CounterCurrents: Life in India is cheap,DAMN CHEAP

Dear Friend,

The protest against the Trump administration's policy of rounding up of immigrants is growing in USA. The weekend protests drew large crowds especially in Raleigh, North Carolina.

U.S Navy Seal's killed 8 year old Nawar in Yemen. What prompted the soldier to point his weapon at Nawar and squeeze the trigger, fully aware that he was murdering in cold blood an innocent child? Was he following the Commander-in-Chief’s prescription for winning the so-called “war on terror? It's a chilling story. 

What would the dead say if they could speak from the grave? Over 100 people, mostly youngsters, were killed in Kashmir this summer. Basharat Shameem tells the story of Zubair Ahmad Khanday who was one of the first to be killed in the aftermath of the Burhan Wani killing.

I started a Facebook page some time back called "Life in India is cheap,DAMN CHEAP". It was started after seeing a death defying circus performance, also prompted by my experience of living in India for 46 years.https://www.facebook.com/groups/501753966699821/ The Zapatista Sub-Commandate Marcos, used to say life in Chiapas is a miracle. Death is a constant companion in Chiapas. So is the case in many of the villages in India. Yes, Life in India is cheap, DAMN CHEAP. In the latest of such stories come from Chingudipala Panchayat of Sukinda block in Jajpur district, Odisha where 19 children have died of malnutrition. 

Did you ever think that a small action from our part can save lives? Rachel Olivia O'Connor reminds of this fact. She writes " If we do manage to focus primarily on saving others’ lives, not catering on automatic to our own habits, the life we save may be our own."

Also many stories from around the world on a variety of topics. 


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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org





Thousands Demonstrate In Defense Of Immigrants As White House Vows More Deportations
by Tom Eley 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/thousands-demonstrate-in-defense-of-immigrants-as-white-house-vows-more-deportations/

Demonstrations in the US continued over the weekend against last week’s mass roundup of immigrants, the first “surge” in deportations since President Donald Trump signed a January 25 executive order dramatically expanding the purview of anti-immigrant police actions. An annual march for civil rights in Raleigh, North Carolina, held Saturday, drew a record crowd of over 20,000. The turnout was fueled by opposition to Trump’s brutal policies against both Hispanic and Muslim immigrants.






Death Of Nawar al-Awlaki
by George Capaccio

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/death-of-nawar-al-awlaki/

How did Nawar al-Awlaki,an 8-year-old child, die at the hands of a Navy Seal during last month’s night time raid in Yemen?  We know from credible reports that she was shot in the neck at close range and received no medical aid throughout the remaining two hours of her life. Some questions come to mind: Was the shooting intentional? Did the soldier deliberately and with “malice aforethought” point his weapon at Nawar and squeeze the trigger, fully aware that he was murdering in cold blood an innocent child? For that matter, might he have been influenced, if only subliminally, by our Commander-in-Chief’s prescription for winning the so-called “war on terror






Memoirs Of Dead: Martyrs Of 2016 Begin To Speak
by Basharat Shameem 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/memoirs-of-dead-martyrs-of-2016-begin-to-speak/

My name is Zubair Ahmad Khanday. I am now a resident of the immortal world. In the mortal world, my address happened to be Kulpora, Kulgam, in the now fermented South Kashmir. I was the first among many other Kashmiris to be killed in the immediate uprising that erupted in the aftermath of Burhan’s killing. 






Child Deaths In Nagada
Fact-Finding Report 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/child-deaths-in-nagada/

19 children have died in the Nagada village of Chingudipala Panchayat of Sukinda block in Jajpur district, Odisha






The Life You Save
by Rachel Olivia O'Connor

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/the-life-you-save/

If we do manage to focus primarily on saving others’ lives, not catering on automatic to our own habits, the life we save may be our own.






Something Is Happening
by William Hawes 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/something-is-happening/

Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is: Do you?  No one knows, really, as this something is still evolving.  As we look back to 2016, though, it is abundantly clear that history has awoken from its slumber. We’ve had a couple events in the West last year: Brexit and Trump






Is Rising Inequality A Failure Of U.S. Democracy?
by Dr Arshad M Khan 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/is-rising-inequality-a-failure-of-u-s-democracy/

It is a conceit of democracy that opposing parties, after months of trying to convince the public the other would be a disaster for the country, should after the election cooperate for the good of the whole







Bungling In Yemen: Trump And The Cult Of The Action Hero
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/bungling-in-yemen-trump-and-the-cult-of-the-action-hero/

The seething bickering in Washington has been going on for over a week. Was the first authorised international raid by the Trump administration, supposedly made over dinner, a success?  There was little denying that the  bells and blood Yemen mission in Bayda province last month was spectacularly deadly, costing the life of a US serviceman, twenty five civilians including nine children and eight women – in addition to al-Qaeda operatives






The Dworkin-MacKinnon Anti-Pornography Civil Rights Ordinance
by Mickey Z 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/the-dworkin-mackinnon-anti-pornography-civil-rights-ordinance/

The Dworkin-MacKinnon Ordinance — originally written in 1983 by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon — was an amendment to a civil rights law. It stands as a mostly ignored template for creating law-based change within the system.






Softening-Up The UK Public For GM: Monsanto And Former UK Civil Servant Deal In PR, Not Science And Objective Debate
by Colin Todhunter 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/softening-up-the-uk-public-for-gm-monsanto-and-former-uk-civil-servant-deal-in-pr-not-science-and-objective-debate/

It is not surprising that Monsanto is preparing a fresh effort to try to soften up the UK public for GM food appearing on supermarket shelves and GM crops being planted in the nation’s fields. Former World Bank communications strategist and slick communicator Vance Crowe has been hired by Monsanto as its ‘Director of Millenial Engagement’ to convince younger people about the benefits of GM. And he is visiting the UK to give a series of talks.






Iranian Filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman
by Tom Carter

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/iranian-filmmaker-asghar-farhadis-the-salesman/

The film is remarkable and rich, the kind of experience you turn over in your mind for days afterwards, discovering new facets that reflect new themes or ideas. Above all, the film affirms the essential humanity of every person—even and especially the “villain”—and exposes the emptiness and absurdity of revenge-taking.






A Wish For Peace
by Ravi Nitesh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/a-wish-for-peace/

Despite being globally connected over internet, an experience of visiting the other side is still a dream for an ordinary Indian and Pakistani. Internet can obviously provide much knowledge and can help in strengthening bond through sharing talks and laughs, emotions but relaxing visa formalities, starting tourist visas may help people in smelling the soil, touching the shrines and temples and realizing a dream through their own eyes. It may not only help in bringing future revenues to governments, instead it would be a linkage of believing in each other and walking on the path of cordial relations together and forever.





“Ezra” – A Reincarnation Of ‘Dybbuk’ Movies From The West
by K M Seethi    

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/13/ezra-a-reincarnation-of-dybbuk-movies-from-the-west/

“Ezra” can also be seen as an addition to the typical judeophobiac tradition of ‘horror’ movies where the ‘Jewish evilness’ is dreadfully caricatured, by both Christian and Islamic traditions.  Dr. Mikel Koven has done many studies about it in the past showing the ethnocentrism of such movies. Let us be more careful in our understating that Jews are not the problem of this world and they are not here to end the world. The problem is more of our mode of understanding our problems. Hopefully, ‘Ezra’ will not emerge as a movie in judeophobiac tradition of ‘horror’ because Kerala has had an excellent, assorted tradition of coexistence of different religious communities, extended over a two millennia.