Countercurrents.org Archive April 13

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30 April ,2013

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reach Highest Point
In Three Million Years
By Countercurrents.org

As global carbon dioxide, emissions teetered on the threshold of 400 parts per million (PPM) for the first time in three million years, delegates from countries all over the world yesterday started another round of talks on how to tackle climate change

Giant Companies Admit Link With Firms In Collapsed Bangladesh Building
By Countercurrents.org

The Italian retail giant Benetton has admitted that it was supplied by one of the garment factories in the Bangladesh building which collapsed last Wednesday for a one-off order, after previously denying that it had links with any of the businesses there. Rebecca Smithers reported

What Created The Concrete Tombs In Bangladesh?
By Li Onesto

This criminal system is responsible for the mangled bodies inside the concrete tombs in Savar; the survivors with no arms and legs, who will now be “useless” to the capitalists because they cannot work. The fact is, this disaster is not the first—nor will it be the last. And the reality is that such factory deaths are not something unique to Bangladesh, but happen all over the world, because of the way this global system of capitalism-imperialism operates and can only operate—according to the rules of maximizing profit over everything else

Declining Bee Populations Pose A Threat to Global Agriculture
By Elizabeth Grossman

The danger that the decline of bees and other pollinators represents to the world’s food supply was highlighted this week when the European Commission decided to ban a class of pesticides suspected of playing a role in so-called “colony collapse disorder.”

Overpopulation: Maybe It’s Time To Offend A Few Folks
By Alexandra Paul

Speaking out about human overpopulation is not an easy thing, as I have been told that people get offended. I have not personally experienced offending anyone, but perhaps those folks have been too polite to tell me. I have not read any studies that prove people are offended, but perhaps I have missed them. If I offend you in this video, please let me know

Civil Society Activism In Kashmir
By Abdul Majid Zargar

If there is a silver lining visible in the dark clouds hovering over, it is the growing civil society activism. It is refreshing to hear civil society members taking important issues confronting the people

Kashmir Scenario Post US Withdrawal From Afghanistan
By Abdul Majid Zargar

Let India & Pakistan start negotiations not out of fear but let they also not fear to negotiate. And before the signals emanating out of Afghanistan are translated into action by extreme elements, which only means further death & destruction, let those be pre-empted by both Countries finding a lasting solution to the problem by taking genuine representatives of Jammu &Kashmir on board and sooner this happens, the better it is

Paradesi : A Distortion Of The Political History Of Dalits
By Gouthama Siddarthan

A recent film which hit the screens in Tamilnadu " Paradesi, " a destitute wanderer literally in Tamil, for which the director Bala has been applauded by mainstream media, while some have gone to the extent of touting it as a world class film. We shall look upon critically whether the film deserves such kudos

29 April ,2013

Bangladesh: Death Toll Nears 400 In Building Collapse
By Sarath Kumara

The number of deaths in the Bangladesh building collapse had risen to 381 by Sunday evening, with many more bodies, and possibly survivors, still trapped in the debris. According to the police, as many as 900 people remain missing. While the final death toll may never be known, it is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters

Forced To Die: The Garment Workers At Rana Plaza
By Farida Akhter

It was not an accident, it was simply an organised killing. It can be termed a “Rana- made” killing of the readymade garment workers. As the factory is located in Savar, the suburb of Dhaka, the incident is called Savar Tragedy

You And Your Family Are Guinea Pigs For The Chemical Corporations
By David Rosner & Gerald Markowitz

The culprit behind this silent killer is lead. And vinyl. And formaldehyde. And asbestos. And Bisphenol A. And polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). And thousands more innovations brought to us by the industries that once promised “better living through chemistry,” but instead produced a toxic stew that has made every American a guinea pig and has turned the United States into one grand unnatural experiment

Obama And U.S. Military Divided Over Syria
By Shamus Cooke

Has Syria crossed the "red line" that warrants a U.S. military invasion? Has it not? The political establishment in the United States seems at odds over itself. Obama's government cannot speak with one voice on the issue, and the U.S. media is likewise spewing from both sides of its mouth in an attempt to reconcile U.S. foreign policy with that most stubborn of annoyances, truth

Boston And Venezuela: Terrorism There And Here
By James Petras

By examining the context, politics, government responses and mass media treatment of these terrorist acts we can gain insight into the larger meaning of terrorism and how it reflects, not merely the hypocrisy of the US government and mass media, but the underlying politics that encourages terrorism

The Lurking Inconsistency
By Herman Daly

Ecological economics of course has roots in ecology and biology as well as in economics. Most of ecological economists’ and steady-state economists’ time has been well-spent correcting economics in the light of biology and ecology. And there is still more to do in this direction. However, we should be careful to avoid importing some deep metaphysical biases frequent in biology, along with its scientific truths

Dayamani Barla Selected For Cultural Survival's Ellen L. Lutz Indigenous Rights Award
By Cultural Survival

In recognition of her work with Adavasi (Indigenous) communities in India, Dayamani Barla was chosen by Cultural Survival, an Indigenous Peoples rights organization, as the winner of the 2013 Ellen L. Lutz Indigenous Rights Award

Countering Hyprocrisy: From Bt-Cotton To Koodankulam,
It's Not Luddism, It's Evidence-Based Legitimate Protest!
By Colin Todhunter

Scientists and groups that express serious concerns about GM and nuclear energy technologies are frequently accused of possessing a culturally backward mindset and waging a reactionary war against science and progress. GM-industry man Shanthu Shatharam, writing in India's Deccan Herald newspaper this week (1), forwarded such a notion and described opponents of nuclear power and GMOs as often possessing vague ideas about the safety and utility of modern technologies based on cuddly feelings for all things natural

Violence Against Women: Why Is It Always The Worst?
By Aakanksha Mohan sharma

Every time, doctors treat rape victims, they say this is the worst they had ever seen...Every time! It is always a worst level of domestic violence which leads her to commit suicide... Every time! (Yes, it is important)... It has to be really worst when fifty female fetuses are found in a well...Worst, Every time! (Can’t help)... Why our standards of brutality with women have come down to this point, where it has to be worst to be counted? Why it is worst at so many fronts?

28 April ,2013

Washington Fabricates Chemical Weapons Pretext
For War Against Syria
By Bill Van Auken

In an attempt to pave the way for a direct military intervention aimed at toppling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Washington, its NATO allies, Israel and Qatar have all in recent days broadcast trumped-up charges that Syria has used chemical weapons

Sectarian Warfare Grips Iraq
By Jean Shaoul

Escalating violence in Iraq has led to the deaths of at least 179 people since Tuesday, the highest death toll since the withdrawal of US troops at the end of 2011

Pushing Al Qaeda To Take On Hezbollah
By Franklin Lamb

The coming months will reveal to us if the several pro-Zionist Arab regimes and Islamophobes including those at WINEP and other Israel first “think-tanks” are delusional in believing a “simple solution” in John McCain’s words, to those resisting the Zionist occupation of Palestine would be to assist Jabhat el Nusra type jihadists to make war against Hezbollah. And whether they could defeat Hezbollah or even whether Jabhat al Nusra and friends are capable of igniting yet another catastrophe in this region

Wanna' Know About Terror? Ask A Native American (What We’re Up Against)
By Mickey Z.

Whether we choose to admit it or not, the vaunted “American way of life” was built on a nearly exterminated indigenous population, the African slave trade, and all those killed in places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East, and far too many more to name. Our way of life was built on the terror of stolen land using stolen oil and is maintained by the terror of cops, the terror of prisons, the terror of the military, and the psychological terror of propaganda. If you don’t agree that the United States was built on and is maintained by terror, just ask a Native American

Quotes From The Book of Memes
Collated and Conflated By Gary Corseri

The following is an attempt to show how absurd life can be when we simply accept/inherit/assume some slogan or concept we haven't thought through, felt through, for ourselves. Gary Corseri takes well-known quotations and turn them around simply by substituting the word "meme" for a word in the original

Under Darkness In The Somali Region Of Ethiopia
By Graham Peebles

The arid Somali (or Ogaden) region of Ethiopia, home to some 5 million ethnic Somalis has been isolated from the world since 2005, when the government imposed a ban on all international media and most humanitarian groups from operating in the area. Under the cover of media darkness together with donor country indifference, the Ethiopian government according to a host of human rights organisations, is committing wide-ranging human rights abuses that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity

Marx Reloaded, A Film By Jason Barker: Review And Commentary
By Thomas Riggins

Jason Barker's film, Marx Reloaded, was released in 2011. It is 52 minutes long and is now available for viewing on the internet. It was interesting to watch but it did not have a lot to do with Marx except superficially. If Marx was reloaded it was with blanks

Rethink Of Recycling Practices With Soaring Demand For Metals
By Marianne de Nazareth

The growth in demand for metals, which could see needs rise by almost ten times of current levels, calls for a rethink of recycling practices in order to address negative environmental impacts, according to two reports released today by the UNEP-hosted International Resource Panel

The Paradox Of Empowerment Within Structural Necessities
By Dr. Sylvia Karpagam

Casteism is vile. It has been intended and envisaged to decimate anyone who questions it. It strikes at the core of its opposition. It will break, build allies, lie, cheat, kill, wound, destroy and decimate its opponents. The opponent is often a single individual. The opponent is often alone

26 April ,2013

Mass Protests Erupt In Bangladesh Over Factory Collapse
By Patrick O’Connor

Mass protests have erupted in Bangladesh over the collapse of a textile factory near the capital, Dhaka—the latest in a series of devastating industrial disasters in the impoverished country. Many of the demonstrating workers carried black flags and blockaded highways in at least three industrial suburbs. A local police inspector told Associated Press that workers attacked several factories whose management had refused to suspend production

Boston On The Tigris
By Dirk Adriaensens

While on 15 April the whole world was focused on the Boston marathon blasts, at least 79 people were killed, and over three hundred others injured – mostly civilians – in a series of bombings and armed attacks across Iraq. Twenty-six car bombs were involved, as well as sixteen IED's and four other armed attacks, all in separate incidents

Zionism And The United States Congress
By William James Martin

The locus of the present day conflict in Palestine may not be in Palestine but in Washington, DC, and in the US Congress, because the US Congress supports, probably unwittingly for the most part, the ethnic cleansing and the destruction the Palestinian people

When Will We Ever Learn?
By Franklin Lamb

It is certainly appropriate to honor the victims of the 1983 US Embassy bombing but it is no less appropriate to honor the other tragedies in Lebanon during this period under review that precipitated it. In her closing remarks this week, Ambassador Connelly noted that in her opinion, “the bombing of the US Embassy taught us the stakes of involvement in this region.” Has it? As we contemplate another “neutral peacekeeping presence” being planned in Washington for Syria , we gravely doubt that it has. When will we ever learn?

Why We Must Change The Narrative On Syria
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

It is important to change the accepted narrative about Syrian uprisings. Given the decades lone demonization of Iran, it may be more palatable to associate the fueling of unrest in Syria point to a ‘weaker' Iran, but let there be no mistake - Syria today is in turmoil in order to promote Israel's grand strategy – even as the perpetrator – Israel, plays the victim and warns of chemical weapons use by Assad's regime, demanding intervention

Within The National (In)Security State: Fear As A Constant Companion
By Phil Rockstroh

Fate will favor those who maintain their dignity, retain their sense of humor, and struggle to keep alive their sense of beauty, even in ugly times. Hold to your vital center, stay in the vivid moment, if only for the sake of those you love

Abdullah Ocalan: A Living Argument Against The Death Penalty
By N. Jayaram

Ocalan personifies that old saw, “one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter”. He is a hero for tens of millions of Kurdish people and is no terrorist in the eyes of many others sympathetic to the Kurdish cause. But even staying with the Turkish characterisation, the fact that he is alive today, affords both sides an opportunity to engage in peaceful dialogue

Post-Election Violence In Venezuela Was Hatched In Pre-Election Days
By Farooque Chowdhury

Mainstream media focused on the post-election violence in Venezuela. But perpetrators of this violence, the gang members of the right wing candidate Capriles, were not identified

Sanitizing Education
By Shalini Sharma

The main educational body of India, University Grants Commission (UGC), is currently considering measures to stop radicalization of youth. Intended measures aim to sanitize human rights education and values among students and make this education mandatory for all in the name of national integration

The EU-India Free Trade Agreement: India up “For Sale” To Western Corporate Capital
By Colin Todhunter

The EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), something that could fundamentally restructure Indian society and impact the lives of hundreds of millions, is being negotiated ‘on the behalf of the public' by politicians on both sides who are champions of the type of economic liberalisation that has already been responsible for bankrupting many Western economies

Hum Sab Maange "Azaadi"? (We all demand for AZAADI?)
By Ravi Nitesh

For me and many others, who hold our supreme identity as that of a human being, really have no opinion to offer on whether Kashmir should be with India or not. What we really care is only about the peaceful and happy Kashmir. Whatever is just and fair, Kashmir must get. Whatever is acceptable to all and in benefit of Kashmir in view of its future, must be received by it

Banned Outfits All Set To Contest Pakistan Polls
By Sarfraz Ali

Religious extremist groups and banned outfits have fielded 62 candidates for upcoming polls which considered ever high ratio in Pakistan's electoral history, facing charges of sectarian killings, terrorism and anti-state activities under 4th schedule of anti-terrorism act. They have kicked off their election drive after getting clean chit from election commission amid alarming concerns of international community fearing that Taliban like people might hold the atomic power country

25 April ,2013

Huge Death Toll In Bangladesh Factory Collapse
By Sarath Kumara and Wimal Perera

In one of the worst industrial disasters in Bangladesh’s history, at least 175 workers were confirmed dead as of Thursday morning, and about 1,000 injured, after the collapse of an eight-storey building that housed garment factories in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka. As many as 1,600 more were thought to be trapped in the rubble

Tomb Of Indifference To Worker's Life
By Farooque Chowdhury

The Savar worker-deaths shall live as capital’s tomb of indifference to worker-life and shall remind workers of all generations the cruel character of capital. It shall remind workers the state of workers’ life in a society. It’s not a happy situation for capital as capital can’t escape wrath of labor

Bangladesh Tragedy: Crushed Lives, Crashed Dreams
By Omar Rashid Chowdhury

But haven’t we mourned enough? Haven’t we asked enough for explanations? Haven’t we cried enough for justice? Yet, why do those remain unanswered? Who will answer for the crushing of thousands of dreams? And, who will stand trial for the killing of hundreds of lives? Lives of workers are the least costly of all commodities. The Savar crash incident stands gruesomely true to that fact. They were herded like sheep to work and they were slaughtered like sheep

Set Up Enquiry Into Koodankulam Scam
By Admiral (retd) L. Ramdas

Today I seek to highlight the mounting evidence available regarding the fears expressed in countless forums, about safety and in particular, allegations of corruption associated with the shoddy manufacture and supply of sub standard materials by the Russian suppliers to the KKNPP over a period of time publicly articulated in a newspaper article by Dr AK Gopalakrishnan, a former head of the AERB. This is shocking to say the least. Even worse however, is the studied silence from the highest office in the land – namely the PMO

Mr. Prime Minister, Here Is Yet Another Scam Right Under Your Nose.
And It Has Far More Dangerous Implications
By Dr. E A S Sarma

Department of Atomic Energy in India comes right under the Prime Minister. The revelation of a mega-scam in Russia involving supply of sub-standard equipment in Koodankulam’s Russian supplier has met with denials from the DAE and the NPCIL We are reproducing Former Power Secretary Dr. EAS Sarma’s letter to the PM on the issue

Global Cooling Trend Ended In The 19th Century, Finds Study
By Countercurrents.org

The most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on Earth's continents over the past 1,000 to 2,000 years indicates that a long-term cooling trend--caused by factors including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the sun, and increases in volcanic activity--ended late in the 19th century

Drones, Sanctions And The Prison Industrial Complex
By Brian Terrell

In the final weeks of a six month prison sentence for protesting remote control murder by drones, specifically from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, I can only reflect on my time of captivity in light of the crimes that brought me here. In these ominous times, it is America’s officials and judges and not the anarchists who exhibit the most flagrant contempt for the rule of law and it is due to the malfeasance of these that I owe the distinction of this sabbatical

Postcard From The End of America: Los Angeles
By Linh Dinh

UC Berkeley hosted me for a month, and I used my time in Northern California to explore a bunch of places, but with my academic responsibilities done, I decided to take a megabus to Los Angeles, a city I had only visited a handful of times, and knew hardly at all. Evelyn Waugh wrote, “There is no place that isn't worth visiting once.” I'll amend that to say, “There is no place that isn't worth visiting a bunch of times, with each subsequent visit richer than the last.”

The Boston Marathon Explosions: A Convenient Moral Panic
By Colin Todhunter

Regardless of who is ultimately responsible for the attack in Boston, whether it was individuals acting alone or whether they were being guided by other players, the attack has served to propagate the myth about the need for ongoing US militarism and has probably conveniently served to counter waning public support for it

Our Collective Psychosis: A Review Of Paul Levy’s “Dispelling Wetiko”
By Carolyn Baker

In Dispelling Wetiko, Levy dives deep into the wounds of American culture and assists the reader in recognizing and healing them within oneself and in the community. “Wetiko,” a Native American word, simply means “a diabolically wicked person or spirit who terrorizes others by means of evil acts.”(3) Levy names the collective psychosis as “malignant egophrenia” which he defines as a condition in which the human ego is estranged from the deeper Self

McJihad: Islamism In Western Hegemony
By Sazzad Hussain

After Pakistan it was Afghan Jihad, Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and so on where the entire landscape of Islam was transformed to Wahhabism to suit the McWorld. Thus the McWorld has become the McJihad

24 April ,2013

US Ramps Up Plans For Military Intervention In Syria
By Joseph Kishore

The United States and the major European powers are escalating plans for a direct military intervention in Syria. The aim of US maneuvers, including a flurry of diplomatic visits this week, is to secure the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a key ally of Iran, while putting in place a government that will operate under the control of Washington

Koodankulam Nuclear Plant Has Salient Lessons For India And Russia
By Buddhi Kota Subbarao.Ph.D.

Men may lie, machines do not. The substandard components allegedly supplied by a Russian Company for the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Southern India caused the Nuclear Plant to become a Speaking Tree. What it speaks now contains salient lessons for India and Russia for the good of people of both the countries

Resolve Koodankulam Issues
By Dr. A Gopalakrishnan

Dr. A Gopalakrishnan, former Chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, has raised some urgent issues in his article in the New Indian Express that the government must address before commissioning Koodankulam

Reminder: There’s Always Something To Do… Right Now
By Mickey Z.

After a while, if you’re not vigilant, it all starts to sink in and far too many of us willingly embrace mediocrity -- even boredom -- while ignoring or endorsing avoidable atrocities. Our humanity and our capacity for critical thought are relentlessly pounded out of us

Australian ANZAC Day, Armenian Genocide Day Of Remembrance
And Australia's Secret Genocide History
By Dr Gideon Polya

On Australia's most sacred day, ANZAC Day, the nation solemnly pauses to remember those 100,000 Australian heroes who have died in wars. The phrase inextricably linked to ANZAC Day is “Lest we forget”. However the Mainstream media, politicians and academics of Australia have overwhelmingly ignored – “forgotten”- the horrendous number of civilians who died in wars in which Australia has been involved and the moral courage of a small number of pacifists who refused to be party to the evil of war

Re-Introduction Of Lions By Human Intervention
By Marianne de Nazareth

According to the Bombay Natural History Society, the Supreme Court of India’s recent judgment permitting translocation of some of the endangered Asiatic Lions from Gujarat’s Gir National Park to Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh is considered to be a good and an essential step for the long-term survival of the species

Community Grounded In Grief In The Age Of Limits
By Carolyn Baker

The “age of limits” is the age of living with less, downsizing, cutting back, and reducing the scale of our impact on the planet. In other words, we cannot have all of the growth we have been taught to desire. On the other hand, when we engage in exploration of the inner world by traversing the landscapes of grief and other emotions, and particularly when we do so with the support of the community, we soon discover that we really can have all of the infinite growth we desire and that in that domain, there really is no “age of limits.”

Sachin Tendulkar, Motorists And Jaywalking
By Vidyadhar Date

When a pedestrian is brutally hit by a car, we constantly hear cries like `the pedestrian came from nowhere.’ The whole idea is to blame the victim. It is an old game, just like blaming women for rapes and blaming the poor for poverty. The phenomenon of Blame The Victim is well documented in an acclaimed book of the same name by William Ryan and published in 1971. So the game here is rob the pedestrian of space to walk and then insult him or her as a jaywalker

Women In The 21st Century India: A Revolution In waiting?
By Aakanksha Sharma

The worst is being done against her and apparently getting worse day by day…What’s needed? Better laws? Measures to enhance safety programs? Gender sensitization programs? Police and policy reforms? Sexual and gender awareness? Or a revolution? As rightly said by Justice Katju “Law alone can play only 20 % role in empowering women in this country. 80 % will be changed by education, changing the mindset, the mentality of men who are still to a large extent feudal- minded which means they regard women as inferior”. Undoubtedly, a revolution is required to make India a some what better place to live in. And, unfortunately that may take long to come...

23 April ,2013

Entering A Resource-Shock World: How Resource Scarcity
And Climate Change Could Produce A Global Explosion
By Michael T. Klare

Brace yourself. You may not be able to tell yet, but according to global experts and the U.S. intelligence community, the earth is already shifting under you. Whether you know it or not, you’re on a new planet, a resource-shock world of a sort humanity has never before experienced. Two nightmare scenarios -- a global scarcity of vital resources and the onset of extreme climate change -- are already beginning to converge and in the coming decades are likely to produce a tidal wave of unrest, rebellion, competition, and conflict

A Hundred Deir Yassin And Counting: Beit Daras And The Buried History of Massacres
By Ramzy Baroud

Few with any sense of intellectual or historical integrity would still question the bloody massacre that took place in the village of Deir Yassin 65 years ago, claiming the lives of over 100 innocent Palestinians. Attempts at covering up the massacre have been dwarfed by grim details by well-respected historians, including some of Israel’s own

America: The World’s Number One Sponsor Of Terrorism
By Garikai Chengu

Just as there are good dictators and bad dictators in Washington’s eyes, there are also good terrorists and bad terrorists: Al Qaeda in Iraq, bad. Al Qaeda in Syria, good. Al Qaeda in Mali, bad. Al Qaeda in Libya, good, now bad. This hypocrisy manifests itself most acutely in how western media reports on the victims of terror. On the same day as the recent Boston bombings, at least 75 people were killed in Iraq and more than 250 injured by a series of car bombs

17 April ,2013

Gold Price Fall Points To Global Deflation
By Nick Beams

The rapid fall in the price of gold over the past few days—its biggest plunge in more than 30 years—is an indication that deflationary tendencies are strengthening throughout the world economy

Australian Government To Prepare For Thousands Of Climate Refugees
By Countercurrents.org

Australia, a close neighbor of small, low-lying South Pacific states at the frontline of climate change, should be the first country to formally recognise climate change refugees, the country's main refugee advisory body has said

Clean Energy Progress Too Slow, Warns International Energy Agency
By Countercurrents.org

The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned

Desertification Crisis Affecting 168 Countries And Annual Cost Is $490 Billion
By Ed King

Severe land degradation is now affecting 168 countries across the world, according to new research released by the UN Desertification Convention (UNCCD). The figure, based on submissions from countries to the UN, is a marked increase on the last analysis in the mid-1990s, which estimated 110 states were at risk

Deadly Opposition Violence In Venezuela:
The First Major Destabilization Attempt Since 2002-03
By Dan Beeton

Opposition protests turned deadly on April 15, 2013, with at least seven people having been reported killed and over 61 others injured as opposition groups reportedly burned the homes of PSUV leaders, community hospitals, and mercales (subsidized grocery stores), attacked Cuban doctors, attacked state and community media stations, and threatened CNE president Tibisay Lucena and other officials

Al-Jazeera And Feminism,The Rights Of Immigrants And The Stateless?
By Sean Fenley

Why on God’s green Earth is a propaganda outlet owned fundamentally by a totalitarian dictatorship (which I think that a Wahhabist absolute monarchy essentially extrapolates out to), promoting the rights of women, immigrants, and those without states?

Does God Have A Gender?
By Robert Jensen

If God isn't a guy, then some debates—such as the status of women in the church—would change dramatically and immediately. Over time, resistance to birth control, abortion, and gay/lesbian rights would likely fade as well. That might be why some people are so insistent about a male God—they recognize that one little change in a pronoun would signal other changes

Towards Understanding Global Peace: Warlords Are Killing Mankind
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

The 21 st century of hope for Peace is fast turning into a fraught history of highly sophisticated wars both on Earth and in Space poised to destroy the mankind. Previous wars of centuries were aimed at annihilation of political and economic enemies but the 21 st century conflicts are ready-made recipes not only to eliminate the mankind but also the environment in which human beings survive and the planet Earth that sustains life

Opposition Grows Fierce To Austerity Cuts In Portland
By Mark Vorpahl

The potential impact of developments in Portland has a national scope. As cities across the U.S. face similar cuts, with both major political parties lining up to cut Social Security and Medicare, it is clear that only we, the people, can save ourselves and reverse the direction the country is going. In Portland, there is a chance to wage a comeback that can win. And any such example could prove infectious

Fact Finding Report On The Death Of Three People
In The Bomb Explosion At Jagatsinghpur District, Odisha
By Concerned Citizens

On the 9 th of March 2013 , a 12 member team consisting of human rights activists, journalists, academicians, democratic rights and civil liberty activists, conducted a fact finding visit to Patana and Gobindapur villages of Dhinkia Panchayat in Jagatsinghpur District of Odisha. On the 2 nd of March 2013 , a bomb blast took place in the Patana village and three people were killed on the spot. One seriously injured person was admitted in a hospital at Cuttack

Expose The Charade Of Nitish Kumar's 'Anti-Modi' Posturing
By Kavita Krishnan

Speaking at the JDU National Executive meeting recently, Nitish Kumar has once again repeated his veiled anti-Modi remarks, suggesting that Narendra Modi would be unacceptable as NDA's PM candidate. Nitish Kumar seems to have woken up a little late in the day to the fact that Narendra Modi is synonymous with a communal pogrom. Why didn't Nitish speak out against Narendra Modi in 2002, when the Gujarat massacre took place? Why did Nitish remain a Minister in the NDA Government at the Centre at that time?

A Republic Of The Rapists, By The Rapists, For The Rapists?
By Samar

It is also high time for rewriting the grammar of shame and social stigma attached to such crimes against women. The perpetrators do it with impunity for they know that the shame of getting violated would be written on the bodies of these women and not over their own persons. Till then, we can hang our heads in shame and hide after every such advisory issued by any country

16 April ,2013

Media Rush To Judgment In Boston Marathon Bombing
By Barry Grey

The explosion of two bombs Monday afternoon at the Boston Marathon has been accompanied by a rush to judgment by the media, in which claims of a broad new terror attack are being made without any factual substantiation

Syrian Opposition Militia Declares Allegiance To Al Qaeda
By Niall Green

Last week the Al Nusra Front, the military backbone of the US-sponsored Syrian opposition, openly swore its loyalty to Al Qaeda. Al Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born cleric who served for many years as Osama bin Laden’s second-in-command. “The sons of Al Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri,” al-Golani said in a recorded message released last week

Ghost Of British Colonialism Haunting Sabah
By Andre Vltchek

What is the truth behind the Sabah invasion and battle?

Russian Homeland Threatened By Feminism
By Thomas Riggins

Vladimir Putin's government's crack down on Pussy Riot may have helped save the Russian Federation from the peril of creeping feminism. One of his government's closest allies, Patriarch Kirill who leads the Russian Orthodox Church, has just announced, according to Reuters, that feminism is a very dangerous ideology and could even lead to the destruction of the Russian Homeland

Open Letter To The ABC About Its Censorship Of Anti-racist Humanitarians
Demanding Palestinian Human Rights
By Dr Gideon Polya

Open Letter sent to the taxpayer-funded, pro-Zionist ABC ( Australia 's equivalent of the UK BBC) and protesting its censorship of anti-racist humanitarians demanding human rights for 12 million Palestinians

The Blair Witch Project And The Betrayal Of Ordinary Working People
By Colin Todhunter

Most people are already aware that there were many similarities between Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. Both were conviction politicians, both had political love-ins with US presidents and both liked to talk tough. Affable Tony could always ham it up with a good dose of media-friendly mock sincerity and tough talking. Thatcher and her PR people cynically forged the template for that. And both had a tendency to ignore that damned nuisance called public opinion and to land the country into a gruesome mess not of its own choosing

It Doesn't Take Much
By Jeremiah Goulka

On almost getting PTSD in Iraq

Soni Sori, Insanity, Football And Stones
By Garga Chatterjee

Let me ask — which domestic organization, getting monthly salaries and occasional bravery medals, happens to employ the largest number of alleged rapists and serial abusers? Hint: they also fight against ‘vices’ by extracting money from sex-workers of all genders after raping them. The ‘rule of law’ comes down hard when certain lines are crossed, so I will not answer the question. Are you thinking what I am thinking?

Proof Of Residence An Essential Mantra For Marriage
By Asif Iqbal

Etawah, in Uttar Pradesh witnessed a case of honour killing in the complex of the District Administration Office. The news was covered exclusively by the news channel viz. India TV on 24th Feb 2013. According to the girl named Kirti, she went with Adnan for filing the papers of solemnization of their marriage under Special Marriage Act. Adnan was shot and killed by two motorcyclists who escaped

15 April ,2013

Kerry Blackmails China Over North Korea
By John Chan

In meetings with Chinese leaders last weekend, US Secretary of State John Kerry engaged in a barely disguised form of blackmail to pressure Beijing to use “all options” to force its ally North Korea to dismantle its nuclear programs and destroy its nuclear weapons. Impoverished North Korea is completely dependent on China for vital imports, including oil and economic aid

Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Reduction Might Slow Down Sea Level Rise, New Study Shows
By Andrew Freedman

A new study finds that it is possible to greatly slow the rate of sea level rise, which is one of the biggest threats global warming poses, by cutting so-called “short-lived climate pollutants,” which warm the climate on timescales of a few weeks to a decade, in combination with reductions in long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2)

Antarctic Summer Ice Melting Intensifies 10-Fold And Higher Over 1,000 Years
By Countercurrents.org

A new 1,000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction shows that summer ice melting has intensified almost ten-fold, and mostly since the mid-20th century. Summer ice melt affects the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers

The Arms Trade Treaty Opens New Possibilities At The UN
By John Scales Avery

On April 2, 2013, an historic victory was won at the United Nations, and the world achieved its first treaty limiting international trade in arms

Israeli Massacre Of Deir Yassin
By Dr. Elias Akleh

The state of Israel was established and is sustained on the continuous perpetration of genocides, destruction of whole towns, land theft, home demolition, ethnic cleansing, and terror against Palestinians. The massacre of the Palestinian small town of Deir Yassin in 9 th of April 1948 is one such massacre which the Palestinians will never forget

Occupy The Media! “De-Mythologizing History! Why We’ll Boycott Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’”
By Gary Corseri & Janis Schmidt

A collaborative article between Gary Corseri & Janis Schmidt

How We Won The Battle Of The Brooklyn Bridge
By Billy Wharton

My case demonstrates the need to resist. It shows that protest movements can successfully use institutional resources to defend themselves. That we can make the government pay a price by dragging them through court when they illegally use state power

A Dangerous Objectivity: Beyond Garga Chatterjee's Criticism Of Bengal Politics
By Siddharthya Swapan Roy

A critique of Garga Chatterjee's article A dangerous connivance

When North East Came Calling!
By Shah Alam Khan

North East is a forgotten vision in the dream of Indian republic. They have ceased to exist in our imagination. The provocation by Mary Koms and Irom Sharmillas is too weak to arouse the psyche of the common Indian. The vision of India is complete without its outstretched arms of the North East. Their happy lives, away from the spotlight of mainland India has given them enough courage to survive. They have learnt to live without us. Whether we live without them or live to learn from them is a choice, which mainland India should make sooner than later

Dr Ambedkar As The Champion Of Women’s Rights
By Shura Darapuri

Women were the major force in all the struggles initiated by Dr Ambedkar. In the historic Mahad Satyagraha, there were about 500 women who took active part in the procession. Dr. Ambedkar also raised the women's issue as Member of Legislative Council during his debate in Bombay Legislative Assembly on 10th Nov. 1938

Kashmir: Unfortunate Insensitivity
By Raouf Rasool

In Jammu and Kashmir, as the history has it, the relationship between the common masses – the public – and the state has never really been perceived in terms of collaboration and consensus but rather in terms of mutual hostility and antagonism. This is perhaps the reason for the state to have always kept some repressive laws handy – to tame and torment the belligerent masses

14 April ,2013

Climate Crisis Threatens Millions With Starvation And Destitution
By Countercurrents.org

Our world is not prepared to face the food disaster due to climate crisis. Parts of Africa face risk of turning into permanent disaster areas, say food experts. Millions of people could become destitute in Africa and Asia as prices of staple foods will more than double by 2050 as a result of extreme temperatures, floods and droughts that will transform the way the world farms

In History Reversed, Vietnam's Crimes Against Humanity In America Would Be Prosecuted
By Jay Janson

A reverse-history brain-twister to provoke imagining what victims of US firepower must feel. A ubiquitous, war criminal media, steeped in latest techniques of psyop constantly programs a reverse-reality that justifies undeclared wars meant to maintain high profitability for predatory investments and a confidence in the exceptional goodness of Anglo-Saxon America that obviates compassion for the wars designated enemies

Gorilla Warfare: The Animal-Prison/Industrial Complex
By Mickey Z.

The role of the corporate media is to normalize the daily -- hourly -- violence and hierarchy inherent within the dominant culture. For example: speciesism. Corporate news outlets work around the clock to keep the human/non-human privilege alive yet unexamined. Case in point: On April 1, 2013, N. R. Kleinfield of the New York Times penned a predictably ill-informed and agenda-reinforcing piece called, “A Child Star With a Knack for Publicity,” about the death a western lowland gorilla (a species classified as “critically endangered”) who was born behind bars within the Central Park Zoo

“The rising popularity of the consumerist life-model has been imported from the West or rather imposed by the globalization of Western standards... conspicuous consumption had been cut off from the task to satisfy survival needs and put in the service of positional rivalry and cut-throat competition for social standing, renown and prestige”

India’s Security Under Modi
By Firdaus Ahmed

One question that has not figured so far is: What will be the security consequences of Modi’s elevation to PM? To most prosperity begets security. With prosperity, resources are made available for security. With a firm Modi hand on the security rudder, India’s redoubtable security agencies will keep India secure. Unfortunately, the prosperity-security link is seldom so easy

Working Towards Ambedkar’s Vision Of ‘Prabuddha Bharat’
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Gandhi’s India is the nation that glorifies caste hierarchies and village communes. It is an India that believes in the finality of religious text and hence suitable to all kinds of religious thugs who promote Gandhism to fulfill their own religious agenda. Ambedkar’s India will be an enlightened India which does believe in freethinking traditions, where you can challenge the religious books and restore the freedom to individual to decide about his life and choices. Ambedkar’s India does not believe in the ‘sanctity’ of ‘dogmas’ whether political or religious

13 April ,2013

Kerry Issues War Threat Over Korea
By Alex Lantier

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the South Korean capital, Seoul, yesterday on the first leg of a three-nation East Asian tour dominated by escalating US threats against North Korea over its nuclear program. Kerry arrives for talks today in China and is traveling on to Japan tomorrow

Arctic Will Be Almost-Completely Ice-Free By 2020
By Countercurrents.org

The Arctic is melting much faster than most studies previously predicted. As early as 2020 and not later than 2050 it will be almost completely ice-free, according to a new study by the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration

With Surging Emission Global Climate Change Goal Is At Risk, Say UN
By Countercurrents.org

A global goal for limiting climate crisis is slipping out of reach and governments may have to find ways to artificially suck GHG from the air if they fail to make deep cuts in rising emissions by 2030, a draft UN report said. A 25-page draft summary, by the UN panel of climate experts and due for publication in 2014, said emissions of heat-trapping gases rose to record levels in the decade to 2010, led by Asian industrial growth

Copenhagen’s Ambitious Push To Be Carbon Neutral by 2025
By Justin Gerdes

The Danish capital is moving rapidly toward a zero-carbon future, as it erects wind farms, transforms its citywide heating systems, promotes energy efficiency, and lures more people out of their cars and onto public transportation and bikes

Two Obamas, Two Classes Of Children
By Ralph Nader

The president, filled with memories of what his secret drone directives as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner have done to so many children, in so many places, traveled on Monday to Newtown, Connecticut for the second time. He commiserated with the parents and relatives of the 20 children and six adults slain by a lone gunman. Here he became the compassionate president, with words and hugs

Africa: Imperialism’s High Mark Of Conquest In The 21st Century
By Glen Ford

The US-NATO military curtain has fallen the length and breadth of Africa. “Zimbabwe and tiny Eritrea are among the few nations on the African continent that have not yet been absorbed into the AFRICOM matrix.”

Iraq: Ten Years On...
By Riverbend

April 9, 2013 marks ten years since the fall of Baghdad. Ten years since the invasion. Since the lives of millions of Iraqis changed forever. It’s difficult to believe. It feels like only yesterday I was sharing day to day activities with the world

Instead Of Trying To Feed The World, Let’s Help It Feed Itself
By Shannon Hayes

We know about the ecological problems that follow when farmers are asked to “feed the world.” What would happen if they just tried to feed their neighbors instead?

Peak Oil As Seen Through The Eyes Of Arab Oil Producers
By Robert Hirsch

Reflections by the author of the "Hirsch Report" on the Conference “Peak Oil: Challenges and Opportunities for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries.”

Controlled Opposition
By Gilad Atzmon

In his new book, “The Invention of the Land of Israel”, Israeli academic Shlomo Sand, manages to present conclusive evidence of the far fetched nature of the Zionist historical narrative – that the Jewish Exile is a myth as is the Jewish people and even the Land of Israel. Yet, Sand and many others fails to address the most important question: If Zionism is based on myth, how do the Zionists manage to get a way with their lies, and for so long?

How Damascene Jews Hope To Return…..To Normalcy
By Franklin Lamb

What the Jewish community in Damascus believes must happen to resolve the current crisis is precisely what other Syrians in this capital city want. The process leading to peace, noted below, is gleaned from interviews with a cross-section of citizens in the Jewish Quarter and also from conversations with a spectrum of Damascene society ranging from academics, retired and current officials, members of the opposition in Parliament, small business and shop owners, and just random people enjoying the spring weather in the parks and surprisingly packed popular restaurants

An Open Letter To The KKNPP Employees
By PMANE

Please understand that we are the citizens of the democratic Republic of India and we must assert our inalienable right to life and livelihood. We seek your kind cooperation in getting rid of nuclear energy from India. While we find safe and alternative employment for you all, let us make sure that all Indians, rich and poor, live with safety, security and dignity in our country

Dr.B.R. Ambedkar Is The Most Popular Celebrity - A Tribute
By Dr.K.Vidyasagar Reddy

As part of paying a tribute to him on the eve of his birth day, main contribution of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar that is beyond his role in making the Indian Constitution is memorized in this article

12 April ,2013

Obama Issues New Threat To North Korea
By Peter Symonds

Far from attempting to lower temperatures on the Korean Peninsula, the Obama administration has been deliberately stoking the crisis. Over the past month, the Pentagon has flown nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 strategic bombers to South Korea to send a message to Pyongyang, and its ally Beijing, that the US is capable of destroying North Korea’s military and industrial infrastructure

The Fossil Fuel Resistance
By Bill McKibben

As the world burns, a new movement to reverse climate change is emerging - fiercely, loudly and right next door

Northern Warmest Summers In Last 20 Years Were Unprecedented In Six Centuries
By Countercurrents.org

Two Harvard researchers, Martin Tingley, a research associate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Peter Huybers, professor of earth and planetary sciences, through their statistical model of Arctic temperatures and how they relate to instrumental and proxy records, have shown that the warmest summers in the last two decades were unprecedented in six centuries. The work is described in paper published in the April 11 issue of Nature

The Economic And Social Crisis: Contemporary Capitalism And Class Struggle
By James Petras

One of the most important and yet most neglected determinants of the outcomes of the economic crisis and resultant deepening of social inequalities and immiseration is the ‘class struggle’. In one of his most pithy metaphors, Karl Marx referred to class struggle as ‘the motor force of history’. In this essay we will analyze the central role of class struggle, its impact and reflection in economic decisions and, most especially, the different methods and forms , according to the particular classes engaged in class struggle

A Tax Day Plan For Righting The Republic
By Mattea Kramer

For anyone who takes a peek at where his or her income tax dollars are going, Tax Day can be maddening. Outsized chunks of our taxes fund the military, rising healthcare costs, and interest on the federal debt. Comparatively tiny amounts go to education, science, alternative energy, and the environment

To Throw or Not To Throw A Stone
By William A. Cook

A debate rages in Israel today on the truth of Amira Hass’s words “Throwing a stone is the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule. Throwing stones is an action as well as a metaphor of resistance”

Gaza's Siege Intensifies: The Plan To ‘Moderate' Hamas, Control Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud

Without alternative economic venues in the face of Israel's land and sea blockade, Egypt's crackdown on the tunnels and UNRWA's budget cuts, the Hamas Gaza leadership is likely to seek alternatives in the form of handouts which will come at a political price. In the long run, Hamas will face difficult options, including splitting up or following the same detrimental path on which Fatah and the PLO found themselves, leading up to the Oslo ‘peace' fiasco starting in 1993. Only a constructive end to the Egyptian political deadlock could offer Hamas in Gaza a third, more dignified alternative and that is to be seen

Two Deaths: Hugo Chavez And Margaret Thatcher
By Alan MacLeod

Despite Thatcher insisting that “there is no alternative” , Latin America is providing a model for a different future. A silent battle for heaven and Earth is being waged. And we all must choose sides. Which one are you on? Choose wisely, because the fate of the 21 st century will be decided on which one of these ideologies prevails

Thatcher's Funeral: Dead End Journey Of The British Working Class
By Colin Todhunter

What is really being celebrated when especially Establishment figures eulogise about Thatcher is the destruction of organised labour and the capacity of ordinary people to challenge the hegemony of the elite interests that Thatcher served so well

Women Leading The Way
By Margaret Flowers

As is true each week when we report on resistance movements there is a lot going on, too much to report in one summary. One common denominator we noted this week is the prevalence of female leadership on so many fronts

Safdar Hashmi And The Theatre Scene
By Vidyadhar Date

April 12 marks the birth anniversary of Safdar Hashmi, the radical theatre actor, who was murdered by Congress supporting goons near Delhi in 1989 during a street theatre performance. The day is observed as the national street theatre day

Nationalism, Kingdoms And Kings: Looking At Shivaji And Rana Pratap
By Ram Puniyani

It is India’s arrested transition to a democratic society due to which the Kings are being brought to glory and identified with. Whatever the virtue of king of any religion, in current times we need icons who were part of India’s freedom movement, a struggle running parallel to the struggle for caste and gender equality. While projecting the kings as heroes, we do need to remember that it was the system of peasants’ exploitation, which was the base of kingdoms. Surely kingdoms are no systems to emulate today and so need to rethink this iconization of Kings!

11 April ,2013

US Inflames North Korean Missile Scare
By Joseph Santolan

Unnamed officials in the US Department of Defense announced today that they are “highly confident” that North Korea intends the imminent launch of a medium-range missile, according to NBC News. This statement follows two days of speculation in the world press that Pyongyang would order the launch of a Musudan missile from its east coast by April 10—a deadline that has now passed

What's Really Going On In Korea
By Tim Gatto

This dictator in North Korea, while he may not realize it, is laying right into America’s hands. He has probably done more for the defense industry in the United States than any publicity they could have imagined

Obama Budget Slashes Social Security, Medicare
By Andre Damon

The budget proposes to slash $400 billion from Medicare spending over ten years, and would introduce a new measure of the cost of living that would mean an effective cut of $130 billion from Social Security benefits during the same period

The Nightmare Story Of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
By Judy Bello

This terrible story is like something out of a nightmare, or a bad novel. But it is a true story, in so far as you can find the truth of events that are disputed and cloaked in the secrecy of multiple ‘security operations'. At least it is part of the story of the ordeal of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

True or False: An Injury To One Is An Injury To All?
By John Spritzler

The Zionist claim that Israel is a "Jewish state" is actually a big lie designed to make Jews believe that they benefit from the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The truth is that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians makes ordinary Jews easier for the Zionist billionaires and generals and politicians to dominate, control and exploit

Trees, Do We Need Them?
By Anitha S

This article was written as news came in that 16 trees in Trivandrum city has been axed for road and gutter development and another 8 will go in the Public Library campus where there is a Summer school for children now

Kashmir: Boiling The Trust Deficit
By Jaffer Latief Najar

No one carries agression and anxiety along with birth. But, it is the situation and circumstances that force indiviuals to become agressive, violent and opposite. Similar is happening with the youth of Kashmir who are coming on the streets and protesting with stones and are facing the bullets. There is a vaccum of trust and alienation that the state is not responding despite of its well known awreness about it

Portrayal Of Women In The Hindu Epic
By Lawrence Rayappan

The ancient Hindu-Indian society in respect to women is seen from two different perspectives. One is by Brahmins/Upper-caste originating from Indian antiquity, secondly by Dalits/liberalists

09 April ,2013

Thatcher The Milk Snatcher Passes Away
By Countercurrents.org

Margaret Thatcher, the most hated British prime minister of the 20th century, died on April 8, 2013. Victims of her vicious 1980s onslaught against the working class refused to show any sorrow over the final demise of the frail 87-year-old after a stroke. Spontaneous exultation broke out across Britain as news of her death spread like wildfire. The strongest waves of satisfaction were in former mining and industrial communities ravaged by Thatcher, and among labor movement activists throughout the land

The Media In Overdrive: Thatcher And The Triumph Of Capitalism
By Colin Todhunter

How a senior BBC presenter can sit there and not challenge someone who says the debate about socialism/capitalism is ended because capitalism has proved to be successful may well be beyond the thought process of some people. Successful for whom? For the rich and for millionaire politicians who come on to our screens and perpetuate this lie

Hearts Of Oak, Men Of Steel And The Iron Lady
By Ann Czernik

Thatcher destroyed the heavy industries and the people who rebuilt post-war Britain. She took their jobs, their pride and their sense of self. There will be no state funeral in their memory. Thatcherism has run in the corridors of power like a baton, passing since she left No 10 from one government to the next. The woman who wrote: "The heart of politics is not political theory, it is people and how they want to live" and pledged to "reunite a divided and disillusioned people" created three-and-a-half million unemployed, the start of an era of mass joblessness that has stayed with us

Martin Luther King, We Need Your Voice Today!
By John Scales Avery

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., great orator, champion of justice and equality, fearless opponent of war, we need your voice today

Probing The Reasons Behind The Changing Pace Of Warming
By Fred Pearce

A consensus is emerging among scientists that the rate of global warming has slowed over the last decade. While they are still examining why, many researchers believe this phenomenon is linked to the heat being absorbed by the world’s oceans

Why The Most Powerful Thing In The World Is A Seed
By Abby Quillen

“The Seed Underground” is a love letter to the quiet revolutionaries who are saving our food heritage

China’s Infinite-Growth Haze
By Eric Zencey

Evidence and logic — and the air quality in Beijing — say that yes, there are limits. It’s time for economists to stop seeing the world through the distorting, poisonous haze of an unsupportable theory and to start seeing the world as it is. The fate of our civilization depends on it

Zionist Herods And The Massacre Of The Innocents
By Vacy Vlazna

With regard to Israel's occupation of Palestine, decent people scratch their heads and ask, “Why do the Israelis behave like Nazis to the Palestinians?' or ‘Why, having suffered the Holocaust, do Israelis make Palestinian's suffer?” They are important questions, and the answer is shocking and distressing

How The 40-Year "Long Recession" Led To The Great Recession
By Barbara Garson

If you had to date the Great Recession, you might say it started in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers vaporized over a weekend and a massive mortgage-based Ponzi scheme began to go down. By 2008, however, the majority of American workers had already endured a 40-year decline in wages, security, and hope -- a Long Recession of their own

When Yarmouk Camp Fled To Shatila
By Franklin Lamb

Today Palestinian refugees are being severely punished in Syria out of revenge by jihadst factions and others, for not becoming involved in the current Syrian civil war as they insist on staying out of this incredibly tragic mess

08 April ,2013

US Threatens War With North Korea, Demands China Cut Off Support
By Alex Lantier

Over the weekend, US officials continued to threaten North Korea with war, demanding that China cut off its support to the regime in Pyongyang. This comes after weeks of US threats aimed at Pyongyang’s nuclear program, during which Washington flew nuclear-capable bombers to Korea to demonstrate its capacity to wage nuclear war against the North

Is The Keystone XL Pipeline The “Stonewall” Of The Climate Movement?
By Bill McKibben

Stonewall took place in 1969, and as of last week the Supreme Court was still trying to decide if gay people should be allowed to marry each other. If the climate movement takes that long, we’ll be rallying in scuba masks

Melting Ice To Affect India, China While Kolkata Dhaka Shanghai Are Threatened
By Countercurrents.org

Iceland President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson warned on April 6, 2013: Himalayan nations, including India and China, will be affected in a big way by the melting of the ice in Arctic and the glaciers in Himalayas. He asked parties and organizations to hold dialogue to deal with the issue

Who Will Save Social Security And Medicare?
By Shamus Cooke

Obama and the Democrats are aligning with Republicans to strike the first major blows against Social Security and Medicare. This long hidden agenda is finally in full view of the public. The decades-long political agreement to save these programs is dead, and the foundation of American politics is shifting beneath everyone's feet

How Can A Veteran Of War In Afghanistan Help Us Understand Good Conscience?
Dr. Hakim interviews Nao Rozi

Excerpts of an interview of Nao Rozi, an Afghan National Army veteran, and now a member of the Afghan Peace Volunteers

A Peace Movement That Moves Toward Peace
By David Swanson

There will always, always, always be another North Korea that's supposedly about to kill us. We don't need rapid-response fact corrections. We need citizens with some understanding of history, with knowledge of the Other 95%, with the capacity to resist terrorism-by-television, and capable of independent thought. To get there, we need a peace movement that moves us, at whatever pace it can, toward peace -- toward the popular demand for the absolute abolition of all war

The Frontier That Drones Can Never Cross
By Farooque Chowdhury

Waging war without any declaration is now facilitated by drones. But there are limits that drones can never cross as machines can never handle sociopolitical contradictions. Initiating counter-moves against political maneuvers are beyond capacity of machines

Time To End The Adult War On Children
By Robert J. Burrowes

If we want to end violence, war and exploitation then we must finally end our longest and greatest war: the adult war on children. And here's an incentive: if we don't tackle the fundamental cause of violence, then our combined and unrelenting efforts to tackle all of its other symptoms must ultimately fail. And extinction at our own hand is inevitable

The Message Behind The Cyber Attack On Israel
By Dr Salim Nazzal

Regardless of the limited damage which the international cyber attack on Israeli sites has inflicted, the aim is about the message which it the attack may convey

The Five Stages Of Collapse, By Dmitry Orlov, Reviewed
By Carolyn Baker

Most importantly, Dmitry Orlov leaves us with perhaps the most profound and pivotal sentence of the book: “Collapse is not a nightmare scenario to be avoided at all costs but part of the normal, unalterable ebb and flow of human history, and the widespread tendency to block it out of our worldview is, to put it very mildly, maladaptive.” The Five Stages of Collapse, I believe, is required reading for long-term, strategic collapse preparation

Environmental Agenda Unnoticed In Pakistan Polls
By Sarfraz Ali

Environment has never been matter of concern for Pakistan and the tendency goes further chronic as all mainstream political parties, bracing for participation in the forthcoming polls, have placed environment issues at the bottom of their draft manifestos for 2013 elections

“Sexual Assault”: What Is Peculiar To Indian Context?
By Lawrence Rayappan

After the awful bus incident that happened on 16th December 2012 to a 23 years-old, middle class, female medical student there have been mass protests in the streets of New Delhi. Media began to highlight this news daily. Whole world began to look at India. However, the question arises: is the somewhat rape prone culture happening only in India or are other cultures, more pointedly, western cultures experiencing similar levels of sexual assault? In what way Indian rape and sexual assault is different from that of western?

Anti-Shahbag Kolkata Rally: A Dangerous Connivance
By Garga Chatterjee

It is worrying that West Bengal’s political class remained tactical spectators to the Kolkata rally organised by Muslim groups in support of Bangladeshi war criminals

Marxists From World Over Debate: Many Issues At JNU
By Vidyadhar Date

Various issues ranging from the Arab Spring, global capitalism, neoliberalism, Marxism, political movements, caste issues, ecology and culture were discussed at the three day international Historical Materialism conference – New Cultures of the Left - at the Jawaharlal Nehru university in Delhi last week

06 April ,2013

The Duty To Avoid A War In Korea
By Fidel Castro

If war breaks out there, the peoples of both parts of the Peninsula will be terribly sacrificed, without benefit to all or either of them. It would be unjust to forget that such a war would particularly affect more than 70% of the population of the planet

US Threatens North Korea While Signaling Possible Talks
By Alex Lantier

Fears of war remained high on the Korean peninsula, amid continuing military exercises by both the United States and North Korea, after revelations Thursday that the crisis was following a “playbook” of US escalations prepared months ago by the Obama administration

1,600 Years Of Andes Ice Melts In 25 Years
By Countercurrents.org

A glacier in Peru has melted to levels not seen since the end of the last ice age. Ice that took 1,600 years to form in the Peruvian Andes took only 25 years to disappear

Trade Drives Brazilian Deforestation
By Countercurrents.org

A new study published online on April 4 in the journal Environmental Research Letters finds that trade and global consumption of Brazilian beef and soybeans is increasingly driving Brazilian deforestation

Poets Talk
By Gary Corseri & Charles Orloski

A conversation between writers Gary Corseri and Charles Orloski

Corporate India versus Indigenous People
By Graham Peebles

Consistent with the unjust, decaying economic model of our deficit times, the commodification of everything and everyone proceeds apace in India. The commercialisation of the land is shattering the lives of millions of India’s poorest, hungriest most malnourished people, who are being murdered and raped, violently displaced and falsely arrested as huge multi nationals, financially favoured and militarily armed by the Indian government, ravage the land

Decoding India's Commodity Transaction Tax
By Kavaljit Singh

Once implemented, the government needs to constantly monitor and fine-tune the commodity transaction tax in response to rapidly changing market conditions. In the larger interest of macro economy, the economic and developmental gains of taxing speculative transactions in the commodity futures markets are more than the private gains of speculators and day traders

05 April ,2013

Global Warming To Intensify Already Extreme Rainfalls
By Andrea Germanos

In another grim warning of the inheritance we have left future generations, a new NOAA-led study details how global warming is set to intensify already extreme "precipitation events." As the planet's temperature continues to rise, the warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which will fuel these more intense rains

Seeds Of Suicide
By Vandana Shiva

Monsanto’s concentrated control over the seed sector in India as well as across the world is very worrying. This is what connects farmers’ suicides in India to Monsanto vs Percy Schmeiser in Canada, to Monsanto vs Bowman in the US, and to farmers in Brazil suing Monsanto for $2.2 billion for unfair collection of royalty

Can You Pass The Israel Ultra-Orthodox Quiz?
By Jeffrey Rudolph

While Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community was a marginal presence in 1948, it has since grown into a meaningful social and political force. And this community, true to its fundamentalist beliefs, is extremely illiberal and thus aggravates undemocratic tendencies in Israel. The longer Israeli leaders permit the state to finance the ultra-Orthodox, the more distorted Israel's democracy and ultra-Orthodoxy will become, and the more difficult it will be to adopt and implement corrective policies. The purpose of the following quiz is to explain how an introverted and poor ultra-Orthodox community has benefited from a stratified political environment to gain resources, influence, and exclusive rights

An Israeli Apology Means Little To The Families Of
The Nine Passengers Murdered On The Gaza Freedom Flotilla
By Ann Wright

Representatives of IHH, the international humanitarian organization that organized the passengers on the Mavi Marmara in the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, have told the author that families of the nine murdered by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) commandos on May 31, 2010, consider the “apology” of the Israeli government to the Turkish government as meaning very little until the Israeli government lifts the blockade on Gaza

Tyranny of The Reasonable: Popular Complacency
In An Era Of Economic Exploitation And Perpetual War
By Phil Rockstroh

Throughout the course of human affairs, scheming elitists -- let's call them the Plundering Class -- have devoted their days conceiving strategies and executing agendas that serve to enrich the fortunes of a ruthless few (namely themselves) by an exploitation of the harried and hapless multitudes

Slouching Towards Tehran
By Radha Surya

Has the time come to make good on a decade of US threats of visiting the horror and devastation of war on Iran? Is the sword that the US-Israeli axis has kept in suspension over Tehran with the cooperation of the EU set to come crashing down at long last? These are well founded fears

Lesson From Iraq: No Accountability
By Ron Forthofer

The pundits and most of the politicians who were involved in spreading the lies that led to the colossal disaster in Iraq were not held accountable. None of the political leaders from either major political party were put on trial for their roles in the war crimes against Iraq. In addition, most of the media 'experts' escaped accountability for abetting these war crimes

Does India Have The World’s Safest Reactor?
By P K Sundaram

The world’s safest reactors are either closed or are yet to be built, when we get 100% control over forces of nature, knowledge of geology, worker’s human errors, even onslaughts of jellyfish and rats. Till then, we should wait for Mr. Narayansamy’s 15 days. India’s nuclear establishment, not its reactors, is perhaps among the safest. Safe from any public scrutiny and accountability

Growing Up With The Struggle
By Anitha S

We are the children of the Porattam ( struggle) against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Thirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu in Southern India. As we write this it will be 588 days since we have been holding the porattam in the stage of the Lourde Matha church in the Idinthakarai village

04 April ,2013

Washington Escalates Syria Intervention
By Bill Van Auken

The US and Jordanian militaries have stepped up a secret program to train thousands of armed fighters to send into Syria with the apparent aim of carving out a buffer zone in the south of the country. Citing unnamed US and Jordanian officials, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that Washington has ordered the training of some 3,000 officers for the so-called Syrian rebels to be completed sooner than originally planned

China Appeals For Calm Amid Fears Of War Over US Escalation In Korea
By Alex Lantier

Chinese officials appealed for calm in the Korean peninsula yesterday, as the United States deployed missiles and further military forces to East Asia amid a standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui had expressed “serious concern” over the Korean crisis, in meetings with the US and South Korean ambassadors

The Conspiracy To Kill MLK: Not A Theory But A Fact
By Ira Chernus

Should the United States government be allowed to assassinate its own citizens? That question was in the air briefly not long ago. April 4 is an excellent day to revive it: On April 4, 1968, the government was part of a successful conspiracy to assassinate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

King Condemned US Wars Maintaining Predatory Capitalist Investments And Was Shot Dead
By Jay Janson

Written on the Forty-fifth Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Prisoners Of The War On Terror
By Judy Bello

Hundreds of prisoners of the US War of Terror languish in prisons around the world, in Guantanamo and on the US mainland. Some have been there as long as 12 years some have sentences that extend beyond the span of their life. Many have never been charged with a crime and more than half the prisoners who remain in Guantanamo have had their original charges dropped or have served their full sentence, but are barred by US law from being repatriated to their homeland, therefore can not be released

Eating Our Way Home: An Immigrant Family’s Journey For Sustainability
By Aparajita Sengupta

Aparajita Sengupta grew up in Kolkata and went to Presidency College and the University of Calcutta. She did her PhD in English Literature from the University of Kentucky. While staying in the US, she and her husband Debal became interested in the issues of food toxicity,biodiversity and seed rights. Upon returning from the US in 2011, they visited various sustainable farming initiatives in India, and started a small Community Supported Agriculture Farm (Smell of the Earth) on borrowed land with the hopes of spreading awareness about local and chemical-free food systems

Fiji To Relocate Villages As Sea Leavel Rises
By Countercurrents.org

In Fiji, sea walls are not an option to stop rising sea levels and villagers threatened by climate change must be relocated, a gathering of religious leaders have been told

Turkey’s Unsustainable Politics In The Middle East: Israel vs. The Rest
By Ramzy Baroud

‘Confused’ may be an appropriate term to describe Turkey’s current foreign policy in the Middle East and Israel in particular. The source of that confusion - aside from the appalling violence in Syria and earlier in Libya – is Turkey’s own mistakes

Communal Fascism In Action: Coopting The Dalits, Terrorising The Minorities
By Subhash Gatade

One can go on providing details of the way Hindutva brigade's machinations have helped in the further terrorisation of minorities or how the saga of Hindutvaisation of a section of Dalits is proceeding ahead.The 'success' of both the interventions by the Hindutva right present before the left important questions to handle

Myanmar Communal Violence: A Set back To Democratic Process
By Ram Puniyani

With this violence in Myanmar coming to the fore the whole South Asia has to wake up and come to the grips of the legacy of the colonial past, a legacy perpetuated due to economic and political policies of rulers, rulers who have in a short-sighted manner resorted to abuse of religious identity for their political goals

03 April ,2013

US Escalates Military Tensions Over North Korean Nuclear Program
By Alex Lantier

Washington is continuing to escalate military tensions in the global crisis triggered by the US confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear program. All of the region’s major powers are carrying out military exercises amid rising fears of a war fueled by the US “pivot to Asia,” aimed at containing China, North Korea’s main ally and protector

Tropics Could Experience Dramatic Shift In Rainfall Pattern
By Countercurrents.org

One often ignored consequence of global climate change is that the Northern Hemisphere is becoming warmer than the Southern Hemisphere, which could significantly alter tropical precipitation patterns, according to a new study by climatologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, Seattle

Indian Court Ruling Victory For Patients Around the World
By Amitabh Pal

An Indian court just granted a huge victory to the sick all over the planet. “People in developing countries worldwide will continue to have access to low-cost copycat versions of drugs for diseases like H.I.V. and cancer, at least for a while,” said the front-page lead story in the New York Times on Tuesday. “Production of the generic drugs in India, the world’s biggest provider of cheap medicines, was ensured on Monday in a ruling by the Indian Supreme Court.”

Challenges Of Arab Uprisings Reflected At World Social Forum
By Medea Benjamin

Many Tunisians were thrilled to have hosted the eleventh World Social Forum, held from March 26-30, 2013. It marked the first time that the world’s largest global gathering of progressives—a gathering born in Brazil in 2001 out of the protests against corporate-dominated globalization—took place in an Arab nation. It came at a time when the world has been rocked by grassroots uprisings in the Arab world, but also increasing mobilizations to counter the climate crisis, and massive economic protests from southern Europe to “Occupy” groups in the United States to student movements from Quebec to Chile

The Politics Of Power And Control: Focus On Nuclear Power
By S.G.Vombatkere

Nuclear power is within the core area of the politics of power and control. Also within the core area are food, water and IT – food, by introduction of genetic modification in the name of bio-technology to control seed and crops; water, by mega dam-canal projects to control water; and IT, by enabling biometric identification for population surveillance and control, and exercising power over providing government benefits and services

To the Self-Obsessed Marxists And The Pseudo Ambedkarites
By Anand Teltumbde

I am the one who has never shown any iota of bhakti to Babasaheb Ambedkar unlike your tribe but sincerely followed his role model in excelling in whatever I did, in standing firm on the side of the oppressed masses, securing capability of analyzing the world around on behalf of them, and striving to the best of my capacity to fulfill Babasaheb Ambedkar’s dream of ‘liberty, equality, fraternity.’ You have insulted Babasaheb Ambedkar, you have insulted me, and you have insulted the sacred legacy of all those who struggled for human emancipation

02 April ,2013

South Korea’s Threats Heighten Danger Of Military Conflict
By Peter Symonds

South Korean President Park Geun-hye yesterday gave her country’s military the green light to take any action that it saw fit in response to a threat from North Korea. Her comments escalate the danger of conflict on the Korean Peninsula amid ongoing joint war games between South Korea and the US, and warnings of war by North Korea

Climate Crisis Threatens Urban Food Security
By Countercurrents.org

Policies that focus on rural food production alone will not tackle the rising food insecurity in urban areas, says a report published by the International Institute for Environment and Development

Most Vulnerable People Need Protection From Geoengineering, Say Scientists
By Countercurrents.org

Controversial geoengineering projects that may be used to cool the planet must be approved by world governments to reduce the danger of catastrophic accidents, British scientists said. Met Office researchers have called for global oversight of the radical schemes after studies showed they could have huge and unintended impacts on some of the world's most vulnerable people

Toward Liberation: For Animals And Language
By Mickey Z.

Surrender the privilege of speciesism, embrace empathy for all sentient beings, and allow compassion to guide your choices

The Great Afghan Corruption Scam
By Dilip Hiro

How Operation Enduring Freedom Mutated into Operation Enduring Corruption

Manipulating The World To Destruction
By Dan Lieberman

The "exodus" did not free the Jews - just the opposite - it has been used to keep Jews in perpetual bondage to a false sense of history and given them a conscience that sees themselves as eternal victims, and distracts them from realizing that they may also play a role in the injustices done to others

01 April ,2013

US Sends Fighter-Bombers To Korea Amid Rising Risk Of War
By Alex Lantier

American F-22 stealth warplanes arrived in South Korea yesterday, placing East Asia on hair-trigger alert as Washington escalated its confrontation with North Korea, ostensibly over the country’s nuclear program

Doubling Down On Our Faustian Bargain
By Dr. James Hansen Co-written by Pushker Kharecha and Makiko Sato

The principal implication of our present analysis relates to the Faustian bargain. Increased short-term masking of greenhouse gas warming by fossil fuel particulate and nitrogen pollution is a "doubling down" of the Faustian bargain, an increase in the stakes. The more we allow the Faustian debt to build, the more unmanageable the eventual consequences will be. Yet globally there are plans to build more than 1,000 coal-fired power plants and plans to develop some of the dirtiest oil sources on the planet. These plans should be vigorously resisted. We are already in a deep hole -- it is time to stop digging

Arctic Greens While Antarctic Ice Grows
By Countercurrents.org

In the coming decades, global warming will cause grass, shrubs and trees to thrive in Arctic soil stripped of ice and permafrost, while sea ice around Antarctica will grow, according to a computer simulations published in the journal Nature Climate Change published on April 1, 2013

Count Leo Tolstoy, We Need Your Voice Today!
By John Scales Avery

What would Tolstoy say about the 1,700,000,000,000.00 dollars which the world spends each year on armaments while 11 million children die each year from poverty and starvation? What would Tolstoy say about the illegal war that ruined Iraq, smashing its infrastructure, killing a million innocent people and forcing two million to flee as refugees?

Has The Arab League Mortally Wounded Itself By Declaring War On Syria?
By Franklin Lamb

Last week in Doha, Qatar, the proceedings amounted to a deep self-inflicted, perhaps fatal, wound for the AL. Its legitimacy unraveled when it essentially declared war on one of its founding members and replaced it with its anointed, funded, staffed, armed, recognized, group with not the faintest pretense of abiding by its Charter including Article VIII, a main pillar of the concept of a League of Arab States

Bloomberg, Bullets, And Babies
By Rosemarie Jackowski

Do we need to equip children with bullet-proof back packs before sending them off to school in the morning? The message that sends to children is that we, as adults, cannot keep them safe. Sadly, that is true. We cannot keep them safe. Let the debate get into high gear. Bring it on. Maybe Mayor Bloomberg is right this time. We are a nation on fire - gun fire

Obama Walks The High Wire, Eyes Closed
By Ira Chernus

Barack Obama came to Israel and Palestine, saw what he wanted to see, and conquered the mainstream media with his eloquent words. U.S. and Israeli journalists called it a dream trip, the stuff that heroic myths are made of: a charismatic world leader taking charge of the Mideast peace process. But if the president doesn’t wake up and look at the hard realities he chose to ignore, his dream of being the great peacemaker will surely crumble, as it has before

Palestinian Land Day
By Dr. Elias Akleh

Saturday March 30th was the 37th commemoration of Palestinian Land Day. Palestinians walked the streets of every major Palestinian town denouncing the Israeli occupation, the confiscation of Palestinian land, the building of illegal Israeli colonies, the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes and demanding freedom, liberation of all occupied Palestine and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state

Global Paradox: Peace Not Wars
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

“Lies of the Iraq War” the 10th anniversary of the Iraq 's genocide approximately 3 million human beings massacred and human habitats destroyed under the false pretext of WMD. This week, the global news media hurriedly doing the damage control of its complacent image and showing the belated facts of the bogus “War on Terror.” The facts were facts in March 2003, when George Bush, the Congress and Tony Blair planned aggression against the innocent people of Iraq , the Western news media served as a weapon to launch the cruel war. Now it wants to distance itself and perhaps repair the self-inflicted and well sponsored atrocities carried out against the mankind

A Curious New York Times Article On Teacher Evaluations
By Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer

A recent New York Times article, “Curious Grade For Teachers: Nearly All Pass,” finds incredulous the idea that, “In Florida, 97 percent of teachers were deemed effective or highly effective in the most recent evaluations.” The author goes on to cite similar percentages in other states and concludes: “The teachers might be rated all above average, like students in Lake Wobegon, for the same reason that the older evaluation methods were considered lacking.” In other words, the teachers score well because the measuring standard is flawed. And this conclusion is reinforced by the observation that teachers’ high marks were achieved “even when students were falling behind.”

Greenpeace Activists Question Shiela Dixit’s Power Strategy At Vidhan Sabha In Delhi
By Greenpeace India

Summer is almost here and the solution to Delhi’s power crisis is still unclear. With this in mind, Greenpeace India activists put up a satirical caricature in front of the Vidhan Sabha in Delhi, questioning Chief Minister Shiela Dixit’s power strategy. The caricature said ‘ab ki bar bijli lagathar’ (uninterrupted power from now on) playing on the CM’s assurance of uninterrupted electricity this summer

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