Tag: critical commentary

LIV GRJEBINE: Politicized science drove lunar exploration — but polarized scientific views are worse than ever

People often assume that the objectivity of science requires it to be isolated from governmental politics. However, scientists have always gotten involved in politics as advisers and through shaping public opinion. And science itself – how scientists are funded and how they choose their research priorities – is a political affair. The coronavirus pandemic showed both the benefits and risks of this relationship – from the controversies surrounding hydroxychloroquine to the efforts… Read More LIV GRJEBINE: Politicized science drove lunar exploration — but polarized scientific views are worse than ever

Dilip

Arjun Appadurai: Ripping Apart the Central Vista Is Nothing Short of the Reconquest of Delhi / Romi Khosla: Central Vista Project is Government’s Desire to Change History

The will cannot will backwards… That time does not run backward, that is his wrath; ‘that which was’ is the name of the stone he cannot move. And so he moves stones out of wrath and displeasure, and he wreaks revenge on whatever does not feel wrath and displeasure as he does. Thus the will,… Read More Arjun Appadurai: Ripping Apart the Central Vista Is Nothing Short of the Reconquest of Delhi / Romi Khosla: Central Vista Project is Government’s Desire to Change History

Dilip

Tim Schwab: The Fall of the House of Gates?

Will the world be significantly better or different if Bill Gates steps down from the foundation, and Melinda takes the reins of this deeply undemocratic, totally unaccountable, aggressively nontransparent political organization – one that zealously solicits accolades for the miserly sums of money it donates at a glacially slow pace? Or if another “good billionaire”… Read More Tim Schwab: The Fall of the House of Gates?

Dilip

Akbar S. Ahmed: Gaza Tests Biden Foreign Policy Team’s Promise To Learn From past Mistakes / Chomsky: Without US Aid, Israel Wouldn’t Be Killing Palestinians En Masse / Photo essay on the suffering of children

NB: The word ‘mistake’ is so ugly in the midst of corpses of children and piles of rubble. Led by the US, the western powers have an unofficial and flexible algebra for the numbers of Palestinian civilians killed, hospitals and schools in Gaza destroyed, before they call for a cease-fire. This is not a mistake… Read More Akbar S. Ahmed: Gaza Tests Biden Foreign Policy Team’s Promise To Learn From past Mistakes / Chomsky: Without US Aid, Israel Wouldn’t Be Killing Palestinians En Masse / Photo essay on the suffering of children

Dilip

Why do Americans turn a Blind eye to Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians? / Children are on the frontline of Israel’s war on Gaza – again / How the United States helps to kill Palestinians

Why governments in London, Paris and Washington back Israel’s Occupation of 5 million stateless Palestinians and its slow ethnic cleansing of them is not so hard to figure out. Israel represents itself as a Western aircraft carrier in a strategically crucial part of the world full of energy resources. It gathers and shares intelligence on… Read More Why do Americans turn a Blind eye to Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians? / Children are on the frontline of Israel’s war on Gaza – again / How the United States helps to kill Palestinians

Dilip

Ravi Bhoothalingam: Coronavirus and the Mandate of Heaven (March 13, 2020)

NB: This thoughtful essay appeared a year ago. I planned to post it then, but it seems much more appropriate to be read now. It reads like a prophesy. DS    The Mandate of Heaven is an ancient Chinese philosophical doctrine evolved during the Zhou dynasty in the first millennium BCE, to confer on an… Read More Ravi Bhoothalingam: Coronavirus and the Mandate of Heaven (March 13, 2020)

Dilip

India, Brazil and the human cost of sidelining science

Last week, Brazil’s total death toll from COVID-19 passed 400,000. In India, the pandemic is taking around 3,500 lives every day and has prompted a global response, with offers of oxygen, ventilators, intensive-care beds and more. Although these two countries are thousands of miles apart, the crises in both are the result of political failings:… Read More India, Brazil and the human cost of sidelining science

Dilip

Devjyot Ghoshal, Krishna Das. Exclusive: Scientists say India government ignored warnings amid coronavirus surge // Kapil Komireddi: Modi Fiddles While India Burns

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country, five scientists who are part of the forum told Reuters. Despite the warning, four of the scientists said the federal… Read More Devjyot Ghoshal, Krishna Das. Exclusive: Scientists say India government ignored warnings amid coronavirus surge // Kapil Komireddi: Modi Fiddles While India Burns

Dilip