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Venezuela: counter-revolutionary provocations ignite revolutionary ferment

10 Thursday Dec 2015

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Written by Jorge MartínThursday, 10 December 2015

With 53% of the votes the Venezuelan opposition has managed to secure 112 seats in the National Assembly. This gives them a sweeping two third majority and wide ranging powers. Drunk with victory and seething with revenge, they have started to announce plans to reverse every single one of the gains of the Bolivarian revolution. This has provoked ferment amongst the revolutionary rank and file, which at the same time is directing part of their anger at bureaucrats and reformists within its own ranks.

caracas3The final results of the December 6 National Assembly elections in Venezuela have now been announced. The opposition MUD received 7.7 million votes (53%) for the Bolivarian parties 5.6 million (40%). Due to the way the Venezuelan electoral system works this has guaranteed the opposition a two thirds majority in the new parliament where they have 109 deputies as well as 3 indigenous representation deputies which also went to the opposition.

On the night of the election the representatives of the reactionary opposition started to announce the measures they would implement. These included the rollback of all the key laws passed by the Bolivarian movement in power. The different bosses organisations (Fedecamaras, Consecomercio, Fedenaga), feeling that they were now back in the saddle, demanded the repeal or “reform” of the Law on Fair Prices, the Labour Law (in order “to make it more business friendly”) and the Health and Safety at Work law. The landowners demanded the repeal of the Land Law (passed by Chavez in 2001) and the devolution of all expropriated latifundia. An opposition deputy for Carabobo announced they would privatise all expropriated factories. The opposition mayor of Baruta stated that they would privatise the Caracas water supply company Hidrocapital, as well as the electricity company Corpoelec.

Ramos Allup, the leader of one of the traditional parties of the oligarchy (AD), set the tone by attacking the National Assembly TV, threatening its very existence, and announcing a constitutional coup against the president. “This government will not finish its term” were his words. He also announced a freeze on the level of pensions and a freeze on the number of pensioners. Furthermore, the opposition has already announced a purge of all the state institutions, including the National Electoral Council, the Supreme Court of Justice, etc. The ruling class feels confident and are going onto the offensive to recover all the levers of state power they had lost control of over the last 10 or 15 years.

To add insult to injury, the executive secretary of the opposition MUD, Chuo Torrealba, threatened to remove Chavez’s remains from the Cuartel de la Montaña in the 23 de Enero parish.

All of this has provoked great uneasiness amongst the Bolivarian masses who at the same time are discussing the reasons for the defeat. It is clear that even a layer of people who voted for the opposition are now opening their eyes to what the rule of the right wing will really entail.

Even within the opposition itself there are serious splits about the way forward, particularly between the “moderate” wing, represented by Capriles, and the “insurrectionary” wing, represented at the moment by people like Ramos Allup and Chuo Torrealba. Behind Allup and Torrealba stand Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo Lopez. In a typical fashion they are already at each others’ throats fighting for the loot.

After the initial shock of the defeat, Bolivarian activists in the neighbourhoods and in the workplaces have started to react. Comrades report that there are meetings being organised everywhere, in a semi-spontaneous fashion, to discuss the reasons for the defeat but also to organise the resistance against the counter-revolutionary assault.

A comrade who works for Movilnet, the cellular telephony operator owned by state-owned CANTV (renationalised by Chavez in 2007), reports that there is great ferment amongst the workers. They fear (for good reason) political reprisals and even privatisation. They are getting organised and have established a skeleton of workers’ committees in each department of the company. “There is a very militant mood. The people are mobilising and getting organised at a very high level. There are meetings taking place in the streets and in the workplaces. In Movilnet yesterday we set up 14 cells which will became the organised structure of the workers”. Similar meetings are taking place in government institutions, ministries and state-owned companies.

Workers at the National Assembly TV started to mobilise against the threats of the opposition and received solidarity from workers at other state-owned media outlets (Vive, AlbaCiudad, VTV, etc) who also fear a political vendetta. President Maduro took the step of handing over the broadcasting licence to the workers themselves, so that the National Assembly TV will now be under workers’ management and out of bounds for the new National Assembly majority. In the same vein, president Maduro has announced the transfer of ownership of the Cuartel de la Montaña to a Foundation, “so that it belongs to the people and can’t be touched”. These measures have been welcomed by activists, though some are saying that had similar measures been taken before, then they wouldn’t have been defeated!

Workers at nationalised paper factory Invepal, the first company to be expropriated by Chavez back in 2004, have already rejected any threats of privatisation and announced they will defend themselves.

caracas4On Wednesday the 9th of December, the social movements in Caracas called for an open meeting outside the National Assembly that they described as a Parliament in the Streets. Hundreds of activists representing many organisations attended the meeting and took turns to speak to analyse the reasons for the defeat and what to do next. (Picture gallery)

caracas

Comrades from Lucha de Clases, the Venezuelan section of the IMT, report the general thread running through all these interventions were: “1) the masses are not to blame for the defeat, 2) corruption and lack of efficiency of the government and institutions is to blame, 3) they are asking that Maduro should sit down to discuss with the rank and file, not with the right wing nor the capitalists, 4) there’s talk of expropriation and nationalisation and 5) heads of ministers and vice-ministers should roll”

caracas2Another comrade made some very interesting observations about the mood of those present at the Caracas assembly: “It is worth noting that this mobilisation was not organised by the bureaucracy, no free food or drinks were handed out, no one was expecting to be given a Canaima tablet, this is the real chavismo, the rank and file one, sick and tired of reformism, bureaucracy and corruption. We demanded the deepening of the revolution. As more and more people kept coming, we recognised our strength and the mood become one of joy. Carmona’s and the IMF’s dogs should be aware that the people will be in the streets defending its rights and conquests. The mood is increasingly revolutionary, the youth is fighting for a space within the party.” (Picture gallery)

soldiers-waving-flagThe assembly then marched all the way to the presidential Miraflores Palace. When they arrived, soldiers guarding the Palacio Blanco (opposite Miraflores) came out of the fences and greeted them. They also listened attentively to the speeches. Some of the soldiers went to the roof of the palace and greeted the assembly by waving a huge Venezuelan flag. This was a very significant gesture as everyone present was aware that it repeated what had happened after the defeat of the coup in April 2002. It was a powerful symbol of the unity between the revolutionary people and the ranks of the Bolivarian army.  (Picture gallery)

It is worth noting that the anger of the masses was not only directed at ministers and vice-ministers. There was also criticism of the recall PSUV congress which has been called for December the 10th and 11th. Speakers pointed out that, in fact, the delegates, which are those of the previous congress,  should all resign as they too are responsible for the defeat. Let us remember that a large part of that congress was made up of local mayors, regional governors, etc. Those at the assembly questioned the fact that the congress was going to take place at the Alba Hotel. “Why are they not meeting in the streets, with us, with the PSUV rank and file members” said one of the participants in the assembly.

Not only are these people are out of touch with the mood of the masses but, as a matter of fact, their program is completely utopian. The reactionary MUD wants no compromise. What they want, as they have made clear, is to roll back all the conquests of the revolution. As a matter of fact, it is precisely this policy of appeals to the “good will” of the ruling class which led to the electoral defeat.

If, as it seems, the counter-revolution goes on an all out offensive against the conquests of the Bolivarian movement, then there will be a counter-reaction.

The main tasks of the revolutionary movement should now be:

1) To make a sharp balance sheet of the reasons for the defeat. The masses of the people are not to blame. Bureaucracy, corruption and reformism are responsible.

2) The revolutionary movement should re-arm itself with a clear revolutionary program of expropriating the oligarchy and planning of the economy under the democratic control of working people in order to solve the pressing economic difficulties facing the masses.

3) All conquests of the revolution should be defended at all levels.

The Venezuelan revolutionary masses have not yet said the last word.

Courtesy :marxist.com

Review PHR Act to make Human Rights Commissions more effective: Chief Justice of India

10 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in Current Affairs, NATIONAL NEWS, Social Inclusion

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New Delhi, 10th December, 2015

The Chief Justice of India, Mr. Justice T.S. Thakur has said that it is time that Parliament revisited the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 to make it more effective empowering the Human Rights Commissions in a manner that, if not all, to begin with, at least some of their recommendations are binding for the Governments.  He was addressing the Human Rights Day function of the NHRC, as a Chief Guest, in New Delhi today.

Referring to non-compliance of more than 600 recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Justice Thakur said that when a recommendation for a relief is made by a body like NHRC, having a former Chief Justice of India as its Chairperson, former Judge of Supreme Court and a former Chief Justice of High Court as its Members and two other Members of eminence, the least the Governments must do is to give a reasonable answer why the recommendations by the NHRC cannot be implemented.

Justice Thakur was reacting to the NHRC Acting Chairperson, Mr. Justice Cyriac Joseph’s observation that recommendations of the NHRC in 679 cases were not implemented by the different Governments and that many termed it to be a toothless or paper tiger.

He said the judiciary was not lagging behind in enforcing human rights and cited a number of cases wherein its interventions not only brought relief to the victims of human rights violations but also issues like clean environment and drinking water as enforceable rights within the ambit of Right to Life.  He said that some of the human rights should be placed a pedestal higher than the constitutional rights.

Observing that there were a number of deficiencies in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, Justice Thakur said that these needed to be looked into.  He pointed out that Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 has given the Governments mandate to set up Human Rights Courts but in order to make them functionally effective, the need is to identify some definite class of cases pertaining to offences against women, children and vulnerable sections of the society which can be heard by these Courts on a fast track basis.

Justice Thakur wondered why a city like Delhi should not have a Human Rights Commission.  He said and said that the Supreme Court has given six months’ time in July, 2015 to the Delhi Government to set up a Human Rights Commission and the response is awaited.

Justice Thakur lauded the role being played by the National Human Rights Commission towards protection and promotion of human rights.

Earlier, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. Kiren Rijiju, as a Guest of Honour, said that India is committed to protection and promotion of human rights and is party to several international Covenants on human rights.  He also agreed with Justice Cyriac Joseph’s observations and said that Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 needed to be reviewed.

Mr. Justice Cyriac Joseph, Acting Chairperson, NHRC, in his Presidential Address, said that protection of human rights is an obligation of the State.  The Judiciary, Legislature and Executive have to play an equal role in the protection and promotion of human rights.  He also said that the judiciary was better placed than the Human Rights Commissions to protect human rights as their orders were binding unlike the Commission’s.  Parliament, in its wisdom, thought it best to make Human Rights Commissions recommendatory bodies, though after a period of 22 years of NHRC’s existence and experience, it was desirable to make its recommendations binding.

The NHRC Acting Chairperson said that the Commission, during the last 22 years of its existence, registered more than 15 lakh 42 thousand cases out of which it disposed of more than 14 lakh 84 thousand cases.  It has recommended monetary relief of more than rupees 102 crore 20 lakh in 4328 cases. Out of this, in 3649 cases, more than rupees 74 crore 52 lakh were paid to the victims or their dependents.  He said that in 679 cases, the Governments had not accepted the Commission’s recommendations.  He lauded the role of Human Rights Defenders towards protection and promotion of human rights.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, in his message on Human Rights Day, read by Ms. Kiren Mehra Kerpelman, Director, UNIC – India & Bhutan said that “Amid large-scale atrocities and widespread abuses across the world, Human Rights Day should rally more concerted global action to promote the timeless principles that we have collectively pledged to uphold.”

Marking the Human Rights Day celebrations, prizes were given to the winners of NHRC’s Short Films on Human Rights Award Scheme.  These included, ‘The Rice Mill Story’ by Mr. Amith Krishnan, first prize of rupees one lakh, ‘Sapno Ka Basar’ by Aditya Kapur, second prize of rupees 75 thousand and ‘Kulfi’ by Vivek K.R., third prize of rupees 50 thousand.

Winners of painting competition for visually impaired children organised by the Commission were also given prizes.  They included, Master harsh Keshari, first prize of rupees 10 thousand, Kumari Elem, second prize of rupees eight thousand and Kumari Bhawana, third prize of rupees six thousand in the age group of 5 to 12 years.  In the age group of 12 to 18 years, first prize of rupees 10 thousand went to Kumari Sanjana, second prize of rupees eight thousand went to Master John Moses and third prize of rupees six thousand went to Kumari Vandana Gupta.

Justice T.S. Thakur also released five NHRC publications including a Trilingual Glossary of Human Rights Terms in English – Malayalam – Hindi.  He also opened NHRC’s photo and children’s paintings exhibition marking the Human Rights Day.

Several prominent dignitaries, including, among others, Judges of Supreme Court, High Courts, former Judges of Supreme Court, High Courts, UN representatives, diplomats, senior Government functionaries, civil society representatives, groups of specially privileged children, members of Para Military Forces, NHRC officers and staff attended the function.

ధర్మం కంటే కాలుష్య అధర్మం నుంచి గేట్స్‌కు లాభాలు ఎక్కువ

07 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by in Current Affairs, Economics, Environment, INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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ధర్మకర్తృత్వం-దాతల బండారం-5

ఎం కోటేశ్వరరావు

బలి ఇస్తే లంకెబిందెలు దొరుకుతాయని మోసగాళ్లు చెప్పిన మాట విని జంతువులనే కాదు ఏకంగా పిల్లలనే బలి ఇచ్చేవారిని చూస్తున్నాము. దాన ధర్మాలు చేస్తే పుణ్యం వస్తుందని నమ్మేవారు ఆ మార్గంలో పుణ్యం పొందాలంటే ఏం చేయాలి పర్మనెంటుగా తమ ముందు చేయిచాచే వారిని తయారు చేసుకుంటూ వుండాలి. మెక్సికోకు చెందిన కార్లోస్‌ సిమ్‌ ఇప్పుడు ప్రపంచంలో అందరికంటే ఎక్కువ ధనవంతుడు. అమెరికన్‌ బిల్‌గేట్స్‌ను మించిపోయాడు. అతగాడు దాతృత్వాన్ని ఒక పండ్ల చెట్లతో పోల్చాడు. మీరు పండ్ల చెట్లను దగ్గర వుంచుకొని పండ్లు మాత్రమే దానం చేయాలి తప్ప చెట్లను కాదు అన్నాడు. ఇతనితో సహా ధనవంతులు మరింత ధనవంతులు కావటాన్ని పేదలు మరింత పేదలుగా సంపదల పంపిణీలో అసమానతలను చూపే ప్రస్తుత వ్యవస్ధ తప్ప మరొకటి కాదు. అందుకే థామస్‌ పికెట్టి అనే ఫ్రెంచి ఆర్ధిక వేత్త ప్రపంచ ధనికులను హెచ్చరించాడు. ఇటీవలి కాలంలో ఎన్నడూ లేని విధంగా ఆర్ధిక అసమానతలు పెరిగాయి, ఇది సామాజిక అశాంతికి దారితీస్తుందని ముందస్తు హెచ్చరిక చేశాడు. అసమానతలు పెరిగాయని అంగీకరిస్తే దానికి కారణాలేమిటో చెప్పమని జనం నిలదీస్తారు. అప్పుడు విధానాల గురించి, పెట్టుబడిదారీ విధానమా, కమ్యూనిజమా ఏది కారణం అన్న చర్చ వస్తుంది. నూటికి 99 వేళ్లు పెట్టుబడిదారీ విధానంవైపే చూపుతాయి. అందువలన అనేక మంది పెట్టుబడిదారులు పికెట్టి మరీ ఎక్కువ చెప్పాడని తప్పించుకుంటున్నారు తప్ప చర్చలోకి దిగటం లేదు. లేదు అంటే వర్తమాన ఆర్ధిక సంక్షోభాలు ఏమిటి? దానికి కారణాలు ఏమిటని నిలదీస్తారు.అప్పుడూ అదే చర్చ జరపాలి. అందువలన ఈ త్రైమాసికం చూడూ ఈ త్రైమాసికం చూడు నీకు అభివృద్ది కనిపిస్తుంది అని గత ఏడు సంవత్సరాలుగా చెబుతూనే వున్నారు. బ్రిటీష్‌ విక్టోరియా రాణి కాలం 1837-1901 మధ్య కాలానికి నేటికి ఆదాయ అసమానతలు ఎలా వున్నాయో కొందరు చెబుతున్నారు. ఆ కాలంలో కేవలం 46 సంవత్సరాలు మాత్రమే బతికి ప్రఖ్యాత రచయిత ఆస్కార్‌ వైల్డ్‌ తన కాలంలోని దాతృత్వ తీరుతెన్నులను వర్ణించాడు.నాటి ధనవంతులు కూడా సమాజంలో ఇంత దారిద్య్రం వుందా, పేదలకు ఇన్ని కష్టాలు వున్నాయా అని మన బిల్‌గేట్స్‌, వారెన్‌బఫెట్‌, మార్క్‌ జుకెర్‌ బర్గ్‌ మాదిరిగానే పీపాల కొద్దీ కన్నీళ్లు కార్చారు. వైల్డ్‌ ఏమన్నారంటే నాటి ధనవంతులు సూచించిన పరిష్కార మార్గాలు సమాజంలోని జబ్బును నయం చేయలేదు, మరికొంత కాలం పొడిగించాయి. తగిన లక్ష్యం లేకపోతే దారిద్య్రాన్ని నిర్మూలించటం అసాధ్యం అన్నాడు.

సైన్స్‌ ఇన్‌ సొసైటీ సంస్ధ డైరెక్టర్‌ , జెనిటిస్ట్‌, బయోఫిజిస్ట్‌ అయిన డాక్టర్‌ మాయే వాన్‌ హో ఏ చెప్పారంటే ఏ సమస్యలనైతే తాను పరిష్కరిస్తానని బయలు దేరిందో ఆ పెద్ద ధార్మిక సంస్ధ వాటికి కారణమైన కంపెనీలలో పెద్ద మొత్తంలో పెట్టుబడులు పెట్టి లాభాలు సంపాదిస్తోందని అన్నారు. ఆ సంస్ధ మంజూరు చేసే గ్రాంట్ల వలన ప్రపంచ ఆరోగ్యం, వ్యవసాయ వ్యవస్ధకు హానితప్ప మేలు జరగటం లేదు, జాతీయ, ప్రపంచ ప్రాధాన్యతలను వక్రీకరిస్తున్నది. గేట్స్‌ ఫౌండేషన్‌ 2000 సంవత్సరంలో 2006లో రెట్టింపైంది. వారెన్‌బఫెట్‌ చేరిక దీనికి కారణం. మంచి పనులకు వీరు భారీ మొత్తంలో నిధులు ఇవ్వటంలో పేరు పొందారు. అయితే అదే సందర్భంలో మంచి పనుల కంటే దాని పెట్టుబడులపై భారీ మొత్తాలలో లాభాలు సంపాదిస్తున్నదని 2007 అమెరికాకు చెందిన లాస్‌ ఏంజల్స్‌ టైమ్స్‌ వెల్లడించింది. ఇచ్చిన గ్రాంట్లకంటే చమురు కంపెనీలలో దాని పెట్టుబడులు ఎక్కువ. నైజీరియాలోని పిల్లలు టీకాలతో లబ్దపొందినప్పటికీ గేట్స్‌ ఫౌండేషన్‌, ఇతర ధార్మిక సంస్ధలు పెట్టుబడులు పెట్టిన చమురు బావుల నుంచి వెలువడే వాయువుల కారణంగా తీవ్రమైన శ్వాసకోశ సంబంధ వ్యాధుల బారిన పడ్డారు. నైగర్‌ డెల్టాలో చమురు బావుల నుంచి వెలువడిన మంటల కారణంగా పెద్ద వారిలో బ్రాంకోటైస్‌ పిల్లలలో ఆస్త్మా, కంటి చూపు సరిగా కనిపించకపోవటం వంటి సమస్యలు తలెత్తాయని ఎనోచా ప్రాంతంలోని ఒక వైద్యుడు చెప్పారు. అంతేకాదు ఈ ప్రాంతంలోని గ్యాస్‌ బావుల నుంచి రోజూ దాదాపు వంద కోట్ల ఘనపుటడుగుల గ్యాస్‌ను మండిస్తారు. దాని అమ్మకంద్వారా కలిగే ప్రయోజనం ఎంతో తెలియదు గానీ ప్రపంచ వాతావరణం వేడెక్కటానికి ఇవి దోహదం చేస్తున్నాయి. గేట్స్‌ ఫౌండేషన్‌ పోలియో, ఇతర టీకాలకు, పరిశోధనలకు ప్రపంచవ్యాపితంగా 218 మిలియన్‌ డాలర్లు దానం చేస్తే నైజీరియాలోని ఎని, రాయల్‌ డచ్‌, షెల్‌, ఎక్సాస్‌ మోబిల్‌ కార్పొరేషన్‌ , చెవరాన్‌, టోటల్‌ వంటివాటిలో 423 మిలియన్‌ డాలర్లు పెట్టుబడులుగా పెట్టిందని లాస్‌ఏంజల్స్‌ టైమ్స్‌ తెలిపింది. అమెరికా, ఐరోపాలలో అనుమతించిన దానికంటే ఎక్కువగా కాలుష్యం వెదజల్లేందుకు ఈ కంపెనీలకు అక్కడ అనుమతి ఇచ్చారు.

గేట్స్‌ ఫౌండేషన్‌ తాను ఎయిడ్స్‌ సమస్యపై పోరాడుతున్నానని చెప్పుకుంటోందో అది పెట్టుబడి పెట్టిన నైజీరియాలోని ఆయిల్‌ కంపెనీల కార్యకలాపాల కారణంగా తమ ప్రాంతంలో వ్యభిచారం తీవ్రంగా పెరిగిందని, దాని కారణంగా ఎయిడ్స్‌, తరుణవయస్సు యువతులు గర్భందాల్చటం వంటి సమస్యలు పెరిగాయని స్ధానికులు పేర్కొన్నారు. దారిద్య్రం, వ్యాధుల నిర్మూలన గురించి గేట్స్‌ ఫౌండేషన్‌ చెబుతుంటుంది. అది పెట్టుబడులు పెట్టిన చమురు కంపెనీలు తవ్విన చమురు బోర్ల గుంతలలో నిల్వవుండే నీరు నింపుతారు. దాంతో దోమలు తామరతంపరగా వృద్ధి చెంది మలేరియా పెరిగిపోతోంది. రివర్స్‌ స్టేట్‌లోని ఆరోగ్య కమిషనర్‌ దర్యాప్తు చేయించగా నదులలో చమురు తెట్టుల కారణంగా కలరా వస్తున్నట్లు తేలింది. విషపదార్ధాల నుంచి వెలువడే బెంజైన్‌, మెర్క్యురీ, క్రోమియం వంటివి పిల్లలలో వ్యాధినిరోధక శక్తిని తగ్గించి మరింతగా పోలియో, మీజిల్స్‌ వంటివి సోకటానికి దోహదం చేస్తున్నాయి.

గేట్స్‌ ఫౌండేషన్‌ పెట్టుబడులు పెట్టిన బిపి షేర్లు 83, రాయల్‌డచ్‌ 77, ఆంగ్లో-అమెరికన్‌ కంపెనీల వాటాల ధరలు 255 శాతం పెరిగాయి.మసాచుచెట్స్‌ విశ్వవిద్యాలయం రూపొందించిన జాబితా ప్రకారం అమెరికాలోని అత్యంత కాలుష్యకారక పరిశ్రమలు వంద, కెనడాలోని 50లో 330 కోట్ల డాలర్ల మేరకు గేట్స్‌ పెట్టుబడులు వున్నాయి. అంటే కాలుష్యం నుంచి కూడా ధర్మాత్ముడు గేట్స్‌ లాభాలు పిండుకుంటున్నాడన్నమాట.

CORRUPTION IN JUDICIARY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED: CJI THAKUR

06 Sunday Dec 2015

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Corruption in judiciary will not be tolerated: CJI Thakur

Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur (Photo – The Hindu)

New Delhi, 06 Dec 2015: Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur on Sunday asserted that there would be no tolerance towards deviant behaviour and corruption by judges.

“We will be intolerant towards deviant behaviour and allegations of corruption and cleanse the institution,” he said on being asked about allegations of corruption against certain judges in the course of his interaction with media persons after assuming office as the CJI.

On being asked about Justice C.S. Karnan of Madras High Court who has been at loggerheads with his chief justice, Chief Justice Thakur, without mentioning any individual judge, said: “We will take note of it and take corrective action for any deviant behaviour coming (from judiciary) from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.”

“The system must react to what is not acceptable. We should not remain quiet on what is not acceptable,” he said, indicating the course that the top judiciary would take in dealing with errant judges during his tenure which would last just over a year.

Citing the difficulties in dealing with deviant judges, Chief Justice Thakur pointed out that “in case of doubtful situation, the benefit of doubt would go to the institution (of judiciary) and not to the individual”.

He said there were some misgivings about how certain judges conduct themselves and that brings into question the issue of credibility.

A strong and independent judiciary was capable of protecting people from attacks on the inclusive values of Indian society, Chief Justice T.S. Thakur said .

“As the head of the institution that upholds the rule of law and protects the constitution, the right of all sections of people will be protected,” Chief Justice Thakur said in his first media meet after assuming charge of the Supreme Court.

“Our existence is itself based on tolerance,” he said, wondering how some political people can twist it to their advantage.

Assuring that judiciary was there to protect and safeguard their rights, the chief justice said: “We are capable of protecting the rights of all sections of the people. It is our responsibility. Rule of law and constitutional guarantees are enshrined (in the constitution).

“What to talk of citizens, rights of all the people will be protected. There is nothing to fear.” He added: “The rule of law is even for non-citizens.”

Chief Justice Thakur said: “Itna badha desh hai, kuchh awaaj to uththi hai” (It is such a big country. Some discordant notes will be there.)

So long there was rule of law, constitutional guarantees and an independent judiciary, “tab tak kisi baat ka dar nahin hona chaiye” (till then one should not fear anything).

Pointing to the long, rich and all-inclusive traditions of India, he said: “This country has been a home for all religions of the world. People who were persecuted in other places have come here and flourished.”

Describing it as “our heritage”, Chief Justice Thakur gave the example of Parsis who came from Persia saying they gave India the best industrialists and “finest legal minds” — referring to Nani Palkiwala and Fali Nariman. (IANS)

Death By Coconut: A Story Of Food Obsession Gone Too Far

06 Sunday Dec 2015

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It is an interesting story picked for VEDIKA readers from NPR

Death By Coconut: A Story Of Food Obsession Gone Too Far

NINA MARTYRIS
German nudist August Engelhardt sits in front of his thatched tent-like hut on the island of Kabakon (in what is now Papua New Guinea) with the books that he brought with him from Germany. In 1902, he moved to the South Pacific to start a utopian cult that revolved around two orbs: the coconut and the sun.

German nudist August Engelhardt sits in front of his thatched tent-like hut on the island of Kabakon (in what is now Papua New Guinea) with the books that he brought with him from Germany. In 1902, he moved to the South Pacific to start a utopian cult that revolved around two orbs: the coconut and the sun.

Courtesy of Christian Kracht, author of Imperium

The coconut has developed a bit of a faddish following in the West.

Today, devotees add coconut oil to coffee, dab it on acne and, following Gwyneth Paltrow’s example, swirl it around in their mouths to fight tooth decay. Starbucks has launched a coconut-milk latte. And the coconut-water business has surged to $400 million, with a little help from Madonna and Rihanna.

No one would be more delighted at the coconut’s rising star than August Engelhardt, a sun-worshipping German nudist and history’s most radical cocovore.

From 1902 to 1919, Engelhardt lived on a beautiful South Pacific island, eating nothing but the fruit of Cocos nucifera, which he believed was the panacea for all mankind’s woes. Except that a coconut mono-diet proved to be a terrible idea. At the end of his life, der Kokovore was reduced to a mentally ill, rheumatic, severely malnourished sack of bones with ulcers on his legs. He was only 44.

Engelhardt was resurrected from near-oblivion by Swiss writer Christian Kracht’s marvelous 2012 novel, Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas, which fictionalizes the German cocovore’s bizarre and poignant story. The English translation by Daniel Bowles was published this year in the U.S. to fine reviews.

Kracht’s interest in Engelhardt was sparked by a chance encounter. One day at a yard sale in Murnau, Germany, he came across a sepia-tinted postcard of a scrawny, bearded man in a checked loincloth standing under a palm tree.

“He looked like a proto-hippie, and very modern,” Kracht told The Salt. “I really wanted to get to know this person. But there was nothing known about him at the time — no Wikipedia page (there is one now) or anything at all. The only thing I could find was a thesis by a student at the University of Auckland. So I went and met him in New Zealand, but somehow it wasn’t enough.”

The novelist in Kracht was itching “to embroider Engelhardt’s life story,” especially “since coconuts are intrinsically funny.” Imperium, a stylish satire, invents meetings with Thomas Mann and Kafka, and ends with a leprosy-afflicted Engelhardt eating his own thumb.

But even without a stich of embroidery, Engelhardt’s story beggars belief.

Born in Nuremberg in 1875, August Engelhardt was among the disaffected youngsters drawn to the back-to-nature Lebensreform (Life Reform) movement sweeping through Germany and Switzerland at the time. Its proponents yearned after an unspoiled Eden where people ate vegetables and raw food.

Engelhardt was especially taken by Gustav Schlickeysen’s 1877 dietary treatise, Fruit and Bread: A Scientific Diet. Influenced by Darwinism, the book claimed that since the natural food of apes was uncooked food and grain, that was also “the proper food for man.”

Engelhardt took it even further: For him, even bread and fruit were tainted. In his mind, the only immaculate and mystical fleshpot was the coconut, with its snowy white meat and translucent water.

In 1898, he and fellow vegetarian August Bethmann laid out their vision in a pamphlet called A Carefree Future: The New Gospel.

As the pamphlet’s grandiose subtitle makes plain, Engelhardt’s ambitions of a Coconut Camelot, with himself as a nude King Arthur, were driven by much more than dietary compulsions: His was a spiritual quest.

“He believed that since the coconut grew high up in the tree, closest to God and closest to the sun, it was godlike,” says Kracht. “And since it had hair and looked like a human head, he thought it came closest to being a man. According to his rather crackpot theory, to be a cocovore was to be a theophage — or eater of God.”

But being the custodian of these paradisiacal ideas in stuffy steak-and-sausage Germany was no fun. “He chafed against the constraints of Wilhelminian Germany, which was very Victorian,” says Kracht. “One can imagine what a misfit a nudist-vegetarian with a very, very long beard would be in this repressive society. He was ridiculed and wanted to get away.”

August Engelhardt stands underneath a palm tree with Berlin concert pianist Max Lützow at his feet. Lützow went to Kabakon to join Engelhardt's sun-worshipping cocovore cult, The Order of the Sun. He died there, as did several other followers.i

August Engelhardt stands underneath a palm tree with Berlin concert pianist Max Lützow at his feet. Lützow went to Kabakon to join Engelhardt’s sun-worshipping cocovore cult, The Order of the Sun. He died there, as did several other followers.

Courtesy of Christian Kracht, author of Imperium

In 1902, Engelhardt boarded a ship with his library of books and sailed to the Bismarck Archipelago (now Papua New Guinea), where he bought a plantation on the island of Kabakon. He built himself a thatched hut, began to trade in coconut oil and prepared to establish his cult, called Sonnenorden (Order of the Sun).

The short-lived cult revolved around two orbs: the coconut and the sun. Soon, Engelhardt’s co-author, Bethmann, joined him, and together they wrote up passionate advertorials that were printed in Germany. Have no fear of malaria, they assured their readers: The coconut is more effective than quinine.

At least 15 young Germans, seduced by the fantasy of a tropical idyll where they didn’t have to shave, went out to join them. Among them was a Berlin concert pianist, Max Lützow, seen in the picture at Engelhardt’s feet.

It ended calamitously. Several cultists — including Bethmann and Lützow — died, while others returned to Germany malarial and furious. Eventually, the local German governor banned any more adventurers from joining.

Left alone, Engelhardt was unfazed. “The coconut is the Philosopher’s Stone,” he said. “What are universities in comparison to such a lifestyle?” In 1905, The New York Times carried a story on him titled, “Failure of a Womanless Eden in the Pacific—A Strange Story from the South Seas.”

Kracht’s title Imperium has an ironic double meaning: the absolute power of the coconut in Engelhardt’s philosophy, and the imperialism of Germany. Even a dreamer like Engelhardt must have known that his peculiar lifestyle was enabled only by German colonialism. The privileged status he enjoyed on Kabakon was akin to that enjoyed by the ivory trader Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s great critique of colonialism,Heart of Darkness.

“Engelhardt was ultimately a white colonizer, so the local people were made to accept that and not question his authority,” says Kracht. “He couldn’t simply be naked in Germany; he would be arrested.”

But unlike the ruthless and abusive Kurtz, Engelhardt, whom Kracht calls “a thwarted artist,” comes across as a pitiable, even likeable, eccentric.

There is, however, an uneasy resonance between the purity-and-utopia-obsessed cocovore and another German, whose insanity, says a sardonic Kracht, “was not in a nutshell but on a larger level.” The novel makes the Hitler allegory explicit, stating that if “parallels arise with a later German romantic and vegetarian who perhaps ought to have remained at his easel, then this is entirely intentional.”

It’s easy to laugh at Engelhardt — and yet, his fixation on eating a dangerously narrow “pure” and healthy diet has echoes in modern times.

At the end, Engelhardt weighed just 66 pounds and became a freak show for tourists. Imprisoned by Australian soldiers during World War I, he returned to Kabakon after his release and was reportedly found dead on the beach in 1919, though Kracht says no one knows for sure when or where he died.

When Kracht visited Kabakon for his research in 2010, he found no trace of imperial Germany. “No Lutheran churches, nothing. The Japanese blew everything up in the second world war,” he says.

What survive are the sun, the coconuts, the mosquitoes and the legend of Le Morte D’August — a cautionary tale on the perils of food fanaticism.

Nina Martyris is a freelance journalist based in Knoxville, Tenn.

THE BLACK BOOK OF CAPITALISM

06 Sunday Dec 2015

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Anti communists are always branding communists as genocides  and misleading the peoples with false propaganda. They believe in Goebbels, the facts are not true,  But who is really genocides, look into …..

THE BLACK BOOK OF CAPITALISM

By

Rwandan GenocideMost Americans today think that communism has been one of the most genocidal ideologies in human history. Many are misinformed by anti-communist propaganda stating that we have killed over 100 million people when in fact this is not true remotely. I will save that for another time today we are here to discuss the deaths caused by capitalism.

In India when the English colonized India in the 19 century they tried to make it as profitable as possible this included making the Indian farmers switch from food production to cotton production this lead to a massive famine that killed 30 million people in India.

While in America we were undergoing one of the best examples of ethnic cleansing to date. The forced removal of the Native Americans from their homelands resulted in over 14 million people dying and the rest forced to live on reservations. All this done because a need for raw resources, required more land.  All those keeping track at home this brings the count to 44 million dead and we haven’t even got into the 20th century.

An examination of imperial Russia shows that because of a lack of modernization and greedy hoarding done by capitalist and nobles lead to routine famine called the “hungry years” leading to countless deaths and starvation. This continued until the 1920-1930 through which the collectivization of agriculture by Soviet Union lead to less deaths and ended widespread starvation. When China was under the Qing dynasty, British merchants illegally sold opium. A 3 year long war resulted which ended in China’s defeat. This left hundreds of thousands dead the results of the war lead to Te Tai Ping rebellion. A famine later happened due to the countless fighting, corruption and bad weather again this death toll is incalculable.

The exploitation of the African people who due to the domination of foreign governments where second-class citizens in their own country. When African nations finally became independent from imperialist rule the Europeans left Africa in a “cookie cutter” state. Meaning that nations where drawn out on a map without consideration of the local ethnicity. Which lead to many civil wars including the famous one in Rwanda where 800,000 lost their lives due to imperialist favoritism. The international world did nothing to stop this atrocity.

In Yugoslavia with lack of care from the international world the government collapsed due to pressure put on them by the World Bank and the IMF lead to war within the country. Now this article leaves out many things that also happened under capitalist rule that is because it is nearly impossible to figure out the total death toll if you may know any more events please feel free to comment.

From Peoples World

Communists closely trailed LDP in fundraising in 2014

06 Sunday Dec 2015

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The Japanese Communist Party was close behind the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in political fundraising last year, a Jiji Press survey has found.

The LDP, the top earner among Japanese political parties, raised ¥56.1 billion in 2014, up 4 percent from the previous year, according to the survey released Saturday.

The JCP came next with ¥49.3 billion, up 1.6 percent. The rise reflected an increase in the presence in the Diet of the party, which added seats in the House of Councilors election in 2013 and the House of Representatives election in 2014.

The two were the only ones among the major political parties that enjoyed funding growth last year.

The total amount of funds raised by political parties and organizations in 2014 stood at ¥229.9 billion, down 0.7 percent.

Komeito, the LDP’s partner in the ruling coalition, saw its funds slump 13.9 percent to ¥17.9 billion, ranking third among the parties surveyed.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan followed with ¥16.4 billion, down 13.7 percent. The weakness reflects slow progress in the recovery of the party’s strength since it fell from power in 2012.

Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party), created last year, raised ¥3.6 billion, against ¥2.1 billion earned by the Jisedai no To (Party for Future Generations), also formed last year.

Revenue drops were reported by existing major parties such as the Social Democratic Party, the Seikatsu no To (People’s Life Party) and the Shinto Kaikaku (New Renaissance Party).

The total spending by the Japanese political parties and organizations last year stood at ¥223.4 billion, down 4.5 percent.

Among the Cabinet members, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the third-biggest earner with ¥180 million. The top earner was Finance Minister Taro Aso with ¥196 million, followed by the economic revitalization minister, Akira Amari, with ¥181 million.

Abe ranked top among the leaders of major political parties. People’s Life Party head Ichiro Ozawa slipped to the third place with ¥117 million after holding the top slot for two years.

The survey covered political funding reports submitted to the prefectural election boards across Japan by Saturday, as well as those presented to the internal affairs minister, which were disclosed on Nov. 27.

A Chavista victory in Venezuela will be “fraud” to the opposition

06 Sunday Dec 2015

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by: ERIC A. GORDON
Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela – By the time you read this – presumably on Monday, Dec. 7 – the results of Venezuela’s nationwide elections for its National Assembly will likely be known to the world.

But as I write, two days before this decisive vote, let me share some thoughts about the process – and about the prognosis.

I have made this trip to Caracas – and later in the week to other sites in Venezuela – with a group of North American activists and writers concerned about learning the truth of what is happening in this country. These elections, two years after Nicolas Maduro very narrowly won the presidency as successor to the late Hugo Chavez, will determine if the Bolivarian process that Chavez initiated in 1998 will be given the chance to advance. If the right-wing opposition – widely reported to be favored and financed by the U.S. and other capitalist powers – wins on Sunday, Dec. 6, progress could be stopped in its tracks with dire consequences for the vast majority of the Venezuelan people.

In the weeks before leaving the U.S. to come here, everything I read in the U.S. corporate media pointed to a loss for the Chavista movement. Venezuelans, these reports assured, had become tired of the shortages of basic goods and staples in the stores, frustrated with everyday violence, outraged by sky-high inflation that makes nonsense of any efforts at price stabilization, and confused by the privately-owned media that pours out a constant blast of criticism of the government’s supposed incompetence.

Frankly, I arrived expecting in a few days to witness “the beginning of the end,” that moment on Dec. 6 when a majority of Venezuelans would decide to put a halt to the whole Bolivarian experiment, make a lame duck of President Maduro, and perhaps prepare the ground for his impeachment, and throw their fates to the waiting opposition.

Now, after a few days here, I am not at all convinced this will happen. If indeed the Chavistas win, which many people we have met so far are sure will be the case, count on the opposition to immediately start yelling “Fraud!” to whoever will listen. The mass media and politicians in the imperialist countries will readily come to the opposition’s defense, for they already “know” all about the origins of the crisis in Chavez’ utopian scheme to tilt his country away from dependency on the U.S., and to lead the rest of Latin America toward a self-sufficiency that is free – what a crazy concept! – from U.S.-dominated Western Hemispheric trade alliances and investment loans.

The justification for “humanitarian” intervention – to save Venezuela from its “corrupt elections” and bring the country back into the capitalist fold – has already been carefully established. After all, did not our own President Barack Obama, just a few months ago, declare Venezuela to be an immediate and extraordinary threat to the vital security of the United States and place certain Venezuelan officials on persona non grata status? Although other Latin American nations forced him to retract this statement, the anti-Chavista fever can easily be stoked up again.

The problem is that Venezuela’s electoral process has been analyzed and studied by numerous world bodies and private NGOs, such as the Carter Center, and found to be among the fairest, most democratic, and most fastidiously enforced on the planet. Hugo Chavez was no dictator: He was voted in by enthusiastic majorities time after time. That is what’s so galling to the banksters and loan sharks who have dictated U.S. policy in the hemisphere for so many decades and who now fear the jig may be up.

Our little group of nine met for three hours, on our first full day in the country, with officials of the CNE – Consejo Nacional Electoral, or National Elections Commission – in their busy offices just days before the momentous vote. CNE staff, including the rectora principal, the director Tania D’amelio Cardiet, patiently answered every question we posed. They appeared eager to have their work reliably reported in our media.

In the first place, the CNE directors are appointed to overlapping seven-year terms by the National Assembly. It is autonomous from the government, and only accountable to the specific, detailed electoral law of the land. Venezuela has a plethora of political parties, some running together as a Chavista unity slate with the same candidates (think “fusion parties” in the U.S.), others going it alone. The Chavista slate includes the large socialist PSUV (Maduro’s party) as well as the PCV, the Communist Party of Venezuela. Each of the 23 states in the country, plus the Distrito Capital (Caracas), has its own concatenation of parties, each state entitled to the number of National Assembly members according to its population.

The total number of National Assembly members is 167, of whom 113 are voted in on the strength of their own names, 51 elected from party lists according to the popularity of those parties in the overall voting, and 3 seats designated for Indigenous peoples.

At the time Hugo Chavez was first elected in 1998, some 28 percent of eligible voters were not registered. Now only 3 percent are unregistered. In presidential elections 80 percent of the approximately 19.5 million voters in the country vote; for National Assembly elections the turnout is over 70 percent. Even in elections for much lower offices the turnout is around 60 percent.

Demographically, 51 percent of voters are women, and almost 4 million are young voters 18-30). Women enter their “senior” years in Venezuela at age 55, with the right to start receiving a pension, and men at age 60. Some of us “seniors” in our study group qualify to ride the modern, efficient Metro system in Caracas for free.

Once voters arrive at one of the 14,515 polling sites around the country, where qualified officials run 40,601 separate precinct tables, they identify themselves with their national ID card, place their thumb into a machine which reads their fingerprint, thus confirming who they are, and enter the voting booth where they have up to 6 minutes to cast their electronic ballot (most people take under a minute). When they finish, they receive a printout of their vote to confirm their choices, and they deposit this slip into the ballot box. At the end of the day the electronic vote and the paper ballots should match exactly. Witnesses from the participating parties are entitled to observe this entire process to certify its veracity.

Not entirely as a parenthetical note, readers should know that presumably voters going to the polls are completely sober: There is no liquor legally sold throughout the country for three days, from 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday – not even to us innocent visiting non-nationals!

Immediately after the votes are recorded and reported, an automatic audit takes place of 53.3 percent of all the precincts, randomly chosen from around the country, to spot any conceivable irregularities. Within a few weeks a 100 percent audit takes place. All parties in the elections have signed on to these carefully thought-out and elegantly devised mechanisms, regarded – to repeat myself – as among the most democratic in the world.

Later in the day, we attended the huge public rally officially closing the electoral campaign, where Maduro spoke and revved up his thousands of supporters in the capital, a flock of colorful flags and banners proudly whipping in the breeze, the red-shirted crowds gaily chanting, singing and cheering. Their infectious joy helped to persuade me that this election is very much up for grabs. A Chavista win is hardly out of the question!

Whatever the result on Dec. 6, whether a victory for the Bolivarian Revolution or for its opposition, you can be assured that there was no question of fraud. If you hear that claim, don’t believe it, and start asking serious questions of anyone making it. It ain’t so.

From Peoples World