It has become an academic fashion among some American historians to call the USA an "empire" without the slightest trace of embassarment. In a recent issue of Foreign Affairs Ralph Cohen even drew paralells with the known empires of the past:Alexandrian, Roman and of course,the British Empire. In making such comparisons, it is often forgotten that the Roman Empire laid the foundations of a literate, record keeping, and organised polity which over the centuries became the Europe of today. Sur...
On the day after Christmas an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale struck Sumatra. The epicentre of the quake was 256 km north of Ache. This quake triggered off a wave of tsunami waves that killed tens of thousands in Malaysia,Southern India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. I have not seen anything like this before. A sheer wall of water 30 meters high came crashing on to the coast where I live sweeping everything in its wake. Cars trucks huge buildings came crashing down. The worst of the...
The parents of Ms Terri Shaivo are on perfectly sound legal and moral grounds when they say the they want their daughter to be kept alive. The wishes of the parents cannot be set aside just because the person concerned is not in a position to excersise her "will and judgement". Allowing a human being to die by the removal of the feeding tude ammounts to murder andthe US Congress has rightly stepped in to assert the right to life. It is unfortunate that the right to life has to be backed by a...
Since the tsunamis that struck parts of Asia on the 26th of December a slow and painful start has been made towards relief and rehabilitation. Most of the debris on the accessible parts of the coast have been removed though in Acheh itself is still reeling under the impact of the earthquake and the killer tsunamis. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands there has been large scale destruction and it is estimated that geeting these two islands back on to its pre tsunami level will take another 10...
Earthquakes under the ocean floor, especially those neat the area where the continental plates join, generate huge waves which travel deep under the surface of the water and as they approach the continental shelf swell up to form tunamis. It is usually felt that Japan, Korea and the islands of Hawaii are tsunami prone. However this proved wrong on December 26, 2004 when tsunamis generated by the Sumatra earthquake hit the coasal areas of Southern India and Sri Lanka. In Pondicherry and Tami...
The day after Chrisnmas was a day of Daeth and Destruction to large number of people all over Asia. Tsunamis generated by a mega earthquake epicentered north of Sumatra hit the coasts of Malaysia, Thailand, Southern India and Sri Lanka. These waves travelled further afar to Somalia and the coast of Africa. Perhaps these were the most powerful tunamis of the last hundred years. The most tragic part of this is the utter failure of the Givernments of India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka to issue Tuna...
It is a delicious bit of irony that the ostensible reason for American invasion of Iraq remains the ABC weapons allegedly developed by Saddam Hussein. It has now become abundantly clear that not only was the intelligence with respect of the WMD program of the erstwhile President of Iraq flawed but there appears to have been what one senator delicately called "cherry picking ." So a savage brutal war was waged against a nation which was down on its heels due to the UN sanctions. The people of...
At this moment the levees have been repaired and the people who have been marooned are being moved to safety. Finally the neighbourhoods that have been under several feet of water are being drained and accorging to the Governor it could take months to get the City on its feet. The loss to the Jazz heritage preserved in Loisianna State Public Library will be too greaT A LOSS. We can almost hear the haunting words of Louis Armstrong :When the Moonlight hits the dreams, thats what we live for in...
The people of New Orleans desetrve a great ovation: they have shown both grit and courage by picking up the pieces after Hurricane Katrina. The days of isolation and being marooned in buildings cut off from supplies and essential commodities does show on the faces of the survivors, but they deserve a great ovation for helping themselves and their neighbours in their hour of crisis. At a time when the Federal Government was extremely slow in responding to the challenge the people of New Orlean...
The strongest argument that the Western Media has been making against Bin Laden and his ilk is that they advocate Terrorism in the name of Religion, a religion with which the Christian nations of the World have had at best an uneasy relationship. While Terrorism as a concept has neither been defined nor legislated upon, the USa embarked upon a war against Iraq without any sanction whatsoever, except the much trumpetted QWeapons of Mass Destruction that Iraq allegedly possessed. The result is ...
Michael Jackson, the Sultann of Pop, has won his legal battle and there is no doubt that the charges were trumped up. Jackson rightly said in one of his sdongs:Stenton is a hard man. However, Neverland, will never be the same again. The trial and the media hype against Jackson all mean that Michael Jackson will,have to work hard to reinvent himself. The iconic status of Jackson has actually been reinforced by this victory. We were sure that he was innocent and prayed the he will walk free. Th...
The American Economy accounts for nearly 30% of the world economy at a global scale. down from 50% at the end of World War II. During the recent presidential elections almost all political paries including a few Republicans from industrial states, spoke very critically of outsourcing. Keep US jobs at home seemed to be their credo. Fortunately for the World economy, Bush won the election and out sourcing is helping the USA as much as it helps other parts of the world. The US economy is now sh...
Nearly 3 months after the elections in Iraq, the Government is yet to be formed. This fact alone must make supporters of the war in Iraq wonder what is going on there. The Western media, the embedded ones particularly, were eloquent in their parise of the Elections, as though the mere fact of holding the elections will bring peace and stability. In fact the elections have made thibngs much worse fro the Americans and their collaborators. The sectarian divide is increasing day by day. The poli...
Ms Terri Schaivo is no more. Early yesterday she died in Florida and in death she has achieved an iconic status that will live for a long long time. I admire her parents whi faught valiantly to keep her alive. The American Personal Law that allows the husband to take extremely important decisions relating to the life and death of the spouse needs to be reassesses as parents too have responibilities. The case was almost entirely the work of her husband Micheal who seems to have been quite cav...
As early as the 19th century, the great military strategist and historian of the Napoleonic wars defined war as "politics by other means". In other words war is not an end initself only the instrument throught which stated national/ politicals goals be achieved. This lesson of statecraft was entirely lost on the Bushmen who in their misguided arrogance and deluded by a false sense of infallibility decided to redraw the map of the middle east with a pliant US surrogate lording over the badland...