The years leading up to the declaration of war between the Axis and Allied powers in 1939 were tumultuous times for people across the globe. The Great Depression had started a decade before, leaving much of the world unemployed and desperate. Nationalism was sweeping through Germany, and it chafed against the punitive measures of the… Read More ALAN TAYLOR – Historic photos of World War II: Before the War
Just as every grief narrative is a reckoning with loss, every love story is a chronicle of finding,” writes Kathryn Schulz in her eloquent and tender memoir, Lost & Found. “And so, much as my father’s death made me wonder about the relationship between large losses and smaller ones, falling for someone made me think about… Read More Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz review – life-changing moments of love and death
Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 23, 2022 Climate Change 2022 Report: Act Now to Avert Catastrophic Events | K N Ninan Earth Day re-emphasizes need for resolving the survival crisis | Bharat Dogra Making Sense of IMF’s Institutional View on Capital Flows | Kavaljit Singh Jammu and Kashmir: Tenth Report Of The Concerned Citizens’ Group Alas, Hindi… Read More Mainstream, April 23, 2022 / Ramjas History students bid farewell to retiring teacher
There are already signs that the coup has prompted an increase in illegal mining and logging, and regime economic policies are set to compound the environmental destruction at a time when activists and communities are unable to push back. Within months of the February 2021 coup, there were already signs that military rule could have… Read More Myanmar- ‘Quick profits’: Activists fear for environment under military rule
Everyone grows up with (or into) individual traits such as gender and intelligence, but also different group identities – you can be a Hindu or a Muslim, a Dalit or a Kayasth, a Bengali or a Malayali, and so on. How should the Indian state see the individual – as primarily defined by their individuality… Read More Raghuram Rajan & Rohit Lamba: Groups, not individuals, are the focus of most policy, politics. This has social, economic costs
This week, authorities in India’s capital New Delhi released a new plan of action to curb air pollution over the course of summer, as a severe heatwave bakes the city. The plan focuses on reducing pollution from road dust and the burning of waste, which are major contributors of fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) that pose… Read More How air pollution is affecting people in Delhi's slums
Umang Gupta one-time student of Sainik School Kunjpura (1961-65) and IIT Kanpur, a technology giant, passed away in San Mateo, California, on April 19, 2022 after a spirited battle against cancer. His mother, Mrs Ramnika Gupta, was CPI (M) MP from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. She was a writer, educationist and tireless worker for tribal rights and the preservation of tribal languages. She… Read More Farewell Umang
What was the name of the female scientist who pioneered the mRNA research behind the success of recent COVID-19 vaccines? Who was that 16th-century catholic nun from whom René Descartes stole the evil demon thought experiment that secured his place in public memory as the father of modern philosophy? I doubt you remember either woman. Their names… Read More Ann-Sophie Barwich: The absent woman
A historical study of the opium and heroin trade and its political context, based on primary and secondary sources, including interviews with some of the key players of the developments in Indochina in the 1950s through 1970s. Alfred W. McCoy; The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central… Read More Book review: Alfred McCoy on the Politics of Heroin & CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
The governments now sanctioning Russian oligarchs forget to mention that it was the free-market policies of the ’90s that created them. In order to regain the initiative after misreading Russia’s aggression, the Left needs to point out how the war for democracy in Ukraine is part of its own struggle for global justice in the… Read More Eirik Leivestad: The war for democracy
