Dilip Simeon's blog

NB: These books contain an exposure of contemporary nihilism at work. See also the links at the bottom of this post. DS    Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book. She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated  Europe  on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove. Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.” Asked at a Roy...

Qayoom and his family were among 10,000 families pushed out of their homes as government and Taliban forces  battled for territory  in southern Afghanistan last month. Qayoom found his new home was to be a couple of large sheets propped up over cold, bare earth, a shelter among many others in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of Kandahar city. But the shelter barely checks the icy blasts of bitter winter winds. “Within the space of a few hours, our village, Spairwan, became the frontline of the fighting between the government and the  Taliban ,” the father of five told the Guardian. “For two days we couldn’t leave our houses because people were getting shot by both sides. The  Taliban  captured our village and then told us to leave the area.”… https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/24/shot-at-by-both-sides-families-flee-as-taliban-battles-for-territory-in-kandahar More posts on Afghanistan

After decades in hiding, in prison or keeping low profile, players from a bloody period in the country’s history are now seen as ‘folk idols’ by the Turkish right. At first glance, the photograph of two smartly dressed older Turkish men, posing for the camera in an office filled with flags, could be of any important figures in the country – but it is rare for a picture to say so much about both the past and the future. On the left is Devlet Bahçeli, an ultranationalist political dinosaur who has in the past few years become an influential coalition partner in the government of Turkey’s president,  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . The man on the right, Alaattin Çakıcı, is the most notorious mobster in Turkey. Accused of 41 political murders, and jailed for ordering a hit on his ex-wife, who was shot dead in front of their young son, he was nonetheless freed from prison along with dozens of other mafia heavyweights in a coronavirus amnesty last year that notably  ignored political priso...

NB : It comes as a relief for many Indians, not just that this innocent young woman has been granted bail, but that the judicial conscience is still alive, as evident in the appropriate remarks by this Additional Sessions Judge. What remains of deep concern is why and how our police has been allowed to get to this point. I recall the transfer of Justice Muralidhar almost exactly a year ago soon after he asked the Delhi Police to register cases against BJP leaders who had made hate speeches prior to the Delhi riots of 2020.  What also should cause anguish to all persons with any sense of decency, regardless of political affiliation, is the disgusting communal and misogynist trolling of this young woman; as reported in this comment in Madras Courier . If any proponents of the RSS/BJP read this, I would like them to consult their consciences and reflect on the kind of mentality reflected and being promoted by this abuse and hatred. Is this really your vision and ideal of Indian cult...

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday hit out at the “blatant lie of WHO certification” made by Panjali Ayurved for its Coronil tablet, which the company claims is an evidence-based medicine to fight  Covid-19 , and demanded an explanation from Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, in whose presence the medicine was launched. Patanjali Ayurved Ltd founder Ramdev, at a press conference on February 19, had claimed that  Coronil had received certification from the Ayush Ministry  as a medicine supporting Covid-19 treatment as per the WHO’s certification scheme. Harsh Vardhan was also present at the ceremony. During a follow-up interview, Ramdev had also criticised modern medicine, equating it to “medical terrorism.” Later, WHO’s regional office for South-East Asia had clarified on Twitter that it has not “reviewed or certified the effectiveness of any traditional medicine” for the treatment of Covid-19 – a pointed reference to Coronil. On Monday, the IMA in a s...

History is replete with stories of their heroism because valour runs in the Punjabi blood. But, unfortunately, so does patriarchy. And, there is absolutely no dearth of ghastly tales of honour killing, of female foeticide, of subjugation of the fairer sex and worse. These, however, are dark alleys and just not the place to be when the frost in the air gives way and spring is knocking, when the fields are yellow with mustard flowers, when the wheat crop stretches endlessly like a carpet of green and farmers await its shiny golden hues. This, then, can’t be a season for pessimism. Not in Punjab, most certainly. The farmers have been camping at the Delhi borders against the controversial farm laws right through the three long months of a harsh winter and though no end is yet in sight for their agitation, there is a silver lining to this cloud of struggle. And that comes from the very women who have always lived in the shadows of their men — of fathers and brothers and sons and husbands ...

A letter shared by the family of a deceased former New York police officer alleges that the officer, the New York City Police Department and the FBI played a role in the murder of the powerful civil rights leader Malcolm X. The outspoken antiracism activist and former spokesman for the Nation of Islam died on February 21, 1965, after being shot while delivering remarks at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Ray Wood, a former undercover police officer, wrote in a newly released confession letter that the NYPD and FBI worked with him to make sure the two men in charge of Malcolm X’s security detail were arrested in the days before the speech.  Ray Wood first shared his confession with family when he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2011. At the time, he asked his cousin, Reggie, not to share the letter until after he died. Ray Wood died in November, and Reggie Wood shared his cousin’s confession publicly on Saturday, flanked by a group that included Malcolm X’s daughters, ...