CounterCurrents: Chelsea Manning to walk free, A day to rejoice!

Dear Friend,

It is a day we all must rejoice. Whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s 35 year prison sentence was commuted by President Obama. All we can say is that at last justice is served.

If we count the US imperial wars or proxy imperial wars going on around the world, we will lose count. It's sad that we can't keep track of all of them on a daily basis. Some come to the fore when some shocking truths come to the fore. So is the case of the failed state of Yemen. The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has said that the death toll in the Yemeni war had reached 10,000, up from the previous figure of 7,000.

Post-Truth is a cuss word thrown around everywhere without thinking about the meaning and impact of the word. Prof Ranjit Goswami throws light on the word  and argues that "post-truth does not carry the same meaning and context across the world. Each nation and each society, politically and socially, has its individual interpretation of post-truth political world and its impact on the social and the economic landscape."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about the importance of ‘humour and satire’ at a memorial for the late Cho Ramaswamy.  Satya Sagar takes the cue from Modi and writes a wonderful satirical piece on demonetisation. 

Ugo Bardi interprets  growth through the life an amoeba. 

Dwelling on the same topic and connecting it with corporate greed, Emily Spence had written an article in CC on 29 June, 2007. She concluded the article thus "Whether against grievous government practices or those carried out in corporate boardrooms, critical transformations will, eventually, occur when enough people band together to resist grave wrongdoings. Let us, too, remember about what happens when we forget that we are all in these circumstances together. Martin Niemöller spelled out the consequences quite well." It's still relevant now. Do have a read http://www.countercurrents.org/spence290607.htm
And also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org





Obama Commutes Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/obama-commutes-chelsea-mannings-sentence/

President Barack Obama has commuted noted whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s prison sentence, and Manning will be released on May 17 of this year. Human rights defenders, government watchdogs, and LGBTQ advocates have long been pushing Obama to commute Manning’s 35-year sentence, particularly as Manning, who is transgender and is being denied appropriate healthcare in military prison, has attempted suicide twice in the past six months.





Post-Truth Is A ‘Relative’ Concept; India Experiencing It For Years
by Prof Ranjit Goswami 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/post-truth-is-a-relative-concept-india-experiencing-it-for-years/

Post-truth does not carry the same meaning and context across the world. Each nation and each society, politically and socially, has its individual interpretation of post-truth political world and its impact on the social and the economic landscape. Following Einstein’s theory of relativity, it is a relativistic term.






Modis Operandi: When India Went ‘Keshless’
by Satya Sagar 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/modis-operandi-when-india-went-keshless/

The year was 2018 and in an emotional address on primetime TV, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had exhorted his countrymen to part with all their hair to ‘Save the Nation’. There was simply no precedent, in all of world history, for such a ‘barberous’ policy. The new rules were in fact announced on 8 November 2018 – exactly two years after Modi’s shocking demonetisation decree . “Mitron!Brothers and Sisters! We need every patriotic Indian to sacrifice their black hair to strike terrorism at its very roots”





Yemen War Death Toll Reaches 10,000
by Abdus Sattar Ghazali 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/yemen-war-death-toll-reaches-10000/

The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has said that the death toll in the Yemeni war had reached 10,000, up from the previous figure of 7,000.





Yemen: Obama’s Parting Gift To Terror
by Thomas C Mountain 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/yemen-obamas-parting-gift-to-terror/

Barack Obama saved his parting gift to terror, his worst crime, for last, the War on the Yemeni People. Obama’s last war has institutionalized a failed state and which will continue to inflict terror and suffering on 25 million Yemenis for generations to come.





Amelie The Amoeba: How Things Grow
by Ugo Bardi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/amelie-the-amoeba-how-things-grow/

Interpreting growth through the life an amoeba 






NATO And Obsolescence: Donald Trump And The History Of An Alliance
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/nato-and-obsolescence-donald-trump-and-the-history-of-an-alliance/

Trump’s comments, for all their worth, will have to bear up against the views of his own appointee for Defense Secretary, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis. As he reasoned in his Senate confirmation hearing last week, “If we didn’t have NATO today, we’d need to create it.  NATO is vital to our interests.”






The Balancing Act Is Over: What Elor Azaria Taught Us About Israel 
by Dr Ramzy Baroud

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/the-balancing-act-is-over-what-elor-azaria-taught-us-about-israel/

For some, the ‘manslaughter’ conviction – following the murder by Israeli army medic, Elor Azaria, of already incapacitated Palestinian man, Fattah al-Sharif – is finally settling a protracted debate regarding where Israelis stand on Palestinian human rights.






Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
by Ish N Mishra 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/thomas-hobbes-1588-1679/

Thomas Hobbes, a political biography






Nationalism And The Egalitarian Alternatives
by Ish N Mishra 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/nationalism-and-the-egalitarian-alternatives/

Nationalism in India and other colonies emerged as the ideology of the anti colonial movements. Thus nationalism, regardless of inequalities and exploitations, is conceived as the basis of “deep, horizontal comradeship”. Earlier blood shed through wars took place in the name of religion or faith now they take in the name of nation in the national interest, though, God is not undermined.






Still No Justice For Pakistani Shipyard Workers
by Ali Mohsin 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/still-no-justice-for-pakistani-shipyard-workers/

On November 1 of last year, a horrific fire at the Gadani shipbreaking yard in the Pakistani province of Balochistan claimed the lives of at least 32 workers, leaving scores of others with life-altering injuries, including severe burns. In the more than two months since the accident, government officials have turned a blind eye to the long-suffering workers’ demands for justice and safe working conditions. Meanwhile, several more workers have been killed at Gadani in a series of accidents over the past few weeks.






Another Adivasi Student Suicide Marks Rohith Vemula’s Death Anniversary
by Samar 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/another-adivasi-student-suicide-marks-rohith-vemulas-death-anniversary/

Exactly a year after Rohith had killed himself, another student from a marginalized community had to end his life in another premier institution of the country. Not many seemed to even notice the death of Lokesh Meena, a third year student of IIT-Kharagpur.






A Year Of Continued Denial Of Justice For Rohith Vemula
by National Alliance of People’s Movements 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/a-year-of-continued-denial-of-justice-for-rohith-vemula/

It’s a year since Rohith Vemula gave up his life in the struggle against caste discrimination and Brahminical prejudices and practices dominating spaces of Higher education in the country. His death caused a major uproar in the country and gave strength to students coming forward resisting the same and to various ongoing agitations across the country in different universities. His words still continue to haunt and remind us of the complex social structures and deep fissures and inherent inequality in the society. He said, “… the value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing…. My birth is my fatal accident….”





Behind The Hype Of E-Commerce
by Rahul Varman

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/18/behind-the-hype-of-e-commerce/

The driving force for e-commerce is corporatisation-monopolisation of disaggregated services like retail and taxi through information technology. Technology is being deployed to make the real relations of capital vis-a-vis employees, customer, and state, invisible. The State exists primarily for disciplining labour and not disciplining capital. The commanding heights of e-commerce for all practical purposes belong to finance capital. In spite of such powerful forces promoting e-commerce, it is mired in the structural constraints of the larger Indian economy