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Counter Currents
What people communicate is a matter of choice. But what can be more revealing are the issues they choose to avoid. There are certain prominent pro-GMO activists who describe themselves as ‘science communicators’. They hit out at those who question their views or who have valid criticisms of GM...
Religion, nationalism and sports as propaganda for the ruling class In the closing section of my course Brainwashing Propaganda and Rhetoric: Dark Psychology in the 20th Century, I ask my students to compare organized religion, nationalism and sports, not only to determine the kind of propaganda...
“California is a state of geographical extremes: the deserts, the Sierras, the long ocean coast, and the central valleys. It is a critical agricultural state, and every visitor ought to travel through the San Joaquin, Imperial, or Sacramento Valleys to see the sources of the food we eat. Go...
The note-ban was a foolish attempt to tackle the black economy and a policy-induced self goal by the Narendra Modi government. The response to its fall-out is more authoritarianism. Demonetisation is like a bad dream etched in our memories. Weddings were postponed and medical treatment was...
While living in the world of information technology, today the ‘connectivity’ is what really matters. People of all age groups, gender, caste, religion and regions have access to global connectivity through internet available in their handsets and computers. This is comparatively a new...
At least two more persons died of starvation in Jharkhand in the last 25 days. This takes the total number of hunger deaths in the state to 17, since September 2017. The most recent victim is 45-year old Kaleshwar Soren who died of hunger and destitution on 11 November in Mahuatanr village of...
The Indian-Americans have a moral duty to prevent India from being labeled as a “Country of Particular Concern” by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). If India were to be ascribed with such a label, it would hinder the flow of foreign direct investments and...
Birth anniversary tribute-21 November 2018 As you read these lines, 1.6 billion Muslims across the world, from Morocco to Jakarta, will be paying homage to the Prophet Muhammad on his birthday. This day, 1,429 years ago, Prophet Muhammad delivered the historic Last Sermon (khutabat al-wida) on...
A report released by the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs at Brown University indicates the total sum spent on the “war on terror” is much larger than previously suggested. Professor Neta C. Crawford, the author of the study, revealed that the US government is set to spend...
The Panchayats of 17 districts of Jharkhand have not received 14th Finance Commission grants just as yet. Despite getting 6.4 billion from the finance commission, the state government could not provide funds to the panchayats, as the money has not been released as yet by the Treasury. While...
That the current U.S. president places a premium on loyalty has been evident from the start — loyalty not to the institutions of government and their legal functions but loyalty to the boss. Former FBI director James Comey cannot forget a certain memory of Donald Trump’s style recalling for...
There are now overt indications that this planet is becoming uninhabitable. Not only are increasing numbers of humans migrating from near the Equator, northward toward nations that have more temperate climates, but also there are stronger and more frequent hurricanes and longer droughts and...
According to the white paper on Jammu & Kashmir published by the government of India early in 1948, Government of India made it clear that they would regard “Instrument of accession” as purely provisional until such time as the will of the people of the state be ascertained. This instrument...
The British Prime Minister Theresa May presented the draft of the so-called Brexit deal with the EU to the House of Commons. The three-hour long confrontation showed that she would never get this deal approved, not even by her party. The MPs robbed the agreement like a dead body. Nevertheless,...
Peace is the foundation of prosperity among the nation states of the world and harmony forms the basic foundation of that enterprise.Man is the wonderful creation of God with an inherent sense of metaphysical and worldly belongings. The savage societies of the pre-historic times without any...
Sri Lanka is the 103rd country to join the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Sri Lanka acceded to the Convention on March 01, 2018. Under the Convention, Sri Lanka is required to show transparency and report annually in a public document on use, stockpiling, clearance and destruction. These...
The murderous attack on the RTI activists and environmentalists Agnes Karshiing and Amita Sangma and their driver E. Kurbah in Meghalaya is only the latest case of people with power using force to suppress dissent. Most such attacks come from the government but in recent years private bodies...
In her novel, “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”, published in 2017, Arundhati Roy traverses the borderline between political and aesthetic in very vivid terms. When writing fiction of historical and political kind, writers often appear to be grappled by the binary of ‘topicality’ and ‘...
What is the status of Shudras who constitute the largest social bloc in India? In the North India, the Yadavs, Kurmis of Bihar, Yadavs and Jats of Uttar Pradesh, Gujjars of Rajsthan, the Shudras of Bengal, who are still outside the bracket of Bhadralok, the Patels of Gujarat, Marathas and Kumbis...
Amazon has reached the far corners of the earth… and the highest elevations. Delivery men venture 11,562 feet up in the Himalayas to leave a package. While the company may serve a useful purpose in remote regions, its phenomenal growth also reveals that no town is immune from its less...
The vast array of consumer products available in the modern markets, needs of a large mass of compulsive buyers that merry-go-round in a spending spree. The great engine that produced the consumer goods, was born with the industrial revolution of the 19th-century. The industrial revolution and...
We know that U.S. ambassadors tend to be bureaucratic and boring. If you challenge them forcefully, however, the resulting outbursts can provide stunning insights into their ineptitude and State Department policies. Consider the mind-boggling statements made by then-Ambassador to Armenia Richard...
Look around you. The planet is burning beneath our feet; exoduses of refugees flee for their lives on nearly every continent; the drums of war, from East Asia to the Middle East beat louder; and all over, from Brazil to Poland, from the Philippines to Italy and, of course, to the U.S., fascists...
Australia has an appalling 70 year record, surpassed only by the US, of support for genocidally racist Apartheid Israel and hence of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide that commenced with the British invasion of Palestine in WW1. Recently the fervently pro-Zionist and hence pro-Apartheid...
‘ A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society’ Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Scholars, journalists and writers analysed and critiqued on the life and works of Dr. Ambedkar in many ways. One of his great character to appreciate others irrespective of...
Shashi Tharoor, in an article published in The Print on 10th November, has made some arguments against the appropriateness of the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala. In making his case, he criticises the firm position of the Left-led state government on the issue and calls it misplaced. It may...
A significant share of popular sentiment is anti-activism today. Many people hardly trust activists. In fact they loath them, abuse them on social media and often make fun of their tragedy by sharing jokes around. Not just activists, movements for justice are mocked at and believed to be...
It isn’t often the UN Security Council votes unanimously to remove sanctions against a country, but this past Wednesday, November 14 they did just that by saying goodbye to nine years of UNjust punishment against the small, socialist, east African country of Eritrea. It was Christmas Eve, 2009...
Bertrand Russell wrote “Why I am not a Christian.” Kancha Ilaiah wrote “Why I am not a Hindu.” Shashi Tharoor wrote “Why I am a Hindu.” Shashi Tharoor thinks his book will appease Hindus. Kancha ilaiah has had his book banned in universities but that will not stop its truths from spreading I...
On November 14, the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives blocked a resolution that its supporters say would end U.S. participation in the war and famine in Yemen. It is unclear, however, what effect this resolution would have on the ground even if it were passed into law. It...
Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is escalating his war on the Palestinian people, although for reasons almost entirely related to Israeli politics. He has just given the greenlight to a legislation that would make it easier for Israeli courts to issue death sentences...
On November 15, 1988 the Palestine National Council (PNC) proclaimed the Palestinian Declaration of Independence at Algiers in Arabic, the language of the desert and of the holy Koran. Arabic shall always remain the sole, exclusive, official, and only authentic language for the Palestinian...
Jerusalem, deemed a holy city, and seen as trade item, bargaining chip and bartering tool over the centuries. Sought by the major faiths, despoiled at stages by various empires, revived and chalice of poison in international law. Australia’s Scott Morrison, charmless in his ignorance, has come...
I follow the weather obsessively, but I can’t remember any other time in modern American history when a town of more than 25,000 people was demolished in just six hours, like Paradise, California, was. Maybe Homestead, Florida, during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 — but Homestead at least had a few...
Ten years ago last night, I was hosting a dinner at my house for 30 or so hungry law students to talk about what life after law school might look like. The barbecue and peach cobbler were out, the iced tea was steeping, and our golden retriever Otis was ready running in slobbery circles. And...
I’ve often wondered about the limits of activist’s reach and the lack of coherent, organized progressive social movements in the US. Does it come down to the precarious nature of our jobs, the stress, strain, and exhaustion caused by the realization of being a paycheck away from penury? Or is it...
Dr. Ambedkar is said to be the father of Dalit politics because he was the first person to fight for the political rights of Dalits. He was the person who during the Round Table Conferences (1930-32), called in connection with the framing of future constitution of India, got the Dalits (...
Brouhaha among communities following SC’s hat-trick judgements raises eyebrows, seeks some answers. Major General Mrinal Suman’s comment on Supreme Court of India has triggered the debate on the judicial domain of higher judiciary. Mrinal Suman comments,”If judiciary wants to govern the country...
As India is celebrating the National Press Day on 16 November, time ripened for acknowledging the contributions made by everyone for the growth of print media along with the watchdog & mentor (Press Council of India). Since its inception & functioning, the press council continues...
(For last few years the political space in Kashmir has been gradually made to shrink and now even the so called “mainstream” is being squeezed out!) Recently Omar Abdullah in an interview said that the political space for main stream parties has shrunk in Kashmir. One could ask him whether there...
I woke up today morning, plans swirling in the mind. What should I plan for the kids, how can I make their day special? I packed their favorite snack in their tiffins, dressed one as Spidey and the other as a Pirate…. off they ran to school. Later, maybe a nice evening spent at a soft play area...
The disgruntled former prime minister is a rather large, and growing club, on the Australian scene. The country has become known for its killing seasons, those occasions when spear wielding apparatchiks within respective political parties feel the need to execute (politically speaking) their...
On 15 November 1988, the Palestine National Council meeting in Algiers proclaimed the existence of the new independent state of Palestine. Later that evening, after the close of prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the worshippers came out of the Mosque into the Great Courtyard in front of...
This sounds like a bad joke. It ain’t. Its real. One fascist government helps another fascist government. Yes, I have written about fascism invading the west before – warning that the European Union (non-union) is being gradually, but ever faster turned into a fascist dictatorship under the...
I have an extraordinary sister. She is relentless in her push to serve others. Here are two examples in the following account. https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/03/the-good-sister-a-model-for-us-all/ The Good Sister, A Model For US All! in Life/Philosophy — by Sally Dugman — March 3, 2017....
On his 90th birthday, a tribute to the man whose life more than anyone else’s tells us what it takes to be human Six weeks after 9/11, Noam Chomsky was on a brief lecture-tour in India when one of his engagements took him to the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. There, in the Q&A...
What is happening to Assange should terrify the press. And yet his plight is met with indifference and sneering contempt. Julian Assange’s sanctuary in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has been transformed into a little shop of horrors. He has been largely cut off from communicating with the...
Co-Written by Evan Blake and Ben McGrath The confirmed death toll from the Camp Fire in Northern California soared to 48 Tuesday night as officials continued a systematic examination of the destroyed city of Paradise. Hundreds of people remain missing and it is believed the death toll will...
Chiang Mai, Thailand: Women’s groups from Asia Pacific are deeply concerned about the bill passed by the Government of Poland that will prevent any ‘spontaneous’ public gathering of climate groups during COP24 and subject human rights defenders to state-led surveillance including access and...
In a scenario, when politics in our state has become crazy, the ‘hegemonic discourses’ have the sway, and a big lie projected as truth is accepted, restlessness is a natural corollary. To fight this restlessness instead of reading new books on Kashmir by authors published by big houses in India...
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