Tag: critical commentary

Chris Hedges: American universities are appendages of the corporate state

Here are some of the senior administrators I did not see joining us on the picket lines set up by striking teachers and staff at Rutgers University. Brian Strom, the chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, whose salary is $925,932 a year. Steven Libutti, the vice chancellor for Cancer Programs for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences,… Read More Chris Hedges: American universities are appendages of the corporate state

Dilip

It’s Called the American Dream Because You Have To Be Asleep to Believe It

A thorough dissection of America’s capitalist mythology reveals the sham to which lots of people continue to subscribe, despite growing nationwide suffering. Much of what is now a core part of the American psyche is a series of get-rich-quick schemes passed off as meritocratic necessities within a capitalist society. Key words and phrases like “the… Read More It’s Called the American Dream Because You Have To Be Asleep to Believe It

Dilip

Maiming India

The regime’s mimicry of Pakistan in rewriting India’s history Mukul Kesavan The decision to allegedly unburden schoolchildren by deleting the Mughal era from their history curriculum has provoked amusing memes: images of the Taj Mahal complete with captions about its mysterious origins and jokes about gallant medieval Rajput rulers routed by invisible armies. These are… Read More Maiming India

Dilip

Ramachandra Guha: Why attack young Kashmiris for a crime committed by someone else? / This Student Helped Evacuate Hundreds Of Kashmiris After Pulwama

First posted February 20, 2019 NB: It has been a long-standing feature of communal politics to make innocent people pay for the crimes of a few. This noxious habit is now being pushed and encouraged by the political fronts of the RSS, which in effect means the Government of India. These people claim to hold a… Read More Ramachandra Guha: Why attack young Kashmiris for a crime committed by someone else? / This Student Helped Evacuate Hundreds Of Kashmiris After Pulwama

Dilip

Are coincidences real ?

The rationalist in me knows that coincidences are inevitable, mundane, meaningless. But I can’t deny there is something strange and magical in them, too  Paul Broks The term “coincidence” covers a wide range of phenomena, from the cosmic (in a total solar eclipse, the disc of the moon and the disc of the sun, by… Read More Are coincidences real ?

Dilip

Does climate breakdown mean we’re doomed? No: if we’re brave, big change can happen fast

Eco-anxiety stems from a sense of hopelessness and the realisation that there are limits to how much agency we have as individuals to affect global change. But we are not hopeless, far from it. The future is still unwritten; we cannot know what it holds, but we will make it first in our minds, in our… Read More Does climate breakdown mean we’re doomed? No: if we’re brave, big change can happen fast

Dilip

Climate emergency is the biggest health crisis of our time: bigger than Covid

Pascal Soriot The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is a grim, yet unsurprising, reminder of the catastrophic effect global heating is having on our planet. The message from leading climate scientists is clear: action is needed now. Not tomorrow, not next year, not by the end of the decade. Even drastic carbon reduction today… Read More Climate emergency is the biggest health crisis of our time: bigger than Covid

Dilip

What explains Pawar’s defence of Adani and the government?

Bharat Bhushan Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar surprised everyone by breaking ranks with the Opposition in defending controversial businessman Gautam Adani. He has distanced himself, though not his party, from the demand of 19 Opposition parties for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) inquiry into the Adani affairs. Even as he may be exploring an alternative political… Read More What explains Pawar’s defence of Adani and the government?

Dilip