The young woman where I work has an aquarium to which she recently added some tiny fish. Two of them bonded & spent their days in canoodling bliss. Then they contracted some kind of fungal disease & to treat them she had to separate them in different tanks for several days. The lovers have become despondent & just hover in the bottom not moving. She isn’t sure they will survive the separation. Some would call this anthropomorphism but anyone who pays attention to animals know they have profound emotional lives & this story is heartbreaking.
Daily Archives: March 22, 2019
Today is World Water Day but we don’t have any right to celebrate this day even if we are blessed with such resources, because our this right (right to celebrate the nature’s gift) is snatched by both India and Pakistan. In the name of Indus Water Treaty, they have divided our water and have made us economically weaker. J&K is suffering losses and economic dependence because of this root cause.
“Impact of Indus Water Treaty On Economy Of J&K State”
Jammu and Kashmir in spite of being the upstream area has been effected due to restrictions placed by the Indus water Treaty (IWT). The water resources, the backbone of J&K’s economy, have been snatched by the instrumentality of IWT. Also the treaty has haunted all economical activities of the state. J&K has 20000 MWs of hydro electric potential. J&K has so far been able to harness just 10% of the total potential because of IWT. This results into shortage of power. Thus the state is forced to purchase power continuously from outside the state resulting in outflow of money which hinders overall growth of J&K’s economy. Therefore India & Pakistan must give people of J&K their birth right to use their water resources because of the following reasons:-
1. The State of Jammu and Kashmir is being affected at the benefits of the two countries. Indus, Jhelum and Chenab are rivers which flow from J&K and it is our birth right to use our water. Under the treaty, J&K can use only a quantum of waters of the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum for power generation and lift irrigation so that Pakistan gets uninterrupted water from these rivers and in return India gets exclusive use of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi. While as people of J&K get losses and fiscal deficits and are labeled as beggars.
2. In last 50 years losses caused by the Indus Water Treaty to J&K’s economy in terms of development of industry, power and agriculture is nearly equal to US$ 4.5 billion. The annual energy loss suffered by J&K is 60,000 million units valuing Rs. 12,000 Crores at Rs. 2.00 per unit per year, which is substantially less than the market rate. India and Pakistan are making profits using our water and are denying us the right to use our own water. Why must J&K suffer these losses?
3. J&K government purchases power from the northern grid of central government. The power which J&K buys from the center is the same power which is produced using J&K’s water from power projects under Central Sector. This means the electricity produced form our water at a cost of few pennies is again sold back to us for millions.
4. J&K because of its abundant water resources could have been able to generate surplus electricity which it could have exported to neighboring states, resulting in additional revenue to J&K and this revenue would have been many folds more than the annual budget given to J&K by Indian Union but sadly because of the Indus Water Treaty J&K is helpless. If this treaty is abolished J&K won’t need the annual budget from the India Union which will result in J&K’s economic independence.
Indus Water Treaty is an inhuman instrumentality signed between India and Pakistan which provides India and Pakistan bilateral benefits and on the other hand is imposing economic sanctions on the people of J&K and is ultimately denying the people of J&K their basic human right, the right to use their water for their own benefit.
–by Shaykh Shakeel Bin Abdullah
There are those who take great umbrage at social critics who they believe are unreasonably critical of politicians, who won’t accept the ‘lesser evil’ ethos in US politics nor in any other country because ‘lesser evil’ operates to teach us patience, compromise, temporizing when it comes to oppression–especially the oppression of others. If there are not those, especially among the oppressed, who will not stand for compromise on human rights & refuse to temporize, there would be no social change. The barbaric conditions of the world today are the result of compromise, not intransigence in the struggle against oppression.
Maybe the privileged want to take their time with injustice faced by others. Many of us find that more collusive than combative when children around the world are suffering the unimaginable. So temporize away if you like. But please stop calling us out as pointless idealists. As far as can be told, it’s the dreamers doing the work while the realists are fawning over the latest lesser evil politician coming down the pike.
“It is almost certainly the largest mass incarceration of a racial {sic} or religious group since the Holocaust. And it is neither front-page news nor a major part of diplomatic or political dialogue.”
Again, were it not for Uyghur activists on social media, we would not know about the Chinese government genocide against them.
(PS: “Racial” in this context is a term rooted in colonialism. According to science, there is only one human race. Ashley Montague, Stephen J. Gould, & many others have written cogently on this issue.)
The brother of Rizwan Pandit protests the brutal torture & murder of his brother by Indian occupation forces: it must be unimaginable grief & fury to see your beloved family member mangled in such a way & know they went through a living hell in their last moments on this earth.
A vignette from the military occupation of Kashmir: getting caught in a hunt to kill operation.
As i was about to enter the main gate of my home, strongly built men in uniform caught me in their gaze, hurriedly they were jumping from the back spaces of their armoured vehicles to distribute their count within no time and hence occupy all the entries and exits of hamlet where i live, this horrified scene still taunts me inside.
As i was about to reach their Casper one of the so called disciplined Indian soldier caught the grab of my collar and humilated my person by repeating the words in their hindi accent ” pheran bahir nikalo jaldi” (put your pheran off immediately), all i was supposed to do was to follow the bark of this tyrant.
Now i realised that the orchard clad hamlet was under cordon and search operation,there they lead me to the orchards and hence made me to make their business less tedious in helping them searching the hiding militants (if any) from the houses near those orchards ( you know indian army often use civilians as Shield in their daily search operations),,,,,as i approached the first house, instead of entering it through the main gate i within no time jumped over the wall bcoz i was already threatened of the consequences if delay. i did same as ordered: opened the doors and windows to make the rooms visible inside, rolled all the matings of those floors and came out from that two storey house. Now a heavenly built soldier puts the barrel of Ak-47 on my shoulder and hides behind my back, that way i had to make him walk inside each and every corner of the house( to get cleared his doubt about the presence of hiding rebels). He even asked me if encounter happens to rage, ‘you will act as shield’, so be cautious !
This trend of using civilians as shields seems to have no end, till date this dastardly act has its hands drenched and its cloaks soaked with the blood of innocent lives.
#talesfromSouthkashmir
–by Azhar Shabir
An excellent elaboration by Sharif Abu Laith of why Jacinda Ardern cannot play both sides of the streets. It’s critical thinking 101, not nitpicking.
So it seems my last status criticising NZ PM Jacinda Ardern caused a bit of a stir.
Let’s clarify some points.
Q. Has she made some good gestures towards Muslims since the attack?
Yes she has
Q. Is she equivalent to Donald trump in perpetuating islamophobia/anti Islamic and Muslim attitude?
No she isn’t
Q. So why pick on her after all the nice things she said about Muslims and her clear condemnation of the Christchurch mosque attack?
Well we have to have a deeper sensation of the political reality and the history of this problem. If we think this problem will be solved by kind and even some sincere gestures by politicians I think we have fundamentally failed to understand the underlying root issues that has created such an anti Islamic environment.
Q. So what has caused the rise in anti Islamic feeling.
There’s a number of factors one of the most prominent of which has been the war on terror narrative. This narrative created the perception that if western countries don’t invade and occupy Muslim lands, support brutal secular dictators in these countries then the western world would face terrorist attacks on their streets. As we know decisions to invade Iraq and even Afghanistan were not taken to protect western nations from some “radical terrorists” rather they were made for geopolitical interests of western powers. However in order to create the moral justification for the war they had to demonise Islam and Muslims and create the perception that western nations are under existential threat from Muslims and their civilisation is morally superior.
This inevitably radicalised the majority non Muslim population against the minority Muslim population living in western societies. Together with other factors such as failing western economies and ideas around race and nationalism contributed further to seeing minorities like the Muslims as a problem community.
Q. So did PM Ardern contribute with her policies and actions as leader of the NZ Labour Party and PM of NZ to this growing anti Islamic sentiment.
Definitely yes.
Firstly she played into protectionist and populist sentiments that immigration was out of control. That this was causing problems within the economy due to the burdensome numbers coming in to NZ. As I said this was playing into the anti immigration sentiments being pushed by parties like NZ First Party (New Zealand first… sounds familiar with another group in Britain).
Secondly she joined to form a coalition government with New Zealand First party. This party is headed by a person with strong anti Muslim and racist sentiments. His name is Winston Peters.
Not only aligning herself with NZ First she then brought Winston Peters into government and made him deputy PM.
Here’s what Ardern’s deputy PM has said about Muslims and immigration…
Ex 1. “Peters said the “Islamic community” needed to “clean house” by “turning these monsters in”.
“It starts with their own families. For New Zealand, we must avoid the same politically correct trap that has allowed such communities apart to form. That is, it is we who must change, they say, as a society to accommodate the cultural practices and traditions of others.”
Ex 2. Furthermore he said in 2016, Peters had called for interviewing potential immigrants from countries that “treat their women like cattle” in order to “check their attitude” before allowing them into the country. Most believe he was referring to Muslim’s.
Ex 3. In a speech in 2005 about the London bombings, he said New Zealand had never been a nation of Islamic immigrants and suggested moderate Muslims were operating “hand in glove” with extremists. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0507/S00649.htm
Ex 4. “He also stated, “In many parts of the world the Christian faith is under direct threat from radical Islam – and that threat is taking an extreme form.”
Ex 5. And on immigration in 2004, he stated: “We are being dragged into the status of an Asian colony and it is time that New Zealanders were placed first in their own country.”
Q. But she can’t be held responsible for what other politicians state?
Err yes she can if she decides knowing full well what his views are and that of his party to bring them into government and appoint him as deputy PM. Imagine if another left leaning party decided to appoint an openly anti Semitic politician into government and as a deputy leader of the country. There would be a huge outcry. Imagine then that the hate being perpetuated by those she has mainstreamed then resulted in an attack on innocent civilians, how would people react? Inevitably they’d question why is it she appointed such people in the first place.
Q. But wasn’t she calling for the troops to return from Iraq?
Initially she made these claims but then made a big u-turn on this policy and extended the time for NZ troops in Iraq citing as part of her reasoning the threat of Isis!
Point is she perpetuated the very same WOT narrative that has been so prominent in creating the problem in the first place. Again I’m not equating her to the likes of trump or previously Blair (although she was his political advisor in 2005) but she easily slips into the same narrative to justify her politically inspired decision, the fall out from this is again reinforcing the idea Muslims are a potential threat.
Q. But it’s not the time to discuss this we should present a united front with a politician that is showing sympathies for Muslims.
This is exactly the time. With growing criticism of the languages used by mainstream politicians and media then more than ever we need to take this opportunity to hold those in power to account. If we don’t and we become pacified by kind gesture we literally won’t address the elephants in the room. Ie the language, policies and alignment with anti Muslim individuals. All of this contributes to the radicalisation of non Muslims against the wider Muslim population. If we don’t speak about this after 50 Muslims have been massacred then when exactly do we want to address this?
“And they dressed prevarication with brightest of apparel. Little did they know veraciousness can walk naked.
#Rizwan
#custodialmurder”
—Zachriah Sulayman
A very fine article by Wendy Pearlman, author of “We Crossed a Bridge & It Trembled”, which is a powerful compilation of Syrian testimony about life under the Assad dictatorship & the uprising against it.
https://theconversation.com/5-ways-the-syrian-revolution-continues-112802?
Some are objecting to criticisms of Jacinda Ardern as unreasonable & unable to distinguish her from white supremacist politicians. If she doesn’t want her impressive gestures of condolence to be misjudged as ‘performative solidarity’, then, as prime minister of New Zealand, she ought to pull NZ’s troops out of the Islamophobic ‘war on terror’, stop calling for censorship of our free speech on social media, & stop the NZ school from sending little girls home for wearing the hijab. Otherwise the dissonance is just too jarring & we can’t make fine distinctions over the sound of bullets massacring Muslims as terrorists.