31 May , 2016

Is Humankind Suffering Of A Global Alzheimer Disease?
By Ugo Bardi

Could it be that we suffer from an Alzheimer-like civilization disease? That would explain why civilization never arrives at doing something useful about the terrible threats if faces, first of all, climate change. Maybe there really is no ghost in the machine we call civilization. It is a giant machine that stumbles around while arguing with itself in an endless squabble and getting nowhere

$50 Oil Doesn’t Work
By Gail Tverberg

$50 per barrel oil is clearly less impossible to live with than $30 per barrel oil, because most businesses cannot make a profit with $30 per barrel oil. But is $50 per barrel oil helpful? I would argue that it really is not

Building Trust In Afghanistan
By Kathy Kelly

U.S. people should earnestly ask how the U.S. could help build trust here in Afghanistan, and, as a first step, begin transferring funds from the coffers of weapon companies to the UN accounts trying to meet humanitarian needs. The “giant” could be seen stooping, humbly, to help plant seeds, hoping for a humane harvest

The Unique Risks Of GM Crops: Science Trumps PR, Fraud And Smear Campaigns
By Colin Todhunter

The purpose of this piece is to draw readers’ attention to an important chapter from a document by Aruna Rodrigues that discusses the unique risks associated with GM crops. Contrary to what supporters of GM often claim, it shows that criticisms of this technology are based on credible concerns, sound logic and solid science

Write-In Voting And Political Protest
By William John Cox

If America is to continue as a representative democracy, it must transform its government into one that actually represents and cares for those who elect it—rather than the corporations and financial elites who are now paying for election campaigns and bribing the candidates. The USVRA provides a constitutional basis for the transformation of the United States government; however, the energy to compel its enactment will come from the incredible power of the pen literally held in the hands of the People

The EU’s War On Refugees Is Repeating The Disasters Of The War On Drugs
By Dan Glazebrook

The EU’s “war on people smuggling”, escalated last week by David Cameron, appears to be modelled on the failed “war on drugs” – and a new House of Lords report shows it is already producing the same disastrous results

Obama Continues To Ignore Pleas To Free Puerto Rican
Political Prisoner Oscar López Rivera
By Matt Peppe

The fact that Oscar López Rivera still sits unjustly in a prison cell is proof that the voices of Puerto Ricans simply do not matter to first-class American citizens on the mainland who hold power

Tolerance And Framework Of Islamic Democracy
By G.Asgar Mitha

Thus far, the image of Islam has been one of extremism, intolerance and terrorism. That certainly is not what Islam means. It means peace. So what has happened that this religion has been so vehemently tarnished? Historically all great religions have gone through this phase, predominantly by the misrepresentations by the clergy who have exploited the illiterate and impoverished followers. In the past half century Muslim clerics too have misrepresented Islam starting with those who've been exposed to Wahhabi teachings and fundings through their madressas (religious schools) in Saudi Arabia. Thousands of such madressas then sprung up in Pakistan’s cities, towns and villages giving rise to the vulnerable students known as Taliban. Pakistani political leaders picked the cue and bowed to the will of the masses giving rise to “political Islam”

Window
A Poem By K.P. Sasi

One day
I will open the windows of my dreams
To live in a world where there is no need
to write these words of troubled minds
or even to open the windows of my dreams

A Tale Of Two Vehicles: Sadhvi’s Motorcycle And Rubina’s Car
By Ram Puniyani

Can there be two type of Justice delivery system in the same country? This question came to one’s mind with the U turn taken by NIA in the cases related to terror acts in which many Hindu names were involved. Now the NIA in a fresh charge sheet (May 13, 2016) has dropped the charges against Pragya Singh Thakur, has lightened the ones against Col Purohit and others. Along with this new line of NIA is that Hemant Karkare’s investigation in these cases was flawed and that it was ATS which had got the RDX planted in Purohit’s residence to implicate him in this case. The implication is that all this was being done at the behest of previous UPA Government

Dr. Sukant Khurana's Art Exhibition: A New Synthesis
By Shikhant Sablania

Dr. Sukant Khurana is a polymath of Indian origin who was trained in US and his cutting edge work spans neuroscience, biotechnology, drug-discovery, computation, artificial intelligence, data science, ecology, visual art, sustainable development, various entrepreneurial efforts, creative and non-fiction writing, and philanthropic projects on socioeconomic development. I am writing this article at the heels of his first solo art exhibition in New Delhi at AIFACS starting 3rd of June

Sairat: Love Is Not Blind But Caste
By Chandra Sen

Film industry is considered as working within a binary; films which are considered as social issue based on the one hand and commercial films on the other hand. Films by directors like Shyam Benegal fall in the former category while the rest of the patriarchal/ communal/ Islamophobic/ casteist masala falls in the latter. However, Sairat has destroyed this constructed myth of a binary. It proves that successful star cast, big budgets are not the crucial factors in making a film successful

Peoples’Alliance For Democracy And Secularism (PADS)
Condemns Fundamentalist Violence In South Asia
By PADS

The past few years have seen an alarming increase in violent attacks on the democratic rights of ordinary people all over South Asia. Fundamentalist groups are attacking and/or killing people whom they perceive to be challenging their beliefs, or 'hurting their sentiments'

30 May , 2016

What A Water Situation!
By S.G.Vombatkere

This year has seen the globally hottest-ever April, and indications point to the worst-ever summer. The media is reporting rock bottom reservoir water levels at the start of summer, and dire predictions of worse days to come for farmers and rural people, and also urban dwellers. Due to this worst drought in living memory that has hit most of India, around 300 million people, as estimated by one source, are migrating. One can only wonder why this on-going tragedy does not make it to the front pages of newspapers

Iranian Arab Villagers Around Shush City In Ahwaz
Left Without Water In Searing Summer Heat
By Rahim Hamid

Villagers in rural Ahwaz, already deprived of basic services by the Iranian regime, warn that conditions are worsening as the regime fails to repair aging and broken water pipes, leaving residents without any water in summer temperatures that routinely exceed 40 Celsius

Political Implications Of Climate Change
By Anandi Sharan

Indigenous people, women, untouchables, religious minorities, the unemployed, the landless and the rest who make up the 90% majority of humans who are not in charge of this world should realize what has happened. Western civilization is incompatible with the UNFCCC and the CBD. The law is not upheld nor can democracy uphold it. Surely this means western civilisation has collapsed and nation states along with it. You cannot be a civilisation based on the rule of law if your continued existence is based on breaking the law. If there is a continued free- for-all by all means we should be a part of it. But we should keep as a back up plan the greater wisdom inherited from our ancestors, -to live within our means and within the means of nature regardless of whatever civilisation comes and goes

Demand Logging End In Poland's Bialowieza Forest,
Europe's Last Large Old-Growth Forest
By Rainforest Portal

Industrial logging recommenced this week in Poland's Bialowieza Forest - the last intact European temperate lowland old-growth natural forest and UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is time to end old-growth forest logging in Poland, and globally, to prevent regional ecosystem failure, limit abrupt climate change, and avoid biosphere collapse. As the original source of global industrial ecocide, Europe has a special responsibility to protect its last intact natural ecosystems, particularly as it proselytizes to not-yet over-developed nations to do so

Putin Warns Romania And Poland Against Installing ABM Missiles
By Eric Zuesse

On Friday, May 27th, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin again said that American President Barack Obama lies when saying that the reason America’s anti-ballistic missile (“ABM”) or Ballistic Missile Defense (“BMD”) system is being installed in Romania, and will soon be installed in Poland, is to protect Europe from Iranian missiles that don’t even exist and that Obama himself says won’t exist because of Obama’s deal with Iran. Putin is saying: I know that you are lying there, not being honest. You’re aiming to disable our retaliatory capacity here, not Iran’s. I’m not so dumb as to believe so transparent a lie as your assurances that this is about Iran, not about Russia

Sweden Joins NATO’s Emerging War Against Russia
By Eric Zuesse

Sweden, which historically has been a ‘neutral’ country between the U.S. and Russia, is joining the NATO buildup against Russia, allowing NATO to place nuclear weapons in Sweden for an attack against Russia, and, like NATO (of which Sweden isn’t a member) lying about it to their people, and to the world

From Albrecht To Monsanto: A System Not Run For The Public Good
Can Never Serve The Public Good
By Colin Todhunter

People are fighting back and resisting. From Ghana to India and from Europe to beyond, food sovereignty movements are demonstrating a deep-rooted resistance against neoliberal doctrine and its negative impacts on agriculture, health, communities and the environment. And they are armed with realistic alternatives to corporate dominated agriculture and the policies and framework which allows it to prosper at the expense of both people and the environment

Emailgate: The Clinton Spin Doctors In Action
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Hillary Clinton’s email dilemma got somewhat sharper over the weekend, with Sunday programs heavy with the theme. Her use of a private email server during her stint as Secretary of State was given a new lease of life by the Office of the Inspector General’s report which took significant issue with her practices when in office

Mourn Deceived GIs! "US Foreign Policy Greatest Crime
Since WWII" (Ex US Att. Gen. Ramsey Clark)
By Jay Janson

In 1994, Ramsey Clark wrote in his The Fire This Time - US War Crimes in the Gulf, "The greatest crime since WWII has been US foreign policy," in Crime in America, 1970, "Crimes are meant to be prosecuted," and in Challenge to Genocide, 1998 that 'investments in the illegal and genocidal use of the nation’s Armed Forces, CIA and mass media will be made unprofitable and brought to an end through prosecution under the law'

Drop The Sabah Claim; Focus On The Bangsamoro Agreement
By Chandra Muzaffar

According to media reports, President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines would be staking a fresh claim on Sabah. He recognises Sabah as a Sulu Sultanate territory. It is a recognition that has been challenged by various quarters including the Malaysian federal government and the Sabah state government. Many students of law have also disputed the Sulu-Philippine claim which to a large extent has revolved around the question of whether Sabah was leased or ceded by the Sultan of Sulu to representatives of the British North Borneo Company in 1878

Obama Violates Nuclear Treaties While Iran Upholds Them
By Robert Barsocchini

The IAEA issued a new report reconfirming that Iran is "complying with the P5+1 nuclear deal, and that Iran’s stockpiles have all remained below the limits set forth in the deal." The 'deal' has been selectively imposed, mainly by the US, as a propaganda and war-weapon against Iran, which the US has sought to reconquer since its proxy dictator was overthrown in 1979. While forcing Iran to comply with the strict regime, Washington ignores nuclear violations and ambitions by its allies or proxies, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia

A Response To Dr. Chandra Muzaffar On His Article
On The Hanging Of The War Criminal Nizami In Bangladesh
By Students of Dhaka University

The response by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar on 19th May, 2016 to our comment on his article “The Hanging of Nizami and the Grip on Political Power” has been very insightful! However we could not but resist from publishing a formal response; it seemed to be high time for the response especially taking into account recent events

‘Achche Din’ For Hatemongers
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The war in India is open and unambiguous. It will be a war between the Manuwadi forces and all those who do not believe in it. So, a coalition is the need of the hour. People will respond. Bihar responded to the call and Uttar Pradesh goes to poll next year and it will probably decide the fate of India. If the Dalit Bahujan forces failed to unite and organize themselves, you will only find trolls of hate stronger and more intimidating

Statement of Solidarity With Kancha Ilaiah
By Concerned Citizens

This is a statement in support of scholar-activist Prof Kancha Ilaiah, who is under attack from a number of Hindutva organizations and against whom the Hyderabad police recently registered a case for ‘hurting religious sentiments’. The tendency to resort to police cases, in order to stifle any criticism of Hindutva and the regime has assumed menacing proportions, against which we stand firmly with Kancha Ilaiah

Review: “The Secret Chord” By Geraldine Brooks. Palestinian Genocide
By Israelites In 1000BC And By Zionists Today
By Dr Gideon Polya

The Secret Chord is an historical novel by Geraldine Brooks, an Australian convert to Judaism and a Zionist assertedly loathing the ongoing Occupation but opposing BDS against democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. The Secret Chord is a work of faction (fiction based on fact) that is based on the assertedly factual Biblical account of the life of a genocidal mass murderer and racist psychopath King David whose Star adorns the flag of genocidal Apartheid Israel. This novel is implicitly Zionist and like Zionism is based on egregious falsehoods – there is no non-Biblical evidence for the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt, an Empire of David and Solomon or mass Jewish Exile from Palestine, and almost no evidence for the very existence of King David

28 May , 2016

Obama Visits Hiroshima; Offers No Apology, An Insult To The Dead
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

US President has visited Hiroshima the place where US committed the worst crime against the humanity by dropping the atom bomb on 6th August 1945 just to press Japan more in the drench after the end of the second world war. He is nobel peace prize winner so he tried to show that he is really sad about the drooping of the bombs. His speech was full of empty words as he did not address the main issue. In fact Obama has lost his place in history because he did not offer any apology. In fact he should have accepted the faults but he comes from a country whose ego led to the dropping of the bombs

The Speech Obama Should Have Given In Hiroshima
By Matt Peppe

Barack Obama became the first U.S. President to visit Hiroshima on Friday, more than seven decades after the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped a 10,000-pound atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on the city whose military value was far less than that of Tampa to the United States. Obama stood at a podium with the epicenter of the blast, the Genbaku Domu, in the background and said that he had "come to mourn the dead." While Obama mourned, there was one thing he did not do: apologize. He said that "death came from the sky." No mention of why. Or who was responsible, as if it were a natural disaster rather than a crime perpetrated by actual people. Obama was either unwilling or unable to confront the truth and make amends. Here's what he could have said to try to do so

Extremely Cautionary Catastrophes: Fukushima And Chernobyl
By Robert Snefjella

This article is an incomplete overview of our situation, intended to boost general understanding of these subjects. Some reflections on essential reforms close out the piece

First Deposition Released On Clinton Email Case
By Eric Zuesse

U.S. Ambassador Lewis Lukens’s sworn testimony in the case of Hillary Clinton’s privatization of the U.S. Secretary of State’s email is the first evidence to be released in the Clinton email cases, and it was published on May 26th at the website of Judicial Watch, the organization that originally brought the suit

Amid Strikes, French President Hollande Pledges To Impose Labor Law
By Alex Lantier

Speaking yesterday from the G7 summit in Japan, French President François Hollande pledged to maintain the Socialist Party’s (PS) unpopular labor law in the face of mass protests and an escalating wave of strikes against the law. Yesterday, new blockades emerged at La Rochelle, where dock workers blocked the port and were preparing to extend the blockade last night for another 24 hours

Unity Of Islamists And Practitioners Of Hindutva On Wife Beating
By Shamsul Islam

The Hindutva fraternity in largest democracy on this earth, thus, is far ahead in propagating wife beating in comparison to Islamists in Pakistan. Islamists and practitioners of Hindutva may seem to be indulging all kinds of rhetoric against each other but fact is that they together remain committed to similar ideology so far their own women are concerned. Both seem to have studied the same anti-woman syllabi. But the most deplorable aspect is that India still committed to an egalitarian polity allows such demeaning ideology against women a free run

Remembering Trupti Shah
By Sahiyar (Stree Sangathan) & Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS)

The women’s movement, the environmental cause, the struggle for justice has lost a voice that never flinched from standing up for victims of exploitation, injustice and violence. Trupti Shah (54) left us on May 26, 2016 in Vadodara after a valiant battle against lung cancer

27 May , 2016

Holocaust Survivor And Human Rights Activist Hedy Epstein Dies At 91
By Dianne Lee

Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 91, died at her home in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on May 26, 2016. An internationally renowned, respected and admired advocate for human and civil rights, Hedy was encircled by friends who lovingly cared for her at home. Born August 15, 1924, in the Bavarian region of Germany, her lifelong commitment to human rights was formed by the horrific experiences she and her family endured under the repressive Nazi regime

Trupti Shah : A Tribute
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) mourns the death of comrade Trupti Shah, feminist, environmentalist, and human rights activist. Born in to a family of activists, she went to jail at the age of 11, in anti price-rise movement in 1973, later got involved during the Nav Nirman Andolan and struggles during the time of Emergency. She was committed to the question of women’s equality and against the violence and couldn’t tolerate any form of injustices. She was part of many agitations as a member of the Communist League – Indian Section of the Fourth International. A turning point in her own thinking came after attending the founding conference of the Autonomous Women’s movement in Bombay in 1980

How Obama And Clinton Are Endangering All Of Us
By Eric Zuesse

The way in which both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton endanger all people’s lives and property and health and welfare, has to do with something else, something that’s even more evil than what Bill Clinton did, and it’s the Obama-Clinton (that’s Secretary of State and now Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton) foreign policy, to overthrow the leaders of nations who are allied with or supportive of Russia — such as most recently Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, but before that Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych, and before that Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. It’s no mere coincidence that all three had had cordial relations with Russia

20 Questions To LDF Government: Does It Want To Turn Vizhinjam
Into A Nandigram And Commit Harakiri?
By K.P. Sasi

Is the LDF trying to break its election promises within 24 hours of swearing in? Among the promises of the left, at least three promises have had a major positive impact on the minds of many voters. Those promises are: 1. Development Without Destruction of Environment, 2. Development without Harming People, and 3, Governance Without Corruption. Is the LDF trying to break its election promises within one day of its swearing in? Ramachandran Kadannappalli, the minister for Ports seems to have forgotten these promises in just one day. When the question on Vizhinjam Transit Harbour came up, he has stated with enough confidence that the problems will be solved and the project will be completed in five years since it has a national and international significance. There are certain important questions which the Minister has to answer on this issue

Indigenous Leaders In The Amazon Face Death Threats As Community Files
Lawsuit Against Peruvian Government For Violation Of Their Land Rights
By Forest Peoples Programme

Leaders of the Shipibo indigenous village of Santa Clara de Uchunya, accompanied by their representative organization FECONAU, filed a constitutional law suit challenging Peru’s regional government authorities for failing to secure legal protection of their traditional lands and enabling its acquisition and clearance by an international agribusiness company. Plantaciones de Pucallpa SAC, an agribusiness company affiliated to the Melka commercial group appears to have begun acquiring the lands since 2012. Since that point, satellite images show that more than 5,000 ha of forest have been cleared to pave the way for an oil palm plantation

The Real EROI Of Photovoltaic Systems: Professor Charles Hall Weighs In
By Ugo Bardi

Charles Hall is known for his multiple and important contributions in the field of sustainability, and in particular for having introduced the concept of Energy Return on Energy Investment, EROI or EROEI. He is now emeritus and still active in research; among other things as chief editor of the new Springer journal: "Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, BERQ. Here, he intervenes in the recent debate on the EROI of photovoltaic systems

Obscured American: Patrick The Ex-Computer Programmer
By Linh Dinh

After ten years in Florida, Patrick came to Philly to have better access to drugs. Since he doesn’t drink, Patrick balked at my suggestion to go to Jack’s Famous Bar, so we ended up sitting in J&J, with him sipping a tall glass of milk, and me finishing all too quickly half a pot of coffee. Speaking mostly of despair, Patrick often seemed disdainful. If a man really wants to lie down and dissolve, there’s nothing anybody can do, but I sure hope to see Patrick again

No War 2016, Real Security Without Terrorism: Messages From
Archbishop Desmond Tutu And Mairead Maguire
Press Release

World Beyond War is planning a big event in Washington, D.C., in September 2016, just after the International Day of Peace, including a conference beginning Friday afternoon September 23, running all day Saturday September 24, and with activist workshops on Sunday morning the 25th. We’re also working with Campaign Nonviolence and the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance to plan a nonviolent activism training and a nonviolent action in D.C. on Monday September 26th.

The Determinant Class Of Contemporary Russian History
By Gaither Stewart

I cannot hazard a guess as to how many contemporary urban Russians feel that brotherly kinship with mankind today but I think it must be related to the nature of Socialism/Communism as existed in Russia. Dostoevsky like others before him believed that Russia (beauty and love) was destined to save the world. Such thoughts occurred to me personally when a political reporter from Syria recently wrote concerning the Russian military intervention there that it is Russian fortitude that is preserving the world from total war (and the end of mankind)

2016 May Election Results: A-Satyameva Jayate!
Beware Of The Goebbelian Propaganda Of BJP
By DR K S Sharma

BJP, its governments and the related media are spreading falsehood. Goebbelian propaganda tops the media. The media overwhelmingly facilitates this. A-SATYAMEYA JAYATE! It seems more appropriate to them. Fickle-minded secularists also blindly aid them in spreading these false claims

The JNU Marches On
By Ish Mishra

Mr. Jaitley is right in terming the ongoing tussle between, metaphorically speaking, JNU and jingoism, as an ideological battle. But his proclamation of victory is too hasty and doubtable as the battle is on, only the future will tell the result. This might prove the first battle of the seemingly long drawn ideological/intellectual civil war between the ideologies of constitutional nationalism, as proclaimed by the students and communal jingoism, propagated by RSS; between the forces of progress relying on reason and historical observation and the forces of corporate-Brahmanism relying on irrational belief and Goebbelsian propaganda

A Steep Decline In Buddhist Growth Rate: A Cause For Concern
By SR Darapuri

2011 Census Report has shown a steep decline in Buddhist population growth rate which should be a cause for concern for all Ambedkarites. Dr. Ambedkar had adopted Buddhism as a liberating tool for Dalits. His aim behind it was to liberate Dalits from the hellish caste system of Hinduism and usher them into a casteless Buddhist social order. It was not only a change of religion but a way to economic and mental liberation of Dalits

Kashmir And The “Mother” Of All Disasters!
By Mohammad Ashraf

The statement given by Yann Gavillot, a Geo-Scientist from the Oregon State University of USA about an impending earthquake of 8 or more on the Richter scale in Jammu & Kashmir has sent a wave of panic among the people. According to Gavillot, the Reasi fault in J & K has been building up stress for thousands of years and is due for sliding to release the stress. Additionally, the construction of power projects in the Chenab valley creating large bodies of water must also be putting some pressure underneath

26 May , 2016

The NUIT DEBOUT Protests Of French Workers
Spreading Across Europe Like Wild fire
By Jamindar Buddiga

The NUIT DEBOUT (Up all night) protests of French workers spreading across Europe like Wild fire. Workers trade unions, students, women, artists, pensioners and unemployed youth are protesting in hundreds of thousands against President Francois Hollande’s proposed changes in labor laws announced on 31 March this year. Nuit Debout or these night-time sit-ins first started in Paris’ Republican square on the night of March 31st are now a daily ritual that had spread to cities such as Toulouse, Lyon and Nantes and are even spreading fast to other European cities like Madrid, Brussels and Lisbon

The Desperate Plight Of Petro-States
By Michael T. Klare

With a busted business model, oil economies head for the unknown. Pity the poor petro-states. Once so wealthy from oil sales that they could finance wars, mega-projects, and domestic social peace simultaneously, some of them are now beset by internal strife or are on the brink of collapse as oil prices remain at ruinously low levels. Unlike other countries, which largely finance their governments through taxation, petro-states rely on their oil and natural gas revenues

On (Not) Loving Henry Kissinger
By Richard Falk

There is an irony that would be amusing if it was not depressing about news that Donald Trump has been courting the 92-year old foreign policy sorcerer Henry Kissinger. Of course, the irony is that earlier in the presidential campaign Hilary Clinton proudly claimed Kissinger as ‘a friend,’ and acknowledged that he “relied on his counsel” while she served as Obama’s Secretary of State between 2009-2013. It is indeed strange that the only point of public convergence between free-swinging Trump and war-mongering Clinton should be these ritual shows of deference to the most scandalous foreign policy figure of the past century

Trump And The Polls Of Loathing
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Caught between a cynical Clinton machine and a shape-changing reality television show, US politics has featured its latest twist in the saga of surges and poll ratings. Now, we are being told that Donald Trump does have a chance against Hillary Clinton, spluttering ahead in some of the figures

When Thomas Friedman Sees Israel's “Dark Hour”
By Kenneth E. Bauzon

The Rift Between Netanyahu and the Israeli Army: Parsing the Rhetoric in the Mainstream Media in the Case of Thomas L. Friedman’s 'Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel-Palestine', New York Times, May 25, 2016

Time To End The ‘Hasbara’: Palestinian Media And The Search For A Common Story
By Ramzy Baroud

Merely being in the company of hundreds of Palestinian journalists and other media professionals from all over the world has been an uplifting experience. For many years, Palestinian media has been on the defensive, unable to articulate a coherent message, torn between factions and desperately trying to fend off the Israeli media campaign, along with its falsifications and unending propaganda or ‘hasbara’. It is still too early to claim any kind of paradigm shift, but the second Tawasol Conference in Istanbul, which took place May 18 to 19, served as an opportunity to consider the vastly changing media landscape, and to highlight the challenges and the opportunities facing Palestinians in their uphill battle

Will Russia Succumb To Washington’s Economic Attack?
By Paul Craig Roberts

Yesterday State Department deputy propaganda spokesperson Mark Toner reminded US companies that there are economic and reputational risks associated with doing business with Russia until Russia gives Crimea back to Washington’s puppet government in Kiev. I see the matter differently from the US State Department

The Concept Of Women In Communal Ideologies:
A Study Into The ideologies Of RSS And Jamat-e-Islami
By Ish N Mishra

The RSS and the Jamat, the organizations under discussion bear tremendous similarities in terms of their ideological standpoints on socio-political and economic issues as also in their treatment of women’s question

Discrimination Against Women’s Right To Temple Entry In India: A Critique
By Meenakshi Gogoi

Discriminating women from entering temples is not a part of any Hindu ritual but with passing of time, since, several decades, the patriarchal brigade has imposed discriminatory norms on women that snatched away her very rights to worship. Recently, with the passing of courts verdict on securing women’s rights for temple entry, has not only attacked the misogynist attitude of patriarchy on women but also, make it realisable to our society that worshipping is very much a matter of personal choice and devotion. The message is very sound that women are equally free, like men to enter temples. It is a question of human rights, from a larger perspective and Indian constitution has granted everyone to worship and practice their own religions, freely, irrespective of, different castes, genders and religions in our country

History Is Not About The ‘Greats’ Any Longer
By V. Krishna Ananth

A letter from V.K.Singh, Junior Minister in the Ministry of External Affairs asking that Akbar Road be renamed as Maharana Pratap has now turned into a public debate. While it is one thing to debate on the role of kings and queens in history and whether at all such memory should be ensured by way of naming streets and roads in our towns, there is indeed a larger issue involved in these and it is one that involves the understanding of the discipline called history

Public Burdens Of Religion And The Lightness Of Atheism
By Sanjay Kumar

By freeing humans from attachment to any illusory Ultimate, Final or Absolute being, atheism makes them aware of their finitude. However, the recognition this necessity is also the ground for real freedom. In return, the atheistic conception gives humans the freedom to build their own relationships with the world. By making humans take care of their own weight in the world, it also helps them fly on their own. That is the lightness of an atheistic being

Broken Green
By Priti Gulati Cox

As the Narendra Modi government turns 2 today (May 26, 2016), here’s something to reflect upon. Today’s meal design “Broken Green” and the ingredients come to you from our farm and restaurant Discomfort Farm, where it’s all unnatural

Bastar And The Bogey Of Anti-Nationalism
By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression

Statement of WSS in response to the attacks on an independent study team in Bastar and local villagers helping them, and a solidarity event in Kolkata

PUCL Condemns Chhattisgarh Police Threats
Press Release

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties strongly condemns the shocking action of the Chhattisgarh state police and district administration threatening criminal prosecution against a team of academics and members of the CPI and CPI(M) parties who had visited Kanker, Bastar, Dantewada and Sukma districts of Southern Chhattisgarh between 12th to 15th May, 2016 to enquire into the conditions of life of ordinary adivasis caught in the conflict between the State and the Maoists. This is apart from the vicious witch hunt launched by the district police against all local tribals who accompanied and assisted the team during the Fact Finding visit

25 May , 2016

Scientists Warn Of 10C Warming As We “Dial Up Earth’s Thermostat”
By Andy Rowell

Nearly every week a new record is being broken on climate. A city in the north of India has registered the highest temperature ever recorded in the country at 51 C, during a chronic heatwave which has been going on for weeks. In nearby Pakistan, three cities recorded temperatures of 50 C or higher last Friday too. The heatwave is having a devastating effect and has caused the deaths of several hundred so far. Tens of thousands of farmers have also abandoned their land with crops devastated in 13 states. Rivers, lakes and even dams have dried up. Hundreds of farmers who have been left destitute have reportedly committed suicide. In Gujarat the sizzling temperatures are so bad that bats are falling lifeless from trees and pedestrians are getting their shoes stuck in the melting roads

Sri Lankan Flood And Landslide Deaths Continue To Climb
By Pani Wijesiriwardena

Tens of thousands remain homeless in Sri Lanka, while the number of people killed from Cyclone Roanu continues to rise. According to the Disaster Management Centre’s latest report, 101 people are confirmed dead in flooding and landslides. Rescue operations continue at Aranayake, where three villages were buried in a catastrophic landslide last week. Only 23 bodies have been found, out of the 134 people believed to be buried under tonnes of mud in these villages

Pain: Man’s Greatest Enemy
By Dr. BM Hegde

Aches and pains are a sign of life in old age and doctors and patients together drug them so much that some elderly people are on two-three PAIN KILLERS on an average! I advise them to exercise to the best of their ability to get rid of the pain instead of resting and eating the killer pain medicines. Results have been very encouraging

A Bangladeshi MP Plays Judge-Jury-Prosecutor!
By Taj Hashmi

A Bangladeshi MP – who paradoxically represents the ruling coalition as well as its opposition in the parliament – recently played the proverbial role of the judge, jury and prosecutor. He and his associates publicly tortured and humiliated a headmaster of a local school at Narayanganj, for his “blasphemous” comments against Islam. I don’t want to discuss the alleged blasphemy issue; other issues are more important and relevant today. The MP-turned-judge-jury-prosecutor’s highhandedness, and the way some vested interest groups, including Islamist fanatics and communal elements are trying to defend the MP, and fish in the troubled water are very ominous indeed

The Clean Image Mirage
By Suraj Kumar Thube

More than the alternatives that the parties offer in terms of policies ( which aren't many in any case ), it is becoming more of an issue that revolves around what mobilises particular voters at a given point of time. In this context, one can possibly discern that voting patterns based on one's social identity ( something that has been a dominant paradigm ) should be juxtaposed with an equal weightage given to economic angle of the same. To use Immanuel Kant's concepts, are Indian voters discarding the virtues of a 'moral politician' by embracing the 'political moralist' who couches the negativity attached to corruption under the guise of 'pragmatism'?

Resistance
By Dr. M. Mohibul Haque

A time will come when singing the songs of love will be the poetry of resistance
The time is not too far when wearing the cloth of one’s choice will be the symbol of resistance
When eating the food of one’s choice will be revolt

24 May , 2016

Call It A 'Coup': Leaked Transcripts Detail How
Elite Orchestrated Overthrow In Brazil
By Lauren McCauley

Confirming suspicions that the ouster of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is, in fact, a coup designed to eradicate a wide corruption probe, Brazil's largest newspaper on Monday published damning evidence of a "national pact" between a top government official and oil executive

Americans, A Conquered People: The New Serfs
By Paul Craig Roberts

Today Americans exist as a conquered people. They have lost the Bill of Rights, the amendments to the Constitution that protect their liberty. Anyone, other than the One Percent and their political and legal servants, can be picked up without charges and detained indefinitely as during the Dark Ages, when government was unaccountable and no one had any rights. Only those with power were safe. In America today anyone not politically protected can be declared “associated with terrorism” and taken out by a Hellfire missile from a drone on the basis of a list of human targets drawn up by the president’s advisers. Due process, guaranteed by the US Constitution, no longer exists in the United States of America

U.S. Democratic Party Is Hardening Over Clinton/Sanders Split
By Eric Zuesse

One of the best-ever news reports I’ve seen on the Democratic Party Presidential contest was Tierney McAffee’s “ Bernie Or Bust: Why 20 Percent of Sanders Supporters Say They Would Vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton” at people.com, the website of People magazine — hardly a place where one would normally expect to find such crackerjack well-researched reporting on politics

Turkey As Terror: The Role Of Ankara In The Brexit Referendum
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán got there first, beating the drums of fear at the prospect of reincarnated Ottoman hordes streaming through Europe in an Islamic remake of a modern continent. With the British referendum on the EU fast approaching, the demonic Turk is again taking the centre stage in terms of terrifying metaphor

Hammering For Peace
By Kathy Kelly

On May 24, Jessica Reznicek, will go to trial in Nebraska for her action. She has chosen to go “pro se,” – to defend herself. Courts in the U.S. seldom allow the necessity defense. If the judge in Jessica’s case does so, Jessica could try to defend herself saying she acted to prevent a greater harm. She could establish that the U.S. government consistently provides Northrop Grumman with lavish funding, devoting immense resources of materials and scientific ingenuity to the study of war, all desperately needed elsewhere

From The Green Revolution To GMOs: Living In The Shadow Of Global Agribusiness
By Colin Todhunter

If we do not strive to follow the route advocated for by the CPI (M) (and others, of course) on a global basis, we will have giant agribusiness conglomerates continuing to steam roll governments, farmers and the public into accepting patented seeds, poisonous chemicals, degraded environments and a centralised food production system that for the sake of profit (and geopolitical gain) aims to eradicate or marginalise traditional agriculture and successful alternative models across the globe

But What's The REAL Energy Return Of Photovoltaic Energy?
By Ugo Bardi

According to a recent, comprehensive study of the scientific literature (1), the average energy return on energy invested (EROEI) of the most common photovoltaic technology (polycrystalline Si) is 11-12. A far cry from the legend of the "EROI smaller than one" that's making the rounds in the Web

Father Of Western Economics Took ‘Most Of His Best Ideas’ From Sharia Law
By Robert Barsocchini

Adam Smith, “got most of his best ideas and best lines from medieval Islam”, specifically from Sharia law, as noted by David Graeber, an anthropologist who has taught at Princeton and the London School of Economics. For example, around the year 1,100, Islamic thinker al-Ghazali “highlighted the importance of the division of labour” using “the example of a needle factory to illustrate his point”. Seven centuries later, Adam Smith used the same example, a needle factory, to illustrate the same idea, division of labor, but without citing al-Ghazali

By The Way Who’s Interest Are You Serving?
By Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Bhat

The two months records since Mehbooba Mufti assumed office shows no change on the ground. There seems addition to the problems and issues of common masses. Whether it is of Handwara incident, molestation of a college girl, killing of innocent people, and illegal detention of the girl, new industrial policies, separate colonies for Pandits or Sainik colonies –all raise one question- the question whose interest you are serving?

23 May , 2016

India Reeling Under Worst Drought: A Call For Drought Duty
Press Release

India is reeling under the worst drought in several decades. Here's a call to young people to volunteer in drought relief work organised by Ekta Parishad, Jal Biradari and National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), Swaraj Abhiyan

U.S., UK, And EU, Are Now Dictatorships
By Eric Zuesse

The question at the present time is whether democracies have already been so severely compromised, so that treaties such as these that Obama is pushing, can be approved by ‘democratic’ governments. If the answer to that question is yes, then we’re already in the Brave New World of fascist international victory

Loathing Global Politics Is Dehumanizing The Mankind
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

The Earth and Space are wired with secrecy, new and unthinkable weapons of mass destruction and global warming is a clicking time bomb for the future. The most hated and feared leaders do not have the intellectual and political capacity to solve nay problems which they have created. …..The humanity looks to men of intellect, scholars of integrity for solutions, certainly not to the warmongers destroying life and habitats throughout the globe

The Battle For The Soul Of American Higher Education 
By Aviva Chomsky

Student Protest, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the Rise of the Corporate University 

Religious Zealots Ready For Takeover Of Israeli Army
By Jonathan Cook

In a surprise move, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week forced out his long-serving defence minister, Moshe Yaalon. As he stepped down, Yaalon warned: “Extremist and dangerous elements have taken over Israel.” He was referring partly to his expected successor: Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, whose trademark outbursts have included demands to bomb Egypt and behead disloyal Palestinian citizens

Israel Defense Minister Resigns: What Lies Ahead
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

Israel defense minister Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya'alon has resigned from the cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu calling that extremists had taken government in grip. This is truthful revelation by a political leader who used to be hard about the Palestinians, now suddenly accuse the government of which he was in the senior position. There is some discontent within the country among the power elites about the way the Palestinian cause is being handled. There are two distinct group one favouring the establishment of Palestinian state in complete manner and the other group believes that is can never be allowed to happen

Make Serving In War An Option, Not An Order
By Kristin Y. Christman

Government had no right to force Josef Beno to fight 100 years ago, and it has absolutely no right to demand that our sons register and prepare for blood sacrifice today. No one has the right to such power over another being. So let's move beyond blood sacrifice and make the practical sacrifices that truly resolve conflict

Sex , Sexuality And Sex Education In Punjab in 21st Century
By Dr Sunny Sandhu

Its high time for society to open itself to sex and sex education . Our mind has to be trained for the beauty and sanctity of the human body and sexual urges . Respect for all forms of sexual behaviour has to be encouraged and youth have to be taught about Safe Sex , which prevents unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases . By practising healthy sexual life , individuals will feel mentally and spiritually well . Having stable sexual relationships of ones choice is important for the growth of the individuals

Mounting Demand For Special Protection Laws To Scribes
By Nava Thakuria

As India witnessed the murder of three journalists this year (eight since Jan 2015), the demand for special protection laws to journalists on duty is also mounting. Protesting rigorously against the killing of two scribes in Bihar and Jharkhand this month, the media fraternity across the country rose to the occasion for a national action plan for safeguarding the media persons

22 May , 2016

Vizhinjam Port Project Causes Environmental Havoc
By Countercurrents.org

Vizhinjam port being built by Adani Group near Trivandrum, capital city of Kerala, is hit by ‘rough weather’ even as it is taking its baby steps. The rains that lashed at Trivandrum coast on 17th of May itself and made the life miserable for coastal people living all along the erosion-prone beaches on the northern side of the proposed Vizhinjam port! According to news paper reports at least 150 houses washed away around the project area

Iraqis Storm The Green Zone For The Second Time
By Mary Scully

For the second time within a month, thousands of protesters in Baghdad, Iraq stormed the Green Zone. Iraqi military forces opened live fire & used tear gas against the protesters. Media reporting on the protest is canned from one media source to the next & comes straight from the military. They say "dozens" of protesters were injured & that "authorities could not immediately verify reports that several civilians had been killed."

US Prepares Troop Deployment To Libya Amid Fight For Oil Fields
By Bill Van Auken

Five years after a US-NATO war shattered Libya, Washington is preparing to send troops into the oil-rich North African nation for a “long-term mission,” the Pentagon’s top uniformed commander said Thursday

Today Is The International Day For Biological Diversity
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB).22 May which was adopted by UN General Assembly in 2000 to make people aware about the importance of biodiversity and how to protect it. Unfortunately no serious efforts have been made by most of the governments to save the rapid loss of the biodiversity

The Assam Poll Verdict
By Sazzad Hussain

The spectacular poll victory earned by BJP and its alliance in the 2016 Assembly Elections in Assam has made many pundits wrong, creating a new set of political yardsticks hitherto unknown in the state. The massive mandate in favour of the BJP with 60 seats of its own and its alliances wining 29 more has once again proved the usefulness of grand alliances, last witnessed in Bihar Assembly polls late last year. This verdict, which has put the BJP for the first time to form the government in Assam, needs to be analysed for a number of reasons including the question of the identity of Assamese nationality

21 May , 2016

India Records Highest Temperature Ever As Drought Drives Despair
By Countercurrents.org

India recorded its hottest day since records began on Thursday amid a scorching heatwave. The city of Phalodi in Rajasthan state recorded 51 degrees Celsius (123.8 degrees F) beating the nation's previous record of 50.6 Celsius set in 1956

UN Assessment: Global Destruction Of Mother Earth On Fast Track
By Andrea Germanos

Published Thursday, Global Environmental Outlook from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) involved the expertise of more than 1,200 scientists and over 160 governments, and exposes through reports on each of the world's six regions that the rate of environmental deterioration is occurring faster than previously thought—and can only be halted with swift action

Outgoing Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon Says Extremists Have Taken Over Israel
By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

Israel's defense minister Moshe Ya'alon was replaced by one of the most extreme politicians in Israel: Avigdor Liberman. The rift between Ya'alon and Netanyahu seems irreconcilable. Right from the start, Ya'alon supported the IDF prosecutors who charged Elor Azaray with the murder that caused an outcry in Israel. A right-wing crowd proclaimed Azaray "King of Israel". Netanyahu distanced himself from Ya'alon. Azaray executed a helpless heavily wounded Palestinian in cold blood at point-blank range. The other incident that made Netanyahu furious was Ya'alon's defense of deputy of the chief of general staff Yair Golan for his courageous speech in which he mentioned similarities between the rise of fascism in the 1930s in Germany and Israel. Ya'alon encouraged his generals to speak out on moral issues

Brahmins Attack Kancha Ilaiah , A Dalit Writer, Activist And Philosopher
By P Victor Vijay Kumar

The entire intellectual and progressive sections of India are taken aback when he was fiercely came under attack by Brahmin organistions for his remarks on Brahminism and Hindutva. He has been voicing several high level concerns which are controversial statements for main stream media. There has been a threatening climate surrounding him. Brahmins and their lobby are resorting to all possible vulgar steps to cut down his voice in all undemocratic ways possible. He holds a clear high level over view of casteism in India and the roots of Brahmincal conscience prevailing here. Through Countercurrents, the writer of this article urges every democrat to stand by Ilaiah and ensure there wont be any continuing incidents of Kalburgi, Dhabolkar , Pansare etc.

Education: Strangely Like Gulag
By Suprabha Seshan

The subsidiary thesis of this essay is that modern education serves a version of Gulag, by forcing our young to suffer unspeakable conditions at an early age, by compelling them to do school work and home work for a greater part of their day. By sustaining this over long periods, at the most crucial time in their vulnerable years, it breaks them, to refashion them into a pliable workforce. By the end of schooling, the young are yoked, through fear and the promise of salvation if they succeed. If they fail, as indeed most do, they are consigned to lesser destinies. This arduous entrainment, under enforced routine and vigilance, is essential for the great global workplace, and can only happen with various forms of rewards, promises, threats, violence and incarceration

U.S. NPR & OSCE Smear Campaign: Russia Bombs Syria
To Force Refugees Into Europe!
By Eric Zuesse

NATO is coming out more and more explicitly in favor of war against Russia. Lots of propaganda will need to be part of the buildup toward that. These people (Renee Montagne and Lamberto Zannier) are doing what they are paid to do

Russia Proposes Joint Strikes In Syria, Will US Listen?
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

Russia has proposed to USA that it should come together with it for joint strikes in Syria to attack the rebels but the idea does not seem to be of much liking to the USA. USA on the other hand believes that this is proposed by Russia to elevate its standing in the global politics and this may harm the US interests

Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon: Cheerleader For US Aggression,
Pushing The World To The Nuclear Brink
By Colin Todhunter

With a £12 billion saving on cuts to the welfare budget, this statement by Fallon was attempting to justify a £12 billion increase to the military budget to help pay for eight BAE warships, nine Boeing maritime patrol crafts, surveillance drones and Lockheed Martin jets. That’s £12 billion of taxpayer money diverted from helping fellow Brits most in need into the pockets of rich armaments manufacturers. Fear mongering and swindling are convenient bedfellows in the neoliberal dystopia. Keeping “our country safe” is part of Fallon’s wider rhetoric about containing ‘Russian aggression’

Obscured American: Michael The Philly Jesus
By Linh Dinh

Today, the Black Israelites had an unwelcome guest, and that’s Michael Grant, better known as Philly Jesus. Twenty-nine-years-old, Michael has become a fixture around this area. As he pranced and smiled in front the Black Israelites, a old black woman screamed, “Cut that shit out! You ain’t Jesus! Hey people, he got arrested last week! Jesus doesn’t get arrested!” The old woman forgot that Jesus was arrested. I mean, that was the denouement of his earthly visit

Tales From Secular India: Unity In Diversity Remains Impregnable Fort
By Syed Ali Mujtaba

A true story of bonding of India beyond caste and religion

Handwara Killings: Regrettable, General Hooda?
By Seema Kazi

Dear General Hooda, Now that the truth of abuse by soldiers under your command in Handwara has been publicly affirmed by the victim herself, your moral authority and that of the institution you represent is well and truly in shreds. Your institution’s attempt to employ the police as handmaiden-in-crime in order to redeem the Army’s deeply tainted and sullied-with-blood reputation in Kashmir is as condemnable as it is disgraceful. Deceit, duplicity and forced detention were the weapons your institution chose to employ to mask and bury the truth in Handwara

Make The Senate Report On CIA Torture Public To Avoid
“Mistaken” Destruction: The Special Rapporteur On Torture
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa

It is time to make the Senate report on the CIA torture public so no one has to worry about mistakes, in an exclusive interview with the Just Asia (premier weekly video news bulletin on the human rights situation) the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Juan E. Méndez said while responding to the most recent news about the only copy which obtained by the CIA office “has” mistakenly” been destroyed

Florence Foster Jenkins: The Appeal Of The Bad
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

She was a self-deluding Kardashian before her time: frenetically busy socialite, promoter of self and causes, and then, when it came down to it, a celebrity for celebrity’s sake. It could not be any other way. Florence Foster Jenkins may be one of history’s worse singers, but such an assessment is only useful as a comparative point, the critic’s barb on the level of music. To understand her as a phenomenon would be a quite different matter. With that comes humanity

Six Pygmy Hogs Released In Bornadi Wildlife Sanctuary Of Udalguri
By Shajid Khan

In an effort for conservation of Pygmy Hog in its natural habitat six babyPygmy Hogs(2-3 years old) that include 3 male and 3 female were released inBornadi Wildlife sanctuary of Udalguri district of Assam on Saturday. The Pygmy Hogs were captive breeded in state capital Guwahati

20 May , 2016

French Parliament Extends State Of Emergency Amid Rising Protests
By Alex Lantier

Yesterday, for a second time after a similar decision in February, the National Assembly extended the state of emergency decreed by France's Socialist Party (PS) government in the aftermath of the November 13 terror attacks in Paris. “The terror threat remains at an elevated level, and France as well as the European Union remains a target,” said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who opened the parliamentary debate

Counter Thinking The Medical Industry: Risk Factors Vs. Asset Factors
By Prof. BM Hegde

If medicine were to be a philanthropic enterprise without the lure for big money returns mankind would have been happy because doctors were goaded to “cure rarely, comfort mostly but to console always.” But alas! Today almost all patients have to recover twice if they are lucky-once from the disease and once from the medicines and interventions

A 100% Renewable World Is Possible? A Poll Among Experts
By Ugo Bardi

I am reporting here the results of a small survey that I carried out last week among the members of a discussion forum; mainly experts in renewable energy . It was a very informal poll; not meant to have statistical value. But some 70 people responded out of a total of 167 members; so I think these results have a certain value in telling us how the experts feel in this field. And I was surprised by the remarkable optimism that resulted from the poll

Seeing Red: Nixon And The 1970 Presidential Election In Chile
By Mateo Pimentel

If Vietnam were a referent for Nixon’s anti-communist agenda, and if Chile had had a peaceful, democratic election, how could Nixon possibly– in the history of his participation in the Cold War – have sought international order and stability, let alone peace? Surely, what Nixon meant by “peace with honor” in Vietnam was he believed he would succeed where his predecessors failed, and just as likely, he felt the same about preventing Chile from become his ‘Cuba’.As for Nixon’s meddling with Chilean democracy, historians may argue that Nixon would have benefited greatly from an earnest evaluation of the civil unrest in his own country

Growth And Its Discontents : Why India's Excellent Growth Story Is Gloomy
By Ajaz Ahmad Rather

Now that even ten states have ultimately though rather reluctantly declared drought, celebrations at excellent growth for Indian economy seems quite sadist. The IMFs projections of around seven and half percent growth instead of being a strength represents weak aspects in the growth dynamics of India. From a public perspective it is based on relative exclusion of the majority. And if it continues without any dependence on such a vast labour resource, it's prospects of benefiting masses would definitely be curtailed. In such a situation this crony capitalism will not only be a policy failure, but a deep blow to the democratic spirit and people centric claim of the Indian republic

‘Compartmentalized Thinking Syndrome’ Is A Threat To The Future
By Linda Chhakchhuak

The world trade is not growing anymore and is facing a subdued and uncertain outlook. So who do they look to for saving them? According to the head of the United Nations Economic & Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)-SSWA, Dr Nagesh Kumar, they are looking at the borderland regions of the world where ‘high poverty’ reigns to give them a fresh lease on the high rails. One of these regions is identified as the Eastern South Asia (ESA) and it includes the north east region of India. “ESA where poverty is high is attractive for its latent potential for development”, he said at the ‘Economic Cooperation Dialogue in Eastern South Asia’ held in Shillong, Meghalaya last month

India And Kashmir: The Litmus Test For India’s Democracy Is Kashmir
By Rameez Bhat

India is considered as the world’s largest democratic country.In a democratic country, you have every right to express your own feelings, but when it comes to, Kashmir it is usually brushed off. In a democratic country it is a given to have protection of the human rights, but what about Kashmir?

19 May , 2016

BJP Fails To Flex Its Muscle In Assembly Elections, Assam A Consolation Prize
By Countercurrents.org

India's ruling Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to flex its muscle in all but one state when results were announced in the recently concluded State Assembly polls. In West Bengal ruling Trinamul Congress led by Mamata Banerjee secured majority with 209 seats, in Tamil Nadu the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam(AIADMK) led by Jayalalitha retained power with 134 seats, in Kerala Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front (LDF) won 91 seats out 140 seats to ensure a majority, in the union territory of Puducherry Congress won a simple majority. It must be noted that in all these states BJP is not traditionally a strong force. Event though, they won a seat for the first time in Kerala, 4 seats in West Bengal, BJP failed to win even a single seat in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. BJP's only consolation came from Assam where they Scripted history, by bagging a government in the North East of India for the first time dethroning Congress

An Uncertain Future For Humanity
By David Anderson

The Problem with the European Enlightenment and its Industrial Revolution

America’s And NATO's Outrageous Behavior, Greatest Threat That Exists
By Eric Zuesse

On May 18th, two top people at NATO, one being its current Secretary General — the very top person — laid out in preliminary form the case for war against Russia, which presumably will be presented in more detail at the NATO Summit to be held in Poland on 8-9 July this year

U.S. Financial Regulations Increase Starvation Among Syria’s Children
By Franklin Lamb

As of May 15, 2016, according to Save the Children and an assortment of UN agencies and NGO’s, nearly 7 million people are displaced within Syria, half of them are children and more than two million of the youngsters are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited. In rural areas of Damascus one in 20 children is severely malnourished with 14 per cent classed as acutely malnourished. The charity’s chief executive Justin Forsyth recently told the UK Independent recently that “There is no room for delay or argument: Syria’s children must not be allowed to go hungry!”

Unpunished Ongoing Mass Murder By Australian And US Alliance State Terrorists Versus Life Imprisonment For Planning To Be A Jihadi
By Dr Gideon Polya

Five allegedly jihadi Australians have been charged with making preparations for incursions into foreign countries to engage in hostile activities, an offence carrying punishment of life imprisonment. In contrast, successive Coalition and Labor Australian Governments have yet to face the International Criminal Court for actual involvement in the horrendous and ongoing US War on Muslims that has been associated with 32 million Muslim deaths from deprivation, 27 million, or from violence, 5 million, since the US Government's false flag 9-11 atrocity that killed 3,000

A Response To The Comment Of Dhaka University Students
On My Article On The Hanging Of Motiur Rahman Nizami
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar

I am glad that some students at Dhaka University are prepared to engage in a discourse on the recent execution of certain political leaders in Bangladesh

Chhattisgarh: Danger Of Salwa Judum Style Displacement
And Division Of Villages Arising Again
Press Release

A delegation comprising of Sanjay Parate, Secretary State CPI-M, Vineet Tiwari, Joshi-Adhikari Institute, New Delhi, Archana Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru University and CC member AIDWA, and Nandini Sundar, Delhi University visited Bastar Division from 12 to 16 May 2016. We visited the following districts: Bijapur, Sukma, Bastar and Kanker. The focus of the visit was on the situation of ordinary villagers who are living through the conflict between the state and Maoists. The levels of Maoist presence and scale of state repression varies somewhat across the districts. The worst affected at the moment appear to be Sukma district and the Darbha/Tongpal block of Bastar district, but fake encounters and arrests are a problem everywhere

Why I’m On Look Out Notice?
By Gladson Dungdung

Adivasi activist and author Gladson Dungdung on his experience of being prevented from boarding a plane to London to participate in a conference on environmental politics of South Asia at the University of Sussex

Revolutionary Bhagat Singh And Freedom Movement
By Ram Puniyani

History is always subject of debates for various reasons. The one which cropped up recently around Bhagat Singh had a new dimension to ‘looking at the past’. This relates to changed perception of a word in the context of current global terrorism. In one of the talk shows, which is the noisiest of them all, the anchor attacked legendary historian Bipan Chandra and the book ‘India’s struggle for Independence’ for calling Bhagat Singh and his comrades as terrorists. The anchor of the show accused the writers of this book, as intentionally maligning patriots, calling them court historians of Congress. Taking off from this BJP MP Anurag Thakur said that martyrs are being denigrated in the book and MHRD Minister Smriti Irani came with the verdict that this is the academic murder of sacrifice of great freedom fighters

Kashmir: Ideologies And Convictions, Not Personalities!
By Mohammad Ashraf

It is time to end the personality cult which has plagued Kashmir’s popular movement from its very start!

18 May , 2016

Growing Warnings Over Chinese Debt
By Nick Beams

While the turbulence that hit global financial markets in the early part of this year has subsided somewhat, at least temporarily, the underlying recessionary trends continue to intensify. These trends are clearly seen in the world’s two major economies, the United States and China

Roots Of The Conflict: Palestine’s Nakba In The Larger Arab ‘Catastrophe’
By Ramzy Baroud

On May 15th of every year, over the past 68 years, Palestinians have commemorated their collective exile from Palestine. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine to make room for a ‘Jewish homeland’ came at a price of unrelenting violence and perpetual suffering. Palestinians refer to that enduring experience as ‘Nakba’, or ‘Catastrophe’. However, the ‘Nakba’ is not merely a Palestinian experience; it is also an Arab wound that never ceases from bleeding

In Gaza, Nothing Is Just An Accident
By Hamza Abu Eltarabesh

When a candle caused a fire that killed three young children at a house in Gaza, it seemed like the kind of horrible misfortune that could happen anywhere. But candles in Beach refugee camp, where the recent fire occurred, are lit not for mood but necessity. And in Gaza, where rolling power cuts leave people without electricity for 12 hours a day, that need is great. And growing

US And Its Allies Threaten Escalation Of Syrian War
By Bill Van Auken

Foreign ministers of the major powers, including both Washington and Moscow, ended a meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Vienna with no proposal for a date to resume peace talks between the Syrian government and the collection of Western-backed Islamist militias that constitute the “armed opposition.”

The Choice Of Superdeligates
By John Scales Avery

There is a real danger that fascism could come to the United States if the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 25-28, chooses the candidate that Trump could beat, Hillary Clinton. Recent public opinion opinion polls show Clinton beating Trump by a narrow margin in the November presidential election, while Sanders beats Trump by more than twice that amount

Rise Of The West (The Short Answer), or, Is Getting Back To Normal
Becoming Less And Less Of A Possibility?
By C. Ikehara

Concerning our "end-justifies-means" times where every decision now seems to have become just another "business" decision, shouldn't every decision also be examined for an ethical/moral dimension? If the Ming dynasty officials could somehow see how we live today, they would hardly want to trade places with us in spite of our relatively easy access to credit not to mention all the comforts and conveniences that modern technology provides us. They would feel that the lack of a strong global central authority in the 21st-century to solve large-scale problems (e.g., environmental, terrorism) and resolve disagreements (e.g., territorial disputes) is causing things to slip out of control in a world which could hardly be described as being on an even keel

Is A Revolution Possible Without Dismantling Brahmanical Disorder ?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Understanding untouchability and castes question in Nepal

Sairat: The return Of The Self-Willed, Headstrong Lovers
By Rutuja Deshmukh Wakankar

I went to watch Sairat, the Marathi film, directed by Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, with lot of expectation and anticipation. Sairat being the second film from the much acclaimed director of Fandry, a tale; set in rural Maharashtra, of a lower caste school boy, his infatuation towards a high caste girl and his negotiations with caste-ridden society. My anticipation resulted into contemplation and a sense of fulfillment of a kind. Sairat, not only a matured story, ripened by grief and resistance, but also a sensitive and yet a strong jolt to the caste atrocities prevalent in Hindu society

Déjà vu Marries Amnesia In Kerala
By Urmila Pullat

Polling has concluded in Kerala but political parties and commentators alike have missed out on a crucial need in the state. In spite of the rape and murder of the poor Dalit law student that shook the nation and deeply disturbed a state that prides itself on its relatively successful development indicators, there has been very little focus on an issue that plagues the state and indeed, the country. This election in arguably one of the most socially conscious states in India saw very little association made between democratic governance and justice reform. The issue of poor, unjust policing and an almost non-existent right of access to justice, especially for vulnerable communities in Kerala, cannot be ignored anymore. Politicians cannot hide behind the state’s good performance on key development indicators and we cannot allow the familiar routine of déjà vu and amnesia to settle on the dust kicked up after the brutal rape and murder

17 May , 2016

April 2016 Hottest On Record As 'Climate Emergency' Grows
By Nadia Prupis

This April was the hottest on record—and the seventh month in a row to break global temperature averages—setting up 2016 to be the hottest year ever, NASA has reported. April was 1.11°C hotter than previous averages between 1951 and 1980, which NASA uses as a barometer for measuring climate change, according to figures the agency released over the weekend. NASA also found that April was the third month in a row that the record-breaking jumps in temperature were reached by the largest increases yet

A Friendly Critique of the Break Free Climate Actions
By Robert J. Burrowes

My friendly criticism is directed at those key organisers who planned the nonviolent actions without understanding how to make the commitment and courage of those who were mobilised have maximum strategic impact on the ongoing climate catastrophe. I understand that it takes phenomenal effort and a tremendous amount of work to organise international actions of this nature. It is for this reason that I hope that future efforts can be strategically oriented to maximise their effectiveness. It is not difficult to do this, as long as one understands nonviolent strategy

Maduro Government Imposes State Of Emergency In Venezuela
By Bill Van Auken

Venezuela was placed under a nationwide “State of Exception and Economic Emergency” Monday as its government continued to face both social unrest created by the country’s economic meltdown and a drive by the political right to oust President Nicolas Maduro

25 Years Of Struggle Building Socialism In Eritrea
By Thomas C. Mountain

This coming May 24 marks 25 years since a rag-tag afro coifed army of Eritrean rebel fighters drove their captured Ethiopian tanks through the Eritrean capital of Asmara and gave birth to the modern, “socialist” country of Eritrea

Who Is The More Vicious Liar: Trump, or Obama?
By Eric Zuesse

Obama’s hostility against Russia, and his reasons for it, were known to his targets, but in America’s ‘democracy’, were not only kept secret from the electorate, but Obama blatantly lied to them about the matter, and he won re-election on the basis of lies such as this — lies such as his calling Romney on ugly designs that Obama too (though secretly) held

Monsanto And The Poisoning of Europe: An Open Letter
To The EFSA Chief Attorney About Re-licensing Glyphosate in The EU
By Colin Todhunter

An open letter from campaigner Rosemary Mason to Dirk Detken, Chief Attorney to the EFSA, follows the brief background article you are about to read. In the letter, Mason highlights the regulatory delinquency concerning the oversight of glyphosate in the EU. The evidence provided by Mason might lead many to agree that processes surrounding glyphosate 'regulation' in Europe amount to little more than a “cesspool of corruption.”

Boris Johnson’s Hitler Comparison
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Had he lost it? Perhaps not entirely. Former London Mayor Boris Johnson is spending his time drumming up support for a British exit from the EU, and making waves doing so. These waves, as his admirers and detractors know all too well, tend to vary in terms of size and velocity

Privatizing America's Public Land 
By William deBuys

Away out West, on the hundreds of millions of acres of public lands that most Americans take for granted (if they are aware of them at all), the trouble is deep, widespread, and won't soon go away. Last winter's armed take-over and 41-day occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon is a case in point. It was carried out by people who, if they hadn't been white and dressed as cowboys, might have been called “terrorists” and treated as such. Their interpretation of the history of western lands and of the judicial basis for federal land ownership -- or at least that of their leaders, since they weren't exactly a band of intellectuals -- was only loosely linked to reality

What India Can Learn From Australia On Domestic Violence?
By Pushkar Raj

One social parallel that can be drawn between two dissimilar countries like India and Australia is rampant family violence in both the countries. As Australia is fighting the menace vigorously, India can learn a few lessons from it, giving some relief to its about 500 million strong female population, majority of which go through the humiliation of domestic violence, sometime or the other, in their life

Custodians Of Love
By Swapnil Dhanraj

The recent Marathi film Sairat released on 29th April 2016, selected for “66th International Film festival of Berlin”, is a free-spirited story of a couple whose love cannot transcend the boundaries of social hierarchies. This is an epic love story that takes a critical look at the structural reality of caste hierarchy. Sairat (passion, zeal) ,unlike other Marathi films that begin to run around in circles after a point, has quite differently portrayed the reality of two lovers who come from different social locations and their struggle in facing the outside world’s restriction on their love. Besides the love story the film makes a strong comment on the social structures of our society which reminds us of the killings of young couples due to violation of the principles of a community or a religion

Do We Need More Drugs For Hypertension?
By Prof. B. M. Hegde

To do or not to do is the real dilemma in anti-hypertensive drug therapy. As has been already pointed out, all the guidelines, of which there are six organized ones, have differing advices. That makes life that much more difficult for the practising doctor. I have been in this business for well over three decades. My best advice would be to follow the following rules for the time being, till further knowledge comes in. We have the latest Joint National Committee recommendations, JNC VI of the USA, which matches most of the following suggestions

Screening For Breast And Cervical Cancer Is A Public Health Imperative
By Akanksha Sethi

Breast and cervical cancers are two major cancers among women. For decades, cervical cancer was the most common cancer in women in India. But now, breast cancer has replaced cervical cancer and become the leading cancer in terms of incidence and number of cancer deaths among women in India

16 May , 2016

Global Warming Threshold Crossed Is Another Red Flag For Planet
By Greenpeace Australia Pacific

As another key global warming threshold was passed with baseline readings of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Greenpeace Australia Pacific today urged Labor and the Coalition to take more ambitious positions on climate change and Australia’s coal industry. “This is yet another red flag for our climate,” said Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Čašule

Climate Democracy For Rural Communities
By Anna Claussen

There is a common misconception that you can’t talk about climate change in rural communities because the issue is considered too polarizing. Many would likely wage a bet that a climate discussion would paralyze Winona residents, divide them, and lead to more finger pointing than hand holding. But not here. Despite their differing viewpoints, the 18 participants in the Winona County Climate Dialogue produced a collective statement and action plan, crafted solely using participant input, based on six topical presentations from local experts on weather trends, energy use, water, insurance, public health and agriculture in Winona County

Brazil Impeachment Brings To Mind Thailand's 2014 Military Coup
By Gwynne Dyer

Q: What’s the difference between the coup that overthrew the elected government in Thailand in Thailand in 2014 and the coup that has now removed the elected government in Brazil? A: The coup-makers in Thailand wore uniforms

How Obama Aims To Conquer Crimea
By Eric Zuesse

Game’s on for World War III, is Obama’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. At some point, either the American side or the Russian-NATO-EU side will have to back down on the Crimea matter, or else the bombs, on one or both sides, will be released against the other. Kerry has been trying negotiation, but his real enemy is his own boss

The Snapchat Version of American Victory
By Peter Van Buren

Five Ways the Newest Story in Iraq and Syria is... That There Is No New Story 

Glyphosate In The EU: Product Promoters Masquerading As Regulators
In A "Cesspool Of Corruption"?
By Colin Todhunter

On 13 April, the EU Parliament called on the European Commission to restrict certain permitted uses of the toxic herbicide glyphosate, best known in Monsanto's 'Roundup' formulation. Glyphosate was last year determined to be "probably carcinogenic" by the WHO. The parliament’s resolution called for no approval for many uses now considered acceptable, including use in or close to public parks, playgrounds and gardens and use where integrated pest management systems are sufficient for necessary weed control. The resolution, however, fell short of calling for an outright ban. Due to the various political maneuverings, a disappointing compromise was reached that called for the renewal of the licence for glyphosate to be limited to just seven years instead of the 15 proposed by the Commission

Who’re Killing Freethinkers In Bangladesh? Some Unresolved Issues
By Taj Hashmi

Of late, terrorists or unknown assailants have killed freethinking writers and bloggers, a couple of foreign nationals, and two LGBT activists in Bangladesh, around 36 people since February 2015. And almost ritualistically, killers have been bragging about their acts, and proclaiming to be al Qaeda, ISIS, Ansar al-Islam, or Ansarullah Bangla Team affiliates. Interestingly, some Bangladeshi politicians claim (a) various Islamist terrorists groups – including al Qaeda and ISIS – have infested the country; (b) they are linked with the two main opposition parties in the country, the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami; and (c) they have resorted to terrorism only to overthrow the present government

Social Status Of Minorities And The Hindu Nation
By Nagesh Chaudhary

The RSS thoughts and actions are for maintaining the supremacy of one caste not only over Indian people but over even the people from foreign countries. Their arrogant claim of becoming ‘Guru’ of the world speaks of their mindset

AFSPA’s Impunity: Vitiating Democracy
By Ravi Nitesh

Though there are few adherents who advocate for its ‘necessity’, Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) seems an abortive effort of government on the name of curbing insurgency and has been proved as ‘failed act’. AFSPA provides extra-ordinary powers to security personals, operating in ‘disturbed areas’. To deploy forces with such arbitrary powers, disturbed areas are notified and in line with this act, these disturbed areas are presently falling in J&K (under AFSPA 1990) and in North East States (under AFSPA 1958). No other Indian state has this act in force

Projected Idols: To Hatch Conspiracies And Carry Out Hidden Agenda’s
By Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Bhat

I was shocked to learn that Shakeel, does not belong to a poor family rather is a grandson of a landlord who has high political affiliations and connections. He ( Shakeel’s Grand Pa) is presently enjoying the government security. The shock was deep because the source of news and information was one of the highest “learned” and “respected” person of the state. It was really hard for me to believe that Shakeel, has just secured 115 or 127 points and there are students who have secured 190 points and he is even not eligible for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) advanced, which meant that he will not get IIT. His place in NIT’s is doubtful to many. I understand why NDTV gave hype and sensation to the news – simply to present Army as heroes and well wishers of hapless Kashmiris, however, I am still unable to understand why a highly “learned” and “talented” officer promoted it?

Discharge Of Sadhvi Pragya And Others In The Malegaon Blast Case:
Saffronization Of Constitutional Agencies
By Coordination Of Democratic Rights Organisations

This selective application of separate standards of proof for different cases and the bending of rules for Hindutva terror, and the application of the standard of proof of “collective conscience of the people” when it comes to the rights of accused belonging to Minority community and those who are seen as ‘anti-nationals’, shows the nexus between the state agencies which are meant to uphold the rule of the law and the Hindutva forces. This not only undermines the right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law as stated in the Indian Constitution but also the democratic right to justice. The NIA’s actions not just impinge on the creation of a highly hierarchical society where some are above the law, but also seek to rewrite and distort history

Release The Arrested Activists In Kerala, Repeal UAPA And Other Draconian Laws
By Radical Study Circle

We urge the democratic right activists to immediately intervene for the release of the arrested activists. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of activists Aithan, Sabu, Dileep, Gouri and Chathu and all other political prisoners across the country. We demand to repeal UAPA and all other draconian laws

14 May , 2016

How Rising CO2 Levels May Contribute To Die-Off Of Bees
By Lisa Palmer

As they investigate the factors behind the decline of bee populations, scientists are now eyeing a new culprit — soaring levels of carbon dioxide, which alter plant physiology and significantly reduce protein in important sources of pollen

NIA Must Look Into The Mohan Bhagwat Confession And Art Of Living Involvement
By Shamsul Islam

The latest turn around by the NIA in cases of bomb blasts by the Hindutva cadres against Muslims in different parts of the country including blasts in Samjhauta Express in 2007 makes it very clear that finally the Hindutva terrorists are going to be gradually reprieved as per the plan scripted by the current Indian rulers who also happen to be senior cadres of the RSS. It was not unexpected once Modi government assumed power in 2014. The chief prosecutor Rohini Salian in the case had warned that it was coming in the first half of 2015 itself

Why I Am A Communist
By Andre Vltchek

I have no doubt that we will win. But I also suspect that before we do, the Empire will bathe entire continents in blood. Desire of Westerners to rule and to control is pathological. They are ready to murder millions of those who are unwilling to fall on their knees. They already murdered hundreds of millions, throughout the centuries. And they will sacrifice millions more. But this time, they will be stopped. I believe it, and shoulder-to-shoulder with others,I am working day and night to make it happen. Because it is my duty... Because I’m a Communist!

Killing Carp In Australia: Genocidal Fantasies Down Under
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Apart from that farcical sideshow, the biosecurity business in Australia is serious. It is also conspicuously genocidal, and would satisfy any species-killing definition. Some sense of this could be gathered at the announcement earlier this month by the Science Minister Christopher Pyne that $15 million would be set aside for a plan to eradicate European Carp from the Murray Darling Basin using a strain of herpes, cyprinid herpesvirus-3. According to the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, the fish make up 90 percent of the fish in the basin

This Is Where The Jobs Are!
By Vijaya Kumar Marla

Development of rural areas will stop the migration of the rural people to the cities and this will not put more pressure on the urban jobs. If India as a nation has to progress, there is little doubt that India’s villages too have to progress. India needs creative solutions to start a revolution which can take its villages fast forward in time, such as the creation of a knowledge and information economy that can create opportunities and thereby prosperity to impoverished areas: a) To create a self-reliant, self-sustainable village economy. b) To provide resources for locally-made products to be value added to the highest possible degree within the village so that wealth generated stays with the villagers

“National Security, Holier Than ‘Human Security’ In India”
By K.M Seethi

The leaders of the ‘holy’ land of India who make ‘poverty and starvation deaths’ as political ‘weapons’ against their respective opponents must relook the colossal amount being spent on weapons and their guards every year in the name of ‘national security.’ How much money the government can set apart for ‘food security’ and ‘health security’ of millions of such people whose status is now derogatorily compared with Somalia?

Tobacco Control Must Be A Priority For Health Professionals
By Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant

As lung cancer treatment outcomes are difficult and five-year survival is abysmally low, preventing lung cancer is a top public health priority. Up to 90% of lung cancer cases are because of tobacco use. Therefore effective implementation of evidence-based and comprehensive tobacco control policies will make a huge difference in slashing new cases of lung cancer as well as preventing a large number of other diseases, disabilities and premature deaths attributed to tobacco use” said Professor (Dr) Prakit Vathesatogkit, Executive Secretary of Action on Smoking and Health Foundation of Thailand

13 May , 2016

Brazil Senate Vote Ousts Workers Party President Dilma Rousseff
By Bill Van Auken

After a twenty-hour debate that ended only at 5:45 AM in Brasilia, the Brazilian Senate voted to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, suspending her from office. While only a simple majority was needed to start a trial of the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores--PT) president, her opponents mustered 55 votes in favor, one more than a two-thirds majroity, with only 22 against

Save Humanity And The Biosphere Through Zero Tolerance
For Deadly Neoliberalism And Remorseless Neoliberals
By Dr Gideon Polya

Greed-driven neoliberalism is currently the dominant economic philosophy globally but has driven Humanity to the edge – a catastrophic 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise is now essentially inevitable, 17 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year, 7 million people die annually from air pollution and as many as 10 billion people will die this century if man-made climate change is not requisitely addressed. We can only save Humanity and the Biosphere through implacable zero tolerance for deadly neoliberalism and remorseless neoliberals

The Real Oil Limits Story; What Other Researchers Missed
By Gail Tverberg

Most researchers begin with the view that soon there will be a problem with energy scarcity. The real issue that tends to bring the system down is related, but it is fairly different. It is the fact that as we use energy, the system necessarily generates entropy. This entropy takes the form of rising debt and increased pollution. It is these entropy-related issues, rather than a shortage of energy products per se, that tends to bring the system down

Why Joe The Plumber Doesn't Want Renewable Energy
By Ugo Bardi

The difficulty of the problem is evident if we consider what happened during the past decade, when the "financial system" poured gigantic amounts of money into the shale gas and oil industry. And we all know the story of the great bubble that's bursting out right now. But it is not just a question of money: it has been an incredible misuse of resources affecting a whole civilization; something that may well have doomed it for good, also in terms of the large quantity of greenhouse gases emitted and that didn't need to be emitted. And I can't avoid thinking, "what if all that money and resources had been used for renewables, instead?" The world, today, would be completely different

Why Sanders Continues Campaigning
By Eric Zuesse

There are two realistic scenarios for Bernie Sanders to win the U.S. Presidency. One depends upon his receiving the Democratic Party’s nomination. The other doesn’t, but both are realistic

Once Again In Chhattisgarh, The Nightmare Of
Rape, Loot And Physical Violence Repeats Itself
By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression

A team of activists from Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) and independent women activists and reporters visited villages in Bijapur following a series of recent reports of mass sexual violence and assault on adivasi women by security forces and police in the area. Villagers reported several instances of loot, plunder, arrests and violence over the last couple of years. In two recent such operations, one young man was shot dead and then falsely declared a Naxal. Two young women were stripped and abducted, and a young mother was raped

When Gods Are Threatened
By Surabhi Singh

If the Hindutva brigade has to win in India, the animism of the Adivasis, has to lose. That’s because Adivasi Gods do not preach fear and cast its believer with its wrath at the drop of a hat. But mostly, the Sangh denies adivasis the status of the original dwellers, their very own stake into the survival, because the latter’s existence runs counter to its own claim that the Aryans, who brought vedic civilization to the country, are the original inhabitants of the land

Five Men In A Tinnie: Australia, Terror And The ‘Islamic State’ Arrests
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The Tuesday arrests of five Australian men in the northern Queensland tropical city of Cairns suspected of wanting to join the Islamic State campaign in Syria by the Australian Federal Police seemed to be more farce than substance. It resembled, superficially, a revamped variant of Jerome K. Jerome’s 1889 Three Men in a Boat

The Crisis Of The Neoliberal Model Of Higher Education
By Jon Kofas

America’s neoliberal model of higher education will not change because the political economy is based on the neoliberal model and the entrenched elites support it. There are Republicans, including Trump, that are interested in privatizing Veterans affairs health care system, thus indicating the course of neoliberal policies will continue not diminish. This privatization craze is at the core of neoliberal ideological framework, and this is one reason they oppose free tuition for public universities. The success of higher education in Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland, among some of European countries offering college-free tuition, as well as Brazil and Argentina means nothing to the neoliberal defenders of the system

Forced Eviction And Demolition Drive In Indore
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

The Smart Cities flagship modernization programme of the Modi government is huge in its scale and vicious in the way it has acquired land for the development of cities. This programme aspires to transform nearly 100 cities in India into Smart Cities and has a huge budgetary allowance of Rs. 7,060 crores. The reality of this transformation is however destructive and dangerous for people of lower middle and middle income groups in the urban areas. Indore, one of the cities selected for this programme has been bearing witness to the violent way in which the State has been acquiring land for this programme during the last 2 months

APLCC 2016 In Thailand: Preventing Lung Cancer Is Public Health Imperative
By Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant

The biennial Asia Pacific Lung Cancer Conference (APLCC 2016), organized by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 13-15 May 2016

May Day Celebration By Lawyers At Tis Hazari
By Tarun Kanti Bose & Dr. Aurobindo Ghose

On May 2, 2016, to commemorate the day in a solemn manner about 200 lawyers, trade union and human rights activists, university professors and journalists gathered at the premises of Tis Hazari Courts over a modest lunch, to celebrate International Workers’ Day. It is first of its kind in India, fifth year since 2011, where lawyers are organizing May Day in solidarity with the working class

PUDR Condemns The Deplaning Of Gladson Dungdung
By People’s Union for Democratic Rights

PUDR strongly condemns the deplaning of Ranchi based human rights activist, journalist and writer Gladson Dungdung from his flight to London on 10th May, when he was travelling to participate in a workshop on environmental politics and history of South Asia at the University of Sussex's Centre for World Environmental History

12 May , 2016

Germany Produced So Much Renewable Enrgy On Sunday
That It Had To Pay People To Use Electricity
By Lauren McCauley

Germany, the fourth-largest economy in the world and a leader in renewable energy, produced so much energy this weekend from its solar, wind, hydro, and biomass plants that power prices went into negative territory for several hours. Consumers were being paid to use energy

Trump Would Beat Clinton; Sanders Would Beat Trump
By Eric Zuesse

There is also a very different type of possibility: the possibility that Sanders would run a campaign whose message will be “Write in ‘Bernie Sanders’” — that he will be campaigning for the votes of everyone who wants him to become the President, to simply write his name in on the Presidential ballot. This will offer a realistic third possibility: for the first time in over a century, a President who is from neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party — a real break away from the toxic politics that now is strangulating the United States and blocking all progress, desperately needed progress, in America

'Either They Will Give Us The Government or We Shall Takev It'
By Mickey Z.

Mock and downplay Trumpism at your own peril

Neil Young To Tour Europe Protesting Monsanto And GMOs
By Colin Todhunter

Neil Young argues that ‘The Monsanto Years’ are here and we are living them: “Monsanto is the poster-child for what is wrong with corporate controlled government in our world. The Monsanto Years encompasses several associated subjects that millions of people worldwide are concerned about and active in. Earth is not ours. We are of the Earth. That's how I feel. When we plunder our own home we hurt our children and their children after them.”

Beware Israeli Doublespeak: A Palestinian Perspective
On Britain’s ‘Anti-Semitic’ Controversy
By Ramzy Baroud

There is a witch-hunt in the British Labor Party. Britain's Opposition party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is being hounded for not rooting out alleged anti-Semitism in his party. Those leading the charge are pro-Israel Zionists and their supporters within the party, members who are mostly allied with the former Prime Minister, the largely discredited pro-war Tony Blair. The Blairites are quite unhappy that Corbyn, who won the party's leadership election last September with a landslide victory is a non-elitist politician, with a deep-rooted grassroots activist past, and, yes, a strong stance for Palestinian rights

Obscured American: Noam The Straying Hasid
By Linh Dinh

Wearing a beige jacket and dark brown slacks, Noam was clean shaven, and his speech was deliberate and concise, even after he had had a few beers mixed with wine. Thoroughly contained, Noam never got agitated nor laughed, though his face sometimes seemed bemused. Our conversation started at the bookstore, continued at a restaurant, and ended on the street, just before I went underground to head back to the Lower East Side. I never saw Noam again

Why London’s Sadique Khan And New York’s Sadik Khan
Are Important For Us In India
By Vidyadhar Date

Two Khans, one Sadik Khan and another Sadique Khan, are very relevant for the cause of public transport in India. One is the recently elected Mayor of London and the other is the former transport commissioner for New York, Janette Sadik Khan. The first announcement of Sadique Khan as Mayor earliest this week was to give some bus fare concessions. Travellers will get to make two bus journeys for the price of one. This is particularly relevant in a city in which fares, particularly train fares, are steep, perhaps the steepest in Europe. He is passionate about public transport and interestingly his own father was a bus driver in London

The Hanging Of Nizami And The Grip On Political Power
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar

It is bizarre that these allegations against the five and a number of others were made only in 2010, almost 40 years after the 1971 war. No allegation of war crimes was made in the early seventies when the founder of the Bangladeshi State, the late Sheikh MujiburRahman (the father of the present Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina) was in charge. Even when his party, the Awami League,(AL) was in power again from 1996-2001, with his daughter at the helm, no one was hauled to court on accusations of war crimes. It was after the AL came to power a third time in 2009 that Hasina decided to move against ‘war criminals’ from the JI and the BNP

RSS-Zehar Ki Kethi
By Abdul Majid Zargar

In my earlier article, I wrote about the ever growing tentacles of RSS to spread its wicked ideology throughout India & its select neighbors. A question arises-how does it achieve this purpose? The answer lies in visiting the organizational structure of RSS

Where Helplines Are In Need Of Help Themselves
By Samar

The Republic needs to restructure its Police, Prosecution and Judiciary in a way that raises the cost of crime. If it fails to do so, all the helplines that it sets up are doomed to fail. Citizens need to demand changes, not in laws or in helplines. They need to re-engineer their institutions. Over and Out

Kashmir: Finalising The Physical Integration!
By Mohammad Ashraf

After having failed in theirovert attempts to integrate Kashmir by wooing Kashmiris, the physical integration of the state which was ensured through subtle and covert means is now being given final touches!

11 May , 2016

Dangerous New Normal As 400 ppm Carbon Baseline Expected Within Days
By Lauren McCauley

The planet is hurtling towards a disturbing milestone as researchers predict that the southern hemisphere "within days" will reach a new atmospheric baseline of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon, signifying that humanity has entered a new phase in our climate impact

The Great Capitalist Climacteric: Strategic Implications And Class Struggle
By Omar Rashid Chowdhury

The intensification in class struggle with growing ecological rift is singularly significant. This must be recognized with reference to an exact, effective understanding of socio-political and economic equations in respective societies. This understanding is important for the proletariat for consciously opposing adventurism and apolitical activities and become the dominating force in the class struggle

Understanding Emerging Fascism In India
By K.P. Sasi

The organised mass as well as State terrorism is already taking a new shape in the present history. Any attempt of activism against fascism without encompassing and involving the grave reality of marginalisation diverse sections by the above forces, could become counter productive. Those who are involved in the anti-fascist struggle will have to ask themselves, who are the immediate victims of fascism and what is the relationship of themselves with the existing as well as potential future victims and survivors during such a political struggle. Such questions among ourselves may indicate an answer to fascism in the long run, upholding the values of democracy, justice, peace and harmony

Why Set Up A Shell Company In Panama?
The Psychology Driving Illicit Financial Flows
By Robert J. Burrowes

Despite widespread awareness of offshore tax havens in many countries around the world, governments have never acted in a concerted manner to halt these illicit financial flows. Why? In essence, because wealthy elites are heavily involved in using these mechanisms to isolate their wealth from the usual scrutiny to which the rest of us are subjected precisely so that they can evade tax. And governments do as these controlling elites instruct them

The Border That We Keep
By Mateo Pimentel

It is paramount to acknowledge that – given the actual political and natural geography of today’s borderland –the US military authorities, border patrol agents, and local law enforcement are to blame for an unchecked and unquestioned campaign of terrorism, a racist agenda that continues to assail border communities and their peoples

Remembering Mutu: The Passing Of Bobby Hill (Will Gleeson)
By Thomas C. Mountain

For almost 40 years now I have often wondered where the first person to introduce me to what became my life’s work had ended up. The RCP is notoriously secretive and having left the cults fold I was allowed no contact with or information about past comrades. Then there was the announcement by the RCP that this past January, Will Gleeson (aka Bobby Hill) had passed away and I finally had an answer in my quest to Remember Mutu

10 May , 2016

Academic Council Meeting Fails To Resolve The Deadlock In JNU
Press Release

In view of the emergency situation, the members of the Academic Council deeply concerned and argued that a resolution of the matter could not be postponed any further. However, the VC hastily adjourned the meeting and left. Therefore, the first Academic Council meeting chaired by the new Vice Chancellor, Professor Jagadeesh Kumar, could not conduct any business. The responsibility for this lies squarely on the shoulders of the Vice Chancellor. Subsequently, after the VC had left, the AC members passed a resolution regretting the VC’s adjournment of the meeting and stating that “the whole range of punishments meted out to students is excessive and that the harsher punishments such as rustication, suspension, banishment from campus, and exorbitant fines should be immediately revoked”. The AC members further resolved that the VC immediately implement this resolution

Role Of The Vice Chancellor: The Current Situation In JNU
By Shakti Kak

The sheer incompetence and narrow mindedness of Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar has been evident too many times in last three months. He has alienated most of the university community. He has been sharing information with the police without discussing the issues with the university community. He is solely responsible for the damage done to the academic community for this semester. He has vitiated the atmosphere in the university by his silence and allowed unwarranted and false propaganda against teachers and students to be spread to the media.The damage to the university can be undone by the academic community insisting on his removal as the vice chancellor of JNU

Facebook Manipulates Its Trending News Module
By Lauren McCauley

The employees said they were "instructed to artificially 'inject' selected stories into the trending news module, even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant inclusion—or in some cases weren’t trending at all," and were specifically asked to exclude "news about Facebook itself in the trending module."

Why The Economy Should Stop Growing—And Just Grow Up
By David Korten

Living organisms have learned to self-organize as bioregional communities that create and maintain the conditions essential to a living Earth community. We humans must take the step to maturity as we learn to live as responsible members of that community

U.S. And Russia Reaffirm Commitment To U.N. Peace Process In Syria,
Despite Obama’s Opposition
By Eric Zuesse

On May 9th, the U.S. and Russia issued a "Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the United States on Syria”, saying that, "The Russian Federation and United States are determined to redouble efforts to reach a political settlement of the Syrian conflict consistent with UNSCR 2254.”

Cuba Will Not Fall!
By Andre Vltchek

I am not sure who has invented those rumors that Cuba is now facing a mortal danger, that it has lost its bearings, and that it could collapse at any moment, after just one lethal visit by US President Barack Obama. The rumors and speculations are snowballing, and in some circles of the North American and European Left, they are already being confused with reality. I admire and love Cuba. It is an exceptionally strong, determined and resilient nation. Reading all the alarming reports, I decided to return and to speak to the Cuban people directly. I visited Cuba again. This time in between my work in war-torn Middle East and South America, a continent suffering vicious assaults by toxic counter-revolutionary cliques loyal to Washington and Europe

Once, Most Jews Viewed Israel As The Anti-Semite’s Best Friend
By Jonathan Cook

It was an assessment no one expected from the deputy head of the Israeli military. In his Holocaust Day speech last week, Yair Golan compared current trends in Israel with Germany in the early 1930s, as Nazism took hold. In today’s Israel, he said, could be recognised “the revolting processes that occurred in Europe … There is nothing easier than hating the stranger, nothing easier than to stir fears and intimidate.”

An American Original: John Kerry, From His Remarkable Commencement Address
At Northwestern University To The Remarkable Career That Made It Possible
By John Chuckman

When John Kerry says anything on any topic, his listeners would be wise to consider the source, for even though he walks around in the appointed robes of America’s Secretary of State, he is pretty much a life-long, ambitious, and dishonest failure

We Overpopulated The Planet Because We Could
By Lionel Anet

This piece follows my previous one “Value Our Children, Instead Of Money” as it deals with our genetic makeup of a highly social and adaptable people. So that the less important money-private property is the less dishonesty we will have because we will be able to see that there’s little advantage being dishonest, even for sociopathy

Spartacus
Book Review By Ish Mishra

"SPARTACUS" is a powerful novel of ancient slave society with rich meaning for the liberation struggle of our day. It is brilliantly written, and in certain sections probably represents the high point in the development of Howard Fast's superb craftsmanship

Police Apathy In The Brutal Rape And Murder Of Dalit Law Student In Kerala
By People's Union For Democratic Rights

PUDR condemns police apathy in the case of brutal caste and gender based violence against Dalit law student in Kerala

CPDR Questions Arrests of Five Youth Under UAPA In Kerala
By Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights

The arrest of these youth and slapping draconian UAPA on them only indicates malafide of the Kerala Police to silence dissenting opinion of people. It is one more case that illustrates the blatant misuse of UAPA and craves for its repeal. The Kerala Police that refuses to arrest the culprits in a brutal rape and murder of the dalit law student displays its extreme zeal to curb political dissent with its patent weapon of UAPA

Kashmir - A Blood-Stained Coffin Of Dreams
By Rameez Bhat

History bears witness to the fact that the two nations “Pak & Ind” waged three wars, which not only resulted in loss of precious lives of their own soldiers but dealt a blow to respective countries in economic terms. Same is the case of Jammu & Kashmir, besides losing 6-lakh people for our right, we have suffered on a multitude of fronts. Now it’s time to solve this long pending issue, or else this bloodshed will continue to inundate our streets which only bloodthirsty monsters can derive pleasure from; never the one whose sanity is intact and whose conscience is alive

Civil Society Leaders Lament Rising State Aggression
By Pradeep Baisakh

Civil Society representatives from across the globe gathered in the International Civil Society Week (ICSW) in last week of April 2016 and expressed their agony over the shrinking space of the civil society across the globe. About 900 civil society leaders from 109 countries gathered in the Bogota, capital of Colombia as part of the civil society week organized by CIVICUS with an inspiring theme of ‘Active citizens and accountable actions’

09 May , 2016

Violence As A Spectacle: The Dalit Question
By Parvin Sultana

While these incidents point to extremely tragic realities—Dalits not having access to basic amenities like sanitation, drinking water, being forced to live outside the villages, not allowed to own land, the rapes of Dalit women must be acknowledged as caste violence and not only sexual violence because their bruised and mutilated bodies are used as exemplars to carry the threat of not subverting caste hierarchy and embedded power relationship. Not acknowledging it will deny both justice and dignity to the victims. Justice for the dalit law student of Kerala must begin with acknowledging the intersectionality of caste and gender as one kind of oppression cannot be opposed without acknowledging the other

Castes In India: Their Mechanism, Genesis And Development
By Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Paper presented by Dr, B. R. Ambedkar in the Anthropology Seminar of Dr. A. A. Goldenweizer at The Columbia University, New York, U.S.A. on 9th May 1916. On the 100th anniversary of the presentation of Dr. Ambedkar's seminal paper "Castes In India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development" we are republishing it as a tribute to him

Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan In Madhya Pradesh Demands
Distributive Justice In Land Rights
By National Confederation of Dalit Adivasi Organisations

Thousand of Dalits Adivasi of Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan, a movement of landless Dalits Adivasis promoted by National Confederation of Dalit Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR) met the district administration of Umriya district in Madhya Pradesh on 3rd March and demanded five acres of land for every rural landless Dalit and Adivasi family. Thousands of Dalit and Adivasi leaders from interior pockets of Umriya district participated in this march to assert their rights over land. On this day, the leaders of Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan pledged to continue their struggle to fulfil their vision that every Dalit and Adivasi household will have cultivable land

The Unpeople Rohingya: Expose The Duplicity Of Aung San Suu Kyi
By Mary Scully

Solidarity with Rohingya Muslims against genocide & for justice means educating about their struggle against genocide and part of that education requires exposing the murderous duplicity and collusion of Suu Kyi

All Angles Covered: Is The EU Completely In The Pocket Of The Biotech Industry?
By Colin Todhunter

On 9 May, Corporate Europe Observatory posted an article on its website that described how Genius, a lobby consultancy firm based in Germany, has been employed to distort the debate on glyphosate in favour the biotech industry. Genius ‘translates’ the science on its toxicity for its clients from the pesticide industry by writing on the Glyphosate Task Force website that it does not cause cancer, and saying that the IARC “should withdraw the decision” to classify glyphosate as a Group 2A carcinogen

Twenty-Four Hour Banality: The Australian Election Campaign Begins
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

“Big fan of LBJ, me mum,” said Chris Uhlmann, journalist for the ABC’s Twenty-Four hour television news network. And that, perhaps, was the only thing of any interest in what must be regarded as one of the most boring exhibitions of television in decades. The topic? Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s journey to seek the Governor General’s permission to dissolve both houses of parliament. An election looms

Arianna Huffington As Agent For The Democratic Party
By Eric Zuesse

Something’s profoundly wrong with the American press — of all sorts. All of it is owned by, and funded by advertisements in and donations from, the U.S. billionaires and centi-millionaires, the people who make the real decisions that control this country. Arianna Huffington is cited here as merely one, and a very typical, example of this pervasive rot in the U.S. ‘news’ media. It applies throughout both the Democratic and the Republican Parties. Nothing personal is intended here: this rot is pervasive — it is systemic, not merely personal

Postcard From The End Of America: Brooklyn
By Linh Dinh

I first heard of Brooklyn through Welcome Back, Kotter. It was 1975 and I was learning American culture mostly through a black and white television. I became very fond of Shirley Temple, Jimmy Snuka, Donny and Marie Osmond, Bugs Bunny and The Beaver. Since this was Tacoma, Washington, I also started to worship Slick Watts

Iranian Regime Introduces European Languages In School
But Denies Minorities Right To Learn In Their Own Language
By Rahim Hamid

While tens of millions of Iranian citizens from various ethnic minorities are denied the right to education in their mother language, the regime has now announced the introduction of a new compulsory language syllabus in five European languages. The regime’s newfound enthusiasm for education in languages other than Farsi doesn’t extend, however, to the native languages of many of its citizens, with Arabs in Ahwaz, Kurds in East Kurdistan, and Turks in South Azerbaijan denied the right to education in their mother tongues and brutally persecuted for using their own languages

08 May , 2016

Baghdad On Military Lockdown Over Fear Of Protests
By Bill Van Auken

Security forces erected heavy concrete blast walls and strung barbed wire across two strategic bridges in the capital of Baghdad Friday as heavily armed troops deployed across the city. The security lockdown was meant to prevent a repeat of the events last Saturday, when thousands of demonstrators stormed the Green Zone, the walled-off seat of the Iraqi government

Obama: TTIP Necessary So As To Protect Megabanks From Prosecution
By Eric Zuesse

On May 7th, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or German Economic News, headlined, "USA planen mit TTIP Frontal-Angriff auf Gerichte in Europa” or “U.S. Plans Frontal Attack on Europe’s Courts via TTIP,” and reported that, “America’s urgency to sign TTIP with Europe has solid reason: Megabanks must protect themselves from claims by European investors who allege that they were cheated during the debt crisis. … The U.S. Ambassador to Italy has now let the cat out of the bag on this — probably unintentionally.”

Thank You, Andrea Dworkin
By Mickey Z.

As someone who eschewed college and instead embarked on a long journey of dedicated radical self-education, I find it quite illuminating that it took so damn long for me to finally encounter the work of Andrea Dworkin

The Sustainable Energy Transition: A "Back Of The Envelope" Calculation
By Ugo Bardi

Here are a few notes on the kind of effort we need in order to move to a completely renewable energy infrastructure before it is too late to avoid the double threat of climate disruption and resource depletion. It is a tall order: we need to do it, basically, in some 50 years from now, possibly less, otherwise it will be too late to avoid a climate disaster. So, let's try a "back of the envelope" calculation that should provide an order of magnitude estimate

On Ecology And Going Back To The Land
By Dr. Glen Barry

One of the primary components of the coming Great Ecological Transition will be going back to the land to reverse ecological fragmentation and once again place humanity within the context of surrounding healthy land. Along with ending fossil fuels, limiting human population and inequity, and military demobilization; going back to the land is a requirement for a peaceful, just, and fair human future on a living Earth that can last forever

Shhh……! Don't Talk About The Economy!
By Vijaya Kumar Marla

Keep silent! Do not disturb! Big Biz at work! The biggest loot of Indian economy is going on for the last 25 years. Dare not complain – otherwise “business sentiment” will be hurt! In the year 2016-17, the total subsidies and concessions in the form of taxes and revenue foregone to the rich amounts to a paltry sum of Rs. 6.11 lakh crores, out of the annual budget of Rs. 19 lakhs of rupees (about 1/3rd and no less)

The New Middle East :The World After The Arab Spring
Book Review By Suraj Thube

The author commendably weaves a complex narrative that would surely act as more than an authoritative text to decipher future events. He concludes on an optimistic note even in this ocean of pessimism by stating that these Middle eastern countries have shown the willingness to shed their client-nation status. More than anything else, they have managed to keep hold of their greatest gain from the Arab Spring - their voice

Shocking Indifference To The Plight Of Project Affected Persons In Narmada Valley
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

The recent High Level meeting in Delhi chaired by the Prime Minister’s Pirncipal Secretary Nripendra Mishra and attended by the Chief Secretaries of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra on the 6th of this month regarding the Sardar Sarovar Project, reveals the deep sense of apathy and indifference of the current Central and respective State governments to the plight of the thousands of Project Affected Persons in the Narmada valley

07 May , 2016

As The Health Of Hunger Striking Students In JNU Deteriorates,
The Administration Cuts Them Off From Civil Society
By Countercurrents.org

In an attempt to break the morale of hunger striking students of JNU the administration has blocked the entry of outsiders into the campus. A memo issued by Dr. Pramod Kumar, registrar of the university, threatens to evict outsiders from the campus. This memo comes at a time when JNU Teachers Association and the alumni are holding a relay hunger strike in the campus in solidarity with students who are on the 10th day of their indefinite hunger strike. A citizens' human chain also is planned at at 5 PM today. The students allege that there is no restriction in the entry of ABVP members, the student wing of the ruling BJP government, who are freely roaming the campus threatening the hunger striking students. It is presumed that it is to break the solidarity link between the students and the wider civil society that the JNU administration has issued this undemocratic memo

Alberta Wildfire Continues To Spread, Forcing Further Evacuations
By Roger Jordan

The huge wildfire that has forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray—the northern Alberta city that is the hub of Canada’s tar-sands oil industry—continued to rage uncontrollably. Already late Wednesday, authorities were forced to widen the evacuation zone to include three communities south of Fort McMurray: Anzac, Fort McMurray First Nation, and Gregoire Lake Estates. Among those uprooted by the latest evacuation order were approximately one thousand Fort McMurray evacuees who were being temporarily housed at a camp in Anzac

After A Century In Decline, Black Farmers Are Back And On the Rise
By Leah Penniman

These Black farmers don’t stop at healthy food. They’re healing trauma, instilling collective values, and changing the way their communities think about the land

Why Obama Prioritizes Ousting Assad Over Defeating Syria’s Jihadists
By Eric Zuesse

The CIA has been aiming since at least 1957 to overthrow the Ba’ath Party as Syria’s leadership, and to replace them with a partitioned Syria, whose key oil-and-gas pipeline route would be controlled by a fundamentalist-Sunni ally of the Sauds

Fiasco In Lebanon: 60 Minutes, Privilege And Exploitation
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Spittle-flecked journalism is something of a curse, an enterprise that muddies the fine lines between chasing a story and creating it. And the Nine Network of Australia, with its own variant of 60 Minutes, is certainly of such inspiration, drawing its strength from the margins of investigative journalism and assuming a role in influencing events

Bombay High Court Expresses Helplessness; Can’t Protect The Homeless
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

The Bombay High Court in the matter of 13 days old girl child, resident of a slum at Yari Road, in its order has expressed helplessness to provide any relief to the homeless. The Court has also cited its limitation in its jurisdiction to provide any relief to the homeless people

When Experts Bat For India’s Productive Engagement In Myanmar
By Nava Thakuria

As Myanmar (formerly Burma) is opening up to the world, various Indian experts come forward advocating for New Delhi’s pro-active initiatives in this fast changing neighborhood. Recently concluded a discourse at Guwahati also witnessed the participants in large numbers supported New Delhi’s involvement in the process of sustainable development in the southeast Asian nation. Organized by Guwahati Press Club on 21 April, the session was energized by a Yangon (formerly Rangoon) based Assamese journalist and political analyst Bidhayak Das

06 May , 2016

The Condition Of Hunger Striking Students In JNU Worsen,
Kanhaiya Kumar Admitted To AIIMS
By Countercurrents.org

The indefinite hunger strike of JNU students against rustication of students and other punishments handed down by High Level Enquiry Committe has entered 9th Day. Many of the students are weak and JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar is admitted to AIIMS, New Delhi

Noam Chomsky Predicted The Rise Of Trump Six Years Ago
By Jake Johnson

In an interview with Chris Hedges in 2010, Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and dissident intellectual, remarked "What are people supposed to think if someone says 'I have got an answer, we have an enemy'?" Chomsky asked. In Germany, he added, "it was the Jews. Here it will be the illegal immigrants and the blacks. We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves and the honor of the nation," Chomsky continued. "Military force will be exalted. People will be beaten up. This could become an overwhelming force."

The Danger Of Fascism In The United States
By John Scales Avery

There is a real danger that Donald Trump, who is not only xenophobic. racist and hatemongering, but also misogynistic, wildly erratic and manifestly unqualified for the post, could be elected to the US Presidency in November. It could happen in the following way. If the Democratic Party's establishment succeeds in making Hillary Clinton their candidate, young voters and independents could become disillusioned. Without their support Hillary could lose to Trump

The TTIP Leaks
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

As diversely opposed as the parties are, movement, of the negative sort, is possible. Positions can, as was all too evident in the TPPA negotiations, bend. In some cases, they can be abandoned altogether. That remains the greatest danger: the document continues to flicker, and it will take more than Gallic opposition, Germanic scepticism, and general European stubbornness, to sink it

Russia Accuses Obama Of Supporting Al Qaeda In Syria
By Eric Zuesse

On May 4th, Russia’s Sputnik news agency headlined "Lavrov: US Tried to Include Al-Nusra Front Positions in 'Silent’ Period”, and reported that Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Moscow about the lengthy negotiations between himself and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to agree on conditions for a Syrian ceasefire and peace talks to take place between Syria’s government and Syria’s rebels, said, "During the negotiations, our US partners actually tried to draw the borders of this ‘zone of silence’ to include a significant number of positions occupied by al-Nusra [Front]. We managed to exclude this as it is absolutely unacceptable.” Al Qaeda in Syria calls itself “Al Nusra."

Salman Abu Sitta’s, Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir
Book Review By Vacy Vlazna

Dr Abu Sitta’s life is an Opus Magnus preserving the integrity of the land of Palestine, past, present and future in preparation for the certain return of all its stranded children. The outstanding feature of the memoir is its invitation to ‘meet’ a distinguished colossus of Palestinian sumoud

Dialogue With A Revolutionary Who Commited Suicide
By Daljit Ami

Satnam’s suicide unveils the covert and the overt violence of our times when questions arising with every kind of resistance are labelled seditious. That is why it becomes essential to ask why someone like Satnam commits suicide?Who is responsible for this suicide and who owns the responsibility to evaluate its genesis?

Future Options: From Militarism And Monsanto To Gandhi And Bhaskar Save
By Colin Todhunter

What future humanity? A future based on uncontrolled urban sprawl, worklessness, massive inequalities (and subsequent political repression) and conflict over finite resources, which continues to push the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, as well as the appropriation of all facets of life from water and land to forests, seeds and food by powerful corporations. Or a future that adheres to a model based on certain Gandhian principles, such as indigenous capability and local self-reliance, wherein people limit their needs, live within the limits imposed by the environment and work with the natural ecology rather than by forcing it to bend to the will of profiteering industries

National Convention Against“Illegal Takeover Of Forest Resources”
By Campaign for Survival and Dignity

Campaign for Survival and Dignity(CSD) , a national level outfit consisting of the tribals and forest dwellers which struggled for the enactment of the historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 and presently monitoring its implementation across the States organised a national convention against illegal takeover of forest resources by the Central Governments and by many of the States governments in ISI, New Delhi on 4th May 2016

05 May , 2016

Two Degrees Was Too Much: Global Warming Is Out Of Control
By Nicholas C. Arguimbau

The participants at the Paris climate change conference saw themselves produce "an agreement hailed as 'historic, durable and ambitious' ”and "the world's greatest diplomatic success" The president of the Natural Resources Defense Counsel said, “A great tide has turned. Finally the world stands united against the central environmental challenge of our time.' They were still basking in the glow of their success, when news arrived of a sudden and extreme rise in global temperature, described by climate scientists as "stunning", "a shocker", "a bombshell', "hurtling at a frightening pace toward the globally agreed maximum of 2C warming over pre-industrial levels", "a kind of climate emergency", an event "using up all our room for manoevre."

Mass Evacuation As 'Apocalyptic' Inferno Engulfs Canadian Tar Sands City
By Deirdre Fulton

A raging wildfire in a Canadian tar sands town has forced tens of thousands of evacuations and destroyed several residential neighborhoods, offering a bleak vision of a fiery future if the fossil fuel era is not brought to an end. The blaze in Fort McMurray, Alberta, started over the weekend, doubled in size on Monday, and grew into an inferno on Tuesday. It is expected to worsen as strong wind gusts and record high temperatures persist

I Set Fire To The Mountains
By Aparajita Sengupta

A personal reminiscence of the forest fires in Uttarakhand, which have devastated acres of green cover in the hills

The Trump Train Chugs Into Indiana
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The point of Trump’s current lead is that any move at the convention against him will be seen as disastrous. On the other hand, the GOP machine men and women will be wondering if going with Trump will also come with its own destructive promise, a suicide pact that will banish the party into the wilderness. The chalice is being readied

America’s Biggest Of All Big Lies
By Eric Zuesse

Russia is now surrounded, on and near its borders, by numerous U.S. nuclear weapons — weapons and troops that are as close to St. Petersburg and Moscow as they can possibly get without actually invading Russia

Age of Fools
Book Review By Jim Miles

Age of Fools surprised me for its intensity and directness combined with a strong philosophical element. It is a challenging read both for the intensity of the emotion involved and for the clarity of its factual references of the inhumane acts perpetrated against the people of Palestine

Headlines, Sidelines, Bottom Lines: Fat Men And The Starving Millions
By S.G.Vombatkere

The on-going drought-famine is engulfing over 300 million migrating Indians, whose throats may be too parched to chant "Bharat mata ki Jai" to show their patriotism. They are thirsting for drinking water, just like their animals, not excluding cows, which are holy to many of us, dying in their hundreds. What matter could be more urgent for our law makers than the on-going drought? Agusta Westland??? Demanding that every true Indian should say “Bharat mata ki Jai”??? In the final analysis, there is no real difference between the NDA-1, UPA-1 and UPA-2 governments and the present NDA-2 government, inasmuch as their approach to people's problems is concerned. Mr.Arun Shourie, perhaps in a moment of pique, uttered the truth that "NDA equals Congress scaled up plus cow"

Migrant Labourer Lynched In Kerala
By Countercurrents.org

A migrant labourer from Assam died in Kerala after a group of people tied him up and beat him, reportedly mistaking him for a thief. The incident took place in Chingavanam of Kottayam district between 12 noon and 1pm Wednesday. The victim Kailas Jyothy Behra (30) is from Kandara village in Assam

Where's The JNU Student Movement Headed?
By Chandra Bhushan

When Occupy UGC movement started, it was led by Coordination Committee formed at national and state level. So, remained the case with student movement organised for the Justice to Rohith Vemula when Joint Action Committee (JAC) were formed across the country including in Delhi. But something radically changed after the release of the Kanhaiya. He became the unquestionable iconic figure. Ironically student leaders of JNUSU believe that the experiences of Coordination Committee during Occupy UGC and JAC for Justice to Rohith were bad. Does that mean they are delegitimizing the success we got in Occupy UGC movement where HRD ministry was forced to cancel her decision of discontinuing Non NET Fellowship? Does that mean they are delegitimizing ongoing movement in HCU for the justice to Rohith through democratic body JAC? What kind of democratic people they are who delegitimizes the democratic bodies for running a student movement?

Kashmir: The Worst Culprit, ad hocism!
By Mohammad Ashraf

The story of all development in various sectors in Kashmir can be summed up in one word, “ad hocism”!

04 May , 2016

Hydro Power Came With A Barrel Of Bullet In
Tawang Valley, Two Killed
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

On May 02, 2016 in an ugly turn of event, two people, namely Monk Nyima Wangdue and Tshering Tenpa, were killed and many injured, while protesting against the arrest of Lama Lobsang Gyatso in Tawang including a young Buddhist Lama. The Victims were protesting for the release of Lama Lobsang Gyatso, one of the most vocal opponents of hydropower projects in the Tawang region and secretary of Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF), an organization of the Monpa Community in the Mon-Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh

Two Refugees Set Themselves Alight In Australia’s Nauru Detention Centre
By Max Newman

Hodan Yasi, a young refugee woman from Somalia, is in a critical condition after setting herself alight on Nauru on Monday, just three days after a 23-year-old Iranian refugee, Omid Masoumali, died of injuries sustained in a similar act last week. The self-immolations came just days after the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Supreme Court ruled that the Australian-run Manus Island centre violated the PNG constitution’s ban on the unlawful deprivation of liberty

Gripped By Climate Disruption, World On Brink Of Global Water Crisis
By Deirdre Fulton

Rising demand combined with increasingly 'erratic and uncertain' supply could reduce water availability in cities by as much as two thirds by 2050

The Spirit of Nelson Mandela In Palestine: Is His Real Legacy Being Upheld?
By Ramzy Baroud

I had mixed feelings when I learned that Palestine has erected a statue of Nelson Mandela, the iconic South African anti-Apartheid leader. On the one hand, I was quite pleased that the unmistakable connection between the struggles of Palestinians and South Africans is cemented more than ever before. On the other hand, I dreaded that rich, corrupt Palestinians in Ramallah are utilizing the image of Mandela to acquire badly-needed political capital

TTIP—American Economic Imperialism
By Paul Craig Roberts

All of the blather about free trade and tariff reduction is mere cover for the only purpose of TTIP, which is to establish American economic imperialism over the peoples whose governments sold them out for money

On Russian Border Incident, US Sources Give One Perspective, Own,
While Russian Source Gives Multiple, Including US
By Robert Barsocchini

These two stories make a fine illustration of why it is crucial to read broadly, pushing one’s comfort zone and challenging the tendency towards confirmation bias

My Visit To A Las Vegas Jail
By Brian Terrell

I was one of twenty five arrested by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police at Creech Air Force Base, the center of drone assassination by the US Air Force and the CIA some forty miles northwest of the city on March 31 and April 1. “Shut Down Creech” was a weeklong convergence of activists from around the country. Most of us staying in tents at a makeshift “Camp Justice” in the desert across the highway from the base, our days of discussion, study, song, reflection and strategizing built up to a dramatic series of coordinated actions, including street theater and blockades, that disrupted the lethal business as usual of Creech. While we expected to be arrested, this was not our desire or our goal. Once again, the police arrested the wrong people as they abetted the criminals and took those who acted to stop a crime in progress down town to be booked

Good Question
Book Review By David Brooks

This is a collection of full-length interviews with some of the foremost names in the alternative media. It’s a veritable Who’s Who of information activists: Ken O’Keefe, David Icke, Kerry Cassidy, Ole Dammegard, Kevin Barrett, Sophia Smallstorm, Zen Gardner, and Cynthia McKinney

Another Village In Odisha Rejects Mining
Press Release

The community people of Kamanda Gram Sabhaof Kalta G.P inKoidaTahasilhave differed land acquisition by IDCO for Rungta Mines in Sundargarh. Using the PESA Act 1996 and Forest Rights Act, 2006 a Gram Sabha was recently held on 23rd March 2016 in which the community people unanimously decided not to give their private land for the Rungta Mines. The Gram Sabha meeting was presided by the present Sarpanch Sabita Nayak in which around 400 members of the gram sabha participated

The Idea Of JNU And The RSS Jingoism
By Ish Mishra

The youth, historically, has been the guiding force of the past revolutionary movements. It may be my fantasy but to me it appears to beginning of a cultural revolution, the Indian Enlightenment with a new vigor, new insight and new alliance of forces. The objective conditions of fascist repression and united resistance by students with twin slogans of the Jay Bhim Bhim-Lal Salam has created a platform of unity in struggle of all the radical forces. This platform has potentiality of the transcendence of unity/alliance in practice into unity/alliance of theory, only if the high commands do not command and allow the youth to take the lead

Suicide Of Soldiers: A Grave Concern For India's Defence
By Ravi Nitesh

On 02 May 2016, Manohar Parrikar, the Defense Minister stated in Loksabha that 77 members of Army have committed suicide in the year 2015. Data for previous years is 84 in 2014 and 86 in 2013. He also informed that in these three years, 9 cases of fratricide were reported in army itself, while there was no case of fratricide in navy and only 1 case in airforce

Talk Period Campaign
By Arjun Unnikrishnan

In association with Menstrual Hygiene Day observed on May 28, 'The Red Cycle' is launching the Talk Period Campaign. Through the campaign 'The Red Cycle' would like to address the various facets of menstruation, introduce alternate menstrual hygiene products, raise awareness about the threat of menstrual wastes, tackle taboos and misconceptions and push for legal rights for women to menstrual hygiene

03 May , 2016

Brutal Rape And Murder Of Dalit Law Student Creates Outrage In Kerala
By Countercurrents.org

A 29 year old dalit law student was raped and brutally killed at her home in Kerala. More than 30 injuries were found on her body. According to the post-mortem report the woman was beaten savagely using a sharp weapon that pulled out her intestines. Two sides of her chest were pierced to almost two inches deep using a sharp knife. She was also struck in the genitals with an iron rod. A severe injury on her head is cited as the main reason of her death. The police inquest report says that the girl's nose was severed due to receiving a blow from a hammer- like object. When the victim's body was found, only her Churidar top was remaining on her body

Washington Brings Regime Change To Venezuela
By Paul Craig Roberts

According to President Obama, the world’s only superpower, the unipower, the exceptional country is threatened by small Venezuela in South America ! In an executive order last year, renewed this year, President Obama declared Venezuela to be an “unusual and extraordrinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States” and declared a “national emergency” to counter the “Venezuelan threat”

Trump, The Unavoidable: Is Political Polarization Destroying Democracy?
By Ugo Bardi

Trump is not the cause of anything, he is just the unavoidable result of the rising internecine competition within an increasingly poorer society. He may fail in his bid for the presidency, but the social and political factors that created him will remain. And these factors might easily lead to something much worse than Trump if the economic situation deteriorates further, as it probably will. So, where is the institution we call "democracy" going? It is difficult to say, but, in order for democracy to exist, there must exist certain conditions, in particular a reasonably equitable distribution of wealth in society. And this is something that we are rapidly losing. As we slide down the Seneca Cliff, democracy may be rapidly lost as well

Debt: The Key Factor Connecting Energy And The Economy
By Gail Tverberg

There are many who believe that the use of energy is critical to the growth of the economy. In fact, I am among these people. The thing that is not as apparent is that growth in energy consumption is dependent on the growth of debt. Both energy and debt have characteristics that are close to “magic,” with respect to the growth of the economy. Economic growth can only take place when growing debt (or a very close substitute, such as company stock) is available to enable the use of energy products

Gagarin In Space: The Politics Of Cosmic Discovery
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Aristotle thought notions of humanity as a supreme species atopos – absurd. In contrast, the Romans had a very defined term that distinguished humans as humans, impressive relative to other species: humanitas. Hannah Arendt, in considering these contrasts in “Man’s Conquest of Space”, a piece penned for the American Scholar (Autumn, 1963), turned her mind to those questions that remain, more broadly speaking, the staple of inquiring minds: “Has man’s conquest of space increased or diminished his stature?”

Russians Calling Medvedev a "Traitor" for Not Vetoing
UN NATO War On Libya In Larger Context
By Jay Janson

Article's larger theme is the willingness of humanity to accept five centuries of white world profitable investments in genocide that will end when world economic power shifts from Europeans and their descendant nations overseas to the six sevenths of humanity they plunder. Realizing this, speculative investment bankers have Donald Trump demanding policy changes. Article portrays the immediate before and after of the preposterous US UN NATO destruction of Libya as an omen

Donald Trump In South Sudan 
By Nick Turse

What Trumps the Horrors of a Hellscape? The Donald! 

“Modernization Theory” And “Third Wave Democracy”:
Internal And External Impediments To Democracy And Development
By Jon Kofas

All empirical evidence indicates that the neoliberal model is leading toward varieties of authoritarianism. The irrelevant vacuous theoretical rhetoric of the Modernization theory, Third Wave Democracy, End of History are intended to obfuscate the empirical realities of peoples’ material lives when history has proved Joseph Schumpeter correct. Democracy is simply an electoral process where citizens have the right to select competing elites whose goal is to perpetuate their economic, social and political privileges

The Double Life Of A Muscular Militant
By Mickey Z.

The corporation eventually phased out their gym facility but just before my last day, I saw Mary and complimented her on how hard she’d been training. She leaned close to me and whispered: “When the revolution comes, I’ll be ready.”

Balraj Madhok: RSS Pracharak As Chronicler Of
Degeneration In The RSS Top Brass
By Shamsul Islam

With Balraj Madhok's death on May 2, 2016 an era of old guards of Hindutva politics comes to an end. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong & clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation & society. [I] had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". It is intriguing that memory of Madhok was being reduced to being a leader of Jan Sangh. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. This reductionist attitude of the present RSS leadership towards his contributions to the politics of RSS is the outcome of a design to hide Madhok's role as a chronicler of the degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of the RSS in 1970s and 80s

My Years With Satyajit Ray's Cinema
By Rutuja Deshmukh Wakankar

When one talks of Satyajit Ray, one is not talking of a person – Ray was a phenomenon, an institution, and a rare one at that. One of his contemporaries, the legendary Japanese filmmaker, Akiro Kurosawa, had once said: “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon”! I am happy that I managed to see the sun and moon in a different light and shadow through Ray’s cinema

02 May , 2016

Fascism In Many Hues: Attack On Judiciary
By Rakesh Sharma

Eminent Justice of the Bombay High Court Abhay Thipsay has been abruptly transferred. Justice Rajiv Shakdher of the Delhi High Court was also transferred, despite protests from senior lawyers in February. Is it sheer coincidence that both passed judicial orders that the ruling party has been less than happy with? Once again, Gujarat carnage cases figure here - Justice Thipsay handled the landmark Best Bakery case! I dread the extension of the Gujarat model wherein the bureaucracy and the entire police machinery bent over backwards - with pliant officers rewarded and upright officers harassed & hounded out

TTIP Leaked Documents Show Obama Demands Killing
Paris Accord Against Climate Change
By Eric Zuesse

"248 pages of leaked Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiating texts” show that the American negotiating position, as Greenpeace put the matter, allows "No place for climate protection in TTIP,” and, though "We have known that the EU position was bad, now we see the US position is even worse.” Jorgo Riss, Director of Greenpeace EU, said, "The effects of TTIP would be initially subtle but ultimately devastating. It would lead to European laws being judged … disregarding environmental protection and public health concerns.”

US Military Whitewashes Attack On Afghan Hospital
By Peter Symonds

The Pentagon’s final report into last October’s deadly US airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in northern Afghanistan is a brazen whitewash. The protracted attack by an AC-130 gunship on the medical facility in Kunduz killed 42 civilians, some of whom were burned alive in their beds, and others mowed down as they attempted to flee

For A New Rendezvous With Dr Ambedkar
By Subhash Gatade

These are no ordinary times to discuss Dalit vision or rather reach a consensus around what could be called Dalit Vision.You have on the one hand the upheaval witnessed in the country especially among educated young dalits and broader democratic sections symbolised by the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula and the mass movement which it has generated and at the other end of the spectrum renowned Dalit leaders paying obeisance before rabid reactionary forces. You have on the one hand slogans of Jai Bhim and Lal Salaam being raised in unison on campuses across the country and on the other the process of mythologising Dr Ambedkar and marginalising ‘his’ meaning being underway nonetheless

The Shameless Indian Celebrity
By Vaidyananth Nishant

It is time our celebrities stop endorsing brands and products just for profit. They carry a heavier responsibility on their shoulder; their responsibility towards the people of this nation. They must come forward and apologise if they have been responsible for any kind of degradation in the society and stop further degrading it with their greed for money. And above all, us citizens must sue such thieves and realise, it is these shameless beings who are the actual anti-nationals and not the ones who are blamed to be today. It is time to say it loud and clear that campaigning for Coca-Cola is indeed terrorism? It is not the refusal to say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ that makes one anti-national; instead tax evasion and endorsing such products that are made looting our resources and depriving our people of those is what makes one a terrorist

Research That's A Blessing And Research That's A Threat
By Anwar Khursheed

Science through its application brought terrific benefits to society, yet upon closer analysis environmental pollution, ecological imbalances, radiation causing indescribably horrific sufferings. There is a thin line between research that's a blessing and research that's a threat

A Powerful Message For Peace Between India And Pakistan

A powerful message for peace between India and Pakistan. Also a poignant indictment of all wars. This video was produced by Gurmehar Kaur, from Jalandhar, India, who lost her father in 1999 India - Pakistan Kargil war

Asthma: We Can Beat It But Not Kill It
By Shobha Shukla

Prof Surya Kant advocates the 5-D approach for asthma management comprising; · Doctor—well trained and well informed · Diagnosis/Differential diagnosis— correct and accurate · Drug and dosage—appropriate inhaler therapy · Device—dry powder or multi dose inhaler · Deliberation—patient education and guidance

01 May , 2016

What’s The Condition Of Labor? A May Day Question
By Farooque Chowdhury

Do the human stories from the 21st century UK or India, sound different from the reality Engels found in 1844-’45 and, based on his findings, depicted in The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) or far different from today’s toilers in Africa and Asia? A contradictory reality emerges: higher profit or superprofit, and “deepening poverty, mass unemployment, social exclusion, greater inequality, and collective despair”, “rising insecurity, less choice, wage freezes”, “higher levels of work intensity”. Are not there relations or contradictions in the reality? Is there any reason that can make the reality in the underdeveloped hemisphere better than the European reality? Is the reality basically different from the reality that gave rise to the world workers’ May Day? In this May Day, the questions, basically old, demand renewed search

The Forgotten Message Of Ambedkar To The Working Class
By K.S Sharma

Here is an extract of a paper presented by Dr KS Sharma at the XXXII Indian Social Science Congress held at New Delhi from 18'" December to 22nd December 2008. The Paper quotes Dr. B. R. Ambedkar extensively and seeks to bring out some views he had expressed at one stage in his political life. This extract is relevant on the eve of May Day

Workers’ Day In Jharkhand: NREGA Workers Return Five Rupees To Narendra Modi
Press Release

Hundreds of workers in Manika Block of Latehar District (Jharkhand) sent a five-rupee note to Prime Minister Narendra Modi today to protest against the measly increase of NREGA wages in Jharkhand this year – from Rs 162 per day to Rs 167 per day

Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian Rebels
By Eric Zuesse

The great investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, in two previous articles in the London Review of Books (“Whose Sarin?” and “The Red Line and the Rat Line”) has reported that the Obama Administration falsely blamed the government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for the sarin gas attack that Obama was trying to use as an excuse to invade Syria; and Hersh pointed to a report from British intelligence saying that the sarin that was used didn’t come from Assad’s stockpiles. Hersh also said that a secret agreement in 2012 was reached between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the U.S. could invade and overthrow Assad

Embrace The Coming Ecological Inflection Point And Great Transition
By Dr. Glen Barry

Environmental awareness must soon reach a critical mass, whereby massive societal resources are re-allocated to scale up solutions in a great ecological transition; before biosphere, social, and economic collapse become unavoidable. An approaching ecological inflection point reflects a narrow band of opportunity to repair fragmented, quivering nature, clearly at its breaking point, before it is too late

Economic Repercussions Of Protest Movements
By Amita Marwha

Given the turbulence that we have seen in the past so many years in terms of protests ,I think it’s a warning signals of the storms that have been brewing from ages now between haves and haves not. Arab spring ,wall street protests are just a tip of the ice berg. Macroeconomic indicators are just figures and they do not feed the hundreds of thousands of hungry people

From ‘Mother India’To ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’: ‘Azadi’ Eludes Indian Women
By Shobha Aggarwal

Subjugation of women in India is the only kind of oppression that cuts across caste, class, community and race. Women would prefer if men give up these uncivilized, obscene, vulgar, brutal practices against women rather than merely chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. In a country where the incumbent Prime Minister refuses to let his wife live with him in his official residence, the hollowness of the slogan is all too apparent. Women don’t really care about the slogan. Women in India want ‘Azadi’ not idolatry! Just let the women exercise their constitutional right to equality and liberty in all spheres of life – political, economic, social and cultural without any discrimination

High Court Order On Adarsh: A Victory Of Struggle By The Urban Poor!
By Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan | National Alliance of People's Movements

National Alliance of People's Movements welcomes the Bombay High Court's order to demolish the building of Adarsh Society in Mumbai. The illegal construction and flats allotted to the corrupt officials in the Indian Navy and politicians through their relatives is a symbol of vulgar corruption in the housing sector that has eroded the administration in the government of Maharashtra and elsewhere. The order is a vindication of our position against scandalous housing policies and projects whether it is Adarsh or Hiranandani and the victory of people's struggle over last ten years and more

CPDR Condemns The Action Against The Students By The JNU Authorities
By Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights

CPDR condemns the unjust and illegal action of the VC of JNU against the students and demands · Forthwith withdrawal of the punishments awarded to the students and ex students · Institution of an independent enquiry into the entire episode to identify the criminals responsible for the doctoring the videos and consequent harassment of the students · Action against the Delhi Police for dereliction of duty and abetment in crime of beating Kanhaiya Kumar · Withdrawal of the court cases against the students as they were apparently based on doctored evidence

Review -VOICES OF KUTCH: A Movie With A Difference
By Anamika Aami

VOICES OF KUTCH produced by Drishti , is a thought provoking film about the community radio of people of Kutch. The film outlines the programming done with people’s participation by KMVS- Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghatan’s community radio project –Radio Ujjas. The story is focusing on a girl- Kulsum and how she starts getting interested in radio programmes and ends with her song being aired in the Radio

Asthma - Can We Live With It?
By Akanksha Sethi

Not all ailments are of the type that can be cured completely over time, even though they are not life threatening. Asthma, which afflicts an estimated 300 million people worldwide, is one such disease that cannot be cured though it can consciously be controlled. Those who keep it under check, through a proper lifestyle, diet and regular medication, are able to lead a normal life, said Professor (Dr) Surya Kant, Head of the Respiratory Medicine Department at King George's Medical University, in an interview given to CNS (Citizen News Service)