On 27th April 2013, Newsclick.in turned 4. To celebrate four years of independent, alternative and in-depth analysis of news and issues, we invited our friends, well-wishers and supporters to a see what we have been up to.

The event kicked off with writer and journalist Vijay Prashad's talk on the immediate and important need of serious, “low-octane” journalism.

Syria has seen some changes recently. The Head of Syria’s main opposition coalition, Mouaz Alkhatib, says he is ready to talk with representatives of President Bashar al-Assad’s government and for the first time has not made the pre-condition that Assad has to go. Do the recent developments reflect a realisation that there could be no military resolution to the Syrian conflict?

“The rearing and guiding of a civilization must depend upon its intellectual class.”B. R. Ambedkar, Ranade, Gandhi and Jinnah, 1943.

Delhi.

Prof. Vijay Prashad discusses with Prof. Aijaz Ahmad the recent developments in the war-torn African country of Mali. On January 11 this year, the French troops launched an offensive on Mali. Prof. Prashad questions the so-called "humanitarian visions" of France and places the French bombardement in Mali in the category of "resource wars". Prof. Ahmad calls the French involvement as "an old colonial hangover" and also, a strategy of expanding the Euro-American military presence in the African continent. Is Mali another Afghanistan in the making?

Prof. Vijay Prashad discusses with NewsClick the developments taking place in Syria. He says the humanitarian situation inside and outside Syria (of Syrian refugees) is abysmal. Prof. Prashad says US is bleeding Syria, as it is difficult to tackle it militarily because Syria has built up a formidable air defense system..

Our enemies did not cross our borders

They crept through our weakness like ants.

-- Nizar Qabbani, “Footnotes to the Book of Setback”

(‘ala Daftar al-Naksah), 1967.

III. Western Plans.

Our enemies did not cross our borders

They crept through our weakness like ants.

-- Nizar Qabbani, “Footnotes to the Book of Setback”

(Hawamesh ‘ala Daftar al-Naksah), 1967.

II. Neighbors.

Vijay Prashad (author, "Arab Spring, Libyan Winter") talks to GRITtv's Laura Flanders about the vote to give enhanced status to Palestine at the UN. The US and Israel have to face a new reality in the Middle East says Prashad.

In conversation with Newsclick, Vijay Prashad analyzes the American Occupy Wall Street movement and the Tea Party movement.