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

Source: The Baffler

At about the beginning of this decade, mass-market mindfulness rolled out of the Bay Area like a brand new app. Very much like an app, in fact, or a whole swarm of apps. Previous self-improvement trends had been transmitted via books, inspirational speakers, and CDs; now, mindfulness could be carried around on a smartphone. There are hundreds of them, these mindfulness apps, bearing names like Smiling Mind and Buddhify. A typical example features timed stretches of meditation, as brief as one minute, accompanied by soothing voices, soporific music, and images of forests and waterfalls. read more