“Iraq,
My tears will never do justice to your pain,
Nor will I ever feel the right,
To utter your name,
Without pain running through me,
Without feeling shame,
Because of my silence,
As your roots were tarnished,
And your children were taken,
By a hand that strangled the future,
A hand that denied them of life,
A hand ruled by hate,
Tainted with evil,
Painted with the blood,
That poured from your veins.

Iraq,
Again my heart is crying for you,
But today my tears are warm,
Like the blood that poured from your wounds,
Like the life,
The breath that was snatched from your lungs,
Like the skin that was burnt to the bone,
And the land they destroyed,
Not just for today,
But for the future,
They stole the light,
That lights the horizon,
The light that rises at the end of the night,
Brings with it peace and hope that will reside,
In her arms,
So she can nurture its light.

Iraq,
I wish I could erase,
The years of war,
The time you were in pain,
I wish that I was not a child,
When I first uttered your name,
I wish that I could have spoken,
Pleaded in your name…

Iraq,

Iraq,

Iraq, I’m still weeping in your name.

–Sanaah Sultan, September 9, 2012 (via Teresa Gill)

Indian activist Satyadeep Satya has just returned from another 30-day ban. He was unable to post about the Hindutva genocide of Muslims in northeast Delhi but will have uncompromising & cogent commentary on the attempts to turn it into two-sided communal conflict.

Even though the racist fear-mongering of European nationalists deserves contempt, in fact some of the refugees may have coronavirus or any number of other contagious diseases from squalid, overcrowded living conditions. As fellow human beings, we do not drive them back with tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons, & live ammo but demand they be given immediate high-quality medical care, healthy nutrition, adequate housing, & safe asylum. No human being is alien to us.

Photo is a refugee on the Turkish shoreline of the Evros River waiting to cross to Greece on March 2nd, 2020.

(Photo by Belal Khaled)

No one has captured the refugee crisis on the Turkey-Greece border more powerfully than Palestinian photojournalist Belal Khaled. His work is already iconic & can inspire the growth of an international solidarity movement demanding open borders. You may want to follow his work on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/belalkhald

File this news under ‘Chickens coming home to roost’: a Brazilian diplomat who attended a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend tested positive for coronavirus.