28
July, 2004
Opium
Trade Booms In Afghanistan
By Colin Brown and Andrew Clennell
The opium harvest in Afghanistan this year will
be one of the biggest on record.The revelation will prove highly embarrassing
for Tony Blair, who cited cutting the supply of heroin as one of the
main reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001
The Corruption (and
Redemption) Of Science
By David W. Orr
A recent investigation into the use of science
by the Bush Administration alleges a systematic pattern of suppressing
or distorting scientific evidence across a wide range of issues
Film Review:
"Control Room"
By Maureen Clare Murphy
A particularly troubling issue presented in the
film is how the lines between media and military are blurred by the
U.S. administration during wartime, demonstrated by U.S. Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld discussing how the U.S. government hopes to
change Al-Jazeera's coverage as though doing so is part of U.S. military
strategy
Why Manipur
Burns?
By Ashok Mitra
The Meiteis are a very gentle people, grace spilling
from their countenance and bearing. Provoked beyond endurance, the Meiteis
are now on the warpath, and they are led particularly by the women
27 July, 2004
Iran
Warns Israel Of Retaliation If Attacked
By Aljazeera
Iran responds to regional and Israeli threats of
attack by vowing to wipe Israel "off the face of the earth"
if it attacks the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities
Palestine's People
Never Say Goodbye
By Suheir Hammad
Palestine's people never say goodbye. How can they?
One cannot say goodbye to friends, family and land, because these things
are with us always. And when strangers come to her, with an open heart
and an open mind, they become her family as well. So we gather to say
"Travel safe. See you soon. The best days are ahead
Terror By Video
By Robert Fisk
As the heads of Iraq's kidnap victims are sawn
off, Koranic recitations--usually by a well-known Saudi imam--are played
on the soundtrack. Terror by video is now a well-established part of
the Iraq war
Who Is A Terrorist?
By Ghali Hassan
The only truth about this "war on terror"
is that it has no end in sight, and it will absorb resources vital to
the well being of societies. It is a war on the poor and powerless
26 July, 2004
Unemployment
Rate In Iraq Reaches 70%
By Ahmed Janabi
A study by the college of economics at Baghdad
University has found that the unemployment rate in Iraq is 70%. The
study says the problem of high unemployment is going from bad to worse,
with the security situation deterioriating and the reconstruction process
faltering
Death In A Cemetery
By Gideon Levy
Night of horror of the Salah family, in which the
father and a son shot dead inside the home, to undergo an interrogation
and humiliation; and to discover that the entire contents of the house
had been destroyed
Abducted, Beaten
And Sold Into
Prostitution: A Tale From Iraq
By Victoria Firmo-Fontan
When the gunmen came to the gate of their Baghdad
home, the lives of the sisters-in-law Huda, 16, and Sajeeda, 24, were
about to change for ever. It was 17 September 2003.After losing consciousness,
she remembers waking up in the house of Um Ahmed, a female pimp, in
the Saidiye district of Baghdad
Torture Gets The
Silence Treatment
By James A. Lucas
The torture revelations in Iraq is not an isolated
occurrence. This report shows that for many years the U.S. government
has had a pattern of using torture against people in other nations
Iran New U.S.
Whipping Boy
By Eric Margolis
Those who deceived America into attacking Iraq
may be at it again
Price Of Life
By Praful Bidwai
Rs. 15,000 to compensate you for a grievous injury
that scars your lungs or kidneys for life or even affects your immune
system? Well, that's what 95 percent of the victims of the world's worst-ever
industrial accident received-after 10 to 15 years of lost income and
aggravated health damage
25 July, 2004
The
Resistance Will Win
By Scott Ritter
The battle for Iraq's sovereign future is a battle
for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. As things stand, it appears
that victory will go to the side most in tune with the reality of the
Iraqi society of today: the leaders of the anti-U.S. resistance
What's At Stake In
Venezuela
By Claudia Jardim and Jonah Gindin
An Interview with Tariq Ali
The Baby
Doom
By Kavery Nambisan
The world's largest minority is an endangered species,
thanks to one of the most privileged and influential groups: the doctors.
The medical profession has been co-opted in a crime against girls and
it is not complaining
Manipuri Women's
Dramatic protest
By Kalpana Sharma
The photograph was riveting. Manipuri women holding
up a banner that read: "Indian Army: Rape us". The women,
all middle-aged, were naked, masking their state of undress behind the
banner
24 July, 2004
Two
Sides Of The Same Coin
By Roger H. Lieberman
The imposition of a pro-American client regime
in Baghdad through direct foreign aggression was an act as illegitimate
as the Soviet take-over of Afghanistan in 1979
In The Name Of Modi
By CPDR, Mumbai
A report of All India Fact Finding Team on the
'encounter' of four alleged terrorists by Gujarat Police on June 15,
2004 at Ahmedabad
Bengal's Caste
Prejudices
By Sandip Bayopadhyay
Caste may have been cast aside in `progressive'
Bengal's myth-making exercise supervised so assiduously by the ruling
Marxist regime, but empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that caste
prejudices thrive in the state
Men In Khaki Proudly
Wear Hindu Identity
On Their Sleeves
By Anand S T Das
As you step into any police station in Ahmedabad,
you can't help feeling that the force is Hindu first
23 July, 2004
An
Iraqi Woman's Ordeal At Abu Gharib
The rape ordeal she suffered at the hands of US
soldiers, both males and females, in the notorious Abu Gharib prison
will continue to haunt Nadia for the rest of her life
A deplorable misunderstanding,
Or Shut up, you bastard!
By Uri Avnery
The Israeli Prime Minister called on the French
Jews to leave their homeland as soon as possible and come
to Israel, in view of the alleged anti-Semitic wave in
France. The French government and media reacted exactly as their Israeli
counterparts would have done. A deplorable misunderstanding,
the official French spokesman intoned. Meaning, in non-diplomatic language:
Shut up, you bastard!
Liberating America
From Israel
By Paul Findley
Nine-eleven would not have occurred if the U.S.
government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian
society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is
the truth
Desaffronising
Education
By Kancha Ilaiah
India suffers from both religious and caste communalism.
So education should decasteise society as a whole
21 July, 2004
Who
Control's Iraq?
By Robert Fisk
But the evidence of my journey yesterday - through
the southern Sunni cities which long ago rejected American rule, to
the holiest Shia city where its own militia controls the shrines and
the square miles around them - suggested that Mr Allawi controls a capital
without a country
This Empire Too Will
Fall
By Ali Al-Saeed
Just like the Romans before them and the Ottomans,
the Americans are now busy with their empire-building, both in the territorial
and power accumulating sense. But this empire too will fall
Double Standards
By Gideon Levy
And what would happen if a Palestinian were to
shoot an Israeli university lecturer and his son in front of his wife
and their young son? Dr. Salem Khaled, from Nablus called to the soldiers
from the window of his house because the front door had jammed. The
soldiers shot him to death and then killed his 16-year-old son before
the eyes of his mother and his 11-year-old brother
Whither
Gender Parity?
By Ram Puniyani
The India Muslim Personal Law board's meeting gave
the hope that it will abolish triple talaq, will take a step towards
justice for Muslim women. But that was not to be
20 July, 2004
Iraq's
Terrorist Prime Minister
By Mike Whitney
In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul
McGeough tells of Allawi's involvement in the murder of six alleged
insurgents' just days before he was handed over control of the interim
government. "Informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot each
young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans
from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned
silence."
Crisis Of Information
In Baghdad
By Robert Fisk
Here is the central crisis of information in Iraq
just now. With journalists confined to Baghdad--several have not left
their hotels for more than two weeks - a bomb-free day in the capital
becomes a bomb-free day in Iraq
The World Is Knocking
On Israels Door
By Sam Bahour
The question that begs an answer is what can an
entire community of nations do if the violating party, Israel in this
case, and the worlds sole superpower shun an International Court
opinion?
India Introduces
Securities Transaction Tax
By Kavaljit Singh
India is about to introduce Securities Transaction
Tax (STT) in the Indian financial markets which will slow down the flow
of speculative money and curb purely short-term speculation by day traders,
noise traders, arbitrageurs and big operators without significantly
affecting the long-term investors
Mounting
Sucides: Urgent Need To
Save Wayanad Farmers
By P Krishnaprasad
In the recent years, Wayanad, a tiny hill district
in Kerala famous for its spices and coffee plantations, has been in
the news for the widespread suicides by distressed farmers - a phenomenon
that is becoming increasingly commonplace in rural India as a result
of implementation of free market
Dalit Diary
1999-2003
By Harsh Sethi
Review on the book "DALIT DIARY 1999-2003-
Reflection on Apartheid in India" by Chandra Bhan Prasad
19 July, 2004
Book
Of Revelations Is A Must Read
By Gary Leupp
Revelation is must reading nowadays, especially
for the nonbeliever. But for great many believers in America this piece
of Holy Scripture somehow justifies ongoing imperialist war, which they
(with their commander-in-chief) conceptualize religiously as a war of
Good versus Evil
Jesus And
Jihad
By Nicholas D. Kristof
Evangelical thrillers are the best-selling novels
for adults in the United States, and they have sold more than 60 million
copies worldwide. The latest is "Glorious Appearing," which
has Jesus returning to Earth to wipe all non-Christians from the planet.
It's disconcerting to find ethnic cleansing celebrated as the height
of piety
Isolated From The
Human Community
Israel Builds Another Wall
By M. Shahid Alam
In editorials and speeches ringing across Israel
and America, a thousand apologists are protesting that beleaguered Israel
is building a 'security fence'--not a wall--whose only purpose is to
safeguard innocent Israeli civilians against the primordial violence
of Palestinians
Videocon Int'l
Ltd Is India's Future
By Chandrabhan Prasad
The recent job reservation debate in the private
sector has mirrored the character of Indian society than ever before.
The unpolished, private sector did not care to maintain minimum demeanour
in rejecting the issue, and went on insulting the collective Dalit genius.
But one corporate stood out among the crowd to welcome the move! Videocon
Int'l Ltd
Emergent Challenges
Before The New Government
By Goldy M. George
The major challenge now is how the UPA government
reverse the trends of imperialist globalisation and Hindutva fascism.In
the past the Communists and Ambedkarites have taken the challenge against
these two outgrown trends. Could they continue to resist and combat
them?
18 July, 2004
US
Prisons vs Indian Call Centres
By Indo - Asian News Service
Competition is brewing for Indian call centres
from an unlikely source, American prisons
Muslims Portrayed
By Ghali Hassan
Media images of Islam are omnipresent and are part
of Western culture of racism and imperial design
Saudi Arabian Bad
Dreams
By Human Rights Watch
A new 135-page report, "Bad Dreams: Exploitation
and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia", released recently
by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) provides the first comprehensive
look at the pervasive abuses foreign workers endure in Saudi Arabia
Mourning The
Death Of Nick Pretzlik
By Karthika Thampan
We mourn the death of Nick Pretzlik, freelance
journalist and peace activist, who died suddenly of heart failure early
on 11 July at home in London
Open Source
Television: Liberte! Facilite!! Egalite!!!
By Mark Pesce
It is my belief that the day of the Internet tuner
has come, that the dam which has thus far held back the overwhelming
torrent of audiovisual content is about to burst.Those who have built
their houses on the sand of anti-markets will be swept away in the flood
16 July, 2004
Carbon
Dioxide Emissions May Harm Ocean Life
By Christopher Doering
The world's oceans have absorbed nearly
half of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans during the last 200 years,
creating potential long-term challenges for corals and free-swimming
algae
From Hague To
Mas'ha
By Tanya Reinhart
With the ruling of the International Court that
Israel must immediately dismantle the sections of the wall that have
been built inside the West Bank and move them to the Green Line. This
should begin at once with the dismantling of the wall at Masha
Before And After
The Wall In Jayyous
By Sharif Omar
Now, many people in Jayyous rely on humanitarian
assistance to survive because their land lies inaccessible, just on
the other side of the Wal
Hospital In Najaf
Remains Closed
IRIN Report
Sadr Teaching Hospital in the southern city of
Najaf has been closed since early April, a victim of the fighting between
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi militia and US-led Coalition forces,
according to local people
Encounters Of A
Fascist Kind
By J. Sri Raman
"Encounter killings" in India refers
to mystery-shrouded police killings of targets, especially "extremists"
of various kinds, to killings for which lawless law-keepers see no need
to provide elaborate explanations
Sabarimala:For
Women's Right To Worship
By Raji Rajagopalan
Sabarimala temple in Kerala, South India, prevents
women between the age group of ten and fifty
from entering and worship the idol. This is a discriminatory action
which has been going on for ages
15 July, 2004
The
Fantasy of Fair Globalisation
By Sukomal Sen
The recent publication" Fair Globalisation:
Creating Opportunities for All", produced by the World Commission
on Social Dimension of Globalisation, appears as a formal recognition
of the unfair and inhuman character of globalisation
There Are Judges
In The Hague
By Uri Avnery
The same crane that puts the blocks there can also
remove them. It happened in Germany. It will happen here. The decision
of the judges of The Hague, coming from 15 different countries, has
made a contribution to that
Dalits As 'Dalits'
In Budget 2004
By Chandrabhan Prasad
Year after year since 1947 we have seen the ritual
of the government presenting the Finance Bill. The common thread running
through all the Budgets tabled so far is the exclusion of the Dalits.
The political formations in power, or in the Opposition, transcend their
ideological divide, howsoever artificial that may be, to unite on the
Dalit question
Encounter Truth
: Gujarat Police
As Investigator, Prosecutor And Judge
By Mukundan C Menon
Even after three weeks of making all that orchestrated
loud claims, charges and accusations against the four alleged Lashkar
terrorists killed in the June 15 encounter at Ahmedabad outskirts, the
Gujarat police fails to produce evidence to their claims