@geetaseshu https://x.com/geetaseshu/status/1945693919305662538 Post Now what brought this on @TISSpeak
?  Another round of academic censorship? Deans of four major centres have been replaced, without any prior notice or reason.

Bihar’s SIR exercise is a threat to right to vote — across India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ies2OcDnaFc Jul 16, 2025 Indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/yogendra-yadav-writes-bihars-sir-exercise-is-a-threat-to-right-to-vote-across-india-10126554/ While the relief signalled by the Supreme Court in its hearing on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar can only be welcomed, it carries a serious risk of distracting us from the real issue. Our focus may be diverted to the inclusion of Aadhaar, on revising the impossible timelines of this exercise and on the ground reality in Bihar.  Once on the voters’ list, a name cannot be removed without the proper process. Finally, as Ornit Shani’s celebrated history How India Became Democratic shows, the making of universal franchise required the ECI to take unusual steps. Over the years, the ECI has gone out of its way to evolve protocols for the inclusion of “liminal” citizens who may have been left out in any routine, bureaucratic exercise: Nomadic communities, homeless persons, sex workers, transgender persons, orphans, undocumented citizens and non-resident Indians.

In this interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ies2OcDnaFc  , Yogendra Yadav highlights the TDP's concern about the citizenship issue and the potential exclusion of disadvantaged communities. He argues that the revision threatens the universal adult franchise and the inclusive practices established over 75 years. Yogendra Yadav cites the "logic of encompassment" and the importance of substantive citizenship. He predicts the Election Commission will release favorable statistics and anticipates a Supreme Court hearing on July 25, 2023, which could impact the revision's future.

Read more …

 “Tourists go home”: Inside the angry protests on Spain’s holiday islands The Guardian  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmwGnfOKVI  Jul 15, 2025  CANARY ISLANDS
In scenes echoed across southern Europe, Spain’s Canary Islands are suffering from a crisis of too many tourists – 18 million are projected to visit in 2025.

On Tenerife, where tourism accounts for 35% of the economy and which draws the largest number of mostly British holidaymakers, it is tourists, not immigrants, who are seen as a threat to local identity. As protests across the Mediterranean continue, local people vent their anger at an exploitative, extractive and unsustainable tourism model. But is it still possible to change course, and are political leaders listening? 

Atul S on Whatsapp :If the economy of these islands largely depends on tourism, then why are the local people then revolting against tourism ? 

When the canary islands get 18m tourists annually, why are local residents becoming increasingly homeless and living out of their cars despite having a full-time job ? 

Who is really benefiting from the mass tourism? These protestors are not against tourism, they are against a particular type of tourism (unfortunately the most widespread form) which benefits only corporations, government at the cost of local community, culture and environment. 

Sustainable tourism, diversified economy, eco-friendly constructions is what they are asking for. More power to such citizen-led movements around the globe !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmwGnfOKVI

Manas :One idea is to give tourism development in the hands of local specially formed community bodies. If not, the Municipal or panchayat bodies need to have special cells. The forests, parks, monuments, bazaars, and food will do better with local stewards. I have heard of another town in Spain, allowing only a set number of people entering. earlier they recorded 10000+per day, disrupting the locals everyday life and making amenities unaffordable. They now have curbed it to 800. Many tourism spots in India, especially in the hills are extremely vulnerable.

GAIA IS CALLING: LET'S RESTORE THE PLANET TOGETHER  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gaia-calling-lets-restore-planet-together-rob-de-laet-pw94c/ 

https://www.coolingtheclimate.earth/

 https://thedailyeye.info/in-the-news/trending-pride-combats-prejudice/4e08053d43c5b83a  Khalid Mohamed In 2025, LGBTQIA+ representation in Indian cinema took diverse forms—from independent shorts by Shawn Gupta exploring same-gender intimacy to Anmol Sidhu’s powerful Punjabi feature Jaggi, and the docu-series In Transit created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. These narratives challenge societal norms and stereotypes, exploring the lives of queer and trans individuals through both fiction and nonfiction. As censorship battles persist and tokenism continues in commercial content, these films mark significant efforts toward visibility, inclusion, and dignity within the LGBTQ+ discourse. 

From America, there have been The Children’s Hour (1961), The Fox (1967), and Staircase (1969), leading up to Brokeback Mountain (2005), which was acknowledged as a sensitive and believable rendition of the subject, earning as many as eight Oscar nominations.

In India, we’ve seen everything from the NFDC-funded Badnaam Basti (1971) to the exploitative Girl Friend (2004), and earlier, Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996), which boldly debunked myriad taboos surrounding queer themes. 

The American actor Richard Gere read a poem by the celebrated Palestinian poet and author Mahmoud Darwish, whose work articulated the struggles, exile and identity of the Palestinian people. Gere joins a wave of artists who have shown solidarity with Palestinians. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI1shPCTieW/

Mamdani secured the most total votes in a primary in New York City’s history marks the culmination of a grassroots political project that began at least back in 2015, when the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) announced a “New Strategy for a New Era,” energized by the early days of Bernie Sanders’s first presidential run... - https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/zohran-mamdani-democratic-socialists-campaign-new-york-city-dsa

https://www.dsausa.org/blog/dsa_convention_new_strategy_for_a_new_era_dl/ The priorities included 1) building DSA and increasing public awareness of democratic socialism through grassroots work for Bernie Sanders (but independent of his official campaign); 2) implementing the approaches to organizing laid out in the strategy document; 3) increasing DSA involvement in local anti-racist coalitions; 4) electoral work to defeat the Right while building the Left and a stronger DSA; and 5) rethinking our organizing practices and structures to facilitate our longer-range strategy. 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/27/fact-check-is-zohran-mamdani-a-communist 

Mamdani’s platform calls for making transportation, housing and groceries more affordable, but experts say he hasn’t espoused key tenets of communism, such as government takeover of industry and private property.

“Mamdani is NOT a communist,” wrote Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University professor of international studies, in an email to PolitiFact. “Communism involves a centrally planned economy, with no market forces. Prices and quantities are set by a central government authority. There is no democratic political competition, and instead a single party rules the country. He is not calling for any of this.”

Accusing Democrats of being communists or communist sympathisers is a frequent misleading attack line by some Republicans.

The Echo Chamber Trap: How ChatGPT Could Be Boosting Your Ego  https://uxplanet.org/the-echo-chamber-trap-how-chatgpt-could-be-boosting-your-ego-a2a1521000a8  Escape the Echo Chamber 1. Request Critical Feedback  2. Get External Opinions  3. Explore Contradictory Views 4. Blend AI and Human Feedback

Keep Your Ego in Check

https://medium.com/@JamiesonSilver