Rollie Mukherjee holds art show & sale in Srinagar

Rollie's art show Sept 1 2017

“To Stories Rumoured in Branches”

This is the poster announcing Rollie Mukherjee’s art show & sale in Srinagar from September 4th to 10th. Rollie’s commitment to Kashmiri freedom expressed in her beautiful art has educated about the occupation & inspired thousands of people around the world, especially by her portrayal of Kashmiri women’s grief & resistance. A major portion of proceeds will be shared between orphans & the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP).

Trump poised to end DACA program

DACA protest Wash DC (AL Johnson:NPR)

Trump is poised to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which Obama initiated by executive order in 2012. Trump campaigned on ending DACA & has to make a decision by September 5th. DACA is a program for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children which requires them to register & reregister every two years with immigration authorities to get a work permit & driver’s license. It is not amnesty but entirely provisional with many restrictions & was never a legal commitment to permanent residence or citizenship. From the beginning, it was repeatedly challenged in the courts & it was only a matter of time before it would be reversed.

There are an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US. According to one estimate, about 1.7 million might have been eligible for DACA but since 2012 only about 800,000 registered. Over 60,000 were denied as ineligible. Now it’s likely to be ended & the fate of those who registered, including those ruled ineligible, has become more precarious. Many spotted it as a scam, a deferred deportation program where you hand immigration your identity & location so they know just where to pick you up when DACA gets reversed. Many immigration counselors & activists advised clients not to register with DACA, not to place any trust in a program with the fatal flaw of disclosing your location without legal commitments.

The immigration rights movement will have to take to the streets again in massive numbers since Trump has made attacking immigrants the centerpiece of his tenure.
Immigration is a human right. Open the borders.

Photo is activists at a pro-DACA protest in Washington, DC.

(Photo by AL Johnson/NPR)

“Here’s a headline I’d love to see:
“Imbecile wreaks havoc on country, loses job”.”

–Jairus Banaji

(No one knows which country he’s referring to.)

After they became proficient at jumping the fence, it was apparent that the two Rhodesian Ridgebacks & the two bambinos who are part Pit Bull are beyond my rescue skills. The babies need to be trained not just in where to poop but in not gnawing off my body parts in shows of affection & I don’t know how to do that. They also need a yard that’s secure against escaping. Someone I know from animal rescue referred me to Yaqui Ranch Animal Rescue in a town not that far from here.

Yaqui said they were at capacity but would do everything they could to help me find loving homes for the four of them as well as for Sophie the Schnauzer smart enough to go to college & her sidekick Franky, the three-legged Chihuahua. They came by today to give the bambinos their second round of vaccinations, brought two months of dog food, took pictures of the six who they’ll be trying to get adopted, & asked only that I consider fostering for them when they need help. If you ever feel there’s no hope for the human race, volunteer at an animal shelter like Yaqui or notice the rescuers in Houston going out of their way to rescue people & pets. It makes your heart sing.

Solidarity protests with Rohingya in Bangladesh

Baangladesh protest for Rohingya *tweeted CJ Werleman)

The International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at Queen Mary University in London released an important study in 2015 titled “Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar.” It’s a powerful report, unsparing in its condemnation of the Burmese military. It concluded “The Rohingya face the final stages of genocide,” meaning they are on the verge of mass extermination. They may have used that formulation as a call to arms for human rights activists but it is a regrettable one politically because it lends itself to pity more than active solidarity & gives a sense that building solidarity is pointless, that it’s too late.

It’s beyond dispute that the relationship of forces between the military & unarmed Rohingya in Arakan state is to the disadvantage of the Rohingya. But there are still about 1.3 million Rohingya living there. There’s no way to know for certain how many Rohingya are refugees in other countries since so many have died fleeing & no agency has accounted for their lives & deaths. Because they are stateless & have no rights, thousands are living as undocumented in several countries trying to elude deportation; an unknown number are detained in prisons in several countries; an unknown number are victims of human trafficking. It is estimated that about 1.3 million Rohingya are living as refugees but there’s no way to know for certain since the UNHCR doesn’t register the overwhelming number of them for humanitarian aid.

Rohingya activists, like Kashmiris, are using social media to educate about their struggle against genocide & for human, democratic, & civil rights as refugees as mandated under international law. Without minimizing the extreme violence Rohingya face in Arakan, we should not regard this as the verge of mass extermination or consider the “final solution” a fait accompli but as the beginnings of building phalanxes of international solidarity to stand with the Rohingya in their struggle in Arakan & as refugees.

Photo is a Bangladeshi protest in defense of Rohingya.

Report: http://statecrime.org/data/2015/10/ISCI-Rohingya-Report-PUBLISHED-VERSION.pdf

Rohingya fleeing genocide

Rohingya fleeing Aug 31 2017

It’s estimated that at least 18,000 Rohingya have fled genocide in Arakan state just in the past six days. Estimates are as high as 2,000 but there’s no way to know yet how many have died at the hands of Burmese soldiers, how many assaulted, tortured, raped. We do know that several people, including little kids, have drowned attempting to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh.

Stop the genocide in Arakan state. Full human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights to Rohingya Muslims.

(Photo of Rohingya fleeing from The Stateless @Thestateless1)

Wouldn’t you know the very same people promoting the punch-a-fascist-in-the-face political approach are those who ridiculed all the massive protests against Trump & his policies? Isn’t it a surprise they’re the same ones who mocked the Arab Spring uprisings as orchestrated by the CIA, call the uprising against Assad’s dictatorship all jihadi head-choppers, denounce protesters in Venezuela as all rightwing, & denounced protesters in Hong Kong & Brazil as orchestrated by fascists? To the person, those who mock massive action against injustice promote political thuggery instead because they regard liberals as more dangerous than fascists & white supremacists. Not a new phenomenon at all. But in every new incarnation just as detestable, elitist, & infantile politically. It is political power that will back fascists down, not macho bravado & thuggery.

Rohingya children drown in Naf river as families flee genocide in Arakan state

Rohingya Aylan Kurdi

 

Drowned Rohingya child in Naf (yenisafak) Aug 30 2017

Many will remember the photo on top of 16-month-old Mohammed Shohayet, a Rohingya refugee who drowned with his mother, uncle, & 3-year-old brother last December when their boat capsized in the Naf river as they fled from genocide in Arakan state. He was called the Rohingya Aylan Kurdi after the Syrian child who drowned in September 2015 crossing from Turkey to Greece.

The child in the bottom photo is not identified by name but only as a Rohingya child who drowned in the Naf river a few days ago when the boat she was in capsized. Yeni Şafak, the conservative Turkish media source that reported her death, did not mention if her family survived the capsize but they were also fleeing genocide in Arakan state.

It’s likely Yeni Şafak reported this incident because of Erdogan’s feigned support for the Rohingya people which, like his support for Palestinians, often falls short in the execution, becoming all hot air & little action. When thousands of Rohingya refugees were fleeing in rickety boats in May 2015, Erdogan talked of sending Turkish navy ships to rescue them but never managed to give the order. The fate of thousands of Rohingya has never been investigated by any agency.

These are very tragic images not used to exploit the suffering of children but to expose the character of the genocide against the Rohingya people.

Stop the genocide in Arakan state. Full human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights to Rohingya Muslims.