View allAll Photos Tagged self-assertions
.
.... .....
-...~ .
----~~~------------------------------.
Down With the Highly Racist and Casteist Moves of the West Bengal Government .
JOIN JNU GORKHA STUDENTS' PROTEST DEMONSTRATION .
at Bango Bhawan. 21st March. Friday, 2 pm, Bus will leave from Ganga Dhaba at 1pm .
An ongoing recruitment process fOf' the post of Assistant Professor in different subjects by West Bengal College Service Commission show ,abysmally low number of Nepali speaking candidates from district Darjeeling on the merit panel. In the merit panel declared so far. brazen discrimina tion has been displayed in Economics. where there is Not a Single Nepali speaking candidate. The total number of vacancies in Economics is 117. for wnich 98 candidates have been emoanelled for counsellina for the final recruitment. The maioritv of the Neoali soealdna candidates who fall under ST category have been out-rightly excluded by empanelling only 1 candidate (non-Nepoli SP.eakin_g) against 14 ST vacancies. To add to it, the table shows the nefarious and casteist moves of conversion anc:Lnon-fulfilment of reserve .
- .
(Year: 2014) Subject: Economics GENERAL sc ST OSC-A OBC-8 Total .
V.acancles 33 57 14 4 9 117 .
Number of Candidates Empanelled- 56 - 26 01 2 13 98 .
. .
.
This display of Admin.' istrative ~lighhandedness is just one manifostgtion among many that has come to notice most .
recently. If cannot be 5een as a minor aberration mit i5 ratt1er u reflection of the Deep Rooted Colonial rractices of the .
' .
Ruling clas.s that has contlruously ensured to maintain, this exploitative relation to dominate the Gorkhas and curb all possibility o,f their development and self-assertion. The deliberate political domination of Gorkhas historically has been operationalised through different forms of 'othering' of the community-Culturally, Administratively, and Economically. II .
is the-sheer insecurity and arrogance of the political masters of Bengal that has caused them to deny even a single post to eligible Nepali speaking candidates after declaring vacancies in the reserved category. This racial and linguistic discrimination has most obnoxioJsly trampled upon the aspiration of these candidates who had struggled to make a .
career in academics. Not to mention ihe spell of discouragement. despair and insecurity that has gripped other Nepali speaking students in higher'education whp hold similar ambitions. .
1 \ / \ ~ .
This act is one among the many used tact:c~ of the Bengal Goverl'lfTleflf to retain their hP.!JPmonir controi ·over .
Knowledge Production an~ White-Collar Jobs. A domain they consider only themselves suitable for and not for the Gorkhas to aspire. Their inletestlies in keeping Nepatis i0 subordin~~ positions vis-a-vis the Bengali speaking majority in West Bengal. The rampantly visible endemic unemployment among e<:fucated youths, high rote of human trafficking, .
massive distress migration for low-end and low paying jobs and rising drug abuse are not isolated phenomena but in fact organically connected to the denial of equal opportunities to the Nepali speaking population .;; everv socio-Political and economic sphere by everv ruling class that has 'qpverned Bengal. .
These colonial expropriation polices of the Bengal government mus.t-be E~posed. The future of our present and coming .
generations should nol be allowed to be continuously manipulated and wrecked by the Bengal Government and a few other local leaders who have repeatedly betrayed the faith and support of the masses. The continuance of such an exploitolive relation that only engineers to obstruct the aspirations of Gorkhas in every realm of life reiterates the utmost and uncompromisable need for Separate Statehood and Realization of our Political Identity. .
We Strongly Condemn the open and highly discriminatory move against Nepali speaking candidates from districl Darjccling. We urge all progressive thinkinq organisa tions and individuals to come forward and condemn the arrogant display of racial. cos Ieist ond communal discrimi~otion hy the West Bengal College Service Commission. .
Gorkha Students, JNU .
c. . .
I .
.
.
.
This photograph is available for purchase on Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/ViaTravelers
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site 1.
Explore the powerful exhibitions at Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial in Germany, featuring historical displays and informative texts. Reflect on the somber history and resilience of the human spirit.
If you use this photo online, you must list the photo credit as "ViaTravelers" and create an active link to my website: viatravelers.com/
Follow me on YouTube
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Twitter
Title
“The Watchful Seal”
Artist Statement
This piece stages adornment as both protection and proclamation. A rose-gold bracelet, studded with rounded spikes, floats at the center like a crown of thorns recast as luxury—equal parts weapon and ornament. Beneath it, a crimson wax seal anchors the scene, suggesting permanence, authority, and the weight of ritual.
Above, an eye peers through a tear in silver, the gaze both intimate and watchful, as though the viewer is caught in the act of looking. A clenched fist in grayscale adds tension, underscoring themes of strength, resistance, and self-assertion. The red paint strokes across the background echo urgency, a raw counterpoint to the polish of gold and wax. “The Watchful Seal” reflects on adornment not as decoration but as declaration: jewelry as a seal of identity, as vigilance, as an embodied reminder that beauty can guard as fiercely as it dazzles.
The planning and building of the City Hall took place in turbulent times, during and between 1st and 2nd World War. Norway got independence from Sweden in 1905.
The decoration reflects an enthusiasm for art rooted in national self-assertion and the wish to reach out to a wide public.
.
The very hegemony of such concepts, however, acts in the direction of pushing political parties, except of course the Left which has a theoretical understanding of the class nature of concepts, towards timidity in proposing any alternative agenda of development. The differences on developmental issues among this broad spectrum of political parties, from the Right to even the Left-of-Centre, disappear into the background, since all them become prisoners of development in the metaphysical sense. The conflict between them therefore is resolved increasingly not through peoples choice between alternative agendas, but through the use of money, muscle power, and opportunistic coalition politics. Likewise, since economic agendas take a back seat among these political parties, their ability to draw sensitive and intelligent young men and women into their fold as potential leaders with some degree of social commitment declines sharply. In other words, the very hegemony of the concept of development propagated by international finance capital contributes towards a lowering of the quality of the practitioners of politics. .
UNDERMINING POLITICAL LEADERSHIP .
Thus the very phenomenon, namely the low quality of the politicians (the exception which the Left constitutes is rarely ever explicitly mentioned) which is used as the justification for apotheosising the neo-liberal concept of development, is caused, partly at least, by this apotheosis itself. To be sure, there are basic class-related reasons for the decline in the quality of the bourgeois and petty bourgeois politicians, but the conceptual hegemony of neo-liberal development is certainly a contributory factor. .
The process of destruction of politics is thus a basic feature of the era of globalisation. It is expressed not only through an elevation of the neo-liberal notion of development into a metaphysical truth, but also through an elevation of the underwriters of this development strategy, the captains of industry, the heads of MNCs, the so-called entrepreneurs and upright officials into the status of social role models and even political leaders. It is instructive that both the top political posts in the country today are occupied by persons who have risen from the ranks of the bureaucracy and who not only have had no political past (and have never approached a popular electorate) but are even proud of this fact, which is why they can speak with passion about keeping development above politics. .
The destruction of politics amounts not only to a thwarting of any challenge to the neo-liberal regime, and hence to a perpetuation of the acutely immiserising process of growth that the country has been witnessing; it amounts not only to a denial of democracy, whose very essence consists in the fact that people must have alternative possibilities before them from among which they can choose freely; it consists above all in the fact that meaningful political participation is a means of self-realisation of the people, a part of the process of their transition from being mere objects to becoming subjects engaged in shaping their own destiny. Politics in other words is not just a mere instrumentality for bringing about economic change. It is in itself a form of self-assertion on the part of the oppressed. Globalisation, through its attempt at the destruction of politics, seeks to deny them this. .
.
.
ARTIST STATEMENT
"Threshold (Neither In Nor Out)"
MelOrchid, 2024
Between hiding and showing, there is a doorway where both happen at once.
This figure occupies that threshold. The fabric does not recede to reveal the face—the face insists through the fabric. This is not unwrapping; this is pressure from within, the self demanding its aperture, creating its own window in the architecture of concealment.
I've spent considerable time with the phenomenology of veiling across cultures: the bridal, the monastic, the protective, the mourning. What strikes me is how the veil simultaneously announces and obscures significance. To cover something is to declare it worth covering. The hidden becomes more present than the visible.
The eyes here are not soft. They have found their opening and they will not relinquish it. The mouth below is neutral—the speaking has not yet begun. But the looking has. The looking is relentless.
There is a shoulder visible at the bottom of the frame. The body continues. The person extends beyond the textile cage. This is not a head floating in purple void—this is a human being caught in the moment of self-assertion, having carved exactly as much visibility as they require.
No more. No less.
This is not freedom. This is negotiation.
Oil on canvas, 2021
30 x 30 cm
A product of an exploration into the sense of belonging, an attempt to differentiate through surrealist painting what is inherent to the individual and what constitutes aspirations of self-assertion.
via WordPress ift.tt/Zhag8dG
“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom” (James 3:13).
Wisdom teaches us how to handle adversity.
In his wonderful commentary on the book of James, Robert Johnstone wrote the following about meekness:
That “the meek” should “inherit the earth”—that they bear wrongs, and exemplify the love which “seeketh not her own”—to a world that believes in high-handedness and self-assertion, and pushing the weakest to the wall, a statement like this of the Lord from Heaven cannot but appear an utter paradox. The man of the world desires to be counted anything but “meek” or “poor in spirit,” and would deem such a description of him equivalent to a charge of unmanliness.
Ah, brethren, this is because we have taken in Satan’s conception of manliness instead of God’s. One man has been shown us by God, in whom His ideal of man was embodied; and He, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: He for those who nailed Him to the tree prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” The world’s spirit of wrath, then, must be folly; whilst than a spirit of meekness like His, in the midst of controversy, oppositions, trials of whatever kind, there can be no surer evidence that “Jesus is made of God to His people wisdom” (The Epistle of James [Minneapolis: Klock & Klock, 1978], 272-273).
Johnstone recognized more than a hundred years ago what we need to know today—that the wisdom of man is arrogant, conceited, and self-serving, whereas the wisdom of God is humble, meek, and non-retaliatory.
The contrast between false wisdom and true wisdom is crystal-clear. Be sure you handle adversity in a Christlike way, knowing that every detail of your life is under God’s sovereign control.
Suggestions for Prayer
Thank the Lord for His example of how to respond to adversity (cf. 1 Peter 2:21-24).
For Further Study
Read Philippians 2:1-11, applying Christ’s example to your life (vv. 1-5).
From Strength for Today by John MacArthur Copyright © 1997. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.
Additional Resources
The Study Bible (mobile app)
Grace to You Sermons (mobile app)
John MacArthur’s complete sermon archive
The MacArthur Study Bible
The complete MacArthur New Testament Commentary series
Author: letters@gty.org (Grace to You)
* This article was originally published here
The post Being Wise in Adversity first appeared on The Holy Gospel.