This is 106-year-old Bibikhal Uzbek, an Afghan refugee who has been living in Sweden for about a year. She is blind, confined to bed, & believed to be the world’s oldest refugee. Swedish immigration authorities just rejected her asylum application. She still has a right to challenge the decision but what possible appeal could she make if being blind, bedridden, & 106 years old hasn’t moved them.
Sweden was part of US-NATO operations in Afghanistan & any investigation would surely turn up their continuing military involvement in one form or another. They have every obligation under international law governing war refugees to grant asylum to every Afghan who applies & quadruple the obligation since their military actions created millions of refugees in the first place.
In 2016, nearly 661,000 Afghans fled the continuing US-NATO war; the UN predicts another 450,000 Afghans will be displaced by the end of 2017. There are already nearly 5 million Afghan refugees worldwide.
Immigration is a human right. End the US-NATO war in Afghanistan. Out Now.
Satire is the genre of the oppressed. Through ridicule, mockery, & ironic juxtapositions, satirists attempt to subvert actual power relations to the advantage of the oppressed. That’s how we can distinguish that Charlie Hebdo is not satire but hate propaganda filled with misanthropy, racism, Islamophobia, & libertarian politics. This cover for its recent issue characterizes victims of Hurricane Harvey as fascists saluting Nazi flags as they drown. The text in English reads: “God exists. He drowned all the neo-Nazis of Texas.” This kind of libertarianism is on a continuum with the punch-a-fascist-in-the-face strategy.
(Photo is cover of Charlie Hebdo issue published September 1, 2017)
A Turkish Airlines pilot halted the deportation of an Afghan man denied asylum when he refused to take off out of Heathrow after he heard the man weeping. The unidentified pilot came off the plane & said “You’re not going to take him. I’m not flying. Someone’s life is at risk.” European aviation regulations give the pilot authority over the safety of passengers. The 22-year-old man was removed from the plane & has another shot at seeking asylum.
Deep respect for the pilot. Such is the mettle of the best of us.
You might be a libertarian redneck if you take umbrage at Chris Hedges’ unflattering comparison of the thuggery of Antifa to the violence of fascists but not at his support for Assad’s dictatorship & Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians.
What’s the appeal of the punch-a-fascist-in-the-face strategy? It has infantile macho written all over it. More to the point, it has undercover operatives written all over it. Why would anyone in their right mind think breaking bank windows & punching out rightwing protesters is an effective strategy for or against anything? At most massive protests these black bloc/Antifa punks have long been an irritant to serious activists & a sideshow used to discredit peaceful protest; most of them have nothing to do with building social movements but exist to disrupt them.
It is political power that ends wars, fights fascism, defends the oppressed. That power derives from maximum numbers engaged in consistent political activity, not in macho fisticuffs. Letting machismo guide your political choices will lead you off the deep end.
A friend asked me to go to her house to bury a possum that one of her dogs had killed. She is extremely sensitive & was squeamish about handling a dead animal. She had covered its body under three containers weighted down but when I removed them, the possum wasn’t there. Is there any truth to that “playing possum” thing? Do they actually play dead to elude capture?
Yaqui Animal Shelter took Sophie the Schnauzer smart enough to go to college & Franky, the 3-legged Chihuahua to their ranch today because they’re the rascals that endanger my other dogs by leading them in escapes up & down roads with traffic & who have the neighbors up in arms. They phoned this afternoon to tell me that on September 15th Sophie, Franky, & the two bambinos will be on an adoption caravan to Arizona. The two bambinos have already been adopted through the Yaqui adoption website.
Sophie & Franky were characters full of mischief & delight but it is an enormous relief not to have to worry about them or chase them or coax them back into the yard. They are in responsible, dog-lovers hands & will be cared for beyond my abilities.
