Vijay Nair: Land of Darkness

The current times will rank among the most shameful chapters in the history of independent India. Scam after scam involving ministers have tumbled out. Crime has continued unabated, while peaceful protests have been brutally tackled by the authorities.

Those in power seem to have a one point agenda: Save their positions and privileges at any cost.

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Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo: Light and Liberty

During this peaceful political protest to honor his father, Rosa María announced that, “just as this light illuminates the walls of the consulate, I hope the light of truth illuminate the hearts of Cubans, and we can pave the way of reconciliation together, towards the peace, happiness, and democracy that we seek.”

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Slideshow: Weiwei-isms

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist. He works in a variety of mediums including sculpture, photography, architecture and the written word. Weiwei is a heavy critic of the repressive Chinese government, and as a result, he was arrested in 2011 at a Beijing airport and held for two months under unknown charges.

Sampsonia Way chose ten quotes from the section “On Freedom of Expression” ofWeiwei-isms to showcase Weiwei’s astounding ability to share incredibly powerful ideas about censorship and every human’s right to freedom of speech in very few words.

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Bina Shah: The Shai Genocide

On March 3, 2013 a vehicle carrying a bomb detonated in Abbas Town, Pakistan, killing 48 people, injuring 200, and destroying several apartment buildings in the Shia-dominated neighborhood. Photo: Nadir Burney via Flickr.

2013 has been an ominous year so far for Pakistan’s Shia Muslims, who are finding themselves the target of bombs and shootings aimed specifically at members of their community. Two bombs killed hundreds of Shias in Quetta, followed by another bombing in Karachi; all took place in areas where Shias live and work. In addition to this, many Shia doctors, professors, businessmen, and lawyers have been shot deadwhile they commute to work or are otherwise trying to conduct the business of their lives.

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Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo: Into the White House, Out of the U.N.

As part of the Cuban State’s fight to the death against its citizens (on and off of the Island), our presentation to U.N. journalists in New York was boycotted from Havana and, via a top-level protest (supported by anti-democratic nations), they denied us our right to speak in one of the public rooms. Instead, our speech had to take place in a tiny corridor, where Sánchez’s voice resonated like a ray of hope (under the harassment of some Castroist reporters), and the world came to see how human rights are disregarded in today’s Cuba

Continue reading this column on Sampsonia Way Magazine.