Category Archives: Government Oppression

Detail from the cover of "The Shadow of His Wings: The True Story of Fr. Gereon Goldmann" (Ignatius.com)

The evils of the 20th century hold a strange fascination. We cannot help but read and reread accounts of totalitarian oppression, such as Elie Wiesels Night, Anne Franks Diary, Viktor Frankls profound Mans Search for Meaning, and Alexander Solzhenitsyns Gulag Archipelago. Something about these experiences, primarily relating to the horrors of Naziism and Communism, speaks deeply to the resiliency of the human spirit that cannot be crushed even by the most brutal regimes.

I also think were captivated by the brutality of those regimes because they epitomize in extreme form the inhumanity of our society, subject to the mass manipulation of our technologically saturated culture. They remind us that we live in an ever more dystopian world.

Catholics have their own heroic accounts of perseverance, including the heart pounding The Shadow of His Wings by Father Gereon Goldmann or the more introspective The Road of Hope, the fruit of Cardinal Nguyn Vn Thuns imprisonment in Vietnam. The priest, in particular, bore the brunt of persecution from oppressive regimes, seeking to wipe out the Churchs witness. The heart of the Christian priesthood is to make the sacrifice of Christ present to us through the Mass. Priest martyrs and confessors embraced a further conformity in making this same sacrifice present in the gift of their very lives.

For instance, at the Dachau concentration camp, called the largest monastery in history due to the many priests sent there (2,579 to be precise), the Dutch priest Father Jean Bernard described with disturbing detail exactly how the inmates suffered with Christ, in his memoir Priestblock 25487:

On Good Friday last year the SS found some pretext to punish 60 priests with an hour on the tree. That is the mildest camp punishment. They tie a mans hands together behind his back, palms facing out and fingers pointing backward. Then they turn his hands inwards, tie a chain around his wrists and hoist him up by it. His own weight twists his joints and pulls them apart Several of the priests who were hung up last year never recovered and died.

And yet the conformity that came out of this experience was more spiritual than simply imitative:

Yet we must forgive. We must forgive while remaining conscious of the full horror of what occurred, not only because nothing constructive can be built on a foundation of hatred neither a new Europe nor a new world but above all for the sake of him who commands and urges us to forgive, and before whom we, victims and executioners alike, are all poor debtors in need of mercy.

Another priest, whose cause for canonization is now open, Father Walter Ciszek, recounts his own 24 years of captivity in the Soviet Union. In 1939, he slipped into the country along with Catholic forced laborers to minster to them, although he didnt evade capture long. His spiritual masterpiece, He Leadeth Me, describes how God led him to a profound surrender through the extensive torture and psychological manipulation he endured. Contemplating this suffering, he reflects on why God allows such difficult things to happen:

Mysteriously, God in his providence must make use of our tragedies to remind our fallen human nature of his presence and his love, of the constancy of his concern and care for us. It is not vindictiveness on his part; he does not send us tragedies to punish us for having so long forgotten him. The failing is on our part.

God wants all us to become more like Christ, taking up our Cross and letting go of our attachments. Father Ciszek offered priestly witness in learning abandonment to God, imitating Christs own prayer on the Cross, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. He reflects that

through the long years of isolation and suffering, God had led me to an understanding of life and his love that only those who have experienced it can fathom. He had stripped away from me many of the external consolations, physical and religious, that men rely on and had left me with a core of seemingly simple truths to guide me. And yet what a profound difference they had made in my life, what strength they gave me, what courage to go on!

Perhaps the witness of these priests unlocks the fascination found in horrific accounts of sufferings, making us wonder, how would I measure up? Suffering can overwhelm us, especially the great horrors of war and government oppression, although God is present even in those moments, leading us to a greater trust and abandonment to him.

Life does have purpose, even in the darkness of Gods seeming absence. Speaking for all the great priest witnesses who have walked the way of the Cross, Ciszek offers us a challenging encouragement: And the greatest grace God can give such a man is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers and then sustain him with his grace so he may endure to the end and be saved.

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Christ crucified in the modern world: The priest as sacrificial witness - Catholic World Report

A new Taliban decree requires Afghan women to cover themselves from head to toe, and deputizes men to force women to follow the rule.A woman wearing a burqa walks along a road at the Khwaja Koza Gar area in Herat on February 4, 2022. (Wakil Kohsar / AFP via Getty Images)

In the eight months since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, the group has reinstated its repressive rules in full force, specifically targeting women and girls. Among many restrictions introduced, secondary school-age girls have been restricted from schools; women public servants have been removed from their jobs; women can no longer travel alone; and public and academic spaces have become limited and segregated.

With the Talibans latest decree issued Saturday, women are now required to cover themselves from head to toepreferably using a burka. The burka is a blue garment, long considered emblematic of the Taliban oppression of women in Afghanistan.

The new edict from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtueand thePrevention of Vice goes beyond targeting women on the street. It also officially deputizes men to force women to follow the rules, punishing the male guardian for failing to force the women of the family to abide by the new ruling.

Per the edict, hejab or covering according to Islam is mandatoryand women who do not obey the rule will be punished. For their first violation, the woman will be visited by ministry officials who will speak with her guardian to ensure that she dresses according to the rule.

For a second violation of the rule, her guardian must be called to come to the relevant office of the Taliban in the area. After a third violation, the guardian must will be put in prison for three days. For a fourth violation, the guardian will be summoned to the religious court and receive further punishment.

The decree also states that the women who still work with government institutions would be subject to removal from work should they refuse to cover up. Under Taliban rule, the number of women doctors, nurses and teachers has already decreased significantly.Male government employees whose women family members dont comply with the rule could be subject to suspension.

Domestic violence has already been exacerbated by the ongoing humanitarian and economic crisisand this edict further adds fuel to the fire, requiring men to enforce the decree under threat of Taliban persecution.

The Talibans obsession with women is nothing new: Under its first rule in the 1990s, the group heavily restricted womens rights. This second time around, the group has reinstated all their previous policies against womenbut has gone further by tasking men with ensuring that women family members comply with rules.

The Talibans edicts dictating women and girls place in daily lifefrom barring them from education to demanding full coverage including the face and handshave no precedence in Afghanistan or any other Muslim-majority country. For years, the Taliban restricted womens rights and justified their actions under the guise of Islam, which is consistently met with a backlash from global Islamic scholars and advocates.

With each subsequent edict, the Taliban further removes Afghan women from public life. With other crises around the world, Afghan people, particularly women, are disappointed at the world looking the other way in silence. Without women as full members of society, there can be no peace and stability in Afghanistan.

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Afghan Women Reject Taliban Decree That Women Must Wear Head-to-Toe Coverings - Ms. Magazine

On May 2nd, Ethiopias state-appointed rights commission announced that it was looking into a video that shows Ethiopian army fighters abusing and then shooting a young boy. The fighters accused this boy of being from the Tigray region which remains under the threat of violence from the Ethiopian government to this day. The boy is shown being stoned, taunted, and kicked before he was brutally killed by the men in question. Although the identity of the fighters has not yet been confirmed, according to Reuters, the video shows badges on their chests which read Ethiopian Army.

The video devastatingly picked up the conversation of the killers who said to one another Dont kill him, let him suffer, and He cant talk now, we were first supposed to get information from him, in a display of complete cruelty and disregard for human life. We are trying to gather information on the distressing incident, Daniel Bekele, the head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said to Reuters in a text message that same day that the investigation was announced.

The cruel language of the fighters is indicative of a wider and warped mindset that portrays those in Tigray as lesser beings than other ethnic groups in Ethiopia. The language and actions of these individuals in question is only one example of this mindset. Their opinions elucidate how this continuous war is consumed by countless, unnecessary civilian deaths and how it is ultimately a genocide of a certain ethnic group by definition. Each and every one of these cruelties should be investigated as a violation of human rights, not just by the country, but by international organizations including the UN that can truly hold the Ethiopian government accountable for this genocide and its future reparations. In addition, international communities should donate and help where they can to provide relief to Tigrayans.

In March alone of this year, the EHRC reported that soldiers and other Ethiopian forces had shot ten civilians. These civilians were all Tigrayans and ethnic Gumuz and were killed in response to a military struggle. This loss of civilian life has been prevalent to Tigrayans since November 2020 when the Ethiopian government began operations against the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front in the region of Tigray, according to the Human Rights Watch. They have targeted numerous civilian structures since then including hospitals, schools and factories which have been bombarded with shells and destroyed when targeted.

Now, 2.3 million people remain in need of assistance according to the Human Rights Watch because of the continued fighting which has restricted access for many to humanitarian aid. An additional 2 million civilians in the region have been forced to flee the region since then as well.

The Tigrayan civilians cannot continue living under this threat of targeted violence and poor access to humanitarian aid. Allowing this threat to grow is to allow a genocide to take place without any consequences. It is true that many other tragedies like this in history have been stopped and countries have been punished for similar inhumane actions the universal eradication of these genocides, however, have typically been to help oppressed White or European populations. Without downplaying the fact that those genocides did happen and that they were and still are unjustifiable and cruel, it is also important to recognize this trend and ensure that Tigray is given the attention it needs in order to escape its own oppression with an equally strong effort from the international community.

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Film Showing Abuse And Death Of Young Boy Being Investigated By Ethiopian Rights Group - The Organization for World Peace

Undocumented people who travel from Ukraine to the UK via Ireland could be considered for removal to Rwanda, a senior Home Office official has told MPs.

During the same select committee hearing, a minister refused to say under repeated questioning whether Ukrainians who arrive in the UK across the Channel by boat could also be sent to the central African country.

The exchanges occurred at the home affairs select committee where the minister, Tom Pursglove, was unable to point to any calculations that the governments relocation policy would reduce the number of people arriving in the UK in small boats.

Some Conservative MPs have criticised Irelands decision to lift all restrictions for refugees fleeing war, claiming it would create a back door to the UK, leaving the country vulnerable to potential criminal elements.

It has been pointed out that the common travel area means that Ukrainians who do not pass British security checks or are left waiting for visas to arrive could simply reach the UK by travelling to Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic.

Stuart C McDonald, the SNPs home affairs spokesperson and a committee member, asked Dan Hobbs, the director of asylum, protection and enforcement, about Ukrainians crossing into Northern Ireland from Ireland. Are they within the scope of this policy or are they not? he said.

Hobbs replied: Depending on the individual circumstances they may not fall in the inadmissibility criteria.

McDonald said: You are leaving open the possibility that you can cross from Dublin to Belfast and conceivably end up in Rwanda.

Earlier, Diana Johnson, the chair of the committee, asked Pursglove if Ukrainians who travelled to the UK by small boat would be ruled inadmissible and therefore could be removed.

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Pursglove, the minister for justice and tackling illegal migration, replied: There is absolutely no reason why any Ukrainian should be getting into a small boat and paying a people smuggler to get into the UK.

When asked what modelling was used to give the evidence base for this decision, the minister replied: This is a new and untested policy at this point in time. I do think that in the fullness of time we will see this policy, as part of a wider package that we are introducing, really shift the dynamic.

Johnson said that it sounded like modelling had not been carried out. Pursglove replied: I would be delighted to hear an alternative.

The two safe and legal routes under which Ukrainian refugees can enter the UK the Ukraine family scheme and the Homes for Ukraine scheme have been beset by delays. The latest government data shows that 37,400 of 125,100 applicants have so far arrived in Britain.

Under the scheme announced last month by the home secretary, Priti Patel, the UK will pay for people seeking asylum who are deemed to have arrived illegally to be sent to Rwanda, where their claims will be processed.

In theory, they will be granted asylum or given refugee status in the country. Boris Johnson said tens of thousands of unlawful migrants would be removed to Rwanda.

Documents released by the government on Monday show that the Rwandan government has managed to process a maximum of 307 asylum cases in a single year since 2016.

Joanna Cherry, attending the session from the joint committee on human rights, asked Pursglove if he accepted reports by the US state department, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documenting unlawful or arbitrary killings, along with forced disappearances and torture by the Rwandan government.

Pursglove said that overall Rwanda is a safe and secure country to use for resettlement, arguing that there were no systematic breaches of human rights obligations in the east African country.

The government announced on Monday that the process of removing people to Rwanda would begin over the next few weeks.

Responding to the hearing, Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: This government has now openly acknowledged it is intent on treating any person fleeing war or oppression from around the world as a commodity to be shipped to Rwanda. This includes those fleeing the deadly conflicts in Ukraine and Afghanistan right now. It is appallingly cruel and will cause great human suffering.

We urge the government to immediately rethink its plans and focus on operating an orderly, humane and fair asylum system.

This article was amended on 12 May 2022 to remove a suggestion that refugees getting into Northern Ireland would then need to take a ferry trip in order to enter the UK.

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Ukraine refugees who enter UK via Ireland may be sent to Rwanda, MPs told - The Guardian

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), on Thursday, called on the federal government to set up a special intervention fund for them to facilitate access to foreign exchange.MAN stressed that 90 per cent of materials used for manufacturing in Nigeria were imported.

Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc, Matthew Azoji, made the call on the side-lines of the 19th National Productivity Day Celebration and Conferment of National Productivity Order of Merit Award (NPOM) on 48 eminent Nigerians and organisations in both the public and private sectors.

Azoji said, The challenges we would like government to pay attention, we (Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc) are a local manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. And the foreign exchange is a major issue for us. We want to ask the government to support the pharmaceutical manufacturers, a group of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, to improve access to foreign exchange, because it has been a major problem. More than 90 per cent of input materials for manufacturing in Nigeria are imported.

If there is a special intervention that the government can do for local manufacturers, particularly, pharmaceutical manufacturers that are improving access to medicines for the ordinary Nigerians.

So, if you have better access to foreign exchange, it will improve the availability of medicines and in a cost effective manner, because foreign exchange has become a major cost of increasing cost of pharmaceuticals in Nigeria.

While appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari for the productivity award, Azoji said it would spur him to work harder and pursue excellence for the benefit of Nigerians.On what he did to merit the ward, Azoji said, In all the organisations I have worked, I have committed myself to excellence and improving the outcome that is achieved. Within the three years I have been a Managing Director/CEO, the company has gone from a period of loss to period of profitability. We have been able to achieve a situation where the company paid dividends, after 10 years of non-dividend payments.

For the last two years, we have paid dividends. And for the past four years there has been consistent growth in profitability, consistent growth in turnover, and service delivery to Nigerians.

Speaking also, another awardee and President of Erisco Foods Limited, Eric Umeofia, regretted that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were not doing enough to encourage local production of goods and commodities.

Umeofia alleged that some agencies charged with the responsibility of enforcing ban on imported products were not doing the job effectively, saying their inefficiency is sabotaging governments efforts to encourage local manufacturers.

While calling on the people to patronise locally manufactured products, the Erisco boss said not doing so would only create jobs for foreigners with consequent use of scarce foreign exchange for importation of products that were being manufactured locally.

He raised fears that with the influx of imported goods, like tomato pastes banned several years ago, local manufacturers might be forced to close shop. This he said would lead to job losses.

He urged the people to encourage manufacturers by patronising locally made goods, which would in turn lead to enhanced job and wealth creation.

On the award, the Erisco boss said he was happy with the recognition given to him by the government. He said such would spur him to do more.

On his part, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said the special Award for COVID-19 conferred on him was a moral burden to do more for the nation and government.

According to him, It puts an additional moral burden of doing more for the nation and the government. It comes with a lot of feelings.You know, my award is within the category of the Special Award for COVID-19. And most of you were active participants in the response.And I believe that this award is dedicated to all the people that were involved.

Mustapha saluted members of the national response team on COVID-19, people who were on COVID-19 production, the media, saying they worked assiduously in very difficult, hard times and dangerous in itself.

Because we were dealing with a virus that was unknown to ensure that lives and livelihoods of Nigerians were protected. And the process, we were able to deal with the adverse effects of COVID-19, one that deals with the economy.

The economic sustainability plan was able to cause us to exit the recession in a very, very, very quick time, addressing the changes in governance because COVID-19 came with his difficult ways of oppression, we had to really do a switch to virtual meetings, virtual way of running government activities, with very little face to face contact.So I believe that this award will spur us to greater achievements in the future.

Another awardee and Clerk of the Senate, Chinedu Francis Akubueze, said he felt greatly honoured by my country for the conferment of this award on me, I am very grateful to God for this singular privilege; Im grateful to my country, Nigeria for this honour.

He said as the award implied productivity; I can only be spurred towards more of my work at the National Assembly.

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Nigerian Manufacturers Ask Government for Special Intervention Fund to Boost Local Production - Arise News

Last week, as part of its annual Israeli Apartheid Week, The Harvard Palestinian Solidarity Committee mounted an artistic display between Thayer Hall and the Science Center Plaza promoting awareness of the immense suffering that Palestinians experience under Israels military occupation. Beneath the 12 paintings ran the messages Free Palestine and Boycott, Divest, Sanction, prompting the resurgence of a heated conversation about Zionism and antisemitism on college campuses.

Although the IAW display is no longer up, the same broadly-sweeping, aggressive talking points that characterize this conversation still echo around campus. Pro-Palestinian activists construct Israel as a malicious villain whose sole mission is to keep Palestinians in squalor, pulling out politically-loaded words like genocide and Apartheid from their inventory. Those quick to rush to Israels defense proclaim it as the only true democracy in the Middle East and immediately resort to disparaging the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the condescending subtext of which regards the Palestinian people as unfit to govern themselves.

Yet it is not only the extremes that continue, year after year, to use the same talking points well after their potential to prompt productive dialogue has been exhausted. I tire, too, of having to hear the more moderate response that one can criticize the Israeli government without rejecting the state itself. Beyond carelessly disregarding the not-so-clear distinction between a state especially one that purports to be a democracy and its government, the issues in Israel run far deeper than the government that presently happens to be in power.

The recent history of the modern state of Israel has, irrespective of its government, been inextricably linked with the oppression of the Palestinian people. Though this is not necessarily inherent to the abstract notion of the state itself, such subjugation has characterized the Israeli state in reality. Since 1967, the West Bank has been under military occupation, a legal status that grants Israel functional control over the area while circumventing the obligation to grant Palestinians Israeli citizenship and the rights and privileges this designation would afford. After 50-plus years, I question whether occupation, a word which suggests transience, is even apt.

Accordingly, I dont find it unreasonable that activists or anyone concerned with justice, for that matter would be morally outraged by the situation in Palestine. And I certainly dont find it unreasonable to direct that outrage at something more fundamental than the Israeli government.

But our language matters both out of respect for all parties involved and for the credibility of the person or organization expressing a political message. The way we go about discussing sensitive political topics, no matter the emotional fire they may stir up, therefore deserves careful scrutiny.

The Palestine Solidarity Committees display in the Yard says, Zionism is racism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, and apartheid. Putting aside the fact that Zionism is such a poorly-defined term that Im not sure I really know what it even refers to anymore, it is these last two accusations that bother me most.

To accuse Israel of white supremacy is to ignore over half of the Israeli population of Mizrahi, Ethiopian, and mixed Jews for whom white remains a mischaracterization. It also ignores the fact that, until recently, whiteness was a category that all Jews were decidedly excluded from. I am Jewish, and given the shifting nature of whiteness, I acknowledge that I am also white, but I would be lying if I said it didnt make me at all uncomfortable for accusations of white supremacy to be levied at Jews both alike and unalike me, whose shared history as victims of genocidal white supremacy remains fresh in our collective memory.

To accuse Israel of Apartheid in a colloquial sense although recognizing that the term does have a technical definition under international law is really to accuse Israel of perpetrating the same injustices of Apartheid South Africa. I understand that calling Israel an Apartheid state is meant to use the unambiguous injustice of South Africa as a frame of reference to convince people of egregious Israeli injustices and is not meant to posit a precise, one-to-one correspondence between Israel and South Africa. But Apartheid South Africa was a state where miscegenation was illegal and the law, which was directly derived from eugenics, regarded people of color as inferior explicitly and exclusively by virtue of their race. No law in Israel prohibits sex across racial lines, and though terrible discrimination absolutely exists in the state, it is not founded in racist notions of biological superiority. These are, I think, crucial distinctions to be made, lest we view Israel through a lens that incorrectly asseses the countrys history, making concepts associated with Apartheid seem more applicable than they really are.

Emotionally charged and inflammatory language like this succeeds in, justifiably, elevating the perceptual stakes of the issue at hand, but it conceals something important along the way: Something doesnt have to be white supremacy or Apartheid for it to be bad. And what is happening in Israel, what has been happening in Israel for over 50 years, is really, really bad. Using phrases like white supremacy and Apartheid, however, cheapen the semantic weight these words legitimately hold and unfortunately misrepresent the unique complexities and conditions of todays conflict.

Aside from sacrificing honesty for the sake of provocation, these words alienate students who, like me, are genuinely upset about and disillusioned by Israels decades-long disenfranchisement, displacement, and oppression of the Palestinian people. I hate to get caught up in semantics, but with conversations that hit close to home, the words we use really do matter.

Sam P. N. Libenson 25 lives in Weld Hall.

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It Doesn't Have to Be 'Apartheid' | Opinion - Harvard Crimson

Toronto [Canada], April 29 (ANI): Distressed by a recent incident of a 30-year-old Baloch woman teacher blowing herself and killing four people, including three Chinese at Karachi University, a Baloch woman activist calls it a consequence of Pakistans oppressive policies and genocide in Balochistan province.

Shari Baloch, who joined Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) two years ago volunteered herself for a self-sacrificing mission and targeted the Chinese to take revenge against Baloch genocide, occupation of Balochistan by Pakistan and now Chinas growing investment and interference in the region.

Prof. Naela Quadri Baloch, the President of the World Baloch Womens Forum in Canada said, If a mother of two beautiful kids who is having a very decent and well-educated family, Shari Baloch can decide to be a self-sacrificer then the world can understand what Baloch people are going through and who is responsible for that.

Prof. Naela added, It is the state of Pakistan and the Communist government of China who are responsible for pushing our daughters and sons to the level of self-sacrifice because there is no political platform left and the United Nations are also not listening to Baloch people.

Balochistan has long demanded independence from Pakistan, and the multi-billion-dollar China-initiated One Belt One Road (OBOR) Project has further inflamed passions. The Baloch, who are opposing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as part of OBOR, are facing oppression and genocide by the Pakistan Army.

There are uncounted incidents of enforced disappearances and killings of Baloch political activists, intellectuals and students by the Pakistani security forces and secret agencies.

Prof. Naela said, We are at the deepest level of pain. We are hurt that our highly educated youth, if they were not Baloch, could have a bright future. But as they are Baloch, which is their main crime, they have no future. They are picked up during daylight from the University by the ISI people, the Pakistani military, and then they disappear because the former knows that if they will be educated, they will become doctors, engineers, teachers or journalists.

Being Baloch as they have no future in Pakistan, they have decided to be self-sacrificers. They have joined organizations like Majeed Brigade and Baloch Liberation Army because they think it is the only way to survive.

A large number of Baloch youth and political activists have migrated abroad to save their lives. They have been raising their concerns at international platforms, but there is no ray of hope.

Prof. Naela said, Baloch people have raised their concerns in the United Nations and other international forums in a very peaceful way but nobody listens and our youth has been observing this thing. They see that there is no response from any country so if the International community will remain silent and just keep looking at the genocide of the Baloch people, this will be the reaction.

Our sons and daughters, even highly educated ones have decided to go for self-sacrifice because they dont see any future or hope, said the Baloch political activist, who herself is living in exile due to life threats. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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Balochs are sacrificing their lives due to Pakistani oppression: Baloch woman activist - ThePrint

Laws and rules, rights and safety

Our Times-News has, at the top of its editorial page, a copy of the First Amendment.

Somehow, I cannot find any statements about how Americans should have the right to do whatever we want or think is best, regardless of rules, laws, or government requirements like wearing a face mask.

Apparently, this is a significant issue which many feel is an integral part (though not specified) of the First Amendment. I gather that the sentiment is that if a rule is silly or unnecessary, or think the authority behind the rule is (as Cal Thomas describes, (4/26) a so-called expert) and we dont like it, we should have the option to do what we want.

But, perhaps, as I believe is the case, the business closings, mask mandates and homeschooling were judged to be important to keeping our population safe and trying to do battle with a strange and unpredictable virus, (which seemed to be killing a lot of people), with whatever tools we had.

In the column written by Froma Harrop (4/26), she suggests that some people have adopted the tactic of opposing the rules around COVID-19, citing government oppression. In the United States, we have hundreds of rules and regulations about almost everything. Has no one noticed?

I dont think we get to pick and choose, unless there is a serious moral issue involved, and then we must be prepared to take the consequences. The government may have used overkill in this instance (although I dont think so), but so what?

The intent was to protect our citizens from a current health epidemic, and it is certainly not a forever rule.

Cmon, people. Buckle up your seat belts and try to hang in there.

Gail Plitnik

Frostburg

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Laws and rules, rights and safety | Letters To The Editor | times-news.com - Cumberland Times-News

Images of Boris Johnson at a bulldozer factory in India, at a time when the machine was considered an instrument of fascist power of the State, makes the British prime minister complicit in Indias oppression of its minority Muslims, argues LSEs Shakuntala Banaji, Professor of Media, Culture and Social Change.

If, as Walter Benjamin argued, the aura of the work of art in the age of mass reproduction was degraded and squandered, then what can be said of the aura of the propaganda photo in the age of viral disinformation? Has it changed? Do its violent and authoritarian antecedents precede it, hidden in plain sight behind its bleak ubiquity, ineptitude and banality?

Spring 2022 has seen the UK government rocked by scandal after scandal lies, broken laws, tax evasion, illegal tendering, dubious citizenship claims and inhumane asylum schemes are the tip of the iceberg: and all are linked to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the cabinet. The House of Commons is probably no stranger to men watching pornography: its just that now someones been caught doing it. And that might be the least egregious thing thats happened there this week, as voting rights are degraded.

Johnson and his chancellor Rishi Sunak were fined the pathetic sum of 50 pounds each for attending illegal parties that broke their own very strict proscriptions on social gatherings during the 2020 and 2021 Covid lockdowns. Sunaks millionaire Indian wife also was found to be short-changing the British purse of millions via her non-resident tax status. Johnson repeated that he hadnt known he was at a birthday party: until it came out that there had been a dozen parties at Downing Street while ordinary people across the country were losing their loved ones to the deadly virus, struggling to breathe, struggling with loss and grief and loneliness. Some of the stories are unbearable to read, let alone how they must have been to live through.

While in any other era, and any other government, the Prime Minister might have resigned or been sacked, the police confirmation of his lies to parliament made barely a ripple in terms of Johnsons political career. Even damning photographic evidence of ministers and aides drinking and living it up in the Prime Ministers garden barely called forth credible calls for accountability from the supine opposition. And suddenly in April 2022 Johnson was jetting off to India, even while MPs here debated and voted on whether the prime ministers conduct in parliament required investigation by the Privileges Committee.

The intention of Johnsons whirlwind trade trip to India was ostensibly to soothe fears of Brexit trade isolation, to tie the UK to the massive Indian market rather than to repaper a tarnished prime ministerial image. He visited Gujarat, famous for being the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, where 20 years ago, more than 2000 people were slaughtered by rampaging Hindutva mobs on Modi and Shahs watch and, many human rights defenders say, with their blessing.

Ironically, now that PR firms and avarice have done their work to rehabilitate Modi, this heinous massacre was one which made him persona non grata outside the country between 2003 and 2013. The only thing thats changed since then is the amount of power he wields and the heightened threat to minority citizens. But who cares about history when theres a photo op and lucrative business deals involved?

This trip has, in fact, accorded Johnson a number of photo ops. But the one of interest here in is the viral photograph of him at a bulldozer factory, owned by a major Tory donor, mounting a bulldozer as a general would a tank or as Putin mounts a horse, smiling smugly and waving.

That one fast made it across the mainstream media in India, its semiotics a stark reminder that true human rights mean nothing to the current British government either at home or abroad, whatever their rhetoric. Johnson later even released a video of his visit to the JCB factory, as an example of the incredible partnership between UK and India.

The bulldozer has become known as a tool of fascist violence across India.In 2020 and 2021, small towns in the Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh saw a spate of highly targeted demolitions, which are escalating. These were ostensibly aimed at removing illegal structures but, given that millions of Indians havent acquired exactly the right permissions for their dwellings, in actuality they targeted mosques and / or Muslim residential or commercial areas. The bulldozers were out in force. They entered mainly Muslim neighbourhoods accompanied by local Hindutva politicians and/or by police with their sympathies clearly with the Hindutva far right. Residents were given a few hours notice, or none at all. Buildings and homes and shops belonging to Muslim families were brought down as collective punishment on accusations of stone-throwing or simply to make a point. Proof of wrongdoing was scarce, and evidence tainted; the courts were slow or shut their eyes, as collective punishment by bulldozer became a quick and spectacular tool of religious discrimination.

Worse still, it was clear that Muslim communities were being goaded and intimidated before losing their homes. Local lawyers and human rights defenders in Madhya Pradesh detail how, days before the demolitions, massive Hindutva mobs in the form of quasi-religious processions of 300-400 men in saffron, many on motorbikes had torn through these same neighbourhoods. They blared out communal slogans, insults, toward the local Muslim residents, hovering around mosques, waiting for a response. Most people simply stay in their homes or watch in silent misery at this display of naked power. A small number, incensed have thrown stones at their oppressors. The police accompanying and protecting the Hindu vigilante processions took immediate action. They arrested anyone in the vicinity of the stone-throwers. Young women, old men, bystanders as long as they were Muslims. They requisitioned cc tv footage but when it exonerated those arrested it was quietly dropped. Local press and television news spun the stories as ones of Muslim intolerance towards Hindus who were peacefully practicing their religion, or at best as clashes between communities.

Meanwhile structures put up by Hindus, however illegal, were spared in the rounds of demolitions. And so, without much national attention, the bulldozer has become part of the machinery of Indian fascist politics, just like the mobile phone and social media networks. And, while readers are unlikely to have heard of any of that in London or Paris, or Washington or Berlin, its imperative that you inform yourselves, as the bulldozers devastate the neighbourhood of Jehangirpuri in Delhi, Indias National capital where, as Johnson visited, Muslim homes and shops were being demolished, despite a court order staying the demolition. One of the features of our interconnected, viral world is that claims of ignorance will no longer serve as a defence against complicity with violent oppression. Johnson knew what he was doing when he climbed onto a bulldozer. And his supporters do too.

As Pratap Bhanu Mehta wrote recently:

The orgies of hate and prejudice are not aberrations. They are now the norm. They are the norm because the highest levels of political authority, including the prime minister, by silences or dog whistles, condone it. They are the norm because elites openly spout it, without shame. They are the norm because being communal in some ways has become almost a necessary condition of political advancement

This article givesthe views of the author and does not represent the position of theMedia@LSE blog, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Featured image: Photo by Oleg Solodkov on Unsplash

Originally posted here:

Bulldozers and political complicity the viral image in an age of hate - London School of Economics

Mary Anne Ford addresses students in Modern Women of Faith class.

Inside the Core this week, we were honored to have Mary Anne Ford, sister-in-law of Ita Ford, speak to students in Prof. Maribel Landrau's Core III/CAST course, Modern Women of Faith on Tuesday. The students are studying the four martyred churchwomen (Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan), who were killed by off-duty soldiers in El Salvador on Dec. 2, 1980. Mrs. Ford spoke to the students about how her husbands younger sister Ita decided to become a Maryknoll sister and travelled to Chile, then Nicaragua, and finally to El Salvador at the request of Archbishop Oscar Romero. However, Romero himself was killed before her arrival, and Mrs. Ford spoke of Ita's sadness at serving in a location now without a shepherd.

Ita Ford, Maryknoll missionary

The class, which I observed, began with a student's presentation on the Maryknoll sisters (Ford and Clarke) and the other two women (Kazel and Donovan) killed that day in El Salvador. Mrs. Ford's personal remembrances of Ita were profoundly moving. She talked about how Ita herself was inspired to be a missionary, in part, because her own (distant) cousin, Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, was a Maryknoll missionary, who died in China under communist oppression of religion. In her own case, it was a right-wing government, which was funded by the US at the time, and viewed anyone, including church people, as subversive if they spoke up for the rights of the poor, the campesinos, who was responsible for her death. Mrs. Ford made the point strongly that Ita and her companions were "not nave," but "intelligent women,"who knew well the dangers they were facing, but did so for love of Christ and the poor. Their deaths marked a turning point in US awareness of what was really going on in El Salvador, but it took many years for those higher up in the government to be charged with the deaths of these women. William Ford, Mary Anne's late husband, spent thirty years working to get justice, not only for his younger sister, but also for the many Salvadorans killed under the brutality of the government of El Salvador during that period (in the 1970s and 80s).

Ita Ford with her nieces and nephews, the children of Bill and Mary anne Ford

Mrs. Ford quoted at times from a book of Ita Ford's writings and correspondence, Here I Am, Lord: the Letters and Writings of Ita Ford (Orbis Books, 2005), where Ita spoke about some of the struggles she was facing in El Salvador. For example, she and her friend, Maryknoll Sister Carla Piette, were helping with food distribution and other ministries to the poor when their jeep was swept away in a flash flood. Ita was pushed out of the car window by her friend, who drowned; this event was in the summer of 1980. Ita suffered from "survivor's guilt,"but then she herself lost her life in the same mission of helping the poor, but in a more violent death than that endured by her friend. Mrs. Ford also mentioned that Ita Ford had left Maryknoll for a while, working in a publishing company, but returned because she felt so drawn to the missionary life.

I know Mary Anne Ford from church and have been privileged to hear her speak before, so I was not surprised at the power of her presentation. The students, however, I could tell, were. They asked excellent questions, and a couple of them stayed after class to discuss the subject further with their professor, Mrs. Ford, and me. After the presentation, the seminary kindly hosted us (Prof. Landrau, Mrs. Ford and myself) to lunch, where, interestingly, we ran into a priest from El Salvador, in fact, from Chalatenango, the place where Ita and her companions worked and were murdered. Another Salvadoran, the Core's own work study and CAST/Biology double major senior, Giselle Pineda, sat in on the class with me.

The Core was truly blessed to have Mary Anne Ford as our guest, and we hope to have her back to talk more about her inspiring relative, Ita, and the significance of her work and martyrdom in El Salvador.

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Inside the Core: Mary Anne Ford - Seton Hall University