For Suda J., who lives in M’rira (Tunisia) I dare not ask a kiss; I dare not beg a smile; [. . . ] No, no, the utmost share Of my desire, shall be Only to kiss that air, That lately kissed thee. Robert Herrick, To Electra, 23. What is it that we just love about an embrace and why[Read More…]
“Of course it is … impossible until it is done.” Daniel K. Young, A House Divided, 139. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. Peggy McIntosh, White[Read More…]
White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this—which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never—the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed. James Baldwin, “Letter from a Region in my Mind,”[Read More…]
Part I My motive for writing this piece is to reach, by some other way, Barbara Bryson, and tell her that we love her. The citation below is taken from the album “Exodus” by the late Bob Marley, whose music rekindles hope for a better future. It stands out because it brings us peace of mind at a[Read More…]
Misfortunes never come singly, do they? The pandemic which has turned us into emotional cripples illustrates our culpable sin of negligence of duties and obligations to the environment. Like old age, it has diminished our power to live our life as we used to see fit. To speak of the growing sense of pessimism that has taken hold of us[Read More…]
The empty stare we have been projecting onto the outside world ever since SARS-Cov 2 invited itself into our life is pretty disconcerting. Although spring is here, and it is perfect, with no sign of a cataclysm like the ones we experienced in the past (drought, flood, famine, war), we do not seem to take notice of it, let alone[Read More…]
The English Language gave birth to William Shakespeare, John Keats, and James Joyce, to name but a few of the many bright stars. It also spawned the likes of Donald J. Trump, a kind of genetically-modified product grown in a hothouse; a man who not only stumbles over every word he utters but coins new and bizarre phraseology to convey[Read More…]
When the French psychologist and philosopher Michel Foucault wrote Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason in 1973, he did not have in mind President Donald J. Trump because his study sought to answer the question of insanity from 1500 to 1800 only. Still, the book, a milestone both by reason and skill, sheds some[Read More…]
The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President has ushered in a new era of uncertainty, nowhere more so than in the Middle East. The rules of the game have indeed taken a turn for the better for Bibi Netanyahou, who gave the final push to the construction of 566 new homes in East Jerusalem. The new lodgings will[Read More…]
When the Indian-Canadian and later Indian-American novelist Bharati Mukherjee complained in the 1970s that Canada was more racist than America, many people thought she was harsh in her reading of the Canadian society. Only a handful of people told her that she was right. I personally think she was dead right. I can testify to her anguish in that I[Read More…]
Can one define what a Muslim is in the wake of the decision that President-elect Trump wants to take to ban all Muslims from entering America? The late Edward Said—were he still alive—may attempt an answer to the question I pose here as he did in the late seventies but I gather it will not be sufficient in that we[Read More…]
As he prepares to say good bye to the White House, President Barak Hussein Obama leaves a trail of successes and failures. Notorious among the former are the Iran deal, the US abstention in the December 2016 resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in Occupied Palestine, the killing of unarmed Osma bin Laden, the visit to Cuba, the[Read More…]
Men, masculinities, and gender equality 
EU Warns After Russia Plans To Place Tactical Nuclear Weapon In Belarus 
A Hazardous Decision: Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells 
Media and the March to War 
The Basic Issue is not of Taking Sides in Superpower Rivalry, it is of Durable Peace to Save Earth’s Life 
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell 
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane 
Bundelkhand Must Choose its Priorities Carefully 
Citizenship: Beyond the Forked Vision 
Caste-wise census is necessary for balanced development 
Tribal woman murdered after rape in Rohtas and strong protest demanding punishment of culprits 
Why Avoiding Catastrophic War is the Biggest Priority Today 
Labor in market, and the mainstream economics 
Serbia Shall Never Forget NATO Aggression, Vows Serb President 
Kerala’s New Public Health Bill 2023: Subservient to Market Forces rather than Deliberative Democracy 
The Piracy of Development – The 3-Ds: Dispossession, Displacement, Destitution 
The Contemporary Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg 
Does Court Judgement on Rahul Gandhi Breach Human Rights (Freedom of Expression) 
From Oslo to Sharm el-Sheik 
Is Washington now Khan’s Buddy? 
Nord Stream sabotage was to undercut Germany, says Seymour Hersh It Will Be Hard And Cost A Lot Of Blood For Ukraine To Kick Out Russians, Says Top U.S. General 
Saudi – Iran rapprochement: A chance for peace 
Day 30 of the NREGA Protest: Students and Activists Detained by the Delhi Police An Irrational Verdict? 
Trump Rot at the EPA 
AUKUS, the Australian Labor Party, and Growing Dissent 
Palestinians Don’t Exist? 
The Long Arm of Washington Extends Into Africa’s Sahel 
Radio Fatherland!! 
Bellies of the Rich Swell Further on the Back of Hunger 
The Big Picture And The Small – Part II 
2500 people urge Chief Minister of Karnataka to protect farmers, pastoralists and Dalits from Supreme injustice 
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
