“Was it always the case that half of our students would cheat if it were easy enough?” By Jay Caspian Kang In my writing, and in my idle thoughts, I often return to Arjuna’s lament upon surveying the battlefield of Kurukshetra and finding that he must kill his friends and family. What is his duty in… Read More The Despair of the Professor in the Age of A.I.
Will Buckingham – 2020 Our knowledge of Diotima is so sparse that many people have concluded that she was not an historical figure, but instead a literary invention. Diotima appears as a character in Plato’s Symposium, where Socrates refers to her as “a woman of Mantinea—a woman who was wise in many things.” And our knowledge of her doesn’t extend… Read More Diotima Climbs the Ladder of Love / The truth about love
NB: Over the past two decades I have written many commementaries on Indian Maoism, of which this one carries an inverted resonance with the article below. ‘Inverted’ because had the Naxalite movement organised a non-violent mass campaign in defence of the labouring poor, it would have achieved historic successes. It is a tragedy that the… Read More Dreams of a Maoist India
The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was in his mother’s arms when soldiers fired on family in Hebron Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem Fahd Abu Haikal shows a photo of his seven-month- old son, Sam, who was killed on Friday when Israeli soldiers fired at their car. Photograph: Mahmoud Illean/AP Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in… Read More Palestinian baby shot dead by Israeli troops in occupied West Bank
There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between them is not clearly defined. But the Penal Code makes the convenient distinction of premeditation. We are living in the era of premeditation and the perfect crime. Our criminals are no longer helpless children who could plead love as their excuse. On the… Read More Yogendra Yadav: Now rulers are free to elect their people
Number of exam leaks from 2002 to 2025 with candidate count above 1 lakh in each: 45 Number of cases that led to convictions: 2 Shyamlal Yadav, Jay Mazoomdaar For the 22 lakh medical college candidates forced to put their dreams on hold until the NEET UG retest on June 21, for the 4 lakh CBSE students… Read More Who will be held accountable for exam paper leaks? Records show most get away / Impunity for exam leaks undermines trust
NB: There have already been six student suicide cases like this one, in Nagpur. Lakhs of young Indians have seen their labours go to waste. It’s not just corruption and cynicism that affects our ruling establishment, but criminal irresponsibility. What a shame and tragedy. My heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased students. Students… Read More Political parties must find common cause with youth, worker protests
NB: The investigative report below is self-explanatory; and we owe the reporter a debt of gratitude. As for the government and industry executives, all I can say is this: what you are doing is beyond corruption, beyond criminality – it is evil disregard of human life. Please stop. So many lives have been destroyed, so… Read More How Boeing and Air India’s role in India’s deadliest aviation disaster is being covered up
Global report provides an alternative to climate breakdown, political extremism and economic tensions Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky and Anmol Somanchi Imagine a future in which everyone enjoys high levels of wellbeing; where 90% of the world’s population doubles their income but works half the hours we work today. A world in which the bottom half… Read More A good life for the 99% isn’t a pipe dream: it can be done / ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics’ sweeping vision for planetary survival
Government rejects offshore rubbish being shipped to Fiji and burned after opposition from traditional landowners and tourism operators AFP The Fijian government has rejected a plan by an Australian billionaire to burn rubbish for energy in Fiji after backlash from traditional landowners and tourism operators. The plan to ship non-recyclable rubbish from across the region to Fiji, popular… Read More ‘Waste colonialism’: Fiji says no to Australian billionaire’s incineration plan
After the truth-shower 