Category Archives: Government Oppression

The bitter cold in the Kashmir Valley cuts through the bones, but yet it fails to chill the publics spirit. Right through the winter, when hundreds of Indian security forces come to a locality to kill less than a handful of militants taking shelter in a house, the local population come out in support of the militants to prevent the security forces from conducting their operations, at times even managing to help the militants escape. For the security forces, of course, the local population supporting the militants are anti-national and they have no qualms in dealing severely with the civilians.

The fact is that many in the local population readily risk their very lives to save the militants. The killing of every militantand they are all Kashmiris, mostly from East Kashmir, administered by India, with a few from West Kashmir, administered by Pakistanis deeply resented. Each encounter killing of a militant or militants, and especially when civilians are killed, sparks public protests, despite the bitter cold outside. And when such protests gain momentum, the security forces fire into the crowds, triggering a wave of further protests.

The Kashmiri people have now faced what is akin to military rule for 27 years; practically the whole area is claimed to have remained disturbed, with the armed forces enjoying immunity from prosecution for harm done to civilians, whether of rape, torture, disappearance, or killing. According to a statement dated 10 January 2017 of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), in the ongoing uprising from 8 July last year, more than a hundred civilians have so far been killed. More than one thousand civilians have either been blinded or have sustained serious eye injuries as a result of the firing of pellets by the security forces. There have been mass arrests and detentions under the draconian Public Safety Act, 1978. Official government figures put the number of arrests under different criminal charges at around 8,000. Prolonged curfews, media and internet blackouts, suspension of the fundamental rights to freedom of speech and expression and of peaceful assembly, have been the order of the day.

Indeed, one can sense the agony of the parents and other loved ones of the disappeared persons. For the period from 1989 onwards, the APDP has estimated that 8,000 to 10,000 Kashmiristhe earlier Omar Abdullah-headed Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government had admitted to a figure of 3,744 in the J&K legislative assemblywere subjected to enforced disappearance and subsequently killed in fake encounters. But the Indian state and the establishment have been in a state of denial of the enforced disappearances and subsequent killings, blaming the very victims of the violence for the violence. On the 10th of every month, the APDP stages silent sit-in protests against the enforced disappearances in J&K, and has been bringing out a memory calendar. It has taken on the responsibility of not allowing the memories of the sufferings of (the) families (of the disappeared persons) to pass into oblivion. Indeed, the callousness of successive state governments in J&K is also evident in the fact that the state assembly is yet to pass a law on protection from enforced disappearances. Successive central governments have also been utterly insensitive in not ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Basically for 27 years, India has been using military force against the people of the Kashmir Valley many of whom do not want to be part of India. New Delhi justifies all of this in the name of territorial integrity and secularism. It blames Pakistan for what is happening in the Kashmir Valleyall the mass protests and the militancy are supposed to be Pakistan-sponsored. Yet, the nationalism of the present union government is not even all-Indian; it is a communal Hindutvavadi nationalism representing a section of the Indian population. The Hindutvavadi nationalists in power currently have no qualms in forcing their rule on the Kashmiri Muslims in the name of secularism. Needless to say, the Congress version of nationalism was no less in this respect. Not that Pakistani nationalism is any better. Now the Hindutvavadi nationalists, clearly not out of any real solidarity, have claimed that they support the Balochi national liberation movement in Pakistan; the Pakistani nationalists, on their part, claim that they are for Kashmiri azaadi from India, even as they have made of Azad Kashmir a virtual colony. But given New Delhis use of military force in the Kashmir Valley over the last 27 years, Kashmiri azaadi is, indeed, among other things, principally a cry from the heart of the Kashmiri people for freedom from Indian oppression.

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AzaadiFreedom from Indian Oppression - Economic and Political Weekly

Interesting times these are.

While the Pope of my church seems to spare no occasion to castigate Western societies for allegedly not doing enough to welcome and accommodate Islamic refugees from the Middle East, he rarely says anything about the epidemic of anti-Christian persecution around the world.

In stark contrast, while addressing the topic of Middle Easterners who are seeking refuge in the United States, President Trump--who, readers may recall, Pope Francis once suggested wasn't really a Christian because of his expressed desire to build a wall along America's southern border--explicitly resolved to provide relief for Christians.

Trump's critics immediately pounced on him for religious discrimination.

Some context on this matter readily reveals that the Pope's view is as morally confused as the President's is sensible.

Firstly, contrary to what the Christophobes would have us believe, Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world today. In 2016, approximately 900,000 Christians suffered persecution.

Secondly, many (though not all) of these victimized Christians to whom the President was referring, those seeking refuge from the oppression that they've encountered in places like Syria, say, are prey to Islamic predators.

Of course it's true that there are decent Muslims (and others) who are also victimized by their co-religionists. Equally true, however, is that it is predominately Muslims who are menacing the vulnerable.

And they are menacing Christians because the latter reject the religion of Muhammad.

Yet it would be a mistake to think that it is only Muslims who persecute Christians.

Open Doors (OD) is among the organizations that exists for the sake of drawing people's attention to the phenomenon of anti-Christian persecution around the planet. It defines "persecution" thus:

"Christian persecution is any hostility experienced from the world as a result of one's identification as a Christian. From verbal harassment to hostile feelings, attitudes and actions, Christians in areas of with severe religious restrictions pay a heavy price for their faith. Beatings, physical torture, confinement, isolation, rape, severe punishment, imprisonment, slavery, discrimination in education and employment, and even death are just a few examples of the persecution they experience on a daily basis."

Christians in at least 60 countries suffer persecution because of their faith. On a monthly basis, 322 Christians are murdered. When they aren't losing their lives, 772 acts of violence--from rapes to beatings; from abductions to arrests and forced marriages--are visited upon them. And each month, 214 churches and Christian properties are destroyed.

Open Doors distinguishes three gradations of persecution: "extreme persecution," "very high persecution," and "high persecution." Of the 50 most oppressive countries for Christians, about four out of five them, or 80%, are Islamic. However, the worse of the worst persecutors is North Korea.

North Korea's government is that of a communist dictatorship. Of its 25,405,000 residents, some 300,000 are Christian. The reasons cited by OD for the government's ruthless persecution of Christians are two: "communist oppression" and "dictatorial paranoia."

North Korea is a "totalitarian communist state" where "Christians are forced to hide their faith completely from government authorities, neighbors, and, often, even their own spouses and children." Because of the government's "ever-present surveillance, many pray with their eyes open, and gathering for praise or fellowship is practically impossible."

All North Koreans must worship the ruling family, "and those who don't comply (including Christians) are arrested, imprisoned, tortured or killed." Moreover, whole "Christian families are" routinely "imprisoned in hard labor camps, where unknown numbers die each year from torture, beatings, overexertion and starvation."

As for those who attempt to flee to South Korea via China, they "risk execution or life imprisonment [.]"

In North Korea, the act of possessing a Bible is a capital crime. Christians must meet secretly in the woods if they wish to worship.

In Islamic Nigeria, particularly the Borno State in the northeaster section of the country, there are 27 camps of roughly 5,000 "internally displaced peoples." The mostly Christian residents of these camps are infected with HIV/AIDS courtesy of the notorious Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram, for most of the patients were once held captive by the latter.

The Boko Haram insurgency that transpired in Nigeria also decimated the Christian communities that had at one time existed there. Those Christians who returned to their homes are now in danger of starving, for there is no work, and those who did have work before they fled because of the insurgency have been fired from their jobs. Thus, they are under immense pressure from Muslims to convert to Islam in exchange for financial support.

And what about Iraq, a place that Christians had been calling home for as long as there have been Christians? Barack Obama's announcement to the world that he would be withdrawing troops from Iraq was the beginning of the end for the country's Christians, for the vacuum that he created in effect created the ruthless Islamic State (ISIS).

Iraq is the seventh most oppressive place on the planet for Christians. As OD states, although the Christian community in Iraq is ancient, it is now "on the verge of extinction." The Christian-aid organization elaborates:

"The overall persecution situation in Iraq is characterized by impunity, the threat of attacks and second class treatment by the authorities. Historical Christian communities and Protestant Christian communities are seriously affected by persecution, especially from Islamic movements, authorities and non-Christian leaders. Communities of converts to Christianity from Islam suffer severely from persecution, especially at the hands of family, but also from the above mentioned persecutors if their faith is known."

For all of the left's crocodile tears over "Islamophobia," Muslims are by far the least persecuted religious group in the world, and certainly throughout the Western world where they live far freer and better than they ever could have imagined doing in their homelands.

It is Christians who are under attack for their faith.

Continue reading here:

Christophobia: a Global Perspective - AINA (press release)

President of The Gambia Adama Barrow and European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica during a bilateral ceremony. Photo by: European Commission

BANJUL, The Gambia The smallest nation on the African continent has a lot on its plate. Newly elected President of The Gambia Adama Barrow faces an insolvent economy, two decades of documented human rights abuses, reserves of only two months worth of imports, more than 40 percent youth unemployment, and a capital city that, according to environmental impact assessments, will slip into the Atlantic in less than 45 years.

Barrows inauguration tomorrow is billed as an end to 22 years of oppression and isolationism under the ousted Yahya Jammeh and a rebirth of The New Gambia.

As the world waits to discover how and when Barrow will carry out his promise to completely reform the fragile West African nation, aid donors are already crowding in, eager to get a read on Barrows agenda.

The new president is aware of the challenges he faces, and tries to remind the crowds of jubilant Gambians that its not going to be easy.

We had a dictatorship against governance, with human rights abuses, bad policies and violations of the rule of law. A dictatorship that cost us our friends; a dictatorship whose conduct deprived us of development and aid; a dictatorship that was against its citizens, he said at a press conference on Feb. 9 in the capital Banjul.

His predecessor, Jammeh, implemented a four-year freeze on the receipt of foreign aid from what he referred to as neo-colonial institutions, and political oppression was rifeunder his rule.

As a new government, what we have inherited is an economy that is virtually bankrupt, and in need of immediate rescue, said Barrow.

Despite the unflagging enthusiasm of Barrows followers, his plan for The New Gambia so far is vague. It consists of a self-imposed three-year deadline to achieve real economic, political and social reform, including job creation to keep Gambians in Gambia, infrastructure development, legislative and institutional reform, and good governance.

But he has a clearer vision of the role of international aid and investment. My view of our dire economic situation is that what The Gambia critically needs at the moment is immediate budget support, in order to rescue our economy from the brink of collapse, he said.

The country is experiencing high levels of unemployment and high fiscal deficits. Interest payments on public sector debt absorbed 40 percent of government revenues in 2015, according to the African Development Bank. And its economy is vulnerable to external shocks, such as the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which severely damaged its tourism sector.

Donors including the European Union, the World Bankand the International Monetary Fundhave confirmed more than $275 million in support since Barrows unofficial inauguration in Dakar, Senegal, two weeks ago. However, most of these funds are project-based, and most are dedicated to reactivating and expanding the scope of current small-to-medium scale initiatives such as shoreline erosion prevention, school-based nutrition and womens economic empowerment.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also confirmed to Devex during a meeting in Serrekunda The Gambias largest town that more funding announcements are expected from the U.K. government. A source close to the Foreign Office added that these will include a new package from the Commonwealth, which Johnson said The Gambia will rejoin in a matter of months. Other funds will come from the Foreign & Commonwealth Offices share of official development assistance as part of the U.K. governments commitment to spend more aid through departments other than the Department for International Development.

However, regardless of which department sends aid to The Gambia, the U.K. government no longer offers general budget support because of concerns around accountability and transparency.

In other words, the aid Barrow wants is not flowing at least not yet.

When it comes to budget support, we have more precise criteria and more precise benchmarks that we follow and monitor and are the basis of each and every tranche, European Commissioner for International Development Neven Mimica told Devex in Banjul.

Mimica said that in addition to the 150 million euros packageannounced last week half of which will be available immediately to expand current projects and those suspended under Jammeh the commission will be announcing an additional 50 million euros in budget support most probably this summer. All in all, the increase so far will quadruple aid to The Gambia in less than four months, up from about 75 million euros for the full 2012-2016 period.

Now we have to discuss and negotiate the legal framework, the state building contract as we call it, to decide on the conditions of this budget support, Mimica said.

Barrow, who is under pressure to demonstrate results while his public remains largely enthusiastic, is keen to expedite the process. So is Mimica: The Gambia represents a possible linchpin for his controversial 2 billion euros EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, which uses traditional development assistance combined with private sector tools, security-related measures and repatriation packages to stem and reverse the flow of African migrants to Europe. The Gambia is small, but is the source of more migrants per capita to Europe than any other African nation. Gambian migrants typically men aged between 18 and 30 have fled the country for political and economic reasons. Investing early in Barrows economic reform agenda could mean early wins for the fund, setting an example for implementation in the rest of the region.

Still, budget support is among the most difficult modalities for donors to track. As a result, offering it is the clearest vote of confidence a donor can send to an aid recipient, in terms of its institutions and capacity to manage funds. Although Mimica insists the funding will be subject to all the human rights, governance and accountability conditionalitiesthe EU has placed on this type of funding, it begs the question: can a regime as untested as Barrows demonstrate this level of effectiveness in its first four months?

The new president often refers to his pledge to bring The Gambia in line with international conventions on human rights. For example, he has released many of those imprisoned without trial, including two of his newly appointed government ministers, and says he will release them all. But the extent of Barrows human rights agenda remains unknown most prominently, his stance on what is known as the aggravated homosexuality law, which can carry a penalty of life imprisonment. The Gambian legal system does not define homosexuality, but specifies that serial offenders and those infected with HIV who are deemed to be gay or lesbian may be prosecuted. An act of homosexuality is in some cases punishable by death or life imprisonment, a point of discord with international conventions that Barrow has yet to address, despite criticism from local media.

Asked during a Banjul press conference whether he intended to repeal or amend the laws, Barrow said: Homosexuality is not an issue in The Gambia.

He clarified that he felt homosexuality was a personal matter, and added again that it is not an issue in The Gambia.

Asked what she thought Barrows statement meant, Minister of Employment Dr. Isatou Touray, who is also a human rights activist and a former presidential candidate, told Devex that Barrow believes homosexuality is not an issue and people have a right to have whatever orientation.

Its their personal life and we are talking about the inclusivity of rights, and the indivisibility of rights. Of course everyone has a right to exist, she said.

Yet Barrows stance on the legislation is unknown, and will play a key role in the commissions decision to offer budget support, Mimica told Devex. He said that it was the previous administrations poor record on human rights that led to the EUs suspension of budget support to The Gambia in 2013.

We discussed that briefly with the president. He put it in the context of the overall democratic process, that its very important that the political agenda that he came with was democratic, that whatever reforms or changes he would make would stem out of this democratic agenda, Mimica told Devex.

In a word, we do hope that this part related to aggravated homosexuality will at least be under discussion for the changes here in the legal framework, so we are to discuss it again within the political dialogue of the Article 8 [of the Cotonou Agreement]. The article of this partnership agreement between the EU and 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific of which The Gambia is a signatory includes addressing areas of discrimination.

Another public concern that appears even less frequently in Barrows statements is climate change. The Gambia remains among the top 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change, due to its low-lying topography, reliance on subsistence agriculture and poor drainage systems. A study conducted by Columbia University found that sea-level rise could drown more than 8 percent of the countrys land area in as little as 15 years, including the coastal capital city Banjul.

Coastal erosion, meanwhile, continues to wear away at the countrys beaches, the main draw for tourism to The Gambia and lifeblood to the economy. Tourism is responsible for around 40 percent of the countrys economic output.

Despite the adoption of a national climate policylast year under the previous regime, Barrow has yet to take ownership of his own climate change agenda. But his supporters feel certain he will prioritize the issue, particularly in Banjul, which is flooded annually and still relies on machinery built during the British colonial presence in the late 1950s.

He lived in Banjul for 22 years [so] I know he will make it a priority, Tunis Jammeh, a ward councillor, told Devex during a visit to the often nonfunctional colonial era pump.This is the city, where the government ministries are and his palace and its sliding into the sea. How can he not?

Still, as the city warms up for Saturdays inauguration, its hard to imagine Banjul plastered with photos of a smiling and youthful Barrow under any kind of threat. The 49,000 people who fled fearing unrest around the election are trickling back over the borders, and as people celebrate in the streets in 85 degree heat, only the occasional and sudden chilly breeze marking the cold months serves as a reminder: its still winter in The Gambia.

Read more international development newsonline, and subscribe to The Development Newswireto receive the latest from the worlds leading donors and decision-makers emailed to you free every business day.

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The New Gambia: What's on and off the aid agenda - Devex

In his new book, The Deplorables Guide to Making America Great Again, Fox News host and radio talker Todd Starnes proudly declares himself an irredeemable deplorable. He writes (with characteristic humor and directness), Mrs. Clinton matter-of-factly dubbed half of Donald Trumps supporters a bunch of xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic bigots. Im surprised she didnt say we hated puppies too.

Starnes connects being a worthwhile deplorable with traits he also associates with the duties of citizenship:

To this Starnes adds marching orders:

In other words, make yourself an upstanding participant in your society and community even as others are ridiculing and diminishing you.

But the sting of being shouted down as subhuman is not unique to a particular religion or political party. Certainly as a Jew born in the 20th century the notion of being dehumanized and threatened based on a rigid self-serving philosophy is something that resonates with me deeply.

It all begins with the abrogation of free speech; falsely defining it as the freedom of only your views being heard. Absent is true dialogue; replaced by open ridicule. The Nazis branded their disabled victims as useless eaters. Starnes responds defiantly to the demeaning deplorable branding with concrete plans for participation.

Starnes also provides a moral code for deplorables to live by, a way to overcome the marginalizing of others. You dont have to kowtow to the so-called arbiters of public morality, he writes. Dont bend the knee to these people anymore. If someone as brash and occasionally offensive as Donald J. Trump could win the White House, surely you can speak up in your house, your neighborhood, your school system, your city. Remember, the country cant be saved by one man on Pennsylvania Avenue. It takes all of us rowing in the same direction.

Starnes provides the rallying cry and organizational tools for Deplorables. And when I think of Deplorables I of course mean not just Christians, not just vilified Trump supporters, but all of us who at one time or another have been diminished or marginalized for our views. Who doesnt relate to a mean putdown or mischaracterization based on a preconceived notion or negative generalization. We are all of us Jews, all of us Deplorables, all of us humble before the eyes of God.

What we can do about it is bond together, rise up and cast our vote, rejoice in our otherness and our freedom in unexpected ways. Starnes, for instance, celebrates the presence of Chick-fil-A in New York City despite a call for a ban on the chain chicken joint by Mayor de Blasio (who Starnes says eats pizza with a fork). Starnes proposes Chick-Fil-A be the official Deplorable poultry, steeped in corporate values and the Christian faith of its founder. I would of course prefer kosher chicken as my official food, maybe Empire or Schnitzel Express.

Beyond eating chicken, argues for a populist community and religion-based uprising to resist government oppression. It is not the first time such a call is being made and it wont be the last. But it is a refreshing reminder of what every doctor knows - that our bones and arteries and even our hearts and brains all look the same under the microscope, no matter what our critics suppose.

Marc Siegel MD is an internist in New York. His most recent book is The Inner Pulse; Unlocking the Secret Code of Sickness and Health.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

The rest is here:

Fox News' Todd Starnes Redefines 'The Deplorables' - Forward

A select group of top Turkish academics has become the latest casualty of the countrys state of emergency. Some 330 academics were among the thousands of public sector employees purged by an emergency decree issued on 7 February.

Such decrees are now part of life in a country that is still traumatised by last years coup attempt, which claimed hundreds of lives. The state of emergency put in place swiftly in its wake grants sweeping powers to the authorities. Indeed, a large number of drastic rulings that would have been near impossible in normal times were introduced,including the closure of 15 private universities and the abolishment of the vice-chancellors elections nationwide.

The primary target of the early decrees was the Gulen movement led by Fethullah Gulen, the Islamic cleric based in the US members of whom were behind the coup attempt. The numbers were staggering: by November 2016, more than a 100,000 people were dismissed from public service including one-third of all judges and more than 100 generals. Despite their scale, these operations did not face much opposition in the early stages. What was more alarming for most was the extent of infiltration by the Gulenists into the higher echelons of power, particularly in the army and the judiciary.

Yet the purge on 7 February caused outrage.This is primarily due to who was in the firing line.Among the names were some of Turkeys top academics based in the countrys most established institutions. For example, brahim Kabolu, a leading constitutional law specialist who I am currently collaborating with on a book about constitutional reform, has been dismissed from Marmara University. Others included Murat Sevin, another leading constitutional law expert; Yksel Takn, a top political historian; gel ktem Tanr, the countrys first specialist in neuropsychology, as well as almost the entire faculty of the department of theatre at Ankara University.

It became immediately clear that the newly dismissed included many who could not be linked to violence in any shape or form, much less to a terrorist plot the official accusations underlying many of the previous dismissals. One common feature of 115 of the 330 expelled scholars was that they were all signatories to a peace declaration in January 2016 that criticised the security operations in the southeastern part of the country and called on the government to resume talks with representatives of the Kurdish community in hope of achieving peaceful solution.

A good number of those who were dismissed have also been vocal opponents of the governments increasingly authoritarian stance and of the proposed constitutional changes that will be voted on at the forthcoming referendum on 16 April.

Academia in Turkey is no stranger to such purges on political and ideological bases. Indeed, they were repeated with such regularity in the past that most, if not all, prospective academics in the country view the risk of dismissal as part of the job; almost like the risk of accident for someone considering a genuinely dangerous profession. Korkut Boratav, a veteran, has said poignantly this week: the 1940s purge dismissed my father from academia, the 1980s [one] dismissed me, and todays decree dismissed my last assistant.

Even so, the current situation is much worse than the mass exodus from universities in the early 1980s. There is nothing surprising about a military regime being ruthless over freedom of thought, freedom of speech and, hence, against academia. The tragedy of the current crackdown is that it is taking place under a civil and democratically elected government which, ironically, came to power on a manifesto promising to advance democratic rights and freedoms.

However damaging the dismissals are for the academics in question and they are extremely damaging they are worse for current and future generations of students. I know this from personal experience as a student of economics at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara in the mid-1980s. When we arrived in 1984, universities had become skeletons of their former selves in the aftermath of the military coup.

A large number of academics had left in protest over the treatment of their colleagues. The METU economics department that I joined, which used to be home to one of the strongest economic history teams before 1980, had lost all its economic historians by the time that we enrolled and was unable to appoint anyone in the field until the mid-1990s.

It is not just the loss of academics, either. Even as a supposedly carefree student, you could almost taste the oppression pervading every aspect of university life, hanging over you like a dark cloud. An environment where there is fear over speaking out is no place for teaching the value of critical thinking.

Although most of those expelled in the early 1980s returned to academia later, having successfully appealed against the expulsion decision an avenue not yet open to the currently purged the masses of students who had completed their studies in the meantime had lost out permanently.

Students today will lose both through missing out on being taught by some outstanding academics, and also because higher education is transformed into something completely different in such authoritarian periods. The end result will be generations of graduates who have to settle for what is on offer, without questioning the merit of what is presented to them, and who have to accept knowledge as a given rather than seeking the truth.

It is only to be expected that a society made up of individuals ready to accept whatever is fed to them would also be a place where alternative facts can flourish.

Gulcin Ozkan is a professor of economics at the University of York.

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Turkey purge: dark cloud of oppression hangs over country's universities - Times Higher Education (THE) (blog)

FrontPage Magazine

Christophobia: A Global Perspective FrontPage Magazine North Korea's government is that of a communist dictatorship. Of its 25,405,000 residents, some 300,000 are Christian. The reasons cited by OD for the government's ruthless persecution of Christians are two: communist oppression and dictatorial ... and more »

Continued here:

Christophobia: A Global Perspective - FrontPage Magazine

In the amendments to the bill tabled by Minister of Finance, Chris Sinckler, it was noted people were selling properties for millions of dollars without paying any taxes to the government while many of them owed were in arrears for the paying of income tax and Value Added Tax (VAT).

But Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley, in her contribution to the debate, said the amendments to the legislation were "ill-advised". While she acknowledged that the paying of taxes is necessary, Mottley said the ease of doing business in Barbados was already difficult and this legislation will make it worse for home owners, hotels and restaurants.

"This debate is not about DLP and BLP and winning an election. This debate is about the passage of legislation that will come to act as an instrument of oppression on both the righteous and unrighteous in this country."

Mottley said the single tax ID number under the proposed amendments will make it difficult for people to dispose of their property "in a way that makes sense"whether it be by lease or sale.

She also said the legislation will impact on the countrys level of competitiveness by making it less attractive to investors. Quoting from the Ease of Doing Business 2017 Report, Mottley noted that Barbados ranked at number 130 out of 138 countries for the registration of property.

She said statistics such as these, along with others in the report, prove that the country cannot affordto bring any legislation which will make it more difficult to operate in the local business environment.

Mottley also said the legislation couldcause financial institutions to add a "new layer of questions and processes" to the loan approval process.

"As members on this side have pointed out, it doesnt only relate to you as an individual, if you are married, if you have partners, to the other persons who are in partnership with you in the ownership of assets - this legislation will grind business in Barbados to a halt."

She suggested the government instead utilise an enforcement unit to cut down on those who take advantage of the loopholes in the tax collection system.

Read more from the original source:

Mottley: Tax clearance certificate an 'instrument of oppression' - Loop Barbados

Over the weekend, Prime MinisterStefan Lofven led a Swedish delegation to Iran. Lofven was received warmly by the Islamic Republic's political elite Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted positively about his meeting withLofven, adding that Sweden had a good reputation in Iran and the two countries agreed upon a number of trade-related deals.

Back home, however, coverage of the Swedish government delegation's trip to Tehran has focused on something else. As Sweden's media noted Monday, a number of female officials who joined the trip, including Trade Minister Ann Linde, chose to wear Islamic headscarves while in Iran.

According to Expressen newspaper, there were 11 women on the trip out of 15 total in the Swedish delegation. The women were photographed wearing headscarves almost all of the time they were in Iran, with the exception of a number of events that took place at the Swedish Embassy.

By law, women are required to cover theirhair and wear loose-fitting clothes when they appear in public in Iran, a country governed by a conservative Islamic elite. Many choose to wear loose-fitting hijabs, like the one worn by Linde in the picture above.

These rules require international visitors to dress modestly even if they are only in the country for a short time.

Lofven's Swedish government describes itself as a feminist government, and it has spoken of the need for a feminist foreign policy. Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, a human rights group and frequent critic of Iran ,noted this apparent contradiction in a tweet shared Sunday night.

Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist who started a Facebook page that invited Iranian women to share photographs of themselves without a hijab, also criticized the Swedish delegation.

By actually complying with the directives of the Islamic Republic, Western women legitimize the compulsory hijab law, Alinejad wrote on Facebook. This is a discriminatory law and it's not an internal matter when the Islamic Republic forces all non-Iranian women to wear hijab as well.

Alinejad later shared to Facebook a recent image of Sweden's deputy prime ministerIsabella Lovin signing a document with an all-female staff behind her. That imagerecently went viral, as many viewed it as a criticism of President Trump's abortion policies. Trump's words on women are worthy of condemnation; so are the discriminatory laws in Iran,Alinejad wrote.

Speaking to Expressen,Linde said she had not wanted to wear a headscarf. But it is law in Iran that women must wear the veil. One can hardly come here and break the laws, she explained.

Other Swedish politicians were more critical.Jan Bjrklund, leader of the opposition Liberals party, told Aftonbladet newspaper that the headscarf is a symbol of oppression for women in Iran and that the Swedish government should have demanded that Linde and other female members of the delegation be exempted from wearing it.

Iran's rules on female attire often draw the ire of international visitors just last year, U.S. chess starNazi Paikidze made waves after refusing to travel to Iran to play inthe world championshipsbecause she would not wear a hijab. For female politicians, it represents a bigger challenge, however, as flouting the rules or refusing to travel to Iran could damage relations with the country.

Almost all female politicians who visit Iran cover their hair when they appear in public, but in some cases that has not stopped criticism. Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, was criticized by Iranian conservatives for wearing relatively tight clothes and a headscarf that did not cover her neck during a visit to the country in 2015.

The year before that, Italy's then foreign minister, Emma Bonino,was reported to have briefly not worn a headscarf after arriving in the country, which resulted in a back and forth with the conservative Iranian press.

Questions over Islamic attire on diplomatic visits are not limited to Iran. In 2015, first lady Michelle Obama was pictured without a headscarf in Saudi Arabia, where conservative religious dress is customary but not required by law for foreigners. While other female dignitaries visiting Saudi Arabia in the past had also chosen to not cover their hair, Obama's attire sparked criticism on social media from a small but vocal group of Saudi conservatives.

Linde toldAftonbladetthat she will of course not be wearing a veil when she visits Saudi Arabia next month.

More on WorldViews

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Swedens unsent letter to a President-elect Hillary Clinton: It is a milestone for the world

Swedens subtly radical feminist foreign policy is causing a stir

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Sweden's 'feminist' government criticized for wearing headscarves in Iran - Washington Post

"In the beginning of the so-called revolution, there was no talk of overthrowing the regime. When it started, there was some political oppression by the government, the shah. But socially, there were a lot of freedom, people could do anything, even you could criticize the government, but not the shah himself."

On this week's episode of the "Us and Them" podcast, we hear fromEssi and Katie, who fell in love before the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and growing antipathy between America and Ayatollah Khomeini. Despite many fantastic twists and dangerous turns, their love has triumphed over archenemies hatred.

From West Virginia Public Broadcasting, this is "Us & Them" the podcast where we tell stories from America's cultural divides.

Subscribe to Us & Them oniTunesor however you listen to podcasts.An edited version of Us & Them airs bi-weekly on West Virginia Public Broadcastingsradio network, and the full version is available atwvpublic.org/podcast.

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Us & Them: Love, the Ayatollah & Revolution - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WASHINGTON

Feyisa Lelisa, the 27-year-old Ethiopian silver medal winning marathoner, reunited with his wife, Iftu Mulisa, and two children, 5-year-old daugher, Soko, and 3-year-old son, Sora, on Tuesday at the Miami International Airport after being separated from them for six months.

It's been tough living alone, he said speaking to VOAs Afaan Oromoo Service over the phone in his native Afaan Oromoo. Back home, I had a lot of support. It hasnt been easy, but that's part of the struggle. You don't give up, he said.

Lelisa has been given a U.S. special skill visa with the help of his lawyer and has settled in the U.S. state of Arizona in Flagstaff. His family entered the country on immigrant visas. The distance runner made headlines around the world when he crossed his wrists above his head, making a symbol for protests in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. The anti-government gesture at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro put the runner at grave personal risk, and possible retribution toward his family.

Olympic silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa, rear, of Ethiopia, hugs his wife Iftu Mulia, his daughter Soko, right, 5, and son Sora, left, 3, while picking up his family at Miami International Airport, Feb. 14, 2017.

Shortly after his refusal to go back to Ethiopia, his wife said that she was scared for the familys safety but wasnt surprised by what he did. He was burning inside when he saw on social media all these dead bodies; people being beaten and people being arrested. So I was not surprised because I know he had a lot of anger inside, she told Reuters when she was back home.

Ethiopia is currently under a state of emergency after a wave of protests persisted in the Oromia region starting in November 2015 and continued throughout 2016 spreading in the Amhara region. The anti-government protesters initially were about land related issues. However, protesters demands shifted to demands for basic human rights and political representation. Since then, security forces are accused of killing hundreds and detaining tens of thousands of protesters, according to Human Rights Watch.

Olympic silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa, of Ethiopia, carries his son Sora, 3, and pulls along his daughter Soko, 5, after picking up his family at Miami International Airport, Feb. 14, 2017.

One of many restrictions under the current state of emergency is the very political gesture that Lelisa is famous for. I didn't make the decision to protest because of my family, he said speaking about his decision to continue protesting. I did so to shed light on the oppression, imprisonment, killing and displacement of my people.

At the time of his protest in the Olympics, the Ethiopian information minister, Getachew Reda, congratulated the athlete, then and assured him that he is safe to return home. Lelisa, however, decided to stay abroad.

Lelisa has no regrets and he pledges to continue working for the betterment of his people back home. I actually don't think I have done enough for my people. I am still young and have some time to help, he said. I would do it all over again. And I am prepared to do all I can and do my part until the Oromo people win their freedom. It remains my biggest preoccupation.

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Ethiopian Athlete Who Made Anti-government Gesture in Rio Reunites With Family - Voice of America