“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” — Gerard Manley Hopkins Everyone… everyone seemed to be “bleared, smeared with toil.” I made an attempt to interact at the dinner table, and I chose to bring up an amazing set of facts that I had come across earlier in the day; I vowed to be smart and stay away[Read More…]
“What do you think might happen if one worked around the clock in a given community — selflessly — and managed to increase positive test scores in a school by 50% and reduce violence in the neighborhood by 50%? Do you think for one moment that the ‘success’ would be limited to that realm?” — Richard Martin Oxman “Whenever anyone[Read More…]
“Combating… criminal threats are priorities for all Americans — Republicans and Democrats.” — Governor Jerry Brown of California, as he sent national guardsmen to the Mexican border… trying to give the impression that he was only expecting them to engage with the drug cartels… not long after he weakened the new “sanctuary laws” with legislative Democrats. Concerned citizens can’t simply[Read More…]
My knowledgeable colleague has written about the deadly blows that Bechtel delivers to the residents of California and elsewhere courtesy of Stanford University previously, but I believe the latest scandal connected to that unconscionable corporation in Washington State deserves special attention right now, since there are many (Hanford) counterparts in the Golden State that beg for our focus immediately. I’m talking[Read More…]
The US Department of Defense is one of the world’s worst polluters. Its footprint dwarfs that of any corporation: 4,127 installations spread across 19 million acres of American soil. The Pentagon, presently, is trying to deal with well over 39,000 contaminated sites. This is old news for many, but it’s particularly germane for my purposes as I gear up to[Read More…]
“…the self no longer coincides with [a] single dominant voice: That voice… is not complete but limited, merely one voice among many. That we are all made up of many conflicting voices — in effect, others — [and]… free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man.” — Flannery O’Connor “Other persons do not limit[Read More…]
“Let’s take Africa as an example. Whereas there’s no question that it’s admirable, important and the spiritually-correct thing to help immiserated people to self-educate and act responsibly respecting the relationship of hygiene to diarrhea, there needs to be a simultaneous ‘immersion’ in the water-related dynamics stirred up by select corporations and AFRICOM.” — Richard Martin Oxman Greed and appropriation of other[Read More…]
The more ancient the abuse, the more sacred it is.” — Voltaire I’m not a fan of Voltaire’s, but I quote him here to underscore that longstanding practices don’t justify themselves by virtue of their continuing embrace by society. What’s popular in this world is quite often a sign of bad health. That said, I believe there are several paths in[Read More…]
“You can’t reduce violence in the U.S. without being proactive about violence abroad. Not just the continuing catastrophes we bring down on others, but the violence that others inflict on one another… like what some educators in France did to their students on March 24th this year.” — Richard Martin Oxman “Doesn’t it seem strange to anyone that all of those[Read More…]
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” — Act I, Scene v, Hamlet I remember very clearly how when Sylvie and I were organizing a major event designed to bring together community members and folks from all over the world in 2004 to address our collective crises at the time, one[Read More…]
“When someone stops me on the street and hands me a flyer, it’s like they’re saying, ‘Hey, you throw this away for me.’ Well, I feel the same way about signing petitions. Putting one’s John Hancock on a piece of paper is a way of throwing away one’s responsibility for a cause… if that’s all you’re doing.” — Mitch[Read More…]
“What if someone offered you a job which paid a million bucks, but you knew it would kill a million people? How about if it meant the end to a hundred thousand, or, say, ten thousand… or a thousand? Would you take the job?” — Question posed by Alex Gibney to the author A new Netflix series kicks off with[Read More…]
“Each chapter I read made me more and more angry.” – Dr. Helen Caldicott, international leader of anti-nuclear and environmental movements, making reference to a book recommended below The new Cold War is different from the original one. Ideological conflict no longer pits Moscow against today’s enlarged “West”… since Russia’s elite unashamedly embraced capitalism after 1991. The Kremlin has ceased to [Read More…]
At the turn of the new millennium, a new phenomenon has emerged: conservatives who just decades before had rejected the expanding human rights culture began to embrace human rights in order to advance their own political goals. This book accounts for how human rights—generally conceived as a counterhegemonic instrument for righting historical injustices—are being deployed to subjugate the weak[Read More…]
Commemoration of Swaminathan Calls for a Revisit of Green Revolution 
Antarctica Hits Records as Global Heat Looms Large for 2024 
Book Review: Building A Just World Order 
Canada Needs Urgent Reforms to Bring Long-Delayed Justice to its Indigenous People 
Ukraine: Peace Comes through Mutual Respect 
Canada’s Proclivity To White Wash Its Nazi Citizenry & Nazi Affiliation Past 
Clamour for Teachers Grows in Jharkhand – Parents Write to CM 
Rifts in INDIA Alliance 
At the Brink? Contemplating the Unimaginable Costs of a Nuclear War 
Cruel Prerogatives: Braverman on Refugees at the AEI 
The Perilous Path From Western Domination to De-Dollarization 
From the Contemporary History of the Balkans: Greece and Slavo-Macedonians (1913-1993) 
The Ethnic Violence in Manipur, India, Explained 
New Report Exposes Grave Injustice to Villagers in the Name of Expanding Tourism and Parks in Tanzania 
Ending Opioid Addiction and Deaths through Creative Strategies 
Solitude: A Source of Empowerment 
Dr.K.S.Sharma Turns 90 
The Unholy Origins of Castes in India 
Union Health Ministry placing a cap on new medical colleges in States on the basis of the population criterion violates federalism 
Reflections on the Revolutionary Legacy of Makhan Singh in Kenya 
Armenian civilians flee Nagorno-Karabakh after new offensive by Azerbaijan 
Manipur: a statement of concern and suggestions for peaceful resolution 
Global Leaders Plead for Peace in Ukraine at UN 
Ghosts of the Past: For Israel, War on UNESCO is an Existential Battle 
Keeping Cattle on Public Land Is Bad for People, Cows, Wildlife, and the Planet 
The United States in the World: Making Sense of the Past Forty Years (1981-2023) 
Canadian Youth At Risk and the Discrimination of Marginalized Demographics 
While Searching Worldwide for Terrorists, Uncle Sam Should Also Look in a Mirror 
American Abrams tanks roll into Ukraine 
An open letter to JNU VC – Your association with RSS defies humanism, anti-colonial struggle Indian democracy! 
From Education to Incarceration 
Tunakataa! Saying ‘No’ to Capitalism and Imperialism in Kenya 
Rising Islamophobia and Communal Discord: An Alarming Trend in BJP-Ruled States 
Speak Truth to Power and Pay the Price! 
USA’s Wars Took 12 Million Lives in The Last 25 Years US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
In Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan makes us an offer we can refuse 
Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma 
On the Brink of Famine 
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
