Author: mara.ahmed

“My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying” by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Now that your big eyes have finally opened
Now that you’re wondering how must they feel
Meaning them that you’ve chased across America’s movie screens
Now that you’re wondering how can it be real
That the ones you’ve called colorful, noble and proud
In your school propaganda
They starve in their splendor
You’ve asked for my comment I simply will render

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Now that the longhouses breed superstition
You force us to send our toddlers away
To your schools where they’re taught to despise their traditions
You forbid them their languages, then further say
That American history really began
When Columbus set sail out of Europe, then stress
That the nation of leeches that conquered this land
Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best
And yet where in your history books is the tale
Of the genocide basic to this country’s birth
Of the preachers who lied, how the Bill of Rights failed
How a nation of patriots returned to their earth
And where will it tell of the Liberty Bell
As it rang with a thud Over Kinzua mud
And of brave Uncle Sam in Alaska this year

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Hear how the bargain was made for the West
With her shivering children in zero degrees
Blankets for your land, so the treaties attest
Oh well, blankets for land is a bargain indeed
And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected
From smallpox-diseased dying soldiers that day
And the tribes were wiped out and the history books censored
A hundred years of your statesmen have felt it’s better this way
And yet a few of the conquered have somehow survived
Their blood runs the redder though genes have paled
From the Gran Canyon’s caverns to craven sad hills
The wounded, the losers, the robbed sing their tale
From Los Angeles County to upstate New York
The white nation fattens while others grow lean
Oh the tricked and evicted they know what I mean

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

The past it just crumbled, the future just threatens
Our life blood shut up in your chemical tanks
And now here you come, bill of sale in your hands
And surprise in your eyes that we’re lacking in thanks
For the blessings of civilization you’ve brought us
The lessons you’ve taught us, the ruin you’ve wrought us
Oh see what our trust in America’s brought us

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity
Now that we’re harmless and safe behind laws
Now that my life’s to be known as your “heritage”
Now that even the graves have been robbed
Now that our own chosen way is a novelty
Hands on our hearts we salute you your victory
Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy
Pitying the blindness that you’ve never seen
That the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory
They were never no more than carrion crows
Pushed the wrens from their nest, stole their eggs, changed their story
The mockingbird sings it, it’s all that he knows
“Ah what can I do?” say a powerless few
With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye
Can’t you see that their poverty’s profiting you

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Gilani, Putin agree to strengthen ties

The agreement was reached at a meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held here on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Mr Putin said his country would support Pakistan’s request for full membership of the SCO and indicated that he would back resumption of composite dialogue between India and Pakistan because reduction of tension between the two countries would facilitate improvement of Moscow’s relations with Islamabad. Full article.

Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB). These numbers suggest that the invasion and occupation of Iraq rivals the mass killings of the last century—the human toll exceeds the 800,000 to 900,000 believed killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and is approaching the number (1.7 million) who died in Cambodia’s infamous “Killing Fields” during the Khmer Rouge era of the 1970s. Full article.

“We must rethink Afghanistan” by Mara Ahmed

my letter on the war in afghanistan and pakistan published in its entirety in city newspaper!!!

On the eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, when a strategy shift is on President Obama’s table, it is essential to increase the pressure for constructive non-military solutions to stabilize Afghanistan and strengthen Pakistan’s fragile democracy. Read complete letter.

Saving Face in Afghanistan

The real question is why are we there at all? What do our efforts now have to do with the original authorization of the use of force? We are no longer dealing with anything or anyone involved in the attacks of 9/11. At this point we are only strengthening the resolve and the ranks of our enemies. We have nothing left to win. We are only there to save face, and in the end we will not even be able to do that. Full article.

Youssef Zahri, brother of Hamas spokesman, tortured to death

New rule: families of suspected militants are fair game.

“Youssef Zahri was originally arrested on 28 April 2008. There is no doubt that his arrest was connected with his brother’s activities as a member of Hamas. Based on evidence from thi…s most recent case and numerous past events, it has become evidently clear that Egyptian security forces have been using torture in a systematic manner. Despite on-going condemnation from human rights NGOs and the international community, Egyptian security forces continue to use torture on a large-scale with total impunity.” Full article.

At Least Eight Civilians Killed as Pakistani Military Bombs South Waziristan

Pakistan’s Army says it is “determined” to launch an invasion of the region some time soon, a move which the US has been pressuring them to take for years. But many civilians decided they weren’t going to wait.

With plenty of advanced warning and examples in Bajaur, Khyber and Malakand of the disastrous affect military offensives have on the civilian population, people have been fleeing since May. Now at least 200,000 South Waziristan civilians, an estimated 40% of the agency’s population, have already fled to cities in the nearby Northwest Frontier Province, principally Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. Full article.

Around 90,000 flee South Waziristan fearing operation

‘Again people have started coming out of the area because of the fear of an army operation,’ Amir Latif, chief administrative official in Tank district, told AFP. ‘We have started registering them and giving them help,’ Hameedullah Khan, a senior government official in Dera Ismail Khan, said that his district had registered about 8,300 families — up to 60,000 people — with the rest taking sanctuary in Tank and elsewhere.

An anti-Taliban offensive in northwest Swat valley earlier this year forced nearly two million people from their homes, creating a massive humanitarian crisis. Most have since returned home. Full article.

hearings at rochester city council: police brutality on oct 7, 2009

oct 13, 2009

went to the hearings at rochester city council today. the subject: police brutality on oct 7th 2009, the 8th anniversary of the afghan war, when a peaceful protest was violently attacked by police in the city of rochester.

some 25 people spoke. about 2 minutes each. the speakers were well organized, most kept to their allotted time. the speeches were rousing, eloquent, from the heart. there was a strong sense of community – the room was full, there was thunderous applause, and a sense of “we are all in this together.”

in the speeches, there was frequent emphasis on racism within the ranks of the rochester police dept. many felt that the media attention given to this particular incident was a sad testimony to this fact. someone compared the police force to a hammer that’s used to hitting black nails. the reason why we were even having these hearings was because this time some white nails had got hit. the first person to be arrested at the protest was a black student, an onlooker who had just joined the march.

a woman talked about a “thirst for blood” – american soldiers brutalizing others around the world and the police brutalizing us here at home.

people described the attacks on protesters – a young woman’s face was shoved into a lamp post and she started bleeding from the mouth. other people’s faces were bashed into the ground. it felt like a police state.

dawn zuppelli, an indymedia journalist who captured most of the footage that exposed police violence after her colleague was wrestled to the ground and arrested for filming, spoke eloquently about how the mainstream media were notoriously missing from the scene but found it convenient to criticize the “quality” of indymedia’s video evidence. the media were criticized for simply repeating the police line without any investigation or any effort to incorporate the other side of the story.

two black men spoke about the constant fear their community has to live with in the city. one of them said he was speaking out but was in mortal dread of the backlash this could mean for him and his family. a war veteran talked about how he had been sent to war to uphold the u.s. constitution but the police had failed to do that same thing on october 7th. a teacher’s voice shook as she explained how after this incident she had lost her trust in the system.

SDS’s jake allen reiterated the protest’s three demands: getting out of afghanistan, redirecting funds away from the war and into domestic priorities like education, and demilitarizing city schools (aggressive military recruitment found in city schools is simply missing from suburban school districts like brighton and pittsford). he said that it was clear that the power of love and community was possible – “we are that power.”

a mother who had taken part in the protest carrying her baby on her back, said that being in the street was not, in and of itself, an act of violence. similarly, upholding the law should not automatically imply an act of violence. someone said: “what is worse? war or the lack of a permit?”

charges were also made that the police were spying on an SDS meeting on october 8th, video taping participants and noting down number plates.

people decried the police’s racism and disdain for civil rights. they said that they would wait and watch. the city council was urged to take action against police brutality, find out who ordered it, and drop all charges against those who were arrested.