India’s Modi: Messiah or Menace?
When the Hindu sages developed their way of life, they divided people into four castes: Brahmins, the thinkers, scholars and priests at the top for they were the guides; Kshatriyas,…
Dr Arshad M Khan
Unwinnable Wars
Her name means beautiful, and she is despite her tragic life. Hasina recalls the day when the Myanmar army set fire to her village and killed the inhabitants, including…
Earth In Extremis While Trump Plays Ostrich
Storms are savaging East Africa where rainfall in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania is now over 300 mm (about a foot) higher than the 30-year mean tallied since 1981. The subsequent…
Two Cases, Minor And Major
News stories have Donald Trump being mocked by France's Macron at a Buckingham Palace reception for the NATO leaders meeting. A nearby open mic caught the incident. Trump's response was…
From Standard Oil To Google: Can We Control Monopolies?
One of the very first investigative journalists, Ida Tarbell went after the "throttling hand" of Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller. By 1880, his company owned 90 percent of US…
Thanksgiving Also Means Giving Thanks For Our Planet
It is Thanksgiving holiday in the US. The Europeans do not celebrate Thanksgiving and the European Parliament has held an election. It has chosen former German Defense Minister Ursula von…
Venice Is Flooded—A Look at Our Coastal Future
Co-Written by Arshad M. Khan and Meena Miriam Yust If humans have been lucky, basking in the comforting warmth of an inter-glacial period for the last 10,000 years, that luck…
Schweitzer’s ‘Reverence for Life’ In The Age of Trump And Modi
Forever known by his phrase 'reverence for life', Albert Schweitzer was a theologian, moral philosopher, physician and missionary. He was born in Alsace when it was German, and became a…
Climate Risks: Wildfires, Glacier Melt, Coastal Flooding
California wildfires are again in the news as the Kincade Fire now raging risked 50,000 people, who have been evacuated. It might come as a surprise but there have been…
The Turkish Gambit
The only certainty in war is its intrinsic uncertainty, something Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could soon chance upon. One only has to look back on America's topsy-turvy fortunes in…
In Our Capitalist World Everyone Has A Wealth Number
There are numbers for everything these days, and as President Trump makes clear often enough his favorite number is 1. But then in the wealth number categories, he really would…
Trump Impeachment And A Boris Brexit
What could it be if not the chill of the Autumn air and the thought of winter -- some people love it of course with its winter sports even if…
The Climate Action Summit Fiasco
No one could fail to be touched by the fear (for the future) and urgency in Greta Thunberg's young voice as she broke down while addressing world leaders on the…
Unhappy India
Not very long ago (Sept 2, 2019), India launched a rocket to the far side of the moon. It carried a lunar lander that fell silent following the landing…
Thank You Greta: The Young Lead In The Climate Crisis
To say Greta Thunberg is a remarkable young girl is to understate her accomplishments. She is phenomenal. She has successfully exploited social media and through dogged persistence -- including…
Indian Subcontinent Independence And Economies Lagging Counterparts
Mid-August is when the subcontinent celebrates independence from Britain. Born in a cauldron of hate 72 years ago, India today is again filling it to the brim. In one fell…
When Boris Became PM
So Boris Johnson has become Britain's prime minister. He has been trying and scheming, scheming and trying including undermining David Cameron. A 'remainer' before, Johnson saw political capital in the…
Trump: Rebukes And Worries
It's one for the history books, as they say. On July 16, 2019, Donald Trump was formally rebuked by the House (in a 240 to 187 vote) for his 'racist'…
Billionaires, Vanity And Modern Democracy
The bullying in Washington is the current trend. On Monday, the British ambassador resigned his post after Trump refused to deal with him. Well-liked in Washington and the halls of…
Unusual U.S. Military Display On Independence Day – Does It Signal An Iran War?
If the fourth of July mid-day parade in Washington D.C. was depressing, perhaps the heavy, hot and humid weather was to blame. It seemed to take the life out…
Two Meetings Concluded Last Week…. Ramification
Two meetings ended last week: the G20 meeting, a forum for leaders and central bank chiefs, and the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn. At the G20, the work behind…
Climate Chaos, The Science And Our Own Responsibilities
On the last day of the UN Climate Change (June 17-27, 2019) meeting in Bonn the key IPCC report on 1.5 C was blocked from further discussion by Saudi Arabia…
Why Trump Backed Off On Iran
War is a failure of reason, it has been said, and war with Iran makes little sense after they have faithfully complied with their nuclear agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan…
India’s Continuing Tussle Between Hindu Nationalists And Reformists
On the evening of January 30, 1948, as he walked to his regular interfaith prayer meeting, Mahatma Gandhi was shot and killed. The assassin Nathuram Godse was a Hindu nationalist…
Scandinavia Veers Left Plus D-Day Reflections As Trump Storms Europe
Mette Frederiksen of the five-party Social Democrat bloc won 91 of the 169 seats in the Danish parliament ending the rule of the right-wing Liberal Party group that had governed…
To Impeach or Not to Impeach? That’s The Question
Robert Mueller let loose a thunderbolt midweek. Donald Trump had not been charged, he said, because it was Department of Justice policy not to charge a sitting president. Dumping the…
Modi Wins May Loses
The Indian elections are over. Despite Narendra Modi's abysmal economic record -- industrial production has slumped, farmers are in trouble and had been demonstrating their plight, and unemployment is at…
Pointless Colonial Massacres And Post-Colonial Wars And Killing On The Indian Subcontinent
Two colonial mass killings from the twentieth century are always remembered: The Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre on April 23, 1930 in Peshawar (then India, now in Pakistan) was the result…
Arshad M. Khan – Do The Harmless Pangolins Have To Become Extinct?
The pangolin is a timid little creature going about its nocturnal ways, slurping up ants and termites with a tongue longer than its body. It has no teeth. Its defense…
Up The Wall
If a tragedy is watching disaster unfold and being powerless to stop it, then such is Brexit -- a conundrum wrapped in an enigma as the saying goes. The UK…
Honor Among Thieves?
When Michael Cohen, fixer for Donald Trump, payoff-artist and jailbird-to-be, who starts 3-year prison sentence on May 6, branded his former boss a liar and cheat who ran for president…
A Calamitous Week
Something is infinitely wrong in the picture, a juxtaposition of polar opposites: New Zealand, a country of unfailingly courteous and kind people, and an extremist terrorist killing 50 Muslims at…
Britain And The EU: The Problems With Brexit
Does anyone remember Nigel Farage? He led the UK Independence Party and the 'leave' EU vote -- along with his last minute ally Boris Johnson who hoped to push himself…
I love the Green New Deal but …
Ever since out first ancestor lit a fire, humans have been pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. Add to that the first herder because ruminants are another large emitter of greenhouse…
New Environmental Studies Raise Alarms
New environmental research continues to alarm as three studies published within the past week amply demonstrate. Danish scientists report a significant increase in winter rain over Greenland. The rain-induced…
The Art of The No-Deal: Korea And The Indian Subcontinent
Miscalculation and a bit of overreach on both sides and we have a regrettable end to the North Korea Summit. Each party thought the other was desperate for a deal: …
Government Inaction While Reports Signal A Climate Crisis
In the wake of climate-fueled disasters and several alarming reports on climate change, a gap is evident -- a gap between how the world is responding to the climate crisis…
Beating The Drums of War
As countries continue their squabbles, their home the earth is going to hell in a handbasket. A new review paper in Biological Conservation reports 40 percent of insect species are…
Phasing Out Coal And Other Transitions To Abate Global Warming: Lessons From Europe
Climate change reports are seldom sanguine. Carbon dioxide, the principal culprit, is at record levels, about twice the preindustrial value and a third higher than even 1950. Without abatement it…
Thwarting Trump’s Climate Change Denial
We now have the remarkable convenience of the internal combustion engine, and also its noise and chaos and emissions to energize climate change. Burning fossil fuels has put us on…
A Billionaire President’s S.O.T.U. And Inequality
When Thomas Piketty published his book "Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century" five years ago, it was a sensation. He had analyzed historical concentrations of wealth. Why do the rich get…
Lipstick on a Pig: Hot Warheads, A Cold Freeze And Hot Oceans
It doesn't take much to imagine the following scenario: 'Cross my heart, I swear it's a low-yield,' as a Trident is launched! One wonders if the new low-yield W76-2 warhead…
WEF In Davos And The OXFAM Report: Is It Time To Tax The Super-Rich?
The World Economic Forum met this week (January 22-25) for its 48th annual meeting since its inception. It costs $60,000 or Swiss Francs to become a member and another 27,000…
Ground Wars And Star Wars: Trump In Hog Heaven?
Four weeks and counting the shutdown continues except the Trump-Congress tit-for-tat is fast approaching kindergarten level. The Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is third in line for the…
Compromise And Democracy, Trumps Border Wall And Immigrants
Compromise is the essence of democracy for a good reason; it is the glue holding it together. It is how a country can unite after an election; it is when…
On Refugees….And Myanmar-It’s Not Just The Rohingya
... And my life's cold winter that knew no spring; Of my mind so weary and sick and wild, Of my heart too sad to sing. …
Has Bait and Switch Become a Trump Signature?
People voted for Donald Trump under the assumption, Mexico would be paying for your border wall. They why should the people pay now in this bait-and-switch game, when hardly any…
Could India Have Remained an Undivided Country?
It would be a silly question indeed to ask why December 25th is celebrated. On the other hand, one could ask why it is a national holiday in Pakistan, for…
COP24 Results, Developing Countries And a Bit of Good News for Solar Energy and Carbon Capture
Humans are an interesting species ... instead of seeing eye-to-eye, they see eye-to-nose. They focus on the present and themselves, particularly where their comfort is concerned, no matter how…
War, Anniversaries and Lessons Never Learned
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered the Second World War. A war of horrors, it normalized the intensive, barbaric bombing of civilian populations. If…
Two World Conferences…. What Can We Expect?
President Trump's abrupt cancellation of bilateral talks with Mr. Putin at the G-20 meeting in Argentina -- following the seizure of Ukrainian ships by Russia -- puts any rapprochement on…
Meat and Consequences: More Bad News for Climate Change
Thanksgiving is quite a U.S. holiday. In one day, we manage to eat and enjoy 44 million turkeys, twice the number consumed at Christmas. Yes, vegetarians may live longer and…
Quiet Does Not Flow This Don: A Week of the Pathetic Inadequate
That the current U.S. president places a premium on loyalty has been evident from the start -- loyalty not to the institutions of government and their legal functions but loyalty…
What We Can Expect After The U.S Midterm Elections
The midterm elections are over, the result ... a split-decision. The Democrats will control the House, raising the possibility of an impeachment attempt. The Senate remains under Republican control with…
A Tale of Two Countries
In a statement this week, Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, says Jamal Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi consulate. If this alone does not make a…
Weather Disasters, Global Warming And Potential For Conflict
East Island was an uninhabited remote island in the Hawaiian chain, but it was an important refuge for wildlife: Many of the endangered Hawaiian monk seals numbering about 1400 raised…
Of Dissemblers And Dismemberers
The maliciously mocking, malevolent, maladroit, misfit, malappropriating the White House got his comeuppance this week ... at least for a while. Senator Elizabeth Warren released her DNA test results conducted…
The IPCC Report: Is There Hope For Our Planet?
Hurricanes and storms on both sides of the Atlantic appeared to encore the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. It had just concluded the finalization of a special report on the impact of…
Weather and White House Turmoil as Elections Loom
Hurricane Michael wreaked havoc as it traversed the Florida panhandle. The first Category 5 hurricane to hit the area since 1881 when records began, its 155 mph winds (only 5…
Why Trump Is Trump And Why His Policies
Not only are we in a sense defined by our DNA, but new research shows our behavior may also be affected by that of our ancestors. So observe the authors…
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