meethapani

  In Ireland a candle placed in the window signaled to travelling priests that the home was a safe haven for Catholics, persecuted in Britain from 1534 to the 1800s.The phrase became a symbol for hope, an incentive to keep going. As people search alternate news sources to make sense of the seismic changes that threaten to affect everyday lives, some sharing guidelines to survive a nuclear attack, others identifying DIY methods to generate electricity, they feel like sitting ducks in the crossfire of petulant, warring oligarchs. "Karayn tau kiya karaen" ( if we act what could we do?) is on everyone’s minds. Massive street protests, parliamentary debates, impassioned Security Council speeches, International Court of Justice rulings – all seem to fall on deaf ears.     And then we see images of Palestinian youths smiling as they are taken to the gallows, after Israeli parliament voted last month for the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners. Those smiles carry the ...

  Rumpelstiltskin, a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, tells the story of a poor miller’s daughter who was locked up each night to turn straw into gold until the King found her worthy of becoming his bride. The only way she achieved this was with the help of a dubious character, Rumpelstiltskin, but this help came at a price: first for her necklace, then her ring and then the promise of her first born child. It is tempting to see the King as the exploitative nations, the miller and his daughter as the exploited and enslaved, and Rumpelstiltskin as the international agencies that offer loans forcing countries into the trap of eternal debt servicing.   The miller’s daughter escapes from her debt to Rumpelstiltskin by identifying his hidden name. The world, too, is finally exposing the well-guarded truths, the identities of hidden forces, that have enslaved nations largely by controlling the narrative.   The lofty edifices that filled the world with awe and wonder, pro...