CC News Letter 19 August - Arundhati Roy's Statement
Dear Friend,
If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents
In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org
Police Raid FTII Campus At Midnight, Arrest Five Students
By Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/cc190815.htm
A Police raid was conducted at midnight at Film And Television Institute of India ( FTII) against striking students and five students were arrested on false charges. The complaint was filed by the director of the institute , Prashant Pathrabe, after students gheraoed him on Monday protesting "irrational and unjustified" assessment of the incomplete diploma projects. Acting on a complaint filed by Mr. Pathrabe, police lodged an FIR against 15 students. The arrested students face charges of rioting under Section 353 of the IPC. Section 353 is non-bailable which means that students will be lodged in jail
Branding Adivasis And Activists As Maoists The Government Has Declared A War On Its Own People By Arundhati Roy
http://www.countercurrents.org/roy190815.htm
Here is the text of a note by writer-activist, Arundhati Roy, which she read out during a press conference at Press Club of India, Delhi, to express solidarity with Soni Sori & Linga Kodopi and the People of Bastar
Replanting
By Kathy Kelly
http://www.countercurrents.org/kelly190815.htm
Speaking on behalf of indigenous people in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, earlier this summer, Pope Francis apologized for the role the Catholic Church played in oppressing Latin America's indigenous people. He called for a worldwide grass roots movement that would shatter global corporate abuses of "the new colonialism." Political elites in the U.S. should follow his lead and apologize for the genocidal destruction U.S. people waged against indigenous peoples. They should look toward indigenous people for guidance about ways to make reparations
Minsk Agreement Has Failed: Will The Failure Lead To Putin's Failure?
By Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.countercurrents.org/roberts190815.htm
It appears that the Russian government has made a mistake with regard to its approach to the breakaway Republics consisting of Russian peoples in former Russian territories who reject being governed by the anti-Russian coup government installed in Kiev by Washington. The Russian government could have ended the crisis by accepting the requests of these territories to be reunited with Russia. Instead, the Russian government opted for a diplomatic approach—hands off Donetsk and Luhansk—and this diplomacy has now failed. The coup government in Kiev never had any intention of keeping the Minsk agreement, and Washington had no intention of permitting the Minsk agreement to be kept. Apparently, even the realistic Putin succumbed to wishful thinking
Is The New U.S. 'Law of War Manual' Actually 'Hitlerian'?
By Eric Zuesse
http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse190815.htm
The Obama U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has quietly issued its important Law of War Manual, and, unlike its predecessor, the 1956 U.S. Army Field Manual, which was not designed to approve of the worst practices by both the United States and its enemies in World War II, or after 9/11, this new document has been alleged specifically to do just that: to allow such attacks as the United States did on Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and in Iraq, and elsewhere
Jimmy Carter's Blood-Soaked Legacy
By Matt Peppe
http://www.countercurrents.org/peppe190815.htm
A few days ago former President Jimmy Carter announced that he has cancer and it is spreading. While it would be premature to assume this spells the end for the 90-year-old, it does present an opportunity to take stock of the tenure of a President who, like the current occupant of the White House, entered office with a promise to respect human rights, but failed miserably when given the opportunity to do so
Jimmy Carter: Just Like All The Rest
By Mickey Z.
http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz190815.htm
If you think Jimmy Carter was once the answer or you believe Bernie Sanders is now the answer, you're asking the wrong questions
Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: Monsanto's Silence Is Deafening
By Colin Todhunter
http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter190815.htm
In his book 'Altered Genes,Twisted Truths', US public interest attorney Steven Druker exposed the fraudulent practices and deceptions that led to the commercialisation of GM food and crops in the US. Not long after the book's release, he wrote an open letter to the Royal Society in Britain calling on it to acknowledge and correct the misleading and exaggerated statements that it has used to actively promote GMOs and in effect convey false impressions and the other to Monsanto. He followed this up by delivering a challenge to Monsanto's headquarters on May 20, 2015 calling on the company to address the evidence presented in the book
War Begets War Refugees: The Moral Bankruptcy of Italy And NATO
By Ramzy Baroud
http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud190815.htm
On April 26, 2011, a meeting that can only be described as sinister took place between the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The most pressing issue discussed at the meeting in Rome was how to deal with African immigrants
US Coerces Iran To Capitulate Its Nuclear Program
By Akbar E. Torbat
http://www.countercurrents.org/torbat190815.htm
By conceding to the nuclear agreement in Vienna, the Islamic regime in Tehran has granted a very shameful capitulation to foreign powers. The clerics have sacrificed Iran's national security and sovereignty in return for survival of their regime. By imposing the JCPOA, the US has forced the clerical regime to accept the most shameful capitulation in Iran's contemporary history. Rouhani and his foreign minister Zarif must be ashamed of imposing such a capitulation on the Iranian people
Race, Crime And The Media
By Jon Kofas
http://www.countercurrents.org/kofas190815.htm
There is a multi-billion dollar industry in America profiting from the fear the public has about crime, so these corporations have no problem with the status quo. Everything from home detection and spy cameras to insurance plans and private security officers account for a very profitable industry that could be cut down to size if the country did not have a social, economic and political system based on social injustice
Over Forty Percent of U.S. Children Are Living in Poverty
By Thomas Riggins
http://www.countercurrents.org/riggins190815.htm
A January 2015 report from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health reveals that forty four percent of children (those under 18) are living in de facto poverty
Review Of The Novel "Butterfly Prison" By Tamara Pearsen
By Andre Vltchek
http://www.countercurrents.org/vltchek190815.htm
Now a Latin American writer, or more precisely "an internationalist" writer, a socialist realist, a revolutionary, Tamara Pearsen, returned home, on the wings of imagination, through her powerful novel "Butterfly Prison", uniting several realities into one. She demands change and she does it determinedly but affectionately. And the result is stunning
What Did Colonialism Do To India?
By Ram Puniyani
http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani190815.htm
The major point which is unseen in these perceptions is one which had dangerous consequence on the social-political scenario and that was- British planted the seeds of divisive politics. As such broadly speaking the colonial-imperialist rule sows the seeds of 'divide and rule' and in this subcontinent they did it with gay abandon
Origins Of The Dalits Revisited
By Oliver D'Souza
http://www.countercurrents.org/dsouza190815.htm
There is an eternal debate as to what led to the formation of the Sudra Varna and the Avarnas (outcastes), with various theories being put forth, suggesting that it was the end result of invasion by foreign aggressors. It was common practice then and is so even now (ISIS) for aggressors and invaders to subjugate all conquered populations and make them adhere to the invaders social, economic and often religious system. Scholars generally concur that prior to the Aryan invasion, Indian society was a horizontal one, rather than the vertical one of caste
Will Islam 'Liberate' Dalits of Bhagana ?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
http://www.countercurrents.org/rawat190815.htm
How will Dalits of Bhagana get justice by converting to Islam, when Muslims in Muzaffarnagar and Gujarat are waiting for the same, is a million dollar question. However one fact is simple, that Bhagana's Dalits who embraced Islam may not know many things but the only thing they know is that perhaps through Islam they can fight back both at the personal level as well as at the constitutional level
Jamia Millia's Role In The Freedom Struggle
By Abdul Rashid Agwan
http://www.countercurrents.org/agwan190815.htm
Jamia Millia Islamia is one of the few educational institutions which came into being in response to the nationalist call of freedom struggle to boycott educational institutions supported or run by the British colonial rule. It became a dream project of such stalwart national leaders as Mehmud-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Mahatma Gandhi, Hakim Ajmal Khan and the like; and its mentors, teachers and students played a vital role during the Indian struggle for independence
30 Years of Narmada Struggle: Jeevan Adhikar Satyagraha,
Badwani, Madhya Pradesh
By National Alliance of People's Movements
http://www.countercurrents.org/napm190815.htm
The Narmada Bachao Andolan has begun an indefinite Jeevan Adhikar Satyagraha amidst thousands of oustees at Rajghat, Badwani against the illegal displacement and destruction by the Sardar Sarovar Dam. They have resolved not to move even in the event of rains and a rise in the reservoir level, until the key questions raised by the Andolan on the displacement and rehabilitation of 2.5 lakh people are answered
E-Curfew In Kashmir
By Mohammad Ashraf
http://www.countercurrents.org/ashraf190815.htm
On every Indian Independence Day and Republic Day, Kashmiris have to face E-Curfew apart from the normal Curfew restricting physical movements!
Removal Of Article 35A-Part Of An Agenda
By Abdul Majid Zargar
http://www.countercurrents.org/zargar190815.htm
A writ petition challenging Article 35A of Indian constitution has been filed before Supreme Court of India by a RSS backed think tank. It may be recalled that this article was inserted in the Indian constitution through a presidential order promulgated under clause (1) of article 370 effective from 14th day of May 1954 to afford a protective shield to various rights bestowed by our own constitution on permanent residents of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) state in matters of acquisition of immovable property, employment in State services, voting rights etc. etc. Once this shield is removed, these rights will become susceptible to many legal & political assaults which will ultimately pave way for entry of non State subjects into the state putting in motion a second demographic change, the first having been engineered by Sangh Parivar in Jammu region in 1947
Water Grab By Sonoma County, California's Wine Empire
By Shepherd Bliss
http://www.countercurrents.org/bliss190815.htm
An overflow crowd spilled into the lobby at California State Senator Mike McGuire's August 13 promised Town Hall. Many were alarmed by an article at the top of the front-page of the prior day's pro-wine industry local daily newspaper. "Wine Industry's 'Water Grab'" headlined the Press Democrat (PD) story. It described legislation being drafted that would secure unfair water rights and control of water for the wine industry in the Russian River watershed
-- If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents
In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org
Police Raid FTII Campus At Midnight, Arrest Five Students
By Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/cc190815.htm
A Police raid was conducted at midnight at Film And Television Institute of India ( FTII) against striking students and five students were arrested on false charges. The complaint was filed by the director of the institute , Prashant Pathrabe, after students gheraoed him on Monday protesting "irrational and unjustified" assessment of the incomplete diploma projects. Acting on a complaint filed by Mr. Pathrabe, police lodged an FIR against 15 students. The arrested students face charges of rioting under Section 353 of the IPC. Section 353 is non-bailable which means that students will be lodged in jail
Branding Adivasis And Activists As Maoists The Government Has Declared A War On Its Own People By Arundhati Roy
http://www.countercurrents.org/roy190815.htm
Here is the text of a note by writer-activist, Arundhati Roy, which she read out during a press conference at Press Club of India, Delhi, to express solidarity with Soni Sori & Linga Kodopi and the People of Bastar
Replanting
By Kathy Kelly
http://www.countercurrents.org/kelly190815.htm
Speaking on behalf of indigenous people in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, earlier this summer, Pope Francis apologized for the role the Catholic Church played in oppressing Latin America's indigenous people. He called for a worldwide grass roots movement that would shatter global corporate abuses of "the new colonialism." Political elites in the U.S. should follow his lead and apologize for the genocidal destruction U.S. people waged against indigenous peoples. They should look toward indigenous people for guidance about ways to make reparations
Minsk Agreement Has Failed: Will The Failure Lead To Putin's Failure?
By Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.countercurrents.org/roberts190815.htm
It appears that the Russian government has made a mistake with regard to its approach to the breakaway Republics consisting of Russian peoples in former Russian territories who reject being governed by the anti-Russian coup government installed in Kiev by Washington. The Russian government could have ended the crisis by accepting the requests of these territories to be reunited with Russia. Instead, the Russian government opted for a diplomatic approach—hands off Donetsk and Luhansk—and this diplomacy has now failed. The coup government in Kiev never had any intention of keeping the Minsk agreement, and Washington had no intention of permitting the Minsk agreement to be kept. Apparently, even the realistic Putin succumbed to wishful thinking
Is The New U.S. 'Law of War Manual' Actually 'Hitlerian'?
By Eric Zuesse
http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse190815.htm
The Obama U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has quietly issued its important Law of War Manual, and, unlike its predecessor, the 1956 U.S. Army Field Manual, which was not designed to approve of the worst practices by both the United States and its enemies in World War II, or after 9/11, this new document has been alleged specifically to do just that: to allow such attacks as the United States did on Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and in Iraq, and elsewhere
Jimmy Carter's Blood-Soaked Legacy
By Matt Peppe
http://www.countercurrents.org/peppe190815.htm
A few days ago former President Jimmy Carter announced that he has cancer and it is spreading. While it would be premature to assume this spells the end for the 90-year-old, it does present an opportunity to take stock of the tenure of a President who, like the current occupant of the White House, entered office with a promise to respect human rights, but failed miserably when given the opportunity to do so
Jimmy Carter: Just Like All The Rest
By Mickey Z.
http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz190815.htm
If you think Jimmy Carter was once the answer or you believe Bernie Sanders is now the answer, you're asking the wrong questions
Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: Monsanto's Silence Is Deafening
By Colin Todhunter
http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter190815.htm
In his book 'Altered Genes,Twisted Truths', US public interest attorney Steven Druker exposed the fraudulent practices and deceptions that led to the commercialisation of GM food and crops in the US. Not long after the book's release, he wrote an open letter to the Royal Society in Britain calling on it to acknowledge and correct the misleading and exaggerated statements that it has used to actively promote GMOs and in effect convey false impressions and the other to Monsanto. He followed this up by delivering a challenge to Monsanto's headquarters on May 20, 2015 calling on the company to address the evidence presented in the book
War Begets War Refugees: The Moral Bankruptcy of Italy And NATO
By Ramzy Baroud
http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud190815.htm
On April 26, 2011, a meeting that can only be described as sinister took place between the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The most pressing issue discussed at the meeting in Rome was how to deal with African immigrants
US Coerces Iran To Capitulate Its Nuclear Program
By Akbar E. Torbat
http://www.countercurrents.org/torbat190815.htm
By conceding to the nuclear agreement in Vienna, the Islamic regime in Tehran has granted a very shameful capitulation to foreign powers. The clerics have sacrificed Iran's national security and sovereignty in return for survival of their regime. By imposing the JCPOA, the US has forced the clerical regime to accept the most shameful capitulation in Iran's contemporary history. Rouhani and his foreign minister Zarif must be ashamed of imposing such a capitulation on the Iranian people
Race, Crime And The Media
By Jon Kofas
http://www.countercurrents.org/kofas190815.htm
There is a multi-billion dollar industry in America profiting from the fear the public has about crime, so these corporations have no problem with the status quo. Everything from home detection and spy cameras to insurance plans and private security officers account for a very profitable industry that could be cut down to size if the country did not have a social, economic and political system based on social injustice
Over Forty Percent of U.S. Children Are Living in Poverty
By Thomas Riggins
http://www.countercurrents.org/riggins190815.htm
A January 2015 report from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health reveals that forty four percent of children (those under 18) are living in de facto poverty
Review Of The Novel "Butterfly Prison" By Tamara Pearsen
By Andre Vltchek
http://www.countercurrents.org/vltchek190815.htm
Now a Latin American writer, or more precisely "an internationalist" writer, a socialist realist, a revolutionary, Tamara Pearsen, returned home, on the wings of imagination, through her powerful novel "Butterfly Prison", uniting several realities into one. She demands change and she does it determinedly but affectionately. And the result is stunning
What Did Colonialism Do To India?
By Ram Puniyani
http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani190815.htm
The major point which is unseen in these perceptions is one which had dangerous consequence on the social-political scenario and that was- British planted the seeds of divisive politics. As such broadly speaking the colonial-imperialist rule sows the seeds of 'divide and rule' and in this subcontinent they did it with gay abandon
Origins Of The Dalits Revisited
By Oliver D'Souza
http://www.countercurrents.org/dsouza190815.htm
There is an eternal debate as to what led to the formation of the Sudra Varna and the Avarnas (outcastes), with various theories being put forth, suggesting that it was the end result of invasion by foreign aggressors. It was common practice then and is so even now (ISIS) for aggressors and invaders to subjugate all conquered populations and make them adhere to the invaders social, economic and often religious system. Scholars generally concur that prior to the Aryan invasion, Indian society was a horizontal one, rather than the vertical one of caste
Will Islam 'Liberate' Dalits of Bhagana ?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
http://www.countercurrents.org/rawat190815.htm
How will Dalits of Bhagana get justice by converting to Islam, when Muslims in Muzaffarnagar and Gujarat are waiting for the same, is a million dollar question. However one fact is simple, that Bhagana's Dalits who embraced Islam may not know many things but the only thing they know is that perhaps through Islam they can fight back both at the personal level as well as at the constitutional level
Jamia Millia's Role In The Freedom Struggle
By Abdul Rashid Agwan
http://www.countercurrents.org/agwan190815.htm
Jamia Millia Islamia is one of the few educational institutions which came into being in response to the nationalist call of freedom struggle to boycott educational institutions supported or run by the British colonial rule. It became a dream project of such stalwart national leaders as Mehmud-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Mahatma Gandhi, Hakim Ajmal Khan and the like; and its mentors, teachers and students played a vital role during the Indian struggle for independence
30 Years of Narmada Struggle: Jeevan Adhikar Satyagraha,
Badwani, Madhya Pradesh
By National Alliance of People's Movements
http://www.countercurrents.org/napm190815.htm
The Narmada Bachao Andolan has begun an indefinite Jeevan Adhikar Satyagraha amidst thousands of oustees at Rajghat, Badwani against the illegal displacement and destruction by the Sardar Sarovar Dam. They have resolved not to move even in the event of rains and a rise in the reservoir level, until the key questions raised by the Andolan on the displacement and rehabilitation of 2.5 lakh people are answered
E-Curfew In Kashmir
By Mohammad Ashraf
http://www.countercurrents.org/ashraf190815.htm
On every Indian Independence Day and Republic Day, Kashmiris have to face E-Curfew apart from the normal Curfew restricting physical movements!
Removal Of Article 35A-Part Of An Agenda
By Abdul Majid Zargar
http://www.countercurrents.org/zargar190815.htm
A writ petition challenging Article 35A of Indian constitution has been filed before Supreme Court of India by a RSS backed think tank. It may be recalled that this article was inserted in the Indian constitution through a presidential order promulgated under clause (1) of article 370 effective from 14th day of May 1954 to afford a protective shield to various rights bestowed by our own constitution on permanent residents of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) state in matters of acquisition of immovable property, employment in State services, voting rights etc. etc. Once this shield is removed, these rights will become susceptible to many legal & political assaults which will ultimately pave way for entry of non State subjects into the state putting in motion a second demographic change, the first having been engineered by Sangh Parivar in Jammu region in 1947
Water Grab By Sonoma County, California's Wine Empire
By Shepherd Bliss
http://www.countercurrents.org/bliss190815.htm
An overflow crowd spilled into the lobby at California State Senator Mike McGuire's August 13 promised Town Hall. Many were alarmed by an article at the top of the front-page of the prior day's pro-wine industry local daily newspaper. "Wine Industry's 'Water Grab'" headlined the Press Democrat (PD) story. It described legislation being drafted that would secure unfair water rights and control of water for the wine industry in the Russian River watershed
Pl see my blogs;
Feel free -- and I request you -- to forward this newsletter to your lists and friends!