Quantum computing, AI, China, and synthetics highlighted in 2020 Tech Trends report – VentureBeat

Posted on by

The worlds tech industry will be shaped by China, artificial intelligence, cancel culture, and other key trends, according to the Future Today Institutes 2020 Tech Trends Report.

Now in its thirteenth year, the document is put together by the Future Today Institute and director Amy Webb, who is also a professor at New York Universitys Stern School of Business. The report attempts to recognize connections between tech and future uncertainties, like the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as the spread of diseases like COVID-19.

Among major trends in the report, 2020 is expected to be the synthetic decade.

Soon we will produce designer molecules in a range of host cells on demand and at scale, which will lead to transformational improvements in vaccine production, tissue production, and medical treatments. Scientists will start to build entire human chromosomes, and they will design programmable proteins, the report reads.

Augmentation of senses like hearing and sight, social media scaremongering, new ways to measure trust, and Chinas role in the growth of AI are also listed among key takeaways.

Artificial intelligence is again the first item highlighted on the list, and the tech Webb says is sparking a third wave of computing comes with positives, like the role AlphaFold can play in discovering cures for diseases, as well as negatives, like AIscurrent impact on the criminal justice system.

Tech giants in the U.S. and China like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft in the United States and Tencent and Baidu in China continue to deliver the greatest impact. Webb predicts how these companies will shape the world in her 2019 bookThe Big Nine.

Those nine companies drive the majority of research, funding, government involvement, and consumer-grade applications of AI. University researchers and labs rely on these companies for data, tools, and funding, the report reads. Big Nine AI companies also wield huge influence over AI mergers and acquisitions, funding AI startups, and supporting the next generation of developers.

Other AI trends include synthetic data, a military-tech industrial complex, and systems made to recognize people.

Visit the Future Today Institute website to read the full report, which flags trends that require immediate action and highlights trends by industry.

Webb urges readers to digest the 366-page report in multiple sittings, rather than trying to read it all at once. She typically debuts the report with a presentation to thousands at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, but the conference was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Visit link:

Quantum computing, AI, China, and synthetics highlighted in 2020 Tech Trends report - VentureBeat

NEC and Kagome to Provide AI-enabled Services That Improve Tomato Yields – Business Wire

Posted on by

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NEC Corporation today announced the conclusion of a strategic partnership agreement with Kagome Co., Ltd. to launch agricultural management support services utilizing AI for leading tomato processing companies.

The new service uses NECs AI-enabled agricultural ICT platform, CropScope, to visualize tomato growth and soil conditions based on sensor data and satellite images, and to provide farming management recommendation services. This AI enables the service to provide data on the best timing and amounts of irrigation and fertilizer for healthy crops. As a result, farms are able to achieve stable yields and lower costs, while practicing environmentally sustainable agriculture without depending on the skill of individual growers.

Tomato processing companies can obtain a comprehensive understanding of the most effective growing conditions for tomato production on their own farms, as well as their contract growers. Also, they can optimally manage crop harvest orders across all fields based on objective data, which helps to reduce yield loss and improve productivity.

NEC and Kagome began agricultural collaboration in 2015, and by 2019 they had conducted demonstrations in regions that include Portugal, Australia and the USA. An AI farming experiment in Portugal in 2019 showed that the amount of fertilizer used for the trial was approximately 20% less than the average amount used in general, yielding 127 tons of tomatoes per hectare, approximately 1.3 times that of the average Portuguese grower, and almost the same as that of skilled growers.

Kagome will establish a Smart Agri Division in April 2020, first targeting customers in Europe, then aiming to expand the business to worldwide markets.

Kagome has been developing agricultural management support technologies using big data in collaboration with NEC since 2015, with the aim of realizing environmentally friendly and highly profitable agricultural management in the cultivation of tomatoes for processing on a global basis, said Kengo Nakata, General Manager, Smart Agri Division, Kagome. By combining Kagomes farming know-how with NEC's AI technology, we will realize sustainable agriculture, he added.

NEC is pleased to have signed a strategic partnership agreement with Kagome, said Masamitsu Kitase, General Manager, Corporate Business Development Division, NEC. NEC aims to realize a sustainable agriculture that can respond flexibly to global social issues on climate change and food safety, he added.

About NEC Corporation: For more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com.

Continued here:

NEC and Kagome to Provide AI-enabled Services That Improve Tomato Yields - Business Wire

Is the power sector seeing the beginnings of an AI investment boom? – Power Technology

Posted on by

The power industry is seeing an increase in artificial intelligence (AI) investment across several key metrics, according to an analysis of GlobalData data.

AI is gaining an increasing presence across multiple sectors, with top companies completing more AI deals, hiring for more AI roles and mentioning it more frequently in company reports at the start of 2021.

GlobalDatas thematic approach to sector activity seeks to group key company information on hiring, deals, patents and more by topic to see which companies are best placed to weather the disruptions coming to their industries.

These themes, of which AI is one, are best thought of as any issue that keeps a CEO awake at night, and by tracking them it becomes possible to ascertain which companies are leading the way on specific issues and which are dragging their heels.

One area in which there has been some decrease in AI investment among power companies is in the number of deals. GlobalData show that there were 13 AI deals in power in the first quarter of 2019. By the first quarter of 2021, that number was six.

Hiring patterns within the power sector as a whole are pointing towards an increase in the level of attention being shown to AI-related roles. There was a monthly average of 1,008 actively advertised-for open AI roles within the industry in April this year, up from a monthly average of 669 in December 2020.

It is also apparent from an analysis of keyword mentions in financial filings that AI is occupying the minds of power companies to a lesser extent.

There have been 164 mentions of AI across the filings of the biggest power companies so far in 2021, equating to 7.3% of all tech theme mentions. This figure represents a decrease compared to 2016, when AI represented 12.9% of the tech theme mentions in company filings.

AI is increasingly fueling innovation in the power sector, particularly in the past six years. There were, on average, 34 power patents related to AI granted each year from 2000 to 2014. That figure has risen to an average of 188 patents since then, reaching 230 in 2020.

Moisture Meters and Humidity Sensors for Measuring Water Vapour in Power Plants

Fabric Expansion Joints, Metal Expansion Joints and Elastomer Expansion Joints

Moisture Meters and Humidity Sensors for Measuring Water Vapour in Power Plants

28 Aug 2020

Fabric Expansion Joints, Metal Expansion Joints and Elastomer Expansion Joints

28 Aug 2020

More:

Is the power sector seeing the beginnings of an AI investment boom? - Power Technology

AI could help with the next pandemicbut not with this one – MIT Technology Review

Posted on by

It was an AI that first saw it coming, or so the story goes. On December 30, an artificial-intelligence company called BlueDot, which uses machine learning to monitor outbreaks of infectious diseases around the world, alerted clientsincluding various governments, hospitals, and businessesto an unusual bump in pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. It would be another nine days before the World Health Organization officially flagged what weve all come to know as Covid-19.

BlueDot wasnt alone. An automated service called HealthMap at Boston Childrens Hospital also caught those first signs. As did a model run by Metabiota, based in San Francisco. That AI could spot an outbreak on the other side of the world is pretty amazing, and early warnings save lives.

You can read all of ourcoverage of the coronavirus/Covid-19 outbreakfor free, and also sign up for ourcoronavirus newsletter. But pleaseconsider subscribingto support our nonprofit journalism..

But how much has AI really helped in tackling the current outbreak? Thats a hard question to answer. Companies like BlueDot are typically tight-lipped about exactly who they provide information to and how it is used. And human teams say they spotted the outbreak the same day as the AIs. Other projects in which AI is being explored as a diagnostic tool or used to help find a vaccine are still in their very early stages. Even if they are successful, it will take timepossibly monthsto get those innovations into the hands of the health-care workers who need them.

The hype outstrips the reality. In fact, the narrative that has appeared in many news reports and breathless press releasesthat AI is a powerful new weapon against diseasesis only partly true and risks becoming counterproductive. For example, too much confidence in AIs capabilities could lead to ill-informed decisions that funnel public money to unproven AI companies at the expense of proven interventions such as drug programs. Its also bad for the field itself: overblown but disappointed expectations have led to a crash of interest in AI, and consequent loss of funding, more than once in the past.

So heres a reality check: AI will not save us from the coronaviruscertainly not this time. But theres every chance it will play a bigger role in future epidemicsif we make some big changes. Most wont be easy. Some we wont like.

There are three main areas where AI could help: prediction, diagnosis, and treatment.

Prediction

Companies like BlueDot and Metabiota use a range of natural-language processing (NLP) algorithms to monitor news outlets and official health-care reports in different languages around the world, flagging whether they mention high-priority diseases, such as coronavirus, or more endemic ones, such as HIV or tuberculosis. Their predictive tools can also draw on air-travel data to assess the risk that transit hubs might see infected people either arriving or departing.

The results are reasonably accurate. For example, Metabiotas latest public report, on February 25, predicted that on March 3 there would be 127,000 cumulative cases worldwide. It overshot by around 30,000, but Mark Gallivan, the firms director of data science, says this is still well within the margin of error. It also listed the countries most likely to report new cases, including China, Italy, Iran, and the US. Again: not bad.

Sign up for The Algorithm artificial intelligence, demystified

Others keep an eye on social media too. Stratifyd, a data analytics company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is developing an AI that scans posts on sites like Facebook and Twitter and cross-references them with descriptions of diseases taken from sources such as the National Institutes of Health, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the global microbial identifier database, which stores genome sequencing information.

Work by these companies is certainly impressive. And it goes to show how far machine learning has advanced in recent years. A few years ago Google tried to predict outbreaks with its ill-fated Flu Tracker, which was shelved in 2013 when it failed to predict that years flu spike. What changed? It mostly comes down to the ability of the latest software to listen in on a much wider range of sources.

Unsupervised machine learning is also key. Letting an AI identify its own patterns in the noise, rather than training it on preselected examples, highlights things you might not have thought to look for. When you do prediction, you're looking for new behavior, says Stratifyds CEO, Derek Wang.

But what do you do with these predictions? The initial prediction by BlueDot correctly pinpointed a handful of cities in the viruss path. This could have let authorities prepare, alerting hospitals and putting containment measures in place. But as the scale of the epidemic grows, predictions become less specific. Metabiotas warning that certain countries would be affected in the following week might have been correct, but it is hard to know what to do with that information.

Whats more, all these approaches will become less accurate as the epidemic progresses, largely because reliable data of the sort that AI needs to feed on has been hard to get about Covid-19. News sources and official reports offer inconsistent accounts. There has been confusion over symptoms and how the virus passes between people. The media may play things up; authorities may play things down. And predicting where a disease may spread from hundreds of sites in dozens of countries is a far more daunting task than making a call on where a single outbreak might spread in its first few days. Noise is always the enemy of machine-learning algorithms, says Wang. Indeed, Gallivan acknowledges that Metabiotas daily predictions were easier to make in the first two weeks or so.

One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of diagnostic testing, says Gallivan. Ideally, we would have a test to detect the novel coronavirus immediately and be testing everyone at least once a day, he says. We also dont really know what behaviors people are adoptingwho is working from home, who is self-quarantining, who is or isnt washing handsor what effect it might be having. If you want to predict whats going to happen next, you need an accurate picture of whats happening right now.

Its not clear whats going on inside hospitals, either. Ahmer Inam at Pactera Edge, a data and AI consultancy, says prediction tools would be a lot better if public health data wasnt locked away within government agencies as it is in many countries, including the US. This means an AI must lean more heavily on readily available data like online news. By the time the media picks up on a potentially new medical condition, it is already too late, he says.

But if AI needs much more data from reliable sources to be useful in this area, strategies for getting it can be controversial. Several people I spoke to highlighted this uncomfortable trade-off: to get better predictions from machine learning, we need to share more of our personal data with companies and governments.

Darren Schulte, an MD and CEO of Apixio, which has built an AI to extract information from patients records, thinks that medical records from across the US should be opened up for data analysis. This could allow an AI to automatically identify individuals who are most at risk from Covid-19 because of an underlying condition. Resources could then be focused on those people who need them most. The technology to read patient records and extract life-saving information exists, says Schulte. The problem is that these records are split across multiple databases and managed by different health services, which makes them harder to analyze. Id like to drop my AI into this big ocean of data, he says. But our data sits in small lakes, not a big ocean.

Health data should also be shared between countries, says Inam: Viruses dont operate within the confines of geopolitical boundaries. He thinks countries should be forced by international agreement to release real-time data on diagnoses and hospital admissions, which could then be fed into global-scale machine-learning models of a pandemic.

Of course, this may be wishful thinking. Different parts of the world have different privacy regulations for medical data. And many of us already balk at making our data accessible to third parties. New data-processing techniques, such as differential privacy and training on synthetic data rather than real data, might offer a way through this debate. But this technology is still being finessed. Finding agreement on international standards will take even more time.

For now, we must make the most of what data we have. Wangs answer is to make sure humans are around to interpret what machine-learning models spit out, making sure to discard predictions that dont ring true. If one is overly optimistic or reliant on a fully autonomous predictive model, it will prove problematic, he says. AIs can find hidden signals in the data, but humans must connect the dots.

Early diagnosis

As well as predicting the course of an epidemic, many hope that AI will help identify people who have been infected. AI has a proven track record here. Machine-learning models for examining medical images can catch early signs of disease that human doctors miss, from eye disease to heart conditions to cancer. But these models typically require a lot of data to learn from.

A handful of preprint papers have been posted online in the last few weeks suggesting that machine learning can diagnose Covid-19 from CT scans of lung tissue if trained to spot telltale signs of the disease in the images. Alexander Selvikvg Lundervold at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences in Bergen, Norway, who is an expert on machine learning and medical imaging, says we should expect AI to be able to detect signs of Covid-19 in patients eventually. But it is unclear whether imaging is the way to go. For one thing, physical signs of the disease may not show up in scans until some time after infection, making it not very useful as an early diagnostic.

AP Images

Whats more, since so little training data is available so far, its hard to assess the accuracy of the approaches posted online. Most image recognition systemsincluding those trained on medical imagesare adapted from models first trained on ImageNet, a widely used data set encompassing millions of everyday images. To classify something simple that's close to ImageNet data, such as images of dogs and cats, can be done with very little data, says Lundervold. Subtle findings in medical images, not so much.

Thats not to say it wont happenand AI tools could potentially be built to detect early stages of disease in future outbreaks. But we should be skeptical about many of the claims of AI doctors diagnosing Covid-19 today. Again, sharing more patient data will help, and so will machine-learning techniques that allow models to be trained even when little data is available. For example, few-shot learning, where an AI can learn patterns from only a handful of results, and transfer learning, where an AI already trained to do one thing can be quickly adapted to do something similar, are promising advancesbut still works in progress.

Cure-all

Data is also essential if AI is to help develop treatments for the disease. One technique for identifying possible drug candidates is to use generative design algorithms, which produce a vast number of potential results and then sift through them to highlight those that are worth looking at more closely. This technique can be used to quickly search through millions of biological or molecular structures, for example.

SRI International is collaborating on such an AI tool, which uses deep learning to generate many novel drug candidates that scientists can then assess for efficacy. This is a game-changer for drug discovery, but it can still take many months before a promising candidate becomes a viable treatment.

In theory, AIs could be used to predict the evolution of the coronavirus too. Inam imagines running unsupervised learning algorithms to simulate all possible evolution paths. You could then add potential vaccines to the mix and see if the viruses mutate to develop resistance. This will allow virologists to be a few steps ahead of the viruses and create vaccines in case any of these doomsday mutations occur, he says.

Its an exciting possibility, but a far-off one. We dont yet have enough information about how the virus mutates to be able to simulate it this time around.

In the meantime, the ultimate barrier may be the people in charge. What Id most like to change is the relationship between policymakers and AI, says Wang. AI will not be able to predict disease outbreaks by itself, no matter how much data it gets. Getting leaders in government, businesses, and health care to trust these tools will fundamentally change how quickly we can react to disease outbreaks, he says. But that trust needs to come from a realistic view of what AI can and cannot do nowand what might make it better next time.

Making the most of AI will take a lot of data, time, and smart coordination between many different people. All of which are in short supply right now.

More:

AI could help with the next pandemicbut not with this one - MIT Technology Review

Global Geospatial Solutions & Services Market Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud, Automation, Internet of Things (IoT), and Miniaturization of…

Posted on by

The global geospatial solutions & services market accounted for US$ 238.5 billion in 2019 and is estimated to be US$ 1013.7 billion by 2029 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 15.7%

Covina, CA, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The report"Global Geospatial Solutions & Services Market, By Solution Type (Hardware, Software, and Service), By Technology (Geospatial Analytics, GNSS & Positioning, Scanning, and Earth Observation), By End-user (Utility, Business, Transportation, Defence & Intelligence, Infrastructural Development, Natural Resource, and Others), By Application (Surveying & Mapping, Geovisualization, Asset Management, Planning & Analysis, and Others), and By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa) - Trends, Analysis and Forecast till 2029.

Key Highlights:

Request Free Sample of this Business Intelligence Report @https://www.prophecymarketinsights.com/market_insight/Insight/request-sample/4412

Analyst View:

Geospatial technology comprises GIS (geographical information systems), GPS (global positioning systems), and RS (remote sensing), a technology that provides a radically different way of producing and using maps that are required to manage communities and industries. Developed economies are expected to provide lucrative opportunities to the industry for geospatial solutions. The application of geospatial techniques across the globe has witnessed a steady growth over the past decades, owing to simple accessibility of geospatial technology in advanced nations such as the U.S. and Canada, thus further driving growth of the target the market. Moreover, rising smart city initiatives in emerging countries have resulted in the growing need for geospatial technologies for use in 3D urban mapping, monitoring and mapping natural resources. Increasing adoption of IoT, big data analysis, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the globe is projected to create profitable opportunities for global geospatial solutions & services market throughout the forecast period.

Browse 60 market data tables* and 35figures* through 140 slides and in-depth TOC on Global Geospatial Solutions & Services Market, By Solution Type (Hardware, Software, and Service), By Technology (Geospatial Analytics, GNSS & Positioning, Scanning, and Earth Observation), By End-user (Utility, Business, Transportation, Defence & Intelligence, Infrastructural Development, Natural Resource, and Others), By Application (Surveying & Mapping, Geovisualization, Asset Management, Planning & Analysis, and Others), and By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa) - Trends, Analysis and Forecast till 2029

Ask for a Discount on this Report @https://www.prophecymarketinsights.com/market_insight/Insight/request-discount/4412

Key Market Insights from the report:

The global geospatial solutions & services market accounted for US$ 238.5 billion in 2019 and is estimated to be US$ 1013.7 billion by 2029 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 15.7%. The market report has been segmented on the basis of solution type, technology, end-user, application, and region.

To know the upcoming trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below:

https://www.prophecymarketinsights.com/market_insight/Global-Geospatial-Solutions-&-Services-Market-4412

Competitive Landscape:

The prominent player operating in the global geospatial solutions & services market includes HERE Technologies, Esri (US), Hexagon (Sweden), Atkins PLC, Pitney Bowes, Topcon Corporation, DigitalGlobe, Inc. (Maxar Group), General Electric, Harris Corporation (US), and Google.

The market provides detailed information regarding the industrial base, productivity, strengths, manufacturers, and recent trends which will help companies enlarge the businesses and promote financial growth. Furthermore, the report exhibits dynamic factors including segments, sub-segments, regional marketplaces, competition, dominant key players, and market forecasts. In addition, the market includes recent collaborations, mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships along with regulatory frameworks across different regions impacting the market trajectory. Recent technological advances and innovations influencing the global market are included in the report.

Story continues

About Prophecy Market Insights

Prophecy Market Insights is specialized market research, analytics, marketing/business strategy, and solutions that offers strategic and tactical support to clients for making well-informed business decisions and to identify and achieve high-value opportunities in the target business area. We also help our clients to address business challenges and provide the best possible solutions to overcome them and transform their business.

Some Important Points Answered in this Market Report Are Given Below:

Key Topics Covered

Browse Related Reports:

More here:

Global Geospatial Solutions & Services Market Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud, Automation, Internet of Things (IoT), and Miniaturization of...

AI is for the Birds in a New Computer Science Project | Newsroom – UC Merced University News

Posted on by

The Soundscapes to Landscapes (S2L): Monitoring Animal Biodiversity from Space Using Citizen Scientists program is supported by $1.1 million over three years through NASAs Citizen Science for Earth Systems program. It uses citizen scientists to deploy the AudioMoths. Other birders knowledgeable in bird calls will annotate a subset of the recordings, which serve as the training data for the AI models.

This summer, Newsam also received a $90,000, one-year AI for Earth Innovation grant from Global Wildlife Conservation in partnership with Microsoft. The nonprofit relies on research to work with local communities to address the root causes of threats to wildlife.

Newsams is one of only five projects funded out of 135 applications. The grant supports AI projects that can scale quickly. The research will benefit many other projects because it is open source.

For Newsam, there are many questions about processing the data, and many technical challenges. The recordings have biophony, geophony and anthrophony noise, and the bird calls are often faint. Some species have different calls for different communications: warning calls, mating calls and others. Which one should the AI focus on?

Birds often modify their calls by changing frequency, for example, if other birds are also calling, Newsam said. I am learning a lot about bird calls.

Baligar hears the calls as something more than just bird communication.

I like to think of birds as musical instruments, he said. All the violins are orange crowned warblers, but no two violins are the same. A bird song plays different notes, and every bird likes to play a song differently every time.

Each AudioMoth gathers about 2,000 minutes of data per site. So far, the team has more than 500,000 minute-long recordings more than 8,000 hours of data from over 600 locations and terrabytes of data to manage.

However, training the AI model requires a lot of annotated data.

Deep learning is data hungry, Baligar said. The more data the better. On average, we have just 650 training clips per bird species, which is not a lot.

Newsam, who co-founded the Spatial Analysis Research Center (SpARC) at UC Merced, is an expert in image analysis and understanding.

Image and audio are sensorily very different but in the end, it is just data data that we are turning into information through several processes, he said.

Baligar did not set out to study sound or bird calls when he was a masters student. He was more interested in time-series questions. Now, audio over time is the focus of his dissertation, and potentially the basis for a company he hopes to launch after graduation.

Computer science and environmental science are two of UC Merceds growing number of strengths, said Professor Josh Viers, director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society at UC Merced.

Professor Newsams research is indicative of the progress UC Merced has made in attracting top talent and solving important global problems, Viers said. Shawn is a leader in developing computer science tools that interpret and integrate massive amounts of information, from Earth imagery to sound recordings, and his research is pushing the envelope on innovation in sustainability and technology. It is really exciting to see this example of artificial intelligence used to benefit wildlife conservation efforts.

Future work for the team includes trying to identify individual birds and be able to track them over their range.

If we can overcome some of the modeling challenges, Newsam said, we might be able to replace satellites with much more fine-scaled information about all kinds of wildlife.

Read the original here:

AI is for the Birds in a New Computer Science Project | Newsroom - UC Merced University News

Kasparov: ‘Embrace’ the AI revolution – BBC News

Posted on by

BBC News
Kasparov: 'Embrace' the AI revolution
BBC News
Humans should embrace the change smart machines offer society, says former chess world champion Garry Kasparov. In a speech at Def Con in Las Vegas he said the rise of artificially intelligent machines would not be a huge threat to humanity. However ...

and more »

Read the rest here:

Kasparov: 'Embrace' the AI revolution - BBC News

Cruel oppression of those who speak against the Chinese Government – Sanatan Prabhat –

Posted on by

(Retd) Brigadier Hemant Mahajan

India must expose Chinas atrocities to the whole world The United Nations has released a report on the violation of human rights in Chinas Xinjiang Province; it says that the Uyghur Muslims are being severely persecuted. The report was released on 31st August at a Conference in Geneva before the end of Michelle Bachelets 4-year term as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. China, on the other hand, has denied allegations of human rights violations in the Province. In the article here, (Retd) Brigadier Mahajan has exposed the horrifying reality of how the Chinese Government is not only harassing the Uyghur Muslims, but also the Tibetans and Mongolians.

The world should raise the issue of atrocities against the Chinese citizens with the United Nations Human Rights Commission. This will help reduce their abuse.

India should also raise this issue from time to time on various platforms of the United Nations. Only then can the human rights of the Chinese can be protected and supported. India needs to tighten its belt to bring the tyrannical face of cunning and powerful China in front of the world and destroy it.

A report of a Human Rights Organisation in Spain has stated that people who oppose the Government in China or the Chinese Communist Party are severely harassed and persecuted. They are subjected to various tortures such as electric shocks, imprisonment, no trials in the Courts. In reality, there is nothing surprising in this report because this has been true for long. For example, the population of Tibet is 50-60 lakh. Tibetans have no spiritual or religious freedom. They cannot write or speak what they want to, and are subjected to a great deal of torture. It is said that the worlds largest surveillance system has been installed in Tibet. Through this, movement of citizens are monitored and they are kept away from their religion and culture. Due to this problem, 100 to 150 Tibetan youth commit self-immolation every year.

An estimated 20 million Uyghur Muslims live in Chinas Xinjiang Province, which faces a very serious situation. It is said that more than 20-25 lakh Muslims in the Xinjiang Province have been imprisoned by China. These prisons have been given a flowery name Re-education Camps by China. Those who follow Islam are subjected to severe crackdowns and sent to other parts of China to work as labourers.China has a third province Inner Mongolia. The Mongolians here cannot follow their religion, customs and traditions. Education in the Mongolian language has been discontinued. Instead, Mongolians are being taught Chinese, which is called Han Chinese. Similar harassment is also practiced in Hong Kong. People working or speaking against mainland China through social media are persecuted too.

The Chinese nationals living abroad who speak against China are also arrested. They are then abducted and tortured. A large number of Han Chinese are being settled in Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, etc. to reduce the population of minorities living there. It is known that Chinas Han Chinese are the main population comprising 90%, while the remaining 10% are minorities. This minority population is kept out of governance, and all Government Undertakings are in the hands of the Han Chinese. Not only this, natural resources such as oil, gas and minerals in areas where the minority lives are also controlled by the Government. Minorities are deprived of natural resources in their own areas.

It is said that the biggest enemy of the Chinese are the Communist Party of China and its current Supreme leader and President Xi Jinping. You may remember that a few years ago, the people of China had revolted against their Government. Thousands of Han Chinese were killed by the Peoples Liberation Army and the Chinese Communist Party, when tanks were run over them. Similar atrocities are being committed on others. Even private establishments are not spared from this. In China, anyone who protests and tries to speak out is harassed in various ways.

Most importantly, Chinas expenditure on internal security is more than three times than that on its external security. China does not fear India, the US, Japan and South Asian countries as much as it fears its own citizens. In contrast, Indias defence budget is four times more than the budget of its Ministry of Home Affairs, meaning, on its internal security. India has to spend more money to defend itself against China and Pakistan. India spends relatively less on controlling its domestic population.

Chinas citizens are its own enemies. Not only this, during the Coronavirus infection, China had completely closed down its important cities. This greatly affected their financial condition. Worse still, the Chinese were barricaded in their own homes. (In India, only those places were closed where the Coronavirus infection was found.) In the near future, the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party will be held. Xi Jinping wants to make himself Chinas President for life. Therefore, those who rise against him in the coming period will be oppressed and tortured more.

(Retd) Brigadier Hemant Mahajan, Pune.

India needs to tighten its belt to bring the tyrannical face of cunning China in front of the world and destroy it !

See more here:

Cruel oppression of those who speak against the Chinese Government - Sanatan Prabhat -

Hill TV Segment on Rashida Tlaib and Israel Is Censored – The Intercept

Posted on by

The decision of whether to post the segment was kicked from Rising producers to The Hills Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. In a call with Halper on Wednesday, he framed Halpers segment as similar to an op-ed submission, telling her that The Hill accepts some submissions and rejects other submissions, and that this right extends to Hill TV journalism as well.

Producers told Halper that perhaps a standard segment would work, but when Halper proposed to a Nexstar executive that she use her next appearance for such a segment, she was told her services would no longer be needed.

We wanted to let you know that we will not be needing you to appear on Rising tomorrow am, the executive told Halper Wednesday in an email she provided to The Intercept. Please feel free to submit any unpaid invoices for your work on Rising. We wish you all the best.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib has been condemned by some over comments she made about Israel. Heres CNNs Jake Tapper reporting on what the Michigan Democrat said and the response it prompted.

Im not a Jewish colleague of Tlaib, but I am a Jew and I am outraged. Not by Tlaib, but by the attacks on Tlaib. Rashida Tlaib is saying that Israel is an apartheid state and that people who claim to have progressive values cannot support an apartheid state. No matter how loose a definition of progressive we use, it certainly excludes supporting a racist apartheid system.

Whats outrageous is that Tlaib would be pilloried over her comments. Whats outrageous is that the Anti-Defamation Leagues Jonathan Greenblatt would claim that Israel is not an apartheid government. Whats outrageous is that Jake Tapper would accept Greenblatts judgment as the truth and not propaganda that needed to be pushed back against.

I understand that Greenblatt and perhaps Tapper feel like Israel is not an apartheid state but unfortunately for them, apartheid isnt about your feelings. Its about facts.

So lets look at the facts on the ground.

First of all, what is apartheid?

Apartheid is an Afrikaans word that means apartness. It was the official policy in South Africa from 1948 and 1994, allowing white South Africans, in the minority, to rule over and discriminate against the vast majority of Black South Africans.

But apartheid doesnt just apply to South Africa. In 1973, the U.N. defined the crime of apartheid as including similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in Southern Africa, as well as any inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them. In 1998, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defined apartheid as inhumane acts of a character that are committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.

These inhuman acts include, among others infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups. Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Any measures including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups, the prohibition of mixed marriages among members of various racial groups, the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group or groups or to members thereof.

Israels own laws certainly fit this definition of apartheid.

Look at the Law of Return of 1950 and tell me its not apartheid. The law allows any Jew, which means anyone with one Jewish grandparent, the right to move to Israel and automatically become citizens of Israel. It gives their spouses that right too, even if theyre not Jewish. Palestinians, of course, lack that right.

Lest you had any doubts about that, the Israeli Citizenship Law of 1952 deprived Palestinian refugees and their descendants of legal status, the right to return and all other rights in their homeland. It also defined Palestinians present in Israel as Israeli citizens without a nationality and group rights.

These laws together obviously fit into the International Criminal Courts apartheid criteria: The Israeli laws prohibit members of a racial group the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law of 2003, which was reauthorized in March of this year, makes people who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ineligible for the automatic granting of Israeli citizenship and residency permits that are usually available through marriage to an Israeli citizen. Not only can non-Israeli Jews not get Israeli citizenship through their Israeli spouses, but in some cases they cant live with them in Israel.

More recently, the controversial Nation State Law established that The fulfillment of the right of national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people. It also stipulated,The state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development. It cancels the status of Arabic as an official language, and omits all mention of Israel as a democracy, the equality of its citizens, and the existence of the Palestinian population.

This legal obliteration of Palestinians clearly fulfills the U.N.s definition of apartheid, dividing the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups.

These are just some of the reasons that human rights organizations havedeclared Israel an apartheid state. Of course it should come as no surprise that Palestinian human rights organizations have been calling Israels government an apartheid one for decades. Al Haq, Al Mezans Center for Human Rights, Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and Addameer: Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association have documented Israeli apartheid.

More recently, organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also conceded that Israel enacts apartheid policies.

Israels own human rights organization BTselem has declared, The Israeli regime enacts an apartheid regime. BTselem reached the conclusion that the bar for defining the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime has been met after considering the accumulation of policies and laws that Israel devised to entrench its control over Palestinians. BTselem divides the way Israeli apartheid works into four areas:

Land Israel works to Judaize the entire area, treating land as a resource chiefly meant to benefit the Jewish population. Since 1948, Israel has taken over 90% of the land within the Green Line and built hundreds of communities for the Jewish population. Since 1967, Israel has also enacted this policy in the West Bank, building more than 280 settlements for some 600,000 Jewish Israeli citizens. Israel has not built a single community for the Palestinian population in the entire area stretching from the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River (with the exception of several communities built to concentrate the Bedouin population after dispossessing them of most of their property rights).

Citizenship Jews living anywhere in the world, their children and grandchildren and their spouses are entitled to Israeli citizenship. In contrast, Palestinians cannot immigrate to Israeli-controlled areas, even if they, their parents or their grandparents were born and lived there. Israel makes it difficult for Palestinians who live in one of the units it controls to obtain status in another, and has enacted legislation that prohibits granting Palestinians who marry Israelis status within the Green Line.

Freedom of movement Israeli citizens enjoy freedom of movement in the entire area controlled by Israel (with the exception of the Gaza Strip) and may enter and leave the country freely. Palestinian subjects, on the other hand, require a special Israeli-issued permit to travel between the units (and sometimes inside them), and exit abroad also requires Israeli approval.

Political participation Palestinian citizens of Israel may vote and run for office, but leading politicians consistently undermine the legitimacy of Palestinian political representatives. The roughly five million Palestinians who live in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, cannot participate in the political system that governs their lives and determines their future. They are denied other political rights as well, including freedom of speech and association.

Israeli officials and politicians, too, have described their own country as an apartheid state.

Former attorney general Michael Ben-Yair wrote in 2002, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day.

Zehava Galon, former chair of Israels Meretz party, said in 2006, Israel was relegated to the level of an apartheid state.

In 2007, Israels former education minister Shulamit Aloni wrote, the state of Israel practices its own, quite violent, form of apartheid with the native Palestinian population.

In 2008, former environment minister Yossi Sarid said, what acts like apartheid, is run like apartheid and harasses like apartheid, is not a duck it is apartheid.

Even Israels prime ministers have used the A word. In a recently published 1976 interview, assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said,if we dont want to get to apartheid I dont think its possible to contain over the long term, a million and a half [more] Arabs inside a Jewish state.

In 2007 yet another prime minister, Ehud Olmert,warned, If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished. Well, Israel isnt finished, but they do face a South African-style struggle.

Prime Minister Ehud Baraksaid in 2010, As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.

Surely South African leaders who suffered, struggled, and finally destroyed apartheid in their nation understood what apartheid is. And the great South African leaders Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu saw Israel policies as apartheid. In 1997 Mandela said, The U.N. took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.

In 2013, Desmond Tutu recalled being struck by the similarities between what he experienced in apartheid South Africa and what he observed in Israel.

To my friends in the Democratic Party who want to support Israeland who who want be progressives, it is important to listen to what international law, Israeli politicians and South Africans leaders and apartheid survivors say about the apartheid system in Israel. But we would all do well to look at what South Africa did with its apartheid system. Simply put, it left apartheid behind.

So the question we should be asking ourselves as progressives and Americans and some of us as Jews is not how to excoriate Rashida Tlaib for pointing out the obvious, or how to turn all criticisms of Israel as challenges to Israels right to exist or as expressions of anti-Semitism. Rather, the question to ask is how an apartheid-free Israel would look.

Read the original post:

Hill TV Segment on Rashida Tlaib and Israel Is Censored - The Intercept

Teachers and Other Unionists Are Joining Iran’s Gender Justice Uprising – In These Times

Posted on by

The world is currently witnessing an uprising in Iran, in the face of great state brutality, for liberation from gender, social and economic oppression. This nationwide revolt, the latest in aseries of popular uprisings, was sparked by the brutal killing two weeks ago of ayoung Kurdish-Iranian woman, Mahsa Zhina Amini, in custody of the states Guidance Patrol, or morality police, for so-called improper hijab (headscarf and coverings legally mandated in Iran forwomen).

Protesters have called for an end to the dictatorship, that the policing of womens bodies be stopped, that hijab be optional according to each individuals personal choice, an end to discrimination against Kurdish people and other ethnic minorities in Iran, and an end to economic injustice. Women and young people are at the forefront of these protests and students at numerous universities have boycotted classes. At least 83 protesters have been killed by security forces. What we are witnessing in Iran is afeminist revolt that has sparked alarger anti-governmentuprising.

The current uprising also helps illustrate the centrality of gender justice to working-class struggle. Last week, Kurdish shopkeepers launched ageneral strike across Iranian Kurdistan in protest of Zhinas killing, and some workers and labor unionists across the country are taking action to support the uprising as well. In astatement this week, the Council of Contract Oil Workers said they support the popular struggles against organized and daily violence against women and against poverty and threatened to withhold their labor if the state does not end its arrests, massacring of people, repression, and harassment and harm of women because ofhijab.

On September 25, the Coordination Council of teachers unions in Iran threw its weight behind the uprising and launched atwo-day strike. The teachers, who have been engaged in a wave of strikes and protests since last December, wrote that the uprising shows Iran is still alive and active, and does not bow down in the face of oppression. The Council condemned the use of schools in the country as militarized bases to suppress protesters. They called on all working and retired teachersas well as retirees in government, army, and social service sectors, workers unions, athletes and artiststo stand alongside the rights-seeking people of Iran. Acoalition of women teachers on strike released their own statement declaring our solidarity with other justice-seeking people and protesters to this crime for which there is no accountability and never willbe.

While on strike this week, teachers urged Irans broader labor movement to escalate the current uprising against the Iranian state to help secure gender justice, democratic freedoms and economic equality. As 60 percent of teachers in Iran are women, they have an important role to play in the current uprising. The leadership of the teachers unions is overwhelmingly male, but women teachers have increasingly formed core cadre in the recent strikes and protests. Many women leaders in the teachers movement have made demands in recent months that are key for the success of the current popular struggle, and show the intersection of working-class and genderstruggles.

For example, these mostly rank-and-file leaders have demanded the transformation of educational content and textbooks to foreground gender equality. They have demanded the building of more schools in rural areas, noting that girls are less likely than boys to be sent to schools outside their village. They have demanded free education for all and an end to the privatization of Irans public education system, as alarge majority of Irans public schools now collect fees from students. They have demanded adignified wage above the poverty line for all teachers, and equal pay for men and women. They have joined countless freedom-seeking people in Iran in demanding the release of all political prisoners, whether labor, student, or womens rights organizers. They have demanded sex education around issues of healthcare and sexual harassment, as well as contraception, which is significant given Irans 2021 population law which imposed increased restrictions on abortions and banned the distribution of free contraceptives by the healthcare system. They have demanded expanded maternity leave and daycare centers at the workplace. And they have demanded that school administrations stop harassing them for improper hijab. These calls from asegment of working-class Iranian women form an integral part of the broader Iranian feminist movement which has been thrust onto the global stage in recentweeks.

In many ways, the slogan of Woman, Life, Freedom that has swept the countrys streets in recent days goes hand in hand with the slogan of Bread, Work, Freedom, which emerged during previous nationwide uprisings in Iran against austerity and the high cost of living, both in late 2017 as well as in November 2019 when agas price increase quickly led to anti-government protests. In November 2017, weeks before the uprising that year, five women workers in the militant Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers Union blocked off aroad in protest of low and delayed wages, the privatization of their company and the hiring of workers on exploitative temporary contracts. Actions like these show the importance of leadership by women workers. These workers are part of alarger Iranian working class that has taken part in an uptick in strikes and labor militancy in recent years, from sectors as diverse as petrochemicals, trucking, and heavy equipment. These actions have come as aresult of domestic and international crises in global capitalism, and the greed of both domestic and foreignelites.

The uprising in Iran must also be seen in an international context, as part of alarger global movement for gender equality across the world among women and trans, queer, and non-binary people who are facing different, yet interrelated types of attacks. Solidarity protests in countries such as Chile, Lebanon and Turkey have amplified the uprising in Iran and lent protestersmorale.

Within this context, we have the opportunity to connect the fight in Iran to the current fight in the United States for reproductive justice. Some of the same U.S. political leaders, like Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump, who helped lead the crusade against Roe v. Wade and abortion rights have claimed to support womens rights in Iran. But you cannot set back gender equality in one country and support it in another. And while U.S. politicians harm the cause of gender equality in the United States, they have also played arole in harming Iranian women. Both Democratic and Republican political leaders have imposed sanctions on Iran which have not weakened the oppressive Iranian regime or economic elite, who grow richer and more oligarchic in spite of sanctions. Rather, sanctions have exacerbated Iranians economic hardships, including straining Iranian womens access to reproductive healthcare. U.S .foreign intervention has aterrible track record, including the 1953 CIA-led overthrow of the only secular democratic government Iran has ever had in its modern history. Today, rather than the hollow support of the United States and other Western governments, the protests of thousands of everyday people in countries across the world are amplifying Irans uprising for gender justice, forging connections between movements to lend them meaningful strength andlongevity.

In March 1979, tens of thousands of women marched in Tehran against the then-new law of compulsory hijab, among other laws which attacked womens rights instituted by the new Islamic Republic which came to power after the Iranian Revolution that year. They believed, as todays protesters do, that hijab should not be weaponized as atool of repression by the state but should rather be apersonal decision for women according to their beliefs. Those women revolutionaries chanted We did not carry out the revolution in order to go backwards. They wanted the world to remember that women helped power the 1979 revolution against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of the Shahand for social and economic justice. Yet the replacement of the Shahs regime with anew oppressive dictatorship, the Islamic Republic, meant that the struggle for freedom was derailed and wouldcontinue.

The protesters taking the streets today are risking their lives to make sure that it does. As striking women teachers said this week, The rulers should fear the day we have nothing to lose but our lives, and that day has come, and until our pupils and imprisoned students and teachers are free we will not be in theclassroom.

See the original post:

Teachers and Other Unionists Are Joining Iran's Gender Justice Uprising - In These Times

These are the voices of resistance: interviews from Iran, female-nonbinary radio takeover – CDM Create Digital Music – Create Digital Music

Posted on by

As people take to the streets of Iran and Kurdistan shouting Women, Life, Freedom!, Iranian music artists are raising their voices, too. With a two-day takeover of Radio Alhara by Iranian female and non-binary artists, artists inside the country speak to us about this moment and its connection to a long history of resistance.

Were indebted to some of these very artists for their musical inspiration. Theyve been leaders in where electronic music and performance can go, as with all genres; theyve been resonant spirits in sound. Now, I think we owe it to them to listen to their full experience and try to understand and share their fight for freedom.

Palestinian/international Radio Alhara hosts a takeover of its Sonic Liberation Front today and tomorrow, Thursday Friday September 29-30, entirely featuring female and non-binary artists from Iran and the Iranian diaspora. This itself is significant, as the Iranian government places numerous restrictions on music specifically for women. (See the interviews below.)

The first thing to do, then, is to tune in this radio stream and spread it to as many folks as you can (for the Americas, youll start early in the morning but still go through the full day). Music here covers the full gamut of sonic idioms experimental, electronic, jazz, classical, electro-pop, and eclectic.

Heres what organizers say about the message and participants:

In Solidarity with Iran and Kurdistan

Taking Over Radio Stations Around the Globe

Thursday 29th & Friday 30th of September

1:30pm to 3:30am (Tehran) | 12pm to 2am (Bethlehem) | 10am to 12am (London)

All Iranian Female/Non-binary Line Up

Aida | Aida Arko | Aida Shirazi | Anahita Shamsaei | AZADI.mp3 | Elnaz Seyedi | Eye-Duh | Foori | Gisou Golshani | Golbon Moltaji | Golnar Shahyar | Guess Lou | KUCHULU | LAFAWNDAH | Mariam Rezaei | Meshcut | Mona Matbou Riahi | Nazanin Noori | Nesa Azadikhah | Rojin Sharafi | Roody | Rosha | ROW [92] | Sahar Homami | Sanaz | Shabnam Parvaresh | SHEIVA | Xeen

Sonic Liberation Front: In Solidarity with Iran, will take over Radio AlHara on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th of September with an all-Iranian female/non-binary lineup.

Iranian and Kurdish history in the past hundred years is a story of resistance against violence and oppression. Most recently, on 16 September, the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, ignited a nationwide uprising in Iran. Mahsa/Jina Amini was detained and beaten up by the morality police for wearing her hijab in an inappropriate way and died in custody. Since then Kurds and Iranians, particularly women, have been on the streets shouting Women, Life, Freedom demanding a free country, a fair government and the abolition of compulsory hijab. The Iranian government is violently attacking and arresting the protesters and has shut down the internet to limit communications.

Years and years of gender and ethnic minority oppression, the massive expansion of the lower class and the shattering of any hope for reform have caused the protest to grow bigger and bigger day by day.

We are standing by the people of Iran and Kurdistan who are risking their lives for freedom. In a climate where the Iranian regime is spreading fear to prevent Iranian and Kurdish people from raising their voice, we want to thank all of the artists who have responded to this invite and offered their mixes and, more importantly, their names in the name of freedom. These are the voices the Islamic Republic wishes to silence. These are the voices that used to be sung in private and are now shouting together in a fog of tear gas, in the middle of fire. These are the voices that lead Iran to freedom. #womenlifefreedom

#MahsaAmini #Jinaamini #FreedomIran #IranProtest

Listen live:

radioalhara.net

SLF takeover organizer/curator and artist Pouya Ehsaei sends this statement and speaks to us from the UK.

Artists ROODY and GUESS LOU speak to us from inside Iran hugely grateful to them for doing so, especially as that impacts their safety and has to occur through the Internet shutdowns they describe. (Text communication remains important.)

Rojin Sharafi, whose work you may have seen here before, takes time out of their European tour to answer questions in collaboration with friend and researcher Niloufar Nematollahi.

Images here are from the current protests (anonymous photographers).

Music canhelp you connect with your society by engaging with what you want to change.

CDM: Can you tell us a bit about the artists involved and the impetus for this broadcast?

Pouya Ehsaei: As part of the Iranian regimes strategy to shut down the movement, they are putting lots of their resources into identifying the activists and the leaders of the movement in and out of Iran. They are filmingand photographing the protesters on the streets of Iran and after identifyingthe protesters, arrest them in their houses or in somewhere in their neighborhood. Two days ago, they arrested one of my friends Sarah, a sculptor and a chef, at her house after searching and confiscatingher belonging. Outside Iran, they do a similar thing: they film the protestors in order to identify them and arrest them when they are returning to Iran. In my opinion, this is mostly trickery; they want us to fear being present, and they want us to prevent ourselves to take action against them. This is a strategy theyve been using for many years. It had worked for a while, but the new generation does not fear since they have nothing to lose.

In this situation, the act of putting forward ones name attached to a campaign that has big exposure like SLF in Solidarity with Iran is a radical action itself, and I appreciate the courage and dedication of all the artists who participated in this action.

When we see Internet shutdown what does that mean in practical terms? I see lots of circulating calls for Tor servers, stuff like this, but presumably, that doesnt help if Internet infrastructure is slowed down or ceases to work at all, right? How are you managing communication?

Roody: It practically means they are about to shoot people and use violence. The purpose of these shutdowns is not just to hinder mobilization or to block the sharing of videos showing police brutality.

It may not seem like an act of violence, but when nobody is able to document brutality, it is able to flourish. Communication by phone is impossible these days; most people meet in the streets. We couldnt even call each other sometimes.

Guess Lou: Well, Internet shutdown practically means this phrase appears under your internet connection: no Internet access. And no means no. No communication. And this happens every time people are in the streets to protest. Other times of year, big social media and many websites are filtered. It means you need a VPN for communication. You learn to manage these things by living in this country. It takes your time and your money to be online with the rest of the world. It means you are always slower than your friends in other countries.

I know this is really difficult in some ways for diaspora Iranians or anyone outside the country; how are you staying connected? What can we do to support you specifically in terms of working with you in the countries we share?

Rojin Sharafi / Niloufar Nematollahi: I think what independent media can do in these times is to reflect marginalized Iranian voices and open their platforms for discussions about the multi-layered oppression and struggles that remain partly unrecognized in the Global North.

Being confronted with oppressive narratives in media is very tiring. Media narratives pushing women* into inferior positions serve the same political ends as the policies that dictate Iranian women* what to wear and what not to wear. We are protesting against any kind of politics that demands us what to say or what to wear.

You raise questions of both gender and minority oppression and anti-reform, and classist policies these are issues that go beyond just musical ones. But what does this mean to music or musicians, and what can music do thats meaningful?

Roody: Music canhelp you connect with your society by engaging with what you want to change.

All protest songsact as tools to educate the listener to promote an ideology, encourage activism,and galvanize that movement by drawing people together and inspiringthem to take action or reflect.

This movement started asa result of decades of oppression against women in Iran. The ongoing protests mark a watershed moment for Iran and possibly the Middle East as a whole a womens revolution that spans class and ethnic divides and hopes to tear down patriarchy manifested in its most violent form.

Rojin Sharafi / Niloufar Nematollahi: I would like to highlight the importance of actions like this radio takeover. This radio show is not a means to prove our power to western media entities. Instead, we use sound as a means to bring together Iranian female and non-binary artists from inside as well outside Iran. Its a a collection of sounds, either gathered or created carefully by people who have been directly affected by the structural and direct violence of the Iranian state. People who have chosen to document their lives, thoughts, feelings and politics through sound.

This radio takeover overcomes the distance between different Iranians fighting for the same cause in and outside Iran; it overcomes the distances imposed on us due to politics. It is a means to create a record, an archive of the music and sounds that are shaping a revolution an alternative sonic approach that attempts to engage with the difficult task of pinpointing protest, rage, and political change as it unfolds in front of our eyes.

This radio takeover overcomes the distance between different Iranians fighting for the same cause in and outside Iran; it overcomes the distances imposed on us due to politics. It is a means to create a record, an archive of the music and sounds that are shaping a revolution an alternative sonic approach that attempts to engage with the difficult task of pinpointing protest, rage, and political change as it unfolds in front of our eyes.

The current uprising is unparalleled on multiple fronts. It has galvanized allclassesandsocial groups, with protests erupting in mostcitiesacross Iran although this has come at the bitter price ofdozens killedandthousands arrested.

Guess Lou: It doesnt matter what your job is in a repressive regime; if you are in the minority they dont let you into the game. The only meaningful thing to do in this situation is to resist. The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran hates music and instruments. And yet I see that we have wonderful musicians both in the country and outside. It means at first we are facing suppression of music and then suppressing minorities. As long as you make music or sing or even listen to music, youre resisting and it is a meaningful action.

How can you best describe what this movement is about what it means to chant Women, Life, Freedom especially in terms of how it might have been misunderstood if people dont look past the headlines?

Guess Lou: In a repressive system, any new and different idea will be eliminated in the name of being foreign (and foreign means enemy in this system). This elimination will take the meaning of freedom from society. And the flow of life will turn into discouragement. Woman is the symbol of life because she can give birth. Iranian people are thirsty for freedom that has been taken from them for years. And they understand very well that the freedom of all depends on the freedom of women.

For those now in the country, whats the sense of where things are at? There must be some fears of greater repression of this movement; how do you respond to that? What can you tell us about the current situation on the ground, especially as we may not get a clear picture from only news and social media?

Guess Lou: I cannot describe to you all that is happening, but I need to mention something to you. This is not a new movement that suddenly happened a week ago. We have been fighting for years. Greater repression? In the fall of 2020, they killed 1,500 people in less than a week. They are pointing guns at people in the streets that should be used in a war against a foreign enemy who wants to attack the countrys territory. It is for this reason that the courage of Iranian women is talked about today. Men and women take to the streets to protest knowing that they may not return home. You may have heard our voice recently, so I feel the need to reiterate that this is not a newly formed movement. This is the voice of the Iranian people after years of struggle for freedom.

Roody: People in Iran have seen the worst; they dont want to stop. I dont want to stop. Every single one of us hopes for freedom. Ha I personally am not afraid of greater repression. I have seen Aban. xxxx

Especially in the west, there can be uncertainty about how to become involved or to be an ally. What would you ask musical audiences to do what sort of action can make a difference?

Roody: The only thing we need from them is to be our voice, spread the news, and represent our voice through your country for your people and government.

Guess Lou: Do not be indifferent to what is happening in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine. Our freedom is tied together. I dont know what the best course of action is, but I know that those who care about freedom will find it well.

Do not be indifferent to what is happening in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine. Our freedom is tied together.

What is the connection to the Kurdish community; whats your sense of their role in expressing this protest, following Mahsa Aminis death?

Roody: Mahsa Amini was Kurdish and Kurdish people are about 10% of the countrys population about 10 million people, living primarily in Irans northwest. And they have been oppressed by the Iranian nation-state, both under the monarchy and under the Islamic Republic today. Their language, which is distinct, is restricted. Their culture is restricted. They make up almost half of the political prisoners in the country despite being a small portion of the population. Their dissidents arent safe even when theyve fled. Iran has assassinated Kurdish leaders. And Kurdish provinces are among the poorest in the country due to economic exploitation by the state, which drives many who live there into deadly jobs like unregulated cross-border trade.

Notably, this is not the first time that Iranian women have courageously resisted these discriminatory practices.

Guess Lou: Let me tell you one thing clearly. It doesnt matter what ethnicity it is. If this happened to any girl of any ethnicity, the result would be the same as what you saw. Because we received this message that we are all Mahsa.

GUESS.LOU works across media not only music but also words and publishing, as seen here:

Listen live now:

radioalhara.net

Read more:

These are the voices of resistance: interviews from Iran, female-nonbinary radio takeover - CDM Create Digital Music - Create Digital Music

Oppression of minorities has caused the split of Zimbabwe into two states – Bulawayo24 News

Posted on by

President of MLO, Cde Paul Siwela

Contrary to the lies by the Emmerson Mnangagwa that his administration respects the rights of the minorities, Matabele genocide, tribal oppression, segregation, gross human rights abuse, political persecution death threats against tMatabeles who dare speak against their plight in Zimbabwe and farm grabs has forced Matabeles to call for the breakaway of Matabeleland to form the Republic of Matabeleland.

The white minority could only submit and watch helplessly in 2000 when their properties that included farms and companies where grabbed by Zanupf leaders and war veterans. The bulk of the white people were also dispersed into exile. These are other events that demonstrate the gross abuse of minorities rights in Zimbabwe.

To this effect the Zimbabwe government through former President Mugabe and incumbent President Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa has been served with a Notice of Demand For The Restoration of Matabeleland State by Matabeleland Liberation Organisation through our President Cde Paul Siwela.

Right now as we speak the President of Zimbabwe Mr Mnangagwa, knows pretty well that his government is operating on borrowed time in Matabeleland after receiving the Notice. He is aware that Zimbabwe has technically split into two states, the Republic of Matabeleland and Zimbabwe pending the official announcement of Matabeleland breakaway.

Matabeleland genocide wherein The Zimbabwe National Army 5th Brigade, deployed by the Zimbabwe government, slaughtered more than 40 000 innocent Matabele civilians including women and children, raped more than 100 000 Matabele women, burnt down more than 100 000 Matabele homes, maimed more than 300 000 Matabeles and displaced more than 1 million Matabeles into South Africa and Botswana, remains unresolved.

The perpetrators of Matabele genocide like the current President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa, 1st Vice President of Zimbabwe, Constantino Chiwenga and many others in government and different sectors were rewarded with higher positions and hailed as heroes in Zimbabwe. The government of perpetrators will never solve a case of genocide which they committed. Matabeles and other minorities lives are not safe in Zimbabwe. The very government that is supposed to protect being the dangerous and number one killer of Matabeles.

Those Matabeles who dare speak against it are threatened with death or persecuted politically. We all know about President Mnangagwa's chilling threat that he will "shorten" the lives of any Matabele who speak openly about the right of Matabeleland self determination.

In 2011 the President of MLO, Cde Paul Siwela was arrested and charged with treason for publicly calling for the restoration of Matabeleland state. The government of Zimbabwe, feeling exposed and fearing the split, sent state agents on a mission to assassinate Cde Paul Siwela. Fortunately Cde Paul Siwela was tipped and he escaped to exile. After him, many Matabele youth have been in and out of Zimbabwe prisons for advocating for the independence of Matabeleland.

There is no unity in Zimbabwe but tribal oppression disguised as unity. There is no devolution in Zimbabwe but empty words written in the Zimbabwe constitution to prevent the right of Matabeleland to breakaway from Zimbabwe to restore the statehood of Matabeleland.

Zimbabwe will never know peace as long as Matabeleland is still part of Zimbabwe. Matabeleland will remain a thorn in the flesh of the Zimbabwe President Mnangagwa and future leaders as long as Matabeles are denied the right to self determination.

Give us Matabeleland or death!

Israel DubeMLO Secretary for Information and Public Affairs

All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.

Read the original here:

Oppression of minorities has caused the split of Zimbabwe into two states - Bulawayo24 News

Mamakwa: ‘We cannot have reconciliation without truth’ – DrydenNow.com

Posted on by

Sol Mamakwa is urging Canadians and northwestern Ontario residents to stand together and reflect on the tragic history of the countrys Indian residential school system today.

Mamakwa Kiiwetinoongs MPP, the NDPs critic for Indigenous and Treaty Relations and the partys Deputy Leader says reconciliation cannot take place without knowing the full truth of what happened to the thousands of students who never returned home.

Some praise the government of Canada and the Catholic Church for publicly admitting the truth of Indian residential schools. But admitting to wrongdoing in the face of undeniable evidence is not reconciliation. Performative acts of apology are not reconciliation, says Mamakwa.

Mamakwa notes the Catholic Church continues to withhold certain residential school records which would help identify children in unmarked graves, and the federal government continues to withhold oppressive practices towards Indigenous communities.

Mamakwas message comes from a video message and statement ahead of the second annual National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.

As the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is upon us, we must reflect deeply on why this day is important, and how it brings us together. We must acknowledge that our history together since contact has not always been good, and that its long shadow is felt in our present. And so, the present dictates that we must come together in a good way, in the spirit of truth and reconciliation.Reconciliation can be an act of performance, or it can be the product of reflecting on the past, healing and making right. We cannot have reconciliation without truth. For many years, Indian Residential School survivors spoke of their firsthand experience of the abuse inflicted upon them, where many children were killed and buried in unmarked graves. The reality is that most Canadians did not accept this as truth, and it wasnt until our childrens remains were unearthed by the hundreds, and then thousands, that the truth could not be ignored.As we journey together on this land we now call Canada, we must never forget the former students the survivors of the Indian Residential Schools system. While we engage in actions, events and conversations centred on reconciliation, we must never leave anyone behind. There are survivors who still carry the unforgettable scars, burdens, and the unforgiving trauma from their lived experiences.I cannot overstate the impact colonial oppression continues to have even today the intergenerational and transgenerational effects of trauma on Indigenous Peoples and nations is real, and still far too visible. On this day, lets think of all those who continue to suffer from the lasting effects of the legacy. Reach out to them, and re-assure them that they have not been forgotten.We need to understand the past in order to build a better present, and stronger future, together. On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I encourage people to participate in public events of mourning, reflection and education. And I continue to ask the government of Ontario to recognize Sept. 30 as a statutory day off so everyone is able to observe this solemn occasion.As Canadians and Ontarians, we all play a role in reconciliation. If we can approach people with understanding rather than judgement, break down the structures of oppression, and heal together, reconciliation is possible.

Canada passed legislation last year to make September 30 a federal statutory holiday, one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2015s Calls to Action, after the discovery of the 215 unmarked bodies in Tkemlps te Secwpemc First Nation.

The story made headlines around the world forcing Canadians to finally face the horrors of our former residential school system.

For over 100 years, over 150,000 Indigenous youth were forcibly taken from their families to be assimilated into residential schools and settler culture, which included giving youth new names, haircuts and identification numbers.

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says over 70 Indigenous youth in the Kenora area died while attending two local residential schools.

Read more here:

Mamakwa: 'We cannot have reconciliation without truth' - DrydenNow.com

Confronting Bolsonaro and the Far Right Requires Working Class Independence – Left Voice

Posted on by

On Sunday, Brazilians will go to the polls in the first round of elections that will be watched around the world. Incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro has seen his support plummet amid a devastating coronavirus pandemic, rising inflation and food costs, increasing poverty and severe deforestation in the Amazon. His most recognized challenger is the former president and Workers Party leader, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva. Amid the many crises facing the Bolsonaro government, various representatives of the Brazilian capitalist class have gone over to the Lula campaign. Among them are many leaders of the impeachment process (in reality, an institutional coup) against Dilma Rouseff, Lulas successor. The largest party to the left of the Workers Party, the Party of Socialism and Liberty (PSOL), has also decided not to run its own presidential candidate and will instead support Lula in the first round. This despite Lulas promise to maintain all the privatizations and labor reforms enacted under Bolsonaro. Yet there does exist an electoral force which maintains class independence and calls for the revocation of all Bolsonaros measures, the Socialist Revolutionary Pole (PSR). Left Voice spoke with Marcello Pablito and Mara Machado, two members of the Revolutionary Workers Movement (MRT) party who are running for seats in the national legislature on the PSR slate.

Left Voice: How do you characterize the national situation in the midst of this years elections?

Marcello Pablito: This years elections in Brazil will take place in a deeply polarized political scenario. On one side is the current president Jair Bolsonaro, a representative of the Brazilian extreme right wing that detests women, Black people, and the LGBTQ community. On the other side is Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former president and leader of the Workers Party (or PT). Lula was prevented from running in the previous elections due to a highly anti-democratic Supreme Court ruling. In these elections, Lula, who is currently ahead in the polls, is running on a ticket with Geraldo Alckmin, a representative of Brazilian neoliberalism. Its important to note that Bolsonaro came to power after the institutional coup of 2016, spearheaded by Congress and the judiciary. After approving measures such as a labor reform, welfare reform and the unrestricted outsourcing law, the same sectors that were in favor of the completely authoritarian measures that brought Bolsonaro to power are now standing against him and demogocially calling for defense of democracy. They are united with Bolsonaro, however, in their defense of all the ultraliberal and anti-worker economic measures of recent years.

Mara Machado: Bolsonaros government was not only responsible for more than 700,000 deaths in Brazil during the pandemic but also brought more hunger, unemployment, and misery to a country that has been battered by economic crisis since 2013. The pandemic worsened all social indicators for the poor, who also faced countless economic austerity measures by the coup government of Michel Temer beginning in 2016 and later the government of Bolsonaro. The global inflationary crisis and the rise in food prices with the war in Ukraine is severely impacting Brazil and creating an unstable economic picture. This has a direct impact on the Brazilian elections. Despite a partial recovery in GDP, the structural crisis remains and is being felt by millions of people who work in precarious jobs and are hit by rising cost of food. It is telling that Brazil is facing its lowest meat consumption since 1994, with 33 million people suffering from hunger and 120 million people in a situation of food insecurity in the country that produces the most food in the world.

Lula, meanwhile, promises to return the country to the economic bonanza of the 2000s. Its a total illusion in the face of the current economic projections. The scenario is vastly different from the period in which Lula first assumed office. Two decades ago, the price of raw materials was high and there was an inflow of dollars into the country, due to both the growth of the Chinese economy which has since slowed considerably and is now growing at its lowest level in 30 years and investments from Western capital. Lula already warns that if he wins the elections he will not be able to perform miracles, a euphemism for continuing many of the same economic policies enacted since the 2016 coup, like the labor reform and social security reform, an agenda he shares with the liberal Right.

Left Voice: Why did MRT decide to launch candidacies this year? How would you define the MRTs main ideas and proposals?

Mara Machado: We decided to present candidacies to put forward a left-wing perspective across the country. We have been in the front lines of the struggle against the institutional coup, while always organizing independently of the Workers Party. Our candidates are running on the ticket of the Socialist Revolutionary Pole, composed of several organizations of the Brazilian left like the PSTU, the CST and other left-wing activists. Weve come together in these elections, alongside other left-wing allies and intellectuals, to advance our revolutionary and class independent positions.

Marcello Pablito: Both Mara and I are running in the state of So Paulo but in other states we are putting forward the same proposals. Our comrades Flvia Valle in Minas Gerais, Carolina Cacau in Rio de Janeiro and Valria Muller in Rio Grande do Sul, along with others, are standing as candidates in order to amplify the fight against Bolsonaro and the Right, and fight back against the labor reforms, privatizations, and other attacks on workers. As part of the Socialist Revolutionary Pole, which brings together various socialist organizations that defend class independence, we are calling for a vote for Vera Lucia of the PSTU for President and indigenous activist Raquel Trememb for Vice President. We draw inspiration from the Workers Left Unity Front (known as the FIT-U) in Argentina, which won seats in Congress for our comrades Nicolas Del Cao, Myriam Bregman and Alejandro Vilca from our sister organization, the Socialist Workers Party (PTS). Like the FIT-U, we believe that the capitalists must pay for this crisis and we will use our candidacies to build the strength of the workers movement and the youth. In this sense, our intervention in these elections is a preparation for the clashes that will inevitably arise in the next period, one in which Lula and Alckmin will likely govern but the extreme right will persist, despite the election results.

Mara Machado: We have defined some aspects of a program that we think is necessary to confront the current situation, one in which the Brazilian working class (particularly Black people, women, LGBTQ people, and immigrants) is suffering enormously. More than 33 million people are going hungry, millions are unemployed or hold precarious jobs, and young people see less and less of a future for themselves. Our program demands the revoking of all the counter-reforms that have occurred since the institutional coup, including the labor reform, the social security reform, and the spending cap on health and education. We say enough of corporations and banks profiting while working people suffer. Our program demands the non-payment of the fraudulent international debt, which bleeds our health and education budgets dry to increase the profits of foreign capitalists. We demand a radical agrarian reform that challenges the power of agribusiness and attacks the problem of hunger at its root. We fight for a radical urban reform that addresses the problem of housing costs and real estate speculation. We call for an end to precarious jobs, Uberization, and outsourcing and we demand the regularization of all workers, including gig workers, with full rights and benefits. This program can only be carried out through an independent political organization of the working class, based in the workplaces, schools and universities. That is why we continue to demand that the union federations, the National Union of Students, and youth organizations to break the paralysis and confront Bolsonaro and the Right. The strategy of waiting and channeling our into elections alone will continue to strengthen the far Right in the country. The Right will win in the streets unless we challenge them.

Left Voice: Why is it important to launch candidates independent of the PT and its coalitions?

Mara Machado: Many workers and young people have a completely legitimate hatred of Bolsonaro and the extreme right and want to defeat this government and its attacks. However, it is impossible to seriously confront Bolsonaroby by forming alliances with sectors of the right wing like former So Paolo governor Geraldo Alckmin (now running on a ticket with Lula) or former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso or institutions like the Supreme Court. These were precisely the figures and institutions who paved the way for Bolsonaro to come to power and are in favor of all his neoliberal attacks. To seriously confront the extreme right we need a class-independent program that unites workers against big business and the banks.

Just look at who Lulas supporters are. Besides having Alckmin as his vice-president, who is a symbol of the neoliberal right-wing that repressed the teachers, subway workers, and university workers when he was governor, Lula has supporters like Fernando Henrique Cardoso who applied the austerity measures dictated by Washington in the 1990s and repressed the historic 1995 oil workers strike. Lula is also supported by Henrique Meirelles, a former representative of international finance capital. Meirelles served as Finance Minister under the coup leader Michel Temer, and said recently that his support for the Lula-Alckmin ticket is conditional on their government maintaining the labor reforms in place. Lula has also received public support from various leaders of the Operation Carwash campaign and the institutional coup against former President Dilma Rousseff.

The victory of the Lula-Alckmin ticket in these elections will not be the end of Bolsonaros legacy or the authoritarian political regime. On the contrary, the reactionary opposition will retain at least 30-35 percent support throughout the country, and the military and the judiciary will continue to play key roles in Brazilian politics. It is enough to mention that the Armed Forces was recently given the right to evaluate the election results, an extremely anti-democratic interference in the political process. The extreme right will only be defeated through strikes and mass mobilizations, as our historical tradition demonstrates. The integralismo movement in Brazil, for example, was only defeated with a strong workers united front, with the Trotskyists organizing and uniting other forces of the Left in the famous battle of Praa da S in 1934.

Left Voice: What role do social movements, such as the black, indigenous, student, and LGBTQ movements play in defeating not only Bolsonaro but the far right in general?

Marcello Pablito: The misogynistic and homophobic rhetoric of Bolsonaro and the extreme Right serves to further subordinate oppressed people and to deepen the attacks against the entire working class, the womens movement, the Black liberation movement, LGBTQ liberation movement and the youth. This rhetoric also appeals to his social base, which includes most reactionary sectors of society: agri-business, the military, and the evangelicals. It was not by chance that the symbol of Bolsonaros rise was the stabbing death of the Black capoeira master Moa do Katend. More recently a Black woman who worked as a domestic employee was burned to death cooking with alcohol because she did not have money to buy gas for her home.

It is a government that fuels hatred against immigrants and humiliates Venezuelans who leave their country and try to survive in Brazil. A symbol of the the hatred of this extreme right wing was the murder of Moise Kabagambe, a Congolese immigrant beaten by his boss when he went to collect his unpaid wages. The far Right also directs its attacks against women who have been mobilizing for the right to an abortion. This in addition to the barbaric murders of indigenous people, residents of the quilombos [communities of the descendents of escaped slaves Ed.] and activists for indigenous rights like Bruno Arajo Pereira and Don Phillips, who were killed after denouncing the brutal violence carried out by mining interests against native peoples.

Left Voice: What are the next steps after October? What is necessary to organize the youth and the working class in the next period?

Mara Machado: The elections are an important moment in our struggle. They are a moment in which its possible to debate and to put forward political proposals with many more people than we can on a daily basis. Thats why we understand the elections as a space that we need to be in to strengthen the struggles of the working class, the poor, the youth, and all those who want to confront and defeat the extreme Right. But we must also prepare ourselves for the likely attempts at austerity that will come from a Lula and Alckmin government. Recently in Chile, we saw more proof of how class conciliation only strengthens the right wing. A strategy of conciliation, represented by Lula and Alckmin, is not an alternative and will not confront the structural problems of the country. In fact, Lula has already said that he will not revoke the reforms that occurred during the Temer and Bolsonaro governments and rejected the possibility of reversing privatizations. Only through struggle and organization will we be able to secure our democratic rights and take on the structural problems of Brazilian capitalism.

Left Voice: Here in the United States, the DSA, Jacobin and other sections of the Left have defended Lulas candidacy against Bolsonaro as an important step in defeating the extreme right. What is your opinion?

Mara Machado: As we said, at the moment, various sectors of the Brazilian political regime are trying to re-channel all the dissatisfaction with Bolsonaro toward a path of class conciliation and to neutralize any force to the left of the PT. It is regrettable that an important part of the Brazilian Left has completely dissolved itself in coalitions based on class conciliation. In Brazil, a large part of the PSOL, which since its foundation has molded itself on broad parties like Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spain, has been programmatically and politically dissolved in the coalition of Lula and Geraldo Alckmin. As if this were not enough, the majority of the PSOL leadership has plunged the party into a dead end, forming a federation with the Rede Sustentabilidade [the Sustainability Network party Ed.], Marina Silvas bourgeois party, which receives funding from the bank Ita and is a fierce opponent of abortion rights. This turn to the right of the PSOL leadership led to the defection of major parliamentary figures from the party to the PT or the PSB (like the PSOLs former leader Marcelo Freixo, whos now in the same party as Alckmin), but also splits to the left, like an important group of activists and intellectuals. The PSOL has always been a party removed from class struggle, without a vision of the working class as the revolutionary subject, and with a broad party conception that blurs the lines between reform and revolution. The crisis of the New Anticapitalist Party in France, despite its differences with the PSOL, sheds light on the failure of the broad party conception. The crisis of the PSOL is an important aspect of the electoral scenario, and an opportunity for the revolutionary left to make strategic conclusions that can reshape the Brazilian left.

Left Voice: Finally, what would you say to American workers and youth, who have been awakening to political and union activity in recent years?

Marcello Pablito: Here in Brazil, we followed with great enthusiasm the struggles against racism and in defense of abortion rights in the United States. These mobilizations taking place in the heart of world capitalism for us here were extremely inspiring. But we know that for revolts to turn into revolutions and to defeat the most powerful bourgeoisie in the world, it is fundamental to have a revolutionary strategy and program that, even in adverse conditions, prepares the conditions to win and build a new future. We consider it very promising that opportunities are opening up with a new wave of unionization fights in the United States and that these struggles connect capitalist exploitation to racist and patriarchal oppression. These open up space for the emergence of a new workers force in the heart of imperialism, which by taking political power into its hands, could open a new chapter in history, one free from all exploitation and oppression.

Translated by Paul Ginest

Excerpt from:

Confronting Bolsonaro and the Far Right Requires Working Class Independence - Left Voice

The Politicization of the Department of Justice – The Epoch Times

Posted on by

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on Sept. 16, 2022, in Washington, D.C., at Hillsdale Colleges Constitution Day Celebration.

The seal of the U.S. Department of Justice reads, Qui Pro Domina Justitia SequiturWho prosecutes for Lady Justice. Depictions of Lady Justice are as familiar as they are instructive: she stands blindfolded while holding the scales of justice, representing her unyielding devotion to equal justice under the law. Contrary to this ideal, the DOJ today appears to be increasingly motivated by partisanship. Compounding the problem, it has access to the powers of the modern surveillance state. As someone passionate about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I believe there is no higher priority than addressing this danger.

The tragic events of 9/11 marked a turning point in our nations recent civil rights history. First the terrorists attacked usand then, in the name of national security, we began to attack ourselves. It has become almost clich to say that we live in a surveillance state, but we do. Ever since Congress, on a fully bipartisan basis, enacted the Patriot Act six weeks after the attacks on 9/11, the ever-present eye of the government has been searching for new and creative ways to spy on American citizens. The government has the technology to monitor all of our electronic devices, listen to our phone calls, and read our emails and text messagesall under the auspices of national security.

This special law designed for an emergency has become a permanent addition to the governments investigatory toolbox. The unfortunate reality is that the bulk of the actions taken by law enforcement under the Patriot Act have almost nothing to do with combating terrorism. Once-rare applications for surveillance warrants to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court have multiplied many times in relative peacetime. Most of the spying conducted under the Patriot Act is for run-of-the-mill crimes that weve long expected law enforcement to address without special surveillance authority.

Now, it is bad enough to have a politically-neutral surveillance state controlled by the national security crowd and their DOJ cousins. But take that panopticon and put it in the hands of an executive branch willing to weaponize its reams of information against its perceived political enemies, and weve got a frightening problem on our hands.

Laws such as the Patriot Act were designed to fight the unique problem of terrorism. But they quickly morphed into a mechanism by which the government keeps constant tabs on law-abiding Americans and threatens to disrupt their lives if they dare act contrary to those in power. And its within this world of omnipotent oversight and control that the U.S. Department of Justice now operates. They have all the tools of the surveillance state at their disposal, and the only thing standing in their way is an independent judiciary willing to enforce our constitutional rights. But we all saw how easy it is to spy on Americanswith virtually no judicial oversightfrom the disgraceful episodes of broad surveillance applications, on flimsy and sometimes falsified pretexts, against citizens such as Carter Page.

* * *

Let me discuss three recent examples that illustrate the threats we face from a politicized DOJ: the DOJ raid on Project Veritas journalists, the DOJ raid on Mar-a-Lago, and the DOJs efforts to undermine election integrity and chill free speech.

In July 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo forbidding federal prosecutors from seizing journalists records. He did this with much fanfare, hauteur, and virtue signaling. But even as Mr. Garland was decrying the seizure of journalists records as a wrong his department would not let happen, the DOJ was in the midst of a year-long campaign of spying on Project Veritasa campaign that involved no fewer than 19 clandestine subpoenas, orders, and warrants obtained from nine magistrate judges. The secrecy of this spying campaign was maintained through the use of wide-ranging gag orders, including at least two that were obtained without notice to the judge overseeing the Project Veritas case. Through this spying campaign, we now know that the DOJ obtained approximately 200,000 Project Veritas emails from Microsoft and countless text messages (and heaven knows what else) from Apple, Google, Uber, and other still unknown companies.

Only six months after Mr. Garlands memo was issued, the DOJ raided the homes of three Project Veritas journalists, seizing 47 electronic devices. And how did the world learn about this? Conveniently, someone leaked information about the raids toThe New York Timeswhich Project Veritas happens to be suing. Indeed,The New York Timescalled Project Veritas for comment as the raids were still in progress.

What was the pretext for the raids? In the fall of 2020, confidential sources had approached Project Veritas journalists with a diary and other materials supposedly belonging to Ashley Biden, the Presidents daughter. The sources said that the materials had been in their possession prior to contacting Project Veritas. The Project Veritas journalists proceeded to investigate whether the materials were authentic and whether the allegations they contained against Joe Biden were true. Ultimately, Project Veritas decided it could not sufficiently verify the allegations and that it would not publish the diarys contents. It then turned the items over to local law enforcement in Florida.

The DOJ claims that Ashley Bidens belongings were stolen. Project Veritas was told they werent, but even this is legally irrelevant. In the 2001 caseBartnicki v. Vopper, the U.S. Supreme Court held unequivocally that as long as journalists did not commit an alleged theft themselves, they were entitled to receive, investigate, and publish (or not publish) supposedly stolen materials. In the more recent caseDNC v. Russian Federation, a federal court made it clear that the reporter could even ask for the stolen materials. This is not a crimeits called journalism.

Compare the DOJs treatment of Project Veritas to the DOJs inaction earlier this year when aPoliticoreporter was given a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion overturningRoe v. Wade. ThePoliticoreporter behaved precisely with this purloined document as the Project Veritas reporters had behaved with the diary, except that thePoliticoreporter did decide to publish the draft opinion. The different reactions on the part of the DOJ seemed to hinge entirely on whose ox was being gored.

But to repeat, the Garland Justice Department was rifling through the emails and phone messages of Project Veritas journalists before Project Veritas even knew of Ashley Bidens diary. These documents contain donor information, source communicationsincluding communications from whistleblowers within the federal governmentand attorney-client communications. In its actions, the DOJ was not only ignoring court decisions and its own policies, it was violating the Privacy Protection Act, the common law Reporters Privilege, and the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.

The Project Veritas matter is ongoing. Thanks to the DOJs leaks toThe New York Times, which themselves violate federal law, Judge Analisa Torres overruled the DOJs objections and ordered the appointment of a special master to review the seized materials for various privileges. Its a hollow victory, because Project Veritas has to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, so to speak, of being able to protect its own privileged documents.

Although I have represented and continue to represent President Trump in several matters, I do not represent him on the matter of the DOJs raid on his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. But that raid is significant and worth some attention.

Consider first the raids timing. President Bidens approval ratings have been abysmal, and it is a mid-term election year.Bloombergreports that the DOJ will likely delay charging Trump with anything arising from the raid on his home until after the mid-terms. The effect of this is to create a cloud of perceived guilt running up to Nov. 8, and use that as a political tool to smear pro-Trump voters and candidates. The DOJ hides behind its longstanding policy of not taking politically portentous actions close to an electionbut how could the raid itself be construed as anything but such a portentous action?

President Trump and his lawyers were engaged in a cooperative dialogue with both the DOJ and National Archives representatives on the issue of storing and archiving confidential documents. He went as far as to invite the DOJ to survey the documents he had on his property, and the DOJ seemed to have expressed little urgency in pursuing the matter.

This latest episode of G-men gone wild is not all that different from the FBI strategy before and after Trumps election in 2016, when the FBI was weaponized to investigate claims of Russian collusion that ultimately proved to have been made up by Democrat operatives. But more importantly, the raid raises serious constitutional objections.

The Fourth Amendment provides that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The American Founders were intensely concerned about government intrusion. Breaking into the homes of political opponents and depriving them of their possessions was common practice under the rule of the British king in colonial America. The use of general warrants and writs of assistance by the Crown was the ultimate interference with the colonists right to political and personal autonomy. Such invasions were so pervasive, and so universally despised, that the Founders saw fit to ensure that the Constitution expressly forbids such practices.

For over 180 years after the Founding, the Supreme Court applied the Fourth Amendments protections largely to places and things. Unsurprisingly, this meant that dwellings were given a heightened sense of protection against government intrusion. The Supreme Court has reiterated, in the 1980 casePayton v. New York, that the physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.

In addition towhereandwhatreceives Fourth Amendment protection is the question ofhowthe government can conduct searches and seizures without offending the Constitution. Searches are only permitted if they are reasonable, and a search is generally considered reasonable only when the government first obtains a properly issued warrant. Properly issued means the warrant must describe with specificity the places to be searched and the things to be seized, must be supported by probable cause, and must be issued by a neutral and detached magistrate. Taken together, this is colloquially known as the warrant requirementand it is central to any honest analysis of the Mar-a-Lago raid.

At its core, the problem with the FBIs search of President Trumps home is its inconsistency with the letter and the spirit of the Fourth Amendment. The shroud of secrecy surrounding the probable-cause affidavit used by the FBI to obtain the warrant prevents the public from judging whether the government had a valid reason for this unprecedented search. Even more, the list of places to be searched and things to be seized contained in the warrant application comprised a blanket sweep of the former presidents entire private residence and offices, targeting any evidence supporting a potential violation of a handful of federal statutes that are the usual suspects when it comes to politicized prosecutions.

While this alone doesnt make the warrant defective, the Justice Departments just trust us approach to support the raid makes it nearly impossible to determine the legitimacy of the governments unprecedented actions. This leaves us no choice but to speculate. And based on the information publicly available, the DOJs actions have all the trappings and appearances of a vindictive and politically-motivated fishing expedition.

As in the Project Veritas case, the judge in the Mar-a-Lago case has issued an order appointing a special master. In doing so, the judge pointedly observed that some of the resultant delay the government complains of is caused by the governments cutting corners, suggesting implicitly that the government abused the warrant process.

As has been widely reported, the DOJ is currently issuing subpoenas to individuals who have dared to question the 2020 election results. This is occurring against the backdrop of President Bidens vendetta against what he calls ultra MAGA Republicans. This is the type of behavior youd expect in a third-world dictatorship.

Included in the DOJs crosshairs are those who participated in the political process as alternate electors; those in Congress who voted against certifying the election results; those who organized or peacefully attended a permitted rally on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, even if they had nothing to do with the activities at the Capitol on that day; and those who have raised funds from donors with a promise to investigate and challenge election fraud.

All of these activities have long historical precedents in our country and are protected by the First Amendment. Indeed, it was Democrats who challenged the presidential election results in 2000, 2004, and 2016. Lets review the evidence.

In 2000, 15 House Democrats objected to counting Floridas electoral votes. Several members of Congress called the 2000 election fraudulent, and Texas Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson vowed that there would be no peace because of the allegedly stolen election.

In 2004, Democrats in Congress forced a vote to recess the joint session of Congress counting electoral votes in order to debate perceived election irregularities in Ohio. Thirty-one House Democrats voted to reject Ohios electoral votes and were applauded for doing so by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, among others.

In 2016, several Democrats objected to the certification of Trump electors based on overwhelming evidence of Russian interference in the election. Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin objected to ten of Floridas electors based on a Florida statute that prohibits state legislators from being electors. Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee proclaimed, If in that voting, you have glaring matters that speak to the failure of the electoral system, then it should be challenged.

No DOJ action was taken in any of these previous years. What has changed, if not the politicization of the Justice Department?

Elections are the engine of our republic. They ensure the peaceful transfer of power and are the primary method for the people to influence their government. And our Constitutions elections clauseArticle I, Section 4, Clause 1gives states the primary duty of regulating the time, places, and manner of elections for federal office. The DOJs role is very limited in this regard. It has the power to administer the Voting Rights Act, a power that was once necessary to push back on Jim Crow laws. But the era of Jim Crow is long gone, and it shouldnt be up to a politicized DOJ to dictate what election integrity looks like.

The 2020 election was rampant with reports of irregularities. Some of these reports were more accurate than others. But states were right to take appropriate steps to increase the security of their elections in the wake of such reports. And yet, from its first days, the Biden administration has been bent on waging an intimidation campaign against states attempting to bolster election integrity.

Consider Georgia. The midnight ballot dump that pushed Biden ahead of Trump had all the appearances of manipulative ballot stuffing. That was followed by days of uncertainty about who won. Reports soon surfaced of massive ballot harvestingillegal in Georgiaas well as deeply concerning evidence that Mark Zuckerberg-funded nonprofits had placed personnel in election operations in blue counties with the effect of decreasing signature-matching efforts.

Given the backdrop in which the 2020 election took placewith new and expansive vote-by-mail proceduresits not surprising that alarms went off and that many citizens questioned the final vote tally. So rather than allow this scenario to repeat itself in future elections, Georgias legislature took action, enacting a package of election-reform legislation designed to bolster ballot security.

President Biden denounced these reformswhich, as many commentators noted, made voting easier than in Bidens home state of Delawareas Jim Crow 2.0. The DOJ sued Georgia to block the new law and issued two new guidance documents intended to put states including Georgia on notice of potential violations of federal election laws. It has used similar tactics in Arizona and Texas.

* * *

It is not just political activists who are subject to DOJ intimidation. Attorney General Garland recently issued a guidance document prohibiting DOJ employees from speaking directly to members of Congress. This was plainly in response to at least 14 FBI whistleblowers reaching out to members of Congressincluding Ohio Representative Jim Jordan and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassleyabout misconduct within the DOJ. Garlands action was highly improper, but it pales in comparison to the intimidation of concerned parents at local school board meetings.

On Oct. 4, 2021, Garland issued a memorandum directing the FBI to address threats at local school board meetings. This was in response to a request from the National School Boards Association that the DOJ leverage the Patriot Act and other counterterrorism tools to investigate moms and dads who were voicing their displeasure with school policies at local school board meetings.

Despite Garlands sworn testimony denying the use of counterterrorism tools to investigate concerned parents, whistleblower evidence tells a different story.

On Oct. 20, 2021, Carlton Peeples, the Deputy Assistant Director for the FBIs Criminal Investigation Division, sent an email directing FBI personnel to use the tag EDUOFFICIALS for all school board-related investigations. Whistleblowers say that the FBI opened investigations into parents in every region of the country. These included an investigation of a right-wing mom based on her participation in a Moms for Liberty group and personal ownership of a gun. Another investigation was opened when a dad was deemed to fit the profile of an insurrectionist after complaining about school mask mandates.

It is time to wake up to the danger.

On Nov. 11, 1762, King Georges men had a warrant when they stormed and raided the home of pamphleteer John Entick. They broke open locked doors, boxes, chests, and drawers and seized his private papers and booksall because the Crown suspected Entick of fomenting political opposition against the King. If the FBIs raid on Project Veritas journalists homes or President Trumps home at Mar-a-Lago teaches us anything, its that the political oppression of the eighteenth century remains a threat today. But today, in addition to brute force, our government has the power of the modern surveillance state.

As a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, I would be remiss in speaking about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights without quoting Thomas Jefferson, who wrote: the most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens. We must find a way to return our Department of Justice to that central principle of American constitutionalism, as it carries out its duties in the name of Lady Liberty.

Reprinted by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Follow

Harmeet K. Dhillon is a nationally recognized lawyer focusing on commercial litigation, employment law, First Amendment rights, and election law matters. She is the Vice President of the Republican National Lawyers Association.

More here:

The Politicization of the Department of Justice - The Epoch Times

Nitish government has failed to provide justice to the downtrodden, oppressed and downtrodden in Bihar: Anil Kumar Latest Bihar News| Current News of…

Posted on by

Nitish government has failed to provide justice to the downtrodden, oppressed and downtrodden in Bihar: Anil Kumar Latest Bihar News| Current News of Bihar

Patna, 29 September 2022: A one-day dharna has been organized in Patna today under the leadership of the National President of the Democratic Development Party, Mr. On this occasion, Anil Kumar, while describing the Mahagathbandhan government of Bihar as anti-Dalit-Adivasi, said that incidents like murder/rape/torture and night trial on students fake Ambedkar Kalyan hostel on Dalit Dalit students of Patna-6 make it to think, Dont Dalits have the right and right to live in Bihar? Nitish Kumar should tell this. He accused the Nitish government of failing to provide justice to the downtrodden, downtrodden and downtrodden.

He said that after the formation of the Mahagathbandhan government, there are constant attacks on the Dalit exploited deprived in the state. Murders are happening. Justice is not getting. Today, the Democratic Development Party has staged a sit-in against this. The government of Mahagathbandhan has failed to follow the constitution of Baba Saheb. Atrocities and oppression are happening on Dalits every day. Work is being done to suppress them. Sometimes by entering the house and sometimes entering the hostel, students are being fired upon. They are being killed. Dalit girls are being raped. And justice is not being served.

Anil Kumar said that this government is useless. Dont Dalits and downtrodden have the right to live in Bihar? Have we lost this right? Nitish government will have to answer that. Why did the Mahagathbandhan government become a mute spectator and unable to deliver justice? People of this society are also being harassed here, lawsuits are also taking place. Where do we go for justice? What does Nitish ji want with the oppressed, downtrodden and dalits. He had announced that if Dalits are killed, they will give jobs. Where are you giving jobs? Tell this. Hundreds of Dalits were killed after your announcement, how many have you given employment? Your announcement has become a minister.

During the dharna, he demanded from the government to give Rs 25 lakhs to the families of those belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes who have been murdered. Apart from this, the culprits should be punished with security and fair investigation of case number 338/22 and 339/2022 in Sultanganj police station. Kumar Mandal and Principal General Secretary, Shri Amar Azad Paswan, President of the Overpopulated Cell, Rajkamal ji, State Secretary Sudhir Rajak etc. leaders joined and in one voice demanded the government to stop the oppression of Dalits.

Read the rest here:

Nitish government has failed to provide justice to the downtrodden, oppressed and downtrodden in Bihar: Anil Kumar Latest Bihar News| Current News of...

Arab Intellectuals Accuse Al-Jazeera Of Ignoring Protests In Iran, Abandoning Protesters And Promoting Iranian Government Narrative – Middle East…

Posted on by

After the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa "Zhina" Amini, on September 16, 2022, after Iran's morality police beat her because she was not wearing a head covering correctly, Iranian protestors took to the streets throughout the country. Footage showing thousands of protestors clashing with security forces have quickly made it to social media platforms under multiple hashtags. As the protests expanded and gained momentum, Arab intellectuals on social media expressed their disappointment in coverage of the protest by the Qatar-based and funded TV channel Al-Jazeera, which they accused of ignoring the protests, abandoning the protesters, and focusing on promoting the Iranian government's official narrative.

On September 20, Abd Al-Hadi Al-Shihri, a Saudi Twitter user with over 26,000 followers, tweeted under the hashtags "Iran rebelling" and "Mehsa Amini" saying: "Where is the Al-Jazeera channel on the protests that are taking place in Iran against the mullahs? Al-Jazeera and its anchors cover everything whether significant or not that take place in the Arab countries.[1]

On September 21, Nawwaf Al-Sulaiman, the programs manager at Safa TV tweeted: "I reviewed Al-Jazeera Breaking news account for an entire day and I did not find a single news item about the protests in Iran. What if these protests were in an Arabic country? Al-Jazeera would have published multiple breaking news [bulletins], relying on 'close and familiar sources' and 'exclusive reports.'"[2]

Analyzing Al-Jazeera's editorial policy regarding Iran, Syrian opposition writer Dr. Mahmoud Al-Shami, who has over 11,000 Twitter followers, commented on Al-Jazeera's breaking news headline quoting the Iranian president, saying: "The unprecedented oppressive sanctions against Iran are imposed on the Iranian people who yearn for freedom." Al-Shami wrote: "Al-Jazeera reports on everything regarding Iran except the protests and the crackdown by the mullahs' regime in Iran. This is not fair. You used to be described as the number one Arabic channel and you used to be highly credible but now your credibility has been lowered."[3]

Kuwaiti writer Ghazi Al-Nazel tweeted on September 22, asking: "Where is Al-Jazeera, which has always claimed to be the voice of nations, on what is taking place in Iran? Where is it today on the uprising in Iran? I think Iran is a red line for this channel if the issue is related to the mullahs' regime."[4]

While Al-Jazeera did not respond to the massive criticism it has received online, at least one of its anchors accused the UAE of playing a role in igniting the protest in Iran. On September 23, veteran Al-Jazeera anchor Jamal Rayyan tweeted: "There are a million exclamation marks regarding the role of the UAE in the protests that are taking place in Iran after it publicly normalized its relations with Israel and the moving of the Mossad office from Tel Aviv to Dubai."[5]

Rayyan defended the Iranian regime in a September 23 tweet, saying: "Despite being an enemy, [the Iranian regime] is a stabilizing element in the region and in the Gulf. Those who wish to see the West going to war against Iran while incited by Israel are delusional."[6] Furthermore, Rayyan described the protests in Iran as "fabricated" and "encouraged" by Israel. After taking down the initial tweet due to criticism, he wrote on September 25, "I did not know that I was an influencer until I was criticized by Israel's ministry of foreign affairs which sympathizes with the death of an Iranian woman and does not sympathize with the death of Shireen Abu Akleh. This proves the assumption that the protest in Iran is fabricated and Israel is the one encouraging it."[7]

Omani Twitter user Sultan_mq, who has over 11,000 followers, responded to Rayyan's tweet and accused Al-Jazeera of "promoting the narrative that the protests in Iran are a U.S. and Israeli conspiracy. Despite the fact that they are the leading supporter of revolutions in the region but when one took place in Iran, they opposed it and warned against it."[8]

In another tweet in response to Rayyan's tweet, Yemeni Twitter user and consultant at Al-Ghad Al-Moshriq TV channel accused Rayyan of trying to cover up the scandal that his channel ignored the protests in Iran. He then wrote: "Al-Jazeera has remained silent regarding a complete popular revolution in Iran."[9]

Comparing Al-Jazeera coverage of the Iran protests to its coverage of the protests of the Arab Spring in 2011, Yemeni journalist and researcher Nabeel Al-Soufi wrote: "Al-Jazeera heated up the people's sentiments in 2011 and today, it does not see what is happening in Iran and does not hear its people."[10]

Ghassan, a Saudi Twitter user with over 63,000 followers, tweeted: "In the past 24 hours, Al-Jazeera account on Twitter published only one report about the protests in Iran and it followed the narrative of the terrorist Revolutionary Guards of Iran (IRGC) that the protest is a conspiracy. Al-Jazeera cares only about Arab revolutions and cares less about the revolution against the turbans of terror in Iran."[11]

Fathy Abou Hatab, former general manager of the Egyptian daily Almasry Alyoum, published a series of tweets noting that he had monitored Al-Jazeera's website and noted that the protests news was ranked third on September 25. He later acknowledged that news about the protests have moved up compared to the previous day, however, he noted that "Al-Jazeera focuses on reflecting the official position of the government more than the position of the protesters. Al-Jazeera did not treat the protests in Iran with the same enthusiasm that it had with the Arab Spring protests."[12]

Syrian Twitter user Abu Omar Al-Shami attributed Al-Jazeera's soft coverage to Qatar's relation with the Iranian regime. He wrote: "The silence of Al-Jazeera channel regarding the events in Iran reveals the nature of the relationship between Qatar and the filthy mullahs' regime."[13]

Accusing Al-Jazeera of applying double standards in its coverage to the revolution in Iran compared to its coverage of events in Arab countries, Emirati imam and preacher Ahmed Mousa wrote: "A few months ago, a gas cylinder blew up in a kitchen in Abu Dhabi and Al-Jazeera reported about it to insinuate to people about a supposed lack of security. Today, in Iran there are dead and wounded people and there is blood, but Al-Jazeera remains silent and has gone deaf. This is how we learn that this channel specializes in sowing discord and in only attacking our countries"[14]

Some intellectuals went as far as accusing Al-Jazeera of focusing on igniting the Hindu-Muslim issue and on inciting Muslims against India in order to divert attention from the protests in Iran. Iraqi writer Sufian Samarrai tweeted on September 25: "Al-Jazeera is playing a dirty game to move Muslims feelings and divert attention from what is taking place in Iran, which includes oppression, killings, and dragging by the Khamenei gangs who pretend to be Muslims. It attempts to ignite the strife between Hindus and Muslims and mobilize Muslims in the streets against India instead of focusing on the shaking Safavid entity."[15]

[1] Twitter.com/Alshehri_dr1/status/1572360274824560641, September 20, 2022.

[2] Twitter.com/NawafSTV/status/1572503984992301057, September 21, 2022.

[3] Twitter.com/M_Shadi3/status/1572594133050560513, September 21, 2022.

[4] Twitter.com/bo_bder20/status/1572833936937476096, September 22, 2022.

[5] Twitter.com/jamalrayyan/status/1573448691071045671, September 23, 2022.

[6] Twitter.com/jamalrayyan/status/1573441817512939520, September 23, 2022.

[7] Twitter.com/jamalrayyan/status/1574064341871169544, September 25, 2022.

[8] Twitter.com/sultan_mq7/status/1573674781223927809, September 24, 2022.

[9] Twitter.com/anwaraltamimi71/status/1574021536683593729, September 26, 2022.

[10] Twitter.com/Nalsoufi16/status/1573553349273817089, September 24, 2022.

[11] Twitter.com/gassan_z/status/1574109843560038403, September 25, 2022.

[12] Twitter.com/fmhatab/status/1574015922502877184, September 25, 2022.

[13] Twitter.com/aboomer399/status/1573673714671132675, September 24, 2022.

[14] Twitter.com/AhmedMousa_1/status/1573422980234895378, September 23, 2022

[15] Twitter.com/SufianSamarrai/status/1574079719812775938, September 25, 2022.

Follow this link:

Arab Intellectuals Accuse Al-Jazeera Of Ignoring Protests In Iran, Abandoning Protesters And Promoting Iranian Government Narrative - Middle East...

PBS Spurious Narrative Of America And The Holocaust – Countercurrents.org

Posted on by

Introduction to a Spurious Narrative

Excessive attention to the 80 year old World War II Holocaust prompts questions: Why have constant reminders of the World War II Holocaust failed to halt contemporary holocausts; has the attention distracted from careful watching of ongoing genocides, and has it enabled Israels destruction of the Palestinian community? Public Broadcastings documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust, adds to the controversy presenting a spurious narrative that insults the dedication of the American people in freeing the world of German, Italian, and Japanese oppression, which saved hundreds of millions of people who would have suffered if that oppression continued.

Added to the controversy are the obvious questions: Why now, what is the need for telling present day Americans that their long gone ancestors of the greatest generation may have faulted by not fully assisting a portion of the hundreds of millions around the world who needed help in escaping Japanese and Nazi oppression? Why has PBS resurrected the past rather than more meaningfully examined Americas role in destruction of contemporary ethnicities?

Disclaimer: I grew up during World War II in a large Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx, New York. We had close family in Warsaw, Poland and Paris, France. Several of them died during the Holocaust and others suffered greatly during the wartime years. Our familys wartime history appears in the book, After they Were Gone, available on Amazon. From knowledge and experience, the PBS documentary is a spurious narrative of Americas relation to the Holocaust, misleading in its delivery, meaningless in its thrust, and generates suspicion as to the reasons for its presentation.

The documentary stumbles from the title: The U.S. and the Holocaust. A preferred title could be: The U.S. and the World War II Refugee Crisis, which the documentary does explore. The stumble becomes a complete failure in the opening introduction, with solemn voices expressing opinions that intend to shape the viewers mind before seeing the documentary, subtly accusing American officials of complicity in carrying out the Holocaust and assigning to Americans a share in the guilt. We hear from Deborah Lipstadt:

How serious is Americas commitment to looking at the dark marks in its past? Where did we go wrong? How can we not go wrong the next time? Episode of America and the Holocaust is not one that we dance about.

The voice of a refugee follows this specious diatribe:

How did America treat its refugees? Those refugees who lost their lives because the Golden Door was not wide open.

The succeeding discourse to the opinionated and solemn voices creates an America haunted by bigots, xenophobia, eugenic theorists, and white nationalists, engaged in halting immigration from undesirable sources and reshaping immigration in the 1921 and 1924 immigration bills. These bills eventually established quotas, which are presented as a calculated deterrent to Jewish refugee entry into the United States after the Nazis gained control of Germany.

The commentator stresses that Eastern Europe was most affected by quotas, and it was no accident that these countries had Europes largest Jewish population, suggesting that the framers of the immigration bills had Jews in mind when preparing the quotas, and insinuating a direct link between the quota system and the Holocaust. More precisely, the nations that had lower quotas Eastern Europe, Italy, Spain, and even France were all predominantly Catholic nations and their state religion would have been a more likely cause for lower quotas.

Restrictions on immigration had a pernicious factor and xenophobia did not entirely guide the European quotas. The 1920 era immigration laws, which replaced a haphazard immigration policy with a firm reference to laws, eventually culminated in the National Origins Formula. Based on the1920 Censusof the U.S. population, a census that included all of the immigrants, from the mass emigration during the last decade of the nineteenth century and first part of the twentieth century, the formula aimed to preserve the existing ethnic proportions of the population as calculated according to data from the 1920 census of the population. It took effect on July 1, 1929, before the start of the Great Depression and years before the rise of Nazi Germany.

In the National Origins Formula , Episcopalian United Kingdom, whose predecessors constituted almost the entire Thirteen Colonies, had the largest annual quota (65,721); Lutheran Germany, which had a small but sizeable Jewish population, had the second largest (25,957); and Catholic Irish Free State, whose previous emigres were treated as unwanted and second class citizens in the United States, had the third largest quota (17,853). Cultured and educated France, which enabled the Revolutionary War to succeed, was allowed only 3,086 emigrants to the U.S. The xenophobia arrangement of the immigration laws affected the Chinese; entirely excluded, they could not escape the violence and oppression from the Japanese invasion.

Continuing to voice opinions from individuals, such as Madison Grant, who had racial issues with immigrants, the documentary equated distinct voices with mainstream Americans. Popularity of eugenics among a few pseudo scientists and social practitioners enabled the documentary to link an esoteric lobby in America and a set of sterilization laws passed by some state legislatures to the Nazi promotion of racial purity. The documentary informs us that Americans, most of whom never heard the word eugenics or knew its meaning, embraced the new pseudo-science. Eugenics was used to sterilize the wrong people, snuff them out, and that was the eugenics the Nazis would pick up on. We are told that Hitler, when in prison, was pleased with America for its restrictive laws (Was a reporter in the prison with him?) and they mirrored Hitlers own beliefs. Yes, Hitler coordinated Mein Kamp with Americas racial attitudes and doctrines.

Gathering steam by having the damned few serve as damnation of America, the documentary turned its attention to the America Firsters, a group of distinguished Americans who encouraged neutrality. Industrialist Henry Ford, social activist, Father Coughlin, and aviation hero, Charles Lindbergh, also assigned Jewish financiers as culprits in the push to war. Producer Lynn Novick, in an interview with CBS News, claimed that when Lindbergh spoke, Americans listened. If so, why did Americans overwhelmingly vote for the internationalist Franklin Delano Roosevelt in four elections and relegate Charles Lindbergh to obscurity? Even if anyone listened to the rabble rousers, how did their rhetoric and American obedience translate into affecting the Holocaust? Nowhere does the documentary show any attachment between the America Firsters, who finished last, and the World War II Holocaust, which occurred after the U.S. entered the war. Why even mention their presence? What is the reason for insertion of this detail into the documentary?

America, as a racist and predatory country that had enslaved people, stolen lands, fought innumerable wars, and committed genocide of the Native American tribes, does not need an attachment to the World War II Holocaust to survey and criticize its past. The Holocaust only shackles proper analysis and discussion of shameful aspects of Americas history. Nor does the Holocaust need an attachment to America to reveal its horror and alert the world to its significance.

This article argues that the documentary is different than titled: America and the Holocaust. It is another documentary on the Holocaust with a twist uses spurious information to link the American people and their administration to the catastrophe and for a reason to pursue a hidden agenda. A one-sided video presentation adds nothing to the already available knowledge, serves as a manipulation, and corrupts public understanding.

This has been only an introduction to the detachment from reality of the controversial documentary, America and the Holocaust. A more complete examination of the program and statements made by its producers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein demonstrates the documentary is misleading, serves no purpose, and has a hidden agenda.

Debate of Americas Role in Persecution of German Jews and in the Holocaust

PBS producers, in interviews with CBS News, explained the documentary. (https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-america-failed-european-jews-during-the-holocaust/#x). Producer Lynn Novick states that, Instead of opening doors (to Jewish refugees), we shut them. History and statistics do not validate this remark.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-jewish-refugees-1933-1939 describes the emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany.

In January 1933, there were some 523,000 Jews in Germany, By September 1939, approximately 282,000 Jews had left Germany and 117,000 from annexed Austria. Of these, some 95,000 emigrated to the United StatesAt the end of 1939, about 202,000 Jews remained in Germany and 57,000 in annexed Austria, many of them elderly. By October 1941, when Jewish emigration was officially forbidden, the number of Jews in Germany had declined to 163,000, most elderly.

Although some German Jews died from Nazi violence before U.S. entry into World War II, about seventy percent of German Jews were able to emigrate, with the largest number coming to the United States, ten percent, either survived the war in Germany or died from natural causes, and twenty percent were deported and died in the later Holocaust.

The Yivo Institute report JEWISH MIGRATION FOR THE PAST HUNDRED YEARS, JACOB LESTCHINSKY, 1994, estimates 150,773 Jews immigrated to the United States between 1936 and 1943. U.S. immigration records have 251,124 European immigrants entering the United States during that period.

Although Jews were only a few percent of the European population, during the latter years of the Great Depression, when economic difficulties created a barrier to immigration and a mass of the European population sought asylum from Fascist and Communist oppression, the U.S. opened its doors to 150,000 plus Jews. This number was 60 percent of the immigration to the United States during that time, not two or three percent, but 60 percent, several magnitudes more than any other ethnicity that entered Americas shores.

Assuredly, not all doors were open, but does the preceding information appear as, Instead of opening doors (to Jewish refugees), we shut them. The documentary fails to examine the reasons why more could not be done for the refugees and why German quotas were not immediately filled.

From the New York Times, March 31, 1933.

The Nationalist Socialists took advantage of the anti-German boycott and used it as a reason to promote the boycott of Jewish establishments.

The U.S. State Department did what all government foreign affairs agencies do make believe they listen to constituents and try to avoid trouble with other governments.

(4)A portion of those with frozen assets managed to emigrate, 60,000 going to Palestine as parties to the Haavarah (transfer agreement). Signed on August 25, 1933, by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank (under the directive of the Jewish Agency) and economic authorities of Nazi Germany, the agreement allowed Jews to sell their assets in Germany in payment for German manufactured goods to be exported to Zionist companies in Mandatory Palestine. Upon arrival, these Jews received a partial return, in monetary terms, of their assets.

An article, The Transfer Agreement and the Boycott Movement: A Jewish Dilemma on the Eve of the Holocaust, Yfaat Weiss at https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203231.pdf, substantiates the argument that the freezing of Jewish assets played a role in undoing the economic boycott against Germany. The article states, Correspondence between Heinrich Wolff, the German consul in Palestine, and the German Foreign Ministry shows that shattering the boycott was a key motive for the German authorities in concluding the Transfer Agreement.

(5) The Roosevelt administration could not immediately overcome previous President Herbert Hoovers instructions for the State Department to block immigrants who might not be able to support themselves. Due to this directive, bureaucratic consular officials often denied visas to people considered likely to become a public charge. FDRs 1936 re-election landslide permitted officials to modify immigration policy. From Time Magazine, The Troubling History of How Americas Public Charge Immigration Rule Blocked Jews Fleeing Nazi Germany, by Richard Breitman, October 29, 2019

After making it known that some consuls had been too strict in their use of the public charge, in January 1937, George Messersmith, now promoted to assistant Secretary of State, wrote a new visa instruction to consuls in Europe, telling them they should not reject applicants based on the mere possibility that they might become public charges. The result was a sudden increase in immigration from Germany, to about 50% of the quota. By the middle of 1938 the monthly quotas were filled.

(6) Because of the Great Depression, immigration was not encouraged and quotas in all major countries were hardly filled. In 1930, at the start of the Great Depression and before visa requirements became more severe, 23,445 Irish immigrants entered the United States. In 1935, only 453 immigrants came from an Ireland that had a quota allowance of 17,853, continually had citizens eager to migrate to the United States, and had relatives willing and able to receive them.

(7) The rarely mentioned flip side to immigration restriction is that during the Depression 1930s the U.S. exercised deportations that it euphemistically labelled repatriation drives. Former California state senator Joseph Dunn determined that local governments and officials deported up to 1.8 million people to Mexico and estimates about 60 percent of these people were citizens, many of them born in the U.S. to first-generation immigrants.

(8) Although severe persecution of citizens occurred in the Soviet Union throughout the 1930s, Ukraine in the early 1930s, Spain in the late 1930s, and China, due to Japanese aggression during the 1930s, the U.S. government did little to assist any of these persecuted peoples to escape their tormentors. By concentrating on a persecution, to which the U.S. authorities eventually responded, and by ignoring other persecutions, to which the U.S. authorities never responded, did PBS show a racial bias?

(9) When the persecution of German Jews intensified, showed signs it was there to stay, and the seriousness of the situation faced by the German Jews became realized, the U.S. government rectified its approach and did much to enable Jews to leave Germany and find a new home.

In spring 1941, Nazi Germany prevented emigration from its country and from its occupied nations. Escape doors were locked, and America could no longer play a vital role in enabling refugees to leave Europe. After December 7, 1941 and a declaration of war with Germany, U.S. authorities had no means to acquire first-hand information on the impending doom of European Jewry. The U.S. administration juggled rumors, sketchy information, and considerations of what to and how to do it until the Holocaust, which intensified in mid-1942, became completely known.

Spurious Statements During War Years

The programs producers, supposedly objective observers, answered CBS staged questions with spurious answers: Cant blame lack of action on lack of information. Everything was known mass deportations, mass killings, all this was known. Great coverage in newspapers.

Reports, statistics, and information demonstrate there was no lack of action before U.S. entry into the war on December 7, 1941, after which actions became difficult. Articles mentioning unconfirmed atrocities appeared sporadically and mainly in inner pages. Spoken and printed words could not convey the force of the tragedy. Unlike today, when global events are televised, rapidly communicated, easily shared, mass produced by a multitude of sources, repeated daily, and locked for posterity in Internet databases, knowledge of global events in the World War II years was limited, disseminated by the printed word, spoken word, and a 15 minute movietone newsreel for weekly movie goers. Having lived during the war period, I can testify that, if the event did not directly involve the person and was not accompanied by proven images, the written and spoken words did not sufficiently register. Americans read, pondered, and moved on to the stories that most interested them battles in the Pacific, movements in the Atlantic, what was happening to their children fighting on two fronts. Even if the public knew, what could the public do? What would John Doe, sitting in his living room in Houston, Texas, do after he read an article on a terrible tragedy to people in a German concentration camp?

Famines, during which millions of people died in China, India, and Ukraine occurred during 1927-1943, and few people knew or paid attention to them. By not having the media abundance and multitude of expressions available today, the public could not contextualize the Holocaust and the Holocaust could not gain attention from the public and government officials. Without first hand evidence, officials refused to believe that the Germans, considered one of the worlds most intellectual and civilized people, would perpetrate the crimes attributed to them. The Holocaust in American Life, Peter Novick, Houghton Mifflin claims that William L. Shirer, author of the Berlin Diary, who during the war was a European correspondent for CBS, reported that it was only at the end of 1945 that he learned for sure about the Holocaust; the news burst upon him like a thunderbolt. The mindset of today cannot judge the mindset of those fatal years.

Eduard Schulte, a prominent German industrialist, revealed to American officials the depths of the World War II Holocaust.

An Anti-Nazi and informant to Polish and Swiss intelligence, Schulte, during a July 29, 1942 trip to Switzerland, presented to Swiss Jewish investment banker, Isidor Koppelmann, his discovered revelation of Nazi Germanys plans to exterminate European Jews. Eventually, Gerhart Riegner, the World Jewish Congress representative in Geneva, received the information. After being frustrated by American officials in Switzerland, Gerhart Riegner managed to pass the information to the State Department, which deliberated until the report could be confirmed.

After confirmation of the Riegner report, Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles authorized Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the American Jewish Congress to release the information to the press. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, followed with his own telegram to Americas ambassador in the United Kingdom.

Washington,December 11, 1942midnight.

The Department accepts the proposal of the British Government for the issuance of a joint declaration in regard to the reported determination of the German Government to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe.

The documentary examines a few, very few, possible avenues that the U.S. administration could have used to assist Jewish refugees in Europe, but were supposedly thwarted by the U.S. administration. All of them seemed credible; deeper analysis exposes their failures.

PBS accuses the State Department of purposeful neglect for denying a June 23, 1943 request from Gerhart Riegner, the Swiss-based representative of the World Jewish Congress. Riegner asked for a special license from the Treasury Department foreign funds division, headed by John Pehle, in order to send money to help Jews in enemy territory. State Department staff said they were concerned that the funds might fall into Nazi hands. An incomplete story.

The State Department proceeded slowly in approving the funds and eventually approved them at the end of the year. Governments, during that era, did not easily give money to people who have their own humanitarian organization; they sponsored organizations for well-defined and well organized tasks. One commentator created doubts about the episode by stating that the money could be used to forge passports and bribe custom officials. How could Jews in Poland reach a neutral country (what neutral country?) and apply for entrance? Is it credible that the State Department would be party to bribing customs officials in a neutral country?

Contacting the Nazi government and offering to bring out the stricken Jews is lightly touched upon. Having the United States engage in dialogue with the enemy Nazi State, trust it, permit it to dictate, and trade material resources for humans does not seem plausible. How in war ravaged Poland, with Russian troops close to the Polish border, could any transfer be organized? Why would Germany, which was using the Jews for slave labor to help its war effort, release them?

The documentary mentioned that bombing the concentration camps and the rail lines that delivered the victims to them had been a widely discussed method for freeing the Jews from their oppression another wild scheme.

If the military was convinced that bombing camps and rail lines to them were effective means to liberate the camps, then they would have bombed the prisoner of war camps. Bombings did not have the precision they have today; hitting within 10 miles of the target was more the norm. In this case, hitting the target meant the prisoners would have died earlier either from the bombs, shot while fleeing, rounded up and shot, or more likely dead from starvation. No food was available for those already emaciated and unable to walk distances.

The U.S. could not adequately respond to the certification of the dimensions of the Holocaust until the beginning of 1943, at the same time its army took the offensive and the Russian military gained the initiative. As the military approached the killing fields, and, as the documentary notes, the U.S., in January 1944, created the War Refugee Board, part spy agency, part humanitarian agency, and part rescue agency. The War Refugee Board staff estimates they saved tens of thousands of lives, mainly toward the end of the war in Hungary, and assisted in rehabilitating the lives of many more. When the U.S. ascertained the appropriate time to act, the appropriate place to act, and the appropriate way to act, the Roosevelt administration acted. For some it was too little and too late, but those who make that charge are yet to prove that much could have been done to free the Jews imprisoned in slave labor camps in the middle of occupied Germany territory.

The PBS documentary naively informs us of what we already know that America is not entirely altruistic, that it invited immigrants when needed as cheap labor to work the mines and factories and build an industrialized country, that nations operate in self-interest for their own citizens and are cautious in reaching out to help others. The producers showed no understanding of a crucial element in the belief mechanism that differentiates the early 20th century public with the contemporary public belief is reinforced and confirmed when you or someone you know are there or able to observe videos, films, or a series of photographs that complement the written or spoken word.

After six hours, the documentary emerges as another documentary on the World War II Holocaust, containing a calculated intent of using spurious information to link the American people and their administration to the catastrophe. Why was this necessary? What was the reason? Did the PBS producers pursue a hidden agenda?

The Hidden Agenda

After being left numb by the PBS 3-part and six hour series, America and the Holocaust, questions emerge: Why now, what is the need for telling present day Americans that their long gone ancestors of the greatest generation may have faulted by not fully assisting a part of the hundreds of millions around the world who needed help in escaping Japanese and Nazi oppression? Why has PBS resurrected the past and dwelled on what might have been, rather than what can be, and more meaningfully examined Americas role in destruction of contemporary ethnicities?

If the purpose of the documentary was to alert Americans to be more vigilant in their duty to assist oppressed peoples in escaping from genocidal actions, why reference a decades old tragedy that involved a long past generation and, in which, nothing can now be done? Why not discuss contemporary genocides for a contemporary audience, with those involved with the tragedies?

We have the 1975-1979 Cambodian genocide, in which the U.S. replacement of Cambodian leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk by Marshall Lon Nol, played an indirect role. This audacious coup invigorated support for the Khmer Rouge, who gained power and proceeded to annihilate an approximate 1.7 million people of Cambodia society.

In the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where 800,000 people are reported to have died, the U.S. did nothing but make a few movies, decades after the happening.

On March 21, 2022, six years after the genocide started and had already been completed, the U.S. Secretary of State confirmed that members of the Myanmar military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya people. The State Department also noted that this was the eighth genocide after World War II. What did the U.S. do to stop the genocide? Nothing. How many Rohingya refugees have been admitted to the United States? Maybe, a few thousand.

The United States has played a direct role, economically, militarily and politically in supporting Israels calculated destruction of the Palestinian people. By any definition, Israels expulsion of about one million Palestinians (same number as listed by the U.S. State Department in its declaration of the Royhinga genocide), seizing and stealing of Palestinian lands, daily killings and incarcerations of Palestinians, severe restrictions on their movements, confining them to a limited and narrow territory, constantly harassing them by destroying their agriculture and limiting their water supplies, and, most importantly, denying them self- identity that derives from being part of a state that protects its citizens, is genocide.

Nationality and religion enhance identity and are an answer to ontological security. The latter two words are more than an esoteric expression. They define what the Palestinians lack and most need. The absence of ontological security has accelerated deterioration of the Palestinian community, a process deliberately engineered by Israel in its severe repression.

In the documentary, Deborah Lipstadt says, If the time to stop a Holocaust is before it happens, then it means you have to lay on the table the ingredients that go into it. Maybe these ingredients dont add up to it But if youre seeing people assembling, in the kitchen, the same ingredients, youve got to say, you cannot wait until the meal is prepared.

Well, Ms. Lipstadt, do what you say, dont wait, inform the authorities in the government you now inhabit to get on the ball and thwart the intended genocide of the Palestinian people.

If the documentary does not fulfill its purpose when it could fulfill a purpose, what is the purpose of the documentary? Note that, All Burns films are released with teaching guides and are intended for use in the classroom, but getting The U.S. and the Holocaust into schools was of particular importance to the filmmakers because they saw an opportunity to fit it into the dozens of statewide Holocaust education mandates that have been passed. Put it all together and we have the obvious: The documentary has an agenda, which is to have the present and future generations of Americans believe they have committed a grave commission against the Jewish people and owe the Zionists and Israel continuous support in their destruction of the Palestinians, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Ken Burns has been quoted, This is his most important documentary. If that is his belief, then previous documentaries can be categorized as trivial and unimportant. This documentary insults the memory of those who died in the World War II Holocaust, encourages hatred of Americans, and reinforces a claim that Jews have excessive control of the U.S. media. While pretending it values lives, the documentary, surreptitiously, contributes to the destruction of others. PBS should begin an introspection of its operation is it a public broadcaster with allegiance to its public or does it serve as a public relations servant for a foreign government?

Dan Liebermanedits Alternative Insight, a commentary on foreign policy, economics, and politics. He is author of the non-fiction books A Third Party Can Succeed in America, Not until They Were Gone, Think Tanks of DC, The Artistry of a Dog, and a novel: The Victory (under a pen name, David L. McWellan).

Visit link:

PBS Spurious Narrative Of America And The Holocaust - Countercurrents.org

Startup’s New Technology Could Create Faster, Less Expensive, and Better Way to Identify Disease – UConn Today – University of Connecticut

Posted on by

Imagine waiting 36 hours for a lab report to determine if you have sepsis, a life-threatening infection that causes inflammation throughout the body.

The team of entrepreneurs at RiboDynamics, a UConn-affiliated startup, believe they can cut that wait time to two hours with their new medical technology, which detects pathogens in biological material based on the presence of specific RNA biomarkers.

This is a life-changing technology for both patients and medical providers, says Professor Dan Fabris of the Chemistry Department. It will allow patients to get proper treatment with no delay, thus increasing the chance of healing fast, and hopefully avoid a stay in the ICU. For hospitals and physicians, this leads to a quicker diagnosis and considerable savingsup to $70,000 per patientin terms of medical expenses.

The technology, in development for the last 10 years, also holds promise for many other pathogens, including HIV, Hepatitis C, and COVID-19.

RiboDynamics identified as promising startup

RiboDynamics participated in the School of Business Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI)s Summer Fellowship this year. That program helps UConn-affiliated companies to grow and move closer to market readiness.

RiboDynamics impressed the judges at the Summer Fellowship finale, and the company was invited to participate in the Wolff New Venture Competition and vie for a $25,000 prize. The event on Monday, Oct. 3 is the pinnacle entrepreneurship challenge hosted by CCEI.

Limin Deng, a post-doc in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, represented the company at the CCEI Summer Fellowship. She has played a key role in the development of the technology and the company as a whole.

I had to learn to switch from being a scientist to being a business person, Deng says. In the beginning, it was tough to explain our work. We are trained to speak to other scientists and end-users. We had to learn to explain our idea in very simple terms for everyone to understand.

The CCEI Summer Fellowship really helps startups get into the marketplace. It is a source for everything you need, she says, adding that the camaraderie among all the entrepreneurs was strong and that they were always happy to share information and ideas.

Exploring RNA before it was popular

Fabris says he has been interested in RNA technology since the early 2000s, before it was popular in science and well-known to the public through mRNA vaccines. He began this specific work as a faculty member at SUNY Albany and applied for a patent in 2006, which he later received.

We have already demonstrated the ability to detect salmonella, listeria and E.coli in milk, as well as Zika virus in mosquitos, he says. We are now testing applications in human diagnostics of infectious diseases and other health conditions.

The entrepreneurs are working with the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts to investigate how well the test works in patients who have recently had a hip replacement.

We are very far along in the development of our technology and our company, Fabris says. We are at a point where we need investors and then to focus on sales and marketing.

As proven by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare sector severely lacks reliable, high throughput diagnostic techniques for pathogens and infectious diseases, he says. The earliest possible diagnostic results can improve the overall outcome of virtually any type of disease.

The 2022 Wolff New Venture Competition will be held on Oct. 3, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on the Observation Deck at the Graduate Business Learning Center in Hartford. It will also be livestreamed at:https://ccei.uconn.edu/wolff-new-venture-competition/. This event is open to the public.

Read the original post:

Startup's New Technology Could Create Faster, Less Expensive, and Better Way to Identify Disease - UConn Today - University of Connecticut

Advocates: Speed limit technology could keep women safer on the road – WSB Atlanta

Posted on by

WASHINGTON DC Theres a new push to require car companies to put speed-limiting technology in newly manufactured cars. Advocates say it will specifically keep women safer on the road.

Research shows women who are driving and involved in a crash are more likely to be seriously injured than men. Some believe crash test dummies that simulate the female body will address the gender disparity, but others think the fix is not so simple.

Our crash test dummies have inherent limitations, Jessica Jermakian, vice president of vehicle research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said. We like to think of them as people, but theyre really not people.

If we really want to have equity in crash safety, the answer is really going to extend beyond thinking about crash test dummies, she explained.

IIHS is now looking to data from real-world crashes and how to make a car less deadly when it hits another car.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

One way to do that, IIHS said, is with something called Intelligent Speed Assistance, or ISA. Essentially, it can either prevent speeding or issue warnings if the car is going faster than the speed limit. It is required on new vehicles in Europe, but not here in the U.S.

It is something they could put in the vehicles today that would help bring speeds down and reduce the severity of crashes, Jermakian said.

We asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration if it is in fact considering requiring ISA in new cars. Officials said earlier this year they requested input on these systems and will consider public comments received.

We obtained a document that shows the auto industry lobby told NHTSA it should take this system into consideration.

Safety is the auto industrys top priority, a spokesperson for the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wrote. Vehicles continue to get safer as automakers across the board test, develop and integrate promising new technologies including intelligent speed assist, alcohol detection and rear seat child reminders, among others. These innovations make the driving experience safer and protect lives or prevent injuries.

Reactions from drivers are mixed.

TRENDING STORIES:

Everybody in California drives about 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, so I dont think that would go over very well in California, Paul Greenfield of Sacramento said.

Just like the little side ones that go oh, you know, youre going 50 mph in a 20, slow down, so I think it would be a good idea to have them in the cars, Debbie Colby of Oregon, said.

Safety advocates are also trying out virtual crash testing to be able to simulate a broader range of people in the car.

The group VERITY NOW, which fights for equity in vehicle safety, said the government needs to act on all of this.

We keep researching endlessly, co-chair Beth Brooke explained. Why? Why? Why? And my question would be why not? It exists today. Were not going to make anybody less safe by using it. Why not? Lets keep advancing all of these technologies further, and well save womens lives in the meantime.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:

Jorge Estevez talks to a family who rode out Hurricane Ian in their Fort Myers home

2022 Cox Media Group

Continue reading here:

Advocates: Speed limit technology could keep women safer on the road - WSB Atlanta