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31 March, 2014

IPCC Report Predicts A Dark Future For The Planet
By Countercurrents

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II report published today in Yokohoma, Japan paint a dark future for global humanity and other species on earth. It predicts violent conflicts, food shortages and infrastructure damage in the coming decades, while a growing number of animals and marine species will face increased risk of extinction. The report was compiled by more than 300 authors from 70 different countries with contributions from thousands of global experts

Climate Crisis Is Increasing Insecurity
By Farooque Chowdhury

Climate crisis generated increased insecurity is now boldly visible. IPCC, the global scientists’ panel on climate change, for the first time, has connected climate crisis to possibilities of conflicts

Climate Crisis: Reduce Meat, Dairy Consumption
By Countercurrents

Greenhouse gas emissions from food production may threaten the UN climate target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, finds a research at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Beautiful Sunsets (and Sunrises) In Art
By Subhankar Banerjee

The question is: What is the long–term stress acidification from Arctic haze might put on the fragile Arctic ecology? While we don’t know this yet, the haze might also be contributing to the rapid polar melt

Adam Smith's Invisible Hand Is At Our Throats
By John Scales Avery

For the reasons mentioned here, we can see that an economic system where selfishness and greed are exalted as the mainspring for human actions lacks both a social conscience and an ecological conscience. Both these dimensions are needed for the long-term survival of human civilization and the biosphere

MH 370: Respecting One's Friends
By Chandra Muzaffar

As someone who for many years has defended the peaceful rise of China as a global power as a positive development that will lead to the emergence of a more equitable multi-polar international order, it is imperative that China demonstrates greater sensitivity towards its neighbours. It should never be seen as a nation with a narrow, blinkered view of its own interests with little empathy for the honour and dignity of other people, especially those who are its true and tested friends. The MH 370 tragedy has brought this issue to the fore

I Didn't Sign Up For Third
By Tim Gatto

Everything you hear in the Mainstream media is suspect. Everything that comes out of Congress is suspect. The President lies to his people. The government spies on us. This is something I didn't sign up for

Crimean crisis: The smell Of American Hypocrisy In The Air
By Kourosh Ziabari

The United States is imparting a clear message by adopting this insincere and hypocritical approach toward Russia, which is also a message to other countries: We can invade your countries, we can kill your citizens, we can rule you tyrannically, we can behave in any way we desire, but if you do something which doesn’t please us, we will impose sanctions on you, we will banish you from international organizations, and we will come down on you like a ton of bricks. This is how the American hypocrisy works

Of UN And Harassment Of Kashmiri Students
By Abdul Majid Zargar

The democratic credentials of India touched a nadir when 67 Kashmiri students studying in a Meerut University were charged with sedition and expelled from the university for cheering for Pakistan cricket team. Since then news of hounding & harassment of Kashmiri students are pouring in from many other Indian States as well. Though charges of sedition have since been dropped, the other charges of rioting & promoting enmity between different group etc. still remain, jeopardizing the career of many a meritorious student

30 March, 2014

Climate Crisis: Limits To Adaptations
By Countercurrents 

Limits loom over adaptations to climate crisis while, the intergovernmental climate panel finds, long-term sea level rise will be much higher, but barely studied. There is possibility of massive damage for the US Gulf Coast due to sea level rise

A Longer Autumn, A Shorter Spring And A Sourer Pacific:
News From The Climate Crisis “Front”
By Countercurrents 

This year, Autumn is getting longer, but Spring will be shorter. It's not the only alarming news from the climate crisis “front”. The amount of methane entering the atmosphere will increase several times. Invasive species in waterways are on rise due to climate crisis, and this is one of the most serious threats to global biodiversity and the leisure and tourism industries

Arab League Impotence Continues And What A Mess The Arab World Is In
By Alan Hart

A thought constantly in my mind, and which was reinforced by the Arab League’s 25th Summit in Kuwait, is that with Arab leaders and governments as “enemies” the Zionist state of Israel does not need friends

Palmyrenes: Risking Their Lives To Preserve Our Global Cultural Heritage
By Franklin Lamb

Palmyra, Homs Governorate, Syria: As is being increasingly well documented to the great credit of Syria’s Directorate General of Antiquities & Museums (DGAM) of the Ministry of Culture, hundreds of Syrian World Heritage sites, including those listed by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as warranting international protections, are being threatened, damaged and in some cases substantially destroyed

Need To Re-Perceive The Crisis In Ukraine And Try To See A Russian Perspective
By Floyd Rudmin

In this crisis, it is the European nations who need to stand up and shake the super-power awake before an incident turns into conventional war turns into missile war turns into nuclear war. Those transitions could take 30 minutes. At this moment in human history, the world community has more pressing priorities than re-enacting our historical nightmares

Jalil Muntaqim Is Still In Attica!
By Mara Ahmed

It’s time to end this horrendous injustice and free Jalil Muntaqim. It’s heartening that ex-Black Panther Marshall “Eddie” Conway was released from prison this month, after almost 44 years behind bars. He too was accused of killing a police officer under COINTELPRO. It’s imperative to keep the pressure on and free all American political prisoners

Why I Am A Conscientious Objector To The ACA
By Margaret Flowers

It pains me to see that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) siphons billions of public dollars to create more bureaucracy and transfers hundreds of billions of public dollars directly to the private insurance industry when I know that those dollars should be paying for the health care that so many in our country desperately need

The Mill Hill, Natural Communism, And The Loray Mill Strikes
By JP Miller

There are no less than six books on the Gastonia Loray Mill strike of 1929. There are scores of papers, hundreds of opinions and a common conception that although the strike itself was a failure, it led to better working conditions for many workers that followed. Not one that I have read reveals the current condition of Gastonia and surrounding towns like Bessemer City that were the battleground between a homegrown communal left and a despicable capitalist ownership that finally broke the back of the workers in the strikes of 1927-1929

New York City Settlement Of Fire Department Discrimination A Blow Against Racism
But Panned By Ultra-Right New York Post Editorial
By Thomas Riggins

Under the leadership of New York City's progressive new mayor Bill de Blasio a settlement has been reached between a discrimination suite filed by the Vulcan Society (representing minority firefighters) and the city over the use of racially based civil service tests that favored white applicants

Ogaden To Dadaab In Search of Peace
By Graham Peebles

How to speak to a man who has just told you he and his “men” dismembered teenage girls, buried others alive, hanged boys, murdered village elders and incessantly raped. He seemed to be in a permanent state of shock, staring out from a dark place onto a world of his own making. The Ethiopian government denies any abuse is taking place in the Ogaden region

Barking Dogs And Sinking Ships: Journalism's Search For Metaphor And Meaning
By Robert Jensen

Reviewing The Watchdog That Didn't Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism

28 March, 2014

UNHRC Resolution Passed: Sri Lanka To Face International Investigation
By Countercurrents.org

The UN Human Rights Council has voted for a resolution which paves the way for an inquiry into rights abuses at the close of Sri Lanka's civil war. The resolution will pave the way for an international investigation into possible war crimes by both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the final stages of a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009

Adopted Resolution: End Of The Sleepwalking?
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa

The time has come. The resolution is the concluding operation of catching a fly in a dark room. Only now do they turn on the light to see what they are trying to catch and find that the subject of their search is a long way off. Thus, the sleepwalking the international community has finally awakened on the issue of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's Beguiling Grip On New Delhi
By Athithan Jayapalan

The Indian national government has remained impotent in reflecting the protest in T.N. and in addressing the continued human rights violation, the unresolved war crimes and crimes against humanity which took place during the last war in 2009 in Sri Lanka. Therefore it is of utmost significance that the people of T.N. have been able to take to the streets and steer the agitations themselves instead of being manipulated by electoral political forces dominated by the DMK or the AIDMK. The student agitation was phenomenal and it galvanized various sections of the Tamil Polity. Likewise the people of India should lead for the processes which will voice and oppose the genocidal oppression perpetuated by Colombo

Food sovereignty In Capitalist System
By Janet Surman

Food sovereignty is about the democratisation of food production. Only by addressing the monetary element, by coming to terms with the absolute necessity of removing any profit motive from the food supply (and from every area of life) will farmers, peasant or otherwise, consumers and all the peoples of the world have the security of knowing that sufficient food is available to all, at all times and in all situations. Food security for all the world's citizens is just not possible in a capitalist system

Ukrainian Lessons
By Linh Dinh

The first lesson, and it's a very old one, is that violent protest does work, and also sinister tricks such as having your own snipers shoot at police and fellow protesters. Without this ramping up of mayhem and bloodshed, the Ukrainian government would not have been discredited, destabilized and finally overthrown

Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement Consultation: Smokescreen For A Corporate Agenda
By Colin Todhunter

The Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) between the US and EU aims to ‘protect' investment and remove ‘unnecessary regulatory barriers'. C orporate interests are driving the agenda, the public have been sidelined and unaccountable, pro-free-trade bureaucrats are facilitating the strategy

Who Needs Leaders?
By Alan Johnstone

Forget about looking for leaders. What we need is a movement that rises from the people and empowers ourselves. People need to stop looking up, and start looking around. There is an old adage, if the people lead, the leaders will follow. People need organisations, and people need to come together. But by self-organisation from the root, you will find that you have got no leaders

27 March, 2014

World Crude Production 2013 Without Shale Oil Is Back To 2005 Levels
By Matt Mushalik

Unnoticed by the mainstream media, US shale oil covers up a recent decline of crude oil production of 1.5 mb/d in the rest of world (using data up to Oct 2013). This means that without US shale oil the world would be in a deep oil crisis similar to the decline phase 2006/07 when oil prices went up. The decline comes from many countries but is also caused by fights over oil and oil-related issues in Iran, Libya and other countries which can be seen on TV every day

Ukraine Crisis Highlights Ugly Global Energy Truths
By Andrew Nikiforuk

Anyone who thinks the crisis now unsettling Ukraine is purely about a people's quest for democracy and "the madness" of Vladimir Putin would be mistaken. Ukraine, a semi-failed state due to energy debt and corruption, merely illustrates the new energy politics now unsettling governments from the United States to Crimea. It represents our collective global future, should governments and citizens continue to ignore energy flows and budgets

Export Stupidity
By Richard Heinberg

Following Russia’s near-annexation of Crimea, American politicians are intent on undercutting Russian president Vladimir Putin’s greatest geopolitical asset—his country’s oil and natural gas exports. If the US could supply Europe with large amounts of fuel, that would reduce the Continent’s dependency on Russia while depriving Putin of needed revenues. Lawmakers from both parties are also using the hearings to urge the Obama administration to speed up natural gas exports as a hedge against the threat of a conceivable Russian cutoff of gas supplies to Ukraine and other countries. There’s just one tiny problem with all these fervent desires and good intentions. On a net basis, the US has no oil or gas to export

On Climate Impasse: Appetite And Substitutes
By Subhankar Banerjee

This piece is part II of a multi–part exploration on ‘climate impasse’. Most nation states are not interested in solving the climate crisis. This state of collective global inaction is what I call climate impasse

What Climate "Injustice" Means For Poorer Communities
By Rob Hopkins

While the ecological and infrastructure impacts of climate change are becoming ever more self-evident, what about the social impacts? Do the impacts of climate change show that "we are all in this together", or are its impacts unevenly felt across society? Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) recently published a report called Climate Change and Social Justice: an evidence review which looked at this in more depth (as did a recent Oxfam report). It coins the term "climate injustice" and offers some very useful insights on community resilience in the face of climate change, and what that means for different communities. We talked to Katherine Knox, Programme Manager at JRF, who co-ordinates the Foundation's work on climate change issues

Capitalism & Other Kids' Stuff
Written & Presented By Paddy Joe Shannon

How is it that the world can be more interested in seeing a new Pope crowned than it is in the death of 30,000 children, every day? " Capitalism & Other Kids' Stuff" tries to find answers to questions about why we live the way we do and possible alternatives

 

Obama’s Speech On Ukraine: Propaganda And Lies
By Patrick Martin

The speech delivered by President Barack Obama in Brussels Wednesday was a call to arms for a US-NATO confrontation against Russia. With a series of lies and evasions, Obama presented a world turned upside down in which the US and European imperialists, who backed the coup in Ukraine spearheaded by fascistic forces, are the defenders of democracy and peace

U.S. Military Averaging More Than A Mission A Day In Africa
By Nick Turse

Last year, according AFRICOM commander General David Rodriguez, the U.S. military carried out a total of 546 “activities” on the continent -- a catch-all term for everything the military does in Africa. In other words, it averages about one and a half missions a day. This represents a 217% increase in operations, programs, and exercises since the command was established in 2008

What Do World's Two Biggest Dangers Have In Common?
By David Swanson

War and environmental destruction don't just overlap in how they're thought and talked about. They don't just promote each other through mutually reinforcing notions of machismo and domination. The connection is much deeper and more direct. War and preparations for war, including weapons testing, are themselves among the greatest destroyers of our environment. The U.S. military is a leading consumer of fossil fuels. From March 2003 to December 2007 the war on Iraq alone released more CO2 than 60% of all nations

What Really Happened In Ukraine?
By Jack A. Smith

The accomplishment-starved Obama Administration evidently thinks the entire adventure is a big success in that it has just pocketed Ukraine and found an issue with which to throttle Russia for years to come. However, this well may end up far more of a headache than Washington ever imagined. Obama and the Europeans would have been much smarter to accept Russia's offer of three equal parties sharing the cost of bailing out the Ukraine, and left well enough alone

Ukraine Another Post-War Berlin?
By Sarah Hafeez

The continuing hostilities between US and Russia, especially economic sanctions, today are unarguably moving towards the military intensities of the Cold War years. While most political analysts are likening Putin’s Crimea venture to Hitler’s 1938 Anschluss drive for Sudetenland, Crimea in fact comes eerily close to the Post-Second World War Berlin. And the standoff between the West and the Soviet Union hinged around the Berlin crisis for three decades after

Alaska Votes To Secede, Supported By Russia
By Janis Schmidt

We live in an era where the news is entertainment and not responsible for being factual. So, with that in mind, I will throw my hat in the ring. This is what I heard

Dissent Is The Essence Of Ambedkarism
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The reason I am writing it is that an attempt is being made to look the entire Ambedkarite movement in a ‘Talibanised’ way which has no level of tolerance to a dissenting view point. In fact, a huge number of people have not heard about the book written by Arundhati Roy because the entire discourse is running around English speaking groups

Island of Angels
By Monami Basu

Kavaratti Island, for me is an island of angels, the ones that live there and the one that we left behind

26 March, 2014

Snowden Speaks On Obama Reforms As Supporters Call For End of His Persecution
By Jon Queally

Edward Snowden, the former NSA employee-turned-whistleblower whose disclosures to journalists about the unknown extent of surveillance on Americans and the world population have now spurred major reform proposal by President Obama, publicly responded to the president's announcement late Tuesday, calling it "a turning point" in the effort to "reclaim rights" and restore the people's voice on issues of privacy and government spying

Ten Reasons Why Food Will Be Scarce In A Warmer World
By Sophie Yeo

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN's climate science body, prepares to release its new report on the effects of climate change, an Oxfam “scorecard” shows how governments, international organisations and investors have failed to create a world that can deal with more frequent shocks to global food supply

Women Ecowarriors
By Vandana Shiva

When it comes to real solutions to real problems faced by the planet and people, it is the subjugated knowledge and invisible work of women based on co-creation and co-production with nature that will show the way to human survival and well being in the future

Energy – Life – Economy
By Lionel Anet

We should start thinking about replacing civilisation, which is working for the few dominant people so they can control us, before irreparable damage is done to the biosphere and humanity

India's Deep Geological Repository For Radioactive Wastes (DGRRW)
Coming up In Idukki- Theni portion Of The Western Ghats
By VT Padmanabhan, Leslie Augustine & Joseph Makkolil

In April 2010, around the time INO's Pottipuram site was finally decided and informal approval from the Central Ministry of Environment was received, IMSc submitted a project application to the Tamil Nadu State Enivironmental Impact Assessment Authority's (TN SEIAA). We presume that the plant in question is a 'Deep Geological Repository' (DGR) for storing high-level radioactive waste from nuclear reactors that the DAE officials have been talking about during the past couple of years

How Much War Does Washington Want?
By Paul Craig Roberts

What the entire world faces, every country, every individual regardless of their political orientation, is a Washington-engineered confrontation with Russia and China. This confrontation is enabled by Washington’s bought-and-paid-for European and UK puppet states. Without the cover provided by Europe, Washington’s acts of aggression would result in war crimes charges against the government in Washington. The world would not be able to enforce these charges without war, but Washington would be isolated

Mahmoud Abbas vs Mohammed Dahlan: The Showdown Begins
By Ramzy Baroud

The saga continues with all of its unpleasant details. Fatah supporters who are neither loyal to Abbas nor Dahlan, know well that there movement must fight for and reclaim its revolutionary identity, the very reason behind its existence in the first place

The Deviants Of Tel Aviv
By Fazal M. Kamal

The unfortunate people of Palestine are destined to be subjected to ethnic cleansing and everything else the Israeli leaders are accustomed to doing in the occupied territories against every interest of the oppressed and repressed Palestinians. And Israel is committing all the crimes in full view of the world and yet no one seems capable of slowing it down, to say nothing of making it cease and desist from further recklessness

Democratic Institutions And Fascism: A Critique Of Ramachandra Guha
By V. Arun Kumar

Ramachandra Guha’s article The Fear of Fascism argues that India's democratic institutions are too strong to let fascist win. But the matter of the fact is that the "strong democratic institution" in this country itself is saffron [Hindutva] flavoured. From legislative to judiciary to executive and from military to police everywhere the colour of Hindutva is visible. Guha somewhere forgets the role of hegemony. Hindutva as an ideology is successful in giving saffron odour to the democratic institutions of this country

The Spirit Of The War For Liberation Of Bangladesh
By Farooque Chowdhury

The spirit of liberation of the masses of people is defined by the interests of the classes that form the people, not by the interests of classes standing opposed to the people. Conflicting interests confront and one dominates the rests, and the dominance, if not by the people, distorts the spirit of liberation of people

The Anti-Defamation League’s Deceit Helps Sink A Judgeship
By David Boyajian

After two fair and lengthy hearings, the eight elected members of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, in a 4-4 tie vote on March 5, refused to confirm attorney Joseph Berman to be a Superior Court judge. It was a defeat for Governor Deval Patrick, who had nominated Mr. Berman. But the Council took its responsibilities seriously and rendered a well-considered judgment. Councilors voiced many concerns about the nominee. Foremost was a lack of truthfulness

Creative Resistance: Why We Need To Incorporate Art Into Our Activism
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Art has added energy to advocacy — and it reaches people at deeper emotional levels, conveying what cannot be said with mere facts

Air Pollution Causes ‘One In Eight Deaths’
By Sophie Yeo

Air pollution killed seven million people in 2012, confirming that it is now the world’s largest environmental health risk. The figures, released today by the World Health Organisation, are more than double previous estimates. It means that in 2012, air pollution was responsible for one in eight total global deaths

Sri Lanka: Motions And Emotions
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa

The President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his hypocrite diplomats were busy making appointments and telephone conversations not only with the African and Latin American leaders and their envoys, but also with some of the trusted allies to gain support against the third UN resolution on Sri Lanka, which is going to be tabled today at the Human Rights Council

Rejection Of The Anticipatory Bail Application Of Teesta Setalvad Is Shocking
By Concerned Citizens

We, the undersigned express our deep shock at the rejection of the anticipatory bail application of Teesta Setalvad and four others in what is being called the Gulberg Embezzlement Case, by the City sessions court of Ahmedabad. From its beginning, the so-called embezzlement has been the concoction of elements instigated by the state government of Gujarat, including the Gujarat Crime Branch. In January 2014, an FIR was registered against the five accused for defrauding the members of the Gulberg Society of funds meant for the building of the Gulberg Memorial commemorating the state sponsored carnage

25 March, 2014

The Snowden Effect: Obama, Lawmakers Propose End To NSA Bulk Spying
By Jon Queally

Existence of NSA's bulk spying program was once a well-guarded secret, but now reforms of some kind seem inevitable

Invasion Of The Data Snatchers
By Catherine Crump & Matthew Harwood

Big Data and the Internet of Things Means the Surveillance of Everything

Aadhaar & NPR: A Corrupt Surveillance Tool
By Gopal Krishna

Rebuttal of Nandan Nilekani’s blog of March 24, 2014

Tensions In Ukraine: A Scramble For Growth?
By James Magnus-Johnston

The situation in Ukraine is undoubtedly complex, but it may be as much about a scramble for growth and fossil fuel as it is about ethno-cultural identity

Grab Guns And Kill Russians, Suggests A Ukraine Leader As Rightists Rob Passengers
By Countercurrents

One pro-EU-US leader has suggested grabbing guns to kill Russians while rightists, as a show of anarchy, are robbing train passengers

NATO Bombing Of Yugoslavia: 15 Years Later
By Countercurrents.org

Yugoslavia was bombed for 78 days. About 2,000 Yugoslav citizens died in the bombings. The air invasion started 15 years ago, in 1999. NATO either completely destroyed or damaged 40,000 homes

An Invitation To First Lady, Michelle Obama
By Rosemarie Jackowski

Can you think of anything more arrogant than being a guest in someone's home and criticizing them because you don't like their drapes? Maybe yes, criticizing their drapes when you have none decorating the windows in your own home. Most people would agree that that behavior would cross the line. How could anyone be so lacking in common courtesy and finesse - especially when that person is a brilliant, well-educated First Lady

BJP And The Politics Of Polarization
By George Abraham

Unless the leaders of India, especially from the secular parties show some courage to stand up to fundamentalism that may emanate from any quarters whether it is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian and stop exploiting religion and caste for vote bank politics, India‟s democracy is headed for serious trouble

You Vote I Vote He Vote She Vote
By Partha Banerjee

Another Five-Year Fun Comes to India. Can we think democracy differently?

Trading The Tragedy: A Perspective From The Border District Kupwara, Kashmir
By Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad

The rationale is to rewrite and re-examine the devastation, destruction, wreckage and loss which conflict has inflicted on a small population of around eight hundred thousand souls who live in a district which more resembles an established war laboratory, a graveyard, and a funeral ground for living and innocent bodies. I am talking of a border district of Kashmir, where I was born with dead souls lying adjacent to me and red blood flowing beneath my feet: A place where majority live a humiliated, tortured and disgraced life

Toyota Strike And The Scourge Of Contract Labour
By Alan Johnstone

The stand-off between Toyota India and its 6,400 employees in Bangalore continues. Members of the Toyota Kirloskar Motor Employees Union have now downed tools. Toyota Kirloskar Motors Vice Chairman - External Affairs Shekar Viswanathan told PTI. He said the issue with the workers' union at the plant has now gone beyond the wage hike negotiations

24 March, 2014

US And NATO Use Ukrainian Crisis To Advance Military Build-up In Eastern Europe
By Patrick O’Connor

Statements issued by White House and NATO officials over the weekend on the Ukrainian crisis, including allegations that Russia is poised to invade several of its neighbours, point to advanced preparations by US imperialism for a heightened military build-up across Eastern Europe

Putin Right Ignoring West's Hysteria Over Crimea As They Provoke Russia
By Prof. Frencis Boyle

The tensions around the situation in Ukraine haven't been eased as the West is going further with imposing sanctions against Russia after the country's Parliament ratified the treaty on Crimean accession to Russia. Frencis Boyle, an expert on Ukraine and an international law professor from Illinois, gave an interview to the Voice of Russia and shared his take on the recent developments of the Ukrainian crisis and whether the presidential elections slated for May 25 could be the way out of it

An Israeli Takeover Of The Palestine Authority…?
By Alan Hart

On the face of it that’s a silly question and the speculation it represents – that Palestinian “President” Abbas could replaced by an Israeli agent or asset – is not worthy of discussion. But before dismissing it readers might do what I did and consider two things. The first is that Mohammed Dahlan, formerly one of the most powerful Fatah leaders and almost certainly the one who administered for Israel the polonium that killed Arafat, is now putting a big effort into getting rid of Abbas by one means or another and replacing him with – guess who? – himself

US Desperate To Keep Futile Peace Process Show On The Road A Little Longer
By Jonathan Cook

For the first time since the US launched the Middle East peace talks last summer, the Palestinian leadership may be sensing it has a tiny bit of leverage. Barack Obama met the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Washington last week in what Palestinian officials called a “candid and difficult” meeting. The US president hoped to dissuade Abbas from walking away when the original negotiations’ timetable ends in a month

Scorcher Summers For Europe , Disrupted Food Supplies,
Broken Growth If No Climate Action Taken
By Countercurrents

A draft report, part of a massive overview by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to be delivered on Tuesday predicts a future full of floods, drought, conflict, economic damage and slow economic growth, disrupted food supplies, if no action on climate crisis is taken. The crisis may already be causing irreversible damage to nature

Carter Uses Snail Mail To Evade NSA As He Is Sure That The NSA Is Spying On His E-Mail 
By Countercurrents

Former US president Jimmy Carter believes US intelligence agencies are spying on him — so much so, he eschews email to avoid government spies. “You know, I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored,” Carter told NBC's Andrea Mitchell in an interview broadcast Sunday. “And when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write a letter myself, put it in the post office and mail it. “I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored”

President Assad And Ayatollah Khomeini Are Keeping Their Word.
Will President Obama Keep His?
By Franklin Lamb

This weekend’s White House greetings to the people of the Islamic Republic for Nowruz the Iranian New Year in the Solar Hijri calendar are no doubt sincere and appreciated. But now it’s time to give substance to America’s New Year’s greetings that her citizens can be proud of and, that is accordant and consistent with their values

Trigger-Happy Americans
By James A. Lucas

The US government is in a dither trying to decide what to do about the Ukraine and Crimea which are almost 5,000 miles away from our shores. This is a potentially explosive situation and a few trigger-happy Americans are pushing Obama to take military action. Why are they doing this? Are we the lawful policemen of the world?

Who Are The “Anti-Liberation People” In Bangladesh?
By Taj Hashmi

Thanks to the perpetual and mutual demonization of each other by the AL and BNP coalitions, the over-polarized Bangladesh polity is fast getting overheated, people becoming partisan, violent, unpredictable and suspicious of each other. The promotion of “We vs. They” in a faction-ridden peasant economy like Bangladesh could be disastrous. The country could get further fractured, and dragged into a long-drawn-out civil war and anarchy

Memory And Modi
By Mukul Dube

I see around me a massive failure of memory. Narendra Damodardas Modi headed the pack of which the Supreme Court of India said, in April 2004, “The modern day Neros were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent children and helpless women were burning,...” . The man is now considered by some to be good enough to be the country's prime minister. He is called a “Vikas Purush”, the many large stains of blood on and around him having been painted over by his expensive public relations team

Fascism In The Indian Context, A Perspective Approach
By T.G. Jacob

Fascism as a historical-political ideology of social management continues to be extremely nebulous in our days too. In fact its variety is such that, in spite of not having any serious systemically rooted political philosophy, fascism continues to manifest in uglier and uglier forms and contents; its nebulousness itself throws its apologists into psychopathic reactions which can sink to any levels of dishonesty and cruelty

Medha Patkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar And The Political Scene In Maharashtra
By Vidyadhar Date

Medha Patkar, the Aam Admi party candidate in Mumbai North east Parliamentary constituency, is easily one of the most clean and respected public figures in the country. But she is battling paucity of funds and inexperience in fighting elections

Capitulating To Monsanto And The Wall Street Jackals: What Future India?
By Colin Todhunter

Indian Oil and Environment Minister Veerappa Moily has added fuel to the debate about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by approving field trials of 200 GM food crops on behalf of companies like Monsanto, Mahyco, Bayer and BASF. This is despite Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) recommending a ten-year moratorium on GM organism approvals until scientifically robust protocols, independent and competent institutions to assess risks and a strong regulatory system are developed

Kashmir Has A Right To Secede
By Abdul Majid Zargar

Matthew J Webb's book - Kashmir’s Right to Secede: A Critical Examination of Contemporary Theories of Secession - provides a new way of looking at the Kashmir dispute, by asking what these theories tell us about Kashmir, and in turn what the example of Kashmir allows us to learn about these theories. More importantly it lays a theoretical foundation for Kashmir’s right to secede from Indian Union

Modi, Media And Terror Threats
By Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association

The reporting in the media following the arrest of four youths in Rajasthan, alleged to be Indian Mujahideen operatives, by the Delhi Police Special Cell fell even below the low standards the media has set for itself on terror reporting. Forget about the use of the mandatory ‘alleged' before calling those arrested as terrorists – one would think it is no longer even on the curricula of media ethics. A large section of the media seemed convinced that it was Modi who was the target of these alleged terrorists. Indeed, there seemed to be an almost pathological desire to link these arrests to Modi. It is another matter that these claims were based on nothing

MH 370: Red Herrings?
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar

Is it also possible that some of these theories are being spun as part of a massive disinformation exercise? Is false ‘evidence’ deliberately being churned out by some quarters in order to deceive us, to divert our attention, to stop us from pursuing the real leads? Are we being duped by red herrings all over the ocean?

21 March, 2014

A New Story For A New Economy
By David Korten

David Korten's new essay (available to read as a PDF) connects the work of finding a new sacred story with the effort to build a new economy

Equity + Sustainability = Sharing Globally
By Rajesh Makwana

At a time when the risk of civilizational collapse is widely forewarned, it is time to recognise that the call for sharing is a cause that can unite concerned citizens working on a diverse range of interconnected global issues

Defending The Earth, Even After Death: The Green Burial Movement
By Hunter Marshall

The greenest burial places essentially transform the cemetery into a nature preserve—and a "posthumous occupation" of a $20 billion funeral industry

Permaculture Park at Lebensgarten, Steyerberg
Video By Dimitri Devyatkin

 

 

US Sailors And Marines Allege Fukushima Radiation Sickness
By Amy Goodman

In an unusual development, more than 100 U.S. Marines and Navy sailors have joined a class action suit, charging TEPCO with lying about the severity of the disaster as they were rushing to the scene to provide humanitarian assistance. They were aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other vessels traveling with the Reagan, engaged in humanitarian response to the disaster. The response was dubbed “Operation Tomodachi,” meaning “Operation Friendship.”

A 24/7 Global Holocaust
By Mickey Z.

It’s been estimated that in all the wars and genocides in recorded history, a total of 619 million humans have been killed by humans. That same number -- 619 million non-humans -- are murdered every five days for “food” by an industry that consumes and destroys one-third of the planet’s land surface and is the No. 1 source of human-created greenhouse gases

The War Activists
By David Swanson

War activists, like peace activists, push for an agenda. We don't think of them as activists because they rotate in and out of government positions, receive huge amounts of funding, have access to big media, and get meetings with top officials just by asking -- without having to generate a protest first

The Crisis That Israel Adroitly Manufactured
By Kourosh Ziabari

The representative of the Jewish minority in Iran’s parliament (Majlis) has recently given an extensive interview to one of Iranian news agencies and discussed his different viewpoints regarding the Israeli regime and the way the Jewish community of Iran see the entity which proclaims to be representing the global Jewry. According to Siamak Mareh Sedq who has talked to the Fars News Agency, Tel Aviv needs to create crisis in the Middle East in order to survive. “If Israel faces no threat it will be destroyed within one month. Israel needs (regional) crises in a bid to continue its existence,” he said

Manufactured Crisis. The Untold Story of The Iran Nuclear Scare
Book Review By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

Gareth Porter’s well researched book presents readers with a clear view, so that they can see through the web of lies, deceptions and false accusations, to discover the real enemies of peace. A timely book more than worth reading

South Asia And The Alternate Sexual Life Style
By Dr. Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee

The issue of alternate sexual life style and nations in South Asia is governed by colonial laws, religious norms and morality and a pseudo-urban mind-set that clubs sexual offences and alternate life styles to be same. The write-up tries to briefly assess how such life style exists in the nations in South Asia and the manner in which each respective nation deals with the issue. The manner in which rights and liberties of sexual minorities are being violated and undermined remain to be a notion that is grossly similar in most of the nations, except Nepal. The question of acceptability, rationality and constitutionality of providing equal rights to all minorities has been discussed

An Open Letter To Political Parties To Take Up The Issue Of Repeal Of AFSPA
By Concerned Citizens

Democracy gives you a platform to contest between each other, but at the same time democracy wants you to be humane. Is your party a humane one? Does your party consider democracy as people's mandate or is it just another method of acquiring power? Do you support the heroic struggle by people of J&K and North East against brutal and draconian AFSPA?

20 March, 2014

US, EU Escalate War Threats Against Russia Over Crimea Annexation
By Johannes Stern & Alex Lantier

Continuing its well-prepared campaign to exploit the Ukrainian crisis as a pretext for a vast expansion of imperialist operations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Washington and its European Union (EU) allies responded yesterday to Russia’s official annexation of Crimea by calling for a military buildup that would put NATO on a perpetual war footing against Moscow

Michelle Bachelet Returns To Her Old Job, Being President Of Chile
By Brian McAfee

Michelle Bachelet's first term as president of Chile ran from 2006 to 2010. After her term as president ended she was chosen to head "UN Women", a newly created UN entity that promotes gender equality. Bachelet accepted the presidential sash from Senate President Isabel Allende, the daughter of Chile's late Socialist President Salvador Allende. Both women have had remarkable lives given the hardships both have had to endure

The Refugees Of The Republic :Hurt, Humiliation, And Hunger
By Samar

They live in relief camps. All they have to survive against the biting cold is a plastic sheet. Luckier ones have got cots, thanks to the communitarian support offered by their religious organizations. They have seen their children and the elderly dying. They have left their graveyards behind and bury their dead kith and kin in new, makeshift cemeteries. They, more than 60000 even by the most conservative estimates, did not always live in these camps; they had brick houses and property back in the villages they have been hounded out of. They are the victims of the worst violence that rocked western Uttar Pradesh, districts Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, and Bagpat in particular, in September 2013

Symptoms Of Fascism
By Ram Puniyani

Some say, India is a very diverse country and so fascism cannot come here? It is a good thought, and partly it has been a factor in holding back the fascist forces in India. With time many factors become evened out and the similar tendencies grow all around. So it is not ruled out, especially with the rise of the mass support for such a phenomenon. Only a concerted struggle to nurture democratic ethos, values of pluralism and correct diagnosis of fascist forces alone can save our democracy

19 March, 2014

Russia Raises Flags Over Ukraine Naval HQ In Crimea
By Jon Queally

Russian flags were raised above Ukraine's naval headquarters in Crimea on Wednesday, shortly after pro-Russian 'defense forces' took over the base and at least some Ukrainian officers were seen walking off the base in civilian clothes. Orders from Kiev on Tuesday authorized Ukraine soldiers stranded on their bases on the peninsula to use their weapons, but in this case no shots were fired

US/European Military Provocations Greet Russian Annexation Of Crimea
By Chris Marsden

The Obama administration is utilising Moscow’s incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation to escalate its campaign of threats and sanctions. To this end, the United States is lining up its puppet regime in Ukraine and its regional allies to prepare a series of military provocations. Following a speech Tuesday to the Russian Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty annexing Crimea

The Gujarat Model Of Development: What Would It Do To The Indian Economy?
By Rohini Hensman

The cornerstone of Modi's and the BJP's campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections is that the UPA has ruined the Indian economy and the BJP led by Modi will make it boom. These claims have been reinforced by corporate adulation for Modi in his ‘Vibrant Gujarat' summits and surveys showing that almost 75% of top corporate CEOs want him to be the PM . How valid are these claims?

The Tao Of Toolbox (Violence/Non-Violence?)
By Mickey Z.

Every keystroke I make is an act of violence

Palestinian Authority: Israel's Doppelgänger
By Vacy Vlazna

Given every week Palestinian villagers put their lives directly on the front line, face to face with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and extremist militia colonists, what is causing the inertia of progress towards full Palestinian sovereignty? Excluding the obvious superior Israeli might buttressed by the clout of US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia and a spineless UN, close by, there is a corrupted internal counterforce to Palestinian national aspirations on planet Ramallah

A Kuffiya For Tony Benn – The British Warrior Who ‘Matured With Age’
By Ramzy Baroud

The next time there is a rally for Palestine, there ought to be an empty chair with a Palestinian Kuffiya, and the name of Tony Benn. It is a Palestinian tradition to honor its heroes, even those with a splendidly beautiful British accent

Killing The World By Feeding the World: The Onslaught Of Pro-GM Propaganda Is Relentless
By Colin Todhunter

Does Britain or for that matter the world want to hand over its entire food sovereignty to US agribusiness, which wants to control the entire system of food production and distribution? Recent events in India indicate how GM sector puppets in high political office are narrowing our choice. People are already dying as a result of the chemicals being inserted into and sprayed onto their food. GMOs offer more of the same and also provide the opportunity for the US to hold virtually every country on the planet to ransom once its corporations own all food, from lab to seed to table

What Do Children Need?
By Robert J. Burrowes

If we are to effectively tackle the full range of violent problems we face in the world – including war, environmental degradation and economic exploitation – then our strategy must include tackling violence at its source: the violence we adults inflict on children because we are afraid to listen to them and to let them make choices (and mistakes) for themselves

Garnering Hope In The Heart Of Darkness
By Maryam Sakeenah

The rising death toll, the blood and the gore hurts but the searing, tearing hurt like a thorn lodged in the very heart which will outlast the last rotting corpse is when these and other enormities are committed in the name of the faith of Islam: a faith that declares the sanctity of innocent life to be greater than the sanctity of the Kaabah itself... And like the humiliated Muslim woman from Madina 1400 years ago disrobed in the marketplace had exclaimed in distress, the believer’s bloodied heart cries out, ‘Waa Islamah!’ (Alas, for my Islam!)

18 March, 2014

US-EU Sanctions Against Russia: A Barely Veiled Threat Of War
By Alex Lantier

In his speech yesterday announcing sanctions against Kremlin officials in retaliation for the Russian-backed referendum in Crimea supporting secession from Ukraine and affiliation with Russia, US President Barack Obama said the United States and its European Union (EU) allies would use all means necessary, including military action, to humiliate and crush Russia

Water Mark
A Documentary By Sreemith N

 

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
By Paul Craig Roberts

Washington’s plan to seize Ukraine and to evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base has come amiss. But as Lenin said, “two steps forward, one step back.”

America Has Long Ago Exceeded The Limits
By Gaither Stewart

The real issue is something totally different from US imperialism and Russian resistance to being encircled by American missiles bases. The issue at play here is capitalism. Much of the rest of the world knows that capitalism is kaput, its propulsive thrust run out, finished. As Lenin predicted capitalism has hanged itself. It is already dangling

Why Is USA So Much Interested In Ukraine
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

The message is clear that US is using the EU and NATO both to serve its larger interests in the Russian region. This is the one man police power status of USA in the world where it wants none else to decide the course in independent manner, it allows only those which chart the path which conform to its stated policy and long term goals

God Pollution: Nature Is My Religion, Earth Is My Temple
By Dr. Glen Barry

There are no invisible ghosts in the sky ruling over and judging us. God pollution kills, obscures truth, and slows progress. All we have and need is each other, kindred species, ecosystems, and the biosphere

An Economic Game Plan To Prevent Water Pollution
By Brent Blackwelder

The key to preventing and cleaning up water pollution is to shift the economy from the pursuit of unending growth to the pursuit of stability. Why would water pollution decline in a steady-state economy? Here are three reasons

Flight 370: It Could Be An Accident
By Jacob K Philip

After 8.11 in the morning of 8th March, 2014 (the time of last ping from the satellite to the aircraft), there were no information/communication from the plane or its passengers. What could be the implication of the fact that absolutely no new developments/events after the morning of 8th? What could be the meaning of the total silence from the other side of the curtain beyond which 239 human beings and a modern jet liner had gone in the early hours of March 8, 2014? Why not a single communication happened between any possible terror groups or attackers associates got filtered out after all these days? It seems the answer is obvious. There were no conspiracy, no planning, no hijacking, no terror attack. It was a plain, simple case of an air crash. Most probably in land

‘12 Years A Slave’: What Happened To Slave Rebellion?
By Marc Norton

“12 Years a Slave,” the story of a free Black man kidnapped by slave traders, has won an Oscar for Best Picture of the Year and a slew of other awards – including Best Writing for a screenplay adapted from another source, in this case the autobiography of Solomon Northup. But in one important respect, the movie comes up short. Missing from the film is the slave rebellion and revolt that Solomon Northup portrayed so vividly in his book

From Helen To Hillary: Women In War
By David Swanson

Here's what we're up against: the coming promotion of a woman warmonger as a token carrier of progressive liberalism. Don't fall for it

Counterproductive Reactive Saudi Policies
By Nicola Nasser

Writing in The Washington Post on February 27, 2011, Rachel Bronson asked: “Could the next Mideast uprising happen in Saudi Arabia?” Her answer was: “The notion of a revolution in the Saudi kingdom seems unthinkable.” However, On September 30 the next year, the senior foreign policy fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy Bruce Riedel concluded that the “revolution in Saudi Arabia is no longer unthinkable.”

Balochistan : Picked Up, Killed And Dumped
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa

The people of Balochistan have decided to walk thousands of miles on foot to seek justice, ignoring the tremendous disruption to their lives and the threats and attempts by security forces and other politically motivated groups to sap their resolve

Indian Renaissance Starts From A Place Older Than History Itself
By Sukant Khurana

Fearless Arvind Kejriwal has decided to take on the bull of Hindu Fascism by its horns in Varanasi. It would be a direct battle, of several more to come, in a generational war to fight for the future course of our country and culture. It will test common man’s will against the multibillion-dollar crony capitalism agenda that is all set on letting in fascism and intolerance through the back door of elections first, the same way as it happened in Europe

Soni Sori: A Conduit For The Aam Aadmi Party?
By Farzana Versey

Soni Sori contesting from the Bastar constituency for the 2014 general elections is good news. The Aam Aadmi Party made the right choice — she represents the travails of the common man in its truest manner, unlike the codified middle class mannequins that are often trussed up as 'aam', including the party's leader Arvind Kejriwal

Verghese And Kunanposhpura Shame
By Abdul Majid Zargar

The recent exposure by Mr. S.M. Yaseen, former Deputy Commissioner of Kupwara, about the shameful role played by various Govt. & non-Government functionaries in Kunan-poshpura mass rape case has ruffled many a feather. In response Mr. B.G. Verghese has come up with an article in daily Indian Express of 14th March trying vainly to defend the heinous crime by Indian Army soldiers & his own role in the cover-up of the ghastly incident

Sri Lanka: Free Prominent Rights Defenders
By Human Rights Organisations

Arrests of Ruki Fernando and Father Praveen are Attempts to Silence Critics

17 March, 2014

US, EU Threaten Retaliation As Crimea Votes To Join Russia
By Alex Lantier

US and the European Union (EU) officials threatened devastating sanctions and military escalation against Russia results of yesterday’s referendum showed Crimea voting overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. With participation in the referendum at over 80 percent of Crimea’s 1.5 million voters, 93 percent voted to join Russia. The remaining 7 percent selected the option of remaining as a region of Ukraine, but with broad local autonomy

95.7% of Crimeans Give The Finger To The White House Tyrant
By Paul Craig Roberts

In an unprecedented turnout unmatched by any Western election, Crimeans voted 95.7% to join Russia. While Crimeans celebrate in the streets and international observers declare the referendum to be totally fair and free of all interference and threat, the neo-Nazi White House declared that “we don’t recognize no stinking vote.”

Thinking Like A Russian
By Ernest Partridge

If the current conflict with Russia over Ukraine and Crimea is to end peacefully, both sides must diligently strive to understand the minds and motivations of their opponents. And yet, as I read and listen to the commentary in the American media regarding this conflict, I find little evidence or interest in seriously inquiring what it is like to think like a Russian

If Mankind Is To Survive It Must Prosecute US NATO Genocide
By Jay Janson

Concerned with present danger to their citizens, leaders of nations under double attack of covert violence and media slander seem unaware of the crippling effect world attention to now obvious past US covert sponsored violence would have on US media deception that represents the greatest threat to their ability to defend their people Majority mankind world awareness will make deadly broadcasted absurdities inoperable. US crimes listed

Israel’s War On American Universities
By Chris Hedges

The banning of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Northeastern University in Boston on March 7, along with a university threat of disciplinary measures against some of its members, replicates sanctions being imposed against numerous student Palestinian rights groups across the country. The attacks, and the disturbingly similar forms of punishment, appear to be part of a coordinated effort by the Israeli government and the Israel lobby to blacklist all student groups that challenge the official Israeli narrative

Goliath, His Ghost And Many Davids
By Anil Gokhale

Today we need one more Sir David Low who can match his power of condensing several situations into a formidable historical Plot of Political Crash of 2014 and create DAVID to take on this GOLIATH. In spite of not being Cartoonist, in the memory of Sir David Low, I have attempted to bring together and synthesize perceptions of these creative cartoonists by making an (single) hotchpotch or Collage named- Old is Crashing –India Elections 2014

What Did Manmohan Singh Mean By ‘Disastrous’?
By Firdaus Ahmed

With India’s growing power at his call and several ongoing arguments with its neighbours, ranging from a post US Afghanistan to who controls the South China Sea, Modi will create occasion to exercise the power. This is where potential disaster awaits India. Egged on by the strategic subculture that wishes India to exercise its military muscle in order to dispel the mistaken self-belief of an 'effete' Hindu culture, Modi may end up fancy himself as a regional warlord. In a region that has plenty of nuclear tinder, this can prove disastrous

Naked Bias Threatens Media’s Credibility
By Concerned Citizens

An Appeal to Indian Journalist Fraternity by a Group of Media persons

16 March, 2014

'Collapse' Of Modern Civilization A Real Possibility: Study
By Nafeez Ahmed

A new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution. Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."

Killing Fields Of Muzaffarnagar
A Documentary By Gopal Menon

 

 

Washington Has Set The World On A Path To War
By Paul Craig Roberts

Why is Washington so opposed to Crimean self-determination? The answer is that one of the main purposes of Washington’s coup in Kiev was to have the new puppet government evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base in Crimea. Washington cannot use the government Washington has installed in Ukraine for that purpose if Crimea is no longer part of Ukraine

Massacre At My Lai: 46 Years Ago
By Mickey Z

Officially termed an “incident” (as opposed to a “massacre”), the events of March 16, 1968 at My Lai – a hamlet in South Vietnam – are widely portrayed and accepted to this day as an aberration. While the record of U.S. war crimes in Southeast Asia is far too sordid and lengthy to detail here, it’s painfully clear this was not the case. Not even close…

A National Summit That Prompts National Governments To Act
By Dan Lieberman

Public discussion on the Palestinian/Israeli crisis, which has diminished in recent years, received a powerful impetus with The National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel Special Relationship , March 7 at the National Press Club, Washington , DC

The War To End All Wars Is The Class War
By Janet Surman

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but, like experience, it seems that humankind is reluctant to utilise, move forward and build on a previous generation's hindsight and experience. The dialogue has to be widened, to be inclusive, immediate and truthful, to go beyond hope to a vision of a future reality for young and old alike; a vision of a world without conflict that can be achieved by the world's citizens in general agreement that they are no longer prepared to pay the price that has been demanded of them for so long. The war to end all wars is the class war: workers against capitalism

Bangladesh: Does Freedom Of Expression Guarantee Freedom?
By Taj Hashmi

Despite the Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu’s claims that there is absolute press freedom and freedom of expression in Bangladesh, we believe he is not telling the whole truth. However, even if the Minister is right – which he is not – we may raise the question if the freedom of expression alone guarantees freedom, and democracy. Do people in the democratic countries enjoy democracy and freedom only because of the freedom of expression? We do not think so. It is the other way around

Speak At Right, Not Convenient Time
By Abdul Majid Zargar

It took twenty three years for Mr. S.M.Yasin, the former Deputy Commissioner of Kupwara to muster courage to dis-bosom some factual details about the Kunan-poshpura mass rape committed by 4-Rajputhana Rifles of Indian army in February 1991.I am least impressed by his revelations & I have reasons to be so

Malaysian Mystery Flight 370, Global Humanity And The Lessons To Be Learnt
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

Rejecting wait and see attitude and behavioral indifference for a worthy humanitarian cause, the spontaneous collaborative response outpoured from various countries such the USA, Europe, Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Australia and others to assist the Malaysian government in locating the missing flight. The spirit of global volunteerism in a crisis situation is of utmost importance and value to build a better future for humanitarian cooperation

What Was This Interntional Women’s Day, Bhain….!?
By Mallika Kaur

As latest statistics show a new incident of rape being reported every 22 minutes, we may want to stop and think about the role of language in normalizing the idea of women—including sisters, mothers, and others—as sites of sexual aggression. As we ad nauseam condemn the practice of sex-selective abortions, we might want to ask how we are reinforcing the dangerous root-idea that women are liabilities to men and their honour

15 March, 2014

US-Russia Talks On Ukraine Collapse Ahead Of Crimean Independence Referendum
By Alex Lantier

Escalating pressure from the imperialist powers drove the Ukrainian crisis closer to the brink of war on Friday, as talks in London between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov broke down. Kerry denounced tomorrow’s scheduled referendum in Crimea on secession from Ukraine and reintegration into Russia as a “backdoor annexation” and accused Moscow of refusing to negotiate

World War I All Over Again
By Paul Craig Roberts

We are watching this audacity play out now in the confrontation with Russia that Washington’s coup in Ukraine has provoked. Obama and Kerry have been advised by the idiots that comprise the US government that Russia will surrender and accept Washington’s will if Washington is sufficiently insistent. Apparently, no one has asked the advisors what happens if ultimatums are given, and the Russians do not submit

University of Chicago Neo-Nazi Neo-Cons: Obama, Nuland And Ukraine
By Prof. Francis Boyle

Do not send your children to the University of Chicago where they will grow up to become warmongers like Wolfowitz and totalitarians like Ashcroft and politicians like Obama! The University of Chicago is an intellectual and moral cesspool. As J.D. Rockefeller, the Original Robber Baron and Funder of the University of Chicago once commented about his progeny: “It’s the best investment I ever made.” Still is

"Never Forget": For Rachel Corrie
By Gary Corseri

A poem

Our Way Of Life/Death
By Mickey Z.

“Our way of life” is based on violence, expansion, consumption, domination, and predatory capitalism. It means 150-200 animal and plant species go extinct… every single day

US May Experience Constitutional Crisis, Finds The Intercept
By Farooque Chowdhury

A constitutional crisis may spark up in the US . Alleged conduct of CIA is at the center of the apprehended constitutional crisis. This was observed by a report in The Intercept , the English language news website edited by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill

Tony Benn And Bob Crow: Two Men Who Shook The World
By Colin Todhunter

The week just gone saw two giants of the left in Britain pass away. Rail, Maritime and Transport Union leader Bob Crow went well before his time at only 52. Tony Benn, former minister in the Labour government during the 1970s and stalwart of the left, died at 88

Biocultural Heritage: The Foundation of A Sustainable Economy
By Claudia Múnera

Protecting the biosphere comes down to making sure enough ecosystems around the globe maintain their structures and functions. A strong appreciation of biocultural heritage is a key to doing this job, especially in the face of pressures from ongoing economic growth. Local economies in which people maintain a sense of place and a sense of their ecological and cultural limits provide an alternative, resilient model to the infinite growth paradigm

Cinema, Intensive States And Schizoids
By Joe.M.S

It would be interesting if the famous Malayalam film, Manichitrathazhu (The ornate lock), a highly successful horror thriller, which tells the story of Ganga and her alternate personality, is studied in Anna Powell’s method, in its diagrmatic components like light and shadow, logic of relations, the temporal and spatial dynamics, and the madness of transformative becoming, by the film theorists with their professional expertise, it can shed light on many aspects hitherto unattended to

The Genius of Erasmus
By David Swanson

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, who lived from October 27, 1466, to July 12, 1536, faced censorship in his day, and has never been as popular among the rich and powerful as has his contemporary Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli. But at a distance of half a millennium, we ought to be able to judge work on its merit -- and we ought to have regular celebrations of Erasmus around the world. Some of his ideas are catching on. His name is familiar in Europe as that of the EU's student exchange program, named in his honor. We ought perhaps to wonder what oddball ideas these days might catch on in the 2500s -- if humanity is around then

14 March, 2014

Germany Threatens “Massive Damage” To Russia Ahead Of Crimea Referendum
By Johannes Stern and Alex Lantier

Ahead of Sunday’s referendum on the independence of Crimea, Berlin and Washington are escalating a campaign of threats and sanctions against Russia, risking civil war in Ukraine and war with Russia itself. Addressing the German parliament on Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of a “catastrophe” unless Russia backs down

The Failure Of German Leadership: Merkel Whores For Washington
By Paul Craig Roberts

Washington, enabled by its compliant but stupid NATO puppets, is pushing the Ukrainian situation closer to war. German Chancellor Merkel has failed her country, Europe, and world peace. Germany is the strength of the EU and NATO. Had Merkel said “No” to sanctions on Russia, that would have been the end of the crisis that Washington is brewing, a crisis unlikely to be ended short of war

On the U.S. Government's Hypocritical Demand
That Russia Respect Sovereignty And International Law
By Matt Peppe

I am not suggesting that Russia is right or that they are in compliance with international law, merely that there is an extremely important historical context that U.S. officials are ignoring, if not flat out denying. They are trying to demonize Putin, turning him into the next Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi, Castro or Chavez. Much like the two minutes hate of Orwell's 1984, the state needs official enemies to survive. Their evilness provides the contrast to the state's own benevolence. In reality, Russia is acting rationally and in accordance with their interests and those of ethnic Russians outside the relatively new borders of the Russian Federation

Ukraine, America's Midas Touch – Again!
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Will Ukraine, a state that is not one nation, survive the assault on its diversity and its sovereignty? The unforeseen circumstances, the unpredicted reactions may well turn Ukraine into the last of America's ‘Midas touch'

World Has No Idea How U.S. Decides On Wars
By David Swanson

People from Yemen and Pakistan and elsewhere have told me, and have testified in the U.S. Congress, that they have a hard time convincing their neighbors that everyone in the United States doesn't hate them. There are buzzing killer robots flying over their houses night and day and every now and then blowing a bunch of people up with a missile with very little rhyme or reason that anyone nearby can decipher

Why I Didn’t Make It To Gaza For International Women’s Day
By Medea Benjamin

When I boarded the plane to Cairo, Egypt, to make sure everything was in place for the women’s delegation headed to Gaza, I had no reason to think I’d end up in a jail cell at the Cairo airport and then violently deported

Return Of The Righteous
By William A. Cook

With “eloquent” words Michele Bachmann returned to the declarations of the dominionists who thrived during the George W. Bush administration, calling again for more war on behalf of that foreign state that receives 8 million a day from American taxpayers as it resumes its demand that America carry its “existential fear against Iran,” to the bombing and slaughter of those who defy its demands as they defy International Law. Why is it that Americans must be led by religious fanatics and obsequiously obey the “mouthings” of superstitious people who properly belong in the year 2014 BCE, i.e. BC? “The congresswoman was echoing an End Times belief that holds that a massive battle will take place in Israel, triggering the Last Days”

Realistic Left Politics In Texas
By Robert Jensen and Patrick Youngblood

Is it unrealistic to pursue left politics in Texas — or anywhere in the United States? Quite the contrary: The ecological crises, economic catastrophes and immorality of empire lead us to conclude that mainstream politics is a dead-end. We remain committed to left politics because we are realistic

Film Review: “Utopia” By John Pilger Exposes Genocidal Maltreatment Of
Indigenous Australians By Apartheid Australia
By Dr Gideon Polya

John Pilger's “Utopia” is a must-see film about the continuing Aboriginal Genocide and Aboriginal Ethnocide by an Apartheid Australia. What can decent people do? Decent people should (a) inform everyone they can, and (b) urge and apply Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, parties, politicians, companies and corporations complicit in this ongoing, genocidal and ethnocidal Apartheid Australian maltreatrment of Indigenous Australians

Gender And Caste Discrimination: Apartheid In ‘New' India
By Graham Peebles

A suffocating patriarchal shadow hangs over the lives of women throughout India. From all sections, castes and classes of society, women are victim of its repressive, controlling effects. Those subjected to the heaviest burden of discrimination are from the Dalit or Scheduled Castes, known in less liberal democratic times as the 'untouchables'. The name may have been banned but pervasive negative attitudes of mind remain, as do the extreme levels of abuse and servitude experienced by Dalit women. They experience multiple levels of discrimination and exploitation, much of which is barbaric, degrading, appallingly violent, and totally inhumane

13 March, 2014

Ukraine And The Danger Of Nuclear War
By John Scales Avery

The current situation in Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula is an extremely dangerous one. Unless restraint and a willingness to compromise are shown by all of the the parties involved, the crisis might escalate uncontrollably into a full-scale war, perhaps involving nuclear weapons. What is urgently required is for all the stakeholders to understand each other's positions and feelings. Public understanding of the points of view of all sides is also very much needed

Obama Issues New Threats Against Russia
By Chris Marsden

Following a White House meeting with interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk designed to underscore US support for the newly installed government and ratchet up pressure on Russia, President Barack Obama issued new threats against Moscow

Al-Aqsa vs. Israel: The Lurking Danger Beneath
By Ramzy Baroud

Something sinister is brewing around and below al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, and it has the hallmark of a familiar Israeli campaign to strip the Mosque of its Muslim Arab identity. This time around, however, the stakes are much higher

Washington’s Back-to-the-Future Military Policies in Africa
By Nick Turse

A new type of expeditionary warfare is underway in Africa, but there’s little to suggest that America’s backing of a former colonial power will ultimately yield the long-term successes that years of support for local proxies could not. So far, the U.S. has been willing to let European and African forces do the fighting, but if these interventions drag on and the violence continues to leap from country to country as yet more militant groups morph and multiply, the risk only rises of Washington wading ever deeper into post-colonial wars with an eerily colonial look. “Leveraging and partnering with the French” is the current way to go, according to Washington. Just where it’s going is the real question

Death Of A Trade Unionist: Bob Crow, A Genuine Socialist Who Remained True To His Principles
By Colin Todhunter

British trade union leader Bob Crow died suddenly at age 52 on Tuesday of a suspected heart attack. He had been leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union since 2002. Once described as a ‘dinosaur’, a relic from a different period, he stayed firm to his left wing principles and fought tooth and nail for his members’ rights

Smash or Be Smashed? Lenin's Theory of The State
By Thomas Riggins

We must remember that bourgeois rule takes many forms but in essence even the most democratic bourgeois state is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (of the 1% over the 99% as it were). Until we arrive at a classless society we have only two kinds of state to live in-- both of them class dictatorships, one of the 1% over the 99%, the other of the 99% over the 1%-- there is no third, so in the words of the old song "Which side are you on?"

1933 of 2014 ! :Time To Break New Grounds In Confronting Communal Fascism!!
By Subhash Gatade

Any sane person would agree that the situation as it exists today is just an indication of the emerging crisis which is in store for us. While the immediate question on the agenda before many of us is what will happen in 2014 when the elections are held, we cannot shy away from the fact that there are deeper causes involved and that is why a man worthy to be condemned as Modern Day Nero is 'Hriday Samrat' for many amongst the crowd

Bara Imambara And The Head Cover Regulation For Women
By Concerned Citizens

Open Letter to Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court by concerned citizens regarding the Imambara administration's decision to make head cover for women mandatory

Say NO To Death Penalty!
By Concerned Citizens

More than 25 human rights activists representing People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Delhi, Civil Liberties Committee, AP, Progressive Democratic Forum, Karnataka, BMC / CDRO – West Bengal, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu and journalists, lawyers, other professionals and citizens gathered in Chennai on March 8, 2014 and demanded the complete abolition of the death penalty

Breaking The Wall Through Art
By Ravi Nitesh

With the shared history and culture, India and Pakistan can make the cultural exchange as one of the main tools to enhance P2P (people to people) bonding. With the time, these bonds will only benefit these countries and its people

11 March, 2014

Denouncing Crimea Referendum, US And EU
Step Up Pressure On Russia
By Johannes Stern

In the lead-up to the referendum on the status of Crimea scheduled for March 16, Washington and its European allies are stepping up diplomatic and military pressure on Russia. On Monday, US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt declared that the United States would not recognize the results of the “so-called referendum” and threatened further steps against Russia. He said Washington was “not prepared to recognize any result of the referendum,” as it regards Crimea “as an integral part of Ukraine.” He accused Russia of trying to change the status of Crimea “under the barrel of a gun.”

America’s Advancing Empire: Putsch, Pillage And Duplicity
By Prof. James Petras

The Obama regime, in coordination with its allies and proxies, has re-launched a virulent world-wide campaign to destroy independent governments, encircle and ultimately, undermine global competitors, and establish a new US – EU centered world order. We will proceed by identifying the recent ‘cycles’ of US empire-building; the advances and retreats; the methods and strategies; the results and perspectives. Our main focus is on the imperial dynamics driving the US toward greater military confrontations, up to and including conditions which can lead to a world war

Who Is In Charge Of The Madhouse? Escape Of The Cold War Warriors
By Dan Lieberman

If comments by U.S. government officials and media actors represent thoughts that guide U.S. policy toward Ukraine, then its time to ask: "Who is in charge of this madhouse?"

The Climate Of Change And The Dangers Of Stasis
By Rebecca Solnit

During 9/11, survival meant evacuating the south tower of the World Trade Center. In 2011, survival on the northeast coast of Japan meant going uphill or far inland. Our climate crisis requires us to evacuate our normal ways of doing things. That will not always be cheap or easy, but divestment can be done now with no loss, even possibly with an upside, say many financial analysts. In any case, it’s the only honorable and sane thing to do -- for the young who will be alive in 2064, for the beauty and complexity of the world we have been given, including all the other living things on it, for the sake of the people who are already suffering and will suffer more because of the disruption of the elegant system that is the Earth we inherited

Postcard From The End Of America : Chicago
By Linh Dinh

At the corner of Western and Chicago, there was a man of about 40-years-old walking with a cardboard sign in the middle of the street, between cars. Increasingly common across America , this sight will be ubiquitous soon enough. I got close enough to read, “PLEASE SPARE SOME CHANGE?!? HOMELESS, HUNGRY, BROKE & COLD.”

Kissingerian Realpolitik And The Crimean Crisis
By Nilantha Ilanguamuwa

Mr. Henry Kissinger , a man who is responsible for the millions of lives and assassination plots against several statesmen across the globe has sent advise from his retirement bed, about what to do and how to deal with the crisis that erupted in Ukraine over Crimea. The deadly crisis has claimed hundreds of lives so far, and caused hundred thousand refugees. Writing to the Washington Post, last week, once again Kissingerian realpolitik tried to play around the US foreign policy which is based on intervention and destruction for profit making while keeping democracy as the pretext

Bourgeois State Is Dismantling Bourgeois Democracy, Reveals Snowden
By Farooque Chowdhury

Edward Snowden explains working of the NSA, the global surveillance system the US operates, and the GCHQ of the UK, ally of the Empire: It’s dangerous. Mass surveillance violates our rights, risks our safety, and threatens our way of life

Is It The Best or The Worst of Times for Women in India?
By Shobha Shukla

International Women's Day (8 March) which was first celebrated in 1911 is a global day honouring the work of the Suffragettes, celebrating economic, political and social achievements of women past and present and reminding us of the grim inequities that still need to be redressed. Of course we have made the roses grow in the dreary desert of gender inequality and can rightfully savour their aroma, but there are bleeding pricks of thorns too whose edges we need to blunt

Muzaffarnagar Diaries: From The Killing Fields Of Phugana
By V. Arun Kumar

The riot survivors are not sure whether or not they will get any justice, but only thing they are sure is that if they die today at least their body will cremated and not destroyed, which happened to many who vanished into thin air without any traces

RSS And Murder Of Mahatma Gandhi: What Do Contemporary Documents Tell?
By Shamsul Islam

Hindu Mahasabha and RSS were jointly responsible for the murder of Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, this fact was further corroborated by Sardar Patel in a letter to a prominent leader of Hindu Mahasabha, Syama Prasad Mookerjee on July 18, 1948

10 March, 2014

US Builds Up Military Forces, Threatens End To Diplomacy Over Ukraine
By Chris Marsden

Washington spent the weekend ramping up pressure on its allies to intensify the provocations and threats against Russia over Ukraine

Corrupt Trade And Investor Agreements: Facilitating Corporate Plunder
By Colin Todhunter

Since the economic crisis hit Europe, international investors have begun suing EU countries struggling under austerity and recession for a loss of expected profits, using international trade and investment agreements. Speculative investors are claiming more than 1.7 billion Euros in compensation from Greece, Spain and Cyprus in private international tribunals for the impact of measures implemented to deal with economic crises. This is the conclusion from a new report released by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)

Venezuela: Bullet Over Ballot?
By S. Chatterjee

The issue underlying this utterly confusing spectacle of events is whether political decisions are to be taken through the ballot or through muscle-flexing on the streets. It seems patently undemocratic to allow the ballot to be cowed down by the bullet and now is a time for governments around the world to take a stand on whether democracy, by itself, is deserving of respect, or whether democracy is to be given lip-service only when it serves the interests of those demanding it

Beginning Of The End? Oil Companies Cut Back On Spending
By Gail Tverberg

Steve Kopits recently gave a presentation explaining our current predicament: the cost of oil extraction has been rising rapidly (10.9% per year) but oil prices have been flat. Major oil companies are finding their profits squeezed, and have recently announced plans to sell off part of their assets in order to have funds to pay their dividends. Such an approach is likely to lead to an eventual drop in oil production

I Blame You For The Snowstorms
By Mary Shaw

This winter has been harsh and merciless, with record-breaking snowstorms, floods, droughts, and other weather disasters all across the U.S. And I believe the climate scientists who say that these extreme weather conditions are an expected consequence of global climate change. Accordingly, I blame you - yes, you, dear reader - for all the snow I've had to shovel, because of all the carbon you've pumped into the atmosphere through your own actions

The European Union, Institutionalised Corruption And The Revolving Door
By Colin Todhunter

One of the many ways by which rich corporations exert their influence over and hijack government bodies is via the ‘revolving door' process. Big business is highly adept at positioning its (former) employers within policy and regulatory bodies in order to slant legislation in its own interests. And employees from the government sector have often left highly paid, politically well-connected jobs to take up even higher paid jobs lobbying or working on behalf on behalf corporations, with former British PM Tony Blair being a prime example, working on behalf of big oil and big finance

The Leader Obama Wanted To Become And What Became of Him
By David Bromwich

How Obama Became a Publicist for His Presidency (Rather Than the President)

Indian Independence And Workers' Freedom
By Alan Johnstone

It can be seen in retrospect that independence for the vast majority of the people of India has simply meant the exchange of one set of exploiters for another. Independence has solved few of the peasant or working-class problems and in the case of the Indian urban working class the solution to their problems is the same as ours

Remembering Ali Mustafa
By Justin Podur

Ali Mustafa was a Canadian freelance journalist and activist. He died with 9 Syrians in an airstrike by the Assad government in the Hadariya neighbourhood of Aleppo on March 9, 2014

An Epitaph For AGP
By Sazzad Hussain

The dwindling profile of once popular Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in run-up to the incoming Lok Sabha Polls is writing the climax of the script of its journey from a euphoric formation to the junkyard of collective memory

09 March, 2014

US, Europe Step Up Pressure As Ukrainian Crisis Intensifies
By Peter Symonds

Tensions in Ukraine continued to mount as Russia denounced the threat of US and European Union (EU) sanctions against Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainian officials

Ukraine: United States Strives For World Domination
By William Blum

When it gets complicated and confusing, when you’re overwhelmed with too much information, changing daily; too many explanations, some contradictory … try putting it into some kind of context by stepping back and looking at the larger, long-term picture

Obama Comes Out Against Crimea Self-Determination
By Paul Craig Roberts

The White House Fool has repeatedly declared erroneously and foolishly that it is “against international law” for Crimea to exercise self-determination. Self-determination, as used by Washington, is a propaganda term that serves Washington’s empire but is not permissible for real people to exercise. In other words, the elected government in Crimea pushed by the people in Crimea to give them a vote on their future is “undemocratic” and “illegitimate,” but a non-elected government in Kiev imposed by Washington is the voice of self-determination and legitimacy

A Nation Is Not A Person: Now Let's Talk About Ukraine
By John Spritzler

The current conflict in Ukraine is about whether the American ruling class or the Russian ruling class is going to dominate and exploit ordinary people in Ukraine and posess raw materials and militarily strategic locations there; it's about how they will divvy up domination over Ukrainians if the Russian ruling class gets Crimea and the rest goes to the American ruling class. The conflict is over which Ukrainian billionaires will get the lion's share

Israel: A significant Shift In U.S. Public Opinion…? And What If The Answer Is “Yes”?
By Alan Hart

A recent public opinion poll asked Americans which of two options they would favour if a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict was no longer on the table. Only 24 percent supported the continuation of things as they are. According to the poll, 65 percent of those asked for their opinion preferred the one state option. What explains this?

The Face Of Falsehood
By William A. Cook

Today it is Netanyahu declaring his love for peace when he speaks for a nation led by Zionist ideology that has never sought peace as that word is known to the entire world and thus masks truth in obfuscation, for “peace” to the Zionist has been and continues to be “greater Israel” achieved by power not by peace as we know it

No Place For Nationalism In A World Without Borders
By Janet Surman

The frontierless world begins with frontierless minds. One mind at a time, the challenge is to dismantle the barriers which deafen, blindfold, shackle and dehumanise us. A mind without barriers can step over any line, has endless possibilities, unlimited potential, can acknowledge and appreciate the diversity and congruent value of humankind. The frontierless mind can value the vision in which all have their own, inalienable home

Marxism And Emerging Paradigms Of Minority Rights
By Dr. M. Mohibul Haque

It is imperative upon the Marxist ideologue today to attempt at exploring and finding space for minority rights within Marxist paradigm in the changing scenario. It is also important to understand the changing face of politics in India and at international level and to find space for minority rights in Marxism. However, it is necessary to mention here that the purpose of the article is not to advance a Marxist theory of minority rights rather it is to emphasize the need for such a theory

Arundhati Roy’s Gandhi And Ambedkar
By Joe.M.S.

The recent article of Arundhati Roy in Caravan,raises many important questions as regards the contributions of Gandhi and Ambedkar. She does it brilliantly and courageously. It also takes up the question of ecology and progress

“Chopping Off Limbs” To Crush Opposition In Bangladesh
By Taj Hashmi

Sheikh Selim, an influential and powerful Awami League leader, at a public rally in Dhaka recently threatened to cut-off limbs of those who would create anarchy in the name of anti-government movements. One wonders, a) if “cutting limbs” is an antidote to anarchy, or the very idea gives fillip to fascism and anarchy and b) if mass movements can ever be crushed by brutal force!

Polio Continues To Be A Major Threat For Millions Of Children
By Brian McAfee

While great strides have been taken in ridding the world of polio there are four countries where the disease continues to endanger the lives of children. The countries where the World Health Organization(WHO) and UNICEF have confirmed the existence of and are now immunizing children from polio are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Syria

Holy Cow And Unholy Silence
By B.F Firos

Matha Amrithananda Mayi’s ex-aide turns whistleblower. But Kerala’s mainstream media refuses to cover the damning revelations

In The Memory Of Prof. Chadha Who Left Us On 1st March
By Ravi Nitesh

Professor Chaddha is no more, but his teachings and memories are still exists. It was the morning of 1st March, when Professor Chaddha left this world. His sudden demise came as shock for many who knew him

Terrorist Attack On Indian Sufi Cleric 
By Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi

One of the most acclaimed Sunni Islamic scholars of modern India, Maulana Usaidul Haq Qadri Badayuni, was shot dead early this month while on a visit to Sufi shrines in Iraq. His killing is no isolated event, for wanton killings of Sufi-minded, spiritually-inclined Islamic scholars at the hands of Salafists, Wahhabis and other extremist ‘Islamist' goons continue unabated

Art, Pussy Riot And Social And Political Change
By Milan Djurasovic

The recent artwork of Pussy Riot provides us with a suitable example. One of the reasons (it must be emphasized that it is definitely not the only, and not the most important reason) why Pussy Riot’s artwork failed to attract any wider support in Russia, and the reason why it has generated just as much – if not more – animosity, despite the massive media coverage, is because of its attempt to address a sensitive political issue with a vague message and obvious vulgarity

Barack Obama: A Pacifist Turned Hawk
By Kourosh Ziabari

By resorting to a derogatory literature and threatening the Iranian people again and again, Barack Obama undermined his own position as a pacifist politician and demonstrated that he is another hawk whose decisions in invading Libya, waging a lethal, destructive proxy war in Syria, continued drone attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen and eventually his thuggish attitude toward Iran leave no doubts that he doesn’t deserve to be called a pacifist

07 March, 2014

US, European Union Impose Sanctions Against Russia
By Alex Lantier

Western powers ratcheted up sanctions against Russia Thursday, while the US mounts a major military buildup in Eastern Europe. The immediate pretext for sanctions from both the US and Europe was the vote in the regional parliament of the Crimean Peninsula to prepare secession from Ukraine and association to Russia, subject to a popular referendum later this month

The Looting Of Ukraine Has Begun
By Paul Craig Roberts

According to a report in Kommersant-Ukraine, the finance ministry of Washington’s stooges in Kiev who are pretending to be a government has prepared an economic austerity plan that will cut Ukrainian pensions from $160 to $80 so that Western bankers who lent money to Ukraine can be repaid at the expense of Ukraine’s poor. It is Greece all over again

American Unlimited Imperialism:Now Ukraine
By Prof. Francis A. Boyle

It is the Unlimited Imperialists along the lines of Alexander, Rome, Napoleon and Hitler who are now in charge of conducting American foreign policy. The factual circumstances surrounding the outbreaks of both the First World War and the Second World War currently hover like twin Swords of Damocles over the heads of all humanity

America’s Bewildered Time Capsule And Russians Are Coming
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

The Russians, Chinese, and Iranians are trying to avoid confrontation with Washington, as war with the modern nuclear weapons would destroy all life on planet earth.... Considering the utterly insane government ruling in Washington, if human life exists in 2020, it will be a miracle

What Europe Should Know About US Mass Surveillance
By Edward Snowden

What follows is a statement addressed to an investigative panel of the European Parliament looking into the nature and scope of U.S. surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency and its partner agencies in Europe. Subsequent to the statement are specific answers to written questions posed by the panel to Mr. Snowden

A Painful Conundrum - The Hidden Tax Trap
By Rosemarie Jackowski

This makes the Banking Mortgage Fraud scandal look like child's play. In either case, families lose their homes. Stated very simply, Medicaid is now a loan program. Low income citizens need to have this information. They need to be told that they have been singled out to re-pay health care expenses. Poverty has now been institutionalized and will pass from one generation to the next

A Little Idea: Embrace The Process (Occupy This Book Excerpt)
By Mickey Z.

I ask you: What “little idea” can you bring to your local activist movement, and how soon will you create this “beautiful beginning”?

Memories Of Kashmir: Past, Present And Hope
By Dr. M Ashraf Bhat

The conflict induced alternative testimonies and personal narratives must not be treated as mere complaints, but the painful internalised memories of the conflict, which must not be repeated or forwarded to the coming generations. These narratives are altogether different from the conventional approaches of theorising the ‘Kashmir conflict’ as they are based on the personal experiences: on real events which we, as Kashmiris, have witnessed during the last three decades

When Cricket 'Threatens' The 'Integrity' Of A Country
By Devika Mittal

The reference is to the action of the State Government of Uttar Pradesh and Subharti University (a private university in meerut) taken against the kashmiri students who cheered for the Pakistani Cricket Team. Both the government and the university have maligned the concept of fearless minds. They have instilled fear in the minds of the citizens who shall now think before praising any country for any reason

Baghdad Central
By Neve Gordon

Center-staging the calamities of collaboration, Elliott Colla’s noir thriller exposes the moral and strategic failures of military occupation

06 March, 2014

Amid Ukraine Crisis, US Launches Military Escalation In Eastern Europe
By Alex Lantier

US officials signaled a broad military escalation in Eastern Europe yesterday amid the confrontation with Russia over the February 22 fascist-led putsch in Ukraine. US officials announced the deployment of additional military forces in the region as talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Paris ended in a stalemate

The “Mysterious” Kiev Snipers
By Farooque Chowdhury

With accusation of surveillance and espionage “mysterious” snipers in Kiev are coming out to light as diplomacy is unfolding over uncertain Ukraine

An American Sovereignty
By Nesreen Melek

Dear President Obama: The more I listen to the news covering your government’s stand about Ukraine, the more puzzled I feel. I am seeking your help to solve the puzzle as an Iraqi woman who witnessed war after war was launched by your government on my beloved country Iraq

Tears Of Yarmouk: The Palestinian Lesson That Every Syrian Should Know
By Ramzy Baroud

Whenever a rumor goes around that a few bags of food have somehow made their way to the camp, thousands of people run around in complete desperation, begging for crumbs. Most of them go back empty handed, often greeted with gunfire. Scores have starved to death since the siege was imposed on Yarmouk last year. The Syrian government blames the rebels, the latter blame the government. Evidence emerging from the camp suggests they are both liable

Netanyahu’s Anti-Iranian And Anti-BDS Rant At AIPAC
By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

The time for an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is running out. To gain more time, the Americans will perhaps come up with an interim agreement, which will set a new time-frame till the end of the year. To date, no American government has been able to accomplish peace in the Middle East. Why should the Obama administration be successful, considering that Netanyahu dislikes the US President?

Viva la #SharingSpring!
By Adam Parsons

As the Sharing Spring kicks off, more and more people are participating in localised forms of sharing in response to the failures of government and big business. While this is right and imperative, it is equally vital that citizens call upon their political representatives to integrate the principle of sharing into governmental policies on national and global levels

America Can Learn From Venezuela's Democracy
By Garikai Chengu

Voter participation and trust in government in America is at an all-time low, because Americans are increasingly realizing that both political parties serve the interests of a small elite. Clearly, America can learn a great deal from Venezuela's unique and profound democratic experience

Hagglund’s Radical Atheism of Derrida : Some Reflections
By Joe M.S

In the religious turn of the intellectual scene for the last few decades, where Derrida is generally understood as embracing religion, talking about atheism among leftists is not fashionable any more. Such a dialogue is exactly what is attempted by Martin Hagglund in his book Radical Atheism: Derrida and The Time of Life (2008), by interpreting atheism in a new way

Rituals And Deaths In Bangladesh
By Fazal M. Kamal

The essentially indefensible issue of extrajudicial deaths has been on the radar of all rights monitoring entities for a number of years, and despite repeated assurances from the government that they would be investigated and hopefully stopped, the brash system of being judge, jury and executioner not only continued but---apparently most cynically---have increased after the gratuitous elections in Bangladesh early in the new year

We, The Indians, Get Offended By Books, Not Body Bags
By Samar

At 218 in 2013 and 237 in 2012, one would expect a national outrage on the unusually high number of body bags returning to India from Qatar. One would think especially so, for the fact that these body bags belonged to Indian citizens. Shockingly, the body bags failed to evoke even an acknowledgment from powers that be. Nobody even knew, in fact, until Nepal, that tiny neigbour perpetually in transition, took Qatar to a task for the 385 body bags it had received in the same period

The Expulsion Of Kashmiri Students In Meerut: A Disgrace To Humanism
By Subit Chakrabarti

A private university in Meerut suspended all Kashmiri students when a sub-section of them celebrated Pakistan winning a recent Cricket match. According to reports in leading Indian newspapers, the authorities initially decided to suspend only the people who had shouted slogans, but later decided to suspend all Kashmiri students according to the recommendations made by a three-tier inquiry

05 March, 2014

US Threatens Russia As Ukraine Crisis Escalates
By Chris Marsden

US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry issued bellicose statements directed against Russia on Tuesday, one week after right-wing putsch backed by the US and European powers brought down the Ukrainian government. Responding to Russian actions in Crimea, Kerry—on visit to Kiev, Ukraine’s capital—said Moscow was lying. “Russia has been working hard to create a pretext for Russia to invade further,” he said. If Russia does not de-escalate, “then our partners will have absolutely no choice but to join us” in measures to isolate Russia politically and economically. Kerry added that Russia’s moves were a “brazen act of aggression.”

Ukraine: US, NATO, EU Want Nuland's Neo-Nazi Thugs In Power
By Prof Francis Boyle

Instead of the Obama Administration trying to sit down with President Putin and negotiate a way out of this in good faith, all the signs are that the Obama Administration is going to try to cement Victoria Nuland's neo-nazi gang of thugs in Kiev into power, according to US based Professor Francis Boyle. He says the OSCE (The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), NATO and the EU all support the US/CIA "project" as he called it. Professor Boyle says it is appalling that the EU stated that Nuland's neo-nazi thugs in Kiev "reflect European values"

No War But The Class War
By Alan Johnstone

This true struggle against war requires at every stage the utmost clarity and realism and the working class of every country must understand who their enemy is. They must understand that the enemy is not the people of any other nation against whom their 'own’ government may wage war, but that the real enemy the ruling class of “their own country”. Noble talk about “democracy” or “peace” or “defense” or “collective security” is cant and hypocrisy. Every conception of patriotism and nationalism must be opposed. The only war worth fighting is for a world socialist society

At AIPAC, Netanyahu Launches “Desperate” Attack On BDS Movement
By Ali Abunimah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday launched a frontal assault on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. “One movement that’s definitely on the wrong side of the moral divide is the movement to boycott Israel, the so-called BDS,” Netanyahu told the cheering delegates, in his keynote speech to the annual gathering of the powerful Israel lobby group AIPAC in Washington, DC

Erasing Academic Freedom In America
By William A. Cook

The action threatened by Roskam and Lipinski through their H.R. 4009 seeks to curtail not just freedom of expression voiced against a political entity, the state of Israel, for perceived crimes against humanity in its destructive actions against Palestinian educational institutions and its students, but presents the American people, most particularly the faculty and administrators at American institutions, with obligations to support a state that has been found guilty of apartheid actions that require international legal action and could, at some time in the future, result in a finding that convicts this nation and its people of crimes against humanity

In Birzeit, ‘Trigger Happy’ Israel Vindicates Amnesty’s Report
By Nicola Nasser

In the Palestinian West Bank town of Birzeit early last February 27, the Israeli (IDF) Occupation Forces (IOF) acted determinedly, under the media spotlights, to feed Amnesty International with a show case study to vindicate the report it released only hours earlier, entitled “Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank,” and to refute the Israeli official diplomatic denial of the contents thereof

A Medical Missionary’s Environmental Epiphany
By Herman Daly

I would gladly give up medicine tomorrow if by so doing I could have some influence on policy with regard to mud and soil. The world will die from lack of pure water and soil long before it will die from a lack of antibiotics or surgical skill and knowledge. But what can be done if the destroyers of our earth know what they are doing and do it still? What can be done if people really believe that free enterprise has to mean absolute lack of restraint on those who have no care for the future?

Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology For Our Time: Part 5:
Shamans, Midwives, And Hospice Workers
By Dianne Monroe

Conclusion (for now) of a series about inhabiting and acting in the edge-places of our civilization as crucial for humanity’s passage through these challenging times – and inviting you to share your personal edge-dwelling experiences

Silencing Whistleblowers Obama-Style: Supreme Court Edition?
By Peter Van Buren

The Obama administration has just opened a new front in its ongoing war on whistleblowers. It’s taking its case against one man, former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Air Marshal Robert MacLean, all the way to the Supreme Court. So hold on, because we’re going back down the rabbit hole with the Most Transparent Administration ever

The War on Emotions is Driving Us Insane
By Anita McKone

Have you ever been provoked by someone into fear, anger or pain, and then blamed, punished or humiliated for feeling and expressing these feelings? This is a form of psychological torture which has very serious consequences. Here are three stories that demonstrate how commonly this form of torture occurs in human society

The Last Of Their Kind (PDF)
Book Review By Tim Flannery

Tim Flannery on Andrew Glikson’s Evolution of the Atmosphere, Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, Errol Fuller’s Lost Animals and Clifford Frith’s The Woodhen

Cutting Through Fukushima Fog: Radiation in U.S.?
By Bernard Weiner

Given the diametrically conflicting views of the Fukushima disaster, it's way beyond time for a full-court-press approach by the U.S. and global community to challenge what may be a whitewashed coverup, and with intensified scientific research and accurate figures and diagnosis, to get to the bottom of what's happening at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. Doing nothing is not an option

Of Caste Massacre And Judicial Impunity: Bloodstains In Bathani Tola And Laxmanpur Bathe
By Anand Teltumbde

When we are rightly agitated over the miscarriage of justice to the Laxmanpur-Bathe or Bathani Tola victims, we should not merely attribute it to the caste prejudice of the judges sitting on the bench alone. This prejudice pervades everywhere and is well integrated with the system. While the existential struggles should go on challenging them as they are seen, we must be clear about its mechanics as well as dynamics. It will tell us that the real solution to Bathani Tolas or Laxmanpur-Bathes lies only in the annihilation of castes

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Violence: Naxalites and Hindu Extremists in India
Book Review by S. Mohammed Irshad

Violence of any kind does not get acceptance in a liberal society, no matter whether it is politically motivated or other reasons. Analysing violence can be either political or choice driven. The author has applied both methods to analyse religious violence in Gujrat and Naxal violence in Chatisgrah

NAFTA Partners Pushing North American Competitiveness Integration Agenda
By Dana Gabriel

The recent North American Leaders Summit in Mexico was seen as a perfect opportunity to try and kickstart the trilateral partnership. While there was no headline grabbers or major breakthroughs, the NAFTA partners still moved forward on some crucial issues that centered around North American competitiveness

04 March, 2014

No War, Says Putin
By Jon Queally

As US Secretary of State arrives in Kiev with 1 billion dollar loan package, Russia's President Vladimir Putin addressed the world in a televised press conference Tuesday saying the tense situation in Crimea would not descend into all out war in Ukraine and that military force would only be used as a last resort

US Steps Up Pressure On Russia Amid Growing Risk Of War Over Ukraine
By Stefan Steinberg

The military standoff between Ukraine and Russia continued to escalate. The Western-backed, anti-Russian regime that came to power in Kiev last month in a fascist-led putsch began sending out mobilization orders to 1 million reservists, anticipating a possible war with Russia

Ousting A Democratically Elected Leader In Ukraine And Elsewhere
By Chandra Muzaffar

If Ukraine is on the brink of a catastrophe, it is mainly because the present regime in Kiev and its supporters, backed by certain Western powers had violated a fundamental principle of democratic governance. They had ousted a democratically elected president through illegal means. President Viktor Yanukovich who had come to power through a free and fair election in 2010 should have been removed through the ballot-box

Vladimir Putin, The World's Last True Statesman
By John Chuckman

The fact is that we will have a better world where there are independent actors able enough to thwart a world bully from kicking sand into everyone’s eyes, an activity which appears now to have become a favorite American pastime. How is a world dictator-nation any less contemptible and dangerous than a country dictator-leader? It’s not

Israel’s Dirty Role In The Syrian Crisis
By Kourosh Ziabari

Israel is a big accomplice in the atrocities that are taking place in Syria. It’s playing a dirty role in the Arab country, but it doesn’t seem that it would be held accountable over its war crimes, like the past 66 years that it has been immune to accountability and responsibility before the international community by virtue of its “passionate attachment” with the United States

The Wolves of Psycho Street: America’s Economic Enslavement
By The Psychopathic Corporate Elite
By Richard Gale & Gary Null

As long as such people are placed in charge of banks and firms that control so much of our economic lives, and we continue to elect legislators and presidents based upon charm rather than true integrity and moral substance, the US as a nation is destined to continue on its long descent into psychopathology and towards a future of narcissistic bliss for an oligarchic elite and immense suffering for everyone else

Monsanto Causing Extinction Of The Monarch Butterfly
By Frosty Wooldridge

Monarch butterflies vanish faster with each passing year -- and all signs point to Monsanto as the main culprit. Major press outlets worldwide reported last month that Monarchs face "grave danger", with their population reaching the lowest numbers ever recorded. Now, an independent study linked the monarch's decline with Monsanto’s "Round-up" herbicide. One of the most beautiful phenomena in the natural world -- the annual mass migration of 60 million monarchs from Canada to Mexico – stands on the verge of being a relic of history

Corporate Moles In High Places: India Is Capitulating To The GM Biotech Industry
By Colin Todhunter

Can genetically modified (GM) food crops be kept out of India? Things seemed positive when, as Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh put a moratorium on GM eggplant (BT Brinjal). However, he has now been replaced. Veerappa Moily, India's Oil Minister, is now also India's new Environment Minister. Moily has approved field trials of 200 GM food crops on behalf of companies like Monsanto, Mahyco, Bayer and BASF. Monsanto's shares surged by 77 percent as soon as Moily's decision was announced

Postcard From The End Of America : Joliet
By Linh Dinh

The story of Joliet is familiar enough. With its industries gone, a city turns to the casino as a last ditch salvation, but cannot reverse its decline. The details of this disintegration, though, can be interesting

Open Letter To Australian Human Rights Commission Condemns
Pro-Zionist Anti-Jewish Anti-Semitism In Apartheid Australia
By Dr Gideon Polya

Politically correct racist Apartheid Australia has reached a new low in its world-leading support for Apartheid Israel and by permitting, without public challenge, the egregiously false defamation of anti-racist Jews critical of human rights abuses by the racist, democracy-by-genocide, Zionist rogue state

Kerala's Shame: When The Police Do Moral Policing!
By K.P. Sasi

Today, the struggle is between creativity and muscle power, between culture and goondaism, between misuse of power and democratization of power, between freedom of expression and suppression of discourse, between respect for women and patriarchy, between access to commons and acquisition, between moral policing and moral rights, between State repression and people, between fascism and secularism, between national chauvinism and freedom and perhaps the list may go on if we really go on analysing the recent incidents in Thrissur

03 March, 2014

US-Backed Ukrainian Regime Mobilizes Reserves, Threatening War With Russia
By Alex Lantier

In the most serious military crisis in Europe since the end of World War II, the Western-backed Ukrainian regime that took power in Kiev in a fascist-led putsch a week ago put its military on high alert yesterday. It also began calling up its reserve forces, totaling around 1 million men, threatening war with Russia. The day before, the upper house of the Russian parliament had unanimously passed a bill authorizing the deployment of Russian forces to Crimea, a majority Russian-speaking region of Ukraine where Russia has a major naval base at Sevastopol

Heard The One About Obama Denouncing A Breach Of International Law?
By Norman Solomon

International law is suddenly very popular in Washington. President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a “breach of international law.” Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is “in direct, overt violation of international law.” Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Barack Obama

Ukraine: Exploding The Myths, Outlining Solutions
By Institute For Public Accuracy

That so-called economic partnership that Yanukovych, the elected president of Ukraine did not sign, and that set off the streets — the protests in the streets in November, which led to this violence … that so-called economic agreement included military clauses which said that Ukraine, by signing this so-called civilization agreement had to abide by NATO military policy. This is what this is about from the Russian point of view, the ongoing western march towards post Soviet Russia. Putin had no choice, and he has no choice, and if you put him in the corner, you are going to see worse

The Stench Of Hypocrisy: Ukraine And The West's Selective Morality
By Colin Todhunter

The propaganda strategy is always the same. We saw it with Gaddafi and Libya, Assad and Syria, Saddam and Iraq, Milosevic and Serbia, and now we are witnessing it again, this time with Putin and Russia. With banner headlines in the Western mainstream press claiming that Russia has ‘invaded' Ukraine and that Putin is intent on clamping down on democracy and extending his ‘empire', the ongoing demonisation of Russia is reaching new heights. The Western corporate media is once again acting as prime cheerleader for Pentagon and White House policies

Ukraine Is Not Russian Roulette
By Farooque Chowdhury

Putin is not gambling with Ukraine. His move was a necessary step in geopolitics as the West’s project of expansion compelled Russia to assert its position. Since long, the West was implementing its plan for expansion towards Russia. Yugoslavia has been brutally torn into pieces. A few more east and central European countries have experienced the expansion by the West

Obama's Far Right Foreign Policy
By Shamus Cooke

The conflicts in Ukraine, Venezuela, and Syria have one thing in common: the U.S. government is in favor of the groups who aspire to topple — or who have toppled — the government in power. Thus, U.S. politicians are giving either political, financial, or military support to these “opposition” movements

Where In The World Is 'The New World Order'?
By Tom Engelhardt

Geopolitically speaking, when it comes to war and the imperial principle, we may be in uncharted territory. Take a look around and you’ll see a world at the boiling point. From Ukraine to Syria, South Sudan to Thailand, Libya to Bosnia, Turkey to Venezuela, citizen protest (left and right) is sparking not just disorganization, but what looks like, to coin a word, de-organization at a global level. Increasingly, the unitary status of states, large and small, old and new, is being called into question. Civil war, violence, and internecine struggles of various sorts are visibly on the rise. In many cases, outside countries are involved and yet in each instance state power seems to be draining away to no other state’s gain. So here’s one question: Where exactly is power located on this planet of ours right now?

Suffering? Well, You Deserve It
By Chris Hedges

Avner Offer, an economic historian and Chichele Professor Emeritus of Economic History. also the author of “The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain Since 1950,” for 25 years has explored the cavernous gap between our economic and social reality and our ruling economic ideology. Neoclassical economics, he says, is a “just-world theory,” one that posits that not only do good people get what they deserve but those who suffer deserve to suffer

Meet, Laugh, Connect, Evolve
By Mickey Z.

When staring down a heavily-funded, well-armed propaganda machine, it’s gonna take a wide and ever-evolving range of tactics to bring down the dominant culture. This task starts with a combination of direct action and direct contact. So, my friends, the question remains: Who’s gonna have the last laugh? I say we get face-to-face and find out

Operation Clean And Green
By Anitha S

The Operation Clean and Green opened up so many issues in my mind- of how to reduce waste, how to dispose waste, of protecting a school from bus bays and developers. It gave me a lot of energy to go back home and study for the exams starting tomorrow with dreams of classrooms under trees

02 March, 2014

675,000 Ukrainians Pour Into Russia As ‘Humanitarian Crisis’ Looms
By Countercurrents.org

Russian news agencies are reporting that Russian speaking Ukranians are pouring into Russia. Russia Today reported that an estimated 675,000 Ukrainians left for Russia in January and February. “In just the past two months (January-February) of this year…675,000 Ukrainian citizens have entered Russian territory”. On Sunday, the border guard service said Russian authorities have identified definite signs that a “humanitarian catastrophe” is brewing in Ukraine

Is The Abolition Of War Possible?
By Nazia Nazar

There is no greater power on earth than people’s power. We, as individuals, need to realize that we are ‘global citizens’ of this earth before belonging to any state. To save this planet from death and destruction in this nuclear age, we need to reject warmongers and raise our voice against aggressive policies of our states. We need to realize that war is a parasite which not only feeds on the blood of our people but also drains our financial resources, thus depriving generations from a prosperous future. In fact, war is not a solution but pollution. When enough people realize this fact, the abolition of war will become inevitable

Contamination, Bio - Pollution And Duplicity: GM Sector Criminality
By Colin Todhunter

There is currently a battle waging across the planet over genetically modified (GM) crops. It seems like not a month goes by when a new report is released on the health, environmental or productivity aspects of GM organisms. The GM biotech industry tries to assure governments and the public about the safety and efficacy of their products, while study after study calls into question its claims

Be Careful What You Fight For
By John Spritzler

How do the few haves stay on top of the many have-nots? After generations of domination, the haves know how to do it pretty well. They know how to divide and conquer the have-nots. This is the secret of their power

Internationalism Of The Labour Movement
By Alan Johnstone

The factors of the modern world economy are global, mobile capital above all. This cosmopolitan capital, knowing no ties of country, holds sway over labour in accordance with almost identical rules in almost every land. How can we not expect any other result than that labour should exhibit everywhere an identical reaction?

Tera Kya Hoga Kaliya?
By Mirza Yawar Baig

The antics of politicians never fail to amuse but BJP is giving full value for money. First come the senile prattlings – Hindus must have at least 5 children – We will give shelter to Hindu Bangladeshis but Muslims are infiltrators and must be deported – and other gems. Then comes along Rajnath Singh apparently in Damage Control Mode saying that he (BJP or him personally?) is prepared to bow his head to Muslims IF (and only IF) they have done anything wrong. That is the most creative apology that I have heard in a long time. So I thought I would share some thoughts on this

Contemporary Dalit Politics And Ambedkar’s Goal Of Caste Annihilation
By Ram Puniyani

What should one say of leadership of dalits who compromise the values of Dr. Ambedkar, the values of long term goals of social justice and annihilation of caste for their short term greed for electoral power for their own self? There is a need for introspection by these leaders and their followers about the opportunism and lack of principles of such people in the positions of leadership of the communities

Keeping Alive The Caste Goose That Lay Golden Eggs For The Ruling Classes
By Anand Teltumbde

One should clearly see the underneath orientation of the ruling classes in this brief history that they would never let the goose of caste die! It is the testimony to the bankruptcy of the Dalit politics on the other hand that such issues do not even remotely concern it. Rather, paradoxically, with the spread of education and ‘Ambedkarism’ among them, increasingly fewer among them believe that castes could really be annihilated

01 March, 2014

Ukraine Alleges Russian “Invasion” Of Crimea As Obama Warns Of “Costs”
By Chris Marsden

US President Barack Obama issued a statement Friday evening denouncing “reports of military movements” taken by Russia in Ukraine, warning that “there will be costs for any military intervention.” The comments come as the US/European-stoked regime change operation in Ukraine threatens to develop into a conflict between Western powers and Russia

Solutions To A Looming Crisis: Climate Change Challenges
Creating Further Complications For Nepal’s Mountain Farmers
By Sangeetha Rajeesh

With little or no support from authorities, mountain farmers of Nepal have been using traditional knowledge to come up with temporary home-grown solutions while combating climate change problems. While some of their ideas have worked, others have not been adequate to protect their crops from unpredictable changes in weather. Some farmers have had to abandon staple crops as a result, and make harsh decisions like turning to agriculture that is easier to cultivate

The Whole World's Been Mt.Goxed; Bitcoin Responds To The Crisis Of Legitimacy
By Nozomi Hayase

The Mt. Gox crash mirrors the inherent tendency toward corruption of the centralized financial system itself, where States and banks can regularly siphon off trillions of dollars from the hard work and savings of ordinary people. For years now we have all been getting Goxed, the only difference with this one is there will be no government bailout or debasing the currency. The whole world has been Goxed and what we are seeing now is a crisis of the centralized financial system.

JMB’s Homecoming? An Appraisal
By Taj Hashmi

It is puzzling that days after the circulation of al Zawahiri’s podcast on Bangladesh, homegrown Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorists are said to have re-emerged with full vigour and ferocity in the country. This is what we have been hearing from the government since February 23rd

2,000 Kilometers Long March To Highlight The Issue Of Baloch Missing Persons
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

The families of Baloch missing persons today, Friday Feb 28, 2014, completed more than 2,000 kilometers protest march on foot to highlight the issue of missing persons in Pakistan's volatile Balochistan province

Assam: Some Wounds Do Not Heal Easily
By Rupam Sindhu Kalita

In December 10 last year when the world was celebrating International Human Rights Day, we were shocked to learn that two young school boys had been killed and another seriously wounded in an ‘encounter’ with security forces. A joint team of the army and local police claimed that the boys were members of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). Boys! Yes. School going kids in their early teens

 

 

 

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