Dear Friend,
The danger of a catastrophic military conflict in the Middle East involving the major powers grew Friday, as Iran seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. This came a day after US President Trump claimed that an American warship had downed an Iranian drone and prompted the US Air Force to announce that it was sending an armed air escort through the Strait to accompany an American commercial ship.
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Countercurrents.org
Iran seizes UK tanker danger of Middle East war mounts
by Jordan Shilton
The danger of a catastrophic military conflict in the Middle East involving the major powers grew Friday, as Iran seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. This came a day after US President Trump claimed that an American warship had downed an Iranian drone and prompted the US Air Force to announce that it was sending an armed air escort through the Strait to accompany an American commercial ship.
The Politics of oil tankers capture
by Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The vessel is now seen as a pawn in the standoff between the Islamic Republic and the West, with its fate tangled in the diplomatic differences between the EU’s big powers and the United States.
Strategy of resignations to pull down government
by Dr Madabhushi Sridhar
For those in power it is easy to bribe and being bribed without any fear of legal action. Rulers need not worry about rule of law. Defection-engineers in Karnataka no more ask MLAs to change the party but ask to resign with free will. Resign and gain. Bumper offers await the MLAs who succumb to pressures to resign.
Karnataka Artist S Raghunandana declines the Sangeet Natak Akademi award
by Press Release
Eminent theatre director from Karnataka S Raghunandana on July 17 declined the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for 2018, a day after it was announced, in protest against incidents of “mob lynching in the name of God and religion” and the frequent attempts to stifle dissenting views of public intellectuals and activists.
The End of History: Thirty Years Later
by Dan Corjescu
Fukuyama’s book is a profound book and as a profound book it is profoundly misleading.
Review: “A Fine Tapestry” by Mythili Lakshman – A South Indian Jane Austen?
by Dr Gideon Polya
“A Fine Tapestry” by Mythili Lakshman is a very readable novel about a large and traditional Hindu Tamil family and is set in a South Indian village in post-Independence India in circa 1960. The fine tapestry of this novel centres about 2 married sisters, one of whom is suffering a terminal illness. The novel is similar to the works of the famed Jane Austen in relation to consanguineous marriage, niceness, traditional family and class values, and avoidance of contemporary social horrors, but is in stark contrast to the blunt social messaging of the novels of South Indian Arundhati Roy.
Trump: Rebukes And Worries
by Dr Arshad M Khan
It’s one for the history books, as they say. On July 16, 2019, Donald Trump was formally rebuked by the House (in a 240 to 187 vote) for his ‘racist’ tweets on four Congresswomen. The last time the House rebuked a president was William Howard Taft over a 100 years ago.
Trump’s “Israel First” Foreign Policy
by Dr Elias Akleh
Listening to Trump’s speeches emphasizing his “America first” policy I could not help but be reminded of the Nazi slogan “Deutschland über alles”: Germany above all. Yet later, it became obvious to many that Trump’s “American first” policy is actually “Israel first” policy on the expense of American tax payers, and breaking many international laws.
Food Scandals and Agrochemicals: Time to Put Public Need Ahead of Private Greed
by Colin Todhunter
Mad cow disease is a fatal epidemic neurological syndrome created by the agricultural industry, farmers and food processors explains Rosemary Mason in her new fully referenced report on pesticides and mad cow disease
Assam NRC — a Humanitarian Crisis Looming Large
CSSS Fact-Finding Team’s Report
Citizenship in Assam is a long contested issue shaped by forces of migration, partition and movements based on communalism, xenophobia and hatred for the “other”. This conflict will not end with the NRC but will take different forms as long as the hysteria and paranoia against the Muslims persist. Different instruments will be reinvented to dehumanise and decitizenise the Muslims so long as the hatred exists. It is miscarriage of natural justice when millions of citizens are put through the harrowing labyrinth of documents and legal processes to prove that they rightfully belong to the country they have lived in all their lives, served and called their home, concludes the Report. The Fact-finding team visited Assam from June 13 to 16, 2019.
Transformed and Renewed Right to Urban Life: The Life of Slum Dwellers in Mandala Settlement, Mumbai
by Anamika Madhuraj
As the city becomes more responsive to the interests of developers and transnational finance, a ‘dual city’ of contradictory spaces, that is split along two socio-economic fronts, emerges (Castells 1989, pp.277-78). Mumbai is emblematic of this situation. There are the urban glamour zones of business districts, airports and shopping centres, and then there are the urban war zones where over half of Mumbai’s population, deprived of resources, struggle every day to tend to their most basic needs.
Rejoinder – A Common Hindu Identity
by Dr Rahul Kumar
This rejoinder is in response to the article: A Common Hindu Identity has always appealed to OBC and Dalit Castes by Abhinav Prakash Singh, Assistant Professor, SRCC, university of Delhi published in Hindustan Times on 18.07.2019.
People’s poet Varavara Rao seeks prison facilities in view of his failing health
by Dr P S Sahni
An Open letter to the Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi
Will The Left Survive In India?
by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
2019 elections have hit the left parties harder than even the Congress. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about the Congress Mukth Bharat, historically the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janatha Party wanted a Communist Mukth Bharat for definite. That is their stated long standing ideological position. They seem to be achieving this with a comprehensive understanding.
Sandwiched in the Pirana landfill
by Anuvrat Chaturvedi
The article is based on a brief observational study done by my team and me on the Pirana landfill site in Ahmedabad. The article is meant as a satirical take on the social and environmental repercussions of landfill sites, and our attempts to not acknowledge the same. It is intended not to preach, but provoke individuals to take cognizance of the cost of development – the proliferation of many such heaps in and around every city.
Rural Development Minister makes a mockery of MGNREGA
Press Release
Rural Development Minister makes a mockery of MGNREGA on the floor of the house and reveals anti-worker and anti-poor bias
