A complete depiction of events that unfolded during 1917. In six parts. Original texts and artworks belong to Progress Publishers, Moscow.

Tags: Saswat, USSR, Communism, Cold War, History

Got this from Dr TSB of the media blog Drums in the Global Village.


Hey, Folks -

Yup, the first 6 hours of EYES ON THE PRIZE will, finally, be re-broadcast nationally on PBS’ “The American Experience” on the first three Mondays in October (Oct. 2, 9, 16) at 9:00 pm (check local listings). They’ll air 2 hours each Monday.

Hour 1 - “Awakenings” (1954-1965) — Emmett Till and Montgomery Bus Boycott

Hour 2 - “Fighting Back” (1957-62) — School Desegregation, including Little Rock and ‘Ol Miss.

Hour 3 - “Ain’t Scared of Your Jails” (1960-61) — Sit-ins and Freedom Rides

Hour 4 - “No Easy Walk” (1961-63) — Albany, Ga; March on Wash.; Birmingham

Hour 5 - “Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-64) — Medgar Evers and Miss. Freed. Summer

Hour 6 - “Bridge to Freedom” ( 1965) - Selma March

**Important - PBS is waiting to see the audience response to the first series before it commits to air the 2nd EYES series(8 hours). Though the first series is really inspirational, it is the 2nd series that is most relevant to the issues we’re dealing with today: the war; growing gap between rich and poor, etc. (It’s in the 2nd series that you see footage of the Dr. King speech in which he calls for “a radical redistribution of economic power.&rdquo It’s also in the 2nd series that you get the murder of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago, the establishment of COINTELPRO, and the Attica Rebellion.

So, it would be great if folks would call their PBS station and let them know you: a) appreciate seeing the first series again and b) hope they’ll also air the second series.

Both the first AND second series will be available on VHS and DVD through PBS Video — but ONLY as institutional sales — no home video.

Thanks!
- judy
(Judy Richardson)

Tags: Saswat, History, Black Power, Racism, USA, Media

Fellow readers and activists Satya and Rajesh have sent me via an email a response they had, to the issue of reservation, at the UMass., Amherst mailing list "Indian Manifesto". I simply love everything they have to say here. And especially the way they end the note with:

"One CANNOT reverse the arrow of time. In the last two decades, the lower castes are on the move and have been more influential than ever before, in determining national politics, distribution of power and resources, redefining culture, and the very texture of everyday life. That's the greatest thing that has happened to India in the recent past. In fact, it is a more significant event in the history of Indian than even the independence struggle."

Absolutely a must-read!

Tags: Saswat, Racism, Casteism, India

Forthcoming events for May Day in the United States of America!

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Activism, USA

Medha Patkar is a relentless and indomitable revolutionary. Her active campaigns for indigenous peoples’ causes form the means. Her endless struggles against corporate greedy motives shape her purpose.

She leads to inspire generations of collective beings that we often don’t find time and inclination to become while working within the framework of capitalistic expansions of individualistic self-centrism– to love our common land, our river, and the mother earth. And her convictions enthuse the world to consider genre of critical values that we often fail to notice—suffering all alone, and celebrating with others. Fighting on behalf of the landless. And fighting against the land-grabbers.

Sometimes, human beings as simple and beautiful as Medha Patkar are all we need for making the world a better place to live in.

Thanks are due, to fellow traveler Sivagami Subbaraman who sends me a thought-provoking critical article. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, News, Environment, Activism, India, Capitalism

The following article is authored by two of my dearest comrades.

In the quest for What Needs to be Done!

Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Media, Capitalism, Racism, USA

Thanks to Dr Todd S Burroughs, who sent this article link. A very insightful writing. Indicative not just of the veteran US and major Europe, but also new free market economies like India. Indeed the Indian administrations since early 1990s have been often depicted as Fascist in orientation for their shifts in focus from eradication of poverty to appeasement of the homegrown capitalists and foreign investors, all the while, preaching "nationalistic" sentiments! Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Cold War, Imperialism, Capitalism

Did CIA create Osama bin Laden & fostered fanaticism? For those who never knew it already, Chomsky says, yes.

"A sensible person would try to ascertain Bin Laden’s views, and the sentiments of the large reservoir of supporters he has throughout the region. Bin Laden became a militant Islamic leader in the war to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan. He was one of the many religious fundamentalist extremists recruited, armed, and financed by the CIA and their allies in Pakistani intelligence to cause maximal harm to the Russians-quite possibly delaying their withdrawal-though whether he personally happened to have direct contact with the CIA is unclear, and not particularly important. Not surprisingly, the CIA preferred the most fanatic and cruel fighters they could mobilize. The end result was to “destroy a moderate regime and create a fanatical one, from groups recklessly financed by the Americans” (according to London Times correspondent Simon Jenkins).

Source: Interview on Radio B92, Belgrade Sep 18, 2001

Well, of course there are huge amount of apparent human beings just so opposed to everything Chomsky says! And equally sad, the way the secret operatives have been normalized, instead of being questioned.

So, I thought in the age of Fox TV and all accompanying television shortcuts, let's watch this short video of the secretive CIA.

Tags: Saswat, War, Terrorism, Media, USA

Rolling Stone remains the leading magazine worth quoting. This is one that never ceases to provide food for critical thought. One of finest pieces of journalism that is there today. Or there was ever.
This week, Matt Taibbi writes about Kashmiri earthquake and says:

Even the most godless among us has to tremble before the biblical scale of the past twelve months' headlines: the tsunami that swallowed south Asia, the deadly lady named Katrina (also known as America Not Immune) and now this. We do not seem to be going forward very much, but every few months we lose, somewhere, a big piece of the world map, a mysterious and enervating process that is becoming like an ominously steady drip that can be heard all over the planet.

And this, the massive earthquake that rocked Kashmir on October 8th, is the worst by far of the troika. It is a calamity the dimensions of which the world so far has completely failed to appreciate or understand. Coupled with the geopolitical nature of the misfortune -- testing the nerve of two antsy nuclear antagonists and the political health of a somewhat notorious but also critically important American ally regime -- the continuing disaster known as the Kashmiri earthquake threatens to be a world-shaping event as important as the Iraq War itself.”

A very humanist, and a very critical examination of the disaster, not stopping at the 80,000 toll, but actually predicating the aftermath of it as the bigger cataclysm yet to appear. This winter, he knows Pakistan will bleed. And the world, like in the past, may remain largely indifferent. An ally of the United States not since Bin Laden, but since well before the Bangaldesh War, Pakistan stands to count on the world leaders’ contributions to rehabilitate its people. Pakistan government and its people have done all that they could in times of adversity. Now is the time for the world to respond. Albeit lately. Taibbi says:

It just so happens that this process is taking place at a time when, in the wake of the tsunami and Katrina, giving from the West is unusually phlegmatic; to date, only about $131 million of a U.N. target $550 million has been raised, an embarrassment that has prompted U.N. officials to issue statements actually chiding tight-fisted Western donors.

The U.S. Army was active in Muzaffarabad and other places, making nearly thirty helicopters available. But while it gives aid with a grunt at the end of a stick, or out the bay door of a chopper, fundamentalist Muslim organizations and Pakistani political parties are traveling high in the mountains by foot to give it by hand, with a kind word and a few more in the mother tongue.”

Matt Taibbi, often compared with the Gonzo, is a phenomenon all by himself. Hunter S. Thompson indeed had a different style of writing than Matt. But where they intersect well are the level of honesty, the uncanny sense of dark humor and vivid critical imagination. Just as an example of his well meaning cultural locations, Taibbi in an interview said recently why he would not be called a journalist anymore (he said this referring to his editorial position in a paper in Russia). Why the demise had to be there, and why mainstream media is so fucked up:

I really loved Russia and I thought it was a great place. Unspoiled and different from America in such a great way, it’s so different. Everything in America is so uniform. In Russia everywhere you go is completely insane. In Russia, if you wake up in the morning to go do something you’re supposed to do for your job and end up 100 miles away stone drunk with a bunch of strangers it’s totally OK. In America we’re so efficient. When the Americans came into Russia en masse in the mid 90’s they all had this crusading missionary attitude – like we have to change this place and turn it more into America. We have to take all these dingy old buildings and replace them with our gleaming corporate storefronts. We have to replace all these interesting idiosyncratic people and replace them with middle class managers who all want to buy IKEA furniture and go on vacations in Ibiza. They had a real missionary zeal about it.

And the reporters were worse than everybody. A lot of them didn’t speak Russian too, and that infuriated me. They would hang out with each other. They would go only to Western-style bars, live in their compounds and write all these stories. That the plot of the story was always the same: If this politician spoke English and was pro-American than he was the good guy and whoever the Russian guy was the bad guy. And they were really ruthless about it. I got really upset about it.”

• Tags: Saswat, Racism, USA, Media, News

  |

"I can't understand why anyone said that the thing was signed in Jammu, because we never went to Jammu."

[thing: (instrument of accession proclaming Kashmir's conditional status)]

And what else? Sam Manekshaw, the first field marshal in the Indian army, recalls:

As usual Nehru talked about the United Nations, Russia, Africa, God almighty, everybody, until Sardar Patel lost his temper. He said, 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away'. He (Nehru) said,' Of course, I want Kashmir (emphasis in original). Then he (Patel) said 'Please give your orders'. And before he could say anything Sardar Patel turned to me and said, 'You have got your orders'.

This is how Indian leadership (read, the nationalist Patel) operated. And the hapless playboy king Hari Singh who had lost all legitimacy to govern the state that forced him to flee, decided on the fate of the state! As a careless albeit colorful international celebrity associated with the blackmail scandal in London, the pearls, diamonds and emeralds, Singh gave in to pressures amidst the New Delhi leaders. But the condition of a referendum has remained still unfulfiled--despite declarations by both the UN and Nehru (seems like they died together)!
{My friend Diptiman Tripathy from Moscow sent this link. }

Tags: Saswat, India, Colonialism, History

That time of the year again! Let's revisit (and re-read) the inimitable Arundhati Roy:
(text of her speech at the opening Plenary of the World Social Forum in Mumbai on January 16, 2004):

Do turkeys enjoy thanksgiving? Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Colonialism, Indigenous, USA, India

|

First snow this winter in Maryland;

and the first snow shower.

Why have I not gone beyond the cars? Well, the snow's gone now from the greenery.
Plus they recently killed the neighborhood forests and erected shopping complexes.
And also because December is just not here yet.
Still, here is an old pic! So, keep warm!

Tags: Saswat, Literature

And just to follow up on the previous post:

Organized students of the University of Maryland did not protest against any police department.
Students instead protested against systematic institutions of prejudices, bias and excessive violence. The three-points approach involved students to bring awareness about racial injustice within power structure of the school; to expose underlying racial tensions existing among community, student bodies and the country; to prevent future incidents of police brutality and further abuse of power and authority.

Listen to student protests live— and to the funkinest journalist Jared Ball sensitizing minds about what people should do when they are approached by the police. What are your rights? What are your stakes?

From the streets of College Park, the FreeMix Radio – out there to cover the systematic racism and violence at nation’s one of the top research institutions. Listen to it here, for the CNN will never bother.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Racism

One can use a page on Forbes Online to email oneself to the future.
I found it interesting. And so I mailed myself just to see if the world will still be a safe place 20 Years After! Check it out!

Tags: Saswat, Technology, Media

Discrimination may after all, not be the news, considering it could well be the norm of the day.

Even when it involves business concerns in corporate America of contemporary times.

If the irony hits, read this article by Doris Lester:
(also used here, with permission)
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Racism, Capitalism, USA

Finally, the Communists in India (both CPI and CPI-M) have come out in open support of Khushboo as the only parties to have done so! And the Madras High Court has stayed defamation proceedings against Khushboo (so far 14 cases have been stayed. Five more charges are still against her).

CPI state secretary D. Pandian said the agitations were conducted with political motives (indirectly referring to Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Dalit Panthers of India (DPI)) and had been led in ‘‘undesirable dimensions’’ and thus had degenerated to the ‘‘low level’’ of dictating what kind of dress tennis star Sania Mirza should wear on court.
Now its the turn of the prime minister to stop appeasing the reactionaries.

Tags: Saswat, Communism, India

By Saswat Pattanayak

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that he expected Pakistan to honor its promise to end cross-border terrorism.

And this comes at a time when both countries are decidedly allowing not just the line of control to be deregulated, but also the manufactured cultural division across borders be illegitimated. Any impediments to that will only result in suspension of the planned facilitation. There is no good reason why such a movement needs to be postponed at this point.



Crucial to remember here is that such intense acts at promoting mutual friendships have come not out of some vacuum, rather with concerted efforts by people across borders to challenge the status quo. People of Pakistan have clearly seen through the empty barrels of Benazir Bhuttos and Nawaj Sharrifs. Indian population has also collectively rejected the right wingers like Vajpayee and Advani. Empty rhetoric aimed at insulating people of shared cultural past (and political heritage too in their drives against colonial powers) have finally been attacked widely. Artistes have exchanged places despite threats from fanatics like Shiv Senas’. Editors have expressed solidarities despite barriers on such freedoms of speech. Leaders on both fronts have realized the growing public pressure to end the invented differences. And recent peace talks are culminations of such a hopeful past.

Suddenly New Delhi has been attacked. Of course it is strategically symbolic in that the cowards chose Sarojini Nagar, among all the places because of the density of working/middle class population there. But the bigger question is who might have been involved. Only that section of people who have a stake in the gains. And who would gain from the process?

The only theory doing the rounds in the Indian press is that Pakistan is involved. A certain journalist from BBC, Sanjoy Majumder who regularly opines carelessly, says India feels groups based in Pakistan or linked to them may have been involved.

There is a danger in such theorizing. Unlike in the past, the attack this time was not targeted at people in power or governmental institutions (Parliament etc.). Unlike in the past, neither Lashkar-e-Toiba nor the Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed the attack. Instead a rather unknown group Inqilabi has claimed anything of worth. Moreover, even Kashmiri analysts are unaware of existence of this group.

In that case, where does the needle of suspicion point to? For once, just for once, if we absolve the ghost of Pakistan masterminding, then can we look within and see patterns of similar attacks on civilians? In India by Indians?

What about recent riots in Mumbai? In Gujarat? These led to deaths of thousands of people and we still cannot blame any group in Pakistan for perpetuating either. Delhi has been the domain of political groups who have been known to have incited hatred among people since decades now, for their own political gains. Why first look across the border for clues? How about looking at home front for possible explanations? Only after we have exhausted all possible logic for attacking civilians to disturb the initiated peace process that might have germinated from a certain section of Indian public, should we look beyond.

Let India not choose a pathetic model that American way of theorizing terror has created. Oklahoma bombing did not teach us a lesson. Recently as an empty threat in New York Subways came about, theory was already afloat that fundamentalists (of course from ‘their’ religion, not ours) were after us.

The riddle is not a Gordian knot. We must find out a good motive. There is a bloody good one. And it’s not Diwali. Please! Media is doing a disservice by giving coverage to irresponsible comments by leaders (a la Rice) who feel bad that it was days before Diwali. The attacks have nothing to do with Diwali. For the religious lot, no God teaches to annihilate people of other faiths. And for the irreligious lot, who have done the act, let’s say hypothetically in the name of religion, they would care less about Diwali as a point of reference. The only thing that has changed since last attack on Indian Parliament and this attack on Sarojini Nagar is not a new festival called Diwali. It’s the initiation of a peace process that would have made line of control a point of friendship.

After the serious examination of this motive, intelligence agencies must look into the genealogy of people who would otherwise be harmed if India were to aid Pakistan at such a time of grave danger for the latter with more than 80,000 of its people dead due to earthquakes. And at a time when Pakistan is in need much in excess of what is being offered worldwide. At such a time, India has come forward with immense goodwill gesture and just the way the British had tarnished every hope of a united India and Pakistan during their times of crisis, at this time, there is every hope of a unity to resurface. At this point, who would be most persistent at refusing such a thing from happening?

Nay, I just don’t believe it is Pakistan. The people out there, in our neighborhood are suffering at the moment. 80,000 dead in an economically impoverished nation. That’s burden upon cataclysm. They can’t be it. Come on now, Mr Indian Prime Minister. We have had enough of these hocus-pocus oratory every time any attack takes place. The easiest way to fool India’s masses has been to direct their frustration at a neighboring country. Instead of lecturing Pakistan about your expectations, start introspecting on the levels of expectations that you meet when peoples across the borders want no more of Indian army, no more of Pakistani unrest. All that folks want is a united South Asia. And the further you delay in understanding this, the merrier would be the forces of disharmony.

Tags: Saswat, Media, News, Pakistan, India, Hinduism, Islam

By Saswat Pattanayak

In a world driven by infotainment, the dividing line between what has been written and how they have been interpreted becomes blurred by the day. Although a critical scholar, by no means I claim a post-modern critique of illusory truths. There indeed have been revolutionary struggles for the better and there indeed have been reactionary efforts to suppress them. Avoiding mind contact with the same not just amounts to an intellectual privilege, but also leads to callous indifference.

Let’s then visit the original documents. You may not find them anywhere else on the web. But I am sure my romance with the keyboard to bring back what might have been forgotten in a deliberately fast-paced world of ours, will surely be a small contribution towards the continuing struggles. In understanding that the freedom struggles in India was not as exotic as is often portrayed. That it was a gory revolutionary war on the imperialists, the homegrown reactionary landlords and the alien capitalists. It was violent. Despite pleas from the reformist pacifists, the peasants, farmers and mill workers fought back with every might to rebel against the landowners, privileged classes, and the British imperialists.

The following appeal refers to the trial of a number of Indians who, on 4 February 1922, had taken part in an attack on the Chauri-Chaura police station, in which all except two of the policemen were beaten to death. International appeals came from the leftists all over the world who wanted justice for the condemned peasants. At a time when the reformists withdrew from the mainstream struggles in face of such uprising, which went against their ethos of tolerance, the workers from many parts of the world got united to defend the ones who had openly defied the brutal capitalists.
The following letter was drafted on 14th March, 1923:

Read More...

Tags: Saswat, India, Colonialism, Communism, UK

Alright. So who are the top 10 authorities cited in American academic journals?

They are in the following order:
1. Karl Marx
2. V. I. Lenin
3. William Shakespeare
4. Aristotle
5. The Bible
6. Plato
7. Sigmund Freud
8. Noam Chomsky
9. Hegel
10. Cicero

I chanced upon this while viewing the video Rebel Without a Pause. What struck me most was I almost always believed that it was Marx, Bible and Chomsky in that order. It still is in that order. But well, I had no idea some others too went in between. Especially, Lenin at No. 2!

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Philosophy, Communism, Academic

Much has been written about the anti-colonial struggles of Indians which finally ensured that the Sun indeed set on the British Empire. 1947 steadily but surely set the world on a new order to march for freedom with rekindled hopes.
Ironically, the first martyr of this struggle was not some giant figure of world history ever studied (like Gandhi, Nehru, Bose etc), but a 13-year young revolutionary from Orissa, whom the historians have conveniently let go from the collective memory.

Historians, they say, are more powerful than God. They have the power to even change the past. So the mainstream history teaches us how to be passive, how to live by leaders, how to wait and watch, how to calm down to pragmatism, how to compete for our own survival. It teaches us to be mature like the successes, not restless like failures. For it tells us who the successes in the world were and how history is always narrated through their voices. And yes, we have learnt from history, that not all of us are capable of standing up against the mighty. Only a few clad in guerilla coats or declared communists or mothers of war victims do stand up and be losers. It teaches us October revolution was a failure, Indian experiment was unique to its own, and Kennedy was a hero who changed the shape of the world. What it does not teach us is that each of us is capable of bringing the mighty down, when we the people, collectively take action. In the past, we have demonstrated that. It just takes us to acknowledge that this had been indeed the case. It just takes the history books to recognize that common people, irrespective of their social locations have had uncommon roles, from which we have everything to learn.

Lest we have a shaky foundation with a mutilated past, we must not forget that most resilient struggle against the most powerful empire on earth was borne out of a childlike innocence, simplicity, non-compromising attitude, the deep anger, rebellious emotion, stiff resistance, and proud self.

The children in us are often compromised at the alter of adult wisdoms, or as Freud would argue, at a forced direction. But if we can learn from our own selves, our individual and collective spirits of humane defense, the realization of our suppressed potential, our ability to be educated, agitated and organized, just the way the selfless children do, just the way Baji Raut did, without any thought control of modern individualist class-promoting education, we would have learnt the first few steps of life correct.

Here is the most comprehensive and an extremely valuable article on Baji Raut, the hero who must live in all of us, who must inspire us no end, by SCP from Orissamatters.com. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, History, India, Orissa, Colonialism

NYT today has Google 1984. Orwellian circle.

Tags: Saswat, Humor, Technology

Well, finally here is one lesson that Bush learnt from Chavez and he has adopted quickly. Sounds like trivial, but it is not.
Despite what the pundits say about impossibility of Global Warming, its right here and its to stay if we dont conserve energy.
On September 16, the communist model envisaged by Chavez in his country felt disgusted at the Capitalistic extravaganza. Associated Press writer Kim Gamel mentioned: Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Environment, Venezuela, USA, Bush

Judy Dothard Simmons says:
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Environment, USA, Immigrant

By Saswat Pattanayak

So, Internet is the cause behind the widening wealth gap?

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) says it is. In a study published by BBC, it is concerned about websites providing househunters with data on neighborhood income levels and ethnicity.

Similar process has already surfaced in the US, the report says, where segregation is more and social cohesion is less. In effect, the Britain, known for class divisions, has accused US (which refuses to believe there is any) of class divisions. And the pundits opine that Internet may be the reason behind the widening wealth gap in both societies.

They may not be out of their wits entirely. Yes, Internet sites offer specialized searches for neighborhoods, categorize them into economic interests and helps people choose communities.

But this theory has two dangerous deductions: one, that people are solely affected by external sources of information (that is, conversely speaking, they do not use their own conscientious judgment), and secondly that, human beings always prefer to live with their likes (in terms of class, gender, ethnicity, nationality) and in effect, abhor diversity.

Oftentimes studies like this as they get prominence in mainstream media are nothing more than mere spaces. The nature of mainstream media to absorb any sensationalism has reached a point, where journalists/editors no more critically screen through a copy before using them for x number of columns/pages/minutes.

Its not merely important to talk about findings (Time magazine’s article on Sleep was another of the kind). That job can be done by the research assistant at the lab. What we as mediapersons need to do is to understand that we are addressing such issues of wide implications to a larger gamut of people and we need to incorporate at least some of the differing perspectives to check if there are some loopholes in the theories of the “experts”. The respect for experts as the “gatekeepers” of today’s news contents need questioning not to undermine their significance, but to critically update their contributions.

Hence in the aforesaid story we could also talk about another parameter: that is, who determine the neighborhoods?

1.Government as the agent 2. People as actors 3. Others as mediators (media, advertorials). Government has a responsibility to enforce desegregation. It’s not just a duty of human beings to morally think of it as a virtue and not practice (we know the colossal difference between preaching of virtues and practice of them). And the mediators are actually the second layer information channels. They are the points of references, not instigators for actions for an informed citizenry.

To claim that certain websites lead to wealth gap is like missing the whole point altogether. The issue of wealth gap itself. The people we elect as representatives simply are not accounted for except for the part of election themselves. Which is self-serving anyway. It’s like people feed them with their doses of electoral bliss and perpetuate the system. What should rather be the focus of stories on widening wealth gap is the lack of accountability on part of the administrators who carry out the oaths of public causes and simply shun them according to their whims.

If the government cannot on any pretext educate people about the need to live in a diverse community, it’s quite easy to blame some websites for mischief. But it also absolves the government (that is the people whom we elect—even in case of non-western democracies the people who we allow to rule over us) of its primary responsibilities—to bridge inequality gaps. Banning certain websites, if any, will not serve any purpose.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Economics, Capitalism

Am I an American?
I’m—just – an
Irish, Negro, Jewish, Italian,
French and English, Spanish, Russian,
Chinese, Polish, Scotch, Hungarian,
Litvak, Swedish, Finnish, Canadian,
Greek and Turk, and Czech
And double-Czech American.
And that ain’t all,


I was baptized
Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist,
Lutheran, Atheist, Roman Catholic,
Orthodox Jewish, Presbyterian,
Seventh-Day Adventist, Mormon, Quaker,
Christian Scientist
--and lots more!

Writer, lyricist John Latouche, 1940

Tags: Saswat, Immigrant, Literature

“Until we go through it ourselves, until our people cower in the shelters of New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere while the buildings collapse overhead and burst into flames, and dead bodies hurtle about and, when it is over for the day or the night, emerge in the rubble to find some of their dear ones mangled, their homes gone, their hospitals, churches, schools demolished — only after that gruesome experience will we realize what we are inflicting on the people of Indochina...”

-William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1973.
Read the complete article here.

Tags: Saswat, Communism, History, Vietnam, War

A song on the singer! A radical lyric about the radical poet. Adrian Mitchell has written to the tune of Arlo Guthrie!
Revolutionary songs were always meant to be simple. Straight. Honest. About unsung peoples. And heroic Fights. Jara led the exemplary life. Guthrie, son of the legendary Woody, pays tribute… Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Music, Communism, Chile, Cold War

“Beyond the Frame-Alternative perspectives on the war on terrorism” is a compilation of interviews with Seth Ackerman, Belquis Ahmadi, Joan Blades, Maliha Chishti, Noam Chomsky, Jo Commerford, Kevin Danaher, Cynthia Enloe, Henry Giroux, Janine Jackson, Robert Jensen, Sut Jhally, Darryl Kimball, Michael Kimmel, Mhahsa Khanbabai, Naomi Klein, Manning Marable, Mark Crispin Miller, Bernie Sanders, Ritu Sharma, Vandana Shiva, and Alisa Solomon.

The video brought out by Media Education Foundation deals with issues such as media’s role, women & the Afghan war, homeland security, war resistance, democracy and war, the Iraq war & growing militarism. The only down-side: the price. Too expensive. Gives me reasons for wondering why certain progressive materials need to be so expensively priced? One of the answers I conceive is it works in two ways: either because they don’t own it, and because owing to paucity of funds, they are eventually owned by 20th Century Fox and the others! Heads we lose, tails they win.

Tags: Saswat, Film, Terrorism, Media

Complexities within the South Asian communities are generously explored, Dinesh D’Souza and Deepak Chopra are loudly bashed, and the “model minority suicide” is critically examined. I am yet to come across anyone who is anywhere close to Vijay Prashad in terms of analyzing the “Brown Folk”.

The Karma of Brown Folk is masterly narrated, well researched, originally argues and mustly recommended.

And Vijay Prashad who teaches International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT, has indeed produced this classic to challenge classical myths. More power!

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Communism, Racism, Black Power

Amidst times of such war obsessions, often times the history of the war resistance is not told. http://www.route-one.org/ tells the story one location at a time: University of Maryland College Park. Event: a reunion tomorrow of the resisters!

Tags: Saswat, Activism, War, Peace

The only events open to women at this year's annual summer X Games held in Los Angeles were: Wakeboarding and skateboarding,
The organizers of the X Games claim that "female athletes in many extreme-sports categories have not reached a high-enough level to add arenas for women."

And the necessary ranting from the blog community MediaGirl can be found here.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Feminism, Blog

Cost of cardboard, paint, duct tape and wire: Pennies.
10,000 commuters reading what you have to say: Priceless.

That’s precisely what Freewayblogger.com is all about. A priceless insignia of alternative media. And our choice of Site for the Day.

Tags: Saswat, Media

Counterpunch has the news to muse today.
Tom Barry's story about Inside Bush's "World Movement for Democracy" shines!

The “world’s democratic movement” is not another one of the transnational citizens’ movements, like the anti-globalization or anti-war movements, that prides itself on having no central structure, no dogma, or even an office.

This movement is highly organized, better funded, and even has its own “secretariat.” Unlike other leaderless but world-shaking transnational citizens’ networks that emerged after the end of the Cold War, the “world’s democratic movement” is not a product of global civil society but a quasi-governmental initiative based in Washington, DC.

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Cold War, Activism

The Olive Ream by Omer Alvie is thoughtful and thought-provoking at the same time. A relatively new Pakistani blog, Olive Ream deserves to be visited quite often.

The latest entry is here.

Tags: Saswat, Blog, Pakistan

Jacob the Liar (1974) is the film about a poor Jewish worker who overhears a radio broadcast about Russia’s march towards defeating Germany. The Nazi would not of course rest until they find out who among the Jews have been spreading the words. Jacob becomes such a source of hope for the Jewish workers that he says he has a radio in the Ghetto. And then when the troubles begin.

A film about exclusive media, official propaganda, mass hope for survival and subsequent defeat of dreams. The film made in East Germany, is a masterpiece about how we have withered with time. (this German movie is different from the more famous comedy made in the 90's in English by the same name)

Tags: Saswat, Film, War, USSR, Capitalism, Communism

Noam Chomsky has written the introduction to the book on Anarchism skillfully crafted by Daniel Guerin.

Guerin is an early opponent of Fascism, a prominent gay activist, political theorist, historian and someone who propounded a hybrid of Marxism and Anarchism. A committed Leftist, his work Anarchism-- From Theory to Practice is a must-read to understand the most often misunderstood political movement.

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Communism

How does “Fuck your Fascist beauty standards” sound like?

You must wear it on your tee and support http://www.oneangrygirl.net/ for it!

Tags: Saswat, Blog, Feminism

A poem from Tina Morris, the English poet, former co-editor of poetic journals. Morris along with Dave Cunliffe had proposed the British Poetry Revival in the eighth issue of their underground magazine Poetmeat around 1965.
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Peace

The rebel-poet of a bygone era. And his spell.
Why a poet must choose a side. Even as Dylan himself would dispute his activism. A generation or two stayed awake. Thanks to him. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Communism, Cold War, USA, Imperialism, Atheism

Long Walk to Freedom
Mandela's commitments towards the oppressed cause--in defining and achieving a sense of freedom for self, by trying to gain it for everybody else. How fortunate are we that Mandela's own words are available for us to inspire us for all times to come!
Most of this autobiography was written secretly while Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years on Robben Island by South Africa's apartheid regime.

Tags: Saswat, Africa, Colonialism, Communism, Black Power, Literature

A movie based on the assassination of the prominent leftist doctor Grigoris Lambrakis, that led to the military junta in Greece.

Simply one of the greatest political thrillers. A must-see for anyone interested in the cold-war, red-scare, CIA interventions, Costa-Gavras, Oscar nominations, pacifism, socialism, press freedom, democracy, the letter Z (he is alive!).

Tags: Saswat, Film, Communism, Cold War, Greece

Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada have legalized gay marriage so far. US is struggling so far. Landmark decision by California could change that for better. California businesses must give spousal privileges to registered same-sex couples, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday by a vote of 5-0.

Tags: Saswat, News, LGBT

...My heart's in Accra : Ethan's Weblog - My blog is in Cambridge ...

In 1994, I dropped out of graduate school and joined a couple of friends in Williamstown, MA in building one of the first "pure" dot.com companies - Tripod. As the only person on the team who knew HTML, I got to be "tech guy" - outclassed by guys who could program circles around me, I became bizdev guy, legal guy, customer service guy and R&D guy before settling, briefly, on "retired guy".

That’s Ethan Zuckerman who blogs on Africa, Technology and Media. What I most like about Ethan is his efforts to put African bloggers on the network of the first world. And by that alone, he has added a lot to a divergent discussion already.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Blog, Africa, Technology

http://www.rinf.com/ is the Alternative Media & Underground News, Conspiracy Theory & Multimedia Portal.

Site of the Day!

Tags: Saswat, Media

There is a novel way to travel the Earth. Download and install this free software here.

I was pretty amazed at the way the landscape of the earth changed when the mouse tilted the buttons. And of course secondly because I could also find out where my village Tigiria was situated on the world map!

Tags: Saswat

What were Left at the G8?

These pictures telling the sentiments of the majority of the world. (Taken from various Indymedia sites):

Tags: Saswat, Activism, Capitalism, G-8

By Saswat Pattanayak

Air Supply performed in Cuba for two days!

Nothing surprising to Havana. Cubans were enthralled, floored and they very warmly welcomed Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell.

It was yet another surprising event for the Western mainstream media to digest. Of course, no one covered it live or even secondarily. Mostly, they got the news off the Associated Press brief. And even at that, they said they were astonished. (Remember, the narrative of how some sort of freedom is limited to the proverbial land of the free!)

The media were also astonished when Audioslave performed in Cuba in May. The astonishments appear to be not so original discoveries after all. On a closer glance, both the Canadian Press and the Associated Press said the same thing! And now we are astonished! Yes, the western media propaganda machine runs overnight so well that they even copy the exact languages! Check out the following two stories:

This one is from the Canadian Press

And this one is from Associated Press

Also check this one from the Washington Post. Story bylined. From AP.

Using precisely the SAME words to express surprise over how much the Western press were shocked at Air Supply being invited, one wonders if the ghost writers are the one and the same? And does it not violate copyright or whatever they call it. Who cheats from whom? Or are they the same!

What more does it tell? Well, the same mill produces stories of how perverse Cuba has become, it’s investing on tourism, it’s a place where women are publicly dancing and wearing jeans and smoking pot. So the theory which is almost written on stone of the mainstream press is that, with the rock groups and the lowly women, its goodbye communism!

To such frivolous arguments, I have no rejoinders. But its so hilariously degrading bunch of logic that I need to react. To begin with, rocksters, starting from the Beatles to the Dylans, have always been progressive in their orientation. In fact the underground punk have been one of the most vocal political outbursts of our times. On the contrary, the censorships issued to artists like The Roots and Arrested Development are incidents not taking place in very farther lands. And with the Clash and Rage Against the Machine, do we need to say the words?

As for the women, Janet Jackson is not an issue abroad. Plus free love was never born out of capitalistic endeavors. And Ayn Rand or Ann Coulter never developed the Smoke Pot movement. And we know who has the biggest cigars.

Hypocrisy sees the light of the day amidst capitalistic contradictions. Air Supply while performing in the Karl Marx theatre must have sensed it.

More power to the ones who made “love out of nothing at all……”

Tags: Saswat, Music, Cuba, Communism

People who want peace at any cost are increasingly becoming rare. This, notwithstanding an inherent human necessity for survival. Possibly because of the way, “war” as a word has been normalized by the media as not one aberration, but one natural everyday process, that folks don’t pay much attention to necessity for survival.

Well, yet another war story, depending on where one comes from. For those of us who can’t stand war, its not just inhuman, but grossly unacceptable. Let not the protests begin after a thousand American working class youths are murdered on the front. The protest has to begin now. Not to “bring the boys back home”. But not to send them at the first place to the frontiers of war. We have seen enough of the sadistic pleasures of cowardice heads of the states. And now we got to show them (the global allies of imperialistic defense manufacturers) the might of resistant and organized peaceniks. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Activism, Iran, War, Terrorism, USA, Imperialism

Analyzing a BBC story on rape in India, my mind wandered towards what is the scene in the Land of the Free. I was struck by the findings. I was not surprised. Only stunned.

Once every two minutes, a woman is raped in the US (that’s a world record, I am sure, because last checked BBC had reported that rape occurs once every hour in many under-developed countries). And of course, less than one third of all rapes are reported to the authorities in the Americas.

Here is little more of the unavoidable statistics. Often one wonders if numbers are good enough indicators. Even if they were not, theoretically, what else can one expect of a capitalistic economy with largest porn industry and widespread commodification?

Tags: Saswat, Feminism, Capitalism

Well, the other reason for celebration of the day is of course Michael Jackson. After recording James Curtis show for all these days since two months now, watching all the re-enactments of the courtroom scenes, I was waiting for this day to hear of the decision. Amrita had asked me how would it feel when after all these days of suspense, the verdict is passed. Well, June 13 arrived. Came good. Real good.

In the classic case between Thomas Mesereau Jr. and Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon, the former won. After 72 days of suspense, it was agreed upon a by the jury that Michael Jackson was not guilty on any of the ten counts brought up against him.

The singer I grew up with in India: immersed in a dream of the impossible, the ecological diversity and the nullification of color lines, the challenges of the dance conventions and the benefits of doubt for the 'bad' outlaw. Jackson, one of the heroes who always adorned my room walls not only because of how he was as a performer, but also because who he was as a human being, today was finally declared innocent.

As he rightly says, "Children had not betrayed me. Adults have let me down." I guess the media obsession with the Jackson trials going on since a decade now will finally end, and as Liz Taylor said, the "people will leave him alone now."

Jackson is not just a performer. He has served as a ray of hope for a changing world since decades now. Defying the American hegemonies, transcending the borderlines of continents, gender, and race, MJ stood for issues bigger than the immediate. The most successful African-American entertainer of all times, he courted political lines because he could not have afforded to do otherwise.

We made enough mockery of this man. Now lets celebrate him and the words he lives by. Of late, haven't we had enough of the romantic longing blues and hitting baby toxications? More than mouthful of apple butts and hip-hop imageries? "Man in the Mirror" and "The Earth Song" will forever remain in our minds to remind of MJ legacy. But here is one lesser known song he wrote to celebrate the Planet Earth. For better hopes sake: Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Music

"Radio, when used correctly, can get you killed.

It’s the most powerful, most personal medium. Nothing else on planet Earth can reach more oppressed people-the poorest, the illiterate and semi-illiterate-with the same information at one time. It explains and reflects issues, events, and people. It provides company as well as context. At its best, its mixture and manipulation of supplied sound nourishes the spirit and offers hope for a better tomorrow and, perhaps, even eventual liberation."

--Todd S Burroughs

The Agronomist is due for release this Tuesday. An exclusive review can be found here.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Film, Activism, Haiti

The International Day Against Homophobia "will articulate action and reflection in order to struggle against all physical, moral, or symbolic violence related to sexual orientation or to gender identity. It intends to inspire, support, and coordinate all initiatives contributing to the equality among citizens in right, as well as in fact, and to achieve this in all countries where action is possible."
More here.

Tags: Saswat, LGBT, Activism

By Saswat Pattanayak

The contentification (well that’s due to my lack of vocabulary), of dissident communities is nothing new. It takes place by sheer force, or implicit persuasion. The sheer force is very visible, very unacceptable, for our double standards to consume. How can after all, we civilized human beings accept the ‘undemocratic’ practices?

Hence folks fought against the British in India, and fought against British against South Africa. In India they succeeded in throwing the colonialists out. In South Africa, they threw the imperialists out of power, if not out of the land.

Very visible were the Nazi invasions. We all hated Hitler to call ourselves civilized. We even hated Stalin who wiped out our object of hatred, the Hitler. Because Stalin was also visibly controlling. In fact we ended up hating Communism as much as Fascism. In fact, we hated Communism more, because Fascism did not contradict our own senses of racial superiorities like we perceived under our very own democracy. Our democracies neglected women, minorities, the people with disabilities, old people, children in schools, men in military. Fascism was no different.

But Communism which was speaking against Fascism and our own types of democracies, was the real threat. Hence we needed to hate Communism for at least four more decades. First we were afraid of Hitler. But Stalin took care of that. And since we need to look good, this year (this week in fact), we visited the Soviets to celebrate the death of 32 million Commie bastards. Between Fascism and Communism, we needed to acknowledge the latter’s contributions. Hence when we needed to bomb Japan, we needed to love Stalin. In fact our most loved Prez FDR (who was power hungry to his fourth term! even as we condemn third world dynastical rules) came back to proclaim Stalin was our friend. But Stalin did not feel the need to kill more Commies in the name of democracy. So we had to hate Stalin. After all, either you are with us, or you are doomed to be proclaimed dictator in rest of our history books. Even in our friend Khrushchev’s history books.

We are civilized folks. How can we accept anything visibly disturbing? In India, the Gandhi had three monkeys. One had its ear closed—not to listen to evil things. One had its eyes closed—not to see anything evil. One had its mouth shut—not to speak evil.

We are civilized. We need to close our ears, eyes and mouths.

How else can we not see the war Operation Matador going on at the Syrian border today? This morning, the U.S. offensive have pounded the area with airstrikes, artillery barrages and gunfire and a man exclaimed to the Associated Press Television News in Qaim "They destroyed our city, killed our children, destroyed our houses. We have nothing left". But this quote came toward the end of the stories. The main story as presented by AP was this: “American fighter jets flattened a suspected insurgent safe house near the Syrian border, the U.S. military said Friday, as hundreds of U.S. troops searched remote desert villages house by house for followers of Iraq's most wanted militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.”

Indeed, what is visible here is the most wanted militant leader being hounded. Invisible are the cries of the residents whose houses have been targeted, whose family members killed for none of their faults and who have unwelcome visitors speaking American slangs at the mid of the nights.

These are times of struggle between the visible and the invisible. And invariably the visible has won. The visibles, very elite minority, own the media houses and they own 80 per cent of world’s capital. The visibles today get to tell their stories and suppress the majority’s. The visibles have converted the world into a police state and controlled the stories we come to hear of others to such extent that my immigrant friends exclaim: poor in America? You must be kidding!

Because the poverty, homelessness, illiteracy, prison population, prostitution, per capita debt, defense spending etc etc are falling in the invisible category.

Reprinted from Austin Chronicle, City Pages of Minneapolis had an article by Michael Ventura on February 23, 2005. Ventura had put down many scribbles together so that factoids start making meaningful themes. I am stating it here completely, lest it disappears from public memory and internet archives:

No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:
• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
• "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).
• Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
• "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
• "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
• Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
• Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.
• The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
• "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.
• Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
• "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.
• Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
• The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
• "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
• "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).
• "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).
• The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
• U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).
• Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
• Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
• Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.
• One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
• "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).
• "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
• Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
• "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
• "The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).
No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.
The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

Ventura has indeed quoted the mainstream press (not some conspiracy media) to substantiate a claim.

And after having said this, it’s important to note that the tidbits here are not part of the larger discussions still. The press after quoting figures has left the interpretation part out, in the true tradition of the objective media! So with dry disjointed figures, one hardly sees the picture. And proving Lincoln wrong, we have been fooled for all the times to come. After what we have done to the rest of the world, if we go into believing that we have not been fooled into the assumption that we are going to remain the Top (sic!) country…..

Else, we should have shut up and not fucked (over and over again) the peace of the peoples of China, Italy, Greece, the Philippines, Korea, Albenia, Eastern Europe, Germany, Iran, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Syria, the Middle East, Indonesia, Western Europe, British Guiana, Soviet Union, Cambodia, Laos, Haiti, France/Algeria, Ecuador, the Congo, Brazil, Peru, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Ghana, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Australia, Angola, Zaire, Jamaica, Seychelles, Grenada, Morocco, Suriname, Libya, Nicaragua, Panama, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, El Salvador, and the peoples of the Americas.

You will wonder, unlike the countries named above who were all attacked within the last 50 years, India does not figure. Still, why the hell am I cribbing?

Well, precisely, that is why. Rest of the world has been bundled. And waiting. And one doesn’t have to be an Indian or Greenlander to keep quite. You just have to be the well meaning, god-fearing American who keeps electing the war mongers to power, to keep quite. For the rest of us world citizens, we need to ask of our land and future.

Whose land is this anyway? Like my fellow immigrant population, I am being asked to go through the process of contentification—of believing and proving that through a smile, that all is well in the Jesusland and I should feel fortunate that I can now stay in the America and watch Desperate Housewives (which has not yet been translated for the third world yet&hellip.

But, damn, how long will I laugh at the televised comedies in the world of neighborhood tragedies?
Have a painful weekend.

Tags: Saswat, History, Capitalism, Communism, Academic, Activism

LA Times has a new design starting today. I like it. I know this is gross, but mainstream press at times deserve some praises too

Tags: Saswat, Media, News

The IMF's Global Monitoring Report 2005 is out and it seems clear on its agenda: That, without early and tangible action to accelerate progress, the Millennium Development Goals will be seriously jeopardized—especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, which at current trends will fall short of all the goals. At stake are prospects not only for hundreds of millions of people to escape poverty, disease, and illiteracy, but also for long-term peace and security—objectives intimately linked to development. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Economics, Capitalism, Academic

By Saswat Pattanayak

What an irony that Adriana Bosch, producer of PBS documentary on Reagan and author of American Experience: Reagan had to write, direct and produce the latest Castro documentary.

I watched it tonight with disbelief as the documentary went on to describe four-decades of Cuba as a one-man show, thereby undermining a huge people’s participation. Moreover, flawed perceptions and lack of in-depth knowledge of Soviet Union's relationship with Cuba were conspicuous in this PBS documentary.

In contrast was last year’s HBO documentary made on Castro (titled Looking for Fidel) by Oliver Stone, which at least attempted at a judicious blend of opinions.
Bosch should not surprise viewers, going by her core beliefs. In June last year in an interview with Washington Post, she had expressed her interest in both Reagan and Castro (in contrasting terms).

“..the idea being that Reagan rocked the world on which dictators such as Castro stood on and to me that captured Reagan's contribution to humanity.”

I wonder what are these public broadcasting efforts directed to: seeking layers of truths or covering up by government mouthpieces?

To a question as to what did Bosch think of the fact that Reagan never referred to “AIDS epidemic”, she had this to say:

“I think by the time that the AIDS epidemic broke, Reagan's mind was primarily focused on the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War. At the same time, he was also dealing with the Iran Contra scandal, so it just didn't register on his radar and that was enough for him at that time…….I don't think it was lack of compassion but it was lack of energy and attention to handle more than just a few major issues in his presidency.”

Sounds like quite an activist-imaginative-journalist. Considering that Bosch never had met with Reagan during his lifetime. And yet she could make all such favorable assumptions.
PBS documentaries are used as primary History documents for school children, I am told. If that is the truth, how many more lies our teachers gonna tell us in future?

Tags: Saswat, Communism, History, Media

Speech given by commander in chief Fidel Castro Ruz,
President of the Republic of Cuba at the International
May day celebration in Revolution Square on May 1, 2005

http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2005/ing/f010505i.html

(Cheering)

Listen, hold on for just a bit longer, because today you will be lucky and I won’t be speaking at great length.
(Cheering, and shouts of "No!")

Nature is on our side, look at the breeze
and the clouds; everything is on the side of our noble cause.
Dear personalities and fighters from more than 60 nations who are sharing this historic May Day with us;

Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Imperialism, Capitalism

The standard definition online of GNU/communism is that it's a term used to mock open source activist, and tag them as communists. Communist is used due to the resemblance between open source's philosophy of sharing the code among all humanity and communism's idea to share resources among all continent's population.

I do not have any problem with that. Actually I also think Richard Stallman is a highly progressive thinker and I adore him for that. But I dont quite get why the "open source" people are called activists and on top of that "mocked" as communists. First of all, a standard definition using mock as a word is itself pejorative. Two, open source activists themselves will come forward to denounce communism on their own. Why take extra trouble? For one, I know GNU is not as "open source" as "open source" people claim they are.

Don't these people study any philosophical differences between Stallman (read the GNU) with the rest (read the open source managers like Linus Torvlds, Bruce Perens etc..)?

Tags: Saswat, Technology, Media, Academic, Activism

One other cyber journey stuff..thought its interesting.

Belviee it or not!

You are not going to believe this one.
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the
rghit pclae.
The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
amzanig inst it, huh?

Tags: Saswat, Humor

Straight from the preachers of death penalty! Trust the organized religions to expose themselves!

Although not relevant to the legal application of the death penalty in the United States, religious issues are a significant thread within the moral debate.
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, USA, Christianity, Philosophy, Terrorism

Truths is well said. Because there are more than one truth.

Oftentimes I wonder why is it that there need to be a quest for the multiples. If we will anyway not get at a single truth, will we ever get to the point when we would have got enough of the multiples?

Are multiples not compound? Complex? Interchangeable and interjected?
An Inspector Calls comes to mind.

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Philosophy

Jayan K. Cherian is an interesting poet. He is from India, writes in Malayalam. Currently settled in NY. Very Cosmo. Very post-modern. Essentially his own. Check his poems out here

Tags: Saswat, Literature, India

Mumia's latest post on Oakland's war against schoolchildren

Several years ago, the great activist and prison abolitionist, Angela Davis, told me that California prison guards make more money than the state's college professors.

I was dumbfounded. But it told me all I wanted to know about how the State values its places of repression, and devalues places of education.

I thought of that conversation when I heard about the latest 'financial crisis' facing the Oakland Unified School District, the state's takeover by an undemocratic agency, and the subsequent threats of cuts, of cutbacks, and the ever-present lure of charter schools. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, Capitalism, Racism

Click here to keep tab and get concerned

Tags: Saswat, Iraq, War, Capitalism

We live in not only uncertain times but also dangerous ones. And the democracy is full of, as Chomsky would say, “necessary illusions”.
Reinforcing one sustained illusion, almost half of all Americans think the federal government should limit the civil rights of Muslims as part of the nation’s fight against terrorism, according to a survey released by Cornell University today.
Shocking? read more by clicking here

Tags: Saswat, Islam, USA, Terrorism

If you have already checked the Free Mumia series on the site, here’s the latest update on the book.
I guess we need a Free Speech and Expression series alongside.

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Black Power, Academic

What struck me was the way Pew Charitable Trusts have produced the 2004 fact sheet for The Internet and Daily Life: Many Americans use the Internet in everyday activities, but traditional offline habits still dominate.
A thouroughly documented 34 pages document discusses why Americans use Internet and there are comprehensive tables to indicate findings. You can read it here...
For it to strike me, I went ahead and made a search for the ‘sex’ word on the document. Lo and behold! Zero result!

Tags: Saswat, Media, Technology, USA, Academic

Send it out!

Tags: Saswat, USA, Capitalism

Some people, meaning well, have posted their pics.

Tags: Saswat, Capitalism, USA, Activism

Well, another attempt by me:

My dear comrades,
One of the major concerns: What kinds of questions are we asking?

None of us who opposed the religious discourses talked anything about "challenge", or any roadmap to "eliminate religions" etc. These are as non-issues as any other rightist rhetoric could be. They were brought up by a person who has left this group now, as conitnuation of a logical fallacy.

If AA's "challenge" be taken seriously, the counter will be something like, "Well, I challenge anyone to convert the entire world to believe in just one God" etc etc.. And here is where we miss the boat. Serious objections by some of us were raised precisely to oppose such kind of talks which served no real purpose. Instead what Chinmaya had brought to notice was an important news of the arrest of an alleged criminal who appeared to be held with esteem by some religious fanatics. That was it. Instead of talking in purely judicial terms and also analyzing the historiography of religious frauds, the self-proclaimed 'theists' took it personally!

I dont see why all these talk about "theist", "pseudo-atheist" etc. And I dont see why someone should even consider any "challenges" posed by a person who left the group because he felt the ones who held contrary views were "barking relentlessly"...Basically by someone who was so intellectually challenged so as to leave the group in a huff after hurling some abuses at people who differed from the mainstream.

If any so-called "challenges to eliminate religions (sic)" are accepted, it will sound like the democrats arguing within the republican framework--dealing with the later's concerns and trying to see how to face redundant challenges.

Seems to me that the issues as seen by Chinmaya or Vulcan or Anup or Sanjib or Saswat are radically different from how they were perceived by Mar, Man, AA or An and all other proclaimed "theists".
There lies the misunderstanding.

The "summery of the whole episode" is as one-sided as it could be, obviously because it has been narrated by someone who anyway belonged to one school than the other. Not just in degree, but in type as well.

Wheras one school is raising questions about the questions, the other is challenging the seekers to supply with answers else to 'stop barking'. Two different molds of thoughts here.

In solidarity,
Saswat
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

Rolling Stone has awarded Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” as the best song of all time!

Click here to get the top 100 song list:
Well what do you all think? Is there a better one?
Check this out... Its not just sheer poetry. Its Bob Dylan!

"You’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you’re gonna have to get used to it
You said you’d never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He’s not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?"

Tags: Saswat, Music, Communism

Chinmaya gives it back to the AA:

Dear AA Babu,
Cool down. World is beautiful, and so your posts and everythings.

Have I asked you anything ? What was the need of answering so rudely to a news ?

Name it an ugly trick, whatever you please.You are entitled to judge people,and their acts in your own way.Who cares ? Hope, M bhai, Mark Bhaina, An bhaina would have understood the value of *excuse* in the proper context.

Do not know, if you do not prefer to use harsh words to others .A mail with caps and the conents in it might be mere deception to all of us.For reference, read your this mail one once more.

I asked you do not take things to heart, its because a news head line made you unnecessarily so reactive and irritated. If that was a trickery,take the burden of the discussion to your home,die with anguish and heartattack.I do not bother.

There was a smiley after that statement. Now, I am sure you lack the etiquette of conversation, or severely suffering with some kind of complex.Anyway, thats your problem.But,please, do not inflict others with that.

Enough; crap minded fellow, idiocy,burdens on society,and ..., what not ? Hello, who are you to fix limits for others, what one can do, or not ? Enlighten fellow, Why do not you sprinkle your knowldege over the poor people ?

Whenever we claimed ourselves atheists,pseduo whatever ?

Beg excuses, its an ugly tricekry.Huh. AA Babu, what more I should write ?

For rest of the things, barkings and others..you do not deserve a reply.

No sorry, No excuse this time.I do not think you deserve
it too.
Be happy.

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Hinduism

My reply to a previous post:

Dear Brother Sar
I wish you could have shown similar level of sensitivity to adjectives in mails
directed at fellow members of this group! There were many more crude languages
used to refer to many of us (just for one example we were "barking"!)

Just because someone (who is obviously not part of this group) is proclaimed
religious, even though the same person is accused of highest criminal charges,
that became so personal?

I am sorry if my calling a guy a guy hurt some people. I should have called him
an "accused" or a "suspect" instead. But why should one suspect be addressed
better than any other? The police calls all names when it comes to a
suspect--you know the swears. But when it comes to someone is an influential
person and most likely can misuse his/her power, why this "plain bias"?

By the way, I am not firing up anything. I guess the reports are out and the
prime suspect (aka sankaracharya) is in judicial custody. His bail application
has been adjourned. The news is out there on the wall. I am not instrumental in
firing up anything. Every person involved in any way in a case of murder ought
to be treated in the same way as any other. Clearly this accused is on a higher
platform now, unfortunately. The police will not be kicking his ass to get the
answers out. Wont be treating him with third degree methods, would not be
spitting on his face or burning his cheeks with cigarette butts and wont be
swearing in choicest abuses questioning the parentage or sexual impotencies.

Just for the records I have witnessed the police doing all this and much more
even in case of people who have dared to steal bicycles or not cooperated in
giving bribes when demanded. Clearly there is a "plain bias".
We know of this judiciary system where in name of Tada or Poto we have caged
thousands of innocent people for no charges at all. People who have not seen the
face of the court since the time they are in jail. Not allowed to appeal for a
public lawyer or request for release. This accused who HAS been charged with
murder already has been allowed to move court!!! Clearly there is a "plain
bias".

To be the devil's advocate, the dangerous communalists Singhals and Tagodias
have joined the fray. Singhal compares this arrest with Somnath Temple
destruction! Clearly the politics and religions are now mixed up to "fire up"
issues. and the violent crusaders of peace, the trishul-bearing kar sevaks are
already on the street- yes making us--people like Sanjib or me--ashamed of being
called Indian--to see that representation of our country in name of religious
intolerance of a superstitious supremacist group. the non-violent, peacenik,
internationalist India has been reduced to a communal violent playground for
religious fanatics.

And I am not the one to fire up anything.

Clearly its a vibrant case to debate on. Chinmaya did a favor on all of us by
bringing in the article to our attention (not that it would have eventually
escaped, but most us would may have preferred to ignore it...who knows? Going by
P babu's mail, three regular contributors have already left the group! I
did not leave the group when they were discussing religious texts--if it is out
of disgust that the religious seer has been arrested and they refuse to be
identified as religious anymore and have trouble in being treated so, its nice
and they are more than welcome to be back. All of us realize our fundamental
fallacies at many junctures of life, anyway). And we are merely discussing the
pros and cons of such treatments to 'seers'. We are not alone. The whole of
India is discussing. Media are editorializing. People are asking pertinent
questions.

One of the questions of course is if a goonda could be a sankaracharya. Bhai
Sar, if you can go so far as to guarantee that its impossible, I at least am
of some opinion that it could be true. In the past and present we have seen all
mob violences in the name of religion. All those thousands of people have given
up their lives under one instruction of religious leaders. When the whole of
Mumbai was burning (just to cite one example of event that happened during my
lifetime), and many parts were being 'fired up' many people were charged with
being goondas. And goondas they were. those preachers of religious goods.
including advani who later most ironically accepted to become home minister when
charges were piled up against him of inciting communal violence.

We all clearly know of this sankaracharya's connection with right-wing politics.
What is there to be so sacred about him?
Biased I am, Sar, because I cannot afford to be neutral or objective or
unbiased -whatever that means and if thats possible in any way. Its time to take
a side. To take side either of the exploiting politicians who use religions to
their advantage and even nurture chances of getting away with mass murders and
communal clashes, or to take side of the people who have been taken for a ride
and who have potentials to question the blind beliefs.

We all have been taken for rides throughout. Sometimes by the founding fathers
of the nation (look at that holy cow business in the directive principles of
state policy. will we have any more tolerance for chicken or goat or pig as we
have for cow? to respect whom? Hindu country or secular country --even after the
late 70's when we got ourselves the secular tag), sometimes by the families and
social institutions (look at the widespread same-caste marriages, and the whole
thread ceremony stuffs--to prove what--as national geographic talks of, to quote
San--that we are born unequal?) and all the lies that our teachers told us
through the history of peace and glory and the golden age of indian culture
(sic).

'Tis time we questioned. San has sent an extremely insightful mail drawing
from his caste experiences. That should do more than good for all of us to ask
our conscience to examine if we have asked the right questions? have we
questioned the systems of exploitation founded on religious beliefs? what do we
owe to the generations of indigenous people for having perpetuated the class and
caste war on them for centuries. what can we give back? to seek forgiveness?
instead we still enjoy the privilege of belonging to a mainstream religion to
address issues from our narrowed lenses. to still wonder why saswat thinks a
sankaracharya could be a goonda. instead of thinking of all the crimes that have
been committed in the land of ours in the name of our religion? millions dead so
far, certainly, not in quest to create something novel, or struggling in a
revolution to feed every hungry child. millions have been condemned to death by
religious preachers by causing communal riots since the last sixty years. and
what have we got here? the leader of the pack is still around. sounds crazy. but
we should have arrested all those spokesmen and women of right wing politics who
have been instrumental in everything communal much before. the charge of one
sole murder was much belated.

Dear brother Sar, I am not here to offend anyone's feelings. That's the
least of the goals. But it so happens that in airing one's own perspectives,
there will be many others who will stand a chance of being offended. I have
never taken offense at the religious discourses in this group despite having
strong feeling about the irrelevance of those talks in face of the fact that
Orissa faces problems and questions of different types. No one really can help
if a section of hindus felt bad that the seer was arrested. He will be released
of course. Because of his clout. And some hindus will be dancing once again.
Like they did in gujarat, like the way they do in ayodhya or nearer home when
they cheered for dara singh.
That dance sucks.
With due respect
Saswat
_____

Follows a right mail. And explains why Chinmaya did not need to have been polite. But good he was. Who wants a riot?

This one is from another one threatening to leave the forum.

UGLY TRICKS OF PREUDO-ATHEISTS
------------------------------

The above statement asking for pardon from Chinmay has been repeated
in past several times - to M Babu to Ma Babu, to
An... He writes absurd stuff, illogical arguments; and then he
writes "I am sorry; I should have understood it; I am happy to be
enlightened..."

Besides, he poses a question, "why do you take things so seriously
by heart?" as he questioned the same to me recently.

These "poor people" do NOT take anything seriously by heart; that is
why all the mess. If we are not serious about what we speak, what
are we going to achieve? If you have to make light amusement, do so
in your own circle at a Tea-shop; not to some serious discussions. I
am against use of harsh words, but these people forced me to do so.

Plainly, these people can do nothing but question some dogma without
understanding or without trying to understand. Thus, they do not get
any benefit, nor does the society. Besides, this apathy does no
benefit to people like M Babu or Ma Babu either!

These are "psuedo-atheists". Because, an atheist is rational, and
does huge contributions to the society. These crap-minded fellows
are nothing but burden on the society just because of their
irrational idiocy. that's it.

Sanjib, in past I have explained several rationales in religion;
read my postings before branding me as someone blindly following
religion.

Saswat, I called your group "poor" not in terms of economy; economy
playes no role in intellectual discussions. I called your group poor
simply because you are poor in rational, logical understanding. And,
you understood economy! What a disgrace are you to such forum!

I know that you pseudo-atheists have no ability to do anthing except
barking. That is why none of you came forward in proposing a roadmap
to eliminate religion. If you are so much against it, why not remove
it? Who does your barking benefit?

I know: You cannot propose a roadmap nor can you execute it because
(i) you have no ability to do so; and (ii) religion is just.

Good bye. I wish you all safe opportunity of relentless barking.
Good Bye,
AA

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

The professor declares he is out. He claims other wise people have also left the forum in disgust. In his own words:

It is the nature of some people to derive sadistic pleasures by asking
absurd questions, while they already know the answers. In this regard,
I have decided to leave the forum for a few of you who will have a
chance to attack Hinduism from every aspect. M babu is already out,
and so is AA babu. I am signing off from the group too because my
orthodox mind may instill evil in the young minds. I tried to be simple
but my emotions and learnings are too damaging. It was a free forum and
it would be unwise to be with the great minds. Before I leave, I would
like to tell you only thing, which you may find wrong. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Hinduism

|

I reply to AA's previous hurlings:
"These poor people"--referring to me and Chinmaya!

I sure am a poor person. But in my defense, duplicate posting was not
intentional. If it hurts to see the same mail twice, solution is clear: one just
has the option to delete the mails than to ridicule my economic status.
For clarification, I am not in IIT Mumbai. Secondly, I was using the outlook
express to send the mail. It went straight to the outbox. Hence used the webmail
to send the same. It must have landed twice. I apologize for that.

And as for the other adjectives, they are interesting too. Not surprising,
again.

When thousands of poor folks serve inhuman and indefinite jail terms for
sometime stealing money or other times drinking and swearing, and tribal women
rising against the existing systems getting raped inside the prison walls, its a
sane judicial system. When a sankaracharya (by the way i never said this guy was
any magician--magic gurus have at least some amusement values- so that whole
thing about saswat has to "know" before pointing fingers etc does not hold
relevance) having says in politics (proven fact) and charged with MURDER (which
ordinary suspect is given that kind of publicity anyway? this man is clearly
treated above the rest of us ordinary folks for some serious charge as this) is
arrested, it becomes "behavioural discripancy and "andhatwa".

And the 'holier than thou' principle as mentioned in the last paragraph of mr
acharya's mail is interesting. is there some kind of a warranty that no goonda
can be a sankaracharya? that hindu stuff is unlike the western history. how
blindly deterministic can we still get???

___

Chinmaya in solidarity with Vulcan:

Vulcano Bhai,
Yeah, your logic seems true to certain extent.

"Enviornment" plays a dominant role in controlling ones behavarial pattern, apart from ones genetical make up, and food habbits.

All the emotional outbrusts are mere defense mechanisms because of ones deep love,tendentious approach towards a person/system/cause.Nothing_ unnatural_in_it.It's sometimes hard to digest the fact, even we understand the legal aspect of a problem.Our deep association with religion from the very childhood days have made us to think so. We have seen our mothers shedding their tears infront of the idols every dawn,and dusk for our well being.We are told hundreds/thousands of stories from Prahallad, Dhruva to Sudama etc by our parents/teachers, to give a first hand experience of religion,we are manytime forced to beleive the badtimes of our enemy is because of divine punishment. The influence of early childhood days experiences of religion/god has made an everlasting impression in our minds. Even today, the twilights reminds me the evening of village temple, the eye subconsciously goes on searching for a supreme soul to take to the realm of eternal peace and bliss. Fairs, festivals, gatherings, rituals with so much of things, we are associated with religions from the very day of our presence on the earth;Its not only difficult, but almost impossible to make oneself free from those *comfort* experiences.

The people who are born with sliver spoons, who has never confronted difficulties all alone in their life, or even never being privileged to be empathetic with the good/bad times of their fellow beings, a little interruption in their usual life lead them straightly near to GOD/god-man, religion etc.(I do not inlcude here those people who make mockery of religions,and exploits mass for their own benfits). We must understand, the support systems that religion has provided to them.
Discussing with the persons, who have killed their rationalities, logic being overpossesive of their thoughts, makes no sense really.

And yeah, whats the problem if some people are branded anti-religious ? My conscience says, there must be an anti-religious God to support them :=)

With Regards !

Chinmaya ...

___

Sanjib comes forward:
With due respect, you and others(which includes my father and mother
and other elders)just follow religion blindly. There is nothing
wrong to have faith in the superpower..But I have serious issues of
the way religion is practiced in India.

Still in India you decide the right to enter the temple based on
your caste and social status. If you have more money you get special
privileges in Jaganath temple..and our religion is still
exclusionary. Our old folks just DON'T get it. While trying to
respect our elders and not interested to rock the boat..we
youngsters still follow caste system in choosing our partners. We
talk about racism in US, but in India we have caste system that is
even worse. You might say why I am talking about caste system,
instead of religion. Dear friends that is engraved in the way our
religion is practiced.

National Geographic quotes " To be born Hindu in India is to enter
the caste system, one of the world's longest surviving forms of
social stratification. Embedded in Indian culture for past 1500
years, the caste system follows a basic precept:All men are created
unequal" I AM ASHAMED.

Many hundred years ago when galileo said earth goes around the sun,
he was ostracized..But the Protestant sect of Christianity was born.
I can speak of myself..I am not anti-religion..But I am certainly
against the way religion is practiced in India. The first thing we
need to be doing is challenging the caste system by marrying
someone who is from a higher/lower caste. Then boycotting temples,
who do not allow admissions based on birth. I have boycotted
Jagannath temple in Puri. The first step is to incorporate modern
outlook and values in your own life. Then influencing others.

Caste system and the distorted form of practice of Hinduism is more
than couple of thousands years old. The first thing we can do is
change ourselves. Then we try to influence school teachers and
others. Realistically speaking it won't be eradicated in my
lifetime.But it is certainly worth a try.
Thanks,
Sanjib

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

Friend Ashrujit corrects the old guard:

Respected AA,
Any messages in CAPS is considering shouting. Please refer to the
netiquettes and email etiquette.
Respectfully, Ashrujit
___
Another one for the old gurard...this one is from Chinmaya

Dear Sir,
It seems, you have taken the discussion to your heart bit intensly.Thats not at all needed.Was the caps post a typo, or intentional ?

No social change takes place over night.With a road map, we can not bring about a change in a stipulated time period.This is a chimerical thought.

All that you are naming puking of venom is the doubt of the confused young minds regarding spirituality, and organised religion.

As like the religious talk in the forum goes without opposition, same must go with an anti-religious stand too.
Can we ask one to keep quiet, who speaks of religion ?

Extirpating religion should not be ones target, becoz its a vastly un-understood subject. A little shift in our belief structure may enhance its utility.
With Regards !
Sincerely yours
Chinmaya .. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

The letter says it all:

Hi anti-religious youths (Vulcan, Saswat, Anup, Chinmay,...,...)

There is absolutely no benefit by your vomitting venoms in this
forum. Neither it will help your cause nor will it lessen my pro-
religious stand; nor will it affect millions unconcerned with your
venoms.

So, here is my challenge to all of you:

ALL OF YOU JOIN YOUR HANDS AND PROPOSE/EXECUTE A ROAD-MAP TO
ELIMINATE RELIGION FROM HUMAN MIND; AT LEAST FROM INDIANS. IF YOU
CANNOT, THEN STOP VOMITTING POISON.

IF YOU PROPOSE A ROADMAP AND CONVINCE ME IN YOUR CAUSE, I WILL BE
THE HAPPIEST TO JOIN HANDS WITH YOU.

However, be sure that I am not to be challenged for anything, for I
have not opposed any of existing religious concepts or establishment.

SO, ERADICATE RELIGION, OR ELSE KEEP QUIET. DONT BARK.
AA

And from a professor who is sure he does not learn from others:

Dear friends,
After reading all the wonderful postings on how
idiotic are the theists, I was wondering if I am a
Theist or an Atheist? I do not see any more
literature available either from the East or West; on
theism or atheism that has escaped my small mind.
After careful thinking, considering every experience
in my life, I have decided to be a theist. As
expected from any other human being (created by God),
my knowledge is finite and that is the reason it would
be impossible on my part to clash with the great minds
who do not believe in 'theism'. The formidable
intellects of the scientific minds, from Claudius
Ptolemy to Albert Einstein; religious minds, from
Zoarathustra to Vivekananda; and atheists, from
Charvakas to Bertrand Russell have added sparks in the
lives of many intellectuals of the present day world
and in history.
I feel fortunate that I possess fragments of such
sparks in my trillions and trillions of memory cells,
either conferred by my ancestors DNA or by chance.
Therefore, it would be unwise on my part to enter into
debates with people who are confused about their own
identities, let alone the basic principles of nature.
Long time back, in some context, I had stated that I
was an atheist when I was young. Things have changed
since I became a father and held my children in my
arms. I had prayed when the little helpless creatures
became sick. I had cried when they cried in pain.
But, becoming an atheist just because I am fortunate
to have a decent living in America, drive a used car,
and has a secure job? No way!
I would rather be an idiot and a theist, perhaps a
preacher too! To fit the last definition, I need to
learn more of the stuff called religion and science.
This would benefit some, rather than the harm that I
may cause boasting that 'I am intelligent' while my
brain is a store house of pumped up by hormones rather
than pure knowledge.
If anyone is interested to be an atheist, my
suggestion will be to become one like Neitzsche or
Walter Kaufmann. Educated people should not waste
their lives by making a profession out of the
idiosyncracies of materialism.

With regards,
MP

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Hinduism

As expected, the old guard stood up! How dare two young non-conformists? But whoa...so much passion to defend a person who had no place to be in the seat of crime, preaching as he has been of religious sermons? Or was it because of this that he needed to have committed the crimes being alleged?
Well, we have an advocate here:

I have a question to make:

Why did Chinmaya send this message twice, and importantly, with two
different subjects?

Likewise, why did Saswat send the response twice?

Do these poor people think that the gravity of the matter should be
better conveyed by the number of responses they post?

Well, I think IIT Mumbai is not as poor as my home town Varanasi is
(where it requires to click the "send" botton several times to send
a message; for most of the times it times out), as far as internet
is concerned. Thus, the above mentioned duplication is essentially
intentional. Then, what psychology can be behind such behaviour?

Needless to say, such a psychology these days has gripped most of
the Indian intelligentsia. For example, a few weeks ago a Karnataka
court and the state police enacted a drama: framing charge-sheet
against Uma Bharti, ordering her arrest, and backtracking afterwards!

My question is: why this drama? Was the judiciary/police efficient
enough to ascertain that Uma was innocent, that too within a couple
of days of her surrender? If yes, how come a court has again invoked
the case recently?

The root behind all the above behavioural discripancy is "andhatwa",
blindness! That is, Inability to know the truth, lack of patience to
investigate a fact, and hurriedness to show/tell something to the
people around - however misleading and disastrous may that be.

My point is: no Uma or Sankaracharya is above the law, and law
should take its route. But, while arresting someone, are you sure
enough that that someone is indeed guilty? Why cannot such actions
wait till completion of intensive investigation? In the above case,
a Chief Minister had to concede the chair, and much more political
chaos took place. Why? No satisfactory answer to this question,
because Karnataka government withdrew the case. Then, who will
compensate the personal and public trauma that the lady sufferred,
who will compensate for/undo the political turmoil (which had had
bearing on the state administration)?

Now, if the Sankarachaeya is released as was Uma, who will
compensate for the defame he was forced to face? Who will compensate
for the mass unrest that this act caused in the mind of millions of
Indians?

Nothing wrong in the referred action of TN police if he is found
guilty. But if he is upheld innocent, this blind trend in India will
turn too devastating for the common citizen to breath some air.

I personally think it is extremely unlikely that Swami Jayendra
Saraswati is involved in a murder. Because, a Sankaracharya is no
Pope who could order an "Albigensian Massacre" and still be the
highest religious leader of the World; I hope smart guys like
Chinmay, Saswat, Vulcan etc know what it (Albigensian Massacre) was.
Neither a Sankaracharya is a magic Guru (Saswat needs to "know"
before pointing a finger) nor any goonda can become a Sankaracharya!
Unlike the western churches, Indian Religious establishments (not
the fake Ashramas; one has to "know" the difference between myriads
others and the "dhAma") are unknown to be involved in sodomy, child
abuse, murder etc.-- AA

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Hinduism

One more from the right:

It indeed makes me think "It hapens only in India"; I dont know how many of us
have that HUGE confidence on our Law; Had it happened with a Pope or a Muslim
Cleric, it wld have been impossible to arrest him. Secondly the Sankaracharya is
not going to fled anywhere; so where is the utility of arresting him? Thirdly,
we should think N-times before we question these ppl called Sankaracharya; these
are not so simply selected to become the head of a "pith"; Let Chinmaya and Jena
bAbu try to become one; they will feel the metamorphosis happening; I tell of my
experience; when I take simple boiled food for few days I feel so serene; and
these ppl have been trained through the life;
The problem in Hinduism is too obvious; Some painter paints nude pictures of our
gods and goddesses; we remain silent and feel that we are logical; I dont know
how ligical is such logic;
Bal Thakrey just asked the same painter to paint the most handsome guy and put
best cloathes and jewelleries and just name it as "allAh"; could he do it,
rather wld he dare to do it??
best regards, A

___
Following this, Anup surely has a point:

Why such an insecurity ? Whats the need to prove one's pshychology,
one's behaviour ? We have to see, if a point can be worth taken, or
not.

I have been observing the posts in the group silently since a long
days, what puzzles me the contumacies and unkind approach we
displayed towards the thoughts we never like to have.By labelling
people with the brand of arrogant, atheist, intentional,smart etc,
are not we trying to supress their views.

I am broken with this kind of news; a highest spiritual maestro is
undergoing a criminal charge.That is not though quite uncommon.We
have witnessed many issues of such kinds.Religius based things have
seen so much of bloodshed, and violence.Judiciary deals with the
common people, and we need not worry as to nothing is going to
happen with people of the highest kind.

Your concern for the traumatised experience of a convicted is worth
considering.Have you ever given a thought to hunderds of innocent
poor souls who are many times proved guilty and punished for none of
their mistakes ? Law can not take it own course.By then, it would
have generated so much of sympathiser, and preachers ? Who will/can
the punish the head of a family ?

I am baffled too. Where is the place of a spiritual elevated person
in politics.Politics is a mind boggling game, and its connection
with religion is again dangerous.Both the way, they sweep away mind.

Its not at all against any religion. Nothing to feel bad, or
overpossesive. Its my own view.

Tags: Saswat, India, Hinduism, Orissa

At times I am sure, I can't beat our good friend Vulcan!

He strikes back to AA:

>>> I hope smart guys like Chinmay, Saswat, Vulcan etc know what it (Albigensian Massacre) was.

I’m sorry AA babu, I don’t know nothing about Albigensian Massacre? Is that a criteria for pre-qualification by hindu preachers to be a smart guy? No wonder such preachers get arrested like a local goonda and I’m sure GOD will definitely come to rescue him.
Regards
JENA

Chinmaya replies to the earlier hurl:

No way ! I never think that way.
In the first click, I found the message did not appear in my inbox, where as the latter post had come. I felt, that might be the problem with yahoo, and sent that again with a new subject. By then, I had forgotten the title of first posting which I had copied from the net.
Hmm...Interpretation distorts the fact. Hope, I made it clear above.A post is a post, attack to the subject, not to the questioner. See,an innocent youngman is yelling with your agressive remark here
I only sent a link of a news.I have never tried to prove/disprove anybody. Thats it.
If it hurts your religious sentiment that intense, then I must apologise. If the sentiments are so deep rooted in us, we must put a restriction to this kind of posting.Personally, I think, what is the role of a spiritual guru in politics, why at all the seeker of highest kind of truth has to have nexus with Jayalalitha/karunanidhi ?
Its a question in common, the validity of religion and religious guru for a common mass ? We do not know, who is right/wrong ? The intensity with which we believe/pray to GOD,hope, Vulcano bhai, or Saswat are no exceptions to that. Despite of that, they have a concern for mass, and they are trying to adress that.And, we must not be that intolerant to their views.
Nobody can listen a word against relgion/relgious Guru, thats where our weaknesses lie.
Law will take it own course.
Rest, I am in full agreement with your points.
With Regards !

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

Immediate replies from the right direction:

Calm down , Saswat brother. World is not so white as someone tells you and nor it is dark as you think. There are shades and also light. Please do care to take a look. Conclusion is a step by step process !

I am sure the news was not a delightful one for this brother who mailed me this one. Of course, speaking for me, which other news could be the bigger ray of hope in post-British India?

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

I thank Chinmaya for bringing the news to the group. Since the group always revels in religious discourses, it was the right platform, even if it was of radically different taste this time. Bitter?
My letter:

I am not surprised! Not at all--
Remember how "Satya Sai Baba" fled the police several times and was accused of
child sexual abuses....
But he is still in the seat of esteem because of the irony that the judiciary
also comprises folks who legitimize these frauds' statuses.
And when Kavoor in his "Begone Godmen" challenged the spiritual gurus of the
world, none of them came forward to prove themselves.
Shame that we have to wait for the legal systems to take action....
and in the meantime these Con-men use the most fundamental concept to hypnotize
the masses: religion and god! And we innocents gulp down the sermons and start
preaching them as well and engage in advocating their languages and spreading
messages. Instead of locating the issues that concern the hungry and the
homeless, we practice the luxury of religious discourses....
Even a radical like Malcolm X paid for it too! By the time he discovered how the
religious were detached from the realities, he was swiftly eliminated by the
god-loving creatures. Little wonder we care to bother if the gurus practice what
they preach...
anyway, with such 'breaking news', its always better late than never...
thanks, Chinmaya,
Saswat

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, India, Orissa

At the yahoogroup, the hottest news: Brought by Chinmaya

Hi All,
Religious Guru Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati was on Thursday night arrested in connection with a murder case.
for details,
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/11tn.htm
Regards !
Chinmaya ...

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Hinduism

Malcolm X lives on. And the legands are told over again. This one is the newest.
Lorenzo Thomas reviews the book on Malcolm X--Critical Lives: Malcolm X -- by Kofi Natambu (Indianapolis: Alpha Books)
The short but astonishingly eventful life of Malcolm X—to some, more properly and
reverently, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz—has, in the years since his assassination at the
lectern in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom, achieved mythic proportions. His Autobiography
is a classic American story that ranks with Benjamin Franklin’s and Booker T.
Washington’s; Spike Lee produced an epic movie based on that life; the Postal Service
has commemorated it with a stamp; and people are willing to bid hundreds of thousands
of dollars to purchase his memorabilia.
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, History, USA

Dr Todd S Burroughs, who is working on the biography of Mumia Abu Jamal, has allowed me to publish a series of articles for Saswat. com.
They can be found here.

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, Literature, History

Despite few avoidable instances, Badmash team has been doing a highly commendable job.
Keep it up, folks!
Here is one cartoon from their archive.

Tags: Saswat, Humor, India, Bollywood

Wit doesn’t get much better than this. Bierce would have liked me to say it does not get any better than his! Here is one definition from the strictly adorable Devil's Dictionary:

MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse of the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delights of many thoughtless spectators.

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Humor, Academic

NYT has a story on the political bloggers by Matthew Klam. Just for the record, the entire text follows.

Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail:
Nine blocks north of Madison Square Garden, next door to
the Emerging Artists Theater, where posters
advertised ''The Gay Naked Play'' (''Now With More
Nudity''), the bloggers were up and running. It was
Republican National Convention week in New York City, and
they had taken over a performance space called the Tank. A
homeless guy sat at the entrance with a bag of cans at his
feet, a crocheted cap on his head and his chin in his
hand. To reach the Tank, you had to cross a crummy little
courtyard with white plastic patio furniture and half a
motorcycle strung with lights and strewn with flowers,
beneath a plywood sign that said, ''Ronald Reagan Memorial
Fountain.''
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Technology, Media

Chicago Defender Editorial on why Journalism needs more Palmers and Jarretts for the 21st
century:

In the last four months, the Black journalism world, and
Chicago in particular, lost two esteemed colleagues in
Vernon Jarrett and Lu Palmer. The latter died Sunday night
of pneumonia, and it was cancer that took the life of the
former in May. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Media, Black Power, Racism, History, USA

|

Gil Scott-Heron's poem on Peace is a deep resonant voice during times of war. Peace is not just absence of war, but also absence of preparation for war....

Work For Peace---
Introduction:
Back when Eisenhower was the President
Golf courses was where most of his time was spent.
So I never paid much attention to what the President said
Because in general, I believed the General was politically dead,
But he always seemed to know how muscles were going to be

flexed
He kept mumbling something about a military-industrial complex.

The military and the monetary
The military and the monetary
The military and the monetary Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Black Power, USA

|

Arundhati Roy always has been to the ground. I guess she is one honest woman we need. And what's more, she is leaning more left, than she was while winning the brits' award. I especially like her statement, given recently: "I wouldn't feel I was doing anything right if everyone stood up and applauded."

Well, she speaks this time, on Superstars and Globalization, to zMag, and I am sure not everyone is going to applaud:

I don’t also want to go around being the Barbie doll of non-violent struggle. To confuse non-violence with passivity is one of the things that’s dangerous. And the fact is that neither am I a person who feels that I have the right, or I am in a place where I should be dictating to people how they should conduct their movements. Personally I’m not prepared to pick up arms now. But maybe I can afford not to, at whatever place I am in now. I think violence really marginalizes and brutalizes women. It depoliticizes things. It’s undemocratic in so many ways. But at the same time, when you look at the massive amount of violence that America is perpetrating in Iraq, I don’t know that I’m in a position to tell Iraqis that you must fight a pristine, feminist, democratic, secular, non-violent war. I can’t say. I just feel that that resistance in Iraq is our battle too and we have to support it. And we can’t be looking for pristine struggles in which to invest our purity.

Click here to read more...

Tags: Saswat, India, Feminism, Capitalism, Literature

The democratic politics of appeasement continues for the forthcoming elections. The African-Americans of course are at the receiving end of this tokenism.
Alton H Maddox Jr. writes to the AmNews
Caveat emptor: Black voters beware!
Over the next three months, the Kerry-Edwards presidential ticket will be making frequent visits to Black churches, hoping and praying that its loyal Black constituents will not look under the hood of A Strong, Respected America, the 2004 Democratic National Platform. When Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards are unavailable, Black used-car salespersons and escorts will be employed to keep Blacks distracted until November 2.

Unfortunately, most Blacks would rather listen to puffery than read the national platform of the Democratic Party. After the political season is over, these unscrupulous salespersons will resume their duties as Black Judas goats. Its all about the money and living large. This bait-and-switch gimmick repeats itself every four years. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, USA, Capitalism

Bill Moyers, that inimitable crusader of free press throws some light on why facts are more interesting than fiction, and news are more entertaining than the movies.

Who needs a movie when you have the news?
First, a confession: I haven't seen Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. It's not that
I haven't wanted to; it's just that I have not been able to tear myself away from the
real show – the political theatre playing out in full sight right before our eyes. Who
needs a movie when you have the news?
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Media, USA, Capitalism

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about why the hanging judge can't keep his hands to himself, in an article "Crouching Stanley, Hidden Gangsta"

I reserve the right to be a nigger—Aaron McGruder.

Stanley Crouch is a gangsta rapper. Throughout his career, Crouch has moved through black nationalism, bohemia, and places we haven't yet developed the vocab to name. But if there's one thing we've gleaned from Crouch's recent assault on novelist and critic Dale Peck, it is this—we have found Crouch's muse, and his name is Suge Knight. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, History, Racism, Black Power

|

Tim Wise of LiP Magazine writes about the Black Conservatives. How the oppressed co-opt has more than individual initiatives attached. I think a social framework is needed to be created within democratic institutions to call for plurality. And the conservatives of course fit into the mold like nobody's business. The following story is a critical appraisal.

"Working for the Man Every Night and Day": Black conservatives, with their politics of self-abuse, have managed to obtain access to the halls of power - at the expense of respect from within the black community.
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Capitalism, USA, Racism

|

The speech of Barack Obama that drew widespread applause is reproduced after the next couple of paragraphs. I found the speech well crafted, appealing to passion and has an element of soothing calmness that has become characteristic of Democratic Party. His intention is clear, to win and be emergent in the power politics. And to garner the required support, he resorts to his own American Dream.

Are we soon being reduced to irrational passive dreamers who fancy that multicultural plate will on its own arrange itself neatly with social order even without folks interfering with the political-economic design?

Well, here is what Obama thinks: Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Capitalism, USA

I found on email a refreshingly different critique on Barack Obama by Malik Al-Arkam. The self-adulation must stop, the author hints. And the same person cannot serve the oppressed and the oppressors at the same time, for the interests will clash eventually, Al-Arkam emphatically states.

This may be politically incorrect, but it is politically very relevant.
Mr. Obama's rosy rhetoric ignores American apartheid:

To be sure Mr. Barack Obama has many admirable qualities. He is a Black man who has worked long and hard to elevate himself in an intensely racist society. He loves his wife and daughters. He has a social conscience. He has worked to secure civil rights for the downtrodden in Chicago. As a African-American who also beat the odds by fighting my way out of the segregated South and going on to earn an honors degree at Harvard College and as one who lived in East Africa, I can identify with Mr. Obama in several ways. However, an objective analysis of Mr. Obama's well-crafted keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention reveals that there is a huge gap between his rosy rhetoric and the harsh realities of American apartheid.

He stated: "It's that fundamental belief--I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper--that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family....There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America, there's the United States of America." How sharply do those words contrast with the findings of the 1968 Kerner Commission Report: "Our nation is moving towards two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." For those of you who are too young to remember what was really going on in the 1960s, here is a brief summary from History Matters: "President Lyndon Johnson formed an 11-member National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in July 1967 to explain the riots that plagued cities each summer since 1964 and to provide recommendations for the future.

The Commission's 1968 report concluded that unless racial oppression was remedied, the USA faced a 'system of apartheid' in its major cities. The Kerner report delivered an indictment of white society for isolating and neglecting African Americans and urged legislation to promote racial integration and to enrich slums-- primarily through the creation of jobs, job training programs and decent housing." In 1998, three decades after the report, former Senator and Commission member Fred R. Harris co-authored a study which concluded that "the racial divide had grown in the ensuing years with inner-city unemployment at crisis levels."
On a personal note, I was in the White House on June 13th 1967 when President Johnson Lyndon Johnson enthusiastically announced the appointment of Mr. Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. I happened to be standing just a few feet away from Johnson and Marshall, close enough to see the pupils of their eyes. I was there to receive a Presidential Scholar Award.

At that moment so many of us thought that we were finally moving up in America, after centuries of brutal slavery and decades of violent discrimination. How naive we were and how expert was the American ruling class at manipulating us with symbols and rhetoric.
As a political scientist and scholar who has lived in the inner cities of New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago and Boston, I am one of many who knows that in 2004 the masses of Afro-Descendants are suffering more from mal-education, high unemployment, drug addiction and Black-on-Black violence than they ever did in the 1960s. Since I have lived in Boston for the past ten years and witnessed the deterioration of so many of our youth, despite the sincere efforts of some educators, activists and organizations, I find it very ironic that Mr. Obama portrays Senator Kerry as a saviour for a "united" America which is now more divided along race and class lines than ever before in recent decades. The truth is that during all the years that Kerry and Kennedy have been in the Senate, the living conditions of most of our people have sharply declined.

If you want detailed scholarly confirmation of today's worsening racial oppression, please visit www.blackcommentator.com and read its excellent current series entitled "The New American Apartheid." Then visit www.AllForReparations.org and learn more about the hidden Reparations Movement which has been unfolding inside the United Nations for the past twelve years, a Movement which the U.S. government has worked hard to strangle and which the white mass media, including the Boston Globe, has arrogantly refused to cover. On the AFRE website you can read the interventions of activists who have testified before the Human Rights Commission about the devastating effects of long-term and on-going U.S. policies of ethnocide and forced assimilation.

According to Mr. Obama "the true genius of America (is) a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. "No, sir. The evil genius of the white American ruling class is its ability to be the world's greatest human rights violator while hiding behind the facade of liberal democracy. President Bush and Senator Kerry are both members of the top one percent of the U.S. population which owns close to 50% of all private wealth. They lose no sleep at night over the fact that in the richest country on Earth nine million people are unemployed and forty-three million have no health insurance. Nor are they ashamed about the fact that 60% of all the prisoners in America's jails are Afro-Descendants. Like President Bush, Mr. Kerry fiercely opposes Reparations for African-Americans while fiercely supporting both broad Reparations and massive military aid for white Israel. In conclusion, I hope that one day Mr. Obama will learn that no man can serve the oppressor and the oppressed at the same time. And that if profits no man to sell his soul for the sake of mere riches
and fame.

Peace Be Unto The Righteous,
Malik Al-Arkam
www.AllForReparations.org

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, USA, Capitalism, Racism

Alton H Maddox Jr. writes about the Political lessons for a perpetual Black activist, for the AmNews

As Black leaders are biting off their fingers waiting for the start of the Democratic National Convention later this month in Boston, I will be reminiscing about Johnson versus Goldwater in 1964. Because Georgia allowed persons to vote at 18 years of age before the 26th Amendment, this would be my first vote in a presidential election.

This election would introduce me to the politics of fear. Barry Goldwater would nuke the world. Lyndon Johnson was the Great White Hope. The same modus operandi is in play today. Only President-select George Bush can save the United States from another 9/11 attack. Homeland Security is busy disseminating color-coded alerts. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, History, USA, Racism, Activism

|

Gil Scott-Heron’s B Movie From the album "Reflections" has the lyrics that will stir hearts souls. No wonder he is the Soul Singer.

From gun control to corporate wars, Scott-Heron does not spare anything. And thats the reason why his revolution could not be televised. Here is the rest new poet (declaring the dawning of a new age):

Well, the first thing I want to say is…”Mandate my ass!” Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, Film, Literature

|

Lets have a fresh look at the AIDS epidemic:

* The epidemic remains extremely dynamic, growing and changing character as the virus exploits new opportunities for transmission.
* Girls and young women are at greatest risk. As of December 2003, women accounted for nearly 50% of all people living with HIV worldwide, and for 57% in sub-Saharan Africa.
* Young people (15–24 years old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide; more than 6000 contract the virus each day.
* The 2001 UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS envisions major progress in delivering comprehensive care services by 2005. However, only minimal coverage has been achieved for care and treatment of HIV-related disease. Current prevention efforts in most low- and middle-income countries come nowhere near the scale of the epidemic.
* Achieving the 2005 targets will require urgent, innovative and expanded efforts to strengthen and accelerate the response.

The UN report just released is alarming, to say the least.

Tags: Saswat, Health, News, Feminism

Check this one out. Woody Guthrie would have been proud. This land is their land!

Tags: Saswat, Humor, USA, Communism

Mail & Guardian, Africa’s first online newspaper, has a story
on how new media will help tell African stories.

When culture meets media, interesting things happen. A provincial premier gets pictured in bed; a bunch of fortysomething journos stage a reunion; and innovative publishing technology gets deployed.

It's festival time in Grahamstown again -- the 30th edition of an event that's always like a first time. It is made possible by, among others, a healthy grant from the Eastern Cape government, whose Premier Nosima Balindlela was previously the province's arts and culture minister.

Tags: Saswat, Indigenous, Media, Technology, Black Power

Since Blogger may not always keep it alive, try the link. or read the story below. I think it's revealing. And I view Cons as Cons. You know what I mean
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2004/06/continuing-triumph-of-neoconservatism.html

It has become very fashionable to believe that the neocons are on the run, and their hold over American politics has finally come to an end. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although Iraq isn't going well, and the torture issue is proving to be a bit of an embarrassment for certain Washington elites, the power of the neocons continues pretty much unabated. They are keeping a low profile until it is clear that oil prices will stay low enough for Bush to be reelected, but their ultimate plans for the Middle East and the world remain in place, and are quietly advancing. Americans who think that some fairy godmother - either the CIA, 'patriotic' U. S. generals, or the U. S. Congress - is going to rescue them are dreaming in technicolor. All kinds of terrible legal things are supposed to be in the works for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, and all the infamous neocons from Wolfowitz on down. Just who exactly will be bringing all these people to justice? Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Bush, USA, Capitalism, Imperialism

Here is another news one can use.

Brenda Norrell (Southwest Staff Reporter/Indian Country Today) writes on how U.S. tortures elicit painful memories in Indian country.

American Indians said apologies would not erase the tortures in Iraq and President Bush should be held responsible for leading America into a groundless war.

"It seems like white people are the worst savages," said Bessie Taylor, Navajo from Ch'ooshgai Mountain on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico.

After viewing the photograph of a female soldier holding a leash tied around the throat of a naked Iraqi, Taylor said the female soldier should be dragged in the same manner. "She probably doesn't know what it feels like to be tortured."

After Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the abuses in Iraq, Taylor said, "An apology is nothing. What does an apology do for you - nothing."

Taylor said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld should be held responsible for the tortures in Iraq. "They were so eager for this war, now look what has happened. President Bush is responsible for leading America into this war. He is responsible for this. This war was about oil and making Bush's friends rich."
Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Indigenous, Iraq, USA, Bush, War, Terrorism, History

|

An article by George Monbiot in the Guardian 'This Is What We Paid For', which one can read here

This Is What We Paid For

Britain's foreign aid has been used to bankroll a programme for mass
starvation
By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 18th May 2004

Tony Blair has lost the election. It's true he wasn't standing, but we won't
split hairs. His policies have just been put to the test by an electorate
blessed with a viable opposition, and crushed. In throwing him out of their
lives, the voters of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh may have destroyed
the world's most dangerous economic experiment. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, India, Technology, Economics, Capitalism, UK

|

A new study on managerial pay involving more than 2,000 managers from more than 500 organizations finds that not only do women managers earn approximately nine percent less than male managers, but that pay of both men and women managers is also related to the gender and age of those they work with.

Mere interesting or sheer alarming? On May 1, its important as well. Click here to read the rest.

Tags: Saswat, Economics, Capitalism, Feminism

Lest we forget, the Eight Hour Song:

We want to feel the sunshine; we want to smell the flowers;
We're sure that God has willed it, and we mean to have eight hours.
We're summoning our forces from shipyard, shop and mill:
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Activism, Literature

Following is my critique of an article on Chinese Cultural Sphere.

The Net is the world's only functioning anarchy but it could soon become a major tool for democracy. By allowing anyone, everywhere access to the information and opinions of anyone else, anywhere else, a morsel is being given to mankind with one instruction: "Eat Me, so that we may grow." (Fenchurch, 1994, p. 11)

Goubin Yang assistant professor in sociology at University of Hawaii in Manoa, who authored and presented a paper “The Internet and the rise of a transnational Chinese cultural sphere” at a conference in New York, on China's Environmental Discourse, makes case for two premises: one, that the internet for Chinese population, has facilitated global mass protest movements, and two, inside China, online ‘spaces’ have influenced civil society development. The paper appeared in ‘Media, Culture & Society’ (Vol 25, Issue 4, 2003) with the underlying assumption that online media have given birth to a transnational Chinese cultural sphere.

Read the entire article here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Media, China

The World Economic Outlook presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups (classified by region, stage of development, etc.), and in many individual countries. It focuses on major economic policy issues as well as on the analysis of economic developments and prospects.

Click here to see it all...Its not worth reading it all, anyway....

Tags: Saswat, Economics, Imperialism, Capitalism

My mediocre review/critique of an excellent work of media research:

Kavoori’s work is unique from three standpoints: firstly, this is a comparative media study across five, instead of between two countries, secondly, it revisits the media imperialism theories with a changed premise and last but not the least, the dissertation deals extensively with globalization from an ethnographic perspective.

“Globalization, media audiences and television news: A comparative study of American, British, Israeli, German and French audiences”, is suitably titled, deriving research data from a four year “Global Newsroom” project.

Read the entire article here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Media

Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive discusses Bush, the performer.

A Scary Performance, and a Signal for Slaughter

George Bush's press conference on April 13 was a scary performance. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, USA, Bush

Why humor is a great political tool:


From http://dankind.com

Tags: Saswat, Humor

Just compiling some information for a Harambee radio show being hosted by my good friend Jared.

Hard work, but very interesing along the line of self-discoveries. Here are some definitions, uses and origins of Hip Hop, for the show.

N.Y. Rocker 1982:
Hip-hop DJ's can repeat ever-shorter phrases, with a little nimble-fingered action on the rim or the label.

N.Y. Times 1982:
He [sc. D. J. Hollywood] phrased to the beat of a funk record and paced himself with a repeating refrain, usually a variation on the nonsense formula ‘hip, hop, hip-hip-de-hop’. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, Music, History

Now in its 22nd year, the Socialist Scholar's Conference is the largest annual gathering of the US left. Two days of more than sixty panels will feature leading activists and thinkers discussing the quagmire in Iraq, the future of the global justice movement, the drive to unseat George W. Bush and a raft of crucial political and economic issues.

Program details are as follows:
March 12-14, Cooper Union fo the Advancement of Science and Art
7 East 7th Street, New York City
For ticket information, schedules and directions, please call 212-817-7868 or click here.


Speakers this year include The Nation's Naomi Klein, William Greider, Doug Henwood, Liza Featherstone and Ian Williams as well as Laura Flanders, Manning Marable, Marshall Berman, Hilary Wainwright, Christian Parenti, Dilip Hiro, Frances Fox Piven, Greg Palast and Micah Sifry, among many others.

Check out the full line-up here.

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Academic

In a national phone survey between March 12 and May 20, 2003, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more than 53 million American adults or 44% of adult Internet users have used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online. 21% of Internet users say they have posted photographs to Web sites. 13% of Internet users maintain their own Web sites. Around 7% have Web cams running on their computers that allow other Internet users to see live pictures of them and their surroundings.

Read all about it here.
As always Interesting stuff, this Pew research. Wondering what they mean by "American adult Internet users". This is funny but I must confess, after reading thousands of opinion polls, I see I am never intereviewed for a poll in life. Just a sheer coincidence or an exalted call to an idea that I am one in a million.

Tags: Saswat, Technology, Media, Academic

Australian aboriginal activist Michael Anderson has stirred some feathers for sure!

Shouting at top of his voice that Australia does not deserve to be on the UN human rights body, he has a question: How can a racist country like Australia have a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Commission, much less chair it?

Well, I must say I am listening to Anderson, who is a facilitator of the Gumilaroi/Euahlayi Aboriginal Nations (they're one of the largest Australian Aboriginal groups, numbering 15,000 people)

Anderson says, "Australia is yet to admit to its racist past and accept responsibility. Their constant denial of what they did to us, the Indigenous people, is in fact a crime against humanity that also disqualifies them from sitting in judgment on any other regimes of the world."

Well here is the context. Appears that Australia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Mike Smith, has just been appointed as chairman of the U.N. Human Rights Commission for 2004.

More quotes from Anderson, as I found on my cyber journey:

‘Given the fact that they continue to have outstanding matters to deal with from the fallout of the 1998 Native Title amendments, Australia are now in a position to cover up their inactivity on the recommendation made by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).’

For the uninitiated, CERD has accused Australia of genocide in the past, too.

‘The government cries crocodile tears over the treatment of white farmers in Zimbabwe, while in Australia they’re granting bucketloads of extinguishments of Native Title interests in favour of European farmers, assuring security and certainty for them. What about land security and certainty for Aborigines?’

‘I hope that the people of Australia and other countries who are aware of the real Australia will inundate foreign embassies within Australia and the various UN Human Rights Committees with submissions about the shameful human rights record.’

‘As long as Australia continues to deny its racist treatment of my people they will always be haunted by an unjust past, and our continued presence will hurt because they will be reminded of it every time they look into our faces.’

Tags: Saswat, Australia, Racism, Capitalism, History

That inimitable Arundhati Roy's speech at the WSF...

Do turkeys enjoy thanksgiving?

By Arundhati Roy

LAST JANUARY thousands of us from across the world gathered in Porto Allegre in Brazil and declared — reiterated — that "Another World is Possible". A few thousand miles north, in Washington, George Bush and his aides were thinking the same thing.

Our project was the World Social Forum. Theirs — to further what many call The Project for the New American Century.

In the great cities of Europe and America, where a few years ago these things would only have been whispered, now people are openly talking about the good side of Imperialism and the need for a strong Empire to police an unruly world. The new missionaries want order at the cost of justice. Discipline at the cost of dignity. And ascendancy at any price. Occasionally some of us are invited to `debate' the issue on `neutral' platforms provided by the corporate media. Debating Imperialism is a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What can we say? That we really miss it? Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Feminism, Communism, Imperialism, Capitalism

|

In an age of information warfare, its worthwhile to note that propaganda often forms the bedrock for ‘objectivity’ in media. Journalists more often than not rely on secondary sources who possess a narrowed, at times, reactionary world-view, because the ones who are eligible to become sources, have multiple agenda at hand. Do we as journalists merely play into them?

Well I can’t afford to generalize. Although I will agree that all journalists at most times, cannot afford to ignore secondary sources (secondary sources, as opposed to primary experiences). And the real problems arise, as most often is the case with them, when the sources would rather use the journalists, than be used.

Tintin, the famous fictitious reporter, and the most widely read comic-hero ever created in the world, is no exception to this observation. Indeed my research verifies that Tintin was created merely to fight the Bolsheviks in erstwhile Soviet Union. And what better profession was there for him to choose than that of becoming an international scribe to achieve this aim?

As global territorial, religious and consumerist wars shroud vision, and journalists become embedded, blindfolded and commodified, its time to ask, if the best among the reporters in real life today have any semblance with best of the reporters in the world of fiction, Tintin.

I will come back to Tintin soon on this blog.

Tags: Saswat, Literature, History, Media

Very Interesting Chinese Blog here
Just some students at Berkeley. I think its a great job, folks! But what I always keep seeing is China's obsession with Japan, at least as seen by the Chinese scholars abroad. Must have been such a break for Indian politicians of late. No news is good news.

Tags: Saswat, Technology, Academic

Psychiatric disabilities are steadily growing and costing companies in lost productivity and employee absenteeism.
According to American Psychological Association, for example, at Bank One--now J.P. Morgan Chase--employees' mental health issues from 2000–2002 accounted for the second leading cause of short-term disability and were second in total of days absent from work--behind only pregnancy.
One is left only to wonder, if the concern is for absent employees or the sick employees. If its the sick, are they sick because of the workplace pressures themselves?

Tags: Saswat, Capitalism, News, Health

Why Paul Robeson matters? Because he loved humanity. Because he said he loved humanity. Because he made efforts to show that the world can be loved, no matter what color or race, ethnicity or religious orientations. Because he added another component to the discourse of diversity: political conscience.

Robeson matters because politics matters. Because political diversity is the mainstay of democracy. “What do you mean by the Communist Party? As far as I know it is a legal party like the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Do you mean a party of people who have sacrificed for my people, and for all Americans and workers, that they can live in dignity? Do you mean that party?”

Tags: Saswat, History, Black Power, Communism

What happens in the least ‘developed’ state of India? Does it hurt to see? Is it time to change the posters on the wall? To remind self of the fact that people actually died of starvation every year I have lived. Even this year in a “democracy” (sorry, welfare economists/Nobel laureates). And is the world very different in Orissa? Or is it just us? Is corruption alien to the American democracy? Or homelessness not the order of the day for 35 million Americans?

Maybe we relish political satires at home too much (sorry, documentary directors) to realize that there is a world beyond the pepsi-coke US, as much as there are people beyond the victims of Kerry-Bush dilemma. People like us with commonalities, living in our world. ‘They’ must be ‘us’. Just to remind, here’s to Orissamatters…

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Media

Dave Winer's RSS 2.0 Political FAQ. Winer says, "My goal in writing this FAQ is to help people understand how RSS politics works."

Tags: Saswat, Technology

My resistance to post-modernists is huge. Partly because I think they make the dissident movements effete by their convenient generalizations. Partly also because I don’t see the vagueness as clearly as they do. Either of us has to be less intelligent to perceive the halos. Let me be the one, then.
In the meantime, I found Stuart Hall in his “On postmodernism and articulation: An interview with Sturat Hall”, (ed. Lawrence Grossberg) say this about Baudrillard. How very accurate. Did I tell you how much I love this man, Hall, who refuses to be a mere legend.

“Let's take Baudrillard's argument about representation and the implosion of meaning.This seems to rest upon an assumption of the sheer facticity of things: things are just what is seen on the surface. They don't mean or signify anything. They cannot be 'read'. We are beyond reading, language. meaning. . . . I think Baudrillard's position has become a kind of super-realism, taken to the nth degree. It says that, in the process of recognizing the real, there is nothing except what is immediately there on the surface. ... But there is all the difference in the world between the assertion that there is no one final, absolute meaning - no ultimate signified, only the endlessly sliding chain of signofication, and, on the other hand, the assertion that meaning does not exist. ... Therefore, I don't agree with Baudrillard that representation is at an end because the cultural codes have become pluralized. I think we are in a period of the infinite multiplicity of codings, which is different. We have all become, historically, fantastically codable encoding agents. We are in the middle of this multiplicity of readings and discourses and that has produced new forms of self-consciousness and reflexivity.”
(from Journal of Communication Inquiry (1986), 10(2), 45-60)

Tags: Saswat, Philosophy, Media, Communism

One leaves oneself at home when one goes to the theatre, one renounces the right to one's own tongue and choice. . . . There one is common people, audience, herd, female, pharisee, voting cattle, democrat, neighbor, fellow man . . . even the most personal conscience is vanquished by the leveling magic of the great number. . . . (Nietzsche)

An Interesting read it was. On Theodor Adorno & HEAVY METAL. For the starters, Adorno was the distinct champion of the Critical school of Frankfurt and author of texts which are understood only with a decent dictionary alongside.

Tags: Saswat, Philosophy, Media, Academic

Check the following link about an interesting article on Sophism. It is going to appear as a presentation in the September 12, 2003 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/sci-techs/3035sophism.html

Tags: Saswat, History, Philosophy

By Saswat Pattanayak

Good riddance to bad rubbish…
Well almost. I don’t think we had a good riddance of this character at all. The notorious former Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, has died in exile in Saudi Arabia today.
And who saved him from being killed or lapidated (stoning one to death)? For someone who wiped out 400,000 people like a fascists, the media portrayed him as a buffoon and a cannibal!
Additional news came about how Soviet Union was the sole member in the UN security council to reject a motion to declare Uganda of committing human rights violation. And alongside, US and Britain even went ahead and denounced Amin and closed their embassies.
Well, between easy and difficult, the West chose the easy and cut-off all relations. As if the people in Uganda were the worse humans to deal with! As if it were all the faults of Ugandanians. So the solution was to oppose UN and impose sanctions and cut off business. So that the people suffer.
Suffer for doing what? For resenting against Amin of course!
How many countries can claim to have a leadership which is supported by the majority of its people, anyway? Worse, why should Amin had a place if not ably supported by some external forces. The blame went to the Reds, without any substantiation, except the UN vote which to me, sounds ridiculous, since any sanction is not good for the people of the country. Since the rulers don’t care, sanctions or no sanctions.

Here are some pointers (click here for an article by Steven Niven):

The United States' officially hostile stance obscured its ongoing support of Amin's regime. It continued to provide military helicopters and parts long after the US had claimed to have cut off aid and also provided "special police training" to high ranking officers in Amin's SRBPSU. In July 1979, the Washington Post quoted a CIA official's explanation for assisting the Ugandan secret police. His answer suggests that, like the other governments who assisted Amin, the US believed that it could control and manipulate him. "By training Amin's men," the CIA official remarked, "we were able to have some influence over Amin. It was also a possibility that we could go back to the trainees later for intelligence operations."

In December 1986, the New York Times reported that CIA operatives provided bombs, military equipment, and training to Amin in 1975, to assist him in subduing domestic unrest, in spite of congressional legislation forbidding such sales. The Times report, issued during the unfolding Iran-Contra scandal, noted that "there was no indication whether George [H.W] Bush, the director of Central Intelligence at the time, was aware of the operation." Throughout the 1970s, former CIA operatives funneled sophisticated surveillance equipment made by American companies to the Ugandan secret police. British companies — including the state-owned car manufacturer, British Leyland — likewise provided Amin with state-of-the-art surveillance and military equipment, even though the UK broke diplomatic relations with Uganda in 1976. Ironically, British trade with Uganda continued even though, as the Sunday Herald of Glasgow reported yesterday, Britain's Labour Government was at the same time considering assassinating Amin.

Saudi Arabia shielded one of the biggest anti-human institutions. How come nothing happened to this host country? Next logical question: Who shields the Saudis? Only answer: Of course we know!

Tags: Saswat, USSR, Capitalism, Imperialism, History, USA, Uganda

A pretty ill-written commentary by Swaminathan Aiyar meets with a well-written critique...Just discovered on my cyber journey.
Click here--
Indians do better under white rule
"The fact is that Indians succeed at home too. India is full of success stories. But you don't get to hear of them living abroad. There's nothing odd about an Indian being a success in India. Almost every successful person in India, is well, Indian. Indians have built industrial empires, software businesses, a thriving entertainment industry…and not just that. Smaller success stories abound too.........
Now, it is true that Indians do well in countries ruled by whites - the US and UK, are good examples. But Indians also do well in countries ruled by non-whites as well - Indians are significant players in the economies of many African countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. They also do well in a range of countries such as the Gulf states, Singapore, Fiji and Malaysia."

Tags: Saswat, India, Economics, Capitalism

Village Voice has this story on Young South Asians' Love-Hate Relationship with Hip-Hop's New Indian Beats
Mix This by Tina Chadha talks about the tensions in the music industry of hip hop and myths of cultural purity.
Belly dancing is Middle Eastern, not Indian. But you wouldn't know from
videos of Indian-influenced hip-hop. Ever since Timbaland accidentally
bought an Indian CD five years ago, artists from Missy Elliott to Bubba
Sparxxx to Justin Timberlake have turned to outdated Indian tracks to
make crowds gyrate. Although they may not know Bollywood from bhajans,
and their lyrics sometimes contain misguided stereotypes, they're
making Indian music more popular here than ever.
This week, the U.K.'s Panjabi MC is dropping his American debut, which
could set the record straight. His hit "Beware of the Boys" has pumped
through Indian kids' CD players for nearly a half-decade, and is now
(with a couple of verses by Jay-Z) racking up 3,200 spins a week in the
U.S. So young Indians are hoping they'll finally get some cultural
respect, starting with the word Punjabi, pronounced "Pun-jabi" not
"Poon-jabi." (Though it is spelled Panjabi sometimes.) Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Music, Bollywood, Black Power, India

An excellent resource page on Claudia Jones:

http://purpleplanetmedia.com/bhp/pages/cjones.shtml

Tags: Saswat, Black Power, History, Feminism, Communism

R&B crooner Barry White is no more. White was a tire-thief and an eternal musician.
For the uninitiated, Never, Never Gonna Give You Up and I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby are his classics.

Tags: Saswat, Music, News

I came across this news service--A World to Win News Service. They have the following to say:

"While we are not yet able to offer well-rounded and rapid coverage based on a network of correspondents, the world situation - including US imperialism's ongoing wars on the Oppressed Countries, the people's growing resistance and their equally growing revolutionary needs and movements - has made it necessary for us to enter the battle for a public opinion based on the truth now, even though we can only do that in a modest way now. AWTWNS is published only electronically. All its articles may be reprinted, excerpted or used in any other way as long as it is credited."
You can find them here

Tags: Activism, Media, Saswat, Imperialism

One has heard of the SALT and NPT and the CTBT.
Here is yet another one: MTSOR.
Moscow Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions.

And the following is a lesser known joint statement passed early this month:

On May 24, 2002, we pledged to build a new strategic relationship between the United States of America and the Russian Federation. We declared our partnership, and our commitment to work together to advance stability, security, and prosperity for our peoples, and to work jointly to counter global challenges and help resolve regional conflicts. We also declared that where we had differences, we would work to resolve them in a spirit of mutual respect.

We have met again to reaffirm our Nations’ partnership and our commitment to meet together the challenges of the 21st century.

With the completion of the ratification procedures by the United States Senate, and the two houses of the Russian Federal Assembly, we have been able to exchange instruments of ratification for the Moscow Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions. The Treaty takes effect immediately. The deep reductions of strategic nuclear warheads that it codifies are another indication of the transformed relationship between our two countries.

We will intensify efforts to confront the global threats of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, that threaten our peoples and freedom-loving peoples around the world.

In this regard, we declare our intention to advance concrete joint projects in the area of missile defense which will help deepen relations between the United States and Russia.


How long shall things stay on the paper? As long as it results in Russian reductions….

Tags: Russia, USA, Saswat, War, Peace, Imperialism

A significant interview below:
“Jack O’Dell was a union organizer, a civil rights leader, and a member of the Communist Party. His political consciousness formed in the 1940’s, when the African-American community became more assertive in their efforts to improve conditions and expand civil rights. Like many blacks, including one of his role models, Paul Robeson, O’Dell was drawn to the Communist Party because of their staunch stand against racism and segregation. During the 1940’s, O’Dell found a welcoming environment in the National Maritime Union. Later, he worked for the director of the Southern Christian Leadership Counsel (SCLC) office in New York, before becoming SCLC’s voter registration director in seven southern states.”

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6927.html

“I Never Met a Black Person Who Was in the Communist Party Because of the Soviet Union:” Jack O’Dell on Fighting Racism in the 1940s Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Interview

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. That struggle might be a moral one; it might be a physical one; it might be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will. People might not get all that they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.” —Frederick Douglass

Tags: Saswat, Activism, Black Power