In preparing a post about the rapprochement between the US & Sudan after decades of US sanctions & putting Sudan on the terror list (including the celebrity war mongering of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, & US undercover operative John Prendergast), I see that the Canadian fascist journal Global Research is already vilifying the Sudanese African Spring as orchestrated by the US–just as it did all the Arab Spring uprisings, most importantly the Syrian Arab Spring. The main analyst in Global Research is a Russian guy named Andrew Korybko who calls the Sudanese uprising a “hybrid war,” a concept he devised which is rooted in conspiracy & the “regime change operation” scenario.

What most concerns Korybko is protecting Russian (& Chinese) investment in Sudan. This should concern us because it makes reversing the Sudanese African Spring of considerable consequence to three powerful governments with massive & ruthless military might. It’s very important to carefully, almost religiously, follow developments in Sudan & to render active public solidarity with the protesters so that the narrative cannot be hijacked & the Sudanese uprising against dictatorship turned into an Islamist uprising orchestrated by US regime change operatives. The Syrian people, as well as Egyptians, Bahrainis, Yemenis, Iraqis have paid a colossal price because of counterrevolution & the ‘regime change operation’ narratives that discredited people like Chomsky, Tariq Ali, John Pilger, rewarded professional propagandists like Bartlett & Beeley, & turned the international antiwar movement into a puny little band of war mongers.

While the Syrian Arab Spring has been militarily defeated by Syrian, Russian, Iranian, & US-coalition intervention, the Algerian & Sudanese African Spring uprisings look to the Arab Spring, including the Syrian revolution, for inspiration & with solidarity. Their demand that the military step down & that there be a civilian government is certainly rooted in their observations from the other Arab Spring uprisings that the military is not an ally to popular revolution.

This photo is Sudanese protesters from the city of Atbara, where the revolution began, sitting atop a train as they arrive at the Bahari station in Khartoum on Monday to join the sit-in at military headquarters demanding a civilian government.

(Photo by AFP)

Netanyahu’s stupid son created a Twitter furor when he said there never were Palestinians because there is no P in the Arabic alphabet. A kid with a mind blunted by racism is no match for Palestinians & their supporters who pointed out, & not in a kind way, that there is no J in Hebrew either.

The African Spring in Sudan: hundreds of protesters from Atbara, the town where the Sudanese revolution started, traveled to the capital city of Khartoum on & in this train to join the sit-in in front of the military headquarters demanding a civilian government.

When Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) was sworn in as president of Mexico last December, he had a menu of populist promises to Mexican voters (human rights to environmental), all of which he is systematically & expeditiously trashing in his first few months in office. Mexico has long functioned as the southern flank of US anti-immigration policy, including with the aggressive use of federal police & paramilitary death squads, even though the Mexican parliament made it legal in 2010 for immigrants & refugees to travel across Mexico to the US border.

Now in violation of its own laws, the Mexican government under AMLO has escalated open violence against Central American refugees by attacking the caravan in the southern state of Chiapas. Federal police have been threatening the caravans since before AMLO was elected but he cannot claim to stand for human rights if he does not pull the police off the caravans & allow them safe passage. That is however the quid pro quo for the US giving $4.8 billion of public & private investment to Mexico. US media is reporting that Mexican citizens are turning against the refugees in contrast to the hospitality & assistance they have always proffered. Since so many Mexicans are forced by political repression & economic exigency into joining the exodus to the US, these reports are likely fabrications as part of a propaganda war against Central American refugees.

http://time.com/5575905/mexico-police-detain-migrants-caravan/?fbclid=IwAR0EoPbSudCzVTx2bJmsVWR5v7pxkXqeO8alz8z-GXZt7FVpr8uMQHGFgXY

The US is threatening to veto a UN resolution against rape as a weapon of war because references to sexual & reproductive health services for women & girls imply support for abortion. The contentious phrase is the clause that urges “UN entities & donors to provide non-discriminatory & comprehensive health services, including sexual & reproductive health, psychosocial, legal & livelihood support & other multi-sectoral services for survivors of sexual violence, taking into account the specific needs of persons with disabilities.”

The appeal of Burmese reporters Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo has been rejected by the Burmese Supreme Court & they are to remain in jail for the duration of their seven-year sentence for reporting on a massacre of ten Rohingya men. In an almost comical understatement, Reuters says the case “has raised questions about the country’s transition to democracy.” The transition to democracy in Burma was always a fiction maintained so the gold rush of foreign investments in the neoliberal economy would not again become subject to sanctions as they were after the military crushed the 1988 uprising. Every aspect of the Burmese capitalist economy is controlled by the military. To overcome economic stagnation, the generals allow neoliberal investment policies but still maintain control of the economy lock, stock, & barrel. Most foreign investments are joint venture projects with the military. A sham transition to democracy was part of that process with Aung San Suu Kyi playing a role as champion of democracy while colluding with the generals.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-journalists/myanmars-top-court-rejects-final-appeal-by-jailed-reuters-journalists-idUSKCN1RZ06O?

This is a beautiful essay by Kashmiri writer Majid Maqbool addressing aspiring young Kashmiri writers but his appeal for steadfast honesty in writing is universal. If I were to advise young writers (or speakers), I too would place steadfast honesty as most important along with a refusal to bend to flattery or blandishments. Too many lose their way & become dull by learning to sing for their supper.

http://www.inversejournal.com/2019/04/22/walk-on-a-letter-to-young-kashmiris-by-majid-maqbool/?

Kashmir, which almost never appears in photojournalism–even during the uprising & pellet gun onslaught in 2016-17– is a frequent subject these days during India’s prolonged election procedures. (They began on April 11th, will be conducted in seven phases, & the results will be announced on May 23rd.) Most of the photos show long lines at polling stations when in fact Jammu & Kashmir have the worst voter turnout percentages of any state in India. In Srinagar, the percentage has been close to ten-percent of eligible voters since 1999 & those are probably government officials & their flunkeys. The low turnout is interpreted as a complete rejection of India, not just the occupation.

This is one of the photos which shows the voter queue at a polling station in Mujgund on the outskirts of Srinagar.

(Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA)