CounterCurrents: Australia Blows Israel’s Credibility On Its World Vision Sham Sky High, As Yemen War Enters Third Year, Pentagon Moves To Escalate Slaughter

Dear friend,

Countercurrents.org completes 15 years of existence today. Thanks to all the readers, writers, supporters and well wishers. Without you this journey would not have been possible.

In solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org

Dear Friend,

I hope you all had a  welcome break from the daily dose of gloom and doom from CC! It's not my fault. I try to represent world as it is. Yea, gloom and doom  would be an exaggeration. I try to balance it with hope, resistance and search for counter solutions to the problems we collectively face. 

Anyway, I had to take a break because of a bit of travel and then I decided to spend some time with my family. I hope we all are rejuvenated for more battles ahead. 

In the meantime, CC celebrated one and a half decades of its existence.  Without you this journey would not have been possible. Yes, we have  a long way to go. To that light at the end of tunnel!

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






As Yemen War Enters Third Year, Pentagon Moves To Escalate Slaughter
by Bill Van Auken 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/as-yemen-war-enters-third-year-pentagon-moves-to-escalate-slaughter/

The Pentagon has formally asked the Trump White House to lift limited restrictions imposed by the Obama administration on US military aid to the Saudi Arabian monarchy’s near genocidal war against the impoverished people of Yemen.





Hawkeye: Shunner of the Status Quo
by Sally Dugman 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/hawkeye-shunner-of-the-status-quo/

Life story of  a man who traveresed a different path in life, a path less trodden





Disaster As Joy: Cyclone Debbie Strikes
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/disaster-as-joy-cyclone-debbie-strikes/

Here, in Townsville, the thirsty punters were crowding and ready: they knew that Dan’s would be off the radar of purchase for some days. The cities of Mackay, Townsville, and Bowen would be hitting the bottle hard.  Truly, cities driven to drink.





Marx, Gandhi, And The U.S. After The 2016 Elections
by Doug Allen 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/marx-gandhi-and-the-u-s-after-the-2016-elections/

Both Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Mohan Karamchand (“Mahatma”) Gandhi (1869-1948) would be very alarmed by the U.S. elections of 2016 and what we are now facing with President Donald Trump and the Trump Administration. They would be alarmed by the campaigns and elections, the language used, the power relations, the role of money, the role of the media, and the situation today





Monsanto In India: The Sacred And The Profane
by Colin Todhunter 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/monsanto-in-india-the-sacred-and-the-profane/

Foreign capital is dictating the prevailing development agenda in India. There is a deliberate strategy to make agriculture financially non-viable for India’s small farms, to get most farmers out of farming and to impose a World Bank sanctioned model of food production. The aim is to replace current structures with a system of industrial (GM) agriculture suited to the needs of Western agribusiness, food processing and retail concerns.





Australia Blows Israel’s Credibility On Its World Vision Sham Sky High
by Dr Vacy Vlazna 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/australia-blows-israels-credibility-on-its-world-vision-sham-sky-high/

“The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says an internal review into World Vision funding in Gaza has uncovered nothing to suggest any diversion of government aid funding to Hamas.” The blow to Israel’s credibility is colossal 







The Curious Case Of Justice C.S.Karnan: Contempt Notice versus Convoluted Condensate of Corruption in Higher Judiciary
by Dr Buddhi Kota Subbarao

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/the-curious-case-of-justice-c-s-karnan-contempt-notice-versus-convoluted-condensate-of-corruption-in-higher-judiciary/

One obvious question that arises from this case is, even if the self-destructive adventurism of a High Court Judge fails to penetrate the convoluted condensate of corruption in the higher judiciary, whether the contempt notice and bailable warrant against Justice Karnan should ultimately result in pushing the issue of corruption under the carpet. Whether it is the right occasion to undertake thorough investigation into the corruption in the higher judiciary, in order to preserve and promote the health of Indian democracy and the rule of law in the country mandated by Indian Constitution?





Will Jantar Mantar Offer Any Solution To The Farm Crisis Of Tamilnadu
by Vidya Bhushan Rawat  

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/will-jantar-mantar-offer-any-solution-to-the-farm-crisis-of-tamilnadu/

They are in Delhi for last 15 days for demanding compensation and relief as Cauvery water supply in Tamilnadu is drying up resulting in massive drought. Over 250 farmers have committed suicide since October 2016 as their loans piling up and they are unable to pay the huge debts which they have taken to survive. Most of them grow rice and have been from the districts like Trichy.






Bangladesh-March-1971: Not The Theater Of The Absurd
by Farooque Chowdhury 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/bangladesh-march-1971-not-the-theater-of-the-absurd/

March 25, 1971 dawned on East Pakistan, yet to be christened Bangladesh, with blood and tear. “Pakistan’s first war of 1971 began on the night of 25 March.” (ibid.) It was a state’s war against a people. Pakistan state began the assault with tanks, artillery batteries and machine guns on a population generating surpluses for the ruling classes for years. Was the resorting to military force the last resort to ensure generation of surpluses? Or, was that a failure in politics of regeneration of capital? Was that a class limitation of the rulers in the neo-colony? The answer is in the reality of classes/class fractions contesting for political power. It’s a dynamics of class struggle manifested in politics; and in the March-days, it reached a certain point with certain force exposing limits of a politics: failure to accommodate a people’s aspiration in a neo-colonial state structure with a certain political dynamics.






Anti-Romeo Squads Will Arrest Rule Of Law, Not Sexual Violence
by Samar 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/anti-romeo-squads-will-arrest-rule-of-law-not-sexual-violence/

In its current form, the Anti Romeo Brigade is not going to achieve any of that. Alas, they seem to be poised to make life even more miserable for the women they are supposed to protect.






Modi And Yogi: A Trailer Of The Hindu Rashtra
by Dr Anand Teltumbde 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/modi-and-yogi-a-trailer-of-the-hindu-rashtra/

Still the secularists ostrich-like believe India as a secular country and dread the concept of Hindu Rashtra. What are the tangible markers of Hindu Rashtra beyond what exists? Golwalkar had explicated it borrowing the slogan from Nazis, ‘Ein vok, ein reich, ein fuhrer’ by coining ‘one nation, one leader, one language’. Modi has provided its prototype over the past two and half years. Modi as a fuhrer decides everything, communicates directly to the people, his ‘man ki baat’ is supposed to be the government vision, he is not bound by the parliamentary decorum, cabinet is inconsequential, just to carry his writ. This is all done without an iota of change sought in the Constitution.





Killing Of H Farook: Another Sacrifice At The Altar Of Religious Bigotry
by Shamsul Islam 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/killing-of-h-farook-another-sacrifice-at-the-altar-of-religious-bigotry/

Atheist H Farook’s killing at Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) is another sacrifice at the altar of religious bigotry. Before this murder, we witnessed gruesome murders of Narendra Dhabolkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, great rationalist, secular activists and researchers.Indian sub-continent is becoming the most dangerous zone in the world for scientific minded persons who naturally become atheist






ISIS Attacks Bangladesh: Denial, Deceptions, And Delusions
by Taj Hashmi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/isis-attacks-bangladesh-denial-deceptions-and-delusions/

So far so good, but there’s no room for any complacency. We can’t be fully secure without the elimination of the root causes of terrorism. Unaccountable governance, corruption, and massive youth unemployment – around 40 per cent of Bangladeshi youths don’t have any regular employment – lead to social unrest, which is the mother of terrorism. In sum, Bangladesh will have to learn to live with terrorism, which is the “new normal” across the world. While hundreds of Bangladeshi youths, including girls, have joined the ISIS in Syria and Iraq – on March 16th one Neaz Morshed Raja of Bangladesh died as a suicide bomber in Tikrit, Iraq – denying any ISIS threat in Bangladesh is an extravagant denial of the truth.





POSCO Withdraws, But Repression Must Stop, Land Must Be Returned

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/posco-withdraws-but-repression-must-stop-land-must-be-returned/

We demand the government of Odisha to - Compensation on humanitarian grounds to the families of the deceased and widow who were killed in the bomb blast and proper medical help for the injured person. Return the land taken from our villagers immediately to their owners without taking any pretext. Recognize our claims on rights over forest land as per FRA 2006. Withdrawal of all fabricated and false cases against our villagers and activists. Compensation to the persons whose beetle vines were destroyed by the government





POSCO Withdraws: The Victory No One is Celebrating
by Subhash Gatade 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/posco-withdraws-the-victory-no-one-is-celebrating/

Big news – at times – go completely unnoticed. (Thanks to the mediatised times we are passing through) And thus it did not appear surprising that the decision by Posco, the South Korean steelmaker, the fourth biggest in the world, to exit the proposed 12 million-tonnes a year steel plant in Odisha did not cause much flutter. Yes, newspapers duly reported POSCO India’s ‘request to the Odisha government to take back the land provided to it near Paradip’ where it was supposed to invest 52,000 croreRs.’ The letter stated company’s ‘failure to start work on the proposed plant’.





Kerala News Channels: “We Sleazed It First”
by Firos BF 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/kerala-news-channels-we-sleazed-it-first/

A news channel launches itself by airing a purported lurid telephone conversation between a minister and a woman. Within hours the 71-year-old minister resigns. Today, television news channels in the state have reached newer levels of hyperbole. In their alacrity to “break” the “news” before their competitors or to come up with an ‘exclusive’, facts become the first calamity





SDGs Should Not Be The Icing On Business-As-Usual ‘Cake’
by Shobha Shukla 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/28/sdgs-should-not-be-the-icing-on-business-as-usual-cake/

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is convening the 4th session of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD 2017) from 29 to 31 March 2017, in Bangkok, Thailand. The APFSD is expected to define a regional roadmap to support member States’ implementation of the 2030 Agenda over the next 15 years.