Category Archives: Government Oppression

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Protests in different Iranian cities entered their seventh day on Tuesday. With anti-regime slogans, these demonstrations are the broadest display of a volatile society. But what are the origins of these protests?

Iran has been experiencing various protests and at least eight large-scale uprisings Since 2017. When the November 2019 uprising with over 1500 victims erupted, both the regime and people knew the situation would never be the same.

While viewing the current protests as the result of Irans economic crunch would be parochial, ignoring these elements does not allow one to fully appreciate that the country is going through a critical socio-economic transition.

The new series of protests began in Iran following the rapid rise of consumer goods, particularly bread and pasta. While the prices have been experiencing a rising trend in recent years, they skyrocketed soon after Ebrahim Raisis government removed the preferential exchange rate.

The preferential rate was the countrys official exchange rate of 42,000 rials to a dollar since 2018, to be ostensibly used to import essential materials such as wheat and medicine. But the regimes insiders who received the currency imported goods at a lower price but sold them trifold in the market. The prices did not significantly decrease, and since the regime did not have enough currency, it began banknote printing.

The unsupported banknote printing created liquidity much higher than Irans low production rate of 3%. Raisis government removed the official exchange rate after a lot of fanfare about combatting corruption.

Because Irans liquidity rate was more than its production and employment rate, inflation has become rampant, causing prices to rise steadily.

Since the regime officials knew removing the official exchange rate could certainly increase prices, they made a lot of flip-flops to implement their so-called economic operation.

While many Iranian economists warned that removing the preferential rate would lead to a currency shock and will cause prices to jump, Raisi claimed on April 8 that his government will not create a currency shock by removing the preferential rate.

But the skyrocketing prices speak for themselves. Since removing the preferential rate, wheat increased by 100% compared to three years ago. The price of flour increased from 25,000 rials to nearly 170,000 rials a kilo, and the cost of medicine has increased tenfold.

Covert and overt subsidies to the Iranian economy should be eliminated in line with production, investment, and income growth. Production is so dependent on the outside world that tuna fish doubles in price as the dollar exchange rate rises, the state-run Mostaghel daily wrote on May 10.

So why did Raisi do this?

According to the state-run Eghtesad-e Ayandeh daily on May 14, Raisis government would earn roughly $8 billion by removing the preferential rate and setting a much higher currency rate. Irans ruling theocracy needs every penny to fuel its warmongering and terrorism machine and use it as leverage in its talks with world powers.

Besides, Raisis government earns billions of dollars as the prices of consumer goods continue to increase. Raisi removes the preferential rate simply because his government wants to benefit from five quadrillion rials [nearly $17 billion] price difference in consumer goods. The claim of spending money for people is a bitter joke, Mostaghel daily acknowledged on May 10.

According to state-run Jahan-e Sanat, on May 14, in four days, Raisis government took three quadrillion rials from peoples pocket which caused unprecedented price hikes.

The sudden increase in prices was followed by the recent protests. Raisis government promised to give four million rials worth of subsidies to Iranians for two months to calm the society. But as the prices of consumer goods continue to rise, this amount of money would in no way help Iranians make a living.

Besides, even if the regime gave four million rials to Iranians in terms of subsidies, inflation would further increase, leaving Iranians with nothing to acquire their basic needs.

Raisi refuses to say that if the government does not have enough currency, how could he afford to pay the subsidies other than continuing to print banknotes, thus increasing inflation?

According to the latest monetary statistics of the Central Bank, the volume of liquidity with a growth of 39% at the end of last year has reached 4.8 quadrillion rials. In other words, during the past year, 1.3 quadrillion rials worth of liquidity has been created. The monetary base also grew by 31.4% last year, the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily acknowledged on May 10.

This increase in prices is so great that subsidies will not be able to cover them. People have not used this money, but they see new prices, forcing them to buy chicken, eggs, oil, and dairy at higher prices, the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily acknowledged on May 12.

Hossain Raghfar, one of the regimes economists, called this plan A new episode of plundering in Iranian economy that government conducts to compensate for the budget deficit.

Yet, Raisis government has so far failed to deceive the public. On May 15, the state-run IMNA news agency quoted Hojjat Abdolmaleki, Raisis Minister of Labor, as saying, There have been more than one million cases of protests in just four days since the so-called subsidies modification plan was implemented.

Raisis economic surgery would kill Irans sick economy, according to MP Moinoldin Saadi, as quoted by state-run ILNA on May 14.

Raisi is indeed bereft of any solution for Irans financial crises. The sole task of the hanging judge is to control Irans society through oppression and to further squander the national wealth on terrorism, missile, and nuclear projects to preserve the moribund regime. His recent economic surgery and increasing oppression attest to this fact.

But the ongoing and expanding protests leave one question: Could these maneuvers save Raisi and the ruling theocracy?

Excerpt from:

Irans Ongoing Protests and Raisis Economic Surgery - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

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The planned commission will address the realities of racism, class bias and misogyny experienced by Indigenous women that lead to miscarriages of justice, the justice minister said

Author of the article:

The Canadian Press

Erika Ibrahim

Publishing date:

OTTAWA Justice Minister David Lametti says Ottawa is weighing options for the design of a commission to review possible wrongful convictions, adding he is committed to getting the new body in place.

Lametti said Monday while he cannot give an absolute timeline as to when the commission will be formed, its critical to get this right.

I can assure you that this will happen, and were moving forward, Lametti said at a news conference concerning Indigenous residential schools.

The planned review commission will address the realities of racism, class bias and misogyny experienced by Indigenous women that lead to miscarriages of justice, he said.

A new report Monday from a group of senators called on the federal government to make changes to the conviction review process that would better reflect the challenges faced by Indigenous women.

The report by senators Margaret Dawn Anderson, Yvonne Boyer and Kim Pate advocates an approach that would recognize the oppression experienced by Indigenous women in the criminal legal system.

The report details the experiences of 12 Indigenous women, saying they were criminalized for trying to survive and navigate marginalization in society.

It calls on the government to review the cases for possible miscarriages of justice.

Lametti said these women have access to the conviction review process currently in place within the Justice Department.

He said he knows that two of the women cited in the report are already in that process.

The recent death of David Milgaard, the victim of one of Canadas most notorious miscarriages of justice, has put renewed attention on Lamettis plan to create an independent criminal case review commission.

I was profoundly saddened by the fact that he would not live to see this, Lametti said.

More here:

Federal government 'moving forward' on commission to examine possible wrongful convictions: Lametti - National Post

The streets of Wuhan, China were all but empty during the early days.

A mysterious virus had swept through the city of 11 million, prompting authorities to impose a lockdown.

As many residents longed to leave what would become a 76-day ordeal, Murong Xuecun was arriving to stay.

It was April 2020, and the celebrated Chinese writer could enter but not leave the city that became synonymous with the origin of COVID-19.

At the time, cellphone footage had offered the only real glimpse of what life in Wuhan was like. Yet the origin of the COVID-19, destined to kill millions of people around the globe, was starting to generate conspiracy theories, and Chinas handling of it was increasingly under international scrutiny.

Against this backdrop, the writer, once a regular New York Times opinion contributor, decided to make the trip to document what was happening in Wuhan as COVID-19 emerged. He believed, he says, that the government would try to hide the truth.

Two years later, Murong has released Deadly Quiet City, an in-depth and personal account of the grief and sorrow Wuhan residents endured that also paints a picture of the corruption and ruthlessness employed by government officials desperate to appear in control of the outbreak.

People died silently, he writes in the books foreword.

They wailed plaintively for food and medicine, but hardly anyone on the outside heard them. No one knew what the millions of inmates were going through and how they lived inside this catastrophe.

Murong says he wants the world to know how the people of Wuhan suffered at the hands of their own government. Upon his arrival in 2020, the toll was obvious, he recalled.

The city was dead, its residents ordered to stay home amidst a lockdown so strict it was difficult to get food or access health care. People feared jail or being taken into quarantine if caught on the streets.

The streets looked very empty. Many times, there was only me walking on the entire street, he told the Star through a translator. In some business areas, people started to appear, and most of them were youth. Everyone was wearing a mask. What struck me most was, there were almost no smiles on their faces.

Murong, whose real name is Hao Qun (Murong Xuecun is a pen name), wrote the book while hiding in a small village in the mountains of Sichuan province. He went there upon leaving Wuhan after, he says, received a menacing phone call from authorities.

He sent the chapters in English to a contact in Australia who translated them. They were then edited by Clive Hamilton, an Australian academic and author of the book The Hidden Hand: Exposing how the Chinese Communist Party is reshaping the world.

Tales of grief, loss and a city whose residents feel abandoned by their country fill Murongs pages.

A doctor, aware of others being accused by authorities of spreading rumours, tells of purposely misspelling words to spread warnings of the infection without being detected by government censors. All the while, officials were under-reporting the number of deaths.

In another chapter, a schoolteacher recalls classes being mysteriously cancelled for influenza in late 2019 and details his own sly escape from Wuhan, evading police roadblocks to visit his father in a nursing home.

The purpose of writing this book, is to provide a channel for the people in Wuhan to spread their voice, and let their sufferings be known, Murong says. At the time, the true voice of the Wuhan people couldnt be heard because of the government propaganda and censorship.

Deadly Quiet City was released March in Australia and U.K.; a Chinese version of the book is still in the works and a North American release is expected next year. Murong himself is now in Australia, and says he is unable to return to China safely.

Hamilton says the book is of extraordinary literary quality, detailing the suffering of the citys residents at the time and the effects of government oppression.

I think what Murong is showing us is just how cruel and brutal the Chinese Communist Party system can be, he says. The most fascinating insight to emerge from working on the book is the way with which Chinese people find ways around and through the repressive and cruel system.

It also tells the tale of Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist Murong befriended who rose to international fame when she began exposing government actions in Wuhan. She was arrested eight days after Murong left.

Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison for picking quarrels and provoking trouble, according to Amnesty International. In protest, she started a hunger strike.

Hamilton says few people in the West understand the true ruthlessness of the Chinese regime and that many will likely be shocked at what people in Wuhan endured.

Now Murong says he fears the current lockdowns in China across more than 40 cities, by some estimates, most notably Shanghai have little to do with health concerns and more to do with asserting control at an uneasy time.

The countrys economy is slowing down and the government has stayed devoted to a COVID-zero policy employed more effectively against less contagious variants in the past.

Shanghai, Chinas largest city and its business hub, began a lockdown in March, leaving residents isolated and afraid. Though restrictions were beginning to ease last week, on Monday authorities showed signs of tightening them once again as the Communists push to reach their COVID-zero targets.

Public demonstrations against the lockdowns have even manifested, highlighting tensions between the public and Chinese Communist Party.

The tragedy in Shanghai indicates that the Chinese government is taking advantage of the lockdown experience in Wuhan and amplifying it to implement a tougher and crueler control over the country, he said.

Residents in Beijing are also anticipating a full lockdown in the capital city, which is now under a partial one.

Murong said hes been following the lockdown in Shanghai and thinks its effects are worse than the one endured by residents in Wuhan in 2020.

One example, he said, is the lack of access to food for residents in Shanghai. It appears the government never bothered to examine the logistics of providing food for some 25 million people in the citys lockdown, he suggested.

In Australia, Murong is far away from the lockdowns and he may never see his home country again. But, he said, it was the risk he knew he was taking the day he set out to Wuhan.

On the day I decided to go to Wuhan, I knew the journey would be full of danger and hardship, he said, recalling the day he sent his last chapter to his contact in Australia.

He told the contact, no matter what happens to me, this book must be published.

With files from The Associated Press

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Inside Wuhans lockdown: This author is telling stories from Chinas Deadly Quiet City in the early days of COVID-19 - Toronto Star

Natan Sharansky has called on Israel to condemn Russias invasion of Ukraine and help support Ukraines democratic regime despite the possibility that Putin might retaliate by limiting Israels freedom to attack Hizballah targets in Syria.

It is now time for Israel to back the Sudanese peoples pro-democracy non-violent revolution. Unlike the situation with Russia, Israel has nothing to lose in supporting Sudans democratic forces over Sudans military rulers.

Since first coming to power in April 2019, Abdel Fattah Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hameti), the architects of the military coup that toppled the Bachir regime, have shown that they will not willingly give up power and privileges gained during the Bachir regime.

Shortly after the coup, tens of thousands of Sudanese joined a sit-in rejecting military rule in front of the armys central headquarters in Khartoum. The protestors reflected the popularity, diversity, and inclusiveness of the pro-democracy movement and encompassed: women and youth heading local resistance committees in every region of the country; railway workers: doctors, lawyers, scientists, and university professors decrying deficiencies in public, health, education and legal services; farmers angry at the expropriation of their land; imams preaching religious freedom; rebel groups and African civilian populations in besieged villages and IDP camps; artists, poets, and musicians; and brave journalists fighting censorship, exposing corruption and documenting human right violations.

The pro-democracy resistance movement enjoys the support of approximately 80% of Sudans citizens who are calling for an end to racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination, and oppression of women. We are Darfur has become a popular slogan.

On June 3, 2019, Burhan gave orders to dispel the sit-in demanding an end to military rule. Hametis Rapid Support Forces (RSP) led the onslaught firing on unarmed protesters, killing, and wounding hundreds, beating, and arresting protestors and bystanders, raping women, and destroying facilities set up to provide food, shelter, and medical treatment to the peaceful sit-in participants.

Though breaking up the sit-ins, the June 3 massacre failed to crush the peoples pro-democracy resistance. Over the next two months, mass demonstrations continued throughout the country. In response to international pressure, Burhan and Hameti promised to share power with a civilian government in August 2021and to transfer full powers to a civilian government in November 2021.

During the designated interim period, the coup leaders retained full control over the security services and used their power to block implementation of reforms initiated by the civilian government. This enabled them to thwart efforts to end military control of key economic sectors and prosecute the perpetrators of the June 3 massacre. The Sudanese army and RSF also failed to protect African civilian populations in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains against vicious attacks by Arab militias close to Hameti.

On October 25, 2021, Burhan and Hameti launched a second coup to prevent the promised transfer of power to a civilian government. After dissolving the civilian government and placing the prime minister under house arrest, they shut down social media, jailed and tortured protest leaders and journalists and used beatings, teargas, firearms, and heavy weapons to break up almost daily mass demonstrations.

Within Sudan, the military regime offered prominent government posts to gain the support of opportunistic politicians and marginal rebel leaders in legitimizing military rule and control over the transition to civilian government. To bolster their control over government, the coup leaders set free jailed Islamists and National Congress Party officials linked to the Bachir regime to replace government officials appointed by the civilian government. At the same time, they ended he contracts of thousands of younger military officers deemed sympathetic to the peoples non-violent revolution.

In calling for national elections to include participation of all political forces within the country (including political parties and organizations aligned with the Bachir regime) the military regime claims that its commitment to a democratic transition is real. However, retention of military control over the electoral process will ensure rigged elections and result in the restoration and legitimization of a despotic, corrupt, and incompetent Bachir-like regime without Bachir.

Bolstered by political and military support from Russia, China, and Egypt, and financial backing from Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Burhan and Hameti defiantly refuse to transfer political power to any civilian government not under their control.

Russia provides arms, political support, and advice concerning how to crush Sudans democratic opposition. Like Bachir, Sudans military rulers continue to count heavily on Russia as its strongest ally to protect them from international sanctions and pressures. As a reward, they offer permission for Russia to establish a naval base in Sudan. While in Russia on a diplomatic mission, Hameti shamelessly parroted Putins rationale for Russias invasion as wholly justified.

The Israeli government is mistaken in supporting Sudans military rulers and its claims to be the only force strong enough to bring about peace and stability in Sudan and the region. On the contrary, since taking power in April 2019 coup, Sudans rulers have been a major cause of the regions violence, instability, and the growing misery of the Sudanese people. The military regime has failed to make peace or protect besieged civilian populations in IDP camps. Since the coup, the level of violence has sharply increased as heavily armed Arab militia allied with the regime have been encouraged to attack non-Arab civilian populations in Darfur and the Nuba mountains with impunity. Since the coup, the UN reports that the number of Sudanese citizens requiring humanitarian aid has doubled from eight to sixteen million people.

The Israeli government is also short-sighted in seeing normalization with a despotic, corrupt, and incompetent African military regime as a strategic asset. Rather than welcoming recognition and closer diplomatic relations from Sudans coup leaders, Israel should be embarrassed by their embrace. Continued political support to Sudans coup leaders and their increasingly brutal repression of Sudans non-violent revolution will discredit Israels moral standing not only in Sudan but elsewhere in Africa where progressive forces are emerging to oppose corrupt and autocratic regimes.

Israel needs to change course and back Sudans pro-democracy forces over a military regime aligned with and emulating Putins methods. The United States Congress has overwhelmingly just passed a resolution urging the Biden administration to impose strong targeted sanctions on Sudans military rulers and to marshal support from other democratic countries to force Sudans military to return to the barracks and transfer power to a civilian government supported by the Sudanese people. Israel has little to lose and much to gain by aligning its policy in Sudan with our most powerful ally.

Nathan Sharansky has urged Israel to support Ukraine as part of the battle to defend freedom and democracy in the world. We in Israel should also be urging our government to defend freedom and democracy in Sudan as well.

Sheldon Gellar is a Jerusalem-based Africanist scholar and international democracy and development consultant. His work is based on research and lessons learned from living in five different cultures, Metropolitan New York, the American Mid-West, France, Africa, and Israel.

More:

Israel's short-sighted support for Sudan's military coup leaders - The Times of Israel

This week, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will be kicking off their three-day visit to Canada with a focus on climate change and learning from the Indigenous peoples in Canada. Apparently theyll begin the blatant PR stunt with a stop in St. Johns, before heading to Ottawa the next day and spending their last day in Yellowknife.

Are you still reading? If so, congratulations! My own brain would have flatlined at Prince Charles.

Strange how the institution that perpetuated the colonization of Indigenous land to form Canada and the exploitation of people and resources for their Dickensian industrial revolution would declare their trip to be about education on these two problems. But the intention is perhaps to evoke some sort of half-hearted atonement. The problem with that though is that even if the reasons were seen as legitimate, we dont care.

The fascination in this country with the British Royal Family has fallen off steeply in recent years. Probably something to do with the sexual assault allegations against Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan Markles interview with Oprah alleging racist behaviour within the family, or a long history of ignoring racism. Maybe Canadians finally realized the whole colonize the world thing may have been a bad thing, though this is probably wishful thinking.

In December, Angus Reid found 52 per cent of Canadians support the abolishment of this countrys constitutional monarchy at some point in the future. The survey also found, for some reason, there was still majority support for recognizing Queen Elizabeth II as head of state for as long as she reigns.

And while the jokes about her being dead have become increasingly funny, shes still alive and well and the reigning British monarch.

Prince Charles and Camilla will be in Canada this week for a Royal tour to mark Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee.

Canadians are at the point where even misplaced trust in the previously beloved Queen is waning. Were just tolerating her out of some sort of unquestioning, deeply ingrained respect. But since admiration of even the matriarchal monarch is fading, that prompts the question: why do we care that Charles is visiting, again? Did we suddenly wake up in 1970?

Over the past two years, incredible societal changes have occurred before our eyes. Unprecedented global protest movements have taken to the streets, Western reckonings with the faults in liberal democracy have become undeniable, the creeping movements of fascism have become stronger by the day, and the harrowing antics of Jared Leto as Michael Morbius still haunt my dreams. Meanwhile, the royal family has been repeatedly embarrassing itself, and now wants to pop in for a spell like its the annoying uncle your parents were obliged to invite to the family reunion. For the fiftieth time, Uncle Chuck, I dont want to look at the commendations you received for beating up striking miners in the 80s.

Are Canada and the British Royal Family attached at the hip? The answer is, unfortunately, a definitive yes.

Canadas independence as a nation is mostly one built out of precedence. Our constitutional monarchy has a degree of autonomy, true, but executive authority is vested formally in the Queen through the Constitution. The only legal way that the Canadian state is enforced is through the authority of the monarchy.

Yep.

As the House Of Commons explains, Approval by the Governor General or another designated representative of the Crown is required for a bill to become law once it has been passed by both Houses in identical form. It may just be a formality, and Canada does have a large degree of autonomy, but commonwealth nations have exploited the technicality in the past. Now, does this mean Canada is a useless entity devoid of any integrity? Yes. Not for that reason, though.

In addition, Canada was largely created through the Doctrine of Discovery, a Vatican law that gave Christian European settlers authority to claim land under their respective crowns. It was also used to claim that, at the most, Indigenous people did not have the right to the land, just its occupation and use.

Theyll learn all about their own history in the three days theyre here. Youll see.

So should we abolish the monarchy? Should we decolonize? Should we give the land back? Is Canada even real? To answer these questions in order: Yes, hell yes, of course, and yes but only if you count a loose jumble of mining corporations as a country. More specifically, getting rid of the monarchy isnt impossible. Barbados officially ditched the royals and became a republic in November. Jamaica is poised to follow suit.

But while monarchies are inherently undemocratic and reactionary, abolishing their role in the Canadian context isnt so easy.

If Canada were to move towards abolishing the British monarchy, the government would need to have the prime minister and their cabinet approve a national referendum, pass that referendum, then amend the Constitution Act of 1867, and the Constitution Act of 1982, then choose its new system of government. What would it look like? Same system but the prime minister is head of state? Prime minister and a president? Install Bonhomme as ultimate dictator? Adopt the U.S. system? This is a conversation worth having, but one that would probably get drowned out by other, more pressing, conversations, like whether or not the Queen is dead.

Even if this were all to happen, treaties with Indigenous peoples on this land are signed between nations and the British Crown. While there has been debate on what effect this would have on the treaties between nations, a compelling argument was made by law student Aidan Simardone that international law would transfer responsibility from the Crown to the Canadian state. While this is a reassuring argument for abolishing the monarchy, considering the genocidal treatment of Indigenous peoples by the Canadian settler-colonial state, the decision should be made in tandem with Indigenous nations.

As it stands now, Canada is inextricably linked to the British Royal Family. But were finally beginning to learn what a lot of modern countries have learned for themselves: Monarchies with complete, de facto authority are not good. What Canadas monarchy lacks in direct oppression, it makes up for in apathetic disdain.

While our options for getting out of the monarchy arent easily solved, they should be explored alongside Indigenous nations who signed treaties with the Crown.

Im curious as to what, exactly, Prince Charles hopes to learn during his visit. Why does a man who sits on a jewel-encrusted gold throne while talking about a cost-of-living crisis not know about the factors behind Indigenous oppression? The only way this visit should be taken seriously is if, for the entirety of the trip, Charles would wear a hot dog suit and exclaim that hes there to find out who did this. Otherwise, we should treat this visit for what it is: silly and not worth our time.

More here:

The Royal family tour: a begrudging reminder that Canada's stuck with the monarchy | Ricochet - Ricochet Media

As the definition goes, a welfare state is a concept of government in which the state or a well-established network of social institutions plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of citizens. And as per Mariam Webster; the national interest of a nation as a whole held to be an independent entity separate from the interests of subordinate areas or groups and also of other nations or supranational groups.

Examples include territorial integrity, national independence, state sovereignty, and the ability to pursue economic development. National interests are pursued by a state over a long period of time and include interests like ecological balance, the military force, the economy and industrial modernisation.

The meaning of national interest is survivalthe protection of physical, political and cultural identity against encroachments by other nation-states. Morgenthau.

Pakistan is a democratic country as per its constitution. Political parties are the pillars of democracypopular leaders are elected as rulers. Leaders are elected to serve the peoplethose who want to be elected must serve betterparties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. As a matter of fact, a political party brings together people with the same political ideas. By taking part in an election, parties hope to get as many of their members as possible and get legitimacy to govern for a given period of time. During the same period the opposition party acts as a *check and balance* on the ruling elite to ensure it works for the betterment of the public. That means the opposition is, in the practical sense, a part of the system and has responsibilities.

A state cannot be stable as long as its economy is not stable. Therefore, the economy and economic policies have to be a constant factor, like the defence of the country, for all political parties of our country. A sustainable economy needs long-term policies, not only in the conceptual domain but more so in the practical domain.

It is, therefore, in the interest of all political parties, to now politicise economic policies. Whoever gets to lead the government after every election, should inherit a healthy economy. Public interest has to be given preference. A public scheme launched by a government often becomes controversial for the next government if its from another party. Long-term projects especially suffer for one reason or the other, primarily due to the interests of political parties over public interests. The construction of dams, hospitals, stadiums, communication infrastructures etc are a few examples to quote. A race to inaugurate and take credit for some project is always counterproductive and damaging, like what happened in WAPDA a few years back. Efforts must be acknowledged and lauded regardless of who is the beneficiary. An example is the establishment of Rescue 1122.

One simple way to define the economy: Its the way people spend money and the way people make money. An economy can be big or small. The word can refer to a local economy, such as the way people spend and make money in a small town or larger city. Its primarily the role of the sitting government (opposition included, as stated in the above paras), to ensure a reasonable standard of living (if not good) for the public.

Factors that determine a standard of living include:

Income

Physical health

Quality of the environment

Housing availability

Life expectancy

Personal safety

Access to education

Medical facilities

Social services

Factors that can contribute to low living standards include:

Lack of adequate industry in a particular area,

Lack of jobs,

Insufficient health care services,

Lack of public transportation,

Lack of food or water,

Government oppression,

and many more

Having a low living standard limits a persons ability to participate in the wider society, curtails their quality of life, and can have negative long-term consequences across a wide range of social and economic outcomes. It also adversely affects human behaviour, conduct and discipline. It contributes to negativity, lawlessness, depression and even violence.

Pakistan is blessed with huge resources both in terms of men as well as material. It has a history of facing international payment crises many times amid the depletion of Foreign Exchange Reserves. However, the positive side is, it has never defaulted on payments throughout its history. Our exports have been far low in comparison with imports, which puts a huge pressure on our reserves. However, remittances from expats have been playing a crucial role along with inflows through various schemes.

Recently, foreign currency inflows on account of Roshan Digital Accounts (RDAs) from overseas Pakistanis have continued to rise. These surpassed $4 billion in April 2022, despite global political and economic instabilities, more so in Pakistan. Inflows are a huge support towards stabilising the countrys foreign exchange reserves. Without these, our foreign exchange reserves would have decreased to a critical level. Inflows through RDAs are in addition to huge monthly workers remittances by overseas Pakistanis. That has helped to finance elevated trade and current account deficits. They sent a record high $2.81 billion in workers remittances in a single month of April 2022. The estimated amount is around $ 30-31 billion in the current fiscal year 2021-22.

Pakistan is yet to take full advantage of Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) status which is ending in December 2023. The objective of that status was trade diversification but we are still heavily relying on textile only. Other sectors like agriculture, fruits especially citrus (like kinnnows), leather, halal meat, jewellery and horticulture sector, despite fulfilling EUs requirements, were not able to capture EU markets. Our relevant ministries as well as foreign missions didnt work well on that front. Exports to the EU, dominated by textile and clothing, accounted for 75.2 percent of Pakistans total exports to the EU in 2020. Needless to say, for sustainable growth, our country needs to diversify exports. Sectors like IT have a massive potential that the government must explore.

The present government is a coalition of a number of parties, fearing backlash of unpopular (but much needed decisions including some which need continuation from the former government on merit) economic decisions. Unfortunately, there is no luxury of time. Forex reserves are decreasing. There is no respite to global commodity prices, except oil going down 5 percent due covid in China, which is the biggest user of it. Timely action is needed. Traditional supporters of Pakistan have made it clear that there would be no support without bringing the IMF on board. The World Bank and ADB always wait for the IMFs nod in low SBP forex reserves. Even the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is not ready to help without the IMF.

After the next elections, all parties making to the legislature should sit to decide on sustainable economic policies for the country with a professional team and without doing politics on that. It would bring not only prosperity but also enhance the respect of all politicians in the eyes of the general public, which has deteriorated at a very fast pace during the last four decades or so.

The writer is a freelance columnist.

Pakistan is yet to take full advantage of Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) status.

View original post here:

Challenges and opportunities - The Nation

May 16, 2022

WARSAW, POLAND Today, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen visited the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Museum showcases the important history of Jews in Poland over the past thousand years and stands directly across from the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, which commemorates the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Secretary Yellen delivered remarks and laid a wreath at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.

Remarks As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you for being here with me today. Im honored to be at this important site. This museum not only bears witness to one of humanitys darkest chapters but also celebrates hundreds of years of vibrant Polish Jewish culture.

Being here today is personal to me. My fathers family immigrated to the United States from Sokow Podlaski, just over 50 miles from where we stand now.

The town to which I trace my roots has a tragic yet familiar history. During the Holocaust, nearly the entire Jewish population, including much of my family, was deported or murdered. The Nazis destroyed the towns cultural landmarks, and the Jewish cemetery was vandalized. Today, Sokow Podlaskis Jewish community is a fraction of what it once was.

Yet, the region where my relatives lived was also home to resistance. Eastern Poland was a hub for groups like the Polish resistance movement, a brave opposition who in the face of insurmountable odds and almost unthinkable risk stood up to evil. As this museum reminds us, the story of the Jews in Poland is not just one of tragedy; it is a story of bravery and perseverance.

That is part of the legacy I am here today to honor: taking action to confront evil. And it is a legacy that is also at the core of the Treasury Department.

In the spring of 1940, a time when the United States still held an official position of neutrality in World War II, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau persuaded President Roosevelt to sign an Executive Order freezing the assets of Denmark and Norway. The Order made it impossible for the Nazis to capture overseas assets of countries that they were invading. With this, Morgenthau launched what he called the unseen front of the war, a critical but largely unrecognized set of economic actions that damaged the Nazis ability to fund their encroachment into other nations.

And, in the face of resistance from other arms of government, Morgenthau also convinced Roosevelt to establish the War Refugee Board. The Board worked to rescue Jews from occupied territories and provide relief to those in hiding and in concentration camps, ultimately saving tens of thousands of lives.

The lesson of Morgenthaus decisive actions is the lesson of Sokow Podlaski and the lesson of many exhibits in this museum: We must use the tools at our disposal to fight oppression. And that lesson must be applied today.

A few hundred miles to our East lies another place where people are bravely fighting for their freedom. My thoughts continue to be with the people of Ukraine as they fight back against Putins brutal invasion into their homeland.

Putins ongoing attacks on Ukraine require that we think about what we can do to confront brutality. Almost three months into this unjustified war, the Polish people have been the model of stepping up to help in a time of need. Your country has rolled out the welcome mat, taking in over three million Ukrainian refugees.

We at Treasury are also doing what we can to ensure that Putins brutal war is met with fierce resistance internationally. The United States and more than 30 of our partners have imposed unprecedented financial pressure measures on the Russian Federation and its leadership. We are firm in our resolve to hold Russia accountable and to strengthen the hand of the Ukrainian people at every turn.

This moment calls for us to step up and do our part. Im grateful to those who have introduced me to this moving museum, and Ill continue to take these lessons of the past with me as we work toward a better future. Thank you very much.

By U.S. Mission Poland | 17 May, 2022 | Topics: Events, News

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Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen Delivers Remarks at the POLIN Museum in Warsaw, Poland - US Embassy and Consulate in Poland

Photo: Getty (Getty Images)

Across the country, Republican governors are champing at the bit to end abortion rights in their states once Roe v. Wade falls. And in Oklahoma, the state with the second highest population of Indigenous people, Gov. Kevin Stitt is taking this crusade a step furtherthreatening tribes that continue to offer abortion care on their sovereign land.

Oklahomans will not think very well of that if tribes try to set up abortion clinics, Stitt said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. They think that you can be 1/1,000th tribal member and not have to follow the state law.

In fact, as Rachael Lorenzo, executive director of Indigenous Women Rising, has told Jezebel, abortion has always existed in Indigenous communities. We were already raising our families the best ways we knew how, and we knew based on the circumstances we were inthrough famine, drought, whether it was time for migrationwhen it was not time to expand our family, they said. It was just since 1492 since Columbus and his dumb ass arrived at this part of the world, that was the beginning of the removal of our bodily autonomy.

Gov. Stitt clearly did not get the memo that Indigenous communities and tribal governments transcend the two-party system and are older than the US, Lorenzo told me in a second interview this week. You know, the tribes in Oklahoma are super liberal. They go to Washington, D.C. They talk to President Biden at the White House, Stitt told Fox.

Stitt has notably signed a total abortion ban in Oklahoma that would go into effect when Roe is reversed, on top of a Texas-style, six-week ban, enforced by citizen surveillance and costly civil lawsuits. That Stitt has now all but declared a notably very illegal war on the political and bodily autonomy of Native American people is jarring, but not surprising. The bodies and reproductive decisions of Indigenous people have always been policed by the U.S. as part of this countrys enduring, indelible legacy of colonialism and white supremacy.

Throughout the 20th century, at the height of the eugenics movement, Indigenous people were disproportionately targeted with forced sterilization efforts by the US government. Prior to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, nearly 25 percent of Native American youth were separated from their families and placed in the custody of the state or in foster care, as a transparent extension of the United States decades-long attempts at cultural genocide through kidnapping and violently forcing assimilation onto Indigenous children.

Today, this violence persists through the extensive policing of Native American women and pregnant people for their pregnancy outcomes. Last October, Brittney Poolaw, a 21-year-old Oklahoma woman and member of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter after losing a pregnancy in her second trimester, allegedly due to substance use, and was sentenced to four years in prison. Her conviction came just a few years after Oklahomas attorney general announced heightened measures to prosecute pregnant people who are alleged to have used criminalized drugs, resulting in the disproportionate targeting of Indigenous communities. These measures were to be enforced by weaponizing felony child neglect and fetal homicide laws, which were designed to protect pregnant people from domestic violencenot punish them for pregnancy loss.

Abortion bans and pregnancy criminalization are essentially modern forms of colonization, Lorenzo tells Jezebel, and Stitts threats to subject sovereign Indigenous communities to his laws of forced birth are entirely illegal. But some liberal reproductive rights advocates responses to Gov. Stitts threatsnamely, calling for tribal land to become abortion havens for non-Indigenous peoplehave also prompted IWR to warn against white and non-Indigenous Americans turning to Indigenous communities to save them. Our lands are not just places to skirt laws, Lorenzo said. I get how well-meaning people are desperate to protect access, but were failing to acknowledge whether or not tribes have the power and resources to be sued. Lorenzo added that opening tribal land to non-Indigenous people for abortion access is something tribes should talk about internally as sovereign nations.

They also note that there are a number of risks involved with increased presence of non-Indigenous people on tribal land. One of the factors that contributes to the many, many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is that many of our abusers and predators are non-Native people, who know and take advantage of how tribes often dont have the legal standing to charge them or to prosecute them.

Then, of course, there are cultural differences that are disrespected when non-Indigenous reproductive rights advocates try to use tribal land as a quick fix for abortion access. We have a saying colloquially, of Indian time, which means it happens when it happens, and when it happens, thats when its supposed to happen, Lorenzo said. In western culture, theres such emphasis on urgency and needing a quick solution, which is just not how Native communities operate. Our land isnt just a place to avoid laws without taking into consideration that individual Indigenous communitys views about justice, connection to land, birth, death, health of pregnant people.

Lorenzo is right: Indigenous communities cant be subjected to greater state surveillance, persecution, and criminalization so that non-Indigenous people can come to their land to get abortion care. Due to a lack of economic investments in tribal land, as well as the Hyde Amendment, which bans the Indian Health Services from funding most abortion services, access to tribal health care including abortion has long been severely strained. Yet, until right about now, white and non-Indigenous advocates have long erased or de-centered Indigenous people in mainstream reproductive rights activism.

Stitts threats against Indigenous abortion access are a harrowing reminder of who is most impacted by state reproductive oppression. Its clear Stitt willfully knows abortion is one way to limit tribes sovereignty altogether, and considering about half of Oklahoma is tribal land, theres a lot at stake, Lorenzo said. Simultaneously, the sudden centering of tribal land in the fight for abortion access is also a reminder of the shortcomings of white, non-Indigenous-led reproductive rights activism, and the importance of following the leadership of Indigenous activists and pregnant people.

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Tribal Land Is Suddenly at the Center of the Fight for Abortion Access - Jezebel

Ada: Has anyone ever said no?

Sustin: About what, being joined? Is that why youre so quiet? Its a womans job to have babies, you gotta be joined to do that.

Ada: Is that all Im good for?

Sustin: Its an amazing thing bearing babies, something no man will ever get to do. Once Bodey gives you a little one, youll be beside yourself youll see.

Ada: What if I cant?

Sustin: Pitll make it right, it always does.

Ada: Has the pit ever taken a baby?

Sustin: Yeah, sure has.

Those that viewed Chad Crawford Kinkles debut feature-length film Jug Face when it was released in 2013 probably cant recall all of the details about the indie horror movie, but are sure to remember how it made them feel. The premise alone is enough to elicit a myriad of reactions.

An impoverished and isolated backwoods community worships a mystical pit that has healed them in times of sickness and injury for hundreds of years. The catch is they must periodically sacrifice their own members to keep the pit satisfied. The unlucky martyrs identities are revealed through visions seen by the local potter, who then sculpts their likeness onto a ceramic jug made from clay extracted from the pit itself. The jug face is then presented to the community and they all gather at the pit for a sacrificial ceremony. The chosen ones throat is slashed and their blood drains into the ground, feeding the pits thirst for lifeblood and satisfying it for the time being.

Teenager Ada, who discovers that she is pregnant due to an incestuous relationship with her brother, is chosen to be the next jug face. Unwilling to go happily to the chopping block, she hides her jug face from the others which causes the pit to enact its revenge by killing off members of the community until it gets what it wants: Ada and her unborn child.

This may sound like a tale from a bygone era, but Kinkle chose to set it in the present, and by doing so he highlights societal issues that are still evident in America today. Over eight years after Jug Faces release, its themes of religious fervor, conception through incest, and control over bodily autonomy lamentably resonate with millions of Americans in the passing of Senate Bill 8.

Senate Bill 8, otherwise known as The Texas Heartbeat Act, went into effect in September of 2021. It is one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, prohibiting abortions after a heartbeat is detected, which is about six weeks into pregnancy, and before most people are even aware that they are pregnant. The legal specifics of the law are dense and complicated. But we do know that no exceptions are made for cases of fetal anomaly diagnoses, rape, sexual abuse, or incest. Those who aid and abet in the commission of an abortion are liable to be sued by, well, any private citizen.

On October 6th, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman temporarily blocked S.B. 8, stating, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution. Two days later, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay on Judge Roberts ruling, effectively allowing S.B. 8 to be enforced. In response, Planned Parenthood, a leading nonprofit organization that provides sexual healthcare in the United States and globally, stated:

This is a major loss for Texas patients and abortion providers, who have navigated the laws devastating effects on abortion access for over a month now. In putting S.B. 8 back in effect, the Fifth Circuit has again disregarded half a century of precedent upholding the constitutional right to abortion. On Wednesday, October 6, a federal district court in Austin granted the DOJs request to block the law. The State of Texas immediately appealed to the Fifth Circuit and today asked that court to stay the district courts order which it did only hours later, putting S.B. 8 back in effect and continuing to deprive Texans of constitutionally protected health care.

This may sound like something from a horror movie. But we live in a terrifying reality where the bodies of people assigned female at birth (AFAB) are regulated by the government, though this is anything but new. We see this chillingly depicted in Jug Face, as our protagonist Adas sex life and reproductive health are constantly commented on and controlled by those around her. It is the business of her family as well as the concern of the community at large. Not only do they view the concept of a womans virginity as a measure of her integrity, but it is also used as a bargaining chip. Its a metaphorical dowry for her family to leverage into an arranged marriage with one of the (few) eligible bachelors in the community.

When she learns that her family has arranged for her to join [marry] a boy named Bodey, she comments, Should have seen it coming, not like theres anyone else who could have asked. Any sort of agency is completely denied to Ada. No one ever asks if she wants to marry Bodey, or what she wants for her life and future in general, for that matter. She is simply expected to do what she is told to maintain the communitys status quo: stay abstinent until it is time to join a man who is chosen for you, bear his children, and worship the pit. Every aspect of Adas life is controlled by her parents, and when she is married that control is transferred to her husband. At no point in her life is she allowed to have any kind of personal freedom; she is fundamentally prohibited from autonomy of any kind. This is explicitly illustrated in the film when Ada is talking to her mother, Loriss, and says, I do what I want. Loriss angrily replies, You will do what Bodey tells you to! Now thats the way it is, you best get used to it.

With the passing of S.B. 8 into law, and the recent leaked draft from the Supreme Court, we as a country are reminded that the long-standing American tradition of cisgender men determining what AFAB people can and cannot do with their own bodiesand in doing so completely stripping them of bodily autonomyis far from over. Whats even scarier is that religion plays an integral role in the creation of restrictive abortion bans like S.B. 8.

In Jug Face, the basis for the communitys entire structure and way of life is the pit. It is a divine force, healing when placated and vengeful when unsatisfied. They pray to it, swear on it, and submit to its whims without question. Those, like Ada, who choose to disobey it are made to atone for their misdeeds. Just as the community allows the pit to dictate their beliefs, thoughts, and actions, so does Christianity dictate the beliefs, thoughts, and actions of millions of Americans, some of which hold positions of great power and authority in the United States government.

As he signed the bill into law, Texas Governor Greg Abbott stated, Our creator endowed us with the right to life, and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year. His choice of words invoking the Christian God is not accidental. It confirms that personal religious views absolutely played a critical part in the creation of S.B. 8. Christian churches, businesses, and organizations consistently condemn abortion and have actively opposed entities that support and provide abortions, like Planned Parenthood, while backing politicians who reflect similar conservative values to their own. You would be hard-pressed to drive down any southern or midwestern American highway and not come across at least one billboard displaying anti-abortion rhetoric along the lines of, All children are Gods children, or Choose Life, Pray Pray Pray.

When these beliefs make their way into government policies that is when the issue of a lack of separation between church and state specifically inhibits the reproductive rights of people with uteruses. Conservative lawmakers continually push against the precedents set by Roe v. Wade, and in the current political climate, it only seems to be getting worse. According to The Guttmacher Institute, a United States-based research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights, more than 100 abortion restrictions were enacted in 2021 so far. This is the highest number of abortion restrictions passed since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. There is no denying that religion can be crucial to how certain legislative decisions are made, whether the lawmakers themselves believe in it or are trying to appease voters that do.

Just as Ada is at the mercy of the pit, the US citizens are having their constitutional rights taken away all because the powers that bebe they God or the governmentdeem it so. Abortion is healthcare, and many people who need it will be forced to go without or seek it elsewhere. And just as Ada tries to escape her controlling community to protect her bodily autonomy, Texans are fleeing the state to receive the reproductive care they are unable to obtain where they live.

Ada attempts to sneak into town to see a real doctor, but she is soon discovered and swiftly brought back to the community by her father, Sustin. In a society that has no want or need for trained medical doctors, Loriss acts as Adas self-appointed OB/GYN, from checking her underwear for menstrual blood to ensure that she isnt pregnant, to giving her a vaginal exam to determine if she has engaged in penetrative sex. She performs the latter in the familys bathroom, lit cigarette in hand, all too ready to burn Adas inner thigh with the smoldering butt when she refuses to cooperate. Loriss says, I wanna see if youve been fooling around before you shame all of us.

After determining that Ada has been sexually active, she exclaims, You little slut! and proceeds to torture her by cutting her hand with a pocket knife so she will reveal the person with which she has been intimate.

Adas value as a person is directly determined by her sex life, a concept that remains pervasive in America, from Christian purity culture of saving yourself for marriage, to slut shaming women for having multiple sexual partners. American society as a whole has always been fixated on chastity, especially that of those assigned female at birth. AFAB people that partake in premarital sex are often subject to being hurled with epithets, told that no one will want to marry them, and/or that they deserve any negative consequences they may experience as a result of being sexually active.

We see this in Jug Face when Adas parents discover that she was pregnant with Jessabys child. At this point in the film, they are arranging for Ada to join Corber, Bodeys father, because both Bodey and his mother, Corbers wife, are killed in previous scenes. As we know, the options of single men for Ada are limited. They say they will pay Corber whatever he wants in order to get rid of her. Loriss even says, Maybe we shouldnt tell Corber. Hell just say shes ruined anyway, and screams at Ada, he probably wont want your sorry ass now!

Lorisss cruel words remind us not only that American society continues to judge AFAB people based on their sexual activity to this day, but that men are not alone in orchestrating and maintaining sex-based oppression. The alarming fact is some women are just as responsible for perpetuating this kind of regressive and harmful ideology, and do so by actively opposing the right to abortion.

One of the most sinister aspects of Jug Face is the intensely dogmatic and cruel approach Loriss takes when interacting with her daughter. It is she, not Sustin, who is quick to verbally and physically abuse Ada when she does something that Loriss perceives to be sinful or disobedient. After Ada is brutally whipped for trying to escape, she ends up miscarrying her baby in the bathtub while Loriss cleans her wounds. Sustin shows remorse, saying, I shouldnt have beaten her like I did. Loriss responds, You did what was right.

In Jug Face, the women of the community are shown upholding the patriarchal standards that have been in place for hundreds of years. They relegate themselves to the positions of loyal and unquestioning wives and mothers, and in doing so are agents of their own oppression. Even when Sustin is killed by the pit, Loriss steps into his place and continues to enforce the communitys self-imposed rules. In this way, she in particular represents the type of women who aid in the writing, passing, and enforcing of laws like S.B. 8. It is not just cisgender men who aim to control AFAB peoples bodies, fellow AFAB people are often right beside them, upholding the patriarchal system upon which America is built.

In the footage of Governor Abbott signing the bill into law, we see a cluster of people behind him, several of them women, all smiling with pride at what is being done. However, the aspect that is conspicuously missing in legislation that effectively punishes AFAB people for unintended pregnancies is any kind of responsibility on the part of the father.

Jessaby, Adas brother and the father of her child, refuses to talk about their relationship. He tells Ada that shes on her own in regards to reconciling for her sexual activity. When word gets out that she has been fooling around, he threatens, Dont even try to hold this over me. He completely shirks all responsibilities for his actions, even though he is equally as culpable as her for what they have done. Ada shoulders all of the responsibility, and when the pit eventually kills Jessaby, she alone is made to atone for both of their transgressions. Jessaby dies before anyone finds out about their incestual relationship and the resulting pregnancy, and thereby does not have to face the consequences of his actions.

The pit even plagues Ada with visions of it eviscerating members of the community one by one, Jessaby included; a cruel form of punishment for her perceived insolence. She is left to suffer alone and is subjected to the full weight of the blame and vitriol from the community. The character of Jessaby can be interpreted as a personification of men in America who take no responsibility for an unintended pregnancy that they caused.

His unwillingness to support Ada in any way is an example of how, with the passing of S.B. 8, a person who experiences an unintended pregnancyregardless of whether the conception was due to rape or incestwill literally have to bear all of the emotional and physical trauma of carrying that baby to term and going through labor, not to mention supporting and caring for the child for a minimum of 18 years if they do not or cannot give it up for adoption. But even if they do happen to have a personal support system made up of friends or family, people who cannot access proper reproductive healthcare due to laws like S.B. 8 are essentially being shunned by the American government itself.

Shunning occurs when a group chooses to avoid, ignore and/or reject a specific person or people. In Jug Face, those sacrificed to the pit are dubbed the shunned. Theyre doomed to wander the backwoods as ghosts in eternal purgatory. Ada is visited by one of the shunned after her miscarriage. He asks her, You are no longer with child, why do you resist [being sacrificed]? insinuating that if she doesnt have her baby she shouldnt feel the need to cling to life. Ada replies, I dont know. She is unable to qualify all the things that would make a childfree life worth living, but she does recognize that her desire to live did not end with the loss of her child; she is not solely defined by her status as a mother.

Eventually, Ada relents to the pit and the film ends with Corber ceremoniously slitting her throat over its earthly chasm. Her blood drains into the ground, restoring peace to the community that is until the next jug face is chosen. Through her death, Ada is transformed into one of the shunned, never able to leave the woods that isolated her in life. She is punished for attempting to assert her agency. Ada is ultimately prevented from ever escaping the controlling environment from which she was so desperately trying to free herself.

This is the frightening reality for Texans in the passing of S.B. 8, especially for those who lack the money and resources required to seek abortion services out of state. They are stuck in a devastating situation with no way out, and their cries for help fall on deaf ears as far as the politicians behind S.B 8 are concerned. They become ghosts themselves, merely vessels for the life they carry, a life that is apparently vastly more important than their own. In this way, the government is especially punishing the already marginalized poor, aiding in perpetuating the cycle of poverty which is much like the generational poverty that the members of Adas community experience.

Looking back on Jug Face in todays climate, we see the desperation, fear, and shame that Ada experiences as a woman with an unintended pregnancy caused by incest while living in a controlling patriarchal society, and it hits all too close to home. Abortion bans like S.B. 8 weaponize religion in order to control AFAB peoples bodies, much like the communitys antiquated customs that are put in place to satisfy the pit. These bans are especially detrimental to those living in poverty, as impoverished peoples have fewer resources and often lack the ability to travel out of state to seek a safe abortion.

In Jug Face, Ada wanted to save her baby but was prevented from doing so. She was ultimately prevented from living the life she desired, all because her ability to choose was stripped from her. But, what if the story was written in such a way that Ada was trying to escape in order to seek a safe abortion from a licensed doctor? Ultimately, whether she wants to keep the baby or not shouldnt matter; at the end of the day it all boils down to the fundamental right to choose; to choose what is best for your family, your body, your mind, yourself.

When we view Jug Face with a 2022 lens and we watch as Ada is sacrificed to the pit, our hearts should ache at the resounding injustice. Through her death she becomes a symbol, a representation of the people that will perish when their ability to choose is denied and they are forced to carry out a pregnancy that will kill them either literally or metaphorically, all for the sake of appeasing a higher entitywhether that be a pit in the ground, a God in the sky, or politicians in the United States government. That is a terrifying notion that is scarier than any horror film.

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Archaic Obstetrics: Revisiting Jug Face in The Wake Of Increasing Abortion Restrictions - Dread Central

Dear Editor,

There will be no protest action much less major protest actions in Region 10 to halt the terrible and blatant discrimination visited on Linden and the region by the PPP government. That is because Region 10 Chairman, Mr. Deron Adams believes that protest action will give the PPP and investors an excuse as why they should not bring development to Linden. Therefore, the CEO of Linden Hospital Complex can fire who he wants to, he can put handcuffs on the gates of the hospital to lockout doctors and nurses, he can continue to be toxic as much as he likes the RC hopes that the media can highlight these things so that the government may have a change of heart and see the wrongs corrected.

The government can continue to pay one of its activists, who is the prime ministers representative at Linden, hundreds of thousands every month to store medical supplies at his private residence and that representative can continue to give hampers to PPP supporters only and leave the rest to spoil but there will be no protest action. Contractors can come from outside of Region 10 to do contracts there and walk with their own workers while refusing to give work to the people in that Region but the RC believes that there should be no protest action because it will stop a septic tank being built in Linden by contractors from another part of the country who will import workers from outside to do the job.

If Deron Adams is confused as to his role of a politician in these crucial times and is operating with his church boy hat on, he must make a decision and dedicate his time and energy to the house of clergy. He insults every one of his predecessors who stood up to the hegemonic rule of that wicked government. He insults the sacrifices that were made by those who give their lives in the Linden Struggle of 2012. He believes that the PPP will get an epiphany and decides to do right by those in our strongholds if they are asked nicely by the media.

When people tell me it is the people of Linden who have gotten soft and accepting oppression without standing up like we are known to do historically, I had my doubts. Listening to the Regional Chair-man at todays PNCR Press Conference my doubts are now confirmed.

It is the leaders at Linden that are weaking out and I wonder why? Deron must know that protest actions can take form against him if he doesnt change his narrative and lead like his predecessors.

Sincerely,

Norman Browne

Social and Political Activist

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Region 10 Chairman is hopeful that media can influence a change of heart in government - Stabroek News