31
October, 2003
American
Imperialism Off The Rails
By Haroon Siddiqui
The Bush administration is taking its pre-war dishonesty
to new heights. After manipulating intelligence, exaggerating the Iraqi
threat, it is busy insisting that night is day
Military Conflict
Becoming A Private Enterprise
In Iraq the war is fought not just by the soldiers.It
is subcontracted to private companies with close connections to powers
that be in Washington
Rambhakti
Unveiled
By Ram Puniyani
Why is the meter of Rambhakti breaking the upper
barriers whenever elections are announced?
Of Sense And
Sanskrit
By J Sri Raman
Politics and ideology are driving the aggressive
promotion of Sanskrit and this has given the language - the mother of
many South Asian languages - an image it does not deserve
30 October, 2003
Up
To 15,000 People Killed In Invasion
By Suzanne Goldenberg
The report, by Project on Defence Alternatives,
a research institute from Cambridge, Massachussets, offers the most
comprehensive account so far of how many Iraqis died
This is
a Resistance Movement,
Whether We Like It or Not
By Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk talks to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!
Our
Friends, The Warlords
By Jonathan Steele
In northern Afghanistan the US backs all sides
in a continuing civil war
Outsourcing
Culture
By Jeremy Seabrook
Call centres may be creating thousands of jobs
for Indians - but the price they pay is a loss of culture and alienation
A Saint Marches
In...
By Poornima Joshi
The formidable Mahant Gyan Das builds up a popular
resistance to the VHP
Hindutva's Strategic
Crisis
By Praful Bidwai
The Sangh Parivar faces a strategic crisis after
the failure of the "Sankalp Sammelan" and the isolation it
faced in Ayodhya
29 October, 2003
The
Two Brides Of Baghdad
By Gerard Wright
Love blooms in the time of war. The slogan, "Lets
make love, Not War", which echoed across the globe in every antiwar
demonstration comes true in Baghdad. Two American GIs are under friendly
fire for marrying Iraqis
Iraq's Guerrillas
Learn The American Lesson
By Robert Fisk
The Iraqi guerilla's have learnt a lesson from
America's "war on terror". Kill the leadership.
Sunnis Wait For
Their Moment
By Nir Rosen
What we see now in Iraq may not be organized sunni
resistance
A Disastrous
Dead End:The Geneva Accord
By Ali Abunimah
Its creators have tried to sell the Geneva Accord
as some sort of breakthrough, it is nothing of the sort. The document
recycles the unworkable arrangements that Israel and the United States
tried to impose at Camp David in July 2000
Human Rights Defenders:Fighting
An Uphill Battle
Human rights defenders form the backbone of what
might be an energetic and vibrant democratic polity. But the Indian
State however does not look upon such activists as partners in the democratic
process
Rape:
National And international
By Valson Thampu
The rape of a Swiss embassy staffer in Delhi must
be condemned.But what is neither acceptable nor understandable is the
fact that tens of thousands of other rapes are simply glossed over
28 October, 2003
Slaughter
In The Rush Hour
By Patrick Cockburn
Suicide bombers struck four times yesterday, slaughtering
at least 35 and injuring 224 in the bloodiest day in the Iraqi capital
since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
Living On Lies
By Robert Fisk
All American soldiers are supposed to believe
that Osama bin Laden's "al-Qa'ida" guerrillas, pouring over
Iraq's borders from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia are assaulting United
States forces as part of the "war on terror"
Death Of Rafah
By Chris McGreal
With ruthless efficiency, the Israeli army has
been crushing and rocketing the Palestinian refugee town of Rafah in
a manner which rivals the destruction of Jenin last year
The Great Oil
Grab
By Daurius Figueira
In November 2001 President Hugo Chavez-Frias of
Venezuela passed fifty laws, one of which was the Hydro Carbon Law.
These fifty laws were the catalyst for the launch of the covert/ overt
strategy to remove President Higo Chavez-Frias from state power by any
means necessary
Literature
Is Freedom
By Susan Sontag
The Friedenspreis acceptance speech of
Susan Sontag
The
Seven Veils
By Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta
The veil is a fascinating piece of clothing. It
seems to be present in almost all cultures throughout the centuries.
But using the name of God to oppress women is cowardly and should be
shunned
Tagore And His
India
By Amartya Sen
A tribute to Tagore by the Nobel luareate Amartya
Sen
Gandhi: An Apostle
Of Violence?
By C Rammanohar Reddy
One of the ads in the `India Shining' series put
out by the Government of India quoting Mahatma Gandhi out of context
as though he is exhorting the people to violence is the last in a series
of efforts by the government to distort history
26 October, 2003
Road
To Ruin
By Matthew Engel
America produces a quarter of the world's carbon
dioxide emissions. What does the Bush administration do? It ignores
all attempts to curb environmental damage. Here is a look at how America
is Ravaging the Planet
The
Flight To India
ByGeorge Monbiot
The jobs Britain stole from the Asian subcontinent
200 years ago are now being returned
25 October, 2003
Trafficking
Human Misery
By Richard Tyler
Each year, some 1.2 million children are trafficked
worldwide. 200,000 individuals are trafficked annually from eastern
Europe, a significant proportion being children
Post-war Civilian
Deaths In Baghdad
By Human Rights Watch
The U.S. military keeps no statistics on civilian
casualties. Such an attitude suggests that civilian casualties are not
a paramount concern. The Human Rights Watch report has several startling
findings
False Case Against
Mallika Sarabhai
A letter From Mallika Sarabhai
Gujarat government has framed yet another false
case against Mallika Sarabhai to cow her down politically
Ayodhya's Forgotten
Muslim Past
By Yoginder Sikand
Hindutva ideologues insist that Ayodhya must be
theirs alone. Reinventing tradition and myth, they claim that Ayodhya
has always been Hindu, thus promoting it to the status of a Hindu Vatican.
But it did have a Budhist and Muslim past
On Climate Change
And Social Change
By Doyle Canning
Our planet is literally falling apart at the seams
23 October, 2003
Turning
The Holy City Into A fortress
By Chris McGreal
Despite the UN's vote of condemnation, Sharon remains
intent on redrawing Jerusalem's borders
One State: Threat
Or Promise Of Peace?
By Hasan Abu-Nimah
It is fairly right to assume that Israel would
oppose the one-state option at any cost, because it would mean the end
of the Jewish character of the state; the PNA would oppose it because
it would end its monopoly on power; and the US would oppose it because
Israel does. Why, then, should it be an option?
The
Philippine Model
By Stephen R. Shalom
Bush was right when he suggested that looking at
the U.S. record in the Philippines can help to illuminate what is in
store for Iraq
And Then They
Carved His Eyes Out
By Priya Ganapati
Story of Dhanvir Yadav, 14 , who had his eyes gouged
out with a sickle by a group of boys on the reported orders of a sarpanch
of a nearby village
Little More Vibrancy
And The Gujarat
Volcano Would Explode
By Digant Oza
People of Gujarat are vibrating with anguish, agony
and anger against Mody Government, ever since Congress and other secular
parties presented on silver plate power in Gandhinagar to Bhartiya Janta
Party, thanks to their stupid strategical mistakes
Ayesha And
the Scarf
By Ram Puniyani
Its time we struggle against the deeper disease
which gives rise to the symptom of terrorism rather than letting a particular
religious community be demonized by the vested elements globally and
locally
22 October, 2003
Global
Trade Keeps A Billion Children In Poverty
By Maxine Frith
More than one billion young people in the developing
world are now living in conditions of severe deprivation, according
to a report for the Unicef
The Return Of
Arabophobia
By Neil Clark
Arabophobia has been part of western culture since
the Crusades, with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden only the latest
in a long line of Arab bogeymen
Is the Pope Crazy?
By Katha Pollitt
It's bad enough to argue that condoms are against
God's will while millions die. But to maintain, falsely, that they are
ineffective in order to discourage their use is truly immoral. If not
insane
Rape
Capital
By Soma Wadhwa
A series of gruesome rapes and sexual assaults
in the last two months in New Delhi have served as rude reminders of
how frighteningly unsafe the city has become for women
Survivor's
Of Godhra Give VHP
The Cold Shoulder
Of the 38 residents of Ramol Janata Nagar in Gujarat
who went to Ayodhya in February 2002, only 28 returned. Ten were killed
in the S-6 compartment of Sabarmati Express which was torched at Godhra
on February 27. And the others who returned are disillusione with the
VHP
21 October, 2003
Censoring
The internet
The Government of India's directive to all internet
service providers in the country to block access to the Yahoo! discussion
group of the Hunniewrtep National Liberation Council of Meghalaya has
had all the negative consequences usually associated with bumbling censorship
19 October, 2003
How
They Got Rid Of The President In Bolivia
By Andrea Arenas Alípaz and Luis Gómez
Gonzalo Goni Sánchez de Lozada
had to resign from the Bolivian presidency after weeks of popular mobilizations,
for having massacred the people, for lying and trying to hang on to
power by all means necessary
Bowing
Before Bush
By Chris Marsden
The United Nations Security Councils unanimous
vote Thursday to support Resolution 1511 drafted by the United States
represents a grotesque cave-in by the European powers, Russia and China
in the face of sustained pressure from Washington
In
The Shadow Of Inequality
By Nighat Gandhi
Islamic feminism, or the quest for Muslim women's
rights within the framework of Islamic laws, should be seen as a starting
point. It may enable them to step out of a world of ignorance, inequality,
and indignity
17 October, 2003
One
State, Two People
By Ali Abunimah
Peace in Palestine through territorial partition
is a doomed fantasy and the time has come to discard it. It is time
to declare the era of partition over and commit to a moral, just and
realisable vision in which Israelis and Palestinians build a future
as partners in a single state which guarantees freedom, equality and
cultural self-determination to all its citizens
Bush
Gunning For Regime Change In Cuba
By Marjorie Cohn
In a brazen move to solidify his electoral support
among Cuban-Americans in Florida, George W. Bush is gunning for another
"regime change." Last week, Bush announced the formation of
a commission to "plan" for a Cuban change in government
The IMF And
The Bolivian Crisis
By Tom Kruse
The current crisis in Bolivia bears the imprint
of IMF policies, both in terms of background conditions and immediate
causes
16 October, 2003
Monsanto
Retreats From Europe
By Steve Connor
Monsanto, the huge American biotechnology company
which has pioneered GM crops, is withdrawing from many of its European
operations
The Quartet
'Party' In Iraq
By Hazem Saghieh
Is it possible to say that George W. Bush, Saddam
Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Moqtada Al Sadr are affiliated to one 'party'
whose objective is, regardless of the rhetoric, to fragment Iraq?
Neo-con
or Just Plain Ol' Imperialism Unleashed?
By William Bowles
What is a neo-con and what are the objectives of
the so-called neo-conservative agenda? Most importantly, do their policies
represent a radical departure from previous US strategy and if so, how
and why?
US, Israel Destroying
The UN System
By Hasan Abu Nimah
The Arab group at the UN has three times in less
than a month requested Council action to deal with ongoing Israeli aggression
in the region. In no case was the Council able to properly discharge
its essential duties or offer any meaningful help
Bus
To Delhi
By Dr Mubashir Hasan
Nothing exists in the world like Lahore-Delhi bus
service. It is not an economic proposition but a political triumph of
sorts. A personal account of the trip that the writer took from Lahore
to Delhi