This little guy is 7-year-old Thek Kay Pyin working at a brick kiln in Rakhine state, Myanmar. Child labor doesn’t make Myanmar stand out; it exists in every country, including the US which has 800,000 mostly Latino child farmworkers working legally. Though the fact that it’s ubiquitous or legalized certainly doesn’t make it one iota less criminal or reprehensible.

But what’s distinctive about our little guy is that he lives in a concentration camp because his family is Rohingya Muslim, subjected to ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar regime. This is not a recent genocide; it’s gone on for decades. So we’d really like to know why in 2012, at the height of a murderous assault on Rohingya that sent tens of thousands fleeing (& got many killed), Obama called on other Asian nations to model Myanmar’s “remarkable journey” toward democracy. Hillary Clinton, today’s populist champion, also made a pilgrimage to Myanmar praising its democracy. What is it about genocide that escapes their grasp!?

But of course, let’s not fool ourselves. Obama & Clinton know exactly what is going on in Myanmar. One of the biggest navies in the world couldn’t send a single ship to rescue tens of thousands of Rohingya afloat in death ships. Because to neoliberal politicians (& as we know from the refugee crises all over the world & the Greek euro crisis, politicians don’t come sleazier or more criminal than the neoliberal kind) some lives are expendable. Millions of human lives just don’t count in their calculations so genocide gets coupled with eugenics as state policy. That’s why neoliberalism is the barbaric phase of capitalism.

Our fullest solidarity with Rohingya Muslims. Our deepest regrets little Thek Kay Pyin has no options right now. But sure as shooting, we cannot let media bury this genocide any more or as thoroughly as they also bury other human rights monstrosities like in Gaza & Kashmir.

(Photo by James Nachtwey/Time)

Media generally operates by the mantra “out of sight, out of mind” when it comes to ethnic cleansing & massive human rights crimes–like in Myanmar (or Kashmir). Instead, we are subjected to endless panegyrics about Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is not so much silent on genocide as in tacit agreement.

For several weeks it was reported that 25,000 Rohingya had fled persecution, violence, & concentration camps in Myanmar to find refuge elsewhere. The world witnessed days of boats filled with Rohingya drifting without food or water in the Andaman Sea. We were coached by media to denounce the traffickers who abandoned the ships & ignore that they only abandoned when they weren’t allowed to port & discharge refugees & faced detention themselves.

But now all’s well: Indonesia & Malaysia took in 3,500 refugees; a Turkish military vessel said it was doing search & rescue; Myanmar picked up a few boats & dragged them back to the hell they fled from; & Obama “urged Myanmar to end discrimination.” Boy you don’t get tougher than urging, do you!? How about talking about genocide in Myanmar even half as tough as he does about ISIS?

But questions remain: what happened to the other 21,500 Rohingya? Are they still out there floating in death ships? Were they rescued? Did Turkey actually deploy a ship & rescue anyone? If they did, where did they take them? And what happened to those “rescued” by the Myanmar navy? Were they tortured or arrested for embarrassing the regime & its ignoble Nobel recipient? Or were they returned to concentration camps?

Just because media turns a blind eye doesn’t mean we should be fooled that all’s well in this worst of all possible hellholes. There’s some accounting to do to justice. What exactly has happened to the 21,500 Rohingya not yet accounted for?

Our fullest solidarity with the Rohingya.

Photo is of refugees in Indonesian refugee camp taken in late May.

(Photo by James Nachtwey/Time)

Many of you will be interested in hearing Haidar Eid, a leading Palestinian figure of the BDS campaign (who lives in Gaza & survived the three murderous bombing assaults on Gaza since 2009) explain the importance of BDS & Palestinian solidarity, & his views on the situation in Gaza.