How's my tekkers?

hamzaeva: Propaganda at its worst.

Sat, 25 May 2013 22:48:22 +0800

Propaganda at its worst.

thepeoplesrecord: Meet The Red Brigade: formed in November 2011...

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:04:17 +0800

Meet The Red Brigade: formed in November 2011 to fight back against a growing number of sexual attacks on women in the city of Lucknow, India

The male tormentor of the young women of the Madiyav slum did not spot the danger until it was too late. One moment he was taunting them with sexual suggestions and provocations; the next they had hold of his arms and legs and had hoisted him into the air.

Then the beating began. Some of the young women lightly used their fists, others took off their shoes and hit him with those. When it was over, they let him limp away to nurse his wounds, certain that he had learned an important lesson: don’t push your luck with the Red Brigade.

Named for their bright red outfits, the Red Brigade was formed in November 2011 as a self-defense group for young women suffering sexual abuse in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, 300 miles south-east of Delhi. Galvanised by the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi last December and the nationwide protests that followed against a rising tide of rapes, they are now gaining in confidence.

From a core membership of 15, ranging in age from 11 to 25, they now have more than 100 members with a simple message for the men who have made their lives a misery: they will no longer tolerate being groped, gawped at and worse. Their activities are a lesson in empowerment.

Men who fall foul of the Red Brigade can first expect a visit and a warning. Sometimes the Red Brigade will ask the police to get involved, but if all else fails they take matters into their own hands. Their leader, 25-year-old teacher Usha Vishwakarma, has her own experience of the daily danger faced by many young women in the country. She was just 18 when a fellow teacher tried to rape her. “He grabbed me and put his hands round me and tried to open my belt and trousers,” says Usha, sitting in the bare-brick front room of her small house. “But I was saved by my jeans because they were too tight for him to open, and that gave me a chance to fight, so I kicked him in the sensitive place and pushed him down and ran out of the door.”

No one at the school took her accusations seriously, telling her to forget it and stop causing trouble. The experience left her traumatized and for two years she did nothing. But little by little her confidence came back. In 2009 she set up her own small school for local girls in an outbuilding next to her family home. Yet all around her, she says, she saw more and more young women suffering the same abuse she had faced. And it was threatening to wreck the chances of her young female students.

“Parents were telling girls to stay in their homes so there would be no incidents. They said, ‘if you go to school, boys will be troubling you, so stay home and there will be no sexual violence’,” says Vishwakarma. “But we said no, and we decided to form a group to fight for ourselves. We decided we would not just complain; we would take a lead and fight for ourselves.” They bought red kameez (shirts) and black salwar (trousers) and began to plan the fightback. “We chose red because it means danger and black for protest,” says Vishwakarma.

There is much to fight back against. “It is in the minds of men that girls are objects and it has been like that always,” says Vishwakarma. “Religion shows women as very powerless and that whoever is strong can do anything.”

They have started martial arts training so that the men do not have a physical advantage over them. Pooja, Vishwakarma’s 18-year-old sister, laughs as she recalls the reaction of the boy they grabbed in the street when his taunts became too much. “We all stopped and turned round and we surrounded him and grabbed his arms and legs and he thought it was a joke, but we were not kidding and four of us lifted him in the air and the others started to hit him with their shoes and fists,” she says.

The rough justice the Red Brigade metes out might seem extreme to western sensibilities, but many Indian women are making it clear that they are no longer prepared to put up with endemic abuse. That much is clear from the crime figures: reports of molestation in Delhi are up 590% year on year and rape reports by 147%. The rape cases have hit tourist numbers, which were down 25% in the first three months of the year – 35% fewer women are travelling to India. The Red Brigade say sexual abuse is a part of daily life for young women like them. They all have stories of abuse, attempted rapes and daily harassment. “This is what happens in India,” says 16-year-old Laxmi, one of Vishwakarma’s lieutenants. “These things happen all the time. All of us know this, so don’t let anyone say otherwise. This is why we have formed the Red Brigade.”

Seventeen-year-old Preeti Verma nods in agreement. Her family are too poor to have a toilet in the house, so she has to go out into the fields, she says. Every time she went out, the man in the neighbouring house threw stones at her to try to scare her into jumping up. “He wanted to see my body,” she says. “I told him: ‘What are you doing? You are shameless, don’t you have a mother and sister in your house?’ But he replied that his mother is for his father, his sister is for her husband and that I was for him.” She told Vishwakarma, and the man received a visit from the Red Brigade and another from the police. She has had no trouble from him since.

“We’ve caught a lot of men recently,” says 17-year-old Sufia Hashmi. “I joined up because men always used to pass comments on me and touch my body, but now we beat them the men cannot do anything and they run away. You feel powerful and you feel good.”

On the way back to the slum, the rickshaws pass a public park and for a moment these tough young women show themselves for what they really are – children forced to grow up fast. They beg and plead to stop. “Please, please,” they say, their eyes gleaming in excitement. Shrieking gleefully, they race off towards the swings, slides and roundabouts. Later they stroll back through the market, eating ice-creams, heading for their homes. The sun is low in the sky, the shadows long. The men watch sullenly as they pass. No one risks a word.

Source

Saw this on Al Jazeera this morning. I’m sure it’s gone around Tumblr in some form before.

Because we're still oppressed: Blah blah choice blah

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:29:42 +0800

Because we're still oppressed: Blah blah choice blah:

oppressedbrowngirlsdoingthings:

rcabbasi:

peteschult:

lesilencieux:

“Wearing a hijab isn’t inherently liberating – but neither is baring one’s breasts. What is liberating is being able to choose either of these things. It’s pretty ludicrous to think that oppression is somehow proportional to how covered or uncovered someone’s body is. Both sides of this argument present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment, which only drowns out the substantive challenges facing all women – issues that cannot be encapsulated in a debate about a piece of fabric.”

—

Sara Yasin, Is the Hijab Worth Fighting Over?

Actually, I am sympathetic to the “it’s my choice” point of view, but for the choice to be valid, it really does have to be a choice of that woman, not of some oppressive cultural standard that the woman has internalized and has convinced herself that she has chosen.

You know what, fair enough. But here’s my question: do Muslim women get the benefit of the doubt for having made this decision of their own accord, or is that a privilege reserved for others? Because I seriously doubt you extend the same logic to both sides of the spectrum. I doubt that when a woman walks down the street in booty shorts, you analyze the circumstances of her “choice” because it really does have to be that to be “valid” and not some oppressive cultural standard that she’s internalized, right?

It’s hypocritical, racist, and stupid to imply that Muslim women lack the capacity to make their own conscious decisions about what they wear, as if that ability lies solely in the domain of white Western women who, funnily enough, also make decisions about their appearance within the context of a patriarchal society. But apparently when Western women do that, it’s their own progressive, liberated thinking making the choice.

It’s been said so much but obviously needs repeating — the hypersexualization of women and enforced modesty are the same thing. Both define the value of women in relation to the male gaze. Both present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment.

You know what is ridiculous about people like this? That they believe that they know more than the women who wear the hijab themselves. They, an outsider, has the audacity to figure out exactly why women wear hijab and then suddenly they have more knowledge about the hijab than Muslim women do.

"White privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the US government will not..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:32:58 +0800

“White privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the US government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas.”

- Salon.com article on the Boston Marathon Bombing

Man this quote hits the nail on the head…

(via bohemianarthouse)

imsorrythankyou: metalimagerykinetics: whitewallplaster666: st...

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:22:06 +0800

"The Twins" - depicting the attacks of 9/11

"A Boo Grave" - depicting Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse and torture

"GOT HIM" - depicts Seal Team 6 's raid and takedown of Osama Bin Laden

"Dear Leader" - depicting North Korea and their threats against the world.

"White Nights" - depicting Jim Jones and the fall of Jamestown

"Obama Nation" - depicting Obama's rise to presidency and politics

"Holy Smoke" - depicting a monk, Thich Quang Duc who burned himself, protesting the Vietnam War

"Acid Washed" - depicting acid attacks in Muslim countries

imsorrythankyou:

metalimagerykinetics:

whitewallplaster666:

stopdropandrun:

Jonathan Hobin Re-Creates the World’s Most Infamous Tragedies with Children

more of the album here

Well, Holy Shit.

WOW UH

the last one. This series is pretty brilliant.

autumn-snow-shine: Al-Khadr, on the outskirts of Bethlehem....

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:56:18 +0800

autumn-snow-shine:

Al-Khadr, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. 14.05.13.

There were clashes yesterday in Al-Khadr. It was pretty typical—the shabab (youth) throwing stones at soldiers, and soldiers lobbing tear gas canisters, sound grenades, and shooting plastic-coated steel bullets. But when it’s dry, the tear gas canisters, since they are so hot, actually start fires.

At one point, the girls’ school got out, and they all had to walk right through the crossfire to go home. One girl collapsed from tear gas inhalation, and was taken away in an ambulance. Soon after, the call to prayer sounded from the local mosque, and the fires started.

The occupation does all it can to disrupt Palestinian daily life, but nevertheless, in Palestine, life goes on.

ramiblag: Palestine was NEVER “a land without a people.”

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:58:32 +0800

ramiblag:

Palestine was NEVER “a land without a people.”

hallahwallah: About 1.5 million Armenians died between 1915 and...

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:38:12 +0800

hallahwallah:

About 1.5 million Armenians died between 1915 and 1923. “The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. It was carried out during W.W.I between the years 1915 and 1918. The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children were abducted and horribly abused. The entire wealth of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only a little more than a year of calm at the end of W.W.I, the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923, and the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and expulsions.”

On Oct. 2, 2008, Obama said, “my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.” But he has yet to recognize it as a genocide.

#Armenian Remembrance Day #Never Forget #Recognize

Malka e Shan: descentintotyranny: Yemeni anti-Qaeda cleric killed in US drone...

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:00:13 +0800

Malka e Shan: descentintotyranny: Yemeni anti-Qaeda cleric killed in US drone...:

themindislimitless:

descentintotyranny:

Yemeni anti-Qaeda cleric killed in US drone strike

May 3 2013

Yemen has quickly become one of the most active theaters of operations for America’s drone fleet, though the killing of a local anti Al-Qaeda cleric underscores the rising collateral damage of the unmanned attacks.

Sheik Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber, a prominent cleric within his small village in Yemen, was known for preaching of the evils of the al-Qaida network, warning villagers to stay out of the group and renounce their military ideology.

Unfortunately for Sheik Salem, US military drones that had been hovering in the area took a shot at two alleged Al-Qaeda fighters last August while he was meeting with them outside of the remote village of Khashamir.

According to the cleric’s brother-in-law, Faysal bin Ali bin Jaber, who retold the events to the Associated Press, Salem was called out by the local Al-Qaeda members, presumably to meet with him and intimidate him into dropping his vocal opposition to the group.

Sheik Salem had spoken “about how killing people and labeling people who work with the West as infidels is wrong,” said Faysal.

Following Salem’s death “everyone who saw that there is no differentiating between us and Al-Qaeda are asking why don’t we just join Al-Qaeda since it makes no difference?” he added.

Though the US does not report individual drone strikes in Yemen, groups including the UK’s Bureau for Investigative Journalism, the Long War Journal and the New America Foundation all attempt to track such statistics by using information from Yemeni security officials.

The Associated Press for one has reported nine strikes in Yemen so far in 2013, while the Long War Journal tallied 42 strikes in 2012, up from 10 the year prior. That increase is attributed to US backing of a Yemeni campaign to thwart the Al-Qaeda network and its allies, which took root in a number of southern cities and towns. The US considers the Al-Qaeda branch in Yemen to be one of its most dangerous, linking it with a unsuccessful airliner bombing attempt over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Since information regarding lethal drone operations is not disclosed, it is not entirely clear how the US military makes determinations on when to strike, and how remote pilots determine whether to launch weapons when civilians may be nearby, as was the case in the death of Sheik Salem - which also resulted in the killing of three alleged militants.

According to a New York Times own analysis of drone strikes, one known pattern in similar attacks involves a drone hovering over an area for weeks before deploying weapons, presumably as military analysts attempt to confirm the identities of human targets.

What puzzles even supporters of the military operations against Al-Qaeda in Yemen is why drone strikes are increasingly targeting fresh recruits, and why the US is resorting to drones at all when they could be apprehended by Yemeni security forces instead.

Naji al-Zaydi, a former governor of Marib Province and opponent of Al-Qaeda who spoke with the Times in February, believes these men represent low-level targets.

“Even with Al-Qaeda, there are degrees — some of these young guys getting killed have just been recruited and barely known what terrorism means,” al-Zaydi said. He also added that, in a tribal culture such as Yemen’s, both the identity and background of Al-Qaeda recruits targeted by these drone strikes are not exactly a secret.

According to CIA director John Brennan, drone strikes are only used as a last resort. Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in August, he made no excuses for the deployment of drones in Yemen.

“In short, targeted strikes against the most senior and most dangerous AQAP terrorists are not the problem, they are part of the solution,” said Brennan, referring to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Last week during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on the US drone program, Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni activist and writer whose village had been struck days earlier, told that panel that drones are “harming efforts to win hearts and minds” and are now “the face of America” to many Yemenis.

“What violent militants had previously failed to achieve, one drone strike achieved in an instant,” he added.

dynamicafrica: This past weekend the small town of KwaDukuza,...

Sun, 05 May 2013 20:24:14 +0800

dynamicafrica:

This past weekend the small town of KwaDukuza, in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, was set abuzz as a young couple said “I do” in what has been marked as the area’s ‘First Traditional African Gay Wedding’, taking place between a Zulu and Setswana man.

Both men’s families were actively involved in the ceremony, and the couple plans on having a ‘white wedding’ later this year.

The Jungle of Knowledge: I Am Rohingya (A Poem By Me)

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:32:03 +0800

The Jungle of Knowledge: I Am Rohingya (A Poem By Me):

rebelfrenzee:

I am Rohingya, do you know the Rohingya,

My people are left dead, raped and injured,

A silent murder like the work of a ninja,

And the Champion of Democracy didn’t lift a finger,

They came in their hordes killing us by the thousand,

They burnt our mosques, businesses and housing,

Put our brother in camps with fences around them,

The chains of the Shaytan now bound them,

Called a foreigner and kicked out of my own nation,

Fled to the Ummah thinking outstretched arms were awaiting,

But the nation of God had left us forsaken,

Their heartlessness for the brothers meant our hearts were braking,

But to the politicians our story didn’t effect them,

They saw themselves as Bengali first and Muslim second,

So we had to creep past the patrols to escape detection,

Or go back to our country and die by their weapons,

So spare a thought for my forgotten brothers,

Shed a tear for the wives, sisters and mothers,

Have some mercy for one another,

For when they feel pain the whole Ummah suffers,

Institutionalized racism against the Rohingya Muslims led Burma to genocide

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:31:32 +0800

Institutionalized racism against the Rohingya Muslims led Burma to genocide:

thushaveiheard:

“The atrocities occurring in the name of Buddhist nationalism in Burma are impossible to reconcile with the ideal of metta.”

thepeacefulterrorist: Thousands of Palestinian muslims try to...

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:25:56 +0800

thepeacefulterrorist:

Thousands of Palestinian muslims try to reach Jerusalem on second Friday of Ramadan through Qalandia checkpoint. Some of them started to queue at the checkpoint from 5 am. Access was restricted to men over 50 and women over 45 years old.

lasiguanaba: Maya Women reversing that White Settler-Colonial...

Sun, 05 May 2013 07:17:26 +0800

lasiguanaba:

Maya Women reversing that White Settler-Colonial Gaze.

exotic white ppl we see u

Okay.: Today, 21st May, is the Circassian day of Mourning.

Sun, 05 May 2013 07:04:26 +0800

Okay.: Today, 21st May, is the Circassian day of Mourning.:

balkan-thug:

andyourbirdcantimetravel:

The North Caucasus is the homeland of the Circassians. The region stretches along the high peaks of the Caucasian mountain range at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, bounded by Russia from the north and the Middle East from the south.

From 1763 to 1864 the Circassians fought against the Russians in the Russian-Circassian war only succumbing to a scorched earth campaign initiated in 1862 under General Yevdokimov.

The Circassians were cleansed from their homeland at the end of the Caucasian War by victorious Russia, which by its manner of suppression of the Caucasus can be credited with “inventing the strategy of modern ethnic cleansing and genocide.”

In 1990, the Circassians designated the 21st of May as the national Day of Mourning, on which they commemorate the tragedy of the nation.

More than 1.5 million Circassians were expelled — 90% of the total population at the time. Most of them perished en route, victims of disease, hunger, and exhaustion.

They were dispersed all over the world. Some traveled 3000 km on foot or on ox carts. Some roamed for 25 years before settling down.

Today over 4 million Circassians live outside their homeland in over 40 countries across of the world. Many Circassians remember their ancestors who had survived the Ciracassian Genocide to suffer the miseries of the deportation. I am one of them.

I’m sorry, but I have to post this. It’s our history, our tragedy.

There’s no need to say sorry for spreading awareness of the least know genocides in history. Especially when it’s your people.

ajarfullofdreams: “There are some parts of the world that, once...

Sun, 05 May 2013 06:57:53 +0800

ajarfullofdreams:

“There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won’t go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds… I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.”

moechtegernrebell: kurzvergessenmachen: Ich geh hiiiiiin!...

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:53:43 +0800

moechtegernrebell:

kurzvergessenmachen:

Ich geh hiiiiiin! :)))))

Ich will auch :(

hahaha freaking urban middle class western kids. I hope some of you guys realise & acknowledge this was inspired by the Indian Holi celebrations in certain parts of the region. even the swisse colour run had to acknowledge that, despite initially claiming Bullshit like their powder was made of fucking fairy dust.

and I bet that 30stm video is just gonna popularise this

*groooaaan*

I don’t know but maybe I should start writing. Maybe this blog can be a combination...

Fri, 03 May 2013 23:30:26 +0800

I don’t know but maybe I should start writing.

Maybe this blog can be a combination of things.

People have asked me to write something related to my fave club and I always turn them down because I’m terrified of being judged. And also because I have never really written for such a long time for an open audience, bar academic gibberish we are all forced to endure.

And I’d like to write something about my beloved club someday. But perhaps after suffering a few more years with them, and after I get the hang of writing?

I guess as I’m slowly finding a healthy lifestyle for my body, I need to do somethings to sharpen my mind as well.

First things first, a new theme :D

Israeli football, racism and politics: The ugly side of the beautiful game - The National

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:48:47 +0800

Israeli football, racism and politics: The ugly side of the beautiful game - The National:

Israel’s integration into European competitions, despite its refusal to revive peace talks with the Palestinians, respect human rights and halt illegal settlement, is, according to critics, contrary to sporting values.

Despite my fave players are gonna be participating in this tournee & some ppl I know are going…. I think I’m gonna boycott the U21 event.

I’ve been pondering over it too much and following the qualification stages closely. But nah, i just decided not to follow and praise accolades for this tournament.

humanrightswatch: iluvsouthernafrica: Manica, Mozambique...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:48:43 +0800

humanrightswatch:

iluvsouthernafrica:

Manica, Mozambique - They are washing the soil, day and night, hoping to reveal gold.

In this area of Mozambique, 70-80 percent of gold prospectors arrive illegally from the neighbouring country of Zimbabwe. The nuggets, which officially belong to the state, end up in the hands of Nigerian, Somalian, Zimbabwean, Israeli and Lebanese merchants.

The state is left with polluted ground and river water, unsuitable for drinking or watering, and with gold-diggers’ damaged health.

The miners claw at the earth between 15 and 20 metres beneath the surface, in an extensive tunnel system.

From Al Jazeera:

Pictures by Zsofia Palyi

Check out our work on gold mining practices.