every claimed achievement of their camp with adulterated facts.No wonder the ‘Sengol’ presented to Nehru by an influential Hindu Monastery of South India was duly declared to have been a divinely blessed sceptre now restored to its rightful dignity by the pious Hindu regime. Contrary to the spin[Read More…]

by 30/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Forget GDP growth, it’s sustainable wellbeing we need to aim for

Forget GDP growth, it’s sustainable wellbeing we need to aim for

I’ve just been to a three-day conference on sustainable prosperity in Europe, attended by thousands of people. In a stirring opening address, the speaker said governments must stop misusing GDP growth as their goal and move swiftly and urgently to sustainable wellbeing within planetary boundaries. They got a standing ovation. The young leader of a climate and social justice movement[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Supremes Declare War on Wetlands

Supremes Declare War on Wetlands

The Supreme Court is effectively axing a major component of the Clean Water Act, rolling back 50 years of wetland protection in a declaration of war against nature by changing a word in the text of the Clean Water Act. Seldom, if ever, will repercussions of a Supreme Court decision be so far-reaching and detrimental to life for the planet.[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Kings Coronation, Victory Day Parade and Perverse Values

Kings Coronation, Victory Day Parade and Perverse Values

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…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
A critical approach to the exploration of Identity & Violence: An attempt by the young researchers of EDRU 

A critical approach to the exploration of Identity & Violence: An attempt by the young researchers of EDRU 

The EDRU Study Group, comprising a team of young researchers, has recently published a unique research journal on the topic of identity and violence. What sets this journal apart is its collaborative nature, involving current students and alumni, under the guidance of professors Abdullah Al-Mamun and Maswod Akhter. The initiative aims to foster the research capabilities of the present students[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Delay in Census enumeration, unreliable death registration and fake Aadhaar cards adversely impact integrity of elections, leads to misuse of public funds

Delay in Census enumeration, unreliable death registration and fake Aadhaar cards adversely impact integrity of elections, leads to misuse of public funds

To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Bhalla, The statutory census enumeration exercise, conducted under the Census Act, every ten years, provides reliable data on the composition and the trends in growth of the population of India. It forms a unique basis for framing government policies and programmes. In this connection, I refer to a statement reported[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Special Significance of the Next Decade in Human History, and a Campaign Linked to This

Special Significance of the Next Decade in Human History, and a Campaign Linked to This

There is increasing realization that recent times have not been utilized properly to confront and reduce the most serious problems of our deeply troubled world. While there is great urgency of responding adequately to what is now nothing less than a survival crisis, the world has instead been getting involved in more serious wars and worsening of the environmental crisis[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Prophets of Doom: Kissinger and the ‘Intellectual’ Decline of the West

Prophets of Doom: Kissinger and the ‘Intellectual’ Decline of the West

It is unclear why 100-year-old Henry Kissinger has been elevated by Western intelligentsia to serve the role of the visionary in how the West should behave in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. But does the centenarian politician have the answers? Every major global conflict that involved the US and its NATO allies in the past had its own state-sanctioned intellectuals.[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
“Free Trade” as Revealed in the China-United States Paradigm

“Free Trade” as Revealed in the China-United States Paradigm

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…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Memorialize USA Lies About Each Mistaken Undeclared War Americans Remembered Today Gave Their Lives

Memorialize USA Lies About Each Mistaken Undeclared War Americans Remembered Today Gave Their Lives

‘Decoration Day,’ a day to decorate the graves of soldiers, who died fighting on either side of the American Civil War is the origin of today’s (changed name) ‘Memorial Day.’ Because  America’s subsequent wars have been in other people’s countries, the compassionate idea of a day dedicated to the families and friends decorating the graves in remembrance of loved ones,[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Tipu Sultan: Fallacies and Facts around the Historical Figure in India

Tipu Sultan: Fallacies and Facts around the Historical Figure in India

Tipu Sultan, also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was a renowned ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in Southern India from 1782 to 1799. He was known for his military prowess, his efforts to modernize the administration and economy of his kingdom, and his resistance against British colonialism. Tipu died in battle against the British forces during the Fourth[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The intertwined history of caste and census in India

The intertwined history of caste and census in India

The census of India has a long history dating back over 130 years. The British administration conducted the first census in 1853 in the North Western Provinces (encompassing present-day Uttar Pradesh) to obtain data on the population and classify it under different categories. Caste-based enumeration emerged a few years later as a challenge for the British administrators, as they encountered[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
A Tale of Two Indias

A Tale of Two Indias

They were the best times. They were the worst times. Those were the times which was divided by an India of the Raja and the Praja. One side of an India saw the march of the monarch who carried a golden senghol in his hand in the monarch’s parliament. On the other side was the Olympic champions the gold winning[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Dismantle the structures of sexual violence, NOT the protesters’ tent!

Dismantle the structures of sexual violence, NOT the protesters’ tent!

On the day that the Prime Minister was inaugurating a new Parliament house, democratic space was being crushed outside! More than 1150+ people including activists, lawyers, academics, former civil servants, artists and concerned citizens have released a statement condemning the brutal police action against the protesting wrestlers and those who had come out in support of their call from all[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
CDRO condemns the manhandling of the protesting wrestlers

CDRO condemns the manhandling of the protesting wrestlers

Leading athletes of the country, like World Championships medal winner Vinesh Phogat, Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and others, who were protesting against the sexual harassment of women wrestlers at the hands of their coaches and, in particular, against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) & its chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Their protest, which started in January[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
From Deathly Silence to Violence: The journey of Wrestlers struggling for Justice

From Deathly Silence to Violence: The journey of Wrestlers struggling for Justice

PUCL Condemns Arrest of Women Wrestlers & supporting Activists And demands their immediate release! PUCL strongly condemns the brutal manner by which the Delhi Police forcibly arrested the women wrestlers on 28th May, 2023, as they prepared to go from Jantar Mantar where they have been protesting peacefully since 23rd April, 2023, to the `Mahila Samman Mahapanchayat’ near the new[Read More…]

by 29/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Workers Protests break out in China

Workers Protests break out in China

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 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Now I Am Ravana’s Head

Now I Am Ravana’s Head

 My first reaction to the book that Rajiv Malhotra, from America, published on Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Shashi Tharoor, Ramachandra Guha, Sheldon Pollock, Wendy Doniger, Devdutt Pattanaik, Kancha Ilaiah, Audrey Truschke and Michael Witzel,with a title “Ten Heads of Ravana”’. The chapter on me is entitled as Kancha Ilaiah—Bharat Vikhander There is team of intellectual Ksatriyas They say I am[Read More…]

by 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Noam Chomsky on Why This Is the Most Dangerous Point in Human History

Noam Chomsky on Why This Is the Most Dangerous Point in Human History

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…]

by 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
HAK Birthdays: Henry Kissinger Turns 100

HAK Birthdays: Henry Kissinger Turns 100

“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands.” Anthony Bourdain, A Cook’s Tour (2002) If a heavy resume of crimes is a guarantee of longevity, then surely Henry A. Kissinger (HAK, for short), must count as a good specimen.  The list of butcheries attributed to his centurion, direct or[Read More…]

by 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
 Brotherhood and Friendship in a time of War- Reflections on The Mercenary, by Jeffrey E. Stern

 Brotherhood and Friendship in a time of War- Reflections on The Mercenary, by Jeffrey E. Stern

Salman Rushdie once commented that those who are displaced by war are the shining shards that reflect the truth. With so many people fleeing wars and ecological collapse in our world today, and more to come, we need acute truth-telling to deepen our understanding and recognize the terrible faults of those who have caused so much suffering in our world[Read More…]

by 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 8: The NSS falsely claims that Russia and Putin have malicious goals and spurn negotiation

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 8: The NSS falsely claims that Russia and Putin have malicious goals and spurn negotiation

In this series I’ve been identifying and refuting the claims made in the National Security Strategy 2022, which I refer to as the Sullivan & Biden NSS, even though it’s not known whether or not Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, took part in writing the document. He himself states that Tom Wright, Sasha Baker, and Rebecca Lissner were “instrumental[Read More…]

by 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
What role did trade unions play in the struggle for independence in Kenya?

What role did trade unions play in the struggle for independence in Kenya?

It is instructive to compare the role of trade unions in Kenya’s War of Independence under Mau Mau with the situation under Maji Maji, the Tanzanian people’s war of liberation (1904-1907). There are obvious differences, especially the dates when the two events took place, as well as the general conditions at each period. However, a fundamental fact distinguishes the two[Read More…]

by 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
A Timely Warning on Avoiding the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that Deserves Wide Attention

A Timely Warning on Avoiding the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that Deserves Wide Attention

As past experience has repeatedly shown, in the prevailing economic, trade and investment realities of the world, it is very important from the outset to be very cautious regarding joining any international frameworks and agreements involving the superpowers as the language may be that of cooperation but the reality may be that of people of developing countries having to pay[Read More…]

by 28/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Tinsel Gods

Tinsel Gods

It is a great disappointment that the Supreme Court bench of JK Maheswari and PS Narasimha has refused to entertain the petition by an advocate seeking a prohibition of the forthcoming inauguration of the new Parliament building by the incumbent Prime Minister on the ground that article 79 makes the President the head of the state and pre-eminent member of[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Kirti Kisan Union conducts massive rally in Moga on issue of Canal Water

Kirti Kisan Union conducts massive rally in Moga on issue of Canal Water

 The burning desire of people to resolve the problems of agriculture and water crisis in the Punjab was manifested at it’s highest pitch by the massive rally held by the Kirti Kisan Union at Dana Mandi in Moga today .Tens of thousands of farmers congregated in a massive rally organised by Kirti Kisan Union . Farmers from fifteen districts of[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Importance of Convenient Payment Options in Enhancing Travel Experiences

The Importance of Convenient Payment Options in Enhancing Travel Experiences

The availability of digital payment options in tourist destinations, accommodations, restaurants, and other businesses is crucial for enhancing travellers’ overall experience and convenience. In today’s post-pandemic era, online transactions have gained significant prominence as the preferred method of payment, encompassing small retail shops, supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, and even ticket purchases. However, addressing the challenges that may arise during such transactions[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Book Review – A Reader on Financial Inclusion

Book Review – A Reader on Financial Inclusion

Francis Bacon said some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested. “A reader on Financial Inclusion” by Dr Moin Qazi belongs to the last category. The language is simple and jargon-free, and the terms used and concepts are well explained. But the reader would be required to go rural mentally or climb[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Nuclear Turns Fashionable

Nuclear Turns Fashionable

Small Modular Reactors (SMR) are the new nuclear craze, especially with the U.S. Congress, as America’s representatives see SMRs as a big answer to energy needs and reduction of greenhouse gases, advertised as a green deal for clean energy that skirts the heavy costs of paying the Middle East billions upon billions. However, the devil in the details is dangerously[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Taiwan’s Quest to Upgrade Its Battle Readiness Continues to Evolve

Taiwan’s Quest to Upgrade Its Battle Readiness Continues to Evolve

Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s growing strength have accelerated Taiwan’s military overhaul. Taipei is exploring multiple ways to enhance its security, but unorthodox methods risk escalation. In early May 2023, a U.S. delegation consisting of 25 defense contractors arrived in Taiwan for a security summit, aimed to increase interoperability between the U.S. and Taiwanese militaries. It marks the latest step[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Makhan Singh

Trade Unions in Kenya and Britain in a Changing World

Trade Unions in Kenya and globally in the 2020s are very different from those in the 1950s.  First, the global situation has changed a lot in the last 50 years or so. Prashad (2023) highlights factors that have impacted on the reality for trade unions: Much has changed since the 1960s and 1970s, largely due to the new technological developments[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Waheeda Rehman

Why Phalke Award Has Eluded Classic Hindi Cinema Heroines

The 20 years after independence constituted the most creative phase of Hindi cinema when some of the best films were made. The leading actors of this era had an enduring impact which continues to this day. Four of the best and most popular heroes, with very wide impact on society (Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand) have[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Modi in Australia: Down Under Bliss for Hindutva

Modi in Australia: Down Under Bliss for Hindutva

There is an interesting thread that links the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the owner of the gargantuan conglomerate that bears his name, Gautam Adani, and Australia.  There is cricket; there is mining; there is remorseless extraction; and then there is steaming propaganda.  On arriving in Australia, Modi was greeted by people who had left India decades ago.  The Indian[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Both Blocs Behind Iron Curtain?

Both Blocs Behind Iron Curtain?

In the past, only the communist and socialist countries were pinpointed to be the countries under the “Iron Curtain.” But after the recent conflicts between the two blocs, it is now evident that even the USA, the leader of the so-called Free World, has gone under one kind of Iron Curtain. Though the term was occasionally used as a metaphor[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Demand for scrapping of iron fortified rice distribution in India’s public food schemes intensifies 

Demand for scrapping of iron fortified rice distribution in India’s public food schemes intensifies 

“Reporters’ Collective’s 3-part Investigative Exposé highlights with additional evidence the red flags that ASHA and RTFC have raised on large scale iron-fortified rice distribution in India’s public food schemes” – civil society platforms   New Delhi, May 26th 2023: The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) and the Right to Food Campaign (RTFC) who have been actively raising concerns on the many red flags related to[Read More…]

by 27/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Government destroying public spaces rather than protecting them

Government destroying public spaces rather than protecting them

Stop the kidnap policy of public space by the Mumbai municipal corporation and the government. That was the theme of a public meeting held at St Michael’s church auditorium in Mahim last evening. Kidnap is perhaps too mild a word for the most condemnable attitude of the authorities who may be said to be vandalising our public life in the[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Dalit agricultural labour organisations stage protests in Punjab

Dalit agricultural labour organisations stage protests in Punjab

In the last 2 weeks the resistance of Dalit agricultural labours in Punjab is simmering at full fervour with relentless spirit. Grameen Mazdoor Union protest in Jaitu For the last 2 days the Grameen Mazdoor Union of Punjab have embarked on a protest dharna outside the office of the SDM, raising their legitimate demands of dalit agricultural labourers. Inspite of[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Influence of Higher Wages and Better Job Opportunities on Migration from Small Towns to Big Cities or Other Regions

The Influence of Higher Wages and Better Job Opportunities on Migration from Small Towns to Big Cities or Other Regions

Migration from small towns to big cities is a common phenomenon driven by various challenges individuals face in their places of origin. Limited educational and economic opportunities, violence, instability, corrupt institutions, natural disasters, financial difficulties, and agricultural issues are among the factors that prompt people to seek a better life in urban areas. This migration trend can be observed in[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
New Parliament building- Appearance Vs Substance

New Parliament building- Appearance Vs Substance

To Smt Droupadi Murmu President of India Respected Rashtrapati Ji, The new Parliament building, constructed at a great cost to the public, will be inaugurated shortly and perhaps the two Houses will start having their next session at the new venue. The new structure may provide greater comfort to those who function from it. However, will it also bring qualitative changes in[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
International body slams Media Repression in Kashmir During G-20 Event

International body slams Media Repression in Kashmir During G-20 Event

As India holds the G20 meeting in Srinagar, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has slammed the brutal repression of media in Kashmir. Press freedom remains under attack even as India tries to project normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir during G-20, said CPJ in its Twitter handle. The New York-based media watchdog condemned the arrests of journalists in the Union[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
More people are being displaced in Somalia as a result of drought conditions. © UNHCR/Samuel Otieno

More Than 43 Million People In Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia Suffer Due To Droughts

More than 43 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia continue to suffer through one of the worst droughts in recent history, caused by five consecutive seasons of poor rains, said the United Nations. News from the UN said: Years of conflict and insecurity have sparked mass displacement, while skyrocketing food prices and most recently, the fighting in Sudan, have compounded[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Shudra Wrestlers Vs Ksatriya Controllers: The Battle For Women’s Rights

Shudra Wrestlers Vs Ksatriya Controllers: The Battle For Women’s Rights

“An investigation of police records by The Indian Express reveals that since March 2017, when Yogi Adityanath took charge, and till date, the state has witnessed 186 encounters. This works out to more than one alleged criminal being killed by the police every 15 days”. 25 May, 2023 Indian Express But Brijbhushan Sharan Singh remains MP, without any worry of initiating[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Blindman’s Buff-America’s Continuing Quest to Hide Torture

Blindman’s Buff-America’s Continuing Quest to Hide Torture

In the Blindman’s Buff variation of tag, a child designated as “It” is tasked with tapping another child while wearing a blindfold. The sightless child knows the other children, all able to see, are there but is left to stumble around, using sounds and knowledge of the space they’re in as guides. Finally, that child does succeed, either by bumping into someone, peeking,[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Ever Again – Setting the Stage for the Genocide of the Palestinian People

Ever Again – Setting the Stage for the Genocide of the Palestinian People

Israel still has plenty of land for population expansion and its preference to expand by stealing land from Palestinians indicates that nonchalantly making others invisible is a metaphor for making them physically extinct. An unusual and pleasant experience occurred when I attended the webinar book launch of Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust, authored by Dr. Andrew Port, Professor of[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Does China Have a Huge Problem Despite Impressive Economic Development?

Does China Have a Huge Problem Despite Impressive Economic Development?

Interview with author Wei Ling Chua The G7 has recently wound up its meeting in Hiroshima, and the participants joined to affirm their fear of the Threat of China. British media reported that prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “China poses the biggest challenge to global security and prosperity of our age with the ‘means and intent to reshape the world order’.”[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Capitalist Exploitation Entrenched in Kenya

Capitalist Exploitation Entrenched in Kenya

An important feature of life in Kenya, as in other capitalist countries, is the ever-present exploitation of labour and resources in every aspect of life.  It is so prevalent that it is often taken for granted as  a basic condition of life on earth. Yet exploitation is not part of social life as such.  It is, however, part of life[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
A Call for Safe and Ethical AI (Artificial Intelligence) for Health

A Call for Safe and Ethical AI (Artificial Intelligence) for Health

The World Health Organisation (WHO) urges caution while employing extensive language model tools (LLMs) produced by artificial intelligence (AI) to protect and enhance human well-being, human safety, and human autonomy, as well as to preserve public health. Some of the most rapidly growing platforms that mimic comprehending, processing, and creating human communication are LLMs, including ChatGPT, Bard, Bert, and many[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Farruggio for President 2024

Farruggio for President 2024

Since my governor, Fascism Forever Captain Ron as I call him, just announced for President , allow me to jump into the fray. Of course, I have not much of a chance as anyone else who stands apart from the Two Party/One Party scam to get the support needed without raising and spending a fortune. Issues! Issues! and concrete ideas[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Cracks  in  India’s   armoury  –    Achilles’  heel   in  the  security  and  intelligence  apparatus

Cracks  in  India’s   armoury  –    Achilles’  heel   in  the  security  and  intelligence  apparatus

The  killing  of  five  Indian  soldiers  by  militants  on   May  5  in  the  Rajouri-Poonch  sector,  once  again  highlights  the  failure  of  our  security  machinery  to  protect  our  jawans.  Its  agents  who  are  posted  in  that  sector,  failed  to  detect  the  explosive  device  that  was  planted  and  triggered  by  the  militants  in  the  path  of  these  soldiers. Just  a  fortnight  ago, [Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Whose Sentiments are Hurt?

Whose Sentiments are Hurt?

Whose Sentiments are Hurt? This poser is slowly being raised – may be – in rather muted terms in this part of the world. Right from Karachi to Patiala or Uttarakhand to B’desh concerned citizens or victims of this bogey, one finds there is an increasing audience to this query. You could easily listen to it among the Ahmadiya Jamaat[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled South Asia
On Doing the Most Important Thing

On Doing the Most Important Thing

It may be considered a matter of the most ordinary wisdom, indeed of common sense, that given a choice between performing various tasks, we will choose to take up the most important ones first, and perhaps later select others too in terms of their considered importance. Yet in real life, how many decisions are really taken on this basis? Given[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Inauguration of new Parliament complex on Savarkar’s birthday shall not whitewash his anti-national and anti-human crimes

Inauguration of new Parliament complex on Savarkar’s birthday shall not whitewash his anti-national and anti-human crimes

Indian PM Modi is set to inaugurate new complex of Indian Parliament on May 28 (2023) which is also the 140th birth anniversary of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who is described as ‘great son of India’ and ‘Veer’ [gallant/fearless] by the RSS-BJP lot. Thus the new Parliament built under the direct supervision of PM Modi and his chosen few will be[Read More…]

by 26/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Walter Seymour Allward‘s Veritas (Truth) outside Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Canada. By Colin Rose – originally posted to Flickr as Truth, CC BY 2.0

How do we know what is true?

It is self-evident that to survive this critical century, we need to learn the truth about it. Whether it is specific issues like the Ukraine war, the Covid pandemic, a conspiracy to take control of the world, or the wider pursuit of human progress, the truth is extraordinarily elusive, and fiercely contested. Furthermore, knowing the truth helps us to see[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
On 56th Anniversary of Naxalbari 

On 56th Anniversary of Naxalbari 

Today we commemorate the 56th anniversary of the heroic uprising of ‘Naxalbari’. Inspite of neo-fascism brimming at an unprecedented height Naxalbari s not dead and buried. Influence on Social Change and Movements Naxalbari was a rallying point for sowing the seeds of social change and knitting of cultural movements. The Naxalbari struggle sparked movements that remained synonymous with the spur[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Next 5 Years Will Smash Global Temperature Records, Says WMO

Next 5 Years Will Smash Global Temperature Records, Says WMO

A new report by the World Meteorological Organization makes dire predictions for the next five years: Global temperatures rising to new record levels, continued ocean heating and acidification, sea ice loss and glacier melt, sea level rise, and more extreme weather. The new Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, 2023-2027, released this week by the WMO said: There is a near[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Censorship Of Stan Grant, Indigenous Australians & Palestinians, Julian Assange & Truth Tellers

Censorship Of Stan Grant, Indigenous Australians & Palestinians, Julian Assange & Truth Tellers

Eminent Australian and Indigenous journalist, Stan Grant, was driven   to resign from the ABC (the Australian equivalent of the UK BBC) as compere of the high-rating Q+A TV program by a flood of devastating racist abuse  after he participated in a  frank and truthful ABC discussion of the British  Crown and colonialism that prefaced the ABC coverage of the Coronation[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
How Women Wrestlers’ Movement Has Become a Wider Symbol for Justice, Dignity and Safety for Women

How Women Wrestlers’ Movement Has Become a Wider Symbol for Justice, Dignity and Safety for Women

Vinesh Phogat is a prominent woman wrestler who has been the proud winner of gold medals for India in Asian and Commonwealth Games. In more recent times, however she has spent most of her time struggling to get justice for seven women wrestlers, including a minor, who have complained of sexual harassment by a very senior official of the Wrestling[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Not On Our Dime!’: Why US Democrats Are Growingly Challenging Israel

Not On Our Dime!’: Why US Democrats Are Growingly Challenging Israel

Though the United States remains a strong supporter of Israel, there are some indications that the supposed ‘unbreakable bond’ with Tel Aviv is faltering, though more in language than in deeds. Following the provocative ‘Flag March’ on May 18, which is carried out annually by Israeli Jewish extremists in the Occupied Palestinian city of East Jerusalem, the US joined other[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
How The U.S. War on Taiwanese Semiconductors Might Benefit Japan

How The U.S. War on Taiwanese Semiconductors Might Benefit Japan

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 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Deplorable Work Conditions Behind Harrods’ $7,000 ‘Ambootia Snow Mist’ Darjeeling Tea

The Deplorable Work Conditions Behind Harrods’ $7,000 ‘Ambootia Snow Mist’ Darjeeling Tea

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…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Capturing Carbon With Machines Is a Failure—So Why Are We Subsidizing It?

Capturing Carbon With Machines Is a Failure—So Why Are We Subsidizing It?

Policymakers are pouring money into techno-fixes to solve the climate crisis, even though scientific studies indicate nature-based solutions are all-around more effective. Human activity—mostly the burning of fossil fuels—has raised Earth’s atmospheric carbon content by 50 percent, from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 420 ppm. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, we’ve released approximately 950 billion metric tons of carbon into the air.[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Political Illusions & 2024 Polls! 

Political Illusions & 2024 Polls! 

Should the Karnataka elections be viewed as a crucial signal of what 2024 parliamentary polls may spell for Congress as well as parties deliberating on an anti-BJP alliance? To a degree, yes and also no. Success of Congress in Karnataka Assembly Elections in comparison to defeat the party suffered in Punjab Assembly (February 2022) and the result of West Bengal[Read More…]

by 25/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Freedom libraries: Liberating minds for action against oppression and exploitation

Freedom libraries: Liberating minds for action against oppression and exploitation

The civil rights movement in US saw the phenomena of the so-called freedom libraries. There is an inspiration and learning from this that can be useful in the Global South. Or any place where people are exploited and under the yoke of capitalism and racism. There is always the temptation to seek universal validity and risk of making abstract generalizations.[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Who are the Muslims and Christians in India: Understanding the ‘Hindu’ fear of Muslims and Christians

Who are the Muslims and Christians in India: Understanding the ‘Hindu’ fear of Muslims and Christians

  We have been seeing attacks on Christians and Muslims in India for the last few years. Several Indians are worried about it and fear for the future of democracy in India. People wonder what the logic of all these attack is. How can nearly 80% of ‘Hindus’ feel threatened by some 13% Muslims and some 2% Christians? Why are[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Mrinal Sen, Calcutta, 1978

Tribute to Mrinal Sen on Birth Centenary

On 14th May  we commemorated the birth centenary of film maker Mrinal Sen. Mrinal Sen was the last surviving member of the famed trio of Bengali directors, Ray-Sen-Ghatak (Ritwik Ghatak), seen as the founders of India’s ‘New Wave Cinema’. Sen, like Ghatak, may not have achieved the level of fame Ray did, but his work was equally admired the world[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
An image obtained by the BBC in 2016 appears to show British special forces patrolling near a rebel army base close to the Syria-Iraq border Photograph: BBC News

UK special forces operated secretly in 19 countries since 2011

The UK has sent its special forces to 19 countries since 2011, according to a report by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) , a London-based charity that conducts research on global armed violence. The deployed British operatives trained foreign militants, carried out assassinations, and reportedly fought alongside child soldiers. In a report published on Tuesday, AOAV stated that British operatives have been[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Veil is anti-Quran

Veil is anti-Quran

As Muslims are facing increased threat in several countries, like the unending public lynching and the recent open call for genocide by the Hindutwa militia in India, some sections of them are shrinking into their shells. Hijab or veil is one expression of this shrinking phenomena. This uniform, often black, lose covering over one’s dress, known as purdah in south[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Why the World Needs Peaceful Revolution and How This Can Unfold Over a Decade

Why the World Needs Peaceful Revolution and How This Can Unfold Over a Decade

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…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Atmosphere is Cooling Dangerously Fast

The Atmosphere is Cooling Dangerously Fast

The upper atmosphere is cooling too fast for comfort. Global warming is only one half of the impact of excessive CO2 emissions generated by cars, planes, trains, and industry. The other impact is rapid cooling of the upper atmosphere which may be of considerably more concern than global warming as it negatively impacts the ozone layer, which protects the planet[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
‘The Kerala Story’ – A flawed narrative by an uninformed filmmaker

‘The Kerala Story’ – A flawed narrative by an uninformed filmmaker

Sudipto Sen, Director of ‘The Kerala Story”, in his unrestricted arrogance and egotism, claims that his film has “awakened civilization”. This claim is erroneous to its very core! How can a film whose issues must address root questions of colonialism, and plunder by the West be assigned in the hands of an un-researched propagandist. The film is virtually a hotchpotch[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Stella Assange address National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, May 22, 2023. [Photo: National Press Club]

Visits of Justice: Stella Assange’s Plea to Australia

It certainly got the tongues wagging, the keyboards pressed, and the intellectually dead aroused – at least for a time.  Given how many of those in the Australian press and media stable have been, for the most part, unconcerned, and in some cases celebratory, regarding the prosecution of Julian Assange, it was strikingly poignant to have his wife, Stella, present[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Image by Priti Gulati Cox shows a modified flag of India featuring surviving victims of the 2002 Gujarat carnage at various refugee camps

Between a Yoga Mat and a Hard Place – The Violent Urge for Supremacy in the World’s Two Largest Democracies

by Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox Are you worried about the rising political power of violent white nationalists in America? Well, you’ve got plenty of company, including U.S. national security and counterterrorism officials. And we’re worried, too — worried enough, in fact, to feel that it’s time to take a look at the experience of India, where Hindu supremacist dogma has[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Cop crackdown against Atlanta protesters — the alarming implications

Cop crackdown against Atlanta protesters — the alarming implications

A battle is raging in the woods outside Atlanta. At stake are 85 acres of the South River Forest (Weelaunee Forest by its Muscogee name) where city officials and corporate bigwigs want to build a $90 million police training center. Also at stake is the right to dissent, as the powers that be viciously retaliate against those who have worked[Read More…]

by 24/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Faster and faster: The pace of climate change keeps surprising us

Faster and faster: The pace of climate change keeps surprising us

This seems like the 10th time that I’ve read a story that says Greenland’s glaciers are melting faster than previously thought and thus the consequences of climate change are moving much more quickly than we have estimated in the past. Even the pace of such stories has picked up. I found some in 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022. And, back in 2013 scientists reported that just a[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Stella Assange address National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, May 22, 2023. [Photo: National Press Club]

Australian Prime Minister Albanese refuses to meet with Assange’s wife

In a gratuitous display of contempt, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday refused to meet with Stella Assange, the wife of Julian Assange, Australia’s most prominent political prisoner. The snub came even as Stella was inside the federal parliament, having travelled to the country to campaign for her husband’s freedom. Asked by independent MP Andrew Wilkie why he would not meet[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
A Short history of the 21st Century (so far), January 2000—May 2023

A Short history of the 21st Century (so far), January 2000—May 2023

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…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Who cares about RSS Guru Golwalkar’s dishonouring of Kerala’s Hindu women

Who cares about RSS Guru Golwalkar’s dishonouring of Kerala’s Hindu women

Demonizing Indian Muslims as barbarians is a project as old as the birth of Hindu nationalism courtesy high Caste Hindus in the second half of the 19th century. Muslims were described as mleccha a Sanskrit term used for non-Aryans or barbarians. It is interesting to note that when the same barbarians; the dynasties with Muslim names ruled India for almost[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Cost Of Extreme Weather – 2 Million deaths And $4 Trillion Over Last 50 Years

Cost Of Extreme Weather – 2 Million deaths And $4 Trillion Over Last 50 Years

Over two million deaths and $4.3 trillion in economic losses; that’s the impact of a half-century of extreme weather events turbo-charged by man-made global warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday. According to WMO, weather, climate and water-related hazards caused close to 12,000 disasters between 1970 and 2021. Developing Countries Developing countries were hit hardest, seeing nine in 10 deaths and 60 per cent of[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Our Times Call for Managing Complexities, Not Solving Problems

Our Times Call for Managing Complexities, Not Solving Problems

How Paicines Ranch in California works to bring business and investment up to date with our times and closer to nature—prioritizing ecosystem health, habitat, and the sequestration of carbon through soil practices. At first the ground squirrels felt like the enemy—a problem to be solved. They were causing major issues for the 25 acres of vineyard at Paicines Ranch in San Benito[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 -Part 7- False Claims of US Government

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 -Part 7- False Claims of US Government

USG falsely claims that nukes are essential, it doesn’t seek conflict, it strengthens the integrity of the media, and it possesses a 360-degree strategy for security             In this series I’ve been identifying and refuting the claims made in the National Security Strategy 2022, which I refer to as the Sullivan & Biden NSS, even though it’s not known whether[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East

Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East

Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East. Steven Simon. Penguin Press, New York, 2023. It should be obvious that U.S. policy in the Middle East is now losing influence. Steven Simon’s new book “Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East” purports to cover the era from[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
The G-7, Ukraine-Russia War, and Revisiting Hiroshima and Cruelty of Wars

The G-7, Ukraine-Russia War, and Revisiting Hiroshima and Cruelty of Wars

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…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
CODEPINK Condemns the Violent Protesters at Medea Benjamin’s Ukraine Book Tour Event in Minneapolis

CODEPINK Condemns the Violent Protesters at Medea Benjamin’s Ukraine Book Tour Event in Minneapolis

We strongly condemn the deplorable actions of some of the protesters at Medea Benjamin’s book tour event on Friday, May 19 in Minneapolis, an event cosponsored by the local Veterans for Peace and Women Against Military Madness (WAMM). We believe that there are very legitimate, divergent positions on the war in Ukraine, even among people in the U.S. who have[Read More…]

by 23/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Book Review: A Contemporary Feminist, Marxist And Environmentalist

Book Review: A Contemporary Feminist, Marxist And Environmentalist

——————————————————————————————————————————- FROM KERALA TO KESLA By Loriette Benjamin “Lorry” Qurate Books Pvt. Ltd, Panaji Goa. 2023, Pp 74, Rs. 300/- Contact: Lorry: 82807 95523 ——————————————————————————————————————————- Lorry (Loriette Benjamin) was born in Kozhikode (Calicut for old timers), Kerala in 1954. Her father was an Army officer and the family moved to Pune in 1958. This very short autobiography (only 74 pages)[Read More…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Global South Resistance Against The Artificial Intelligence War Strategy of the G7

Global South Resistance Against The Artificial Intelligence War Strategy of the G7

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…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Ludlow, Colorado/Windber, Pennsylvania

Ludlow, Colorado/Windber, Pennsylvania

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…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Global Debt Increases To Near-Record Highs – $305 Trillion

Global Debt Increases To Near-Record Highs – $305 Trillion

The global debt increased by $8.3 trillion in the first quarter of the year to a near-record high of $305 trillion amid an aggressive tightening of monetary policy by central banks, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) has revealed. According to its quarterly Global Debt Monitor (GDM) report on Wednesday, the reading is the highest since the first quarter of[Read More…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Most Important Aspect of the Ukraine Conflict May Also be the Most Neglected

The Most Important Aspect of the Ukraine Conflict May Also be the Most Neglected

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…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Led by China and India: On the Global South Efforts to Fix the UN   

Led by China and India: On the Global South Efforts to Fix the UN   

In anticipation of next month’s United Nations Security Council talks on reforming the inherently archaic and dysfunctional political body, China’s foreign policy chief, Yang Yi stated his country’s demands. “The reform of the Security Council should uphold fairness and justice, increase the representation and voice of developing countries, allowing more small and medium-sized countries to have more opportunities to participate[Read More…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
How Strengthened Global Governance Could Produce a Nuclear-Free World

How Strengthened Global Governance Could Produce a Nuclear-Free World

It should come as no surprise that the world is currently facing an existential nuclear danger.  In fact, it has been caught up in that danger since 1945, when atomic bombs were used to annihilate the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, however, the danger of a nuclear holocaust is probably greater than in the past.  There are now nine[Read More…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis – Two Peas in a (White Nationalist) Pod

Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis – Two Peas in a (White Nationalist) Pod

He appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who shocked the nation with rulings that dramatically took away rights. He sided with the racists who used “states’ rights” to push through undemocratic policies locally. And he’s the only American president who lost a reelection bid but returned to office in the following election. Yes, I’m thinking of former New York governor[Read More…]

by 22/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 6. US-led rules-based order autocratically imposed without consent of the governed

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 6. US-led rules-based order autocratically imposed without consent of the governed

In this series I’ve been identifying and refuting the claims made in the National Security Strategy 2022, which I refer to as the Sullivan & Biden NSS, even though it’s not known whether or not Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, actually wrote the document. It could have been written by any members of the National Security Council or their[Read More…]

by 21/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The International Community Does Not Accept The G7-Dominated Western Rules, Says China

The International Community Does Not Accept The G7-Dominated Western Rules, Says China

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…]

by 21/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Demented Policing: Tasering the Elderly

Demented Policing: Tasering the Elderly

Australia is a country addictively hostile to the elderly.  Despite being a continent that speaks to immemorial origins, respect for those who age is uncommon.  In The Lucky Country, that seminal, repeatedly misunderstood text, written in frustrated, sour prose, Donald Horne observes that Australia is not a place where one should grow old. And so, it follows: the rampant, habitual[Read More…]

by 21/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Adding Indirect Deaths, Total Death Toll in the ‘War on Terror’ is 4.5 Million

Adding Indirect Deaths, Total Death Toll in the ‘War on Terror’ is 4.5 Million

When the Brown University (USA) based Costs of War project had estimated the direct deaths resulting from violence (actual fighting, bombing etc.) caused by the USA’s post 9/11 ‘War on Terror’ at about 920,000 (a little less than a million, or 0.9 million) then many people were shocked by this. However even at that time the project researchers had cautioned[Read More…]

by 21/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Fourth Industrial Revolution And The ‘Energy Transition’ Hoax: III – Hydrogen Energy

The Fourth Industrial Revolution And The ‘Energy Transition’ Hoax: III – Hydrogen Energy

Introduction The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the current programme of capitalism to restructure production, distribution and consumption in the face of the multiple crises it has been facing since 2008. While all major changes in history have multiple causes, some are more central to it than others; in the case of this restructuring, these central causes are 1) the shrinking[Read More…]

by 21/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
A look into the tug of war in the Indo-pacific and its implications

A look into the tug of war in the Indo-pacific and its implications

The oceanic region encompassing the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, known as the Indo-Pacific, has become an area of great geopolitical significance in recent years. There are around 40 countries located in this strategically important region, including several global powers such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea. The growing interest in these waters and the land masses occupying[Read More…]

by 21/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Management’s demand for removal of protesting workers of Belsonika rejected on 16th day of fast

Management’s demand for removal of protesting workers of Belsonika rejected on 16th day of fast

 For 16 continuous days the Belsonika Union have resiliently continued the hunger strike. The management requested the court to prohibit the fast at the factory gate, which was rejected. Union’s legal advisor Karmbir Singh, sacked worker Sujit Singh and suspended worker Jainendra Kumar were participants in the hunger strike. A petition was filed in the Civil Court Gurgaon by the[Read More…]

by 21/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
G7 leaders gather in Hiroshima amid rising threat of nuclear war

G7 leaders gather in Hiroshima amid rising threat of nuclear war

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…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Fears of Abandonment: Australia, Biden and Cancelling the Quad Visit

Fears of Abandonment: Australia, Biden and Cancelling the Quad Visit

Much needless fuss has been generated by President Joe Biden’s cancellation of his visit to Australia for the Quad meeting, a now regular gathering of leaders from the US, Japan, India and Australia.  He had other things on his mind: dealing with fractious debt ceiling negotiations taking place back in the United States. Students of US history would, or should[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Tossing Neoliberalism into the Dumpster

Tossing Neoliberalism into the Dumpster

It’s official, according to a speech by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the United States is jumping off the neoliberal globalization bandwagon (a root cause of domestic extremism) and it couldn’t come soon enough as institutions of government are sucking up more and more angry exhaust fumes from constituents, as well as encountering a world trade map with China bullying[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Globalisation
The Fourth Industrial Revolution And The ‘Energy Transition’ Hoax: II – Nuclear Energy

The Fourth Industrial Revolution And The ‘Energy Transition’ Hoax: II – Nuclear Energy

Introduction The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the current programme of capitalism to restructure production, distribution and consumption in the face of the multiple crises it has been facing since 2008. While all major changes in history have multiple causes, some are more central to it than others; in the case of this restructuring, these central causes are 1) the shrinking[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 5. USG falsely claims to respect the people’s verdict and defend democracy

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 5. USG falsely claims to respect the people’s verdict and defend democracy

In this series, Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022, I’ve been discussing and refuting the claims made in the National Security Strategy 2022, which I refer to as the Sullivan & Biden NSS, even though it’s not clear whether or not Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, wrote the document. Here we’ll look at another claim.   Claim 5.[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Sarita and Rambohar with their preserved seeds, standing in their garden

Toxic Contagion – Funds, Food and Pharma  

In 2014, the organisation GRAIN revealed that small farms produce most of the world’s food in its report Hungry for land: small farmers feed the world with less than a quarter of all farmland. The report Small-scale Farmers and Peasants Still Feed the World (ETC Group, 2022) confirmed this. Small farmers produce up to 80% of the food in the non-industrialised[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
On Indian Lynching Data

On Indian Lynching Data

For many days I am searching for the latest data on Indian lynching incidents. And I find that a host of websites listed at the end of this piece are tracking incidents of hate crimes in India. They are serving the nation with gory facts that humiliate the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. I have also found that Ziya Us Salam[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Bulldozer Raj in Uttarakhand: 300 houses demolished, 4000 people  homeless

Bulldozer Raj in Uttarakhand: 300 houses demolished, 4000 people  homeless

On Thursday, the administration mercilessly razed 300 houses in a combing operation of bulldozers in Nagina Colony in Lalkuan of Nainital district in Uttarakhand. There are about four thousand people residing in houses here and the railway has uprooted them. It is one of the grosses violations of people’s rights, breaking constitutional norms. On the pretext of  encroachment, heavy police[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Sheetla Singh—Editor Who Became A Legend in his Lifetime

Sheetla Singh—Editor Who Became A Legend in his Lifetime

Sheetla Singh, the great Hindi editor from Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, breathed his last on May 16. He was 93, and was on duty till the last day in his editorial office when he collapsed. Bringing out a small cooperative newspaper is not easy in the best of times, but it becomes more difficult when the editor has a tendency to[Read More…]

by 20/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
At the 2018 International Summit for Women in the Struggle called by the Zapatistas. The mural reads: “Capitalism converts everything, absolute everything into commodities. For it [capitalism] we women are propaganda, decorations…Down with this capitalist system!” Photo credit: Global Justice Now/Flickr/CC 2.0

Zapatista Knowledge: Theoretico-political ontoepistemic alter-natives in times of war and civilisational collapse

What we are experiencing today on planet Earth has been called in different ways “World War IV”, “slow, silent and lethal social holocaust”, “systemic crisis”, “global crisis of capitalism”, “polycrisis”, “crisis of Western capitalist (hetero)patriarchal civilisation”, “crisis of the hegemonic civilisational pattern”. All these conceptualisations agree that the crisis we are experiencing is global and systemic. For several analysts, it[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
WMO Warning: 1.5 Degree C Warming Breach Very Soon & With Increasing Frequency. Act Now!

WMO Warning: 1.5 Degree C Warming Breach Very Soon & With Increasing Frequency. Act Now!

In 2015 the Paris Climate Change Conference decided that the world must take urgent action to ideally contain global warming to plus 1.5 degrees Centigrade (plus 1.5C) and to less than a catastrophic plus 2C. The present warming is about plus 1.1C. However the  World Meteorological Organization (WMO) now reports a 66% probability of 1.5C being exceeded for at least[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
The Fourth Industrial Revolution And The ‘Energy Transition’ Hoax: I – Solar Energy

The Fourth Industrial Revolution And The ‘Energy Transition’ Hoax: I – Solar Energy

Introduction The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the current programme of capitalism to restructure production, distribution and consumption in the face of the multiple crises it has been facing since 2008. While all major changes in history have multiple causes, some are more central to it than others; in the case of this restructuring, these central causes are 1) the shrinking[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Indian Democracy And The Class Question

Indian Democracy And The Class Question

The higher judiciary in india are given to quoting pronouncements of American judges and jurists,to the chagrin of Hindu revivalists who consider this an undesirable deference to Western ideas of law.They would prefer references to ancient Indian Dharma shastras like Manu Samhita to give a native stamp to our laws. But honorable judges remained unfazed,leaving the passionate nativitists fuming.As far[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Old Future Is Gone, and Technology Won’t Bring It Back

The Old Future Is Gone, and Technology Won’t Bring It Back

  As we begin the second year of “In Real Time,” the future doesn’t look very promising. Almost one-third of US states have plunged into one-party authoritarian rule, and many are gripped by hostility to any form of climate action. Over the past year, voters and activists across the nation have managed to slow the anti-democratic slide, but nothing has[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Goodbye to the American Century – China, India, and the Emerging New World Order

Goodbye to the American Century – China, India, and the Emerging New World Order

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…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Illustration by Nathaniel St. Clair

Venezuela Plans To Abandon U.S. Dollar To Free Economy From Sanctions

Venezuela is planning to shift away from the U.S. dollar in cross-border transactions, President Nicolas Maduro said earlier this week, claiming that the measure would help the Bolivarian Republic to free its economy. Maduro said on Tuesday in an interview with local media: this is the path of Venezuela and the path of a fee economy where currencies are not[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Is the West Losing Its Capacity for Evidence-Based Policy?

Is the West Losing Its Capacity for Evidence-Based Policy?

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…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Numbers BlackRock Won’t Crunch

The Numbers BlackRock Won’t Crunch

As the planet’s biggest investor, with $9 trillion in assets under management and an army of tech-savvy analysts trained on the scent of easy money, numbers are BlackRock’s bread and butter. A giant with such an enormous appetite should find room for all kinds of facts and figures – but this one’s a bit of a picky eater. The BlackRock[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
In memory of 50th anniversary of Killing of Monika Ertl

In memory of 50th anniversary of Killing of Monika Ertl

Monika Ertl was renowned for avenging the murder of Che Guevera. She was given the tag “the avenger of Che Guevara” for her efforts, a name that would create a sensation all around the world. Till the last drop of her blood Monika Ertl embarked on road to avenging injustice and emancipating humanity from oppression. Her relentless spirit is an[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
 Sentience: Does AI Have Artificial Consciousness?

 Sentience: Does AI Have Artificial Consciousness?

There is a recent article, Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea, where the author stated that, “While some researchers suggest that conscious AI is close at hand, others, including me, believe it remains far away and might not be possible at all. But even if unlikely, it is unwise to dismiss the possibility altogether. The prospect of artificial consciousness[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Collective Security and the System of UN in International Relations (IR)

Collective Security and the System of UN in International Relations (IR)

An idea of effective collective security is the foundation of the United Nations (UN). Fundamentally, collective security has to be a system to protect global peace and security through the common agreement and activity of all nations. Therefore, the focal idea of the concept of collective security is to institutionalize a permanent arrangement of the balance of power in which[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Online content moderation: the ‘misinformation’ vs free speech question

Online content moderation: the ‘misinformation’ vs free speech question

Earlier this month, the lower house of the Brazilian legislature adopted a controversial “fake news bill” (Bill 2639) which resulted in opposition from major tech firms like Google. The debate surrounding the Bill has once again foregrounded the issue of online content moderation by governments around the world. Brazil’s Bill 2639 has emerged from a context of increasing violence perceived[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Beyond the Myth of TINA to the IMF:  The New Development Bank in the Asian 21st Century

Beyond the Myth of TINA to the IMF:  The New Development Bank in the Asian 21st Century

Asia is the fastest growing and most dynamic region of the world according to a recent IMF Report; “Recovery Unabated Amid Uncertainty”.[i]  Asia and the Pacific will contribute around 70 percent of global growth this year as expansion accelerates after Covid-19 supply chain disruptions, with ongoing geopolitical turmoil and war in Europe, as well as, various hybrid over the horizon[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Hunger Games

Hunger Games

Reports of people suffering and dying as a result of famines are not novel to our country. Kalahandi and Kashipur in Odisha, Baran in Rajasthan, Palamau and Manjhladi in Jharkhand, and Jalhi Bongia in Bihar are among the many districts that are impacted by endemic poverty. The top-down approach that many claim to have used to analyse the entire issue is what[Read More…]

by 19/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Thoughts for World Environment Day – The global economy –  threat to life on the Planet

Thoughts for World Environment Day – The global economy –  threat to life on the Planet

World Environment Day is observed every 5th June, to encourage awareness and action for protecting the environment. It is a “global platform for inspiring positive change” [Ref.1], to address climate crisis caused by global warming (GW). Homo Sapiens population on Planet Earth was 0.3-billion in 1000, and under 2-billion in 1900. It is currently 8-billion-and-counting. It is only in the[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Drug Shortage In The U.S. Approach All-time High

Drug Shortage In The U.S. Approach All-time High

Thousands of patients are facing delays in getting treatments for cancer and other life-threatening diseases, with drug shortages in the United States approaching record levels, said a report by the New York Times. The report — “Drug Shortages Approach an All-Time High, Leading to Rationing — said on May 17, 2023: “Hospitals are scouring shelves for supplies of a drug[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Siddaramaiah: A Rational Shudra/OBC With A Commitment To Agriculturism

Siddaramaiah: A Rational Shudra/OBC With A Commitment To Agriculturism

A narrative is being built from Delhi that the Congress won the Karnataka elections because of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. No doubt it played a role, but without a strong mass leader at the state level no national party could win the state elections only due to a national leader. But for a strong mass leader like Siddaramaiah, who[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Karnataka Elections: Role of Grassroots campaign in election results

Karnataka Elections: Role of Grassroots campaign in election results

The recent elections in Karnataka have come as a sigh of relief to those who wish to retain the secular character of the republic. Karnataka was seen as a pathway to make entry into Southern part of India. It was seen as a Hindutva lab where communal experiments could be carried out and extended to other states. The BJP regime[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
A Note to the Debate on a People’s Development Paradigm

A Note to the Debate on a People’s Development Paradigm

Conceptualization of the Term The term development having many synonyms such as growth, evolution, expansion, enlargement, spread, progress, maturing, event, outcome, occurrence, phenomenon, happening, improvement and so on with shifting nuances depending on the contexts in which it is used came in to frequent use in political discussion with the origin and development of capitalism since the mid-eighteenth century. Originally meant as the[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Five Questions the War on Drugs Should Answer

Five Questions the War on Drugs Should Answer

Which war has been the longest war of the USA? No, it is not the 21 year War on Terror. It is the 51 year old War on Drugs, starting during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Of course this great leader may have disturbed over the increasing drug addiction, but was the war on drugs primarily motivated by this? Not[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Israel is failing to force Palestinians into submission

Israel is failing to force Palestinians into submission

Caption: Charlotte Kates on the steps leading to the Vancouver Art Gallery on May 14, 2023, during a rally commemorating 75 years of Palestine’s Nakba. She is holding a poster that says, “Victory to the Resistance/Glory to the Martyrs.” In the image above, the three martyrs on the poster held up by Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 4. USG makes ludicrous claims to oppose “aggression and coercion in all its forms”

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 4. USG makes ludicrous claims to oppose “aggression and coercion in all its forms”

In this series, Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022, I’ve been discussing and refuting the claims made in the National Security Strategy 2022, which I refer to as the Sullivan & Biden NSS, even though it’s not clear whether or not Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, wrote the document. Claim 4. The USG defends against “aggression and coercion[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Proterial(Hitachi) contract Workers struggle succeeds in re-instating 30 workers and 2 Union Leaders  

Proterial(Hitachi) contract Workers struggle succeeds in re-instating 30 workers and 2 Union Leaders  

After 30 hours duration of sustained struggle, an agreement has arrived between the contract workers and the management sitting on strike in the plant premises of the company Protorial, Manesar, on May 12 at 12 midnight. Under the agreement, the company has consented to not to fire the protesting workers. It has agreed to re-instate 30 sacked workers and 2[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Sri Lanka: Dilly-Dallying Tactics To Keep The Ethnic Problem Alive And Kicking

Sri Lanka: Dilly-Dallying Tactics To Keep The Ethnic Problem Alive And Kicking

Ranil who was elected by a majority members of parliament on 18 July 2022 has been dishing out various promises to suit the occasion and the audiences.  A meeting was held on 09 May 2023 with Tamil MPs in the parliament where the 75 years long heartbreaking issues of land appropriations in the North and East by the occupying security[Read More…]

by 18/05/2023 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Nita Ambani Cultural centre is opulent but not professional

Nita Ambani Cultural centre is opulent but not professional

The website of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre claims that the Grand Theatre is technologically most advanced in India, is magical and meticulously designed. But what is the reality? Many in the audience have complained of serious problems. After spending thousands of rupees for one seat, you find that the bar in front of your seat makes it hard[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Why Intergenerational Thinking Is Essential to Heal the Planet

Why Intergenerational Thinking Is Essential to Heal the Planet

As humankind grapples with climate change, communities around the world show what’s possible by planning hundreds of years ahead. In the state of Meghalaya in northeast India, ingenious elders from the Khasi community spent decades, even centuries, building living root bridges known locally as jingkieng jri. The bridges were shaped by pulling and intertwining the aerial roots of the rubber fig tree (Ficus elastica) over a bamboo framework[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
U.S. Mainstream Media Faces Criticism From Barack Obama And Lindsey Graham

U.S. Mainstream Media Faces Criticism From Barack Obama And Lindsey Graham

U.S. mainstream media (MSM) are facing criticism from former U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. Earlier, famous journalist Seymour Hersh has also criticized the U.S. MSM. Barack Obama has claimed Americans are so divided by the country’s polarizing media outlets that they cannot even begin to address controversial challenges based on a common understanding of reality. “The[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
A Government Without Ministers (GWM) is the need of the hour

A Government Without Ministers (GWM) is the need of the hour

 An open letter to Mallikarjun Kharge jee and  Rahul Gandhi jee: Dear Sirs, This process can be started with states, particularly from Karnataka, as they and you are mulling over naming the CM and other ministers. You can declare the whole Assembly to be the collective ruler of Karnataka, passing any and all bills with the majority. The same majority[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
BJP red-carded in Karnataka

BJP red-carded in Karnataka

The unmistakable message from the Karnataka elections is that the BJP does not bring stability and substance to governance. The BJP may have ruled Karnataka before. They never managed to complete a single full term. Each term was replete with political upheavals and defections – a game that the BJP is seeking to master with big money from sources unknown.[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Dr Navsharan Singh at Tikri border during farm agitation. (File photo)

Dr Navsharan Singh is being mercilessly targeted

Dr. Navsharan Singh, writer, democratic rights activist, a resilient supporter of people’s struggles and the daughter of renowned playwright Late Gursharan Singh, is being mercilessly targeted by the Modi government for revealing the truth. It is a manifestation of the trend engulfing nation of attack on intellectuals and democratic rights activists across the country, Dr. Navsharan was interrogated under the[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Inquiring into the action taken and justice delivered on the matter of police firing on protestors in Tuticorin

Inquiring into the action taken and justice delivered on the matter of police firing on protestors in Tuticorin

  To Mr. M. K. Stalin Hon’ble Chief Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu, Secretariat, Chennai Email ID: cmo@tn.gov.in Dear Sir, This memorandum is being submitted by the jury members of the fact-finding team, set up in the name of People’s Inquest, to inquire into the Tuticorin Police Firing, which resulted in the publication of a five-part report entitled, ‘The day Tuticorin[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Imperialism is Inherently Incompatible with Peace, Environment Protection and Happiness

Imperialism is Inherently Incompatible with Peace, Environment Protection and Happiness

Do most people in the USA desire world peace? Like all normal human beings they certainly do, preferring a world of peace and stability to a world of wars and instability. Hence in normal conditions there is no reason why politicians should not be successful in seeking power on the basis of an agenda of world peace rather than an[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Healthy, sleek wild horses in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area during a Bureau of Land Management roundup on July 19, 2022. (Photo credit: Ginger Fedak/In Defense of Animals)
https://www.idausa.org/

Most Americans Oppose Killing Horses for Food—Here’s How to End This Brutal Practice

Tens of thousands of American horses are slaughtered every year due to a loophole in federal policy. Horses have played a unique role in American history. They have helped us discover new lands, carried soldiers into battles, and plowed farmers’ fields. It’s no accident that so many monuments of Americans throughout history show them seated on a horse. To this[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 3. A century of greed for China’s markets drives USG war cries and propaganda

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 3. A century of greed for China’s markets drives USG war cries and propaganda

We’ve been talking about the claims made within the National Security Strategy 2022. It’s not known whether or not National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is the actual author, but I refer to it as Sullivan & Biden’s NSS. Claim 3. Nations that don’t open their markets and resources to us are bad. Throughout the NSS 2022, Sullivan & Biden continually[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Belsonika Workers hartal enters 12th day

Belsonika Workers hartal enters 12th day

On May 15th the Hartal of Belsonika Workers Union entered the 12th day. Prominent leaders participating are Mukesh Sharma and suspended leader Vint Tripathi.  A tribute to the unflinching resilience of the workers in withstanding management oppression At 8.00 in the morning Police barged in to foil the dharma and were placed on guard encircling the dharna.Still the management was[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Wildlife Photography For Creating Conservation Awareness

Wildlife Photography For Creating Conservation Awareness

The most extraordinary feature of earth is the diversity of life on it. This variety of life is adversely affected by alterations of ecosystems by human activities. Humans have always been part of biodiversity and there are many more moral as well as scientific reasons to preserve it. Leopard from Jhalana leopard reserve, Jaipur ( Rajasthan) India is one of[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
A Few Least Discussed Curious Aspects re: Karnataka Elections

A Few Least Discussed Curious Aspects re: Karnataka Elections

As the ‘media’ is so skewed in these days we may count on social media for a variety of views. Some days have passed after the Karnataka results came out and we know scores of different views and analyses through the social media. Yet we find few aspects neglected, which would have rather demanded more mentions and attention. (1) One[Read More…]

by 17/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
President Zelenskyy meets Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 13, 2023. Photo credit: EFE

A Timely Call for Peace in Ukraine by U.S. National Security Experts

by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies On May 16, 2023, The New York Times published a full-page advertisement signed by 15 U.S. national security experts about the war in Ukraine. It was headed “The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace in the World,” and was drafted by the Eisenhower Media Network. While condemning Russia’s invasion, the statement[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
China and the Axis of the Sanctioned – How America’s Divide-and-Rule Strategy in the Middle East Backfired

China and the Axis of the Sanctioned – How America’s Divide-and-Rule Strategy in the Middle East Backfired

A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There was the Secretary-General of the Chinese Communist Party standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban. They were awkwardly shaking hands on an agreement to reestablish mutual diplomatic ties. That picture[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
NATO Is Creeping Into Asia, Warns North Korea

NATO Is Creeping Into Asia, Warns North Korea

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has claimed NATO is seeking to increase its influence in Asia, citing growing “military collusion” with Japan, which hosted a delegation from the military alliance last month to discuss ways to step up cooperation. In comments carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, an official with the Foreign Ministry’s Japan Research Center,[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Apartheid Israel Among World’s Leading Countries For Militarization, Violence, Abuse And Genocide

Apartheid Israel Among World’s Leading Countries For Militarization, Violence, Abuse And Genocide

Nuclear armed, serial war criminal and international law-violating Apartheid Israel is a genocidally racist settler-colonialist obscenity, and ranks on a per capita basis  among the world’s top  militarized countries in 30 key areas of military capacity and ghastly application of military power. On a per capita basis it ranks number 1 in terms of military expenditure, tanks, warplanes, US military[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
The Day Arrived

The Day Arrived

The day (once more) when the world as we know it stopped the Doomsday Clock, barely in the nick of time, stood still the power of political death over individual life ended, the civilization of greed and ego and violence collapsed returning to dust.   Not because somebody, supernaturally, descended from the clouds, not because the sea miraculously parted. The[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Open  letter  to  the  Prime  Minister

Open  letter  to  the  Prime  Minister

“Dear  Shri  Narendra  Modi ji Please  accept  my  heart  felt  condolences  on the  demise  of  your  party,  the  BJP,  in  Karnataka. But  more  than  that,  I  am  rather  disappointed  by  the  utter  ineptitude  of  your  party  in  manipulating  the  minds  of  the  voters  and  the  EVMs  in  favour  of  your candidates.  And  this  failure  happened  in  spite  of  your  domineering [Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
 Proliferation of fake Aadhaar Cards and false Jandhan bank accounts pose a serious threat to proper use of the Centre’s expenditure under Centrally Sponsored Schemes

 Proliferation of fake Aadhaar Cards and false Jandhan bank accounts pose a serious threat to proper use of the Centre’s expenditure under Centrally Sponsored Schemes

To Shri G C Murmu CAG   Dear Shri Murmu, Subject:- Proliferation of fake Aadhaar Cards and false Jandhan bank accounts pose a serious threat to proper use of the Centre’s expenditure under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) Please refer to my letter dated 7-10-2022 on the subject (https://countercurrents.org/2022/10/centrally-sponsored-schemes-violate-the-spirit-of-federalism-also-wastes-public-resources/?swcfpc=1), with special reference to two Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs), PM Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY)[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Path of Change—Principles and Priorities, Agenda and Mobilization

The Path of Change—Principles and Priorities, Agenda and Mobilization

There is increasing realization that our deeply troubled world and endangered planet need a different path. What are to be the basic principles and most urgent priorities of this path, what will be its basic agenda and mobilization strategies? The most basic and durable principles are clear enough—equality and justice, peace and disarmament, democracy and decentralization, protection of environment, protection[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Has the government allowed private refiners to profiteer on Russian crude imports at the cost of CPSE oil companies and domestic consumers? Calls for an inquiry

Has the government allowed private refiners to profiteer on Russian crude imports at the cost of CPSE oil companies and domestic consumers? Calls for an inquiry

To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Sitharaman, I have just come across a news report (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/oil-gas/india-cuts-windfall-tax-on-petroleum-crude-to-zero/articleshow/100259244.cms) that the Ministry has cut the windfall tax on domestic crude oil to zero. I am not sure whether this will imply any corresponding relief to domestic consumers of petroleum products. On the other hand, why is the government shy of imposing[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 2 False equating of the USG with a golden vision and China with a “darker vision”

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 2 False equating of the USG with a golden vision and China with a “darker vision”

We’ve been discussing the claims made within the National Security Strategy 2022, which I refer to as Sullivan & Biden’s NSS, though whether or not National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is the actual author is unknown. Claim 2. The US Government (USG) is in the midst of a fierce international competition; winning the competition is vital and will make a[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
North American Colonization of Indigenous People, Cultures, and System of Social Welfare

North American Colonization of Indigenous People, Cultures, and System of Social Welfare

History Speaks to Clarify the Facts of Life To be an informed and progressive generation of people for sustainable change and human development, we must discover unambiguous and self-evident knowledge-based understanding of history to reform the socio-ethnic and political contradictions covered up by adroit. In books and historic records, we encounter some of the unimaginable, intangible and mysterious narratives on[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Theoretical Concept of Geopolitics in International Relations and Global Politics

The Theoretical Concept of Geopolitics in International Relations and Global Politics

“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island; Who controls the World Island commands the World” (Sir Halford John Mackinder, 1919)   The term geopolitics was first used by the Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellén (1864−1922) in 1899, but the term did not become popular in academic circles until it became used in[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
This is NO Democracy!!

This is NO Democracy!!

I just love it when all the media political pundits and talk show hosts ( News Talk?) throw out that word Democracy. You don’t have to go to a ranch to find more bull excrement than that. Folks, this is not a democracy and probably never was one… all the way back to our founding. Why? MONEY MONEY MONEY is[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Exceptionism in US Empire

Exceptionism in US Empire

 [S]uffice it to state that the US Guardian Elite are very much of and for the overworld of private wealth. Since the end of World War II, the US Guardian Elite have functioned most decisively as executors of dark power. — Aaron Good, American Exception, p 107 Aaron Good, who received his PhD in political science at Temple University, has[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
The Coca-Cola-ization of ‘God Bless America’

The Coca-Cola-ization of ‘God Bless America’

“Whoever controls the information, controls the imagination.” –George Orwell “Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere.” –Albert Einstein “Imagine there’s no countries… It isn’t hard to do…. Nothing to kill or die for…. And no religion too…. Imagine all the people… living life in peace” –John Lennon Preludes “’We hold these truths to be[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Karnataka Elections 2023: Defeat of Hate 

Karnataka Elections 2023: Defeat of Hate 

The results of the Karnataka Assembly election have not only come as a big relief but also may herald the change for journey towards ‘Unite India’ and retrieve the values of Indian Constitution which have come under severe strain during last few years. In Karnataka Assembly election results of 2018, BJP got 104; Congress got 80 and JDU 37 seats.[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Revitalizing Tourist Transportation: Shared Taxi Services as a Solution for Mobility in Western Sikkim

Revitalizing Tourist Transportation: Shared Taxi Services as a Solution for Mobility in Western Sikkim

The recreational areas of West Sikkim in India face transportation difficulties for tourists due to the lack of public transport and shared taxi options. To address this issue and attract more visitors to the region, it is crucial to provide taxi-sharing services in West Sikkim’s tourist destinations. Immediate action and planning are required to improve tourist-friendly modes of transportation, considering[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Why is there a need of meaningless entrance examinations for professional education?

Why is there a need of meaningless entrance examinations for professional education?

by Gangavath Ekitha and Ayush Bajpai CLAT[1] was introduced in 2008 as a Common Entrance to the so-called Islands of Excellence[2]- the National Law Universities in India- or the Law Schools as the students prefer to say. The admission test used to have five different Sections, including English, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, General Knowledge Current Affairs and Legal Reasoning[3]. Learning[Read More…]

by 16/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
One Person Dies of Clashes in Maharashtra Over “The Kerala Story”

One Person Dies of Clashes in Maharashtra Over “The Kerala Story”

One person has died after two groups clashed over a social media post about the movie “The Kerala Story” in Maharashtra’s Akola district. Eight people, including two policemen, were injured in this incident in Akola. Thirty people have been detained by the police in connection with the violence. After this incident, the Maharashtra Police has issued an alert in the[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Must Sentience Include Subjective Experience? Maybe Not

Must Sentience Include Subjective Experience? Maybe Not

Consciousness is often defined by what it is like to be or what it means to have an experience, like seeing a color or hearing a sound. There are also definitions of consciousness with feeling and thinking. However, could it be that part of the difficulty in understanding consciousness is due to labels of the brain, rather than a uniform[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
2023 Karnataka’s Election Verdict and Shifting Political Discourse

2023 Karnataka’s Election Verdict and Shifting Political Discourse

Since the 2014 Lok Sabha election- perhaps for the first time- it appears that the Karnataka election verdict has shown that the communal narrative around electoral politics is now changing. If one could read and decode election results closely, it can be safely argued that political discourse has now shifted from the Right to Centre if not towards the Left.[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Syria-Arab League Rapprochement: U.S.  Lawmakers Threaten Sanctions 

Syria-Arab League Rapprochement: U.S.  Lawmakers Threaten Sanctions 

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a bill to oppose the normalization of relations between Syria and other nations. The Arab League reinstated the country this month, while Saudi Arabia announced the reopening of diplomatic channels with Damascus after ten years. Media reports said: The Assad Anti-Normalization Act threatens “governments considering normalization with the Assad regime” with severe consequences, according to[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Climate change and water crisis

Climate change and water crisis

Water crisis is not only a problem of our country but of the entire world. According to the United Nations. Today, 26 percent of the world’s population faces a crisis of clean drinking water. Not only this, in the next 27 years i.e. by 2050, 1.7 to 2.4 billion urban population of the world will face drinking water crisis. India[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Indiscriminate Introduction of Exotic Bees Likely to Prove Very Costly

Indiscriminate Introduction of Exotic Bees Likely to Prove Very Costly

Large scale death of exotic Italian bees has been reported recently in many apple orchards of Himachal Pradesh. This news has been highlighted in the local media mainly in the context of the economic loss suffered by orchard owners who had purchased boxes of these exotic bees to facilitate the pollination process in their orchards. The death of bees has[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
New Rules of Engagement: How Palestinians Defeated Netanyahu and Redefined ‘Unity’

New Rules of Engagement: How Palestinians Defeated Netanyahu and Redefined ‘Unity’

All Israeli wars on the Palestinians throughout the years have been promoted and justified by Tel Aviv in the name of ‘security’ and ‘fighting terrorism’. Israel’s biggest challenge throughout many of these wars was hardly the Palestinian Resistance, however steadfast and resilient. The challenge has always been Tel Aviv’s ability to kill many Palestinians, including civilians, without tarnishing its image[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 1. Equating security with superiority in a “race to the top”

Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 1. Equating security with superiority in a “race to the top”

  It wasn’t easy to write about the National Security Strategy 2022 because just reading the document was so repulsive that I came down with a fever the next day.[1] Every time I analyze it I feel an iron claw gripping the back of my neck. It’s also not clear exactly who wrote it. I called my US Congressman’s office[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
‘ISHANOU’: One question – One answer

‘ISHANOU’: One question – One answer

Joshy Joseph : “The poem is a muscular and composed thing. It moves like a wave, dissolving the literal. We participate in its flow as it moves from the eye to the ear, to the inner ear, the inner eye.” Poet Edward Hirsch’s lines bring the temporal, physical yet spiritual aspects of cinema, to my mind. Sir, what are your[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Harry- My Heart is Down, Lost in Kingston town

Harry- My Heart is Down, Lost in Kingston town

Tribute to Harry Belafonte- A true giant, a voice for the voiceless, who walked here in my lifetime Your life, every aspect of it, was like the mythical Philosopher’s Stone- The Paras Pathar, as we call it in India, and on which our own Creative giant, Satyajit, made a film, cast in black and white, as does Your life story,[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
“We challenge Govt of India to explain how it will prevent farmers from using herbicides on a HT GM mustard crop”: Coalition for a GM-Free India

“We challenge Govt of India to explain how it will prevent farmers from using herbicides on a HT GM mustard crop”: Coalition for a GM-Free India

The Coalition for a GM-Free India threw a challenge at the Government of India to show how it will prevent farmers from using herbicides on HT mustard crop that received approval in October 2022. In a letter sent to the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Coalition pointed out that the GoI has no statutory powers to[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Understanding the Currency of Courage, Discipline, and Love in Contemporary Indian Politics: Lessons from Karnataka

Understanding the Currency of Courage, Discipline, and Love in Contemporary Indian Politics: Lessons from Karnataka

  The result of the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections has surprised those who, directly or indirectly, had already read its obituary. Congress has secured 136 seats out of 224, and the BJP has managed to retain only 64.  However, contrary to the observation of most commentators, Congress was successful not merely because of its local focus. In this article, I argue[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Chasing Wild Geese and Red Herring

Chasing Wild Geese and Red Herring

My well-meaning friends shake their heads mournfully over my odd habit of persisting with the most unusual questions after an issue has been discussed thoroughly,and settled most expeditiously.For example,when the Supreme Court cut through the maze of Maharashtra politics to rule that the Governor acted beyond his constitutional powers when he ordered a floor test in assembly after the much-publicised[Read More…]

by 15/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Economic Invasion of Ukraine which Started Much Before 2022

The Economic Invasion of Ukraine which Started Much Before 2022

Following the notorious coup in Ukraine in 2014, supported by the USA and some allies, which ousted a democratically elected government, a number of very important changes took places in policies. The political aspects of these policy changes have been better known even though largely ignored in the big media discourse. These include pressures from those who facilitated the coup[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Geoffrey Hinton, AI, and Google’s Ethics Problem

Geoffrey Hinton, AI, and Google’s Ethics Problem

Talk about the dangers of artificial intelligence, actual or imagined, has become feverish, much of it induced by the growing world of generative chat bots.  When scrutinising the critics, attention should be paid to their motivations.  What do they stand to gain from adopting a particular stance?  In the case of Geoffrey Hinton, immodestly seen as the “Godfather of AI”,[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Centre’s onslaught on federalism- Some Governors playing extra-Constitutional role

Centre’s onslaught on federalism- Some Governors playing extra-Constitutional role

To Respected Chief Ministers Subject:-  Centre’s onslaught on federalism- Some Governors playing extra-Constitutional role Sir, I have addressed you time and again on the political executive at the Centre systematically infringing the lakshman rekha of federalism to diminish the political space of the opposition parties in power in the States. In particular, the Centre has progressively constricted the role of[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
CDRO stands in solidarity with the protesting wrestlers

CDRO stands in solidarity with the protesting wrestlers

Leading athletes of the country, like World Championships medal winner Vinesh Phogat, and Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and others, are protesting against the sexual harassment of women wrestlers at the hands of their coaches and in particular, they have levelled charges against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) & its chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Their protest[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Support our “glorious dead”, support Palestinian resistance

Support our “glorious dead”, support Palestinian resistance

Caption: A young Palestinian holds a sign that says “Support Palestinian Resistance” at a rally commemorating 75 years of Nakba in Toronto (Yonge and Dundas Square) on May 13, 2023 On the weekend of the 75th Nakba commemoration, I was in Toronto. A rally in support of Palestine was scheduled down the street from my hotel at Yonge and Dundas Square[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Anticlerical Rule is on the Rise in Iran

Anticlerical Rule is on the Rise in Iran

The women-led anti-hejab movement that began after the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, in Iran, is ongoing. Even though the street protests have subsided, many Iranian women defy to comply with wearing Islamic hejab in public. Nonetheless, the Islamic government is fighting to enforce hejab by various means, including closing stores that admit women without headscarves and[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
It’s Time for the Left to Assert Itself in the Mainstream Media

It’s Time for the Left to Assert Itself in the Mainstream Media

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…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Karnataka: Voters’ Shrewd Verdict! 

Karnataka: Voters’ Shrewd Verdict! 

Defying opinion polls predicting a hung assembly, clear victory of Congress in Karnataka elections sends strong signals at several levels. It is as yet too early to view electoral potential of Congress as finished. Negative campaign indulged in by rivals of Congress against Rahul Gandhi and his party colleagues have apparently failed to carry any appeal for people at grass-roots.[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Manersar Proterial Workers of 2 shifts stage Dharna

Manersar Proterial Workers of 2 shifts stage Dharna

The contract workers of Manersar-based Hitachi Metals India, which has been renamed Pretorial, launched a strike since Thursday evening. A move was undertaken to sack two labour leaders leading the company’s nearly three hundred contract workers, against which the B shift workers left their machines and assembled at the shop floor. The work continued with no turbulence in Shift A[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Meeting a scholar on Pakistan, Jinnah and pre partition film music from Punjab

Meeting a scholar on Pakistan, Jinnah and pre partition film music from Punjab

Such a pleasure it was to hear and meet last evening Stockholm-based political scientist and history scholar Ishtiaq Ahmed. And such a versatile man, so academically sound, so articulate, he is not only an acknowledged scholar on Pakistan he has just authored a book on the contribution of pre partition Punjab to the film industry. It will be of great[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Sexism descrimination concept as a struggling woman with the burden of pulling a heavy female 3D illustration symbol falling behind a group of running businessmen or men as an unfair gender bias icon.

Gender Discrimination: A Serious Concern

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. It is the belief that all individuals should have equal rights and opportunities. A society can only develop when there is a balance of equity between male and female. Just like a bird cannot fly depending on a single wing,[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Aadhaar Needs To Be Questioned And Resisted

Aadhaar Needs To Be Questioned And Resisted

The Indian government has proposed changes the regulations around Aadhaar to allow private entities to conduct Aadhaar-based verification with its permission. On April 20, 2023, the government amended the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020. The purposes for Aadhaar authentication listed in sub-rule (1) of Rule 3 have been expanded to include a new clause:[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Congress Party Win In Karnataka

Congress Party Win In Karnataka

Indian National Congress received a resounding victory in Karanataka Assembly Elections. Congress is now leading in 136 seats in the 224 seat Assembly. The ruling far-right Hindu nationalist party BJP is leading in 64 seats and Janata Dal (Secular) in 20 seats. Congress is set to form the government. The Karnataka elections hold broader implications for national politics. The outcome[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Pelling’s Water Crisis: Addressing Surging pressure during Peak Tourist Season

Pelling’s Water Crisis: Addressing Surging pressure during Peak Tourist Season

Pelling, the second most popular tourist destination after its main capital Gangtok is experiencing severe water scarcity, especially during the peak tourist season. The high demand for water during this time requires frequent and substantial supplies. This shortage adversely affects hoteliers, restaurant owners, and the tourism industry. Additionally, with the growing tourism sector, the increasing number of accommodation units raises[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
U.S. Is Interfering In Türkiye’s Elections, Says Interior Minister

U.S. Is Interfering In Türkiye’s Elections, Says Interior Minister

The U.S. is meddling in Türkiye’s upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, Ankara’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu claimed on Friday. Speaking to CNN Turk, Soylu weighed in on the decision by presidential candidate Muharrem Ince, who leads the opposition Homeland Party, to drop out of the race on Thursday ahead of Sunday’s vote. Ince attributed the withdrawal to a “slander campaign,” which[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Sea ice is formed when chunks of the Greenland ice sheet break off and flow into the ocean.

The Ocean Heat Bomb Ignites

For the first time that scientists can recall, sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks are failing to do so, staying high   Global warming and extensive overfishing have damaged ocean ecosystems well beyond recognition from only a few decades ago. Still, on its own accord, the ocean stood tall for over 3 billion years. But, alas, in[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
And The Heavens Opened…

And The Heavens Opened…

An innocuous phrase, meaning how welcome is the rain as it falls upon this earth beneath, full of goodness and sustenance, the nourishment of life. Not on Gaza. Four days ago, when the people of Gaza heard the thunder in the heavens and looked towards the sky they saw surveillance drones, Apache helicopters and F-35 war planes bulging with state-of-the-art[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Peace for Environment Protection—Great Opportunities Missed Earlier Can Still be Realized

Peace for Environment Protection—Great Opportunities Missed Earlier Can Still be Realized

Many thoughtful people of world very rightly say today that the resolving of climate change and other inter-related serious environmental problems should get exceedingly high priority today as these threaten the basic life-nurturing capacity of our planet. Several of them, although not all, also realize that it is no less important to ensure peace in the world due to four[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
CRIMES and COMPLICITY!

CRIMES and COMPLICITY!

The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
A small tweak in our current nomination process can save our democracy!

A small tweak in our current nomination process can save our democracy!

Our current election system is FPTP (first-past-the-post) system. Under this system, all parties interested in fighting an election in a constituency Nominate a Single Candidate for an upcoming Election (NSCE), as their nominee. This has many severe drawbacks. The drawbacks can be ameliorated by letting a party Nominate Many Candidates as its Nominees (NMCE). The sum of votes collected by[Read More…]

by 13/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Is the Military-Industrial Complex Not Just the Means but Also an Important Cause of Forever Wars?

Is the Military-Industrial Complex Not Just the Means but Also an Important Cause of Forever Wars?

The military industrial complex is comprised of the arms industry and defense contractors, their supporting research establishment, lobbyists and assets. In recent years the military industrial complex of many countries has expanded rapidly, particularly in the case of the USA whose military-industrial complex is much more immense and vast than that of any other country. The military industrial establishment of[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
U.S. Default Would Embolden China, Says Pentagon Chief

U.S. Default Would Embolden China, Says Pentagon Chief

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior Pentagon officials have urged U.S. lawmakers to extend the federal borrowing limit, insisting a default on the national debt would be devastating for America’s reputation and “embolden” China. Testifying at a Senate Defense Appropriation hearing on Thursday, both Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley spoke in support of the[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Aqueous Matters: Europe’s Water Crisis

Aqueous Matters: Europe’s Water Crisis

Europe is joining a number of other regions on the planet in suffering a prolonged water crisis; and it is one that shows little sign of abating.  To this can be added the near catastrophic conditions that exist in other parts of the globe, where ready and secure access to water supplies is more aspiration than reality. Since 2018, according[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
What Happens When LTAI (Less Than Artificial Intelligence) Gives Way to AI?

What Happens When LTAI (Less Than Artificial Intelligence) Gives Way to AI?

After almost 79 years on this beleaguered planet, let me say one thing: this can’t end well. Really, it can’t. And no, I’m not talking about the most obvious issues ranging from the war in Ukraine to the climate disaster. What I have in mind is that latest, greatest human invention: artificial intelligence. It doesn’t seem that complicated to me.[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Taliban government’s deputy prime minister Abdul Salam Hanafi (C) and Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (R) arrive in Moscow to attend international talks on Afghanistan, Oct. 20, 2021

The Taliban and the Islamic State Continue to Fight for Afghanistan’s Future

The Taliban’s ability to lead Afghanistan remains questionable and ongoing instability has provided the Islamic State the opportunity for expansion. On April 25, 2023, U.S. officials confirmed that the Taliban had killed the head of the Islamic State (IS) cell operating in Afghanistan. Though his identity has not been revealed, the IS leader is believed to have masterminded the 2021 Kabul airport attack that[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Indian Telecom’s Spectacular Rise and the Nature of Monopoly Capital in India

Indian Telecom’s Spectacular Rise and the Nature of Monopoly Capital in India

India’s private corporate sector is more prominent today than at any time in the past. Its chieftains are listed among the richest persons in the world. The Indian government’s growth plans now explicitly centre on the country’s largest fi rms, with the aim of creating a few ‘national champions’ capable of competing globally. A research report regarding the house of[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The sound of silence: A Bharia story

The sound of silence: A Bharia story

There is so much cacophony on ‘development’, that shrieking voices dissolve the milder ones, as bulldozers transform landscapes, and brush away healing sources of life along with the people who are nourished by them. I live in Madhya Pradesh (MP), the Indian state with the largest numbers of tribal people, as well as the highest malnutrition of children.  The Narmada[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
On Soft Power: How to Measure Soft Power, Actors of Soft Power, Foreign Policy and Soft Power

On Soft Power: How to Measure Soft Power, Actors of Soft Power, Foreign Policy and Soft Power

  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…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Caste-class-religion factors in Karnataka elections

Caste-class-religion factors in Karnataka elections

Has the Chief Election Commission abandoned its autonomy and independence and chosen to be co-opted as part of the BJP Team? The magazine ‘Outlook’ in a report by by Anisha Reddy shows that over 9,000 adults find themselves declared dead or moved out of the Shivajinagar constituency when, in truth,  they are alive and at home. People who resided in[Read More…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Empowering Locals: The Vital Role of Local Businesses in Ecotourism Development

Empowering Locals: The Vital Role of Local Businesses in Ecotourism Development

This paper considers the involvement of locals in various ecotourism businesses, which are an essential component of successful ecotourism initiatives in different areas.     Ecotourism has the potential to contribute to poverty reduction, employment generation, improved living standards, and long-term economic sustainability. The crux of the argument in this note is that the participation of locals in ecotourism practices offers greater[Read More…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Fireworks behind statue of liberty

A Peaceful USA Revolution Will Help the USA and Also the Entire World

‘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…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Tony Blair Knew Iraq Bombing Was Illegal But Ordered It Anyway, Says Media

Tony Blair Knew Iraq Bombing Was Illegal But Ordered It Anyway, Says Media

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered the 1998 bombing of Iraq despite repeated warnings that such a move was unlawful, according to documents published by Declassified UK, an investigative outlet that focuses on UK’s military and intelligence agencies, on 17 April 2023 (https://declassifieduk.org/blair-misled-parliament-over-1998-iraq-bombing-files-show/). Blair would follow the same template – insisting that illegal military action was legal – when[Read More…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
A Certain Form of Thieving: The US Banksters Strike Again

A Certain Form of Thieving: The US Banksters Strike Again

It looks like 2008 all over again.  Economic and financial mismanagement feature in scorching, consuming brilliance.  The culpable, bungling banksters, have returned with their customary, venal incompetence.  In the customary script, they habitually seek the role of the public purse to socialise their losses.  Along the way, they will avoid richly deserved prison sentences, lie low, and return to repeat[Read More…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Why War?

Why War?

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 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Háifoss waterfall in the heart of Iceland. (Photo: Moyan Brenn/flickr/cc)

There Is No Escape From Telling

By the lake’s lapping shore above the town and the railroad tracks, my wife and I stopped and marveled, struck stone silent by two dazzling Baltimore Orioles, clawed together as they tumbled, wrestling in the green morning breeze above our heads.  They perched upon a branch and sang a morning hymn, an ode to joy and the spring’s morning glory. [Read More…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Pakistan Goes to Anarchy and Self-Destruction

Pakistan Goes to Anarchy and Self-Destruction

Truth has its own Language The suspicious, paranoid and much hated illegitimate Sharifs, Bhuttos and the Generals are unleashing blind terror against the masses of Pakistan. The unprecedented abduction of Imran Khan, the former PM by the paratroopers from the High Court in Islamabad signals tragic tensions of missing logic and failed systems of political governance and accountability. Since April[Read More…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Wrestling Woes – Where Real and Reel Lives Merge

Wrestling Woes – Where Real and Reel Lives Merge

It has been weeks since some of the country’s best-known and most successful wrestlers have been on ‘dharna’ at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to voice their outrage against the highhandedness of the president of the Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who also happens to be a high-profile six-time BJP member of parliament with multiple criminal cases pending[Read More…]

by 11/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Biden’s Fear With U.S. Default: U.S. Reputation Would Be Damaged In The Extreme

Biden’s Fear With U.S. Default: U.S. Reputation Would Be Damaged In The Extreme

U.S. President Joe Biden has said U.S.’s reputation would be “damaged in the extreme” if the government were unable to pay its bills, insisting a default on the national debt is simply not an option. Addressing reporters after a meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday, Biden said the sit-down was “productive,” noting that all sides agreed to find a “path forward[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Sowing Seeds of Plunder: A Lose-Lose Situation in Ukraine 

Sowing Seeds of Plunder: A Lose-Lose Situation in Ukraine 

It’s a lose-lose situation for Ukrainians. While they are dying to defend their land, financial institutions are insidiously supporting the consolidation of farmland by oligarchs and Western financial interests. So says Frédéric Mousseau, Policy Director of the Oakland Institute, an independent think tank. Depending on which sources to believe, between 100,000 and 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers (possibly more) have died during[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Bhagat Singh, ‘the common hero of the subcontinent’

Bhagat Singh, ‘the common hero of the subcontinent’

Bhagat Singh with a pseudo name of Balwanth Singh wrote an article titled ‘Viswa Premi’ in a Calcutta based Hindi weekly ‘Math Wala’. In that article he praised the Italian revolutionary Mazzini, Russian revolutionary Lenin, American revolutionary George Washington and the leaders of the French revolutionaries as those who are being loved by the people of the universe. The following[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Bhagat Singh after he was arrested for the first time at the age of 20. Courtesy: Chaman Lal and Life & Legend of Bhagat Singh (A Pictorial Volume).

Bhagat Singh is an important symbol of resistance against injustice and oppression: Interview of Professor Chaman Lal

Chaman Lal, author of Life & Legend of Bhagat Singh (A Pictorial Volume), talked about his life’s work on the inspirational freedom fighter. The interview was taken by Rohan Datta. For nearly two decades, Chaman Lal, a professor of Hindi literature, has been gathering information and photographs relating to freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, who was executed by the British when[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Reflections on the Death of a Philosopher Colleague – A Tribute in Exclamation Marks

Reflections on the Death of a Philosopher Colleague – A Tribute in Exclamation Marks

The message flashed on my phone informing death of a Delhi University, Philosophy Assistant Professor, Samarveer Singh ‘by suicide’ in his rented accommodation near the University! I did not know Samarveer. But that is not important! I was surprised, why would an Assistant Professor with Delhi University, (the second-best job in India, the first being Indian Army), employed with presumably[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Striking Down the Caste Survey – Regressive or Transformative Attitudes of Patna High Court?

Striking Down the Caste Survey – Regressive or Transformative Attitudes of Patna High Court?

The recent interim order by Patna High Court to put a stay on Caste Survey that the Bihar government is carrying out does tell us about the flawed understanding of the caste question of the Indian Judiciary. The High Court put forth three reasons behind this interim order: First, the caste survey is not a survey but a caste census.[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Asia hardest hit by new COVID cases, deaths as WHO declares global health emergency ‘over’

Asia hardest hit by new COVID cases, deaths as WHO declares global health emergency ‘over’

Asia currently accounts for more than half of the world’s new and confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, with India, Indonesia and the Philippines being among the hardest-hit.  Combined, WHO regions Western Pacific and South-East Asia reported 1,140,000  new cases and increases of more than 20% in hospital and ICU admissions reported in several countries. These figures are widely considered as[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Towards an Alternative Education Path

Towards an Alternative Education Path

An alternative education path (ATP) which is well integrated with the creation of a better and safer world is presented here. One part of ATP can be called Core 1 and the essence of this remains the same from the beginning of school education to post-graduation, although of course the learning is different for various classes and age-groups. This core[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Bridging Narratives: Exploring Play

Bridging Narratives: Exploring Play

Review by Mitali Chakravarty of Sanjay Kumar’s Performing, Teaching and Writing Theatre: Exploring Play, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing About a hundred years ago, Tagore had tried to close social gaps with his work in Sriniketan. He had tried to bridge the chasm that separated ‘villagers’ with no access to technology and education and the ‘town dwellers’ with access to[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Khader Adnan celebrates with his children during a rally honoring him following his release from Israeli prison, near the West Bank city of Jenin on 12 July 2015. Adnan died Tuesday after 86 days of hunger strike against his renewed imprisonment. Shadi HatemAPA images

‘My Family, My People’: How Khader Adnan Unified Palestinians from His Prison Cell  

Khader Adnan was not a ‘terrorist’ with ‘Israeli blood on his hands,’ as pro-Israeli propagandists have been repeating in the news and on social media. If the former Palestinian prisoner, who died in his Israeli prison cell following 87 days of an uninterrupted hunger strike was, indeed, directly involved in armed resistance, the story would have had a completely different[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
An encounter with Tel Aviv University (Canada) at the Marriott Hotel in Toronto

An encounter with Tel Aviv University (Canada) at the Marriott Hotel in Toronto

Caption: Kevin Shimmin, Union Organizer at UFCW Canada (left) and Rima Najjar protesting Tel Aviv University’s “Changemakers” event at the Marriott Hotel in Toronto, May 7, 2023 At the Marriott Hotel in Toronto where my brother and I were staying on the 7th of May 2023, we noticed posters advertising an event called “The Changemakers Evening.” The “changemaker” turned out to[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
The Privatization of War, American-Style

The Privatization of War, American-Style

The way mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army have been waging a significant part of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been well covered in the American media, not least of all because his firm, the Wagner Group, draws most of its men from Russia’s prison system. Wagner offers “freedom” from Putin’s labor camps only to send those released convicts to the[Read More…]

by 10/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Brazilian President Lula Calls For The Release Of Julian Assange

Brazilian President Lula Calls For The Release Of Julian Assange

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticized the UK for its treatment of Julian Assange. He said the WikiLeaks founder has been imprisoned for his professional activities as a journalist and called on the government to release him. “It is an embarrassment that a journalist who denounced trickery by one state against another is arrested, condemned to die[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Election Commission’s inaction on my letters pointing out prima facie infringement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by the Prime Minister and Home Minister- Questions on the Commission’s role

Election Commission’s inaction on my letters pointing out prima facie infringement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by the Prime Minister and Home Minister- Questions on the Commission’s role

To Shri Rajiv Kumar Chief Election Commissioner Shri A C Pandey Election Commissioner Shri A Goel Election Commissioner Dear S/Shri Rajiv Kumar/ Pandey and Goel, I refer to two letters dated 3-5-2023 & 4-5-2023 addressed by me to the Commission pointing out prima facie infringements of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by the Union Home Minister, the Prime Minister[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The On-Going Palestinian Nakba

The On-Going Palestinian Nakba

May 15th, is the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe). And counting. I say ‘and counting’ because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation, with Jews, often of dual nationality, from around the world, continues more aggressively than ever.[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Charles III Coronation Ignored Imperialism, Colonialism, Genocide, Trauma, Deadly Colonial Legacy & Palestine

Charles III Coronation Ignored Imperialism, Colonialism, Genocide, Trauma, Deadly Colonial Legacy & Palestine

Perhaps billions around the world saw at least part of the coronation of King Charles III  and marvelled at the pomp, the pageantry and the glorious choral music.  The colourful military uniforms and the final parade of thousands of British and Commonwealth military forces testified to past  imperial glory. However the lavish circa $200 million coronation ignored  the ongoing deadly[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Whole Country Looks Toward Karnataka

The Whole Country Looks Toward Karnataka

Karnataka is heading for an election on May 10. The whole country is looking forward to this election. Because it is not only crucial for Karnataka’s future but it is also crucial for country India for the coming parliamentary election in 2024. In fact it sounds so imporatant because incumbent BJP party has been completely demoralised and has been exposed[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
King Charles III: Policing the Republican Protests

King Charles III: Policing the Republican Protests

In Britain, pageantry has always been a palliative and plaster for the dark and dismal.  Be it in times of crisis, the chance to put on an extravagant show, usually at vast expense, is not something to forego.  Central to this entertainment complex is the Royal family, that archaic vestige of an era that refuses to pass into history. The[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Future Path of European Union and Britain

Future Path of European Union and Britain

When Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, said while returning from a recent tour of China that European countries should not be like vassals of the USA, should not be dragged into a war with China and should be able to exercise strategic autonomy, there were voices of protest within Europe but also of support. It is likely that the[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
South Korea Pivots to Conflict

South Korea Pivots to Conflict

by Dae-Han Song and Alice S. Kim South Korea’s far-right President Yoon Suk Yeol is rushing South Korea headlong into the middle of the new Cold War that the United States is waging against China. Yoon’s aspiration to position South Korea as a “global pivotal state” is turning South Korea into a bigger cog in the U.S. war machine and stakes South[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Debt Ceiling Debate Is a Massive Deception Against the Public

The Debt Ceiling Debate Is a Massive Deception Against the Public

Future historians will likely look back at the debt ceiling rituals being reenacted these days with a frustrated shaking of their heads. That otherwise reasonable people would be so readily deceived raises the question that will provoke those historians: How could this happen? The U.S. Congress has imposed successive ceilings on the national debt, each one higher than the last.[Read More…]

by 09/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
 Nuremberg trials for imperiling mass extinction of species

 Nuremberg trials for imperiling mass extinction of species

But while “leaders” fail to protect the people from global warming and nuclear war, they have succeeded splendidly in hiding the truth through the denial of climate change, accounting tricks and claims of reduction in domestic emissions, while in fact opening new coal mines, oil wells and fracked coal seams,  exporting hydrocarbons through the entire global atmosphere.          As mean[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Little things mean a lot: The world’s microbiome under threat

Little things mean a lot: The world’s microbiome under threat

Among the most visible species threatened with extinction are leopards, tigers, elephants, orangutans, gorillas and rhinoceroses. What may be of even greater consequence, however, are the millions of species we cannot see, the microbiome of the Earth which is essential to the life of plants and animals worldwide. As the Sixth Great Extinction proceeds, our attention ought to turn as much to these[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Rise up and Defeat the Majoritarian Fascist Agenda Behind Manipur Ethnic Clashes

Rise up and Defeat the Majoritarian Fascist Agenda Behind Manipur Ethnic Clashes

The unprecedented ethnic clashes in Manipur since 3 May, 2023 leading to the murder of at least 54 people, injuring hundreds and loss of property worth many crores have not yet fully subsided. It has become more evident that in the clashes between the relatively better off and dominant “Hindu Meitei” people composed of 53% of the population and the[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
No WWII No Victory Parade in Moscow & No War in Ukraine Today If the West Had Not Rearmed Germany!

No WWII No Victory Parade in Moscow & No War in Ukraine Today If the West Had Not Rearmed Germany!

May 9th! Moscow Celebrates Victory Over  Nazi Germany’s Most Massive and Genocidal Invasion in History,                 but with incomprehensibly little or no public condemnation of American corporations having earlier heavily rearmed Hitler’s Nazi Germany as British and French armies stood down in cooperation and in violation of the Versailles Treaty’s prohibition of German rearmament.[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Homo Deus: From Being Masters to Marionettes

Homo Deus: From Being Masters to Marionettes

Imagine this. You have to travel from one place to another. You have two options. Human driver driven taxi or an-AI-algorithm-controlled automatic taxi. You know the associated traits of each – the human driver wouldn’t accurately know the roads that will be congested, and may be tired or sleepy. The “machine” driver will exactly know that roads to avoid and[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Ukraine Conflict: Chinese-proposed Peace Talks Could Begin By The End of 2023, Says Kissinger

Ukraine Conflict: Chinese-proposed Peace Talks Could Begin By The End of 2023, Says Kissinger

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has told CBS News that the conflict in Ukraine may be approaching a turning point, and that Chinese-brokered peace talks could begin by the end of 2023. “Now that China has entered the negotiation, it will come to a head, I think by the end of the year,” the 99-year-old diplomat told CBS[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Karnataka Calls For Change!

Karnataka Calls For Change!

  Karnataka has gone silent today after a high velocity and vicious election campaign reaching deafening crescendos till yesterday. With   Assembly Elections 2023 just a couple of days away on 10 May, there is much at stake!! Many refer to it as the ‘mother -of -all-elections’! In could well be the defining moment of India’s political history! Serious students of[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Silencing the Fourth Estate: India’s Press Freedom Ranking Continues to Slide, Ranks 161st among 180 Countries

Silencing the Fourth Estate: India’s Press Freedom Ranking Continues to Slide, Ranks 161st among 180 Countries

The past few years, we have seen the ranking of India in the World Press Freedom Index has been declining steadily. Two years back, in 2021, India slipped two spots to 142nd rank, a far cry from its 2016 ranking of 133. In 2022, the country’s ranking fell even further to 161st among 180 countries. This decline in press freedom[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Nuking the Promise of America

Nuking the Promise of America

I turn 60 this year. My health is generally good, though I have aches and pains from a form of arthritis. I’m not optimistic enough to believe that the best years of my life are ahead of me, nor so pessimistic as to assume that the best years are behind me. But I do know this, however sad it may[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Mental Health, Clinical Examination and Social Examination

Mental Health, Clinical Examination and Social Examination

If despite impressive increase in mental health facilities, mental health problems rise to almost an unprecedented extent in several advanced societies, it may be time to re-examine the entire perspective of present-day approach. Treatment of mental health problems has made remarkable progress from several points of view. Many new medicines are available. Several advanced forms of counseling are available. Several[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Russian Composer Dimitri Shostakovich & Leningrad Symphony Persona Non Grata in America

Russian Composer Dimitri Shostakovich & Leningrad Symphony Persona Non Grata in America

Dimitri Shostakovich A Victim of U.S. Propaganda War in Ukraine Preface The best of all ways for humanity to begin to heal the massive amounts of evil hatred, malevolent rage, unchecked violence, cancerous suspicions, and an all but total collapse of trust between the warring parties that the war in Ukraine has created and continues to foster, is to re-assert[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Same-sex Marriage Pleas in the Supreme Court of India: LGBTQIA Community at the Crossroads

Same-sex Marriage Pleas in the Supreme Court of India: LGBTQIA Community at the Crossroads

  The ongoing hearings on same-sex marriage petitions have resulted in a minor concession being offered to the LGBTQIA community by way of welfarist steps. A government committee would be constituted to address the issues which could at best benefit a small section of the LGBTQIA community. Meanwhile the Supreme Court has indicated clearly that Parliament alone can legislate on[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Dr. G M Din: Photo courtsey by Dr. Farooq A Wandroo

Dr. Ghulam Mohi ud Din  first qualified medical doctor of Kashmir

Mufti Saud ud Din of famous Mufti Family of Wazpora had two sons, namely, Mufti Ghulam Mohi ud Din & Mufti Rafi ud Din. Mufti Saud ud Din was a courtier of the Nizam Hyderabad. Mufti Ghulam Mohi ud Din was born at Wazpora Srinagar, Kashmir on 15 the October 1904 and was educated in Kashmir upto Intermediate. He  was[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
JUST-IS denounces Political Terror against the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan

JUST-IS denounces Political Terror against the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan

In no uncertain terms, JUST-IS (A Network of Interfaith Solidarity Activists against Global Militarism and for Social Justice) harshly denounces the recent spate of attacks against houses of worship of the minority Ahmadiyya religious community in Pakistan. The most recent one, https://countercurrents.org/2023/05/desecration-of-yet-another-ahmadi-mosque-in-pakistan/, has been the most heinous. Of course, mainstream Muslim orthodoxy has had a profound theological problem with certain beliefs[Read More…]

by 08/05/2023 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Artificial Intelligence & The Polycrisis

Artificial Intelligence & The Polycrisis

Editor & Author’s Preface: This piece doesn’t explain itself much, nor argue effectively (with citations and footnotes), but speaks to those who have already come to understand the situation in — at least — the basic shape I have. To do otherwise would require months of work, if not years. So this is a distilled essay for those who are waking up from the[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Solidarity with Women Wrestling Against Abusive Power, Arrest Brij Bhushan Singh, Democratize Sports Federations

Solidarity with Women Wrestling Against Abusive Power, Arrest Brij Bhushan Singh, Democratize Sports Federations

7th May, 2023: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) expresses full solidarity with the women wrestlers of our country who have been agitating for action against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and BJP MP from Kaiserganj (UP), on grounds of repeated instances of sexual harassment and abuse of power. We condemn the callousness[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
China Disguised ─ Opinions Posed as Facts

China Disguised ─ Opinions Posed as Facts

Agendas, exaggerations, and misrepresentations guide media reports of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Illogical descriptions and unverified information are apparent in many reports. Not being logical and not validating information is troublesome and the reason is obvious ─ validating information and being logical yields a truthful perspective and that perspective is damaging to those who shape specious opinions of[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Book Review: Renaissance and the 1857 Rebellion in the Hindi region

Book Review: Renaissance and the 1857 Rebellion in the Hindi region

——————————————————————————————————————————- BAGAAWAT AUR WAFAADAARI: NAVJAGRAN KE IRD-GIRD (REBELLION AND FAITHFULNESS: IN THE VICINITY OF THE RENAISSANCE) By Vir Bharat Talwar 2023, New Delhi, Vani Prakashan, Pp. 152, Rs. 399/- ——————————————————————————————————————————- Dr. Vir Bharat Talwar is a scholar of renaissance in the Hindi and North West India region. He retired as head of the department, Hindi, JNU. He has written several[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Murder without a Killer—West’s Refusal to Seek Truth on Nord Stream Sabotage

Murder without a Killer—West’s Refusal to Seek Truth on Nord Stream Sabotage

A long time back I was visiting some remote villages where the murder of a youth who had raised his voice against corruption of a powerful local contractor and politician had attracted a lot of attention. There was an undercurrent of simmering anger among people but no one was willing to discuss many details openly, much less make any accusations.[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
ChatGPT and human intelligence: Noam Chomsky responds to critics

ChatGPT and human intelligence: Noam Chomsky responds to critics

The recent emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT (part of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer family of language models) has attracted a lot of attention throughout the world. It is a chatbot released in November 2022, and, according to OpenAI’s website, its “dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.” The[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
‘AI-Shima’ Will Hack Your Password

‘AI-Shima’ Will Hack Your Password

Source: author + www.craiyon.com Perhaps the recent media hype about artificial intelligence (AI) and “not-really-so” OpenAI’s program called ChatGPT, made many people worried about AI. Some – even inside AI – are convinced that, we can’t afford an AI-shima – a Fukushima-like atomic accident inside our computers and the Internet. Like another nuclear accident that affects millions, we can’t afford[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Scott Morrison and Australia’s Lobby Complex

Scott Morrison and Australia’s Lobby Complex

The former Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has been somewhat of an absentee in the Federal seat of Cook.  Since losing the May 2022 election, he has been aggressively chasing up contacts and deals on the consultancy circuit, bellyaching about the usual talking points: the gruesome China menace; defence matters; and, just to round it off for good measure, additional[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Aussies Say No to Nuclear Sub Base at Port Kembla

Aussies Say No to Nuclear Sub Base at Port Kembla

As the only G20 country to ban nuclear power by federal law, Australia is now considering where to build an east coast base for its new American-British Missouri class nuclear-powered submarine fleet. On the short list of three possibilities are Brisbane, Newcastle or Port Kembla (Aboriginal for “plenty of waterfowl”). The New South Wales (NSW) Port Kembla on the Tasman[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Tampax King and his Vessel

The Tampax King and his Vessel

In December 1936, love won out for the British king Edward VIII, and he gave up the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite. What is socialite? According to Google Dictionary: “a person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment.” Typically, this term is applied to a female. Think Paris Hilton,[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
There is room for Fascism in Democracy: Siddique Kappan

There is room for Fascism in Democracy: Siddique Kappan

Siddique Kappan, a 43-year-old Malayali journalist and Delhi unit secretary of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists was arrested near Mathura toll plaza on October 5th, 2020, with student activists Atikur Rahman and Masood Ahmad, and the cab’s driver, Mohammad Alam. He was en route to Hathras to report on the gang rape and murder of a Dalit girl (the[Read More…]

by 07/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Cuba President Miguel Diaz-Canel (left) and former president Raul Castro (2nd from left) take part in the 2023 May Day celebration.

Defiant Cuba celebrates May Day

Defiant Cuba celebrates May Day. An AFP report (“Communist Cuba celebrates Worker’s Day, four days late”), datelined May 5, 2023, said: “Cuba finally celebrated May Day on Friday, four days late, after the original celebration of workers was postponed due to the risk of rain and trimmed down as a result of a fuel shortage. “The May 1 celebration is[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Desecration of yet another Ahmadi Mosque in Pakistan

Desecration of yet another Ahmadi Mosque in Pakistan

The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) is shocked and saddened by the news of the desecration of yet another Ahmadi mosque in the Milpur Khas District of Pakistan on 4th May 2023. It is alleged that about 150 people demolished four minarets of the mosque and attempted to damage its Mihrab. This is the third act of vandalism[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
De-dollarization, A National Security Concern To A World-Power

De-dollarization, A National Security Concern To A World-Power

De-dollarization now looks inevitable and threatens to become a national security concern, according to International Crisis Group co-chair Frank Giustra. A Business Insider report — “De-dollarization is no longer a matter of if, but when — and is a national security concern, says International Crisis Group cochair”, May 3, 2023, — said: In commentary published in Responsible Statecraft, Frank Giustra said[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Nita Ambani Cultural Centre is more about money than culture

Nita Ambani Cultural Centre is more about money than culture

The new Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai as of now is all about money, money, money, opulence, display of wealth and the personality cult. Last evening I was there looking at a Pichai art work in the foyer when an attendant in a hushed, polite voice told me – Ambani sir is coming. After some time Mukesh Ambani[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
 Allowing FDI in nuclear power development an imprudent step- It will adversely impact the national security

 Allowing FDI in nuclear power development an imprudent step- It will adversely impact the national security

To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary I had earlier addressed you vide my letter dated 7-10-2022 (https://countercurrents.org/2022/10/revoke-amendments-permitting-private-companies-to-undertake-beach-sand-mining/?swcfpc=1) asking the government to revoke amendments to Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDRA), with reference to the entry of private companies in beach sand mining. The reason for it is that beach sands in India present a fairly large source[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Hypocritical Commemorations: World Press Freedom Day

Hypocritical Commemorations: World Press Freedom Day

Selected days for commemoration serve one fundamental purpose.  Centrally, they acknowledge the forgotten or neglected, while proposing to do nothing about it.  It’s the priest’s confession, the chance for absolution before the next round of soiling. These occasions are often money-making exercises for canny businesses: the days put aside to remember mothers and fathers, for instance.  But there is no[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Why Julian Assange Is at the Vanguard for World Press Freedom

Why Julian Assange Is at the Vanguard for World Press Freedom

We celebrate World Press Freedom Day in May as a reminder that the role of news organizations is to speak truth to power. Not for manufacturing consent—to use Chomsky’s famous words—for the government and the ruling classes. It’s an occasion to remember three people who exemplify the need to speak the truth: Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and Julian Assange of WikiLeaks; and[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
May Day in Havana: International Solidarity to Resist the U.S. Blockade

May Day in Havana: International Solidarity to Resist the U.S. Blockade

This year’s May Day celebration in Cuba was interrupted by severe storms that knocked out electricity in much of the country. Authorities had no choice but to postpone the traditional mass marches. But for over 150 young grassroots organizers from the United States who had traveled to the country to mark the holiday, this turn of events was just more[Read More…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
De-Scamming Through Self-Consciousness

De-Scamming Through Self-Consciousness

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…]

by 06/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
(Photo: FridaysForFuture/Flickr/cc)

Most Critical Yet Most Neglected Aspect of 21st Century

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…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
B’nai Brith Canada & CIJA, Palestinians are not alone and they are not afraid

B’nai Brith Canada & CIJA, Palestinians are not alone and they are not afraid

Caption: Masar Badil — Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Liberation Movement and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Neturei Karta leading the May Day Liberation March in Ottawa, April 30, 2023 With the successful completion of the Palestine Liberation Conference: Envisioning Liberation, Confronting Colonialism in Ottawa (April 28–29), the first such conference in North America (Read the declaration of the conference here), Masar Badil and[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Navigating the Polycrisis–Life in Turbulent Times

Navigating the Polycrisis–Life in Turbulent Times

How can we explain the explosive emergence of global awareness of the polycrisis over the past year, 2022-2023? Three years ago, almost no one had heard of the polycrisis. What happened? What Is the Polycrisis? First, let’s roughly define the polycrisis. Some claim it is nothing new. We believe the polycrisis is new. We believe a confluence of environmental, social,[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Last Chance For Opposition

Last Chance For Opposition

The Karnataka pre-election surveys indicate a pro-Congress wave which naturally raise the spirits of the Congress and the opposition,while it sees BJP ICON Prime Minister publicly showing his hurt sentiments by weeping before a crowded rally at alleged calumnies by opposition leaders. So far so good.But the BJP is sure to use its trump card, highlighting divisive communal issues which[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
We Lied, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tells On Key U.S. Mistake With Russia

We Lied, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tells On Key U.S. Mistake With Russia

“We should have listened to Putin over many years. We made a commitment to Russia, to Gorbachev, that we would not move NATO one inch to the east. Then we went in, and we lied,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with UnHerd (Robert Kennedy Jr: America needs a revolution, by Freddie Sayers, Editor-in-Chief of UnHerd, ), published[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Image Credits- Ye_Jinghan, Unsplash

Mental Health of Prisoners—An issue of Deep Concern but also Persistent Neglect

“Look here, Al, I’ll tell ya one thing– the jail house is jus’ a kind a way a drivin’ a guy slowly nuts. See? An’ they go nuts, an’ you see ‘em an’ hear ‘em, and pretty soon you don’ know if you are nuts or not. When they get to screamin’ in the night sometimes you think it’s you[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Drawing by Jerzy Wasiukiewicz

Can the U.S. Adjust Sensibly to a Multipolar World?

by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies  In his 1987 book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, historian Paul Kennedy reassured Americans that the decline the United States was facing after a century of international dominance was “relative and not absolute, and is therefore perfectly natural; and that the only serious threat to the real interests of[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Who Said BDS Has ‘Already Failed’?: European Cities Boycott Apartheid Israel 

Who Said BDS Has ‘Already Failed’?: European Cities Boycott Apartheid Israel 

A succession of events starting in Barcelona, Spain, in February, and followed in Liège, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, in April sent a strong message to Israel: The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is alive and well. In Barcelona, the city’s Mayor canceled a twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The decision was not an impulsive[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
The Twenty-First Century of (Profitable) War

The Twenty-First Century of (Profitable) War

by Ben Freeman and William D. Hartung The military-industrial complex (MIC) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about more than 60 years ago is still alive and well. In fact, it’s consuming many more tax dollars and feeding far larger weapons producers than when Ike raised the alarm about the “unwarranted influence” it wielded in his 1961 farewell address to the[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
From the History of International Relations (IR): War, National Interest, and the League of Nations

From the History of International Relations (IR): War, National Interest, and the League of Nations

In broad terms, the national interest refers to the goals of foreign politics, objectives, or policy preferences that benefit a nation or society as a whole. That is the foreign policy equivalent of the public interest. However, the concept of national interest is practically vague and contested. The concept is most widely used by realist theorists, for whom it is[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
World Press Freedom Day Rally held outside Indian visa office in Canada

World Press Freedom Day Rally held outside Indian visa office in Canada

A Metro Vancouver-based online magazine organized a demonstration to draw global attention to the ongoing suppression of press freedom in the world’s so-called largest democracy, in Surrey on Wednesday, May 3. Radical Desi had given the call for a protest rally outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center on World Press Freedom Day. The event was started with homage[Read More…]

by 05/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Noam Chomsky Speaks on What ChatGPT Is Really Good For

Noam Chomsky Speaks on What ChatGPT Is Really Good For

by C.J. Polychroniou and Noam Chomsky Artificial intelligence (AI) is sweeping the world. It is transforming every walk of life and raising in the process major ethical concerns for society and the future of humanity. ChatGPT, which is dominating social media, is an AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI. It is a subset of machine learning and relies on what is[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Stop USAID Funding Opposition Groups, Mexico President Asks Biden

Stop USAID Funding Opposition Groups, Mexico President Asks Biden

Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador asked his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden to stop the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from funding groups hostile to his government, according to a letter presented to journalists on Wednesday, echoing previous Mexican criticism of U.S. interventionism. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has in the past accused several media organizations of being[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Sir Keir Starmer: A Labour Leader Sans Labour Values

Sir Keir Starmer: A Labour Leader Sans Labour Values

Keir Starmer, as the Labour leader, pledged to create a better future based on several progressive policies, including nationalization, higher taxes, and cancelling of tuition fees. These policies were crucial to persuading Labour Party members to elect him as their party leader. However, Keir Starmer has abandoned the policy promises that helped him win the leadership position. If u-turn is[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
China’s Expanding Presence in the Middle East

China’s Expanding Presence in the Middle East

China is maximizing the opportunity to strengthen its diplomatic and economic ties with the Middle East (ME) as the United States gradually reduces its military presence there. With longtime U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia, Beijing has already signed significant agreements and maintained friendly ties with Iran. China’s interactions with the ME have historically been driven primarily by economic considerations. There[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Informal sector must lay claims to deprived rights On May Day

Informal sector must lay claims to deprived rights On May Day

In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886). May Day commemorates the struggles and gains made by workers and the labour movement around the world. It also serves to highlight the deplorable conditions of workers and their oppression under patterns of[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Left  Wing  Extremist and   Islamic  Terrorist    challenges

Left  Wing  Extremist and   Islamic  Terrorist    challenges

Our   Defence  Minister  Rajnath  Singh’s  braggadocio  that  the  Islamist  terrorists  in  Kashmir  have  been  eliminated,  and  our  Home  Minister  Amit  Shah’s  much  touted  announcement  that  the  Maoist  insurgents  (termed  officially  as  LWE  –  Left  Wing  Extremists)  have  been  crushed,  are  receiving  wide-spread  applause  by  the  mainstream  media.   But  both  the  claims  have  turned  out  to  be   deceitful,  or  at  best [Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Open Letter To Australian MPs Re Horrendous US Alliance Lying, War Crimes & Regime Changing

Open Letter To Australian MPs Re Horrendous US Alliance Lying, War Crimes & Regime Changing

Careful accounting reveals 85 instances of the US attempting to overthrow foreign governments since WW2 and that the US was successful in 50 instances, with craven US lackey Australia being involved in 8 of these regime changes. A detailed and documented summary of this gross and criminal US violation of Humanity has been sent as an Open Letter to all[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
125th birth anniversary of Bertolt Brecht

125th birth anniversary of Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was one of the most original and creative dramatists, poets, and thinkers of the twentieth century. An unorthodox Marxist who pioneered forms to integrate art and politics, during his lifetime he was often considered a menace in the side of more traditional communist theorists and cultural policy-makers, but also one of the most innovative modern writers. He pioneered[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Prima facie violations of Model Code of Conduct by both INC and Prime Minister Modi in connection with Karnataka Assembly elections

Prima facie violations of Model Code of Conduct by both INC and Prime Minister Modi in connection with Karnataka Assembly elections

To Shri Rajiv Kumar Chief Election Commissioner   Shri A C Pandey Election Commissioner   Shri A Goel Election Commissioner   Dear S/Shri Rajiv Kumar/ Pandey and Goel, In the specific case of party manifestos, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) says, “While the Commission agrees in principle with the point of view that framing of manifestos is the right of[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Yes, Millions of Lives Can Be Saved From Accidents Related Deaths

Yes, Millions of Lives Can Be Saved From Accidents Related Deaths

Accidents at world level result in millions of fatalities and serious injuries and constitute one of the most widespread causes of human distress. Of course fatal accidents cause the most distress and shock but several times the injuries caused by accidents are so serious, painful, disabling or unbearable due to various reasons and circumstances that victims consider their situation to[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Imperialism, from its origins to the Great War it caused

Imperialism, from its origins to the Great War it caused

(An excerpt from The Great Class War 1914-1918, by Jacques R. Pauwels, published by James Lorimer, Toronto, 2016) The nineteenth century was the century of the Industrial Revolution, and in each industrializing country, economic productivity increased rapidly. Supply thus overtook demand and that produced the very first crisis of overproduction as early as 1873. (Earlier, economic crises had typically been[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Dead Man Walking: One Poet’s Struggle for Freedom of Speech in Bangladesh

Dead Man Walking: One Poet’s Struggle for Freedom of Speech in Bangladesh

On the 26th of April 2023, Mohammad Mofijul Islam, the officer in charge of the Jatrabari police station of Dhaka Metropolitan Police in Bangladesh, recorded a general diary alleging that I, William Gomes, a freelance journalist and Bangladeshi living in the UK, committed a crime under Section 21 of the DSA. The general diary accused me of engaging in propaganda[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Parliament house in New Delhi on July 24th 2015. Express photo by Ravi Kanojia.

India Faces Leadership Crisis or Democratic? 

History stands witness to leaders at practically all levels, from Kings to revolutionaries, having always accorded great importance to promoting their images through their dresses and appearances as a whole. Interestingly, there has been no decrease in this trait still being considered important by leaders practically in all parts of world but with a difference. If monarchs in past viewed[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Letter from a Feline Friend

Letter from a Feline Friend

Well, hello human! It’s me, your feline friend, and I am here to school you on a thing or two today. You see, I’ve been observing you for a while now, and I can’t help but notice how lonely you all seem to be. It’s a shame, really. And what’s worse, you seem to project that insecurity onto us cats,[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
The Kerala Story: When Cinema Becomes the Tool to Spread Hate 

The Kerala Story: When Cinema Becomes the Tool to Spread Hate 

It is alarming to see the rise of propaganda films in India that use art as a tool to propagate hate and create division among communities. Even Kerala, the God’s Own Country is not spared while filmmakers influenced by the fringe elements are trying to pose the state in a bad light. Thanks to the upcoming release of the film[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
International Labor Day and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

International Labor Day and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

Sometimes the less successful people are made the heroes of history and are valued in history but it takes centuries for the great heroes to find their true place. And though it takes centuries, these great heroes find a place in the hearts of countless generations. Babasaheb Ambedkar is also one of such great personalities. This century identified as Babasaheb[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Condemn the raid on activists in Jharkhand by NIA

Condemn the raid on activists in Jharkhand by NIA

CASR vehemently condemns the raid on anti-displacement activist Damodar Turi, Jailed Journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh and Majdoor Sangthan Samiti (MSS) activists Bacha Singh, Nageshwar Mahto, and Sanjay Turi. On 2th May 2023, NIA raided the houses of several activists in various places of Jharkhand. The series of raid started early morning around 5 am , with the first house being[Read More…]

by 04/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Khader Adnan celebrates with his children during a rally honoring him following his release from Israeli prison, near the West Bank city of Jenin on 12 July 2015. Adnan died Tuesday after 86 days of hunger strike against his renewed imprisonment. Shadi HatemAPA images

Khader Adnan, who yearned to live free, dies in Israeli prison

Khader Adnan died after 86 days of refusing food in protest of his detention by Israel. The news early Tuesday prompted outpourings of anger and grief among Palestinians who see him as an icon of courageous and steadfast resistance to Israeli oppression. Adnan is the first Palestinian to die during a hunger strike in almost 40 years. His death brings to 237 the[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Map showing where record breaking heatwaves are most likely. 

Record-breaking Heatwaves Likely To Cause Most Harm In Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, and Central America

A new study has highlighted under-prepared regions across the world most at risk of the devastating effects of scorching temperatures. The University of Bristol-led research report (Thompson, V., Mitchell, D., Hegerl, G.C. et al. The most at-risk regions in the world for high-impact heatwaves. Nat Commun 14, 2152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37554-1), published today in Nature Communications, shows that unprecedented heat extremes combined with socioeconomic vulnerability puts[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Karnataka: The Aroma of Humanism

Karnataka: The Aroma of Humanism

During my first visit to Mysore in 1980, I was amazed by the tranquility and salubrious chillness pervaded everywhere. My lungs were filled with the aroma of sandalwood.  I actually traveled from a remote village in Kolar district to Mysore city for the first time in my life.  I remembered the song ‘Gandhada Gudi’, praising Karnataka as the country of[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Baghar Village, Bageshwar, Uttarakhand

Forgotten Girls of Hill Villages

There are countless subdued dreams of young girls residing in the remote villages of Bageshwar, one of the 13 districts in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Bageshwar, which was erstwhile a part of Almora district, was divided into three development blocks: Bageshwar, Garur, and Kapkot, to speed up the pace of development. But even after two decades, the district still[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Defend Journalism Now, Says DUJ on World Press Freedom Day

Defend Journalism Now, Says DUJ on World Press Freedom Day

The Delhi Union of Journalists salutes all journalists and other employees in the media sector on the 30th World Press Freedom Day. Proclaimed by the United Nations in 1993, the World Press Freedom Day on May 3 is supposed to act as a “reminder to governments” of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom. For journalists, the Day[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Euro-imperialism ready for new colonial wars in Africa

Euro-imperialism ready for new colonial wars in Africa

Where is Danish foreign policy headed? Everything now revolves around the war in Ukraine and rearmament against Russia, which is quite openly called our enemy, and where sanctions are being extended and trade and contacts are being cut off in all areas. NATO now also talks about China in its new strategy papers. But what about Africa, which has for[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Dr S Faizi: An untiring environmental champion of the global South

Dr S Faizi: An untiring environmental champion of the global South

They used to call him  ‘the young knight f the Third World’, but he was not pleased as he believed that was meant to weaken the credibility of his scientific arguments, besides his disdain for the phrase third world. This is about the environmentalist Dr S Faizi, and his detractors were the western negotiators at UN environmental conferences, in the[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Our Rapidly Changing Climate Mitigation Situation

Our Rapidly Changing Climate Mitigation Situation

The persistent La Niña of the past three years is rapidly cycling into the El Niño phase. There are indications that it could become a major El Niño which could push GMT warming to record levels – perhaps even exceeding a 1.5C rise while escalating climate impacts and damage. While this surge of impacts and damage will hopefully not be[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Rerunning Biden’s Blunderland

Rerunning Biden’s Blunderland

President Joseph Biden has done what many from his own party dreaded but dare not say.  Last month, via a painful video, the aged Democrat declared his candidacy for a second term in the White House, branding himself a defender of US democracy.  For a politician lacking the mettle of competence, awareness, and, at certain points, basic clarity of the[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Masar Badil, Samidoun usher bolder activism — and growing backlash, as they march in Ottawa

Masar Badil, Samidoun usher bolder activism — and growing backlash, as they march in Ottawa

Both Networks are challenging Zionist manufactured smears and their power to twist governments as they like Caption: Demonstrators chanting in front of the American Embassy in Ottawa: “Israel is a terrorist State.” May Day March, April 30, 2023 It was overcast, rainy and windy when my brother and I arrived at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights in Ottawa on[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Winners and Losers in Sudan: On Proxy Wars and Superpower Rivalries in the Global South

Winners and Losers in Sudan: On Proxy Wars and Superpower Rivalries in the Global South

The world is changing. In fact, it has been undergoing seismic change that long preceded the Russian-Ukraine war, and the recent US-Chinese tensions in the Taiwan Strait. In fact, the US debacle in Iraq and the Middle East, and the humiliating retreat from Afghanistan were only signs of the decline in US power. Leading US neoconservative strategists have once argued in “Rebuilding America’s Defenses:[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Is Michelangelo’s David obscene?

Is Michelangelo’s David obscene?

I didn’t know whether to be amazed, amused, bewildered or shocked when I came across the news report of how the principal of a Florida school was forced to quit her job because a parent complained after students were shown Michelangelo’s iconic “nude” statue of David. Apparently the statue was considered “pornographic” by a parent. Ideally, the parents ought to[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Ukraine Needs Community-Based Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

Ukraine Needs Community-Based Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

What Ukraine needs today above all is a large-scale, sustained, community-based rehabilitation and reconstruction effort, with added emphasis on nutrition, health, care for the ill and the injured, and many more sustainable livelihoods. So all well-wishers, real and fake ones, please send Ukraine medicines and medical equipment, generous economic support and construction material they may lack, but please keep your[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Prima facie violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by Shri Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister in Karnataka

Prima facie violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by Shri Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister in Karnataka

To   Shri Rajiv Kumar Chief Election Commissioner   Shri A C Pandey Election Commissioner   Shri A Goel Election Commissioner Dear S/Shri Rajiv Kumar/ Pandey and Goel, I have come across a report (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/99769842.cms?from=mdr&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst) that the Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, during election meetings in Karnataka recently, said, “if Congress is elected in Karnataka, dynastic politics will be[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Human Rights Situation in the Indian Sub Continent

The Human Rights Situation in the Indian Sub Continent

An unabridged version of the Presentation made in the 36th session of UNHRC Mr.President, I come from a Tamil culture which proclaims to the world யா A ஊேர யாவ¶A ேகளnJ “Yaadhum Oore Yavarum KeLir”, meaning “the world is one and all are my kith and kin”. I also come from a sub continent which is proud of its diversity. Diversity[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Freedom of Expression: Driver for All other Human Rights

Freedom of Expression: Driver for All other Human Rights

Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel Prize recipient in Economic Sciences said, “Free speech and a free press not only make abuses of governmental powers less likely; they also enhance the likelihood that people’s basic social needs will be met. Secrecy reduces the information available to the citizenry, hobbling people’s ability to participate meaningfully. Essentially, meaningful participation in democratic processes requires[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Everyday Exclusions of Migrant Workers in Ahmedabad’s Industrial Clusters

Everyday Exclusions of Migrant Workers in Ahmedabad’s Industrial Clusters

Ahmedabad’s eastern peripheral areas include informal industrial clusters such as Vatva, Narol, Sarkhej, Ramol, Dani Limda, Aslali. These are well-known for a variety of industries that they house. The industries here include garments and textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemical processing, machine parts, wood processing, fabrication, plastic recycling, glass manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, transport, warehouses, small restaurants and hotels, garages, automobile servicing, electrical parts and[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Campaign for Modi Free India launched in Canada

Campaign for Modi Free India launched in Canada

As India heads for a general election in May, 2024, Metro Vancouver-based North Americans Against Modi (NAAM) has called upon overseas Indians to get organized to rid their home country of a Hindu supremacist leader. Narendra Modi first got elected as the Prime Minister of India in May, 2014. He has now completed nine years in office. Attacks on religious[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
How Popular is the PM Mann Ki Baat? A Glimpse after its 100th Episode Comes out 

How Popular is the PM Mann Ki Baat? A Glimpse after its 100th Episode Comes out 

PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat program is a monthly radio address that has been a part of his public outreach since he took office in 2014. The program is aired on All India Radio, as well as on various digital platforms, and is meant to be an opportunity for the Prime Minister to directly address the public on a variety[Read More…]

by 03/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Tribute to Harry Belafonte

Tribute to Harry Belafonte

The outstanding Jamaica-born artist, Civil Rights activist and internationalist, Harry Belafonte, died from congestive heart failure at age 96, a week ago, on April 25, 2023.A mascot of people’s emancipation from injustice. His life story that shaped his life are amongst the most gripping commentaries ever. Belafonte achieved gigantic fame almost 70 years ago, when he was only in his[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Withdraw Foreign Forces From Syria, Arab States Call

Withdraw Foreign Forces From Syria, Arab States Call

The foreign ministers of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq said on Monday after meeting in Amman said the government in Damascus should re-establish the rule of law on all of Syria’s territory, ending the presence of foreign armed groups and terrorists,. Jordan hosted the meeting, the first of its kind since Syria’s membership in the Arab League was[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Scrapping Charles Darwin: Hindutva’s Anti-Scientific Maladies

Scrapping Charles Darwin: Hindutva’s Anti-Scientific Maladies

Welcome the canons of pseudoscience.  Open your arms to the dribbling, sponsored charlatans.  According to a growing number of India’s top officialdom, teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to children in their ninth and 10th grades is simply not on. Last month, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), a purportedly autonomous government organisation responsible for curricula content[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The coming war. Speak up. Now!

The coming war. Speak up. Now!

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…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Ukraine War Shifts to Economic Warfare

Ukraine War Shifts to Economic Warfare

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, realized early, in his country’s invasion of Ukraine, that adversaries do not always fight wars on a battlefield. The realization that Russian military superiority could not easily overcome Ukraine’s moral superiority and its defensive capabilities succeeded the recognition by Ukraine’s NATO allies that Russia could not be defeated militarily and might be defeated by imposing sanctions[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Linking Local with Global Will Help Peace Movement to Have A Broad Base

Linking Local with Global Will Help Peace Movement to Have A Broad Base

As threats of war, weapons and violence increase at many levels in a deeply troubled world, the peace movement, in all its nobility and good intentions, is found to be too weak to respond adequately to these big challenges. Far too many people are paid to work full time for weapons and wars than for disarmament and peace–in fact the[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
To End All Wars, Close All Bases

To End All Wars, Close All Bases

A Gazan Ph.D. candidate studying in India, Mohammad Abunahel steadily refines and updates a map on the World BEYOND War website, dedicating a portion of every day to continue researching the extent and impact of USA foreign bases.  What is Mohammad Abunahel learning, and how can we support him? On the few occasions when a government moves toward converting property[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Concept And The Causes Of War

The Concept And The Causes Of War

There are many definitions and/or understandings of war. However, from the very academic point of view, war can be understood as an armed conflict between at least two sides usually but not necessarily states fought usually for some (geo)political goals. The focal conceptual idea of war is the use of force between large-scale political subjects like states, empires, or coalitions.[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
After Years of Attacking Protesters, Sudan’s Army and Paramilitary RSF Turn on Each Other

After Years of Attacking Protesters, Sudan’s Army and Paramilitary RSF Turn on Each Other

by Pavan Kulkarni and Prasanth Radhakrishnan More than 500 people have been killed and 4,000 injured since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15. Groups such as the Sudan Doctors Union are worried the fighting could escalate after the evacuation of foreign nationals. Thousands have already fled the country.[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Idolatry of Gun Worship

The Idolatry of Gun Worship

In the aftermath of the horrific Nashville school shooting that took the lives of three adults and three little children, Tony Perkins president of the Family Research Council, refused to find fault in America’s obsession with guns. Instead, he posited prayer being the only solution to the crisis of mass shootings “We must return to the only lasting source of[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Sociology:  Guide to Analysis or to Action in the Global Climate Change Crisis? A Call for Action by the Social Sciences and the Humanities

Sociology:  Guide to Analysis or to Action in the Global Climate Change Crisis? A Call for Action by the Social Sciences and the Humanities

Climate change and environmental destruction is becoming an increasing threat to the well-being if not survival of a growing number of people around the world; it literally threatens the lives and well-being of millions if not billions of people around the planet.  (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its’ latest report of March 19, 2023, estimates that 3.3-3.6 billion[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Neturei Karta (NK) and Masar Badil in Ottawa: “Free, Free Palestine from the river to the sea”

Neturei Karta (NK) and Masar Badil in Ottawa: “Free, Free Palestine from the river to the sea”

Rabbi David Feldman (NK) speaking at the May Day Liberation March organized by Masar Badil-The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (masarbadil.org) on May 30, 2023 in Ottawa, Canada I’ve seen them often in the United States at protest rallies organized by pro-Palestine groups against Israel — in Washington DC, in New York. Yesterday in Ottawa, they led Masar Badil — The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Migration is essential to spread Ambedkarism

Migration is essential to spread Ambedkarism

Migration has played a crucial vital role in the development and evolution of humankind. Exchange of idea’s, knowledge, cultures, food, medicines, economics….. religion, philosophy, and ideologies etc together contribute to this process. Conquest and War, Trade and Commerce and Ecology and Environment were principal reasons for people to migrate in earlier history. Today, it has been replaced with opportunities of[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
The Majority’s ‘beef’ with democracy 

The Majority’s ‘beef’ with democracy 

“Whatever the majority wants should happen. That’s democracy, right?” said a friend to me the other day when we were sitting around in a group and the discussion took a few political detours into the question of beef eating and cow slaughter. It brought to my mind Dr B.R. Ambdedkar’s criticism of the “Divine Right of the Majority to rule[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
A file picture of gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh who has been released from Saharsa jail following the recent amendment made in the prison rules by the Bihar Government (ANI)

Premature release of the person convicted of the murder of IAS officer G Krishnaiah in 1994 in Bihar defies all ethical norms

To Shri Nitish Kumar Chief Minister Bihar Dear Shri Nitish Kumar, Your government’s decision to release the politician, Anand Mohan Singh, convicted of the murder of Shri G Krishnaiah, an IAS officer, the former District Magistrate of  Gopalganj on December 5, 1994, defies all ethical norms and raises serious questions of propriety. I understand that the State government issued a notification on April 10, 2023,[Read More…]

by 02/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Elephant In The Room: The Global Economy drives the Climate Crisis

The Elephant In The Room: The Global Economy drives the Climate Crisis

A perspective On World Earth Day 2023, a few dozen members of the 8-billion-and-counting Homo Sapiens species, met in an insignificantly tiny spot on Planet Earth. They met at the premises of The Institution of Engineers (India), Mysore, to discuss and think about Global Warming (GW) and  Climate Change (CC). Climate Change gains respectability EARTHDAY.ORG recognizes 23rd April as World[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Climate Change
Pinpricked Hands

Pinpricked Hands

On the occasion of International Workers’ Day,  here are three poems by Maliha Iqbal. The poems are a reminder of the hardships workers face. They cover a range of workers- from coal miners, garment industry workers to brass band workers and highlight the common thread of exploitation under capitalism. Pinpricked Hands She embroiders the Most beautiful patterns Her leathery hands[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
An exposure of labor and violence: A May Day article

An exposure of labor and violence: A May Day article

Violence against labor is as old as capital dominating labor. The tool – violence – is older than the rise of capitalism. Capitalism has sharpened the tool: made it more threatening, made it more mischievous, and, at times, has made it appear non-violent. A recent ILO report, Experience of Violence and Harassment at Work: A Global First Survey(Geneva: ILO, 2022,[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
It is necessary to establish the dignity of labor

It is necessary to establish the dignity of labor

The labor from which capital is formed is the surplus labor of the worker, and from labor itself the process of capital formation continues unabated. But it is suitable for the labor that creates capital. It also involves struggle as there is no reward. Intertwined with the above relationship between labor and capital is the history of Labor Day, which[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Maruti Suzuki Labour Union organise protest against Illegal Retrenchment in Belsonika 

Maruti Suzuki Labour Union organise protest against Illegal Retrenchment in Belsonika 

On Friday on April 28th, the Maruti Suzuki Labour Union staged a  a procession and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram, against the continuing process of suspension and dismissal of workers by the Belsonika management. The relatives of Belsonica workers also played an active part in this procession. Till now the management has either suspended or suspended a[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The Right to Food Campaign welcomes the Supreme Court’s order to provide ration cards to migrant/unorganised workers

The Right to Food Campaign welcomes the Supreme Court’s order to provide ration cards to migrant/unorganised workers

The Right to Food Campaign welcomes the Supreme Court’s order to provide ration cards to migrant/unorganised workers registered under the eShram portal. The Supreme Court in an order dated April 20, 2023, in MA 94/2022 in ‘Re Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers’, has given significant directions to ensure food security for migrant workers and unorganised sector workers. 28.60 crores[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Reconciliations….

Reconciliations….

Indian Grandala birds, perched on thin, gray branches, against a gray-green background-sky– something like a mountainside; male and female, one supposes, wondering what songs they make, what harmonies their colors make– visual and audible. What lessons, too, they might inspire in fellow creatures, reaching higher– humans reaching from the mire of endless wars and desolation…? Can we reach beyond the[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Rajasthan Law to Help Gig Workers Should be Widely Welcomed

Rajasthan Law to Help Gig Workers Should be Widely Welcomed

The Rajasthan state government is in the process of enacting a welfare law for gig workers which should be widely welcomed. Basically this law proposes that a one per cent cess should be levied on each transaction involving gig workers (such as a taxi ride or food delivery) and the amount of this cess would then be deposited in a[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
The U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG-52), front, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG-52) underway in the the South China Sea on 18 April 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

Preparing for War: The Global Military Budget

US$2.24 trillion is a mighty amount. It’s also a sickening figure when considering the object of this exercise.  The flickering tease of war, the promise of bloodshed and an increasingly large butcher’s bill, are inevitable suggestions from such a figure.  The scenes are also clear: well-paid suits dazed by theories of the next war; policy wonks jabbering over mock war[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Violence and Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan and South Sudan Emphasize Need for Larger Peace Efforts with Continuity

Violence and Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan and South Sudan Emphasize Need for Larger Peace Efforts with Continuity

The latest wave of violence in Sudan, in the form of two generals leading the army and para-military forces in a highly destructive, completely avoidable and non-rational clash (which has already involved warplanes dropping bombs and heavy anti-aircraft firing), has quickly led to a large number of deaths and displaced people. This is happening in a country where nearly one-third[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Masar Badil’s Liberation Conference in Ottawa asks us to reexamine what we think we know about our world order

Masar Badil’s Liberation Conference in Ottawa asks us to reexamine what we think we know about our world order

Caption: Left: Helyeh Doutaghi of People’s Tribunal on US imperialism, Sanctions, Embargoes and Economic Coercive Measures | Right: Nina Farnia, legal historian and scholar of Critical Race Theory at Albany Law School On the second day of Masar Badil’s Liberation Conference in Ottawa (Mādahòkì Farm, 4420 West Hunt Club Road Ottawa, ON), a speaker (Denis Kosseim), on the panel titled Connecting[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Palestine
How Stupid ( or Sneaky) Are The Democrats?

How Stupid ( or Sneaky) Are The Democrats?

Being an anti empire, anti war Socialist this writer has had countless inner dilemmas concerning the Jackass party. As far as their counterparts, the Republicans, well, they are as close to diabolical ( evil?)  as can be.  It seems forever that I have asked myself why in the hell do these people never ‘ Get it’? Just answered my own[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
True History: Gandhi Murder, Godse and RSS

True History: Gandhi Murder, Godse and RSS

Recently (April 2023), the NCERT decided to make many deletions from School text books. Apart from the parts related to Mughal history, the mention of Gujarat violence and the origin of Caste Varna system, what stands deleted is also a part related to Gandhi murder, “His (Gandhi’s) steadfast pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists so much that they made[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Letter to Ranajit Guha

Letter to Ranajit Guha

An advance 100th birthday greetings  sent to Ranajit Guha by Sumanta Banerjee. Ranajit Guha breathed his last on 28th April 2023 at Vienna Woods in Austria just before his 100th birthday. This letter was published in the journal ‘Frontier’ Dear Ranajit da Do you remember me? I was your student for a brief while in 1953 on the eve of[Read More…]

by 01/05/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy