Thank you all so much for such kind get-well messages. I’m so glad to be back because I found daytime TV a wasteland. Cable news is obsessed with the two US parties who have been speculating for two days on every channel over who will be indicted today–as if the US & its two bumble-ass political parties are the epicenter of world politics. Puerto Rico got mentioned as an aside a few times a day so Democrats could make debaters points against Republicans. No mention of war, occupation, genocide. If you live outside of Washington DC, you don’t exist to Cable news so I watched police procedurals; so many I could qualify as a homicide detective. So now, back to the real world.

In a momentous declaration after a long struggle for freedom, the Catalonian parliament voted for independence from Spain today. There are massive demonstrations in celebration. We are jubilant with them.

Kashmiris are commemorating Black Day today, as they do every year, to mark 70 years since October 27th, 1947 when India forcibly & illegally laid claim to the adjoining state of Kashmir. It is a day of grieving & continued resistance to colonialism & military occupation. For most of that time, their struggle for self-determination sustained an international news blackout or was vilified as a Pakistan-based terrorist movement. Kashmiri activists brilliantly used social media to educate human rights activists around the world about the character of their struggle so that today there is a growing movement in solidarity.

We should take a moment to honor all who have died in this momentous struggle & commit ourselves to standing in solidarity with Kashmiris until they have achieved azaadi/freedom.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

Contacted a humanitarian aid group about organizing an initiative in Cox’s Bazar to assist refugees & received this message back–to my mind illustrating why the grandstanding photo ops at the camps done by Bangladeshi, Turkish, Jordanian, & Malaysian representatives are so outrageous because they justify others in doing nothing.:

“We have been getting calls regarding the situation in Burma & whether we are going to respond. For now we are holding back as relief efforts are sponsored by four governments. The Bangladesh Government is doing what it can although on a small scale. The Turkish President has asked the Bangladesh Government to open their borders & Turkey will send in the aid. Knowing how Erdogan operates the aid will be substantial. Qatar & Iran are also getting involved. Their aid will be sizable too. I’m sure Malaysia & some other countries will follow soon. The aid will probably be sufficient that’s why for now we prefer holding back.”

Beside the increasing attempts to vilify the Rohingya people as Saudi-backed terrorists, there are now articles trying to smear them culturally, including such useless crap as discussions about prostitution in the refugee camps. What is of concern to international solidarity activists is what we can do to end the genocide; what we can do about the trafficking threat to Rohingya women & orphaned children; what we can do to demand massive humanitarian aid from our governments; what we can do to demand asylum & refugee rights. We leave the vilifying, smearing, & moralizing to the lowlifes.

There was strong objection to my criticism of Justin Trudeau for his grandstanding crocodile tears. I don’t measure off lesser evil among politicians. Trudeau kept a deal negotiated by a former Canadian government & sold millions in military equipment to Saudi Arabia whilst it is bombing Yemen to smithereens. Trudeau deployed warships to the Aegean Sea, not to rescue refugees, but to thwart those crossing from Turkey to Greece. If you admire him, take it up with the people of Yemen & with refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, & other countries. They could best address the confusions.

A young Palestinian boy: so we never lose sight that in occupation & ethnic cleansing, children are a primary target, not accidental harm.

(Photo from Twitter)

A small Kashmiri boy: so we never lose sight that in occupation, children are a primary target, not accidental harm.

(Photo by Bilal Ahmad)

A small Rohingya boy in a shelter in Bangladesh: so we never lose sight that in genocide children are a primary target, not accidental harm.

(Photo from Reuters)