World Prout Assembly

Lynne Stewart: Heroic Human Rights Lawyer Jailed

Her 2004 - 2005 show trial was a mockery of justice with echoes of the worst McCarthy-like tactics. Inflammatory terrorist images were displayed in court to prejudice the jury, and prosecutors vilified Stewart as a traitor with "radical" political views. In addition, days before the verdict, the militant pro-Israeli Jewish Defense Organization put up flyers near the courthouse displaying her address. It threatened to "drive her out of her home and out of the state," and said she "needs to be put out of business legally and effectively." It was part of the orchestrated scheme inside and outside the courtroom to heighten fear, convict Stewart, and intimidate other lawyers to expect the same treatment if they dare represent unpopular clients effectively. - Stephen Lendman

Transformation of fearful love into fearless love

Now this sádhaná [meditation] which is sádhaná for complete merger, for unification, starts with fearful love. Love must be there. Unless and until there is love there cannot be unification. So love must be there but it starts with fearful love and ends in fearless love; and the space between fearful love and fearless love is the space of sádhaná. What is sádhaná? Sádhaná is the transformation of fearful love into fearless love.
-
Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

US home foreclosures at record high as jobs crisis deepens

High unemployment is in fact a deliberate policy of the Obama administration, which is seeking to drive down the conditions of the working class in order to restore profitability of American companies. Obama has rejected any serious jobs program or further stimulus measures. Meanwhile, Wall Street profits are likely to set a new record this year, according to a report released Tuesday by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The report noted that Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and a section of JPMorgan Chase are set to make $22.5 billion this year, compared to losses of $40.3 billion last year. There is every likelihood that the year-end bonuses at these banks will be equally unprecedented. - Andre Damon

The civilized world

"The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their 'vital interests' are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the 'sanctity' of human life, or the 'conscience' of the civilized world."

James Baldwin

UN warns of 70 percent desertification by 2025

Sunday, 4 October 2009 - Drought could parch close to 70 percent of the planet's soil by 2025 unless countries implement policies to slow desertification, a senior United Nations official has warned. "If we cannot find a solution to this problem... in 2025, close to 70 percent could be affected," Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, said Friday. Drought currently affects at least 41 percent of the planet and environmental degradation has caused it to spike by 15 to 25 percent since 1990, according to a global climate report.

Torture

"Torture presupposes, it requires, it craves the abrogation of our capacity to imagine others' suffering, dehumanizing them so much that their pain is not our pain. It demands this of the torturer, placing the victim outside and beyond any form of compassion or empathy, but also demands of everyone else the same distancing, the same numbness."

Ariel Dorfman

Dalit family camps in front of collectorate

by Vivek Vijayapalan / DNAThursday, November 19, 2009 - Ahmedabad: - Nathubhai Solanki has been camping outside the district collectorate office for the past few days with his family. His aim is to get justice for his family which was allegedly pushed out of his native village over caste issues. Solanki, a Dalit, has also submitted a memorandum to the district collector, saying that if he does not get justice immediately, he and his family will immolate themselves in front of the office. In the memorandum submitted to the district collector, he has alleged that his house in his village Alav in Ranpur taluka was razed to the ground by Bhaga Bharwad, Vala Vindani and Bhima Bharwad belonging to the upper caste. He has also said in his memorandum that the trio attacked him with swords and sticks in a bid to kill him and his family. Solanki told DNA, "I have been camping outside the collectorate to get justice. I have also been booked under section 151 of the IPC after I submitted the memorandum which stated that if I do not get justice I will immolate myself. However, I have decided that I will continue my struggle to get justice." "I don't want money, I merely want to protect my family," adds Solanki. Sources aware of the development said that the three people against whom Solanki raised allegations had been booked and a charge-sheet had been filed in the case. Solanki points out, "If I succeed in my struggle to get justice, then there will be hope for many more people like me who belong to the lower caste." Manjula Pradeep, Director of Navsarjan who is supporting Solanki, says: "The situation has become hostile in his village because of which he had to leave. Even the police have not been able to provide him with protection in the village. He lost property worth Rs65,000 when his house was razed but the state government has reimbursed him only with Rs10,000. This clearly shows that the state is not fulfilling its responsibility." On the other hand, senior collectorate officials say that the allegations made by Solanki will be probed. A senior official said, "We will verify the matter but it seems that the dispute is personal and not caste-based." The matter has been referred to the office of Ranpur mamaltadar.

As always, we read the final sentence that "The matter has been referred to the office of Ranpur mamaitadar." No action. No justice. But something must be done for the Dalits of India, as well as for the Adivasis. There is a limit to how much they are to be oppressed, marginalized and tortured by inhuman humans. There has to be a limit to the time - the decades and centuries, nay, even millennia, that these sweet people are to be brutalized by higher castes. We need to turn everything upside down. We need to re-write the Indian constitution and delete all mention of caste. We need to base all issues on economics. Let all the poor people receive assistance and jobs. Let all poor people be guaranteed food, clothes, shelter, health care and education. But let there also be an end to mental torture brought on by social discrimination carried out by higher castes. The greatest problem in India seems to be the police, because many laws have been passed by the Supreme Court but local police in the towns and villages never ensure they are carried out. Rather, the police protect those who break those laws They protect the people who perpetuate the caste system, who perpetuate the torture of marginalized peoples. So some kind of moral movement must be started in India to completely reform the police. All police should be sent to schools where they learn morality, compassion, kindness, respect for women, and above all respect for the most neglected, downtrodden human beings - the outcastes of the society. The police above all should be taking care of these people. At present the police serve as the instruments of oppression and torture - utterly needless torture. See what is happening in Lalgarh and entire Medinipur districts of West Bengal, where Maoists are catching the police and beheading them. There is a reason for their rage. It is because the police have passed all limits in their torture of the poor. So perhaps the first movement to start in India is redemption of all police departments across the land. The police in every country are extremely powerful. But that power MUST be accompanied by morality. by basic love and affection for the suffering humanity. So now, who will come forward to start such a movement? Who will rescue the suffering masses from the tortures of police atrocities across this land? Who will start the long task of educating police and turning them into compassionate human beings? - Garda Ghista

A Messenger from the South Brings Word to the North: There's a Better Way to Feed the World - A Conversation with Miguel Altieri

The reason I went to England to see Prince Charles earlier this year was to report the results of 208 sustainable agricultural projects and agroecological approaches from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The studies showed that nine million farmers, working on more than 29 million hectares, have increased their overall yields from 50 to 100 percent. And these are in marginalized environments-hillsides and semi-desert areas-and they did so at one-tenth the cost of the Green Revolution. Not to mention the empowerment of the people-which can't be measured-and the biodiversity, the regeneration of the land, the conservation of the resources, and such things. - Miguel Altieri

Lynne Stewart, The Patriot Act and Cointelpro

This incredibly courageous, seventy-year-old former librarian, who is presently also battling a serious medical condition that requires surgery must never be abandoned by us. She did not abandon justice-loving people and we cannot abandon her. She is a target and a victim of the Patriot Act (the 21st century COINTELPRO) and the ongoing hysteria which was whipped up under the Bush / Cheney administration and is being continued and further tweaked under the Obama / Biden administration. We must remember that Lynne Stewart spoke and speaks truth to power on behalf of the every day people and we can do no less. DO NOT LET HER STAND ALONE! DO NOT ALLOW THIS CORRUPT, HYPOCRITICAL, WAR MONGERING GOVERNMENT AND JUDICIARY TO COWER US INTO SUBMISSION! Continue to follow the developments in Lynne Stewart's case closely, with a view towards reversing this gross injustice to her and to all of us! By supporting Lynne Stewart, we are loving and supporting the very best in ourselves. Bear in mind that the above-described developments with respect to Lynne Stewart, are part and parcel and yet another example, of the ongoing shredding of the Bill of Rights and civil liberties in this nation. - Larry Pinkney

Going Hungry In The USA: America's Economic Pain Brings Hunger Pangs

Food shortages, the report shows, are particularly pronounced among women raising children alone. Last year, more than one in three single mothers reported that they struggled for food, and more than one in seven said that someone in their home had been hungry -- far eclipsing the food problem in any other kind of household. The report also found that people who are black or Hispanic were more than twice as likely as whites to report that food in their home was scarce. In the survey used to measure food shortages, people were considered to have food insecurity if they answered "yes" to several of a series of questions. Among the questions were whether, in the past year, their food sometimes ran out before they had money to buy more, whether they could not afford to eat nutritionally balanced meals, and whether adults in the family sometimes cut the size of their meals -- or skipped them -- because they lacked money for food. The report defined the degree of their food insecurity by the number of the questions to which they answered yes. - Amy Goldstein

Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament

Politics is not a SERVICE anymore but a PROFESSION.

Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament

Monthly Salary: Rs. 12,000/-

Expense for Constitution per month: Rs. 10,000/-

Office expenditure per month: Rs. 14,000/-

Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km): Rs. 48,000/-

(eg. For a visit from South India to Delhi & return: 6000 km)

Daily DA TA during parliament meets: Rs. 500/day

Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train: Free (For any number of times)
(All over India )

Charge for Business Class in flights: Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.)

Rent for MP hostel at Delhi: Free.

Electricity costs at home: Free up to 50,000 units.

Local phone call charge: Free up to 1, 70,000 calls..

TOTAL expense for a MP [having no qualification] per year: Rs.32, 00,000/-

[i.e. 2.66 lakh/month]
TOTAL expense for 5 years: Rs. 1, 60, 00,000/-

For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years:
Rs. 8,54,40,00,000/-

(Nearly 855 crores)

AND THE PRIME MINISTER IS ASKING THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED, OUT PERFORMING CEOs TO CUT DOWN THEIR SALARIES...
..
This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities.........

And this is the present condition of our country:

855 crores could make their life livable!!

Hightower: Obscenely Rich Bankers Claim to Do God's Work -- They Can Go to Hell

Such narcissism reminds me of a story about a selfish, no-good rich man who died and tried to get into heaven. But you can't just walk through the Pearly Gates. An angel reviews your life, then St. Peter decides if you can enter. To counter the angel's negative review, the rich man argued that he had a history of charitable giving. He'd once tossed a nickel into a beggar's cup, he pointed out. Plus, some years later, he had aided a poor woman by giving her a nickel. Then there was the time he put a nickel into the Salvation Army kettle. Hearing all this, the angel turned to St. Peter and asked, "What in the world should we do with this man?" And St. Peter said, "Give him back his 15 cents, and tell him to go to hell!" - Jim Hightower

CHILDREN IN POVERTY IN THE RICHEST NATION ON EARTH

Nov 20, 2009 - British news reports this morning "Half of children in 17 U.S. counties live in poverty." Corporate media delight in telling us the recession is over, the stock market is booming for the few who own most of the stock, and billions in bonuses are going to banksters to whom we recently guaranteed trillions of dollars in interest free loans. Our government will do whatever it can to wrench a crust of bread from the hand of a starving child so that a Wall Street bankster can market it for profit, the legacy of elections based on campaign financing from the Forces of Greed who rule. It is no accident that poverty is growing. A system which awards most of the wealth to one-fourth of one percent of the population means that millions must go homeless and hungry. As the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn simplifies it, "wealth creates poverty, and poverty creates wealth."

Rising Indian influence in Afghanistan worries US and Pakistan

Think-tanks and press pundits are insisting that India cannot remain a "soft power." Dr. Subhash Kapila, a former military officer and diplomat, has written that India has so far been reluctant to resort to "hard power." However, he writes, "As India grows more powerful and her strategic worth figures in the global strategic calculus ... [it] may not continue to be reluctant and restrained." He called for a reorientation of US policy in south Asia from "Pakistan-Centric" to an "India-Centric" fixation. The Indian government is looking to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US this month to take Indo-US relations to a new level. The Indian ambassador to the US recently boasted, "the India-US relationship has evolved into a truly comprehensive partnership of mutual trust and confidence ... that is increasingly global in reach, and [based on] deepening strategic understanding." But despite the warming of relations over the past two decades, any Indo-US partnership remains fraught with tensions and ambivalences as the ruling elite of each country ruthlessly pursues its own interests. - Ajay Prakash

Huge contradictions behind China's stimulus-driven recovery

Social inequality is deepening. The stimulus package helped to expand the list of Chinese dollar billionaires from 101 last year to 130 this year. At the same time, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated in September that 41 million Chinese workers had lost their jobs, mostly in the export sector, since the beginning of the financial crisis, or 40 percent of the world's total job losses. As the impact of the stimulus package starts to wane, China confronts the prospect of falling growth rates and the danger of financial turmoil as well as rising social tensions and instability. - John Chan

How I stopped hating Thanksgiving and learned to be afraid

Along with allies in Austin, I've struggled with the question of how to create an alternative public event that could contribute to a more honest accounting of the American holocausts in the past (not only the indigenous genocide, but African slavery) and present (the murderous U.S. assault on the developing world, especially in the past six decades, in places such as Vietnam and Iraq). Some have suggested an educational event, bringing in speakers to talk about those holocausts. Others have suggested a gathering focused on atonement. Should the event be more political or more spiritual? Perhaps some combination of methods and goals is possible. However we decide to proceed, we can't ignore the ugly ideological realities of the holiday. My fear of those realities is appropriate but facing reality need not leave us paralyzed by fear; instead it can help us understand the contours of the multiple crises -- economic and ecological, political and cultural -- that we face. The challenge is to channel our fear into action. I hope that next year I will find a way to take another step toward a more meaningful honoring of our intellectual, political, and moral obligations. - Robert Jensen

The Choice Ahead: Entrenched Fossil Fuel Dependence Or Climate Change Management

Sometimes it's rueful to ponder over the way that the present would be different had the U.S. followed Denmark's example on the same timetable while using the funds that were to become allocated to fossil fuel wars towards development of the self-reliant energy security as Thomas Friedman indirectly suggests in "Flush With Energy" in which he states "Unlike America, Denmark, which was so badly hammered by the 1973 Arab oil embargo that it banned all Sunday driving for a while, responded to that crisis in such a sustained, focused and systematic way that today it is energy independent. (And it didn't happen by Danish politicians making their people stupid by telling them the solution was simply more offshore drilling.)" Meanwhile, there's growing public awareness that the Pentagon's worldwide mission IS to get command over oil and gas supplies -- as is explained in an elucidating report by Rick Rozoff [12] with many outstanding factual details. Likewise, it is obvious that the IMF and WB goals are en simpatico with the mission and, as a result, are on a disastrously wrong track as "The grave ecological destruction sponsored by the World Bank", by Eric De Ruest, Hélene Baillot, undeniably indicates. - Emily Spence

Climate Rage

From outside our borders, the climate crisis doesn't look anything like the meteors or space invaders that Todd Stern imagined hurtling toward Earth. It looks, instead, like a long and silent war waged by the rich against the poor. And for that, regardless of what happens in Copenhagen, the poor will continue to demand their rightful reparations. "This is about the rich world taking responsibility for the damage done," says Ilana Solomon, policy analyst for ActionAid USA, one of the groups recently converted to the cause. "This money belongs to poor communities affected by climate change. It is their compensation." - Naomi Klein

Shining a Light on the Roots of Terrorism

To refresh our memories, let's recall the bromides we were fed by the likes of former president George W. Bush about why the terrorists attacked on 9/11. Rather than mentioning long-held grievances expressed by many Arabs - such as Western intrusion into their region, Washington's propping-up of autocrats who enrich themselves in deals with multinational oil companies, and Israel's military occupation of Palestinian territory - Bush told the American people that "the terrorists hate our freedoms." Former vice president Dick Cheney reprised that feel-good theme in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute on May 21. Cheney said the terrorists hate "all the things that make us a force for good in the world - for liberty, for human rights, for the rational, peaceful resolution of differences." - Ray McGovern

Bolivia Re-invents Democratic Socialism

On December 6, Bolivia will hold a general election where Evo Morales, the first Indigenous President in South America will no doubt be re-elected. His party, the MAS, has recently released an election programme that Susan Harvie has kindly summarized and translated. Bolivia is reinventing democractic socialism. They are in the process of creating a plurinational state with equal rights for all nations and people, redistributing land, providing free health and education for everyone, creating what they call a pluri-economy that includes public, private, co-operative and communitarian. In four years of power they have eliminated illiteracy, reduced extreme poverty by 6%, insituted a senior's pension for the first time, nationalized hydrocarbons and achieved a 6.5% economic growth. They are showing that a government that acts in the interests of the majority really can succeed and that an alternative is truly possible.

Great lies become accepted unequivocally as great truths

"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths."

Simon Heffer, Daily Mail, 7 June 2000

Drug Makers Raise Prices in Face of Health Care Reform

"Price adjustments for our products have no connection to health care reform," said Ron Rogers, a spokesman for Merck, which raised its prices about 8.9 percent in the last year, according to a stock analyst's report. This year's increases mean the average annual cost for a brand-name prescription drug that is taken daily would be more than $2,000 -- $200 higher than last year, Professor Schondelmeyer said. - DUFF WILSON ...

The fear of heresy

"There is never any fair and thorough discussion of heretical opinions...The greatest harm done is to those who are not heretics, and whose whole mental development is cramped and their reason cowed, by the fear of heresy."

John Stuart Mill

Credit ratings agency gives verdict on British economy

Research from Resolution Foundation shows the impact this is having on low income households. It says that Britain's 14.3 million low earners--nearly half the workforce--are in danger of being sucked into a whirlpool of poverty. One quarter of low income households, those with an average of £15,800 (US $26,425) at their disposal, spend more than 24 percent of their monthly income on debt, twice the number of three years ago. They are particularly vulnerable to homelessness should they lose their job, as one third of low income households have high loan to value mortgages and are in negative equity. - Jean Shaoul

A record 49 million Americans faced hunger in 2008

A yearly survey on hunger released Monday by the United States Department of Agriculture reported that a record 49.1 million Americans in 17 million households lacked dependable access to adequate food in 2008. The government reported a sharp rise both in what it calls "food insecurity" and "very low food security," i.e., outright hunger, noting that the rates recorded last year in both categories were the highest since the Agriculture Department began its annual surveys in 1995. - Barry Grey

Mother of All: An Introduction to Bioregionalism

For what the bioregional vision suggests is a way of living that not merely can take us away from the calamities of the present and the diseases of our quotidian lives but can provide its own indwelling enrichments and satisfactions, a widening of human possibilities. Imagine, if you will, the joy of knowing, as we can imagine from the scholarly record, what the American Indians knew: the meaning of the changes of the wind on a summer afternoon; the ameliorative properties of everyday plants; the comfort of tribal, clannic, and community ties throughout life; the satisfaction of being rooted in history, in lore, in place; the excitement of a culture understandable because immanent in the simple realities of the surroundings. Imagine a life primarily of contemplation and leisure, where work takes up only a few hours a day--an average of fewer than four, according to the studies of nonliterate societies--where conversation and play and lovemaking become the common rituals of the afternoon, and there is no scramble for the necessities of life because they are provided regularly, equally, joyfully, and without charge. Imagine a life--and here I am paraphrasing an anthropologist's description of a California Indian tribe--where people do not feel themselves to be independent, autonomous individuals but rather deeply bound together with other people and with the surrounding nonhuman forms of life in a complex interconnected web of being, a true community in which all creatures and all things can be felt almost as brothers and sisters and where the principle of nonexploitation, of respect and reverence for all creatures, all living things, is as much a part of life as breathing. - Kirkpatrick Sale

China continues its aggressive pursuit of Africa's resources

The plan presented by economist Xu Shanda to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in July is said to draw on ideas from the United States' post-war Marshall Plan. It is an attempt to offset the impact of the global recession on Chinese industry by creating new export markets and establishing the Renminbi as a currency of international trade. The ambitious nature of Chinese plans in Africa is driven by the global recession and the increasing trend of US policy towards protectionism. Inevitably, it will lead to great tension between China and the USA, as China intrudes on an area vital to US interests. - Brian Smith and Ann Talbot

How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws

Economic reform efforts are focused almost entirely on fixing finance because the finance sector is so badly broken that it produces recurrent, intensifying crises. The latest crisis brought us to the point of global catastrophe, so the focus on finance is obviously rational. But the focus on finance carries a grave risk. Remember, the sole purpose of finance is to aid the real economy. Our ultimate focus needs to be on the real economy, which creates goods and services, our jobs, and our incomes. The real economy came off the rails at least three decades ago for the great majority of Americans. We need to commit to fixing the real economy by guaranteeing that everyone willing to work can work and making the real economy sustainable rather than recurrently causing global environmental crises. We must not spend virtually all of our reform efforts on the finance sector and assume that if we solve its defects we will have solved the other fundamental reasons why the real economy has remained so dysfunctional for decades. We need to be work simultaneously to fix finance and the real economy. - William Black

Matter-centered philosophy goes after creating enormous devastation

People who follow matter-centred philosophy want to enjoy anything and everything for their own interest. The atom bomb is the creation of matter-centred people. In matter-centred philosophy, enjoyment of material objects is the main motive, as in Marxism. The proponents of matter-centred philosophies often resort to brute force to exploit others when it suits their purpose, as do the followers of dogma-centred philosophies. The followers of self-centred philosophy do everything only for self-interest, self-pleasure. In this case, as in the previous two, the psychic radii may vary. A big radius means that one thinks about oneself in each and every sphere of life. In self-centred philosophies, individual selfishness is the motive, as in capitalism. Dogma-centred philosophies are a blending of self-centred and matter-centred philosophies. A blended theory is not a cult. A cult has something to do with practice - where there is no practical reflection there is no cult. Those who follow God-centred philosophy serve humanity and the entire living world with equal love and affection according to Neohumanism. Even amongst God-centred people the radius may vary, but the centre is God. In God-centred philosophy God is the nucleus, and the radius of one's selfless love and devotion goes on increasing towards God. Of these four, dogma-centred philosophies are the worst. Next are matter-centred philosophies, followed by self-centred philosophies. Dogma-centred philosophies have been responsible for the greatest blood-baths in human society, followed by matter-centred philosophies then self-centred philosophies. There can be no blood bath in God-centred philosophy. In God-centred philosophy, human projection is the external projection of internal tranquillity or composure, so there cannot be sanguinary clashes or bloodshed. Common human beings are self-centred; missionary workers are God-centred. The work done by God-centred people elevates the standard of human beings. In the past they elevated humanity, in the present they are elevating humanity and in the future they will continue to elevate humanity. But until now, the world has not experienced any God-centred philosophy. The scope, avenue and jurisdiction of the God-centred universe is far, far, far bigger than that of the other three. In any clash amongst these philosophies, finally the God-centred theory will win. Similarly, whenever there is clash between self-centred and matter-centred theories, the self-centred philosophy will win. The matter-centred theory will never win. It comes as it goes after creating enormous devastation, and it dies a black death.
-
Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Ecological devastation brought on by matter-centered people

Coram Man Dead After Struggle With Cops

by Michael M. Martino, Jr. Nov 14th, 2009, Long Island News. Darly Bain died after he fought with Suffolk cops. A 43-year-old Coram man died early this morning after struggling with Suffolk cops. Police from the Sixth Precinct were called to 6 Petersburg Ct. in Coram at 2:46 a.m. after a man called 911 and reported his brother, Daryl Bain, was high on cocaine and had locked him out of his house. Bain's brother had an order of protection against him Cops found that Bain had indeed locked himself inside the home with his 78-year-old mother, who had also filed an order of protection against him. As cops tried to talk to Bain, he began to sturggle with his mother. Three cops entered the house and a struggle ensued. A Taser was used, but Bain did not stop resisting. Eventually, the cops were able to subdue and handcuff Bain. Shortly after, Bain stopped breathing. CPR was performed and Bain was taken to John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson, where he died a short time later. Suffolk cops are still investigating.

What does it mean, "Suffolk cops are still investigating." ?? Every single time the cops taser someone to death we can read that last sentence, "The cops are still investigating." What are they going to investigate? The only work they have to do is to cover up the murder, and what is the best way to cover it up, right? So they need to emphasize repeatedly that the man was violent and nothing else would work on him except the taser, right? Maximum repeated doses of the taser, right? If we stop to think about it , the bullet was far less painful. The taser means maximum pain because it's electric shocks over and over. It's a horrible way to die. Or not die. It is a clear reflection of non-civilization, of barbarianism. Though some cops and capitalists out there might say it is just the epitome of technological efficiency. But no, it is absolute barbarianism. Just like sending manless drones to slaughter simple Pakistani villagers is another sign of absolute barbarianism. Just like dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still another sign of absolute barbarianism. Barbarianism unfortunately is everywhere. It is not limited to the American police or even to the American empire. So we need to think hard how to combat this barbarianism. How to fight it. How to replace it with something sweet and beautiful. Can you do this? Please you help me to think of how we can change the present barbarian culture to a sweet culture. What will it take? What are the strategies for us to adopt? - Garda Ghista

Understanding Existential Castes Through Atrocity Metrics

Given the obscure origins and the resilience of the caste system, the viable strategy for combating caste could be seen in curbing its manifestation. In contemporary times, atrocities being the most dominant manifestation of castes, the strategic focus should be to arrest atrocities. As seen before, the root cause for atrocities is the growing power asymmetry between dalits and non-dalits in villages. It may be interesting to recall that more than seven decades ago Dr. Ambedkar, while explaining the rationale behind his declaration to renounce Hinduism to his vanguard activists in 1936 had exclusively focused on the issue of atrocities and diagnosed exactly the same thing. He proposed the solution in terms of supplementing dalit-strength by merging dalit community with some existing religious community through mass conversion. Although his religious conversion in 1956 did not confirm to this prescription, the futility of communitarian solution or religious conversion is not difficult to see. In the then communally charged atmosphere, it might have been thinkable to speak in terms of communitarian solution, but today when the classes have sprouted out of the bellies of each caste, they would be utterly useless. The power asymmetry between dalits and non-dalits can be effectively overcome only by their class unity with others, transcending the caste idiom. While it may appear as the distant dream to many today for historical and other reasons, it is the only effective solution to the caste problem worth pursuing. The initiative in this respect shall have to be taken by the Left forces. The beginning can always be made if they join dalits with ideological clarity in retaliating atrocities. As the experience in Tsunduru and the Gaya-Aurangabad belt indicated, retaliation is the only effective way of curbing the atrocities and in turn castes. The shockwave created through it can not only deter the perpetrators of crime but also detach the oppressed masses of the shudra castes from them. The same can also impel desired cultural change and accelerate class unity of the oppressed masses across castes. - Anand Teltumbde

Invading The Secular Space

A new Hindu religiosity is getting deeply rooted in everyday life, in public and private spheres. The distinction between private and public sphere is getting eroded as the case of Sai Baba in Maharashtra Chief Ministers official bungalow shows. Hindu rituals and symbols are becoming part of state functions; Hinduism de facto is becoming state religion. Hindu religiosity is becoming part of national pride with the aspiration of becoming a superpower. She observes a trend of increased religiosity. In India there are 2.5 million places of worship but only 1.5 million schools and barely 75000 hospitals. Half of 230 million tourist trips every year are for religious pilgrimage. Akshardham temple acquired 100 acres of land at throw away price. Sri Sri Ravishanker?s Art of Living Ashram in banglore has 99 acres of land leased from Karnataka Government. Gujarat Govt. gifted 85 acres of land to establish privately run rishikul in Porbander. Most significantly Nanda argues that the new culture of political Hinduism is triumphalist and intolerant, while asserting to be recognized as a tolerant religion. While claiming to have a higher tolerance, its intolerance is leading to violence against minorities. - Ram Punyani