The marriage of an IAS or IPS officer might not seem to be a topic of larger discussion, but if we go slightly deep down into the issue, we find that there are many facets of this topic that have a deep relationship with larger social issues. And if we enlarge the issue in the context of all young men in different services and non-services, we find
New political leaders do not invent new national strategies. Rather, they adapt enduring national strategies to the moment. On Tuesday [15 May], Francois Hollande will be inaugurated as France's president, and soon after taking the oath of office, he will visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. At this moment, the talks are expected to be
Britain controlled about one-fourth of the Earth's land surface and one-fifth of the world's population in 1939. Fifty years later, its holdings outside the British Isles had become trivial, and it even faced an insurgency in Northern Ireland. Britain spent the intervening years developing strategies to cope with what poet Rudyard Kipling called it
Behind the scenes at the G-8 and NATO summit meetings, some significant decisions were made that will impact over the coming weeks. The critical decision at the G-8 meeting and several of the bilateral meetings that took place on the sidelines of the Camp David gathering centered on the decision to plunge ahead with the bailout of the European
A new round of calls for punishing austerity and depopulation strategies have sprung up in the wake of a Royal Society report ringing the alarm on the so-called overpopulation crisis. The report, entitled “People and the Planet” was published on April 26th and followed up by a flurry of articlesby the usual suspects dutifully parroting
With their financial system crumbling around them, the British Monarchy and its hangers-on have launched a new drive for global depopulation, in the tradition of the Club of Rome, the International Panel on Climate Change, and the World Wildlife Fund. Joining the genocide campaign this time is the British Royal Society, a leading arm of the Empire&
In previous articles the present writer has spoken about the line of continuity from the Rig Veda (and Sama, Yajur and Atharva Veda) through to the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. Conventional scholarship, especially that of Western scholars, has posited a break with the Upanishadic focus on Self and Brahman as a departure from the worship of the
“A world without workers is impossible. A world without capitalists is necessary” – World Federation of Labor. The unemployment rate in the USA is down to just over 8%. This is evidence that we are in a recovery from a recession. But that rate is actually higher than it was when this particular recession began. The patient’s
As this apology of a government completes three years of its miserable existence, the only thought that comes to mind is: how long do we have to suffer it? No other government has belied the high hopes from it so quickly and cavalierly; no other government has confirmed the worst fears about its integrity and competence so comprehensively. Three ye
A surplus of mediators have been around all the time, including the heavy weight Quartet of the UN, US, EU and Russia, as well as heaps of terms of reference of UNSC resolutions, bilateral signed accords and “roadmaps,” in addition to marathon bilateral talks that have left no stone unearthed, international as well as regional conferenc
Turkey is re-emerging as a significant regional power. In some sense, it is in the process of returning to its position prior to World War I when it was the seat of the Ottoman Empire. But while the Ottoman parallel has superficial value in understanding the situation, it fails to take into account changes in how the global system and the region wo
India’s proposal that the United Nations appoint a 50-member watchdog body to regulate the internet has elicited some sharply divergent opinions. One side maintains that the proposed Committee for Internet Related Polices (CIRP), which would oversee all Internet standards bodies and rule on all Internet-related disputes, is a draconian measur
(1) Britain seeks delay to EU’s Iran ship insurance ban (Dmitry Zhdannikov and Justyna Pawla, Reuters) - Britain is seeking to persuade fellow European Union members to postpone by up to six months a ban on providing insurance for tankers carrying Iranian oil, arguing that it could lead to a damaging spike in oil prices, European diplomats sa
The British Museum must return two pratima (images) to the Sarasvati Mandiram in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, where they belong, so that their worship can be resumed by devotees. By all accounts, Major Gen. Williak Kincaid recovered the sculptures of the Goddesses Amba and Vagdevi from the site of the old city palace at Dhar in1875; they entered the colle
Washington’s bizarre Kosovo strategy could destroy NATO: In one of the more bizarre foreign policy announcements of a bizarre Obama Administration, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that Washington will “help” Kosovo to join NATO as well as the European Union. She made the pledge after a recent Washington meeting
Is the digital activist world robust enough to survive legislation attacks by the world’s superpowers? The legislative attacks are not the big problem, either for the internet or for the communications revolution – which has given us such ability to understand the world by learning through the experiences of other people. Rather, the pr
Sweatshop labor is back with a vengeance. It can be found across broad stretches of the American economy and around the world. Penitentiaries have become a niche market for such work. The privatization of prisons in recent years has meant the creation of a small army of workers too coerced and right-less to complain. Prisoners, whose ranks increasi
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 reversed a process that had been under way since the Russian Empire's emergence in the 17th century. It was ultimately to incorporate four general elements: Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Siberia. The St. Petersburg-Moscow axis was its core, and Russia, Belorussia and Ukraine were its center
The Obama administration “pivot” to the Pacific, formally announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last November and reiterated more recently by the president himself, might appear like a reassertion of America's imperial tendencies just at the time when Washington should be concentrating on the domestic economy. But in fact, the
US drones fired two missiles at a house in the Darai Nishtar locality of Shawal in North Waziristan, Pakistan, May 5, killing 10 people, and injuring 27 others. News reports indicate the death toll may rise, as many of the injured are reported to be in critical condition. Nearly 93 people have been killed in US strikes in Pakistan since the beginni
Two years before the Deepwater Horizon blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP off-shore rig suffered a nearly identical blow-out, but BP concealed the first one from the US regulators and Congress. This week, EcoWatch.org [April 19-20] located an eyewitness with devastating new information about the Caspian Sea oil-rig blow-out which BP had con
He has few constraints (except those he’s internalized). No one can stop him or countermand his orders. He has a bevy of lawyers at his beck and call to explain the “legality” of his actions. And if he cares to, he can send a robot assassin to kill you, whoever you are, no matter where you may be on planet Earth. He sounds like a
As the world moves into the second decade of the 21st century, a new power rivalry is taking shape between India and China, Asia's two behemoths in terms of territory, population and richness of civilization. India's recent successful launch of a long-range missile able to hit Beijing and Shanghai with nuclear weapons is the latest sign of this dev
Much has been written about anticipated events in 2012. However, history has shown that predicting future events, and especially the timing of these events, is at best an imprecise art. I suggest that a major factor is that consciousness, particularly collective consciousness, has much more influence and authority over events than we currently reco
In previous articles, the writer pointed out that monotheist appropriators of Vedic Hinduism lift a few lines or verses from the Rig Veda to emphasise the similarity between their beliefs and those of the Vedas and Upanishads. They do not go anywhere near the other three Vedas (Yajur, Sama and Atharva) and stay as far as they can from the Brahmanas
Goldman Sachs -- via economist Jim O’Neill -- invented the concept of a rising new bloc on the planet: BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Some cynics couldn’t help calling it the “Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept.” Not really. Goldman now expects the BRICS countries to account for almost 40% of global gr
[Bersih, literally meaning ‘Clean’ in Malay, is the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections in Malaysia. It started out as the Joint Action Committee for Electoral Reform, and the coalition's objective was to push for a thorough reform of the electoral process in Malaysia. (http://bersih.org) At its formation, BERSIH comprised civil soci
Non-Western nations have long known that non-governmental organizations, ostensibly set up to provide humanitarian services to citizens in their respective countries, such as against police or other public authorities, fighting poverty or environmental degradation, are funded by foreign regimes to serve their agendas. They are in that sense a tool
On a recent visit to the South and North of Syria, the author interacted with people from different walks of life and found that there was a strong feeling in Syria that the Anglo-American Bloc is bent upon demonizing the Syrian leadership in order to demolish a great civilization, just as happened in Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and most recently i
From 2002 to 2010, Antonio Maria Costa was the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), headquartered in Vienna, Austria. He became world-famous in January 2009—only months after the meltdown of the trans-Atlantic banking system—when he stated, in an interview with the Austrian weekly Profil, that mass
Making homage at all the sacred sites associated with the Buddha, the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsiang) encountered the moving story of Hamsa Stupa, situated on a mountain in the vicinity of Rajgriha, where King Bimbisara and his people welcomed the Buddha after he had attained enlightenment. The monks of this monastery used to eat the three
Like Banco’s ghost at Macbeth’s table, Bofors refuses to go away. Every time Congress thinks the gun has fallen silent for the good, it booms again. The barrel of the Bofors gun now points unmistakably towards Sonia Gandhi, if journalists would only show the courage and perspicacity to collate facts and interpret them correctly. Politic
On 12 February 2012, the Justice Department and the US Department of Agriculture held a meeting in Ankeny in the suburb of Iowa, the American “corn belt”, to probe into the alleged “competitive dynamics of the seed industry”. Outside, a huge coalition of families of farmers, consumers and other critics of corporate agricultu
Hindus do not need extremists or the past history of violence and conquest to realise that the dogmatic monotheistic faiths (Islam and Christianity) are not for them. They have to only look at the performances of persons like Dr. Zakir Naik, the Islamic scholar who discussed religion with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, his mangling of the Veda and cherry pi
There are distinct indications that some forces within India and Pakistan have made headway in improving relations between their two countries. While the intent, and whatever progress has been made by their efforts, are laudable, what both sides must recognize is that a number of external, and some internal, forces will do their best to prevent con
Not only Nepal’s but the entire Himalayan region is under threat. Genetically Engineered seeds are weapons of mass culling. The Nepalese Government’s foolishness in inviting USAID and Monsanto for ‘agricultural development’ through genetically engineered maize will destroy the quality of its livestock and humans. The contami