EU, demanding deeper cuts, rejects Syriza’s austerity list

Robert Stevens

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed the parliament last night, once again making clear his readiness to implement austerity measures dictated by the country’s international creditors.

Tsipras told parliament that the debt Syriza inherited from the New Democracy/PASOK government was larger than had been presented. It was now time to face the truth, he declared.

Syriza, he said, was ready to make an “honest compromise” with creditors, without acting simply as their “mouthpiece.”

Tsipras’s bluster notwithstanding, he could not say anything of substance about the state of negotiations with Greece’s creditors from the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier that day—the ostensible purpose of the parliamentary session. To do so would be to make clear not only the attacks on the working class he had offered to carry out, but also the even deeper attacks being demanded of him by Europe’s rulers.

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras mocked Tsipras, saying he had imagined he'd get money without terms and instead had obtained terms without money.

On Friday, Syriza submitted a further list of austerity proposals, as stipulated in its February 20 agreement to extend by four months the austerity programme of the previous governing coalition. On Sunday evening, the cabinet approved the list.

Athens needs the measures to be accepted by what is now known as the Brussels Group in order to access any of the €7 billion of outstanding loans being withheld. Without access to these funds, it will be unable to repay any more of its €315 billion debt.

However, despite intensive negotiations over the weekend, including a ten-hour session on Saturday, no agreement was reached.

Among the main austerity measures being demanded of Syriza by the Brussels Group are changes to Greece’s labour laws to make it easier for employers to fire workers, as well as further cuts to pensions. The Financial Times reported that these are “two areas that monitors have insisted are essential to finalising the bailout programme.”

However, Tsipras said in an interview with the RealNews Sunday newspaper, “There’s no prospect of taking any recessionary measures, whether it’s cutting wages and pensions or liberalising regulations on mass dismissals.”

According to a Bloomberg News report, Greece submitted a 15-page list that “relies on taxing capital transfers and fighting tax evasion.” The document states that privatisations currently in place would raise €1.5 billion this year, down from €2.2 billion projected in the 2015 budget prepared by the previous government. It forecasts a primary budget surplus of at least 1.2 percent of gross domestic product.

But such proposals are of little interest to the European ruling elite, who are demanding that Syriza go much further and specify cuts that will further decimate the living standards of the working class and poor.

Reuters cited a senior euro zone official who said, “Greece did not submit a reform list on Friday.” The official added that Syriza’s proposals “lack detail, and much more technical work will be needed for them to flesh them out into something sufficiently comprehensive and credible to be put to the Eurogroup.”

An unnamed EU diplomat said, “The list is much too vague, not credible and not verifiable.”

On Monday, the German Finance Ministry said the government would not sign off on further loans to Greece unless the Greek parliament passed concrete austerity measures. Spokesman Martin Jaeger said, "We need to wait for the Greek side to present us with a comprehensive list of reform measures that is suitable for discussion with the institutions, and then later in the Eurogroup." He cautioned that any progress “depends on the quality of the Greek list and how far they cover the elements that are already mentioned in the [extended austerity] memorandum.”

A Greek newspaper report said Syriza included specific privatisations in the proposals. Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, who has just returned from a trip to China, stated on his return that the sale of a 67 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority would be completed in a matter of weeks, raising around €500 million. China’s Cosco Group, which already controls two piers at the strategic port, is among five preferred bidders. Also set for completion is the sale of 14 regional airports.

The Brussels group meeting ended with no agreement. According to sources, there are no plans to meet again this week—leaving Syriza to draw up yet another austerity list for sometime in April, while Greece’s financial crisis intensifies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the media that Greece’s proposals must “add up.”

Syriza has made a concerted effort to deepen its ties with China and Russia, both of which have geostrategic interests in the region. Senior Syriza representatives, as well as Defence Minister Panos Kammenos of Syriza’s right-wing coalition partner, the Independent Greeks, have warned that one or both countries could be approached as alternative sources of funding for Greece. The leader of Syriza’s “Left Platform”, Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, is in Moscow. On April 9, Tsipras will visit for talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

On Friday, the rating agency Fitch downgraded Greece’s unsecured currency bonds. Fitch said progress since February’s agreement “has been slow” and it remained “unclear when the earliest disbursement could take place and what will be required for this to happen.”

Fitch added that it was “likely that the Eurogroup will want the Greek government to demonstrate they have implemented some part of this list before funds are disbursed. This pushes back the probable disbursement date well into April at the earliest.”

Since it was elected on an anti-austerity ticket, Syriza and the country’s banks have been systematically cut off from normal funding streams by the ECB. When bank and company debt is factored in, total debt levels are now at around half a trillion euros.

With Greece’s banks all but insolvent, the Syriza government’s projection of a budget surplus has been dismissed as fantasy. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at London-based Berenberg Bank, said, “After capital flight of €50 billion within three months, it is difficult to see how Greece could muster any growth at all this year. And after the plunge in tax revenues in January and February, Greece is on track for a primary deficit, not a surplus.”

Since 2010, Greece has been used as the test case for imposing mass austerity throughout Europe. The continent’s ruling elite now insists that the pauperisation of Greece’s population be stepped up. Syriza’s perspective, based on the interests of sections of the Greek ruling elite and the affluent upper-middle class, of an amicable restructuring of Greece’s debt within the EU is in tatters.

Middle East engulfed by war

Bill Van Auken

With the launching of the US-backed military intervention in Yemen, virtually the entire Middle East is engulfed by military conflict, a state of affairs that has no precedent, with the possible exception of the two world wars fought in the 20th century.

Washington’s pursuit of policies from one conflict to the next that are seemingly at odds with one another has provoked mounting expressions of concern from major US think tanks and editorial boards—not to mention nominal allies in Europe—over “strategic incoherence.”

To describe as glaring the contradictions that riddle US foreign policy in the Middle East does not do them justice.

In Yemen, the Obama administration has announced its full backing, with the provision of logistical assistance, arms (including cluster bombs) and targeting intelligence, to an intervention spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, the other Sunni oil monarchies and the Egyptian regime of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

This coalition of dictatorships and crowned tyrants is waging a war against the most impoverished country in the Arab world. Their aim in bombing cities and killing civilians is to contain the influence of Iran, which has provided support to the Zaydi Shiite Houthi rebels who overthrew President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a puppet installed by Washington and Riyadh.

In Iraq, US warplanes have been bombing Tikrit, the hometown of the ousted and murdered Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, which is now controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This operation is providing air support to a besieging force comprised overwhelmingly of Shiite militias operating with Iranian support and advisors.

While the Pentagon had conditioned the air strikes on the withdrawal of these militias, some of which had resisted the eight-year US occupation of Iraq, it is widely acknowledged that this was strictly for the sake of appearances. The Shiite forces remain the principal fighting force on the ground.

Meanwhile, across the border in Syria, Washington is pursuing a policy seemingly at odds with itself, on the one hand pledging to arm and train militias seeking to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose closest ally is Iran, and, on the other, carrying out air strikes against both ISIS and the Al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, which together are the principal armed opponents of the Assad regime.

At the same time, negotiations led by US Secretary of State John Kerry in Switzerland are going down to the wire in a bid to secure an agreement with Iran that would curtail its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting (or partial lifting) of punishing economic sanctions imposed by Washington and its European allies. Failure to achieve such a deal could spell a turn toward more direct US military aggression against Iran. Success could well prove to be a tactical preparation for the same thing.

It is now 12 years since the Bush administration launched its war against Iraq. At the time, it claimed that its war of aggression was being waged to eliminate “weapons of mass destruction” and the threat posed by ties between the government of Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. Both claims were lies. There were neither weapons nor any connections, outside of mutual hostility, between the secular regime in Baghdad and the Islamist group.

At the same time, Bush portrayed the US intervention as a liberating mission that would bring “democracy” to Iraq and beyond. “The establishment of a free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution,” he proclaimed in the early stages of the US military occupation.

That the US invasion was a “watershed event” no one can deny. It ushered in a period of wholesale carnage that claimed over 1 million Iraqi lives, destroyed the country’s economic and social infrastructure, and provoked bitter sectarian struggles between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds as part of a deliberate policy of divide and rule.

For Iraq, the war was a catastrophe. For the US, it proved to be a debacle. Costing the lives of 4,500 American soldiers, injuring tens of thousands more, and consuming trillions of dollars in military expenditures, it succeeded only in creating the social and political conditions for ISIS (an offshoot of Al Qaeda) to overrun more than one third of the country—a country that had had no serious Islamist presence prior to the 2003 invasion.

The war in Iraq profoundly destabilized the entire region, a process that was accelerated by Washington’s launching of proxy wars in both Libya and Syria, backing Islamist militias linked to Al Qaeda in an effort to bring down the secular regimes of Gaddafi and Assad and replace them with American puppets. These efforts likewise turned into bloody debacles, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and ravaging both societies.

There is nothing left of the pretexts used by the Bush administration to justify war 12 years ago. The Obama administration cannot credibly claim that its aggressive operations in the Middle East—linked as they are to Islamists and other sectarian militias, as well as to autocrats and military dictators—are part of a global “war on terrorism” or a crusade for democracy.

The White House makes little or no attempt to explain these operations to the American people, much less win their support for them. In the case of Washington’s backing for the war in Yemen, the sum total of its explanation consists of a “readout” of a phone conversation between Obama and King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, in which the US president affirmed his “strong friendship” with the despotic monarchy, his “support” for its intervention, and his “commitment to Saudi Arabia’s security.”

Behind the reckless, ad hoc and seemingly disconnected policies pursued by US imperialism in the Middle East, there remains one constant: the aggressive pursuit of US hegemony over the Middle East and its vast energy reserves.

The strategy elaborated from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 onward, that Washington could freely employ its unrivaled military power to pursue its global interests, has only become more entrenched as American capitalism’s relative economic weight and influence have continued to decline.

The result of this policy can be seen in the involvement of virtually every country of the Middle East in one or another war and the palpable threat that these conflicts will coalesce into a region-wide conflagration that could, in turn, provoke World War III.

The Imploding Middle East, Saudi Kingdom And Pakistan

Haris Khurshid

In latest turn of the events in Middle East now Pakistan is at crossroads to get embroiled in a distant conflict involving its Muslim benefactor Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or extricate itself from an avoidable war looming on the horizon of Yemen. The region is experiencing new wave of violence and disintegration in less stable parts mainly drawn by Shia Sunni sectarian and ethnic prejudice.

This is no secret that after popular spring offensive and US second invasion of Iraq the Sunni-Shia divide has deepened in the Arab world not only fermenting deep distrust between two sects of Islam who have shared common habitat for centuries but also brought traditional rivals Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran close to a covert proxy war in Iraq, Syria, Bahrain and now in Yemen. For Iran, American withdrawal from Iraq was a new breather as a post-Saddam Shia dispensation in Baghdad was ideologically more closer to it than any other neighbor. Subsequent biased policies of Iraqi prime minister Noor-Kamal Al Maliki sanctioned unwarranted influence to Tehran in policy making and allowing it to exercise clout well beyond its borders. Besides, marginalization of Sunni population brewed anger and created disparity which ultimately ended into re-organization of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) cashing on desperate youth which was deprived of development and mainstreaming.

Further civil war in Syria was complicated as external influence was at the core of conflict where moderate and secular rebel forces like Free Syrian Army (FSA) were backed by US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and western as well as gulf allies while Iran and Hezbollah openly supported Assad regime militarily. The callousness increased further when rebel forces like FSA were downgraded by addition of more religious extremist groups to the equation i.e. Al Nusra Front and ISIS or ISIL. Inspired from Al-Qaida’s ideology, this new breed of Jihadis was more orthodox and fanatic than its predecessors adding new sectarian dimension to the conflict. Then came the phenomenal rise of ISIS in the summer of 2014 after capturing Syrian city of Raqqa and then pushing back Iraqi security forces to take over Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.

There onward Iran directly intervened at the behest of Baghdad government to help organize shattered Iraqi army against Islamic state threat with the help of Al Quds force, the external arm of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) under the command of General Qasem Soleimani. The Iranians exploited widespread barbaric anti-Shia reputation of Islamic State as precursor to align host of extremist Shia militias and groups of volunteers purely on sectarian basis against it.

Later this month, the counter offensive of these militias alongside Iraqi Army and air cover of US bombers against IS and local Sunni population in Baghdadi and Tikrit has been widely reported as brutal in fashion as is the hallmark of IS. Meanwhile, Iran was engaging P5+1 group in resolving its longstanding diplomatic backlog concerning its nuclear program which over the years have not only inflicted heavy dent to its economy but also bestowed pariah status on it. United States, the erstwhile opponent of Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions is leading the course to decrease opaqueness of its nuclear program while ensuring it is meant for peaceful purposes. Though both sides have not reached to the climax yet, even the practice of engaging Iran has irked its regional antagonists Israel and Saudi Arabia and both have publically expressed their resentment with the United States. Besides, in a possible agreement with western negotiators over its nuclear program, Iran will be successful to reap the dividends followed by easing of harsh economic sanctions tailored by US since last two decades hence giving it further room to assert more confidently.

In a dramatic escalation of events over the last years, Iranian position in the Middle East has strengthened as it now exercises considerable control in Beirut through Hezbollah, keeping proxies or direct presence in Baghdad and supporting beleaguered Assad regime in Damascus through Al-Quds force and Hezbollah which now holds firm ground against divided rebellion.

Saudi Arabia was occupied to stem chaos in the north where it supported Bahrain’s ruling family against rebellious Iran-backed majority Shia population struggling to overthrow Sunni monarchy, lending hand to post Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and securing 900 km border with Iraq through multilayer fencing against possible Islamic State’s incursion.

Here comes the final breaking point for Kingdom to react proactively to new geostrategic dynamics when looming civil war in its backyard threatened its own territory in the south. Now it is Yemen, the most poorest in the Arab fraternity marred by pervasive political instability, mix of inter-tribal, ethnic, sectarian rivalries and home to most violent branch of transnational Jihadists, Al Qaida in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and also local affiliates of ISIS. The Arab spring has plunged Yemen into chaos when swelling protests in capital forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign in November 2011 after 33 years of rule. The new Sunni president Abdul Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was elected in February 2012 as president of the Yemen. However unlike his wily predecessor, the new president was weak who faced multifaceted challenges i.e. fighting AQAP, Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Iran backed Shia Zaidis also known as “Houthis” mounting rebellion against central government in the north.

As the US with support of Sana’s government was at the forefront of fight against Al Qaida through relentless drone campaign targeting its key leaders like Anwar al Awlaki, inept government was ravaged by diverse and violent political forces further weakening the central authority. Among the dissidents was ferocious faction of Houthis which was named after Shia cleric Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi who previously led uprising against Yemeni government in 2004 in Sa’dah governorate.

This time the Houthis were supported by ex-president Saleh and most notably Iran. Their rise to prominence was not surprising as they were making inroads to the political center stage soon after Saleh’s departure through violent clashes with government friendly tribes. In last year August they staged series of demonstrations against increase in fuel prices and later took control of the capital forcing Prime Minister Muhammad Basindawa to resign. In the beginning of this year the group stepped up campaign and attacked presidential palace eventually leading to government seizure by Houthis and dissolution of the parliament. The raging conflict at the doorstep mainly fueled by its ideological adversary rattled the Saudi government and prompted tough military response.

The southern oil rich region of Saudi Arabia bordering Yemen is inhabited by dissident Shia minority roughly 15% of its population. To pre-empt possible spillover of Shia influence from Houthis and Iranian proxies The Kingdom has launched operation “Decisive Storm” with its Sunni allies i.e. Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan Sudan, Morocco, and Kuwait. Endorsed by US, the Saudis have employed 100 fighter jets and amassed 150,000 troops to launch strikes against Houthis across the border.

News is that the custodian of two holy mosques has in principal asked Pakistan to join force against Houthis rebels. While Pakistan Army is stretched in its own war against local Taliban insurgency and other transnational terrorist groups besides guarding eastern border against venomous arch rival in the east, the government has pledged to “defend” its Arab friend. Pakistani leaders will have to consider ground realities before making any move of joining gulf coalition which is born of their local geopolitical intricacies as well as sectarian prejudice.

Pakistan cannot afford all out involvement in a distant war which may disturb its own delicate sectarian balance as well as relation with immediate neighbor in the south. Though sending military advisors or providing Air support capabilities may be on the cards to oblige the Kingdom but fate of more than two thousand Pakistanis living at the mercy of Houthis must be kept in mind.

We Are Losing The Oceans

Paul Craig Roberts

I am an admirer of Dahr Jamail’s reporting. In this article, Oceans In Crisis, Jamail tells us that we are losing the oceans.http://truth-out.org/news/item/29930-oceans-in-crisis-one-woman-will-cross-the-pacific-to-raise-awareness He reports on the human destruction of the oceans. It is a real destruction with far-reaching consequences.

That fact is indisputable.

From my perspective the human destruction of the oceans is yet more evidence of the ruinous nature of private capitalism. In capitalism there is no thought for the future of the planet and humanity, only for short-term profits and bonuses. Consequently, social costs are ignored.

Capitalism can work if social or external costs can be included in the costs of production. However, the powerful corporations are able to block a socially functioning capitalism with their political campaign contributions.

Consequently, capitalists themselves make the capitalist system dysfunctional. We may have reached the point where the external costs of production are larger than the value of capitalist output. Economist Herman Daly makes a convincing case that this is the fact.

While the powerful capitalists use the environment for themselves as a cost-free dumping ground, the accumulating costs threaten everyone’s life. It appears that nothing can be done, because the oceans are “common property.” No one owns them, so no one can protect them and their contents.

What we are faced with is the most destructive force in history: the short-sightedness of humans. Humans are willing to destroy the environment that sustains them, the law that sustains them, the truth that sustains them. Indeed, humans will destroy everything that sustains life if they can raise their incomes for another quarter or another year.

I have a friend who regales me with stories that humans are aliens on planet earth, exiled here by an intergalactic government that unwittingly disposed of its criminal wastes on a planet teeming with life. The in-humans, not humans, have been busy at work ever since their arrival exterminating one another, other species, and the life of the planet itself.

In the Western World truth is dying. Corporate and government money has purchased many scientists along with the media and politicians. The independent scientists who remain have great difficulty obtaining funds for their research, but the corporate scientists have unlimited funds with which to lie.

Scientists, like journalists, advance their careers by lying for the Establishment.

Truth-tellers and whistle-blowers are defined as “domestic extremists,” “terrorists,” and are on watch lists. Some have been arrested on suspicion that they might commit a crime in the future. Here in the US we have Jeremy Bentham’s policy of arresting “suspects” before they commit a crime on the basis that they might in the future commit a crime.

All the while the US and UK, Australian and Canadian, governments are committing heinous crimes against other countries in the world whose peoples, like those of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Ukraine don’t count. These peoples are disposable, unexceptional, like the Vietnamese, Laotians, Cherokees, Sioux, Apaches . . .

These peoples don’t matter. It is we Americans who matter. We are “exceptional.” We are “indispensable.”

A Middle East Holocaust

Paul Craig Roberts

I have been around for a long time and have experienced more than most. The current situation in my experience is the most dangerous time of all for humanity.

Nuclear weapons are no longer restrained by the Cold War MAD doctrine. Washington has released them into pre-emptive first strike form.

The targets of these pre-emptive strikes–Russia and China–know it, because Washington proudly proclaims its immorality in public documents describing its war doctrine.

The result is to maximize the chance of nuclear war. If you were Russia and China, and you knew that Washington had a war doctrine that permits a surprise nuclear attack, would you sit there waiting while Washington cranks up its anti-Russian and anti-Chinese propaganda machine, demonizing both countries as a threat to “freedom and democracy”?

The fools in Washington are playing with nuclear fire. Noam Chomsky points out that in a less dangerous time than currently exists, we came very close to nuclear war.https://philosophynow.org/issues/107/Noam_Chomsky_on_Institutional_Stupidity

Harold Pinter, one of the last Western intellects, understood the danger in Western arrogance. He denounced the West’s crimes and called for the crimes to be subject to established law before it is too late for humanity.

“We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it ‘bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East’. How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice.” Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.

“An Iraqi Holocaust” by Gideon Polya and “Genocide In Iraq” provide abundant evidence for convicting Bush and Blair.

Dr. Gideon Polya is a professor of science in one of Australia’s leading universities. He has a moral conscience, something increasingly rare in the Western world.

His articles are based largely on the just published by Clarity Press two volume heavily documented Genocide in Iraq by Abdul-Haq Al-Ani and Tarik Al-Ani. Abdul-Haq Al-Ani is a British-educated lawyer with a Ph.D. in International Law and a Ph.D. in electronics engineering. Tarik Al-Ani, is an architect, translator, and researcher.

Currently I am reading the two-volume work and intended to review it. But Professor Polya’s articles suffice as an introduction to Genocide in Iraq. Washington has committed a terrible crime in our name. Washington not only murdered Iraq, Washington has murdered the Middle East. Washington and its despicable vassals–”the Coalition of the Willing”–are responsible for a Middle East Holocaust.

For people in the Anglo-American world who have a moral conscience, the facts are soul-wrenching. The populations of the countries whose governments comprised “the Coalition of the Willing” are contaminated with war crimes committed by their governments in the Iraq Genocide. A progressive modern state was obliterated, and 2.7 million Iraqi people were murdered.

The crime was covered up with propaganda that demonized Saddam Hussein and created fear of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraqi genocide was based on a lie, and both Bush and Blair knew it. The two satanic leaders simply decided to destroy a people who they first demonized and marginalized.

Cheney and the neocons continue to justify the genocide and the illegal torture regime that they created in order to produce fake “terrorists” as a justification for their war crimes. The Western media, especially the New York Times, is also complicit in the Iraqi Genocide as are the insouciant Western peoples themselves who stood by cheering while millions of people were destroyed on the basis of a blatant and transparent lie.

What does the West represent? Greed? Lies? War? Torture? War Crimes? Selfishness, Intolerance? Destruction of life on earth?

The “Christian” West is a master at propaganda and self-deception. Look at the evangelical churches. They support a criminal, inhumane regime while professing to be followers of Christ.

Look at American “conservatives.” They support the militarized police state. They support the routine police murders of dark-skinned American citizens. They support every war Washington dreams up and even more. Indeed, there are not enough wars for the satisfaction of Congressional Republicans who now want war with Russia and with Iran.

Look at the Republicans in Congress and in state governments. They hate the environment. They love polluters. They worship Israel and Israel’s destruction of the Palestinians and the ongoing theft of the Palestinians’ country, a 60-year old activity. Just look at the map of shrinking Palestine. More is stolen each day.

Washington has supported this theft of an entire country. Yet, Washington is able to masquerade as a great defender of human rights. Whose rights? Washington’s and Israel’s. No one else’s rights count.

How does the world survive the American-Israeli aggression? Probably it will not. The evil is now directed at Iran, Russia, and China. These countries cannot be bombed year after year after year with no consequences to the bombers.

Iran is limited in its destructive ability. But Iran could destroy Saudi Arabia and Israel. Russia and China can destroy the US and all of Washington’s vassal states. The intensity of Washington’s propaganda war is driving the world to destruction.

How can it be stopped when Putin himself says over and over that Washington continually ignores every thing that the Russian government says. Putin is the peacemaker. Every peace proposal he brings is ignored by Washington whose response is to beat the drums of war louder.

Unless European governments recognize the danger in Washington’s aggression and dissolve NATO, planet earth hasn’t long to live.

The American public needs to understand the consequences of Washington’s illegality and criminality. On the one hand it means that those subject to Washington’s aggression have to endure war crimes, but on the other hand it means a growing hatred for America. As Washington’s easy targets are used up, Washington engages countries that can reply to force with force.

Unless the neoconservatives are ejected from the Obama regime and banned from inclusion in any future American government, mushroom clouds will go up over Washington, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago. The American mid-west, which hosts the ICBM silos, will become uninhabitable except by cockroaches.

Americans, and the populations of the American puppet states, desperately need to understand that Washington is incapable of speaking the truth about anything. Washington is an evil force. Washington is Sauron. Washington is Satan.

Look at Iraq. Look at Afghanistan. Look at Libya. Look at Syria. Look at Somalia. Look at Ukraine. Nothing but destruction comes from Washington. Will life on earth be Washington’s next victim?

The 12th Anniversary Of Aafia Siddiqui's Abduction: What Happened To Aafia Siddiqui And Where Is She Now?

Judy Bello

Aafia Siddiqui on her graduation

A Pakistani Woman named Aafia Siddiqui was abducted from a taxi in Karachi, Pakistan along with her 3 children 12 years ago on March 30, 2003. At the time she was vulnerable, recently divorced from an abusive husband; living with her mother; her father had just died of a heart attack. The youngest child was an infant. Following her abduction, Aafia Siddiqui and her children disappeared from view for 5 years. She spent those years in US Black Site prisons in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One can only imagine the torment she suffered there, in a system created to enable the torture and abuse of terrorism suspects. She was a woman alone. They took her children, and threatened them when personal torture was not enough to gain her acquiescence.

They say other women came and went from Bagram and the secret prisons in Afghanistan, but Aafia Siddiqui is the only one whose story is known. This is true in part because she had lived, studied and worked in the United States for more than a decade, but even more so because of the devoted persistence of her family, he mother Ismet, and sister Fowzia, who never for one moment ceased their efforts to find her and bring her home. Using their standing as an upper middle class family in Karachi, a conservative Muslim family, well educated, known for their involvement in various aspects of civil society during, the Siddiqui women engaged with the government at all levels, engaged the press to publicize Aafia’s disappearance and to investigate her whereabouts and the circumstances of her disappearance.

Ismet says that shortly after her daughter’s disappearance, a man came to her door and threatened her. He told her to drop the search for her missing daughter or ‘else’. The two women, Ismet and Fowzia, were convinced that Aafia and her children had been detained by either Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) or the CIA. This is not surprising because Pakistani citizens were frequently disappeared during that period, mostly by the Pakistani Secret Police and Intelligence forces complicit with the American CIA and FBI who were casting a broad net to fish for ‘terrorists’ after 9/11/2001. Thousands were abducted and imprisoned for long or short periods of time. A few eventually landed in Guantanamo, but who knows what happened to the rest?. Many never returned. Thousands of Muslim immigrants were rounded up and questioned here in the United States as well. Many of them were tortured. Many were held for months and years with no accessto legal aid or their families. Many were eventually deported despite having committed no crime.

No, Aafia Siddiqui wasn’t the only person rendered during the first years of the Global War on Terror, nor was she the only Pakistani disappeared under the Musharraf regime. We now know that thousands were rendered from the streets of Pakistan and around the globe during the first years following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. We know that torture was ubiquitous during that period, while brutal violence against civilians characterized the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. What is extraordinary about Aafia Siddiqui’s case is that she was a woman, and was taken with her children. Also somewhat unusual is the fact that she had spent many years in the US where she went to college and eventually obtained a PhD from Brandeis, married a Pakistani Doctor and had 2 children; and worked for various charities generally leading a conscientious life of good will. She sent Qurans to prisoners, and taught children at a Mosque in an impoverished city neighborhood.

But after 9/11 it all fell apart. She and her husband were not abducted, but they were interrogated. A young Saudi the government was pursuing had stayed for a while in their apartment building. Her husband had used his credit card to buy night vision goggles, he said for hunting. The marriage was becoming increasingly stressed and at times, violent. Aafia had a long scar on her cheek from a cut caused by a baby bottle her husband admitted to throwing at her. Aafia took her children and returned to her parents’ home in Karachi. She was pregnant with their third child when her husband divorced her and remarried. We are told she seemed nervous and agitated during this period. Who wouldn’t be nervous and agitated under those circumstances? And then, one day she set out for a family visit with her uncle, got in the taxi with her children, and disappeared.

Aafia Siddiqui when last photographed

In July of 2008, Aafia Siddiqui arrived in Manhattan a week after abdominal surgery to remove a couple of bullets from her intestines, and was brought directly into a courtroom in her wheelchair for arraignment on charges of attacking US military personnel in Afghanistan. After a highly publicized trial during which the press consistently referred to her as ‘Lady al Qaeda’, she was sentenced to 86 years in prison and sent to Carswell Medical Center, a high security federal prison in Texas, where she remains to this day, so we are told.

At the trial, no physical evidence was presented by the prosecution. There was none. Basic questions related to context were neither asked nor answered. Where was Aafia Siddiqui between the time of her disappearance 5 years earlier, and her encounter with the soldiers in Ghazni, Afghanistan? Why wasn’t she believed when she said she had been rendered and tortured? Why did the Pakistani Government allow her to be extradited from Afghanistan, then pay a small fortune for lawyers for her, lawyers that she did not want or trust because, whatever their qualifications, they had been selected and paid for by the Pakistani government? Why, when a fragile woman, who was obviously physically and mentally broken, said that she had been tortured, did no one investigate her story?

Between 2003 and 2008, US officials repeatedly denied having Aafia Siddiqui in custody. They insisted that she was not in the system anywhere. But, when she showed up in 2008, they had a story all ready to tell about her involvement with al Qaeda, conferring with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and some of his associates. They actually said she was married to his nephew Ammar al Baluchi, a charge her family absolutely denies. She was only recently divorced, and had just birthed a child when she disappeared. The specific accusation against Siddiqui was that she had got a mailbox in Maryland for Majid Khan, a young man who had associated with Khalid Sheikh Muhammed in Karachi He had allowed his visa to lapse while he was visiting family in Karachi, and needed a US mailbox address to reapply for it so he could return to the US. . Khan was accused of plotting to commit terrorist attacks on returning to the USA.

But this isn’t the crime Aafia Siddiqui was tried for, just a story leaked to the press. At the time of Aafia Siddiqui’s trial, Majid a few weeks before Siddiqui and her children were, but had lived in the United States and attended high school here. Raised in a middle class suburb of Baltimore, he was restless and unable to decide what to do with his life, so he went to Karachi to visit the extended family and married there. Members of his family were initially detained with him, then later released. According to his brother, Majid Khan was tortured and beaten during this period, and coerced into making unreliable and false confessions

Although he may have known KSM and his nephew, Khan was never proven to do anything other than talk and spin stories. After touring the black sites and being tortured for a couple of years, Khan landed in Guantanamo where he apparently continued talking and spinning stories. Majid Khan was eventually released from Guantanamo in 2012 in exchange for testimony against Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Ammar Al Baluchi and others. Perhaps Siddiqui did help Majid Khan with his immigration problem. He was a kid who needed help. That is an immigration violation that might keep her from returning to the US. But we don’t even know for sure that she even did that. We do know that Khan told a lot of stories in return for a plea deal in 2012 that capped his sentence at 19 years.

The government, however, claimed that she spent the 5 years she was missing in a terrorist cell developing chemical and biological weapons. She was a scientist, after all, with a PhD. When she was arrested in Pakistan, there were some chemicals in her bag along with some recipes for biological and chemical weapons written in her handwriting and a picture of the statue of liberty, an odd choice for someone who had lived many years in Boston area and Texas before that. These items were brought into evidence. Again, when Aafia Siddiqui explained that she wasn’t that kind of scientist, that she was an educator, she was ignored. Her PhD was in neuroscience as it pertains to learning capabilities. This is a matter of public record at Brandeis University. She was Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, but neither a physician, a chemist nor even a biologist except in a narrow tangential sense. She said she wrote in the documents what she was told to write by men who threatened to harm her children if she did not do as they wished.

Aafia Siddiqui suffered from severe PTSD which made it difficult for her to present a consistently calm and pleasant demeanor during trial. She told the court she had been tortured during the time she was missing, but this testimony was dismissed as untrue and irrelevant. The government, of course, had denied it. She didn’t want the highly paid lawyers hired on her behalf by the Pakistani government because she didn’t trust the motivation of the Pakistani government, and she didn’t like the way they were building her case. But the judge chose to ignore her protest and allowed those lawyers to continue. Judge Berman was privately informed of the details the US held against Siddiqui. The story was apparently leaked to the press as well. But it wasn’t told in open court where she might have refuted it. The jury convicted despite the lack of physical evidence on charges normally bringing a sentence of around 15 years. They did not convict on the charge of premeditation, but Judge Berman added a ‘terrorism’ enhancement to her verdict, and sentenced Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in a federal prison.

Today, Aafia Siddiqui remains in the psychiatric division of Carswell, seven years into her 86 year sentence. She had a hard time early on, and apparently was beaten at one point, by the guards? Other inmates? That we don’t know. We do know she was in solitary after that. She hasn’t been allowed to receive mail.. I, myself, have sent her many letters, all returned. Early on they came back unopened, marked ‘undeliverable’. When I called the prison to inquire whether I had the wrong address, the person who answered went off to ask advice on what to tell me. He said, when he returned to the phone, that she refused her mail. A few months later when I was in jail myself (for direct action protest at the gate of Hancock AFB) I received a letter from my attorney, and realized that they have to open your mail and inspect it before offering it to you. After I called again to question this issue, my letters started coming back opened.

Aafia Siddiqui hasn’t spoken to her family in more than a year. She has a brother, also in Texas, but he has not been able to see her. No one has had contact with her for over a year now. The last time she was given a chance to talk to her family, to her mother and sister, and the 2 children returned to them after she was imprisoned in the US, was following a national press conference outside the Pakistani Embassy in Washington DC and a well-publicized protest outside Carswell Prison. At the time, Fowzia asked her why she was refusing her mail, and she replied ‘What mail?”

Last year Robert Boyle, a new attorney hired by the family, submitted a motion to vacate to Judge Berrman, requesting that he throw out the verdict because Aafia’s repeated requests for an adjournment of the proceedings so she could find an acceptable attorney were ignored. The motion lays out a detailed argument that Siddiqui’s request was sane and reasonable, and described the potential bias of the Pakistani government and the ways in which their choice of attorneys, even well-known human rights lawyers, might not have been in her best interest. Judge Berman called the lawyers in a few days later and said that Aafia Siddiqui had written a letter to him, asking that the motion be dismissed, and that he was therefore required to dismiss it. He went on to say that he had, in any case, no intention of granting the motion.

Since then, another six months have passed with no word to anyone from Aafia Siddiqui. It’s true she is likely depressed. Is she sick? Is she being heavily medicated? Is she alive? An appeal that had earlier been rejected which focused on procedural issues. This motion that Judge Berman says she asked to have dismissed very directly mirrored her own concerns at the time of the trial. It’s true; she may have done this out of depression or despair. But if she was too disturbed for the Judge to support her initial request in the court room, why was her current request honored without a hearing?

Aafia Siddiqui said that she had been tortured and raped. Why her assertion was dismissed as a fabrication with no investigation, and why were any investigations into her claims treated as collateral conspiracy theories? How did she neatly fall into the hands of US soldiers just as the family felt their sources were near locating her? Why did the Pakistani Government allow her to be extradited if they thought she was innocent? Where are Aafia Siddiqui now and what is her status?

The fact is that Aafia Siddiqui’s story is not so different than many of the other Pakistani, Afghan and Arab men swept up after 9/11. Why is it so unbelievable? All of the evidence is in her favor except for the ‘secret’ evidence and the fact that the US denies her assertions. Would we expect anything different from them? We have heard the stories of others illegally swept up in the rendition program. But maybe we don’t want to believe they would do that to a woman. We’ve heard a lot of stories about horrors visited on women by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Vietnam, but maybe we don’t want to think that might happen to a vulnerable middle class housewife with a PhD in Education. What would they do to cover up committing these atrocities against this kind, well educated, English speaking woman who had spent nearly half her life in the US when she was detained? And to cover up the cover up?

Does Civilisation Mean Insanity And Violence?

Sukumaran C. V.

CIVILIZED MAN SAYS: I am Self, I am Master, all the rest is Other—outside, below, underneath, subservient. I own, I use, I explore, I exploit, I control. What I do is what matters. I am that I am, and the rest is women and the wilderness, to be used as I see fit. —Christina M. Kennedy.

Sanity or healthy normality among humans and other living creatures involves a respect for other forms of life and other individuals. —Jack D. Forbes.

Within two years, two tigers were shot dead in Kerala. The reason: they encroached into the ‘human habitats’ and (the first one) killed cattle and (the second one) people. I travelled to the places where these hapless animals were killed and saw that it was not the ‘brutes’ which encroached into human habitats but the human-habitats have encroached and are continuously encroaching into the habitats of these animals depriving them of their home and prey.

To be able to study the (pathetic) condition of our still remaining forests and wildlife, (being a clerk in the panchayat department) I asked for a transfer to the grama panchayat office which situates in the heart of the Nelliayampathy evergreen forests and was able to see the besieged and extremely hopeless condition of our forest cover and the dwindling wildlife.

In every grama sabha I have participated as co-ordinator, people were asking for more street lights and roads and other facilities. They live inside the forest either as settlers or as the workers of tea and coffee estates. If you want to cover a tea estate, you have to travel kilometres. Thousands of acres of evergreen forests have been cleared for each estate. Those were originally dense forests and the habitats of the animals. The animals were and are hunted out. Nobody spoke in favour of the animals or the forest cover. People want electric lights everywhere to ward off animals. They want development which destroys the forests that still survive.

Often I was tempted to talk in favour of the animals and the forest cover. But I preferred my safety to the rights of the animals and the forests. It was selfishness and this same selfishness of the humans is called ‘civilization’ and this civilisation is killing the planet where we live.

As people (most of them estate labourers) could gather only after 5 pm, the grama sabhas would be over only after 9 pm. When we were returning to the office for staying at night, we saw hares and deer darting away from the light of our vehicle and I thought that we are encroaching into their freedom. We are depriving of their freedom to walk freely even at night. Those estates, those roads fragmenting the forests, those electric posts, those offices (panchayat, KSEB, PHC) should be shut down and all the people who live in the forest areas should be driven out and the animals should be given the freedom to wander through day and night without fearing the humans and their vehicles and their electric lines and their roads.

When I told my thoughts to my colleague who was with me, he advised me not to express them anywhere around there if I wanted to live or at least not to be transferred from there. His advice reminded me of what my favourite author Derrick Jensen says in his book The Culture of Make Believe:

“Pretend that you were raised to believe that blacks—niggers would be more precise in this formulation—working for whites is simply part of the day-to-day experience of living. You don’t question it any more than you question breathing, eating, or sleeping.”

“Now pretend that someone from the outside begins to tell you that what you are doing is wrong.....your slaves listen to this outsider, and because of this, your relationship with them begins to deteriorate, even to the point that you begin to loose money...Raised in those circumstances, it would have taken more courage than most of us have, I think, to admit that one’s way of life is based on exploitation, and to gracefully begin to live a different way.”

“Then how about this? Outsiders take away your computer because the process of manufacturing the hard drive killed women in Thailand. They take your coffee because its production destroys rainforests, decimates migratory songbird populations and drives African, Asian, and South and Central American subsistence farmers off their land. They take your car because of global warming, and your wedding ring because mining exploits workers and destroys landscapes and communities. They take your TV, microwave and refrigerator because, hell, they take the whole damn electrical grid because the generation of electricity is, they say, so environmentally expensive. Imagine that these outsiders actually began to succeed in taking away these parts of your life you see as so fundamental. May be you’d start to hate the outsiders and even get a little rough with them, if that was what it took to stop them from destroying your way of life.”

I want to be the outsider, but I am a 'civilised' human the human civilisation doesn't allow me to be the outsider. Mother Earth will be saved only when the entire humans metamorphose into the outsiders and get rid of their insane 'civlisation' which destroys the environment that sustains us.

See how civilisation kills the living world.

Every year Feb. 2 is celebrated as World Wetlands Day. Wetlands are the lungs of any landscape and they preserve water forever for the human and non human inhabitants. And they are the habitats of many birds like the lapwing and water hen; but they are fast vanishing due to the ‘progress and development’ of the humans. Our unsustainable method of constructing homes and flats first ruined our rivers by sand mining. Now the development projects like the metro rail and private airports and roads widening ruin the hills and hillocks in the villages with the quarrying activities. Almost all the rocky hills are being quarried to make rock sand by crushing and every hillock is being destroyed by earth movers to fill the wetlands to construct flats and homes and business malls. Creeks and rivulets and ponds are filled; hills and hillocks and mountains are razed; atmosphere is filled with dust, and cancer is spreading like wildfire. The irony is that instead of annihilating the present development mania which creates an atmosphere in which humans are plagued with ailments and illnesses; we construct super specialty hospitals augmenting the pathetic condition to which our development has driven us.

Whenever I hear about the days like Environment Day, Earth Day, Wetlands Day, Polar Bear Day, World Sparrow Day etc, a fear that the condition of all the things such days represent are made worst by the greedy human interference grips my mind. According to the WWF’s (Worldwide Fund for Nature) Living Planet Report-2014, the number of wild animals in the world has been decreased by the half during the last 40 years!

Biodiversity is the prime necessity for the continuance of Life on Earth, and the humans destroy the very thing which helps them survive on earth. In the first volume of Derrick Jensen’s Endgame, there is a chapter titled ‘A History of Violence’. The third part of the chapter begins thus: “WHY CIVILIZATION IS KILLING THE WORLD, TAKE SIXTEEN. Polar bears: “About half a mile upriver, I came to a very strong shoot of water, from thence I saw several white-bears fishing in the stream above. I waited for them, and in a short time, a bitch with a small cub swam close to the other shore, and landed a little below. The bitch immediately went into the woods, but the cub sat down upon a rock, when I sent a ball through it, at the distance of over a hundred and twenty yards at the least, and knocked it over…The report of my gun brought some others down, and another she bear, with a cub of eighteen months old, came swimming close under me. I shot the bitch through the head and killed her dead. The cub perceiving this and getting sight of me made at me with great ferocity; but just as the creature was about to revenge the death of his dam, I saluted him with a load of large shot in his right eye…I now perceived that two others had just landed about sixty yards above me, and were fiercely looking round them. The bears advanced a few yards to the edge of the woods, and the old one was looking sternly at me. The danger of firing at her I knew was great, as she was seconded by a cub of eighteen months; but I could not resist the temptation.”

“The author,” says Derrick Jensen, “a Captain George Cartwright, really the first person to solidly establish civilization on the shores of Newfoundland, then moved toward another part of the river. “I had not sat there long, ere my attention was diverted to an enormous bear…I drew the trigger…placed my ball in the centre of his scull, and killed him dead….Never in my life did I regret the want of ammunition so much as on this day; as I was by the failure interrupted in the finest sport that man ever had. I am certain, that I could with great ease have killed four or five brace more.”

This is what the human 'civilisation' has been doing to all the animals, birds, forests and the marine life as a whole—cold bloodedly, indiscriminately eliminating the flora and fauna that live around us. The animals do have the equal right as we the humans do to live on the earth, but we deprive them of their right to exist either by killing them directly or by destroying their habitats. Then we celebrate Days like the International Polar Bear Day (Feb. 27) World Water Day (March 22) Zero Emissions Day (Sept. 21) so on and so forth. And emissions increase uncontrollably; water is depleting alarmingly; Polar Bears are on the verge of extinction and wetlands are virtually no more. Now as the hills and hillocks are also vanishing fast, there is a possibility of having a Hills and Hillocks Day too, I presume.

To prove how insane the civilisation we are proud of is, let me quote in detail from the first volume (The Problem of Civilization) of Derrick Jensen’s masterpiece Endgame: “Does anyone have the right to enslave others? More specifically yet, does any group of people have the right to enslave others—human or non human—simply because they have the power to do so, and because they perceive it as their right (and because they have created a propaganda system consisting of intertwined religious, philosophical, scientific, educational, informational, economic, governmental, and legal systems all working to convince themselves and at least some of their human victims it is their right)?”

“Had somebody snuffed civilization in its multiple cradles, the Middle East would probably still be forested, as would Greece, Italy, and North Africa. Lions would probably still patrol southern Europe. The peoples of the region would quite possibly still live in traditional communal ways, and thus would be capable of feeding themselves in a still-fecund landscape.”

“Had someone brought down civilization before 1492, the Arawaks would probably still live peacefully in the Caribbean. Indians would live in ancient forests all along the Eastern seaboard, along with bison, marten, fisher. North, Central, and South America would be ecologically and culturally intact. The people would probably have, as always, plenty to eat.”

“Had someone brought down civilization before the slave trade took hold, 100 million Africans would not have been sacrificed on that particular altar of economic production. Native cultures might still live untraumatized on their own land all across that continent. There probably would be, as there always was, plenty to eat.”

“If someone had brought down civilization one hundred and fifty years ago, those who came after probably could still eat passenger pigeons and Eskimo curlews. They could surely eat bison and pronghorn antelope. They could undoubtedly eat salmon, cod, lobster. The people who came after would not have to worry about dioxin, radiation poisoning, organochloride carcinogens, or the extreme weather and ecological flux that characterize global warming. There probably would have been, as almost always, plenty to eat.”

“If civilization lasts another one or two hundred years, will the people then say of us, “Why did they not take it down?” Will they be as furious with us as I am with those who came before and stood by? I could very well hear those people who come after saying, “If they had taken it down, we would still have earthworms to feed the soil. We would have redwoods, and we would have oaks in California. We would still have frogs. We would still have other amphibians. I am starving because there are no salmon in the river, and you allowed the salmon to be killed so the rich people could have cheap electricity for aluminum smelters. God damn you. God damn you all.””

Gendered Dis-preference In Indian Society

Roli Misra

The parameter of gender complicates numerous explanations and analyses of social behaviour that may otherwise hold. Economically as well as socially advanced countries have shown a sex ratio favourable to the female, but in many south and south-east Asian countries this relationship has not been so straightforward.

Neither education nor affluence have brought about any significant change in attitudes towards and value of women (Patel Tulsi 2004). Sex ratio is a powerful index to examine the social response on female children and also a broad indicator revealing the social fabric and cultural ethos of any country. India represents one of the most adverse Child Sex Ratio (CSR) figures amongst the Southeast Asian countries, reflecting a highly undesirable reversal of the norms of nature. The sex differential in mortality at the national level is the result of discriminatory treatment received by girls and women reflecting strong son preference and relatively less preference for daughters. Pravin Visaria (1971) study was the first major effort to understand the phenomenon of skewing sex ratio. He concluded that higher female mortality in different age groups was responsible for low sex ratio.

In present context with the advent of new technology the practice of female infanticide has been replaced by genocide of millions of women known as female foeticide – denying the girl its very right to take birth. The rapid spread of the use of ultrasounds and amniocentesis for sex determination followed by sex selective induced abortions has created a situation of daughter drought with tragic consequences. The decreasing child sex ratio (0-6 years) has been a concern in India’s demography in recent times as this ratio has decreased markedly from 927 in 2001 to 914 in 2011 for the country as a whole. This decline is more for rural areas from 934 in 2001 to 919 in 2011 and for urban areas it is 906 in 2001 and 902 in 2011. Despite the efforts of the government, civil society organizations, NGOs, UN agencies and the media to keep the issue of female foeticide high on the public and policy agenda, little or no desired results have been forthcoming The census results over the years are indicative of a strong possibility that the traditional methods of neglect of female children are increasingly being replaced by not allowing female children to be born. A new acronym has been coined by Prof. Ashish Bose which is called DEMARU – Daughter Eliminating Male Aspiring Rage by Ultrasound.

There are many states which have come in the category of DEMARU and the obvious reason is strong desirability of having son accompanied by accessibility and affordability of modern technology. Technology facilitates a series of pre-natal diagnostic tools to identify and cure any potential birth defects and associated conditions. In a gross misuse of the scientific tools, female fetuses are selectively aborted after such pre-natal sex determination, in spite of a massive influx of legal regulations banning the same. A number of cultural, social and economic factors influence the relative benefits and costs of sons and daughters. Among the feudal communities property/assets are considered to be the reason behind female foeticide. These families with feudal set up and agriculture base do not want their property to get transferred to their son-in-law (under right to Property Act) hence, prefer to get rid of the girl child at the first instance. It is indeed an irony that physicians in India have been strong supporters of sex selective abortions since their inception. Their argument include that it is the family’s right to make this personal decision that the mother will suffer if she has too many daughters. It is better to get rid of an unwanted child man to make it suffer all its life. For supporters of female foeticide the test appears to be the solution to a number of problems like population control, dowry deaths, bride burning, sexual violence, physical abuse etc. They believe that the reduced sex ratio will lead to an improvement in the status of women and dowry can be replaced by bride price. This kind of bigotry treatment is being practiced since ages and is known to all of us.

There may be a good amount of literature which has been written but all have not come in public notice. Many such girls/women have vanished unheard, unnoticed or are struggling and suffering somewhere on this earth. It needs to be pondered more seriously that how can we transform the mind set of people in a positive way? It is indeed a perplexed situation that how the policies and programmes initiated by the government to control this menace are going to work in communities. To conclude it can only be suggested that sensitization is the most important thing which needs to be done. Campaigns at the grassroots level should be designed to sensitize people to change their deep rooted mindsets about son preference and generate mass awareness on the issue of female foeticide and its consequences.

It is necessary that societal forums need to be engaged more to discuss and dialogue these socio cultural repercussions, bringing them to public domain else it may take generations and centuries to take people out of the son complex situation. People should be made aware of this genocide and they must join hands to save our daughters from their journey from womb to tomb otherwise we shall land into ‘No girl zone’ one day. Lets stop this gendered violence and cruelty and allow the girls to take birth, thus protecting their rights, dignity and position in the society, maintaining the natural order.

Lambs To The Slaughter: The Dying Future Of Higher Education

P K Vijayan

“Professional integrity requires that teachers should be as free to speak on controversial issues as any other citizens of a free country. An atmosphere of freedom is essential for developing this 'morality of the mind'.” This statement was made as far back as 1962, by the Report of the University Education Commission (more widely known as the Radhakrishnan Commission Report), one of the first, and probably the most influential document on higher education in its time. We have come a long way indeed, from that understanding: today, the current writer, along with seven other colleagues of Hindu College, Delhi University, have been found guilty of “gross misconduct in acting against the interests of the college and lowering the dignity of the college by bringing it into disrepute”. The reason? That we wrote a letter to the Hon'ble Lt Governor of Delhi, drawing his attention to various improprieties and irregularities in the construction of a new girls' hostel in the college. For this, we have been punished with loss of pay amounting to two salary increments, for the rest of our careers, and debarment from holding any position of responsibility for no less than five years in the college. Meanwhile, we will be subjected to continuous scrutiny during this period, annual reports will be submitted on our conduct, and a review will be held after five years. All this, for writing a letter.

This is an extremely severe punishment, involving a financial loss of several lakhs of rupees individually over the span of our careers, as well as the blanket denial of all professional opportunities for five years, quite apart from being stigmatized as irresponsible and delinquent. This kind of punishment falls just short of dismissal from service, in the scale of extreme penalties, and is usually reserved for correspondingly extreme sins of omission and commission (e.g., dereliction of duty, moral turpitude, etc.). It is not only incredibly out of proportion to the alleged fault on our part, its sheer excess would smack of spite and vindictiveness, if we were not informed by the Chairman, Governing Body, that the punishment was also intended to be exemplary, a lesson to other college teachers.

Ironically, what provoked this was in fact our living up to the “professional integrity” spoken of by the Radhakrishnan Commission Report, and speaking up as citizens of a free country. Additionally, it must be remembered that Article 19.1 (a) of the Indian Constitution also guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression – a provision made by no less a figure than B R Ambedkar. By writing to the Lt Governor of Delhi, drawing his attention to the fact that the college administration was undertaking illegal construction in the college without acquiring the requisite clearance from statutory bodies like the MCD, the National Green Tribunal, etc., we were merely giving voice to our collective conscience, as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution – but “professional integrity” is now understood as “gross misconduct”! Even more ironically, although it was the college administration that was patently guilty of misconduct, it turns around and accuses us of misconduct because we spoke up about its illegalities! It then proceeds to foist a farce of an inquiry on us, incidentally initiated suo moto by the Chairman, without being discussed in the College Governing Body, and undertaken, not by an independent third party, but by two members of the very administration that is being accused of committing illegalities. Following on this and various other patent procedural violations and improprieties in the disciplinary process, the Governing Body then decided on this massive penalty.

This must be seen not as an isolated instance of the arbitrariness of an individual college administration, but in the larger context of changes that Delhi University in particular, and higher education in the country in general, is undergoing. A revealing sign of this change and its implications for Hindu College in particular, came a couple of years ago, when the current Chairman of the Hindu College Governing Body publicly stated that Hindu College was a private college (in an attempt to avoid responding to an inquiry under the RTI Act, regarding some administrative irregularities). The fact is that, ever since the publication of the Report on a Policy Framework for Reforms in Education in 2000 (also known as the Birla-Ambani Report), there has been a steady, inexorable push towards privatization of higher education, as a policy direction. Significantly, the Birla-Ambani Report was not commissioned by the Department of Education, or the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), or the University Grants Commission (UGC) – which would have been the expected bodies to undertake such an enquiry – but by the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry. Commissioning this report was one of the first things that the NDA government did when it came to power in 1998.

This report set the agenda for the series of further reports, policy initiatives and eventually, legislative measures that followed, including - among others - the government’s own National Knowledge Commission's Report to the Nation, 2006-2009 (2009), also known as the Knowledge Commission Report (KnCR); the University Grants Commission’s paper on ‘Strategies and Schemes during Eleventh Plan Period (2007-2012) for Universities and Colleges’ (2011); the annual planning-papers on higher education collaboratively produced by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd. (a multination consultancy) and the Planning Commission of the Government of India, from 2011 onwards; the ASHE 2014 (Annual Status of Higher Education of States and UTs in India, 2014) report, brought out by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the international consultancy firm, Deloitte; and the MHRD’s own Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA, or National Higher Education Mission) document (2013). It has been matched by a series of similar reports and documents from the private sector, also urging privatization as the panacea for higher education in the country, such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers' document, 'India – Higher Education Sector: Opportunities for Private Participation' (2012); the India Brand Equity Foundation's 'Education Sector in India' (2012); or CRISIL's ‘Skilling India: The Billion People Challenge’ (2010), among others.

Several of these documents note the sheer quantum of the higher education market, as a major selling point (so to speak) for privatization: the estimate is a whopping USD 115 billion, over the next ten years, which boils down (on current conversion rates) to an average of INR 70,000 crores per year. However, this massive market is effectively locked down, inaccessible because still predominantly state controlled and subsidized; its potentially gargantuan profits can be harvested fully only if the state withdraws and permits freer private investment in this sector. As of now, about 52% of higher education is through private institutions; if this is gradually increased as a fallout of the state withdrawing from this sector, the estimated quantum of profits will go up even more.

The real prize for private players of course, is not in raising new institutions from scratch – although, given the magnitude of profits involved, that too is by no means a mean investment option. The real prize lies in taking over existing public-funded institutions, thereby minimizing the investments involved, and then reaping the benefits that accrue from their privatization. The colleges of Delhi University are prime picks in this sense: they not only come with minimal investment requirements, they come pre-loaded, so to speak, with a 'reputation', derived from their affiliation to Delhi University (if not carrying substantial ‘brand-values’ of their own, as in the case of colleges like St Stephen's College, Sri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Sriram College, and of course, Hindu College), and a clientele ready and waiting at the doors.

There are however two major obstacles to the realization of this dream. One is the fact that legislation on higher education has not yet caught up with the pace at which higher education policy has been changing: but this is being addressed by the six new bills on higher education, collectively referred to as the New Education Bills, currently awaiting passage in Parliament. The other is the 'recalcitrant', 'lazy', 'conservative', truculent teaching community that has been fiercely resisting these inexorable impulses towards privatization for almost a decade now. As long as these teachers are around – with their vision of education as a public good, and their understanding of their professional integrity and freedom as sacrosanct – there can be no hope of capitalizing on the hopes and dreams of the explosion of youth who are about to enter higher education – a demographic wave that is referred to, quite shamelessly, in almost all the above-mentioned reports, as India's 'demographic dividend'.

One crucial way in which this resistance has been tackled has been through the simple expedient of increasing contractualization of teaching jobs, de facto if not de jure. By simply refusing to hold interviews for permanent appointments, today, almost half the teaching strength of the university and its colleges – amounting to almost 5000 teachers – is constituted of ad hoc teachers, whose sheer dependence on the system to get permanent posts, render them quiescent. Another has been to not appoint permanent principals in colleges where the need arises, but to administer them through OSDs (Officers on Special Duty), Acting Principals and Officiating Principals. A large number of colleges – including Hindu College – have now had these temporary administrators for several years, all of who are hand-picked for their subservience to authority. A third way has been to unleash a veritable bonanza of awards and grants, but disbursed in a highly selective manner, as incentives to toe the line of the university administration. The teachers' movement has been massively eroded, qualitatively and quantitatively, by these carrot-and-stick measures. But this still does not tackle the existing lot of 'recalcitrant' teachers, many of whom have many years to go before they retire, and continue to challenge these tendencies towards incremental, de facto privatization.

Hindu College is one such college, that is ripe for the picking, but also had – and continues to have – a clutch of such 'recalcitrant' teachers who have been repeatedly questioning the innumerable irregularities, improprieties and violations of rules and procedures on the part of its governing body. This governing body, dominated by a private trust and by a chairman from that trust, appears intent on running the college like its private property, but without having to make the slightest investment in it. Indeed, one of the reasons why it undertook construction post-haste, without waiting for due clearances, is the fact that funds earmarked for infrastructure development, which had sat unused in the college coffers for several years, were set to be recalled by the UGC. If this had happened, the trust would have had to make that infrastructural investment from its own pockets – if not now, then at some later point of privatization, when it would take over the college completely. The idea is to milk the state for all it can give, at this stage, before privatization comes in in full force: the lamb must be fully fattened, at state expense, before it is slaughtered for private profit. Hence the decision to keep this clutch of recalcitrants out of any positions of responsibility, where they can intervene in this shadowy agenda, for five years, during which time we will be “kept under observation” (as if we are prisoners) to ensure we stay quiet. By which time no doubt the entire higher education scenario would have changed, not just in the college but in the entire country.

Hindu College is a test case now, as to how such entrenched 'bad elements' in the teaching community can be dealt with; this is especially clear from the deliberate reference to the punishment as an exemplary one. If the once strong teachers' union now stands weakened and divided, it is substantially because of the carrot-and-stick policies noted above; but it is time to see them for what they are, viz., cynical tactics in a much larger, much more damaging battle for the soul of higher education itself. It is time to come together once again, to resist the last but most brutal measure that is being deployed, in the project to privatize higher education, in the form of such excessive and therefore exemplary punitive measures. These measures are being followed with keen interest by those who would seek to replicate them in other colleges, in this university and outside, so that they too may start paving the way to reaping their crores of profits. For the sake of our professional integrity, then, for the sake of our students, for the sake of the institutions that we have studied and worked in, for the sake of the society to which we belong and to which we are accountable – for everyone's sake, and not just our own, it is time for the teachers' movement to come together once again, and give an exemplary response to the forces that seek to grind us down.

Attacking The Cross: Rise In Anti Christian Violence

Ram Puniyani

Julio Ribeiro is one of the best known police officers in India. Recently (March 16, 2015) he wrote in his article that he is feeling like a stranger in this country. ‘I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country’. This pain and anguish of a distinguished citizen, an outstanding police officer has to be seen against the backdrop of the rising attacks on Churches and rape of the 71 year old nun in Kolkata. All over the country the rage amongst the Christian community is there to be seen in the form of silent marches, candle light vigils and peaceful protests.

As such during the last several months in particular the instances of attacks, and intimidation of the minority community has become more frightening. There is also a noticeable change in the pattern of violence against them. Earlier these attacks were more in the remote Adivasi areas, now one can see this taking place in urban areas also. The change in frequency of these attacks after the new Government took over is a striking phenomenon.

As such Christians are one of the very old communities in India. Right from the first century when St. Thomas visited Malabar Coast in Kerala and set up a Church there the Christian community has been here, part of the society, contributing to various aspects of social life. The missionaries, the nuns and priests, have also spent ages in the rural hinterlands setting up educational and health facilities and have also founded the most reputed educational institutions in most of the major cities of the country. Christians today are a tiny minority (2.3% as per 2001 census). It has been a community which like any other has its own internal diversity with various Christian denominations.

In this context the rise of anti Christian violence during last few decades in Adivasi areas, Dangs (Gujarat) Jhabua (MP) Kandhamal (Orissa) has been an unnerving experience for the community as a whole and for those believing in pluralism and diversity of the country in particular. The violence which picked up from mid nineties peaked in the burning alive of Pastor Graham Stains (23rd Jan 1999) and later Kandhamal violence in 2007 and 2008. After this there was a sort of low intensity scattered violence in remote areas, till the attack on Churches in Delhi from last several months. The Churches which were attacked were scattered in five corners of Delhi, Dilshad Garden (East), Jasola (South West), Rohini (Outer Delhi), Vikaspuri (West) and Vasant kunj (South), as if by design the whole terrain of Delhi was to be covered for polarization. It was claimed by police and state that the main cause of these has been theft etc.; in the face of the fact at most of the places the donation boxes remained intact. BJP spokesperson are vociferously giving the data that during this period so many temples have also been attacked, which is a mere putting the wool in the eye, as the targeted nature of anti Christian violence is very glaring.

In the meanwhile the RSS Sarsanghachalak, the boss of the Hindu right, to which BJP owes its allegiance, states that Mother Teresa was doing the charity work with intent to conversion. Post the statement two major incidents have come to light. One is in Hisar in Harayana, where a church has been attacked, it’s Cross replaced by the idol of Lord Hanuman and the Chief Minister of Haryana, who again has RSS background, stated that the Pastor of the Church has been alleged to be part of the conversion activities. At the same time RSS progeny Vishwa Hindu Parishad stated that more such acts of attack on churches will take place if conversions are not stopped. This incident reminds one of the placing of the idols of Ram Lalla (Baby Ram) in Babri Mosque in 1949 and then claiming that it was a birth place of Lord Ram. In addition the statement of the Chief Minister gives a clear indication as to how the investigation of the incident will take place and whether the real culprits will ever be nabbed. Incidentally there are no police complaints about Pastors’ conversion activities if any, in the police records. This ‘they are doing conversions’ is a standard ploy which is propagated for anti Christian violence, which one has witnessed so far.

After Bhagwat’s comments on Mother Teresa the anti Christian violence seems to be intensifying by the day and the incidence of Haryana and Kolkata are symbols of that and VHP is openly talking of more attacks. When Prime Minister Modi broke his deliberate silence on the issues of violence against minorities, he did say that religious freedom will be respected. But one also knows that what he says and what he means are mostly not the same. Also that now the silence of last several months has given a clear message to his associates in RSS combines that they can carry on their disruptive and polarizing activities at will. A large section within the Christian community feel that Modi was voted on the agenda of development and this type of violence was not anticipated! That is a sheer naivety, Modi is a RSS trained Pracharak, for whom the divisive agenda remains at the core, to be implemented by a clever ‘division of labor’ implemented through different organizations, which are part of RSS combine popularly known as Sangh Parivar.

As such India has been the cradle of many religions, which celebrated and lived together, a far cry from the present atmosphere which is intimidating the minorities. Christian’s plight in recent times is something to which the concerned democratic rights individuals need to wake up to. This seems to be unfolding of the script, Pehle Kasai Phir Isai, (First Muslim, then Christians). It is not just a violation of their rights; it’s also a violation of very basic norm of democracy. As they say, a democracy has to be judged by the litmus test of level of security and equity its minorities enjoy!