CounterCurrents: Peak Oil By Any Other Name Is Still Peak Oil, Fidel Castro’s Cuban Legacy: True Democracy Of Good Health Care, Low Infant Mortality, High Literacy & Ecosocialism

Dear Friend,

It was pay day today in India, that is for the salaried class which makes up about 20 % of India's population. Still it was total mayhem today. Long queues, no cash in banks, long waits, road blocks.... many went home empty handed. Mind you, it was a big day for just the 20 % or less of India's population. The government came a cropper in the first pay day after demonetisation. Things are going to get worse in the coming days. 

How does the other half of India, NO, the vast majority of India's population live. They have no fixed salary. 70 % of them live on less than $ 2 a day. Without cash their lives have come to a stand still. Without cash their lives will not move.  India is moving towards a great calamity.  No media is reporting this emerging calamity. Mirza Yawar Baig says that what India faces is an  'empathy vacuum’. In this mad ambitious "Digital Revolution" that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading these 70 % are left behind. Nobody is showing empathy to these people. Financial experts including former finance minister P. Chidambaram have said that it would take at least seven months to bring back the amount of withdrawn currency into circulation. If this government has a tinge of empathy left in them they should at least bring back the now withdrawn 500 rupee notes to increase cash circulation. If not..... I hate to make    a prediction. 

On a global scale Peak Oil is another calamity staring humanity in the eyes. Now, with record low crude oil prices Peak Oil has gone off the radar of the mainstream media. Bloomberg suddenly headlines “A $900 billion Oil Treasure”  USA today headlines “The Largest Oil Deposit Ever Found in the US“.  Ugo Bardi looks behind these sensational headlines. Also, don't miss Diego Mantilla's article "Peak Oil By Any Other Name Is Still Peak Oil" it will give you a historical perspective. 

Also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




Demonetisation: An Anesthetized Anarchy
by Mirza Yawar Baig 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/demonetisation-an-anesthetized-anarchy/

The problem of geeky thinking is nicely mentioned in this article as the ’empathy vacuum’; the bane of life of those who are used to binary thinking and playing with imaginary numbers until they begin to believe in their own creations. What is starkly visible in our country today is a total absence of empathy for those whose lives have been wrecked by the demonetization drive.





Fidel Castro’s Cuban Legacy: True Democracy Of  Good Health Care,  Low Infant Mortality, High Literacy & Ecosocialism
by Dr Gideon Polya 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/fidel-castros-cuban-legacy-true-democracy-of-good-health-care-low-infant-mortality-high-literacy-ecosocialism/

Vale Fidel Castro (1926-2016). Despite decades of illegal US sanctions, and an average per capita GDP of only circa $7,000 as compared to $56,000 for the US, Cuba has good primary health care, 100% literacy, a Western life expectancy, and an under-5 infant mortality of 6 deaths per 1,000 live births, the same as for the US. True democracy fundamentally means expression of the will of the people and in Castro’s one-party Cuba that has meant  ecosocialism and the survival of infants for a decent, healthy, literate, educated and long life.





Peak Oil In A Fact-Free World: The New “Oil Bonanza” In West Texas
by Ugo Bardi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/peak-oil-in-a-fact-free-world-the-new-oil-bonanza-in-west-texas/

So, the USGS comes out with a press release that the media immediately diffuse in terms of a great discovery: 20 billion barrels, somewhere in Texas in a place called “Wolfcamp”.    Bloomberg multiplies the number by the current oil price and comes up with a title that reads: “A $900 billion Oil Treasure,” for a piece that tells of “bonanza” and of “the gift that keeps on giving”. USA today speaks of “The Largest Oil Deposit Ever Found in the US“.  





Peak Oil By Any Other Name Is Still Peak Oil
by Diego Mantilla 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/peak-oil-by-any-other-name-is-still-peak-oil/

On August 29, Bloomberg published a story alerting to the fact that conventional oil discovery has reached a 70-year low. It published a very interesting chart, using data provided by Wood Mackenzie, the oil consulting firm, to show that fact. Unlike the ASPO chart, Bloomberg’s chart only goes back to 1947, the year before Ghawar was discovered.





The Beginning Is Near: The Deep North, Evictions And Pipeline Deadlines
by Winona LaDuke 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/the-beginning-is-near-the-deep-north-evictions-and-pipeline-deadlines/

Standing Rock is an unpredicted history lesson for all of us. More than any moment I recall since Wounded Knee, the Vietnam War, or the time of Martin Luther King, this moment stands as a crossroads in the battle for social justice. It is also an economic issue, in a time of economic system transformation, and profoundly a question of the future of this land. The world is watching.





Less Symbolism, More Action: Towards Meaningful Solidarity With Palestine
by Dr Ramzy Baroud 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/less-symbolism-more-action-towards-meaningful-solidarity-with-palestine/

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has designated the week, November 25 to December 3, as the ‘biggest-ever campaign’ aimed at boycotting Israeli products and those of companies that contribute to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine.





Indo-Pak Conflict And Kashmir
by Mohammad Ashraf 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/indo-pak-conflict-and-kashmir/

Why should the fate of Kashmiris be tied up with the establishment of Indo-Pak friendship?





Kashmir: Impractical Lyricism
by Amir Wani 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/01/kashmir-impractical-lyricism/

Kashmir should look for an alternative and sustainable strategy, there should definitely be one, only if we open our minds and search it.  So thinking beings, of Kashmir, wake up you have nothing to lose but your mental chains.