All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Hidden dimensions

Poetry for Palestine

 

My first son Hassan

Was born on April the 9th

 

You might think

So what… why are you saying it

With such a gloomy tune

What is wrong with 9th of April?

You have to be a Palestinian

To understand

For on the 9th of April 1948

The massacre of Deir Yassin

Took place

Where every man women and child

Of that peaceful farming village

Was killed in cold blood

No one survived

Except those

Who pretended to be dead

As we celebrate the birth of a new born

With joy

We mourn and grief

Lost loved ones

In our midst

Nothing comes insular

Nothing is disjointed

No single colours

The fabric of our lives

Makes the most amazing tapestry

If you hold it backwards

Looking at the wrong side

You’ll see a mirror image

Of shades of a blurred picture

With loops… knots and…

View original post 170 more words

U.S. Deports Salvadoran General Accused in ’80s Killings – NYTimes.com

After a 16-year legal battle, a former defense minister of El Salvador once embraced by Washington as a close ally during the civil war there in the 1980s, was deported on Wednesday after immigration courts found that he had participated in torture and killings by troops under his command.

The officer, Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, is the highest-ranking foreign official to be deported under laws enacted in 2004 to prevent human rights violators from seeking haven in this country. The expulsion culminates persistent efforts by rights advocates to hold General Vides accountable for his role in the 1980 murders of four American churchwomen, one of the most notorious crimes by the Salvadoran armed forces in that era.

via U.S. Deports Salvadoran General Accused in ’80s Killings – NYTimes.com.

Zapatistas Call for Different Forms of Protest in Mexico

dorset chiapas solidarity

Zapatistas Call for Different Forms of Protest in Mexico

zapatistas.jpg_1718483346 Members of the EZLN hold banners saying “You are not alone,” and “Your anger is also ours.” | Photo: Reuters

For the past six months, Mexicans have been tirelessly protesting over the forced disappearances of 43 students from a teacher training college. Mexican revolutionary group the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) is questioning the effectiveness of traditional methods of popular struggle, including “marches, real or virtual, elections, inquiries and meetings,” to address the “catastrophe” that has engulfed the country.

In a press release, signed by Insurgent Subcommander Galeano, the militants said that even though the nation was in the midst of a “storm,” they could see and hear that “everything is carrying on the same,” and that people are being presented with “only small variations that do not significantly alter the landscape.” “

As Zapatistas, we see one thing and…

View original post 152 more words

Loss in Translation: Ayotzinapa and Mexico’s More than 27,000 Disappeared

dorset chiapas solidarity

Loss in Translation: Ayotzinapa and Mexico’s More than 27,000 Disappeared

by Maggie Ervin
At its best, a translation can be sublime and elevating. I dare say Edith Grossman’s English version of One Hundred Years of Solitudeis almost as stunningly delicious as Garcia Marquez’s original. And I wonder if Rilke’s original Sonnets to Orpheus could possibly be more transcendent than Stephen Mitchell’s take on it. At its worst, translation can be awkward and disappointing. When trying to convey the layers of Portuguese’s saudade, or those long, precise German nouns stuck together to make one single word.
Translating certain words from Spanish to English can be complicated too. In English, “disappear” is not normally a transitive verb. Something or someone disappears by its own will, or by negligence, but it’s not something you do to someone else. There are plenty of cruel things you can do to people in English…

View original post 767 more words

The search for happiness

Zen Flash

1483327_10152051904436154_573310790_nThe search for happiness is not about looking at life through rose-colored glasses or blinding oneself to the pain and imperfections of the world. Nor is happiness a state of exultation to be perpetuated at all costs.

It is the purging of mental toxins, such as hatred and obsession, that literally poison the mind. It is also about learning how to put things in perspective and reduce the gap between appearances and reality.

To that end we must acquire a better knowledge of how the mind works and a more accurate insight into the nature of things, for in its deepest sense, suffering is intimately linked to a misapprehension of the nature of reality.

―Matthieu Ricard

With thanks to Tashi at https://greatmiddleway.wordpress.com

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200 farmers committed suicide in Marathwada, says official – The Times of India

The total number of farmers who committed suicide during the last three months in the eight districts of Marathwada region has crossed 200, official sources said here today.

The main reason behind taking the extreme step is bankruptcy due to loans which cannot be repayed due to crops destroyed by natural calamities.

via 200 farmers committed suicide in Marathwada, says official – The Times of India.