First Princess Of Burma: Her Indian Children

(Namita Kholi’s article from the HINDUSTAN TIMES on 26 February 2017.)

(Burmese Princess Su Myat) Phaya Gyi, 26, had managed to hide her love affair with the “strapping young Maratha” Gopal Sawant for several months. It was only after the birth of their daughter, Tutu, that her parents learnt of the alliance. How could this be, they lamented – she, a princess, and he, a mere gatekeeper at the royal residence?

All stories start with a king. This one, however, must begin with a princess. A princess of ‘pure’ royal blood; born out of a marriage between a king and his step sister; a princess with kohl rimmed eyes, long, straight hair, and a heart full of sorrow and longing.

This princess was the eldest daughter of King Thibaw, the last king of Burma, who was exiled by the British in 1885. The royal family – the king, his two queens, and four daughters – were banished to the coastal town of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. Thibaw, or “Thiba Raja”( as the king was known locally) lived here for over three decades. He died in 1916, and was entombed with his junior queen.

By 1919, however, the royal family left for Myanmar, never to turn back. Except Princess Phaya, who pleaded (to British) to be sent back. Eventually, despite the royal family’s opposition, Phaya and her “half-caste” daughter, Tutu, were sent back to Ratnagiri, where the two lived for the rest of their lives. So why is the town having a hard time remembering its princess?

Joshua Wong (David) Vs Emperor Xi Jinping (Goliath)

 (Ben Machell’s article from the TIMES UK on 24 August 2019.)

“I Am Not A Hero”: For the past three months, the people of Hong Kong have faced off against the government of China. Pro-democracy protesters have been engaged in civil unrest on a sweeping scale, while in response Beijing has pushed back with ever increasing force.

So far, neither side has been willing to back down. Images of marches, rallies, hastily assembled barricades and increasingly tense clashes flood our news feeds every day. In June, a demonstration attended by almost two million people brought the city to a standstill. The following month, protesters stormed, occupied and tore apart the city’s legislative council offices.

A month ago, Hong Kong airport, one of the ­busiest in the world, was taken over and shut down by peaceful demonstrators who flooded the departure area and caused flights to be cancelled for two days. More recently, 1.7 million people braved thunderstorms to take to the streets.

The First Christians: Gentiles Converted By Peter

 (The Verses from The BIBLE GATEWAY’s Bible’s Acts 9, 10, and 11.)

(At the beginning there were only two types of people the Jews (chosen-ones) and the Gentiles (non-Jews). Many Jews, but not all Jews, were the original believers and followers of Lord Jesus of Nazareth. Well after Jesus’s death by crucifixion and his resurrection one of the apostles, Peter, famously baptised Roman Centurion Cornelius  and his Gentile household with Holy Spirit as guided by the Lord in Peter’s and Cornellius’s visions through Lord’s angels. The events were recorded in Bible’s Acts 9, 10, and 11.)

Acts 9, 32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Who Really Is Behind The Hong Kong Protests?

(Sara Flounder’s article from The WORKERS WORLD on 16 August 2019.)

The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. What are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit? Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.

The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported in the U.S. corporate media and all the imperialist political parties in the U.S. and Britain. This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral.

The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns. Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag.

Refugee Jailed For Indecent Assault of 3-yrs Old Girl

 (Staff articles from The SEVEN NEWS, YAHOO, & ABC NEWS in August 2019.)

Shopping centre guard sentenced over 'haunting' stairwell assault of three year old: A Sydney judge has described the actions of a shopping centre security guard, who indecently assaulted a young girl in a locked stairwell, as extremely audacious and haunting before jailing him for at least two-and-a-half years.

The three-year-old girl was inside DFO Homebush a week before Christmas 2016 when Mohammad Hassan Al Bayati, 30, took her by the hand and led her to a fire exit. He had been responding to a report the girl was unattended and distressed at the centre's playground.

After receiving sexual gratification, he returned the girl to the playground and berated the waiting mother (for leaving her young daughter unattended) . A jury found Mohammad Al Bayati exposed his genitals and touched the girl’s underwear during the 11 minutes they spent in the stairwell.

The family earlier this month spoke of the torment the incident has caused, with both parents telling the court they had gone through bouts of depression. "Our peaceful family life was destroyed and will never be the same again," the girl's mother said in a statement to Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court. "We are so proud she was able to tell the police, however it was a dramatic event for her."

What Will China Do with the Hong Kong Protests?

 (Lawrence Franklin's article from the GATESTONEINSTITUTE on 28 August 2019.)

Protests in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (SAR) -- which began in early June with demonstrators denouncing a proposed law to permit the extradition of SAR residents to the mainland to be tried in Chinese Communist courts -- have entered their 12th week and show no signs of abating.

If anything, they are becoming increasingly strident, with calls for the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam's administration, among other broadening demands. The unfolding events present the Communist Party leadership in Beijing with a serious dilemma: to quell the protests with military force or wait until they die down.

According to a recent analysis in Bloomberg: "In theory, [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] could quickly do away with Hong Kong's autonomy and activate the city's garrison overnight. But the likelihood of mobilizing troops remains low and the fallout from doing so -- for both China and Xi personally -- is potentially much higher than dealing with the political and economic repercussions of the protests, not least because he's already engaged in a damaging trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump."

How Close Is Hong Kong To A Second Tiananmen?

(Jude Blanchette’s article from the FOREIGN POLICY on 14 August 2019.)

In late October 1956, students and workers massed in the Hungarian capital of Budapest to protest Soviet rule and demand the end of Moscow’s political domination. Largely leaderless at first, the protests were galvanized by increasingly aggressive police action to become a full-blown revolt against a government widely viewed as a Soviet puppet.

By the end of the month, with a new rebel government in place, it seemed that Moscow might be willing to negotiate the withdrawal of Soviet troops—after all, then-First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev had denounced Joseph Stalin several months earlier.

This optimism was short-lived. At 4:15 a.m. on Nov. 4, Soviet tanks entered the city, leaving thousands of Hungarian citizens dead and eliciting widespread international condemnation, though no actual action. Yet the crackdown had succeeded in its immediate objective—forestalling Moscow’s loss of political control, at least until the collapse of the Soviet Union three and a half decades later.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a long memory, and it is increasingly obsessed with the fate of the Soviets. As usual, we don’t know what Xi Jinping and other leaders were discussing at the recently concluded yearly meeting in the seaside resort of Beidaihe—but it seems likely that the memory of 1956 loomed over discussion of unrest in Hong Kong, arguably the most significant political challenge outside its own ranks the CCP has faced since Xi assumed power in 2012.

Killer Drones War Raging In The Middle East

 (Staff articles from The AP NEWS on 25 August 2019.)

Drone war takes flight, raising stakes in Iran, US tensions: From the vast deserts of Saudi Arabia to the crowded neighborhoods of Beirut, a drone war has taken flight across the wider Middle East, raising the stakes in the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Since the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last year, there has been an increasing tempo of attacks and alleged threats, notably this weekend, from unmanned aircraft flown by Tehran’s and Washington’s allies in the region.

The appeal of the aircraft — they risk no pilots and can be small enough to evade air-defense systems — fueled their rapid use amid the maximum pressure campaigns of Iran and the U.S. As these strikes become more frequent, the risk of unwanted escalation becomes greater.

Islamic Propaganda Forced On Michigan Teachers!

(A Special Investigative Report from the TMLC on 22 August 2019.)

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has uncovered evidence of a well-orchestrated Islamic propaganda campaign aimed at teachers in school systems throughout Michigan and several other states.

Concerned about a two-day mandatory teacher-training seminar on Islam conducted by a Muslim consultant hired by Michigan’s Novi Community Schools District, TMLC filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the workshop.

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Law Center, commented on the results of their investigation, “We found that the teachers were subjected to two days of Islamic propaganda, where Islam was glorified, Christianity disparaged, and America bashed—all funded by Novi taxpayers.”

Moreover, during the past five years the school district has presented no teacher-training seminars focusing on Christianity, Judaism or any other religion – only Islam. The hired Muslim consultant was Huda Essa, a resident of the Dearborn area and of Arab descent. She appeared before the Novi teachers in a hijab, the Muslim headscarf, billing herself as an expert in “cultural competency” and “culturally responsive teaching.”