30 November , 2014
Pipeline Geopolitics: From Syria To Russia Via Ukraine
By Titto Eapen
The current Ukrainian crisis followed by the sanction against Russia is a sequel to the pivot to Europe campaign of the US led west to smash the Russian monopoly in the European hydrocarbon market for which the prelude was set in Syria
“Judeo-Nazism” And The Prospects For A Comprehensive Agreement With Iran
By Alan Hart
If a non-Jew had coined the phrase “Judeo-Nazism” he or she would have been verbally crucified by Zionism’s attack dogs and the mainstream Western media. The actual inventor of it was Yeshavahu Leibowitz, one of the most outspoken and controversial Jewish intellectuals of modern times. He was once described as “the conscience of Israel.” Before he died in 1994 he said “Judeo-Nazis” were on the rise in Israel. If he was alive today I imagine he would say, “They are now in control.”
Israel's "Democracy" Becomes Just Jewish
By Ludwig Watzal
At the end of the day, Israel has to choose between a Jewish state with some democratic embedded particles or a democratic state with a Jewish preponderance. It cannot have the cake and eat it, too. The critics of the term "Jewish democratic state" asked for a "Jewish state". For some a "Jewish state" might be the solution of the Israeli dilemma, but for others this might be the nail in the coffin for the Zionist enterprise. As a state for all its citizens, the land is light years
Ferguson: Through The Corporate Media Lens
By Mickey Z.
Take-home message from this lesson in corporate propaganda: Until we free our minds from the divisive conditioning of privilege and hierarchy, we don’t have any souls to search
Book Review: “Australian History In 7 Questions” By John Hirst
Ignores Australian Involvement In 30 Genocides
By Dr Gideon Polya
Melbourne, historian John Hirst's book “Australian History in 7 questions” attempts to summarize Australian history by answering 7 key questions but ultimately fails through Eurocentrism, Anglocentrism and denial - Australian history becomes an aren't-we-nice, White, Anglo Australian history that ignores Anglo Australian involvement in 30 genocidal atrocities of which some, like the over 2-century, post-1788 Aboriginal Genocide, and the 1-century, post-1914 Iraqi Genocide, are continuing today
Churchill And The “Unthinkable”
By A D Hemming
Who did the most to cause the Second World War after Adolph Hitler the consensus choice among historians for the “champ” in that department even if indirectly and in the time just before and or following Kaiserite Germany in the First World War? Was this “a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma” which David Carlton, a British historian referred to in his monograph, “Churchill and the Soviet Union”? Two words— Winston Churchill!
Misinterpretation of High Voter Turnout And Elections in Jammu And Kashmir
By Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Bhat
The history of all hitherto underway Assembly elections in the State of Jammu and Kashmir is history of push pooling, fraud, manipulation, rigging, controversy, coercion and misinterpretation
Modi Rule Has Pushed India Into Another “Dark Age”: D. N. Jha
By Abhay Kumar Interviews D.N Jha
Professor D. N. Jha is not only an eminent historian of ancient India but also a committed activist against communalism. When the saffronisation of school textbooks was undertaken under Vajpayee's government, he was at the forefront of opposing it. The author of Myth of the Holy Cow , Jha rues that Modi, unlike Vajpayee, will go for the whole hog and will saffronise history and education as the BJP now has a full majority
27 November , 2014
Hundreds Arrested In US Protests Against Ferguson Whitewash
By Jerry White
Police arrested more than 400 protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, Los Angeles and other cities over the last few nights during demonstrations against the exoneration of the policeman who murdered unarmed black teenager Michael Brown
Mass Arrests In Los Angeles
By Countercurrents.org
Hundreds of citizens have been arrested in the US . Citizens were arrested in Boston , Dallas , New York , Oakland , Los Angeles and Ferguson . They were protesting the Ferguson-injustice. More troops have been deployed in Ferguson amidst continuing protests across the US
New Coalition Plans To Expand War Against Eastern Ukraine
By Christoph Dreier
Five fractions in the recently elected Ukrainian Parliament agreed on a coalition pact November 21. Although the coalition still has to agree on the division of posts, it has already announced that it intends to step up its aggression in the east of the country and exacerbate Kiev’s confrontation with Russia
Victory For Climate Justice Activists
By Matt Smith & Margaret Flowers
In a successful court appearance this morning, government prosecutors were unable to proceed with charges against six activists involved in the week-long blockade in early November of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Headquarters (FERC) in Washington, DC. The blockade of FERC is part of a growing resistance movement demanding an end to new fossil fuel infrastructure and an immediate shift to community-controlled renewable energy sources
There Goes Virginia's Climate
By David Swanson
Five-year averages of temperature in Virginia began a significant and steady increase in the early 1970s, rising from 54.6 degrees Fahrenheit then to 56.2 degrees F in 2012. The Piedmont area, where I live, has seen the temperature rise at a rate of 0.53 degrees F per decade. At this rate, Virginia will be as hot as South Carolina by 2050 and as northern Florida by 2100, and continuing at a steady or increasing pace from there
Genocide And THE THANKSGIVING MYTH
By S. Brian Willson
As we again plan to celebrate what US “Americans”call Thanksgiving, let us pause for a moment of reflection. Let us recognize that accounts of the first Thanksgiving are mythological, and that the holiday is actually a grotesque celebration of our arrogant ethnocentrism built on genocide
PFLP Soul-Searching: The RiseAnd Fall Of Palestine's Socialists
By Ramzy Baroud
It matters little whether the cousins who attacked the synagogue in Jerusalem were affiliated with the PFLP or not; the repeated muddled statements by the group - justifying the attack, explaining it, owning it and disowning it all at once- matters more. This confusion is becoming symbiotic of the PFLP following the signing of Oslo. And while there are those who employ clever language to maintain the group's radical status, NGO perks and socialist prestige, others expect a more serious discussion of what the PFLP is and what it stands for after two decades of political failure, of which the PFLP, like Fatah and Hamas, should also be held accountable
Beyond The Election
By Jack A. Smith
A left turn, however, is an absolute necessity to resolve these problems and many more that afflict American society — most certainly including crises from economic inequality to climate change and the ever-present possibility of nuclear war — and it will only come from outside the 1% -controlled two-party system
Nonviolent Action: Minimizing The Risk of Violent Repression
By Robert J. Burrowes
In a recent article, full of insight, Professor Bill Quigley identified ten different illegal actions police often take 'to prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights' to take nonviolent action to address a grievance. I would like to complement Professor Quigley's fine article by identifying ways in which the risk of police or military personnel using illegal and violent tactics can be minimized and, in many cases, thwarted, wherever in the world the nonviolent action takes place
India And Its Neighbourhood: RSS Building Deadly Alliance Against Muslims And Christians
By Shamsul Islam
RSS is gradually working to build an international set-up to spread and execute its politics of hatred against minorities. Its goal of cleansing minorities is being internationalized with very serious repercussions for the area and the world. Modi Government’s fraternal ties with Zionist Israel make this trend more lethal. These developments pose a very serious threat to democratic-secular fabric of the country and may turn India into unwarranted conflicts
Dark Times Ahead
By Goirick Brahmachari
These are dark times. Where the voices of the dissent are expected to be crushed. This is a call for all the progressive people and forces in India, across party lines, to come together and organise against the Brahminical right wing that has taken over the spirit of secularism in this country. This is a call for all the artists, writers, poets, singers, workers, farmers, academicians, politicians and the thinking middle class to organise and come together against a possible backlash of dissent
Saffronites And The Left
By Sushovan Patrais
The secular voice of Left got weekend to some extent in the context of electoral vote bank politics. But it’s a high time for Left to revive their Secular values. It’s high time to come out with viable political direction for Bengal as well as in the National level. It’s high time to reconstruct and act quickly. It’s high time to combat upcoming ruthless saffronites. It’s high time to prevent them from playing with fire
Bangalore’s Lamp of Love
By Roshan
Located in a quiet lane in Cox Town, Bangalore, Snehadeep—‘Lamp of Love’—is home to some 60 young people from across Karnataka. Being visually challenged hasn’t deterred these boys and girls from pursuing an education and seeking to be economically independent. That’s what Snehadeep is helping them with
26 November , 2014
Cleveland People Protest Over Boy Shot By Police, Protests In 12 US Cities
By Countercurrents.org
Several hundred people marched down an exit ramp and temporarily blocked rush-hour traffic on a busy freeway on Tuesday in Cleveland while protesting a police officer's fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy who had brandished a realistic-looking novelty gun. Demonstrators blocked the Memorial Shoreway in Cleveland , on November 25, 2014, during the protest. Meanwhile, protesting the Ferguson shooting and the grand jury decision people across America have taken to the streets. A dozen US cities have seen new protests over the decision not to charge a white policeman who shot a black teenager in Ferguson , Missouri
Two More 'Police Incidents,' Shrouded In Media Euphemism
By Janine Jackson
That so many black people are killed by law enforcement is a painful, difficult thing to face. That we don't know how many people is a scandal in itself
USA: Racial Divide Rules
By Countercurrents.org
Amid unrest, demonstration, protest across the US, tightened security in Ferguson following a night of burning of police vehicles, buildings, breaking of shops, destruction and police firing, and thousands of people protesting Ferguson decision blocked traffic in New York city the important issue of racial divide in the country has emerged
Economic Blockade of Ukrainian Rebel Regions Inflicts Mass Suffering
By David Levine
During the first half of November, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a series of executive orders that create the equivalent of an economic blockade of rebel-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine. The orders sever financial ties between the territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and the rest of Ukraine, and thereby cut them off from much of the rest of the world as well
Israel’s Model of Political Despair in Jerusalem
By Jonathan Cook
Relations between Israelis and Palestinians have descended into a dangerous melee of tit-for-tat attacks and killings, with the violence of the past few weeks centred on Jerusalem. The city, claimed by Israel as its “undivided capital”, has been torn apart by clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian residents since the summer, when 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was burnt alive by Jewish extremists
Activism: Quality, Not Quantity
By Mickey Z.
Ask yourself why you haven't taken your rebellion beyond the methods listed above. Your answer is likely the same as mine: "We got the numbers, but they got the guns." Maybe author Derrick Jensen had it right when he said: "We still think we have something to lose. That's what's stopping us. As soon as we realize we have nothing left to lose we'll be dangerous." After all, in "Five to One," Jim Morrison also sang: "No one here gets out alive."
Capitalism Is In A Self-Destruct Mode
By Lionel Anet
The harder we work the sooner we will die. That need to keep up economic growth, with an increase in world population is gradually destroying our life-supports - nature. It would look as if we are planning to have the greatest possible number of people suffering the greatest distress as possible, in the longest agonizing deaths imaginable. We can achieve that because we have no need of any plans it’s not even our decision we have a system – capitalism controlled by competition, that’s steering us to our demise and most, if not all of life
A Scope Of Green Bond For India And Pakistan
By Madhuri Mittal
Renewable Energy Technology can be used for peace-building. This has been explored in the case of India and Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan are developing nations. The conflict has only worsened their potential to meet their domestic issues. Thus, there is an urgent need to resolve the conflict. There is a need to develop and use technology not for increasing or sustaining conflict but to resolve it. This is being realised by the Governments which have now several proposals for Energy collaborations. This has also been realised and implemented by non-Governmental forces
25 November , 2014
Fires Burn As Community Feels Pain Of Injustice: Dispatches From Ferguson
ByJon Queally
Following Monday night's announcement by St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch that a grand jury would not indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, the city of Ferguson, Missouri erupted in unrest fueled by an outpouring of emotion by those both outraged and saddened by the decision
Case Ferguson : US Flares Up In Protest
By Countercurrents.org
From coast to coast, protests and demonstrations flared up protesting the grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer Darren Wilson, who killed Mike Brown, an unarmed 18-year black boy in Ferguson , Missouri , USA . Thousands of people rallied late Monday in US cities. Most of the protests were peaceful, but passionate. Dozens of arrests have been made. In areas in the country, chaos filled streets. Gunshots were heard on the Ferguson streets and fires raged
Ferguson, An International Dateline, A Yearning For Life, A Call To Resist Injustice
By Farooque Chowdhury
Ferguson is now an international dateline. The name now symbolizes sectarian divide; the name now demystifies democracy in a bourgeois democracy; the name now shows stunned justice; the name now produces protests; and the name now expresses yearning for life and love
License To Kill
By Srestha Banerjee
Our immediate social existence today tries to reflect that we are part of a more equitable society- where questions of racial, class and caste hierarchy has little relevance. Our treatment of Michaels and Korbans are not a reflection of any bias or discrimination, but a rational act that we are entitled to exercise in the name of civil conduct. And such rationality lets us to choose our moments of protest, moments of silence and procure licenses to kill
Planet Already On 'Unavoidable Course To Warming': World Bank Report
By Andrea Germanos
"Even very ambitious mitigation" can't change the fact that the world has already "locked in" mid-century warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial times, a new report from the World Bank Group finds
Climate Mitigation Alternatives - Sorting Them Out
By Bill Henderson
Action on climate - what type of action now? Our political leaders won't lead so those who do recognize the dangers and who are serious about climate mitigation must step up to the plate
Iraq War 4.0?
By Tom Engelhardt
Given the history of this last period, even if the Islamic State were to collapse tomorrow under American pressure, there would likely be worse to come. It might not look like that movement or anything else we’ve experienced thus far, but it will predictably shock American officials yet again. Whatever it may be, rest assured that there’s a solution for it brewing in Washington and you already know what it is. Call it Iraq War 4.0
Police Baton-Charged Villagers For Opposing Aditya Birla Bauxite Mining Project In Orissa
By Deba Ranjan
On 25th August 2014 large number of armed police with magisterial power reached at the top of the Baphlihill, where Utkal Alumina - Aditya Birla is continuously transporting bauxite through trucks to its Doraguda Alumina Plant. They started beating the villagers of Paikakupakhal. Many got the injured and three dalit villagers namely Mangaldan Nayak (30years), Kalendra Nayak (30) and Ms Kiyabati Nayak got severly injured
Menace On The Menu: Development And the Globalization of Servitude
By Colin Todhunter
Powerful corporations are shaping ‘development' agenda in India and have signed secretive Memorandums of Understanding with the government. The full military backing of the state is on hand to forcibly evict peoples from their land in order to hand over land to mineral hungry extractive and processing industries to fuel a wholly unsustainable model of development. Around the world, this oil-dependent, urban-centric, high energy, high consumption model is stripping the environment bare and negatively impacting the climate and ecology
Crony Capitalism And Failed Sports Morality: A Case Of BCCI
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava
The recent speaking of Supreme Court has exposed the real status of cricket management in the country. The game of cricket has been captured and manipulated by the elites. The competition for the top post is due to the prestige and affluence associated with the game. In fact there is clear exposition of crony capitalism which has a special meaning in this management where one group always attempts to benefit the member of his group whether the person holds the capabilities or not. In previous time many got the top positions just because of this factor
When Beauty Is Only Skin Deep: Intensifying Social Inequalities
Through Rangbedh or Colour Discrimination
By Shalu Nigam
Inequalities and discrimination based on skin colour or rangbedh is not a new phenomenon rather it is deeply ingrained in mindset across India and throughout the world. Historically, skin colour has been used as a parameter to accord treatment to the individuals either intentionally or inadvertently. And even today, those with fair skin are considered as superior and those with the darker hues are placed at the lower rung of the social hierarchy. This essay examines the colour based prejudices from gender lens, the manner in which this is promoted explicitly and implicitly by the media and the repressive social norms in the neo liberal economy and the impact it makes on daily lives of women in a modern world
In Praise of Russell Brand's Sharing Revolution
By Adam Parsons
For all of Brand's joking and braggadocio, a sagacious theme runs through his new book: that a peaceful revolution must bring about a fairer sharing of the world's resources, which depends upon a revelation about our true spiritual nature
Reaching The Unreached: ENGAGE TB Initiative
By Shobha Shukla
Despite great strides made in TB care and control over the last few years, the latest data shows that 1/3 of all TB cases are still either not detected or not reported to public health systems
Kashmir: Reviving The Social Fabric
By M.Ashraf
A positive outcome of the recent flood may be the revival of the social fabric in Kashmir
Sri Lanka: Mr. President, We Have Your Files Too
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Do the files on President Rajapaksa and his clan differ in content from the files that he is keeping on others? For one thing the amounts plundered will be unimaginably higher. By announcing the existence of these files on his present and former colleagues President Rajapaksa has truly opened a can of worms. He is not the only person keeping files on others. The public has files on all those who plundered the nation. The public will decide which kick is suitable to whom. This is only a matter of time
ViBGYOR Film Festival-2015: Film Submission Deadline Extended To December 10th
By Countercurrents
The last date for film submission for ViBGYOR Film Festival, the largest alternative film festival in South Asia is extended to December 10th, 2014
23 November , 2014
Obama Extends War In Afghanistan
By Kathy Kelly
News agencies reported this morning that weeks ago President Obama signed an order, kept secret until now, to authorize continuation of the Afghan war for at least another year. The order authorizes U.S. airstrikes “to support Afghan military operations in the country” and U.S. ground troops to continue normal operations, which is to say, to “occasionally accompany Afghan troops ” on operations against the Taliban
Vedic Capitalism
By Satya Sagar
In a move that has taken no one, except the most gullible citizens, by surprise the public sector State Bank of India changed its name to the Seth Bank of India. The bank, which is India’s largest financial institution, said in a statement that the renaming was done to better reflect the fact that it is no longer the Indian State but the Indian Seth who decides its policies
Inequality: A Glimpse In The Food Market
By Farooque Chowdhury
The world food market with its amazing supermarkets, alluring discounters, magnificent hypermarkets, convenience stores, small food stalls, neutraceuticals that mix nutrients and medicine, monstrous agribusinesses, small-scale farms and cooperatives, whole sellers, retailers, hoarders, black marketers, speculators, big “organic” food business, future markets spreading over the entire world bears all the ills capital produces. The market conceives all the contradictions capitalism is capable of creating. Inequality is a part of it
Animal Welfare: Seeing The Forest For The Denizens
By Brian Czech
If we are serious about animal welfare, we have to get beyond the mere adoration of hedgehogs and hippos. We have to face up to the big-picture, systematic erosion of wild animal welfare. It’s all around us and getting worse by the day, and our public policies precipitate it
Solzhenitsyn And JFK: Soul-Mates
By Robert Snefjella
It was a most fateful coup, in 1963: To banish from public discourse sincerity, integrity, accurately describing the real. These became the forbidden. Falsehood was empowered. The real was made furtive. When one consistently confuses the imagined with the real, one is deemed mad: being 'out of touch with reality', is the layman’s definition of insanity
Sri Lanka: The Beginning of The End of A Distorted Era
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Those who are screaming for liberty and humanity to prevails in this land have to face the real challenges in a short period of time. They are the people who can rescue the country It is time for the nation to correct its path and regain liberty and humanity
Shouldn’t Bangladesh Proscribe The Jamaat-e-Islami?
By Taj Hashmi
I strongly believe that the proscription of the Jamaat in Bangladesh is essential, not only because of its heinous role against the Liberation War, but also for two other important considerations
Why To Abrogate Article 370?
By Ishaq Begh
It is beyond our comprehension that whole population of Jammu and Kashmir is willingly or unwillingly supports the existence of article 370 as a bridge and any move to break this will open new insurgence in Kashmir. How people of Kashmir will forget the authenticity of their indigenous place which is the hotbed of tourism industry and can’t afford any destruction of its fragile climate and environmental scenery. Communal powers keep the sole aim to polarise the vote bank in Jammu and Kashmir which will definitely bifurcate further the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir
Kashmir Elections: Our PM Without A Real Dialogue
By Ravi Nitesh
Today's speech of Mr. Modi is completely passive and cannot be said to be positive in any way. During his speech at Kishtwar of J&K, he only jumped in the election ground with his promises for development without the basic understanding that right to life is first and more important than anything else
Sikkim's Inclusion In NE Is Racism As Well
By Aishik Chanda
“We are the eight…we are united” goes the anthem of the John Abraham-owned Northeast United football club. The song, which features several singers of the North east region of India invokes the eight states to put up a united show in the Indian Super League. The football team, with its motto “8 states, 1 united” is one of the first to officially present the region to the nation as a union of eight states and not seven
22 November , 2014
Did Russia And China Just Sign A Death Warrant For U.S. LNG Exports?
By Kurt Cobb
Russia and China have signed two large natural gas deals in the last six months as Russia turns its attention eastward in reaction to sanctions and souring relations with Europe, currently Russia's largest energy export market. But the move has implications beyond Europe. In the department of everything is connected, U.S. natural gas producers may be seeing their dream of substantial liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports suffer fatal injury because of Russian exports to the Chinese market, a market that was expected to be the largest and most profitable for LNG exporters
Why Do We Allow Ukraine's Government To Write
The Official Report On Their Shoot-Down of MH17?
By Eric Zuesse
There are only two suspects in the shoot-down of the MH17 Malaysian airliner over Ukraine on July 17th: the separatist rebels, whom the Ukrainian Government. One of these two suspects, the Ukrainian Government, was granted by the other three member-states of the official MH17 ‘investigating’ commission, a veto-power over anything that’s written into that ‘investigating’ report
MH 17: Why Is Malaysia Not Part Of The Probe?
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
Ours is a just demand. It is just not only because MH 17 is ours. It is just because we have a fair and balanced approach to the tragedy and its probe. We want the entire truth to be known. Our participation in the investigation will at least help to check any attempt to conceal or camouflage the real story behind one of the most heinous crimes in recent times
Bhopal: 30 Years Of Struggle And Survival
By Mickey Z
“If you believe in corporate accountability, environmental health and justice, social justice, reproductive justice, human rights and a toxic-free future for all, the Bhopal gas disaster is an issue that should matter to you.” - Reena Shadaan
Palestine: If America Won’t Do What Is Needed Europe Should And Here’s Why
By Alan Hart
For many years I have believed that unless America took the lead in doing whatever is necessary to cause Israel to end its defiance of international law and be serious about peace on the basis of justice for the Palestinians and security for all Europe would do nothing and, by default, go on being complicit in Israel’s ongoing colonization of the occupied West Bank. But a recent article by Daniel Barenboim, the Jewish and globally celebrated pianist and conductor and outspoken critic of Israel’s occupation, caused me to wonder if it’s time to forget about what America could but won’t do and focus on the need for Germany and Britain to put their act together and take the lead
Gaza Bombings Rock Palestinian Reconciliation
By Nicola Nasser
It is ironic that the annual commemoration of the death of Yasser Arafat should turn into an occasion for rekindling the flames of internal strife. This was clearly the aim of last week’s bombings that targeted the homes of Fatah leaders in Gaza, as well as the podium for the commemorative ceremonies of Arafat, who strove to make Palestinian national unity one of the pillars of his political legacy
Birgitta Jónsdóttir Democracy And Freedom Of Information
By John Scales Avery
The Icelandic parliamentarian, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, has taken an important step towards solving one of the central problems that the world is facing today. The problem is this: How can we regain democratic government when the mainstream media are completely controlled the corporate oligarchy?
Mourning John F. Kennedy And A Half-Century of Degraded Arts And Culture
By Gary Corseri
For half a century now, our artists, as well as our “public servants,” have, mostly, wandered in a wilderness of arrogance and poor judgment. Fearful of losing their academic sinecures or foundation grants, our artists have, too often, eschewed a vigorous critique of America’s imperious, foundational economic principles—the Corporate State and its self-serving Republicratic 1-party system!
Damaged Turbo-Generator At Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant,
Overhauled Before Grid Connection?
By VT Padmanabhan, R Ramesh, V Pugazhendi & Joseph Makkolil
Two years before its grid connection, the Russian-made turbine was overhauled by a private contractor and this fact was kept as a guarded secret. In spite of the overhaul, KKNPP turbine failed within hours of grid connection and was responsible for five trips, which kept the reactor off-grid for 59 days. It could not be revived even after a two-month long maintenance during August- September 2014. Usually the first overhaul of a new turbine is done after completion of 5 to 10 years of work. The extreme damage of the turbine could have been due to the mal-functioning of vibration monitoring instrument made by a Russian company charged for selling counterfeit parts. Failure of instrumentation in other systems have the potential for catastrophic accidents
The Fate of (Secular) Indian Democracy 50 Years After Jawaharlal Nehru
By Sukumaran C. V.
Ram Bai, who was displaced from her village that was submerged when the Bargi dam was built on the Narmada and forced to live in a slum in Jabalpur, says: “Why didn’t they just poison us? Then we wouldn’t have to live in this shit-hole and the Government could have survived along with its precious dam all to itself.” When a democracy doesn’t listen to the words of the people like Ram Bai and doesn’t stop creating large number of hapless people like the tribal man who says that it would be better for his baby to die, it ceases to be a democracy
Patriarchy And The Dysfunction of Society
By Janet Surman
With much talk of paedophilia plus the physical and sexual mistreatment and abuse of women in the news just lately (if largely because of the number of well known individuals called into question) it set me thinking about the perpetrators and why it is that so many males are drawn towards violence of this kind. What is it about the make-up of societies around the world that spawns and breeds ongoing generations, some of whose offspring have a propensity for what the majority view as antisocial? For we are talking about a global phenomenon here; neither nationality nor religion seem to make a difference. Patriarchy is the common factor
Piketty For Progressives -- Part 5
By Thomas Riggins
This posting will cover sections 11 and 12 in Piketty's introduction to Capital in the 21st Century
Andre Vltchek: Point of No Return
Book Review
With his work Point of No Return, the journalist, documentary filmmaker and author of nu-merous books on the repercussions of Western imperialism Andre Vltchek engages in a risk that has become rare these days, namely, to write an explicitly political novel. And what is more, he succeeds in doing so in a very impressive way
20 November , 2014
Talk Of A Third Intifada: Where To From Here, Palestine?
By Ramzy Baroud
Considering the numerous variables at play, only the Palestinian people can tell us when they are ready for an intifada - because, essentially it belongs to them, and them alone
Anti-Palestinian Violence Surges After Jerusalem Synagogue Attack
By Patrick Strickland
Israeli occupation forces have launched a widespread crackdown on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem following an attack on a synagogue in the western area of the city early Tuesday morning
‘Sant Rampal’: Farmer’s Son Challenges Hegemony of Arya Samaj, A RSS Ally In Haryana
By Jaspal Singh Sidhu
The Barwala event signals much more than what one gathers from the media. Rampal’s abortive defiance appears to be (consciously or unconsciously) challenging the hegemony of the Sangh Privar ideology based on Aryans and non- Aryans divide which uses the Vedic literature as manifestation of the Aryan race. The media story, invariably, only covers the present happenings. The Barwala development has at least a century and half (150 years-old) old history behind it
Russia Invades Ukraine. Again. And Again. And Yet Again … Using Saddam’s WMD
By William Blum
Why am I so cynical? Because the Ukrainian and US governments have been feeding us these scare stories for eight months now, without clear visual or other evidence, often without even common sense
US Prepares To Sell Saudi Arabia Warships To Help Take Down Iran
By Bruce K. Gagnon
You'd think that official circles in Washington would be up-in-arms about selling high-tech weapons of war to the brutal monarchy of Saudi Arabia. But this likely $20 billion weapons sale indicates just how corrupt and immoral the US 'experiment' in democracy has become. The #1 industrial export product of the US today is weapons. The US wants to take down Iran and has made a pact with the Saudi's to do just that
UN Resolution On Iran Mockery Of Justice
By Ismail Salami
The not-very-independent UN body has made a mockery of justice by soldering a resolution on the so-called human rights violations in Iran. The farce becomes more markedly absurd when you consider the plethora of human rights abuses going unpunished in the world with the UN laying a lid of ignorance on these blatant violations
The Comprehensive Economic And Trade Agreement (CETA) And The Transatlantic
Trade And Investment Partnership (TTIP): Don't Let Them Get Away With It
By Colin Todhunter
As part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), there are plans to enshrine massive powers for corporations that will allow them to challenge regulations both at home and abroad if they affect profits. EU member states could find domestic laws quite useless as they become challenged in secretive, offshore tribunals where national laws have no weight and politicians no powers to intervene
Uncomplicated, In Afghanistan
By Kathy Kelly
UNAMA, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, found that in the first six months of 2014, combat among the warring parties surpassed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as the leading cause of conflict-related death and injury to Afghan civilians. This "disturbing upward spiral" has meant the number of children and other vulnerable Afghans killed and wounded since the beginning of the year rose dramatically and "is proving to be devastating."
The Outpost That Doesn't Exist In The Country You Can't Locate
By Nick Turse
A Base Camp, an Authoritarian Regime, and the Future of U.S. Blowback in Africa
Its Not What You Know But Who You Know –
Should The Elite Use Their Networks To Secure Employment?
By Joyeeta Dey
Currently there is a growing problem of educated unemployment. For many this education is hard won and they are not willing to settle for jobs lower than a certain status. It usually happens that in most unequal societies high status jobs are partially blocked by the social elite. Wherever the role of networking for employment's role in furthering socio-economic inequality has been researched, the relationship has been seen to be positive. In this invisible job market vacancies are not advertised so they travel internally within certain social groups and access to these social groups has been seen to be directly linked to family income
19 November , 2014
Israel’s Netanyahu Threatens Clampdown
After Synagogue Killing
By Jean Shaoul
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to respond with a “heavy hand” to the killing of four rabbis and the wounding of eight others in a Tuesday morning attack on a synagogue. The attack by two men, armed with a gun, axes and knives, took place in an ultra-orthodox neighbourhood of West Jerusalem. Israeli police shot and killed the attackers at the scene
Is Another War Coming To The Occupied West Bank?
ByJuan Cole
The killings at the Jerusalem synagogue yesterday and the spate of Israeli killings of Palestinians in the West Bank are all small harbingers of this coming civil war
Why are Israeli And "Russian" Occupiers So Close Buddies?
By Ludwig Watzal
Is there a Russian Israeli friendship looming on the horizon that could replace the "ironclad" one with the United States of America? The Zionist Israeli diplomacy is considered one of the best and most skillful in the world. It's based solely on the national interest of the State of Israel and is contrary to the morally based insincere rhetoric of the US, not to speak of the hypocritical talk of its European "friends", including Germany
Harper, Abbott, And Cameron At The Brisbane G-20
By John Chuckman
The great irony of the G-20 summit in Brisbane is that its only substantial agreement concerned doing everything possible to promote growth in a world whose economy is dangerously stagnating, yet it wasted time and energy on America’s fantasy stories about Russia and Ukraine, insulted Russia’s President, and threatened in some cases further growth-suppressing sanctions. Nothing could be more contradictory and unproductive or, frankly, just plain stupid
Dramatic Correlation Shown Between GMOs And 22 Diseases
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
As use Of GMO’s crops Glyphosate rise so do critical diseases
Sri Lanka: Karu Jayasuriya Is Not The Panacea
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa
The most difficult task for this country is to survive the politics when there is an election that is nothing but a farce. The opposition alliance which is seeking for the common candidate has to face the real challenges when it come out from the fantasy. There is no point of having the common candidate without a common dream and common sense. All who are fighting against the unjust must realise, there is no hope of changing the society, when the degree of hypocrisy of those who are forerunners of the drama is expanding
Rethinking Success
By Roshan
We might not like to be reminded, but it’s true, isn’t it, that when we leave this world, as we all must one day, we’ll depart as empty-handed as we were when arrived here. At that momentous point in our lives, what will count and will make all the difference for our eternity is not the jobs we held and the wealth, degrees, fame and glamour that we earned, but, rather, the quality of our beings: the sort of persons we were. And at that moment we might discover—but it might then be too late—the hollowness of many of our conventional notions of ‘success’
Model of Development Promisses To The Tribal of Jharkhand
By Sanjeev Kumar
There is no doubt that Modi’s wave and thus his model of development and politics, is still attracting for the Indian voters, which reflected in recent assembly election completed in Haryana and Maharashtra. Our main-stream media never questioned the loopholes within the Modi Model of Development and now it’s something which is unimaginable. Our parallel media or intelligentsia or other form of civil society had never fought against the recent rise in fascist and communal politics in the country, the way we should have done
18 November , 2014
Missouri Governor Declares State Of Emergency,
Mobilizes National Guard Ahead Of Protests
By Andre Damon
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Monday and mobilized the National Guard, claiming that this was necessary to “keep members of the public safe and protect property” in anticipation of a grand jury decision on whether to bring charges against Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown in August
Ten Illegal Police Actions To Watch For In Ferguson
By Bill Quigley
When the Michael Brown verdict is announced, people can expect the police to take at least ten different illegal actions to prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights. The Ferguson police have been on TV more than others so people can see how awful they have been acting. But their illegal police tactics are unfortunately quite commonly used by other law enforcement in big protests across the US
Obama, Not The Giant Telecoms, Is Right On Net Neutrality
By Ralph Nader
In the aftermath of his party's defeat in the midterm elections, President Obama surprised many when he reaffirmed his overwhelming support for net neutrality, proposing that the Internet should be treated as a public utility
Net Neutrality Shows People Power Can Make The Politically Impossible,
The Politically Inevitable
By Margaret Flowers & Kevin Zeese
It is proof that even in a government corrupted by money, united and mobilized people who act strategically with creative tactics can win. Stay tuned and get ready to become engaged if things begin to turn the wrong way. Winning the battle for the future of the Internet is one that will impact each of us, and we all must take responsibility for it
The Siege of Julian Assange Is A Farce - A Special Investigation
By John Pilger
The siege of Knightsbridge is a farce. The persecution of Julian Assange must end. Even the British government clearly believes it must end. On 28 October, the deputy foreign minister, Hugo Swire, told Parliament he would "actively welcome" the Swedish prosecutor in London and "we would do absolutely everything to facilitate that". The tone was impatient
Fossil-Fueled Republicanism : The Grand Oil Party Takes Washington by Storm
By Michael T. Klare
Pop the champagne corks in Washington! It’s party time for Big Energy. In the wake of the midterm elections, Republican energy hawks are ascendant, having taken the Senate and House by storm. They are preparing to put pressure on a president already presiding over a largely drill-baby-drill administration to take the last constraints off the development of North American fossil fuel reserves
A Communalised or A Privatised Planet
By Lionel Anet
To survive we must gradually but quickly change from a growth economy of capitalism to an economy that can manage shrinkage until we reach a sustainable life. This can only be achieved by progressing from the unfairness of a competitive economy to the fairness of a cooperative one. The side effect would be a better physical and mental health
Relentless US Journalist Who Has Seen And Felt
The Boot of Israeli Fascism Is Returning To Palestine For More
By Robert Barsocchini
Journalist Zebula “Sha” Hebert has been “shot at, stabbed, pepper sprayed, maced, tear-gassed, tased, arrested, detained, beaten, and interrogated” while conducting his work. He knows what repression feels like, which is why he is undertaking a highly ambitious project: in the wake of the recent US-backed Israeli assault, Hebert will return to Palestine and spend a year in Gaza. He will conduct interviews with Gazans, publish reports, and ultimately write a book about his findings and experiences, all to help amplify the voices of a trapped refugee population being brutalized by the world's most powerful aggressors
Fixing Responsibility For The Dying Women In India's Sterilization Camps
By Kandathil Sebastian
Death of women in the sterilization camps in India is not new phenomenon. As per the official data, between 2003 and 2012, there are at least 12 post sterilization deaths on average, per month. Unofficial estimates of such deaths put the mortality figure even higher. We routinely see umpteen debates and ‘blame games’ after such sterilization induced deaths. In the recent incident in Chattisgarh state where 14 women died has also resulted in such serial blame games
Battle For The Sundarban
By Anu Muhammad
The survival and growth of Sundarban cannot be compromised for profit-mad business mafia. Battle for Sundarban continues, has to be strengthened. Sundarban must win in the battle, because there are many alternatives for power generation; but we have only one Sundarban that cannot be rebuilt or replaced with any other; there is, therefore, no alternative to Sundarban
Kashmir: Subjugation And Then Legitimization
By Umar Lateef Misgar
This cycle has been continuing untamed since Indian state buried its teeth in Kashmir and is bound to continue unless the so called 'elected representatives' or in other words collaborators dissolve into thin air. To use this instrument of retrospective consent and devoid Kashmiris of their political rights is akin to colonialism or, in words of Dibyesh Anand, is sort of an informal post-colonial imperialism
17 November , 2014
Putin Leaves G20 Early After Harsh Reception
By Nadia Prupis
Russian president Vladimir Putin left the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Brisbane, Australia early, flying back to Moscow on Sunday after world leaders accused him of bullying and warned him to drop his support of separatists in Ukraine
Why Is Europe Staying With The Leading Fascist Power, That’s Now Turned Nazi?
By Eric Zuesse
The United States is a gung-ho supporter of a genocide that it created. Why does Europe tolerate this, and even participate in it? But, they do
Quantitative Analysis Exposes Pro-One Percenter Obama's Pre-G20 Deceit
Over Democracy, Climate Change Action & Green Climate Fund
By Dr Gideon Polya
Just before the 2014 G20 meeting in Brisbane , Queensland , Australia , President Obama made a speech at the University of Queensland in which he claimed US support for democracy, US climate action and US donation to a Green Climate Fund for Developing nations. Unfortunately, quantitative analysis reveals massive deception in all these matters by the endlessly mendacious, pro-One Percenter Obama
Economists Are More Human Than They Think, Unfortunately
By Hendrik Van den Berg
The type of economic growth we have experienced over the past 200 years cannot continue because it cannot be further supported by our natural environment. The evidence clearly shows that atmospheric temperatures are rising, nature is failing to sustain many of the services that are critical to human life, and the widespread exploitation of nature is sharply reducing the biodiversity that safeguards our existence. There is no longer any doubt that ‘growth' (by which we mean the massive use of carbon energy, the increase of material output per person, and the rapid growth of the overall human population) is the cause of this environmental degradation. And yet, economists across the political spectrum call for ‘restoring growth' as quickly as possible
New Species Loss Appear On The Latest IUCN 2014 Redlist
By Marianne de Nazareth
As populations grow exponentially across the globe, the global appetite for our planets resources continuously push new species to the brink says the new IUCN Red List. Pacific Bluefin Tuna, Chinese Pufferfish, American Eel, Chinese Cobra and an Australian butterfly are the species which the IUCN have specifically pointed out and which are threatened with extinction
Redefining “Imminent,” How The U.S. Department of Justice Makes Murder Respectable,
Kills The Innocent And Jails Their Defenders
By Brian Terrell
The breadth of the government’s definition of “imminent” is murderous in its enormity. It is all the more ironic that the same Department of Justice will also regularly define the word so narrowly as to convict and imprison law abiding and responsible citizens who act to defend the innocent from genuinely imminent harm by the actions of the U.S. government. On example especially relevant to the issue of killing by drone is the case of the “Creech 14.”
Inequality: Capitalism’s Inefficiency With Food
By Farooque Chowdhury
Robbing better food is enough to deprive a people of its life and intellect. The arrangement of inequality that capitalism imposes deprives the majority, the members of “low-status households”. They are not allowed, the arrangement is so made, to afford better food
Two Detroits, Separate And Unequal : A Journey Across a City Divided
By Laura Gottesdiener
The future of the rest of the sprawling city -- once the symbol of American industrialization and working-class power -- remains at best insecure, physically and financially. In the 1940s, President Franklin Roosevelt declared Detroit, then the nation’s fourth largest city, the “great arsenal of democracy” for churning out bombers for the Allied powers, as in peacetime it rolled out cars for the consumer economy. Then the auto giants began closing their urban factories and reopening their plants in white suburbs. In the same era, the industry, national unions, and the FBI all cracked down on the labor organizations founded by radical black workers
The Internationalisation Of Bangladeshi Military Intervention In 2007
By M Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury
It has been empirically seen that Army Chief Moeen U. Ahmed used governmental efforts to become the President of Bangladesh. He and his accomplices worked hard to receive support of foreign powers in this regard
Cecily McMillan On Prisons, Profit, Protest, And Privilege
By Mickey Z.
Cecily is a graduate student at the New School for Social Research, a union organizer and a former Occupy Wall Street activist. On March 17, 2012, the six-month anniversary of the OWS encampment, McMillan was arrested, sexually assaulted, and beaten by members of the NYPD. Nonetheless, in Spring 2014, McMillan was unjustly convicted of felony assault of a police officer and faced seven years in prison. Following an international leniency campaign, McMillan was sentenced to 90 days at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility. In July 2014, she was released on good behavior after serving 58 days
Ten Cases Under AFSPA You Should Know About
By Ravi Nitesh
Here are few infamous cases, listed about which we all should know, in view of our sensitization towards human rights and how there are difficulties in ascertaining the punishment to security personals who are surviving with impunity. It is also evident that these atrocities are still continued. Though here are the selected cases only, there are hundreds and thousands of cases like these where human rights violations reported in areas where AFSPA is imposed (North East region and J&K)
Kashmir: The Visoka’s Curse!
By M.Ashraf
After the devastation and displacement caused by the recent flood, one would have expected people to remain under shock for a long time. However, the rallies for the forthcoming elections give an impression that nothing has changed and the people are behaving as they used to do. There has been no chastisement as one would have expected from such a natural disaster attributed by many to be the “Divine Retribution” for our misdeeds! People are on the path to usher in the same lot of so called leaders who turned Kashmir into a virtual den of corruption, dishonesty and immorality
My Memories With AK-47
By Sajad Rasool
A barrage of thoughts unsettles my mind as I see men in uniforms roaming around with their infamous AK-47 rifles
Long Road To Justice: Human Rights of Female Migrant Workers
By Shobha Shukla
Erwiana was one of the women who shared their lived experiences of the struggle against oppressive structures as a migrant worker, providing a picture of the impact of the existing gender inequalities on women's lives, at the 1st plenary of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
15 November , 2014
IEA Says Oil Supplies May Not Keep Up With Demand
By Nick Cunningham
Despite what appears to be a saturated oil market in 2014, oil producers around the world will struggle to meet rising demand over the next few decades. In its latest annual World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that the current period of oil abundance may be fleeting, and in fact, without heroic levels of production increases, oil markets will grow dangerously tight in the coming years
Use And Abuse Of The “Natural Capital” Concept
By Herman Daly
A monetary reform to 100% reserve requirements on demand deposits would be a good policy for many reasons, to which we can add, as a necessary supplement to a carbon tax. It would not be necessary as a supplement to cap-auction-trade, but should be adopted for independent reasons. A good symbol should not be allowed to do things that the reality it symbolizes cannot do. One hundred percent reserves would require the symbol of money to behave more like real wealth, at least in some important ways
Time To Learn The Lessons Of Failed U.S. Wars
By Gerry Condon
Like millions of veterans of too many U.S. wars, we believe it is high time for our government to learn the lessons of history. Rather than repeatedly resorting to military intervention on behalf of so-called “U.S. interests” (typically the interests of the richest 1%, purchased with the blood of the poorest 1%), we believe that showing respect for the independence of other nations is the way to a better future for all peoples, at home and abroad
The World Gets The Wars Americans Deserve
By David Swanson
But the primary thing the U.S. government does is wage wars, and it wages them against other people who had no say in the matter. Of course I don't want wars waged against Americans either, but the general impression one gets from traveling around and speaking and answering questions at public events in the United States is not so much that people are indifferent to the destruction of the globe as long as they don't miss their favorite television show, as that people are unclear on what destruction means and can't identify a globe when it's placed in a lineup with six watermelons
Modern And Ancient Parallels Of Arabian Aristocracy
By G. Asgar Mitha
Is it that now the few powerful royal Saudi families discern the headwinds due to their totalitarian governance, terrorism and religious Wahhabi extremism and fear the same social changes that swept ancient Arabia would strip them of their wealth and power? Islam supports social democracy and not monarchy. The Saudis fear that the headwinds will originate from Iran and they may well be correct in that assessment. History doubtlessly has an uncanny way of going around and neither has Islam condoned monarchy in the past or the present
War And Peace: Western Leaders Terrorizing The Mankind
By Mahboob A. Khawaja
Iraq and Syrian conflicts needs people of new vision and proactive ideas to cope with multiple scopes of the political and humanitarian crises and to seek workable solutions away from the entrenched political box of the few warmongers
Why They Would Bear The Burden Of ‘National Development’?
By Deba Ranjan
Few days back I went to Siju Mali and was at the top of the hill. It belongs to Kashipur area of Odisha just behind the Niyamgiri hill. For last few months this Siju Mali and its adjacent Kutru Mali have been in news because the Vedanta International Limited (VIL) has kept its eyes on it. After the election between April and September, 2014 Anil Agrawal, director of VIL has met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, twice and every time he is coming with fully glowing remarks that the later assured him for transferring the bauxite hills to the Company. It is quite possible also. Election experts have highlighted corporate funding behind Biju Janata Dal’s election campaign and the State Election Commission is unmoved on such complaints
A Story Of Life And Death: Population Control Policies And Women’s Right To Survival
By Shalu Nigam
This story is inspired by the recent incident of death of women in Chhattisgarh as well as authors interaction with women from different walks of life and her experience of working with women as an activist, a researcher, a womanist and a social worker over a long period
Women In Politics Should Help Women In Adversity
By Shobha Shukla
Women might be breaking the glass ceiling and walking on sticky floors, but still they are underrepresented in decision making bodies. More of them are need to be there to ensure that there is a renewal of political will for a time bound accelerated action on BPFA
Ginger Cultivation In Mysore District Destroying The Environment
By Vivek Cariappa
I sincerely urge the Government of Karnataka, specially the administration of Mysore district to regulate Ginger cultivation carefully to ensure minimum damage to our general environment and specifically our soil, water and health – human and animal (domesticated and wild life). To not take pre-emptive action would not be just negligent but a willful destruction of our natural resources, biodiversity and the future lives of our population
Sri Lanka: Quo vadis?
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa
To say that the President of Sri Lanka is greedy is no lie. Having scammed billions of rupees out of various deals with arms sellers, investors and government funds there is no doubt that he and his brothers have earned the nicknames. Now he wants to continue his reign unchallenged. He will never give up his desire for a third term in order to control over 20 million people to fulfill his personal desires. He is spending near to a billion rupees of public funds for his pre-election campaign and millions more to buy people who, otherwise, might have had a real, authentic reason to oppose him
14 November , 2014
US/India WTO Agreement: How Corporate Greed
Trumps Needs of World's Poor And Hungry
By Andrea Germanos
The United States cheered on Thursday an agreement it reached with India as progress for the World Trade Organization (WTO). Critics, however, say deal is likely a win for corporations and economic loss for developing countries
A New Push For Peace In Syria?
By Shamus Cooke
The giant void in the market for peace has opened up opportunities for Russia and Egypt, who reportedly are attempting to insert themselves as leaders in Middle East diplomacy, in part to expand their influence, in part to protect themselves from the conflagration of Islamic extremism the conflict is producing
What We Truly Learned From The Great War And The Absurdity Of Remembrance Day
By John Chuckman
Humans are little more than chimpanzees with larger brains, those larger brains enabling us to magnify immensely the power of our murderous instincts, a fact we seem determined proudly to display every Remembrance Day
The Lessons Of Libya
By Dan Glazebrook
The Libya war opened the eyes of many – or should have. But the overriding lesson – if it needed reiterating - should be the realisation that the US, the UK, France and their allies will stop at nothing, including even the imposition of total societal collapse, in order to attempt to reverse their declining global economic position through military destruction. This is the reality behind all talk of protecting civilians, humanitarianism, and democracy promotion, and all Western military intervention should be seen in this light
Media Blackout As U.S. Sponsors Genocide In Southeastern Ukraine
By Eric Zuesse
There is also plenty of bombing, and firing missiles at, the cities and villages there, to destroy people and buildings , so that many of the surviving residents will flee over the border into neighboring Russia, from whence they'll never again be allowed to vote in a Ukrainian election — thereby further reducing the number of those voters in Ukrainian national elections. Such bombing and shelling seem to be the Government's main methods of eliminating residents in the southeast . Also, white phosphorous and other illegal weapons of terror are used, in order to especially induce the residents to evacuate into Russia
Porno And Bloodbaths: The CIA In Indonesia
By Mickey Z.
Time magazine celebrated Suharto’s rise to power with a cover story calling it a “boiling bloodbath that almost unnoticed took 400,000 lives,” and characterized the new regime as “scrupulously constitutional,” lauding the “quietly determined” Suharto with his “almost innocent face.” Never forget, comrades… this is what we’re up against
Psycho Killer
By Tim Gatto
I have pulled the plug on the mainstream media. I'm sick of their propaganda and fear mongering. The talking heads on the networks are completely out of their minds. The drivel that they get from politicians that they pass off as interviews make me want to vomit. They listen to lies and spin and never confront these full-blown psychopaths. If that passes for "news" I have had enough
The Assault On Forward Press: Intimidating Dissent
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The assault on Forward Press in Delhi for allegedly ‘hurting’ the sentiments of Hindus is an act of cowardice and intimidation by the Delhi police
Nehru's Perfidy In Kashmir
By Abdul Majid Zargar
According to rightwing Hindutva discourse, Nehru mismanaged & botched up Kashmir issue in 1947. In their view, his deputy Sardar Patel was more suited for the job but was not allowed by Nehru to have his way. What they probably mean is that Patel could have engineered covert murderous operations in valley like the ones practiced earlier in Jammu & later in Hyderabad to simply annex Kashmir without involving UN? What they forget or don’t know is that Patel was initially opposed to accession of Kashmir to India and being a Muslim Majority State, he wanted that it should go to Pakistan (Kuldeep Nayyar- Beyond the lines-Page 60). But looking to Nehru’s sensibilities on the issue, he had to go along with him
Advancing Dalit Women's Rights Through CEDAW's Provisions
By Cynthia Stephen
The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women and its use in advocating the human rights of Dalit Women
A Sikh Millenial’s Take On Remembering The Forgotten
By Keerit Kaur Kohli
This thirtieth year after 1984, I came across Sikh Millennials spending much energy to collect stories from 1984, the year India’s 2% Sikh minority faced widespread attacks and tens of thousands of deaths. I joined these Sikhs from across California, and now across North America and beyond, in a project that honors the dead while focusing on the living: the 1984 Living History Project
13 November , 2014
German Army Prepares For Civil War
By Denis Krassnin
The second “International Urban Operations Conference” took place in central Berlin between 20 and 22 October. Four hundred delegates from 40 countries, many with dubious democratic traditions, met for three days to discuss the suppression of uprisings and other forms of civil unrest in urban areas
Angela Merkel's Wall of Hypocrisy
By Vacy Vlazna
On the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a speech of sublime hypocrisy when juxtaposed beside the illegal Apartheid/Annexation Wall and beside the blockade ‘wall' constricting Gaza constructed by Israel, which she once vowed, "Germany will never abandon Israel but will remain a true friend and partner.”
In Memory of US Soldier Tomas Young
By Ludwig Watzal
On the eve of Veterans Day 2014, Tomas Young died as a result of his injuries he had suffered in Iraq after his fifth day of assignment. He did not join the army to attack Iraq or "liberate" the Iraqi people. On March 18, 2013 , he wrote a letter to former US President George W. Bush and his Vice president Dick Cheney and accused them of "egregious war crimes". In his memory Young's deeply moving message is reprinted
Tomas Young, Rest In Peace
By Amy Goodman
The public may know more about Tomas Young than about most veterans, thanks to the remarkable documentary “Body of War,” directed and produced by legendary talk-show host Phil Donahue and filmmaker Ellen Spiro. His journey, his struggle and now his death follow an arc along the tragic U.S. wars and occupations in this post-9/11 world
How A Holiday In Honor Of Peace Became A Celebration Of War
By Jay Janson
That a US President shall give a speech praising all Veterans on Veterans Day must be part of the job description. Unless of course a US President was allowed to be wise and ask Americans to remember that the originally the holiday was called Armistice Day, a holiday in honor of peace, namely, the day on which the Armistice that ended the murderous insanity that was World War I was signed. A return to the original sense of the holiday - that would be a nice turn-around
The Bases of War in The Middle East : A Permanent Infrastructure For Permanent War
By David Vine
With the launch of a new U.S.-led war in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State (IS), the United States has engaged in aggressive military action in at least 13 countries in the Greater Middle East since 1980. In that time, every American president has invaded, occupied, bombed, or gone to war in at least one country in the region. The total number of invasions, occupations, bombing operations, drone assassination campaigns, and cruise missile attacks easily runs into the dozens
Watching The Watchdogs: 10 Years of The IEA World Energy Outlook
By David MacLeod
The IEA World Energy Outlook has gradually moved from rosy to pessimistic reports over the last ten years, or what Stuart Staniford called “increasingly reality-based.” Over the last decade, the report’s projected oil demand has gradually decreased by 20 million barrels per day (mb/d), and the projected costs have continued to rise. Yet even their most pessimistic reports, I believe, fail to capture true reality. It seems that politics plays a strong role in what is allowed to be published
The Age of TV Jokers: Arab Media on The Brink
By Ramzy Baroud
Their demagogic discourse presented through daily campaigns of misinformation and vilification of those perceived to be enemies of the state is dangerous, especially when there is little room to counter these claims through critical thinking and sensible discussions. But what is interesting is that neither Okasha, nor Adeeb - and many others like them – were never meant to be entertainers per se, however entertaining they inadvertently may be
Sterilising Women To Death
By Samar
A doctor conducted sterilization surgeries on 83 women in 5 hours in an abandoned hospital with no infrastructure. The women were made to lay on floor for the surgery and there are allegations that the medicines came from a small, one room factory that is owned by close affiliates of the party that is ruling the province. Of these women, 11 are dead and 60 others are being treated in different hospitals. One more woman died today in Gaurela in a similar surgery with three survivors being treated
Redeeming Menstruation From Mythologies And Market
By Kandathil Sebastian
This essay traces the past and present mythologies about menstruation to examine how those mysterious narratives have been used for defining women’s identity and controlling their mobility. We will also analyze how the market driven modern society has created new myths around menstruation mainly to profit from the menstrual hygiene management and menstruation suppression markets
When T-Shirts Become Seditious
By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights
On November 8, 2014, ten school going boys in the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh, were charged for sedition, for wearing T-shirts of the Pakistani cricket team during a Muharram procession. Though no arrests have been made, an FIR against these boys aged 10-12 has been registered, at the behest of Bhartiya Janta Party MP
12 November , 2014
Global Warming To Worsen Global 'Dead Zones
By Andrea Germanos
Global warming will expand the world's "dead zones," a new study has found. The study, published Monday in the journal Global Change Biology, looked at over 400 of these aquatic dead zones, which refer to areas where the levels of oxygen have dropped and cannot support life. They often form as a result of agricultural runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus. The nutrient excess sparks algal blooms, whose decomposition depletes oxygen. The researchers with the Smithsonian found that this oxygen depletion will worsen because of a number of warming-related factors, bringing economic consequences as well as risks to human health and ecosystems
International Consensus-Based IPCC Summary For Policymakers (2014)
Downplays Acute Seriousness Of Climate Crisis
By Dr Gideon Polya
The international consensus basis of the latest IPCC Summary for Policymakers (2014) has resulted in a report that softens the present acute seriousness of unaddressed man-made climate change. Thus the IPCC Summary argues for a limitation of temperature rise to 2 o C through limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution of the atmosphere to 450 ppm CO2 -equivalent but hard evidence says that we have already reached 478 ppm CO2 -equivalent, that 2 o C is dangerous and essentially inevitable, and that the world will use up its Carbon Budget for avoiding 2 o C within about 4 years
Bombs Away, Weaponized Drones Flying High
By Judith Bello
Up until about a year ago, the anti-war movement was on fire over US Drone attacks, making and distributing films, following families of those killed and engaging in passionate discussions of international law and hounding the President and Congress. Sure, there are new wars to consider, but the old wars continue along with the old violations. Weaponized drones enacting 'targeted killing' remain in the vanguard. It is time for a resurgence in the anti-drone movement, and more consideration of the atrocities that result from so called 'targeted assassination' by the United Nations and International Human Rights NGOs, not to mention the mainstream press coverage
License To Kiss? The Politics of "Kiss of Love"
By K.P. Sasi
The ultimate fight is between love and war in India today. Right to Love is a Fundamental Right. Lovers in this country are left with no option but to unite! They have nothing to lose, but the chains of moral policemen controlled by the fascists! The ultimate fight against fascistic hatred will be with the politics of love! Hence the slogan for the youth must be `Make Love, Not (sanghpari)War’! Remember the old lines of the Hindi song: `Jab pyaar kiya to darna kya?’ What is there to fear when you love?
Why I Support The Kiss of Love’ Movement in India
By Merlin Flower
I’ve seen all my life: a. Men masturbating in the streets b. How men in India use the whole of India as a toilet, yet I have hardly witnessed couples, married or not, kiss in my country. There is something wrong in a culture that permits the anomaly. Equally, disastrous would it be to let the anomalies fester. Hail, kiss of love
The Psychology of Victimhood: Obama, Cameron, Netanyahu, Clinton, Kissinger
By Robert J. Burrowes
All perpetrators of violence are victims of violence who lack the courage to heal
Will The Blackmail of British Jewish Funders Backfire?
By Alan Hart
Question: What’s the difference between the Zionist lobby in America and the Zionist lobby in Britain?
Answer: In America it gives money to politicians to make them. In Britain it denies them money to break them
Endangering US Citizens, Gen. Dempsey Approves High Civilian Death Rate Military Tactics
By Robert Barsocchini
It is remarkable (and unfortunately typical) to witness a leading US militant like Dempsey, a family man with a wife, three children, and eight grandchildren, give his personal thumbs up to attacks that would kill not only US civilians, overwhelmingly so, but also his entire family
What A Blessed Day!
By Roshan Shah
45 year-old K. Sudhakaran runs a little shop, selling sweets, juice, cold-drinks and lottery tickets, in a market in Kanhangad, a town in northern Kerala. This soft-spoken, unassuming man shot into the news last year when he did something truly remarkable. One morning, P. Ashokan, a regular customer of his, called him up and asked him to set aside ten lottery tickets for him. Later that day, Sudharakan learned that one of those tickets had won the first prize—a whopping ten million rupees!
G20: Reviving The Call For A Global Financial Transaction Tax
By Kavaljit Singh
The Brisbane Summit offers an opportunity to civil society groups to renew the demand for a financial transaction tax (FTT). Not long ago, this issue was put on the table at Cannes Summit (2011) due to persistent campaigning by a range of international civil society groups. The Interim Report of the G-20 on Fair and Substantial Contribution by the Financial Sector (2010) had proposed a flat rate levy on all financial institutions and “financial activities tax” on profits and remuneration in order to pay for future financial clean-ups and reduce systemic risk. But the proposal got diluted at the G-20 meeting held at Busan (Korea) in June 2010, which called for implementation of the levy taking into account individual country’s circumstances and options
11 November , 2014
Battle For Kobanê At A Crossroads
By Serge Jordan
The gains of Rojava and the resistance in Kobanê have offered a potential bridge on the road of the Kurds for self-determination and, more generally, a possible reference point for reviving the struggle of workers and poor against the horrors of IS and of the dictatorial regimes in the Middle East. However, all the political complications and dangers of what has recently unfolded in this area need to be addressed, as a defeat of this struggle would, on the contrary, unleash further sufferings for the peoples of the region
The Endgame Of The US ‘Islamic State’ Strategy
By Nicola Nasser
Dismantling what the former US President George W. Bush once described as the Syria – Iran component of the “axis of evil,” or interrupting in Iraq the geographical contiguity of what King Abdullah II of Jordan once described as the “Shiite crescent,” was and remains the strategic goal of the US – Israeli allies in the Middle East unless they succeed first in “changing the regime” in either Damascus or Tehran
"One-State Solution" For Israel/Palestine
By Dr. Ludwig Watzal
Israel's economy minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of the right-wing party "The Jewish Home", published an article in the New York Times in which he buried the concept of a "two-state solution" as a way out of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Bennett does not belong to the radical Zionist fringe. Although he is an advocate of extremist colonial Zionist ideas, he is considered to be the successor of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. In his Op-ED, Bennett has made a mockery of the policy of the last 20 years, which was connected to the Oslo Accords and the two-state solution. His words won't bear fruit right now, but they might be in the future
US Commitment To Terror, Expansionism, Maintains Israel's Illegal Wall
By Robert Barsocchini
On the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall , Palestinians have tried to call attention to the wall that still exists, the illegal US-backed wall that Israel is building and using as one of its means of illegally annexing Palestinian territory. Dr. Noam Chomsky, for one, has pointed out that if the wall were about security and not illegal expansionism, it could simply be made gigantic and utterly impenetrable, and be put on Israel's legal border, which countries are allowed to do
Contaminating The Nation's Food: GM Food On The Shelves of UK Supermarkets
By Colin Todhunter
From the US to India, the GMO biotech industry appears to have a ‘contaminate first then push for regulatory authorisation later' policy. The contamination of our food seems to be a deliberate strategy of the industry
Lynching And Islamophobia
By Just Executive Committee
The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) strongly condemns the lynching and murder of a Pakistani Christian couple last week. Under the false pretext of committing ‘blasphemy’ for desecrating the Quran, for which there was no evidence, the couple was accused and brutally killed, all in one day. All of the evidence, on the other hand, suggests that this was principally an issue of exploited bonded labor attempting to escape their horrible plight
Kashmir, A Stranded Melancholy
By Suhail Qasim Mir
They call our land the paradise on the earth! But Kashmir has more to it, besides the snow-capped landscape, mellow streams and lush valleys. Oppression dwells here. The shrieks and cries inhabit the vast solitude. It’s frightening in Kashmir. There are blood graffiti’s on snow. Tyranny rules here. There is no value for life in Kashmir. People here, are subject to the worst inhumane atrocities. They are paying a price for being born in Kashmir
Imagine! Imagine For A Moment!
By Noor ul haq
Dear Indians, we Kashmiris hate you no more but we don't love you also. Blame your successive governments, trigger happy armed forces. Imagine, if this happens to you, will you love such foreign troops anymore. I am sure, you will hate that country not only the troops. Freedom for Kashmir is not only good for Kashmiris but for India as well. Think. Understand and Act. The recent killings at Chattergam where the Armymen who left two boys dead and two injured on November 3, fired 118 rounds at their Maruti car, with 28 bullets hitting the vehicle. No justice till date, but yes sorry we killed you!
The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision
By Mickey Z.
An Interview with Douglas Blanchard. The work he does in that studio is diverse, powerful, and a catalyst for new perspectives. This very much includes the 24 paintings of a contemporary Christ in a new book called The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision. Accompanied by text from minister and art historian Kittredge Cherry, the book is a transformative collaboration
It Has To Start From Home!
By Roshan Shah
One doesn’t have to do ‘enormous’ things for huge numbers of people in order to do or be good. As Mother Teresa so beautifully put it, “We can do no great things—only small things with great love”. And what better place to start this than one’s home? In fact, if it doesn’t start from there, it may not start anywhere! That’s what I’ve learnt from Tinki
Why This Celebration of Death?
By Premkumar Mani
When Asuras are a tribe, to defeat them or to kill their hero- how can it become a festival to celebrate? What sort of a psyche does that symbolize? If someone made a festival of the massacre in Gujarat or the massacres of Dalits in Bihar, or say, a celebration of the death of Bhumihars- how would that feel? Agreed that the hero of Asuras, Mahishasura, was killed by Durga and the Asuras were defeated but why does this have to be celebrated each year? You are actually insulting people through this festival
War Is Not For Soldiers
By David Swanson
We learn a lot about the real motives for wars when whistleblowers leak the minutes of secret meetings, or when congressional committees publish the records of hearings decades later.War planners write books.They make movies.They face investigations.Eventually the beans tend to get spilled.But I have never ever, not even once, heard of a private meeting in which top war makers discussed the need to keep a war going in order to benefit the soldiers fighting in it
Lenin: State And Revolution: Chapter 5 - Withering Away The State (Part Three) -- Review
By Thomas Riggins
Chapter 5 of State and Revolution has a brief introduction and four sections. Part Three of this review covers section four
10 November , 2014
US Steps Up Military Operations In Iraq, Syria
By Patrick Martin
US warplanes struck across a wide area of northern Syria and northern and western Iraq over the last four days, in the most extensive bombing since President Obama ordered US military intervention in the region three months ago. The Iraqi targets included a meeting of leaders of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) held outside Mosul, a city of two million, which destroyed a dozen vehicles and killed as many as 50 people. An Iraqi military spokesman claimed that the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been wounded in the strike, but the US military command said it could not confirm this
Saving The Planet, One Meal At A Time
By Chris Hedges
We have only a few years left, at best, to make radical changes to save ourselves from ecological meltdown. A person who is vegan will save 1,100 gallons of water, 20 pounds CO2 equivalent, 30 square feet of forested land, 45 pounds of grain, and one sentient animal’s life13 every day. We do not, given what lies ahead of us, have any other option
Oil Price Slide - No Good Way Out
By Gail Tverberg
The world is in a dangerous place now. A large share of oil sellers need the revenue from oil sales. They have to continue producing, regardless of how low oil prices go unless they are stopped by bankruptcy, revolution, or something else that gives them a very clear signal to stop. Producers of oil from US shale are in this category, as are most oil exporters, including many of the OPEC countries and Russia
The Collapse of Oil Prices And Energy Security in Europe
By Ugo Bardi
It is vital for Europe's energy security to invest in renewable energy. We shouldn't expect miracles from renewables, but they will be immensely helpful in the difficult times ahead
What Is The Carbon Limit? That Depends Who You Ask
By Fred Pearce
Scientists are offering widely varying estimates of how much carbon we can emit into the atmosphere without causing dangerous climate change. But establishing a so-called carbon budget is critical if we are to keep the planet a safe place to live in the coming century
Regenerative Agriculture: The Transition
By Chris Rhodes
In the face of peak oil and in order to curb carbon emissions, methods of farming that depend less on oil and natural gas, respectively to run machinery and to make synthetic fertilizers, must be sought. Such options are to be found within the framework of regenerative agriculture, but the transition from current industrialised agriculture to these alternative strategies will prove testing
Reversing Nehruvian Legacy: Blame Game of The BJP Government
By Ram Puniyani
If Nehruvian philosophy is rooted in secularism, pluralism, inclusion and scientific temper, Modi’s party’s is exactly the opposite. Nehru's abiding faith in Indian pluralism helped keep the nation united; his commitment to democracy and democratic institution-building meant that we never strayed down towards the path of dictatorship that afflicted so many other newly-independent nations
Feed The Poor, Go To Jail
By Subhash Gatade
Whether serving food to the homeless is a crime? Ask Arnold Arbott, known as Chef Arbott, a 90 year old man from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who along-with two other members of a Church charity faces potential jail term for at least six months for the same 'offence'. In fact his name finds prominent mention in the police records in the past week for breaking the new city ordinance which has come into effect recently which characterises his act as breach of law
09 November , 2014
Obama Doubles US Troop Strength In Iraq
By Patrick Martin
The Pentagon announced Friday that President Obama has approved sending another 1,500 troops to Iraq, effectively doubling the size of the US deployment there. The move is part of a rapid escalation of the war in Iraq and Syria, and comes only days after the US midterm elections
‘Forest Man’ From Kerala
By Roshan Shah
Almost 40 years ago, Abdul Kareem bought five acres of land in what was then a sparsely inhabited area in Kasargod district in Malabar, northern Kerala. Shortly after, he bought some more land, and in just a few years, his 30-odd acres were transformed into a thick, vibrant forest, making Abdul Kareem one of the few people in India to have actually created a forest—and that too almost single-handedly!
In Singapore , Afghanistan And The Arena Of Ideas
By Dr Hakim / Dr Teck Young, Wee
The unsustainable politics of concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few can be replaced by genuinely democratic, non-corporatized governance where the people, and not the ‘central governments' of today, decide how they can resolve all human conflicts without war
Paul Krugman And The Tortoise: Why The Limits To Growth Are Real
By Ugo Bardi
Paul Krugman seems to have created some kind of a similar paradox with a recent New York Times article (“Slow Steaming and the Limits to Growth”) where he sets out to demonstrate that the world's gross domestic product (GDP) can continue growing even while reducing energy production. He does that by means of the example of “slow steaming.”
Poison First, Regulate Later: The Criminality of The GMO Biotech Industry
By Colin Todhunter
The GM Contamination Register database has been run by Genewatch and Greenpeace for about ten years and contains cases dating from 1997 to the end of 2013 . The authors of a new paper, published in the International Journal of Food Contamination, analysed the 400 or so cases in the database by crop and country
Bonfire Night
By Gaither Stewart
Guy Fawkes, vilified in the English world, was a man unimpressed by royal rank. He plotted a regicide. He could have been the forerunner of Cromwell, and later the American and French Revolutions
Should India Legalize Sex Work?
By Kandathil Sebastian
A recent remark made by Lalitha Kumaramangalam, chairperson of the National Commission for Women in India about the need for legalization of sex work invited a huge controversy. Currently a special panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India is preparing potential amendments in the existing Indian laws to make sex work safe. There are many Indians - not just the moral right wing extremists but even the socialist feminists expressed concern about legalizing prostitution in India. This essay will examine their concerns and arguments to finally arrive at an opinion on what should be the best possible option ahead to protect the human rights of this hugely marginalized section of Indians
Inequality: Food Follows Class-line
By Farooque Chowdhury
Class doesn't allow anyone and anything to get out of its clutch. Food and health are not class-neutral areas. These, rather, have to faithfully follow class-line. Inequality is one of its outcomes. It's a fact not only from one or two countries like the UK and the US , but from scores of advanced capitalist countries, and the fact has emerged over a period of decades
Revoke Capital Punishment To Indian Fishermen In Sri Lanka
By Concerned Citizens
With the disturbing reports of the capital punishment awarded to Indian Fishermen in Sri Lanka, we all who believe and work for South Asian regional cooperation, coordination and harmony believe that Government of Sri Lanka must take concern of the fact that such punishment is not only a barrier and setback towards the larger objective of cooperation but also a setback in larger goal of humanity and justice
07 November , 2014
Climate Report Warns Of “Severe, Pervasive And Irreversible Impacts”
By Daniel de Vries
The International Panel on Climate Change concluded its latest round of assessment studies this week with a new report warning that the opportunity for action to limit some of the worst consequences of global warming is rapidly closing. The multi-year effort, which involved thousands of climate scientists from around the world, highlighted the growing risks to human society and the environment as fossil fuel use continues to add unprecedented amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
Ring The Bell: This Is Our Future
By John James
When the IPCC promises that mean world temperature will rise by between 3.7 and 4.8 degrees by the end of the century if we go on as we are, what would this actually mean to our daily reality? We are told the likely outcome in very general scientifically correct sentences, but what do these words mean in actual events we would have to live with?
Political Bunraku
By John Chuckman
Bunraku, as it happens, offers a remarkable metaphor for some contemporary operations of American foreign policy. So many times – in Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Venezuela, Egypt - we see dimly the actors on stage, yet we are supposed to pretend they are not there. We can’t identify them with precision, but we know they are there. Most oddly, the press in the United States, and to a lesser extent that of its various allies and dependents, pretends to report what is happening without ever mentioning the actors. They report only the movements of the puppets
Occupy Endurance: 3 Years Post-Eviction
By Mickey Z.
Shortly after occupiers were evicted from Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park on Nov. 14, 2011, I wrote an article about the importance of activist endurance. To follow are excerpts from that article… to help keep such sentiments alive
Why Predictions Of Ebb In 'Pink Tide' Proved Premature
By Federico Fuentes
Since the start of the year, numerous newspapers have dedicated article after article to predictions of a looming demise of the so-called “Pink Tide” The term “Pink Tide” is used to refer to the wave of left-of-center governments elected to power in Latin America during recent years. Instead, Sunday October 26 saw Brazilians re-elect Dilma Rousseff as president, ushering in a fourth consecutive Workers’ Party administration. That same day, voters in neighboring Uruguay handed the incumbent Broad Front (FA) a majority in both houses of parliament, and FA candidate Tabare Vasquez goes into the second round of the presidential elections as hot favorite after winning 49.5% of the vote in the first round
Building A New North American Partnership For The Future
By Dana Gabriel
The globalist controlled Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) have called on the U.S. to work more closely with Canada and Mexico to build a new North American partnership for the future. The pivot to North America would focus on greater trilateral cooperation in areas such as energy, economic competitiveness, border management, law enforcement and continental perimeter security. Throughout the years, the incremental steps towards a North American Union have been used to further chip away at the sovereignty of all three NAFTA countries
Chattegram Killings: Questions To Ponder Upon
By Abdul Majid Zargar
Kashmir’s tryst with peace has proved short lived yet again , thanks to the vacuous & barbaric killing of two young men Meraj-ud-Din Dar and Faisal Yusuf . As if the recent floods were not sufficient to devastate Kashmiris physically, emotionally & economically, the killing was thought necessary to notify them that besides God there is also a demon on earth to batter them. According to Army’s official version, the men travelling in a car did not stop on being signalled to do so and hence were fired upon resulting in instantaneous killing of two young men & critical injuries to two other young boys
Spaces of/for Oneness
By Roshan Shah
Institutions, organizations, events, situations and individuals that serve to bring together people from diverse religious and other backgrounds are precious, God-given opportunities to help us to get to know each other, shed our prejudices and celebrate our fundamental oneness, going beyond name and form, caste and creed
06 November , 2014
Washington Moving Towards Wider War In Iraq And Syria
By Bill Van Auken
There are new indications that Washington is moving toward a wider and protracted military intervention in the Middle East in the name of combating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In the wake of last weekend’s collapse of US-backed Syrian “rebels” in the face of an offensive by Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Al Nusra Front, plans are being prepared to extend the three-month-old US-led bombing campaign deeper into Syria. The ostensible purpose of these air strikes would be to provide air support for the Western-backed militias formed to prosecute the war for regime change against the government of President Bashar al-Assad
Obama's Secret Deals With Saudi Arabia & Qatar
By Eric Zuesse
What's Behind Lower Gas-Prices and the Bombings of Syria and of Eastern Ukraine: Obama Represents U.S. & Arabic Aristocracies, Against Those of Russia & Iran
Kobane And The Middle East Shell Game
By Judith Bello
The news about the US in the Middle East has been focused almost exclusively on the fight in Kobane for weeks. There has been a lot of conjecture in the papers about whether the rebels can be trained, whether they are moderate, whether they can fight, whether they exist at all separate from ISIS and Jabhat Al Nusra, the local Al Qaeda front
Is A Peaceful Resolution of The Israel-Palestine Conflict REALLY Possible?
By Alan Hart
I’ll begin my answer by saying that for some weeks I have been suppressing in my mind the conclusion that Palestine is a lost cause and that there is no point in me continuing to devote a great deal of time (as I have done for three decades) to writing books and articles which expose Zionism’s version of history – the version upon which the first and still existing draft of Western history is constructed – for the propaganda nonsense it mainly is. In other words I was close to concluding that I should close my Palestine file. And while I was debating with myself about whether or not to do so I could see only one most likely end-game scenario, in two parts
Political Prophecies: Sealing The Fate Of al-Aqsa
By Ramzy Baroud
Israel's decision to shut down al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday, 30 October, is not just a gross violation of the religious rights of Palestinian Muslims. It remains unclear what fate awaits al-Aqsa Mosque. Caught between Israeli annexation plans, raids of Jewish extremists, international silence and a history of bloodshed , al-Aqsa is facing difficult days ahead, as indeed are the people of Jerusalem, whose suffering, like their city, seems eternal
The Forgotten Palestinians
By Vacy Vlazna
The burden of alleviating the misery of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon lies heavy behind Olfat Mahmoud's dark eyes which have seen, both as a child and as a dynamic adult, 50 out of the 67 years of Nakba exile. Her children are fourth generation refugees. During a recent tour in Australia, Olfat spoke intensely of the desperate situation of the Forgotten Palestinians stuck in a stasis of statelessness
Restore The Kingdom Of Hawaii!
By Professor Francis A. Boyle
President Obama owes this to the Kanaka Maoli and the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was born here. He was raised here. He was educated here. President Obama lived the formative years of his life here in Hawaii. And at a minimum, he owes the Kanaka Maoli to recognize the Kingdom of Hawaii. But again, none of this will happen unless you all 135,000 Kanaka Maoli on that list, go to the Convention, vote to restore the Kingdom of Hawaii and set up a provisional government of national unity for it
Discovering Iran
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Marcel Proust said: “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” During the past two decades, I visited Iran on numerous occasions staying 10-14 days at a time. This time around, I stayed for 2 months and heeding Proust, I carried with me a fresh pair of eyes. I discarded both my Western lenses as well as my Iranian lenses and observed with objective eyes. It was a formidable journey that left me breathless
Yeh Kahan Aagaye Hum…..? Or The Indian Left’s Epic Journey Into Oblivion
By M. Vijaya Kumar
The Indian Left, with its glorious history of waging people’s struggles in the last 90 years, not withstanding its immense contribution to the political and cultural spheres, is today facing irreversible losses and what appears to be terminal decline. The Left’s role as leaders of mass movements and grass-roots mobilisations on people’s livelihood issues, is a thing of the past. It has lost the ability to wage people’s struggles on burning issues such as gross income and wealth inequalities, youth unemployment, drinking water, peasant struggles and such other critical issues. Its influence within the progressive intelligentsia is also on the wane
05 November , 2014
Republicans Win Control Of Senate In US Congressional Elections
By Patrick Martin
The Republican Party won control of the US Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, taking more than the six Democratic-held seats needed to obtain the 51 required for a majority. Republican candidates defeated incumbent Democratic senators in North Carolina, Arkansas and Iowa and won open Democratic seats in West Virginia, Iowa, South Dakota and Montana
Useful Liberal Illusions: From FDR To Obama
By Mickey Z.
While “everyday” citizens debate Obama’s socialism (sic), the poverty, the repression, the ecocide expands. As long as we choose to accept the two-party lie, the capitalist puppet masters will continue their reign of terror. To paraphrase a “certain admirable Italian gentlemen”: Fascism is corporatism
American Financial Markets Have No Relationship To Reality
By Paul Craig Roberts & Dave Kranzler
As we have demonstrated in previous articles, the bullion banks (primarily JP Morgan, HSBC, ScotiaMocatta, Barclays, UBS, and Deutsche Bank), most likely acting as agents for the Federal Reserve, have been systematically forcing down the price of gold since September 2011. Suppression of the gold price protects the US dollar against the extraordinary explosion in the growth of dollars and dollar-denominated debt
Why Libya?
By Robert Barsocchini
Following the standard US playbook, the Obama regime and its accomplices made up crimes to propagandize their populations into accepting illegal aggression and terrorism against Libya in 2011, and now ignore the actual crimes being committed in the Libya shoved, by the West, into “the abyss”
Inequality: Cheaper Bad Food For The Poor
By Farooque Chowdhury
Inequality in the area of food and health under capitalism is egregious. With bad food, bad health and difficult-to- or no-access to health services, the poor, the low-income people pay the inequality. It’s a payment made with life, and by the subaltern classes
Rajiv Gandhi: He Who Shall Not Be Named?!
By Simran Kaur
While there has been due (even if not sufficient) protest (even if not result) against the current Pogrom Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, this week's posts and analysis about 1984 are conspicuously silent on that heir-of-violence: Rajiv Gandhi
Upcoming Elections In Kashmir
By Adfar Shah
The first observation which needs to be highlighted is simply that the haste for conducting elections in Kashmir despite a massive flood disaster is nothing but the result of ego-politics and purely based on political motives
Uninformed Outrages Won’t Bring In Criminal Justice Reform
By Samar
This fact remains the biggest impediment to justice in India and will remain so till radical reforms are made in the system. The reforms will not come via such outrages, genuine or uninformed, but from a push from within. Until then, one can get justice for one Jessica Lal or Priyadarshini Matoo but not for the majority
04 November , 2014
Washington-Backed “Rebels” Surrender US Arms To Al Qaeda In Syria
By Bill Van Auken
Washington’s strategy in its three-month-old war in Iraq and Syria appeared to suffer another humiliating blow over the weekend as one of the last remaining strongholds of US-backed “moderate rebels” in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib fell to the Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda
How To Shrink The Economy Without Crashing It: A Ten-Point Plan
By Richard Heinberg
Managed contraction would almost certainly yield better outcomes than chaotic collapse—for everyone, elites included. If there is a theoretical pathway to a significantly smaller economy that does not pass through the harrowing wasteland of conflict, decay, and dissolution, we should try to identify it. The following modest ten-point plan is an attempt to do so
Climate Depression Is For Real. Just Ask A Scientist
By Madeleine Thomas
It’s only natural then that many climate scientists and activists often feel an extreme pressure to keep their emotions in check, even when out of the spotlight. For activists like Mike Tidwell — founder of the nonprofit Chesapeake Climate Action Network and author of The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Race to Save America’s Coastal Cities — part of being on the front lines means being outspoken and passionate about the cause. But while activism may be a more forgiving platform to express emotional stresses than within the scientific community, the personal toll of the work goes largely undiscussed
The Pressure To Escalate: The Phantasmagoric World of Washington
By Tom Engelhardt
You know what I’m talking about -- two issues on the lips of politicians nationwide, at the top of the news 24/7, and constantly trending on social media: ISIS and Ebola. Think of them as the two horsemen of the present American apocalypse
AFSPA And The 15th Year of Non-Violent Heroic Struggle of Irom Sharmia
By Ravi Nitesh
It is not an easy task that Irom Sharmila is doing. For the courts, when it was an ‘attempt to suicide’, for Irom Sharmila, probably it was one of the ‘reason’ to ‘live’. She is not aimless like many of us are. Unlike us, she has a reason and thought process and a decided goal for her life. Putting the life on fast with all known intention, motivation and clear objective towards making a society more humane, cannot be said as attempt to suicide, instead it is something that we all need in our lives
Doctoring History For Political Goals: Origin of Caste System in India
By Ram Puniyani
The rigidity and cruelty of the caste system and untouchability became very intense from the post-Vedic to Gupta period. Later, new social movements like Bhakti, directly, and Sufi, indirectly, partly reduced the intensity of the caste oppression and untouchability. This doctoring of the history by Sangh ideologues is motivated by their political agenda and tries to hide the truth
Sikh Carnage of 1984: Justice Not Compensation
By People's Union for Democratic Rights
People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) condemns the BJP government for reducing the quest for justice of the victims of anti Sikh carnage of 1984 into a cruel joke by engaging in competition for paying higher blood money to them. On the 30th year of 1984 sikh carnage, the Union Minister for Home Affairs, Rajnath Singh, announced that compensation to families of the victims killed was to be enhanced from existing Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs
Emerging Political Discourse And Marginalization of Dalits In India
By Dr. M. Mohibul Haque
This article is an attempt to burst the myths and deconstruct the truth/truths constructed by the ruling elites. This exercise of building a political discourse with the support of the so-called mainstream media is posing a threat to democracy, justice, peace, and freedom and therefore, it must be resisted before the resistance itself is criminalized
03 November , 2014
The Time To Act Is Now: IPCC Issues 'Final Word' On Climate Change
By Lauren McCauley
We must reduce global carbon emissions and we must do it now, concludes a landmark report released in Copenhagen on Sunday by the United Nations climate science body, the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change
What Will It Take To Go Beyond Extractivism?
By Federico Fuentes
The debate has led to the coining of the term “extractivism”. While almost non-existent in leftist discourse only a few years ago, extractivism has become a central focus for many progressives
A History Lesson: What ISIS Learned From IRGUN
By William A. Cook
There is an irony growing out of this conundrum: ISIS in Syria borders the Israeli state; the Islamic State as envisioned by ISIS includes areas designated for Eretz Israel. A battle of beliefs looms in the mid-East with both sides committed to their respective god given lands, both driven by fanatical believers in the righteousness of their cause, both determined to prevent the other from succeeding
Upheaval In WANA: Who Is Responsible?
By Chandra Muzaffar
WANA (West Asia and North Africa) has been engulfed in turmoil and upheaval for decades. What are the root causes of instability in this vital region of the world? An objective analysis would reveal that the elite interests of two states in WANA, Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the drive for dominance and control over the region by the United States and its allies lie at the root of the perpetual conflict and violence that has brought so much death and destruction to WANA
On The List
By Kathy Kelly
Later that afternoon, when I returned from running an errand, two more women wearing burkas were sitting downstairs; several more were upstairs. They will come, constantly, persistently, desperately. I wish they could knock on the gates of the Pentagon, and refuse to go away. Actually, they have something in common with U.S. military generals who won't go away either. The Pentagon has requested $58.6 billion, for Fiscal Year 2015 , to fund U.S. troops in Afghanistan
Extremists Execute Up To 30,000 Surrendered Soldiers And Civilians
By Robert Barsocchini
Militant extremists executed up to thirty-thousand surrendered soldiers and civilians along a single stretch of desolate highway between Iraq and Kuwait. The extremist group calls itself USA – United States of America. The year was 1991, and this massacre came to be know as the “Highway of Death”…
The Subjugation Of India By The US Rests On Monsanto's Control Of Agriculture
By Colin Todhunter
After a study of GMOs over a four-year plus period, India's multi-party Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture recommended a ban on GM food crops stating they had no role in a country of small farmers. The Supreme Court appointed a technical expert committee (TEC), which recommended an indefinite moratorium on the field trials of GM crops until the government devised a proper regulatory and safety mechanism. As yet, no such mechanism exists, but open field trials are being given the go ahead. GMO crops approved for field trials include rice, maize, chickpea, sugarcane, and brinjal
Koodankulam: Corruption To Impending Disaster – The Missing Link?
By Dr. V. Prakash
Now it is an agreed fact by NPCIL, Rosatom and Russian Embassy, that there is certain problem in the turbine. The plant, which faced an unplanned shut down on September 16, 2014 may resume operation by end of November or end of December
What Speaks The Speaking Tree? Koodankulam Nuclear Reactor
During Its One Year Of Grid Connection
By VT Padmanabhan, R Ramesh, V Pugazhendi, & Joseph Makkoli
The first unit of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP-1) attained criticality on 15 Jul 2013 and was grid connected on 22 Oct 2013. During the 365 days since grid connection, the reactor was under outage for 106 days and on maintenance shut-down for 64 days. It generated 2825 million units (MU) of electricity and consumed 538 MU for house-load (own consumption). The original plan to start commercial generation on 22nd April 2014, six months after its grid connection was postponed twice to 22nd Jul 14 and 22nd Oct 14. Now that the reactor has been shudt down on 25 Sep 14 for repair/replacement of turbo-generator, there is no burden of any deadline
Unclear Nuclear Issues
By S.G.Vombatkere
In the background of the adage that there are more questions that a fool can ask than a wise man can answer, this fool asks some questions of nuclear scientists and engineers
As Irom Sharmila's Fast Reaches 15 Years Where Do We Stand On AFSPA
By Pankaj Pathak
On the eve of 5th November when iron lady Irom Sharmila started her fast 15 years back for revocation of AFSPA from Manipur, ‘SAVE SHARMILA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIN’ (SSSC) is writing letters to each parliamentarian to express his views on this issue and raise this issue in winter session of parliament. We are also ensuring to meet or convey our message to chief of state leaders of all the parties contesting polls in J&K. Our demand is to include the promise of removal of the AFSPA in time bound manner from J&K in their manifesto in upcoming elections
Human Trafficking In India
By Jaffer Latief Najar
Human trafficking is one of the major concern of twenty first century that has taken a rapid pace with the advent of the free movement and free trade under the shadow of globalisation. One should not be confuse about Human Trafficking as a form of human smuggling and migration. On the one side, smuggling involves illicit crossing of nation-state border with proper intention and concensus of the indiviual and migration is nothing, but voluntary movement of indiviuals. On the other side, Human-trafficking has been subjected to the act without the wishes of the indiviuals leading to vulnerability and exploitation
Statement On The Recent Communal Disturbances In Trilokpuri
By People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (P.A.D.S)
Members of P.A.D.S. have been interacting with and visiting residents of Trilokpuri ever since the communal disturbances started on Oct 23. Along with many other citizens we are involved in efforts to re-establish peace and in providing legal aid to those wrongfully arrested. This statement is based on our experiences
Kandizal Breach: Victim Of Political Compulsions
By Abdul Majid Zargar
The admission by Chief Minster Omar Abdullah , in an interview published in Khaleej Times of 19th October 2014, about the brazen role of MLA Chadoora, Javaid Mustafa Mir in obstructing the breach of Kandizal area as per the standard operating procedure ,raises some pertinent questions
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