Category Archives: Government Oppression

The Feminist Know-It-All: You know her. You cant stand her.Good thing shes not here!Instead, this column by gender and womens studies librarian Karla Strand will amplify stories of the creation, access, use and preservation of knowledge by women and girls around the world; share innovative projects and initiatives that focus on information, literacies, libraries and more; and, of course, talk about all of the books.

Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

The aims of these lists are threefold:

Happy Summer!

I hope youve been able to enjoy some time doing things you love and that leave you feeling refreshed and recentered. With all the uncertainty and injustice in our daily lives, we each need to find ways to unplug and recharge. Of course, one way to do this is unwind with a great book. This list gives you 37 to choose from this month, from dark mysteries to feminist fantasies to gripping historical fiction.

As we head into the dog days, take care of yourself, and others.

By Naomi Hirahara (@gasagasagirl). Soho Crime. 312 pages. Out now.

Centering a young woman investigating the suspicious death of her older sister, this immersive true-crime historical mystery novel takes place in Chicago in 1944, at the height of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Written by Sheng Keyi (@shengkeyi)and translated by Shelly Bryant. Restless Books. 384 pages. Out now.

An immersive satiric statement on government oppression and the resistance that often explodes in its wake, this volume is banned in China for its allusions to the Tiananmen Square massacre.

By Cristalle Psalm One Bowen (@psalmone). Haymarket Books. Out now.

In her engaging memoir, legendary hip hop trailblazer Cristalle Psalm One Bowen shares her remarkable story of growing up, making music, battling homophobia and misogyny, and making peace.

By Shugri Said Salh (@shugrisalh). Algonquin Books. 304 pages. Out now.

A natural storyteller, Shugri Said Salh was born in the Somali desert and has endured war, refugee camps, loss and oppressive traditions on her way to finding her home.

By Victoria Lee (@sosaidvictoria). Delacorte Press. 384 pages. Out now.

If youre a dark academia fan, this one is for you. Of course, it has an old boarding school, murders and magic, but its also got thought-provoking depth, bold twists and engaging queer main characters.

By Jadie Jang (@seelight). Solaris. 405 pages. Out now.

Jadie Jangs kaleidoscopic debut is a fresh, original take on the Chinese mythical figure the Monkey King, repackaged in a spellbinding urban fantasy.

By Carolina De Robertis (@caroderobertis). Knopf. 224 pages. Out now.

Always surprising and unique, Carolina De Robertis has written a tale of hope and resilience found within the depths of despair by a Latin American president jailed in solitary confinement except for one thing: a frog.

By Anita Kopacz (@anitakopacz). Black Privilege Publishing. 224 pages. Out now.

In this captivating debut, Anita Kopacz tells a tale of Yemaya, an Orsha of the Yoruban people, during the mid-1800s. From Africa to the Americas, Yemaya makes a harrowing journey to find a man and, ultimately, her true self.

By Kaia Alderson (@kaiawrites). William Morrow. 400 pages. Out now.

Based on the true story of the the Six Triple Eight, the only all-Black battalion of the Womens Army Corps, this engrossing debut historical fiction highlights the bravery, sisterhood and strength of these little-known heroes.

Written by Jamia Wilson (@jamiaw) and illustrated by Aurelia Durand (@4ur3lia). Frances Lincoln Childrens Books. 160 pages. Out now.

Gorgeously illustrated, this volume explains feminism, intersectionality, identity, wellness and more in engaging and accessible prose. Pick up this gem for the budding feminists of all genders in your life who are joiningand reimaginingthe fight against the patriarchy!

By Chandra Prasad (@chandrabooks). Soho Teen. 360 pages. Out now.

When you mix mercury with old daguerreotypes in Chandra Prasads latest YA novel, the boy in the photo will come alive in your dreams. At least thats what happens to Saskia and her friends until things start to unravel.

Written by Zoe Mendelson (@youngzokeziah) and illustrated by Maria Conejo (@maria_conejo). Hachette Go. 432 pages. Out now.

Accompanied by Maria Conejos beautiful illustrations, Zoe Mendelson has written an astonishingly informational volume about the pussy, which they redefine in a new wonderfully gender- and organ-inclusive way.

By Sara Nisha Adams (@saranishaadams). William Morrow. 384 pages. Out now.

This remarkably readable debut is a testament to the connective and comforting power of books.

Edited and translated by Melanie Magidow (@MelanieMagidow). Penguin Classics. 208 pages. Out now.

Tracing Princess Fatimas heroic journey from orphan to legendary warrior, this Arabic classic is available now for the first time in English.

By LaTanya McQueen (@LT_MCQ). Harper Perennial. 256 pages. Out now.

This skillfully constructed debut takes on the attempts to erase violent and oppressive histories of spaces and places when a group of old friends attends a wedding at a former plantation.

By Nafiza Azad (@nafizaa). Margaret K. McElderry Books. 352 pages. Out now.

The Wild Ones are a group of magical teenage girls who are determined to save the life of Taraana in this captivating feminist fantasy.

By DaShaun L. Harrison (@DaShaunLH). North Atlantic Books. 152 pages. Out August 10.

Dont let this slim volume deceive you, for it is a powerful and necessary examination of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness from a fat, Black, disabled and nonbinary trans writer extraordinaire.

By YZ Chin (@yz_chin). Ecco. 320 pages. Out August 10.

Centering a young Malaysian immigrant searching for her husband after his mysterious disappearance, this sharp post-Tr*mp debut explores immigration, relationships and identity.

By Tracy Swinton Bailey. Other Press. 192 pages. Out August 10.

Language and literacy educator Tracy Swinton Bailey has written this part-memoir, part-guide to supporting low-income children in reading, based on her after-school and summer program, Freedom Readers.

By Raquel Vasquez Gilliland (@poet_raquelvgil). Simon & Schuster BYR. 432 pages. Out August 10.

Raquel Vasquez Gilliland returns with a magnetic road trip romance thats as much about self-love as it is about first love.

By Leila Slimani. Penguin. 320 pages. Out August 10.

Set in Morocco during and after WWII, this nuanced and elegantly written story explores themes of colonialism, race, family and belonging.

By Rafia Zakaria (@rafiazakaria). W. W. Norton & Company. 256 pages. Out August 17.

American Muslim woman, attorney and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria has written this unflinching and necessary indictment of white feminism and demand for a more radical, inclusive, transnational Black and Brown feminism.

By Shannon Price (@spricewrites). Tor Teen. 304 pages. Out August 17.

This epic YA fantasy debut is full of shapeshifters, thrilling adventures and badass warrior women.

By Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint (@thiriimkm). Graywolf. 176 pages. Out August 17.

Winner of the 2018 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, this is a unique and meditative memoir exploring time, absence, family and the legacy of colonialism.

By Jordan Ifueko (@jifueko). Amulet Books. 336 pages. Out August 17.

Tarasai is back and bound to survive the trials and terrors of being the Empress Redemptor in this remarkably written fantasy sequel.

By Nichole Perkins (@tnwhiskeywoman). Grand Central Publishing. 272 pages. Out August 17.

In this Roxane Gay Audacious Bookclub Pick, Nichole Perkins examines media and its effects on Black womens lives through a series of hilarious, poignant and reflective essays.

By Silvia Moreno-Garcia (@silviamg). Del Rey. 304 pages. Out August 17.

Following up on her massive bestseller Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia has written a slow burn noir mystery about a lonely secretary and a quirky stranger searching for a missing woman in the political unrest of 1970s Mexico City.

By Jennifer C. Nash. Duke University Press. 264 pages. Out August 20.

Duke University professor Jennifer C. Nash presents this essential examination of Black motherhood and its layered complexities of representation, performance, gaze, critique, precarity and politics.

By Tina M. Campt. MIT Press. 232 pages. Out August 24.

In this beautiful volume, Black feminist theorist of visual culture and contemporary art Tina M. Campt disrupts the normative passivity applied to art and artistry to build an (inter)active, intimate, radical and necessary Black gaze.

By Honore Fanonne Jeffers (@BlkLibraryGirl). Harper. 816 pages. Out August 24.

This is the utterly remarkable fiction debut of award-winning poet Honore Fanonne Jeffers, which centers a young girl who explores her own identity through her familys sweeping legacy from slavery, through the Civil War to the present.

By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (@rdunbaro). Beacon Press. 392 pages. Out August 24.

In this hard-hitting volume, Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the nation of immigrants narrative and reveals the true intention behind this trope: to mask the truth of white supremacy, settler colonialism and genocide.

By Margo Tamez (Lipan Apache) (@indigifem). Turtle Point Press. 152 pages. Out August 31.

By experimenting with form and fusion of Indigenous knowledges of time, memory and tradition, Margo Tamez recreates understandings of identity bound by generations of violence, trauma and genocide.

By Kathryn Bond Stockton. MIT Press. 256 pages. Out August 31.

In this slim volume, the latest in MITs Essential Knowledge Series, Stockton presents an accessible, witty and contemporary examination of the true queerness of genders and gendering.

By Krystale E. Littlejohn (@drklittlej). University of California Press. 184 pages. Out August 31.

This is a well-researched and much-needed historical and contemporary exploration of the unjust (cis)gendered aspects of birth control, pregnancy and reproductive autonomy.

By Kia Corthron. Seven Stories Press. 592 pages. Out August 31.

In her absorbing and original second novel, Kia Corthron examines racism, family and identity through the eyes of Theo, a young biracial orphan growing up in mid-19th century New York City. You wont soon forget this one.

By Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa. University of Hawaii Press. 288 pages. Out August 31.

The untimely passing of Dr. Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa (Banaban/I-Kiribati/Fiji Islander/African American) in 2017 devastated those who knew and admired her. In tribute to an extraordinary life cut short, this volume presents fifteen of Teaiwas most influential works in Pacific, Native and gender studies as well as four of her poems.

By Jo Hamya. Mariner Books. 208 pages. Out August 31.

Focused on a young woman who longs for a room of her own, this debut is a sharp statement on Millennial disenfranchisement and poverty.

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August 2021 Reads for the Rest of Us - Ms. Magazine

On July 27th, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to India, where he met with key leaders in the nation and discussed the close relationship between the two countries. The following day, Blinken and Indias Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, held a meeting over the international security partnership shared by both states, monetary relief for the coronavirus pandemic, global democracy, and the future of Afghanistan.

These conversations succeeded in furthering the connection between India and the United States, building upon their mutual goals of peace and stability. However, one pressing issue of freedom escaped meaningful discussion: human rights within India itself.

In recent years, India has come under scrutiny for the human rights concerns that prevail in the country. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so-called anti-terrorist laws have marred Indian civil society, and governmental actions that incite religious discrimination have left minority groups in dangerous positions. According to the 2020 India Report on Human Rights Practices from the U.S. Department of State, issues in the region consist of extrajudicial killings, torture, political prisoners, restrictions on freedom of the press and expression, child labour, and further national offences.

Religious intolerance on a governmental level, combined with internal corruption, has shaped much of the violence that has been seen under the Modi administration. Muslims, the countrys most significant minority, have been targeted by legislative restrictions, including a religion-based citizenship law, and subject to discriminatory attacks due to Hindu nationalism. Additionally, in a report from the Human Rights Watch, problems in India have been detailed to include punishment for political opposition, the use of internet shutdowns to control social protest, and attacks on reporters and human rights organizations.

Concern over the increasing absence of human rights in India has been raised many times. Multiple international actors have called upon the Indian government to treat its citizens more acceptably. However, these external responses to the South Asian countrys humanitarian abuses lack substance. Almost every major nation and organization has failed to push past verbal criticism in addressing the issue. As a result, Indias injustice has received replies deficient of strength and efficacy.

These empty condemnations come from even the biggest proponents of democracy and human rights in the world. Despite the promise Antony Blinken gave to discuss Indias human rights record, the shallow conversation remained in line with the objective of the United States, which was to keep India as a close ally. Criticism from the European Union, the United Nations, multiple NGOs, and other international powers have been met with hostility. The situation is aggravated by the fact that Prime Minister Modis government continues to deny wrongdoing. According to Reuters, in reference to Blinkens plan to confront Indian leaders about the humanitarian concerns in the country, the foreign ministry of India said that nation was proud of its pluralistic traditions and happy to discuss the issue with the U.S. Secretary of State.

Attempts to deal with problems in India are consistently obstructed by political dealings, which result in ineffective responses that are seen from around the world. The relationship between India and the United States is an example of this. Antony Blinken stated that there are few relationships in the world that are more vital than one between the U.S. and India. We are the worlds two leading democracies and our diversity fuels our national strength.

Indias current condition, however, challenges this assertion. The blatant attacks and disregard for fundamental aspects of democratic systems and values do not demonstrate much credibility. According to Amnesty International, critics of the government, journalists, students, and human rights activists have all faced severe maltreatment, including arbitrary arrests and harassment from police. The human rights violations that have transpired, especially regarding political opponents and restrictions on universal freedoms, dispute the idea that India is indeed a reliable democratic institution. Despite these occurrences, there is an apparent lack of consequences for the South Asian country, much of which has political grounds.

Inconsequence is where the problem lies in addressing Indias human rights record. The hollow pressure placed upon Modis government has not worked and is unlikely to in the future. There is no significant determination to resolve the issuethat absence of repercussions only threatens to cause further damage to human rights in India. With no real consequences, Prime Minister Modi and his party can persist in abusing Indian citizens. While countries and organizations worldwide condemn India and its prejudicial activities, there is little effort upon outside actors to encourage lasting change in the country; they have other priorities.

With the unsuccess of spoken disapproval becoming evident, finding a practical solution is increasingly necessary. Due to the complexities of global politics, this is not a simple endeavour with a straightforward answer. As is recognized by the international community, India holds significant power in the modern world. With the rise of China and the United States attempts to counteract their gain, India presents itself as a critical ally. Furthermore, despite the flaws that their system holds, India still has the largest population of any democracy. This status makes confrontation difficult. Anything more than verbal disapproval puts vital international relationships at risk.

For there to be improvements in human rights in India, an alternative approach is required. Promoting the genuine acceptance of diversity and countering the Modi governments violent policies will need something more than vague phrases. Monitoring and reporting on human rights in India, and the subsequent large-scale presentation of those findings, can help improve the situation. Although this is important, it is not enough. Among other incentives to develop human rights, requirements built into trade deals can address the dilemma. Using a more direct manner to confront the issues within Indias government, like that of monetary and political punishments, is another strategy that could prompt change. However, these options run the risk of economically and physically damaging the citizens of India, the very people these actions intend to protect. Therefore, a different solution is needed to create a situation in which possible change will occur.

One option is to discredit Indias standing as a stable democracy. Losing that status, even informally, is dangerous and holds more political risks for the administration than it does for the Indian population. Accountability is then placed on the abusers, the current government, as opposed to people, who should not endure added suffering for the humanitarian crimes of their leaders. It does not threaten peace or stability to an exceptional degree and only creates an environment of subversive shame that carries the potential to advance Indian human rights. If enacted by a considerable number of world authorities, this might have the power to push India into stability. When aligned with international organizations that address other societal concerns, like Hindu nationalism, reducing the human rights offences in India is an attainable ideal.

Undertaking the problem of human rights in India is crucial. People continue to be hurt by aggressive policies and governmental actions, and the lack of a substantial response by international actors only amplifies the issue. The violation of human rights is not limited to being an immediate danger, eitherthese abuses can be gateways to further violence and insecurity. Whether the result is destructive government oppression or a civil uprising, infractions on human rights can imperil the nations future. Thus, protecting human rights is as much a current affair as it is a preventive one. The government must take it seriously, and that means acting beyond empty and ineffective words.

Originally posted here:

The Concern Over Human Rights In India The Organization for World Peace - The Organization for World Peace

Mehbooba Mufti and PDP have been very vocal in their opposition to the abrogation of Article 370.

On the second anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti said, "When unbridled oppression is unleashed and gross injustice heaped there is no other choice but to resist to exist."

"No words or pictures are enough to depict the pain, torment & upheaval inflicted upon J&K on this black day two years ago. When unbridled oppression is unleashed & gross injustice heaped there is no other choice but to resist to exist," Mehbooba Mufti said in a tweet.

"Today is a day of mourning for J&K. BJP government started oppression, barbarism in 2019. It is unfortunate that BJP is celebrating while Kashmir is mourning. We will resist this. We will force the government to speak to Pakistan to address external dimensions," Mehbooba Mufti said.

"August 5 will always be a negative milestone in the history of J&K. It was a political and psychological setback for the people of J&K," Khursheed Alam of the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference said.

Other mainstream political parties also have taken a public stand against the revocation of the special status but have given more importance to the restoration of statehood.

Read: 2 years without Article 370: How it changed Jammu and Kashmir, 5 points

The Gupkar in a statement also said since the last two years, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have suffered the most.

"August 5 marks the completion of two years since the unprecedented assault on the Constitution of India. By demolishing the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, the Government has crossed all the limits of constitutionality," Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, spokesperson of the Gupkar alliance said.

On August 5, 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced a proposal in Parliament for ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two Union Territories.

Mehbooba Mufti and PDP have been very vocal in their opposition to the abrogation of Article 370.

Read: Mood sombre in Srinagar on anniversary of Art 370 abrogation

Click here for IndiaToday.ins complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Continued here:

No other choice but to resist to exist: Mehbooba Mufti on anniversary of Art 370 abrogation - India Today

Police officers request entry to a mosque in Changji outside Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China on May 6, 2021.

THOMAS PETER/Reuters

Christopher White is the minister at Kedron United Church in Oshawa, Ont., and a writer for Broadview Magazine.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston is a senior fellow with the Graduate School for Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa.

Canadians are now quite familiar with the many dimensions of the horrific repression of the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region of China including brainwashing, torture, rape, forced sterilization and even deaths in the so-called re-education camps. And yet the organized churches in Canada have been strangely silent. Their voices in the face of ongoing injustices against religious and cultural minorities in China are needed now.

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The mass transportation of Uyghurs to factories all over China as forced labour implicates any countries whose companies have products made there. Parliament unanimously recognized that these acts constitute genocide and our government, acting with the U.S., U.K. and EU, imposed sanctions against four senior officials and an infrastructure corporation involved in the repression in Xinjiang.

Buddhists have known similar repression in the country for decades. Practitioners of the spiritual movement Falun Gong are routinely imprisoned, and often face torture and death in unthinkable circumstances. Muslims from the Hui ethnic group in Chinas Gansu province and Ningxia region have seen the domes on mosques demolished, and public use of Arabic script banned.

Measures are now expanding to other religions and cultures across the country in a campaign of Sinicization of all aspects of religion, giving the state and Communist Party control. It is now prohibited to transmit religion to anyone under the age of 18, and formal schooling in minority languages the cultural glue of many religions has been curtailed on the basis that it is unconstitutional, resulting in protests, teacher strikes and arrests in Inner Mongolia.

In addition to these injustices, people running the informal Christian house churches across China Protestant and Catholic groups with a few members meeting in someones home have been detained in transformation facilities in basements with no windows, ventilation or time allowed outdoors. Those who do not admit their mistakes are kept in solitary confinement with the objective of making them renounce their faith. Christians are often held in these facilities for nine months or more, subjected to beatings and mental torture. Ministers of these house churches have been detained with no charges for up to ten years.

The so-called official Christian churches are permitted to exist for now on sufferance, but they too are going through changes imposed by the state. Authorities control appointments, publications, finances and seminary applications. Ministers walk on eggshells when it comes to what they are permitted to say, with some detained and charged with inciting subversion. Crosses have been torn off churches, the Ten Commandments replaced with quotes from Chinas leader Xi Jinping, and photos of him have been placed strategically in church sanctuaries.

With mounting evidence concerning the repression of Uyghurs, the Canadian Muslim organization Justice for All Canada wrote a letter demanding action from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It was signed by individual Christian churches, but not by the Canadian Council of Churches, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada or denominations such as the United Church, the Anglican Church, nor the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Vaticans limited role in China appears to come at the cost of silence in the face of human rights abuses.

The organized churches in Canada are normally very engaged around issues of persecution and injustice, and now with both Muslim and Christian religions affected, they have an important role to play in speaking out before their affiliated churches in China are gone. This is a discussion that each congregation across Canada should be having. Remaining silent will not protect churches in China or cause the Beijing regime to cease their Sinicization of religion. Rather, it empowers them to move forward.

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Churches should also join the Muslim community in speaking out about the Uyghur genocide. It is critical that all Canadians, including Christian organizations, speak out in support of our Muslim friends, families and neighbours. Taha Ghayyur, executive director of Justice for All Canada, maintains that churches and faith institutions have a vital role as important allies in the fight to end the Uyghur genocide.

During the 1930s and 1940s, many Christians spoke up when there were disturbing stories about what the Jews and others were enduring in Nazi Germany. Other Christians chose to remain silent. Further, churches were silent for too many decades about residential school atrocities in our own country. With the chilling stories now coming out of China, the choice of silence is the choice to support the oppressor.

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Canadian churches shouldnt remain silent on religious oppression in China - The Globe and Mail

Women who cross internal provincial borders and migrate across international borders are largely driven by deeply entrenched inequalities and systemic unemployment. (Photo: UN Photo / Albert Gonzalez Farran / globaljustice.or.uk / Wikipedia)

Sharon Ekambaram is head of the Refugee and Migrants Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights.

The architecture of apartheid and its twin brother, white colonisation, was crafted and designed with racism and sexism woven into the very fabric of society. There is an urgent need to build an international anti-racist movement that prioritises the dismantling of patriarchy.

Exploitation and discrimination based on race, class and gender are opportunistically used to fuel the excessive drive for profits through the commodification of life, spearheaded by the likes of the extraction industry and finance capital, in collusion with states.

One piece of this puzzle is the experience of women who migrate. The International Organization for Migration reported that 272 million people 130 million of them women were living in a country not of their birth in 2019.

It is critical that we speak about the triple oppression of black African women. This article focuses on the plight of women who migrate and locates it in the broader struggles of black African working women in South Africa.

Missing data

Women who cross internal provincial borders and migrate across international borders are largely driven by deeply entrenched inequalities and systemic unemployment. The reason policy is not informed by this critical fact relates to the failure of states to produce disaggregated data on migration a particularly severe oversight in South Africa, where this data should help address poverty and eradicate inequality.

We do not know why and how many people are migrating. We do not know how many are women and what compelled them to leave their places of birth to move to another country, often exposing themselves and their children to harsh conditions where they can be victims of heinous crimes and acts of violence.

Yet the very act of moving reflects agency and requires taking a stand. Research reflects that in recent decades, women are migrating to wealthy countries to become breadwinners themselves, rather than to join family. Women are also migrating to leave abusive relationships or oppressive conditions in their communities. If we had readily available disaggregated data we would be able to develop appropriate responses and allocate resources to alleviate their indignity, suffering and pain.

Governments scapegoating

The lack of such data is an opportunistic oversight on the part of the South African government and in particular the Department of Home Affairs. It feeds the narrative that South Africa is flooded with migrants who come to the country to give birth and are the cause of the overcrowded conditions in our public healthcare facilities.

Dr Aaron Motsoaledi made this statement when he was still health minister:

The weight that foreign nationals are bringing to the country has got nothing to do with xenophobia its a reality. Our hospitals are full, we cant control them. When a woman is pregnant and about to deliver a baby you cant turn her away from the hospital and say you are a foreign national. And when they deliver a premature baby, you have got to keep them in hospital. When more and more come, you cant say the hospital is full, now go away they have to be admitted, we have got no option and when they get admitted in large numbers they cause overcrowding [and] infection control starts failing.

Not once did the minister refer to the exact numbers of foreigners accessing public healthcare facilities in South Africa. This is a clear example of the scapegoating of migrant women. There is no mention that posts in public healthcare facilities have been frozen, going back to 2016, because of budget cuts. The ratio of patient to healthcare provider is increasing exponentially in these conditions.

Impact of corruption

No mention is made of the impact on the quality of healthcare due to the scourge of corruption, which is endemic in the Gauteng health department.

Currently under investigation is the allegation that a R139-million contract was awarded to Thandisizwe Diko, the husband of suspended presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko. Patronage politics and the mismanagement of funds are causing the crisis in the public health system, not an influx of foreigners. Money is being stolen and redirected, as opposed to being invested in improving the quality of care for predominantly black African people who use the system.

South Africa is more than two decades into democracy, but inequality remains high in many sectors, with the health sector the most affected.If politicians admitted the truth they would undoubtedly lose votes. It is much easier to blame foreigners and conceal their own failings.

Saving her own life

Women come from neighbouring countries to give birth in our public hospitals because many risk dying during childbirth back home. Every day about 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 99% of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries. Malawi, for example, has one of the highest maternal death ratios globally an estimated 439 per 100,000 live births.

According to the World Health Organizations Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of 2019, Zimbabwe has a maternal mortality ratio of 462 deaths per 100,000 live births, and a neonatal mortality rate of 32 deaths per 1,000 live births. The number of women dying in childbirth is astronomically high in the Southern African Development Community region.

This is what the South African government should be addressing, instead of making xenophobic statements scapegoating the tiny minority of our sisters from the region for burdening our public health facilities.

The crisis, including high maternal mortality, speaks to the social invisibility of black African women because they have been condemned as undeserving of the dignity and respect afforded other human beings. This invisibility is informed by deep race, class and gender prejudice.

Gendered response to migration

More than ever, we need to have a gendered response to the movement of people in the Southern African Development Community region one that takes into account the plight of women fleeing countries like Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rape is used as a weapon of war.

Are we as a country ensuring that we are providing protection for people who are persecuted and risk being killed because of their sexual orientation? South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, including a Bill of Rights that stipulates the rights of all people living in the country, not just citizens.

The equality clause states under Section 3:

The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

The values enshrined in our Constitution speak to a sacrosanct respect for the human rights and dignity of all who live in South Africa. This is what should inform the letter of policy and its implementation. The improvement of the quality of life for black African women should be prioritised because this significant portion of our countrys population continues to suffer triple oppression.

Bearing the brunt of Covid-19

As humanity deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, it is timeous that we use this catastrophe to reflect on its gendered impact.

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing has produced research on informal work in the context of the pandemic, which confirmed there is a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable in society who do informal work to survive. It accounts for more than 60% of all global employment and 90% of employment in developing countries, the International Labour Organization reported in 2018.

The sectors severely affected by Covid-19 are those that mostly employ women in a supportive and caring capacity, a role historically assigned to them. The research findings show that in cities across the world, home-based workers and domestic workers were severely affected, with many losing already precarious work and others put at greater risk of Covid-19 infection.

What is needed is systemic change. The current response is inadequate and fails to address the core problem. There is an urgent need to flip the script and frame the global crisis to expose the core problems of racism and socioeconomic inequalities as they affect black African women. DM/MC

Sharon Ekambaram is head of the Refugee and Migrants Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights. This op-ed is part of the Liliesleaf and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences launch of Women in the Struggle: 1950-1965, an online exhibition commemorating the significant role of South African women in the struggle for freedom and democracy.

As we mark Womxns Day on 9 August 2021, we remember all those who lost their lives prematurely in the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected our global community. The high price we are paying as a society was made real to me with the loss of Vanessa Jane Merckel, one of my closest friends. She was a sister to me, as well as a comrade and a formidable leader in our struggle for social justice. I pay tribute to her life and her legacy as a beautiful, loving and caring mother, an incredible human being and a strong fighter for womxns rights. She was a lecturer at the University of Johannesburg and in the week of her Covid-19 diagnosis in June, she received news that her PhD had been accepted. As a lecturer, she spoke about the values that we need to embrace for social equality, respect in our diversity and the critical need for community participation. May her soul rest in peace and in power.

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SAs mistreatment of migrant women highlights the triple oppression of black African women everywhere - Daily Maverick

Political fallout from the exposure of government use of the Israeli-based NSO Pegasus spyware continued last week as protesters rallied to demand the resignation of the right-wing government in Hungary.

On July 26, approximately 1,000 people organized by opposition political parties demonstrated at the House of Terror museum in Budapest in response to revelations that the Hungarian government had been using the spyware to monitor the activity of journalists, businesspeople and politicians. The House of Terror museum is housed in the building where individuals were interrogated, tortured and murdered and contains exhibits about the victims of both the fascist and Stalinist regimes in the twentieth century.

The protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbn and Justice Minister Judit Varga, who has the authority under Hungarian law to sign off on secret surveillance without judicial oversight.

The events in Budapest were touched off by investigative reporting two weeks ago from a consortium of 16 media outlets called the Pegasus Project that analyzed leaked documents showing that more than 50,000 individuals had been targeted by the software and potentially had their smartphones hacked and transformed into 24-hour per day surveillance devices. Among the countries these individuals come from are Hungary, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Azerbaijan, India and France.

The software firm NSO Group developed Pegasus ostensibly as a tool for stopping terrorists and criminals, but instead the leaked information showed that the numerous government customers of the Israeli firm were using the malware to spy on major political figures including sitting president and prime ministers and monarchs.

Headed up by the Paris-based Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, the Pegasus Projectwhich also includes the Washington Post and the Guardian performed forensic analysis on the smartphones of some of the individuals on the Pegasus target list and showed that their devices exhibited evidence of either hacking attempts or successful spyware installation.

While the leaked information included the phone numbers of approximately 300 Hungarian citizens, the forensic analysis demonstrated that Pegasus had been used to break into the smartphones of at least five Hungarian journalists. According to InsightHungary, for example, the smartphones of Szabolcs Panyi and Andrs Szab of investigative reporting outfit Direkt36, had been broken into. The phones of opposition politician Gyrgy Gmesi who leads the New Start Party and Jnos Banti of the Hungarian Bar Association president were also on the leaked list of Pegasus targets, but these devices did not undergo the forensic examination to confirm that they had been breached.

While the journalistic investigation points to the involvement of the Hungarian government in a spyware operation, InsightHungary reported on July 22 that government officials have neither confirmed nor denied the use of Pegasus. They did, however, state that covert surveillance in Hungary occurs only in accordance with relevant laws.

Speaking in Brussels more directly on the subject without confirming the use of Pegasus, Justice Minister Varga said, Lets not be ridiculous, every country needs such tools! Its an illusion if anyone tries to make an issue out of it. Additionally, Prime Minister Orbns chief of staff told the press that the cabinet did not discuss the issue and had no plans to conduct an investigation into the spying allegations, according to InsightHungary.

The political crisis in Hungary follows close behind that of the far-right regime of Narendra Modi in India, where approximately 1,000 people were targeted by the Pegasus tool, including journalists, activists, lawyers and academics. Among the mobile numbers found on the leaked data list were two devices used by Congress leader Rahul Ghandi along with five of his close personal friends.

While NSO Group continues to absolve itself of any responsibility for the deployment of its hacking software by governments around the worldthe company has refused to disclose a list of its 60 accounts within 40 or more state clientsthe company has moved to block several governments from using Pegasus pending an investigation of the allegations.

An anonymous NSO Group representative told NPR on July 29, There is an investigation into some clients. Some of those clients have been temporarily suspended. The source added that NSO, will no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter and it will not play along with the vicious and slanderous campaign. The Washington Post reported that the clients that have been suspended include Saudi Arabia, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and some public agencies in Mexico.

Cyber-security experts have identified Pegasus as one of the most powerful spyware tools developed and deployed to date. As opposed to previous techniques, which require a user to click on something contained in a text message or email in order to install the malware on the device, Pegasus is a zero-click hack that penetrates the security of a smartphone simply by sending a text message to it that does not even need to be opened by the user to infect their system.

Dr. Tim Stevens, director of the Cybersecurity Research Group at Kings College London, explained the nature of zero-day vulnerabilities to BBC Science Focus magazine, It is a fact that all very large pieces of software, like an operating system like Apples iOS or Android or any other, including open source operating systems, have bugs. None of them are perfect. They present openings or opportunities for people to use to gain access.

Its like locking up all the doors and windows, but leaving the kitchen window open overnight. If the burglar is going to recce the whole house, they will find it eventually, no matter how large your house. And thats exactly what goes on with software. ...

Pegasus effectively jailbreaks your phone, it unlocks all this kind of administrative functionality that it then uses to position itself and hide itself and have access to everything thats going on in your phone. Its a very novel and impressive technical feat.

Once the spyware is on a smartphone, it can be used to monitor all activity within both the apps such as email, browser activity, text messaging and photo images as well as the hardware such as the microphone, speakers and front-facing and rear-facing cameras.

In response to the Pegasus leak revelationswhich he called the story of the yearwhistleblower and former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden published a blog post on Substack on July 26 entitled, The Insecurity Industry. In it, Snowden wrote that prior to the Pegasus revelations, most smartphone manufacturers along with much of the world press collectively rolled their eyes at me whenever I publicly identified a fresh-out-of-the-box iPhone as a potentially lethal threat.

He went on to say that despite years of reporting that implicated NSO Groups for-profit hacking of phones in the deaths and detentions of journalists and human rights defenders and despite evidence that smartphone operating systems are riddled with catastrophic security flaws, that he has often felt like someone trying to convince their one friend who refuses to grow up to quit smoking and cut back on the boozemeanwhile, the magazine ads still say Nine of Ten Doctors Smoke iPhones! and Unsecured Mobile Browsing is Refreshing!

Snowden, who has been living in asylum in Russia for more than eight years, exposed in 2013 the existence of a massive surveillance operation being run by the US National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency that was monitoring the electronic and phone activity of everyone on earth.

Of the Pegasus spyware, Snowden wrote in his blog post that he considered the leak and revelations about it to be a turning point and added that NSO Group and the global commercial hacking industry involves cooking up new kinds of infections that will bypass the very latest digital vaccinesAKA security updatesand then selling them to countries that occupy the red-hot intersection of a Venn Diagram between desperately craves the tools of oppression and sorely lacks the sophistication to produce them domestically. Snowden has called for this industry to be dismantled.

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More political fallout from the Pegasus spyware revelations - WSWS

Crime is rampaging in Denver. Homicides are skyrocketing.

Vagrants infest our streets. Our sidewalks are littered with human excrement and used needles.

Forced out of business by city lockdowns, storefronts are boarded up and covered with graffiti.

Inflation is stealing from working families. Colorado is in the bottom third of states in employment.

Our once-shining city is in decay.

So of course, now is the time for the citys leader, Mayor Michael Hancock, to turn his attention to the most pressing Denver issue of allreparations for slavery.

As The Gazette reported, Mayor Hancock is leading a national effort to establish pilot projects that will provide reparations to African American citizens in several cities around the country.

Hancock is now co-chair of Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE, clever acronym, eh? Well named, given that when asked how much all this should cost, the answer is simply, MORE).

MORE is a group of 12 mayors from fiscally responsible cities like Los Angeles, Providence, RI, and Austin who believe that their city governments, at taxpayer expense and without consensus on the ethical and financial ramifications of reparations, must act as laboratories for bold ideas that can be transformative for racial and economic justice on a larger scale, and demonstrate for the country how to pursue and improve initiatives that take a reparatory approach to confronting and dismantling structural and institutional racism.

For those not schooled in the overly wordy language of oppressor/oppressed victim-speak, the above gobbledygook means since the federal government wont give reparations, we socialist-leaning cities will.

As progressives continue their stranglehold over urban areas, governmental mission creep turns into a tsunami. It used to be only smug cities like Boulder would do sanctimonious things like passing a moratorium on nuclear weapons. (Seriously, if you have a nuke, I strongly recommend you stay out of Boulder.) But at least that type of virtue-signaling didnt have a large price-tag.

Reparations for slavery has a massive price tag, squeezing out other budget items. So next time your car is victimized by an oppressive pothole know youre making up for centuries of systematic oppression. We all even now?

Sadly, African Americans also drive those same roads, so they get to pay for a front-end alignment as well. So, not quite sure how that math works.

Reparations for sins of generations past is a big decision which should come from a very deliberative process and is one of the few decisions that should be centralized at a national level.

The United States, not the City and County of Denver, paid reparations to Japanese Americans who were interned by executive order of big government icon Franklin D. Roosevelt. After all Denver didnt intern them. And important point here, those who were personally interned were the ones compensated, not their descendants descendants.

Should it matter to anyone, slavery was always illegal in Colorado. And as the statue of the union soldier at the State Capitol, the one toppled by anti-police and #BLM rioters, might indicate, Coloradans fought and died to end slavery.

That leads to a question. If descendants of slaves deserve payments for the wrongs done to their ancestors, why should the descendants of those who paid the ultimate price by being killed in the civil war to free slaves be forced to pay for it?

Apparently, the debit side of the balance sheet passes along the generations, but the paid-in-full credit side stops with death.

Of course, your public-schooled child, now proficient in Critical Race Theory, will tell you its the systemic, institutional racism created after the Civil War which deserves reparations. After all Denver is such a systemically racist city a black man cant be elected mayor.

If Mayor Hancock wants to help black families advance in his city, racial favoritism and wealth redistribution arent answers. Opportunity is.

Mayor, what is keeping black families down in Denver? Crime, a result of the progressive dream of emptying the jails. Enforce the laws again.

Education is the key to economic mobility. Champion school choice.

Minorities are priced out of homes in Denver, so let builders build and end growth boundaries.

Minorities are confined to government transit. Give poor people cars or transit vouchers for Uber.

Stop enslaving minorities to government.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

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CLICK HERE TO LADLE A LITTLE GRAVY ON THE CREW AT COMPLETE COLORADO. Youll be giving to the Independence Institute, the not-for-profit publisher of Complete Colorado, which makes your donation tax deductible. But rest assured that your giving will go specifically to the Complete Colorado news operation. Thanks for being a Complete Colorado reader, keep coming back.

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Caldara: Denver doesn't belong in the reparations business - Complete Colorado

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This article closes out a series of articles that NPQ has published over the past few weeks in partnership with Hispanics in Philanthropy to raise attention to some of the many economic justice issues that Latinx communities face. (Prior installments in the series are here, here, here, here, and here). While the series concludes, the conversation continues. Additional contributions to NPQ on the topic are welcome.

For this story, I interviewed Viridiana Hernandez, who is executive director of Poder in Action in Arizona, and Brenda Elodia Ochoa Ortiz, executive director of Fray Matas de Crdova A.C. Human Rights Center (Fray Matas). Hernandez grew up as a child during a time that Sheriff Joe Arpaios raids terrorized immigrants in the state. After the show me your papers bill, SB1070, became law in 2010, Hernandez became, at the age of 24, executive director of Poder in Action, where she has supported leadership development of hundreds of young people. This work ultimately led to the electoral defeat of Arpaio. She views the goal of her work as creating spaces of community and love. For her part, Ochoa considers herself a human rights defender, and feminist; in her work, she aims to repair the damage from structural violence faced by migrants. I conducted both interviews in Spanish and translated them into English.Inar Yar Melndez Vzquez

VH: Poder in Action is a grassroots organization focused on building community power to disrupt and dismantle systems of oppression and determine a liberated future for people of color in Arizona. Right now, the fight against state violence means a focus on the crimmigration systemthe way the immigration and criminal justice intersect. We are fighting to abolish systems of harm and punishment and instead invest in the health and safety infrastructure in our communities.

We have two programs, Youth Poder and Barrios al Poder. These programs were created by members directly impacted by the crimmigration system. Youth Poder organizes youth ages 1318 and 1935 to take action against injustice, white supremacy, and machismo. Barrios al Poder organizes Spanish-speaking immigrant families to take action against the crimmigration system.

BO: The Fray Matas human rights center is a local organization founded 24 years ago that responds to the recognition of the need for handholding, care, and support of one of the highly vulnerable migrant and refugee populations on the southern border of Mexico. We recognize that global policies have a strong impact on the life and dignity of people, subjecting them to serious human rights violations and constant political and social criminalization. Our mission is to provide people with the psychosocial and legal support they need. From the individual to the collective, we aim to strengthen their political capacity for social and political influence.

VH: My days are spent providing support for our organizers or community members. We work with many families impacted by police violence. This means they have a need for individual support, as well as support for common demands or campaigns.

Immigrant families in the US constantly face crises. In 2020, the impact of COVID in our communities led us to create a fund to support undocumented people who have been excluded from government assistance programs. Our communities are constantly seen as disposable, and this role means also responding to those moments at the same time we fight for the long-term changes necessary for our communities.

BO: It is a great question. My tasks range from taking care of my team, making decisions to be able to provide external care, as well as respond to the political needs of the moment. It is difficult to describe a normal day. For me, that ranges from internal organization meetings, internal conflict resolution, inter-institutional meetings, liaison and representation, reporting, drafting proposals, and responding to informational emails with other organizations and donors.

VH: The people in our community are resilient, hard-working, and strong. We organize in West Phoenix, home to many Latinx immigrant families and youth. These are working-class families, living paycheck to paycheck to push their families through. The communities we build with have been impacted by institutional racism, leading to higher contact with the carceral system and health disparities. Despite these obstacles, our communities have survived and learned to thrive.

Immigrant communities in Phoenix are the backbone of our economy. Nonetheless, immigrants in Phoenix and Arizona are often not valued or respected. Neighborhoods with higher populations of immigrants are less resourced, over-policed, unattended, and are made to believe these racial disparities are our own fault rather than the product of structural racism. For decades, the Arizona legislature has created and passed laws that target immigrants, from denying healthcare, to denying in-state tuition and access to grants, to making it legal to racially profile through SB1070. Our communitys ability to prosper is constrained, and yet immigrants in Arizona find ways to be seen and live joyous lives.

BO: We are in an impoverished region. There are not enough government resources for education and public health. We see few resources arrive because they become diluted by political corruption that occurs through the manipulation of information. The data is inflated to indicate progress, but that is not the reality, as we have seen with the issue of maternal mortality. There is also a large Indigenous population that the authorities often disregard. In a community ignored by the government, it is common that people feel suspicious about the help that migrants receive when the community already receives so little.

VH: I do this work because, like many in my community, I was an undocumented young Brown woman being denied an education and whose life had become a political pawn. My different identities and life experience have led me to this work. At first, I organized to defend myself and my family, but it has now become the only way to fight for liberation for our communities. I believe deeply that we deserve more than just survival; we deserve to live happy, healthy, and joyous lives.

BO: I am a woman born in the region from a family with a history of social struggle. I believe that my mother and father left a strong mark on me. These are principles with which I carry myself, including empathy to recognize shortcomings, inequalities, and opportunities. I have been able to participate with groups of young volunteers in the community for many years, which made me recognize my strengths, including my experience in my professional development as a doctor. I face the harshness of the system and the impacts of life, which allowed me to recognize the need to focus my energies on places where I could confront the inequalities and violence that states themselves originate.

VH: I became the executive director at Poder in Action at the age of 24. Being a young Brown woman has been one of the biggest challenges. My expertise was constantly questioned. Living the systems that I was fighting was not enough expertise for some. I did not have the degrees that some deemed necessary. The only way to overcome it was to continue doing the work I needed to do. I had to surround myself with a tribe of people that supported and uplifted me. It has meant practicing reflection, grounding myself on why this work is important, and being accountable to the families I organize with.

BO: Being a young woman from the community means I face challenges within these social structures. Even within our civil society organizations, these gender-based issues are present and internalized. We are often underestimated in our technical and professional capacities. Personally, machismo is one of the great challenges that I have faced within my work. I have overcome this by recognizing the structures, pointing them out when they are present, becoming more assertive with my words, and paying close attention to how they constantly show up.

VH: We work with youth and families impacted by the crimmigration system. At the beginning of Poder, we worked on issues of education, immigration, and policing. But today it is more focused on police violence and the polimigra.

For many years we focused solely on immigrant rights and resisting attacks on immigrants. But after the 2016 election, it was clear that our strategies had to shift. Stopping deportations was becoming harder. Part of our shift to a focus on policing was rooted in stopping deportations. Local police departments were the biggest contributors funneling our people into the deportation machine. The shift to this work has also led us to see the huge impact of police violence in immigrant communities. We have worked with undocumented mothers whove lost their children to police violence and on top of that have been questioned for their ID and immigration status.

BO: It has changed only in giving greater emphasis to the entire complex of the defense of human rights, with special interest in violence against women, girls, boys, and adolescents. These are the people who are most vulnerable and in greatest need of recognition of their rights in the face of a capitalist, patriarchal, and adult-centered system. As the most vulnerable populations are protected in their rights with full recognition and guarantee of the same, the other populations will therefore be respected their rights, thus ensuring that rights are not a privilege.

Fray Matas has always focused strategically on women and children. The move to create a space only for women is something that has come from the migrant women themselves. It is important to create these spaces that go beyond physical space to provide a safe space where women are listened to, understood, and motivated. Fray Matias provides the physical space, but it is from the meetings of the women that the motivation and work arises.

VH: This work is hard because state violence functions as it was intended to, continuously harming Black, Indigenous, and Brown people. Under the Obama administration, we had the most deportations in history. Young people were learning how to fight deportations through public advocacy campaigns. In 2012, I went to a training led by undocumented youth on how to launch and sustain these campaigns. A month later, a family I worked with contacted me. They were in a crisis: a dad, husband, friend to many, Edi Armas, had been detained and was facing deportation.

This became the first #Not1More deportation campaign I worked on. After several months of protests, meetings with congressional representatives, and press conferences led by his children, Edis deportation was halted, and eventually, Edi was released from the detention center. To me, this was a clear example of community members coming together as friends, family, and strangers to help a family remain together. These months of campaigning were an example of our humanity and deep love for our people.

BO: In October 2018, the first caravan from Honduras departed with more than 2,000 people. Alongside colleagues from other organizations, we headed about 15 miles away from Tapachula to the border of Guatemala. It was there where we formed a monitoring group that continues to denounce the political repression and violence against migrants and refugees. That day was the first of many where we reached the banks of a river on the border that was said to be where people would cross. On that day we encountered more than 2,000 people in front of us who made it to the edge of the river, but they did not cross and only stayed on the shore. On the other side of the river, for over 10 minutes, they chanted slogans and hymns from their countries. The image and voices are recorded in my mind and my heart. Every day, I witness the strength people have to simply live.

VH: This work is not a choice. It is a necessity as people of color. To create a more just, free, and healthy life, we must undo the systems we function in that thrive on white supremacy and patriarchy. There is a role for everyone, and if one is not actively fighting to dismantle these systems, we are perpetuating them. So as a reminder, let us reflect and have clarity on our role in this work and how each is disrupting and dismantling these systems.

BO: What we do is a long-term struggle, based in collective and individual activity. One key part of this work is the recovery of our social fabric by educating our community, so that we can all be defenders of human rights through our everyday actions. By so doing, we strengthen our ability to counter the systemic violence we face.

Viri Hernandez is the executive director of Poder in Action, an Arizona-based nonprofit that seeks to build power to disrupt and dismantle systems of oppression by and for the people of color in the state.

Brenda Elodia Ochoa is the director of Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matas de Crdova A.C. (Fray Matas), a human rights organization that works to protect the rights of migrants and refugees in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico.

Inar Yar Melndez Vzquez is senior manager of communications for Hispanics in Philanthropy.

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Ambos Lados: A Conversation from Both Sides of the US-Mexico Border - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly

I recently relocated to Atlanta for work, and Ive spent the last few months trying to put my life together again. When you move, a great deal of time goes into just merely finding your new people and merchants.

Where do I buy my groceries? Who is going to color my hair? What new dentist do I try?

And top of the list for me: where am I going to practice yoga?

Yoga is more than a workout for me. I use it to prevent my sciatica from flaring upa debilitating and particularly painful condition that can leave me bedridden for days. And I also use it as a treatment for my anxiety disorder. For me, yoga is essential medicine, mentally and physically, and I refuse to miss more than a day or two for my healths sake.

After trying a few studios in my new neighborhood, I finally landed on CorePower Yoga, a national, high-end chain with rigorous classes. The only issue? They were still making people wear a mask from the front door to the mat...where we then proceeded to lock ourselves in a 90-degree room for 60 minutes and sweat out every drop of water in our bodies.

I let the manager know Id be happy to join as a member if they got rid of this bit of security theater, and to my pleasant surprise, they did! ..For about two weeks. But then it came roaring back with a vengeance. I arrived last week to find out the studio had not only reinstated its mask policy, it was now requiring them throughout the class. Yes, really.

I dont know if youve ever done a hot yoga sculpt class, but they are physically demanding. I often leave feeling a bit lightheaded as it is and gasping for cool air. The thought of wearing a mask through such an ordeal sounds like literal torture. And for an exercise that relies fundamentally on ones breath and breathing techniques, its frankly ludicrous to even suggest.

The studios actions come on the heels of a new order by Atlanta Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms mandating masks for all people indoorsvaccinated or notincluding in private spaces. The last part of that act is certainly a violation of property rights, but it has yet to be struck down.

And Atlanta isnt an outlier. Cities from Missouri to Massachusetts have implemented similar rules and some places, like New York City, are even rolling out vaccine passports.

I, like so many other Americans, have been going along to get along for 15 months now. I willingly put on my cloth mask when asked to, knowing I had natural immunity and that a cloth mask was little more than security theater. I kept supporting small businesses that held different views than me knowing theyd been pummeled by pandemic policies and wanting to help them out. I was respectful. I didnt push my views on people, even as I advocated online and in print for very different approaches to public health.

Politically, its been a balancing act of protecting civil liberties, property rights, and bodily autonomy, while honoring the value of human life. Personally, it has been a landmine of respecting the rights of others and their choice to approach situations differently, so long as they do not try to force their choices on others. It has not been easy.

For this balancing act, I (and others who think similarly) have been labeled grandma-killers (even as pro-lockdown Democrats like Andrew Cuomo actually killed hundreds of grandmas), anti-science (even as we consistently presented data that proved lockdowns and cloth masks were ineffective), and Trump supporters (even as the Trump administration itself was responsible for many bad pandemic policies we fought against).

At the end of it all, Ive determined that I dont care what the COVID Karens have to say about me. People who favor lockdowns, vaccine passports, masking kids for eight hours a daythese people have discounted themselves and wreaked mass havoc on millions of lives by following politics instead of the actual science. They do not respect individual rights, bodily autonomy, or civil liberties, and they no longer get to pretend they have the moral high ground.

What I care about is what history has to say about me during this time, and being able to look back and know I did all I could to defend individual rightsincluding my own. Its time to rise up and resist.

Is it the businesses fault that politicians are again forcing these policies on us? No. But it is their responsibility to fight back and stand up for their property rights just as it is the duty of all citizens to resist when our government tramples on our rights.

Does resisting mean some hard choices? Yes. Freedom often requires sacrifice. And I dont say that flippantly.

Fortunately I work for a company that actually respects my autonomy, and one that allows remote work. Due to that I wont be confronted with an 8-hour work day in a mask. But if I were, I would quit. There has never been a better time to job hunt and demand better working conditions. Companies are desperate for workers, and they ought to find people are unwilling to work for them if they cave to politicians and enforce such policies.

And when it comes to the myriad of other businesses most of us frequent throughout a given week, its time to start asking which we can do without, and which we can find alternatives to. The answer is, thanks to the beauty of capitalism and all the competition it provides, most of them.

In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises wrote, The market is a democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote. We too quickly forget how powerful our money is, how much it matters who we give it to. Its time we take stock of that and quit giving money to people who dont support our values and who wont stand up for us. This is how you vote with your dollar.

And this mentality and practice is also how we fight back against this nonsense on multiple fronts.

Should we push back on our politicians for enacting these bad policies? Certainly. But we should also encourage businesses to push back as well. They have much more political power and capital than the average consumer and are better positioned to mount a legal challenge. They also, in most of these circumstances, have far greater legal standing. It is their property rights that are being violated by such mandates, and their bottom dollar most impacted by these policies. The business community needs to band together and fight back in the courts.

They should also resist by simply refusing to comply. Civil disobedience is a deeply American tradition, after all. Both individuals and businesses possess the agency to stand up against oppression and refuse to allow our rights to be further withered away.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, If I deny the authority of the stateit will soon take and waste my property and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably."

But the thing is, the government has already done these things. It has already taken peoples property under an unconstitutional eviction moratorium. It has already taken away the education of millions of children. It is already harassing us and trying to force people into putting a substance in their body. Comfort is no longer an option.

If the injustice, Thoreau wrote, is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smoothcertainly the machine will wear out but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

At a certain point, going along to get along becomes lending yourself to the wrong you condemn. As Thoreau also wrote, "Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform."

We cant keep going along to get along. If we do, we are as responsible for the erosion of our rights as those cheering for it. Its time for peaceful, civil disobedience.

And in the meantime, the incredible thing about capitalism is that the market will find a way to provide. During COVID weve seen all kinds of innovative alternatives spring upin my case online yoga classes and on-demand personal trainers willing to come to the consumer. I want to vote for that innovation with my dollar, and support those who do not cave to authoritarianism.

We should reward those who thwart the government in this manner and withdraw our money from those who roll over. I obtained a refund from my yoga studio for this month and will be putting my money where my mouth is, I think others should do the same.

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How I Responded When My Yoga Studio Reinstituted a Mask Mandate | Hannah Cox - Foundation for Economic Education

Yesterday Governor Kristi Noem tooted her own horn for coercing the Board of Regents into approving a draft policy restricting the teaching of Critical Race Theory at state colleges and universities. For their part, the Regents trotted out their newest members, all Republican toadies appointed in April, to croak for whatever anti-anti-racist propaganda Noem is pushing:

The boards statement frames its position around four central tenets: (1) offering opportunity for all students; (2) proudly supporting the United States of America; (3) safeguarding the rich tradition of American universities; and (4) offering curriculum based upon widely held and accepted knowledge and thought.

The statement recognizes the importance of teaching public university students in South Dakota about Americas history, the system of individual liberty in a democratic republic, and the free enterprise system. Part of that instruction is to acknowledge and discuss Americas flaws and mistakes, so that we can learn from them and improve, it says. Critical Race Theory is not the basis for instruction in our state universities and its not going to be. But this is a label that means different things to different people, said Regent Tony Venhuizen. Thats why our board today is taking a step back and stating the American values that will continue to guide the university system.

We are committed to programs that enhance a wide ranging knowledge of American government and its traditions, said Regent Jeff Partridge. As part of that, we are prepared to offer new opportunities for students to increase their civic engagement and develop skills in communication, critical thinking, civility, and dispute resolution.

Regents recognize that South Dakotas public universities are part of the rich tradition of American universities, a tradition built upon free speech, scientific discovery, and academic freedom. As our students expand their understanding in a field of study, we encourage thatstudents be exposed to a variety of viewpoints, ideas, and theories, so that they can be debated and critiqued, the statement says [South Dakota Board of Regents, press release, 2021.08.05].

Wait a minute: even the toadies seem to be croaking out of tune with Queen Frog. Noem and her merry fascists are saying they are going to ban critical race theory. But Venhuizen,the smartest of this warty bunch, suggests theres nothing to ban, that our universities are not basing and will not base their instruction on critical race theory. Noems former chief of staffspeaks as if the universities status quo has been following American values just fine all along. Former legislator Partridge doesnt mention critical race theory; his statement about the universities commitment to enhancing a wide-ranging knowledge of American government and its traditions seems to call for exactly the opposite of what Noem says shes about; as a matter of fact, critical race theory seeks exactly what Partridge describes: critical thinking about the traditions of racismthat have built systemic discrimination into our laws and institutions, with the goal of improving communication and helping resolve disputes and make American government better.

And the new draft policy itself never mentions critical race theory. It wallows in some dismissive All Lives Matter racismresponding to concerns of systemic racism with bland declarations of colorblind support for every individual deliberately misses the point, devalues valid critiques of genuine discrimination, and thus perpetuates the problemit engages in greater contortions to avoid saying exactly what Noem wants us to think it says about the hobbyhorse she wants to ride into the 2024 election. Lets read each of the four points of the Regents statement:

1. South Dakotas state universities offer opportunity for all students, to benefit from education and to prepare to live and work in South Dakota, or anywhere in the world. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, disability, veteran status, economic status, or sexual preference. We treat each person as an individual, not as a member of a group, and offer services and supports for each persons individual situation. We reject, and will not promote, the idea that any individual person is responsible for actions taken by other people. We also reject, and will not promote, any suggestion that one group of people is inherently superior or inferior to another group, or is inherently oppressive or immoral [South Dakota Board of Regents, Opportunity for All statement, approved 2021.08.05].

Critical race theory does not make claims about individuals, other than to grant that individuals choose their own membership in social categories and belief systems regardless of identities that outsiders may attempt to impose on them. Critical race theory cant promote any notion of one racial groups inherent superiority, inferiority, immorality, or penchant for oppression, because critical race theory holds that race is not inherent, not biological, not essential, but a social construct. Critical race theory actually responds to those who adopted such fallacious racial essentialism and who therethrough baked racism into our legal system. So on this first point, the Regents statement is right in line with critical race theory.

2. South Dakotas state universities are public, taxpayer-funded institutions. It is inherent in the missions of our universities to proudly support the United States of America. Our students will learn about Americas history, our system of individual liberty in a democratic republic, and our system of free enterprise. Part of that instruction is to acknowledge and discuss Americas flaws and mistakes, so that we can learn from them and improve. We celebrate, though, Americas role in recent world history, as the nation most responsible for expanding liberty, prosperity, and equality across the globe [SDBOR, 2021.08.05].

The Regents aver that our professors will lead students to acknowledge and discuss Americas flaws and mistakes, so that we can learn from them and improve. Thats exactly whatNoem herself did last monthwhen she talked about the need to learn from our nations racist mistakes in its Indian boarding school policies. Thats exactly what critical race theory calls on us to do.

3. South Dakotas state universities are a part of the rich tradition of American universities, which are built upon free speech, scientific discovery, and academic freedom, and for that reason have been emulated by the rest of the world. We commit our state universities to a focus on the future: preparing the leaders and scholars of the next generation to solve the problems of tomorrow. Although we can learn from and understand the past, we do this so we can learn to be better in the future, and we will never compel any person to accept any particular set of beliefs [SDBOR, 2021.08.05].

Now the Regents are really parrying Noems attack. They assert that free speech and academic freedom have made our universities global leaders. They reiterate the critical race theorists commitment to understanding and learning from the past so we can learn to be better in the future. And in speaking of never compelling anyone to accept any beliefs (yeah, sure, but if you dont accept the beliefs like the Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limit Theorem, youll have a hard time passing Stats), they are actually rejecting any attempt the Governor and Legislature may make to impose their own ideological indoctrination. This third point thus opens the door for instructors to make critical race theory central to discussions of history, law, and social justice and protects them from authoritarian attempts to infringe on their academic freedom.

South Dakotas state universities will offer a curriculum that is based upon widely-held and accepted knowledge and thought. Our universities will respect academic freedom, and will expect faculty to exercise that freedom in a way that respects this expectation. As our students expand their understanding in a field of study, we encourage that students be exposed to a variety of viewpoints, ideas, and theories, so that they can be debated and critiqued. This could include discredited or controversial ideas, because understanding the weaknesses of failed ideas is as important as understanding the strengths of successful ones. Students must be prepared to identify the good and bad in new or controversial areas of thought [SDBOR, 2021.08.05].

Again invoking academic freedom, the Regents affirm the obvious, that university curriculum is based on widely held and accepted knowledge and ideas. If our young students beliefs are any indication, critical race theory is evidently widely held and (thankfully) informing their views about racism in America. But even if we skip that vague criterion of widely held and accepted as critical race theorys automatic ticket to the curriculum, the Regents say the controversy over critical race theory qualifies it for discussion. Never mind that the controversy arises only because apartheidist Republicans have misappropriated a term they dont understand to distract from their failures and oppressive designs. Students must understand controversial areas of thought; students thus must have opportunities to read and discuss critical race theory.

Governor Kristi Noem seems to think she got the Regents to ban critical race theory. The Regents planted words playing to her deliberate misconception of critical race theory at the top of their press release, and they had her most recent appointees say things that could be quickly read to support the Governors talking point. Yet they issued a formal statement that doesnt mention critical race theory but is almost entirely consistent with the principles of critical race theory.

Seeing such apparent dissonance between what the Governor claims the Regents have done and what the Regents are actually saying, I cant help but wonder if the Regents are trying to superficially placate the Governors fascist impulses while assuring South Dakotans who actually read that our universities will defend academic freedom and honest, non-partisan education, including, where appropriate, the valid and useful framework of critical race theory.

Continued here:

Noem Claims Regents Are Restricting Critical Race Theory; Regents' Statement Doesn't Say That - Dakota Free Press