For Duterte, the coronavirus allows him another means to continue the vigilante war against urban poor slum dwellers who stand in the way of neoliberal gentrification. Trump Tower in Manila played an important role in slum clearing for purposes of turning Manila into a high-end destination for the rich. The majority of slum dwellers were originally displaced from their farms & as farm workers by neoliberal agricultural policies.
Under the new domicile act, Indian authorities claim Kashmiris are inciting ‘miscreants’ on social media. So whilst they could not block VPN technology to prevent Kashmiris from campaigning on social media, they are now determined to make it illegal for Kashmiris at home & on social media to protest or criticize India & its occupation, demand the release of political prisoners, educate about the use of rape as a weapon of war, campaign against forced disappearance, oppose the domicile act, stand in solidarity with the oppressed around the world.
When they attempt to suppress Kashmiri voices, we stand with Kashmiris to amplify their voices ten million fold.
Facebook sent me a notice that I am banned for 24 hours for sharing a post by Fatima Naqshbandi which compared the occupation of Kashmir to a virus. I asked for a review but was told the coronavirus epidemic has lowered the number of available censors. So there is an upside to the epidemic?
Who could & who should initiate a BDS-type boycott of India? Kashmiris may be prosecuted for sedition if they do & the families of Kashmiris in diaspora threatened if they do. But who in their stead can be an authoritative voice to call for such a boycott? Don’t say it is wrong because Indian workers would be affected because it is only Indian capitalists who are profiting from militarism, occupation, genocide.
Some of you may remember my eulogy for Geraldine Kreitz, a friend of mine in Minneapolis going back several years who died February 6th. She became a friend of many of you on FB. Her daughters are paying tribute to her by posting her art work which is worthy of any modern art museum. What blows me away is that Gerry never talked about her art so I never knew she was a remarkable artist. She was a completely unpretentious person who thought self-aggrandizement beneath her dignity & also as a working class woman she would have thought ‘hiding her light under a bushel’ was her state in life.
Please take a moment to go through her work on this page & like & share this tribute to an artist who should have been widely known.
Now coming from Indian nationalists, alarmism about ‘coronajihad’. Just when you think ‘war on terror’ ideology cannot go any lower, Muslims are blamed for the epidemic in India.
An excellent response to the misanthropy, ‘cull the herd’, triage the elderly stuff being circulated by fascistic minds: human beings are not the virus.
