Maybe an Assad apologist could stop denouncing the White Helmets long enough to tell us how that US regime change thing is going in Syria? After all, they have their buddy-buddy sources directly within the Assad regime. A little more groveling & they can even audience with Assad again. Could they try not to drool next time though?
Daily Archives: March 14, 2018
There needs to be a theoretical elaboration of how Stalinism– always a reactionary & violent degeneration–morphed into outright fascism but still covers its corrupt ass with blither about socialism–using Hitler’s ‘national socialism’ as the prototype.
Assad propagandists will now denounce Al Jazeera & the International Conscience Convoy as agents of US regime change in Syria–if they haven’t already. Assad’s fellow travelers will turn a blind eye to sexual criminality against women in Assad’s gulag because they claim his national sovereignty is at stake & they’ll back that up with disembodied quotations from their champion Joseph Stalin who knew a thing or two about gulags. But most human beings deplore imprisonment, torture, rape, hanging & executions of political dissidents.
Stand with the women & girls of Syria by demanding freedom for all political prisoners, the cessation of Syrian, Russian, & US coalition bombing of civilians in Syria, & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military powers from Syria.
On the issue of what, & more importantly, who defines genocide
On the issue of what, & more importantly, who defines genocide, by Kashmiri Mohamad Junaid: https://pulsemedia.org/2012/01/17/on-the-precision-of-language-why-the-term-genocide-is-so-wrong-or-who-can-use-the-term/
Theory is not conjuring up abstract, impenetrable ideas in scholarly isolation. The best theoretics derive from struggle, from those directly involved & forced to unravel & address the complexities of social & political reality, especially those confronting war, occupation, persecution, genocide & the ideologies used to justify them like Hindutva nationalism, Islamophobia, Zionism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, fascism. The purpose is to understand what the hell is going on among contending & duplicitous forces, what should & can be done about it, what are the best political methods to use, & what demands should be raised.
This theoretical work by Kashmiri Mohamad Junaid is probably one of the most important on the issue of genocide. Although it was written for a discussion in 2012, it was just introduced to me by Mir Laieeq who wrote: “call it whatever you want, genocide is a genocide is a genocide, & that is what Indian solution to Kashmiri demand for azadi is, nothing less.” My response to Mir was that using the term genocide for Kashmir was too expansive & weakened the power of the term in regard to the Rohingya struggle, Rwanda, or Bosnia. He sent me this piece by Junaid in response. What blew me away is that it cuts through all the equivocations, deceits, legal quibbling, & toying with language on the issue of what defines genocide, but most importantly, who defines genocide: not legal scholars with vested interests in obscurantism but the oppressed themselves.
There could be no clearer instance of genocide than Burma against the Rohingya people. Yet international human rights experts, especially those associated with the UN, pull their punches by saying it ‘has all the features of ethnic cleansing’ but will not come right out & denounce it as such & refuse the term genocide because that would raise a demand for action to stop it–like sanctions against the Burmese government. The mutterings of international law on genocide aren’t working for the oppressed.
It’s no coincidence that this theoretical work comes from a Kashmiri & that it corresponds to the theoretical work of Rohingya activists & supporters. It is essential to develop theory if one is to be effective in practice. There are no arbitrary, elitist distinctions between the formulation of theory & the practice of emancipatory politics.
Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousef released on bail from prison in New Delhi
Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousef has been released on bail from a prison in New Delhi, India after six months in jail accused of stone pelting. His case highlights not only the dangers journalists face under the Indian occupation but also stone pelters whose punishments are just as severe as for Palestinians.
It cannot be said that a strong social media campaign was waged for Yousef but several journalist organizations worked tirelessly for his release. The issue of waging defense campaigns for journalists is one we need to consider quite seriously or we shall soon have few, limited, or biased sources of news–if there aren’t again complete news blackouts.
Miri Wood, a pseudonym for admittedly one of the more deranged elements among Assad supporters, has issued this statement in her little obscure blog which is indistinguishable from a third-rate satiric rag or Vanessa Beeley’s latest fulminations about dolls:
“Law enforcement should apprehend al Qaeda White Helmets, worldwide. They should be indicted for crimes against humanity & tried in The Hague, or they should be returned to Syria to be prosecuted for torture, kidnappings, & mass murders of Syrian citizens, including children & soldiers. al-Qaeda is rightfully considered a terrorist gang by most countries in the world….Also indictable are the warmongering journalists who breach the Nuremberg Statute prohibiting crimes against peace.”
Returned to Syria from where they’re hiding in Texas or Kansas but indicted for rescuing civilians from rubble in Syria? Associated with al Qaeda as their medical suppliers? Alas poor Miri should keep hiding behind that pseudoynm & herself consider going into hiding until the smell of this stinking lie blows over. God willing she won’t choose Texas where we have enough nut jobs on our hands–& they’re packing.
“The Pelleted Eye”
(A pellet gun victim baby in Kashmir)
(poem)
I am gazing the pimples,
………deep towards inside,
in the back………. and in that baby’s thigh!!
What to say upon man snaps capturing?
What to blame on silent passers_by!
No one can guess my painfull sigh,
No one can watch my pelleted eye! (
–FarrukhRrafiq
Protest for disappeared in Kashmir
Instead of being at school, this little kid joined his family at the monthly APDP (Association of the parents of Disappeared person) sit-in protest in Srinagar. Ahmad’s uncle Bilal Ahmad Dar from Budgam was abducted & disappeared by the Indian Army during the 90’s.
Indians who think the Kashmiri struggle is an illegal, separatist movement have to make a moral & political choice whether they believe that occupation by 700,000 troops & special forces, impunity for human rights crimes by those troops, forcible disappearance at the rate of one person every day since 1989, mass rape & constant sexual harassment, arbitrary arrest & torture, frisking & harassing civilians going about their daily business, curfews, school closures are how democratic societies deal with those who want to be independent & stand on solid historical, cultural, political, & legal grounds for their claim.
(Photo from Indian Illegal Occupation In Kashmir)
If any of my friends live near Grand Rapids, MI, there is a young Rohingya man recently arrived as part of the refugee exchange between the US & Australia who could use friendship & probably all kinds of help setting up a place to live. It must be scary as hell for him so this is one of those moments when a helping hand means all the difference in the world. If nothing else, you can invite him to dinner, introduce him around, help him find things like a decent barber, show him the good second-hand stores, locate the mosques or churches for him, make him feel like he’s not alone in a hostile world. Please contact Carol Sughrue for the info or me if you don’t know Carol.
“Teaching me peace isn’t easy,
I have pellets in my eyes,
and bullets in my heart.
-Though peace to you”
–Zafar Iqbal from Kashmir