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"The thing we need most is security. Without security, nothing works. We are only out here playing chess because right now, in this place, we have a little bit of security. But that’s just for right now— just this moment. In this country things have never been secure for long. In America, there is always security. And that’s why America works." (Juba, South Sudan)

Jonathan May - Awake (2013)

“Everything was fine at breakfast. We talked normally. I went to work thinking that it was just a normal day. Then when I came home, the door was locked, which was strange, but I didn’t think much of it. Everything seemed to be in place when I went inside the house. So I sat down and watched TV, expecting them to come home any minute. After awhile, I went upstairs to the bedroom. And that’s when I noticed all her clothes were missing. Then I ran to the children’s room, and all their clothes were missing too. After seventeen years, she left me without saying a word.”  (Nairobi, Kenya)

"I’ve had to run from war twice. Both times I left good jobs behind, and it was very painful. The second time was the worst. I thought I’d escaped a hopeless situation, and then it happened again. You can feel when war is coming to your town. Traffic picks up. People’s faces begin to look very worried. Nobody cares for each other. If someone talks to you, you can tell that they want the conversation to end as soon as possible. The second time I had to run, I thought: ‘This time I have to get as far away as possible.’ So I came all the way to Kinshasa." "Were you worried the war would reach Kinshasa?" "No. Because the wars have all been about Kinshasa. So if the war reaches Kinshasa, the war is over." (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo)

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If Capt. Johnson cared about police brutality he would defect and inform the world of the corruption and abuse that goes in in the police force. Instead he panders to the system and actively works to preserve a white supremacist power structure every day of his life.

"One day I drove into the city to buy goods for my shop. I repaired antennas and satellite dishes, so I needed some replacement parts. But on the road there was a checkpoint for the Syrian government, and two soldiers came up to my car. They began to argue with each other. ‘Let’s take him,’ said one of them.  'Let him go,' said the other. And they went back and forth, and back and forth. But finally the first man won the argument, and they took me out of my car, put a blindfold on me, and took me to jail. When I got to the jail, they began beating me with a cord. They asked me if I supported the rebels. I kept saying 'No,' but they kept beating me. They took off all my clothes. They said: 'We are going to whip you 35 times, and if you say 'ouch,' we will start from the beginning. They whipped me and kicked me and broke 3 of my ribs.  They said: ‘Tell us how many soldiers you’ve killed.’  I said: ‘None.’ They said: ‘Tell us how many soldiers!” I said: ‘None. I haven’t killed anyone.’ But they kept beating me and they ripped off my toenails and I screamed: ‘Eleven! Eleven! I killed eleven soldiers!’ So they put me into prison. But I never killed any soldiers. I never fought anyone. I’m a good person. I have a very sweet heart. You believe me when I tell you this, don’t you?” (Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan)

The struggles are distinct. Specific to specific communities. But the structures are interconnected. What does it say for American police to be trained by and often armed by the IDF; what does it say for weapons to be tested on Palestinians and then sold to the rest of the world; what does it say for military and prisons to both be privatized to this extent; what does it say for neoliberal institutions like the IMF and the world bank to be supporting private prisons as replacements of state functions in developing countries? We have to have attention to detail and we have to also be able to look at this in a larger framework.

Actually, according to Mycio and photographer and field biologist Sergey Gaschak, the animals are thriving. The 1986 explosion, the worst nuclear accident in history, forced 300,000 people to abandon the highly contaminated area around the wreckage of the power plant. Communal farms turned to wetlands and forests, and the animals came back. The area is now the largest, if unintentional, wildlife sanctuary in Europe. (via)

The rise of genocidal Buddhist racism against the Rohingya, a minority community of nearly one million people in the western Burmese province of Rakhine (also known as Arakan), is an international humanitarian crisis. The military-ruled state has been relentless in its attempts to erase Rohingya ethnic identity, which was officially recognized as a distinct ethnic group in 1954 by the democratic government of Prime Minister U Nu. Indeed, in the past months of violent conflict, beginning in June 2012, the Rohingya have suffered over 90 percent of the total death toll and property destruction, including the devastation of entire villages and city neighborhoods. Following the initial eruption of violence in western Burma, several waves of killing, arson, and rampage have been directed at the Rohingya, backed by Burma’s security forces.

Photos— Jonathan Saruk: Kutupalong and Leda Refugee Camp, Bangladesh, November 14 and 19.

"I want to be a pilot so I can fly everywhere." (Dhana, Jordan)