I Know Ive Been Here…

you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.

first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.

now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:

in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.

and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.

and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.

it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:

• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.

• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.

• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.

• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.

• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.

• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.

and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.

what i'm asking:

if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.

if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.

india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.

we can still save her. but only loudly.

On July 17, 1964, George purchased Kinfauns, a bungalow in Esher, home until early 1970, when Friar Park was purchased. Pictured here are, in photos 1-7, scans from the at home photo session by Leslie Bryce for The Beatles Monthly (on October 7, 1965); photos 8 & 9 show the home turning colorful (photos by Robert Whitaker, scanned from The Apple Years booklet).

George and Olivia with Bob Marley backstage at the Roxy, 13 July 1975. Photo 1 published in Cash Box magazine; photos by Kim Gottlieb-Walker, and Peter Borsari.

“When Bob heard that George was coming, he got really excited. He said, ‘Ras Beatle!’ I had a flash on my camera and the batteries were dying — they were only together for two minutes and you had to wait 30 seconds to get a charge. It was agonizing. But I got the picture in the end and that’s all that matters.” - Kim Gottlieb-Walker, Hempstead Highgate Express, 16 April 2011

“[George had] not long returned from LA where he’d seen Bob Marley & The Wailers three times at the Roxy — ‘best thing I’ve seen in ten years. Marley reminds me so much of Dylan in the early days, playing guitar as if he’s new to it. And his rhythm, you know, it’s so simple, yet so beautiful. I could watch The Wailers all night.’” - Melody Maker, 6 September 1975

Venezuela still needs help after the 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that hit the country as too many people have lost everything.

The regime has made everything even more difficult, not only NOT helping the people stuck under the rubble, but ordering collection centers to close down and they have even been kidnapping people speaking out, so it's very important that if you're going to donate, do so to organizations that have zero ties to the government.

The Venezuelan Red Cross has been controlled by the government for years so any money donated to them will never reach the people that need it. Please DO NOT donate there.

Here are two great resources I personally trust.

Yummy is a delivery and transportation service (like Uber) and their CEO has been very transparent on social media with where all the money is going, and you can now check that on the website itself. They've been also giving free rides to people that need to go to the hospital or to gathering centers so their work has been truly great.

You can donate as little or as much as you'd like in pretty much any currency and your donation will be matched by a bunch of other companies.

If instead you'd like to donate to other organizations or you would like to volunteer or bring supplies in person to your local collection center, you can check out all that info on this website. It's all divided by different focuses so check out where you feel more comfortable donating.