How mass shootings are calculated in the US is a disputed question. According to one system of measuring, there have been 94 mass shootings with three or more fatalities in nearly 30 states from 1982 until today. Another system of measuring reports 132 incidents with four or more victims since 1966. The largest number of mass shootings were in workplaces & secondly at schools. Others were at churches, military bases, restaurants & malls.

Estimating the scale of mass violence in the US is difficult because there are so many assassinations, bombings, arsons. Not to mention, domestic violence & serial killers. But mostly because US history is a chronicle of extreme violence against Native Americans, Latinos, Blacks, & immigrant groups like the Chinese: wars of extermination (genocide), massacres, lynchings, concentration camps. Why start calculating from 1982 or even 1966 when the violence since then is all of a piece with US history?

What distinguishes violence in the US from elsewhere in the world is the doctrine of ‘American exceptionalism’ which roots mass violence here in the epic battles between good & evil. The devil is involved. Regrettably, weak gun laws allow evil forces to buy assault weapons they were trained to use in the US army against foreign terrorists. Evil killers differ from “Wahhabi jihadist” killers because the latter are associated with Islam but evil is mitigated by mental illness, difficult childhoods, white supremacy. We should never be confused between American exceptionalism & jihadism. Evil killers do it for the good of their country.

Kashmiri human rights leaders Parvez Imroz & Parveena Ahangar were jointly awarded the 2017 Rafto prize for human rights in Norway. Wande magazine has published the speeches they gave at the ceremony:

Parvez Imroz speech: http://www.wandemag.com/parvez-imroz-rafto-lecture/

Parveena Ahangar speech: http://www.wandemag.com/parveena-ahangar-rafto-lecture/

For those who fear that naming sexual predators will deny them due process, this testimony by Samantha Hanahentzen, a 17 year-old girl from Detroit, Michigan, raises the more important issue of due process & justice for the victims, many of whom are children.:

“When I saw the #MeToo hashtag I was just coming to terms with my sexual assault. It happened when I was in middle school by one of my teachers. It took me a while to come forward with what had happened to me & then when I went to the administration I was told I didn’t have enough evidence to prove anything & I should just keep quiet about it because I & the school could be sued for slander if I went public with my experience. It was really silencing because when I was being assaulted it was that stereotypical line of “let’s keep this between me & you.” And then when I found the courage to come out with it I was told again “let’s keep this quiet.” So for me too, it was a way to have a voice & it was a way for me to see that I’m not the only one that has gone through this & that women all around the world have all experienced the same thing. It was really unifying.”

(Photo of Hanahentzen by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Nur Kabir, a 5-year-old Rohingya refugee caught in the rain as he waits to cross into Bangladesh.

Most sources claim 600,000 Rohingya have sought asylum in Bangladesh since the current genocidal offensive began on August 25th; the UNHC reported it was closer to 800,000 streaming into refugee camps without an infrastructure to accommodate them nor apparently sufficient housing, food, healthcare.

The Red Cross & UN are reporting that a cholera epidemic at Cox’s Bazar is a looming risk because of “poor sanitation & lack of hygiene facilities” by which they mean no aid organizations have prioritized port-a-potties so people living in overcrowded conditions don’t have to poop on the walkways. It’s elementary to avoiding the spread of contagious diseases, including cholera, but we know that in the 2010 Haitian earthquake the hundreds of thousands made homeless were never provided sufficient toilets which made them sitting ducks for the cholera outbreak brought by UN troops.

In response to the threat of cholera at Cox’s Bazar, the UN began a massive vaccination campaign but the threat of an epidemic is not reduced an iota if there is no system of port-a-potties & sanitation maintenance. Like always, the Red Cross is using the Rohingya crisis to raise money but its financial practices are coming under scrutiny since it raised half a billion dollars for Haitian relief & had only six houses to show for it. Now the Red Cross can’t account for over $6 million in funds directed to fight the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The situation at Cox’s Bazar is not unlike the situation in Gaza where Israel has systematically destroyed the sanitation system & endangered the health of Palestinians as part of its program of ethnic cleansing. We need to get a clear idea of what is needed by refugees at Cox’s Bazar & then begin applying political pressure on our governments & humanitarian aid agencies to deliver port-a-potties & a sanitation system which are the first line of defense against epidemic.

(Photo by Hannah McKay/Reuters)

A news reporter was interviewing an activist from Baltimore’s Black community about the dramatic spike in fatal & non-fatal shootings in the past year. She asked the activist if the increase was because police were not coming down hard enough on those loitering on street corners. She didn’t explain the connection in her mind between loitering & gun violence. Loitering on street corners or anywhere else is not a crime & the only place where it is considered a threat is in the Black & Latino communities.

A moving tribute to the Kashmiri freedom struggle:

https://www.facebook.com/395476607140728/videos/1662810123740697/?h

An important article on unmarked mass graves in Kashmir citing the work of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP):

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/india-ordered-probe-3800-mass-graves-kashmir-171103114819966.html

A Rohingya woman being rescued coming out of Naf river which borders Burma & Bangladesh:

The Rohingya genocide is not likely to be discussed at the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) meeting being hosted by Philippine president Duterte. If human rights were a concern of the organization, the summit would not be held under the auspices of Duterte while he is engaged in a death squad war against the poor & conducting war against Muslims. ASEAN in the past has supported the Burmese junta & all of the member countries have significant human rights issues to account for so the agenda will likely entail primarily military & economic concerns.

(Photo by Hannah McKay/Reuters)

Were it not for social media, most of us would know very little about each other & even less about persecutions & freedom struggles around the world. Detachment, insularity, alienation, & mostly prejudice would still prevail were social media not such a powerful tool for forging respect & bonds of solidarity against injustice. It’s certain that most of us in the US know nothing about Sikhs. But their humanitarian aid teams to Rohingya refugees through Khalsa Aid has made them admired by many. Twitter was filled today with commemorations & demands for justice for the anti-Sikh pogroms instigated by the Indian government in revenge for the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. Today marks 33 years since Sikhs were massacred all over India, including thousands killed, women raped, children beheaded.

In respect for Sikhs & to support their demand for justice, these are random articles garnered from Twitter so that we may inform ourselves about who they are, why they were slaughtered, & how we can stand with them in pursuing justice. Persecution, pogroms, genocides have long memories filled with griefs not solaced until justice is addressed.:

https://thewire.in/…/indias-justice-system-failed-victims-…/
http://www.thecitizen.in/…/NewsDet…/index/1/12121/1984-Today
https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/1984-anti-sikh-riots-victims-still-await-justice
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/29/british-government-cover-up-amritsar-massacre-golden-temple-sas-india#img-1
http://www.voiceonline.com/rattans-rumble-massacre/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41828384
http://www.presstv.com/…/10/29/540…/UK-India-sikhs-massacare

Photo is Sikhs surrendering to the Indian army in 1984 in Amritsar.

(Photo from The India Today Group/India Today Group/Getty Images)

So sorry for the long delay in posting. The world was too much with me, especially the horrors of the Rohingya genocide.