How tech savvy Kashmiris will elude the social media ban

The mantra of refugees: when they build walls, we build ladders to get over them. If they build higher walls, we build higher ladders. The same is true for virtual walls like India’s ban on social media which starts tonight.

A Facebook friend sent me this notification about evading the ban so Kashmiris can communicate with others. Being an electronic dunce, I have no idea if or how it works but trust the young will know:

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a tool to evade social media ban imposed in IOK. Download any VPN from Googleplay on your smartphones. It can be any one of the VPNs available, e.g SuperVPN, Zenmate, etc. & for IOS users download Hotspot shield or Onavo protect from the appstore. These VPNs are free to download.

Once downloaded, open the app & do as is required. You will be helped by the app to tread your way into any network & hence keeping the VPN going, you can access the banned sites in your region.

Please share this information with Kashmiris.

Facebook is prompting me to tell you my favorite food as a way you can get to know me. Let’s get this straight: I don’t care what your favorite food is & if you care about mine, we are so not meant to be friends.

(But for the record, it’s green beans.)

In defense of Kashmiri & Palestinian stone pelters

Stone Pelters Apr 26 2017

In defense of Kashmiri & Palestinian stone pelters:

Stones are not the weapons of terrorists. Terrorists use assault rifles, drones, missiles, & explosives sold to them by Russian, European, Chinese, Israeli, & US weapons companies in a $400 billion a year industry. Terrorists use the same weapons from the same companies as the armies waging wars.

Stones are the weapons of the oppressed, of the unarmed, of the defenseless against those armed with assault rifles, pellet guns, tear gas canisters, missiles, explosives. What should the stone pelters do instead? Let themselves be shot at, blinded, disabled, killed without defending themselves? Go home & stop opposing occupation? Accept colonialism?

Social media is a political weapon, even more powerful than stones. But India is shutting that down. That won’t make stone throwing go away; it won’t make soldiers safer. But of course the Indian government doesn’t care about its soldiers any more than the US cares about its soldiers. They’re all just cannon fodder for corporate interests.

There is a way to stop stone pelting: the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of 700,000 Indian soldiers before those legions of stone pelters drive them out of the valley. Not unlike how the Vietnamese drove the US military out of Vietnam 42 years ago this month.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo of Kashmiri student stone pelters)

Resistance is a way of life for Kashmiri youth, by Ather Zia

The oppressors, including the US regarding Black, Latino, Native Americans, Israel regarding Palestinians, India regarding Kashmiris, always consider the youth a problem, a rebellious spirit to be crushed. They are the heart of resistance to discrimination, inequality, injustice, degradation. Something there is about the young that will not stand for indignity.

This is a valuable article by Ather Zia about resistance to occupation among Kashmiri youth which is certainly not a new development but an expanding one.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/04/resistance-life-kashmiri-youth-170425081937812.html

“Kashmiris should celebrate victory of the Aazadi narrative for it has forced the world’s largest democracy to surrender & ban social media.”

–Gowhar Geelaniā€ on Twitter

Indian government orders indefinite ban on social media in Kashmir

Kashmir--Faisal Khan photo Apr 26 2017

The Indian government issued an order today to indefinitely ban all social media in Kashmir (a total of 22 platforms) “in the interest of maintenance of public order”. The ban includes FB, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, Skype. Internet services will also be suspended.

Indian officials have been mulling the ban for a while claiming it’s to avoid the spread of fake news that has led to violence & a volatile situation in Kashmir. Oblivious to how damn stupid it sounded, they claimed anti-national, anti-social, & subversive elements were misusing social media to incite hatred & violence against the Indian government & its 700,000 occupying troops.

The “fake news” that’s so inciteful is reports, photos, videos of the massive unarmed resistance to occupation being fired on by troops; using young men as human shields on military vehicles; goon squads of soldiers ganging up on protesters & beating them to a pulp; images of a young man just walking shot in the head.

Those images don’t engender hate or violence; they are creating political solidarity with Kashmiri self-determination. Kashmiri activists have used social media to overcome the international new blackout which forced them to stand alone for decades against one of the best armed & aggressive military forces in the world & the largest military occupation in the world (one Indian soldier to every 17 Kashmiris).

Kashmiris used social media to educate activists & create an international solidarity movement. That threatened India’s claims about Islamist terrorist & separatist troublemakers that allowed them to get away with murder & savagery in Kashmir. The full scope of criminality (with legal impunity) by the occupying army was exposed before the world: tens of thousands forcibly disappeared; extrajudicial executions; mass rapes; pellet munitions against unarmed protesters, small children, elderly bystanders causing thousands to be blinded, disfigured, disabled, in constant pain; mass graves; constant search & summary execution operations.

Most Kashmiris won’t be on social media for a while but they have taught us well so we cannot allow their voices to be silenced but must speak in their stead to overcome the news blackout Kashmiri activists worked so hard to challenge.

This photo is a student protester stopping to rescue another who has been injured by the occupying troops. Let the young man be a metaphor for solidarity during the period of the internet ban in Kashmir, however long it lasts. Whilst Kashmiris cannot speak for themselves & India increases its murderous crackdown on protesters, let us stop to rescue our not fallen but silenced sisters & brothers & to campaign against India to end the internet ban.

Je Suis Kashmiri.

(Photo by Faisal Khan)

Elise Hendrick took exception to my criticism of Max Blumenthal & said I consider anyone “having a Jewish surname to be discrediting in itself.” Elise of course is just stooping beneath her dignity to make a point, as is her wont. But is anyone else confused about my views on hatred of Jews?