protest heartache

Stunning images of women flood the world as we join Iranian women protesting the death of Mahsa Amini. She died in hospital on September 16 - three days after being pulled off the streets of Tehran by morality police and taken to a re-education center for lessons in modesty. 

May our hearts, thoughts, and prayers overflow with our Iranian sisters who have risen up in fury and solidarity over the death of Mahsa Amini. Women on the streets are now putting their own lives on the line in protest over this woman’s needless death.

art by Leni Antipina, UK

Mahsa was only 22 years old - visiting the capital from the Kurdish area of Iran. She was detained for improperly wearing her hijab - showing too much of her hair. She was severely beaten and died shortly afterward.

This singular act has polarized the women of Iran who have taken to the streets in epic protest - burning their hijabs, cutting their hair, endangering themselves. Protesters shout over and over - “Jin. Jiyan. Azadi.” Women. Life. Freedom. The world stands in solidarity with the women of Iran.

cries of Cassandra

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.

Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.

weaponizing a population

The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.

~ Hannah Arendt (The Origins of Totalitarianism)

The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. 

September 2022

The month of September hold the best of times and the worst of times here at Change Warrior. September 1 is my labor day and the birth of my only and favorite child - Mahala. 

The rest of the month chronicle traumatic dates in history - this month resurrects all the old ghosts. The tragedy of the bombing of New York City's Twin Towers on September 11 here in the US and the horror years of martial law in the Philippines because of Marcos and his insatiable greed for power. 

11,103 documentary banner

As we come to the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law by dictator Ferdinand Marcos - another film has been produced which features survivor stories of state-sponsored violence during these terrible years of death and destruction.

the documentary 11,103 records the survivors'

tales of state sponsored violence

The film 11,103 is the recounting of thousands of names and their individual stories of how they overcame the trauma and fear of abuse they suffered from martial law abusers who tortured them.

birthdays & birthrights

Birth - the act or process of bearing or bringing forth. It is a beginning - a portal to our human journey. Is life measured by benchmarks throughout our lives or is it meant to unfold as we live and breathe? 

Mahala & I a decade ago

As Abraham Lincoln is said to have said - in the end it's not the years in life that count, it's the life in our years that do.