Tag: Kashmir

To follow my heart and find my voice (Liberate THIS, Part 16)

Posted on by kathiemm

[The final installment in a continuing series by guest author Dr. Dahlia Wasfi.]

Rachel Corrie peace vigil
Rachel Corrie peace vigil. Image used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Rachel Corrie literally stood up for what she believed on March 16, 2003. She stood before the Israeli military who came to Rafah in armored bulldozers to level homes.

With her courageous stand, she equated her Western life with the lives of the Palestinian families behind her. Perhaps her actions were an affront to the occupation soldiers staring down from their sixty ton vehicle. Perhaps her actions inspired them to crush her to death.

Her actions inspired me to follow my heart and find my voice. To me, her courage showed hope and strength.

With Rachel’s example before me, my life has directed me to know my family. I traveled thousands of miles to go see them and know them.

But my work as an activist has also taught me that I don’t only have family in Iraq. My relatives are everywhere:  in Afghanistan; in Pakistan; in Kashmir; in Vietnam; in Walter Reed Army Medical Center; in Arlington Cemetery; in every village and city around the globe.

You have relatives there, too.

My medical career is on hold so that I can focus on calling for the immediate, unconditional end of war and occupation on behalf of all of my family.

What would you do for your family?

What will you do?

Giving voice to the silenced (Stories of engagement)

Posted on by kathiemm

[Note from Kathie MM: Today, in honor of Ramadan, which is being celebrated this month by Muslims around the world, we are proud to present another case study in moral engagement—in this instance by our young poet/activist contributor, San’aa Sultan. Ramadan Mubarak.]

Child holding poster and flag in West Bank protest
West Bank protest. Photo by Hamde Abu Rahmah; used with permission.

I’m San’aa Sultan, a peace activist, a writer, a poet and an artist but most importantly a human being. Being human means that I feel the pain of those around me suffering and that I cannot close my eyes to the pain nor can I silently submit to a system and a world where injustice is normal.

I’m a poet and my words are inspired by the struggles of those whose names, faces and voices we do not know or value. I write because I feel it is my duty to give a voice to those who have been silenced.

I tie myself  closely to the struggles of Palestine and Kashmir because I don’t understand how over 60 years later we still speak of the same struggles and still watch the same people live under such harsh conditions and do not speak against any of it.

I run a blog called “Today In Kashmir” to highlight the suffering of those in Indian Occupied Kashmir and I’m also involved in prisoner support work with the Ministry of Detainees in Gaza. Through this, a sister from Gaza and I have set up a Facebook page called “Support Palestinian Detainees and Their Families” with the intention to globalise the stories of those detained by Israel.

I was suffering from many personal losses when my activism begun and in May 2010 when the Mavi Marmara was attacked by the Israel Defense Forces in international waters, I could no longer remain silent. Our struggle became one.

San’aa Sultan

The federal budget: Invasions, yes! Peace, no!

Posted on by kathiemm

At least that’s what the politicos are telling us.

By now, everyone must have heard something about the debates about the new U.S. budget. You may know that to address the deficits that have accrued since former President Bill Clinton created a budget surplus, powerful forces in Congress seek, among other things, to

  • Gut the Environmental Protection Agency
  • Block spending for health care
  • Cut food and other assistance programs for children, the elderly, and the disabled
U.S. Institute of Peace building
U.S. Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C.

But did you know that while declaring funding for the Pentagon off-limits for budget considerations, a majority in the House of Representatives also voted to eliminate funding for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)?

The USIP, established by Congress in 1984, conducts research and training designed to prevent and end wars and to promote international peace, stability, and development. In recent years it has engaged in mediation and conflict resolution activities in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Colombia, Iraq, Kashmir, Liberia, the Korean Peninsula, Nepal, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda.

Despite the fact that the U.S. spends as much on what is euphemistically called “defense” as the rest of the world combined, Congress wants to end this independent nonpartisan organization with a budget that is only one tenth of one percent of the State Department budget.

The previous budget for USIP was minuscule compared to the spending in Iraq and Afghanistan (approximately $42.7 million every 142 minutes according to Congressman Dennis Kucinich).

What message is Congress sending to the American public?  To the rest of the world? Why is there so much more commitment to the arms industry than to peace?

Please send us your answers—and consider becoming an activist on behalf of peace and justice.

For inspiration, check out this BBC video and consider how we are all one people and if we want to survive in all our commonalities and all our uniqueness, we need to support efforts for peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology