Author: Dilip

I'm a scholar, writer and teacher; and my blog is designed for intellectual exploration. It carries no advertisements and requires no cash subscription

‘Corrupt as hell’: Demands surge for US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign amid new details of wife’s election scheming

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas faced fresh calls to step down Thursday after new reporting revealed that his wife’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election was broader than previously known, extending to the battleground state of Wisconsin as well as Arizona. Emails obtained by the Washington Post and the organization Documented show that Ginni Thomas, a… Read More ‘Corrupt as hell’: Demands surge for US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign amid new details of wife’s election scheming

Dilip

When did everything become ‘awesome’ and ‘amazing’? I blame the Americans

NB: Well spoke. I feel the same way about the use of ‘fuck‘ and ‘fucking‘ as force multipliers in speech, not to mention ‘shit‘ as in ‘get your shit together‘, etc etc. And as for ‘narrative‘ as a substitute for every verbal enunciation, including ‘version‘, ‘story‘, ‘account‘, ‘description‘, the less said the better. We can… Read More When did everything become ‘awesome’ and ‘amazing’? I blame the Americans

Dilip

‘We’re going to pay in a big way’: a shocking new book on the climate crisis

In An Inconvenient Apocalypse, authors Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen style themselves as heralds of some very bad news: societal collapse on a global scale is inevitable, and those who manage to survive the mass death and crumbling of the world as we know it will have to live in drastically transformed circumstances. According to… Read More ‘We’re going to pay in a big way’: a shocking new book on the climate crisis

Dilip

China’s treatment of Uyghurs may be crime against humanity, says UN human rights chief

The outgoing UN human rights commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, has said that China had committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province which may amount to crimes against humanity. Bachelet’s damning report was published with only 11 minutes to go before her term came to an end at midnight Geneva time. Publication was delayed by the eleventh-hour… Read More China’s treatment of Uyghurs may be crime against humanity, says UN human rights chief

Dilip

Beginnings and Endings

We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we started / And to know the place for the first time. T. S. Eliot धोखा है इक फ़रेब है मंज़िल का हर ख़याल, सच पूछिए तो सारा सफ़र वापसी का है – राजेश रेड्डी NB: Sentences, books… Read More Beginnings and Endings

Dilip

Mike Davis, California’s ‘prophet of doom’, on activism in a dying world: ‘Despair is useless’

Lois Beckett in San Diego What keeps us going, ultimately, is our love for each other, and our refusal to bow our heads, to accept the verdict For decades, the southern California writer Mike Davis has obsessively documented the dark side of the Golden state – its wildfires, earthquakes, megalomaniac real estate developers and violent police departments. In… Read More Mike Davis, California’s ‘prophet of doom’, on activism in a dying world: ‘Despair is useless’

Dilip

Flooding has devastated Pakistan – and Britain’s imperial legacy has made it worse

Shozab Raza Devastating flooding in Pakistan has killed more than 1,100 people this summer, injuring and displacing thousands more. Among Pakistan’s political elite, some have claimed that the floods are simply a natural disaster, while others blame climate breakdown. But both groups have failed to address another crucial factor: empire. Pakistan gained its independence from the British empire… Read More Flooding has devastated Pakistan – and Britain’s imperial legacy has made it worse

Dilip

UK Government’s ‘Orwellian’ unit to be disbanded after openDemocracy revelations

The Cabinet Office has announced it will radically overhaul an ‘Orwellian’ government unit that has been accused of blocking the release of information. The news comes as a victory almost two years after openDemocracy first revealed that the ‘Clearing House’ was vetting Freedom of Information requests from journalists. At the time, Cabinet Office minister Michael… Read More UK Government’s ‘Orwellian’ unit to be disbanded after openDemocracy revelations

Dilip

Germany’s €9 train tickets scheme ‘saved 1.8m tons of CO2 emissions’

Kate Connolly  Germany’s three-month experiment with €9 tickets for a month’s unlimited travel on regional train networks, trams and buses saved about 1.8m tons of CO2 emissions, it has been claimed. Since its introduction on 1 June to cut fuel consumption and relieve a cost of living crisis, about 52m tickets have been sold, a fifth… Read More Germany’s €9 train tickets scheme ‘saved 1.8m tons of CO2 emissions’

Dilip

Mikhail Gorbachev obituary

Jonathan Steele NB: Mikhail Gorbachev was a historic figure, for his courage in steering the USSR toward democracy and the peaceful resolution of conflicts within and without its borders. It is another matter that the political forces at work in a decrepit state structure were too divisive and corrupt for him to forestall disintegration. Foremost… Read More Mikhail Gorbachev obituary

Dilip