In commemoration of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, who is acclaimed as the “Father of Indian Green Revolution”, the standard mainstream explanation is that at a time when India had been passing through an acute food crisis in the 1960s, it was Swaminathan’s close work with the then Indian regime that paved the for a quantum jump in production of wheat and[Read More…]
“Climate breakdown has begun. Our climate is imploding faster than we can cope,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. (Source: 2024 Likely to be Hottest Year on Record, Phys.org, September 6, 2023) A report from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) released by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Berlin in the spring of 2023 reveals how surprisingly fast the[Read More…]
Alfred De Zayas, Building A Just World Order, Atlanta, GA, USA, Clarity Press, Inc., 2021, pp. ix + 466. ISBN: 978-1-949762-42-6, EBook IBSN: 978-1-949762-43-3. Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Bk. 2, ch. 4 Alfred-Maurice de Zayas is perhaps one of the more curious persons who has been associated[Read More…]
Canada is in an exceptionally good position to adopt a justice-based policy towards its indigenous people. It has plentiful land and it is a sparsely populated country. Canada’s area is a huge 9.985 million sq. km. (for comparison the area of India is 3.287 sq. km.). The population density in Canada is only 4 per sq. km. For comparison the[Read More…]
![The Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) [AP Photo/John Hamilton/U.S. Army ]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ATACMS-missile-to-Ukraine-200x150.webp "Ukraine: Peace Comes through Mutual Respect 8")
While Europe and the world face one of the most serious threats of largescale war since World War II due to the armed conflict in Ukraine, our leaders in NATO Member States and indeed the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have often used and are still using vitriolic language to incite hatred and condemnation of Russia. This does not contribute[Read More…]
This writer has spent the past year and a half, mostly on his own dime, ignored, ridiculed or dismissed by friends and colleagues alike, while nevertheless persisting to exhaustively-research any number of articles that sought to document the involvement of international neo-Nazi geo-political-military organizations involved in the war in Ukraine; the involvement of which possesses so many deeply-rooted, fascist/Neo-Nazi ties[Read More…]
Hundreds of agitated parents, children and concerned citizens took out a rally and staged a dharna outside the Block office in Manika (Latehar district) today to protest against the rampant shortage of school teachers in the area. Almost half of all government primary schools in Manika Block have a single teacher, according to the Jharkhand government’s own data. The situation[Read More…]
Rahul Gandhi’s campaign to sew back the torn fabric of the country is in danger of coming unstuck with two senior leaders of the alliance suddenly breaking ranks and turning up in functions that celebrate BJP icons and causes.At the same time both continue to plead that they still belonged to the alliance and are not budging an inch from[Read More…]
Despite Russian hints about the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine, consider it strange — amid other world-endangering possibilities — how little attention nuclear destruction gets anymore. And that’s despite the fact that there are now nine (yes, nine!) nuclear powers on this planet, ranging from the United States, Russia, and China to Israel and North Korea. Still, at[Read More…]
Suella Braverman has made beastliness a trait in British politics. The UK Home Secretary, fed on the mush and mash of anti-refugee sentiment, has been frantically trying to find her spot in the darkness of inhumanity. Audaciously, and with grinding ignorance, she persists in her rather grisly attempts to kill the central assumptions of international refugee protection, flawed as they[Read More…]
Two interesting things happened at the BRICS summit in South Africa in August. Several new members were invited to join BRICS in 2024: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. And, at Brazil’s urging, a commission was established to study the possibility of a new currency to replace the dollar in international trade. Currency swap agreements will continue[Read More…]
After the division of Macedonia in 1913 (according to the Bucharest Peace Treaty) neither Serbia, Bulgaria nor Greece recognized the existence of a Macedonian ethnolinguistic nation and, therefore, an assimilation policy of Macedonia’s Slavs was carried out by the state’s authorities of all those three countries. Greece referred to Aegean Slavo-Macedonians as Slavophone Greeks or Macedoslavs (the region was and[Read More…]
The ethnoreligious violence in the Indian state of Manipur between Meiteis and Kukis has been ongoing since May, but it was only in July 2023 when a video went viral in India showing two women being paraded naked that the world began to pay attention to the situation in earnest. One of the women was reportedly sexually assaulted after the[Read More…]
Despite the fact that several highly respected conservationists have been repeatedly advising that the best way of achieving success and sustainability in conservation efforts is by involving local communities in these efforts and not by displacing them, it appears that injustice instead of justice for local villagers is still the path pursued by some authorities and the banks financing them.[Read More…]
Citing horrific statistics that “An estimated 221 Americans die every day (80,564 in the past 12 months) from an opioid overdose, and an estimated 5.6 million experience an opioid use disorder, affecting individuals, families, and communities across the nation,” the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE), a national grant making organization, held a press conference during National Recovery Month titled[Read More…]
Today was a quiet Sunday morning, I sat by the window sipping masala chai looking at the dew on the jasmine leaves spread across the backyard window, I noticed an usual pile of yellow trumpet flowers on the side of the trumpet vine. As I began to look closely at the yellow heap, I noticed a synchronous twirling of the[Read More…]
Dr.K.S. Sharma’s 90th Birthday is being organized jointly by Dr.K.S. Sharma 90th Birthday Committee, Sanjeevini Ayurvedic Medical College and Sharma Educational Institutions on 30th September 2023 at 11-30 a.m. at the Gokul Road, Vishwashrama Chetana Complex, Hubli. Dr.K.S. Sharma has a multi-faceted personality. He is the Soviet Land Nehru Prize Awardee, the liberator of Govt. Daily Wage Employees, an[Read More…]
Adi Shankaracharya, reflecting on the sublime mysteries of non-dualism, the undifferentiated reality and the irrevocable principle of oneness governing all existence, emerged from the waters after performing his daily ablutions in the holy Ganges at the ancient city of Varanasi. Suddenly, a disheveled outcast, the peddler in pollution, the dark and abominable Chandala appeared with his four big dogs like[Read More…]
To Respected Chief Ministers Dear Respected Chief Minister, Kindly refer to my earlier letter of August 24-8-2021 on how some States lose out on delimitation for Parliamentary constituencies as a result of the revised population base year (copy enclosed for your reference). It appears that the Centre, along with its institutions, are using the population criterion indiscriminately to impose its[Read More…]
Photo Credit: Amarjit Chandan and Manmit S. Jabbal This is an extract from a revised version of earlier articles on Makhan Singh. It will be published in Reflections on Makhan Singh and Trade Unions in Kenya (forthcoming). The “Disappeared” History of Makhan Singh The entire history of anti-colonial struggles by people of Kenya has, in general, been suppressed or[Read More…]
At least 28,000 Armenians have fled the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region since September 20, when Azeri forces attacked Armenian forces and Russian peacekeepers in the enclave and forced Armenian troops to surrender. A considerable portion of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 population has been turned into refugees. Coming amid NATO’s war with Russia in Ukraine, the fratricidal war between the two former Soviet republics[Read More…]
Vikalp Sangam Core Group’s response to the Manipur crisis is based on the fundamental principles of peace and of the wellbeing of all people and of the earth and all its life. We, the undersigned members of Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) Core Group, consisting of over 80 organisations and networks across India, are shocked and outraged to witness the ongoing[Read More…]
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies President Gustavo Petro Urrego of Colombia addresses the UN General Assembly/Photo credit: UN As it did last year, the 2023 United Nations General Assembly has been debating what role the United Nations and its members should play in the crisis in Ukraine. The United States and its allies still insist that the[Read More…]
Jericho does not belong to the Palestinians alone. It belongs to the whole of humanity. For Israel, however, the recognition by UNESCO of Jericho as a “World Heritage Site in Palestine” complicates its mission of erasing Palestine, physically and figuratively, from existence. The decision was described by Israel’s foreign ministry as a “cynical” ploy by the Palestinians to politicize UNESCO.[Read More…]
The U.S. beef industry is destroying the American Wild West and worsening the climate crisis. When conservationist Aldo Leopold persuaded the U.S. Forest Service in 1924 to establish the nation’s first federally approved wilderness of more than 500,000 acres around the headwaters of the Gila River in southwestern New Mexico, he did not anticipate that this priceless pristine land would be invaded[Read More…]
The United States of America has been the pre-eminent country on Earth for over 40 years.[1] There are many competing analyses of these developments, different understandings, etc., and with all kinds of various intellectual ramifications from these. However, along with genuine efforts to accurately understand this period, there is much misinformation, obfuscation, and plain lying about its role in the[Read More…]
Youth crime stories across Canada are depictions of youth who are unusual and are designed to sensationalize crime and dysfunction. These depictions appeal to people’s sense of despair by focusing on horror, violent behavior, and bystander apathy. (1) Such stories are a reverse morality play that appeals to people’s sense of righteousness and our fear of the real world. Sensationalized[Read More…]
In the 1980s the Sandinista government in Nicaragua was attracting wide attention with achieving very significant improvements in health, education and small peasant based farming cooperatives. Some of the development achievements it recorded could not be achieved by the Somoza dictatorship, a US client state, in the previous four decades. While the people of Nicaragua were very happy and hopeful[Read More…]
M1 Abrams tanks from the United States have arrived in Ukraine, the Pentagon confirmed Monday, in the latest escalation of US involvement in the war against Russia. The United States promised to send nearly three dozen Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January. At the time, delivery of the weapons was not expected until next year, but the Pentagon announced in[Read More…]
Respected VC of JNU, Santishree Pandit Madam, Namaskaar! I hope the following report in one of the leading English dailies of India did not misreport you when it stated that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor (VC), Santishree Pandit while speaking at a book launch function on September 17, 2023 at Pune where RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was present on the[Read More…]
Not long after moving to Topeka, Kansas, in the early 1980s, community organizer Curtis Pitts learned about a hidden slice of that city’s history that would come to shape his life’s work over the next four decades. He was introduced to the Kansas Technical Institute, or KTI, a Black vocational college that had prospered throughout the early twentieth century, only[Read More…]
Preface to the book by Durrani, Nazmi: Tunakataa! We Say No! Resistance Poems in Kiswahili and English Reflecting Life in Kenya in the 1980s. Forthcoming: Nairobi: Vita Books. [Tunakataa: Kiswahili – ‘We Say No!] Kenyans have been saying Tunakataa/We Say No to colonialism and imperialism for over 500 years, ‘No’ to all the exploitation and oppression that are part of[Read More…]
In recent years, India has witnessed a concerning surge in hate speech and Islamophobia, particularly within states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This unsettling trend, highlighted In a report by Hindutva Watch based in Washington, sheds light on the distressing reality that a staggering 80% of recorded hate speech incidents in the country occurred in BJP-ruled states. The[Read More…]
These are critical times in India’s history: in fact, whether we would like to accept it or not, it is a break or make moment! At stake is the future of Indian democracy based on the visionary Constitution of India, rooted in the four non-negotiables of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity; at the stake is the sanctity of the pluralistic[Read More…]
One of the most important characteristics of a democracy, one of its defining features, is that it reflects the views and understanding, aspirations and expectations, of its people on the most important issues. This is sought to be ensured, among other ways, by periodic elections in which it is expected that if the government has acted contrary to the views[Read More…]
Over the weekend, multiple media outlets reported that President Joe Biden told Ukrainian officials that the United States would send long-range missiles capable of striking nearly 200 miles inside Russian territory. Amid almost daily Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, this move marks a significant escalation of direct US involvement in the Ukraine conflict, potentially setting the stage for the deployment of[Read More…]
Cast of Jawan Shah Rukh Khan: Hindi-speaking North Indian Rajput army-man Vikram Rathore and his son, the ‘casteless’ policeman Azad Nayanthara: Hindi-speaking upper caste (Bhumihar, Brahmin or probably Rajput given the arrange marriage scenario between Azad and her), head of special forces, Narmada Rai Vijay Sethupathi: Corrupt industrialist Kalee Gaikwad, Maratha by name but generic South Indian by accent, played[Read More…]
The raging controversy over alleged involvement of the Indian government in the killing of Sikh plumber-cum-religious activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in faraway Canada is snowballing. Sensing that our elites are ultra-sensitive about western criticism, Canada, with firm American backing, is rapidly widening the gyre of the controversy in a spiral that expands outward as it goes up. The three new[Read More…]
In a recent report ( March 2023) the World Food Program (WFP) stated that hunger in the world is at higher levels compared to any other time since the creation of the WFP in 1963. This report stated that 350 million people are affected by the most extreme form of hunger and 49 million are on the brink of famine.[Read More…]
To Shri Ganeshi Lal The Hon’ble Governor Raj Bhavan, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha Email: govodisha@nic.in Sub: Appeal to immediately withdraw the notification for the public hearing on 16.10.2023 for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project in Rayagada and Kalahandi district, given the tense atmosphere of fear and persecution of local communities and organizations Respected Hon’ble Governor Shri Ganeshi Lal ji On 13[Read More…]
Grain is an old tool, weapon is the appropriate term, of imperialism. Once, the weapon was widely used by imperialism; and the weapon was used against countries in the Southern Hemisphere – to control, press and coerce the countries whenever the master of the world order desired. Use of the weapon created famines in countries – hundreds and thousands died.[Read More…]
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) moves warm water from the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the South Atlantic into the North Atlantic where it cools, sinks and flows south. However global warming and Greenland ice melting has the tendency to suppress this system. Potential AMOC collapse has worried climate scientists and now the latest research published in Nature[Read More…]
Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA): India has launched a Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) at the recent G20 meeting in Delhi. The official declaration of it, as reported, reads as follows: “The Alliance intends to expedite the global uptake of biofuel through facilitating technology advancements, intensifying utilisation of sustainable biofuels, shaping robust standard setting and certification through the participation of a wide spectrum of stakeholders.[Read More…]
The murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar was an Indian-born Canadian Sikh leader who was actively involved in the Khalistan movement, a separatist Sikh movement that views India as a tormentor and repressor of minority rights including those of the Sikhs that seeks to secede from India and establish a separate independent homeland for the Sikhs, called, “Khalistan”. Nijjar, the leader of[Read More…]
France will pull its military and diplomats from Niger after a successful coup by anti-French forces, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday. The move will see around 1,500 soldiers leave by the end of the year. According to media reports, “France has decided to withdraw its ambassador. In the next hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France,[Read More…]
No power in history has exercised such global reach. With brutal immediacy, forces from the United States may be dispatched and deployed within hours to combat any designated adversary. From its webbed network of bases official, semi-official and undeclared, Washington’s imperium can exert heft in a number of military domains with a ruthlessness the envy of any of its rivals.[Read More…]
Soon after many countries of Africa became free from direct colonial rule, it was noticed that distorted patterns of trade allied to big business growth were resulting in perpetuation of hunger and staple food shortage for people. Even in most of the ‘normal’ years, per capita production and consumption of food grain in several African countries was steadily declining. Barbara[Read More…]
At least 75,000 marched in New York City on September 17, quite impressive, inspiring to be a part of. As compared to previous marches, last seen pre-Covid, there were more people of color, indigenous and immigrant participants. But the question is, what exactly were the demands of this mass assemblage? Of course, the overwhelming message was “End Fossil Fuels,” but[Read More…]
A progressive Pentagon? Talk about an oxymoron! The Pentagon continues to grow and surge with ever larger budgets, ever more expansive missions (for example, a Space Force to dominate the heavens and yet more bases in the Pacific to encircle China), and ever greater ambitions to dominate everywhere, including if necessary through global thermonuclear warfare. No wonder it’s so hard, to the point of absurdity, to imagine a[Read More…]
An all-day “Lost Voices of Fentanyl” rally was held here September 23 to bring attention to the ongoing and escalating Fentanyl crisis that according to government statistics is the leading cause of deaths of those in the 18-45 age group in the U.S. The morning rally began at the Washington Monument and later in the afternoon participants marched to the[Read More…]
PIL Watch Group is watching with concern serious developments in Canada in recent months and the statements of Union Ministers and even opposition MPs; also the corporate press which is working overtime to damn India-Canada relations. The Indian government has expressed concern over violent incidents which have taken place in the recent past in Canada. The Union External Affairs Minister[Read More…]
Hidden behind the dark, despotic aura oozing over India is a racial minority that holds power who defines the norm by imposing the social slavish mentality over the nation’s religious majority. Redefining the State as a racist, discriminatory’ money-machine’ facilitating transfer of wealth to the privileged elites – the 10% who now own more than 42% of India’s total wealth. [Read More…]
It was a short stint, involving a six-member delegation of Australian parliamentarians lobbying members of the US Congress and various relevant officials on one issue: the release of Julian Assange. If extradited to the US from the United Kingdom to face 18 charges, 17 framed with reference to the oppressive, extinguishing Espionage Act of 1917, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks[Read More…]
It is not too long ago that a prolonged farmers’ movement in India to resist three new laws aimed at increasing corporate control over Indian farming had captured the imagination of the country. The widespread support and sympathy for this movement eventually led to the three controversial farm laws being scrapped by the government, a move that was appreciated. It[Read More…]
Hindutva ideologue Golwalker had outlined the place of the minorities in the country in his much talked about book, We, or Our Nationhood Defined (1939), There are only two courses open to these foreign elements (Muslims and Christians), either to merge themselves into the national race and adopt its culture or live at its mercy so long[Read More…]
Coincidentally after the opposition parties came together to form INDIA (Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance), the ruling BJP is desisting from the use of word India in official communiqués and its parent organizations RSS has issued a fatwa that only word Bharat should be used for our country. While inviting the representative’s participants of G 20, the President issued the invitation in[Read More…]
Special on Poona Pact Day on 24th September Caste is considered the cornerstone of Indian Hindu society. In this structure of hierarchical inequality, the untouchables were at the bottom and were officially called ‘Depressed Classes’ till 1935. Gandhiji had rewarded him with the name of ‘Harijan’ which was not accepted by most of the Untouchables. Now they have chosen the[Read More…]
Recently the BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri made a hate speech against Danish Ali MP from BSP in parliament. The words used against Danish Ali being a Muslim were urgrawaadi (militant), aatankwadi (terrorist), mulla (slur used against Muslims), bhadwa (pimp) and katwa (circumcised). Instead of a condemnation by the ruling party, what was witnessed were the senior BJP leaders Harsh Vardhan[Read More…]
In our time and country the vital liberty of thought and speech,so crucial for health of democracy,has been under severe stress for the strangest of reasons.Such freedom is being curbed in the name of preserving peace and harmony in society.Consider the legions of criminal cases relating to hate-speech and ‘hurting the sentiments of communities.’. Now it is true that hate-speech[Read More…]
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of New York on Sunday as part of the March to End Fossil Fuels, calling for increased action against climate change ahead of the opening of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Media reports including reports by AFP, USA Today and The Hill said: Taking up multiple city blocks, protesters from some[Read More…]
On 23rd August, Indian space research organization led lunar mission successfully landed on the moon. The soft landing online live event by ISRO has been named as the most viewed live streaming session globally with more than 80 lakhs of Peak Concurrent Views (PCVs). It has even surpassed the online viewership of the most popular football match in the history[Read More…]
The peace movement in various parts of the world has emphasized in various contexts that if the huge amounts spent on various wars had been spent instead on meeting essential civilian needs, then apart from avoiding the loss of lives caused in actual fighting and bombing or due to the loss of health infra-structure destroyed by bombs, many lives could[Read More…]
One particularly bad habit the news is afflicted by is a tendency to fall into discussions about itself. Its members, some of them at least, used to call it the “Fourth Estate,” an unelected chamber of scribblers supposedly meant to keep an eye on the other three, yet finding itself at times distracted, gossip-driven, and rumour filled by its own[Read More…]
Earth’s climate system is in a state of emergency. Emergencies are defined by four specific elements, i.e., (1) seriousness (2) unexpected (3) dangerous, and (4) requiring immediate action. Based upon a new YouTube broadcast by the inveterate commentator Dr. Peter Carter, all those elements are in-play in a very big way. Dr. Carter, expert reviewer of the Intergovernmental Panel on[Read More…]
Image [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor] found in a 2018 article titled “Israel counts on Saudi ‘fatwa’ to discourage protests” The amazing phenomenon the world is largely unaware of is that the more brutal the suppression of Palestinian resistance is, the more determined Palestinians everywhere are in their commitment to defend themselves. Palestinians are saying, literally, “over our dead bodies.” The denial, suppression[Read More…]
Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a profit opportunity for capitalists, but it presents a crucial choice for the working class. Because the working class is the majority, that crucial choice confronts society as a whole. It is the same profit opportunity/social choice that was presented by the introduction of robotics, computers, and indeed by most technological advances throughout capitalism’s history. In[Read More…]
by Deborah Barsky and Jan Ritch-Frel Recent developments in the study of human prehistory hold clues about our times, our world, and ourselves. We can all agree that most people want to know about their origins—spanning from their family and ancestral history and even, occasionally, deeper into the evolutionary story. Lately, this desire has become more palpable in society at large and[Read More…]
Preface A common historical feature of the “Three Baltic sister-states” (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) is that for most of the modern time instead of state independence there were decades of foreign administrations imposed by several European powers. Such historical experience exposed the people living in this part of the Baltic region to several foreign political regimes, and different cultural and[Read More…]
For millennia Truth was the supreme task Beauty was mere consequence But what if the first is impossible? Should we, therefore, discard the second? Beauty is felt not proven It is a joy to humans given And although no animal admires a painting Birds swoon I suppose when listening to their songs And whales intricately dance to their compositions in[Read More…]
As the breeze of September ushers in the season of change, Toronto City’s ‘festival of festivals’ in the form of the international film festival came to a close yesterday. In the heart of the city, on 23 screens, nearly 300 films were screened throughout the day and night, accompanied by various musical performances, trade pavilions and eating outlets in King[Read More…]
![President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, September 21, 2023, in Washington. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/zelensky-biden1-200x150.webp "Ukrainian president holds crisis talks in Washington amid failure of “spring offensive” 137")
Amid a deepening military crisis triggered by the collapse of Ukraine’s spring offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spent hours Thursday meeting behind closed doors at the Pentagon, as well as with US President Joe Biden, top Cabinet officials, the US Senate, and leading House lawmakers. The meetings followed saber-rattling speeches by Biden and Zelensky at the U.N. Security Council, where[Read More…]
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky had to face a time in Washington D.C. that may be told as difficult as the political situation in the U.S. Capitol Hill is different than his first visit to the Capitol. A CNN report (Zelensky faces a more splintered GOP as he returns to Capitol Hill looking for aid, Sept. 21, 2023) said: Ukraine President[Read More…]
For twelve years starting in 1982, my partner and I in San Francisco joined with two friends in Seattle to produce Lesbian Contradiction: A Journal of Irreverent Feminism, or LesCon for short. We started out typing four-inch columns of text and laying out what was to become a quarterly tabloid on a homemade light table. We used melted paraffin from an electric waxer to affix strips[Read More…]
Art It is the tiny pink rose Behind the ear of God I place mine there Not because I rage against death I a short interval between the not yet And the forever gone I place it there lightly I accept the near perfect weightlessness that I am I place it there Because the infinitesimally small time that I am[Read More…]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit September 21 with President Biden at the White House today, on this International Day of Peace, was greeted by activists from World Beyond War along with nine other peace groups who protested the visit by calling for the dropping of all charges against Ukrainian peace activist Yurii Sheliazhenko. Earlier in the week, the group delivered[Read More…]
Dear Global citizen, I invite you to think about what I learned from ‘giants’, as I consolidate their wisdom. You probably know, and feel the same, what American Astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson said, “When legions of experts alert society of impending catastrophe, yet warnings go unheeded, with fatal consequences, I’m left weeping for the future of civilization.” Why is humanity[Read More…]
The people of the USA don’t want this. The people of Russia don’t want this. The people of the entire world don’t want this. Nevertheless, USA and Russia have been moving closer to the possibility of a direct conflict. This most dangerous trend not desired by people anywhere has been happening due to the manipulations, extremely narrow vision, inflated aggression[Read More…]
During the recent G 20 summit India has launched the Global Biofuel Aliance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the G20 nations to join the initiative with a plea to take ethanol blending with petrol globally to 20 per cent to facilitate energy transformation in context of climate change. Although provision of environmentally sustainable green alternative to fossil fuels sounds good,[Read More…]
Auto workers in a number of plants in the U.S. are striking. This unprecedented, strategic strike may spread further within days, if there is no progress in negotiations. The striking auto workers are facing financial hardship. Detroit Free Press said in a report (Striking UAW members open up on human toll of UAW-Detroit 3 turmoil, September 20, 2023): Striking is[Read More…]
Australia was among the world’s first countries for democracy, unions, human rights, female suffrage, and for free, compulsory and secular education, noting that democracy ideally requires an informed electorate. However there is a very dark and ongoing Australian history that is deliberately hidden by an entrenched Mainstream culture of looking the other way that is maintained by massive, corrupt and[Read More…]
(1) A deeply disturbing,indeed ominous feature of our contemporary debates and struggles on the question of the state has been the increasing penetration and dominance of Hindutva ideas in them. It has not occurred abruptly and suddenly,but over years,incrementally and with increasing force and conviction,supported by well-planned popular movements at the ground level.The opposition,after having long ignored it as of[Read More…]
by Zoe Alexandra and Vijay Prashad In Bamako, Mali, on September 16, the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger created the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of the transitional government of Mali, wrote that the Liptako-Gourma Charter which created the AES would establish “an[Read More…]
From its very onset, Israel has constructed a brand for itself, a powerful gimmick that was predicated on two main pillars: democracy and stability. The main target audience for this brand has been powerful Western states that wielded disproportionate political, economic and military powers. These Western governments, along with their influential mainstream corporate media, did their part, by polishing Israel’s[Read More…]
Imagine talking about peace when according to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, the world is just one misunderstanding, just one miscalculation, away from global catastrophe, due to the ongoing war in Europe! While the Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists already warned humanity in January this year when it timed the Doomsday Clock that[Read More…]
First thing first: If you want to know what is going on in the world, especially the political world, do NOT turn on the boob tube. And that is what it is, a vehicle for boobs. Similar to the world of sports media, if someone is allowed on mainstream television, then they have to be a complete sellout! Easy to[Read More…]
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Bayer multinational company has signed a MoU on 1st September 2023. The collaboration aims to create innovative solutions for crops, crop protection, weed management, and mechanization that are both resource-efficient and resilient to climate change. The partnership says that they are concentrating on developing regenerative agricultural models, with a primary focus on rice[Read More…]
by Sanjiv K Sood & Feroze Mithiborwala Military Personnel and Civil Society Demand an Inquiry into the Pulwama Tragedy A powerful high intensity blast occurred on February 14, 2019 at Ladoo crossing near Lethpora (Awantipur) in the Pulwama district of J&K blast was so powerful that 40 transients (CRPF Personnel) in the ill-fated Bus were martyred. The responsibility for the attack[Read More…]
Recently several fruit growers from Himalayan states, particularly from Kashmir, expressed their serious concern and resentment at the slashing of additional duties on imports of apples, walnuts and almonds from the USA. As is well-known, the fruit growers in the USA have the benefit of several government subsidies and it is difficult to compete against them. Now these worries may[Read More…]
![Rescuers and relatives sit in front of collapsed buildings after recent flooding caused by Mediterranean storm Daniel, in Derna, Libya, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. [AP Photo/Muhammad J. Elalwany]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Libya-Flood-4-200x150.webp "After protests in flood-hit Derna, Libyan officials order journalists to leave 171")
Protests erupted in Derna on Monday, as anger exploded among workers in the city against authorities who failed to take critical measures to protect it from flooding. When Storm Daniel hit the region, Derna’s poorly maintained dams burst, and a massive wall of water descended on the city, killing an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people. The response to the protests[Read More…]
International Peace Day, observed on the 21st of September every year, stands as a reminder of our collective responsibility to strive for a more peaceful world. Established by the United Nations in 1981, this day aims to promote peace and cease-fire among nations and peoples. The aspiration is to encourage dialogue, understanding, and collaboration to achieve a world free of[Read More…]
Welcome to the New Green Colonialism- One Last Shot at Reducing Global Inequality and Saving the Planet In a fit of madness or just plain desperation, you’ve enrolled in a get-rich-quick scheme. All you have to do is sell some products, sign up some friends, make some phone calls. Follow that simple formula and you’ll soon be pulling in tens[Read More…]
Is it possible to grow food without exploiting animals in gardening/homesteading and farming systems? Even if we do not keep domesticated animals, isn’t it necessary to at least use animal manure? The veganic way of growing shows us that not only is it possible to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs without manure but it is also productive, ecologically sustainable, and[Read More…]
Diaspora politics can often be testy. While the mother country maintains its own fashioned narrative, governed by domestic considerations, the diaspora may, or may not be in accord with the agreed upon story. While countries such as China and Iran are seen as the conventional bullies in this regard, spying and monitoring the activities of their citizens in various countries,[Read More…]
A morning press conference was held on September 18 at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamic civil rights advocacy group, to announce the filing of a lawsuit, Khairullah v Garland, today in U.S. Federal District Court of Massachusetts demanding a jury trial in ending the terrorism watchlist. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 12 Muslim plaintiffs against[Read More…]
Celebrated Marathi poet N.D. Mahanor, who passed away last month, lived all his life as a farmer in a small village Palaskheda, five km from the famous Ajanta caves in Aurangabad district. What created and sustained his interest in poetry in this isolation ? We forget that at least some of our rural life has a very vibrant cultural life,[Read More…]
India and China, home to two of the world’s oldest civilizations, have had peaceful relations for thousands of years, but in modern times this relationship has evolved into a complex combination of co-operation and conflict, It is significantly influenced by the complexities arising out of their geographical proximity, historical heritage and present regional-geopolitics. After India gained independence from British[Read More…]
On September 18 the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu made an announcement in the State Legislative Assembly that his government will be announcing a special aid package for all people who have suffered serious harm in the recent spate of landslides, floods and excessive rain. He said that the state had not yet received the expected help[Read More…]
Notwithstanding the importance accorded to this special session of the Parliament, one is prompted to deliberate on what really is key purpose behind convening it? As per reports, the new Parliament was fully completed this year in May. Amid controversies, it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28. Several opposition parties boycotted this function as they felt[Read More…]
by Dr Purushothama Bilimale/AK Shiburaj A few civil society representatives came forward during the last assembly elections of Karnataka ( 2023 May) to oust the BJP from power at a time when the Sangh Parivar was making violent interventions in Karnataka’s culture, politics, and governance. It was later evaluated that the popular interventions carried out by the group Eddelu (Wake up) Karnataka[Read More…]
Recent dam failures in Libya and Ukraine have re-emphasized the great importance of improving dam safety. The flood disaster in Libya was greatly aggravated by the heavy damage to Wadi Derna dams very recently leading to several thousand deaths, even though clear warnings of the lack of poor maintenance of these dams had been given earlier. These could not be[Read More…]
Largest cities in the U.S. are at the forefront of climate change. An ABC News report (Climate Week NYC: Large cities are at the forefront of climate change, experts say, abcnews.go.com) said: About 80% of the U.S. population lives in urban settings, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Some of the country’s most densely populated cities, like New York City, are[Read More…]
With half of the world’s 43.3 million (2022 UNHCR) refugees being children under the age of 18, it is fitting that a 12-foot-tall partially animatronic puppet portraying a 10-year-old Syrian refugee named “Little Amal” has been on a worldwide tour since 2021 calling attention to the children’s plight by conveying the message “Don’t forget about us.” The walks, as the[Read More…]
The US Justice Department has opened a case against Google in the Washington courtroom this week over its unethical business practices in the past decade. In the main, Google is being accused of being an internet monopoly that pays billions of dollars to major smartphone companies in order to become the default search engine across all their platforms. Everyone[Read More…]
Part 1: On September 5, 2023, a group of citizens convened online to discuss the issue of Aadhaar imposition and overreach in the context of seeding Aadhaar numbers with NPR records. This discussion was a continuation of similar sessions in which experts and activists like Usha Ramanathan and Harsh Mander had also participated. Economist, author, and professor Jean Dreze, and[Read More…]
Introduction As debates leading up to 2024 union elections in India preceded by some important state assembly become intense, it is not enough to talk about election alignments among various political parties and their seat adjustments; the questions relating to the most important priorities and a future agenda based on justice, equality, peace, environment protection and democracy must get the[Read More…]
![A man sits by the graves of the flash flood victims in Derna, Libya, Friday, September 15, 2023. [AP Photo/Yousef Murad]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Libya-Flood-3-200x150.webp "US imperialist hypocrisy and the Libyan flood 205")
Over the weekend, former President Barack Obama urged his 132 million followers on Twitter (X) to make contributions to charitable organizations aiding the people of Derna, the Libyan city devastated by a flood that killed well over 20,000 people, according to estimates by local officials. “If you’re looking to help people impacted by the floods in Libya, check out these[Read More…]
It is a historical law that each state in the world changes with time. However, only a few states experienced dramatic change during the short period of time as Russia did over the last 33 years. Russia has changed as a state, nation, and military power followed by her fluctuating position in global politics and international relations. Since 1991 up today Russia[Read More…]
As the emission of greenhouse gases continues, new fossil fuel projects are subsidized, global warming acceerates, bushfires and floods engulf the planet, climate science is ignored, climate change projections are kept away from the public eye, nations invest in killer submarines rather than water spraying aircraft and other fire fighting equipment, politicians talk about clean coal, radioactive waters are spilled[Read More…]
During the Cold War, assassinations most foul were entertained as necessary measures to advance the set cause. In Latin America, military regimes were keenly sponsored as reliably brutal antidotes to the Marxist tic, or at the very least the tic in waiting. Any government deemed by Washington to be remotely progressive would become ripe targets for violent overthrow. To this[Read More…]
What if the “epidemic of coups” in West and Central Africa is not that at all, but a direct outcome of outright revolutionary movements, similar to the anti-colonial movements that liberated most African nations from the yoke of Western colonialism throughout the 20th century? Whether this is the case or not, we are unlikely to find out anytime soon, simply[Read More…]
In 2020, The Daily Show ran a segment in which statements by Republican leaders, including Donald Trump, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and various Fox News personalities were juxtaposed with those made by Ku Klux Klan leaders like former Grand Wizard David Duke and former Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkerson. Fired Fox News commentator Tucker Carson, for instance, screeches manically that, because[Read More…]
“War provides an outlet for every evil element in man’s nature. It enfranchises cupidity and greed gives a charter to petty tyranny, glorifies cruelty and places in position of power the vulgar and base.” (C.E.M Joad. Guide to Modern Wickedness, 1936) The Leaders Who could not Lead to Political Change and Peace The Arabian landscape portrays continuous wars, insurgency against[Read More…]
Rajaram Ka Purva is a remote rural hamlet in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh inhabited by the poorest of the poor. Almost none of the children in this hamlet are able to go to school. The reasons relate to poverty, distance of the nearest school as well as the unsafe path to school. Till these difficulties can be sorted out[Read More…]
The military governments of three African states, which all deposed their Western-backed leaders in recent years, have agreed to assist each other, individually or collectively, in case of any external aggression or internal threat to their sovereignty. Media reports said: Mali’s interim president, Assimi Goita, said on Saturday night that he signed the so-called Liptako-Gourma Charter with the leaders of[Read More…]
This image is symbolic of everything that is wrong with modern society. A gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal in 1984 resulted in around 560,000 injured (respiratory problems, eye irritation, etc.), 4,000 severely disabled and 20,000 dead. Not only that, but the pesticides produced at the factory and the model of farming promoted has caused well-documented misery[Read More…]
According to available details, EV Ramasamy Naikar Periyar came to Uttar Pradesh in 1944, 1959 and 1968. In 1944 and 1959, he came to Lucknow to address the Sammelan of Backward and Untouchables of Uttar Pradesh. No details of his 1944 program are available. Regarding his arrival in Lucknow in 1959, a picture of Dr. Chhedi Lal Sathi, the then[Read More…]
These essays and stories about the bicycle have been written since 2017. There are ten essays and two short stories. The essays are divided in two groups – Shorter essays and longer ones. The shorter ones mainly promote the bicycle and praise them whereas the longer ones take up the politics involved in the bicycle debate. Among the short stories,[Read More…]
To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Sitharaman, It is reported (https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/sbi-led-consortium-to-fund-adani-groups-34000-crore-pvc-project-in-mundra/article67097877.ece) that an SBI-led consortium of PSU banks is considering extending loan assistance to cover a significant portion of the cost (Rs 34,000 Crores) of the petrochemical project to be set up by Adani Group’s Mundra Petrochem Ltd (MPCL) in Gujarat. If the above-cited report is correct,[Read More…]
NATO’s military intervention in Libya in 2011, which overthrew the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, resulted in a chaotic and murderous failed state. Libyans pay a horrific price for this catastrophe. “We came, we saw, he died,” Hillary Clinton famously quipped when Muammar Gaddafi, after seven months of U.S. and NATO bombing, was overthrown in 2011 and killed by a mob who sodomized[Read More…]
This being the week of Mahsa Amini’s death a year ago in Iran has seen a number of protests and demonstrations along with think tank panel discussions all centered on the present state of affairs in Iran and the country’s future moving forward. On September 14, two days ahead of the first anniversary of the 22-year-old Amini’s death at the[Read More…]
As scientists continue to research the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, one fact has become clear: Deforestation is linked to emerging diseases. When humans destroy forests to create land for human use, whether it’s for farming, mining, logging, infrastructure development, or urban expansion, biodiversity is diminished. And as some species go extinct, the ones that remain and even flourish in degraded[Read More…]
As politicians and policymakers make speeches at the United Nations during a high-level summit next week to assess the lack of progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, people’s leaders representing some of the world’s most marginalised communities will come together just across the UN Headquarters in New York to highlight the governments’ failings and present[Read More…]
Abstract: Digital technologies can unlock the full potential of older persons by providing access to digital information products and services in accessible formats. The increasing elderly population and widespread adult use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are intertwined, resulting in a growing integration of digital participation into active aging. Digital inclusion offers options for elderly individuals to integrate[Read More…]
Jarva Chauki is a village in Atarra rural area of Banda District (Uttar Pradesh). Several households face a livelihood crisis here and at times lack the minimum food stock needed to keep away hunger. These problems increased after the pandemic related distress. To try to ensure that no one remains hungry, a local voluntary organization Vidya Dham Samiti has started[Read More…]
One of the most important tasks before our troubled world relates to protective steps to reduce the harmful impacts of adverse weather and disasters arising from climate change. As is well understood and adequately documented, climate change leads to much increased possibility of adverse weather events and disasters which can be significantly more threatening than what the world has experienced[Read More…]
As part of the ongoing discussion between India and US on the sideline of the G20 meetings in 2023, both countries agreed to resolve their outstanding dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO). From June 2023 to September 8, 2023 , there was lot off meeting and agreements. There was no comment or statement from Indian side, but Katherine Tai,[Read More…]
A leading RSS cadre who happens to be the chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma true to his training at the RSS ‘boudhik shivirs’ (ideological training camps) resorted to a Hindutva trade-mark lie that “The Bajrang Dal is not associated in any way with the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.” [‘RSS, BJP don’t even have a[Read More…]
Jungfraujoch’s foreboding temperatures this September at the top of the world in Switzerland at 2.25 miles altitude alarmed glaciologists. If anybody has lingering doubts about global warming’s strength of power to directly impact Earth’s ecosystems, think again. Antarctica, at the bottom of the world, experienced record high temperatures during its winter, as record high temperatures were also recorded at[Read More…]
The broad lament from commentators about global economic growth is that China is not pulling its weight. Not enough is being done to stir the sinews and warm the blood, at least when it comes to the GDP counters. And many such pundits hail from countries, most prominently the United States, which have done everything they can to clip the[Read More…]
“Take off your headscarf, let your hair flow, don’t be afraid my love. Laugh, protest against fear.” In opening a panel discussion titled “The Masha Amini Protests and the Road Ahead for Iran,” Holly Dagres of the Atlantic Council quoted those defiant lyrics in a new popular song by Iranian Pop singer Mehdi Yarrahi titled Roosarito [Your Headscarf]. A panel[Read More…]
One of the few hopeful signs for world peace has been that at some of the most dangerous moments there has been a very helpful response in the form of big gatherings of people demanding peace. However in most such cases there was lack of adequate follow-up steps and so the one-time mobilization often became more like symbolic action, failing[Read More…]
On 31 August, the Government called for a special session of Parliament for five days beginning on 18 September. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi tweeted, “Special Session of Parliament (13th Session of 17th Lok Sabha and 261st Session of Rajya Sabha) is being called from 18th to 22nd September having five sittings. Amid Amrit Kaal looking forward to having[Read More…]
Abstract Child marriage is a grave violation of human rights that continues to persist, despite laws and regulations against it. Shockingly, one out of every five girls worldwide is either formally married or in an informal union before they turn 18. In the least developed countries, this number nearly doubles, with 36 percent of girls being married before the age[Read More…]
The International Day of Democracy was established by means of a UN General Assembly resolution in 2007, to encourage governments to strengthen & consolidate democracy. It is observed worldwide on 15 September. It is meant to recall the principles and values of democracy, and to uphold and promote democracy. This year’s theme for the International Day of Democracy is “Empowering[Read More…]
Tens of thousands of climate activists around the world are marching, chanting and protesting Friday to call for an end to the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels as the globe suffers dramatic weather extremes and record-breaking heat. Dozens Of Countries Hundreds Of Cities An AP report said: The strike — driven by several mostly youth-led, local and global climate groups and organizations, including[Read More…]
Udayanidhi Stalin’s declaration of war against ‘Sanatana Hindu Dharma’ has provoked a wave of denunciation and diatribe in different parts of the country.The Prime Minister has thundered that the critics of this ‘Sanatana Dharma’ whom he identifies with the INDIA alliance of the opposition is set on wrecking the whole millennia-old edifice of Indian spiritual heritage. But what IS this[Read More…]
This is clearly the time for giving the highest priority to the rescue and rehabilitation effort In Libya where the recent floods have caused massive destruction. At the time of writing this over 5300 persons are reported to have died, and thousands more are reported missing. According to Derna Mayor Abdulbenam al-Ghaithi ( quoted in a Reuter report published in[Read More…]
The wording in Article IX, Section 1, of Montana’s constitution couldn’t be clearer: “The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.” Accordingly, in April, a district court judge in Yellowstone County voided a permit for a natural-gas-fired power plant under construction there. Over its lifetime, it would have released an estimated[Read More…]
What would our vulnerable descendants choose: phasing out fossil fuels or a regulated managed decline of fossil fuels globally? Phasing out fossil fuels is rightfully the all important climate change topic this Fall. After decades of failure to even peak greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and with escalating damage from climate events, it is imperative that emissions be reduced rapidly. But[Read More…]
July 27 marked the 70th anniversary of the 1953 ceasefire to the Korean War. In the three years leading up to the anniversary, South Korean peace movements organized the international Korea Peace Appeal campaign to replace the armistice agreement with a peace treaty to conclude the 70-plus-year Korean War. The anniversary has come and gone, but, instead of peace, the[Read More…]
Initiatives from Saudi Arabia and the United States continue to put pressure on Europe’s traditional stranglehold over FIFA. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar brought together nations from around the world, and 1.5 billion people tuned in to watch the final. But while soccer is a source of local pride, passion, and personal and community identity globally, its official[Read More…]
One of the great tasks of our times is to move USA policy more and more towards the path of peace. This can result in big welfare gains at world level as well as for the people of the USA. A lot of more resources can then become available to meet the welfare needs of the people of the USA.[Read More…]
While the Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has many admirers, he is no stranger to insults either, especially inside Bangladesh. Yunus has been a target of insults and harassment for a while and, more prominently and visibly since 2009 though in recent times, the pattern of these insults has undergone an important change – the sources of insults have moved[Read More…]
“The rule of law does not do away with the unequal distribution of wealth and power, but reinforces that inequality with the authority of law. It allocates wealth and poverty in such complicated and indirect ways as to leave the victims bewildered.” – Howard Zinn Since the first week of August, in Raygada, Kalahandi and Koraput districts, there has been[Read More…]
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed that the world is transitioning to a new diplomatic order in which U.S. must lead the way in overcoming increasing threats from Russia and China by working with its allies to build trust among nations for whom the old system failed. The Old World Is Over “One era is ending, a new[Read More…]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday the geopolitical climate had changed completely since the United Nations imposed sanctions on North Korea, and he accused the West of breaking pledges on humanitarian support for Pyongyang. A Reuters report said: Lavrov was speaking to a Russian TV reporter as Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un[Read More…]
To Smt. Droupadi Murmu The President of India Respected Rashtrapati Ji, Subject:- The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 introduced in the Parliament cuts at the root of India’s democracy- Request your urgent intervention before the Bill becomes a reality The government recently introduced the Chief Election Commissioner and[Read More…]
The BRICS Summit that concluded on the 24th of August 2023 in Johannesburg is a significant milestone in the journey towards a multi-polar world. From 5 members, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa it has now expanded into a 11-member alliance with the addition of Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. At the same[Read More…]
The Sahel region in Africa has experienced some of the worst distress in the world in recent times caused by violence, insecurity, hunger and deprivation. The recent crisis in Niger and the possibilities of its escalation have added to a situation that was already full of simmering tensions as seen in various countries of this region. The problems of this[Read More…]
The humiliation of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers in the occupied city of Al-Khalil (Hebron) on July 10 was not the first such episode. Sadly, it will not be the last. Indeed, the stripping of five women in front of their children, parading them naked around their family home and then stealing their jewelry by an Israeli military unit, was[Read More…]
After the start of the Special Military Operation, many were indignant: how can there be a war in the highly advanced and civilized 21st century? On the face of it, the question looks quite reasonable, but only to those whose well-fed and beautiful Instagram life does not include another, less pleasant, thing – the life of the people of Donbass.[Read More…]
On Leonard Peltier’s 79th birthday, September 12 his family members along with hundreds of Native American activists and numerous supporters demonstrated at the White House calling on President Biden to grant him clemency so that he will not die in prison. Peltier, who was convicted in 1977 of killing two FBI Agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in a shoot-out[Read More…]
A catastrophic flooding in Libya has taken its toll: At least 10,000 people died. The flood in Libya is just the latest in a string of intense rain events to hammer countries in four continents over the past two weeks. Whole neighborhoods have been swept into the sea by flooding in Libya. The country also experienced bursting of dams. Dead[Read More…]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged his nation’s support for Russia in its standoff with the U.S. and its allies. Kim Jong-un is making a rare visit to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the space facility in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Region. Media reports said: “Russia has risen for a sacred fight to protect its national sovereignty and[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Govt of India Dear Shri Rajiv Gauba, I have come across a disturbing news report (https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pull-out-tongue-gouge-out-eyes-union-minister-gajendra-shekhawat-on-sanatan-dharma-row-4383061) which stated, “Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has said anyone who speaks against the Sanatan Dharma would have his tongue pulled out and his eyes gouged out. A video of Mr Shekhawat making the purported remarks went viral on social[Read More…]
The internet portal CRUX named India, Russia & African Union as Winners of the G20 Meet in New Delhi (Sept.9-10 2023). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DoeMuIbWS0 The general euphoria sonograph now certifies India as a de facto world power coming on the heels of another of India’s spectacular success with Chandrayaan 3 Moon Mission recently, the first country in the world to land a[Read More…]
Dr Francisco Dominguez reflects on the 1973 overthrow of democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende and the long shadow of neoliberalism On the cold morning of September 11, 50 years ago in Santiago, Chile, armed forces commander in chief Augusto Pinochet led a bloody military coup against democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende. Tanks had the presidential palace, La Moneda,[Read More…]
On 11 September 1973 the democratically-elected Chilean Government was removed in a deadly US-backed Coup by the fascist Chilean military. The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) was involved as a US proxy after the Chilean Government kicked out the US CIA. The present racist, mendacious and US lackey Australian Labor Government is an accessory after the fact of the crime[Read More…]
The tear-squeeze remembering those who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington has become an annual event. In the words of US President George W. Bush, it was an attack on “our very freedom”. The US had been targeted because it was “the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.” Five decades ago,[Read More…]
by Taroa Zúñiga Silva and Laura Devia López A conversation with Pastor Alape, former guerrilla mayoral candidate for the Comunes Party. On May 4, 2023, during the International Summit on Nonviolence held in Antioquia, Colombia, a handshake shocked those who were present. The handshake was between two men with vastly different histories. One of the men was Daniel Gaviria, whose father—Guillermo Gaviria, former governor[Read More…]
A simple reform of diverting some of the highly excessive and wasteful military budget to civilian and health priorities can achieve the highly desirable objective to saving about one million human lives in a year. The current USA military expenditure which is over 850 billion dollars according to official estimates and closer to 1400 billion dollars according to other reliable[Read More…]
It’s an ocean of conflict and ecological decline. Despite its vast size — 1.3 million square miles — the South China Sea has become a microcosm of the geopolitical tensions between East and West, where territorial struggles over abundant natural resources may one day lead to environmental collapse. While the threat of a devastating military conflict between China and the United States[Read More…]
‘Jalabharadinarathrangal’ has been classified as a novel though the label doesn’t seem to do justice to the genre. What the author has dished out for readers through this book can only be called a chutney of multiple genres — poetry, play and novel. The writer himself describes his technique as ‘chutnification’. The narrative syntax is permeated with poetry. The narrative[Read More…]
On Friday evening, September 8, at 11:11 p.m. local time, a devastating earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck southern Morocco, near Marrakech. The death toll has already surpassed 2,800 people, many in small, isolated towns in the High Atlas mountains where the quake was centered. At least 3,000 are wounded, many critically, and time is rapidly running out[Read More…]
An interview of former finance minister and former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has been published in the English daily ‘The Indian Express’ (8 September 2023). Information about the journalist/journalists who took this particular interview has not been given. It has been told to the readers that ‘The Indian Express’ has done this interview of Dr. Singh on the eve[Read More…]
In a meet-the-press program at Press Club Kolkata on September 9 the Save River Save Life (Nodi Bachao Jibon Bachao or NBJB in Bangla) campaign announced its program regarding this year’s World River Day on September 24. From September 10 to September 24 a river fortnight drive will be undertaken that will touch more than 20 districts of West Bengal.[Read More…]
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has been justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “special military operation” with a few barbed purposes, among them cleaning the country’s stables of Nazis. As with so many instances of history, it was not entirely untrue, though particularly convenient for Moscow. At the core of many a nationalist movement[Read More…]
An international group of researchers and data scientists are creating a comprehensive database of the world’s archaeological knowledge—and changing our understanding of humans’ prehistoric heritage. Archaeology isn’t what it was in Indiana Jones’s heyday. The traditional image of the khaki-clad researcher scrambling over an excavation site with rock hammer and camel-hair brush has been supplemented by aerial and satellite photography,[Read More…]
Making good on their promise at yesterday’s teach-in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1973 US-sponsored coup in Chile in which the AFL-CIO played an active role bringing dictator Augusto Pinochet to power, union activists today held a noontime rally outside of AFL-CIO headquarters. The object of the rally was to inform the public by bringing the union’s involvement in[Read More…]
“Apple Blossom – Blue Sky” by amandabhslater “A treasure stumbled upon, suddenly; not gradually accumulated, by adding one to one. The accumulation of learning, ‘adding to the sum-total of human knowledge’; lay that burden down, that baggage, that impediment. Take nothing for your journey; travel light.” – Norman O. Brown, Love’s Body These are “heavy” times, colloquially speaking. Forebodings everywhere. Everything broken. [Read More…]
There is no doubt that the G-20 declaration is a major diplomatic triumph for Indian negotiators. The contribution of others, like those from Brazil, who helped in securing consensus agreement on this must also be acknowledged. At a time when the world is so divided particularly on the Ukraine conflict, to secure a consensus declaration was no easy matter, and[Read More…]
Presentation, Panel on “Buddhist Advice to Cope with Climate Change”, the 18th United Nations Day of Vesak Celebration, June 1, 2023, Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Thailand. Climate change is a complex phenomenon involving unknown changes in planetary biophysical systems. However, there is scientific consensus that climate change is caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and other human activities.[Read More…]
Summary and Analysis Last year in the summer of 2022 a wonderful friend named Debbie sent me a copy of Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad’s new book The Withdrawal. A year later I finally got the chance to sit down and read it (sorry it took me so long Debbie) and I was not disappointed as this text provides an excellent[Read More…]
There are no walls in this prison It is built on a foundation of fear, intimidation, and threats. Keep the history book closed Keep the historian in prison The prison without walls Has room for many. The poem, Kenya, A Prison Without Walls depicts the situation in Kenya. But that situation is not confined to Kenya only. It is the[Read More…]
Defying speculations about G-20 concluding with adoption of a Joint Declaration, host country India succeeded in convincing participating countries and the summit concluded “successfully.” Apprehension on this issue were entertained in view of G-20 summit at Bali (2022) having struggled to pass the Joint Declaration owing to differences entertained regarding Ukraine-crisis, western sanctions against Russia and there being need to[Read More…]
While India is glowing with the achievement of successfully concluding the G20 Summit in New Delhi, questions about outcome of the summit are being raised by different parties concerned with global issues. Following is a brief report on the summit: West Failed To ‘Ukrainize’ G20, Says Lavrov The West failed to make the G20 summit in New Delhi revolve around[Read More…]
France is planning to intervene in Niger, as it continues to deploy troops to several countries in the region, the West African state’s military government has claimed. Relations between Niger and former colonial power France have deteriorated since a coup in July. Media reports including reports by AFP said: “France continues to deploy its forces in several ecowas (Economic Community of[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Kumar Chief Election Commissioner Election Commission of India (ECI) Shri A C Pandey Election Commissioner Election Commission of India (ECI) Shri Arun Goel Election Commissioner Election Commission of India (ECI) Dear S/Shri Rajiv Kumar/ Pandey/ Goel, I have come across a news report (https://www.livemint.com/elections/election-commission-of-india-ready-to-act-cec-rajiv-kumar-on-one-nation-one-election-policy-11694004696134.html) which indicates that the Election Commission of India has assured that it[Read More…]
The term “Shock and Awe” was a consciously and specifically developed military strategy by the USA for use in war situation and intended using massive power and force in such rapid succession as to overwhelm the enemy. The attack was visualized to be so sudden and blinding as to confuse and stun the enemy into absolute shock. Harlan K Ullman[Read More…]
It is the historical speech of Dr. Ambedkar which discusses the reasons for the failure of the Justice Party and the shortcomings of the Dravidian movement As far as I have been able to study, the advent of the Non-Brahman Party has been an event in the history of India. Many people had been able to realize that the fundamental[Read More…]
AUSTRALIAN VOTERS STILL TROUBLED BY MORAL BLINDNESS OF THE PAST The world awaits the decision of Australia’s voters, on October 14th, of a long-time coming reconciliation with the nation’s Aboriginal peoples, Torres Strait Islanders and descendants of its non-aboriginal ‘Settler-Colonist’ forbears. It’s a complicated, contentious issue that has Australia on edge for many reasons. But this straightforward Yes or No[Read More…]
The meteoric rise of the Religious Zionists, a sleight of hand that outdoes master Netanyahu, surprises everyone and delights few. How did this happen, who let it happen, and what can be done after the entrenchment of those who hold a prayer book in one hand and a rifle in the other hand? What happened to Theodore Herzl’s Political Zionism[Read More…]
![A man walks through wildfire wreckage Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens sounded before people ran for their lives from wildfires on Maui that wiped out a historic town. [AP Photo/ Rick Bowmer]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Maui-wildfire-disaster-200x150.webp "A Global Maui Moment 354")
From the earliest kingdoms to late last night, history has been the story not just of the rise of great powers but of their decline and fall. So, normally, there would be nothing particularly out of the ordinary about the aging America of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a classic imperial power distinctly in decline and threatening to split into[Read More…]
September 11 is an ominous day for Americans who well remember the horrific events that unfolded in New York in 2001 and what eventually became the War on Terror. But for Chileans, it is a day that is well remembered as the beginning of a US supported military coup that overthrew the democratically elected President Salvador Allende and ushered in[Read More…]
Keeping in view many serious problems confronting our world, very noble precepts such as the entire earth being one family are sometimes mentioned as the basis for more enduring solutions. However only noble precepts will note take us very far, these must be moved further into more specific plans of action. This also should not be delayed for too long,[Read More…]
Mindless, blind growth driven by neoliberal capitalism is destroying the Biosphere and the very basis of Humanity’s existence. “The Future is Degrowth. A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism” summarizes the wide-ranging ideas of numerous Degrowthers who seek to replace terracidal capitalism with degrowth for a happy and sustainable future for Humanity. “The Future is Degrowth. A Guide to a[Read More…]
Millets, as we know, belong to the category of drought-tolerant, nutrient-rich grains primarily grown in arid and semi-arid regions of India and other countries. Due to their high protein, vitamin, and mineral content, millets are considered nutritionally superior to wheat, rice, and other grains. Consequently, in order to raise awareness about the nutritional and health benefits of millets, the Food[Read More…]
It is a very commendable effort that the G-20 Summit could issue a common declaration with consensus. The most praiseworthy part of this declaration is the basic precept given on the cover of the declaration—One Earth, One family, One Future. The very first sentence of the declaration says—We are One Earth, One Family, and we share One Future. In keeping[Read More…]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi really wanted to make an impression for his guests and dignitaries, and coarse realities would simply not do. The occasion of the G20 summit presented him with a chance to give the city an aggressive touch-up, touching up a good number of its residents along the way, not to mention the city’s animal life as[Read More…]
The recent highly unfortunate communal violence in Mewat region has drawn much comment, including appeals for unity and harmony. However enough attention has not been given to the rich tradition of unity and harmony that has been very much a part of the history of this region. A better and wider awareness of these will contribute to creating a Mewat[Read More…]
Preface The Empire of Persia was the first global empire to cover the parts of the three continents (known at that time): Asia, Africa, and Europe. The story of the Persian Empire starts after the end of the Assyrian state followed by the plunder of its political center – Nineveh, in 612 BC by Babylon which retained the lowlands of[Read More…]
At present, the entire country is discussing the remarks made by Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, in a meeting about Sanatana Dharma. In this, he has criticized the caste discrimination and system of high and low prevalent in Sanatan Dharma, compared it to a disease and has talked about eliminating it. BJP has projected it[Read More…]
Dr Ganesh Devy, linguist and scholar, is perhaps too optimistic about Mumbai playing a big role in making an intellectual contribution to the idea of civilisation. He made the plea in two lectures delivered at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai earlier this week. Mumbai had played a big role in making the world aware of Indian civilisation in the 18th[Read More…]
It has been 13 days since Shri Prafulla Samantara, a prominent environmentalist, writer and socialist thinker of the state, was kidnapped from a hotel in Rayagada town on August 29. Of course, he was subsequently released on same day. Despite all the newspapers and electronic-media clearly indicated that the abductors were the state police themselves, it is neither being investigated[Read More…]
It all tallies. War, investments and returns. The dividends, solid, though the effort expended – at least by others – awful and bloody. While a certain narrative in US politics continues in the vein of traditional cant and hustling ceremony regarding the Ukraine War – “noble freedom fighters, we salute you!” twinned with “Russian aggressors will be defeated” – there[Read More…]
Around the world, diverse initiatives are being introduced to manage population changes. In early 2023, India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world with the latter having 850,000 fewer people by the end of 2022—marking the country’s first population decline since famine struck from 1959 to 1961. While this reduction may seem modest considering China’s 1.4 billion population[Read More…]
An Interview With Lautaro Carmona, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile by Taroa Zúñiga Silva and Vijay Prashad On August 31, 2023, the President of the Communist Party of Chile Guillermo Teillier was buried in the historical cemetery of Recoleta. In this graveyard lies the remains of a range of important people, from former Chilean President Salvador Allende to the[Read More…]
Israel kills Palestinian children as a matter of policy. This claim can easily be demonstrated and is supported by the latest findings of a Human Rights Watch report. The question is: why? When the police or military shoot a child anywhere in the world, though utterly tragic, it can be argued, at least in theory, that the killing was an[Read More…]
Capitalism destroys every attempt by working class to end the exploitation and oppression created by capitalism itself. That is the only way capitalism has survived over generations. Workers have organised and set up trade unions as their political, ideological and fighting force to confront the bourgeois ruling class and the state they control. Trade Unions are thus their weapon in[Read More…]
Himachal Pradesh has suffered heavier damage during this monsoon season than in any recent year that most people here can recall. While over 300 people have died and economic damage has been put at Rs. 12,000 crore till early September, given the extreme nature of the devastation the mortality figure could have been much higher but for the noble efforts[Read More…]
The overhauling of the Indian crimial justice system must focus on imparting novel ideas like the George Stinney Fund and the Alan Turing Act to compensate those who are wronged by the State “George Stinney Jr., October 21, 1929- June 16, 1944. Wrongly convicted. Illegally executed by South Carolina, conviction vacated by court order dated December 16, 2014”- reads the[Read More…]
A Reuters Exclusive (U.S. military repositions some troops in Niger, pulls non-essential personnel) said on September 7, 2023: The Pentagon is repositioning some troops and equipment within Niger and will withdraw a small number of non-essential personnel “out of an abundance of caution,” U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday, the first major American military movement in Niger since a coup in July.[Read More…]
A report by the North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said: The North Korean military has unveiled a newly developed “tactical attack submarine” capable of launching nuclear missiles, with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declaring the weapon would help Pyongyang become an “advanced maritime power.” Dubbed the “Hero Kim Kun Ok,” the submarine was rolled out at[Read More…]
BJP is addicted to gigantism.Everything it does is on a gigantic scale,even the frauds.The last general election of 2019 for example ,if Satpal Malik’s account of Pulwama is to be believed.For effect on a stunned oposition and a bemused public it also carries them out with lightning speed. I have a terrible apprehension that this election is going to witness[Read More…]
Japan cannot possibly outlive the atrocity of dumping radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. In fact, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is an example of how nuclear meltdowns negatively impact the entire world, as its toxic wastewater travels across the world in ocean currents. The dumping of stored toxic wastewater from the meltdown in 2011 officially started on August 24th,[Read More…]
In the fast-paced world of technology, few companies have had as profound an impact as Google. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were still students at Stanford University, Google has grown from a humble search engine to a global tech giant that touches nearly every aspect of our lives. As Google celebrates its 25th anniversary,[Read More…]
Even though Satai village is located close to a town, the land belonging to several dalit households had been denied irrigation opportunities for a long time and so could not be cultivated properly. Recently Haritika voluntary organization brought new hope by creating a tank with the enthusiastic involvement of people of this hamlet located in Bijawar block of Chattarpur district[Read More…]
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
They really are a brutal lot. While the Queensland Labor Government croons on matters regarding rights, liberties and, it should be said, the plight of the First Nations Peoples, its policy, notably on youth detention, is a contradictory abomination. This situation finds itself repeated across the country, though the Sunshine State, as it is sometimes called, does it better than[Read More…]
Nobel Laureate journalist Maria Ressa spoke at the National Press Club Headliners luncheon September 5 discussing the existential threat of press freedoms faced by journalists and media worldwide and warned about the demise of democracy in the wake of those threats. Ressa, however, believes countering press repression and misinformation opens opportunities for civil society to rise to the challenge in[Read More…]
Obsessed with a dead movement of Khalistan, an imaginary Sikh homeland, the right wing government in New Delhi needs to follow the case of Jaskaran Singh, who recently won a famous Q and A show hosted by Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, to reassess their position. The 21-year-old Sikh from Khalra village in Punjab is in the news after his great[Read More…]
DU stays in the environment, and has been linked to huge rises in cancer and birth defects in the conflict zones. Freedom’s just another word for… blowing up your children? Giving them cancer? Militarism is obsolete, for God’s sake. Its technology is out of control. The latest shred of news that has left me stunned and terror-stricken is this, as[Read More…]
I. When the media and elites are debating what would be the proper name of the country, issues like ‘one country one election’, ISRO chief’s statement, Uday Stalin’s statement and etcetera, New Delhi was gearing up for the grand show of the year: G20 Summit. For the ‘security’ of 25,000 delegates [1] all schools of Delhi will remain closed from[Read More…]
Currently the events of Lynching, communal- religious confrontations, and the rapidly spreading Political fire of hatred in India WITH Yell & Screaming in the name of Hindu Patriotism are bound to raise concerns about historical upswing of Religious Hysteria and Hatred just in course of less than a decade. Also it is marked by accompanied by it is the: Phenomena[Read More…]
A French military nurse shot and killed on Tuesday a Chadian soldier he was treating and who attacked him with a scalpel in a French forces base in Faya-Largeau, in northern Chad. Media reports including reports by Alwihda Info, Liberation, Le Figaro and AFP said: “A Chadian soldier, who was not in a normal state, went for dressing in the[Read More…]
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned on the latest episode of his “Huckabee” program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network that the 2024 election may be the last decided by “ballots rather than bullets” if former President Donald Trump does not win. In a report, (Mike Huckabee Hints at Violence if Trump Loses in 2024: Will Be Last Election ‘Decided[Read More…]
International Literacy Day, celebrated on September 8th every year, stands as a global reminder of the importance of literacy as a fundamental human right and as a driver of personal and societal development. In the Indian context, this day takes on special significance due to the country’s diverse linguistic landscape, rich cultural heritage, and the immense potential that lies in[Read More…]
“The worst-case scenario is unfolding in Ethiopia,” Gabriel Bizuneh tells me, as he organizes in the Ethiopian community in Washington, D.C. Once again, the federal government is at war with another region in a federal system where regions are demarcated on ethnic lines. Moreover, each region in Ethiopia has its own police force, special units, and local militia. This time,[Read More…]
The twentieth century saw the emergence of public funded universities and technical institutions, while technology development was concentrated in the R&D laboratories of large corporations. The age of the lone inventor—Edison, Siemens, Westinghouse, Graham Bell—had ended with the nineteenth century. The twentieth century was more about industry-based R&D laboratories, where corporations gathered together leading scientists and technologists to create the[Read More…]
India is all set to host for the first time the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in the national capital on September 9-10, on the theme ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. The city has undergone a significant makeover for this mega event. The whole city has been decked up to give a bridal look. However, this $120 million “beautification[Read More…]
There’s little doubt that the sole purpose behind BJP’s raucous campaign to rename India as ‘Bharat’ is to create some confusion and unease in the mind of the masses about the United opposition’s challenge to the oppressive,exploitative and intensely divisive regime under a common banner blazoned INDIA. As far as I can see the ordinary voter is seething with anger[Read More…]
Every year on September 5, Teachers’ Day is celebrated in the country. Dr. Radhakrishnan’s birthday is celebrated as Teachers’ Day. He was born on September 5, 1888, in Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu. Dr. Radhakrishnan was the country’s second president, first vice president, and second ambassador to the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1954 for his important services.[Read More…]
The biggest ‘Hindu’ organization in the world, RSS also functions as an exclusive Gurukul where Hindutva cadres are trained to specialize in the ruthless use of lies, spread of hatred and indulge in sectarian violence. It is the hallmark of RSS functioning. The most prominent ideologue of the RSS, Guru MS Golwalkar who also was the 2nd Supremo of the[Read More…]
While the famous Ganga and Yamuna rivers have at least received some attention regarding their protection, several of their important tributaries have been badly neglected even at a time when their protection needs urgent attention. Ultimately of course this neglect of tributaries will prove very harmful for the Ganga-Yamuna river system as well. The Ken river deserves special attention among[Read More…]
The Chinese government has announced its intention to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the Niger crisis, following a coup in July that triggered sanctions and left the West African country facing threats of armed action. Media reports said: “The Chinese government intends to play the role of good offices, a role of moderator, with full respect for the regional countries,”[Read More…]
An odder political bunch you could not find, at least when it comes to pursuing a single goal. Given that the goal is the release of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange makes it all the more striking. Six Australian parliamentarians of various stripes will be heading to Washington ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s October visit to test the ground of[Read More…]
The Saudis picked us up from the detention center in Daer and put us in a minibus going back to the Yemen border. When they released us, they created a kind of chaos; they screamed at us to “get out of the car and get away.” … this is when they started to fire mortars – to keep us into[Read More…]
Look back at the history of Africa. That is where the need for socialism comes from. One of the recommended readings on Pan-Africanism in the Kenya Political Study Guide records not only the enslavement, the massacres, the stolen resources and stolen livelihood of future generations by Euro-American capitalism and imperialism, it also examines another weapon used by imperialism to perpetuate[Read More…]
Mankind is being Traumatized for its Hopes for Peace and Sustainable Future The trajectory of peace and war between Russia, Ukraine and the West unfolds the pursuit of unbridled ambitions and insane geopolitics at the height of cheap military triumphs and fame. The egoistic class of leaders operating global institutions claim “success” by rape of earth, destruction of human habitats[Read More…]
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies Lost in a chaotic hall of mirrors of its own creation, the CIA has generally failed in its one and only legitimate task, to provide U.S. policymakers with accurate intelligence about the world beyond the Washington echo-chamber to inform U.S. decision-making. If, unlike many of his predecessors, President Biden actually wanted to[Read More…]
Biden’s Rules on Drone Warfare Mask Continued Violent Islamophobia “I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer gray skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are gray.” That’s what a young Pakistani boy named Zubair told members of Congress at a hearing on drones in October 2013. That hearing was during the Obama years at a time when[Read More…]
Book Review: Rohingya of the Arakan: Conflict, Crisis and Solutions by Nurul Islam (The Other Press, Kuala Lumpur, Paperback, 1st ed., 2022) The Rohingyas of Myanmar are a stateless people who are denied citizenship rights in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar simply because of their distinct ‘otherness’ in race, culture, and religion. As a result, nearly 2.5 million Rohingyas, representing roughly 75%[Read More…]
Our rulers have changed the country’s name from “India” to “Bharat”. The first invitation from the head of the nation to senior delegates to attend a G20 dinner in Delhi has gone in the name of Bharat. Bharat’s underbelly comprises of millions of disadvantaged people, eking out meagre livelihoods from occupations without which the country cannot move forward. However, like[Read More…]
The hon’ble Supreme Court of India has reserved its verdict on the petitions challenging Presidential Orders CO 272 & CO 273 of 2019 which scrapped the special status accorded to the State of Jammu & Kashmir under article 370 of the Constitution of India; and The Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act, 2019 which bifurcated the state into two union territories.[Read More…]
The PUCL strongly condemns the two motivated and malicious FIRs filed by the Manipur police against 3 members of a Fact-Finding Team constituted by the Editors Guild of India, Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor and the president of EGI, Seema Mustafa, for a Report released by them on 02nd September, 2023 about the ongoing, unabated ethnic violence in[Read More…]
*The PUCL demands the closure and halting of investigation of the NIA FIR, RC-01/2023/NIA/LKW, based on which raids in 8 locations of 5 districts of UP were undertaken today* *All the devices and books of Seema Azad, National secretary of the PUCL and similarly of others seized by the NIA be returned immediately* *PUCL demands from the MHA to stop[Read More…]
Recent tropical Storm Idalia’s destruction in and the toll it has taken from parts of the U.S. are now well reported in the US media. International news agencies also covered human suffering the furious storm created. An Associated Press report cited Belond Thomas of Perry, a mill town: “All hell broke loose”. The Idalia, according to the late-August report, “appeared[Read More…]
Since the morning of 5th September 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been raiding the offices of Bhagat Singh Students Morcha (BSM) in Benaras Hindu University. Simultaneously, NIA has raided the homes of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) State President Seema Azad, her partner and advocate Vishwavijay, advocate Soni Azad and organiser of a workers’ organisation Ritesh Vidyarthi[Read More…]
Dr Malcolm Mistry, originally from India, is based currently at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He is a climatologist with training in climate modelling, econometrics and sectoral impacts assessment of climate change and variability. Malcolm holds visiting affiliations with the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) – Italy where he spent[Read More…]
An FIR has been filed against three journalists who represented the Editors Guild of India (EGI) to document the ground situation in Manipur, including the role of the media, as the state has been ravaged by a relentless spiral of vicious violence. The EGI members were Bharat Bhushan, former editor of Mail Today, Sanjay Kapoor, editor of Hardnews, and Seema[Read More…]
On August 1, protesters against the Burrup Hub expansion in Western Australia, a project of one of Australia’s most ruthless fossil fuel companies, took to the Perth home of its CEO, Meg O’Neill. The CEO of Woodside was not impressed. In fact, she seemed rather distressed. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of the business community, in professional athletics,[Read More…]
The Grain Deal made between Russia and Ukraine this year, and brokered by Turkiye and the UN is not working now. The collapse of the deal known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative is a threat to food security of developing countries and a pressure on the world grain market pushing food prices high, which is making life of the[Read More…]
Ironic how so many who say they worship Jesus as their Lord and Savior forget all that he taught: If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. I was watching a[Read More…]
by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo At the zenith of the mass protests in Egypt on January 25, 2011, Twitter, Facebook and other Western-based social media platforms appeared to be the most essential tools for the Egyptian Revolution. Though some observers later contested the use of the terms ‘Twitter Revolution’ or ‘Social Media Revolution’, one cannot deny the centrality of[Read More…]
Preface A peaceful dissolution of the USSR according to the agreement between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in 1988 in Reykjavik brought a new dimension of global geopolitics in which up to 2008 Russia, as a legal successor state of the USSR, was playing an inferior role in global politics when an American Neocon concept of Pax Americana became the[Read More…]
China and India both are the capable nuclear weapons’ States and since their respective unification and emergence have been at loggerheads due to border disagreements and disputes. Keeping trade and commerce aside, it is now, as it palpably seems because of so called media hyped ‘Chinese superiority Complex’ which is not letting the peoples of both the nations create goodwill[Read More…]
Teachers, and very sadly so, are today in the news, for all the wrong reasons! In Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, a school teacher made the students of her class come up and slap a Muslim child in the classroom. She was caught on camera saying. “I have declared jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai…”as she called the rest of the class one[Read More…]
During a recent visit to Bundelkhand region I came across the following report in the leading Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala (August 13-14)—Villagers protesting against the Ken-Betwa River Link Project have submitted a protest petition written with their blood. Their leaders have alleged that 3 to 4 million trees are likely to be cut and people of 21 villages will be[Read More…]
Notwithstanding all the hype being raised about Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being “serious” about pursuing its proposal of “one nation, one election,” prospects of it actually being implemented in near future are fairly remote. Chances of BJP itself being compelled to backtrack from doing so by its own regional allies cannot be ignored. Speculations have certainly being voiced about this[Read More…]
To Smt. Droupadi Murmu The President of India Respected Rashtrapati Ji, The Centre has set up a High-Level Committee (HLC) to examine “simultaneous elections to the House of the People (Lok Sabha), State Legislative Assemblies, Municipalities and Panchayats, keeping in view the existing framework under the Constitution of India and other statutory provisions, and for that purpose, examine and recommend specific amendments to[Read More…]
India has been turned into a full-scale surveillance state with the masses under the watchful eye of the government, vulnerable and oblivious to being tracked, profiled, recorded, and registered at every point of their day and entire lifetimes. Invasive technologies like facial recognition are being cavalierly used in public spaces and universities, political and institutional opposition is being stymied through[Read More…]
Southeast Asian countries must avoid following in the footsteps of Ukraine and beware of being used as geopolitical pawns by foreign forces that are sowing discord in the region for their own gain, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned. “The crisis in Ukraine has sounded the alarm for mankind, and similar tragedies must not be staged in Asia,” China’s[Read More…]
It is with a profound sense of gratitude and admiration to pen down this heartfelt tribute to the late Professor Tangeda Navaneetha Rao, a luminary in the field of education and an iconic figure in the annals of Osmania University’s history. Prof. Rao’s journey, from a remote Jeelugula village situated in erstwhile Karimnagar district, to becoming a torchbearer of[Read More…]
The Ukrainian counteroffensive of the past three months or so, starting on 4 June, has been widely discussed. In one of the most well-documented and thoughtful reviews of this counteroffensive titled ‘Bound to Lose— Ukraine’s 2023 Counteroffensive’ Prof. John J. Mearsheimer, who is R.Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, has raised several important[Read More…]
The Moving finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Death as the Nexus for the Possibility of Meaning in Human Life In This Life, the philosopher Martin Hägglund argues that:[Read More…]
This September is the sixtieth anniversary of U.S. and Soviet ratification of the world’s first significant nuclear arms control agreement, the Partial Test Ban Treaty. Thus, it’s an appropriate time to examine that treaty, as well as to consider what might be done to end the danger of nuclear annihilation. Although the use, in 1945, of atomic bombs to destroy[Read More…]
![Medics stand by the covered bodies of victims of a deadly blaze in downtown Johannesburg, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. At least 74 people died when a fire ripped through a multi-story building in Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city, emergency services said Thursday. [AP Photo/ Jerome Delay]](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Johannesburg-Fire-Tragedy-200x150.webp "Colonial African Cities Have Always Been Mass Graveyards For Black People 517")
The African city – such as Johannesburg, Harare, Nairobi, Lagos, Kinshasa, and Lilongwe, to name a few – emerges and matures to take shape in the last 200 years through a series of mineral productions, migrant labour systems, and industrial trades. In essence, the interconnected systems of capitalism, colonialism, and neoliberalism entrenched in the last century are the seeds where[Read More…]
Society is in a state of flux. It is undergoing constant change and reformation. This element of metamorphosis is true for all fields of human endeavour – be it agriculture, commerce, industry or the arts and sciences. We are living in an age of information explosion where vast quantities of written matter are available thus allowing access to[Read More…]
On July 26, 2023, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi moved a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha over Manipur violence. The Lok Sabha speaker, Om Birla, accepted the no-confidence motion moved against the National Democratic Alliance’s government. Although the Lok Sabha speaker admitted the motion on the same day, he did not right away set aside a specific date(s) for the[Read More…]
At 90 seconds to a midnight and a few decades to +4oC will ’sapiens’ end up on the beach? The clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at 90 seconds to midnight. When elephants fight the grass dies (an African proverb). Under the guise of lies and cover-ups, the global powers to be have set the stage for the[Read More…]
Thousands of people protested the French military presence in Niger and French interference in Niger’s internal affairs Saturday. Media reports said: The protesting people gathered outside of the French military base in Niger’s capital Niamey once again demanding the withdrawal of French forces from Niger. The rally was sparked by a call from several civic organizations, opposed to the former colonial[Read More…]
‘Panem et circenses’, said the Romans – ‘Bread and circuses’. This maxim served the Romans well. In times of crisis and whenever they needed a distraction from military defeats or political infighting at the highest levels, they simply entertained the masses. Caroline Wazir wrote an article in The Atlantic in 2016, linking entertainment and the need for political validation in[Read More…]
There’s a whiff of winter wind all over Canada. And it’s the time the school year begins. The most sought-after summer starts moving into the rearview mirror of the year. The Toronto International Film Festival, otherwise known as the Festival of the Festivals due to its worldwide participation and strength, is a few days away from happening. It enters the[Read More…]
The overwhelming feature of the education system of the greater part of the world is that is that it is completely out of connect with the real needs of our deeply troubled world. What are the real needs of our world? These are clearly linked to the recognition of the most pressing problems of our world. The present day world[Read More…]
Australia experienced this in February 2021. Facebook had gotten nastily stroppy, wishing to dictate public policy to the Commonwealth government. To teach Canberra mandarins a lesson, it literally unfriended the entire country, scrubbing all news platforms of content and making any posted links through the platform inaccessible. It mattered not that the content involved the tawdry details of celebrity love[Read More…]
There has been a big furore in India, for over a week now, about a map released by China. One can see that it is a “standard map” of China (picture above) that is not particularly aimed at India. “ While the map is an annual exercise, the timing of its release is also significant ahead of the G-20[Read More…]
Love is interpreted by philosophers with different variations Love is romanticized by the poets, who have their own narration Love is[Read More…]
The draconian travel ban prevents as many as 100,000 Koreans in the United States from visiting family members in North Korea. On August 22, the U.S. State Department renewed its ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea. This travel ban prohibits as many as 100,000 Korean Americans living in the United States from visiting their relatives in North Korea.[Read More…]
Education is a basic human right and all education should be free for all. However the commodification and corporatizing of higher education has meant that free university education presently only obtains in about 25 countries. Australian universities charge impoverished local and overseas students hugely excessive tuition fees when Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) can deliver top quality, reading-based courses and accrediting[Read More…]
Can the genetic eukaryotic neurotic psychotic self-destructive discordant elements that are preventing humans from beginning a Phase Transition be constrained ? And If they can be constrained, then do humans have the intellectual strength and cohesiveness cooperatively to move on into a self-sustaining integrative Phase Reorganization that will assure continuation of human life and all other life on the planet ? XXX X Extreme Biosphere temperature rise over the next[Read More…]
People have been generally organized in the form of unions, political parties, sects, dissident groups, voluntary organizations and other groups requiring their own discipline and having their own programs. The world now needs a different kind of mobilization which does not require much of this discipline and not even a very firm program. Instead what we need is a much[Read More…]
Ever since two brave judges of the Punjab & Haryana High Court – of the order of those High Court judges who during 1975-77 allowed habeas corpus petitions to be admitted – talked of ethnic cleansing of Muslims, the case pertaining to the Nuh demolition is being treated like a pariah by all the benches before whom it gets[Read More…]
On Wednesday, a month after a military coup in Niger, the military ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba in Gabon, an oil-rich former French colony in central Africa. The coup in Gabon brings to eight the total number of coups Africa has seen since August 2020 and the subsequent withdrawal of French occupation troops from Mali. There have been two coups[Read More…]
Niger’s National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) has reportedly demanded the complete withdrawal of French troops from the West African country by September 3. Earlier, Saudi media reported the CNSP had announced the annulment of all security and military agreements with France. By the end of the week, supporters of the pullout are going to stage an[Read More…]
The Council for the Human Future, which is a dedicated group of intelligent well-informed people, has identified ten Mega Risks to Earth. As it happens, all ten risks are threatening the planet all at the same time. Consequently, the board of the Council has called for an Earth System Treaty. This may be one of the most unique efforts to[Read More…]
Capitalism is going through its greatest crisis since the 1930s. The banking system has been saved from meltdown (at least for the time being) only by extensive government intervention in the USA, Britain, and a number of other countries. Stock markets all over the world have plummeted. A long and deep recession is in prospect. Capitalism, it is sometimes said,[Read More…]
My question is this. When war inevitably breaks out between competing imperialists, the US and China, will there be “leftists” who, because they oppose the US ruling class, take the side of China? It seems that way, based on their current defense of China as a socialist of communist state. Some are even defending the Russian rulers against the reactionary[Read More…]
Commemoration of Swaminathan Calls for a Revisit of Green Revolution 
Antarctica Hits Records as Global Heat Looms Large for 2024 
Book Review: Building A Just World Order 
Canada Needs Urgent Reforms to Bring Long-Delayed Justice to its Indigenous People 
Ukraine: Peace Comes through Mutual Respect 
Canada’s Proclivity To White Wash Its Nazi Citizenry & Nazi Affiliation Past 
Clamour for Teachers Grows in Jharkhand – Parents Write to CM 
Rifts in INDIA Alliance 
At the Brink? Contemplating the Unimaginable Costs of a Nuclear War 
Cruel Prerogatives: Braverman on Refugees at the AEI 
The Perilous Path From Western Domination to De-Dollarization 
From the Contemporary History of the Balkans: Greece and Slavo-Macedonians (1913-1993) 
The Ethnic Violence in Manipur, India, Explained 
New Report Exposes Grave Injustice to Villagers in the Name of Expanding Tourism and Parks in Tanzania 
Ending Opioid Addiction and Deaths through Creative Strategies 
Solitude: A Source of Empowerment 
Dr.K.S.Sharma Turns 90 
The Unholy Origins of Castes in India 
Union Health Ministry placing a cap on new medical colleges in States on the basis of the population criterion violates federalism 
Reflections on the Revolutionary Legacy of Makhan Singh in Kenya 
Armenian civilians flee Nagorno-Karabakh after new offensive by Azerbaijan 
Manipur: a statement of concern and suggestions for peaceful resolution 
Global Leaders Plead for Peace in Ukraine at UN 
Ghosts of the Past: For Israel, War on UNESCO is an Existential Battle 
Keeping Cattle on Public Land Is Bad for People, Cows, Wildlife, and the Planet 
The United States in the World: Making Sense of the Past Forty Years (1981-2023) 
Canadian Youth At Risk and the Discrimination of Marginalized Demographics 
While Searching Worldwide for Terrorists, Uncle Sam Should Also Look in a Mirror 
American Abrams tanks roll into Ukraine 
An open letter to JNU VC – Your association with RSS defies humanism, anti-colonial struggle Indian democracy! 
From Education to Incarceration 
Tunakataa! Saying ‘No’ to Capitalism and Imperialism in Kenya 
Rising Islamophobia and Communal Discord: An Alarming Trend in BJP-Ruled States 
Speak Truth to Power and Pay the Price! 
USA’s Wars Took 12 Million Lives in The Last 25 Years US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
In Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan makes us an offer we can refuse 
Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma 
On the Brink of Famine 
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
