Israeli and Syrian forces exchanged fire across the cease-fire line in the Golan Heights yesterday, amid rising US and Israeli threats of intervention in the US-led sectarian proxy war in Syria, which is rapidly spreading throughout the region
In Bahrain, An Uprising Unabated
By Husain Abdulla
More than two years after peaceful demonstrators took to the streets to demand reforms, Bahrain’s uprising has not abated. Activists and opposition groups continue to demand the basic human rights and political reforms promised to them by their government. Rather than meet the opposition’s calls for reform, the government of Bahrain has responded by subjecting citizens to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, interrogation, torture, and abuse
NASA Scientists On 400 ppm CO2
By Countercurrents.org
The global concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere -- the primary driver of recent climate change -- has reached 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in recorded history, according to data from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii . The following scientists at NASA were asked what passing 400 ppm means to them:
Angelina Jolie, Corporate Science, And “Prevention”
By Mickey Z
While I support Angelina Jolie’s right to do what she pleases with her body, I can’t help but imagine how incredibly valuable it could’ve been if someone as high-profile as she were not raising “public awareness of the genetic testing she used, as well as concerns about insurance coverage for this kind of testing.” Imagine if she instead called a press conference to raise public awareness of the role corporate power plays in creating epidemics of preventable diseases
So Many Of My Friends Coming Down With Cancer
By Frosty Wooldridge
In the past 10 months, nine of my friends contracted cancer in many of its various forms: kidney, stomach, breast, prostate, colorectal, bladder, Hodgkin’s, liver, ovarian and skin cancers. All of them struggle for their lives as you read this column
37 Ways Of Tackling Australian Educational Apartheid And Social Inequity
By Dr Gideon Polya
Before one dollar is spent on Gonski-style education "reforms", there are many urgent educational procedural reforms that should be introduced that will either not actually cost anything or cost very little but will dramatically address Educational Apartheid, functional illiteracy and functional innumeracy. Below is a list of 37 zero- or low-cost things that can and should be done now to radically improve pre-tertiary education in Australia
The Confused Pashtun
By Iqbal Ahmed Khan
Imran Khan’s Pakistani Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party is taking over the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) bordering Afghanistan. At this point it is necessary to dispel a couple of myths that already seem to have accompanied the victory. But such an exercise must necessarily begin with an explanation of the reasons for the defeat of the former provincial ruling party, the Pashtun nationalist, Awami National Party (ANP). What this article will argue is that on the one hand, the PTI is filling in a vacuum left behind by a collapsing Pashtun nationalism. And on the other, it will attempt to get rid of a few misconceptions about the PTI’s victory and the Taliban that will arise as a result of the PTI’s gains in KPK
The Koodankulam Mystery : Indian Officials’ Exodus
By People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy
It is beyond any doubt that there has been massive theft, financial irregularities, corruption and wastefulness in the Koodankulam nuclear power project (KKNPP). In this day and age of scientific corruption, asking the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for the income and assets details of some of the senior leaders of the Indian nuclear establishment would be useless as they would vehemently defend themselves with the help of their political patrons and they all would protect each other. We would rather point out the intriguing change of guard that took place at Koodankulam and in the Indian nuclear establishment last year and request you to draw your own conclusions
21 May ,2013
Bangladeshi Police Attack Garment Workers’ Protest
By K. Ratnayake
Police fired rubber bullets on tens of thousands of protesting Bangladeshi garment workers in the Ashulia industrial belt near Dhaka yesterday, injuring at least fifty. Workers were protesting to demand higher wages and safe working conditions. They were also demanding the death penalty for the owner of the Rana Plaza clothing factory that collapsed on April 24, killing 1,127 garment workers, according to official figures
Let Your Life Be A Friction To Stop The Machine
Hope From The Margins
By Gustavo Esteva
These notes offer a quick glance to ways, in the south of Mexico, in which people are regenerating the society from the bottom up. It is a new kind of revolution without leaders or vanguards, which goes beyond development and globalization. It is about displacing the economy from the center of social life, reclaiming a communal way of being, encouraging radical pluralism, and advancing towards real democracy
What Kind Of Example Is Canada Setting?
By Brent Blackwelder
Many have tried to influence Harper to do what’s best for the environment and the economy over the long run. If the saying is true that, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” then maybe it’s time to put Harper out to political pasture. Although with the policies he’s been supporting, he might have a tough time finding drinkable water in that pasture
Standing Up To The ‘Land Grabbing' Foresters In Mozambique
By Hazel Healy
Forestry companies want to carve up Mozambique 's northern highlands. Peasants and their allies are working to hold them accountable. Following is an investigation
On the Road To Damascus
By Antonio C. S Rosa
I participated, May 1-11, 2013 in the Mussalaha International Peace Delegation to Lebanon-Syria alongside fellow TRANSCEND member Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, from Ireland , and 15 others from eight countries. Keenly aware of my responsibility, especially to my newly made Syrian and Lebanese friends left behind, I shall try to report, describe, make sense of what I saw, heard and experienced; also offer views and insights based on interviews. However, this report will take more than one article
Tales In A Kabul Restaurant
By Kathy Kelly
Last night, at a restaurant in Kabul, I and two friends from the Afghan Peace Volunteers met with five Pashtun men from Afghanistan’s northern and eastern provinces. The men had agreed to tell us about their experiences living in areas affected by regular drone attacks, aerial bombings and night raids. Each of them noted that they also fear Taliban threats and attacks. “What can we do,” they asked, “when both sides are targeting us?”
Chemical Weapons Abuser Deplores Use Of Chemical Weapons
By Jason Hirthler
The administration’s behavior on chemical weapons is morally absurd
Jump Off The Treadmill Of Defeat!
By John Spritzler
Jumping off the treadmill of defeat means building a revolutionary movement--revolutionary in the sense that it has the revolutionary goal of creating a much better kind of society, one in which there are no rich and no poor because everybody who works according to ability
America's Greatest Challenge
By Timothy Gatto
It is our duty as citizen’s to educate those who are currently ignorant in the present situation. There is no free lunch when it comes to this. Either we will rise to the occasion or give away our freedom and prosperity to those who will take it from us. This is the challenge we as Americans face
Another Kenyan Stolen Election
By Thomas C. Mountain
That the fix was in was confirmed when the Godfather himself, son of a Kenyan, Barack Obama, called Uhuru Kenyatta, indicted for “Crimes Against Humanity” by those minions of Pax Americana, the International Criminal Court, to congratulate him for successfully conducting another Kenyan stolen election
Mountbatten - Jinnah Talks On Kashmir
By Abdul Majid Zargar
In a glittering function held to commemorate the 25th year of existential journey of Daily Greater Kashmir, A. G. Noorani stirred a fresh controversy by blaming Jinnah to ignore a proposal from Mountbatten in November 47 negotiations which would have awarded Kashmir to Pakistan in lieu of its forsaking claim on Junagarh & Hyderabad
20 May ,2013
European Powers Fund Al Qaeda Looting Of Syrian Oil
By Johannes Stern
According to a report yesterday in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, the European Union (EU) is directly funding US-backed Sunni Islamist terrorist groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. These groups are looting oil in parts of eastern Syria that they control and then re-selling it to EU countries at rock-bottom prices
Climate Crisis: Disaster Looms
By Countercurrents.org
Citing a new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience The Guardian, reported , global warming would lead to catastrophe across large swaths of the Earth, causing droughts, storms, floods and heatwaves, and drastic effects on agricultural productivity leading to secondary effects such as mass migration. Alexander Otto, at the University of Oxford, lead author of the research, told the Guardian most of the climate change models used by scientists were "pretty accurate"
The Case For Hope, Continued
By Rebecca Solnit
There are so many pieces of the potential solution to this puzzle, and some of them are for you to put together. Whether they will multiply or ever add up to enough we don’t yet know. We need more: more people, more transformations, more ways to conquer and dismantle the oil companies, more of a vision of what is at stake, more of the great force that is civil society. Will we get it? I don’t know. Neither do you. Anything could happen
Nepal, Climate Change And Brick Factories
By Stephen Bailey
You need a bit of height to appreciate the size of a brick factory. You need to get close to appreciate the human cost. From a hill over Duwakot you can see people labouring in the grey mud beneath the towering chimney. Down in the factory you can see the weather beaten faces, deformed hands, and grueling work in terrible conditions. There are factories like this all over Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, which has become an air pollution disaster zone
Book Review: Dr. Muhammad Qasim–The Victim Of Political Vendetta
By Abdul Majid Zargar
Dr. Qasim Faktoo’s incarceration is one such gory story. His details of long detention are revealed in a recently released book titled Dr. Muhammad Qasim–the victim of political Vendetta
19 May ,2013
Profits vs. Disaster In Arctic Meltdown
By Stephen Leahy
The ARR report is a two-year collaboration between experts in the Nordic countries, Russia , Canada and the United States , and includes indigenous perspectives. It is a cutting edge assessment of how changes in climate, ecosystems, economics, and society interact. The report was prepared for and released at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Kiruna , Sweden on last Wednesday. “What is happening in the Arctic has profound implications for every part of the world,” said Sarah Cornell, lead author of the study
Afghanistan War May End By 2024, May Be
By Jack A. Smith
Hamid Karzai has let the Pentagon’s cat out of the bag — to the displeasure of the Obama Administration. The Afghan president revealed inside information about President Obama’s war plans after all U.S. “combat troops” completely withdraw in 17 months at the end of 2014. As was known in recent years, the Obama Administration actually plans to keep troops in Afghanistan after the “withdrawal” at least to 2024
Vermont's New Choice For Death With Dignity
By Mary Shaw
On May 13, the Vermont state legislature passed a bill that legalizes physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients whose suffering has become unbearable but who are capable of making an informed consent on their own behalf. Governor Peter Shumlin has indicated that he will sign the bill into law
IF Our Re-elected Prez Is WarCriminal, What Are We? King Would Have Asked!
By Jay Janson
Cornel West, most outspoken anti-imperialist and defender of Black and minority civil rights since Martin Luther King now says Obama is a war criminal, a black puppet of corporate plutocrats, head of the US killing machine. Will West tell us that King said America, Americans, are responsible for the atrocity wars, being capable of making them unacceptable and inoperable through non-participation and conscientious objection?
Polluted Rivers Worry The Majhi Community
By Sangeetha Rajeesh
Fish might form just a minor intake in the overall diet; nonetheless, it is a very important source of protein for a community living in poverty. But, polluted rivers, destructive fishing practices and overfishing has resulted in declining fish stocks posing a threat to the very survival of the Majhi
Lest We Forget Mubina Ghani
By Abdul Majid Zargar
Thousands of rapes have been committed by security forces in Kashmir since 1990 and one such rape of a young bride, Mubina Ghani of Muhripora, District Islamabad, Kashmir is and will be remembered for long because it changed the whole tradition of celebrating the marriages and transporting “Barats”during night time
Corruption And Congress
By Abdul Majid Zargar
With every passing day, the name congress is becoming synonymous with word corruption . The latest one-coal gate scam comes close on the heels of Commonwealth Games scam, 2G scam, Helicopter scam. It appears that Corruption in India has acquired wings not wheels
Asghar Ali Engineer - His Life Was Gentle; And The Elements…
By Syed Al Mujataba
Asghar Ali Engineer was not simply an armed chaired theoretician but also a grassroots worker who actually saw the developments on the ground and made his observations and comments. This makes his position much above the ranks and files of the scholars who have made their own distinct contributions
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer: A Tribute ToThe Departed Soul
By Asad Bin Saif
With his death the country and the community has lost a great visionary who visualized the future of the country and had articulated those vision through his writings and activism. His faith on humanity and integrity of purpose remained ever alive and pursued it with abiding zeal in his entire life
86 Million Pakistani Voters Turn Down Extremists
By Sarfraz Ali
Pakistan's 2013 elections have spelled doom for all banned outfits as more than its 62 election candidates who vied for 70 seats failed to clinch even a single one out of total 849 seats of national and provincial assembly constituencies in Pakistan
18 May ,2013
UN General Assembly Vote Reflects Shift In Syrian Public Opinion
By Franklin Lamb
After nearly 27 months of turmoil, the public opinion pendulum is markedly shifting back in support of the current regime. One international political result was registered at the United Nations this past week when a US-Qatari-Saudi drafted General Assembly Resolution that was designed to increase pressure on the Assad government stumbled badly and fell far short of what the Saudi Ambassador to the UN and other US allies predicted would be an overwhelming vote in favor
Guatemala's Ríos Montt Genocide Conviction
Omen For US Presidents And Their Hired Assassins
By Jay Janson
Presiding Judge, "he knew about everything that was going on and he did not stop it, despite having the power to stop it from being carried out." US President Ronald Reagan also had the power, greater power, to stop the massacres being perpetrated by dictator General and President Ríos Montt. Instead visited him in Guatemala City and praised Rios Montt as “a man of great personal integrity and commitment. Who was more guilty?
Crime and Punishment : Torturers Face Trial
By Farooque Chowdhury
A tyrant or a torturer facing trial was unimaginable in the 1950s and ‘60s and ‘70s. But trials of tyrants are not strange now. Efrain Rios Montt, a former Guatemalan general, has been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. The 86-year-old's serving term of 80 years in prison has already begun
Himalayas Among The Biggest Ice Losers
By Countercurrents.org
While 99 percent of Earth's land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the remaining ice in the world's glaciers contributed just as much to sea rise as the two ice sheets combined from 2003 to 2009, says a new study led by Clark University and involving the University Colorado Boulder
Keep The Arctic Cold
By Subhankar Banerjee
A letter from Subhankar Banerjee
Inspiring And Courageous: Popular Resistance Percolates Throughout The Land
By Kevin Zeese & Margaret Flowers
Every week we are inspired by the many people throughout the country who are doing excellent work to challenge the power structure and put forward a new path for the country. The popular resistance to plutocracy, concentrated wealth and corporatism is decentralized, creative and growing
Postcard From The End Of America : Scranton
By Linh Dinh
In our media, working class people are endlessly caricatured as ignorant and racist buffoons, so they only have themselves to blame if they're struggling. Too stupid, lazy, drunk, drugged up, spoiled and fat, they deserve to have their jobs taken by illegal immigrants, though of course even American engineers, computer technicians and doctors are deliberately being displaced by foreign imports. Our ruling class has employed this strategy for a very long time
Al Nakba And Canada
By Mazin Al Nahawi
It is a shame that John Baird and his boss Stephen Harper haven't learned yet from Canada's colonial past
Breaking The Rules Of The Gender Game
By Neerja Dasani
The voices of change are gradually getting louder and louder. An inspiring instance of this is the ‘Who Needs Feminism?’ campaign that began at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, but has since caught on in many other places, including some close to home, like Lahore. A student-led initiative, the campaign consists quite simply of a series of photographs of people holding up signs stating their reasons for supporting feminism
Greenpeace Activists Take Solar Power To Delhi Power Minister Haroon Yusuf
By Green Peace India
Delhi’s Power Minister Haroon Yusuf was in for a shock on the morning of May 15 when Greenpeace activists decided to deliver a powerful message to him. To make their point that clean energy can solve Delhi’s energy deficit, they wheeled in a set of solar panels in front of the Minister’s residence and then chained themselves to it
Mainstream Media Acrostic
By Gary Corseri
A poem by Gary Corseri
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer: A Tribute To The Departed Soul
By Asad Bin Saif
With his death the country and the community has lost a great visionary who visualized the future of the country and had articulated those vision through his writings and activism
16 May ,2013
US-Backed Opposition Fighter Cannibalize Syrian Soldier
By Alex Lantier
A gruesome video posted on YouTube shows Khalid al-Hamad, the leader of the opposition Farouq Brigade, desecrating the corpse of a Syrian soldier, cutting out his internal organs and biting into one of them. The video makes clear the barbaric character of the Sunni Islamist militias Washington has mobilized in its proxy war against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The video was made to terrorize Syria’s Shiite Alawite community, from which most of the Assad government is drawn, and to encourage donations from the Farouq Brigade’s financial backers in the Persian Gulf oil sheikhdoms
European Parliament Resolution On Guantánamo: Hunger Strike By Prisoners
Full text of the resolution
The Collapse Of Journalism And The Journalism Of Collapse
By Robert Jensen
We have no choice but to deal with the collapse of journalism, but we also should recognize the need for a journalism of collapse. Everyone understands that economic changes are forcing a refashioning of the journalism profession. It's long past time for everyone to pay attention to how multiple, cascading ecological crises should be changing professional journalism's mission in even more dramatic fashion
The Corporate Enclosure Of Seeds Intensifies
By David Bollier
In a sign of how far the forces of enclosure have come, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that re-using seeds that are patented, knowingly or not, amounts to an act of piracy. Of course, re-using seeds has been the tradition in agriculture for millennia, just as re-using songs and text is an essential element of culture
Why I’m Marking Passing 400 ppm By Getting Back On An Aeroplane
By Rob Hopkins
What haunts me every day, and no doubt will for the rest of my days, is what I will reply to my grandchildren when they ask me what I did during the time when climate change could have been brought under some sort of control, when the necessary changes could have been put in place to create a low-carbon, resilient and thriving culture that nurtured healthy human cultures. Was I as effective as I could have been? Did I do everything I could have? Having reflected on this for some time, it feels churlish to decline an opportunity that could potentially have a far greater positive impact than the negative impact of the flight
Climate Crisis Is Man Made, Scientists Nearly Unanimous
By Countercurrents.org
More than 97% of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals agreed that climate change is caused by human activity. A survey analyzed the evolution of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) in the peer-reviewed scientific literature examining 11, 944 climate change related papers by 29,000 scientists from the period of 1991–2011. It found 97.1% agreed that climate change is caused by human activity
Rich- Poor Gap Widens In Rich Countries, Finds OECD
By Countercurrents.org
The gap between rich and poor widened more in the three years to 2010 than in the previous 12 years, said OECD, the group of industrialized nations. According to an OECD report released on May 15, 2013, the richest 10% of society in the 33 OECD countries received 9.5 times that of the poorest in terms of income, up from nine times in 2007
Israel, Hawking And The Pressing Question Of Boycott
By Ramzy Baroud
It is an event “of cosmic proportions”, said one Palestinian academic, a befitting description regarding Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott an Israeli academic conference slated for next June. It was also a decisive moral call which was communicated on May 8 by Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor
15 May ,2013
100th Day Of Guantanamo Hunger Strike This Friday
By Green Shadow Cabinet , Justice Branch
As the hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay approach their 100th day of refusing to eat this Friday, May 17, we urge President Obama to take specific steps now to release or transfer prisoners and close the prison
Climate Change’s ‘Evil Twin’: Ocean Acidification
By Carol Smith
The primary driver of this acidification is the ocean’s uptake of carbon dioxide. When carbon-rich materials such as coal or oil are burned, some of the CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, slowing its build-up in the atmosphere and the pace of human-induced climate warming, but at the same time increasing seawater acidity. As a result of this process, the average acidity of surface ocean waters worldwide is now about 30 percent higher than at the start of the Industrial Revolution, say the experts
Moronic Oxymorons In The Age Of Climate Change
By Rob Dietz
It’s tempting to accept the clever slogans and magical “solutions” that bombard us all the time. After all, it sounds like “clean coal” is just the resource to power “sustainable growth.” You can have your cake and eat it too! But at 400 parts per million, the time for self deception and denial has passed. So has the time for buying moronic oxymorons
Extensive Glacial Retreat In Mount Everest While World Enters Danger Zone
By Countercurrents.org
Mount Everest is shedding its frozen cloak while the historic peak level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will soon become the global annual average as the world enters danger zone in terms of CO2
The Economy Of Wastefulness: The Biology Of The Commons
By Andreas Weber
There is an all-enclosing commons-economy which has been successful for billions of years: the biosphere. Its ecology is the terrestrial household of energy, matter, beings, relationships and meanings which contains any manmade economy and only allows for it to exist. Sunlight, oxygen, drinking water, climate, soil and energy – the products and processes of this household – also nourish the Homo economicus of our time who, despite all his technological and economical progress, still feeds on products of the biosphere
Bangladesh Factory Disaster: Why Garment Factories Turn Into Killing Field?
By Anu Muhammad
The garment industry must be confronted within its global context. After all, when workers are victims of a global, blood-thirsty system where vampires rule the world, a global alliance of resistance is desperately needed
The Reformist As Pacifist: Asghar Ali Engineer’s Islam
By Farzana Versey
Let not the fact that they buried him in the Sunni graveyard, where his Leftist friends are interred, mislead anyone into believing that Asghar Ali Engineer was a Communist. It was a pragmatic wish upon which the decision was taken. He died on May 14. The Dawoodi Bohra community to which he belonged would not have accepted his last remains, much as they did not acknowledge him in life. He was excommunicated. However, he was much more than a nemesis of the Syedna, the spiritual head of the community
Uniting The Nation: Asghar Ali Engineer’s Struggle For Preservation Of Plural Ethos
By Ram Puniyani
Engineer was a student when Jabalpore riots took place. It clearly left a deep mark on him. The imprint of this tragedy got reflected in his social engagement with the issues related to communal violence and communal politics all through. His talks and articles reflect about the impact of Jabalpur violence, its impact on nation and its influence on the conscience keeper of the nation, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. Engineer’s work on the issue of communal violence, communal ideology and communalization of society spans on a vast canvass and will easily fill volumes
A Cracked Pot
By Rev’d Barnabas J Alexander
The Christian gospel has empowered the downtrodden. Sadly, however, the power of the gospel has been impotent to decouple caste and faith. Ambedkar was accurate in his analysis. Indian Christianity is yet to be born again from its caste prejudice
14 May ,2013
Nakba: Then And Now
By Dr Salim Nazzal
These days Palestinians are commemorating the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. It is a hard time for those who lived the ethnic cleansing campaign in 1948 to recall its tragic events. However, when we talk about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, we do not only refer to the huge ethnic cleansing which took place in 1948 .We also refer to the continuous campaign of land grab, and current occupation and oppression
Uri Avnery's Specious Attack On The One State Solution
By John Spritzler
Uri Avnery may be the most sophisticated defender of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He defends this ethnic cleansing while posing as a great friend and sympathizer of Palestinians, supposedly proven by his opposition to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and support for a "two state solution."
Racism And Sexual Violence In Indonesia
By Andre Vltchek
For almost 50 years now, the daughters of Indonesia, Chinese and of other races, are walking on very thin ice; a bizarre image for this hot and tropical country. They still seem to be fragile, uncertain and thoroughly unprotected
Bye-Bye Baby Boomers
By Carolyn Baker
A May 2 article in the New York Times “Suicide Rates Rise Sharply In US” informed us that not only have suicide rates increased in the past decade among teens and the elderly, but more surprisingly, they have surged among the baby boomers. Ten days later, an article on the Alternet website asks, “Is Cutthroat Capitalism Pushing A Growing Number Of Baby Boomers To Suicide?” Certainly, we might expect adolescents and the elderly to take their own lives, but why baby boomers—people in the 35-70 age bracket?
Burma: Lest We Don’t See, A Genocide Is In The Making
By Bonojit Hussain
Since the summer of 2012 Burma has seen pogroms, massacres, riots of unprecedented scale against religious minorities, the latest being on the 30th April. Few hundreds have been killed and few hundred thousands have been rendered homeless
Hefazat-e-Jamaat , Nothing Else ! On the Recent Developments in Bangladesh
By Subhash Gatade
Despite all their tantrums - raising the bogey of 'Islam being in danger' through Hefazat-e-Islam and other similar desperate acts, whether the Jamaatis would be ever able to obfuscate their crimes which they committed during B'desh's war of independence? It seems impossible. In fact, as far as their gory past is concerned it would come back to haunt them again and again as the latest judgment by the War Crimes Tribunal demonstrates
Jeremy Scahill; Other Side Of The Barrel Of The Gun
By Nozomi Hayase
Who are these independent journalists who go behind the lines to bring the uncomfortable truth of the moral bankruptcy of war? The depth of Jeremy's integrity reminds us how the foundation of such a profession must be grounded in one's identity as an ordinary citizen who responds to others in recognition of our common humanity. Dirty Wars brings us the voices of those who are innocent victims of America's declared global battlefield. Jeremy Scahill said that journalism needs to speak from the other side of the barrel of the gun. That evening, I saw one of America's finest journalists do just that
Where Can I Save My Money? Please Tell Me, My Lord!
By Nisha Biswas
This is a true story. And like, every true story, this story is of many Kamalas, Suchitras and Kavitas who labor in our homes for pittances. All these Kamalas, Suchitras and Kavitas are born in families that are above Sarkari poverty line, but do not have the skills of Ms Sheela Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi, to live happily in meager income of Rupees six hundred per month. Therefore, they start laboring from an early age in our homes. The age can be as young as five, but surely below eighteen
Allah Baksh: Unsung Hero Of India's Freedom Struggle
By Shamsul Islam
On this May 14, 2013 falls the 70th anniversary of the martyrdom of one of the greatest freedom fighters of India, Allah Baksh. He lived and sacrificed his life for a free and all inclusive India
Indo-Pak Talks: The Fresh Initiative
By Abdul Majid Zargar
And for once Prime Minster Manmohan Singh deserves kudos for taking a bold initiative by inviting Nawaz Sharief, Prime Minster –in-waiting of Pakistan to Visit India at a mutually convenient date. That gesture has been well reciprocated by Nawaz Sharief. In a media interview he said that a new round of talks will be resumed with India on the issue of Kashmir, and that ties with neighboring countries will also be strengthened
Pakistan Elections Do Not Augur Well For President Zardari
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Many surprises sprung by May 11 elections in Pakistan will have grave repercussions for the political spectrum with the Pakistan People's Party confined to Sindh, the Awami National Party facing a split and President Asif Ali Zardari denied a second term in office, says Shaheen Sehbani of The News
13 May ,2013
Nuclear Terror In The Middle East
By Nick Turse
Iranian cities -- owing to geography, climate, building construction, and population densities -- are particularly vulnerable to nuclear attack, according to a new study, “Nuclear War Between Israel and Iran: Lethality Beyond the Pale,” published in the journal Conflict & Health by researchers from the University of Georgia and Harvard University. It is the first publicly released scientific assessment of what a nuclear attack in the Middle East might actually mean for people in the region
Syria Endgame Approaching Fast
By Shamus Cooke
The tempo of events in Syria has accelerated in recent weeks. The government forces have scored significant battlefield victories over the rebels, and this has provoked a mixture of war provocations and peace offers from the U.S. and its anti-Assad allies
Does The American Jewish Community Really Want
A Large-Scale General War In The Middle East?
By John Scales Avery
A large-scale general war in the Middle East would be a catastrophe for everyone involved. It would be a catastrophe for Syria. Iraq and Iran; a catastrophe for the other Islamic states of the Middle East; a catastrophe for Pakistan and Russia, should they become involved; and a catastrophe for Israel and the United States. In fact, all of the peoples of the world would suffer
Antiwars Belatedly Cry Meaninglessly "Hands Off Syria!"
Never “Nuremberg Trial For Americans!”
By Jay Janson
Antiwar leaders do not call for the prosecution of US homicidal crimes against humanity ALREADY committed in Syria, nor of crimes committed in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Cuba, Lebanon, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala, Congo, Korea and Greece. Crimes committed without arrest, arraignment, indictment, punishment, imprisonment, or hanging
The Samson Complex: Israel Again Rebuffs Peace With The Arab World
By Jonathan Cook
Washington's reputation as an "honest broker" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in tatters after four years of indulging Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intransigence. The Obama administration desperately needs to resurrect a credible peace process
Lebanon Greets The Special Rapporteur For Palestine, Richard Falk, With An Ear Full
By Franklin Lamb
If Professor Falk was weary as he left Lebanon from all the data, visits, and wrenching experiences he was presented with, it would be understandable. But the humanitarian and scholar he showed no signs of fatigue but rather appeared to be energized by the experience. Given his history as a supporter of resistance to occupation and oppression, Richard Falk's assurances that he will continue his work armed with the above sampling of data offers new hope for Palestinian and Syrian refugees from Syria and to those who support their Right and Responsibility to Return to Palestine
Woman Worker Rescued Alive 17 Days After The Bangladesh Building Collapse
By Countercurrents.org
Reshma, a woman garments worker, has been pulled alive from the ruins of a building that collapsed in Savar, a suburb of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, 17 days after the disaster
Why We Allow The Destruction Of Our Planet
By David Swanson
People's influence on their governments is much more powerful than we usually imagine. It's weakened primarily by people's failure to do anything. Impotence is a self-fulfilling loop. Those longing for the end of the world are far from alone in imagining that we don't have the power to make the world over ourselves. Nonetheless, among the things we should be doing right now is explaining to our neighbors that Jesus isn't coming back
Robinson Jeffers: America's Neglected-At-Our-Peril Poet-Prophet
By Dr. Gary Steven Corseri
My “bridge over troubled water” is Literature and the Arts. But, these days, with the exception of a few cherished authors and websites, I am apt to get more sustenance from re-reading the Classics—even 20th Century Classics--than from reading the frothy outpourings of identity-poets and lauded, establishmentarian shills. A much-thumbed Vintage Book is one I’ve held dear since my 20s, by a poet I’ve introduced to university students surfeited on too much Frost in high school and too much Yeats and Eliot beyond that
Bill Clinton: The Unimportance Of Being Earnest
By Joseph Grosso
In keeping with its absurd mantra of All the News that’s Fit to Print, on March 25th, 2013 the New York Times decided to dedicate a section of its front page to the declaration that former president Bill Clinton now supports the rights of gay people to be married. This of course being the same Bill Clinton who as president signed the Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage in federal law as a union between a man and woman only
Vijaya Mehta, NCPA And People’s Culture
By Vidyadhar Date
True, the NCPA plays an important role in our cultural life but the point is all the huge corporate profits and government funds ultimately flow from the labour of ordinary people.Resources can be used more imaginatively by democratising our culture, setting up smaller units in all parts of the country. That would really help promote culture, nurture talent that remains suppressed, unrecognised, unseen
