Historically the greatest economic depressions have started with unexpected events on the periphery of major financial markets. That was the case in May 1931 with the surprise collapse of the Austrian Creditanstalt Bank in Vienna which brought the entire fragile banking system of postwar Germany down with it, triggering the Great Depression in the United Sta...
Even if we overlook the facts about which nation is “occupying” Kashmir, by stating that there is “no difference between Gallipoli and occupied Kashmir”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unambiguously signalled his intention to emerge as “imam” of the new (pseudo) Caliphate he hopes to lead by 2023, the centenary of the Turkish Republic. Addressing a...
This year, Imran Khan, the “selected” Prime Minister of Pakistan, chose to celebrate the infamous “Kashmir Solidarity Day” in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). Predictably, a major part of his speech at Mirpur was directed against India and specifically against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said, “200 million people of Pakistan and its battle-hardened army...
In the last week of January, US Special Representative for Syria, James Jeffery, travelled to Europe to step up US economic pressure on Syria due to its ‘attacks’ on Idlib. While it may sound strange why the US would sanction Syria for its resounding successes against al-Qaeda jihadi groups, the fact of the matter is that these rouge groups remain US allies ...
Recently, an ever increasing number of countries have started distancing from the United States. This process became particularly noticeable a couple of years ago when Donald Trump announced a new policy that he dubbed America First. It’s noteworthy that in the aftermath of the Cold War the US assumed a dominant role on the geopolitical stage, claiming...
Last fortnight, there was a major counter-terrorist operation near the Nagrota cantonment [Jan. 31, 2020]. Pakistani terrorists, who probably infiltrated from Hiranagar in District Kathua of Jammu region, were accosted at a poll plaza near Nargota cantonment. Three terrorists were killed while one security person was injured. It is understood that there were...
Ron Unz, the fearless disturber of established dogma, has published a long essay connecting together some of his earlier texts under the title Mossad Assassinations. I like his natural style, his lack of pathos and drama. He does not lecture you, but shares his progress with you; what did he discover today, and how did he discover that. Reading him is like...
A decade of anti-government protests in the Arab world have thrown popular trust in the military into the garbage bin and undermined the military’s position as one of the most trusted institutions. Long gone are the days when protesters on Cairo’s Tahrir square chanted “the military and the people are one.” In 2011 it was the barriers of fear that protesters...
Having just recently celebrated the annual reductive canonization of Martin Luther King by deservedly extolling his work for human solidarity but with hardly anyone quoting his criticisms of capitalism, his fellow revolutionary Malcolm’s words are still timely as well in going far beyond current identity group divisions and addressing humanity as a whole. At...
The suspense is over and we now know the names of all the members of the new Russian government. You can, for example, take this good summary published by RT. What is important right now is not only what did happen, but also what did NOT happen. I will begin with two extremely important things which did NOT happen: First, the Russian government has NOT remai...
On January 15, 2020, a pastoral letter by Syro-Malabar Media Commission under the Syro Malabar Church Major Archbishop, Cardinal George Alencherry, urged the priests and laity to take serious note of Christian girls getting trapped in love and being killed in Kerala and other States by Islamic State organizations. The media commission has Bishop Joseph Pampl...
There is a glaring dichotomy in the Modi government’s performance. On the political front, it knows its objectives, can devise effective strategies to achieve them and implement these strategies in the teeth of severe opposition. The economy, however, stubbornly refuses to do its bidding. To be sure, the economy has many things going for it under NDA-II....
Under the cascading roar of the 24/7 news cycle cum Twitter eruptions, it’s easy for most of the West, especially the US, to forget the basics about the interaction of Eurasia with its western peninsula, Europe. Asia and Europe have been trading goods and ideas since at least 3,500 BC. Historically, the flux may have suffered some occasional bumps – for inst...
Whenever there’s an examination of Russia’s resurgence in Middle Eastern and African affairs, the narrative is always about weapons, economic competition, and Cold War-era detente. Few analysts or reporters examine the non-transactional elements of the policies of Vladimir Putin. To really understand the recent successes of Mr. Putin and Russia, we must unde...
“Pakistan is not an enemy country, our armies are alike too, their army kills their people and our army kills our people, there is no difference between them”. These words were spoken by Tapan Bose, an activist and film maker from West Bengal. For good measure he added that “the ruling class of India and Pakistan is alike”. The statement is best ignored as...
As agitators show fatigue with the unending Delhi-based protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, sending feelers for face-saving talks, Western media busybodies have rushed to the cause, alleging a sinister plot to render 200 million Muslims stateless. In a vacuous article, “Intolerant India”, The Economist of London alleges a plot to “transform...
In its commitment to detente in various parts of the globe, Russia is increasingly focused on the complex situation, in danger of transforming into an armed conflict, in the Persian Gulf region. It has, therefore, come up with a concept aimed at ensuring collective security. And we are not simply referring to an attempt to avoid a flare-up in the region here...
On 28 December 2019, the inauguration of the 80 Indian History Congress at Kannur University, Kerala, witnessed unruly scenes with Left delegates staging a protest against the Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan, while he was delivering the inaugural address. As per the programme, Marxist historian Irfan Habib was not among the speakers at the inaugural funct...
At just a time when the world holds its collective breath over risk of a World War over the US assassination of Iran’s leading general and other provocations, Israel has chosen to sign a natural gas pipeline deal with Greece and Cyprus that is the equivalent of tossing a loaded hand grenade into the hyper-tense region. Until some months ago it was doubtful w...
We never will achieve a nuclear free world. Getting very close to zero is highly dangerous for obvious reasons; and modest reductions in the arsenals of the United States and Russia are strategically meaningless. Yes, it is a talking point in the proliferation context since we have a legal obligation under the NPT to lower the number of warheads in the arsen...