Category Archives: Wage Slavery

Today, perhaps more than ever, the church presents a refreshing response to our nations enforced ideological bifurcation. Polling suggests that about 75 percent of Americans have moderate to progressive views on economic questions and slightly more than half are socially conservative. The median voter has both of these traits, and there are good reasons to think that it was this unnamed coalition of anti-libertarians who decided the outcomes of the last two presidential elections.

Both of our major political parties try to placate voters by triangulating occasionally, tactically co-opting stances from the other side. But the most striking thing about both parties is the wide range of positions they share that are at odds with the enthusiasms of the median voter: a bellicose foreign policy, free trade, social libertinism and the financialization of the economy.

In contrast, the church offers a consistent ethic of solidarity: against pre-emptive war of any kind (which the church tells us cannot be waged in a just manner under modern conditions), against the enrichment of the wealthy in poor and rich nations alike at the expense of the working and middle classes, against the increasingly nebulous claims of academic progressives and activists about the nature of the human person and against the pursuit of maximal shareholder value to the detriment of virtually every other meaningful consideration.

It is not just the wide range of issues addressed by the churchs social teaching that might inform a future large-scale political realignment but also the manner in which it does so. Consider the problem of cooperation among nations. If the events of the last year have revealed anything, it is the importance of what Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus, referred to as supranational institutions with real teeth. Instead of lionizing the neoliberal banalities of Davos Man, Catholic social teaching articulates a morally inflected defense of internationalism that rejects most of what makes Americans suspicious of it the obliging attitude toward corporate power, the soft cultural imperialism of liberal nongovernmental organizations while insisting upon its indispensability for the common good.

The idea that Catholic social teaching can inspire secular politics is not new. The papal encyclicals of the interwar period, which spoke to the anxieties of a world torn between the failures of laissez-faire economics and the growing threat of totalitarianism, were read enthusiastically by Franklin Roosevelt. Today Pope Francis, in keeping with many recent occupants of the Chair of Peter, addresses his writings to all people of good will rather than to the Catholic faithful alone as he inveighs against the spoliation of the Amazon region and its Indigenous peoples, wage slavery in Asia, the theft of natural resources in Africa and the replacement of civic life with algorithm-abetted consumerism in the developed world.

We already have a test case for what Catholic social teaching can offer to a population disillusioned by the collapse of a civilization and its supposed ideals: the European political tradition of Christian democracy. More than half a century ago, Christian democracy arose in Europe as a response to the ideologies that had given rise to a global economic depression and two successive world wars. The new postnationalist Europe to which this political movement gave rise a Europe of robust trade unions and generously subsidized orchestras was the dream not only of the onetime imperial heir Otto von Hapsburg and Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, the longtime prefect of the Holy Office, but also of Goethe and Schiller and Beethoven, the fulfillment of the promise of centuries of European humanism.

Like its predecessor in Europe, a revived Christian democracy in the United States would draw upon official church teaching as well as pilfer from the best of secular culture. A new Catholic politics would baptize Bernie Sanderss health care plan, degrowth economics and bans on single-use plastics while drawing attention to neglected elements of our own political heritage that really are worth preserving, such as the presumption of innocence. Such a politics would also remind us, in ways that transcend politics in the narrow sense, of the value of forgiveness and contrition, as opposed to the self-aggrandizing quasi-therapeutic apologies to which we have become accustomed from public figures.

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Opinion | This Is Why America Needs Catholicism - The New York Times

THE actions of two car wash bosses who were jailed for more than three years each for modern slavery crimes have been condemned as cold and calculated and driven by greed by a leading detective.

DCI James Yallop described the crimes of Defrim Paci and Sitar Ali as callous and said Cumbria Constabulary had shown such actions will not be tolerated in the county.

Paci and Ali were found guilty of exploiting four Romanian men who worked for them at Shiny car wash in Carlisles Warwick Road. Both were jailed for more than three years on Friday.

The employees were forced to work long hours for less than minimum wage and were housed in filthy accommodation.

DCI Yallop said that, despite the ordeal, the victims had been able to move on and were now living outside the county.

This has had a long-lasting and devastating impact on their lives, but they have been able to relocate and start slowly to build a new life, and hopefully they will be able to continue to do that, he said.

They were presented with a set of circumstances [by Paci and Ali] that ultimately werent true, and what they were told was not what they found to be the reality.

They didnt understand employment law, they didnt speak English, they had little or no money, which allowed them to be exploited.

DCI Yallop encouraged members of the public to be on the lookout for signs of modern slavery offences being committed.

Modern slavery is really about the exploitation of vulnerable victims, he said.

You might see someone looking nervous or anxious, withdrawn, perhaps unkempt.

He said victims might be out at unusual hours and stressed that if something doesnt feel right or doesnt quite look right it was important to report it.

We are a remote county and we need to remain vigilant and its really important that the public are able to spot the signs so they can help us in uncovering a crime that can often go unreported, he said.

He paid tribute to investigating officers for their determination in securing a conviction and justice.

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Detective condemns pair convicted of slavery in Carlisle | News and Star - News & Star

Little, Brown and Company

Evocative and accessible, Nathan Harris's debut novel The Sweetness of Water is a historical page-turner about social friction so powerful it ignites a whole town.

Old Ox, Georgia, is a community attempting to right itself after tectonic upheaval. Focusing on the period just after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the enforcement of emancipation in the South through the presence of Union troops, Harris asks a question Americans have yet to figure out: How does a community make peace in the wake of civil war? I'm not sure the novel comes close to finding an answer. But posing the question and following through the work undertaken felt incredibly worthwhile nonetheless.

Between Oprah's Book Club, President Obama's summer reading list and the Booker Prize long list, The Sweetness of Water is having a moment that goes beyond topicality. There are several reasons for that: First, its question feels urgent and familiar, because politics now feels like war. Between the January insurrection, the threat of Texas secession, and the daily rhetoric of combat and revolution, the battles are ongoing, not just along party but also regional lines. Second, the peacemaking project attempted on these pages is still clearly unfinished. Like a fictional companion to Clint's Smith's history How the Word is Passed, The Sweetness of Water joins the national conversation on race and reckoning with history already in progress. In struggles over flags, monuments, textbooks, and university tenure, we're still fighting over how to frame this event in public memory, so those old wounds feel particularly fresh. Nathan Harris makes those extraordinary, still contested times comprehensible through an immersive, incredibly humane storytelling about the lives of ordinary people.

'The Sweetness of Water' is having a moment that goes beyond topicality. There are several reasons for that.

And third, right now, we desperately need to believe in our better angels, that we too can come together and rise above, like Harris's protagonists (and as President Obama famously urged). That hope is the driving force in The Sweetness of Water. It takes flight when three men meet by chance in the woods two Black, one white. George Walker, an aging white landowner, has spent too long out there hunting an elusive prey when he comes across Landry and Prentiss, two young Black freedmen who've been secretly living in the forest on George's property because they have nowhere else to go, and lack the resources to move on. They only know they'd rather be anywhere than back at their old plantation, where the owner is in complete denial about Emancipation and still considers both men his rightful property.

Despite mutual trepidation, the three decide to treat each other with care. Slightly disoriented and in pain, George asks for help getting back to his cabin and his wife, and he offers the two brothers food and shelter in the barn. It doesn't sound like much but in that context, cooperation is an act of kindness and trust. Plus, there's more to Geoge's wandering that day; he'd just gotten the (erroneous) news that his son, Caleb, a Confederate soldier, was killed in action and dreaded sharing that with his wife.

Harris spins an increasingly complex tale about the postwar South, and he tells it in a humane and intimate way, by exploring the interpersonal relationships of all kinds in and around this rural Georgia town.

In the days that follow, a connection takes root. Bereft himself, George doesn't know how to help his grieving wife, but he needs to do something. So though he's always avoided industry, with Landry and Prentiss's help, he decides to start farming his land. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement, a requirement on both sides: Landry and Prentiss won't accept a new master-slave type arrangement of the kind that's proliferating in the area, and that's fine, because George has no desire to be a master. He's always lived apart from Old Ox, in geography and attitudes. To his mind, this is no different. So he'll pay them a fair wage, the same as any other (white) workers. The brothers agree to work until they can save money to move north, and George gets help getting his new venture off the ground.

Emancipation or not, this agreement represents a breach of centuries-old social arrangements. And so even though their business doesn't directly affect any other person in Old Ox, every white person in proximity has an opinion on it, as though Landry and Prentiss's mere existence is yet another affront and attack on their lives. From there, Harris spins an increasingly complex tale about the postwar South, and he tells it in a humane and intimate way, by exploring the interpersonal relationships of all kinds in and around this rural Georgia town.

In small moments, Harris convincingly captures the thoughts and actions of ordinary people trying to push through extraordinary times.

They're all connected and interdependent; a fracture or ripple in one inevitably affects the others. The Walkers treating Landry and Prentiss with respect causes not just a ripple in those relationships more like a revolt. The petty viciousness of the reactions to the Walkers' arrangement with Landry and Prentiss can be maddening, and yet it rings true: American history is littered with events that began with a breach of racial etiquette. In small moments, Harris convincingly captures the thoughts and actions of ordinary people trying to push through extraordinary times. And even though the story focuses on hope and unexpected kinship, it doesn't diminish the horrors of slavery or the struggle in its wake. The events of their former lives are never far from memory whipping, beating, disfiguring physical abuse, family separation, near starvation, dehumanization. None of that is denied. None of it is minimized. Like the brothers, Harris tries to train the focus elsewhere for a time.

As an act of pure storytelling, it soars. On a deeper level, however, some aspects of the novel feel unsettled and incomplete. The Sweetness of Water taps into America's longstanding and profound thirst for fantasies of racial reconciliation stories in which Black people and white people find salvation together, bonding in the face of the egregious extreme racism of others. As appealing as they are, these narratives tend to reproduce certain problematic patterns. First, while seeming to focus on crucial issues, these narratives actually highlight individual exceptions to systemic problems that need real examination. Second, even in stories where Black people should naturally be the focus (as in The Help and Green Book) they tend to marginalize Black characters in order to center and affirm the virtue of good whites. And third, they can provide easy absolution without deeper reflection (again see The Help, Green Book).

I felt those tensions keenly reading this novel, but while it flirts with the edge, it doesn't quite fall into the abyss. The difference is that The Sweetness of Water isn't a story about what happened to the enslaved after slavery's end, coopted to focus on a white family. It's a soapy and riveting drama-filled exploration of a fracture and a healing. The focus on an interracial cast is an necessity, feature rather than a flaw.

I only wish the ensemble was a little more interested in the fullness of its Black characters; I yearned to spend more than snippets of time with Landry, Prentiss, and George's confidante Clementine. It's easy to love George and Isabelle and Caleb, eventually but I don't think they're inherently more worthy of our focus and nuance, or even more essential to the redemption story being told. The novel seems to follow the logic that it's the white inhabitants of Old Ox whose adjustments to life post war are most worthy of our attention. But if Landry and Prentiss are worthy of driving the action, if they are worthy of risk and saving, then they are worthy of depth. They're beautiful characters I wish I'd gotten to know better.

They're not the only ones neglected. The Sweetness of Water is highly selective about where it casts its lens. It's a story at once set in history, yet removed from it. In the emphasis on the Walkers and what they do for Landry and Prentiss, there's also a glaring omission of the realities of post war life elsewhere in Old Ox. Though Harris is generous to these select few white Southerners, he shuts out facts that are essential to understanding the world they inhabit, even if at a remove.

Harris captures white anger and resentment at loss of white livelihood, lifestyle and status. The novel briefly references the rough reentry to society of white men who returned from a lost war lacking jobs and money and the restoration of pride. But in this period the losses were not merely symbolic or even material. There was also tremendous loss of life in the Civil War, one in five young men, according to some estimates. But there's an eerie silence about those who didn't return the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the war and how their absence shaped the lives of those they left behind. Where were those widows and fathers and mothers and friends? As much as I was captivated by Harris's storytelling while I was in the thick of everything, in the end, I felt his omissions and oversights just as acutely.

The Sweetness of Water left a lasting and multifaceted impression: It's warm and absorbing, thought provoking and humane. But ultimately uneven in its ideas a book whose resonance ever so slightly exceeds its art.

A slow runner and fast reader, Carole V. Bell is a cultural critic and communication scholar focusing on media, politics and identity. You can find her on Twitter @BellCV.

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Review: 'The Sweetness Of Water,' By Nathan Harris - NPR

In August 2020, a group of around forty Indian construction workers staged a hunger strike in Kraljevo, Serbia, demanding to be paid. In addition to not receiving months worth of wages from their employer, they had been working 10 hours-12 hours a day without proper food or access to healthcare and were living in cramped, unhygienic quarters during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The migrant workers from across India first arrived in Serbia in mid-2019. According to the Building and Wood Workers International, a global union federation, around 150 Indians were employed across the Balkan country for the construction of the Corridor 11 project.

In a Zoom interview, two of the workers recounted how their troubles with getting paid had begun soon after arrival. When their situation did not improve, the first group was repatriated to India in January and February 2020. The rest, including those protesting in Kraljevo, were repatriated by September 2020.

Much of the Indian governments efforts have been focused on Gulf countries, where, based on data from the International Labour Organization, around 90 lakh Indians live and work. However, the Building and Wood Workers International warns that Europe is fast becoming a hub for the exploitation and trafficking of third-country nationals. In Serbia, other reports of exploitation of migrant groups from China and Turkey have recently come to light.

When he heard about the stranded Indian workers, Ramachandra Khuntia, chair of the Building and Wood Workers International Indian Affiliates Council and a former MP, contacted the external affairs ministry and the Indian embassy in Belgrade multiple times.

What followed was a cross-border initiative involving labour unions, the Indian government, and Serbian anti-trafficking organisation ASTRA. We were finally able to bring the workers back home. But til today, they have yet to receive their wages from the employer, said Khuntia.

The payment of arrear wages is usually dealt with by the labour department in the host country, but the matter can be pursued through the Indian embassy, explained Khuntia, adding that despite assurances from the Indian government and the Indian embassy in Serbia, the payments seem nowhere in sight.

Wage theft the illegal practice of denying workers the money that they are rightfully owed has dramatically increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the non- or incomplete payment of wages, employees have to deal with job loss, non-payment of termination benefits, poor working conditions, and hurried repatriation without the chance to register their grievances.

Ponkumar Ponnuswamy, president of TKTMS, a construction workers union in Tamil Nadu that was directly involved in the process of repatriating the stranded workers, says that each of the workers is owed anywhere between the equivalent of $1,300 and $2,600 by the aforementioned company, depending on how long they were in Serbia.

For the workers who were put through this trying ordeal, their unpaid wages represent a substantial amount of money that would have otherwise gone towards debt repayments, medical treatments and basic subsistence.

I think it is a huge loss not only at the individual level but also at the country level, said S Irudaya Rajan, an expert on Indian migration and member of the Kerala governments Covid-19 expert committee.

Migrant workers constitute an integral part of the global economy, with their remittances adding up to over three times the amount of international aid and foreign direct investment combined. India, the worlds largest source of international migrants, received $82 billion in remittances in 2019 according to World Bank data, a sum that has helped keep millions out of poverty.

Covid-19 has become a great opportunity for exploitation, said Rajan, who is currently heading a study on counter-migration from the Gulf to assess wage theft.

But according to him, migrant workers troubles begin in their country of origin, not abroad. It is a new form of slavery that begins before they even leave the country in the form of recruiting fees, he said. Recruiting agents and others involved are selling dreams to migrant workers.

In theory, the central government offers various resources for those who emigrate for work: registration portals, insurance schemes, awareness programs and helplines. They also provide a list of registered recruiting agents across the country.

But the reality of emigration is far more complex, even confusing. For instance, it would be safe to assume that only a fraction of the recruiting agents operating in India are registered with the external affairs ministry.

A 2018 investigation by the Migrant Forum in Asia, with the support of the International Labour Organization, found that in the state of Punjab alone the number of unregistered agents ran into several thousands, despite the 2014 Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Act requiring mandatory registration of all consultants, agents and advisors involved in sending people abroad.

Unscrupulous agents make emigrants more vulnerable to exploitation by charging illegal fees and pushing unfair contracts. Some workers arrive in a foreign country only to learn that the job they were recruited for does not exist, says Rajan. Others end up without appropriate visas or permits and are never registered in the system.

The external affairs ministry limits the service fees registered recruiting agents can charge their clients, which caps at Rs 20,000. But Rajeev Sharma, Regional Policy Officer at Building and Wood Workers Internationals South Asia office, says that many of the workers have paid far more depending on the state they hailed from.

Workers from Punjab, for instance, paid up to Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 1,50,000 to the agent, he said. We dont know how they managed to fund their journey, they may have run into debt so it is not just the salary, so many other issues are involved. When asked about this practice, one of the agencies involved an unregistered Shakti Tread Test Centre run by Muktinath Yadav in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh gave no response.

Indian missions abroad are tasked with ensuring the welfare of overseas Indian nationals. However, the migrant workers and union members say that the Indian embassy in Serbia failed to even register their grievances properly. The Embassy of India in Belgrade did not respond to requests for comment.

In response to an inquiry about grievance redressal mechanisms for repatriated migrant workers, the Ministry of External Affairs Protector General of Emigrants instead pointed to the Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra, a general helpline.

Grievance portals address a lot of topics, including pre-departure issues. However, there needs to be a specific focus on wage theft, particularly during Covid-19, said Rajan. He stressed the importance of collective bargaining by various governments in South Asia and proper grievance registration by Indian embassies in order to pursue the necessary legal steps.

Recognising the lack of global mechanisms to address wage theft, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor stated during a panel discussion last year that an escrow fund could be set up, with employers depositing six months worth of wages in order to protect workers against non-payment.

In the case of the Indian migrant workers in Serbia, it was labour unions that initially came to their rescue, following through until they had arrived safely back to their respective homes. When asked if there is enough awareness among migrants themselves about their rights and the resources available to them, Rajan said: Absolutely not, and I think that is where we are failing.

Migration has three cycles, he explained. The first pre-migration cycle happens in our country and steps to protect migrant workers need to start here.

Rajan said believed that the government should make pre-departure orientation programs, including skills training, mandatory. Most workers do not even know the currency of the host country. They know, in rupees, how much they expect to make and in how much time.

Khuntia, of the Building and Wood Workers International Indian Affiliates Council, highlighted the utter importance of signing bilateral agreements with host countries regarding wages, healthcare, and social security so that those emigrating can feel secure. And if anything were to happen, by virtue of this bilateral agreement, the Indian government can negotiate with the host country and provide relief to the workers, he concluded.

If everybody were cheated, there would be no migration, said Rajan. But to raise awareness among prospective migrants, it is important to share not only success stories but also those of struggles. It is not about how many people we send, but about how well-informed our migrant workers are when they are deployed abroad, he said.

Yamuna Matheswaran is an independent journalist and visual artist from India whose work has appeared on The Hindu, Atlas Obscura, Scroll.in and New Internationalist. She holds an MA in International Studies from the University of Denver.

This article first appeared in Asia Democracy Chronicles.

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Indian government stood by as migrant workers were denied wages during the pandemic - Scroll.in

What does it mean to lose ones childhood to unsung labour? What is it like when books are replaced by bricks, playgrounds by agricultural fields, plastic toys with heavy-metal machines, alphabet recitations by silent cries of help? What is to have memories set in strife, solemn smiles, and tiny hands clasped in the chains of unquestioned slavery? Nobody knows. Because 160 million children worldwide, deep into an abyss of darkness and trauma, do not get to answer these questions.

A report published in June by the International Labour Organization and the UNICEF shows an increase of more than 8 million child labourers across the domain in the past four years, and over 9 million more children are expected to have lost their childhood by 2022.

As the pandemic would have it, in the first quarter of the year 2020 itself, over 370 million students kept away from schools, their essential dwelling grounds for an ambitious, educated future amidst an uncertain, often hostile, world. The situation got exacerbated further as state-sponsored policies like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme stood suspended in the event of the physical retreat of children from school, leading to a widespread increase in drop-out rates.

The concerns are further legitimised as a UN estimate shows that over 24 million students dropping-out of schools across the globe. Children in the poorest regions of India are, thus, facing a double whammy the risk of illiteracy, as well as a clear denial of a nutritious meal, which had earlier acted as a pull-force for them to attend schools, defeating socio-economic compulsions.

The World Bank has predicted an addition of more than 12 million people in the below-poverty-line category in India during the pandemic. This, coupled with the reverse-migration of thousands of seasonal labourers due to lack of jobs in the city, has thrown the burden of fiscal adversity on the shoulders of children, now expected to support their families overcome this ordeal. Unreasonable market demand has made vulnerable children a part of the supply chain mechanism to supplement limited adult, skilled labour, in both urban and rural areas. These children have taken to hard agricultural labour, contractual work in brick kilns, and other industrial wage employment activities as a means to overcompensate for a phenomenon way beyond their control.

On top of this invariable and uncontrolled spike in child labour, a study conducted by Lancet has estimated that around 1.2 lakh children lost at least one parent between March 2020 and the end of April 2021. The loss of this parental shield against the scourge of the real world has exposed young orphans to social and market forces way beyond their understanding. One shudders to imagine the trauma these children might have to undergo on a physical and psychosocial level through exploitative hands. The possibility that children in their tender ages can fall prey to people with vested, criminal interests cannot be overlooked.

The Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory education to children in the age group of eight and 14, prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 in hazardous industries, and mandates the state to direct its policy towards the protection of children against forced labour and work-related abuse. But strong constitutional ideals must be accompanied by stronger policies, and more importantly, stronger implementation, oversight and evaluation mechanisms.

Despite the existence of a strict Child Labour Prohibition Act, misuse is prevalent due to the absence of strict repercussions. The biggest challenge comes from the non-recognition of the problem at the grassroots, which allows a free-hand to violators to grossly abuse vulnerable children without any fear of punishment.

More than across-the-line legal interventions, however, the real solution lies in nipping the issue in its bud. Resources must be directed to trace and monitor former school-attendees, dispense resources and provide counselling and guidance to avoid further drop-outs. Monetary help, as well as mid-day meal programmes also need to be established locally to encourage remote school enrolment, class-attendance and participation even during the pandemic.

Existing infrastructure needs to be optimised to prevent financial distress and digital divide from coming in the way of education. Help for orphans of the pandemic must also begin from tracking their numbers and cases, as a first. It is often that unsupported children go missing from records, falling utterly into destitution. Proper tracking and record-keeping will also ensure that new monetary and protective schemes get disbursed in a direct, monitored way, to avoid bottlenecks that come hand-in-glove with the involvement of corrupt middle-men.

The most effective change will come from balanced efforts from all three heads the state, the market and the civil society. A complete prohibition on the employment of children in hazardous industries up to the age of 18 will do well with a comprehensive social security scheme for underprivileged children. This will guarantee financial support and forge a shared responsibility between the state and the parents in raising them. The private sector can also be roped in with the creation of child-labour-free-zones, offering unique financial incentives to non-hazardous industries in this mission, who often employ child labourers for their cost-effectiveness.

As our governments think and rethink lockdown measures, scheme policy interventions and grapple with whatever remains while also contemplating over what does not, it is time we, as a society collective, pay attention to our children on the brink of irreversible damage. As the world observes 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, we must vow to join our hands in the interest of innocence. We must lend our voices and efforts to our children who await amenities and comfort, wipe their tears and lull them to sleep, and together, knit for them sun-rays that promise a brighter tomorrow.

The writer is Managing Director, IPE Global

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The Covid story of lost childhood - BusinessLine

Three new plaques in Lafayette Square note the contributions of enslaved people to the building of the White House, the location of the park as a protest zone and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy's role in preserving the park and creating the White House Historical Association. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON The unveiling ceremony on the north side of Lafayette Square on Wednesday wasnt large and it didnt last long, but history was made. Or rather, history was recognized. Finally.

Fifty or so people gathered in the late-morning swelter to watch as Stewart D. McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association (WHHA), and John Stanwich, the National Park Services liaison to the White House, removed black cloth draping three historic markers on the north side of the square.

Each marker told a different story about the park, but it was the first marker, the one that acknowledged the role slavery played in building the nearby White House, that felt monumental. To date there had been no other formal recognition, not a plaque or a memorial, noting that hundreds of enslaved people helped build and later maintain and staff the White House.

This new marker tells some of that story, noting that beginning in 1792, enslaved African Americans were hired out by their owners to work alongside English, Scottish and Irish wage laborers and craftsmen. During the eight-year project, hundreds of free and enslaved African Americans contributed to every aspect of the construction.

It concludes: The use of enslaved labor to build the home of the President of the United States often seen as a symbol of democracy illuminates our countrys conflicted relationship with the institution of slavery and the ideals of freedom and equality promised in Americas founding documents.

For Brandon A. Robinson, a Black attorney from North Carolina and a member of the WHHA who came to Washington for the unveiling, the message is an essential one.

It represents, he said, a microcosm of a larger conversation that America is trying to have about telling all stories as opposed to having just one story. And that narrative is important not just for sentimental reasons, but because its the more correct way to tell the story.

The impetus for the marker and a greater focus on the history of slavery at the White House came from a comment made by former first lady Michelle Obama at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, according to McLaurin.

She said, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, McLaurin recalled in an interview Tuesday. And the next day we were inundated online with questions from people wanting information on the backstory of what she said and people who wanted to learn more.

McLaurin,who is White, helped launch a research effort to find out as much as possible about the role slavery played in the White House. Early last year, the WHHA launched Slavery in the Presidents Neighborhood, an online exhibit that examines and traces the lives of enslaved people at Americas most famous address.

John Stanwich of the National Park Service talks about the three new plaques unveiled Wednesday in Lafayette Square. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

To date it has chronicled information about more than 300 enslaved men, women and children who can be linked to the building and staffing at the White House beginning in 1792 and lasting through the first half of the 19th century. They served in the presidential households of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor.

McLaurin said the WHHA is continuing its research and hopes to be able to locate descendants of individuals who had been enslaved at the White House, though that can be difficult because in many cases only the first names are known. He also said he wants there to be some acknowledgment or marker inside the White House, too. In a normal year, before the coronavirus, 500,000 to 600,000 visitors tour the White House. Learning more about its complete history would benefit everyone, he said.

Dedrick Makle and his son Joseph stopped to read the marker soon after it was unveiled. Makle, 39, a D.C. native who moved to California a decade ago, said he was glad to see the role of slavery acknowledged.

Everyone knows the stories of the presidents who lived here, but no one knows how it was built, said Makle, who is Black. The comments about how slaves were pivotal and how much of a part they played in this presidential space is great to see after so many years.

Eula Adams, a retired executive who is on the national council of the WHHA and lives in Denver, said it was important to stress that the history is nonpartisan.

This is history for all Americans, said Adams, who is Black. So many of my friends and colleagues dont really know this part of the story, and its important that we all know it.

The two other markers unveiled Wednesday address the importance of Lafayette Square itself in the nations history and how that came to be.

One points to the significant role that former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy played in preserving the square and preventing the destruction of some of the historic buildings that surround it. Kennedy also helped found the White House Historical Association as a private organization that partnered with the Park Service to finance restoration and improvements to the White House and acquire art and furniture for its stately rooms.

Shes 31 years old when her husband becomes president of the United States. Due to tragic circumstances, she is first lady for less than three years, but what she accomplished in that short period of time is still in process and procedure, McLaurin said. The foundation that she built has grown and is still what supports and enables presidents and first ladies today to maintain that museum standard of the White House.

The final marker explains how the park has been the locus of protests over the past century, beginning with protests by female suffragists in 1917, after which a number of the participants were fined or arrested, and continuing to the present.

Protests are a regular feature in the square, from smaller daily demonstrations to much larger gatherings favoring or opposing presidents or their policies.

McLaurin describes it as Americas public square. Its a place where you can express your First Amendment views and you are literally within earshot of the president of the United States, he said. And thats pretty remarkable.

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New marker acknowledges role of slavery in building White House - Stars and Stripes

High school yearbooks are filled with the idyls of youthfootball games, proms, and notes from best friends forever. My 1980 high school yearbook was no different except for one picture.

The photography club snapped a shot of a massive billboard opposite the entrance to the home post of the 82nd Airborne Division. The message was the crowning glory of the Jimmy Carter yearsIRAN, LET OUR PEOPLE GO. That is what we had become, a nation reduced to begging Tehrans theocratic fanatics to release U.S. diplomats and soldiers.

In the 1970s, the world assumed that the United States was on an inevitable decline riven by problems at home and indecisiveness abroad. The crime was out of control.Oil prices had tripled, and gas lines were everywhere. Americans learned a new word: stagflation.

The defense budget tanked; there was no fuel for vehicles and no money for training. Overseas, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and Cuban proxies were rampaging through southern Africa. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter apologized on behalf ofAmerica. Some academics assessed as they do nowthat America had entered the Thucydides trap. In this trap,America played the role of Athens and the Soviet Union played the role of Sparta.

>>>Why Joe Bidens China Strategy Is Destined for Failure

Then-Senator Joe Biden cut his political teeth in this decade of disco and malaise. He was on the wrong side of history then and was well on his way to being, as former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said years later,wrong about every major national security issue for 40 years.

It isa small wonder,that the Carter years have returned with a vengeance.Inflation is soaring. So, too, is the number of murders.Oil prices are climbing as thepresident strikes at the heart of American energy independence, all the while giving the green light for Putin to tie western Europe to a Russian gas pipeline.

Once more,theleader of the free worldfumbles opportunities to cooperate with allies and enables our adversaries in Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was sentto Asia to reassure allies with memories of Obama-era indifferencetoward the Pacific region that Biden is cut from a different cloth.Yet even as Austin offeredthese assurances, the Biden administration was proposinga flat defense budget,one insufficient even to maintainpurchasing power.The incongruityhasnotbeenlost on nations looking to stand together with Washington to prevent Chinese military dominance of the Pacific region.

The same attitude applies to the Middle East where Arab statesin 2020buried age-old animosities toward Israel so as to stand together against the mullahs in Tehran. Throwing awaytheyears of progressencapsulated by the Abraham Accords, the Biden White House has returned to the Obama-era appeasement of Iran and its proxies.

Even in Europe,the message is one of retreat. The Trumpadministration halted Russian aggression in Ukraine by providing Kiev with weaponsable tokill Russian president Vladimir Putins tanks,helicopters and planes. The Biden-Harrisadministration unilaterallychoked offthe flow of military supplies to Ukraine, in the hope that Moscow would reciprocate.Instead,Putinhasmoved tens of thousands of troops to the border opposite Ukraineandcontinues to wage war on the cyber commons vital to American security.

People in London, whichis one of Americasmost important allies, wereleft flabbergasted by apresident who could not comprehend that Northern Ireland was a constituent part of the United Kingdom,not a province of the Irish Republic. The Canadians are reeling from the loss of thousands of oil and gas jobs as America relinquished its energypartnershipwith the stroke of apresidential pen.Thepresident of the French Republic declaredthat the wokepresidency of Joe Biden is a threat to the very soul of the French nation.

All of this means that America is now led by those who believe they exist to manage national decline,not lead the world.Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked the United Nations Human Rights Council,a forum for world thuggery,to investigate racism in America. That means unleashingcouncilmembersChina, Russia,and Cubato vilify the United States with Foggy Bottoms blessing.

This is not new ground for Blinken. In March, the Chinese foreign minister hammeredhimby simply echoing Bidens own woke critique of America.TheWall Street Journalposited that the Chinese made clear that after the Trump years, Beijing wants a return to the policy of Obama accommodation to Chinas global advances. Blinkencould only respond with faculty lounge pieties about Americas imperfections.

In April, Bidens ambassador to the United Nations, Laura Thomas-Greenfield, embarrassed the United Statesbydenouncing her own nationbefore the UNHuman Rights Council, declaring that the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles.

>>>Universal Periodic Review Reflects Deficiencies of Human Rights Council

Theinabilityof these top officialsto be anything but defensive abouttheirown country sets the tone forwhat to expectin the next four years. How can America cope with a rampant China when her own leaders do not believe that the country is worth defending, even rhetorically? If they will not stand for a nation grounded in the universal principles of human dignity and individual freedom, then where will they stand?

Let us be clearaboutwhat is at stake. China and itsjunior partners, Russia and Iran, seek nothing less than the overthrow of the United States as the worlds most powerful country with the Middle Kingdom being at the center of a new world order.

Carter famously said that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan revealed what was at the heart of Moscows ambitions. He immediately putintoproductionthe B-1 bomber, theAbrams Tank and the Minuteman 3systems Ronald Reagan would build upon to confront the Kremlin.

At least the man from Plains was honest enough toreverse course when he realizedhe was wrong.Do notcount on a similar epiphany from the current occupant of the White House. One canonly pray that Americanswill not witnessmoregrovelingbillboards on Bragg Boulevard.

This piece originally appeared in the National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/feature/joe-biden-2021-version-jimmy-carter-190558

Go here to read the rest:

Is Joe Biden the 2021 Version of Jimmy Carter? - Heritage.org

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On this day, July 29, in history:

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In 1588, the Spanish Armada was defeated in the English Channel by the British, led by Sir Francis Drake. Although Spain sent other fleets against England in the 1590s, none repeated the threat of the 1588 plan to invade England.

In 1858, the government of John A. Macdonald and George-Etienne Cartier resigned when the House of Commons voted against their motion to move the capital of the Province of Canada to Ottawa from York.

In 1873, the first Icelanders to migrate to Canada arrived. Their homes had been destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Numbering 285, they arrived in Quebec and headed for the Muskoka area of Ontario. They found it difficult to settle there, however, and moved on to Willow Point on Lake Winnipeg. They named it Gimli Icelandic for paradise.

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In 1874, social reformer J.S. Woodsworth was born. He helped form the Manitoba Independent Labour Party and was elected to the Commons in 1921. In 1926, he bargained his partys two votes for a promise by Prime Minister Mackenzie King to enact an old-age pension plan.

In 1890, artist Vincent van Gogh died in Auvers, France, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In 1899, the permanent international court of arbitration was established at The Hague, in the Netherlands.

In 1900, King Humbert I of Italy was assassinated at Monza, Italy.

In 1905, Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish diplomat and secretary general of the UN from 1953-61, was born. His spiritual journal Markings was published in 1964, three years after his death in a plane crash in Central Africa.

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In 1907, Sir Robert Baden-Powell formed the Boy Scout movement.

In 1911, the Canadian Northern Railway was completed between Montreal and Port Arthur, Ont.

In 1912, the British Privy Council upheld the provinces power to make marriage laws.

In 1914, the first transcontinental telephone line on the North American continent between New York and San Francisco was successfully tested.

In 1916, a bush fire swept through Matheson, Ont., killing 223 people.

In 1938, ABC anchor Peter Jennings was born in Toronto. He was the sole anchor of ABCs World News Tonight from 1983 until 2005. He died on Aug. 7, 2005 from complications of lung cancer.

In 1940, the German Luftwaffe began its all-out blitz against Britain during the Second World War.

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In 1958, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill creating the American space agency, NASA.

In 1967, an accidental rocket launch aboard the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI announced that the Roman Catholic ban on artificial contraception would continue.

In 1971, the Oland family of Halifax presented the Bluenose II, a replica of the original Bluenose, to the Nova Scotia government as a floating museum.

In 1977, crude oil began flowing through the Alaska Pipeline into storage tanks at Valdez, Alaska.

In 1981, Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in Londons St. Pauls Cathedral. An estimated 750 million people worldwide watched the televised ceremony. The couple divorced in 1996, one year before Diana died in a Paris car crash.

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In 1984, Ottawa chef-caterer Linda Thom won Canadas first Summer Olympics gold medal in 16 years. Thom claimed the womens sport pistol title on the first day of competition in Los Angeles.

In 1988, External Affairs Minister Joe Clark announced that all people travelling on South African passports and seeking entry into Canada to participate in sports would be denied visas. The ban was lifted a few years later after South Africa abolished apartheid.

In 1992, Erich Honecker, the former communist leader of East Germany, returned to Berlin from Moscow and was immediately charged with manslaughter in the deaths of people shot by border guards while trying to flee East Germany.

In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard Ivan the Terrible and quashed his death sentence. Ivan was the sadistic gas-chamber operator at the Treblinka death camp in German-occupied Poland during 1942-43. (He returned to Ohio but U.S. immigration officials later ordered his deportation to Germany to face similar charges. In May 2011, he was again convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, but was released pending appeal but died on March 17, 2012.)

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In 1997, the Commission for Environmental Co-operation, a NAFTA agency, released a study that identified Ontario as the third biggest polluting jurisdiction in North America.

In 1998, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the federal government underpaid 200,000 employees in six wage categories dominated by women, and ordered Ottawa to pay nearly $3 billion in compensation.

In 1999, an irate stockbroker opened fire at two Atlanta, Ga., brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 12 before committing suicide as police stopped his van. His wife and two children were also found dead in his home.

In 2003, Foday Sankoh, who led a bloody rebel movement in Sierra Leone that killed 75,000 people over 10 years, died in United Nations custody. He was charged with crimes against humanity, rape and sexual slavery.

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In 2003, the Canadian Football League terminated Sherwood Schwarzs ownership of the Toronto Argonauts and seized control of the club.

In 2008, the U.S. House issued an unprecedented apology to African Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and segregation laws.

In 2009, the hottest day ever was recorded in Vancouver, as the temperature reached a high of 33.8 C, breaking the previous record of 33.3 C set in 1960.

In 2009, Microsoft reached a 10-year deal with Yahoo for an Internet search partnership, ending years of back and forth negotiations. The agreement gave Microsoft access to the Internets second-largest search engine audience.

In 2010, Ford Motor Co. of Canada announced nearly 400 employees would be laid off on Nov. 1 when the company cut one of two shifts at its Windsor, Ont. engine plant.

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In 2010, raging forest fires encircled Voronezh, Russia, and tore through provincial villages, forcing mass evacuations. In the coming weeks, over 600 fires had swept across western Russia causing close to $15 billion in damages and cloaked Moscow in suffocating smog.

In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada denied an attempt by Big Tobacco companies to get the federal government named as a third-party defendant in a B.C. lawsuit seeking the recovery of health care costs linked to smoking-related diseases. Governments in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador had all filed similar suits.

In 2011, Norway honoured the memory of 77 people killed in the nations worst peacetime massacre, with the prime minister calling on the nation to unite around its core values of democracy and peace. An 18-year-old Muslim girl, Bano Rashid, was the first victim to be laid to rest.

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In 2013, Canadian retailer Hudsons Bay Co. announced it would acquire U.S. luxury retailer Saks Inc. in a friendly deal worth US$2.9 billion, with plans to open seven full-line stores and about two dozen locations under a discount banner across Canada.

In 2018, Vladimir Guerrero, Chipper Jones, Trevor Hoffman, Jack Morris, Jim Thome and Alan Trammell were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 2019, Canadas chief electoral officer said voting day should not be moved. Election day could be no later than Oct. 21 under federal law, which this year fell on the Jewish holiday known as Shemini Atzeret, meaning Orthodox Jews are not permitted to work, vote or campaign. Elections Canada had been lobbied to change the date, but decided against it this close to an election, prompting a Federal Court challenge to the decision. The court ordered chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault to take a second look at the decision and balance the infringement on the charter rights of affected voters against the objectives of the election law. Perraults detailed decision said it is not in the public interest to move voting day.

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In 2019, Capital One said a hacker had gained access to the personal data of more than 100-million people, including as many as six-million Canadians. The hack exposed one million social insurance numbers making it one of the largest security breaches in Canadian history. Credit card, credit limit, and contact information was accessed but no credit card numbers or log-ins were released. A Seattle woman Paige A. Thompson a former systems engineer at Amazon Web Services, who uses the handle erratic was charged with a single count of computer fraud and abuse.

In 2020, WE Charity announced it had mutually agreed to suspend its partnerships after a flood of companies announced they were dropping their support for the embattled organization. Several companies, including Royal Bank of Canada, Loblaw Companies, GoodLife Fitness and KPMG already announced they had ended their partnerships with the charity.

In 2020, scientists said theyd figured out why some COVID-19 sufferers temporarily lose their sense of smell, something the doctors call anosmia. They said the virus attacks the cells that support neurons in the brain that control smell. There is good news, as researchers say once a patient recovers, those neurons recover as well and ultimately the ability to smell comes back.

The Canadian Press

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On this day in history .... - Calgary Herald

Dr. Chris Anyokwu

By Chris Anyokwu

One of the aliases of Nigeria in recent memory is good people, great nation. Of course, you can always expect our power-holders/wielders to seek to create alternate realities, a multiverse of phantom bliss for their hapless and beleaguered populace through the awesome propaganda machine at their disposal. Ours is what the Igbo call o mara mma na paint, o joro njo na engine/ outwardly beautiful but inwardly decadent. Thats the permanent state of our body politic. Beyond the glitz and glitter of temporal power, beyond the alluring sirens song about the gigantic infrastructure projects going on in our country for instance, the road-and-rail infrastructure, the ongoing airport renovation work, the rollicking anthem of the weekly federal executive council approval of humongous appropriations for one project after another the vast majority of our people are hungry. In fact, Nigerians are famished; they are starving, almost to death!

Hunger everywhere. Photo by Awareness Media Ng

The last time we checked, it was not clear how many states of the federation have begun implementing the new minimum wages for workers. By law, the new national minimum wages is 30,000 and, a few months back, it was reported in the media that the Trade Union Congress (TUC) president Quadri Olaleye said that sixteen states were yet to start implementing the new wage structure. Furthermore, owing in large part to the Covid-19 pandemic with its accompanying socio-economic hardships, many companies and factories have had to downsize their workforce, shedding a large chunk of hands thus swelling the burgeoning ranks of the unemployed, the underemployed and the jobless. On some occasions when government at the national level pretends to provide jobs for our teeming armies of unemployed youth, the whole shenanigan usually blows up in the faces of its officials, as the modus operandi for recruitment is flawed ab initio, mired as it is in ethnic politics.

Consider, for instance, the following governments agencies: the NDLEA recruitment exercise, Civil Defence recruitment exercise, Nigeria police and Nigerian Navy recruitment exercise, among others. The shortlisted candidates lists for the 2020/2021 period show signs of ethnic favouritism and marginalization in equal measure (see Google.com). By the same token, it is important to also highlight the egregious drawback of the constitutional principle of Federal Character which, at inception, was well-intentioned, but at present has only succeeded in freezing up our march towards modernity and progress. How does one explain a situation whereby the most educationally backward among us are the ones being rewarded with admission to Unity Schools, Federal universities, etc. while more qualified candidates from the southern parts of the country are denied admission into these institutions of learning? This established culture of skewed reward system has in the main spawned an unhelpful and retrograde attitude of despondency, of crippling insouciance among our youth. Hardly would you find a young boy or girl burning the midnight oil for an examination. They all want to cut corners go and enrol at special centres, parents also settle examination officials through what they call sorting, inducement, mobilisation, etc.

The culture of the glamorisation and equalisation of mediocrity now defines us as a people, thereby spreading like a poisonous pall across disciplinary and professional frontiers. No one is spared. Thus, whilst primary schools churn out sub-standard and half-baked pupils for secondary school admission, secondary schools in turn produce very poor, intellectually challenged students for our tertiary institutions of learning. At university, you realise that the freshmen are almost set in their ways, making tutelage and mentoring an uphill task. They say you dont teach an old monkey new tricks. In this connection, therefore, you cannot blood these semi-vacant minds and reconfigure them for the pursuit of the culture of excellence, hard work and integrity, when all they have known is the liberalisation of nascence and mediocrity. Small wonder, then, you hear the popular cry: Nigerian graduates are unemployable! To make matters worse, universities tend to prepare our graduates for blue-collar jobs, the traditional 9am to 5pm kind of work. They expect to draw salaries at the end of every month. Now these kind of jobs are not available any more. Although we hear people tout technical education, vocational training, skills acquisition centres, and so forth, it is doubtful if the products of these centres are able to self-employ in order to shrink the ever-widening and exploding labour market.

Thus across the land is a vast ocean of unemployed graduates, ill-equipped products of vocational/skills acquisition centres, institutions and mono-and polytechnics. Whats worse, there are hardly credit facilities or soft loans provided for start-ups for those blessed with entrepreneurial acumen. Please note that these armies of unemployed youth are supposed to constitute our middle-class, the buffer-zone between the hoi polloi who make up the largest chunk of the informal sector and the upper-middle class and the upper-class proper. With the virtual disappearance of the middle-class, what you have is a huge gulf between the nation of the wretched and the propertied/leisured class comprising captains of industry, employers of labour (i.e., CEOs, MDs, EDs, Directors, Chairmen/women, etc), military top-brass, the hedonistic ruling elite, among others. In the private sector, it is all about contract staffing and casualisation. In commercial or business circles, like banks and insurance companies, it is sheer slavery. And this kind of slavery in corporate Nigeria or Nigeria Inc. assumes many sinuous and complex forms, not least sexual or worse. In governments Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) there seems to be an embargo on employment, hence whenever government announces any form of recruitment exercise, people lose their lives trying to secure placement. Sadly, some of the poverty alleviation schemes like Trader Moni have only served to enrich those in charge, thus leaving the indigent citizens high and dry. According to the Global Terror Index (see Wikipedia) Nigeria occupies the second spot on the list of countries believed to be hot-beds of terrorists.

This is hardly surprising as most Nigerian youths, educated and illiterate, are out of work, idle and restive. This unsavoury state of affairs is what is fuelling insurgency, banditry, terrorism and sundry forms of criminality in the country. Whats more, the deleterious activities of these enemy nationals have made it almost impossible for our farmers to go to their farms. The logical consequence arising from this is food shortages, scarcities and mass hunger. Amid this scenario of food insecurity, the North-South resentment is not helping matters as northern business people recently threatened to stop bringing foodstuffs like onions, pepper, and tomatoes to the southern part of Nigeria. Besides, the free-fall of the exchange rate or value of the Naira has constituted a major source of economic hardship for Nigerians. For example, $100 equals 47,000, 100 = 57,000, 100 Scotland Pound Sterling equals 68,000, whereas 100 can only afford two dollops of fufu (cooked cassava dough), Nigerians staple food. A pack of sachet water popularly called pure water now costs 20. As of now, drinking water is out of the reach of millions of Nigerians. One would have thought that the warning signs given by Nigerian youth during the October 2020 EndSARS protests would have jolted the authorities into remedial action, but unfortunately, things have gone from bad to worse. The Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP), a non-profit, non-partisan legal and advocacy organisation, has been in the forefront in the agitation for official transparency, accountability and respect for the socio-economic rights of Nigerians. It has consistently tackled government over issues of institutionalised and official graft and corruption and bad governance. Yet, it appears government officials cannot be bothered. Its still business as usual. In fact, the deep-seated feelings of marginalisation among some sections of the country the Igbo in particular has remained a sore thumb in our body politic. Again, the issue of parents selling their children for food is a most worrisome and tragic index of how bestial we have become as a people.

The uptick in prostitution, Yahoo-Yahoo scamming, One Chance, ritual killings, 419, human trafficking, and, of course, armed robbery are all caused and exacerbated by HUNGER. A hungry man is an angry man. Thus, a hungry people make an angry nation. Nigeria is now in the vice-grip of anger, of angst (i.e., anger and anxiety). Nigerians are now the hungriest people in the world. They now look back in anger at the road not taken; at the warning signs and signals not correctly read and consequently the wrong and ruinous choices made. As the saying goes, regrets come later in life. Nigerians now are in a situation of would have, could have, and should have. The democratisation and glorification of mediocrity coupled with the abhorrent corollary of carpeting merit are a major incentive to anger. The right people are cheated out of what they truly deserve and because of this, they tend to resort to all sorts of antisocial acts. The appalling vacuity of our policy-planners and government officials in relation to poverty alleviation is a serious cause for worry. Putting square pegs in round holes is a distinctly Nigerian habit, especially in official quarters. Going forward, it is suggested that government deliberately plan and implement youth-oriented programmes in sport, agriculture, skills acquisition, technical education, etc. Greater or better funding of education at all levels cannot be overemphasised. An educated citizenry is an empowered nation and an empowered nation is a happy and great nation. We have touted job creation for too long.

Now is the time to get down to brass tacks. The most qualified should get the job as well. Since the Federal Character principle seems to have outlived its usefulness, it is suggested that government consider expunging it from our public life. Let a thousand flowers bloom and reach for the sun. And those in public office should live by example: let them be frugal, disciplined and patriotic. Indeed, all citizens of Nigeria must be given a sense of belonging, and, in this regard, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) must redouble its efforts in value reorientation of the masses. To my compatriots, regarding our current sorrows, I say: this too, shall pass

Chris Anyokwu, PhD, writes from University of Lagos

See original here:

Hungry People, Angry Nation - The News

In a previous article, I condemned attempts by some American Christians to justify or excuse the hideous sin of American slavery. I focused most my attention, however, on the single passage of 1 Timothy 1:10.

Given space limitations, I was unable to treat the broader question of slavery in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament. Here, I want to build on my previous article, discussing how the New Testament approaches slavery and its implications for modern Christians.

I will focus on the New Testament, not because I regard the Old Testament as uninspired or unimportant, but because I believe there are interpretive difficulties at work in Christian readings of the Old Testament that I cannot address adequately in this article.

While I wish to be sensitive in my treatment of the biblical text, I also must be honest. The bottom line is the New Testament does not directly condemn slavery. The New Testament presupposes the existence of slaveryhumans legally owning other humans as propertyand never challenges this institution head-on.

If one adopts certain approaches to biblical interpretation, it is easy to justify slavery even today by appealing to various biblical texts like Ephesians 6:5-9 and Colossians 3:22-4:1. Christians at many points in history have done exactly this, and we must be honest about that fact.

But for those of us who believe God has spoken and continues to speak through Scripture, the New Testament seemingly condoning slavery gives us much pause. We rightly reject slavery as immoral, yet our Bible seems not to do so. How can we make sense of this inconsistency? Must we embrace slavery, or reject biblical authority?

I think neither. I believe Christians can and should believe in biblical authority and reject slavery. We can do this by paying close attention both to the biblical texts and to their ancient contexts.

One reason the New Testaments apparent support for slavery strikes us as so problematic is because it appears quite inconsistent with other parts of the Bible. For example, Paul famously states in Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (NASB).

In Galatians, Paul is challenging segregation and preferential treatment within the Galatian churches based on ones Jewish identity or lack thereof. Paul regards segregated fellowship as a functional denial of the gospel itself (Galatians 2:11-14). James echoes this point, lambasting churches who would show preferential treatment to wealthy members and visitors (2:1-7).

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Passages like those I mention above have been key pillars in many Christians historic battles for justice and liberation of the underprivileged. So, how do they fit with passages like Ephesians 6:5-9 and Colossians 3:22-4:1?

The Ephesians text holds a vital portion of the answer. After spending verses 5-8 giving instructions to enslaved people regarding how best to serve their masters, Paul concludes in verse 9 by saying: And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.

Paul is also quite direct in his letter to Philemon, where he encourages the slave owner Philemon to receive back Onesimus no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord (1:16).

The New Testament presents a vision of the church in which enslaved people and their masters are equals in Christ. Segregation and preferential treatment in the church are forbidden. While Paul and the other apostles do not tear down the master/slave hierarchy directly, they do undermine it. The early church even had leaders who themselves were enslaved.

While this may be encouraging to modern Christians uncomfortable with the New Testament witness on slavery, my answer thus far does not resolve the issue fully. How could abolitionists who outright have attacked slavery claim the Bible for support?

The key here is the gap between the ancient world of the Bible and our modern world. When the New Testament was written, Christianity was a tiny and obscure sect. The church had virtually no social, economic or political power. It was a decentralized ragtag band of religious weirdos.

If the early Christians had sought to wage a full-scale societal war on slavery, they would not have won. They simply did not have the means or the clout. Rather, the New Testament church sought to embody an alternative community, a new society in miniature that upheld different values and operated by different rules. In so doing, the New Testament church bore witness to Gods redemptive and liberating work.

This has profound ramifications for the modern church. Unlike the New Testament church, the Western church in most times and places throughout our history has been a dominantoften the dominantsocial, political and cultural force. To take the New Testaments instructions regarding slavery and apply them literally today is to ignore the massive gap between the New Testaments context and our own.

The New Testament church planted the seeds of slaverys end, but many Christians have failed to tend and water those seeds properly. We still are called to be an alternative community, to bear witness to Gods redemptive and liberating work. One way we do that today is pursuing justice for others, which includes breaking the chains of slavery.

Joshua Sharp is a writer and Bible teacher living in Waco. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Truett Theological Seminary. The views expressed are those solely of the author.

Excerpt from:

Voices: Revisiting the New Testament and slavery - Baptist Standard