“Do not love half lovers
Do not entertain half friends
Do not indulge in works of the half talented
Do not live half a life and do not die a half death
If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished
Do not silence yourself to say something
And do not speak to be silent
If you accept, then express it bluntly
Do not mask it
If you refuse then be clear about it
for an ambiguous refusal
is but a weak acceptance
Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes
Half a drink will not quench your thirst
Half a meal will not satiate your hunger
Half the way will get you no where
Half an idea will bear you no results
Your other half is not the one you love
It is you in another time yet in the same space
It is you when you are not
Half a life is a life you didn’t live,
A word you have not said
A smile you postponed
A love you have not had
A friendship you did not know
To reach and not arrive
Work and not work
Attend only to be absent
What makes you a stranger to them closest to you
and they strangers to you
The half is a mere moment of inability
but you are able for you are not half a being
You are a whole that exists
to live a life not half a life ”

–by Kahlil Gibran via Rollie Mukherjee

“In Kashmir if you demand freedom, dignity and justice, Indian state responds with killing, maiming, incarceration, torture and rape.

Quite understandably, the same Indian state provides protection to protestors demanding release of a policeman who rapes a Muslim minor girl.

If you are a journalist who does not bootlick the collaborator government and records the brutality of the state, you are a criminal who deserves to be behind bars. But if you do the bootlicking that is called ‘moral journalism’, inverting the very meaning of morality.

If you are an artist who speaks truth to power, you may be threatened or ignored, but if you attain significant fame there are attempts to co-opt. The role of co-option as a counterrevolutionary measure is only second to brutal violence which the state perpetuates on a daily basis.

It is a duty incumbent upon all of us to understand these traps which are sold in the name of “bringing the change from within”. No such change is going to come out of a system which is totally rotten from within. A system whose foundational doctrine is to deny us freedom and “integrate” us at any cost cannot be expected to mysteriously transform by our participation. Our survival as a morally upright nation depends upon our total opposition to this oppressive, illegal occupation of our land and lives. Azadi the only way.”

–Mir Laieeq

This is Burma’s chief genocidaire General Min Aung Hlaing (on the left) in Bangkok yesterday receiving the “Knight Grand Cross First Class of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant” from his Thai counterpart General Tarnchaiyan Srisuwan.

Apparently, in Thai & Burmese feudal tradition white elephants were considered sacred & a symbol of royal power. But in English idiomatic language, a white elephant is something expensive but useless which becomes a burden because its maintenance is out of proportion to its value. Stadia built for Olympics & FIFA World Cup games would be an example of white elephants. A ‘white elephant sale’ in the US is where you dump your used junk for sale. Ironically the English idiom came from Siam where the king would give the animals to courtiers considered a pain in the ass to ruin them because they couldn’t give them away but had considerable expense to house & feed them. This white elephant honorific from General Srisuwan to General Hlaing is of the junk sale kind. Absolutely worthless, unless he can dump it on the gold market.

The malignant affinities between these two generals don’t just involve military rule but Thai complicity in the Rohingya genocide. In the 2012 flight of Rohingya refugees, the Thai navy took decrepit boats of fleeing refugees out to sea & abandoned them. In the 2015 flight, the Thai military turned boats back from landing. Thousands of Rohingya refugees remain unaccounted for. There are also credible allegations that the Thai military is involved in human trafficking of Rohingya refugees. The Thai navy intercepts boats of fleeing refugees, holds them for ransom on islands or in forests & sells them to traffickers. In 2015, 30 bodies of trafficked Rohingya were found in mass graves or left in the open on the Thai-Malaysian border. A police task force claimed they were starved to death or died from disease while being held for trafficking.

Stand with the Rohingya people against such treacheries.

(Photo is from FB wall of General Min Aung Hlaing)

Please take a moment to sign & share this petition to Oxford University which has chosen a scholar who advises the Burmese military to write an entry about the Rohingya people for an upcoming series. Part of the struggle against genocide is the protection of Rohingya history against misrepresentation & racist lies by the genocidaires.

https://www.change.org/p/vice-chancellor-of-oxford-university-re-oxford-u-press-myanmar-genocide-its-choice-of-dr-leider-as-the-expert-on-rohingyas?

The occupation of Kashmir: another picture worth a thousand lies.

The same rightwing & nationalist political forces in Jammu & Kashmir who support the occupation of Kashmir & are campaigning to get Rohingya refugees in Jammu deported are now marching to support the Special Police Officer arrested for the abduction, captivity, torture (bite & burn marks), rape, mutilation, & murder of 8-year-old Asifa Bano, a child from the nomadic Gujjar and Bakerwal community in the Jammu area of Jammu & Kashmir. She was abducted on January 10th but her body was not recovered until January 17th where it was dumped.

Probably because the Gujjar nomads are an oppressed caste, the police took no action to investigate the little girl’s disappearance until community members protested. Police then assaulted the protesters with tear gas & arrested their community leader. The arrested policeman, who was accused of harassing the family & members of the Gujjar community, was part of the police search team–although the body was found by local people, not by police. He was also part of the police team who handed the child’s body to the family.

According to the police report on the arrest, little Asifa was raped & murdered by the accused to create fear among the Gujjar so they would leave the area. It is reported that the community does in fact feel considerable fear, especially when rightwing nationalists are marching to defend the accused murderer. This unspeakable crime against a small child exposes the psychopathic nexus of caste, ethnic, class, & gender oppression. That he could exact such hatred, brutality, & terror on a small girl touches the depths of human evil. Every rape & murder of a woman or child is always a personal & a political crime.

Our heartfelt condolences to Asifa’s family & to the Gujjar community. May she Rest In Peace. The struggle for justice has just begun.

#JusticeForAsifa

(Photo of Asifa Bano from Greater Kashmir)

Someone informs me that demanding asylum for Rohingya refugees in whichever country they choose with visas & full refugee rights is not “realistic,” that they need a more reasonable demand. Given the character of the Burmese military & Suu Kyi regime, their demand for the end of genocide must also be “unrealistic.” For that matter, Palestinians fighting unarmed against a military state to end the occupation & win self-determination or Kashmiris fighting unarmed against the same odds for the same political goals are also then unrealistic pipe dreamers. Human rights activists in the Philippines standing fearlessly against Duterte’s death squads & undocumented immigrants in the US protesting for rights would also be considered naive dreamers. All those fighting against oppression might as well give it up as “unrealistic.”

Social revolutions against war, occupation, persecution, & genocide are not fought or won by those who accept the parameters of “realistic” as defined by oppressors but by those who redefine those parameters based on the demands of justice & the highest human values. There’s a long way to go before we even see the horizon of justice because when it comes to human rights, the sky is the limit.

In response to all the rubbish written about the ‘Saudi-backed jihadis’ of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA): it appears they are small groups of irregular forces standing in defense of the Rohingya people against the high-tech Burmese military. True jihadis in the real & best sense of the word; those called champions of the oppressed when you consider that the military wiped out most of the underground network of Rohingya citizen reporters. They deserve respect, not opprobrium.

My apologies for too lengthy posts about the Rohingya crisis but I didn’t know how to abbreviate the information. They are in a crucible now & we need to discuss our role in standing with them.

The New York Times published an article yesterday titled “Will the Rohingya Ever Return Home?” That profoundly sad & heartbreaking question must be on the mind of every Rohingya refugee living in squalor & without rights in Bangladesh & other countries. Their situation differs from many refugees because they are stateless, denied legal identity & citizenship by Burma which refuses to call them by their proper name but refers to them contemptuously as “Bengalis.” Their existential crisis is not just a matter of losing belongings, livestock, lands but their historic ties to Arakan/Rakhine state, their culture, social, economic, & political life in all their richness & complexities, & their cohesion as a people. The genocide against them is a political & psychological dislocation shattering the very foundations of their lives. Where do they go from here?

They must also be asking “If we cannot return to Burma, can we remain living in such squalor in Bangladesh where our children have no rights, no futures, no hopes nor dreams? Will they live & die in such conditions?” With so many countries like China & Russia arming the Burmese junta & so many others raking in billions from trade & investments in Burma, are the odds against them too great? Is it time for the Rohingya to write their obituary as a people?

They know damn well there’s no point in false or romantic hopes. Without the development of massive political opposition to the military junta within Burma (as there was in 1988) & an opposition that can bring down a very entrenched, adaptable, & powerful fascist regime, the odds against the Rohingya safely returning to Burma for a long while are very dire. Without such an internal opposition & in the absence of sustained & massive international solidarity, the Rohingya people will likely be in exile for a while. But nothing in this world is static, especially in the barbaric phase of capitalism. The Burmese economy is controlled by the generals who are implementing a neoliberal economic program to solve the stagnation crises of military capitalism. This is placing them at odds with Burmese working people & farmers who are being expropriated, environmentally poisoned, & displaced. Since Burma is a prison house of nations, they are also engaged in civil wars with several ethnic groups, some of whom have expressed solidarity with the Rohingya people.

Media portrays the Burmese people as a solid phalanx of racism against the Rohingya people & fully supportive of the genocide. It doesn’t help that the Catholic Church is part of that. The 1988 movement was a long time ago in political terms but it left a heritage & shows what is possible in Burma other than sniveling support to the fascist junta. Any opposition that does exist is either in exile, in prison, or subjected to repression. When did that ever stop tough-minded men & women from rejecting tyranny & fighting for justice?

By collaborating & building forms of solidarity, particularly in defense of refugee rights, we can help embolden political opposition. The two young Reuters reporters arrested for exposing massacres of the Rohingya are just one expression of political opposition we know exists. If we defend them, we will give heart to other Burmese that they will not be alone if they speak out against genocide, ethnic repression & war, neoliberal exploitation & plunder. Building the forms of international solidarity are of the essence in helping the Rohingya people get back home to live in peace as their children deserve.

Photo is Rohingya woman at Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh.

(Photo by Adam Dean for NY Times)