The shadow of a tyrant is taller than him
much darker and thicker
knows no border of kindness and care
it just spreads like death grows in a besieged city

Damascus is far and the watch is frozen
the Christmas tree is waiting and mom is praying
the road to market is muddy
and the apartment has many hidden eyes

your memory is hacked by spies
and what is beneath memory cannot be said
the language trembles and emotion retreats
when the violence scripts its own grammar

The ocean grows in your silent eyes
your heart melts in the smoke of a newsroom
Peace is a vulgar word and love is suspended
we all are invisible footnotes of humanity.

(22/23 December 2016)

This is an anthem in solidarity with Rohingya who have stood alone for decades against genocide by the Burmese military junta.

Rohingya refugees around the world have initiated an international solidarity movement, educating, rallying, protesting the genocide.

It didn’t take long for the multinational corporations investing billions to “neoliberalize” the economy of Myanmar to take the offensive against solidarity by claiming there is no genocide but only a military crackdown on growing “jihadist terrorism” among Rohingya.

The first volley in this propaganda campaign against Rohingya was issued by the International Crisis Group in its recent report which doesn’t exhibit the research skills or integrity considered de rigueur for an honest 7th grade book report.

We cannot allow the growing solidarity with Rohingya to be preempted by liars & profiteers but must increase our campaigns in their defense.

This is shared from the Facebook wall of Mohammed Imran who is an elected representative in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.

https://www.facebook.com/md.imran.5891/videos/1381351771929237/?pnref=story&qsefr=1

So as Assad’s Vanessa Beeley tells it, she accompanied Assad official Fares Shehabi & the Syrian army into east Aleppo as it was being ‘liberated’ from “head-chopping jihadists.” As they advanced into the city, Shehabi was issuing threats of vengeance on social media.

Her first & only mission in a city with thousands of war-traumatized & terrified civilians & reduced to rubble by over five years of daily Syrian & Russian bombing was to hunt down the White Helmet rescue workers she had been doing investigative condemnations about for months & get civilians to finger them for the army.

The White Helmets were the people plowing through cement rubble to rescue people’s children, elderly, disabled, infirm, beloved parents & siblings who had been buried by the bombing. While accompanied by her Syrian military security, she interviewed civilians about the White Helmets but according to her they gave her quizzical looks & said they never heard of them.

Fares Shehabi posted this photo on Twitter (on December 12th) of men & boys from east Aleppo rounded up by the Syrian army as it took over. He referred to them as “terrorists,” though he had no way of knowing whether they were militia fighters, White Helmets, or civilians. Due process of course is no part of dictatorship even though according to international law it is supposed to be part of the treatment of war prisoners.

This kind of “investigative journalism” is a sarcasm. Beeley is not a journalist nor does she know anything about war or Syrian politics. By her own admission, she has only four years of hanging out doing something in Palestine & no claims as a legitimate journalist. It is not inappropriate to interrogate how she emerged to prominence as a propagandist for Assad & to ignominy as Assad’s own Leni Riefenstahl.

After nearly six months of a brutal military siege, 7,330 Kashmiri protesters have been injured, disfigured, & permanently afflicted by pellet munitions, including 1,562 youth partially or fully blinded. Over 15,000 people have been injured overall, including from tear gas, grenades, & live ammo.

We can see here how all that violence has brought their defiance & commitment to freedom to its knees.

(Photo from Kashur Paul on Twitter)

There’s something not quite right about tourists who think of the brutal military conflict in Kashmir only as an inconvenience & delay to enjoying the ski slopes there.

Indian NDTV showcased a group of tourists from South Africa (need it be said white South Africans?) taking the “unforgettable” gondola ride up Gulmarg, a mountain range in the Himalayas popular among tourists.

NDTV reported that the “violent protests across Kashmir” since July had taken a toll on tourism but it is now making a comeback. One of the South Africans said “We plan to return to Kashmir next year. The situation in Kashmir was bad for some time, but that does not matter.” Maybe the problem is worse than “not quite right” but full-blown psycho stuff rooted in apartheid.

Kashmiris often testify to the beauty of their country but who with conscience can ignore the violent occupation just to ski & go sightseeing?

We should take a moment to honor Kashmiri freedom fighters killed by Indian military & paramilitary forces in the past nearly 6 months of a brutal siege. Between July 8th & December 1st, 115 people were killed, most of them young protesters. Without citing the number killed, Indian media reported that as a 300-percent increase over last year, as if they were reporting pork barrel statistics.

Between January 1989 & November 30 2016, there have been 94,589 deaths, 7,074 of them while in custody of Indian security forces. At least 22,828 women have been widowed & 107,594 children orphaned.

That is a terrible price to pay for freedom & a measure of its value to those denied it. We would know nothing about this were it not for Kashmiri activists on social media who post reports & photos of funeral cortege/protests numbering in the thousands for every person killed.

Long live Kashmiri Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

Fullest solidarity & deepest respect for the Kashmiri freedom struggle.

(Statistics from Kashmir Media Service; photo from Kashmir Freedom)

I went to Musab Iqbal’s wall hoping he’d written a poem about Aleppo & found this marvelous piece instead:
*****
The “Revolutionary” manifesto of 21st-century Hypocrites

– Russian intervention is different from US/Nato intervention
– Russia has no imperial/colonial ambition (ever) unlike US and allies
– Iran-backed militias are not like US/Saudi-backed militias. Former unlike later is busy saving human lives with great empathy and kindness
– Assad is the most ideal democrat and any criticism of him and his power is sinful
– Assad army never shot or killed anyone, in fact Hama massacre never happened, there is no prison and torture center in Syria
– Syrian Army is personally trained by Gandhiji
– The world is made of binary. If you are not with us (Russia-Syria-Iran) then you are with them (ISIS-Al Qaeda- USA- Saudi etc)
– Celebrating death and torture is the most merciful and dignified revolutionary act
– Iran is defending Secularism and Democracy in Syria like it is doing in its own country
– Everyone is lying except PressTV, RT and journalists close to Assad regime
– Don’t criticize Syrian regime if you have not criticized all the violence in the world starting from Habeel and Qabeel (Adam’s son killing the other son)
– There is/was never political opposition in Syria, there were terrorists and there are terrorists.

How can we ever again believe a word Vanessa Beeley, Assad’s Leni Riefenstahl, & Eva Bartlett, Assad’s Ann Coulter, say now that Fares Shehabi, the Assad guy in Aleppo, & both of them report there never were White Helmet rescue workers in east Aleppo?

Their mockeries of children are falling apart with media fact checkers & all their fact-finding investigations & videos about the White Helmets are down the drain by their own admissions. Isn’t that a sorry state of affairs for Assad’s two most popular propagandists? And wouldn’t we be lying if we said we weren’t exuberant at their disgrace!?

You can pile up mountains of likes & shares on social media because ignorance & social hatreds are widespread, in fact encouraged by Assadists. But social media is also the venue where lies are most ruthlessly exposed. You don’t get to shill for dictatorship, support massive bombing of civilians, vilify & ridicule war-traumatized children without expecting forceful excoriations & condemnations.

It isn’t personal. Neither Beeley nor Bartlett are of consequence. People who sing for their supper are a dime a dozen. It’s a historic political battle for the soul & integrity of the antiwar, Palestinian solidarity, & socialist movements–all of which have been debased by the influence of Muslim-hating, libertarian anti-Semitism, & war-mongering.

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/12/22/the_impossible_revolution_a_syrian_dissident

It’s useful to follow the posts of Assad supporters to understand how they see things. The catastrophic fall of Aleppo, which they exuberantly cheer as liberation, has emboldened some of the Muslim-haters to come out from under their rocks. Their visceral right-wing, racist, & xenophobic impulses come to the fore since they oppose informing themselves by reading anything other than propagandists.

On an anti-refugee post by a popular Assadist who appears to be off his rocker, this was a response which no one took issue with. It has not been edited for spelling or altered in any way except replacing “and” with an ampersand:

“As far as the jihadis are concerned, that issue can be solved by accepting only Syrians & not africans or saudis or egyptians or any other nationality

“Can greece use them as labour in places & works where greek citizens are not willing to work or lack skills. I mean i m sure every country has some specialised skills which other countries dont have, for example iranians make very fine carpets & shawls. I think Greece can harnass the skill of these refugees & put them into economic activities which will help Greece boost its economy. For example, the Syrians can be employed as foreign language teachers or as interpreters for Greek installations in foreign countries etc.”

Not content to leave bad enough alone, she added:

“….I already said to throw back all unnecessary illegal immigrants like africans saudi & any other who is not a syrian. That way the big chunk of these immigrants will go. As (name deleted) himself pointed out that only one in 48 is actually a syrian refugee that means rest are just illegal immigrant whom greece have full right to deport.”

The racism, cruelties, & idiocies speak for themselves.