All posts by BabakJoy2014

Indian pellet gun manufacturer says they are for animals & are not tested on humans

No pellet gun protest Kashmir (Danish Ismail:Reuters) Set 13 2016

In response to legal actions submitted to the Jammu & Kashmir High Court in July to prohibit the use of pellet guns, the munitions manufacturer submitted a letter to the court on September 6th about the lethal nature of pellets.

According to Khadki, the manufacturer, there are over 600 rounded or sharp-edged lead pellets inside the type of pellet cartridge used by Kashmir police. The letter explained to the court that pellets, also known as buckshot, are generally used for hunting animals & that no tests have ever been conducted about their effect on the human body. It is not irrelevant that there are restrictions on their use in hunting wildlife in the US, not known as a bastion of human rights for animals.

In response, the Indian-controlled state government of Kashmir said that pellet guns do “not violate protection of life & personal liberty to citizens” & that pellets are fired below the waist. To explain away why most of the injuries are to the upper body, particularly the face & eyes, the state government in an affidavit to the court offered this pathetic legal defense: “However, as the protesters & the members of the agitating mobs are mostly bent or in kneeling position so as to pick up the stones, which they hurl & pelt upon the police personnel & in this position, there is every chance that such protesters would be hit above the waist line.” Just one question: does incapacitating, damaging, disfigureing legs, knees, feet, butts, & genitals have no relationship to long-term health, life & liberty?

Of the between 9,000 & 12,000 protesters & bystanders injured in the past 67 days, most have been from pellet guns & about 700 have suffered disabling pellet injuries to the eyes causing partial or permanent blindness & disfigurement. It’s time we stopped repeating the fiction that they are any form of non-lethal weaponry.

It’s interesting to note that the Ammunition Factory Khadki near Pune, India which manufactures the pellets appears to have grown out of an Indian army base stationed there during the colonial era which had two ammunition factories.

End the use of pellet guns. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

On Hawaiian sovereignty & the US marines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

123 years ago in 1893, US marines at the behest of US sugar companies, violently ousted the Hawaiian government & installed white supremacist colonial rule causing a diaspora of hundreds of thousands of Hawaiians. Many live in poverty & squalor in California & elsewhere in the US. In 1959, Hawaii was made a US state.

Iz Kamakawiwo’ole was a traditional Hawaiian singer & Hawaiian sovereignty activist who represented the traditional culture & aspirations of Hawaiians. A national liberation movement still exists & this is posted in solidarity with them. At some point, Hawaii will have to be returned to Hawaiian control.

Iz died in 1997. The final moments of this video are Hawaiians scattering his ashes in the sea.

Rick Perry on Dancing With The Stars: the halfwit with two left feet

Love dancing but over the years “Dancing With The Stars” has become too dull to watch. Still I had to watch Rick Perry (rightwing former governor of Texas & two time candidate for president) debut his wooden-ass on the dance floor. I have a real mean-streak when it comes to politicians like him.

He said he was thrilled to perform so he could dance at his daughter’s upcoming wedding. After his regrettable performance, resembling not so much dance as a scare crow flailing its straw limbs in a cyclone, the daughter might want to call off the wedding or at least bow out of the father-daughter dance.

What is a guy like that good for? He stinks at politics, he can’t dance & it’s likely he’s never done an honest days work in his life. The only dancer worse was Ryan Lochte, the lying-assed Olympian swimmer who went on a drunken vandalism spree in Rio & claimed he was robbed at gunpoint.

US-Russian cease fire agreement for Syria: the devil is in the secret details

Aleppo bombing 9:11:2016 (Ameer Alhalbi:AFP:Getty Images) Sept 12 2016

Isn’t it remarkable after 5-1/2 years of massive bombing in Syria, that western media with high-level contacts in the US government still routinely report that entire cities, including hospitals, marketplaces, & residences, were bombed “either by Russian or Syrian warplanes”?

The US Pentagon has the most high-tech satellite surveillance system in the entire world. So high-tech that they can watch the assassination of Osama bin-Laden from a war room in the Pentagon or target an individual they consider dangerous with a drone attack. And yet, they dummy up when it comes to who is bombing what in Syria. If Russia & Syria are being falsely accused, Russia also has high-tech surveillance systems–just as sophisticated as the US Pentagon.

US media, including the NY Times, never think to question that? Or are they just doing their usual job of obfuscating what the hell is going on because deceit & confusion serve the US political agenda?

The cease fire in Syria brokered by the US & Russia begins today. Most of the details remain secret & we have to take the word of Russian diplomats that Syria agrees & will comply with it. This is not the first cease fire negotiated between the US & Russia for Syria. Kerry, under advisement from Henry Kissinger, brokered one in September 2013, two years before Russia entered the war militarily.

It isn’t that these negotiations & cease fires are just political theater but that they are politically fraudulent. What is really being brokered in secret are devil’s pacts & intended to confuse antiwar forces who have not disappointed in the depth of their confusions. The devil in these pacts is in the details of the secret parts.

What antiwar forces should be able to agree on is a demand that the cease fire be permanent on the part of all military forces now intervening in Syria. No to US, Russian, & Syrian bombing.

These men are rescuing babies after an airstrike in Aleppo yesterday. Media reports say either by Russian or Syrian bombers.

(Photo by Ameer Alhalbi/AFP/Getty Images)

On Festival of Eid, Kashmiris grieve & bury their dead

Kashmiri women mourning (Yawar Nazir:Getty Images) Sept 12 2016

(Photo by Yawar Nazir/Getty Images)

Javaid Ahmad funeral (Kashmir Today) Sept 12 2016

(Photo from Kashmir Today)

Javaid Ahmad funeral (2) (from Kashmir Today) Sept 12 2016

(Photo from Kashmir Today)
Today Muslims around the world celebrate the festival of Eid al-Adha (Festival of the Sacrifice) celebrating the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son. It has a particularly cruel irony for Kashmiris who are not celebrating but instead grieving & burying their beloved killed by the Indian occupying army.

In the past 66 days of the siege, they have buried 84 people, some from pellet injuries, some from live ammunition, some from being beaten to death, some from other violent causes.

This is the funeral yesterday in Srinagar of Javaid Ahmad, a 23 year-old man who died in hospital from being shot in the leg by soldiers on August 5th during a protest at Narbal. It took a while to determine that he wasn’t Javaid Ahmad, the older brother of 30 year-old Shabir Ahmad Mungoo, the teacher brutally beaten to death by soldiers on August 19th in midnight house invasions in Khrew. Two brothers of Shabir named Zahoor & Javaid were among the many others severely beaten & both were treated in hospital for multiple broken bones.

There is no report that either Zahoor or Javaid died from their injuries. But there are reports of how violent those home invasions in Khrew were, including drunken soldiers carrying knives, iron rods, & axes. It would be a mistake to attribute the reign of terror to drunkenness since it was almost certainly orchestrated from military headquarters to terrorize & as a form of collective punishment. Such gruesome rampages are the realities of the Indian occupation of Kashmir.

The top photo of Javaid’s funeral from Yahoo was headlined “Tensions continue in Kashmir,” “Tensions” is such a delicate & altogether dishonest way of describing a brutal military occupation. The two bottom photos from Kashmiri media show the funeral cortege/protest accompanying Javaid’s body to burial.

Our sincere condolences to the families of all who have lost sons & daughters in this barbaric siege. May the deceased Rest In Peace.
Long live Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

 

How Kashmiri try to defend themselves against pellet guns, grenades, & live ammunition

Kashmiri youth pellet defense (from Kashmir Reader) Sept 12 2016

Today, Kashmir Reader published an article about how Kashmiri youth protect themselves from harm against pellet guns, pepper spray, tear gas, & PAVA grenades, & other weapons. They use swimming goggles & discarded x-ray films as body shields. Some are also experimenting with tire rubber & other materials to defend themselves. One of the young men interviewed in the article said he learned about using x-ray sheets for protection from a Palestinian friend on FB.

The point is not that these are sufficient protection from injury or death against the armaments of one of the best-equipped military forces in the world, but that the spirit of defiance against occupation is so powerful that protesters go up against that military unarmed & undeterred by the dangers. That spirit & the creativity of determination is what the occupation army is trying to destroy when it disables, blinds, & injures thousands of protesters.

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

(Photo from Kashmir Reader)

Tribute to Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid leader, on the 39th anniversary of his murder in 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5gofoJ7O04

Reposting from September 12, 2014 in tribute to Steve Biko & other South African anti-apartheid activists to honor them & because their work is not yet complete. Learning about & from them is the best way to carry on their work to completion not just in South Africa but around the world:

“Remembering Steve Biko on the day of his murder. Also thinking of Muntu Myeza, Phambili Ntloko, George Wauchope, Abu Asvat, Neville Alexander, Haroon Patel and many others who lived and died by the words Steve expresses here.”–Salim Vally

Many of us don’t know the names Salim mentions above–or don’t know all of them–but they were activists in the anti-apartheid movement of South Africa. Steven Biko was a student leader & founder of the Black Consciousness Movement who was murdered in police custody. He formulated the term “Black is beautiful” which he said meant “Man, you are okay as you are; begin to look upon yourself as a human being.” Mandela said of him: “They had to kill him to prolong the life of apartheid.”

This is the anniversary of his death in 1977. We should take a moment to honor him & all those who fought & lost their lives to the struggle for a world rid of racism, injustice, & social hatred. They weren’t all murdered but most spent time in jail for their commitment to human freedom. Our deepest respect.

The Miss American pageant: the human version of a livestock show

The Miss America contest is the only thing on TV tonight other than reruns of “Murder She Wrote.” It’s appalling but almost mesmerizing to watch intelligent grown women act like Barbie Dolls.

Feminists had these spectacles figured out a long time ago. They’re the human form of livestock shows. There are lots of objectionable things about them like objectifying women, the requisite big blonde hair & all the prosthetics involved, promoting competitiveness between us, making groveling for attention, flaunting & exhibitionism feminine virtues. But to my mind, the worst–bar none–is the infantilizing of women.

Their model of female perfection was the ideal of the 1950s that we were expected to live up to so it’s no wonder our generation of the 1960s was the one that protested these damn things because we well knew that behind the glamor was the obedient wife in house dresses & the squalor of women’s degradation. There’s been some progress though. They don’t manufacture house dresses anymore.

Remembrance of September 11, 2001

Though the US military has been central to the barbarisms of the 20th & 21st centuries, September 11, 2001 was the first time most Americans (those never in the military) came face to face with the horrors of terrorism & war. Those outside NYC only watched it on TV & still it shattered our psyches for months & months.

We should take a moment to remember those who died & those who continue to pay such a horrific price: the survivors, the families, the first responders, the people of Afghanistan & Pakistan. Those victims now number in the millions.

Our commitment should be to ending the behemoth of militarism that now dominates world politics & makes the world a living hell for millions. Our children deserve far more.

Remembering the Chilean coup, September 11, 1973

Chilean coup memorial 2013 (Ivan Alvarado:Reuters) Sept 11 2016

Reposting this from September 11, 2013. Massive protests by students & seniors are now challenging the neoliberal policies instituted in Chile after the 1973 coup:

There are two 9/11s to be commemorated: the US-backed Chilean coup in 1973 & the attacks on the World Trade Center towers in 2001. No one with all their marbles intact denies the horror of 2001 but the tragedy is smothered in US war apologetics, anti-terrorist hysteria, & drone assaults while the carnage of 1973 is ignored to cover for the barbarisms inflicted on the Chilean people with the direct involvement of the US under the tutelage of Henry Kissinger. The official death estimates for both events are about the same (3,000 +) but guided by his conviction that “Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood” & trained in death squad terrorism by the CIA, Pinochet’s military initiated a reign of terror that disappeared over 10,000 people & killed, tortured, or imprisoned over 40,000. Over a million fled into exile.

Volumes of idiocies have been written trying to justify the barbarisms of Pinochet’s rule by deference to what Milton Friedman called “The Miracle of Chile.” The so-called miracle is the imposition of neoliberal economics that halfwits & economists who sing for their supper claim transformed Chile from one of the poorest countries in Latin America to the second wealthiest on the continent. The string of five regimes following the end of direct military rule in 1990 have left not only Pinochet’s constitution but also his neoliberal economic policies intact–partially because they agree with the policies (& are enriched by them) & partially because they’re afraid of poking a stick at the military still waiting in the wings.

The economic model installed by the military junta was classic neoliberalism which opened the country to foreign plunder & enriches a few at the expense of working people. In their relentless opposition to neoliberal education policies (making higher education out of reach for most), Chilean students have exposed the massive fault line between the classes as a result of neoliberalism–which is the barbaric phase of capitalism.

Current Chilean president, Sebastian Pinera, talks out of both sides of his ass in addressing Pinochet’s legacy as the forces of justice close in on his regime which includes many figures who collaborated with Pinochet. Military officials, judges, & politicians are now apologizing for their roles in the dictatorship & asking for forgiveness. Well if it’s forgiveness they want they can go to a priest for confession. Justice demands coming clean publicly & prosecution in a court of law. A handful of pathetic “mea culpas” or one Our Father & three Hail Marys in contrition doesn’t cut it & mocks the tens of thousands who were murdered.

One of Pinochet’s most ardent defenders was Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” of Britain, now thankfully rusting in peace. With allies like Kissinger & Thatcher, Pinochet went to his grave without prosecution but once again his victims still haunt justice. These photos of his victims are displayed at a ceremony to commemorate 40 years since the coup at the Parque Por La Paz (Park for Peace) on the grounds of the former Villa Grimaldi torture center in Santiago. Of course justice will not be fully honored until all those involved in these unspeakable crimes against the Chilean people are exposed & prosecuted–even postmortem.

(Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)