James Comey is posturing as some sort of civil liberties hero, but as deputy attorney general under Bush he authorized torture, including wall slams & waterboarding, warrantless wiretapping, & indefinite detention. Reportedly, his wife warned him not to “become the torture guy” but he claimed he was compelled by law when in fact he was violating US & international law. In short, he is a monster with the affable persona of a sociopath.
Monthly Archives: March 2019
Trump called Democrats anti-Israel because six presidential candidates, including Sanders, O’Rourke, Harris, Warren, & Gillibrand, have declined invitations to the upcoming AIPAC conference which Netanyahu will address. If elected, all of them will continue their support for Israel as US policy. What their snub of AIPAC represents is pandering to the growing popular disaffection & opposition to Israel for the purpose of garnering popular support. What’s important is that growing opposition which we must turn into active solidarity with Palestinians.
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.
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