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India and Australia agree to collaborate on rejuvenating Ganga

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A devotee taking a dip in the polluted waters of river Ganga in Allahabad. Photo: The Hindu

A devotee taking a dip in the polluted waters of river Ganga in Allahabad. Photo: The Hindu

Canberra/ANI: India and Australia on Tuesday announced plans to collaborate on rejuvenating the River Ganga during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

In a joint statement issued during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Australia, both sides welcomed the two-way exchanges and cooperation in river basin planning under the water partnership, and a new program of joint research on agricultural water management.

Both sides also welcomed co-operation between Australian and Indian universities, and in particular, the joint PhD programmes to encourage research.

During his visit here, Prime Minister Modi renewed his invitation to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to visit India again at his convenience. They also agreed that high-level visits played a key role in enhancing the strategic partnership between the two countries.

Prime Minister Modi kickstarted his day’s engagements with a visit to the War Memorial here, where he paid his tributes to those Australians who had died at war while serving their country.

He was also accompanied by his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott, where he laid a wreath in the Hall of Memory . Prime Minister Modi observed few minutes of silence at the memorial as a mark of respect and signed the visitor’s book here before he left.

Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given a warm ceremonial reception here at the forecourt of the Australian Parliament and offered a gun salute.

He also inspected a guard of honour during his visit here.

During his opening statement at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Prime Minister Modi said that both nations were seeking early closure to a civil nuclear agreement that will give Australia a chance to participate in one of the world’s most safe and secure nuclear energy programmes. Besides, the two nations also decided to sign five pacts on several areas.

While addressing the joint session of the Australian Parliament, he placed Australia at the centre of India’s vision of a prosperous and regional order, at the juncture of the Indian and Pacific oceans, at a time when security and maritime navigation were valued more highly than ever before.

After addressing the Australian Parliament here, Prime Minister Modi has arrived in Melbourne where he is scheduled to address expatriate Indians at the the 161-year-old Melbourne Cricket Ground and attend two other events hosted by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, before departing for Fiji for the third leg of his three-nation, 10-day trip.

(ANI)

We're running out of chocolate

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choco

If we go by the words of the biggest chocolate-maker, then we are in serious trouble. If you like chocolate, that is.

Chocolate deficits, whereby farmers produce less cocoa than the world eats, are becoming the norm. Already, we are in the midst of what could be the longest streak of consecutive chocolate deficits in more than 50 years. It also looks like deficits aren’t just carrying over from year-to-year—the industry expects them to grow. Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. By 2020, the two chocolate-makers warn that that number could swell to 1 million metric tons, a more than 14-fold increase; by 2030, they think the deficit could reach 2 million metric tons.

Russia and China prepare to fight US internet domination

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There’s no physical fences in cyberspace, that doesn’t mean there’s no border controls. paolo_cuttitta, CC BY

There’s no physical fences in cyberspace, that doesn’t mean there’s no border controls. paolo_cuttitta, CC BY

by Eerke Boiten, The Conversation

While there is only one world power on the internet, that situation will not last forever. The internet’s underpinning technologies were mostly created in the US, the initial networks were based there – and today the US hosts the majority of the most powerful internet companies.

Although minor battles have been fought on internet sovereignty for years, the de facto power that stems from the US for a long time seemed acceptable. But with the revelations – not even all following from Snowden – about international mass surveillance by the US and its allies, it’s inevitable the gloves have had to come off.

In a replay of an imaginary Cold War nightmare scenario, Russia and China appear to have identified a common enemy. The nations are expected to sign a collaborative cyber-security treaty to “oppose the use of IT and the internet to interfere in the internal affairs of independent states”.

There has also been discussion in mainland Europe, particularly Germany, about “Schengen-routing”, which would keep internet traffic away from the parts of the network where NSA and GCHQ could easily snoop on them. Edward Snowden has claimed that establishing a “European cloud” may not be effective, however.

Generally there are two main reasons for states to want to take control of the internet: they want to defend against outsiders – and to defend against insiders.

The enemy outside

Effectively the US still claims sovereignty over large parts of the internet. This is not just de facto sovereignty based on the residence of large internet companies and most cloud servers within the US. It is not even because the Snowden files have shown us that the NSA hoovers up most internet traffic. In a recent court case it was established that US law enforcement agencies can demand data from US companies even when it is stored abroad (in this case, Microsoft servers based in Ireland).

The discrimination in NSA procedures and US law that treats US and non-US citizens differently (worse) is also irksome.

Nor are US allies, chiefly Britain, innocent in this context. Unexplained spying by GCHQ abroad is well-documented, with the claims of eavesdropping at climate change conferencesthe most recent. The explicit extension of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 introduced through this summer’s “emergency” DRIP Act also plays a role. The act’s clause 4allows the interception of communications even relating to activity outside the UK by persons and companies based outside the UK.

For countries such as Russia and China, the threat from outside is more acute given that both countries have problems with territorial conflicts. There have been reports of cyber attacks in both directions between Russia and Ukraine. And China has been suspected of carrying out man-in-the-middle attacks in order to spy on citizens using encrypted connections.

These countries have a greater need to take control. Russia, for example, has recently been reported to be investing US$500m to establish a cyber warfare division, for offensive and defensive operations.

The enemy within

When governments tighten their hold over the internet within their own country it’s normally a slippery slope towards the restriction of civil rights. The so-called “great firewall of China” is to restrict freedom of expression and access to information for the Chinese population – to control those within, not those without. Google played along with this by censoring search results within China until 2010, when they moved their operations to the slightly freer jurisdiction of Hong Kong.

Amnesty International has taken up cases of people persecuted for political use of the internet in countries such as Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Egypt. North Korea has even gone as far as closing down all access to Twitter and Facebook.

On the other hand, Russia is close enough to Europe to not want to be painted as a politically repressive country. Instead Russia controls its internet through more subtle means. For example, its compulsory identity verification for social networks is justified as a defence against identity theft. While many nations operate a blacklist to restrict access to child pornography sites and those distributing copyrighted material, the Russian government added some independent news sites to the list, allegedly to prevent unauthorised protests – and pages on social network VK were highlighted by public prosecutors as advocating terrorism.

However, with its recent explicit attacks on freedom of speech, it seems Russian authorities no longer feel especially restrained in exercising censorship. Putin’s claims to support online freedoms like any other democratic country sound a bit shrill taken alongside his description of the internet as “a CIA project”.

Setting an example

Not that the UK emerges as a shining example in this respect. Dubious laws have been used to arrest a peer joining a demonstration – and years of spying on eminent historians by MI5 has just come to light. Meanwhile the police feel free to spy on journalists, prison staff listen in on MPs’ phone callsand intelligence agencies breach client-lawyer privilege. So it’s hard to swallow claims made by the home secretary, Theresa May, and GCHQ that efforts to improve mobile coverage and use encryption shouldn’t be allowed because of “security threats”.

Of course with elections around the corner, the major parties are making promises about restoring civil rights and establishing safeguards and oversight. But it seems there’s been little progress towards David Cameron’s promises in 2009 to erode the “control state” his government inherited.

The Conversation

RJD, JD-U likely merge ahead of Bihar assembly polls

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RJD JD-U

Patna: Bihar will witness the biggest political realignment of the decade ahead of the assembly polls in 2015 with likely merger of Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the ruling Janata Dal-United to counter the surging BJP.

“After results of Haryana and Maharashtra assembly polls, Lalu Prasad and JD-U president Sharad Yadav and former chief minister Nitish Kumar have agreed in principle to merge the two parties to take on the BJP,” a RJD leader close to Lalu Prasad said Monday.

This development has come nearly four months after Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar joined hands in Bihar and 10 days after leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the JD-U, the RJD and the Janata Dal-Secular announced a united front to counter the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

A JD-U leader said: “Merger of the RJD and the JD-U is on cards to strengthen secular forces…”

He said none other than Nitish Kumar himself said that “we resolved to work together and in the near future there is a strong possibility we might merge and form one party”.

According to the JD-U and the RJD leaders here, if both parties contest next state assembly polls as an alliance, there will be serious problem of seat sharing.

The JD-U, which has 118 legislators in the house, will bargain for more seats and the RJD, which has 23 legislators, will put its claim for more seats on the basis of its performance in the last Lok Sabha polls.

In August, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar jointly campaigned during the by-elections in Bihar. The JD-U, the RJD and the Congress won six of the 10 assembly seats.

That was the first time the two leaders came together after a gap of 20 years. It was in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls that Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar last campaigned together.

Lalu Prasad then said he and Nitish Kumar wanted to send a strong message across the country to unite non-BJP forces.

Nitish Kumar, who quit as Bihar’s chief minister in May after his party was routed in the general elections, has been repeatedly targeting Modi.

He said Modi has failed to bring back black money stashed abroad by Indians within 100 days of taking power.

In a bid to expose Modi’s double speak, Nitish Kumar said: “Modi had promised to bring back black money after being elected to power. But he has failed to do that even after 150 days.”

The JD-U ended a 17-year alliance with the BJP last year after Modi was declared the prime ministerial candidate of the party.

Four die, one injured in chemical leak at Texas plant

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Workers exposed to methyl mercaptan, chemical used in insecticides

Four workers died and one was injured in a chemical leak at a DuPont factory in Texas on Saturday. (Photo: Health Gauge/flickr/cc)

Four workers died and one was injured in a chemical leak at a DuPont factory in Texas on Saturday. (Photo: Health Gauge/flickr/cc)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

Four workers were killed and one injured in a chemical leak at a DuPont plant near Houston, Texas on Saturday.

A valve began leaking methyl mercaptan, a chemical used to make insecticides and fungicides, around 4am at a plant stationed in La Porte, about 20 miles east of Houston. Officials say the leak was contained by 6am, but the five employees who were in the unit at the time responded to the accident and were exposed to the chemical. The cause was not immediately known.

Methyl mercaptan is also often used to add odor to natural gas, which has no smell, for safety purposes.

According to the Houston Chronicle, among the victims were 39-year-old Robert Tisnado and his 48-year-old brother Gibby Tisnado, who had worked at the plant for six years. USA Today also wrote that the leak killed a supervisor who had been with DuPont for more than 40 years.

The Chronicle continued:

The chemical can cause severe respiratory, skin and eye irritation. It can also cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, coma and even death. Exposure in poorly ventilated, enclosed, or low-lying areas can result in asphyxiation, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry….

Antonio Areola, 50, who works at the complex for another company, said the news was extremely sad. Plant workers are haunted by the potential dangers of the job, he said.

“There’s danger in the plants, you can always feel it,” he said in Spanish.

The Associated Press reports:

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates chemical accidents, announced late Saturday that it was sending a seven-person team to investigate the incident.

Jeff Suggs, emergency management coordinator for La Porte, said the chemical release was not toxic for those living nearby, but that it caused a smell that’s similar to rotten eggs.

“It’s a nuisance smell in the area. It’s a smell that’s traveled quite far,” Suggs said.

The odor from the leak lingered in the area for the better part of the day and reached areas about 40 miles away, The Houston Chronicle reported.

This is not the first time in recent years that DuPont workers have been killed by overlooked safety hazards in the company’s factories around the country. As NBC News writes:

The Chemical Safety Board in 2011 found “a series of preventable safety shortcomings” at a DuPont facility in Belle, West Virginia, contributed to a 2010 phosgene gas release that killed one worker. Also in 2010, an explosion during welding at a DuPont plant outside of Buffalo, N.Y., killed one worker. The board blamed the company’s failure to monitor flammable gas levels in a storage tank before welding for that accident.

Plant manager Randall Clements said in a statement, “There are no words to fully express the loss we feel or the concern and sympathy we extend to the families of the employees and their co-workers. We are in close touch with them and providing them every measure of support and assistance at this time.”

He added that DuPont will cooperate with officials investigating the cause of the accident.

Putin leaves G20 early after harsh reception

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Leaders threaten Russian president with further sanctions over Ukraine

Putin-Obama

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

Russian president Vladimir Putin left the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Brisbane, Australia early, flying back to Moscow on Sunday after world leaders accused him of bullying and warned him to drop his support of separatists in Ukraine.

In meetings with British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin accused the Ukrainian government of making punitive sanctions against cities in the eastern region of the country that voted for independence last month, while Cameron said Russia was “bullying a smaller state in Europe.”

President Barack Obama said the U.S. was “opposing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world.” He added that Russia had failed to hold up its part of the ceasefire plan agreed upon in Minsk in September.

European Union President Herman von Rompuy told reporters on Saturday that foreign ministers were ready to consider additional actions against Russia. “Russia has still the opportunity to fulfill its Minsk agreements and chose the path of de-escalation, which could allow sanctions to be rolled back,” von Rompuy said. “If it does not do so however, we are ready to consider additional action.”

“We need to avoid a return to a full-scale conflict,” he added.

Obama echoed that sentiment, saying that if Russia engaged in diplomatic efforts to deescalate the fighting in Ukraine, the U.S. would suggest lifting sanctions “that are frankly having a devastating effect on the Russian economy.”

The Guardian writes:

The crisis has been deepened by the creation of the declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) led by Alexander Zakharchenko, an electrician turned battalion commander. Earlier this month the region occupied by separatists for six months organised an unauthorised vote to appoint a prime minister.

The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, announced in response that all state funding would be cut off, arguing that the elections violated the Minsk peace accords signed in September.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also reportedly told Putin, “I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine.”

More than 4,000 people have been killed in that country since April, where separatist fighting has continued to escalate. The Russian government has repeatedly denied involvement in the conflict, including the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 on July 17, killing 298 people, as it flew over rebel-held territory.

Putin denied that he was leaving over the barrage of criticism, instead saying that he needed to return to work in Moscow.

In an interview with German TV, Putin also said that additional sanctions against Russia could backfire on Western countries.

“Do they want to bankrupt our banks? In that case they will bankrupt Ukraine,” Putin said. “Have they thought about what they are doing at all or not? Or has politics blinded them? As we know eyes constitute a peripheral part of brain. Was something switched off in their brains?”

The Guardian continues:

Nato claims 300 Russian troops remain in Ukraine training the separatist forces ahead of likely fresh offensives. Several of the contested areas are crucial for the republic’s long-term survival, including the port city of Mariupol and a power station north of Luhansk….

Putin has insisted he will not cut funding to Ukraine, or demand early repayment of loans.

“We do not want to aggravate the situation. We want Ukraine to get back on its feet at last,” the president has previously said.

Although the western media has portrayed Putin as an isolated figure at the summit, he has continued to forge close relations with the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) a grouping that is becoming increasingly organised at the G20 and, in terms of economic size, more than matches the size of the G7 economies.

Widespread condemnation for UAE’s “terrorist” list

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UAE-map

by Cii Broadcasting

A global group of Ulama led by an influential Qatar-based Aalim have expressed “astonishment” at being designated a terrorist body by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a statement the International Union of Muslim Scholars urged the UAE to remove it from a list of 85 groups the country’s cabinet named on Saturday as terrorist organisations in a drive against what the country termed “terrorist crimes”.

The inclusion of the group was “not based on any analysis or investigation, whether legal, logical or rational”, said the statement, co-signed by the union’s chairman, Egyptian-born Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

“The Union expresses its complete and extreme astonishment of its inclusion by the UAE among the terrorists groups and rejects this description completely,” said the group, which says it seeks to promote scholarship and awareness of Islam.

Other groups designated in the list included Nusra Front and the ISIL, whose fighters are battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, several Shi’ite Muslim militant groups such as the Houthi movement in Yemen, and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, with which Qaradawi is closely associated.

The list also includes a number of humanitarian, relief and Muslim community associations in the Arab world and the West.

The union said the UAE list ignored groups engaged in what it called “non-Islamic terrorism” against Muslims, saying this raised questions about the motives behind the designations.

The UAE action mirrors a move by Saudi Arabia in March that was seen as part of a campaign by the kingdom, the UAE and Bahrain to pressure Qatar to reduce its longstanding support for “Islamist” forces around the Middle East.

The U.S.-allied monarchies mistrust the Muslim Brotherhood because its doctrines challenge the principle of dynastic rule.

But quoted by the Middle East Eye, UK based commentator Anas Al-Tikriti voiced an anger that was echoed by several Muslims who were shocked by the release of the list.

“The fact that it piles together terrorist groups like Boko Haram and ISIL with think tanks and research centers who aren’t involved in political work and who espouse democratic principles belies any kind of rationality or logic,” Anas al-Tikriti, the former president of the Muslim Association of Britain said.

“Some of these organizations represent tens of thousands of people.

“Does the UAE mean to suggest there are tens of thousands of terrorists throughout the world from America, to Europe, to Africa?”

“Many of the listed names are there purely for political reasons,” said Ahmed Mansoor, an Emirati human rights activist.

“The authorities here are abusing the hype of fighting terrorism to label peaceful, political groups and human rights organizations as terrorist organizations.”

“A list like this only makes real terrorists like ISIS look more powerful,” Mansoor said.

Adding civic organizations and terrorist groups in the same list was slammed by analysts and political experts who described the list as “very odd”.

The UAE blacklist included the names of several American and European Muslims organization like the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, the Islamic Relief, a UK-registered charity that is working with the British government and Muslim Association of Britain.

“You have people from across the spectrum, some completely devoted to violence and some who don’t seem to be involved in violence at all,” Jin Walsh, a Research Associate at MIT’s Security Studies Program in Boston, told Al Jazeera.

Two US-based groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society, were also included in the list, sending a shockwave among thousands of their members.

“The Muslim American Society was shocked to read news reports claiming that the United Arab Emirates has listed the Muslim American Society, along with numerous other organizations, as a terrorist organization,” the organization said in a statement .

“We have no dealings with the United Arab Emirates, and hence are perplexed by this news.”

“We are seeking clarification from the government of the United Arab Emirates about this shocking and bizarre report. There is absolutely no factual basis for the inclusion CAIR and other American and European civil rights and advocacy groups on this list,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) added.

“Like the rest of the mainstream institutions representing the American Muslim community, CAIR’s advocacy model is the antithesis of the narrative of violent extremists.”

Established in 1994, CAIR is a non-profit grassroots organization headquartered in Washington DC, with 35 offices and chapters across the US and Canada.

It strives to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Ginger cultivation in Mysuru district destroying the Environment

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Photo: K.K. Mustafah

Photo: K.K. Mustafah

by Vivek Cariappa

To:

The Deputy Commissioner and Dist. Magistrate, 6th Nov, 2013.
Mysore district.
Dear Madam,

Ginger cultivation in Mysore district is growing exponentially this year as the projected prices have shot up. Agricultural irrigated lands are being leased at high rates all over.

Ginger growing in Mysore is taken up by growers from Kerala, who have come across the border because Kerala state has banned many of the toxic pesticides used in Ginger cultivation; furthermore, land and labour are cheaper here making the ginger crop even more lucrative.

Out of state cultivators avail ALL the agri subsidies given to our farmers ( e.g. Finance, irrigation, power, fertilizer, sprinkler and drip irrigation equipment subsidy, etc.) and the crop is harvested and taken back to Kerala without payment of any taxes of any kind to Karnataka. As if this was not bad enough, these contract farmers leave behind a plethora of problems ranging from health issues to toxic pollution of our local water bodies, soil, air and ground water.

Irresponsible usage of huge amounts of toxic chemicals , in certain cases, have in the past resulted in severe damage and extensive losses to certified organic farms and sericulture operations. The first step for Ginger cultivation is to change the PH by adding huge quantities of lime to the soil, making the soil highly alkaline: this is permanently devastating to other crops grown thereafter.

Ginger cultivation uses huge amounts of herbicides (2-4D being one of them) Roundup in particular , pesticides and fungicides. Some of them like 2-4D and Endosulfan are banned in India, the ban is enforced in Kerala as the toxicity has had disastrous effects on the people there.

Most of these chemical residues end up in local water bodies causing unseen pollution and direct poisoning of all life forms in the water. Those that survive carry lethal concentrations of toxins that effect human and animal health in insidious and long term ways.

Last year as the water levels in ALL our water bodies was exceptionally low, the actual toxicity levels ended up dangerously high with increased Ginger cultivation. This will have widespread effects as toxicity levels increase.

As a warning, take the case of Ginger cultivation along the Kabini, Taraka and Nugu rivers and in the Paddy fields irrigated by these 3 Dams, the water, along with its toxic wash off is being supplied for drinking purposes to towns and cities as close as Nanjangud and as far as Mysore and Bangalore. Even in the villages; one village on the river side upstream pollutes water for the one’s down stream.

This year ginger cultivators are paying upto Rs.50,000 per acre per year, and have extended their operations within and around the Notified Eco-Sensitive Zone (Bandipur National Park), what effect this will have on the surrounding wildlife is left to the imagination, as no one is paying any attention at the ground level.

Further, in H.D.Kote a lot of the land being leased belongs to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) people. This makes them landless labor on their own lands. The question here is WHO WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIS HEINOUS CRIME?

I sincerely urge the Government of Karnataka, specially the administration of Mysore district to regulate Ginger cultivation carefully to ensure minimum damage to our general environment and specifically our soil, water and health – human and animal (domesticated and wild life). To not take pre-emptive action would not be just negligent but a willful destruction of our natural resources, biodiversity and the future lives of our population.

Some suggestions:

  1. All lease of land for Ginger cultivation must be legally registered with the revenue and agriculture dept. and the local APMC, only on issue of license should cultivation commence. Forest dept should restrict the areas under ginger cultivation in eco-sensitive zones and regulate the chemicals being used and its effects in terms of wash off.

  2. Banned and highly toxic pesticides must be avoided. The relevant ban must be enforced and offenders punished according to law.

  3. Ginger cultivation must be banned in eco-sensitive areas such as near forests, on the banks of lakes, rivers and dams.

  4. Being a cash crop the harvested produce should be taxed according to state norms.

  5. Ensure that license for Ginger cultivation is Not granted near Sericulture operations and silk worm rearing houses, and do not pollute certified organic farms.

  6. Enforce the Legislation for penalizing the polluter for toxic pollution resulting from Ginger cultivation.

Ginger cultivation is cheap in Karnataka as the environmental costs have not been calculated and paid for as yet, that is why contractors from Kerala have been operating here. The pollution control board needs to make regular checks on Ginger growing farms to ensure existing laws are adhered to.

Mysore is not only a tourist hot spot, the district is an Internationally recognised Bio-Diversity zone, with forests and National Parks. The ill effects of excessive use of highly toxic chemicals here will show up only in the future, as it did in Kasargod dist. of Kerala, where use of Endosulfan had permanent damage on the people and environment, by the time the authorities reacted it was too late for many.

Can we hope to be more proactive here, and learn from our neighbors mistakes ?

Looking forward to an early response from you,

Yours sincerely,

Vivek Cariappa

Halasur village, Birwal P.O. H.D.Kote taluk . 571121 . Mysore dt.

Vivek Cariappa is an organic farmer and Karnataka State award-winner

Satellite image shows fighter jet launching missile at Malaysian Boeing MH17

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Satellite image shows fighter jet launching missile at Malaysian Boeing MH17

by Pravda.Ru

An anonymous individual sent a letter with a satellite image and results of their own investigation into the disaster of Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight in Ukraine, writes LifeNews. The letter arrived from the USA. One of the photos, which was exposed to the general public by First Channel on November 13th, clearly depicts the Malaysian Boeing and the attacking fighter, supposedly a MiG-29.

The photo also depicts the moment of the missile launch from the fighter jet into the cockpit of the passenger liner. Experts note that the terrain, weather conditions and the dimensions of the aircraft fully correspond to the circumstances of the disaster.

“We saw a satellite image that was taken from not very high orbit for general reconnaissance of air and ground space. In accordance with the coordinates specified on the picture, we may assume that the picture was taken from an American or a British satellite. We conducted a detailed analysis of the image and found no signs of forgery,” vice president of the Russian Union of engineers, Ivan Andrievsky, told First Channel.

The Malaysian Airlines airliner, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17 at about 19:00 Moscow time near the village of Snezhnoye, in the Donetsk region. The crash left no survivors – all 298 people were killed. Official international investigation, led by the Netherlands, has been unable to shed light on the circumstances of the tragedy.

On board the airplane, there were 298 people, 154 nationals of the Netherlands, 27 Australians, 45 Malaysians (including 15 crew members), 12 Indonesians, nine Britons and four German nationals, four Belgians, three Filipinos and one Canadian.

Noteworthy, Pravda.Ru analyzed this version of the disaster in August in an article about Romanian military expert and pilot Valentin Vasilescu, who said that the plane was shot down by Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter that was possibly piloted by a Polish pilot.

Also read: Boeing-777 was downed by Ukrainian MiG-29, Romanian expert says

The expert strongly rejected the version, according to which the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, which, according to American and Ukrainian versions, was launched from a Buk-M1 complex owned by militia forces.

The plane, as shown by black boxes, fell apart in the air, which was possible only in case of horizontal peak from an altitude of ten thousand feet.

“Teach about Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi as national hero”: Global Hindu Foundation to Ministry of Education

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by Teesta Setalvad

Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi is a “national hero” who “fought for independence from the British” and whose reputation has been tarnished by previous governments and who should figure prominently among the new list of national heroes to be taught in all government schools.

So urges a controversial letter dated November 15, 2014 addressed to Smriti Irani, cabinet minister for Human Resources Development, and posted on the home page of savetemples.org, the website of the “Mission to Save Hinduism and Hindu Temples”. Touted as a ‘Project of Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) USA’, the mission operates out of the ‘Save Temple Office’ opened in Hyderabad city in June 2012.

The letter urges that the Modi government should encourage teaching about national heroes “who sacrificed their life in order to guarantee freedom for the future generations.” According to the letter Godse is one such.

“…It is time to teach about their heroism, their love for Bharath, their struggles with British rulers, their imprisonment, their hangings and/or suffering. Their martyrdom is unparalleled and unmatched. They cheerfully sacrificed their life for the sake of the people of Bharat to enjoy their unbridled freedom with dignity and pride.” Others, who figure in this letter along with Godse who deserve to be taught about are Balagangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Subhash Chandra Bose, Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru, Sukhdev, Chandrasekhar Azhad, Vasudev Balwant Phadke and the Chapekar brothers.” Needless to say, Gandhi does not figure in the list; nor does Jawaharlal Nehru, or even Sardar Patel.

It appears that the Save Temple project is funded entirely through saffron dollars raised in the US. The appeal for donations towards the end of the letter informs potential donors that the GHHF is exempt from the US federal income tax rules. It is not clear whether the Save Temple Project is registered under FCRA.

The letter also stated that most of the books written by Marxists, Muslims and Western historians “are so slanted, abusive, hateful, repulsive and intolerable to the true history of India, so derogatory to the national freedom fighters, so demonizing to Sanatana dharma, so negligent of the contributions of great emperors to establish Hindutva, and so boastful of the Muslim aggressors as contributors to the Indian culture”. The letter extols the virtues of Subramanian Swamy for “calling for the burning of the writings by Nehruvian historians.”

The letter adds that, “We feel that it is time to fire all these left wing historians who have stabbed the Mother India for many decades and employ those scholars who appreciate the richness of the Sanatana Dharma into National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), National Censor Board and other agencies. It is time to reclaim what is lost, revamp the whole school curriculum, and rewrite the history debunking these leftwing Nehruvian historians.”

This letter comes at a time when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s brand of history writing is attempting a complete capture of India’s institutes of higher learning and research, and also at a time when the RSS backed Shiksha Bachao Andolan is planning a national level conference at Ujjain of 200 ‘academics and experts’ to ‘review’ the emphasis and focus of the previous Radhakrishnan, Mudaliar and Kothari Commission reports. Supremacist and exclusivist brands of ‘history writing’ are making their political advantage felt with their unquestionable hold on the Modi government.

In this letter sent to Smruti Irani today, the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation has also, chosen specifically to advise the Modi government to misinform Indian children about the three sites of perpetrated conflict that have had specific import for the politics of communal mobilisation in India since the mid- 1980s, that is Faizabad-Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura. The issue of the site where the Babri Masjid, a 400 year old Mosque stood is at present before the Supreme Court of India after the Mosque was illegally demolished on December 6, 1992. The other two sites, at Mathura and Kashi, have been at the heart of the BJP-RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal mobilisation that aims to ‘re-claim’ or ‘destroy’ the Mosques that stand cheek by jowl to temples at these sites. Presently they are governed by the Places of Worship Act, 1991 have also mentioned in a Supreme Court directive, generally protecting their status. An infamous slogan of far right in India since 1992 when the 400 year old Mosque was demolished has been,’ Abhi to bas yah jhanki hai, Kashi Mathura baki hai’ (This gives but a glimpse, Kashi/Banaras and Mathura still remain [as the objective]).

This letter quite clearly exhorts the Modi government that, school text books, “should also teach children as to how Krishna Janma Sthala was destroyed, how Ayodhya was converted to Babri Masjid, how Kashi Vishwanath Temple was destroyed and built Mosque in front of the Temple, and how more than 2000 Temples were converted to Mosques.”

Other suggestions coming from the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation include the compulsory teaching of the Bhagwad Geeta in schools where the letter says a “….a mere chanting of few verses is enough to awaken the consciousness of the individual and maintain the balance between the body, mind and soul. In fact, it improves the brain capacity to absorb the knowledge; teach the individual the responsibility of their dharma; emphasize the importance of bhakti, Jnana, karma and raja yoga; equip the individual fearless and give the needed strength to face the problems at hand; encourages one to think and uphold the dharma to protect human existence; and so on. No age is bar to learn and chant Bhagavad Gita. As young as three year olds chant the divine song. Its message is unmatched, unparalleled and unrivalled.”

The Ramayana should also be taught since “ Rama’s name is on the lips of every Hindu. He taught us to be a perfect son, a perfect brother, perfect husband, a perfect enemy, and a perfect king. He taught us how to live according to dharma in the face of un-surmountable hurdles.

Unashamed in its motive to convert history teaching – from a vibrant discipline with specific disciplinary tools for interpretation, analysis, verification and authentication that include contemporaneous sources, an understanding of archaeology, and secondary sources, a thorough reading of ancient and medieval languages — to a politico-religious project, the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation says it would like to see “Rama portrayed as a living national hero and Indian history as Sanatani (upper caste) Hindu… Lord Rama, who is known for his compassion, gentleness, kindness, righteousness, non-hatred, and integrity, has served as role model for all of us to follow for millennia. His respect for father and obedience to his command was unparalleled that all humanity should emulate. Guru-Sishya relationship was emboldened in Ramayana for all of us follow, cherish and nurture, especially in the modern society…”

“…Sita, Lakshmana, Bharatha, Dasaratha, Jataayu, Vali, Vibhishana, and Lord Hanuman have shaped the mind, body and soul of Bharath for many millennia. Every character teaches us how to live a dharmic life and how to establish Ramarajya where justice is rendered without consideration for the name and fame. Ramayana taught us the richness of valor, dharma, loyalty, mutual respect, bhakti, spirituality, wisdom and Jnana to be followed in daily life to uplift the spirit of human life. The message of Ramayana spread all over Asia and even today its popularity is unabated in countries like Cambodia, Java, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Sumatra, Thailand, Mauritius, Bali and other countries.”

Indians should be taught about the ‘Hindu Holocaust’ when 80 million Hindus were stabbed by Muslims in barabaric slaughter according to the Global Hindu Foundation in a letter to the government of India’s Minister for Human Resources Development (MHRD) Smruti Irani today. Gory and unsubstantiated descriptions of Hindus who refused to convert and who were taken atop the mountains and killed with ‘blood flowing from the mountain to the streets below’ find mention in this letter from this Hyderabad based affiliate of the sangh parivar.

The website of the GHF states that it is aimed towards “ Empowering Hindus- Towards a Hindu Worldview” and the controversial letter dated November 15, 2014 addressed to Smruti Irani, cabinet minister for Human Resources Development, and posted on the home page of savetemples.org, the website of the “Mission to Save Hinduism and Hindu Temples”. Touted as a ‘Project of Global Hindu Heritage Foundation, (GHHF) USA’, the mission operates out of the ‘Save Temple Office’ opened in Hyderabad city in June 2012.

The letter of the GHF, dated November 15, 2014 clearly emboldened by the regime in power in New Delhi, also states that students should be given a realistic picture of the brutal regimes of the past (read Muslim and Christian) when ‘Murthies were broken and remnants of Hindu statues used to build Mosques.” Students should also be taught in schools about how “how many Temples were converted to Mosques, how many Christians are converting the Hindus with deception and allurement, how minority appeasement is affecting the quality education and such similar issues should be addressed. Vast literature dealing with “Islamic onslaught” and “Goa Inquisition” should also be included to know the history of denial of fundamental rights to Hindus.”

The politicised project to completely colour and distort the teaching of the social sciences with a majoritarian and supremacist worldview, one moreover that stokes false hatreds against Muslims and Chritisans is in tune with the Shiksha Bachao Andolan (SBA) project run by Dinanath Batra.

Other subjects that the GHF feels should be taught to students through government run schools”

Great Saints of India

“…School books should include the history, message and glory of great saints of India such as Adi Sankara, Madhvacharya, Ramanujacharya, Meerabai, Kabir, Tukaram, Eknath, Gnaneswar, Namdev, Bhagawan Nityananda, Satya Saibaba, Sri Pada Vallabha, Narasimha Swamy, Samarth Ramdas, Veda Vyasa, Valmiki, Sri Aurobindo, Muktananda, Gorakhnad, Sri Prabhupada, Chinmayananda, Ramana Maharishi Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda and host of others. They have kept alive the richness of our culture in spite of the attempts destroy the ancient civilization.

“…The saints have played significant role in the preservation propagating the ideas and philosophies that were necessary to bring unity and much needed reforms to bring the appropriate changes in the society. Considering the Mughal domination of the India, the saints veered and helped bhaktas toward Bhakti marga, the path of devotion, instead encouraging them to conduct Temples pujas, especially North India.

Hindu Temples – History and relevance

“It is time to know the power, energy, and vibrations present in Hindu Temples. They are the place of worship where devotees worship their chosen Gods at different times day in and day out. Devotees go to the Hindu Temples to experience the infinite divine power through their individual prayers as well as collective worship. Hindu Temples have been built over more than twenty centuries providing opportunity to practice their social, religious and cultural milieu. Each Temple is dedicated to one of the manifestation of infinite power of the unfathomable divinity of the Almighty. Every Temple will have a sanctum sanctorum with a presiding Deity who represents the power and energy of GOD. Hindus believe that God is ever powerful, all pervasive, everywhere and everything is in God.

“…The Hindu Temples have served as centers of learning and knowledge; foci for social gathering; institutes for art, dance and music; hubs for upholding the dharmic values; nucleus for peace and nonviolence; lighthouses for philosophy and spirituality, cornerstones for worship services; promoters of age old, time tested universal values; institutes for yoga and meditation; holy places for conducting different festivals and rituals; and nexus for expressing devotion through music, singing and chanting; and centers for social services.

Gomata

“…Cow is revered, respected and honored and is regarded as a holy mother. Cows milk is light and easily digestible for a child. Its products such as milk, ghee, urine, cow dung and curd, and are considered sacred and has many medicinal values that improve the health of the humans and purifies the climate. Cow is considered as Kamadhenu (wish fulfilling Deity).

Lord Krishna worshipped cows, used to play flute that attracted the cows and used assemble around him.

“…All the scriptures such as Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Mahabharata, Manusmriti, and others extoll the virtues of the cow. All the Gods reside in her and killing her is considered the most heinous crime. It is often said “jivantu avadghnyah ta me vishasya dushanih” meaning that let cows live without slaughter for their whole life-they remove poison and toxins. Many sages, many Hindu Temples and numerous Ashrams maintained Goshalas (cow shelters) for centuries recognizing the numerous benefits that accrue from the cows.

The ancient ‘Hindu Past’, its ways of relating between men and women and the Scientific achievements of Ancient India are the values that should be taught in Central government schools today.

In a detailed letter written to the Minister for Human Resources Development (MHRD) Smruti Irani today, November 15, 2014, the Hyderabad based Global Hindu Foundation (GHF), has, taking a leaf out of Dinanath Batra’s nine books being taught as Supplemenatry materials to four hundred thousand students in Gujarat’s schools, urged the Modi government to take this model of teaching to the nation. This letter has been posted on the home page of savetemples.org, the website of the “Mission to Save Hinduism and Hindu Temples”. Touted as a ‘Project of Global Hindu Heritage Foundation, (GHHF) USA’, the mission operates out of the ‘Save Temple Office’ opened in Hyderabad city in June 2012.

Apart from the exhortations to teach Nathuram Godse as a ‘National Hero who fought the British’, and unsubstantiated details about a ‘Hindu holocaust by Muslims, this letter states that the following subjects should be taught in Central government schools:

Mahabharata

“…Mahabharata is one of the greatest epics and every single character teaches us the richness of our culture and traditions, morals and ethics that surpass the time. Numerous are the characters and numerous are the lessons one can learn from Mahabharata. Yudhishtira taught us how to follow dharma in face of numerous difficulties also the weakness of (gambling) that can bring down the kingdom; Bhishma taught us how to fulfill the wishes of his father and sacrificed his life as well as keeping his word for the rest of life and maintain celibacy; King Santanu taught us danger of yielding to sensate pleasure and the weakness toward other sex; Karna taught us the consequences of blind loyalty and passion for power as well as the generous nature of dana (gift); Dhritarashtra taught us how blind love for children can cause untold misery and destruction for the humanity, also how passion for children can smog the moral and impartial judgment; Draupadi taught us how even a small weakness resulted ….can… lead to war of destruction and also taught us how to behave with the husbands; and other characters such as Pandu, Veda Vyasa, Kunti, Dushyasana, Shikhandi, Satyavati and others were equally important in teaching us the morals and code of conduct.
“….. Finally the teaching of Bhagavad Gita by Lord Krishna to Arjuna about the responsibility of a Kshatriya and in general about Swadharma is unmatched humanity in recognizing the importance of Sthitipragna.

Puranic Stories and Morals

“In Naimisharanya, the assembled sages worshipped the learned Romaharshana and said, “Please tell us the stories of the Puranas. Who created the universe, who is its preserver and who will destroy it? Please instruct us in all these mysteries.” There are 18 main Puranas and18 upapuranas that describe the various aspects of cosmology and are considered the storehouse of stories that enriched with morals and traditions; manifestations of (dasavataras) Vishnu incarnations, and the paths of karma, bhakti and Jnana yogas. In fact they even described the origin of the universe, life cycles, trials, tribulations and richness of human life, respect for living and nonliving elements and scientific nature of the universe. They talk about the worship services, numerous samskaras, formation of earth, and mathematical expressions of the universe. They give us the experiences of people through their stories, symbols and rituals. Every community has its own reality, but underneath all these realities there is an underlying theme governing the basic principles and morals that guide the human life.

Panchatantra Stories

Panchatantra is a collection stories that teach us how to behave in a particular situation; how to solve the problems one faces; whom to trust and not to trust; how to keep your word against all odds; how to use your intellect instead of arms; how to avoid distrust among friends; how one should not deny the shelter to a needy person; how one should work toward accumulation of wealth and how to protect it; and how one should share their wealth and to whom.

The Scientific achievements

“…It is time to create pride among our youth about our scientific achievements. It was the Yogic seers who invented many mathematical calculations such as Zero, Decimals, Phi, Geometry, Algebra, computer language and more. Arbyabhatta was the champion of Astronomy and Mathematics, Bhaskaracharya was the genius of Algebra, Acharya Kanad was the founder of Atomic Theory, Naragrjuna was the wizard of Chemical Science, Acharya Charaka was the father of Medicine, Acharya Sushruta was the champion of Plastic Surgery, Varahamihra was the eminent Astronomer and Astrology, Patanjali was the father of Yoga Sutras, Acharya Bharadwaja was the pioneer of Aviation Technology, Acharya Kapila was the father of cosmology, and many more.”

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