These fearless little Kashmiri kids will give you a zillion reasons to support the struggle against occupation.

https://www.facebook.com/nayeeslone12/videos/vb.309635589600034/2132569270141187/?type=2&theater

Best selfie ever.

Kashmiri infant pepper sprayed in family home by Indian occupying forces.

8 month old toddler pepper sprayed, her father Mudasir mercilessly beaten when he intervened as police ransack their home yesterday without any provocation and target the family of slain Rayees sofi of Fateh Kadal ! Such incidents of pre planned harassment and repression of civilians show there is a deliberate ploy to incite youth further and push them to retaliate violently.” (KNS)

https://thekashmirwalla.com/2019/02/police-sprayed-pepper-on-toddler-beat-up-father/

This is little Annie in the canine penitentiary trying to dig her way out. I took her home after her 10-day detention on Friday afternoon. Her hair was falling out in clumps & her eyes were filled with terror. The good thing–no, the great thing–about dogs, especially rescue dogs, is their forgiving, grateful nature. She won’t leave my side & frankly, I don’t want her to.

On February 21st to 24th, Pope Francis will be holding a summit at the Vatican on pedophilia among priests. It’s about time since allegations first became public in the 1980s. Because the Nazi pope who proceeded him was so compromised on this issue, Pope Francis was likely elected to deal with the public relations problem since he is a master of the grandstanding gesture. He announced a “zero tolerance” policy toward rape of children but in fact nothing has changed within the church except that now dioceses publish lists of accused priests. Meanwhile allegations of widespread sexual criminality are exploding in every country. There are two excellent documentary series on Netflix that deal with this issue. One is titled “The Keepers” about the 1969 murder of Cathy Cesnik, a Catholic nun in the Baltimore archdiocese. She was a beloved teacher in a Catholic school where a local priest was molesting young girls in unimaginable ways. Two of her students set out to investigate the unsolved cold case crime. What they unearthed is a landmine exposing the brutal lengths the hierarchy goes to protect priest rapists, the passivity of the laity in not demanding the Vatican deal with these crimes, & the indifference or collusion of civil authorities with the Church hierarchy in covering up the crimes.

The second documentary series is titled “Examination of Conscience,” about pederasty within the Spanish Catholic Church. This series really gets to the heart of the Vatican’s strategy in dealing with this worldwide crisis within the Church. “The Keepers” dealt with this but more tangentially by showing how the archdiocese lobbied vigorously against extending the statutes of limitation for prosecuting priests even though it takes most child victims over 20 years to process what happened to them & then begin to heal–if they ever do. Many suffer addiction, other self-destructive behaviors, suicide, & are never able to process it. “Examination of Conscience” goes straight to the Vatican with its accusations & with substantial documentation of their allegations.

The most important thing revealed is the way the Church hierarchy uses theology & guilt-baiting to turn priest rapists into the victims. First they start with talking about sin rather than crime & about forgiveness rather than prosecutorial justice. They coax & manipulate accusers into keeping all allegations secret & confessional, they offer hush money & if those tactics don’t work they resort to intimidation, litigation, & denouncing the victims as gold-diggers going after “deep pockets” solely for financial gain.
The Spanish documentary explores the social shunning faced by the accusers. The laity in the dioceses, often even family members, will often side with the accused priests, going so far as to protest for them against the accusers & again civil authorities are reluctant to take on the Church. That’s one thing that makes these two documentaries so remarkable. They show the strength of character & determination of victims in standing up to all this despite the threats & social isolation that they know will result. What’s remarkable is that child sexual assault victims already operate from a place of deep isolation since they were made to feel, during the perpetration of the crimes against them, that they provoked the assaults.

“Examination of Conscience” is particularly important for investigating if there have been improvements under Pope Francis’ “zero tolerance” policy. They offer damning evidence that nothing has changed except the public image of how the Church is dealing with the rape of children. We can hope against hope that the summit later this month will finally establish a process of turning over these priests to civil authorities & ceasing to lobby against rape victim rights. But that is highly unlikely without much greater protest from the laity within the Church & much greater prosecutorial aggression by civil authorities. Clearly the Vatican, as the largest employer of child rapists in the world, cannot be trusted to police the criminals it harbors.

This is the trailer for “Examination of Conscience”: https://www.netflix.com/title/80991879?

We should take a moment to honor the life of South Korean human rights activist & feminist, Kim Bok-dong who died on January 28th at the age of 92. She was 14 years-old when the Japanese military forced her, along with hundreds of thousands of other women, to work as sex slaves in brothels administered by the army in countries which it occupied. Japanese authorities euphemistically called them “comfort women.” Kim worked in more than one country, including China & Singapore, & was unable to return to South Korea until 1947. At one point, she swore to stay alive to one day tell the story of these unspeakable crimes against so many women. She was so brutally treated & traumatized that it took her until 1992 to process & be able to speak out. “How could I have told them about my experiences?” she asked. “I had things done to me that were unfathomable.”

Strengthened by the women’s rights movement in South Korea, Kim Hak-sun (1924-1997) was the first “comfort woman” to speak out in 1991 after forty years of silence. Eventually many more women from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, & the Netherlands (Dutch women & girls were coerced & captured in Indonesia, then a Dutch colony) publicly told their stories of being forced into sex slavery by the Japanese army. Sometimes they were sold into slavery by their parents; more often they were promised factory jobs or kidnapped outright. In 1992, Kim Bok-dong was one of the many women strengthened by the courage of Kim Hak-sun to come forward. She also became a human rights activist, a central figure in exposing Japanese sex slavery & in campaigning for a public apology & compensation for the thousands of now elderly women still suffering physical & psychological harm. For the past several years until her death, she was one of the few “comfort women” still living but their struggle continues through students, human rights, & women’s rights activists.

She was uncompromising in her campaign for justice & derisive toward the 2015 agreement between the Japanese & South Korean governments. She had every reason to be since the Japanese government has a detestable history of denial. It was only in 1992 that it admitted to involvement in ‘recruiting’ young girls, & in building, administering, surveilling the brothel facilities. In 1993, the Japanese government issued the Kona Statement acknowledging not just direct involvement in administering but coercion in recruiting & holding the women, including through kidnapping & violence against the women. In November 2018, the South Korean government dissolved the “comfort women” foundation established by the 2015 agreement & funded by the Japanese government to compensate the few victims still alive. Reportedly few of the very few surviving women actually took any compensation because of the contempt dished out with it.

Current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is publicly disdainful about charges of any coercion despite the testimonies of countless women. That’s because he’s leading & playing into the rightward shift in Japanese politics. Ultranationalists have been campaigning against any such admission & have succeeded in removing discussion of Japanese sex slavery during WWII from the school curriculum. They also want all these agreements abrogated & denounced.

Against such an edifice of power, Kim Bok-dong was undaunted. She stands as one of the giants of modern feminism & human rights & should be honored by all women & their supporters around the world. May her strong, beautiful spirit inspire us to carry on her work. May she Rest In Peace after turning a bereft life into a monument to the struggle for justice for women.

(Photo of Kim Bok-dong from Getty Images)

There’s a lot of cogent criticism about the romantic comedy titled “Crazy Rich Asians” from those knowledgeable about Singaporean politics since the film is based there. It’s worth reading their reviews which are about the ethnic & racist conflicts in that society. I accidentally saw the film by happening into the wrong theater & thought it was a disaster of a film. It should be considered a cinematic monument to stereotypes of Asians. Not to mention a mockery of romance & comedy. Its depiction of the super rich made me want to leave the theater chanting “eat the rich.” Save yourself the money & don’t see it. Unless you want to study the rancid character of stereotyping.

Imagine a world without war, racism, misogyny, nationalism where our creativity would be unleashed to produce this kind of human beauty. It’s possible.

https://www.facebook.com/ruby.lilly.18/posts/2512998588729739

This important story in the LA Times addresses how NGOs raise millions of dollars for humanitarian aid to refugees & disaster zones & then pocket the dough for “administration costs” or steal it outright, as Bill Clinton’s foundation & thousands of NGOs did after the Haitian earthquake of 2010. Consider the criminality in stealing from Rohingya schoolchildren in refugee camps & not providing proper medical care, housing, counseling for those traumatized by the savageries of genocide.

https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-bangladesh-rohingya-education-20190131-story.html?f