Amiens Cathedral (Pipers play Amazing Grace. Memoriam for Armistice, 1918)

Pipers play Amazing Grace. Memoriam for Armistice, 1918 United Pipers for Peace, 1918-2018, was a gathering of around 400 bagpipers from across the globe to commemorate the centenary of the armistice of the First World War. In a short remembrance ceremony in Amiens Cathedral, Emma Brown sang Amazing Grace, followed by Pipe Major Tom Jamieson… Read More Amiens Cathedral (Pipers play Amazing Grace. Memoriam for Armistice, 1918)

Ordinary Love

Song by U2 The sea wants to kiss the golden shoreThe sunlight warms your skinAll the beauty that’s been lost before wants to find us again I can’t fight you any more, it’s you I’m fighting forThe sea throws rock together but time leaves us polished stones We can’t fall any further ifWe can’t feel… Read More Ordinary Love

Albert Einstein on Jews in Palestine (1932-49)

Letters and excerpts from Albert Einstein’s writings in which he repeatedly reiterated his opposition to the creation of a state for Jews, preferring the formation of a simple spiritual and cultural centre to serve the Jewish world and all humanity. Addresses on reconstruction in Palestine (1932) The crisis which the work of construction has had to… Read More Albert Einstein on Jews in Palestine (1932-49)

A Second Trump Term is the Beginning of the End and That’s Not All Bad

Fascism is the final stage in the state’s life cycle after the orgy of imperialism, and the American Empire couldn’t die soon enough. Nicky Reid This is not a sane universe. This is Babylon during the end times. Rome is burning, so Caligula gets a second term while Nero plays “Rhiannon” on the violin. The… Read More A Second Trump Term is the Beginning of the End and That’s Not All Bad

Reading Vasily Grossman’s ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘Life and Fate’

War heightens the kaleidoscope of temporality. That you might say is the premise of Grossman’s entire book. It is an effect of combat and of the proximity of death. There would be other such moments in World War II – Bagration, Normandy, and the Battle for Berlin come to mind. But perhaps never again, indeed… Read More Reading Vasily Grossman’s ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘Life and Fate’

Inside Modi Govt’s War Room to Whitewash Global Indices

The Ministry of Truth, Part 1: How the Prime Minister’s Office has ordered a systemic operation to discredit and ‘fix’ global rankings which show the government in bad light. And, to home-cook some charitable replacements. Shreegireesh Jalihal New Delhi: In Hyderabad’s Taj Deccan last year, Smriti Irani, then India’s Women and Child Development Minister, took… Read More Inside Modi Govt’s War Room to Whitewash Global Indices

Defending Dhankhar but eroding dignity of vice president

Jagdeep Dhankhar has eroded the stature of the position, which was once occupied by stalwarts like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, Gopal Swarup Pathak, M Hidayatullah, and K R Narayanan Bharat Bhushan The fallout of the Opposition’s unprecedented move to bring a resolution for the removal of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has undermined the dignity of the constitutional… Read More Defending Dhankhar but eroding dignity of vice president

‘In America we do not kill people in cold blood’ etc. But elsewhere…

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A Massive Database of Evidence, Compiled by a Historian, Documents Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza My remarks at the Oxford Union debate President of Refugees International Condemns Biden Admin for Role in Gaza Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide, Amnesty International report finds / Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing Rashid Khalidi: ‘Israel… Read More ‘In America we do not kill people in cold blood’ etc. But elsewhere…