Refugees face European Union treachery & labor strike at Calais

Calais--immigrant scaling fence (Philippe Huguen:AFP:Getty Images) Aug 2 2015

What price barbarism! From the point of view of refugees trying to get to England through the Eurotunnel, the truckers picked a hell of a time to go on strike. Lorries that refugees hitched on through the tunnel (albeit dangerously) aren’t moving & the strikers are burning tires at the entrances.

This has made it much harder for the immigrants since they’re being assaulted by French gendermes & they’ve had to erect makeshift housing. This hasn’t stopped them from trying to pass through the tunnel–on one night alone, 2,000 attempts were made to enter the terminal. Nine have died already this summer attempting to cross the Channel.

Here a man is trying to get over a razor wire fence around the terminal near Calais. One has to stand in awe of their tenacity & determination. The brutality used to deter them only merits contempt.

We wish them godspeed on their journey. Immigration is a human right. Open the borders.

(Photo by Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)

Tribute to Mexican journalist Ruben Espinosa, murdered by Mexican regime

 

Reuben August 2 2015

Today I received this letter from a Mexican friend I met while working together to build solidarity with the Ayotzinapa 43, the student teachers disappeared by the army in Mexico last September. It is a eulogy & tribute to Ruben Espinosa, a Mexican photojournalist, a friend of hers, & a fighter for justice under conditions of extreme repression & military occupation in Mexico. He was brutally murdered in Mexico because of his work. It’s an extraordinary & heartbreaking tribute which she is unable to post because of her family’s concerns for her own safety.

We should take a moment to honor this young man & the young women murdered with him–remembering they well knew the danger their activism placed them in & were undaunted. Our deepest respect & our condolences. May they Rest in Peace & Power. And may their lives inspire us to play our own parts in making this world free of violence & full of human joy.

Her tribute:

“I woke up from a horrible dream, filled with chases, captive moments and myself filled with cow shit. I woke up jut to realize that this is the effect of the terrible news that I received before I fall asleep in tears. Ruben Espinosa, a colleague, a fighter for justice, a friend was found death tied like a pig, bound hand and feet, shot and tortured along with 5 other girls, girls who would dedicate their life to the arts and theater, just like me.

He left his hometown “Xalapa” as an auto-exile this past June, because it was not safe anymore for him; he was threatening, somebody did not like what he was writing. Since the election of the Governor Xavier Duarte in 2010, there has been thirteen journalists death, now fourteen counting him, making Veracruz most insecure state to develop as a journalist in México.

I must say that I am in shock right now. I remember having a conversation a couple of years ago with some friends back in Mexico, where we would say “We are not that important”, or “things like that only happen to people in the mafia”, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that Mexico is not safe anymore, specially for freedom of speech. My eyes hurt for crying. I promised my parents no to talk about the situation in Mexico on the social media, because they are afraid for me. Today the only thing I can say is… they should. This is why I write this letter in English and share it with you, far away from my country; because I need to release all this frustration and pain on my chest out of my system.

I fear for my friends who I follow everyday with their posts on the Internet, all this brave people, just like Ruben, who are brave enough to fight for justice. I fear for my colleagues who try to fight for justice and I fear for my family who leaves in Mexico and try very hard to be happy under the circumstances. As well I fear for myself for writing this letter, but above my fear there is hope; hope that there is a tiny possibility that everything could be better. Hope that they realize that the more they shout our voices; there will be more voices shouting out and multiply. Hope that the bad guys will realize how beautiful life is and how harm they do to the families and the friends of all the people that they took away from us.

I hope this people can sleep at night. I hope this people find peace in their harts to stop this horrifying situation. I hope we all as a humanity become more sensitive about the terrible crimes against freedom of being who we like to be. I hope one day I can go back home.”

Photo is of Ruben Espinosa; may he RIP.

Hong Kong court charges protester with using her breasts as a weapon: will Chinese jurisprudence ever live this down?

 

Hong Kong bra protest (Philippe Lopez:AFP:Getty Images) August 2 2015In a decision sure to make Hong Kong jurisprudence the laughing stock of the world, a magistrate sentenced a woman to three-&-a-half months jail time for assaulting a police officer with her breasts at a recent protest. The whole thing is worthy of a Monty Python skit.

Thirty-year-old Ng Lai-ying, who works as a clerk at a shipping company, was protesting Chinese traders from the mainland whose practices are driving up shop rents & prices in Hong Kong. In a chaotic protest that apparently involved jostling & close quarters, chief inspector Chan Ka-po accused her of using her chest to bump his arm while he was trying to grab the strap of her handbag. She testified that his hand landed on her breast & that out of fear she yelled “indecent assault”–which made other protesters throw things at him. There is footage showing several police officers ganging up on her to arrest her when she fell to the ground & fractured her nose.

Magistrate Michael Chan (whose brain must be rotting under that horse hair wig they wear) said “If I do not hand down a deterring sentence, the public might mistakenly think it is a trivial matter to assault police officers during protests.” He accused Ng of using “her female identity to trump up the allegation that the officer had molested her,” calling that a malicious act that damaged the chief inspector’s reputation. Not as much as this court ruling will.

Ng has three co-defendants, including her boyfriend & a 14-year-old boy. All three were also sentenced to jail time for the same offense but their role in this nefarious deed is not spelled out–so as not to evoke hilarity rather than outrage over this “malicious act” against the state.

Protesters gathered outside police headquarters last Thursday, the day of the trial. Many, including men, came wearing or holding up bras; banners read “Breasts are no weapons–give back our breast freedom”; a petition letter was turned in to the police demanding they review their guidelines to handle female protesters; & a topless male activist wearing a black bra told the crowd “We better watch out as one day police might accuse us of attacking with our penis or buttocks.” James Hon, a 66-year-old retired teacher told a reporter “It’s the first time to wear a bra in my entire life. We have come to this rather odd method to tell the world how ridiculous it is.” The charges were also met with scorn online with parodies & cartoons on Instagram.

Activists from a women’s coalition thought the charges against Ng might not be as innocent or ludicrous as they appear but might be used to set a precedent exploiting women’s rights to take part in protests. When we consider the lengths, including assault & rape, the Mubarak & Morsi regimes went to in Egypt to prevent women from entering Tahrir Square for protests, the feminist activists may very well have cause for concern.

Ng was released on bail pending an appeal but according to reports appeared to be quite shell-shocked as she exited the court. When we get over laughing we should think of ways we can strengthen her case in the appeal.

(Photo by Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

Terrorist & war criminal Shimon Peres addresses Israeli anti-violence rally

Shimon Peres (Tomer Neuberg:FLASH90) August 1 2015

There’s only so much Israeli criminality media can cover up. At some point, chickens begin to come home to roost & the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel (BDS) is bringing on that day of reckoning with Palestinian justice. So when the gay pride march was attacked by an Israeli settler from the West Bank & when settlers torched the family home that killed an infant & seriously burned the rest of his family, the state of Israel knew they had to make an accounting to international public opinion. They’re running out of impunity even though they’re backed to the hilt by the US Pentagon.

At first it was inspiring to see thousands of Israelis in marches in at least four cities marching against the two incidents of violence. But when you take a look at the roster of speakers, you want to know who organized the rallies. Was it progressive, anti-apartheid, anti-occupation forces in Israel or was it public relations in the Israeli government to make it appear Israeli policy isn’t genocidal & isn’t suffering from advanced dry rot?

One of the featured speakers in Tel Aviv today was former president Shimon Peres. Peres, who was born in Poland, began his political career in Haganah, the paramilitary terrorist organization that drove Palestinians off their lands in 1948 & eventually morphed into the IDF. He has been a central figure in the development of Israeli military & apartheid policies. He has a rap sheet a mile long, including serving as Israeli president during Operation Ethnic cleansing last summer without uttering a peep of protest. What progressive activist in their right mind would consider him a suitable speaker at an anti-violence rally!?

His appearance as a featured speaker calls into question whether these protests were genuine expressions of citizen outrage or an orchestrated spectacle to counter Israel’s growing reputation for genocidal violence.

In his speech he claimed the Torah “given to us on Mount Sinai” was a code of values & Jewish principles forbidding murder or incitement to murder. There isn’t a damn thing Jewish about prohibiting murder; every civilized society shares that. But if Israel recognizes it as a principle, why is their entire state policy & military apparatus based on eliminating Palestinians by whatever means necessary?

There was a moment of candor in his speech when he said Israel was facing a ‘battle for its survival as a Jewish & democratic state’. As a democratic state, Israel lost that battle in 1948 when it established a colony on Palestinian territory. Its ethnic cleansing & settlement policies are to finish off that Jewish-only state perspective. Israel bombed the living daylights out of Gaza at least three times in the past six years, particularly targeting children. So when Peres says “those who are prepared to burn babies in the middle of the night & plunge knives into the hearts of our daughters are the enemies of the people,” he’s blowing smoke up our butts. The only thing that concerns this man of apartheid is that Israel be able to build that Jewish-only apartheid state without the impediment of international opposition to their systematic crimes against the Palestinian people.

Answer our man Peres by building the hell out of the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel.

(Photo of Peres at the Tel Aviv event today by Tomer Neuberg/FLASH90)

Israeli murders of unarmed Palestinians in West Bank resembles police murders in the Black community in the US

Grieving Mohammed Lafi Abu Latifeh (Ilia Yefimovich:Getty Images) August 1 2015

The death of baby Ali Dawabsheh, who burned to death when Israeli settlers torched his family home, testifies to the criminality & barbarism of Israel’s settlement projects in the West Bank. Regrettably, he is not the only Palestinian being grieved right now. The situation in the West Bank of Israeli soldiers fatally shooting unarmed Palestinian youth resembles nothing so much as police homicides in the Black community in US cities.

Last week alone, there were funerals for three young Palestinians shot by Israeli soldiers. Here they are mourning the death of 19-year-old Mohammed Lafi Abu Latifeh who lived in the Qalandia refugee camp & was shot to death on an arrest raid. Israeli reports about what happened contradict those of Palestinian witnesses. Israeli authorities claimed he was a terrorist suspect–& in the racist thinking of an apartheid regime, summary execution is legitimate.

Yesterday, 18-year-old Laith al-Khaldi, was shot to death by Israeli troops at a protest over the murder of baby Ali. His funeral was held today.

Media is trying to pull a fast one on the truth by referring repeatedly to the settlers as “Jewish extremists.” In fact, extremism is the very nature of the Israeli settlement projects & the military occupation in the West Bank. Netanyahu can cry his crocodile tears about baby Ali to repair Israel’s murderous image but his inflammatory rhetoric against Palestinians, his murderous siege of Gaza, his assaults on unarmed protesters incites violence from settlers & tells us the “extremists” are the henchmen of the Israeli regime & another flank of the occupation.

Build the hell out of the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel. Don’t buy a damn thing made in Israel.

(Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)

Attack on Jerusalem gay pride march is of a piece with Israeli apartheid

Gay pride march in Jerusalem (Kobi Schutz:AFP:Getty Images) August 1 2015

This is Israeli Yishai Shlissel attacking gay pride marchers with a knife last Thursday in Jerusalem; six were stabbed, two of them seriously injured. Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, are falling all over themselves disassociating from his actions. Netanyahu said the attack “contradicted the country’s basic values.” In fact what it contradicts is Israel’s elaborate pinkwashing of apartheid.

Much is being made of Shlissel’s ultra-orthodox Judaism but in fact he is a political product of Israeli colonialism, apartheid, & ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It’s not Judaism but Zionism that turned his head upside down. He’s from Modi’in Illit, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank established in 1994 on the land of five Palestinian villages. He had to be at least 19-years-old when he moved there so he has a head stuffed full of entitlement.

Shlissel’s violence isn’t just a personal pathology; it is of a piece with the very nature of Israeli militarism. Those who live in other heavily militarized societies like the US, India, Mexico, know the problem well. Shlissel attacking gay activists derives from the mentality that agrees with carpet bombing Gaza over & over again, particularly targeting children; of the economic blockade of Gaza preventing essential medicines & foodstuffs from getting through; of soldiers attacking worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque; of aggressive settlers from all over Kingdom Come moving to the West Bank & expropriating Palestinian lands as though they were entitled to it; of settlers burning down Palestinian mosques in the West Bank; of torching family homes with people inside–burning to death a small child & seriously burning his family; of soldiers shooting down unarmed protesters, roughing up small children, & incarcerating thousands without due process; of uprooting entire villages like Susiya & the five villages Modi’in Illit is built on; of Israelis sitting in easy chairs watching ethnic cleansing in Gaza like it was a football game.

Israel is not & never will be the promised land of Zionism. It has no future but dystopia because it is built on carnage & lies. The only solution is a democratic secular state where Jews & Palestinians live as brothers & sisters. Those settlers who can’t deal with justice may just want to move back to where they came from.

Build the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel.

(Photo by Kobi Schutz/AFP/Getty Images)

In defense of “identity politics”, the struggle of the oppressed for justice

News reported that between 2005 & 2014, 17,000 women were murdered in Mexico–much of that likely related to the so-called drug war & military occupation of the country. Between 2003 & 2012, over 18,000 women in the US were murdered by men, over half by intimate partners. Official Indian crime figures estimate over 8,000 women a year are murdered in “dowry deaths & in 2013 there were 106,527 incidents of “cruelty” committed against women by husbands & in-laws. That kind of statistic holds true around the world.

The homicide rate against the Black community in the US is finally breaking the silence barrier of media & we now know that every 28-hours a Black person is killed by a police officer. According to “Operation Ghetto Storm” by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, that’s over 300 Black people a year.

So why in the hell are leftists going after “identity politics”? Identity politics is the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Black Power movement of the 1970s, the women’s liberation & LGBT movements–all of which transformed politics in the US, all of which were resistance to oppression & the exercise of power. Is it perhaps the specter of Black power, female power, LGBT power that scares the hell out of people? Is it something they cannot control? What possible objections hold water when the oppressed stand up for their own best interests? None!

Children are the beacon for social transformation

Madari girl (Umesh Solanki) July 31 2015

The world can get just too damn much with you; the violence & grief can get overwhelming. That can make cynicism & misanthropy seem appealing rather than rancid & dead-end. Once you lose respect & hope for humanity, there’s no place to go. That’s why Dante put “Abandon hope all ye who enter here” over the gate of hell.

We repeat ad nauseam that children are the future though you wouldn’t know it from the way poor children are treated. But for those who won’t accept the status quo, that’s where our commitment begins–to moving that mantra from sentiment to a determination to make this world suitable for children to live & love in.

This small girl is a from a Madari community in Gujarat, India. It’s not posted for anthropological reasons but because humanity still has a chance to make this world work for her.

(Photo by Umesh Solanki at http://www.nirdharumesh.blogspot.in/2015/08/hair-in-air.html?m=1)

Pakistan destroying housing of Afghan refugees

Pakistan destroying slums (REUTERS:Faisal Mahmood) July 31 2015

Emancipation US-style: the US-NATO war in Afghanistan has been so liberating for women by bombing them out of their homes so they could travel to foreign countries as unwelcome refugees & disperse their unaccompanied children on the dangerous immigrant routes to Europe & Australia where they would be treated like vermin by border patrol. But at least their nails would be done at that beauty salon in downtown Kabul before they left.

Now for at least the last few years, the Pakistani government has been cracking down on the illegal slums where they live outside Islamabad, coming in with riot police & bulldozers to level them to make room for gentrification & redevelopment. The refugees are unable to afford the high rents in the city so built flimsy dwellings with no access to electricity, gas, or water mains. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) which is clearing the slums has no compensation or rehousing plans for the residents, which will make thousands of people, including children, elderly, & infirm, homeless. Many have lived here for nearly forty years after fleeing from the former Soviet invasion. This woman is objecting as the CDA moves in to destroy her home.

The UN refugee agency worked with the Pakistani government to induce refugees to return to Afghanistan by giving them the chump change of US $150. Of course, Afghanistan is still being bombed by the US, there is no housing for the refugees, & no work so there was little point to going home. At least in Pakistan some could find work as domestic workers–even if the pay was only about US $100 a month.

Residents are putting up a fight with the bulldozers & riot police but, as in other countries, they will be removed & just have to find another place of land where they can rebuild & live for at least a while.

Such are the glories of emancipation US-style.

US out of Afghanistan! US out of Iraq!

(Photo by Faisal Mahmood/Reuters)

In defense of religious freedom & the niqab

Some of the most contentious discussions I’ve had on Facebook were about my support for women wearing the niqab. Many concede it’s part of freedom of religion but insist the women wearing it are controlled by men or religion–or that it’s not really required by Islam. One would think that after thousands of women wearing the niqab led several of the Arab uprisings–most notably in Yemen & Bahrain–there would be more respect for the intelligence & independence of the women & their ability to decide what the hell they wear. I wore a nun’s outfit covering everything but my face for nearly three years & can testify that my brains didn’t fall out & that I even became a feminist while wearing it.

I’m being badgered again about its use–as if I had anything to say about it. For me, it’s a very simple matter of freedom of religion. It doesn’t matter if you feel offended, for whatever reason, by its use. The veil is not about you. It’s about women’s right to choose what they wear without being judged stupid or being demeaned. Is such a fuss made about the bikini or the mini skirt or exposing cleavage? I don’t have anything else to say on the matter. Except that women should be respected & left the hell alone. If they feel oppressed by the veil, it’s up to them to decide what to do. If they don’t, the eyes are the window to the soul.