Hyderabad based intellectual and analyst Parakala Prabhakar has given a gift to Indians and India watchers in his new book, The Crooked Timber of New India. It is a gift for many reasons – honesty, lucidity, and non-didactic exposition. Many previous reviewers have sung praises- and I am no different; here, I’ll add to the fandom but will also point[Read More…]
In all societies and social groups, there are rules not only about what can be said but in fact what can be thought. In the West, this has strong tones in the professional world, in which some things are so sacrosanct as to be verboten. The more unsayable a thing is deemed to be, the more it needs to be[Read More…]
The excitement about ChatGPT has provoked the usual slew of profound rhetorical questions in technocratic circles. “Can Education stay the same?” “Will X job or Y profession survive the tide?” “Will reading and writing become obsolete?” Right beneath the surface of such profundities is their favorite question of course- “How can I make money with ChatGPT?” The choir is the[Read More…]
Dr. King’s birthday is coming up soon- five days away- and I’m already cringing. Martin Luther King Junior was a towering figure in world history. He was one of the great leaders of the Civil Rights movement in the United States and as he aged, became increasingly radicalized. He left behind some of the greatest artifacts in American history- including[Read More…]
Indians’ headlong zeal for digital payments is curious to me. I’m not reflexively anti-technology, but I do believe there are limits. And even on a short trip to India, with relatively few financial dealings, I’ve come to believe that carrying cash is still a good idea. And one that I will hold onto. In the Odyssey, the hero comes upon[Read More…]
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was a giant of world history, though one barely understood both at home or abroad. While I am no expert on his life or his legacy, suffice it to say the more I read and the more I discover about him, the more I am in awe at his contributions, especially in the light of terrible personal[Read More…]
Review of P. Sainath’s “The Last Heroes, Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom” One of the twentieth century’s signal moments happened in the summer of 1947. That summer, the population of the world’s second largest country gained Independence from British rule, after 190 years of plunder, murder, famine, and immiseration. A nation that in 1757 boasted 25% of the world’s economy[Read More…]
Review of Twenty Dollars and Change by Clarence Lusane City Lights Books|2022 In 2016, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew declared that Harriett Tubman’s would be the new face of the $20 bill and that Andrew Jackson’s would be moved to the back. Scholars and activists, then and now, noted the irony- that two figures of such radically different dispositions[Read More…]
Young with the wisdom Of an elder Unfair. No childhood. That’s your life Not allowed ever To be angry Not allowed to raise Your hands Smile through it Take it well Extend your love Never act Poise Is a cage Poise Is torture But that’s what you want from me.
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a very senior person in the Congress Party. The meeting was arranged with his office and he met me –on time, in a small conference room. With him were two associates. He was gracious and polite and heard me out. I made a few points, he listened attentively, asked some[Read More…]
Review of Hitler’s Girl by Lauren Young Historians and lay-people alike have for decades posed the counter-factual question, “How could Hitler have been stopped?” The answer, shocking to those at play in the fields of elision, is that the easiest way to contain him and therefore to halt the growth of Nazism and the save the world from murderous peril[Read More…]
An Indian comedian did an experiment recently that tells us tales about people and their vituperations. The experiment was brilliant: Prime Minister Modi tweeted a standard-world-leader note of sorrow to those affected by the floods in Pakistan. The comedian tweeted largely the same thing under his own name. And? You guessed it. He got a torrent of hateful responses from[Read More…]
A victory For life’s sanctity? But not for the living. Black Lives were not sacred Gun-dead children neither Hungry kids- -freeloaders War-dead deserved it Snowflakes if seeking help Desperate mothers in a synthetic jail Beating our hearts to death Hated the moment born Lumumba in the Trunk The Sanctity of Life The Big Lie works When you believe it
Peloton The Peloton craze suggests a decadence that has marked and will continue to mark the utter failure of the American experiment. Such statements are by design hyperbolic- even perhaps silly- but they point us in the direction of the heresies we need to embrace if we are to do something decent with the gifts we’ve been given. The story[Read More…]
Air and water both flow And mix and merge Neither lives But give life Noises echo Voices carry Smells and sounds Join us together Colors can run If they touch Languages mesh At meal time Not yours Not mine Not his, hers or theirs We are bound together
In the world as it has come to be, certain gestures are obligatory while equivalent ones are not. We are trained to have what can be deemed as inconsistent responses to paired events which are for the most part similar, even identical. It is a fool’s errand to expect consistency and an exhausting routine to demand it. Asking for it,[Read More…]
Oh Yemen, I’m sorry That No one remembers you That You are not White That You are not Christian That You were attacked by the “good guys” I know you have solidarity With the people Of Ukraine Even if No one remembers you
On a trip to India 8 years ago, I picked up “A Village Awaits Doomsday” at an airport bookshop. It appeared to be an interesting read and I was glad to find it in a shop that otherwise was littered with business titles and pulp fiction. On the flight, I read it cover to cover and was at once impressed[Read More…]
Review of Munich: the Edge of War|Netflix, 2022 When I first saw an advertisement for Munich: The Edge of War appear on my Netflix search screen, my blood pressure rose palpably. I knew that I had to watch it and that parts of the movie would be objectionable, from a historical and moral point of view. I avoided watching it[Read More…]
Fanon had written that the colonized belonged to a higher cognitive category than the colonizer for a simple reason: The colonized have to be able to think of themselves and their masters as human whereas the colonizer thinks of his subjects as merely “things” or chattel. I have thought about this with regard to two peoples with whom I have[Read More…]
Review of “First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat” by Christopher W. Shaw. Foreword by Ralph Nader. Open Media Series. City Lights Books. Herodotus said this of the Darius’s Mail Couriers, “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Over a century[Read More…]
Review of “Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State” by Samuel Stein. Verso, 2019. Real Estate is the world’s largest asset class. The numbers are staggering- globally, real estate in aggregate is worth approximately $230 trillion. Of this, residential real estate is the majority player, worth approximately $180 trillion. This far exceeds the value of all stocks and is[Read More…]
Six years ago, I wrote an article that appeared on Countercurrents, just as this one does. The piece was strident, even didactic, but was in large part a plea. The notion was to explain why the pathology of “free content” creates a race to the bottom in journalism. A byproduct of this is that – given the “no free lunch”[Read More…]
Some years ago, I was lucky enough to have a rich email dialogue with Colonel David Glantz, the foremost historian of the Eastern Front in World War 2. He was gracious in his thoughts and supportive of the lay-history I was doing. He even offered a compliment or two for some of the thoughts I had regarding the redaction of[Read More…]
Reviewer’s Note: I had the pleasure to review a proof of Stan Cox’s forthcoming book. I recommend it strongly and offer high praise, though caviled by a few nits. Please read on. Recent events have awakened even some typically passive people to the enormity of the synthetic disaster that is anthropogenic climate change. Though who “agreed with the Science” and[Read More…]
If they are terrorists Then why do they feed us? If they are disruptors Then why do they make the world work? You might hit and insult You might tarnish and blur You might push them against a wall But before doing so Perhaps think of this- That you consume their toils That your dreams, they power That verdant life[Read More…]
Crossing the street A brush with death A thousand times Alive A door held A waiting elevator Stop Signs Back then front A stopped heart With sirens Beating again No papers exchanged Breath Deadly breath Turn away Thank you, Please, Sorry A set table Four chairs Three pieces The knife’s busy Romi Mahajan is an Author, Marketer, Investor, and Activist[Read More…]
It gives me no pleasure to quote Cromwell, but so apposite was his dismissal of the Rump Parliament in 1653 as it relates to Trump and his cronies today- You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! The[Read More…]
You did not know did you? That my house gives me rights. You did not know did you? That my house gives me virtue. Food, Clothing, Shelter I demand that you are not naked But not full or warm I won’t offer you sleep Not on my lawn Or even in a park Not here, I say Brooms and authorities[Read More…]
Where is the statement of outrage? Where is the statement of solidarity? Where is anything? The assassination of Iranian physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh should merit a massive response from the world’s scientific community but as far as this author has seen, no scientific organization has issued a statement of repudiation of this brazen act of illegal violence. Though no one has[Read More…]
With the recent Democratic win in the US election, all sorts of people have been calling for a “lowering of the temperature,” “coming together,” and “forgiving and forgetting.” “Let’s heal,” they say and “move forward.” “Now,” they say, “is not the time for politics.” Notoriously- and righteously- missing from this group of what Pankaj Mishra would call “Bland Fanatics,” are[Read More…]
Review of “PolyTicks, DeMocKrazy & Mumbo Jumbo: Babus, Mantras, & Netas (Un) Making Our Nation” By Avay Shukla|Forward by Shashi Tharoor. Pippa Rann books & media The public sphere in India- and India’s entire body politic- is virused. Though in the short-term, it suffers from a particularly virulent and persistent strain of neo-liberal Hindutva, the longer-term effects on the surviving[Read More…]
Review of “Dispatches from the Race War” by Tim Wise. City Lights Publishers, forthcoming December 2020 In a few short weeks- achingly painful weeks- the US will hold what is likely the most important Presidential election in its short and violent history. The choices before the populace are telling; the choice we are to make- and its clear which one[Read More…]
Your dreams won’t die They can’t kill them They killed you They brutalized you They lied But your dreams won’t die A people Who pride themselves On their spirituality… What spirits indeed Invade their Addled brains? What opiate Suggests such acts? What sickness Can endure? Their bodies, their limbs Are what’s really aflame Your dreams won’t die[Read More…]
Review of Bit Tyrants by Rob Larson. Haymarket Books. Big Tech is in the news daily. In fact, Big Tech makes the news, is the news, and owns the news. To live in the 3rd decade of the 21st century is to be subsumed by the all-encompassing reality that is Tech, whether as a consumer, customer, employee, beneficiary, victim, or[Read More…]
Review of “Azadi” by Arundhati Roy In approximately 5 weeks the United States will hold the most important Presidential election in its short and violent history. Bookmakers and Psephologists alike think of it as a 50-50 proposition. The incumbent Donald Trump has been hinting that the election, whatever the result, will be tainted, rigged and that, as such, he would[Read More…]
Ask me How I’m doing What I’m thinking about But Ask me What the future holds Where I’ll be But Ask me About the pain About the sadness But Ask me Why I’m hurting Why I can’t move But Ask me About my parents About my kids But It isn’t like The Weather The Game The Show So You Don’t[Read More…]
On October 3rd and 4th, the Reclaiming India virtual conference will take place online. Please do not miss it. Hear Luminaries like William Barber, Prashant Bhushan, Indira Jaising, Hamid Ansari www.reclaimingindia.org Organized by Global Indian Progressive Alliance, Hindus for Human Rights, Indian American Muslim Council, India Civil Watch International, Students Against Hindutva Ideology this conference is a magnificent event highlighting[Read More…]
Given the events of August 5th in Ayodhya, how do we conceive Savarkar as a progenitor of this invidious movement? The answer to your question is not an easy one, given the complexities of Savarkar’s ideas and the interpretation of those ideas over one century by a number of thinkers. However, in thinking specifically about Rama, Ayodhya, and the Babri[Read More…]
I was driving on Highway 90, just outside of Bellevue, WA, where I live- in the first week of September, 2020. The drive East from Bellevue on I-90 is for the most part absolutely incredible. The physical beauty of the land, the sylvan cover, the density of the vegetation- all of these remind one that the Earth has beautiful parts,[Read More…]
Opening before us A crack in the Earth So deep So deep Headphones on Chatting on the phone We walk Into the muck Insouciance Ambien-induced haze Our collective lives Under this mask The crack widens And deepens We walk Without a pause Will you save me Before I fall? Romi Mahajan is an Author, Marketer, Investor, and Activist SIGN UP[Read More…]
Romi Mahajan: Jaideep, you have written several stories about the abject condition of migrant workers in India, being set adrift by the government. Can you give us a sense of what is going on? JH: Simply put, people are wanting to go home. Millions were stranded, unemployed, without food or money, unable to stay back at the places they migrated[Read More…]
When you kill a person you kill more than just another body. You kill a brain, a soul, a congealed set of experiences, emotions, and connections. You kill loves, wants, thoughts, desires, ideas. You kill futures and pasts. You kill loves ones’ hopes and calm. You kill sleep. You kill joys and laughs. You kill all the books read, all[Read More…]
Some years ago, I was lucky enough to have a rich email dialogue with Colonel David Glantz, the foremost historian of the Eastern Front in World War 2. He was gracious in his thoughts and supportive of the lay-history I was doing. He even offered a compliment or two for some of the thoughts I had regarding the redaction of[Read More…]
A thread in our lives That never unravels Pinching at the seam Of our civilization As an unhealed cut Bleeds, even in dribbles Pains us until We learn to ignore We can watch And not see We can see But not register Each one matters Loved ones shattered Potential lost Over before the bell A flame Might flicker A flame[Read More…]
Salim Bhai please Get out of the house It is burning Please get out It is but one room I cannot leave It is my house After all Salim Bhai please Get out of the house It is burning Please get out It is but two rooms I cannot leave It is my neighborhood After all Salim Bhai please Get[Read More…]
Me: Did you see the latest news on Trump. Crazy times. Such anti-immigrant hysterics. Incredible racism rearing its ugly head. TLIA: Seriously. My cousin from India applied for a Green Card and it’s going to take a long time now, it may not even happen. He’s super successful and wants to build a business here. Trump is so racist it[Read More…]
Rory Fanning, following two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion, became one of the first U.S. Army Rangers to resist the Iraq war and the Global War on Terror. In 2008–2009 he walked across the United States for the Pat Tillman Foundation. Rory is the author of Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey Out of the[Read More…]
The transparent people cannot be seen Is that true? The transparent people have no emotions Is that true? In a field, on a bus Walking down the road Singing, in pain The sun is no friend Nor is the rain The transparent people float Smiling in pictures No flowers at home The transparent people From towns on a map Forever[Read More…]
I must go where my conscience takes me not where I am supposed to go. I must do what my conscience dictates, in fact demands. I cannot succumb. I have made mistakes and I’ll repent forever, not in some magical way but in a very practical way. I will learn to want less and thus to have more freedom for[Read More…]
Knocks repeated knocks Dead of night Pounding The Door and the Heart Friends and Loved Ones Left to cry Fate awaits No Garlands Jagged edges cut Deeply Our silence Even deeper Biko, Anand Together The wages of deceit In a dying nation Romi Mahajan in an Author, Marketer, Investor, and Activist SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWS LETTER
The word “Leadership” has been diluted to the point of being water-logged; so I hesitated to write this article lest anyone compare what is needed now to the scenarios that usually impel the term to be used. Business-speak is the culprit here, the cause of the dilution. We use the term to describe any decision-making that leads to profit or[Read More…]
Why do we Balk at Paying for Digital Content? Some years ago, I wrote a piece called Paying for nothing is Paying for Something in Countercurrents.org. The premise of the article was simple: The aversion for paying for digital content is short-sighted and ultimately very damaging to the overall quality of content produced, to journalism (especially investigative journalism), and to[Read More…]
In yet another tone-deaf ejaculation of mind-blowing idiocy, member of the tech elite Hadi Partovi declared that recession could be good for Seattle. Read it here, faithfully reported by Geekwire. I mean you can’t make this stuff up. Think of the number of levels on which this statement is asinine. “Wait,” you say, “Let’s hear what he really meant by[Read More…]
I make no bones about it- this piece is a plea for help. I’m lucky; so far I’m fine. So the help is not for me. It’s for an institution that I believe in- Haymarket Books. Haymarket is one of the few publishers left that puts out a stream of books on progressive matters, espouses progressive values, and gives “unpublishable”[Read More…]
During these tragic and anxiety-filled times, we are witnessed extremes in human behavior. Extremes. On the one hand, we have the fundamental decency of medical professionals and first responders who are sanctifying their oath by selfless action; indeed many have perished through the acts of aiding others and warning the world about an impending disaster. In the United States, once[Read More…]
In the Time of Covid-19 and runaway Global Warming, interest in science is no longer considered either passé or purely the realm of so-called nerds. Enhanced by the existence of high production-value television programs on science and a newfound love of celebrity scientists, interest in science is certainly on the rise. Of course, the counter-forces are powerful. An administration and[Read More…]
Let’s be clear: The Coronavirus pandemic is not a joking matter at all. People are dying. People are being released from work and are left in economic desperation. Crisis capitalism has created “entrepreneurs” out of criminals and miscreants, exploiting peoples’ legitimate need for information, supplies, and silver-bullet cures. And the worst is likely still to come. Still, humor is an[Read More…]
Though unpopular in many circles, Karl Marx wrote passionately about the inherent contradictions of capitalism. While his arguments were complex, some of the pillars can be simplified to suggest that these contradictions are created by capitalism’s constant need to grow. In different economic circles- much more popular than the Marxist circle — growth is synonymous with what’s good and right.[Read More…]
Indians have to make a call- and make it soon- on what nation they want to live in and what nation they want to bequeath to their children. This decision is incredibly important and is not an easy one. Both the negative propaganda and the blandishments of those in power obscure the picture that should, after so much damage has[Read More…]
A few days ago, the Seattle City Council approved a resolution condemning the CAA and NRC, both creations of the ruling BJP government in India. People involved in the creation and support of the resolution speak clearly of the splenetic reaction of many Indian-Americans to the resolution and of their searing rhetoric offered in defense of the CAA and NRC. [Read More…]
In the time of Trumpism, we need more people like Andrew Bacevich producing more books like “The Age of Illusions.” A self-labeled conservative, a military man, and a person of faith, Bacevich possesses two elemental qualities – a keen sense of history and a desire to understand and tell the truth- that make his voice both important and clear. In[Read More…]
In the movie adaptation of John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill,” Carl Lee Hailey’s defense lawyer Jake Brigance, in his summation, asks the jury members to close their eyes while he tells a horrid tale of a little girl being attacked, raped, beaten, tortured and left to die by two grown men. The jury squirms as they hear the story[Read More…]
As we usher in 2020, there is only one resolution to avoid- silence. For many, the New Year is a time of reflection, of calm deliberation. That’s all fair enough in placid circumstances. In such times- such that they exist-everyone has a right to stop, to think, to consider, to audit the soul. To indulge. But we must do so[Read More…]
Decisions about what actions we might have taken in the past appear straightforward. Would we have fought Nazism in its infancy or gone along with the discrimination, mayhem, and violence? Would we have supported civil rights marchers and freedom riders, ignored them or asked them for gradualism? Would we have fought for women’s suffrage or suggest they remain second class[Read More…]
When I turned 40, my friends threw a party for me. We had great food, drink, and music. Several good friends read messages about me aloud. It was touching. I remember thinking how lucky I was to have such a loving family and such caring friends. I also remember the enormous guilt I felt when I made it to 40.[Read More…]
The phrase “Anti-National” is curious, for more reasons than one can count. Still, we Indians both use it and allow it to be used far too often, contributing to the national disease of complicity, muddle-headedness and capitulation that plagues us and always has. The use of the phrase has echoes in eras that have gone before, thankfully some short-lived despite[Read More…]
Though traveling, I eagerly awaited the Seattle election results on November 5th; all day I had a knot in my stomach and a sense of foreboding. “Is it possible they were in the end too powerful for her to withstand?” I asked myself. Hardly a psephologist and with no particular apparatus to gauge the effects of the Goliath versus David[Read More…]
He was tired that night A long day; Work can grind And of course there’s more Smart, Black, numbers in his head He liked Ice Cream Soothed by the TV Feet up A long day; Home at last; refuge Young man; career ahead; ambitious What was tomorrow going to hold? Smooth, creamy, buttery Late night sweet snack A long day;[Read More…]
In November, Seattleites will vote again on the constitution of their City Council. Few cities in the United States, likely, will witness the same level of intensity and acrimony regarding what many outside this particular city will no doubt deem “just a local” issue. Most closely watched will be the elections for Seattle’s District Three, in which Kshama Sawant[Read More…]
Indian-Americans have distinguished themselves in a variety of fields and have been lauded as one of the most successful diasporic groups in the United States. From captains of technology to corporate board members, from university administrators to hotel tycoons and hedge-fund managers, Indian-Americans have certainly made their mark in their adopted country. Recently, the emergence of Indian-Americans in the political[Read More…]
For cars, baubles, and beef We pledged our untrammeled allegiance For cars, baubles, and beef We declared an insidious war We held our flag up high We demanded full compliance For cars, baubles, and beef We punished all dissenters Here we are today Apocalypse here and now For cars, baubles, and beef We sacrificed our smiling children Progress is hard[Read More…]
In an earlier article in Medium, I wrote about a corrosive sports culture that brings out peoples’ baser instincts- from applauding violence to replacing a plural view of humanity with elemental tribalism. In the piece, I also discussed sports-obsession as an example of the abdication of affirmative citizenship, given the time, money, and mental energy people spend on sports versus civic[Read More…]
In the name of family We destroy the same In the name of peace We build wastelands Imagine, please, imagine please do A little girl at your bosom Imagine, please, imagine please do A young boy laughing loud The warmth of embrace The exuberance of dawn The deep love and grace Forever now gone Joy knows no home Absolute and[Read More…]
Dear oh dear Ilhan We see you in our sleep We see you when awake We hear you in all of our being There is nothing like a voice That wavers never at all There is nothing like the strength Of dignity withal Please don’t ever tire Your energies should never wane Stay vigilant dear Ilhan You bless us with[Read More…]
It is a measure of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru that the BJP ideologues and their followers can’t stop referring to them, no matter how idiotically and venally they do so. To blame Nehru for everything – as is the wont if these demagogues – is to imbue him with the absolute power that indeed he never[Read More…]
Baltimore, Oh Baltimore You have things on your mind You have children to feed and trees to tend You have ties that strongly bind No fool, no demagogue, no trickster Could ever fool you deep No hateful and crude cad Should make you cringe or weep You rise when hate is strong Your daughters and sons see clear Baltimore, Oh[Read More…]
A black father is gone A black husband is gone A black friend is gone A black human is gone He couldn’t breathe He said as much They cared enough To kill him Unsafe Even in your own skin Dead Leaving your kin Remorse is absent Like after stepping on an ant Go, go home Be with your loved ones[Read More…]
If one is to believe their rhetoric, Conservative Indian-Americans– who overwhelmingly support the BJP — hate Congress for its dynastic politics. While it makes for a good sound bite, especially for the uninitiated, there is no evidence that in fact this group has anything but respect for dynasties- whether in India or in the United States. Their invocation of the[Read More…]
Yes, as we speak horrid things are happening Right under our very gaze Yes, as we speak brutality is sport And the children suffer as they have before Is the noise of violence that which defines us? Or is it the silence that lets the noise grow? Is there really a tale of Love in this mess? Or is the[Read More…]
Review of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley Language creates, destroys, and maintains but not always in the fashion in which it was intended. When even well-intentioned people repeat a word or phrase too often, or use it in trivial or decontextualized ways, they create ironic and often portentous conditions. As with the stories of the[Read More…]
There is one way- and one way only- to read Robert Caro’s books. Of this, I am certain. For best results, gather provisions, find a nice room, lock yourself in, and turn off your cell phone. You must take all of these steps, not just a few. The reasons are: You must honor Caro’s dedication to political biography and investigative[Read More…]
All those people who support Nazism- in language and action- should remember that the Nazis lasted only 12 years and destroyed their own country, including presiding over the deaths of more than 10 Million Germans. The vile people who festoon their walls with swastikas, the kids who put up their stiff arms in Hitler salutes, the vandals who spray walls[Read More…]
Let’s take stock for a moment, as indeed we should. Seventy-one years ago, Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by Naturam Godse, a member of the RSS. Godse thought that Gandhi was too soft to the Muslim population especially as regards Partition. With three bullets, Godse mowed down one of the greatest people in modern history, more responsible than any other individual[Read More…]
On the advice of loved ones—and against my better instincts- I attended an event at Seattle University, October 27th, featuring noted author Khaled Hosseini. He was accompanied by Razia Jan, founder of Razia’s Ray of Hope. On the surface, such an event would seem not only worthwhile but uplifting. After all, both of the speakers are of Afghan origin,[Read More…]
Racism reproduces itself in many ways- the use of imagery is one of the most powerful. This is not a profound thought and as such it should it be lost on anyone– even the most bilious and vile racists. In fact, these very people employ racist imagery with impunity because they know it has the desired effect. Some of us[Read More…]
In The Rebel, Camus presciently wrote, “One the day when crime dons the apparel of innocence- through a curious transposition peculiar to our times–it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself.” Prescient indeed but also timeless. Ironically, Camus wrote that the transposition was “peculiar to our times” and it turned out, in fact, not to be peculiar[Read More…]
In a previous piece in Countercurrents I once again lambasted Churchill, this time in the context of the recent movie The Darkest Hour and the Academy Award for the “Churchillian” Gary Oldman. I bristled then as I do now that another hagiographical treatment was gifted to the notorious Imperialist and Racist. I bristled too at other things of which the[Read More…]
Review of : Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and The End of Public Education Author: Noliwe Rooks If you care about Race and Class and their intersection with Public Education in the United States, then you won’t be the same person after reading Cutting School. In this chronicle of the historical (and ongoing) assault on public education, Rooks introduces a brilliant[Read More…]
The day before the 90th Academy Awards, a friend from the academia called me with a suggestion. He was adamant. “You know that the Churchill Movie will win some awards and you should have an article ready to publish before the announcement,” he admonished. I agreed but failed to produce it in time. Strangely enough, I wrote a lot in[Read More…]
Dear Countercurrents family (present and future)— 2017 was a tough year all around. Hot and cold wars continue, the environment further degrades and Trumpism/Putinism/Modiism reigns. One can get depressed- forlorn even- by the array of monsters to fight. Humanity in many ways appears to be stepping backwards, embracing narrow and racist nationalism, further eroding the rights of women, reveling in[Read More…]
The recent controversy over Jimmy Choo’s advertisement that critics are calling tone-deaf has me wondering who indeed is above reproach here. No doubt, such ads are incredibly demeaning to women and in the age when powerful men are being exposed as Emperors with, well, no clothes, this ad is in incredibly poor taste, but in our rush to brandish our[Read More…]
Lord Acton’s quip that “Power tends to corrupt….and absolute power corrupts absolutely” has passed into our political lexicon seamlessly and without question. Though a fine sentiment, it misleads; in the common interpretation it suggests that powerful people are corrupt because of their power and not that they assumed power because they were willing at every turn to be corrupt. The[Read More…]
For Americans with means, Parenting has become pathology. In Class War, Megan Erickson explains this phenomenon with a combination of economic and sociological analysis coupled with enormous empathy. Drawing on broad-ranging knowledge, Erickson identifies causes of parents’ legitimate stress of which much is rooted in the Education System which itself derives its spirit not from notions of Citizenship but of[Read More…]
Review of You Have the Right to Remain Innocent- James Duane, Little A, New York, 2016 Much has been written about US rates of incarceration and of the Police’s and Legal System’s machinations and conspiracy in denying justice in the United States. Both the statistics and individual stories are heart-rending and frustrating. Entire communities have been devastated by basic attacks[Read More…]
Tolerance is overrated. In order to appreciate this, some basics should be covered. First, tolerance is not kindness nor is intolerance hate. Second, tolerance as an unswerving philosophical principle leads in equal part to acts of decency and of savagery. Third, for most of its votaries, tolerance is simply a euphemism and cover for utter cowardice. Judgmentalism is underrated. “Live[Read More…]
Dear Countercurrents readers, please excuse the personal nature of this short piece. We are in a world in which rightward drift has become a Hurricane gale. The world round, racism, misogyny, obscurantism, violence, and demagoguery are on the rise. Multiple theories exist to explain the rise of such base ideas, but irrespective of which theory is most compelling at[Read More…]
Open any newspaper or peruse any website and you’ll find at least one celebrity, one politician, or one pundit demanding that the rest of us “embrace” President Trump and his gang. Some suggest that we “give him a chance” and others say basically that “you guys lost so stuff it and deal with the new guy.” Others, true to the[Read More…]
Earlier in Countercurrents, I reviewed Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness– very favorably. In that review, I mentioned other books, including Madhusree Mukherjee’s Churchill’s Secret War and Mike Davis’s magisterial Late Victorian Holocausts. All three books break with the mythology of Pax Britannica and describe its body-count. A wasteland indeed called peace. A Pox not a Pax. I wrote the[Read More…]
Gary Younge’s The Speech– released in 2013 by Haymarket Books (updated edition)- is increasingly important in these early days of Trumplandia. A real account of the lead up to, acceptance, and political trajectory of King’s famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, the book is a clear reminder of the power of rhetoric but also of the forces of “nullification”[Read More…]
Writers are every now and again given a gift from the “news,” a nugget that serves to be an easy opening gambit. The 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, delivered a perfect one recently by installing a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office. One would indeed get this impression from the typical romantic (and racist) hagiographies that[Read More…]
A visit to the bookstore provokes in me two opposite emotions- euphoria and anxiety. I get euphoric by the thought that the production and ingestion of knowledge is still an important thing for some segment of society. Snippets, lies, and fake news are not the only “data” that exists. I get euphoric also by the tantalizing thought that if given[Read More…]
Dear Friends- I am sure we can all agree that we live in strange times. For most of us, education and intellectual progress were based on hard mental work, the exercise of logic, and the seeking of not only nuggets of truth but the interconnections between these nuggets. We understood the importance of knowledge; to put it in the modern[Read More…]
On four occasions in the last year, white acquaintances have extolled their children for being “colorblind,” for not even considering race when speaking of or interacting with other kids. In all four cases, the same “example” of this “post-racial” attitude was brought to the conversation: that when attempting to describe a fellow (minority) student, their children did not use the[Read More…]
Since the election, a variety of attitudes towards the future have emerged of which one is particularly pernicious, though stemming from a place of decency and grace. I call this attitude the “’Optimist’ Conundrum.” For a host of liberals and even some Leftists, the election has brought a “wait and see” attitude in which “hoping for the best” has[Read More…]
About a year ago, I wrote about the degradation of journalism inherent in the turn to digital; I emphasized not only the corporate greed for advertising revenue at the expense of real journalism but the consumer apathy and lack of desire to pay even small amounts of money for sensible content that helps us navigate the complex world. The[Read More…]
Many people in the United States- almost all in fact- have benefitted from the work Ralph Nader has done in promoting the rights of consumers while blunting the power, avarice, and mono-maniacal stress on profits that define the corporate world. Just as most of us have benefitted, so few of us realize the kind of planning, work, determination, and desire[Read More…]
Twitter’s recent travails in the market have created a very strange sensation in me- for once I actually like the company. Though I’m a marketer, I don’t really use Twitter. I tried once- years ago- and found it to be too distracting. I also succumbed to the problem of Tweeting and “responding” for the sake of doing it. I[Read More…]
This article is not about Colin Kaepernick. It’s also not about other athletes who have joined him in expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo and the injustice inherent in it. No, this article is not about particular celebrities or individuals. Instead, it is about the depths to which we’ve fallen. We. Not them. We all. A young athlete-disgusted with[Read More…]
The privileged are hypocritical in large ways and small. Working one’s way out of that hypocrisy is no mean-feat but it’s vital if we are to have a decent society to call our own. While I’m struck by the disregard the privileged have for the less-lucky, even more shocking perhaps is that they lambast others for reasons that more resemble[Read More…]
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 
“Making a thriller from grain” 
Key Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Likely To Collapse In 2025-2095 
Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
The Nijjar Murder and Indian Government’s alleged “involvement”: Reactions and Reflections 
France Will Pull Out Its Diplomats And Military From Niger, Says Macron 
Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM 
Hunger in Africa has its roots in a History of Colonialism and Neo-colonialism 
The Climate March: Magnificent and Misdirected 
Imagining a Progressive Pentagon 
“Lost Voices of Fentanyl” Rally at the White House 
Indian Government Must First Evict Dalai Lama & his Followers before Admonishing Canada for Separatist Activities 
Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
Hate Speech Inside Parliament: Reaching a New Low 
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…]
