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I have seen this in USA and now after returning to India have seen the same trend here, where the emergence of 24 hr news channels has created fear and paranoia among the public. Whether it be swine flu, terrorism or the most recent example of the blow up of the conspiracy theory regarding YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s murder.
In USA, the mainstream news channels do not question the government and are all controlled by corporations. These corporations manipulate the news and only show what is needed. It was evident in the way the government controlled all the news media and created a hysteria using lies to attack Iraq. Now they have found their latest fear topic “Yemen” after the december 25th failed terrorist attack. You may laugh at it but to see real news you have to watch comedy central’s The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They use comedy as a guise to tell the truth.
In India, the news was fairly independent till the 90′s. But with capitalism taking root, more and more 24 hr news channels are being opened by corporations and politicians to spread their opinion and control the public opinion. All the newspapers are aligned with one political party or the other and show news through their views and not with an independent non-partisan view.
During the recent swine flu outbreak, everyday the newspapers and news channels will show images of people wearing masks and use sensational headlines that people are living in fear. Out of the 3 months of that news, I saw may be one person wearing mask in public and used to wonder where do these people get these images from, do they stage manage them?
The general public needs to understand this and stop watching news channels which spread lies and hatred.
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THIS IS A RE-POST AS THE ORIGINAL WEBSITE IS DOWN
What does the mysterious helicopter crash that killed one of India’s most popular politicians have to do with White House economic czar Larry Summers? Read on…
First, the crash: one of India’s most popular politicians, who heads the state of Andhra Pradesh, just died in a mysterious helicopter crash. What’s eerie is that the dead politician recently went public attacking India’s most powerful oligarch family, the Ambanis, threatening to take away their giant offshore gas concessions. Meanwhile the Ambani brothers, Mukesh (the world’s 7th richest man) and Anil (the world’s 34 richest) are battling each other in a blood feud that’s taking the whole country down with them–that’s not a hornet’s nest you’d want to stick your fingers into, even if you’re the governor of a huge Indian province. The Ambani brothers’ feud peaked in May when Anil’s helicopter was found to have been sabotaged just before takeoff . Anil strongly hinted he suspected Mukesh, but no one will ever know who did it, because the mechanic who discovered the dirt and gravel in Anil Ambani’s helicopter gear box was hit by a train two days later in what was initially ruled as a “suicide,” but which later was ruled murder.
So why would an Ambani have anything to do with the mysterious helicopter crash of Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy? Just speculatin’ on a hypothesis, as the police chief says in Miller’s Crossing, and here’s why:
Just over a month ago, as the Ambani brothers’ insane internecine war over offshore gas deposits dragged on with no end in sight, Reddy publicly demanded that his state, Andhra Pradesh, take a share of the gas deposits for itself:
Even as the two Ambani brothers are locked in a legal battle over supply and price of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin, the Andhra Pradesh government has sought its “due share” of the hydrocarbon asset.
He even attacked the brothers’ mother, who brokered the deal dividing up India’s gas between her feuding sons:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Sunday said that the settlement of the gas dispute between the Ambani brothers could not be left to their mother Kokilaben and the Centre must play a decisive role, for which he has written to the Prime Minister.
“The dispute over sharing of gas is not an issue to be settled by (the) mother (Kokilaben). It is for the government to decide who should get the gas and also at what price,” Reddy said on the sidelines of a function here.
Ah, Y.S., you shouldn’ta attacked their mother. Next thing you know…Reddy’s deady.
Oh, and by the way, don’t forget this one little fun-fact: Larry Summers, the guy appointed by Obama to run America’s economy, worked for Mukesh Ambani right up until he took his White House job. We’re in good hands, folks.
Mark Ames is the author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion from Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine.
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After the recent KCR drama for separate Telangana, his call for all Andhra people to leave Telangana and MNS call for non-Marathi’s to leave Mumbai, I was wondering why all these politicians want to divide the existing states into smaller ones or tell people where they are supposed to live. Do they all forget that we are part of India and every Indian has a right to choose where they want to live.
States should be just administrative areas and nothing more. May be we should have started with small states in the beginning itself instead of diving them on linguistic basis, but once formed no one should be allowed to break them into pieces as this creates disunity among Indians. People start forgetting that they are Indians first and will fight with other Indians on these petty issues. If some parts of a state are backward in comparison to other, then these politicians instead of asking for a separate state should first of all find the cause of the problem and then try to solve it.
For thousands of years people have been migrating to places where they have an opportunity to improve their and their family’s lives. Stopping that is not possible, whether it be for MNS, TRS or ULFA and many more such organizations. Immigrants, settlers or non-locals, whatever you may call them by bring new ideas, innovations, culture and development with them. Without human migrations a civilization becomes stagnant and then rots very quickly causing its destruction. Instead of arguing that a non-local has taken a job away from a local, why not look at the fact that these non-locals use local services, spend their money locally and in turn create more jobs which will help many more locals find employment.
All these dramas and agitations by these parties are nothing but to grab power so they can swindle public money and make their families and relatives rich at the expense of the very locals who ignorantly support them.
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We have been hearing reports from Pakistan media of India helping the freedom fighters of Balochistan in destabilising Pakistan. The reports also suggest Pakistan Taliban is getting help from India. I have only one word to describe this: “Paranoia”. Instead of addressing their self created problems, they want to blame it on someone else. The only thing that has been holding Pakistan together is the hate for India and the politicians of Pakistan know how to use it to keep the people in control.
One should see the Pakistan media discussions on this issue, it is mind boggling and sometimes funny how they talk as if this is all true. Do they even live in realty. Pakistan along with US have created, funded, armed and trained Taliban. Maybe they should see the movie Frankenstein to know what happens in the end if you create a monster. If and when India does decide to destabilize Pakistan, it would not even take a couple of years with the right strategy.
Don’t think the Indian politicians or the RAW have the brains or the willingness to destabilize Pakistan and brake it into smaller independent countries. The all powerful Indian intelligence agency RAW only exists in the imagination of Pakistanis. It is an agency that is incompetent and it could not predict the Kargil war, attack on Parliament, attack on Mumbai…just to name a few. Is India involved in Balochistan to give the oppressed people independence from Pakistan, I WISH.
The Pakistanis are giving more publicity for the issue of the freedom of Balochistan in the world and in the end might cause it to break away just like Bangladesh. Who even heard of people fighting for freedom in Balochistan a year ago or even knew a province with that name existed.
On a different note, while watching Pakistani media discussions on YouTube I saw the comedic and paranoid defence analyst of Pakistan media, Zaid Hamid saying in an interview that he is for the unification of India and Pakistan if the new country is called Pakistan. Maybe 10 years back the talk of unification of India and Pakistan would have been acceptable (if it was called India). But not after the attack on India’s parliament, the heart of our democracy. Who in their right senses would want to unite India which will be the world’s 3rd biggest ecocnomy in a few decades with Pakistan that is begging for economic aid from America and Europe.
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Three American hikers were detained a few months back by the Iranians on the Iran-Iraq border while they were hiking and charged with spying on Iran. They are being allowed visits by the Swiss Ambassador in Tehran as America does not have diplomatic relations with Iran. He brings them books and other stuff. Now we see a world wide (western media) outrage at Iranians for arresting these three hikers.
I understand the three hikers may most probably be innocent and crossed into Iran by accident. But let me ask just one question. If three Iranian hikers were hiking in the Canadian Rockies. If they cross the border and enter US by mistake. And they are captured by Americans. What will happen to them?
They will be taken to Guantanamo and detained as enemy combatants. They would never get a fair trial, will be tortured (or should I say questioned using Enhanced Interrogation techniques) and detained for ever. They will not be allowed visits by anyone. And all of this will be acceptable to the western media.
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There is a general feeling that China will be easily able to defeat India if there is ever a war between the two countries. This seems to originate from what happened in the 1962 war. My thought is that if China ever decides to attack India, it will have to face the more matured Indian military which has been fighting and winning wars since 1962. Meanwhile the Chinese have lost a border war with Vietnam. The soldiers of PLA (People’s Liberation Army) do not have any real war experience when compared to Indian Army which fought and won the Kargil war in a mountainous terrain. And the motivation of the people of free India to repel an attack would be more as witnessed after the 26/11 terrorist attacks. People including me will volunteer in the millions to fight such a war, whereas China will force its oppressed people to join the PLA and fight the war. Even when India was an occupied country during World War II, we had the largest volunteer army in the world while America and other countries had to use the draft to make their people to fight.
I am not going to say India will defeat China or China will defeat India. It will all be decided by the terrain the war is fought in, how widespread the war will be, and the resolve of the people to fight a long and costly war.
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Nobody seems to know what actually happens when Pakistan takes military action against the Taliban whether it be in Swat Valley or in South Waziristan. The press is not allowed and they do not show any dead bodies of either Taliban or the Army. All we see are videos released by Pakistan army of their soldiers firing their artillery and mortars. Some videos show vehicles burned out in the street. The Taliban says they are killing hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and Pakistan army says its killing hundreds of Taliban. Without a third source to corroborate anything, it makes me wonder if there is actually any real fighting going on. This could be a big staged show for the world and the US will as usual get fooled by the Pakistanis.
And the funny part is the Pakistan leaders keep saying the military operations will be taken to their logical conclusion, whatever that means.
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I always thought the use of IAF and ISRO to fight the naxals was a bad idea and luckily there was enough common sense in the congress government to decide against it. Different strategies have to be used when fighting a local insurgency and foreign sponsored terrorists. The government can and should be able to use any branch of the Indian Military to fight terrorists. Their methods in tackling them should also not be restricted by the human rights organizations. The constitutional rights given to Indian citizens do not apply to terrorists, so even torture should be permitted if needed. But when handling an insurgency like naxals, they are still Indian citizens and will have rights under the Indian constitution even if they do not believe in it. Only the police force should be used against them and torture should not be allowed.
When we use IAF against our own people, then there is a chance of escalation. The naxals may gain popular support which they have lost recently. It would also make them desperate and might force them to attack civilian targets in towns and cities. This would lead to a never ending cycle of violence.
A terrorist can never be negotiated with, but an insurgent can be dealt through talks as most of their reasons to fight are political.
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This was a shocking news to hear. In my opinion he does not deserve a Nobel Peace prize so soon. The standards of this commitee have fallen so low that they are now giving out the award based on an anticipation that he will do something in the future.
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