It is probably common knowledge that there is insurgency in Indian occupied Kashmir. But, relatively little news has reached us in the last couple of years about the situation on the ground. Why don't we hear anything about the 'anti-terrorist' measures taken by the Indian government in Kashmir? Why is it all shrouded by tight secrecy?

Below, I am pasting two articles published in an Indian newspaper. The first is about the killing of four unidentified militants and one child by the Indian army in a gun battle. The similarity with the 'anti-terrorist' operations of the Israeli army in Palestine is uncanny. The second is a relatively tactful speech by the Indian prime minister on insurgency and terrorism, which provides a general view of his government's stance on insurgency and `terrorism' in different parts of India.

"Although studiously ignored by the mainstream news media, last month came

reports that the U.S. used napalm and chemical weapons in its assault upon

the city of Fallujah. The assault of November 2004 resulted in the

near-total destruction of the city, as well as the deaths of thousands of

non-insurgent Iraqi civilians. If the reports about napalm and chemical

weapons are true, not only would the U.S. be in violation of international

law, it would be guilty of the very crimes against humanity that it

previously leveled against Saddam Hussein and used as a justification for

invading Iraq."

"That bully who runs the Vancouver Police Department is at it again. This time Chief Jamie Graham is intent on whitewashing an external investigation into his own force by the (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)."

"The Deh Cho is determined that a pipeline will be built only under their own terms and conditions, even if that means the whole project is delayed.

The Deh Cho grand chief acknowledged this position hasn't made him or the region any friends in the rest of Mackenzie Valley.

But Herb Norwegian doesn't care."

The gap between the urban rich and rural poor has been growing steadily in many parts of the so-called developing world. This inequality coupled with rampant environmental destruction is creating wide discontent among the people, sparking resistance against the tyranny of neo-liberal policies embraced by their central governments. However, this fight needs to be fought in two distinct arenas. First of course is the local people's struggle against the unfair status-quo validated by their own authorities, as exemplified by the following story of a small village in China. The second arena belongs to all of us in the wider 'global' community who yearn for socioeconomic justice - it is our responsibility to stop the pressure tactics of Northern governments which force policy makers in poor countries to comply with the neo-liberal agenda. Fight on...

Read article from the UK Guardian

"Over the next 100 years or so as many as half of the Earth's
species, representing a quarter of the planet's genetic stock, will
either completely or functionally disappear. The land and the oceans
will continue to teem with life, but it will be a peculiarly
homogenized assemblage of organisms naturally and unnaturally
selected for their compatibility with one fundamental force: us.
Nothing--not national or international laws, global bioreserves,
local sustainability schemes, nor even 'wildlands' fantasies--can
change the current course. The path for biological evolution is now
set for the next million years. And in this sense "the extinction
crisis"--the race to save the composition, structure, and
organization of biodiversity as it exists today--is over, and we
have lost."

Two articles on the recent UN report which shows Iraqi children better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now.

"This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations."

In an article in the NY Times, it is revealed that "Doctors in New York City have begun to use a simple questionnaire to determine if a patient is at risk for depression, a practice that health officials hope will become a routine part of primary care, much like a blood pressure test or cholesterol reading..."

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Unfortunately, they miss the basic point - that being - a simple questionnaire is not ANYthing similar to a biological test such as blood pressure test or cholesterol reading. The organic answers obtained by biological tests are in no way similar to answers obtained from a questionnaire. As people in the anti-psychiatry groups consistently make clear. There is no objective science proving that psychosocial/psychospiritual societal issues (systemically referred to as "mental illness") are biological diseases.

Jill Chettiar is an organizier with Vancouver's Anti-Poverty Committee (APC). Similar to organizations like the "Ontario Coalition Against Poverty" (OCAP), APC take an uncompromising and militant approach to fighting for the rights of poor and marginalized people. Not surprisingly, such an approach has not been well received by the cops; the Vancouver Police Department have been escalating their repression of APC and last summer, Vancouver's "progressive" (sic) Mayor Larry Campbell denounced them as a "bunch of anarchists."

Below, Jill answers seven questions from Gina Whitfield of the progressive online magazine "Seven Oaks."

"Flying in the face of a promising recovery strategy, the United States has quietly begun shipping arms to Haiti's interim government, despite a 13-year arms embargo on the Caribbean nation. The new arms are meant to brace up a shaky security force, but the reality is that they could actually undermine security by jeopardizing an innovative disarmament effort just getting under way."

"The island is increasingly in chaos. Armed militia and former army soldiers terrorize the countryside and urban slums with impunity. More than 1,000 people have been killed since fighting began in late 2003, and several hundred since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted as President in February of 2004. Fiefdoms controlled by various armed factions have emerged throughout the country, reminiscent of Iraq and Afghanistan."

"In the last two months, OCAP has won more than $1 million for people on social assistance but [they] still have less than $100 in the bank."

It's time to stand behind activist organizations that get things done and fight to win - with more than just our words."

"Former member of the KKK and founder of the Heritage Front, Wolfgang Droege was finally shot dead in his Toronto apartment (perhaps by agents of ZOG?!)

OK, so there is no hell, but if there was, Wolfgang Droege would have a lot to talk to JPII about. JP wore a white robe with a pointy hat, Wolfie wore a white robe with a pointy hat. JPII was responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans, Wolfie wanted them all dead."

"As always, they say they're not targeting the eastern Arctic seal hunt. But as the Inuit of the eastern Arctic know well, when Newfoundland seal hunters are attacked, Inuit seal hunters get hurt too.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a small but useful renewable-resource economy based on the sale of adult seal pelts was ruined by a European ban on the importation of sealskin products. Because of this arbitrary restriction on trade in a legitimate commodity, the price of seal pelts plummeted, and many hunting families in Nunavut lost a vital source of cash income."

"The first point that has to be grasped is that proposals for system-wide, top-down change - getting the Federal government to do something constructive about the situation, for instance - are a waste of time. That sort of change isn't going to happen. It's not simply a matter of who's currently in power, although admittedly that doesn't help. The core of the problem is that even proposing changes on a scale that would do any good would be political suicide."

"Secwepemc (Native Youth Movement) believes that no Indian should be forced into the white man's courts or prisons. The white man has come here to our Land and invaded every aspect of our lives. They have waged war on us and that has forced us to fight back and resist their invasion and forced assimilation. When we fight for the freedom of our People we have always been criminalized and thrown in their prisons."