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Middleboro Review 2

NEW CONTENT MOVED TO MIDDLEBORO REVIEW 2

Toyota

Since the Dilly, Dally, Delay & Stall Law Firms are adding their billable hours, the Toyota U.S.A. and Route 44 Toyota posts have been separated here:

Route 44 Toyota Sold Me A Lemon



Wednesday, July 19, 2017

CounterCurrents: USA & India, Time For Creative Resistance



Dear Friend,

Two of the greatest democracies in the world, India and United States, are going through almost similar traumatic phase in their history. These are dark days for both democracies. Is it time to lose hope? Frida Berrigan writes that it is time for creative resistance. So is the case for India. 

Chinese human rights activist  and Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo's life, who is suffering from cancer,  is in grave danger, as Chinese government is not allowing him to travel outside the country for better treatment

On  Monday seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed in a terrorist attack in Anantnag of strife torn Jammu & Kashmir. Kashmiris were unanimous in their condemnation of this dastardly act, reaffirming their long cherished Kashmiriyat. 

M.K Adithya takes us down the history lane to the Telegana armed struggle, through the story of a peasant martyr, Komarayya.

Let me remind you that our fund raising is going on and that too at a slow place. Please lend a helping hand to keep CC survive http://www.countercurrents.org/subscription/

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org



Our Obsolescent Economy
by Steven Gorelick 


We also need to oppose – with words and deeds – the forces of consumerism in our own communities. The global consumer culture is not only the engine of climate change, species die-off, ocean dead zones, and many other assaults on the biosphere, it ultimately fails to meet real human needs. The price of the consumer culture is not measured in the cheap commodities that fill our homes and then, all too soon, the nearest landfill.  Its real cost is measured in eating disorders, an epidemic of depression, heightened social conflict, and rising rates of addiction – not just to opioids, but to ‘shopping’, video games, and the internet. It’s time to envision – and take steps to create – an economy that doesn’t destroy people and the planet just to satisfy the growth imperatives of global capital.




Can We Stop Feeling Quite So Helpless And Hopeless In A World On The Skids? 
by Frida Berrigan 


President Trump has put a new twist on this American compact. He’s ready to mobilize us, but only to render him our loyalty (whatever that may mean) and adoration. Giving him such loyalty these days is a growing white supremacy movement emboldened to emerge from the shadows and into the streets with its hate and violence on display. The Trump presidency has certainly provoked disdain, disgust, mistrust, resistance, and protest — but so far, not sustained, alternative, creative activity, the sort of things that would support this country literally and figuratively over the true long haul.




Exaggerated Victories: The Mosul Effect
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 


The Special Inspector general for Iraq Reconstruction has claimed that the $60 billion in US funds spent over 10 years has produced little, while the Iraqi government’s own effort over $138 billion fared little better.  Such efforts, ruinously delayed, will provide sweet music for the next militant upsurge




Muslim Americans Mourn The Death of Dr. Jack Shaheen
by Abdus Sattar Ghazali 


The seven-million-strong American Muslim Community Sunday (July 9) mourned the death of Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, a prolific author and professor whose career centered on dismantling stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in the US media. He was perhaps most famous for his book “Reel Bad Arabs,” where he chronicled over 900 movies where Arabs were represented negatively.




Israel’s Ever-More Sadistic Reprisals Help Shore Up A Sense Of Victimhood
by Jonathan Cook 


When Israel passed a new counter-terrorism law last year, Ayman Odeh, a leader of the country’s large minority of Palestinian citizens, described its draconian measures as colonialism’s “last gasp”. He said: “I see … the panic of the French at the end of the occupation of Algeria.” The panic and cruelty plumbed new depths last week, when Israeli officials launched a $2.3 million lawsuit against the family of Fadi Qanbar, who crashed a truck into soldiers in Jerusalem in January, killing four. He was shot dead at the scene.




Lies That Capitalists Tell Us
by William Hawes 


We’ve taken the time to hash out some of the most pernicious mendacities we’ve come across in our (relatively) young lives, in the workplace, in our private lives, and in the media. Please share these counter-arguments far and wide, in order to educate your fellow citizens, and, if necessary, to provide the intellectual beat-downs needed when arguing with pro-capitalists. So without further ado, here is our list of the most devious “Lies that Capitalists Tell Us”:





Chinese Human Rights Activist Liu Xiaobo Health Detoriates Further-A Serious Cause Of Concern
by Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava 


Liu Xiaobo (born-28 December 1955), the only Nobel Peace Prize winner from authoritarian Communist state China appears to be on death bed. Chinese government has disallowed him to move out of the country for the liver cancer treatment. China fears lest he should emerge as the magnet for the anti Chinese forces which are gaining ground at least in the minds of the people of the country.





In India, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences Ditches Science for Spin in Push for GM Mustard
by Colin Todhunter 


The case surrounding the approval of genetically modified (GM) mustard in India is coming to a head on the back of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) recommending approval. The final decision now rests with Harsh Vardhan, minister of the environment. As India’s first commercial GM food crop, the concern is that it is in effect a Trojan horse crop and an unlawful attempt to impose GM food crops on the country. At present, the only GM crop planted in India is cotton.





DDA Agrees To Stop Demolition Of Slums In Baljeet
by Ankit Jha 


DDA officials in meeting agreed for not doing any further demolition in the slums. Community Representatives were very happy with the meeting but they were also of the view that the fight is half way as of now and there is a long way to go





Review: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness; India’s Summa Injustica
by Dr Vacy Vlazna 


The Ministry of Utmost Happiness with its phenomenal breadth and depth of intelligence and unpredictable creativity far outstrips The God of Small Things. It is wondrously creative. It is an experience that must be mindfully savoured as you wonder word by word where Roy’s brilliance is taking you… what is around the roller coasting corner of the next word.. poetry that will make you gasp, quirkiness that charms, flagellating condemnation, a chuckle of humour, awesome acuity, shuddering contempt, fierce tenderness, brittle satire, outlandish juxtapositions where Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut sit square with Torture, and where Mango Frooti can spark a Massacre.





Why Peace Is A Refugee In Our World?
by Sukumaran C V 


Humanity is still not ready to have the metamorphosis and millions are still spent on war each day! The difference is that today it is not millions but billions and trillions.




Barren Hills
by Bhuwan Thapaliya 


Hills are all
barren brown
and chocked with pebbles and mud
is the Kokcha rivers throat.
American soldiers marches on
the memory of Vietnam
still hangs heavily on their core.




Marx And Ambedkar: Bridging The Rift
by S V Rajadurai 


Book Review: India & Communism by B R Ambedkar, Introduction by Anand Teltumbde




’Surrendered’  Maoists  Tried  By    `Surrendered Judges’
by Sumanta Banerjee 


While  a  few  are  lucky  to  climb  up  (with  the  help  of    lawyers)  to  reach  the  step    that  allows  them  acquittal,    the  majority  remain imprisoned  for  years  in  jails  all  over  India,  as    under  trial prisoners. Do  we    have  to  wait    for  another  Bastille , to  rescue  these  innocent  poor  from  the  jails,  and  to    sing  with  Joan  Baez:  “Raise  the prisons to  the    ground”  ?




70th anniversary of The Martyrdom of Komarayya: A Turning Point in Telangana People’s Revolutionary Movement
by MK Adithya 


The present article marks the 70th Death Anniversary of Komarayya, who was a  local activist, and a member of  the then  recently formed volunteer  squad, and he was not a leader.  He was  the first    among  4000 communist and peasant  revolutionaries  of Telangana  People’s Revolutionary Movement (1940-51)    who were  killed by the ruling classes,  represented by the Nizam of  princely    kingdom of Hyderabad upto September 1948,  and later by new India’s  Nehru-Patel regime.




Why Kerala Left Still Stands Up Against Israel
by Shawn Sebastian


Despite being a land where Jewish communities thrived, historically,  Kerala’s public mind remained a natural sympathizer for the cause of Palestine. Deeply embedded in Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much hyped alliance with Isreal is an affirmation from the Left of their untenable ideological support for Palestine in changing times. 





Protest Against Mob Lynchings And The Role Of Civil Society In Breaking The Silence
by Dr Aurobindo Ghose 


The present article argues that there is still hope if the civil society comes out loudly and unmistakbly against such mob lynchings and if there is an united democratic movement.




Protests At Jantar Mantar, To Mourn Amarnath Killings
by Dr P S Sahni 


The ‘Not In My Name’ campaigners held a vigil at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday, 11 July, 2017, 7 p.m. to mourn the killings of Amarnath pilgrims a day earlier. For this gathering arithmetic (numbers) went against the protesters. At any given point of time the number was under one hundred.




Kashmir Unites To Condemn Anantanag Yatra Attack
by Nasir Khuhami 


Soon after the Attack on Civilian Bus in which Seven Amarnath Pilgrims Killed and Dozens Injured, on Monday. Widespread condemnation poured out from every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley. Kashmiris took Social media, (Facebook, Twitter) Responses against the Painful attack




Cowardly Attack On Amarnath Pilgrims
by Ish N Mishra 


Any cowardly, armed or mobbed attack on unarmed people must be condemned in no uncertain terms. We, who came out in “Not in my name” protest at Jantar-Mantar against Gorakshak mob lynching, also came out to protest against the ghastly act of attack on Amarnath pilgrims. But why the Salim Sheikh, is, instead of being praised for his presence of mind; as a sensitive human; as a smart, intelligent driver, is being appreciated with over emphasis of his being Muslim, which had no role in his heroic role of driving through the rain of bullets.




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