A daughter’s fight, a son lost to drugs: families in J&K battle death and despair

Bashaarat Masood , Naveed Iqbal In district after district in the Valley, as The Indian Express found travelling to Srinagar, Anantnag, Kupwara and Baramulla, such stories are playing out in homes, hospital wards and deaddiction centres. Jammu and Kashmir’s drug pandemic which, as the first of this investigative series reported Friday, has seen a record seizure of heroin, an unprecedented… Read More A daughter’s fight, a son lost to drugs: families in J&K battle death and despair

China’s recent economic woes suggest there is something seriously amiss

Underlying longer-term weaknesses in the economy are bound up with Beijing’s repressive political system George Magnus At a Politburo meeting last month, China’s leaders referred to the economic recovery this year as “torturous”. You won’t often hear such candour coming from a Chinese Communist party institution, let alone such an elevated body. They were referring… Read More China’s recent economic woes suggest there is something seriously amiss

Varlık at 90: Culture depends on the suspension of power

A Turkish literary institution turns 90: reflections on Varlık’s evolution and achievements, as well as notable omissions Eurozine Review Only ten years younger than the Republic of Turkey itself, Varlık devotes its July issue to an accounting of the journal’s first 90 years. In its early days Varlık marched in step with the modernising spirit of the new order… Read More Varlık at 90: Culture depends on the suspension of power

Donald Trump has gone off the deep end for real: He’s a danger to humanity

Donald Trump’s insanity is a clear and present danger to the existence of humanity. BRIAN KAREM Facing 78 felonies in three different jurisdictions, with a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, still waiting to weigh in — and perhaps facing additional federal charges or possible state charges in Michigan, Arizona and elsewhere — Donald Trump… Read More Donald Trump has gone off the deep end for real: He’s a danger to humanity

Arkansas GOP rep’s wife shredded for ‘swapping’ library books with Bibles

Arkansas Republican State Representative Stephen Meeks’ wife Jennifer Meeks is receiving backlash after setting out to replace free neighborhood books with Bibles, Newsweek reports. Faulkner County Coalition for Social Justice (FCCSJ) recently called out the congressman’s wife via Facebook, saying “she has been busy posting about the little free libraries across Faulkner County and the ‘group of leftist[s],… Read More Arkansas GOP rep’s wife shredded for ‘swapping’ library books with Bibles

After Pune teacher’s arrest: Fear and surveillance in the classroom

If, as a teacher, you become overly cautious before you utter a word, if you worry that a student is recording your lecture, or the administration is continually monitoring your every move, how can you teach Marx, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Tagore, Iqbal, Manto and Premchand freely, spontaneously and creatively?  Avijit Pathak The primary reason I could… Read More After Pune teacher’s arrest: Fear and surveillance in the classroom

Sri Lanka, thirty one years after: Burning of the Jaffna Public Library, May 1981

NB: Meanwhile the JNU History Centre collection, one of the most valuable in the country, is being dismantled by the authorities to make room for a new centre of Tamil studies. I am sure lovers of Tamil language and culture do not wish for the university’s history collection to be removed. This is nothing but… Read More Sri Lanka, thirty one years after: Burning of the Jaffna Public Library, May 1981