How Maharashtra "banned" the famine

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/article596311.ece?homepage=true

India's Avatar

A 12 minute documentary film on the life of Dongaria Kondh, who were to be displaced by Vedanta's bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa.Just like the Na'vi tribe in the movie Avatar.

                                               http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/mine

Drought of justice, flood of funds

Ask the government for expansion of the NREGS, universal access to the PDS, more spending on health and education - and there's no money. But there?s enough to give away to the corporate world in concessions. A revelation by P Sainath.

Full article at:

http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/aug/psa-funds.htm

Rich MLAs, Poor Voters

In his new article, P Sainath says that a growing numbers of elected representatives fund their poll campaigns with corporate backing. And growing numbers of people with a big business background have ventured directly into the electoral arena.

Full article here:

http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/oct/psa-winter.htm

Death of a true hero: K Balagopal

Noted civil rights activist K Balagopal died of cardiac arrest at a hospital here, family source said today.

Balagopal (52) was taken to the hospital at Mehidipatnam in the city last night and he breathed his last while undergoing treatment, they said.

Born in Anantapur district, Balagopal worked in Kakatiya University as a professor but took to practising law nearly a decade ago.

He broke away from the Andhra pradesh Civil Liberties committee, with which he had been associated with since its inception in the 1980s, following differences over the issue of violence perpetrated by the erstwhile CPI-ML People’s War and founded the Human Rights Forum to fight for human rights and civil liberties.

For more, click here:

http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10&pid=2100&eid=5

Journalism, the best profession in the world

Fifty years ago, journalism schools were not fashionable. This craft was learned in newsrooms, print shops, run-down corner cafes, and at Friday night parties, says Marquez.

For full article, click at


http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?228937

The cafe reopenes

Hello All,

Your essential Cafe Chandigarh is starting again after a long summer break. The rains are here and there is nothing nicer than sit and read with a cup of hot tea or coffee (of course) in your hand.

So, now you know where to come every morning, afternoon, evening and have your fill of news and views and the beauty of life in between.

All are invited,

Sourabh Gupta

Issues and Policies

for BMC I (Very Important)

What should the government do to solve issues in education, health, environment and foreign affairs?

by Ramchandra Guha

Full article at http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/jun/rgh-policy.htm

I protest. Do you?

By Christopher Hitchens

The obvious evidence of fixing, fraud, and force to one side, there is another reason to doubt that an illiterate fundamentalist like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could have increased even a state-sponsored plebiscite-type majority.

full text: http://www.slate.com/id/2220520/

Iran's better than America. at least it protests

Iran, Iran

Caption: Police force its way into Tehran University to silence the protesting students.


for MMC I (Important. But I can't force you to read. Can I?)


Please continuously follow the ongoing political turmoil in Iran. Please. If all of you voted in Indian elections, understand the anger of the Iranian youth where the elections were rigged.


This what a blogger Abbas Raza wrote on www.3quarksdaily.com wrote today:

I tremble with the eagerness to be with my brothers and sisters in Iran who are peacefully resisting the illegitimate government of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, and who are about to be slaughtered.

Let the rest of the world no longer remain quiet and hope that by doing so, we will protect the brave forces of change from charges of being allied with foreign interests who are meddling in Iran. The time to remain silent is over. It is time to take sides, AND to urge our governments to take sides. I am a US citizen, and I will use every means at my disposal to push my government to make sure that they let the government of Iran know in uncertain terms that they will be held accountable and punished if the innocent civilians and the brave youth of Iran are attacked, killed, or injured in any way. I hope you will, too. It is NOW the time for the desperate, weak, and lying government of Iran to know that not only their own children, but the world is against them.

If you don't yet understand the urgency of this moment or the imminent savagery that awaits Iranis, have a look at some of the Twitter messages coming out of Iran (all other media are too heavily censored, or completely blocked) that are appended below this note. This is NOT a matter of supporting any Western or other interests, it is a matter of supporting the courageous hopes and defiant dreams of freedom of the Irani masses. This collection of Tweets comes via Andrew Sullivan.

Do something now! Write to whitehouse.gov or your representative. Do something! NOW! NOW! NOW!

Death to tyranny! Long live Iran!

Code of ethics for international journalists

for MMC I

The following principles of professional ethics in journalism were prepared as an international common ground and as a source of inspiration for national and regional codes of ethics.

Full information at: http://ethicnet.uta.fi/international/international_principles_of_professional_ethics_in_journalism

and here: http://ethicnet.uta.fi/international/declaration_of_principles_on_the_conduct_of_journalists

Poverty and unemployment

for BMC I

two important and fresh notes.

1. Unicef attacks India's poverty record

http://sanhati.com/news/1565/

2. Is India's unemployment rate really lower than America's?

http://sanhati.com/front-page/1447/

Price of rice: How to win an election

for BMC I (Compulsory reading)

In the class test, I had asked you to analyse the Lok Sabha election results. Mostof you got it wrong. Read this article by P. Sainath to know why.

http://sanhati.com/articles/1568/

No fear, No fear, we are with each other

I'm with the student protesting against the election fraud in Iran.

Are you?

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/06/iran.html#comments

Support the uprising. Leave you comment on this blog and the blog link given above.

National Security

For BMC I

Syllabus notes on Topic 1

National security issues and policies
Foreign policies

1. New wave of terrorism in India

http://www.idsa.in/reports/anewwaveofterrorisminindia080609.html

2. Taliban Threat to India

http://www.idsa.in/issuebrief/HarinderSingh02062009.htm

3. Foreign policy advices

http://www.idsa.in/policy_briefs/southasia09062009.htm

4. Terrorism portal

http://www.satp.org/

5.

Obama's historic speech at Cairo University today

For MMC I (compulsory reading)

"I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

Full text at: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/06/barack-obamas-speech-at-cairo-university.html#more

The Hero

Photo Caption: This unknown Chinese youth in photo stood alone to block a line of tanks heading to Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989.

In the spring of 1989, more than one million Chinese students and workers occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square and began the largest political protest in communist China's history.

Six weeks of protests ended with the Beijing massacre of 3-4 June.

Here the BBC charts the events that led to the deadly crackdown - using archive audio and video from the time.

Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8057148.stm

China's Tiananmen generation speaks

China drew worldwide condemnation for brutally quashing a student uprising in Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989. But in the months and years that followed, the incident has remained largely unmentioned inside China, at least in public.

Here people born in the years around the crackdown talk frankly about their knowledge of the event and how they were taught about it.

More from the BBC here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8061483.stm

Lives of Great Men

by Inuo Taguchi, a Japanese poet

Lenin
Lenin is relieved
that the bronze statue of himself was taken down.
In fact for half-a-century
he has wanted to lie down in Red Square
and listen to the Beach Boys,
on some fine Sunday afternoon, for instance,
with his family and close friends, of course.
But he could not confess this sort of thing to anyone,
so he has kept standing as a bronze statue.
Imagine yourself a bronze statue.
Just standing watching history
would wear on him.

Newton

Under an apple tree
Newton encountered the Law of Universal Gravitation
and instantly fell in love with her.

Ah, she was indeed his eternal lover –
the universal love and the universality which was love.
That night he applied all his skill
to the writing of a love letter
entitled,
'On the Law of Universal Gravitation and Her Passionate Function.'

The Law of Universal Gravitation, however,
didn't give a damn about Newton,
because she was crazy about the quadrille
which was popular at that time.

Superman

Superman is strolling the garden
in his wheelchair.
Life is cruelty itself,
though sunlight falling down at this moment
is grace itself.

When I was flying the sky
I was still very young.
I was flying, surely,
but I still didn't yet know
what it meant
to be flying the sky.

But now it's different.
To fly the sky is,
as it were,
to move your little finger,
and even at that no more than half-an-inch.

Life is like a sublime joke.
But it's funny,
isn't it? You have to get a wheelchair
and then you can become superman.


More of his poems at: http://japan.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=6410