Dear Friend,
Bad days ahead for Catalonia and the people are not going to take it lying down. They showed their strength in Barcelona this Saturday by organising a half million strong rally. On the other hand, on Saturday, three weeks after the savage police crackdown on the October 1 Catalan independence referendum, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy formally announced the invocation of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to strip Catalonia’s regional government of its powers. In its place, Madrid is to install an unelected government in Barcelona backed by the Spanish army, Guardia Civil paramilitary police and other police units.
The historic struggle against POSCO in Orissa (Odisha) forced them to pull out. Now the government of Odisha is planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to hand over our land to another company named JSW Steel Limited. JSW Steel Limited is a part of the Sajjan Jindal controlled JSW Group.
Today is the 22nd anniversary of Bijbehara Massacre. Murtaza Shibli writes a timely article.
Also more stories from around the world.
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Binu Mathew
Editor
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Spain Annuls Catalan Self-Government, Prepares Military Rule From Madrid
by Alex Lantier
On Saturday, three weeks after the savage police crackdown on the October 1 Catalan independence referendum, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy formally announced the invocation of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to strip Catalonia’s regional government of its powers. In its place, Madrid is to install an unelected government in Barcelona backed by the Spanish army, Guardia Civil paramilitary police and other police units.
Trump Wrestles With The Middle East – A Difficult Week For U.S Adventurism
by Dr Arshad M Khan
It has been a week of repeated insults to U.S. adventurism and Donald Trump’s ill-defined Middle East policy. In Iraq, thanks to Iranian backing and astute negotiation, Kirkuk province is back in the hands of the Shia government in Baghdad halving the Kurds’ oil revenues. Iran now has a land bridge through Syria to the Mediterranean improving the accessibility of its exports to Europe.
A Matter of Fifty Degrees: Climate Change In Australia
by Dr Binoy Kampmark
A country baked to the core, its citizens roasted, an electricity grid battered to its limits. Capital cities trapping scorching heat, toasting its citizens and assaulting the young, the elderly, the infirm with temperature fluctuations. This is the vision of Australia by the end of this century according to an Australian National University study released earlier this month.
Give Them Cause To Fire You While Rhyming
by Valleria Ruselli
Don’t be an academic twit. Open your eyes and ears. Look past your personal tears and tune into the fears of the masses who are taking a pass when you offer them traditional educational fare. Be fair to one and all, call the spade that we’re burying ourselves with educationally… a spade. It’s not that a Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, it’s that there’s Thunder on the Mountain already, and we’ve all got to get our academic act into proper gear. Doing what’s not popular. Teach truth… way down. Cause trouble. Give them cause to fire you. [Pause.] Just make sure you rhyme on the way down.
After The POSCO Withdrawal Govt of Odisha Handing Over Land To JSW Steel
by Prashant Paikray
As you know that the continuous peaceful resistance of our people forced the POSCO to exit finally. However, we came to learn from the media that the government of Odisha is planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to hand over our land to another company named JSW Steel Limited. JSW Steel Limited is a part of the Sajjan Jindal controlled JSW Group.
The Glory of Perpetual War!
by Sally Dugman
“The War Prayer,” a short story or prose poem by Mark Twain, is a scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations
Protesting In A Meaningful Way
by Dr Asma Anjum Khan
The point worth ten billions is ,if we are facing hundreds of issues on a daily basis, if we understand the” Perils of Protest” on an Indian street [especially for the vulnerable groups of the society] , if we understand the frustrating futility of being ‘on the road’ where the only purpose being served is just that,i.e.’Being on the Road’; then sooner or later a time comes to think about the most constructive thing for helping and advancing our cause. What is better, loitering for long hours on and around the roads, shouting or silent and feeling frustrated at the same time? Or working on a well planned project or on our own, towards the set goal of Capacity Building that also helps instilling and reviving the lost Community spirit?
Rescuing The Historical ‘Asura’ From Ahistory
by Dr. Y. Srinivasa Rao
If today’s sudras (not all of them, of course), dalits and adivasis are aboriginals, they must have had a culture, including religion that was historical. Such a historicity needs to be restored. Therefore, even if one argues that the first objective is to claim Subalternity of the Asuras as they are within the classical narrative and, for that, the narrative, in the initial stage should be same as classical. I. e. the counter narrative too should be religious and ritualistic and historical.
Muslim Woes Just Being Recorded By A PM High Committee Isn’t Enough. Here’s Why
by P Radhakrishnan
What Led To The Monumental Sachar Committee Report Of 2006 and where it stands?
The Bijbehara Massacre
by Murtaza Shibli
Twenty four years ago, on 22 October 1993, Bijbehara, my hometown, was struck by a vicious massacre that killed scores of peaceful protestors who were demanding revocation of a military siege of famous shrine, Dargah Hazratbal. According to the state government’s own magisterial enquiry report, “a procession of 2,000 to 3,000 people” that was “entirely peaceful and unarmed” was attacked by the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF). The report establishes “beyond any shadow of doubt that firing upon the procession was absolutely unprovoked” and found that the paramilitary force “committed offence out of vengeance and their barbarous act … [was] deliberate and well-planned”.
Dalits As Priests: Why Only One Step Forward?
by A.P. Ayyappan
All the men (sorry, there is no woman) in the merit list should have written the Vedic hymns which worships the Supreme Puritan God. Can we empower the Dalit by converting them to Brahmins? Will the Devaswam Board still allow them to eat beef, mutton, chicken and fish before coming to the temple? When the government took such a positive decision it is disturbing to ask such questions. If we try to answer them it will be even more embarrassing. Then there is the positive question: Will the Cochin and Malabar Devaswam boards emulate this act?And more importantly, will the Left government and Travancore Devaswam board is bold enough to appoint women priests who qualify the written test and interview?
Ahwazi community in Berlin protest EU’s silence on ongoing human rights abuses in Ahwaz
by Rahim Hamid
On Friday, October 20, a mass demonstration organized by Europe’s Ahwazi community took place in Berlin, Germany. This protest entitled “we will not forget about you” demanded that the German government, headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, intervene immediately regarding Iran’s increasingly oppressive human rights violations against the Arab people of occupied Ahwaz.
Wildlife Activist Nabajyoti Baruah Strives To Mitigate Man-Elephant Conflict
by Shajid Khan
The combined efforts of nature-loving organizations and wildlife activists to mitigate the man-elephant conflict are praiseworthy. One of the frontier among them is Nabajyoti Baruah, a known nature lover and wildlife activist actively associated with man-elephant conflict mitigation community-level awareness programme at Indo-Bhutan border villages in Udalguri for the past decade. He has been instrumental in planting hundreds of banana and jackfruit saplings, including bamboo saplings in Khalingduar Reserve Forest, which in the long run would act as fodder for wild elephants.
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