Author Archives: montecyril

China’s swift response to the Aukus deal is just another instance of the nation’s intolerance towards any alliances that it believes are actuated to counter its growing stature on the world stage. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the three countries forming Aukus – the US, the UK and Australia – were in the gripContinue reading “More alliances like Aukus needed to counter China”

Niall Ferguson in his 2003 book `Empire’ glorifies the British Empire for facilitating the spread of liberal capitalism around the world, and how much it did for free trade. He holds the British Empire irreproachable because how much worse other empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries turned out to be. He justifies the EmpireContinue reading “Subservient to the British crown”

It is indeed a great challenge of the current times to strike a balance between preventing Covid-19 from spreading and reopening the economy. The fact is, while a lockdown seems like a short-term solution, the long-term costs of it are prohibitive. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s exhorting the states to open up, rather than shut down,Continue reading “Lockdowns: No solution to the crisis”

The horrific attacks on Kabul airport, last week, that killed 13 US soldiers and 60 Afghans and left around 160 wounded, is a reminder that terrorism rears its head anew, each time it seems like there may be a glimmer of hope that it has subsided. This time it was not the Taliban to blame,Continue reading “Global terror: Blame it on the US”

Oasis That summer the sun was so harsh that the brittle carpet of greying leaves were turning to pits of azure ash. We waited for the mellow sea-breeze to whistle in memories of monsoon, as we swarmed the steamy nights to sleep. In the chapel, the bells rasped with prayer Our Latin figments of oraContinue reading “Two poems”

In a previous blog, `Self-assertion and the will to dominate’ , I had discussed how, in the last millenium, a handful of nations sought to colonise, dominate, enslave and subjugate the rest of the world, plundering the resources of the exploited nations and leaving them poor, underdeveloped, illiterate and divided. The story of exploitation happenedContinue reading “The call for international justice”

In a previous blog, `Back to the Taliban’, I had suggested that the Taliban’s comeback in Afghanistan was imminent, with the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. But the swiftness (under two weeks) at which it happened has taken all by surprise. US President Joe Biden’s exhorting of Afghan government troops to fight for theirContinue reading “Taliban: Who will bell the cat?”

In 2018, British Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski wrote that the “cost of the damage caused to Britain during the war was an incredible 120 billion pounds – equivalent to 3,620 billion pounds today”. Therefore, he deemed, that Britain did not owe the EU the estimated 39 billion pounds as part of Brexit. This money wouldContinue reading “The reprehensible acts of British colonialism in India”

The last one standing A woman buys herself a dress she’s never wanted She’s lived her life mundane, but her dreams were always haunted So she steps out unabashed, with worries she never counted Thunder raging around the path she has appointed. And with every word and deed, she courts blame, shame and scandal IfContinue reading “Two poems of fate”

The ineluctable truth about all material existence is that life is an endless wheel of birth, death and regeneration. Everything on this planet, is a reminder of this cycle. The passage of day, the seasons, and epochs, in itself, is a symbolic representation of coming to life, dying and reincarnating. Life always renews, and deathContinue reading “Free will and the six `I’s of the mind”