The tragedy of the earthquake-tsunami induced failure at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, eerily close to the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe, is a grim warning that nuclear holocaust could come to us without a nuclear attack. Stoically holding fort amidst the creeping nuclear mushroom, Japanese authorities have infor
Missing in the Japan Catastrophe -- Thinking the Unthinkable “Seldom more than thrice annually did any layman or stranger travel the old road that passed the abbey, in spite of the oasis which permitted that abbey’s existence and which would have made the monastery a natural inn for wayfarers if the road were not a road from nowhere, le
When nuclear reactors blow, the first thing that melts down is the truth. Just as in the Chernobyl catastrophe almost 25 years ago when Soviet authorities denied the extent of radiation and downplayed the dire situation that was spiraling out of control, Japanese authorities spent the first week of the Fukushima crisis issuing conflicting and
“And by the very end we are joyfully led over the cliff by simpletons and lunatics, many of whom appear to be lining up for the Republican presidential nomination.”“(The ecological disaster on) Easter Island was a microcosm which provides a model for the whole planet.) I have walked through the barren remains of Babylon in Ir
Swami Prabhavananda’s edition of Srimad Bhagavatam contains what for me is an amazing contention on the meaning and purpose of religion and its intellectual counterpart philosophy. Serious students of the two related subjects can never challenge the statement that forms a profoundly beautiful starting point for studies in the science of relig
[Excerpt of a chapter by Andrew Gavin Marshall from the new book by Global Research Publishers: “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century” Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall (editors)] Introduction To understand the historical context of the current crisis, it is pivotal to addre
From Egypt to Pakistan, February 2011 will be remembered as a month unusually full of the embarrassments of empire. Americans were enthralled by a spectacle of liberty in which we felt we should somehow be playing a part. Here were popular movements toward self-government, which might once have looked to the United States as an exemplar, springing
|
by
Hari Om
|
on
24 Mar 2011
|
15 Comments
|
The respective speeches of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference–Geelani chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani and National Conference president cum Union Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah at the India Today conclave have established that the “mainstream” NC and radical separatist pro-Pakistan APHC (G) are almost on the same page (N
Disruption of trade, fall in commodity prices, surge in yen and decline in outbound investment will affect India, but only to a limited extent. Calamities, natural and man-made, are not new to Japan and her people. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and even a nuclear attack – Japanese people have seen it all and, to their credit,
On March 15, Rediff.com published an interview with the leading Indian agro-scientist M.S. Swaminathan, describing his disillusionment with the Manmohan Singh government’s policy toward the farmland. Swaminathan was one of the troika - the other two were the legendary American agronomist Norman Borlaug and then-Union Agriculture Minister
Over the past week, everything seemed to converge on energy. The unrest in the Persian Gulf raised the specter of the disruption of oil supplies to the rest of the world, and an earthquake in Japan knocked out a string of nuclear reactors with potentially devastating effect. Japan depends on nuclear energy and it depends on the Persian Gulf, which
PART III: “Humanitarian Wars are Good for Business”.... Speculators Applaud....The establishment of a no fly zone is on the drawing board of the Pentagon. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, supported by the Arab League and the Organization for African Unity (OUA) have labelled Libya as “An Unfriendly Nation”.
The governments of the United States and United Kingdom are guilty of war crimes, having authorized the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) against innocent civilians and our own military forces to a level bordering on mass genocide. Many of the weapons used, especially those used against tanks (armour piercing) and against hard targets (Cruis
Part II The geopolitical and economic implications of a US-NATO led military intervention directed against Libya are far-reaching. Libya is among the World’s largest oil economies with approximately 3.5% of global oil reserves, more than twice those of the US. “Operation Libya” is part of the broader military agenda in the M
The three issues concern non-natural death – and this death is putting an end to life that is being nursed in one’s own self, or of the other, either consciously as an act of mercy, or forced on the other as a societal decision. Since death is the end of life, a community’s response to these three situations is naturally governed
Three mummies were recently found in an underground temple in Luxor, Egypt. Translated hieroglyphs identified them as the Clash of Civilizations, the End of History, and Islamophobia. They ruled in Western domains into the second decade of the twenty-first century before dying and being embalmed. That much is settled. Without them, the Middle
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition force into Bahrain to help the government calm the unrest there. This move puts Iran in a difficult position, as Tehran had hoped to use the uprising in Bahrain to promote instability in the Persian Gulf region. Iran could refrain from acting and lose an opportunity to destabilize the region, or it could choose f
Fallout of the dwindling DyarchyAmidst the stench of corruption and malfeasance rising from the second political innings of the UPA coalition headed by Manmohan Singh but presided over by the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi comes a startling revelation – the unremarkable Robert Vadra, small time exporter of artificial jewellery and son-in-law of th
Egypt’s revolution is considered to be a startling new development, the result of the Internet age. But it is actually more like the traditional revolutionary scenario predicted by Karl Marx in the mid-19th century, a desperate protest against mass poverty resulting from rampant capitalism. Its association with the overth
|
by
Hari Om
|
on
18 Mar 2011
|
9 Comments
|
The oppressed and suppressed people of Libya rose in revolt against the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi on February 15, taking to the streets and demanding an end to the decades-old dictatorship. The struggle continues unabated, with the determined people making it clear they are fighting for a system of government in which they have a say in the g
With unrest spreading wider in the Arab world, is the world in for another oil shock? The Arab oil embargo of 1973, the Iranian revolution in 1978-79, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and now the so-called Jasmine Revolution, have shown that the inflammable mix of geopolitics and geology in West Asia and North Africa can play havo
The world’s attention is focused on Libya, which is now in a state of civil war with the winner far from clear. While crucial for the Libyan people and of some significance to the world’s oil markets, in our view, Libya is not the most important event in the Arab world at the moment. The demonstrations in Bahrain are, in my view, far mo
Emergency Special Report IThe Wave, reminiscent of Hokusai’s masterful woodblock print, blew past Japan’s shoreline defenses of harbour breakwaters and gigantic four-legged blocks called tetrapods, lifting ships to ram through seawalls and crash onto downtown parking lots. Seaside areas were soon emptied of cars and houses dragged up ri
How a Revolution of Hope Is Changing the Way Americans Look at Islam Since 2001, Americans have been living with a nightmare Arab, a Muslim monster threatening us to the core, chilling our souls with the cry, “God is great!” Yet after two months of world-historic protest and rebellion in streets and squares across the Arab world, w
The Supreme Court’s decision to set parameters for withdrawal of medically unproductive aid to terminally ill patients would have been truly rewarding if the august Court had not fallen into the Abrahamic mindset of viewing life in opposition to death, disregarding India’s civilisational ethos which sees life and death as a continuum, a
[On 23 May, 2004, JAPAN TIMES published an article by geo-scientist and international radiation specialist Leuren Moret, predicting the disaster that has now befallen the island nation. The disaster is so bad that there are 13 damaged reactors in Japan that have been shut down but 5 are extremely serious and in various stages of radioactive release
From practically the day he took office as Prime Minister in May 1997, Tony Blair, along with top officials of MI6, Lord Jacob Rothschild, Baroness Liz Symons, and leading members of the British Royal Family have promoted Muammar Qaddafi and fostered Libya’s growing political and economic ties with Britain, right up to the present moment, as
Calls are growing for a no-fly zone over Libya, but a power or coalition of powers willing to enforce one remains elusive. In evaluating such calls, it is useful to remember that in war, Murphy’s Law always lurks. What can go wrong will go wrong, in Libya as in Iraq or Afghanistan. Complications to Airstrikes It has been pointed out
“The Big Lie is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, for a lie so `colossal’ that no one would believe that someone `could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously’” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie, 26/2/11). “…when o
The British magistrate court has decided to surrender Julian Assange to the Nordic Amazons who were hunting for his head pending appeal. Thus the long Saga of the Broken Condom, or whatever name by which it will become known to posterity, took a definite turn for the worse. The judge decided to honour the European Arrest Warrant issued by man-eatin
The attention of Americans and the world has focused on the Arab people’s struggles for freedom against dictatorships, and the turn of Jordan is imminent. US coverage of Jordan has erected a myth that King Abdullah of Jordan is a progressive monarch. President Obama lauded him as a statesman seeking “to resolve issues and conflicts in a
The US and NATO are supporting an armed insurrection in Eastern Libya, with a view to justifying a “humanitarian intervention”. This is not a non-violent protest movement as in Egypt and Tunisia. Conditions in Libya are fundamentally different. The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers. Of significanc
Whatever the outcome of the protests, uprisings, and rebellions now sweeping the Middle East, one thing is guaranteed: the world of oil will be permanently transformed. Consider everything that’s now happening as just the first tremor of an oilquake that will shake our world to its core. For a century stretching back to the di
Tens of thousands of trade union members demonstrated against rising food prices in New Delhi Feb. 23, under the leadership of G. Sanjeeva Reddy, a Congress party Member of Parliament, and president of the Congress Party-affiliated trade union INTUC. Other trade union organizations, including the CITU and the AITUC, also joined the rally. One estim
THE hike in petrol prices by oil companies has hit the common man hard. The masses, reeling under hyper-inflation, are feeling helpless. The consumption of petroleum products cannot be compared with that of any other commodity as increase in fuel prices raises the cost of transport, both freight and passenger, the running cost of industries, and th
The Budget can no longer be a statement of the income and expenditure of the Government, neither can it remain a political instrument insulated from the economic realities. It is in fact a statement of the Government’s vision, ambition, roadmap, intent, and most importantly, an articulation of the aspirations of diverse interest groups that m
Last week the Guardian, Britain’s main liberal newspaper, ran an exclusive report on the belated confessions of an Iraqi exile, Rafeed al-Janabi, codenamed “Curveball” by the CIA. Eight years ago, Janabi played a key behind-the-scenes role - if an inadvertent one - in making possible the US invasion of Iraq. His testimony bolstere
In a rare move expected to go a long way in ensuring environmental accountability by giant multinational corporations, the Kerala Assembly on 24 Feb. 2011 unanimously passed a bill to set up a Special Tribunal to determine the compensation to be paid by Coca Cola for pollution caused in Plachimada, Palakkad district. As of now, however, the issue o
There is a Russian proverb: only a fool learns from his own mistakes. As Georgia’s foreign minister visits his Egyptian counterpart, there are lessons for Egypt in similar revolutions in eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, notes Eric Walberg. Central to Egypt’s revolution was a tiny group of Serbian activists Otpor (resistance)
The world financial system is a total fraud. It is one gargantuan Ponzi scheme, no better than the one Bernie Madoff used to swindle his friends and neighbours, and thousands of times worse if you add up the total number of victims it has ripped off over countless generations. The principal difference between the two schemes is that Madoff was acti
[On 3 March 2011, a Lahore court rejected the US claim that CIA contractor Raymond Davis had diplomatic immunity, and determined to go ahead with his trial. The case has been adjourned till 8 March - ed.] On March 1, US diplomatic sources reportedly told Dawn News that a proposed exchange with the Pakistani government of US citizen Raymond Da
The latest chapter in the quest for open government finds our embattled knight holed up within the grey brick Georgian walls of Ellingham Hall while the dark forces outside attempt a disorderly checkmate. The British courts have long debated whether to pack Julian Assange off to the star spangled torture chambers of Guantanamo, but have finally set
The pseudo-secular streak that has engulfed the Indian political establishment and the intelligentsia has left a mark even on organizations aloof from this ethos, with consequences that did not augur well for them or for the Indian nation. Dr K.B. Hedgewar, founder and first head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had certain fundament
Of all the struggles going on in North Africa and the Middle East right now, the most difficult to unravel is the one in Libya. What is the character of the opposition to the Gadhafi regime, which reportedly now controls the eastern city of Benghazi? Is it just coincidence that the rebellion started in Benghazi, which is north of Li
On February 13, 2011, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, known as the Angelides Commission, completed its one year mandate, and submitted a 500 page report to Congress. That report is now a nationwide bestseller on both the New York Times and Washington Post list - and for good reason. Don’t be put off by the fact that this was a Congre
Czechoslovakian independence leader Eduard Benes is unique among national leaders for having been forced into exile twice in his political career. The first time was for opposing the Austro-Hungarian Empire before and during World War I and the second time was before World War II, for resisting Nazi Germany during Hitler’s takeover of the Sud
According to Lebanese philosopher Nassim Taleh, most great social and political events and discoveries cannot be predicted. Like the black swan, they are not expected and their sighting is an extremely rare event that has a great impact. As Taleh explains: “First, [the event] is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations
Budget 2011 merely reflects the drift in the Central Government. Perhaps never in the history of independent India, with the sole exception of the period during the Emergency, has a Central Government suffered from such a credibility crisis as the present one. Naturally, what matters is not the fiscal, revenue, current account, trade deficits or fo
Godhra Incident- Analysed- Facts and Inferences There has been so much said, written and broadcast about the Godhra incident that it is difficult to distinguish between facts, half-truths, innocent imagination and motivated lies. Media and interested parties have selected, distorted and added fiction to the story to prove their respective points of
The month-long face-off between Islamabad and Washington over the arrest of undercover CIA agent Raymond Davis for murdering two ISI operatives on 27 Jan. in Lahore could trigger the collapse of American influence in the region. Even if ties are mended for now, the White House will have to revisit its Afghanistan strategy and its animosity towards
[On 22 March 2002, after the Godhra carnage of 27 Feb. 2002 sparked off one of the worst riots in modern India, the Council for International Affairs and Human Rights, Delhi, deputed a team led by Justice D.S. Tewatia, vice-chairman of the Council and a former Chief Justice of Calcutta and Punjab & Haryana High Courts, to study the ground situa