The Voices of Amazon Women and a Visionary Declaration to Protect Indigenous Lands

by Osprey Orielle Lake

Common Dreams | November 18, 2018

“We are connected to the spirit of the jungle through dreams,” says Narcisa Gualinga, pictured. “But when there is contamination, this connection is lost and the spirits die. Without them, we cannot be well, our children and future generations will no longer have this life. This was taught to us by our ancestors and we have passed this on to our children, who are now taking on this work through this proposal.” (Photo: Sophie Pinchetti)

As we face the daunting reality of the climate crisis unraveling all around us, including the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which warns that we only have a dozen years remaining to radically change our current trajectory to prevent disastrous ecological and social harms, there is a shimmer of light and hope radiating out from the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon sparked by the Kichwa People of Sarayaku.

India: In the absence of Aadhaar, starvation deaths continue in Jharkhand

 Press Release

Countercurrents.org | November 19, 2018

At least two more persons died of starvation in Jharkhand in the last 25 days. This takes the total number of hunger deaths in the state to 17, since September 2017. The most recent victim is 45-year old Kaleshwar Soren who died of hunger and destitution on 11 November in Mahuatanr village of Jama block of Dumka district. A fact finding team of the Right to Food Campaign, Jharkhand found that the ration card of Kaleshwar’s family was cancelled as it was not linked with Aadhaar.

India: To Put an End to Manual Scavenging, We Need to Change Public Discourse Around It

by Pranil Yodha

The Wire | November 19, 2018

A manual scavenger in Chennai. Credit: Flickr/Sharda Prasad CS

Rajesh and Tilak Raj were young boys in their early 20s, hailing from Below Poverty Line families. They must have had dreams, like any other young men of their age. They must have had some aspirations. But the poor and the oppressed cannot even afford to dream for long. Like always, reality got in the way.

Farewell to Kepler, the First Great Planet-Hunter

by Prakash Chandra

The Wire | November 19, 2018

NASA Kepler against the backdrop of outer space, with an oil-paint filter. Credit: NASA

NASA has called time on its iconic Kepler Space Telescope. It was the most prolific planet-hunter ever engineered by humans, and it out of fuel after nearly a decade of amazing discoveries. The timing of NASA’s bidding Kepler goodbye – November 15, 2018 – coincides with the 388th death anniversary of Johannes Kepler, the German mathematician discovered the laws of planetary motion. It was after him that the doughty little spacecraft was named.

India: Fifty years of a state-led murder

by Asok Chattopadhyay

Frontier | November 14, 2018

A minstrel of Indian revolution, a dream-haunted for the emancipation of mankind sang in his Maluku Maluku:
Lo, the Sun line red is physically seen in the East, a call for rendering a radical change is winding; lo, the downtrodden are crying for, it’s the time to respond to them…

These lines are more than enough to have the translation of the philosophical outlook of the poet. And this poet was none other than Subbarao Panigrahi.

India: A Forgotten Hero: Remembering Ashfaqullah Khan

by Nikhat Fatima

Frontier | Vol. 51, No.20, Nov 18 – 24, 2018

October 23, 2018 marked the 117th birth anniversary of Ashfaqullah Khan, one among the many forgotten heroes of India’s Freedom fighters. Born to Shafiqur Rahman and Mazharunissa in the year 1900, in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Ashfaqullah showed a keenness to join the freedom movement of India right from his school days. He was in school when Gandhi made a public call for people to join the Non-Cooperation Movement and many youths with a fire for independence in their bellies wanted to join this movement to free India.

During this time, the unexpected firings and death of civilians at the Chauri Chaura incident, resulted in Gandhi calling off the Non-Cooperation action disappointing many among whom was Ashfaqullah. His dismay at events transpiring around him, and his dwindling faith in non-violent strategies, led to his affiliation with the revolutionary group, Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), led by Ram Prasad Bismil.

Badhaai Ho, a different Hindi film

by Radhakanta Barik

Frontier | November 17, 2018

Indian society is having the majority of population between 30 to sixty years. This is the demographic gift to Indian society who is in a productive ag. They are adding to wealth by doing value addition. They are the most reproductive age group who sustains our civilization by having children. Both in economic sense and demographic sense their contribution cannot be underplayed. But our Bollywood which produces the largest number of films every year in the world do not speak about them. Their silence is mischievous and negative to our cultural world. Cultural production is being done by actors belonging to these age groups. But the problems they want to express only about the young or youth rather than their problems.  Art and literature carry their experiences as they are the matured artists to write something new. They portray the world around them. Film makers do not want to take their problems and conflicts in our society. This is an artistic dilemma. All the middle aged actors want to dance around the tree and sing a romantic song rather than sing a song expressing their feelings of the world. In the film Badhaai Ho hit the screens a couple of weeks ago. These actors Gajraj Rao and Neena Gupta both want to speak in the film a story of their age group. They have crossed fifty having two adult children but having an active sexual life which is disapproved by the neighborhood and kith and kin. They live in a government quarter with small rooms to themselves and one bed in the drawing room for their mother. Their children both live in another separate room. Both of them while in their room feel more sexually excited while enjoying the rains outside. Rain drops falling on the glass pane of their windows. As husband wife they feel romantic which ends in having sex with each other. This is a natural activity but leading to pregnancy of his wife.