The language of the State should be such which can be understood by the common man of the State. The common man of the State numbering four crores and forty lakhs find that the proceedings of the Assembly which is their mother of parliaments is being conducted in a language, Sir which is unknown to them. Then, Sir, English has got an honoured place, Sir, in Rule 29. I know, Sir, English has got an honoured placed because of the International Character. But, Sir, if English can have an honoured place in Rule 29 that the proceedings of the Assembly should be conducted in Urdu or English why Bengalee, which is spoken by the four crores forty lakhs of people should not have an honoured place, Sir, in Rule 29 of the procedure Rules. - Dhirendranath Datta
May 2007 Archives
05/25/07 - 65% population of Jharkhand is Bengali speaking. Yet Bengali is not even taught in the schools. No Bengali textbook is available. The state of Jharkhand gives no recognition to the Bengali language. For this reason, Amra Bangali took out a rally on 28 th March 2007, at Ranchi and submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Jharkhand with the following demands:
- Bengali should be the medium of all state correspondence - official as well as unofficial.
- Bengali speaking teachers must be posted to teach Bengali in schools and colleges.
- Bengali should become the medium of education.
- Textbooks should be made immediately available in Bengali language.
- Local people (Nagpuria speaking people) - including Bengali speaking - all sons of the soil should be given 100% employment in Government and non-Government jobs.
- All sign boards, all announcements and circulars should be in Bengali language.
- Bengali regiments should be created in the Armed forces of India.
"The image of a cowering group of powerful politicians hiding behind phalanxes of armed police as chanting citizens roar outside is indicative of the increasing gap between the ruling elites, their policies and the people they rule."
Unable to shake an historical reputation for draconian behavior, Germany's government is calling for the "preventative detention" of anti-globalism campaigners as the Group of Eight summit approaches. The G8 conclave is planned for June 6-8 in Heiligendamm, a resort town on the Baltic Sea near Rostock, a former East German city that is a hotbed of nationalist activism. The G8 meetings generally deal with plans to globalize the world economy and set an agenda to make uniform economic and social changes across the developed world.
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that his officials may make use of a law that allows the government to jail anyone deemed politically incorrect for up to two weeks without charges. "Regional police authorities are considering taking recourse to so-called preventive detention," Schaeuble said.
"Chinese cops in the 500 cities that have established Internet police bureaus are using the Web -- tapping into people's e-mail accounts and monitoring individuals using politically sensitive Web sites -- as a handy tool to stamp out dissent."
The Iraq war isn't over, but one thing's already clear: China won.
As the United States has been bleeding popularity and influence around the world, China has been gaining both. That's largely because it has been coming into its own as the first full-blown alternative since the end of the Cold War to Washington's model of free markets and democracy. As the U.S. model has become tarnished, China's has gained new luster.
For authoritarian leaders around the world seeking to maintain their grip on power, China increasingly serves as a blueprint. We're used to thinking of China as an economic miracle, but it's also becoming a political model. Beijing has shown dictators that they don't have to choose between power and profit; they can have both. Today's China demonstrates that a regime can suppress organized opposition and need not establish its legitimacy through elections. It shows that a ruling party can maintain considerable control over information and the Internet without slowing economic growth. And it indicates that a nation's elite can be bought off with comfortable apartments, the chance to make money, and significant advances in personal, non-political freedoms (clothes, entertainment, sex, travel abroad).
"You must always remember that your existence is not only a physical one. It is animals who are primarily concerned with the physical world, who struggle merely to survive. Those animals which live in jungles are constantly confronted by the fear of tigers, lions, bears, elephants, snakes, crocodiles and a host of other ferocious creatures; while those which have surrendered to human beings, such as goats, sheep and cows, are confronted in the last moment of their lives with the fear of being slaughtered by a human. So it is quite obvious that animal life is less secure than human life." ~ Shrii P. R. Sarkar
Something is wrong with the United States. I think most of us have noticed it. There is a mortal rot in the country, made manifest by many little rots that are hard to integrate mentally yet are, I think, somehow related. The change is grave, accelerating, probably irreversible, and fascinating. Things are not as they were.
"What we really need is a process of value addition, so that we can export things as finished products. The conditions for signing an EPA do not guarantee that process will take place"
BRUSSELS (IPS) - Anti-poverty campaigners have likened trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and several regions in Africa to a boxing match between a schoolboy novice and a heavyweight champion.
Such disparity appears particularly evident in the case of the EU's talks with governments from Eastern and Southern Africa, with whom Brussels wishes to sign an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) by the end of this year.
In one corner, the 27-strong EU boasts half of the Group of Eight top industrialised nations (France, Italy, Britain and Germany). In the other, 13 of the 16 Eastern and Southern African countries taking part in the talks have been recognised by the United Nations as among the poorest.
Similarly, the level of integration on each side is in no way comparable.
MEXICO CITY (IPS) - Tensions between indigenous people, governments and transnational corporations will grow in the second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, which began in 2005, say experts.
Against that backdrop, some of the 840 indigenous groups in the Americas could even disappear, they warn.
"Indigenous people today are living in a period characterised by the most unbridled imperial capitalism ever, with weakened states that are at the service of transnational interests," José del Val, head of the Mexico Multicultural Nation University Programme (PUMC) and former director of the Inter-American Indigenous Institute, told IPS.
COLOMBO (IPS) - By successfully carrying out air raids on military and economic targets in and around the capital, separatist rebels have demonstrated a new capacity to wage 'all-out' war in their fight to carve out a separate state for the Tamil ethnic minority in Sri Lanka.
But questions are being asked as to how the fledgling Tamileelam Air Force (TAF), the air wing of the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has been able to acquire planes and train pilots despite the relatively small size of the land mass available in the the Tamil-dominated north and east of the strife-torn island.
By all estimates the TAF is puny and may consist of no more than five propeller-driven Zlin Z-142, Czech-made planes that seem to have been smuggled in as completely knocked down (CKD) kits and assembled locally. But given the anti-terrorist atmosphere of the post 9/11 world, putting the TAF together and actually carrying out bombing raids is a feat that has startled intelligence specialists.
We want to give moral support to the Arabs who suffer so grievously in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere at the hands of American Empire. However, on the issue below, there is no way we can support the Arabs who carry out so-called honor killings. (It is Arabic being spoken in the video.) Rather, we can only say that the men who carried out this heinous action are not at all men. They are beasts and they are cowards of the lowest calibre. They are not fit to live on this earth. How can they consider themselves men when they throw bricks on top of an already dead defenseless helpess teen age girl who in fact had committed no physical "crime," was still a virgin, and who only committed the emotional crime of falling in love with a Sunni. She only gave away her heart. These are not men in this video. They are beasts in human form. They should not even have the right to exist on this earth. - WPA
Please read the article below and watch the video. It is an education about the lowest of the low on this earth.
"In nearly all countries of the world economically privileged or advanced groups are mercilessly exploiting other economically backward groups and sucking their vitality, gagging their voice and closing all the doors of their future progress. To overcome this tyranny and exploitation, movements will have to be launched for those suppressed people so that they can stride boldly forward, fight against all exploitation and attain economic independence. Nobody can deny the need of such an approach, of such movements, because such an approach is truly humanistic. If such an approach is not adopted, it will be something unnatural and anti-human. In fact, to oppose such movements amounts to working as an agent to protect the interests of the exploitative and reactionary forces. PROUT always stands for the cause of exploited people, irrespective of race, nation, religion etc., and always opposes all types of exploitation. But as poverty is the main problem in the world today, PROUT gives top priority to opposing economic exploitation, as this affects the livelihood and existence of the people. To solve this problem and other pressing socio-economic problems, popular movements based on anti-exploitation and universal sentiments should be launched throughout the world. Such movements should oppose all forms of economic, psychic, cultural and psycho-economic exploitation. In addition they should undertake appropriate practical programs to enhance the all-round welfare of the people." ~ Shrii P. R. Sarkar
The central message of Prout is that it must free human beings from mundane problems so that all will have increasing opportunities for intellectual and spiritual liberation. Shortly before his departure Sarkar observed, "Economics today is a theoretical extravaganza. It should be made more practical." He was of the view that economics must be a precise, practical science and should be properly developed for the welfare of all.
It is a tragic order of nature that whenever a great leader comes to serve human society then and there he is opposed, criticized, humiliated, tortured, arrested, convicted and even put to death. Sarkar was not spared either but had to face the onslaught stages against him by vested interests.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, or more accurately, George W. Bush's lap dog, has resigned to England's relief.
Boris Johnson at the Daily Telegraph wrote that "Blair cannot escape the blame for a disaster in which at least 60,000 (and possibly 10 times as many) Iraqis have died, and which is causing 40,000 Iraqis to flee the country every month."
The Daily Mail's Piers Morgan wrote that Blair's complicity in the invasion of Iraq transformed England "into a more dangerous, paranoid, despised and ridiculed country. Blair's reign will be remembered for one disaster of epic proportions, one appalling legacy."
Editor's note: The PROUT philosophy opposes indoctrination of any kind--leftist, conservative, religious, or otherwise--in educational institutions. Rather, students should be encouraged in a spirit of free inquiry to search for the truth.
"[C]olleges really are stepping on the idea of free thought and...people are being punished simply for expressing views."
The war in Iraq was a regular hot topic in English class when I was in school. But why -- when it had no relevance to writing analyses', breaking down prose, or fine-tuning style? When I heard about an unapologetic independent film production that uncovered illegitimate classroom agendas at public universities, I knew my school (Indiana University) was part of a larger problem.
"I've been learning in geography class that gender is socially constructed," said a student from the University of Tennessee in the revealing documentary. "Indoctrinate U" exposes the liberally biased agenda of professors and administrators whose practices are like the Wizard of Oz -- behind a curtain no one has dared to lift until now.
The film illustrates how American universities inject political dialogue into every subject from physics to 19th Century literature, according to students interviewed at schools from across the country: that is not the education their tuition was supposed to pay for.
CAIRO (IPS) - Workers in Cairo's vital public transport sector threatened to go on strike earlier this month if the state did not meet their list of demands. The incident was only the latest in a spate of strikes and protests in recent months that local commentators attribute to the steadily rising cost of living.
"These workers' actions are a result of the crushing economic situation," Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of the Labour Party, officially frozen by the government since 2000, told IPS. "But with the current political upheaval in Egypt, workers have begun breaking down the wall of fear by wielding the weapons of the strike and the sit-in."
Two American intellectuals discuss the role of the Israel lobby in causing the war on Iraq
What role does the pro-Israel lobby play in the shaping of American foreign policy? Although discussions of this issue date back decades, the debate has recently been brought into the mainstream by an article published in the London Review of Books in March 2006 by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, which charges that the influence of the Israel lobby result in policies that are in essence incompatible with American interests. Apart from the predictable chorus of Anti-Semitic accusations which the article gave rise to, it also gave rise to a serious debate within the progressive movement, in an attempt to accurately assess the power of the lobby and its influence both on policies and on public opinion.
(AP) - TOKYO-Japan's Supreme Court rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing, defense lawyers said Thursday.
In two separate decisions made Wednesday, the top court upheld rulings by lower courts since 1999 that the current Japanese government was not liable for compensation demands from foreign citizens for wartime actions, according to defense lawyer Norio Minami.
Use of deceptive intelligence data by pro-war Bush administration officials in lead-up to war on Iraq being further exposed
In his book, "At the Center of the Storm," former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet describes efforts by Pentagon and White House officials to subvert pre-Iraq war intelligence assessment by the CIA.
Tenet focuses on the actions of a group inside the Pentagon that sent the Bush administration bogus intelligence on Iraq's weapons program and ties to terrorist organizations that supported the administration's policy.
This group was recently criticized by a Department of Defense inspector general report from February 9, 2007, which found that a policy shop known as "the Office of Special Plans," headed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, acted "inappropriately" by cooking intelligence to reflect a "mature and symbiotic" relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda. This characterization was never supported by the CIA, but was presented as fact by Feith's office to White House policy makers in the runup to the Iraq war.
Full story: United States: Tenet Battled With the Office of Special Plans
With the television being the dominant brainwasher and mind-controller of all times, some people say that the South has begun to vanish as a unique cultural entity. All people, young and old, rich and poor, even the poorest of the poor, watch television. It is the greatest cultural destroyer in modern history. Being an anti-culture, pseudo-culture medium, it has played a major role in destroying southern culture – in fact, all cultures. Conformity is the key, and nationalism, especially neo-con nationalism based on hatred of others, is the next key to destruction of the South’s unique culture.
by Ac. Krtashivananda Avt.
The author analyzes the reality of democracy as it functions in practical life, and points out its fatal flaws while also giving the requirements for removing these flaws. Prout says the right of everyone to vote is a defective concept. In order to vote, people must have education and be politically conscious. Without these requirements, their vote is meaningless.
"Now, the point is that the entire population of the world has got to be saved from oppression, suppression and exploitation - by any means, fair or foul. What will then be the result? Human suffering in the physical sphere will be overcome. Of course there has never been lack of adjustment in the spiritual sphere, nor will there ever be. Human beings can rest content in this regard. Only in the psychic sphere will they have to acquire power. And for what? People will have to acquire psychic power in order to overcome the psychic affliction which is the result of past reactive momenta. That is to say, with the establishment of Prout, the problems in the physical sphere and in the spiritual sphere will have been solved. And what about the psychic sphere? Of course the requital of unserved reactive momenta - [reactions to past actions or sam'skáras] - will surely affect the mind, but it is also a fact that human beings will acquire enough strength to overcome the psychic afflictions. Bearing this in mind, you should build a new human society at the earliest possible moment. Regarding those who are likely to create obstacles in your path - let them do so. You should remember that those who are the actual pioneers, the real vanguard of the society, are always a microscopic minority, but it is they who are destined to be victorious. Those who once opposed, or are now opposing or will oppose in the future, will in the future admit: "Yes, we are now driving our vehicle safely and comfortably along the very path which that vanguard once opened by clearing the jungle." This means that those who cleared the obstacles in the beginning will later be recognized as pioneers. The funny thing is this, that people do not give recognition at the time it is due. This is the natural law. And at the same time you should also remember this simple truth: that in a jungle the number of tigers and lions is always few; the jackals far outnumber them. Yet in the jungle the tigers and lions reign supreme, not the jackals. The jackals are sure to howl, that is their nature; but the tigers and lions will not be frightened."
"If we understand democracy as a system that gives ordinary people a meaningful way to participate in the formation of public policy, rather than just a role in ratifying decisions made by the powerful, then it's clear that capitalism and democracy are mutually exclusive."
We know that capitalism is not just the most sensible way to organize an economy but is now the only possible way to organize an economy. We know that dissenters to this conventional wisdom can, and should, be ignored. There's no longer even any need to persecute such heretics; they are obviously irrelevant.
How do we know all this? Because we are told so, relentlessly -- typically by those who have the most to gain from such a claim, most notably those in the business world and their functionaries and apologists in the schools, universities, mass media, and mainstream politics. Capitalism is not a choice, but rather simply is, like a state of nature. Maybe not like a state of nature, but the state of nature. To contest capitalism these days is like arguing against the air that we breathe. Arguing against capitalism, we're told, is simply crazy.
We are told, over and over, that capitalism is not just the system we have, but the only system we can ever have. Yet for many, something nags at us about such a claim. Could this really be the only option?
"Others, more fortunate, toiled as slave labour in a score of Allied countries, often for years. Incredibly, some Germans were still being held in Russia as late as 1979."
Nigel Jones reviews After the Reich: From the Liberation of Vienna to the Berlin Airlift by Giles MacDonogh
Giles MacDonogh is a bon viveur and a historian of wine and gastronomy, but in this book, pursuing his other consuming interest - German history - he serves a dish to turn the strongest of stomachs. It makes particularly uncomfortable reading for those who compare the disastrous occupation of Iraq unfavourably to the post-war settlement of Germany and Austria.
MacDonogh argues that the months that followed May 1945 brought no peace to the shattered skeleton of Hitler's Reich, but suffering even worse than the destruction wrought by the war. After the atrocities that the Nazis had visited on Europe, some degree of justified vengeance by their victims was inevitable, but the appalling bestialities that MacDonogh documents so soberly went far beyond that. The first 200 pages of his brave book are an almost unbearable chronicle of human suffering.
MOSCOW (IPS) - Squeezed between political change and budgetary difficulties, federal and regional trade unions are beginning to lose large numbers of active members. At many workplaces unions simply do not exist.
Russia was the fountainhead of a worldwide workers movement for long, following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.
Experts blame politicians who are warning workers against active involvement in politics.
"The political shift is taking its toll on our efforts towards a membership drive," Valery Kravchov, spokesman for the Federation of Independent Trade Unions told IPS. "People are afraid to participate in public rallies and demonstrations these days."
