Peace calls us to smile more, deep breath often and always respect other people's rights!
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Ready to Wake Up?
Friday, November 27, 2020
Let's unshackle each other!
Monday, November 2, 2020
To you, Tat!
This poem is for a powerful woman in Louisiana. Her name is Arizola Spears and she is 92 years old. Throughout her life she always fought for civil rights and the right to vote for all. She had contracted COVID-19 a few weeks ago. But you know what, not only she conquered the virus, she went ahead and voted in these very important presidential elections in the United States. If she, at 92 after surviving corona virus, is not tired, how can we? Her grit and grace inspires all around her and everyone that hears of her and what she has achieved!
Mrs. Arizola Spears |
Know your daughters and granddaughters
and even strangers like me,
Are invigorated and awakened,
By your words, actions, and energy!
Thank you, Tat!
If you'd like to listen to the post, click on this link
Thursday, September 3, 2020
NO LAW AND ORDER WITHOUT PEACE AND JUSTICE!
My husband and I have participated in peaceful protests several times and have never thrown a stone or burned anything and I have never seen another person walking by me do anything violent either. People standing up for basic human rights shouldn't be seen as a threat to law and order. It is a scared act done in love for fellow human beings.
Yes, there are violent people who come in all colors and from all political affiliations and ALL of them should be brought to justice. We should NOT close our eyes when few protestors burn a building, it is not correct. Similarly, we should not look the other way when a boy walks by the protesters and kills them. And just like we say there was ONE person who shot and killed the protesters and NOT his entire group, we should be able to say only a FEW protesters burned the shops and only a handful of protests included violence. Let's at least agree to this!
Now what is more serious from law and order and religious perspective I will leave it up to you for research and introspection between killing human beings and destroying buildings. Also, I leave it to you to decide who you want to empathize with more, those who are standing up for their basic human rights after hundreds of years of brutality and injustice vs. those who are upset because people are standing up for their basic human rights.
I come from India, Mahatma Gandhi's country, I believe in Peace and Nonviolence and I also believe in standing up for my rights and of my fellow human beings. And I am not sorry if I offend you by supporting the peaceful protests and the protesters. THERE IS NO LAW AND ORDER WITHOUT PEACE AND JUSTICE!
Monday, June 1, 2020
Peace Seeks Justice
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Crime: Tall, Dark and Handsome!
The saga of hatred for fellow human beings and love for inequality continues in the United States of America. Not all are racists but there are enough to keep the system discriminatory against those of darker skin and on top of that if you are a grown dark man, things can be worse for you. There is no end of stories where a dark, tall and handsome boy or a man was brutalized or killed just because of how they looked. Nothing, their degrees, wealth, social standing or their hard-work could save them from the wrath of a police officer who saw them as a lesser human being! On May 25th, another man called, George Floyd, was killed by a cop, named Derek Chauvin, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The cop pressed his knee on the neck of George while he was handcuffed and suffocated him to death! All of this was recorded on the camera and eventually the entire world saw the horrendous crime. However, none of that triggered immediate arrest of the cop, it took the system four days and several protests on the streets to make that happen! Horrific events like these and sub-events within these events make people angry, helpless and hopeless! Not all but some do get aggressive because this murder is just one more injustice on top of all the oppression for generations, and worse, the possibility of swift change is very little! My heart goes out of every angry and hopeless youth who is out there fearing for themselves and their loved ones. If you are asking me why am I so impacted since I am not categorized as 'black', I am sorry for you! Those who misuse power against one person/group, they will do it again against another person/group! Moreover, Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". Not only we should all be outraged now but we should sustain it until the system is changed substantially because majority of those in power will not do anything out of their own good will!
There are lot more articles and videos that explain the generational systematic oppression of blacks in the US, here are a just a few articles to support my points above:
- Discriminatory Practices in the American Criminal Justice System: The Politics of Policing and Punishment: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2713810
- https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/views-of-racial-inequality/
- Police Brutality - An Anthalogy : https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Ic_UBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT4&dq=police+brutality+in+america&ots=z95ASmk1pt&sig=BHXMXjPGzRnvAIXJPAiGBLIIy_Q#v=onepage&q=police%20brutality%20in%20america&f=false
- Police Brutality in the United States: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Police-Brutality-in-the-United-States-2064580
Racism, Inequality, and Health Care for African American: https://tcf.org/content/report/racism-inequality-health-care-african-americans/?agreed=1
Stress and anxiety in times of Quarantine
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Fear in times of COVID-19
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Peaceful Grieving
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Happy Republic Day, India!
Reflecting and in conversation with Gandhi's statue in Washington DC. 26th January 2020 |
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-lynching/mob-in-india-kills-three-on-suspicion-of-cattle-theft-three-arrested-idUSKCN1UE127 |
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/how-indian-news-channels-are-peddling-hatred-against-muslims-on-primetime-tv-1.67265166 |
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/jackboots-in-jamia-millia-islamia-university/cid/1727353 |
https://kafila.online/2016/03/05/a-conversation-about-the-meaning-of-the-word-azadi-freedom-in-the-wake-of-events-at-jnu/ |
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/sing-a-song-of-freedom/article30532807.ece |
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/shaheen-bagh-protesters-a-fight-for-childrens-future-women-at-delhis-shaheen-bagh-to-ndtv-on-citizen-2164028 |
https://www.thehindu.com/books/till-hate-do-us-part-poetry-has-brought-together-people-across-the-border/article30533509.ece |
https://www.hindustantimes.com/it-s-viral/amid-anti-caa-protests-in-delhi-pic-of-girl-giving-rose-to-cop-goes-viral/story-V9qiMmJZXNRkWVKoU871UL.html |
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Healing the wounds from the Puerto Rico Earthquakes: Components of Community based Psychosocial Support (CBPSS)
- ‘Caring about’ someone or something helps individuals to recognize need in others, thereby resulting in attentiveness. Here I would include ‘caring about places’ as a type of care that encourages attentiveness in the ways that places are both deeply personal as well as socially shared.
- 'Taking care of’ someone or something in the affected areas and surrounding communities. Place-based caring can be as simple as picking up trash on the beach to hosting a neighborhood potluck to organizing political protest actions; such feelings and actions produce responsibility to oneself, to others, and to places, neighborhoods, and social communities.
- ‘Giving care’ means that the feeling of responsibility for doing the work of caring for oneself and getting that work done produces competence in caring work. For example, in working in several affected communities after Hurricane Maria, I observed that, individuals may gain self-confidence, leadership skills, and social respect when collaborating over several months, and successfully creating a neighborhood community garden, planting trees, and fixing the “caminos” in the neighborhoods.
- ‘Receiving care’ means that one makes sure the care work has been done and it has made things better; such a commitment produces responsiveness. This fourth type of care is not only the most difficult; receiving care also means that one must allow others to share in the responsibility of caring for oneself. To do this means to recognize the ‘other’ as different than the self in ways that might allow for inclusiveness and openness, including also listening to others, enhancing one’s own sense of self- worth, and crafting new social shells.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Vision 2020: Learn to Walk Alone
I am not OK
I am writing this on behalf of thousands of people, particularly the humanitarian workers around the world, who are not perfectly ok. Many o...
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In a post last September, I tried to explore what makes a heart peaceful and it helped me understand that a peaceful heart or a combinatio...
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There are several news stories coming out of Ukraine that confirm, once again, that often refugees have to face the racism and discri...
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I am writing this on behalf of thousands of people, particularly the humanitarian workers around the world, who are not perfectly ok. Many o...