The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons on the gruesome nature of 6,000 unmarked single & mass graves in Kashmir: ‘four times more than disappeared under Pinochet in Chile in an area the size of Ireland.’
https://www.facebook.com/apdpkashmir/photos/a.208258846186088/895437307468235/?type=3&theater
Grenoble, France authorities shut down two public pools during what is called an “unprecedented heatwave” after two women showed up to swim in burkinis. The two women went there as part of a protest campaign by women against the ban on the bathing suit worn mostly by Muslim women. Islamophobia shows its most malignant features in the so-called ‘war on terror’ by portraying all Muslims as terrorists. But whether used to justify wars (especially in Afghanistan & Syria), the expanding bans on veils all over the world, or the ban on burkinis in France, it focuses its venom on women. That’s why they’ve called on leading US & European feminists to support those wars & bans on veils as a way to liberate Muslim women from men & religion. The racism & misogyny of it is beneath contempt but still we must take a public stand against it to prevent this social derangement from spreading like a destructive virus.
Photo is Citizen Alliance of Grenoble/Alliance Citoyenne protesters at public pool.
(Photo from Citizen Alliance of Grenoble)
The main immigration rights group here which has been politically compromised for a long time is holding a vigil of mourning after dark (to make sure no one sees it) to remember those who have drowned crossing the Rio Grande River. Meanwhile, they have not held any protests at the child’s concentration camp here which is in the center of international news. And yes, I am talking about La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE).
Photo of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez & his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, drowned Sunday, June 23rd, in the Rio Grande River near Matamoros, Mexico across the river from Brownsville, Texas.
They were human beings, not aliens. May they Rest In Peace.
Family photo including Tania Vanessa Ávalos who watched helplessly while her husband and child drowned.
The Syrian Arab Spring is nothing if not tenacious. It has been battered as ferociously as the Yemen Arab Spring by massive military assaults from several governments–so threatening is the prospect of democracy in the Middle East.
In the midst of a several week Syrian & Russian carpet bombing siege over Idlib & Hama in northern Syria, Arab Spring activists in the southern city of Dara’a poured into the streets after prayers last Friday with placards & banners expressing solidarity with the people of Idlib & Hama & demanding the release of detainees held in Assad’s gulag. Their placards read “Oh Idlib & Hama, Dara’a is with you until death” & payed tribute to Abdul al-Sarout whom Assadists are maligning as a terrorist. This is one of several Arab Spring protests in Dara’a in recent weeks which is extremely courageous & determined considering that Syrian & Russian ferocity in Idlib & Hama is directed most aggressively against those towns most active in the Arab Spring.
Stop the bombing in Idlib & Hama. Solidarity with the activists in Dara’a.
(Photo from Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
Palestinian refugees in Syria are suffering unimaginably under the Assad regime’s counterrevolution against the Syrian Arab Spring. Their refugee camps have been demolished by bombing, they are denied entry into Jordan & Turkey as war refugees, hundreds who participated in the Arab Spring have been disappeared, arrested, tortured to death. While it is true that some Palestinians & many of their anti-Semitic supporters support the Assad regime, it is also true that many Palestinians, especially those from Syria, are campaigning vigorously in support of the Syrian Arab Spring uprising against the Assad dictatorship. Their work should not go unacknowledged or be shouted down.
This photo of a Palestinian refugee from Syria who was beaten by Turkish border guards is from the Facebook wall of Action Group for Palestinians of Syria. Please like & share their work. Be sure & remember this image next time someone tells you Erdogan or Assad are supporters of Palestinian self-determination.
Trump’s response to the drowning deaths of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez & his 23-month-old little girl Valeria is best left unquoted. We have a soulless halfwit & monster running the US government.
It probably offends many that I’m so ruthless toward politicians, no country excepted. But to my mind, the struggle for democracy & human rights cannot accept the discounts or half-assed endorsements they offer. When it comes to politicians, so few can be trusted to operate without deceit. ‘Lesser evil’ doesn’t play well in practical, let alone principled, politics. We need to lay out our maximum program for social change–exactly what we want & need–knowing the struggle to achieve it will not be without temporary accommodations to power. But a temporary accommodation should not become a permanent capitulation. To my mind, working people are not served nor social transformation achieved by half-assed promises or discounts on justice.
Facebook policy is to cover up photos that appear widely in international media. Are its censors more sensitive than those of world media or human rights activists? Or just acting on behalf of governments that don’t want their barbarities exposed?
Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez & his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, drowned Sunday, June 23rd, in the Rio Grande River near Matamoros, Mexico across the river from Brownsville, Texas (just one hour from McAllen). Señor Martínez, his wife Tania Vanessa Ávalos, & their little girl left their home in El Salvador last April to immigrate to the US. They intended to apply for asylum at the international bridge between Matamoros & Brownsville but found the offices closed & hundreds ahead of them in line so they decided to take their chances crossing the river.
Señor Martínez first carried his daughter across the river & then turned back for his wife but when the little girl saw her dad swimming away, she jumped into the water after him. He tried to pull her out of the water but both were swept away by the current. Their bodies were found Monday a few hundred yards from where they attempted to cross.
The deaths of Oscar & Valeria Martinez, along with the refugee concentration camps, represent US immigrant & refugee policy & resonate with that of the European Union which mandates the drownings, deaths, & forcible exclusions of thousands of African, Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan, Palestinian, & other refugees.
This is a photo of Oscar & Valeria Martinez. May they Rest In Peace.
Open the borders! Immigration is a human right. Asylum to refugees is mandated by international law.
(Photo by Julia Le Duc)
The photo of Oscar & Valeria Martinez resonates with these images:
Three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylun Kurdi, September 2015
16-month-old Rohingya refugee Mohammed Shohayet in Naf River, January 2017
Unnamed Rohingya refugee child in Naf River, August 2017