Ramadan Is Upon Us !

(Picture Source:www.deskofbrian.com/2011/07/famine-declared-somalia)

This year it feels like Ramadan crept up on me while I was staring it in the face.Ok so maybe it wasn't an entirely espionage type of 'creep up' mostly because I began carbo-loading after last Ramadan (one should always be prepared right?).

I want to use this post to wish you all a month of noor and spirituality. However while we carbo-load like tomorrow is the Comrades Marathon let us try to remember Somalia. Rich governments are guilty of neglect as the aid efforts to avert the catastrophe in East Africa crawl along due to an $800 million shortfall. Many Somalis have fled to Dadaab, a refugee complex in Kenya intended to house 90,000 but which is now bursting with 400,000 people.

Nearly half of the population of Somalia (around 3.7 million people) do not have the pleasure of fasting voluntarily this Ramadan and I hope that our prayers will remain with them. May Allah (swt) satisfy their hunger, heal those who are suffering from malnutrition and provide them with abundance but mostly may he give us the heart and the will to take action because dua on its own is not enough.

LIVE !

(Photo: Anup J Kat)

Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.

- A Sachs

The Non-Muslim Fundamentalist

 

It makes me sick to my stomach that even our most alternate news channel

ran around shouting ‘MUSLIM’ when tragedy struck Norway this weekend.

I understand the concept of ‘ a likely suspect’, however when we all know that the ‘likely suspect’ has been concocted by media sensationalism and the US propaganda machine surely we should attempt to look left and right and left again before we cross the road.

Anders Behring Brevik (not very muslim sounding) and his 1500 page manifesto entitled 2083- A European Declaration Of Independence which claims to want to protect Europeans, their culture and their lands from being over run by the rapid breeding muslim hordes, set of a bomb in Oslo and shot and killed 92 youth at a camp when he opened fire on them dressed as a policeman.

The interesting thing is that it is always these pseudo-liberal European governments masquerading as saviours of human rights where the worst racial profiling occurs and from where the worst Islamophobes and fascists are born. It seems Europe will have to start seeing bigotry as something more than racism against Jews.

 

Brevik a Christian right winger and politician wanted to teach a lesson to the Labour Party who according to him has a soft attitude towards Muslims and took it upon himself to save the Europeans and what a sad and misdirected saviour he turned out to be.

Of course Norwegian lives are of the more valuable white variety so they will be mourned internationally with flower wreaths, candles and moments of silence unlike the thousands who will die quietly of the famine in Somalia or the ongoing war in Libya.

GOTCHA!*

The News of the World was notorious for its anti-immigrant and islamophobic stance and all its writing was either scandal, sex, sleaze or sensationalism. The paper was partially responsible for putting the Bush regime as well as Margaret Thatcher in power and held huge sway and power globally. Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has set the framework within which people think and how they see global events, personalities and wars.

A few weeks ago a lone journalist decided to blow the whistle on the unethical practises of the media giant. Sean Hoare was one of the first journalists to go on the record about the phone hacking at Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World. The scandal has so far led to 10 arrests and a parliamentary hearing.

Sean was subsequently found dead while an autopsy yesterday afternoon concluded that there was no foul play in his death I am certain that there is much to be suspicious about.

I would like to call a moment of silence for Sean Hoare the whistle blower that eventually led to the closing of News International, the British subsidiary of Murdoch's global conglomerate News Corp. 

*The headline used by The News Of The World to announce the sinking of The ARA General Belgrano  during the Falklands War with the loss of 323 lives. Losses from the Belgrano totalled just over half of Argentine deaths in the Falklands War.

The Indian Bride

(An oil painting by Vibha Sahu)

67 Peoples To Raise Your Voice For !

                                                       HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADIBA !

In the Spirit of Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere and considering that everyone is thinking about what to do with their 67 minutes, here's a list of 67 issues to raise your voice for ... 

1. Libyans
2. Kalahari bushman
3. Iraqis
4. Dalits
5. Abahlali Basemjondolo
6. Devdasis
7. Maoris
8. Aborignies
9. People of Rio’s Favelas
10. Native Americans
11. Palestinians
12. Ogaden
13. The tribes in Pakistan’s FATA region
14. Iranian Nomads
15. Farm Labourers
16. Sahrawi
17. Afro-Ecuadorians
18. Roma
19. Child labourers
20. Afghanis
21. Palestinians
22. Those that are trafficked
23. West Papuans
24. Uyghurs
25. Zapatista
26. Naxalites
27. Adivasis
28. Haiti
29. Congolese Women
30. Bosnians
31. Kurds
32. Rape Survivors
33. Batwa of the Great Lakes region
34. Kashmiris
35. Missing Children of Argentina
36. First Nations
37. Gullah/Geechee
38. Tanzanian Pastoralists
39. Asian Migrant Labourers in the Emirates
40. Sex Slaves
41. Syrians opposing Assad
42. Inuit
43. Alaskan Naives
44. North African Migrant Labourers in Europe
45. Tibetans
46. Tartars
47. Untouchables of India
48. Hazara
49. Guaymi
50. Surui tribe in the Brazilian Amazon
51. South African Black Lesbians
52. Baluchis
53. Ethnic Turks in Greece
54. 600 000 slaves in Mauritania
55. Endorois of Kenya
56. Victims of Domestic Violence
57. Tajiks
58. Afro-Hondurans
59. The people of East-Timor
60. Chechnyans
61. The East Africans of lands in drought
62. Those forced into prostitution
63. Muslim minorities in Russia
64. The victims of Xenophobia in South Africa
65. Zimbabweans opposing Mugabe
66. Victims of NATO
67. Anyones that’s ever been bombed, maimed, killed wounded, ‘dissapeared’ or called collateral damage

Sing Me A Happy Song!

These Boots Are Made For ?

Today They Celebrate Their Independance ...

 

     (Images sourced @ google) 

From top right : Libya , Iraq, Korea, Vietnam , Afghanistan , Japan , The Trail of Tears,  Cambodia)
 *For a list of American Wars please check at : http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/uswars.htm