Dependency, neocolonialism, and the agrarian problem in Colombia Sandra Jaramillo Restrepo In the 1960s and ‘70s, the Colombian national government embarked on an ambitious agrarian reform program to address poverty in the increasingly violent countryside. Under the bipartisan project of the National Front, which alternated power between the Conservative and Liberal parties, these efforts sparked… Read More Underdevelopment and War
It’s all the more striking that Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar have run to be alongside Narendra Modi as he prepares once again to step into the role of the prime minister after describing the country’s largest minority group as “infiltrators”. Anand Sahay It is noteworthy that two leading political figures — the resurrected Andhra… Read More Naidu, Nitish Ignore the Pain of All Those Who Have Suffered During Modi’s 10-Year Tenure
NB: The crimes of the Iranian theocracy prompt the question: what is it in God’s will that calls for such barbarous cruelty and killing of people for leading an ordinary life? Does the tyranny of the Ayatollahs represent God’s will or is it simply the murderous rage of old men and hooligans using any opportunity… Read More The Amini effect: The impact of a single life and the importance of accountability
Mukul Kesavan The morning of the fourth of June found India’s non-bhakt citizens curled in a fetal position. Braced against news of the four-hundred-foretold by the exit polls, sapped by a decade of electoral defeats, they had decided not to suffer the drawn-out torment of a televised count. Better to get the bad news all at… Read More The Great Escape: When India’s Political Landscape Shifted
This is Haaretz’s lead editorial for June 7, 2024; as published in Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel Israeli right-wing activists attacking Palestinian freelance journalist Saif Kwasmi during a march commemorating Jerusalem Day, on Wednesday. Credit: Hazem Bader/AFP It is impossible to watch the photographic documentation of the ugly, violent demonstrators during Wednesday’s parade of… Read More The Brutalization of Israel Is Well Underway. If we do not act, collapse is only a matter of time
NB: This is a fascinating account of one of the most deadly confrontations of modern times. I learned from it that Ayatollah Khomeini was less interested in religious orthodoxy than in seizing absolute power and cutting down moderate clerics to size, and used the book to assert his authority; that Rushdie’s assailant Hadi Matar, 26,… Read More Rushdie, Khomeini and Me
NB: The systematic destruction of India’s criminal justice system is something that few bother to investigate. As a result we carry on as if nothing has happened. Mass carnage, rampant corruption, disappearance of witnesses, the mysterious death of a judge siting on a crucial case, death in custody of an 84 year old priest with… Read More Ex-Arunachal CM’s Explosive Suicide Note that the government refused to probe (2017)
Narendra Modi and the BJP fought this election in only his name. The lack of majority, then, should come down to him. Ashutosh Bhardwaj One can call it a Surya-Tilak in Ayodhya. The rejection of temple politics, it’s a telegram from Uttar Pradesh to the Varanasi MP. The state that gifted him the Delhi throne… Read More Seven Reasons Why Modi Has No Moral or Political Right to Head the Next Government
@ Amnesty International On JUNE 4, 1989, hundreds – possibly thousands – of protesters peacefully calling for economic and social reforms were killed by troops around Tiananmen Square. Today, in the face of an escalating crackdown on free expression by the Chinese government, the memory of what happened on Tiananmen Square teeters on the brink of… Read More Remembering Tiananmen Square: Defending Memory Amidst Repression
Biden’s plan to cozy up to Arab dictators is right out of Donald Trump’s playbook — but even worse. Aída Chávez WHY DOES Joe Biden insist on pursuing a foreign policy of blind support of Israel’s war on Gaza? In addition to the moral calamity — on full display as Israel bombed Palestinian refugee camps in… Read More Joe Biden’s Terrible Israel Policy Is Really About Getting in Bed With Saudi Arabia
After the truth-shower 