Castro brothers: the end of an era on April 22, 2018And so the curtain descends on a dynasty that has dominated Cuban politics for nearly sixty years. On Wednesday, the Cuban National Assembly selected current Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez to succeed 86 year old Raul Castro as the Caribbean nation’s new president. Although Raul Castro — Fidel Castro’s younger brother and comrade in […]
The Iraq war: 15 years on on April 8, 201820 March 2018 marked the 15th anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Iraq. Dubbed ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’, the invasion had America at the forefront backed by a coalition of nations that on the surface vowed to ‘secure the free world from the threat of Iraq’ — as then US Vice President Dick Cheney claimed […]
Facebook and the manipulation of data on March 26, 2018It is safe to assume that the recent turn of events surprises no one. Facebook is finally under scrutiny for its alleged role in leaking the personal data of nearly 50 million users which shaped political events such as Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential Elections of 2016, and the Brexit vote in the […]
Misrepresenting history on November 30, 2017An oft-repeated adage claims that history always repeats itself. Those who fail to learn from the many lessons history has to offer end up becoming victims to the forces that be, very much like the countless names posterity now warns us about. Perhaps that is why Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman reminded us […]
National symbols and imagined communities on October 6, 2017The recent tourism booklet published in India’s Uttar Pradesh province excludes the iconic Taj Mahal from its sites to visit in the province. Although on the surface, this omission seems innocuous or a simple mistake, it comes six months after the right wing Hindu nationalist Yogi Adityanath’s accession as UP’s Prime Minister — a man […]
Differences between USA and Myanmar? on September 10, 2017On first glance, thriving and prosperous America — the bastion of freedom, the ‘land of the free, the home of the brave’ — has little in common with poor Myanmar (formerly Burma). Dig a little deeper, and we witness how both nations are in the throes of a toxic nationalist sentiment predicated on xenophobia and […]
Modern day colonialism on August 29, 2017Donald Trump’s invective against Pakistan not only depicts the utter lack of direction in America’s new ‘strategy’, but also highlights how colonialism continues to exist in various forms today. America’s changed policy towards Pakistan — which was in reality taking shape since Barack Obama’s tenure — delineates how powerful countries or ‘superpowers’ strong-arm nations that […]
Seventy years on, where does Pakistan stand? on August 17, 2017PAKISTAN’S seventy years are replete with words such as ‘failed state’, least developing nation, corruption and a stagnating economy. Analyses of Pakistan’s success as an independent nation have ranged from an emerging Asian tiger in the late 1950s and 1960s to a country which harbours terrorists and plays at ‘good Taliban, bad Taliban’ in the […]
The power dynamics of misogyny on August 10, 2017Ayesha Gulalai’s allegations against Imran Khan and the subsequent invective the public has unleashed against her are another stain on Pakistan’s increasingly losing battle against gender discrimination and misogyny. Regardless of whether Gulalai’s allegations are true or not, the response she has faced from the public — including notable journalists and anchor-persons — is highly […]
Debunking the trickle-down effect on July 26, 2017Tax cuts and similar monetary incentives for multi-nationals and the wealthy form a fundamental part of today’s economic jargon. These incentives are ostensibly intended to ‘generate’ economic growth since neoliberal theory claims that it is the rich who carry out economic activity which leads to economic prosperity. This argument is posited on the claim that […]