Countercurrents Archive 01 September-15 September 2004

15 September, 2004

Iraq: A Descent Into Civil War?
By Luke Harding

The recent surge of violence in Iraq reveals a grim truth about the nature of evolving insurgency: Iraqis are killing Iraqis

"Take Pictures - Show The World
The American Democracy"
By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

On Sunday, 13 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured in Baghdad when US helicopters fired on a crowd of unarmed civilians. G2 columnist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who was injured in the attack, describes the scene of carnage - and reveals just how lucky he was to walk away

Why Ignore The Whys Of Suicide Bombings?
By Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi

Media reporting of suicide bombings in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are rightly given much coverage, but the necessary context and background information are almost always totally absent

Hell In Hebron
By Am Johal and Devorah Brous

There are clusters of Israeli soldiers on every street corner of Al Shuhadah Street for a 5km periphery around Hebron's Old City and the holy burial grounds, the Cave. Welcome to Hebron, the frontline in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict

Caught In Historical Cliches
By Praful Bidwai

The Sangh Parivar's tirades against textbook reform reek of obscurantist communalism and its glorification of Savarkar legitimises his pioneering of the Two-Nation theory and poisonous Hindutva

Student Loans And Suicide
By Ajit Kanitkar

Engineering student Rajani's suicide is a wake-up for India's banking system, and is also a clear signal that we need to urgently address issues of equity in our educational system

13 September, 2004

'Why I Turned Against America'
By Jason Burke

The confused psychology of the Iraqi resistance and meets a Sunni guerrilla who welcomed the Americans at first but is now happy to have black GIs in his sights

God Wills It!
By Uri Avnery

Many of the most heinous crimes in human history were committed in the name of religion. May God protect us from those who would speak in His name

Of Figures And Indian Fascists
By J. Sri Raman

We have heard of chemical warfare, of biological warfare, not, however, of population warfare. It has been left to the fascists of India to discover this new dimension to unconventional warfare

Population Growth? Who Cares!
By Surjit S Bhalla

We are all economic animals first, and religious identities second, and political entities third. Perhaps this reality has struck our fundamentalists, which is why they so often resort to demagoguery, rather than facts

12 September, 2004

Disastrous Weather Will continue
By Geoffrey Lean

Disastrous weather is set to continue for at least another six months.The US government confirmed that a new El Niño is about to strike, bringing torrential rain and droughts around the world

Devastation Linked To Global Warming
By Gaby Hinsliff and Robin McKie

Scientists are claiming that the unprecedented ferocity and frequency of the hurricanes that have battered the Caribbean this year can be blamed on one factor: the unexpectedly warm water that has been building up in the Atlantic over the past year

We Should Not Have Allowed 19 Murderers
To Change Our World
By Robert Fisk

Any cop, confronted by any crime, looks for a motive. But confronted by an international crime against humanity, we were not to be allowed to seek the motive

Look Beyond The Camel
By Dr Rafiq Zakaria

Hindus and Muslims must pursue the path of reconciliation. Prejudices and suspicions are counterproductive; camaraderie among them is essential for both development and integration. Each has to help the other to make the country strong and prosperous

Indian Census - After the Xenophobia,
The Report Card Of The Communities
By John Dayal

Releasing a false report on the religious divisions and growth data from the 2001 census smacks of of a conspiracy with the Hindutva Parivar

11 September, 2004

Global Warming Will Decimate Arctic Peoples
By Stephen Leahy

Climate change will soon make the Arctic regions of the world nearly unrecognisable, dramatically disrupting traditional Inuit and other northern native peoples' way of life

Global Warming Powered Ivan Hits Hard
By Chris Bunting

Towering waves the height of two storey buildings and winds of more than 100mph announced the arrival of Hurricane Ivan in Jamaica last night after wreaking havoc in Grenada, where 29 people lost their lives and 90% houses were damaged

Sorry, Wrong Number: Venkaiah Naidu
And The 247-Year Hitch
By Shankar Raghuraman

If the present growth rates were maintained for Muslims to outnumber Hindus in India, it will take 247 years and by that date India's population would be about 158 billion!!! So the sangh parivaar can exit the panic mode

Manufacturing Hysteria: On
Census-Inspired 'Nationalism'
By D.Jayaraj and S.Subramanian

The misinterpreted data on the population growth rate of India has become a tool in the hands of Hindu nationalists to whip up hysteria against the nation's minorities

Look Again, Gandhi
By Jonthan Cook

Arun Gandhi who was recently in Palestine to preach non-violence and his supporters fail to understand is that a non-violent struggle requires specific conditions that are not present in this conflict

10 September, 2004

The Optimism Of Uncertainty
By Howard Zinn

The struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who have the guns and the money and who seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars

What The IDF Is Doing In Nablus
By Kole writing from Nablus

The testimony of a soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces serving in Nablus

BJP Back On Aggressive Hindutva Track
By Asghar Ali Engineer

It seems secularism is becoming a distant dream in view of increasing communalisation of our politics. Those who strive for inter-religious harmony will have to face increasing challenges in coming days

Living With Floods
By Naren Karunakaran

In Bihar, India’s most flood prone state, a ‘new’ understanding, basically harking back to traditions of yore- the concept of ‘living with floods’ is finding greater acceptance amongst the populace

09 September, 2004

Nuclear Energy The Only Alternative?
By George Monbiot

The politicians are once more revving up the debate that only nuclear power can save the planet

The Bush Crusade
By James Carroll

"Crusade. I remember a momentary feeling of vertigo at the President's use of that word, the outrageous ineptitude of it. The vertigo lifted, and what I felt then was fear, sensing not ineptitude but exactitude. "

The Myth Of Gandhi And Palestinian Reality
By Ali Abunimah

The fact that the Palestinian leadership has never seriously sought to use mass, organized nonviolence is yet another example of its monumental lack of creativity

Forget Terrorism, Chechnya Is Putin's War
By Gwynne Dyer

There may be a few foreign volunteers from other Muslim countries involved in the struggle, but this is not part of some international terrorist conspiracy. It is not even a Russian-Chechen war, really. It is Putin's war, and you can't "decontextualise" that

08 September, 2004

India:Promises Betrayed
By John Pilger

India's growth rate has leapt above six per cent, but this is about capital, not labour, about liberated profits, not people. All the talk about a new high-tech India storming the barricades of the first world is based largely on myth

How Are You, Non-Violence?
By Uri Avnery

As long as the Sharon government, with the active encouragement of President Bush, goes on enlarging the settlements, building the Wall and all the other actions of annexation, there is no way to convince Palestinian public opinion to turn its back on violence

Uma And Her Mad Sisters
By Sagarik Ghose

The woman politician in India is sadly anti-democratic

Despair And Hope Of The Mahadiga
By Chandrabhan Prasad

Will there be a Dalit film festival, say by 2020? By our standards, that would be a milestone in the history of the Dalit movement, albeit half a century behind the Black movement

‘Michael X, The Desperate Sectarian’
By S Anand

A rejoinder to Harsh Sethi's review of Chandra Bhan Prasad's book ''Dalit Diary 1999-2003 -Reflection on Apartheid in India''

05 September, 2004

Shared Values Of Fragile Humanity
By Mary Riddell

The aim of every parent is to forge a world in which their children can find peace. The impact of the Beslan crime goes beyond horror for the murdered, or pity for the living. We see, in the agony of strangers, the threat to all our tomorrows

Living In Baghdad
By Kevin Williams And Helen Williams

This is my third day back in Iraq. The country is still in chaos and deteriorating. There are far more blast blocks, mass unemployment, and the security situation is far worse

Dronacharya Mindset
By Gail Omvedt

Western "management gurus" have recognised the value of a diversified work force and management structure. In contrast, Indian companies continue, by and large, to operate in terms of traditional values; even as they begin to compete in the world, their feet remain mired in the mud of centuries of privilege

04 September, 2004

Russian School Siege Ends In Carnage
By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough

Russian troops stormed a school on Friday, blaming Chechen hostage-takers for a bloody battle in which more than 200 people -- dozens of them children -- were killed and hundreds were wounded

Putin's Iron Fist Has Failed
By John Kampfner

The carnage in Beslan school shows that Putin's hardline policy towards Chechnya is in tatters

02 September, 2004

Blood Ballot Of Chechnya
By Roshan Muhammed Salih

Alu Alkhanov's "victory" in the Chechen presidential elections on Monday was a farce that will not solve the region's political and security crises

Bush Reloaded
By Satya Sagar

“Weep, buddy, weep. I’m gonna vote Bush and I hope he comes and bombs your ass”

Getting Ready For World's First Women's-Only Mosque
By S. Anand

A group of Muslims in Tamil Nadu is set to build the world's first women's-only mosque

01 September, 2004

Jewish Voters: Bush's Secret Weapon?
By Ciro Scotti

George Bush's strong Israel tilt has won him surprising support from a small but significant bloc. It could even be the margin in Florida

Imperial America
By Gore Vidal

This article is excerpted from Gore Vidal's latest book, Imperial America

No Space For The Dead In Sadr City
By Aljazeera

The doctors of the Imam Ali general hospital in Sadr City struggle against supply shortages and risk death to treat both the wounded and the many suffering from disease in the slum, where pools of sewage fill potholes and dead animals decay in the streets

An Officer In Court
By Uri Avnery

The Berlin wall was smashed and the debris sold as souvenirs to foreign and local tourists. A really sharp operator would now be applying for a concession to sell off chunks when this wall’s time comes

The Indian Media And Unity 2004
By Chandrabhan Prasad

Wouldn't it be in India's interest to have dozens of Dalits as editors, news channel heads, columnists, anchors and another thousand in the newsrooms?

Crime, Politics & Hypocrisy- BJP's Comeuppance
By Praful Bidwai

There is more than poetic justice in the way in which the law caught up with Ms Uma Bharati through a Karnataka arrest warrant, forcing her resignation as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister

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