Review: Notes On Resistance by Noam Chomsky

Notes on Resistance

I love reading Noam Chomsky till he writes on Kashmir.

He is a voice one must hear, though some, especially the likes of politicians, CIA, NSA etc., will dismiss his views as utopian. Whether his views are idealistic or not, one thing is for sure that he does not mince words when exposing the brutality of imperialism and authoritarianism, espcially American one. This book has been stitched together from a series of interviews he gave on various topics.

It is no wonder that Chomsky never was given too much attention in the mainstream media, unless during thos rare times when he was talking about linguistics.

The book is devoid of any jargons or over the top theories, and brings forth so many diversified examples of imperialism and power-grab that the first time reader of Chomsky might wonder if all of this is actually true (I am not a first time reader of his). But the added dimension is that the reader would be even in more disarray because he/she never read about it in history books. Because history books are not supposed to tell you how Iran’s democratic government was overthrown by U.S. and Britain due to their concerns of oil being nationalized. That India’s armed forces have often resorted to unspeakable violence when dealing terrorism in Kashmir (I told you, I hate Chomsky). However, in cases like Kashmir or Palestine, what Chomsky fails to realize is that just one act of misdirected violence by the forces would result in endless criticism. Whereas the infinite steadfastness of the forces to resist attacking the stone-throwers is never praised. There is no black and white in such cases. Neither side is perfect or imperfect. Grey zone is a reality of life, especially in conflict zones. But still reading Chomsky is a must for most of his critiques are valid and pointed.

However, most of Chomsky’s writings or views do suffer from what is suffered by Roy. There is no solution presented by Chomsky. It is naive to believe that only democracy is the best way to rule over a country. And naive to believe that only American way of democray is the ‘right way’ (Chomsky doesn’t believe this by the way). Wish his critique lead to suggestions and possible solutions too.

A must read book by all means.

Review: Sandworm by Andy Greenberg

Sandworm

I was chatting on some group chat on Yahoo messenger around 2000 / 2001. Then some argument ensued and one person (probably a guy) started sending some messages like ‘this port accessed’, ‘that port accessed’ in an attempt to scare me away and move out of that room. I having no idea of what those things meant, restarted my computer without bothering to rejoin that group chat. Then I heard about Stuxnet in 2010 / 2011 and how the Iranian centrifuges were destroyed. Andy’s book is quite entralling if you restrict yourself to the technical details and the jaw-dropping skills the hacker community has honed over decades. I use the word ‘community’ with a pinch of salt because how would club a Iranian hacker with an American hacker? The book talks about Stuxnet, WannaCry, Petya, notPetya and few others. My own experience, of having absolutely no work in 2014 when working for a big film studio which was hacked due to a controversial movie, gives me a smile.

However, that’s where the good part of this book ends. Andy is a typical leftist woke-type American who says Trump had so little understanding of computers that he never bothered to issue a critique of Russian ‘interference’ in U.S. elections of 2016. However, this theory is so unworthy that any person believing in the narrative of these leftist wokes deserves to be jailed. The political bias of the baldhead author is clear. I wish the author had stuck to writing on the stories of the hacking operations rather than ignoring the lack of skills of Obama when it came to computers. That’s the problem with all these publishers and authors nowadays. They have hijacked the complete narrative by taking over major publishers, news channels, magazines, blogs, and whatever else you can name.

I would read this book for the mayhem various cyberhacking operations have caused, but wouldn’t trust this author and this book even for a second when they just go on and on with blaming Russia / GRU / Putin without any evidence whatsover, except rudimentary statements like ‘the coding patterns matched’ and the ‘design looked similar’. I would rather stomp on this book and trash it in the bin for the political naivety and amateurish conclusions in this book.

Review: A Feast of Vultures by Josy Joseph

 

For anyone who believes in the sanctity of democracy in India, and has cast votes to any of the political parties vying for attention, this timely book will shatter their faith and belief. It is not only a scathing attack on the way India functions, but a grimy account of the insider machinations of politicians, businessmen, and the ‘go-to men’.

You will come across R.K. Dhawan, the typist and secretary of Indira Gandhi, the Ambani family and their palatial home Antilia standing on a piece of land which was once a graveyard, Dawood Ibrahim and Naresh Goyal colluding together to kill Thakiyuddin of East-West airlines, Subroto Roy, Vijay Mallya, Ottavio Quattrocchi, and the many other big names who matter.

The author precisely decimates the outward aura of fair-game and healthy-competition which is projected after the clinching of successful deals.

A must read book for anyone who is interested in India. I can’t recommend it enough. And it is surely with great courage that the author has mentioned various high-profile names involved in abject corruption and backhanded dealings.

Buy it on Amazon.

Review: Operation Ajax by Daniel Burwen and Mike De Seve

Operation AJAX

 

There have been quite a few books about Mossadegh’s overthrow and how oil has come to dominate its political tribulations. However, a graphic novel about a crime so serious deserves utmost attention. For it makes complex machinations easier to understand for those who rarely read; but does it beat Palast’s picnic in reaping the goods? Well, no. But you can’t really compare these two here. Because for understanding a Palast, you have to read it thrice: the first two times to enjoy his satire, the last time to link-up the stories. Ajax even manages to put in a few pages of the original TPAJAX documents. It shouldn’t come as a surprise why democracy is thriving everywhere. Ah, just about everywhere.

 

In the beginning there is a cast of characters – Iranian, British and American. The narrator is somebody out of the Ivy league and lands a job with the CIA. And after anger, depression and self-questioning gets thrown in the Iranian cauldron in the 1950s. He is nightmarish about it in his old age, and can’t help but shout at his aging wife and wake up amidst nightmares, just like the Mossad agents in Munich. Anyone who thinks Churchill was a great statesman should just read a few pages of this one to understand why he was not. And if they still believe he was, then probably my definition of a statesman is skewed. The moment when black oil is discovered in the parched horizons of the then Persia, the capitalists eyed it green with greed and got most of the oil in exchange of few million dollars here and there to the Shah dynasty. But in comes Mossadegh, a European trained lawyer, who can’t stand this and ends up as the Prime Minister and nationalizes oil. But the Brits won’t have a thing of it and choke their economy with sanctions and naval blockades. Before they could kick-off the Third World War in the Midde East, the grand-daddy of all steps in and plans a perfect coup, to be executed by the Ivy-leaguers of CIA. What money can’t buy can be bought with a little more than money. Throw in the Red-scare, along-with paid off Majlis, local thugs, buttered mullahs and bribed journos, and you have got the best ingredients for having a democracy on its knees with a noose around its neck.

This graphic novel is a grim reminder of the fact that our values and morals stand good only till they serve us. The moment they start stinking, you got to burn them and grow new ones. And it makes for an interesting gift to anyone interested in Middle East, Iran and Democracy.

Go, read it.