Category: self-authored

While Modi is gallivanting in the US, with Kamala Harris talking about the ‘Indian people’s commitment to democracy and freedom’ (such empty words), this is what is happening in Modi’s India:

“Hindu Mobs, anti-Muslim Boycotts: In Modi’s India, the Echoes of 1930s Germany Are Growing Louder

Modi is talking to world leaders about the threat of Islamist radicalization. But the real threat to India comes from a radicalizing Hindu majority fueled by the increasingly brazen, violent anti-Muslim bigotry of Modi’s own party.”

for a poor country that can’t afford universal healthcare for its people, the US found 1 billion dollars for israel’s effing iron dome (meant to protect an illegal genocidal occupation). this is on top of the 500 million dollars we give them annually already. if this doesn’t get ur goat, nothing will. 420 members of congress voted yes, only 9 voted no. remember their names: cori bush, andré carson, chuy garcía, raúl grijalva, marie newman, ilhan omar, ayanna pressley, and rashida tlaib. just goes to show how this system is beyond repair, beyond electoral politics, beyond common sense. its corruption is absolute, its racism and colonial aggression foundational. it needs to go.

i don’t have an opinion on AOC’s appearance at the met gala, but hey, do i have an opinion on the met gala itself. it is obscene. i just met a brilliant young woman the other day. she has three jobs (three!). one of them is teaching as an adjunct at columbia university. she’s in her early forties. she makes enough to just barely live in brooklyn and she’s constantly under stress because she has no health insurance. it’s criminal. and this isn’t even the worst of what this country offers. the rich are not rich because they work harder or are smarter, they’re rich because they know how to use/scam/milk a system that’s inherently unjust and meant to perpetually exacerbate inequities. i couldn’t care less for their antics or charity. they shouldn’t have that kind of money in the first place. eat the rich.

they are not the texas ‘taliban’ for heaven’s sake. the 6-week abortion ban in texas is quintessentially american. they’re texas cowboys, christian zealots, right wing conservatives. keep it within the realm of american evil pls. the level of casual islamophobia on the left is amazing.

thinking about the people of afghanistan – their strength and perseverance in the face of unimaginable horrors and deprivations for 42 years. the soviets invaded in 1979 and left in 1989, this was followed by a cruel civil war, a taliban takeover that devolved into tyranny, and then a brutal american invasion and military occupation which lasted twenty years (2001-2021). as american troops leave, people’s lives have been thrown into a tailspin, once again. the taliban controlled most of the country anyway and now they are back in power. it’s 2001 all over again. and what does american imperialism (with all its talk of democracy and women’s rights) leave behind except for torture sites and malnutrition? nothing. kabul falls like saigon fell in the 1970s, and it’s up to the people of afghanistan to pick up the bombed-out shards of their lives. shame on all those who used afghanistan as a ploy for their great games, proxy wars, and neocon experiments. no more imperialism, war or military occupation. open all borders and allow people to move freely, wherever they feel safe. unequivocal solidarity with all our friends and neighbors in afghanistan who have suffered too much and for too long already.

on pakistan and india’s independence days, i dream of a shift away from the gendered nature of colonialism and its legacies. an end to patriarchy, casteism, the oppression of minorities, capitalist greed and its inequities, and all structures of violence in south asia. more water and sustainability, more equality and justice, more comfort and happiness for all. one day, inshallah.