“We are not the zoo animals and you are not our ring masters.
Stand against this injustice (Convoy Terror).”
–Tahir Khan Hamidi on the Indian military shutdown of a main highway in Kashmir.
An article about Rohingya refugee Ziaur Rahman who was a victim of human traffickers:
This is another story about the Spanish fireman Miguel Roldán who faces 20 years in prison because Italian authorities have accused him of aiding human traffickers after he helped save thousands of African refugees from drowning in the Mediterranean.
Most African refugees try to make it to the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean (part of Sicily) where there is an immigrant intake shelter. There have been several protests by refugees at the shelter since the management company that runs it for the Italian government engages in abusive practices, including squalid, dangerous, overcrowded living conditions. Over the past 20 years, an estimated 400,000 people have crossed the sea from Libya to Lampedusa. Some estimate that 15,00 have died trying. Other estimates are well over 25,000 but no one knows for sure because African lives don’t matter; there is no monitoring agency that counts the number who board ships & the number who land safely.
In 2013 there was a notorious incident where the Italian Coast Guard allowed 366 refugees to drown just off the coast of the island while fishermen attempted to save them. The woman mayor of Lampedusa & most of the 6,000 residents vociferously disagree with Italian government policy & volunteer food, blankets, medical care, sleeping space to refugees. In a 2012 open letter to the EU protesting its refugee policies, Lampedusa mayor Giusi Nicolini said, “If these dead are only ours, then I want to receive telegrams of condolences after every drowned person I receive. As if he had white skin, as if he were our son drowned during a holiday.”
Many search & rescue operations port in Lampedusa & local fishermen continue to rescue refugees off the coast. Under current Italian government & EU policy, they could be charged, like Miguel Roldán, with human trafficking.
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/03/27/inenglish/1553678880_692129.html?
(Photo is Miguel Roldán by Paco Puentes)
Another article elaborating how the Indian military closing of a main highway in Kashmir on Sundays & Wednesdays is an instrument of oppression & occupation.
Headline in The Kashmir Monitor: “Highway closure: Anantnag family gets permission to use road but wedding party will be frisked first.”
Doing the tango is the least of bird charms. They are an intelligent, emotional animal meant to fly & never should be held captive in a cage.
This article is about Indian occupying forces closing down a main highway in Kashmir on Sundays & Wednesdays to facilitate the movement of troops & materiel. Kashmiri activists have plenty to say about this because it egregiously violates the free movement of Kashmiris for commerce, emergency vehicles, funeral & wedding processions, traveling, visiting.
A rebel song from the Irish struggle against English colonialism.
In April 2018, the Syrian American Council (SAC) issued a press release thanking Trump, UK prime minister May, & French president Macron for airstrikes in Syria, urging them to continue bombing but to protect & prioritize the safety of civilians. It staggers the mind how those who deign to speak for the Syrian Arab Spring could make so many colossal political mistakes in just one brief message. Just like the corrupted antiwar movement has been unable to mobilize thousands to defend Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians, organizations like the SAC have been unable to mobilize thousands to defend US, UK, & European bombing of civilians. What doesn’t the SAC understand about US militarism? What don’t they understand about war when bombing civilians is fundamental to it? What don’t they understand about the counterrevolutionary role of the US, UK, & Europe in Syria to crush the Arab Spring? With the US bombing Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, what makes SAC think the US will intervene on the side of revolution?
The SAC does not represent a defense of the Syrian Arab Spring but a capitulation to US militarism. They don’t have the political sophistication of an American teenager who couldn’t find Syria on a map but knows that bombing civilians is not the way to bring peace.