Why we should care
Crimes against humanity, showing up for India and making beautiful trouble
While America gets vaccinated and begins to recover, across the world India is spiraling out of control. In the face of a collapsing healthcare system (due to criminal negligence by the government), virologists predict that the number of cases in India will grow exponentially to more than 500,000 a day.
India’s outbreak is an enormous tragedy for its own people, but it’s also a catastrophe for the rest of the world. Which brings us back to the lesson this virus has been trying to teach us all along - that we are only as healthy and safe as our neighbors.
I imagine that many of the people reading this newsletter have benefitted from the medicine of India, maybe have even traveled there. Many of us, myself included, have been profoundly changed by the practice of yoga. And then, of course, there is the appropriation, theft and commodification of India’s most precious resource to the tune of 12 billion in the US alone.
The practice of yoga teaches us interdependence. Let us for once live that principle in how we show up for India and each other. Resources below.
Kerri (she/her)
Art by @colorsofhoney
The world’s largest vaccine producer is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge—and that’s everyone’s problem. Why the world should worry about what’s happening in India. [click to tweet]
Accountability for George Floyd’s death may have been delivered in a courtroom, but it began in the streets. The George Floyd verdict would not have happened without months of protest by Black Lives Matter. [click to tweet]
Police killings of Black Americans in the US amount to crimes against humanity and should be investigated and prosecuted under international law. [click to tweet]
It’s hard to convey the full depth and range of the trauma, the chaos and the indignity that people are being subjected to. Meanwhile, Modi and his allies are telling us not to complain. Arundhati Roy on India’s epic catastrophe. click to tweet]
Joe Biden is no FDR — but if he keeps listening to progressives, he could be. The hugely influential role played by activists and organizers in Biden’s first 100 days (bottomline: pressure works). [click to tweet]
The horrifying scenes of COVID-wracked India show that when rich countries like the US back pharmaceutical profits over lives, vaccine inequality turns into global vaccine apartheid. Vaccine apartheid is the intentional deprivation of vaccine supplies, patents and aid to the Global South for the purposes of profit in the Global North. But Big Pharma must not stand in the way of preventing more deaths and ending this pandemic globally. And we all must show up in mutual care/aid for the people of India in every way possible. Their struggle is all of our struggles. Here’s what you can do:
ADVOCATE: We must waive the vaccine patents and ensure the publicly-funded vaccine formulas are made available to all nations, with support to manufacture and distribute. Tell Biden to release the vaccines.
MUTUAL AID: Mutual aid is where we practice the world we’re trying to live in. As Dean Spade reminds us, “we keep each other safe”. Here’s a comprehensive list for anyone looking to support local efforts/non-profits & the work of independent media in India around the COVID crisis.
DONATE: Here are some amazing organizations on the ground who are working around the clock to respond to this crisis. Please support.
Mazdoor Kitchen: citizen run voluntary initiative working to provide meals and subsistence to daily wage workers in New Delhi
Khaana Chahiye: ensuring the most vulnerable have access to food and helping support LGBTQ+ support groups.
Feeding from Far: distributing ration kits and food to the disadvantaged.
Help Now: Providing sanitized and well equipped ambulances with ventilators.
Making the Difference: working with public hospitals and nursing homes top provide them with healthcare equipment and supplies.
Enrich Lives Foundation: providing ration kits to migrant workers and daily wage laborers.
Art by @shwetakapur
In 2021, there have been over 361 bills introduced in 47 state legislatures to restrict voting. The most recent Republican led bill in Texas is said to take voter suppression to the next level. But activists aren’t stooping to their level. They’re mounting a “beauty and the beast” approach in the battle for voting rights. In Texas, youth activists spilled some 270,000 rose petals into the Texas Capitol rotunda, symbolizing the number of Texans of color who reach voting age each year. These beautiful, multicolored petals also made visible the invisible and celebrated the diversity of the state’s young voters. Our friends at Beautiful Trouble call this creative action an “artistic vigil”. Abolition is not simply a practice of tearing down but of building anew. It is a creative process where oppressive systems and structures are replaced by flourishing and vibrant communities. It calls us to respond to suffering and systemic injustice by making something beautiful and building the life that we all deserve.
Art by @osopepatrisse
Everything about our collective survival and wellbeing is relational. Here’s some questions for reflection:
How are you tending to and transforming your relationships?
What role do relationship have in your activism?
How are you practicing accountability in your relationships?
Art by @radicalfamilies
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“And then, of course, there is the appropriation, theft and commodification of India’s most precious resource to the tune of 12 billion in the US alone.“
Are you referring to yoga in this sentence?