Whatever it is, it isn’t a free and fair Afghan election. At least the media are finally admitting it (Thus passim) even if the reason is largely the upsurge in military casualties. Saturday’s lethal car bomb outside NATO headquarters in Kabul was a cynical signal from the Taliban that they can more or less get [...]
Tag Archives: India
Let's hope we've seen the last of the Tamil Tigers, and of liberal interventionist hypocrisy
May 18, 2009 – 1:43 pm
Today, Sri Lankan authorities declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), claiming that Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed while attempting to escape the war zone in an ambulance which crashed. His sons were killed earlier. Prabhakaran had urged the last remaining Tigers to swallow cyanide pills. It appears he neglected to [...]
Its the environment, stupid…
May 3, 2009 – 6:56 am
The recent revival of Marx on the Continent is causing a lot of chatter. Das Kapital is now selling like the latest batch of hot cakes, proving that even commies prefer to own the book. Ironic because they could watch David Harvey’s lecture series on Das Kapital online for free.
By Daniel Taghioff.
This development has [...]
Thus predicts at least some of these predictions will come true
April 11, 2009 – 5:17 pm
. . . the problem is we don’t know which and in what order . . . .
A close friend, far richer and better-informed than I (not difficult) sent me some completely speculative global economic notes, which he admits depend upon force majeure and all that. See how many you agree with. I personally think [...]
Adaptation, not mitigation, is the fairest way to address climate change effects
March 31, 2009 – 2:33 pm
The poor must use every form of leverage they can find to get the support they need to survive climate change. Control of land is key. By Daniel Taghioff, India.
Foolish people have argued that there is a choice between preventing the worst effects of climate change and adapting to unavoidable changes, despite compelling evidence, such as [...]
Oil on troubled waters
February 5, 2009 – 8:25 pm
We need to double food production, but we’re running out of oil and water. Obviously the market will sort this one out…
By Daniel Taghioff, India
When the Food and Agricultural Organisation says that another 40 million were pushed into hunger in 2008, what images spring into your mind? Is it possible to imagine that many people [...]
So, where are the poor in the Brave New World?
January 13, 2009 – 3:03 pm
Authors and filmmakers can answer this question but policy makers and pundits seem not to have a clue. Perhaps it’s because they see them as statistics, not people. By Daniel Taghioff, India.
Aravind Adiga’s Booker winner White Tiger and Danny Boyle’s Golden-Globe-harvesting film Slumdog Millionaire (based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A) illustrate [...]
Ignoring India's poverty is a recipe for nuclear Armageddon
December 19, 2008 – 3:14 pm
Thank God for George Bush. He laughs in the face of fear as he gives more nukes to the country with the most hungry people in it. And the funny bit is that despite parts of the American Christian right actually jockeying for Armegeddon, he probably achieved all this by mistake, and in the process he [...]
A raga of Tata, Land Rover and Jaguar, as British as Tetley's Tea
December 18, 2008 – 1:55 pm
Margaret Thatcher privatised Jaguar in 1984 to howls of protest from people who liked big rusty cars that broke down a lot. Ford bought the brand for $2.5 billion in 1990, to more howls from Bufton Tufton (67) stalwart of the Enoch Powell Golf Club, Jaguar’s only customer. Sales fell to around 15,000 units a [...]
Take me to the river…
November 30, 2008 – 2:17 pm
As the furore over Mumbai resolves into Indian rage towards Pakistan, it is worth taking a step back to look at what the tensions between these countries are about. Traditional explanations centre around partition, and about the holy status of Kashmir in the Hindu imaginary as a place of heaven, portrayed as a form of [...]