Harvard professor Michael Witzel, who recently visited India in the guise of a ‘scientist’ and ‘Sanskrit scholar,’ has claimed in his tour report that his presentations and lectures at the science conference in Hyderabad and places were a success. Claiming the Hindutva form of ‘chauvinism’ is waning in India, he
On the morning of July 17, a guest at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta came down to the lobby and began walking toward the lounge with his roll-aboard suitcase in tow and a backpack slung across his chest. Sensing something odd about the fellow, alert security officers approached him and asked him if he required assistance. The guest responded that
India’s first sea bridge, the Bandra-Worli Sea-Link in Mumbai, described as a marvel of engineering, was inaugurated on 30 June 2009 by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The 4.8-kilometre long, eight-lane bridge, constructed at a cost of Rs.1634 crores, took a little less than five years to be completed since work commenced in October 2004. At th
Obama’s geopolitical demarche in Russia’s backyard is moving ahead nicely - for the present, notes Eric WalbergFirst there was the election in Bulgaria 5 July which brought a new party to power - Boyko Borisov’s Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria. Borisov, or Batman, as he is affectionately called, was a Communist-era p
Was British Weapons Expert Dr. David Kelly a Target? Revelations that the Central Intelligence Agency launched a world-wide assassination program, and then concealed its existence from the US Congress and the American people for eight years, carries an implication that death squads may have been employed against political opponents.The Wall Street
If we can cast our minds back to the Gulf War and Afghanistan War, we can see from my previous story that contamination was not only restricted to the Middle East Region, but also had the ability to travel vast distances. The fact is that in only a period of 7-9 days this same DU contamination had planted its seeds in the atmosphere and soil of the
At Friday prayers July 17 at Tehran University, the influential cleric and former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani gave his first sermon since Iran’s disputed presidential election and the subsequent demonstrations. The crowd listening to Rafsanjani inside the mosque was filled with Ahmadinejad supporters who chanted, among othe
I sincerely hope in the writing of this series that the people of the Middle East and the world in general will open up their hearts and understand the deep suffering of the people of Palestine and the terrible aftermath that exists in Gaza today and to some extent the West Bank. This story reveals my own attempt to sail to Gaza that failed due to
Nabucco Turkey EU and Obama GeopoliticsOne of his first foreign visits as new President took Barack Obama to Ankara for a high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and other leading Turkish officials. Obama engaged in classical “horse trading” wheeling and dealing. “I give you support for Turkey’s EU membership;
What does Gaza have that Israel desperately needs?Since British Gas (BG) first discovered huge offshore reserves of natural gas in Gazan waters, Israel has attempted to dictate and secure the future of these reserves. At one stage they almost signed up for the entire reserve, but then political change took place in Gaza when Hamas came to power. Th
The reunification of Germany in 1990 did not signify a centripetal trend in Europe but instead was an anomaly. The following year the Soviet Union was broken up into its fifteen constituent federal republics and the same process began in Yugoslavia, with Germany leading the charge in hastening on and recognizing the secession of Croatia and Sloveni
For decades, the mainstream newspapers (and now electronic media), instead of exposing the lies and falsehood propagated by various political/liberal/Marxist elements, have actively collaborated and colluded in projecting certain sections of Hindus as eternal wrongdoers and spared no pains to instigate antipathy towards them. In the process, numero
The impact of the US invasion of Afghanistan in the winter of 2001 has been felt all around the region, but the worst victims were undoubtedly Pakistan and Tajikistan. In many ways, however, Pakistan was responsible for its own victimization. Pakistan was deeply involved in Afghan affairs since the 1980s and did not want to disentangle itself at an
The desperate attempts of the Congress party and the UPA government to wriggle out of the latest blunder of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vis-à-vis Pakistan in Egypt only confirm the suspicion which many harboured but were too polite (or afraid) to voice publicly – that India’s national interests are not safe in the hands of Dr.
[Most Americans distrust the official version of the events of 11 September 2001. The article below is part of the American quest to expose official deception, through recently declassified documents, but the story unveiled is clearly far from complete. Parts of the cover up are similar to India’s own experience in Mumbai 2008, where leads po
When the post-World War II German states the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, West and East Germany, respectively, were united in 1990, it was for many in Europe and the world as a whole a heady time, fraught with hopes of a continent at peace and perhaps disarmed.Despite US pledges to the last president of the Soviet
Separatists go for the OverkillThe headlines of local newspapers in the Kashmir Valley have been blaring with relentless intensity… July 09 - Woman’s rape, murder rocks Kupwara; July 08 - Asrar’s killing sparks massive protests in Srinagar. July 07 - Bomb hurled at Baramulla police station, 3 grenade explosions in 2 days; July 06
The US slaughter in Afghanistan makes the Chinese creeping colonisation of Urumqi look like a picnic, bemoans Eric Walberg Last week’s riots in Urumqi, resulting in 180 deaths, recall similar protests in Tibet last year, though only 19 people were killed there. Both Uighurs and Tibetans exiles demonstrated during the Chinese Olympics, to litt
I was really sorry for Prof. Michael Witzel. After all, he was our honoured guest! Dr. Singh should not have pounced on him so mercilessly, playing the cat and the rat game – the cat looking ascetically resigned tossing the rat, the rat pretending to be dead, breathlessly looking from the corner of his eye to judge the cat’s next move,
The acronym ‘SC’ could well stand for ‘Supremely Confident.’ How else does one describe the calibrated anger with which the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister created opportunity from the intemperate rhetoric of the state Congress chief, to awe the entire political spectrum? Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s odious oratory was followed
Kerala once contributed much to Hindu culture and civilization, but is now poised as its destroyer, discharging Yama dharma. This land has a great line of teachers/rishis, beginning with Jagadguru Sankaracharya. Aryabhatta I, astronomer and mathematician; Govindaswamin, ninth century CE, who wrote a bhasya on Mahabhaskaariya; Sankara Narayana, auth
If there has ever been a word and its meaning that has stumped people from the time of its origin to our own times, it is ‘faith.’ Derived from Latin fidere to trust, by the time it became ‘faith’ it had all right-thinking people treading a treacherous, slippery ground. Its definition as firm belief in something f
If you want to know what really matters in Washington, don’t go to Capitol Hill for one of those hearings, or pay attention to those staged White House “town meetings.” They’re just for show. What really happens - the serious business of Washington - happens in the shadows, out of sight, off the record. Only occasionally - a
Here’s how reporters Steven Lee Myers and Marc Santora of the New York Times described the highly touted American withdrawal from Iraq’s cities last week: “Much of the complicated work of dismantling and removing millions of dollars of equipment from the combat outposts in the city has been done during the dark of night. Gen. Ray
On May 1st at Fort Hood in central Texas, Specialist Victor Agosto wrote on a counselling statement, which is actually a punitive US Army memo: “There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect.”Ten days later, he refused to obe
On July 7, business associations of Bangladesh discussed a study, “Restoring the Asian Silk Route: Toward an Integrated Asia,” and recommended to the Bangladesh government that Dhaka should only opt for restoration of original Silk Route connecting all countries of the region and strike a comprehensive deal with New Delhi for allowing p
Mourning Michael Jackson, Ignoring the Afghan DeadIt was a blast. I’m talking about my daughter’s wedding. You don’t often see a child of yours quite that happy. I’m no party animal, but I danced my 64-year-old legs off. And I can’t claim that as I walked my daughter to the ceremony, or ate, or talked with friends, or
The government has decided to go ahead with the Unique Identification Card Project and entrusted it to Mr. Nandan Nilekani of Infosys fame. The idea is to create an identification number for every citizen, buttressed with a smart card that allows governments, banks and other institutions to interact directly with every citizen. Mr. Nilekani will be
Tamil Hinduism versus ChristianityThe Tamil Tigers under Prabhakaran repeatedly thrust war upon the Sri Lankan Tamils. It would be worthwhile to review our recent history, learn its lessons and endeavour to achieve a brighter future. The defeat of the LTTE offers us the space to change direction, revive our cultural traditions and our economic fort
After the tragic events of July 5 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, it would be useful to look more closely into the actual role of the US Government’s “independent” NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). All indications are that the US Government, once more acting through its “private” Non-Gover
A political-economic oligarchy has taken over the United States of America. This oligarchy has institutionalized a body of law that protects businesses at the expense of not only the common people but the nation itself.CNN interviewed a person recently who was seriously burned when his vehicle burst into flames because a plastic brake-fluid reservo
Maya-Mahmood-MahatmaRecently Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati named Gandhiji a ‘Natakbaaz.’ Expectedly, the mainstream media downplayed it and the Congress party’s response was muted for obvious reasons. How the media and the Congress would have reacted if the comment had been made by a BJP leader is left to our imagination.
The US Empire of Bases - at $102 billion a year already the world’s costliest military enterprise - just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new “embassy” in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 millio
[This is an enemy text, have no doubt. Still an interesting one: a story of Oriental Jews rising against Zionism written by a fervent Zionist – Israel Shamir]A growing group of Jewish Israeli professors is challenging the legitimacy of the Israeli state from within. Many are Mizrahim, as the Sephardi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa
Happy-face media reporting of economic news is providing the usual upbeat spin on Friday’s debt-deflation statistics. The Commerce Department’s National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) for May show that US “savings” are now absorbing 6.9 percent of income. I put the word “savings&
The Obama administration lost international credibility when obdurate Honduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti aborted the 10 July proposed mediation by Costa Rica President Oscar Arias. In an unsurprising anti-climax, Micheletti left San Jose without meeting ousted President Manuel Zelaya who insisted on reinstatement even as the usurper was adaman
[June was a busy month for two of Washington’s real ‘Axis of Evil’. Venezuela’s Chavez completed his nationalisation of oil and Iran’s Ahmadinejad stemmed a Western-backed colour revolution, leaving both bad boys in place, muses Eric Walberg] What drives US foreign policy? Is it primarily the domestic economy, as
What if the Palestinian Arabs who have lived for decades under the heel of the modern Israeli state are in fact descended from the very same “children of Israel” described in the Old Testament?And what if most modern Israelis aren’t descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans a
The Moscow summit between US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ended. As is almost always the case, the atmospherics were good, with the proper things said on all sides and statements and gestures of deep sincerity made. And as with all summits, those atmospherics are like the ai
While English language television in the United States mined the minutiae of Michael Jackson’s upcoming funeral, millions watching Spanish, Portuguese and French language media in the rest of the Americas were transfixed by live broadcasts of the Honduran military shooting and killing a 10 year-old boy and other protesters. From the US-Mexico
[More than a month after the tragic death of an asthmatic schoolgirl on account of delayed medical assistance in school, there is a pressing need for sensitisation of schools to an issue that seems to have been relegated to the backburner – Editor]The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights was set up as a statutory body on 1
On July 5, Urumqi, capital of the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, was thrown into turmoil when a demonstration by some members of the local Uighur Muslim community, protesting against the migrated Han Chinese community, turned violent. The violence led to many deaths, in both communities. At the time of writing, violence continues and there a
The progressive writer Mark Twain admitted that “Prejudice is the ink with which history is written.” Post-modernism, in order to contest this defect, appreciated the subjectivity of historical interpretation which is often mediated by ideological baggage, thereby conditioning the ideological historian’s perception of truth, rende
By a curious coincidence, the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission probing the Kandhamal riots of 2008 submitted its interim report almost simultaneously with the final report of the Justice Liberhan Commission on the post-1992 violence following demolition of the Babri structure in Ayodhya. The reasons for which the respective commissions were set up
If, and when, the US and other foreign troops leave Afghanistan, the Afghan people will have to go back to their former, relatively primitive way of life. That is because despite all the rhetoric and the billions in taxpayers’ dollars that have been pumped into Afghanistan to “win the war,” the occupying forces, and the countries
Much ado about nothing?What is there about the Iranian election of June 12 that has led to it being one of the leading stories in media around the world every day since? Elections whose results are seriously challenged have taken place in most countries at one time or another in recent decades. Countless Americans believe that the presidential elec
From hindsight, 1999 year was an ill-fated one for Lanka. That’s when the Norwegian Dy. Foreign Minister Vidar Helgersen surfaced in Colombo and offered Norway’s unstinted support to the natives, so they can resolve their problems. The 24th January 1999 issue of ‘The Sunday Observer’ relayed his joyful massage to the dense L
With the rate of contraction slowing down in the western world and emerging markets faring better than expected, confidence about the overall state of the global economy has risen significantly. This growing confidence has resulted in markets, especially emerging markets rallying rather quickly; which in turn has further boosted economic sentiment.
Kerala is well known for its excellence in the fields of universal literacy, sex-equality, population control, etc. Above all, its natural beauty and peaceful coexistence of various religious groups is the envy of the rest of the land. That is why it is known to the world as God’s own country. Now these attributes are under serious thre
On June 30, US troops began withdrawing from Iraqi cities and towns as part of the Status of Forces Agreement that was ratified by the Iraqi Parliament last November. The agreement also stipulates that all American troops must leave the country by 2011. However, it would be naïve to assume at this point of time that Washington would withdraw a
Sri Lanka vs. Western NationsThe Times’ report, which came after the official visit of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to Sri Lanka, quoted two UN officials saying that Ban was aware of the death of 20,000 Tamil civilians. This report, along with a video clipping, raised a furore in the international arena, particularly among western nations
Dubious Tamil organisationsThe LTTE has many organizations in the name of Tamil, which act as fronts, indulging clandestinely in fund-raising and arms purchasing. When the FBI arrested some pro-LTTE activists in New York and New Jersey areas two years ago, the US authorities identified and cited the various proxy organizations of the LTTE in their
Speaking of the situation in Iran, US President Barack Obama said June 26, “We don’t yet know how any potential dialogue will have been affected until we see what has happened inside of Iran.” On the surface that is a strange statement, since we know that with minor exceptions, the demonstrations in Tehran lost steam after Iranian
“LTTE Chief Prabhakaran was inspired by Bhagwat Gita; he was greatly enamoured of the principles enunciated in the Gita; his motto was ‘do your duty but do not expect any benefit from it.’ He found his ideology from the song depicting the discourse between Arjuna and Krishna in the Tamil film ‘Karna.’ The Itihasa-Mahab
Iran’s current political divisions can be traced back to a controversy nearly three decades ago when Iran faced war with Iraq and became entwined with US and Israeli political manoeuvers that set all three countries on a dangerous course that continues to this day. In the election dispute now gripping the streets of Tehran, Iran is experienci