Month: May 2015

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

Enough of this narrative of powerlessness. The actions of a minority can still make all the difference

Lots of people eagerly study all the polls and reports on how many people believe that climate change is real and urgent. They seem to think there is some critical mass that, through the weight of belief alone, will get us where we want to go. As if when the numbers aren’t high enough, we can’t achieve anything. As if when the numbers are high enough, beautiful transformation will magically happen all by itself or people will vote for wonderful politicians who do the right thing. read more

Source: The Hindu

The writer-activist observes that the Left needs an intellectual re-evaluation of the role played by caste in Indian society.

The fortunes of the Left in India are not going to change dramatically just by effecting a change in its leadership.

Writer Arundhati Roy, who was in Chennai to receive the “Ambedkar Sudar” award conferred by the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, was pessimistic about the chances of the Left emerging as a credible opposition to the politics of the Hindu Right, which has sought to combine communal polarisation with corporate-driven economic development.

As the Hindu Right seeks to appropriate B.R. Ambedkar even while pursuing the campaign of ghar wapsi, she observes that the Left needs an intellectual re-evaluation of the role played by caste in Indian society. read more

Source: Media Coop

In 2004, Klein and his PC party won a 62-seat majority in the Alberta legislature. Rather than being the nail in the coffin of a cruel and morally bankrupt political ideology, Klein’s visit to the shelter became the stuff of political legend, cementing Alberta’s self-image as the radical champion of individualism, the free market, and total alignment with the oil industry. read more