It cannot be overstated how much the problems of Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingya, & so many others are attributable to British colonialism. Some problems from boneheaded idiocy & most from malignant intention. The world is still plagued by the savage influence of US & European colonialism which continually morphs into new forms. Our historic task is to play a role in destroying that legacy & creating a world free of its hateful, white supremacist influence.
Daily Archives: August 29, 2019
Jaina Maina, who has been an ardent campaigner against the Indian siege & blockade of Kashmir, just received a 24-hour suspension for posting a protest in perfectly respectful language against Hindutva men who troll her & abuse her verbally or passively-aggressively use the laugh emoticon. So a woman protesting harassment is punished rather than those men harassing her. We stand in complete solidarity with her.
UPDATE: Some Facebook censor with an ounce of good sense just reviewed Jaina’s post & reinstated her.
Until the Rohingya have won full human, democratic, & civil rights in their homeland Arakan state, Burma, their struggle must remain one of our political priorities. When journalists report “pain misery, trauma” as the condition of Rohingya refugees, it is a call to action.
It was once thought that American politicians took the cake when it came to ‘the dumbest things politicians say’. The orange POTUS has made that his legacy. But Indian politicians trying to justify the siege & blockade of Kashmir are giving Trump & the other amoral halfwits a run for their money & if anything, they are many times worse. For both, it’s all in the service of war, occupation, persecution, injustice, genocide & inciting hate.
Some may think I take liberties when I criticize the lack of an anti-colonial movement for Kashmir in India. But as a builder & activist of the American antiwar movement since 1966, I understand the vital importance of an antiwar movement in staying the hand of US aggression. That’s why I am so lacerating & merciless about the corruption of the US antiwar movement into an Assadist & Stalinist cult supporting ‘self-determination for the Assad dictatorship’, cheering on Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians by claiming there are no civilians in Syria, & not holding a single protest against US wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya.
It’s a massive political problem for Indian democracy that there is no movement in defense of Kashmir & as an internationalist & supporter of Kashmiri self-determination, I don’t feel hesitancy about saying that. Because of the corruption of the international antiwar movement (it is not just a US phenomenon) & the daunting need to rebuild it, I well understand that the many Indian supporters of Kashmir cannot just will a mass movement into existence. But there needs to be an analysis by Indian activists of why this problem prevails. To overcome the problem, we first must understand it. That is not to deny the protests in India in support of Kashmiris but scattered actions do not a movement make.
The Kashmiri journal Wande has found a way to circumvent the telecommunications blockade & is soliciting submissions. We don’t know if it will be available in Kashmir but if it is, certainly someone should write a piece about the emergent worldwide Kashmiri solidarity movement.
An absolutely heartbreaking story of a Kashmiri man outside Kashmir trying to connect with his father in Kashmir who has dementia:
When I left home amid chaos, curfew I promised my father that I will be back in a day or two and he was happy. From seconds to hours to days to weeks passed but I couldn’t keep the promise.
After two weeks I got a call from the police station which in my case is 2 KMs away from home, from my mom and helplessly(selflessly) she said ‘They are fine’. I insisted that I wanted to talk to my father. On receiving phone he wasn’t able to recognize me at all. My father is suffering from Dementia but being always around he has a close bonding with me and recognizes me but now being away for a few weeks he couldn’t recognize me at all. And all of the conversations had to happen in 30 seconds only else they forcibly take phone and disconnect. I couldn’t even tell them if they have money or stock.
When I left home, I left as a son but I will be going as a stranger now.
All of you making fun, troll emotions of helpless fathers, wailing mothers, hapless sons, and daughters. You too will see something same in life. But we won’t be trolling making fun, giving analysis based on youtube videos from hyper national. Because we value Humans over nationalism.
This is the 25th day of the siege.
–Junaid Masoodi
The same senior Indian official who told AFP that at least 500 protests & “incidents of stone throwing” had taken place in Kashmir since August 5th also told them that “Nearly 100 civilians have been injured so far, with a further 300 police & more than 100 paramilitary troopers hurt.” Try not to cry me a river but it is highly unlikely that unarmed civilians, even if they had entire phalanxes of stone pelters, have injured four times the number of war-equipped soldiers & paramilitaries. Since India officially admitted to 36 pellet gun victims & turns away pellet injury victims from treatment in hospitals, it is criminally pathetic that they would pawn this rubbish off on us.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Mudasir Ahmed Parry, speaking for the largest orthopedic hospital in Srinagar, says more patients have died in the past three weeks than in the entire year because they have run short of lifesaving drugs & surgical implants due to the siege & blockade. Severing communications & isolating Kashmir means doctors cannot contact specialists in other hospitals & delays critical treatment.
This article about the arrest of Omar Salim, a urologist at the Government Medical College, after he spoke out about the healthcare crisis caused by the blockade shows that the health crises are widespread. Dr. Salim said, “If patients don’t receive dialysis, they will die. If cancer patients don’t receive chemotherapy, they will die. Those patients who can’t be operated on can die,”
This falls entirely under the rubrics of genocide.