Daily Archives: March 18, 2022

Under occupation

The southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, which has about 150,000 residents, was captured by Russian troops within hours of the invasion and was the first city to fall. In other parts of Ukraine, Russias advance has been slow and more costly than expected. But Melitopol, which has been occupied for about three weeks, gives a sense of how Russia plans to rule the territory that it seizes.

According to the Melitopol council, Russian forces quickly took over the citys communication network, cutting off access to non-Russian media and intercepting phone calls by city officials.

Russia also reportedly released a fake clip in which residents were seen welcoming the Russian troops. Actually, footage on social media has shown that protesters in the city have held almost daily anti-Russia demonstrations, and have continued to do so even after Russian troops shot a demonstrator.

Last week, Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, defiantly declared on Facebook: We are not co-operating with the Russians in any way.

But Russia has stepped up its efforts to crush dissent.

Last weekend, footage from a local CCTV camera showed armed figures entering a building in central Melitopol and walking away with a man with a hood over his head. The man was reportedly Fedorov, who has not been heard from since. Russia then installed a new mayor, Galina Danilchenko, a pro-Russian councillor who urged residents not to destabilise the city or take part in extremist actions. A day later, footage on social media showed that the protests had continued.

The second city to fall in Ukraine was Kherson, which has about 300,000 residents and was seized around March 2. On Tuesday, Russias defence ministry said it had captured the entire Kherson region. According to a British intelligence update, Russia plans to stage a fake referendum in the region that will vote to form a breakaway republic.

In 2014, pro-Russian separatists held referendums in two regions they had seized in eastern Ukraine. The organisers said about 90per cent of people supported independence. There were no independent observers and the European Union described the vote as a farce. A Pew Research Center poll in 2014 found 77 per cent of Ukrainians including 70 per cent in eastern Ukraine wanted to live in a united Ukraine.

The United States warned this week that China had offered to provide military support to Russia a development that would risk turning the war in Europe into a global conflict.

According to a report in the Financial Times, a US cable said China had signalled its willingness to send arms such as surface-to-air missiles. US officials told other media outlets that Russia had requested military support from China. Beijing dismissed the reports as misinformation.

On Monday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan held a seven-hour meeting in Rome with Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi, warning that Beijing would face consequences if it supports Moscow.

China has refused to condemn the invasion and may already have provided economic support to protect Russia from the impact of Western sanctions. Chinese state media has trumpeted the official Russian position on the war and spread Russian disinformation, including Moscows claim that the US and Ukraine are developing chemical or biological weapons to use against Russian troops.

But Chinas support for Russia has not been entirely unqualified. It abstained from United Nations votes and has insisted it respects Ukraines sovereignty. Yang told Sullivan Beijing does not want to see that the situation in Ukraine has come to this point, according to Chinas Xinhua news agency.

In early February, on the eve of the Winter Olympics, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing and the pair committed to a no limits partnership. Four days after the Games ended, Putin launched his invasion.

Russias military has struggled to seize territory on most of its fronts in Ukraine but has intensified air attacks and shelling.

For residents who have stayed in Kyiv, the capital, pre-war life has been replaced by a citywide effort punctuated by the sounds of sirens, shelling and shooting to prepare defences and keep the wartime economy running. Vitali Klitschko, Kyivs mayor, said the city had been turned into a fortress. We are ready to be in civil defence and defend our homes, he said this week.

Food and other supplies and phone and internet access were still available in Kyiv this week. Trains and several roads leading out of the city remain unimpeded. About half of the citys 3.5 million residents are believed to have fled. The UN this week said that more than three million of Ukraines 44 million residents have left the country.

Elsewhere, in cities and towns that have been surrounded or occupied, conditions have become desperate.

In Mariupol, about 200,000 residents have been trapped for weeks often without water or electricity in freezing temperatures as Russia has encircled the city and blocked aid convoys. Bombs and shells have hit the university, a hospital and apartment buildings. Streets are empty. Shops are shut and have been depleted of remaining supplies. Aid workers said residents have been cutting trees for firewood and melting snow for water. Morgues are overflowing and about 2500 residents were estimated to have died by early this week.

But analysts said conditions in Mariupol and other surrounded cities could yet become worse, noting Russia has yet to unleash the sort of firepower it used against civilian areas in Syria or Chechnya. In Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, Russian troops fired up to 30,000 artillery rounds a day.

Olga Oliker, from the International Crisis Group, told NPR this week: If you look at Syria, if you look at Chechnya, they could do a lot more damage. And my expectation is that they probably will.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that his country will never join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, marking a further sign he is willing to compromise on some of Putins demands.

Before the invasion, Putin insisted Ukraine be barred from joining NATO. He also wants Ukraine to accept Crimea as Russian territory and to recognise the separatist-held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

During talks with Russia this week, Ukraines negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that there is certainly room for compromise.

But some of Putins demands may be hard to meet, such as his call for Ukraine to be demilitarised; his suggestion that Ukraines government is illegitimate and must be replaced; and his demand that NATO remove all troops from countries that were former Soviet states.

It is unclear whether, or when, Putin would be willing to compromise. He may not want to end the war while the Russian advance remains stalled and his position appears weak, and he may want to show that he can withstand Western sanctions. Another obstacle is that, for diplomacy to succeed, Western leaders would need to offer concessions that allow Putin to avoid humiliation, even though they do not want to reward him. Writing in The Atlantic this week, the journalist Tom McTague said that the West, Ukraine and Russia should aim for a deal that allows each to save its dignity even though one side does not deserve to have its dignity saved.

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This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper onMar 19, 2022 as "Russia follows invasion with oppression and fake news".

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Russia follows invasion with oppression and fake news - The Saturday Paper

When Tulip Siddiq, a UK Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Kilburn, tweeted on Tuesday that one of her constituents, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, might be on the verge of returning home after six years of detention in Iran, she was nervous of the consequences of making the information public. She was urged to do so, however, by Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who was confident that his relentless efforts to publicise every detail of his wife's case would be instrumental to her release. Despite the protests of the British government, which had, over the years, repeatedly asked Mr Ratcliffe to refrain from making a "song and dance", he may have been right.

For six years, Mr Ratcliffe's life has alternated between media interviews, silent vigils outside London's Iranian embassy, hunger strikes and long-distance phone calls to his wife. In that time, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual British-Iranian national, endured a series of trials, held in closed court rooms, on a carousel of increasingly confounding charges. She was accused first of being a spy, then a seditionist and then a propagandist. In truth, she was none of those things; Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker employed in the UK, was arrested in 2016 while accompanying her young daughter on a family visit to Tehran.

On Wednesday, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released from Iranian custody and landed safely in Muscat on a Royal Oman Air Force jet, where she awaited her return to Britain. She was accompanied by another former detainee, Anoosheh Ashoori, a British-Iranian businessman. A third British-Iranian prisoner, Morad Tahbaz, was released on furlough, but remains barred from leaving Iranian soil. The proximate cause of their freedom was, in all likelihood, a deal made by British diplomats. A team of negotiators from the UK Foreign Office was in Tehran in the days before her release.

While the British government has declined to say publicly what exactly was being negotiated, the results are obvious enough. The day after Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's departure from Iran, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced that the UK had agreed, "in parallel", to release nearly 400 million ($525m) of money it owed to Iran for a weapons deal it signed in the 1970s and subsequently reversed in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.

She was accused first of being a spy, then a seditionist and then a propagandist. In truth, she was none of those things

For decades, the British government had resisted paying the money, expressing fears that it could end up in the hands of Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and be used to further the regime's oppression at home and abroad. But the relentless pressure brought to bear by Mr Ratcliffe's campaign, as well as another by Mr Ashoori's family, has made that position increasingly untenable. In the time since Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested, three British prime ministers have had to face awkward questions about her case. The current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has even been accused of being responsible for her prolonged detention. In a public committee hearing in 2017, when he was foreign secretary, he gaffed by casually stating that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran to train journalists. That remark was used as evidence against her in one of her hearings.

Editorials from The National

When it became clear through leaks from Tehran that the 400m debt was likely linked to the fate of the detained British nationals, the UK government had few options but to pay for their release. Now, the Ratcliffe and Ashoori families' suffering has reached an end. While the wider diplomatic drama may appear to be winding down, there remains cause for concern. Mr Tahbaz, it bears repeating, remains trapped in Iran. And a fourth British-Iranian, Mehran Raouf, remains imprisoned on charges as spurious as those levelled at his compatriots.

If 400m was not enough to see all four prisoners returned home, then the UK, as well as other countries with nationals held in Iran, ought to brace for the idea that Irans hostage game is not over.

Published: March 18, 2022, 4:00 AM

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Iran is winning its hostage games - The National

The Saudi government has also beheaded Murtaza Qureshi, who was arrested at the age of 13 for speaking out for his rights.

Saudi Arabia has killed 81 people in the past two days, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian, the state news agency Saudi Press Agency reported. These individuals have been sentenced to death for their allegiance to foreign terrorist organizations and for having deviant beliefs and among those who got killed was Murtaza Qureshi.

Born on October 24, 2000, Murtaza Qureshi belonged to Saudi Arabias minority Shia community. The Saudi government arrested Qureshi in September 2014 when he was just 13 years old, accusing him of joining a terrorist group and disturbing the peace.

According to CNN reports, at the age of 10, Murtaza Qureshi, along with his peers, was raising his voice against government oppression and raising awareness about his rights by participating in bicycle races with children for his rights.

Murtaza Qureshi was arrested by Saudi authorities at the age of 13, three years after he appeared on a bicycle to protest. According to The Guardian, Murtaza Qureshi was kept in solitary confinement from time to time.

In Saudi Arabia, 81 people, including Murtaza Qureshi, were executed in a single day on Saturday. This number is more than the death sentences given in the last whole year. What was the crime of Murtaza Qureshi other than raising his voice for his rights, however, it is still unclear.

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Who was 13 year old Murtaza Qureshi and why was he killed? - MM News

As Vladimir Putin was preparing to send troops into Ukraine last month, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, warned the UK will open up the matryoshka dolls of Russian-owned companies and Russian-owned entities to find the ultimate beneficiaries within.

Johnsons reflex was spot on, albeit overdue. Anti-corruption advocates have been calling for such measures for years.

To disempower autocrats, kleptocratic wealth must be controlled. Today, though, corrupt money finds a haven in strong rule-of-law countries. Kleptocrats believe these places will protect their assets, just as the law protects other assets. Sadly, theyve been right, at least until now.

Putins war has seen sanctions levelled against him and his elite supporters on both sides of the Atlantic.

We are coming for your ill-begotten gains, vowed US president Biden about Russias oligarchs in his State of the Union address. Were joining with European Allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets.

The amount of wealth held offshore by rich Russians is huge, about equal to the wealth of the entire population inside the country.

Transatlantic cooperation will be reinforced by a Task Force KleptoCapture in Washington and a Kleptocracy Cell in London.

As part of the global effort, Australia has imposed sanctions on over 460 people and entities. And it has joined the US, Europeans, Canada and Japan in a Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) multilateral task force.

But theres a snag in all this: you cant sanction what you cant see.

The assets of corrupt elites are largely hidden behind opaque legal structures the anonymous shell companies and secretive trusts that are the beating heart of an offshore financial system which has been thriving for decades.

Lawyers and other professionals in tax havens and financial centres have willingly supplied the corporate veil corrupt elites use to hide their assets.

The fight against ill-gotten wealth, from Russia and elsewhere, has to be a fight against financial anonymity.

Coupled with its sanctions, Australia should join with others in dismantling the rules and practices that have allowed corrupt elites to shelter their wealth across borders, including in Australia and other liberal democracies.

Corrupt wealth finds its way here from countries in our region and beyond. Structural reform and a shift in mindset is needed to systematically reveal and deter these financial flows which exploit our open markets.

Globally, the tragedy of Ukraine could mark a turning point in unmaking the infrastructure of offshore wealth that has emboldened tyrants, fuelled oppression and entrenched poverty in many societies. Moves by Washington, Brussels, and London in recent days to crack down on corrupt Russian wealth could be midwife to much-needed action to temper illicit finance more broadly.

Australia should play a constructive role in this project. But it does not have a register to ensure regulatory and law enforcement authorities and the public know who truly owns and controls Australian companies.

The government has previously signalled a commitment to this reform, including to comply with multilateral standards. As assistant treasurer in 2016, Kelly ODwyer said a register would make it a lot easier to expose wrongdoing or fraudulent conduct and much easier to disrupt illicit financial flows.

But momentum in Canberra has stalled, even as key partners like the US, UK, and Canada have converged on the importance of this move.

The Biden administration is pushing ahead plans to implement the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act. His Treasurys proposed register has been widely welcomed and not just from activists and law enforcement. BHP, the mining giant, said it presents a real opportunity to not only reduce illicit fund flows into the U.S., but to also send important signals on the need to tackle global corruption.

The UK is starting to close loopholes which have undermined its register, Companies House, with reforms aiming to make the agency a custodian of accurate and detailed information.

Theres much at stake, even beyond geopolitics. Ownership transparency is linked to a fundamental governance question of our time: how to build productive and equitable markets in a globalised world. Progress on transparency would signal the kind of economy we want in Australia: inclusive, well-governed, fair, and oriented towards innovation and productive investment rather than rent-seeking. In other words, wealth creation for the many rather than rigged returns for the few.

Led by the Treasurer, the government can take three steps to embrace this world-making moment.

First, it should legislate a world-leading, public, beneficial ownership register. There should be robust verification procedures and powers to trace complex ownership claims. Australia can also reduce or eliminate the percentage threshold which defines beneficial ownership, ensuring it cant be gamed.

Second, agencies should be properly resourced to use the new register to deter and seize corrupt wealth. Enforcement is key. Agencies such as Austrac and the AFP must have capabilities to actually use the new register, including through dedicated anti-corruption expertise.

Finally, it is crucial that regulatory and law enforcement agencies receive a clear and strong political mandate to prioritise their anti-corruption work. Building on current sentiments at home and abroad, Canberra will have to muster the will to systematically fight transnational corruption, alongside investing in the instruments to do so, elevating it to a top-tier priority.

Much more needs to be done, including to trace the owners of real estate and luxury assets, and to require more transparency of foreign investors. But an effective register for Australian entities is necessary and would make a substantive international contribution.

Corrupt networks and the autocrats they empower are bringing countries and regions to their knees. The harms inflicted on Ukraine today call on us to recommit to a better global order, one that permits citizens to organise themselves as free peoples, without internal or external domination. Australia should seize the moment, and demonstrate that we not only get the kleptocracy problem, but that were serious about confronting it.

Vafa Ghazavi is a Carr Center Fellow at Harvard University and executive director for research and policy at the James Martin Institute for Public Policy.

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Why has the momentum in Canberra stalled to clamp down on kleptocratic wealth? - The Guardian

On the morning of Aug. 21, 1968, Jiri Vnoucek woke to the sound of warplanes.

Vnoucek was 21 then, and had grown up under Communist rule. Hed been born only six months before the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over the country. His childhood memories were pictures of Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, of the red handkerchief he was forced to wear around his neck, of waiting in line for hours so his family could receive only the smallest of rations.

The Czechs could have no heroes, no culture, nothing to call their own. For 20 years, Vnoucek says, all he knew was oppression.

From 48 to 68, we lived in the dark where you were not allowed to say anything. Your view didnt matter. Writers, press people, if they didnt play by the rules they were sent to jail or there was a uranium mine in Czechoslovakia. Thats where a lot of the so-called rebels ended up.

But there was a brief time, less than a year it turned out, when Vnoucek thought change might come.

In January 1968, Alexander Dubcek was named head of the countrys Communist Party. His Prague Spring, as it came to be called, would loosen censorship rules in the country, albeit with the communists still in charge.

The moment was short lived. When Dubcek resisted pushback from Moscow for what it saw as policies that were too progressive, four Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia on Aug. 20, 1968, and entered Prague one day later. Dubcek would resign shortly after, prematurely ending the Prague Spring.

Over a half century later, Vnoucek remembers those days still. He can see, even now, the narrow streets of Prague left filled with cars crushed by Soviet tanks. He remembers the protest when someone threw a flaming rag that exploded a transport truck, how soldiers opened fire on the crowd and a bullet flew by his head.

Now 74 and living in Nelson under the name George Vnoucek, he feels helpless watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Czechs never fought back against their invaders Dubcek had advised against it and in the days after the invasion Vnoucek made the decision to flee his country.

I get emotional about it, he says through tears. I know what they are going through. I dont sleep at night.

George Vnoucek shows off the Czechoslovakian passport he used to escape the country after it was invaded by Soviet Union countries in 1968. The passport shows his Czech name Jiri, which he was advised to change during immigration. Photo: Tyler Harper

Only days after the invasion, Vnoucek and his friends Michael Barnivek and Wassil Pohl decided they would escape Czechoslovakia. Borders were closed by the Soviet Union, but illegal passports were still being handed out by Czechs to their countrymen. A family friend wrote to his aunt in Vienna, asking her to send an invitation for Vnoucek to come for a short visit. She obliged.

The evening before he left, Vnouceks family and friends held a party. His mother had died of a heart attack the previous year, but he would be leaving behind his father and sister. His father encouraged Vnoucek to escape, but his sister didnt actually believe he was going for good.

Vnoucek wouldnt see his father again, he died in 1973, and would go at least a decade without seeing his sister.

On the midnight train to Vienna, Soviet troops checked visas. Passengers who had brought along all their belongings were tossed off, but because Vnoucek and his friends only packed a few shirts and socks there was no reason to believe they werent coming back.

The trio toured embassies in Vienna. They were turned away from the United States because they couldnt speak English and had no university degrees. They were welcomed to Australia, but didnt like the distance from their homeland. Canada promised jobs without any qualms about language or qualifications.

In November 1968, Vnoucek left Europe for Canada. He wasnt sent to Montreal or Toronto, where so many immigrants and refugees before him had arrived at and made their homes. Instead they would arrive in Yorkton, Sask., a then-growing farm town in need of labourers. (The arrival of the Czech refugees was notable enough to garner the notice of the local paper, which published a picture of five Czechs including Vnoucek.)

A small article printed in a local paper about the arrival of Czechoslovakian refugees in Yorkton, Sask., in 1968. George Vnoucek, then just 21 years old, is on the far left. Hes standing next to his friends Michael Barnivek (left) and Wassil Pohl (centre), both of whom escaped with him. The two women sitting were also Czech refugees, but Vnoucek didnt know them.

Ukrainian immigrants had made a home in Yorkton 5,955 residents of the city cited a Ukrainian ethnic background in the 2016 census. Vnoucek, who could speak Russian, found he was able to communicate with the Ukrainian woman who ran the boarding house they lived in. She charged him a minimum to stay, and he found work in the trades with other Ukrainians. It was a kindness he hasnt forgotten.

The only way I could survive on the job was Ukrainian people trying to teach me. They knew I could handle the job but I couldnt communicate.

Meanwhile in Czechoslovakia, authorities didnt learn of Vnouceks escape for five years. When they did, his sister was summoned to a court where she was told Vnoucek would serve seven years in prison if he ever returned.

Still, two early tragedies marred Vnouceks arrival in Canada.

He had been in Canada less than a month when a Czech doctor invited Vnoucek, Barnivek and Pohl over to watch the Grey Cup. On the drive home, their car was hit by a train. No one was killed, but Vnoucek suffered a neck injury when Barniveks body went flying over top of him on the impact. Decades later his neck still hurts from the crash.

They went their own ways. Barnivek left after his wife arrived in Canada. Pohl, who had trained as a watch maker and goldsmith in Czechoslovakia, was sent to northern Ontario to work on a rail road. One day in early 1969 he was washing his coveralls in a pail of gas next to a car when the vehicle exploded.

Vnoucek went to see him in Thunder Bay. I saw him and believe me, it was horrible. He was burned, well I would say 80 per cent of his body. He didnt have a face, he didnt have hair, all his arms, legs were burned crisp.

Pohl underwent several surgeries, but the Canadian government didnt want to pay further for his rehabilitation and he was deported back to Czechoslovakia. Vnoucek never saw his friend again.

Vnoucek also left Yorkton a short time later for Lethbridge, Alta., when the company he worked for went bankrupt. In 1972 he visited Vancouver on the promise of a job, only to find he couldnt get on with the union. But on his way back to Alberta, Vnoucek stopped in Nelson to visit another Czech with whom he had played soccer. Within 24 hours he had a job offer at Kootenay Forest Products and never left.

George Vnoucek and his wife Betty. George landed in Canada in 1968 and eventually moved to Nelson in 1972, where he has lived ever since. Photo: Tyler Harper

In the ensuing years, Vnoucek married his wife Betty and had two daughters. Communism held onto Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution in 1989, and the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Vnoucek has returned to his homeland several times since 1989, and avoided prison by virtue of becoming a Canadian citizen.

When Russian troops entered Ukraine on Feb. 24, Vnoucek revisited his own history and found himself haunted by not having fought for his country. The Czechs would have lost to the Soviet Union, he concedes, but Vnoucek wishes they had rebelled as Ukrainians are doing now.

Vnoucek and Betty are retired now, and have six grandchildren. Hes lived a peaceful life.

Yet lately, when he watches the news reports from Ukraine or those in Canada where convoys of people protest COVID-19 mandates, he wonders if the word freedom has lost the significance it held for him and those who once lived in Czechoslovakia.

Please wake up, he says. Wake up. Because you dont know the true meaning of freedom.

If anyone would know, its him.

READ MORE:

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Amid acts of war, Nelson woman reflects on Ukraine in the eyes of her grandparents

Nelsonites of Ukrainian descent meet for dinner, bonded by the war

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A Nelson man fled Soviet oppression. Over 50 years later, he finds he hasnt truly escaped it - Nelson Star

Despite eight months in power, the Taliban seem clueless about what kind of political space they want to create in Afghanistan. A key factor contributing to this conundrum is the Taliban style of rule: but, without any valid reference in history, this rule can only be assessed through the groups actions and their consequences. In this context, the Talibans unimpeachable orthodoxy, which has no room for freedom of expression, offers little hope.

A brief overview of press freedoms under the Taliban can help understand what Afghanistan has become under the new regime. Six Afghan journalists lost their lives within the first 100 days of the Taliban regime. Over 300 media outlets have reportedly closed so far. Calling radio stations the loudspeakers of America, Taliban foot soldiers burnt down many in the countrys southern parts. Over 7,000 media workers fled the country. All this, and the rulers did not seem at all bothered by it.

Around 200 to 300 died every day under the previous Kabul administration, Sohail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman, said recently during an interview to a Pakistani TV host. The situation has changed, he maintained nonchalantly. However, as most of these deaths took place in Taliban attacks against the previous government, the dystopian nature of the new regime cannot hide itself behind the term change.

While the Pakistani media provided the Taliban a face saving, Afghan journalists did their bit to question the legitimacy of the orthodoxy. After assuming power, the Taliban central spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, arranged a conference in Kabul in which he announced a general amnesty for all Afghans. An Afghan reporter took the spokesman by surprise: Do you think the Afghans will forgive you too? It was a chilling moment for journalists present in the high-profile event. It happens in war, the spokesman simply replied.

Yet, the war is still on. In Gestapo-style raids, dissidents are regularly targeted. Reporters are beaten black and blue. Women are being assaulted for demanding their rights and a few continue to remain missing. As local journalists cannot freely raise their voice against these abuses, the only option available to them is to network with the Afghan diaspora online.

But sharing information about Taliban atrocities also exposes them to strict surveillance. Consequently, over 500 Afghan journalists have fled Kabul in the last five months. Currently living in neighbouring states, many of them are running from pillar to post to seek asylum in safer Western countries.

I talked to a few of these journalists who told me about their painful evacuation. After sending desperate SOSs to rights organisations, some of them received phone calls. I did not initially share my details, said a journalist who went through a lot of trouble before getting a second chance. Depressed and living in unfriendly conditions in a neighbouring country, these displaced journalists are afraid of the Taliban coming after them. The situation in Ukraine has diverted attention from their plight.

However, these reporters are not willing to stop their struggle no matter where they go to live, and the swelling ranks of exiled Afghan journalists is going to be a serious challenge for the Taliban rule.

Meanwhile, guess who has replaced these journalists back home? Parachute reporters journalists dropped in from the outside with no knowledge of local culture and history. In a country where the rule of law has yet to be defined, power politics prevail over public interests. Access and mobility, therefore, are privileges only a few can avail.

Clarissa Ward, a celebrity CNN journalist, invited the wrath of the Afghan diaspora after she donned an abaya for interviewing the Taliban. For some Afghans, the abaya is not just a dress, its historical association with the Taliban orthodoxy has turned it into a sign of oppression and, therefore, wearing it out of context is equal to endorsing Taliban rule.

In another example, a Kiwi journalist invited tons of media coverage after she appreciated the Taliban for allowing her to give birth to her out-of-wedlock child on Afghan soil. But the irony does not rest in the journalists claim about her own countrys refusal to give her entry due to Covid restrictions: what is unique in the journalists claim is that the Taliban had asked her to keep her pregnancy secret.

What if an Afghan woman was caught in a similar condition? Would the Taliban be gracious enough to relax their Sharia for her? With this double standard intact, the sovereignty of Afghanistan remains in question.

How did this duplicity emerge in the first place? We must go back to 2001, the year the US dismantled the Taliban regime. Taking refuge in Pakistan, Taliban foot soldiers not only fought US troops from across the border, their leadership was also allowed to own private businesses to feed their families. To protect their informal businesses in Pakistan, however, they networked with militant groups affiliated with officially patronised madrasas.

Left by the state to run an informal war economy in ungoverned spaces, this marriage of market and militarisation generated cross-border militancy a jihadi model thriving on the strangulation of local voices. What we see in contemporary Kabul, therefore, is not political rule or government, but an extension of a cross-border militant order meant to control local spaces through total violence.

Soaked in fear and terror, Afghanistan cannot be ruled like a jihadi madrasas a weaponised space with no room for political and cultural rights. What the Taliban need is a step in the right direction: developing the capacity to transform their militancy into political rule.

Instead of looking outside the country for recognition, in other words, the Taliban leadership must respect the history and rights of the Afghans. Otherwise, suppressing local voices, especially womens, or hounding local journalists out of the country will give birth to duplicitous space only a sphere of illegitimate rule lacking a democratic political character. Any such space is not only self-destructive, the Taliban leadership must also know that the power hierarchies which emerge in such a sphere also always run the risk of crumbling under their own weight.

This article first appeared in Dawn.

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Months after assuming power, the Taliban is clueless about turning its militancy into political rule - Scroll.in

From Crimea to this apartment on the Upper West Side to a family member in Moscowwhat Putin has wrought. Conor Cunningham

Its been three weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine. In that time, the world has turned its focus to the people who have been caught in the middle of the war, and the atrocities brought on by Russias president, Vladimir Putin. In many countries, citizens have stood in solidarity with Ukraine, and even in Russia, where people live under an authoritarian government, there has been dissent. Recently, a Crimean native who now lives in New York City put us in contact with a relative who lives in Moscow. We communicated with Dmitri earlier this week. He asked that his real name be withheld because in Russia any act of opposition toward the war can result in arrest and imprisonment. Below is our interview with Dmitri. (Editors note: This is the first of two interviews we will be posting in the next couple of days. Communication with a resident in Odessa, Ukraine, is in progress. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Anna Conkling: What has your day-to-day life been like in the past two weeks?

Dmitri: People are standing in line for cash, but there is no cash. Google pay, Paypal stopped working. People started using local banks and local bank cards. There is a deficit of certain products. Things got a lot more expensive, fast.

Many people are fleeing the country. In my opinion, many people are just fleeing without a plan or any financial backup. Thats not a great solution, they didnt think things through. Just to flee without family or friends in another country. What would they do there? They are not really wanted there. I just dont think its the right decision.

Some people lost jobs, or international offices closed. But this is all coming from my perspective and the people around me. There are people who didnt feel anything.

This is just the beginning, in terms of how life is about to change.

Were you preparing for something like this to happen? Did you take money out of your bank beforehand?

No. Globally no one was ready.No one believed it to the very end. The Russian government didnt expect such serious sanctions.

Well, probably some people might have expected this. After all, they said there would be a war with Ukraine. Im sure there were projections.But I didnt know anyone who expected this at such a level. When everything happened, people immediately ran to the banks to exchange their money for dollars.But I dont think the average person expected this ahead of time.People expected political operations in terms of accepting the two separatist regions as part of Russia.

How has your business suffered in the past two weeks?

I work in the restaurant business. I run several projects in restaurant management. For now, we havent suffered too much. Several products already disappeared from the market. For instance, some alcohol brands, some types of meat and fish. Of course, these products will return to the market through some other means, but it will cost three to four times more. There are fewer customers now.

But Moscow has always been different from the rest of the country. Things have always been better here, and there have always been more opportunities. So mainly we are feeling this emotional depression and this stress. You can feel it walking along the streets. For the restaurant business, I predict that this will ruin many businesses and many projects will shut down in the near future. Were only just feeling what it will be like, and it will be worse.

What is the overall atmosphere in Russia like right now?

People are worried about the war, about the economic crisis thats about to hit us, and there is a divide right now among the people. I cant say to what percentage our society is divided right now, but I would say at least half the population is against this, and half who are, lets say, not against what is happening now.Unfortunately, there is a significant number [supporting the war]. Mainly they are from smaller regions and older generations.

There are people who are trying to oppose this. In central Moscow, I see a ton of police patrols. They are constantly on the watch to stop any demonstrations or some kind of meetings or gatherings. The atmosphere is very oppressive.

Many people who are against this situation understand that in the future, the Russian people will suffer from a strict regime.

All the sanctions that are happening now are not really going to affect the people who are for this war. They are more rural, they are not very well off, and have average jobs. They will continue to have those jobs. The people who will suffer are the ones who used the benefits of modern civilization. They are the ones who are now cut off. This is going to be a very difficult time for them.

There are a few so-called patriots who are gleefully writing the letter Z on their cars. They believe that the crazy ruler [Putin] is doing everything right. Id like to believe that sooner or later they will understand how far weve fallen.

Do you know people in Russia who are trying to get Ukrainians to join the military?

No, I dont know these people from my acquaintances. But I would say in 2014 [with Crimea] there were a lot more volunteers. Today there are practically no volunteers.

In 2014, there was a huge push for volunteers. There were posters, people talked about it. I dont see this happening now. Maybe someone in the very rural areas we dont hear about? But that would be isolated cases, not in masses.

Are there opposing views for or against the war amongst your peers, or is everyone generally against the war?

There are people who have this strange view: They are against the war, but for taking Ukraine under Russian control. They say, Of course we need to stop this war. But its about time we liberated Ukraine from the [Nazi] regime. Of course, there is no Naziism regime in Ukraine.

Some say the sanctions will only benefit us, but thats stupid reasoning. Among my close circle, there is no one who supports the war. Ive only ever heard a few people in my gym discuss the support for this. They say Its ok. Well make it. Of course its awful people are dying. But this needed to happen, its about our safety. We wish for this to end as soon as possible. But everything is ok.

Moscow is a quite liberal city. It was always a city for business and opportunity. So, masses in Moscow are not supporting this. Unfortunately, many are not in support only because their everyday life will suffer. Not because people are dying. Not because of the horror in our neighboring country, a country that has always been a brother to us and were always friends. People tell me, Its awful I cant get on Instagram or buy something. And I tell them, What about the war, is that not awful? They reply, War is war. There are wars everywhere. To me, this is almost the same as supporting what is going on.

What are you most afraid of?

Im afraid that our country will turn into North Korea. That it will revert back to the Soviet Union regime, except even worse. Things will be restricted. There will be constant criminal proceedings. People will be sent to jail, or even executed on a regular basis. The economic crisis could lead to famine, not just businesses closing down.

My other fear, or more like a wish for this not to happen, is a civil war. This is very possible. Right now, society is divided! People are literally getting into fistfights over what is going on in Ukraine. They start an argument about politics and it quickly escalates into a physical fight. Families are dividing because of this. People have categorically different opinions and its creating very intense divisive situations everywhere.

Im afraid in our country, if you know its history, changes only happened when there was blood and war. Im afraid that my generation, and generations to follow, will spend their lives convincing the world that Russians are not fascists. Because most of the Russian people are not like that. Most of us are kind, maybe not very outgoing or open, but we want peace to live in peace with everyone.

He [Putin] started this on his own. He went crazy. And now everyone has to live with it. Yes, everyone is afraid of him and afraid to do something about it. But hopefully, this will change.

What has it been like to have Putin in power for the past 20 years? Have the everyday Russians been preparing for this?

This is a long and complicated question. There was a moment when it wasnt terrible. When Medvedev was president, with Putin as prime minister. At that time, it was a more liberal atmosphere.

But then, before 2014 [when Russia invaded Crimea], things drastically changed. He [Putin] quickly changed the rhetoric and started severing relationships with the West. Covid was used to limit us, they tightened the screws on us. The machines of oppression started working harder and harder. This is the result of 20 years of absolute power. Especially the last three years that he spent in a bunker. I think his mental health has changed dramatically in the last three to four years.

After all, hes not using the Internet. Hes reading printed reports. He is being told the state of affairs, he doesnt know what is actually happening. They paint a pretty picture for him and he believes it and rules from that point of view. He was confident that the Russian army would reach Kyiv and occupy it within 90 hours. Convinced that Ukrainians will welcome them and greet them with flowers. He thinks the same thing about our country. He thinks everyone agrees with him and supports him. That everyone is happy.

Instead, he and the people around him hold absolute power. They lean heavily on the police force and rule through fear. The ones who can, leave the country. Others who oppose are arrested, beaten, or even killed. People tried to go to demonstrations or protests. However, now if I go to a protest I would immediately be given 15 years in prison and nothing will change at all. How many protests and demonstrations weve had in the past nothing changed. They spit on the public opinion.

And thats how weve been living.Propaganda is working well.

Is there a greater fear of Putin than before the war began?

Police are showing up at the houses of formally detained protesters and warning them not to go out to another protest, or they will experience problems.There are a few people who fled the country because of this. I think there will be more people arrested, more cases, and they will forever be under the watchful eyes of the police.

There is a fear of the unknown. The fear of not understanding him [Putin] and what he will do. I think even his circle cant understand or predict his actions. Fear about the unknown is always the strongest fear. You dont know what to expect, what will happen tomorrow or the day after. They are more afraid of this unknown rather than a specific person. Of course, the unknown are his actions.

Are Russian citizens afraid that no one will come to their aid if Putin increasingly starts harming civilians?

No one will come and help us. Just like no one is coming to help Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting on its own, no one is sending troops. No one is going to interfere because they are afraid of World War III.

No one is going to come and help us if they start imprisoning, shooting, and executing us. I dont know, close the country even. No one will help us. Russian people are not afraid of this, because they know this is already coming. Like I said, they are more afraid of the unknown.

Will people help each other? Yes, I think there will always be people who do that. But I think the civil war is highly likely.

What is it like for Ukrainians right now in Russia?

I have friends who are Ukrainian citizens. Some fled to Germany.I saw a few cars with Ukrainian license plates. I havent heard of violence against Ukrainians in this country, through the more trustworthy sources of information I follow.

We have no fight with the Ukrainian people. We dont want to kill anyone or destroy them.I guess people like that exist, you can see them post commentaryinternet trolls. But those people are stupid. There are a lot of people who are paid to do this, to troll, to create or instigate a conflict, to add fuel to the fire.It must be very difficult for Ukrainians emotionally to live in a country that attacked their country.

What do you know about the war from the Russian media?

We can read international news[an app] has channels that broadcast news. Of course, those are also not verified sources, and you really have to sift through Fake News. Not everyone in the country knows how to get around the [Internet] block.

There are TV channels and newspapers that report the governments official news. I avoid those channels. I understand there is no truth there.I watch things on [the app] and read news sources from outside the country that voice opposition. There is so much noise in the information now, and you really must sift through it to figure out where the truth lies. Sometimes it can be quite difficult and a lot of work. Whats it like to live with corruption? We got used to this.

But what is told on the main TV channel, this is not new, thats been happening for many years now. There was Radio Echo Moscow and TV Rain, but they are now closed. Do people believe what is told on the main news? Many do, unfortunately. Which is why they support the war. It is a real problem, one of the main underlying problems we have.

What does Russia need right now?

It will be important not to think of every Russian person as an accomplice to the regime. It would be sad to create a flow of information where a Russian person will equate to an enemy. I think it would be important for Russian people to feel some sort of moral support. That the world can differentiate between the people who are really supporting this war versus people who are prisoners to this situation. There are so many of them, at least half the country is so against this.

I hope people in other countries dont discriminate against Russians who fled. People who are leaving the country are businessmen, artists, people who are against this war, who are against the regime. They are not refugees from the war but rather from an oppressive regime.For the most part, they are fleeing a regime and thats their way of taking a stance against it.

To somehow harm the regime, things must happen on a larger corporation level. Ill give you an example that doesnt work: Netflix, for instance, left the country. So what? It will not affect the regime. The people who support the war dont care about Netflix. I hope companies can see a difference in how which hits they inflict affect the regime and which affect the everyday people who are already oppressed.

Is there anything youd like to add?

I can only add from my side that Russian people are not bad or evil. Were prisoners to the regime that we have no tools to overthrow. Ive made a personal decision that I am going to try to leave my country. I cannot be on the same territory as the people who are supporting this war. I have nothing in common with them. These are not my people. A true Russian is against this. If things change, I will gladly return and live in Russia.

I dont think the fault lies only with Russia. I think the U.S. and other Western countries hold some fault as well. The whole world has a role in this when they did not react to what has been happening in Russia for years. Theyve been ignoring this situation and that has a role in where we currently are. Everyone was after their own interests and now here we are.

Go here to read the rest:

Fear and Loathing the View From Moscow - Village Voice

With the attainment of multiparty democracy in 1994, Malawi weaned itself from a repressive reign of Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Through the Censorship and Control of Entertainment Act, the Kamuzu regime established the Malawi Censorship Board, under whose mandate, art such as music was strictly controlled and artists detained without charge and some exiled (Jack Mapanje as an example).

From the early 1990s, with the end of the one party authoritarian regime, Malawi became open to outside influence and with some Malawians migrating to South Africa and Zimbabwe to work in the mines who secretly smuggled various genres of music back home. As a result, there was an influx of music cassettes and compact discs including Jamaican reggae, South African Kwaito, Black American hip-hope and West African Kwasa Kwasa that changed the music landscape of the country. From these various genres of music combined with Malawian traditional cultures, the country gave birth to its own music which was and still is known as Malawian Local Reggae. The art imbued with Biblical allusions and lyrics of resistance and also a longing for independence and democracy, it became hugely popular which was now an instrument for opposition against government atrocities and oppression.

Malawian artists used music to satirise current affairs and local events, it acted as a mirror on socio-political happenings such as inadequate healthcare, the gap between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, food insecurity and of course government corruption. As some scholars stipulates, Malawian music was blended with religion this was and is because religion is the main matrix of Malawian identity. It is also from this religion; Malawi saw the birth of musicians such as Lucius Banda and Mlaka Maliro of Allelluya Band before branching into their own respective bands. This discussion, therefore, is on Mlaka Maliros newly released song titled There is no wine.

In the absence of a strong opposition in parliament, and media platforms largely connected to or owned by politicians, Mlaka Maliro for example has for so many years used music to provide expression for political resistance against government oppression.

With various sporadic arrests of political activists and whistle-blowers, it can be said that despite Malawi claiming to be a democratic republic, Malawians are afraid to freely express about political and developmental issues.

There has been rumours for example that social media is monitored by government spies to watch those who are vocal against the government (MCP led government) and no wonder some Facebook political activists have been arrested several times based on what they posted on their walls.

Nevertheless, Mlaka Maliro can be said to be a spokesperson, arbiter of public opinion and intermediary for grievances of the poor people to those in power. In the song, the persona takes us into a church and him or her as a preacher.

The congregants of the church need to be appreciated by watching the video of the song; the congregants come from various works of life: lawyers, security officers, engineers and students who cheer to the sermon by the persona but there is a fracas in the church when someone enters the church with an empty bucket and they are told that there is no wine (Vinyo watha).

The sermon starts with a Biblical allusion of the Wedding at Cana in Galilee in the Book of John. The words say Jesus and his mother were invited to a wedding in Cana. At the wedding, Jesus revealed his true divine while saving the hosts reputation (John 2: 1-12) by performing his first miracle of turning water into wine when the host run short of wine for the guests. However, the story in the song changes its direction when the persona says asala ndi masanje usapusisike palibe chilipo. One wonders if the persona is still talking about miracle at Cana or maybe its cryptic to mean something else. The mist is cleared in the next lines as the persona continues

Usakomedwe ndi sweet talk dont be coaxed by butter up language

Mwana wanga chonde please my son

Anthuwa vinyo watha there is no wine

The persona advises his son (Malawians) to be careful with flowery language and mere promises by of course political leaders during campaign time. Coincidentally, on 8th March, the Catholic Bishops issued a Pastoral Letter in their celebration of Lent, commemorating the 30th anniversary of Living Our Faith, a pastoral letter that was authored in 1992 which criticised the Banda regime. Similarily, the current letter reminded the current regime (MCP/Tonse Alliance) about the democratic principle and corruption and also warning political leaders about mere campaign promises without taking steps to fulfil them.

In the same vein, the line anthuwa vinyo watha can be speculatively assumed that the leaders have run out of ideas or solutions to problems bolting the country such as high prices of goods and corruption.

The persona then wonders that amid all these problems but the leaders swagger around with flags hovering on their cars but without any plan to help curb the problems as in the lines akuyenda mwa mdidi, mbendera petupetu. This also comes at a point when there have been a public outcry about the presidents internal and external trips including those he would have attended virtually.

The persona goes on to regret his choice for voting for those in power for mere promises. On this, the persona also alludes to the Biblical story about the Israelites who were rescued from Egypt to Canaan.

Moreover, the persona was also promised that he will be eating thrice in a day but it is not happening as he fails to eat even once a day and he even cry for those days he was able to eat a single meal in a day as in ndikanasala konkuja kumaphula njerwa kumadya kamodzi.

The persona also talks about nepotism by the leaders in the line Kenani munkanena munkanena uja anali wapachibale. It is no hidden fact that the current regime has been in a number of instances criticised for appointing relatives including the presidents daughter and son in law in lucrative public positions but as the persona vinyo watha the leader has turned a deaf eye calling the claims mere political gimmick.

In the line kulalika zikutheka, kunenera molapitsa komatu vinyo watha, Mzimu oyera ukamochoka, umachoka mwa ulemu poti siwusazika, akusatira zozizwa poti uko kulikulu osaziwa vinyo watha, the persona leaves the listener to wonder what he really mean as the listener is left in the dark.

However, some people speculate that the musician who was also an ordained Pastor of Bushiris Enlightened Christian Gathering Chirch (ECG) is at loggerhead with the ECG leader. This is because the musician cum pastor made a shocking announcement that he has resigned from the church few seconds to the release of his song There is no Wine (Vinyo Watha) but insisted that he has only dumped ECG claiming he wants to revive his music career and be with his family and coincidentally he releases the song Vinyo Watha. But he claims he is still a pastor.

Before his resignation, he served as a pastor in several branches of the church in South Africa and rose up to the ladder of the overseer of the ECG main branch in Swaziland (Eswatin).

Currently, the ECG leader boasts to attract huge crowds across the globe with his prophecies and miracles, rides in fancy cars and enjoys local media coverage, claims to have international and local investments amid charges of fraud, money laundering and promiscuity levelled against him by for example the South African government and also for several times he has been accused of making false prophecies and fake miracles.

From this, should we say the persona is talking about the musician relationship with ECG? Is the persona accusing the ECG leader, the musician former boss for nepotism? What about Roland Barthess Death of the Author Theory that holds that the authors intentions and background (including their politics and religion) should have no weight in determining the interpretation of their work as after the release of the work the author enters his or her own death.

We should be ashamed as literary critics to bring in the experiences of the author in the interpretation of the song. The enjoyment of the song needs not to be mixed with the musician life experiences and the song needs to be reviewed on its own right as a piece of art. That said, it has to be noted that Malawian popular art is well known for its camouflage but one can deduce that the lines tries to ridicule Malawian politicians who are customarily religious people but they do not walk the words of what their religions preach because they are easily corrupted by their positions.

In conclusion, the song There is no wine, with its Biblical allusions, is one of those Malawian popular songs which act as a voice for the voiceless to criticise political arrogance, acceleration of public corruption, deteriorating medical standards, low educational standards, the widen gap between the poor and the rich and exorbitant prices of basic things. For one to appreciate the artistry of the song, watching the video is a must to appreciate the nature and the faces of the congregants the persona preaches to.

Read more from the original source:

Biblical allusions in There is no Wine by Mlaka Maliro - Malawi24

The Channels interview was conducted by the television stations reporter, Seun Okinbaloye.

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, apparently reacting to the Edo Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibus comments in the interview, said Mr Shaibu was being ungrateful to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which offered him and Governor Godwin Obaseki a platform to contest and win their second term in 2020 after they were barred by their former party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) from contesting the party governorship primaries in Edo.

Mr Obaseki came out in defence of Mr Shaibu. He told Mr Wike clearly that the PDP was not his personal property, and that in Edo, we dont accept political bullies and overlords, prompting Mr Wike to fire back at him, calling him a tenant in PDP.

Mr Shaibu: For me as Philip Shaibu, I have no plans now to leave. But for Philip Shaibu and his followers and followers of Obaseki that left APC to PDP, they all plan to leave PDP. But to where? For now, I dont know. We feel not accepted in PDP that is the reason we are actually thinking it is time to leave. But the truth is the governor had been appealing and you can see from yesterdays meeting. Some of us were not happy with the governors statement that hes not leaving PDP.

So, for some of us, we felt we left APC because of the governor not because we wanted to join PDP. We left APC because of the oppression that APC National Chairman (Adams Oshiomhole) meted on the governor and for some of us that hate oppression, we decided to jettison our relationship with the godfather to follow the governor to PDP.

Having escorted him (Obaseki) there, we have not been accepted into PDP and for us we are now telling the governor, it is either now or we leave.

Governor Obaseki has been your principal and youve been working with him for five years or so now, is it possible that you leave him in the PDP and go to another party. Is it possible that we see Gov Obaseki in the PDP and Philip Shuaibu, the deputy governor in another political party, is that a possibility because the governor has said hes not leaving?

Mr Shaibu: We followed the governor because of oppression, like I said, and we escorted him, not because some of us wanted to join PDP and we are PDP now, and we expect that we are integrated.

And when I said we, (its) not just Philip Shaibu, I am talking about Anselm Ojezua and the state working committee, ward chairmen and the executives, the leaders of APC then and all the well-wishers that left to join PDP because of Obaseki. We have been meeting, and we have said we need to be integrated.

Anselm Ojezua resigned his membership as chairman of the state (APC), the ward chairmen resigned, other executives resigned to join PDP. As I speak, theyve not been integrated. Were talking about harmonisation, theyve refused to harmonise, and for some of us, that means they are not welcome to PDP. When youre talking, dont just limit it to Philip Shaibu, it is not about Philip Shaibu, its about all of us. And like I said, I hate oppression.

The people (PDP) say they gave you a platform to win election and you came and you sort of pushed everyone aside, brought in your structure, (and) used the existing structure to win election without properly recognising those who have held sway in the party over the years.

The party was strong (enough) for you to recognise it, used it to win (the) election. These are some of the issues that they (PDP) raised against the leadership of Governor Obaseki and yourself in the PDP.

Mr Shaibu: We are not saying dismantle and drive (out) everybody and accept us. We are saying create room for X, just as we have done in the appointments in government.

We created space for the old PDP that we met, theyre commissioners. As I speak, in my local government, they have one slot. In Edo North, they have one slot. So, we are saying create (the) same opportunity for some of these our people, we are not saying all but some of these our people that resigned their executive positions, resigned their membership, give them some slots in PDP.

I see myself alone in PDP and I look left and right, I am not seeing the guys that asked us to move to PDP, they are not being accommodated. It is not about Philip Shaibu, dont limit it to Philip Shaibu.

Can you tell us who the people are? When we say they, who are the they that youre referring to, can you mention the names? Who are these people that you are talking about?

Mr Shaibu: If I want to mention names I will say the national because at the state level we have harmonised. We had a harmonised list as we speak at the state, old PDP and new PDP harmonised list. That list needs to be ratified by the national and the national have not ratified that list. Elections are coming.

Some of our people have ambition, some want to contest for the House of Assembly, Some want to go for (House of Representatives) Reps and the rest. Who do they go to, is it the harmonised or the old PDP?

So, as we speak, we dont even know where to go. We need the National (executive of PDP) to come and resolve these issues and theyve been moving the goal post from one end to the other and very soon electioneering will start. So, for us we are tired of these games. We want to know the harmonised list, is it the one were following?

Lets clarify this, Sir. Is it the national chairman that is in the way or the zonal leadership of the party in the South-south? Because if you say locally you dont have a problem, then we need to know where the problem is coming from.

Mr Shaibu: I would not want to blame it on the national chairman but I also will blame him because the issues are before him since he took over leadership and he has not called for a meeting to resolve the Edo (PDP) crisis. This crisis has been there for long, and we expect that the chairman and his executives would have settled down to look at Edo and to resolve the issues in Edo and he has not called, so, partly I would say the chairman and his executives.

If youre blaming the present structure there will be a question, this (crisis) has been lingering even before the national convention which brought Iyorchia Ayu.

Mr Shaibu: I said partly I would blame the national chairman presently because we say we (should) allow him to settle down? And I am sure he has fully settled and we expected that by now, this issue would have been resolved and thats why I said partly I would blame the present leadership because we expected that Edo would have been one of those first areas that they will resolve, but up till now, theres no way forward.

Weve been hearing the national chairman is coming, the governor has been assuring us the national chairman is coming. Last week he told us hes coming. This week again he said hes coming. I can tell you the pressure is much and for me I am not used to keeping quiet when my people are not happy because politics is about people, not an individual.

I will like you to also clarify this. There was an arrangement when you and the governor were moving to PDP for the purpose of winning an election and there was an agreement on the sharing formula, the position and the structure of the party. What was that structure that you agreed on?

Mr Shaibu: There were some meetings that I know I attended, there was no discussion on where and how things would be shared because dont forget that as at the time we came in everything was just fast.

So, after the election, that was when the governor now called everybody and said, now that weve won the election, now theres need to integrate because there was no time for all these integration thing and that was when the issue of harmonisation came but, unfortunately, the then leadership could not finish before the convention and we were told after the convention all the issues of harmonisation will take place and as we speak nothing has happened.

So, there was no clear cut definition of what was going to happen in terms of party positions, in terms of appointments. On our own, we feel we met some persons in PDP, we cannot drive them (out) but we are saying some people resigned as state chairman, 95 per cent of APC executives moved to PDP and we are saying give them some slots just like we did in the appointments.

The accusation is that you and the governor are not accommodating people that you met (in PDP). People have made an allusion that you came to other peoples home and they fed you and after you want to chase them from the house, thats the allegation that they are making.

That in fact, youre the one that is pushing them out. For example, where does this leave the former chairman of PDP in Edo State, where do you go from here?

Mr Shaibu: Tony Aziegbemi is the chairman of PDP in Edo state and hes still the chairman. We have no issue about him and there is no contest about that. Hes the state chairman and there are other positions that are there and we look at the harmonised list, the old PDP are still having majority of party executives.

The new PDP are having just few and theyre refusing those few and even those that we give commissioners, they still brought old PDP to replace those that were giving commissioners. We are ready to co-exist.

But we are saying to coexist, give some space to some of our people that asked that we should join PDP and resign their appointment. It is not about that we want to drive anybody, no we are not driving anybody, we want more people. As we speak were doing registration. Weve registered over 500,000 people into PDP.

So, when they want to blackmail they say you want to leave the party. It is not about leaving the party but we are saying we want to be a member of PDP in full and if theres no space for us, dont forget that there are many political parties.

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Edo Deputy Governor's interview that got Wike really angry - Premium Times

Revolutions have happened repeatedly throughout history, dramatically changing what seems possible in a short period of time. Some of the great revolutions, like the French Revolution of 1789 or the Russian Revolution of 1917, overthrew monarchies that had existed for centuries. The Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 likewise rapidly brought down several decades-old regimes that previously seemed all-powerful.

Capitalism repeatedly drives people to this sort of action, even after long periods of relative passivity, whether because of brutal wars, economic chaos or other crises brought about by the anarchic nature of the system. Today is no exception. So although revolution is not immediately on the cards in Australia, it is nevertheless useful to understand why and how they happen and what can help them win in the future.

Importantly, revolutions dont usually start because people set out to overthrow the social order. Much more often, they start because of relatively minor grievances. The 2019 revolution in Sudan, for example, started off with protests about the rising costs of living, but ended up bringing down the government.

Sometimes, struggles emerge in response to some particularly egregious attack from the ruling class, such as the 2021 revolution in Myanmar, which began with protesters opposing a right-wing military coup. In the course of fighting for particular reforms, it can become apparent to people that more radical change is desirable. It can begin to seem like there is no good reason to go back to the iniquities and profit-obsessed priorities of the existing order once a mass democratic alternative seems like a possibility.

Mass struggles and revolutions therefore arent just a challenge to the power of the ruling class. They also have a transformative effect on the people who participate in them. Much of the time, the reality of powerlessness means that people feel they have no choice but to resign themselves to the system. When it seems like theres nothing you can do to change things, and politicians and journalists are telling you theres no alternative to the status quo, it seems the only option is to accept the world as it is and adapt to it. In contrast, when people get a taste of their own power in the course of struggles, it can expand their sense of possibility rapidly and profoundly.

This process occurs in many struggles, but it goes to its extreme in revolutions. One of the most striking things about reading accounts of revolutions is the descriptions of the effect on those involved. Antonio Gramsci, an Italian revolutionary, described this transformation during the mass occupations of the factories in Italy in 1919:

It was very necessary to see with one's own eyes old workers, who seemed broken down by decades upon decades of oppression and exploitation, stand upright even in a physical sense during the period of the occupation ... It was necessary to see these and other sights, in order to be convinced how limitless the latent powers of the masses are, and how they are revealed and develop swiftly as soon as the conviction takes root among the masses that they are arbiters and masters of their own destinies.

If you feel yourself to be powerless, resigning yourself to the system can make some sense: any other alternative appears impractical. When you experience your own power to shape the world around you, suddenly it makes sense to think about what that world should be like.

For workers used to being downtrodden and oppressed by the system, this is a liberating experience. Karl Marx summarised this process when he wrote, Revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.

Revolutions present a challenge to all the usual backward and divisive ideas of capitalism. In Egypt in 2011, sectarian religious divides were challenged and overcome as the common goal of fighting for democracy took hold. In Tahrir Square, occupied by masses of protesters, Coptic Christians defended Muslims at their prayers from attack, and joint prayers of Copts and Muslims were held. In many revolutions, from the revolutionary Paris Commune in 1871 to the 2021 uprising in Myanmar, sexist stereotypes have been challenged, reflected in the significant numbers of women playing leading roles.

Ordinary people have often found creative ways to solve the practical problems thrown up during struggle. The following is a description of the area controlled by young revolutionaries in Khartoum during the Sudanese revolution in 2019: Street outside: full of rubbish with plastic bags strewn across the roads. Street inside: clean of rubbishbags to put your garbage placed strategically around and young men with long hair and skinny jeans roaming around, picking up trash and encouraging others to help. Overnight as the crowds thin out, they wash the roads in teams.

City squares and other public places tend to became collective organising spaces, with people taking pride in maintaining them. The observer in Sudan went on to describe volunteer pharmacists organising medicine for those who needed it, blood donation trucks organising blood for injured protesters, and protesters organising cash contributions and bags of money left at the side of the road for anyone to take if they need money to get home.

When they happen, revolutions can involve and be led by a wide variety of social forces. For a revolution to go beyond just replacing the rule of one minority with that of another, however, it must mobilise the mass of the working class and involve the democratisation of the workplaces and key industries that keep society running. This means the mass of people who produce the wealth of society also making the political decisions about how it is used and organised. The working class uniquely has the power to create this sort of directly democratic society, run in the collective interest rather than in the interests of a powerful minority.

One of the key questions that a workers revolution faces is how to organise production. A mass strike cant continue indefinitely. There comes a point when it is logical and necessary to restart production under the democratic control of workers.

This transforms the workplace from a site of authoritarian control dedicated to profit, to one in which politics and economics converge. A journalist in revolutionary Germany in 1918 wrote the following account of workers control: The workers arrive on time, then take off their coats, read their newspapers and slowly begin work. This is interrupted by debates and meetings. The employers are as powerless as the managerial staff. All power is in the hands of the workers committees.

In a revolution, there can be a dynamic interplay between issues in broader society and in the workplace. In the Portuguese Revolution in 1974, the overthrow of the authoritarian government raised questions about the little authoritarians in the factories and farmlands. A movement of workers councils and land seizures developed that posed a direct challenge to capitalism.

Political developments flow the other way as well. You cant change society from just one workplace. Workers councils have been established in numerous revolutions as a way to coordinate across neighbourhoods, cities and regions. They can in turn help bring more workplaces under democratic control.

These councils are the basis for a form of revolutionary democracy very different to the capitalist democracy we have today. In contrast to the privileged, unaccountable parliaments of capitalism, delegates to workers councils are elected directly from workplaces and are directly recallable. They arent given special privileges or pay, but paid the same wage as a skilled worker. Directly accountable to workers, these councils therefore become a way for the mass of workers to exercise their democratic authority. First developed in some capacity in the 1871 Paris Commune, workers councils have been formed in a variety of later revolutionary struggles around the globe, in places as seemingly varied as Russia, Spain, Chile and Iran.

At the heights of the most successful movements, workers councils have begun to operate as a sort of alternative government, becoming a way to deal with the key political and economic questions of the day. This is the power on which socialisma society of mass democracy in which production is geared towards meeting human needis based.

Unfortunately, it isnt just workers who get organised during a revolution. The ruling class and other supporters of capitalism will also organise to defend and maintain their power. As a workers revolution develops, there arises a situation Marxists refer to as dual power, in which an emerging workers government competes with a capitalist government trying to restore capitalist normality. This is an inherently unstable situation, which the ruling class recognises as a threat to its rule.

One of the ways the ruling class tries to reassert its power is through force. Much of the violence associated with revolutions in fact comes from the counter-revolutionary violence that capitalists resort to in order to maintain their power. From the tens of thousands of revolutionaries murdered during the bloody week that suppressed the Paris Commune to the violence unleashed by Myanmars military over the last year in repressing the uprising against their coup, violence is essential for a minority to intimidate a majority. Their intention is not just to defeat the working class physically, but to undo the transformations in peoples confidence and consciousness that occur during revolutionary uprisings.

Just as they rely on workers to run their businesses, however, the capitalists depend upon the mass of rank-and-file soldiers in the military to maintain their authority. Any great revolutionary movement will tend to have an impact upon this rank and file, many of whom are recruited from the working class and oppressed by their officers. At key points in revolutions, key sections of the armed forces have joined the revolution and turned against their generals. In Russia in 1917, soldiers refusing to shoot protesters in February led to the quick collapse of the tsarist monarchy, and over the course of the revolution, soldiers councils were established based upon the workers councils, democratising the army and bringing the revolution into the barracks.

Direct repression, however, is only one way of fighting back against a revolutionary movement. Political ideas can also be powerful weapons.

Revolutions may challenge old ideas about society, but the developments in workers consciousness are always contradictory. Participation in mass rebellion might open workers to new possibilities, but all the lessons learnt through a life under capitalism arent wiped away all at once. Neither are the various political parties and media outlets of capitalism. The various political traditions that exist in different countries have a significant impact on how revolutionary struggles develop.

To counter this, revolutions must be both organisationally solid and politically well developed. The more workers who understand what will be required to defeat the old order and establish a genuinely democratic society, the better. This is the purpose of a revolutionary socialist organisation or current within the working class.

Unfortunately, most struggles of the past have lacked a strong revolutionary socialist current. The dominant political forces have been the various parties committed to running capitalism in some form or another rather than overthrowing it. Frequently, this has led even great struggles to stagnate or compromise, allowing the ruling class to reassert their authority and leaving the fundamental problems of society unsolved. Thats a key reason why we argue that we cant wait until a revolution begins to start organising a revolutionary current.

Not every crisis or struggle automatically develops in a revolutionary direction. But throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, weve seen how revolutions are as much a part of capitalism as economic crisis and war. We will invariably see more revolutions develop in the coming decades. These open up the potential for a society freed of all the inequality and oppression of capitalism. By building a revolutionary socialist organisation today, were doing what we can to equip our side with the political clarity and capacity to make the most of the struggles of the future.

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What do we mean by revolution? - Red Flag