Starting tomorrow, CNN & the networks will have four days of live coverage of the Republican convention. The GOP says it will have many speakers from every sphere of his life to show us what kind of person Drumpf is.

It’s a toss-up whether I would rather watch an hour of that or spend an eternity in hell.

It’s been peevishly mentioned by more than one nationalist that people like me have a lot of nerve denouncing the Indian occupation of Kashmir when the US government is involved in so many monstrous wars.

The difference between us & those nationalists is that we don’t identify with the crimes of our government but actively denounce & oppose them. Just as we denounce war, colonialism, & occupation wherever it is because we are guided by an ethos that says “an injury to one is an injury to all.”

Call us meddlers if you like but don’t bother complaining on this wall. We consider nation-states no impediment to solidarity.

Rollie Mukherjee’s are of women & revolution in Kashmir

Rollie M. :July 17 2016

Once again the extraordinary political art of Rollie Mukherjee in solidarity with Kashmiri Intifada: a prominent feature of her work is that she puts women in the heart of the struggle, where they are–not just to grieve but to participate in the struggle against brutal occupation.

Women have always played a pivotal role in social struggle & have always been denied recognition & respect for that. Rollie honors their role in her work so that she is not just an artist of resistance to colonial domination but to patriarchal domination.

Her description of this marvelous work:

“the background shows wooden houses peeled off like “open wounds”.all women have come outside .protesting…crying.yelling.in deep pain.their memory is soaked in blood of their loved ones……blood is dripping from the prisoned homes…the ordinary normal life seems a farce….while everyday brutalities of living under military occupation…..where all their rights & demands are curbed…..the walls of the houses have become porous……with constant intrusion & state surveillance ……”.

There’s a violent military siege in Kashmir & media almost completely ignores it

Kashmiri stone pelter (Dar Yasin:AP) July 17 2016

There’s a military siege going on in Kashmir, one of extreme violence, one that involves lockdowns on the internet & cell phone communication; raids on newspaper offices to shut them down; assaults on ambulances & within hospitals on medical personnel & patients; tear gas, pellet guns, live ammunition against unarmed protesters, including women & children; many deaths & thousands of injuries, some of them permanent; prohibitions on prayer.

But if one looks at media coverage, nothing much is going on at all & what is reported reads with the blandness of a weather report. What emerges in the coverage is the political line being taken by media which mimics that of Indian propaganda. Whether reported in the LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, or Guardian-UK, it’s all the same & in plagiaristic style: “Kashmir is divided between India & Pakistan, & most people in India’s portion resent the Indian troop presence & want independence or a merger with Pakistan.”

The problem is they don’t elaborate on that “Indian troop presence” thing. They don’t report there are 700,000 Indian troops & paramilitary death squads in the small geographical area of Kashmir or explain that Pakistan has no such occupation. They don’t mention that Kashmir is the “most militarized region in the world” because of the Indian occupation. They don’t report the thousands disappeared, tortured, jailed, murdered, raped. They only talk about insurrectionary Kashmiri “rioters,” about armed “terrorists,” & never about the Kashmiri Intifada, about the mothers who protest the disappearance & murder of their sons, about the human rights groups that detail & document the crimes committed by the Indian army.

In the midst of this murderous siege, the Guardian-UK reports in a desultory fashion every four or five days; the NY Times & LA TImes less. The Washington Post, that bastion of pro-Israel reporting, actually has a little coverage, albeit with the India-Pakistani divide thing.

This photo of a Kashmiri protester yesterday from Associated Press is one of the few about the current siege. The photojournalist named Dar Yasin has many photos of the Indian army & police assaulting Kashmiri protesters but this is one of the few to see the light of day in western media.

That leaves Kashmiri activists living outside Kashmir, Indian & other human rights activists on social media to tell the truth about what is going on. Censorship of any kind on FB & social media must be opposed because justice & solidarity demand the truth.

Long live Kasmiri Intifada, End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Dar Yasin/AP)

#‎FreeKashmir‬

A little caveat to nationalists who can’t resist leaving their droppings on posts about Kashmir: Don’t bother. Because your comments, which are usually puerile & repugnant in their hatred, will be deleted & you will be booted.

There’s a curious thing about social hatred: it’s always chest-thumping stupid. Do you really want to expose your idiocies in a public forum? Do it on Modi’s wall where you’ll fit right in.