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Peepli Live is a remarkable film for many reasons, the least of which is that it deals with farmers’ suicides.

 History is repeating itself in West Bengal, with Maoists, the Trinamool and the Congress doing what they had done in the late 60's and early 70's. And it will not be history repeating itself, first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce. This time around, it will be a much bigger tragedy.

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister visited India recently. His visit caused much more of a flutter in Pakistan than in India. They are still livid with his statement in Delhi that Pakistan is exporting terror. After Zardari's visit to London, both Cameron and Zardari have now decided to forget what was said in Delhi about Pakistan. We will have to wait and see what really happens. In India, the main issue on Cameron's visit was how to pronounce his name – most people called him Cameroon, and not Cameron. May be a hangover of the World Cup. In any case, what is in a name – the foreign media insists on calling Manmohan Singh – Man-Mohaan Singh, though we shudder to think what they will do to Delhi's Chief Minister during the reporting of the Commonwealth Games.

On the 22 of April, ironically being observed world over as Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig drilling in Gulf of Mexico, blew up killing 11 workers and creating one of the worst oil spills in history. The oil well being drilled off the coast of Louisiana was owned British Petroleum (BP). The well which has been temporarily capped now, spilled an estimated 5-9 million barrels or an equivalent of one Exxon Valdez every 3-5 days. Exxon Valdez was the tanker, which had sunk off the Alaskan coast in 1989 and is held as the benchmark on oil spills in the oceans.

July 9 2010, New Delhi – Boycott initiatives grow across India - from the dockworkers to the academics - as the global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) marks the fifth anniversary since Palestinian political and social forces launched a united call for BDS against Israel.

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. Mahatma Gandhi Editorial, The Harijan, 26-11-1938

tere aaqa ne kiyaa ek filistin barbaad mere zakhmoN ne kiye kitne filistin aabaad Your master brought to ruin one Palestine But so many Palestines have been greened by my wounds

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

In 1933 Diego Rivera (1886-1957), completed his Detroit Industry fresco cycle. The abundant, controversial work, considered one the twentieth century’s outstanding achievements of monumental art, covers the four walls of the Garden Court in the Detroit Institute of Art. The murals illustrate the dignity of the worker in relation to the history of technology - from its origins in agriculture to the factory floor of a Ford auto plant. The most intriguing aspect of the murals lies hidden within the outline of a gigantic stamping press on the South Wall: the press intimates a resemblance to the Aztec deity Coatlicue - the goddess of creation and destruction. Through the image Rivera suggests that in the 1930s the deity revealed herself, in all
of her contradictions, as technology. The murals present us with the latter’s dual nature - factories and smokestacks, passenger planes and war planes, vaccines and poison gas - implying that technical progress always offers us the choice between self-immolation or an increase in human flourishing. The obvious question that the Detroit Industry fresco cycle poses to us is what would the eminent artist design if asked to do a contemporary version of the murals? How would he depict the tragedy and possibility of a city and country – with a heroic history of activism – that has been steadily crippled by a generation of neoliberal economic policies?

 

Retired Judge Hadassa Ben-Itto stated candidly in a conference in London that Israeli state has to learn from the Nazis. Not the first ranking Israeli to make this suggestion, and certainly she will not be the last. The fact that she is a retired judge does not say anything; we all know the "structural flaws" in the so-called Israeli justice system that the Goldstone report referred to, concluding that the system cannot be trusted to administer justice according to international standards.

The Israeli regime has now agreed to lift partially the blockade of Gaza: potato chips, mattresses, washing machines, honey – all of which were banned earlier can now enter Gaza. Predictably, the US and EU Governments have welcomed this Israeli step, without questioning the military significance of the earlier banning potato chips. Nor have these leaders of the “civilized world”, continuously teaching the virtues of human rights and democracy to their more “backward brethren” in the global south, questioned what is the military significance of banning Gaza exports and preventing exit of students to study in the West Bank? How do Gaza’s exports affect Israel’s security? How do preventing Gaza students from studying in the West Bank increase its security?

The climate negotiations at Copenhangen appear to have set the trend for future climate talks in more senses than one. One is of course very much aware of the Copenhagen Accord, the product of a last-minute face-off between the United States and the major developing countries at the highest political level. We are also aware that despite its not being an official UNFCCC resolution, the text of the Copenhagen accord nevertheless casts a shadow over the future of climate negotiations.