NB: History has always been a battleground, for as Orwell’s Big Brother reminds us: ‘Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past’ (1984). The search for the truth about the past is as difficult as it is inevitable. DS Had justice and the rule of law prevailed in South… Read More Terry Bell: A REASON FOR SADNESS AT THE DEATH OF FW DE KLERK
NB: A timely comment on a sinister speech. The NSA is telling us that civil society itself is a war zone. This is not surprising, as the militarisation of civil society is precisely the goal as well as modus operandi of totalitarian politics. This is nothing new. It was evident in the Nazi and Fascist… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Frontier of warfare? Wrong to securitise civil society discourse
The morning after a great historical crisis, you feel as sad and sick as after a heavy night. But there is no aspirin for historical hangovers .. The world is no longer divided into the just or unjust, but into masters and slaves. He who is right is he who enslaves. Albert Camus La crise… Read More Albert Camus's lecture 'The Human Crisis', New York, March 1946. 'No cause justifies the murder of innocents'
NB: If anything signifies the total takeover of democracy by capitalist robber barons and corporate (including communist) totalitarianism, it is the refusal to take necessary measures to halt global warming. A new internationalist, movement is required to save a sustainable ecological balance on earth. Labels such as Left/Right/Liberal etc., have no meaning any more. The… Read More Honest Government Advertisement: Net Zero by 2050
Carrying blood-red ribbons to represent the crucial red lines already crossed by Cop26 negotiations, hundreds of representatives of global civil society walked out of the convention centre in Glasgow on the final morning of the summit in protest. The audience at the People’s Plenary in the conference blue zone heard speakers condemn the legitimacy and ambition of… Read More Hundreds of global civil society representatives walk out of Cop26 in protest
In The Brothers Karamazov one of the monks tells Alyosha that “the science of this world has … analyzed everything divine handed down to us in the holy books. After this cruel analysis the learned of this world have nothing left of all that was sacred of old.” The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoyevsky’s answer to… Read More Professor Hubert Dreyfus: Dostoyevsky on how to Save the Sacred from Science / Leszek Kolakowski: The Revenge of the Sacred in secular culture
That day the world descended into the age of darkness which has no end, and repeats itself over and over again. Every moment the Lord dies somewhere or the other every moment the darkness grows deeper and deeper. The age of darkness has seeped into our very souls. There is darkness, and there is Ashwatthama, and… Read More Andha Yug (Dharamvir Bharati, 1953) / धर्मवीर भारती लिखित नाटक 'अन्धा युग'
I’ve spent most of my career as a storyteller, using stunning visual imagery and compelling personal stories to move people. Moving people is exactly what’s needed to save our planet. We cannot afford to stand still any longer, let alone go backwards. Too often, the very real threat of climate change can feel either distant or… Read More Cristina Mittermeier: Photography and storytelling can turn apathy into climate action
Mediapart is today publishing the alleged false invoices that enabled French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation to pay at least 7.5 million euros in secret commissions to a middleman to help secure the sale of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft to India. Yet despite the existence of these documents, the Indian federal police has decided not to pursue the… Read More 'Rafale Papers': the 'bogus invoices' used to help French firm clinch sale of jets to India / BJP accuses Opposition of benefiting from kickbacks
Last month, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced it had developed a new asset class and accompanying listing vehicle meant “to preserve and restore the natural assets that ultimately underpin the ability for there to be life on Earth.” Called a natural asset company, or NAC, the vehicle will allow for the formation of specialized corporations “that hold… Read More WHITNEY WEBB: Wall Street now monetizes nature
