Bichhdā kuchh is adā se ki rut hī badal gaī / ik shaḳhs saare shahr ko vīrān kar gayā – Khalid Sharif He parted in such a way that the season has changed / A whole city stands deserted by one man’s departure Kishore Saint, Ashish Kothari, Aseem Shrivastava “Ahimsa and Truth are my two lungs.… Read More The Sacred Ecology of Ahimsa
By Liam Barrett In an interview for the Guardian last week, MSNBC broadcaster Mehdi Hasan launched a broadside against Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. Fox is less of a news channel, Hasan said, than “a propaganda arm of the Republican Party.” Hasan accused Murdoch of overseeing the “degradation of our democracy and media.” His criticisms mirror a general distrust of the mainstream… Read More Rupert Murdoch’s press empire is a threat to democracy
Adam Tooze As far as we are currently able to judge, our best chance to halt the further escalation of the climate crisis through decarbonization of the economy depends on electricity and electrification. Given the current horizon of technological expectations, electric power and electric technology offer us the best chance of reconciling the insatiable desire… Read More Repowering the world: the challenge of electrification
How atomic doomsday experiments, fuelled by Cold War fears, shaped, then shook ecologists’ faith in self-healing nature Laura J Martin When Hurricane Fiona flooded regions of Puerto Rico with up to 30 inches of rain in September last year, the island was still recovering from hurricanes Irma and Maria, two catastrophic storms in 2017 during which nearly 3,000… Read More Disturbance
A kaleidoscopic journey through a divided country…The river of bile on which Sharlet fights to stay afloat courses from one end of the country to the other. By Elizabeth D. Samet The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlet Jeff Sharlet’s new book, The Undertow, plunged me into a vertiginous fever-dream. It induced a physiological response… Read More The Center Cannot Hold
NB: An interesting essay. However, Heyking seems to conflate China and ‘Asia’. DS John von Heyking In order to cut through the two false alternatives – “catch up” and “social harmony” – I appeal to the original figure of Western liberal education, Socrates. Socrates indeed embodies the individual as it has been transmitted throughout the… Read More The Figure of Socrates and its Significance for Liberal Education in Asia
Some of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists are providing their services to Ukraine for free – but at the same time, they are taking in millions in fees from Pentagon contractors who stand to benefit from the country’s war with Russia. Following Russian president Vladimir Putin’s internationally condemned decision to invade Ukraine there was an outpouring of support… Read More They’re lobbying for Ukraine pro bono – and making millions from arms firms
8 March 2023, London, 6-10pmOn International Women’s Day, we pay homage to and celebrate ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ and the women’s revolution in Iran. An evening of discussion, art, music, dance, film and performances. Sponsored by One Law for All and Woman, Life, Freedom Charter. Get Tickets Here. No tickets will be sold at door. 18 February 2023,… Read More Events in the UK in support of Women’s Revolution in Iran
Simon Tisdall Biden’s division of the world into “for us or against us” camps carries uncomfortable echoes of George W Bush, circa 2001, and of Putin himself. That it is America’s manifest destiny (updated version) to defend and promote freedom and democracy everywhere is a message that normally plays well with US voters. At least,… Read More Outdated and out of time: Biden’s crusade for global democracy is doomed to fail
Between ageing populations, shifting attitudes and challenges to capitalist beliefs, workers have unprecedented power James Meadway As strikes and labour disputes surge around the world, we appear to be at the beginning of a period in which the balance of power in workplaces and labour markets swings in favour of workers, having long been skewed… Read More Covid reshaped the global labour market – these strikes are just the start
