The prime minister, in the inaugural function, unveiled the covers of a series of children's books written on the life and works of Father of the Nation PID

Sheikh Hasina said the government wants the children to remain safe and secure, get a beautiful life and be brought up as good human beings

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the government is careful so that prompt action can be taken against any kind of child oppression in the country.

"Were taking steps to ensure security of childrenwere giving special attention to it so that prompt action can be taken against any kind of child oppression," she said on Monday.

The prime minister said this while inaugurating World Childrens Day and Child Rights Week 2020 at Bangladesh Shishu Academy Auditorium. She attended the program virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.

Sheikh Hasina said the government wants the children to remain safe and secure, get a beautiful life and be brought up as good human beings. "Thats our aim."

Recalling the brutal attacks of August 15, 1975 where Sheikh Russel along with other children were also killed with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members, Hasina said any death of children shocks her seriously. "No matter whether it happens -- in our country or abroad, whether it occurs in the Bay of Bengal or on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea -- every incident hurts me."

The prime minister said she wants this world to be a reliable, livable and peaceful place for the children where each of them will have a bright future.

Reiterating that children are the future of the nation, the prime minister said they need to be built as worthy citizens of the country.

"Weve to give them the scope for flourishing their talent, knowledge and intelligence. And thats possible through creating an appropriate environment for their studies and good health. This will ensure a better life for them which will make a prosperous future for them," she said.

Also read: PM opens World Children's Day

Hasina said children are passing miserable days due to the Covid-19 pandemic as schools of the country are closed. "This is very much painful for them. What will they do sitting at homes?"

The prime minister urged the parents and guardians to take children outside their homes to any nearby park of any other place where children could play, at least for an hour. "This is very much needed for their mental and physical health, and we all have to maintain their health hygiene and safety."

She said the government has arranged classes for the students in TV and online so that their academic activities could be carried on during this pandemic. "Were using technology in this regard and will request the guardians to take proper steps, too."

The prime minister said that studies, sports and cultural activities are very much needed for children to make them as worthy citizens of the country. "Children have to pay attention to their studies as no one can contribute to the country without education."

Sheikh Hasina said there may be some problems in leading life and all will have to move forward resolving those issues.

The prime minister also briefly described various government initiatives taken for the children, including the distribution of free textbooks, stipends and different kinds of incentives during normal time and in this pandemic situation.

State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nesa Indira presided over the program. Officer-in-Charge and Representative of UNICEF Bangladesh Veera Mendonca, Bangladesh Shishu Academy Chairman Lucky Inam and Shishu Academy trainees Ridita Nur Siddiqui and Naveed Rahman Turjo also spoke at the program.

The prime minister, in the inaugural function, unveiled the covers of a series of children's books written on the life and works of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, 'Amra Ekechi 100 Mujib', a book published with selected pictures drawn by children, and 'Amra Likhechi 100 Mujib', another book published with the writings of children, on the occasion of the 'Mujib Year' marking Bangabandhu's birth centenary.

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PM: Prompt action to be taken against child oppression - Dhaka Tribune

In 1883, the Macdonald government established a residential school system for Indigenous children. The effect of this was the infliction of terrible cultural, social and physical harm. This school policy tore families apart, destroyed their capacities for nurturing and giving emotional support, led to the loss of intergenerational transfer of culture and knowledge, ravaged social health and badly impaired social practices for building mutually empowering relationships.

When a political society like Canada comes to recognize the extent of the harms that, through its attitudes and political aims, it has inflicted, it becomes morally bound to express repentance in every literal and symbolic way that is possible and then to institute policies that will redress harms.

When harms are inflicted on distinct minority peoples and government policies lead to a history of suffering, the passage of time neither expunges the harm nor removes the responsibility for redress.

It is exactly the wrong thing to do to re-impose on the consciousness and the daily experience of those victims, and those who still carry the burden of egregious policies, the harms of those policies through the continuing celebration and honouring of those that brought about such injury. Their entitlement is simple and basic; it is not to have to endure public and physical symbols of admiration for historical figures who represent the oppression against which their communities have struggled for so long.

John Whyte is professor emeritus, politics and international studies, University of Regina

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Opinion: Public symbols of admiration for those who represent oppression should be eliminated - Regina Leader-Post

By NOAH KAMINSKY

I wrote an opinion piece a few weeks ago about the White Houses missteps to uphold certain universal human rights since the pandemic arrived in the United States. I want to revisit that claim. Initially, I was interested in showing how we broke a hollow promise, but now, I want to know what laws were broken and who broke them.

A faithful commitment to uphold the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is meaningless to a warmongering superpower if its leadership is not held accountable. When the United States refused to ratify and then revoked its signature from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), we plunged deeper into our disdain for peer oversight. We turned away from the law of all lands and the human rights they protect elsewherenot here, at home.

If our leaders are not subject to any higher authority, then our UDHR commitment remains nothing more than a signature. Where rights are the improbable aspirations within which exists hope for a more just society, laws are a governments credence to achieve such aspirations. When upheld, laws prevent governments from their willful neglect and active oppression.

Ive never heard of a president being held accountable to our First Amendment, but this presidents mislabeling of SARS-CoV-2 has incited violence and xenophobia toward Asian Americans. Is it going too far to recommend civil action against the highest office in the land for our most fundamental law?

On June 1, the President interfered with a peaceful protest in Lafayette Park so he could take a photo in front of St. Johns Church. The U.S. Parks Service protected the President with riot gear, flash-bang grenades and tear gas, which were used on the protesters. There have been countless examples of law enforcements improper response to peaceful protesting, but I cant remember a time when a president actively allowed for and was present during an assault on his own citizens. Can you?

Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California ordered the removal of immigrant children from family detention centers on June 26. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is still out of compliance with that order. ICE is a federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security, which is overseen by Acting Secretary Chad Wolfa White House cabinet member. Is he responsible for ICEs non-compliance?

Voting rights carry a darker, more sinister history of discrimination and subversion. The COVID-19 pandemic has made these transgressions fully apparent with an unprecedented need for absentee ballots. States like Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin innovated questionable strategies for blocking citizens from casting their votes. Did these election boards find unconstitutional ways to sidestep the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the 24th Amendment?

Prior to COVID-19, many lingering inequities, still in disrepair from past generations, never would have penetrated our collective American conscience, but today, those inequities have moved into the forefront of our national conversation. Voting, policing, health care, redlining, incarceration, subprime mortgage lending, taxation and school segregation are just some of the many broken promises written into law to create all men equal. Even that statement is problematic. Are our laws written poorly, or do we enforce them poorly?

But governments are people! Or, at least, their lawmaking should represent and be driven by people. At home, on a local scale, our judicial system honors the decision made by a jury of peers for criminal proceedings. Unfortunately, no such accountability exists on the international scale for the United States government. Our leadership is not subject to crimes against humanity, or a jury of its peers. So when does excessive, preventable death qualify as a crime against humanity like genocide?

The UDHR is an important document, but it does not enforce itself. Our modern history reveals the moral path our leadership chose for us. McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, the War on Terror, the 1980s crack epidemic, the opioid epidemic, mass incarceration, Guantanamo Bay, Saudi Arabian armament, immigrant concentration camps, impoverished indigenous peoples, reprehensible income inequalitythe list goes on to remind us how weve honored our faithful commitment.

I changed my mind. We dont need the UDHR if we enforce and improve the legal framework that already exists. We can do right by Rights if we hold our leadership accountable to our laws.

Noah Kaminsky is a middle school science teacher and a youth sports coach. Legalese is not his squeeze.

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The unlawful response to COVID-19 - The River Reporter

On Tuesday evening, it was announced that White House aide Stephen Miller had become yet another administration* employee to test positive in the COVID-19 hot spot. I guess karma was all out of bubonic plague.

I decline, in this case, to be kind. My reasons can be found in the latest revelations in The New York Times regarding the legion of monsters, led philosophically and every other way, by Stephen Miller, that set American immigration policy rolling down the road toward sadism and outright depravity.

(Any doubt that Rosenstein was a pure careerist who would've sold the Constitution for a window seat on Air Force One is laid to rest forever with his involvement in this sadistic exercise.)

And, to paraphrase Mark Felt in the parking garage, this was a Miller operation.

Pitching a fit because your government is not ripping children from their parents fast enough or thoroughly enough. Just as the Founders intended.

I also was struck by the strange synchronicity in the news on Tuesday. Just as we were learning what monsters there are in our government today, our attention also was drawn to the fact that former CIA director Michael Hayden had cut an ad for some anti-Trump Republican political shop announcing his support for Joe Biden and darkly warning that re-electing this president* might mean the end of America as we know it. Hayden, of course, is something of an expert at what happens to a democratic republic when monsters are allowed to set national policy. After all, during the last failed Republican presidency, Michael Hayden was one of them.

Tom WilliamsGetty Images

Cruelty comes in many forms. Where this presidency* has family separation, the Avignon Presidency of George W. Bush had torture. Where this administration* trashed this country's image as a refuge for those fleeing poverty and political oppression, that administration undermined this country's image as a defender of due process and the rule of law. Where this administration* has Stephen Miller, that administration had John Yoo. Where this administration* had Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein, that administration had the likes of Michael Hayden.

We were torturing people before Hayden took over at the CIAHis direct contribution to that administration's lawlessness was setting up the illegal warrantless surveillance while he was running the National Security Agencybut the torture program had no more enthusiastic ex post facto defender than he was. The now-semi-famous Senate report on the torture program mentions Hayden 200 times; there even is a special appendix detailing Hayden's fast-and-loose relationship with the truth regarding the program. On the Senate floor, Senator Dianne Feinstein blistered the CIA for torturing people and read Hayden out for barbering his testimony on the topic.

(Another prominent former CIA director who is now a prominent voice against this administration*, John Brennan, who's currently pushing a memoir all over television, was involved during the Obama Administration in the latter stages of the brutal bureaucratic and political war over the Senate torture report that included surveillance of the Senate staffers who were working on the report.)

I am happy that Michael Hayden, who suffers from aphasia as a result of a stroke, could muster the strength to cut the ad that he did. There has been no more compelling political imperative in my lifetime than ending this carnival of fools. I am more than willing to accept John Brennan's help, too. But, as Milan Kundera wrote, the struggle of man against power is the power of memory against forgetting. It's important never to forget that, if you get this country frightened enough or angry enough, it is more than happy to invite monsters to sit in the councils of government, and then to forget that it ever happened. A country that would torture would rip children from their mother's arms. Put not your trust in princes, the psalmist warns us, for all their plans come to nothing.

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Stephen Miller Leads the Legion of Monsters - Esquire

On June 18, 1940, Gen. Charles de Gaulle made his famous radio appeal from London after the French Army was defeated at the start of the Second World War. It was the beginning of the French Resistance against Nazi occupation. He stood against the French Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis and became a client state. Today, any government in Lebanon is a Vichy government and the politicians have all become collaborators with the Iranian regime and its high commissioner in Lebanon: Hezbollah.As the country is being ravaged by the current occupation by Hezbollah and Iran following decades of Syrian occupation, I cannot help but wonder that shouldnt it be time for a Lebanese leader to call for true resistance as De Gaulle did? Isnt it time, as on the ground nothing can change, for a government in exile to be formed and an appeal made for all Lebanese to resist this occupation and its destruction of their country?It is now clear, with the disappointing failure of the latest French initiative, that Hezbollah will not allow the formation of any government that has the capacity to question its actions or, more precisely, that it does not completely control. Lebanon will continue to disintegrate into chaos while Iran gambles on a Joe Biden administration to formalize and legitimize its occupation. On the ground, no influential political voice will be left standing if it acts against Hezbollahs plan.Yet, as we always wonder in election years, how will the next US president impact the Middle East? It is also time to understand that the US looks for strong allies. It cannot save Lebanon unless there are voices ready to fight and to resist. It is also important for the Lebanese not to be a tool or an accessory to any foreign influence. As a small country, it cannot be taken hostage as global powers and Middle Eastern powers fight. Our interests are in our citizens and the prosperity of the country nothing more and nothing less. In this sense, former French President Jacques Chirac, who loved Lebanon and had pure intentions for the country, misguided Saad Hariri on Frances capacity to impose regional changes and this miscalculation accelerated Hezbollahs control of the country in 2008. The Lebanese should not make the same mistake twice.Nevertheless, the Lebanese need to be attached to the strong values of freedom and fraternity that can make the country prosper. People from all minorities need to feel free, protected and with the capacity to achieve whatever they set their mind to not through emigration, but in their own country.Today, it is quite amusing and like a tragedy seeing leading politicians discuss the distribution of government ministries while the entire country is on fire and disintegrating before our eyes. It seems like a passenger on the Titanic complaining about the frosting on his cake as the boat sinks, but in fact it is only an act.In a televised speech on Tuesday, Hassan Nasrallah first got sidetracked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus declaration at the UN that Hezbollah hides its weapons next to a gas company and close to residential areas. This shows that he knows that most Lebanese are at odds with his actions. His justification on this point will not change their minds, even if they cannot all say it out loud: They all know he is responsible for where Lebanon is today. This is not a real resistance to Israel but a calculated hegemony and invasion of the Middle East.When the Hezbollah secretary-general went on to discuss the French initiative, it was also amusing and like a tragedy to see him purposely complicate the formation of the government and pretend he has limited influence on it, while at the same time modestly insisting on unmovable conditions. It is the same game all the politicians play to work out formulas and complicate the process as a sign of their general unwillingness to allow change and reform.These endless and pointless discussions are designed to make everyone believe that these are complicated and difficult negotiations, misleading the Lebanese into debating useless details and making them forget the main and important truth: Lebanon is under occupation. Lebanon is no longer a free country. The Lebanese state is a client state to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the mullahs regime. Instead of questioning this, people in the streets are asking: Will they be able to form a government? Who will get more ministries? Well the answer is: All the ministries, the government and the president are Irans.The Iranian support is not the only reason for Hezbollahs pre-eminence and the chaos we see today. The Lebanese Sunni communitys weakness and lack of consistency is also to blame. Even when they try to make their voices heard, it comes in the form of an elitist vision emanating from former prime ministers and not from the people. This Sunni weakness in a country where the balance of power between all minorities is what keeps it going has allowed for more greed among the other minorities. This is the fate of any sectarian structure. This means that any change in the balance of power directly impacts the countrys stability.In the 1970s, the Christian minority was weakening in the face of rising demands from the Muslim, mainly Sunni, voices under the flag of the Palestinian and Arab resistance against Israel. Today, we are witnessing a similar situation, with a weakening Sunni political force and rising demands from the Shiite community under the flag of Iran and Hezbollahs so-called resistance against Israel. In the 1970s, this was the start of a decade-long civil war, whose lessons seems to have been forgotten; while for the millennials that have never known this, we see the gamification of violence. The current regime is like a tightrope walker: As soon as the balance of power changes, it falls into violence and chaos. It cannot accept proper reform.

It is now clear that Hezbollah will not allow the formation of any government that it does not completely control.

Khaled Abou Zahr

I therefore believe that decentralization can be a unique solution to stop the country building on shifting sands and the rule of clans. Each minority needs to have the same rights and protections. This is the duty of a federal government, without stepping into the details. As for now, one may ask what is next for Lebanon? Will we see a new Lebanon born out of this chaos and rise from this occupation? Will the country be changed forever?One thing is sure: A new Lebanon cannot come to life under the oppression of Hezbollah. Therefore, we need a new voice to rise from anywhere in the world that gives hope back to the Lebanese. It is maybe even time for a government in exile to be formed and to start paving the road for a better future for all.The Lebanese need an appeal that says: Even if the battle is lost, the war is not, and that Lebanon has friends in all the capitals of the world that will help them take back control of their country. Oppression, no matter how ruthless and mighty it may seem, cannot last forever. Today, as President Emmanuel Macron understands very well, it is not only about the fate of Lebanon, but the entire world because this is what a symbol does: It indicates ahead of time how the world will change.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

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A government in exile could give hope to the Lebanese - Arab News

People often assume what is best for Black girls without directly asking us for our own input on the topic.Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks. (Wikimedia Commons)

Rosa Parks is a name known round the worldoften dubbed the mother of the modern-day civil rights movement, and the inspiration for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. But far fewer know the story of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin who, nine months before Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat, was arrested and jailed for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery bus.

Colvin was inspired by Negro History Week (the precursor to Black History Month) lessons about Harriet Tubman, abolition and womens rights. The day she refused to give up her seat, she told reporter Phillip Hoose:

My head was just too full of Black history, you knowthe oppression that we went through.

Colvin became one of four plaintiffs in Gayle v. Browder (1956), the ruling that concluded Montgomerys segregated bus system was unconstitutional (the case was decided in favor of the girls). It has been reported that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) considered using Colvins case to challenge segregation laws, but they decided against it because of her age.

The decision not to use Colvins case due to her age did not surprise many of the teen girls who participated in We REIGN Incs five-week advocacy, activism and organizing (AAO) internship this summerparticularly how Colvins age became a hindrance to her freedom of expression and advocacy.

Throughout the summer, the Philadelphia based non-profit led attendees in exploring the personal characteristics that impact their political views. Together, the teens concluded that gender, race and age are the most salient factors impacting not just their politics, but how they are perceived by the world.

People often assume what is best for Black girls without directly asking us for our own input on the topic, said one participant.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF2ctwvl_UU/

Like Girls for Gender Equity (GGE), a New York-based organization that launched the National Agenda for Black Girls, We REIGN Inc is on a mission to support Black girls advocacy and freedom of expression. So, they created a space where their voices and policy priorities matter.

During the five-week AAO internship, the group asked Black girls what they need to become advocates, and they said they need political education that is relatable, understandable, with opportunities to be a part of the worknot just for themselves now, but so they can support future generations of Black girls. Their work created the foundation for Black Girl Politics.

Participants described Black Girl Politics as discourse about social issues and solutions that directly impact the lives of Black girls.

Black Girl Politics is extremely essential because we are often overlooked, but we have issues that affect us daily in health care, education, our communities and neighborhoodsissues that deeply impact us, another explained.

There are so many standards about how I should act, what I should wear, how I should look, how I should talk and so much more, but I believe thats wrong, a rising 10th grade student shared. Black Girl Politics is important because it helps me to define me. It teaches me that I am important, and so is what I stand up for.

For starters, Black girls want to be represented in government. Pennsylvania, a state poised to play a pivotal role in the 2020 presidential election, has no Black women in the state Senate, nor among the state cabinet and executive officials.

This lack of representation is also noted in state and local executive offices across the nation: Black women have yet to attain governorship in any state and just seven of the nations 100 largest cities have Black women mayors.

Limited representation means issues and experiences that impact the lives of Black girls and women may not be considered, because they are not represented.

As one of our interns explained, Black Girl Politics is the opportunity to fight for representation and advocate for ourselves.

Here atMs., our team is continuing to report throughthis global health crisisdoing what we can to keep you informed andup-to-date on some of the most underreported issues of thispandemic.Weask that you consider supporting our work to bring you substantive, uniquereportingwe cant do it without you. Support our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

Together, the group moved beyond what some described as the boring theory of politics to create the Black Girl Agendaa space for interns to practice advocacy and activism in their community.

When asked why they signed up for the second session, several girls described the internship as relatable and interesting.

These workshops [are] teaching me the stuff I need to know not in an easy way, but a more understandable way. For me, politics isnt really interestingit doesnt grab my attention, but doing this helps me get into politics a little bit morewithout it being straight boring.

During the internship, participants were invited to use the National Agenda for Black Girls ten-point plan to identify political issues that impact them and their community, then develop a message and campaign to raise awareness and organize.

While many issues were identified as critical, the top three were:

Thr program was designed to develop public engagement and policy analysis skills. Girls formed community groups to discuss their areas of concern, and developed political planks and one-page policy briefs to be shared with legislators. Their policy recommendations included increasing funding for comprehensive sexual health education including consent, continuing the fight for the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act until it is national law, and funding for counseling not criminalization of domestic violence survivors.

All of the girls engaged in healthy debates about defunding the police and reproductive justice. They practiced listening to the perspectives of others and using research and facts to justify recommended actions.

For one participant, these conversations were the highlight of the program: The most useful aspect of the Black Girl Agenda internship was sharing my ideas and opinions with other Black girls.

Another told us that having the opportunity to discuss issues with girls who all wanted to make a change made her want to try harder to understand the issues.

A 2018 report by the Center for American Progress reported that civic knowledge and public engagement are at an all-time low.

While schools would be the most likely place for students to gain knowledge of politics, government and civic engagement, few states require more than a half-year of instruction in these areas.

This creates a major barrier for Black girls and women who are already underrepresented at all levels of government and have limited opportunities to learn about their rights as citizens, who represents them, and the policies that impact their daily lives.

Black girls are regularly excluded from decision-making tables and rarely engaged by legislators and policy makers. We REIGNs goal, then, is to fill an educational gap and support the development of a coalition of Black girls in Philadelphia who are politically astute and prepared to advocate and organize around issues that are important in their lives and communities. So far, the group are succeeding.

Combating apathy requires representation, access and knowledgethe right to vote alone does not create civic engagement. If we want Black girls to be involved and invested in shaping the future of this country, starting at 18 is simply too late. Political education and civic engagement must begin early and be, as one participant explained, relatable, and personal to us.Black girls want to know about their herstory, Black women activists and the concept of people power.

All youth will benefit from early access and multiple opportunities to learn about the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government. But, like Claudette Colvin, Black girls want to participate, not just observe the work of what they labeled the fourth branch of government: the people.

Black girls are poised to lead the change the United States is waiting for, and they are no longer bringing folding chairs; they are taking their seat at the table.

The coronavirus pandemic and the response by federal, state and local authorities is fast-moving.During this time,Ms. is keeping a focus on aspects of the crisisespecially as it impacts women and their familiesoften not reported by mainstream media.If you found this article helpful,please consider supporting our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

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Black Girl Politics: Creating Space Where Black Girls' Voices and Policy Priorities Matter - Ms. Magazine

By Manal Nahhas

A number of countries in the Arab region harnessed modern technology in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Local production in the face of the pandemic was not limited to sewing cloth masks and manufacturing sterile medical materials, but extended to developing technologies and mobile phone applications, and modifying and developing drones to impose health control.

For example, Farasha Systems in Morocco developed "health" drones, as they came to be called, for temperature assessment and to spray sterilizers. The same applies to the Saudi company, Voxel, and the Tunisian company, Talent.

Even in a country suffering from economic and political crises such as Sudan, modifications were made to drones to equip them to combat COVID-19. According to Arab media, including Sky News Arabia, this task was entrusted to the Defense Industries System.

Drones have been used across the Arab world in different ways, includingmonitoring people during curfews and measure the temperatures of drivers in their vehicles, all in an effort to combat the virus. China, where the virus originated, was the first to use this technology, but after its spread, Arab countries were quick to adopt it. At a time when Washingtons concerns about the widespread use of Chinese-made drones in a number of US states and in a number of European cities revolved around the possibility of China getting its hands on data threatening US and Western national security, the fate of the data collected by drones in the Arab countries did not receive much attention among citizens or in parliaments.

Although several European cities, including Nice and Brussels, have resorted to Chinese-made drones during COVID-19, their use was limited to dispersing gatherings when detected by broadcasting an audio message or spraying pesticides. However, even this deployment was controversial.

In Paris, the French National Consultative Commission suspended invoking the use of drones to monitor gatherings and impose quarantine. It viewed their use as means to collect data of people without resorting to a regulatory framework, according to reports by FranceTVInfo.com.

In a number of Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, the Chinese model was adopted on a larger scale, and drones were used to measure the temperature of the general population to scan for COVID-19 cases.

Such a model prompted Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence agent who exposed large-scale spying programs, to express his fear that a long life would be written for the "watchdog state,"as he called it, until after the end of the COVID-19 crisis. He said, They already know what youre looking at on the internet. They already know where your phone is moving. Now they know what your heart rate is, what your pulse is. He asked, as if sounding an alarm, "What happens when they start to mix these and apply artificial intelligence to it?" according to reports by The NextWeb.com. Tracing the source of the drones being used in the Arab world was not possible, except in a limited number of countries.

In Morocco, for example, the start-up Farasha Systems modified the work of environmental Chinese-made drones in order to combat COVID-19. In Saudi Arabia on the other hand, it was Voxell who announced the development of drones.

In Jordan, drones are being used to monitor compliance with the general quarantine "to capture all those who violate the quarantine and transfer them to the public prosecution to take legal measures and to seize the vehicles used, according to the Jordanian Public Security Directorate.

As for Tunisia, the use of drones equipped with a thermal camera and loudspeakers is the result of cooperation between Talent Holding and the Tunisian Ministry of Health, according to the ministry. In Sudan, the Sudanese Defense Industries System introduced modifications to drones to combat COVID-19. The modifications aimed to introduce these drones into surveillance service, voice awareness, and body temperature assessment. The health authorities in these countries announced the deployment of drones.

It is likely that China is the most prominent source for commercial drones in the Middle East, considering that it is the largest producer of drones in the world. The sale of the non-military Chinese DJI drones in the Middle East increased this year by 70% compared to last year, according to Nikkei.com, which added that more than two-thirds of all global sales of non-military drones are by this company.

According to a report entitled "Chinese drone market 2019-2025, issued by Drone Industry Insights website, China accounts for 70% of these non-commercial drone sales. The report also expects the Chinese drone market to reach $43 billion in 2024. As for commercial (non-military) drone revenues, Statista website expects them to reach $2,367 million this year.

DragonFly, which has major offices in Canada and the United States, did not disclose the volume of its drone sales in the Middle East, despite press releases and reports published by the British House of Commons library indicating its role in the Gulf region.

There is close cooperation between China and a number of Arab countries. For example, in 2017, following the visit of Saudi King Mohammed bin Salman to China, the establishment of a factory for manufacturing Chinese armed drones in Saudi Arabia was announced.

However, Arab countries went a long way in invoking digital and cellular technology for censorship before the COVID-19 crisis.

A study titled "Colonial Cables: The Politics of Surveillance in the Middle East and North Africa," issued in Vienna earlier this year by the Austrian AIES Institute, shows that since the Arab Spring in 2010, Arab governments have intensified censorship and spying on data and have used European and Israeli companies to spy on opponents and access their data even if they left their countries to Canada or Britain.

The most prominent of these companies are the British company Gamma, the Italian Hacking Team and the Israeli NSO.

Thus, the technology used to combat COVID-19 did not constitute an unprecedented turning point in monitoring individuals in a number of Arab countries, but rather firmly rooted what was present through more advanced technology, with the knowledge of, and often even welcoming from citizens.

Smart Apps

Some human rights organizations such as Amnesty International argue that the most dangerous applications to civil liberties are those used in Kuwait and Bahrain. These applications, in addition to being mandatory, collect information and data on the movements of citizens and track the details of their daily lives, going beyond health measures taken for the pandemic.

Amnesty International analysed 11 applications in the world (Algeria, Bahrain, France, Iceland, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Norway, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates), and found that the Kuwaiti and Bahraini applications adopt an "excessive" or even "hostile" approach to collecting data and tracing their owners.

Unlike applications based on Bluetooth technology such as "Ehmi - Protect" in Tunisia, which is used to track people, GPS technology used in the Kuwaiti "Shlonak" and the Bahraini "Conscious Society" application reveals the person's location and the identities of those surrounding them through phone numbers or ID cards.

Data Helps Track the Virus Spread

While most countries in the region adhered to a decentralized approach, keeping data on phones and using Bluetooth technology to monitor contact with patients, applications in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar transferred user data to central servers. This is a source of security risk to individual freedom, and a source of fear of sharing data with other parties, which may be security, commercial or entertainment parties, as seen in Bahrain.

In Kuwait, for example, and after cooperation between government agencies, the Public Authority for Communications and Information Technology hosted and stored the Shlonak application data through its operational activities," according to what was stated on the website of the Public Authority for Communications and Information Technology.

But the most prominent question is about the fate of applications and data after the pandemic, and the fate of data even if it is not transferred to central government servers. Can the two most prominent internet giants Google and Apple keep this data? Will its exploitation be confined to its commercial potential, to market certain commodities based on data collected? Or will it be exploited in security work? It did not take long for Apple and Google to announce an update of the Bluetooth feature in their operating systems starting mid-May, that would function in the background without the need to unlock the device and expose it to spying by others or exhausting its battery, according to maharat.

Are Applications Mandatory?

With the exception of the Qatari application Ehtiraz,Kuwaiti "Shlonak" and Bahraini "conscious society,"applications for combating COVID-19 are purely optional and not mandatory, according to the Tunisian Ministry of Health, although they are published by the ministries of health in the concerned countries.

In the United Arab Emirates, for example, "al-Hisn" application is optional and free. It enables users to obtain medical examination results directly on the phone and to track contacts of patients. The application relies on the use of Bluetooth short-range signals in the event that the same application is available on other people's mobile phones, as the phones exchange the metadata that is then stored on the al-Hisn application in an encrypted form only on the user's phone. Through this data, the competent health authorities can quickly identify people at risk of infection, to be contacted and tested.

The same applies in Saudi Arabia with the application "Tataman." Likewise, the Jordanian Aman application facilitates identifying contact with COVID-infected people by using technology to serve the health of society, according to the Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs, Amjad Al-Adayleh.

On the official government website, Bahrain appears to be out of step with Arab governments in announcing the fate of the data it collects in its fight against COVID-19. The government announced that it is committed to protecting the privacy of data according to the Personal Data Protection Law, and it also confirmed that using the data collected through this application is limited to health authorities in tracing contacts in order to limit the spread of COVID-19, and that the identities of users will not be disclosed to a third party. It indicated that it uses "Information encryption feature to protect sensitive data." But it soon became evident that this data was being used by a TV program that distributes prizes to people committed to their quarantine.

The most prominent question today is, at a time when data sanctity is perhaps most important, how can personal data be protected?

In Oman, the application "Tarassad Plus" by the Health Ministry warns the users that there is a person in their vicinity wearing a smart bracelet, which means the wearer is infected and is supposed to be in home isolation. This requires users to activate GPS and Bluetooth services.

The UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan and Bahrain have resorted to providing patients with smart electronic bracelets in cases of home quarantine, whether symptomatic or not, if they were not suffering from chronic diseases and were not over the age of 60. Among the conditions required for home isolation are a well-ventilated room, a separate bathroom and a smartphone. These bracelets were imported from South Korea and China and were also used to trace breaches of isolation.

In Qatar, the application "Ehtiraz,"mentioned above, is mandatory.

As for Egypt, new modifications were introduced to "Egypt Health" mobile application to provide information about COVID-19. The most prominent features of the application is reporting suspected cases of COVID-19, where one can report his or another person's condition by pressing on the application's "Report" screen, entering the name and the national number of the case and answering some questions to determine the likelihood of infection.

The security-orientation is striking in the Report screen, as reporting other people requires entering their names and national numbers issued by the Ministry of Interior. This is another kind of violation, because it does not collect the data of those who download the application, but rather calls on people to report infected or suspected cases and provide their national numbers. This is also the case with the Lebanese application MOPH APP., which calls for "reporting any case of COVID-19," as if the patient has committed a misdemeanor or crime.

There are two kinds of these applications, the first transfers users' data to central servers, and the second relies on Bluetooth instead of relying on tracking contacts. However, in some cases, such as Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Jordan, it requests a number of permissions, such as access to camera and microphone recordings and the geographical location, which allows collecting many personal information about users stored in smartphones, making them easy to be hacked. In contrast to the Arab Gulf countries, where the centralized role of government health agencies in preparing anti-COVID-19 applications is clearly evident; in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, community bodies took the initiative to provide such applications, some of which cooperated with official bodies and ministries.

In Algeria, the application Cov-19 is free and was developed by an Oran-based organization specializing in geolocation. Another application to consult a doctor through video call, Tabib.zad, was launched by a government agency, in cooperation with the Chinese company Huawei, the promotion agency Algrie Telecom and the Algerian company FORTINET, which handles technical insurance and the flow of medical data.

In addition to these two non-governmental applications, there is an official application called "Coronavirus Algerie," which is the result of cooperation between the Ministry of Health and "IncubMe". Algeria asked Google to enable it to access all information related to the epidemic. In Tunisia, "Ehmi - Protect" was developed by Whizlabs company for free, and the Tunisian Ministry of Health invited its citizens to download it. In Morocco, the Ministry of Health called on Moroccans to download the optional "Weqayatona" application on their mobile phones.

Individual Initiatives

In areas where the role of the central authority has weakened as a result of war, the role of community initiatives is rising. In a post-ISIS Mosul, Mosul Space,an organization funded by the German Foundation for International Cooperation and the American Field Ready Organization, seeks to develop drones for use in the sterilization process and to provide food and medicine to patients and those in quarantine. In Syria, an unofficial application called COVID-19 was developed by young web and mobile application developer and translator Mohammad Diob. The application was not adopted by any official body and is still in the experimental stage. In the Palestinian territories, an Israeli application was imposed on Palestinian workers working in Israel, and its goal is security-oriented, more than health-oriented.

A Supervisory Role

In Arab countries, some international and local human rights organisations have responded to what they called "disguised governmental violations" on health grounds, as described by Amnesty International. These organisations, such as Amnesty International and SMEX, which is a Lebanese organization that seeks to "support self-regulating information societies in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as work to promote digital rights, have sought to defend the right to privacy and data protection at a time when governments invoke the pandemic to collect huge amounts of data, either through COVID-19 applications or drones.

Supervisory Authority Outside the Judiciary

These organizations, or some of them, played a supervisory role on government applications that did not provide adequate protection for their users' data. For example, Amnesty International's discovery of a vulnerability in the Qatari application Ehtiraz to combat COVID-19 has shed light on what threatens the private life.

Its security lab detected a vulnerability in the central server to protect personal data and was able to access sensitive information, including names of users, their health status, and the coordinates of their locations using a GPS system.

SMEX also detected a vulnerability in the Lebanese governments protection of user data while fighting COVID-19. The organization said that the updated Ministry of Health application used to provide information about COVID-19 and its spread in different regions

"requires a lot of unnecessary permissions, such as permissions to view camera, microphone and geographic data, and some necessary permissions to operate application services. Activating all of these permissions allows applications to collect personal information about the users and opens the door for attackers to easily obtain the data or exploit permissions to access users' devices."

In the Arab world, medical authorities did not ask the developers of COVID-19 applications to delete personal data after the end of the pandemic, and we have not seen this issue discussed in the representative political circles, such as the House of Commons or Parliament. However, since the entry into force of the European Law for the Protection of Personal Data in 2018, this region has witnessed government efforts to formulate laws aimed at protecting personal data, as monitored by SMEX.org. This protection, however, was limited to that of digital markets and online shopping, as is the case with Egypts ratification of the Personal Data Protection Law on February 24, 2020.

In Saudi Arabia, the e-commerce law was ratified in 2019 in a bid to foster a trustworthy online transaction environment. Lebanon, in turn, began implementing the Law on Electronic Transactions and Personal Data in January 2019. In the same year, the Law on Health Data Protection entered into force in the United Arab Emirates, which is also a data protection law that simulates European law. Reem Al-Masry, a journalist specializing in the intersections of technology and politics for the Jordanian magazine 7iber, indicated to Maharat magazine that

"there is a shortage in the legislative system for protecting personal data and protecting privacy in most Arab countries, and if this system is found, there are no standards or oversight bodies that protect the rights of individuals to privacy and protection of their personal data."

It appears that the centralized approach to fighting COVID-19 has been more effective in Arab Gulf states. Whoever takes a careful look at this fight will notice that COVID-19 has appeared in the form of a multi-armed octopus in a number of Arab countries, where cooperation arose between a number of government and civil agencies. For example, in the cooperation between health authorities and public security, as seen with the Saudi application "Tawakalna,"which grants exit permits during quarantine, and the Egyptian application, Egypt Health,which calls for reporting suspected cases of COVID-19 and providing their national numbers. In addition, universities cooperated with one another such as the Saudi King Abdulaziz University for Science and Technology, the United Arab Emirates University and Sultan Qaboos University, as did artificial intelligence agencies, as seen in Oman and Saudi Arabia, and the emerging companies sector, such as the Saudi start-up, Bader, the Internet giants (Google and Apple), mobile phone companies, the Ministry of Housing in Saudi Arabia, all the way to the Defense Industries System, as seen in Sudan.

This investigation was carried out with the support of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ).

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Al Bawaba News.

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How COVID-19 Facilitates Oppression in the Arab World: Drones, Emergency Laws, and Smart Applications - Al-Bawaba

REUTERS/Leah Millis

President Donald Trump

Trumps attempt to censor histories of race hearkens back to early 20th century attempts by the federal government to stifle public criticism of racist laws and practices.

Between 1917 and 1945, federal agencies, most prominently the FBI and Office of War Information, investigated Black newspapers and magazines like the Chicago Defender and The Messenger for sedition. The charge was that editorials they ran in opposition to lynching, poll taxes, and other aspects of Jim Crow reality were unpatriotic, especially in a time of war.

The FBI viewed white local officials in the South as experts on their Negroes. And so, the FBI relied on local sheriffs, postmasters, and others to report on suspicious activity, including reading habits. Several local governments took advantage of the federal governments assault on the First Amendment during World War I to try to stem the tide of the Great Black Migration. Southern cities were losing Black workers, many of whom read about jobs in the Defender and other northern papers. Some counties passed laws outlawing the sale of Black newspapers; others turned a blind eye to mob violence against Black newspaper sellers and readers.

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Under the guise of patriotism, Black people were beaten, even shot for daring to read or distribute the news. Through this mix of brutality and warping of the First Amendment, white officials hoped to stop the in-flow of information, the out-flow of cheap labor, and stifle any hint of dissent against racial apartheid.

But Jim Crow officials and local thugs didnt take into account the stealth activism of Pullman porters. Most whites who traveled the rails viewed the Pullman porters as happy and subservient, with no purpose in life other than to serve white travelers. In reality, many porters were college educated; they were forced to take jobs in the service industry only because Jim Crow laws and hiring practices made it impossible for them to get hired in professions reflective of their education and ability.

Catherine Squires

Like many of his other outrageous acts this year, Trumps call to create a patriotic history curriculum that erases critical analysis of the ways racism and slavery shaped this countrys laws, wealth, and cultural practices chillingly echoes early 20th-century racist practices. The OMB directive and Trumps proclamation that anti-racist curriculum is unpatriotic mirror the charge that anti-Jim Crow editorials were sedition.

Past attempts to stifle the Black press and present efforts to block anti-racist curricula is not cancel culture: This is the executive branch of the U.S. government using its weight to suppress freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.

We must amplify and highlight the work of historians who are willing to unearth and analyze the ugly parts of our past, lest we be doomed to repeat the horrific excesses of violence and oppression. We must never forget how easy it is for one group to control all the levers of government, and use that power to crush dissent, to stymie progress, and to warp core elements of the Constitution until they are unrecognizable. And we must protest as long and loud as we can when we see it happening in our own time.

Catherine Squires, Ph.D., is associate dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of several books and articles on media, race, gender, and politics.

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Trump's attacks on anti-racist training and curriculum carry echoes of the past - MinnPost

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In recent months, Covid-19 has brought into sharp focus the enduring economic, health and social inequalities experienced by descendants of former colonised and enslaved populations. Within a context of disproportionate poverty experienced by Black and other colonised, subjugated people all over the world, the recent killing of George Floyd propelled a heightened awareness of racism, making it a global headline for much of June 2020. This roused a moment of global solidarity, including commentary and condemnation of racism from both the World Bank and IMF.

Whilst commitments to look at internal anti-racism policies are important, these initial reflections have ignored the role that both institutions have played in the perpetuation of colonialism. Today, the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) seem to frame racism in terms of its current and most obvious manifestations, rather than through a recognition of the wider historical context. In doing so, they ignore the link between colonialism and the development trajectory in the Global South, where the IMF and the World Bank have contributed to a structural economic dependency through the extraction of resources alongside the manufacture of debt, which has impeded the industrialisation, diversification, and ultimately, the political independence of many countries.

The dominant economic orthodoxy of the IMF and the World Bank posits that debt and economic development, as well as growth and poverty, can be held together in a nexus that just needs the right calibration to achieve progress for all. Thinking of this kind ignores the damage these institutions have done and the racism they have perpetuated that needs to be tackled and addressed. It is also incognisant of the fact that inclusive growth, a kind of growth that benefits the most marginalised groups in low and middle-income countries, whilst a useful utopia, fails to address the structural racism that itself stems from a colonial ideology that is hardwired into the operating models of both institutions and the economic models they support. It is time for the IMF and World Bank to understand their own responsibility and decolonise their approach.

As colonial independence movements gained momentum, the IMF was set up to preserve economic stability, in particular the centres of capital, while the World Bank was set up to drive the post-war recovery, initially focused only on the reconstruction of Europe. Both institutions were key in embedding and ensuring a hegemony that had racial demarcations in the aftermath of World War II. Unequal power relations that were explicitly racist shaped the mindset behind the earliest development policies. In the 1900s, the British Colonial Office formulated a theory of development rooted in the interpretation of colonial populations, who at the time were deemed biologically and culturally ill-equipped to stimulate their own viable economic trajectories. From early colonialism in the 15th century to neocolonialism from the 1950s onwards (when many African colonies began to gain formal independence from European control), to neoliberalism from the 1980s onwards, enshrined in Structural Adjustment Programmes centred around policies of debt, each phase has further compounded these power dynamics.

The IMF and the World Banks policies have in fact ossified the structures of power rooted in colonialism and expropriation by use of political, mental, economic, social, military and technical forms of domination, often enabled through the manipulation and co-optation of local elite forces.

In response to the debt crises of the1980s, which was itself a reflection of these forms of control, they introduced neoliberal reform packages conditioned on borrowing countries implementing economic stabilisation, liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation policies, with the idea that free markets could be a panacea for all.

This included the establishment of the US dollar as the worlds reserve currency in the 1970s, with US debt acting as a vector of its power, while the debts of low and middle-income countries made them subject to creditors and conditionality imposed by the BWIs and compounded unequal power dynamics. The Covid-19 pandemic provides a clear and current example of the consequences of the perpetuation of this power. Many countries are struggling to respond to the health and economic consequences of the pandemic with limited resources to support health systems decimated by earlier neoliberal policies in many cases. If a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) had been made in April 2020, accompanied by a mechanism that allowed for their fair redistribution or by policies allowing lending quota limits to be exceeded, many low-income countries in particular would have had a better chance at tackling the current crisis. Instead, just one country the US was able to stop this from happening, while also unilaterally quashing broader reforms to IMF quota shares last year.

Much of the work of the IMF and World Bank fails to address the fact that the poorest income deciles and the most vulnerable are left behind which includes formerly colonised communities. Stop the maangamizi [a Kiswahili term meaning holocaust of forms of enslavement]: We charge genocide and ecocide is a current international campaign (initiated by PARCOE the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe) representing a coalition of movements. The justification for this campaign is evident. In social protection debates, despite much work that points to exclusion errors in the range of 40 to 90 per cent for targeted social protection, the IMF continues its dogmatic allegiance to economic efficiency over equity in arguing that such schemes are more effective than universal coverage. In the case of Tanzania, a former German colony where thepresent value of external debtstands at $6.8 billion to the World Bank alone, when the BWIs were negotiating debt relief for the country in 2007, they made it conditional onthe privatisation of Dar es Salaams water system. City Water, the British and German-led consortium who won the contract, then severely reduced water access to some of the worlds poorest people. Data show that countries that were colonial subjects are more exposed to climate change and correspondingly, those countries that were former colonisers are the least vulnerable to ecological catastrophe. These dynamics are relevant in considering that the World Banks climate work has obscured continued support for business-as-usual extractive economies in many contexts. For example, in 2008, the US, UK, Japan and other industrialised countries asked the World Bank to administer the largest part of $6.7 billion in several Climate Investment Funds to developing nations for clean-energy investments and other programmes to address climate change. The World Bank Group simultaneously went on a coal lending spree, approving $6.75 billion for coal plants in the Philippines, Chile, Botswana, India, and South Africa (see Briefing, The World Bank and the environment: A legacy of negligence, reform, and dysfunction).

The case for debt repudiation, which questions the legality of debts owed by the Global South to the Global North, and Truth and Reconciliation processes, are part of the reparations tradition a pan-African derived momentum for Global Solidarity for liberation and the realisation of the rights of the oppressed all across the world, of which decolonisation is one approach. For so long we have been told that the system is not broken, but that the problem is that we are not all part of it. Reparations is a completely different lens the system is the problem. Steps towards acknowledging, dismantling and in some situations, reshaping the structures of our world are needed. Reparations movements base their vision for the future in hopefulness and restoration, and they continue a long line of political resistance to neocolonialism as we saw in the 1950s and 1960s, when many African national leaders challenged a Western-led approach to development and tried to take control of their own agenda from Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana to Govan Mbeki in South Africa. Alongside African socialism, the New International Economic Order comprising Non-Aligned Nations was another key alternative perspective critiquing rising inequality and calling for a replacement of the Bretton Woods system.

Going forward, achieving racial justice requires that people across the world who are enduring oppression have their power restored along with meaningful self-determination as aspects of the restitution dimension of reparations under international law. International financial institutions (IFIs) implication in the history of a number of countries provides the justification for such reparations. From 1908 onward, Belgiums occupation of Congo was a horrific regime and included massive expropriation of assets. In July this year, after campaigning, the Belgian parliament announced the establishment of a commission to examine the countrys colonial past. The detrimental role of the World Bank is important here. In the 1950s, King Leopold II of Belgium ran up debt that financed projects in Belgian Congo, some of which was spent in Belgium. In 1960, this debt was unfairly transferred to the Congolese people at independence.

According to the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt, this was clearly illegal under international law and unthinkable for Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the new states first government, to pay back. Congos current unsustainable debt load, which exists in part due to the unwillingness of the World Bank and IMF to write off odious debts, continues to this day.

Tunisias truth and reconciliation process offers another example of the case for reparations in relation to IFI culpability. On 16 July 2019, Tunisias Truth and Dignity Commission published memoranda to the World Bank and the IMF, as well as to France, seeking reparations for Tunisian victims of human rights violations.

The commission, established in 2013 following the Tunisian Revolution of 2011, found that the IMF and World Bank bear a share of responsibility for social unrest linked to historic structural adjustment policies. It claimed that both institutions pushed the Tunisian government to freeze wages and recruitment in the civil service, and reduce subsidies on basic consumer goods, which led to social crises and conflicts. The commission called for three acts of reparation: Apology, financial compensation to victims, and cancellation of Tunisias multilateral debt to these institutions. The IMF and the World Bank failed to respond to the commissions calls, while Tunisia once again had to resort to borrowing from the IMF to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic in April. Alongside the case of Belgium and Tunisia, there are several other cases for reparative justice with leaders of countries that were once subjugated sending powerful messages at this years UN General Assembly in September.

Economic frameworks are only as effective as the values that underpin them. Breaking the historical continuum means re-envisioning the structures of economic governance and asserting our own democracy in forming them. The BWIs rely on evolved forms of influence, for example via conditionality and technical assistance programming, which still affords a heavy-handed role that is arguably similar to the direct control over government policy that colonial administrations had. The objective is also largely the same: To create the right conditions for continued economic growth and accumulation of capital in already powerful countries. Ultimately, there is a growing case to reject all institutions that came out of colonialism, step out of their processes and create alternative governance and regulatory spaces. Alongside building the policy and advocacy for bigger re-structuring of this kind, there are other immediate steps that are also important. The following recommendations are levelled at the IMF and the World Bank, and would enable both to begin to embrace an active decolonial approach.

An assessment of the historical impact of slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism must be established. This would then be the basis for a re-envisioned financial assessment, using emerging methodologies. For example, compensation can be and has been calculated by other organisations determined to understand the detriment of their legacy. Such calculations can take place by identifying original assets seized under colonialism, establishing their value and using inflation multipliers to understand the current value of such wealth and the implications of this for country-level IFI evaluations.

An examination of existing policies would begin with understanding repudiated debt where communities continue to endure injustice and marginalisation because of their post-colonial trajectory and unsustainable debt that solidifies other dimensions of inequality and a lack of power. This would require the IMF and the World Bank to examine all impacts of their activities and lending, meaning both backward-looking for historic harm caused, and forward-looking for designing new programmes where potential harm can be identified and avoided, for project as well as policy lending. The assessments should be informed by the crucial accounts of affected and marginalised communities, especially in light of the increased need for finance following the effects of Covid-19. It is also important to note that the language of the BWIs policies has framed our approaches and influences how we think about people whose universal basic rights are denied. Going forward, to be anti-racist must involve being anti-colonial. The BWIs should also adopt language that is anti-oppressive in each context that it works.

The quota formula by which the BWIs vote shares are determined should be re-designed to proactively enhance representation of those countries subject to colonialism and others that have been politically dominated and subjugated. Establishing a UN sovereign debt workout mechanismwould be another much-needed reform. A decolonial approach would mean dethroning the US dollar as the worlds reserve currency, and instead maintaining a fairer global payment clearing structure, housed in the United Nations, where each country is afforded an equal vote.

Priya Lukka is an economist who works in international development and is a visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths University in London. She is interested in structural approaches to poverty and inequality, particularly from the perspective of historically marginalised communities.

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Repairing harm caused: What could a reparations approach mean for the IMF and World Bank? - Bretton Woods Observer

The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong officials, including the pro-China leader of the government, accusing them of roles in squashing freedom in the former British colony. The Treasury Department announced sanctions on Carrie Lam, the leader of the government in Hong Kong, and other officials.

The sanctions are the latest in a string of actions the Trump administration has taken targeting China as tensions between the two nations rise over trade disputes and the coronavirus.

"We will not stand by while the people of Hong Kong suffer brutal oppression at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party or its enablers," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted.

The sanctions were authorized by an executive order that President Donald Trump signed recently to levy penalties against China for its efforts to curtail anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has long enjoyed civil liberties not seen elsewhere in mainland China because it is governed under a "one country, two systems" principle in place since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

However, Beijing imposed a sweeping "national security" law on Hong Kong earlier this year, raising widespread concerns about the Chinese government cracking down on the anti-government protests.

Last week, four students were arrested in Hong Kong in the first police operation to enforce the new law, officials said. Arrests have been made previously under the new law for banners and slogans displayed at protests.

"Three males and one female, age 16-21, who claimed to be students, have been arrested for breaching the #nationalsecuritylaw. They were suspected of secession by advocating #HKindependence. Investigation is underway," the Hong Kong policetweeted.

Prominent pro-democracy activistJoshua Wongsaid that one of those arrested was Tony Chung, a student activist, and that he was detained after writing a Facebook post about "#China's nationalism."

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U.S. hits Hong Kong leader and other officials with sanctions, citing "brutal oppression" - CBS News

Tamil Nadu-based activist Prince Gajendra Babu, the General Secretary of the State Platform for Common School System has urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in a strongly worded letter to oppose the New Education Policy as he believes it negates the vision of the Constitution of India. Babu accused the NEP of putting the federal character of the Constitution in danger and argued that the states efforts so far to establish a strong public education system would go in vain.

Babu said in his letter that his organisation had responded to every call for suggestions and recommendations from the MHRD ever since the NEP began to get drafted. Despite demanding that the NEP be released in all languages, Babu had said that the MHRD had not taken any steps to do so and only did it for a shorter version. It was only with the volunteering of teachers and activists that the final version was translated into Tamil, he added. Yet, despite responding at every stage and submitting their arguments against aspects of the policy, the activist claims nothing had come of it. He listed many reasons as to why the Tamil Nadu government must oppose the policy. These are some of the major argument the activist makes:

1. Babu says that NEP 2020 demolishes the Federal Character of the Constitution of India by promoting Centralisation. The power and authority to formulate policy and regulate all universities is now sought to be with the Union Government and the responsibility to deliver the same as dictated by the Union will be with the State. Establishment of a single Central Regulatory Authority by the Union Government to regulate the Higher Education Institutes including all State Universities is in violation of Article 246, he adds.

2. The activist argues that the NEP demands amendments to the constitution, Ensuring Right to Equitable Access to Education for all citizens is the mandate given by the Constitution of India to the Government. The Constitution of India places Incorporation and Regulation of Universities under the State Subject. The Constitution of India guarantees the Right of Minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. NEP 2020 poses a threat to all these provisions of the Constitution of India. He also says that the laws enacted by the State Legislature would become infructuous.

3. It was not placed in the Parliament or the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for a discussion despite the fact that it had such massive implications for the country.

4. Financial liability is more on the state, he adds, For a college to survive it needs to meet the requirements as formulated by the Central Regulatory Authority established by the Government of India. If a college fails to achieve the required grade in a required period of time it has to become a part of the University. The State Government will be forced to bear the financial burden of each Government College to achieve the required grade within a specified time. Merger also has serious implications for management of colleges, status of staff, salary payment and student regulations.

5. Tamil Nadu has many strong research institutes and CSIR laboratories whose status the NEP has called into question as they are neither large nor multidisciplinary. There is imminent threat to institutes like the International Institute of Tamil Studies, Central Institute of Classical Tamil and others. The conditions laid out in institutional restructuring in NEP 2020 will pave the way for closure of Government Arts and Science Colleges and Universities established with the intention of social and linguistic developments, while increasing the proliferation of private institutions, he pointed out.

6. The activist pointed out that the NEP doesnt take into account social oppression and only focuses on economic backwardness, The NEP fails to recognize the social and educational backwardness. Historically, in India, educational backwardness of a particular community is not because of economic incapacity, but due to social oppression and denial of opportunity. Different communities suffer different levels of oppression and based on the level of oppression and backwardness, reservation and scholarships are provided. NEP 2020 fails to recognize this social reality. NEP 2020 categorizes only the Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs).

7. NEP talks about merit and if the meritorious among the disadvantaged group suffers economic incapacity, such students will be considered for a scholarship. Taking into account the difficulty of such students in overcoming caste oppression, gender oppression, disability, etc., there can be no equal benchmark. NEP makes no provision to assess such difficulties while tracking the progress of students, the activist wrote. He pointed out that the NEP will also undo Tamil Nadus efforts to provide reservation based on social oppression. With regard to grants for research, the activist says that the NEP doesnt consider the difficulties of marginalised students, An equal benchmark for the students coming from the socially oppressed community and the students coming from other communities is nothing but a blatant tool to prevent the academic progress of the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of the Society. He also said that the NEP denied research scholars any academic freedom and the strict regimen would push many out off the course.

8. A student has several advantages under the present 3-year Degree Course and 2-year Master's Degree Course. NEP arbitrarily introduces new pattern of Degree and Post Degree Courses without any reason backed by any study in India and its impact on the social and educational development of the people of India, the activist wrote about the 4-year undergraduate and 1-year Masters degree rule.

9. There are multiple exit options for students, no attempts to keep students inside the classrooms, he says of the NEP. Even though NEP 2020 talks of equity and inclusiveness, in reality, at every stage and in every field, it paves the way for elimination of first-generation higher education entrants from completing or pursuing their goals, he added.

10. He also criticised the NEPs decision to do away with multiple university entrance exams and the responsibility to conduct exams falling squarely on NTA, Such a proposal raises suspicions of wanting to profit from obsolete, outdated tools and methods. Such a plan fails to recognize the diversity of people in India. Ensuring equal access to quality education at the college level for all students should be the aim of education in India today. NTA will never be able to bring quality or equality in higher education, he wrote.

11. The private HEIs are allowed to generate a surplus and expand their field of operation both geographically and otherwise. Treating both Private and Public on equal foot is the condition in General Agreement on Trade in Service (GATS) under World Trade Organisation (WTO). This is to facilitate Foreign Direct Investors generate profit, he pointed out.

12. Babu states that the NEP makes no reference to democracy on campuses or academic freedom, Students come to educational campuses in pursuit of knowledge and to critically examine the reasons for stagnant social order and evolve new ideas for social emancipation. There is no scope and space for academic freedom to learn and express what the student understands and desires.

13. NEP 2020 has fixed the target of achieving 50 percent Gross Enrollment Rate in Higher Education by 2035. Tamil Nadu is already 15 years ahead. For the State to build on this and achieve further progress, we need to defend the Rights of the State Government, Protect the Public Institutions and ensure the strengthening and further develoment of the public education system in the State of Tamil Nadu, the activist said in his letter.

Besides this, Babu in his letter, has also criticised the teacher training course being extended to 4 years, "The present 2 year Diploma in Elementary Education provides opportunity for all, especially women, to become teachers. In the Indian social condition it will be a challenge for anyone to pursue four year teacher Degree Course in a Teacher University. NEPis premised on a misconceived idea that by increasing the number of years of study, the quality of teachers will be improved."

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13 Reasons Why this activist is urging the Tamil Nadu govt to oppose NEP 2020 - EdexLive

A year after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, people in the region are still living under curfews, lockdowns and communications restrictions. New Delhi says the measures are necessary to maintain security in the restive region.

However, many Kashmiris consider the policy to be part of a systematic campaign of oppression from India's Hindu nationalist government.

Read more:Kashmir: The world's most dangerous conflict

Last year on August 5, New Delhi decided to abrogate Article 370 of the Indian constitution which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir downgraded the state into two federally governed territories.

The move sparked widespread unrest, prompting Indian security forces to enforce strict curfews and curtail public movement.

Waheed Ahmad Para, a young politician with Kashmir's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), remembers how he was preemptively detained when the announcement was made last year.

Para was giving an interview in a news studio in the regional capital, Srinagar, when the police raided the studio and shut down the broadcast.

The PDP party opposed dissolving the region's special status, and Para was rounded up along with 30 other politicians and detained at a hotel.

'Political paralysis'

Para's detention would last six months. It was part of a massive crackdown on political parties, separatist groups and civil society actors all of whom opposed New Delhi's move.

Among the detainees were former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah.

The detentions were carried out under India'sPublicSafety Act (PSA), which allows detention for up to a year without bail or trial.

Read more:How Asia's official maps promote propaganda

TheConcerned Citizens Group,an activist organization led by former Indian Finance MinisterYashwant Sinha, has demanded the release of those who were detained under the PSA.

"We findthat New Delhi's actions haveled to shock, trauma and humiliationamong locals [in Kashmir].Simmeringangerovertheir helplessness persists,"Sinhatold DW.

Speaking to DW, Para described his detention as "a personal humiliation," and said the Indian government's oppression of local leaders resulted in a "political paralysis" in the region.

"A lot is happening and we are unable to do anything, speak up or resist," he said in Srinagar, adding that India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not have a lot of political support in Kashmir.

'Broken' economy

The status of Kashmir has been a key dispute between Pakistan and India since the two split after the end of British colonial rule. They each control part of Kashmir and have fought two wars over their rival claims.

Separatist militants launched a full-blown revolt against New Delhi in India-administered Kashmir in 1989, a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead and prompted the deployment of hundreds of thousands of Indian troops.

On February 27, Pakistan's military said that it had shot down two Indian fighter jets over disputed Kashmir. A Pakistani military spokesman said the jets were shot down after they'd entered Pakistani airspace. It is the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have conducted air strikes against each other.

The Pakistani military has released this image to show that Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistani territory for the first time since the countries went to war in 1971. India said the air strike was in response to a recent suicide attack on Indian troops based in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan said there were no casualties and that its airforce repelled India's aircraft.

Some Indian civil society members believe New Delhi cannot exonerate itself from responsibility by accusing Islamabad of creating unrest in the Kashmir valley. A number of rights organizations demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government reduce the number of troops in Kashmir and let the people decide their fate.

On February 14, at least 41 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing near the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based Jihadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility. The attack, the worst on Indian troops since the insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, spiked tensions and triggered fears of an armed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers.

Since 1989, Muslim insurgents have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir - a region of 12 million people, about 70 percent of whom are Muslim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.

In October 2016, the Indian military has launched an offensive against armed rebels in Kashmir, surrounding at least 20 villages in Shopian district. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants, who cross over the Pakistani-Indian "Line of Control" and launch attacks on India's paramilitary forces.

The security situation in the Indian part of Kashmir deteriorated after the killing of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July 2016. Protests against Indian rule and clashes between separatists and soldiers have claimed hundreds of lives since then.

In September 2016, Islamist militants killed at least 17 Indian soldiers and wounded 30 in India-administered Kashmir. The Indian army said the rebels had infiltrated the Indian part of Kashmir from Pakistan, with initial investigations suggesting that the militants belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which has been active in Kashmir for over a decade.

Indian authorities banned a number of social media websites in Kashmir after video clips showing troops committing grave human rights violations went viral on the Internet. One such video that showed a Kashmiri protester tied to an Indian army jeep apparently as a human shield generated outrage on social media.

Those in favor of an independent Kashmir want Pakistan and India to step aside and let the Kashmiri people decide their future. "It is time India and Pakistan announce the timetable for withdrawal of their forces from the portions they control and hold an internationally supervised referendum," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Pakistani Kashmir, told DW.

But most Kashmir observers don't see it happening in the near future. They say that while the Indian strategy to deal strictly with militants and separatists in Kashmir has partly worked out, sooner or later New Delhi will have to find a political solution to the crisis. Secession, they say, does not stand a chance.

Author: Shamil Shams

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government insists that the revocation of the special status was needed to halt the conflict and boost economic development in Kashmir.

The impact of the government's actions over the past year on Kashmir's already fragile economy has been enormous, shuttering shops and small businesses that then took another hit as the coronavirus hit India hard and triggered a nationwide lockdown.

Despite New Delhi's claims that economic progress has been made in Kashmir over the past year, Sheikh Ashiq, the president of Kashmir's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told DW that the region has faced losses worth over 4.5 billion ($5.3 billion) over the past year.

"These are our rough estimates as we are coming with a proper report soon. One lockdown after another has left nearly 500,000 people unemployed, which is our biggest concern. We are at a point where we have no financial capacity now," Sheikh said, adding the economic crisis is unprecedented.

"There has been unrest in the past as well but this situation is peculiar. We have reached a point where we are completely broken," he said.

PDP's Para shares a similar view. "For the past year there has been no development, no economic activity, no tourism," he said. "You can never win a population by detaining and defeating them."

The Concerned Citizens Group hasdemanded that Kashmiri farmers and businessmen be compensated for their economic losses,which thegroup attributes to the upheaval caused by the region losing its special status.

Fragile security

Over the past year, PM Modi's government has also brought in a slew of new laws that locals say are aimed at shifting the demographics in the Muslim-majority region.

The military, meanwhile, has intensified its counter-insurgency operations in recent months. Clashes in the first half of the year have left 229 dead, including 32 civilians, reports AFP news agency. The 283 people killed in all of 2019 was the highest toll for a decade.

Still, a senior official in India's Border Security Force, who wished to remain anonymous, told DW that the security situation in the region is "better than ever," citing a drop in the local youth joining pro-separatist extremist groups.

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Kashmir: A year of lockdown and lost autonomy - DW (English)

We live in an era of resurgent nationalism. From Scotland to Sri Lanka, from China to Brazil, governments rely on nationalism as a source of communal identity and a vehicle for common action.

In countries where religious identity appears to dominate, as with Islam in Turkey and Hinduism in India, religion has bonded with nationalism. In nominally communist countries like China and Vietnam, it is likewise nationalism that adds to governments legitimacy and political muscle.

This nationalist upsurge the world over is bad news for ethnic and sectarian minorities. Everywhere they are facing greater oppression and less autonomy from national governments maximising their power. At best they face marginalisation and at worst elimination. This is true for the Uighur in Xinjiang province in China, the Muslim population of India-controlled Kashmir, the Shia majority in Sunni-ruled Bahrain and the long-persecuted Kurdish minority in Turkey, to name but four.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

All these communities are coming under crushing pressure to surrender to the political and cultural control of the national state. The same brutal methods are used everywhere: mass incarceration; disappearances; torture; the elimination of political parties and independent media representing the persecuted community. Any opposition, however peaceful, is conflated with terrorism and suppressed with draconian punishments.

The degree of mistreatment of these embattled communities varies with the balance of power between them and the central government. There is little the Bahrain Shia, though a majority of the population, can do to defend themselves, but the 182 million Muslims in India cannot be dealt with so summarily.

Even so, they are in danger of progressively losing their civil rights and residency through the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens. The Turkish Kurds are well organised but their political leaders are in jail and Turkey leads the world in the number of journalists, many of them Kurds, it has imprisoned.

What makes these countries different is partly the political strength of the persecuted communites, but above all the degrees of international support they can attract. This in turn depends less on the cruelties they endure than on their ability to plug into the self-interested rivalries of the great powers. Related to this is the ability to attract the sustained attention and sympathy of the (usually western) international media.

The Uighur deserve all the sympathy and attention they can get, but it would be naive to imagine that the sudden interest of the west in their fate over the last year has much to do with the undoubted justice of their cause. President Xi Jinping has been chosen as the new demon king in the eyes of the US and its allies, his every action fresh evidence of the fiendish evil of the Chinese state.

There is no reason to suppose that any of the films of Uighur prisoners manacled hand and foot are untrue or that a million Uighurs are not the targets of brainwashing in giant concentration camps. But the manipulation of public opinion has always relied less on mendacity, the manufacturing of false facts, and more on selectivity; on broadcasting the crimes of ones opponents and keeping very quiet about similar acts of oppression by oneself and ones allies.

What is striking over the last year is the disparity between the international attention given to the fate of the 11 million Uighurs in the Autonomous Uighur Region in Xingjian and the 13 million people in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The situations in Kashmir and Xinjiang are comparable in some ways. On 5 August last year, Indian prime minister Narendra Modis government stripped Kashmir Indias only Muslim-majority state of its special rights and split it into two federally administered territories. He claimed that the aim was the economic regeneration of Kashmir, but the prolonged curfews enforced by a heavily reinforced Indian military presence has ruined local economic life.

These lockdowns and the almost complete shutdown of the internet are far more severe than anything resulting from the coronavirus epidemic, and have reduced Kashmiris to colonial servitude. This has been compounded, says Amnesty International, by a censored media, continuing detention of political leaders, arbitrary restrictions due to the pandemic with little to no redress.

The anniversary of the end to Kashmirs autonomy was marked this month by even tighter restrictions. Local political leaders were jailed or were forbidden to leave their houses. One year later the authorities are still too afraid to allow us to meet, much less carry out any normal political activity, said the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, on Twitter. But worse things than jail and house arrest happen at the hands of the Indian authorities. Since 1990 between 8,000 and 10,000 Kashmiris have disappeared according to the Association of the Parents of the Disappeared, a movement modelled on that of the Argentinian mothers whose children had vanished, mostly tortured to death or executed by the military dictatorship.

Kashmir is only the apogee of the mounting persecution of almost 200 million Indian Muslims under Modis Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. The willingness of the government to double-down on humiliating the Muslims was exemplified this week when Modi laid the foundation stone for a Hindu temple to replace the sixteenth century mosque that was destroyed by right-wing Hindu mobs in 1992. Some 2,000 people were killed in the rioting that followed the mosques destruction.

Powerful governments tend to underestimate the amount of trouble that small minorities can cause them, despite an immense disparity in the balance of power between the central state and the minority in question. Look at the trouble a small ethnicity like the Uighurs have caused Beijing. Foreign powers may be exploiting their grievances for their own purposes, but those grievances are real. Look at the trouble a century ago that the Irish and the Boers caused the British Empire at the height of its power. Then as now, the very puniness of the opposition of small communities tempted seemingly all-powerful regimes to reject conciliation in the belief that they have no need to compromise. They do not understand why their overwhelming political and military power does not make them the easy winner.

Kashmir is a classic example of this syndrome. By ending the states autonomy, Modi said he would bring an end to the Kashmir problem. In fact, he predictably made it worse and it is not going away.

The west has been prepared to back Modi unconditionally because it hopes India will be a counterbalance to China. They are the only states in the world with populations over a billion. But the states backing the BJP Hindu nationalist government have not taken on board what an extraordinarily dangerous game they and Modi are playing: seeking total victory over Kashmir though it is backed by neighbouring nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Attempting to marginalise Indian Muslims so numerous that, if they formed a separate country, it would be the eighth largest in the world is not possible without extreme violence.

The riots in Delhi in February were a taste of this. Ignoring this potential for disaster is like officials in Beirut who were blind to the danger of storing thousands of tons of explosives in the heart of the city.

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The rise of nationalism has led to increased oppression of minorities around the world but the Uighur and Kashmir are reported differently - The...

Ayear has passed since India unilaterally revoked the special status of the disputed territory. Kashmir has, since then, remained under lockdown. Over eight million people have been subjected to the worst forms of oppression.

Pakistan, a party to the longstanding dispute, has rejected Indias unilateral moves and has been pushing to advance its narrative through diplomatic means at the international level. Discussions and debates in Pakistan over Kashmir have often remained emotional. The current government appears to be more keen on pacifying the domestic audience than taking practical steps to persuade India to reverse its controversial and illegal moves. The new political map, asserting Pakistans principled stance on Kashmir and renaming one of the main arteries in Islamabad as Srinagar Highway are some of the steps meant to satisfy the domestic public opinion.

When India in August last year revoked Articles 370 and 35(A) of its Constitution, Pakistan was apparently caught by surprise. Since Pakistan was not expecting Modi to resort to such an unprecedented move on Kashmir, Pakistan had to hurriedly come up with a contingency plan. In the aftermath of Indian decision, Pakistan on August 7 decided to take a host of steps after the high-level huddle of civil and military leadership. Those decisions include downgrading of diplomatic ties, suspension of bilateral trade, reviewing bilateral agreements and forcefully raising the issue at the UNSC.

The government immediately implemented the decision as far as downgrading of diplomatic ties and severing bilateral trade were concerned. But there has been no movement yet on reviewing bilateral arrangements. The Foreign Office did write letters to relevant departments getting all the details of the number of bilateral accords with India. There are dozens of such agreements but the government took no decision further whether to revoke some of the arrangements. The government was even reluctant to abandon the 1972 Shimla Agreement in which it was clearly written that no side would alter the status quo on Kashmir pending the final settlement.

India on August 5, 2019, unilaterally changed the status quo and hence rendered the Shimla Accord meaningless. It is inexplicable as to why Pakistan is still sticking to that Accord which India has used time and again to impress upon that Kashmir is a bilateral dispute. If Pakistan walks away from the Shimla Accord, the current Line of Control will revert back to the Ceasefire Line. Also, this would reject Indian claims that Kashmir is bilateral issue.

Pakistan is, however, reluctant to take those hard steps perhaps fearing possible implications. It also highlights the fact that perhaps Pakistan with time has limited options on Kashmir. Raising the issue at the UNSC and other international forums will not pay much dividends given that the Wests and even some Muslim countries interests are linked with India. These hard facts warranted a rethink of the Kashmir strategy.

Kashmir is not a static issue anymore. Indo-China border tension has clearly exhibited the urgency that India and China feel about the impending finality of resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute. We sadly are fixed in what happened 70 years ago. We need a dynamic policy on J&K dispute, not one frozen in time. The debate has to reach our media and intelligentsia. Lets check what our people really want. We can tell them our limitations (both financial and military). Perpetual war/animosity would mean endless poverty and disease, as we would not have the resources to address these issues.

Lets discuss the possibilities of whether or not we can get J&K through the policy that we are or have been following, in say the next 25 or 50 years or even 100 years. Lets see what kind of a resolution the people see to the conflict.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th, 2020.

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Time to revisit the Kashmir strategy - The Express Tribune

The number of migrants crossing the English Channel to reach the UK is continuing to rise after Border Force met a boat carrying around 20 people from Syria off the coast of Dover on Monday morning.

The patrol boat, HMC Hunter, intercepted the inflatable dinghy at around 7:15am ahead of the White Cliffs. Photos show the Home Office agency transported the migrants to the port. It comes after hundreds of people made the dangerous journey across the water from France over the weekend.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is taking action to try and deter migrants from the journey, including asking the Royal Navy to patrol the channel, but campaigners have urged the Government to welcome refugees.

Refugee Action called on ministers to introduce more safe and legal routes for migrants to tackle the global refugee crisis.

Talking tough wont stop desperate people fleeing violence and oppression from climbing into boats to cross the Channel. Britain is better than this and refugees deserve better than this, said chief executive Stephen Hale.

The Government needs to start acting smart and step up with other countries to tackle what is a global refugee crisis. This includes creating more safe and legal routes to the UK for refugees.

The official resettlement scheme for refugees closed in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but Mr Hale said it urgently needed to be restarted to allow them to make a new life in the UK.

And [the Government] needs to reform the restrictive rules on family reunion so that families are not kept apart, he added.

Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants Rights Network, also put pressure on the Government to focus on giving migrants safe and legal options for safety.

She told i: Watching refugees risking their lives by travelling in small dinghies across the Channel is heartbreaking, and demonstrates their heightening desperation to find a place for safety and protection.

Our Government is so preoccupied with enforcement and prevention, it is neglecting its own obligations to protect those who seek safety. We urge the Government re-focus their efforts on making safe and legal routes available, and recognise their duties under international law to welcome refugees.

Monday mornings events come after at least 597 migrants, including families with young children, reached the UK between Thursday and Sunday.

In total, more than 4,000 people have passed through the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the channel that marks the boundary with the North Sea, in small boats to get to Britain this year.

Last year, Ms Patel promised that the crossings would have become an infrequent phenomenon by now.

Immigration minister Chris Philp is visiting his French counterparts in Paris on Tuesday to discuss how to tackle the issue. It has been reported that France is seeking 30m from Britain to help them police the channel.

The Government has officially asked the Royal Navy for help in stopping migrants crossing over from France and the Home Secretary has appointed a Clandestine Channel Threat Commander to lead the UKs response in tackling illegal attempts to reach the UK. The role of Dan OMahoney, a former Royal Marine, will be to make the English Channel an unviable route for small boat crossings.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has authorised a Royal Air Force plane to provide aerial surveillance over the channel as part of an initial offer of assistance from the Ministry of Defence to the Home Office.

When asked if the Navy should be involving in patrolling the water for migrants, Care Minister Helen Whately told BBC Breakfast on Monday:We need to bring this to an end.

The Home Secretarys determined that this will not be a viable route to the UK and my colleague, Home Office Minister Chris Philp, is going to be in Paris later this week to talk directly with the French government about working together to stop this transit.

However Pierre-Henri Dumont, the French MP for Calais, expressed doubt over whether enlisting the Royal Navy would help matters.

This is a political measure to show some kind of resource to fight against smugglers and illegal crossings in the Channel, but technically speaking that wont change anything, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Commenting on whether it might act as a deterrent, he said: Yes, but thats dangerous, because if there is a vessel from the Royal Navy trying to push a vessel, very small boat full withmigrants, back into French waters first you could say that youve got British vessels entering French waters, I dont know if the British Government would be very happy to see the other way, if French vessels would enter without any ask, before or without any decision before, into British waters.

Additional reporting by PA

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UK urged to 'welcome refugees' as Border Force meets boat with 20 Syrian migrants near Dover - iNews

LAHORE: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Saturday met Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar at the CMs Office here where matters of mutual interest, political situation, and Southern Punjab Secretariats affairs came under discussion.

Punjab Minister Dr. Muhammad Akhtar, Chief Whip National Assembly MNA Aamir Dogar, MNA Zain Qureshi, Principal Secretary to the CM Punjab and officers concerned were also present on the occasion.

The meeting decided to take prompt administrative steps to make Southern Punjab Secretariat fully functional.

Qureshi said the government was fulfilling all its promises made to the people. He said establishment of Southern Punjab Secretariat would bring relief to the people and their problems would be solved at the grassroots level.

Qureshi, Usman Buzdar and other members of the assembly strongly condemned the worst military siege and oppression of Modi government in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Qureshi said Pakistan was incomplete without Kashmir adding that Modi had orchestrated Muslims genocide in IOJ&K and set a new history of oppression on Kashmiris.

Buzdar said the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan had been highlighting Indian atrocities at all levels and the entire nation observed Youm-e-Istehsal.

One road in every division of Punjab, including Lahore, would be named after Srinagar, he said, adding, the government paid tribute to everlasting struggle of the Kashmiri people against the illegal Indian occupation.

He termed Kashmir a jugular vein of Pakistan and said Pakistan could not back off from the core issue of Kashmir cause.

He said Modi had blatantly violated the UN resolutions on August 5, 2019. He said Pakistan would continue to expose Indias stubbornness and illegal steps at every level.

Usman Buzdar said the secretaries of different departments would soon be posted in Southern Punjab Secretariat and the secretaries would be fully empowered.

The Southern Punjab Secretariat would be given administrative and financial autonomy so that affairs related to Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan Divisions could be dealt with locally, the chief minister stated.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Saturday said Pakistan remained steadfast in support of an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan.

Good to speak (with Mike Pompeo) and to reiterate Pakistans continued stand for regional peace and security. We remain steadfast in support of an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan, he said on Twitter.

He was referring to his Fridays telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wherein in the two sides discussed the bilateral and regional matters including Kashmir dispute as well as Afghan peace process. Qureshi said Pakistan looked forward to strengthening bilateral relationship with the US and to continuing as anchors of stability.

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Modi sets new history of oppression in Kashmir: Quresh - The News International

Unless youve been living in a bomb shelter somewhere, tirelessly preparing for the new world order, you may have noticed a lot of people on social media upset about government overreach.

Perhaps at some point, like myself, you had it in your mind that in the vice of oppression youd stand tall and refuse to bend the knee to a tyrannical overlord; that when some maniacal villain came to stake their claim on your land youd fearlessly call your neighbors to arms and unite under the Stars and Stripes as one nation! With LIBERTY! And JUSTICE! For ALL!

But things are a bit more complicated than they were in 1776. Misinformation is spreading just as quickly as science and we dont just have one overlord, we have thousands, whose authorities are layered and knit together like the nightmarish intricate webs of Australian spiders during a mass ballooning event (Google it. Youll never sleep with your mouth open again.)

A lot of unprecedented things are happening in 2020 and just as humans always do when frightened, we are trying to make sense of things.

We are wasting no time coming up with fantastic explanations as to who exactly is doing this to us and why. The government wants control. Im sorry, what?! Since when is the government NOT in control? Did I miss out on a year that I didnt have to plug my special number, assigned at birth, into an official form so the government could then give me back money that I overpaid them while being an employed citizen? Did I senselessly give a copy of my birth records to an employer verifying that I am legally able to labor away at a job that pays the government from every paycheck I earn?

A lot of things in the world have changed, but the grip of power our government holds on us has not. This modern concept that the government exists to work for us is both privileged and delusional.

Since before the dawn of civilization, governing bodies have existed to control the masses. And they stay in power by convincing us that we are happier that way. Humanitys first leaders were the strongest and smartest of the tribe and kept order with their strength and knowledge. The first people felt protected under the first leaders.

A few cognitive upgrades down the path of evolution and we were ruled by religious leaders, touting the words of our deities to keep us in line. They kept us satisfied by ensuring us that the current state of affairs was the will of [the] god(s) Cue serfdom to the stage and we became slaves to the economic machine.

Life wasnt perfect as social stratification grew, but it was certainly better than having your unprotected farms raided. Perhaps some of this is beginning to sound a little familiar.

Nothing about the government wanting to control us as a population is new or strange. What is both new and strange, however, is the way in which some of us have theorized the methods in which we are being controlled, becoming allies to the thankless governing body that controls us, and defending the governments overreaches, all while calling for rebellion against the oppressive overlords.

If that didnt make any sense to you then you probably get my point.

America is rampant with popularized conspiracy theories that even the conspiracy theorists cant seem to make sense of, much less explain, and Im just as confused as everyone else trying to keep up.

It is confounding to me that so many people think the government is controlling us with face mask mandates without being able to explain what the government or government officials would benefit from all of us wearing them, and yet nobody is talking about how the government is openly meeting to discuss how they can literally control us by withholding our own tax dollars to force us back into economy-stimulating labor while its so unsafe for us to go back to work that they literally shut down the businesses we work at.

Its also weird that people are out there shaming those collecting the unemployment they paid into themselves in the years that they had jobs, while many people collecting unemployment would actually get more benefits (and insurance) by collecting public assistance instead, but choose not to because they have no desire to actually live off the system.

It is alarming to me that the federal government is so comfortable with their control over us that theyre out in the Portland streets, not giving a single fuck about the constitution, while they justify committing WAR CRIMES AGAINST AMERICAN CITIZENS with the destruction of property.

And again, the supposed freedom-lovers are silent about government control.

But those masks, man thats definitely whats destroying the health of our citizens, the future of our economy, and our American way of life.

But, in fact, its just one item on the docket that affects these conspiracy theorist types directly. So where are the real freedom fighters? Where are the libertarians when secret police make unlawful arrests? Where are the Second Amendment people when the federal government turns its sights on American citizens? Where are the All Lives Matter people when there are children locked in cages on U.S. soil?

Theyre at home. Theyre at home having their location and browser history tracked on Facebook before they go to bed so they can get up early and clock in at a job that reports to the IRS so they can be tracked financially while paying into an unemployment fund theyd be a hypocrite for having to collect on if their place of employment were ever shut down during a pandemic. Theyre home posting about microchips no government even needs to keep tabs on us, and facemasks nobody needs us in to control us.

I see you. I understand that it is easier to make excuses than to find solutions. I understand that it can be difficult to navigate which causes are righteous in a time with so much mixed information. And I understand that its hard to admit that in the face of adversity, you simply arent as brave or noble as you thought you would be.

I see you. We see you. And maybe someday soon, youll see yourself.

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Listen, morons, the government doesn't need to invent a virus to be in control - Anchorage Press

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Home to enthralling mountains, spectacular valleys and magnificent lakes, Kashmirs legendary beauty is best described by the famous poet Amir Khusrau in a Persian couplet which reads: If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.

Sadly, this paradise on earth is under siege. Exactly, a year ago, India imposed an armed siege and communications blackout in Kashmir. For the people of Kashmir who have already suffered unspeakable pain and humiliation over the last seven decades at the hands of India, this was a new and unprecedented indignity, as it coincided with Indias illegal attempt to alter the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Thousands of Kashmiris, including minors, have been arrested and tortured. Indian security forces routinely stage fake encounters to kill young Kashmiri protesters. The ranks of young children and women blinded by Indias indiscriminate use of pellet guns continue to swell.

Today, more than 8 million Kashmiris face incarceration in what is effectively the largest open-air prison in the world. After barring two U.S. senators from visiting Kashmir last October, India has made sure that no independent observers or organizations visit the occupied territory lest the voices of oppressed Kashmiris are heard.

Instead of letting up in its oppression, India has used the COVID-19 crisis to dial up pain for the hapless Kashmiris, thus doubling-up their inflictions and tribulations. There has been a spike in arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings. Following a year-long Internet blockade, Kashmiris are stuck in an information black hole, at a time when the rest of the world is using Internet-based platforms to fight a raging pandemic.

The grim human rights situation in Kashmir has attracted the attention of the people of conscience around the world. Amnesty International is alarmed while the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its recent reports on Kashmir has reiterated the urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights violations and to deliver justice for all people in Kashmir.

In the United States, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a historic hearing on Nov. 14 last year to shed light on human rights abuses in Kashmir. Many witnesses provided compelling evidence of the pervasive human rights violations committed by the Indian government security forces, especially since Aug. 5, in an environment of impunity.

Unmoved, the Indian government has taken new steps to change the demographics of Kashmir and implemented a set of domicile rules which allow non-residents to own property in Kashmir and eventually displace its local population. Thousands of such illegal certificates have already been issued.

These rules clearly violate the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, international law, and, in particular, the Fourth Geneva Convention. All Kashmiri political parties have unanimously rejected the new rules, accusing the Indian government of using them as legal cover for creating settler colonies.

Kashmir is only the opening gambit in Prime Minister Modis campaign to remake India into a Hindu-supremacist state. The Modi government has committed itself to implementing the racist Hindutva agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (or R.S.S.) a militant organization that advocates Hindu supremacy. In recent months, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has moved with breathtaking speed to enact a slew of legislation that would deprive millions of Indian Muslims of their citizenship. It has already started building camps for holding nearly 2 million Muslims in anticipation of their disenfranchisement. We fear that a refugee crisis with global implications may be in the making.

Meanwhile, India continues to use the bogeyman of terrorism to justify the inhuman treatment of the Kashmiri population. Tensions along the Line of Control are already running high with Indian forces regularly and indiscriminately targeting civilian populations in Azad Jammu & Kashmir. There is real danger that Indias belligerent attitude could spark a wider conflict.

A steady drumbeat of blatant threats against Pakistan continues to emanate from India, including threats by Mr. Modi that India would defeat Pakistan in a war in less than 10 days. The Indian army chief said that his forces would act to annex the parts of Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistani control if they were ordered to do so. It is difficult to imagine more irresponsible rhetoric in a nuclearized environment.

We are concerned that India would try to deflect attention from the dire situation in Kashmir by orchestrating another escalation with Pakistan, just as it did in February 2019, when Mr. Modi whipped his country into a frenzy that nearly sparked a war between Pakistan and India that neither could afford. Never in the history of relations between two nuclear powers has one country so recklessly and cynically put the lives of billions of people at risk.

We had hoped that such a close brush with war would have been a sobering experience for the Indian leadership. Regrettably, they have refused to seriously consider the offer that Prime Minister Khan had made shortly after assuming office in July 2018. He had promised that Pakistan will take two steps, if India takes one.

The people of South Asia, one of the poorest regions in the world, yearn for peace, prosperity and a better future for their children. Pakistan and India should be fighting poverty instead of each other. But we can only get there if the most fundamental reality is understood by our neighbor: Peace requires resolution of outstanding differences through dialogue.

Over 70 years of attempts to put down the Kashmiri peoples struggle for self-determination has not worked. It is time for us to find a just and peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in line with the U.N. Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

In the meantime, as the siege of Kashmir enters its second year, Kashmiris await attention of and action by those who espouse the causes of freedom and human dignity to compel India to end one of the longest and most humiliating sub-humanization of Kashmiris in recent history.

Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi is Pakistans Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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India's oppressive siege of Kashmir tramples human rights - Washington Times

Afghanistan has been seeking peace for decades. Perhaps it is time to embrace the fresh perspective that women can bring. Afghans have already seen the benefit of having all of society, both men and women, contribute to Afghanistans progress. Womens economic, social, and political contributions are strengthening Afghanistan daily by enriching the countrys societal fabric and helping to build a more stable society. Women now constitute 21 percent of the labor force. From parliament to orchestras, civil-society organizations, and sports teams, women are on the national stage more than ever before.

The question then is whether womens contributions to peace processes are valuable. The evidence clearly says yes. This has been proved in the Philippines, Liberia, Northern Ireland, and many other regions where women have had a substantive voice in a peace process. Womens inclusion in Afghanistan would be similarly impactful, since peace talks that substantively include women have been shown to be more likely to both succeed and last. This makes womens participation in peace talks a national security issue.

Peace cannot be established by an agreement just between those who hold the guns. Women are sidelined because they are less often perpetrators of violence. However, women cannot just be an issue in the negotiations; they must be a party to them. Fortunately, womens participation is a priority for the Afghan government. Their participation is reflective of the republics values and is being passionately pursued by the government and women alike.

Afghan women are claiming a prominent place in the public sector, and a large number of women have entered leadership positions in politics. After gaining equal political rights in 1964, womens participation in parliament remained low, with a mere six women elected in 1965, making up only 2.2 percent of the parliament. Women now make up 28 percent of the Afghan legislative bodyhigher than the global average. Afghan public approval of a womans right to vote is at a record high of 89.3 percent.

Women are in high-level, decision-making government positions to an extent that is historically unprecedented. Afghanistan has a female deputy minister of defense and deputy minister of the interior, and there are around 6,000 women in Afghanistans national security forces. Womens inclusion in national security dramatically increases intelligence capabilities, because women have access to populations and situations that men are often excluded from. They offer a unique perspective to security operations, and the information they provide makes both Afghanistan and its allies safer.

This progress has extended beyond Kabul. Since 2001, more than 150,000 Afghan women in rural areas have been elected to serve as their communities representatives on community development councils. Womens participation in government ensures a more accurate representation of society, and their presence has been shown to restore trust in government. They are also able to increase the governments focus on issues such as social welfare, legal protections, and government transparency, all of which contribute to state stability.

Women are skilled at engaging at the community level and strengthening civil society. They have historically played a key role in reintegrating ex-combatants into communities around the world. In Afghanistan, women have successfully encouraged local insurgents to participate in peace talks, coordinated with the wives of insurgents to facilitate several hostage releases, and worked in schools and civil-society organizations to counter extremism.

Similarly, womens participation has a positive influence at every phase: peacemaking (making a deal), peace building (crafting mechanisms to implement the deal), and peace management (maintaining peace).

When making peace, there is a positive relationship between the strength of womens influence and the likelihood of agreements being both reached and implemented. This is in part due to womens skill in moving decision-making processes forward through their ability to promote consensus, prioritize inclusivity, and increase society-wide support. Last year, 15,000 Afghan women from across all 34 provinces participated in a peace jirga, a traditional consultative assembly. This radical inclusivity led to a powerful statement from all the women of Afghanistan on their demands and vision for peace.

While building peace, womens commitment to inclusivity and open dialogue allows them to build more broad-based public support. They are more likely to include rural areas that are often isolated from the process and ensure the participation of marginalized groups. Women are also more likely to focus on social and humanitarian issues when implementing peace deals. The inherent value of addressing these issues is clear, but they also contribute to stability in the long term.

Finally, women increase the success of peace management. Women have been shown to push for more concrete, fundamental reforms for post-conflict reconstruction efforts, such as establishing commissions that monitor the implementation of the peace agreement. Womens efforts to ease tensions after a peace agreement are so central to reintegration that women are most frequently cited by ex-combatants as influential figures in their reintegration. Additionally, peace processes that include women are 35 percent more likely to last for at least 15 years, according to a quantitative analysis of 182 peace deals signed between 1989 and 2011.

Women also have a role in shaping the future of the country by fostering a culture of peace at the nucleus of society: the home. With 64 percent of the Afghan population under the age of 25, the power of mothers should not be underestimated. A consistent correlation is found between childhood exposure to abuse and later violent behavior. A recent study indicated a strong relationship between womens disempowerment at the household level and national levels of terrorism. Setting a precedent of terrorizing women in the household sets a precedent for terrorist violence in adulthood as well.

The relationship between womens security and state security is clear. The physical security of women has been shown to be the strongest predictor of a secure, peaceful state. A 2008 study at Harvard University showed that if a single variable had to be selected to estimate state security and peacefulness, womens physical security is a more accurate predictor than levels of democracy, wealth, and faith. There is also a strong correlation between gender inequality and both intrastate and interstate warfare, and between womens empowerment and the number of Islamic State foreign fighters that a country produces. When there is a war raging in the home and sexist oppression is normalized, a culture of violence, oppression, and war will also be perpetuated.

Afghanistan has been stuck in a culture of war for too long, and women can play a major role in fostering a culture of peace. The omnipresence of war and insecurity keeps citizens focusing more on how to divide resources now, rather than how to multiply them in the long term. In a culture of war there is no faith in the future and everything is a matter of urgency, so the collective good is disregarded. This exacerbates corruption, and pessimism and skepticism become the default mode of the population.

In order to move forward, a culture of peace needs to be fostered in Afghanistan. The country has already made enormous progress in this regard. Once women regained their agency and mobility in 2001, they slowly but steadily reintegrated into society as equal citizens, helping to shoulder the responsibility of shaping a better future. Female literacy has nearly doubled since 2011, enabling women to contribute more substantively to Afghanistans progress. Furthermore, Afghanistans gross domestic product has nearly quintupled in the past 19 years, in part because of womens participation in the economy. Women are now working as artists, athletes, and musicians. They are enriching Afghan culture, and their presence in these fields serves as a symbol of security and a budding culture of peace.

In order to be truly sustainable, peace must be inclusive, broad-based, and reflective of the needs and aspirations of all of society. Therefore, women need unambiguous constitutional protections of their rights to avoid regression. Both Afghanistans 1964 and 2004 constitutions explicitly protect against sex discrimination. In fact, in what is essentially a bill of rights in the 2004 constitution, gender equality is the very first right outlined in Article 22, articulated before even the right to life or liberty. In Article 149, the Afghan Constitution says amendments cannot affect the tenets of Islamic Republicanism and that amending fundamental rights of the people shall be permitted only to improve them. Peace negotiations must occur within this constitutional framework and cannot entail negotiating away fundamental rights. A democracy and rigid constitution are the best way to ensure womens equality is explicitly protected.

If the goal of negotiations is not to reduce violence temporarily but actually to build a lasting peace, then it is important for women to be substantively involved at every level. President Ashraf Ghani has already ensured that the governments negotiation team is inclusive of women. Four of 21 team membersabout 20 percentare women. A quota system is helpful, but does not in itself guarantee a desirable outcome for women. What is most important is that women are empowered and men are convinced to influence the process positively in order to achieve an outcome that both reflects and secures all of societys interests.

In order to achieve this, supportive mechanisms need to be put in place. Firstly, the preservation of the republic system and equal rights for women needs to be nonnegotiable in the peace talks and remain enshrined in the constitution. Additionally, women could be given veto power during the peace talks on issues that would impact them. International allies should continue to hold Afghanistan to high standards in order for aid to be continued. Global funds should be explicitly conditioned on the preservation of the progress women have made and on human rights more broadly.

Regardless of how the protection of womens rights is achieved, one thing is clear: Womens involvement is crucial. Women are the centerpiece of peace.

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Afghan Women Should Be the Centerpiece of the Peace Process - Foreign Policy

even though the indices of revolution, the hopelessness, the frustrations are present everywhere. The truth is that there is no difference between the widespread despondency in Katsina-Ala, the frustration in Nkalagu or the massive disdain with Nigerian ruling class in Igboho, but motivations for dissent are not the same.

They all happened almost simultaneously, as if in a choreography. On February 9, 2011, a huge crowd of protesters had gathered at the Tahir Square in Cairo, Egypt. Unruly, eyes dilating like pellets of ice immersed in a mug full of Campari liquor, it was obvious that this was a crowd determined to change the status quo. They shouted anti-government slogans, calling for an end to oppression, economic adversities and collapse of the Arabian spirit in the Arab world.

A couple of weeks before then, specifically on January 14, 2001, at the Habib Bourguiba Boulevard in Tunis, Tunisia, it was the same huge crowd, mobilised to end the decadent order. Similarly on February 3, 2011, a mammoth crowd of dissidents gathered at the Sanaa in Yemen, calling for the resignation of President Ali Abdullahi Saleh. A couple of months after, specifically on the cold morning of April 29, 2011, hundreds of thousands of people at Baniyas, Syria, gathered to upturn the ruling order.

The overall goal of the protesters was similar: Bring down oppressive regimes that manifested in low standards of living in the Arab world. Dubbed the Arab Spring, an allusion to the 1848 Revolution and the Prague Spring of 1968, by political Scientist, Marc Lynch in an article he did for the American Foreign Policy magazine on January 6, 2011, the upheavals were a series of anti-government protests sparked off in the early 2010s in Tunisia, which eventually culminated in uprisings and armed rebellion that became widespread across the Arab World.

Within the twinkling of an eye, the protest had spread to five other Arab countries, namely Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, leading to the deposition of the second president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali; Egyptian Hosni Mubarak; Muammar Gaddafi of Libya; and Yemens first president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. In places where such upturns were not achieved, major social dislocations, riots, civil wars and insurgencies followed. In all of this extended social violence, the demonstrators catchphrase was, translated from Arab, the people want to bring down the regime.

So, did the #RevolutionNow conveners actually want to bring down the Muhammadu Buhari government last week, and were they representative of the people of Nigeria? I ask this question because, if the Arab Spring upheavals were what they sought to clone, we must place it side by side the gloating of the Buhari presidency which likened the #RevolutionNow version to a childs tantrum and a poor imitation of the original. Femi Adesina, Buharis spokesman, articulated the Buhari governments disdain for and scant belief in the possibility of the rehash of an Arab Spring-like revolution in Nigeria. My reading of this mockery of the protests was that Buhari, like the ruling class elite now and before him, was persuaded that the internal contradictions in Nigeria can never allow for a peoples revolt against governmental oppressors.

A revolution is always a mass thing, not a sprinkle of young boys and girls you saw yesterday in different parts of the country. I think it was just a funny thing to call it a revolution protest. In a country of 200 million people and if you see a sprinkle of people saying they are doing a revolution, it was a childs play. Revolution is something that turns the normal order. What happened yesterday, would you call it a revolution? It was just an irritation, just an irritation and some people want to cause irritation in the country and what I will say is when things boil over, they boil over because you continue to heat them, the Buhari publicist said.

I am persuaded that the social condition of the 200 million people Adesina literally venerated for staying aloof to the #RevolutionNow is far worse than those of the people in the Arab countries who revolted. Like in those place, a tiny clique too has held onto the jugular of power for decades, continuously riding roughshod over the suffering people and believing that a violent upturn is a mirage. This ruling elites lethargy, in Nigeria, has resulted in apathy to the worsening fates of society and the breeding of a teeming and agonising majority.

However, my reading of the Presidencys dismissive appraisal of the #RevolutionNow protests shows that the mockery is situated on a wonky pedestal. Buharis basis for dismissing the protest includes its scant attendance, the absence of belligerent protesters and the fact that things have not yet boiled over. Of a truth, on the outward, Omoyele Sowores #RevolutionNow, which provoked that disdainful appraisal of the Nigerian presidency, may look too sparse to qualify for a peoples revolt. However, proclaiming it a failure may be a fatal mis-reading of the temperature of revolts.

Though Buhari must have been buoyed into lethargy by the many contradictions of the Nigerian state that might not have allowed Nigerians to troop out in their millions to convince government that Buhari is sitting on a keg of gunpowder, things are actually fast boiling over from within. It is apparent that government has failed to see the success of the protest as a symbolism for perforation of the veneer of governmental resistance. Since it could not see this implication, government then dangerously lapsed into a couple of false assumptions, which show it as incapable of properly reading what people dont say.

the Nigerian elites, being part and parcel of the maggots that lace the Nigerian decadence, are literally having a celebration inside the Nigerian sewage and are far from being dissident against the status quo. Again, whereas there are motivations for revolt in virtually all parts of Nigeria, the complexities in the diversities of tribe, religion and culture have compelled divisive motivations.

In his weekly Facebook epistle, Adesina was further lionised to make further fatal fallacious blunders. Citing the viral call of a four-year old boy, who urged his mum to calm down, in a piece entitled Why We Need to Calm Down, the presidents spokesman made the same ruling elite mistake of equating infrastructural projects with development and imagining that the people are happy. He regaled Nigerians with tales of construction projects, which he said are unprecedented in Nigerias history. Does he know that development is also mental and not merely physical structures?

While Nigeria may indeed have witnessed a flurry of Chinese loan-funded, ostensibly corruption-ridden infrastructural projects, the joy level of Nigerians has sunk considerably under Buhari. The lack of development is evident in the peace that has eluded Nigerians in the last five years, in the widespread belief that Nigeria is rudderless under Buhari and the fear that Boko Haram, ISWAP, ISIS and bandits are presiding over the Nigerian affairs, rather than the elected political elite.

By definition, a revolution is a fundamental, sudden change in political power and political organisation. It is propelled when a people revolt against an oppressive government run by people generally perceived as incompetent. In human history, there has been an array of revolutions which significantly changed the status quo. While notable revolutions are the American Revolutionary War of 1775-1783, the French Revolution of 1789 to 1799, and the Russian Revolution of 1917, Africa has had its own experiences, ranging from the Angolan Revolution of 19611974, the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, and the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964. The most recent in this league in Africa is the Arab Spring. So, what gave #RevolutionNow conveners the impression that Nigeria is ready for a revolt?

Successful revolutions have been known to succumb to some indices. James DeFronzos Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements, which can be regarded as a handbook for revolution, provides some insights. Mass frustration resulting in local uprisings, dissident elites, powerful unifying motivations, a severe crisis paralysing state administrative and coercive power and a permissive or tolerant world context are some of the indices that DeFronzo observes as being present if the revolt against an existing order must be consummated.

A critical look at the Nigerian situation reveals the following: Whereas there is mass frustration in the country, this has seldom resulted in local uprisings, except the June 12 riots. In the same vein, the Nigerian elites, being part and parcel of the maggots that lace the Nigerian decadence, are literally having a celebration inside the Nigerian sewage and are far from being dissident against the status quo. Again, whereas there are motivations for revolt in virtually all parts of Nigeria, the complexities in the diversities of tribe, religion and culture have compelled divisive motivations. The Nigerian ruling elites are coercive, reckless and feckless in their rule but the contradictory indices earlier provided have restrained massive and widespread paralysis of governments. Allied to these is the fact that while there is indeed a sidon look of the international system against the slide in the affairs of Nigeria, this has lionised the ruling elite into further tightening the screws of their misrule.

Only a surface analysis would conclude that Nigeria is not ripe for a revolution. A combination of an incompetent ruling class and a gale of hopelessness is oscillating in the Nigerian sky. A conservative estimate will show that, at least 90 per cent Nigerians, from all the geopolitical zones, are miserable, hopeless and perceive life as worthless. At every point, those purportedly elected to provide succour advertise confounding helplessness daily.

Look at the Bauchi State governor, who recently appointed a special assistant on Unmarried Women Affairs; or the systemic chaos that is the order of the day in Nigeria. Check out the symbolism of Edo State where the unrivalled lawlessness of Adams Oshiomhole is jamming the arrogance of power of Godwin Obaseki. And of course, the massive theft of Nigerias inheritance and the full-blown wretchedness of Nigerians, both of which are tribal-blind and religion-jaundiced.

What are those contradictions that made the #RevolutionNow look like a failure and which have made Adesina and his ilk gloat at the possibility of an overturn of the system? One is the structural default that Nigeria sits upon. No successful revolt can happen, in the words of DeFronzo, without unifying motivations. Though there is mass frustration, the motivations for revolt are not unifying. This necessitated what happened recently in Katsina, Buharis home state. Tired of their massive killing by bandits with a corresponding incapability of their son, Buhari and his sidekick governor, Aminu Masari, Katsina people blocked the roads and asked for the resignation of both of them.

Femi Adesina and the ruling class as a whole may however not have too long to gloat. To gloat at the impracticability of a revolution is a fallacious appeal to authority. It can also pass as a fallacy of the straw man. This is because it is not unlikely that the Nigerian ruling class might have been holding on to weak, phony and ridiculous beliefs that have no basis in science.

Also, persuaded that the unprecedented heists in government and Buharis cancerous cronyism are offshoots of a systemic imbalance, Southern Nigeria has consistently called for restructuring. In the ears of a feudal North used to kowtowing, however, that singsong is absolute bunkum. Again, while bandits who come from a culture that seems to justify slaughtering have butchered more Southern Kaduna people than the number of rams they have probably collectively slaughtered in their lifetimes, the rest of Nigerias consternation at this bloodletting sounds strange to the sons of perdition whose DNA is violence and bloodshed. So where can there be one voice against systemic disorder as to propel people to massively gather to upturn a decadent status-quo like Buharis?

The above are ills resulting from the calamitous dalliance of Flora Shaw and her British soldier liaison, Lord Lugard. Unfazed by the fact that Nigeria is not a nation but a concentration of nations, with different persuasions, worldviews, cultures, social foundations, human excitements and expectations, this duo soldered the nations into a fractious whole, with dangers for their forcefully welded existence. This resulted in last weeks sprinkle of young boys and girls, a la the presidencys gloat, as against a mass uprising, even though the indices of revolution, the hopelessness, the frustrations are present everywhere. The truth is that there is no difference between the widespread despondency in Katsina-Ala, the frustration in Nkalagu or the massive disdain with Nigerian ruling class in Igboho, but motivations for dissent are not the same.

Femi Adesina and the ruling class as a whole may however not have too long to gloat. To gloat at the impracticability of a revolution is a fallacious appeal to authority. It can also pass as a fallacy of the straw man. This is because it is not unlikely that the Nigerian ruling class might have been holding on to weak, phony and ridiculous beliefs that have no basis in science. The collapse of the current world order, especially in this world of coronavirus, may have underscored this.

It is in the enlightened self-interest of the Nigerian ruling class to flatten the curves of inequalities and gross lack and want, otherwise, its thinking that Nigerians are incapable of rising against it will collapse.

That was the thinking of those running George Orwells Animal Farm. The lyrics of the Orwellian Beasts of England say this much and are a pointer to the fact that, if the oppression and frustration in Nigeria continue unabated, it may be the push for a surge of the adrenaline of the oppressed Nigerian.

Orwell had enjoined the suffering oppressed, the Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland, the corollary inside the Nigerian Animal Farm cage, the, Beasts of every land and clime not to be downcast as Soon or late the day is coming/Tyrant Man shall be oerthrown/And the fruitful fields of England/Shall be trod by beasts alone. Rejoicing in a future of conquest of the system, Orwell also enjoined that, Rings shall vanish from our noses/And the harness from our back/Bit and spur shall rust forever/Cruel whips no more shall crack.

Are the Nigerian ruling elite who believe that the decadent order would continue ad infinitum listening?

Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist.

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Why the Colour of #RevolutionNow Was Not Arab Spring-red, By Festus Adedayo - Premium Times