31 July, 2012
Mass Blackout Strikes India For Second Day
By Al Jazeera
A massive power cut has hit a huge swathe of India for the second day in the row, as the country's northern and eastern power grids have collapsed. The blackout affects about half of India's population, and knocked out power to more than a dozen states that are home to more people than live in the entire European Union
Leon Panetta Threatens Syria, Iran In Middle East Tour
By Alex Lantier
Beginning his week-long Middle East tour in Tunis yesterday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called for regime change in Syria and threatened Iran with sanctions and war
How We Know What We Know About Syria
By Michael Collins
Obama administration support for Syrian rebels is based on a United Nations authorized report from November 2011. In that document, Syria is accused of committing "crimes against humanity." The report's co-author is a board member at a Washington, D.C. based think tank that just happens to have the former chairman of ExxonMobil, a consultant for the Saudi Binladin Group, and a former CIA executive on its board of directors
Climate Crisis: All The Bad News, From The Southern Ocean To The US To Food To Kiribati
By Farooque Chowdhury
After the news of drought in the US the climate crisis is continuing with all the bad news from around the world, from the Southern Ocean to food to Kiribati. At the same time, a climate crisis skeptic scientist now admits: he was wrong. The developments in the realm of science are pushing back capital from its climate crisis denial gamble as capital is taking toll from the entire Earth
Can You Pass The Hezbollah Quiz?
By Jeffrey Rudolph
The purpose of this quiz is to understand the roots and evolution of Hezbollah, a sophisticated organization that effectively combines pragmatism and militancy, social services and religious faith
Mission Failure: Afghanistan
By Tom Engelhardt
In reality, the American mission in Afghanistan failed years ago. It’s as if we refused to notice, but the Afghans we were training did. Now, they are sending a message that couldn’t be blunter or grimmer from that endlessly war-torn land. Not to listen is, in fact, to condemn more Americans to death-by-ally
Deranged Angels Of Self-Preservation And The Second Amendment
By Phil Rockstroh
German born filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) insisted to her dying breath that her 1936 masterwork of visual bravura, "Olympia," was not a political film nor was intended as propaganda for the Third Reich…as writer/director Christopher Nolan is claiming his “The Dark Knight Rises” is not a political movie. Yet, for some reason, the villains of the movie just happen to resemble the febrile stuff of right-wing delusion regarding Occupy Wall Street activists, and the beleaguered victims of the movie's vengeance-seeking, blood-drunk rabble's reign of mindless terror happen to resemble the denizens of the One Percent
Duty To Warn?
By Steven Earl Salmony
Do reasonable, compassionate and responsible human beings have a “duty to warn” of looming threats to future human well being and environmental health, and then to sensibly help one another respond ably to the challenges? Or are we to pose as if we are blind, deaf and dumb to the human-driven global predicament looming before all of us and thereby let the least fortunate, most poorly situated and simply unaware among us suffer the consequences, come what may?
The Russian Revolution Today?
By Thomas Riggins
In 1920 Lenin expressed his views on the international significance of the Russian Revolution [Chapter 1 of "Left Wing" Communism an Infantile Disorder]. A lot of water has gone under the bridge in the last 92 years, are any of Lenin's views on this issue relevant today?
It Happened In July
By Mazin Qumsiyeh
History, as it happened in the month of July
Beer, Vomit And Lipstick: Revolting Acts In An Age Of Crisis
By Colin Todhunter
Against the backdrop of a glittering Olympics organised by the self congratulatory, back-slapping political classes, the UK is in the grip of crisis. The welfare system is under sustained attack, workers' rights are being stripped away and wages continue to fall in real terms. At the same time in ‘austerity Britain’, however, there’s always enough taxpayers’ money to pour into the black hole of imperialist wars and the pockets of the profiteers that live off them, courtesy of David Cameron’s government of millionaire ministers
Is Media The Fourth Pillar Of Democracy?
By Noor ul Haq
The double standard of the media is explicit from the fact that while ignoring the continuous murders of Kashmiris by security forces, it creates such a hue and cry when a tourist vehicle is damaged in a cylinder blast as if the sky had fallen on the earth
"Why Are You, A Man, Here?" She Asked
By N. Jayaram
Why violence against women is so widespread in India and why we should be outraged
CPCB Submits Error Ridden Misleading Affidavit, Fails To File Report On
Groundwater Contamination Around Site Of Bhopal's Industrial Disaster In Supreme Court
By Toxics Watch Alliance
In a letter to Mira Mehrishi, Chairperson, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Additional Secretary Union Ministry of Environment & Forests, ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) has revealed the glaring loopholes and errors in the 13 page misleading affidavit of CPCB in the matter of drinking water in Dow Chemicals Company's Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)’s Bhopal plant area filed in Supreme Court on July 17, 2012
Krishnagiry’s Good Samaritan
By K A Shaji
Story of Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Kulandei Francis
30 July, 2012
Syrian Ethnic, Sectarian Conflicts Deepen As US Plots
To Install Client Regime
By Niall Green
The United States and its allies are escalating their intervention in Syria despite growing concerns over the character of the Islamist forces they are supporting. Having stoked the conflict in Syria to the point of civil war, Washington now faces the prospect of an ethno-sectarian break-up of the country and the spread of fighting throughout the region
The Next Stage In The Destruction of Syria
By Shamus Cooke
The systematic dismantling of Syria has more to do with western media lies and geo-politics than "revolution;” and the more that the U.S. media cheers on this bloodletting, the more politicians feel enabled to spill it
Israel , US Bent On Brewing Iran Crisis
By Dr. Ismail Salami
A report published on Sunday in Ha'aretz reveals that US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon has presented Washington 's contingency plans for a possible attack on Iran to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once the nuclear negotiations reach an impasse
Bill McKibben Is Wrong, We Must Not Forget That "We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us"
By Nicholas C. Arguimbau
A critique of Bill McKibben's Rolling Stone article "Warming's Terrifying New Math: Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is"
The Nuremberg Principles And Individual Responsibility
By John Scales Avery
All of us are responsible for what our governments do! I personally would like to extend the principle of individual responsibility still further: - I think that all of us are responsible for working actively, with all our strength, to solve the serious problems that are facing the world today, whether the problems are related to the abolition of war, to the prevention of poverty, the prevention of famine, or to saving the biosphere
Europe And US Richly Reward Israel For Pariah Status
By Jonathan Cook
The lower Israel sinks in public estimation, the more generous western leaders are in handing out aid and special favours to their wayward ally. The past few days have been particularly shameless. It was revealed last week that the European Union had approved a massive upgrade in Israel’s special trading status, strengthening economic ties in dozens of different fields. The decision was a reversal of a freeze imposed in the wake of the Gaza attack of winter 2008
Hypocrisy Over Hezbollah Arms
By Franklin Lamb
Washington, Riyadh, Doha, and Tel Aviv are demanding in a chorus “Hezbollah must give up their weapons!”. Is it a legitimate demand?
Coffee Break In Anaheim
By Mickey Z.
From veteran activists to mainstream couch potatoes, non-violent dissent is typically revered and tossing a rock through a coffee shop window is deemed misguided and counterproductive, at best. Diversity of tactics is yet another topic I've recently discussed, so I'll also skip that and simply ask: How non-violent is your coffee break?
Supreme Court Upholds Basel Convention But Allows Hazardous US Ship Exxon Valdez
By Gopal Krishna
The Bench of Supreme Court, Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J. Chelameshwar, upheld UN’s Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal but allowed the end of life ex US Ship Exxon Valdez (MV Oriental N) at Alang beach, Bhavnagar, Gujarat
Assam Violence: Extinguish The Fire Of Hatred From Spreading Further
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Assam need immediate attention from the country today when it is again jolted with identity wars among different tribal non-tribal groups in the Bodoland area with two lakh people, a majority of them Muslims have turned homeless and may face further violence if they are not protected by the state. India cannot allow it to happen. The government must act
India At A Crossroads: Whither India, Whither Bharat?
By S.G.Vombatkere
The ordinary citizen's and the country's economic short-term future is very bleak, aggravated by a failed monsoon. With continued lack of communication between India's democratic Left and the struggling on-the-ground people's movements, the political future may also be bleak because the current disastrous, corporate-inspired economic policies will be applied with increased vigour using police and military force against people's movements
Why The NPCIL’s Disinvestment Makes Sense To The Government
By Anuj Wankhede
Earlier this week, there were news reports of the government seriously considering disinvestment in NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.)While the disinvestment of defense and strategic assets in India is not new, what is also true is that the whole disinvestment process in India is a mess with some super hits and some super flops. Let us try to understand the reasons why this topic is repeatedly coming up and the urgency of the same
On Medicare’s 47th Birthday, A Call To Stop The Harmful Experiment Of
Privatized Health Care And Immediately Expand Medicare To Everyone
By Concerned Citizens
Open Letter to the President and Leadership from Health Professionals, Lawyers and Advocates for Medicare for All
29 July, 2012
Assam Violence: A Call For Peace And Justice
A Statement
The violence, arson and killings must immediately stop. The Assam government, BTC administration and the Central Government take full responsibility for the loss of lives and livelihood and rehabilitate all those who have been displaced
The State, Private Sector And Market Failures
By Mahmood Mamdani
‘The challenge is not how the state can regulate the market, but how society can regulate both the state and the market.’- A response to Prof Joseph Stiglitz
Syrian War Of Lies And Hypocrisy
By Robert Fisk
While Qatar and Saudi Arabia arm and fund the rebels of Syria to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's Alawite/Shia-Baathist dictatorship, Washington mutters not a word of criticism against them. President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, say they want a democracy in Syria. But Qatar is an autocracy and Saudi Arabia is among the most pernicious of caliphate-kingly-dictatorships in the Arab world
2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
Ignored Genocidal Carnage Of British Empire
By Dr Gideon Polya
The 2012 London Olympic Games were preceded by an Opening Ceremony that controversially involved a social history of the ordinary people of England since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the 18th century. Unfortunately the Opening Ceremony considered only the several score English subjects of the English Establishment and ignored the horrendous maltreatment of hundreds of millions of other subjects of the ruthless British Empire
69 Nations Have More U.S. Troops Than Olympic Athletes
By David Swanson
Many nations have sent very small delegations. Many nations have a very small U.S. troop presence. In many nations the U.S. troop presence falls just short of or exactly equals the size of the Olympic team. In 69 nations, there is a larger U.S. military presence than the nation's Olympic team
Soft Necks Will Not Be Slaughtered
By Hakim and Kathy Kelly
A vision of peace from Kabul
The Fate Of Burmese Muslims
By Abdul Majid Zargar
It is certainly incumbent upon every person who cares about human dignity to fly in the face of this inhumanity and give a helping hand to the downtrodden Myanmar Muslims
Play With Thy Neighbour: Indo-Pak Cricket Series
By Ram Puniyani
Surely to begin with both the countries not only need to restore the cricket but also take the steps in improving ties in the area of trade, health and education. There is also a dire need to loosen the tightness of VISA regime, which is stifling the bilateral visits of civilians
28 July, 2012
Devastating US Drought Heralds Global Food Inflation
By Naomi Spencer
Severe drought spread rapidly across the central US this week, further damaging staple crops and heightening the risk of a global food crisis. The Midwest, where roughly one-third of the world’s staple grains are produced, is experiencing the deepest dry spell in over half a century
Learning From The Drought Of '12
By Chad Hellwinckel
Smart policy would do three things: 1)Prioritize the growth of local agriculture, which grows vegetables, fruits, nuts, and raises chickens, eggs, beef cattle, goats, and milk cows on land surrounding our urban cores. 2) Do not subsidize conventional agriculture unconditionally. 3) Establish a national grain reserve to assure food in times of extreme emergency
Let Children Speak!
By Yoginder Sikand
The Ministry of Women and Child Development, so the newspapers say, has recently come out with what it styles as the draft ‘National Policy for Children 2012’, which ostensibly seeks to give children the right ‘to express their opinion in all matters affecting them.’ The draft will be adopted after receiving opinions from numerous ‘stakeholders’
New Idea For A Better World
By Anthony Ravlich
A new idea, an ethical approach to human rights, development and globalization to replace neoliberalism, gives people a choice
The Drone And The Bomb
By Ed Kinane
The lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki belong always before us. The agony of those two cities must remain our dark beacon
REDD Scare Over Tropics
By Arun G. Mukhopadhyay
It is critically urgent to preserve forests for the sake of breathing fresh air as well as livelihoods of rural poor and other critical minimum necessities. But UN-REDD provide institutional modalities attuned to the requirements of capitalist expansion
650,000 Jewish Settlers
By Mazin Qumsiyeh
More than 15,000 Jewish settlers were added in one year to bring the total colonial settlers living in the West Bank to 650,000. Does any one still think a two-state solution is possible?
Could #YoSoy132 Be The Start Of A Larger Movement In Mexico?
By Alan Lewis
Incensed by widespread evidence of vote buying during the July 1st presidential election and what protesters are describing as corruption of leading media outlets, tens of thousands of people have rallied around the #YoSoy132 movement and joined protests throughout Mexico
Book Review: “The Memory of Love” – War Atrocities, Trauma And The Silent Lie
By Dr Gideon Polya
“The Memory of Love” by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury, London , 2010) is a superb novel about love, betrayal and deep trauma from war. The novel has important messages about how people are traumatized into silence by life-threatening atrocities and the “silent lie” that re-writes personal and national history. The novel is set in impoverished Sierra Leone today but is informed by awful civil war events over the last 3 decades
Follow Due Process InThe Kazmi Case; No Blanket Extension For Filing Chargesheet
By Syed Kazmi Solidarity Committee
Unable to file a chargesheet against Mr. Kazmi within the mandated 90 days, the investigating agency can be seen clutching at the straws of UAPA seeking an extension of another 90 days. This not only violates the fundamental rights of Mr. Kazmi to bail but also distorts the very spirit of due process
26 July, 2012
World In Serious Trouble On Food Front
By Lester Brown
The world is in serious trouble on the food front. But there is little evidence that political leaders have yet grasped the magnitude of what is happening. The progress in reducing hunger in recent decades has been reversed. Unless we move quickly to adopt new population, energy, and water policies, the goal of eradicating hunger will remain just that. Time is running out. The world may be much closer to an unmanageable food shortage – replete with soaring food prices, spreading food unrest, and ultimately political instability– than most people realize
US Uses WMD Pretext To Push For War Against Syria
By Chris Marsden
A military intervention against Syria is being prepared, utilising the “weapons of mass destruction” pretext that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003
The Solution To The Nuclear "Crisis" With Iran Is Not Sanctions And War,
It Is A Middle East Free Of All Nuclear Weapons
By Veterans For Peace
A statement by Veterans For Peace
Lurking Danger: Palestinian Refugees In Syria
By Ramzy Baroud
Palestinian refugees might well find themselves on the run again as the situation is so perilous. Palestinian factions must place their personal interest aside and unite, even if temporarily, to protect Palestinian refugees in Syria
In The Land Of Never Was: The Last, Desperate Hours Of
Climate Chaos Deniers And Capitalist Rah-Rahs
By Phil Rockstroh
On consideration of the path we are heading down, at exponentially increasing speed, uprising (engendered by mortification and propelled by outrage) would appear to be an appropriate course of action. If you were embarked on a journey across the high seas and discovered the captain and his officers were all suicidal madmen -- then mutiny would be a viable option. The data is in: The oceans of the earth are dying; the very air is bedizened with seeds of fire
The Nature of the U.S. Military Presence In Africa
An Exchange between Colonel Tom Davis and Nick Turse
A revealing exchange between Colonel Tom Davis, Director, U.S. Africa Command Office of Public Affairs and TomDispatch Associate Editor Nick Turse on his story “Secret Wars, Secret Bases, and the Pentagon’s ‘New Spice Route’ in Africa”
Freedom Is Slavery, Popular Support Is Authoritarianism
By Lizzie Phelan
A recent article by The Washington Post’s Juan Forero entitled Latin America’s new authoritarians is just the latest example of how the imperialist’s media machine is relentlessly engaged in media warfare against sovereign nations in the South, in order to fertilise the ground for new or increased economic and military aggression against them
A Promise To Eradicate Poverty
By Farooque Chowdhury
The new president of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim says he wants to eradicate poverty. But how sinscere is he?
Houston Janitors Strike for Economic Justice
By Mark Vorpahl
Echoing the story of David vs. Goliath, janitors in Houston are on strike and taking on such corporate giants as JPMorgan, Chase and Exxon Mobile in an effort to pressure the janitorial companies they employ to agree to the workers' modest demands
Israel And The Temple Mount
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Israel is tightening its strangle hold on the temple mount
Nuclear Showdown In Delhi's Neighbourhood
By Gopal Krishna
Plans to build India's biggest indigenous nuclear power plant have failed to impress villagers in Haryana's Fatehabad district, who fear a Fukushima-type disaster. The shoddy way in which the government agencies have handled the issue has not helped matters either
25 July, 2012
Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Melt
By NASA
Scientists say there has been a freak event in Greenland this month: Nearly every part of the massive ice sheet that blankets the island suddenly started melting. The ice melted so fast that scientists at NASA first thought it was a computer error or some other malfunction
With Sudden Greenland Ice Melt, Reiterating Declaration Of
Planetary Ecological Emergency
By Dr. Glen Barry
On the basis of this sudden major Greenland ice melt - and other evidence of abrupt climate change globally emerging daily, including America's drought - Ecological Internet reiterates our declaration of a planetary ecological emergency. We call for all defensive ecological policy measures to be taken - by willing governments and through global people power - commensurate with the degree of threat posed to continued human well-being, and even our existence, by collapsing ecosystems
US Politicians Must Regulate Finance To Tackle The Drought And Food-Price Crisis
By Raj Patel
US leaders worked hard to tackle the 1930s drought and food crisis. Today they are supine, offering the hungry only prayers
What's Really Happening In Syria?
By Jack A. Smith
After several months of talking diplomacy while simultaneously strengthening rebel forces in Syria and demonizing the Damascus government, the Obama Administration has openly decided to go for the kill. Violent regime change will not happen immediately, but it is obviously President Obama's goal
What Evil Web Washington Weaves In Syria
By Dr. Ismail Salami
By a crafty act of political ruse, Washington has envisaged a taxing state of instability by fomenting and spearheading a civil war of attrition in Syria. Instability is seeping through cities with prodigious rapidity and spilling into neighboring countries. Cleanly choreographed terrorist operations also deepen the crippling crisis in the country
Anaheim, California Residents Speak Out On Police Killing
By Toby Reese, Kimie Saito & D. Lencho
Protests in Anaheim, California continued on Tuesday in front of City Hall, amidst mass anger over the police killing of an unarmed man on Saturday, followed by a police attack on protesters. On the very next day, a second fatal shooting happened in an adjacent neighborhood, bringing the total to six officer-involved shootings so far this year in this city, up from four a year before
The (Olympic) Games People Play
By Mickey Z.
The Great Distraction Machine™ is rolling out yet another Summer Olympic Games -- perfectly timed to help keep the growing wave of global uprisings off the mainstream radar
Racism By Any Other Name Smells
By Thomas Riggins
What is really behind the rash of new voter identification laws in the United States? We have available a scientific answer, one not distorted by political rhetoric or blatantly ridiculous reasons ("We really only want to prevent voter fraud"-- all of a sudden!)
‘Modern’ (Mis-)Education: Ethical Concerns
By Yoginder Sikand
Modern education fails miserably as far as the ethical or moral development of students are concerned. And that is something that even folks who aren’t interested in the extra-worldly realm or life after death ought to be worried about
End The Robbery Of Private Educational Players! Abolish The Recolonizing Policies!
By RSYF and its associate organizations
Statement issued by RSYF and associate organizations against privatizing of education in Tamil Nadu
'Security!': That's What They Call Me--A Nepali Guard In Bangalore
As told to Yoginder Sikand
Story of a Nepali guard in Bangalore
Drone Attacks Stir Anti-Americanism
By Nazia Nazar
Drone attacks are in violation of international law; they undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty and tarnish the image of Armed Forces of Pakistan. However, Pakistan is carefully treading the risky road, as it is not a matter of dealing with the super power but with 49 NATO countries. And it is a Herculean task
24 July, 2012
A Threatened Global Catastrophe
By John Scales Avery
Possibly as early as this autumn, Israel may start a large-scale war in the Middle East and elsewhere by bombing Iran. The consequences are unforeseeable, but there are several ways in which the conflict could escalate into a nuclear war, particularly if the US supports the Israeli attack, and if Pakistan, Russia and China become involved
Global Markets Fall As Fears Grow Over Spanish Debt Crisis
By Nick Beams
Global equity markets experienced a significant sell-off yesterday amid fears that the Spanish crisis is rapidly worsening and Greece may soon be forced out of the euro zone, setting off a new round of financial turmoil
Occupy The Dam: Brazil's Indigenous Uprising
By John Perkins
In the Amazonian backcountry, tribes are challenging construction of the world's third-largest dam—by dismantling it. Here's what they can teach us about standing up to power
American West In Flames
By William deBuys
Not a “Perfect Storm” But the New Norm in the American West
Climate Change And The Next U.S. Revolution
By Shamus Cooke
The U.S. heat wave is slowly shaking the foundations of American politics. It may take years for the deep rumble to evolve into an above ground, institution-shattering earthquake, but U.S. society has changed for good
If Yes To The Terror Of Extinction
By David Sparenberg
There is something wrong here, a defining shadow, and it is in and from us, us, and our species majority is nervous, anxiously more than nervous, but unwilling to make the radical move to spiritual awakening, to vigilance and world shift revolution
The Higgs Boson And The Steady State Economy
By Brent Blackwelder
It’s worth asking what we have to show for finding the so-called God particle? Will this momentous discovery help solve any crucial economic, social, environmental, or political problems besetting societies today and even threatening the livability of the planet? Will we possess the “key to the universe” and still wreck the planet we depend on?
"American Lives Are Not More Important Than Other People's Lives"
By Larry Everest
July 26: Speak Out For the World....and Against Ugly America No. 1 Chauvinism
US Climb To Record Poverty Height
By Farooque Chowdhury
Record poverty and unprecedented rich cohabit in the US, the largest, but decaying empire in today’s world. “The ranks of America’s poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, said an AP report
Australia: The “Humanitarian” Nation
By Ghali Hassan
Every day Australian media outlets, led by the five major TV channels and the Murdoch press, propagate images of Australian soldiers as heroes treating injured Afghan children and doing construction work in Iraq. The notion that Australia is a “humanitarian” nation could not be farther from the truth. Behind this façade of false propaganda is a true U.S. imperialist mercenary force that is complicit in mass murder of innocent civilians and in the criminal destruction of defenceless nations
Globalization: Of The Dominant, By The Dominant, And For The Dominant
By Farha Iman
Globalization or ‘Globalism’ is beneficial for the dominant and destructive for the submissive. It always streams from developed countries towards underdeveloped and developing countries in three ways: a) in the form of products and services b) as cultural dependency and domination c) and as deceptive thoughts to mould the thinking of the world population
Karnataka Government‘s Unconstitutional Action
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Karnataka government order asking the temples of the state to perform rituals so that rains come to save the farmers and cattles of the state is a blatant violation of constitution. Can a state government of a secular country invest huge amount of money on performing puja to bring rain? How will this influence the minds of our children?
What Price Protest?
By Preeti Chauhan & Paramjeet Singh
Dalit activist tied to train tracks loses legs
Punishment For Leading Struggle Against Land Grab:
Dalit Youth Tied To Railway Tracks, Legs Amputated In Dadri, UP
By Aslam Khan
On July 15, Tika Ram was among the youths from Ramgarh village in Dadri who attended the Convention on Bathani Tola in Delhi, and spoke of their struggle against the grab of land allocated to dalits by the gram pradhan Kuldeep Bhati. On July 20, Tika Ram was found on the railway tracks, his body mutilated and both legs severed. Doctors at the AIIMS Trauma Centre have had to further amputate his legs to save his life, which is still in danger. Meanwhile, four other youth leaders of the struggle against land grab have been jailed – on fabricated charges of shooting a girl
Molesters In Media: Editors Who Can Tell A Prostitute From A Woman
With Everyone Else Sleeping
By Samar
The infamous Guwhati molestation cases some disturbing questions about media ethics
23 July, 2012
Washington Steps Up Drive To Overthrow Syrian Regime
By Niall Green
Following its failure to ram through a resolution against Syria at the United Nations Security Council last week, the administration of Barack Obama has intensified its preparations to gather a “coalition of the willing” to oust the government of Syria and install a US client regime
Destroying The Commons
By Noam Chomsky
How the Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta
The Careerists
By Chris Hedges
The greatest crimes of human history are made possible by the most colorless human beings. They are the careerists. The bureaucrats. The cynics. They do the little chores that make vast, complicated systems of exploitation and death a reality
Facing A Set Of Linked Problems
By John Scales Avery
Today, a number of serious and interconnected problems are facing human civilization and the biosphere. Because they are linked, we need to look at all of these problems together, and to find holistic solutions
Massacres, Droughts, And A Society Unraveling
By Carolyn Baker
What is causing people, particularly young males of college age, who are or have been students, to pick up guns and perform mass executions of people they don’t even know? I do not pretend to hold all of the answers to this question, but a few issues cry out for our attention
Wendell Berry. Finding Our Souls Before We Lose The World
By Vincent Di Stefano
The muses are presently poised between a Requiem for the Species and a Symphony for the Great Turning . The song that our children hear will be determined by decisions made and decisions avoided during the remaining years of the present decade
Small Town Sebastopol - Frontline Battle Against Big-Time Developer
By Shepherd Bliss
Small town Sebastopol residents in Northern California have been waging a fierce David vs. Goliath struggle against the powerful Chase Bank, CVS Pharmacy, and Armstrong Development for over two years. The implications of this struggle extend beyond this one town, as big business continues to seek to expand its wealth
The Color Revolutions
By Jim Miles
Book Review: The Color Revolutions By Lincoln A. Mitchell
India: Maruti Suzuki Launches Witch-hunt Against Workers
By Arun Kumar
After a major altercation between the workers and the management at the Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) car assembly plant in Manesar, around 40 km south of New Delhi, the company and Congress-led Haryana state government have launched a massive witch-hunt against over 3,000 workers. Already more than 90 workers have been arrested and the police are hunting other workers who have fled the area in fear of witch-hunt
Is Judiciary Biased Against Adivasis?
By Gladson Dugndung
An Adivasis dominated village “Nagri” is situated at a distance of 15km from Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand. On 23 November, 2011, the Jharkhand Government began to capture 227.71 acres of fertile land of the villagers and handed over the entitlement of the major part of the land to the IIM, the IIIT and the Law University and the poor Adivasis are protesting against this acquistion ever since. Now the recent judgements from Jharkhand High Court raises questions about the impartiality of the judiciary
Bangladesh: Politics With Padma Bridge
By Farooque Chowdhury
Politics with the planned Padma Bridge is now live in Bangladesh. Equations in politics that the planned bridge has generated are complex, multi-dimensional, and bear deeper implications in more than one level
Alice, But Not In Wonderland
As told to Yoginder Sikand
The Story Of An Indian ‘Maidservant’
22 July, 2012
Global Super Rich Hoard $31 Trillion In Tax Havens
By Common Dreams
A new report by the Tax Justice Network released Sunday reveals that between $21 trillion and $31 trillion is currently tucked away in global tax havens by the global super-rich--an amount that far exceeds previous estimates. Through exploiting gaps in global tax rules, the global financial elite are managing to hide "as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together" from taxation, leaving the world's poor to carry the burden of global debt through harsh austerity measures
Sectarianism Bites Into Syria's Rebels
By Robert Fisk
Sectarianism is biting into the Syrian revolution. At the end of last week, one Syrian told me that "they are bayoneting people in the villages around Damascus". Women, they say, have been raped outside the city of Homs – one estimate puts the number of victims as high as 200 – and the rapists are on both sides
Now’s Not The Time For Hezbollah To Cut-and-Run
By Franklin Lamb
Concerned friends of Hezbollah sometimes over react out of sincere solidarity and friendship and a desire to protect the Resistance from surrounding events that are swirling out of control around them. Perhaps it is in this context that the editor in chief of the pro-Hezbollah Beirut newspaper, Al Akbar, Ibrahim al Amin is demanding that Hezbollah throw in the towel and withdraw from Lebanese politics
Obama Calls Shooting People "Evil Senseless"
But Righteously Continues To Order Thousands Shot
By Jay Janson
Such violence, such evil is senseless. It's beyond reason." Such violence, such evil is senseless. It's beyond reason." Astoundingly Obama, speaking of the Colorado movie house massacre said, "We may never understand what leads anybody to terrorize their fellow human beings like this. Such violence, such evil is senseless. It's beyond reason." By these words Obama shows that he is not insane and can recognize right from wrong and is prosecutable for crimes against humanity
Occupy The Conventions -- BOTH Conventions
By Mickey Z.
In 2012: Let's recognize that choosing to #Occupy is more powerful than choosing to vote. Let's Mic Check the bogus debates. Let's expose and reject the Lesser Evil ploy. Let's make it clear that we're on to their bullshit and we're ready to protect the future we share with all life on the planet
Taxing The Rich And The Jobs Crisis
By Ann Robertson & Bill Leumer
In a recent article, “Pensions Under Attack in America,” Mr. Leo Kolivakis took issue with a proposal by Mark Vorpahl, a union steward, to defend pensions by taxing the rich in order to create jobs (see Pensions Under Attack). Both authors agree that solving the jobs crisis is indispensable to solving the pension crisis, but their divergence occurs with Mr. Kolivakis’ assertion that “taxing the rich to create jobs is not a long-term solution to this jobs crisis.”
Paving The Way For A U.S.-Canada Economic And Security Perimeter
By Dana Gabriel
Over the past several months, the U.S.-Canada Beyond the Border action plan has taken significant steps forward. This includes efforts to modernize and expand infrastructure at key land ports. In a move that went largely unnoticed, both countries also recently agreed on a statement of privacy principles that will guide information sharing across the border. Meanwhile, a separate joint initiative has been announced which addresses energy and environmental issues
Myanmar Muslims Suffering Amid Media Blackout
By Kourosh Ziabari
As the Muslims around the world cheerfully get prepared for the holy month of Ramadan, the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are painfully subject to the barbaric and appalling atrocities of the extremist Buddhists, finding their life in a constant state of trepidation and suffering
Lt. Col Purohit: Acts of Terror And Finding Escape Route
By Ram Puniyani
The Purohit affair is getting murkier and murkier. The agenda of Hindu nation, the role of Bhosala military school and other army officers in the whole chain of command cannot be accepted at the face value. It needs a deeper probe and investigation of the whole terror network and the role of army officers, as it is clear that Col Purohit’s statement that he was keeping other army officers in the loop for an operation which was not the part of the army intelligence work, is a matter of worry
An Unconventional Man of 'Will'
By Yoginder Sikand
Story of an unconventional will prepared by a 40 year old man
21 July, 2012
Alexander Cockburn Passed Away
By Jeffrey St. Clair
Acclaimed journalist and Counterpunch co-editor Alexander Cockburn died last night in Germany, after a fierce two-year long battle against cancer
Israel Threatens Iran Over Bulgarian Bombing
By Peter Symonds
The Israeli government has seized on a bus bombing in Bulgaria to issue a menacing warning of retaliation against Iran, amid the escalating confrontation initiated by the US and its allies over Tehran’s nuclear programs
Climate Emergency Action Plan
By Sarah van Gelder
We can still avoid a devastating climate crisis. But we'll need a World War II-level mobilization. And we'll need to stand up to Dirty Energy
The Dark Knight Rises A Fascist?
By Karthick RM
Watching the climax of the movie, I was convinced of Zizek’s argument that Hollywood can even imagine the end of the world, but not of capitalism. And the system’s old defenders will be replaced by new ones, probably with a new series of movies on them as well!
Time To Push The Reverse Gear
By Navdeep Asija
India is widening roads and building flyovers to pamper car owners while the world is going for traffic-free ways and public transport
A New Trend Of Suicides In India
By Duvvuru Kamalakar
Due to globalis ation there is also an emergence of a new trend of suicides – suicides of youth in the age group of 15 to 29. This trend is growing as a disease rampant among youth, especially in cosmopolitan cities and towns. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people of both genders. Nearly 60 per cent of all suicide deaths among Indian women occur between the ages of 15 and 29 years, the corresponding figure for men being 40 per cent
20 July, 2012
Myanmar Religious Cleansing: Crime Against Humanity
By Ismail Salami
Described as the Palestine of Asia by the UN, the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar is currently going through an unutterable ordeal at the hands of the Rakhine extremist Buddhists in Arakan who are targeting the Muslim minority with the worst form of religious cleansing
World Silent As Muslim Massacre Goes On In Myanmar
By Kourosh Ziabari
The Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are living under extremely appalling circumstances. The dictatorial government of Myanmar has deliberately neglected their ordeal and the international community is overlooking their suffering. Is it in compliance with our human values to remain indifferent and apathetic to this unspeakable tragedy?
The Story Of Change
By Annie Leonard
Can shopping save the world? Put down your credit card and start exercising your citizen muscles with Annie Leonard’s new film
If Julian Assange Goes Down, ‘Who Next?’
By Mairead Maguire
As concerned citizens of the World know, the Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is currently inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, in London, having gone there to ask for Political Asylum. I would add my voices to that of many people of conscience, around the world, in urging President Correa to grant political asylum to Julian Assange
Faux Reality, Obomba, Superheroes, Bain Capital and Drones
By Sean Fenley
One wonders how many are aware of the surveillance/authoritarian state that America has become
It Takes a Village, And Some…The Recent Attacks Against Israelis
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
On July 18, 2012, attack on an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria took the lives of 5 Israeli nationals, a Bulgarian, and the mysterious suicide bomber. Quick to point the finger at Iran , Mr. Netanyahu called it an “Iranian terror network spreading throughout the world”. These serious allegations with a potential for disaster, demand scrutiny on several levels
Blackouts Increasing In The U.S.
By Peter Goodchild
The dangers of electrical failure are more a problem of energy than of mechanics. The transformers and other mechanical components, in many cases decades-old and long overdue for replacement, are a relatively minor part of the problem in the U.S., even if billions of dollars would be needed to replace them. The trickiest problem will come when there isn't enough energy to keep them operating
Indian PM Manmohan Singh Knows What Is Good For America,
He will Soon Allow FDI In Retail, Mr Obama
By Devinder Sharma
I thought the Prime Minister would know what is crucial for India. Feeding the nation, and that too after we failed for 65 years, should be the sole priority. However, he doesn't mind excluding the percentage of population to be fed, by 33 per cent but has focused all his energies to bail out President Obama instead. he knows that by allowing FDI in retail he is actually going to add on to hunger by displacing lakhs of people working in the local stores. Such a magnitude of displacement will only add on to growing hunger
India's Tryst With Destiny Goes Awry
By Colin Todhunter
In 1947, Nehru spoke about a tryst with destiny. Free from the shackles of British colonialism, India was on course for a bright new future. Fast forward 62 years and take a look at where the priorities of ‘modern India’ lie. Witness the not so glittering outcome that Nehru didn’t have in mind
Government Inaction on Irom Sharmila's Fast Is An Affront To Democracy
By Concerned Citizens
An Open Letter to Chief Justice of India
Custodial Death And Communal Clash In Assam
By Barak Human Rights Protection Committee
An aged person named Mr Ajijur Rahman was picked up from his residence at Kalain under the Katigorah police station in the district of Cachar (Assam) by a raiding police team led by Mr Y T Gyatsu, a probationary Indian Police Service (IPS) officer posted as Additional Superintendent of Police at the Cachar police headquarters at Silchar in the night between 6 and 7 July 2012 and was tortured to death in the lock-up of Kalain police patrol post
18 July, 2012
Worst US Drought Since 1950s Threatens To Drive Up Global Food Prices
By Naomi Spencer
A large swath of the US Midwest and mid-South has been devastated by extreme heat and the worst drought since at least 1956. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared more than 1,000 counties disaster areas—more than half of the land surface of the country—making the drought officially the largest disaster on record in the country. More than two-thirds of the country is experiencing drought
What Really Lies Behind Israel’s ‘No Occupation’ Report
By Jonathan Cook
The recently published report by an Israeli judge concluding that Israel is not in fact occupying the Palestinian territories – despite a well-established international consensus to the contrary – has provoked mostly incredulity or mirth in Israel and abroad
‘Democracy’ And Slaughter In Burma: Gold Rush Overrides Human Rights
By Ramzy Baroud
The widespread killings of Rohingya Muslims in Burma – or Myanmar - have received only passing and dispassionate coverage in most media. What they actually warrant is widespread outrage and decisive efforts to bring further human rights abuses to an immediate halt
Linking Twin Extinctions of Species And Languages
By Verlyn Klinkenborg
A recent study noted that most of the 6,900 languages spoken on Earth occur in regions of high biodiversity. These findings point to a strong correlation between biological and linguistic diversity, with languages closely connected to the habitats where they are found
Ecosocialist Worldview
By Arun G. Mukhopadhyay
Western Ecosocialism discourse and movement can be judiciously integrated with down-to-earth indigenous wisdom and movements of the global South. The historic Latin American ‘indigenous socialism’ for Mother Earth’s rights could ably convince their progressive polity to implement ‘Latin Americanisation of Marxism’ that is critical for the contemporary warming world
Bolivian Highway: Omen of An Emerging New Regional And World Order
By Arun G.Mukhopadhyay
A highway to be built through a national park and indigenous lands has sparked protests in Bolivia. The author contends that far more than just an issue in Bolivian politics, this dispute is played out in the region with a more aggressive Brazil shaping Latin relations and internationally, between a newly assertive China and a waning United States
Donor Dollars Aiding Political Repression In Ethiopia
By Graham Peebles
An ideological poison is polluting all life within Ethiopia, flowing into every area of civil society. Local governance, urban and rural neighbourhoods, farming, education and the judiciary all are washed in Revolutionary Democracy’, the doctrine of the ruling party
Fake Public Hearing of Haryana Nuclear Power Plant Denounced
By Toxics Watch Alliance
Fukushima to Tokyo, 238 km, Fathehabad to Delhi is 210 km
17 July, 2012
Clinton Renews Military Threat Against Iran
By Peter Symonds
During her visit to Israel yesterday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed the threat of a US attack on Iran. After meeting with top Israeli leaders, she declared: “We will use all elements of American power to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon.” That obviously includes America’s massive military firepower
Superspy Confesses To MI6 Black Ops In Iran
By Ismail Salami
Preposterously bizarre as it is, the head of MI6 foreign intelligence agency John Sawers made a rare appearance before Britain’s civil servants in London on Friday and warned that the Iranians are “determinedly going down a path to master all aspects of nuclear weapons; all the technologies they need,” and that they will by 2014 acquire a nuclear bomb. Apart from his political fallacy concerning Iran nuclear energy program, he smugly owns up to the MI6 covert operations in Iran which the British government had denied for years
Global Madness
By Guy McPherson
Climate chaos is only a small part of the big story, though it is among the phenomena poised to cause our extinction within a single human generation. In addition to triggering climate chaos, we’ve initiated the Sixth Great Extinction, and we revel in its acceleration as one more sign of progress
Left Wing And Right Wing
By Peter Goodchild
It's curious to see what major issues are largely ignored by both wings. That includes the biggest of all: the decline in fossil fuels and other natural resources (and the question of "alternative energy"), and the converse, global overpopulation
CIA Takes Over As Ethiopian Regime Crumbles
By Thomas C. Mountain
With its foundations irreparably cracked and its edifices of power crumbling the Ethiopian regime headed by Meles Zenawi is turning more and more to the CIA to make the critical decisions in the ministries of power in the capital Addis Ababa
Why A Debate On Social Exclusion?
By Goldy M. George
India has perhaps the longest history of social exclusion anywhere in the world. The graded inequality of caste, superimposed slavery has been in existence for more than 3500 years. Dalits in India continue as a socially oppressed, politically dominated, economically deprived and culturally subjugated lot
Is Bihar Waiting For Another Round Of Caste Violence?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Will Ranvir Sena keep quiet till the Supreme Court provide the final justice in Bathani Tola massacre case? Can the victims be kept quiet with judgment like what Patna High Court has given? How do the people have faith in judicial system and political establishment? It is moment for serious thought on such issues otherwise the cycle of violence once started will be difficult to stop in Bihar
16 July, 2012
The Government of Violence:A Massacre In Dandakaranya
By Kamal K.M
A pictorial story by an Indian film maker on the massacre of 17 adivasi people, including 5 children, in three villages in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state, India
U.S. Abrupt Climate Change 2012
By Glen Barry
The world’s and especially America’s environment has gone mad during the summer of 2012. Abrupt climate change is clearly upon us, and life-giving ecosystems are visibly failing, portending doom for our shared biosphere, all life, and humanity. Given overshoot of ecological boundaries, and failure to pursue concerted national and global sustainable development and ecological sustainability policy, 2012 may well be the year Earth’s death through collapse of its one shared biosphere becomes inevitable
“Steady State Economy” — A Positive Vision In International Affairs
By Brian Czech
“Steady state economy” is a positive, proactive phrase that’s productive in international affairs. It has decades of academic reputation from the work of Herman Daly and others. It speaks clearly of the need to stabilize the size of the human economy. It has plenty of backing by dignitaries in sustainability science, policy, and diplomacy, and the list of dignitaries (not yet updated from Rio) is growing fast. We should encourage the purveyors of “green,” “blue”, and “new” economics to adopt it
Chinese Economy Slows To Three-Year Low
By John Chan
Conflicts are continuing within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime over moves to stimulate the sharply slowing economy. The latest growth figure—7.6 percent, on an annualised basis, in the June quarter—is the lowest in three years, and down from 8.1 percent in the March quarter
The Great Transformation: United States From The Welfare State To The Imperial Police State
By James Petras
The United States has experienced the biggest political upheaval in its recent history: the transformation of a burgeoning welfare state into a rapidly expanding, highly intrusive and deeply entrenched police state, linked to the most developed technological innovations
U.S. Empire Of Bases Grows
By David Vine
How the Pentagon Is Quietly Transforming Its Overseas Base Empire and Creating a Dangerous New Way of War
Lessons From Syria: External Armed Intervention Now Defined Civil War
By Farooque Chowdhury
Path for “legitimized”, direct, external military intervention in Syria is being paved. The covert external military intervention now being carried out in the strategically positioned country has been defined as civil war
Paraguay: Coup At Heart Of Struggle Over Latin America
By Federico Fuentes
The June 22 coup carried out against Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was an important blow to progressive movements across Latin America. The struggle against the coup is far from over, but learning the lessons of the coup are important. This requires placing the coup in the context of the turbulent process of change occurring in Latin America
Supreme Court Admits Appeal in Bathani Tola Massacre Case, Expedites Hearing
By Citizens for Justice for Bathani Tola
A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Chelameswar today admitted the appeal against the Bihar HC verdict in the Bathani Tola massacre case, and expedited the hearing
15 July, 2012
Is Syria WorthWorld War III?
By Timothy V. Gatto
The question that most American citizens are asking is this, is Syria so much of a national security matter that we would commit to a nuclear holocaust? Is the civil strife in Syria so important that we would commit to destroying the world?
Abolishing War: One Last Step
By David Swanson
The Occupy movement is a good start at bringing important issues together. But of course we need to carry with us into the occupy movement the distinctly minority understanding that war can and must be completely eliminated. We can learn from the Outlawry movement. It was moral, educational, non-electoral, and long-term with no expectation of succeeding even in a generation, and no trigger to collapse into despair if it didn't
Absurdity Rules The World
By Siv O'Neall
Unless we can relearn to use our brains and our critical sense, our ability to see the reality through the fog of fear and indolence, not only will we ourselves be done away with through the gradual ‘starving of the beast’, but the whole planet will be made a sterile desert. At the end of the day the predators will be found begging for the crumbs of food left over from the few self-supporting farmers who managed to withstand the corporate predators
The Squirrel ATN Machine
By Yoginder Sikand
A parable for human enterprise
Celebrating Harmony And Peace
By Ram Puniyani
It was heartening to note the observance of ‘Peace and Harmony’ day, on the anniversary of Vasant–Rajab on 1st July in Ahmadabad
Mega-Dairy Project At Nellore Threatens The Well Being of Farmers
By Jagdish Keshav
IFFCO plans to set up a mega-dairy project in this area with a new consortium containing the companies of IFFCO Kisan SEZ-Fonterra-Global Dairy Health Ltd
Citizens Speak Out For Bathani Tola, Demand Punishment For The Guilty
By Kavita Krishnan & Uma Gupta
Eminent jurists, advocates, academics, as well as activists, expressing outrage at the recent acquittal of all the accused in the Bathani Tola massacre case, have come together to form a citizens’ collective, ‘Citizens for Bathani Tola' and held a Convention at Speaker’s Hall, Constitution Club in the national capital today, demanding ‘Justice for Bathani Tola 1996 – Punish the Guilty’
14 July, 2012
Washington Seizes On Alleged Massacre In Syria To Promote War
By Niall Green
Syrian opposition spokesmen had initially claimed that pro-Assad militiamen had entered the village and killed unarmed civilians. They then claimed that the Syrian army had carried out a rampage aimed at civilians. But it quickly became clear that almost all of the deaths were the result of fighting between government troops and foreign-armed anti-Assad militia
Why Iran Should Sue US At International Court of Justice
By Franklin Lamb
Iran has the facts of the US sanctions case in its favor and there are ample solid legal theories to argue to and convince the World Court
Limits To Growth And Climate Change
By John Scales Avery
If the world continues on the path of unlimited industrial growth, any chance of preventing catastrophic climate change will be lost
Two Faces
By Uri Avnery
Yitzhak Shamir, the dead honest fanatic, has many followers. Olmert, the living corrupt pragmatist, has very few. Netanyahu, their current successor, has the vices of both and the virtues of neither
The Problem Is The United States
By Timothy V. Gatto
We could feed the entire world with eight days of our annual military budget. The Pentagon spends more on war than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety. The situation is out of control. The situation will remain out of control until the American people care enough to do something about it. We can either rise up or die. That's not much of a choice. We can only blame ourselves for letting things get this far
The Election Reflects America's Conservative Era
By Jack A. Smith
This year's presidential campaign is taking place within an extremely conservative era in American political history that will substantially influence the domestic and foreign priorities of the next administration, regardless of whether it's headed by Democrat Barack Obama or Republican Mitt Romney
Book Review: “The Crisis of Zionism” - Racist Zionists Ponder
Substantial Or Total Palestinian Genocide
By Dr Gideon Polya
“The Crisis of Zionism” by Peter Beinart is fatally flawed by the oxymoron of ”liberal Zionism”. Beinart's book describes how the formerly liberal, anti-racist Jewish American tradition has been subverted by the now-dominant, intransigent, right wing, Israeli and American Zionist extremists who variously insist on Palestinian expulsion from about 90 to 100% of the land of Palestine and deprivation of other Palestinian human rights in order to preserve a “Jewish state”
Why Anti-Israelism Is Not Anti-Semitism
By Kourosh Ziabari
Neither Iranians nor the people of other Muslim nations nor those Westerners who dare criticize the bloodthirsty officials of the Israeli regime for their frequent wrongdoings and crimes are anti-Jew or anti-Semite. They are simply anti-Israeli. Believe me: anti-Israelism is not anti-Semitism
'Patriotic' Criminals, 'Nationalist'Terrorists : Why Crimes of Lt Col Purohit Are Being Sanitised ?
By Subhash Gatade
Anyone closely following the trajectory of Hindutva terror in this part of south asia would tell you that it is not for the first time that such 'nationalist' sounding spin is being given to the terror acts committed by Lt Col Purohit. There is enough documentary evidence available, a part of which is in the form of recorded tapes of meetings found on the laptop of Shankaracharya Dayanand Pandey, co-accused in the case, to prove how this man Lt Col Purohit was not acting as a mole but was leading the terror operations from front
From Violence To Nonviolence- Lessons From Bhagat Singh,
An Open Letter To My Naxal Friends
By Anurag Modi
At this historic juncture, you shouldn’t be investing your energy fighting a lone war, remaining cut off from the masses. The adaption of nonviolent protest and giving away violence will leave government’s operation green-hunt exposed and redundant. In the backdrop of entire Adivasi population of the country facing state repression, the shift in strategy will not only save Adivasis from a war unleashed by the nexus of government and the corporate lobby, but, will make your effort of larger change more effective
How To Observe The Fourth Anniversary Of Kandhamal
By John Dayal
On 24th August this year, Kandhamal will complete four years of its trial by fire, gun and axe. The violence, which lasted several weeks and saw sporadic incidents even three months later, registered over 52,000 people hiding for their life in nearby Sal forests, almost 6,000 houses burnt to the ground, more than 300 places of worship and church-run institutions destroyed, and perhaps as many as 100 persons, some of them women, killed in the most horrendous manner
Mad Rush For Top CPM Jobs!
By Satya Sagar
A satirical take on Communist Party Of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat's statement that the lower wages paid to party cadre is the cause of upper caste domination of the party leadership
13 July, 2012
Spain Unveils New Raft Of Brutal Austerity Measures
By Paul Mitchell
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the right-wing Popular Party announced a new €65 billion ($79 billion) package of cuts Wednesday, the fourth since his election last November
How We All Became Palestinians
By Gilad Atzmon
William A. Cook’s ‘Decade of Deceit’ is a collection of spectacular articles written by a man who has gradually awakened to the disastrous meaning of the Zionification of our universe. Being an authentic and unique poetic voice, Cook manages, layer by layer, of to unravel the hypocrisy that has contaminated every aspect of our life – morally, culturally, spiritually and politically
Humanizing
By Mazin Qumsiyeh
The spiral of dehumanizing can and must be challenged and the obvious way to do it is via our efforts to humanize ourselves and others: show compassion, mercy, love, and connectedness. The styruggle is mostly inward and it is our own negativism that must be challenged every day, nay every hour. That is the humanizing struggle that is the hardest struggle of all
Presbyterian Church (USA) Endorses Boycott; Support For Divestment Grows!
By Anna Baltzer
At the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (PC[USA]), the US Campaign and member groups Jewish Voice for Peace, the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee, and the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice rallied to support the Israel Palestine Mission Network, also a member group, in its efforts to pass a resolution to divest from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett Packard to protest the companies' profiting from the Israeli occupation
Egypt's Presidential Election: Emancipation Not On The Ballot
By Larry Everest
Egypt's vote may have served the agenda of the defenders of Egypt's intolerable social order, including the U.S., at least for now. But for the Egyptian people, it will not bring or open up possibilities for any meaningful change. Instead it is but another maneuver to keep the chains of oppression firmly around their necks
The Peak Oil Crisis: The Summer Of 2012
By Tom Whipple
One has to go back to the 1930's to find a time when so much of civilization was in turmoil at once. The 30's ended with World War II, tens of millions dead, and much of the industrialized world in ruins. It is not hard to argue that the array of economic, geopolitical, and climatological problems currently facing the world add up to an even more serious threat than a handful of hyper-aggressive nation-states did 75 years ago. Our current problems – faltering economies, an out-of-control atmosphere, increasing social unrest, and political gridlock in many parts of the world – add up to a very bleak outlook ahead
Sec. Clinton In Laos Sees US Crimes Against Humanity Still Ongoing
By Jay Janson
NY Times photo shows Clinton at an artificial-limb center, visiting with a nineteen year old, who lost his forearms and sight from a blast of an unexploded bomb, dropped by the US Air Force during the Vietnam War. The bomb, unexploded for decades, finally blew up three years ago. The young man gesticulated with his arm stumps - US has not signed ban on cluster bombs. US Dropped 250 million bombs, 80 million failed to explode
Pensions Under Attack
By Mark Vorpahl
On Friday, July 6, President Obama signed into law a bill that would renew transportation programs and extend low interest rates on student loans for one year. While this minimal gesture resulted in, no doubt, sighs of relief from those burdened by student debt, tucked away within the bill's pages was a little-noticed proposal to further erode the funding of workers' pensions. The bill was a brilliant sleight of hand where what it appeared to be giving with one hand distracted the public from what it was taking away with the other
Who Is The Winner Of Sanctions Game?
By Kourosh Ziabari
Overall, what is clear is that the sanctions game started by the U.S. and its European allies has no winner. It simply blackens the image of the Western superpowers in the eye of Iranian people and make them believe that the United States and its cronies cannot be ever trusted
Punjab Drinks Uranium-laced Water, DAE Says Don’t Worry About Cancer
By Anuj Wankhede
Reports about the extremely high levels of uranium in drinking water in Punjab today caused a worried population to ask questions about the safety of the water and whether it was potable. Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) R K Sinha came out with the learned answer “Uranium can damage the kidneys, but there is no correlation between uranium and cancer”
12 July, 2012
Global Economic Slow Down Hits Germany
By Elizabeth Zimmermann
The global capitalist crisis is increasingly affecting the German economy. In recent months, there has been a wave of company bankruptcies, plant closures and job losses in both the industrial and the services sectors. International institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as German economic institutes are warning of economic slowdown and rising unemployment
Obama’s Scramble For Africa
By Nick Turse
Secret Wars, Secret Bases, and the Pentagon’s “New Spice Route” in Africa
London Olympic Missile Sites Confirmed Despite Protests
By Paul Bond
The government has confirmed the locations of ground-based air defence missiles across London during the Olympic Games. The weapons will be installed in the next fortnight. The announcement follows protests in east London against the deployment last weekend, and preempts a legal challenge next week against the weapon deployment
A Lay Person's View Of The Economy
By Rev. Robert Emerick
The economy is like the circulation system in the body. The body is healthiest when optimum resources are flowing to - and through - all of its parts. Our economic circulation system has a “heart” with two chambers - the public and private sectors. Each chamber has a unique and vital function in the economy. The health of our economy requires that both chambers perform their unique and vital functions, to keep the system in balance to benefit everyone. This balance simultaneously promotes prosperity, liberty, and the common good
The Origin Of Cooperation
By John Scales Avery
Today, the mass media are an important component of education, and thus the mass media have a great responsibility for encouraging the cooperative and constructive side of human nature rather than the dark and destructive side
American Empire's Creative Extortion
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
For the umpteenth time, a U.S. court has passed judgment against Iran for the 1983 marine barracks bombing in Lebanon . To date, a total of 8.8 billion dollars has been issued against Iran for the death of 241 American soldiers in Lebanon – over $36 million dollars per soldier. These judgments are not without ramifications
Opposition To Iran War Gaining Momentum
By Kourosh Ziabari
Several prominent academicians, peace activists, artists, journalists and Nobel Prize laureates have stood shoulder to shoulder with the international organizations to voice their dismay and alarm at the renewed war rhetoric of Israel against Iran and its possible plans for launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities following the unsuccessful conclusion of nuclear talks between Iran and the representatives of six world powers in Moscow
Before The Collapse
By Timothy V. Gatto
If you believe that "someday" the American people will wake up, or that "someday" Americans will understand the true nature of the corporate duopoly (Republicans and Democrats) or that "someday" the floor is going to drop out beneath this huge pack of lies we call our nation's history, that "someday" is today
The Missing Link To Our Harmonised Existence
By Sarah Saba
Introducing the vison of Sufi Qadri which tries to unify the scattered humanity and their separating philosophies
Modi-fying Development
By Nissim Mannathukkaren
The foreign admirers of Modi might express some sort of displeasure at his alleged complicity in communal pogroms (thus the status quo about his visa to the United States), but fundamentally they converge on the idea of development. Thus they let Modi appropriate its meaning
Bill Gates: From Toilets To Dignified And Healthy Living
By Shura Darapuri
Right education in sanitation and “user friendly” infrastructure is the need of the day. Bill Gates' timely engagements with “reinventing toilets” could certainly work wonders for India . That is because here there is a dire need of “affordable” and “clean” toilets, as proposed by Gates so that every individual especially, women are provided with the basic amenity
Necrophilia And Uncooked Meat: A Take On Irrational Fatwas
By Shajahan Madampat
The cyberspace is abuzz with discussions on yet another fatwa, this time from a Moroccan cleric who declared necrophilia lawful. According to the cleric, it is religiously permissible for a man to have sex with his dead wife provided it is done within six hours of death
11 July, 2012
Report: Extreme Weather Tied to Man-Made Climate Change
By Common Dreams
In landmark claim, US and British scientists say that climate patterns increasing likelihood, frequency of extreme events. “2011 will be remembered as a year of extreme events, both in the United States and around the world,” said Deputy NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D. “Every weather event that happens now takes place in the context of a changing global environment. This annual report provides scientists and citizens alike with an analysis of what has happened so we can all prepare for what is to come.”
What Do We Do About Climate Change?
By Brian Davey
To fully complete the reconfiguration of our economy and society we need to connect with the emerging movements with new ideas that captures rights to defend the commons and new ways of managing them which do not rely on yet another top-heavy bureaucracy
Peak Oil Oppositional Disorder: Neurosis or Psychosis?
By Dmitry Orlov
If you thought that Peak Oil is about energy—think again. It may well turn out to be about delusion, resulting, personally, in ego-death and nationally—in psychotic tyranny
The Parable Of The Pump Tinkerers—A Tale Of Fatal Misperceptions
Caused By Limited Perspectives
By Chris Clugston
A parable for a world in fast resource decline
Migrant Nightmares: Ethiopian Domestic Workers In The Gulf
By Graham Peebles
Ethiopian migrant domestic workers are less expensive and easier to manipulate than other nationals, demand for them within the GCC and neighbouring states will no doubt continue. The Ethiopian Government must, as a matter of urgency begin to offer them support, establish female support groups and demand justice where complaints of mistreatment are investigated and substantiated
Time To Talk Camp David: Will New Egypt Meet Old Expectations?
By Ramzy Baroud
Despite early assurances by Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi regarding his “commitment to international treaties and agreements,” one can already foretell a likely confrontation between Egypt and Israel
If The Drugs Don't Work, The Drones Certainly Will: Imperialism In The X-Factor Age
By Colin Todhunter
Drugs, surveillance and direct violence are kind of a last resort to keep a population in check. Ideology via the media has and continues to be the choice of method for population control in western countries
Patriot's Game
By William T. Hathaway
Patriotism gives us the illusion that we're part of the system rather than victims of it. It helps us feel good about ourselves, a defense against the low self-esteem that this hypercompetitive society instills in us. Instead of personal pride, we are offered national pride, and we cling to that because it's all we've got. That's one reason poor whites are often so aggressively patriotic. They're desperate to feel like winners. The poor minorities know better
Big Chase/CVS Threaten Small Town’s Future & Soul
By Shepherd Bliss
A fierce struggle since early last year over a proposed Chase Bank and CVS Pharmacy development that has been debated publicly in numerous meetings in small town Sebastopol may reach a climax at the July 17 and 19 City Council public hearing. The Council will either confirm previous decisions made by itself, the Design Review Board (DRB), and Planning Commission to reject the proposal at a downtown commons corner or allow it to go forward
An Ode To 'Lesser' People's Death
By Samar
In some parts of India, the onset of monsoon makes people tremble with fear. That is despite the fact that even their agriculture is dependent upon monsoons. Monsoon, for them, is harbinger of death and destruction. In these parts of the country, it does never come alone. It brings in Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and the Japanese Encephalitis and takes their children away
10 July, 2012
U.S. Sees Hottest 12 Months And Hottest Half Year On Record:
NOAA Calls It A One In 1.6 Million Event
By Joe Romm
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its chart-filled “State of the Climate Global Analysis” for June 2012. The big stories are the heat and drought. The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during June was 71.2°F, which is 2.0°F above the 20th century average. Scorching temperatures during the second half of the month led to at least 170 all-time high temperature records broken or tied
Cooling A Warming Planet: A Global Air Conditioning Surge
By Stan Cox
The U.S. has long used more energy for air conditioning than all other nations combined. But as demand increases in the world’s warmer regions, global energy consumption for air conditioning is expected to continue to increase dramatically, with significant impacts on future climate change
What Rio Tells Us About The Arctic
By Manuela Picq
The recent Rio+20 conference in Brazil was 'a show of good intentions devoid of political will'
How To Think
By Chris Hedges
And here is the dilemma we face as a civilization. We march collectively toward self-annihilation. Corporate capitalism, if left unchecked, will kill us. Yet we refuse, because we cannot think and no longer listen to those who do think, to see what is about to happen to us
Nine Population Strategies To Stop Short of 9 Billion
By Worldwatch Institute
On World Population Day, exploring nine polices to help stabilize population growth
Apologies To Mexico
By Rebecca Solnit
I apologize. There are so many things I could apologize for, from the way the U.S. biotech corporation Monsanto has contaminated your corn to the way Arizona and Alabama are persecuting your citizens, but right now I’d like to apologize for the drug war, the 10,000 waking nightmares that make the news and the rest that don’t
Coming To Grips With Zizek
By Thomas Riggins
Two new books by Slavoj Zizik have just been reviewed by John Gray in July 12, 2012 issue of The New York Review of Books. Thomas Riggins reviews Gray's article and gives a meta-critique of some of Zizek's views as presented by Gray
Occupy Just A Little Patience... When Appropriate
By Mickey Z.
But please... spare us the melodramatic public announcement. Save all that rage, passion, and impatience for the escalating battles that lie ahead. Take your break, heal yourself, and come back stronger. We'll be waiting patiently for your return
Occupy The Economy: Book Review
By Shamus Cooke
Economic democracy is a debate that is not immediately relevant, whereas most of the subjects in Wolff's book are. It is these subjects that Occupy activists can learn from, be inspired by, and fight for after having read “Occupy the Economy.”
Elite Killers Kill At Large For Kidon, Mossad
By Ismail Salami
A new book reveals that a department known as Kidon within the Mossad has dispatched assassins into Iran in order to murder the nuclear scientists, thereby stunting the country's nuclear energy program
Fact Finding Report Of The Killing Of Adivasis By CRPF Forces In Bijapur District
By Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations
An all-India fact-finding team of rights activists belonging to the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) visited the area in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh where 17 adivasis died as a result of firing by CRPF forces on the night of June 28, 2012 . The team visited the villages of Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpenta on July 6 and 7 and elicited information about the events. Here is a brief report of the team
The Buck Stops At Your Door Mr. Chidambaram
By Gladson Dungdung
The Corporate Home Minister P. Chidambaram must leave his office, precisly because he is responsible for the brutal killing of all the innocent villagers including 17 innocent Adivasis of Kottaguda, Sarkeguda and Rajpenta villages of Chhattisgarh. The questions should be asked to Mr. P. Chidambaram that is it enough to say sorry after taking away the precious lives of 17 innocent people?
Violence And ‘Clean Chits’: Sangma Backs BJP On Kandhamal
By Ram Puniyani
It’s not a coincidence that Sangama has formulated this ‘Sangh Parivar has no role in Kandhmal carnage after his being backed by BJP in the Presidential election!
Fire Of Ambedkar Haunt Them Not Narratives Of Discriminations
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Satyamev Jayate’s episode on untouchability and caste system was a half hearted attempt to look at the issue delinking the historical struggle for social justice. The glorious role of Baba Saheb Dr Ambedkar for the emancipation and liberation of Dalits was shockingly ignored in the programme
09 July, 2012
Syria Prepares For Possible Invasion
By Chris Marsden
Syria is conducting military manoeuvres simulating an invasion, in response to escalating threats from Washington and its regional allies. The large-scale exercise, which began Saturday, is based upon a response to external aggression and includes both air and ground forces and the firing of live missiles
Beyond Nuclear Denial
By William D. Hartung
There was a time when nuclear weapons were a significant part of our national conversation. Now, on a planet still overstocked with city-busting, world-ending weaponry, in which almost 67 years have passed since a nuclear weapon was last used, the only nuke that Americans regularly hear about is one that doesn’t exist: Iran’s. The nearly 20,000 nuclear weapons on missiles, planes, and submarines possessed by Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea are barely mentioned in what passes for press coverage of the nuclear issue
“Hope Is For The Lazy: The Challenge Of Our Dead World”
By Robert Jensen
In 2005, I preached on the ecological crisis in a sermon I titled “Hope is for the Weak: The Challenge of a Broken World.” Looking back, I realize that I had been far too upbeat and optimistic, probably trying too hard to be liked. Today I want to correct that
After The Fireworks Have Faded: Intimations of Bosons Among A Cacophony of Bozos
By Phil Rockstroh
Let's make a few connections: The present order has wrought economic tyrannies and inevitable environmental collapse, and is proliferate with the seeds of its own destruction. It should be evident to anyone with the cognitive capabilities of an over-ripe squash that global, neoliberal capitalism (and its game-rigging, political class-owning, mammon-worshipping cartel of privileged thieves) has entered into an exponentially increasing state of entropic breakdown
Weather Of Wrath And Climate Crisis Deniers
By Farooque Chowdhury
This climate crisis denial, the “game” of money, does not only expose a section of capital’s role in climate crisis. It does also tell the old truth experienced by science and knowledge over ages: Suppress fact in the interest of status quo even if that act of suppression hurts the common people. Thus interest of status quo stands against the interest of the common people and against science, and there resurfaces the old contradiction between capital and science
Hollywood Wars, Modern Myths And A Pack of Lies: Truth Matters
By Colin Todhunter
Modern day myths that have ordinary people lining up in support of ‘anti-terror’ wars or suchlike would then be in tatters and the actual reality seen for the bloody imperialism that it is. It is not without reason that a document by the British Ministry of Defence leaked to WikiLeaks describes investigative journalism as a "threat" greater than terrorism
Israel Disses US While Seeking ‘Bi-lateral Alliance’ With Russia
By Franklin P. Lamb
As the US staggers, and with Russia and China practicing shrewd Middle East politics, one imagines that Israeli leaders might be recalling the days and reasons that the Zionist colonial enterprise dumped England for America following World War II
The Zionist-Nazi Collaboration
By William James Martin
The fact that the initiation of the Zionist project had nothing to do with the Holocaust, as it developed more than a half century earlier, and the fact of the mostly indifference to the slaughter of Jews on the part of the founders of Israel together with its collaboration with the Nazi Party undermines Israel's projected, and exploited, image as innocent victim
Open Letter To MPs & Media re Taxpayer-Funded Australian ABC Lying And Censorship
By Dr Gideon Polya
The Australian taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation is celebrating the 80th anniversary of its first radio broadcast on 1 July 1932. The ABC has a sorry history of politically correct racism and lying by commission and omission as a variously UK- , US- , neocon- and Zionist-subverted state propaganda organization like the similarly defective UK BBC
The Clash Of Extremisms
By Maryam Sakeenah
We have to learn to agree to disagree and yet not lose sight of the common thread that runs through and knits up the colourful human family regardless of religious or secular orientation. ‘And mankind is but one family. But they disagree.'
Is Libya The Next Somalia?
By Thomas C. Mountain
Libya seems well on its way to becoming the next Somalia, with much of the country already ruled by tribal/clan based armed militias. As was the case in Somalia, Libya is in the process of separation, with the eastern, oil rich, Cyrenica region having issued a de facto declaration of independence
Ambanis, Tendulkar, The Car Culture And Common People
By Vidyadhar Date
A mark of a failed state is its failure to provide basic services, wrote veteran Sunnda Datta Ray in the Telegraph on July 7 in relation to Kolkata. Things are worse in Mumbai where the gap between the rich and poor is becoming more and more wide and the rich are becoming more arrogant. Nothing shows the arrogance more than the number of ordinary people being knocked down, killed by rash, drunken rich people who are literally getting away with murder. These are serial murders
Entry, Anchoring And Inspection of Dead US Ship in Contempt of Court’s Order
By Toxi Watch Alliance
Supreme Court seeks replies in asbestos laden ex Exxon Valdez case
07 July, 2012
Japanese Report Blames Government/Corporate Nexus For Fukushima Disaster
By Peter Symonds
A major report released on Thursday into last year’s Fukushima nuclear catastrophe details the systematic collusion between government, the state bureaucracy and the nuclear industry in Japan that produced the world’s worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown in the Ukraine
Job Crisis Denial
By Shamus Cooke
According to the latest data in the last three months the country added an average of 75,000 jobs a month. But job creation per month must be over 100,000 to keep up with young workers entering the workforce; therefore the real number of unemployed has steadily increased, on top of the mountain of already long-term unemployed
A Revolutionary Message To Our Younger Sisters And Brothers
By Larry Pinkney
Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward then, my sisters and brothers. Onward!
The Corporate Media Occupies A News Blackout
By Mickey Z.
Of course the mainstream media distorts and/or ignores OWS. That's their job and it's a waste of time and energy for us to expect otherwise. They've been given the keys to the public (sic) airwaves and we don't yet have the means to change that. We do, however, have the means to circumvent this model
Poisoning Arafat
By Uri Avnery
For me , there was no surprise. From the very first day, I was convinced that Yasser Arafat had been poisoned by Ariel Sharon. I even wrote about it several times
The Discovery Channel And The Weapons Trade
By Gauthama Siddarthan
A critique of the Discovery Channel programme "Future Weapons"
Beyond The Borders
By Devika Mittal
An average Indian and a Pakistani have the same secret desire to cross the border, atleast once. They want to see what people eat, how they talk, how they look and how they think on the “other” side. And if it is to be believed what those lucky people who have visited says, they will be highly ‘disappointed’ because it is just the same there. We share a common history, a common language, a common culture and even a common desire. This desire is found in the talks of average Indians and Pakistanis
“Deep Intelligence” in Bastar: Mapping The Maoists From The Skies
By Trevor Selvam
In any other country in the world, when such a massacre takes place, a government with an iota of morality would ask the local Police Chief and the Chief Minister to step down. Now we are not asking for the resignation of Mr. Chidambaram. We are not asking for Mr. Singh to express some apology (he would probably nod off during such a try). All we are saying is, let there be some acceptance of responsibility
Dalit or Scheduled Caste
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
A committee headed by Prof S.K.Thorat , former Chairman of University Grants Commission has recommended to use term Scheduled Castes instead of Dalits in the NCERT text books
06 July, 2012
US And Pakistan End Standoff Over Afghan Supply Routes
By Peter Symonds
Under intense pressure from Washington, the Pakistani government has lifted a seven-month ban and reopened NATO supply routes through Pakistan to Afghanistan. The decision follows a limited apology on Tuesday by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the killing of 24 Pakistani border guards in US air strikes last November
Lower Oil Prices--Not A Good Sign!
By Gail Tverberg
Are lower oil prices good news? Not really, if it means the world is sinking into recession
Must Read: Investigation Reveals True Hazards Of Piping Tar Sands Across America
By Stephen Lacey
America has a new word to learn: Dilbit. It is short for diluted bitumen, is a combination of tar sands crude (bitumen) and dangerous liquid chemicals like benzene (the dilutant) used to thin crude so it can be piped to refineries. And there is a lot of it being piped into America — in some cases through the backyards of communities that don’t even know it’s there
Oh Canada: The Government’s Broad Assault on Environment
By Ed Struzik
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has been weakening Canada’s environmental regulations and slashing funds for oversight and research — all while promoting aggressive resource development. Critics warn these unprecedented actions pose a major threat to the nation’s vast natural heritage
End of Growth Update
By Richard Heinberg
Update to Richard Heinberg's 2011 book The End of Growth: Adapting to our New Economic Reality
It's Complicated
By Timothy V. Gatto
This is the beginning of revolution. A revolution starts with an awareness that things have gotten out of hand. No one revolts when everything is just great. Revolutions start when people find themselves with their backs against a wall. Revolutions start when there are no answers. Revolutions start when people lose hope
Tehran NAM Summit: An Event Which Disappoints The United States
By Kourosh Ziabari
The upcoming NAM summit in Tehran is an invaluable opportunity for Iran to show its diplomatic prowess and demonstrate that it’s impossible for the bullying powers and their stooges to isolate it
India's War On Its Own People
By Campaign for Survival and Dignity
The mass killing in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh, last Saturday by central and State police forces has highlighted one simple fact. The security forces and their Central and State heads have declared war on the adivasis of this area. Only this can explain the extraordinary callousness with which they have responded to Saturday's massacre
05 July, 2012
Delayed Monsoon Keeps India On Edge
By Devinder Sharma
Once again the rain gods are playing truant. With 31 per cent shortfall in June, and with an expectation of only 70 per cent of the predicted 96 per cent rainfall for the July- August months, crucial for farming operations, kharif crops face a real threat
Enough Fossil Fuels To Fry Us All
By Ugo Bardi
George Monbiot said in a recent article that "We were wrong about peak oil. There is enough to fry us all". He is wrong on peak oil, but right with his general conclusion. There are enough fossil fuels to fry us all
Strait History And Iran 's Options
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
George Santayana wisely said: “" Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it ." Oblivious to history and its lessons, America and its Western allies are repeating their actions of the 1950's -- that of imposing an oil embargo on Iran . The American-led alliance has forgotten the past
The Hand That Spurs Iran Sanctions
By Ismail Salami
The Washington sponsore sanctions has started to take a toll on Iran, especially in life saving medicines
Washington's Militarized Mindset
By Tom Engelhardt
The Lessons Washington Can't Draw From the Failure of the Military Option
The Trans-Pacific Partnership: An Extremist 1% Global Attack
By Mark Vorpahl
During the week of July 1st - 7th an international cabal of corporate lobbyists will be meeting behind closed doors in San Diego. Their aim is moving the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards completion. For over two years TPP negotiations have been in process, yet the proposals and agreements made so far have been carefully kept from public view, until recently
An Olympic-Size Foucauldian Nightmare In The Land of Hope And Glory
By Colin Todhunter
But behind the land of hope and glory media spin, the Buckingham Palace tourist-sight pomp and the corporate ad-fest of the Games will lurk another Britain. It is a Britain reeling from enforced austerity measures
Was Hitler or Netanyahu Behind The Defacing of Yad Vashem?
By Michael Robeson
The Defacing of Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial, was allegedly done by members of Neturei Karta, an orthodox Jewish sect and it raises some disturbing questions
Govt Must Stop Import of White Asbestos To Prevent Public Heath Disaster
By Toxic Watch Alliance
Indo- Canada Free Trade Agreement Should Exclude White Asbestos Trade
04 July, 2012
Polonium Poisoning Caused Arafat's Death
By Al Jazeera
Tests reveal that Arafat’s final personal belongings – his clothes, his toothbrush, even his iconic kaffiyeh – contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. Those personal effects, which were analyzed at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, were variously stained with Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine. The tests carried out on those samples suggested that there was a high level of polonium inside his body when he died
New Energy Report From Harvard Makes Unsupportable Assumptions
By Heading Out
A new Energy Study from Harvard which boldly states that by 2020, global production will be at 110.6 mbd is a chimera of the imagination
Treehugger, Monbiot And Is Peak Oil Over?
By Sharon Astyk
If Monbiot wanted to believe peak oil was true so that it could save us from climate change, he was kidding himself. If he wants to believe it is untrue because it can’t, well, that seems like a line of faulty reasoning right there
US Escalates Military Threat Against Iran
By Bill Van Auken
The Obama administration has ordered a major buildup of American military forces in the Persian Gulf, as punishing economic sanctions imposed by both the US and the European Union within the last week have sharply escalated tensions with Iran. The Pentagon has deployed both a large number of warships in the Gulf itself, as well as advanced warplanes in neighboring countries
Diversity Of Tactics... And Perspectives
By Mickey Z.
As for tactics, why not let each Occupier decide which implement best suits her or his style? There's so much work to be done so please, stop worrying about what everyone else is or isn't doing. Let’s all perform a daily ego-check and focus on the tasks at hand
Energy, Economy, And The Impending Rite Of Passage
By Eric Garza
What will happen to per capita energy consumption over the next generation? What will happen to personal incomes over the next generation? How must our values and goals change so that falling per capita energy consumption and falling personal income don’t equate to falling quality of life? What does it mean for citizens of a developed country to live within their means in the 21st century? And last but not least, what will it take for these questions and others like them to become part of our national discourse?
A Post ‘Arab Spring’ Palestine
By Ramzy Baroud
Will the Arab Spring serve the cause of Palestine?” is a question that has been repeatedly asked, in various ways, over the last year and a half. Many media discussions have been formulated around this very inquiry, although the answer is far from a simple “yes” or “no.”
From Tunisia To Tokyo, We Are the Winds Of Change
By Nozomi Hayase
Around the world people are taking to the streets. This month alone, large protests occurred globally; From Brazil to Nepal , and on July 1 in Hong Kong . Throughout the world, government illegitimacy is mobilizing citizens to stand up and take action. Now the world we knew is changing before our eyes. We are all becoming activists
What's Next In Egypt?
By Sufyan bin Uzayr
Let me get the picture straight. Who is the elected President? Mohammad Morsi of Muslim Brotherhood. Who holds the real power, behind the scenes (atleast as of now)? The military . What has changed thus far? Nothing much. Even after the current elections and a new President, Egypt's political situation does not seem to be changing manifolds anytime soon
Open Letter Exposes Censorship And Lying By ABC ( Australia 's BBC)
By Dr Gideon Polya
This has been written in the public interest on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the start of the Australian ABC. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Please tell everyone you can – the ABC certainly won't
Jefferson Is Spinning
By Mary Shaw
As I write this on the July 4th holiday, 2012, it occurs to me that Thomas Jefferson is surely spinning in his grave
Not Merely Collateral Damage: The Tragic Killing Of Adivasis In Chhattisgarh
By People's Union For Democratic Rights
The only way in which we can stop this savage war against our people is by bringing the criminals of CRPF, Cobra and Chhattisgarh Armed Force (and their masters in the bureaucracy and the executive) to justice and demand accountability of the government at the state and the centre.
Bloodbath At Sarkeguda
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
17 Adivasis died in the so called encounter at Sarkeguda about 30 kilometer southwards from the district headquarter of Bijapur on the night of June 28th. Those who have known the police operations and their using of media understood well that it is slaughter by the CRPF
03 July, 2012
Japanese Nuclear Reactor Re-activated Despite Mass Protest
By Mike Head
A Japanese nuclear power reactor restarted on Sunday—the first to reopen since the March 2011 Fukushima earthquake disaster—despite deepening popular opposition, reflected in a huge demonstration last Friday
Rio+20: An Undesirable U-Turn
By Vandana Shiva
Rio de Janeiro is a city of U-turns. The most frequent road sign in the city is “Retorno” — return. And Rio+20 or the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development followed that pattern. It was a great U-turn in terms of human responsibility towards protecting the life-sustaining processes of the planet
The Persecution of Julian Assange
By William Blum
I'm sure most Americans are mighty proud of the fact that Julian Assange is so frightened of falling into the custody of the United States that he had to seek sanctuary in the embassy of Ecuador, a tiny and poor Third World country, without any way of knowing how it would turn out. He might be forced to be there for years. "That'll teach him to mess with the most powerful country in the world! All you other terrorists and anti-Americans out there — Take Note! When you fuck around with God's country you pay a price!"
The Longest War: Overcoming Lies And Indifference
By Kathy Kelly
Although the war in Afghanistan is often referred to as the longest war in U.S. history, the multistage war in Iraq, beginning in 1991 and inclusive of 13 years of continual bombardment and nightmarish, generation-wasting economic warfare waged through militarily-enforced sanctions, constitutes the longest war, one which in real terms is of course ongoing
Seeking A Visa For Dr. Wee Teck Young
By Kathy Kelly
Yesterday, Americans sent two very important and very different communications to our friend Dr. Wee Teck Young, a Singaporean physician and activist who lives and works in Kabul, Afghanistan. The “We love you!” was a press release announcing that the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) had awarded him their“International Pfeffer Peace Prize” in recognition of his contributions to peace working with dedicated young Afghans in Kabul. The “Stay out!” was from the American government, refusing him a visa to enter the United States with these young people, in the furtherance of this work
Morsi And The Egyptian Conundrum
By Chandra Muzaffar
It is because Israel and Western powers are worried about how a democratically elected President in the Arab world’s most important state may move the pieces on the Israel-Palestine/Arab chessboard that they would like the military, with its close ties to Israel and the West, to maintain a grip upon Egyptian politics
A Victory For Obamacare, A Defeat For The Left
By Shamus Cooke
The political victory for President Obama in the Supreme Court has created an interesting shift in American politics. More important than the blow against his Republican opponent has been the re-energizing of Obama's base, a loose coalition of liberals, labor, and leftists
Islam Ignites In Muslim Majority Ethiopia
By Thomas C. Mountain
For the first time in modern history the leadership of Ethiopia’s muslim community, which makes up a majority of the country, has become politically active and is calling for the overthrow of the USA backed Meles Zenawi regime
Courting Concerns: The Delhi High Court Judgment On Child Marriage
By Shazia Nigar
A Delhi High Court judgment pronouncing that a minor married Muslim girl be allowed to stay with her in-laws, as she wished, has once again been portrayed as the protracted war between archaic Mohammedan law and the modern, secular Indian Constitution. In fact, it is not a clash of civilisations, but rather a violation of the girl child's right to a healthy childhood and an education that is at stake
01 July, 2012
Anchorage Of Ex Exxon Valdez Off Gujarat Coast
Is Contempt Of Court
By Toxics Watch Alliance
Contrary to the order dated May 3, 2012, Supreme Court wherein had asked Union of India, Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Environment & Forests “to inform this Court as to the steps being taken to prevent the ship berthing in any of the ports in India, without following the conditions indicated in the Basel Convention,” if anchorage is allowed it will be in contempt of court. The infamous oil tanker that spilled crude oil off the Alaskan coast 23 years ago, anchored a little past 7 am on Saturday, about six nautical miles off the Bhavnagar coast, Gujarat state, India
While Colorado Burns, Washington Fiddles
By Bill McKibben
Drought, wildfires, storms, floods – climate change is happening, but the real disaster is our Big Energy-owned politicians' inaction
Perpetual Peace
By Neve Gordon
We are living in an era of perpetual war, and peace emerges, if at all, in the interregnum
Once There Was Hindutva Terror ...?
By Subhash Gatade
Bangladesh has recenlty won a battle with religious fundamentalism and extremism. Question is whether India can 'follow' Bangladesh as far as reining in forces of majoritarian terror ?
Carnage And The Motives: Anti Muslim Violence And Anti Sikh Massacre
By Ram Puniyani
The carnage of Gujarat is a part of the series of anti Muslim violence being spearheaded by the divisive ideology of religion based nationalism. In the same ‘ideological violence’ has come in anti Christian violence peaking in Kandhmal in August 2008
Killing 22 'Maoists' : First Triumphalist Bluster --Then Lies -- Then Denial
By Trevor Selvam
One whole day later, reports started filtering in, that 11 year old children and 16 year old girls were among those shot dead. Then the Local Congress Party decides that there is something totally fishy about the reports and decide to carry on an investigation themselves. The Hindu reports there are doubts about the exact nature of the campaign carried out by the brave Cobra commandos. There are reports now emerging that majority of those killed were villagers attending a meeting
Due to a recent spate of abusive, racist and xenophobic comments we are forced to revise our comment policy and has put all comments on moderation que.
