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30 April, 2015

Rural Nepal Angry With Slow Aid: More Than 70,000 Houses Destroyed:
2.8 Million People Displaced

By Countercurrents.org

Anger, frustration and tension are growing in parts of rural Nepal over the slow pace of relief efforts. Kathmandu also found protests over bus arrangement for going back to rural homes. Badly-affected villages are yet to receive any assistance. Survivors broke into government offices in Dolakha district to demand relief supplies. Survivors confronted prime minister Sushil Koirala in a Kathmandu hospital. There are long queues for food and water around Kathmandu

Protests Across US: Marchers Demand Justice, Police Reform
By Countercurrents.org

Protesters marched against police violence in cities from New York to Denver on Wednesday. The protesting people demanded justice against police brutality. In New York, police arrested more than 60 people. A number of protesters were arrested in Denver also. In New York, protesters roved through Manhattan, blocking traffic in a few areas. Protests were held in Boston, Houston, Ferguson, Missouri, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. A large demonstration in Baltimore ended peacefully two days after rioting over the death of , Freddie Gray, a black man injured in police custody

Salon: Violent Baltimore Protesters Are Right
By Robert Barsocchini

Black power, Queer power, power to Baltimore, and to all oppressed people who know what time it is

Labor's Pioneering Role In This Subcontinent: An Introduction
By Farooque Chowdhury

With heroic struggle and unforgettable sacrifice labor played a pioneering role in this sub-continent's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Labor's undeniable leading role is also there in making the society humane and democratic. In areas and at times, labor struggled alone for the causes in this land. But it's a march to progress for all

Hillary Veers Left, To Head Off Sanders
By Eric Zuesse

In order to attract some of the liberal support that would otherwise go to Bernie Sanders, who is her new challenger for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton is announcing that too many people are in U.S. prisons, and that this nation should let lots of them out

Obama’s Drone War: Indiscriminate Killing And Selective Apology
By Taj Hashmi

Last week President Obama publicly apologized for the deaths of two Western hostages – one American and one Italian – killed accidentally by a U.S. drone attack on an al Qaeda camp in mid-January, somewhere in Pakistan. The widely publicized apology was heartening and disappointing at the same time. While American drones have so far killed thousands of innocent civilians and a handful of terrorists since 2004, the apology was disappointingly selective

Finkelstein, Gandhi: Violence Against Disproportionate Aggression Is Not Violence
By Robert Barsocchini

In his latest lecture, Dr. Norman Finkelstein, (PhD political science., Princeton; son of Nazi death camp survivors and descendant of Nazi death camp victims) explains that, under international law, people have a right to use armed force to achieve self-determination

The Everyday Politics Of Confinement In Palestine 
By Sandy Tolan

More than two decades after the beginning of the Oslo era, 350,000 Jewish settlers live mostly on the hilltops of seized West Bank lands, and Palestinians are increasingly confined to an archipelago of “islands” within a sea of Israeli military control. In reality, what now exists in the Holy Land is a single state controlled by Israel in which some enjoy full rights as citizens and others next to none

War And Peace And The Steady-State Economy
By Herman Daly

My parents were children during WW I, the so-called “war to end all wars.” I was a child in WW II, an adolescent in the Korean War, and except for a physical disability would likely have been drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Then came Afghanistan, Iraq, the continuous Arab-Israeli conflict, ISIS, Ukraine, Syria, etc. Now as a senior citizen, I see that war has metastasized into terrorism. It is hard to conceive of a country at war, or threatened by terrorism, moving to a steady state economy

Vietnam Lost The American War (As Did Laos And Cambodia)
By Kieran Kelly

On April 30, 1975 tanks from the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) entered Saigon. It was the end of the Second Indochina War – known in Indochina as the “American War” and known in the US as the “Vietnam War”. The Communists, and some other anti-imperialists who worked under their leadership, had won. But what sort of victory was this? Throughout the course of fighting the US grew constantly in wealth and strength, while Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were weakened in ways they have never recovered from. In relations after the war the US clearly took on the role of victor imposing terms on the defeated. Despite an overblown, if not hysterical, public discourse of defeat and anguish in the US there was never any real question of substantive material damage to the US, nor any possibility that the US Government (USG) would have its actions dictated by Indochinese governments

Mercury In The Mist: Holding Unilever In India To Account
By Colin Todhunter

Scientists in India and the UK recently joined together to express solidarity with ex-employees and local residents exposed to toxic levels of mercury in Kodaikanal, India. Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever and is being held responsible for dumping toxic mercury close to human settlements, polluting the ecosystem and placing workers’ lives in danger

No Other Way Out: We Need To Early Diagnose TB And Treat With Drugs That Work
By Bobby Ramakant

It may sound rhetorical but some of the 'absolute must' steps for progressing towards ending tuberculosis (TB) are to early and accurately diagnose TB and treat with the standard combination of drugs that are sensitive and work for a particular patient. Although sounds simplistic yet these are 'easier said than done' steps!

29 April, 2015

We Are Hungry Not Even Drinking Water Is Available:
P
eople Protest In Nepal As Death Toll Mounts

By Countercurrents.org

The Nepal earthquake death toll is rising sharply. At the same time the threat of epidemic including cholera, scarcity of safe drinking water and slow speed of relief and rescue work are putting people on the verge of protest, In Kathmandu, people have protested against slow government relief efforts. People are telling: We are hungry, not even drinking water is there. The devastating picture of the earthquake has started emerging from the interior of the country

Roger Waters To Robbie Williams: If You Take Children
And Human Rights Seriously, Please Don't Play Israel

By Roger Waters

One UK superstar to another: “Your decision to play in Tel Aviv gives succor to Netanyahu and his regime, and endorses their deadly racist policies”

Farmers Suicides: What Is Causing Them, And What Can Be Done To Stop The Tragedy
By Dr Vandana Shiva

In the weeks and months following Earth Day, let us come together to demand justice for our farmers – the growers of our food, the guardians of our soil. Let us remember Gajendra, Lee, and the hundreds of thousands of farmers who have died at the hands of corporate greed; let us make sure that their stories are heard

US Vaporized Marshall Islands, Performed Human Experimentation On Natives
By Robert Barsocchini

“Nuclear Savage” is a recent documentary film that explores American nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands, 1946-1958, and particularly the secret Project 4.1: an American experiment in exposing Pacific Islanders to overdoses of radiation – deliberate human radiation poisoning – just to get better data on this method of maiming and killing people. The public broadcasting establishment has spent more that two years keeping this story off the air

No Arab Bolivars: As Region Implodes, Arab Socialism Fizzles Out
By Ramzy Baroud

A student group had asked me to address socialism in the Arab world, with the assumption that there is indeed such a movement that is capable of overhauling inherently incompetent and utterly corrupt regimes, across the region. But of course, no such group, or configuration of socialist groups exist today, but in name

Sri Lanka: Deterioration Of The Legal Intellect (5): A Conversation
With The Prime Minister On Periodic Massacres Of Youth Since 1971

By Basil Fernando

Last week, 23 April 2014, the television programme‘Sathyagaraya’ - a Sinhala language programme telecast by the Independent Television Network (ITN) and produced by Upul Shantha Sannasagala - broadcast a long conversation with Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasignhe. Our concern in this article, is about one particular question raised by the producer, Mr Sannasgala and the reply given by the Prime Minister, to the same. Producer Upul Shantha Sannasgala, raised a question, which he said, is of very great importance to him, about the periodic massacres of youth which had taken place, repeatedly, every 10 to 15 years in Sri Lanka, beginning with the suppression of youth in the 1971 JVP uprising. His question was as to whether these cyclical massacres would go on, from time to time causing the sacrifice of lives of a large number of youth in the country?

Yakub Memon: A Question Of Life And Death
By Megha Bahl & Sharmila Purkayastha

PUDR notes with extreme concern the Supreme Court's decision on the 9th of April 2015, to reject Yakub Memon’s petition seeking review of his death sentence. This decision will only add another chapter to the growing instances of injustice perpetrated by the State. In the name of providing relief for those killed in the heinous Bombay blasts of 1993 one finds a punishment based on selective targeting and prejudice

The Unsung Heroes Of Kashmir The Labor Revolution
In Kashmir (Shawlbaf Movement)

By Rayees Rasool

First Labour Revolution in World History, in Kashmir on 29 April 1865, when workers, Artisans, weavers, Labours, Revolted against their Masters, who exploited, but was crushed with heavy Hand, drowned them in Haji Pather Sum Strean near Zaldager Srinagar, the summer capital. Shawlbaf protest was perhaps the first organized protest for demands in the history of class struggle in India

"She Who Does Not Tire, Tires Adversity": Savitri
By Shobha Shukla

Savitri, a mother of 6 children—5 daughters and 1 son—became a widow 12 years after her marriage, when her husband, the eldest of three brothers, died of electrocution. Narrating her tearful story, Savitri said that fate had been unkind to her from her early childhood. Her father died when she was a child. They were two sisters and one brother. Savitri had to discontinue her studies after Class 8, and had to stay home to do household chores as her mother would go out to work in the fields

Killings By Police Of 20 Labourers In The Seshachalam Forests :
Human Rights Forum (HRF) Letter To NHRC

By Human Rights Forum

The death of 25 persons on April 7 in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana (TS) in alleged encounters has led to much disquiet across the nation. However, the police averment that the killings are the result of “firing in self-defence” is in serious doubt

28 April, 2015

Nepal Death Toll Could Reach 10,000:
Millions Starving, Entire Mountain Villages Flattened

By Countercurrents.or

Death toll in the Nepal earthquake could reach 10,000 as rescue teams have started reaching isolated mountain villages. Entire mountain villages have been razed to the ground and millions of people are starving as they are cut off from all food supply and communication. Wet weather and cold are making life intolerable. An estimated 8 million people have been affected. Moreover, in the earthquake, 61 people died in India, and China reported 25 people died in Tibet

The 7.8 Earthquake In Nepal And The Magnitude Of Impoverishment
By Li Onesto

There was little that could be done to stop the earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25, 2015. But the fact that there is such tremendous death, destruction and suffering as a result of this natural disaster IS something due to human/societal factors—namely the system of capitalism/imperialism which subjects countries like Nepal to such impoverishment

Baltimore Blazes In Protest: State Of Emergency, National Guards Deployed
By Countercurrents.org

Baltimore blazes in protest. Schools, businesses and train stations have been shut down in the city notorious for poverty and unemployment. A state of emergency has been declared and National Guards have been deployed. Two dozen people were arrested. The protests erupted in violent force after funeral of a 25-year black man who died after he was injured in police custody

Ukraine: Truth Has Been Murdered
By Paul Craig Roberts

The Western media is complicit in many war crimes covered up with lies, but the false story that the Western media has woven of Ukraine is the most audacious collection of lies yet. Truly, truth in the Western world has been murdered. There is no respect for truth in any Western capital. The coup in Ukraine is Washington’s effort to thrust a dagger into Russia’s heart. The recklessness of such a criminal act has been covered up by constructing a false reality of a people’s revolution against a corrupt and oppressive government. The world should be stunned that “bringing democracy” has become Washington’s cover for resurrecting a Nazi state

Mother Earth Is Weeping For Her Children:
The US Military Must Stop Environmental Ecocide

By Joy First

It is a very serious problem that our calls for peace and justice are going unheeded by government officials. Even though it seems like we are not being listened to, it is very important to continue to act in resistance. I know that even when we feel like we are ineffective, acting in resistance is my only choice to do what I can to make a difference in the lives of my grandchildren and the children of the world. Though it is difficult to know whether we are being effective, I believe that we all must do everything we can to continue our work for peace and justice. That is our only hope

Agribusiness And The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse
By Colin Todhunter

Like all empires, Washington has developed a system to hitch a free ride courtesy of the rest of the world funding its generally high standard of living, militarism, financial bubbles, speculations and corporate takeovers

Assassination As Policy In Washington And How It Failed, 1990-2015 
By Andrew Cockburn

Whatever the euphemism -- the Israelis prefer to call it “focused prevention” -- assassination has clearly been Washington's favored strategy in the twenty-first century. Methods of implementation, including drones, cruise missiles, and Special Operations forces hunter-killer teams, may vary, but the core notion that the path to success lies in directly attacking and taking out your enemy's leadership has become deeply embedded. As then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it in 2010, “We believe that the use of intelligence-driven, precision-targeted operations against high-value insurgents and their networks is a key component” of U.S. strategy

21st Century Challenges To American Democracy: Part III
By Jon Kofas

American democracy’s challenge is to serve the public interest not the interests of the 1% richest Americans to the detriment of the middle class and workers. It is interesting that the media, politicians, and even academics use the term “special interests” so that they avoid any class-based language and so that in the so-called “special interests” they can include trade unions and organizations such as the AARP, women’s and others. Defining corporate and finance capital as “special interests”, while defining the “public interest” as the sum total of citizens and the collective goods of the working class and middle class would be a good first step toward meeting some of democracy’s challenges in the 21st century. Engaging in deliberate illusion-making by trying to remain politically, ideologically and culturally acceptable to apologists of the existing system and refusing to recognize the class struggle at the core American democracy’s simply perpetuates more myths rather than trying to expose them

Obama Fights To Spread GMO Foods Throughout Europe
By Eric Zuesse

On Friday, April 24th, Agence France Presse headlined “US Stresses Opposition to EU Opt-Out for GMO Imports,” and reported that, "The United States underscored Friday its opposition to a new European Union plan to allow member states to block genetically engineered imports after bilateral talks on a transatlantic free-trade pact.” 

Genocidal Indonesia Executing Drug Convicts
By Andre Vltchek

Indonesia, the country which did not earnestly punish one single top military brass for the genocides in East Timor and not one single person for horrendous and ongoing genocide in Papua, is now ready to execute another nine people for drug trafficking. In January 2015 it already slayed six drug convicts including five foreigners, sparking international indignation

Big Wine Fails To Dry Farm During California’s Relentless Drought
By Shepherd Bliss

An increasing number of North Coast residents and businesses are calling for a moratorium on new vineyards and wineries and expansions of existing vineyards and wineries, especially as event centers. It is unfair to mandate people and other businesses to conserve water and allow Big Ag and Big Wine to consume as much as they want, for free. A four-county group has met in Lake and Sonoma Counties and will meet again in May in Napa County to discuss dealing with the excesses of the wine industry

Rise Above Sectarianism And Serve Humanity
By Kashoo Tawseef

How can you kill someone just because he doesn’t agree with you or he/she doesn’t practices same faith as your- that’s just insane. Let us remind ourselves that Islam is humanity and humanity is Islam

Time To Walk The Talk For Accelerating Towards TB-Free India
By Bobby Ramakant

India's fight against TB has certainly come a long way ahead, but the journey through the proverbial 'last miles' are going to be defining one - as the programme confronts and hopefully overcomes formidable-looking challenges. Ending TB is possible

27 April, 2015

Death Toll Still Rising In Nepal
By W.A. Sunil

More than 3,700 people are dead and over 6,500 injured after a major earthquake struck Nepal just before noon on Saturday local time. The death toll is likely to rise sharply as more bodies are pulled from the rubble and rescue teams begin to reach remote villages presently cut off. Thousands of people are homeless and most people are living outside amid fears of continuing aftershocks. Thirty of the country’s 75 districts have been affected

11 Million Yemenis Face Severe Food Insecurity Amidst
Conflict As Saudi Air Strikes Derailed Peace Negotiations

By Countercurrents.org

Conflict in Yemen has triggered food insecurity in the poverty-stricken country. The Food and Agriculture Organisation said recently: Amidst escalating conflict at a crucial time in the country’s cropping season, almost 11 million people in Yemen are severely food insecure and millions more are at risk of not meeting their basic food needs. Governorates in the far northwest and south are most severely affected by food insecurity, and around 850,000 children are acutely malnourished

Warming Climate May Release Vast Amounts Of Carbon From Long-Frozen Arctic Soils
By Countercurrents.org

More carbon is released into the atmosphere would amplify climate warming, and that, in turn, would cause more permafrost to thaw and release more carbon, causing the cycle to continue. Recent research by scientists has confirmed the suspicion scientists were making regarding the Arctic permafrost

Kissinger And Shultz On 'The Iran Deal'
By Thomas Riggins

For our edification The Wall Street Journal on 8 April turned over an entire editorial page to former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz so that we could understand why President Obama's negotiations with Iran over nuclear issues "will reinforce, not resolve, the world's challenges in the region." Let's take a look at what these two nonagenarians (who served under Nixon and Reagan respectively) present as the reasons for their prediction

40 Years Later, Will The End Games In Iraq And Afghanistan
Follow The Vietnam Playbook?

By Christian Appy

If our wars in the Greater Middle East ever end, it's a pretty safe bet that they will end badly -- and it won't be the first time. The “fall of Saigon” in 1975 was the quintessential bitter end to a war

Mr Prime Minister, Your Words Do Not Match Your Actions
By Dr Rahul Pandey

By legalizing forcible acquisition of all kinds of farmlands for industrial corridors and PPP projects without taking landowners’ consent, without carrying out impact assessment, and mandating citizens to seek government’s permission before lodging complaints of wrongdoing, the 2015 Bill in effect envisages the government to act as a dictator working on behalf of private industry

Composite Townships: Cantonments Of The Other Sort
By Sheikh Shahid

The rehabilitaion of Kashmiri Pandits is not the issue of mere physical integration, but rather the integration of the entire life. It should be aimed at social, political & cultural integration as it used to be before their migration

Punchline: Politics Of Flags
By Z. G. Muhammad

On April 15, it was not for first time that QaumīPārc̱am of Pakistan was unfurled at a public rally in Srinagar. In Kashmir politics hoisting of flags has got so intricately woven in the peoples narrative that it has in itself become a political phenomenon having potential to change the political discourse in the state. The battle of flags, historically speaking in fact for past seventy six years has become synonymous for the battle of ideologies in the state

Biggest Fight Ever? Jack Johnson, Not “Money” Mayweather
By Mickey Z.

While the Society of the Spectacle gears up for the “biggest fight of all time,” featuring renowned domestic abuser and misogynist, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, I’d like to remind folks of a truly important boxing match that took place on July 4, 1910. It featured black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and white former champ, Jim Jeffries

Population By Religions In Times To Come
By Ram Puniyani

While I was working in IIT Mumbai for long years, I could see that the number of children per family is more as you go down from the professors to the peons and sweepers. Also roughly those living in Mumbai slums have higher number of children, irrespective of their religion. The situations in different countries in sub continent are not comparable on many counts. What is needed is an empathetic attitude to the deprived communities, going beyond the obvious and to solve the problem in right earnest

World Religions: Diversity, Not Dissension
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

A discussion on religion and religious harmony

Order Judicial Probe Into Andhra, Telangana Killings
By Solidarity Youth Movement

Solidarity Youth Movement demanded a judicial probe into killings in two incidents of fake encounter in Andhra and Telangana. A fact finding team led by Solidarity Youth Movement visited the families and lawyers of the killed

26 April, 2015

Death Toll In Nepal Earthquake Mounting Every Hour
By Countercurrents.org

Death toll in the Nepal earthquake is mounting every hour. It may cross 2,200, the figure found only a few hours ago, the moment this Countercurrents report reaches readers. A state of emergency has been declared in the Himalayan country as it faces an unprecedented human crisis with widespread damage to its major infrastructure that reduces capacity to face the calamity. An emergency Nepal cabinet meeting has announced 29 districts in the country as crisis zones. A primary UN assessment finds almost 7 million people have been affected

Nepal Earthquakes And Global Warming
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

After deaths of more than two thousands everyone talks about the disasters, mainly politicians. They boast of their achievements in providing assistance in rescue operations, that is wonderful jobs done but the real issue still remains out of their thought process, at the global level leaders still pay no heed to real issues. The issue is Global Warming. Is there any link between the under earth activities and global warming?

Periyar – The Socrates Of South Asia
By Satya Sagar

Learning from Periyar and building upon his great legacy is surely the only way forward in our times. For a self-styled champion of secularism and socialism like Mr Katju to accuse him of being a ‘British agent’ or a preacher of ‘caste hatred’ just signals that we have a long battle ahead before any real transformation takes place in this country

Following al Qaeda, ISIS Gains In Yemen Thanks To US-Assisted Saudi Aggression
By Robert Barsocchini

The US, in aiding the extremist Wahhabi-Sunni, Sharia-law regime of Saudi Arabia in its aggression against Yemen, has helped open the door for Saudi-supported al Qaeda to make tremendous gains there. And now, ISIS has been able to establish itself

What's Obama Up to, With His TPP & TTIP?
By Eric Zuesse

The motivation behind U.S. President Barack Obama's trans-Pacific trade-deal TPP, and his trans-Atlantic trade-deal TTIP — the motivation behind both of these enormous international trade-deals — is the same, and Democratic U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown are correct: it is not at all progressive. It is instead to transfer political power away from the public in a democracy, and for that power to go instead to the international aristocracy

Millay's "Epitaph For The Race Of Man"
By John Scales Avery

The basic premise of Edna St. Vincent Millay's “Epitaph” is that we know from the evolutionary history of life on earth, that no species survives forever. She speculates on what will be the final cause of the extinction of the human race, and concludes that Man will die by his own hand, since none the innumerable disasters that nature has thrown at us over the millennia has persuaded humankind “to lay aside the lever and the spade, and be as dust among the dusts that blow”

21st Centry Challenges To American Democracy- Part II
Rising Public Debt, Dwindling Democracy

By Jon Kofas

The assumption that the threat to democracy is coming from out there somewhere, from evildoers whether they are Islamic jihadists or Russian nationalists is utterly absurd. Democracy falls from within under its own weight when it deviates from the social contract. The great Athenian writer Aristophanes realized this 2,500 years ago. American journalist and Presbyterian minister Chris Hedges argues in “How Democracy Dies: A Lesson from the Master” (Aristophanes) that society decays from within by corruption, greed, arrogance, distortion of ideals designed to promote the welfare of all people, and of course perpetual militarism that debilitates society and ultimately contributes to its demise

Who Needs Neil Young When We've Got Monsanto?
By Colin Todhunter

Neil Young is reportedly about to release a new album called, ‘The Monsanto Years’. Don’t expect the lyrics to be music to the ears of the company’s executives over in St Louis, however. With falling profits and glyphosate being reclassified by the WHO as ‘probably’ causing cancer, Monsanto needs Neil Young like it needs a hole in the head

Enhancing ASEAN
By Chandra Muzaffar

When people are able to see ASEAN perform as ASEAN, whether in the sports field or the entertainment arena, they will begin to identify with ASEAN. Similarly, when an ASEAN consciousness seeps into the minds of school students, it is quite conceivable that future generations will feel and think ASEAN. It is at that point that ASEAN would have become a people centred entity, not a state based outfit

25 April, 2015

Conscience Keeper Of Pakistan Sabeen Mahmud Assassinated In Karachi
By Shamsul Islam

The killing by the assassins at Karachi of a democrat, liberal and secular activist Sabeen Mahmud, a dear friend, is a great loss to the fraternity which is fighting state terrorism, totalitarianism and religious bigotry in the Indian sub-continent. Sabeen, a prominent Pakistani social and human rights activist was shot while she was returning home with her mother after hosting an event on Balochistan’s "disappeared people"

Huge Earthquake Kills Hundreds In Nepal; Sparks Massive Mt. Everest Avalanche
By Common Dreams

A powerful 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck central Nepal and Northern Indian has devastated populated areas across the Himayalan region, causing buildings to crumble and killing hundreds of people. A spokesperson for Nepal’s Home Ministry, Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, told the New York Times that the preliminary death toll stood at 686, nearly all in the valley around Katmandu, and that thousands more had been injured

Dear Nepal, We Are With You!
By Ravi Nitesh

I hope that South Asian Governments will stand together in this moment and will extend their support through joining hands for assisting you in relief work. I also see that such actions need to be prompt and can be helpful in not only rebuilding a Nepal with its infrastructural support, but on the strong foundations of fraternity, cooperation and unity. Such steps will be real measures of South Asian identities. I also hope that such cooperation may extend to an extent where a joint network of disaster risk reduction and relief can be created, operated and maintained to help in Disaster risk management

Civilian Casualties Mount As Saudi- Led Airstrikes Continue In Yemen
By Niles Williamson

Jet fighters from the Saudi-led coalition carried out at least 10 airstrikes inside Yemen on Friday, three days after a Saudi Arabian military spokesman announced the end of Operation Decisive Storm and the beginning of Operation Restore Hope

The Long Arm Of The EU: The Association Agreement And Expansionist Policies
By Jürgen Wagner

It is often alleged that the EU’s foreign policy is cobbled together in an ad hoc fashion - more often badly than well - and, so the common critique goes, that there is a lack of any coherent strategy. In this paper I maintain, to the contrary, that the European Union is in fact pursuing a targeted geostrategic goal aimed at extending its sphere of influence. The motive for this is the deeply rooted belief that in order to achieve its goal of becoming a “world power”, it is essential for it to gain control of an imperial ‘grand area’ - as will be shown by reference to publications of the [European] Group on Grand Strategy (GoGS). The first priority is to control its immediate “neighbourhood”, the most important means for which is the conclusion of an association agreement between a neighbouring state and the EU. It was thus no accident - for precisely this reason - that the escalation of tension and violence in Ukraine came immediately after the former president, Victor Yanukovich, decided to postpone signature of the association agreement with the EU which was then on the table

Reading The Stigmata: Filipino Bodies Performing For The U.S Empire
By E. San Juan, Jr.

In this brief discourse, I sketch an inventory of the U.S. imperial adventure in the Philippines as a background to the work of Carlos Bulosan, the first Filipino writer to gain canonical status, and the ordeal of Filipinos in the era of global capitalism. Today the Philippines ranks as second to Mexico in the number of contract or indentured laborers dispersed around the world, with over 12 million Filipinas functioning as symbolic and real capital of a U.S. neocolony. In this context, the now legendary figure of Jose Antonio Vargas, Filipino "undocumented" immigrant, serves as a palimpsest icon or hieroglyph for the universal predicament of all uprooted peoples, not just Filipinos, wandering for some kind of "belonging" in the era of a flat, borderless planet, as the corporate logo proclaims. Can we seriously practice this kind of hermeneutics of suspicion without us being suspect?

21st Century Challenges To American Democracy: Part I
By Jon Kofas

It requires several hundred pages to address the complex subject of challenges to American democracy in the post-Cold War era of a global multi-polar economic and political power structure. In this brief essay, I identify only a few of the current challenges to American democracy that appear permanent fixtures of society in the early 21st century. The objective is to provide but a sample of some issues, regardless of how the corporate media, government, and presidential candidates wish to define challenges to democracy

Mark May 2 As A Day Of Commemoration Of Those Killed
In The Trade Union Building In Odessa

By Concerned Citizens

Appeal Of The Initiative Group For Democracy And Internationalism In Ukraine

Obama Kills Two Birds With One Stone: Hints Of The Dark Place He Is Taking Us
By John Chuckman

Obama has been quoted saying he "takes full responsibility" for the two hostages, one American and one Italian, killed recently in a drone attack. At the same time, Obama praised the United States for its transparency in such matters. What in God's name does he mean?

Is the U.S. A Force For Good In The World?
By Eric Zuesse

Obama cares more about pushing through Congress mega-corporate international trade deals, than he does about anything except, perhaps, destroying Russia. As he closes his Presidency, he is doing like did Bill Clinton (the man who started expanding NATO right up to Russia's borders) at the end of his Presidency: giving away the house and everything, to the international corporate elite

Spores Wars (Hyena Fall, 2001)
By Charles Orloski

The fact is that white powder emergency responses, the many I did (!), were understandably based upon government & Media induced fear, gross material mis-identification, subsequent 911 calls, and expensive response crews going on “billable” panic trips all over Pennsylvania

Where To Bury The Dead Conscience Of Arab-Muslim Leaders?
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

Arab-Muslim authoritarianism enforced by the self-image to commit planned violence and aggression against the revolutionary masses is radiating across Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain. After five years, the global community is just a symbolic spectator watching the heinous crimes of the few against many

Gujarat Uniform Row Needs An Independent Probe
By Shehzad Poonawalla

National Commission for Minorities must initiate an independent probe into the matter by sending a fact finding commission to ascertain the truth and provide answers to the questions raised by me in this petition, as there is a contradiction in the stands taken by the AMC. Discover if discriminatory practices are being carried out by AMC School Board.If such practices do exist, seek reply from the Gujarat Government and make recommendations to check such segregation in all states and corporation board run schools. Direct the Human Resource Development, Government of India to maintain check on such practices.

Congress Party: Time To Pass The Baton To A New Generation
By George Abraham

Last October, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rahul Gandhi at his residence in Delhi and to discuss the May election debacle and about the future of the Congress Party. Although I was interested to talk about the need to get the Diaspora more connected as the Party was introspecting, he took the conversation entirely to a different direction; the current dynamics that is underway in the body politic of India. He spoke at length of the pre-independence coalition of feudalists, colonialist-sympathizers, royalists, ultra-nationalists who promoted caste hierarchy, division and bigotry and opposed the Independence struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. According to him, elements from that same coalition have regrouped and are re-branding themselves with strong religious overtones to undo the progress Congress-led governments have made over six decades. He believes that unless checked, these regressive forces would take India backward and nullify the prospects for the poor and the downtrodden to make any progress on their own

Indian Muslims Need Secular Education
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

There’s only one reason for the overall backwardness of the Indian Muslims, and that is their backwardness in education. By education here I mean secular education. There are madrasas in every Muslim locality, but madrasas only tell you about religion, about how to pray and so on. But to understand how to live in this world, how to live in society, requires more than madrasa education. It requires secular education

'Call To Action' Launch Catalyzes Fight Against TB
By Bobby Ramakant

India has made impressive gains in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) but significant challenges still confront us in the path ahead to eliminate TB. The launch of 'Call To Action For A TB Free India' by Sri Jagat Prakash Nadda, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in Delhi on 23rd April 2015, is aimed to catalyse progress towards ending TB in India. "This TB Free India campaign aims to unite existing and new stakeholders in the fight against TB and bring together our knowledge, resources and capacity to better equip us to beat TB" said Dr KS Sachdeva, Additional Director General, Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India

24 April, 2015

Saving Palestine’s Children Under The Arms Trade Treaty
By Vacy Vlazna

Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) released this month a comprehensive and heartbreaking report, OPERATION PROTECTIVE EDGE: A WAR WAGED ON GAZA’S CHILDREN. detailing that places that should have provided children with shelter and safety were not immune from attacks by Israeli forces. Missiles fired from Israeli drones and warplanes, artillery shelling, and shrapnel scattered by explosions killed children in their homes, on the street as they fled from attacks with their families, and as they sought shelter from the bombardment in schools. (DCIP)

Europe’s Feeble Efforts To ‘Punish’ Israel
By Jonathan Cook

The question of punishing illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory was considered separately in Europe and Israel last week, with only superficial differences in the conclusions reached. Israel’s near half-century occupation is in no immediate danger, either at home or abroad. Some 16 European foreign ministers sent a letter to the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, calling for the EU to label clearly Israeli settlement products to alert shoppers to their true provenance

Eduardo Galeano Died: Revolution Goes On!
By Andre Vltchek

I shared with him my fear that without armed struggle against imperialism, no victory can, most likely, be achieved. He did not say yes or no. He thought for a while, then drilled me with his eyes: “You and I are educated and we know the world. We are in many ways what they call the leaders. And leaders must serve their people. No matter how tough our lives are, we are not victims. Those who are suffering are the robbed, poor, uneducated people. They have to decide whether and when to take up arms and go: they, not we. If and when they decide to fight, we have to obey and lead them. Whether they will fight or not is not up to us to decide.”

Gajendra Singh, Hung By "Democracy"
By Samar

The real message from Gajendra Singh’s death, however, is much more sinister. He has shown that the state that has stopped listening to democratic and peaceful voices of dissent has now stopped even bothering itself with their existence. The lives, and even deaths, of the peasantry do not mean a thing to it

Health Of World's Ocean 'Collapsing Before Our Eyes'
By Thalif Deen

Collapsing fisheries, mangrove deforestation as well as disappearing corals and seagrass are threatening the marine economic engine that secures lives and livelihoods around the world. The WWF report also warns that the ocean is changing more rapidly than at any other point in millions of years. At the same time, growth in human population and reliance on the sea makes restoring the ocean economy and its core assets a matter of global urgency. The study specifically singles out climate change as a leading cause of the ocean’s failing health

Saudi Warplanes Pound Yemen Despite Talk Of Ending Aggression
By Bill Van Auken

Saudi warplanes carried out at least 20 air strikes across Yemen Thursday, just two days after a spokesman for the Saudi Arabian military announced that so-called Operation Decisive Storm, which began March 26, had ended and a new phase, described as “Operation Renewal of Hope,” had begun

Obama Urges Saudi Dictator Abdulaziz To Keep Attacking Yemen
By Robert Barsocchini

Obama expressed his desire for Saudi dictator Abdulaziz to continue his illegal assault on Yemen, “pushing for a continuation of the war” and announcing, mafia-like, that “the job is not done”. The dictator has complied, carrying out further attacks on the impoverished and starved country, with a Saudi Prince announcing that he will reward the terrorists physically carrying out the bombings with Bentleys, a brand of ultra-luxury automobile

Yemen Crisis Is Human Calamity: Hope Sanity Will Prevail
By Kashoo Tawseef

We need to stop being hypocrites and make efforts to wake up the dead souls, and help to shake the conscious souls to raise their true voice about the Yemen situation. How can a Muslim country kill fellow Muslims of other country no matter how much differences they have; how can they provide air space to attack other Muslim country; how can they provide troops to kill fellow Muslims, be that Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and now- Yemen. Last but not least, why to make an "Arab front" to kill fellow Muslims and where was this "Arab Front" when Gaza was being bombarded last year?

Are Leading Economists Corrupt, or Just Mind-Blowingly Ignorant?
By Eric Zuesse

Conservative economists favor Republican candidates because it's the way for them to rise in power themselves, but what about ‘progressive' economists: are they psychopaths, too; or do they instead blindly favor ‘Democratic' candidates because of a sincerely oblivious belief that the mere ‘Democratic' Party-label indicates that the given politician is actually progressive?

Postcard From The End Of America: Silicon Valley
By Linh Dinh

In a country where political speeches, elections and even terrorist attacks are but elaborate theatrical productions, California is the longest show running, designed to convince everyone everywhere, and even Californians themselves, that here is the epitome of the American Dream, and that it's surfing along just fine. Just outside the spotlight, however, are all sorts of frightful omens. The next act will be a scream

Indian Muslims : Why Are They Backward?
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan In Discussion With ''India Legal''

I have a two-point formula for Muslims. One is, that they must go in, and at the mass level, for education. By ‘education’ I mean secular education. This is really immensely important. Secondly, they must abandon community-based thinking. They must think in terms of the nation, in terms of the good of the nation as a whole, rather than of just themselves and their own narrow interests. So, the simple, two-point formula for the Indian Muslims is: secular education and national thinking. If they don’t follow this formula, they have no future at all

Your India…Our Kashmir
By Rayees Rasool

There are countless movements going on in India. People are resisting for their identities and rights. I know how it feels when the state uses force against you. I am a witness to the pain of torture, fake encounter, and extra judicial killings. I dwell a place where world’s largest democracy has held 12 Million people as hostages on gun point. We witness these things every day. Torture, rapes, killings, disappearances, fake encounters and what not. But, despite being very active over human abuses in the farthest nooks, Indian civil society keeps their status quo over the human rights violations in Kashmir

Bangladesh: 2 Years After Rana Plaza, Workers Denied Rights
By Human Rights Watch

Garment workers in Bangladesh face poor working conditions and anti-union tactics by employers including assaults on union organizers, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. In the two years since more than 1,100 workers died in the catastrophic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory on April 24, 2013, efforts are underway to make Bangladesh factories safer, but the government and Western retailers can and should do more to enforce international labor standards to protect workers’ rights, including their right to form unions and advocate for better conditions

23 April, 2015

Fact Finding Report On Seshachalam Killings Of 20 Labourers
Points To Abduction, Torture And Summary Execution

By People’s Watch

The victims were initially abducted by Police officials, and then tortured and murdered while in custody, after which their bodies were most probably placed at the scene of offence to give the appearance of an encounter conducted in self-defence. Ilangovan’s statement deposed before our fact finding team and the Hon’ble Commission confirms the venue of torture and execution to be the compound shared by the DFO and DIG of the AP Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling STF (APRS-STF). It has to be noted that the DIG Dr. M. Kanta Rao has his office cum residence provided in the same compound, as admitted by him to the team. Read the interim report here

Kill Yourself In Delhi, Dear Farmers, or Become Meaningless Statistics
By Samar

Gajendra Singh’s death was unique in one respect though. It brought the agricultural crisis ensnaring the countryside straight to Delhi and shut the mouths of those in denial for once and all. It achieved what 601 others who had killed themselves in BJP ruled Maharashtra could not- a tweet from PM Modi himself. So, dear farmers, kill yourselves in Delhi, preferably in a political meeting of BJP this time, there's no point in committing suicide in Vidarbha or Bundelkhand and become part of yellowing pages of NCRB statistics

Jai Jawan.. Kahan Kisan
By Suroor Mander

How does your food taste? Sumptuous?
I toiled for your food - hungry and broken
My soul lost its worth as rain trickled down my thatched house
I am sorry I asked my due
I am sorry I asked for my right
Forgive me I died in your capital city

For The Oppressor
By Joy Goswami

I'll abandon my own land and go away without a word.
Tell me, put a rope around your neck and hang all night.
I'll stay like that.
But the next day
when you say, now come down
You'll need people to bring me downt

Mere Desh Ki Dharti...
By Vandana Shiva

In living soil lies the solution to climate change... Yet it is the soil itself that is being forgotten and buried under a borrowed paradigm of ‘cementification is progress

Reading I.F. Stone On Earth Day: Why We Still Won’t Get Anywhere
Unless We Connect The Dots

By Naomi Klein

What Stone saw clearly, and what bears repeating four and half decades later, is that the ecological movement will get nowhere if it fails to connect the dots with other overlapping crises facing our society, from racism to militarism to inequality. Stone wasn’t saying that pollution was irrelevant—simply that it “is not going to be solved in isolation.”

Kindness, Activism, Ego, And Social Skills
By Mickey Z.

What can we do about this in the face of looming ecocide? As I also recently wrote, a good start is accepting that we’ve gotten it all wrong. For activists, this means admitting that the tactics and methods we so passionately cling to and defend don’t work and some have never worked

A Letter of Apology To My Grandson 
By Tom Engelhardt

Someday in the distant future, I hope you'll read this letter and that, given the ingenuity of our species, given the grit to resist madness, given whatever surprises the future holds, you'll smile indulgently at my worst fears. You'll assure me -- or at least whatever trace of me is left in you -- that I had a typically human inability to imagine the unpredictable future, and that in the end things never measured up to my worst fears. I hope, despite what we didn't do, that you have the opportunity for a life of wonders, the kind that everyone on this planet deserves

Armenian Genocide And Anglo-French & ANZAC Gallipoli Invasion Centenary –
Genocide Ignored Yields Genocide Repeated

By Dr Gideon Polya

24 April 2015 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Turkish WW1 Armenian Genocide and 25 April 2015 is the centenary of the unsuccessful and disastrous Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli, these linked events being commemorated on these dates as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day and Anzac Day, respectively. These anniversaries highlight continuing major issues of war crimes complicity, horrendous civilian war deaths, genocide ignoring, holocaust ignoring, genocide denial and holocaust denial

Who Granted The GMO Evangelists The Monopoly On Compassion?
By Colin Todhunter

Apparently, I am a "nut job" because I adhere to anti-capitalist, socialist, human-hating ideology. Not only that, I am working to keep millions in poverty and assisting in "crimes against humanity." I guess that’s the type of thing human-hating 'nut job' individuals do. Well, it is according to the warped world view of pro-GMO individual Paul Evans, who appears to be associated with the 'allow golden rice' website and the 'Galileo Movement'

Stuck In Area A: How We Were Duped Into Disowning The Palestinians
By Ramzy Baroud

Are you surprised that there has been little mobilization to help Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which is overrun by militants, and besieged by the Syrian army? Palestinians – and Syrians - there are killed in a myriad of ways, including starvation

Land Acquisition Bill: Learning From SEZ Act
By Ashish Singh

Today when we are admiring to have cities like Shanghai and Sydney, should not we care about the hidden cost such development processes have? Providing space for businesses to grow is not always bad, but with so much at stake we must act carefully. Oh, let's not try to forget the examples SEZs have shown us so far!

Net Neutrality Is Essential
By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The internet’s privatization debate has intensified in India. It is hogging limelight because government is kite flying the idea to privatize the internet and allow the telecom companies to make money on customized services

When Poetry Is Held Unlawful... JTSA In Solidarity With
Artists And Poets Of Kabir Kala Manch

By Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

On April 10, 2015 Bombay High court refused bail to Sachin Mali, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor of Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), who have remained in jail for two years without a trial. They are not charged with committing violence, or possessing weapons or contraband; it was their singing and their songs that were found unlawful. The KKM poets and artists had been forced to go into hiding in 2011 following the arrest and torture of two of their members by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). They were charged with collaborating with Naxalites; their art was branded ideologically Maoist. In January 2013, the two arrested members of KKM were given bail which prompted Sachin, Sagar, Ramesh and Sheetal Sathe to come out of hiding. In April 2013 the four sang in front of the Maharashtra Assembly in a peaceful, musical satyagraha and were arrested. Since then, Sheetal Sathe has got bail

Losing My Identity In Kashmir
By Masood Ali Mir

Living among the people of my land with the above features will socialize me and all of my age and I too may become like them . I too will represent my land in the same manner as my fellows are representing it. When I read my history I read my culture which has been very rich, the social and religious life of my forefathers has been too prosperous and encouraging. Now I am confused what to do? so that we all may be honest and truthful to ourselves and to our land and people. Where from this reformation should start. Should I start it from myself or should I wait to someone else for this . It would be wise to start it from myself. As it is my duty to work for the reformation starting from myself and then request others to work for the same so that we will have once again the Kashmir which may progress and prosper not only in economic front but in other fronts too

Dark Is Not Ugly
By Sibtain Hyder

Dark is not ugly. What is ugly is the fact that consciously or sub-consciously our society is contributing to this hurtful social evil

22 April, 2015

India Commits Suicide In New Delhi
By Samar

Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan, hanged himself from a tree during an Aam Aadmi Party rally at Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi. Farmers are committing suicide all around the country. India where 70 % of its population are small time farmers who are desperately trying to keep their to heads up the flooding waters of debt and crop loss are dying like flies around a lighted lamp. Now, India's farmer's suicide epidemic has come to the nation's capital. Now nobody can deny it. Now nobody can ignore it. This is a nation's death

Modi Sarkar Is Complicit In Gajendra Singh's Suicide
By Shehzad Poonawalla

The farmer, Ganjender Singh from Dausa, Rajasthan, who hanged himself at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar, where the Aam Admi Party was holding a rally, ironically to protest against the BJP's land acquisition bill, in full view of the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Dy.CM Manish Sisodia, only reflects the insensitivity of the state towards the farming population of this country. His unfortunate death is no less than a state complicit murder

Earth Day Message: Double The Native Forest Cover
By Brent Blackwelder

Earth Day began 45 years ago on April 22, 1970. The first Earth Day mobilized huge numbers of people to become active in efforts to curtail pollution and protect important ecosystems like forests. As we approach Earth Day this year, the founder of the Rainforest Action Network, Randy Hayes, and other visionary leaders are calling for a doubling of the native forest canopy on the earth. They are circulating a petition calling on all people to work together to achieve this goal

US Intelligence: Houthis Are Not Iran Proxy
By Robert Barsocchini

HuffPo reports that US intelligence says: Iranian representatives discouraged Houthi rebels from taking the Yemeni capital… Iran is not directing the rebels, who follow a different branch of Shiite Islam than Iran's leaders and are believed to care more about corruption and the distribution of power in Yemen than the spread of Shiite influence across the Middle East. “It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, told The Huffington Post. “It is wrong to think of the Houthis as a proxy force for Iran,” a U.S. intelligence official told The Huffington Post

Libertarians' Civil War Over Ukraine
By Eric Zuesse

Libertarians' civil war over Ukraine is a reflection of the difference between libertarianism's populist base or consumers (which the Pauls rely upon) versus libertrianism's elite source and manufacturerers (which produced and market the ideology, and so have actually created and politically exploited that base). It's like the difference between a manufacturer and a consumer. While the Pauls sell to the consumers, the Kochs have been the main manufacturers during the past forty years

Ukraine’s Spate Of Suspicious Deaths Must Be Followed By Credible Investigations
By John Dalhuisen

The killing of journalist Oles Buzyna on a Kyiv street this week was shocking enough in and of itself. According to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, the 45-year-old journalist – who was widely known for his pro-Russian views – was gunned down by masked assailants in a drive-by shooting. But what makes his murder especially chilling is the fact that it is just the latest among a string of suspicious deaths of former allies of Ukraine’s deposed former President Viktor Yanukovych. It came only a day after a member of Ukraine’s political opposition, Oleg Kalashnikov, was also found shot dead in the capital

EU Israel-Palestine Policy Is Out Of Touch With Reality
By Alan Hart

If Zionism does not resort to a final ethnic cleansing, the day is coming when the Arabs of what is today Greater Israel will outnumber the Jews, so one state for all would lead in time to the de-Zionization of it. The end of the Zionist enterprise. That being so the obvious implication is that getting to the point where a one state solution might be possible would require the EU to play its necessary part in putting Israel on notice that unless it ends its defiance of international law and becomes serious about peace on terms the Palestinians could accept, it will be isolated and subjected to sanctions of the kind that played a major role in pushing South Africa's apartheid regime to its end

Chomsky And Pappe Clash On “Solutions” For Palestine In New Book
By Rod Such

A review of "On Palestine" by Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky

The American Torture Story Being Ignored
By Countercurrents

“Stories” of torture by the U.S. authorities are surfacing while the reports are being ignored. Amnesty International USA has accused concerned authorities in the Washington DC of “sweeping under the carpet” a December Senate report that the CIA tortured militants using the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” during the post 9/11 War on Terror

After The Bardo Terrorist Attack
By Serge Jordan

The barbarous terrorist attack on the 18 March at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, that claimed 22 lives, represents a watershed in the political situation of post-revolution Tunisia. This appalling event, the first terrorist act of this scale to take place in the heart of the capital, came as a reminder of the stark reality hidden behind the laudatory propaganda of the mainstream media and politicians about the successful “democratic transition.”

Making History And Building A Future In The Nevada Desert
By Brian Terrell

The protests at the Nevada Test Site have appropriately been recognized for their historical significance. Perhaps one day tourists to Nevada will leave the casinos for a time to visit Peace Camp as a place of celebration and hope, where humanity turned from its path of destruction. On that day, the Nevada National Security Site, restored and returned to the sovereignty of the Western Shoshone Nation, will be a monument of regret for crimes perpetrated there against the earth and its creatures. This time has not yet come. What will be regarded as the history of the Peace Camp and Test Site, not to mention the history of this planet, is still being written as we walk and as we act

Legacy Of War
By Robert J. Burrowes

A world without violence might not be possible, but we humans are always undertaking things that look impossible at first glance. Besides, my parents always taught me to 'Try. Try again.' I still do. And, at 92, they are still my greatest supporters

An Introduction To What Is Going On In Latin America
Book Review By Kim Scipes

Review of “There’s somethin’ happenin’ here, What it is ain’t exactly clear” (Stephen Stills): A Review of Latin America’s Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty-first Century, edited by Steve Ellner and We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution by George Ciccariello-Maher

End Our Misery - For God's Sake
By Abdul Majid Zargar

Human rights violations in Kashmir will not stop without seriously thinking over demilitarization of the State. Let it start by relocating the army strictly on borders & auxillary forces confined to barracks. Let India’s political class not think that by committing these doables, its power over Kashmir will be ruptured. Let required political steps be taken in right earnest to attempt a just solution

Attacks On Christians And Indian Government
By Abdur Rab Khan

Instead of stopping, the cycle of attacks on and vandalism against churches is only spreading. Recently, subversive elements carried out a despicable act at a church in a historical city Agra as well. Incidents of attacks on Christian places of worship and targeting them have occurred one after the other in the past few months

Color Coding Of Communal Politics
By Ram Puniyani

As per the reports from Ahmadabad (12th April 2015) the uniform at Shahpur School; where most of the students are Hindus; is saffron and the color of uniform in Dani Limda school where almost all the students are Muslims; the color is green. This is absolutely shocking! One knew that the ghettoization of Muslims in Ahmadabad is probably the worst in the country but whether the things will go this far was unbelievable. The process of communalization which worsened after the 2002 Gujarat carnage is seeing a new low with incidents like this one

21 April, 2015

World On Fire: UN Helpless As Crises Rage In 10 Critical Hot Spots
By Thalif Deen

The United Nations is fighting a losing battle against a rash of political and humanitarian crises in 10 of the world’s critical “hot spots.” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says even the U.N.’s 193 member states cannot, by themselves, help resolve these widespread conflicts. “Not a single country, however powerful or resourceful as it may be, including the United States, can do it,” he warned last week. The world’s current political hotspots include Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic – not forgetting West Africa which is battling the spread of the deadly disease Ebola

Blood On Their Hands: Libya’s Boat Refugees And “Humanitarian” Imperialism
By Johannes Stern & Bill Van Auken

The horrific death toll of African and Middle Eastern refugees and migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe is a damning indictment of all the major imperialist powers, and most particularly the United States

Oil Market Uncertain As US Shale Boom “Goes Bust”
By Countercurrents.org

Oil market is uncertain as the US shale oil output is expected to fall for the first time in four years, and the coming months are likely to see a continuing price war between OPEC producers. Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HIS are now projecting that US oil production growth will now end. The global oil price rose slightly in the morning of April 14

Sex, Drugs, And Dead Soldiers : What U.S. Africa Command
Doesn't Want You To Know 

By Nick Turse

For years, as U.S. military personnel moved into Africa in ever-increasing numbers, AFRICOM has effectively downplayed, disguised, or covered-up almost every aspect of its operations, from the locations of its troop deployments to those of its expanding string of outposts. Not surprisingly, it's done the same when it comes to misdeeds by members of the command and continues to ignore questions surrounding crimes and alleged misconduct by its personnel, refusing even to answer emails or phone calls about them

What Happens When Mugabe Leaves: Zimbabwe In The Next 50 Years
By Tsungai Chipato

Regional hegemony will be the norm for the next following decades; as world powers follow Obama doctrine of having a small footprint but large reach. With South Africa seeing itself in the beginning throes, of a period of decline due to internal conflict. Western powers may have no choice but to deal with whatever administration that administers Zimbabwe

Abolish The Zionist Mythological Narrative
By Ludwig Watzal

Miko Peled, son of general Matityahu Peled and author of the highly acclaimed book "The General's Son"(1) , destroys in his lecture the historic fairy tales that the Zionist fabricated around their conquest of Palestine. The Zionist claim a "right of return" to their ancient homeland while they are denying the same right to the Palestinians who they dispersed in 1948

Truth Is Washington’s Enemy
By Paul Craig Roberts

A government that cannot survive truth and must resort to stamping out truth is not a government that any country wants. But such an undesirable government is the government that Clinton-Bush-Cheney-Obama-Hillary-Lack-Royce have given us

How America's Aristocracy Extends Its Global Control
By Eric Zuesse

America's great Founders defeated the aristocracy of their time. Gradually, an American aristocracy has arisen to take its place. But, with what's now known, perhaps those people can also be defeated; and, this time, because of what is now known, it might be able to be done in a way that will prevent any future aristocracy from forming here. The situation is far from hopeless. It is bad, but progress really is possible. And progress should be the goal

World Bank Group Increases Spending On Fossil Fuels:
2014 Saw $3 Billion For Fossil Fuel

By Countercurrents.org

Despite repeated calls for urgent action on climate crisis, the World Bank Group (WBG) increased funding for fossil fuels in its last fiscal year. The increase comes during the first full fiscal year following the World Bank’s announced commitment to limit coal financing due to climate concerns. Last year, the WBG provided more than $3bn in financing for fossil fuels

Why Cuba Won't Extradite Assata Shakur
By Matt Peppe

As negotiations continue between the governments of the United States and Cuba over the normalization of relations, the U.S. State Department has claimed Cuba is willing to discuss the extradition of political refugee Assata Shakur. While it may seem that Cuba would gladly make such a seemingly minor concession in return for the promise of normalized relations, this would greatly underestimate the Cuban government's commitment to upholding its principles. Shakur need not worry that Cuba will cave for expediency's sake and send her back to the country she escaped from after being harassed and persecuted for years

Dana Durnford’s Post-Fukushima Odyssey:
Documenting Ecocide on Canada’s West Coast

By Robert Snefjella

Dana Durnford’s odyssey, in 2014 and 2015, not a fable, has been to document what has happened and is happening since Fukushima to wild life, plant and animal, in the waters and tidal zone and pools on the West Coast of Canada. His boat is a little Zodiac water craft, almost impossible to sink, but no comfort inn. He has sailed it largely alone, with his intrepid old dog Zoey, for months and for many hundreds of kilometers along the shores of British Columbia and its islands and out to the Queen Charlotte Islands

Land Acquisition Bill Takes Away Rights Of Farmers
And Pits Them Against 'Make In India'

By Dr Rahul Pandey and Dr Sandeep Pandey

Since the past several months we have seen the NDA government aggressively pushing through changes in land acquisition policy, first in the form of Ordinance in December 2014 and then, as it was passed as a Bill with nine changes in Lok Sabha but faced roadblock in Rajya Sabha, re-promulgating it before its expiry in April 2015. With the government calling the Bill pro-farmer and pro-development and most of opposition parties and social activists opposing it as anti-farmer, it is useful to sieve through the noise and look at the changes proposed and what existed earlier

20 April, 2015

Xenophobia In South Africa: Driven By Apartheid Legacy Of White Monopoly Capitalism
By Garikai Chengu

South Africa’s Apartheid regime is remembered as one of the worst crimes against humanity of the 20th century. The White monopoly capitalist system that underpinned Apartheid remains alive and well today. White monopoly capitalism is the post-Apartheid economic system, whereby Whites continue to exert disproportional and undemocratic control over the nation's economy, land, media and judicial system. The American investment bank, Citigroup, recently ranked South Africa as the world’s richest country, in terms of its mineral reserves, worth an estimated $2.5 trillion. South African Whites and Western foreigners own a staggering 80 percent of this wealth, and that is the root cause of the recent xenophobic violence

Mediterranean Deaths: UN Points To 50-Fold Increase In Deaths
Amid European Government Inaction

By Amnesty International

European governments’ ongoing negligence towards the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean has contributed to a more than 50-fold increase in migrant and refugee deaths since the beginning of 2015, Amnesty International said today amid fears that as many as 700 more have died amid rescue missions off the coast of Libya in recent days

NATO Increasingly Surrounds The ‘Russian Threat'
By Eric Zuesse

On Saturday, April 18th, the Commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, told Britain's Telegraph that “There is a Russian threat,” and that “The best insurance we have against a showdown is that NATO stands together.”

ExxonMobil’s Dangerous Business Strategy
By Jeffery D. Sachs

ExxonMobil’s current business strategy is a danger to its shareholders and the world. We were reminded of this once again in a report of the National Petroleum Council’s Arctic Committee, chaired by ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. The report calls on the US government to proceed with Arctic drilling for oil and gas – without mentioning the consequences for climate change

Colonial Science And Sustainability
By Jan Wareus

We live in times when semantics are changing and texts are full of abbreviations. So, now I’m told that COAD is chronic obtrusive air-ways decease. The plague miners and stone-pit workers even share with people smoking too many Cohibas and Davidoff pipe tobacco. However, we all share the COED – chronic obstructive economic decline! With enormous consequences for both rich and poor, both developed and developing countries

Globalization: Global Agribusiness Hammering Away
At The Foundations Of Indian Society

By Colin Todhunter

As Modi presses through with his strident neoliberal agenda and seeks to further privatize India's agricultural heritage, it begs the question: is it not tantamount to turning in on yourself and destroying the home in which you live?

Kashmir: Show Me The Progress Report?
By Ummer Wani

Yet again, the valley is at the political crossroads—with the return of summer—the summers of crises, curfews and crackdowns, the stage is set for another spell of Hartals and ‘Chalo calls’ and not to mention the deaths. The killing of a youth in Tral few days ago and the planned proposal to establish composite townships for Kashmiri Pandits living in self-imposed-exile, are the latest incidents which are likely to galvanize the valley into a trance of action and defection

A Beginner's Guide To Indian Commodity Futures Markets
By Neeraj Mahajan and Kavaljit Singh

The Guide provides concrete examples to show how the Indian commodity futures markets are manipulated by a few big players who enrich themselves at the cost of farmers and small traders. It reveals how systemic corruption and frauds take place frequently in the Indian markets due to inherent weakness of the institutions responsible for making and enforcing regulations. In gripping detail, it describes some of the recent scandals that have shaken the public’s trust and confidence in commodity markets

19 April, 2015

World Bank Business Projects Displaced 3.4 Million People
By Countercurrents.org

At least 3.4 million people have been physically or economically displaced by World Bank-backed projects between 2004 and 2013, estimates an investigative report. The true figure is likely higher, because the bank often fails to count or undercounts the number of people affected by its projects

Demanding Full Rehabilitation Narmada Valley Adivasi Oustees Stage Sit In
By Narmada Bachao Andolan

Ardent on their demand of full rehabilitation, the adivasi oustees of Narmada valley from Maharashtra state are continuing their sit-in before the Divisional Commissioner, Nasik. It’s the third day of their Dharna before the Commissioner

U.S. Plans To Win Future Wars In Space
By Countercurrents.org

In a new bid to win space war, the U.S. has planned new ways. Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp are joining in the war venture. And, larger business deals are in the making

Greenland Continuing To Darken
By Countercurrents.org

Darkening of the Greenland Ice Sheet is projected to continue as a consequence of continued climate warming, Dr. Marco Tedesco, a City College of New York scientist, said at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna today

How Trustworthy Are U.S. & Western ‘News' Media?
By Eric Zuesse

During the days of the Soviet Union, and in all dictatorial countries, the ‘news' media were and are actually propaganda-media, which filter out information that the aristocracy (the people holding the real power, which in the Soviet Union were the Communist Party bosses) don't want the public to know. Is the United States like that now?

For The Conference On The Israel Lobby—Press Blackout At The Press Club
By Ralph Nader

So, where were the reporters of the mainstream media? Where was C-SPAN during a week when Congress was on a holiday and their cameras were not preoccupied by Capitol Hill activities—its foremost priority? Apparently, the American people were only to see and hear the extreme views of AIPAC that do not even command the support of a majority of American Jews who do favor a two-state solution, along with a majority of Arab-Americans. It is true that a few members of the mainstream media RSVP’d to attend this conference, but they did not show up or write anything about it before or after

We Have Lost The Physical Presence Of Eduardo Galeano, But His Legacy Is Eternal
By The Landless Workers' Movement (MST)

The impossibility of writing about Galeano without turning to what he has left us is the strongest proof that he remains among us. We will always turn to him to supply ourselves with utopia, an unreachable utopia that yet makes us walk towards it

Fact Finding Report On The Assassination Of
Five Muslim Under Trial Prisoners At Aler Town Of Telangana State Of India

By Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee

A fact finding team of Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee comprising Lateef Mohammed Khan, Adv. D. Suresh Kumar, Ashala Srinivas, Kaneez Fathima, Adv. Mandakini, Adv. Greeshma, Adv. Md. Ismail Khan and Charan K.S conducted fact finding from 12th to 14th April 2015 and met the family members of the deceased, visited place of incident, met the police authorities and local people of Aler and surrounding areas as well as journalists who had covered the incident. The team members recorded the statements of all the people to find out the facts as to what actually happened in the Aler police station limits where five under trial prisoners were shot dead by the police personnel of escort party of central prison of wrangle district of Telangana a newly formed state of India

Adivasis And Slum Dwellers Oppose Builder-Police Nexus
To Claim Land Rights In Mumbai

By National Alliance of People’s Movements

NAPM condemns police assault of 90 year old senior activist Bhau Bhuskute

What The Country Needs From CPM: A New Programme Of Action
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

The major point is that poor, farmers, deprived people need them. Indian poor people have got not much from the parties at centre in recent time. They must exhibit a political metamorphosis and lead the struggle of powerless. They are among the most honest politicians, now they need to activate themselves in more effective manner

18 April, 2015

U.S. Documents Corroborate Mordechai Vanunu's Revelations Regarding
Israel's Nuclear Weapons

By Eileen Fleming

On Wednesday The National Security Archive of George Washington University published documents which corroborate what Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower Mordechai Vanunu has been saying for twenty-nine years. The documents detail the discovery of Israel’s nuclear deceptions, debates over Israel’s lack of candor and efforts to pressure the Israelis to answer key questions about Israe's Dimona nuclear facility

Wave Of Assassinations In Ukraine Targets Critics Of Kiev Regime
By Alex Lantier

In the lead-up to the May 9 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany at the end of World War II, there has been an accelerating wave of political assassinations targeting critics of the Western-backed, far-right regime in Kiev

The Future Of International Law
By John Scales Avery

We need a sense of the unity of all mankind to save the future, a new global ethic for a united world. We need politeness and kindness to save the future, politeness and kindness not only within nations but also between nations. To save the future, we need a just and democratic system of international law; for with law shall our land be built up, but with lawlessness laid waste

Chaos And Propaganda: Washington's "Reality-Based Order"
By Colin Todhunter

In 2011, Hilary Clinton announced the US was at war. She wasn’t referring to the US’s ongoing invasions, wars and occupations but an ideological war for hearts and minds. Clinton lamented the fact that, since the end of the cold war, US global ideological influence had weakened, especially with the advent of the internet and TV channels like RT

Side Effects: Popping Pills And Pop-Up Politicoes
By Gary Corseri

Used to be, when I flipped channels, I’d go from one movie to another, one drama to another, one news show to another, etc. These days, I’m more likely to go from one commercial to another—and more likely than not, it’s a prescription pill commercial!

Victory In Vietnam! (History And Reflections)
By Jack A. Smith

Forty years ago on April 30, 1975, the Vietnamese people, led by their Communist Party, were finally victorious in the long just struggle for national independence and unification against the United States and its puppet regime in Saigon. America experienced an earthshaking lesson in Vietnam — "Stop your unjust wars of aggression!" —but Washington learned nothing from its humiliating defeat except to shift its battlefields of choice from Southeast Asia to Southwest Asia (i.e., the Middle East)

Seeds Of Hope For A Hopeless Wasteland
By Vincent Di Stefano

Despite the apparent abandonment and near-universal silence regarding the situation in both Gaza and the West Bank, there are some voices who continue to call for justice and humanity to be exercised in the moral wasteland that Israel/Palestine has become

How A $15 Minimum Helps All Workers
By Shamus Cooke

If unions want to prove themselves relevant to non-union workers, they have no better opportunity than the “Fight for $15.” By winning $15 for everyone, unions will be less vulnerable to the rhetoric of the “overpaid” union worker, since lower wage workers will see a boost in their pay due to the work of a union-led campaign. There’s no reason to settle for less than $15

Reconceptualising The Urban Experience: Negotiating Differences
By Priyanka Dass Saharia

In popular representations of the community in media discourses, the ‘voice' of the migrant woman from the North-east India is often silenced. The ethnic gendered subject being a passive recipient to urban experiences of violence and discrimination isn't a given but a constructed idea through various discourses and each new event of violence just ends up in the reification of this construct – the mute, docile victim

Several States Remain Opposed To Rewriting Of Geography
Through Interlinking Of Rivers

By Gopal Krishna

Several states remain opposed to rewriting of geography through interlinking of rivers , after Supreme Court, Government reveals there is no consensus on the mega project. Court observed NCAER Study “did not consider the plan's environmental aspects or cost-benefit calculus”. ILR project & Ganga Waterway project pose threat to Ganga basin, contrary to efforts for Ganga rejuvenation

Pakistan's First Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan Was Assassinated By America
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan's first Prime Minister, was assassinated on October 16, 1951 while addressing a public meeting in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. His assassin, later identified as Saad Akbar Babrak was shot dead on the spot. Saad Akbar Babrak was an Afghan national and a professional assassin. For more than 63 years controversy continued about the motives and perpetrators after the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan. Conspiracy theories abounded with little to substantiate. However, the controversy is now coming to end as declassified documents of the US State Department disclosed that Americans murdered the first elected prime minister of Pakistan through the Afghan government

Ahwazi Demonstration In Brussels Commemorates
The 90th Anniversary Of The Iranian Occupation Of Al-Ahwaz

By Rahim Hamid

On Friday 17-04-2015, a massive demonstration was held in front of the European Parliament buildings in Brussels to commemorate both the 10th anniversary of the Ahwazi popular uprising of April 2005 and the 90th anniversary of the Iranian occupation of Al-Ahwaz (subsequently renamed ‘Khuzestan’) in 1925

17 April, 2015

One And A Half Billion People Live On Less Than $1.25 Per Day
By Zaida Green

A new study by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI) reports that the number of people globally living on less than $1.25 per day is likely to be far higher than the already staggering 1.2 billion estimated by the World Bank

How Reliable Is Reuters?
By Eric Zuesse

A typical Reuters ‘news' report will be examined here, in order to determine how high the journalistic standards of the Reuters ‘news' organization actually are. Reuters is an internationally respected ‘news' organization, as reliable as any major ‘news' organization in the U.S. and Europe — thus, it's a good source to provide a case-example. The particular report, dated Thursday, April 16th, is titled "Russia blames U.S. for security crises and turmoil in Ukraine."

Rural Rebellion In Northern California
By Shepherd Bliss

Sonoma County currently has 70,000 acres (and growing) of wine grapes and only 12,000 acres of food crops. As grapegrower Bill Shortridge says, “We've gone from an agriculture that benefitted all, to a monoculture that benefits a few.” Modifying an old statement, “One cannot live by wine alone.” So what’s the beef? Big Wine controls around 80% of the market in Sonoma County. They take more than their fair share of the water we all need to survive, garden, hydrate our families, pets, plants, and farm animals

Ambedkar’s Ideology: Religion, Nationalism And Indian Constitution
By Ram Puniyani

In order to gain larger legitimacy, RSS has been making claims of sorts. One of that which was made few months back was that Gandhi was impressed by functioning of RSS. Now on the heels of that comes another distortion that Ambedkar believed in Sangh ideology (Feb 15, 2015). This was stated by RSS Sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat. Recently on the occasion of Ambedkar’s 124th anniversary many programs were held by RSS combine giving a pro-Hindutva tilt to presentation of Ambedkar

G.N. Saibaba On Hunger Strike : The Biggest "Little Man" In The Country Today

Dr, G N Saibaba, Delhi University Professor, who has been in incarceration since 9th May, 2014 has commenced an indefinite hunger strike from 11-04-2015 demanding proper medical treatment and food, both of which are being denied to him by the authorities of the Nagpur Central Prison

CCTV Cameras In Women's Cells: Angela Sontakke Hunger Strike In Byculla Jail
By Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights

The installation of CCTV cameras within the women’s barracks in jails amounts to violation of the right to privacy and dignity which is a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution. It is important to note that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that merely because a person is imprisoned, he does not lose all his fundamental rights. It is also most alarming that when a prisoner protests the violation of fundamental rights, she is isolated and threatened with action for obstructing officials from performing their duties!

Death Of An Aged Pensioner In Manipur Raises Many Questions
By John Gaingamlung Gangmei

Whom should we blame for the death of senior citizen (aged woman pensioner) in Manipur? Who is accountable for the unpleasant incident?

“One Size Fits All” Criteria For Media Teaching Needs Review
By Syed Ali Mujtaba

I feel it’s high time that “One Size fits All” criteria should be relaxed for media professionals to teach media courses. A mix of faculties should be there as it will help the students to be trained by the right people media and make a mark in the media profession

16 April, 2015

Obama To Take Cuba Off State Terror List
By Bill Van Auken

President Barack Obama has announced his widely anticipated decision to end the 33-year designation of Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” The action removes a key obstacle to the normalization of ties between Washington and Havana that both he and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, initiated in speeches delivered simultaneously last December 17. It also helps clear the way for the penetration of Cuba’s economy by US finance capital

A Climate Hero Languishes In Prison, Let's Fight To Get Him Out
By Bill McKibben

Mohamed Nasheed—who literally stood against the tides of rising oceans to sound the climate alarm—was ousted as the president of the Maldives during a military coup in 2012 and now faces 13 years in jail on an absurd series of politically-motivated charges

World Set For Record Droughts By 2050, Say Scientists
By Alex Pashley

The planet could suffer unprecedented droughts before the middle of the century, researchers warned on April 15, 2015, urging prompt action in adapting reservoirs to receding water resources

The Renewable Revolution 
By Michael T. Klare

Four Reasons Why the Transition From Fossil Fuels to a Green Energy Era Is Gaining Traction 

Paying A Libel Suit To The Israel News Paper
By Mordechai Vanunu

Support Vanunu's Indiegogo Fund Raising Campaign

Geopolitics, Austerity And Neo-Liberalism: Greece, The EU And The US
By Jon Kofas

Until very recently, the media throughout the world called the Greek SYRIZA party everything from “far left” to “radical far leftwing”. Once the center-left party with a mass base made up of middle class and workers took power in Greece in late January 2015, it was very clear that the leftist rhetoric was indeed critical of austerity and neoliberal policies. Euphoria abounded within Greece and throughout the world among anti-austerity and anti-neoliberals who believed that growth and development were sacrificed for the sake of capital concentration at home and abroad. Very quickly, however, SYRIZA fell in line under pressure from the international media, domestic and foreign businesses, and of course from governments especially Germany, but also the US and even China that demanded conformity

U.S. Blocked Declaration Of A Right To Health Care, Says Bolivia's President
By Eric Zuesse

Bolivia's President Evo Morales has blamed U.S. President Barack Obama for the failure of the recent OAS (Organization of American States) Summit of the Americas to issue a final declaration, and he says that a major sticking point for Mr. Obama was Obama's opposition to a provision in the proposed declaration that would have said that health care is “a human right.” Mr. Obama insisted that it's instead a privilege, access to which must be based primarily upon an individual's ability-to-pay, as is the case in the United States

The Tin-House Death In A Dhaka-Lake
By Farooque Chowdhury

Are the tin-house deaths, at least 12 poor persons, in a Dhaka slum or in a Dhaka lake (New Age, April 16, 2015), in whatever way one likes to identify, Baanglaa New Year’s gift to the Dhaka poor? Shall any politician or policy maker in the city answer the question?

Ahwazi Uprising: Between Escalation And Repression
By Ahwazna Website

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the glorious Intifada 15 April of 2005 that was a turning point in the history of the struggle of the Arab people of Ahwaz. Therefore, it is an opportunity to shed light on the issue of Ahwaz and objectives of the unwavering struggle of its people, and also to expose the Iranian gruesome policies exercised on Ahwazis which have taken its toll where arbitrary arrest of Ahwazi activists, death penalty, denial of employment, stealing the water of rivers and pumping it to Persian regions, building settlements for housing Persian settlers, dehydrating and contaminating wetlands and marshes for prospecting oil are rife

Sanjay Raut Has All Reasons To Do A Bal Thackeray
By Jahanzeb Mashhadi

There is a huge uproar and rightly so about the Shiv Sena's statement of no voting rights for Muslims! I get it, South Indians to Biharis with Muslims being a constant, baying for the blood of communities is what Shiv Sena has done throughout its existence. What I don’t get is the fact that people are actually expecting the government to do something about it

Meaningful Democracy: Dr. Ambedkar's Idea Of Swaraj
By Uttam Khobragade

The nation has just celebrated the 125th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar. It was a historical coincidence that when the struggle for Independence was at its peak, Dr. Ambedkar was fighting for the liberation of the Dalits. Naturally, both the sections for and against the emancipation of the Dalits treated Dr. Ambedkar’s struggle as only a struggle for the liberation of the Dalits, ignoring its importance in making Indian society overall a truly democratic society

Kashmir: Composite Society Not Composite Townships!
By Mohammad Ashraf

Kashmir needs restoration of its centuries old composite society and not clusters of imprisoned citizens acting as perennial sources of friction

Return Of Kashmiri Pundits To Valley
By Prof (Dr) Upendra Kaul

The mere thought of returning to demarcated area , separated by barbed wires or walls in the valley away from the main kochas and streets where we spent our good times both amuses and hurts me. Going back to areas where you are not a part of the mainstream is meaningless. It only means to have a better climatic conditions, like staying in an air conditioned prison. Talking of 1990 again and again is not the solution. We need to look forward and go back to our old homes or build places in the main city or villages where we came from

Islam And Unity In Diversity
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

A panel discussion on Unity in Diversity organized by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)

Canadian Court Issues Summons For Prime Minister Modi; Attorney General Blocks It
By American Justice Center

The American Justice Center, an organization established to bring to justice perpetrators of mass violence and genocides, today welcomed a Canadian Court's summons to visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi under Section 269.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code, although the summons was immediately blocked by the Attorney General

15 April, 2015

Why Sesachalam Killings
Is A Fake Encounter

By Ajmal Khan

After the third day Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations team which included this writer visited the place from where the bodies were found, they had also spoke to the families of victims and different government officials who were concerned. The team made very remarkable observations like the part of the forest where the encounter took place had no red sanders. There are no red sander trees within many kilometers of the site. Only twenty dead bodies were recovered (along with a few logs). Which begs the question, what happened to the rest? Where are the injured? Where are the arrestees? What happened to the many logs that they were supposed to have been carrying?. Blood stains are only found on the spots where the bodies were lying. There are no random blood marks on the ground, as one would expect in a random firing. There are no bullet marks anywhere on the encounter sites. No bullet holes on trees, the clay mounds or on the ground. In the 'random' firing every single bullet seems to have found it's mark - the upper body of the victims. (In fact, media reports say, quoting both the witnesses who saw the bodies and the doctor who conducted the autopsy, that the bullet injuries are primarily on the upper body and the shots have been fired at close range.)

UN Imposes Arms Embargo On Rebels As Yemen Slaughter Continues
By Niles Williamson

The UN Security Council voted on Tuesday to impose an arms embargo on leading members of the Houthi militia as well as Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the son of former longtime dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. The resolution was passed with 14 votes in favor and Russia abstaining. The text of the embargo was drafted by Jordan, a nonpermanent member of the Security Council. The Jordanian monarchy is actively participating in the anti-Houthi air assault in Yemen being spearheaded by Saudi Arabia

Coal Is Dying All By Itself
By Tim McDonnell

Coal, the No. 1 cause of climate change, is dying. Last year saw a record number of coal plant retirements in the United States, and a study last week from Duke University found that Even China, which produces and consumes more coal than the rest of the world put together, is expected to hit peak coal use within a decade, in order to meet its promise to President Barack Obama to reduce its carbon emissions starting in 2030

The Storm Is Over
By Kathy Kelly

The other storms will come, and we will have to see how we weather them, but what if our terrible fear of each other could pass us by? What if, for those of us doing the easiest time, "I can't do 3 more years" became "I won't make you do 3 more years" - became our part in a chorused "we won't do 3 more years!" ringing through our society. How miraculous it would be to hold our children and grand-children and sing, "I think that we can make it. The storm is over now."

Do Something, Anything: Naming And Shaming In Yarmouk
By Ramzy Baroud

The population of Syria’s Palestinian Refugee Camp, Yarmouk - whose population once exceeded 250,000, dwindling throughout the Syrian civil war to 18,000 - are a microcosm of the story of a whole nation, whose perpetual pain shames us all, none excluded

Will Washington Kill Us All?
By Paul Craig Roberts

The American people and the entire world need to understand that the threat to life on earth resides in Washington and that until Washington is fundamentally and totally changed, this threat will remain as the worse threat to life on earth. Global Warming can disappear instantly in Nuclear Winter

Putting The Real Story Of Energy And The Economy Together
By Gail Tverberg

In my view, the real story of energy and the economy is much less favorable than either of these views. It is a story of oil limits that will make themselves known as financial limits, quite possibly in the near term—perhaps in as little time as a few months or years. Our underlying problem is diminishing returns—it takes more and more effort (hours of workers’ time and quantities of resources), to produce essentially the same goods and services

Sri Lanka: Deterioration Of The Legal Intellect: IV
By Basil Fernando

A determination issued by the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee on 1stApril 2015, reveals extraordinary failures on the part of Sri Lankan State agencies – the police, the forensic pathologist, the Attorney General, and the Supreme Court – regarding a custodial death that took place at the Moragahahena Police Station on 26th July 2003

Codemening The Attacks By Maoists On Security Forces In Bastar
By PUCL

Statement of PUCL Chhattisgarh on the recent attacks on security forces by Maoists

14 April, 2015

Carbon Sequestration Is Not A Solution To The Climate Crisis
By Countercurrents.org

Carbon Sequestration has been mooted as one geoengineering approach to ameliorating climate change. To be effective, trapping the gas in geological deposits would be for the very long term, thousands of years. Now, a team in Brazil, writing in the International Journal of Global Warming has reviewed the risk assessments for this technology and suggests a lack of knowledge means we should be cautious of turning to this method rather than finding sustainable ways to reduce emissions at their source

Calling For Divestment In Fossil Fuel, Harvard Protesters Blockade Massachusetts Hall
By Mariel A. Klein & Theodore R. Delwiche

Members and supporters of the activist group Divest Harvard began a planned blockade of three entrances to Massachusetts Hall on Sunday and were still rallying outside the building in protest of Harvard's investment in fossil fuel companies late that evening

The Rise Of Biocultural Rights
By David Bollier

The idea of bioocultural rights provides a powerful legal framework for reclaiming land, culture, traditional knowledge and self-governance. These things should not be driven by markets, but by a deeper set of values, including ecological imperatives. It will take a great deal of bottom-up political and legal action to win recognition for biocultural rights. But I think it holds great promise for giving commons-based governance a new foundation in law

Joy Oh Joy ! Hillary Is Running
By John Chuckman

In the end, the person America elects as President makes no appreciable difference to what America does in the world or how its wealthy rulers treat their own people, a presidential election being little more than the most costly theater performance in the world, “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.”

The 2015 British General Election: Capitalism's One-Horse Race
By Colin Todhunter

No matter who wins on 7 May, the public is destined for more of the same. The real outcome of the election has already been decided by the interlocking directorate of think tanks, big business and its lobby groups and the higher echelons of the civil service. The election will be akin to rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship

The United States Of Israel
By Ludwig Watzal

On a one-day conference in Washington on the power and the influence of the Israel Lobby organized by the "Institute for Research/Middle East Policy" and the "Washington Report for Middle East Affairs" Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy delivered an impassioned speech at the National Press Club blaming the Zionist lobby for the dominant role Israel plays in U. S. politics

Military Missions Reach Record Levels After U.S. Inks Deal
To Remain in Africa For Decades 

By Nick Turse

As Turse writes today of AFRICOM’s growth, bad news from the African front after the U.S. military moved onto the continent in a big way only led to a further “swelling of bases, personnel, and funding” -- and, of course, no blowback at all when it comes to the officials directing all of this. For them, as Turse’s reporting makes clear, it’s a blowforward world all the way

A Rain Coat For A Cuban woman
By Farooque Chowdhury

It’s not logical to make a comparison between an island-country, Cuba, going through decades of economic blockade and a continent-sized country commanding unimaginable amount of natural and human resources, the US. It’s not logical to compare a country trying to establish its own way of democracy with a country having its system of governance that serves a minority part of society. The first one is making the endeavor for a few decades while the other one is having the system for more than two centuries. Shall it be logical to assess the first one with an eye and viewpoint of the second one? Definitions will be different; meanings will differ; explanations will vary, and so, the conclusions shall err

The Myth Of Violence
By Harsh Mander

This is an excerpt from Harsh Mander's new book "Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India" published by Speaking Tiger

Why Is Next Ambedkar Needed?: A Time For Reflection
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

We need a new Ambedkar, who goes inside the real life of the dalits; Who lives like them, who makes them aware, who is not a vote catcher but a strength giver so that no new Dhirendra Kumar Maurya is born. Micro level work is must to remove these great issues of deprivation to dalit

13 April, 2015

Chittoor Encounter: Testimonies By Three Survivors Point To
Cold Blooded Murder By Police Forces

By Anhad

Statements of three survivors recorded at the National Human Rights Commission point to cold blooded murder by police forces

Rulers’ Inefficiency And Brutality End 20 Labourers Lives
By T. Venkateshwarlu

Ultimately rulers and police found the best way to prevent red sandalwood smuggling by killing 20 labourers. It will never eradicate the smuggling but it created unimaginable tragedy to the poor families for lifelong

Saudi Mercenary’s And The Starvation Of Yemen
By Thomas C. Mountain

The Saudi military is almost entirely staffed by mercenaries. The Saudi jets bombing an air defenseless Yemen are piloted by Pakistanis. Its mid and low level officers are mainly from Jordan and most ominously for its ability to actually launch a ground invasion, its rank and file soldiers are almost entirely from Yemen. That's right, the Saudi army is packed full of Yemeni cannon fodder, which helps explains its ignominious failure in its war with Yemen’s Houthi’s in 2009

This Explains Everything - Case Closed: Latin, Latinos, And Larry, Daryl, & Daryl
By Rosemarie Jackowski

When the nation with the most powerful military and the largest number of nuclear weapons is governed by an uninformed body of citizens, the entire planet is at risk. If voters were informed would we have invaded Iraq? Would we be killing kids with drones? Would we have an unfair economic system? Would we have people continuing to die because of lack of access to medical care?

Sri Lanka: Deterioration Of The Legal Intellect: (3) Descent Into The Selling Of Children
By Basil Fernando

Last week, several news reports revealed the story of an 8-year-old child (reported as a 10-years-old by some media houses) from Ambathenna, Katugastota. The mother made the initial report about her missing child to the Katugastota police. Initially, the police ignored the complaint and did nothing to begin searching for the child. It was only after a tip-off from a woman who witnessed the sale of the child that the police intervened. According to the reports, the police officers that arrived at the scene were able to recover the Rs. 50,000 used to buy the child

Warming Oceans Storing Up Long-Term Climate Impact, Says WMO
By Ed King

Rising ocean temperatures are likely to have “major implications” for the development of climate change, the World Meteorological Organization said recently

The Power Of Lies
By Paul Craig Roberts

Everywhere in the West monstrous lies stand unchallenged. The lies are institutionalized in history books, course curriculums, policy statements, movements and causes, and in historical memory. America will be hard pressed to survive the lies that it lives

Kashmir: The Uneasy Hug!
By Mohammad Ashraf

The hug between Modi and Mufti seems to be turning uneasy like the hug in the Kashmiri proverb, “Kakun Haaputh”!

Political Ideology And Interpretation Of History
By Ram Puniyani

Apart from the official school text books as such RSS has been running a chain of schools, Sarswati Shishu Mandirs, Ekal Vidyalayas and Vidya Bharati, which are using the version of History. It is this version form RSS stable schools, which they are proposing for the state run institutions. This is what will be a very divisive move for our plural country with immense diversity

12 April, 2015

New Breakaway Republic Is Announced In Ukraine
To Join Donetsk And Luhansk Republics

By Eric Zuesse

A group of residents in the region of Odessa, one of Ukraine's largest cities, is trying to break away from the Ukrainian government that was formed after the coup in Kiev in February 2015

Ukraine's President Poroshenko Tries To Stop His Side's Ceasefire Violations
By Eric Zuesse

According to Donetsk People's Republic Defense Minister Eduard Basurin, speaking Saturday April 11th, the recently reported ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian government's side are violations by the Ukrainian government's volunteer irregular battalions, not by regular units of the armed forces of Ukraine (which are conscripts and thus represent the will of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko).  Furthermore, the DPR's statement goes considerably farther, to indicate that Ukraine's President Poroshenko has actually been enforcing his side's compliance with the ceasefire agreement. According to the announcement from the "Donetsk People's Republic, Novorossiya”

Why Pakistan Declines Saudi Request To Join Arab Coalition Fighting In Yemen
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Pakistan has virtually declined Saudi Arabia's request to join the Arab coalition fighting its current military operation in to restore the deposed Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. After days of discussion in media and parliament, a joint session of parliament passed a resolution on Friday (April 10) saying that Pakistan "should maintain neutrality in the conflict so as to be able to play a proactive diplomatic role to end the crisis”

International Jazz Day At A UN Underwriting Genocide In Yemen
After Having Ordered Libya's Obliteration And Korea Reconquered

By Jay Janson

Some, if not most, of the most accomplished jazz musicians in the world performed brilliantly at the United Nations on International Jazz Day, April 10, 2015, at the same time sanctifying with music a failed United Nations, which, since its creation by the colonial powers, has facilitated genocide for profit of the amoral wealthy elite of Western speculative interest banking

Unsettling Questions Regarding The Mumbai Terror Attacks Of 2008
By Elias Davidsson

This account represents the tip of a deceptive iceberg regarding the mass-murder of 26/11. Some may find reopening this dossier uncomfortable. Yet both the victims and society as a whole are legally entitled to know the truth of this calamity. The Indian authorities have demonstrated a surprising reluctance to establish the truth by an independent commission of inquiry. Meanwhile, Indian governments have capitalised on 26/11 to increase military expenditure, establish a national infrastructure of mass surveillance and enhance their cooperation with the United States and Israel. India has become a national security state. Was 26/11 perpetrated to justify this development? This sinister question deserves to be examined

Freedom For Dr. Mohammed al-Roken
By Ludwig Watzal

The situation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is almost as bad as in Saudi Arabia. The glittering facade in Dubai pretends normality and Westernization. The human rights lawyer Dr. Mohammed al Roken is a victim of this glamorous image. In reality, the UAE is a repressive regime like all the regimes on the Arab Peninsula

Lifestyle Changes (Like Going Vegan) Won’t End Capitalism
By Mickey Z.

To be a capitalist is to behave as if we are the last generation of humans. To be an anti-capitalista is to appreciate the need to do much more than change our own lifestyle; it is to re-imagine our relationship with the natural world. Which side are you on, comrades? The future is waiting on your decision

Ambedkar And The Annihilation Of Caste
By Sukumaran C. V.

The cruelty and meanness towards the humans by the humans was abolished, but in India the oppression and discrimination in the name of caste still continue and when will we the Indians be free from the oppressive and denigrating caste system which applies cow-dung water to ‘purify’ the official seat of an educated human being on account of his ‘lower’ caste origin? Will Ambedkar’s 200th birth anniversary see an India in which caste is annihilated totally?

Karl Marx And Exploitation Of India By Great Britain: First Hand Analysis
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

Though Karl Marx had not written extensively on India and Asia but he still made some valuable insights to the detoriation and exploitation of India by the imperial power Great Britain

Andhra Pradesh Forest Department Files FIR Against Human Rights Avitists
Investigating Encounter Killing Of 20 Wood Cutters

By Dr. V. Suresh

PUCL strongly condemns the registration of a FIR by the AP Forest Department against a team of human rights activists drawn from national level human rights organisations which visited , on 11.4.2015, the site of the encounter in Chandragiri Mandal in Chittoor district, AP in which the police shot dead 20 wood cutters. The Fact Finding Team included human rights activists from Civil Liberties Committee - AP, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Human Rights Forum (HRF), CPDR and other organisations

11 April, 2015

Ukraine Breaks Minsk Agreement; Reinvades Donbass
By Eric Zuesse

Shells are whistling again over the cities of Donbass. In Donetsk the sirens of ambulances and emergency services are heard. Under fire: Kievsky district, Oktyabrsky village, Panfilov mine village, Gladkova, Severny, Putilovka. The entire evening of April 9 there was a battle in the village of Spartak and near Peski

Ukraine Blocks 10,000 Websites, Confiscates A Newspaper
By Eric Zuesse

I reported yesterday, the Security Bureau of Ukraine, on April 7th, had seized and disappeared two Odessa bloggers. The follow-up to that story is the news on April 9th, which was reported in the courageous independent Kiev newspaper, Vesti, that "SBU has blocked more than 10,000 websites.” It says that, "Law enforcers seized the servers,” and that one SBU official told the newspaper, "'We have made the decision of the court and confiscated equipment.' He promised to return the servers in two months.”

It Is Not Confusing That US Abandons Own Citizens
In Yemen War-Zone But Rescues Saudi Bombers

By Robert Barsocchini

Most Americans have no idea any of these events are occurring or have only vague, US government/press-created notions of them, but many who are cognizant – principally the abandoned people themselves – express confusion. Why would eight countries, including Russia, China, and India, carry out risky missions to save their own citizens, as well as foreign nationals, stuck in Yemen, but the US would staunchly refuse to do so? All we ever hear from the US government and press is that the US is so incredibly good and altruistic. So, how could this be happening?

The Video That Could Indict The Pentagon For Murder
By David Swanson

Words don't seem to do the job. Explaining that police were getting away with murder wasn't producing any indictments. A video finally indicted a cop. Now we need the video that can indict the world's policeman

7 Ways Saudi Arabia Is Silencing People Online
By Ben Beaumont

Raif Badawi is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Saudi Arabia, mainly for setting up a website. We talk to another local blogger – who has to remain anonymous for their own safety – about different tactics the authorities use to silence people online

Change The Money And Change The World
By Mark Kirkwood Callingham

Project for a New Economic Century (PNEC) offers a practical way to change direction and choose our own course. Essentially the strategy is to craft a monetary system with a code of ethics that is owned by the people. A people’s currency co-developed by a wide range of individuals representing vast amounts of knowledge & experiences

Those Who Collaborate With The West: Traitors From Developing Countries Unite!
By Andre Vltchek

How many magazines, newspapers and television stations in the Middle East, Southeast Asia or East and West Africa are actually there to inform people, and how many are serving, dutifully, the propaganda apparatus of the Empire? It is enough to check the sources of the foreign news coverage, incountries like Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the entire Gulf, or even India, and the answer becomes obvious

Art Amid The Flames Of War
By Zanyar Omrani

Syria has gained the capacity to tolerate ‘sin’. Omar Shiyukh and Ram Aslan, two ‘sinful’ young men, appreciate the streets, where there is no need for majestic galleries, well-equipped amphitheater, and useless attached pieces of paper. They have occupied Amuda, a small Kurdish town in northern Syria

Water or Wine? California’s Drought And Water Competition
By Shepherd Bliss

“California Puts Mandatory Curbs on Water Use” reports the April 2 New York Times long article at the top of the front-page. “Steps to Confront Record-Setting Drought,” the sub-headline reads. The article describes Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order—California’s first time restricting water use. A 25% reduction of water use over the next year is required of residents, golf courses, cemeteries, and many businesses. But wait. “Owners of large farms…will not fall under the 25% guideline.”

The Sin And The Error
By Ravi Sinha

Future historians of India may well describe the past year as a year of political sin. This was the year in which the man who had earlier presided over the Gujarat Carnage was awarded the ultimate prize. The year saw an election that touched a new low marked by shallowness, vulgarities and lies – in no small measure by the labors of the man himself. Equally appalling have been the exertions of a large class of literati and glitterati to portray philistinism and inanities spouted by the most powerful mouth as wisdom of a visionary leader

Killing For Blasphemy: Anything But Islamic
By Taj Hashmi

Yet another blogger was hacked to death for alleged blasphemous postings against Islam, in Bangladesh. Islamist fanatics killed Oyasiqur Rahman (27) with meat cleavers for his vitriolic anti-Islamic postings on 30th March in broad daylight, on a crowded street in Dhaka. This happened five weeks after the killing of blogger Avijit Roy, in the similar manner, for the similar reason. While police (who were in close proximity) miserably failed to save Roy’s life and arrest his killers, this time they managed to arrest two of the three assailants with the help of bystanders

09 April, 2015

cc090415A.htm

Fresh Evidences In Andhra Pradesh 'Encounter'
Killings Point To Cold Blooded Murder

By Countercurrents.org

Fresh evidences emerging about the twin encounter killings in Andhra Pradesh in which 25 people lost their lives point to a pre-meditated cold blooded murder by the police force

#KefayaWar: Yemeni's Say Enough Is Enough
By Sarah Lazare

The online campaign #KefayaWar ("enough war" in Arabic) calls for people across the globe to "end ALL fighting in Yemen & stand with The People, who refuse to be collateral damage in a battle for Power." Since the bombings began March 26, the hashtag has received an outpouring of messages, from Scotland to Mexico to Yemen to the United States

Middle East Revolution And Inflationary Depression Coming: Paul Craig Roberts
By Greg Hunter

Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts thinks the Middle East violence is going to get much worse. Dr. Roberts contends, “Unless the Islamic State somehow collapses, you are going to see a new wave of revolutionary developments in the Middle East. I suspect all the oil dictatorships will be overthrown because there is a tiny handful of people we installed there and they are mega-billionaires, and there isn’t anybody else that’s got anything. . . . I think they are all headed down the drain.”

The US Geostrategic Objectives Behind The War In Yemen
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

The United States is supplying intelligence to the Saudi-led coalition bombing rebel positions in Yemen and will expedite arms supplies to the alliance, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday. After talks with the Saudi officials, Blinken told reporters that Saudi Arabia was sending a "strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force". "As part of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint coordination planning cell in the Saudi operation centre."

Red Cross: Saudis Still Blocking Our Aid, Yemen Crisis Worsening;
Washington Increases US Bombs, Ammo Going to Saudi Tyrant

By Robert Barsocchini

Openly US-coordinated-and-assisted terrorist attacks by Saudi dictator Salman Abdulaziz have killed hundreds of civilians in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, over the past two weeks. The Red Cross continues to try to get Abdulaziz to stop blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country, saying the situation for civilians is catastrophic and getting worse. Instead of allowing aid, Abdulaziz increased his attack by firing explosives into Yemeni cities from naval vessels, in addition to his airstrikes

Arab Leaders Are A Menace To Reality Check And People Are Dying
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

The Arab masses are the targeted victims of the Western-led coalition’s atrocities and instigated sectarian rivalries with unthinkable consequences to the present and future generations. To enhance the foreign proxy wars, the Arab-Muslim leaders are tragically entrapped in a vicious cycle of self- geared disastrous wars against themselves. The tragic side of the folly reveals moral and intellectual decadence where once progressive culture and civilization evolved horizontally to inspire the Western civilizations. Is it a Divine punishment to the Arabs and Muslims for waging trivial wars against their own existence and future?

The Collapse Of The Obama Doctrine: Yemen War As An Opportunity?
By Ramzy Baroud

To suggest that the United States policies in Yemen was a ‘failure’ is an understatement. It implies that the US had at least attempted to succeed. But ‘succeed’ at what? The US drone war had no other objective aside from celebrating the elimination of whomever the US hit list designates as terrorist. But now that a civil and a regional wars have broken out, the degree of US influence in Yemen has been exposed as limited, their war on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in the larger context of political, tribal and regional rivalry, as insignificant

The Puzzling Flattening Of Carbon Emissions And The Problem Of Global Growth
By Kurt Cobb

So, maybe flat carbon emissions are actually telling us something “no one” wants to hear: that economic growth has faltered or even halted for a large portion of the world’s people and that we are going to have to deal with the consequences of that until we design a new system that can either grow for the benefit of everyone–a difficult proposition–or that can sustainably, equitably and successfully manage a steady state economy–an even more difficult proposition

Climate Crisis And Banks
By Countercurrents.org

Climate crisis is pushing financial institutions to take steps. Financial institutions with over US$ 2,100 billion in assets publish principles to guide future investments in clean energy and India’s fourth largest private bank fixes goal for investment in 5GW of renewable energy by 2019

Zanu-PF, China And Rhodesian's, Who Really Is Pimping
Zimbabwe's Tobacco Industry? Part 1

By Tsungai Chipato

The fact that China is in Zimbabwe instead of Britain or the United States, actually does not make a difference to the industry itself beside capital allocation, funding and what types of tax incentives and policy that is passed legislatively on behalf of tobacco companies or whether their home country has a foreign policy objective. At the end of the day we still have little say in the machinations of this global industry which all comes back to the most important individual in this conversation which is the Zimbabwean farmer and how to help them

A Short Note On The Concept Of Equality In A Secular Democracy And A Theocracy
By Feroze Mithiborwala

Do Indian Islamists accept the Indian Secular state and the value and ethos of secularism because they are in a MINORITY? If Indian Muslims were in a MAJORITY, then would India have been a SECULAR Country or an ISLAMIC STATE? I think the latter would be true and we would have been reduced to a Pakistan without a doubt. Yet the Indian Muslims masses are committed to the Idea and the ethos of a “Living Secularism”, the very idea of India, a unique experiment in the annals of Human history, unparalleled at many levels

08 April, 2015

Two Encounters And A Democracy
By Samar

The world’s largest democracy witnessed its police force killing 25 of its citizens in two encounters in Andhra Pradesh. “Encounters”, for the uninitiated, are a euphemism for killing unarmed civilians in staged gun battles. The police version of both the alleged encounters is such that it could be laughed-off had they not been about the deaths of civilians

Condemn Cold-Blooded Murder Of Five Under-Trial Prisoners By Telengana Police
By People's Union For Democratic Rights

PUDR strongly condemns the murder of the 5 under-trial prisoners and demands immediate arrest and suspension of all police personnel who were present in the van. PUDR demands that the Telengana police chief take responsibility for these murders and explain how they have passed them off as ‘retaliatory’ killings. PUDR also wishes to point out to the Home Minister that when custodians of law turn into licensed killers, then they pose a far greater challenge to the country than those who can be banned under draconian legislations and easily killed inside police vans

US-Backed Assault Creating Humanitarian Disaster In Yemen
By Niles Williamson

The United Nations warned on Monday that ongoing fighting in Yemen combined with the Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes backed by Washington is taking an “intolerable toll” on children in the deeply impoverished Middle Eastern country. UNICEF has confirmed that at least 74 children have been killed and another 44 maimed since Saudi-led airstrikes began nearly two weeks ago. The real death toll for children is likely much higher and is expected to rise as airstrikes continue to hit civilian targets in urban areas throughout the country

Video Message From Gaza: We Are Still Under The Rubble
By Ali Abunimah

Last week, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, tweeted this shocking fact: More than 7 months after the ceasefire announcement in #Gaza, not a single totally destroyed home has been rebuilt. This is a point powerfully made in this video posted by the Popular Committee Against the Siege

US Agribusiness, GMOs And The Plundering Of The Planet
By Colin Todhunter

Small farmers operate 16% of agricultural land in Ukraine, but provide 55% of agricultural output, including: 97% of potatoes, 97% of honey, 88% of vegetables, 83% of fruits and berries and 80% of milk. It is clear that Ukraine’s small farms are delivering impressive outputs. However, The US-backed toppling of that country’s government seems likely to change this with the installed puppet regime handing over agriculture to US agribusiness. Current ‘aid’ packages are contingent on the plundering of the economy under the guise of ‘austerity’ reforms and will have a devastating impact on Ukrainians’ standard of living and increase poverty in the country

Ukrainian Gov't. Condemns Russia's Celebration of Victory Against Nazis
By Eric Zuesse

The Ukrainian Government said on April 7th that any country sending representatives to Russia's celebration of the 70th anniversary of their victory against Adolf Hitler, will be blacklisted by Ukraine. That celebration will take place on May 9th

Prospero's Business
By John Knope

This article points out an alternative scenario that is hidden within a few lines in The Tempest. This “secret meaning” has never been written about by any scholar that I could find, nor has it been presented in any of the several filmed versions of the play that are available. No familiarity with The Tempest or Shakespeare is required to understand this hidden feature. Following the short explanation of this secret element is a brief attempt at understanding how this obvious feature (and hopefully you will agree it is obvious) has not been previously noticed by any reviewer of the play

Poets’ Talk: “Why Is This World So Sad?” And, “The Armor of God”
By Gary Corseri and Charles Orloski

Following is the third installment of a “Poets’ Talk” series between Charles Orloski and myself. E-friends for the past 3 years, both of us “baby-boomers,” Orloski and I have very different backgrounds, but share a love of literature, abiding interests in history, politics and the Zeitgeist, and a belief that informed activism and the Arts (with much luck and perhaps some Providential assistance!) may yet create a more humane, a more sensible, world than 2015’s war-ravaged planet of obscene disparities of wealth and power. The conversation below is actually a pastiche of “e-talks,” or exchanges, over several weeks, winnowed and woven together to develop themes, a narrative flow, and coherence.—Gary Corseri

Intergenerational Theft – For Every $1 For Coal Today Future Generations
Will Pay $1-$14 To Sequester CO2

By Dr Gideon Polya

Remorseless greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is leaving a polluted and devastated planet for future generations. Further, present intergenerational inequity means that for every $1 received by climate criminal corporations for thermal coal, future generations will inescapably have to pay $1 to $14 (depending on location and technology) to sequester the CO2 from coal combustion. Young people must revolt, oppose this mounting Carbon Debt, and insist “Keep it in the ground”

“National Register Of Citizens” Updation And Recent Political Development In Assam
By Abdul Kalam Azad

On 21st July, 2010 one of my close family relative Mydul Mullah (25) was one among the thousands of marginalized Muslims of Barpeta district who were demonstrating in front of Deputy Commissioner’s office at district headquarter demanding an error-free fresh NRC (National Register of Citizens). Eventually, police brutally cracked down on the picketers and fired upon them for the ‘crime’ of exercising their democratic right to peacefully protest. After the police firing Mydul Mullah along with his three comrades Khandakar Matleb (20), Siraj Ali (27) and Majam Ali (55) succumbed to the bullet injuries. The Tarun Gogoi led Assam government was forced to suspend the faulty NRC pilot project due to unprecedented public outrage

Freedom Fighter Begum Hazrat Mahal Remembered, But Indifferently
By Abdul Rashid Agwan

The staunch freedom fighter Begum Hazrat Mahal's 136th death anniversary was recalled yesterday. Her great sacrifices for the First War of Independence are almost forgotten in India and, save some token events in Lucknow where she ruled and Nepal where she died, she could hardly be remembered. Begum of Awadh and the first wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, who was one of the heroes of freedom struggle of 1857 died on 7 April 1879 during her refuge in Nepal. She was remembered on her death anniversary falling yesterday but almost neglectfully

Of Writing Generic Names Of Drugs And Beyond
By Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Bhat

After a prolonged wait and pause Jammu and Kashmir Health and Medical department has finally brought into force ‘Drug Policy’ approved by Cabinet way back in 2012. The policy bans writing of brand names of drugs by medical practitioners and directs them (physicians) to write only generic names of drugs. As expected the order issued by the department has not gone well to physician community of valley. They (physicians) even threatened of an agitation against the move

Girls Have Feelings Too
By Khalid Bashir

Centuries have come, and centuries have gone, but the plight of women is not likely to change. Time has helplessly watched women suffering in the form of discrimination, oppression, exploitation, degradation, aggression, humiliation . Male violence against women is worldwide phenomenon

07 April, 2015

At Least 540 People Killed In Yemen Fighting
By Countercurrents.org

At least 540 people were killed in the war ravaged Yemen since the Saudi bombing began and more than 100,000 have been displaced. Hadi loyalists had been all but defeated last week, and fighting seemed to be dying down, but Saudi planes began air-dropping weapons to them, and restarted major fighting in Aden and elsewhere

Saudi Dictator, Killing Hundreds Of Civilians With Support From Washington,
Moves To Gunning Down Domestic Anti-War Protesters

By Robert Barsocchini

Now the Saudi dictator is ordering his goons to open fire on Saudis protesting Salman and Washington's illegal attack on Yemen. Antiwar reports, “2 Killed, 30 Protesters Wounded as Saudi Forces Attack Antiwar Rally”

Saving Passengers Of The Good Ship 'Titan… Earth'
By Robert J. Burrowes

There is still just enough time to save most of the passengers on the Good Ship 'Earth' but we must be courageous and resolute. If we let the cowardice and delusion of elites and their agents guide us, we will join the dead passengers of the 'Titanic'

Countering The Lies Of The Mainstream Media
By Colin Todhunter

The site you are reading this article on is part of the ‘alternative' or ‘independent' media. Many of these sites do not take advertising and are run on the basis of donations from readers. Many of the authors whose articles appear on these sites write for no or little financial remuneration.  Contrast this situation with the so-called ‘mainstream' print and TV media

World Health Day: No Substitute To Healthy Mind
By Shobha Shukla

The WHO also recognizes that mental health is an integral and essential component of health: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a positive contribution to the community

Terra Firma: Re-Examining Land Rights Eithin The Mosaic Of
Development, Democracy And Justice

By Shalu Nigam

New terrains for resistance are being utilized by the subalterns who are courageously protesting regressive and oppressive policies while keeping democracy alive and imparting a new meaning to it to bring about sustainable, equitable and just development. The subaltern politics, dissent and protests is thus creating an unconventional imaginative vision of governance, justice, development, belongingness and a just society by rewriting and reshaping governance

Beyond the Fairy Tales of India
By Braj Ranjan Mani

There is little awareness about a more or less institutionalised arrangement of normalising, if not glorifying, the oppressive past from which the privileged continue to derive profit and pleasure.Invented histories, myth-making, and armoury of stereotypes merge to create convenient narratives and myths which masquerade as the history of India. The suppressed stories fester the lies and keep the people away from the oppressive reality.That is why, history and culture should be debrahmanised—reconstructed—by the subjugated majority, with the understanding that ‘the master's tools will not bring down the master's house'.

06 April, 2015

Mass Killings, Looting In Tikrit By US-Backed Shiite Militia
By Patrick Martin

According to media reports and public denunciations by Sunni Arab officials in Iraq, Shiite militias have engaged in mass executions and widespread looting and destruction of property in the city of Tikrit since it was recaptured last week from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces

The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia Bombs Yemen To Save 'Democracy'!
By Anthony Mathew Jacob

It is extremely depressing to see that the very one claiming to be the custodian of the two most holiest sites of the Muslims is joining hands with those involved in their bloodshed. The Muslims of the world are realizing as to who really is fighting for them and who is destroying them under the garb of Islam, and no amount of petrodollars and long white gowns can hide this reality...

Political Crisis In Pakistan As Saudi Arabia Demands It Join War Against Yemen
By Sampath Perera

Saudi Arabia’s demands that its long-time ally Pakistan participate in its US-backed war against Yemen have produced a political crisis in Islamabad. In the nearly two weeks since Riyadh declared that Pakistan was part of its war coalition, Islambad has undertaken a whirlwind of diplomatic activity, as it attempts to balance between Sunni monarchies in the Gulf and neighboring Iran. At the same time, Pakistan’s political and military establishment are fearful of a further outbreak of sectarian tensions within the country

As Saudi Dictator Continues US-Coordinated Bombardment,
al Qaeda Gains Yemen Foothold

By Robert Barsocchini

The attacks by Wahhabi Saudi Arabia have allowed another Wahhabi-affiliated and Saudi-backed group, al Qaeda, to seize a major Yemeni port city, and now the Mukalla army base, securing al Qaeda's foothold in Yemen's southeast

The Iran Nuclear Agreement: A Step In The Right Direction
By Chandra Muzaffar

There is no guarantee that the preliminary agreement reached in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 2nd April 2015 between Iran, on the one hand, and the United States and five other world powers, namely, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, on the other, in relation to Iran’s nuclear programme will lead to a final accord at the end of June this year, as envisaged by the parties concerned

The Pitfalls Of Liberal Capitalism
By G. Asgar Mitha

The fissures are becoming evident that liberal capitalism could widen to the point where it becomes unsustainable due to the internal and external factors and be replaced with a socio-capital system by honest politicians breaking up big corporations. It is not implausible

American Civil War And Marx
By Alan Johnstone

Workers from Manchester to London organised in opposition to active British support for the slave South—helping to block the clearly marked intentions of Lord Palmerston, the British Prime Minister, to intervene militarily in the U.S. Civil War. This action on the part of the workers went against their own immediate economic interests and was, as Marx wrote to Engels on April 9, 1863, “an act almost without precedent” in the history of the working class. Marx himself attended the mass meeting of the London Trades’ Union Council in March 1863, in which the skilled workers of London proclaimed their support for the war against slavery and opposition to British intervention on the side of the Confederacy

05 April, 2015

The Bodies Pile Up In Yemen's Civil War And Saudi Arabia's
Bombing Campaign, But Who Is Counting The Casualties?

By Jack Serle

Between 29 and 45 people were reported killed by an apparent air attack at the al Mazraq camp – some were said to have been burned beyond recognition. Depressingly, the victims also included children. Before answers could be found about what happened at al Mazraq, the violence quickly moved on elsewhere. Dozens of civilians were were reported killed by an attack on a dairy factory in Hodeida the following day. Again, the details are still unclear

Assessing The Iranian Framework Deal
By Dr. Rizwana Abbasi

The deal is a spectacular outcome and great victory for all the players involved. The agreement covers considerable details andtougher arrangementsfar beyond our expectations. Arguably, any deal with Iran with resulting relief in sanctions indicates a cautious and measured approach in which the responses will be graduated. Thus, normalization of relations, lifting of sanctions would further bridge gaps and difference between the IAEA and Iran. However, coming months would add a great deal of legal and political wrangling indeed and the practical decision would be tougher than this agreement which we have to wait and see. The months and year ahead are significantly difficult and all the players have to take a measured approach with careful moves to reach a final agreement with subsequent implementation

The Oil Price War
By George Venturini

Oil prices fell more than 50 per cent between June 2014 and March 2015. The fall started when Saudi Arabia oil began to flood the markets, prevailing over the view of the O.P.E.C. cartel. Historically the Arab petro-sheikhdoms have manipulated energy prices in coordination with the United States, yet some analysts believe that this could hide an attack on the growing shale oil industry in the United States. On the other hand, the United States is betting that the low oil prices will destroy the three major oil producers which are not under their political and/or military control: Ian, Venezuela and, of course , Russia. Russian analysts began to claim that the United States and Saudi Arabia are conspiring to bring Russia ‘to its knees’. War against Russia seems to have been the purpose of the meeting between John Kerry and king Abdullah in early September 2014

Coal Mining Banned In India's Mahan Forest: Campaigners Claim Victory
By Avik Roy

The indigenous communities of a forest in central India have reason to celebrate this spring. No more will they have to live with the fear of being booted out of their land that faced the threat of being swallowed by a giant coal mine. After internal wrangling, the ministry of coal has given way to the ministry of environment, forests and climate change. The Mahan coal block will not be auctioned, it confirmed in response to a Right to Information request from Greenpeace

Dishonest US GHG Reduction Pledge – US Has Already Exceeded
Its Fair Share Of World's Terminal Carbon Budget

By Dr Gideon Polya

The US has formally pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent over 2005 levels by 2025 but this is too little too late because in 2013 the exceptionalist US had already exceeded its fair share of the world's terminal 2010-2050 Carbon Budget that must not be exceeded if the world is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic plus 2 degrees Centigrade temperature rise

Majority Of U.S. Citizens Are Against Surveillance By Their Government, Shows Poll
By Amnesty International USA

The United States’ mass surveillance of internet and mobile phone use flies in the face of global public opinion, according to a new poll published in mid-March by Amnesty International. The majority of U.S. citizens, 63%, are against their government’s surveillance

U.S. To Train Nazi Troops In Ukraine, Starting On April 20th
By Eric Zuesse

It has just been announced that, starting on April 20th, U.S. troops will start training troops of Ukraine's Azov Battalion

Nothing Is Right In The Middle East
By Andre Vltchek

The land of the Middle East is tired; it is crying from exhaustion. It is scarred by wars. It is dotted with oil wells and rotting armor vehicles. There are corpses everywhere; buried, turned into dust, but still present in minds of those who are alive. There are millions of corpses, tens of millions of victims, shouting in their own, voiceless way, not willing to leave anyone in peace, pointing fingers, accusing!

Continued Incarceration Of Political Prisoners in Kashmir Vs. Release Of Political Prisoners In India After Lifting Of Internal Emergency: A Study in Contrast
By Dr. Paramjit Singh Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

It is learnt that a number of political prisoners of the Quit Kashmir Movement as also several hundred arrested during the earlier phases of struggle are languishing in jails in Kashmir and elsewhere. If people charged under the Baroda Dynamite Case can have cases withdrawn and released from jails, there is no reason why political activists in Kashmir have to face continued incarceration in jails. There is a very real possibility that false criminal cases under draconian laws may have been filed even against those involved in the Quit Kashmir movement. In the interest of justice and equity each one of those involved in that movement should be released forthwith

Role Of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar In The Constituent Assembly
By Mukesh Kumar Sablania

To write about Dr. Ambedkar's role in the Constituent Assembly is to write about the history of the evolution of free India's Constitution. Speaking in the Assembly in the closing stages of its deliberations extending three years, Dr. B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the veteran Congress historian, referred to the “steam-roller intellect” that Dr. Ambedkar brought to bear upon “this magnificent and tremendous task of framing the Constitution, irresistible, indomitable, unconquerable, levelling down tall palms and short poppies, whatever he felt to be right he stood by, regardless of consequences.”

Activism = Appetite For Destruction
By Mickey Z.

If we truly want drastic and sustainable social change, all the protest sign wavers, social media warriors, arrest compilers, obsessive meeting holders, under- and over-organized organizers, and relentless spotlight seekers must join together to destroy the old blueprint

03 April, 2015

Saudi-Led Air War In Yemen Enters Second Week
By Niles Williamson

As Saudi-led air strikes continued throughout Yemen on Thursday military forces loyal to former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, who are backing the Iranian supported Shiite Houthi militia, seized control of the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden

Iran Makes Sweeping Concessions To US In Nuclear “Framework” Deal
By Keith Jones

Iran and the P-6—the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany—announced Thursday that they have finalized the “parameters” for an agreement to “normalize” Iran’s civil nuclear program. Reached after eight days of heated bargaining, during which time the US twice threatened to quit the talks, yesterday’s agreement will form the basis for a final agreement to be reached no later than June 30

Al Shabaab Benefited From Western Destruction Of Libyan State
By Robert Barsocchini

Al Shabaab, the Islamic terrorist group that has just laid siege to a Kenyan university, killing nearly 150 people, benefited from the 2011 Western aggression that backed al Qaeda and affiliated militias to destroy the state of Libya

Israel As The Crashed Germanwings Airbus A320
By Alan Hart

Though it is provocative and contentious I think my headline is appropriate for an article about an Israel in the process of committing suicide. I'd also like readers to know that the inspiration for my headline was an observation made by Uri Avnery, the Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. In a post which called for the formation of an Israeli Salvation Front, he wrote: "The country is in existential danger. Not from the outside, but from the inside." (That's the way it was for the passengers and crew on Germanwings Flight 9525)

Climate Denial And Mis-Education From Mark Lynas
By Bill Henderson

"We must reclaim the climate debate from the political extremes." In his latest Guardian Comment-is-free op-ed, part of the Guardian's esteemable Keep it in the Ground climate series, Mark Lynas submits a howling clanger, commits a serious mistake that will surely come back to haunt him and diminish his hard earned credibility as climate pundit extraordinaire. Lynas attacks Naomi Klein and the anti-GMO and nuclear activists who have always been against the unfettering of the global economy. He does not lead in detailing how rational-comprehensive planning to achieve needed emission reduction must now trump market-based governance if this particular political economy, civilization, or even humanity itself are to survive

Sing Another Song
By Kathy Kelly

Recognizing our need to support one another, to overcome the scourges of our time, to pick up a pace commensurate to the needs of those surrounding us, focused on our sick society with the same determination to heal that we would bring to a very sick child, we all have the task of going beyond our places of comfort, of escaping the stable and trotting if we can't manage to gallop, of building new affinities in which to imagine and then co-create a better world. I hope the Pope will pick up the scent of spring renewal, maybe even imagine a Kentucky Derby, as he prepares to speak a clarion and expansive wake-up call, calling us to sing another song, a new song: just as we've called to him

Cold War 2.0
By William Blum

Is there anyone left who still thinks that Barack Obama is some kind of improvement intellectually over George W. Bush? Probably two types still think so: (1) Those to whom color matters a lot; (2) Those who are very impressed by the ability to put together grammatically correct sentences

British Values: Real And Imagined
By Dan Glazebrook

David Cameron’s attempts to style himself as the latest incarnation of a long tradition of ‘British values’ of tolerance, democracy and the rule of law is belied by both British history and his own policies. It also plays right into the hands of ISIS

The Enduring Reality Of Government By Wealth And Some Of Its Consequences
By John Chuckman

So here is America, self-proclaimed land of the free, mired in a vast situation where it works to suppress democracy, supports tyrants, and supports aggressive war because its leaders, with no genuine consent of the governed, have put it there, and this is just one of many unhealthy and destructive consequences of wealth’s rule in the United States. Wealth has no inherent interest in democracy, and it is entirely up to a people anywhere to demand respect for democracy through laws

Ukraine's Economy Plunges: So, Who Should Pay For It?
By Eric Zuesse

According to Ukrainian news-accounts, Ukraine's economy is rapidly falling. On April 2nd was reported that “Sales of new cars in Ukraine fell to the lowest in 15 years,” and that March's sales-volume (number of cars sold) was 23% less than that in February. Even more startlingly, "The general decline in sales of vehicles in Ukraine in January-February 2015 compared to the same period in 2014 was 67%.” So, whenever comparisons go back not merely month-to-month but to the situation prior to the February 2014 coup by the Obama Administration in Ukraine (which was quite violent and surprised EU leaders, who knew nothing about it in advance), this automotive sales-decline is especially stark

Biofuel Crops Replace Grasslands In US
By Countercurrents.org

Clearing grasslands to make way for biofuels may seem counterproductive, and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show in a study that crops, including the corn and soy commonly used for biofuels, expanded onto 7 million acres of new land in the U.S. over a recent four-year period, replacing millions of acres of grasslands

The More Deforestation The More We Increase Risks For Food Production
By Countercurrents.org

The more forests we clear, the more we increase risks for food production due to changes in temperature. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization we have already lost 130 million hectares -- an area roughly equivalent to twice the size of France -- of the world's forests just in the past decade. A new research published in Nature Communications provides insight into how large-scale deforestation could impact global food production by triggering changes in local climate

Vote For Dignity
By Kim Scipes

Standing room only for Sue Sadlowski Garza, Karen Lewis, Chuy Garcia, and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders... Jammed Steelworkers union hall as the 10th Ward turns out in celebration, determination to elect Garza alderman on April 7...

Land Acquisition Bill- Misgivings Justified
By Syed Ali Mujtaba

Modi government’s determined move to enact the Land Acquisition Bill has caused considerable misgivings in the country, for which there appear to be justifiable reasons

02 April, 2015

Dozens Killed In Airstrike On Dairy Factory In Yemen
By Thomas Gaist

The Saudi-led war in Yemen continued Wednesday, with the bombing of a dairy and juicing factory near the western port city of Hodeida killing at least 37 workers and injuring 80 others. The factory was hit by two bombs dropped by warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition, according to a Yemeni army newspaper

Saudi Dictator's US-Coordinated Terror-Bombings in Yemen: Updates
By Robert Barsocchini

As the Saudi dictator continues his US-coordinated aggression against Yemen: “Erich Ogoso, a spokesman with the United Nations' humanitarian agency, reported 182 dead and hundreds more wounded just between last Wednesday and Sunday. Some 75,000 people have been displaced in the past week…

Fateful Steps That Led To The Crisis In Ukraine (Part Two: Conclusion)
By Thomas Riggins

It is this vision, with its roots in irrationalism, fascism and the anti-Semitism and ethnic massacres of WWII, that President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry and NATO along with the leaders of the EU, as well our domestic right wing jingoists and puppet mass media are defending as “democracy, freedom, and national sovereignty.”

Fracking Comes To Germany
By Eric Zuesse

On Wednesday, April 1st, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved a measure to bring fracking (the patents for which are owned mainly by “large American companies, including Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger”) into Germany. This is a prelude not only to U.S. President Obama's secret Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) pact with Europe to subordinate national laws and regulations to trans-national mega-corporate panels that will be dominated by U.S. firms and that will override the participating nations' environmental and labor regulations and consumer protections (and harm European economies generally), but it is also a major step toward removing Europe from Russia's energy-market, and bringing U.S. and European oil companies to dominate there instead.

Is US The “Good Guy” Imposing Sanity On Iranian “Bad Guy”?
By Robert Barsocchini

Ex CIA analyst Ray McGovern today points out that “The mainstream U.S. media portrays the Iran nuclear talks as ‘our good guys' imposing some sanity on ‘their bad guys.'” Does this portrayal make any sense? 

Wisconsin Grandmother Jailed For Opposing Drone Murders
By David Swanson

Joy First reports from Mauston, Wisc., that Bonnie Block, a Madison grandmother and long-time peace activist, was found guilty of trespassing in a jury trial in the Juneau County Courthouse on Wednesday, April 1, 2015, and sent to jail

Sri Lanka : Deterioration Of The Legal Intellect: Part II
By Basil Fernando

Father, Mother, And Son Killed In retaliation for filing a fundamental rights petition against five police officers

It's All Bad News: The Pro-GMO Lobby In Retreat
By Colin Todhunter

Bt brinjal has failed for the second year in Bangladesh resulting in hardship for farmers, and Monsanto has been forced to pay out $600,000 in fines for not reporting hundreds of uncontrolled releases of toxic chemicals at its eastern Idaho phosphate plant. It also paid out a string of lawsuit settlements totaling $350,000 as a result of its GMOs tainting wheat in seven US states. And the bad news just keeps coming

Canada, Do Not Follow U.S. Into Permawar
By David Swanson and Robert Fantina

We remember the lead you took, Canada, in banning land mines. The United States sells flying land mines called cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, which attacks its neighbors. The United States uses those cluster bombs on its own war victims. Is this the path you want to follow? Do you imagine, like some Las Vegas tiger tamer, that you'll civilize the wars you join? Not to put too fine a point on it, Canada, you will not. Murder will not be civilized. It can, however, be ended -- if you help us

Review of Collision Course (Endless Growth on a Finite Planet)
By Herman Daly

This informative book is about the rise of economic growth to the status of the number one goal of nations; the short-lived challenge to that dogma from the book The Limits to Growth (1972); the solidity of the Limits position as confirmed by subsequent data and the analyses of others; the intellectual poverty and dishonesty of the growth economists’ reaction against the Limits argument; and how it nevertheless happened that through modern public relations and well-financed ideological think tanks, the intellectually weaker growth arguments prevailed. Higgs focuses on the US story, but with informative parallels from her native Australia

Newroz In Self-Ruled Syrian Kurdistan
By Zanyar Omrani

This year’s Newroz (New Year) had a bloody start with two suicide explosions which changed the atmosphere of the Newroz times. The explosions happened in the two main squares of Hasakah, the Newroz celebrations sites. The explosions claimed at least 35 lives and 150 people were injured

RSS's Ghar Wapasi Bigot Rajeshwar Singh Is Back With A Promotion
By Shamsul Islam

Rajeshwar Singh, the force behind the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's high-octane ghar wapsi programme in western Uttar Pradesh last year, who was quietly sent on a three-month leave by the RSS later, is back with an elevation. From the fringe body, Singh has now been promoted to the parent organization. According to regional RSS leaders, this is indeed a shot in the arm for Singh

01 April, 2015

Saudi Arabia Prepares For Possible Ground Offensive
In Yemen, Iran Calls For ‘Dialogue’

By Russia Today

Yemen’s ousted officials have requested a ground intervention to bolster a Saudi-led air offensive against the country’s Houthi rebels. Meanwhile, neighboring Iran has made calls for diplomacy, saying the military campaign is a “strategic mistake”. More casualties have been reported in the escalating conflict, with overnight street clashes in Hadi’s stronghold Aden claiming at least 26 lives, Reuters reported, citing a health ministry official. Ten others died during the Tuesday shelling of a residential building close to the residence once used by the president, the agency reported referring to witnesses accounts. In the central town of Yarim, an air strike hit a fuel tanker, killing at least 10 people, residents said

US Army To Train Ukrainian Fascist Militias
By Patrick Martin

The US Army will begin training Ukraine National Guard battalions on April 20 at a site in western Ukraine, near the Polish border, according to an announcement made Sunday by the country’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov. “American commandos, numbering 290, will come to Yavoriv training ground, Lviv region, on April 20,” Avakov wrote on Facebook. “This is where a long-term military exercise of 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of the US Army and combat units of the National Guard will be held.”

And Then They Came For Oyasiqur Rahman Babu !
By Subhash Gatade

Md Oyasiqur Rahman Babu , aged 27 years is dead. A travel agency executive by profession and a secular blogger by passion he was killed by radical Islamists in Tejgaon, Dhaka when he was going to office in Motijheel. The three assailants - who did not personally know each other - met just for planning the murder and then executed it with military precision

Faust At The Games: The Olympic Path Of Destruction
By Joseph Grosso

The tragedy is that there will be cities that will ‘win’ the bidding process and host that and future Olympics. Paris, Hamburg, and Rome are said to be some other contenders for 2024. No doubt some will back off due to public opposition and maybe the IOC will again simply reach for the totalitarian option. Either way it’s safe to say that, as long as for most of the world the Olympics remain a TV show promoting cheap patriotism and phony sentiments of global brotherhood, the regime of corruption, displacement, and repression will go on. Given that the Nazis themselves established the torch relay all those years ago perhaps such a reality need not be considered shocking

Climate Crisis: Pledges Being Made, But Inadequate To Face The Crisis
By Countercurrents.org

Under the shadow of climate crisis, and ahead of this December's Paris climate summit the US joins EU, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland in making contribution to 2015 climate deal public. The deadline for submitting pledges was March 31, 2015. However, the pledges are inadequate, and are not compatible with holding warming below 2°C

The Changing Landscape Of Middle-East Conflict
By Sazzad Hussain

The powerful Arab unity required to crush the menace of the IS is now applied against a lesser and insignificant threat for the Sunni kingdoms. The world in general now wonders what the real problem of the Middle-East is. With the core issue of Palestine gone missing and chances of its any breakthrough seem bleak as the re-election of Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, it is the fighting within the elements of clan, tribe and sect of the Arab Muslims that characterizes the present landscape of the Middle-East conflict

Why (market-based) U.S. Education Reform Is Doomed
By David Ellison

Our entire system of education is based upon a century-old assembly-line industrial model. We sort children according to their ages, insist they all learn identical things at precisely the same time ....

Time For A No Currency System In Greece For Real Democracy
By A D Hemming

Now the time has come in Greece for a no currency solution given the complete autocratic nature of the unaccountable European Union beast and its bosses at the European Central Bank with not the least scruples or less than that of snake excrement with its devastation of the Greek economy as well as others in the EU and no decency in the least having come to the fore and with most basic “unalienable rights” of said countries completely treated with absolute contempt by bringing in a ration card system to be used as a nationalized credit card system at least within Greece with details to follow

Urgent 'Musts' Needed For Palestinians To Defeat Apartheid
By Ramzy Baroud

The more empowered and racist Israel becomes, and the deeper it digs into the roots of its Apartheid and racist institutions and walls, the more obvious the answer becomes: a state for two peoples with equal rights. Both Palestinians and Jews exist in that very space, but they are governed by two sets of laws that make peaceful co-existence impossible. In order to speed up the achievement of that moment and lessen suffering, Palestinians have some urgent work to do. It is time for Palestinian communities everywhere to surmount ideological, factional and political divides, reach out to one another, unite their ranks, and harness their energies, for no matter how deep the divide, Palestine is, should and will always be one

Massive News-Suppression That's Become History-Suppression
By Eric Zuesse

While I have always been puzzled at why Americans endorse the existence of a religious and therefore discriminatory nation, Israel, and at why we give more of our tax-money to that nation than to any other; and while I would not pretend to be an authority on those matters; I was stunned on 31 March 2015 to read a news report at counterpunch, "American Historical Association Censors Ad for Book on Israel, Palestine & the US Keeping 'Hidden History' Hidden," by Alison Weir

Dr. Njegos Petrovic And Mr. No Chips Go To The Pentagon
By Charles “Chuck” Orloski

Remembering the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

The Allies At Gallipoli: Defeat In 1915, Disgrace In 2015
By David Boyajian

Thronging to April's sham commemoration staged in and by Turkey, a notorious human rights violator? Which had mistreated Allied POWs? Which today abuses its remaining Christians, as well as Alevis, Kurds, and Jews? Which also committed genocide and pillage against millions of indigenous Christian Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek civilians during the Gallipoli battle and for years afterward? And which arrogantly denies having done so?

Dr. Ambedkar: Maker of Modern India
By S.R. Darapuri

Dr. Ambedkar was very much devoted to the reconstruction of modern India, industrialisation, agriculture development and irrigation; flood control, river transport and to increase power production. He was really a maker of Modern India. Our nation will ever remain indebted to him for his great contribution towards industrialisation and modernisation of our country

Taking Stock: Skewed Priorities Of The Government's Budget
By Dr Rahul Pandey

Skewed Priorities of the government: Write-off in customs duty on gold, diamond and jewellery is about twice the cut in total budget for health, education, women and child development, drinking water and sanitation!

Ravindranath Tagore: His Concept Of The Nation/State
By Dr. Suresh Khairnar

The mythological tale of the demon Bhasmasur is wellknown. On whomsoever’s head he would put his palm on was burnt to ashes. It appears that now-a-day it is the SanghParivar which is bent upon converting itself into Bhasmasur. It has started putting its hand on the heads of many of our national leaders—right from Swami Vivekanand to Yogi Arvind to RamkrishnaParamhans, to SardarVallabhai Patel and Mahatma Gandhi. Everyone has fallen under its pail. And now it is the turn of Ravindrnath Tagore

‘Strangers In Their Own Land’: Dilemma Of The Christian Populace In India
By George Abraham

Mr. Julio Ribeiro, Retired IPS officer, former DGP of Mumbai and Gujarat recently said the following; ‘as a Christian, suddenly, I am a stranger in my own country’. He is merely reflecting on the recent dilemma of the Christian community in India since the ascendance of Mr. Narendra Modi as its Prime Minister. It is indeed a sad commentary from a distinguished public servant who has served the country with great zeal and dedication to protect and preserve its territorial integrity

 

 

 





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