CounterCurrents: Saudi-Led Coalition Kills Eleven People In A MSF Hospital In Yemen, The Earth Just Experienced The Hottest Month On The Books

Dear Friend,

A shocking news from Yemen.  "Saudi-Led Coalition Kills Eleven People In A MSF Hospital In Yemen".  The GPS coordinates of the hospital were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition, and its location was well- known. Then why this killing of peace keepers? War Crime!

Another alarming news on the Global Warming front. We continue to hit record breaking hot months. Last month was the hottest recorded ever! Hot enough to fry an egg on the road! Where are we heading? Into the unknown territory of run away warming?  

Perhaps we may get a window of    opportunity. Yes, there are alternatives. Andrew Curry says a transition to solar energy is possible. In our Commons series Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen says neither subsistence nor commons are vestiges of bygone centuries. Perhaps that's the way forward for us to what James Lovelock calls the "Sustainable Retreat". S.B Julian narrates the story of  the forty-six year imprisonment  the whale Lolita.

And many more stories from around the world. 

And of course the usual request note,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/. 

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




Saudi-Led Coalition Kills Eleven People In A MSF Hospital In Yemen 
by Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/saudi-led-coalition-kills-eleven-people-in-a-msf-hospital-in-yemen/

Saudi Arabia air strike has killed  eleven people in a hospital in Yemen. The attack was targeted on a hospital run by France based NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres , the hospital is located in Abs district of northern Yemen’s  Hajja province. The GPS coordinates of the hospital were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition, and its location was well- known.





The Earth Just Experienced The Hottest Month On The Books
by Lauren McCauley 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/the-earth-just-experienced-the-hottest-month-on-the-books/

On Monday it was confirmed that the Earth has broken an ominous climate milestone amid a wave of troubling records: July 2016 was the hottest recorded month—ever.





Subsistence: Perspective For A Society Based On Commons
by Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/subsistence-perspective-for-a-society-based-on-commons/

Neither subsistence nor commons are vestiges of bygone centuries; on the contrary, they continue to fulfill necessary functions and embody perspectives that point to the future. Yet the opposite view is propagated. The privatization (of land, water and other things) and the commercialization of commons (for example, air or genes), which restricts access or even eliminates them for many people, are actually considered serious solutions for global problems such as hunger and climate change. “To draw farmers from subsistence to commercial agriculture” has been the declared policy of the World Bank since the mid-1970s.





The Solar Transition
by Andrew Curry 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/the-solar-transition/

Although futurists aren’t supposed to make predictions, the notion that our energy system is switching much more quickly than expected from fossil fuels to renewables, and that solar energy will be at the front of that change, suddenly doesn’t seem so controversial. Of course, the speed of the change still matters, certainly in terms of global warming outcomes. And yet until recently the notion that solar energy would be the leading energy source was a possible future that was, broadly, regarded as impossible.





Freedom From AFSPA In J&K And Manipur
by Pushkar Raj 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/freedom-from-afspa-in-jk-and-manipur/

As India celebrates its anniversary of independence from the British rule it, is worthwhile to ask when the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur will get freedom from the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act 1958 (AFSPA) which is no less than being living under the colonial rule.




Black And White Lives Matter
by S B Julian 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/black-and-white-lives-matter/

Forty-six years imprisonment is the sentence for the killer whale Lolita who was captured in the Pacific Northwest off Canada and Washington State in 1970. For what crime? For being a juvenile in a sought-after clan, the charismatic black and white species Orcinus orca (killer whale), star of aquarium show biz.




Should India And Pakistan Invite Back British Rule?
by Dr Arshad M Khan 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/should-india-and-pakistan-invite-back-british-rule/

A satire




A Still Uncertain Election
by Jack A Smith 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/a-still-uncertain-election/

Sanders has created a large constituency for further political advances against the erosion of what remains of true democracy and equality in the existing neocapitalist system. It is to be hoped that the genuine left in America will seriously seek to attract and organize members of this new force for intensive radical political activism and not simply for electoral politics.





50 Years of Kothari Commission Report
by Shivali Tukdeo 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/50-years-of-kothari-commission-report/

This year marks 50th anniversary of Kothari commission report on education. In its after-life of half-a-century, the report continues to occupy an important place in discussions on education in India irrespective of the distinct ideological positions that may go on to frame these discussions. While some of the recommendations get echoed by a wide range of bodies including policy and planning groups, civic initiatives and organisations of radical persuasions, certain other issues raised by the report have been relegated to the back allies of our collective memory.




The Irony Of ‘Hamilton’ Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Advocacy For Puerto Rico
by Matt Peppe 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/the-irony-of-hamilton-creator-lin-manuel-mirandas-advocacy-for-puerto-rico/

As the economic and humanitarian crisis has worsened in Puerto Rico in recent months, playwright and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, has given voice in interviews and Op-Eds to the severity of the crisis among ordinary Puerto Ricans. Miranda called the island’s debt crisis a matter of “life and death,” saying, “I have a lot of family who are struggling in Puerto Rico, that’s not an abstract issue to me.” 





Innocence
by Gaither Stewart 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/16/innocence/

Dostoevsky’s Myshkin has retained much of his innocence and therefore, like real innocents in real life, is considered odd, naïve and ignorant by others who are already branded by “experience” and are just muddling through life in a world in which innocence dies away while the great majority of people, ignorant of their former childhood innocence, strives to toe the line and be like others