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

Our leaders look climate change in the eyes, and shrug / Siberian heatwave led to new methane emissions / Terrifying documentary on US wildfires

There is a certain sort of amusement to be had in watching the developed world deal with the insistent onslaught of climate change. Like many horror stories, this one features a main character full of futile determination to maintain a sense of normalcy even as the ominous signs of doom become ever more impossible to… Read More Our leaders look climate change in the eyes, and shrug / Siberian heatwave led to new methane emissions / Terrifying documentary on US wildfires

Dilip

Myanmar’s UN envoy accuses military junta of township massacre

Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, who has refused to leave his post despite being fired by the junta after the February coup, has alerted the world body to a “reported massacre” by the military. Kyaw Moe Tun sent a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Tuesday saying 40 bodies had been… Read More Myanmar’s UN envoy accuses military junta of township massacre

Dilip

Archaeological 'treasures,' including 2,400-year-old fruit, discovered at ancient Egyptian city

Archaeological “treasures,” including Greek ceramics and 2,400-year-old wicker baskets filled with fruit, have been discovered at the site of the ancient sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion, off Egypt’s coast. Thonis-Heracleion was Egypt’s largest Mediterranean port before Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BCE. A team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), led by… Read More Archaeological 'treasures,' including 2,400-year-old fruit, discovered at ancient Egyptian city

Dilip

Prem Shankar Jha: Anthony Blinken Conveyed a Warning to the Modi Government But Did the Prime Minister Hear It?

In the joint press conference that ended his one-day visit to India, United States secretary of state Anthony Blinken did not try to hide the US’s discomfiture over the turn that Indian democracy has taken in the past several years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Answering a question posed by the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent, he readily… Read More Prem Shankar Jha: Anthony Blinken Conveyed a Warning to the Modi Government But Did the Prime Minister Hear It?

Dilip

Prasenjit Duara – The Chinese World Order in Historical Perspective (2019)

The Imperialism of Nation-states or Soft Power    I seek to grasp the genealogy of China’s Belt and Road (BRI) in relation both to the imperial Chinese world order and the historical sequence of forms of global domination, i.e., modern imperialism, the ‘imperialism of nation-states’ during the inter-war and Cold War period as well as… Read More Prasenjit Duara – The Chinese World Order in Historical Perspective (2019)

Dilip

Alia Waheed: Pakistan reckons with its ‘gender terrorism epidemic’ after murder of Noor Mukadam

The family of a 27-year-old woman who was allegedly tortured and beheaded by the son of a business tycoon have spoken of their devastation in a case that has pushed Pakistan to examine what has been called a “gender terrorism epidemic”. Zahir Zakir Jaffer was arrested on suspicion of the pre-meditated murder of Noor Mukadam, the youngest… Read More Alia Waheed: Pakistan reckons with its ‘gender terrorism epidemic’ after murder of Noor Mukadam

Dilip

Gabrielle Canon: The disastrous impact of heatwaves on plants and animals

More than a billion sea creatures across the Pacific north-west perished in this year’s heatwave. And it’s just a taste of what’s to come.    When forecasts foreshadowed the Pacific north-west’s devastating heatwave at the end of June, marine biologist Christopher Harley was alarmed and intrigued. Then came the smell, and his feelings somberly shifted.… Read More Gabrielle Canon: The disastrous impact of heatwaves on plants and animals

Dilip

MUZAMIL JALEEL – From majority to disempowered minority’: Politics of Delimitation in J & K

It is never an event. It is always a process of several steps, at times far from one another, that slowly progress towards the goal. And the process is always difficult to comprehend in real time. It’s deliberately built to confuse. One step leads to the next but each step is crafted in a manner… Read More MUZAMIL JALEEL – From majority to disempowered minority’: Politics of Delimitation in J & K

Dilip