Documentary on lives & conditions of Dalits, an oppressed caste once called “untouchables,” by Indian filmmaker Pratik Parmar

Pratik Parmar, a filmmaker from India has produced a three-part documentary on the lives & conditions of Dalits, an oppressed caste once despicably called “untouchables.”

Caste is one of the deranged social organizations that developed under class society. It could be called the excrement & dry rot of class society with its notions of inferior & superior human beings.

There have long been social & political struggles in India among Dalits & other oppressed castes to end this monstrous system. It is one of the most monumental freedom movements in the world.

This is Project Heartland/Episode 1, The land struggle of Ramji Bhai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FftSZLnsmVA&feature=share

This is the link to episode 2, “Straight from the Tannery”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XtR3tglQ6k

This is the link to episode 3, “When a Dalit Woman Leads”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka3605qBaR4

Protests in Malaysia in solidarity with Rohingya Muslims against genocide by Burmese military

Protest vs Rohingya genocide in Kuala Lampur Nov 18 2016 (Ziaur Rahman) Nov 18 2016

Ziaur Rahman sent this photo of a protest today against the scorched earth genocide by the Myanmar military junta against Rohingya Muslims going on now in Arakan state.

Rohingya refugees in collaboration with the Malaysia Islamic party & NGOs in Malaysia organized the march & rally in front of the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lampur.

Not every one has a Myanmar embassy to rally in front of but Aung San Suu Kyi can be contacted via her FB wall at: https://www.facebook.com/aungsansuukyi/

Evil fairies from outer space bombing Aleppo according to Assad apologists

Boys in east Aleppo Nov 18 2016 (REUTERS:Abdalrhman Ismail)  Nov 18 2016

Injured woman Nov 18 (REUTERS:Abdalrhman Ismail) Nov 18 2016

The Russian defense ministry announced a major missile & bombing assault on Syria launched from the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier off the coast of Syria. The ministry denies it is bombing Aleppo & Assad supporters confirm this based on reports in Russian government media. Though other Assad supporters laud bombing Aleppo as “liberation” from those “jihadists.” It must be evil fairies from outer space dropping bombs from jets & barrel bombs from helicopters.

Evil fairies—probably the same ones that bombed Gaza in 2014 when Israel denied bombing—would explain why the high-tech missile guidance systems couldn’t distinguish these civilians from “throat-cutting jihadists.”

Let’s cut the crap here: the only principled demands of antiwar activists must be: the immediate cessation of Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military operations, whether by land, air, or sea, over & covert, from Syria.
(Photos by Abdairhman Ismail/Reuters)

La Bestia & the barbarisms of US immigration policy: open the damn borders

Undocumented at Veracruz getting aid (REUTERS:Daniel Becerril) Nov 18 2016

This train is called “La Bestia” (The beast) or “El tren de la muerte” (The death train) by undocumented immigrants from Central America. The name refers to a network of Mexican freight trains that begin in the southern states of Chiapas & Tabasco & travel 1,200 miles to the state of Tamaulipas on the US Texas border.

Though an estimated 500,000 immigrants, driven by dire circumstances at home, travel these trains every year, they are an extremely & notoriously dangerous way to travel. They do not stop to allow people to hop on or off so hundreds have lost limbs & must return to countries with no social security for disability.

Criminal gangs & paramilitary operatives working with the Mexican army prey on the immigrants, subjecting them to rape, robbery, extortion, murder, kidnapping, disappearance, mass executions & mass graves. In 2014, the eastern state of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico filed a lawsuit accusing the railroad of complicity in the violence on trains.

The Mexican government functions as the southern phalanx of US immigration policy. But in 2011, then president Felipe Calderon (responsible for the deaths of thousands of Mexicans & immigrants) signed a bill decriminalizing undocumented immigrants entering through the southern border. Previously, federal police would stop buses & search vehicles traveling north to remove immigrants & deport them. The primary way of traveling was & still is to pay a smuggler or to ride atop the freight trains.

In 2014, Mexican officials began cracking down on freight train stowaways. Those who were stranded, even in the most southern states, then began attempting the transit through Mexico on foot–subjecting them to extreme danger from criminal gangs & the military. Apparently the crackdown was ineffectual, even with using violence to enforce it.

All along the train route, Mexican immigration & human rights groups as well as hundreds of Mexican citizens have set up sanctuaries, medical care, provided food, water, clothing, & support to the immigrants. One of the most well-known places where that manifests is at Veracruz, a transit point north. The train doesn’t stop but human rights activists & local families rush to the passing trains to pass food & water to the immigrants. It speaks not just to the power of human kindness but to political solidarity with the right to immigrate to find work & build a better life.

This photo is from yesterday at Veracruz.

(Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

Solidarity with Rohingya Muslim women raped by soldiers in scorched earth genocide

Rohingya mother and child (Nov 18 2016)

Bangladeshi activist Jannatun Nayeem Nayeema has initiated a social media campaign to stand with Rohingya women being raped as part of the scorched earth genocide going on now of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military in Arakan (Rakhine) state.

One Rohingya woman who testified said:

” Peace be upon you.
I am talking to the brothers from my village.
They [soldiers] brought us to the yard.
They put their hands into our clothes & are abusing us.
They took us into the house & are abusing us.
They took the young girls into the house & abused.
Then they came out one by one [solider] from house.
How do we stay in this country?
Please pray for us.
I was abused by them & I just came out by crawling.
Brothers, please pray for us.
I can’t talk any more. ”

Under the solidarity rubric of “an injury to one is an injury to all,” Jannatun has asked us to post these social media hashtags on our walls:

#WeAreOne
#WomenAroundTheWorld
#NoRape
#StopRapeOfRohingyaWomen

(Photo is Rohingya mother & child)

Kashmir’s economic importance to India

My Facebook memories from a year ago today popped up a discussion on Indian hydroelectric power projects & power shortages in Kashmir. My research on that was dead-ending for lack of sources & my grasp of the economics of the occupation still in need of education. Kashmir isn’t just real estate to India but has economic, political, & military importance.

Re-reading the discussion is more valuable now than it was then–mostly the insights of Kashmiri activists but also the expressions of ignorance & prejudice by nationalists. I never did the post because I really didn’t understand enough. Kashmiris have probably written much more cogent analyses that should be shared.

Wondering if anyone would be interested in my re-posting it here–primarily because it elaborates some of the economic importance of Kashmir to India. Colonial occupation isn’t just based on irrational nationalist hatred, nor certainly on religious disputes.

This is link to that discussion: https://www.facebook.com/MaryScullyReports/posts/10206913003896677?hc_location=ufi