Five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have now joined forces against Iran. China and Russia which previously resisted taking action against Iran have now joined forces with Britain, France, Germany and the United States. This looks so much like the build up to the invasion of Iraq with harder sanctions on the horizon and fol
Why has Bank Negara been keeping quiet all this while? It is often said that the best time to announce bad news is just before the weekend or public holidays.So it came as no surprise that CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (Malaysia’s second largest financial group) decided to drop the bombshell that they have on their books a whopping RM 8.4 billion n
Alien influence and media’s objectiveThe call for “regulating” the media has been there for quite sometime; every time the government raises its voice, the media comes out with a false promise of “self-regulation.” Media-watchers and a considerable section of elite readers and viewers are of the opinion that the mainst
The percentage of Americans disabled by mental illness has increased fivefold since 1955, when Thorazine – remembered today as psychiatry’s first “wonder” drug – was introduced into the market.There are now nearly 6 million Americans disabled by mental illness, and this number increases by more than 400 people each day
Marathi Manoos and Media’s madnessRajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief of CNN-IBN stated, “We want the government to pass an ordinance that whenever a media person is attacked, it would be considered a non-bailable offence. Only then an element of fear will come. If it can be done for doctors, it can be done for journalists too.” He
Islamic fundamentalist militants are the enemies of Israel and Western governments, right? Think again. Once upon a time, the CIA trained, financed and supported Osama bin Laden and his mujahidin networks in Afghanistan to repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After the end of the Cold War, bin Laden turned against the West and we no longe
Omar smells the coffee On Tuesday, 24 November 2009, Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah indicated a sudden retreat from the brinkmanship of ‘dialogue’ aimed at giving unstated concessions to separatists and secessionists, by asserting that the security situation in the State is “not yet conducive for moving the Army
We keep asking ourselves why our troops are in Afghanistan, and they keep telling us it’s to keep our streets safe from terrorism. We keep asking if the enemy is Al Qaeda and Taliban, why aren’t you fighting them in their strongholds. You keep telling us they are up in the northeast of Afghanistan and over the border in Pakistan, so why
Many of my friends who have been receiving my e-mail alerts over the last two years have lamented that in recent weeks I have not commented on the state of the global economy. I appreciate their anxiety, but they forget that I am not a stock market analyst who is paid to write articles to lure investors back into the market. My website is free and
Can we recall our respective illustrious leaders saying that more troops had to be made available for the forthcoming Afghan elections to make sure that it remained democratic and fair? Can we recall the increase in troop fatalities in the lead up to those elections and how our leaders condemned those attacks all in the name of democracy? Can we al
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25 Nov 2009
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By 1959-60, it had become almost clear that Algeria would obtain independence from France. However, the question was with whom to negotiate the issue of transfer of power. The advisors to French President Charles de Gaulle were of the opinion that talks should be held with the Algerian moderates. They were of the view that it would not be advisable
As President Obama and his advisors debate future troop levels for Afghanistan, a new report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) muddies the water on one of the most important issues in the debate - the effects of Afghanistan’s drug production. The report, entitled “Addiction, Crime, and Insurgency: The Tran
Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has clearly lost the plot. His irate but innately vacuous tirade against cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar has not only failed to bolster his shaky status as regional satrap, but reflects sadly upon how far the Sena has drifted from its avowed goal of protecting Hindus from the physical predations of hostile forces.
At the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit this October, the now-decrepit former National Security Advisor (NSA) Brajesh Mishra was trotted out to warn us of the “unprecedented challenge” facing India on simultaneous fronts with Pakistan and China. Vajpayee administration’s intelligence chief highlighted his concerns about ChinaR
Who controls Congress? Who controls the US President? Who controls the UN? No prizes for guessing! It was a very sad day for democracy and a disgraceful day for the credibility of Congress when voting results showed very biased support for Israel - 344 against the Goldstone Report and only 36 for. Congress will now push President Obama to rej
Creating Well-Fed DeadOn Kashmiri Hindu Martyrs’ Day on 14 September this year, the displaced Kashmiri Hindus once again remembered their martyrs - mostly the victims who fell to the terrorists’ bullets. In a series of commemoration programmes they remembered events and incidents which underlined the growth of communalism, intolerance a
No matter which way you turn now days, you continue to see the constant barrage of intimidation and big boy tactics from the well developed countries, especially the G3.5 who held their notorious press conference in Pittsburgh when Obama, Brown and Sarkosy made very strong threats towards Iran... Obama was the first to go on the attack when he
Consider the earth’s history as the old measure of the English yard, the distance from the King’s nose to the tip of his out-stretched hand. One stroke of a nail file on his middle finger erases human history - James McPhee, Basin and Range, 1981 Two scientific disciplines have the added dimension of ‘deep time’, a con
Darul Uloom has done it again. By getting the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind to endorse its 2006 fatwa at the Deoband premises, the seminary has unleashed a new wave of fundamentalist frenzy in favour of its stand that singing the national song by Muslims is ‘haraam’. By openly showing utter contempt for the majesty of India’s const
Readers may recall the three-part article titled “Electronic media and Hindu sentiments” that appeared here last month. The backdrop to the article was an episode telecast by the Tamil Channel “Vijay TV”, which belongs to Rupert Murdoch’s Star Group. As the concerned episode terribly hurt the cultural and religio
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19 Nov 2009
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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has done well to take on the aggressive, canny and expansionist China and declare that stapled visas issues by China are not valid for travel from India. The MEA took this decision following reports that the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi as well as Chinese Consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata had been issuing visas
Ever since Washington tore up the Bretton Woods treaty in August 1971 and went onto a “dollar paper reserve system” instead of a dollar backed by gold, the United States, as the world’s most powerful military power, has been able to dictate financial terms to the world. Nations like Japan and later China, dependent on US export ma
Moscow is trying to draw India and China closer to put out the flames now flaring across the continent, from the Caucasus and Central Asia, to Iran and Pakistan, notes Eric Walberg United States President Barack Obama has shown a flicker of independence in shaping US Eurasian politics. To secure transit routes through Russia to Afghanistan, he
Is it possible that he should be tried for War Crimes? We have seen Prime Minister Gordon Brown and most members of his party promote Tony Blair as the first President of the European Council. Dare other members of the British Government put their names forward to support such a person who may in the near future be called to give account of his rea
Regardless of size or power, no country or national leader is exempt from international humanitarian law. On Saturday Oct 31, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) heard the opening arguments from the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) about war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Commission submitted on many grave issues of int
A dozen years ago, neo-liberal political forces took power in Serbia, promising a radical transformation of the economy. Today, deep into that transformation, Serbia is foundering from its effects exacerbated by the worldwide economic downturn. Industrial production has fallen 15 percent compared to the average of last year, (1) while unemployment
Interest rates. The Fed does not need slinky women in plunging necklines to peddle money. All it needs is low interest rates. When rates are pushed lower than the rate of inflation, the Fed provides a subsidy for borrowing. This is not as hard to grasp as it sounds. If I offered to give you $1.00 for very 90 cents you gave me in return, you would b
Making sense of US President Barack Obama's strategy at this moment is difficult. Not only is it a work in progress, but the pending decisions he has to make - on Iran, Afghanistan and Russia - tend to obscure underlying strategy. It is easy to confuse inaction with a lack of strategy. Of course, there may well be a lack of strategic thinking, but
Recently, during the course of a lecture in Shillong, Meghalaya, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz told the audience that she opposes the plan to build large dams in northeast India, because such development projects would infringe upon the rights of the local indigenous people. Using the authority bestowed on her by the international drug-legalization lobby,
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including he
The Supreme Court’s OrderNovember 9, 2009 is a significant day in the religious, political and demographic history of India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular. The Supreme Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to consider within three months the representations filed by “Keel-visharam” (Lower Visharam) villagers for the de
“Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.” - Friedrich Nietzsche On Thursday night [29 Oct] I had the privilege of viewing a premier of a film together with its star. The theater was in the US Capitol, and the fil
Islamic terrorism and terrorists, separatists and secessionists, and soft-peddling politicians, are outdoing each other to prove they share the same mindset and agenda in Jammu & Kashmir. They have another equally committed partner in the quest for disengaging J&K from India, the ultimate political objective for which Islam has been wa
Human migration is the subject of the UN Human Development Report 2009 “Overcoming Barriers: Human mobility and development.” At a time when human migration has become the subject of heated controversy across the world, the HDR report makes astounding assertions like “migration is the weapon of the weak” and “being abl
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12 Nov 2009
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The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), a principally ICSSR-funded institute for the study of social sciences and humanities, organized a day long seminar on Kashmir at the capital’s prestigious Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, Teen Murti Bhavan, on November 7. It was convened by CSDS faculty member and feminist Madhu Kis
NATO’s reputation as the guardian of peace on Earth is in tatters these days. Once avowedly an alliance of North America and Western Europe to fight the communist hordes of Eurasia, it morphed into something quite difference with the collapse of the socialist bloc two decades ago. It now pretends to unite all of Europe to fight the Muslim hor
A media acolyte of the BJP’s fading supremo has rebuked the RSS Sarsanghachalak for departing from a tradition of public reticence by most predecessors and publicly demanding a generational change in the political party. In an article astonishing for its peremptory prescriptions to the RSS pramukh to stick to social service activities and abs
On Oct. 25, militants in Iraq conducted a coordinated attack in which they detonated large vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) at the federal Ministry of Justice building and the Baghdad Provincial Council building nearly simultaneously. The two ministries are located in central Baghdad near the Green Zone and are just over a quarte
After the Sheila Dikshit ‘sarkar’ offered consumers ‘relief’ with a promise that electricity bills will rise 100 percent every three years (I will explain), I was alerted to check the increase over the past three years, taking my household as indicative of the true story of privatisation. The exercise was a lesson in how bli
It would be hard not to pass comment on the situation in West Bank as that clearly became part of the Missions remit. I must say in passing that the war crimes carried out during Cast Lead were solely a Gaza Strip issue. We have to accept that Palestinians in general all became victim of Israeli’s aggression, but one cannot compare living in
Members of Congress reject Goldstone reportAlthough we have seen some shortfalls in Goldstone’s report we can now see the true face of some members of the US Congress as they again start to use “Iron Fist” methods to stop this report moving forward. It is evident that ever since this report was first tabled the powers that be have
In the worst of times, my father always used to say, “A good gambler cuts his losses.” It's a formulation imprinted on my brain forever. That no-nonsense piece of advice still seems reasonable to me, but it doesn't apply to American war policy. Our leaders evidently never saw a war to which the word “more” didn't apply. Henc
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Hari Om
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08 Nov 2009
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Addressing the 30th general session of the Jamait-Ulama-i-Hind (JuH) at the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband seminary, founded in 1867 by Maulana Mohammad Qasim Nanwtawi, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the JuH opposed the two-nation theory and played an important role in the country’s struggle for freedom.Chidambaram was partly right and par
DIME and Weapons Containing Uranium Again we see a classic example of a UN investigation that only plays with the periphery of War Crimes committed by Israel whilst ignoring the more important horrific crimes carried out by the IDF. Goldstone brushed aside the use of White Phosphorus and Flechette weapons and only touched briefly on DIME weapons. H
Vande MataramMother, I salute thee!Rich with hurrying streams,Bright with orchard gleams,Cool with thy winds of delight,Green fields waving Mother of might,Mother free. Glory of moonlight dreams,Over thy branches and lordly streams,Clad in thy blossoming trees,Mother, giver of ease.Laughing low and Sweet!Mother I kiss thy feet,Speaker sweet an
White Phosphorus and Flechette weaponsThere was much praise for the UN investigations into war crimes committed in Gaza, led by Richard Goldstone. However, I feel that this report did not go far enough to investigate some other more serious allegations that were made. There is a sense of urgency to bring this investigation forward and put those res
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray’s attack on the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind for opposing the singing of Vande Mataram, saying that those who oppose the National Song should go to Pakistan, misses the wood for the trees. The point is not whether Muslims should sing this song, but whether they are legitimately entitled to Pakistan (and B
The G-20 finance ministers meet in Scotland on November 6th and 7th, and they will all be bleating about the fall in the dollar. France started this week, and the others will follow. Their currencies are rising in value and they do not like it. We expect other nations to follow, Mexico and Brazil in imposing a 2% tax on incoming funds an
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Hari Om
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05 Nov 2009
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The father and founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, gave a concrete shape to his communal views on March 23, 1940, when he presided over the Lahore session of the Muslim League. Delivering the presidential address, he said: “The Hindus and Muslims belong to two religious philosophies, social customs and literatures. They neither inter-ma
The horrors of the US Agent Orange defoliation campaign in Vietnam, about which I wrote on Oct. 15, could ultimately be dwarfed by the horrors caused by the depleted uranium weapons which the US began using in the 1991 Gulf War (300 tons), and which it has used much more extensively - and in more urban, populated areas - in the Iraq War and the now
India’s economic strengthIndo-US naval cooperation is not only to ensure security to a vast water mass through which almost all major countries conduct a significant amount of their annual vital trade. Security of such a water mass is surely of interest to both India and the United States. Beyond that, however, Indo-US naval cooperation has a
On Oct. 8, 2009, French police and agents from the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (known by its French acronym, DCRI) arrested French particle physicist Adlene Hicheur and his brother, Halim, who has a Ph.D. in physiology and bio-mechanics. French authorities arrested the brothers at their family home in Vienne, France, and also seize
For nearly 50 years following World War II, US policy toward India was defined by Washington’s preoccupation with the Cold War. India as a large sovereign developing nation was not generally recognized except as a subset, if you will, of America’s strategy vis-a-vis the Soviet Union. The breakup of the Soviet Union and disso
The current global downturn, the worst since the Great Depression 70 years ago, pounded the last nail into the coffin of globalization. Already beleaguered by evidence that showed global poverty and inequality increasing, even as most poor countries experienced little or no economic growth, globalization has been terminally discredited in the last
The support and positions of various foreign governments in regard to the diabolic fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military, which cost the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, says a great deal about the geo-strategic interests of these foreign governments. The position of the governments of India and a group of states th
US Vice President Joe Biden toured several countries in Central Europe last week [20 Oct], including the Czech Republic and Poland. The trip comes just a few weeks after the United States reversed course and decided not to construct a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in those two countries. While the system would have had little effect on the
Kerala of the foregone century’s first half caught the attention of the rest of the world by effecting revolutionary changes in the socio-economic as well as spiritual framework. It is interesting to see that long before these radical changes took place, Swami Vivekananda, in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, portrayed this place