BOOK REVIEW: Evangelical Intrusions: Tripura: A Case StudyThis study by Sandhya Jain, published in an attractively designed volume, is the first systematic and in-depth inquiry into the evangelical intervention in the religious cultures of the tribal societies and indigenous peoples of India, to “coerce the entire tribal populace to convert t
The Iraqi city of Fallujah continues to suffer the ghastly consequences of a US military onslaught in late 2004. According to the authors of a new study, “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009,” the people of Fallujah are experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual
The Giant Food Corporations and their cunningly marketed “Happy Meals for All” are making us sickOver the past decade there have been written a number of sobering books, exposés about the food industry, whose alarming messages were recently and dramatically echoed by the equally sobering documentary film “Food, Inc”, wh
On Sunday, The New York Times and two other newspapers published summaries and excerpts of tens of thousands of documents leaked to a website known as WikiLeaks. The documents comprise a vast array of material concerning the war in Afghanistan. They range from tactical reports from small unit operations to broader strategic analyses of politico-mil
“You all are the house, you’re the bookie. [Your clients] are booking their bets with you. I don’t know why we need to dress it up. It’s a bet.” - Senator Claire McCaskill, Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, investigating Goldman Sachs (Washington Post, April 27, 2010) Ever since December 2008
On April 22, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned in her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that Pakistan was in danger of falling into terrorist hands: “I think that we cannot underscore enough the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by continuing advances, now within hours of Is
If you live on the Gulf Coast, welcome to the real world of oil -- and just know that you’re not alone. In the Niger Delta and the Ecuadorian Amazon, among other places, your emerging hell has been the living hell of local populations for decades. Even as I was visiting those distant and exotic spill locales via book, article, and Y
On July 15, 2010 Time Magazine carried an article entitled, “An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table.” According to the piece, the point man for this growing belligerency is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. It is to be noted that when the same Robert Gates served the infamous George W. Bush (the year was 2008), he actually helped talk th
In the postwar history of the Federal Republic, German Chancellors tend to disappear once they pursue political goals that deviate from the Washington global agenda too much. In the case of Gerhard Schroeder, it involved two unforgivable “sins.” The first was his open opposition to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. The second, far more seri
Since my Summer 1956 forecast of a deep recession to strike suddenly, somewhere during the February-March interval of 1957, I have never published a forecast for the US economy which did not occur as I had foreseen. The reason for this distinction is that all my putative rivals in such matters have relied on statistical monetarist trend-lines which
The world looks like it’s about to become a more dangerous place. A recent report from Israel’s newspaper Haaretz finds that the United States is moving forward with plans to strengthen Israel’s nuclear weapons stockpile. The report, exposed within the last few days, originated from Israel’s Army Radio, which sent along a se
According to the website www.cathnewsindia.com, “It was Father Xavier Stanislaus Thaninayagam who founded the International Association of Tamil Research and called the first International Conference of Tamil Studies in 1965. That event ultimately led to this year’s highly prestigious conference”. (http://www.cathnewsindia.com/201
Tamil prose and Christian farce! An oft repeated propaganda is that Christian missionaries introduced “Prose” writing in Tamil. A blatant lie! When Tamil Hindus have been adept at art, literature, music, architecture and theatre, wouldn’t they have been good in prose too? Is it not outrageous and insulting to say that people from
Caldwell the Racist!Another missionary who inflicted massive damage on Tamil Hindus was the Scot Robert Caldwell (1814-1891) who, along with his wife Elissa Mault, resided in Tirunelvelli and made huge conversions. While he focused on the male population, she converted the womenfolk. He sowed the poisonous seed called Dravidian Racism. He ful
Italian Iyer and Thiruvaachakam distortionNext in the list of Christian Priests who “served” the cause of Tamil was another ‘Iyer’ - G.U. Pope (1820-1907) or ‘Pope Iyer.’ He translated a few Tamil literary works such as Thiruvaachakam, Thirukkural and Naaladiyaar, and said he could find the teachings of Apostle S
The caseIn the recently concluded “World Classical Tamil Conference”, and also in columns, articles and reports about it, there was a fresh attempt to project the myth that the Tamil language would have died but for the contribution of Christian Missionaries. There was also an immense propaganda that the “prose” style of wri
If there is a reason behind the madness with which Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi blew the dialogue with his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna, we should look for it on the frontiers of that imploding nation. Not Indian Kashmir, but the western sector - Afghanistan, Iran, even Central Asia, where growing American interventionism can o
For all intent and purposes, the United States is insolvent.This is not my personal assessment but that of world renowned “experts” and economists, and financial institutions. Just google “US Debts” and you can find thousands of analysts stating that there is no way that the US can ever pay off its debts. The US cannot even
You may find this story hard to believe and at the same time challenge as to why anyone would use such weapons having no regard for other humans on this planet. We hear almost weekly about the push by President Obama to fulfill the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by reducing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) but is there any truth behind this PR exe
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited some interesting spots over the July 4 weekend. Her itinerary included Poland and Ukraine, both intriguing choices in light of the recent Obama-Medvedev talks in Washington. But she also travelled to a region that has not been on the American radar screen much in the last two years — namely, the C
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After a 4-hour long meeting on July 12 in the state’s summer capital, Srinagar, the all-party meet convened and chaired by beleaguered Chief Minister Omar Abdullah came out with a six-point resolution which The CM released to the Press. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), which toge
Can the RSS be accused of abandoning Hindus and forcing their submission to an intensely communal political order in Kashmir? Many were shocked and surprised at the publication of Ajaat Jamwal’s poignant cry, “Jammu RSS helping in Hindu capitulation in J&K” (27 Jan. 2010,http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?i
The National Handicrafts & Handlooms Museum, commonly called the Crafts Museum, home to over 22,000 national treasures, is spread over 5 acres in a picturesque environment in the capital city. It started in the 1950s and over the decades evolved into a major Delhi landmark. Noteworthy, as we shall see, it has always been under the administrativ
Our first full day in Louisiana finds us venturing south from New Orleans to Houma, a town about an hours drive to the southwest. It is from here we are to take a flight over the marsh to inspect the damage, thus far, caused by the ongoing BP oil catastrophe. Walking into the office of Butler Aviation Services at the airport, the downtrodden mood,
“The sea that bares her bosom to the moon;The winds that will be howling at all hours...For this, for everything, we are out of tune.” - William Wordsworth, 1770-1850 For the people of the Gulf and the region - watching some of the most toxic pollutants known to man, being sprayed to disperse one of the most toxic pollutants known
What really astounded me were his opening comments: “We are engaged in a contest of wills. Our enemies are doing all that they can to undermine the confidence of the Afghan people. In so doing, they are killing and maiming innocent Afghan civilians on a daily basis.” From my perspective, I would like to remind Gen. Petraeus of the
Iran-Contra/October Surprise was the missing link in a larger American political narrative The conventional view of the Iran-Contra scandal is that it covered the period 1985-86, when President Ronald Reagan became concerned about the fate of American hostages in Lebanon and agreed to secretly sell weapons to Iran’s Islamist government to gai
Western diplomacy and Asian wisdomDiplomacy is the art and science by which countries and civilizations, on a broader scale, communicate at the highest level, not as mere collections of individuals but as moral persons in their own right, thereby expressing their values and upholding their interests, protecting their security and affirming their vi
The much-hyped Indo-Pakistani dialogue which ended on 27 June took place almost seventy years after a major event on 28 June 1914, in Europe. This looking-back-to-history might help us see why and how nations have different responses to challenges thrown to them by their adversaries. Over the years, the Indo-Pakistan dialogue process has tende
On July 6, the Indian government issued a warning to railroad operators and users after Maoist rebels — known as Naxalites — declared a “bandh,” a Hindi word meaning threat of attack, in eastern India. When a bandh is declared by the Naxalites, it means they have declared open season on a particular target set, in this case
The Case of Maksim Bakiyev The case of Maksim Bakiyev, who was taken in by British authorities upon his arrival in Farnborough, England, on June 14, is a case in point. A duty officer for the Hampshire police force, which covers Farnborough, said the case was being dealt with by the UK Border Agency, which is part of the Home Office. Keneshbek Duyi
After taking over as Interim President following the early-April uprising that ousted the Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Roza Otunbayeva had promised new parliamentary elections in October and a referendum on a new constitution. On June 27, the referendum was held successfully, with a convincing vote in favour of adopting a new constitution an
The last decade has been painful and disturbing for the Vatican as it has been mired in various controversies concerning the immoral behaviour of priests and accusations of sex abuse inside the confines of the church. These accusations have bogged down the Vatican to such an extent that despite much squirming it has failed to come out of the mess.
Our heads are filled with stories about the danger of trillions of dollars in debt and deficits, with little if any mention of the real problem they represent. It is not the debt, but what we are indebted for that threatens the future of our nation. If we owed hundreds of trillions of dollars - which may soon be the case - and every American was em
R.M.S. MoreaLaunched in 1908, the Morea (164.53 m length, 18.65 m breadth and 7.53 m in depth) was considered the best-looking liner of her class. She had been fitted with the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy in 1909. As Savarkar was a prisoner, he was given a second class cabin and European clothes to wear. As Power was in charge of his secur
Savarkar’s historic leap into the ocean off the coast of Marseilles, France, on Friday, 8 July 1910 is a watershed event in the history of our Freedom Movement. Savarkar’s daring escape and arrest on French soil became a cause celebre in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Hague (later, International Court of Justice). The extraordinary
A possibly weak Nuclear Liability Bill is not the only threat facing citizens who are now alert to the apocalyptic potential of environmental disasters like the Bhopal gas tragedy. As an inadequate monsoon cannot be entirely ruled out, it may be appropriate to rethink the wisdom of opening domestic agriculture to the multinational genetically modif
While the DMK jamboree was going on, well known scholar, Indologist and Director of Saraswati Sindhu Research Center, Dr. S. Kalyanaraman gave an interview to Rediff.com in which he contested the findings of Asko Parpola, saying he did not agree with Parpola’s unproven ‘decipherment’ of the Indus script on the premise that old Tam
In the just concluded DMK jamboree on Classical Tamil, Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola was presented the Kalaignar Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award by President of India Smt. Pratibha Patil. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. one million, a Thiruvalluvar statue made of panchalokha and a citation. Asko Parpola is an exponent of the Aryan In
Damning New Evidence Points to a Cover-up by Tony Blair's GovernmentThe official story of Dr David Kelly is that he took his own life in an Oxfordshire wood by overdosing on painkillers and cutting his left wrist with a pruning knife. He was said to be devastated after being unmasked as the source of the BBC’s claim that the Government
On June 23, President Obama summarily dismissed Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the US military chief in Afghanistan following the publication an article based on an extended interview with him in the counterculture magazine Rolling Stone. The article featured disparaging remarks by the general and his fiercely loyal staff about some of Obama’s se
Millions of us American peacemakers have been so frequently deceived about the prospects for peace, that we have understandably lost any sense of patriotic fervour. America’s decisive loss in the Viet Nam war should have made the war-mongers retreat into oblivion, but the shame of losing made them double their efforts to regain their lo
Bush’s Pilotless Dream, Smoking Drones, and Other Strange Tales from the Crypt Admittedly, before George W. Bush had his fever dream, the US had already put its first unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drone surveillance planes in the skies over Kosovo in the late 1990s. By November 2001, it had armed them with missiles an
What’s behind the sudden crisis in Korea? Who benefits? Which nation’s nuclear arsenal is problematic?The US-Israeli relationship has long been America’s Achilles heel. Our first president warned against “entangled alliances” particularly when, as here, there’s a “passionate attachment.” Our “sp
The dire threat of Iran is widely recognized to be the most serious foreign policy crisis facing the Obama administration. Congress has just strengthened the sanctions against Iran, with even more severe penalties against foreign companies. The Obama administration has been rapidly expanding its offensive capacity in the African island of Diego Gar
The Chinese believe in more substance than sound. When they wish, however, they can make it the other way round. An equally important trait in their approach to international relations is this: even when they, uncharacteristically, decide to respond to external pressure, they take care to protect, if not promote, their own interests. Both thes
The advent of Sheikh Hasina Wajed in 2009 has not augured as well for the minority communities of Bangladesh, particularly the Hindus, who remain as unprotected as in previous years. The grim reality is that there are no sincere governmental efforts to prevent the grabbing of temple lands (or their restoration to the community, if grabbed by anti-s
Entering the Soviet Era in America Mark it on your calendar. It seems we’ve finally entered the Soviet era in America. You remember the Soviet Union, now almost 20 years in its grave. But who gives it a second thought today? Even in its glory years that “evil empire” was sometimes referred to as “the sec