CounterCurrents: A Deflation Tsunami Building Up In India, A Cabinet Of Generals: Trump Appoints John Kelly To Lead Department Of Homeland Security

Dear Friend,

It is becoming absolutely clear that India is going into a deflationary spiral after the demonetisation of high denomination notes on November 8. A Tsunami is building up from rural India which will devastate the whole of India. 

Angry farmers in Raigarh district in Chhattisgarh are dumping tomato on highways. The reason? They are getting 50 rupees for a 100 kg batch of tomato. That means they are getting 50 paise for a kilogram of tomato. Ironically, 50 paise is practically out of circulation in India. I've written a story explaining the implications and possible fall out of this deflation. 

Our #HumansOfDemonetisedIndia campaign continues with the story of a farmer from Odisha. He says people of the remote districts of Koraput and Kalahandi may not be even aware of the note ban. 

President elect Trump is putting together a team of military hawks as his cabinet team. Latest to join the team is retired Marine General John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security.

Also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




Tomato At 50 paise/Kg! A Windfall or Disaster?
by Binu Mathew 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/tomato-at-50-paisekg-a-windfall-or-disaster/

Angry farmers in Raigarh district in Chhattisgarh are dumping tomato on highways. The reason? They are getting 50 rupees for a 100 kg batch of tomato. That means they are getting 50 paise for a kilogram of tomato. Ironically, 50 paise is practically out of circulation in India.




#HumansOfDemonetisedIndia: Nabakishore Pradhan, Farmer From Odisha

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/humansofdemonetisedindia-nabakishore-pradhan-farmer-from-odisha/

My name is Nabakishore Pradhan. I am a farmer from Odisha. My family is dependent on our agricultural produces and now is suffering due to demonetization. I cannot get loan from the banks to tend to our farming needs. My relatives do not have money to avail medical facilities. In every field of life, we are suffering. Life has come to a standstill. As a society too, we are suffering collectively. In Koraput and Kalahandi, there are people who still are not fully informed about the implications of demonetization. Hence, they have not found a way to exchange their currency notes which they have saved since long. They are now doing barter trade instead, to overcome the hurdles. Such dire situation is unfortunate…I do not think this problem is going to go away for at least another couple of years. The government’s stress on e-payment is of little use for most people in our country who are not that aware of the nuances of online business and many people will be cheated by frau
dulent
activities in coming days. This decision is extremely dangerous for our society.





Prime Minister: India needs A Social And Not A Digital Revolution
by A concerned Citizen 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/prime-minister-india-needs-a-social-and-not-a-digital-revolution/

Prime Minister, it is not the digital revolution that India requires but the Social revolution. It is not the cashless-ness but the end of social lawless-ness that is required urgently. In the India that you are trying to build, forget cashless-ness, but social lawless-ness has definitely increased. We are seeing increasing incidents of deaths and physical harassments taking place in the name of cow protection and beef. We are increasingly witnessing the vigilante groups moving freely and harassing people – whether Dalits, Minorities in the name of protection of a culture, which you define as Hindutva. Intolerance has only grown. In the digital pathway that you are laying, you are also sowing the seeds of social lawless-ness at a rapid pace.





Demonetisation And Gandhi
by Nivedita Dwivedi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/demonetisation-and-gandhi/

The demonetisation move led to the disruption in the life of millions (most of them from the poorer sections of society), and hundreds lost their lives. But the interesting thing in all this is that this move is being hailed and projected as the most democratic move ever made, because it is being proclaimed to have been carried out in the name of the masses and for the whole and sole benefit of the masses. How further from the truth could one really get? Coming back to the question of democracy and violence, is this not the practice of the worst kind of violence possible?





‘Mitron’ Fact Is Stranger Than Fiction
by Mirza Yawar Baig 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/mitron-fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/

I discovered a new word: Mitron. It means, ‘A large group of unsuspecting people about to be hit by something they will take a long time to recover from.’ Ironically it comes from the Hindi word – Mitron (Mitr = friend. Mitron = of friends). I believe we are in a Mitron moment; the discovery of a word and an experiential understanding of its true meaning.





A Cabinet Of Generals: Trump Appoints John Kelly To Lead Department Of Homeland Security
by Eric London 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/a-cabinet-of-generals-trump-appoints-john-kelly-to-lead-department-of-homeland-security/

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team announced yesterday it will nominate retired Marine General John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Kelly is the third ex-military general slated for a top cabinet position. His nomination follows those of James Mattis for Secretary of Defense and Michael Flynn for National Security Advisor.






Fatah, Hold Your Applause: Palestinian Body Politic Rotten To The Core 
by Dr Ramzy Baroud 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/fatah-hold-your-applause-palestinian-body-politic-rotten-to-the-core/

In July 2003, the then Palestinian Authority Chairman, Yasser Arafat, described Mahmoud Abbas as a ‘traitor’ who “betrayed the interests of the Palestinian People.” Arafat loathed Abbas to the very end. This particular outburst was made during a meeting with the United Nations envoy, Terje Larsen. The meeting took place a few months after Arafat was coerced, by the US, Israel and other Western powers to appoint Abbas as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.







The Plan To Gaza-ify The Colombian Peace Process
by Héctor Mondragón 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/the-plan-to-gaza-ify-the-colombian-peace-process/

This important article is by the Colombian economist and activist Héctor Mondragón and argues that Colombia’s landowning elite are not interested in peace, even though negotiators have gone to great lengths to placate them. Originally in Spanish – translated by Justin Podur.






See How We Live
by Kathy Kelly 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/see-how-we-live/

Today we met with Kubra, Latifah, Shekibah and Naima, four local seamstresses struggling to get by in alarmingly simple dwellings, and I mentioned that many in the U.S. believe the war has allowed the U.S. government to help and protect women in Afghanistan. All four women disagreed, insisting that any aid from outside Afghanistan goes to people who will never share it with the needy.





Tough-Talking Philippine President Duterte 
by Andre Vltchek 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/tough-talking-philippine-president-duterte/

There is a sense of change in those narrow and desperate alleys of the Baseco slum in the Philippines’ capital Manila. For the first time in many years a beautiful, noble lady visited; against all odds she decided to stay. Her name is Hope.






Exploiting Terrorism For Economic Gains
by Nauman Sadiq 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/exploiting-terrorism-for-economic-gains/


In order to understand the hype surrounding the phenomena of Islamic radicalism and terrorism, we need to understand the prevailing global economic order and its prognosis. What the pragmatic economists forecasted about the free market capitalism has turned out to be true; whether we like it or not. A kind of global economic entropy has set into motion. The money is flowing from the area of high monetary density to the area of low monetary density.




Political Prisoners To Go On Hunger Strike, Protesting Nilambur Encounter Killings

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/political-prisoners-to-go-on-hunger-strike-protesting-nilambur-encounter-killings/

A Hunger Strike will be observed by all the political prisoners kept under trial on Friday the 9th December 2016 in all prisons in South Indian States.





The Hindutva Terror Nexus
by Shamsul Islam 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/the-hindutva-terror-nexus/

Sanathan Sanstha, being probed for bomb blasts and assassination of three great democratic-secular intellectuals of India, Narendra Dhabolkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, is an offshoot (or vice versa) of Hindu Janajaguriti Samiti (HJS) which has openly been demanding conversion of democratic-secular India into a Hindu rashtra and celebrating ‘vadh’ of Gandhi ji.





Kashmir: Subjugation, Not“Normalcy”!
by Mohammad Ashraf 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/subjugation-notnormalcy/

Peace is slowly returning to Kashmir but it is debatable whether it is in reality a return to “Normalcy” or the people have been subjugated into apparent submission, temporarily?





Grassland Shrinkage Posing Threat To Endangered Pygmy Hog In Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary Of Assam
by Shajid Khan

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/08/grassland-shrinkage-posing-threat-to-endangered-pygmy-hog-in-barnadi-wildlife-sanctuary-of-assam/

Rapid shrinkage and degradation of the grasslands of the Barnadi Widlife Sanctuary of Udalguri of Assam pose a serious threat to the long-term survival of the critically-endangered pygmy hog that was reintroduced to the sanctuary six months back that were captive breeded in state capital Guwahati.