Early this morning a US warship belonging to the Vth Fleet opened fire on an unarmed fishing boat and killed a fiherman. This incident is seen as yet another example of the cynical disdain USA under President Barack Obama has for Asian and African lives. The boat was on international waters and the US Navy did not possess any authority to open fire and kill the men on board. Though there is a well established international protocol about the search and seizure on the high seas, the uS navy chose...
In most parts of the world children learn the alphabet by association letter A with "Apple" or something innocent. In parts of the world children learn the alphabet by reciting A is for AK-47 and D is for "Drone". USA has emerged as the world largest and most determined practitioner of "play station warfare" in which operators sitting in gaming consoles in Fairfax, Virginia, determine who should live and who should die in parts of the non-white world--particularly Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and...
Yesterday a bomb ripped through the car in which an Israeli embassy staffer Ms Yehoshua Koren, the wife of the defence attache, was travelling. The exposive used was similar to the one used in Georgia and the bomb was pbobably just little bigger than a human fist. Surprisingly, the attack took place less than 50 meters from the residence of the Prime Minister, Man Mohan Singh. Ms Koren suffered serious spinal injuries but the efforts of the doctors in one of New Delhi's Hospitals saved her l...
Norway is in the news all for the wrong reasons. First it was the news of the horrific massacre of 76 young people committed by the Christian fundamentalist. The world has neither forgotten nor forgive Norway for the financial and diplomatic support extended to sundry terrorist groups all over the world in the name of identity politics. And now comes the screaming headlines about the "Child Protection Service". I think Norway is guilty of two basic infractions of the European charter. First, i...
Pakistan faces an unenviable situation. It cannot forsake the special relationship with the USA and at the same time cannot come to terms with it, It can neither swallow USA nor spit it out. USA treats Pakistan with the same contempt the Romanb Empire had for its client kings. Hilary Clinton is willing to humour Pakistan and seem to accomodate hits ruffled feelings, but the CIA and the Defence Department will not let the diplomats have an easy ride. The rais which killed Osama bin Laden and t...
In the latest issue of Time is featured a debate, Which Economy will Rule the World? This debate sputters intermittently in the pages of News Magazines. While China receives a bad press because of the perceived threst to Western economic hegemony, India escapes scrutiny aas it hides behind the facade of dynastic fascism bolstered by periodic elections, as if India is an exemplar of a flourishing democratic state. Between India and China, I can say with all authority at my command that China, tho...
Tamil politicians are back at their ususal game of barbarous bluster and brinkmanship. Vaigoplalaswami, the leader of one Dravidian faction has even threatened a blockade of Kerala over the Mullaperyar Dam issue. It appears that with the defeat of the LTTE and the return of nornalcy in Sri Lanka, the Western funded Human Rights activists not withstanding ( I wonder why they do not scream at what the White men are doing in Libya, Pakistan and Afghanistan), Tamil politicians need an issue to...
Exactly 10 years after the horrific massacre at Columbine High in Colorado, the country must question itself over the unristricted access to guns and firearms of various kind. It is no use saying that the citizens have a constitutional right to bear arms, as the Bill of Rights lays down thwe condition in a "national militia". Therefore the founding fathers of the US Constitution did not envisage a situation in which a gun culture would emerge and flourish in the USA. Since that incident there h...
The recent speech by the President of the USA, Barack Obama, at George Town University has rightly been billed as a "major speech". Without the economy in this state of utter chaos it is quite conceivable that Obama would not have made iot ti the White House and he has the mandate to take stringent steps to kick start the economy. He has stresswed that the regulatory framework had not quite done its job and hence the very institutions that shouls have prevented the sub-prime crisis started beha...
Barack Obama seemed to be making all the right noices, well, until he clinched the Democratic Party nomination. The speech given before the AIPAC yesterday came as a huge surprise to me. I did not expect him to break the traditional frienship with Israel, but I did not expect him to sign on to the extreme right wing interpretation of Israeli-US relations. Obama was of course courting the powerful jewish American vote and we are all realistic or cynical enough to understand that the ocassio...
As of now Barack Obama has secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination for the presidential elections in November 2008. This much was never in serious doubt since Super Tuesday in March. It would not be correct however to believe that given the unpopularity of the Iraq War and George W Bush that a Democratic victory is a sure thing. Nothing can be further from the truth. Obama has avery tough fight on his hands and can use evry vote he can cadge out of a reluctant electorate. For ...
There is an air of confidence in the Obama camp; and this air of confidence is premature. I watched the interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, and I felt that the magic touch which enabled Barack Obama to connect with his audience was just not there. The hectic campaign season has perhaps taken its toll. It would be utterly wrong on the part of Barack Obama to assume, given the unpopularity of the Iraq War and the state of the economy to assume that victory is just round the corner. While it is ...
The great writer and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison wrote once that "White skin notwithstanding, Clinton is our first black president. Blacker than any actual person could ever be elected in our childrens' lifetime". With this kind of endorsement, it is hard to fathom the fact that his wife hasd dropped to single digits as far as Arican-American vote is concerned. The real reason for this fall is not hard to find. The highly negative campaign she ran against Obama made many believe that she...
One may say that November is still far away, and so there is no need to hurry over the nominations. However, this is the first time in recent memory that so late into the primaries, and yet no clear front runner is in sight. For the Republicans it appears that John McCain will, falling short of a major catastrophe, be the Republican nominee. The Democrats are doing, as always, what they do best, destroy each other with a vehemence that even the Republicans cannot match. The exit of John Edwar...
Let me start with a confession, because I do not want Dr Guy or Parated2k to accuse me of anti american sentiments. I am in a country that routinely sends criminals to Parliament, murderers are appointed ministers and the sons of politicians can rape and pillage with impunity. So when I express a genuine admiration for the civilised political discourse in the USA, I am not being condescending or being sarcastic. I am critical of certain aspects of Bush with respect to Iraq, but what I am writ...