My resident 7-year-old IT specialist wasn’t around to help me edit the petition for Satyadeep Satya. A kid needs some playground time.
So I fumbled through & accidentally got it right. Kashmiri poet Ather Zia gave poetic form to all this: “in all this shit some mercy. 
“
We have just confirmed through WhatsApp that Indian journalist Satyadeep Satya is still locked out of his Facebook account. No need to wonder why. They claim it’s to verify his identity but this is becoming their go-to alibi for blocking those who are outspoken against the occupation of Kashmir & supporters of Kashmiri self-determination.
Satyadeep posts eloquently & powerfully in defense of human rights around the world & almost daily about the occupation. His posts must enrage nationalists who already operate at high levels of simple-minded fury & hate–not to mention infuriating the professional staff India employs to monitor Indians & Kashmiris.
We’ll have a petition for Satyadeep up & running in just a trice which we hope will be widely signed & shared.
Every update of mine about the British moochocracy puts me within 6-degrees of separation from the killjoys. Monarchists berate me, even call me bad names & try to lay me waste by calling me old. Years of groveling have apparently taken a toll on their offensive skills. There are 5-year-olds with a better repertoire than “you’re a nasty old lady bitch.”
Then there are those socialists who think my updates frivolous, a shameful waste of time when capitalism is in crisis & there are bigger fish to fry. Here I’m thinking it’s my small part against feudalism & they think it isn’t hammer & sickle enough. To them I can only say, here & now I denounce the bourgeoisie. Now go away & write those long-winded tracts no one reads & let me have a go at feudalism my way.
Then there are those who think sarcasm disrespectful. So? Is there a problem with that? Do you see any compelling reason to respect an institution based on groveling? Other than US media shares your penchant for the curtsey & that “your royal highness” crap? But then again, who said it was sarcasm? I meant every word of it.
Rollie Mukherjee is back.
Just so we’re clear, it had nothing to do with FB verifying her age but only with her outspoken opposition to the Indian occupation of Kashmir & support for Kashmiri self-determination.
Indian nationalists found her powerful art depicting the occupation & particularly solidarity with women to be threatening to their portrayal of Kashmiris as “jihadis” and terrorists. It is all that. That’s one reason we honor her.
Please welcome her back warmly.
(Photo is detail of Rollie’s art.)
Article written by Smita Chakraburtty about Rollie’s suspension from FB:
https://thewire.in/131160/artist-who-paints-about-kashmir-blocked-by-facebook-after-being-trolled/
Thought little Lukas, the miniature Pinscher we roped in a few weeks back, had come home to die but the little guy is doing good. He still stinks from unresolved skin issues & his one eye is gone beyond repair but he manages well enough, not unlike my little three-legged Chihuahua.
He’s like all rescues at first: uncertain, stand-offish, wary. There’s a point they know they’re home & safe & that’s when they become lippy & independent like a teenager. It’s that moment you wait for.
Sweatshop economics in Dhaka, Bangladesh:
Working conditions for millions of people in this barbaric phase of capitalism, during the reign of sweatshop economics, must surely be worse than during the Industrial Revolution. Or if not worse, at least affecting the lives of millions more people, including small children, & making their lives a living hell. It’s as if the neoliberal predators have decided to reverse history, but skipping feudalism, make a straight shot back to slavery.
Probably the worst manifestation of this is the mountains of toxic landfill that Europe & the US deposit in the plundered countries which the world’s dispossessed & urban slum dwellers work for recyclables. Their health & safety are in constant peril from being buried in shifting piles of landfill to the toxic chemicals, human & animal poop, rotten, decomposing food, & unmentionables they have to pick through to earn a few bucks a day.
The job of sewer cleaners in Dhaka, Bangladesh must surely rank as one of the worst & most dangerous in the world. There isn’t much information available but it is reported there is a rise in deaths among manhole workers who enter the sewers without protective equipment of any kind. That’s how cheaply human life is valued these days.
This man is a city worker (that’s a good job in most places, with decent wages & benefits) who has to enter the toxic sludge (we’re talking poop) emitting poisonous fumes to unblock sewer lines with his bare hands. The list of possible respiratory, skin, infectious diseases he could contact is a mile long including botulism, cholera, dengue, diarrhea, hepatitis, hookworms, malaria, scabies, typhoid, polio, ring worm.
We know the supremacist song & dance about Bangladesh being one of the “developing countries” but that’s as much manure as what’s this man is choking in. The number of billionaires in Bangladesh has more than tripled in the past decade (according to the central bank) precisely because the capitalists who run the country are making a killing by turning it into a sweatshop haven. That works out swell for the local oligarchs & for western garment & other sweatshop operations but to working people it’s an abomination.
Nothing is too good for working people. Workers’ rights are also human rights.
(Photo by Zakir Chowdhury/Barcroft)
Far be it from me who’s never lived under occupation to make safety suggestions to Kashmiris who come of age deluged by foreign soldiers. But a friend thought it worth mentioning that shooting range eye protection glasses would be useful to wear with tear gas masks since they’re targeting eyes with pellet guns.
If you’re way ahead of us on this, please don’t take umbrage at the suggestion.
Apocalypse Mosul: emancipation US-style;
Most photos from the siege of Mosul are akin to the photos of snowy woods & garden plots in Kashmir under occupation. What we get from Mosul are bombed out buildings & abandoned military equipment. But to most of us, the only thing that matters is what is happening to civilians whose city is being bombed & shelled to smithereens in a bombers against urban guerrillas war.
There are elderly, infirm, children, pregnant women, disabled unable to flee without help, those shell-shocked & terrified in need of help.
This is one of the rare images of Iraqis fleeing Mosul. They have to cross the Tigris by canoe since the bridge has been bombed out along with most roads. There are photos like this of men carrying their sick father, others of senior men hobbling on crutches, mothers & fathers carrying children, some of whom are injured. They’re headed for refugee camps where conditions are squalid & likely to be for a considerable period of time.
Our solidarity with them is to demand the US withdraw immediately, unconditionally from Iraq, leaving not a nail nor a bullet in place. ISIS must be stopped but not by bombing hundreds of thousands of civilians & reducing their city & lives to rubble. How to stop ISIS? Stop the weapons pipeline from several countries including the US, Russia, Israel, & other countries.
(Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)
Eight White Helmet rescue workers were killed in Syria last week, buried in rubble like those they attempt to save. Four more were killed this week when their ambulance was hit by an airstrike.
We should take a moment to honor them for putting the lives of others above their own. Our condolences to their families & friends.
May they Rest In Peace.
(Photo is blown up ambulance that killed four, including three medical workers.)
