CounterCurrents: US Pushes Regime Change In South Sudan; UN Intervenes To Protect Rebel Leader, Amazon Fires Threaten To Wipe Out Uncontacted Indigenous People

Dear Friend,

Just like Aylan Kurdi last year, Omran Daqneesh "The Boy in the Ambulance" has shook the world's conscience. How many more Omrans do we need before sense prevails in Syria?

A devastating fire is threatening to wipe out uncontacted indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon. Well, we are busy watching the Olympics in Rio as the fire rages on!

Hindutva cow vigilantes kill one of their own in India. The serpent devouring its own tail?

Staying on the positive side, we have a story from Cuba on how it came out of the devastating embargo as a resilient nation, a model of sustainable agriculture. A lot of lessons to be learnt from Cuba in our present situation. May be Cuba could be a template for us in a future shock caused by another economic calamity or climate change. 

Hartmut Zuckert analyses the inalienable relatioship between Commons and property rights. In fact the arrival of the property rights was the real tragedy of the Commons. When we talk about the future of the Commons we also have to take into account the question of property. 

And many more stories from around the world. 

Hey, are you doing this?

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



The Boy In The Ambulance Offers Glimpse Of ‘Profound Horrors’ In Syria
by Deirdre Fulton 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/the-boy-in-the-ambulance-offers-glimpse-of-profound-horrors-in-syria/

Laying bare the horrors of Syria’s ongoing civil war, heartbreaking footage of a young boy rescued from the rubble following an airstrike in Aleppo has gone viral. Much as last year’s photos of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi—”The Boy on the Beach“—offered a stark reminder of the human toll of the refugee crisis, the images of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh—”The Boy in the Ambulance”—are forcing many to consider the devastating realities of life in war-torn Syria, where more than 250,000 people, including many children, have died in almost five years of war.




Amazon Fires Threaten To Wipe Out Uncontacted Indigenous People
by Survival International 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/amazon-fires-threaten-to-wipe-out-uncontacted-indigenous-people/

Forest fires are raging in an indigenous territory on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon, threatening to wipe out uncontacted members of the Awá tribe. Small groups of neighboring Guajajara Indians were forced to spend days attempting to contain the blaze in the absence of government agents, until an Environment Ministry-led fire-fighting operation began last week.




A BJP Local Leader Killed By Cow Vigilantes In Karnataka

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/a-bjp-local-leader-killed-by-cow-vigilantes-in-karnataka/

A BJP local leader in Karnataka who was transporting cows in a vehicle died after he was attacked allegedly by right wing Hindutva group called Hindu Jagrana Vedike. Praveen Poojary, 29, was traveling with a friend Akshay Devadiga when they were stopped and thrashed by men. Poojary died of his injuries in hospital four hours after the assault.  It’s the first time cow vigilantes killed its own man. BJP is the political wing of the right wing Hindutva ideological group, popularly known as Sangh Parivar.




Four Important Lessons From Cuba’s Urban Food Survival Strategy
by Aurel Keller 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/four-important-lessons-from-cubas-urban-food-survival-strategy/

Cuba has become a regional leader in sustainable agricultural research. Within its practices and institutions lies a model for localized and small-scale urban agriculture.




The Commons: A Historical Concept Of Property Rights
by Hartmut Zuckert 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/the-commons-a-historical-concept-of-property-rights/

The historical concept of the commons is a concept of property rights. If we historicize the contemporary debate about the commons and bring the historical concept of the commons into play, we must take that into account. Yet we must consider whether the question of property rights is even the central issue if we seek to solve global problems, and if so, how common-property rights can be fleshed out today




Why Trump Now?
by Nicholas C Arguimbau 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/why-trump-now/

There is a disturbingly realistic assessment by Trump’s followers that Trump won’t kill constitutional government because it is already dead. Constitutional government will not win a decisive victory and likely not a victory at all unless Hillary makes a clean break with her all-too-well-known past and offers a full restoration of constitutional government..




Closing Manus Island’s Detention Centre: The Search For Alternative Cruelties
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/closing-manus-islands-detention-centre-the-search-for-alternative-cruelties/

Closing such centres would save billions and achieve something remarkable in Australian foreign policy: upholding international conventions it has long flouted with a sneer. It will also allow individuals kept in detention for over three years to taste something absent in their emotional diet for some time: the prospect of freedom.




History In The Making, Dalit Leaders Must Step Up To It
by Oliver DSouza 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/history-in-the-making-dalit-leaders-must-step-up-to-it/

It is not surprising that the recent protests by dalits, especially the vigorous one in Ahmedabad following the Una incident in which four dalits were mercilessly beaten for skinning dead cows have evoked global attention: this is the first time in living memory that dalits have spontaeneously come together in large numbers to protest an atrocity committed over performing a caste forced occupation.





Terrorism In Pakistan And South Asia
by M Mohibul Haque 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/terrorism-in-pakistan-and-south-asia/

The recent bout of terrorist attacks in Pakistan reminds us once again that it is one of the worst victims of terrorism perpetrated by religious extremist groups claiming their adherence to what they call the puritan Islam.




US Pushes Regime Change In South Sudan; UN Intervenes To Protect Rebel Leader
by Thomas C Mountain 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/us-pushes-regime-change-in-south-sudan-un-intervenes-to-protect-rebel-leader/

The USA and its soon to be departed lap dog at the UN, General Secretary Ban Ki Moon are pushing for regime change in South Sudan. The reason the USA wants to rid itself of President Salva Kiir, the internationally recognized leader of South Sudan and replace him with rebel leader Reik Machar is because the US wants to deny China access to Africa’s energy resources, with the Sudanese oil fields the only Chinese owned and operated in Africa. Its that simple, the USA is destabilizing South Sudan to deny China oil, period.




Turkey, Let Us Not Celebrate Yet!
by Andre Vltchek 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/turkey-let-us-not-celebrate-yet/

So many would like this to happen – to see Turkey go, to leave NATO, to break its psychological, political and economic dependency on the West. Now that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his allies are quarreling with the United States and the EU, there is suddenly great hope that Turkey may thoroughly re-think its position in the world, strengthen its ties with Russia and China, renew the historic friendship with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and improve its relationship with Iran.