CHENNAI — Twenty-six-year-old Arivu's small room, on the fourth-floor terrace of an apartment in suburban Chennai, is as lively as his music. It is in this room that Arivu shot his now iconic rap song "Sanda seivom", which effortlessly rips the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens apart.
Pictures of Ambedkar and Buddha are looking over him and an ektara (the instrument) standing tall. "It was a gift from the Tata Institute for Social Sciences when I recently visited them," Arivu says. "I intend to learn to play it and even use it in my rap." A single stringed instrument, the ektara might not sit well with his fast-paced rap, but Arivu is used to challenges — right from his childhood in Arakkonam.
"I lived in an urban cheri, so to say. It was also a Muslim neighborhood, and there was a beef slaughterhouse around. In today's India, perhaps a hugely controversial place. But life was a celebration there," he beams. His parents — Kalainesan and Thenmozhi — provided Arivu and his younger sister, now a medical doctor, an intellectual atmosphere. Arivu learned more from the music and books at home than at school. Soon enough, he wrote poems. "I wouldn't call them poems, but my attempts," he smiles.
Arivu's "anti-Indian" independent rap, surprisingly, never came in the way of his chances.
When he entered college (Arivu studied engineering at a college in Coimbatore and later did an MBA) he was ready with his first poetry collection. "Ever since entering college, I would practice singing at home in front of the mirror. I decided to put all my thoughts into it and sang in a thick voice. My friends said it sounded like rap — that was the first time I was hearing of it."
After college, Arivu tried his hands at various things including the civil services, and he spent most of his time "studying". But occasionally, when he got some money, he would go to Coimbatore to record a song that he had written. He had no idea, though, how to get them across on a public platform.
Arivu has been getting offers to write for music for movies, but he has been careful with his choices in the film industry. "Also, I would never quit independent music. That platform — with all its limitations — is dearer." Arivu's "anti-Indian" independent rap was a sensation, but such songs, surprisingly, never came in the way of his chances in mainstream cinema. "In fact, directors have asked me to write similar songs, but just tone it down a bit." Arivu has lost count but says he has written for some 20 films, including Surya's upcoming Soorarai Potru.
"Of course, I write love songs too, but I maintain my ethics. I insist on gender equality in such songs, I will never do body shaming or have phrases in praise of this or that skin color. I celebrate love, but will never allow it to become an excuse for sexism."
Arivu has no great plans for his future, but there is one thing he knows he should do, either as research project or as music document: work drawing parallels between oppari (the folk genre sung at funerals) and hip-hop. "People say I write well, but I know I cannot hold a candle to the grandmothers singing oppari in my village. See this:
Naan anju maram valarthen
Azhakaana thottam vachen
En thottam sezhichaalum
En thondai nanaiyalaiye.
(I planted five trees,
And nurtured a beautiful garden
My garden flourished,
Yet my throat is parched.)
"In these four lines, they talk about life. That is our folk art for you," Arivu says.
The cultural appropriation of hip-hop in Indian society is something that deeply bothers Arivu. "In Africa, hip-hop was a form of protest. People used it communicate their pain and oppression. When you import it to the Indian context, it should have naturally spoken in an anti-caste voice, because caste is the most important issue in our country today. But instead, hip-hop is used for teasing women, to glorify men. You copy their caps, hoodies and jeans, but leave the politics behind," he says. "How can that be right?"
U.S. Department of Defense officials report that instead of the typical battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, which number several hundred soldiers, the Russians have now shifted to attacks by smaller units.
A new Pentagon report has found that Russia is continuing to reduce the scale of its military actions toward more "small" operations, which is another sign that it has lowered the ambitions of its invasion of Ukraine.
Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.
The Washington Post, citing a U.S. Department of Defense official, reports that instead of the typical battalion tactical groups, which number several hundred soldiers, the Russians have now shifted to attacks by smaller units, each ranging from a few dozen to a hundred soldiers. These smaller units have also scaled down their objectives and are targeting towns, villages and crossroads.
The change suggests a decrease in ambition compared to the beginning of the war when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an all-out assault and asserted that Ukraine should be liberated from its historical mistake of seeking national independence. But after a month of failing initial attempts to seize key Ukrainian cities, the Russian ministry announced that its aims would be limited to the southeastern Donbas region. And now the new report suggests even those objectives in Donbas are being scaled back, though the Washington Post reports that Russian troops have made “appreciable gains” between the southern cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv.
Russia Says 1,000 More Ukrainian Soldiers Have Surrendered In Mariupol
A new total of 771 soldiers have surrendered from Azovstal in Mariupol within the last 24 hours.
Russian authorities say that a total of 1,730 soldiers have now surrendered since Monday, after the Russian army took over the last holdout in the strategic port city.
How FSB “Confirmation Bias” Has Driven Putin’s Invasion
Russia has faced failure after failure on the battlefied: retreating first from Kyiv and then from Kharkiv. The ‘second phase of the special operation’ (the withdrawal to the administrative boundaries of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, as well as the capture of southern Ukraine as far as Transnistria) is also proceeding with difficulty.
Why push on? Why bear more losses? Speaking with former FSB agents, Anin Roman attempts to answer these questions for Russian-language digital news outlet iStories Media.
After Vladimir Putin met with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, the latter told NBC: "I think he's in his own war logic right now… his own world... I think he believes he is winning the war."
The FSB, Russia’s security services (main successor of the KGB) and, in particular its most secretive faction, the so-called Fifth Service, is feeding the Russian president’s physical and informational isolation.
"They are selling (him) smoke," a former FSB officer says of his colleagues.
"They were making things up, misinterpreting and sometimes fantasizing, and the leadership was happy to believe it," echoes another former intel officer.
"You have to report what management wants to hear, otherwise you won't get promoted. What's more, you could find yourself in trouble," confirms another secret service interlocutor.
Roman writes that psychologists refer to this cognitive distortion as “confirmation bias:” when a person chooses only the information that is consistent with their ideology or pre-established opinion.
The leadership of both the FSB and the country thereby become "executive morons", who refuse to heed all the information available. The "executive morons", in turn, recruit others like them. The ubiquity of the FSB, penetrating almost all public authorities across the country: police chiefs, judges, governors, ministers, presidential administration officials, top managers of state-owned companies, university rectors - all candidates for these positions are approved by the FSB, does not result in an all-seeing, all-knowing organisation. Rather, everyone is forced to make decisions based on the opinion of the ‘executive morons’, everyone believes the lies they know to be false.
Yuri Shevchuk is considered by some as the greatest Russian rock songwriter of his generation. On Wednesday night, he had some choice of words for President Vladimir Putin, and the Kremlin hierarchy.
In an anti-war speech at the beginning of his concert in the south-central city of Ufa, which has since gone viral, Shevchuck said: "The Motherland, my friends, is not having the president's ass kissed all the time." Most of the crowd broke out into applause before the first song was even sung.
In Finland And Russia, Deescalating Rhetoric Around NATO And Nukes
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said that Finland’s application to join NATO does not include plans to deploy new military bases or nuclear weapons in the country.
In an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Marin said: "This topic is not discussed. And it all depends on our national decisions. No one will impose bases or nuclear weapons on us if we do not want it. And it does not seem to me that there is an interest to deploy nuclear weapons or open their bases in Finland."
Meanwhile, Moscow has also continued to reverse its rhetoric around the decision by
Finland and Sweden to join NATO, after initial threats by senior officials.
Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with the Izvestiya newspaper published on Thursday that “in military terms, Russia's reaction will be proportionate and adequate to the presence of NATO in the territories of these two states, to what types of weapons will be deployed,” she said. “But I can assure you that Russia's security will certainly be ensured." she told the newspaper.
U.S. Embassy Reopens In Kyiv
The US flag was raised today over the US Embassy in Kyiv, to mark the official resumption of US Embassy Kyiv operations.pic.twitter.com/e7D90CmZPh
The U.S. has reopened its embassy in Kyiv, which had been closed before the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine of February 24.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the reopening of the embassy in the capital — after diplomats had been evacuated to the Western city of Lviv and then across the border in Poland — is another sign of Washington’s support for Ukraine in the face of the war against Russia.
“When we suspended operations at the embassy, we made the point clear: … this would in no way prevent our engagement with, and support for, the Ukrainian people, government, and civil society as well as our allies and partners," Blinken said.
Other countries, including Switzerland, Israel and Canada, have also reopened their embassies in Kyiv in the last few weeks.
Europe Offers €9 Billion Loan To Ukraine, €300 Billion To End Gas Reliance
International Gas Pipeline route from Russia to Europe
The European Commission has proposed a €9 billion loan to Ukraine to help keep the country going in its fight against the Russian forces. The Commission also wants to set up a reconstruction facility for after the war. "We also need to think about the day after for the wider reconstruction effort,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “The EU would and should not be the only one contributing to this effort.”
The offer was shared only minutes after the EU announced plans to mobilize up to 300 billion euros of investments to end reliance on Russian oil and gas. Russia supplies 40% of the EU's natural gas and 27% of its imported oil, both of which will be brought down to zero by 2030. "We are taking our ambition to yet another level," von der Leyen said as she presented the update at a briefing in Brussels.
G7 Finance Ministers Meet To Discuss Ukraine’s Economy
G7 finance ministers are meeting today in Konigswinter Germany, to discuss a plan to reboot Ukraine’s economy, which has been seriously damaged by the war.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said ahead of the meeting that what has been agreed on so far was “not enough” and encouraged US partners to “join in increasing their financial support.”
This comes after the United States planned to send a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine and Japan saying it will double aid for Ukraine to $600 million in a coordinated move with the World Bank.
Ukraine Forecasts Agriculture Output Will Be Cut In Half, Wheat Prices Will Nearly Double
Ukraine’s agriculture output this year is expected be half that of 2021, the country’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky said on Wednesday.
Beyond that the cabinet minister also warned that, "the next winter planting campaign is in jeopardy" if the war continues.
According to Solsky, the world should prepare for wheat prices to rise to $700 per ton. Currently, the price of a ton of wheat on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is about $430. "Are we ready to pay $500, $600, $700 per ton? The situation is critical for Asian and African countries, which import cereals mainly from Ukraine," Solsky added.
Russian gymnast, Ivan Kulyak, has been disqualified by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) for a year, after displaying the letter “Z” on his chest in March at the World Cup stage in Qatar.
The letter “Z” has been displayed on tanks and vehicles used by the Russian military and has become a symbol of support for the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian athletes are currently suspended indefinitely from competition due to their country’s invasion of Ukraine, and even if the ban is still in effect in a year, another six months will be added to Kulyak’s disqualification.
George W. Bush’s Iraq-I-Mean-Ukraine Gaffe
Former U.S. President George W. Bush mixed up Ukraine and Iraq in a speech criticizing Vladimir Putin’s invasion. He condemned “an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean, of Ukraine. Anyway.”
Bush launched the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which has been widely criticized in retrospect, even by those who defended it at the time. The former U.S. president has always stuck by his position.
U.S. Department of Defense officials report that instead of the typical battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, which number several hundred soldiers, the Russians have now shifted to attacks by smaller units.
Russian forces have been pushed out of the area around Kharkiv. Villages that were occupied for two months are free once more — but utterly destroyed. And thousands of people have disappeared without a trace.
Up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops have reportedly surrendered from the Azovstal steel plant in the port of Mariupol, with all sent to a prisoner camp in Russian-controlled territory in Donbas. Ukrainians are hoping for a prisoner exchange, though Moscow may try some for war crimes.
Central to the tragic absurdity of this war is the question of language. Vladimir Putin has repeated that protecting ethnic Russians and the Russian-speaking populations of Ukraine was a driving motivation for his invasion.
Yet one month on, a quick look at the map shows that many of the worst-hit cities are those where Russian is the predominant language: Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson.
Then there is Mariupol, under siege and symbol of Putin’s cruelty. In the largest city on the Azov Sea, with a population of half a million people, Ukrainians make up slightly less than half of the city's population, and Mariupol's second-largest national ethnicity is Russians. As of 2001, when the last census was conducted, 89.5% of the city's population identified Russian as their mother tongue.
The martyrdom of Mariupol
Between 2018 and 2019, I spent several months in Mariupol. It is a rugged but beautiful city dotted with Soviet-era architecture, featuring wide avenues and hillside parks, and an extensive industrial zone stretching along the shoreline. There was a vibrant youth culture and art scene, with students developing projects to turn their city into a regional cultural center with an international photography festival.
There were also many offices of international NGOs and human rights organizations, a consequence of the fact that Mariupol was the last major city before entering the occupied zone of Donbas. Many natives of the contested regions of Luhansk and Donetsk had moved there, taking jobs in restaurants and hospitals. I had fond memories of the welcoming from locals who were quicker to smile than in some other parts of Ukraine. All of this is gone.
Putin is bombing the very people he has claimed to want to rescue.
According to the latest data from the local authorities, 80% of the port city has been destroyed by Russian bombs, artillery fire and missile attacks, with particularly egregious targeting of civilians, including a maternity hospital, a theater where more than 1,000 people had taken shelter and a school where some 400 others were hiding.
The official civilian death toll of Mariupol is estimated at more than 3,000. There are no language or ethnic-based statistics of the victims, but it’s likely the majority were Russian speakers.
So let’s be clear, Putin is bombing the very people he has claimed to want to rescue.
Putin’s Public Enemy No. 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is a mother-tongue Russian speaker who’d made a successful acting and comedy career in Russian-language broadcasting, having extensively toured Russian cities for years.
Rescuers carry a person injured during a shelling by Russian troops of Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine.
Yes, the official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian, and a 2019 law aimed to ensure that it is used in public discourse, but no one has ever sought to abolish the Russian language in everyday life. In none of the cities that are now being bombed by the Russian army to supposedly liberate them has the Russian language been suppressed or have the Russian-speaking population been discriminated against.
Sociologist Mikhail Mishchenko explains that studies have found that the vast majority of Ukrainians don’t consider language a political issue. For reasons of history, culture and the similarities of the two languages, Ukraine is effectively a bilingual nation.
"The overwhelming majority of the population speaks both languages, Russian and Ukrainian,” Mishchenko explains. “Those who say they understand Russian poorly and have difficulty communicating in it are just over 4% percent. Approximately the same number of people say the same about Ukrainian.”
In general, there is no problem of communication and understanding. Often there will be conversations where one person speaks Ukrainian, and the other responds in Russian. Geographically, the Russian language is more dominant in the eastern and central parts of Ukraine, and Ukrainian in the west.
A daughter of Kyiv
Like most central Ukrainians I am perfectly bilingual: for me, Ukrainian and Russian are both native languages that I have used since childhood in Kyiv. My generation grew up on Russian rock, post-Soviet cinema, and translations of foreign literature into Russian. I communicate in Russian with my sister, and with my mother and daughter in Ukrainian. I write professionally in three languages: Ukrainian, Russian and English, and can also speak Polish, French, and a bit Japanese. My mother taught me that the more languages I know the more human I am.
At the same time, I am not Russian — nor British or Polish. I am Ukrainian. Ours is a nation with a long history and culture of its own, which has always included a multi-ethnic population: Russians, Belarusians, Moldovans, Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians, Poles, Jews, Greeks. We all, they all, have found our place on Ukrainian soil. We speak different languages, pray in different churches, we have different traditions, clothes, and cuisine.
My mother taught me that the more languages I know the more human I am.
Like in other countries, these differences have been the source of conflict in our past. But it is who we are and will always be, and real progress has been made over the past three decades to embrace our multitudes. Our Jewish, Russian-speaking president is the most visible proof of that — and is in fact part of what our soldiers are fighting for.
Many in Moscow were convinced that Russian troops would be welcomed in Ukraine as liberating heroes by Russian speakers. Instead, young soldiers are forced to shoot at people who scream in their native language.
Starving people ina street of Kharkiv in 1933, during the famine
Putin has tried to rally the troops by warning that in Ukraine a “genocide” of ethnic Russians is being carried out by a government that must be “de-nazified.”
These are, of course, words with specific definitions that carry the full weight of history. The Ukrainian people know what genocide is not from books. In my hometown of Kyiv, German soldiers massacred Jews en masse. My grandfather survived the Buchenwald concentration camp, liberated by the U.S. army. My great-grandmother, who died at the age of 95, survived the 1932-33 famine when the Red Army carried out the genocide of the Ukrainian middle class, and her sister disappeared in the camps of Siberia, convicted for defying rationing to try to feed her children during the famine.
On Tuesday, came a notable report of one of the latest civilian deaths in the besieged Russian-speaking city of Kharkiv: a 96-year-old had been killed when shelling hit his apartment building. The victim’s name was Boris Romanchenko; he had survived Buchenwald and two other Nazi concentration camps during World War II. As President Zelensky noted: Hitler didn’t manage to kill him, but Putin did.
Genocide has returned to Ukraine, from Kharkiv to Kherson to Mariupol, as Vladimir Putin had warned. But it is his own genocide against the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.