Month: June 2010

by ALI SETHI

After the exam I would go home. Here the Two-Nation Theory fell apart. I was part-Shiite (my mother’s family), part-Sunni (my father’s family) and part-nothing (neither of my parents was sectarian). There were other things: the dark-skinned man who swabbed the floors of the house was a Christian; the jovial, foul-mouthed, red-haired old woman who visited my grandmother every few months was rumored to be an Ahmadi. (It was a small group, I had been told, that considered itself Muslim but had been outlawed by the government.)

The New York Times for more

(Submitted by Robin Khundkar)

by BADRI RAINA

Suffice it to say that on the night of December 3, 1984, lethal quantities of Methyl Isocyanate escaped from the Union Carbide factory, as water entered tank no.610.

Within hours, some 2500 citizens, most of them poor Muslims, lost their lives.

Since then, a total of 20,000 are estimated to have perished, and hundreds of thousands either maimed, or rendered permanenly disabled.

…

Whatever the other details, all in the public eye now several times over, the point of interest here is how Warren Anderson, the then CEO of UCIL was dealt with, and, secondly, how the highest court in India chose to view the matter.

That Anderson managed to escape the country is common knowledge; but only now do we know how that ignoble escape was facilitated.

Z Net for more

by ANWAR PARVEZ HALIM

In March this year, news broke out that the names of those enlisted as war criminals had been sent to the various immigration points of the country so that they cold not leave. Mir Kasem Ali is a CIP. According to the rules, he issued a request to the authorities to use the VIP lounge at the airport and on March 24 he went through the VIP lounge, boarded the Qatar Airways flight and flew off to Saudi Arabia.

Probe for more

(Submitted by Robin Khundkar)

GUARDIAN

In 1737, admirers of Galileo Galilei removed the three fingers, plus the tooth and a vertebra, from his body as it was being moved from a storage place to a monumental tomb – opposite that of Michelangelo, in Santa Croce Basilica in Florence.

The vertebra is kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught for many years.

Guardian for more

THE TIMES OF INDIA

In keeping with India’s massive aid and rehabilitation programme in Afghanistan, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved revised cost estimates of over Rs 800 crore for the reconstruction of Salma Dam in western Afghanistan. The Cabinet also approved the escalation cost of Rs 54.01 crore up to December 2010.

The construction is currently at the first stage and is being carried out by Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Limited (WAPCOS).

Times of India for more

(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)

by MUKUL DUBE

PHOTOS/Time 2 Know & Wikipedia

In what are generally though not always correctly called democratic countries, governments are elected by the people. Typically, the members of elected governments take oaths when they assume office. In these oaths they promise to do certain things. Without exception, the things they promise to do are to be in the service and defence of the people who elected them. No minister in India, for example, has sworn to harm India’s people. His or her duty, the justification for her or his position and privileges, is explicitly stated to be work in the interest of all Indians, both rich and poor, both
old and young. [1]

But words can be no more than empty sounds. These days we see, and not just in one field, that the Government of India is systematically and consistently working against the interests of the people of India. It is in many ways attacking the citizens who authorised it to govern their country. The two most visible examples of this are Operation Green Hunt and matters to do with the Bhopal gas leak of 1984. I deal here with the second.
Continue reading “Oaths, promises, lucre and Bhopal”

by MAHMUD JEGA

In another sign of lack of seriousness, only N50m was budgeted for First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan’s visit to orphanages, prisons and hospitals. This is a real miserly sum. Surely, a real visit by the First Lady to the Kirikiri Maximum Security, the Ikoyi Medium Security and the Aso Minimum Security Prisons should cost at least N1bn; unless the First Lady does not intend to shower the prisoners with celebratory food such shark fin soup, caviar and Cognac.

Daily Trust for more

KONTEXT

This is the original English version of the interview with Noam Chomsky at the University of Mainz/Germany on March 24, 2010. In this 40-minute interview with Kontext-TV Chomsky talks extensively about Barack Obama as a centrist Democrat, the threats against Iran, Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones in Africa and the Middle East, NATO, the responsibility of Europe und Germany in international relations, developments in Latin America, the remilitarisation of the region by the Bush and Obama administration, his friend Howard Zinn, and the importance of an “adversarial culture”.

Watch or read on Kontext

by STUART LITTLEWOOD

What were Israel’s excuses for hijacking the Free Gaza ships in international waters and imprisoning their passengers after gunning down nine of them and wounding several more?

* There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and
* Israel already allows sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza so the flotilla was “an armada of hate and violence”, said Israel’s deputy foreign minister.

But according to John Ging, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) director of operations in Gaza, “It’s a struggle to survive [with] the infrastructure and water and sanitation in a state of collapse and all that goes with that… People are at their wits’ end to understand when all of this will come to an end.”

Redress Information and Analysis for more

(Submitted by Ingrid B. Mork)

PETER J. BROWN

United States military officers have recently painted a very compelling picture of what is now underway in Obama’s camp. Obama’s top advisors are reaching out to the Pentagon in an urgent effort to assemble a collection of covert strike plans that take things a step further than anything allowable under the previous administration.

While this planning is strictly intended for “Special Operations” purposes only – well away from Chinese territory thus far – Obama is perceived as far more receptive today to a “much more aggressive” stance across the board, and he has a very open mind when it comes to a wide range of offensive options. [3]

Asia Times Online for more