Category Archives: Government Oppression

For crypto diehards, the idea of Bitcoin collapsing is unthinkable. But what if, for whatever reason, the Bitcoin network fails? Max Gagliardi, the co-founder of Ancova Energy, a US Bitcoin mining and consulting firm, exposed the potential outcomes should such a situation materialize.

If Bitcoin fails, privacy fails, Gagliardi outlined in a lengthy Twitter thread on Jan.23. The ability of individuals to send and receive peer-to-peer value without government and banking interference will be lost. Bitcoin (BTC) allows for a future in which anyone can have private access to their money .

He spoke as cryptocurrency markets plummeted over the past week, led by bitcoin, an asset liquidated by some investors and economists as a speculative bubble. BTC plunged 20% in the two days from January 19 to a six-month low of around $ 33,400 as fear reached fever pitch. Bitcoin then reduced some of these losses, but remains 45% from its all-time high of $ 69,000 on November 10.

Drawing on the core principles of Bitcoin, Gagliardi argued that Bitcoins failure means the victory of government oppression, censorship and corruption. On the contrary, if the top digital asset is successful, freedom, transparency and truth triumph.

We are in an era of unprecedented censorship. Bitcoin is the safest network that has ever been built. Resistant, anti-frail and without permits. Open to anyone in the world. There is nothing else like it. Bitcoin cannot be censored, he said, adding:

The government can lose hundreds of billions a year but they want us to report every time we spend more than $ 600. There is no government accountability or transparency in our system. Without Bitcoin we lose the only counterweight to that system .

Gagliardi continued: Unelected bureaucrats decide the value of your work and your time. Money is how we store the value of our time on this earth. Nobody should have the power to inflate the value of your time away from you. The supply of 21 million Bitcoins solves this problem .

Revered by the public, Bitcoin is highly hated by governments due to its decentralized nature, which frowns on central control while thriving on privacy. It has been the target of attacks for its use by some people in transactions considered by governments as illegal, the volatility of prices and its carbon footprint.

Thus, there have been direct efforts by the governments of the world to stifle the growth of bitcoin by introducing tough legislation. In the case of China, a complete ban seemed appropriate. There is also the risk that dishonest actors could hijack the network through what is known as a 51% attack and collapse the ecosystem.

However, in the race for profit and gain, the ethics of BTC as a tool for individual and social freedom seems to be lost by many in the cryptocurrency sphere. In this regard, Gagliardi stressed that BTC was too important to fail. He described Bitcoin, and the technology behind it known as the blockchain, as objects of truth and free speech. If crypto fails, they both fail. He said:

Bitcoin is a code. Letters and numbers. A private key is all it takes to be able to store, transport and transact value. Never in the history of mankind have speech and language been so powerful. Freedom to speak is the most basic of human rights .

Gagliardi, also the host of a podcast on energy and bitcoin mining, said that BTC cannot be allowed to fail because that would result in the failure of capitalism as a concept, and the transition into energy. He said that we need Bitcoin, the first and last resort energy buyer, to move to a new energy future.

Bitcoin monetizes waste of energy and incentivizes new and efficient energy resources, Gagliardi detailed, adding that the Bitcoin network represents the spirit of capitalism entangled in the code [perch] He earned [il suo] value organically from the bottom up .

In the event that Bitcoin collapses, people wont own anything, he says. We have nothing of value. The property and money are settled and held with the custodians. You dont have it, you only have a right. With Bitcoin, your lifes work value can be stored in a nutshell. Free to take it with you anywhere .

Gagliardi concluded that BTC is too important. We cannot let it fail . Not everyone agreed with this line of thinking, though. Allen Drewe criticized the use of Bitcoin as a conduit for criminal activity.

Imagine thinking that Bitcoin is about truth and transparency. Its about money laundering and dark web shit before anything else, he said.

Gagliardi replied: The US dollar is the most widely used currency for crime, drugs and terrorism. What I mean by truth / transparency is the immutable nature of the network ledger. There is no cheating. Once proof of work is complete, it becomes an objective record forever. No ambiguity .

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Bitcoin mining proponent ponders a world where BTC fails - D1SoftballNews.com

At the end of 2020, Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa was on her knees next to the border wall cutting graffiti stencils decrying U.S. immigration policy. Migrant children have heartbeats, too, the stencils said.

Last week in Washington, D.C., she brought the same message to the March for Life. Members of her organization, New Wave Feminists, which bills itself as a pro-life feminist organization, carried black and pink signs emblazoned with the words.

Although the slogan remained the same, the two scenes were quite different. The March for Life is dominated by political conservatives. Pro-immigration protests, on the other hand, are generally led by liberals.

Herndon-De La Rosas presence at both events shows that she isnt a typical anti-abortion activist. Rather, her anti-abortion stance is based on the idea that every human being should live a life free from violence, from the womb to the tomb, as her groups website says, leading her to not only fight against abortion but to also to dedicate herself to migrants rights an issue many right-leaning anti-abortion activists wont touch.

Herndon-De La Rosa said that her holistic approach to being pro-life leaves her politically homeless.

In her early days as an anti-abortion activist, Herndon-De La Rosa explained, she felt that she had to vote Republican. But her strict allegiance to the party ended when she realized that most Republican politicians didnt want to fund services that pregnant women need.

Most of the services we were offering (pregnant women) were government services and (I was) being asked to turn around and vote for politicians who dont support those same things, she said.

But if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court later this year, Republicans might be forced to rethink their opposition to the social safety net especially if the party wants to keep some of its anti-abortion constituents. That the pro-life movement is currently at a crossroads was the subject of a recent webinar hosted by Georgetown Universitys Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

Herndon-De La Rosa and other anti-abortion activists like her believe that our countrys policies need to better reflect a holistic approach toward supporting life and that both the left and right are currently falling short.

They say that Democrats support for abortion rights amounts to a sort of structural violence that actually helps conceal womens unequal status in the United States and that access to abortion is not true liberation for women.

Abortion upholds systems of oppression, said Gloria Purvis, a womens rights advocate who hosts The Gloria Purvis Podcast. Purvis added that the Democratic Partys stance on abortion allows corporate America to shirk its duty to come up with policies that truly support working mothers and families.

Its a smokescreen for women to say, Hey, youre liberated to be like men. Instead we need to build an economy, a society ... that is conducive to women as we are not to us being faux male but female, she said.

But Purvis, Herndon-De La Rosa and others are critical of the political right, too. They believe that conservatives support for life begins at conception but ends at birth.

If Republicans truly respected life, they would take a holistic approach that includes tackling the topic of racial injustice, Purvis said.

I think the mistake really that weve made in talking about pro-life is that its detached from the core issue which is really human dignity from the moment of conception until natural death, she said.

Dignity for the unborn can and should be addressed, said Purvis, while also at the same time understanding we have an obligation to uphold the dignity of everyone else outside the womb, particularly in the realm of race.

In the wake of George Floyds death, Purvis added, the silence from those who claim to be pro-life was indicative of the (political) problem that plagues the anti-abortion movement.

The Republican Party, Purvis continued, publicly lauds marriage and family but at the same time penalizes women who have made these difficult decisions, portraying those who need state benefits to survive as freeloaders.

One of the best things that could ever happen would be the Democratic Party making space for us, said Herndon-De La Rosa, who is now a registered Independent. Similarly, she added, The infant mortality rate among women of color that should 100% be a Republican pro-life issue.

According to Daniel Williams, author of Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement before Roe v. Wade, such a shift would actually return the anti-abortion movement to its roots, which lie on the left, not the right.

Although opposition to abortion is closely associated with the Republican Party today, the movement owes its conception to Catholic social teachings, 20th century liberalism and the emphasis on human rights that emerged in the wake of World War II, he said.

Some of the first calls against abortion came from Catholic doctors who were responding to abortion law liberalization. They felt that killing one person to save another didnt square with human rights, said Williams, is also a history professor at the University of West Georgia.

But to most Catholics at the time and many like Purvis still today respecting human rights required a holistic approach that included embracing liberal values like the right to education and support for various social programs.

In the 1960s, anti-abortion activists were Catholic Democrats who also opposed the Vietnam War. As late as the 1970s, there still wasnt a clear partisan divide on the issue, Williams said. But, later, Ronald Reagan who, as governor of California, had signed a liberal abortion law helped detach the anti-abortion movement from its left-wing roots, firmly entrenching the most vocal opposition to the procedure on the right. And as the right became focused on creating legal protections that had been undone by Roe v. Wade ... it made it difficult to see Democratic politicians as potential allies, said Williams, introducing some of the polarization we see today as well as the myopic focus on the courts.

This anti-abortion movement also brought together two groups of people with different ideas about the role the state should play in our lives: Catholics a group that historically had a very positive view of the state most catholics believed the state had obligations to families and citizens, said Williams with Protestants from the South, a group that was largely mistrustful of the state and state intervention on a variety of issues and had been for 200 years, Williams said.

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, which has been the overarching goal of these disparate groups, Williams added, it will be interesting to see if those differences in the pro-life movement will become more apparent.

However the Supreme Court rules in its abortion case, Herndon-De La Rosa who feels that abortion has been needlessly politicized hopes to see Americans working on womb-to-tomb issues together regardless of their political backgrounds.

The best thing that could happen to this nation is that everyone wakes up tomorrow and everyone is an independent and we focus on the issues rather than the political parties, she said.

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Will Roe v. Wade be overturned? Whats next for anti-abortion activists? - Deseret News

The buzz on gardens

Rex Nelson's column of last Sunday, "Arkansas' new era," together with Richard Mason's goal of planting 100,000 new trees, in Perspective on the same day, have stirred up a bee that has been in my bonnet since moving to Little Rock 15 years ago: We need a state botanical garden.

Is there a happier place to blend the beauty of the arts (and sciences) with outdoor recreational opportunities than a well-designed and maintained botanical garden? Visitors to El Dorado's splendid South Arkansas Arboretum or Hot Springs' Garvan Gardens, with their mix of native forest and ornamental gardens--I want to roll them up and bring them to Little Rock--have no doubt wondered why Arkansas does not have such a garden in the capital city. (Our Arkansas Arboretum near Pinnacle Mountain is a delightful woodland, but not a showcase exhibition of beauty and education.)

We're fortunate that we have the perfect place for such a garden right here in the middle of Little Rock on the site of the former golf course at War Memorial Park. And the timing is also perfect: The site is in transition to ...

I would also predict that there are hundreds of Little Rockers in groups like Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists ready to volunteer their time to support such a project. Well, the bee is out of my bonnet--and looking for a buzz?

ERIC SUNDELL

Little Rock

On account of religion

From a sermon preached by C.H. Spurgeon in 1886: "To each disciple of Jesus, the government may be satisfied that he is loyal. 'Thou shalt rule over him' is certainly true. Christians will cheerfully submit to all lawful rule and righteous authority. To them it is a matter of joy if they are enabled to lead peaceable lives because the magistrate is a terror to evildoers. They are a non-resistant, peaceable, quiet people, who have from the beginning of the world until now borne burdens and suffered, and been content to suffer, so that they might but be true to their master. They hate tyranny, but they love order; they protest against oppression, but they uphold law and justice. Why, then, should they be persecuted? They ask nothing from the state by way of pay or patronage; they only ask to be let alone, and to be subject to no disability on account of their religion. Let all who are in authority, whether as kings or petty magistrates, beware of wantonly molesting a people who cause them no trouble, lest they be found in this matter to be fighting against God."

B.E. SPURGEON

North Little Rock

Extremists' takeover

Longtime Republican columnist Rex Nelson wrote the truth about our Arkansas Legislature in his Jan. 26 column "Government by yahoo." For a Republican to write such truth about the decline of the quality of our state politicians is refreshing honesty.

Nelson wrote about the loss of experienced community leaders in political leadership, now replaced by fringe candidates who win due to low voter turnout and the appeal of these extremists who have taken over the Legislature with their no-holds-barred bullying. Using fear-based appeals to those who oppose abortion rights and those who demand open-carry, these Republican politicians in Arkansas now control our Arkansas Senate and House by a ratio of four to one. The moderate leaders have given up on controlling these fringe members.

We can expect the next session of our state Legislature to be more chaotic and dysfunctional than 2021. As long as that "R" next to any name on the ballot gets the vote, I believe we are doomed to partisan leadership from city to county to state offices. If we care about the future of our state, we will stop this extreme partisan divide and think about the quality of the person running for any office, not only their party affiliation. We will educate voters and register voters, then make sure that every person has the right to vote.

If we allow this takeover to control our next election, it will be too late to save our state from extremism.

SARA BARTLETT

Fayetteville

Sure do miss cartoon

Alice Witterman from Batesville asked you to bring back Lola. Here are the words in the cartoon from Jan. 27. Judge for yourself: "The sound is so sweet, like an angel's voice singing. For joy is upon us, when the microwave is dinging."

Bring back Lola!

GARY McCLURE

Pine Bluff

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OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: The buzz on gardens | On account of religion | Extremists' takeover - Arkansas Online

Aruna Roy is a social activist and founder of theMazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan(MKSS). Her work and leadership led to the enactment of theRight to Information (RTI) Act 2005a landmark act that empowers citizens to demand transparency and accountability from government institutions.

Over the last four decades, she has been at the forefront of several other people-led movements as well including the Right to Work campaign which led to the institution ofMGNREGA, and theRight to Foodmovement. In 2000, she received the Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.

In this interview with IDR, Roy talks about building and sustaining participatory movements, the role of sangharsh (struggle) in driving change, and the power of the collective voice. She explains why the right to freedom of expression is critical for India, why civil society must fight to sustain it, and hopes for a free and open society where the young can function without fear within the boundaries of constitutional morality.

Could you tell us a little about your early years and early influences?

I was born a year before Independence. This placed me squarely alongside the journey of the new and nascent country that we call India, or Bharat. I grew up in DelhiIm aDilliwalias they say. My family was progressive and privileged by educationmy mother had studied mathematics and physics, my father had been to Shantiniketan when he was a young boy of 10, and my grandmother had done her senior Cambridge. Issues of equality were part of the daily routine. Regardless of their class, caste, or literacy levels, everyone who came home sat together and had tea from the same cups. I did not realise at that time that this was not normal. I grew up celebrating all festivals and listening to the stories of great human beings.

I was sent toKalakshetrain Chennai to learn classical dance and music, and to a range of schools after that. I studied English literature and completed my postgraduation from Indraprastha College, Delhi University, in 1967. I taught a year in my college and, in 1968, joined the civil service as part of the union territories cadre. I was posted in Pondicherry, and then in Delhi. I resigned in 1975 to come to Rajasthan to work with the rural poor.

There are several reasons I have worked all my life. My mother was an extremely intelligent and accomplished woman. She did not however participate in public life, which frustrated her, because she believed that women were not less capable than men. But in a mans world, women were always looked down upon as domestic accoutrements. This was extremely distressing for my mother, and it became deeply ingrained in me that a woman has to have a life beyond the domestic sphere.

It is one of the fundamental postulates on which I have built my lifea woman must have a place where she can express herself with freedom. You could say that my first politics was feminism. The second was caste politics. My father, grandparents, and great-granduncle had fought discrimination, particularly related to caste. Understanding caste, untouchability, and the rigidity and discrimination of the caste system were part of my growing years. And since I grew up in Delhi shortly after Partition, religious discrimination and violence, and the havoc they cause, were also part of my emotional memory.

I joined the civil service because I felt that it was possibly a place where one could actively work to reduce discrimination and inequality in society. When I left the civil service, I started working with a nonprofit called the Social Work and Research Center, orBarefoot College, in Tilonia, Rajasthan.

Also read: When the Political Elite Fails to Honour the Constitution in a Democracy

In those nine years I de-schooled myself. I learned about cross-cultural communication and about poverty, caste, and gender seen through the lens of those who suffer discrimination. I understood what prevents the poor from upward mobility. I learned from extremely intelligent working-class men and women.

I learned a lot from one woman in particularNaurti, who has stayed a friend for more than 40 years. She is Dalit, and a little younger than me. She was a wage worker when we first met. She chose to become literate, a labour leader who led the fight against unfair minimum wages, an acknowledged leader of womens rights, a computer operator, and a sarpanch. I was part of her campaign on minimum wages. I took the law to her through an awareness programme, and she organised the people. Finally, in 1983, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgement on minimum wagesSanjit Roy vs the Government of RajasthaninvokingArticle 14andArticle 23of the Constitution. Naurti has been a comrade and together we have fought against sati and rape, and for the RTI, MGNREGA, and other rights-based programmes. She is an extremely courageous woman, and we continue to be friends and equals.

At Tilonia, I learned about the need for an organisational structure for participatory management. It is critical to build democratic ways of functioning with equality. How do you facilitate participation and what are the non-negotiables? The first principle is that you have to listen, and you have to accept dissent. You must also accept that in order to reach a consensus, you have to give up something. This happens only if there is a structure to do so.

As I grew in my politics, I realised I didnt want to be adevelopment-wali. I wanted to be a participant in the struggles to access constitutional rights. I went to central Rajasthan to work with the workers and set up the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), along with like-minded friendsShankar Singh and Nikhil Dey. MKSS is asangharsh(struggle) based organisation. It is located in a mud hut in Devdungri and doesnt take any institutional funds. It is where the demand for the RTI was crafted and began, as did other struggles. It has been a long journey. At this moment, we arestruggling for an accountability law, and are on a yatra to all the 33 districts in Rajasthan to ask the government to implement its electoral promise. I still work and struggle.

Youve shown the country how to build a movement that has outsized impact. How do you build a movement and sustain it when you dont have institutional funding?

A funded movement is limiting. Mahatma Gandhi said that when you fight your own people, you must not at any point open yourself to the criticism that the battle is funded by vested interests. Funding must come from people whose battle is represented, or from supporters of the movements and campaigns. A campaign for equality is not a project.

Participatory movements and campaigns are affected by many variablesthe government that can put people in jail, the mafia that can beat them up, the societal and feudal structure that one has to navigate. It is impossible to tell exactly when something will happen.You cannot therefore predict the outcome of a campaign.

When you work with people there are three kinds of work:seva, nirman,andsangharsh.Sevais welfare or serviceproviding food to those who are starving or caring for those who are ill.Nirmanis developmentrunning schools or a womens skill programme. MKSSs work falls squarely in the third area ofsangharsh, or struggle. It is almost always political work in its broadest definitionthat of asking for constitutional rights within the framework of democratic participation.

All three ways of working are necessary to build a healthy society. The rights-based work done by organisations such as MKSS and theNarmada Bachao Andolanneed not necessarily have a big budget. It can be sustained by what we now call crowdfunding.

MKSS and I believe all struggles for equality are rooted in a political understanding. It is political not in the sense of competing for state power, but for realising constitutional rights. I am constitutionally enabled and mandated to fight this battle by the chapters on fundamental rights and the directive principles of state policy. In the course of the battle, we are not against the judiciary, the legislature, or the executive. But we demand that they function for the people, specifically in reference to constitutional norms.

At MKSS we draw the minimum agricultural wage as an honorarium. We are a small group of peoplearound 20 of us, and we have continued like this for more than 31 years. We live like the people we represent so that we know their hardships. We welcome and invite people to contribute to our movement in both kind and cash. We believe in asking for money from the people we represent. Firstly, because there is humility in the act of askingwe dont exist without the people and their contribution brings them dignity and closer to owning the issue. Secondly, they evaluate us and hold us accountable. If we do not deliver, we will not be supported.

Also read: Hamid Ansari, a Man with Indefatigable Hope and Courage to Speak the Truth

But money is less important than peoples participation. The 40-day longdharna (a peaceful demonstration) in Beawar in 1996 was a landmark in the struggle for the RTI, and was a story of peoples participation.We walked through 400 villages asking for support. Every family gave us five kilos of grain and four to six days of their time by joining us at thedharna. It became a high point of life in the town. Everybody congregated at thedharna site because it was full of energy. We ate there, lived there, and had events therepoetry readings, celebrations of Babasaheb Ambedkars birthday, Labour Day, and more.

The movement started as a working-class demand for the RTI to fight corruption and arbitrary use of power, and slowly expanded into understanding how essential it is for democratic functioning and the fact that its a constitutional value. As a friend of mine, S R Sankaran, an IAS officer, said, It is a transformatory law, because through the RTI you can realise other rightshuman rights, economic rights, social rights, and more.

People realised that transparency is an important way to fight corruption and arbitrary power. But if thatdharnain Beawar hadnt been sustained and supported financially and politically by the local residents and the trade unions, it could not have happened. That is the power of the collective voiceits the coming together of people, where weown the issue, it becomes our own fight, and when this transition happens, people are with you to struggle till the end.

How can you get different stakeholders, each of whom may have different goals, to align with your mission?

There are a few non-negotiables. First, ones own transparency and accountability must be an important component of our public life. I come from a privileged class by virtue of my birth and education. I work with very underprivileged people. When one is in a position of privilege, conversations have to begin by stating our probity and integrity, and with transparency. For example, there was a daily account of donations on a board at thedharnain Beawar.

Second, you have tobeequal, not just talk about equality. Deep down we have to understand that everybody is an equal, that everybody has a right to think, to talk, to be. A dilemma arises when you talk to people who do not share the same basic principles. If I am in discussion with a person who believes in caste, I should have the ability to start a dialogue with them about how completely illogical caste is. But unless we enter into a dialogue we really do not have true engagement, friendship, participation, and growth.

The Dalits and the poor taught me that for them any expression of equality meansstruggle, and the courage to confront.

We are losing our right to protest, the right to dissent, the right to access public spaces. And what is democracy if you dont have the public ear and public space. All of us must ask for the right to dissent in a democracy, the right to be heard. The problem with Indian democracy is that despite the presence of millions of voters, the pool of decision makers get smaller and narrower at the top. The voice at the bottom ceases to be heard. Decisions that affect millions of people are taken by a few, not in Parliament, not even in the Cabinet. MKSS believes that the street is our Parliament and our policy room. Thats where we go to protest and converse. When youre on the street, you communicate with people who are not exactly part of your campaign or movement. Thats the kind of stimulation you need to have a civil society movement. We filed a PIL in the Supreme Court to regain access to the Jantar Mantar, and were successful in July 2018 in regaining the use of public space to protest.

My generation was very fortunatewe were not denied the right to freedom of expression. We could say what we liked. Today, we are beginning at the drawing board to get a system of governance that allows free expression and freedom of speech, which are fundamental to a democracy.

Engaging other stakeholders is equally critical. The RTI movement involved everyonethe media, academia, lawyers, and others. MGNREGA would not have happened without economists such as Jean Drze, Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat Patnaik, and others who used fiscal arguments to counter the governments constant refrain of no money. The RTI law was drafted by Justice P B Sawant, an ex-Supreme Court judge and chair of the Press Council of India.

If you want anything to succeed, youhaveto involve a range of people. And you have to convince them about your ideathis must happen through public communication. Civil society is a target today because it amplifies the voices of justice and equality. We also have to understand that civil society is a large umbrella; its not just activists. It includes practically the entire population of India, because except for the state and the market, everyone else is civil society. We have to fight to sustain what we have.

What is your message for young people in India? How do we make sure that we dont waste the legacy that you and your fellow travellers have bequeathed us?

The right to freedom of expression is fundamental to everyones well-being. Any system that tries to repress and suppress this right denies not only a democratic or constitutional right, but also a human right. It denies the right to life and liberty. Hence, for many of us today, the major preoccupation is Indias democracy, global democracy, and the attack on the right to freedom of expression, on account of which so many young people have suffered.

The most important right being corroded in the last seven years is free speech and expression with equality. It is such an important part of life and an important guarantee of real democracy. And today we must regain whatever weve lost, and sustain whatever we have for a better future. It doesnt matter whether youre involved insangharsh,seva, ornirman, whether youre a small or large organisation, whether you are a woman or a man. It doesnt matter where youre located. The right to free speech and expression is fundamental for freedom and liberty.

In this new, contemporary India, young people have a big struggle ahead to regain this right. The RTI is critical because it has brought a sense of reassurance to the nation and to the eight million users of that right that we are sovereign. The closest any campaign has come to set the discourse on public ethics is perhaps the RTI. The MGNREGA, by bringing in social audit, has spread the ideas of transparency and accountability across the board. These two big campaigns of which I am a part not only fostered participation, but also translated an ethical principle into implementable policy. And thats critical. Because if you cant convert those principles into an implementable, practical, pragmatic, tangible reality, they only exist on paper.

Young people must also understand that there is no such thing as my work and your work. Theres simply work to be done. The issue should be far more important than our individual selves. We are all instruments that bring an issue alive. We all want to be recognised and acknowledgedits a human condition. But at what cost? Understanding that ones personal good lies within the general good is important.

Do you have any concluding thoughts for all of us?

We see an increasing slew of attacks against religious minorities, Dalits, and other marginalised communities. Civil society, which speaks out against oppression and amplifies the voices of the marginalised, is also under attack. Violence, instead of discussion and debate, has become a common response for settling disagreements. But what makes all this worse is the states covert and overt support for perpetrators of violence.

We need to nurture a culture of non-violence. Non-violence is born of tolerance, courage and a respect for life. It is a great Indian heritage, which is being undermined. We need to build forums for exchange of ideas and dialogue, which is what a constitutional democracy is all about.

I wish for a free and open society in which the young can function and do whatever they want to do without fear within the four corners of constitutional morality.

Finally, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the thousands of people who have contributed to my growth, reassuring me that there is goodness in humanity and that we all have roles to play as more equal, just people, and that we can bridge the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged. I hope that in the years I have to live, I never stop talking truth to power.

This article was originally published on India Development Review.

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Interview | 'We Are Losing Our Right to Protest': Aruna Roy - The Wire

We live in an age of discord and distrust, much of it fueled by the splintering of our media landscape and the sheer volume of circulating information and misinformation. But there is also a deeper fracturing of what we used to think of as national historical truths.

Over the past several years, significant reappraisals of our collective past have exploded in number. Reconstruction, which was always an inconvenient blemish on our redemptive Civil War saga, is now rightly seen as the systemic continuation of oppression that is was, for example. And the perceived unity of purpose of the Greatest Generation is now counterbalanced by a more rounded view of the ambivalence felt by many at home and the brutality felt on the battlefield.

In an era of falling statues and other icons, some Americans despair that we have lost our collective American narrative to cynical and/or negative portrayals that disconnect us from a healthy patriotism and one another. Others respond that we need such accounts to acknowledge past injustices and better legitimize our present society and government.

One thing is clear: Our revised annals are richer and more complex. As Diane Turner, curator of an Afro-American history collection at Temple University said recently, by being able to tell everybodys story, its good for the society as a whole Lets have these stories, because the more truth we have, the better it is. But with this ever-growing number of stories, might something also be lost?

One prominent American historian worried about this years ago. In a 1982 essay in Foreign Affairs appropriately titled The Care and Repair of Public Myth, William McNeill (author of sweeping histories such as The Rise of the West and Plagues and Peoples) feared discrediting old myths without finding new ones to replace them. He understood such myths not in a negative sense as imaginary or unverifiable, but as a peoples rendering of historical events that illuminates their worldview. To McNeill, a people without a full quiver of relevant agreed-upon statements, accepted in advance through education or less formalized acculturation, soon finds itself in deep trouble, for in the absence of believable myths, coherent public action becomes very difficult to improvise or sustain. In what he saw even then as an increasingly atomized environment that might cause societies to retreat to more narrow in-groups, McNeill beseeched thoughtful men of letters to create new, more inclusive forms of myth. We must do the best we can, he said, to survive in a world full of conflict by creating and sustaining the most effective public identities of which we are capable.

What narratives can contribute those broader identities today? They cannot simply be those of yesteryear, no matter how nostalgically (or misguidedly) some citizens may yearn for them. Nor can they be manufactured overnight. Their appeal must be expansive and inspirational, and their credibility strong. They must reflect not a yes, but orientation that effectively seeks to erase narrower identities, but a yes, and approach that affirms both larger affinities and more localized loyalties.

One starting point might be the continuing significance of our Declaration of Independence, with its twin themes of liberty and equality tracing a common ongoing quest of various American communities religious, racial, ethnic, disabled, and those of different sexual orientations to gain greater freedom and status. Another is our reputation for both commercial and social entrepreneurship: While this is often touted as emblematic of our communal freedom from the state, we are also blessed with a history of innovative government-funded research and development, infrastructure, public health and environmental programs that have generated freedom for improved societal well-being. And of course, there is our voluntarism and activism, which continues to inspire people around the world nearly 200 years after de Tocqueville commented on them.

Perhaps our apex narrative needs to be one of economic and social progress that admits flaws and tragedies, but traces a hopeful and persistent, if jagged, story of growth and learning. Such an account, informed by more humility (and maturity) than those trumpeting our purported New World innocence and self-righteousness, can help inoculate us not only against hubris and global overreach, but exceptionalism and ignorance of other countries histories. It might even make us more compassionate toward our forebears, whose transgressions, we tend to forget, were not informed by later knowledge and insights.

Our rejuvenated, more expansive public myths fewer in number, but also more modest and congruent with our current understanding of the world will require many different contributors (not simply men of letters), who are all part of our national mosaic. These myths will not, by themselves, dissipate the rancor that has swelled in the past decade. But they may be one way to help keep our conversations more constructive.

Malcolm Russell-Einhorn teaches in the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.___2022 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Commentary: The myths of the past no longer represent our world view - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel

Indian Youth Congress (IYC) today protested against the Central Government over RRB-NTPC examinations. The National President of IYC Srinivas BV alleged that the weapons of the BJP government are atrocities and crime.

Today, where there is a BJP government, there are atrocities against the youth. The double-engine government of Bihar is betraying the aspirations and hopes of the students. Police brutality on students protesting against malpractices in examination results exposes the authoritarian character of the government, said Srinivas.

He said, The Constitution of the country has given every citizen the right to protest, but the police personnel is beating up the students by entering hostels and lodges. On the eve of Republic Day, the police of Dictator Ajay Bisht has given a message to the youth of Uttar Pradesh that the right to protest has now been taken away in this republic, which is very condemnable.

Coming down heavily upon the BJP government, the IYC president said that the rights of the youth cannot be snatched away on the basis of sticks and bullets. Congress is with youth power, justice will be done. The dictatorship BJP government will not be able to win in the republic in front of this power of youth.

Srinivas demanded that the fake FIRs registered against students and teachers should be withdrawn immediately and Policemen who ruthlessly wield sticks should be suspended immediately.

There will be revolution across the country against the oppression of youth and the arrogance of BJP will be shattered. The youth will take their right to employment and the Indian Youth Congress is standing with them in their struggle, said IYC National Media In-charge Rahul Rao.

Excerpt from:

IYC protests against BJP led Central govt over RRB-NTPC examination - The Statesman

Dharamsala, January 22

An advocacy group working to promote democratic freedom for Tibetans has written to the NBC, the US broadcaster of the Olympics, urging it to include Chinas oppression in Tibet in their coverage of the Games.

With just weeks to go before the 2022 Winter Olympics, we trust you plan to roll out the usual coverage. But these will be no ordinary Games. The severe oppression, including of freedom of expression, which the Chinese government inflicts on Tibetans and others under its rule demands equal attention, said the letter by the International Campaign for Tibet.

The Winter Games are scheduled to open on February 4. As you are well aware, the Chinese government is one of the most brutal human rights abusers the world has seen in decades. Since falsely promising to improve its human rights record ahead of the last Beijing Olympics in 2008, China has cracked down viciously on Tibet, which Freedom House now ranks as the worlds least-free country alongside Syria.

In 2020, the US government also designated Chinas persecution of the Uyghurs as genocide. The US and other governments have imposed a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics in response to Beijing not abiding by international norms. Knowing this, the International Olympics Committee should have had the moral fiber to demand the Chinese government adhere to internationally upheld standards of freedom and human rights to deserve the Games.

That has not taken place. Now, as the designated broadcaster of the Games, the NBC, too, has an ethical responsibility as a defender of freedom, particularly that of expression, and must go beyond business as usual. IANS

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US broadcaster urged to expose Chinas oppression in Tibet - The Tribune India

Americans who cherish our countrys legacy are horrified by our headlong rush to war. America at its best was the very motor of world progress, higher living standards and peace.

That is our true national identity. We betray the better angels of our nature by making military threats against those who are advancing world powers, as we once were. We commit suicide when we dishonor historic agreements that keep the world safe from nuclear annihilation.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the U.S. promised Russian leaders that the U.S.-led military alliance known as NATO would not be extended eastward toward Russia. The transatlantic Globalist war-making faction broke this promise. NATO has moved eastward with eight new members, heavily armed and hostile to Russia. The U.S. installed a far-right anti-Russian regime in Ukraine on Russias border, and armed them for conflict.

China has been similarly ringed by threatening U.S. fleets and military bases.

Russia and China have made it plain they find this intolerable, and cannot permit it to go further.

The world is hurtling toward the unimaginable horror of nuclear war.

We must look soberly and deeply into U.S. history to see how our nation changed from a force for peace into an aggressive provocateur.

We were industrialized by progressive patriots. They won out against Southern slave-owners and imperial financiers who blocked American progress. The U.S. at its best boosted other nations to technological prowess.

Abraham Lincoln and his allies organized the greatest advances ever made in technology and living standards, and a long era of peace with the world. Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy sought a partnership with Russia to bring peace and a humane existence to all mankind.

America changed course after Kennedys murder. We gave up our industries and lost our skills. We gave power to unaccountable Globalist financiers. Their speculation and deindustrialization have bankrupted the Western world. Other powers are now rising who wont follow Globalist rules into poverty and national suicide.

The gravest danger now comes from America abandoning its own historic mission, which is to elevate the common man. Those who know history are especially challenged to act now, to speak out, so that we may protect the civilization that America at its best did so much to advance.

Over the past half century since Kennedys death, the United States, guided by a transatlantic war-making faction, has launched war after war, winning nothing and bringing chaos and suffering to countless millions.

George Washington led our Revolution against the British Empires invading armies. But as President, Washington sought peace with the world. He warned,

The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred is a slave to its animosity which lead[s] it astray from its duty and its interest. [This hatred] disposes each [country] more readily to offer insult and injury and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur The government makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim.

(Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796)

Abraham Lincoln as a congressman exposed the lies that President James Polk used to justify aggressive war against Mexico. (Lincolns Spot Resolutions, December 22, 1847). And just before he himself ran for President, Lincoln denounced war-makers as barbarians:

From the first appearance of man upon the earth the words stranger and enemy were almost synonymous. Long after civilized nations had defined robbery and murder as high crimes, and had affixed severe punishments to them, when practiced upon their own people it was deemed no offence, but even meritorious, to rob, and murder, and enslave strangers, whether as nations or as individuals To correct the evils which spring from want of sympathy among strangers is one of the highest functions of civilization.

(Lincoln, speech to Wisconsin Agricultural Fair, September 30, 1859).

As President, leading the defense of the Union against the slave-owners attack, Lincoln urged peace with the world:

With malice toward none; with charity for all let us do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

(Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865)

President Franklin Roosevelt organized the United Nations and proposed that world peace and poverty-fighting must be centered on continuing the anti-fascist partnership of the U.S., Russia, Britain and China.

The UN Charter begins,

We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war

This is the bedrock of real human rights, not a phony cover-up for regime-change.

President John Kennedy pulled the USA and Russia away from nuclear catastrophe by a deal that removed U.S. missiles from Turkey in exchange for Russian missiles taken out of Cuba.

Kennedy asked Americans to

re-examine our attitude toward the Soviet Union the American people [should] not fall into the same trap as the Soviets, to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, [with] communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.

No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievementsin science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.

[Our] two countries have [a] mutual abhorrence of war. [W]e have never been at war with each other. And no nation ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. A third of the nations territory, including nearly two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland

Today, should total war ever break out again all we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. We must conduct our affairs in such a way that it becomes in the Communists interest to agree on a genuine peace.

(Kennedy, Commencement Address at Washington University, June 10, 1963)

A pioneering international treaty partially banning nuclear weapons was soon thereafter signed by the U.S., U.S.S.R., and 100 nations.

President Kennedy fired top officials (Allen Dulles, CIA, and Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, Pentagon) who treacherously sabotaged U.S. peace policy. As he was working to prevent full-scale war in Vietnam, and seeking diplomatic ties with Cubas Fidel Castro, Kennedy was murdered.

Martin Luther King risked increased government oppression and even the condemnation of his civil rights allies when he took upon himself leadership of the movement against the Vietnam War.

Kings 1967 New York speech reaches out to us today and calls us to action.

I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours

Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing [anti-war] committees for the next generation [We will have war] without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy

[The] words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable

[The] Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries.

[We] call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond ones tribe, race, class, and nation an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation

A time comes when silence is betrayal

(Martin Luther King, Speech at Riverside Church, April 4, 1967)

Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy and King, who inspired America and the world, urge us not to remain silent when humanitys existence is threatened.

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The US Betrays Its Heritage by Threatening World War III Against Russia and China - PRESSENZA International News Agency

Not a week has passed since the military coup on 25 October 2021 without at least three major protests taking place across Sudan. Neighbourhood demonstrations are now daily events, and new forms of resistance are emerging everywhere. The coup government has responded violently: with gunfire, tear gas, alleged rape and sexual assault, raids on hospitals treating the injured, internet shutdowns, and by blocking roads with shipping containers.

Since the morning of the coup, the Sudanese people have been demanding the total removal of the military from their politics. International governments, meanwhile, have been keen to maintain some form of military rule in the country and are helping the military wage a war on its own people.

To understand the current situation in Sudan, we first need to understand the events that led to this point.

In December 2018, protests began across the country in response to rising living costs and deteriorating economic conditions. The following April, these protests culminated in the ousting of dictator President Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for almost 30 years.

People wave Sudanese flags and flash victory signs during a protest against Bashirs dictatorship, Khartoum, April 2019. Umit Bektas/Reuters

What followed was a transitional period of government: a military-civilian partnership with the stated aim of returning Sudan to democracy, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok a technocrat who had formerly worked for the UN. This government was backed by regional and international powers including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the US and the UK, alongside the IMF and the World Bank, which praised Hamdoks commitment to economic liberalisation.

One key event during the transitional period was the signing of the Juba peace deal a deal between the government and the armed movements involved in the conflict in Darfur. The result of this deal was that leaders of these movements were granted ministerial and government positions while the grievances that led to the conflict went unaddressed.

During this period, the movement on the ground in Sudan walked a fine line between prioritising their demands namely, forming a parliament, an end to the further de-subsidisation of basic goods, and justice for the martyrs of the revolution and, in fear of a collapse into total military rule, supporting the transitional government in spite of its economic liberalisation policies. These were policies that led to terrifying levels of inflation, such that the cost of living rose 300% in the year to October 2021.

By the autumn of 2021, a coup was in the air. In their speeches, military generals used the countrys economic deterioration as evidence of the failure of the civilian leadership and likely saw levels of public frustration at their living conditions as an indicator that a coup might succeed. On 25 October, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the military took control of the government, deploying military vehicles to the streets of the capital, arresting the civilian cabinet, shutting down the internet and disrupting radio broadcasting. Crucially, the coup found support among the leaders of armed movements who had joined the government after the Juba peace deal.

The movement, however, had been expecting the coup, staging protests against the takeover before it even happened. This was only possible because movements had been building on the ground for decades. Neighbourhood resistance committees, dating back to the 1990s, were revived during the 2018-19 uprisings to sustain the movement in the face of brutal state violence. These committees initially lacked clear politics and vision, but this developed during the transitional period in response to the failings of Hamdoks government. The first post-revolution budget, for example, acted as a catalyst for alliances between the neighbourhood resistance committees and labour committees. Together with allies in ministries and the civil service, these committees organised against the neoliberal budget, and forced the government to hold an economic conference to discuss the countrys spending priorities.

Protesters shout slogans as they demonstrate against the military coup, Khartoum, October 2021. Mohamed Nureldin/Reuters

On the morning of the coup, resistance committees launched mass protests demanding the total removal of the military from politics in Sudan. People took to the streets, closing them off with barricades and shouting anti-military chants. Over the following weeks, these protests became scheduled, and were held in strategic locations such as the presidential palace.

Since Bashirs dictatorship was overthrown, international governments including the UK have played a counter-revolutionary role in Sudan.

During the transitional period, western governments were satisfied with Hamdoks leadership, as he was implementing their policies of choice and paving the way for investment. They continued to support the implementation of economic liberalisation policies even as the conference on the countrys spending priorities was taking place. Interventions varied from tweets by the UKs ambassador to Sudan shamelessly calling for de-subsidisation, to agreements between the IMF and the Sudanese government confirming the implementation of these policies, rendering the ongoing conference pointless and thereby showing total disregard for the will of the Sudanese people.

This pattern continued in the aftermath of the coup. Calls for the total removal of the military from Sudanese politics were described as unrealistic by the US state department, while the UK ambassador put out a video calling for dialogue with the military generals. Indeed, the international communitys commitment to maintaining some form of military rule in Sudan went so far as to support an agreement between the military and the very same prime minister the military had overthrown late last year. Although the agreement meant keeping the generals in power, and was fiercely opposed by the people of Sudan, international diplomats, including the UN secretary general, kept calling on the people to accept it. They did not, nor did they stop protesting and their protests led to the agreements collapse.

This state of affairs in which the Sudanese resistance calls for the creation of new, inclusive and sustainable forms of governance, while international governments continue to push for the implementation of their pre-set, counter-revolutionary plan is still the basis of Sudanese politics today.

A new attempt to legitimise the coup and institutionalise the status quo is currently being led by Volker Perthes, the special representative of the UN secretary general for Sudan this time in the form of a dialogue process that includes all Sudanese political actors. This initiative comes at a time when the position of the resistance is no negotiation, no partnership, no legitimacy (the three nos against military rule). For the resistance movement, it is nothing but an attempt to blur the reality of the struggle in Sudan: for the people to have a chance at a life where their basic rights are protected, military rule, in all forms, must end. To support any kind of military intervention in Sudanese politics means condemning the people of Sudan to a life of injustice, oppression and violence. There is no middle ground both sides are fighting for their survival.

Predictably, international governments are supporting the dialogue initiative. The UK, USA, UAE and Saudi Arabia a new counter-revolutionary alliance calling itself The Quad issued a joint statement in its support. Notably, this alliance previously backed both a recommitment to the disastrous military civilian partnership and Juba agreement and the failed agreement between Hamdok and the military.

These statements show the Quads commitment to maintaining some form of military rule in Sudan. However, they also show a track record of support for failed initiatives. This failure isnt just the result of diplomats incompetency, but of a deeply flawed framework favoured by the international community. In this framework, only historical, commercial and military leaderships are viable. International players continue to imagine dreamworlds where agreements signed by leaders can stabilise nations regardless of whether or not these leaders have met the demands of the masses. While this may have achieved temporary stability under Bashir in the case of the national dialogue process in 2015, since then Sudan has been radically transformed by the countrys organised resistance. As such, so long as the dialogue initiative maintains its pro-military agenda, it is doomed.

Accordingly, the new initiative doesnt change much for Sudans resistance, which has committed to protesting regardless of how many diplomats call its goals unrealistic.

As opposed to the dialogue between leaders, whats important to the Sudanese resistance is the dialogue between the committees, labour groups and other grassroots organisations regarding a new, shared vision for the form of government they wish to establish. Over the last two months, several groups have published draft, individual visions, and the tools they intend to use to achieve them. The streets are now abuzz with news of joint declarations, which are expected in the coming weeks, and which would strengthen the Sudanese resistance in facing down counter-revolutionary forces.

Tyres burn on the ground asprotesters march against military rule, Khartoum, January2022. Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Perthes has described the situation in Sudan as a crisis. A statement from Mairno city resistance committee rejects this description, however it isnt a crisis, but a revolution.

This statement also directly appeals to people across the world to pressure their [] governments to align themselves with the goals of our people and criminalise the coup. Indeed, people worldwide can show solidarity with the revolution by uncovering how international governments are intervening in Sudan, rejecting their counter-revolutionary initiatives, and amplifying the voices of the resistance. With this solidarity, the people of Sudan can win this war, and a chance at a decent future.

Muzan Alneel is a co-founder of the Innovation, Science and Technology Think Tank for People-Centred Development Sudan and a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

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The West is Waging War on the Sudanese Revolution - Novara Media

GABY RUSLI WRITES Faith teaches us that all men are created equal, yet we choose to enslave one another. European empireshave colonized almost every country globally, and while colonialism has been linked to progress, it has left nations scarred and changed. For Indonesia, the foreign occupation has inspired a romantic and patriotic generation. A youth that fought back through warfare, inspiring literature, and original political ideals, all of which are reflected most authentically by Pramoedya Ananta Toer in the classic novel,This Earth of Mankind(1996).

Minke is an exemplary student of Javanese descent studying at the prestigious Dutch school at the turn of the 19th century. He meets Annelies Mellema, an innocent girl of Javanese and Dutch background from a wealthy family, and her progressive Javanese mother, Nyai Ontosoroh, a concubine who oversees the Mellema estate. Minke faces personal and societal challenges, being a highly educated Native exposed to foreign ideals in a place that implements a caste system and utilizes language as a tool of oppression and slavery. His love for Annelies and association with the Mellema family further complicates his position and helps him find his identity.

This Earth of Mankind is the first book of Pramoedya Ananta Toer in his series of books known as the Buru Quartet. It was written when Toer was a political prisoner on the island of Buru under the Suharto administration after the 1965 failed Communist coup detat. Toer was not a communist but faced censorship from the native government. They feared that Toer would spread foreign ideals to the people of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia. He was not permitted pen and paper while imprisoned. That did not stop Toer from reciting the stories orally to fellow prisoners in the Buru Island (hence the name Buru Quartet) until the stories were eventually written and smuggled out. His works were banned in Indonesia until 2000 but were translated into numerous languages and considered classics outside Indonesia.

This Earth of Mankindis as extraordinary as the lengths it took to be written. No one can more beautifully capture the solidarity among Indonesians than Toer. In the face of systemic oppression and separation, Minke and Annelies story embodies the Indonesian peoples arduous struggle for independence in a land that is rightfully theirs. One witnesses the spreading support by Dutch, mixed, and natives alike at a time when colonialism was rapidly coming to an end as modernization was inevitable.

The residual effect of colonialism remains in the culture of Indonesia today, where separation of races continues to exist in covert forms, and selfish abuse of power is conducted by those left in charge. Toers imprisonment, censorship, and exposure to other political ideals made him an outsider in his own country but allowed him to see Indonesia in a brutally honest light. He reminds one that victory is not always necessary to advance. Toers legacy remains the quintessential example of Indonesian ingenuity, which makes one honored to be an Indonesian.

New Book Reviewer, Gaby Rusli, is an LMU International Relations graduate and environmentalist who is passionate about Indonesian and Southeast Asian political affairs.

Edited by book review editor-in-chief, Ella Kelleher.

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BOOK REVIEW: THIS EARTH OF MANKIND (1996) BY PRAMOEDYA ANATA TOER THE AWAKENING OF A NATION ENSLAVED IN ITS OWN LAND - Asia Media International