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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org
Mounting Contradictions As Trump, Aides Defend Firing of FBI Director
by Patrick Martin
The allegations of Russian intervention into the 2016 US elections are both completely unsubstantiated and politically motivated. But Trump’s efforts to influence or suppress the FBI investigation could become a basis for impeachment charges.
Critics Shocked By Trump Admission on Comey
by Lauren McCauley
While it’s hard to keep up with the shifting reports of how the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey came about, President Donald Trump on Thursday admitted to directly asking the former head of law enforcement if he was under investigation—a move many said presented a shocking conflict of interest.
Power Crisis Hits Gaza Hospitals As Israel Tightens Siege On Sick
by Charlotte Silver
For the last three weeks, Gaza’s electricity crisis has become even more severe, forcing hospitals to curtail services in an attempt to preserve limited fuel supplies. The World Health Organization warned that all of Gaza’s public hospitals may be forced to suspend critical services, putting thousands of lives at risk.
New Charter: Should Hamas Rewrite The Past?
by Dr Ramzy Baroud
Hamas of 2017 is much more stately and careful in both words and actions, yet it is adrift in new space that is governed by Arab money, regional and international politics and the pressure of ten years under siege and war.
Lebanon: Hedonism And War
by Andre Vltchek
Here, war and self-indulgence are living side by side. Some say it is nothing else other than a bare cynicism. Others would argue: “No, it is life! Life of the 21st century world; exposed, brought to the extreme, but in a way honest.”
Iran’s Elections: An Empty Charade for Ethnic Minorities
by Rahim Hamid
With the Iranian presidential election scheduled to take place on Friday, May 19, the six candidates are competing for every vote, with all vying to win the essential backing of the country’s ethnic minority regions, whose peoples collectively comprise over 50 percent of the Iranian population.
The Apple And The Ant
by Ugo Bardi
There we are: totally unable to conceive the real terms of the problem. Nobody realizes that behind everything that’s happening around us there is a physical problem: the deadly combination of resource depletion and ecosystem disruption. Our society is an emergent phenomenon which we cannot really perceive, full of unknown unknowns and our desperate two-dimensional search of something that will save us is hopeless: left or right, it doesn’t matter. We are blind like ants unable to see the apple hanging from a tree above them.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Electoral Vision: Labour’s Leaked Manifesto
by Dr Binoy Kampmark
In the unlikely event that Corbyn can weather this storm, win over Scotland, and neutralise the conservative momentum, Britain will witness another sharp twist in the annals of populism. May, however, is padding and bricking up her case for an electorate she already claims to have bagged.
Pro-Apartheid Australia’s New White Australia Policy & Compulsory Australian Values Statement
by Dr Gideon Polya
Asians, Africans, South Americans and Eastern Europeans wishing to obtain a visa to enter Australia will quickly discover that there are 2 basic categories of entrants , (a) those from the predominantly White countries and some rich, “honorary White” countries, and (b) those from predominantly non-White countries and some “poor White” countries from Eastern Europe.
Fixing the Waste and Garbage Problems (Sort Of)
by Sally Dugman
Indeed poisons from our waste can infect nearly everything with which we come into contact, especially in well developed countries that don’t have support systems in place to deal with high levels of contaminants. So we end up with acid lakes, which kill off much life that live in them and on them, as happens in the pristine Adirondacks of NY, USA.
Tributes
by Sheshu Babu
Oh! Mother of civilization !
We are out to destroy
The meticulous creation
You nourished for us to enjoy
Urgent Appeal For Social Justice In The Narmada River Valley
by S G Vombatkere
In the current context of planned closure of the SSP dam sluice gates (understood as planned for 09 May 2017 by NCA), about 40,000 PAFs (2,00,000 people) in Madhya Pradesh alone, along with their villages and one township, will be drowned. Their forcible evacuation by police action is being planned and is imminent. Such action will bring utter shame on our Republic.
Fact Finding Team’s Report on Ambedkar Nagar Demolition
Fact-Finding Report
This is a report of the five-member fact finding team constituted by Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) to inquire into the demolition of homes and police harassment of residents of Ambedkar Nagar, Colaba between 3rd and 7th May, 2017. The Fact Finding Team members were Shraddha (Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work), Tanmay (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Rossi (Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,TIFR), Priyanka and Paankhi (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay). The team visited the site on 10th May, 2017 and spoke with the residents and housing rights activist, Bilal, working with Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan (GBGBA). After meeting with the residents, the team surveyed the site of the demolitions.
Supreme Court Gags The Entire Press Around Justice Karnan: Worse Than Indira Gandhi’s Emergency of 1975-76
by Chitta Ranjan Behera
The order of the Supreme Court delivered on 9 May 2017 while directing the arrest and imprisonment of Justice C.S. Karnan for contempt of court did also forewarn the media not to publish any order issued by him. There are compelling reasons for which we the people of India need to be concerned with the second part of the said order issued by the apex court
China Should Be Our Model For Swachh Bharat, Public Transport
by Vidyadhar Date
Beijing, the Chinese capital could well be a model for India’s Swachh Bharat mission of cleanliness. Toilets are everywhere in the city, I noticed during my two-week visit to Beijing last month. It could also be a model for us in public transport. I experienced this through my constant walks in different parts of the city and travel by buses and the underground Metro railway line known there as the subway.
The Other Side Of The Sukma Attack
by Gurpreet Singh
Never forget that the tribal people have always been fighting for their rights whether they were under British occupation or the occupation of other rulers in the past. Even if Maoists disappear completely, they will still fight if not with the guns then with bows and arrows for dignity and self respect.
All We Like Sheep Are Being Led Astray
by Pratap Antony
Independent thinkers must fortify ourselves against the ferocity of the crowd, shore up our integrity of purpose and steadfastness of belief, expel fear, disregard the herd and reject herd-instinct. And, like independent minded human rights activists, environmentalists, social justice activists, civil liberties and civil rights activists, we must engage with authority and question politicians, government officials, petty public and private office bearers, and other self-important office-holders, and appeal to them to do their best for the country; for the citizens; for the greater common good. And also to remind them – they are meant to serve us. Not rule us.
The ‘Political Buddha’ of Dalits in UP
by Skand Priya
The Buddha who once was a social revolutionary for Ambedkar has become nothing but an empty repository of a symbol, looted of all the political transformative qualitiesfor the Dalits, by associating with whom they foresee their distorted emancipation. Alas! The chimera of political power that Kanshiram had created for the Dalits has not proved fruitful, and has certainly made the path more difficult for an Ambedkarite revolution.
Revoke Varsha Dongre’s Suspension: Safeguard Adivasi Rights
by National Alliance of People’s Movements
http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/05/12/revoke-varsha-dongres-suspension-safeguard-adivasi-rights/
We the undersigned, representing a large number of people’s movements and organizations, across India, as the National Alliance People’s Movements (NAPM), are writing to you with a deep sense of anguish regarding the arbitrary suspension of a young and dynamic dalit woman officer of your state, since she publicly expressed concerns over the serious human rights abuses of young adivasis girls in the jails of Chhattisgarh.
On A Journey To Humanize Jinnah: Sheela Reddy On The Challenge of Understanding Jinnah Through His Disastrous Marriage
by Akhileshwari Ramagoud
Sheela, the Delhi-based journalist who was associated with leading English language daily newspapers and news magazines for four decades, was in recently in Hyderabad the city where she was born and brought up and learnt to flap her journalistic wings in the country’s one of the oldest journalism schools, in Osmania University. Akhileshwari Ramagoud caught up with her to find out more about her journey with the controversial leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his wife, Ruttie (short for Rattanbai), the young, impetuous daughter of Sir Dinshaw Petit, one of the richest Parsi businessmen of Bombay.
The New “Iron Curtain”!
by Mohammad Ashraf
The Digital India has failed to control the Social Life in Kashmir in spite of the strongest curbs ever put on all the social networking sites sand TV channels!
Delhi Metro Fare Hike: Another “Surgical Strike” on Peoples Pocket
by Sourabh Kumar
The DMRC workers who are presently protesting against ‘discriminatory policies’ of the DMRC are threatened by the Company. On the other hand the public is made to believe that the fare hike is due to the increasing ‘staff costs’ and operating expenses through media. All of this only exposes the nexus the big companies have with governments and to reap profits they can go to any extent to exploit the people and legitimise it through their propaganda machinery.
Photo Essay: The Band Wallahs of Indian Weddings
by Sadia Akhtar
Amid the glitz and the glitter of the wedding are men, whose music has become entwined with the wedding affair, the band wallahs. But who are these men, whose job is to be perpetual celebrants on behalf of other people. What kind of existence do these band wallahs lead? This photo essay is an attempt to document the lives of these band wallahs, behind whose loud music, lays a very quiet world.
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