By Saswat Pattanayak
“To be neutral is to collaborate with whatever is going on, and I as a teacher do not want to be a collaborator with whatever is happening in the world today.” (Howard Zinn)
In the grossly unequal world that we inhabit, it is always tempting to remain apolitical, especially if one is an academician [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Saswat Pattanayak’
Remembering Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010)
The Year That Was :: 2009 Human Rights
Compiled and Edited by Saswat Pattanayak for Womensrightsny.com
January 1-20: War Capitalism Intensifies: After a week of intense airstrikes, Israel declares more conventional warfare against Palestinians. In clearly what can constitute mammoth war crimes, Israel attacks end the lives of several children. It conducts 50 air strikes per night and kills 1200 Palestinians [...]
David Letterman: Privileges produce Consensus
By Saswat Pattanayak
Contrary to mainstream media depictions, David Letterman did not have any affairs with his staff members. And contrary to liberal media apprehensions, the world does not need to be bothered about whether the incidents took place before or after his marriage. Letterman’s apologies to his wife on air are ridiculously unnecessary, [...]
Roman Polanski and Euro-American Privileges
By Saswat Pattanayak
It’s a deceitful media circulation which suggests that the American judiciary is going after Roman Polanski. The truth is it never has. Polanski is a filthy criminal who had raped a child and yet was allowed to let go by the American justice system for over three decades. And this time, he is [...]
Slow Economy Leads to Rise in Domestic Violence
By Saswat Pattanayak
As job losses increasingly become a norm, so does domestic violence. For the men who lose jobs what results is frustrations targeted at family; for women, it is dual oppression – at workplace and at home.
Bad economy is simply not bad for the country, it is sad for the family members who struggle [...]
Health of the Nation
By Saswat Pattanayak
Texas is the state with highest percentage of people not covered by health insurance in the US. It is noteworthy only because it is where the President Bush and his family plan to move back to in January. Because as such, the rest of the country is not so much better off [...]
Equal Pay Day
Today is being observed as Equal Pay Day (the point in 2008 when the average woman’s wages finally catch up with what the average man earned in 2007). As ceremonious as it may sound, its apt to look at the statistics once again with hope and protest.
Women in the US, working full-time, year-round earn [...]
Lucy Parsons :: Revolutionary Feminist
By Saswat Pattanayak
No legal case in American history has been more cited than The Scottsboro Trial. Nine young African American men, aged 13 and up, were jailed in Scottsboro, Alabama to await trial over an accusation that they had raped two white women on a train in the Spring of 1931.
The nature of [...]