Am seeing posts about God ‘culling the herd’ using the coronavirus, poverty, natural disasters. That language should not be used about beasts, let alone the human race. It’s an expression of cynicism, elitism, contempt & portrays God as a monster.

The Indian propaganda machine is promoting Kashmiri Syed Tehmeena to talk about how the abrogation of Article 370 will advance women’s rights in Kashmir. Using women to buttress ‘war on terror’ ideology is so banal & clichéd but it has also proven effective in roping in feminists to support US-NATO wars. Tehmeena may see participating in this con game as a way to make a name for herself or she may just have stinking rotten politics. But we can be sure that India will be holding these kind of conferences at academic & scholarly venues to peddle their line on Kashmir. That makes our educational work so much more important. There are plenty of Kashmiri academics & activists who can speak cogently to the realities of Article 370 & the issue of self-determination & we need to avail ourselves of their expertise to counter India’s propaganda initiatives.

SRINAGAR: A Kashmiri woman has hailed the abrogation of Article 370 and asserted it ended the discrimination with the Kashmiri women. She has said that in pre-August 2019 Kashmir, women marrying non-state subjects were deprived of their inheritance.

https://kashmirlife.net/in-geneva-a-kashmiri-woman-hails-abrogation-of-article-370-224678/?

Despite the Indian Supreme Court ruling that the internet ban in Kashmir was illegal, it is just now, after seven months of telecommunications lockdown, that India has restored internet services for two weeks, only until March 17th. An Indian government official notoriously said that Kashmiris only used the internet to watch ‘dirty movies’. It’s too stupid to deserve rebuttal. If that were so, why the need to lock out of news & social media? The harm done Kashmiris was not just denial of access to social media but had far-reaching commercial, medical, educational, social, political consequences. In this day & age, internet access is a fundamental right of citizens.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/india-restores-internet-kashmir-7-months-blackout-200305053858356.html?

“During the uprising of 2010, after evading arrest for months, my mother was finally detained from a hideaway in Srinagar. Soon after, the authorities prepared a dossier, planning to shift her to a jail in Jammu, miles away from her home. However, the doctor who examined my mother’s health declared her unhealthy and recommended that she be taken to a hospital instead. A few hours had passed when we came to know that the Omar Abdullah led government went the extra mile and compelled a different doctor to declare her absolutely healthy.”

–Ahmed Bin Qasim whose mother & father are both political prisoners

If the 60,000 plus American socialists weren’t so committed to campaigning for Sanders, they might have time to organize antiwar rallies or protests to stand with Palestinians in a time of genocide. Of course, we don’t know where they stand on the US-NATO wars since they have so little to say about them. That’s the pernicious fallout from lesser evil & savior politics: electoral fetish preempts politics.

Headlines read “Israeli intelligence analysts say country is on brink of war with Gaza.” Lest there be any confusion, taking warplanes after unarmed civilians is called genocide, not war.

(Reposted from March 5th, 2019)

“Come, gardener! Create the glory of spring! Make
Guls bloom and bulbuls sing – create such haunts!

The dew weeps, and your garden lies desolate;
Tearing their robes, your flowers are distracted.
Breathe life once again into the lifeless gul and the bulbul!

Rank nettles hamper the growth of your roses.
Weed them out, for look thousands
Of hyacinths are crowding at the gate!

Who will set you free, captive bird,
Crying in your cage? Forge with your own hands
The instruments of your deliverance!

Wealth and pride and comfort, luxury and authority,
Kingship and governance – all these are yours!
Wake up, sleeper, and know these as yours I

Bid good-bye to your dulcet strains. To rouse
This habitat of flowers, create a storm,
Let thunder rumble, – let there be an earthquake!”

–Kashmiri poet Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor (1885-1952)

The Center for Disease Control says only 31% of men & 65% of women wash their hands after using the restroom. We won’t ask how they know that but if it’s true, men should be considered modern Typhoid Marys & their hands should be put under quarantine.

This photo was taken through the peephole on a door in the Bronx on Tuesday & was circulated by immigration rights activists & by NY Times reporter Annie Correal on Twitter. ICE officers carrying assault rifles were reported going door to door in an apartment building & threatening to use force to get in to rout any undocumented immigrants.

Assaults on the US Bill of Rights began with martial law in the Black community under the guise of fighting drug trafficking & continue with illegal search & seizure raids looking for undocumented immigrants. Either we stop buying the false & racist justifications & act to defend human rights or the Bill of Rights won’t be worth the paper it’s written on.

(Photo from Annie Correal on Twitter)