Marxists Are Piling In Against Piketty

By Kumar David -June 1, 2014

Prof. Kumar David

It does seem a bit unfair, after all Thomas Piketty did prove Marx right on one crucial point. He has done a splendid job validating on one of Marx’s key expectations (Relatively, the rich will get richer and the poor poorer); but after saying ‘thank you very much’ all the world’s Marxists are savaging the fellow mercilessly. Maybe they feel reinvigorated these post-2008 days, think all-the-world lies intellectually prostrate at their feet, and show little mercy to deviants. Poor Piketty has done huge data collection and processing for which we should be grateful. An unknown guy comes out of nowhere and establishes something the Master’s disciples have been saying for 150 years but could not prove empirically. A data savvy young group after 10 years hard labour proves sustained and expanding wealth-inequality; they deserve more than a thank-you nod. True Piketty is weak on theory and abstraction; but be kind; perhaps the bugger can be trained. Capital in the Twenty-first Century is outselling everything on Amazon’s list, pulp fiction, do-it-yourself, even thrillers, which is remarkable for a 600 page tome on economics.Read More

Healing The Addiction Memory

By Ruwan M Jayatunge -June 1, 2014

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.

Drug addiction has become an increased phenomenon in the modern civilization. Addiction habits have impacted individuals, families and the society. Addiction has been regarded as an individual disease as well as a social condition. Addictions cause structural changes in cultural, social, political, and economic system in society (Ajami et al., 2014). Addiction is almost universally held to be characterized by a loss of control over drug-seeking and consuming behavior (Levy, 2014).

Addiction is defined as compulsive drug use despite negative consequences (Hyman, 2005). Addiction is a multifactorial phenomenon (Shaghaghy et al., 2011). McLellan and colleagues (2000) conceptualize addiction as a brain disease. Leshner (1997) views addiction as a chronic, relapsing brain disorder that involves complex interactions between biological and environmental variables. According to Mate (2014) addictions are experience based and it has close links with pain, distress, negative emotions, loss of meaning and often connected with adverse early childhood experiences.  Drug addiction leads to profound disturbances in an individual’s behavior that affect his/her immediate environment, usually resulting in isolation, marginalization, or incarceration (Volkow et al., 2004).

Addictions and Brain Structures                                                      Read More

Dangerous justification of extra-judicial killings 

 May 30, 2014 
Yesterday, our lead story, quoting Police Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said that hereafter police would use 'necessary force' as opposed to 'minimum force' in dealing with troublemakers.
 
 
He said this to seemingly justify the recent killings of suspects in police custody and the police assault on protesting undergraduates.
Extra judicial killings by the police and the country's armed forces first came into focus during the April 1971 insurgency, where it is estimated that 13,000 Sinhala youth, both men and women, from the South, lost their lives, many of whom, ipso facto, were victims of extra-judicial killings.
It once more gained the dubious limelight 12 years later, after the July '83 riots, which spawned Tamil terrorism and ended only 26 years afterwards, in May 2009.
 
 
In the interim period, with the signing of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord and the Sri Lankan security forces being confined to barracks after the induction of the IPKF as a condition of the Accord, Southern Terrorism which had previously been ruthlessly crushed 16 years ago in April '71, once more raised its head as a protest against India's armed intervention in the internal affairs of the island.
If the rise of Southern Terrorism in April 1971 was to instal a Marxist State in Sri Lanka by an armed revolution, the ostensible reason for its 'rebirth' in July 1987 was as a protest against the Indo-Lanka Accord and the induction of the IPKF to the Northern and Eastern parts of the country, supposedly to maintain the peace, just when the Sri Lankan security forces were about to deliver the death knell to Tamil terrorism in the North.
 
 
The resurgence of Southern Terrorism in the South in July 1987 was finally put down after the end of a bloody war (in the South) which lasted for more than two years, leaving in its aftermath, the brutal killings of thousands of Sinhala youth once more, many of whom were victims of extra judicial killings, a repetition of April '71.
This doesn't discount the fact of the thousands of innocent Tamil civilians who also lost their lives, especially in the period, July 1983 to May 2009, victims of the establishments, whether it was the Sri Lanka Government or the Indian Government, the latter, vis-à-vis the IPKF.
 
 
The focus of this piece is the danger of institutionalizing extra judicial killings in the present and in the future, as insinuated by SSP Rohana's alleged apologia in respect of the recent police assaults on unarmed, protesting undergraduates and the killings of suspects while in police custody, ostensibly being put to death in self defence for threatening to attack their law enforcement escorts with lethal weapons while being in handcuffs!
When considering such tragedies, it was not so long ago that the people of this country equated such extra-judicial killings to take place with such unwavering consistency and monotonous regularity, to the banana republics of the Latin Americas, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh and States such as Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia, in the Far East and in South East Asia.
 
 
Though unreported, such killings were accepted as the norm, taking place behind the Bamboo Curtain (Mao's China) and the then USSR and its satellite countries, but never in Sri Lanka, with the possible blight being during the time of the '71 April Insurgency.
But now, the tables apparently have changed, with those countries once labelled as being pariahs, returning to respectability and decency, and thus being recognized and accepted by the global community of nations, while Sri Lanka is seemingly, wantonly, sinking into that abyss, by apparently being nonchalant about what the world community thinks of such in the 21st century, which have shaken the dust off their feet which was the 20th Century, after the Cold War was relegated to history with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, 25 years ago in 1989.
 
 
SSP Rohana and the Government of Sri Lanka will be living in a fool's paradise if they think that they can get away scot free by playing a word game by using phrases such as 'minimum force' and 'necessary force,' in a globalized environment, where Sri Lanka is but a pawn on the global chessboard of geo-politics and human rights and neither a King or Queen, to strut about and strut around in a state of self-imaginary aggrandizement, as metaphorically exemplified in Hans Christian Andersen's popular children's fable, "The Emperor and his New Clothes."

Deputy minister made a policeman kneel on highway: Sally says

Deputy minister made a policeman kneel on highway: Sally says

 May 28, 2014
Azad Sally, leader of National Unity Front, has alleged that a policeman was made to kneel on a highway.

He made this statement at a media briefing held Wednesday in Colombo.

“A deputy minister had been speeding on the highway. He was travelling at 140 kilometres per hour. He was stopped at the Kottawa interchange and the police had given him a ticket. What happened there? He made the policeman who gave him the ticket sit on the pavement and, within two hours, they had transferred him.”

“The man in the police who tried to enforce the law was made to kneel on the highway. This is the law of the country. We have said before that the law in this country has gone to the dogs. We say this everyday.”

He added: “Incidents like this are shown on the TV everyday. You cannot watch a news bulletin because of all the murders and thefts.”

Who is the Deputy Minister that Azad Sally is referring to?

Vass to be tried for threatening CID ASP

Sunday, 01 June 2014

Former DIG Vaas Gunawardena will be tried on September 22 for intimidating CID ASP Shani Abeysekera and some other CID detectives while he was being questioned by them over the killing of millionaire businessman Mohamed Shiyam.

The former DIG who is in remand in connection with the killing of Mohamed Shiyam was today produced in the Colombo High Court to answer the charges against him for threatening to kill ASP Shani Abeysekera, Special Investigation Unit OIC M.A.S. Ranjith Munasinghe and some other CID officers saying, “Shani, I am a murderer; you won’t be able to keep me inside forever. When I am out, see what I will do to all of you.”

When the case taken up for inquiry, Counsel Ananda Vidyaratne told Magistrate Tennakoon that his client Vaas Gunawardena was prepared to arrive at an amicable settlement,   

When State Counsel Chaminda Athukorala asked Mr. Abeysekera whether such a settlement was possible he said he was not prepared to arrive at such a settlement and this led to Judge Devika Tennakoon fixing the  trial for September 12.

Reports from Sudan claim Meriam Ibrahim 'to be freed' from death-row

Reports suggest Sudanese woman may be released within days, but her lawyers claim it's a ploy to silence outcry

Nadia Khomami-Saturday 31 May 2014

Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her Christian beliefs, will be freed in the next few days it was reported on Saturday night. The mother of two, who gave birth to a daughter on Tuesday while shackled in heavy chains, has been in jail since January.

The 27-year-old, whose young son Martin has also been forced to stay in prison with her, had been found guilty of apostasy, having married Daniel Wani, a Christian, who holds dual Sudanese-US citizenship. Her 2011 marriage was also annulled and Ibrahim was sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery.

Ibrahim told the court that she was raised a Christian after her Muslim father abandoned the family when she was a child. Her refusal to recant in the conservative Islamic country led to her death sentence by hanging, but in a dramatic turn of events Sudanese officials said her release was imminent. Abdullahi Alazreg, under-secretary at Sudan's ministry of foreign affairs, said: "The related authorities in the country are working to release Meriam through legal measures. I expect her to be released soon."

The announcement came on the back of international outrage that turned into a global campaign to save Ibrahim but her lawyers played down the announcement. "It's a statement to silence the international media," said Elshareef Ali Mohammed. "This is what the government does. We will not believe that she is being freed until she walks out of the prison."

He said he had even heard reports that the spokesman was in the UK on medical leave when he told the BBC she would soon be freed: "If they were to release her, the announcement would come from the appeal court, not from the ministry of foreign affairs. But at least it shows our campaign to free Meriam is rattling them. We must keep up the pressure."

Mark Simmonds, the Foreign Office's Africa minister, said on Saturday that Britain was "putting intense pressure on the Sudanese government" to ensure her release: "Hopefully the international outrage will push the Sudanese authorities into a situation where they feel they have to release Meriam."

Meriam Ibrahim with her husband Daniel. Photograph: courtesy of Gabriel Wani

David Cameron had joined political leaders around the world in condemning the Sudanese government's actions. The prime minister said Ibrahim's treatment was "barbaric and had no place in today's world" and that the UK would "continue to press the government of Sudan to act".

He said: "Religious freedom is an absolute, fundamental human right. I urge the government of Sudan to overturn the sentence and immediately provide appropriate support and medical care for her and her children."

Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband had both said Ibrahim's case was "abhorrent", while Tony Blair described it as a "brutal and sickening distortion of faith".

An Amnesty International petition asking the Sudanese government to halt Ibrahim's execution attracted more than 200,000 signatures, and more than 600,000 people added their name to a separate petition on change.org.

Since her arrest, Ibrahim, a graduate of Sudan University's school of medicine, has been held on death row with her son and since last week her newborn daughter Maya. She was pregnant at the time of her sentencing and was told that her death sentence would be deferred for two years to allow her to nurse her baby.

The case has led to debates over whether the government should continue giving foreign aid to Sudan. Former defence secretary Liam Fox said the UK should reconsider whether it was "acceptable" to give aid money to "states which allow treatment such as that handed out to Meriam Ibrahim", but international development secretary Justine Greening said it was "totally perverse" to take away UK-funded food, water and other vital supplies to those worst affected.

"British aid to Sudan only goes on helping the very poorest Sudanese people via the UN and NGOs, and not a penny is given to the Sudanese government," she said.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population and its legal system has been based on Islamic law since the 1980s.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are urgently seeking clarification from the Sudanese authorities of reports that Meriam Ibrahim …is to be freed. We have been strongly urging the government of the Republic of Sudan to do all it can to overturn its decision to sentence her to death."

The Communist Party’s Terrorism Survival Plan

Old 'people's war' tactics are being mobilized against a new threat.

• BY RACHEL LU-MAY 30, 2014

HONG KONG — Terrorism is on the mind of the average Chinese citizen these days. Assailants have attacked crowded areas like train stations and markets in large cities around China, indiscriminately killing travelers, vendors, and passersby. Particularly shocking was a March 1 knife attack in the southern metropolis of Kunming, which claimed 29 victims, followed by a bomb attack in a crowded market in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang, which killed 31 on May 22. Chinese authorities have blamed these attacks on Uighur separatists from Xinjiang.

The Communist Party’s Terrorism Survival Plan by nelvely

Mavi Marmara's March for Freedom Continues

IHH Special to Salem-News.com-May-31-2014 

After four years, the court has issued an arrest warrant with a red notice to INTERPOL for four defendants.

The Mavi Marmara was the lead ship in the Freedom Flotilla. Israel have reportedly offered $20 million in compensation for the families of Turks killed in the raid. Photo: IHH

(ISTANBUL, Turkey) - It has been 4 years since the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, with over 700 volunteers from 37 different countries, was attacked by the Israeli armed forces in international waters on its way to break the illegal blockade on Gaza and to deliver humanitarian aid.

During this attack nine humanitarian aid volunteers were killed and dozens of others injured on board the Mavi Marmara vessel. Last week, one of these injured, Ugur Suleyman Soylemez, who had been in a coma since the attack, also lost his life raising the death toll from nine to ten and refreshing the painful memories of the attack.

The legal actions, which were started by the victims very soon after the attack in a number of different countries around the world, are today showing their results. Last week, during the sixth session of the Mavi Marmara trial in Istanbul, the court issued an arrest warrant with a red notice to INTERPOL for the four defendants in the case.

In addition to the domestic actions, a State referral was made to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Comoros, which was the flag state of the Mavi Marmara. Immediately after this referral the Prosecutor of this Court started a preliminary investigation into the attack and will decide whether or not to start a full investigation.

The ruling of the Turkish Court and the ICC procedure have the potential to be a historical ruling and opportunity for the international community to at last take action against Israel’s broad and continuing violations of international law.

The humanitarian crisis existing in Gaza was the main reason the Freedom Flotilla set sail in 2010. Four years later the significance of the Flotilla is still very clear, as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen.

Numerous United Nations and NGO’s have reported the exacerbation of the crisis in Gaza, which is the result of the unlawful blockade imposed by Israel, which has prevents the population of Gaza to live a dignified life.

Israel also continues its aggression on the other territories of Palestine, making life as difficult as possible for the entire population of the Palestinian people. Every day Palestinians are indiscriminately killed, children are arrested, homes demolished for new settlements and the list continues.

Israel must understand that like every other state or nation, it is subject to the rule of law. For this reason we, the Freedom Flotilla coalition, call upon the international community to break the silence against Israel’s violations of international law and bring the criminals to justice.

In our fight against impunity around the world, this recent ruling by the Turkish court and the ICC procedure are a starting point and an opportunity we have to take as the collective conscience of humanity.

Source: Press release issued by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation on the 4th anniversary of the Mavi Marmara attack.

Mavi Marmara MUSIC VIDEO BELOW, Produced by Bonnie King:

Nearly 800 killed in Iraq's bloodiest month this year - UN

A general view of Firdos Square, one of the main squares of Baghdad April 29, 2014.

BAGHDAD Sun Jun 1, 2014 

(Reuters) - Nearly 800 people were killed in violence across Iraq in May, the United Nations said on Sunday, making it the deadliest month so far this year.

Of the total 799 people killed, 196 were members of the Iraqi security forces, and the rest were civilians - often victims of attacks by Sunni Islamist insurgents who have been regaining ground and momentum in Iraq over the past year.

The real toll is in fact higher because the UN figures do not include casualties in the western province of Anbar, where the Iraqi army has been fighting tribal and insurgent groups since they overran two cities at the start of the year.

Despite deteriorating security, Iraq's incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won the largest share of parliamentary seats in national elections last month, dealing a blow to his opponents who blame him for leading the country to ruin.

Bloodshed remains below the levels seen in 2006 and 2007 when sectarian Shi'ite-Sunni killings reached their peak, but last year was Iraq's deadliest since violence began to ease in 2008.

“I strongly deplore the sustained level of violence and terrorist acts that continues rocking the country," UN envoy to Iraq Nikolay Mladenov said in a statement.

"I urge the political leaders to work swiftly for the formation of an inclusive government within the constitutionally mandated timeframe and focus on a substantive solution to the situation in Anbar.”

Excluding Anbar, the worst affected governorate was Baghdad, where 315 people were killed. The Sunni-dominated northern province of Nineveh was the second most violent, followed by Salahaddin, Kirkuk and Diyala.

The UN said figures from the Anbar health directorate put the number of civilian casualties there at 195, with about half in the provincial capital Ramadi and the rest in the city of Fallujah, which is just 70 km (43 miles) west of Baghdad.

Monitoring group Iraq Body Count put the monthly civilian death toll across Iraq higher at 1,027, bringing its tally so far this year to 5,055, of which 521 people were killed in Fallujah alone by government forces.

Harvard study says 70 percent of domestic violence is committed by women against men

by Joseph Earnest November 15, 2013

 

Newscast Media HOUSTON—Three years ago I wrote an article based on a scientific study done by Harvard Medical School that revealed domestic violence was not as one-sided as the media often depicts it.  The article to this very day is the second most popular article I've written and is widely cited online and offline.

I have since discovered that the original article that was published on the Harvard Medical School Web site has been scrubbed, and my guess is that certain activist groups perhaps pressured the professors to remove it.  Most of these institutions depend on endowments and grants to function, so it is understandable how that may have been the cause of its removal. As you can see, if you click on this original hyperlink, the article is gone:

Original link from Harvard Medical School was here >> (pop-up)

However, fear not.  Even three years ago, my discernment and sound judgment enabled me to envisage something like that happening, so I took a screen-shot of the entire article, just in case it was taken down.  I am re-posting the article and will compress it into PDF format that way you are able to use it as a reference resource.  You will find the PDF at the very end of the article.

One thing about Newscast Media is that it does not receive any funds from sponsors and is self-funded, therefore we are not beholden to any entity, and have the liberty to publish content as we so wish. That's what true independent and objective journalism exemplifies.

Another interesting aspect of the article is the comments section.  There are over 250 comments on this particular article, that you might find either amusing, or instructive at the very end. Below is the original article:

=======================================================

Original article by Joseph Earnest July 15, 2010

 Newscast Media HOUSTON—As the media flashes images and plays tapes of Mel Gibson screaming at his former lover, one has to wonder what the other side of the story is. It is obvious that Mel Gibson was set up by his girlfriend, whom he claims tried to extort him. While I don't condone any kind of violence, I have to present to my reading audience some cold hard facts that the 'mainstream media' has chosen to ignore in relation to domestic violence.

Forensic expert  Arlo West said on Good Morning America, in regard to the tapes, "I believe these are professionally done. I think she had help. She clearly was speaking into what we call a large diaphragm microphone. Her voice is very well engineered. She sounds great. To authenticate a recording it must be an original."

The information presented to you comes from investigative research of data produced by reputable organizations like Harvard Medical School, The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Psychiatric Association, just to mention a few.

The mainstream media seems to imply that men are the sole perpetrators of violence against women, but research proves otherwise.  A recent study by Harvard Medical School conducted a survey of 11,000 men and women and found that 50% of the violence was reciprocal. Both men and women also took responsibility for being equally violent in the heat of passion.  

The Harvard study found that when violence was one-sided, meaning unprovoked, both men and the women themselves who took the study said 70% of the time it was the women who committed violence against the men.

See screenshot of study here>>  (pop-up)

 Another study by the American Psychiatric Association that backs the Harvard Medical School study was published by Joan Arehart-Treichel who says, "When it comes to non-reciprocal violence between intimate partners, women are more often the perpetrators."   View comments (250)+plus

What the U.S. Gave Up to Get Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Back

ABC US News | ABC International News

Mullah Mohammad Fazl, left, and Abdul Haq Wasiq are shown in these undated photos. Image credit: Department of Defense
May 31, 2014
WASHINGTON — Most of the reaction to Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release after five years as a captive of the Taliban has been celebratory, but a pair of lawmakers questioned whether the deal reached with the Taliban was legal and whether the price paid was too high.

What the U.S. Gave Up to Get Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Back by nelvely

Jaffna Library burns - May 31st 1981

31 May 2014
On 31st May 1981, the crucible of Tamil literature and heritage - the Jaffna Public Library - was set ablaze by state security forces and state sponsored mobs. 

Over 95,000 unique and irreplaceable Tamil palm leaves (ola), manuscripts, parchments, books, magazines and newspapers, housed within an impressive building inspired by ancient Dravidian architecture, were destroyed during the burning that continued unchecked for two nights.

Nancy Murray, a western author, wrote at the time:

"They burned to the ground certain chosen targets - including the Jaffna Public Library, with its 95,000 volumes and priceless manuscripts…no mention of this appeared in the national newspapers, not even the burning of the library, the symbol of Tamils' cultural identity. The government delayed bringing in emergency rule until 2 June, by which time the key targets had been destroyed."

The destruction took place under the rule of the UNP at a time when District Development Council elections were underway, and two notorious Sinhala chauvinist cabinet ministers - Cyril Mathew and Gamini Dissanayake - were in Jaffna. Earlier on the 31st May, three Sinhalese police officers were killed during a rally by the TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front).
   

Cultural Vandalism and Genocide

The term genocide is only a recent one, having been coined in 1945 by Raphael Lemkin, lecturer on comparative law at the Institute of Criminology of the Free University of Poland and Deputy Prosecutor of the District Court of Warsaw. Since then, it has become a crucial term for understanding events, particularly ethnic violence, in the world.

Lemkin defined genocide as "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves."

He said that the objective of such a plan would be disintegration of the political
and social institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.

For Lemkin, "genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the
actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group."

Whilst genocide has come to be associated with the concentrated killings of large numbers of people, such as in a few bloody month in Rwanda recently or during the years of the Holocuast of WW2, Lemkin's concept is just as valid if it happens over decades.

Furthermore, the destruction of a people's culture, whilst not given particular attention in the massive bloodletting which has characterised the well known instances of genocide, remains an integral part of the crime as Lemkin saw it.

"An attack targeting a collectivity can also take the form of systematic and organized destruction of the art and cultural heritage in which the unique genius and achievement of a collectivity are revealed in fields of science, arts and literature," he wrote. "The contribution of any particular collectivity to world culture as a whole forms the wealth of all of humanity, even while exhibiting unique characteristics."

"The [perpetrator] causes not only the immediate irrevocable losses of the destroyed work as property and as the culture of the collectivity directly concerned (whose unique genius contributed to the creation of this work); it is also all humanity which experiences a loss by this act of vandalism."

"In the acts of barbarity, as well as in those of vandalism, the asocial and destructive spirit of the [perpetrator] is made evident. This spirit, by definition, is the opposite of the culture and progress of humanity."