One of the consequences of the Coronavirus epidemic is that Westerners have realised their dependence on Chinese manufacturing capacity. Neither the Europeans nor the Americans were able to manufacture the millions of surgical masks they urgently wanted to distribute to their population. They had to buy them in China and often fought among themselves on the ...
Hacking is back in the headlines. The Chinese are accused of breaking into the computers of unnamed American labs – corporate &/or non-corporate - doing research on a coronavirus vaccine. The operative words are ‘China/Chinese’ and ‘hacking’. The two go together like gin & tonic. That’s a sign of upper mobility for the Cathay crowd; just a short time ago, Ru...
The Saudi-Iranian dispute may dominate headlines but a similar rivalry between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates is equally wreaking havoc in the Middle East and North Africa. While Saudi Arabia may in some ways have a leg up on Iran, Turkey and the UAE are at a virtual draw. In Libya, forces of the Turkish-backed, Tripoli-based internationally recognized ...
The human and economic devastation caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and difficult to imagine. It has affected more than 5 million people all over the world and already killed more than 339K people. In the US alone, more than 96K people have died. The sufferings and hardships of people the world over continue unabated, even as its full ...
I like conspiracy theories; they attempt to inject meaning into otherwise meaningless sets of assorted facts. They bring Logos into our life, as our friend E. Michael Jones would say. An enemy of conspiracy theories would write in the New York Times denouncing Sir Isaac Newton as a notorious conspiracy theorist: out of totally disconnected facts (apple fall,...
As the highly contagious Covid-19 torments the nation, some “eminent” economists advised the Centre to nationalise all private assets of above-poverty-line citizens (cash, real estate, property, bonds, etc.) to fund their ideas. One doesn’t know if this negates that other great panacea for all economic ills – privatization of public sector assets – but...
Big-Pharma – guilty of lying, cheating, stealing, bribery, and a history of exposing the public to dangerous and even deadly drugs – is being given billions to develop a Covid-19 “vaccine.” Would you trust your health to these criminals? Coronavirus Disease 2019 or “Covid-19” hysteria is sweeping the globe – with mass media-induced public panic paralyzing en...
Not only are the coronavirus models being used by WHO and most national health agencies based on highly dubious methodologies, and not only are the tests being used of wildly different quality, that only indirectly confirm antibodies of a possible COVID-19 illness. Now the actual designations of deaths related to coronavirus are being revealed to be equally ...
The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw Patriot anti-missile defense batteries from Saudi Arabia is likely to fuel an already brewing arms race as the kingdom attempts to catch-up with Iran’s nuclear development as well as its space, ballistic missile, and drone capabilities. In 2019, the US sent Patriot missile batteries to Saudi Arabia to bolster i...
The political structure of Kashmir changed dramatically in mid-2019 (August 5) due to the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories. Local leaders predicted a massive backlash, especially in Kashmir. There was, however, no hostile public response. This situation has given credence to a thought process that the people w...
Japan is a highly developed industrial nation that also depends heavily on trade. It lacks many raw materials needed for its industry and power generation - such as oil, coal, iron ore, copper, aluminum and wood. Japan must import most of these goods. And to pay for these imports, Japan must export a variety of manufactured goods to other countries. Japanese...
Prior to and following the demise of the Soviet Union and the emergence of China as a world power in Asia there was no active effort in either New Delhi or Tokyo to build a mutually beneficial relationship. This was the case for a variety of reasons. Today, however, the ground situation has changed dramatically in the region. Now the historic requirement of ...
The concept of International Security emerged as a measure to ensure the mutual survival of states and their safety. The notion gained traction after the Second World War and the formation of the United Nations. While traditionally the concept of security was focused on individual states and their militaries, the decades post the Second World War saw the foc...
On 17 July 2014 MH 17, a Malaysian airlines flight en route from Amsterdam in The Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia was shot down while in transit over Ukrainian airspace. Although there were no admissions as to culpability and at least initially very little factual data available, it did not stop an immediate blame game being promoted by...
Whether believed the subject of hysterical conjecture or conspiratorial creation, the fact is that we face a new and different virus that may threaten life more than previous forms. It is also true that up to the moment that includes more than a quarter million victims, most who suffer the illness survive and they represent the overwhelming majority. Neverth...
The believers vouch that the Faith is tremendous and powerful. They claim the Faith can do incredible things like raising the dead, healing the sick, making the blind see and the lame walk, besides being the singular panacea for all the world’s ills. In fact they teach that we were all created for the benefit of the Faith. Holy shit! And we believe it. This...
Some people enjoy isolation and self-seclusion. The Jewish billionaire David Geffen is one of them. He posted a picture of his yacht onto Social Media saying: “Isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus, I’m hoping everybody is staying safe.” It is probably very different from your self-seclusion, and surely different from the seclusion imposed on a slum-...
I have always held Michael Hudson in the greatest esteem. Not only do I consider him my favourite US economist out there, I also know that he is a kind human being. He manifested this kindness again when he agreed to reply to some very basic questions which a non-economist like myself would ask. I am deeply grateful to Michael for taking the time to reply to...
Between unaccountability of elites and total fragmentation of civil society, Covid-19 as a circuit breaker is showing how the king – systemic design – is naked. We are being sucked into a danse macabre of multiple complex systems “colliding into one another,” producing all kinds of mostly negative feedback loops. What we already know for sure, as Shoshana Zu...
As the coronavirus moves remorselessly across the world, and medical experts surmise that it could be with us for another two-three years, its lasting legacy will be pain for those at the bottom rung of society, those marginally above, and those in the middle. With three successive lockdowns India has managed to keep mortalities low, but now, as tentative...
It’s an idea that is worth discussing because – much like how China does not want to discuss possible modern reverberations from their atrocious (mostly upper-class) practice of female foot-binding – the West does not want to deal with the cultural legacy of four centuries of segregation. It’s so perplexing to listen to Western commentators demand in the s...
The above quip, For the king who kills, The minister who eats, conveys the modus operandi of a team that commits a crime and leaves no trace of it. Such a crime manifested in Kerala during the Covid lockdown. Kerala is the only State where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is in power. There have been rave reviews, even at the international level, on...
Since late in January the world has undergone staggering changes which in many cases may be irreparable. We have given decisions over every aspect of our lives to the judgment of tests and to the projections of computer models for the coronavirus first claimed to have erupted in Wuhan China, now dubbed SARS-CoV-2. With astonishing lack of transparency or che...
Ramadan is a sacred time when Muslims across the world observe a month of fasting, an act considered one of the five pillars of Islam. This year Ramadan commenced on April 23 and will conclude on May 23. In this month, Muslims are decreed by Allah to emphasise on acts of “Deen” (religion) rather than worldly matters. Ramadan is not only about fasting; it is ...
It is early days, but first indications are that the global pandemic is entrenching long-drawn Middle Eastern geopolitical, political, ethnic, and sectarian battle lines rather than serving as a vehicle to build bridges and build confidence. The coronavirus crisis is also changing the region’s political landscape as non-governmental organizations and militan...
When it comes to “economic system” we think that it is basically a process of “production and mutual exchange” of various commodities among the producers. There is nothing wrong with this assumption as such, but what we don’t know is that this hypotheses of “economic system” is valid only for a pre-industrial village/cottage economy; it doesn’t apply to mode...
History teaches us that epidemics are more like revelatory moments than social transformers. The plague-stricken town, traversed throughout with hierarchy, surveillance, observation, writing; the town immobilized by the functioning of an extensive power that bears in a distinct way over all individual bodies – this is the utopia of the perfectly governed cit...
As India continues with its disciplined and mature response to the Coronavirus crisis, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak, in an online address on Sunday, April 26, called upon the organisation to stand united and help all needy persons without any discrimination whatsoever. Elaborating the concept of “Ekant Mein Atam Sadhna, Lokan...
Hybrid War 2.0 on China, a bipartisan U.S. operation, is already reaching fever pitch. Its 24/7 full spectrum infowar arm blames China for everything coronavirus-related – doubling as a diversionist tactic against any informed criticism of woeful American unpreparedness. Hysteria predictably reigns. And this is just the beginning. A deluge of lawsuits is im...
Populated by fluent Hebrew speakers, the Israel desk of Armenia’s foreign ministry waited back in 1991 in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union for a phone call that never came. The ministry was convinced that Israel, with whom Armenia shared an experience of genocide, were natural allies. The ministry waited in vain. Israel never made the call. ...
Arunachal Pradesh’s Chakma and Hajong tribes are suffering massive hunger and starvation as they have been excluded from the “economic package for vulnerable sections” at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Around 65,875 Chakmas and Hajongs are being forced by the State Government to buy rice @Rs 29/kg. The two tribes include around 22,000 children, who are...