Category Archives: Viva!

In Life’s Mirror #poetry #uganda #photography

penned in moon dust

In the mirror of a water bucket I see:

A blur of color

children with bright hearts

flames cannot douse courage

little girls pump, pump, pump

feet steadily move up the hill

“more water”

little heads bear yellow water jugs

school books brown edged

blue chairs too hot to touch

 ashen are next day’s reflections

 parents anxious to know education’s fate

stories told, songs we sang, things we made

in the mirror of my heart

 stout hearts of orphans

 smiles contagious

 over flow of son’s rays of love

*

Fire rages fierce

days merge breeze takes them away

color filled smiles

Today’s prompt at Poet’s United is “Mirror.” 

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Emel Mathlouthi – Naci en Palestina آمال مثلوثي – YouTube

Born in Palestine [English Lyrics]I have no placeI have no countryI have no homelandWith my fingers I make fire and with my

I have no placeI have no countryI have no homelandWith my fingers I make fire and with my

I have no homelandWith my fingers I make fire and with my

With my fingers I make fire and with my

With my fingers I make fire and with my heart I sing for you my heart’s strings weepI was born in PalestineI was born in Palestine I have no placeI have no countryI have no homeland

Naci en Palestina [Spanish Lyrics]no tengo lugary no tengo paisajeyo menos tengo patriacon mis dedos hago el fuegoy con mi corazón te cantolas cuerdas de mi corazón llorannací en palestinanací en palestinano tengo lugary no tengo paisajeyo menos tengo patriaLyrics in Arabic ما عندي مكانو ما عنديش زمانو ما عنديش بلادمن يديا نصنع نارمن قلبي البلارنجرحلك وتر حزينمولود في فلسطينمولود في فلسطينما عندي مكانو ما عنديش زمانو ما عنديش بلادمولود في فلسطينمولود في فلسطينتاريخي عمرو ما يتمحىLyrics in FrenchJE SUIS NÉE EN PALESTINEJe n’ai aucun endroitJe n’ai aucun paysJe n’ai aucune patrieAvec mon doigt je fais le feuet avec mon coeur je chante pour vousles cordes de mon coeur pleurentJe suis née en PalestineJe suis née en PalestineJe n’ai aucun endroitJe n’ai aucun paysJe n’ai aucune patrie

Trump & Co.’s Daily Assault on Women Isn’t News. It’s Our Every Day | Dame Magazine

I am thrilled because they are scared: Their racist, sexist comments and actions aren’t made by people of character or legitimate confidence. They are terrified of women, women in positions of power, women of color, and especially women of color with clout. I am even more thrilled because these comments, these slurs and dog whistles to the Trump base only serve to embolden women everywhere.

Source: Trump & Co.’s Daily Assault on Women Isn’t News. It’s Our Every Day | Dame Magazine

The Future of Free Speech, Trolls, Anonymity and Fake News Online | Pew Research Center

 

“Almost totally useless article since 90% plus users of the web will not read more than the headline and the bolded text.

  • Web abuse will get worse.
  • Too many people only read what supports their currently held opinions.
  • Abuse will get worse”

Many experts fear uncivil and manipulative behaviors on the internet will persist – and may get worse.

Source: The Future of Free Speech, Trolls, Anonymity and Fake News Online | Pew Research Center

Most Germans think Trump won’t last four years in office – The Local

More than half of Germans (55 percent) don’t think Trump will last as president for his entire four-year term, according to a survey released by YouGov on Monday. The opinion research group polled more than 1,000 people between February 20th and 23rd.

Source: Most Germans think Trump won’t last four years in office – The Local

Jeanine Pirro Calls for Paul Ryan to Step Down After Health Bill Failure – The New York Times – Twittersphere is just weird as…

So when Mr. Trump said on Twitter on Saturday — a day after his crushing defeat in the House on health care — that people should watch her show that night, political observers began guessing what was in store.What she delivered was a diatribe against the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan.“Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the House,” Ms. Pirro, a former prosecutor, said at the opening of her show. “The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill.”

After neo-Nazi youth, Swede teaches the value of tolerance – The Local

In his eyes, exclusion is what pushes young people toward harmful behaviour.”You have to show them tolerance and talk to them, instead of closing the door and leaving a whole group on their own to burgeon and grow even more hateful and violent and dangerous.”And his work has taken him far beyond Sweden: Last year Ahlen took part in a Unesco conference on preventing violent extremism in New Delhi.

Source: After neo-Nazi youth, Swede teaches the value of tolerance – The Local

The 712-page Google doc that proves Muslims do condemn terrorism | World news | The Guardian

Muslims are constantly denouncing atrocities that have been committed in the name of Islam. Yet many people seem to think Muslims don’t condemn terrorism enough. So Hashmi decided to put the notion to the test. Using Google spreadsheets, she made a “712-page list of Muslims condemning things with sources”, which she tweeted. The list includes everything from acts of domestic violence to 9/11.“I wanted to show people how weak the argument [that Muslims don’t care about terrorism] is,” she explained.Her stats struck a chord. Within 24 hours, Hashmi’s tweet had been retweeted 15,000 times. A couple of her followers volunteered to help her turn her spreadsheet into an interactive website and, within a week of the tweet, muslimscondemn.com was born.

This was last November, but the website has grown considerably since then and, sadly, flickers into prominence whenever a new attack takes place. Hashmi’s project isn’t just designed to prove that Muslims are constantly condemning terrorism; she made it to demonstrate how ridiculous it is that Muslims are constantly expected to offer apologies for terrorist acts. Muslims, notes Hashmi, are “held to a different standard than other minorities: 1.6 billion people are expected to apologise and condemn [terrorism] on behalf of a couple of dozen lunatics. It makes no sense.” After all, Hashmi, says, “I don’t view the KKK or the Westboro Baptist church or the Lord’s Resistance Army as accurate representations of Christianity. I know that they’re on the fringe. So it gets very frustrating having to defend myself and having to apologise on behalf of some crazy people.”

Source: The 712-page Google doc that proves Muslims do condemn terrorism | World news | The Guardian

In Syria, Civilian Lives Don’t Matter

This ‘left’ has whole-heartedly adopted the ‘War on Terror’ narrative, first promoted by Assad himself, in a way which puts neo-cons to shame. It isn’t surprising that the world often sees Syrian refugees as potential terrorists when such pundits claim the same, impeding solidarity with these victims of state terror. Some of these so-called ‘progressives’ would rather spend their time slandering the aid workers who rescue the victims rather than denouncing the US’s war crimes and imperial forays. Some of the same people promoted Trump’s candidacy for the President as the supposedly ‘anti-interventionist’ option.

‘The US is attacking ISIS strongholds,’ the media likes to tell us. Yet tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped in Raqqa under brutal ISIS occupation. Around 400,000 are under siege in Mosul, among a few thousand ISIS militants, and food and water supplies are running out. Not only are they at risk of bombs ripping their lives apart, many fear retribution from incoming militias who may see civilians as ISIS sympathizers.

Terrorism will not be defeated by foreign bombs. Every civilian killed creates only more anger, pain and despair and feeds the narrative that groups such as ISIS wish to promote. Numerous countries are now intervening in the Syrian battleground, contributing to the whole-scale slaughter. Anti-war activists should be calling on all foreign forces to leave and holding the perpetrators of war crimes to account.

Hummus For Thought

C7HBZ_TX0AEsMqB White Helmet volunteers search for trapped victims of US airstrikes, Al Jina, Aleppo

Since Trump came to power there has been a marked escalation of the US intervention in Syria, supposedly to defeat ISIS.

The US already has hundreds of Special Operations forces fighting on the ground alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces and has backed them with hundreds of airstrikes. Now a marine artillery unit has been deployed to Syria to support the battle to take Raqqa and the US is planning on sending in more ground troops.

Since the beginning of this year there have been daily reports of civilians killed during US airstrikes on Syrian villages and towns. Some have resulted in large-scale massacres. On 16 March more than 40 civilians were killed, including children, and over 100 injured in the village of Al Jina, near Aleppo, when a US airstrike struck the Omar ibn al-Khattab mosque as…

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