CounterCurrents: #HumansOfDeMonetisedIndia: I Am Starving, US Gov’t, Oligarchs Behind Planned Fake News Flagging on Facebook, Starving Yemeni Children, Bloated US Weapons Makers

Dear Friend,

The note ban or the so called demonetisation is going from bad to worse in India. Petty traders, small scale industries are going burst. Even the leading dailies have drastically reduced the number of pages they print. It can be easily deduced that they do not get enough advertisements to cover the cost. The poor are suffering the most. Countercurrents.org has been telling their stories with our #HumansOfDemonetiseIndia picture stories. Now we go a step further and going to tell their stories in a video series. In our first video an old women who sells fish in the market saus how the note ban threw her into starvation. Watch the video here  http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/humansofdemonetisedindia-i-am-starving/

What would have happened if Joseph and Mary were to travel to Bethlehem from Jerusalem now? They would be prevented by the Israeli security guards at the serpentine apartheid wall! Professor Francis Boyle writes a moving piece " O Little Town of Bethlehem". 

Aleppo has fallen to government forces in Syria, much to the chagrin of USA. Secretary of  State John Kerry has lashed out at  Syria  and threatening that this is not the end of war. 

Not far away, USA is conducting a similar operation in Mosul against ISIS forces, according to most independent observers a monster of its own creation. The sad fact is that the western media is silent about the plight of the civlians caught up in the so called 'Mosul Offensive'. 

Not  far from Syria and Iraq, a massacre is going on Yemen. Here too the western media is silent about the massacre of civilians. Why?

If you don't mind, and 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




#HumansOfDeMonetisedIndia: I Am Starving

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/humansofdemonetisedindia-i-am-starving/

The note ban has hit the fisher folk and the fish vendors heavily. There is no sale for them. They are desperate. The woman in the video says “those who come to buy fish ask whether we will take old notes? Where will we change it? We don’t’ have mango, jack fruit, tapioca, papaya or anything to eat. We have only our mother sea for help. There is no sale. Note ban is starving us. We can’t sleep. Before the note ban they should have produced enough Rs 100 notes. Is there no law in this land? If they gave me Rs 2000 notes where am I going to get change. I’m hungry. What can I do?” Report by Akhil K Prabhakar & Chidhambaram





While Decrying “Massacre” In Aleppo, US Steps Up Bloodshed In Mosul
by Bill Van Auken 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/while-decrying-massacre-in-aleppo-us-steps-up-bloodshed-in-mosul/

The hypocrisy of the US denunciations of the brutal methods employed by the Syrian government and its allies in eastern Aleppo has been underscored by the unfolding of a similarly savage siege being directed by the Pentagon against the far larger urban population of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. As many as 1.5 million people still live in that metropolitan area, which the Iraqi army surrendered to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in June 2014.






As Syria Suffers …. A Message From A Kashmiri Student To The World
by Gowhar Naz 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/as-syria-suffers-a-message-from-a-kashmiri-student-to-the-world/

This ongoing senseless carnage in Syria has taken my breath away and left me with a sense of sadness, utter dismay and shock. The wave of violence leaves one truly speechless, pushing everyday concerns and problems firmly into the background. At a standstill, I have a short message for the World Community: “As the Syrians are living on the edge of their lives, always nervous, always afraid. Thousands have already died, thousands more will die. It is our privilege to work in the space domain, which does so much to promote a world without borders. We have a special responsibility in this regard. Don’t waste time. Come forward and save the rest, please! It’s high time to show humanity and provide international protection to Syrian people. Otherwise, it will be shameful for the entire world.





Starving Yemeni Children, Bloated US Weapons Makers
by Medea Benjamin 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/starving-yemeni-children-bloated-us-weapons-makers/

While the world is transfixed on the epic tragedy unfolding in Syria, another tragedy—a hidden one—has been consuming the children of Yemen. Battered by the twin evils of war and hunger, every ten minutes a child in Yemen is now dying from malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory-tract infections. A new UNICEF report shows over 400,000 Yemeni children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Without immediate medical attention, these children will die. The situation is so dire that over half of the entire nation’s 25 million people lack sufficient food.





O Little Town of Bethlehem
by Professor Francis A Boyle

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/o-little-town-of-bethlehem/

If Joseph and Mary were to travel to Bethlehem today to give birth to baby Jesus, will it be possible?





Drowning The World In Oil 
by Michael T Klare 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/drowning-the-world-in-oil/

Trump’s Carbon-Obsessed Energy Policy and the Planetary Nightmare to Come 





Is Being “Punk as F*ck” Really Where It’s At?
by Rob Hopkins

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/is-being-punk-as-fck-really-where-its-at/

Sam Bliss (author of the wonderfully-named blog ‘The Bliss Point‘) and Aaron Vansintjan recently wrote a blog called Degrowth is Punk as F*ck which defended the term “degrowth” as “a little middle finger to the establishment” and urged the reader to “take your positivity and shove it”. It’s a fiery and passionate defence of degrowth, and contains much, in its spirit and in its message, that I agree with. But it does raise some key points that I want to explore here and to challenge.





Can We Make Sense Of Trump?
by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich  

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/can-we-make-sense-of-trump/

There is clear indication that US foreign policy will not change course under a Trump administration – it will simply change tactic.     Those who continue to believe that the relations with Russia are headed for a reset are more optimistic than analytical.   US may deviate from the path previously trodden, but it is still headed for the same goal/s.





Mainstream Assumptions: The CIA, Presidential Elections, And The Russian Connection
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/mainstream-assumptions-the-cia-presidential-elections-and-the-russian-connection/

The CIA conclusion had a broader context to it, suggesting a pattern of hacking and penetration that was far from specific to Clinton.    In other words, it was, again in the words of one of the three officials, a “judgment based on the fact that Russian entities hacked both Democrats and Republicans and only the Democratic information was leaked.”  It was, to that end, “a thin reed upon which to base an analytical judgment.”






US Gov’t, Oligarchs Behind Planned Fake News Flagging on Facebook
by Robert J Barsocchini 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/us-govt-oligarchs-behind-planned-fake-news-flagging-on-facebook/

Facebook is adding a new feature wherein a group that the Washington Post calls an ‘independent third party fact checker’ will decide whether stories are real or fake, and flag ones the group decides are fake. WaPo leaves out of its report that the ‘independent fact checker’, the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network, receives funding from a US government-funded group, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which award-winning, independent journalist Robert Parry and author William Blum document was created to perform tasks previously performed by the CIA.






The Fire This Time: The Urban Housing Crisis
by Joseph Grosso

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/the-fire-this-time-the-urban-housing-crisis/

A pair of headlines the past two weeks illustrated the gruesome underbelly of the urban housing crisis. Last Wednesday night in the Bronx two young homeless sisters, aged 2 and 1, were found dead after a malfunctioning radiator in the room they shared caused steam to spew into the room inflicting severe burns on the girls. The building, part of the cluster-site program whereby the city houses homeless people in privately home buildings, had 26 open violations of the housing-maintenance code and multiple dwelling laws according to records from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. 





Forgotten Prisoners Of Iran Renew Hunger Strike To Raise Their Voice To The World
by Babek Chalabiyanli    

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/forgottenprisoners-of-iran-renew-hunger-strike-to-raise-their-voice-to-the-world/

In recent days, concerns haverisen about the health condition of a Turkish South – Azerbaijani civil and cultural and human rights activist Morteza Moradpour(above picture), who has been on a hunger strike for over 50 days in Tabriz Central Prison, in northwestern Iran. Moradpour has lost over 20 kilograms and his health condition is alarming, Fardin Moradpour, the activist’s brother told  the rights groups .





Bangladesh: Rekindling The Spirit Of independence
by Farooque Chowdhury 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/bangladesh-rekindling-the-spirit-of-independence/

With a perspective different from 1971, rekindling the spirit of independence (RSI) requires assessment of class forces, alignments and alliances these have made/entered into, historical capacities and limitations these bear. The dominating capital, its internal and external relations, its role and limitations are also to be assessed. Democracy and role of imperialism are two other fundamental issues to be examined.






Empowered Muslim Women: Islam Is Her Strength
by Moin Qazi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/16/empowered-muslim-women-islam-is-her-strength/

The portrayal of Muslim women that we glimpse in the media is grim and somber. The public perception of them is one of stubborn stereotypes: supposedly powerless and oppressed, behind walls and veils, demure, voiceless and silent figures, discriminated and bereft of even basic rights. This picture keeps reinforcing itself, largely because this is how the Western media caricatures women in Islam. Recurring images beamed into our homes and phones keep strengthening the belief that Muslim women are being denied access to education, social space, privacy and educational and development programmes for their socio-economic uplift. But it has also reduced Muslim women to a stereotyped singularity, plastering a handy cultural icon over much more complicated historical and political dynamics.