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by
Hari Om
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on
30 Jun 2012
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27 Comments
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The New Delhi-appointed interlocutors Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari deserve some appreciation for their candid acknowledgement that the causes of unrest in Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh are different. They can also be complimented for the suggestion that it will be desirable if three Regional Councils invested with certain legislative,
When Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Bank, appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on June 13, he was wearing cufflinks bearing the presidential seal. “Was Dimon trying to send any particular message by wearing the presidential cufflinks?” asked CNBC editor John Carney. “Was he . . . subtly hinting that he’s really t
Four ways the President Is pursuing Cheney’s geopolitics of global energy: As details of his administration’s global war against terrorists, insurgents, and hostile warlords have become more widely known -- a war that involves a mélange of drone attacks, covert operations, and presidentially selected assassinations -- President Oba
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Israel on June 25 for his first state visit since retaking the presidency. The visit was arranged in mid-May, and so at least part of the agenda was set, given events in Syria and Egypt. The interesting thing about Israel and Russia is that while they seem to be operating in the same areas of interest and
Some weeks ago, as the political ball began rolling to select a candidate for the post of President (and also Vice President a while later), the Catholic Church through The Catholic Secular Forum launched a campaign to demand that the post of President or Vice President be given to a Christian. Never has a Muslim party or organisation or individual
A timely article in the Jerusalem Post last month brings to the forefront the unspoken objective of US foreign policy, namely the breaking up of Syria as a sovereign nation state --along ethnic and religious lines-- into several separate and “independent” political entities. The article also confirms the role of Israel in the process of
At a press conference held on June 4 marking the beginning of China’s presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of June, Li Baodong, China’s Ambassador to the UN, observed that there are different versions of the facts of the Houla Massacre. “Now we have different stories from different angles,” he noted. “No
Be positive, look on the bright side, stay focused on success, and look after the number one, shop till you drop: so goes our modern mantra for finding happiness. But perhaps the true path to contentment is to learn to be for the Common Good. From the dawn of our creation, our ultimate desire has been to find happiness. This desire is in the nature
Nepal’s leadership failed to draft a new Constitution. The mandate of 602-member Constituent Assembly [CA] elected in 2008 ended on 27th May, 2012 without a consensus as to how Nepal should be governed. The total cost of the exercise came to Rs 8,900 million [roughly US$100 million] ending up in endless blame game and petty bickering. The big
The social disease that is capital’s political economics has become more dangerous as global demands for real democracy and an end to majority servitude puts ruling regimes in a near frenzy. Power of the few over the many has never been more threatened than at the present moment and rulers are moved to even more crazed behavior than usual. It
“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all,
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by
Hari Om
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on
21 Jun 2012
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61 Comments
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National Commission for Minorities chairman Wajahat Habibullah was in Srinagar on Sunday, 17 June, to take part in a seminar on “Jammu and Kashmir and the Federal Models of Shared Sovereignty”, organized by the Political Science Department of Kashmir University in collaboration with the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation. The CDR is
The criminal silence of the Congress leadership on the highly provocative and vicious 179-page report of three interlocutors submitted to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in October 2011 is an alarming signal vis-à-vis the future constitutional relationship of Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of the country. The appointment of three fa
Bismarck’s pithy admonition, “Woe to the statesman whose arguments for entering a war are not as convincing at its end as they were at the beginning,” comes to mind as America retreats from the forgot-why-we-fought Afghan war, and seeks excuses for fresh conflict with Syria and Iran. But, as the growing economic crisis squeezes or
Eurozone countries on June 9 agreed to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to stabilize the Spanish banking system. Because the bailout dealt with Spain's financial sector directly rather than involving the country's sovereign debt, Madrid did not face the kind of demands for more onerous austerity measures in exchange for the loan th
Greece is where the West both begins and ends. The West -- as a humanist ideal -- began in ancient Athens where compassion for the individual began to replace the crushing brutality of the nearby civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The war that Herodotus chronicles between Greece and Persia in the 5th century BC established a contrast between W
Ever since the beginning of the financial crisis and Quantitative Easing, the question has been before us: How can the Federal Reserve maintain zero interest rates for banks and negative real interest rates for savers and bond holders when the US government is adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt every year via its budget deficits? Not long ag
At this august gathering of Hon’ble judges, jurists, parliamentarians and members of the civil society from different parts of the globe, it is my humble submission that the real Mother of Terrorism are those who have been manufacturing nuclear arsenals with a criminal intent to raise their revenues by selling these weapons to the Dark Forces
In a few days, perhaps as early as Friday, June 15, at noon, the Syrians wanting to watch their national TV stations will see them replaced on their screens by TV programs created by the CIA. Studio-shot images will show massacres that are blamed on the Syrian Government, people demonstrating, ministers and generals resigning from their posts, Pres
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling for an R2P humanitarian military intervention in Syria to curb the atrocities allegedly ordered by the government of President Bashar Al Assad. In a twisted logic, Clinton recognizes that while “opposition forces” are integrated by Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists, the government rather than t
Last week, Leon Panetta, Pentagon’s chief hit-man was in Asia, signaling ‘Broken Arrow, Broken Arrow!’ This bogey was meant to gather gullible Asian leaders, persuading them to come to the aid of the American empire in grave danger of being overrun by China. ‘Broken Arrow’ was a code reserved by the American forces in
Alarmed by the economic growth hitting a nine-year low, the government has announced a slew of measures to stem the slide, place the economy firmly back on the road to 9 per cent growth, and boost exports. A large number of infrastructure projects requiring billions of rupees will be awarded this year or soon as part of the plan announced after a h
On May 1, unannounced and under the cover of darkness, President Barack Obama landed in Afghanistan, where he signed yet another US-Afghanistan strategic pact with his Afghan counterpart, President Hamid Karzai. Although stealth landing has now become a standard security procedure in Afghanistan for American VIPs, there were other reasons to do so
The recently declared plan by the members of Persian Gulf Cooperation Council to annex the soil of Bahrain to Saudi Arabia and form a greater Arab union has attested to the fact that the tyrannical and merciless rulers of Arab sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf are still obliviously living in the colonial era, dating back to the early 1550s, when the w
The Left – including Communist Left – is manipulated by the super-rich in their own interests. These super-rich conspire to destroy tradition and create a collectivist world order of despotism under their own guidance, and the Left are “useful idiots” of these greedy for power and money people. This is main thesis of a new b
Historical Context: Before he became President of a newly independent Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev was chairman of the Kazakh Supreme Soviet in the last days of the USSR. Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev had tapped him to be the Prime Minister of the reformed Federation he was trying to set up when the August 1991 Coup took place and, by default, bro
This article is a reflection on Michael Sandel’s new book, “What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets”. On my journey from a “Dismal” scientist to Spiritual Economist, I discovered many gems and realised fully the wrongs of my past beliefs. It was at times a very difficult journey. A journey, that now I fully u
For long, India’s policy makers took sturdy economic performance for granted. Double digit growth that would propel the country to economic super power status was almost regarded as preordained. The illusion is now being burst rather cruelly. Hit hard by global woes and domestic problems, India's economic growth rate slowed to a nine-year low
The 34-year long rule of the Left Front in Bengal, according to some quarters, was not spontaneous, but the effect of a few secret measures adopted by Left bigwigs to retain their hegemony for eternity. These include implementation of land reforms, reorganization of Panchayats, expansion of small agriculture, provision to render foods in exchange o
Global Research Editor's Note: This incisive report by independent Russian journalist Marat Musin dispels the lies and fabrications of the Western media. The report is based on a chronology of events as well as eyewitness accounts. Entire pro-government families in Houla were massacred. The terrorists integrated by professional mercenaries were not
The term of the Constituent Assembly ended at midnight of 27 May 2012, with failure to promulgate a constitution. This ended the relevance of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s cabinet, the presidential apparatus and all elements formed under the interim constitution of 2006. The President and Prime Minister, without constitutional mandate, a
By suddenly inviting debate on the interlocutors report on Jammu and Kashmir, especially its startling suggestion to restore the State’s pre-1953 status, the Congress Party has virtually disowned the actions of its longest serving Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, thus diminishing the legitimacy and stature of the political dynasty descended
Given the current false attitudes and the fact that I am originally from the Middle East, I know well what it means and feels like to be at the receiving end of stereotypical comments. Thus, I felt I had to write this in defence of the Greek people, as well as the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and others who currently are collectively under attack
The much-ballyhooed Afghan exit strategy of President Barack Obama is coming unhinged, and there is speculation on how messy that could turn out to be. Obama and his coterie’s lack of insight and endless arrogance has further eroded all hopes that the US/NATO troops will be able to leave Afghanistan in an orderly manner, leaving the country w
On the day of the Bharat Bandh against the petrol price hike, 31 May 2012, the news channel Times Now broke the news about Washington seeking a strategic military relationship with Bangladesh, starting with the docking of the 7th Fleet of the US Navy on an island off Chittagong. An editorial in the Bangladesh newspaper, Daily Star (7 May 2012) on t
The Egyptian presidential election was held last week. No candidate received 50 percent of the vote, so a runoff will be held between the two leading candidates, Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq. Morsi represented the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and received 25.3 percent of the vote, while Shafiq, a former Egyptian air force comma
A new generation of insect larvae is eating the roots of genetically engineered corn intended to be resistant to such pests. The failure of Monsanto's genetically modified Bt corn could be the most serious threat ever to a genetically modified crop in the US. And the economic impact could be huge. Billions of dollars are at stake, as Bt corn accoun