So sorry to be Cato the censor, but I have a commitment to my younger brother Paul who committed suicide after 40 years of suffering abuse as a man with learning disabilities. Any use of the word ‘retard’ or its derivatives like ‘libtard’ is hate language that demeans those with disabilities & leads to their isolation & exclusion. It’s all over cinema in an attempt to maintain the persecution of those with disabilities–like there is something wrong or insufficient about them. If the disability rights movement has taught us anything it is that people are perfect just as they are. They are not inferior, social rejects, defective if they have a disability.
There was a brief Twitter storm over unfortunate & divisive comments by a Kashmiri American named Tony Ashai who actively builds support for the Kashmiri freedom struggle. Apparently thinking they could use the dissension to divide Kashmiris, Indian media including the shameless propagandist Aarti Tikoo Singh, launched an attack on him claiming he is a Pakistani ISI agent. The ISI is Pakistan’s intelligence agency. Kashmiris who yesterday were taking sharp issue with his comments are today forming a cordon around him to defend him from being maligned & to defend the unity of Kashmiris living in & outside Kashmir.
There has been a campaign on social media by Kashmiri activists to raise money for a man named Nazir Ahmad Sheikh, a 50-year-old bus driver who was forced to beg when he lost his job due to the lockdown last year. He needs the money for food & medicine, including for his young child who is paralyzed. Other Kashmiris who saw his plight set up video appeals from him soliciting donations & the campaign was quite successful, raising 4 lakh rupees in the first 24 hours. But now Nazir reports that his bank account with the donations has been seized by authorities. Kashmiris are not even allowed to help each other survive & if that isn’t genocide, then what is it?
There may not be a lot most of us can do to help Nazir & his family. Local Kashmiris will likely find a way. But we can publicize what is happening to him to show the brutal, genocidal character of the occupation.
(The photo is Nazir & his paralyzed child.)
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About a month ago, a specialist told me I have a 40-percent hearing loss & gave me a list of audiologists to consult. Most of their offices are closed for the quarantine so I haven’t done anything about it. But a few days ago, out of the blue, a hearing aid company called me for a free consultation & I am besieged with hearing aid ads on social media. As far as I knew, the information was only available to the specialist & myself. Whatever happened to patient confidentiality …

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“Democracy written in Indian script on the body of Kashmiri boy.”
–Sheikh Aadil (شیخ عادل) @Sheikhaadil2748
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MeEr Faisal and 374 others
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ven doctors, who’ve been celebrated as heroes elsewhere in the world, report being harassed on their way to work in Kashmir, which already suffers an acute lack of medical resources and staff.

Limited access to information has also obstructed Kashmir’s coronavirus fight. The region uses 2G internet, an online connection so slow that it is nonexistent elsewhere in the world. Early in the pandemic, Kashmiri health care providers told the Indian news site The Wire it took the…

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In Kashmir, military lockdown and pandemic combined are one giant deadly threat

“Even doctors, who’ve been celebrated as heroes elsewhere in the world, report being harassed on their way to work in Kashmir, which already suffers an acute lack of medical resources and staff.

 

Limited access to information has also obstructed Kashmir’s coronavirus fight. The region uses 2G internet, an online connection so slow that it is nonexistent elsewhere in the world. Early in the pandemic, Kashmiri health care providers told the Indian news site The Wire it took them an hour to download international recommendations for COVID-19 patients in intensive care.”

 

–Stand With Kashmir

 


Amarnath Yatra, the militarized & politicized Hindu pilgrimage to a cave shrine in Kashmir, has been cancelled. Ostensibly cancelled due to the corona pandemic but more likely because it dramatized the Indian government’s reckless disregard for Kashmiri lives by hauling in tens of thousands of non-residents whilst Kashmiris are under quarantine.