CounterCurrents: US Economy Contracted By 1 Percent ......

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


US Economy Contracted  By 1 Percent In    First Three Months Of 2014
By Andre Damon

http://www.countercurrents.org/damon300514.htm

The US economy contracted at an annualized rate of one percent in the first quarter of 2014, the first time the economy shrank since 2011, according to revised figures for the gross domestic product (GDP) published Thursday by the Commerce Department. The figures reflect the fact that nearly six years after the 2008 financial meltdown, the US economy remains mired in stagnation and slump. Behind the booming stock market and record corporate profits and CEO pay, daily life for broad sections of the population is dominated by unemployment, falling wages and growing poverty


Historic Syrian Election Brings Multitudes of Voters
By Brenda Heard

http://www.countercurrents.org/heard300514.htm

On the 28th May 2014, expatriated Syrian nationals in numerous countries flocked to Syrian embassies to begin the voting process in a presidential election. With all its potential flaws, perhaps even inherent flaws, this quintessential element of democracy is still the most effective means of finding consensus. As the saying goes, you can't please all the people all the time. Thus elections provide an opportunity for peaceful compromise. But to work, democracy requires participation


Forget The Propaganda From Big Agritech, The Key To Reducing Poverty
And Ensuring Food Security Lies With Small Farmers
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter300514.htm

A new review carried out by the organization GRAIN reveals that small farms produce most of the world’s food. However, they are currently squeezed onto less than a quarter of the world’s farmland. The world is fast losing farms and farmers through the concentration of land into the hands of the rich and powerful. If we do nothing to reverse this trend, the world will lose its capacity to feed itself.


Review: V. J. McGill on Russell's Critique of Marxism
By Thomas Riggins

http://www.countercurrents.org/riggins300514.htm

In "The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell" volume in the Library of Living Philosophers (!944) V.J. McGill (1897-1977) published a detailed critique of Russell's political and economic philosophy. Russell was not pleased and made short shrift of professor McGill's efforts in his "Replies to Criticisms". Russell dismisses McGill's contribution as dealing with material "lying wholly outside philosophy" and says, in effect, he won't even bother to argue against McGill's positions as it would be "futile." Seventy years later in retrospect we might agree with Russell that his efforts to refute McGill would have been "futile." But why would they have been? This review will attempt to answer that question by showing McGill's critique was essentially correct and Russell simply wished to dodge the issues McGill raised


Abrogation Of Article 370 Not Possible
By Justice Rajindar Sachar

http://www.countercurrents.org/sachar200514.htm

BJP president Rajnath Singh has called for a debate on why Article 370 of the Constitution should not be abrogated. One wishes he had sought this enlightenment before including the provocative item of abrogation of Article 370 in the BJP election manifesto


Article 370 And Instrument Of Merger
By Abdul Majid Zargar

http://www.countercurrents.org/zargar300514.htm

It is a historical reality that Kashmir did not sign any instrument of merger with New-Delhi because it could not do so due to the disputed tag attached to it and UN resolutions still awaiting implementation. So in absence of this instrument , Article 370 was conceived as a Governing mechanism by Union of India with word “temporary” prefixed to it to avoid international censure. Now in case this article is abolished, the Governing mechanism disappears & India will be left with only an instrument of accession in hand, on whose veracity many historians, including Dr. Abdul Ahad ( Kashmir-Triumphs & Tragedies) have expressed serious doubts


Women Of The World: Unite!
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

http://www.countercurrents.org/srivastava300514.htm

India is sad today. The ghastly killing of two teenage dalit girls really horrify the society. The more saddening point is that policemen are involved in this inhuman act. Facts emerge that girls were alive when they were hanged, diseased father says if timely help would have arrived, his daughters could have been saved


Why Feminism Confuses Me
By Srestha Banerjee

http://www.countercurrents.org/banerjee300514.htm

Well I was expecting some shamed profile pictures, some out raged comments and demands for candle light vigils in the social media the last two days. But alas the social media did not live up to my expectations. The gangrape of two dalit girls in rural Uttar Pradesh possibly failed to stoke the heightened anger and the deep sympathy of the urban mass


Does V.D Savarkar's Portrait Deserve To Be Hanged And Eulogized In The Parliament?
By Shamsul Islam

http://www.countercurrents.org/islam300514.htm

On May 28, 2014 Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and his ministers turned up to pay tributes to ‘Veer’ Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. It is astonishing. This ‘Veer’ submitted not one but five (in 1911, 1913, 1914, 1918 & 1920) mercy petitions to the British rulers. The two comprehensive one of 1914 and 1920 are being reproduced so that real character of ‘Veer’ Savarkar is known by all


Citizens Report on Governance and Development 2013
Book Review By Prof Kuldeep Mathur

http://www.countercurrents.org/mathur300514.htm

National Social Watch in this volume entitled “Citizens’ Report on Governance and Development 2013” has put together very useful public information about governing institutions that can help the citizens to raise issues about their functioning and help in framing much needed reforms. There is not only wealth of information but competent analysis of policies that are being framed