The first confirmed coronavirus infection in Yemen was identified in a 60-year-old man on Good Friday. No additional cases have been reported since then, but that can hardly be for lack of transmission, for its difficult to imagine a country more ill-equipped to fight COVID-19s spread. This small Middle Eastern nation has endured five years of violence, blockade, starvation, and epidemic, and its medical system was ravaged before the pandemic began. The United Nations considers Yemens condition the worlds worst humanitarian crisisand its a crisis to which our government contributes.

Located at the southern edge of Saudi Arabia and bordering the Red Sea, Yemen is thought to be the home of the biblical queen of Sheba, and perhaps only biblical language can adequately convey its confluence of miseries. The prophets mournful condemnations of violence and oppression all find expression in Yemen: The combatants feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in their highways.The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths (Isa. 59:78, NRSV). Yemen illustrates all too well the way sin flows from sin (Ps. 7:1416) and how human and natural evil can conspire in our fallen world.

Yemen illustrates all too well the way sin flows from sin and how human and natural evil can conspire in our fallen world.

When Yemens civil war began in 2015, it was little noticed in the United States. Widely ignored too was the Obama administrations decision to support a coalition intervention led by Saudi Arabia to back the Yemeni government and oppose the Houthi rebels challenging its power. Then-President Barack Obama never obtained congressional authorization for US involvement in this war, as required by the Constitution, and President Donald Trump vetoed a bipartisan congressional resolution to end American involvement last year.

While neither administration permanently planted any significant number of US boots on the ground in Yemen, both backed the coalition even as it racked up credible accusations of war crimes. Washington sold the Saudi coalition weapons, including a bomb used in the Saudi school bus strike that killed 40 children. Our militarys intelligence sharing informed the coalitions air campaign as it bombed civilian targets like hospitals, schools, markets, refugee camps, weddings, funerals, food factories, and water treatment plants.

That damage to clean water sources fueled in Yemen the largest cholera outbreak on record in world history. Cholera is a waterborne disease in which diarrhea and vomiting cause catastrophic dehydration, and Yemeni cholera cases are estimated at more than 2 million in a population of 28 million. The same poor hygiene conditions that help cholera spread will spread COVID-19 too.

But the US-backed coalitions single most harmful tactic is its ongoing blockade of Yemens airports and seaports. Ostensibly intended to prevent the Houthis from obtaining weapons from Iran, it has produced famine conditions and severe shortages of medical supplies. Yemen is a desert nation that must import 90 percent of its food, so under siege, Yemen is starving. Photos of malnourished Yemeni children call to mind Holocaust victims. A Yemeni child of five years or younger dies of starvation and other preventable causes every 12 minutes.

Between war casualties, cholera, and starvation, Yemens medical system has long been overwhelmed. Only half its hospitals are functioning normally. Medicine and equipment are in short supply, and many doctors and nurses worked without pay until outside aid groups began to cover some salaries. There is no scenario in which Yemen can be prepared for the coronavirus. There is no scenario in which Yemeni COVID-19 patients will receive the care they need.

But there is a scenario in which the United States could stop adding to Yemens suffering: We could stop assisting the Saudi coalition. Politically, this should be an easy sell: It has bipartisan support in Congress and among Americans aware of the war. It would not jeopardize US securitythe Houthis have only local ambitions, and the power vacuum of civil war helps terrorist organizations rather than curbing them, most notably al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). (AQAP-linked fighters have even obtained American weapons and armored vehicles flowing into Yemen via coalition forces.)

US military withdrawal from Yemens conflict is no guarantor of peace. It will not rebuild hospitals or control epidemics. But it would make the coalition intervention impossible to continue, at least at its current scale. That could push Saudi Arabia and its allies to reach a peace deal or long-term ceasefire with the rebels after multiple failed negotiations. And it could well break the blockade, allowing in vital food and medical aid.

Open ports and a decline in violence in Yemen would give Christians an opportunity to serve the Yemeni people in ways that are now all but impossible. A NGO worker in Yemen told me few of the aid organizations that have managed to stay active in the country are affiliated with churches. That is partly because Yemen is a dangerous place for Christians, this worker emphasized. A mass shooting in 2016 included four nuns and a priest among its victims; international Christian aid workers were kidnapped and killed in 2009; and three Southern Baptist missionaries were martyred in Yemen in 2003. The Yemeni Christian population is extremely small and subject to persecution (conversion from Islam is prohibited). That likely wont change however the civil war concludes, as neither the Yemeni government nor the Houthi rebels respect religious freedom. Yemen needs spiritual care as much medical and economic aid.

In this pandemic and after, amid civil war and after, Yemen desperately needs the church. It needs Christians to imitate our God who will incline [his] ear to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more (Ps. 10:1718, NRSV). It needs us to embody Gods self-sacrificial care for the helpless. Yemen needs peace, and it needs our prayers.

Bonnie Kristian is a columnist at Christianity Today, a contributing editor at The Week, a fellow at Defense Priorities, and the author of A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (Hachette).

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The Virus Breaks the Camel's Back - ChristianityToday.com

As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, journalists have been tasked with a key role in helping to create awareness around the virus and inform communities on what their governments are doing to prevent its spread.

However, as press freedom advocacy groups mark World Press Freedom Day on Sunday, they are also using the day to raise awareness around the dangers and challenges journalists around the world, including in the U.S., have faced in reporting on the pandemic.

"Now more than ever, truth-tellers play a vital role in maintaining free expression and free societies," Summer Lopez, the senior director of free expression programs at PEN America, said in a statement.

Yet, she said, "increasingly, their lives are imperiled. We've seen reporters risk their own lives in emergency rooms in Queens, New York; face detention for reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in China; seen their work criminalized in Bolivia and Thailand.

In China, PEN America said in a press release, information about the coronavirus outbreak has been "suppressed" while the whereabouts of Chen Qiushia, a former human rights lawyer turned video journalist, and Fang Bin, a businessperson who began reporting on the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, are unknown after both disappeared in February after reporting on the Chinese government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, PEN America said, "reporters from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Voice of America, and TIME were expelled in March 2020."

Further, the organization said, "journalists in the Philippines, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Russia, Venezuela, and Haiti have been threatened, harassed, attacked, and arrested for their COVID-19 reporting."

"Journalism has never been more vital and has never been more at risk," Lopez said.

However, she said that while abuses were happening abroad, it was also important for Americans to "pay special attention to the threats here in the United States."

Nora Benavidez, PEN America's U.S. free expression director told Newsweek in an interview on Friday that part of that threat stems from the growing trend of government officials "at all levels of government" refusing to cooperate with journalists.

"Communities are wanting and turning to news more and governments are targeting news outlets and reporters in a growing fashion, including the president himself, who removes reporters from press briefings and denigrates reporters when he doesn't like them," Benavidez said.

Such behavior, Benavidez said, should be considered "deeply troubling". "It is not authoritarianism, but it is the kind of tactic we see that can lead to that kind of oppression," she said.

The PEN America U.S. free expression director also warned that local reporting in the U.S. has been hardhit by years of declining revenues.

That is why PEN America has launched a campaign on Capitol Hill seeking to include support for local reporting in future economic stimulus bills. The organization has further called on all 50 state governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia to also provide funding for local reporting initiatives.

"Local reporting has faced a cataclysm, now exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis," Lopez said in her own statement."And yet every day, journalists are plowing into the most serious health crisis of our lifetimes to provide truly life-saving work."

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World Press Freedom Day: The Dangers Journalists Have Faced Reporting On the Coronavirus Pandemic - Newsweek

Im in no rush to allow the government to track and monitor me. Its a horrible and terrifying idea.

Yes, you can mount alegitimate argument that the COVIDsafe app in its current form is nothing really to be concerned about. However the current build and rollout is not the cause for alarm.

Facebook, Google and Amazon started very simply and safe too, and now they are using data points and tracking technology to manipulate and exploit the public, why would we allow the government to do so too? This is the same government which recently raided the ABC, essentially attacking freedoms without apology.

Also as Vox reported, governments in 30 countries have manipulated media online to silence critics, sow unrest or influence elections. Now the Australian government is asking us to give them consent to track us all in the name of safety and COVID-19.

Like all times of crisis, governments around the world are using this pandemic to implement policies and expectations which will deteriorate basic freedoms.

In the US, the government used the 9/11 attacks in 2001 to implement the Patriot Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that allowed, among other things, the government to collect citizens phone data. It was an unprecedented encroachment on personal rights.

Well, as governments become more authoritarian, more and more groups of people will get marginalised and abandoned. Think about all the profiling that happens at a police level with race and various other demographics?

Now imagine that same unjust profiling occurring where police have multiple data points they can access on a dashboard at any moment? We really arent far from that.

Even if you are a white rich male and dont have anything to worry about, ask yourself; what industry do you work in? What are your religious beliefs? Oppression and marginalisation does not stop, it slowly creeps until it consumes the whole public everyone is at risk who is not in office.

On a less dramatic example, we have seen how the Trump campaign manipulated the American people with unprecedented access to data via Cambridge Analytica. No one is immune from government manipulation.

You may be the most rational, balanced person in Australia, however everyone has one topic/issue that irritates or angers them the most. With enough data points, the government can determine what that issue is, then feed you information on how their opposition supports (or doesnt support) that issue so that you dont vote for them.

Even though, on balance, the current government may be far more corrupt and far more disconnected from your values than the opposition you are being fed very specific details which make you blind to that. And it wouldnt be your fault!

Back to Google, Facebook and Amazon. We are in a terrible place as a society with these services. They know everything about us, and worse still, they make no secret in how they use this information to exploit us for commercial gain.

Personally, I use them as little as possible now and have hard restrictions on all of their apps. Where I can, I use a fake name and fake photo.

I also post a lot less now, and certainly dont upload pictures as much as I once did. If it wasnt for work, Id delete these services. This was a big reason I switched back to Apple from Android too, you can control your security a lot better on Apple devices.

The bottom line is, think very carefully before you consent to the government getting access to your data.

Yes the data the COVIDsafe app collects now is limited and is anonymised. However it is just the foot in the door for the conservative government. It wont be long before they are incentivising the public to give them Facebook levels of data, entirely consensually. Just like weve done with the corporate tech giants.

Then governments will use that data to manipulate you, and when that happens, will your thoughts and your vote really be your own?

Luke Girgis is the CEO of The Brag Media. Father, Swans fan, C.S. Lewis and Seinfeld tragic.

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Why Im not downloading the COVIDSafe app - The Brag

By Oscar Grenfell 1 May 2020

State and territory leaders are rushing to overturn lockdown measures introduced in response to the pandemic, even though their own modelling indicates that this will result in the more rapid spread of the coronavirus.

The Northern Territory is today lifting a raft of restrictions, while South Australia and other states have outlined roadmaps out of the crisis. This is despite continuing deaths and illness linked to at least four active COVID-19 clusters across the country, and ongoing community transmission.

The aim of all the governments is to create the conditions for broad sections of the working class to be herded back onto the job, so as to resume the flow of corporate profits.

The dangerous implications of this policy have already been demonstrated in sectors that have remained open throughout the crisis. In the construction industry, for instance, the unions and property developers have forced tens of thousands of workers to continue production despite the impossibility of social distancing and have refused to shut sites even when infections have occurred.

The state and territory announcements have been timed to coincide with a meeting today of the expanded national cabinet, composed of the federal government, along with premiers and chief ministers. Each of these gatherings, followed by a press conference of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy have been markers in the escalating back to work campaign.

In the lead-up to the meeting, Morrison has pressed for the state governments to plan for the reopening of restaurants, bars and clubs. The sector is clearly not essential, but accounts for at least $20 billion in revenue per year.

At the same time, state and federal authorities are rapidly moving to resume face-to-face teaching in the schools, despite widespread opposition, as a precondition for workers returning to their jobs.

The Northern Territory Labor government has thus far gone the furthest in reversing lockdown measures, announcing that from today outdoor activities involving pools and childrens playgrounds will reopen, while weddings and funerals can proceed with an unlimited number of attendees.

Beginning on May 15, indoor activities at cafes, gyms and food courts will be permitted and on June 5, all restrictions on mass sporting events, TAB gambling venues and cinemas will be abolished.

The territory is being used as a test case for broader measures, because its small population and isolation appear to have buffeted it from the worst effects of the pandemic.

That the NT cannot be shut-off from broader developments, however, as was shown this morning with the announcement that four Australian Defence Force personnel had been hospitalised in Darwin after reportedly contracting COVID-19 in the Middle East.

The territory is a hub of the Australian military, with Darwin hosting a major marine base directed against China. Some 2,500 US marines are set to arrive at the base in July, while an unknown number of US intelligence assets come and go from the spy base in Pine Gap near the town of Alice Springs, all year long. The US is currently one of the epicentres of the pandemic and there have already been large-scale outbreaks on board its naval vessels.

The move in the NT is particularly reckless, given that fewer than 5,000 tests have been conducted out of a population of some 250,000.

More than a quarter of Territorians are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. They suffer the health consequences of centuries of oppression and many continue to live in communities that lack the most basic amenities. While for other demographics, individuals over the age of 60 are considered at risk of serious illness or death if they contract the coronavirus, among Aborigines, the warning age is just 50.

The South Australian state government is reportedly seeking to lift many of its restrictions within three weeks. The Victorian state of emergency concludes on May 11, which is the date that Morrison and state leaders have assigned for a review of all lockdown measures.

In New South Wales, the countrys most populous state and the largest centre of infections, government claims that the worst of the crisis is over have been dealt a blow by a spate of tragic deaths at the Newmarch House aged care home in Western Sydney and by ongoing reports of community transmission.

This morning state authorities announced the thirteenth death at the Newmarch facility. Family members have protested over several weeks that they have been denied information about the plight of their relatives and their health status.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian also revealed that there had been nine new confirmed infections over the previous 24 hours. At least four of them are a result of community transmission in the Penrith area.

The state is nevertheless proceeding with back to work measures, including the reopening of the schools.

This week, the Daily Telegraph published details of a previously secret matrix, which the NSW government is using to plan the end of the lockdown. It appears to provide a cost versus health analysis of a series of measures.

For instance, it is noted that the removal of restrictions on large-scale outdoor gatherings would result in a medium risk of new COVID-19 infections, but this is counted against the high economic and well-being benefits that would result from such a measure. The reintroduction of widespread retail shopping would similarly result in a medium risk of a coronavirus outbreak, but would have high economic benefits.

According to the Telegraph, the NSW state government is hoping that its recently announced abolition of limits on family visits will have been normalised by mid-May, prior to the lifting of other restrictions.

The Murdoch-press, however, claims that there is a group of cabinet ministers in NSW pushing for a faster relaxation of lockdown laws, including Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello. Two of those have portfolios that would receive a direct boost from a rapid reopening of the economy.

Similar calculations are being made nationally. This week the media revealed modelling by the Group of Eight universities, commissioned by the government to advise a route out of the crisis.

The academics presented two models. One would require the maintenance of most lockdown measures until at least June, aimed at the effective elimination of the spread of the virus. The other would involve the phased overturn of restrictions and a subsequent policy of controlled adaptation to COVID-19.

The proponents of the latter strategy bluntly stated that it would lead to a slightly higher number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths. All of their modelling is predicated on untested assertions that the health system will be capable of dealing with a rapid spike in infections. Nevertheless Morrison and other government representatives immediately declared that they were not seeking to eliminate the virus, because to do so would have too great an effect on the economy.

Governments are touting a decline in cases to justify the removal of lockdown measures. The reduction, however, is clearly the result of the policies they are seeking to overturn. Within the corridors of power, it is openly discussed that the abolition of the social distancing measures will result in a rapid spike in infections, and inevitably, in deaths.

The Murdoch-owned Australian has been among the most insistent advocates of a speedy return to work. Yesterday, its foreign editor Greg Sheridan spelt out what this would mean, declaring: [B]ased on everything we know about COVID-19 there will likely be a second and a third wave of the pandemic. They could easily be worse than the first. He concluded: Dont think the worst cannot come here.

Featured statements on the coronavirus pandemic

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Australian governments rushing to reverse lockdown measures - World Socialist Web Site

Written by Suraj Yengde | Updated: May 3, 2020 8:00:26 am In the country of Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, adjusting on the lines of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one cannot have such an inhuman response to the States failures.

To be a nationalist in India, especially the Right-wing variety, enjoins blaming the colonial regime for all the wrongs in the country. In this politics, the Left wing too puts the imperial government under deleterious scanner. The British regime of 200-odd years is a subject of numerous studies, conversations, celebrations and commemorations. Academia has devoted an entire gamut of postcolonial studies to study those years. Two generations later, this concept continues to peripherally entertain the social sciences discipline. However, the progenies of post-colonials, under the garb of liberal nationalists, stand up against the powers-that-be only when their control through zamindari and the capitalist class is threatened.

The imperial State had utilised its resources to target organisations and individuals who resisted its oppressive rule. Sedition and preventive detention were legal methods deployed to eliminate dissent. The State demanded complete submission to its authority.

Similar modus operandi have continued in post-Independent India. Governments under the Congress or the BJP have emulated their white predecessors in controlling any form of discontent by the poor and oppressed groups.

Opinion |What will we even tell ? How long before they can take Metro or hug a friend

If the legacy of sedition and draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, Public Safety Act and National Security Act exist, it means the government doesnt honour the immense sacrifices of our countrys freedom fighters. It is because of them that we are supposedly enjoying freedoms in our country, though those freedoms are denied to anyone whom the ruling castes are at odds with.

It is not an accident that Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims remain disproportionately the prime target of these atrocious laws, along with anyone who dares defend civil liberties. In fact, many of the activists and scholars who have written against legislation like the UAPA find themselves incarcerated under them now.

The premise on which these laws exist in the first place is that there are internal threats to the Indian State i.e., that there exist citizens who challenge its authority. Any mature, democratic State would try to address the reasons behind this, instead of a concerted kneejerk approach. The State also attacks Dalits via anti-Left rhetoric, as directly attacking them would cost it heavily.

Opinion | When all this is over, it really is important that big bosses of Indian journalism urge season of introspection

It is in this context that one needs to ask what good is the Indian State offering Dalits aside from the breadcrumbs of reservations, which are still not implemented in totality. Mind you, the Supreme Courts attitude towards reservations is clear, in stating that states are not bound to give reservations in jobs and promotions. What steps does the State then plan to ensure the safety of its Constitutionally protected communities?

Dalit and Adivasi social and political movements need to consider waging a struggle against the draconian laws primarily aimed at penalising them, though the attempts by citizens to constitutionally organise against a mighty State might be considered by it as an assault on its so-called integrity. In a 2018 joint study by Common Cause and Lokniti, 27% of Adivasis said they feared being framed for anti-State Maoist activities, while 35% Dalits for petty crimes and 47% Muslims for terrorism-related charges.

These draconian laws have their DNA in British-era brutality. The victims of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre were people who had come together to protest against the Rowlatt Act, that led to incarceration without trial and judicial review. To continue with such draconian legislation is to continue with the legacy of British oppression.

Opinion |We will never know how many people died of starvation, because no state government will admit to starvation deaths

Under the UAPA, a person can be detained for 180 days without charges, giving ludicrous rights to the State. This way the government can conveniently put activists it considers a threat to national security behind bars. The States use of the UAPA shows it doesnt differentiate between dissent of political nature and criminal activity. One can also be sure that if the government is using draconian laws against Left-wing Dalit and Adivasi activists, the same will be repeated against people now enjoying profligacies of power.

A firm believer in parliamentary democracy, Babasaheb Ambedkar stressed the importance of organising, agitating and opposition. We need an opposition to keep the powers in check.

In the country of Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, adjusting on the lines of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one cannot have such an inhuman response to the States failures. If we do not counter these laws, soon even Ambedkarism might be deemed a terrorist ideology, because it seeks justice and equality.

This article appeared in the print edition of May 3, 2020, under the name Sedition, UAPA denial of basic freedoms. Suraj Yengde, author of Caste Matters, curates the fortnightly Dalitality column

Opinion |Disruption of global supply chains during pandemic creates tremendous opportunities to reindustrialise India

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State attacks Dalits via anti-Left rhetoric, as directly attacking them would cost it heavily - The Indian Express

Now we can look the East End in the face. Buckingham Palace during the Blitz. Photo: PA

Now Boris Johnson has recovered from a nasty bout of coronavirus he may well contemplate the political advantage to be gained from having shared the ordeal of so many of his compatriots. The key reward is that he will be able to say with quite unaccustomed sincerity, I feel your pain. Solidarity is forged in adversity and where leadership is concerned nothing succeeds like suffering, as many historical examples attest.

In 1871 Edward, Prince of Wales caught typhoid fever, described as the pre-eminent filth disease of the Victorian period. It was presumed to have killed his father, and for over a month Edward himself, showing symptoms remarkably similar to those of coronavirus, hovered at deaths door. At the time the monarchy was in a parlous state. Queen Victoria, the Widow of Windsor, remained in purdah. Her eldest son had recently been embroiled in the scandalous Mordaunt divorce case and was widely regarded as (in Walter Bagehots phrase) a debauched booby. And there was an upsurge of republicanism, red caps of liberty being raised on poles in Trafalgar Square.

However, the princes illness provoked a tidal wave of sympathy that swept the country. Radicals sneered at the great epidemic of typhoid loyalty but, as the fervent public thanksgivings for his recovery demonstrated, it infected all classes of society. The republican movement subsided, a proposed enquiry into the crowns finances was roundly defeated in parliament and the queen could express confidence in the future of her dynasty. In fact, the reprobate Prince of Wales did more for royal popularity by contracting typhoid than he had ever accomplished in the full bloom of health.

Coincidentally Edwards grandson, George VI, provided another graphic illustration of the way in which experiencing a common affliction can bind ruler and ruled together. In the early days of the Blitz its victims occasionally booed the king and queen as they toured bombed districts, seeing the visits of these gilded folk as a show of slumming. But on 9th September 1940 Buckingham Palace was bombed. The queen famously (and perhaps apocryphally) declared that she could now look the East End in the face. Certainly the air raid was a huge propaganda coup for the king. It demonstrated that he was in as much peril as his subjects, who henceforth applauded his appearances. Despite the ill-disguised perpetuation of many royal privileges, the government could boast that in a Peoples War there was equality of sacrifice, that the sovereign was at one with his subjects. Thus was born a potent myth that has helped to sustain the monarchy ever since.

A well-trodden Via Dolorosa is often an individuals path to power. Churchill and De Gaulle, who would respectively stand on rooftops to watch the Blitz and brush off assassination attempts during the Algerian crisis, both did time in the trenches during the First World War. Many future leaders of colonised countries personified struggles for national independence by participating in the afflictions of their fellows. Dodging martyrdom during the Easter Rising, Eamon de Valera forfeited his own liberty in the cause of Irish freedom, and, on becoming Taoiseach, made ire a sovereign state. In India, Nehru and Gandhi exposed themselves to violence and spent many years in gaol, the former treated as a common criminal, the latter subjecting himself to the additional trauma ofhunger strikes. They thereby acquired moral authority that fatally undermined the British Raj and placed Nehru at the head of a self-governing subcontinent.

In Africa, prison was frequently a stepping-stone to palace. Kwame Nkrumah and his followers wore caps inscribed PG, for Prison Graduate, and he was thus able to establish himself not just as leader of an independent Ghana but as its Osagyefo, Redeemer. Jomo Kenyatta emerged from almost a decade of harsh incarceration to become both president of Kenya for life and Mzee, the father of his people. And of course Nelson Mandelas 27 years confinement, incurred for opposing apartheid, elevated him far above the grubby political fray. It manifested his nobility of character and endowed him with an almost Christ-like aura. Aung San Suu Kyi also acquired iconic status during the 15 years she spent under house arrest resisting oppression in Myanmar, earning the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. But reputations won by enduring pain can be lost by inflicting it. Suu Kyi went from heroine to villainess by coming to terms with the Burmese military junta and defending it against well-founded allegations of genocide.

So sinners as well as saints can climb to the top by facing communal hardship or, better still, by embracing danger. Stalins revolutionary activities earned him several spells of internal exile in Siberia, which he treated as a university, graduating eventually, of course, to the Kremlin. Having narrowly escaped a bullet during the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler spent a year in Landsberg Prison, dictating Mein Kampf and being hailed, even by the warders, as Der Fhrer.

If leaders of every stamp can be more or less sanctified by suffering, Johnson must stand a chance of benefiting from being one among many victims of the pandemic. But sympathy may be extinguished by anger over his lackadaisical early response to it, his swing from accepting herd immunity to imposing total lockdown and his ideological resistance to extending the Brexit transition despite the risk of compounding the present economic catastrophe. The blame for NHS shortages might reasonably be laid at his door. So Johnsons skin has been saved, but it may be harder to save his bacon.

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Johnson and Covid-19: Can human suffering have political advantages? - Prospect Magazine

The growing an infection of the corona virus in medical doctors and well being employees is discouraging these coronados. They are additionally nervous about their household as properly. Dr. Adarsh Pratap Singh, President of Resident Doctors Association of All Sciences Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, has mentioned that the federal government has failed to supply fundamental amenities and companies to well being employees in lots of hospitals. The Delhi authorities has requested the administrators of assorted authorities hospitals to hunt written explanations from medical doctors whove been discovered to be corona optimistic. Doctors have been requested how they obtained contaminated regardless of following the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), protected distance and different precautions.

->The affiliation has described the transfer as insensitive and has positioned ten calls for earlier than the federal government.

PPE deficiency and high quality: In many Kovid-19 hospitals, well being employees wouldnt have private protecting gear (PPE). Questions are being raised concerning the high quality of PPE in some hospitals. Government ought to take discover of this.

Doctors treating non-covid sufferers wouldnt have PPE: Patients additionally inadvertently carry infections to non-covid wards and medical doctors are contaminated with it. PPE is a should for each physician on this scenario.

Safe lodging for medical doctors: It is dangerous for a lot of well being employees to go dwelling at the moment. Because they will turn out to be contaminated attributable to group transmission. They want lodging at protected locations near hospitals.

Number of assessments decreased: More testing will scale back the chance of medical doctors, as it may possibly determine extra contaminated folks.

Kovid- 19 Long-term remedy of sufferers: The variety of well being employees is inadequate. Therefore an worker has to watch Kovid sufferers for an extended time frame. They are liable to getting contaminated by this.

Infection prevention and coaching discount: In many districts, well being employees will not be being given higher coaching to forestall this an infection. Immediate coaching might help them defend themselves and others.

Stress and anxiousness attributable to workload: The assault on well being employees by folks with out correct amenities and care is traumatic. They are discouraged by this.

Social harassment and assault: Despite the regulation to make sure the security of well being employees, theyre dealing with social oppression. Instead of being seen as a warrior, hes seen as a menace and harassed.

More funding in healthcare: It is time when the federal government wants to take a position extra to extend the infrastructure and capability to combat epidemics like Kovid-19.

Bring Private Practitioner again to work: Government well being employees are extra upset as a result of non-public practitioners have closed their clinics and dispensaries. To scale back the burden of presidency hospitals, they need to be requested to begin their very own clinics.

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Government fails to supply amenities to well being employees, AIIMS Association raises questions - Sahiwal Tv

By REIN TARINAYBulatlat.com

MANILA A digital security expert has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic may turn digital surveillance into a so-called new normal as many governments flaunt their respective contact tracing applications and programs to fight the spread of the deadly virus.

Internews community manager Tom Banaria found it alarming that several surveillance infrastructure are being used on people to contain the virus. If this becomes a the normal, he said, it will be very scary.

People are starting to accept that we need it so we can protect ourselves from COVID-19, Banaria said duringtodays Bulatlatan episode, titled COVID-themed cyber attacks and how to protect yourself.

Several international human rights watchdogs have earlier called out the attention of various governments on the increasing surveillance on the people, warning of possible human rights violations.

Governments must be able to show that measures implemented are provided for by law and are necessary, proportionate, time-bound, and that they are implemented with transparency and adequate oversight, Amnesty International said in a previous statement.

Previous case

This is not the first time that there has been an increase on digital surveillance in the name of protecting the people.

Amnesty International said government surveillance expanded significantly after the infamous 9/11 attacks. Once these capabilities and infrastructure are in place, the group said governments seldom have the political will to roll them back.

What this means in practice is that surveillance measures must be the least intrusive available to achieve the desired result. They must not do more harm than good, the Amnesty International said.

In early April, more than a hundred civil society groups have signed a joint statement, listing down at least eight conditions for governments who are resorting to digital surveillance amid the pandemic.

Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, also warned that governments are using the pandemic to build architecture of oppression.

As authoritarianism spreads, as emergency laws proliferate, as we sacrifice our rights, we also sacrifice our capability to arrest the slide into a less liberal and less free world. Do you truly believe that when the first wave, this second wave, the 16th wave of the coronavirus is a long-forgotten memory, that these capabilities will not be kept? That these datasets will not be kept? No matter how it is being used, what is being built is the architecture of oppression, Snowden said in an interview with Vice TV.

Bulatlat managing editor Ronalyn Olea cited a report showing contact tracing apps being used in 29 countries.Here in the Philippines, a digital contact tracing app is being used in Cebu City to supposedly aid the combat against the COVID-19 pandemic. The project, however, is in partnership with the Cebu police.

Given the poor human rights record of the Philippine police, Olea said she would not personally vouch for this app.

Olea said a recentstudyclaimed that at least 60 percent of the population would need to download the app for it to work but the more serious problem would be privacy concerns. Severalstudieshave shown that even anonymized data sets are at risk from re-identification.

Preying on fear

Meanwhile, Banaria said they continue to monitor reports on cyber-attacks, particularly phishing attacks, that prey on the peoples fear of the pandemic.

He shared practical tips to protect oneself from online scams and cyber-attacks. These are:

1. Think before you click Whenever working on your devices, always make sure that you are using a legitimate source. Always be vigilant especially whenever you are transacting via mobile banking.

2. Verify the link Cyber-attackers usually hide the real URL to their compromised websites through link-shortening applications. To verify the legitimacy of the URL, you may visit virustotal.com.

3. Use two-factor authentication Using two-factor authentication as security measure can protect your email, social media accounts, and online banking transactions from hackers and cyber-criminals.

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IT expert warns of 'digital surveillance' in the name of fight against COVID-19 - Bulatlat

The pandemic rages on. It has infected more than two and a half million individuals worldwide, of which more than 186,000 have lost their lives. No cure or vaccine is in sight yet. The gasping deaths are attended by acute suffering, scare and utter helplessness. Most of these have occurred in some of the most developed countries of the world like the US, the UK, Holland, Spain, France and Italy, leading to populations shutting up in homes, with business, amusement and all the vestiges of a happy and normal life grinding to a halt.

The global economy is threatened to shrink, registering a long-term impact. With an unprecedented public health nightmare, rising unemployment, and shrinking growth, the world finds itself in a deep crisis; fear seems to have gripped mankind by the scruff of their soul. This crisis can be an opportunity for terrorists and extremists who can turn the crisis to their benefit in a number of ways.

The first use of the crisis that they are already making is in spreading a narrative of divine nemesis. Pretending to be the champions of a divine cause, they are claiming credit for the present crisis: something they are not responsible for. Playing on the psychology of fear, extremists are interpreting the pandemic and its appalling death toll as an example of the divine retribution visited upon rich and powerful nations as punishment for their misdeeds.

Unable to completely suppress their schadenfreude, terrorists are gloating over the visible helplessness of the governments they oppose. In a six-page statement issued by Al-Qaeda, The Way Forward: A Word of Advice on the Corona Virus Pandemic, Al-Qaeda addresses the Western world saying that this pandemic is a punishment from the Lord of the Worlds for injustice and oppression committed against Muslims specifically and mankind generally by the governments you elect.

The statement invites the Western world to embrace Islam, the hygiene-oriented religion that teaches principles of prevention to protect people from all forms of disease. Yes, they are mixing faith with the scientific lure of hygiene. Al-Qaeda, in the same statement, designates the Covid-19 virus as Allahs invisible soldier, almost crowing that the pandemic has exposed the brittleness of a global economy dominated by the US. The statement cleverly synthesizes a narrative of grievances and high moral ground.

In the same vein, Isis in an editorial of its newsletter Al-Naba, published in March declared that the current pandemic is an example of God's torment which has mostly struck the idolatrous nations.

In addition to building a narrative, terrorists see the present crisis as an opportunity to recruit and mount attacks because world governments are busy fighting the virus, and thus terrorist organizations can capitalize on their distraction to attack them. Isis has already made its intentions clear saying that it will not pity the crusaders, for their suffering but rather use their tribulations as an opportunity to recruit more fighters and launch attacks on their cities and unguarded prisons that hold the mujahideen. On the one hand, it advises its followers to take precautions for their protection but at the same time gives them the good news that if killed by the virus they will be regarded as martyrs.

The two brazen attacks by Isis in Afghanistan in March are consistent with their declared intentions. On March 6, 32 persons were killed in a mass shooting in Kabul, while on March 25, a suicide attack on a gurdwara in Kabul left 25 people dead.

Inside Pakistan, terrorists are on the backfoot, but extremism continues to persist. Hence, extremists will feel revived by the narratives of divine wrath developed from the Covid-19 pandemic. It is imperative for law-enforcement agencies, the Provincial Counter Terrorism Departments (CTDs), and the PTA to keep cyberspace and the social media under close watch so that the extremist propaganda is immediately spotted and countered, and the nemesis narratives are blocked or taken down.

The law has banned the unnecessary use of loudspeaker; it is suggested that local police and law-enforcement monitor closely the situation to ensure the strict implementation of this law to nip the potential relay of pro-jihadist narratives. The government should also stick to a policy of not giving in to such demands from various sections of society that clearly violate the public health advice given by public health professionals. In a crisis like this, precedence must be given by all to the professional findings rather than other considerations.

Lastly, in a crisis like this, terrorist outfits and proscribed organizations can revive their social work and charity operations if not closely monitored. Great vigilance has to be practised by the administration, police and CTDs to prevent proscribed organizations from raising funds under the garb of helping the poor and the destitute. These terrorist outfits engage in such activities to win the hearts of people, and to demonstrate their executive ability to carry out large operations like state institutions. They seek to rival the state in its functions, and aim for creating a state within the state.

There are 73 organizations proscribed by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) in the country a number of them have had a long history of charity and social work. Pakistan has implemented a model charity law in order to combat terrorist financing in the country, and to put an end to the charity complexes developed by the banned outfits in the past.

The fund-raising operations of these outfits have been significantly demolished and their funding sources choked since early 2019. Hundreds of their members, including some key leaders, have been convicted and awarded heavy sentences to curb their terror funding operations. This momentum must be maintained so that they do not use the present crisis to sneak back into raising money and engaging in social service activities.

The writer is a senior police officer, currently a director general at Nacta, Islamabad.

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Terror in a pandemic - The News International

Tripoli, Lebanon (CNN) -- A large bag of the thistly gundelia plant arrives at Um Ahmad's door as it does nearly every day. Wearing a double layered headscarf, she settles into a blue armchair. She has until the afternoon to trim the spines off the wild plant for her customers to cook.

"We work on the akoub (gundelia) so that we can live," says Um Ahmad, using a pseudonym.

When visitors walk into her dark, cavernous room to meet her, she doesn't even look up. A drama series blasts from an old TV.

"The akoub doesn't even come every day," says Um Ahmad, never meeting her guests' eyes.

Um Ahmad lives beneath a centuries-old souk (or marketplace) in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli.

Outside, the city roils with violent demonstrations, known as the "hunger protest." These started just as Lebanon was loosening its coronavirus lockdown, and beginning to contend with poor living conditions exacerbated by the near shutdown of the economy.

Nightly confrontations between demonstrators and the Lebanese army have rocked Tripoli over the last week, turning it into the epicenter of the country's renewed uprising against its political elite.

Tripoli is the poorest city in Lebanon, despite being home to some of its most high-profile billionaires. A slum stretches across the banks of the city's Abu Ali river, just minutes from pockets of extravagant wealth. The income disparity was always stark, but these days, Tripoli's locals say it is unbearable.

"No one has trust in the banks. No one has trust in the state. There's injustice, there's shame and there's oppression," says Ahmad Aich, who runs a shoe stand.

Aich's voice rises to a crescendo. As with many Tripoli natives, the conversation begins with the soft tones of a city folk known for their kindness to strangers, but quickly turns into a tirade about living conditions.

"The solution is for the army chief to round up all the politicians who robbed this country and to put them in jail," says Aich. "They pillaged the country and killed it and killed its people."

Calls for the army to deliver justice echo across Tripoli even as demonstrators hurl stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the armed forces. The military has responded with brute force. It has fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and, in some instances, live fire, at protesters, killing one on Monday and wounding dozens over the last week.

"The army are our brothers. What we want is for them to join us, take the politicians from their houses, and throw them in the garbage dump," says protester Ghassan, a 24-year-old handyman and a father-to-be who asked not to disclose his full name for security reasons.

"If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children," he adds.

Rising poverty

It is a dramatic drop in living standards for a country which in 2018 had the highest GDP per capita among the Arab world's non-oil producing nations.

In recent weeks, the Lebanese lira lost over half its value, hurting both merchants and consumers. Small shop owners are struggling to secure supplies, and the country's growing legions of poor people can't afford to buy them.

In Tripoli, many people say that most staple goods have at least doubled in price, making the working class increasingly reliant on aid from charities.

Amer El-Deek, 30, used to own a shoe stand and made ends meet with a daily income of $10. Now, he says, all he can do is beg and rely on food packages from an Islamic charity.

"We don't know how we're even alive," says Deek, the father of a six-year-old. "I now go to sleep and think: God, I hope I don't wake up. I hope I die tomorrow."

'Hunger protests'

When the "hunger protests" kicked off last week, few were surprised. "I see that a revolution of the hungry is coming," Hezbollah-backed MP and former intelligence chief Jamil El-Sayyed tweeted in December.

The uprising's largely peaceful protests turned violent after a nearly two-month respite due to coronavirus. In Tripoli, protesters staged large demonstrations outside politicians' homes vowing to avenge their alleged corruption. Nearly every bank branch in the city has been damaged by the protests, with demonstrators voicing their fury at the banking sector's discretionary capital controls.

On any given work day, long queues of people begging to withdraw their cash can be seen outside bank branches. Lebanese authorities have resisted calls to formalize capital controls, raising suspicions that the economic elite in Lebanon have been exercising their influence to remove their funds from the country, while small depositors are largely denied access to their life savings.

Young and old head to Tripoli's protest sites after Ramadan's Taraweeh prayers, which are performed after the fast is broken during the holy month.

They arrive on mopeds, gather in crowds and yell protest chants. Most do not wear face masks, and no one is observing government-mandated social distancing rules. That's because most of the people on Tripoli's streets believe that coronavirus doesn't exist here.

The lockdown has stoked resentment, fueled rumors of a government conspiracy to further impoverish the poor and ultimately ignited the protests.

"We don't have coronavirus here in Tripoli. Coronavirus is a heresy. (The politicians) made it up," says one city native, Marwan el-Zahed.

"What do I care about coronavirus," says another Tripolitan, Ahmad Abou Abdallah. "(The politicians) are worse than coronavirus. They are dirtier than coronavirus. They are making people hungry. Doesn't that make them worse than the virus?"

Fourteen cases of the coronavirus have been reported so far in Tripoli. In total, Lebanon has had 740 confirmed cases of the virus and 24 deaths. It has received some credit for a largely successful bid to contain the virus.

Underground, Um Ahmad is too busy working on her gundelia to talk politics. She has also lapsed into disillusionment.

"My situation is just as you see it," she says, gesturing to her home's conditions. "Sometimes I empty the pulp of zucchini for people. But also that doesn't come every day."

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'If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children' - CNN

There should have been a provision in the Constitution that an essentially defeated parliament should never be reconvened, irrespective of the circumstances. It could be argued that there is no such thing as a defeated parliament except there is.

A parliament whose majority belongs to the political entity that was defeated at the last elections that were held, is a defeated parliament. Its a spent force, but more importantly, its a parliament that has been subject to censure by the people.

In less abstruse terms, it just means that the sovereign people of this country have given that parliament its marching orders.

If the next Legislature cannot be elected for very legitimate reasons, the censured parliament cannot profess to have any legitimate mandate to reconvene.

This writer is not going to consider the legal position of all this, at least not in this article. The legal issues could be subject to various interpretations and the laws can be gone through with a fine tooth comb. But the legal aspect is nothing, and should be nothing, if there is no morally acceptable claim for the dissolved parliament to resume sessions.

In other words, the people do not want an ignominious parliament to have anything to do with the affairs of the nation, especially at a time crucial decisions affecting the well being of the people are being made.

Democracy is not a bunch of laws. Parliament is an organic embodiment of the will of the people. Sumanthiran the democrat is in fact Sumanthiran the despot when he calls for a morally illegitimate parliament to be reconvened unilaterally.

Persecution

Sumanthirans understanding of the law is queer as his disdain for democratic process, despite his lawyerly credentials. Legally, parliament should represent the will of the people, as the people are sovereign in constitutional terms. When he is asking that parliament be reconvened unilaterally as a means of giving expression to democracy, Sumanthiran is talking through his hat.

The last parliaments Opposition at the time of its dissolution in March this year, has been treated with kid gloves, compared to the ugly campaign of persecution that was launched against the then Rajapaksa Opposition in the year 2015. The UNP sought to demonize the then Opposition after the 2015 elections by digging up swimming pools in search of the Rajapaksa billions.

Nobody found stashes of cash, but old pairs of rubber slippers were unearthed.

The new Government in 2020 had better things to do than look for lost rubbers of any sort of past UNP leaders, even though past UNPers had been particularly fond of sereppu soup (slipper broth). UNPers were not persecuted in 2020, and where they should have been, they were not even prosecuted.

How did the Opposition repay these acts of conciliation that were commendable doubly, considering how grossly the then Government went after the current President?

Its membership refused to pass the monies that were required to grant essential relief to the people. This cowardly stand was taken for the simple reason that the UNP knew a parliamentary poll was on the cards.

To hell with the people they figured, as long as we can stop the Government from obtaining a majority it deserved in parliament.

This kind of insensitivity to the peoples predicament has made the old parliament a symbol of oppression that was seen naturally enough as anti-people and anti-humanitarian.

To reconvene that parliament will not be a democratic act, it would be a thundering slap in the face of peoples will, and the power of one person one vote.

Belly laugh

That dated legislature was also the parliament of ghouls, monsters and brigands. Not the entire parliament but what was constituting the government benches, certainly, for the better part of its existence prior to November 2019.

Remember three Ministers having a raucous belly laugh when they were questioned about the circumstances of the Easter Sunday bombings? Remember how they blithely taxed the kitty bank savings accounts of the littlest kids?

Besides, there is no rationale whatsoever for the old parliament to be reconvened when the funds necessary to run the institutional machinery of government are legally obtainable through the Consolidated Fund.

Whats the Opposition constituted of the then government benches going to do, if the old parliament meets? Have a raucous belly laugh about the predicament of the people facing tough times and isolation even death on account of the Covid epidemic?

The old parliament is no instrument to combat the virus, because it WAS the virus. That legislature was the contagion that left nothing in the State coffers, which is the primary reason the Government is short of funds to ensure the wellbeing of a population besieged by the unexpected Covid 19.

Its track record on the economy is abysmal, but even more importantly it was a parliament that rubber stamped the various measures that compromised our war veterans and indeed caused an inimical UN Human Rights Council Resolution to be passed against the country with the concurrence of our own government.

Its a parliament that should have been home with the first dissolution in late 2018.

That dissolution was thwarted on legal grounds in the teeth of the obvious loss of mandate by the then rulers after the 2018 Municipal Council elections.

Anybody who wanted that dissolution to stand was called a conspirator, and the then government advanced the fiction that its continued existence at that time was in the interests of democracy.

Straight face

The Colombo centric green blinkered pukka sahibs went gadding about carrying placards at Independence Square against the subversion of democracy at that time.

It seemed democracy was subverted at that juncture, but only through the self serving desire of the then UNP government to stay on in power.

This fact was vindicated in the landslide victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential election in 2019. Now, the Sumanthirans of this world who were instrumental in the subversion of democracy on that occasion in 2018 by thwarting what was palpably the will of the people, want to subvert democracy once more, this time hiding behind a fig-leaf veneer of legalese about the peoples right to be represented.

The people have a right to be represented, but not by defeated shysters. But what do you expect from a parliament that was represented once upon a time by a goodly number of members who had lost the elections but were smuggled in through the backdoor on the National List?

Its these kinds of democrats who wanted a dated rogue parliament to be recalled. The great irony of it all is that they want to do this in the name of democracy.

Its an achievement that they can make such a call with a straight face, because these are the people who in the name of democracy postponed all the elections they could think of including the Provincial Council polls.

Which law did these people respect to postpone elections? Can the devil quote scriptures, one may ask.

After five plus years of irresponsible sabotaging of the political party that the President represents, the so called combined opposition forces now call for responsible cooperation with the same President.

The virus is no respecter of legality. This is true for Covid 19 as it is for the contagion of this combined opposition that destroyed democracy at every turn when in government.

This country needs to keep all types of viruses at bay. Its this same pestilence that was sabotaging this same President when he together with the incumbent Prime Minister, was waging war to end the reign of terror of the LTTE.

These same forces, the Sumanthirans now baying for democracy offered responsible cooperation at that time no doubt except they offered it to the greatest terrorist of all time, Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose idea of democracy was to kill Sri Lankan parliamentarians from time to time, as that was his favourite sport.

These Prabhakaran boot lickers for democracy tout democratic credentials today. These are the people who fed Sri Lankan democracy a liberal dose of cyanide, and were seen ringside, waiting for it to die.

Their brand of democracy should frighten the Sri Lankan people far more than a virulent virus by the name of Covid-19.

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A closer look at the Opposition that's pious about 'democracy' today - Sunday Observer

Tripoli, Lebanon (CNN) A large bag of the thistly gundelia plant arrives at Um Ahmads door as it does nearly every day. Wearing a double layered headscarf, she settles into a blue armchair. She has until the afternoon to trim the spines off the wild plant for her customers to cook.

We work on the akoub (gundelia) so that we can live, says Um Ahmad, using a pseudonym.

When visitors walk into her dark, cavernous room to meet her, she doesnt even look up. A drama series blasts from an old TV.

I get paid 10,000 liras for five kilograms of this, she mumbles, peeling the stems of the spiny plant with a small curved knife. Because the Lebanese lira is in free-fall, her payment is worth just over $2.

The akoub doesnt even come every day, says Um Ahmad, never meeting her guests eyes.

Um Ahmad lives beneath a centuries-old souk (or marketplace) in Lebanons northern city of Tripoli.

Outside, the city roils with violent demonstrations, known as the hunger protest. These started just as Lebanon was loosening its coronavirus lockdown, and beginning to contend with poor living conditions exacerbated by the near shutdown of the economy.

Nightly confrontations between demonstrators and the Lebanese army have rocked Tripoli over the last week, turning it into the epicenter of the countrys renewed uprising against its political elite.

Protests against Lebanons political class, which has ruled the country since its civil war and is widely accused of corruption, engulfed its main urban centers in late 2019. At the time, tens of thousands of Tripolis protesters flocked onto the streets. The city was dubbed the bride of the revolution, both because of its energetic protests and because it was believed to have borne the brunt of political corruption.

Tripoli is the poorest city in Lebanon, despite being home to some of its most high-profile billionaires. A slum stretches across the banks of the citys Abu Ali river, just minutes from pockets of extravagant wealth. The income disparity was always stark, but these days, Tripolis locals say it is unbearable.

No one has trust in the banks. No one has trust in the state. Theres injustice, theres shame and theres oppression, says Ahmad Aich, who runs a shoe stand.

Aichs voice rises to a crescendo. As with many Tripoli natives, the conversation begins with the soft tones of a city folk known for their kindness to strangers, but quickly turns into a tirade about living conditions.

The solution is for the army chief to round up all the politicians who robbed this country and to put them in jail, says Aich. They pillaged the country and killed it and killed its people.

Calls for the army to deliver justice echo across Tripoli even as demonstrators hurl stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the armed forces. The military has responded with brute force. It has fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and, in some instances, live fire, at protesters, killing one on Monday and wounding dozens over the last week.

The army are our brothers. What we want is for them to join us, take the politicians from their houses, and throw them in the garbage dump, says protester Ghassan, a 24-year-old handyman and a father-to-be who asked not to disclose his full name for security reasons.

If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children, he adds.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has called the demonstrations natural given growing economic hardship, but has accused rioters of infiltrating the protests in order to cause unrest. The Lebanese army also acknowledged the right to freedom of expression and cast suspicion on violent protesters. It said it would launch an investigation into Mondays death.

Lebanons economy has taken a nose dive since last year. Before an uprising gripped the country in October 2019, the World Bank said nearly one third of the population was living under the poverty line. Earlier this year, the bank updated that statistic to 45% for the year 2020. Now, after government measures designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus halted the economy, Lebanons government believes up to 75% of the country needs aid.

It is a dramatic drop in living standards for a country which in 2018 had the highest GDP per capita among the Arab worlds non-oil producing nations.

In recent weeks, the Lebanese lira lost over half its value, hurting both merchants and consumers. Small shop owners are struggling to secure supplies, and the countrys growing legions of poor people cant afford to buy them.

In Tripoli, many people say that most staple goods have at least doubled in price, making the working class increasingly reliant on aid from charities.

Amer El-Deek, 30, used to own a shoe stand and made ends meet with a daily income of $10. Now, he says, all he can do is beg and rely on food packages from an Islamic charity.

We dont know how were even alive, says Deek, the father of a six-year-old. I now go to sleep and think: God, I hope I dont wake up. I hope I die tomorrow.

When the hunger protests kicked off last week, few were surprised. I see that a revolution of the hungry is coming, Hezbollah-backed MP and former intelligence chief Jamil El-Sayyed tweeted in December.

The uprisings largely peaceful protests turned violent after a nearly two-month respite due to coronavirus. In Tripoli, protesters staged large demonstrations outside politicians homes vowing to avenge their alleged corruption. Nearly every bank branch in the city has been damaged by the protests, with demonstrators voicing their fury at the banking sectors discretionary capital controls.

On any given work day, long queues of people begging to withdraw their cash can be seen outside bank branches. Lebanese authorities have resisted calls to formalize capital controls, raising suspicions that the economic elite in Lebanon have been exercising their influence to remove their funds from the country, while small depositors are largely denied access to their life savings.

Young and old head to Tripolis protest sites after Ramadans Taraweeh prayers, which are performed after the fast is broken during the holy month.

They arrive on mopeds, gather in crowds and yell protest chants. Most do not wear face masks, and no one is observing government-mandated social distancing rules. Thats because most of the people on Tripolis streets believe that coronavirus doesnt exist here.

The lockdown has stoked resentment, fueled rumors of a government conspiracy to further impoverish the poor and ultimately ignited the protests.

We dont have coronavirus here in Tripoli. Coronavirus is a heresy. (The politicians) made it up, says one city native, Marwan el-Zahed.

What do I care about coronavirus, says another Tripolitan, Ahmad Abou Abdallah. (The politicians) are worse than coronavirus. They are dirtier than coronavirus. They are making people hungry. Doesnt that make them worse than the virus?

Read more: Violent protests erupt in Lebanon as pandemic makes financial crisis worse

Fourteen cases of the coronavirus have been reported so far in Tripoli. In total, Lebanon has had 740 confirmed cases of the virus and 24 deaths. It has received some credit for a largely successful bid to contain the virus.

Underground, Um Ahmad is too busy working on her gundelia to talk politics. She has also lapsed into disillusionment.

My situation is just as you see it, she says, gesturing to her homes conditions. Sometimes I empty the pulp of zucchini for people. But also that doesnt come every day.

Visit link:

'If your child is hungry, you will eat your rulers to feed your children' - ABC17News.com

Though the Indian constitution envisaged the abolition of untouchability and an end to discrimination, prejudice is rampant among the affluent sections of society and those entrusted with upholding the constitution have tended to treat Dalits and Adivasis with utter insensitivity.

For years, mainstream discourse in society has focused on limiting the constitutional provisions enacted in favour of Dalits and Adivasis. In particular, two key concerns of these groups protection from atrocities, and adequate representation have been the target of several prejudices, stereotypes, and fake propaganda. It is unfortunate that even the Supreme Court of a constitutional democracy like ours has often failed to sift fact from fiction.

In 2018, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court diluted the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), Act 1989 (SC/ST Act). Instead of focusing on the poor implementation of the Act, the bench said its very application was perpetuating casteism, calling it an adversary of constitutional values. Clearly, the bench did not have any understanding of the social protection needed by Dalits and tribals.

Particularly in rural areas, these communities have to face social barriers and institutional apathy even to get a complaint registered for an atrocity committed upon them by the upper castes. The judgment of the court had added one more institutional barrier by endorsing a false stereotype against the Act that it is misused and that complaints under it are questionable. This judgment was later overturned by an amendment in the law made by parliament due to political pressure from Dalits and tribals, and the Supreme Court had to back off from its earlier position in a subsequent judgment upholding the validity of the amendment.

Also read: SC/ST Act: A Hostile Environment and an Atrocious Interpretation

The application of affirmative action policies through the constitutionally entrenched provisions of reservations has consistently been limited by the Supreme Court in a series of judgments. The language in these judgments reflects the inherent stereotypes against the idea of reservations. In February this year, a two-judge bench of the court held that a government is not bound to provide reservations, even if there is inadequacy in representation in services.

This view is damaging and contrary to the constitutional obligation of the state to provide adequate representation to Dalits and Adivasis. On one side, the Supreme Court has restricted the application of reservation through its consistent judgments by placing a mandatory condition for any government to collect data regarding the inadequate representation of Dalits and tribals and to exclude the creamy layer, before making reservation in promotion policies. But, on the other side, the court abdicated its responsibility by holding that it would not hold the government accountable even if the under-representation of Dalits and tribals in public services is brought to its notice.

Representational image of a protest against caste discrimination. Photo: PTI

In a recent constitution bench judgment delivered on April 22, the court, once again, made regressive remarks against the entire concept behind reservations. The court has held that 100% reservation provided to tribals by the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh in Fifth Schedule areas is unconstitutional. In doing so, the court made an obiter dicta or observation that the affluent and socially and economically advanced classes within Dalits and tribals are not allowing the benefits of reservation to trickle down to the needy.

The constitution bench noted that there is a struggle within the Dalits and tribals community, and therefore the Central government should revise the list of castes or classes within those castes who can avail the benefits of reservations. The issue of revision of lists was not among the questions of law (as framed in the starting of the judgment) to be dealt by the bench. Yet, the judges could not refrain themselves from making negative remarks about reconsidering reservation structures for Dalits and tribals.

The court had, once again, ignored the basic premise behind implementing reservations, i.e. social representation. Social identities are so entrenched in our society that they often decide the fate of individuals. In some instances, Dalits have not been allowed to take out marriage procession or were attacked for growing a moustache. The discrimination and atrocities did not stop even when the Dalit belonged to so-called affluent class within Dalits a category which the court intends to exclude from representation.

Also read: If Community Recognises Itself As Dalit, How Can Court, Government Dictate Terms?

There is also no empirical backing to the claim that the benefits of reservations are not reaching the lowest lot. The observation made by the Supreme Court is ironic for two reasons. Firstly, the Supreme Court, which as an institution has always asked the government for data to question its reservation policies, is making negative claims about reservation based on the perception and beliefs of individual judges. Secondly, the court has ignored the issue of diversity within its own institution, and has largely been comprised of affluent sections from upper castes.

The judgment is also problematic for the insulting remarks made about the identity and culture of the tribals. The judgment authored by Justice Arun Mishra, and signed by Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M.R. Shah, and Aniruddha Bose, held that the primitive way of life of tribals makes them unfit to put up with the mainstream and to be governed by the ordinary laws.

It was further held:

The formal education, by and large, failed to reach them, and they remained a disadvantaged class, as such required a helping hand to uplift them and to make them contribute to the national development and not to remain part of the primitive culture. They are not supposed to be seen as a human zoo and source of enjoyment of primitive culture and for dance performances.

The manner in which the language in the judgment stereotyped tribals as traditionally being of primitive culture and a human zoo is completely insensitive by any scale and violates the dignity of tribals. The language of the court reflects regressive colonial constructs. If the Supreme Court was intending to show concern for tribals, it should have avoided these words which reflected typical and negative stereotypes against tribals.

The bench must be reminded of the first speech made by Jaipal Singh, a constituent assembly member belonging to a tribal community, and a passionate campaigner for Adivasi rights and equal representation. Speaking about the Objectives Resolution laid down by Jawaharlal Nehru, Jaipal Singh, in 1946, proudly said:

Sir, I am proud to be a Jungli, that is the name by which we are known in my part of the country. As a jungli, as an Adibasi, I am not expected to understand the legal intricacies of the Resolution. But my common sense tells me, the common sense of my people tells me that every one of us should march in that road of freedom and fight together. Sir, if there is any group of Indian people that has been shabbily treated it is my people. They have been disgracefully treated, neglected for the last 6,000 years. This Resolution is not going to teach Adibasis democracy. You cannot teach democracy to the tribal people; you have to learn democratic ways from them. They are the most democratic people on earth.

Also read: Indias Cocktail Recipe for Affirmative Action Should Be Replaced With a Simplified One

The identity, culture, and way of life of the tribals is respected by the constitution in text and spirit. The Supreme Court ought to have taken note of this in proper words and should not have spoken contrarily.

It was further noted in the same judgment that it is very hard for any elected government to have the political will to make revision in the concerns highlighted in the judgment. The court seems to have forgotten, or perhaps ignored the fact that policies made in favour of Dalits and tribals are not patronising in nature or made out of pity or charity. These freedoms have been won by Dalits and tribals after constant struggle and sacrifice, as they believe that their identity and way of life is in no way inferior to anyone elses in the country.

Adivasi protestors at a rally in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters/Parivartan Sharma

Each and every inch of progress of these communities towards equality has often come after the loss of several lives while facing social atrocities and oppression. The individuals from Dalit and tribal communities, whom the Supreme Court intends to remove from access to representation under the garb of the creamy layer and affluent sections, have sometimes occupied key positions in the government and have used it to push for legislation, schemes and initiatives for the rights of Dalits and tribals. The Supreme Court is damaging every bit of progress of Dalits and tribals made through democratic, political and administrative participation.

Instead, the court should consider dealing with questions like why the abolition of untouchability has failed in India or why a Dalit dies cleaning sewers every five days. The court which often pats its back for taking suo moto cognizance of instances of violation of fundamental rights, has never taken cognizance on its own of any instance when a Dalit has been murdered for breaking bigoted social barriers or for marrying outside his or her caste or when a Dalit dies while being forced to clean sewers due to inefficiency and apathy on the part of government authorities.

Of course, there are a few instances when the Supreme Court has supported the issues of these communities. For instance, in the BK Pavitra (II) case in 2019, a two-judge bench shattered the stereotypes and myths around merit and administrative efficiencies, which have been hurled at Dalits and tribals to ridicule them.

Therefore, the judges of the apex court must sit down and decide collectively: whether they want the Supreme Court of India to be known in history as a socially regressive institution like the US Supreme Court, which has been harshy criticised for its regressive decisions on issues relating to the African American community. Or, whether the court should tread the path of liberty, equality, fraternity, and justice, and set an example before others. The ball is technically in the court now.

Anurag Bhaskar is a lecturer at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat and an affiliate faculty with the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He tweets at @anurag_bhaskar.

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When It Comes to Dalit and Tribal Rights, the Judiciary in India Just Does Not Get It - The Wire

Journalists take a pause from reading COVID-19 charts and statistics for it is in the middle of the pandemic ravaging the entire world that we mark World Press Freedom Day today, May 3.

On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, I joined an online forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) to listen to Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen. He is oftentimes the lone dissenter in the Supreme Court, a reason why his arguments are much awaited and respected.

Why are journalists important? More so during the greatest crisis to hit us in our lifetime? Justice Leonen strove to answer the question.

But first he issued a challenge: Sift through the distractions caused by propaganda of vested interests, Justice Leonen exhorted the journalists in the forum. I think it is time that we as a people understand that there are certain kinds of information out therethat are only used to distract us from what is truly important.

Leonen lamented the effect of social media on a gullible public. Sadly many are now more convinced about the reckless posts made in social media and act on that basis, he says.If there is one important lesson from COVID-19, he adds, it is that it is important to trust science, to trust validation again.

An avid user of Twitter, Leonens posts dispense insights on the law and justice. He has also known how it is to become a viral sensation, having weighed in on last years Gerald Anderson-Bea Alonso break-up. His twitter feed has since been peppered with love advice where he unabashedly uses the hashtag #LabGuru.

In a previous ruling on a freedom of expression case, the Justice elaborates on why it is important to distinguish between a regular post and those from journalists on social media. In saying that freedom of the press is primordial, I would make a distinction between the real press and those that are posting only because they want to retweet or repost, the 57-year-old says. A retweet or a repost, and the number of people that retweet or repost or liked it does not make the post true.

Leonen says that journalism contains many of the ethics that are not there when someone posts a perceived fact or an opinion. Journalists will always have the ethic of balance. Journalists will always have the ethic of validation. Journalists will always have the ethic of accountability not only to themselves, but also to their institution and journalists also always have facts verified collectively within their institutions, he explains. You have your editors. You have the owners of your publication, or the owners of your broadcast media and therefore as differentiated from any other person that posts on social media the information that you provide are often sought as a result of balance, validation accountability and collectivity within your sector.

Freedom of expression is asserted against government. It is not asserted against a private entity.

Last April, Twitter took down "hundreds of accounts" tweeting under specific hashtags meant to defend the Philippine government response to the COVID-19 crisis.The accounts were found to be in violation of Twitters platform manipulation and spam policies, the social media site toldThe Washington Postin an email.

Asked byThe Washington Posts Regine Cabato what legal tools are available to combat systematized propaganda online, Justice Leonen says it will have to be a priority in the new normal where new laws will have to be drawn up. Freedom of expression is asserted against government. It is not asserted against a private entity. Freedom of expression in the Constitution is vis-a-vis government censorship; it is not against censorship by a private company like Twitter or Facebook. And I think this is a very important matter in terms of our legal order. The Constitution cannot be used as a tool against commercial interests, Leonen clarifies, When you join a platform like Twitter, more often than not, you are asked to read the terms of service. That requires specific legislation. The first tool that has to be developed is a tool in our statute books that will assist people with respect to commercial platforms that have become of public interest. He says this may even apply to the platform TikTok as well. The task, he says, will be for journalists to brainstorm and engage legislators more toward a new law.

How can journalists have a louder voice in the cacophony of free Facebook posts and free twitter accounts, Leonen himself ponders and urges: Get yourself heard more!

It may have been of little consolation to his audience, but Leonen said in a judicial doctrine involving freedom of expression that the antidote for bad speech is more speech.

The marketplace of ideas is not equal, he acknowledges. Some speak louder than others, some actually go there with a megaphone. Some actually go to the marketplace with an entire vehicle that has several megaphones on it, or even an entire screen. And therefore there are some whose voices are amplified because of vested interests, business interests, commercial interests, he says.

For Leonen, the value of freedom of the press now is underscored in four specific areas. He then itemizes the tasks of a journalist in this dark and uncertain period:

- The journalists should assist the public collectively face all our existential threats as part of humanity and realize what we are truly faced with.

- We should collectively reflect on why we have not learned from these existential threats and the causes of these existential threats. I am not referring only to COVID-19, I am referring to natural disasters caused by our political and economic structures such as climate change, also the causes of the oppression of certain identities, from the causes of feminism to racial discrimination.

- Journalists should nowassist the public sift thru the distractions caused by propaganda of vested interests.

- Journalists have to guard against in times of emergencies, the emergence of any kind of authoritarian or any kind of ideology that will support anything that undermines genuine and meaningful democracy.

Since March 15, the High Court agreed the Court will not shut down. It has held two online sessions since and has learned to embrace the digital world.

It also laid down exceptions where lower courts can physically convene if necessary to address a possible problem.

Leonen rattles off over a dozen publications, online sites, and broadcast media he follows to keep track of the news. I dont know if I have time for anything else. Sometimes I go through all the publications to see their take on things that are happening, not only in our country, but in different parts of the world, he says. So we are extremely aware of what is happening outside. We see the photos that many of you post and are like any human being affected by what we see and what we read.

A retweet or a repost, and the number of people that retweet or repost or liked it does not make the post true.

On top of that, the Justice says he has reread the Constitution during the lockdown and even committed it to memory.

He will emerge from the lockdowna better cook and a little more experienced in washing his clothes, the Justice says in jest. Leonen, a vegetarian, says hes been buying vegetables from an ambulant vendor pushing a cart that passes his home. And in parting, he dishes out one last bit of #LabGuru advice that might be appropriate for world going through a crisis that seem like no end is in sight: Walangforever.

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'The antidote for bad speech is more speech,' and more thoughts on press freedom from Justice Marvic Leonen - ABS-CBN News

Photo by Ron Smith on Unsplash

Our ancestors lived through wars, the Great Depression, the bubonic plague and other cruel oppressors, but COVID-19 crushed our way of life and proved to be the ultimate stress test to our survival. It opened the door to the beast of poverty baying outside and gave rise to panic and heart-wrenching pain. But it made us revisit something else too the legacy of hope.

My parents were born during World War II against a backdrop of austerity and uncertainty. They inherited the bitter legacy of slavery but told me stories that reminded me to choose optimism over oppression. This hope plotted my own brand story.

Here is one of their stories from Boss Branding: Seven Ways to Craft a Legendary Brand Story:

In 1877, a 22-year-old man got off a ship. His hazardous journey had not diminished his lean, athletic build, or the unruly black curls falling over his bronzed skin. Kartiks warm-brown eyes and megawatt smile lit his face into a beacon of hope. He looked at the emerald ocean, golden sands and blue skies, and took his nineteen-year-old brides hand in his. She was petite, barely reaching her husbands shoulder. They had left their families to seek a better life, in a land far, far away from their life of poverty and struggle. They both smiled at each other it was true. A land of such beauty felt like paradise. The promise of a sweet life lay before them. The only thing they had to do to enjoy this sweet life was work hard. This, they could do. Easily. Kartik was young, strong, hardworking, and determined. He would work his heart out to serve his employer in a five-year contract. His wife Vali would do the same, but she would be paid less than her husband (Im thinking the samewe are still 216 years away from gender parity). After that, they would renew their contract, return home, or become independent workers. However, the government knew they were cheap labour, so they tried to sweeten the deal and offered them land when their contract expired. Another passenger disembarked, he was thirty years old. Rams dove-grey eyes squinted against the brilliant sea, as the soft winter breeze cooled his skin. Like all the other passengers, he was dressed in filthy rags, but Ram had the gentle face of a poet.

Kartik, Vali and Ram were flogged, worked from before sunrise to after sunset, fed meagre, half-cooked rations and lived in crowded corrugated iron barracks, which provided no protection from the sweltering subtropical heat or the cold winter nights. Many of their co-workers committed suicide or deserted. These human rights violations meant that they went from indentured labourers to slaves. Of course, they had never signed up for this. Who signs up for slavery? The British government in the province of Natal, and the British in India, arranged for indentured labourers to work in the sugarcane plantations in South Africa. Indentured labourers signed their contracts with thumbprints. Right from the start, the implicit terms of trust and confidence were brokenTheir children and their childrens children fought for generations. They fought slavery, apartheid, bullying, victimisation, harassment

Their blood runs through my veins. Kartik and Vali were Dads grandparents. Ram Singhs eldest child was Mums father

He was fortunate as his generation broke free of slavery, and at sixteen, he secured his first job as a waiter at a hotel. He woke up at five every day, dressed and then, as the pipe often froze, he washed in icy water that trickled out reluctantly from the tap. He shivered beneath his threadbare coat and tucked his thick curls beneath his cap. His mum handed him freshly made bread and a mug of hot sweetened tea. He cycled to the hotel in the pitch dark, his only guide, the gleaming frost. Grandad dreamt of owning a little car one day, so his neatly pressed trouser hems didnt get wet in the spiky-cold grass. His meagre wage made a huge impact on the family budget.

Grandad went on to become a serial entrepreneur. He had five very different thriving companies. Public transport was one of them and he ended up owning five buses. He also had a live-in chauffeur. In his spare time, he pursued his first love sport and he eventually owned and managed a local football team.

I was born during the apartheid era, and like all African babies, together with our mothers sweet milk, we inadvertently sipped the insidious poison of racism. However, we were nourished by something else too.

We were fed hope. It is this legacy of hope that nurtures my children. Because hope means we will prevail. Even during the darkest of times as we battle the deadliest oppressor of them all.

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Choosing Optimism Over Oppression - Thrive Global

When it comes to Israel, the international community has once again been exposed for the double standards and hypocrisy it reserves to support the rogue state. Many so-called western democracies have fallen over each other to offer congratulations to an Apartheid state for forming a government that will entrench occupation, oppression, racism and land theft.

Settler-colonialism on steroids has thus been praised for spawning two politicians both of whom are suspected war criminals who have supposedly pushed personal animosity and ambition aside to form a government that will, from 1 July, begin to annex large swathes of illegally-occupied Palestinian lands in defiance of international law and conventions, aided and abetted by the US. This in itself is outrageous.

The longest serving Israeli Prime Minister and leader of the Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu, has agreed to share a unity government with his rival and leader of Blue and White, Benny Gantz. Their agreement will keep the notorious racist Nation State Law which gives self-determination to some inhabitants of historic Palestine because of their religion and denies it to the rest. It further believes in the illegal settlement enterprise as a national value.

READ: Abbas warns US and Israel against annexation

The agreement also includes the application of Israeli Law to wide swathes of the illegally-occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank while US President Donald Trump is still in office. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will, bizarrely, be advising the Israelis on which parts of the West Bank to annex. Trumps bankruptcy lawyer he is bankrupt of ideas for peace will be using his legal training, not to draft a peace agreement to end the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis and deliver some justice, but to breach international law.

Freidman has form. When Trump decided to recognise the illegal annexation of Syrias Golan Heights he explained it thus: I said [to Friedman] How do you like the idea of me recognising exactly what were discussing? because I agree, you need it, you need the height. The ambassador reacted, said Trump, Like a wonderful, beautiful baby.

Trumps reasoning for accepting the annexation of the Golan was height. With the annexation of the Jordan Valley it will be depth, while emptying historic Palestine of Palestinians will be demography. In other words, what Israel wants, Israel gets. The pro-Israel Lobby in Washington will convince Trump, no matter what it takes.

Ambassador Friedman was one of the first to congratulate Israel on the formation of the Apartheid and annexation government. Delighted to see that Israels two leading political parties, led by PM Netanyahu & MK Gantz, have agreed to form a unity government, he tweeted. The United States looks forward to working closely with the new govt to advance our shared values and interests bilaterally and across the world.

READ: Russia rejects Israels plans to annex parts of the West Bank

Israels main lobby group in the US is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); it was just ahead of Freidman in its congratulations: AIPAC welcomes the announcement of the agreement to form a new Israeli government. We congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu and Lt. Gen. Gantz for their significant achievement in forging a broad-based coalition government. It further lauded Israels democracy, claiming that, Israel has once again demonstrated the resiliency and vibrancy of the only genuine democracy in the region.

British hypocrisy was demonstrated by Middle East Minister James Cleverly MP. In a letter to the Chair of the Council for Arab-British Understanding on 16 April, he reiterated Britains official position that, Any unilateral annexation would be contrary to international law. Five days later, though, he tweeted his congratulations on the formation of the Israeli government without any caveats whatsoever: Congratulations Israel on @netanyahu & @gantzbe forming a new government. Keen to continue the important cooperation and build on our relationship. Looking forward to further and successes as we enter the 70th year of diplomatic relations!

Meanwhile, the EU has not been very explicit in its congratulations. It did, however, warn Gantz about agreeing to annexation plans which, if put into action, would bring a strong response from Europe.

The Palestinian Authority was as reactive as ever. It has known that both this move and the timing were likely in order to take advantage of Trumps first term in office, but appears to have no strategy of its own to deal with it. PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh tweeted that, The formation of an Israeli annexation government means ending the two-state solution and the dismantling of the rights of the people of Palestine as established under international law and resolutions.

READ: Construction rate in Israel settlements up 25% since Trump took office in 2017

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat added: A government coalition based on a commitment to annex more occupied Palestinian territory is a threat to a rules-based world order in general, but to peace, security and stability in the Middle East in particular. Annexation means the end of any possibility for a negotiated solution. It is an international responsibility to hold the new Israeli government accountable and to demand full implementation of its obligations under international law and signed agreements.

The PAs strategy thus appears to be more of the same. Hold the international community responsible and reiterate that the answer has to be based on a two-state solution. What, therefore, does Shtayyehs reference to ending the two state solution actually mean? What is the alternative strategy now?

The past three years have seen tectonic shifts in the Palestine-Israel conflict, due mainly to Washingtons total bias in favour of Israel and a US President who has showered Israel with illegal gifts. While no Palestinian accepts Trumps actions regarding Jerusalem, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) or the annexation plans, there is a need to re-evaluate the Palestinian national project.

The PAs good performance during the coronavirus pandemic has been welcomed widely by Palestinians. That same energy, commitment and resolve to deal with a worldwide health crisis now needs to be brought to bear on the political front. Are the Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and Gaza going to sit back and recycle statements about their respective strategies for peace when no one is taking any notice? Or will they now set in train a national dialogue that brings Palestinians across the world together to re-evaluate the situation and agree on a united way forward?

Having dealt with the potentially existential threat from the coronavirus, the Palestinian leadership needs to change course on the political strategy as a leadership for liberation, or face a very real existential threat. At that point a new leadership must emerge from the highly educated and steadfast Palestinian people, all 13 million of them across the world. That would be the best and most effective response to Israels Apartheid and annexation government and its hypocritical supporters.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Israel's new government is being lauded despite Apartheid and annexation - Middle East Monitor

(CBS News) Joe Biden predicted President Trump will try to push back Novembers general election in an effort to help the president win.

Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it cant be held, Biden said during a Thursday evening virtual fundraiser.

The presumptive Democratic nominee latched on to Mr. Trumps earlier resistance to grantCOVID-19federal relief money to the postal service, labeling the move un-American. On April 10, thepostmaster general requested help, saying the service was at a critical juncture and faced a net operating loss of more than $22 billion over the next 18 months.

Not financially assisting the postal service, Biden alleged, would be one way the Trump administration could impact proposed expansion of vote-by-mail efforts for the general election.

Imagine threatening not to fund the post office. Now what in Gods name is that about? Other than trying to let the word out that hes going to do all he can to make it very hard for people to vote. Thats the only way he thinks he can possibly win, Biden said.

The former vice president equated the administrations lack of enthusiasm for alternative voting options with the 2016 foreign election interference from Russia. I promise you the Russians did interfere in our election and I guarantee you they are doing it again with two other major actors, Biden said, adding, You can be assured between [Trump] and the Russians there is going to be an attempt to interfere.

This virtual fundraiser was the former vice presidents most celebrity-filled and financially successful event yet. He was joined by a big-name fundraising ensemble including actors Kristin Chenoweth and Billy Porter, tennis legend Billie Jean King, singer Melissa Etheridge and former Democratic rival Pete Buttigieg. The LGBTQ+ event brought together 670 donors raised more than $1.1 million, according to Porter, who served as the Zoom shows energetic emcee.

CBS News served as the press pool reporter at the fundraiser; the Biden campaign allows coverage of the usually-private donor events.

Wearing a black shirt and circular white glasses that matched the large white fireplace behind him, emcee Porter opened the virtual show with a warning that like any self-respecting extravaganza, the program might go longer than planned. It lasted around 46 minutes.

Porter said hes given his own version of the State of the Union speech the last two years because the thought of me just standing by and not speaking out about whats happening in our country just wasnt an option.

We need to elect a steady, experienced leader to guide us through this storm and forward. Someone with decency, character and empathy whose own life has taught him to persevere, Porter said.

We need to get to WORK! And put our friends to WORK! Porter added, accenting the words.

The Tony winner then raised the first Zoom curtain to reveal the first act, singer Melissa Etheridge. Coming from her Zoom window, Etheridge was holding a gold guitar and wearing rose-tinted sunglasses. She introduced her 2013 song Uprising of Love and said it was an anthem for people to rise up against the injustices and the oppression of Putins anti-LGBTQ regime in Russia.

I dont think we could have possibly imagined then that so much injustice and oppression at the hands of our own government was on the horizon, Etheridge added. The singer said it was time to rise up at the ballot box and elect Biden in November.

After the first musical event, Billie Jean King appeared in front of an entire wall of trophies. The tennis star called Biden a true leader who respects facts and science.

As a young athlete Joe, always said Give me the ball, give me the ball, coach! King said. He accepted responsibility as a young person and the most important thing now that we can do is step up and accept responsibility to make sure we are able to tell our children and our grandchildren that we gave all we had to protect the soul of this nation.

King then served the conversation to Mayor Pete Buttigieg: The ball is in your court, Pete.

Buttigieg listened to Bidens concern about the potential push by Mr. Trump to put off the election. And Biden said the younger politicians future is absolutely limitless and if I have anything to do with it, youre not going to get very far away.

Biden also said he spoke with another former rival, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, after she announcedher brother died of complications from COVID-19.

The finale of the evening belonged to Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth. Streaming from her kitchen, she cued up a Biden-themed version of Popular, from the musical Wicked.

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Biden predicts Trump will try to postpone the election - WWAY NewsChannel 3

By David Siampondo

While the liberation struggle remains indelible in the annals of Zimbabwean history, its aftermath however brought about new challenges that equal or surpass colonial oppression and suppression.

It must be acknowledged that the segregationist colonial administration generated inequalities, poverty and deprivation. Governance and resource allocation of the colonial regime was premised on racial inclusion and exclusion, the white minority constituted the greater portion of beneficiaries whilst the black majority were under served and left vulnerable.

By and large the post-colonial government inherited and perfected the very systems of oppression and repression which the masses had taken arms against. The historical question remains; where did we go wrong?

Upon attaining political Independence in 1980, the delirium and frenzy by a black minority of assuming political power without economic authority suffocated any chances of total emancipation and empowerment; the black majority remained impoverished, suppressed and cheated of the proceeds of the liberation struggle.

The liberation ethos was built on fighting inequalities, poverty and oppression, therefore total annihilation of the white race was the major objective of the oppressed natives. The new government however pulled a positive when it called for reconciliation and offered to turn swords into ploughshares. Nonetheless the majority remained in abject poverty and vulnerable.

The participation in the liberation struggle generated a sense of entitlement that bedevil the nation till today. Impunity deeply ingrained in the body politic and governance of the country, massive embezzlements, looting and corruption were condoned. Culprits were only transferred ministries and offices but the rot continued.

Upon independence the government adopted a socialist path/gutsaruzhinji. Basically pronouncing itself as a Welfare State. Simply defined, a Welfare State is a system of governance where the state undertake to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need.

This can be achievable by means of grants, pensions and other benefits to cushion against vulnerabilities. Debate is however intense on whether the government as it existed in 1980 can be described as a Welfare state.

Although this is not the purpose of the article, it is pertinent to note that some characteristics of Welfarism did exist, such as subsidies on basic commodities, free amenities like primary education, primary health care and other pro-poor services.

These quickly vanished by the pronouncement of the Economic Structural Adjustment Program [ESAP] of October 1990 whose implementation began in March 1991. This exacerbated the conditions of the poor and the black majority who already were in the doldrums.

The summation of bad policies of governance and the predatory behaviour of the liberation struggle leaders transformed a cutthroat colonial regime into a vampire state. The insatiable acquisitiveness of the former guerrillas permeated their administration which sparked a scramble for looting.

Those who went to war and their cronies demanded positions of influence regardless of level of education and expertise. They positioned themselves strategically to loot and amass wealth, the countrys economy bled uncontrollably as pillaging went unchecked.

As the economy went south, political grip and power began to crumble, the emergence of an alternative solution in the form of the Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] worsened the situation. The MDC a labour movement successfully sold its manifesto to the people. Chief among its manifesto was the land question and the right of workers.

Evidently the MDC won the political hearts and conscience of many which sent ZANU PF panicking and without strategy usurped the land idea. They went on to violently grab land from white farmers and killing some of them in the process. This violence was not only targeted at white commercial farmers but all MDC members. Zimbabwe turned into an outpost of tyranny.

Minus the violence and murders that occurred the land grabbing didnt settle the fundamental deprivation that existed as land was parcelled to politicians as led by former liberators, ordinary or private citizen who did not belonged to Zanu PF could not get the land.

Up to the present day the once productive tracks of land lie idle and some who grabbed or benefitted have sublet the previous owners as they failed to work on it due to capacity issues.

Nepotism, patronage, cronyism and partisan governance defined the Mugabe regime till his removal via a military coup which occurred in November 2017. At gunpoint Mugabe was forced to ink his resignation and the leadership of his party ZANU PF and country was handed to another henchmen Emmerson Mnangagwa who was fired as Vice President and had skipped the border into South Africa via Mozambique.

Mnangagwa inherited the Mugabe system and returned the bulky of the dead wood which plundered the economy during Mugabes regime. He of course invited a few new faces from the army as a token of appreciation for the coup and some forgotten war veterans who were neglected by Mugabe some of them whose liberation credentials are doubtful such as Victor Matemadanda.

Mnangagwa intensified a reign of terror where on different occasions live bullets were used on peaceful protesters attacking and murdering them in day light before international media houses. Abduction of opposition members became the order of the day, treason charges escalated to cow opposition into submission to an extent of having 20 activists being charged with treason in less than six months of his rule.

The so called new dispensation is old wine in new packaging. It is still obsessed with power retention with no regard to peoples well-being. The new dispensation is marred by corruption and a fierce competition of looting.

The new dispensation remains captured by a cartel whose roots can be traced to a military establishment. The new dispensation is void of policies that generate public confidence and remain as loathed as Mugabes dispensation.

David Siampondo is a social scientist

Next article will discuss vulnerability in the context of a disbanded welfare system: Citizens at the mercy of political vultures.

Continued here:

The liberators that killed us; why the New Dispensation will decimate the poor - Nehanda Radio

Former president Mauricio Macri is among the signatories of an open letter that accuses Argentinas government of using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to introduce authoritarian measures.

The document, issued by the Madrid-based Fundacin Internacional para la Libertad (FIL), alleges that the governments marked ideological bias is showing in its actions and warns against the allegedly "authoritarian" measures being taken by various countries to tackle the spread of Covid-19.

Feted writer, Nobel Prize winner and ex-Peru presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa is also among the signatories.

Under the title Que la pandemia no sea un pretexto para el autoritarismo, FIL describes the text as a manifesto against "excessive attitudes" taken by different Latin American governments, among them the one headed by Alberto Fernndez in Argentina.

"While public and private health employees battle valiantly against coronavirus, many governments take measures indefinitely restricting liberties and basic rights. Instead of some understandable restrictions of freedom, several countries are imposing a confinement with minimal exceptions, the impossibility of working and producing and the manipulation of information," the document reads.

"Some governments have identified this as an opportunity to arrogate excessive power, suspending the rule of law and even representative democracy and the system of justice, the text adds.

Apart from Vargas Llosa and Macri, the document was signed by Spanish ex-premier Jos Mara Aznar, various former Latin American presidents and Daro Loprfido and Patricia Bullrich among Argentine politicians. Also among the signatories are businessman Alejandro Roemmers, writer Marcos Aguinis, ex-culture secretary Daro Loprfido and ex-defence and economy minister Ricardo Lpez Murphy.

Macri and Bullrich are both PRO hardliners against the policies of Alberto Fernndez, especially where security, the economy and the handling of the Covid-19 crisis are concerned. Their sector demands more testing to detect positive cases of coronavirus, greater speed in bringing home Argentines stranded abroad and more opening of the quarantine to permit economic activity. These demands have generated internal friction with the sector headed by Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodrguez Larreta, who gets on well with the President in his handling of the pandemic.

The FIL critique runs: "In the dictatorships of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua the pandemic serves as a pretext to increase political persecution and oppression. In Spain and Argentina leaders with a marked ideological bias aspire to use these tough circumstances to grab political and economic prerogatives which the citizenry would reject resolutely in another context, the document alleges.

"In Mexico the pressure against private enterprise is spiking and the Grupo de Puebla [left-wing grouping] is being used to attack governments of different political lines, the text adds, assuring that "on both sides of the Atlantic state interventionism and populism are resurging with an impetus which makes one think of a change of model far removed from liberal democracy and the market economy.

We want to manifest with energy that this crisis must not be confronted by sacrificing the rights and liberties which cost so much to secure. We reject the false dilemma that these circumstances oblige us to choose between authoritarianism and insecurity, between the Philanthropic Ogre and death, the FIL manifesto concludes.

TIMES/PERFIL

Continued here:

Macri signs text accusing government of creeping 'authoritarianism' - Buenos Aires Times

Rakesh Neelakandan

Members of the ruling political class in the West, largely in the United States and Europe, have apparently failed in their duties of preventing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 or the novel coronavirus. However, instead of being held accountable for complacency, the political class, as a whole, is appallingly being empowered further at this critical juncture. They are being empowered as laymen are being asked to trade their privacy for health in subtle and sometimes pronounced ways as a matter of containment measures in multiple parts of the world.

If forced to choose between health and being brought under surveillance, people invariably choose the former over the latter for obvious reasons.

In other words, instead of a health and privacy solution, the ruling dispensation comes up with a health or privacy dilemma. The citizenry, on its part is conventionally conditioned to make trade-offs as it is a part of normal economic life. When presented with carefully filtered information, which give the impression that a person can only obtain one (health) at the expense of the other (privacy), all that people respond to would be by opting in for a death-to-privacy system.

This elicits the necessary compliance.

Crippling Factors

The other aspect is that one cannot take to the streets to protest against this conditioning even if one wants to, for fear of ill-health and facing the consequences of not abiding by COVID-19-specific laws and ordinances. A classic case of psychological oppression indeed, with no human agency one can point fingers at and thats the political beauty of it.

The use of technical concepts and jargon, and the high degree of knowledge required to frame the entire problem, constitute yet another set of issues preventing the formation of a collective political response by the public. Obviously, the known unknowns are overwhelming, starting with the behaviour and spread of the virus, not to speak of the unknown unknowns.

Additionally, the often confusing information deluge or recurring data avalanche in the media in conjunction with the above mentioned aspects give rise to a shifting-sand conundrum according to which no sound decision can be taken by a citizen, thereby forcing her to place trust in an authority in most cases, the government. This not only reinforces the governments grip on the system, but also empowers it to run roughshod over democratic norms and principles leading to the amassment of a greater degree of political power.

Importantly, citizens, estranged and harbouring mutual mistrust, will only look at one another as probable carriers of the virus. The social estrangement from physical distancing runs counter to the basic instinct of social assembly and can further vitiate the political atmosphere to the advantage of ruling authorities.

Herein also lies the threat of a social engineering pivoted towards the creation and sustenance of the other. The threat it need not be a pandemic can be a hostile community or an enemy country for that matter. It can even be a cocktail of both: pandemic and threats posed by aliens.

Threat Until Proven Otherwise

In a surveillance State, data generated is hoarded, sorted and sifted through for classified ends. Even as the data generated by a person is virtually her own property, the I Agree buttons tick away the terms and conditions governing hoarding, sorting and sifting. The citizen is stalked under the assumption that she can potentially become a threat, and if it happens, then the government should be in possession of the necessary data on the person at that point in time. The citizen is a treated as a threat until proven otherwise.

It should also be noted that a person by now is reduced to a digital identity, a number, a key, a thumb impression, an iris scan or a DNA sequence. When a citizen is thus equated with her identity enablers, the first casualty is her humanness in the eyes of the authority.

Ultimately, democratic freedom is lost not by a sudden attack carried out by a larger force, but by attrition rooted in a cacophony of silence and a passive consent to oppression. By the time we realise the same, the strategic pressure points of democracy would have been compromised beyond repair and healing.

It is mass testing for detecting the virus that is the answer, not mass-surveillance. The collective resources of the planet should be directed towards this end.

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COVID-19 | A boon and boost to the surveillance state - Moneycontrol.com